Latest / The Death Of Journalism / Episode Two Hundred Eighty Eight: Newsom Fear Factor Drops

Transcript

Episode Two Hundred Eighty Eight: Newsom Fear Factor Drops · The Death Of Journalism

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and eighty eight of the
0:02
Speaker 1: Death of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm
0:05
Speaker 1: your host on today's show. President Trump makes the ultimate
0:08
Speaker 1: threat against Iran and then not surprisingly backs down into
0:12
Speaker 1: a seemingly weak ceasefire. There has been a significant adjustment
0:17
Speaker 1: to the Gavin Newsom fear factor rating. The Tiger Woods
0:20
Speaker 1: bodycam footage provides an important new context for his car crash.
0:25
Speaker 1: The NCAA Basketball Final Fours provide lots to talk about,
0:30
Speaker 1: a preview of the Masters, as well as my list
0:34
Speaker 1: of the top ten sports moments of the nineteen eighties.
0:41
Speaker 1: We begin, as we have for the last several weeks,
0:43
Speaker 1: with the war in Iran and the dramatic developments over
0:47
Speaker 1: the last couple of days that had President Trump going
0:51
Speaker 1: from threatening the end of civilization in Iran to hailing
0:58
Speaker 1: a ceasefire agreement, a two week cease fire agreement, as
1:02
Speaker 1: a golden era of peace in the Middle East. Life
1:05
Speaker 1: comes at you fast in twenty twenty six, and the
1:10
Speaker 1: bottom line of all this, and it's extremely complex, and
1:13
Speaker 1: it's difficult to sift through what's true and what's not
1:17
Speaker 1: and to know who to trust, but to me The
1:19
Speaker 1: bottom line here is that Trump is flailing. There was
1:24
Speaker 1: never any chance that Trump was going to actually make
1:28
Speaker 1: good on his threat to effectively obliterate all of Iran,
1:33
Speaker 1: and everybody knew this. I think one of the most
1:35
Speaker 1: stunning elements of this whole situation is that for almost
1:40
Speaker 1: a day, we were living in a world where the
1:43
Speaker 1: president of the United States was threatening to end civilization
1:48
Speaker 1: in Iran, and nobody was really all that impacted by
1:52
Speaker 1: it because nobody really believed it, because everyone knows he's
1:58
Speaker 1: a bluffer. Everyone knows that when it comes down to it,
2:02
Speaker 1: he's not going to come through on his word. He's
2:05
Speaker 1: likely gonna check it out. And the reality of this
2:09
Speaker 1: whole situation to me is that Trump became exceedingly frustrated
2:14
Speaker 1: by the fact that we were winning the war militarily overwhelmingly,
2:20
Speaker 1: but not winning it at all diplomatically. And the core
2:25
Speaker 1: problem here, and this is something that I just don't
2:28
Speaker 1: think Trump understood. Even I didn't fully understand it. I
2:31
Speaker 1: don't think anybody fully understood it, certainly not on our
2:34
Speaker 1: side at the beginning of this conflict, is that the
2:37
Speaker 1: Iranian regime just doesn't give a shit. In fact, it
2:44
Speaker 1: seems as if they like a lot of what's been happening,
2:48
Speaker 1: because now they can do a Kamikazi attack on the
2:52
Speaker 1: world economy and cause more damage than they ever could
2:56
Speaker 1: have prior to this conflict. Begause. Yes, they're sustaining enormous
3:02
Speaker 1: damage to their military infrastructure, hopefully their nuclear program, all
3:07
Speaker 1: of that, but they don't seem to care. They actually
3:11
Speaker 1: seem to kind of like this the best analogy, and
3:15
Speaker 1: that's not perfect, but the best analogy I can come
3:17
Speaker 1: up with is the Grinch who stole Christmas and Whovill. Now,
3:22
Speaker 1: I want to make clear I'm not suggesting the United
3:25
Speaker 1: States is the Gridge, and you know the Iranians are
3:28
Speaker 1: the good guys, But I'm talking about from a psychological perspective.
3:32
Speaker 1: You know, the whole Whoville holding hands after the Grinch
3:36
Speaker 1: stole Christmas thing and the Grinch is wondering, what the
3:38
Speaker 1: hell I just stole their Christmas? They don't seem to care.
3:41
Speaker 1: They're still singing and celebrating. Well, I feel like it's
3:44
Speaker 1: very similar here where at least the regime and seemingly
3:50
Speaker 1: at least a significant portion of the Iranian population doesn't
3:53
Speaker 1: seem to care. They actually seem to think that this
3:57
Speaker 1: is somehow good. And obviously the radical Islamic philosophy that
4:04
Speaker 1: dictates the Iranian regime is in large part responsible for
4:09
Speaker 1: this massive disconnect because we here in the West can't
4:14
Speaker 1: seem to comprehend that. But we're not dealing with the
4:18
Speaker 1: same set of rules and value systems that they are.
4:23
Speaker 1: So we can win a war overwhelmingly militarily and it
4:28
Speaker 1: not matter, because especially when you have something like the
4:32
Speaker 1: Strait of Our Moves, which gives them extraordinary leverage, requires
4:37
Speaker 1: only a very meager military capability to prevent any ship
4:43
Speaker 1: from passing through the of Her Moves, you can effectively
4:48
Speaker 1: cripple the world economy. And on the Strait of Her
4:50
Speaker 1: Moves issue, I have been consistently trying to remain as
4:55
Speaker 1: optimistic as possible that maybe there was some sort of plan,
4:59
Speaker 1: that maybe this would more all work its way out.
5:03
Speaker 1: I think I lost any real hope that this was
5:06
Speaker 1: going to be a success when about a week ago,
5:09
Speaker 1: Trump decided to wash his hands for a couple of
5:12
Speaker 1: days at least of the entire Strait of Her Moves issue,
5:16
Speaker 1: that He's gonna this isn't our problem anymore. This is
5:19
Speaker 1: Europe's problem. It's gonna heal itself naturally. By the way,
5:22
Speaker 1: this felt a lot like COVID. This was a very
5:26
Speaker 1: similar dynamic to what Trump would do during COVID. He
5:29
Speaker 1: would flip one hundred and eighty degrees on a weekly basis.
5:34
Speaker 1: You know, this is the worst thing that's ever happened.
5:37
Speaker 1: It's just gonna And then the next thing you'd say
5:39
Speaker 1: is this is all just going to fix itself naturally.
5:41
Speaker 1: We're all going to get back to normal. He just
5:44
Speaker 1: kept flailing, and I feel like he was doing the
5:47
Speaker 1: same thing here. And when it comes to the strait
5:50
Speaker 1: of her moves, yes, the United States is in a
5:52
Speaker 1: theoretical somewhat of a if not an advantage, less of
5:56
Speaker 1: a disadvantage than much to the rest of the world,
5:59
Speaker 1: because we rely less on what comes out of the
6:03
Speaker 1: strain of removes than most of the rest of the
6:06
Speaker 1: world does. And I think maybe that's what Trump was thinking.
6:09
Speaker 1: But we still rely on it, and the international economy
6:13
Speaker 1: is still interconnected, and there's still all sorts of implications
6:17
Speaker 1: of this, and we've already seen you know, the price
6:21
Speaker 1: of gasoline at the pump is at least about a
6:24
Speaker 1: dollar more than it was before this conflict began, and
6:28
Speaker 1: so you know, Trump decided to Okay, that's not going
6:32
Speaker 1: to work. I need I need this strain of removes
6:35
Speaker 1: opened so that he makes this threat to end all
6:37
Speaker 1: civilization if they don't open the strait. And then he
6:40
Speaker 1: makes this this two weeks cease fire deal, and who
6:44
Speaker 1: the hell knows whether or not the deal will hold
6:47
Speaker 1: what it really means. The devil is always in the
6:50
Speaker 1: detail in this kind of situation. And I have to
6:52
Speaker 1: say I'm inherently distrustful of Trump for a couple of reasons. One,
6:58
Speaker 1: it's the old two weeks thing. We've joked before about
7:02
Speaker 1: how Trump you always uses two weeks as a delay
7:05
Speaker 1: tactic when he's in a bad spot, hoping that somehow
7:09
Speaker 1: people will forget about it or something will happen that
7:11
Speaker 1: will change the dynamic. But more importantly than the two
7:15
Speaker 1: week thing is the details of this. Now Trump knows,
7:20
Speaker 1: and this is classic Trump, that his fans are never
7:24
Speaker 1: gonna go against him when there's doubt, right, And so
7:29
Speaker 1: if you have faith in Trump, you're gonna have faith
7:32
Speaker 1: that the deal is good for the United States. If
7:35
Speaker 1: you don't like Trump, you're gonna have zero faith, you're
7:38
Speaker 1: gonna presume that the deal is bad. It's a rorshack test,
7:41
Speaker 1: and we've seen that in the news media since the
7:44
Speaker 1: deal was announced. Left wing outlets are saying this is terrible.
7:48
Speaker 1: Trump got played. They're still gonna iron will still control
7:52
Speaker 1: the straight of hermos, They're gonna collect a massive fine
7:58
Speaker 1: or or toll, and it's not even gonna be paid
8:01
Speaker 1: in dollars. And this is just a classic situation of
8:05
Speaker 1: Trump caving, Trump getting played. I think that's possible. Fox
8:12
Speaker 1: News on Fox and Friends had a segment where they
8:15
Speaker 1: really outlined that much, if not most, not all, of
8:19
Speaker 1: the President's own objectives have not yet been fulfilled or
8:23
Speaker 1: reached and won't be by this framework agreement of a
8:28
Speaker 1: cease fire. So to me, I am very willing to
8:32
Speaker 1: believe that this is a bad deal. Why because Trump
8:35
Speaker 1: put himself in a situation where he desperately needed a deal.
8:40
Speaker 1: This is the part. You know, Trump claims to be
8:42
Speaker 1: this great negotiator, to be a truly great negotiator, And
8:46
Speaker 1: if you're gonna make the ultimate threat, you have to
8:50
Speaker 1: at least be willing to go through with it, because
8:54
Speaker 1: if you don't go through with it, the bigger the threat,
8:58
Speaker 1: the more difficult it is to come down down from it,
9:01
Speaker 1: and the more you need in some sort of an
9:04
Speaker 1: agreement to say, see, this was worth it. I'm not
9:08
Speaker 1: going to obliterate their civilization. We won. But Trump either
9:12
Speaker 1: is incapable or unwilling to think that whole process through.
9:18
Speaker 1: The bigger the threat you make, you actually diminish your leverage,
9:22
Speaker 1: especially when your opponent doesn't seem to give a shit.
9:27
Speaker 1: They don't seem to care much at all about the
9:32
Speaker 1: fact that you can obliterate them. Some of them might
9:35
Speaker 1: actually like it for the purposes of martyrdom. So Trump
9:41
Speaker 1: actually put himself in a spot where he desperately needed
9:44
Speaker 1: a deal when it comes down to those last couple
9:47
Speaker 1: of hours of the ultimatum. Who needs a deal more
9:51
Speaker 1: the Iridians who either don't believe Trump is going to
9:53
Speaker 1: obliterate them or don't care or Trump was going to
9:59
Speaker 1: look like a complete plus in front of the world
10:01
Speaker 1: that they're making this grand pronouncement, and now he needs
10:05
Speaker 1: a way out. So I have no problem believing that
10:08
Speaker 1: this deal sucks. And then there's the two week thing.
