Latest / The TMI Show with Ted Rall and Manila Chan / E-Bike Injuries Surge, Amazon Destroys Books for AI & Troops Gain Border Arrest Powers | TMI Ep 444

Transcript

E-Bike Injuries Surge, Amazon Destroys Books for AI & Troops Gain Border Arrest Powers | TMI Ep 444 · The TMI Show with Ted Rall and Manila Chan

0:30
Manila, you're muted. I'm muted and Ted dropped
0:35
off. How about that? It's Tuesday, right? It's
0:40
only Tuesday. It's muted Tuesday. It's muted
0:44
Tuesday, August 18th, 2026. I'm Manila Chan.
0:47
Ted Raul was there bopping around. There he is.
0:51
He's back. There he is. I can't hear anything.
0:56
It was me. I was muted. Oh. Well, you looked
1:00
great while you were... There you are. Oh, thank
1:03
you. I'm still, I'm working on getting... All
1:04
the way, your camera looks strange. Well, I'm
1:08
trying to, I had to uninstall the thing because
1:10
I had the other camera installed and now I got
1:13
to reinstall this one and so I'm still playing
1:15
with the colors on the old one. So I don't know.
1:19
Is it dark? Is it? It looks dark to me. Yeah,
1:22
you look, you don't look Trekkie like before
1:25
and you don't look Caucasian. You look more Filipino,
1:32
maybe? Am I darker than normal? Is that what
1:36
that is? Yeah. Let me check my race guide here.
1:47
I don't know. I'm trying to pick it. Oh, there
1:50
you are. Which yellow am I? Yeah. There you are.
1:56
You're somewhere in there. It looks different
1:58
on like the camera hub versus the rumble feed.
2:03
And so I'm like, I don't, damn it, this is what
2:05
happens when you mess with something that was
2:07
totally fine because I thought I was upgrading.
2:10
But as we're gonna talk about Ted with these
2:13
upgrades to AI. you know, with AI. Because the
2:17
other camera had, like, AI technology. This camera
2:19
is too dark. What it is is you're... No, this
2:22
is the old one. It's oversaturated and too dark.
2:24
Yeah, this is the old one. I just have to play
2:26
with the settings to get it back to where it
2:29
used to be because the, you know, the digital
2:33
control board it comes with had to be reset because
2:37
it was, like, working with that 4K camera with
2:41
AI and whatever. But anyway... It that perfectly
2:44
dovetails with what we're gonna talk about on
2:46
the show today about like AI getting into everything
2:49
and actually destroying everything so Yeah, it
2:53
fits perfectly. I'll work on the color. I guess
2:56
cuz I needed I needed to see what the live feed
2:58
looked like There's there's there's no way for
3:01
me to know until we're live. So So here we are.
3:06
Anyway, thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure
3:08
you hit the like button and to subscribe and
3:11
all of that, and share our content so we can
3:14
spread to the masses like STDs at your grandmother's
3:19
nursing home. That's such an appealing thought.
3:23
It's very true though, Ted, because they're the
3:25
only people having sex. Well, here's a question
3:27
for you, Manila, before we related to that. So
3:31
if you were in a nursing home, widowed at the
3:35
age of 85, would you rather be still hitting
3:41
it sexually, but riddled with STIs or like devoid
3:48
of companionship, no physical, no physical fun
3:52
in that respect, but no STIs. What would you
3:55
take? You want to be having fun and bumpy? Nothing
4:01
fatal. Nothing like AIDS or anything like that.
4:03
Okay. Okay. But can I have the STDs only like
4:06
in that late stage in life? Yeah. Yeah. It would
4:08
only be then. Yeah. Oh, okay. Let's just say
4:12
it's like stuff like herpes and gonorrhea, but
4:14
nothing like fatal. I think I would take that
4:19
rather than not have companionship. Because it's
4:23
like the last part of your life. Yeah, who cares?
4:26
Who cares? Like you take some Valtrex and you're
4:29
like, whatever. This is the last leg of life.
4:31
I'm just going to live it up. You know, I was
4:33
pretty careful, fairly careful growing up, so
4:36
like... You know, why not at the end of life
4:39
be like, fuck it. I'm going to get drunk every
4:42
day. That's my take too. I would get drunk every
4:45
day. Remember we talked about this? Totally.
4:47
Rock and roll every day and party all night long.
4:50
Granny, what state was she in that she was suing
4:53
to force the nursing home to allow them to drink?
4:57
Yeah. Yeah, I would be that granny. Yeah, good
4:59
for her. I would be that granny for sure. She's
5:01
awesome. I love her. I would interview her. Yeah,
5:05
well, hey, we should bring her on. I would have
5:08
her on the show. Because seriously, you're at
5:11
the later stages. She wants to rock and roll
5:12
every night and party every day. Why not? She
5:14
wants to drink. She wants to party in her last
5:16
leg of life. Let her. Let her. I can't believe
5:20
nursing homes don't let people. That's like the
5:23
lung cancer patients who they want to smoke.
5:26
It's like, why not? Why not? Let them. If it's
5:30
terminal, they're going anyway. Just keep them
5:31
away from the oxygen tank. But otherwise, it's
5:33
fine. Right. As long as granny's medication isn't
5:38
the kind that can be screwed up by alcohol. Right.
5:42
Sure. Letter. Who cares? All right. With that,
5:46
this is Tuesday on the TMI show. Yeah, if you're
5:49
new, we're all over the place. It is very ADD.
5:52
But we have a lot of fun. And you might learn
5:54
a thing or two, especially about poops and STDs.
5:58
Yeah, we do a lot of poop. There's a lot of fecal
6:00
-related material here. Somebody asked... I feel
6:02
like maybe we haven't been... We did Jizz. We
6:06
don't really do a lot of urinary coverage here.
6:08
I know. We've got to look about UTI track. Big
6:10
P is getting pissed at us. Yeah, pun intended.
6:14
I saw somebody in the rumble chat, I think. I
6:18
think they were questioning about... old people
6:22
having sex. And legitimately, look, look this
6:25
up. Like STDs are on the rise, STIs as they call
6:28
them now, on the rise at nursing homes. And apparently...
6:31
This is an outstanding trend. It's been going
6:33
on for like 20 years. Yeah. Apparently, the old
6:37
folks' home, the old folks' retirement village,
6:40
are the only places that Americans are having
6:42
sex. True. It's true. Look it up. You think we're
6:46
joking. I mean, we joke about it, but it's the
6:49
truth. So there you go. Mm -hmm. True. All right.
6:56
So first up, I know Ted has feelings about this
7:00
one, because Ted actually, he likes to ride his
7:03
bike every day. But e -bikes, as you guys know,
7:07
were supposed to save the commute. Now states
7:10
are trying to save the riders. Here's what we
7:13
mean, because it's like abortion and like a lot
7:15
of other things, it's a patchwork quilt of laws.
7:19
Ted, I think it's fair to say in any big metropolitan
7:24
city, these e -bikes or like personal, you know,
7:27
scooters or whatever, these personal mobile device,
7:31
like physical mobile, I guess you call them mobile
7:34
devices. A mobile device is like a phone. I know,
7:38
a mobile transport, I don't know. Can we just
7:41
say it's an e -bike? Well, there's scooters too,
7:44
so they're not like but but they're ubiquitous
7:48
I would say in every major American mobility
7:51
Mobility mobility not mobile mobility device.
7:55
There it is, but they're ubiquitous, right and
7:58
They're in every major American city and this
8:02
is causing huge problems. So ebikes have been
8:05
sold as one of those rare modern inventions that
8:09
seemingly solves everything at once. Cheaper
8:12
than a car, cleaner than a car, easier than a
8:15
bicycle, and perfect for dodging traffic. One
8:19
problem, though, people keep getting hurt on
8:22
them. Just a little problem, Ted. Just a little
8:26
brain trauma. What's the big deal? A little brain
8:30
trauma never hurt anyone. A little TBI. Emergency
8:34
room visits involving e -bikes, e -scooters,
8:37
and other so -called micro mobility devices have
8:41
exploded in recent years, prompting states and
8:44
cities to start treating some of these machines
8:46
less like bicycles and more like motor vehicles
8:50
that they increasingly resemble. According to
8:53
the Consumer Product Safety Commission, emergency
8:56
departments treated an estimated 149 ,100 micro
9:02
-mobility injuries in 2024. That's up from just
9:06
over 37 ,000 in 2017. E -bikes alone accounted
9:11
for an estimated 59 ,000 ER visits in 2024, compared
9:16
with an annual average of roughly 6 ,300 between
9:20
2017. and 2021. So just think about that, Tad.
