00:00:00
This is a huge story that the media is not paying attention to and Scott and I have been stressing this for years.
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Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Carara Swisser and I'm
00:00:17
stoked. I just ran and worked out and I'm drinking Keffir. That's what I'm doing. Yeah, I'm Scott Galloway. Uh I did none
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of those things. I I don't even know what Keer is. I've heard it. I think some people pronounce
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it kafir. I don't know. I just love it. Let me just say I just I'm just pretty sure anyone who drinks it also includes their pronouns
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at the end of an email. No, it's just so good for you. It's full of protein. It's full of all kinds of
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good fermented. This is like I I am so much you like fermentation. I'll give you that. I like fermentation stuff. I'm going to
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get you some sauerkraut for Christmas because it's a perfect gift for someone like you. Um I just want to keep you alive. That's
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really what it is. And it's not a metaphor to your personality in any way. How was your weekend? I was right. It was nice. Boys were
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home. It was really nice. A lot of Premier League. I had an interesting First of all, I went on a date with my lovely wife,
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which was nice, and some friends. Um, many people in the restaurant. Love Pivot, by the way. Um, and then, uh, and
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then, um, my friend from sixth grade, Trevy Williams, came over for brunch with her
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husband, Chris Keany, who was my eighth grade boyfriend. So, it was really fun. It was I know they're wonderful people. They
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found love. Uh uh this is their second marriage, both of them. And I have to say, um both of their spouses died. Um
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and they are wonderful. They're I I am I love having friends from that. I know you have those friends and I really uh
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value it quite a bit. Do they have did they have kids from their previous marriages? Yeah. Yep. Older kids, you know, her
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daughter is a professor at Berkeley or associate professor. Uh her uh her other
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daughter is a really well-known tattoo artist in um in Los Angeles, oddly enough. Interesting.
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Um and uh and he has kids. I don't know his kids as well, but um yeah, they did.
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They're just this they're they're wonderful couple, I have to say. That's nice. Sounds like a sounds like a
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sounds like a nice um It was It was a Sunday brunchy thing. And it was really it was quite lovely.
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It was quite lovely. Whenever I see someone a tattoo artist or someone, I was like, "If you show me your boobs, I'll show you my tattoos." I
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call it I call it tit for tat. Oh my god. She's not You'll never be
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able to get You don't have a tattoo, do you? Uh, no. I'm not big on tats. And as a matter of fact, I had told my boys, no
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joke, I said, "No motorcycles." No military. Although I would probably back off of that. It's less dangerous to
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be in the military right now than a lot of places. And no um no motorcycles, no military, no
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tattoos. And I'll buy them a car at 16. And they could give a [ __ ] They don't want cars. Wait, wait a second. Why? What do you
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have to say after they're 18? It's under your beeswax if they have I I told Lou you could have I have free speech and I
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can bribe people. People can work for whoever they want. They choose to work for me. I see. I see. I have seven tattoos.
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Yeah, I know. They're pretty well hidden though. I've seen some of them on your wrist. Yeah, I've got one on my I my first one
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was on my uh on my ankle on the wrong side. So I they're mostly for me and you can't see it. And it's a ginko leaf,
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which is my favorite uh tree, but it looks like a shamrock. And people think it's a shamrock and then I feel like you
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think I put a [ __ ] shamrock on my ankle. So it upsets me. It's a tattoo that upsets me. My first one.
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Yeah. I don't know. I like that. I like them. I like to go up to these bros that like have those Chinese lettering on their
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cows. Oh yeah. I don't do that. And I'm like, do you know what that says? And it almost always says, "No, I think it's" And I'm like, "No, no, no.
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It says I like dick." Oh, okay. Some of them look like mine are little
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hearts with my four kids initials on it. And then I have symbols of entropy and centropy which I chaos and building and
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I like it. I'm thinking of doing another I'm think I'm really getting an itch for having another one. I have to say
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maybe I'll put Scott S. No, don't do that. No S. Well, I have I I don't have an S.
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I don't I quite frankly I don't I don't understand. I think I think women's skin is
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so like beautiful. I don't I don't personally understand why anyone would ink it up. I don't
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I don't get it. But I love them. I'm so happy with them. I look at them all the time. They're for me. I'm going to get one for Scott. I'm
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going to figure out a little Scott one and put on my ass. That's what I do. Then I never have to look at it. Yeah. That's That's uncomfortable.
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I'm getting a Scott tattoo. Everybody write in. What tattoo should I get to symbolize Scott? Okay.
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Oh god. All right. Let's have a contest. Happy Christmas. Anyway, uh we have a lot to get to today. There's so much went on
00:04:43
over the weekend. Um there's also a ton of tech news and political news, political and tech news. Um Google uh is
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the top of the news as far as far as we're concerned, scoring a victory with his latest AI model and its stock and uh
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Trump falling for Mum Donnie, which we called. But first, um a number of America first
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and MAGA accounts on X. This is a huge story the media is not paying attention to and Scott and I have been stressing
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this for years. Um, a lot of these MAGA accounts on X appear to be based in places like Russia, India, Nigeria,
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Pakistan. According to the company's brand new about this account feature, the tool rolled out late last week shows
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where an account is based, where when it was created and how many times its username is changed. I think this is a
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good thing. I don't I think this is actually a good update. X's had a product called the feature an important first step to securing the integrity of
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the global town square. I would agree, though he later warned of a few rough edges that will resolve this week. He
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also said any data is incorrect. It will be updated periodically based on the best available information. That means
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they're going to manipulate it the way Elon has been doing Grock. Um uh I think
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you're as shocked as I am that foreign actors are behind some of these accounts. I saw a post on threads, your MAGA hat was made in China and your MAGA
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hate was made in Russia. Nothing about you is America first. Also many ex users pointed out inaccuracies in their own
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locations. So it's not limited to MAGA accounts. Um, and let me link this with
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another story because it's a bigger idea of this Russian manipulation. As the peace talks continue between the US and
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Ukrainian officials in Geneva, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is insisting the US wrote the 28 point Ukraine peace plan
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that's been circulating a plan that many Ukrainians dismissed as a capitulation. This comes after a bipartisan group of
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senators said Rubio privately described it as a Russia's w wish list. Rubio is trying really hard to thread this
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needle. Uh Rub has been denying and downplaying saying the plan was early document that received input from both
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sides. Trump said over the weekend that if Linsky doesn't agree to the peace plan, he can quote continue to fight his
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little heart out. Marco Rubio is in a real [ __ ] jam here. But more to the point, the Russians, both things show
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the manipulation of information by Russia with this group of people. They are so they're such, you know, you know,
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idiot assets essentially. What are your thoughts on this? because you and I have focused on this quite a lot. these
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platforms, the GRU, the MOSAD, the CIA, the NSA, the CCP couldn't have dreamt these
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platforms up in their wildest dreams because not only can you use them to track people and find their key relationships, if you're a foreign
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entity that can't beat us kinetically or economically, you just take this unregulated
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industry where now twothirds of people get their information and that has no regulation and a
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management team that is just totally focused on economic wealth and shareholder value. And why would you
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spend $4 or5 billion trying to build an aircraft carrier when you can spend $und00 million and essentially create a
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pretty strong narrative against providing more weapons and aid to Ukraine by weaponizing troll farms and
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using these poorest platforms. the the thing that is probably more influential
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than the actual statements itself on these social media platforms is the comments. I mean, I can't help it. I
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don't think most people can help, but they say something. They make a declarative statement, a viewpoint. We should be shipping long-range missiles
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spec specifically the Flamingo and maybe the Tomahawk into Ukraine. Take out the
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take out the the refining infrastructure 1% and boom, the war's over. and your
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comments will fill up with there's there you go again. You wararm monger and you're trying to start World War II
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and then you click on these things and it's like dogm Wisconsin with three followers
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and it's like what you know those pictures of them with screens in front you've seen those pictures of these farms where
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there's hundreds and hundreds of screens. Yeah. And so I think she and
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Putin and I would argue Hamas would be stupid not to make massive investments
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in trying to shape the narrative in the US to their favor. We do it with our SCOPS. I just don't
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think we're as good at it. And just a brief unmasking of where these accounts
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were coming from shows that foreign actors are having a real impact on our
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discourse. Now, what's a little different here is that I think a lot of these MAGA farms or MAGA accounts that
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have huge followings, Yeah. are actually not people trying to shape the narrative for propaganda purposes.
