306: ‘A Total Landscaping’, With Mike Monteiro
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Do you know one of the most delicious little details of this is that
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Wikipedia now has to do a redirect because they previously had an article Trump impeachment
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Which impeachment did you mean I
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Did you see that? Did you see the the the dojo tweet? I don't think so. I just tweeted this out
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Friend of mine found it. It's a Don Trump
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junior tweet from
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2016 dear Clinton's, you know, it's deplorable being impeached
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Hashtag basket of horrible page. Oh man, but yeah amidst all of this news. Did you see the story today?
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I want to start with some light fare. Do you see the story the story today about Jared and Ivanka's?
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Secret Service detail not being allowed to use the restrooms in their home
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No, yeah, so there's a story in the Washington Post. I will put this in the show notes
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I promise but the basic gist is they have a very large home in a very nice neighborhood in Washington and they've
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Forbid they've they forbade the Secret Service from using their restrooms and the Secret Service therefore
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Rented a basement studio apartment somewhere on their block just to have access to the toilet and it cost
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$100,000 a month so over $100,000
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Since 2017, you know what I hate about that
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What I hate about that is that it almost humanizes them I mean you've had work done in your home no we have
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You want do you want people taking dumps in your bathroom? You know, we're lucky
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We you know the the new place where we have a bunch of restrooms, you know, we've got powder rooms on every floor
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I mean, that's the way you make a house like when I grew up we had one toilet, you know
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Or actually we had one in the basement. Yeah, the basement one was
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You know not good
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Not comfortable. I found I found a
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Rifle in the drop ceiling of our basement toilet when I was a teenager
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Did you know who's it was?
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Your brothers probably yeah, I was my brothers
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Because you know like a normal teenager I was that's where I stashed right porn. That's a good hiding spot
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I've worn it is it's the best hiding spot. So and it turns out that that that's where he was stashing his gun
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Anyway, so it but lower in this story
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And again, I like to filter these things through a okay
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What if it was somebody I liked, you know, what if it wasn't the Kushner's if it was, you know
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Hey Obama's or somebody is it unreasonable not to want the Secret Service to use your restroom now now part of the problem
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I think the optics problem for them is that it's a very large house apparently with a lot of restrooms so they wouldn't it
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quite possibly they could have made arrangements that they could have used a
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Restroom and not really disturb the field
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The Obama's would have totally let them you well listen to this here. I'm quoting from this story
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they had a porta-potty for a while and
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The neighbors out in the sidewalk and the neighbors raised a stink because I guess the porta-potty raises a stink
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And then it did so the porta-potty this is from the story was the agency's initial solution to the protective details dilemma
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But it was removed in the face of the neighborhood's protests after that according to the law enforcement
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Officials the agents began using a bathroom in a garage at the Obama's house
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Which the former no former president's protective detail had turned into a command post
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The Obama's did not use the garage, you know, I guess they don't drive
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So the extra traffic to and from the command post caused no problem
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Yet this solution too was short-lived
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after a Secret Service supervisor from the Trump Kushner detail
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Left an unpleasant mess in the Obama bathroom at some point before the fall of 2017
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according to a person briefed on the event
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That that prompted the leaders of the Obama detail to ban the agents up the street from ever returning
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You can't that's embarrassing. Can you even imagine?
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How do you I mean you briefed on the event the event
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That's that's a call with with a boss that you never want to have
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You know, we've had some complaints about you wrecking a bathroom and let's see who's let me check my notes here the Obama's bathroom
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I need more details about this event. I need an entire story about this
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This needs well, I'm thinking if I'm Secret Service
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And I'm using Kushner's bathroom. I'm
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I'm wrecking it on purpose. Yeah, you would be going to Taco Bell beforehand
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Well, I'm like I'm like shoving yams in the in the toilet like fuck these people fuck these people fuck their plumbing
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Fuck everything about them. I'm gonna wreck this back. We've all had moments, you know with an unpleasant
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We've all had unfortunate incidents with toilets and and of course, you know, yeah, you know and you're in a guest
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You may not know you might just you might you might have a moment where you think well
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There's got to be a plunger everybody keeps a plunger
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You gotta have a plunger, you know, I'm amazed I'm amazed
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How often there isn't a plunger and you know, look I like to I like to leave a clean bowl. Yeah
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Whatever I do. I like to leave a clean bowl because one I don't want people thinking that you know
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I wasn't house-trained and and two it's just common courtesy for the for you know, the next writer. It's
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And and that that means that means sometimes the plunger always a brush
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You got to how can you you got to it? You don't want to leave any evidence of what you doing there
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You know, nobody nobody should have to come in to a bathroom and see what somebody else did
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Briefed on the event
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Want I would like the great Olivia and nosy to research this as this incident and the Obama's garage
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Restroom as her next
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Investigation, you know did you saw I'm sure her her
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Her piece on the four seasons total landscaping, correct? I
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Love that. She should win an award for digging into sometimes
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To me there's two stories to write. There's the big the big story right the trunk of the tree and
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then the leaves the individual leaves and
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There's so many stories
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There's so many stories that could be written here now this the four seasons total landscaping I
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Presume everybody listening is vaguely familiar with this. This was in the immediate aftermath of the election and
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Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani called a press conference
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that Trump tweeted out as being at the four seasons Philadelphia and
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And then had technically true technically then sent out a correction for seasons total landscaping exclamation mark
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All but between that between the tweet and the correction there was a tweet from from the four seasons
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Yeah, that was basically fuck. No
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You curse yeah, you can't
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But you're you're from Philadelphia
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And so it it I am it and specifically you grew up in the Northeast which is actually where forces use
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No, don't say that don't say that that's a hate crime. I
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Grew up in all well, well, you're familiar with the North. Oh, I I'm very familiar with the Northeast and I'm very familiar
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With the neighborhood that four seasons total landscaping is in because there's a jail there
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That wasn't mentioned in the in the remarks they everybody just mentioned the porn shop and the crematorium across the street
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Well, there's a jail in that neighborhood and that's where we used to go to visit my brother the brother who?
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stashed a rifle
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Exactly along with your girly magazines
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It's it, you know your standard fuck around and find out Philadelphia story
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so my favorite little side note of the four seasons total landscaping thing is and you know
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Center City Philadelphia is very small for a major metropolitan city. It's it's
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It literally walkable because where Center City Philadelphia is with the handshake deal that that William Penn had with the
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This I guess they were the school
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Native Americans, but you know
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It was what whatever he could walk in an afternoon would be the the city and he walked from river to river
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But it's it's tiny it
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It broke that deal later
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Well, we would not have to go into that but but it's it is by definition will walkable Center City
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It is very well. We were close to all of this
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Craziness during the vote counting. I mean, you know, we don't live quite in the neighborhood
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But the Convention Center is you know, I don't know. It's like a mile away or something. It's very close
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It's right around the corner from hop sing actually
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Yeah, I know that area really well. That's where the gallery right right, which is
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undergoing a major
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reconstruction, you know sort of modernizing
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When this was going on it seemed crazy that it would be at the Four Seasons
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the Four Seasons used to be on the parkway, but then they've they were now on the the penthouse floors of the new Comcast Tower
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So like the top two or three floors of the tallest new tallest building in Center City is the Four Seasons
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It just seemed crazy why in the world, you know for the few minutes where it seemed like they would be doing this
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It seemed like how is this even possible and at the time there were restrictions in this city
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You you couldn't hold a press conference indoors and then when the total landscaping thing came out
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This is my favorite thing my wife who I believe, you know, you're familiar with with my wife
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Still it's still Amy Jane my first my first life that surprises me
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Nobody's more surprised than me quite honestly. Oh, I believe really that's it's really
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I feel like I'm over, you know
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But anyway, my favorite thing was when Trump tweeted Four Seasons total landscaping
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Amy was on on Twitter at the time and she said what does that even mean and
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she thought it meant it was some kind of jargon like
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carpet bagging or
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gerrymandering, you know that like a landscaping is some kind of
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Old-timey hundred-year-old term for for a way to get cheated out of an election and wouldn't it be Trump?
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Like wouldn't it if that was a you know, like a if it was a landscaping Trump would call it a total landscaping, right?
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It's the best the best way. It was a total landscaping, but it turns out it was actually
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Not it was actually a landscaping company in the in the Northeast
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Shit, I can't remember if that was last week or this week. Remember when he he went to
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He went to Alamo, Texas. It was like what two days ago
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Was that two days ago Jesus? He totally meant to be going to the Alamo in San Antonio, right?
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I had to write that was the same ring and it in fact his
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His dummies on the internet. They all thought that this is it because they're you know people screenshotted this
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you know like the the people who got kicked off reddit and they what do they have the dot the Donald dot win or whatever they
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Reformed right? They were all celebrating it. They're like this, you know, the these kooks who think that you know that that he's somehow
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Is gonna unveil evidence like ah
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Genius his last stand will be at the Alamo do it. Yeah, I'll know yeah
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Take David Crockett. He's lucky. He didn't have it like the Alamo rent a car at
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Reagan National International Airport
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Jesus Christ, that would have been amazing. I
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I really hope somebody floated the rent the Alamo rent a car stand as an idea
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What a shit shit on
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Really? It's just unbelievable
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What a total absolute shit. I want to talk to you. Well, let me let me take a break first
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I'll do she gave me on your pocket. Yeah
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All right. I wanted to have you on the show
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because I I've been wondering about this with Twitter and kicking Trump off the platform and I I heard a
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Have been on the side of they should kick him off for a while now
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I thought it should have happened a while ago and
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You know, I might agree. Well, here's the thing
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I was thinking about who I should have on the show to talk to you about and I want someone who's just going to agree
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With me and I'm thinking I should try to find somebody who thinks that he shouldn't be kicked off and you can't I can't find anybody
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At this point and then it I realized the better debate would be to have it
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You on because you felt more strongly about it than I did and thought, you know
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Don't tell me when you think they should have kicked him off the show
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I mean, it's fair to say that you have been a leading critic of Twitter's
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Continuing support for this president being on their platform. I
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Mean, I've been I've been one of the louder ones. I don't know if it's amounted to hill of beans
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But I'm certainly not afraid to yell
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And I've been so I've been bugging Twitter about this
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Since I I guess since he entered the the race in 2016
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Because I mean I was you know
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Everybody remembers the scene of him coming down, you know, the the golden escalator at Trump Tower and immediately declaring that
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You know Mexicans were rapists and that he was running for president
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at the same time he was amassing a ton of Twitter followers and
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Did you remember his first tweet no, I don't
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It was something about hey, I'm gonna be on some late-night talk show
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I forget which one but hey, I'm gonna be on some late-night talk show
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Coming, you know come and watch that was his first tweet
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And for a while, I mean that was that was the kind of tweet that he would send he
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remember he had that that whole thing with Robert Pattinson and
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About you know, you shouldn't be dating Chris right? Right?
