Kump - Ep. 206 The Power Broker | Trump's Tariffs

Episode Date: April 4, 2025

Ray and Lucie discuss the Power Broker, wooden legs, Trump's tariffs's, and much more.https://www.patreon.com/RayKump for an extra episode every week!Follow Kump on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/raykumpKump Hand Merch https://bonfire.com/store/kump/Follow Ray on Sound Cloud https://on.soundcloud.com/QbP8SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Instagram.com/EMGECONSTRUCTION

Hello and welcome to Komp. Hello, Lucy. What a fine day it is in this city of ours. It's cold and cloudy and wet. Is that what you like? He's like one of those girls in the 90s? Lucy's a 90s kid in the sense that she likes misery. She likes reading about Courtney Love while she catches a cold.

Well, this guy is overcast and cruel. Yeah. It's a cruel city. It can be. We live in one of the cruelest cities in one of the cruelest countries in known Christendom. When you put it that way, it doesn't sound. so bad. Yeah, you know, if you, if you can make it in New York City, you're going to pay a lot of taxes. That's the expression I've always heard. You're going to pay, you're going to lose all your

money. If you can make it here, you probably could have done it in Virginia because we have the internet now. If you can make it in New York, you're a crook. It's a big crook, big scammer. You probably poison the water. You sell things that don't work. You're a salesman. You sell insurance for that ends up giving you cancer our insurance gives you cancer that's actually not a bad idea for company hey you get cancer eventually

why not get it from us at least you can plan for it you know here's the thing if you if I give you cancer you're not getting other cancers I'm not sure if that's true I'm pretty sure it'll lower it must lower the chances have you ever heard of people with multiple cancers

I you know that's a that's a good question. I have, but I'm lying. Well, when a cancer spreads, does that make it a multiple cancer? No, I don't think so. I don't think when it metastasizes. I do, I feel like I have heard of people have multiple types of cancer, but I'm the one scamming, right? Yeah. So I'm like, you know, I'll give it in your foot. I'll give you cancer in the foot and then, you know, you won't get it in the heart. How can there's a heart cancer?

Well, there's blood cancer, right? Yes, leukemia, I believe, right? Yeah, but heart, I've never heard of heart cancer. Heart cancer, it's, you know, it should be organs that you like, you know, you think you can, like, you know, because that's the thing, heart cancer, you're done. Oh, yeah. But, like, maybe I can live with that spleen. I'm not sure what that does. You don't want cancer in the center of your body, that's for sure.

Do I need both lungs? What does a pancreas do? Some do with diabetes, right? Right, insulin. Creates insulin, some other stuff. Do I need that? What happens if I just eat pig insulin? These are questions you can ask yourself,

or you can buy my insurance. I figured this stuff out already. I figured out how to keep you alive. What did they give you for a vaccine? Which type of vaccine? I'm saying they give you the drug, basically, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, I want to, I want to,

vaccine. Here's some AIDS, right? Why not with cancer? How come cancer doesn't go, hey, here's a little, you just got to eat a little bit. Oh, your mom has breast cancer? I'm not going to tell you, you know, but have her, you know, you guys work out how you get it. She cuts a little bit out, whatever. You fry it up like a bologna sandwich. And you eat it. You eat it. This is what makes the heart. The body works on cycles. That's how it works. Yeah, you convince, because the whole thing of cancer, if I, you know, and correct me if I'm wrong. because I'm I I didn't only did three years of med school but uh I believe you can't your body doesn't realize that it's a for because you know it's making it so it's making the cells on

and so it doesn't know oh I should attack these cells what if I eat your cancer does my body now know hey now we're getting used to fighting cancer right right you're getting your body used to fighting cancer by eating other people's cancer or injecting it that's right maybe maybe maybe maybe eating's not the way maybe we got to snort it and we got to smoke it maybe you got to you know cut me open and just shove a big tumor inside me your body has to get used to the act of attacking cancer cells yeah yeah that that that that holds up to scrutiny i think that's the only it just sounds true see what they did there it just sounds true that's what we need back because everything's everything now is just a lie and a scam we need to

go back to hopeful, hopeful science is what I call myself. When the whole world was, uh, you know, just a, a beautiful oyster to be discovered. But it was just a bunch of Indians and we took what we wanted. Hey, well, we got here. There's a bunch of Indians. Perfect. No problem whatsoever. Like three quarters of them are just going to get like, you know, bad pneumonia from us.

Right. Smallpox. Yeah. I'm not gleeful. I mean, the real means I'm gleeful about. I'm playing a character who's the, he was invading New York here. back in the days of the Dutch East India Company or whatever. In the days of New Amsterdam.

Right. Honestly, sometimes I do wish we could go back to the days of New Amsterdam because people are getting fresh in the city all the time. Yeah. You know, all the time, these cyclists just blow past lights almost collide with me. And I just wish I could pay a big man like you, but 50 Gilders to cut him down. What's the conversion you right on, a Gilder?

What am I looking at here? What can I do? What can I get with a gilder? Um, because 50 gilders get me a... I think you could buy a slave. Well, I mean,

I don't think I can. But maybe back then. Right. Wait, so you'd pay me the amount of money that would take to buy a slave to like do what to this person? To cut him down.

