Latest / Beat The Odds with Dre, Rodney, & Brylan / The Trump Manifesto, The SPLC Indictment & Sam Altman's World ID Play
Transcript
- Rodney: Yo, what's up, bro? How you feeling? Brylan: Man, I am feeling phenomenal, bro. I really can't complain, man. Feeling like I'm coming off of a slow weekend but a high from last week. That's how I would explain it. Rodney: yeah, yeah, I that, I get that, I get that. I'm feeling pretty good, I'm feeling pretty good. It's one of those long days where I got a lot done. So ultimately I feel like I've been, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I yeah, ⁓ I got around 450 today and... Brylan: How about you? You still on the 5 AM's? Okay. Rodney: Yeah, I've been up since then and right now, what is it, like 7 p.m.? And then this is gonna be about an hour and then I will go to bed about 30 minutes after that. you know, pretty much my, I'm on the East Coast right now. Yeah, yeah, I'm in Michigan right now. But I'll be back in LA soon. I'll be back in LA soon. out here for a couple of months. Brylan: Yeah. Hold on, where you at? You on the east coast? Got you. Yeeeeaaaahhh I'ma have to pull up on you You in the D? Rodney: Yes, man. see me. Brylan: ⁓ You right up the street, man. Rodney: Yes, sir. Brylan: Man, well shoot man, I know we ⁓ As always, feel like so much can happen in a week. You know what I mean? Yeah, so go ahead and kick us off, Rodney: Haha. For sure. Okay. Well, let's just jump straight to it then. Last night, or actually two days ago, sorry, not last night, there was yet another assassination attempt against President Trump April 25th. This happened at White Correspondence Association dinner in Washington and This guy is a 31 year old. His name is Cole Thomas Allen. He's from Torrance, California. So pretty much the L.A. area that may also be in L.A. County. He came and checked into the hotel there and he brought a shotgun, a pistol, knives. And. He basically just tried to charge and. You know, attack Trump. They scattered somebody. Yell out, I think like shots fired or something like that. ultimately they got JD Vance out of there. They got Trump out of there. And Trump's still alive. He's, he's, he's fine. But. He's had assassination attempts. Now, ⁓ we get into that piece, maybe I will, I do want to mention that this guy, Cole, had a manifesto as well. Like he wrote like a manifesto. I think it might've been a couple of pages. I'm gonna a couple of paragraphs. I'm not gonna read it all because I just think that, yeah. Brylan: I was literally going to ask what was in this manifesto. Rodney: Yeah, I'm not going to read it all, but I'm going to read a couple of paragraphs so that people listening or watching can understand a bit how this guy's mind was working before he tried to do this. So it started off by saying, the New York Post posted this, by the way, and it's a thousand word document that he sent to his family members right before the incident. Brylan: Okay. Rodney: So he starts it off by saying, hello everybody. So I may have given a lot of people a surprise today. Let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abuse. apologize to my parents for saying I had an interview without specifying it was for ⁓ wanted. I apologize to my colleagues and students. So he was a teacher as well. I believe he was ⁓ professor. For saying I had a personal emergency. By the time anyone reads this, I probably most certainly do need to go to the ER, but can hardly call that not a self-inflicted status. I apologize to all the people I travel next to, all the workers who handle my luggage, and all the other non-targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near. I apologize to everyone who abused and or murdered before this. To all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this, to all who may still suffer after, regardless of my success or failure, I don't expect forgiveness. But if I could have seen another way to get this close, I would have taken it. Again, my sincere apologies. On to why I did any of this. a citizen of the United States of America. What my representatives do reflects on me. Now I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and a traitor to coat my hands with his crimes. Those are the first couple of paragraphs. Hahaha Brylan: There's so much to really unpack here, right? I because I think if I, if I, if I remember here, right, I think his sister even came out eventually said that like, he had mentioned like radical statements and things of that nature. so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So ⁓ I the other thing that's very interesting is like his brother came out ⁓ and like, as soon as he got the email, the manifesto, like he immediately called. And so it seems like Rodney: I didn't know that. It's not surprising though. Brylan: they weren't surprised seeing something like this come about. And so I'm always kind of curious as like, did flip to this? ⁓ Like and ⁓ other too is like, I mean, I do think we need to unpack like what might actually get a person to this place where they feel like. Rodney: Yeah. Right. Brylan: they have to take this action. Because I think what's very interesting about each of these shootings, and I think this is one thorough line, not the thorough line of all this, is the sentiment around it, right? So think about, you know, the most famous one is like John F. Kennedy, right? Like, think this, like, obviously we worked around ⁓ that time, but it's an assassination that has carried through like multiple generations. Rodney: Yeah. Brylan: And the sentiment is like one where like people endear like this, know, this figure. I don't think that's the, the, the sentiment with Trump. ⁓ I, ⁓ know what I mean? And so when you got someone responding the way this gunman responded in the sentiment in across the ⁓ S right now is like his approval ratings are showing it. It's like, what is going on? Because I think it would be different if he was like, Rodney: No, not at all. Not at all. Brylan: highly rated or whatever but it's like was this man justified? to potentially go. And so I'm curious. I'm curious. What are you seeing? Yeah. Rodney: Yeah. He feels justified. He feels justified. Clearly, clearly. also think he's fearless. ⁓ He ⁓ doesn't a drop. No, I didn't see the video. ⁓ I watch the video. Brylan: ⁓ Did you see the video? Bro, go watch the video. Like my man, somebody lining up down like, bro, he just took off. Like he sprinted so fast. Rodney: Start clips. So I under, so he's beyond fearless. He just, he has no, he doesn't even have courage because he's not fearful. He doesn't even have courage. courage, you need to have fear first. So he doesn't even have that. he is, so look, I didn't see what his brother and his sister said, but it would not surprise me if they, maybe don't like, Brylan: Nah, nah, nah, nah. Rodney: Trump either maybe it's a family who is who typically is liberal or progressive or or votes Democrat. But sometimes you can tell when people are taking it to another level or or when things are a little bit more extreme like you might say, okay, I'm going for Trump or I'm going for Kamala. But then somebody takes it to another level and you're like, wait, hold on, this is a little bit further than than the typical like, maybe like the policies or whatever