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Speaker 2: What do we have, Crystal, indeed we do so. As
Speaker 2: you probably know by now, the CEO of United Healthcare
Speaker 2: was murdered in midtown Manhattan. That manhunt continues, as does,
Speaker 2: of course, the online reaction, So we will get into
Speaker 2: all of that. Trump packing his cabinet with billionaires. We
Speaker 2: have new details about what that administration may look like
Speaker 2: and what they are planning. Ram Emmanuel is being rehabbed
Speaker 2: over on the Democratic side, planning what his future in
Speaker 2: the democratic part. He may be making some pretty wild
Speaker 2: comments given his own past history, so we'll take into
Speaker 2: all of that. Also at morning, Joe once again in
Speaker 2: meltdown mode after apparently David Frum now too spicy for them.
Speaker 2: They had to like apologize after some of his comments.
Speaker 1: This is the Iran Iraq war here.
Speaker 2: Morning Joe Scarborough just this morning had some whole like
Speaker 2: ran meltdown whatever. So we're going to bring you that.
Speaker 2: I think you guys are going to enjoy and appreciate that. Also,
Speaker 2: some news from overseas. Manuel Macroln's government has now collapsed,
Speaker 2: is somewhat predicted, but leaves the French government a lot
Speaker 2: of uncertainty and chaos, So we'll tell you all of
Speaker 2: the details there. And Biden is considering pardnering a salw
Speaker 2: of officials and Democratic politicians and Liz Cheney and all
Speaker 2: kinds of people who could be targets of Trump's retribution.
Speaker 2: And the view was reacting and arguing with Charlemagne about
Speaker 2: many of these things.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's right, that'll be fun. Doctor Fauci apparently needs
Speaker 1: a pardon. Interesting Carl toldly he's never did anything wrong anyways.
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Speaker 1: Let's get to the United Healthcare CEO murder. This is
Speaker 1: some shocking stuff. So we have some surveillance video that
Speaker 1: has emerged of the killing itself. We've gone ahead and
Speaker 1: edited it so you can't actually see it. But let's
Speaker 1: go ahead and put this and play this for everybody
Speaker 1: up on the screen so you can walk here. The
Speaker 1: United CEO is walking there. He brought six forty five
Speaker 1: am outside of a midtown hotel in Manhattan. You could
Speaker 1: see the gunman there. He raised his gun and he
Speaker 1: shot several times into the CEO. He went forward, walked
Speaker 1: towards him, apparently basically make sure that the man was dead,
Speaker 1: and then begins to flee across the street, where he
Speaker 1: got onto a city bike and went uptown to this
Speaker 1: day now, some twenty four hours later, he is not
Speaker 1: currently in police custody. Although we have some of the details.
Speaker 1: The NYPD itself broke down some of the details of
Speaker 1: the crime. Let's get to it.
Speaker 3: The suspect approached from behind fired several rounds, striking the
Speaker 3: victim at least once in the back and at least
Speaker 3: once in the right calf. Many people passed the suspect,
Speaker 3: but he appeared to wait for his intended target. The
Speaker 3: suspect fled first on foot, then on an e bike,
Speaker 3: and was last seen in Central Park on Center Drive.
Speaker 3: Early this morning, the victim was removed to Roosevelt's Hospital,
Speaker 3: where he was pronounced. We've been in touch with his family,
Speaker 3: his friends, and his colleagues, and they are very much
Speaker 3: in our thoughts and prayers at this hour. The full
Speaker 3: investigative efforts of the New York City Police Department are
Speaker 3: well underway, and we will not rest until we identify
Speaker 3: and apprehend the shooter in this case. The women and
Speaker 3: men of the NYPD take enormous pride in the work
Speaker 3: that they do each day and each night to drive
Speaker 3: down crime and violence in our city. Right now, we
Speaker 3: are asking the public for your help. Have any information
Speaker 3: about this case, call crime Stoppers at eight hundred five
Speaker 3: seven seven tips. We have increased the reward in this
Speaker 3: case to ten thousand dollars. I want to be clear
Speaker 3: at this time, every indication is that this was a premeditated,
Speaker 3: pre planned, targeted attack.
Speaker 1: That is really what all the details began to describe.
Speaker 1: We've seen ballistic experts and other people who have come
Speaker 1: out just to look at all the circumstances, and they
Speaker 1: are genuinely shocking. I mean, this is one of the
Speaker 1: busiest areas in all of Midtown Manhattan, six forty five am,
Speaker 1: full on like pre work traffic and all of that.
Speaker 1: It appears that he had either a suppressor or some
Speaker 1: sort of pistol which was using subsonic ammunition to try
Speaker 1: and to keep the sound as quiet as possible. From
Speaker 1: ballistics experts in others that I have read, they just
Speaker 1: show a couple of things that you can see in
Speaker 1: the details of the crime. Number one, the photo that's
Speaker 1: been released of the man so far shows him wearing
Speaker 1: a face and a hood pulled up all over. It
Speaker 1: appears he had a change of clothes in the backpack,
Speaker 1: was able to immediately flee get onto a bike. Apparently
Speaker 1: was waiting outside of the hotel some full five minutes
Speaker 1: before he emerged. This United Healthcare CEO knew he was
Speaker 1: staying there. He cased it out, was very he was
Speaker 1: clearly very planned assassination. And that's what a lot of
Speaker 1: the details around this and professionals as well. So just
Speaker 1: before we get a reaction, this is the Felipe Rodriguez,
Speaker 1: former NYPD detective, just talking about this thing. It's one
Speaker 1: of the most detailed assassinations that he's ever seen. Let's
Speaker 1: take a listen.
Speaker 3: Is it possible that police may have to close the
Speaker 3: bridges or how are they surveiling those areas at.
Speaker 4: This point you know what's going to end up the
Speaker 4: CCTV footage. But I'm telling you the way he planned
Speaker 4: this out, I can see him having a change of clothes,
Speaker 4: everything hidden somewhere in Central Park because he's aware of
Speaker 4: the canvast. That's why, you know what he did have
Speaker 4: that mask on. That's why he's trying to, you know,
Speaker 4: hide his identity, trying to make sure that we don't
Speaker 4: have any facial recognition in place. So once again, this
Speaker 4: is one of the most detailed assassinate, you know, assassinations
Speaker 4: I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's truly shocking. Take place downtown in
Speaker 1: the middle of New York City. It appears the wife
Speaker 1: says that mister Thompson had been receiving threats. Can we
Speaker 1: put that tear sheet please up on the screen over
Speaker 1: quote insurance woes in the details that she said, she
Speaker 1: said something about denied coverage in terms of threats that
Speaker 1: he had been receiving. And we also have some stuff
Speaker 1: that broke just very late last night. NYPD detectives have
Speaker 1: discovered the words quote, deny, defend, and depose, which were
Speaker 1: written on shellcasings that were found at the scene. Deny, defend,
Speaker 1: and depose is the title of a book which is
Speaker 1: specifically about how insurance companies deny coverage to patients. So
Speaker 1: it does appear to be an act of retribute or
Speaker 1: appears to be some sort of act of retribution against
Speaker 1: the United Healthcare CEO. The book itself here, I can
Speaker 1: pull up the cover in front of me. Is delay, defend, delay, denied, defend,
Speaker 1: Why insurance companies don't pay claims and what you can
Speaker 1: do about it? Apparently it's a well known kind of
Speaker 1: Moniker and a playbook that people have always talked about
Speaker 1: these insurance companies. So does appear to be an active
Speaker 1: revenge Crystal. And obviously that alludes also to kind of
Speaker 1: the reaction around this, which has certainly run the gamut.
Speaker 1: I guess we could say that.
Speaker 2: I don't think it has run the gamut. I think
Speaker 2: by and large, listen, let's let's all be adults here.
Speaker 2: Nobody here condones murder and broad daylight, targeted assassinations, etc.
Speaker 1: It's insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, of course. But we also have at this
Speaker 2: show made it clear when a powerful person who did
Speaker 2: great evil in the world, we don't mince words when
Speaker 2: that person dies, is killed, et cetera. And this is
Speaker 2: a person who caused great harm, death, bankruptcy, debt, and
Speaker 2: injury to probably millions of Americans. And so you know,
Speaker 2: there was a lot of like, oh, the left is
Speaker 2: like celebrating this viciously. Let me tell you it wasn't
Speaker 2: just the left. We're going to show you later on.
