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The voters wanted this. It's not some young people being stupid. These are the voters. They vote the way they want to
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vote.
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Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Cara Swisser and I have
00:00:16
decamped to Scott's apartment in New York again. And I'm Scott Galloway. This episode is sponsored by IBM. Here I am
00:00:24
squatting. I don't know if you noticed, but I've changed the wireless passcode to please leave soon. Um,
00:00:32
not until you move back, and I may still stay with you when you move back. Yeah. Cara asked me yesterday where she should
00:00:37
put her dirty laundry, and I said in her car on the way home. Cara, welcome. You're welcome. Just
00:00:44
hands off the edibles, my granola, and my creatine chewables. Other than that, everything's okay. I am going to use all
00:00:50
of them. We're doing some filming here. It's going to be I'm not going to tell us for what for the secret. Oh, great. I'm getting a location fee, I assume.
00:00:56
Um, what are you filming there? Things. Things. Testing. I'm going to do some testing. I'm going to a rave with Louis
00:01:02
tonight. I'm going to That has got to be You just brought the lame factor of that
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rave way up. I'm excited. Dancing. I'm sure you're excited. I love you and
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Louis are going to a rave. Yeah, we're going to a rave. It's a health phrase. The longevity rave. We're very excited.
00:01:19
Okay. So, first off, what you're saying is it's not a rave. It's something not that cool that's decided to call itself a rave. Cool. No, no, it's by the cool
00:01:26
people who do the raves. The um the health I I don't know, Scott. I'm going to just
00:01:31
film it and we're going to have to see. Mushrooms and get a colonic. What does that mean? No drugs. No drugs. There
00:01:36
might be a colonic that might happen. There's ice baths. I don't know. Scott, I'm trying to live in the moment like
00:01:42
you tell me to. You're trying to be a good mom. I'm not just that. Louis excited. He's very excited. My son is
00:01:47
excited. He's excited about a lot of things. Uh including the mayoral race here in New York. But we've got a lot to get to today, including what uh Zoran uh
00:01:55
Mamani's mayoral primary win means for uh Democrats and President Trump wants
00:02:00
to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell early. Good luck with that. Also, all kinds of things are going on with Trump.
00:02:06
He's real mad that the press for not doing his propaganda. Anyway, we'll also talk about who's in the running for for
00:02:11
that, but other uh but other things. So, where are you? London. You're in London, right? Yeah, I'm in London. Yeah, I have
00:02:17
a really nice I'm really blessed. You do except where where are you not now? Right now where you want to be in
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Venice. Where I want to be. You want to be in Venice. You still want Anthony. Did you see like uh coming in so bad?
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It's such a bad look. Even though I like a wedding. I like a big ridiculous wedding, but I got to tell you, it's
00:02:38
like oh come on. Although Kim Kardashian was wearing a uh a band across her
00:02:44
boobs, which I kind of liked kind of stuff. I didn't see that. All of a sudden, I'm much more interested. Oprah
00:02:49
is there already and stuff like that. Yeah. I wish you went I wish I'm so sorry that I I had I think I had a shot.
00:02:56
I was with some guys. I think if I pushed for it, I could have done it, but I I think one of those guys wrote me and said I'm one of the guys that's going
00:03:02
Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I'm like, pictures quietly just send them to us.
00:03:08
That's all. No, this is this is a flex. Those guys, generally speaking, want to be my friend because they think they're going to win me over. And occasionally
00:03:14
they'll reach out to a third party and say, "I wouldn't mind grabbing drinks with Scott." And I'm like, "Fuck no." Yeah, they all go through me. Have you
00:03:20
ever noticed that? Everyone wants to meet Scott, but it's so they all think that everyone's dying to like have
00:03:26
dinner or drinks. I can't imagine a more boring group of people to hang out with. Bezos, yes. Cuz he's in his midlife
00:03:31
crisis and has, you know, a hot woman who must have just be magnetic in terms
00:03:37
of her personality. Yeah. But the other tech executives that like reach out to you and say, "I'd like to get a group
00:03:43
together to talk about technology." Gh, my vision for technology. I'm like, "Oh my god." They used to do that a lot back
00:03:49
in the day. They'd have dinners and they were always really good restaurants. So, you were like, Manscape with a weed
00:03:54
whacker. Yeah. Exactly. You know what the good thing about you not going to that wedding is this is what I imagine
00:04:00
happening. You go to the wedding and Lauren falls in love with you. I think it'd be much more interesting if he fell
00:04:05
in love with me. We take our honeymoon in Capri and we're spotted rubbing lotion on each other wearing espadril.
00:04:12
All right, we have to get to things. All right, we have to get to real things. First of all, President Trump is doubling down on his claim the US
00:04:18
obliterated Iran's nuclear program. That's in spite of leaked intelligence reports saying the strikes only set Iran
00:04:24
back by a few months. Now, these are early intelligence reports, let's be fair. And you know, we definitely just I don't know why he's not happy with we
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did a lot of damage and he did something bold, but he's not. He got testy when an NBC reporter asked about the report
00:04:36
during a NATO press conference yesterday. He's railing against uh the New York Times. He's railing against CNN
00:04:42
quite a bit. But let's listen. We're talking about something that took place 3 days ago. I understand that's the
00:04:48
report was done three days ago. Wait a minute. Yes, they didn't see it. All they can do is take a guess. Now, if you
00:04:55
take a look at the pictures, if you take a look how it's all blackened, you know, the fire and brimstone is all
00:05:00
underground because it's granite and it's all underground. You don't show it. But even there with all of that being
00:05:06
said, the whole area for 75 yards around the hole where it hit is black with
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fire. Blackened. Blackened. Anyway, then he had a fired up pig heads. Your your
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drunk step in to back him up. Let's play that. Of course, we've all seen plenty of leakers. And what do leakers do? They
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have agendas. And what do they do? Do they share the whole information or just the part that they want to introduce?
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And when they introduce that preliminary uh a preliminary report that's deemed to
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be low a low assessment. Do you know what a low assessment means? Low confidence in the data in that report.
00:05:43
And why is there low confidence? Because all of the evidence of what was just bombed by 12 30,000 lb bombs is buried
00:05:52
under a mountain, devastated and obliterated. So if you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordo,
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you better get a big shovel and go really deep cuz Iran's nuclear program
00:06:03
is obliterated. It's not clear if it's obliterated. Anyway, Hegs has said the
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FBI is investigating the leak. The CIA director, John uh Ratcliffe, is now claiming there's credible evidence that
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Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged. Trump is also saying that US Iran talks will happen next week, but
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doesn't think a formal deal is necessary after the strikes. Um there today again Pete Hegath who is just really so
00:06:27
unqualified every time he gets up was saying that was saying that we should celebrate pilots. I mean we do I go to
00:06:33
Top Gun Pete. I love Top Gun. I love when they hit the spot and I love it.