9:24
6 ,000 in the late 20 teens into the COVID era.
9:30
We are now at roughly 60 ,000. So tenfold. Well,
9:35
there's a lot more of these devices, right? I
9:39
mean, people didn't buy them back then. The consequences
9:43
are not limited to scraped knees CPSC has identified
9:48
310 deaths associated with e -bikes between 17
9:52
and 14 2017 that is in 2014 with motor vehicle
9:57
collisions. So e -bike versus car I actually
10:01
have a girlfriend like sadly who lost her 15
10:04
year old son to an e -bike versus car incident
10:08
back home Really awful. It haunted me for a long
10:12
time. But yeah, so that that just happened last
10:16
year. So I know a victim of one Where the collisions
10:21
and you know, the riders lose control that's
10:25
kind of what happens and they they have collisions
10:27
with cars and The e -bike loses a study published
10:33
in JAMA surgery Paints an equally ugly picture,
10:37
researchers estimated that e -bike injuries increased
10:40
30 -fold between 2017 and 2022, while hospitalizations
10:44
rose 43 -fold. The number of head injuries was
10:49
approximately 49 times higher in 2022 than it
10:53
was in 2017. Helmets apparently remain an optional
10:58
accessory. Or, you know, using common sense.
11:01
Only about 44 % of injured e -bike riders in
11:06
this study were wearing one. The riders without
11:10
helmets had nearly twice the odds of suffering
11:12
a pretty bad head injury. Duh. Part of the problem
11:17
may be that federal law still largely treats
11:20
e -bikes as consumer products rather than conventional
11:23
motor vehicles. The traditional federal definition
11:27
generally covers pedal equipped electronic bicycles
11:31
with motors below 750 watts and Motor only speeds
11:36
below 20 miles an hour But the marketplace has
11:40
evolved considerably since that definition was
11:42
written more than 20 years ago some machines
11:45
now marketed as e -bikes look and perform a lot
11:49
more like lightweight motorcycles and High -powered
11:53
models or or modified bikes mod bikes as they
11:56
call it can travel far faster than the speeds
11:59
people normally associate with bicycles. States
12:03
are beginning to notice. New Jersey now requires
12:05
most e -bike operators to be at least 15 years
12:08
old, possess either a driver's license or special
12:11
e -bike license, and register their bike with
12:14
the state. High -powered motorized bicycles must
12:18
also carry insurance. Utah this year imposed
12:22
a helmet requirement on riders younger than 21
12:25
and requires riders ages 8 to 15 either to ride
12:29
under adult supervision or complete an e -bike
12:31
safety course. Vehicles exceeding certain power
12:34
or speed limits are instead treated as electronic
12:37
motorcycles. New York City, this is for you Ted,
12:41
has taken another approach, imposing a 15 mile
12:44
per hour speed limit on e -bikes and scooters.
12:47
I don't know how ma 'am Donnie is going to enforce
12:48
this. More jurisdictions are considering similar
12:53
restrictions, and therein lies the dilemma. E
12:56
-bikes remain an inexpensive, relatively clean,
12:59
and remarkably practical transportation option,
13:02
particularly in congested cities like New York,
13:05
where another SUV is not exactly what the streets
13:08
are begging for, but the distinction between
13:10
bicycle with a little electric assistance and
13:13
motorcycle wearing bicycle pedals As a disguise
13:18
has become increasingly difficult to ignore a
13:20
government regulation May have been slow to catch
13:23
up with technology as it always is I don't know
13:27
why Ted is off the screen, but there you are
13:29
Ted So I I'm shocked at the numbers Again, I
13:37
had a girlfriend who lost her 15 year old in
13:40
a e -bike versus car he kid lost control apparently
13:44
and you know The rest is history and you know,
13:49
she's still grieving a son a year later who should
13:53
be starting school, but There what do you think
13:57
about some of these? States or municipalities
14:00
who are trying to impose some kind of law, but
14:05
they're like obviously there's no federal law
14:07
behind this So what do you do? Like you I mean,
14:10
there's eight gazillion uber eats drivers or
14:14
riders out there on these motorized bikes. True.
14:19
I mean, they're going to be replaced, obviously,
14:20
with the little motorized delivery box that I
14:25
showed the other day. But right now, they're
14:27
out there. There's thousands of these people
14:29
in major cities like DC and in New York City.
14:33
What do we do? Listen, this is not complicated.
14:37
So there was a word for something called an e
14:40
-bike. 30, 40 years ago was basically a moped.
14:44
It's basically the same thing. The method of
14:47
power isn't that important. To answer your question
14:50
before about how New York City is imposing the
14:53
15 mile an hour limit, the rideshare program,
14:57
which is called City Bike, it's misnamed because
15:00
it's actually run by Lyft, but it originally
15:02
was started by Citibank. Oh. But you know all
15:06
the major cities down there in DC you guys have
15:09
one I forget what it's called But all the bikes,
15:11
but anyway, they impose they throttle your speed
15:14
at 15 miles an hour I got to say it's very frustrating
15:17
as a bicyclist. I'm typically more about 25 miles
15:21
an hour and so Yeah, I mean even on a regular
15:25
bike right so So 15 is like it's annoying The
15:31
thing is, if you look at cities like, there are
15:33
lots of cities around the world, a lot of them
15:37
in Asia, where there are a lot of moped. Mopeds
15:42
are a major form of transportation. Taipei is
15:45
a great example. And so what they've done is
15:47
they've completely reconfigured the streets and
15:50
the traffic systems to allow for that. For example,
15:54
in Taipei, when there's a stop signal, all the
15:57
cars stop further away from the intersection
16:01
there's a line where they have to stop and then
16:03
all the motorcycles and mopeds they they have
16:07
a space ahead of the cars so when the light turns
16:10
red the they all gather up in front of the cars
16:13
and then when the light turns green for them
16:16
first they're off to the races and then there's
16:19
a delay before the cars can go right and so the
16:23
idea is they're all sharing the same streets
16:25
but They get a little bit of a head start. They
16:29
get a head start and they're on their own. Also,
16:31
helmets are like standard and enforced by law
16:36
in most cities around the world. Like in Paris.
16:40
Also, in New York, one of the big mistakes they've
16:43
made is they haven't distinguished between the
16:45
bike paths that are used for conventional bicycles,
16:49
mechanical bicycles, and e -bikes. And I'm sorry,
16:51
they don't move at the same speed. And whenever
16:53
you have a mixture of speeds of vehicles on the
16:56
road, you have danger. So, you know, if you have
16:59
normal bicyclists doing, let's say, typically,
17:03
they're not like me, most of them, they're going
17:05
like 10 miles an hour and you have the typical
17:07
E -bike going 20 miles an hour. And I mean, they
17:11
don't throttle the ones that are owned by individual
17:14
like food delivery guys. I mean, of course, you
17:16
got these guys zooming past other people. There's
17:19
going to be collisions, right? It's best if they're
17:21
all kind of moving the same speed. So they should
17:24
be separated. They should be segregated. So all
17:27
right. So what do we do? Right. I mean, first
17:30
of all, head injuries are your number one problem.
17:33
So vigorous enforcement of helmets, full transparency.
17:37
I never wear a helmet. OK, I fucking hate them.
17:42
And and like, you know, I'm like those motorcycle
17:45
guys who are like born free. I want to feel the
17:47
air, the wind through my hair. Yeah, I'm that
17:50
guy. OK, that said, just because I like to do
17:54
something doesn't mean I should do something.
17:56
And so if the if there were cops who were ticketing
18:00
everybody ferociously for not wearing helmets,
18:03
Believe me, I'd start wearing my helmet, OK?