10:12
Speaker 1: What happens at the end of two weeks? How's that
10:16
Speaker 1: gonna work or are we just gonna be right back
10:19
Speaker 1: to the same position again. Now currently, as of this taping,
10:22
Speaker 1: it can change in a few minutes. The stock market
10:26
Speaker 1: seems to really like this, But I think the stock
10:28
Speaker 1: market has been delusively optimistic, jumping on every thing Trump says,
10:33
Speaker 1: hoping against hope that this thing will end and we'll
10:35
Speaker 1: get back to some semblance of normalcy. But you know,
10:40
Speaker 1: I'm more than willing to be open to the idea
10:42
Speaker 1: that this is a good deal and this is going
10:44
Speaker 1: to lead the piece, and that we'll be able to
10:46
Speaker 1: get this thing fixed. I don't currently have much reason
10:49
Speaker 1: to believe that, and most of it has to do
10:54
Speaker 1: with the circumstances that Trump put himself in, my lack
10:58
Speaker 1: of trust in Trump as a truly great negotiator, and
11:03
Speaker 1: the fact that Trump's statements on this have been all
11:06
Speaker 1: over the map. I mean, we almost we haven't played
11:09
Speaker 1: I don't know you've noticed, but we haven't played a
11:11
Speaker 1: clip of Trump talking about the Iran war I think
11:16
Speaker 1: ever on this podcast for a couple of reasons. One,
11:20
Speaker 1: he says so much and it changes so often that
11:23
Speaker 1: it's almost impossible to pin down where he is. Number Two,
11:29
Speaker 1: if I start playing any clips, I'm never gonna end because, frankly,
11:33
Speaker 1: some of this has been hilarious. It's been bizarre. It
11:37
Speaker 1: doesn't work on an audio podcast. But the video of
11:41
Speaker 1: Trump on the White House balcony balcony during the Easter
11:45
Speaker 1: egg hunt at the White House declaring, you know that
11:48
Speaker 1: we're going to escalate the war against Iran with the
11:51
Speaker 1: easter body literally to his side. The Easter body literally
11:56
Speaker 1: to his side he's talking about in isihlanting a Rod
12:01
Speaker 1: is one of the all Thai classic clips in the
12:04
Speaker 1: history of the world and an incredible indication of where
12:08
Speaker 1: we are in this completely fucked up time of twenty
12:12
Speaker 1: twenty six. But the primary reason that I haven't played
12:17
Speaker 1: an eclipse from Trump on this is that everything changes
12:20
Speaker 1: so quickly his perspective changes that it's almost worthless. And
12:25
Speaker 1: that's part of why I'm convinced that this is not
12:28
Speaker 1: a good deal, that this is not going to lead
12:31
Speaker 1: to a golden age of piece in the Middle East.
12:33
Speaker 1: I hope I'm wrong, I really do, but just reading
12:37
Speaker 1: the tea leaves I don't think I am, And it
12:41
Speaker 1: all goes back to they either didn't think this all
12:44
Speaker 1: the way through, or they miscalculated, and I actually think
12:47
Speaker 1: that's probably more likely what happened here, because I do
12:51
Speaker 1: think there are some people like Marco Rubio who would
12:54
Speaker 1: be willing and able to gain plan this out and
12:57
Speaker 1: think it all through, but who just underestimated how little
13:03
Speaker 1: or overestimated, depending on your perspective, how little the Iranian
13:08
Speaker 1: regime would care about having all of this destruction created
13:15
Speaker 1: by the US military. And I think that's the core
13:19
Speaker 1: problem here, and the biggest issue with regard to that
13:24
Speaker 1: is that we don't have the balls to do regime change.
13:28
Speaker 1: I've said this previously, You're never ever ever going to
13:32
Speaker 1: applease anybody on this thing, because at least half the
13:36
Speaker 1: people that are in favor of the war, of not
13:39
Speaker 1: more than that, are in favor of some significant regime change.
13:43
Speaker 1: But we don't have the balls for regime change anymore,
13:47
Speaker 1: and Trump certainly doesn't, largely because of a rock. The
13:51
Speaker 1: legacy of a rock here plays an enormous role, and unfairly.
13:57
Speaker 1: I think a guy was a huge supporter of the
13:59
Speaker 1: ira war got fired from my job at KAFI in
14:03
Speaker 1: Los Angeles indirectly because of my support for the Iraq War.
14:07
Speaker 1: It was more complicated than that, but that was a
14:09
Speaker 1: huge sticking point that created a series of problems, a
14:13
Speaker 1: domino effect. So I'm on the record as being very
14:16
Speaker 1: much in favor of the war. I fully acknowledged that
14:19
Speaker 1: it went way worse after the initial stages than we
14:22
Speaker 1: ever hoped or expected. But I really think what happened
14:25
Speaker 1: in Iraq was an expectations problem created in part by
14:30
Speaker 1: President Bush and the whole mission accomplished banner and all that.
14:33
Speaker 1: When was the last time you heard from Iraq? We
14:37
Speaker 1: never hear from Iraq anymore? Why because there was significant
14:40
Speaker 1: regime change, and there were massive, massive growing pains, and
14:44
Speaker 1: it's not perfect there, but there's certainly nowhere near the
14:47
Speaker 1: problem they were when Saddam Hussein was in charge. But
14:51
Speaker 1: because the perception, especially from Trump, is so negative to
14:56
Speaker 1: what happened in Iraq, that I think we have taken
15:00
Speaker 1: forcing any sort of regime change in a place like
15:04
Speaker 1: Iran off the table. I mean, even in Venezuela, we
15:07
Speaker 1: didn't really do regime change. We just knocked off the
15:10
Speaker 1: president and replaced them with someone who was effectively already there,
15:15
Speaker 1: hoping that they'll be scared enough to do our bidding.
15:17
Speaker 1: But in Venezuela, they have a different mentality, different religion
15:21
Speaker 1: than they do in Iran, and so to me, the
15:26
Speaker 1: only way you can get to the core of this
15:29
Speaker 1: issue is regime change, and we don't have the guts
15:33
Speaker 1: the balls for that. You can argue that that's correct,
15:38
Speaker 1: that that's the right mentality to have. I honestly don't know.
15:42
Speaker 1: I don't This is not my area of expertise. I
15:43
Speaker 1: don't know what it would take to install regime change.
15:47
Speaker 1: But given the Iraq example, I could understand why people
15:51
Speaker 1: would be hesitant. We don't have that kind of time,
15:53
Speaker 1: We don't have that kind of threshold for maybe casualties
15:58
Speaker 1: and certainly resources that it would take to help facilitate that.
16:01
Speaker 1: And it hasn't happened on its own. That clearly has
16:05
Speaker 1: not occurred. Why. I have absolutely no idea. But without
16:09
Speaker 1: regime change, we're basically just chopping the top off of
16:15
Speaker 1: weeds that are going to continue to grow back. Now,
16:19
Speaker 1: in this case, hopefully it'll take a long time because
16:21
Speaker 1: we've done a really good job of destroying a lot
16:24
Speaker 1: of infrastructure. But the world economy is in peril and
16:30
Speaker 1: the regime has not been changed. Doesn't appear as if
16:32
Speaker 1: it's going to be changed. And now we've got this
16:35
Speaker 1: two weeks ceasefire, and I have no understanding of what's
16:39
Speaker 1: going to change at the end of two weeks. And
16:42
Speaker 1: it certainly seems to me as if in the short run,
16:45
Speaker 1: at least Iran one, we're gonna stop bombing them. By
16:48
Speaker 1: the way, they're still bombing Israel because the ceasefire is
16:51
Speaker 1: just between the United States and Iran. So I to me,
16:57
Speaker 1: this is a classic case of where Trump blow it.
17:01
Speaker 1: He's in over his head, and you know, I don't
17:05
Speaker 1: know what would have been the better way of going
17:07
Speaker 1: about this, but somebody should have understood the Iranian mentality
17:12
Speaker 1: a lot better than apparently we did, and or we
17:15
Speaker 1: should have been willing to do full regime change. You
17:19
Speaker 1: either go all in, or you don't do this, or
17:23
Speaker 1: you limit it to what we did, you know, last year,
17:26
Speaker 1: where we supposedly disabled their nuclear capabilities, because that's the
17:30
Speaker 1: key issue preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and
17:36
Speaker 1: that appears to have been accomplished, at least for the
17:39
Speaker 1: short run. Who knows how long that will last. But
17:41
Speaker 1: other than that, I'm not sure what we've accomplished other
17:45
Speaker 1: than put the world economy in peril and create a
17:49
Speaker 1: situation where we're all now paying way more for gasoline.
17:53
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, politically, we're just now a
17:57
Speaker 1: few months effectively from a midterm election where Democrats are
18:01
Speaker 1: poised to dominate. So right now, this does not look good.
18:07
Speaker 1: And I've been trying to be as optimistic as possible,
18:10
Speaker 1: but it's very difficult to see how this all ends
18:14
Speaker 1: up being a net positive for the United States. And
18:17
Speaker 1: I guess my greatest fear is that we just end
18:21
Speaker 1: up right back where we were in two weeks. I mean,
18:23
Speaker 1: I think we'll know more about this whole situation two
18:26
Speaker 1: weeks from now, obviously, but you know, it sounds counterintuitive
18:33
Speaker 1: or contradictory for me to have been expressing optimism through
18:36
Speaker 1: all this, and then we finally get a ceasefire where
18:38
Speaker 1: the president's declaring victory, and now I'm finally pessimistic, but
18:43
Speaker 1: in large part because I don't know what happens in
18:45
Speaker 1: two weeks. I really don't see how this all works out. Again.
18:50
Speaker 1: I hope I'm wrong, but my level of optimism has
18:54
Speaker 1: diminished to a very very small percentage. I'll try to
18:59
Speaker 1: hold on that because no one wants this to end
19:01
Speaker 1: up badly, But I am not impressed, nor am I
19:06
Speaker 1: surprised by how the last couple of days have turned
19:10
Speaker 1: out with regard to Trump's big threat and then classic
19:15
Speaker 1: back down into an agreement that's complicated enough where his
19:19
Speaker 1: bass isn't going to completely throw them over under the bus,
19:23
Speaker 1: or you know, isn't going to completely abandon him. Although
19:27
Speaker 1: it should be noted that Tucker Carl said, Candas Owens
19:31
Speaker 1: and Alex Jones are all calling for effectively the twenty
19:36
Speaker 1: fifth Amendment and for Trump to be removed from office,
19:40
Speaker 1: which might be the only thing that has me thinking
19:43
Speaker 1: maybe Trump's not that bad. If Tucker Carl said, Candae
19:47
Speaker 1: Owens and Alex Jones are all convinced you ought to
19:50
Speaker 1: be removed from office, then maybe it's not so bad
19:53
Speaker 1: because those three people are fucking crazy. All right, Let's
19:58
Speaker 1: move on to other topics. Pam Bondy is out as
20:01
Speaker 1: Attorney General of the United States. Trump effectively fired her
20:06
Speaker 1: and seemingly is going to move her into another position,
20:09
Speaker 1: either in the administration or the private sector. Her deputy,
20:14
Speaker 1: Todd Blanche, who I really like, is the acting Attorney General.