it is. based on just those, ⁓ he ended that last second paragraph, to me, that comes down to... ⁓ the narratives that have been spun. He mentioned pedophile, don't know, racist, or sorry, rapist, not racist, even though some would say that as well. He mentioned that, and I think that that shows somebody that was really deep the political ⁓ sphere, whether it was traditional media or it was social media. If I had to guess, it was probably likely, more than likely social media. Brylan: Yeah! Rodney: ⁓ It wouldn't shock me if it was TikTok, those type of media, of medias, although I don't know, I don't know for sure. So this sounds like a guy who felt like he was taking matters into his own hands. For somebody that, in my opinion, I would say is probably not the most mentally healthy, he did get close to Trump. Like he got close. Like he didn't pull it off, but this guy got close. Now, in the rest of his manifesto, which even when I can read, it's easy. You just Google search or go to to tattoo between, know, pull it up or grok, whatever your favorite AI is. And there's other concerning things like he was he was willing to kill people if they were in the way. Brylan: Mm-hmm. Rodney: Like he didn't want to do it, is what he mentioned in the manifesto, but if he had to, then he was willing to do that. he was very passionate about all this. Brylan: Yeah, yeah, he did mention it. Let me, let me, let me ask you a question about one piece of the manifesto where I do, I do find this interesting. I do find this interesting. So in part of his manifesto, he wrote, I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat. And what he was really getting at was like mocking the security that is supposed to exist at this type of, you know, event for. Rodney: Okay. Brylan: president or these folks of like this caliber. And it was really, you know, this sense of arrogance, right? Like that we just kind of had, or, you know, this, this, security team just kind of had. So I'm just kind of curious. Yeah. Your thoughts, like when you, when you hear that, like the man literally told, like he wrote down was it just by chance or was it chance? Rodney: Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. Yeah. do remember he wrote original manifesto, but then he had got to the, I think the hotel a day before, and then he got through easily. And then he was like, these guys are like basically a joke. And so a couple things that I'm just going to go off the top of my head. So the first thing I would say is that it is strange that maybe they didn't consider. people who come the day before to make sure that there's a level of security and there's a level of sure that people, it a bit strange, especially considering the fact that Trump is a highly hated figure, like passionately hated figure. He's not just, people either love, clearly, like literally ⁓ love hate him in a serious way, enough to want to kill him. So. It is a bit surprising a bit, but then also in that same manifesto I believe that he mentioned that they were focused on people who seem to potentially be threats like protesters, etc. So it's just ⁓ was a case of being distracted and that is still on to make sure that doesn't happen and I'm sure after that Stuff like that is not going to happen. Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: But I do think there's arrogance. A bit, a bit. Brylan: Yeah. Yeah. And possible here too. I mean, it was just a blind spot, right? Like some ⁓ you can't really, and again, this is all in hindsight for us to say was easy, but it's like, yeah, ⁓ I want to say we don't know. think ⁓ something do think is interesting is I and looked up, you know, hey, okay. Rodney: Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Brylan: Where does Trump rank when it comes to the number of presidents that have had an attempt against them? And so he actually has the most, but I think the broader thing that is very interesting is so like what was happening in the environment of the country when these attempts were happening. ⁓ like some history, obviously, hopefully everybody on the pod knows that like Abraham Lincoln, know, was killed during the Civil War. Like, ⁓ know, we may be talking to some young generations now, and maybe they don't teach that in school anymore. ⁓ don't teach that in school anymore. ⁓ that was during the Civil War. So you had the North and the South. And then you had McKinley, which was like the start ⁓ of the 20th century. So the early 1900s. That's where, if you think about it, technology was transferring. Rodney: Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say maybe Gen Z doesn't know that. Yeah. Brylan: We are going from being agriculture to industrial. And then you had Kennedy, Cold War. Right? And so now you have Trump where some people would say, like, you know, from an economic standpoint, you got AI that is literally transforming, you know, our world or has the promise of doing that. But it's on top of like, is polarized. you're on boat. Like there's, there's no middle. There's you, chosen a side. And so. I do think the environment is very interesting to just like observe and how that does the psychology and how crowds start to respond. Because if I'm going be honest, just being here in Chicago and haven't seen the number of no Kings protests and how people, you know, just ⁓ are there. And I'm sure you've seen that in like LA too. Rodney: LA, definitely in LA. It's all the time. Brylan: This, this is the thing we have to trust ourselves on when we see this type of shit is we've already lived through it. We have a good example and it is called George Floyd riots. Anyone who's since that understands what people are capable of when the energy starts to rise. I, I, if going be honest, I think the energy is rising a little bit slower than George Floyd because George Floyd was like a very heightened period of time, but it did last for a very long time. But. Rodney: did again. Brylan: Yeah, what I would say about this is emotionally across the country, because so many of these different issues don't have nice fuzzy answers. People are boiling. then I think, you know, just like if you take, you know, a bag of popcorn and you throw it in there the temperature rises, one is liable bust. And so I think dude could easily probably be at least he's obviously he's not the first of many he's the third one which is crazy Rodney: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So. Brylan: So. Rodney: It is crazy. Anybody listening, I know like for example, for those who maybe voted for Trump or for those who are conservative or Republican, I'm just gonna go out and say, I didn't, I voted for Harris, I did. So I just wanna say that to those people. But I also, I'm gonna say that and then I actually might upset some of the people who voted for Harris by what I'm getting ready to say, which is that. Brylan: Yep. Rodney: I don't understand the no Kings name. so look, from my understanding, it's no Kings because of this idea that it's going to be this authoritarian government. in Trump as this King thing where he's he's not acting like a democratic president. He's Brylan: I Rodney: Suppose he's kind of coming off like a king going a little bit too far. And I'll be honest, and I don't know if I'm breaking some type of rule on the progressive