Speaker 2: If you go on Facebook, Facebook not exactly like the
Speaker 2: bastion of the socialist revolution, and you look at the
Speaker 2: reaction there, if you look at the reactions on TikTok,
Speaker 2: I mean, it was across the board, and so I
Speaker 2: think people should think like political class, executive class, billionaire class,
Speaker 2: need to think really deeply about how people feel about
Speaker 2: this disgusting, evil system that this person was a part of.
Speaker 2: So we can put you know, up on the screen.
Speaker 2: You talk about the motive. Obviously yesterday it was day
Speaker 2: it was all speculation because obviously there would be many
Speaker 2: people who would have a motive to do harm to
Speaker 2: this individual. And quite frankly, you know again and this
Speaker 2: is us being adults, he or not condoning, But it's
Speaker 2: shocking that something like this hasn't happened before given the
Speaker 2: amount of pain, death and suffering that this industry overall causes.
Speaker 2: And this was a very you know, powerful person in
Speaker 2: terms of that industry. You know, we've got we can
Speaker 2: put a five up on the screen. In terms of
Speaker 2: claim denial rates, United Healthcare was apparently the worst thirty
Speaker 2: two percent of claims denied by this company. We also
Speaker 2: know that you know, they are being sued right now
Speaker 2: because they've been using this AI that, reportedly, according to
Speaker 2: the lawsuit rejects has some ninety percent error rate to
Speaker 2: reject people's claims. And you know, I mean, you're hard
Speaker 2: pressed to find an American family that hasn't been negatively
Speaker 2: impacted by this disgusting, horrible system. So, you know, if
Speaker 2: people are shocked by the reaction that has sort of
Speaker 2: flow down of the entire nation in response to this killing,
Speaker 2: I don't think that you should be shocked, because most
Speaker 2: people have some sort of story. I mean, in my
Speaker 2: own family, like Kyle's dad very possibly would still be
Speaker 2: alive and have been at our wedding if it wasn't
Speaker 2: for o fucked up health insurance system. So you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of anger and horror at what this
Speaker 2: looks like in this country.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the denied defend deposed gets to some patients in
Speaker 1: terms of denial of coverage in the way that the
Speaker 1: insurance companies are able to work that system. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: as you just said, let's all be real and adults
Speaker 1: like murdering people in vigilante or not even vigilanti, just
Speaker 1: like murdering people in cold blood in the middle of
Speaker 1: New York City is bad. And ironically what we have
Speaker 1: seen though, is honest, I'm even surprised by it, and
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of social analysts and others who
Speaker 1: have reacted to the killing itself in terms of the
Speaker 1: outcry from a lot of the public where there is
Speaker 1: some deep seated rage here, and we can talk about
Speaker 1: that just analytically in terms of, Look, we just had
Speaker 1: an election, right, Donald Trump won the White House. People
Speaker 1: are very a lot of rage there too the system. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I was thinking, I was actually thinking back to it.
Speaker 1: Alex Berenson made the analysis. He's like, I don't think
Speaker 1: anything like this has happened in the post World War
Speaker 1: two era. I think he's right in terms of a
Speaker 1: major targeted assassination of a CEO. But this really harkens
Speaker 1: back to some of the violence and anarchist violence in
Speaker 1: the period of like nineteen hundred Gilded in nineteen thirty seven. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like post guild more like the latter age of
Speaker 1: the Gilded Age, a lot of the violence around labor
Speaker 1: and the you know, the relationship between the major company
Speaker 1: and the citizen. But also just like literal anarchists and others,
Speaker 1: theory of like we have to strike back through genuine
Speaker 1: violence against people who are like this. You know, we
Speaker 1: saw some of that. Actually, like you said on the
Speaker 1: comments reacting to this, we can go ahead and put
Speaker 1: nien please on the screen, and this was put out
Speaker 1: in For example, some of the top comments people are like,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Prior to authorization is required for thoughts and prayers,
Speaker 1: sending prior authorization denied claims, collections and prayers to the family.
Speaker 1: Was his trip to the er really emergent? And it's
Speaker 1: crazy what my first thought was, and that I look
Speaker 1: at the comments and realize that I am not alone
Speaker 1: in my thoughts. So clearly there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are out there who are very, very upset with
Speaker 1: the healthcare system, you know. Even bringing it back to
Speaker 1: just the crime, I saw some analysis where they're like,
Speaker 1: this is an insane crime because there are twenty million
Speaker 1: people who could be potential suspects in carrying this out.
Speaker 1: And if you look at some of the if you
Speaker 1: look at currently, the fact is is that when you
Speaker 1: murder someone in New York City, actually pretty much you
Speaker 1: can murder someone anywhere. It's not all that difficult to
Speaker 1: narrow down the range of suspects, and especially New York
Speaker 1: is one of the most surveiled countries in the world.
Speaker 1: I mean in terms of not only police officers, this
Speaker 1: is Midtown Manhattan, anybody'sho've been there. There are police everywhere
Speaker 1: across Midtown Manhattan. You also have you also have cameras
Speaker 1: blanketing the entire place. That surveillance footage is just like
Speaker 1: private one in terms of what the NYPD has access
Speaker 1: to and the NYPD counter Terrorism Bureau and all of that.
Speaker 1: That entire city is like basically wired with cameras. So
Speaker 1: the fact is is, while they have released a photo
Speaker 1: of the suspect, they are probably able to track some
Speaker 1: of his movements and others. For now, he has not
Speaker 1: been apprehended, well not bypass, which is shocking.
Speaker 2: They don't even have a person of interests.
Speaker 1: They don't have a name a person of interest that
Speaker 1: they have.
Speaker 2: Nothing photos they put out. I mean you can't see anything.
Speaker 1: You basically can see it. I think you can see
Speaker 1: his eye color, yeah, and his nose, like that's that's
Speaker 1: about it. It's like, I mean, he's a white male.
Speaker 1: That's basically all you know. But that's all we know.
Speaker 1: It's really crazy. There was a actually analyst who was
Speaker 1: able to determine that which city bike was actually taken.
Speaker 1: Can we put a six please on the screen. This
Speaker 1: isn't uh, this looks like there was an analysis and
Speaker 1: it says I am fairly confident here that United Healthcare
Speaker 1: assassin was escaped on an electric city bike. It remains
Speaker 1: unclear right now because NYPD told Lyft, which operates City Bike,
Speaker 1: that their bikes don't appear to have been used in
Speaker 1: the shooting. So it's a little bit up in the
Speaker 1: air right now as to how exactly he was able
Speaker 1: to get away, because there was some at least initially
Speaker 1: there appeared like he was using some sort of electric
Speaker 1: bicycle to get away from the scene. But it's a
Speaker 1: little bit confusing in terms of whether this was correct
Speaker 1: or well.
Speaker 2: It's also like, I mean, if you're planning to do
Speaker 2: a targeted assassination, you probably have your bike already out
Speaker 2: of the dock, you know it run from another part
Speaker 2: of the city or whatever. So I don't know, I
Speaker 2: don't know if this is really relevant or not, but
Speaker 2: it does illustrate the point that you were saying, Zager,
Speaker 2: that like there's cameras on every corner, there's place everywhere,
Speaker 2: especially in midtown minute Like just as you guys understand
Speaker 2: if you aren't you know New York City people, like
Speaker 2: this is very close to Times Square, It is the
Speaker 2: tour's hub. Like I'm sure many people have stayed in
Speaker 2: that Hilton that I mean, I know it very well.
Speaker 2: I used to live very close to there. That is
Speaker 2: really well known and completely centrally located, and there's all
Speaker 2: kinds of police and surveillance and whatever around, And so
Speaker 2: for him to have been able to do this, you know, yea,
Speaker 2: I was kind of early in the morning, but in
Speaker 2: basically broad daylight, and have the skill and the wherewithal
Speaker 2: to get away, and still the police appear to have
Speaker 2: very little to go on is quite quite astonishing. To
Speaker 2: get back to some of the conversation about the reaction
Speaker 2: you had, that TikTok reaction, I honestly was probably most
Speaker 2: shocked by if we put a twelve up on the screen.