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It was that kind of like so celebrity bull right
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And then he kind of stumbled into hey, what if I make a couple of really racist we're nice
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And his follower count started going up
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And then it exploded so
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like any good
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Sociopath he started doing the thing that got him the attention
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So stuff got more more virulent more virulent more more more racist more sexist
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He started getting more followers and at the same time
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Remember at the same time I mean this was back when Twitter was talking about like holy shit
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We should probably just sell the Facebook or you know
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We're running out of cash here. We know what we're gonna do and all of a sudden they discover this this secret potion
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of this this seven 70 year old
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And and they decide we're gonna ride this guy to the bank
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then he decides to run for president and
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We were like equal parts mocking him like oh my god
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What an idiot this is gonna be hilarious
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Like I remember at this point John Stewart was still doing the Daily Show
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And I remember John doing a segment with where he was like, thank you. Thank you on behalf of comedians everywhere
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Thank you for running again
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Because this is exactly what we need
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You know to make the jokes
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so so it was like 50% that and 50% of
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People who are like no, wait a minute
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This is actually terrifying
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Because this is
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This idiot actually knows how to reach
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Like the worst of the worst and speak in their language and fire them up and he has absolutely
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No problem saying what they believe to hear
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So he was on Twitter and he was building this massive following and he was saying all of this terribly racist sexist stuff
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and he was attacking people personally and
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It was getting dangerous
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Rather than you know following the rules its own guidelines that it all that were already in print
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Rather than doing that they kept moving the goalposts to excuse
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What he was saying?
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Because that was getting them that all-important engagement that they wanted
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Right. It was just it was it it it drove cement helped cement their place in the the
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He was making them money. It was making them money in our collective minds, you know Trump tweets, you know
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It really did it drive Twitter as a source of news, you know, like the fact what he tweeted was the news
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I mean history is gonna remember, you know when history talks about Trump the word tweet will be in the first sentence
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I've seen people
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Talking about you know, like well, do you think he ever could have been president without Twitter? I I don't even think it's close
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I don't even think it's a close call because I don't think he ever would have got propelled into politics without Twitter
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Right, like it's like what you were just saying. Oh, he used to be talking about, you know
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The the type of stuff that he you know, a game show host would tweet about because that's what he was. Yeah
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Yeah, and and I'm sure that all of the racist xenophobic shit that he studies that he spews out on Twitter
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It was you know shit that he said at home. I'm not saying Twitter made him that way
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I'm saying that Twitter gave him one hell of a bullhorn
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He really got propelled into politics on the issue of whether Barack Obama was born in
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Kenya and was therefore on
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Unfit to be the president under the Constitution
00:21:07
◼
►
That was his first big flip from you know standard
00:21:13
◼
►
Used car salesman bullshit into politics was the birther is an angle
00:21:19
◼
►
And he got a tremendous amount of attention for that and it's really hard to imagine how he did it how he would have done
00:21:26
◼
►
It without Twitter
00:21:27
◼
►
I mean, I guess he could have any did call in to Fox News shows and be on the telephone talking to
00:21:32
◼
►
Whoever was the you know, Bill O'Reilly or whoever was the host, you know before he got kicked off the network
00:21:38
◼
►
But it it really was yeah
00:21:42
◼
►
Why was why was Donald Trump considered an authority on the issue of the quote-unquote controversy over?
00:21:49
◼
►
birtherism it's because of his tweets right like
00:21:53
◼
►
Donald Trump would not have been president without Twitter and
00:21:57
◼
►
Twitter had everything they needed to stop Donald Trump from becoming president back in 2016
00:22:06
◼
►
by just enforcing their own rules I
00:22:09
◼
►
Think about you know, and it is he what he did tweet was against the rules
00:22:16
◼
►
I don't see you know, and I do think that's important but I and carving out this exception that
00:22:25
◼
►
everybody else has to follow these rules, but we will make an exception for
00:22:28
◼
►
state leaders is
00:22:31
◼
►
Almost the worst thing you could do if there's anybody if there's one group that should have to follow the rules
00:22:37
◼
►
It should be state leaders, you know, and if there's one group that certainly doesn't need to be amplified
00:22:43
◼
►
It's state leaders
00:22:46
◼
►
You know when you when you when you listen to some of the arguments that people have made about why we he needs to be
00:22:51
◼
►
There it's like so well because we need to know what he thinks
00:22:55
◼
►
We've known what every president has thought right without it better
00:23:00
◼
►
They they they literally have the world's they literally have a press room in their house
00:23:07
◼
►
It's true, right in their house never you don't look back at the previous
00:23:13
◼
►
44 presidents and say that they were silenced because they didn't have Twitter or
00:23:18
◼
►
You know didn't use it or you know, no, but nope. It's it's not true
00:23:24
◼
►
and it's very clear now that he's gone and I mean my argument and
00:23:29
◼
►
on maybe it was okay, you know, I'll try to take Twitter side on this and say that they I
00:23:37
◼
►
Think they're what was the saying from the Revolutionary War where there was a battle and the guy said, you know
00:23:42
◼
►
Don't fire - you can see the whites of their eyes. All right, everybody grows up here in that legend
00:23:47
◼
►
and I think there's that's sort of the mindset Twitter had of
00:23:55
◼
►
He did things that could be justified for kicking him off
00:23:59
◼
►
Before yeah, but wait wait until it's even worse. Wait until it's even worse. Wait until it's even worse
00:24:05
◼
►
and then all of a sudden he's telling these
00:24:07
◼
►
Armed insurrectionists to go storm the Capitol and they do it and people get killed, you know
00:24:13
◼
►
A cop got his brains bashed in with with a fire extinguisher. I mean and it was
00:24:18
◼
►
Perilously close to them bursting in and and getting access to members of Congress
00:24:26
◼
►
Clearly this is over the line and and to me there might be if to play devil's advocate to you. There's some
00:24:32
◼
►
Some sense in my mind a feeling that okay now it's it this you you cannot take the other side
00:24:41
◼
►
You know, if you do you're supporting an armed insurrection
00:24:44
◼
►
So, yeah when and I mean they're still doing it we still had like what almost 200
00:24:51
◼
►
Congress people yesterday vote to not invite him for trying to get them killed
00:25:01
◼
►
the the the way to till they see the whites of their eyes things reminds me of
00:25:06
◼
►
So my whole family voted for him
00:25:10
◼
►
And when I was trying to talk sense into him
00:25:14
◼
►
back in 2016 I
00:25:18
◼
►
Because it's because we're immigrants. We're an immigrant family
00:25:20
◼
►
And I was like how the hell can you vote for this clown?
00:25:25
◼
►
He's I mean, he's he's he's a xenophobia hates not us. Not us was the first thing that they told me
00:25:31
◼
►
He didn't mean us
00:25:33
◼
►
he means those other in the black and brown ones and
00:25:38
◼
►
You know not, you know European immigrants
00:25:40
◼
►
And I mean when we talk about like
00:25:45
◼
►
Twitter what you know waiting to see how much worse it could get and waiting to collect the body of evidence
00:25:53
◼
►
Decisions like this are generally made by people who are on that last line of protection
00:26:01
◼
►
otherwise known as privilege of
00:26:07
◼
►
So let's let him make fun of these people let's let him make fun of these people
00:26:10
◼
►
Let's let him make fun of these people. Okay. Now he's getting a little too close to us
00:26:15
◼
►
There okay, we've seen him take down we've seen him take down like eight groups now he's getting a little close
00:26:22
◼
►
All right. Now it's dangerous
00:26:24
◼
►
And that's one of the things that pisses me off about that that sort of thinking
00:26:28
◼
►
It's like we'll let him go ahead and use other people
00:26:32
◼
►
At well, let's test let's test on them and then if he gets close to us
00:26:37
◼
►
Then we'll do something
00:26:41
◼
►
It and there's there another analogy that I've been thinking about is if you if you spot a kid playing with matches you
00:26:49
◼
►
You take the matches away right away. You don't wait until they actually start a fire right like right and it I
00:26:58
◼
►
Don't I know that there's news coming out even as we speak a week later
00:27:03
◼
►
There's still news coming out about what exactly went on and and which groups were actually not just a bunch of yahoos
00:27:09
◼
►
Walking around the halls, but actually had a plot last week
00:27:14
◼
►
It's it's worse than it looked and I really feel that when it by the time we're done
00:27:19
◼
►
Reporting reading the reports on this we're gonna see how perilously close we were to a truly profound
00:27:26
◼
►
Disaster like I still don't know that it makes you know, there was a path to make him president
00:27:31
◼
►
But I there was definitely a path where members of Congress get killed on that day. Yeah
00:27:37
◼
►
No, they were I mean, I think we're eventually gonna see like those those line drawing diagrams
00:27:43
◼
►
Like bird's-eye view of like here's a congressperson and here's like the six inches of drywall separating them
00:27:50
◼
►
from this jackass
00:27:55
◼
►
carrying like five weapons
00:27:57
◼
►
There's there's an argument that Jack Dorsey has too much Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg
00:28:03
◼
►
have too much power because they do run their companies and
00:28:07
◼
►
Ultimately, it was it's their call right at Zuckerberg who signed his name to the post that said he's permanently banned from Facebook
00:28:14
◼
►
And you know, obviously Jack was the one that you've been petitioning. I mean and you you've you've talked to Jack, right?