side, but I haven't seen anything. I don't see anything. I just don't see anything happening right now. I don't know if I was supposed to say that or not. I don't understand. I mean, I guess the immigration thing. That was maybe the one thing that I could see where people might've been upset about. Cause at the end of the day, lot of people have, they, a lot of people know, I mean, depending on where you live. So like if you live in New York, if you live in Texas, if you live in California, if you live in certain place like Miami, there's likelihood that you know immigrants. So I understood that a bit more. And then also too, people who are are immigrants that may know other immigrants or kind of feel a little bit of just like sympathy or feel a little bit of like just sadness knowing that these people probably came for a certain reason. I understood that, but. anything since then, I really haven't seen the King, I don't understand the King narrative. I don't understand why people, maybe it's just still the immigration piece. And if it is, then I guess I get it. I just don't see outside of that. But maybe I don't wanna get too much on that because it take much these days to ⁓ get up and something you said can get twisted into another way. So I'm just saying I don't really. I don't really see the king part. don't see him acting that way. I see him doing what pretty much every president does. The one thing I might see differently is that he's being a little bit unconventional with who he's bringing into the administration to get stuff done this time around. Brylan: So let me want to provide some color because this this this is honestly my own personal perspective ⁓ as well and I know it has upset some people and some people are probably gonna get offended and upset with it, but so be it right? I think yes, so when we take a step back and we Think about like what do people mean by no kings? ⁓ I you know Rodney: Right. Yeah. Yeah. Brylan: Yeah, what they're really getting at is like just this idea of like unchecked power, right? Like I think it's in relation to obviously what we've seen with the Supreme Court and how, you know, through certain nominees and things of that nature, just trying to control and sway which way things are going to go. Obviously we see it with the Department of War and then we've also seen it with immigration. And I think the reason why this is important is because we have historical precedence of what this looks like. And it's literally called Mussolini and called Hitler. And I think the reason why you have to look at these is because the strategies are very similar. The elements they use to really like gain power and leverage that power for whatever the reason was. It literally looks like today. And so the first one was like they had these ideas of private armies. So for Hitler, it was the brown shirts. For Mussolini, it was the black shirts. For us, it is ice. And so these aren't necessarily like official kind of like military or whatever, but the way they are perceived and the way they go about their job is very like that. Right? Like think about when you see the image of an ICE agent. in military gear bro, ⁓ military guns. So I think that's the first thing. Second thing is immigration. So literally, if you think about what Hitler, we always think about the Holocaust. Rodney: Yeah. Brylan: I don't know if you've seen the movie Nuremberg, the Nuremberg trials on Netflix. It is literally about that whole period of time where at the real Nuremberg trials, they shared exactly why and how they went about doing all of that. And it was crazy because literally it was legislation. It ⁓ like the Jews, like Hitler and him went to the extent of like saying like, ⁓ we're just going to kill people. No, it was actual law and policy. so, and they worded it around with the word immigration. They never said Jews because they knew like the world was going to like take them to court. They said, they literally said immigration. And so that was the same thing that Mussolini did with Italy as well when he was targeting minority groups in Italy. Legislation. What have we done when targeting those exact people that you talked about in California, et cetera? legislation. And so there's patterns there. And then I think the other thing too is like media. So I think one of the things Trump has a really good understanding of is the media landscape. I think he's been able to gain a lot of mind share by personally, I mean, literally telling people, shit, it's, you know, it's fake news. And now we live in this world of AI and it's like, you don't know what the hell is real. And so at that same time, We can't sit here and act like, you know, there's not propaganda being spun at us. Rather if it's like all this war shit that is going on. Now all of a sudden you got 18 or 25 year olds getting drafted like in all these war, like the shit is crazy right now, bro. But that was the same time. That was the same thing during nose early periods of time. And so I think like, when I think of it that way, like When I, at least when I hear no Kings, that is what I'm thinking. You had literally people who were Kings controlled a lot of the fucking world and here is how they did it. Right. And that's just within their country. Right. And so that's kind of how I think of it. Rodney: I see, I see for sure. get that. get that. Well, I'll put it like this. It is unfortunate, but one thing that I've seen in history repeat is when things aren't the best in the country, there is typically a need for a scapegoat. And for Germany, that might've been the Jews. For other situations, it could be minorities. in this case, it might be it might be immigrants. Of course, the scapegoat is not responsible for the entire state of ⁓ country is or whatever region it is, but typically is in the humanity's nature to have the blame So I fully understand multiple perspectives that lie with. the immigration piece. I can see how there could be a slippery slope, especially if continue to do ⁓ raids were happening in Minnesota in the manner that they did them, because they've been done before, but it was the manner in which case that they were done that I think even people who supported Trump came out and said, that's not, we want to Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: reduce, we want to reduce the amount of illegal immigrants, but maybe not like that per se. So I understood that piece. However, when I see these assassination attempts and I what people are talking about, it gives me the impression that people have gone as far as to believe that Trump is the dictator people think he might become. Not who I guess I see at the moment, but also I understand it's a slippery slope. Maybe some of these guys in the past, they didn't appear to be the corrupt dictator that was unchecked. And maybe that's part of the way that they kind of went towards that direction. Who knows? Anyways, look, we have another topic and this is something that I didn't want to talk about because it's kind of like, it's kind of like, it's a civil rights organization that's in the fire right now. didn't want to talk about it because just... Brylan: ⁓ man. Rodney: I wasn't sure, like I just wasn't sure if that was on code, but at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I