I mean, weren't they expensive? Slave? I mean, I, this is one gap of my knowledge, but I always assume that like, you had to have some real money to get one,

a slave. Um, and I wouldn't. But I mean, I would, I always assumed that it wasn't just like a pack of gum, you know, or like, you're like, let me get a crump it and then like a slave, like, you know, like you had to like, you know, it was at least a few, it was like a car probably, right?

Or something. I mean, you're dropping some serious cash in this case to get me to, what, like kneecap a biker? Yeah. A bicyclist. That's right. Sure. I don't do it. I don't care about going on.

I also don't know how much that kind of violence was permissible. at a new Amsterdam for all I know Peter Stuyveson and his awful peg leg which probably stunk I didn't want anybody cutting each other down Peter Syvison's catching strays on the come

podcast I mean you want me to fill him people and who we just got most people don't know who Peter Stuyvesant is yeah yeah fill a man he was basically educate them the Dutch I believe it was a Dutch West India company

set up the colony in New York for for you know for the Dutch and things are wild things were crazy and rampant problems everyone was just stealing to their beaver pelts and just you know

making terrible beer and hate their wives sucked probably yeah it's also hating everybody else they saw imagine yeah imagine bringing a wife over

from like the old world to the new world and now she's like oh this sucks well I used to live like a house still like there's no plumbing maybe but like, you know, it was rooms

and, like, you could buy tea and now I'm, like, straining a beaver's teeth to make some kind of tincture to drink in the morning. Paradise. I'm sick of drinking beaver teeth tea. I don't know if you go, like, you're a bad wife. These beaver tea, they're bland.

Why can't we, don't they have tea? Didn't we get tea from here? Like, not yet. This is too early. I don't know. This is. Yeah, that's an interesting. I mean,

Look, it does seem like this city was always just a bunch of people from very different cultures living way too close together. Not really liking it. I think it was mostly Dutch for a while. But then eventually they got together. Yeah. It was mostly Indians, then Dutch, and then people started. Yeah, other people started coming, you know. Right.

Irish. Not yet. Beaver teeth tea is really what I'm going to get across here. The act of drinking tea out of teeth. I really feel like, why don't I just, why don't I educate children about the old world or the old, old times? Why am I, you know, I've, I read. It's all, uh, oh, I didn't even tell us.

So Sypherson was basically the guy they brought in, the Dutch West Indy Company, be like, hey, can you get this into shape? And he started, like, beating people, I think, and, like, and muscling them. And he had a peg leg, which Lucy thinks is just disgusting. I mean, it must have. I'm just saying, like, I don't think, apparently he lost it because of a camera. cannonball hit him a cannonball tore off his lower leg was he trying to get like was he trying to get like one of those uh cheap TVs from best buy on black friday or whatever and they're like he's like and don't go in until midnight he's like i'm gonna do what i want and they shot a cannonball at him he's like oh it means business here the best buy the best buy new amsterdam i think i think i think he got a cannonball to the leg in some spanish war that he had no business being part of You mind your business.

When it comes to Spain, have it, whatever they want, you mind your business. No one, no one needs to go help Spain. Yeah. You're not George Orwell. We're going to fight in the Spanish Civil War, whatever. But just think about it, right? Like, you know, you get your leg blown off by a cannonball. Yeah.

They probably don't have the best, like, you know, like field surgeons at the time. It's some chop job. You think, you, yeah. They're cutting off the meat wherever it looks convenient. And... They're kind of like off the meat. Interesting. I don't...

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Do you think his peg leg was his bone? I'm pretty sure it would. And then there's sticking a peg leg on it. I just go, there you go. There you go. You're a person now again. And it's like, but you know that in the summer that thing was reeking.

What? I mean, the leg or like what the joint you mean? Well, here's a thing. Where it connects, like wherever it connected to the peg. I'm not going to leave you hanging. His coupling, the coupling of his peg leg to his actual upper femur must have reeked. Yeah. Because they didn't have like powder.

I mean, maybe they did have powders and perfumes. But I feel like they didn't have like just any kind of weird friction connection on the body. Always gets a little gamey, a little ripe, you know. You try, you try put on a bike helmet and running around the city screaming about, you. you know, immigrants, and you take that helmet off midday, and it's just, it's going to smell bad. It's going to stink. The cops arrest you for, like, you know, spray painting things on the, on the, at the, at the, at the cheesecake factory. Where's there a cheesecake factory in Manhattan?

Is there one? I think, yeah, there must be a couple. I was over at Union Square. I know if there's a P.F. Chang's, like, why are we going to be a P.F. Chang's in Manhattan? But I didn't realize it's probably the NYU kids probably. They just, like, they feel comfortable because, like, oh, I don't want to actually try, like, real Chinese food.

