00:00:00
You said something that always struck me that I love the Washington Post statement, democracy dies in darkness.
00:00:05
And you've always said, no one's dying in full light of day. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser and I have
00:00:19
not been cancelled yet. What about you? I think the key word there is yet. Um, as if.
00:00:25
As if. Uh, I'm Yeah. Yeah. I'm Scott Call. I'm sitting here in Nashville massively jack jetlagged. I was in London about 22 hours ago and I'm in New York and now here and I'm watching
00:00:38
across I'm staying at the where am I at the Grand? No, I'm staring at the Grand Hyatt. Um and the JW Marriott and across
00:00:46
the street is this parking lot being torn down. Yeah. By these two massive cranes.
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That's fun to watch. Oddly relaxing. Yeah. I've just been sitting here thinking about, you know, metaphors with
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the US society. But anyways, I'm in Nashville. Where are you? I I'm back in DC. I was in um Ann Arbor
00:01:05
yesterday doing my class at the University of Michigan and also interviewing Judge. Yes. Yes.
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What What are you I'm sorry. What are you teaching at Michigan? Justin Scott Galloway 101. That's really I just
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talk about you. That's all I Baby unlocking my heart is an enigma. Will you come talk to the class? I think they would like that.
00:01:22
Oh, 100%. No. Remote. Remotely. Oh, remote. Yeah, I would do remote. Yeah, you have to look at the camera so
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people can look at your pretty face. No, I'm sorry. I'm looking literally at this parking lot being staring at the like where it's You know
00:01:33
what? There there are videos. Next thing you're going to want me to stop masturbating in the middle of our podcast. Leave me alone. Tubin, listen to it. Um I think I'm the
00:01:41
only person who didn't care that he did that. I saw him recently at CNN. I didn't care. I didn't care.
00:01:47
You know, remote work is just going to have some externalities, folks. I mean, whatever. I mean, it was not in good taste, I would say. But I would
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good taste immediately implies that he made a conscious decision to masturbate with the camera on. He didn't He didn't
00:02:04
realize he was at home. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say he's not the first person to masturbate at home,
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but I think the camera was off. I believe he thought he was on a break. Well, of course. I don't think he thought I knew what I'm going to do. I
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just talked he's like the the lawyer on I'm I'm I'm talking about habius corpus. I think I'll yank one out.
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That was that those were the simple days. Those were the simple days. Those are such innocent times.
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Such a simple times. Such innocent times. Listen, uh you have to stop looking out the window and pay attention. We have a
00:02:35
lot to get to. Saul has a video he watches of diggers and this is what it's like. You're like a three-year-old boy.
00:02:41
It's like amazing. Anyway, well, you know my favorite Tik Toks now. Have you seen these amazing like massive
00:02:46
what? Go ahead. pit bulls and they have some guy lay out like a raw turkey, a chicken bone, eggs, tomatoes, and like a pineapple. And they say, "Okay,
00:02:58
Brutus." And Brutus just eats all these things whole. Oh my god. What are you talking You're so weird. I'm like watching flower arranging and cooking and you
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Oh, trust me. I've watched much weirder stuff. Leave your leave your video on much I've
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watched much weirder weirder stuff and then done my impersonation of Jeffrey Tubin as I watch it.
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We're gonna leave Jeffrey Tubin out of this because we got a lot of news to get to as usual. I mean Jesus. Okay, let's go. ABC is
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pulling Jimmy Kimmel live off the air indefinitely after a comedian made a joke about the Charlie Kirk shooting
00:03:35
which was actually factual. Let's listen to exactly what Kimmel said. We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA
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gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
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doing everything they can to score political points from it. In between the fingerpointing there was uh grieving on
00:03:54
Friday. The White House flew the flags at half staff which got some criticism but on a human level you can see how
00:04:01
hard the president is taking this. My condolences on the loss of your friend Charlie Kirk. May I ask sir
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personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir? I think very good. And by the way, right there
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you see all the trucks. They've just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something
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they've been trying to get, as you know, for about 150 years, and it's going to be a beauty. Guys, he's at the fourth
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stage of grief, construction. By the way, Kimmel posted on social media after Kirk was killed, sending his love to the Kirk family and to all victims of gun violence. FCC chair
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Brendan Carr, who's got to be the most anxious Toad in a in a sea of them in the Trump administration, blasted Kimmel
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in an interview with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, calling Simls Kimmel's comments the
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sickest conduct possible, which is inexplicable. He suggested ABC's broadcast license was at risk, threatening, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way," which gives me
00:05:01
every indication his penis is very small. Next star, the owner of several ABC affiliates and the company seeking
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FCC approval for its $6.2 2 billion acquisition of rival media company Tegna. They need a they need an out
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because they'll go over 39% ownership across the country announced it would drop uh Kimmel's show. Sinclair
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Broadcast Group, which is also conservative owned by conservatives who also own ABC stations, followed
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demanding Kimmel apologize and make a personal donation to the Kirk family and Turning Point USA, Kirk's organization.
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Disney CEO Bob Iger and the company's TV chief Dana Walden then made a decision to take Kimmel off the air. Trump
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celebrated the move as great news for America and urged NBC to pull the plug on Seth Meers and Jimmy Fallon. I I I
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don't know where to [ __ ] begin here. Do is is Bob Iger the worst person on earth at this moment? I think possibly. And I'm not really clear what happened here with them. Secondly, uh NextStar
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and Sinclair are now telling us what what we can do and don't do and they can they can take it off the air. They own
00:06:04
the company. Fine, whatever. Brendan Carr to me is should be the focus of this. Um, and Donald Trump, this was a
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[ __ ] uh rolls downhill kind of thing. He essentially threatened them and uh with we can do this the easy way. I'm excited
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for the lawsuit that will ensue because of this. They are quashing free speech and I'm not talking about NextStar and
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uh Sinclair. They're just horrible toads. Um the this is a problem with Brand uh Brandon Carr who's always been
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a problem. um who is who has had millions of quotes saying we should never do this. Uh I I can read them over and over again, but and then of course
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it began with Donald Trump who's been attacking Kimmel for a long time and predicting he would be fired. Um Scott,
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initial reaction when you heard the news? Well, I think Bob Iker is going to go down in history as Neville Chamberlain
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in a Kashmir sweater minus the dignity. I mean, unfortunately, Neville Chamberlain was actually a pretty decent
00:07:00
man and thought he was doing the right thing and he's become a bit of a footnote in history as someone who's,
00:07:06
you know, defines the word appeasement. Yeah. But I mean, one thing one thing's clear,
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I doubt I doubt Bob Iger is really happy he came back. Um, I think this is a terrible footnote on his legacy. And
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when, you know, these people bent a knee, they kind of broke the dam. So Sher Redstone paid basically a vig to get her deal done. Iger did too.
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Uh Iger did and now you have um the this guy Brendan car. You these people aren't
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f we don't have a director of an FBI. We don't have an FCC chair. What we have is people who uh are acolytes of President
00:07:43
Trump and are just enacting his will and hope that once they get out of office he'll carve up bite dance or some other
00:07:48
company and make them rich. This is full this is full oligarchy now. has nothing to do with the government. They control
00:07:54
all three houses. They essentially have a very sympathetic Supreme Court. And you know, I kind of admire they're like all about we're just going to do everything we want. We're we're an autocrat. They're not even You said
00:08:07
something that always struck me that I love the Washington Post statement, democracy dies in darkness. And you've
00:08:12
always said, no, it's dying in full light of day. And so, look, I I don't they could make an argument. I said this about Co Bear. I don't think this is the same here. Let's just talk a little bit about Jimmy Kimmel. Uh Disney is not
00:08:28
Disney is not losing a lot by cancelling Kimmel. Only 12% of his viewers are age
00:08:34
18 to 49. And at an average of just 200 220,000 viewers within the demographic. Um and by the way, that's down 10% from the same period last year, it's down 2/3 by 2015. Overall, the show averages
00:08:47
about 1.8 million viewers a night. That means about 1.6 Six of that 1.8 are 50 plus. So look, it's not and the show has probably 180.