Speaker 2: And of course Kenklippenstein going hard in the paints during
Speaker 2: the pod, as he often does, but he he tweeted out,
Speaker 2: people loathe our healthcare system. The pearl clutches should ask
Speaker 2: themselves why what you're looking at? Here is the post
Speaker 2: from United Health Group, the company that he was the
Speaker 2: CEO of, on Facebook. Again, not an exactly bastion of
Speaker 2: the socialist revolution. It's a lot of like Maga Grandmas
Speaker 2: on Facebook frankly, and this was early on, the bulk
Speaker 2: of the reaction was the laughing emoji, and it had
Speaker 2: fifty five hundred people who had done that. The last
Speaker 2: I saw it, just from like eight hours ago, it
Speaker 2: was like eighteen thousand people who had posted the laughing emoji. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I know, there's like a lot of especially
Speaker 2: mainstream liberal journalists and politicians. I saw Dean Phillips, I
Speaker 2: saw Richard trre As, I saw some others who were
Speaker 2: kind of like, you know, tut tutting this reaction, and okay,
Speaker 2: fair enough, but you all are the people in a
Speaker 2: position of power to change this truly vile, destructive, damaging,
Speaker 2: deadly system, And like, what have you done other than
Speaker 2: many of you being complicit in blocking and quashing the
Speaker 2: movement that was, you know, pushing to totally overturn the
Speaker 2: system and make sure everybody has health care access like
Speaker 2: every other developed nation in the entire world. I was
Speaker 2: just looking up the stats just to check my memory.
Speaker 2: Forty percent of all bankruptcies are because of medical debt.
Speaker 2: Forty percent. You know what bankruptcy does? I mean that
Speaker 2: is so devastating, Like putting the denial of care and
Speaker 2: the sickness and the avoidable death to the side. Just
Speaker 2: that kind of crushing debt destroys people's lives, pushes them
Speaker 2: to suicide. So you know, this is this is a
Speaker 2: horrible evil set and there's something too about there is
Speaker 2: something about like the sort of banality of evil or
Speaker 2: the fact that this is a system that we've sort
Speaker 2: of accepted and the harm of it is kind of
Speaker 2: depersonalized that makes you know, politicians feel like, oh, this
Speaker 2: is you know, it's unacceptable to pin that blame on
Speaker 2: this one person. But you know, again, this is someone
Speaker 2: who was a powerful individual in an industry that has
Speaker 2: caused unbelievable damage to American lives, health, well being, etc.
Speaker 2: And so Democrats have effectively you know, I'm remember in
Speaker 2: twenty sixteen, Trump ranal, I'm gonna give everybody healthcare, and
Speaker 2: then he tries to repeal the Affordable Care Act. That
Speaker 2: doesn't work. He has his own health care plans, like
Speaker 2: a ten percent approve rating or whatever. He just gives up.
Speaker 2: Publicans gave up completely on healthcare. Now they're trying to like,
Speaker 2: you know, pretend like they care about legalizing raw milk
Speaker 2: or you know, getting the toxins ount of the food products,
Speaker 2: which seems unlikely that they're going to accomplish that. But
Speaker 2: they don't really have anything to say about healthcare. The
Speaker 2: Democrats have collapsed from They don't even talk about like
Speaker 2: a public option anymore. I mean, Joe Biden ran on
Speaker 2: a public option and as soon as the primary was over,
Speaker 2: that gets dropped. He doesn't talk about it at all anymore,
Speaker 2: never gets brought up during his tenure. And I think
Speaker 2: partly because of this whole like popular theory, they're like, well,
Speaker 2: if we lower the prescription drug prices on a few
Speaker 2: drugs for seniors only too, by the way, you can
Speaker 2: just run on that and that'll be enough. And I
Speaker 2: think very clearly from this reaction that is not enough.
Speaker 2: And so you know, not to turn everything into a
Speaker 2: freaking political point, but there is a political point to
Speaker 2: be made here, which is Democrats look at this energy
Speaker 2: that's out there to upend the system, to have some
Speaker 2: sort of something that approaches a more just and human
Speaker 2: first versus profit first healthcare system that is all out
Speaker 2: there for the taking. So as you wander in the
Speaker 2: wilderness and wonder what you can do to get back
Speaker 2: into political power, maybe try actually challenging powerful interests and
Speaker 2: trying to improve people's lives. Maybe try to write the
Speaker 2: injustices in a disgusting and vile healthcare system. Just a
Speaker 2: thought there for you as you move forward.
Speaker 1: It is I think it has now passed into the
Speaker 1: realm of just even interesting in the group, which and
Speaker 1: by the way, the crime itself is insane, right, is
Speaker 1: now into a sociological I've seen a lot of analysts
Speaker 1: and others just be like, hey, look like, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody's condoning this, but you've got to go out and
Speaker 1: take a look at some other response and just say like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is pretty crazy. It can tell you a little
Speaker 1: bit about something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this isn't just like the dirtbag left. This
Speaker 2: isn't just like the chopo guys.
Speaker 1: I will say, there is a lot of like really
Speaker 1: annoying just yeah, there's a lot of cosplay about there.
Speaker 1: It's like, okay, guys, you know, like let's let's keep
Speaker 1: it down a little bit.
Speaker 2: But some shit posts.
Speaker 1: Okay, look, you should post what you want. But then
Speaker 1: people should rightfully just be like, oh, it's a really
Speaker 1: interesting right in terms of what selective application of what
Speaker 1: good violence is or not whatever. We can get into
Speaker 1: that like a little bit later. And then, by the way,
Speaker 1: how did it all work out? Whenever you were all
Speaker 1: riot posting during BLM, the country was really with you,
Speaker 1: wasn't they. The point is is that clearly sociologically the
Speaker 1: response has been devastating. I would thank for the healthcare industry,
Speaker 1: for the public itself, and even for trying to solve
Speaker 1: the crime. That will be one where it like, I mean,
Speaker 1: just imagintive they are able to apprehend this person. You
Speaker 1: could imagine some sort of like trial by trial of
Speaker 1: the century type, you know, stuff in terms of him,
Speaker 1: you know, whoever this perfect trader is. Let's say he
Speaker 1: had a relative or himself was affected by the healthcare
Speaker 1: system trying to put them on Try, but it could
Speaker 1: become like a real thing if that does happen, And
Speaker 1: if they don't catch him, that's even more insane that
Speaker 1: somebody was able to get away with this. So we're
Speaker 1: some twenty four hours now post the shooting. NYPD basically
Speaker 1: has gotten nothing from what we're The only clue they
Speaker 1: have right now is that, you know, the carvings that
Speaker 1: were put on the bullet casing. So we'll keep everybody updated.
Speaker 1: But certainly you know, even when even when they do
Speaker 1: catch somebody as well, Like, there's going to be a
Speaker 1: lot of what's the.
Speaker 2: Story, what led? What led to take this action?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean this person put a ton of planning
Speaker 1: and time and know how into executing this, taking the
Speaker 1: time to literally etch things on a bullet that's some
Speaker 1: stuff out of like peaky blinds for people want to
Speaker 1: watch the show to send him out. Exactly. It's like
Speaker 1: literal joker stuff. That's that's like what that's what this is?
Speaker 1: So exactly what this is?
Speaker 2: All right, let's move on to the latest from Trump.
Speaker 2: We had actually a pretty positive pick for his cabinet.
Speaker 2: I'm going to get to some not so positive ones,
Speaker 2: but let's start with the good news here. Put this
Speaker 2: up on the screen. He's nominated Gail Slater as Assistant
Speaker 2: Attorney General for the Anti Trust Division at the Department
Speaker 2: of Justice. This is the position currently held by Jonathan Cantor,
Speaker 2: who's been a real warrior ally of Lena Khan in
Speaker 2: terms of the new anti trust movement. He goes on
Speaker 2: to say big tech has run wild for years, stifling
Speaker 2: competition our most innovative sector, and as we all know,
Speaker 2: using its market power to crack down on the rights
Speaker 2: of so many Americans, as well as those of little tech.
Speaker 2: I was proud to fight these abuses in my first
Speaker 2: term and under a Department of Justices Anti Trust team
Speaker 2: will continue that work under Gail's leadership. Gail previously served
Speaker 2: at the FTC in my National Economic Council, most recently
Speaker 2: advising JD Vance, so this is like a JD Vance
Speaker 2: ally it appears in his Senate office. Gail's also worked
Speaker 2: in the private sector in media at Fox, in the
Speaker 2: tech sector at Roku, and our new role, Gale will
Speaker 2: help ensure our competition laws our enforced both vigorously and fairly,
Speaker 2: with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity
Speaker 2: of our greatest companies. Congrat scale. Together, we'll make America
Speaker 2: competitive again. Is this someone that you had familiarity with previously, Sarka, I.