Just give me the Chang. they're so happy now I never tried I mean I've never tried I was thinking about going in trying the general's chicken is you think it's good or particularly good I wonder I don't know I don't think I've ever been to P. F. Chang's me either and that's not the point what we're talking about that's a digression I come from a Panda Express town oh they had those in the mall right that's different though like P. F. Chang's is supposed to be kind of fancy I think but like the the ones in the mall the Panda Express are like a food court thing right i used to think pf shanks was like that but then i realized it's like it's like i don't

know if the food's any good it's probably tasty but also like not good right i don't get i don't get a corporate i don't get a corporate lawsuit here but i don't think it's like you know i don't think it's getting like cheesecake factory kind of like it's like yeah they're not good yeah it's like what is this fish taco you i want the fish taco with a cheesecake factory i'm sure it's tasty and has 8000 calories perhaps um i get a right well what's their big thing raspberry iced tea Look at what they make you give Look at what they make you give I kind of like cheesecake fat

Maybe I'm a slob but I like cheesecake Look I mean I've had a nice meal at Applebee's I've had a nice meal at Ruby Tuesdays I used to get the avocado turkey burger It was fine but I mean you know Are you gonna make a list Are you gonna make a list of the top five things To get a cheesecake factory when you move away from home

This is supposed to be the greatest city in the world and we're giving people raspberry iced tea what happened this city that hell happened so Peter Sypherson is a gamey leg and you wish I could beat up what I'm curious about is do you think it made it hard to respect him

his reek yeah it's a good look is a fair point here's the thing I think we live in an age of people not smelling typically right like we have indoor plumbing we have

antiperspirant deodorant we have uh laundry right you we have clothes i i wonder how many outfits these people have that's a fair question how many how many outfits the typical person in the in new amsterdam which is like the 1600s or whatever maybe late 1500s how many outfits would you have maybe two yeah oh yeah you wore the same thing all the time right some wool it's probably wool and you're just sweating doing work your wife would probably like try to like but she's like rinsing in a stagnant bucket where you get in the water i don't know maybe from the whatever the east river like yeah that's probably fine back then so you be you say a wife go go to the east river and get me a bucket of water so you can watch my

filter off my clothes but yeah so it's like you know i'm saying there's a lot of variables so i don't think i think back then it was part of your milieu which is the wrong word you're you're uh you're uh Right, no, your gunk was, your gunk was part of your aura, your, your vibe. Maybe, yeah, it gave you personality, maybe. Or just, you know, like, I'm screaming at you and I smell like, you know, the inside of my, of my, of my genitals. Right. You know, you know, I smell like, I smell like all my holes leaked moments ago as I'm yelling at you about how you didn't, you know, I don't know, you didn't like, you didn't like, uh, get enough corn out of the land

you're not getting enough corn I did I made you the corn czar and it's only it's not enough corn you didn't get enough for your beads yeah I'm trying to make beads it's like I sell wamp them to the Indians or you're trying to get be

my wife is buying too many beads from the Indians at this rate they're gonna you bottle the beads from the Indians they're gonna die of smallpox the year and then we're not gonna be to sell some of this corn we're ruined Wampum

It's a great name Wampum You bought too much Wampum They were ruined I wonder how many Like fucking fucking husbands were like Ruined by their wife Just going to use their credit card To buy Wampum

It's too much What is Wampum? It's just beads, right? Fregan Just living in a Wamp This is a Wampum world We're just living in it Anyway

But yeah, it's a hard, brutal city. The struggle as eternal in this city. And then people go, what do you know about a cump? What do you know about it? You are just some dumb hype beast who can't even read. You're just some fat drip king who, when he looks at words on a page, they mold together and he thinks maybe their food and he tries to eat them. he's always trying to bite into books like their sandwiches

and my wife's just always going hey every time I try to read the Poisonwood Bible my husband tries to make it his dinner every time I try to read what's the other one who's the chick for handmade sale Margaret Atwood Margaret Atwood he's trying to make Margaret Atwood into a buffet I'm trying to read about ladies getting pregnant

in the future Is that what that's about, future of pregnancies? Whatever. You also have a reputation for getting very rageful at the written word. Yeah, you just don't like. I'm very impatient. I'm very short-tempered when it comes to, like, articles. And people probably think, oh, this guy is so impatient,

you can't even read a newspaper. What can he possibly know? Well, I just finished the book. I just finished a book that wasn't that small, all right? I just finished this. This is the power broker. you've probably heard of it. That is a prestige book to have on one's bookshelf.

A lot of high-level movers and shakers have this on their shelves. I saw this on Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, his bookshelf, as he was explaining that he didn't do anything wrong vis-a-vis turkey in the embassy. He just asked him to do a fire inspection, which I honestly believe. I don't know why everyone hates that Eric Adams. But whatever, he has on his bookshelf. I don't know if he read it. Probably not.

yeah he's a cop what cops sit around reading the power broker you get if i was a cop i would every night i'd be out i'd be like drinking driving you know drunk uh which isn't even like oh you can you can't be drunk as a cop like if a tree falls in a forest does it make a noise i don't know but no one's giving me a dewee if i'm a cop i know that much so i'm just i'm fighting with firemen you know i got i got uh girls on the side sorry lucy You know, I'm playing with my gun all the time. When am I sitting down reading a 1,300-page book? I don't believe Eric Adams ever read this book.

But it's good. It's not like you can't. It's an easy, it's a great book, by the way. It's about Robert Moses. It's called Power Booker. Robert Moses in the fall of New York. That's an intriguing title. Yeah.

Because you think, well, New York's still here. What do you mean? But then you live here and you go, oh, this is all his fault. This is all can be traced back to him. Because this guy... This wound in my stomach. This is all Robert Moses. Right.