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They're people just trying to make money. Yeah. So, if you live in Nigeria and you find the easiest way to get several hundred
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thousand followers is just to be crazy MAGA. You do it and you make some money.
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That's a really good point, Scott. That's it's not for influence, it's for money. Well, I think it's but it also
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creates influence, right? because these people get all jack jacked up. Yeah. And and and there's just no
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getting around it. I've been thinking about this a lot and my advice to younger people or if you want to be
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quote unquote a thought leader, like I don't think Muhammad Ali or Margaret Thatcher would have given a flying [ __ ]
00:09:53
what their comments were in social media. And that's a good one.
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Five years ago, seven, seven, 10 years ago, I would be on social media and I'd say
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something, but I was there for the likes. And the likes were dictating what
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I said and how I thought because I wanted to please people and I wanted affirmation for others or at least
00:10:15
influencing it. And then what I realized is okay that just results in more extremism and when we all bark up the
00:10:21
same tree we get stupid, right? And that a real goal should be you don't want to ever purposely offend
00:10:26
people but you should be saying things, writing, tweeting, whatever based on things you
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believe and comments be damned because because I I know this. I say [ __ ]
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Do you read You still read comments, don't you? I don't read them as much. If I read the first 10 I read the first 10
00:10:45
to just get an idea. I block now. I don't respond. I used to respond. Now I block. Oh, no respond. Never weigh in. Well, we
00:10:52
used to we used to respond. Yeah, I haven't I haven't responded in several years now. Um, but my point is,
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and it's hard to do this because everybody until just a couple hundred years ago,
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maybe even less than that, if you were shamed by your tribe, you risk being expuned and you would die.
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If they say you're out, you're dead. You get eaten alive literally by by predators and other animals or other
00:11:17
other lone, you know, lone travelers. So shame is very powerful. So when you go
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online and you say we should be shipping along the best way to end the war in Ukraine is to win it and this is how we
00:11:29
win it. Yeah. You you check back because you know you're going to get a lot of very
00:11:34
negative negative comments. And at the end of the day if you want to be and know some people need to be careful
00:11:40
because they're younger and they're still trying to establish their careers. But if you have economic security and people love you unconditionally, try not
00:11:46
to play to the bots and the the narrative in the comments cuz as much as
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you may think so, it plays a much bigger role in shaping your narrative than you think. Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, of
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course I hold, you know, I've always look Mark Zuckerberg going back when he said there's no Russian influence on our
00:12:02
platform, which was so think about how insane that was and how incredibly menacious that was in terms of what he
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did there. Um I I remember calling them and like well how does he know? Like did he check? Like of course and then he
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came up with some 0.1 like how did you know that so fast? Like it was such it
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was so like lying would be a kind way of putting it I thought at the time and and
00:12:28
with Musk the same thing. He doesn't care what goes on at his Nazi porn bar. He doesn't like as long as he gets the
00:12:34
influence he requires. I mean his manipulation of Grock is laughable. you know, Elon's and he of course got got
00:12:40
total ratio last week when they said is is Elon the best, you know, person to be peed on in history and they're like
00:12:47
a physical specimen. Grock cites him as a physical specimen, him and LeBron James. Then people, you know, does he eat poop
00:12:53
better than anybody else? And they did that. Yes, he's the best poop eater and stuff. So the whole thing is so
00:12:59
laughable like that you would spend this much money and but the irresponsibility of the platform. I don't think you can
00:13:06
avoid it. These platforms actually that they exist, you can avoid this kind of in foreign influence. But I think you
00:13:12
could mitigate it and they don't seem caring about mitigation. I was I wonder how this idea of showing where
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everyone's from was meant. Was he trying to [ __ ] with MAGA? Because that's where most of the abuses seem to be. Um, you
00:13:26
know, I just was I was wondering what he was up to like cuz he let it happen but now they've changed it and now you don't
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know what they're going to do. They'll manipulate. They'll just show they'll just it'll they'll as usual they'll make it into a dog's breakfast I think in
00:13:38
terms of being able to follow it. Um let go ahead go I want to know what you also think of Rubio this Rubio
00:13:44
which is some data 2016 Russia's internet research agency poses Americans and used microtargeted Facebook ads to
00:13:50
promote divisive political issues. In 2017, y Russian operatives used Facebook accounts to organize, get this, over 60
00:13:57
protests in America, both before and after the 2016 election, the stop the steel [ __ ]
00:14:02
In 2019, over 7,000 Iranian accounts are banned on Twitter, most of which were commenting on US politics. 2023,
00:14:10
the federal government stopped warning big tech of foreign influence, stopped campaigns u uh or stopped warning them
00:14:17
in response to GOP backlash. In 2024, US intelligence officials warned that adversaries, including Russia, China,
00:14:23
and Iran, were utilizing UAI to influence the election, primarily looking to undermine
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Harris. Like, just just be clear, folks, these foreign actors seem to be on the side of the GOP. Typically, they're on
00:14:35
the side of divisiveness first and foremost, but a close absolutely a close second is the GOP because the GOP seems
00:14:41
to be paring, and this is the segue to Rubio, seems to be paring Sergey Lavough, the the foreign
00:14:47
ministry, head of Russia, his talking points. And it's it's just it's just
00:14:53
insane that all of a sudden the GI GOP has come from I mean, things have talk about the world
00:14:58
being turned backwards. We used to be the, you know, give peace a chance and
00:15:03
let's play basketball against Russia and do exchange students. McDonald's in Moscow. Yeah. And and it was the GOP where I
00:15:10
don't I looked into his eyes and I saw the KGB. I mean, it was the GOP that was the hardline.
00:15:16
You know, Mitt Romney was mocked by Obama by saying Russia was our biggest foreign threat. He's correct. And now all of a sudden
00:15:22
now it appears that the GOP is basically the staunchest ally of Russia abroad
00:15:27
with the exception of India and China who just want cheap oil at 38 bucks a barrel versus 61 which is what the price
00:15:35
for uh light light crude is. Anyways, the whole I I don't recognize this [ __ ]
00:15:41
anymore. This isn't even the GOP. It's an entirely different political party. Well, except they're also sending that
00:15:47
[ __ ] Witco over who has no experience and Jared is back like and seems to have
00:15:54
just taken had someone else do his homework and Rubio who had who had a pretty good reputation from a foreign
00:16:00
policy point of view when he was in the Senate is now just tra I think I guess he wants to run for vice president. He's
00:16:06
never going to win but you know because he's going to run with JD Vance the two most charm charmless and charmlesser. Um
00:16:14
it just I I sort of I think he was trying to signal the senators that's why all these group of senators said he
00:16:20
privately described it. So I think he's trying somehow to like back channel them
00:16:25
that this is all [ __ ] but then goes out and defends it at the same time.
00:16:30
It's just I he's a fascinating political figure. He seems like in in personality
00:16:37
like small dick energy kind of thing, but he seems to not to to he seems to be
00:16:42
wanting to signal them and I suspect he was the one that was doing it, but then publicly won't do it. It's I don't know.
