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ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million
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to settle a defamation lawsuit brought
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by Donald Trump the suit Senator on
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comments that ABC's George stephanov
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made against a in a civil suit against
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Trump brought by egene Carroll he said
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he was found liable for rape when he
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actually been found liable for sexually
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assaulting and defaming
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Carol uh the judge had had had mentioned
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that it was in most terms that would be
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considered that and that's I think why
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he said it um but in fact the the jury
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had found him liable for sexual assault
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uh defamation under the terms of the
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settlement ABC News will donate uh the
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money $15 million uh to a future
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presidential vation of Museum and
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Stephanopoulos and ABC Al also issued a
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statement of regret for the mistake um
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many experts thought I I've talked to a
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dozen lawyers they thought ABC would
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have won and Trump is typically does
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this a lot as a as a and so does
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speaking of Elam mus we just talked
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about him they use legal uh threats as a
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means of of of uh having people acquest
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so talk a little bit about this I mean
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from a business point of view again it's
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using censorship it's using legal means
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it's using anything but actual
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competition or just like things work out
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it's more than that what we're seeing is
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that I mean some of us had warned that
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um that uh a trump ad second Trump
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Administration would be one in which the
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uh coercive power of the government uh
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against business would become huge that
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it mean that we're in a a mixed economy
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the government plays a big role uh
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private sector plays a big role a lots
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of things in the private sector depend
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upon government decisions that are
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reasonably favorable um as long as you
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have
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rules Norms rule of law um then that
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kind of works okay but if you start to
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have arbitrary exercise and then one of
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the things we're worried about on
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tariffs um it happens to be the case
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that the way that our trade laws are
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written the president has enormous
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discretion in tariff setting and in some
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ways one of the worst things about Trump
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tariffs will be not the tariffs he
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applies but the ones he doesn't because
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he can play favorites with who gets to
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get Exempted from a tariff there's some
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evidence he did that even on the
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relatively small tariffs he imposed in
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the first term so if you were ABC and
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you're looking at uh at all the ways
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that Trump can hurt you if he wants to
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uh then you you know pay protection
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money that's what just happened and this
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is a much bigger thing than just
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competition this is basically um big
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business already acknowledging that
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we've become a uh uh a protection racket
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pay pay for play and uh that's that's
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scarier than anything I mean it's uh it
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that's uh uh is one of those reasons to
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wonder whether you know uh 2024 was
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maybe the last real election so talk a
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little bit about because from a business
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from an economy point of view you can
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have a very robust economy even with
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this cooperation or does It ultimately
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end this oligarchy and in lack of
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innovation which has been the Hallmark
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of the US really um dominance and
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Innovation and new fresh ideas we it's
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really been a remarkable Run for the
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United States over the last 40 we've had
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an extraordinary the last 25 years you
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know the uh in 2000 roughly all advanced
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countries seemed to be about on the same
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level technologically the US has now
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pulled well ahead um and there one of
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the pieces I've written recently says a
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lot of that is actually just geography
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there's probably room for only one
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Silicon Valley anywhere in the world and
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it happens to be here but the um but a
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lot of it is also yeah
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openness uh rule of law uh success
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depends upon upon actually producing
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stuff that people want and can use um on
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being able to attract the best and
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brightest from around the world to work
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and all of that is at risk you're in a
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situation where uh you we know that
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there are people with influence on Trump
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who who think of tech jobs as being
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goodies to be handed out and don't not
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don't let foreigners have those um we
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know that uh we're May well be heading
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for a situation in which um in which
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success in business depends upon pull
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with the administration depends on
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whether you're in or out of favor um and
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we even have I mean uh for what it's
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worth uh regimes like that according to
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an IMF meta study um it subtracts about
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1% from growth year after year in year
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after year how do you look at with all
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these billionaires around him and they
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certainly are just one it's mostly Tech
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that's going there but Disney just did
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this right this is Bob Iger doing this
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uh making he he had had to approve of
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this settlement and uh he has not you
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haven't seen him at Mar but this is his
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version of that right yeah um how what
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is that what are were you surprised that
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it's been the tech people who had mostly
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stayed out of government right and until
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they realized there was there was an
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interview that Mark andreon did who I've
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known for a long time I and largely a
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Despicable character but um uh one of