18:06
And that's what everyone else would have to do
18:08
too. So I think that basically you have two or
18:12
three main things. Helmet enforcement, you've
18:16
got to have, I don't think throttling the bikes
18:18
is really the answer. I think you have to have
18:21
separate categories. You have to have a bike
18:25
lane. So you separate pedestrians from normal
18:28
bicyclists. from e -bicyclists, from cars. They're
18:32
all different. So pedestrians are on the sidewalk.
18:36
No bicycles on the sidewalk. Bicycles have their
18:40
own lane. E -bikes have a lane next to them.
18:43
They're all segregated from vehicular traffic.
18:46
You're going to eliminate the vast majority of
18:49
your collisions here. You're going to eat away.
18:52
I mean, especially in New York City, if you do
18:54
that, Ted, you're going to eat away at least
18:56
at another travel lane for cars? Well, not necessarily.
19:02
You know, because you're already taking away
19:04
one lane for... I mean, you're taking away like
19:09
a third of a lane currently for the normal bicycles
19:13
on a lot of streets. So you just need another
19:16
third, right? You're kind of like taking away.
19:19
Yeah, and I mean, you can't keep eating away
19:22
at inches off of... The roadway you can because
19:26
like the lane but the thing is there's more people
19:29
on e -bikes and that means there's fewer people
19:30
in cars. So you can um, the thing is e -bikes
19:35
are fantastic They're the best way to get around
19:38
a city like like especially a city like san francisco
19:41
with hills I mean, you don't really need e -bikes.
19:44
You regular bikes are fine in a flat city like
19:46
new york city But like when you but you know,
19:49
let me tell you if you're dealing with like,
19:51
you know a hilly city Yeah. Oh, God. DC's flat.
19:55
I've used the regular bike share program there.
19:57
I use the regular. Well, I'm just too lazy. I
19:59
use the scooter. DC, by the way, does a better
20:01
job because it has wider streets. Yeah. It also
20:04
has clear segregation between the bike lane and
20:08
the car lanes. It's got usually like a cement
20:13
median. Yeah. That's not true in New York. In
20:16
New York, you got nothing but paint on the ground.
20:20
Not to mention, people are constantly cutting
20:24
in front of you when you're biking in the bike
20:26
lane. They step out off the curb in front of
20:28
you. You've got to be fucking sharp in New York
20:31
to avoid personal injury. Well, in New York City.
20:33
New York City is its own animal, but I would
20:34
say everywhere else, it's a little bit different.
20:37
Sir Bikes A Lot, thank you. Two donations from
20:39
Sir Bikes A Lot. He says, We have this problem
20:44
is that we built places far apart and we can't
20:48
afford to use a car building bike lanes. are
20:52
DEI communism. So why are they complaining? They're
20:56
getting what they wanted. And he also says, not
20:59
wearing helmets isn't the problem, Ted. Not having
21:02
access to safe infrastructure is. 98 % of the
21:05
Dutch don't wear one, and it's the safest place
21:08
to ride a bicycle. I've driven and I have ridden
21:10
a bicycle in pouring rain in Amsterdam. That
21:14
said, he's right. It's very, very safe and but
21:16
also The Dutch have all this infrastructure.
21:18
Now, I don't know how they're dealing with e
21:20
-bikes. Sir Bike Slot, e -bikes are, as you know,
21:23
are very, very different from normal bikes. And,
21:26
you know, any tarred can go really fast on one
21:29
of these things. And there's no training required.
21:33
You know, you don't have to be licensed or anything.
21:35
You know, any asshole can buy one. And the problem
21:37
is every asshole is buying one. I mean, in Amsterdam,
21:41
the last time I was there, there were no e -bikes.
21:44
So it's like, it was just normal bicyclists.
21:47
And I don't really, okay, I shouldn't say this,
21:50
but I really don't feel like you, I feel like
21:52
if you're reasonably competent, you don't really
21:54
need a helmet to ride a normal bike, especially
21:58
one of the little Dutch ones with a little basket
22:01
in front for your kitten, like ding ding. But
22:04
like but like you really but for an e -bike you
22:06
kind of really do because they can go 30 35 miles
22:10
an hour and like you've got no protection whatsoever
22:13
And if you mix it up with a car things are gonna
22:16
get ugly, you know I mean you got no protection
22:19
on a regular bike But at least you have a bike
22:21
lane to protect you and also you're not going
22:24
that fast, right? So like if you if something
22:26
goes wrong, it's not going wrong that fast usually
22:31
I mean, obviously people die on bikes. This isn't
22:35
going away, obviously, cars versus e -bikes.
22:39
I think e -bikes are going to continue to grow
22:41
in popularity. Their prices are coming down on
22:43
them, and more and more people are finding that
22:47
it's just an easier way to commute around, even
22:51
if it's local, right? Maybe you're not commuting
22:53
to work on an e -bike, but maybe you need to
22:56
make a run to the grocery store to pick up a
22:57
couple things. Yeah, you just get some milk or
22:59
whatever, yeah. Yeah, like people are so more,
23:01
I'm seeing them more and more now in the burp.
23:03
It's the new moped. It is. Yeah, yeah. Mopeds
23:06
are great too. They get like a hundred miles
23:09
per gallon. They're fantastic. A hundred miles
23:11
a gallon? Yeah. Wow. Wow. All right. Well, I
23:16
always wanted one of those. That's why people
23:17
in the third world always use mopeds. I would
23:20
see like in like old European movies, like, you
23:23
know, like cute girls riding in their cute little
23:27
outfits on their little moped. And I always thought,
23:30
that's so cute. And they're parking their mopeds
23:33
on the sidewalk, right? Like you see that in
23:35
Europe and you're like, that's cool. And they're
23:37
kind of, they're designed really cute. So I thought,
23:39
oh, one day I would like one. And then I came
23:42
around to seeing how, as a reporter, you report
23:46
on, you know, you just kind of start out doing
23:48
accident scenes, right? It's kind of the way
23:51
it is. And when you see these things and you're
23:54
kind of like, yeah, I'm not going to do that.
23:57
This is not Europe. This is America. Oh, drivers
24:00
are different. I'm not doing this. I'm going
24:03
to save it for the movies. I'll enjoy it. Let
24:05
the European cute girls ride on the cobblestone
24:08
streets in Europe. I'm not here. You're like,
24:11
I'm not Amelie. I'm not Amelie. I lost a good
24:15
friend when we were both 15 years old. He was
24:18
riding his moped. In fairness, it had nothing
24:20
to do with it. It wasn't his fault. In Europe
24:23
or here? No, in Centerville, Ohio. fucking asshole
24:28
ran a stop sign in the burbs and ran over him.
24:33
How awful. And Nerd, thank you for your comment.
24:37
Nerd says, based on my camera, I guess, maybe
24:40
it's adjusted by now, but he says, we'll call
24:42
your cam TMI Noir. Well, it's not anymore, right?
24:47
It doesn't look all creepy. No, it's not quite
24:50
that bad, but it's still kind of darkish. It's
24:52
still darkish. OK, I'm going to tweak it throughout.
24:55
So, I'll take a look. And Alexandria Black on
24:59
YouTube says, there are twice as many bikes stolen
25:02
in Amsterdam than bikes that exist there. What?
25:07
Wait, how? I don't even understand how that's
25:10
possible. You could steal more bikes than exist.
25:13
Maybe people have to buy two, three bikes a year
25:18
to replace the ones that are being stolen. Or
25:21
maybe they mean, maybe she means more bikes than
25:26
bikes exist here in the US, maybe. No, that can't
25:30
be right. That can't be right because we're 330,
25:34
340 million people. Well, I don't know, but I
25:35
know there's a lot of freaking bikes in Amsterdam.
25:38
Yeah. All right, let's go to the next topic and
25:41
I'm going to play with my camera. The same bikes
25:47
getting stolen, that could be. Over and over
25:50
and over. So what like? Let's say I steal Ted's
25:53
bike. Yeah, I steal Ted's bike, but Ted had already
25:56
stolen that bike from Robbie. Ted reports the
25:59
bike stolen, and I stole it, but it's really
26:01
Robbie's bike in the first place, so it's reported
26:03
stolen twice, the same one bike. That's, I guess,
26:08
possible? To do jaws? I have not. I'm about to
26:15
do that too right now. Don't forget to do jaws.