20:19
Speaker 1: And you know, of course everyone is going to presume
20:21
Speaker 1: that this has to do with Epstein. I think Epstein
20:24
Speaker 1: plays a role in this. It is my view that
20:27
Speaker 1: Pam Bondy, who I don't really like, but I think
20:30
Speaker 1: Pambondy was in a situation that could never possibly have
20:35
Speaker 1: worked out. She took a job. Remember, you know, Matt
20:39
Speaker 1: Gates was allegedly supposedly going to be the attorney general
20:43
Speaker 1: that went nowhere. She got picked out of Florida. She's
20:47
Speaker 1: not really part of the national magazine. She doesn't understand.
20:53
Speaker 1: She clearly did not understand where MAGA stood and how
20:58
Speaker 1: important it was on the entire h Epstein issue, as
21:01
Speaker 1: well as all these other conspiracy theories that MAGA had
21:06
Speaker 1: latched onto and was desperately looking to have be fulfilled
21:12
Speaker 1: once Trump two point zero took over. She had no
21:16
Speaker 1: concept of this, and I really think the moment where
21:19
Speaker 1: it was over for her, this plan of the seeds
21:22
Speaker 1: of her destruction was that interview that she gave to
21:26
Speaker 1: Fox News where it's a remote interview. She's outside doing
21:31
Speaker 1: a remote interview and she clearly, you know, she's just
21:35
Speaker 1: taken a job she did not expect to have, and
21:38
Speaker 1: she gets asked a question about the Epstein list. The
21:42
Speaker 1: alleged list which never existed, and anyone with a brain
21:46
Speaker 1: always knew never existed, of alleged clients that Epstein had
21:51
Speaker 1: where he was I guess blackmailing very rich and powerful
21:55
Speaker 1: men by having them engage in sex with my and
22:01
Speaker 1: that this list would create a situation where we could
22:04
Speaker 1: have this public execution of elites that Maga so desperately
22:08
Speaker 1: wants and salivates over. And so she was asked about
22:12
Speaker 1: the Epstein list, and I am a thousand percent convinced
22:17
Speaker 1: she thought she was asked about the file. She mean,
22:23
Speaker 1: that is it's so obvious to me. I feel stupid
22:27
Speaker 1: even talking about this. She got asked about a list,
22:31
Speaker 1: but in her mind that was the Epstein file, and
22:34
Speaker 1: she says, I have it. It's on my desk. We'll
22:38
Speaker 1: be releasing it soon. And Magaworld thought they were finally
22:43
Speaker 1: gonna get what they had been promised, this public execution
22:48
Speaker 1: of elites, when all she did was because she's not
22:54
Speaker 1: deeply embedded in Magaworld, she doesn't understand the difference between
23:00
Speaker 1: or maybe even didn't even hear it properly, the difference
23:03
Speaker 1: between list and file. In her brain, that was file.
23:08
Speaker 1: In the brains of maga world. She said, there's a
23:12
Speaker 1: fucking list, give me my goddamn list. I want my
23:15
Speaker 1: public execution of elites. And when that only did not happen,
23:20
Speaker 1: but it got delayed and delayed and delayed. And you know,
23:24
Speaker 1: she was also screwed by the fact that the law
23:28
Speaker 1: that was passed was ridiculous. It was impossible for all
23:32
Speaker 1: of these quote unquote files to be released in a
23:36
Speaker 1: short period of time when you had this incredibly difficult
23:40
Speaker 1: issue of redaction and what was going to be allowed
23:43
Speaker 1: in and what wasn't. You were damned if you did,
23:46
Speaker 1: damned if you didn't. And the bottom line of this
23:49
Speaker 1: is it's just one of the most amazing facts of
23:52
Speaker 1: Trump two point zero is that it was the Trump
23:55
Speaker 1: administration that ends up releasing all of this information, a
23:59
Speaker 1: lot of it very very embarrassing and totally false in
24:03
Speaker 1: my view, about Donald Trump himself. And yet they somehow
24:09
Speaker 1: still get accused of a cover up when the Biden
24:12
Speaker 1: administration never released one document involving this whole fiasco, not
24:17
Speaker 1: one so talk about Dan de v Doo. Damned if
24:20
Speaker 1: you don't. It's the Trump administration that released all this shit,
24:24
Speaker 1: and it is garbage. I've talked about it many times before.
24:27
Speaker 1: It's ninety eight percent total garbage, literal garbage. It should
24:33
Speaker 1: never have seen the light of day. But and a
24:36
Speaker 1: lot of it's embarrassing to Trump because there's a lot
24:39
Speaker 1: of false allegations against him in there. So basically, Bondi
24:44
Speaker 1: created a situation, or was part of a situation where
24:46
Speaker 1: the Trump administration got the worst of all worlds. They
24:50
Speaker 1: got accused of a cover up, lots of embarrassing and
24:53
Speaker 1: false information was released about her boss. Politically, it's been
24:57
Speaker 1: a disaster. No one got they wanted, and the left
25:02
Speaker 1: this decided that this was the most important issue in
25:04
Speaker 1: the world suddenly after never saying a word about it
25:07
Speaker 1: during four years of the Biden administration. And it's understandable
25:12
Speaker 1: that Trump had a lot of frustration with Bondi. Now
25:16
Speaker 1: apparently that wasn't the primary reason why she got fired.
25:20
Speaker 1: It's actually more disturbing why she apparently got fired. The
25:23
Speaker 1: best I can figure is Trump was frustrated with not
25:27
Speaker 1: more of his enemies getting charged with crimes, which is
25:31
Speaker 1: just horrible. It's way worse than the whole Epstein thing.
25:35
Speaker 1: And that's really why she got fired. But Trump is
25:39
Speaker 1: not in a good history with attorney generals. I mean,
25:42
Speaker 1: he hasn't liked one yet that he's he's picked. I mean,
25:46
Speaker 1: if you if you count, you know Jeff's Sessions, who
25:49
Speaker 1: he screwed over, and then Bill Barr, who he now hates,
25:52
Speaker 1: and and Matt Gets who didn't make it to first base,
25:55
Speaker 1: and now Pam Bondy and so well, I have no
26:00
Speaker 1: idea who's going to be next. I like Todd Blanche
26:02
Speaker 1: mainly because he's the one guy in power that I've
26:05
Speaker 1: ever heard talk about the Epstein situation in a sensible fashion,
26:10
Speaker 1: although even he seems to have gone a little bit
26:12
Speaker 1: weak need I think he wants the job of Attorney
26:15
Speaker 1: general and he understands the political realities. Now he has
26:18
Speaker 1: more to lose than he's no longer just the deputy.
26:21
Speaker 1: He did an interview with Laura Ingram where he said
26:24
Speaker 1: some good things about Epstein, but he was I thought,
26:27
Speaker 1: too willing to give Laura Ingram what she wanted with
26:30
Speaker 1: her delusional view of the Epstein story and the massive
26:33
Speaker 1: conspiracy that never actually happened. But that's the Pam Bondi
26:37
Speaker 1: situation with regard to the Attorney general. And again I
26:41
Speaker 1: don't know who the next Attorney General is going to
26:43
Speaker 1: be I want to move to California and Gavin Newsom,
26:48
Speaker 1: And you know, one of the two fear factors that
26:51
Speaker 1: I have on the Death of Journalism podcast is the
26:54
Speaker 1: fear of Gavin Newsom becoming the next president of the
26:58
Speaker 1: United States, which in my iView would be an existential threat.
27:02
Speaker 1: It's over if Newsom is president, and so on a
27:07
Speaker 1: scale of one to ten, I've been grading on a
27:10
Speaker 1: pretty much week to week basis where I see that
27:13
Speaker 1: fear factor currently standing, and as of the last time
27:18
Speaker 1: we did an update, it was at seven point oh
27:22
Speaker 1: and I'm going to reduce that to six point h
27:26
Speaker 1: And the reason why I'm reducing this, even though I
27:28
Speaker 1: hate being somewhat optimistic, although six point zero was still
27:32
Speaker 1: pretty freaking high, is that two things have happened with
27:36
Speaker 1: regard to Gavin Newsom that I think are going to
27:39
Speaker 1: be very problematic for him when it comes to winning
27:45
Speaker 1: the Democratic nomination. And to be clear, that's my primary
27:49
Speaker 1: focus with Newsom because I think for a whole host
27:52
Speaker 1: of reasons, whoever the Democratic nominee is, unless it turns
27:56
Speaker 1: out to be Kamala Harris, which I'm very much rooting
28:00
Speaker 1: for I think almost any prominent Democrat who ends up
28:06
Speaker 1: winning the nomination, and there's only a few people that
28:09
Speaker 1: can win the nomination, must be clear. I'm not buying
28:12
Speaker 1: this idea that someone can completely come out of nowhere
28:15
Speaker 1: in this day and age where celebrity and money are
28:17
Speaker 1: so incredibly important, and the news media doesn't have the
28:20
Speaker 1: power to pluck someone out of a relative ob security
28:23
Speaker 1: like they did with Barack Obama in two thousand and
28:25
Speaker 1: eight and turn them into a superstar overnight. So I
28:29
Speaker 1: just don't see that possible being possible. So to me,
28:33
Speaker 1: you know, it's Boudha Judge, it's aoc, It's Harris, it's
28:37
Speaker 1: Josh Shapiro. You know, it's possibly Whitmer in Michigan. I
28:43
Speaker 1: I don't not buying Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pittsgarh in Illinois. But
28:51
Speaker 1: there's only a handful of potential Democratic nominees, and Newsome
28:55
Speaker 1: is the betting favorite right now. I still believe he
28:58
Speaker 1: probably should be the betting favorite, depending on whether that
29:01
Speaker 1: Harris decides to run or not. But one of the
29:06
Speaker 1: two things that has happened recently is that it has
29:10
Speaker 1: become very very clear that his wife Jennifer Newsom is
29:15
Speaker 1: not going to get a free pass here, and that
29:18
Speaker 1: she has provided a ridiculous amount of ammunition to create
29:26
Speaker 1: the narrative around Newsome that he's just way too woke,
29:32
Speaker 1: and that within the intelligentsia, the elite of liberals and
29:39
Speaker 1: they don't have nearly the power they used to have,
29:41
Speaker 1: but they still have significant power in shaping narratives and
29:45
Speaker 1: you know, raising money, and I do think that in
29:49
Speaker 1: a democratic primary they can have some influence. I think
29:52
Speaker 1: the democratic elites, the liberal elites, are very very concerned
29:57
Speaker 1: about being too woke. I think that's the conventional wisdom
30:02
Speaker 1: on their side that to win in twenty twenty eight,
30:05
Speaker 1: we can't be too woke. Now maybe I'm overestimating that,
30:09
Speaker 1: but I watch a lot of TikTok videos of people
30:13
Speaker 1: on the left and podcasts and news reports and that
30:17
Speaker 1: kind of thing, and I do sense that that's very significant.
