Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / The Dems' Unwanted Endorsement, Terror in the Skies, TikTok is Bad for You | Last Call

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The Dems' Unwanted Endorsement, Terror in the Skies, TikTok is Bad for You | Last Call · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review. Three martinis coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the last call of the week for the
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Three Martini Lunch. This is our weekly recap of the
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: biggest stories of the week. In this edition, the Democrats
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: get a prominent endorsement from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: A possible terrorist attempt to crash an airliner filled with
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Israelis is safe thanks to the heroes on board. And
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: the proof is in. TikTok and other short video sites
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: are rotting your brain, and specifically your memory. And in
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: our Chaser of the Week, dastardly outside interest groups run
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: vicious attack ads against Jim's New York Jets and Greg's
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Chicago Bears ahead of their big game on Sunday. And
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: they even have narrators that sound just like us. But
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: we begin with the IRGC publicly urging Americans to vote
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: against President Trump. Well, Jim, you know, everybody's clamoring for
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: endorsements in the midterm election as they get close to
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: election day. You know, if you can get a bigwig
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: in your party to endorse you during the primary, that's
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: a big deal. If you can get other prominent people,
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: maybe kind of the middle of the road people or
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: even in the other party to endorse you for the
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: general election, maybe that's a feather in your cap or
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: just consolidating your base. That's a really good thing, too.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you get endorsements that you might not want. But
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: that's where the Democrats are today. They've been endorsed by
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. New York Post
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: with the story here. The IRGC put out a 25-page
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: letter addressed to Americans urging them to oppose President Donald
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Trump during the upcoming midterm elections. They claimed the president
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: and his support of Israel were the cause of the war,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: and they urged voters to reject both. in the voting booth.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: The letter accuses Trump of concealing, quote, the peaceful nature
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: of Iran's nuclear program, despite allegations from the International Atomic
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Energy Agency watchdog that Tehran was enriching its uranium beyond
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: what was needed for a power plant. The IRGC also
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: lashed out against the U.S. government designating the security force
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: as a terrorist group, claiming there was not, quote, a
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: single verifiable instance where the IRGC has committed an act
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: of violence against civilians, unquote. The Post says, hey, that
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: remark comes as the regime stands accused of killing between 7,000
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: and 30,000 protesters in January of this year during a
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: brutal crackdown on dissent, which the regime defends by claiming
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: the violence was instigated by foreign actors. They also claim,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: of course, that the U.S. economy is about to collapse
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: and we're going to be feeling great economic pain, all
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Trump's fault.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: So.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Vote Democrat is essentially the message from the IRGC here. Jim,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: if you're the Republicans, you couldn't ask for a better
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: endorsement going the other way.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, you know, if you're a Republican,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: you're running ads about this. If you're the Democrats, you aren't. Folks,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take the way back machine to before
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the existence of the three martini lunch, six years before it,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: to be honest. And 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: versus John Kerry, the start of the Kerry spot at
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: National Review. And, you know, the war on terror, obviously,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and the Iraq war were front and center for much
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: of that campaign. Other issues as well, but it was
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: very much John Kerry. I actually voted for the $ 87
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: billion before I voted against it. And I don't think
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: this was decisive in the race, but it was something
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: of an October surprise. And it was the Friday before
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: the election, Osama bin Laden issued a new video statement, released,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: I believe, through Al Jazeera. It's been like a couple
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: of months since we had heard from Bin Laden. And,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you know, people since 2010, since Bin Laden was killed
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: in the Navy SEAL raid, there's kind of it's easy
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: to forget.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: You know, Bin Laden, he would pop up.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: He'd issue some diatribe on video and it would be
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: kind of scary looking and sounding. And then, you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: but then he would disappear for a couple of months.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And there'd be this question of like, did he die?