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And he also was saying that um that uh that the press should go along with propaganda cuz daddy needs it. It's very
00:06:45
strange. All they were doing was reporting uh on um uh um uh on things.
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And before we move on, before I want to get your thoughts on this, I need you also to weigh in on this. At the NATO summit, Trump was asked about his exclen
00:06:59
rant about Iran and Israel the other day. And NATO secretary general also had some thoughts. This is the daddy
00:07:04
reference. Let's listen. You know, they fight like hell. You can't stop them. Let them fight for about 2, three
00:07:10
minutes, then it's easy to stop them. And then daddy has to sometimes use strong language. to use strong language.
00:07:16
Every once in a while, you have to use a certain word. So, daddy has to use strong. Anyway, Scott, I'm going to call
00:07:21
you daddy from now on. Thoughts on all of this? On Pete, on Trump, why he's so insistent about this and sort of losing
00:07:28
ground for some reason, even though he was successful. Well, a giant hole
00:07:33
that's on fire. That just I think that's a pretty decent description of how I imagine my honeymoon with Jeff Bezos.
00:07:40
Oo, that's bad. You're thinking of that. You can't get out of your head, daddy. Speaking of daddy, anyway, go ahead. I I
00:07:46
I just think it'd be worth the photos. I think that would be You want to talk about something that would make news?
00:07:51
Seriously. And not only that, it'd be really good for I wonder if I I wonder if we'd lose IBM as a sponsor. We get we
00:07:58
get Amazon. We get Blue Orange. Okay. So, first off, perception around foreign
00:08:04
policy sometimes is more important than actual kinetic power. Mhm. And the reason we choose a civilian to head the
00:08:09
defense department is they're supposed to make decisions to allocate resources correctly and ensure that our fighting
00:08:15
machine doesn't get become generals who just consistently roam the earth. And there's a reason we usually pick a
00:08:20
civilian to be the secretary of defense. And in an operation like this, when you're when you're up there saying, "No,
00:08:28
no, it was great. We you lose all [ __ ] credibility." And what they
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should have is they should have someone up there with broad shoulders uh you know a general a man or a woman
00:08:40
who is actually spent their life demonstrating character and excellence from the most competent organization in
00:08:46
history the US military in a very sober way describing the operation and then
00:08:52
when they say and then when someone says there's reports that it's not as effective as it could have been to say
00:08:59
well we don't know we won't know our preliminary ary reports are the following. Yeah, the general did try to
00:09:05
do that. General Kaine raising they shove him out of the way because they're also He did not want to be there. He had that
00:09:11
look on his face. They're also they're also anxious to say, "Check out my
00:09:17
prosthetic penis." I mean, these guys should be in the background. The president should have announced the
00:09:23
attack and then let the pros, the people who actually executed this operation and
00:09:28
who have a reputation for not lying and exaggerating and secretary he says should be nowhere near a mic around
00:09:35
this. This is not his job because you know it's a successful thing
00:09:40
to set them back by months. It's a successful thing to set them back by a year to set them back. Um you know they
00:09:46
there's reports the uranium was moved. We It would be really nice to know and trust me, I bet our our allies will have
00:09:53
a lot of intelligence on this. And that's who the intelligence we're going to have to rely on is not ours, which is
00:09:59
astonishing. And of course, they've moved Telsey Gabbard out of the way cuz she's saying maybe not. Like she's she's
00:10:05
caused, you know, a lot of problems cuz she's questioning the intelligence. Um but to not rely on our own intelligence
00:10:12
and to insult it seems it seems like a waste. It just weakens us. It just weakens us. It also is a waste. He's
00:10:18
Couldn't he just be successful instead of being angry at like CNN and the New York Times?
00:10:25
Look, the the victory here is that the president did show leadership. The president who has a lot of critics The
00:10:31
president who has a lot of critics within his own party about foreign interventions took this action. That
00:10:37
demonstrates leadership. It demonstrates strength. We are the only nation in the world that has these
00:10:44
sci-fi like B2 bombers that we can fly from [ __ ] Missouri to anywhere in the
00:10:50
world to drop um uh an ordinance that no one else has. And is it effective? Yeah,
00:10:57
it was effective when anyone looked up or we saw photos of these B2 bombers rolling in. In addition, it also
00:11:04
demonstrates that we support Israel. It also demonstrates that our memory is long and our reach is far. All of those
00:11:11
things are good for America. But to get up there and start exaggerating and with
00:11:16
no real credible evidence, it's saying that this was and then attacking the press for doing its job which is and not
00:11:22
being a propaganda organ. It just reeks of weakness. It's like, okay, let's figure out a way. I do think some Trump
00:11:29
has actually in many instances good instincts and then he goes about it and he decides to snatch defeat from the
00:11:35
jaws of victory and that's what they are doing here. If a general had just gotten up there and said we won't know for a
00:11:41
while what the true effectiveness of this they just stepped all over him. He did K Kane did that. So did by the way
00:11:47
JD Vance right like they they were doing the right things at the beginning except
00:11:52
for Trump. They just don't know what he's going to do. He started cursing. He started making messes and then because
00:11:57
he's so obsessed with the media and especially media he calls losers is the ones he talks about all the time. It's
00:12:03
sort of like the guy who broke up with you who can't stop talking about you. Um if they're such losers, Donald, stop
00:12:09
talking about them. If it doesn't matter, stop talking about him. But it clearly does to him. What's interesting though to me is, let me read this. Um he
00:12:17
he calls them he called the New York Times and CNN bad and sick people. Um and of course CNN is backing their
00:12:23
reporters. So is the New York Times. But this is something I think I told you the New York Times is pushing back hard now.
00:12:29
And I was told by someone there that that's what they're going to do now. They're they're sick of saying we stand by our reporting. This is what they
00:12:35
wrote, which I was really it was very pointed. Trump called this fake news. And he isn't but he isn't but he and his
00:12:42
entire national security team subsequently confirmed that the Defense Intelligence Agency did in fact produce
00:12:48
a preliminary assessment described in the report by the times and others. So, their statement was fake, not the Times
00:12:53
reporting. I think this just the press is has had it with this nonsense. This
00:13:00
I'm glad I'm glad they said it that way. I'm glad they I think that the what we'd call more progressive media that spends
00:13:06
the money to do factchecking. And I think the Democratic party need to become the organizations and not [ __ ] around. Yeah, we're not [ __ ] And to
00:13:12
say, you know, as is often the case, when the, you know, when the data is true, they go to attacking the
00:13:18
institution and not the reporting or the data. And this is nothing but additional evidence that in fact our reporting is
00:13:24
entirely accurate. I mean they should just start I I'm I'm down for this and I
00:13:29
think uh AG is that his name should start hitting back and saying as is the
00:13:35
pattern here. Yeah. that statement was not a was not an AG like thing which I'm kind of glad he's finally like like not
00:13:41
just sticking up for his reporters but like but in general just say history will show that there's a pattern that
00:13:47
the the the more serious and personal the attacks are the more accurate the reporting ends up being. Mhm. They did
00:13:53
that around the Elon stuff too. The reporter was allowed to tweet this is nonsense like especially when they
00:13:59
called her a fat liar and all this other stuff. So anyway, yeah. So I don't um
00:14:04
you know that when when Elon Musk went about saying, "Well, you mean the the organization that got Pulitzer for you
00:14:12
know describing Russia gate?" Yeah. The the one that also got 141 other Pulitzers. Yes, I know. It's ridiculous.