30:21
Speaker 1: And I've always felt that Jennifer Newsom was a potential
30:25
Speaker 1: problem for Gavin Newsom, if only because, I mean, in
30:29
Speaker 1: the rational world, she had sex with Harvey Weinstein at
30:32
Speaker 1: least twice, later claimed it was rape, testified against him.
30:36
Speaker 1: The jury didn't believe her so she effectively, in my view,
30:40
Speaker 1: made a false rape claim against Harvey Weinstein. That ought
30:45
Speaker 1: to be a problem, but I've always felt that was
30:47
Speaker 1: too sensitive and sensitive of an issue to really become prominent.
30:53
Speaker 1: But you know, I've said many times that Trump paved
30:55
Speaker 1: the way for Newsom because he changed all the rules
30:58
Speaker 1: and someone like Newsom would never a chance to be
31:00
Speaker 1: president prior to Trump winning twice. And that's one hundred
31:04
Speaker 1: percent true. But there's another side of that, and that
31:08
Speaker 1: is that Trump changed all the rules with regard to
31:11
Speaker 1: the quorum, and social media has allowed things to get
31:15
Speaker 1: traction that never would have gotten traction before. And even
31:17
Speaker 1: the Weinstein issue I can still see potentially breaking through
31:24
Speaker 1: should Newsome become a major favorite to win the nomination
31:28
Speaker 1: or be the nominee in a general election. Not that
31:32
Speaker 1: it's going to destroy Newsom's candidacy, but it's not helpful.
31:36
Speaker 1: But it's particularly not helpful when you have a series
31:40
Speaker 1: of other statements made by Jennifer Newsom that are just
31:44
Speaker 1: so crazy, so far outside the mainstream, so out of touch,
31:49
Speaker 1: so offensive that I think it reaches a threshold where
31:54
Speaker 1: even in twenty twenty six or twenty twenty eight, there's
31:58
Speaker 1: going to be a number of America that will be
32:01
Speaker 1: repelled by this. Now, maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but
32:05
Speaker 1: there have been all sorts of statements that have now
32:08
Speaker 1: been dredged up from prior interviews that Jennifer Newsom has
32:14
Speaker 1: done that are really the worst I've ever seen when
32:18
Speaker 1: it comes to a potential first Lady. I mean, my god.
32:22
Speaker 1: I remember back of the day people start used to
32:25
Speaker 1: think of Hillary Clinton when she said I'm not Tammy
32:28
Speaker 1: Whynett standing by my man and I'm not going to
32:31
Speaker 1: be around bacon cookies. People thought, oh my god, how
32:35
Speaker 1: could she possibly ever be first Lady? That's nothing in
32:38
Speaker 1: comparison to Jennifer Newsom. And I could probably play like
32:42
Speaker 1: five or six clips that fit into this category, but
32:45
Speaker 1: I'm just going to play one because this one is
32:47
Speaker 1: just bonkers on multiple levels. This and I don't know
32:52
Speaker 1: when this happened, but it was in in the last
32:54
Speaker 1: few years at least. She's at some sort of a
32:57
Speaker 1: conference and she starts talking about how she accidentally killed
33:02
Speaker 1: her sister with a golf cart, which I did not
33:04
Speaker 1: know about. I'd like to hear more details about. And
33:08
Speaker 1: she talks about how she used that story when she
33:11
Speaker 1: talked to prisoners at San Quentin. San Quentin. I've been
33:16
Speaker 1: to San Quentin twice. I used to do executions at
33:19
Speaker 1: San Quentin prison and we used to cover them when
33:22
Speaker 1: I was at KFI already in Los Angeles, and that
33:25
Speaker 1: was quite an extraordinary experience on multiple levels. But this
33:29
Speaker 1: is the worst of the worst. And she used that
33:32
Speaker 1: experience to make it sound as if she thinks people
33:36
Speaker 1: that were in San Quentin were there by the same
33:39
Speaker 1: kind of accidents that occurred when she killed her sister
33:42
Speaker 1: with a golf cart. And here's what that sounded like.
33:46
Speaker 2: Man had to be very raw. When we interviewed the
33:49
Speaker 2: young men who were juvenile offenders in San Quentin, I
33:53
Speaker 2: told them about my own loss where I lost my
33:58
Speaker 2: older sister a few days forom me my seventh birthday,
34:01
Speaker 2: and I blame myself.
34:02
Speaker 1: For her death.
34:03
Speaker 2: And I share that because that they ultimately were accused
34:10
Speaker 2: of committing these violent crimes and sentenced for life. And
34:13
Speaker 2: I think it shocked them that this you know, blonde
34:17
Speaker 2: lady who was you know, the uh interviewing them, had
34:21
Speaker 2: a similar story. It was perhaps in the wrong place
34:25
Speaker 2: at the wrong time, and but wasn't punished the way
34:28
Speaker 2: they were because clearly it was an accident, but theirs
34:32
Speaker 2: was probably an accident too, So anyway, I share that
34:36
Speaker 2: just because I guess, you know, I quite enjoy spending
34:43
Speaker 2: time with people and being real and unmasking and showing
34:47
Speaker 2: them that it's safe to unmask themselves.
34:49
Speaker 1: Beautiful, beautiful. This woman is nuts, This is This woman
34:56
Speaker 1: has a massive set of problems, and one one of
35:00
Speaker 1: them is that she's a political liability for Gavin Newsom.
35:04
Speaker 1: Now how much I don't know. Has Trump changed all
35:07
Speaker 1: the rules to where this doesn't really matter as much anymore.
35:12
Speaker 1: That's possible, But here's what I'm banking on. I think
35:16
Speaker 1: that the liberal intelligency of the elites are so concerned
35:22
Speaker 1: about making sure that their candidate is not disqualified by
35:27
Speaker 1: being seen as too woke, that she's a problem in
35:31
Speaker 1: the primary for Gavin Newsom, because I actually think under
35:37
Speaker 1: that scenario, I think Josh Shapiro ends up being the
35:41
Speaker 1: potential person who gains here the governor of Pennsylvania, which,
35:45
Speaker 1: by the way, would be as almost as much of
35:47
Speaker 1: a nightmare for me. I mean, I hate Newsom more
35:49
Speaker 1: than I hate any politician in the history of the world.
35:52
Speaker 1: But because of his role with the whole penn State,
35:55
Speaker 1: Jerry Sedusky, Joe Paterno's story, and when he did the
35:57
Speaker 1: Graham Spaniard it would drive me absolutely bonkers. Josh Shapiro
36:00
Speaker 1: to be president, you know, gun into my head. I
36:03
Speaker 1: still think there's a very good chance it's going to
36:04
Speaker 1: be Newsome and Shapiro on the same ticket, because if
36:07
Speaker 1: Newsom does win the nomination, there's only two people that
36:10
Speaker 1: can be as vice presidential nom Maine, either Whitmor out
36:12
Speaker 1: of Michigan or Shapiro out of Pennsylvania. I mean, that's
36:17
Speaker 1: that's one hundred percent the case. There's only two people
36:19
Speaker 1: that would even potentially fit in a Newsome candidacy because
36:24
Speaker 1: of the perception of California. You're gonna need someone from
36:27
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania or Michigan in order to balance out that ticket.
36:32
Speaker 1: And so, but I think Jennifer Newsom is a problem,
36:36
Speaker 1: and how big a one in a real world she
36:40
Speaker 1: ought to be a massive one. I mean, some of
36:41
Speaker 1: the things she has said about the way she raises
36:43
Speaker 1: her boys and you know the use of pronouns, and
36:47
Speaker 1: how horrendous it is that they're exposed to right wing ideas.
36:51
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just off the charts bonkers, and so
36:56
Speaker 1: I think she is a potential albatross for him. But
37:01
Speaker 1: the other part of this equation that I've got a
37:04
Speaker 1: bit surprised by was at sixty minutes this past weekend
37:08
Speaker 1: did an extensive profile and expos on the entire high
37:13
Speaker 1: speed rail debacle here in California. And if you're not
37:16
Speaker 1: familiar with it, I mean, this is a project in
37:18
Speaker 1: which a ridiculous amount of money, billions and billions of
37:22
Speaker 1: dollars have been spent over decades trying to build a
37:26
Speaker 1: high speed rail system in California. And it's a classic,
37:29
Speaker 1: classic example of why California cannot function, because there's waste,
37:34
Speaker 1: there's fraud, there's environmental restrictions, there's incompetence, there's over promising.
37:42
Speaker 1: So it's everything wrapped up in one story. And sixty
37:46
Speaker 1: minutes did a pretty darn good job of eviscerating how
37:49
Speaker 1: California has handled high speed rail. But here's the part
37:53
Speaker 1: involving Gavin Newsom that I found to be extraordinary. Gavin
37:58
Speaker 1: Newsom refused to do an interview with sixty minutes. Refuse
38:03
Speaker 1: to do an interview. Now, think about that, he's the
38:08
Speaker 1: governor of California has been for over seven years. He
38:12
Speaker 1: was touting high speed rail like everybody else, every other
38:15
Speaker 1: Democrat in California, and got absolutely nothing done. You want
38:19
Speaker 1: to be the Democratic presidential nominee in twenty twenty eight,
38:23
Speaker 1: and you're afraid to do an interview with sixty fucking minutes.
38:27
Speaker 1: First of all, nobody turns down sixty minutes, at least
38:30
Speaker 1: they didn't used to. But you're a liberal. Sixty minutes
38:34
Speaker 1: is clearly liberally biased. Regardless of what Newsom might tell
38:39
Speaker 1: you about Paramount and Stephen Colbert and all that bullshit,
38:43
Speaker 1: sixty minutes is still very, very liberal. And if you're
38:47
Speaker 1: not willing to take on sixty minutes on a topic
38:51
Speaker 1: directly related to your time as governor of California, I'm
38:55
Speaker 1: sorry that's a problem. And again I'm counting on the
39:00
Speaker 1: in the elites within the progressive movement, the intelligentsia, those
39:06
Speaker 1: type of people whose influence is not what it used
39:08
Speaker 1: to be, but it's still not zero at least starting
39:12
Speaker 1: to be concerned. Wait a minute, hold on, this is
39:15
Speaker 1: our guy. This is the guy we're going to put
39:18
Speaker 1: into battle in a general election, A guy from California,
39:21
Speaker 1: with his crazy wife and a very liberal record and
39:25
Speaker 1: a lot of incompetence in California's got a perception problem,
39:28
Speaker 1: and he's not even willing or able to do an
39:30
Speaker 1: interview with sixty minutes. Again, I'm not saying it's over
39:36
Speaker 1: for him. I'm saying that this is an indication one
39:39
Speaker 1: that even elements of the liberal media are willing to
39:42
Speaker 1: criticize him. But I think it's starting to create a
39:45
Speaker 1: narrative that is going to be at least a weight
39:49
Speaker 1: around his ankles. I'm not saying this is death denwsome
39:52
Speaker 1: unfortunately I wish it was. It's not. But I'm lowering
39:56
Speaker 1: the fear factor rating from seven point zero to six
39:59
Speaker 1: point zero and we'll keep it there for a while.