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Is he injured?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Remember the belief that he was on kidney dialysis, all
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But this message came out and
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: there were different translations of the words he used, but
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: he said something along the lines of the regions that
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: are not opposed to us will not be struck the
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: regions that were. And some people are basically saying he's
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: going to strike red states because he sees that as opposition.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: He sees that as blue states as not being opposed
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: to him. Now, it's Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda hates all Americans.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: There really is not a partisan preference for Al Qaeda.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: But that having been said, bringing the issue of terror
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: front and center right before Election Day in 2004 in
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: an era where early voting was much rarer, Greg, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Election Day was a much bigger deal. I think that
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: was an advantage to George W. Bush in those closing days.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: If the message from the Iranians is Trump has done
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: wrong and American people, we want you to vote for
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: Democrats to punish Trump. I don't look here. The Democrats
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: are saying, please stop. Do not endorse us. Do not
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: talk about us. You know, don't stir up trouble between
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: now and Election Day, because the more that happens, the
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: more Americans might say, you know, I got some problems
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: the way Trump didn't go to Congress. Trump didn't really
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: announce this. He didn't really make a very cohesive case
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: for this. But I really bleeping hate the Iranian mullahs,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: and I'm not going to let them tell us what
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: we ought to do in the Middle East or anywhere else.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: And that probably could– that could stir things back towards
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: the Republicans. If you're the Democrats, you need this like
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: stubbing your toe or maybe even worse than that. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I kind of am left wondering, will Republicans have the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: wherewithal to spotlight this? Also, Greg, did I hear correctly
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that this was a 42-page message from the Iranian Revolutionary
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Guard Corps?
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: 25, but still way too long.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: 25.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Have you guys heard about TikTok and how it's shortening
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: Americans'– Six seconds.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: You really needed the elevator pitch.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And I realized they may not be into that over there, Greg,
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: because I'm not sure there are any buildings tall enough
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: for an elevator still.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Standing in Iran. But nonetheless, you guys, bullet points.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: If there was ever a time for Axios smart brevity,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: this would be it, Iranians.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Get to the point. Ain't nobody got time for that.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: I got some bullet points for the IRGC.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I set that up. I didn't even realize it. So, yes,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: if you're a Republican.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Hey, my opponent's endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Council.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: My opponent is a uniter, not a divider. Not since
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact have we seen two great tastes that
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: belong together like this.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: All right, Jim. Well, we know the Iranians want us
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: dead and the terrorists that they sponsor. But I'll tell
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: you what, we love life in this country and we
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: want to save life wherever we can.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: And that includes.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: When there are unexpected pregnancies and moms who are just scared,
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: they're feeling pressure to have an abortion. They feel like
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: they don't have the resources to support a child. They
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: don't feel like they have people around them that can help. Well,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: that's where you could come in. You could reach a
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: scared pregnant woman before the abortion industry does. And if
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: you could, would you? What if in the exact moment
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: she was searching online for answers, you could be the person?
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: who showed her compassion, support, and another option. And that's
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: exactly what Human Coalition does.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Human Coalition has already helped more than 35,000 women choose life.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But there are still more than 1 million mothers out
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: there who have not been reached. That's 1 million women
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: searching for answers, 1 million opportunities to intervene, and 1
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: million lives hanging in the balance.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: It really only takes a monthly donation of $ 26 to
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: create a life-saving moment. A moment where a mother receives
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: support instead of pressure. So be her lifeline. Create a
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: life-saving moment by going to humancoalition.org slash martini. That's humancoalition.org
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: slash martini and give today. This was a week of
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: foiled terrorist attacks at a military base in the UK,
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: at the Texas state capitol, and the attempted crashing of
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: a fly Dubai flight to Tel Aviv. Here's how Jim
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and I discussed the attempted hijacking and crash on Wednesday. Jim,
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: I think it was less than a month ago, in fact,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: earlier this month, where we talked about how since 9-11,
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: we've had fewer major terrorist attack attempts. Well, we're still
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: not exactly sure what went on at RAF Fairford there
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: in the UK. You wrote about it yesterday, so you
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: know a lot about it more than I do. But
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: now we've got this other story coming out of the
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Middle East, and sometimes the details are in conflict here.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: But basically what happened... is a fly Dubai flight from
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Dubai to Tel Aviv was humming along. And then all
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: of a sudden, the plane took a nosedive. As best
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: as we can tell, the co-pilot stabbed the pilot. This
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: was an Omani co-pilot. And then the systems went dark.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: The systems went down. The plane went into a plunge.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Then passengers, Israeli passengers in particular, it seems, stormed the cockpit,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: subdued the co-pilot who was apparently trying to take the
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: plane down. There were other pilots who happened to be
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: on board. So they landed safely in Saudi Arabia, which
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: is a testament to relations being quite a bit different
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: there than they were in the not so distant past.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: So thankfully, Jim, this had a much happier ending than
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: it certainly could have. But what do you make of
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: the details we're learning so far and where we go
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: from here?