00:08:58
That's a different decision. It's 180 employees. Having said that, if the folks if Bob Iger had decided, you
00:09:05
know, I'm a billionaire, I've had a wonderful life in no small part because of the rights of free speech, an
00:09:13
appreciation for basic capitalism, an appreciation for fidelity to the law. you know, I'm already a billionaire. Maybe it's time I actually tried to do the right thing. He decided not to do that. He wants to get the stock price up
00:09:26
and I think just get the hell out of Dodge or get the company sold. I don't know. So that's to Apple from what I That's what it
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feels like to me. I mean, uh, go ahead, finish. I I want to read some Brendan car quotes because I think we should f
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Listen, Iger I don't even want to speak to him again at this moment. And I really like Bob Iger. We know each other
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very well. I've interviewed him dozens of times, but I am so embarrassed for him. I'm embarrassed for his wife who
00:09:50
runs a journalism school. I don't know what she's going to say to her students today. I don't want to drag her into it, but she runs a journalism school. So,
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she's got some some explaining to do, I think, on behalf of her husband. Um, uh,
00:10:03
it's not it's not her decision, but nonetheless, it's it's awkward, I would say. Um, I is has could have quit. He
00:10:10
could have I he could make excuses all he wants about shareholders. I know he had some right-wingers on his ass um
00:10:16
quite a bit including Elon Musk, including Ike I think it's Ike Palmer, etc. It doesn't matter. He he he had a
00:10:24
duty to something bigger here and had and is one of the few people who probably could have done this and pulled
00:10:30
it off correctly. I know he was very upset when Nazis were and worried about danger when Nazis were um protesting outside of neo-Nazis were protesting outside of Disney. I get all that. I get
00:10:42
the shareholder thing. I get worried about safety. But at some point, stand up, man. Like, this is just like rid and
00:10:49
he could do it. Let me let me focus on Brandon Carr, though, because this is really the the real problem here. They
00:10:54
all the right is now saying, "Oh, Sinclair can ask anything of anyone. Of course, they can. They're terrible
00:11:01
people, and they want to that that used to happen in the old days when television first started." But let me
00:11:06
read some Brandon Carr things from uh 2019. Should the government censor speech? it doesn't like. Of course not.
00:11:13
The FCC does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the quote public interest. Then he said in
00:11:20
2023 uh 2023, free speech is the counterweight and is the check on government control. This is why
00:11:27
censorship is an authoritarian's dream. And then back in 2022, President Biden is right. Political satire is one of the oldest and most important forms of free speech. It challenges those in power
00:11:38
while using humor to draw more people into the discussion. And that's why people in influential positions have always targeted it for censorship.
00:11:45
JD Vance today. Everyone, please congratulate Marco Rubier, the host of ABC's new uh late night show. I mean,
00:11:54
what whatever that alleged couch [ __ ] says is always stupid. Um uh I I I don't
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think he did [ __ ] a couch, by the way. Let me just be clear. Um and this is what's the problem here. And then today,
00:12:05
um, Carr also then said FCC chair, he said Sinclair has every right to demand that Jimmy Kimmel donate to Turning Point USA. He needs to shut the [ __ ] up. I honestly don't know what else to say
00:12:17
about this guy. He's It's going to be lawsuits. He is crossing the line as a government official making these kind of
00:12:23
threats due due to speech. I I don't know. I I I I He's the one we need to focus on despite the fact that Iger is such a disappointment. Well, just I want
00:12:34
to talk about I mean it's going to be easy to talk about how insanely hypocritical this is and then we should
00:12:40
try and move to or I have I've been going down a rabbit hole around what we can do about it. In 2023, Fox described
00:12:47
cancel culture driven largely by woke ideology. Tucker Carlson asked his audience, "If you want to know how free your society is, just ask a really basic
00:12:53
question. Am I allowed to make fun of people in charge? Can I mock them? Can I tweet that not with violence but with
00:13:00
words? And if you can, you're in a free country. If you can, it's not. That's Tucker Carlson. Representative Jim
00:13:05
Jordan claimed in 2021 that cancel culture is the most dangerous thing happening in
00:13:11
our country today. In 2020, Trump told the RNC, "The goal of cancel culture is to make decent Americans live in fear of
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being fired, expelled, shamed, humiliated, and driven from from society as we know it." In a 2020 campaign
00:13:23
rally, Trump said, "The unhinged left-wing mob is trying to vandalize our history and punish, cancel, and
00:13:28
persecute anyone who does not conform to their demands for absolute and total control." Pam Bondi targeting hate
00:13:34
speech on the Katie Miller podcast on Monday. Pam Bondi said that the play we're going to Let's have her play
00:13:40
it. This is Attorney General Pam Bondi is cleaning up after the mess after remarks about free speech pissed off
00:13:46
people on both sides. Let's listen to it and then you can comment on it. She made this on the Katie Miller podcast.
00:13:52
There's free speech and then there's hate speech and there is no place, especially now, especially after what happened to Charlie in our society. Do you see more law enforcement going
00:14:04
after these groups who are using hate speech and putting cuffs on people so we show them that some action is better
00:14:11
than no action? We will absolutely target you, go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech. And now to be fair, as you know, Tucker
00:14:23
Carlson was one of the ones on the far right who was pretty fired up about this, but in the way that's different.
00:14:28
Let's listen. You hope that a year from now, the turmoil we're seeing in the aftermath of
00:14:35
his murder won't be leveraged to bring hate speech laws to this country. And trust me, if it is, if that does happen, there is never a more justified moment
00:14:45
for civil disobedience than that, ever. And there never will be. Because if they can tell you what to say, they're
00:14:51
telling you what to think. There is nothing they can't do to you. Because they don't consider you human. They
00:14:57
don't believe you have a soul. A human being with a soul, a free man, has a right to say what he believes. Not to hurt other people, but to express his views. can also hurt people with your
00:15:09
speech. That's fine, too. I mean, anyway, uh uh go ahead and we'll get to Trump in a minute, but go ahead. What
00:15:15
your point was? Well, okay. So, hate speech. What Jimmy Kimmel said, I I thought I had the wrong
00:15:23
clip. That's that qualifies as hate speech. I mean, there are the First Amendment, it basically says, "All
00:15:29
right, it's not absolute. If you incite violence, if you defame people, that's not legal." But what quite frankly, we
00:15:37
said much worse things about Trump than what Jimmy Kimmel said and this notion. So, okay, could hate speech be uh President Trump should be incarcerated
00:15:49
at a minimum and possibly executed uh while in prison? Is that hate speech? Well, that Charlie Kirk said that about Biden. So, we're going to have the attorney general is now threatening to
00:16:02
target people and that's that's an authoritarian government. So, it's it's pretty clear what's going on here. CBS has been sold to the Ellison's and NBC and ABC are basically under threat of
00:16:17
being silenced and potentially losing their business because the um you know the acolyte of of Trump running the FCC
00:16:24
is threatening to pull their licenses and the top nation's top cop is threatening to target people based on
00:16:31
what appears to be a bar for hate speech that is the following speech that disparages or that is critical or even mocks in a humorous way the president.