00:16:49
It seems very strange. He should quit the him. Yeah, he's not going to quit. Uh this is
00:16:54
Look, I I do think it's a bit unfair. I I think Wickoff and and and Jared
00:17:00
deserve some credit for the ceasefire in Gaza. And I'm I'm skeptical of a real
00:17:06
estate developer usurping and playing playing like geopolitical ambassador, but they deserve credit for for
00:17:13
facilitating that agreement. This is incompetence on display and our
00:17:19
Secretary of State trying to pretzel himself with what I call it, flood the zone. Interesting narrative and big
00:17:25
words. And if you listen to an interview with Marco Rubio or Secretary Rubio on
00:17:31
Meet the Press, he'll after about 2 or 3 minutes, it's like watching dogs watch television. It's like, okay, I know he
00:17:36
said something, but I'm not sure what's going on there. He just it's just like this total
00:17:42
and and Marco Rubio since I think the age I think he's a very talented politician but I think since the age of
00:17:47
22 he's everything he does is totally dictated on how can I get more one an
00:17:53
additional straw to pull in Iowa when I run for president. Yeah. He was initially put on a committee one
00:17:58
of the Republican meant to address the immigration issue. It was I mean, we had a chance to really
00:18:04
address this [ __ ] about 20 years ago, and he bailed when he found out that that the far-right part of his party,
00:18:09
which he was going to need in his planned attempt to run for president a couple years later, didn't want didn't want dreamers, didn't want a path
00:18:16
to citizenship. So, he will say and do absolutely anything that he thinks is going to get
00:18:23
him to be president. He demonstrates no leadership at all. No, I think I think Trump uh called him
00:18:30
pretty clearly. I think he was right. Like Trump does have some but you would unfortunately and I don't
00:18:36
you know he is I've been told not to say this. He's the
00:18:42
fastest tortoise. I was going to use another analogy. Mhm. In this in in this cabinet because he is
00:18:48
a smart guy. He is wellversed in geopolitics. But this just makes us look [ __ ] stupid.
00:18:54
It does. It really does. Let's take the 28 talking points from Russia and say
00:18:59
that's our plan and then say no it's not our plan. I know Europe went crazy anyway. We have to move on. But it it's the whole thing
00:19:06
is together. Everybody try to understand the systemic situation happening here of manipulation of our of our of the most
00:19:13
the strongest country in the world. Anyway, uh just real quick though, it does come back it does come back to tattoos and
00:19:19
that is generally speaking I don't like tattoos but I love women with tattoos because it shows a history of poor decision-m which
00:19:26
plays to my benefit. Yeah, you're never getting any. Anyway, um uh I'm aiming for Speaking of Here's
00:19:32
something that will repel you. Uh on our last episode, I predicted that Donald Trump and Zoron Mumdani would get along
00:19:39
like peas and carrots. And guess what, Scott? What what am I going to say next? I was
00:19:44
I'm telling you it's the name of your biography. But I was I was right. Dot dot dot. I was dead
00:19:50
right. Was I dead right? And dot dot dot I was right. Dead right. This one was fantastic.
00:19:56
Their Oval Office meeting is described as a love fest with Trump looking smitten as he grinned at the mayor.
00:20:01
Elect Trump praised Mum Donny's campaign. Called him a very rational person and said he'd be cheering him on as mayor. He Let's listen to Trump
00:20:08
explain what he finds so fascinating about Mum Donnie. I think he's different and that can be in a very positive way
00:20:14
but I think he's different than you know your typical guy runs wins becomes mayor maybe and nothing exciting because he
00:20:21
has a chance to really do something great for New York. New York is at a very critical point and he does need the
00:20:28
help of the federal government to really succeed and we're going to be helping them. Trump even brushed off Mumani previously
00:20:34
calling him a fascist. He says don't answer that. I'm fine with that. For his part, Mandani told Meet the Press over the weekend that he stands by his
00:20:40
criticism of Trump. Uh then there was a lot of glamour shots in front of FDR, the socialist president, um uh the most
00:20:47
socialist president. And of course there was a picture of of Manny and he from behind looking over I suppose the Mara
00:20:53
Lago patio and it was sort of a this can be yours someday son. It was so romantic. It was I I don't think people
00:21:01
were wrong about the romance of it. Not on Mum Donny's part, on Trump's part, which was weird. Now, let me be clear.
00:21:09
He will invade New York if he wants to tomorrow. Like, he could shift on a [ __ ] dime, but I think he understood
00:21:14
the political strength of Mandani as a winner, as we talked about. What are your thoughts?
00:21:19
I think it was really I think it was an incredibly shrewd move on both their parts. I think it may made both of them
00:21:24
seem a lot more statesmanlike. And um this was just the definition of a
00:21:30
win-win, right? And I I think Trump wants to be,
00:21:36
you know, popular, well-liked in what he sees as his his city, his home city. Uh
00:21:41
Mami Trump has always been very lookxist and loves a handsome young man. He's always
00:21:47
been very important to him and he admires those people. And Mandami is both those things or Manny. He also,
00:21:56
you know, Trump is attracted to strength. it. M Dani's win is nothing short of remarkable.
00:22:02
Yeah. Twice. And also M Donnie was really smart to be in the Oval Office and show that kind of
00:22:07
respect and not be crazy and not be dress nicely as opposed to Elon. Remember the visual. You know the visual
00:22:13
of Elon standing there in like a t-shirt looking like a lun like a drug addict. Essentially Hot Topic the day before it had its
00:22:20
going out of business sale. He's like, "Swing by. Doesn't our uncle like this shit?" Yeah. Buy it all.
00:22:25
Yeah. Exactly. Um Yeah. They This was a win-win for for
00:22:31
both of them. Absolutely. Both of them. Ma Mom Donnie needs to figure out a way to get along with the federal government
00:22:36
and the president that will only help New Yorkers. Yeah. At the same time, Trump it it shows him
00:22:43
being gracious, statesmanlike. I I think this was
00:22:48
win-win. Absolute win-win on both parties. Here's one quick part was he was before
00:22:54
Chuck Schumer and Hakee Jeff have met with him. I mean, seriously, like Trump
00:22:59
took the the the shine of of Manny and th they didn't like they could have
00:23:06
easily done that, right? And Trump was not scared to do that and and he's the
00:23:11
least likely to have done it. Um it really I just I find them so ham-handed in terms of how they handle
00:23:17
things. Um and again the only person who you know you could you everyone you can do you can do on a this is an exciting
00:23:25
win for New York etc and Democrats. I don't agree with him all the time. They could that's you know that's kind of
00:23:31
what Trump did like he did say they did indicate you know differences but he was
00:23:36
sort of just celebrating the win I guess and that's that's a that's a political opportunity the Democrats have missed
00:23:43
rather significantly. They've got a star in their midst and Trump understands he
00:23:49
he is he has political acumen that's for sure. I don't think I think tomorrow if he wanted to he do he'd change his mind
00:23:56
and invade New York if someone gets in his ear. But for that moment I was like smart political guy always been smart.
00:24:02
So the our American leaders are supposed to embody what it is to be American. And I
00:24:11
remember playing uh you know pee-wee baseball and getting beaned in the head
00:24:16
on purpose by the pitcher. Remember playing peewee football and we would people would try and purposely hurt you
00:24:25
and at the end of the game standard accepted p practice no matter
00:24:30
what happens the end of the game the whistle goes off you shake each other's hand and you congratulate each other.