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the things he said he was terrified by
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what Biden was going to do and he was
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scared and that's what drove him into
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Trump's arm which I think is absolute
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Insanity
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unlikely I mean I am actually not
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surprised because I'm I'm a cynic and
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the thing about tech by the way is you
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know these are no longer upstart
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innovators that we're talk about now
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we're talking about people who you know
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who were who made
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their their billions very very young but
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they're now middle-aged and um and
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they're sitting on in many ways on on
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these uh Monopoly positions created by
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by their past efforts um and of course
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they're going to try and Curry favor
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with the government the the libertarian
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IDE ideology was never more than Skin
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Deep um but I also think that some of
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the backing Trump you know this is the
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classic error uh oligarchs it's funny in
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a in a democratic rule of law Nation
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great wealth brings a lot of power with
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it uh and it's natural to think well if
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I help elect an autocrat who will uh you
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know will is sympathetic to my interest
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that th I'll have even more power but
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you very quickly find out that actually
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all of the power is on the other side
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that the uh uh and you know I don't
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think analogies with Putin I mean I'm
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hoping that we're not going to go full
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Putin but the analogies are really
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clearly there and the oligarchs who
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helped put Putin in power thought that
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they had bought themselves a government
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and they found out that they were
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working for him not the other way around
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right and if they didn't uh work for him
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they were you know their Fortune can
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disappear quite quickly Windows started
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to look very well and then falling out
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of Windows I hope we don't get to the
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falling out of Windows stage but it
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could right and so no this is a and
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that's going to happen very very fast I
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mean I'm I think there's a reasonably
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strong case to that that Elon Musk and
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Trump will have a falling out and uh
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musk will not be the winner and I don't
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know that for sure but I'm actually kind
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of looking forward to it to be honest
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okay to that where do you where does it
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where does that break is because rich
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people have always been quietly running
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the country right the the whole idea of
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whoever down degrees and degrees yes but
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what is this unprecedented I don't think
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so right it's totally precedented this
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is about this the story of Putin's
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Russia this what about in our country
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that there have been wealthy people
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behind the scenes they just aren't as
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performative they don't jump down at a
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rally and show off their belly and stuff
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like that what how is this different I
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actually have had been wondering about
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that and planning to do a little you
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know I'm not a historian but I think it
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it really is an interesting question you
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we had a Gilded Age um in which there
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were enormous fortunes and and a lot of
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raw corruption and yet Democratic
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institutions were not corrupted too much
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I mean there a lot of purchased votes
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and all of that but in the end when
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people voted for something different
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those votes were honored uh we we didn't
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lose
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um uh in some ways the essence of what
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America's about despite all of that and
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it's an interesting question to ask why
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why didn't the uh the JD Rock fellas and
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the JP Morgans um you know go to the
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Limit why were they willing to allow you
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Teddy Roosevelt to be elected
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um FDR wealthy person JFK wealthy like
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billionair well FDR brought us closer to
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than we like to think but yeah um but
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the but the you know how did the
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Progressive Movement manag to flourish
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in a time when the wealthy also had that
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and I don't quite know the answer
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although it's possible hard to believe
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it's possible that people actually had
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at least some values and ideals enough
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to say that okay I will go this far but
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not beyond that
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point I'm not so sure with this crew
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we'll see I'm not so sure either we'll
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see I know I'm certain they will go as
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far as they take because they are
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perpetually grieved they're grieved Paul
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because they're very VI they're the
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victims just so you know oh yeah that
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it's one thing I mean you would know
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better than me but my my my really
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strong sense is that particularly the
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the tech Bros um I mean everybody loved
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and admired them 10 15 years ago and now
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they're they still have more money than
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God but yeah they're not loved and
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admired universally and I think that
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really you know I do spend enough time
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in meetings with uh people of of various
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people at the top of multiple status
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hierarchies yeah and everybody wants to
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be what they aren't yeah and uh and
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these These are people who can buy
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anything except except love and
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agulation that's correct it was funny
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funny you say that because one of them
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uh was in touch with me and that like
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see we won and I said you're still an
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I still think you're an
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and so I'm sorry can I say this but I I
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apparently somebody used uh grock to
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search for the most the word most
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commonly used to characterize Elon Musk
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yeah and it was