do want to speak to what is being said we could talk about the implications of it and just our general thoughts on this, but basically the SPLC was indicted by the federal grand jury. multiple charges, including wire fraud, false statement in the banks, conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice is that they spent over $3 million in donor funds between 2014 and 2023 to informants linked to the KKK, Aryan nations, Nazi groups. ⁓ The SPLC stands for Southern Poverty Law Center. It is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1971. It is headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama. It focuses on civil rights, legal advocacy, and monitoring hate groups. Now, I want to make sure that people listening understand that They have not been fully charged or convicted, I would say, but these charges are significant. They are serious. Now there is claims from the SPLC where they are basically saying these are nonsense claims. There's no of criminal intent and that some of the moves that they made are standard. For example, paying an informant in the KKK is standard practice for infiltration things of that nature. And then there are other defenders ⁓ this group where they're suggesting that as well. And is clearly a tricky thing because it could... It's very messy, right? Because on one hand, on one hand, the federal or the DOJ could be correct. And what that implies is something horrible. I mean, it implies that these groups have started off with great intent, clearly in the seventies right after, or maybe even civil rights were advocates in bringing rights and ⁓ to people who didn't have as much. And they're basically suggesting that they're taking that people have donated to ⁓ Black people. And don't know if it just focuses just on Black people. It might also include more. if I'm looking at if it's in the South, Montgomery, Alabama, I'm assuming it's Black people. And that that they were creating scenarios in which case it appeared like there was more hate so that they could get more capital or get more money and do whatever they were doing with that money. Now, here's the thing though. There does seem to be something to be said about what they're coming back out and saying and saying, hey, look, that's a standard practice. It's a standard practice to take money go into these groups. and infiltrate, get information, strategies, et cetera. That's So I guess ⁓ we talk about just what some of these applications and I don't what to say about where I lean on it. Obviously I didn't want to talk about it. I lean more ⁓ on, they doing the right thing. However, if we have to consider the fact that What if they weren't doing the right thing? What does that mean? Brylan: Yeah, no, I we really got to unpack this. so, yeah, because I was like, man, I've heard of this before, or at least the organization before. So I went and just kind of dove into the history. And I think the history is very important because I think what you'll see over the years ⁓ is I think just, you know, one, a shift, but I can see how this kind of gets a little tricky. So the first thing is like from the eighties to the nineties, actually were the ones that came up with what is known as like the KKK strategy. And so to actually like, you know, kill a lot of these groups across the South, what they ⁓ actually work was going to the courts and specifically personally suing. like the leaders of these groups going after like their personal assets. And so like that actually like really worked. Right. And I think the reason why that is important is because it was during that period of time, like according to Wikipedia, the SPLC became known basically like the unwritten like definer of what is a hate group. So they've all, whatever they define as a hate group has I guess always been accepted as like, okay, we're labeling them a hate group. But I think what is really important is like, what you start to see shift is, uh, it talks about like the leadership where in the nineties, they had 457 hate groups by 2011. They had over a thousand, right? And so you're starting to see the numbers increase. And then also you have, they label turning point USA as like a hate group. And I think one of the things that's very interesting, like the New York Times called this out, but it was like, you know, basically there's this mission like, okay, because there's all this hate getting created, it creates more urgency for people to want to donate money, which is like the mechanism here. And I think, you know, the other thing I want to call out too is, ⁓ I didn't know this, this is actually crazy, but like one of the founders got fired a few years ago, ⁓ for some crazy stuff. ⁓ yeah, 92 % of the current staff just recommended that like they have no vote of confidence in like the current CEO. ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I, I do, what I do think is interesting is like, it does seem like some things are starting to break, but I think this claim of like secretly paid over 3 million, I'm actually curious to see like what kind of evidence they present. Like what is the story they tell behind that? Like. Rodney: ⁓ jeez. ⁓ jeez. Yes, me too, me too. Yeah, I wanna see the evidence. Brylan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. they shared anything there or? Rodney: I'm not aware of any evidence. That doesn't mean that there's not, that doesn't mean that there isn't any evidence. let me just see real quick. Is there any public evidence? I'm not aware of any, I'm not aware of any evidence and, Brylan: Yeah, I haven't. Rodney: They're looking at payments. They're basically saying this is what PBBS reported. They're saying that payments were routed through shell companies and prepaid cards to conceal the source and yeah, so that's been weird to me though because I don't see the need. I don't know, it's strange. I don't know what any of this means, it would... ⁓ are doing this through, ⁓ you're infiltrating, I guess you would need a fake... Would you need a fake company? Like, why do need a fake company? Brylan: Let me. But, but, no, no, think of it this way, bro. These are people that have been doing the work with these KKK folks, bro. And so they have seen historically like the terror that was placed into communities because of the violence. And so it's like, if you are putting someone in there, you're probably assuming if they are caught, like even think what, is the movie? What is the, Rodney: I see Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. So you don't want it to trace back is what you're saying. You're basically saying you get the shell and the. Yeah, I see. OK, OK, I got you. The shell is to. Yeah, OK. Well, this stuff could be kind of scary then. If what I mean is, that if these groups are like if this group is basically just doing this to protect themselves they just look guilty and they look suspicious, but they're not. Brylan: Yes. Was it called Black Plantsman? Yeah. Rodney: guilty and they're not suspicious and then we're kind of like attacking them, that would be horrible. Of course, I mean, that would be extremely horrible. so just got to follow this because this is just, I mean, they're basically accusing these people of faking stuff and making it seem like. Brylan: No, no, no, that's what, that