26:17
That's funny. All right, Amazon began with selling
26:25
books online. Three decades later, investigators
26:29
say that Amazon is now buying books again, cutting
26:32
off their spines, scanning their pages to train
26:36
AI and destroying what remains. A new investigation
26:40
by 404 Media traced a shipment of nearly 1 ,000
26:43
used and rare books bought through the online
26:47
book selling company Biblio. Reporters decided
26:51
to stick an Apple air tag inside one of the books,
26:55
so obviously they must have been tipped off here,
26:58
and follow the shipment across the country. Its
27:01
final stop, an Amazon warehouse in northern Vegas.
27:05
connected to an operation known internally as
27:09
VGT3. Workers at VGT3 said that enormous shipments
27:14
of books arrived there to be scanned. The bindings
27:17
are then chopped off so that the pages can move
27:21
rapidly through high -speed scanners, destroying
27:24
the physical books. Amazon confirmed that this
27:27
is true, that they buy books through commercial
27:30
channels to develop and improve its products
27:33
and services, but decline to say exactly how
27:37
many books it has bought, I bet more than two,
27:40
which AI products use the resulting data, or
27:43
whether rare and scarce books are scanned before
27:46
they are destroyed. So this is not at a small
27:50
scale. Booksellers report that unusually large
27:53
orders headed to the same Vegas facility as far
27:57
back as 2024, including dozens of university
28:00
press titles ordered at once. Amazon is hardly
28:03
the only company doing this. Court records show
28:06
that Anthropic previously bought millions of
28:09
physical books, including a few of mine, for
28:12
a program known as Projects Panama, removing
28:15
their bindings, scanning the pages, and throwing
28:18
away the originals while building a digital library
28:21
for AI development. Older books offer something
28:26
technology companies desperately need. Large
28:30
quantities of professionally edited human -written
28:32
material created before generative AI began slopping
28:37
the web. Rare, obscure, and out -of -print books
28:40
also might contain info that simply doesn't exist
28:43
online. Well, I guarantee you it does. That's
28:45
also what has librarians and booksellers concerned.
28:48
University of Virginia librarian Leo S. Lowe
28:51
warns that the very qualities that make older
28:54
books valuable for AI training also make them
28:58
rare. An out -of -print book, annotated copy,
29:01
or unusual edition can disappear permanently
29:03
if nobody bothers to check what they're feeding
29:06
into the scanner first. And physically destroying
29:09
the books isn't technologically necessary. The
29:11
Internet Archive digitizes them without cutting
29:14
off their bindings. Destructive scanning is simply
29:17
faster and easier to automate. So companies are
29:21
racing to build machines capable of preserving
29:23
and reproducing humanity's accumulated knowledge
29:27
while destroying the physical objects that preserved
29:30
that knowledge in the first place. You know what?
29:35
The worst thing about that is that it's a waste
29:38
because I'm using the Library of Congress to
29:42
train Feng using books that are published between
29:45
1800 and 1920, specifically journalism books
29:48
or newspapers and magazine editing. And they
29:51
have an API. So you're able to log in, she's
29:55
able to go in and she can scan the PDFs that
29:57
are there. You don't have to destroy the books.
29:59
They're being lazy. They're saying, yeah, they're
30:01
being lazy. They want to do it at scale, and
30:03
they don't want to do what the internet archive
30:06
is doing. I do think this should probably be
30:09
an illegal practice. The books should be preserved.
30:13
Look, at bare minimum, they should be scanned
30:15
and preserved into a database. I know. But really,
30:20
truly, they're not even... Rare books? Yeah,
30:22
rare books are being chopped up and thrown away.
30:24
That's an outrage. They should be... donated
30:29
to libraries, right? Like afterwards, right?
30:34
Like this is, what a horrific, like, I mean,
30:37
I think - By the way, it's also copyright theft.
30:39
I mean, you know, a lot of these even rare old
30:42
- Well, that's what Sarah Silverman was suing
30:44
about, right? Yeah. Well, I'm a plaintiff in
30:47
the anthropic case. Yeah, so, I mean, I guess
30:51
that's why they didn't want to - There are many,
30:52
many plaintiffs. You were depersoned. in chat
30:56
GPT only until recently. So that's a move in
30:59
the right direction. But it's so tragic to me.
31:03
And look, I always think of this Seinfeld episode,
31:06
I forget, George, I think George wanted a book
31:11
back from a woman he was dating. He was trying
31:14
to convince Jerry to go get it. And Jerry's joke
31:17
was, well, did you read the book? Well, yeah,
31:22
I did. So what do you want it back for? He's
31:24
like, because it's my book. And Jerry's like,
31:27
I don't understand why people want to go get
31:30
these, you know, keep these books as if there's
31:33
some sort of trophy. And that's always kind of
31:35
stuck in my head because I'm like, I don't, I
31:39
keep my books too. Most people do. You know,
31:43
there's, I think you know what it is. I think
31:44
it starts with childhood. As a kid, you don't
31:48
have that many books. And I don't know about
31:50
you, but I re -read a lot of my books. I have
31:53
too. But when you're an adult, you're an adult
31:57
and you're thinking like, oh, I loved this book.
31:59
Who knows? I think subconsciously you're thinking
32:02
I might want to reread this someday. Very few
32:05
people who are really avid readers reread old
32:08
books because there's always some book that you,
32:11
a newer book that you'd rather read instead.
32:14
So it's kind of like I've taken to like Like
32:18
with Stantus, Stantus and I share similar tastes
32:23
in books. And so when I'm done with a book that
32:26
I know he would enjoy, and he does the same thing,
32:29
I throw it into the Stantus box. And then when
32:32
the Stantus box is full, I ship it off to him
32:35
in Alabama. and he does the same thing for me.
32:39
So we're constantly getting new books. Like trading
32:41
books. Yeah, we're trading books. And then like
32:44
also I believe in donating them to public libraries
32:47
and stuff like that. Also, if like a friend,
32:50
if I like read a book and I think a friend might
32:52
enjoy it, I will more likely than not give them
32:55
the book when I'm done. And then obviously I
32:57
still have plenty of books you can see behind
32:59
me and this is hardly all the ones I have. Yeah,
33:03
me too. but I'm still like, I think people have
33:06
this sort of like, yeah, the trophy thing is
33:08
true, right? Like I read it and it's like a college
33:11
professor, like, look, I read it and now it's
33:13
on my shelf. But it's also kind of like, I do
33:15
find myself referring to them sometimes where
33:18
I'm like, I'm writing a column and I'm like,
33:20
hey, there was this thing I read in a book as
33:22
opposed to online and I want to go and like refer
33:25
to it and quote it. And the only way I can do
33:27
that is if I have it, you know. And I because
33:30
I've you know, I don't tend to doggie or my I
33:32
try to keep my books pristine and nice and I'll
33:36
put like a little sticky note in them or I'll
33:39
put you know, tear a little piece of paper and
33:41
stick it in there and I'll write my note to myself
33:43
or whatever and and those are the books I tend
33:46
to keep handy right like Sure Chicago manuscript
33:52
style behind me or whatever, right? You know,
33:54
stuff I know. Manual of style, yeah. Yeah, that
33:56
one, the one I know I'll reference or whatever,
33:59
because I need to do stuff. But then there's
34:02
stuff like The Grapes of Wrath, which Ted, by
34:06
the way, it was an ill -gotten gain on my part.
34:09
I'm not going to say how I got it, but it was
34:11
a first edition. Really? Yeah. And that's stored
34:16
away. I mean, it's ancient. It doesn't have its
34:19
dust jacket. I don't think it ever did, because
34:21
it's a first edition, but it's... You're talking
34:23
about first editions had dust jackets? Did they?
34:26
Oh, yeah. Well, this one doesn't have it, so...
34:29
In fact, the ones, the first editions with the
34:31
dust jacket are the ones that are worth the most.