00:14:19
So I I I fully embrace this. I am sick of of Democrats and progressive media
00:14:26
saying we're going to take the you know the high road. I like a low road myself. We like the low. We like the low. We're
00:14:33
low rotors. Um, let me since you're the marketing, from a marketing point of view, what would
00:14:39
you do here if you were drunk? Besid You already outlined it. Be quiet. Let the general get up and say it and let
00:14:45
victory just show itself because people Well, Americans don't support this, which is interesting. Polling doesn't.
00:14:51
But, but let the let the results speak for themselves, right? Correct. That's what you're saying. The most impressive people in boards and the most impressive
00:14:58
leaders in a corporate sense are very measured and thoughtful and are the
00:15:03
first to say I can't take credit for that or I don't know. I I think again is
00:15:10
was it General Kaine? General Kaine, you know, these people these people deal with life and death and the the
00:15:17
implementation of lethal force. And so when they're asked questions, they take them very seriously and they want a
00:15:24
reputation for truth uh because they know that other people are willing to put their own, you know, sons and
00:15:30
daughters in harm's way based on that they'll get truth back. And in a situation like this, Secretary Hex
00:15:37
should be nowhere near a microphone. He should be Sophia CppP at the Oscars and that is chained to her desk at home. I
00:15:42
don't know where I got that reference. Anyway, well, he's going to keep him now cuz he's Mr. Defensive. Even if he looks
00:15:47
ridiculous, he's making Trump look ridiculous. You know who was a great secretary of defense? William Cohen. Can you imagine Secretary Cohen ever getting
00:15:53
up there and trying to exaggerate the impact of a military attack? Like, forget it. He would He wouldn't
00:15:59
let it happen. Go ahead. Go ahead. President Trump should have just won. We
00:16:04
stand by our allies. Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is unacceptable in our eyes. That's it. Win. Win. Win, Trump.
00:16:11
That's it. You win. And then a bunch of photos. release a bunch of photos and a bunch of information. Do you realize
00:16:17
these B2s these B2s took off from [ __ ] Missouri? I know. I know. And
00:16:23
got to Iran. Then he was saying they were feelings were hurt. The pilots feelings were hurt by the press. Pilots
00:16:29
don't give a [ __ ] Top Gun. Sorry, my friends. They don't
00:16:34
give a [ __ ] They're fine. They don't really care. Anyway, speaking of of this other thing, he President Trump is also
00:16:40
having some trouble with his big one big beautiful bill. He says no one goes on vacation until Congress delivers. Uh
00:16:46
he's sticking to that July 4th deadline. I don't know why people make deadlines. I don't like deadlines. They always miss
00:16:51
them. Senate Majority Leader John Thun says voting is on track for the end of this week, though major parts of the bill are still being rewritten. And
00:16:57
Republicans are divided over key provisions, most of which is surrounds Medicaid. They just arrested some people
00:17:03
in wheelchairs today um for protesting. Medicaid is one of the biggest sticking
00:17:08
points with deficit hawks pushing for deeper cuts. And of course, it's a it's a it's a political nightmare for the
00:17:14
Republicans. There's also GOP infighting over the provision that prohibits states from regulating AI during the next 10
00:17:19
years. Marjorie Taylor Green brought this up. She's absolutely correct. Although it would be great to have a
00:17:25
national bill to create not create this much chaos. That said, states should be able to do that. Um I assume they'll get
00:17:31
it passed, but will it be reconciled or I can't tell from the reporting whether
00:17:38
I assume they always end up passing these things. It's just whether it's going to be acceptable cuz a lot of people are speaking up the I'm talking
00:17:44
only about the Republicans um against it and and they keep they keep not tapping
00:17:50
it down. It seems like I just it's just so disappointing that there's not only
00:17:56
it's such a cult now of the Republican party and also there's such a lack of leadership in the Democratic party. You
00:18:01
would think in the olden times that Tip O'Neal would call I don't know who and
00:18:06
say, "Okay, could we potentially wedge off 20 or 30
00:18:11
reasonable Republicans and say, "All right, tell you what, we'll help you pass this thing, but we and we'll go
00:18:17
even deeper on the cuts if you match us on revenue increases on taxes on, you
00:18:23
know, our most fortunate and take the deficit down from 3.5 trillion to one
00:18:29
trill." I mean, you'd think there'd be there'd just be some people in the middle here that would reach across the
00:18:34
aisle and say, "I here's an idea. Why don't we try and make ourselves really unpopular across the extremes on both
00:18:41
sides?" I But it that just doesn't happen anymore. So, I Why should the Democrats help? Why Why should the
00:18:47
Democrats help? Well, because if this passes asis, it not only is a budget
00:18:54
buster and impose the greatest transfer of wealth in history, it's also basically a move towards autocracy.
00:19:01
There's things in this bill, including I mean, there's just so much so many terrible things in this bill. Nobody in
00:19:06
the administration can be found in contempt of court so they can never subpoena them and ask force them to come testify. They're talking about putting
00:19:13
up 150 million plus acres of national land for sale. I mean, they're shoving
00:19:19
everything. There's so much there's so much ugly [ __ ] in this bill. Yeah, there is. So, anyway, I I I can't see it not
00:19:26
passing, but I mean, yeah, I think you're probably he's losing I'm telling you, he's losing the step.