00:28:22
◼
►
I mean I did I talked to him
00:28:26
◼
►
Face to face in January of 2017
00:28:28
◼
►
We met in person
00:28:32
◼
►
After I'd been
00:28:34
◼
►
Giving him. Well, I mean her I was harassing right? I was harassing him on Twitter about this and
00:28:40
◼
►
he agreed to me and
00:28:43
◼
►
we met and we talked about this and I walked out of there terrified why
00:28:50
◼
►
Because I saw
00:28:56
◼
►
saw somebody who was so
00:28:58
◼
►
Incredibly terrified of this situation that he had somehow gotten himself in
00:29:05
◼
►
it's it's it's like he
00:29:08
◼
►
He accidentally got himself in
00:29:12
◼
►
This incredibly powerful position, I mean
00:29:18
◼
►
Hold on a second. Hold on
00:29:23
◼
►
Chelsea's leaving for work and I want to hug her. Goodbye you edit right? Yeah. Yeah, we do. Yeah
00:29:28
◼
►
I'll see you after work
00:29:37
◼
►
Sorry about that, let me see if I can start this off, okay
00:29:44
◼
►
So he had gotten himself into like almost
00:29:50
◼
►
Accidentally like he he wanted to do like a messaging app for first for for bike messengers. Remember that yeah, totally
00:29:57
◼
►
Yeah, and and here he is now
00:30:00
◼
►
Accidentally, he forced gumped himself
00:30:03
◼
►
Into this this position of incredible power. He had absolutely no idea how to handle it or what to do with it
00:30:11
◼
►
he doesn't have the strongest moral code in the world and
00:30:19
◼
►
Everybody was telling him how awesome he was and
00:30:21
◼
►
He had apparently
00:30:24
◼
►
Done away with anybody who was a good enough
00:30:28
◼
►
friend or or
00:30:31
◼
►
Whatever to smack him upside the head when he needed a good smacking which everyone needs
00:30:39
◼
►
He somehow found himself in charge of the
00:30:44
◼
►
The platform that the the most powerful person in the world was using thing to communicate
00:30:50
◼
►
And he didn't know how to control him and he was terrified the time to do it
00:30:57
◼
►
Was at the beginning like when he was a game show host posting
00:31:02
◼
►
Racist conspiracy theories about Obama's birthplace. That was the time to do it stopped it right there
00:31:09
◼
►
You just say this imagine where we would be right now
00:31:15
◼
►
Imagine what me and you would be doing right now
00:31:17
◼
►
If Jack Dorsey had done his job back in 2016
00:31:23
◼
►
if he had if he had in
00:31:25
◼
►
If he had enforced his own
00:31:28
◼
►
Guidelines his own agreed-to guidelines on this guy in 2016
00:31:35
◼
►
Imagine where where me and you would be right now. Imagine what you'd be doing. Imagine what your kid would be doing
00:31:43
◼
►
And I mean this goes for every listener out there. Imagine what your life has been
00:31:48
◼
►
the last four years the fear and the anxiety and the terror and
00:31:54
◼
►
finally like this an unchecked pandemic
00:31:58
◼
►
So much worse response to the pandemic of any other country in the world that it is ridiculous. It's it's absurd
00:32:06
◼
►
I mean my dad's sister died of kovat my aunt died of kovat
00:32:11
◼
►
I mean, that's why I'm not looking for I
00:32:14
◼
►
Terrible, but I mean it's it to say that it is real to me is it's
00:32:18
◼
►
profound, you know it it
00:32:22
◼
►
We're arguing we're arguing whether it's real which is ridiculous
00:32:27
◼
►
That's that to me is the that's the unacceptable aspect of it, right the
00:32:32
◼
►
The using it, you know to put it in a political terms the big lie, right?
00:32:37
◼
►
So it's a big lie that this election was rigged in any way
00:32:41
◼
►
this was actually, you know arguably one of the the most secure elections in the history of
00:32:47
◼
►
Human democracy, you know the opposite it couldn't be more untrue. It's a big lie
00:32:54
◼
►
And and that to me is the effectiveness like because on the one hand I could
00:33:01
◼
►
We're talking about the fact that the president of the United States this president the next president
00:33:07
◼
►
Previous presidents don't need Twitter to get their message out, right?
00:33:11
◼
►
but so so to me this whole argument about free speech and that he's being quote unquote silenced is
00:33:18
◼
►
It's sophistry. They're they're arguing about free speech and
00:33:24
◼
►
silencing people because they know that people there's widespread support for free speech and and
00:33:33
◼
►
The viewpoints that we disagree with right? I mean at some point at some point when we're done like
00:33:41
◼
►
Counting the bodies and doing that important work and getting this pandemic under control
00:33:46
◼
►
We're gonna start like we're gonna start doing like like our top
00:33:51
◼
►
500 things ruined by this administration list
00:33:56
◼
►
There were a lot of them
00:33:58
◼
►
What it's done to the issue of free speech?
00:34:02
◼
►
Is in the top ten for me
00:34:04
◼
►
I'm a free speech advocate
00:34:06
◼
►
Right and and me too. I really am and and so I would think right were
00:34:13
◼
►
The cynical way that it's being talked about now by both
00:34:18
◼
►
You know the jackasses on the right and the jackasses in tech companies and the other way what what they have
00:34:26
◼
►
Turned free speech into the mutation the horrid mutation
00:34:32
◼
►
That's their definition of free speech is so
00:34:37
◼
►
To what it was actually intended to be and what it actually still is legally
00:34:42
◼
►
that it's it's it's
00:34:46
◼
►
Really fucked with with the whole idea of what free speech is about
00:34:51
◼
►
I mean, so so basically free speech means the government can't tell you can't put you you can't put this podcast up
00:34:58
◼
►
John we don't like what you say. It's the government's doing it. I mean, it's such an important distinction
00:35:03
◼
►
I mean this I mean the first line of the First Amendment is Congress shall Congress shall pass
00:35:12
◼
►
Something like that, right, but it applies to Congress
00:35:16
◼
►
But this is your podcast and you can have on whoever you want you can talk about whatever you want and
00:35:26
◼
►
You know people can decide whether to listen to it or not listen to it
00:35:30
◼
►
If you go off on some some weird right-wing tangent somebody can decide well, you know what? I don't want to listen to that
00:35:38
◼
►
I don't want to be on that. I don't want to host that. I don't want to be associated with that
00:35:42
◼
►
None of those things none of those things are about free speech
00:35:46
◼
►
right and so in fact that I would argue that that that me telling you I
00:35:54
◼
►
Won't host your hateful podcast anymore is more covered by free speech
00:35:58
◼
►
Right than you being able to write because there's there's agency involved in being you know sovereignty
00:36:06
◼
►
You know that that you get to say what you want to say
00:36:09
◼
►
But the restaurant owner also gets to say if you're gonna say that in my restaurant you're out, you know
00:36:15
◼
►
right, that's that's that's you know, you're you're you're
00:36:19
◼
►
Ability to use use racial slurs to address the waitstaff at a restaurant
00:36:25
◼
►
It is you're right you're not going to be arrested for it, you know
00:36:32
◼
►
But the restaurant has a right and if they want to be the sort of restaurant people want to go to
00:36:36
◼
►
They're going to tell you you're not welcome there anymore
00:36:40
◼
►
Yeah, I mean that's what I would say that they have an obligation to do that. There was a friend sent me a
00:36:48
◼
►
Story it seems like one of those things that's gone around but I had never seen it before but it was just a story about
00:36:53
◼
►
a guide sitting in a bar
00:36:55
◼
►
and a guy sits next to him and
00:36:58
◼
►
You know stranger comes up to the bar and he has like Nazi patches on his jacket and the bartender just immediately says out
00:37:06
◼
►
Get out get the hell out and the guy said what what you know, and he said just get out you're out
00:37:13
◼
►
A guy hadn't even opened his mouth hadn't said anything was by himself the guy who's still at the bar says what was that about?
00:37:19
◼
►
You know, I mean he's like you saw his patches and he says yeah, but he didn't you know, he didn't say anything
00:37:26
◼
►
he said you let a Nazi in and
00:37:30
◼
►
Next thing, you know, you're running a Nazi bar because what happens is the next time he comes back. He's a nice guy
00:37:37
◼
►
He doesn't make any trouble. He comes back with a friend and they don't make any trouble
00:37:42
◼
►
Then they come back with two friends and maybe the third or fourth guy does start making a little trouble and does start saying things
00:37:48
◼
►
And next thing, you know, the whole place is covered with Nazis. You got to get them out. Yeah, and
00:37:53
◼
►
That to me is is the power of Twitter
00:38:00
◼
►
Removing him from the platform and it's not about silencing him. It's about saying and reflecting
00:38:08
◼
►
Not just Jack Dorsey's opinion that he isn't suited to be on the platform, but society's
00:38:15
◼
►
Perspective that you cannot you you you cannot from a position of power
00:38:19
◼
►
Convince people of serious lies. That's it's not acceptable
00:38:24
◼
►
You know by not booting him
00:38:28
◼
►
What Jack was telling everybody who?
00:38:32
◼
►
Trump was harassing that he didn't give a shit about them, right?
00:38:36
◼
►
No, very true. And and that is it it's implicitly saying that it's that everything he was doing is acceptable
00:38:42
◼
►
Not that he agreed. Nobody is gonna say that Jack Dorsey agrees with those viewpoints, but that they are acceptable
00:38:52
◼
►
You know you yeah, I I mean if I if I own a bar I
00:38:57
◼
►
Gotta make sure that everybody there is having a nice time
00:39:03
◼
►
That's my job I invited the man I opened the door I said hey come on in I'll sell you drinks and in exchange you hang
00:39:08
◼
►
Out and you give me money for those drinks
00:39:10
◼
►
And I'll you know create this nice environment for you to come and drink in and you know
00:39:16
◼
►
I got a lookout for those folks
00:39:18
◼
►
So when the Nazi walks in I mean you kick them out
00:39:23
◼
►
because you don't want them to come back with his friends obviously, but you also kick them out because
00:39:30
◼
►
There are other people in bar right and they're having a good time and they they certainly have a right not to feel threatened
00:39:36
◼
►
You know or offended, you know
00:39:38
◼
►
And you know if the Nazi should turn to like a black patron at the bar and start, you know
00:39:46
◼
►
Spouting out racial shit. What would I mean right now?
00:39:50
◼
►
Let's like let's say Jack is your bartender Jack has been you know
00:39:54
◼
►
Telling those patrons. Well, he has a right to say that
00:39:59
◼
►
You know, nobody goes back to that bar you don't go back to that bar no, right
00:40:04
◼
►
It's then that's how it becomes a Nazi bar because no one else will go
00:40:07
◼
►
So Nikki Haley who?
00:40:10
◼
►
Was the UN ambassador under Trump and one of the few people she's former governor of South Carolina
00:40:17
◼
►
One of the few people involved in this whole administration who has a reputation intact. She tweeted
00:40:24
◼
►
a my opinion of her is certainly lower but you know her opinion in the world of US politics, you know
00:40:32
◼
►
She tweeted after after Twitter
00:40:35
◼
►
Gave him the boot the permanent boot
00:40:38
◼
►
Here's the tweet silencing people not to mention the president of the US is what happens in China not our country
00:40:47
◼
►
hashtag unbelievable
00:40:49
◼
►
And I I've I talked about this on my other show with dithering with Ben Thompson, but I I this
00:40:56
◼
►
Infuriates me this one tweet
00:40:58
◼
►
encapsulates
00:41:00
◼
►
I know it's infuriating but I I salute her for so succinctly espousing this
00:41:07
◼
►
viewpoint of silence and
00:41:10
◼
►
Somebody named Jamil Jaffer tweeted a perfect response
00:41:15
◼
►
Another way to look at this is that forcing publishers to publish the government speech is what happens in China, right?