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: You know, Greg, one of the, it's not quite an
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: unsolved mystery, but Egypt Air Flight 990 in the late
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: 1990s took off from either LaGuardia or JFK and plunged
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: into the ocean. And there was enormous, you know, consternation
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and confusion. National Transportation Safety Board did its investigation and
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: no one really understood why I believe it was the
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: co-pilot pushed down on the stick and put them into
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: that dive, leading to the deaths of everyone on board.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: A lot of people wondered, was this pilot suicide? Was
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: he somehow unaware of what he was doing? which is
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: very hard to believe? Or was this an early jihadist?
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: It was the sort of thing that looks very different
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: after 9-11. Well, here we have another presumably Muslim pilot
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: seeming to want to act an act of suicide, an
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: act of terrorism, and to kill many all the passengers
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: on board, including many Israelis. By the way, can we
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: take a moment and pause at the irony when these
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: passengers were told, Israeli passengers, don't worry, you're safe.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: You're in Saudi Arabia. And, you know, you're right. The
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: times really have changed.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: We will learn more about this, but we're seeing this
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: from videos of people taped inside the aircraft immediately after
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: the crisis. So it's certainly, you know, this is their
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: account of what happened here. On the one hand, through
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: the Abraham Accords, we really liked the thawing of relations
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: between Israel and certain Arab and Muslim states. The idea
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: of flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai seemed like a
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: really good positive development for relationships in this part of
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: the world. I guess we see the downside. Also, in
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: a very strange way, there's almost a Islamist terrorism classic,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: the idea of trying to seize the controls of an airliner.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: We haven't seen that in a little while.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Greg.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: And so it just kind of feels like the interesting
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: thing is like, as far as we know, I mean,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: you know, Al Qaeda is a shadow of what it
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: used to be. ISIS is not what it used to be.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: The kind of frightening possibility that this doesn't have to
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: be an organized terrorist plot. This is just some guy
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: who either was already in flight school and learned to
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: be a pilot and you got assigned to this, or
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: maybe asked for this duty, knowing that someday he would
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: be at the controls of a plane that had a
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: lot of Israeli passengers. And this would be his way
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: of striking out and kill it, you know, Killing lots
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: of Israelis and striking a blow against the Zionist state, blah, blah, blah.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just amazing that this has a happy ending.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: I think everyone learned the lesson from Flight 93 is
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: that once you realize something's going down, literally and figuratively,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: that you have to act. They're not just taking you
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: to some random airport necessarily and then making demands.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: You're not going to get traded for other prisoners or
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: things like that.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so the Fox News story on this, has
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: a statement from FlyDubai, which confirmed that an altercation occurred
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: in the flight deck, but they say on-duty FlyDubai crew
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: traveling aboard the craft secured the aircraft, diverted it, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: landed safely in Saudi Arabia. The airline did not confirm
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: the stabbing, and so the underlying reasons and motives remain
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: under formal investigation. Jim, considering the number of iPhone or
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: whatever phone videos of Israeli passengers with blood streaming down
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: their face because they were in some sort of altercation,
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: something tells me this is being whitewashed by FlyDubai on
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: what exactly happened here and how this flight got saved.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you're going to issue a statement like that,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: you might as well also say, and all passengers will
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: be getting double miles for this trip. Or we guarantee
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: all of your baggage will make it to Tel Aviv,
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: you know, on time and all that stuff. Like, Look,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I can understand the supreme embarrassment for this airline.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: But what happened, happened. And I don't think this is
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the sort of thing that you can, you know, hand
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: wave away. I think there was some wasn't there some
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: case in which a airline had a suicidal pilot and
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: they had to say something like, look, 99.9 percent of