00:19:32
He's losing a step. I don't think he has a strangle hold that everybody thinks he does. And I think there's a lot of signs
00:19:37
of that. Um, including yelling at CNN. Like, what a waste of his time to yell at CNN, you know? I just don't I don't
00:19:44
know. We'll see. We'll see. We're not experts in this, but we'll see. And we we the AI thing should absolutely not
00:19:49
pass. State should have the right to do that. And again, we should have a national bill, but that's that would be we don't have a national bill on
00:19:55
anything having to do with tech. Um, okay. Let's go on a quick break. When we come back, how New York's mayoral primary could rewrite the playbook for
00:20:02
Democrats. Support for Pivot comes from IBM. Bigger
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00:20:19
The AI built for business. IBM. Scott, we're back. It's being called the
00:20:26
biggest upset in modern New York City history. I'm not sure about that. By one Democratic strategist, uh Zoran Mdani,
00:20:33
uh a 33-year-old state assemblyman from Queens is poised to win the Senate city's Democratic primary for mayor. his
00:20:39
closest opponent, Andrew Cuomo, conceded Tuesday night pretty quickly. It was it was it was a blowout. Uh Manny, a
00:20:45
Democratic socialist, campaigned on New York's affordability crisis. It was very canny. He's a very cany guy. Uh
00:20:52
proposing free buses and a $30 minimum wage. You must love that, Scott. And higher taxes on millionaires and
00:20:58
billionaires and corporations. Young voters played a big role in this election with 25 to 34 year olds
00:21:04
comprising the largest share of early voters, although he won in surprising places. Um, Donnie now heads towards the
00:21:10
general election this November where he'll face current mayor Eric Adams and possibly Cuomo again. Although Cuomo, it
00:21:16
looks like, has pulled out cuz a loser doesn't win. Cuomo is too smart for to to to lose again if the former governor
00:21:23
runs as an independent. He's able to. Um but um others like um uh Bill Aman as
00:21:29
usual because he's such a crank thinks there should be a rightin candidate. He's losing his mind because he didn't see this coming because he does he's
00:21:36
always wrong about everything to do with politics. He's a great investor but otherwise he's an idiot. Um let's listen
00:21:41
to some of M Dani's victory speech from Tuesday night. We have won because New Yorkers have stood up for a city they
00:21:48
can afford. a city where they can do more than just
00:21:54
struggle. And it's where the mayor will use their power to reject Donald Trump's
00:22:02
fascism
00:22:07
to stop mass ICE agents from deporting our neighbors
00:22:14
and to govern our city as a model for the Democratic Party.
00:22:20
Really interesting candidate. But I think even the Republicans acknowledge and actually the smartest Republican and I know Bill Steppian was like don't try
00:22:27
to dismiss him. But MAGA is melting down over the wind with Laura Loomer, Marjgery Taylor Green and others launching xenophobic attacks. They're
00:22:33
pretty grotesque. So was Cuomo by the way that that ad he did. Um I don't think those work. Um, but talk about
00:22:40
this lessons cuz uh this guy could have been could have been really stained by some of his previous tweets and and
00:22:46
worries about um things he had said and with Jewish voters, but a lot of Jewish voters voted
00:22:52
for him, which is interesting. Although people I have had many people very upset uh by it at the same time. I have to
00:22:59
tell you, my my both my sons were very excited and they they zeroed in on the
00:23:04
affordability part and about the sensible stuff that he was doing uh more than anything. And also, he's a very
00:23:11
attractive guy. He's great at social media. He sounds great. He's handsome, etc., etc. Um Scott, I'd love to hear I
00:23:17
I'm didn't talk to you about this at all, so I'd love to hear your take. This is a political earthquake, and I got to
00:23:23
be honest, and this will piss off a lot of my friends. I I think it's hard not to be somewhat inspired by this. And
00:23:28
there's a lot of, you know, I personally I couldn't help but feel a little bit inspired by some of it. I I love a
00:23:35
younger generation of voters pushing back on money and the establishment. I mean, the estab Bloommer gave $8 million
00:23:41
to Cuomo. Dan Low, Bill Aman, the the Democratic political machine was run
00:23:47
over by a populist younger movement. Um
00:23:52
this was and to a certain extent it has echoes of the Trump campaign in terms of tactics focused on affordability and
00:23:59
weaponized social media. So while he was on social media Cuomo was running TV ads
00:24:05
and just to give you I didn't do any interviews. This guy was ubiquitous and all over the place. But go ahead. But
00:24:11
just to give you a sense for, you know, the the um
00:24:17
um the difference in the campaigns, you know, look at their Instagram followings. Look at look at, you know,
00:24:24
look at the the the platforms they weaponized and how they went about it. The he had a 1% chance uh
00:24:31
or yeah, he was polling just at 1% four and a half months ago. And just as just as um I think that Trump got Carney and
00:24:40
the U Australian leader elected, I actually think Netanyahu got this guy
00:24:46
elected. I think that so many I think Israel is so unpopular right now among
00:24:54
you talked about this last show. The brand the brand it feels brutal. The brand feels brutal. Correct. there's
00:25:01
just a general sense that Israel are no longer the good guys or the bad guys and
00:25:06
standing up to them and he tapped into that anger is a very is a very effective
00:25:11
strategy right now and can I ask you he didn't talk a lot about that which was interesting well he tried to run from
00:25:18
that stuff but he did but he talked about affordability and he talked about the minimum wage one of the ideas which
00:25:24
I I don't know what I think about it the the the the cityrun grocery stores I was
00:25:29
like probably not but great I kind of interesting idea everything even though if I didn't agree with several of his
00:25:35
things I was like I like your I like your the cut of your jib like that you're actually thinking of kind of some
00:25:41
interesting ideas and stuff so well well let's talk about some of his policies so
00:25:46
he wanted to talk about housing and he wants to talk about okay so fine we have a housing problem right one idea makes
00:25:52
sense constructing 200,000 units of housing over 10 years you would need you would want to activate and unleash the
00:25:58
private sector with taxity subsidies and private um private housing construction. You would want to want to motivate them
00:26:05
through tax subsidies such that more housing development got built. You want to do away with nimiism and make it
00:26:10
easier to build. At the same time, rent freezes do exactly the opposite. They're
00:26:16
populist [ __ ] because all you do when you freeze rent is you suppress the desire in the amount of money that goes
00:26:21
into new development and new housing. to suppress housing stock and it's just a transfer of wealth from entrance that
00:26:26
can't find a place because there's no new housing to the people who were fortunate enough to move into a rentstabilized place 40 years ago. So it
00:26:34
it doesn't work. Universal free child care, I think it's a great idea and it shows economic return. And I was happy
00:26:41
to pay 13% taxes uh in New York when I lived there
00:26:46
because and one of the reasons I was happy to do that was because one, it's an amazing city to live in and two something that made me feel really good
00:26:52
about the city is my son was speech delayed and the state had a state sponsored funded program to get these
00:26:58
really wonderful young mostly women to come into our home and give my kid occupational therapy. And these things
00:27:05
pay off and they make people feel really good about government. Now, now quote
00:27:11
unquote, city-run grocery stores. It would be hard to think of a more [ __ ] stupid idea. These are I get that, but
00:27:18
go ahead. Go ahead. Well, hold on. But just I mean, this [ __ ] makes no sense. You want the customer service of the DMV with the merchandising of your produce
00:27:25
by the IRS, grocery stores. The one the one business you would not want the
00:27:30
government in is grocery because it's a low margin business. It's local bodeas who are very good at what they do,
00:27:36
mostly immigrants. This makes absolutely no sense. Now, taxing the wealthy.