00:24:36
And I believe that in politics, and it used to be this way, you congratulate
00:24:42
the winner and you say, "I will work with you and I will do your be I will do my best to help you, you know, try and
00:24:50
make America better." I don't You want to give people the benefit of the doubt. You want to say, "I I mean, I I would
00:24:59
have not I'm not a resident of New York. I would not have voted for Mom Donnie. I hope he is successful." Everyone has an
00:25:05
obligation to give people the benefit of the doubt to shake their hand and try and be productive.
00:25:11
And the two of them intentionally, unintentionally, inconsistent, whatever you want to say, they did that. That is
00:25:17
what our leaders are supposed to do. Yeah, it was interesting. It was a really interesting. And from a visual point of view, you talk about visuals
00:25:23
all the time. It was like, "Hello, son." I mean, someone was saying that Steven Miller and JD Vance must be on suicide
00:25:30
watch at this point. Um, but who knows? Who knows? Uh, I don't think you know. Anyway, uh, let's go on a quick break.
00:25:37
When we come back, Google gets a big win in the AI arms race.
00:25:42
Support for the show comes from Ziotics. So, I drink a little bit less these days. I'm trying to tone down my
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00:27:04
Scott, we're back with more news. Google is taking a big step ahead in AI with the launch of Gemini 3. The company's
00:27:10
latest model outperforms competitors on over a dozen benchmark intelligence tests. Alphabet's market value is
00:27:15
currently exceeding Microsoft's for the first time in seven years. Nice job, Scott, on picking that Alphabet as your
00:27:21
stock pick. But Gemini has a way to go in terms of users. Chat GPT has 800 million users each week compared to
00:27:27
Gemini's 650 uh million monthly users. Um you know, oddly enough, lots of
00:27:33
people are praising it. Mark Benning off who shifts on a dime is saying, "Holy [ __ ] this is really good." People who
00:27:38
use it are saying it's really good. This nano banana kind of thing. Um is this a
00:27:44
real shift? Because I mean, as you and I both talked about, um there's a real
00:27:49
problem for OpenAI not to become Netscape right here. that that's the issue. Maybe a superior browser,
00:27:55
everyone was using it and then they weren't. Um, this stuff can go away rather quickly and Google has so many hooks
00:28:01
into people um through search and to to make the leap frog and if it's a better
00:28:06
product, so much the better. Yeah, it's so in my predictions deck of
00:28:13
2024 for 25, one of my predictions was the um Empire Strikes Back and I was
00:28:19
making a reference uh Alphabet has the most uh IP around AI
00:28:24
in history. They got caught asleep at the switch and it's the ultimate example of the innovator's dilemma in the sense
00:28:29
that they didn't want to cannibalize their search business so they didn't monetize it or productize it and then they created an opening for for open AI
00:28:37
but they have gotten a memo in a serious way. And when you when you have two billion people logging into your
00:28:43
platform every day, you just have this unbelievable fire hose you can point at a product. And now arguably by a lot of
00:28:50
metrics, Gemini 3, their latest AI model is the best performing LLM in the world.
00:28:56
And then you come, have you used it? Have you started using it? You you're you're a chat GBT boy. You or Claude, you're Claude person.
00:29:02
I like Oh, yeah. I like I like Claude, but I do go back and forth. And what I find really powerful
00:29:09
is is not Gemini, but the AI summaries at the top of every Google search. They're getting better and better. They
00:29:15
were terrible at start at the start. Now they're really and something that skipped most of the media is that Gemini has also turned on
00:29:22
ads on its AI overviews which so that will be a massive new revenue generation tool for one of the most widely widely
00:29:30
used AI tools and and they I think are saying okay we're in the ad business not the subscription business. So that means
00:29:37
the tools roughly 75 million daily users will see sponsored results in the AI summaries that appear at the top of the
00:29:44
Google searches. Right? And that means they're they're the first AI company to turn on ads. So I saw that as more significant here.
00:29:50
And in the short term users may prefer cloud and chat GPT which are still
00:29:56
adree. But what I have been surprised at, have you heard the term fast TV? So
00:30:01
linear TV. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Tuby and stuff like that. Yeah. So linear TV is you turn on the TV
00:30:07
and it's just running. It's not streaming TV. So every year for the last 20 years, streaming has been eating into
00:30:14
linear's market share. For the last 2 or 3 years, it's stopped. 50% of time spent
00:30:22
watching video is linear TV. Some people like the passive, relaxing, less costly
00:30:29
version of TV where they just sit there. Just like when I get on the Law and Order channel and I just let it play.
00:30:36
Yeah. I see Good Fellas. I'm watching it for 15 minutes till commercial. Then I go three more channels. Oh, there's the Shashank Redemption. I'll watch that for
00:30:42
8 minutes. Then, oh, it's a sports. Oh, it's that hot news anchor. I'll watch her for That's my hotel room.
00:30:48
Yeah, you just browse, right? Oh, it's, you know, whatever it is. It's Anderson Cooper. It's I'll watch him for
00:30:54
Santa Claus. I watched that the other night. But for me it's it's literally like
00:31:01
I mean families spend 50 minutes a week almost an hour a week almost a week a
00:31:08
year deciding what to watch on Netflix right and when you just sit down and start
00:31:14
scrolling through cable it's pretty so anyways the the ad market is just is
00:31:20
just enormous and the way that these guys were going with subscription and Google Alphabet who's arguably the best
00:31:25
advertiser in the world has said no, it's it's the ad model. They have an an
00:31:31
extraordinary front end to to aim consumers at it. But all of it, I would argue
00:31:38
all the narrative is around Gemini threatening threatening chat GPT. I think the most
00:31:44
more important is deepseek and Chinese openweight AI are going to erode all of
00:31:51
their market share. Yeah. Will you start using Gemini 3 for me? Cuz I don't have time to use any. Yeah, it's funny. I got I got to get
00:31:57
better at this stuff. I only use two. I'm really lazy. The one thing but I don't use them at all. I'll be honest with you. I don't really have that many
00:32:03
needs. Oh, what I would recommend to anybody is I've tried to do this in my friend Greg
00:32:08
Schauve who's the CEO section which is trying to upscale people in the enterprise for AI. He said he gave me a
00:32:14
tip and I have done it like right now. Right now I have a second screen and I
00:32:19
always have a second screen and the primary purpose of the second screen is almost everything I get especially if it's digital I upload into one of two
00:32:26
LLMs and I'm trying to learn what you can do with this thing right and you start to learn what it's good
00:32:32
for and what it's not good for and it's really it's really useful I find um
00:32:38
because what what they're finding in corporations is these companies have signed up big site licenses and they're
00:32:44
excited about it and no one's using it. and no one's adopting it. Well, it's quick answers, right? It's really quick. And as as they become more
00:32:51
accurate, the problem is accuracy, of course, but it's sort of like you used to go to the encyclopedia and now it's
00:32:57
there for you, explained and packaged in a way that search never was.
00:33:02
Yeah. I find I mean, the way I describe it is you have the world's smartest intern who's read the entire internet,
00:33:07
but you do learn like the more information you give it, I ask it to take on a voice. I ask it, "What
00:33:13
additional questions can I answer for you to make your answers more complete?