34:34
Yeah, I'm sure. But this is... It's some of the
34:38
old books that I've kept with me through life.
34:41
And this is something I acquired, we'll say.
34:45
in my latter years in high school. I won't say
34:48
how. You stole from the school library? No, it
34:51
was not from the school library. From the classroom?
34:54
No, it was not from anything from the school.
34:58
You stole from a friend? I'm not saying I stole.
35:01
No one I knew personally. So, but anyway, it's
35:06
a first edition Grapes of Wrath. So, like, I
35:09
have this precious book that stored in a box
35:14
in my garage of like these older literary works
35:17
and not like useful you know things that I would
35:20
you know use for journalism but it's there because
35:23
it's a trophy and to think just to think because
35:27
nobody's checking at Amazon right like at this
35:29
warehouse or whatever where they're running the
35:31
the AI employees are like are like oh I'm gonna
35:35
take this when it's done I mean they should but
35:37
nope the thing is Although it's all chopped up
35:40
by them. Nobody's checking if the book is one
35:45
of these rare editions. That's the thing. No
35:48
one's just double checking. Like you open, you
35:50
know, open the page. They're just gutting the
35:52
back like a fish. They're just fucking gutting
35:54
the thing. So all of these like rare, unusual,
35:57
hard to find, maybe it's even a collector's.
36:01
The workers often don't know and don't care.
36:04
And that kind of just breaks my heart. I'm like,
36:08
oh, Oh, painful to hear this. I used to live
36:14
in a place where there was no garbage pickup
36:16
and you had to take your stuff to the municipal
36:18
dump and you would sort all your paper products
36:22
and stuff into one dumpster. I remember one time
36:26
I went there and I could see in the dumpster
36:29
tons of rare books in the dumpster. Wow. And
36:34
I was like, basically using like broomsticks
36:38
to try to like, like fish them out. And look,
36:42
and I got some. And basically it was like, yeah,
36:45
they said, oh, some guy like he cleaned out his
36:47
mom's house after she died. And people do that
36:51
all the time. I was going to say the best place
36:53
to find some of these rare books are at estate
36:55
sales. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, especially because
36:59
like, you know, young people don't want, I mean,
37:02
they don't read. And then certainly not going
37:04
to read like their parents' old books. Yeah.
37:08
Thrift stores. Thrift stores where you go. So
37:10
like, for example, so I've got this one reading
37:13
it. Must read. Highly recommend it. Let's see
37:17
that again. I love that one. Yeah. So this one,
37:21
whoops. Rape of Nanking. The Rape of Nanking.
37:24
John Rabe is an absolute hero. The fact that
37:27
most people don't know who he is is a disgrace.
37:30
I've read this for the fourth time. Nice. So,
37:34
well, it's always new stuff. Ted's going, I mean,
37:36
Ted, Robbie, Ted is making you commie. Well,
37:39
we already know that. That's already been established.
37:41
Did you hear about the test? And then about the
37:45
three quarters of the way through with this.
37:47
Wait, you're multi -reading? Like, oh, I do that.
37:51
I always read like three, four books at once.
37:53
Yeah. And as we're doing the show, I'm training
37:56
Fang. She's getting a 6 ,000 question test as
37:59
we speak. Well, this is not what's happening
38:04
at the Amazon facility. That's 5 ,999 questions
38:07
more than Trump can answer. No, they're being
38:09
lazy. Just all they gotta do. They're really
38:11
gutting the books and I feel like you can donate
38:14
them. There are scanners that, I know maybe not
38:20
at scale the way they want it, but there are
38:23
obviously scanners that you can manually do.
38:27
without tearing apart a book. I guess you know
38:30
what, honestly, I gotta say, to me maybe it needs
38:33
to be a case -by -case basis, Manila. You know,
38:37
it's like, look, if a book was mass produced
38:39
and there are, you know... hundreds of thousands
38:41
of copies out there. Well, like The Rape of Nanking
38:44
is not a rare book. It was a bestseller. It was
38:48
widely disseminated. You can take that book and
38:51
chop it up and scan it and feed it through a
38:52
scanner at Amazon. As long as they're paying
38:55
the estate of Iris Chang, I'm fine with it. But
38:59
a first edition that is, well, not a first edition,
39:04
a rare book, a book that is like There just aren't
39:07
any a lot of known copies bunch. That's different.
39:10
That should be handled differently Yeah, but
39:13
that no they're not looking that's what this
39:15
article says is like some somebody at a higher
39:19
level is making the decision to hunt down that
39:22
book reminds me a lot of The guy's name I read
39:27
an article about it, but this dude he read that
39:31
like, you know how like, you know, public libraries
39:34
used to have bound editions of print newspapers?
39:37
Yeah. And they would be like, oh, there's the
39:39
Akron Beacon Journal from 1938. And then here's
39:42
the Akron Beacon Journal from 1939. Anyway, when
39:46
libraries moved to digitize their collections,
39:49
either on microfiche or then later on, the film,
39:54
you remember the film? Yes, microfiche. Yeah.
39:57
Is that what it's called? Yeah. I remember using
39:59
those. And they moved on to digitizing and scanning.
40:04
The dumpsters outside of libraries all over the
40:07
country were filled with these bound editions
40:09
because they basically tossed them all. And this
40:12
one dude who was a huge aficionado of comic strips
40:15
and particularly Sunday comics, he... got into
40:19
a truck and drove all over the United States
40:21
asking libraries that were going to do this to
40:24
not throw, to give them to him instead, rather
40:28
than throw them away. And he was basically working
40:30
to create a huge library of like these, these
40:34
comics that like otherwise would be completely
40:36
lost to the mists of time. And, you know, it's
40:41
like there are people, there's so much cultural
40:45
destruction taking place all the time through
40:48
stuff like this and you know one of the biggest
40:51
mistakes is like telling people like oh you know
40:55
like oh everything's online like that's not true
40:58
most movies you can think of are not watchable
41:02
online most things that were on CD never made
41:06
it to MP3 to Spotify. Most things that were on
41:11
CD that were on LP never made it to CD. Most
41:14
things that were on 78 never made it to LP and
41:17
so on and so on and so on. Most things that were
41:19
on wax cylinders never made it to 78s. It just,
41:24
you know, I mean, the cultural destruction is
41:26
rampant and stuff that's on. And then there's
41:29
the issue of digital rot, right, which is that
41:32
you put When you store data on a magnetic device
41:36
like a hard drive or or even a CDR it rots and
41:42
unlike a It degrades so unlike glitches out as
41:48
it glitches out. But the thing is so here's the
41:50
thing What's really counterintuitive is like
41:53
digital media is binary in the sense that it
41:57
either works perfectly or it doesn't work at
42:00
all Right? So if you have a scratch on a DVD,
42:03
it just doesn't play. So like, whereas like,
42:07
let's say you had a, you know, an old fashioned,
42:10
you know, 33. Well, I mean, a scratch on the
42:13
record, it'll bounce, but the most of it'll play.
42:16
It's like the on paper, if you have a book that
42:19
let's say had a worm in it, that's 500 years
42:22
old, you can still read most of it. You know,
42:26
but like if you have that same file, you digitize
42:29
that file and it's corrupted, even like one piece,
42:34
one bit is corrupted, the whole book is fucked.
42:38
So digital media is far more fraught and dangerous
42:42
for storing anything we care about. Yeah, so
42:47
I yeah, I agree with Ted it just little piece
42:50
of me hurts when I hear that anyone destroys
42:52
any books Like I don't care what the book is.
42:55
It's just a part of me is kind of like oh Like
42:57
somebody some kid somewhere out there in the
43:00
world would love to have something to read something
43:03
to look at something to learn from and to know
43:07
that Amazon the irony I was I was an early adopter
43:10
of Amazon like I think 1998 1999 buying looking
43:16
for used books, like, you know, for college,
43:19
used books from Amazon when they were only that
43:22
and buying a protractor and a ruler and whatever,
43:25
like, you know, odds and ends, right, for college.