00:27:41
Before you get to that one, can I just say there's some co-ops that work there. The the idea is to get people who are
00:27:46
poor better food, right? So, that's a great idea. That's where that's where I was thinking. And there are certain co-ops that work really well. There's
00:27:53
certain innovative things to do in that area. But I agree on the They're not run by the government. No, but there's a way
00:27:59
the government can encourage say a food co-op or healthier food. But go ahead. Go ahead. Well, you could do that. But
00:28:05
if you want healthier, if you want healthier food outcomes, you should just put more money in the hands of poor
00:28:11
people so they can find their own food and find the find and endorse the grocerers. Grocery stores operate at
00:28:16
like razor thin margins. The notion that the notion that government's going to figure out how to do this better than
00:28:22
anyone else is ridiculous. So minimum wage, free bus, fine. I love $30 an hour
00:28:27
minimum wage. I think New York should lead the way on that. I I think it's I think it's a fantastic idea. Um the you
00:28:34
need to see studies around raising taxes on the wealthiest because what he's talking about is raising taxes 2% on
00:28:40
people making over a certain amount of money. Those people would now have a tax rate an effective tax rate including
00:28:46
federal, state, local, and this additional tax of about 52%. At some point raising taxes actually does
00:28:53
exactly the opposite. It reduces the tax roles in terms of I was quite bothered
00:28:58
quite frankly by what I feel were some I won't say anti-semitic I'll give him the benefit of the doubt but some
00:29:04
anti-Israel positioning that in his background that made me uncomfortable.
00:29:10
Having said that what I said to my friends last night in a group chat is I don't really care what a mayor thinks
00:29:16
about Israel. I don't I I want them to pick up the trash and operate the subway. And I don't think it's sure you
00:29:23
want to look at their view on international affairs and New York punches above its weight class, but at the end of the day, it's an operational
00:29:30
role. And I I I got to be honest, I love the idea of young people and a new
00:29:36
generation of youth. And by the way, this is a form of revolution. This is young people saying, "Whatever you folks are doing, the establishment isn't
00:29:42
working and we're going, we're picking someone new." and he weaponized newer mediums. He was very good uh on staying
00:29:50
on message and affordability. He's a very attractive candidate. I think who's more freaked out about this is not the
00:29:55
GOP but the Democratic establishment as they should be. Let me before you before we went on the on his statements, he did
00:30:01
go a long way to try to fix that in a lot of ways. And I think one of the things he could do is be a lot like give
00:30:08
him the minute to try to do something that brings people together, right? don't assume that what he said as a
00:30:14
queen's thing that he might I think he does understand that he would be the mayor for all of New York and what to me
00:30:20
is interesting is so you have someone like Daniel Lur in San Francisco who I wouldn't say is conservative but he's
00:30:25
much more centrist right he's not conservative um and this guy is this one of the things I find exciting whatever
00:30:32
you think of this is voters are speaking and you know the minute of course this happened my mom goes I'm selling my
00:30:39
apartment in New York as a socialist because that's what's on Fox News on freaking like whatever, whatever. It's
00:30:45
so racist over there at Fox News. Can I just tell you? They were like, they were, you know, this Zohan movie.
00:30:50
They're like, "He's Zohan." I'm like, "Zohan was an Israeli commando." And by the way, he rocked. Like, are you you
00:30:56
[ __ ] idiots? It's all about rich people trying to manipulate an election and make people of color hate each
00:31:02
other. Like, it was like they they just don't even understand their references. But fine. But of course, my mom
00:31:07
immediately said like, "I'm going to sell my" which she's not doing. And all I said to her is like, "The voters
00:31:12
decided what they wanted. Every time Trump wins, you say the voters decided what they wanted." Well, they did. And
00:31:18
she's like, "Oh, that's a good point." Like, the voters wanted this. It's not some young people being stupid. These
00:31:25
are the voters. You complain about them voting. They vote the way they want to vote. So, respect their vote. Like,
00:31:30
whether it's San Francisco bringing in Lurri, whether it's whoever it is, like
00:31:36
it doesn't matter. This is their vote and it they count. and the Democratic establishment trying to shove Cuomo down
00:31:42
our throats. And that's a gross thing to think about. What an a repulsive like
00:31:47
thing they did here. Like so cynical, so repulsive, and so not listening to
00:31:52
voters who matter, who really matter. Yeah, he's going to run up against some blocks there. So first off, it's not a
00:31:58
fed plea. It there's if you look at the numbers, I think there's about 4 million registered voters. He got about 400,000
00:32:05
votes. So he literally got 10% of the registered vote. There is an opportunity for Eric Adams potentially if enough
00:32:12
people Yeah, he's got his own issues. This is something this was a real anomaly. Um
00:32:19
but it's not I I you know the the speculation sites are saying it has a
00:32:25
70% chance of winning right now in the general but on the whole look America
00:32:32
has to deal with the fact that the following in my view young people have
00:32:38
had it. Young people have said okay this all I I see all of this prosperity I see
00:32:44
all of this obsession with wealth. I feel like every streaming media program, whether it's sirens or friends and
00:32:51
neighbors and social media, is just wealth porn being rubbed in people's
00:32:56
faces all [ __ ] day long where it's impossible to feel like, okay, I'm only
00:33:02
making $150,000 a year and living in Brooklyn and I'm broke and every day
00:33:09
it's just being shoved in my face that I am I am failing and it is so goddamn the rich guys are at the trough and
00:33:16
meanwhile Bloomberg's giving $8 million to a candidate who was resigned from office in disgrace. I'm voting. I'm I I
00:33:24
got to be honest. I I A lot of what this guy has said is deeply troubling to me. Having said that, I like a new
00:33:31
generation of voters in a populist way just rolling right [ __ ] over wealthy
00:33:37
people who think they can buy incumbency. I I thought it was, you know, I he is not my candidate. Some of
00:33:44
his ideas make no sense and they will not get through the assembly or whoever is his ideas. He doesn't even live here.
00:33:50
Like it doesn't even live in New York which is even worse. He was not a good candidate. A good candidate I was
00:33:56
support you know anyone I support means they're not going to win. I was supporting a guy named Whitney Tilson who's just a block blocking and tackling
00:34:02
smart guy and a good man and good on the issues. This guy captured lightning in a
00:34:08
bottle. I think young people are saying we're fed up. I think this guy absolutely weaponized social media. And
00:34:14
the fact that someone can get this far on ideas, on sheer force of character,
00:34:19
he was [ __ ] genius for the rent freeze thing, which by the way is a shitty idea. He jumped into the freezing water. You're not going to see Quomo do
00:34:26
that. Did you see the halal, the $10 halal? That was fantastic. These are the four bills that are sitting in the city
00:34:32
council right now, which would give these vendors their own permits and make your halal more affordable. But Eric
00:34:38
Adams hasn't said a single word about them. If you own the permit, then how much would you charge for the plate? $7.
00:34:44
$8. $8. Would you rather pay $10 for a plate of halal or $8? $8. $8. I think $8
00:34:51
is the way to go. If I was the mayor, I'd be working with city council from day one to make halal eight bucks again.