00:16:43
So I'm sort of I mean this is just so we're going to spend the next few days distracting from Epstein talking about
00:16:50
and validating what we all know. This is this is a violation of law which may not
00:16:56
be upheld or take a long time in court to be upheld with current the current Supreme Court. We know it's directly
00:17:03
contrary to everything or one of the things that's been key around free speech in our country that makes our
00:17:09
country great and we're going to spend a ton of time talking about it. And what I want to talk about and what I've been
00:17:14
researching getting up at 3 in the morning with jet jet lag is what we can do about it. And I used to think well
00:17:22
people will rise up you know we they'll vote in 26 okay I don't know how much damage will be done by then people will
00:17:28
be outraged. But the bottom is the majority of people I'm here in Nashville went out to get some coffee are kind of just going about their lives and don't
00:17:34
see a big difference. So to call on them to think they're going to do something. Yeah, you hope so. But so far, I mean,
00:17:39
the markets are up today. What I think we need to think about, and uh I think the only thing that moves the needle here, I'm increasingly convinced, is some sort of national economic strike. And I was going pretty deep into
00:17:53
the rate cut yesterday and some of the economic reports. And get this, the top 10 economic income earning households
00:17:59
now are responsible for 50% of the spending, which basically says what we all know. Income inequality is out of control. And it's rich people who have
00:18:04
all the money. But the top 3 and a3% are responsible for 25% of all spending. And I don't think consumers and people who have money realize how much power they have. They have more power now than
00:18:17
Senators Warren or, you know, any anyone any comedian on the left. I think what we're going to need to do, and I've been thinking about this myself or I was doing a ton of research this on this morning. I mean, there's there's the
00:18:28
meaningful and there's the profound. The meaningful would be to or the trivial I should say. Cancel your Disney Plus
00:18:34
subscription. Okay. And then we're going to see a bunch of screenshots of people who have canceled their their Disney Plus subscription.
00:18:40
Oh my god, the whole [ __ ] parking lot just collapsed. Cara, I wish I had that on film. Anyways, Jesus, that's a
00:18:46
metaphor. Did it just happen? Did Did they just cancel Anderson Cooper? Anyways, the what I'm beginning to think
00:18:53
about personally because I don't want to wait till 26. I have business relationships and capital
00:19:01
uh with and in Silicon Valley Bank, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Northern Trust, Goldman Sachs. I'm contemplating transferring all of my assets to Lloyds or HSBC.
00:19:12
I'm trying to figure out if there's someone we could call on who's a real leader who could rally the top three and
00:19:18
a third% responsible for 25% of the spending to in say December not buy Christmas presents, maybe stay at home, not go to St. Barts, maybe you know try and reduce their spending by 10 20%
00:19:29
which quite frankly really doesn't impact the top 300% income earning households. That's just that is
00:19:35
literally pure consumption. and trying to take the economy, if you took the economy's growth down for one month by
00:19:40
1% in protest. That's what you're saying. Say, look, I not going to fund a move towards an autocracy. Well, unfortunately, the people you're talking about feel very comfortable and
00:19:54
that's what they do. They keep those people comfortable. Um, before we get to that, I just note the the issue is this
00:20:00
group of people is not stopping. And before we get to fixes, you need to know what's coming. He Trump kept up his
00:20:07
latigious streak this week filing a $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times and four of its reporters as
00:20:12
well as Publishing House um uh Penguin Random House. And as as comedian, as you just noted, as comedian Margaret Cho put it, no matter what he cancels, he can't cancel himself off the Epstein list.
00:20:24
Let's keep that in mind. Now, Bondie tried to walk it back a bit because she was getting so much flack largely from
00:20:29
MAGA. Freedom of speech is a sacred in our country will never impede upon that, right? Her comments came as the Trump
00:20:34
administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, are calling on people to report Charlie Kirk critics.
00:20:40
These people are so hypocritical that they just don't even care anymore to even hide it. Let's listen to what Vance
00:20:46
said while he was hosting the Charlie Kirk podcast. Civil society, Charlie understood this well, is not just something that flows
00:20:54
from the government. It flows from each and every one of us. It flows from all of us. So when you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out in hell.
00:21:07
Call their employer. Oh, good lord. This is exactly what Charlie K said not to do. Like that everybody there's e evil speech is fine.
00:21:15
He even said it in one of his speeches. He said this is what grates our country. This is so ridiculous. Um Trump is also
00:21:22
now designating Antifa as which means anti-fascist as a terrorist organization despite the fact that it's an ideology
00:21:28
not an organized group. So that's another thing. But there are relentless. They will next go after NBC presumably
00:21:35
because Trump puts a road map up. They will Ellison is trying to buy CNN. Um which is should not be allowed but under Brandon [ __ ] car it will be. You know
00:21:46
um you know everyone who needs something from the government should realize they are a target. Everyone that needs
00:21:52
something from the government and even those that don't hell call your employer. That kind of thing. um a vice
00:21:58
president who was just so inadequate to every task he is given. Um that's what's
00:22:04
going to happen. So, one of the things you should realize is try to anticipate their next move. I think it'll be NBC, then CNN. Um they'll continue to go at
00:22:11
the New York Times and they will lose, but it'll still take time and effort from the New York Times. Um, they've
00:22:17
already got the Washington Post under the overly steroided looking Jeff Bezos, uh, with some very bad facial uh, changes he's made. Um, but he this is it
00:22:30
is. Come on. You'd think you were that rich, you'd have a better just my opinion about that. I think I I just I think he looks great.
00:22:37
No, I think he looks shiny. I think he looks great. Shiny. He looks like one of those housewives. I think the facial hair, the
00:22:43
facial hair of Pete Buddhajes and the chest and the pecs of Bezos and I'm I'm rethinking everything here.
00:22:49
I know you are. I know. I know. Listen, I know you like a trained daddy. Um, so any other thoughts on this? I mean, what
00:22:54
do I understand what to do, but I don't think I think these people are going to be relentless until they are stopped at
00:23:01
the at the voting booth and and that is the only I don't I don't know if we can I don't
00:23:07
wait that long. First off, okay, so let's look what's going on. That's what they're targeting next to the abil
00:23:13
inability of people to vote against them which people want to do. Normalizing the National Garden Cities.
00:23:18
You have CBS, NBC, and ABC. CBS has gone to Ellison and NBC and ABC are now under
00:23:24
threat of having their licenses pulled and and then you have so what did we have? We saw that a concentration of power and consolidation of media in the media that counts basically alphabet and
00:23:36
meta has led to a dramatic uptick in rage, a dramatic uptick in uh teen suicide and basically a coarsening of our discourse. Now we're seeing a concentration of what I call traditional
00:23:49
media. Quite frankly, that's that symbolism is really dangerous because it symbolizes a move towards an authoritarian rule. it doesn't have that
00:23:56
much impact because the the reality is these are declining businesses with less and less influence. In a weird way, it's
00:24:04
going to help some of the new media properties that are a little bit more fearless. I mean, if if if NBC and ABC
00:24:10
just become kind of kind of starched, whitewashed, scared. I mean, even MSNBC, when I was on there and I said we elected an insurrectionist and a rapist, Mika was compelled to say that he was
00:24:21
actually found liable for sexual abuse. When they have to do that, all that's going to do is make these shows seem so
00:24:28
[ __ ] vanilla and boring that they're going to turn to some of the new media outlets online, and there's a lot of
00:24:34
them, and it's going to put new wind in their sales. The the issue I have is I just am kind of done. We know this is wrong, and I'm frustrated that there isn't more thoughtful, strategic
00:24:50
economic push back because we know we know this is wrong. I don't look this is this is pretty simple that that Kimmel clip was like really that's that's what
00:25:01
got him removed so but let me ask you what what do we do other than wait for 26 what do you think we should do I do think just I think focusing in on media that can't be manipulated like
00:25:13
this so easily of course lawsuits are always hanging over the head of everyone in media but uh but look CBS is dying
00:25:20
let's be clear like away from all of this stuff. The fact that Trump is targeting the stuff that nobody watches
00:25:26
anymore is kind of interesting. Like, and Jimmy Kimmel, the late night has like it's a whole it's a whole plot on
00:25:33
hacks that it's dying, right? It's already in the zeitgeist. Um, so late night is too expensive and doesn't have
00:25:40
enough audience. Cable, same thing. Networks, forget it. Like, I would think these companies would get out of broadcast business like and and say, "Fuck you, Brendan Carr. Do whatever you
00:25:51
want with this." cuz nobody's watching the TV. They're watching it on YouTube. They're watching it on Reddit. They're
00:25:57
watching it on, you know, wherever kids and not just kids, everybody's watching it. They're streaming. Are they going to
00:26:02
try to regulate streaming now? They can't. They don't have that pull into streaming. So, put it put Kimmel I, if I
00:26:09
was Iger, I would have put Kimmel on streaming. Just put him Okay, you don't like him here? Let's just put him on streaming and and cut costs and work
00:26:16
that. Well, that's what he'll do, right? But I mean, if I were Iger, I would have said, "Let's No, no. I won't do it. Jimmy Jimmy
00:26:21
Kimmel will do it. Jimmy Kimmel has a big opportunity. He's going to take his 180 people. He's going to take his best 15.