00:33:18
Can you graph this? Can you recheck this? This doesn't sound right." You begin having a a dialogue with it. And I
00:33:25
find it I do find it fascinating what it can be used for. And anything you get
00:33:30
digitally, anytime you get a report from your doctor that's digital, upload it to these AIs and see what they say about it
00:33:36
in there. I don't want them to have my information. Yeah. You're more worried about that than I am. I am. I don't want I don't know. Anyway,
00:33:42
please use it for us and and bring back a report. Anyway, another related story, markets remain unsteady. Now, we have
00:33:48
talked about this a lot and it went up and with Nvidia's fantastic earnings we talked about last week. The market still
00:33:55
remains unsteady amid this continued AI bubble fears. They did not go away after
00:34:01
Nvidia's impressive earnings um was just a short-term fix. Nvidia wiped out its
00:34:06
initial jump from the earnings is now down 2.3% in the last 5 days. They're all down. Bitcoin is like gone to the
00:34:12
basement. The Trumps have lost a lot of money. I know we feel bad about that. Um, at the timing of the taping, the S&P
00:34:18
500 and the Dow Jones are down around 1.5% for the month after a rocky couple of weeks. Meanwhile, crypto, as I said,
00:34:24
is crashing on track to have the worst month, the worst month since 2022. So, and there was all these memos like
00:34:31
Jensen Wong saying, "We better slow this fear thing down." Um, but it didn't work. It doesn't It hasn't worked, I
00:34:38
guess, and people are still um investors aren't quite as concerned. And
00:34:43
by the way, everyone should read this Wall Street Journal story by Jonathan. I think it's wild about Meta's accounting
00:34:49
tricks, which are really nefarious. It so feels like AOL. It so feels like so much of the stuff. And this is the guy
00:34:56
who un unearthed the Enron problem. So pay attention to him. But go ahead.
00:35:01
Well, so economic history is typically when we have these sorts of I don't know manas
00:35:09
or bull markets about the time everyone acknowledges they've gone crazy they
00:35:16
then go insane and that is so granted the market had a pretty swift reversal
00:35:23
last week but these these stocks Alphabet just hit an all-time high.
00:35:28
Nvidia's checked back a little bit and everyone's talking about how Bitcoin is sort of a canary in the coal mine. But
00:35:34
keep in mind, even though Bitcoin has had its worst month, as you pointed out, since 2022, it's back to where it was in
00:35:40
April and it's still up since the president was elected. So, it just had those big runups. That's why
00:35:46
you you would argue the narrative is doom. What's really happened is just like a small checkback, but the
00:35:52
narrative has gone from AI boom to AI bubble. Generally through economic history or the history of the markets
00:35:58
what you see is when people say this is crazy town it then goes insane and then
00:36:04
about the time everybody says well maybe we are in a new economic model and everyone throws in the towel that's when
00:36:09
you the crash comes so if you were to look at I mean even if you were to overlay open AI and Nvidia's valuation
00:36:17
say against Netscape it still looks like there's room to run having said that I always like to disclose what I'm doing
00:36:24
I'm going to I've been pairing down my big tech stocks. I'm like, look, I I I
00:36:29
may be wrong, but I know that they're I know I'm selling at good prices right now.
00:36:34
Right. Right. You're make taking your earnings, right? Yeah. Yeah. But the the the
00:36:40
markets feel very very nervous right now. Fragile is the word you used last year. Fragile. But but what's interesting is
00:36:45
what you see a lot of times that I love this term, the markets climb a wall of worry.
00:36:50
It's usually when we're not worried that the markets just throw up. Yeah. Right now, this to me, again, I wouldn't
00:36:57
say it's 97. I think we're in 98 right now. All the smartest people in the room are saying these things are overvalued. And
00:37:04
as my friend Barry Roth holds pointed out to me, from 97 to 99, the NASDAQ doubled.
00:37:09
Yeah. So I when is the down when is the down is what? Well, that's the thing. No, nobody
00:37:14
knows. And you're worried about missing out on gains. And again, the only answer in my view is to be more diversified,
00:37:19
move more into cash, but also just be incredibly diversified. But again,
00:37:24
stick more gold bars up your ass. That's my Well, and and Warren Buffett has amassed
00:37:29
a cash pile of 360 billion, I think. Yeah, he really has. It's really interesting. It's his last move, I
00:37:36
think, interestingly enough. And then he'll then he'll buy, but I mean, he's quite old, but um it's one of his last
00:37:41
moves. I have, you know, people talk about the the the 15 stocks in the Spider S&P,
00:37:48
the the the the 15 tech stocks that are up more than 70%. Yeah, they were down
00:37:54
6%. But folks, okay, so now they're only up 64% for the year, right? You know, it's it would just make sense
00:38:00
that there wasn't draw downs, but I don't think we can call this a correction. Still the worry persists. People are
00:38:06
very worried and there's going to be more and more how are we spending money? Um, you know, like a band of like
00:38:12
drunken sailors probably. Yeah. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Representative Marjorie Taylor Green says she will
00:38:19
resign. Support for the show comes from AG1. Look, we all know we aren't getting any
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00:39:16
Scott, we're back with more news. We don't have Marjorie Taylor Green to kick around anymore. Or Trump really does.
00:39:21
She announced that you will resign from Congress in January after the President Trump called her a traitor for and
00:39:26
Marjorie Taylor Brown. I'm not sure what that was, but that was a weird nickname for breaking with his stance on the
00:39:32
Epstein files. Green said in an announcement video that she refuses to be a battered wife, hoping it all goes
00:39:37
away and gets better. She dragged out the battered wife metaphor. Let's listen to more of what she said. I have too
00:39:43
much self-respect and dignity. I love my family way too much, and I do not want
00:39:49
my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me
00:39:54
by the president that we all fought for. only to fight and win my election while
00:40:00
Republicans will likely lose the midterms. We have one more clip that she said for you, Scott. Let's listen.
00:40:05
I believe in term limits and do not think Congress should be a lifelong career or an assisted living facility.
00:40:12
Ah, she's speaking to you. She's speaking sweetness to you. Um, President Trump called the announcement great news
00:40:17
for the country. Um just to this morning there was some reporting on Punch Bowl which I think is
00:40:23
highly accurate about lots of people are going to depart, lots of Republicans which are going to send uh possibly
00:40:29
Johnson not controlling the House by by the by the departures in January because
00:40:34
they can't get those people in place fast enough in these special elections. And so there might be more departures
00:40:40
largely because the White House keeps kicking the [ __ ] out of Congress, which of course at any time they could take
00:40:45
control. By the way, Congress, you have an enormous power within your ranks,
00:40:50
except you're run by, you know, uh, Mike Johnson, who was a toad to Trump. Um,
00:40:57
which he's going to be a footnote in history very soon, I think. Um, what do you think this means in terms of how do
00:41:03
you think she handled it? She put out lots of information. Um, a lot of people said it was, uh, you know, uh, it was a
00:41:10
strategy. Some people say she's going to run for president. She says she's that's nothing nothing of the sort. Um other
00:41:16
people were talking about how much money she made through stock trading. She started off with 700,000 and now it's 25
00:41:22
million. Um there's all kinds of different things and of course Jasmine Crockett was like, "Oh, you had a week
00:41:27
of President Trump yelling at you and you run and I've you know I have a years of it and you better suck it up sister
00:41:34
kind of thing." So there was a lot going on here. I I mean how do you think she handled this? Talk about it from a brand
00:41:40
point of view if you don't mind. Well, I think we're going to I think the
00:41:45
people we're going to be most harsh on in history won't be
00:41:51
some of these people who were in my view wrong and demonstrated really
00:41:56
anti-American, just made a series of bad decisions and demonstrated incredibly low character. I
00:42:01
think the people that were most disappointed in are the enablers. Like when I look at World War II, I just think, how did we turn away
00:42:08
that cruise ship of Jews looking for refuge? How did Europe ignore? How why did the French so
00:42:15
were so quick to hand over lists of Jews? Like the enablers, right?