00:34:57
So, how was the taste? Tastes like 10 bucks, but it should be eight. It was so smart way to talk about affordability.
00:35:04
It was like it was so substantive in a in the silliest way, but it was
00:35:09
hysterically funny and so enjoyable. One, two, two very quick things that I'd
00:35:14
love to get your thoughts on and then we got to move on. But immigrants, there's a story right now. Immigrants are driving population growth across
00:35:21
America. These this guy feels like America, like where it's going. I don't
00:35:26
care. You can hold on to your white America all you want, but it is not that is not what's happening in our country.
00:35:32
He appealed to a lot more people. He appealed to the numbers are so
00:35:37
interesting of who he appealed to. He wouldn't. The winner here, this is the one guy I have to say, Brad Lander, who
00:35:43
if if the if the Democrats are serious about someone with experience in sorry, the New York Times, if you were serious,
00:35:49
you would have backed Brad Lander, right? Controller, Greg Consolation or whatever he called speech. What did he
00:35:55
do? I have to tell you, he and they they they cross referenced each other. He he hugged uh uh uh mom Dami Donnie um he
00:36:04
hugged him. They crossed they cross said vote for each other you know rank each other one and two depending on what you
00:36:11
want. Then he and he backed him. He should put Lander in in office if he becomes in some I'm sure he will. He
00:36:18
will like deputy mayor whatever. Um this guy took a risk. He's Jewish. He's like I've talked to him. I don't think he
00:36:24
like gave him that cover. Um, I thought Brad Lander and then he became exciting
00:36:30
because he got arrested. He's interesting. He he made
00:36:35
more safe for people who were worried and Mdani made Lander more interesting
00:36:40
in some weird way. So, I love that pair. I love that pairing of the two of them. Yeah, it's an interesting it's an
00:36:46
interesting peanut butter and chocolate. Look, if it's a choice between I actually like Andrew Cuomo. I met him
00:36:53
on Bill Mara. I actually thought he was he was a he seemed like a competent decent man to me. I think he would have been a competent decent mayor. But if
00:36:59
the decision was between a candidate backed by the establishment who looked at the mayor's mansion is rehab for his
00:37:05
political reputation such that in 18 to 24 months he could enter into consensual hallucination with the staff and
00:37:10
announces run for presidency which is I think exactly what he was planning or a 33y old that energizes young people and
00:37:17
brings some fresh new ideas. Some of them naive some of them won't work. I'm I'm cool with the 33y old. I think this
00:37:24
is somewhat I gota I think this is somewhat inspiring. His viewpoint and some of the his rhetoric around Israel I
00:37:31
find deeply offensive and disturbing. Having said that, I don't really care what a mayor thinks about that [ __ ] and
00:37:37
a lot of my friends will get angry, but that's not their role. Their role is to get the make sure the subways are moving
00:37:43
on time. Affordability, I'm all for it. Having said that, I left New York in
00:37:48
2011 because I couldn't afford to live there. I had two kids. I was working my
00:37:53
ass off. I was making what I thought was a lot of money. And I remember saying to my partner, I'm sick of feeling middle
00:38:00
class while I make all of this money. And we moved. I don't think anyone has a birthight to live in New York. Having
00:38:06
said that, if there are programs to maintain the diversity and the viscosity and let ensure that young people
00:38:12
continue to populate these great these great these great companies by creating
00:38:17
uh reducing the nimism regulation, unleashing the private sector in terms
00:38:22
of new housing development, I'm all for it. and the universal or you know effectively universal prek and $30
00:38:28
minimum dollar minimum wage to set a tone to inspire the rest of the nation recognizing if you pay people $30
00:38:35
minimum wage. Yeah, some places will go out of business but on the whole it'll be stimulative for the economy. I'm down
00:38:41
for it. It is time. It is time for these [ __ ] older Democrats to get on an ice
00:38:46
flow and give some new people a shot. Let them do their dumb ideas, but they're good ideas. They're fresh.
00:38:53
there. Perfect. Perfect was not on the menu. This guy was not perfect for me on a lot of levels. But I got to be I got
00:38:59
to be honest. I knew. He's also a handsome man. You also like a handsome man, don't you? Uh, guilty. Guilty.
00:39:06
Guilty. But new generation. It's time for a new generation of leaders representing young
00:39:13
people who for the first time in our nation's history aren't doing as well as their parents. It is time for the next
00:39:18
It is time to sh. It is time for the next It is time for the next generation. So I I hope that
00:39:26
this guy appoints really talented thoughtful people that he takes some of the rhetoric down and that he's more
00:39:31
thoughtful about some of his economic plans. Can I the the GOP is trying to make him the face of the Democrat party.
00:39:37
That shows how [ __ ] old they are. That's the thing. I was like be careful my friends. Like Oh, the Democrats
00:39:43
should take notes on how this guy ran his I know. But one of the things the GOP rushing to do this is not working
00:39:49
with young people. Well, I can tell you that it's not it's not they they can see with their eyes, right? What an
00:39:55
interesting and attractive candidate this guy's. If they make him the face of the Democratic party, they're going to lose everything because they're old
00:40:01
creaky men. They they're going to take and by the way, Trump is looking old and creek. Anyway, we have to move very interesting story from a market one
00:40:08
additional piece of data and I haven't I I haven't reconciled what this means, but this was sort of champagne
00:40:13
socialism. You realize that Cuomo beat Mandani by 13 points if they made less
00:40:20
than 50 grand. Yeah. The lower income segment broke very hard for Quomo and it
00:40:26
was middle and upper income that broke for Omdani. I mean, it's just very it's
00:40:31
very interesting what happened here and how it's going to impact national
00:40:36
politics. But the takeaway I get is that it is younger people are done and
00:40:42
they're ready for new faces and they're weaponizing new mediums. And I I think the best thing this kid could do if he
00:40:48
gets if he gets through the general is immediately publicly listen to and meet
00:40:53
with Bloomberg and meet with Jewish leaders and focus on blocking and
00:40:59
tackling and everyday things that impact everyday Americans or everyday New
00:41:05
Yorkers. shows he can work. This is this idea of with Sarah McBride. There's all these very exciting candidates. We
00:41:11
imperfect allies. Imperfect allies. That's the way to go. All right, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come
00:41:16
back, we'll talk about Trump already considering Fed chair replacements. Scott, we're back with more news. Let's
00:41:22
go through these quick. President Trump reportedly wants to name a Fed chair Jerome Powell's replacement as early as September, October. Powell's term runs
00:41:28
for another 11 months. A transition period typically lasts just 3 to four months. Trump is already on it. Listen
00:41:33
to a clip of him at the NATO summit responding to a question about interviewing candidates. I know within
00:41:39
three or four people who all going to pick. I mean, he goes out pretty soon fortunately because I think he's terrible. Yeah, the year is not too bad.