00:26:27
Yeah. And he's going to start a YouTube channel. Same thing with Co Bear, right? That's the thing. Like, let's just make our
00:26:32
things and be very careful. You know, they will lawsuits will be their next thing. That's what obviously, but there's way too much media that is growing for them to control all of it.
00:26:45
And so I I think like look, let's just we got to just burn those ships and move on. Like that's the thing because they're they this is how Trump lives. He lives in the 80s in his head. So CBS,
00:26:57
ABC, and NBC are the be all and end all. But they're not. They're not influential anymore. And we should just
00:27:04
move along like and make our stuff and like we should grow and conservative outlets should grow, whatever it happens
00:27:11
to be. You know, I I was I was sort of although I think Tucker Carlson's really something's going on with him that what he articulated was absolutely right. Tucker I I mean, okay, we both have our
00:27:23
issues with Tucker. I think Tucker right now is the most likely nominee for the Republican nomination. I think he has
00:27:29
been very good lately. Well, he's consistent at least, right? Well, about housing, he comes across as uh for young people, he comes across as
00:27:35
intellectually honest. He comes across as courageous, not afraid to go against his own party. But and I realize I'm
00:27:41
talking our own book here. We're our downloads are up 10% in the last 30 days. And guess what? Everyone from Megan Kelly to Joe Ro, you're going to see a lot increasingly people turn to
00:27:53
podcasts like the Daily because the New York Times is is fearless and does the work. You're just going to see media that is not scared of Brendan Carr or can't be controlled by Brendan Carr uh
00:28:05
boom because people are really interested in what's going on and they like they like fearless. You know, I'll
00:28:12
give you an example. Don Lemon Don Lemon's doing a great job. He's Don Lemon is doing such a fantastic
00:28:19
job. First off, I love people who just work really [ __ ] hard. I was watching out and about for people to know explain
00:28:24
what he's doing. I love this. man on the street. He's totally unafraid. He shows up to everyone with a mic.
00:28:30
He responds thoughtfully. He's forceful yet dignified. He's clearly working his [ __ ] ass off. The reason the reason I
00:28:36
love Don Lemon is the reason the same reason I loved Secretary or love Secretary Clinton or Senator
00:28:42
Clolobashar. It is just so obvious these people work their asses off. They get up
00:28:47
early and they think, "How can I be great at what I do by just showing up over and over and over? Don Lemon must
00:28:54
be working 14 [ __ ] hours a day. He's running around. I He He wrote me he's like, "How do you what do you think?" I'm like, "I love the Don Lemon
00:29:01
doing a great job. Great job." And everybody should watch it cuz he's actually This is where he
00:29:06
shines. I have to say, same thing. Um Brad Stevens wrote a great piece. Carl Rove wrote a great piece.
00:29:12
You know who else is doing a great job? And again, I go back to the same thing. Regardless of AI or what happens to our economy, people who are curious and work
00:29:19
really hard and try to be courageous and even take some risks and maybe they make mistakes are still going to have great
00:29:24
economic futures. The bull work, Tim Miller, how are they putting out all that content all the goddamn time? I
00:29:30
mean, I don't know who Tim's husband is, but he's not seeing Tim a lot because or Don's husband. These people are they are
00:29:38
working so hard. They're rising to the occasion. They're being totally unafraid. and you're going to see a massive the
00:29:46
continued the acceleration of the flow. So it's not meaningful. What what's most meaningful here is this just represents
00:29:52
a naked disregard for many of the laws and American principles that have given us so many freedoms and so much economic
00:29:59
growth. But the actual tangible business level or our it's not going to really decrease our inability to get good information. If Jimmy Kimmel launches Jimmy Kimmel Live now streaming
00:30:11
or on Substack or podcast with great video production, it's going to be it's it's going to get a it's going to get the same audience with more young people. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Cuz
00:30:22
he's funny. Because he's funny. That's what And by the way, you know, just like I
00:30:27
anyone I also urge people to watch the episode where and Jean uh Smart gave an amazing statement on Kimmel, but there is a scene where she gives a speech. this happens to her. They want her to
00:30:37
cut someone her the woman she's very close to who got her where she is and she won't do it and she ends up quitting
00:30:44
on her dream of being a late night show host but her speech is astonishing and I
00:30:49
would they already preaged something like this happening and so uh and Tony Goolan plays a sort of evil looking like
00:30:56
Bob Iger type of person. Um and I have to say that it just really was precient. H was in the last season. It's coming back for another season. Um, so anyway, good luck, Jimmy. One of the things
00:31:08
though I do think people are a little more upset about this. They're coming for the straight white guys and that's
00:31:13
something that is worrisome. Say more. I hadn't even thought about that angle. I mean, it's like, you know, there
00:31:19
listen, there's all kinds of attacks on Leticia James and um, everybody, a lot of black women uh, Cook uh, at the Fed, which was untrue, etc. And so now
00:31:30
they're coming for the straight white guys. And so I think a lot of people are like, "Hold on, what?" Like that's the
00:31:38
kind of thing that I think starts I hate to say it starts to get people going and and they it shouldn't obviously. Um but
00:31:44
they've been coming for I don't sense that at all. You have a better spotty s that didn't even cross my mind. I I do. I think the trans people are
00:31:51
like, "Oh, that's bad but you know, black women that's bad but and now it's like what?" Like look at the reaction.
00:31:57
It's overwhelming in the media. I mean, it's not it's indignant and angry and I don't think my my sense is that the
00:32:04
thing about Kimmel was with Coar and I believe this this was I thought Coar was an economic decision. Kimmel when I mean
00:32:13
people just look at that clip and go wait that gets you cancelled now. And also that it came right after
00:32:20
Brandon [ __ ] that and they were just so And then when you have Pam Bondi the the nation's top cop
00:32:26
saying we're gonna target people. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. That's not You're not supposed to target people. You're supposed to find evidence
00:32:32
of wrongdoing, right? But sorry, go ahead. Sinclair and Nex has every right to do
00:32:38
this. It still makes them [ __ ] And well, we have every right to cancel our subscriptions and not watch their
00:32:44
programs and sell their stock. By the way, they their programming sucks. Anyway, we have to go on a quick break because when we come back, we have
00:32:49
more ridiculous clown car activity FBI director Cash Patel faced Congress. Support for Pivot comes from Quint. Fall is in full swing, which makes it the perfect time to refresh your wardrobe in
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00:34:11
Scott, we're back with more news. FBI director Cash Patel testified before the House Judiciary Committee for two heated
00:34:17
days this week. It was kind of ridiculous. Before questioning began, Patel used his opening statement to take
00:34:23
credit for identifying Charlie Cook's assassin and told the committee he wasn't going anywhere. It's probably true. Donald Trump doesn't fire
00:34:29
incompetent people. When questioned on the Epstein files, Patel claimed he is barred from recent quarters from
00:34:35
releasing all the documents. This is not so. Let's listen to a clip of Representative Eric Swallwall pressing
00:34:41
him on the issue. Simple question. Did you tell the attorney general that the president's name is in the Epstein files?
