00:00:00
This was all a giant roost. The day before it was 85% tariffs on Canada. The day before that it was revoking the citizenship of a talk show host because he doesn't like her. And tomorrow, Cara,
00:00:11
it's going to be something else. Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser and I just had
00:00:23
root canal. So let's be honest, that's a distraction from the Epstein Files and I'm not falling for it. There's there's sugar
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and d and coke falling for it. It's true. God, I have the worst teeth. Scott, do you have good teeth? I have
00:00:37
terrible teeth. My dentist told me this. God, I have I didn't go to the dentist till I was nine, at which point I had
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eight cavities and then I fainted in the um in the waiting room. So, no, I don't
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have good I don't we have the Galloways are not blessed with good teeth. Yeah. Okay. Listen to me. Listen to me,
00:00:56
Scott. Even though we're I'm incredibly unattractive right now and possibly drooling. I don't even know if I am. Do
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you know who's eyeing us from across the room? Who's that? Michael Barbaro. Oh, we love Michael.
00:01:08
I know. Here's what he said to us when asked which podcaster creator he would like most to collaborate with. Let's
00:01:14
listen to the dulit tones of Michael Barbaro. The king and queen of Pivot, Cara Swisser and Scott Galloway. I just think those two have an extraordinary
00:01:26
chemistry and a tremendous amount of wisdom and so I want to work with them. What does that mean? He wants to work
00:01:32
with us. Work what? Oh my god. First, so first off, I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to the daily. I absolutely adore it. It's
00:01:39
like listening to Chamomile T explain the Fed rate hike. Oh, it's I get the sense that guy I
00:01:46
don't know, Michael. I get the sense he's so woke that he records from like underneath a weighted blanket in between
00:01:53
panic attacks wondering if his cat's milk is ethically sourced. I can't even imagine how woke that dude is.
00:02:00
Oh, he's really nice guy. He's a nice guy. You know, you know what the the Daily is seriously like? I I love it. And I
00:02:05
listen to it. It's like having a your like smarter friend whisper in your ear, "It's worse than you think."
00:02:16
Will I stroke you? And sometimes, most of the time it's amazing. Sometimes though, it's literally like it took 23
00:02:23
minutes to give you the same vibe as a really good Slack emoji. It's like that took 23 minutes.
00:02:29
I know. I know. But it's I'm insulting him. He likes us. He's more handsome than us. He'd be the He'd be the
00:02:34
best podcast out there. And I It's number one. Apparently, we are. Let's just It's number one. No, it shifts back and
00:02:41
forth with Joe Rogan and different things, but um Huh. I love how he does that and pause. He pauses it and they know, you know,
00:02:48
they pause it. They like, "Okay, put in a huh right now." Yeah, that's it. That's it. Anyway, we have a lot to get to today.
00:02:53
Let's get besides Michael, we Anytime, Michael, call us. We're really easy. We're totally easy. Um Trump lashes out
00:03:01
at his base over the Epstein files. This is going on. And Grock goes to Washington. First, look, President Trump
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and Jerome is trying to speaking of a distraction, this is something that's been ongoing. He's been he said it's
00:03:13
highly unlikely he'll fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Let's just be clear, he's not allowed to. So, it is highly
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unlikely unless he comes up with some scheme despite reports that he was considering it, even showing a draft
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termination letter to a group of House Republicans to get their buy in. I guess after those reports rattled markets on
00:03:32
Wednesday, I mean the Dow dropped like a like a just like a lot like a lot. And Trump said in an Oval Office presser, "We're not planning on doing anything." At which point the markets bounced back.
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Trump also said he was surprised that Powell was appointed apparently forgetting he was the one who did that
00:03:49
back in 2017 and quite ausively. And actually there's video of him praising him with Powell standing behind him.
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He's strong. He's committed. He's smart and if he is confirmed by the Senate, Jay will put his considerable talents and experience to work leading our nation's independent central bank.
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Literally all these It's so interesting. He just he's the one who appointed him. He's pretending he didn't. He was like,
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I don't know who appointed him. And there he was. Trump has been slamming Pal for months for not cutting interest
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rates, calling him a major loser and a stubborn mule. He's now targeting the Fed's $2.5 billion renovation project,
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suggesting there might be fraud at play, which could be grounds for Paul Powell's ouster. It's ridiculous that everybody,
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the bankers are being public about it. Um, the Wall Street Journal is being very explicit. And Pal himself has been
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pretty vocal about Fed independence, which means serving out his full term, which is up next year. It's not that
00:04:45
long. Let's listen what he said to the Economic Club of Chicago back in April. Our independence is a matter of law. Um,
00:04:53
Congress has in in our statute, we're not removable except for cause. We serve very long terms, seemingly endless terms.
00:05:03
Um, so it's we're protect protected in the law. So, you know, Congress could change that law, but there's I don't
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think there's any danger of that. Fed independence has pretty broad support uh across both political parties and in in
00:05:18
both sides of the hill. So, I think that's not a problem. Yeah. Jamie Diamond, Goldman Sachs CEO
00:05:23
uh David Solomon, other the bank CEOs would touting Fed independence. Uh even secretary of the Treasury Scott Besson confirmed to Bloomberg that the formal process of finding Palace successor has
00:05:34
begun, but he didn't say that Powell should come out. He didn't name any candidates. Reports suggest that Kevin
00:05:39
Hasset, director of National Economic Council, is a top contender. Kevin Warsh, former Fed governor, is also in
00:05:45
the mix as is Bessant himself. So what what what is happening here? And then who which of these do you think he will name? Uh I I think I know exactly what's going on here. It's
00:05:56
Tell me. Well, it's as if we're at the Nerburgg trials and one of the people on trial
00:06:01
starts playing the kazoo hoping that we'll all forget why we're there. It's a magician sawing his assistant in half
00:06:09
and then yells out Benghazi hoping that people will look away. This is what is going on at the White House right now.
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It's his comm's team and uh Claude or Chat GPT saying what can I do every day? What can I announce every day that will capture the media's attention such that they look away from the Epstein files?
00:06:29
Look at how he look at how he this has nothing to He's been at this for a while. Like Scott, he has he's been at before
00:06:37
Espine, but go ahead. He waves a letter talking about the firing. waves a letter. Yeah. Thinking that that everyone from Vox Media podcasters to the New York Times
00:06:48
to CNBC will go, Chairman Pal, he's threatening to fire him. And then the next day he goes, "Oh, no. I was just
00:06:54
kidding." This was all a giant roost. The day before it was 85% tariffs on Canada. The day before that it was revoking the citizenship of a talk show host because he doesn't like her. And
00:07:05
tomorrow, Cara, it's going to be something else. He is in a room. Coca-Cola didn't turn out to be true.
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That's the only one I liked. He is in a room. Oh yeah, that's right. We have a new trade agreement to uh
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change the sugar cane or sugar make it Mexican coke. Make it Mexican coke. Every day his comm's team and this is all he cares about right now is saying putting into chat GPT what will the
00:07:28
media go for in order to ensure that the story of Epstein is pushed out of the news cycle. He had no intention of doing this before the market's reaction. and he has no
00:07:40
legal authority whatsoever to start revoking citizenship for no real reason. And tomorrow it'll be something else.