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: our pilots are not suicidal. And, you know, that's that's
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a tough message to put in a commercial.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: That's why they always have to, among other reasons.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But one of them is probably in a good mood.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: You hope so.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Israeli authorities, not surprisingly, now treating this incident as a
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: terrorist attack following an initial investigation and some of the
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: passenger testimony that we have. So again, this could have
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: turned out way worse. Thankful for those who acted quickly
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: and very thankful that there were other pilots on board
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: who could just happen to land a commercial jetliner. That
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: doesn't happen every day either. So in the meantime, let's
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: take a deep breath of air. And for that, well,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: you need trees to give off oxygen. And so we've
• 13:58
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• 14:01
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• 14:05
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• 14:08
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• 14:11
  Speaker 3: snake plant. We love our lavender plant that's out there
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: sunning itself on the deck right now. Smells great.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Keeps the bugs away. It's fantastic.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: We've had so many plants from Trees.com over the years,
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: and I know that if you order one, you'll love
• 14:22
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• 14:23
  Speaker 2: Greg, let's get one thing straight. The speed of the
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: tree's growth has not changed. It is still classified as fast.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: So you might be thinking, well, why are you no
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: longer fast growing trees? Well, if you have the URL trees.com,
• 14:38
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• 14:39
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• 14:44
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• 15:35
  Speaker 1: All right, Jim.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: Social media is making us dumber. I don't think that's
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: breaking news, but now we actually have empirical evidence to
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: support this idea. Hat tip to NotTheBee, but they're getting
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: their story from a study found at Nature.com. And they're
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: talking especially about short form videos that kind of see
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: all the time on TikTok that's supposed to be banned,
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: as well as Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, and a lot
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: of other things that only last like a minute or less.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: And they say, behaviorally, participants learning with short videos showed
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: significantly lower immediate memory accuracy across encoding conditions and exhibited
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: a higher rate of forgetting when explicitly instructed to remember.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: At the neural level, these short videos impair your, quote,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: neural synchrony, in key brain regions supporting visio-spatial attention, episodic memory,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: and cognitive control. Together, they say, these findings suggest that
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the fragmented and rapidly switching nature of typical social media
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: short videos enhances bottom-up attentional capture at the expense of
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: top-down cognitive processes critical for deep learning and long-term memory consolidation.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: And just 10 minutes of TikTok was enough to impair
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: people's ability to remember and carry out the things that
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: they had intended to.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: To carry out.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: So a lot of big scientific jargon there to basically say,
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: just zoning out and doom scrolling on social media and
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: watching these short videos is damaging your memory and is
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: making you dumber.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Greg, this is an exceptionally depressing topic for our martini,
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: but I will point out, I see a silver lining.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: This suggests people are going to look at their phones,
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: absorb a lot of Chinese propaganda, And then they're going
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: to quickly forget it.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: So at least we got that working for us.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: But no, I look at this and I find myself like, oh,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: that feels right. And not just in the reflexive sense
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: that I'm a genius and everybody who says that I'm
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: wrong is a moron. And people are getting, you know,
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: and of course, I get told that I'm wrong more often. Therefore,
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: the world must be getting more, getting stupider. No, what
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: I think is more plausible, one, first of all, They
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: say don't look at the comments section. If you're a writer,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: you want feedback. You want to know what people think
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: of you. You do look at the comments section. And
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: you tend to react like opening the Ark of the
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: Covenant at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: The sheer stupidity. From both directions, all kinds of stuff.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: Bizarre accusations, completely extraneous thoughts. Weapons grade whataboutism. All of
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: that stuff will just melt your face off. That's how
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: dangerously stupid it is. But I will also confess that
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: I feel like I read fewer long books than I