00:41:22
◼
►
And that's good that comes to the issue of agency that that Jack Dorsey should not feel obligated to host Trump
00:41:29
◼
►
Spouting, you know, that's that's the opposite of it. But this right it it
00:41:36
◼
►
when I see these people say silencing if you replace it with
00:41:42
◼
►
Shaming and disgracing it works. What they're saying is we don't want to be silenced
00:41:47
◼
►
What they really mean is we don't want these viewpoints that we have
00:41:52
◼
►
To be shameful and disgraceful. We don't want this to be we don't want this to be considered shameful discourse
00:41:59
◼
►
We want this to be considered acceptable
00:42:03
◼
►
Their argument isn't about free speech. It's about consequences
00:42:08
◼
►
Like you're saying they don't want to have to bear the consequences of what they say
00:42:13
◼
►
I'm so angry Mike
00:42:16
◼
►
And you know we lose we lose because we take the bait for four years. We have been taking the bait
00:42:24
◼
►
Trump says hey the Venezuelans stole our election
00:42:28
◼
►
Which is like what the fuck? Where did that come from? That's almost inspired
00:42:34
◼
►
It's almost inspired that you could come up with something that inane Hugo Shep
00:42:39
◼
►
But all of its puke Oh Chavez who died ten years ago
00:42:43
◼
►
Well, I did I don't know how can we be sure all of a sudden every newsroom in America is
00:42:52
◼
►
Devoting like like 30 40 50
00:42:56
◼
►
News news reporting hours to to to seeing whether this is true or not
00:43:07
◼
►
Mean his his his evil evil evil genius
00:43:12
◼
►
Is that he realized people will chase every inanity that comes out of his mouth?
00:43:22
◼
►
We're idiots because you know look at us. We're still arguing about free speech
00:43:26
◼
►
And this issue has absolutely zero to do with free speech
00:43:34
◼
►
But yet that's that's that's what we're arguing about here
00:43:39
◼
►
So we already took the bait we already in terms of the power
00:43:43
◼
►
That they say this unchecked power that the Zuckerberg and Dorsey have over their platforms and that it's too concentrated in the hands of a few
00:43:51
◼
►
That it is true that they have enormous power. I mean there's no question about it, but whether it's it's
00:44:01
◼
►
Unherald you know or
00:44:03
◼
►
Unprecedented I I would disagree
00:44:05
◼
►
I would say that the era when I grew up when you and I were kids when there were only three broadcast networks on television
00:44:12
◼
►
And every single adult almost every single adult in the nation is addicted to television to some degree
00:44:19
◼
►
Yeah, when there's only three networks that they had at least as much collective power on the but
00:44:26
◼
►
But they wouldn't use it you a crackpot racist the John Birch Society didn't get on
00:44:31
◼
►
ABC Sunday morning shows and and
00:44:34
◼
►
Start spouting their lunacy they kept it off. You know it was
00:44:39
◼
►
Yeah, I mean I would certainly argue that somebody like Walter Cronkite had a ton of right hour, but he also had a more code
00:44:46
◼
►
It it definitely had a tremendous amount of power, but it and you know I mean it was no joke
00:44:52
◼
►
I mean he was like the most you know the Gallup poll would show that he was the most respected person in America
00:44:57
◼
►
After he retired you know for years yeah
00:45:01
◼
►
The I you know it is dangerous and and to have power in the hands
00:45:08
◼
►
Tremendous power in the hands of private citizens, but that's that's that's the way the system works
00:45:13
◼
►
And I I don't know what what regulation a government regulation of Facebook and Twitter and social networks should be it's it's hard
00:45:22
◼
►
hard to say I mean I I
00:45:25
◼
►
Would argue that the two white dudes on a podcast?
00:45:29
◼
►
Should not be the ones deciding
00:45:32
◼
►
Well luckily we won't be
00:45:35
◼
►
Because I don't know what they are either
00:45:39
◼
►
But I know I know that we need something to me the the powerful thing that is happening at this moment as we speak
00:45:47
◼
►
This week is and a tremendous shifting in public opinion
00:45:51
◼
►
I mean Trump has done so much. What are you doing popping pills over there?
00:45:55
◼
►
Yeah, Trump. Yeah like Katie it became a running gag
00:46:01
◼
►
I mean John Oliver John Oliver made we got him into a meme
00:46:06
◼
►
That he would do something or say something that it was so scandalous and outrageous to right thinking people
00:46:13
◼
►
And and we would say we got him right now
00:46:17
◼
►
I mean most famously the the access Hollywood tape leaking before the election right right seemed like how could this how can he possibly?
00:46:24
◼
►
Still get elected when he's caught on tape saying such ridiculous things
00:46:29
◼
►
truly profoundly just
00:46:34
◼
►
Offensive and you know we got him we got him
00:46:37
◼
►
but this time we did this time we did get him because all of these times went and and he'd do all these things and
00:46:46
◼
►
Support remained almost unchanged. I mean we've we've had a year-long
00:46:50
◼
►
pandemic that he told us
00:46:54
◼
►
Repeatedly on camera. I mean that's the thing he does all these things on camera told us
00:46:58
◼
►
It was no worse than the flu
00:47:00
◼
►
It was gonna wash away in April when the when the days get longer and it gets a little bit little
00:47:06
◼
►
Nicer weather and the northern hemisphere. It'll just go away
00:47:09
◼
►
I mean it just ridiculous things and his support did not go down
00:47:14
◼
►
Until until this week now his support has truly taken. It's like an 11 or 12 point dive
00:47:19
◼
►
Well his support didn't change and
00:47:23
◼
►
what else what the other things that didn't change was he remained white and he remained a racist and
00:47:30
◼
►
That's what people were voting for
00:47:34
◼
►
Let me take a break here and thank our next sponsor. Oh, man am I happy to talk about this
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I walked away for a second and I came back and you were talking about 15 to 20 minute
00:50:03
◼
►
Casts and I thought well, he's not talking about this
00:50:05
◼
►
You know my other show with Ben the dithering we do 15 minutes on the button every every every every day
00:50:11
◼
►
Three times a week. That's that's the sweet. It's if people love it. I really should
00:50:16
◼
►
It's it does seem like it's a sweet spot. It's a really great
00:50:20
◼
►
I can't tell you how many people have written to me and said and they're always very nice because they're fans
00:50:25
◼
►
You know people who read my website and you know, some people love long talk shows
00:50:30
◼
►
You know, they love that this show is two hours long because they have you know, they just love listening to long podcasts
00:50:35
◼
►
But there's other people who you know
00:50:37
◼
►
They're listening to us right now at like 2x speed and we sound like Alvin and the chipmunks having like intercourse
00:50:44
◼
►
But there are so many people love the fact that dithering is only 15 minutes long because they don't want a long talk show
00:50:50
◼
►
so it to me it's just one of those things where the sweet spot is either be really long or
00:50:55
◼
►
Really short one way or the other
00:51:00
◼
►
Did you see him did you see Jack's
00:51:02
◼
►
Bullshit, no, I did not I
00:51:05
◼
►
Had enough I last night I had enough I got off the internet. I was just I can't take it
00:51:10
◼
►
I couldn't take watching these Republicans vote against impeachment couldn't take it
00:51:15
◼
►
Oh, I couldn't I didn't watch any of that last night the Wizard of Bitcoin got back and
00:51:20
◼
►
Made his first public statements since booting Trump
00:51:26
◼
►
He said it's he while he agreed
00:51:29
◼
►
with some difficulty
00:51:32
◼
►
With having to kick Trump off he he believes it sets a very dangerous precedent
00:51:39
◼
►
And then he started he went into a weird Bitcoin promo. No, are you serious? Yeah
00:51:47
◼
►
No, go look. It's all there
00:51:50
◼
►
He went into it and then he started talking about blockchain and
00:51:56
◼
►
And here's the scary part
00:51:58
◼
►
He started talking about
00:52:02
◼
►
Decentralized platforms. Mm-hmm and how that's the future of all this shit
00:52:09
◼
►
And in combination with I mean, did you see Cheryl Sandburg talking about how you know, none of this
00:52:18
◼
►
None of this capital riot planning happened on Facebook. No, I did not see that either. Oh, yeah, she said that
00:52:26
◼
►
She said that so so you got people at Facebook saying nah, it didn't happen here. We don't have a problem and
00:52:34
◼
►
You got Jack saying well, the only problem with our platform is that I'm still too close to the blame
00:52:44
◼
►
You know people have been talking about like this is text moment of reckoning
00:52:50
◼
►
Because you know, you've got you know, all of this shit happening on Twitter and Facebook and and did they say
00:52:57
◼
►
parlay or parlor
00:52:59
◼
►
So we would be hard. Yeah, cuz they're dumb. Yeah, thank you
00:53:03
◼
►
And you've got they but they have things there
00:53:07
◼
►
You could have a parlay with somebody on parlor, but they pronounce the name of the the platform is parlor
00:53:16
◼
►
You know, you know sometimes waking up and deciding to be you know, it's a decision that I'm gonna wake up and be dumb
00:53:23
◼
►
It's a decision that people make
00:53:27
◼
►
Mean, this is text moment of reckoning
00:53:29
◼
►
Like all of this shit that's happening now is built is happening because you know, we built shit tools
00:53:38
◼
►
we didn't care to manage those tools and we got them too big to manage in some cases and
00:53:45
◼
►
Badly managed in other cases. It never really gave a shit about managing
00:53:49
◼
►
Them in many of the cases and now what we're hearing from
00:53:54
◼
►
to the two biggest platforms
00:53:59
◼
►
Is yeah, we still don't see a problem here
00:54:01
◼
►
And that scares the hell out of me. I
00:54:04
◼
►
Is we're not we're not done. I mean it's January 20th is not is not the goal line
00:54:12
◼
►
It's not like the end of the race. We're not done here
00:54:18
◼
►
Mean we're getting we're we're getting one
00:54:21
◼
►
We're getting the big one of the biggest idiots away from the nuclear codes that happens January 20th, and that's all very appreciated
00:54:31
◼
►
But these idiots that he riled up and they were always they were always
00:54:36
◼
►
these people
00:54:39
◼
►
But they never felt quite as powerful as they did when he was in charge and now they're riled up
00:54:45
◼
►
there to me a clear place to draw the line of
00:54:51
◼
►
enforcement is
00:54:54
◼
►
To reaffirm our
00:54:56
◼
►
and it sounds so
00:54:59
◼
►
highfalutin, but to reaffirm our culture and our society's commitment to
00:55:05
◼
►
the truth being
00:55:09
◼
►
Facts right it our society's never been coming out, but but our
00:55:14
◼
►
It's it's been our North Store North Star though, right? We've failed in so many ways
00:55:21
◼
►
but we keep that's the direction that we keep going right and and it is it is a
00:55:27
◼
►
It goes back to the Enlightenment and it ties like political truths
00:55:34
◼
►
Like was this election fair did Joe Biden fairly win the election?
00:55:40
◼
►
it it's every bit the same sort of thinking that that got garlic Galileo locked up by the
00:55:47
◼
►
Catholic Church that he was doing science right and
00:55:51
◼
►
telling people things they didn't want to hear and
00:55:54
◼
►
Whether he was whether what he said was true or not and the science could be backed up by actual facts and observations
00:56:03
◼
►
Didn't matter right? It's it's the same sort of thing and it's
00:56:07
◼
►
It's like where do you draw the line, you know?
00:56:09
◼
►
In terms of what sort of
00:56:13
◼
►
Stuff going forward will not be tolerated on a platform like Twitter and it's not about disagreeing right?