00:07:46
This is something illegal. This is Make a guess of what it is. Give me Give me one. If you're sitting in
00:07:51
there, what would you tell him to do? I think he's going to announce like a 700% tariff on
00:07:57
um you know, SUVs or something. I mean, it's just getting it's getting so ridiculous and weird and crazy. What's
00:08:04
amazing to me was that the market responded that it's still the market's still taking this guy seriously.
00:08:10
Yeah. But every it wasn't for a minute and now it was like every 24 hours. First off, he and uh you know the wealthiest man in the world are such attention [ __ ] They are addicted to
00:08:22
attention that a heroin addict will shoot up heroin going this is a bad idea. I've
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got my kids for the weekend and my in-laws are coming over. This is probably not a good idea to shoot up but
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they can't help it. They're so addicted. These guys are so addicted to attention that they'd rather get attention for
00:08:38
something that makes them look stupid than not be in the news cycle. And he now has a very valid reason because I
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I'm not, you know, the one conspiracy I've always held on to. Okay, we're going to get to Epste in a
00:08:49
minute, but go ahead. Keep going. But this is what's going on, Cara. Okay. This has this has nothing to do with the
00:08:55
chairman. So he But he will stay there. You don't he there's no way. Hold him. Look. Okay. So let's go to the substance of the issue. The majority of nations that have grown their economy faster
00:09:06
than the rest of the world have one thing in common. One, uh, they are in fact democracies. China's an exception,
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but the majority of the economic growth around the world has come from nations that decide that they're going to
00:09:18
democratically elect their leaders. They have great universities. They're usually blessed with natural resources. They
00:09:24
have the wisdom to engage in alliances so so they can trade. They bring women into the workforce. I mean, there's just a few. They have civil rights. There's a few things that are the underpinnings of
00:09:35
economic growth. And one of those things is an independent Fed. Because here's the bottom line. If you let the
00:09:41
government decide what to do with respect to our economic policies and our fiscal policies, you end up with George
00:09:48
Washington to George Bush, $8 trillion in deficits. And then you end up since George W. Bush with another 30 trillion
00:09:54
in deficits. The reason why every fiat currency in history, and it'll happen to the dollar, ends up being worthless, is
00:10:01
that the political pressure to increase short-term prosperity by printing money or lowering interest rates is greater
00:10:09
than these elected leaders fidelity to the long-term interests of the country. And so when we let politicians who have
00:10:16
two and four and sixyear cycles make these decisions, we end up making short-term bad decisions that hurt the country in the long term. So the best practice, one of the key best practices
00:10:28
across almost every G20 country is they say it's there's too much temptation for
00:10:34
the leader to want to get reelected and give a short-term sugar high and lower interest rates. And I taught I taught m
00:10:41
micro macroeconomics in graduate school and they will be teaching in graduate school for years this period where
00:10:48
Jerome Pal managed to take inflation from 9% to 2% without triggering a recession. That's like literally like sticking the landing. But that said, the impact of Trump's
00:11:01
policies over the last few months is starting to show up in the economy. New data out this week is inflation ticking up in June. Prices also rose in
00:11:08
categories affected by tariffs like toys, furniture, and appliances. The job market is starting to show some cracks
00:11:14
where they're indicators that consumers are reigning in spending. Still, the economy is holding up better than
00:11:19
expected. Economists now see less risk of a recession they did three months ago, as you noted, according to a Wall Street Journal survey. Um, is there
00:11:27
another shoe to drop, but banks are riding the volatility? Goldman Sachs just has posted the best ever quarter
00:11:33
for stock trading and several other banks beat earnings expectations. And at the same time, Trump is threatening new
00:11:39
sanctions on Russia. You know, another economic probably maybe not so much for our economy. If there's no peace deal with Ukraine in the next 50 days, he says he'll launch a secondary tariff
00:11:49
slapping 100% on countries that continue doing business with Russia. That would mean countries like India, China, Turkey
00:11:55
face heavier tariff, heavy tariffs for buying Russian oil. a move that could trigger a global spike in energy prices.
00:12:01
I doubt I'm not sure Putin cares, but talk about these circumstances. Where are we with the economy from your perspective? The real question on everyone's mind right now, or the most important
00:12:12
question we should be asking ourselves is that at this moment, Cara, is Michael Barbaro touching himself? He's back. He's back.
00:12:23
The answer is yes. Da da. The answer is always yes. But go ahead. Well, look, the economic data that came
00:12:30
out, I I looked at it and I thought, okay, this is the ultimate anger pillow for the far left and the far right.
00:12:36
There's some indication that certain items, especially the ones subject to tariff, had a greater increase in
00:12:42
inflation, but at the same time, catastrophists like me are disappointed because the reality is inflation at I
00:12:47
think at 2.7 or 2.8 just isn't that big a deal. and the economy has been more resilient than people who are kind of in
00:12:55
the back of their minds looking for some shot and Freud of the economy collapsing and blaming it on Trump. So
00:13:01
yeah, it justline everybody, but go ahead. The headline and I haven't seen the headline. The headlines from Fox will be
00:13:07
economy resilient. The headline from CNN will be inflation rising. This is there's something in here for everyone. There's a little bit of data showing that the tariff sensitive goods services
00:13:18
went down. They're not subject to tariffs. Some of the some of the industries subject to tariffs have shown
00:13:24
have shown a little bit of a spike in price, but the reality is we're not going to probably see the effects of
00:13:29
this or not until the fall because it takes a while for it to snake through snake through the economy. The Russia
00:13:36
thing when I immediately knew that the war was not going to end was when I saw Chiron yesterday saying that Trump has
00:13:42
demanded that Putin end the war in 50 days. That is just so [ __ ] stupid. Mhm. You really think the Russian people have endured over a million deaths andor
00:13:53
casualties and you think that he's going to scare when the president says it needs to end within 50 days? The the the
00:14:01
interesting thing though, I mean, Russia's economy does you want to talk about an economy that appears to be
00:14:06
cracking. The ruble shot up. It's now back to being worth less than a cent and it did recover a little bit. But this
00:14:13
this war is really I mean I can't believe they lost what did they lose 17 or 18,000 people in Afghanistan. They
00:14:19
backed out. They've lost a million people here and it feels as if the economy is really starting to so show tracks there. And I've I've said this for a long time.
00:14:30
I think that both Biden and Trump to a lesser extent but they both deserve credits. The greatest investment in
00:14:36
terms of ROI in the last 20 years for America has been the 50 or 60 billion a year or about I don't know 8% of our military budget that we have given in weapons. That is sort of a stimulus to
00:14:49
red states and weapons manufacturers in the US. There's no way Syria would have gone. There's no way we would have been able to take out Iran's air defenses. It
00:14:56
has sent a message to China to be very careful. be very careful invading a motivated,
00:15:03
technically literate Taiwan. This has been NATO is coming together. Europe has been inspired to increase its defense spending. This has been the best investment Americans could have made.