But as you were reading it, and I knew about it, I grew up in Long Island. Like, we had the Robert Rogers Causeway. There was schools named after him. Like, I didn't, like, all the park, I knew he made the parkways. And the one thing I... You know, there's a beach named after him that the families love to go to in the summer. Which beach? Robert Moses' beach.

Which was the Robert Moses Beach? Is that what's called a cap tree? I don't know. I, but that, I remember going to that sometimes as a kid. On Long Island? I think, yeah, on Long Island. You might be right. I mean, he made Jones Beach.

He made a lot of beaches. He made all those beaches. He made all those Gilgo. I didn't, I wasn't sure they named one after him, but they probably did. Rob Merrill State Park. Yes. Yes. Right.

The place where they found, uh, the Long Island serial killer, where they found those women. Hmm. Right near his beaches. You know, just for a frame of reference. That's how influential he is. Yeah. And you always hear, like, oh, he was really racist. He built those parkways, the Southern State Parkway,

Northern State Parkway. He built, you know, every so often any highway, you always have those bridges that go over, people who aren't on the highway, obviously, the overpass bridges. And he built them too short. Everyone knows this. I feel like a hack saying this,

but you might not know about this. He built them too short for buses to go through. So public transportation couldn't bring, not just black people, but poor people in general, but also black people and it was something you heard of that and you go oh he like slipped that through

like no one never addressed that but with a sneaky guy but in the book that's not even top 10 like what he did wrong and like but they went to him they go even like Al Smith the famous governor

who he worked for like did you build bridges that like black people couldn't get to the park with the maid's or buses couldn't almost that yeah that problem he's like well

yeah you want an autograph you're welcome like I'm apologetic he just didn't I'm lucky was he the most was he the most racist guy it's an interesting formula because if you go by like just every interaction he had maybe not but when you do something like that I think it does make you pretty high up yeah it's like I didn't do anything like I wasn't yelling at these kids I wasn't you know saying these words you know I wasn't I wasn't trying to run them over right but I did make it so that I didn't entire, I don't know what you call, demographic couldn't come to my park.

It does seem pretty bad. But that's not. That is, I mean, that is arguably like the real shit. Yeah. Yeah. That's like, you know, that's the kind of, that's the kind of thing that like, I don't know, maybe even a clan member.

Robert Rose is a guy who, like, said to the clan, hold my beer. Yeah. Oh, what, you burned a cross? What does that do? How does that help you? I made it so I don't have to see at my giant state park beaches

for a hundred years and you burned across that's what he would have said what's my point oh but that's not even the whole the point is that's something you know as a kid right or whatever like that he did this this story is incredible

it's a bad guy who basically screwed like he basically tried to do like reforms back in the day like trying to do the right thing and like Tamini like he's trying to take on Tamini Hall and they basically told him to Tweed. It wasn't him yet. At that point, he was gone, but yeah, it was his descendants or whatever.

And, yeah, he was like, oh, we made some kind of weird thing with, like, cards or civil service that you fill out the card, you rank the employees, and I'm like, what the hell is this? And they bamboozled him. They use every trick in the book to basically, like, freeze this guy out, make an ass out of him, and they just clobbered him. And it was kind of from the ashes of that that he became, like, a real. Right. He decided, I'm not getting screwed again.

And, like, I've never seen someone just drop their morals completely and just go, well, I'm just going to get power then. I'm going to build every park I want to build. He really wanted to build parks. Like, he was a rich kid. Like, he didn't need to, like, he actually didn't take a salary for like 30 years. But that was all, it's a stunt. He screwed his brother over out of his inheritance. There's a thing.

He then he ran for governor. I mean, he got a bunch of parks built and he ran for governor. And I found this interesting. When he did this. Dane to discuss campaign plans with the men who had expected to help his plans. Let me start over. When he did Dane to discuss campaign plans with the men who had expected to help plan his campaign, Moses was firm.

There was going to be no eating of bagels in Jewish neighborhoods or of sausages in Italian while photographers clear. I don't let me just stop there. Let me not eating of bagels in Jewish neighborhoods. Good day. Or of sausages in Italian. photographers clicked away. He told him he was determined to eschew the side shows,

which were a traditional part of political campaigns in the state that possessed the largest collection of ethnic blocs in America. Wow. Yeah, you're thinking, like, oh. It's actually pretty real. Pretty based, right? They clovered him.

He lost that election. He got embarrassed in that life. He never ran against for anything. All his power was basically based on him, like, right? He wrote the laws. And he's tricked people. He would just hide things in the law. And then when he went to, like, take your house away, it would, like, be hidden there.

And, like, your local congressman would ever be like, well, you know, help me. And he's like, hey, Robert, did you like, you know, no, I wrote that so you couldn't. Like, he basically, like, weird stuff. Like, he would be, like, the intermediary with the federal government and that money. So he basically made it so if you tried to fire him, like, all the federal and state money would, was gone. Like, he was the only one that, like, that could work with the, because, like, all these parks were built with, like,

federal money during the Depression, or a lot of them. Right. With his work project administration, whatever. And then, you know, he just, he basically, he just made himself the only guy there who could do it. It was, like, written. Then he, and then you go, oh, you're, your comp's not explaining this properly. Shut your mouth.