Speaker 1: Personally day Gaale. I know a lot of people who
Speaker 1: do know her. They speak very, very highly of her.
Speaker 1: She's kind of been in the big conservative anti trust movement,
Speaker 1: not a surprise by the way, that hated desperately by
Speaker 1: a lot of the Heritage Foundation types and others, but
Speaker 1: has been on the front market sign specifically on Google,
Speaker 1: Facebook and others. You also should take a look at
Speaker 1: the text there, which is very important of what Donald
Speaker 1: Trump actually said in his release, and he was specifically
Speaker 1: talking here about quote we will know big tech. Big
Speaker 1: tech is run wild and using its power market power
Speaker 1: to crack down on the rights of many Americans as
Speaker 1: well of those of little tech. So little tech has
Speaker 1: become an acronym kind of pushed forward by White Combinator
Speaker 1: and a few others, which is about the emergence of
Speaker 1: the startup eCos system and its inability to compete fairly
Speaker 1: on grounds. The reason little tech is actually so important
Speaker 1: I did a monologue about this previously with respect to AI,
Speaker 1: is that AI itself naturally lends itself to people with
Speaker 1: a shit ton of money, people like Amazon, Facebook and
Speaker 1: other BECs. The server cost is so high. The problem
Speaker 1: with that is that it means that whatever the next
Speaker 1: innovation is is likely to be built in house by
Speaker 1: these already massive giants. So what you want is actually
Speaker 1: to create an open source ecosystem which allows the emergence
Speaker 1: of new players and is not allowed to be totally captured.
Speaker 1: That is something that little tech has really become an
Speaker 1: important war in and actually it gets to Mark Andriesen,
Speaker 1: who we talked about previously has been a big little
Speaker 1: tech quote unquote fighter. But there are a lot of
Speaker 1: other individuals out there, Gary Tan who I recommend people follow.
Speaker 1: He's a head of y Combinator currently. Luther Lowe who
Speaker 1: currently works for y Combinator. He previously worked at Yelp.
Speaker 1: That guy's absolute anti trust warrior. People should go and
Speaker 1: follow him on Twitter. There are a lot of people
Speaker 1: here in DC and others who've been involved in this movement,
Speaker 1: and I would say this is a major victory for them,
Speaker 1: and it is interesting. It's an ideological fight. It also
Speaker 1: will show you what the Titanic showdown of the century is,
Speaker 1: because there's a reason that Mark Zuckerberg has his ass
Speaker 1: down in ma A Lago and that Jeff Bezos yesterday
Speaker 1: at the New York Times Deal Book conference was like,
Speaker 1: Trump is great. He's really learned about how to quash regulations.
Speaker 1: These people they know that this is probably the single
Speaker 1: largest existential threat to their business, Like if you really
Speaker 1: believe that AI is the future, which all of them do,
Speaker 1: and all of them have poured Matt billions of dollars
Speaker 1: of their profits into They don't have to do that.
Speaker 1: If they didn't think it would be commercially viable, then
Speaker 1: your inability to capture that future market would both kill
Speaker 1: your current investment and possibly could put you out of
Speaker 1: business in the future, or at the very least have
Speaker 1: to compete. God forbid that they would have to do that.
Speaker 1: So you have a lot of stuff going on right now.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of ideas about splitting Google Search away
Speaker 1: from Google Ads, or from the rest of the alphabet
Speaker 1: company a Amazon, which Bezos of course used to helm
Speaker 1: the ideas you would split like aws away from their
Speaker 1: retail business. There's a lot of unfair competition that happens
Speaker 1: in this sector. So anyway, I think it's I think
Speaker 1: it will be. It could be one of the most
Speaker 1: positive developments. And the fact that he picked her is
Speaker 1: a very very good So.
Speaker 2: I actually think this is a more important development than
Speaker 2: while you were out. We covered the Labor secretary who
Speaker 2: had like vote for the pro act, but then if
Speaker 2: you look at the rest of her record, she only
Speaker 2: has a ten percent record of voting with the AFLCIO,
Speaker 2: So Like backing the pro act was an attempt to
Speaker 2: win in the swing district. And also the Labor secretary
Speaker 2: is in a lot of ways less powerful than whoever
Speaker 2: you put in at the NLRB, So that one's still
Speaker 2: very like I'm not sure how much we're getting out
Speaker 2: of this one. This one, to me is more significant.
Speaker 2: You know, I take my cues on anti drust from
Speaker 2: Matt Stoller because he just knows way more about it
Speaker 2: than I'll ever dream of me.
Speaker 1: He's probably worked with you, and he.
Speaker 2: Clearly knows who she is, probably has worked directly with her.
Speaker 2: And it's funny because he had just tweeted like the
Speaker 2: Trump administration has studiously avoided put any economic populist into
Speaker 2: their administration, and then within minutes they made this pick.
Speaker 2: So you know, we should have overstate it because there's
Speaker 2: still very few people you would consider to be like JD.
Speaker 2: Van's allies who've been put into the administration. And those
Speaker 2: tensions you're talking about, I mean, that's not just outside
Speaker 2: of the Trump world. The Zuckerbergs and the Sunda Pachai
Speaker 2: who and Tim cook who or Tim Apple as Trump
Speaker 2: likes to call him, who you know, called Trump and
Speaker 2: are trying to get in good with him and trying
Speaker 2: to reassure him and make sure that their companies don't
Speaker 2: end up being targeted. But you know, obviously he has
Speaker 2: and we're about to get to he has a lot
Speaker 2: of billionaire, more libertarian minded people who are in his
Speaker 2: administration or who are influential with his administration, who are
Speaker 2: not interested in going in this particular direction. So you know,
Speaker 2: those typical like Chamber of Commerce business interests still have
Speaker 2: a lot of sway in the Republican Party in particular
Speaker 2: and in Washington in general. So this will be quite
Speaker 2: a battle to see how this all ultimately turns out.
Speaker 2: And let's get to the next one. Speaking of, you know,
Speaker 2: some of the ideological indications of this administration. This is
Speaker 2: zero surprise but still worth taking note of. So the
Speaker 2: current SEC Commissioner is a guy named Gary Gensler, who,
Speaker 2: among other things, has believed that cryptocurrencies should be regulated
Speaker 2: by the SEC, and the SEC, of the various financial
Speaker 2: regulatory agencies, is the most aggressive in terms of enforcement.
Speaker 2: That created all kinds of you know, conflicts and recriminations.
Speaker 2: There was a whole fight about, okay, which agency should
Speaker 2: really be regulating or not really regulating the crypto industry,
Speaker 2: and to be honest with you, probably whether it was
Speaker 2: Kamala or Trump, because the crypto industry has spent a
Speaker 2: lot of money in our electoral system on both sides
Speaker 2: of the aisle, you were going to get an se
Speaker 2: cheric who was going to be, you know, much more
Speaker 2: crypto friendly. And that is exactly what Trump has picked here.
Speaker 2: He picked Paul Atkins to run the SEC. They describe
Speaker 2: as a pro business conservative. He'd previously been an SEC
Speaker 2: commissioner under George W. Bush. And what he is known
Speaker 2: for is he's on the advisory board of securitized digital
Speaker 2: asset firm that promotes the use of digital tokens. He's
Speaker 2: considered to be very friendly to the crypto industry. Will
Speaker 2: probably push the regulation of this over to one of
Speaker 2: the other one of the other bodies that will do
Speaker 2: a lot less in terms of enforcement. And then one
Speaker 2: of the other big things they'll have to decide right
Speaker 2: away that's pointed out in this article is the SEC
Speaker 2: had filed charges against Coinbase, which is obviously a massive
Speaker 2: crypto exchange. They charged the company with violating securities law.
Speaker 2: We had covered this here by failing to register as
Speaker 2: a broker, allowing unregistered crypto assets to be sold on
Speaker 2: its platform. So that will be one of the first questions,
Speaker 2: and it's one of the current SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler's
Speaker 2: signature cases. Are they going to continue that high profile
Speaker 2: enforcement action. I would say it is very unlikely.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I mean listen for anybody he was paying attention,
Speaker 1: Tyler Winklevoss and Cameron Winklevoss and who else, all of
Speaker 1: the other the entire crypto industry. The Bitcoin conference. They
Speaker 1: did not give one million dollars to Trump for free.