is what people need to pay attention to. Because if that case is one, the narrative now shifts to, we have, we have proof that all this racism, all this hatred was created out of thin air. It doesn't really exist. They were paying people. Rodney: Well, right, so then how about this then? So then we better hope that the case is not one, right, based on the evidence. Because then the evidence should show that they weren't faking this stuff. I mean, we'd hope, right? We hope because we would hope because here's the thing, right? It's kind of like with the BLM and Black Lives Matter situation, it's like Black Lives Matter, there were many people that were doing good things and productive things under that umbrella of the movement of Black Lives Matter. But then you had a group of individuals from these different chapters in different states Brylan: I would hope to. Rodney: because of their actions, because of the fraud that they did, because of the misappropriation of funds that they did, it made it, it delegitimize the whole movement or at least took away a lot of credibility from it because of the actions of a few individuals. And I would hate to see that here where ultimately in general, what they do is correct, is right. It it serves its purpose and it's productive. But then an individual, one individual or two individuals or a small subset of individuals takes away the credibility of this. Cause then they become, yes, then it does become a bit dangerous because then certain people lose protections. us included depending on what it is lose protections and so this is it is very serious and so We definitely need people to follow it and whether I who's listening I don't personally care what I don't care who wait who was listening whether you support all this stuff or you don't support it or whether you are Brylan: Facts. This is a great story to call out. Rodney: I don't care who was listening, I will say I would like everybody to do their best in general to focus on the evidence. hopefully the evidence I'm going to go ahead and put myself out there a little bit. actually even actually, ⁓ I hoping that the evidence shows that they were doing these things. in way to protect themselves. And yes, it might look guilty, but it's not what it seems like. And evidence shows that. I'd hate to be proven wrong on that, but that's where I stand on that. And we don't have to give our personal stances on stuff like this, but since we reported on it, Brylan: One thing, one thing I do want to add on this is, ⁓ I mean, like, ⁓ yeah, I was, was, was literally just looking this up cause I was curious. I was like, man, like, is this one of those cases, once again, very similar to like Roe v way, you know, a few years ago where it potentially could make it to the Supreme court and like, just shift something like, what does the modern world look like when we don't have hate groups? Like we, we, we, we now live in a generation where. We weren't around when hate groups didn't exist. Like that labeling did not exist. Right. And so it's like, what happens when that was, you know, you grow up on the internet and all of sudden the internet don't work. Like how is life for you? Right. Like is that, is that potential here? So I do think that's interesting, but what was interesting, what was found was, um, there was a court case in 2022 that made it to the Supreme court featuring the SPLC. Rodney: Yeah. Yeah. Brylan: And it was specifically group out of Florida that was labeled as like, you know, a hate group by the SPLC. And they ended up losing that case. And so I do think this is very interesting because there is precedent ⁓ of, you someone going after, you know, this designation of hate groups. ⁓ think what is interesting is it's a different angle. Right? And so... Rodney: Well, man, look, there's no hate groups. Everybody better get strong. Everybody, don't care what you are. I don't care if you're trans. I don't care if you're a white man. I don't care if you're a black woman. I don't care who you are. If we, if better get strength and if you don't have physical strength, you better ⁓ armed. You better get armed in the precautions and maybe invest in security, et cetera. I mean, I don't want it to go into that, but I'm just a practical person. if ⁓ things a little certain way and maybe I do a little bit of a... I don't know what the full intent of everything is. There could be a bad intent or it could just be an intent to, I see, do see that things are being pulled apart to some extent. Now, the thing is though, is that if it was only, it was only ⁓ towards minorities, then I would say that I would, that it looks like bad things are happening. But there's being a tearing apart of more than just things towards minorities. For example, are, the administration is coming for the of the, pretty much the food companies that have addicted everybody to sugar, addicted everybody to these horrible foods. And then not only that, they're coming after the pharmaceutical industry. So it seems to me that these, I do see a lot of deconstruction, but I think doesn't... I why people are concerned, but if it was only targeted towards vulnerable groups ⁓ and If it was only targeted towards that, I think I would see a bit more reason to worry. Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: But because I see a dismantling of all these different things, it seems as though that is not a targeted strategy. And I believe that we're headed towards something new and. If we see things being pulled apart, then I would say the solution is to be a part of whatever comes next and don't just sit back and fear about whatever you think is coming. And I think one of the worst things I see is that people have this helplessness. Well, everything's falling apart. Everything's going down and, you know, we can't stop it. We don't have any power. think there's probably some ways to influence stuff. anyways, outside of that, Brylan: Hold hold on, hold on. want to speak on that real quick. It actually made me think of a gym that one of the homies this past weekend that I caught up really shared. And so for some context, homie works in finance. And we were literally just kind of talking about generational wealth, things of that nature. And I think the thing that he really, really said someone had broken down to him is, Rodney: Go ahead, go ahead. Brylan: Wealth is built in waves, And so kind of to your point of being prepared because we are riding a wave right now, ⁓ only, you know, politically, not only social, you know, socially, like everything is riding away, but the piece I want to emphasize is even economically, right? And so what he was really talking about was, you know, coming out of the nineties, ⁓ happened? You had the internet, you had the dot com, you know, boom and bust. But the people who rode that wave out of that got Apple for super cheap and now look at them. Right? Or you had the financial, you had the 2008, it dropped and then you had 0 % interest rates. But the venture capitalists that got Uber, Airbnb, Coinbase, or whoever made a lot of money. And so it's like, how are we also positioning ourselves when these waves come around? Because if you look at the timeframe, it's looking like it's every eight to 12 years. Rodney: Yeah, yeah. Brylan: And if the last one happened in 2008. Rodney: Right. Brylan: And so, yeah, we got to be prepared on all fronts to ride every, all these waves. Rodney: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. 