All right? I only read this once. I'm going on with the dome here. And then, but, you. It was really, then he built the Triborough Authority when he meant the Triborough Bridge. And he did this weird. He basically made it so that the bonds that they used to finance everything. And he leveraged everything.

Everything in the city that he built. He basically, like, they used tolls to finance the bonds. But they were making tremendous amount of the tolls. And he used that to leverage even higher. But he wrote into the bonds that only Robert Moses, like, he's like, the bond had a contract. Like, only Robert Moses could, like, can do this. damn and like and there's a whole thing where like he basically when they tried to get get them like well the u.s. Constitution says he can't like invalidate a contract or something and if anyone tries to it's illegal to like stop a contract and being enforced so he's like the governors and the mayors couldn't get them out he eventually whatever it's the whole so that's the whole thing that's very interesting I think it is he built like a human centipede of influence he built in a lot of ways in a lot of ways it's a human centipede where he's just eaten he you know he he he's eating he he's eating he he he's eating he he's eating he he he's eating he he he's eating he he's caviar or you're eating his goddamn shit you know you're just the guy at the end as

as long as you realize you're the guy at the end of the centipede then that's accurate that you and me we're just me and you and his politicians are in the middle and he's in the top see a bunch of a bunch of weird dates and I'm already ate a bunch of sand I know apparently his wife who's getting a little fat at one point his wife wouldn't let me gravy no gravy So whatever. And she died. How often was this guy eating gravy? I don't know, but I do, I remember that point.

I'm like, they really didn't realize gravy. He has gravy every night for dinner. Well, yeah. Look, I mean, it used to be more popular. Yeah. Not me. Not me and you. We're two rats who don't get enough gravy.

All right. Way to put me on blast, Lucy. Thanks, wife. Who are these people going to afford someone's gravy? They must be wealthy. Yes, you're right. Now, go eat. your grits

your dry grits I gave you this podcast is not doing very well we can't afford gravy anyway

it's a fascinating turn of events and it's just interesting to see someone and a lot of ways reminds me of like current day

because people just bending the rules yeah right like it's a guy just pushing stuff through just unelected

people like yeah like Musk right like totally awful person uh two awful people uh doing different things but at the end of the day trying to do it against the will i mean to be fair musk probably has more of the will of the people on the side than

mormoses did i mean i like them at first but then eventually he started like just they realized like every road you build makes you know like yeah we can't like you know uh every there's some scientific thing they still they realize it was a certain point like when you build a road more people just start using the road and there's just no point you should build transit and we try Every time he built the highways, many of them, early, early on, they started going to him, hey, love what you're doing. And we're not going to try and question what you're doing. No one will, we can't anyway, you're the great man, and we're nothing. Just once in a while, when you get the right away for this highway, in the middle, just can you, I mean, you have to build it now.

You build when we have the money. But could you set aside just a little bit extra land so we can make a high speed rail? And people go from like the end of the island to the other end and like 40 minutes going to Manhattan, you know, and it would help you. would help it would take the pressure of your roads your road people would like your roads more because people would be you know commuting with those it's like help trucks is the whole thing and every time he's just like eat my eat my shit you centipede bitch you're just the humans you are did you knew to the human centipede and i ain't your shit or you eating my shit that's what he said to them and uh yeah he just didn't care it's just very petty like hey can you maybe if we move

his highway like 10 feet instead losing you know having to destroy 10,000 houses we can destroy none and he's like nope nope they even said like we'll do a study and like he's just like well yeah the guy looked at the study and then he found you to be the same amount of houses with your thing like like how's that possible and he realized like he just had he just had him look at the wrong study or the wrong spot yeah we found a spot and like we'll have to have my guy look at it and he made their whole report. You just look at a different spot. What a trickster.

He's just all these tricks. You know, it reminds me of today. With the, you know, because you can either do it like that. You can either write little codes, write little things in the law, trick people. Or you could just wing it, basically. You could just make sure that you go along, which is what we have now. Right. Which brings it all full circle with the worst transition that could possibly think of.

We have Trump with his tariffs. Trump to impose 10% base tariff on international. imports, higher levies on some nations. It's really interesting. So it's not, it's just a, it's a big chart. You can see him here. What do you call that kind of board? It's like a little sandwich board.

Somebody should be holding that for it. Is that a sandwich board? I thought sandwich board. I wish it was a sandwich board. Because I thought a sandwich board was when you had it like, it was like a V and it was a hole and you could wear it. It's like, Trump would be walking around and think, watch the name with a bell.

And I'm like, cariffs here. I got a lot tariffs. do they show this guy any respect that somebody can't hold this for him yeah why I mean I he likes props he likes to have a nice little like I mean I'm sitting here reading the power broker you know no one's holding it for me

am I even the president uh interesting every country has different tariffs he's got a lot of tariffs here let's see you read some of these tariffs off we'll go back and Vietnam 90%

90% that's a lot is that because Because it's the Gulf of Tonkin. We're still sore about it. They killed our boys. Interesting. What's the next one? Let's see. You got China at 67%.

It's a lot of money. We got fat girls, 42%. Fat, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's going to raise the price of fat girls. I mean, I'm not sure he knows how terrorist work. What else we got? Let's see, European Union 39%. Girls who are teases, 14%.