40:03
Speaker 1: I mean, I still think he's the betting favorite. If
40:06
Speaker 1: I had a gun to my head, i'd still say
40:08
Speaker 1: he's probably going to be the nominee. But a lot
40:10
Speaker 1: of it has to do with whether or not Harris runs.
40:13
Speaker 1: If Harris runs, and this is partially why I'm lowering
40:15
Speaker 1: it to six point zero, because I think there's still
40:18
Speaker 1: room for Harris to run, and I think she's giving
40:21
Speaker 1: indications that she will in fact run If Harris runs,
40:25
Speaker 1: I think that makes it much more difficult for Newsom
40:28
Speaker 1: to win the nomination. And my focus is really on
40:32
Speaker 1: the nomination because, as I've said before, I think the
40:35
Speaker 1: economy and Trump himself and JD. Vance and the perceptions
40:40
Speaker 1: of him are all going to make it very very
40:43
Speaker 1: difficult for the Republican nominee to win. In twenty twenty eight,
40:47
Speaker 1: I realized it's a long time from now. Reality on
40:50
Speaker 1: the ground can change. Certainly economically, that's all possible, but
40:56
Speaker 1: given where it looks like we're heading in twenty twenty eight,
41:00
Speaker 1: the trouble that Trump will cause the Republican nominee, both
41:03
Speaker 1: on purpose and simply by his existence, I think that
41:07
Speaker 1: it's going to be very very difficult for the Republican
41:10
Speaker 1: nominee to win. So that's why my focus is on
41:13
Speaker 1: who the Democrat nominee is. And if Harris runs, which
41:16
Speaker 1: I'm very much rooting for, then I think Newsom is
41:19
Speaker 1: going to have some problems. At the very very least,
41:22
Speaker 1: it's going to be a bloodbath if you If you
41:25
Speaker 1: have Harris Newsome, AOC Buddha, Judge Shapiro, and a couple
41:31
Speaker 1: of other Pritzker Vasher, that's that's a situation where you're
41:36
Speaker 1: not going to get a nominee easily. There's no scenario
41:40
Speaker 1: where you get an easy nominee. And you know, the
41:43
Speaker 1: more you can bloody someone up figuratively in a primary,
41:47
Speaker 1: the better. But I just I don't want Newson to
41:51
Speaker 1: be the nominee. That's why I'm rooting for Harris, because
41:54
Speaker 1: I do think Harris to a certain degree cock blocks
41:57
Speaker 1: Newsome because she's from California and he can't criticize her
42:01
Speaker 1: because she's a woman of color from his home state
42:03
Speaker 1: who was vice president. I think she causes problems for Newsom.
42:07
Speaker 1: So that's the situation involving Gavin Newsom. I do want
42:11
Speaker 1: to mention one other story involving California and the governorship.
42:15
Speaker 1: Here Trump is fucked up yet again. It's unbelievable. Now,
42:20
Speaker 1: I don't want to make a big deal about this
42:22
Speaker 1: because it probably isn't going to make a goddamn bit
42:25
Speaker 1: of difference. But you've probably heard that currently, based upon
42:30
Speaker 1: most of the polls, two Republicans are leading in the
42:34
Speaker 1: race to be the next California governor, which is incredibly
42:38
Speaker 1: deceiving because there's like twelve different candidates and so yes,
42:43
Speaker 1: two Republicans are barely ahead. They get like fifteen sixteen
42:47
Speaker 1: percent of the vote. And the way California does it
42:50
Speaker 1: in our fucked up state is that the top two
42:53
Speaker 1: vote getters in the primary, regardless of their political party,
42:57
Speaker 1: they go on to the general election. And the reality
43:01
Speaker 1: is the only way, the only way that a Republican
43:06
Speaker 1: can possibly win as governor of California unless it's a
43:10
Speaker 1: massive celebrity. But even the whole Arnold Schwarzenegger thing I
43:14
Speaker 1: don't think would be repeated today because the state has
43:17
Speaker 1: changed so much. But the only scenario where a Republican
43:21
Speaker 1: can win is somehow the only the top two vote
43:24
Speaker 1: getters were Republicans, and therefore there were only two choices
43:27
Speaker 1: on the November ballot, and they're both Republicans. That's the
43:30
Speaker 1: only way, right, and it's a long shot because I
43:34
Speaker 1: believe that Democrats are gonna coalesce around one candidate, and
43:41
Speaker 1: that one candidate will for sure be in the top two.
43:44
Speaker 1: They'll probably end up being two Democrats of the top two,
43:47
Speaker 1: and this is going to be a non issue in November. However,
43:52
Speaker 1: Trump just messed up the only scenario where a Republican
43:56
Speaker 1: can win because he just endorsed Steve Hilton, who he
44:01
Speaker 1: sees on Fox News Channel all the time for the
44:05
Speaker 1: I guess you would call it the Republican nomination, even
44:08
Speaker 1: though there is no Republican nomination. I don't even know
44:11
Speaker 1: for sure that Trump understands that. Why in the world
44:15
Speaker 1: you would make an endorsement now, I have no fucking idea,
44:18
Speaker 1: But Trump endorsing Hilton, in my view, takes the chances
44:23
Speaker 1: of this remarkable Republican coup at being one or two
44:28
Speaker 1: percent and puts it at zero. Why because now the
44:34
Speaker 1: second Republican candidate is not possibly going to be able
44:37
Speaker 1: to make it into the top two because Trump's endorsement
44:41
Speaker 1: is that significant. So Hilton will go up. He'll probably
44:46
Speaker 1: get into the twenties. It probably increases the chances he'll
44:49
Speaker 1: make the top two. But who fucking cares because they'll
44:52
Speaker 1: get obliterated in the November election. So Trump messed up
44:57
Speaker 1: the only scenario where it was even theoretically possible for
45:02
Speaker 1: a Republican to be governor of California. I mean, when
45:05
Speaker 1: you know the old phrase, when you know your your
45:09
Speaker 1: enemy is shooting themselves in the foot, do nothing. That's
45:13
Speaker 1: what Trump should have done. Do nothing. Let this play
45:17
Speaker 1: out and hope against hope that Eric Swawell, you know,
45:21
Speaker 1: doesn't gain traction, and that somehow, some way two guys
45:26
Speaker 1: with eighteen percent are able to make the final two
45:30
Speaker 1: and you have this incredible dynamic occur that statistically is
45:35
Speaker 1: almost impossible. Well, Trump just ended that, So great job,
45:39
Speaker 1: Donald Trump. I would I would love to know whether
45:42
Speaker 1: or not he even understood what he was doing. My
45:45
Speaker 1: guess is he didn't, because there's nobody around him that
45:49
Speaker 1: is willing to say, mister President, no, don't do this,
45:54
Speaker 1: or even to explain to him why it's a bad idea.
45:57
Speaker 1: My guess is Trump saw that, oh my gosh, there's
46:01
Speaker 1: a Republican leading in California. I need to help him out,
46:06
Speaker 1: and so I'm going to endorse him, not fully understanding
46:09
Speaker 1: at all what the implications of that are. But that's
46:12
Speaker 1: classic Trump. Now, I mentioned that there's two fear factors
46:17
Speaker 1: that I have been tracking on the death of journalism podcasts.
46:20
Speaker 1: One is Gavin Newsom. The other is AI, and I
46:24
Speaker 1: want to quickly address a couple of things that's been
46:26
Speaker 1: going on have been going on with AI in the
46:28
Speaker 1: last week. The first is that Oracle which has been
46:33
Speaker 1: making a ridiculous amount of money, a record amount of
46:35
Speaker 1: money they made in the last quarter. Suddenly, without warning
46:41
Speaker 1: and in a frankly inhumane fashion, cut thirty thousand jobs.
46:47
Speaker 1: Thirty thousand jobs worldwide. I don't know how many of
46:51
Speaker 1: them were in the United States. My sense is it's
46:53
Speaker 1: somewhere in the twenty thousand range in the United States.
46:57
Speaker 1: But thirty thousand jobs we're cut. Why not because apparently
47:05
Speaker 1: they believe that those jobs can be done by AI
47:10
Speaker 1: because they need to save money to pay for AI
47:15
Speaker 1: data centers. That's extraordinary. That is absolutely mind blowing. AI
47:23
Speaker 1: data centers, which we have no way of knowing are
47:28
Speaker 1: even going to be profitable at this point. I mean,
47:31
Speaker 1: the amount of money being put into AI data centers
47:33
Speaker 1: is astronomical, all because everyone's in this race. They don't
47:37
Speaker 1: want to be left behind. It's a race we must win,
47:40
Speaker 1: even though we don't even know what the benefits and
47:43
Speaker 1: the and the negative aspects of winning quote unquote this
47:47
Speaker 1: race will be. I'm a big believer that the negatives
47:50
Speaker 1: could weigh outweigh the positives. But from an economic financial
47:55
Speaker 1: perspective of these data centers, supposedly they're only going to
47:59
Speaker 1: be able to last for a few years, they become obsolete,
48:03
Speaker 1: they have to be replaced. They cost an enormous amount
48:05
Speaker 1: of money, a ridiculous amount of energy, And there's no
48:09
Speaker 1: that I've seen anyway, there's no business plan that shows
48:13
Speaker 1: how they're gonna be hugely profitable. But you have to
48:17
Speaker 1: win the race. And you know, look, this is not
48:21
Speaker 1: my every area of expertise, but how in the world, Well,
48:24
Speaker 1: if you're making as much money as Oracle, you can't
48:26
Speaker 1: dip into your reserves to pay for the AI data
48:29
Speaker 1: centers instead of getting rid of thirty thousand jobs. I
48:32
Speaker 1: have no ie of knowing. I mean, I can't believe
48:35
Speaker 1: that they're not going to lose benefit or value when
48:37
Speaker 1: they lose thirty thousand people. But in the bigger picture, this, frankly,
48:44
Speaker 1: I think has been an underrated story as far as
48:48
Speaker 1: where we're headed for job loss, because everyone's been focused
48:50
Speaker 1: on the issue of Okay, we're going to lose jobs
48:54
Speaker 1: because AI will replace workers. But here we have the
48:58
Speaker 1: first high profiles that where massive amounts of people have
49:02
Speaker 1: lost their jobs, some of them there for many, many years.
49:05
Speaker 1: Because a hugely profitable company needs money or perceives they
49:11
Speaker 1: needs the money. They need the money to pay for
49:14
Speaker 1: AI data centers. If that's going to be the threshold,
49:19
Speaker 1: holy fuck, are we screwed, because now you're going to
49:23
Speaker 1: get rid of jobs that aren't going to be replaced
49:27
Speaker 1: at least not in the short run by AI, but
49:29
Speaker 1: to pay for AI data centers that you have no
49:33
Speaker 1: idea whether they're ever going to be profitable or not.