00:15:13
And all by by the way, we did this without putting a single boot on the ground. And you watch what we're going
00:15:19
to see in terms of technical innovation around drone technology. So I I I think this is uh there are never good wars, but there are less bad
00:15:31
wars. The war, the support of Ukraine and the incredibly brave people there is the least bad war in a while.
00:15:38
Yeah. Although the devastation obviously is horrific. Um I think they'll come bouncing back like that'll be the place
00:15:44
to be in 10 years. you know, Ukraine K full of technologists, full of I just they are they are a very innovative uh country in terms of they were before and
00:15:55
now I think more than ever they're very technically oriented. So I think you'll see a a piling of Silicon Valley people
00:16:00
in there. Uh similar to Latvia, Estonia, all those countries, but Ukraine will be
00:16:06
a really I think a centerpiece of that when this war is over. Anyway, we'll see. But let's get to the real thing,
00:16:12
which is Epstein. When we get back, we'll talk about the drama that's not going away anytime soon. Scott, we're
00:16:19
back with more news. The Epstein mess continues since we last spoke. Obviously, we taped on Monday, appeared
00:16:25
on Tuesday. Since we last spoke, House Speaker Mike Johnson has broken with Trump and is calling for the administration to release the Epstein files. That said, he voted against um do
00:16:37
doing a debate about whether to release them or not, which is interesting. But Republican representative Thomas Massie,
00:16:43
who's a real thorn in in in Trump's ass, of Kentucky, is attempting to force a vote on the House directing the DOJ to release the files. The measure has been co-sponsored by at least five other
00:16:54
Republicans. Interestingly, almost three minutes of footage is wiped from the video released
00:16:59
by the DOJ of Epstein Seldor, according to the forensic experts working with Wired. Moren Comey, the federal Manhattan federal prosecutor who worked
00:17:10
on the Epstein case, has been fired. Yes, she is the daughter of James Comey. She also worked on the Diddy case.
00:17:17
Meanwhile, President Trump has called the story Democratic [ __ ] and pretty boring stuff, labeling those who are
00:17:23
invested in as weaklings and stupid. the Democrat stuff isn't working very well that the because one incredible thing is
00:17:30
that is Bill O'Reilly wasn't going on about how this was the Biden administration doing all this and the anchor was like this was all under the
00:17:37
Trump administration. It was he he died under the Trump administration. He was prosecuted under the Trump
00:17:42
administration and all of a sudden Riley went oh like speaking of old man he got
00:17:48
it completely wrong. Uh anyway it's not a Democratic thing. This is this was all done under Bill Bar and everyone else.
00:17:55
So any change in opinion on whether Republicans would be pushing him because as I predicted Laura Ingram, many others
00:18:01
sort of tamped it down. It looks like Dan Bunino is not going anywhere. I said they were all going to going to bow
00:18:07
down. That said, I don't know if they'll bow down for too long. Um so any and obviously Elon is not bowing down at
00:18:13
all. He is tweeting up a storm about this and he made a very good point that essentially deny everything. uh make
00:18:21
other allegations and try to make it go away. And he said it's not going to work this time. Um and he's pushing on it
00:18:27
really hard and probably changing the algorithms of X to to to push a lot of this stuff because it's good for X. I
00:18:33
hate to say it, but uh he's certainly not backing down and neither are many others. Uh any thoughts? Alex Jones is
00:18:39
is not at all, but I'm not sure he matters as much. This is a rare he's an incredible communicator kind of going
00:18:47
I mean what Trump has done is there's always I I think the learning is that when everyone is zigging there's always
00:18:54
a huge opportunity to zag that when everybody is is following one strategy or one investment thesis then it creates
00:19:01
enormous alpha and upside to go the other way and Trump Anthony Scaramucci pointed this out and I thought it was so remarkably insightful that basically every politician in the world says something along the following. I'm
00:19:14
socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I mean, what does 80% of America say
00:19:19
that? If you want to describe their politics and they don't want to assign themselves to a party, they go socially liberal, fiscally conservative.
00:19:25
Actually, that's not true, but go ahead. It's the opposite. Most in the middle, they're more socially conservative and
00:19:32
fisc they want more medication. That's where I was headed was that Trump decided no, the opportunity is to be
00:19:39
fiscally liberal. Keynesian socialist irresponsible uh fiscal policy, shower money on everyone, increase the size of
00:19:50
government, run up deficits. This is like if the Democrats all of a sudden said, "Oh, we are in charge and we can
00:19:57
just continue printing money and all of a sudden the Democrats are now the adults in the room going, "Oh my god,
00:20:02
this has gotten out of control." He's also he zags around communication. Uh, American politics got so politically correct and starched and there were so
00:20:13
many lies and telling people what they wanted to hear and couching everything in in, you know, passive aggressive
00:20:20
behavior and he just came out and said, "Oh, she's fat or he's an idiot." Yep. Or and America quite frankly just loved it. They absolutely loved it. Yeah. where he is really, this is such a
00:20:34
rare misstep for him because if he had just taken the approach of say his taxes, he was never going to release his
00:20:40
taxes. Mhm. But he lied comparison. Yeah. He lied and said, "Oh, of course I'm going to release them and then and then
00:20:46
wink wink behind the scenes, don't ever [ __ ] release my taxes." If he had done that here, eventually this would
00:20:52
have gone away. But he became so defensive and obviously guilty. I was guilty. It
00:20:59
looks like when I walk in and my dog, my dog Leia, my great Dane, has gotten into the trash. I know it. She's She's
00:21:05
sulking around like uhoh. Won't make eye contact. Putting her hind quarters look
00:21:10
the dog look. He He looks like this times 10. He has fanned these flames unbelievably
00:21:17
and handled it so poorly. He He could not I think I said this on Monday. If someone had said to him, if he had said, "Tell me, give me the body language, the statements, and the complexion of
00:21:29
someone who is clearly guilty of something and freaked out about it." That is how he has behaved.
00:21:35
So, what should he do? Say again, as I said, should he just say he's going to release them and then not release them
00:21:41
or agree with his people and say it's terrible, nothing can be done about it? I mean, in this case, he does have the
00:21:48
power to release it. So, it's really hard to say, "Yeah, I agree. we should release it and then not release it cuz he's the one who promised it in the election. He's the one who talked about
00:21:59
it incessantly. He's the one who trained his followers to be conspiracy theorists, right? And these people are
00:22:05
committed cons more committed to the conspiracy than they are to him at this point. It's just just so weird about
00:22:12
this and the statement about what it says about our politics and that is first off what do you know the first
00:22:18
bipartisan action or the first demonstration of bipartisanship in this [ __ ] up electoral body is over a conspiracy. That's what it took to bring
00:22:30
Democrats and some Republicans together was a conspiracy. And what's weird about it is I get the sense that they're not
00:22:36
the people who are so outraged about this. They're not outraged that they want to know if these people are guilty
00:22:43
of raping children. They want to know if their conspiracy is valid. It's not It's
00:22:49
just so strange. And and also what I don't get as a following and why I believe wow there may be a there there
00:22:59
is that if he had just done what any number I mean at some point this island looked like a little bit like what you would imagine Davos would look like except with bathroes and ankle monitors.