That's lower I guess he doesn't mind as much Pick me is 10% That's reasonable What's a pick me? A picmy is a girl Who you know She's a try hard

Oh okay Try hard with men A girl Oh the one's girls Who's like you know Hey like you know I think I think women should be shoving the trash And you know

I'll make you my wife Lady Plummer 75% That's reasonable Thailand Sevent 72 What did from Thailand Does that mean

If I want to get my My nice Thai sausage fried rice Is that going to raise that price Or is that they're here already Tie sausage I don't know if Thai sausage is special from Thailand Or if it's just a you know Thai spice that it's on regular sausage

These are the questions that have to be answered now Right Rosie O'Donnell 200% terror No he's a lot of terror it's actually destroying the country I don't know if anyone's I mean I know you look like

you've been kind of but you're your whole thing Lucy correct me from wrong has been yeah let's see what happens here I think it's fine and I've been kind of like you know very skeptical of Trump but you've been kind of like I don't know let's see maybe he's got a plan here do you feel like you have egg in your face I look I wouldn't characterize myself as saying quite that

Maybe that was me. No, this, yeah. But yes. I was wrong to vote for Donald Trump. This does seem like he has no idea what he's doing. The market is tanking. I guess it's possible that, you know, these countries will come back and say, you know, apparently Canada's people are saying Canada is like, you know,

often take off his tariffs. See this thing. People go, why is it okay for other countries, So I'm not saying it is. This is a, as far as I can tell, this is, these are all a lot more than they were terrifying us. I guess he's trying to do Shaganoa, maybe. I don't think that's, I don't, I don't, I don't, I just giving them too much credit. I mean, I've never thought he was an idiot.

Yeah, I mean, look, maybe the, yeah, maybe the idea is that after this, doing this for a little while. I don't think he's the most nuanced speaker. And I don't think he, uh, necessarily, uh, you know, sometimes I, you got, you argue he shoots himself in the foot sometimes strategically. But I do feel like he has great political instincts. And, you know, like, yeah, and a lot of the stuff he does is cruel. But there's, but this is the first time where I'm like, this is really just the dumbest thing I've ever heard of my life. Yeah, I mean, historically, it definitely seems like, you know, this is bad for everybody's economy.

Yeah, like, like the, well, I mean, what's that book, The Wealth of Nations? I read that, too, by the way. can read it's a big that's also a big book and the whole thing is basically it's like it's one of the cornerstones of capitalism or whatever you know adam smith the invisible hand and all that you're familiar with it you've heard of it i have heard of this i've read it and a lot of it like most of it's just him listing how tariffs didn't work we tried this tariff didn't really they put their own tariff they put another tariff and they raise their tariff it got tedious honestly to read this book it's just all about it's all it was you know i think we misread those because

it's actually, I don't know if any of this is true, first of all, but I guess the one in yellow is actually what our tariff is and the one in blue is what they were charging us. Yeah, I just want to do my bit about the fact girl, so that's

fine. You know, if you're coming to me to figure out the tariff numbers, I mean, I'm probably, I have heard the power broker, but I'm not that guy. I'm not the guy you, like, that you like add the, like, like, why are we here? Like and subscribe and join Patreon if you if you like and we get an extra episode every week, right?

I'm speaking about YouTube mechanics but I'm but probably at the show where you like save the video like or add to a list so you can reference it later to write your term paper that's not really the kind of demographic we're serving here I don't think but you know but whatever but so so what while we're here though what are we looking at we're looking at so what is China's tariff now they're they've already got 67 I don't think they have a 67% tariff against us, do they? Yeah, I don't know what these numbers are from, but... I do know that the market's tanking and that people are like, you know, look,

should Canada be able to do tariffs on cheese or whatever, or like Italy, do cheese? And we, and we... I don't know that we have no tariffs, though. But that's my thing, like, can you protect... It's probably good to be able to protect, like, your few things. Like, if you're, if you're France has some tariffs on your want... more so I think it's more like you can't call yourself champagne right that I think works well I'm not sure if the tariffs actually help them but maybe but you know if that's your whole thing

all right maybe well you don't let people come in and just you know so like when in Britain wanted to sell older opium in China and China got mad because they were selling their own opium yeah that's what happened right no wait I thought China wanted to get we're trying to get rid of the opium right yeah I need I need to come in an environment where I can do those jokes like that and then like a bunch of nerds would be like that's that what happened. I need a bunch of nerds that I can make smart, I can miss speak

and have nerds complain. I can like, shut up, I know. And I go into a rant. I need to abuse people more. I need a gaggle of nerds. Like a like a pit, right? Like a pit of nerds. A pit of wanks, policy wonks.

Anyway. Honestly, you would honestly, you would bounce well off of like, you know, three as reclines. I bounced well for concrete too if I jumped off a building but you know

when either here nor there. Sure read some of this? Sure. Donald Trump rolled out sweeping reciprocal tariffs Wednesday on trading partners

and allies across the globe declaring that foreign trade practices have created a national emergency. The president unveiled the baseline 10% levy on all international imports plus what he described

as an additional kind and discounted tariff rates that will increase but not match other countries but not match the rates other countries apply to American imports. It's crazy.