49:35
Speaker 1: At this point, that is scary stuff. And you know,
49:41
Speaker 1: who knows at what rate and when this job loss
49:46
Speaker 1: issue is going to hit critical mass, But that's certainly
49:49
Speaker 1: a sign that we're close, and maybe very very close.
49:54
Speaker 1: And it's the job loss that, to me, is the
49:57
Speaker 1: key issue here. There's a ton of issues related to
50:00
Speaker 1: but the one I'm most concerned about because it will
50:04
Speaker 1: fundamentally alter society is the job loss. Because if we
50:08
Speaker 1: have mass amounts of job loss, it's not just a
50:13
Speaker 1: situation that would be okay, that's a drag on the economy.
50:16
Speaker 1: We go into a recession and you know, it's much
50:19
Speaker 1: more difficult to make a living. That doesn't seem to
50:22
Speaker 1: be what we're talking about here. If this goes as
50:25
Speaker 1: expected or even close to as expected and what many
50:28
Speaker 1: have predicted, we're talking about a fundamental shift in the
50:33
Speaker 1: entire structure of society that's going to require this so
50:37
Speaker 1: called universal basic income. And universal basic income is the
50:45
Speaker 1: end not only of America, but it's the end of
50:50
Speaker 1: free society of any sort it becomes. There's no scenario
50:56
Speaker 1: in my view that that doesn't become dystopian, and I've
50:59
Speaker 1: gone through it before were but I think it's the
51:02
Speaker 1: scariest thing I've seen in my lifetime where supposedly smart
51:07
Speaker 1: people are talking about universal basic income as if it's
51:10
Speaker 1: a viable alternative to a society where most people at
51:17
Speaker 1: least attempt to work for a living. We saw this
51:20
Speaker 1: in a very small way during COVID. This is the
51:22
Speaker 1: part that drives me the most crazy. We've already had
51:25
Speaker 1: a small experiment in this. We shut down the world.
51:28
Speaker 1: Almost no one worked. We effectively gave a universal basic income,
51:34
Speaker 1: and it was a fucking goddamn disaster. There was massive
51:39
Speaker 1: amounts of fraud. No one wanted to go back to work.
51:43
Speaker 1: It was the inflation rate went crazy, and that was minuscule,
51:49
Speaker 1: minuscule compared to what will happen if this oracle situation
51:54
Speaker 1: becomes something that spreads throughout all major companies and it
52:02
Speaker 1: could just be the tip of the iceberg. I mean,
52:05
Speaker 1: how have we not learned from COVID Again, The COVID
52:10
Speaker 1: thing is minuscule in comparison. You know, use the tip
52:14
Speaker 1: of the iceberg analogy again, the tip of the iceberg
52:17
Speaker 1: in comparison to what we might be facing. If the
52:20
Speaker 1: predictions regarding AI are accurate. And it's the end of
52:24
Speaker 1: it's the end of everything because everything will flow from that,
52:28
Speaker 1: Everything will flow. Government will control every single aspect of
52:34
Speaker 1: your fucking life, what you say, what you buy, everything.
52:39
Speaker 1: People will give up completely drug use, prostitution, crime, gambling, truancy,
52:50
Speaker 1: from school, Well, we'll go to school. Schools will be
52:56
Speaker 1: complete fuck fest without the carrot at the end or
53:00
Speaker 1: the pot of gold or whatever at the end of
53:02
Speaker 1: the rainbow where you've got to get a high school
53:04
Speaker 1: diploma and I have a job. No one's gonna go
53:07
Speaker 1: to school. Everyone's gonna have wait too much free time.
53:10
Speaker 1: When you have way too much free time, Inherently, human
53:13
Speaker 1: beings cause problems, There'll be nothing to dream or hope
53:18
Speaker 1: for the depression levels. People will be on medications even
53:23
Speaker 1: more than they currently are. The suicide rate will skyrocket.
53:27
Speaker 1: I mean it, I mean, and I'm being optimistic, So
53:32
Speaker 1: I think the Oracle story is actually underrated right now.
53:36
Speaker 1: If it is the Canary and the coal mine, we
53:39
Speaker 1: don't know yet, but I'm very very concerned about that. Interestingly,
53:45
Speaker 1: there's a profile in The New Yorker that has me
53:48
Speaker 1: extremely conflicted because it's about Sam Altman, the guy who
53:53
Speaker 1: runs open AI, who I've been very very critical of,
53:57
Speaker 1: and one of the primary authors is Ronan Farre, who
54:00
Speaker 1: I believe is a complete and total fraud that I've
54:02
Speaker 1: talked about many many times, written about many many times,
54:05
Speaker 1: who is seen as this great journalist. But I believe
54:09
Speaker 1: that he is a fraud, and I mean that sincerely.
54:13
Speaker 1: I think he's a fraud. He uses very deceitful tactics.
54:17
Speaker 1: He's a smart guy, not as smart as he thinks
54:20
Speaker 1: he is. But I've done a lot of work on
54:25
Speaker 1: some really, really bad and I believe the fary is
54:29
Speaker 1: reporting by Ronan Farrow. And so here we have this
54:32
Speaker 1: big profile and a guy I really don't like, by
54:35
Speaker 1: a guy I really don't trust. So I don't know
54:37
Speaker 1: what to make of it. Having perused it. The basic
54:40
Speaker 1: essence of it is that Sam Altman is a bit
54:43
Speaker 1: nuts and appears to be a prolific liar, which I
54:48
Speaker 1: already knew. I mean, I've talked about the fact that
54:52
Speaker 1: the guy is fucking crazy, and it's not difficult to
54:55
Speaker 1: see him as a liar. He could be a pathological liar,
54:59
Speaker 1: which if he is, goes in a completely different direction
55:04
Speaker 1: when it comes to AI one. It goes to the
55:07
Speaker 1: issue that we shouldn't be trusting these these tech overlords
55:11
Speaker 1: that are dictating our lives. And I have to give
55:13
Speaker 1: a shout out to Anderson Cooper, who I don't really
55:15
Speaker 1: like on CNN, but Anderson Cooper keeps saying what I've
55:19
Speaker 1: been saying on AI almost word for word. No one
55:23
Speaker 1: voted for this. We as a society didn't vote to
55:27
Speaker 1: completely change who we are. No one voted for this,
55:31
Speaker 1: and no one voted for these incredibly small number of
55:35
Speaker 1: nut jobs, these egomaniacs, these people that don't seem to
55:39
Speaker 1: have any concept of humanity, that seem to all be
55:42
Speaker 1: autistic or have something weird going on in their brains
55:46
Speaker 1: that elon Musks and the sam Outmans of the world
55:49
Speaker 1: and others. None of these people are normal. These incredibly
55:53
Speaker 1: small group of people that are gonna be making these
55:55
Speaker 1: massive decisions that will dictate the future of our society.
56:01
Speaker 1: And Sam Altman, I think is the worst of the worst.
56:03
Speaker 1: I mean, some of the things he has said, they're
56:05
Speaker 1: batshit crazy. I mean, none of you than maybe even
56:07
Speaker 1: Jennifer News and I don't believe anything he says, even
56:12
Speaker 1: before this Ronan Pharaoh article. But to me, it's just
56:16
Speaker 1: incredibly disturbing that this is the guy, this is the
56:18
Speaker 1: guy who's at the center of all this, maybe the
56:21
Speaker 1: most important person in the entire AI topic. And so
56:28
Speaker 1: I said, I'm very, very conflicted. I guess it's good
56:30
Speaker 1: that people are becoming more aware of who Sam Altman is,
56:34
Speaker 1: and the media seems to be latching onto this narrative,
56:38
Speaker 1: but it doesn't change very much because these people have
56:43
Speaker 1: all the power they're assuming AI turns out as they're predicting,
56:48
Speaker 1: which I'm still not convinced them. And that's the only
56:50
Speaker 1: reason why I'm keeping the AI fear factor rating at
56:54
Speaker 1: seven point five, although it is rising, you know so,
57:00
Speaker 1: because I still think there's a chance we don't reach
57:03
Speaker 1: a AGI which is effectively surpassing human intelligence. I talked
57:09
Speaker 1: in the last episode of the podcast about why I'm
57:11
Speaker 1: still very skeptical of that. But assuming that even happens, though,
57:16
Speaker 1: we're gonna head for an economic catastrophe because we've got
57:19
Speaker 1: Oracle laying off thirty thousand people to pay for data
57:22
Speaker 1: centers that are gonna end up being a big, fat,
57:24
Speaker 1: fucking bust. So there's no good scenario here. And that's
57:28
Speaker 1: the AI fear factor rating is a bit more complicated
57:32
Speaker 1: than the Gavin Newsom one, the Gavenus one. Is he
57:35
Speaker 1: gonna be present or not? AI is going to be
57:38
Speaker 1: a disaster in my view, no matter what. It's either
57:41
Speaker 1: an economic catastrophe or it destroys society. We just don't
57:47
Speaker 1: know how much in either direction, and we don't know
57:50
Speaker 1: which direction it's gonna go. I don't know which direction
57:52
Speaker 1: it's gonna go. It could end up in a short
57:55
Speaker 1: run being an economic catastrophe, in the long run being
57:58
Speaker 1: a societal catastrophe. And that's me trying to be as
58:03
Speaker 1: optimistic as possible. So that's where we are on the
58:06
Speaker 1: AI fear factor rating. We'll put it at seven point five,
58:10
Speaker 1: but rising as of right now, if only because of
58:14
Speaker 1: the Oracle story. I want to turn now to Tiger Woods,
58:18
Speaker 1: and in the last episode of the podcast, I talked
58:20
Speaker 1: quite a bit about his incredibly depressing car crash where
58:25
Speaker 1: he almost flipped over his range Rover completely it was
58:28
Speaker 1: on its side. The accident was his fault. He was
58:31
Speaker 1: arrested for DUI, even though I've been a massive Tiger
58:34
Speaker 1: Woods fan for well over thirty years and even been
58:37
Speaker 1: publicly associated with his career for quite a while, especially
58:41
Speaker 1: back in the nineties when I created the first Church
58:43
Speaker 1: of Tiger Woods and then Tiger Woods Isgod dot com
58:46
Speaker 1: and I was his big as fan, and you know,
58:49
Speaker 1: he's had a huge impact on my life. I'm also
58:52
Speaker 1: very very objective and willing more than willing to say
58:56
Speaker 1: when someone even who I like and have I've held
59:00
Speaker 1: up as a hero for much of my life, is
59:03
Speaker 1: totally wrong. And I was very much willing to say
59:07
Speaker 1: Tiger was completely wrong, and it clearly had a problem.
59:10
Speaker 1: It seemed to me as if it was related to painkillers.