00:42:20
And the Republicans here uh behind the scenes as soon as they
00:42:26
resign from Congress and go on Bill Maher, find their testicles. Yeah. And they have enabled this. There's just
00:42:32
no getting around it. When Senator Rubio lets Zilinski be be abused like that, he
00:42:38
is enabling the invasion of Europe by a murderous autocrat, which anyone who has
00:42:45
any historical context knows that is not right. When we have this type of just incredibly irresponsible fiscal policy,
00:42:52
we know that ends poorly. And Republicans have supposedly always been the fiscally responsible ones. When we
00:42:58
have extraditial killing of people in fishing boats that would take 20 stops
00:43:04
to get to Miami with the supposed fentanel that is ne that is not produced nor is there any evidence being of it
00:43:11
being in Venezuela and Republicans have been about stopping these forever. I mean these people are just enabling
00:43:17
Yeah. I I don't Are these guys getting getting blown by the hottest women in the world
00:43:22
as long as they're in office? Like why do they why do they so desperately
00:43:28
want to be want to hold on to their jobs and and just put aside all sense of character.
00:43:34
Well, she's smarter than most of them, right? That's where I'm headed is she we're so
00:43:39
desperate for someone to speak up that the nation and she has been a
00:43:44
leader on the Epstein files. The nation just is really impressed with MTG.
00:43:50
But what what I want to remind people of is who she is. And and I I've said I
00:43:58
don't think it's fair to to treat Mark Beni off as an apostate. I think you have to look at all 35 mm of their life
00:44:05
and not just take one frame. And I just want to remind people of Representative
00:44:11
uh Taylor Green. So, in terms of election and political legitimacy, she repeatedly promoted false claims about
00:44:17
the 2020 US election being stolen. She supported efforts to overturn the 2020
00:44:23
election result and objected to certification. Her comments about Democrats have included making
00:44:29
statements comparing Democrats and political adversaries to Nazis. She suggested the US is a is in a form of
00:44:35
civil war and has used rhetoric implying Democrats are enemies of the country. Her conspiracy theories,
00:44:41
they're crazy. She she uh constantly parited QAnon narratives which she later
00:44:48
said she no longer believes. Claims about various mass shootings being false flags. Speculation about space lasers.
00:44:55
She didn't say Jewish space lasers, she said space lasers in connection with California wildfires and then connected
00:45:02
to the Rothschilds which are often a trope for anti-semitism. Indeed terms for CO 19. She frequently attacked
00:45:09
public health measures comparing COVID restrictions and vaccine policies to Nazi era persecution.
00:45:15
Her interaction with colleagues, highly publicized confrontations with other members of Congress, including yelling
00:45:21
at colleagues in hallways, posting inflammatory signs outside her office about LGBTQ issues, referring to
00:45:28
political opponents with demeaning or conspiratorial language. Her January 6 related statements criticized the
00:45:34
treatment of January 6th insurrection as calling them political prisoners. Referred to the January 6 events in ways
00:45:39
that critics say minimize the violence of that day. Her statements about minorities and social groups. And I'll wrap up here in a few seconds. Let's
00:45:46
let's do a real biopic here. She made comments about Muslim members of Congress, including past suggestions
00:45:51
they should not serve and be subject to loyalty tests. Gunrelated incidents
00:45:56
incident. She appeared to endorse violence against Democratic leaders. filmed herself confronting a school shooting survivor, David Hog.
00:46:03
And meanwhile, she's leaving Congress with about $23 million, including trades and palunteer three days before they
00:46:09
were awarded contracts from a committee she serves on. You know what, Miss Miss Representative Green? Good [ __ ]
00:46:15
riddens. And we are so desperate for some semblance of sanity
00:46:21
from the GOP that we la this person because she's good on the Epstein files.
00:46:27
Her house was not raided like like Bolton's. She has not been threatened with legal action like Senator Schiff,
00:46:36
but oh no, she's being persecuted. Do not trust this woman. This is a
00:46:42
no legislative accomplishments whatsoever. Her history and her record are bigotry, anti-science, being
00:46:49
divisive, good [ __ ] riddens. Yep. And Scott, I love you. Let me just say I love you now more than ever
00:46:57
because one of the things that drove me [ __ ] crazy was all these interviews which I really did agree with her on a
00:47:02
lot of things but no one said what's your stance on trans still what's your stance on Muslims what's your they
00:47:07
didn't ask the I thought if I got her you know on an interview I'd be like okay you don't like I agree with you on
00:47:13
the Epson files let's talk about your other points of view and like remind people of who this person has been I
00:47:19
agree I kind of like when people make big shifts but this person has is a history of of real toxicity and
00:47:27
I thank you Scott. I love you. I'm not going to even go anymore. Anyway, tattoo with my name. I'm going to get I'm going everybody
00:47:33
write in what should be my tra coming my way. I'm getting a tram stamp for Scott. Like
00:47:38
anyway, very quickly, very quickly, Eli Liy just became the first healthcare company to hit a trillion dollars in
00:47:44
market cap powered by its increasing demand for GLP1 weight loss drugs, Mujaro and Zepbound. Um, Scott's been
00:47:51
talking about this, saying, "Most important thing, the company stock has surged more than 36% this year in recent
00:47:56
deal with the Trump administration to cut drug prices, push shares even higher. Up next, it plans to seek FDA
00:48:01
approval for a GLP-1 pill by the end of the year. All the other companies are doing the same, aiming to bring it to market by the mid 2026. Wall Street
00:48:08
expects the pill alone could join up to $40 billion a year at its peak. Costs will come down for these drugs um
00:48:14
probably considerably. So, um, as you said, healthcare is a better bet than AI right now. Correct.
00:48:21
I pick a technology of the year every year. 23 and 24. I picked uh AI 25. My
00:48:26
technology pick was GLP1. I think GLP1. I I'll give you a shout out. I saw your interview with Scott Jennings. The guy
00:48:33
The guy looks like the old Scott Jennings is going to show up and eat him. I saw I saw who was the old uh secretary of
00:48:40
state under Trump that he hates now. No. Uh who which one? Pompeo. Oh, Mike
00:48:46
Pompeo. I was at a I was out at one of these Master of the Universe. Yeah. And I saw Yeah. He looks good.
00:48:54
Literally, he looks like a different human being. Yes. 70% of America. The one thing Americans
00:49:00
share Yeah. is we're fat. 70% of Americans are obese or overweight.
00:49:05
Yeah. Doc, talk to me about someone who's an AI and who's on GLP1 and ask them, "What
00:49:11
has had a bigger impact on your life?" Mhm. These things are these things are are are I think it's
00:49:18
the most important technology GPS. I have to say in this reporting for the secret CNN documentary of all the things
00:49:24
and there's lots of things sleep and health the two things AI and cancer research people are absolutely thinking
00:49:30
this is a critical the ability to find these answers and drug discovery but the number one thing and crisper of course
00:49:35
is another big technology in health but the absolute number one thing all the doctors GLP ones every one of them it's
00:49:43
really interesting any we have to move on we could talk more about this but I'm sorry but just one one thing
00:49:48
if the the thing one of the things that really ails us is income inequality and the thing that's it presents an
00:49:54
existential threat to the market and a real move towards fascism would be an economic shock. It's inspired by the
00:50:00
fact we're running out of cushion in terms of our deficit being $37 trillion and the fact we spend $2 trillion or
00:50:06
more than we spend 350 million people spend 13,000 a year on healthcare versus other nations at
00:50:12
6,500. the the the most important seminal move our government could make
00:50:18
right now in terms of a moonshot wouldn't be putting people on Mars or AI weapons. It would be the following. Put
00:50:24
out a bid and say we are going to buy a a two billion worth of doses 200 million
00:50:32
people 200 million people on uh are obese overweight 1.2 2 billion doses 6
00:50:39
months and we are going to whoever gives us the lowest price and we are going to give GLP1 into into every rural
00:50:45
community every person that's obese you want to see health care costs come down you want to see depression and anxiety
00:50:51
reduced cortisol stress take America down 20 pounds per
00:50:57
household 30 pounds per household in the next 6 to 12 months it would have huge social and economic ramifications
00:51:04
for us everyone gets a home and everyone gets not die of a heart attack. Yeah. Get a stomach glute tide.