It's crazy time to be alive. I wish we could, you know, I mean, would you accept these tariffs if Trump made you, like, if he had a peg leg? I would accept a lot of things more if he had a peg leg. Honestly, look.

Trump is very talented, right? Let's not, like, you can hate him, and I'm not a fan of his policies in any way. I'm open-minded about something, but whatever. This is obviously, like, screwy. But, I mean, he's very talented. Oh, for sure. And there doesn't seem to be a lot of talent waiting in their wings,

either to replace him when he's gone or to oppose him, right? I can't think of anyone, like we saw what happened when the primaries last go around. just a bunch of duds. Yeah. The Santa's just completely imploded. Chris Christie was just, you know, was just munching.

The Democrats tend to, in response to Trump, their way of like, their way of making their candidates more like Trump. Yeah. Tends to be to get them to like throw out the occasional curse word. Right. Or make the occasional dirty joke.

He's a dirtbag. They'll say stuff like that. He's a, no, he's a lying dirtbag. And we don't like that. They don't say stuff like, you know, if he comes near me, I'll show them all three holes I'm not sure what that means

I think I just paraphrased an insult but um I'm coming to me I'm showing them all three holes I could win I could probably win when really they need to be doing stuff like this

like this is a great line as much as I might disagree with it April 2nd 2025 will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn for decades our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and

far. That's just a good line. You know China's doing us? You know what China's doing us? You ever see that movie where in Shawshank Redemption where he was the gay guys, you know, beat him up and then the guard

goes to throw Andy off the roof but then he decides to make that gay guy have to suck through a straw for you know rest of his life something like that you know not as good as Trump but now Republicans have signal to support for the terror is all nonsense it doesn't matter the point is uh we really we need to go those the talent issue is my point the talent we need to develop talent that can kind of like you know um we need to learn from the past perhaps and uh some of that might be until we get better quality people because they're staying home they're staying out of it so the people we do have we need to kind of help them out and yet maybe some of them and volunteer

we're not going to do it by force i don't have the legal authority to do that but we cut their legs off and replace them with wood and not new wood like like a like a piece of a tree you know right what trait like i want someone to say hey what tree did you cut your leg off of and they you know some rotten one some rotten one they stole imagine driftwood like driftwood legs would that'd be terrible driftwood's just so terrible it's like falls apart right it's rotten i want ants crawling around in there is driftwood inherently rotten or is it kind of just wet you want ants calling around that would be kind of nice honestly if you could i would cut my arm off if I could develop an arm

kind of like the colonial gun hand but instead of a gun it's just like it's just a bunch of ants that come out of your hand like your arm when you like smack it on the table I'm waving my hand around and just ants are flying out of my arm at you and I'm like

I told you I don't want these damn tariffs I just read I'm smit and just the book just came out and he's saying tariffs don't work and I'm just waving my hand and wave after wave of ants is just like going in your mouth I told you

Oh, my carrieff. There's a free market, the invisible hand. Like, my hand's visible. It's just 10,000 ants inside of it. That would be so masculine and intimidating. This is, this is, this is how the world, um, wins. You know, the world might end with a whimper, but it gets brought back to life by a handful of ants.

And the hand is attached to a piece of driftwood, which is drilled into my body. all right it's not i mean i'm gonna have you just drill it like someone's gonna cut my arm off i'm gonna have a stump and i'm gonna get you i'm gonna take my power drill my eight an 18 vault black and decker not the best but whatever stop bragging it's not my keener would be nicer yeah we're nice nice uh nice Milwaukee but i'm stuck with a black and decker i got target and we're gonna have you take that and just drill a piece of driftwood into my into my fat torso

somewhere so it'll be hanging there it's not gonna be on a hinge with a ball and socket it'll just be kind of just drilled into my body but like in the way where if you just I don't know if you don't understand this

but if you just drilled a piece of drift with like three like screws it would kind of so flop around so I kind of like lift it up like my other hand and just wave it and that's kind of what I'm envisioning oh yeah you're always just seeing

the wound in there yeah oh look there are what I'm running for no matter what my position that I'm trying to get is, you're going to see a wound or two. I'm all about showing the wounds, you know? Some people have his philosophy

where you show the, what do they say? Show the wrinkles, show the, what am I thinking of? There's expression. You don't. We let people see the warts and all. Warts are the least of my problems. I've got rotten wood drove into my body. I think somehow my body's rotten.

Not infected, just rotten somehow. Like my body's becoming wood. the woods the words like spreading inside me i think it's got like i think like the little the ants might be forming a what happened if the ants formed a colony inside my body these are all questions then you would become one with them they'll do what i tell i'm not taking anything any words from an aunt yeah i'm the queen anyway let's move on from uh so what do you want to move to you want to you pick the topic let's let's let's move on oh i get to pick to pick Yeah, Lucy gets the pick

Let's talk about This story is kind of interesting All right, where we have here We have a trans girl was banned From her track team Now she's competing with the boys Hanging with the boys Is it the top gun on the volleyball thing?

Yeah, is that a... I think so, yeah Hang with the boys What we got here? Let's see, what's the story. Eliza, uh, munchy, bad last name. Is that, yeah, what is that like Swedish? Neeled on her bedroom floor curling her lashes.