Speaker 1: Donald Trump did not change his mind on crypto for free.
Speaker 1: I actually remember when he was president because I freaked
Speaker 1: out about it whenever he tweeted against bitcoin. Bitcoin itself, hilariously,
Speaker 1: is actually a very counter to Donald Trump. Donald Trump
Speaker 1: is obsessed with the strong dollar. That's why he loves tariffs,
Speaker 1: and that's why he wants to impose tariffs on the
Speaker 1: bricks countries who are pursuing an alternative currency. But the
Speaker 1: truth is is that the immense amount of wealth and
Speaker 1: bitcoin is now basically undeniable. As of this morning, bitcoin
Speaker 1: officially crossed the one hundred thousand threshold, something I wouldn't
Speaker 1: I never dreamed in a million years that I would
Speaker 1: actually get to see this day. I was shit posting
Speaker 1: memes about bitcoin goin to the moon when it was
Speaker 1: at nine thousand dollars. Just for context, I bought, I
Speaker 1: was talking about it. Should have listened, should have listened,
Speaker 1: bought my verse bitcoin. I think think in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: just four context, and I thought I was late. I
Speaker 1: was like, there's no way and it's all going to
Speaker 1: go to zero. So worked out. But the point is
Speaker 1: is that with bitcoin itself, it has now become extra. Look,
Speaker 1: I mean this is a multigajillion dollar industry because we're
Speaker 1: not even talking about bitcoin. We're talking about platforms like Gemini,
Speaker 1: which are owned by the Winklevy. Then you've forgot the
Speaker 1: coin coin base itself, multi billion dollar company. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is clearly here to say, there's just no getting
Speaker 1: around it. You've got bitcoin ETFs now that have happened.
Speaker 1: What the sec did just this is nerdy to stick
Speaker 1: with me, is that they decided crypto should be regulated
Speaker 1: as a security and that every transaction on the blockchain
Speaker 1: would have to comply with securities laws. There's a specific
Speaker 1: test that the Supreme Court has determined, or maybe some
Speaker 1: other court. I forget for the financial guys can explain
Speaker 1: it to me, but effectively, there's like a type of
Speaker 1: regulation which goes into play legally that requires an immense
Speaker 1: amount of compliance if you want to be able to
Speaker 1: transact like that. Under the current SEC regime, it has
Speaker 1: been the basically betmar of the crypto industry since that
Speaker 1: went into place in twenty twenty two under Gary Gensler
Speaker 1: to have that guidance reversed, and it was one of
Speaker 1: the main reasons that a lot of these Teche people
Speaker 1: decided to back Donald Trump. So again, they're going to
Speaker 1: get what they paid, that's right, and you know they're
Speaker 1: probably going to get some of it under Comblin they
Speaker 1: were Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean you remember Mark Cuban was sweating himself for SEC.
Speaker 1: That's why.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And you know, it was clear like there was
Speaker 2: a war on Gary Chenceler and that war had already
Speaker 2: been won before this election. And one of the seminal
Speaker 2: moments was because it's crazy because you have the whole
Speaker 2: Sam Bankman free thing, right, this massive fraud is exposed
Speaker 2: and how this was just like a house of cards
Speaker 2: and a total Ponzi scheme. And he goes to prison
Speaker 2: and you know, it's he's giving all kinds of money
Speaker 2: publicly to Democrats and more secret leader Republicans, and so
Speaker 2: you would have thought that that would have dealt a
Speaker 2: blow to their influence in DC, but not at all.
Speaker 2: On the contrary, you know, they sort of got smart
Speaker 2: from there. They lobby and organize super packs just like
Speaker 2: every other major interest. In fact, Crypto was one of,
Speaker 2: if not the largest contributor to the twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: elections by industry in this entire you know, in this
Speaker 2: entire election. But one of the seminal moments in this
Speaker 2: fight was Katie Porter, who had been you know, adversarial
Speaker 2: to them. And it's not like they're like, oh, we
Speaker 2: have to get rid of bitcoin. It's like we're going
Speaker 2: to enforce you know, securities regulations Asaba was explaining, using
Speaker 2: the sec and so they're more adversarial, is with Warren
Speaker 2: being part of that wing as well. So in any case,
Speaker 2: they dropped millions of dollars in Katie Porter's race and
Speaker 2: they were able to defeat her, and that really sent
Speaker 2: a chill across any legislator who had been more adversarial
Speaker 2: to Crypto, and since then they've all just been folding
Speaker 2: like a deck of cards on both sides.
Speaker 1: Of the aisle.
Speaker 2: So yeah, even before you know Trump made was able
Speaker 2: to win, they had already basically locked in a more
Speaker 2: friendly regime, whether it was Kamala or whether it was Trump.
Speaker 2: And of course we can't forget Trump himself has his
Speaker 2: own stupid crypto currency at this point as well, and
Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot that's disturbing about that in
Speaker 2: terms of the possibility for corruption. Last time in the
Speaker 2: Trump administration, the way for people to get in good
Speaker 2: with Trump was to stay at his hotel and like
Speaker 2: very like, you know, demonstrably and performatively spas day at
Speaker 2: his hotel and secure a large block of rooms and
Speaker 2: spend lots and lots of money. Now they can just
Speaker 2: buy a bunch of his crypto crypto coin what is it,
Speaker 2: is it called trump coin, whatever it is called. Anyway,
Speaker 2: they can do that. And there's already a lot of
Speaker 2: indication that that's already happening, by the way, So yeah,
Speaker 2: he's all in with them.
Speaker 1: Bristol is a Hawktua coin. Oh my god, she apparently
Speaker 1: Look I am pro.
Speaker 2: Look you kind of have to admire this lady for
Speaker 2: the way she's capitalized on her.
Speaker 1: I toltally about this morning. I've been involved in the
Speaker 1: sports gambling fight, and by the way, I will do
Speaker 1: a very long magnum opus about why sports gambling online
Speaker 1: is very bad. But honestly, I am just resigned at
Speaker 1: this point. Americans are obsessed with pissing their money away.
Speaker 1: I just don't know what to do at this point.
Speaker 1: Like they love weed, they are addicted to weed. They
Speaker 1: want to send it all to OnlyFans, addicts whenever they
Speaker 1: eventually win, only fans models when they win, they just
Speaker 1: want to gamble and to buy meme shit coins. It's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do at a certain point.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, should we just should we stop
Speaker 1: people from doing what they want at a certain point?
Speaker 2: Like I just don't know you were gambling right?
Speaker 1: No, But that's what I'm saying. I'm like, what what's
Speaker 1: the point of the fight at this You know, the
Speaker 1: token for Hawktua hit five hundred million dollars. That's how
Speaker 1: much people pumped into the didn't force anybody, no, not for.
Speaker 2: Like, but there have been a lot of like out
Speaker 2: and out SCA.
Speaker 1: I agree, but they want not people want.
Speaker 2: To be people want to be I think they do.
Speaker 1: I mean serious.
Speaker 2: Then the promise of crypto was always is like you
Speaker 2: know that, what is it? Fortune favors the.
Speaker 1: Brave, Ohscrypto dot COM's yeah, that's not to be confused.
Speaker 2: I know, But I'm just saying, that's like the ethos.
Speaker 2: You have a bunch of people who, you know, we
Speaker 2: have this society where it's impossible by a fucking house.
Speaker 2: It's impossible to afford healthcare, not like you know, die
Speaker 2: for one of coverage, et cetera. It's impossible ford an education.
Speaker 2: All these things take so many more years, wages don't
Speaker 2: keep up with inflation, and so this is like sold
Speaker 2: as a chance to be one of the players, like
Speaker 2: to have a shot. It's almost like a.
Speaker 1: Lot of ticket, right, Yeah, it's like, I mean that's.
Speaker 2: What it feels.
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 2: It is gamb I mean, it's gambling. It's not any
Speaker 2: different really than the sports betting thing. It taps into
Speaker 2: that same sense of like this at least gives me
Speaker 2: a chance of being able to make it and have
Speaker 2: the life that I envision for myself and my family.
Speaker 2: And I think anytime you're tapping into that, you know,
Speaker 2: it's I'm not saying I'm you know, more probably more
Speaker 2: libertarian on these things than you are. Soccer, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: say you should be banned, but it should be regulated.