00:23:11
I mean these this gathering there were so many people there that are really powerful and the majority of them have said yeah I [ __ ] up. I thought it was going to be a good time and a good party
00:23:22
and that everybody else, you know, was going. Keep in mind, Cara, this is a country that has forgiven him after he
00:23:28
was found liable for sexual abuse and he thinks this is worse. So, how could it be worse?
00:23:34
Yeah. Who'd have thought that someone who had What are your thoughts here? I think I I I'm fascinated how interested I am now
00:23:41
in understanding. I think there's a huge opportunity here for uh fraud that he will that they will release certain things because he keeps saying he she can release the credible things, right?
00:23:53
And so I think there's there was a joke I thought Jordan Ker did a great job uh talking about that they're going to try
00:23:59
to fake things like fake conversations and things like that. There's a huge opportunity for manipulating this
00:24:05
information if it does get released. So be dubious of me some of it and creating
00:24:10
kind of a mess so you don't know what's what. There's a huge opportunity for really hurting people that are not guilty who just stupidly went to his
00:24:18
island. At the same time, it it a lot of it probably is is probably worse than you think, right? What this guy has on these people cuz he was operating for decades, by the way, Jeffrey Epste. It
00:24:30
wasn't a short time. And people kept going after he was convicted and in a in a sweetheart deal. All the people in Florida were involved in the sweetheart deal, including uh one of Trump's former
00:24:41
C cabinet members, and so and ended up having to leave because of it. I think Trump is
00:24:48
he's acting guilty because he is guilty. And the question is what is he guilty of, right? What exactly is he guilty of?
00:24:55
And what proof is there? Why hasn't the proof come out till now? You know, you'd think this stuff would come out and it's
00:25:01
kind of interesting that it hasn't. That's another thing. The other thing is he he keeps saying if credible evidence
00:25:08
like what is that what does he say? Everything he says I pay attention to. Um I think it's a big giant mess and in
00:25:14
in If I were him, I'd let it all out like and and let the chips fall where they may and make it confusing for everybody. Make them make it a bigger hot mess than it is. Um I think it's not
00:25:27
going to go away. The the Morin Comey thing I Why would you do that? Why would you file the prosecutor of Galain
00:25:33
Maxwell? Is he preparing to pardon her? And I think Let me just say I think Elon
00:25:38
has a very good point. What is she doing in jail? He's calling it a hoax. The whole thing. Why is Gilane Maxwell in
00:25:44
jail if it's a hoax? I I'd like to know. Well, and again, if the if the election
00:25:49
was stolen in 2020, how many people have been arrested? Zero. Anyway, so again, what is what is uh Moren Comey's firing
00:26:00
again. Start playing the kazoo. Mhm. Do you think it was an accident that he fired her uh yesterday? No, I just think what's interesting is a firing of
00:26:11
federal prosecutor and a tape gap. That reminds me of someone Nixon. You know how in Godfather 2, uh, the Robert Dval character visits that guy in
00:26:21
in witness protection or in prison who's going to testify against Michael Corleon and Robert Duval, the concentration
00:26:30
Rome, they used to kill themselves and then their families would be taken care of. He basically says to him, "If you
00:26:36
kill yourself, we'll take care of your family." I think something along the lines of, "Uh, all right, if you want to
00:26:43
kill yourself, we'll figure out a way such that no one gets in the way." But something went on here. This is just two
00:26:49
cameras, two guards, and and through just a series of very, very unlikely events, he was able to do this. This is
00:26:57
I mean, this really is the stuff of conspiracy theory. It's it's just sort of like you read about this and there's no less than probably a dozen or two dozen people.
00:27:07
If someone came to that person and said, "Oh, by the way, if somehow $10 million ends up in a Swiss banking account, this
00:27:14
guy's going to end up dead." I think there's a lot of people who were on that island who would probably nod.
00:27:19
So, this is, and again, I come back to the same thing. First off, the Comey thing was another one of his attempts at
00:27:26
distraction, hoping that the media would pick up on it. If I had to guess, he slept with someone underage and they
00:27:32
there is proof of Yeah, that's called that's called rape, right? Raping kids, raping children.
00:27:37
That's what I'm saying. That I I think that is that is what is his Well, that's what everyone's guess is. That's it wasn't it wasn't that he it wasn't that he had mushroom chocolates on the
00:27:49
island and watched the sunset. I mean that that it's not this is he is really worried here and you think well maybe he's worried about his friends. He doesn't give a flying [ __ ] about it. A special counsel.
00:28:02
What? But who did you see Lauren Boowart's suggestion? Matt Gates hire hire a special counsel. But how
00:28:08
special would that council be? I know Matt Gates was her suggestion. She's such a bubblehead man. She's such
00:28:14
a Yeah. I don't know that Yeah. I don't think you hire Although he'd know how to find it. He'd know
00:28:19
Yeah. Look, appointing Matt Gates to the special counsel is like trying to diffuse a bomb by strapping it to your ex-wife. I mean, that just I thought that was
00:28:30
funny. Um, this is that you're not really trying to solve the problem here. You're trying to you're
00:28:36
trying to kill two birds with one stone. Just be so bad. Oh my god. Can you imagine? And of course, he gets sucked up into it because of course it'll it'll start talking about his problems. Same pro similar problems.
00:28:49
Wait, we're going to have a special counsel. Make it a special counsel who was accused and investigated and I think
00:28:54
he was cleared to be fair of the crime he'd be investigating. Mhm. Anyway, I don't know. Who knows what next? What's the next thing? Just very quickly and we'll move
00:29:05
on. Well, I know what the next thing is. Something [ __ ] outrageous and stupid that we all go over here. So, we're not
00:29:11
talking about Epstein. I don't think anyone's going over here. I know, but Well, okay. But I I was
00:29:16
working out with my son yesterday and the Chiron and CNBC and CNN all talking about Chairman Pal. He's not going anywhere. No, nothing is different about Chairman Pal's job than it was 48
00:29:29
hours ago except it's crowded out more and more reporting about Epste is what I meant. And Epstein's not going anywhere
00:29:35
until the files are released. That is it. You That's what you think. You think this is going to There's no There's no It's not dying. I mean, the Fox News is,
00:29:42
you know, interesting. The other day they were they were counting Fox News and it mentioned Epstein four times
00:29:47
because Trump said something and Biden 52 times. It was crazy. They're trying very hard. They a lot of conservative
00:29:54
media is very nervous about what to do here because they love the conspiracy theory but they don't love that it's
00:30:01
linked to Trump so closely now. Um, so it's going to be hard for them to figure out what do although the Wall Street Journal certainly uh has been aggressive in covering it, but still not heavily,
00:30:12
not as heavily as it should be. They sort of give it glancing attention. So, it'll be hard for all these conservative
00:30:18
media uh things, but I think it's going nowhere until they release the files and then that will take up all the time. And
00:30:24
now Trump's whole administration is Epstein. That's it. That's all it is for until the midterms. I think I don't
00:30:31
think it's going away like his other most of his stuff moves on. It this is not moving on, but we'll see. We'll see.