43:28
And fast forward to here. Here we are. Amazon
43:30
is now destroying the books. So, you know, the
43:34
irony is not lost on me. All right. So DOJ now
43:45
says U .S. troops can make arrests in militarized
43:49
border zones. This is a Robbie story all day
43:52
long. The U .S. military's role at the southern
43:54
border just moved another step beyond observation
43:57
and support. A new DOJ legal opinion says troops
44:01
can arrest civilians who trespass into designated
44:04
national defense areas along the border and in
44:06
some cases pursue and arrest them outside of
44:09
those zones. That sounds like ordinary police
44:12
work. Normally, that's exactly where the Posse
44:16
Comitatus Act enters the picture. Past in 1878,
44:19
the law generally prohibits using the army and
44:22
other federal military forces to execute civilian
44:25
law. Its basic purpose is straightforward. The
44:28
military is not supposed to function as America's
44:31
domestic police force, but there are exceptions.
44:35
The Justice Department says one applies because
44:39
President Trump has placed six stretches of federal
44:44
land in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and
44:47
Texas under military control and calling them
44:51
National Defense Areas, NDAs. Once designated
44:55
as military installations, troops have longstanding
44:58
authority to protect them. and maintain order
45:01
and detain trespassers. The DOJ also points to
45:05
federal law allowing specially designated military
45:09
personnel to make arrests when protecting these
45:13
Defense Department properties. Those detainees
45:16
must then be transferred to civilian authorities
45:19
rather than be held in military confinement.
45:22
The new opinion from the DOJ goes further. If
45:25
someone allegedly commits an offense inside one
45:28
of these zones and crosses back outside before
45:31
the troops catch them, military personnel can
45:34
pursue them into the immediate vicinity. to make
45:39
the arrest. Now, they don't really define what
45:41
immediate vicinity means. If it's like one kilometer,
45:44
two kilometers, 10 miles, they don't know. DOJ
45:49
insists that... This does not give troops carte
45:52
blanche to enforce civilian law generally. The
45:55
authority is tied specifically to protecting
45:57
military property and alleged offenses originating
46:00
inside those areas. Critics, including the ACLU,
46:04
have raised another problem. Some of these defense
46:07
zones are simply large stretches of open border
46:10
land with limited signage. potentially exposing
46:13
migrants or even U .S. citizens to trespassing
46:16
charges that they may not realize they're committing.
46:19
So Posse Comitatus still exists. The government
46:22
has simply drawn a military boundary across parts
46:25
of the border and changed what troops can legally
46:28
do inside it. So, Robbie, what do you think?
46:34
This is like your, this is your, your passion.
46:37
I would like to also just before Robbie answers.
46:39
Passion topic. like also point out the fact that
46:43
these zones have now been radically expanded
46:46
under the Trump administration to include between
46:49
a third and a half of the entire US -Mexico border.
46:54
So basically they're claiming like, oh, this
46:56
is a military installation, but it ain't nothing.
46:59
It's just scrub along the border. Yeah, that's
47:02
exactly what this is. But this is where Posse
47:05
Comitatus comes into play. Do you think that's
47:08
right? for use, probably like I obviously because
47:13
he's getting the border wall issue hammered out.
47:16
It hasn't been built. So and we know, you know,
47:19
it's never going to be built. The dude, the dude's
47:22
already had six years to do it and he hasn't
47:24
done shit. Now, what we need to do is that we
47:28
need to militarize the border. Well, he's that's
47:31
what he's doing effectively, effectively what's
47:34
happening. So, I mean, so you agree with it?
47:37
Yeah. Well, here's the thing. Most people don't
47:40
realize this. The U .S. Army was stationed permanently
47:43
on the U .S.-Mexico border until the 1930s. If
47:47
you're going through, I say from 1850 up to 1930,
47:52
if you're in the Army, if you're going through
47:53
the officer corps, you served on the Mexican
47:56
border. That's a statement of fact. Mexico has
48:00
always been regarded as a hostile neighbor. It's
48:02
like 15 minutes ago. I mean, that's just a statement
48:05
of fact. Pershing served on the Mexican border.
48:08
Famously, he invaded Mexico chasing Pasha Vila
48:12
whenever he raided Arizona. MacArthur served
48:16
on the border. If you're in the US Army, you
48:20
served on the Mexican Army. It was on the Mexican
48:23
border. It was a militarized border. The only
48:26
reason that we've changed that now is because,
48:28
oh, well, that's racist. It's not racist. We've
48:31
always had a problem with this long, porous border
48:35
with people going back and forth. Either you
48:37
have a border or you don't. Now, what Trump is
48:40
doing is that he's trying to use the U .S. Army
48:44
to police U .S. citizens. That's the issue. If
48:48
they catch someone that's trespassing, they should
48:51
call the county sheriff or whatever county it
48:54
is that you happen to be in, turn you over to
48:56
civil authorities and you're done with it. The
48:58
Army is not a police force. So just as another
49:02
example of Trump doing the right thing the wrong
49:04
way, if anything, he should close every NATO
49:08
base in Europe, bring those 200 ,000 troops on
49:12
the border, put them on the border and say, if
49:14
you come across, we will shoot you because you're
49:16
an invader and call it a day. Based on this,
49:21
Trump is saying they can make the arrest, but
49:24
they have to turn them over to civilian authorities.
49:28
They can't detain them. You know, they can grab
49:31
them, they can arrest them, but then they have
49:33
to give them to local sheriffs or police or whatever
49:37
in Arizona. That's what's supposed to happen.
49:41
The whole issue is, though, is there's no pursuing.
49:46
For how long? For how far? What is the Army's
49:49
range of... What does that mean? They haven't
49:51
defined it. That's what's scary. And as somebody
49:55
that... has lived at or very, very near to the
49:59
border at Yuma, Arizona, where I was working
50:01
at at CBS. It I can see very easily how you're
50:08
going for a hike or whatever. And, you know,
50:10
just going walking off trails and going to look
50:13
at the beautiful rock formations along the border.
50:16
And whoops, you walk into there's no signs. This
50:19
is this area Trump has now declared as a military
50:23
installation and I get arrested too. I get harassed.
50:27
I get like, dude, I'm just wandering through
50:29
the desert. Like that's not illegal. Like, but
50:34
now it is. It's just, it's just another example
50:37
of Trump doing the right, doing the right thing,
50:40
the wrong way. I mean, seriously, the border
50:42
should be militarized. It really should be because,
50:46
you know, take Vietnam, for example, in 10 years,
50:51
well, Vietnam last what, eight years? In eight
50:53
years of war, 70, 75 ,000 Americans died in Vietnam.
50:57
Every single year in the United States, somewhere
50:59
between 60 to 90 ,000 Americans die over fentanyl
51:04
overdoses. The majority of that fentanyl comes
51:06
across the southern border. So it would serve
51:09
to reason that if that is an issue, and it is,
51:14
then you militarize the border. The human trafficking,
51:17
a lot of it comes across the southern border.
51:19
None of this is controversial. You're not supposed
51:21
to say it because it's racist. It's not racist.
51:24
It's factual. And so if you share a border with
51:28
a narco state, then you secure the border. And
51:31
if someone's trying to smuggle people across,
51:33
just smuggling across poison, you send them to
51:35
meet Jesus. You call it a day. And then you let
51:38
President Eisenbaum know, hey, if this keeps
51:41
happening, we will go across the border. We will
51:44
take care of the problem you're unable to take
51:46
care of. We'll do a shine bomb. Yeah, we'll do
51:49
what no black blackjack Pershing did. We'll go
51:52
in. We'll solve your problem for you. Then we'll
51:54
go home. So you think it's we should militarize
51:57
our border? Oh, God, yes. Absolutely. You deem
52:00
it as an invasion. That's because it is. Yeah.
52:05
Well, regardless of how you view it is it is
52:06
not untrue that that like countries around the
52:09
world have, I would say, a very mixed approach
52:12
to guard border protection. A lot of countries
52:16
have the way we do a separate border patrol.