00:41:46
Trump, you can't force him out. The president is reportedly considering several candidates including former Fed uh Governor Kevin Mors and World Bank
00:41:52
President David Malpass. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly also being pitched uh by allies. Um very
00:41:59
quickly, why is he doing this? Why? Well, he just wants to neuter him and he wants the governors to have a bigger
00:42:05
say. Uh, but chairman Pal will go down and e economic economic professors and
00:42:13
economic theory will constantly cite Jerome Pal as somebody who was a steady
00:42:18
hand and the next the next president the next Democratic president will give him the National Medal of Freedom and it'll
00:42:24
be welld deserved. Yeah, I agree. There there we have it. Well, Trump just again weakness on Trump's behalf. I feel like
00:42:30
he's he can't have everything he wants, so he throws a little hissy. He's he's doing a lot of hissies lately. Um
00:42:36
hissies aren't a good look for an old man, by the way. Um another one, um uh the FDC has agreed to approve the merger
00:42:42
of advertising giants Omnicom and Interpublic Group after the companies agreed not to collude on politically motivated ad boycotts, cuz you know, we
00:42:50
don't love the First Amendment anymore. While the $ 13.5 billion merger will still allow the company's clients to
00:42:55
choose from whether they want uh to to to advertise on certain platforms, which is their right, by the way. It's kind of
00:43:01
so stupid that they had to agree to this dumb thing. Speaking of which, liberal advocacy organization Media Matters has
00:43:07
sued the FDC, claiming the agency waged a campaign of retribution on behalf of President Trump and Elon Musk. The
00:43:13
agency started investigating Media Matters last month over whether it illegally colluded with other groups to boycott advertising on X. Uh, again, I
00:43:20
I'm glad they did that. Um, I think um, you know, it's it's really kind of
00:43:25
grotesque that um that they they aren't letting advertisers decide where they
00:43:31
even if they're talking together, who cares? It's the first amendment. I don't know what else to say about these two cases. I don't You may have some
00:43:36
thoughts about Omnicom and Interpublic doing this. They just had to kind of do it just to get a thing approved. I
00:43:42
assume Omnicom and IPG uh tying up. It's literally the the
00:43:48
second lamest wedding of the weekend. I mean they these are un the reality is
00:43:53
and I'm a can and I every they're unimportant companies. Yeah. They
00:43:58
Palunteer will lose or gain the market cap of these companies in the next week. Yeah. Mhm. They're just not they're a
00:44:05
shadow of themselves. The conglomerate model no longer works. One and a half percent of GDP goes to marketing and
00:44:12
it's all every year more and more of it goes to the the guys we talk more about and these folks. The fact that the FTC
00:44:18
wanted to get in the way of this merger was insane. These guys, this is about survival. These these guys need to
00:44:25
consolidate, cut back office, do some spins. Interesting. It's tactical and
00:44:30
not that important, but it's interesting. Publacy has actually done a better job than Omnicom, IPG, or WPP by
00:44:37
embracing technology. They have epsilon, they have sapient. They've done actually a pretty good job and now their market cap is worth more than I think the other
00:44:43
three combined. But this is an industry that we talk about as if it's important and it's not. I it employs a decent
00:44:51
number of people. The ad industry played a really important role in the advancement of women. It was one of the initial industries to have female CEOs,
00:44:58
Shelley Lazarus. The character that Peggy plays in Madmen was actually a
00:45:04
really important woman. It was one of the it was one of the industries that figured out and elevated women to their
00:45:10
natural ability as opposed to uh let me put this way there was the glass ceiling
00:45:15
was still there but it was higher in the communications industry. It's been an important industry for the United States
00:45:21
but these companies need to consolidate just to survive. The idea of I can't
00:45:28
imagine a worse job than being a salesperson for X right now. Yeah. Well,
00:45:33
speaking of which, what do you think about this idea that the FDC is this guy who runs the FDC is such a clown? It's
00:45:38
just ridiculous. He's like a he's like a a a errand boy for Trump, from Daddy
00:45:43
Trump. Not for Trump, for Musk. Musk hands is so far up his ha ass if he opens his mouth, you can see Elon's palm
00:45:49
right now. The notion that you are The notion that you are What about that that
00:45:55
black hole on fire? Come visit us at our wedding. If I was on a honeymoon with
00:46:01
Jeff Bezos, you would absolutely show up. I have no doubt. Okay. Anyways, the
00:46:07
It's insane. Yeah. You're saying free speech is your ability to say things,
00:46:12
but it's not free speech when you decide you don't want to advertise on a platform. Yeah. They're allowed to. I
00:46:17
don't care if they have lunch and all decide to do it together. Who cares? You know, here, Linda, Linda Yakarino, make
00:46:23
a better platform. Don't have a shitty platform. Elon, sell better cars. Sell better cars. perhaps you will do well
00:46:30
otherwise you know step off letting advertisers do what they want and by the way they're already as you say suffering
00:46:36
they should do whatever it takes to do well correct right well okay so the
00:46:42
actual laws a boycott would only be illegal if the companies involved colluded with each other to obtain lower
00:46:47
prices and that's not what they're doing this is a shitty platform they're basically saying as a service to their
00:46:53
to their advertisers this is not a safe place you need to be careful here and until they make it more brand safe. You
00:46:59
shouldn't advertise here. That is entirely that is entirely legal. Yeah. Anyway, one interesting case though I
00:47:06
have to say I was really struck by both metaanthropic struck legal winds against the book authors this week. The two
00:47:11
companies faced similar suits. In both cases, federal judge ruled that the training of AI models on copyrighted books was fair use and transformative.
00:47:18
The judge in Meta's case said the plaintiffs, which included Sarah Silverman, quote, made the wrong arguments and failed to prove that
00:47:24
copying harmed the market for authors. Um, this is going to be a much and and then Sam Alman on my friend Casey Newton
00:47:32
and Kevin Roose's podcast, Hard Fork, pushed back really hard on the New York Times and saying, "I like the New York
00:47:38
Times, but they're wrong about this." So, there's some real aggression here on these legal winds. I I I'd love to know
00:47:43
what you thought about this, too. It's they were It's super copyright is super complex. And I guess one judge said, "If
00:47:49
you buy the book, you you've done enough if you actually buy the book instead of steal it." I guess I was I was
00:47:56
disappointed and surprised and I thought, okay, we've said for a while,
00:48:01
this is a moment in time where creators need to really circle wagons around
00:48:07
their IP and at least participate in some of the extraordinary shareholder gains that these industry is garnering
00:48:13
by not actually creating content, but crawling content and then using machine to to offer it up in interesting ways.