00:30:38
And another news, defense department is going to start using Elon Musk's favorite chatbot, Grock, which is interesting because Elon's really
00:30:44
attacking Trump. X AI announced this week that it secured a $200 million contract with DoD to develop and implement AI tools for the agency. Anthropic Google and OpenAI were awarded
00:30:55
similar contracts. Uh, a XAI is also rolling out Grock for government, a suite of products that can be customized
00:31:02
for specific uses across science and healthcare and other sectors. Uh, and I suppose it can go into Hitler mode if it
00:31:08
needs to. And that's not all. The latest Grock update includes companions for super GRO subscribers. An anime girl and
00:31:15
a panda. They're already doing all sorts of problematic things. I'm not going into it. What happens? We'll see. when
00:31:21
it gets into the government, I don't think they're capable of making a commercial product or product for
00:31:26
government, but so far they haven't been able to. Your thoughts? Any quick thoughts? Well,
00:31:33
initially in order to try and quell concerns about AI and stave off any possible regulation, literally all of
00:31:39
them, whether it was Llama or Anthropic or or Chat GPT, all had language um that essentially said it that they would never use their models for military warfare or nuclear industries.
00:31:52
They have all all recently changed that language or gotten rid of it because there's money here and big money. So the all of those I mean all of them were
00:32:03
like this is dangerous. We realize it's dangerous. We will never use it for military applications. And they're like
00:32:08
oh there's a there's a check here. Get rid of that line. I'm going to do the Michael Bar.
00:32:15
So what you're saying is what you're saying is Scott that they're greedy [ __ ] Yeah. So what you're saying is even
00:32:22
though he's claims to be a heterosexual, if you have a dreamy salt and pepper beard, he'd go there. He'd go there.
00:32:28
Anyways, poor Michael Bar. The last thing anyone's going to do now is compliment
00:32:33
us. Literally, the last thing anyway, he is exquisite. No good deed goes unpunished, Michael.
00:32:39
Exquisite, Michael. We think you're exquisite. But also I personally I really uh endorse and in favor in in favor of this intersection which for some reason
00:32:51
we have avoided between our nation's most innovative companies and our military-industrial complex. I think
00:32:58
other nations are trying to figure out I mean one of the learnings we're going to take away I think from the war we were
00:33:04
talking about the war in Ukraine is the following uh that just stating you're going to increase your military budget
00:33:11
by 120 billion that's again drunk uncle practicing his karate in front of everybody thinking it's karate the lesson you can take away from
00:33:21
the war in Ukraine can come down to one word asymmetric and that is there have been $300 drones that have taking out $3
00:33:28
million TU44 tanks or whatever they're called. We should be massively investing in
00:33:34
asymmetric warfare, things like drones, things, AI, predictive technologies, because the reality is the the kinetic the kinetic era is over. And that is
00:33:45
thinking if you have more tanks, you're automatically going to win the war. That used to be true. Wars used to be a function of brute force. It's no longer
00:33:52
the case. And I think companies like Anderell, uh, Palanteer, which I have been critical of, the reality is at the end of the day, we should have our brightest working hand and glove and stop all the
00:34:05
[ __ ] bitched, stupid like walkouts at these companies saying we're not going to work with the defense industry. They can do that. They can leave. They can leave. They people do what they want. Oh, come on. We're going to walk out
00:34:18
over lunch. That'll show up. Well, no. No, they have to leave. If they don't want to do it, they should leave. And they have every right to
00:34:24
you don't I love what you say. You don't like Chick-fil-A, don't eat a Chick-fil-A. But don't walk out over lunch and think that somehow that's
00:34:30
going to make any difference. And the and a lot of these I don't I I've said this a lot. I sound very I the
00:34:36
term is Republican here. I think a lot of Americans take for granted just how many people out there would like to kill us and take our [ __ ] away and that we
00:34:43
need the most robust fighting force in history. And you invest in your opportunities, not your problems. is the most successful organization in a modern
00:34:50
world is the US military. So, we should continue to invest in it, but we should continue to invest in it smartly. And I
00:34:56
I do think these companies can bring a lot of value to the defense department. The one thing I I like everybody got
00:35:02
some like I think there should be a lot of competition with the defense. They have an opportunity here not to have one
00:35:08
like they have a problem with Starlink and with uh with SpaceX with the space stuff putting up satellites. If you have
00:35:15
all the companies here, that's great. Uh, one thing that's a problem is that um, chat GPT is taken. I don't know if
00:35:22
you've seen the recent stats still chat GPT is huge. The others are progressively smaller. Microsoft doesn't even show up and Grock doesn't show up at all. Yeah, it's running away with it.
00:35:32
It's running away with it. That even though they're losing all kinds of uh, researchers. That said, I think it's
00:35:38
good to have competition in the sector if we're going to do this. Did Did you get the anime girl at all? Nobody's
00:35:43
using Grock. No one's using what? Very few people are using Grog anyway. Oh, really?
00:35:48
Yeah. It's Look at the numbers. It's like crazy how how far down the chart they are. All right, Scott, let's go on
00:35:54
a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about Andrew Cuomo taking on Zoran Mandani again. Scott, we're back with
00:36:00
nor more news. Scott, a new Are you registered? No, you're Florida. Florida. Let's just make sure the New York State
00:36:06
comproller heard that. I am a Florida res. Yes, you are. Former New York Governor Andrew Como will officially run
00:36:12
as an independent in the NYC mayoral rate race after being defeated very handily by Zoran Mandani in the Democratic primary. I mean, he beat him like a rug. Cuomo posted a campaign
00:36:25
video on X, which has under 6,000 likes. It's It's really sad. The reply from Mum
00:36:30
Donnie with a link to donate to his campaign has over 181,000 likes. It was well done. The former governor uh plans to ask all candidates other than Mamani to pledge to drop out of the race in
00:36:42
midepptember if they aren't in the lead including himself I guess and current mayor uh and Eric Adams who will also
00:36:48
run as independent said Cuomo asked him to drop out of the race which he called the highest level of arrogance. I I
00:36:54
would agree with Eric Adams. I don't agree with him on anything. Meanwhile, Mandani has been making the rounds meeting with business leaders and
00:36:59
visiting DC to meet with Democratic leaders. Um he had a pretty cool reception from a lot of them. um because
00:37:06
he uh he just did he's tried a little bit to assuage their worries. Um a lot of people are looking at um Bill Delasio's policies in Mandani and Bill Delasio is left of Mandani which is
00:37:19
interesting according to a lot of stuff I've read. Um but Cuomo oh is is so nonvibrant. He looks like an old man. He looks weird. He has the people are
00:37:31
making memes out of his camp him walking around with his face and stuff like that which are very funny. Um and he's
00:37:38
getting I I this is I know he's shook up his whole campaign but I don't see him making any ground here. Any thoughts?