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: used to. If I panned over, you'd still see a
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: giant pile of books. What is great about flying, as
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: I recently flew to Austin and back, well, they tell you,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: put away your laptops, put away your stuff.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Some people can be on their phones.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: But because of that, I usually like on a plane,
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: unless I decide to buy the wireless, it's actually a
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: little bit of time where I am not connected to
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: the world. pick up a book, and I can actually
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: get through a decent amount of it. Or a very
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: long magazine article or something like that.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: It's kind of interesting.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: If I try to read a book and I have
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: my phone near me, the temptation to say, what are
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: people saying on X? Or, oh, has anybody emailed me? Oh,
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: has anybody texted me? That temptation is there. And you
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: can think about that. Think about how many things in
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: life you've had to learn through the application of focus
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: and concentration for a long period of time. And if
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: your capacity to do that is shrinking, That's a really
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: bad sign. That is how you get people really being stupider.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: To say nothing of the fact of, you know, I
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: would say judging by the state of America's roads, Greg,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: that people make dumber decisions and turn signals are now optionals.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: And I realized that the course of this entire conversation,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: I could turn into a cranky old man complaining about
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: people today and they don't know anything and all that
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: kind of stuff.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: But I'm going to observe.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Greg, do you realize that by the standards of TikTok
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: and these other social media platforms, you and I are
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: long form?
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: 20, 30 minutes. And we do three topics at that time.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: So we're like six, seven minutes per topic. That is
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: in-depth Masterpiece Theater, Irving R. Levine, Wall Street Week. This
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: is the Economist magazine for topics in the world of
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: the social media. You are smarter for having listened to
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: us for as long as you have, dear listeners and viewers.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Unquestionably. And those are the YouTube shorts you should watch.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Yes, exactly. We pack a lot of information within 60
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: seconds of ours. Exactly.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Those, those won't make you dumb or ruin your memory
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: at all. Uh, and also, you know, the problem with
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: these things is, you know, you watch one thing and
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden the algorithm just keeps feeding
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: you this stuff over and over and over again. And
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: so all of a sudden what you, you decided to
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: sit down for 15 minutes and all of a sudden
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: it's an hour later or whatever. Uh, and all of
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: a sudden your brain is just completely fried. So, uh,
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Be warned, the data is coming along, so be careful
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: and put the thing down.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Greg, have you ever used YouTube to look up how
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: to fix a door hinge? Something like that, yeah. Yeah,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: and did you find out the next morning you were
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: part of the door hinger community and your entire feed? Hey, hingers!
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Now we're looking at the 2400 series through. Let's show
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you how this one works. So, yes.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: Whatever it is, there is a subculture or community online,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: and if you watch one video on it, you are
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: a part of it forever, and you can never get
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: rid of it off your feed.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: When we come back, the vicious attack ads against the
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: Bears and Jets ahead of Sunday's big game. On Sunday,
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: the Chicago Bears and New York Jets clash on the gridiron.
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: And in this campaign season, aggressive outside interest groups are
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: ramping up the attack ads against the Bears and Jets.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: They ran in the chaser all week, so be sure
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to catch them all. But here's a taste of what
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: that sounded like. Yes, these third party packs, special interest groups,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: they are relentless and they are going to advertise right
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: up to the last second, right through the end of
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: the week here on the three martini lunch. And of course,
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: they've mastered our voices through AI. It's absolutely crazy. But
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: here's the latest round of ads that they have bought.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: This one is aimed against the Jets. The last time
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: the Jets won the Super Bowl, Ronald Reagan was in
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: his first term.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: As governor.