00:34:47
During many conversations that the attorney general and I have had on the matter of Epstein, we have reviewed
00:34:53
The question is simple. Who did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's
00:34:59
name is in the Epstein files? Yes or no? Why don't you try spelling it out? Yes or no? Director, the alphabet.
00:35:04
Yes or no? No. ABC. Director, did it sounds like you don't want to tell us. Did you tell the
00:35:10
attorney general that Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files? Why don't you try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing
00:35:16
violent crime in this country and the number of pedophiles that are legally harbored in your sanctuary cities in
00:35:22
California? Oh my god, he's such an idiot. He's he's such an idiot. Like it's just
00:35:29
answer the question. Like it's I mean sw it's just of course a lot of this is theater but god he's stupid. Like that's
00:35:36
that's what I came out from it. Thoughts? Yeah. It's just bad for the American brand when you see that sort of uh
00:35:45
univil back and forth. Um I mean a little bit of it is a little bit of is that the these these hearings have become not really doing their job.
00:35:57
They're they're more or less just a I mean it was okay with RFK. I think that was
00:36:03
actually helpful to see in that. Yeah, I think so. This is just um I saw the whole thing and I thought here's another here's another instant where people just feel bad about America cuz
00:36:16
uh uh Director Patel is is being incredibly disrespectful of people who are elected by their constituents. They are they are meant to provide oversight. I mean, they're they're his boss.
00:36:29
they're they provide oversight for these agencies on behalf of the American people. And when he gets back in their
00:36:34
face like that, he's playing to an audience of one. Uh, and I just found the whole thing really um really discouraging. The good news is I my
00:36:45
understanding is the Robinson family has cleared a bunch of other crimes. Tyler Robinson um
00:36:51
Yeah, that's a good joke. Yeah, I mean they did the work of the FBI and they're supposedly% Cash Patel is destroying the agency and
00:36:58
I'm certain I think the agency is stronger than that. I think it'll survive. Let's hope. But he's just he's you know
00:37:04
he's he's just so dumb. Like I like so dumb. I don't even care about his stupid back and forth. He's not even good at
00:37:09
that. Like literally he's not good at any of it. And so you know whatever. He's just he's just an incomp he won't be fired. Just so you know. Neither will Christine Gnome. Incompetent. Neither
00:37:21
will RFK incompetent and dangerous. Um, neither will But while we're all distracted and angry
00:37:27
looking at this, the important [ __ ] is no one's noticing. I mean, you realize Putin flew attack
00:37:35
drones now into Romania. I mean, it's just so funny. Like Trump's out there saying Putin would have never attacked
00:37:42
Ukraine. By the way, Putin is basically sending in attack aircraft into NATO countries now. And we're listening to
00:37:49
Cash Patel make us look like [ __ ] instead of instead of instead of immediately Trump should be unified with Starmer. He shouldn't be at the Windsor Castle in my view getting a rub and tug
00:38:01
from the royal family. He should be with Starmer. He should be with Mcron. He should withhold and they should be essentially meeting very visibly quietly
00:38:12
not saying anything. And then within slowly but surely within the 74 next 74 20 days we should be jamming all sorts of military aircraft and material and hitting back very hard because basically
00:38:24
Putin now has said oh they're so distracted and they're so weak and this guy loves me so much I can pretty much do whatever I want
00:38:31
and we're sitting here talking about what a [ __ ] what a [ __ ] idiot patellism. You're
00:38:37
right. And it's interesting or but meanwhile Europe Very good point. Meanwhile, Putin is flying attack drones
00:38:43
over NATO. Yeah, I think people are distracted and they aren't actually paying attention because as you said, as you noted, NATO
00:38:49
uh the stock market was up largely on the cut of the fade which was expected. The cut was expected. Um uh but one of
00:38:56
the things that was interesting was Nvidia investing $5 billion in Intel. Um even Joe Kerna didn't like this. The
00:39:02
stake was worth about 4% of the company. As part of the deal, Nvidia and Intel would collaborate on developing chips
00:39:07
for personal computers and data centers. Intel stock jumped over 25% not a surprise in pre-market trading. Um, by
00:39:14
the way, in other Nvidia needs needs to focus on this because China's internet watchdog has instructed companies to
00:39:20
terminate orders for Nvidia chips, which is one of its um uh one of its uh bigger
00:39:26
clients. Um, what do you think about this? is I mean Joe Kerner was even like does this feels like industrial policy
00:39:31
or that he's trying to please Trump or create this national chip. Part of me is like we do need to have stronger chip
00:39:37
companies in this country. At the same time this seems I don't know it feels very industrial policy Soviet Union. I I'd love to know what you think of this.
00:39:48
Well, I think this is the kind of thing that warrants if we had an if we had a you know a DOJ and an FTC that was actually that hadn't been weaponized and a lot of people would argue there's
00:39:59
still good people working there. The thing I don't like about it is I don't like in an environment as important as
00:40:05
chips. I don't like the idea of these guys coordinating and that is now at the same time you could argue Intel is a
00:40:11
shadow of itself and needs to be bailed out, right? we talked about and and the government's gone gone in bought a stake. Now Nvidia's bought a
00:40:18
stake. But the problem with your competitor buying a 5% stake is say in some say some engineer from Intel pops up and says you know what I think I can build the equivalent of a GPU hopper
00:40:28
chip from in from Nvidia for 20% less. We just need a billion dollars. And they say yeah but one of our owners is Nvidia. You want the full body contact violence
00:40:40
of capitalism. You want crazy out of control competition. So when these companies start buying
00:40:46
I mean people could probably fairly look back on Microsoft buying a stake in Apple. Yeah, that's a good that's a very good comparative different political environment, right?
00:40:57
But this is the kind of thing where I want really thoughtful economists and lawyers reviewing it and saying is this
00:41:02
likely going to reduce competition across, you know, the the most the most important high margin products we produce in America right now, which is these chips. So, the honest answer is I don't know, but I think it at least
00:41:14
warrants a pretty thoughtful uh review. And will it get that? So, if you speak to Jonathan Caner, he says there's still really good people at the um FTC and the DOJ, but in this
00:41:27
environment, Yeah. it just feels like anything that sends stocks up, uh the Trump administration
00:41:33
likes and is going to and is going to squaltch. trying to find the deal for Trump in here. You know, every
00:41:38
everything he does with any chip steel, there seems to be a Trump family member there ahead of the deal to get their
00:41:45
vid. Yeah, I don't even know. I just I would love to know. I would love some reporters to explain what happened here and how it
00:41:51
happened. But seems like Nvidia is just, you know, jumping at whatever Trump says. He I think Jensen Wong was at that
00:41:57
uh that really weird looking dinner in Britain with the with the king the king and queen of Britain. That was one weird
00:42:05
weird dinner. I don't And I mean the more the more significant news with Nvidia is
00:42:11
basically China has announced they're striking back and they're saying okay we're not going to buy any we're not
00:42:16
going to buy any soybeans. So all you farmers who love Trump you want a trade war? Fine. We'll go after we'll go after
00:42:21
your heart and lungs and that is farmers. And two they've basically said we're no longer going to buy uh Nvidia chips.