52:20
A lot of other countries, a lot of countries
52:22
have troops guarding their borders. You know,
52:26
I mean, there's both approaches are widespread
52:28
and you can kind of, I mean, I don't think there's
52:31
a... I don't think, you know, having troops guarding
52:35
a national border is not an unusual thing, I
52:38
guess, is my point. I mean, Russia does it, China
52:41
does it. It's not unusual. However, it's not
52:45
the only way to do it. But I mean, you know,
52:47
it's not weird. Yeah. Well, it depends. It depends
52:50
on where you are. Like, no, for example, Poland
52:52
does it. No, Poland famously is criticized by
52:54
the EU all the time for all the migrants flooding
52:57
to their across the borders. Same way with Hungary.
53:00
It's like, no, this is Hungary or this is Poland.
53:03
You don't get to come here. Hungary is serious
53:05
about their border. Like, really serious. It's
53:07
because they're real countries. Whereas here
53:09
it's just like, oh, you have to be kinder and
53:12
gentler. Don't you know they're just coming in
53:14
for a better life, gringo? Sit down and shut
53:16
up. Share the land. In which case, I say, sit
53:21
on a cactus and rotate. Thank you, Peter, for
53:25
the donation. Peter says on the previous topic,
53:28
Ted, the Providence Public Library got rid of
53:31
the abridged version of Tony B's study of history
53:35
while I was partway through reading it. That
53:39
sucks. Do they do that? How do they get rid of
53:43
it? Are you mean reading it at the library without
53:48
checking it out? Maybe it needed to be renewed
53:52
or something. You know how sometimes you're not
53:54
done reading something, you have to return it
53:57
and then check it back out a couple of days later.
54:00
If it's in your possession, you can extend your
54:05
checkout. A lot of books have to be returned.
54:07
Really? Yeah, in case someone's been waiting
54:09
for it, you can't just constantly renew it. Oh,
54:13
oh, oh. I remember my library had like a three...
54:17
It was like, usually you can borrow the books
54:19
for like two weeks or something or three weeks
54:21
and then you can go up to three extensions, but
54:24
that's it. But they, it wasn't like, oh, you
54:26
give it back to us. We got to give it to the
54:28
other person on the wait list and you get, then
54:30
you can have it back. It wasn't like that. It
54:31
was just like, okay, you can get up to two more
54:33
extensions and then you got to be done, buddy.
54:36
So, oh, that sucks. Well, yeah, but one thing
54:39
I'll say about this and I'll go away. The hypocrisy
54:43
that our government has is outstanding. because,
54:48
well, it's true that the Mexicans have brought
54:51
in all of this Chinese manufactured fentanyl.
54:55
And that's true. The Sackler family destroyed
54:59
Appalachia with their oxycodone. They're the
55:03
ones that kicked off this whole problem to begin
55:05
with, and not one member of that family has ever
55:09
been held accountable. No, of course. The Sacklers
55:12
have, well, I don't know about these days, but
55:14
around Washington, D .C., you could see the Sackler
55:16
name, they donated like buildings and shit, right?
55:21
Like so it would say, you know, a gift from the
55:23
Sackler family or whatever, all over their, you
55:27
know, their philanthropy arm. So if you're rich
55:30
enough, you can, you can avoid jail time. Hello
55:33
Epstein. All right, last topic. A suspicious
55:42
object left outside a Washington firehouse shut
55:46
down morning rush hour traffic and prompted a
55:48
response from the bomb squad. The cops were called
55:50
into the station of DC fire at EMS engine 20.
55:54
That's on Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown
55:56
neighborhood at about seven in the morning on
55:58
Wednesday on report of a suspicious electronic
56:01
device with exposed wires outside the building.
56:05
The person who left it outside the building had
56:08
reportedly spoken to an employee just before
56:11
he tossed it and left it. No, that's not he,
56:15
Ted. It could be a she. We don't know. Okay,
56:18
good point. They. Traffic was shut down in the
56:21
area, causing delays to the morning rush, while
56:24
the Police Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit investigated
56:28
it. A police report identified it as an electronic
56:32
sex portable pump device. I don't even know what
56:37
that is. What's a portable pump device? The scene
56:41
was cleared at about nine in the morning. But
56:46
the person... Come on, you know what that is.
56:50
The person who left the device has not been identified.
56:53
So a couple of questions here. What's a portable
56:57
pump device? The only pumping device I had was
57:01
my breast pump, but I don't think that's what
57:05
we're talking about here. I don't think that's
57:07
the sex. No, because that's not a sex thing.
57:09
I mean, I don't know. People like weird things.
57:12
Like maybe that's a sex thing for somebody. But
57:13
for me, I remember using a breast pump. So this
57:16
is for your penis. I mean, maybe not for your
57:20
penis, but for my penis. But not my penis, because
57:24
I don't have one. I have a penis, but I don't
57:27
have a pump. But you know, the day's young. I
57:30
might have one by later today. So it's a pump
57:36
that is supposed to cause you to get an erection.
57:41
It's an assistant? Correct. Exactly. It's an
57:47
assistant. Oh, okay. So this is what I'm helping
57:52
you understand. Manila, it's mainly for a man's
57:54
dignity. So that like, you know, a woman is like
57:58
sort of... think, I don't know if this guy is
58:01
classy enough for me. But then once she sees
58:03
him go, but it's electric. So here's where the
58:11
story confuses me because this is funny to me
58:13
because it's not far from where I live. So it's
58:18
snarls traffic. Right. Anyone that lives in the
58:20
D .C. area, you know, Tenley town fucking sucks
58:22
at seven, eight. Like, are you kidding? At morning
58:25
rush hour. So they shut down the whole neighborhood
58:28
because of this what they give to the fire department
58:32
right so but if the person was talking if they
58:37
know that the person was talking to an employee
58:39
how is it they're not able to identify the person
58:46
that left this gift that's a good question well
58:51
i mean they talk to them they presumably have
58:53
them on camera but they don't know who they are
58:55
and then they just placed the thing down And
58:59
they were like, here you go. So I didn't, okay.
59:03
In my mind, when I read the article, I was like
59:05
an electronic pump. I didn't, I didn't have a
59:07
chance to look it up. And I was thinking, I didn't
59:10
know. I was like, what kind of, what do you,
59:12
what do you do with the pumps? Anyway. And it
59:14
was late. So I was like, I gotta go, but this
59:15
is a funny story. And I thought, I'm thinking
59:18
more like leaving them a bag of dicks or something.
59:22
Like there was. Literally like like a bag of
59:26
dildos or like I was like maybe it's something
59:28
to do with that I don't know like this is I don't
59:31
know what men use to you know So it uses a I'm
59:37
looking this up now uses a vacuum a vacuum pump
59:40
To pull blood into the penis to either get or
59:44
maintain an erection Hence why dudes would get
59:50
their their junk stuff. By the way, there are
59:52
important safety rules, Manila. So next time
59:56
you or a loved one asks you, take the rubber
59:59
ring off after 30 minutes at most. Leaving the
1:00:03
ring on for too long. So it's like a cock ring
1:00:05
thing can harm the tissue and rest for an hour
1:00:09
between uses. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Well, so
1:00:13
I don't know what animals using this 24 hours
1:00:16
a day. Secondly, if you're fucking 24 times a
1:00:18
day, you don't need a penis pump. You already
1:00:22
got it covered. Secondly, why, why would they,
1:00:30
why are they carrying this thing around to go
1:00:32
to the, to visit somebody at the firehouse and
1:00:35
then leaving it there? No one knows. At seven
1:00:38
in the morning. No one knows. Well, you think
1:00:40
this is like, would be more appropriate for 10
1:00:42
a .m.? Maybe it's a gift. That person has to
1:00:46
be home to listen to the TMI joke. It could be
1:00:48
a gag gift. It could be I mean you're leaving
1:00:51
it at a firehouse full of dudes like I don't
1:00:54
know Maybe it was a gift to the fire department
1:00:56
like, you know, or maybe they thought they could
1:00:58
use it to put out fires Because you guys are
1:01:02
away from your wives and girlfriends for a few
1:01:04
days at a time here Here you go. You get a little
1:01:07
help. Enjoy this when I've worked at Logan health
1:01:09
I once got in trouble because you're doing a
1:01:12
white elephant Christmas exchange gift. So I
1:01:18
brought in a a small gift bag with some warming
1:01:22
loom and some other things. Robbie! And it got
1:01:27
passed around and I got sent to HR because it
1:01:30
was highly inappropriate. That's the definition
1:01:34
of you. It was for the Labor and Delivery Department.