59:14
Speaker 1: Addicted the painkillers, and that was why he was driving
59:18
Speaker 1: under the influence, that's why the accident happened. And I
59:22
Speaker 1: did not push back against his arrest at all. But
59:26
Speaker 1: since then, a lot of bodycam footage has come out
59:30
Speaker 1: about the Tiger Woods arrest and the situation after his accident,
59:37
Speaker 1: and Boyle boy was this some fascinating stuff. And there's
59:43
Speaker 1: a lot to talk about here. I'm not going to
59:45
Speaker 1: go too deeply into it, but there's a couple of
59:47
Speaker 1: things I feel very strongly about and I'm compelled to analyze.
59:54
Speaker 1: The first thing about the Tiger Woods bodycam, which is
59:57
Speaker 1: obviously the most interesting from a human prisonecse is that
1:00:01
Speaker 1: there is a very very short clip of Tiger being
1:00:05
Speaker 1: asked by a police officer to come talk to them,
1:00:09
Speaker 1: I guess, and he has been off to the side
1:00:13
Speaker 1: talking on his phone, and he tells the police officer
1:00:18
Speaker 1: very casually and clearly, in a way that's braggadocious, that
1:00:23
Speaker 1: he was just on the phone with the president. That's
1:00:26
Speaker 1: all he said. I was just on the phone with
1:00:28
Speaker 1: the president. Now, in any other situation, if someone said
1:00:34
Speaker 1: that to a police officer, they would think, oh my god,
1:00:37
Speaker 1: this person is fucking crazy. They're clearly under the influence
1:00:40
Speaker 1: of something because they're delusion enough to think that they
1:00:43
Speaker 1: were just on the phone with the president. In Tiger
1:00:46
Speaker 1: Wood's case, it appears as if this actually happened. Now,
1:00:51
Speaker 1: the first thing I want to reference is just how
1:00:54
Speaker 1: absolutely bonkers it is that we are living in a
1:00:57
Speaker 1: world where Tiger Woods gets in a car accident. The
1:01:02
Speaker 1: first thing apparently he thinks to do and is able
1:01:05
Speaker 1: to do, is to get the President of the United
1:01:08
Speaker 1: States on the phone while we're in the middle of
1:01:11
Speaker 1: a significant war. So imagine, first of all, your Tiger Woods,
1:01:18
Speaker 1: and you decide, you know what, even though we're in
1:01:20
Speaker 1: the middle of a war, I need to talk to
1:01:23
Speaker 1: President Trump, and you're able to do so because Trump
1:01:28
Speaker 1: apparently sees on his cell phone that it's Tiger Woods
1:01:32
Speaker 1: calling and decides that that's a call I need to take,
1:01:36
Speaker 1: and so it appears as if they actually spoke. Now,
1:01:42
Speaker 1: I find this to be fascinating and significant, if only
1:01:45
Speaker 1: because of the way that a lot of people, including
1:01:48
Speaker 1: those even in the right wing media, have reacted to it,
1:01:51
Speaker 1: specifically Megan Kelly, who I have been extremely critical of,
1:01:55
Speaker 1: and I believe I've been very pression about what a
1:01:57
Speaker 1: complete fraud and shape shifter she has become and why
1:02:02
Speaker 1: I have distain for her, even though I used to
1:02:04
Speaker 1: like her quite a bit. She did a commentary where
1:02:07
Speaker 1: she ripped into Tiger Woods for calling President Trump and
1:02:12
Speaker 1: saying to the police that he had spoken to the President,
1:02:15
Speaker 1: calling it a douche move by Tiger Woods, as if
1:02:19
Speaker 1: there's no other explanation for why Tiger Woods would call
1:02:24
Speaker 1: Donald Trump in that situation other than he's trying to
1:02:29
Speaker 1: curry favor or pull some strings to have him get
1:02:34
Speaker 1: out of the consequences for his accident. I guess, first
1:02:39
Speaker 1: of all, that's fucking crazy. Tiger Woods is not a
1:02:43
Speaker 1: dumb person. He understands that Donald Trump has no authority
1:02:48
Speaker 1: over law enforcement in Florida. And oh, by the way,
1:02:53
Speaker 1: at the time in which this conversation with the police
1:02:56
Speaker 1: officer took place, Tiger has no expectation that he's about
1:03:02
Speaker 1: to be arrested for DUI. That's important. The timeline here
1:03:05
Speaker 1: is important. He thinks he just fucked up and was
1:03:09
Speaker 1: in a car accident, he told, which is a remarkable statement.
1:03:13
Speaker 1: He told. It's on the bodycam footage. He told the
1:03:16
Speaker 1: police officer that he looked down at his phone, tried
1:03:20
Speaker 1: to change the radio station, and all of a sudden,
1:03:23
Speaker 1: he flipped his car. Now, assuming that's accurate, by the way,
1:03:26
Speaker 1: why would it not be accurate. That's not the type
1:03:27
Speaker 1: of thing you would say if it wasn't accurate. I
1:03:30
Speaker 1: don't think you would, because that's an admission of guilt
1:03:33
Speaker 1: right there. But in his mind, he's not getting arrested,
1:03:39
Speaker 1: so there's no need to. Even if he thought somehow
1:03:43
Speaker 1: the President could get him out of this, which would
1:03:45
Speaker 1: be batshit crazy, there's no need to do that yet.
1:03:50
Speaker 1: And yes, I am fully admitting that he told the
1:03:53
Speaker 1: police officer he was on the phone with the president
1:03:56
Speaker 1: as a flex, but that's not a big deal. It's
1:04:00
Speaker 1: also fucking funny. I could totally see where if I
1:04:04
Speaker 1: had been on the phone with the president, I could
1:04:06
Speaker 1: guarant damn tee I would have told the police officer
1:04:09
Speaker 1: I was on the phone with the president, especially when
1:04:11
Speaker 1: that's all he says. He doesn't go into anything further
1:04:14
Speaker 1: than that. He just drops it like, yeah, I was
1:04:16
Speaker 1: on the phone with the President. And so for Megan
1:04:20
Speaker 1: Kelly and others to automatically presume all the only reason
1:04:24
Speaker 1: why this might have happened is that he's trying to
1:04:28
Speaker 1: use his status to somehow escape accountability. Again, the timeline
1:04:33
Speaker 1: doesn't fit that. There's no other statement from Tiger at
1:04:37
Speaker 1: all consistent with that. When he eventually gets arrested, Tiger
1:04:41
Speaker 1: doesn't push back at all at all, not even a word,
1:04:45
Speaker 1: which is frankly, under the circumstances, I now understand them amazing.
1:04:51
Speaker 1: It's amazing to me that Tiger Woods did not push
1:04:56
Speaker 1: back at all during his arrest because frankly, I think
1:05:00
Speaker 1: he passed the sobriety test. I don't think he was
1:05:04
Speaker 1: nearly as out of it as people perceive. Yes, there's
1:05:07
Speaker 1: some photos that look bad. He's sweating, he's got a
1:05:10
Speaker 1: towel over his head, it's hot, it's in Florida. And
1:05:14
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting he was capable of driving or should
1:05:18
Speaker 1: have been driving. Obviously he was capable, I think, but
1:05:21
Speaker 1: I'm not saying he should have been driving, or that
1:05:23
Speaker 1: he didn't do anything wrong, or he wasn't on pain
1:05:27
Speaker 1: medication that would have influenced him. But I'm just telling
1:05:30
Speaker 1: you I was kind of stunned that he was not
1:05:35
Speaker 1: more out of it. And I even posted a video
1:05:38
Speaker 1: of some of the bodycam footage on X and said
1:05:41
Speaker 1: that in very mild terms, and the thing went for
1:05:45
Speaker 1: me super viral. It was like two and a half
1:05:47
Speaker 1: million views or impressions on X Because I think it
1:05:52
Speaker 1: was a very divisive issue. A lot of people agree
1:05:54
Speaker 1: with me. A lot of people didn't want to agree
1:05:56
Speaker 1: with me because they'd already bought into the narrative that
1:05:58
Speaker 1: Tiger was completely in told out of it. I had
1:06:01
Speaker 1: bought into that narrative, but I don't think it was true,
1:06:05
Speaker 1: and I think that the call with the President actually
1:06:08
Speaker 1: proves that, because is there another explanation other than he's
1:06:15
Speaker 1: calling Trump to try to get out of this, which,
1:06:18
Speaker 1: by the way, again doesn't make any sense, not just
1:06:20
Speaker 1: because Trump has no authority over Florida law enforcement, but
1:06:24
Speaker 1: he's fucking Tiger Woods. He's lived in Jupiter for a
1:06:27
Speaker 1: very long time. You don't think he knows somebody in
1:06:30
Speaker 1: the Jupiter Police Department or the Jupiter local government that
1:06:34
Speaker 1: would have a hell of a lot more influence over
1:06:37
Speaker 1: this than President Trump. If that's what he was trying
1:06:39
Speaker 1: to do, Come on, people, use your fucking brains. And
1:06:44
Speaker 1: I realized that's a lost art, even among people like
1:06:47
Speaker 1: Megan Kelly. But to me, that makes no sense. But
1:06:52
Speaker 1: the part that really puts this in the realm of
1:06:55
Speaker 1: come on, people is the nature of his relationship with Trump.
1:07:02
Speaker 1: First of all, they're friends. That's number one. Number two,
1:07:07
Speaker 1: if you're in an accident like this. The Donald Trump
1:07:11
Speaker 1: is not a bad guy to call, you know, for
1:07:15
Speaker 1: simple advice for Christ's management advice. That's certainly I think
1:07:21
Speaker 1: a legitimate motivation if you're in that circumstance to call
1:07:26
Speaker 1: the President of the United States, that you know he's
1:07:29
Speaker 1: going to take your call because your friends and your
1:07:31
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods. But there's another scenario here that maybe you're
1:07:36
Speaker 1: gonna think I'm giving Tiger too much credit. I don't
1:07:38
Speaker 1: think I am. Donald Trump obviously is not just friends
1:07:45
Speaker 1: with Tiger Woods. Tiger Woods is dating the mother of
1:07:51
Speaker 1: Donald Trump's favorite granddaughter. Now, Tiger Woods knows this is
1:07:58
Speaker 1: gonna be a massive fucking news story that he just
1:08:03
Speaker 1: almost completely flipped over his range rover. He knows that
1:08:08
Speaker 1: it's not irrational for Trump to be very concerned once
1:08:13
Speaker 1: he hears about this, that maybe his granddaughter was in
1:08:17
Speaker 1: the car. If you're Tiger Woods, it's a courtesy to say, hey,
1:08:23
Speaker 1: mister President, I want you to know this happened. I'm okay,
1:08:27
Speaker 1: your granddaughter wasn't with me. I mean again, do I
1:08:31
Speaker 1: have any evidence that that happened. No, But that makes
1:08:34
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot more sense to me than
1:08:36
Speaker 1: the idea that he was trying to flex, that he
1:08:39
Speaker 1: talked to the President to get out of a situation
1:08:41
Speaker 1: he didn't even know he was vulnerable to at that time,
1:08:44
Speaker 1: because he wasn't nearly as out of it as we
1:08:48
Speaker 1: initially perceived, including myself initially perceived. Because that sobriety test
1:08:54
Speaker 1: as a joke, I don't think I could pass that thing.