100%. And for sure, just to fill in the blank, right now, people should be focused AI. People should also be focused on the revolution in health, in and then also ⁓ the in ⁓ Brylan: Say more about that, say more about that, like in terms of pharmaceuticals. Rodney: Yeah, well, yeah, for example, like the administration is coming out and changing a bunch of things. So they're one, they've made it so that unhealthy food you can't buy with food stamps and they're reducing the amount that you can get through food stamps. then additionally, so then, of course, businesses that rely on food stamp revenue, those are they have to either adapt so that they become compliant. And then you also have just like food companies who they know that some upcoming changes in the laws are going to require them to put whether or not they're ultra processed or like really processed food. So now like, you know, if food is, is bad for you or not bad for you and all of these different changes in the food industry, but also the pharmaceutical industry. for example, you have, they're changing the scheduling ⁓ marijuana at a federal level. It'll still be scheduled, but it will be at a lower schedule. And then another one is they're changing, or I believe they may have just recently changed the scheduling of some psychedelics for the purpose of helping heal trauma, for example, and veterans, but also it could be psychological trauma from... verbal or physical or sexual abuse growing up and things of that nature. So mushrooms and all these different tools, MDMA is another one. And so they're doing all these different things. And so you can imagine that companies can now, well, I mean, they'll start offering treatments, legal treatments to have a psychedelic trip to have under the... under the supervision of a doctor. And then you also have this peptide revolution where essentially there's all these different peptides that you can use for hair, libido, sex drive, et cetera. You could, I mean, the one that everyone knows is Ozempic. That's the biggest peptide that everybody knows. And so there's a revolution going on in health and wellness period. Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: And then additionally, there's a revolution going on in AI. And then there's also going to be a revolution in transportation due to robotics. And I think another one would be robotics. And so when it comes to the wealth that's being built or to capture the next wave of wealth, it's right in front of us if we stop focusing on whether or not... whether or not Clay and Meg are in a relationship, if we stop focusing on whether or not Trump is in office and he's doing whatever he's doing and it's not affecting your daily life, unless it is. If it is, if you're an immigrant, I'm not saying to not watch that, watch that. Your eyes should be glued to the screen. But for the 300 million people, 320 million people who are not immigrants, Unless like maybe there's something else to focus on. Maybe we shouldn't focus on what LeBron said about Memphis. Like that's what I'm getting at is that there is better things to focus on and we if you blink, you will miss the wave and you will not, you will not build. You will not, you will not be able to capitalize off. It's happening right, right in front of us. ⁓ it's cool to hop in the way mode, but think of don't just hop in the, don't just consume it. Brylan: You Rodney: At the same time though, the way our system works is that there always has to be consumers. So it's a little tricky because nobody's going to tap you on the shoulder and tell you, start producing. Nobody's going to tell you to stop consuming. It is what it is. So, hey. Brylan: Facts. But I think you're br- I mean, I- I mean... I feel like that's just the central theme of our pod, bro, and just our conversations on the daily, bro. We're living in one of the greatest times to produce. It has never been easier. It has never been easier to produce. Right? So. Rodney: Yes. Oh, yes, for sure. For sure. And we're going to have to expand more on that just in general, that general topic or theme of just producing and focusing and locking in because this is a time to do that. And there are there are trillion distractions right now, literally. I it. Like there are things to be upset about. I'm sure if I actually went looking for stuff, I would find something to be upset about or something that I should be trying to spend my time to dedicate ⁓ towards. the of the day though, there needs to be people who... that lock in and understand the opportunities in front of them and just, you know, ride this wave. Cause everybody can't just be, everybody has their own role to play, I guess. So I guess if you choose your role, but don't be surprised when you choose your role and you end up with the rewards that you get in the end. You see what I'm saying? So, so speaking, yeah, yeah. Brylan: That's over. That's for. Rodney: Speaking of though, just some of this new stuff, like you mentioned AI, and we talk about AI every pod because AI is the dominant thing going on in tech right now. So two things, at least, actually let's, three things, and then Brian will respond with whatever one he wants to, but basically, ⁓ thing is, is that ChatGBT dropped images 2.0. Images 2.0 allow you to generate images. Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: on chat. You could already do that, but these images are a lot. They have a higher quality. But then additionally, they are more precise with adding text to the image. So they're really good for banners ⁓ ⁓ and maybe just marketing materials. So marketing teams might really like this, but also maybe even developers as well. And then maybe just. random stuff, maybe your kid is having a birthday party and you want to put his name on an image or something, his or her name. So that's something that you can do now. Another thing is that terms of the Microsoft and OpenAI ideal have changed. So that's something that recently came out, I think actually probably earlier this morning. And then you have... Elon Musk and Sam Altman they the trial today. Now, ultimately, just to recap real quick, Elon Musk is essentially just saying that he donated, you know, 40 to $50 million ⁓ to in the early days when it was just a nonprofit and that basically deceive them and breach their fiduciary responsibilities to stay a nonprofit and turn themselves into a for-profit that is closely partnered with Microsoft, which goes against the original mission statement and the original agreement. So he dropped the fraud cases or the fraud. charges that he was bringing forth, but he still ultimately is bringing forth that primary. Brylan: This is, this is good. so let me, let me just ask questions because if I'm be honest, I think all three are very ⁓ want to with the last two because the fact that that is the that he's taking, I think it is a very strong position because it's going to be hard to argue that that is not the case. Right. Rodney: Sure. Brylan: I think the other thing too that is very interesting is when you think about the Microsoft and OpenAI story, are they cutting the