1:01:38
So they deal with this every single day. Your
1:01:42
business is making babies. So I'm just helping
1:01:44
you just to get those numbers up. That's kind
1:01:48
of funny. Yeah, that makes sense. That was inappropriate.
1:01:53
Do you understand why that could be considered
1:01:56
offensive? No, not at all. Why is sex so offensive
1:01:59
to you? Since this is a local news story to me,
1:02:02
I'm curious to see. You should have seen the
1:02:05
news anchor who was reading this, Ted, her face
1:02:08
when she was like, was a sex toy. She was so
1:02:13
uncomfortable saying this on local news, right?
1:02:17
I mean, obviously, it's hilarious. So I'm waiting.
1:02:20
I'm going to see if they do ever find this person,
1:02:23
if this person gets charged with anything, because
1:02:25
what do you get charged with? Why do they want
1:02:28
to identify this person? What do you charge this
1:02:31
person with? Littering? Yeah, I don't know. If
1:02:35
you can make an argument that they thought it
1:02:37
would be construed as a possible dangerous device,
1:02:41
then there could be charges. But I mean, the
1:02:44
person could easily say, Hey, I didn't know that
1:02:46
they would take it that way. Listen, I just set
1:02:49
it down. I forgot. I ran to catch my bus. When
1:02:52
I worked in, when I worked in the emergency room,
1:02:54
I've told you all this story before. We had a
1:02:56
guy who came in by EMS because his penis got
1:02:59
de -gloved because he stuck it in that vacuum
1:03:02
cleaner and it just peeled the meat right on
1:03:06
off. Just rolled it. And so, you know, all day
1:03:12
is considered. I'm cringing, crossing my legs.
1:03:15
I mean, the pump would be, that's not dangerous
1:03:20
unless you leave it on there for like over an
1:03:22
hour. Just don't stick your dick in the vacuum
1:03:23
cleaner because it has happened. I've seen it.
1:03:27
He was aiming for that effect, I suppose. Yeah,
1:03:30
that's what he wanted. He stuck his dick in the
1:03:32
vacuum cleaner just trying to simulate a blow
1:03:34
job and ended up de -gloving his penis. I don't
1:03:37
know who he's used to getting blow jobs from.
1:03:40
Oh my god. Come on in, Thomas. Come here, boy.
1:03:43
Come on, you've seen this before. Come on. Look,
1:03:49
he exists. Bend over. But yes. Get to the shot,
1:03:55
you dick. Right there. There you go. But no,
1:03:57
he got de -globed. I mean, he stuck his dick
1:04:00
in the vacuum cleaner and it just rolled the
1:04:03
meat right on off. Was he uncircumcised? Yeah,
1:04:10
he wasn't circumcised. He became circumcised
1:04:14
as a result of this incident? It did because
1:04:16
the foreskin got removed. Like it got, it got
1:04:19
sucked off. Oh my God. How more reasons to get
1:04:24
circumcised. Now, the funniest penis story I
1:04:28
ever saw was that this dude, he got, he got brought
1:04:30
in. Uh, he had swallowed a dime bag of, uh, of
1:04:34
drugs. And so naturally you have to get medically
1:04:36
cleared before you go to the jail. And so he
1:04:39
was just laying there. He was just laying there
1:04:40
limp. And more often than not, if you stick a
1:04:43
catheter in a guy, He'll wake up. Well, obviously
1:04:47
so, because you're sticking a tube into his dick.
1:04:49
You're poking, yeah. This dude took it like a
1:04:53
champ. Didn't flinch. I mean, it was just, that's
1:04:57
impressive. So we stuck him in trauma room one,
1:05:01
left the catheter in, and catheters, what they
1:05:03
stay in is that there's a balloon that blows
1:05:04
up. It's about the size of your fist. And so
1:05:07
that stays on the other side of the urethra.
1:05:10
Well, this guy obviously did not know that so
1:05:13
like an hour later he got out of the he got out
1:05:16
of the bed started running well Yeah, the drugs
1:05:20
they want to heat once he like 28 days later
1:05:23
I'm out of here and then so then what happens
1:05:25
is that once you reach know the the length of
1:05:28
your tether It's snatched that balloon out. It's
1:05:32
lit his penis open like six different piece like
1:05:34
it like a weeding Just it just filleted open
1:05:37
Oh, my God. This dude screamed. He is now a eunuch.
1:05:42
I mean, he he castrated himself. Oh, so he waits.
1:05:45
So he works at the DNC now. He destroyed his
1:05:48
penis and he probably works for the Democratic
1:05:51
National Convention. Yes. Oh, you see. Oh, listen,
1:05:57
you see all kinds of penis down in your little
1:06:00
town. Well, this is this. You got super excitement
1:06:04
there. Well, this is well, this is in Pensacola.
1:06:06
Oh, Florida man. Okay. That makes more sense.
1:06:09
Florida panhandle, of course. Oh, of course.
1:06:12
Okay. Okay. That makes more sense. So this is
1:06:15
a Baptist hospital on E street. They must see
1:06:19
so much wild shit. They really must. It is insane.
1:06:24
I saw a guy who's trying to get off and he's
1:06:29
sticking a bottle of those old plastic canisters
1:06:33
of deodorant up his rectum. just to try to serve
1:06:35
his prostate. Well, the problem is the plastic
1:06:38
ruptured. It just shattered. So all these shards
1:06:41
of plastic just were all in his anus, just ripped
1:06:45
them apart. And you see some stuff. Yeah, yeah,
1:06:53
yeah, you do. Between drugs and low IQ, you're
1:06:58
going to see a lot of things. The dude that took
1:07:01
that catheter, I mean, Yeah, I mean, he did not
1:07:03
flip the cake. God bless. Now, now he flinched
1:07:07
when he ripped his dick off. Oh, that was that
1:07:12
was amazing. Oh, God. Well, I think whoever the
1:07:19
mystery person was that left this device outside
1:07:23
of the Tenley town firehouse was trying to make
1:07:27
a donation to help the boys at the firehouse.
1:07:31
So that's what I think. But now there's like
1:07:35
a manhunt underway to find this person because
1:07:38
obviously they call it caused a bomb squad response
1:07:41
and whatever. So it was like it was a big deal
1:07:44
in little D .C. here because we don't have those
1:07:47
stories, Robbie. I think I'm on board with Exile
1:07:51
the Knights of Malta now. It's possible that
1:07:53
the person was walking along the road and found
1:07:56
the penis vacuum and didn't know what it was.
1:07:58
and was like, maybe they can figure out what
1:08:00
it is at the firehouse. You know, I think that's
1:08:03
actually that's probably that's it. That's it.
1:08:06
I would give that at least a 40 percent possibility.
1:08:09
Yeah, could be. I mean, you know, we're I don't
1:08:12
think there you are like, oh, I didn't mean you
1:08:14
to call the bomb squad. I want to stay like rush
1:08:17
hour traffic. I've just found this thing. And
1:08:19
I thought, hey, I'll turn it into the appropriate
1:08:21
authorities. A vacuum is much more dangerous
1:08:26
than. Well, this device is made for that, Robbie.
1:08:31
I understand. It's meant to be gentle, sort of,
1:08:34
I think, according to Ted. It's loving and sweet.
1:08:39
It's a gentle, loving sucking machine, apparently.
1:08:43
I've heard of the manual ones. I didn't know
1:08:45
that they had a whole vacuum effect. So there
1:08:49
you go. So now you learned something new. Have
1:08:53
a good Tuesday, guys. We'll be reading into into
1:08:58
Putin gaming after this. OK, stay tuned. Help
1:09:01
Robbie out. Drop a chat because Robbie needs
1:09:04
a few more chatters. I do. I need I need 32 of
1:09:07
them before the first. So all right. There you
1:09:10
go. We'll get there. Thanks, guys. We'll see
1:09:12
you tomorrow. Adios, amigos. Bye bye, y 'all.