00:42:28
They've even they've even told companies to stop the integration of Nvidia chips because they've come up with their own. Yep. Uh so
00:42:34
makes sense for China. That makes China. So these guys are basically everything that was supposed to happen whether it
00:42:39
was bringing back manufacturing a combination of raiding Hyundai plants and putting a chill across any
00:42:45
investment from South Korea. You know, these people are incompetent. Like stop with the indignant. They're
00:42:50
incompetent. Vote get organize and vote them out. That's it. Even if they're going to try to steal the election,
00:42:56
don't let them. Like it's just I don't I don't want to really sit around and like bemoone the situation.
00:43:02
Well, I'm with you, sister. Can't be. No bemoning. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. We come back,
00:43:08
new details about Trump's Tik Tok deal. Support for this show comes from Upway. If you're tired of being stuck in traffic or watching gas prices climb higher and higher, you're not alone. There's a better, freer way to move
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00:44:11
Scott, we're back. I know this will shock you, but Donald Trump has extended the Tik Tok deadline again. Uh I don't even know if it's illegal this time
00:44:17
until December the 16th. It's the fourth extension so far for those keeping score at home. We're also learning more about
00:44:22
the deal if it goes through. Bite dance would spin off US operations into a new company owned by investor consortium
00:44:28
Oracle, Silverlake and and Horowits are among the investors expect to own about 80% of the company. What a shock. All
00:44:35
Trump supporting people. Uh the company would have a majority US board including a member appointed by the Trump
00:44:41
administration. That gave me pause. And Trump just said that his news conference with UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer that
00:44:47
the US is getting a tremendous fee plus uh for just this vague for just making the deal. Uh it's a basically another
00:44:53
payoff. Um it's going to go in the hands. There's all this question of how what's really happening to the
00:44:59
algorithm. I suspect that the Chinese will only go along if they're allowed to keep uh their algorithm and and if it's
00:45:06
in this system, that's a problem. If it's not, that's a problem for the product. So, I don't know. I feel Tik Tok is will go I think Instagram and
00:45:17
others will bypass it rather quickly given all the sturman drum around this. Um, any thoughts?
00:45:23
Yeah, the news today is just sort of a [ __ ] salad with shavings of [ __ ] on it. So this is
00:45:31
effectively the whole point of passing a law signed by the president or Biden passed by both houses of of Congress was that Tik Tok prevents a defense threat.
00:45:42
We have twothirds of our nation's youth spends time on Tik Tok every day, the average of an hour and a half. So Tik Tok has more influence over our future business, nonprofit, civic, and military
00:45:53
leaders than NBC, ABC, and CBS did during their height in the 60s. And as a result, people my age or one of the
00:45:59
impacts is people my age, 50% of us feel good about America. It's 1 in 10 Gen Z.
00:46:05
And I think there's no doubt about it. It's the the connection to the rage machine, but also I think in addition to the rage equals profitability. By dance
00:46:11
has a vested interest uh with with coordination with the CCP of dividing us internally. So that was a threat. All of
00:46:19
the government, all branches of government decided this is bad. Let's ban it. And then the president decided no, I'm not going to ban it. I'm not
00:46:24
going to enforce it. And I think I can do a quote unquote great deal here. First off, this is such cronyism. So, I
00:46:32
would like I'm I'm I'm hoping that that you and I can play a role in getting the
00:46:37
next president elected and then I'm going to ask him to give me the license, the US license to LVMH because I'm
00:46:44
really into Ramoa luggage. And but that's exactly what this is. This is I am going to use the power of the presidency to force a great company in
00:46:55
terms of economics and upside. Yeah. To be sold to my donors, right? That's not how you do [ __ ] You don't
00:47:01
car That's literally We're in Russia where Putin carved up all of the commodities and
00:47:07
companies and said, "Okay, you're a billionaire who's friendly to my interests and you're going to give me transfer money to my Swiss banking
00:47:12
account. I'm going to give you the biggest nickel mine in our Kutsk and you can go buy Premier League football teams
00:47:19
and have yachts in the south of France. That is exactly what this is. Yeah. You don't carve up companies and give
00:47:25
them to your political allies. And then it's also not Congress. Let's say you're also ignoring what the law.
00:47:31
It's also cronyist and that is well that's the croniest part. It's also socialist also someone from the
00:47:37
government is going to be on the board here. What? We're going to put we're going to put Peter Navaro on the board of bite dance.
00:47:44
I mean, something like that. That is that is socialism. That is when the government thinks they're smarter
00:47:49
than private enterprise and tries to get involved in the means of production. That is a bad idea. In addition, the
00:47:55
whole thing that started this was the defense threat of having the world's most elegant propaganda machine in the world
00:48:01
implant a neural jack into the wet matter of America's youth. That was the whole point. And guess what? The one
00:48:06
component of this is that in the deal is that we are going to license the algorithm, but they are still going to
00:48:13
control it. So this is all of the bad taste of cronyism and socialism with all of the
00:48:19
calories of a lack of doing anything about the true defense threat here and he doesn't understand he doesn't care. The silver lining here is I don't think it's going to happen. Yeah. I think she is just she is like,
00:48:32
"Okay, pretend this guy is the physical embodiment of a cat on meth who can't stay focused on anything. Waste a bunch of time. Go through this deal. We have till December and then
00:48:43
we'll put it off again." This guy has shown Trump is not Trump keeps blinking, blinking, blinking, blinking. But the
00:48:49
deal, just to talk a little bit about the deal, the new entity um would would be created to control the
00:48:54
new and separate American version of Tik Tok. and the US companies Oracle, silverlike entries and horitz all
00:49:00
Republicans and other existing bite down shareholders would hold a roughly 80% stake creepy old guys sorry all three Trump
00:49:07
Ellison whatever they really know that with the they have their finger on the pulse of the young people but go ahead
00:49:13
um and then the new company would have a majority American board with one member designated from the US government
00:49:18
directly okay there thank you socialism but again the key the only thing that matters here in addition to carving up
00:49:25
an amazing company and giving it to your Republican allies is that it's very unclear who is still going to control
00:49:31
the algorithm or mostly clear that the CCP is still going to have input into this into this algorithm. So, and also
00:49:40
[ __ ] sandwich. Like you said, Larry Ellison, if this deal goes through, which I don't think it will, it's only going to get richer because
00:49:45
the most overvalued companies in the world right now are Tesla and probably Palunteer trading at 40 to 60 times revenues. Bite Dance, which economically
00:49:56
has operation operating margins of like, you know, literally like 30%. It's an unbelievable company growing really fast is trading at two times revenues because
00:50:07
of the overhang of geopolitical concerns. So these guys are about to if they in fact do take control of it are
00:50:12
going to make tens of billions of dollars. Yeah. Which is why they're here. So to your point at the trough they're
00:50:19
pigs at the trough. Do you really want Ellison controlling CBS, CNN? No. Paramount and Tik Tok. And so this is this is I'm more upset
00:50:31
about this economically. We need Look, I I don't support I don't support mum dami because I'm a big fan of capitalism. I'm a big fan of full [ __ ]
00:50:42
full body contact capitalism that creates violence, blood, and competition and amazing products at a low price that
00:50:49
creates shareholder value and profits the likes of which no one has ever seen. And then the government gets their vig
00:50:55
in the form of taxation, not moving in and trying to pre pretend cosplay investment. Who we just met with? Let's not go after
00:51:01
him because you've got Cuomo saying all manner of nonsensical things. Eric Adams is a corrupt.