deal to better position themselves in relation to this case? fascinating if Microsoft is a big piece of the puzzle here, right? Because I think ⁓ just paints a different picture of what their relationship may have looked like. And so I'm curious, like, Yeah. What do do you think this case has legs? And if so, like, what are their, what are the implications? Like, is this just another distraction or is this something people should be taking seriously? Rodney: Well, I can tell you what the market thinks on polymarket. There's a 50 50 split Yeah, there's a 50 50 split. That's the last I seen it. ⁓ changes every hour though or every minute. So maybe it's different, but it's 50 50. So ⁓ could be that ⁓ shows that people are seeing it can go either way. So I think that my first thought is definitely what you said, which is that Brylan: ⁓ really? Okay. Rodney: Musk is claiming something that's pretty obvious that when they originally started, it was a nonprofit ⁓ changing it to or they changed it to a for-profit. And that's in his favor. But I think what's not in his favor though is the text messages that show that he wanted to switch it to a for-profit and then also bring it into Tesla. So I think that those kind of take away from his credibility. I think that now maybe, and it just depends on whether or not his donation came with a contract. Did it come with a contract when he gave the $50 million? Did that come with a Pacific contract? Was it a verbal agreement? If it was verbal, then I mean, it's like, I don't think it's gonna go, but I think there's details that have to be figured out still in regards to that, but. Well, I there's details that have to be figured out in regards to that. I think that, but ultimately I think that in my opinion, what Elon is doing is he's just trying to slow down OpenAI. ⁓ And I he is just trying to be a distraction. I think he is upset that it didn't go the way that he wanted to. And I also think that he didn't care until they really, really got huge. I mean, I think even I saw, ⁓ Brylan: And that's Rodney: Yeah, I saw a post where he had mentioned how, I think it was GPT 2.5 or three, and just so people know, think chat GPT was three point, actually it might've been three, but I think he said 2.5, was impressed by the models at 2.5, and he seemed to have like a positive sentiment on OpenAI. But I think that chat GPT moment. was it wasn't he I don't think that I don't think he liked that because I think it put Sam in a position where it I think put Sam in a different position but then also maybe that's when he first found out about the Microsoft deal so who knows Brylan: Yeah, that's really good point. Hmm. I guess, I guess something I'm just very curious about is he suing them for any money? Or like, is he looking like, what's he looking to gain out of this? Rodney: Alright, I don't know. I really don't know. Look, let me see. Brylan: Like is there IP he's trying to take or? Rodney: All right, cuz for him if he wants the money back, I mean they could forgive him the money back Hey giving the money back. let's see. damages and He's that he the damages if they get awarded he would like them to go to ⁓ OpenAI's nonprofit arm and those damages could be upwards of $150 billion from OpenAI and Microsoft. So I guess they're kind of maybe both might be in on this. I don't know. Like I just have doubts. I have doubts around this. And I think another outcome is that they want to remove Sam as well and Greg. Greg is the president of OpenAI and also cut off Microsoft ties. But I think what Elon is asking for, I think it's a headache. I think it's a headache and not sure that it's going to go through. But then again, Elon's the type of guy who I'm not going to lie to you. Judges are supposed to be objective, but when you have people who are extremely powerful and you're like weighing in, like that comes in, man. That comes in. That comes in. So I don't know, like maybe the judge is an Eman fan and he's not supposed to take that into account, but this is one of those ones where I feel like the sermon is gonna be used by the judges. Brylan: Mm-hmm. That's real. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And where is this being fought in California? In Oakland. I think it was Oakland if I read that right. Yeah, think that's gonna be interesting. other piece that I thought was very fascinating, is specifically story one that you were talking about, the new image model. I think the reason why image, so think about it. Rodney: Probably. Probably. Yeah. Brylan: When it's come to the performance of these models on specifically benchmarks, rather if the benchmarks is like how well they use a browser, how well can they code? Fundamentally, those two things have been underpinned by code and images. Right? And the reason why I think this is very important is because very similar to what physics taught us that gravity just exists. I think what you're seeing is like this language of intelligence being code, which is logic and images being like visual, what we see. And the reason why this is important is because bro, think about where images show up, right? So if we think about it in terms of consumer, think about what over the 2010s or whatever you saw Instagram take off images. Now you're starting to see video, TikTok, YouTube or whatever. What is a video made of? It's just frames of images. Exactly. so I think that is very interesting. But then on the consumer side, I thought this was a very interesting cause I saw a few like ⁓ images be created like this, but think about PowerPoint slides. I didn't know 500 million people a month use PowerPoint slides, bro. And so when you think about using Rodney: Right. Yeah, serious, serious. Yeah, serious, yeah. Right. Brylan: Not everybody has the skill of making PowerPoint slides, but think about what Claude, what, what did Claude just roll out a few weeks ago? Claude design. We now know that open AI follows quickly behind. will have their own design tool. can make that assumption. They have a powerful image model, bro. And so think about one of the use cases for Claude design is literally making slides. Open AI can now, you know what I mean? It's so Rodney: No. Alright. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Brylan: They might've with this move, bro, I can see it be being a very interesting enterprise like use case, bro. Like if they potentially went after some of those, you know, where images play. Rodney: Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna lie that the images, the image move, I mean, I expect it. I wasn't really thinking about images. I'm not gonna lie. I won't, and another thing I will say is that, I mean, the precision is, mean, yes. I mean, I it's really hard to believe. Brylan: You've used it? Rodney: It's really hard to believe that we can generate a realistic looking image and put text into it and it be precise. Like, and it didn't take that long. It was just two years ago where you could make the images, but the text would be weird. And it's like, couldn't quite, it's like you kept talking to it, but it wouldn't, but now you can really like, that, that's a level of. man, that's a level of intelligence that's next level. So, I mean, I don't know if people understand, but if they're giving that out on like a scale level, that means that when they are internal and they come up with images, when they apply a lot of intelligence to it, I mean, those images probably look beyond real. Like, they probably look like, they probably just, they're probably. Yeah, we, yeah, because they're giving us the skilled version. This isn't, this ain't nothing. Like this is what they can scale. Like this is just what they can scale to everybody. Like, what they can just like, imagine what they can do in the lab, in the research lab. It's, and already, and ⁓ think knows this because his world ID project, not to, because ⁓ we're coming on the end, but. Brylan: That is actually crazy to think about. Yeah! Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm packed at. Didn't he just have like a presentation or something recently? Rodney: Yes, yes he did. So let me just bring up the the core facts around the world ID event. basically, I'll just give you ⁓ the quick. So. ID last week. Well, just so just just to a bit, World ID is ⁓ this concept, even than the concept now, but essentially started by Sam Altman and somebody else. I forgot who it is, but and. Its core premise is that we're not going to be able to tell what's real online, who's real, we're going to need a way to verify that. So World ID proposes a solution where, and can go to a kiosk, for if you're in LA, you can go to West Hollywood. In Michigan, you can go to Auburn Hills. In all these different states, they have these kiosks or these buildings where you go in and there's these orbs. And these orbs, you walk up to them and they scan your eye and they create a digital cryptographic signature of your iris, basically. it is maybe similar to not entirely, but if you think about Face ID, et cetera, that ⁓ concept. where they're creating a Pacific signature. And with your iris, there's a level of uniqueness that can't be faked. And so a couple of weeks ago, or about 10 days ago, Opening Eye had its lift off event where Tinder and Zoom and DocuSign did some demos. Now, the one I thought was very interesting, now I think these are kind of self-evident. Of course, you would want to know if a human signed the document. Of course, you would want to know if your Tinder date is real. Like, those are kind of self-evident. But I thought that the Zoom one was interesting because it was suggesting this and we've heard about deepfakes, but the level of deepfake that they demoed was another level. And this ties exactly to this images conversation that we're talking about because think that internally they know that deepfakes are at another level. It's just a matter until they can scale that. And if they'll ever scale that to everybody. But the Zoom demo that they showed was, and I believe the CEO of Zoom was there, but they showed a Zoom meeting, a regular Zoom meeting, and was a guy that supposed to be real on the Zoom, and he wasn't but it was a video stream. So he was like, ⁓ he had the and he looked real, like it was a video. And then the real guy comes on you could tell that he's real because he had like a verification symbol. But then also he was the world app on phone was able to verify him live that it was a real human being on the and using the world ID technology. Now, what ID is also backed by this token called WorldCoin. And WorldCoin, it's a bit confusing, but essentially it's tied to this, the identities. For example, if you go and get a world ID, you get a certain amount, everybody's entitled to a certain amount of world token. Everybody, everybody's entitled to a certain amount of world token, every human. But essentially, WorldToken, going to be exchanged in regards verifications, etc. I believe that the burden of pricing go on the verifier, not the person being verified. I don't know this for sure, but and that may affect the price. ⁓ then AI use verification services, etc., which also may affect the price. So there's a lot of dynamics that might be at play. But when you think about these these these labs that might have these crazy technologies and then you also see Sam racing ahead with just this like technology that just seems to be in the right place for a problem that he seems to be creating. Isn't that, am I just, am I just, am I missing something? Brylan: Yeah Nah, I don't think you're missing something, bro. think, don't think you're missing something. I think what's even fascinating as well is, you know, someone called out a few weeks ago, once again, that he doesn't have any equity, at that we know of in open AI. But once again, if WorldCoin solves what it needs to solve, ⁓ like... Rodney: Yeah. Well, yeah, I think it's because Sam, I honestly think that Sam got crazy rich off Bitcoin. And so he just, think he has more money than people think. ⁓ ⁓ think he needs any cash. ⁓ Brylan: Yeah. Yeah, I think, I mean, I do think what is also interesting man, the narratives around these AI CEOs, like, we've obviously spent a ton of time speaking about what the dominant narrative has been around Daria, ⁓ I do think over the next year or so, I mean, you've, you've really called out some really important points, rather if it's the images continuing to get better from what we see, but also getting us to think about like, just imagine what it's like internally to like, now we can see all the problems it might create to him being the solution. Like he's positioned himself in this. Yeah. Like in the, but it matters though, in this game, bro, we are seeing that people ⁓ the markets swing to whoever they believe a little bit more. Right. And I do think probably over the last few months, even kind of, you know, we've seen it when they took that deal from the Pentagon, it hit him and then, you know, someone's shooting at his house. Like, so yeah. Rodney: Right. Right. It did. It did. It did. Yeah. Yeah, that, that, ⁓ I will say, and I don't know, this is, this is pretty much the end of the, we're pretty much at time now, but I will say that on his house is an early sign of something crazy. Like that, that, that's not normal. CEOs don't get targeted like that. maybe it's similar to the United Health CEO targeting, and maybe it's just a general targeting of wealthy people, but I think that's something that I think people have already moved on from, but they shouldn't forget. Brylan: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a really good point. But once again, how we started is how we're gonna finish, bro. The climate is crazy right now. Rodney: climate is real, you know what it is? Man, it just seems like people are ready to fight. Like people are ready to kill you. If ⁓ stand, if you're not on the right side of something, people are ready to kill you. That's what it really, that's what I'm seeing. That's what I'm seeing. I'm seeing like, I'm seeing it's, people are trying to take you out and they do not like what you're saying. Brylan: Yeah. Rodney: and they don't like what you're working on. So what, you know, and you can't really see what angle it might come from. Brylan: Yeah. Hey, nah, you're, you're, you're spot on bro. So now this was a great conversation, man. We touched on a lot. Hopefully the listeners got one or two things they can, you know, sit with, but nah, great chopping it up, man. Rodney: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's wrap this up. Let's wrap this up.