00:37:45
Well, it reminds me of when in 2016 people said that only Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could make each other viable. I I feel as if Governor Cuomo, who I
00:37:57
like more than most people, I think it's easy to be critical of him. I get it. Uh, but I I actually think he's a a
00:38:02
decent man. Would be a decent elect. I think he'd be a good placeholder. I think he'd be competent. Um, I would
00:38:09
have voted probably for Cuomo. I some of mom dominates, I said this, I'm not a New York resident. I also think that
00:38:15
people totally freaking out about his international policy is he needs to make sure the subways run on time. I think some of his policies are absolutely asinine. But having said
00:38:27
that, I like you, I think I got swept up in this fever of young people taking charge and pushing back on the establishment and he's uh
00:38:38
a viable I I think it's going to be a rough summer for mom dami. He has he has done something very smart in the last
00:38:44
week and that is he is pivoting towards the center. He has agreed not to use or applaud the term globalize the infetata which is deeply offensive to you said infetata. in Tifada.
00:38:56
Yeah, thank you. Only only only Cuomo and Eric Adams could make a guy who wrote a rap song uh
00:39:04
praising the funders of Hamas a viable candidate. And also what this really is a lesson in in this kind of and I'm sort
00:39:12
of here for it is young people pushing back and also he put on a master class in how to run a campaign for a new age.
00:39:19
It is going to be a rough summer for him because I I think I think these guys with their money and also I think New Yorkers are really going to start digging into some of these policies and
00:39:30
basically, you know, people are going to get smart when they start pushing back on him. They're going to start saying,
00:39:36
"Okay, these quote unquote state sponsored grocery stores are nothing but state sponsored bread lines."
00:39:42
All right. Scott, that's like over maybe so they could take advantage. there's only going
00:39:47
to be like three or four of them. So, it's fine to like try to get better. If he if he if he pivoted and said, "You
00:39:53
know what? I really want to do is get better food into these neighborhoods and let's figure out an interesting and good way to do it." He could do that. He
00:39:59
could pivot that in a second. And he should. He will. And he should. And he will. Second thing, a lot of the
00:40:04
other stuff with he just has to be more explicit what he means by rent freezes. So, I think he has an opportunity actually to clarify himself in a really
00:40:12
good way and in a very powerful way. So, well, if he's smart, he'll pivot to the middle. And he's sort of doing he said just the middle clarify himself.
00:40:17
Okay, here's what I want to do. Let's you mean back away from ridiculously [ __ ] stupid position. No, but he was thinking but he wasn't
00:40:23
specific. And when you start to actually hear the specifics, they're not quite as nutty as you think they are as you think
00:40:28
they are, which you which I did. Oh, he's backpaddling. The rent freezes rent freezes don't work. No, but it is a rent freeze on a certain
00:40:35
number of things. Anyway, nonetheless, he has an opportunity to define himself and he's got to do that. That's the key
00:40:41
thing is he's got to define him, not let them do it because they'll do it in this ham-handed way that makes him look like
00:40:46
an idiot. Secondly, you Well, let's go. You think he's You think I'm just going to ask you a question. You think he's going to have
00:40:52
no problem that he's going to run run away with it? No, I think he's going to have he's going to he has an opportunity to keep
00:40:58
the narrative going for himself or they're going to do it for him. And so he needs that's all I'm saying is and
00:41:04
it's an And it's an opportunity to clarify. And so anything that seems weak, the things that bug you, that drive you crazy, he should start to clarify for those voters. Secondly, as
00:41:16
an opportunity to reach out to uh uh uh voters of color, poor voters of color color, and really go into those neighborhoods and start talking. That that's where Cuomo's strong. He
00:41:28
absolutely is. So he can start doing that. The third thing is that the the rich people of New York have lost their
00:41:34
[ __ ] everloing minds about this. that, you know, calling him a mark. They I'm like, calm the [ __ ] down. You've
00:41:40
worked with all kind like the stuff they've tolerated on Trump. Give me you. You have no credibility. You people you
00:41:46
you're just no cred. You look like rich people running for the hills. And that is that to me has astonished me. Like Ken Ken Langon like just all of them
00:41:58
like calm down. Like you might have to work with this guy. So let's figure out a way to work with him, right? rather
00:42:04
than like kneecap him almost constantly. I don't know if he's going to run away with it. I can tell you if Cuomo doesn't
00:42:11
do something because he really looks go look at his physical. He used to be a big vibrant man. He's It looks like he's
00:42:16
lost weight. I don't know how, but he looks like he's lost a substantive amount of weight. He looks nonvibrant.
00:42:22
He looks old. He looks very awkward in in regular settings with people. I I think he's like he's he all the energy that Cuomo did bring to the table and he absolutely did. He's lost. And so is the
00:42:36
Adams the other choice? I think I think he and Adams are going to eat each other up and Manny's going to win. That's I I
00:42:42
don't see how he can't win unless he makes a big giant mistake. And if he clarifies himself and becomes more
00:42:48
palatable to more people and it doesn't have to be the rich people because they're never going to like him. Um I
00:42:54
think he's got a great chance. I think, look, Cuomo is a flawed candidate. I think for 67, I think he looks great. I
00:43:00
think he looks really robust. There's a lot of flaws there. Those flaws are dwarfed by a guy who cut a backroom deal
00:43:07
with an unpopular president to let ice into his city. Adams, the only prediction I'm willing to make here is that it's not going to be Eric Adams. Yeah. Uh so but and also I to a certain
00:43:19
extent you know everyone's focusing on the moment that mom dami in my opinion won the at least the primary was when on the debate stage they asked them what is
00:43:33
the first place you would visit and they all got out their virtue signaling and self-importance and said well I'd go to
00:43:39
Israel dude you're the make sure the trash is picked up and he said and he this This was the moment for him. He said, "I go to Brooklyn. I go to Harland, Harlem. I'm about improving the
00:43:52
city." And these these folks in operational roles, you know, when you're the governor of South Dakota, do you really need to go to Israel?
00:44:03
Yeah. And you're basically saying, "I'm going to take taxpayer money instead of doing my [ __ ] job,
00:44:09
I'm going to pretend I'm bigger. I'm going to pretend that I should be president." No one gives a [ __ ] what you
00:44:15
think about about the war in Ukraine or Gaza. You're here to run the city and make sure we have good schools, that people are safe and instead they and he
00:44:26
ran right through that. That was brilliant on his part. And it also more than that's why I think he's going to do a
00:44:32
good job here, but go ahead. Well, and what it says is it might be a turning point. The most exciting thing
00:44:39
about his win, and I would not have voted for him, the mo the most exciting thing about his win was within 7 days of
00:44:45
him winning, 4,000 young Democrats filled out paperwork to run for office across the nation. And that's what we need. We need more young people who think if this guy can do it, so can I. I
00:44:58
am so sick of the old pulling the future forward on my credit card. I have had it.