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: We hadn't landed on the moon. And Yoko Ono hadn't
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: broken up the Beatles yet. The last time the Jets
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: won their division, Nickelback had the number one song of
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: the year. Strom Thurmond was still in the U.S. Senate.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: And the last time the Jets made the playoffs, Bin
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: Laden was alive. The Bears just won the division last year.
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: They've been to the Super Bowl this century. And you
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: don't have to be collecting social security to remember the
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: last time they were champions. The Jets might be getting
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: better soon. But can you really take that chance? The
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: ground the Jets pack is responsible for the content of
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: this advertising. Jim, once again, some fierce facts coming out there.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Stings, yeah.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: What stings worse? The haven't landed on the moon or Nickelback?
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Oh, most people would say Nickelback, but I'm going to
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: answer Strom. Strom was a pretty.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Good, you know, because... That's a while ago. That's a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: minute ago, as the kids say.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: But, you know, the folks who hate the Bears are
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: firing back just as fiercely. Here is their latest ad.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: New York City is home to Donald Trump. Chicago is
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: MAGA country. In the imagination of Jesse Smollett, New York
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: City gave America President Teddy Roosevelt. Chicago gave America President
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Barack Obama. New York City is famous for the pride
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: of the Yankees. Chicago is famous for the Chicago Black Sox.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: New York City is famous for fun serial killers like
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Son of Sam. Chicago is famous for notorious gangsters like
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Al Capone. And when it comes to mayors, we'll call
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: that one a wash. Paid for by Americans United for
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: a Bears defeat on October 4th.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: It is hard to determine which is the worst mayor,
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: so I appreciate the honesty there. Not sure that I
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: would describe Son of Sam as a fun serial killer. But,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: you know, it's a little different than gangster style killings.
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, if you're thinking fun serial killers,
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: do you top with Manson? Do you start or Dahmer
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: for his culinary tips and all that kind of stuff?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: You know, it's a shame we don't make fun of
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: the Packers on a regular basis because I know it's
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: kind of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, you know, beers, brats and
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: body parts apparently are the staples out there. But nonetheless, yeah,
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: so it's one of those things where, like, you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to think of, like, the most jolly serial
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: killer out there. I'm open to suggestions. People want to suggest,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: you know, which city has a more, you know, because, like,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I will say, though, like, when you think Chicago, Al
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: Capone is, like, usually on the top five things people,
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you know, mention. The other thing which is, I've got
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: to say, is a little weird. Chicago Fire is the
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: name of their major league soccer team. Wasn't it, like,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: a major natural disaster? The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Right. So like, you know, Mrs.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: O'Leary's cow, I believe, is the universal scapegoat for that.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Would you name a Los Angeles team the Earthquakes? I
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: suppose it was University of Miami Hurricanes. And that's kind of,
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: you know, like what natural disaster has devastated our city?
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: And what do we want to name our local sports
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: team to make people think of it as often as possible?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Kind of a strange choice out there. Yes, I know.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it when they just, you know, had the
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Bears and the Cubs and then clothing, the White Sox.
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: And of course, you had the Blackhawks. So yeah, soccer's
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: in the end. You know what I think about soccer.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: So that name could certainly be improved. So we'll see
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: what these dastardly special interest groups have in store for
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: the rest of the week. But man. Jim, they are
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: firing with both barrels in both directions. So a lot
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: of pressure on both teams now headed into Sunday.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Well, to quote Bart Scott, can't wait.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: That's the last call of the week for the Three
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: Martini Lunch. Please subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch Monday
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: through Friday. Also, please leave a review. You can get
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: the Three Martini Lunch on your home devices. All you
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: have to say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: us both on X. Jim is at Jim Garrity. I'm
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: at Greg Karumbas. And follow Three Martini Lunch on Facebook
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: and Instagram. Have a great weekend, and please join us
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: on Monday for the next Three Martini Lunch.