00:56:21
◼
►
it's not that that is the the the
00:56:24
◼
►
What's the Voltaire line that I disagree with you, but I will you know fight to the end to support your right to say it
00:56:33
◼
►
What can't be tolerated is promoting things that are obviously not true that has to be that it cannot be tolerated
00:56:43
◼
►
Do you remember when the secretary said he was okay with Holocaust? Yes, I do
00:56:54
◼
►
right it fucking
00:56:56
◼
►
it's really hard to imagine that and and
00:57:01
◼
►
It's such a slow boil, right?
00:57:03
◼
►
It's it were all frogs who've been in this slowly boiling pot and now here we are
00:57:09
◼
►
You know getting burned but it like when you and I were kids like could you imagine?
00:57:14
◼
►
You it would be hard to describe Facebook, but it would be fair to say, you know, who's Mark Zuckerberg
00:57:21
◼
►
He's he is a billionaire
00:57:23
◼
►
self-made billionaire who was in control of a platform a computer platform where people can
00:57:29
◼
►
Post things right that that's a description you could take back to your
00:57:34
◼
►
1985 self and it would make sure you can
00:57:38
◼
►
Right, you can leave messages for people and this billionaire
00:57:42
◼
►
Who is very famous and his platform is
00:57:46
◼
►
exceedingly popular with billions of users
00:57:49
◼
►
espouses the viewpoint that Holocaust denial is
00:57:52
◼
►
While he doesn't certainly doesn't endorse it and doesn't agree with it. It's it's
00:57:58
◼
►
Tolerable speech on the platform. You wouldn't believe it you did that in the past that wouldn't that's it's hard to think of a
00:58:05
◼
►
of an issue that that should be less tolerated right and and wouldn't be like if you
00:58:12
◼
►
It's hard for me to even articulate how ridiculous that is, but he said it and he really meant it
00:58:20
◼
►
It was like his thoughtful considered
00:58:26
◼
►
You know, yeah he did he said that and I guess that he said that and and we were in and here's here's
00:58:33
◼
►
What kills me about that?
00:58:35
◼
►
People kept working for him, I'm with you on that and I've gotten and people I
00:58:45
◼
►
kept building that platform I
00:58:48
◼
►
Mean I can you know, I'm thinking if I was like a worker on that line
00:58:55
◼
►
and and if this were like a meat packing plant and
00:59:00
◼
►
We're down there like in the rendering pit
00:59:03
◼
►
And you know we get word from on high like guess what?
00:59:09
◼
►
Stop through stop separating the good meat from the bad meat. We're gonna sell it all I
00:59:15
◼
►
Would hope that me and you working next to each other were turning each other and say like what the hell what
00:59:25
◼
►
No, we couldn't have said that
00:59:27
◼
►
Let's go let's double check because we're not gonna do that John we can't sell bad meat to the people
00:59:33
◼
►
It's I mean even for selfish reasons. What if some of this bad meat ends up on my kids plate?
00:59:40
◼
►
I I guess that part of what makes this argument have legs this free speech that
00:59:46
◼
►
This argument that it is an issue of free speech. Is that Zuckerberg's?
00:59:51
◼
►
Take on that issue was about Facebook as a public
00:59:56
◼
►
square right it was
00:59:58
◼
►
Him arguing that because he supports free speech
01:00:02
◼
►
Right like like, you know it that that he was this is it any wonder that critics now?
01:00:09
◼
►
of of his decision to
01:00:12
◼
►
to kick Trump off the platform are calling it a
01:00:18
◼
►
Violation of free speech because Zuckerberg himself was promoting that mindset that way of thinking about Facebook right like
01:00:25
◼
►
It's if Zuckerberg wants his platform to be considered the public square
01:00:32
◼
►
Then his position of leadership should be up to a vote by the public
01:00:37
◼
►
the same as any other
01:00:41
◼
►
public office
01:00:44
◼
►
But it's not is it no it's not it's you know and and it's
01:00:49
◼
►
Just artful dancing
01:00:51
◼
►
You know that it's sophistry to argue otherwise and it's in a way that we wouldn't tolerate it in real life
01:00:58
◼
►
You really wouldn't we wouldn't tolerate. I mean a workplace one way
01:01:02
◼
►
one way to look at this is that all these platforms kicked him off when
01:01:08
◼
►
When he incited all that shit at the Capitol, right?
01:01:15
◼
►
Another way to look at it is that they kicked him off when they were done milking the husk
01:01:26
◼
►
What happened at the Capitol was atrocious I
01:01:30
◼
►
mean I'm noting there's I
01:01:34
◼
►
Wouldn't want to talk to anybody who would debate that point
01:01:37
◼
►
But if you look at what he's done in four years in power
01:01:43
◼
►
There have been so many other moments that were just as atrocious and that you could have seen that
01:01:49
◼
►
This is where it was inevitably going
01:01:51
◼
►
Something yeah violent. Yeah, right
01:01:54
◼
►
and the fact that that those didn't give
01:01:58
◼
►
Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg cause
01:02:02
◼
►
Is disgrace right
01:02:09
◼
►
So I think it was a combination of you know, there was some math
01:02:13
◼
►
There was some math done there and it was it was accounting math. This is terrible times. Well, we're done with them anyway
01:02:23
◼
►
Yeah, it's it there's you know it I
01:02:31
◼
►
Reused the phrase better late than never more times than I should have probably in the in the last week and I still agree with it
01:02:38
◼
►
I don't think that they should have said well now it's too late. He's only got ten days left in office
01:02:43
◼
►
Why kick him off now? We'll wait till he's out
01:02:45
◼
►
I don't you know, I think it was better that they did it when they did than not having done it at all
01:02:50
◼
►
Totally agreed totally agree. Can you I mean this isn't the amount of damage that he could do in ten days
01:02:58
◼
►
It's unbelievable. I mean just just think back. I mean when when
01:03:04
◼
►
When was the impeachment vote the first one?
01:03:10
◼
►
There was one yesterday
01:03:12
◼
►
John a president was impeached in the United States yesterday
01:03:16
◼
►
Does it feel like that? Oh, it doesn't it's bizarre. I
01:03:21
◼
►
Mean when we were kids
01:03:25
◼
►
There was you know, the Buchanan impeachment
01:03:27
◼
►
Which you know is something weird and that happened back then when you know men wore wigs and had
01:03:37
◼
►
Tom I am Tom sideburns
01:03:39
◼
►
Yeah, lamb chop sideburns and then all of a sudden there was the Clinton impeachment you're like, whoa
01:03:45
◼
►
Well, and there was Nixon right? Well, we grew up in the post Nixon world
01:03:49
◼
►
Right, right, except Nixon wasn't I mean wasn't impeached. He had the decency to quit
01:03:56
◼
►
But yeah, then we lived through the Clinton impeachment. It was like holy shit. This is such a big deal. This may be like
01:04:04
◼
►
This is such a big moment
01:04:09
◼
►
In the last year we've lived through two more it's same guy
01:04:14
◼
►
And yesterday's was just like hi. Yeah, he was impeached. What are we having for dinner?
01:04:21
◼
►
It's very true. I honestly I was at the end of my rope yesterday. I
01:04:31
◼
►
Overton's window has so much plywood on it at this point. It's
01:04:35
◼
►
but to me the thing to keep coming back to as a first principle is a
01:04:39
◼
►
Commitment to truth and that the spreading of lies simply cannot be tolerated and that's that's where it all starts
01:04:45
◼
►
I mean, there are all sorts of political
01:04:47
◼
►
Viewpoints that people can espouse that I disagree with
01:04:51
◼
►
vehemently, but I I would you know, I would support your ability to espouse them but not not spreading lies
01:05:01
◼
►
Yeah, I mean because that's the other thing too about this and and one thing I've been saying to people
01:05:06
◼
►
and trying to think about and trying to do myself in
01:05:09
◼
►
when I'm writing about this and talking about it is
01:05:18
◼
►
Not the people who believe the lies that doesn't mean I forgive the people who?
01:05:23
◼
►
Who believed the lie that this election is rigged and that they're not complicit in it and that they don't bear responsibility, you know, but to me
01:05:31
◼
►
It's the people who knowingly spread the lies and promoted this that deserve our ire because it's the bigger problem
01:05:37
◼
►
Well the bigger bigger problem do you want to talk about the bigger problem, what do you think?
01:05:43
◼
►
We were ready, I mean we'll believe anything that these idiots say because
01:05:48
◼
►
ultimately, we're freaked out as fuck that
01:05:53
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We really like the idea of a white America
01:05:59
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And it's going away and
01:06:01
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So we'll happily elect anybody who keeps talking about that
01:06:07
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And we'll believe anything they have to say you think that's partly really
01:06:12
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Like the how how did this happen?
01:06:15
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►
How how would how was how in the world did this mob?
01:06:19
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Break into the capital and I feel like the people in well, it's at some places but and why weren't they
01:06:29
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►
You know people have have pointed out
01:06:31
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repeatedly this the difference in the nature of
01:06:34
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The preparations that in the same city, Washington DC that they did over like in June for Black Lives Matter
01:06:42
◼
►
Protests and you know had National Guard troops wearing camouflage and body armor
01:06:48
◼
►
Yeah to protect the the Lincoln Memorial of all they know that's where did somebody had photos of it. You know, it's not even a
01:06:54
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Far less. It's just a memorial right? It's just a stat
01:07:04
◼
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But so why why weren't why wasn't Congress?
01:07:07
◼
►
protected similarly for this and I don't think I think part of it is a bit of a
01:07:12
◼
►
Conspiracy and I think that there are some sympathetic
01:07:14
◼
►
I mean, you know, we've seen the pictures that some of the police were taking selfies with the people they should have been arresting
01:07:20
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but I think I
01:07:23
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Because white people can get away
01:07:25
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It's because white people can get away with this yet
01:07:29
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There's is there any question that with the exact?
01:07:33
◼
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If if January 6th had been a Black Lives Matter protest of the same size
01:07:39
◼
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You know 10,000 people 15,000 people however many people were there for this protest
01:07:45
◼
►
That they would have been it would have been an entirely different security setup around
01:07:51
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The Capitol it would have been entirely different
01:07:55
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The closest body and I mean body
01:07:58
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Wouldn't have made it within 50 foot of the Capitol snobs and they would have been shot
01:08:05
◼
►
Black people attacking the Capitol would have been shot on site. Well, I I was thinking about this
01:08:10
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►
I don't even think that that they would have if they had tried to but they wouldn't have tried and one of the things
01:08:16
◼
►
while the actual riot was ensuing and we had footage of it and we could see it and then in the days afterwards when
01:08:24
◼
►
You know the cell phone video and stuff like that came out the thing that's so shocking is how the the perpetrators the mob
01:08:31
◼
►
They they they weren't scared in the least bit
01:08:34
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►
There was you know, like I saw you've never asked
01:08:39
◼
►
Oh, they've never had to be I saw firsthand. I saw looting here in in Philadelphia back in June
01:08:45
◼
►
when the protests went bad and
01:08:51
◼
►
The one thing it was very clear that the people doing it
01:08:55
◼
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were had that nervous energy of
01:08:59
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People who thought they might be shot at any moment right like the people just running people just running out of a
01:09:08
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►
modal sporting goods with a fistful of sneakers
01:09:12
◼
►
Boxes as the sneakers they had that nervous energy where they there was sort of a giddy rush of you know
01:09:22
◼
►
But they also had the nervous energy of people who?