00:45:04
Agreed. Agreed. And so I'm like we've both said we're a little bit caught up in this fever and what it says about
00:45:11
Democratic politics and they should absolutely take some notes from his playbook around how he weaponized uh new
00:45:18
media and also focused on affordability and represents you know a new generation. Anyways
00:45:24
yeah let me let me say one final thing. One of the things that um that uh drives me crazy is there was an Arizona race
00:45:30
where an influencer didn't win. thought that she might she had she got pretty far against a a very an equally
00:45:37
progressive candidate who was taking over her father's seat and they're like it's a sign from you know of trouble for
00:45:43
mandami. No, it isn't. If you're genuine in your area, if you're Aby's Spanberger
00:45:49
and you want to be more conservative and centrist in Virginia, it works for Virginia. That'll work. If you're in
00:45:54
Ohio and you're more centrist, that'll work. If you're AOC and you're who you are, that'll work. What you have to be
00:46:01
is genuine and interested in where you are. It doesn't speak to the bigger Democratic party. That said, they will
00:46:08
use if he wins the Republicans will try to make Mandani into a demon. I think it's going to be very hard to do so. They tried really hard to do that with Nancy Pelosi. It didn't work. It worked
00:46:19
for Hillary Clinton. He is so charming. It'll be very hard to demonize him. And I think making these
00:46:26
people more than they are is probably a bad idea. Everyone should be who they are in the area they're in. That's my
00:46:33
only thing. Have you interviewed him? I I'm going to I'm going to Yeah. I just I was saying Cara Swisser
00:46:38
and this guy are like and I'm think that'll be Yeah. He should do it. It totally fits.
00:46:45
There's a lot of questions. I think Cuomo I was talking about this with Amanda. Oh yeah, I would.
00:46:51
It'd be an interesting interview. Yes, it would be. You're getting your ass handed to you. What is your thought here? What are your plans? Like what what's your plan? Yeah,
00:46:58
you you come across as as tired and that you're of the past. How are you going to combat that?
00:47:03
A lot of your social media is cringe. You need some help. Anyway, blink your eyes three times if you do. I
00:47:08
I think the whole world is is well, not the whole world, but those of us who are who are
00:47:14
um you know, the side piece of Michael Barbero are hoping that you uh interview um both especially Mandami, but also Cuomo. I'd love to see you interview both those. I'm gonna ask him or hear it, I should
00:47:25
say. Anyway, the House has advanced three crypto bills. We're moving on and a defense measure after setting a record
00:47:30
for the longest vote in the history of the chamber. GB holdouts agreed after being promised a future vote to ban the
00:47:35
Federal Reserve uh from missing uh digital currencies. The Genius Act, which would regulate stable coins, is on
00:47:41
track to hit Trump's desk this week and could mark Congress's first ever major crypto uh legislation. Uh we'll see.
00:47:49
Bitcoin is currently trading at $118,000 after hitting a high of $120,000 at the
00:47:54
start of the week. Uh very quickly on crypto and also I just want to note uh they're also voting uh to cut funding
00:48:01
for NPR and PBS which is heinous on their part. Uh they managed to get that through uh so far in this recisions package. Uh thoughts on either of those things?
00:48:12
Well, look PBS NPR I grew up with them. I think they do enormous service and they there's just certain people who won't get straight down the middle news anymore with these funding cuts. I'm I
00:48:23
am a little bit I have a little bit of a Republican twinge on this and that is their public funding has become such a
00:48:29
political football that I wonder if at some point they're better off without the public funding and just leaning on
00:48:35
listeners such as myself who get register enormous value to support it. It just feels like it's been such a
00:48:40
political football for so long. That means people in rural areas will never have any news that is not tinged.
00:48:47
I I think look that that that's a fair point and I I touched on that at the beginning of my
00:48:53
comments. I would love to see an NPR and a PBS be really well funded by by private individuals such that the Republicans could stop using it as a punching bag at every
00:49:04
for years. Yes, that's correct. Yeah. So I I'm uh so let me commit. I'm going to give based on what you said, I'm
00:49:10
going to give some money to NPR and PBS and public radio because I think they do an amazing job and public broadcasting
00:49:17
is what you want to give to. Go ahead. Corporation C uh CPV. But here's what what was interesting is
00:49:23
a survey came out and they asked people what media entities are the most trusted
00:49:29
for trying to be moderate. And what was interesting is the two that came up as the most trustworthy in the middle were formerly companies formerly known as
00:49:40
having a conservative andor progressive bent. And the two were the Wall Street Journal and uh and I think it was PBS.
00:49:47
Um was it PBS or NPR? I think it was PBS. But what's interesting is that quality journalism does break through even if you have a political bent or a
00:49:59
reputation for political bent. Because the Wall Street Journal was always known as as conservative, but they said they
00:50:05
they limited their conservative viewpoint to the opinion section. They did they do, you know, I worked
00:50:10
there and they're amazing journalists. It's a testament quite frankly, you got to give it to Rupert Murdoch. I agree. He left it. He has done an amazing job stewarding that publication.
00:50:20
Yes. And then in our business, I've I've said for a long time, I think we should every
00:50:26
time we do a podcast send a royalty check to Joe Rogan who blew the medium open. NPR's podcasts, they're are the
00:50:33
original gangster of saying that audio quality, it matters. Production quality, they do such a good job when you listen
00:50:40
to their stuff. It is so tight and so well produced. And I'm a fan. I'm going to Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
00:50:46
Yeah, I think it's I think one of the things that you have to note is that they have what drives me crazy is this
00:50:52
idea that Elmo is woke or they're just saying be nice. They're not like they do they go on and on these right-wingers the other and remember you know Tinky Winky was gay or whatever. Um and then
00:51:03
cuz he had a purse. Um and the thing that drives me crazy same thing with Superman like they're like Superman's
00:51:09
woke and then of course it's the most successful movie of this summer. Secondly, if you go back to old Superman
00:51:16
things and you read it out loud, they would call that woke. It's like everyone Superman says, this is from the 40s, be
00:51:22
nice to everyone regardless of their religion or their race. This has been a Superman thing forever. It's just these
00:51:27
people using the these iconic things like Elmo and Superman and as a as a cudgel is is really is so lame. They're so lame. Be nice is a real is not a woke
00:51:39
thing. It's a nice thing to teach kids. And I love everything that NPR and PBS does. And please watch Ken Burns
00:51:45
American Revolution coming up and then set and we'll send you a tote bag if you give me $25. Anyway,
00:51:52
I don't know. Elmo, I'm sorry. Elmo, folks, Elmo is conservative. If you listen, actually listen to Elmo, he
00:51:58
talks like a dictator or a LinkedIn influencer on mushrooms. All right, crypto really quick. Two
00:52:03
seconds and then we'll get to your I I think the space needs regulation. There's just no getting around it. By the way, I bought my first I'm for the
00:52:09
first time and I'm I'm a coiner. I bought I bought indirectly through a Bitcoin treasury company. I bought
00:52:15
Bitcoin um just for diversification real and I'm just so sick of missing out on all this.