00:51:07
Yeah, I'm not going after him. I'm saying I think I think his socialist ideas are bad. I am not for socialism when it comes from a Democrat or the
00:51:13
president. What does it look like he's doing? He's attacking and listening to business people. He just met with Bloomberg.
00:51:19
Oh, he's moderating. He's being He's a smart candidate. He's modulating. Yes. But not modulating. He's meeting
00:51:25
with Bloomberg. That to me says a lot about that he's willing to at least understand he's going to be the mayor of
00:51:31
New York and not just agree. And he's also toned down his comments. He's now said that he realizes
00:51:37
things like globalizing antifat are are insensitive and he will no longer support those statements. He is a
00:51:42
fantastic candidate. My point is the following. I don't like socialism when it comes from the left or the right. Right. And this is you want to talk
00:51:50
about an embrace of socialism having a golden share on US steel with a government basically.
00:51:55
That's what I'm saying. The only person who's being a socialist mom has never done anything. He's just talked about bringing vegetables to poor people.
00:52:01
That's pretty much where you mean government sponsored food lines, stores operated by the government. He was talking about in neighborhoods
00:52:07
that are problematic. It's like or rent control such that we have no new no new development of housing in New
00:52:13
York. There's got to be some. I love that we're in an argument over the mayor's race. No, I'm just saying all I'm saying is he's done nothing.
00:52:19
Trump has proven I agree. He's done nothing. That's his qualifications for mayor. He's done nothing. Oh, come on. Come on. Let's
00:52:25
He's a [ __ ] city councilman. Good for him. And long line of people who've done nothing who are like Hello, Cash Patel.
00:52:31
Hello. Come on. I'm with you. I'm not I don't think Mom Dami should run the FBI either.
00:52:37
He's He'd be better at it than Cash Patel. That's for sure. You'd be better at than I wouldn't want you to have any
00:52:42
kind of subpoena power. In any case, we need to we need to move on. Oh my god. You know what I have? I have
00:52:48
sub penis power after a little ed. Oh my god. Why did I even say the word? Oh my god. I am so
00:52:55
If I said the word pianies, you'd make a joke, wouldn't you? Literally, I'm looking at this parking lot. I got to Can we Should I take a
00:53:02
picture shot of this? No. No, no, you shouldn't. It's amazing. It's so much fun. All right, we're going to take one more.
00:53:08
Let's talk more about Jean. I'm on dami who's done nothing versus Trump who's like literally a communist at this
00:53:13
point. Anyway, my point is I don't I'm an equal opportunity hater socialism and I love
00:53:20
capitalism. Bring it on. Let's compete. American companies are the strongest companies in the world.
00:53:26
We know what doing corrupt. They're cronies. They are they break first amendment rules. Like I'm just saying these people are actively shitty and we'll wait for mom Donnie to
00:53:38
Mom Dami is like shitty and waiting. Let me He's not I don't know. What if he's great? You're going to eat your
00:53:44
words, I think. All right, Scott. One more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Okay, Scott, let's hear a prediction.
00:53:51
Well, I gotta be honest, Cara. I don't think I'm thinking very straight. I was I was asked to do a prediction on
00:53:56
Prophecy and I'm like I I'm I'm just out of sorts right now and so I don't feel like I'm thinking clearly. The only
00:54:03
prediction I could sort of muster is the following. You have with Nvidia saying they'll take a 5% stake in Intel, that's like the sweat off their brow. It's just not a big deal. So if
00:54:14
it's like these companies now representing 40% of the S&P, like I don't know 20 trillion in value.
00:54:21
What you do when you're so and I like to point this out a lot. I've been a lot of corporate boards.
00:54:27
When you feel like your stock is inflated in a bit, we call it fully valued, which means our stock is overvalued for some reason, what you do
00:54:34
is you go shopping because what you want to do is find companies that are undervalued because then the acquisition is accreative. If you go buy when you
00:54:41
have a lot of money and you're trading when you're trading at when you're trading at 80 times earnings, if you buy
00:54:46
a company that's trading at at 20 times earnings, it's accretive right away. So it's like okay we have a lot of money on our credit cards that may not be there in 3 6 or 12 months let's go shopping
00:54:59
and I think Intel I was thinking about Nvidia and Intel and also a total absence of any sort of scrutiny or DOJ
00:55:05
or antitrust uh concern it all adds up to me to I think the next two quarters are going to be historically good or the best in 10 or 20 years for M&A
00:55:17
because I think everyone is going to say well we would have never even contemplated ated buying a company like
00:55:22
this because the FDC or the DOJ would get in the way. But they won't. I mean, Warner Brothers stock, get this, Cara, it was up 55% last week because uh
00:55:31
the father of a kid increased his wealth by 90 billion in one day at the hands of
00:55:36
AI. So you have so much money, such inflated earnings of companies who could make so many acquisitions that would be accreative that I would bet Goldman and JP Morgan are in the offices of of the
00:55:47
Magnificent 10 saying here's a list right of 30 companies go that's a great prediction Scott that is a great prediction but a company that they would have never
00:55:58
been able to acquire or never been able to afford to acquire that's 10 20 or 30 billion these guys give me one give me one give me one
00:56:05
if you were blank Thank you at Comcast. Well, the thing is about Comcast though,
00:56:10
it's controlled by the Roberts family. But that's an interesting that's a really interesting idea. You could see I don't there's just uh who
00:56:18
are the biggest media companies that are still independent and out there you should try to grab it from the house. You mentioned one. You me absolutely
00:56:24
mentioned one. You mentioned Disney. Uh Disney Disney at this point is flailing and Bob
00:56:30
Iger might just throw Bob out of his misery because I'm sure he's very agonized about this. Bob, I'm and okay,
00:56:35
I'm sure you're very I think the market I think the market cap of Disney is um 120 120 billion or something.
00:56:43
You'd have to pay a premium. Call it 150. Apple that's like a 5% delilution for some of
00:56:49
these companies. Well, if Apple bought I I'm not sure I'm not sure Tim wants those headaches, but
00:56:54
just to give you an example, if if Apple bought Disney, it would be a 5% bet. So, even if it
00:57:00
didn't work and the thing ended up being 1%, it's not a career- ending injury. It's it would be a great acquisition for them at this point. It's not that hard.
00:57:06
They do a very good job at Apple TV with a lot of good shows. They need more scale and that this huge amount of
00:57:12
it for a while. But Apple doesn't Apple's been smart about that. Probably he's got to do something special. They like to build internally their
00:57:18
I know, but he can't build that and he needs to do look he's they've got a lot of hair on that because are they an AI?
00:57:24
Are they enough? Their phone sucks. They need something pretty and and the president will let it happen since Tim
00:57:29
is Tim was also at that dinner sucking up the You can bet every investment bank these investment bankers with these key
00:57:34
relation there and like here's 20 companies we would have never suggested that you could buy and they're going to go yeah why not it's kind of it's almost
00:57:41
free for them at this point these companies are trading you don't think Palunteer is looking at every analytics
00:57:47
I mean Palanteer is like okay we have a $600 billion market cap at a 10 billion Jesus Christ
00:57:52
how about they buy they buy Disney and lop off ABC and let I don't [ __ ] Sinclair have it and do their shitty
00:57:58
programming that no anyone over under 65 isn't watching. By the way, Sinclair, all your all your audience is dying. So, good luck with that. Good luck with that, Sinclair.