01:09:24
◼
►
Wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to hear gunshots coming from police officers at any moment. Whereas these the
01:09:31
◼
►
This crowd who took the capital they were strolling like that the numskull from Florida who stole
01:09:38
◼
►
Nancy Pelosi's podium he was posing
01:09:41
◼
►
You know and again, it's not that you know, not even did they think that they'd be arrested over
01:09:48
◼
►
But there was no fear that they were going to be shot it is so I don't think black lives
01:09:53
◼
►
Matter black protesters would have never tried this because they they would have assumed they'd be shot
01:10:02
◼
►
It is a crazy
01:10:04
◼
►
It's insane that they because they were white and looked like well
01:10:09
◼
►
They're certainly the you know, white people certainly wouldn't barge in and storm the Capitol. So, you know, we don't need any extra
01:10:18
◼
►
Security well, they don't have to they were they're invited in they were invited in
01:10:22
◼
►
And I don't mean just that day they were invited in the day before they were given tours by some of the Congress people
01:10:28
◼
►
What did you see stories about that? I've seen some like with this bobert woman
01:10:35
◼
►
Well, I forget her first name, but she's the one who made the video that went viral
01:10:39
◼
►
bragging about the fact that she planned to
01:10:42
◼
►
Carry a this is before you know
01:10:45
◼
►
before this happened that she was going to
01:10:47
◼
►
Carry a gun around Congress and became an internet sensation, but I saw that
01:10:53
◼
►
That I think it was her who brought people in the day before
01:10:57
◼
►
Yeah, she was giving people tours like the same people who would go go to riot the next day
01:11:02
◼
►
Well, and then her speech, you know it you have to see it, you know
01:11:07
◼
►
I I think the the transcript alone doesn't convey the sense of what she's saying
01:11:12
◼
►
But when she gave a speech during the fight over whether to certify this election
01:11:17
◼
►
She said I have constituents who were out there right now and the way she said it was very clear
01:11:22
◼
►
It wasn't just oh, that's an unfortunate way of saying it because she knew she had constituents who were at the protest
01:11:27
◼
►
She knew that they were coming to storm the Capitol
01:11:29
◼
►
You know, all you need to know about how fair this election was is
01:11:35
◼
►
Is how much conservatives are fighting against it?
01:11:39
◼
►
What explain?
01:11:42
◼
►
I think this is probably the most fair election we've ever had and I think you know, Georgia supports that
01:11:47
◼
►
And oh my god
01:11:50
◼
►
The work that Stacey Abrams did that's unbelievable right is she's it's she's quite possibly one of the most effective
01:11:59
◼
►
leaders that
01:12:01
◼
►
In my adult lifetime that we've ever had in our nation it what she did in Georgia is just astounding and it's the diligent
01:12:08
◼
►
Hard work, right? So for people who don't follow it, she she had it, you know talk about a rigged election
01:12:14
◼
►
she lost the governor's race in Georgia and
01:12:17
◼
►
I know that that's sort of the dastardly thing that that Trump has this ability of of saying
01:12:24
◼
►
you know that because he wants to he he he made lock her up a chant right and
01:12:30
◼
►
Therefore then when he faces the the law
01:12:35
◼
►
Come January 21st
01:12:38
◼
►
He he and his supporters can say that that this is just retribution because
01:12:42
◼
►
It's you know, same reason that he said lock her up now
01:12:46
◼
►
They're saying lock him up and it doesn't you know, you can't say that I trust me there make the argument
01:12:51
◼
►
They'll say you can't say that Hillary Clinton should not have been
01:12:54
◼
►
Chanted against lock her up and now turn around and say that Trump should be locked up
01:13:00
◼
►
But that's it's just nonsense because she didn't commit crimes. He did. Yeah, there were no crimes. I mean
01:13:09
◼
►
Believe it was Stacey Abrams who said and if I and if I'm wrong about this quote forgive me
01:13:14
◼
►
but I believe that she was the one who said
01:13:17
◼
►
The South is not read the South is suppressed
01:13:25
◼
►
I and she proved that right she proved that in Georgia at least and I I I
01:13:34
◼
►
Think the the the conservatives issue with this election was that
01:13:41
◼
►
Our rigging didn't work our rigging
01:13:46
◼
►
We have been rigging these elections
01:13:54
◼
►
Somehow this this woman in her and her organization and all of her people
01:14:03
◼
►
Managed to do like the impossible and
01:14:05
◼
►
They got all these people to vote who
01:14:09
◼
►
We didn't want voting. I saw a
01:14:13
◼
►
Fascinating interview back during remember how long ago was that like that that week between the election and the networks calling it?
01:14:22
◼
►
officially for Biden I
01:14:24
◼
►
That was that was 16 years ago
01:14:27
◼
►
I I was watching MSNBC and I think it was at some point midweek
01:14:33
◼
►
it was you know in after the election and
01:14:35
◼
►
Before the networks called it but like at a point where the state of Wisconsin was officially called for Biden
01:14:43
◼
►
and they had the I forgot doesn't matter what's name is but you know the guy who was in charge of the
01:14:50
◼
►
Democratic National Committee in Wisconsin on MSNBC and they were congratulating him saying, you know
01:14:56
◼
►
This was a lot closer than the polls
01:14:58
◼
►
Were saying Wisconsin would be you did a great job and he just said whoa, whoa. Whoa, let me just say right now
01:15:04
◼
►
I don't deserve anywhere near as much credit for Wisconsin as you're giving me
01:15:09
◼
►
Stacey Abrams does and they're like, well, you know, she was running it in Georgia and he goes no you don't understand
01:15:15
◼
►
she came up here last year in 2019 and
01:15:19
◼
►
took a look at our organization and
01:15:22
◼
►
Told us she left us with a plan that we followed to a T and we realized we had no plan, you know
01:15:29
◼
►
Her she it's not just Georgia she is is really she's like a genius and at an
01:15:38
◼
►
organizational level of
01:15:41
◼
►
Following, you know like writing a computer program
01:15:43
◼
►
Do this do that if this then do this then do this and and do the hard work?
01:15:50
◼
►
and the thing that is so astounding to me is
01:15:52
◼
►
That she got to work on this as soon as she had that election stolen from her in Georgia just immediately
01:16:00
◼
►
No, no time of self-pity. No wallowing just got to work and look at this. It's really unbelievable and so
01:16:08
◼
►
Biden didn't need any one of these states, right?
01:16:12
◼
►
Georgia could have been a few thousand votes in the other direction and Trump could have won Georgia and Biden still wins the election
01:16:17
◼
►
but he needed a bunch and if Georgia hadn't been
01:16:20
◼
►
For Biden and Wisconsin hadn't and Wisconsin was so close
01:16:24
◼
►
This guy was saying if Stacey Abrams hadn't helped Wisconsin Democrats in Wisconsin. They would he said we would have lost
01:16:30
◼
►
There's no question in his mind. I
01:16:33
◼
►
Mean this is he you know right after the election people people we saw people like well
01:16:40
◼
►
This isn't the last time we thought it would be
01:16:42
◼
►
And I was like, holy shit. It was an it was an absolutely
01:16:48
◼
►
Landslide it had to be a landslide
01:16:50
◼
►
There was it had to be a landslide to get through all of the barriers and just get to the other side
01:16:58
◼
►
Yeah, and we were never gonna get to the other side with you know
01:17:03
◼
►
50 million more votes than the other dude, right?
01:17:08
◼
►
But it took it took everything
01:17:14
◼
►
It's I I think it's just so hard to articulate how close we came to
01:17:19
◼
►
Losing this losing and really losing democracy. I mean, I don't think I don't think so either. I
01:17:25
◼
►
think yeah, right, we're still in a
01:17:28
◼
►
Straw house with a bunch of people flicking matches, you know at the walls. Yeah
01:17:34
◼
►
We just don't have a fire right at the moment
01:17:37
◼
►
But if if Trump had won man, it's you could see it that what that was it
01:17:41
◼
►
That was it and I know it sounds like hyperbole and people you know, what I know
01:17:46
◼
►
You know, uh, you know I in in 2016 in 26
01:17:51
◼
►
No way 2017. I'm sorry in 2017. I was going around and I was doing a talk
01:17:57
◼
►
called how to fight fascism and you know mostly like online shit, but
01:18:03
◼
►
catchy title so I ran with it and
01:18:08
◼
►
I made mention several times in the talk about you know
01:18:11
◼
►
fascist activities on lines and everything online and things like that and
01:18:16
◼
►
After the first time I did it during the Q&A somebody like stood up and they're like you can't just call anyone
01:18:23
◼
►
You don't like a fascist, right?
01:18:25
◼
►
and I was like
01:18:28
◼
►
You know, I'm talking about actual fascists here, right
01:18:35
◼
►
This isn't just me like picking a dirty word to call people who hurt my feelings
01:18:41
◼
►
We're talking actual fascists
01:18:49
◼
►
People in see it. There's it I
01:18:51
◼
►
You don't hear it
01:18:53
◼
►
I don't know why the word sort of disappeared but for a while there people would talk about fanboys and I had this line
01:19:00
◼
►
You know people would would accuse me of being an Apple fanboy, right? Okay, I lost count of how many times I faced that accusation
01:19:07
◼
►
And my my my zinger was that I enjoyed collecting
01:19:12
◼
►
Remarks from people who's the guy who owns the Dallas Mount Mavericks? He's one mark Cuban. Yeah, he's one of them where where
01:19:22
◼
►
These people's definition of a Mac
01:19:25
◼
►
Apple or Mac fanboy is somebody
01:19:29
◼
►
Anybody who was into Apple's devices before they were?
01:19:32
◼
►
Right, it's like the moment that mark mark
01:19:36
◼
►
Yeah, Cuban became a Mac user and started espousing how great the platform was but in the past he had accused
01:19:42
◼
►
You know people of being wrong
01:19:44
◼
►
It's it's the same sort of mindset where it's like these people they don't acknowledge that we were right that Trump was a deranged
01:19:52
◼
►
lunatic and a danger a menace to the nation in the world
01:19:57
◼
►
And they called us what they call it Trump derangement syndrome, right?