Speaker 2: It should definitely be regulated. And obviously we've seen in
Speaker 2: our lifetimes how when a massive speculatory bubble emerges, how
Speaker 2: can be absolutely devastating, not only for the people who
Speaker 2: are directly implicable for the acconimulation.
Speaker 1: So that's my point, and that's why I get annoyed
Speaker 1: is everyone's like, let me gamble on my phone. It's like, okay, fine,
Speaker 1: but then don't come crying to me whenever we have
Speaker 1: to send police officers to your house because you're pissed
Speaker 1: drunk and you're beating up your wife and by the way,
Speaker 1: that's been happening tremendously all across the entire nation, or
Speaker 1: whenever you know you, you know you, you drink yourself
Speaker 1: near to death and we have to send EMTs and
Speaker 1: we have to pay for your health care bills, or
Speaker 1: I mean go on forever in terms of the social
Speaker 1: services that all of this stuff is going to cost.
Speaker 1: But people are addicted to it. I just I honestly
Speaker 1: I feel very blackpilled today just with the response on
Speaker 1: online gambling with you know this Hawkta thing, and it's
Speaker 1: like how many RUG polls do we go throughree twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: how many? And people are still doing it. I don't
Speaker 1: know should we save people from themselves at this point?
Speaker 1: Like what's the point. It's they're addicted to it. It's
Speaker 1: like whatever, I'm sure SOMEONEI clip this out.
Speaker 2: I think we should protect people from scammert.
Speaker 1: I agree with you, But they don't want to. They
Speaker 1: don't want it.
Speaker 2: But nobody wants to be one wants to be scammed,
Speaker 2: old lie.
Speaker 1: Every time you bet a parlay bet on sports gambling,
Speaker 1: you're getting scammed. Guess what the number one most profitable
Speaker 1: and most bet thing on sports gambling parlay bet. What
Speaker 1: are we supposed to do at a certain point, you know,
Speaker 1: they like it, they think it's fun. You know, it
Speaker 1: probably is whatever you put a little money into hawk
Speaker 1: Tour or whatever. Also, to be fair, when I pought bitcoin,
Speaker 1: it was specifically because of the the stateless promise. I
Speaker 1: never thought it would become some etf like gold speculative asset.
Speaker 1: Well I brought into the OG vision around the idea
Speaker 1: of like getting around the state people in Argentina used
Speaker 1: to buy houses.
Speaker 2: And at this point, I mean that's just that. I mean,
Speaker 2: that is a small percentage. It's just speculative, like you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's just it's just scambling.
Speaker 1: I think the promise of it is that now actually
Speaker 1: now it is so much money that you actually could
Speaker 1: start to use it. I mean, at this point, they're
Speaker 1: I mean a sizable portion of the world billionaires are
Speaker 1: now bitcoin billionaires. None of us will ever know who
Speaker 1: they are. But I mean once you once bitcoin crossed
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand, which it did in the last several hours,
Speaker 1: that's genuinely like a shocking moment for the world economy.
Speaker 1: If it ever passes five hundred thousand or a million,
Speaker 1: that's when you're I think the majority of the world's
Speaker 1: billionaires would be a bitcoin billionaires. So I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe it will change something. I still believe in some
Speaker 1: of that thing.
Speaker 2: Should be honest with the old days. I actually do too,
Speaker 2: maybe from a somewhat different, not that different though, perspective
Speaker 2: from you of like you know, using bitcoin to evade
Speaker 2: US sanctions regime and things like that, But like that
Speaker 2: part I support, you know, oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but remember the Canadian truckers thing, and like that
Speaker 1: was a real wake up call. Whenever they were still
Speaker 1: able to go down on the on the on the
Speaker 1: exchanges and be able to seize their crypto, there's still
Speaker 1: a long way to go. The point is is that guys,
Speaker 1: now we actually there's a ton of money out there.
Speaker 1: If you bought bitcoin, you know early there, you're sitting
Speaker 1: on some sizable profits. You could actually invest in some
Speaker 1: of this alternative ecosystem like you were talking about with sanctions.
Speaker 1: But I mean there's all use cases which on ironically
Speaker 1: could be good and I would like to see some
Speaker 1: of that, but unfortunately a lot of it has evolved
Speaker 1: into ft X hawk to me, what was the other
Speaker 1: one's Safe Moon? I think that was another favorite one
Speaker 1: that people were talking about. So anyways, look, I don't know,
Speaker 1: this is a long this is a more psychological thing.
Speaker 1: But I'm just I am a stunned and amazed at
Speaker 1: people's want an addiction to want to piss their money away.
Speaker 1: I don't get it.
Speaker 2: I do. I get it. It's because I mean it
Speaker 2: does come out.
Speaker 1: Of this like at a certain point, it's like.
Speaker 2: There's a few I mean, there's a few things. There's
Speaker 2: like I was saying this sense like I have no
Speaker 2: other shot, Like this is my shot. You know. It's
Speaker 2: the people that you see lined up at the gas
Speaker 2: station buying a lotto tickets like, yeah, you know it's
Speaker 2: this is this is my shot. It's that that same energy,
Speaker 2: and then you know there's a lot of sophisticated scammers
Speaker 2: out of there. Is definitely definitely part of it. And yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I think that we have a responsibility as
Speaker 2: society to at the very least try to regulate and
Speaker 2: protect people from the most overt scams and try to
Speaker 2: make them whole when they are scammed, rather than just
Speaker 2: being like, oh, well, you're an idiot and you shouldn't
Speaker 2: have gotten scammed, you know, because sometimes these things can
Speaker 2: be very sophistic and be targeted at any number of
Speaker 2: vulnerable groups who can be manipulated into thinking that this
Speaker 2: is their right shot.
Speaker 1: But even when it's regulated like lotto, they have to
Speaker 1: tell you the odds, right, how many people when I
Speaker 1: go to seven eleven to go buy a big gulp
Speaker 1: die coke, by the way, how many people are right
Speaker 1: next to me buying these scratch off lotto tickets. They
Speaker 1: know the odds and they still play it. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just don't. If you ever come into a Union station
Speaker 1: here in DC, they have a DC Lotto store, the
Speaker 1: line is out the door. For people who are purchasing
Speaker 1: these things, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Man, at least those usually go to fund like education
Speaker 2: in the state. Okay, you got to make likes. You
Speaker 2: think the rich people richerd.
Speaker 1: But think about how disgusting that is that Like here
Speaker 1: in the city of Washington, if you bet line out
Speaker 1: the door, half the guys are homeless. Okay, I mean
Speaker 1: they're the ones who are paying for it so people
Speaker 1: can go to school.
Speaker 2: Your No, I agree with. I mean, it is a
Speaker 2: tax on them poor, and that's why I think there
Speaker 2: should be a lot of protections in place. But I mean,
Speaker 2: do you have the same, Like do you think sports
Speaker 2: gambling should be banned? No?
Speaker 1: I think I don't think sports gambling online should be
Speaker 1: legal period.
Speaker 2: I don't think you don't think it should be legal.
Speaker 1: No sports gambling online? So like the difference is that,
Speaker 1: Look for vice, I have come to the terms. People
Speaker 1: are going to do it. There's nothing you can get around.
Speaker 1: You should have to go to a casino. A lot
Speaker 1: of the in the UK and elsewhere they have like
Speaker 1: physical shops in people's neighborhoods where you have to go
Speaker 1: to place your bet. And one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: is that online. First of all, the actual products that
Speaker 1: are sold to people online are the most degenerate, like
Speaker 1: horrible financial products that exist.
Speaker 2: So you are but so you are in favor of
Speaker 2: some level of protection from people.
Speaker 1: I mean, but they don't want it. If you put
Speaker 1: that on the ballot, it would go down by eighty percent.
Speaker 1: People love on the phone.
Speaker 2: I mean, but so, I mean, I'm just trying to
Speaker 2: see what if the position is consistent here. So when
Speaker 2: it comes to sports gambling, you want to have some
Speaker 2: level of protection people can't do it on their own
Speaker 2: right when it comes to like crypto gambling, which I
Speaker 2: think is the same.