00:48:21
And so this to me was disappointing and and surprising and I don't understand
00:48:26
the mechanics of the legal ruling, but I would have hoped that they would have pushed back and said, you know, I was
00:48:33
hoping that there'd just be more respect for IP because at some point, this just
00:48:38
reminds me very much of back to the old days when Google figured out a way to crawl data and give the content
00:48:44
providers 2 cents by sending them traffic they couldn't monetize and they got 98 cents on the dollar for curating
00:48:51
information in a really interesting way that other people had had created. If you look at all of the models here, it's
00:48:57
just all moving towards an asset like model where you don't create content. You you crawl it, slice it, dice it,
00:49:04
serve it, and at some point that's going to be bad for the overall economy when there's just no money in the business of
00:49:11
fact-checking and content creation. And um anyways, I was disappointed to see
00:49:16
this. What do you I need to learn more about it. like I don't understand it. I don't understand it because if they are
00:49:22
able to do this, it's a real it's a real problem for authors. There's a great piece if people want to read in the Atlantic this week about AI um upending
00:49:30
publishing, which I thought was really smart. So, I want I need to we need to learn more about this because it's an area we should know more about. Um but
00:49:36
yeah, I was surprised by both these rulings, but uh they're doing little jigs over at uh Meta, I guess. Uh but
00:49:42
it's not over. I'll tell you that. It's not over for OpenAI. It's not over for any of them in terms of legal um
00:49:47
struggles. still have a little bit. Um, all right. Uh, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions. Okay,
00:49:54
Scott, let's hear your prediction. What is your prediction? I went back and looked through um the headlines kind of
00:50:01
the few days following 9/11 or our entry into Iraq or uh Afghanistan. And other
00:50:08
than the Bin Laden raid where the headlines ended up to be uh the first
00:50:14
24, 48, and 72 hours ended up to actually being quite accurate, in every other instance, what comes out 6 or 12
00:50:21
months later is that we what came out 24 hours later was just not that accurate.
00:50:27
And so my prediction isn't that interesting. It's just that everything we think we know about these attacks in
00:50:32
Iran, we don't know. And also, I have never felt a lack of of certainty or
00:50:40
confidence in the information coming out of our intelligence community and out of the White House. Uh because it feels as
00:50:46
if they're their priorities aren't giving the American public the truth, but just signaling macho. And I don't
00:50:53
know if we're going to find out that okay, all of the nuclear material was actually transported out or that the
00:50:59
regime that's the worrisome thing. That's the one they are that they one of the things they're not doing is saying
00:51:04
they're they are sort of trying to punt on that because I think that's what happened. Like if you look at a lot of
00:51:10
the headlines, they won't say anything about whether the stuff was moved. So
00:51:15
yeah, I I interviewed this really um uh interesting guy from the Carnegie
00:51:20
Endowment uh Kareem Sachapur I believe his name is and you know it just
00:51:26
military intervention in the Middle East the only thing you know about it is it has just so many unintended consequences
00:51:33
and uh this whole thing feels so today just so performative on beha you know if
00:51:40
we attack it feels very performative Iran responds in what feels like a very performative way. Uh so it's it's kind
00:51:47
of a non-prediction prediction in that is whatever you think happened, the only thing I'm fairly certain on that's not
00:51:52
what happened. It's just Do you feel like you're in a Mission Impossible movie where the where the uranium is on
00:51:58
the move and Ethan I feel like I'm in a Truman show. Oh, see I feel like Ethan Hunt's on the hunt for the uranium
00:52:04
that's somewhere in a tiny ball that he just puts in his pocket. That kind of But think about think about the
00:52:10
situation. It's an 86-year-old theocrat who knows he could be killed at any moment in a bunker. They've had to shut
00:52:16
down the internet because they can't communicate with each other. And at the same time, we have Netanyahu who is
00:52:22
running to stay out of prison. And he's decided the way he does that is
00:52:27
to be on a constant war footing, pulverizing and creating what is
00:52:32
arguably at this point unnecessary death and destruction in Gaza that gets likely played a role in the mayoral election in
00:52:38
New York. I mean the r or the fact that we probably wouldn't have gone into Iran
00:52:44
to bomb these nuclear sites had the Ukrainian army been not been so successful against defanging Russia who
00:52:50
would have still been in Syria and creat [Music] 24 hours the game theory here in the
00:52:57
scenarios are just so crazy and what I wonder I know the military does this is
00:53:03
there anyone with like a big whiteboard in the defense department or secretary
00:53:08
hexet that is gaming all of this out. Do they actually think through this stuff? Gaming. He couldn't play like war.
00:53:16
Actually, that wasn't good. I I'll do another quick one. My I'll do this. I'll repeat the prediction. Right. Okay. Uh
00:53:21
Reed Hastings going on the board of Anthropic. We are going to have an anthropic Netflix joint venture that
00:53:28
will compete with Tik Tok. I like it. I like it. Yeah. I saw some other analysts note that that Tik Tok's got to reach
00:53:34
down into the YouTube in the Tik Tok and YouTube t categories. They've got to start real, you know, the growth isn't
00:53:40
going to come from their regular business, but they have to really do both YouTube and small stuff. And I
00:53:46
thought that was I was like, "Oh, Scott said that already. I already knew that." Anyway, good one. All right, we want to
00:53:52
hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com/pivot to submit a question for the show or
00:53:58
call 8551 pivot. Elsewhere in the Karen Scott universe this week, uh, this week on Profy Conversations, Scott spoke with
00:54:05
Ian Bremer, the president and founder of the Eurasia Group about Iran, the role President Trump plays, and what could
00:54:11
come next on the global stage. Let's listen to a clip. The backdrop on Trump is he's not gotten his deals done. He's
00:54:19
really itching to make something happen. He wants to show that he can win on the international stage. and Iran suddenly
00:54:25
was where he was putting a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of attention. So that's that's the background for him.
00:54:32
The backdrop of Iran is that they have lost more influence both regionally and
00:54:39
globally than pretty much anybody over the last year. Interesting. Except for
00:54:45
Elon Musk. Okay, that's the shows. Thanks for listening to Pivot. Be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube
00:54:51
channels. We have a lot of YouTube channels and we cross-promote each other on all of whether it's the prof G1 on
00:54:56
with Cara Swisser or Pivot which is a fantastic um which is a fantastic channel. We got lots of stuff in there
00:55:02
for you. Um we'll be back next week. Scott read us out. Today's show is produced by Lauren Neman, Zoe Marcus,
00:55:09
Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver. Ernie and Tat engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burroughs, Miao, Dan Shalon, and Kate Gallagher. Yach Kura is
00:55:16
Vox Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thanks
00:55:22
for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at nymag.com/pod.
00:55:28
We'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. The wedding is going to span 3
00:55:34
days, Cara, because when you're worth 215 billion, why have a reception when you can have a small economic summit?
00:55:41
That's no good. Venice is hosting Bezos where locals protest over tourism. It's like complaining about traffic while
00:55:48
driving a monster truck to the complaint.