01:20:00
◼
►
And instead of saying huh? You guys were right. This guy was a menace to the world there their perspective is
01:20:07
◼
►
No, you were still wrong and it was all hyperbole
01:20:10
◼
►
It's just that I came around to the idea that he's dangerous at the right time, which was
01:20:15
◼
►
Right when there's a nitwit run running around the halls of Congress with a confederate flag inside the building
01:20:24
◼
►
Anybody anybody who knew what the hell they were talking about or had any sense of history
01:20:28
◼
►
Saw this four years ago anymore
01:20:33
◼
►
You know Sarah Sarah Kensier who wrote Hiding in Plain Sight. Yes Hiding in Plain Sight. Yes
01:20:41
◼
►
She's amazing. And I mean she's been talking about this shit on Twitter forever and she
01:20:47
◼
►
Nailed it like she like back when you know Trump started doing his thing
01:20:53
◼
►
She was like here's what's going to happen piece by piece by piece by piece and it'll happen in this order and all of those things
01:21:03
◼
►
It's like there's these it's it's almost like
01:21:07
◼
►
People are arguing at the meta level saying you you can't call the president fascist
01:21:13
◼
►
But that's not the argument. Well, you can't it right? That's the thing is it?
01:21:17
◼
►
it's like it this bizarre viewpoint that it can't be that the president can't be a
01:21:24
◼
►
Narcissistic sociopath. That's that just can't be yes. It can be it absolutely can be
01:21:29
◼
►
You know, you know where else I see this a lot
01:21:32
◼
►
Is is is when guys decide that their friends
01:21:38
◼
►
Didn't fuck up because they're good guys, right?
01:21:44
◼
►
So you define the person?
01:21:46
◼
►
And then every action that they take falls under that umbrella
01:21:52
◼
►
That you've decided that person is versus defining their actions. No, that's a very good analogy
01:21:59
◼
►
No, it's it's it's how high up in the stack your your priorities are and if they're if so Steve
01:22:05
◼
►
Steve can do good things and he can do some bad things
01:22:09
◼
►
And we call Steve on the bad things he does and we praise him for the good things. He does
01:22:15
◼
►
Rather than Steve's a good guy
01:22:20
◼
►
Everything Steve does is good and you hear you hear Trump talking that way about people to like Oh Epstein
01:22:27
◼
►
Yeah, dude, good, dude. Yeah
01:22:29
◼
►
One of anybody well one of my favorite
01:22:35
◼
►
Moments of this whole thing because it really was a light bulb going off in my head was was back when
01:22:41
◼
►
Woodward's book came out in August talk about something that feels like it was 16 years ago
01:22:46
◼
►
but Bob Woodward second book comes out and Trump, you know, and it has contains all sorts of scathing just
01:22:52
◼
►
absolutely scathing
01:22:55
◼
►
facts about the lunacy of this man and
01:22:58
◼
►
Trump was talking about his phone calls with Woodward and I guess I think it's because Woodward had had tapes, right?
01:23:06
◼
►
He taped all the phone calls
01:23:09
◼
►
He's playing I think he was on the Colbert show and Woodward is playing a tape of Trump talking to him and he's like
01:23:16
◼
►
just tell me Bob, is it a good book and
01:23:18
◼
►
What Trump meant clearly about a good book is whether it was flattering to him or not
01:23:25
◼
►
It had nothing to do with is it is it actually interesting? Is it historically significant reporting?
01:23:31
◼
►
Is it well written are the sentences good or even is it printed?
01:23:36
◼
►
Well, is it a nice book to hold what he thinks a good book is is a book that was
01:23:41
◼
►
Flattering to him and that's it. Of course
01:23:47
◼
►
Very fair very fair to me very fair said nice things
01:23:50
◼
►
And he's even said to him. He's like your last book. It was terrible
01:23:54
◼
►
It was a terrible book and I'm telling you Bob if you write a good book, it'll sell trust me
01:23:58
◼
►
That's what people want to read. Yeah a
01:24:00
◼
►
Book telling you the world how great he is
01:24:03
◼
►
Speaking of books. Yeah. Well, let me take a break and
01:24:08
◼
►
Thank our good friends at Squarespace. Oh man Squarespace is back
01:24:16
◼
►
sponsoring the show hey, they always
01:24:18
◼
►
Put this in the the notes for the shows New Year's everybody has New Year's resolutions
01:24:25
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One of yours might be to update your old website start a new website
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You have a website idea for a website or an existing website
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You need to improve you should take a look at Squarespace
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Squarespace does everything from registering domain names to the templates to to the CMS where you actually post blog entries
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Or you can host a podcast anything all right there. No coding experience required
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You don't need to know the difference between HTML and CSS or if you do you can dig right in and adjust the code
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They cater both ends of the technical spectrum. It is a great
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great hosting platform go to
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To find out more
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squarespace.com
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10% off your first order and that includes you could just pay for a whole year in advance
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10% right off it's like getting a couple months free
01:25:23
◼
►
So my thanks to Squarespace for their continuing support of the talk show, so let's do it
01:25:29
◼
►
Let's talk about your book you have a new book how many books have you written Mike?
01:25:32
◼
►
This is number four
01:25:36
◼
►
What in and the name of the new book is
01:25:39
◼
►
The collected anger I love that I love the cover are you sending me a copy I don't have it yet
01:25:45
◼
►
Yeah, I'm absolutely sending you a copy
01:25:48
◼
►
Can we talk about this typeface I?
01:25:52
◼
►
Look oh, did you design the cover? Did you do the cover I?
01:25:59
◼
►
Mean I I'm only talking about the typeface because I want to give props to the type designer
01:26:04
◼
►
Otherwise I would I would be yelling at you for starting a conversation about a book by talking about a typeface
01:26:09
◼
►
The the typeface is Bayard how do you spell that god? I hope I'm pronouncing that right spell it
01:26:18
◼
►
Be a why a RD a why a RD I would say Bayard
01:26:24
◼
►
Bayard and it's by vocal type and
01:26:29
◼
►
vocal type I
01:26:33
◼
►
Think vocal type is just one person
01:26:38
◼
►
And but in case they're not I'll keep saying they and referring to vocal type
01:26:45
◼
►
Vocal type is making typefaces based on
01:26:52
◼
►
Civil rights signs and a lettering style of that era
01:26:57
◼
►
Yeah, and they're beautiful
01:27:00
◼
►
I mean not only are the typefaces beautiful, but the fonts themselves. They've done a really fantastic job
01:27:07
◼
►
Making you know quality like technically speaking
01:27:12
◼
►
Open types often you know they're they're visually stunning and
01:27:18
◼
►
Technically robust here's the thing about this typeface that I and we can talk about the book more
01:27:25
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but the thing about this typeface III I would love to
01:27:30
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You know give you I you know you and I we are publicly we we give each other a hard time, right?
01:27:35
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We bust each other's balls
01:27:37
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I would love to bust your balls about it
01:27:39
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But I can't because it's just it is the perfect font for your voice it is
01:27:45
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Somehow it is you it's hard to believe that this typeface wasn't made just for you to use on this book
01:27:53
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It is well. What's there um I?
01:27:58
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You know considering that considering where it came from and its history
01:28:02
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I'm honored, but you would say that and I'm mostly I'm relieved that I haven't embarrassed it
01:28:09
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So what is the book about the subtitle is essays about design for an unwilling audience explain?
01:28:16
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This is the book that you put together when you've been sitting at home for 10 months under quarantine
01:28:27
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You can barely put two words together to write anything new
01:28:34
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You start reading over your old stuff
01:28:39
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Realizing that ain't some of this old stuff is pretty good, and it's scattered all over the internet and
01:28:47
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Who knows how long the Internet's going to be around?
01:28:54
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And there was definitely I mean that was definitely a concern during the campaign
01:29:00
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That you know we might all be living in caves eating nuts and berries and at that point. I wanted you to have a book
01:29:07
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It's it's nowhere near as funny as it would have sounded years ago, but it is still funny
01:29:15
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That's sad how close we came well anyway, I really I just wanted to put all the old stuff together in a volume
01:29:25
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If if you've read the other three books
01:29:28
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One thank you and two some of this may sound familiar
01:29:34
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Because the the way that I
01:29:38
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Do the way that I write everything is I start with an essay?
01:29:43
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Or what we used to call blog posts
01:29:48
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You start with an essay and then at some point some of them were like hey wait a minute
01:29:54
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that's I want to turn that one in with talk or
01:29:56
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That one is actually let's blow that up into a whole book where that one may be the chapter of a book
01:30:04
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so they kind of become like Lego pieces and
01:30:08
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You know you break up the essays and you know recombine them with other things
01:30:17
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So they've all been
01:30:19
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Most some of them have come out have come out as parts of books
01:30:23
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If you've seen a talk here and there some of this will sound familiar
01:30:29
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But this is all that stuff in its original essay form
01:30:34
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Where can people find this book?
01:30:37
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They can go everywhere everywhere my preferred method is if you go to bookshop.org
01:30:47
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And get it there
01:30:49
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because they will they
01:30:51
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Kick back a percentage of the cash to local independent books bookshops
01:30:56
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Isn't that it talk about things that it just
01:31:00
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Try explaining to your
01:31:04
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30 year ago self that
01:31:07
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Bookshops would be in danger in the year 2020
01:31:12
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And you would think what what is there an apocalypse?
01:31:16
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I mean and I guess you know we've had it we do have a pandemic and it has furthered
01:31:21
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Yeah, it's stress and so that actually is further stress point, but of all this sort of
01:31:27
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It does it sounds like something out of you know an Orwell book. You know the idea that bookshops are
01:31:38
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It's still I still find it incredibly hard to believe that borders is gone, and I know that that's not an independent books bookstore, but
01:31:44
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That's it's like I get what you mean. You know it. How could that how how could that be you know?
01:31:51
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Anyway, so I mean
01:31:54
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Borders was kind of like either borders or Barnes & Noble was like every little book reading nerds
01:32:01
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first bookstore
01:32:04
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we had we had at the mall is where I grew up we had a
01:32:08
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Walden books, and what was the other one?
01:32:12
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Walden books, that's yeah
01:32:14
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But I think Walden books one of them was was like the sub brand for borders and one of them was the sub brand for
01:32:22
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What's the other big mega chain? Oh?