00:52:21
what they've done. Bitcoin is just it's a remarkable phenomena. There's no getting around it. And I don't
00:52:27
understand the nuances of the regulation, but this category needed some sort of clarity around regul
00:52:33
regulation. Um the Genius Act, the Genius Act sets rules for stable coin users such as I think it requires one to one backing with treasuries, monthly reports, redemption rights,
00:52:45
anti-moneyaundering compliant. Those are good things. That'll be good for the space. Many of them already do this. I think circle and
00:52:51
paxus already do this. Uh and it will bring some clarity to the unregulated play players. Then there's something
00:52:57
actually called the clarity act and it formalizes the regulating bodies which I think is a good good idea. Bitcoin and
00:53:04
Ethereum will go to the CFTC. Um um ISO uh ICO to ICO tokens will go to the SEC. STA stable coins will have shared oversight. And uh then there's the anti-CBDC act.
00:53:19
This is the one I really don't understand. And if as far as I can tell, that act is to make sure that the
00:53:24
Federal Reserve cannot uh create a digital currency that that they're worried that threatens the dollar's reserve currency status. And they frame it as defense of privacy,
00:53:36
preventing the government from spying on how you spend money. But it's essentially a play towards my understanding is it's a nod towards
00:53:43
the anti-serveillance crowd, but it's also the government probably doesn't wants to ensure that the dollar's reserve currency is not threatened. So
00:53:55
to their credit, I I think they're trying to bring some clarity to the space such that it maintains its
00:54:01
momentum. Yeah. Yeah. David Sax got what he wanted in this one. He shephered this one
00:54:06
through. Anyway, uh we'll see where it goes. Uh and and we should be watching that. Absolutely. What's happening
00:54:11
there? That's interesting that you that you invested. All right. Uh one more quick break. We'll be back for
00:54:17
predictions. Okay, Scott. Uh before you get to predictions, I just want to say uh I had been uh approached by so many
00:54:22
people about your incredibly touching tribute to your dad. And I just want to say uh again, it was really wonderful.
00:54:28
And I think our listeners really I I've been hugged more this week than ever before. People without without asking,
00:54:34
people are like, I need to hug you. I was like, okay. um on your behalf. Uh so uh I just think
00:54:40
you really one of the strengths that you have is you show your emotions and it's
00:54:45
really important to a lot of not just men but women seeing you do that I have to say and so it's been unusual this
00:54:52
week to get so many responses. So there you have it. Thanks for saying that. I predict you're going to get even more
00:54:58
woke. I love what you you describe me as a San Francisco lesbian. By the way, I am in
00:55:04
San Francisco. I'm in San Francisco. What are you doing there? I'm coming there next week. I'm I'm uh uh visiting my sister. I'm
00:55:12
going to have lunch with her today. And I'm also doing I'll say hi to your sister. She's she's fantastic. Uh yeah. So, I'm I was as you know, I'm
00:55:18
in Colorado, so I took the opportunity to come out and uh just uh uh have lunch with my sister. Oh, lovely. Anyway, uh let's hear your
00:55:26
prediction then. Besides the fact that you, me, and Michael will be in a cuddle puddle soon. Hello.
00:55:31
Hello. Hello. Smack her ass, Michael. Um, smack her ass like she keeps protect, she keeps correcting me. Um, poor Michael.
00:55:44
Oh, God. Michael, we're so relation. Is he married? What's He's married. He's married. The three of us. The three of us will
00:55:50
have a couple spicy margaritas and explore how serious is that relationship. Um, uh, we're going to
00:55:58
have a sex tape and then we're going to send it to Meredith, his boss. Yeah, he'd probably get a raise at the New
00:56:04
York Times. Come on. That's a good one. If Camal Teal tried to explain the Fed rate hike, that's the daily. I love that. Oh, I'm sorry. My prediction. My
00:56:15
prediction. I asked him to be a co-host during scot-free August. I hope. And what did he say? He'd be perfect. He wants to do it. He's got to ask the
00:56:20
Times for permission. Meredith, if you can't do it, you're getting in the way of our throppple,
00:56:26
which is discriminatory. And I mean, Meredith, stop giving into your heteronormative patriarchal
00:56:33
management views around what Daily the Pod podcast host should do. That's so funny.
00:56:39
Um, okay. Love, love, Meredith. Anyways, love Meredith. Um, okay. So, my prediction is pretty
00:56:45
straightforward. Before this podcast even airs tomorrow, there's going to be another incendiary. Look over here
00:56:51
batshit crazy hollow threat promise. I'm I'm raising I'm putting a 200% tariff on Myanmarie's
00:57:02
um rare earth minerals. I am I am firing I have decided I'm going to imprison Alec Baldwin and there's going to be
00:57:12
something Area 51. He should release the files on that would that would work. This is my prediction.
00:57:18
You need a conspiracy with a conspiracy. He's not focused. He's not doing anything. the the the majority of his
00:57:25
time right now and efforts are not being spent on increasing the material or psychological well-being of Americans.
00:57:32
No, they're not. It's on they're in a room with AI going, "What can he do or announce tomorrow? It
00:57:38
doesn't matter if it's stupid. Doesn't matter if he has any any intention of actually following
00:57:43
through. It will keep the news off of one word, Epstein. every day for the next seven
00:57:50
days. Cara, and we should we should track this and read them out. Okay. All right. There's going to be something stupid,
00:57:56
incendiary, which has absolutely no chance of ever becoming reality in an attempt and the media will fall for it. They'll go, "Jesus Christ, what is he thinking?" And they'll start talking
00:58:08
about that rather than what he doesn't want everyone to talk about, and that is he is freaked out for some reason.
00:58:16
He does. Internally, they're saying they think it's going to go. I don't think it is. Sorry, Trump. You better address it.
00:58:21
That's all he's got to do. Do you have any predictions? Uh, I think he is going to probably have
00:58:27
to release these things and then we'll have to worry about the fraud involved in it. That's I think he he has to
00:58:32
release them. I don't think he has a choice here. I don't think he can. He He is very good at pushing things off. I
00:58:37
think he absolutely he's going to have to release these things and I don't think it's going to be like his taxes or anything else. He's not getting away
00:58:43
with this one. I think Elon is correct about that. It's not going to work this time. Anyway, uh we want to hear from
00:58:49
you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot
00:58:54
to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Cara and Scott
00:58:59
universe this week on ProfG G Conversations, Scott spoke with Greg Lucian, a free speech advocate, first
00:59:06
amendment attorney, and president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Let's listen to a
00:59:12
clip. I think that a lot of what's happened in this country over the last at this point 10 years uh has shown like
00:59:21
the kinds of risks that we as a society take by having billionaires by allowing that kind of concentration of wealth. It erodess the democratic fabric of the
00:59:32
country and at this point our democracy is in mortal danger and may already be lost. Yeah, I like that. You talk about that issue a lot, Scott. It's an important one. Um, okay. That's the show. Thanks
00:59:44
for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Scott,
00:59:50
read us out. Today's show was produced by Lara Newman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and her Todd
00:59:56
engineered this episode thanks also to J Burroughs, Mia Sea, and Dan Shalon. Nishak Kura is Vox Media's executive
01:00:01
producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New
01:00:07
York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another
01:00:13
breakdown of all things tech and business. Michael, call us. [Music]