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.
00:00:13
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
00:00:31
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.
00:00:51
That's fun to watch. Oddly relaxing. Yeah. I've just been sitting here thinking about, you know, metaphors with
00:00:58
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.
00:01:11
What What are you I'm sorry. What are you teaching at Michigan? Justin Scott Galloway 101. That's really I just
00:01:16
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
00:01:27
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,
00:01:52
whatever. I mean, it was not in good taste, I would say. But I would
00:01:58
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,
00:02:10
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
00:02:17
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.
00:02:24
That was that those were the simple days. Those were the simple days. Those are such innocent times.
00:02:29
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,
00:02:52
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.
00:03:03
Oh my god. What are you talking You're so weird. I'm like watching flower arranging and cooking and you
00:03:09
Oh, trust me. I've watched much weirder stuff. Leave your leave your video on much I've
00:03:16
watched much weirder weirder stuff and then done my impersonation of Jeffrey Tubin as I watch it.
00:03:21
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
00:03:29
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
00:03:42
gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and
00:03:48
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
00:04:07
personally, how are you holding up over the last day and a half, sir? I think very good. And by the way, right there
00:04:12
you see all the trucks. They've just started construction of the new ballroom for the White House, which is something
00:04:18
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
00:04:26
stage of grief, construction. By the way, Kimmel posted on social
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media after Kirk was killed, sending his love to the Kirk family and to all victims of gun violence. FCC chair
00:04:37
Brendan Carr, who's got to be the most anxious Toad in a in a sea of them in the Trump administration, blasted Kimmel
00:04:44
in an interview with right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson on Wednesday, calling Simls Kimmel's comments the
00:04:50
sickest conduct possible, which is inexplicable. He suggested ABC's
00:04:55
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
00:05:07
FCC approval for its $6.2 2 billion acquisition of rival media company Tegna. They need a they need an out
00:05:13
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
00:05:39
celebrated the move as great news for America and urged NBC to pull the plug on Seth Meers and Jimmy Fallon. I I I
00:05:46
don't know where to [ __ ] begin here. Do is is Bob Iger the worst person on
00:05:51
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
00:06:12
[ __ ] uh rolls downhill kind of thing. He essentially threatened them and uh with we can do this the easy way. I'm excited
00:06:19
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
00:06:33
a problem. um who is who has had millions of quotes saying we should
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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,
00:06:49
initial reaction when you heard the news? Well, I think Bob Iker is going to go down in history as Neville Chamberlain
00:06:55
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,
00:07:11
I doubt I doubt Bob Iger is really happy he came back. Um, I think this is a terrible footnote on his legacy. And
00:07:19
when, you know, these people bent a knee, they kind of broke the dam. So
00:07:24
Sher Redstone paid basically a vig to get her deal done. Iger did too.
00:07:29
Uh Iger did and now you have um the this guy Brendan car. You these people aren't
00:07:34
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
00:08:00
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
00:08:19
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.
00:08:40
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
00:08:53
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.
00:09:19
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
00:09:31
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
00:09:37
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
00:09:44
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,
00:09:56
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
00:10:35
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
00:11:33
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
00:11:59
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
00:12:11
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
00:12:28
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
00:13:17
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,
00:13:57
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
00:14:17
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
00:14:40
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
00:15:02
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.
00:15:44
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?
00:15:56
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
00:16:09
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
00:16:37
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
00:17:45
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.
00:18:11
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
00:18:23
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,
00:19:06
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
00:19:23
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
00:19:47
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
00:20:18
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
00:21:02
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
00:21:41
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,
00:22:24
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
00:23:30
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
00:23:43
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,
00:24:16
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
00:24:42
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
00:24:55
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
00:25:07
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
00:25:45
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
00:26:37
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
00:26:51
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
00:27:17
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
00:27:46
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
00:27:58
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
00:30:04
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
00:30:16
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
00:30:32
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.
00:31:02
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
00:31:25
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.
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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
00:35:51
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
00:36:09
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
00:36:22
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
00:36:40
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.
00:37:16
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
00:37:54
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
00:38:06
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
00:38:17
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
00:39:42
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
00:39:54
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
00:40:23
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
00:40:34
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
00:40:51
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
00:41:08
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?
00:41:19
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.
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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
00:45:12
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
00:45:37
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
00:45:47
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
00:46:50
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
00:48:24
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
00:48:37
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
00:49:51
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
00:50:01
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.
00:50:24
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
00:50:37
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
00:53:32
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
00:54:08
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
00:54:51
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
00:55:11
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
00:55:41
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
00:55:53
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,
00:58:04
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
01:00:18
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.
01:01:19
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
01:02:14
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.
01:04:01
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,
01:04:11
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.
01:05:18
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]