00:58:10
You have really old people audience that, you know, this is just all these companies that have broadcast are just
00:58:15
lop off ABC. Just say just let it go. Let it go. I was so depressed. I like literally
00:58:22
sang it out last night. All I did was eat cash it. I was on a plane. I last yesterday I heard about the news about
00:58:27
Jimmy Kimmel and I thought, you know what? I'm just going to turn on Spotify, type in 80s and I got back to the hotel
00:58:35
in Nashville. I took a 10 milligram gummy and I just slept for 9 hours. Well, good. And I woke up and now you're
00:58:40
staring at construction. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. went and worked out and I've been watching this parking lot being torn down.
00:58:45
It's one of the stages of grief. Demolition. Construction. Demolition. Demolition. Anyway, um let's bring Jimmy Kimmel on. Jimmy, if
00:58:52
you're out there, we like you. like we'd like you to come on requests. I have interviewed him. I'm going to repost my
00:58:57
interview with him. But you always have to one up me. I'm just telling you I've been everywhere you you know where you go
00:59:03
like you know Kiloy was here, Carol was here. All right, we want to hear from you. That's an old reference. Send us
00:59:09
your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to Oh, wait. But Caitlyn Collins wants to interview me told me go on Caitlyn
00:59:15
Collins show. I can't get another text from their people. You need to go on Caitlyn as a personal favor to me. Will
00:59:20
you go on Caitlyn Collins show? Let's be honest. It's not about the brain. It's about the broad shoulders and the good looks. No.
00:59:26
And the Bruce Durn like sexiness that she wants on her program. She needs to get a rating. Just go on her show. She's a great She
00:59:32
does a great job. Yeah, she does a great job. She does a great job and she deserves your attention. Just you can make other
00:59:37
friends besides Anderson Cooper. I'm just telling you. Love AC. If he gets fired, I'm going on strike. Okay, you do that. I told him I said,
00:59:45
you know, be careful, Anderson. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your mind. Go to
00:59:50
nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere
00:59:56
in the Cara and Scott universe this week, as I mentioned, I just sat down with Pete Buddhaj for an upcoming
01:00:01
episode of On with Cara Swisser. Um, I asked him a very important question about his future. Let's listen. Are you
01:00:08
going to run for president again in 2028? And please don't be co. Come on. I don't know.
01:00:13
Really? It's 2025. That's not very long. Have you lived through the last nine months? That's true. That's I got to tell you
01:00:28
that was better than the Gavin answer. That said, he said I could sleep in the Lincoln bedroom, so we know where he is
01:00:33
on that. Um, it's my greatest goal. Will you let me sleep in the Lincoln bedroom? Sure. Okay, there we go.
01:00:40
Anyway, it was really fun. Actually, he's he's loosened up considerably, which is great because he's very charming and the That was a real zinger. Are you running
01:00:46
for president? He is running for I think he's coming out with car but I think I have to ask it. Camel Harris wanted to
01:00:52
pick him for vice president and didn't have the balls to do so. Um, so to speak. Well, it's good to know that now.
01:00:57
Yeah, it's good to know that. That helps. That helps. That's good. She wanted Mayor
01:01:03
Pete. I heard the rumor I'd always heard was that it was Governor Shapiro and then over the weekend the black caucus
01:01:08
went [ __ ] crazy and she picked Wall. That's what she wanted, Mayor Pete. She just didn't think they could
01:01:14
take a black lady and a gay man. I guess that's was her calculation there. Wow. Yeah. Think she would have won with Mayor Pete or would have angered I don't think it would have made a difference and I love Mayor Pete and I'm
01:01:26
I'm going to be he's one of you know there's like one of 12 candidates I'll support and give money to and see how
01:01:32
the process plays out. I think Mayor Pete is an inspiration. Yeah. Um how was it was how was the interview?
01:01:38
Any any interesting things from Yeah. I asked him about him being a fake gay. Um, and about Tucker Carlson
01:01:44
accused him of being not a real gay. He's not a real gay. Apparently, he Yes. A lot actually. He
01:01:49
was, you know, he's he's sporting a beard now, so he's looking He's not a real gay. Well, I'll say this. He gives great head for someone
01:01:55
who's not actually gay. Oh, that's wrong. Is that wrong? That's wrong. In his I'm jetlagged.
01:02:00
Wait, who cancels me for that? Yeah, I think he's fantastic. I I really hope that um you know, served his country.
01:02:08
Super smart. He has I think his path to the presidency uh or or his messaging I don't know if he talked about this but something that's really powerful that I had Ezra
01:02:20
Klein on my pod that he pointed out that I thought was really powerful is that he can speak in a very authentic way and it
01:02:27
was very moving when he talked about it about he grew up believing that he wasn't going to have um the opportunity
01:02:33
to have his own family. Yeah, he did. and the fact that he does have this really what appears to be a
01:02:39
wonderful beautiful family. He does because of our embrace of of civil rights and you know the right to pursue
01:02:47
happiness and he can speak to that powerfully in a way that I think will resonate
01:02:52
with a lot of um with a lot of moderates and a lot of Republicans about parenting. We talked about that
01:02:57
issue. Of course, you never asked me if I ever thought that as a kid because I'm older than him too. I'm much older than
01:03:04
him. Well, that's that's that's fair. Um I just think it's much more important for men to have families. Um
01:03:12
uh you guys have cats. You guys have cats. You've not still not asked me. Here it is an opening. Let me How are you,
01:03:17
Scott? No. How are you? No, no, no, no. Cara, when you were young, did you dream of having a family
01:03:22
and think you wouldn't be able to have a family? Interestingly, Pete and I did talk about this. I I wanted to have a family from
01:03:29
the get-go. like very early as I told I I bought a onesie when I was 18 because I un had kids. I was going to have kids.
01:03:36
I didn't I thought I didn't think I couldn't. I was like, "Fuck you. I'm going to have kids. I'm going to have a
01:03:42
family." So, I think we we had a different approach to it. I was more aggressive and and angry and uh about it
01:03:49
and Pete was more sad about it, which is the same difference, right? Because you have How old is Louis?
01:03:55
23. He's 23. Which means you had him when you were 60. No. That's good. 39. 39. You were 39. 39. And I used And when I had a uterus
01:04:06
back when I had a uterus. Yeah. Yeah. I had my I had my first at 42. Yeah. So, I think it's good having kids when you're a little older. Yeah. Me, too. Except when they keep getting sick as the young ones are. They
01:04:17
keep trading the same illness back and forth. Yeah. No, it's uh You've locked and loaded again. I actually, if I was a
01:04:24
little bit younger, I would do that. But yeah, it's uh uh you can borrow my kids for the weekend
01:04:30
and I take Amanda away. That would be And it's the gay, you've have said this, it's the gays that are the only ones
01:04:35
keeping gays and immigr immigrants are the only ones keeping our population growth at the state level, right?
01:04:40
And Elon Musk and Elon Musk. And by the way, you you know all these guys. I think like I want
01:04:47
to be I'll tell you what, if I have any pull, you can be ambassador Australia. I want to be ambassador to Spain.
01:04:52
Oh, okay. If that's all right, we'll give that to We'll give him some money. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot
01:04:57
to Thailand and be sure No, please don't send Scott there. All right, that's the show.
01:05:02
Thanks for listening to Pivot and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back next week. Ambassador to Mexico.
01:05:10
Oh my good. Okay, read us out. Today's show was produced by Laura Neman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and K Gallagher. Ernie and Todd enter injured
01:05:23
in this episode. Jim M edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burroughs, Neil Seo and Dan Shalon. Great data by the way.
01:05:30
Nishak Kua is Vox Media's executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform.
01:05:36
Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod.
01:05:43
We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. I'm in Tennessee, Cara. I'm in Tennessee watching parking lots being
01:05:49
destroyed. Watch out for Marsha Blackburn. [Music]