00:51:10
Yeah. Anyway. All right, Scott. That's You know, we should run for president. We really should. All right, Scott. One
00:51:15
more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott. Wins and fails.
00:51:20
I shall go first. You go first. My fail. Another newly released court filing claims Meta knew its platforms
00:51:26
were harming young users but refused to make basic fixes that could have protected kids. Uh I I don't know if
00:51:33
that's my biggest fail or that Doge no longer exists. We will miss you big balls. But a failure, an enormous
00:51:39
[ __ ] failure by all the numbers and there's several stories. You could go look at them. Just it cost us money. It
00:51:45
created all kinds of havoc. It made Elon richer. It and who knows what else he got in terms of data. And it was very
00:51:52
bad for the American people. A good idea to always cut costs, but this was one big corrupt grift. Uh and goodbye, good
00:52:00
good riddens. My win is sort of in the same area where people are sort of coming around to this idea of the
00:52:07
tyranny of wealthy people which is not I mean super wealthy people. Tina Brown
00:52:12
who I love just gave an interview and something I've talked about a lot but someone asked her what does his rise say about people are feeling about the elite
00:52:18
there. He was talking to Zaron uh Mandani in the last few years we have been so bullied by the super rich.
00:52:24
There's a sense the rich are the ones who have a voice in every debate, whether it's about academia or the way the nation is run or how we live our
00:52:31
lives with the tech revolutions. And people have felt, I think, more and more hopeless about the enormity of the wealth and the impossibility of fighting
00:52:37
it. Manny has shown how to get your fight back. It's very inspiring. Money doesn't buy everything. All that money
00:52:43
went into stopping him and he still won. And you don't have to like his ideas to be glad for that. And I'm very glad for
00:52:49
that. Well done, Tina Brown. Well said. There they need to shut the [ __ ] up. That's my That's how I would say it. But
00:52:56
she's much more going to What we need is more Americans to be activists and protest and vote for do the research.
00:53:03
Vote for whoever you think is best, not who has the most commercials running. Yeah. But also, may I meet you? That's
00:53:10
back to July. It's so funny. I went out I took my doctor friend to Ruth Gardens, which is
00:53:17
kind of the hot spot here, right? And a bunch of different hot spot every time I talk to you. Well, I'm on
00:53:23
the massive arrested adolescence tour. It continues. Yeah. Um and three different people came up to
00:53:28
me who recognized me and said said, "May I meet you?" And they said, "What do you think of
00:53:34
that?" And the honest answer is I think anything that encourages people to meet each other is a good thing. I have no
00:53:40
problem with Bill saying that. No, you may not. You should not do dating advice. This I always started with, "Hey, where are
00:53:46
you from?" where I know I like the I told people your picture thing and they everyone laughed at dinner on Friday.
00:53:52
I'm like Scott's thing was um take a picture of a selfie. You told the bartender we all had a good laugh at
00:53:57
your expense and then turn around and say this is for when our you going to show when our children would meet you
00:54:03
know let's take a selfie together. There you go. I also find a really the the bartender was like that person I
00:54:09
would make sure left the bar. Left the bar call a cab. Yeah. Creepers. Yeah. I don't I don't I don't Anyways, I
00:54:16
don't I don't know where we're headed with this, but I don't have a problem with with anything that encourages young people to start talking to each other.
00:54:24
I'm getting a big push back on my alcohol thing. A lot of people stick with it. I know you are.
00:54:29
Yeah. Anyway, Stick to your guns. Stick to your guns. Yeah. Uh is that so
00:54:35
that's your that's your failing win. I just like her saying that. I want to articulate it. We have to fight. This
00:54:41
is what it is. It's like you don't these people don't have knowledge on everything like they need I think they
00:54:47
need to shut up but we should stop listening to them maybe is the better point ways to win. We we have this
00:54:53
wonderful uh guy and before him was a wonderful woman and then they call him VP of
00:54:59
student engagement or vice chancellor whatever they called him associate de and their job was to do programming at
00:55:05
Stern and occasionally they make the mistake of asking me to get involved in administrative decisions which never
00:55:11
works out and uh the last time I think they asked me to get involved was around
00:55:17
the office of student engagement and I said I need to see I think you should have higher greater criteria for student
00:55:24
speakers other than they have three commas. We are so fond of inviting billionaires to speak to these kids. And
00:55:30
I'm like, billionaires don't immediately inherit wisdom around life. You gota they've just made a [ __ ] ton of
00:55:37
money and correct. We should bring in people with domain expertise and and and academic
00:55:42
credentials and accomplishments. And that's where I that's where I started my whole I started going to these things where they always say
00:55:48
follow your passion. And I said, "I figured out that anyone telling you to follow your passion is already rich and made their billions in iron ore
00:55:54
smelting." Like, these people are just kind of full of [ __ ] And under the impression because a bunch of young people will look up to them because they
00:55:59
made a lot of money. Yeah. But the the more dangerous thing I find is that is that the super rich, first
00:56:08
off, I think if the middle class really knew how the super rich live and how much power they had, there'd be a
00:56:13
revolution. But what's more dangerous is the super rich lose their empathy. I don't I've
00:56:18
never bought into this notion that the super rich are naturally bad people. I don't think that's true. They lose their empathy, though. You're
00:56:23
right. But they have their own airports. They have their own transportation. They have their own visa procedures. They have
00:56:30
their own access to family planning. They have their own health care. They don't have to wait in line in an ER.
00:56:36
They have people come to their house to give them NAD treatments. They don't They have their own schools. Yeah, our
00:56:42
kids can't read or write. My kids can read or write. Here's a [ __ ] crazy stat. Average high school spends $10,000
00:56:49
uh excuse me, $15,000 per student. High schools in poor areas 8 to10,000. The
00:56:54
average elite private school in America where the rich kids go spends $75,000 a
00:57:00
year. So what do you know? When you invest a million dollars in a kid, he's better prepared for the real world than if you
00:57:06
spend $150 grand on them through the course of their childhood. So how can they really they live in safe
00:57:12
communities. How can they really empathize? It's like I've said, and this is virtue signaling, I don't think rich
00:57:18
people who grew up with money will ever understand what it's really like to not have money. I just don't think you can.
00:57:24
I'm not saying you can't be sympathetic. I'm not saying you can't be a great leader, but you just don't understand that insecurity. You don't understand
00:57:31
that like shame you feel in a capitalist society when you don't have money. And rich people are losing touch with the
00:57:38
American experience. So, are they going to fight for healthcare? Are they going to fight for infrastructure? Are they
00:57:44
going to fight for funding for roads and subsidies for people who can't afford it? And by the way, where I live in
00:57:50
Manhattan, I never see homeless. I just don't see them. You're not looking. They're there.
00:57:55
They're there. May I just say, are you dating AOC right now? Is that what's happening? Is she what? She been asking about me.
00:58:01
Be honest. She been I want your wins and fails now. God, I would I like your presidential speeches, but what what are
00:58:08
your wins and fail? Let me let me just disavow all notions that I'm running for president. I would I would give it all up for AOC.
00:58:16
I would give it all I would be I would be the best first husband to AOC. I would just look at her adoringly
00:58:22
all the time. Can you say she's in a room with Emily Ratikowski not talking about you? Can you please give your win and fail?