01:32:24
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It was like some initial thing like wh yeah
01:32:29
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Mmm. I loved I don't I always it's just my parents would have to drag me out of the bookstore at the mall
01:32:37
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It's just it was just what I was it just felt like heaven. I don't know I
01:32:41
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Would be willing to go on any mall trip with my parents
01:32:46
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Because I would escape and go to the bookstore
01:32:50
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I was just thinking about that too
01:32:52
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I was thinking about how I used to we used to go to
01:32:55
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Do our grocery shopping at Pathmark once a week and I would go with my mom and I would just go to the newsstand
01:33:00
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And I could tell I was thinking about this in bed
01:33:02
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I was I I could tell you I don't remember almost anything else about that pathmark
01:33:06
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but I could tell you how to get to where the magazines were and
01:33:09
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And I would did you have the little racist books and oh yeah, yeah the little you remember little racist joke
01:33:17
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Yeah, but I don't think they sold those at Pathmark right oh
01:33:24
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Yeah, you're right at the registers no and it'd be like yeah, there'd be like oh my god
01:33:28
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That's so true that it would be like they were two they were two puns
01:33:31
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You flipped it over be like Polish jokes on the one side and Italian jokes on the other side
01:33:36
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Right right yeah, and they would just sell them at the checkout at the supermarket
01:33:44
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my favorite day
01:33:45
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And I should have subscribed but in some ways in some ways
01:33:50
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We have come a long way as a society in some way
01:33:57
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They sold Polish joke books at the cash register
01:34:03
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Market and you and that is so true that you you turn it upside down and from the back forward it'd be like Italian jokes
01:34:10
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That's unbelievable. Yep. I
01:34:14
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Loved going to the supermarket for that reason and I would buy mad magazine so I wouldn't read mad magazine
01:34:21
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There and my mom would would you know let me buy it. I would read all the other magazines that you wouldn't let me buy
01:34:31
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That's good strategy. It's like maximize my
01:34:33
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My reading material and the supermarket unlike like a neighborhood shop right like we had like a neighborhood
01:34:41
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Like coffee shop type place that sold comic books and the guy would come out Jake
01:34:47
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He was the guy who owned the place if you sat there, and you know he'd give you know this isn't the same library kids
01:34:53
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You know we'd you know so we'd go in there and start reading the comic books
01:34:57
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We didn't want to buy until the man who owned the store would say get out of here
01:35:00
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Or you know buy it the pathmark didn't care. They didn't care if I sat there and read
01:35:05
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Newsweek cover to cover
01:35:07
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They did they did not it felt. I felt like I was getting getting away with something
01:35:12
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They that's because your mom was walking around filling a grocery basket a giant cart
01:35:20
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Which probably totaled $60?
01:35:24
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Well the other thing yeah, totally you fill a cart for like six forty seven bucks
01:35:32
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Yep, and then they complain think that's that's too much well it always astounded me that there were other kids in the
01:35:40
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Supermarket who weren't doing the same thing like what why aren't you here reading with me?
01:35:45
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What do you what in the world are you doing? Why would you want to walk up and down the aisles of a supermarket?
01:35:49
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We've really come a long way
01:35:54
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Anyway the book looks great. I am looking forward to getting my copy from you because I don't want to buy it
01:36:02
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But if I were going to buy it I would go to bookshop.org buy it from an independent seller
01:36:07
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But you could find this book anywhere that books are sold
01:36:10
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►
Anything else you want to we're not we're not using the name of that other place, but yeah
01:36:17
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It's there too if you and if I know you've got some some some a lot of Apple
01:36:24
◼
►
aficionados, let's say I'll listen to this it's available as an e-book at the Apple well I
01:36:31
◼
►
Get it any literally anywhere books are sold anything else you want to promote people can find you on Twitter at Montero
01:36:39
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►
on M O N T E I R O
01:36:41
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►
Unless I've been suspended
01:36:47
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►
happens every couple weeks now
01:36:51
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►
You used to be Mike for the win Mike FTW how did you pronounce your old Twitter handle?
01:36:55
◼
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Did you say Mike for the winner Mike FTW? I?
01:36:58
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Think I would say FTW
01:37:02
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►
Underscore FTW that's a long time ago. I never I didn't know I'm not good with acronyms
01:37:06
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I didn't know what FTW stood for for a long time
01:37:09
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►
But you and I were friends and I knew it was your handle and I really didn't I thought it was like
01:37:13
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►
Fuck the world or something. I wasn't even sure I
01:37:16
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Hear that one a lot too from people
01:37:20
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And you know when they thought it meant that I'm you know, fine run with it
01:37:28
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►
But anyway, just just keep saving call it
01:37:31
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►
Because you know that pays my rent
01:37:34
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►
this has been
01:37:37
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►
For me a stress relief. I enjoyed talking about this with you
01:37:41
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►
And I'm really glad to have had you on the show and it it's one of those episodes of my show
01:37:46
◼
►
Where in hindsight who else would I have had on this week to talk about these Michigan's other than you?
01:37:55
◼
►
You know the I always love coming on this show John and I want to apologize because
01:38:02
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►
Your regular listener has probably stopped listening about an hour and 30 minutes. Yeah. Well, we'll send them over from your Twitter account though
01:38:09
◼
►
There you go. Well, but that's the other thing too. And let me just say this
01:38:14
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►
We you know regularly scheduled programming will come back
01:38:17
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►
but I four years ago Merlin came on the show after the election and we had a
01:38:22
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►
We called it a holiday party. I was drunk
01:38:25
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►
This November Merlin came back on and I was not drunk because Biden had won
01:38:34
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►
There are times when to me and I get it so so you drink when you're sad but not happy I
01:38:46
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►
I drank too much after Trump won four years ago to be honest. I mean it
01:38:50
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►
It was a temporary coping message
01:38:54
◼
►
mechanism that I should have no I guess I should have should have had the wherewithal as as a grown man to
01:39:01
◼
►
Stare it in the face, but I I couldn't honestly and again a lot it was I I
01:39:07
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►
Again, I don't want to Lord this over. I'm not looking for
01:39:12
◼
►
My son Jonas is famous being right points, you know our family currency here in the Gruber household
01:39:17
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►
No, I know that I love a being right point I don't really want it it's I'm not looking for yes you were right but I I
01:39:26
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►
Saw, you know, I didn't know how it would happen, but it's like every president
01:39:31
◼
►
Which president has ever not faced a major crisis?
01:39:35
◼
►
It that's the way the world works. That's the job and when this man was faced with a crisis
01:39:41
◼
►
He was going to do the exact wrong thing. And here we are, you know with the goddamn pandemic
01:39:47
◼
►
Among other also, let's not let's not jinx it because I don't know when this is being released
01:39:54
◼
►
But I'm worst. I'm still looking at six days. Well, I've had that count
01:40:00
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►
I have a kind of put a countdown on my website before the election and then some I forget who it was
01:40:05
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►
but after the election
01:40:07
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►
Just a little number up in the corner and somebody said you should bring it back and make it for Inauguration Day
01:40:12
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►
And I've had it up for I don't know 90 days or something. I
01:40:18
◼
►
Long I greatly enjoy seeing it now in the single digits, but I really really cannot wait for that number to be zero
01:40:26
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►
How much do you think we're gonna sleep like I
01:40:34
◼
►
My wife has said she cannot believe how much better she's sleeping now that his
01:40:38
◼
►
Twitter is unplugged and and she gets up before I do. I'm the night owl. She wakes up
01:40:44
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►
earlier and our
01:40:47
◼
►
It the oddest ritual that I didn't anticipate how it would make me feel is that I no longer wake up and say
01:40:56
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►
Any anything, you know meaning what what is Trump been tweeting about today?
01:41:02
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►
That's how for years that's how we've spent most of the last four years is my I you know, good morning
01:41:07
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►
Anything, you know, no, he's golfing, you know or nope. Oh wait till you see it
01:41:15
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►
He's gone off on whatever it is. It is an incredible relief it is
01:41:21
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►
That was the really terrifying part is that it could have been literally anything
01:41:28
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►
It is it's it's it's it's like when you have like a browser tab that's consuming a huge chunkier CPU
01:41:34
◼
►
And it makes everything on your computer. Your scrolling is a little janky
01:41:38
◼
►
Having that tab closed in my mind is unbelievable. I feel like I've gained 20 IQ points
01:41:45
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►
It's I feel like I just shut down an Adobe product, you know, it's the same way
01:41:50
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►
You know you hear I I'm trying to wrap this up
01:41:53
◼
►
But it's it's like when you go through when you when you personally or a loved one goes through a health crisis of any kind
01:41:59
◼
►
You can't get anything else done. It's too consuming
01:42:01
◼
►
You just can't you know, it's you'd like to think you you can you know, then that you can
01:42:07
◼
►
Compartmentalize stuff but when something like that is weighing in your in your head, you know that this this idiot might start a war
01:42:16
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►
With a tweet, it's crazy
01:42:20
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►
Yeah, anyway, I am so glad to get this
01:42:23
◼
►
Talking to you last show this is this will almost certainly be the last episode of the talk show in the Trump administration
01:42:31
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►
But that feels good
01:42:34
◼
►
the Dorsey administration
01:42:36
◼
►
You know, what did we not talk about
01:42:39
◼
►
What the hell happened like like if you had been a like to be a fly on the wall
01:42:48
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►
Inside Twitter, I mean there's no inside Twitter. It was probably all over zoom or something
01:42:54
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►
But the actual conversation
01:42:57
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►
Where and I'm guessing I'm guessing there are probably like a pack of pretty high up employees
01:43:06
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►
Who went in at once?
01:43:09
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►
And we're like enough. I would love to see it documented. I it's been Ben Thompson. I've talked about this that it
01:43:16
◼
►
For all my criticism, I think Facebook is far greater threat to society than Twitter
01:43:21
◼
►
I think Facebook is a real problem
01:43:23
◼
►
but I will give Zuckerberg credit for
01:43:26
◼
►
Having a coherent strategy for dealing with this and when they finally pulled the trigger
01:43:31
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►
they just pulled the trigger the way that Twitter gave him a 12-hour timeout and
01:43:35
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►
temporarily, it was banned and then the next
01:43:38
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►
It just was so incoherent
01:43:41
◼
►
That's that to me had to be the precipitating moment where the executives went to Jack and said Jackie
01:43:47
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►
How could how in the world can we end a 12-hour timeout? He just this this can't be
01:43:54
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►
Well, I wouldn't be sure they were all executives either. Yeah, I don't know
01:43:57
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►
I would like to you know what they did there was there
01:43:59
◼
►
I don't I don't want to know I don't want to know because honestly if we were to find out now
01:44:04
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►
I think some of those people might be in danger. Yeah, it's true. Well, they there was a letter, you know that rank-and-file
01:44:10
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►
employees said I did hear about the letter and I believe the letter was before the 12-hour
01:44:17
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►
Timeout I could be wrong there. I forget to
01:44:21
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►
Yeah, but I mean remember they let him back on after the 12-hour timeout
01:44:27
◼
►
And at that point every other platform was already booting him permanently
01:44:33
◼
►
It's just it's very strange response. You know, I mean it's like
01:44:39
◼
►
Not if you not if you not if you know anything about addiction. Hmm
01:44:44
◼
►
Yeah, that's it's that's the best analogy I can think of it's true
01:44:49
◼
►
Jack Jack Dorsey is addicted to Donald Trump as
01:44:53
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►
Much as Donald Trump is addicted to tweeting and it was it was like a bargaining maneuver, right?
01:44:59
◼
►
Okay, 12 hours of shutout not just can't post but we're gonna disable the account for 12 hours, you know
01:45:06
◼
►
It's oh I can do it. I can I can go 12 hours. I can go 12 hours. Yeah
01:45:11
◼
►
We've all heard this. Yeah, it's true. I
01:45:14
◼
►
Can go 12 hours. It's not a problem. Anyway two better times ahead. Thanks, Mike
01:45:20
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►
better times ahead