Speaker 1: I'm pro regulation on a lot of this stuff. My
Speaker 1: point is just that I feel at a complete resignation
Speaker 1: of the fact is is that every single time this
Speaker 1: comes to a test of the Vox popular Life, people
Speaker 1: don't want more regulation. They want to be able to do,
Speaker 1: you know, whatever they want.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that. Soccer, I really don't know
Speaker 2: about that because I don't think people want to just
Speaker 2: be like fed to the wolves. You know, I think
Speaker 2: they want their shot. I think, yes, they want to
Speaker 2: be able to have that dream. And then it also
Speaker 2: gets a deeper, like you know, social conversation similar to
Speaker 2: the one we were having before, about how much of
Speaker 2: our social contract here is centered around like consumption and
Speaker 2: what that means, and also how difficult it is here
Speaker 2: to be able to just like achieve a basic you know,
Speaker 2: stability and like things like healthcare, and that contributes to
Speaker 2: the sense of desperation that leads you to take what
Speaker 2: would seemingly be irrational risks.
Speaker 1: Maybe, Yeah, certainly, this is a much deeper thing. I
Speaker 1: will do my magnum opus. I'm gonna ride it. It's
Speaker 1: gonna be like thirty forty minutes long. At this point,
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about it a lot. But you know,
Speaker 1: just to give you an example, sorry to monopolize this,
Speaker 1: I went on the Matt and Shane podcast, right, and
Speaker 1: this is the Ultimate bro podcast, and I use it
Speaker 1: intentionally as a platform to speak against the dangers of
Speaker 1: weed and of gambling. I have never received more hate
Speaker 1: in my life.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but then the audience.
Speaker 1: But that's why I did it. I did it with
Speaker 1: that purpose. Is I wanted to go into the Lions
Speaker 1: then yeah, and just be like, look, you're never gonna
Speaker 1: hear this from anybody else, at least in the circles
Speaker 1: that you people. Oh just oh, this is the fun police,
Speaker 1: buzz Killington and all of it. It's like, okay, it's
Speaker 1: like if if if your version of fun is coming
Speaker 1: home from work from an underpaid job, pissing your money
Speaker 1: away on alcohol and then getting on your phone to
Speaker 1: watch the game and then throwing even more of your
Speaker 1: money away on parlay bets, like what can I do
Speaker 1: for you at a certain and then getting mad by
Speaker 1: telling you you are losing money, you are wasting it away,
Speaker 1: you are taking away your chances to build a better life.
Speaker 1: I don't know. At a certain point, I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do a response I got to that it
Speaker 1: was shocking, it was hilarious. I mean, it is funny.
Speaker 1: I'll be fine, you keep doing what you want to do.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those where I don't know what
Speaker 1: at a certain point, how can you help people who
Speaker 1: actively want to participate in their own distruction?
Speaker 2: But it's so like, I mean, these companies, they spend
Speaker 2: so much money researching like how to tap into these
Speaker 2: deep human inclinations I know, and manipulate you. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's very similar with like, you know, the way that
Speaker 2: everything's gamified and algorithmically generated on the phone, and how
Speaker 2: impossible it feels as a parent to be able to
Speaker 2: like pull your kids away from the concert. It's the
Speaker 2: same like systems of dopamine that are just being manipulated
Speaker 2: by these companies. So I don't know, I have like
Speaker 2: I don't really get it myself. Gambling isn't something that
Speaker 2: has a poll for me, but I know enough people
Speaker 2: who for whom it it really does, had that pull,
Speaker 2: and I have a lot of empathy for that.
Speaker 1: I'm open about it. I like to go to casino
Speaker 1: and amble. I have set limits and all these other
Speaker 1: things around it. But you know what's so important about it.
Speaker 1: You have to go physically. You have to be around
Speaker 1: by the way other real degenerates. When you see people
Speaker 1: who haven't showered in three days, seeing that is really
Speaker 1: important because you're like, oh my god, I'm want to
Speaker 1: end up like this person. But when you're on your phone,
Speaker 1: you're the sucker. That's the thing. They don't tell you.
Speaker 1: You have no idea how many other suckers that are
Speaker 1: out there on top of you just talked about the algorithm.
Speaker 1: It's very true. They use it specifically, like exactly imagine
Speaker 1: Facebook adification applied to gambling. I mean the things that
Speaker 1: the DraftKings and FANDU will get away with. They dream
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas of being able to get away with
Speaker 1: the quote unquote hold of what they do, except it
Speaker 1: happens every day on the couch. I mean, I've talked
Speaker 1: about this before. New Jersey betters lost two hundred million
Speaker 1: in a single month betting online casino games on their phone. Total,
Speaker 1: they lost about five hundred million in the month of
Speaker 1: September just gambling. New Jersey is not a big state.
Speaker 1: That is, it's like a giant suck hole, like like
Speaker 1: of wealth predominantly from the least you know, what is
Speaker 1: it from the least affluent part of society, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know, you know, at a certain point, it just
Speaker 1: we could talk about this more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, little well, I just I would just actually I
Speaker 2: actually think the idea of you have to go to
Speaker 2: the casine. I don't think that's a bad idea. I'm
Speaker 2: kind of open. I'm like a little ambivalent because I
Speaker 2: got to think about it a little bit more, but
Speaker 2: I'm kind of open to that. I just you know,
Speaker 2: I also I feel a similar way about Like I
Speaker 2: don't feel any different about crypto betting and gambling than
Speaker 2: I do about online sports betting. I think it taps
Speaker 2: into the exact same thing, which is why I think
Speaker 2: it was important what Gary Kensler was doing, just to
Speaker 2: bring it back to where we started conversation. So let's yeah, indeed,
Speaker 2: we're gonna save the Trump billionaire cabinet conversation for I
Speaker 2: will hold that for one for next and maybe I'll
Speaker 2: do a monologue about it. But in any case, there's
Speaker 2: a lot of billionaires in Trump's cabinet, and that's something
Speaker 2: that we should be thinking about and what their influence
Speaker 2: is going to be. Elon Musk being the most important,
Speaker 2: you know example there, since he's literally the richest man
Speaker 2: on earth. Let's go ahead and move over to the
Speaker 2: democratic side of the equation, though here with Rama Manuel,
Speaker 2: who you know, extremely important in the Obama era, but
Speaker 2: really with this guy, you could go back to any
Speaker 2: number of democratic crimes that were committed against this country,
Speaker 2: including Naviga was important advisor under Bill Clinton as well,
Speaker 2: and you can find Rama Manuel there. There's all kinds
Speaker 2: of stories about him during the Obama administration. Apparently he
Speaker 2: did not want Obama to try to reform healthcare at all.
Speaker 2: He pushed against that. He famously, you know, we went
Speaker 2: out and recruited all these quote unquote like moderates, neo
Speaker 2: liberals who were very pro corporate. That was his whole
Speaker 2: orientation when he was, you know, running effectively running the party.
Speaker 2: And so now he is, he's actually ambassador to Japan's
Speaker 2: where the Biden administration stuck him after being mayor of Chicago.
Speaker 2: Very controversial tenure as mayor of Chicago, and now he
Speaker 2: has come back out of the wilderness, so to speak.
Speaker 2: David Axod floated him for d NC chair. He's already
Speaker 2: sort of rolled down. He doesn't want that particular position,
Speaker 2: but he's clearly trying to position himself as an important
Speaker 2: voice in the party going forward and probably for some
Speaker 2: new elected position. So he went on CNN and he
Speaker 2: made some of the most extraordinary comments, given his own
Speaker 2: complicity in the rage that this country justifiably feels about
Speaker 2: both the lack of accountability on the Iraq War and
Speaker 2: the lack of accountability with regard to the financial collapse.
Speaker 2: Let's take a listen to what he had to say.
Speaker 5: In Iraq War, which American people were deceived, spent two
Speaker 5: millions of dollars, thousands of soldiers lost their lives, people
Speaker 5: named for life were deceived and led into a war,
Speaker 5: and not one person responsible for that deception ever was
Speaker 5: held accountable. Six years later, the financial industry lies to
Speaker 5: the American people. People lose their homes, their livelihood, and
Speaker 5: the bankers are screaming for their bonuses.
Speaker 1: Nobody held accountable.
Speaker 2: He's right, but rom who was going to hold them accountable?