00:58:28
We got to get out of here. God, she's neither of them. None of them are interested. Your your fourth grade girlfriend's not interested in you
00:58:34
anyway. Uh, please please please uh please do your win and fail. You're trying to get me out of this as
00:58:40
soon as possible. Win and fail. Win and fail. Let's move. Let's focus. Land the plane. My fails. I I
00:58:46
You have I don't think Americans have really recognized for the longest time until now just how
00:58:53
incredibly impressive the people are who decide to go to work for our government,
00:58:58
especially Yes. at the highest levels. I don't care Republican, Democrat. Generally
00:59:04
speaking, people who people who get the call are the brightest people in the world, the
00:59:12
hardest working. They the people go meet a bunch of staffers from almost any
00:59:17
office. Agreed. Generally speaking, they're the most impressive group of young people you
00:59:23
will ever meet. When you meet our diplomats, Republican, when you meet people really far down the line in the
00:59:29
FBI, God, they're smart. And they can also kill people if they need to. Our
00:59:35
people from our security agency. I was talking to the guy who ran cyber the cyber crime division for the CIA and I'm
00:59:41
like Jesus Christ this guy this guy's the smartest person in the world who only makes 180 grand a year and you meet
00:59:47
these get to know the two women who ran who won governorships in Virginia, New
00:59:52
Jersey and you're like Jesus Christ these people are smart. And we have taken for granted a generally
01:00:00
administrations that are at a baseline level of competent. And guess what? That's no longer the case. We are
01:00:07
putting out talking points from Russia on Ukraine that it ends up somebody didn't know were the talking points from
01:00:14
Russia and we're having to walk it back. We have a secretary of health and human services that is trying to link autism
01:00:22
with vaccines on government websites. We have a secretary of education who
01:00:28
referred to AI as A1. Has no idea what AI is. And that's our head.
01:00:34
He got hit in the head too much in the wrestling matches. Anyway, ahead of the Department of Education, we have taken for granted this amazing
01:00:42
American tradition where young people when they get Robert McNamera, terrible decision, ridiculously [ __ ] bright
01:00:49
guy, Secretary of Defense during Vietnam. Okay, you may not like the guy, but guess what? He was the best and
01:00:56
brightest. The best and brightest in America usually go to DC. And that and
01:01:03
they still go to DC, but now we've decided, oh no, competence. Competence has been replaced
01:01:10
by acolytes. Yeah. And it is starting to haunt us. Is this a winner or a fail? Well, my fails, my my fail is very
01:01:17
simple. My fail is the slow the not even the fast burn march fall degradation
01:01:25
into total [ __ ] incompetence. And America was always three things. We were
01:01:31
incredibly wellresourced. We're incredibly violent and we're incredibly competent. And guess what? That has paid
01:01:37
off huge dividends for us because people know our memory is long and our reach is
01:01:43
far. And we are a creative, well-resourced, competent, violent people.
01:01:48
All right. You win. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Anyways, that is going away. We're we're we're now like you don't
01:01:54
think people are going to take bold actions against us when they look like these people have their head up their ass. They're not going to know how to respond to our invasion of Taiwan
01:02:01
office soon enough. Uh my win is I've been watching this new program called Plurabus. Uh
01:02:07
I've heard it's great. It's strange. Uh, I think Vince I think Vince Gilligan kind of rewrote or tore
01:02:13
up the playbook around original scripted drama. My favorite show ever is Breaking Bad. I felt like
01:02:19
it called on so many interesting themes. So many interesting things around the
01:02:25
the paternal desire to provide and going down this road to hell. And also learned a lot about the meth market in New
01:02:32
Mexico which I didn't think I was going to enjoy. But he's got a new show out. I don't want to spoil it because I'm only two
01:02:38
episodes in. But anyways, my win is Vince Gilligan. I feel like a overdue nod to him for what
01:02:44
I think is the best series in history, Breaking Bad. And his new show looks like it's going to be looks like it's going to be a lesbian. She's a lesbian. Main
01:02:50
character. You love a lesbian. Well, that's clear. Yes, that's clear. That's clear. I
01:02:55
didn't know that. So, in real life, she's she's on your team. No, on the show she's a lesbian. Oh, everyone now on in TV is a lesbian.
01:03:03
Claire Dan is a lesbian. That's like Yeah. Okay. All of a sudden it's cool to be gay. It
01:03:09
can never just be normal. It's either uncool or very cool. It can never just be pointing out she's a lesbian. Anyway, I
01:03:15
I I'm going to watch that show and then we can discuss. That'll be good. Okay, good. Anyway, as we said, we will miss
01:03:21
you big balls. Not even slightly. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever is on your mind. Go to
01:03:26
nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or call 85551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Karen
01:03:32
Scott universe, this week in On with Caris Swisser, I spoke with Jennifer Welch from the podcast I've had it. We talked about her frustration with House
01:03:39
and Senate uh minority leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakee Jeff. Let's listen to a clip. As much as Chuckles and Hakee
01:03:46
drive me crazy, they are the leaders that we have. They they are who we have
01:03:51
and so I'm cheering for them to succeed. So, if they can clean up their kind of
01:03:57
embarrassing, cringy posts and become more relatable, I'm going to cheerlead for them, but I'm also not going to be a
01:04:03
sickopant for them and just go along with, "Boy, they wrote a strongly worded letter. Go get them chuckles."
01:04:09
Strongly that was bad. Strongly worded letter. I really mean it. She's great.
01:04:15
She's a delight, I have to say. Yeah, they're having a moment. She's also very serious in in a way.
01:04:20
It's not silly. I mean, her names are hysterical. cankles and etc. But she's got a very sharp mind I have to say and
01:04:27
doesn't take anything at face value. I really enjoyed that talk. Um fascinating background too of a her mother was an
01:04:34
atheist sort of introvert. It's also kind of cool they live in Oklahoma. I mean she just moved to New York so we're
01:04:39
going to have a party at your house in case you're interested. Yeah, we're having a dinner party at your house. It's fine as long as I don't have to be
01:04:44
there. No, you have to be there. It's going to be Jennifer. It's going to be all these badass ladies. It's going to be great. And you're going to be serving the the
01:04:50
canopes anyway. Uh that I was just gonna ask you if we could have her use your house for the party. She just
01:04:55
you know the answer is yes. I just want to be there. Oh come on. They would love to see you and yeah we I don't like people.
01:05:01
I understand. But you like these badass ladies drinking tequila at your house. You like I'll give you that. She's a fun
01:05:07
girl. Let me just say let's say she's she's a lot of fun. Anyway, uh that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot
01:05:13
and be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Uh and also happy Thanksgiving everyone. Happy Are you
01:05:19
having Thanksgiving there, Scott? Oh yeah, we love Thanksgiving. Yeah, we're doing friends for Thanksgiving on Thursday. Um and so
01:05:26
everybody, happy Thanksgiving. We give thanks for you. I hope you give thanks for us. I give thanks for Scott and the
01:05:31
whole team here at Pivot. That's nice. Today's show was produced by Larara Neman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kate Gallagher. Ernie or
01:05:38
Todd entry this episode. Jim Mel edited the video. Thanks also to Jesus, Miss and Dan Shalon. Nakuro is Vox Media's
01:05:44
executive producer podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine Box Media. You
01:05:51
can subscribe to the magazine nymag.com/pod. We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and
01:05:57
business. What is the one of the things that is most productive for your mental health is on a regular basis, be
01:06:04
grateful. Be thankful this weekend and then use it as an opportunity to every night try and be thankful for something
01:06:10
in your life. You'll just feel better about everything.