1:08:57
Speaker 1: Stone cold, sober, and tiger I thought did pass the
1:09:01
Speaker 1: sobriety test. But you have this female cop. I know
1:09:05
Speaker 1: anything about this female cop. But this is where people,
1:09:08
Speaker 1: I think, have a completely distorted view of modern celebrity
1:09:14
Speaker 1: and how we still believe that being a celebrity actually
1:09:19
Speaker 1: helps you in these kinds of situations and in the
1:09:23
Speaker 1: vast majority of circumstances, especially the bigger they are, I
1:09:28
Speaker 1: think being a celebrity actually hurts you. Now, yes, before
1:09:33
Speaker 1: social media and before everything was videotaped, one hundred percent,
1:09:38
Speaker 1: a celebrity would be far more likely to be let
1:09:41
Speaker 1: off out of a situation where they might have broke
1:09:45
Speaker 1: the law but no one got hurt. I can totally
1:09:49
Speaker 1: see that. But now everything is a story, everything's videotaped,
1:09:54
Speaker 1: and there's no question in my mind that that female
1:10:00
Speaker 1: police officer knew that she was under extraordinary scrutiny, would
1:10:06
Speaker 1: be under extraordinary scrutiny. You've got a half flipped over
1:10:10
Speaker 1: range rover and you've got a very high profile person
1:10:15
Speaker 1: in your midst and the default is going to be, well,
1:10:19
Speaker 1: this is going to be a lot better for me
1:10:21
Speaker 1: if I arrest Tiger Woods. Then if I let him
1:10:23
Speaker 1: go and somebody claims that I gave him preferential treatment,
1:10:27
Speaker 1: that's just human nature. But I don't I don't believe
1:10:31
Speaker 1: that Tiger Woods should have been arrested for DUI based
1:10:35
Speaker 1: upon what I saw of the body cam footage. Again,
1:10:38
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that he's, you know, that doesn't have
1:10:42
Speaker 1: a problem or wasn't under some sort of influence from
1:10:46
Speaker 1: the pain medications, which do have these kinds of side effects.
1:10:50
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. I'm talking about from a purely
1:10:52
Speaker 1: legal perspective and from the standpoint of what kind of
1:10:56
Speaker 1: society we want to live in, whether or not police
1:10:58
Speaker 1: should have the authority to arrest you for being under
1:11:02
Speaker 1: the influence. When you pass a fucking sobriety test, it's
1:11:06
Speaker 1: difficult to pass under the best of circumstances, and then
1:11:10
Speaker 1: you handle it, I thought extremely well. I mean, when
1:11:15
Speaker 1: you go from, you know, driving your car seemingly nothing's wrong,
1:11:20
Speaker 1: to surviving a potentially catastrophic accident to talking to the
1:11:24
Speaker 1: President on the phone for whatever reason, and I think
1:11:28
Speaker 1: I listed some pretty good reasons that have nothing to
1:11:30
Speaker 1: do with him trying to to pull strings. I don't
1:11:33
Speaker 1: even know what strings you would pull as president of
1:11:35
Speaker 1: United States in this situation. To passing a sobriety test
1:11:40
Speaker 1: and then getting arrested by this female cop knowing that
1:11:44
Speaker 1: it's probably not fair, and handling it in an absolutely
1:11:47
Speaker 1: perfect fashion. I have to say that my view of
1:11:52
Speaker 1: this thing is very different than it was after the
1:11:56
Speaker 1: initial reporting. Now, of course Tiger has taken a leave
1:11:59
Speaker 1: of absence, he's gone to Switzerland for treatment, and of
1:12:02
Speaker 1: course everyone presumes that that means that's effectively an omission
1:12:06
Speaker 1: of guilt. I guess I don't see it that way.
1:12:09
Speaker 1: Two things can be true at the same time. You
1:12:12
Speaker 1: can have a problem with pay medication and still have
1:12:18
Speaker 1: been incorrectly arrested for DUI. I think both those things
1:12:22
Speaker 1: are true, and so it bothers me when I look
1:12:27
Speaker 1: at that bodycam footage, I actually think Tiger handled the
1:12:31
Speaker 1: situation pretty darn well a hell of a lot better
1:12:34
Speaker 1: than most people in this situation would have. I have
1:12:37
Speaker 1: no problem with the call based upon what we currently
1:12:40
Speaker 1: know with Donald Trump. By the way, I need to
1:12:42
Speaker 1: mention the most extraordinary part about the call involving Trump,
1:12:46
Speaker 1: in my view, is that Trump restrained himself. Trump did
1:12:52
Speaker 1: not publicly post that he had spoken to Tiger Woods
1:12:57
Speaker 1: that Tiger was okay. Because remember, there was a several
1:13:01
Speaker 1: hour period of time where no one knew anything. Trump
1:13:06
Speaker 1: knew a lot, and Trump somehow restrained himself from saying
1:13:12
Speaker 1: anything on social media or anywhere else that he had
1:13:16
Speaker 1: spoken to Tiger Woods. That's amazing. And my theory as
1:13:20
Speaker 1: to why that is is because Trump had effectively broken
1:13:26
Speaker 1: confidence with Tiger just a few days prior when he
1:13:29
Speaker 1: went on Fox News channel and he seemingly claimed that
1:13:34
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods was not going to play in the Masters
1:13:38
Speaker 1: this coming week. Now. I don't know what kind of
1:13:42
Speaker 1: knowledge Trump had, whether Tiger had said that to him
1:13:45
Speaker 1: or not, I don't know, but it was clearly a
1:13:48
Speaker 1: breaking of confidence. Because even during the body cam footage,
1:13:53
Speaker 1: and this is the most in my view, the most
1:13:55
Speaker 1: depressing part of the body cam footage. First of all,
1:13:59
Speaker 1: the cops are kissing his ass all over the place,
1:14:03
Speaker 1: fiddling around with his golf clubs, including his Scottie Cameron Putter,
1:14:07
Speaker 1: But in the course of their conversations with him, Tiger
1:14:12
Speaker 1: is indicating he's still planning on planning in the Masters.
1:14:16
Speaker 1: This is even after the accident, and so I don't
1:14:20
Speaker 1: know why Trump said that, but it's my guess that
1:14:24
Speaker 1: Trump probably felt badly about having jumped the gun on
1:14:28
Speaker 1: that and for whatever reason, held his fire and was
1:14:32
Speaker 1: restrained and not telling the world that he had spoken
1:14:35
Speaker 1: to Tiger Woods after this car accident, which is again,
1:14:39
Speaker 1: knowing what we know about Trump is amazing because he's
1:14:41
Speaker 1: not well known for his restraint. But from a golf
1:14:46
Speaker 1: fan perspective, it's really sad. All this is sad, But
1:14:53
Speaker 1: think about how this whole situation would have been very
1:14:56
Speaker 1: different if the range were over And we have no
1:14:59
Speaker 1: idea did the range rover almost flip over, you know,
1:15:04
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty degrees or did it only barely
1:15:07
Speaker 1: tip over ninety degrees? The difference between that range rover
1:15:11
Speaker 1: flipping over eighty five degrees or whatever it would have
1:15:15
Speaker 1: taken for to not remain half flipped over and ninety
1:15:19
Speaker 1: degrees changes this entire story. I don't know if I
1:15:23
Speaker 1: fully properly explain this, but you know, so the range
1:15:27
Speaker 1: rover is flipping over right, and there's a point at
1:15:29
Speaker 1: which it's either going to come back down on its
1:15:32
Speaker 1: wheels or it's going to stay on its side if
1:15:35
Speaker 1: it comes back down on its wheels, and Tiger Woods
1:15:39
Speaker 1: is in this minor car accident where the range rover
1:15:44
Speaker 1: is not flipped over on its side. I don't think
1:15:47
Speaker 1: he is arrested for DUI and I think he's playing
1:15:51
Speaker 1: in the Masters this week. Now. You might argue that
1:15:54
Speaker 1: that would be a bad thing for him because it
1:15:57
Speaker 1: may not have forced him to get treatment for being
1:15:59
Speaker 1: a dick did the pain medication. But I truly believe,
1:16:03
Speaker 1: based upon the body cam footage, based upon his statements
1:16:06
Speaker 1: even after the accident, and and my view of the
1:16:11
Speaker 1: way human beings react in these circumstances, I think that
1:16:15
Speaker 1: the positioning of the range rover is what shifted that
1:16:20
Speaker 1: sobriety test from a situation where Tiger actually passed to
1:16:25
Speaker 1: a situation where there was no chance Tiger could pass,
1:16:27
Speaker 1: that the female cop was going to arrest him regardless,
1:16:31
Speaker 1: all because of the perception created by the position of
1:16:34
Speaker 1: the range rover. Now that is probably getting in, you know,
1:16:37
Speaker 1: way more into the weeds that needs to be done.
1:16:41
Speaker 1: But that's the that's just the weirdness of life and
1:16:44
Speaker 1: the and how powerful perceptions are. But my perception of
1:16:47
Speaker 1: this whole thing is very, very different than it was initially.
1:16:52
Speaker 1: And yeah, again, I'm sure Tiger was under some sort
1:16:57
Speaker 1: of influence, but I think the accident was because he
1:17:01
Speaker 1: looked down at his phone. I mean, that's what he said.
1:17:04
Speaker 1: I think that's what caused the accident, which, of course
1:17:07
Speaker 1: is stupid and wrong and something I do all the
1:17:10
Speaker 1: time and I'm sure lots of other people do, and
1:17:12
Speaker 1: it should be a lesson to everybody. But the guy
1:17:16
Speaker 1: I saw taking that sobriety test, if that's under the influence,
1:17:21
Speaker 1: if that's somebody who's not capable of driving a vehicle legally,
1:17:26
Speaker 1: that my god. The percentage of people that are driving
1:17:29
Speaker 1: illegally is extremely high. But the part of the whole
1:17:32
Speaker 1: story that bothered me the most was Megan Kelly and
1:17:35
Speaker 1: other people giving Tiger crap because he told a police
1:17:38
Speaker 1: officer he talked to President Trump. Again, there's a direct
1:17:42
Speaker 1: connection between Tiger and Trump on numerous levels, including a
1:17:47
Speaker 1: very legitimate I believe concerned about the safety of his
1:17:50
Speaker 1: favorite granddaughter. Thanks for listening to today's free drop of
1:17:54
Speaker 1: the abbreviated show. If you're interested in listening to the
1:17:57
Speaker 1: entire show, you must become patren. Please go to Patreon.
1:18:03
Speaker 1: That's p A t R e O n dot com.
1:18:07
Speaker 1: Patreon dot com Slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler.
1:18:14
Speaker 1: My name is j O H N z I E
1:18:16
Speaker 1: G L e R. That's patreon dot com. Slash the
1:18:22
Speaker 1: Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. Good luck to you
1:18:26
Speaker 1: on that. But that's how you can subscribe.