Speaker 2: You were chief of staff to Barack Obama when the
Speaker 2: decision to not hold these people accountable when those all occurred,
Speaker 2: whether it was the Iraq War or whether it was
Speaker 2: the scamming, the mass scamming, we're just talking about this
Speaker 2: on Wall Street of ordinary people that led to ten
Speaker 2: million homeowners being kicked out of their homes in a
Speaker 2: near global economic collapse and catastrophe which we are still
Speaker 2: recovering from, by the way, and which has created the
Speaker 2: entire political era that we live in right now. So
Speaker 2: for him to go on CNN Socer and just like
Speaker 2: you know, be able to correctly identify the problem and
Speaker 2: absolve himself of any blame or complicity on This is
Speaker 2: really quite extraordinary, and it's also very clear what he's
Speaker 2: doing because you have to say some of these things
Speaker 2: at this point, it's just undeniable. You have to say
Speaker 2: some of these things.
Speaker 1: But it's Fife twenty years too late.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, that, but also it's an attempt to rehab
Speaker 2: himself and his political project. The very people who made
Speaker 2: these disastrous and evil ultimately decisions at the time to
Speaker 2: rehab them and pretend like they were not themselves the problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and David Sirota makes a good point. Let's put
Speaker 1: that one up on the screen from C two about
Speaker 1: Ram Emmanuel saying, quote, it's the corruption stupid and you
Speaker 1: can see here former mayor Rom Emmanuel spend six hundred
Speaker 1: thousand dollars on sendoffs for himself weighing quote third term
Speaker 1: Emmanuel relies on campaign donors who get city hall benefits.
Speaker 1: Emmanuel was the quintessential Wall Street Democrat. I actually really
Speaker 1: recommend people go and read some early histories of the
Speaker 1: Obama era because rom is probably one of the most
Speaker 1: important people in that and he embodied the Clintonian machine.
Speaker 1: He worked for Bill Clinton and for Hillary Clinton. He
Speaker 1: was a bundler. He comes from a very powerful family.
Speaker 1: His brother Ari Emanuel is he's like the biggest superagent
Speaker 1: in Hollywood. He's like a he's like a billionaire, you know,
Speaker 1: head of wm E, etcetera. But the point is the.
Speaker 2: Other brother very involved in healthcare.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say, so his other brother, what's
Speaker 1: his name, Zeke? I think seek Emmanuel is Uh. I
Speaker 1: think he was the head of CMS or something like that.
Speaker 1: One of the most powerful people in American healthcare. These people,
Speaker 1: in particular Rom I mean, embodied the Terry mccaulliffe ideal
Speaker 1: of like wheeling and dealing and raising big money. I
Speaker 1: once saw big Terry in action at the Palm, and
Speaker 1: I've never seen anybody in more at home in Washington
Speaker 1: handing r machine.
Speaker 2: He loves to work a room.
Speaker 1: He's a fundraising machine. He live there. I asked, They're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy. This is regular table here at the Palm
Speaker 1: here in Washington, which is like a god, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. It's not even that great of a restaurant.
Speaker 1: It's fine. But anyway, that's the tradition that he comes
Speaker 1: from and the background in the ninety two campaign, and
Speaker 1: he was built up by the Clintons. So Obama really
Speaker 1: picked him because he wanted a wheeler dealer kind of
Speaker 1: Chicago connection as well to be there and lo and behold,
Speaker 1: look at the decisions that were made, you know, both
Speaker 1: in advisory over healthcare, but actually even more importantly it
Speaker 1: is about bailouts and about the general political direction of
Speaker 1: the Obama administration on Iraq as well. I mean, he
Speaker 1: was the chief of staff to Barack Obama when Obama
Speaker 1: decided the half ass maneuvers in Afghanistan, the surge, and
Speaker 1: then the nonser I mean, everything that happened under that administration.
Speaker 2: If you wanted to pinpoint, if you wanted to blame
Speaker 2: on one person, why Obama goes from running on change
Speaker 2: and being a different sort of politician to just being
Speaker 2: a continuation of the Clinton era. Like Rama Manual would
Speaker 2: be a good person to situate that, I would just
Speaker 2: I mean, yes, of course, ultimately, but you know, this
Speaker 2: is the guy who was the chief of staff, so
Speaker 2: he's involved in all of the staffing decisions, the you know,
Speaker 2: direction the administration, like he is at the scene of
Speaker 2: the crime on all of the bad decisions that were
Speaker 2: made in the Obama administration. So for him to come
Speaker 2: out and be like, you know what, people should have
Speaker 2: been held account was like, Oh, yeah, you think where
Speaker 2: were you when people during the Obama administration were not
Speaker 2: being held accountable? Oh, that's right, you were in one
Speaker 2: of the most powerful and influential positions in the entire
Speaker 2: United States government. I do want to say, in fairness
Speaker 2: to as Recline, I read the transcript of the entire
Speaker 2: podcast that he did with Rom Emmanuel, and he actually
Speaker 2: raises a good number of these points with Rom, and
Speaker 2: Rom totally tries to reinvent history for himself and position
Speaker 2: himself as like, well, I was there behind the scenes
Speaker 2: saying that we need some quote Old Testament justice, that
Speaker 2: that's what we need in this moment. But he goes
Speaker 2: on to say not even in the form of it's
Speaker 2: kind of a slight of hand here because he says
Speaker 2: we need some Old Testament justice when it comes to reform.
Speaker 2: But you know, this was not someone who was for
Speaker 2: breaking up the big banks. And even in this rehap,
Speaker 2: he doesn't say that any of these bankers should have
Speaker 2: gone to prison. He's just saying like, oh, we should
Speaker 2: have had we should have been more aggressive about how
Speaker 2: we messaged about reform. Basically is his take here. So
Speaker 2: I don't know what he has planned. We can put
Speaker 2: this up on the screen the Chicago sometimes say he's
Speaker 2: ruled out being DNC chair, but as far from done
Speaker 2: with politics, do you think this man? I think he
Speaker 2: might have the arrogance to think he could run for president.
Speaker 1: Oh definitely, because the.
Speaker 2: Other logical thing would be governor of Illinois. JB. Pritzker
Speaker 2: is already in there, and I think he can run
Speaker 2: for reelection again, and I think is planning to. And
Speaker 2: rom has already said he'll be one hundred percent behind JB.
Speaker 2: Pritzker were he to run for governor again. But maybe
Speaker 2: that's what he has in mind, is that governor cee
Speaker 2: baby JB is thinking he's going to run for president.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but you definitely have not heard the
Speaker 2: last of ram A manuals.
Speaker 1: He never gave up. By the way, it's funny, I
Speaker 1: just came from Japan. He pissed a lot of people
Speaker 1: off in Japan. Oh really, as our ambassador, Yeah, he
Speaker 1: did some social meddling over there where. It's it's complicated,
Speaker 1: but basically they were there debating gay marriage in Japan,
Speaker 1: and Rama Manuel tried to insert himself and he actually
Speaker 1: tried to like pursue like a big media profile. It
Speaker 1: actually caused like a major diplomatic incident in the country
Speaker 1: in general. From what I heard when I was at Tokyo,
Speaker 1: he's not one of the most well liked ambassadors to
Speaker 1: ever be in the country. It was actually weird that
Speaker 1: he decided to go over there at all, especially because
Speaker 1: maybe it was a decision by Biden to get him
Speaker 1: out of the country very very possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we were all, remember we were tracking closely
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the Biden administration, like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: they're going to bring Rama Manuel back because he was
Speaker 2: floated for a lot of like actually influential position. I mean,
Speaker 2: not to like downplay ambassador in Japan. I'm sure that's
Speaker 2: important blah blah blah, but it's not that influential in
Speaker 2: terns of unfortunate actual policy setting. So we were all
Speaker 2: kind of relieved. We're like, all right, fine and rams
Speaker 2: in Japan, let them deal with And my guess it's a.
Speaker 1: Side thing, but it's really sad. Actually, have you seen
Speaker 1: that show the diplomat I've only watched it now. This
Speaker 1: is terrible in my like, realistically, it's awful. I don't
Speaker 1: know about the actual plot. I just couldn't get over
Speaker 1: the differences. But the biggest conceit of the show is
Speaker 1: the idea that the ambassador matters and guys ambassadors have
Speaker 1: not mattered since Peple can pick up the phone and
Speaker 1: talk to each other, like ever since that red line
Speaker 1: or what was it the red phone between John F.
Speaker 1: Kennedy and Khrushchev that killed great ambassadorships. That's why billionaires
Speaker 1: love it because they get to go over there and
Speaker 1: just live in the official rent residence in Galivant around
Speaker 1: the country for like four years. But that's an aside.
Speaker 1: So anyway, the Diplomat fake show, completely fakeness.