Uh, she dabbed glitter into the corner of her eyes and debated whether to, whether to tie her hair into a French braid or two. She slipped on her green jersey and headed to her first track and field meet. Look, I'm not, I don't know what the Washington Post is trying to do. here i don't know i'm not like trying to play gotcha on trans kids or whatever yeah uh but like is that maybe some women athletes do put glitter on and like that's their main thing getting ready for a match or whatever is like get you glitter right but i feel like a lot of women like i know they look they they they get themselves pretty sometimes you see these like college athletes that like wear skimpy outfits to do like javelin throws and stuff or povolveld

Is that right? Pole vault? Right, pole, yeah. Pole vault. Yeah, you're vaulting on a pole. Yes. And they're wearing these very skimpy. It's like, it happens, but this is high school.

I don't know. I don't know necessarily they're putting glitter on. But that's beside, it seems like a weird, whatever. I kind of think that like, if, look, if the kid's just playing sports. Yeah. Because their parent wants them to play a sport. Right. And they'd rather be on their floor putting glitter everywhere.

Yeah. I don't think it really matters. but like but yeah I could be wrong about that but if they'd rather be on I think the point is they put it in their eye they're like be pretty right no I'm saying if this if the girl loves glitter that much how good a track and feel can she be well that's that's kind of what I'm yeah it just seems like it seems like the priorities are maybe off right um like the professional

athletes I kind of get it yeah we're in the glitter I don't think they do as much no no I'm not talking about glitter oh I'm not talking about like know the controversy right right what you think what you mean like you think you think you think professionals they should allow trans women to be no the opposite right I think that like I get why there's a controversy about that sure I don't get it as much with just like you know high school kids who aren't even good at it well I think some high school kids are good at it and like and the whole point is that like he shouldn't be able to like you know like people say oh Riley you know who's that person Leah Thomas well Leah Thomas uh like I'm always been I'm not like

anti-trans people or whatever but like you know the sports thing it just seems like it's messy and it might as well but like with oh she's only fifth and Riley Gaines was like you know was it was only fifth place she was fighting for so like so when the gates everything it's like well I don't know it's like it's like it's they wouldn't they would that Leah Thomas would know you know when you're fifth in the men's thing right so it's so valid argument yeah I mean I don't like Riley Gaines the fifth place competitor as boring as they are yeah they have rights too, you know, theoretically. But like, but also it does seem to negate this whole theory that, like, any, any man

who put on a dress could just destroy every female athlete, like. Well, look, I mean, it's, if that's the theory, which some people I'm sure are making that point, poorly. But it's more like, you know, but sports are like a lot closer than you realize. Like, everyone in the NBA is, like, probably in a very tight little spot. statistically or whatever but like and like lebron james versus the worst guy in the NBA let's just say even if he's getting old but like you know the actual difference isn't that much but it's just consistently enough more that like it may he makes them look stupid every time and a lot of these guys

you know it's you're dealing with very tight little thresholds like if you watch formula one which you know it's not a sports in the car whatever i'm like i don't care i haven't watched this in years but i used to watch a lot. Everything's divided by hundreds of a second, right? Like, the guy who's the first, the guy who's last, it might be divided by, like, literally half a second at most. Very tight. So you don't have, like, so he's someone who's, like,

completely statistical outlier, right? Because, you know, you're a woman and this person's a man. Yeah, I mean, it doesn't take much to, like, just completely, like, Serenia Williams has admitted that she would, like, get beat by, like, top 60 guys or whatever, or whatever number is exactly. Because, like, it's just a very,

you're dealing very near our margins. and then you put someone in who's just like got a bunch of physical disadvantages so yeah like your skill can't catch up with it right now I'm not saying that's the case here I don't know but just does all this stuff I just said seem like it's something that you know you want high school

superintendents figuring out like you kind of have to ban it probably right you know you can't go like oh this well what was her weighted ranking versus men versus women we can't be doing this I mean maybe eventually they can figure this all out in 10, 20 years in a way where it's not.

But it's like they could create more exact standards. They can just eliminate sports and we could all just eat, we could eat the dirt. We could do what we were meant to do, which is just, you know, eat dirt and be human oxen. Where we're kind of pulling yokes of, you know, not only egg yolks, too expensive. Oh, I mean, you know, like the thing that you put on an ox's neck and it pulls a cart, that'll be us, right? So we won't have time to like go, oh, this trans person. is in my volleyball, it won't matter because you'll be an, you'll, we'll all be ox.

But we're not there yet. Yeah, everybody's physical talent should be used for, for hard labor. Right. And nothing else. For the glory of the state. Yeah. There's not enough great buildings anymore, right?

Yeah, you walk around, we walked around the financial district last week on a little tour, right? In the audio tour, do we talk about that? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Last, we were, and it was like, I said to you, this is this feel nice to, like, have these great buildings kind of tower over you, these old school buildings, they're nice.

They're like neo-Roman architecture or whatever, neoclassical. That's what this country needs. So we all need to basically become farm animals to build it. Right. Yeah. Right. That makes sense. And that you'll feel better.

Like you'll sit. Your grandson will come to you one day and go, hey, grandpa, I know we only have five minutes to talk before they put you back in your cage. But, you know, can you tell me about the old, like, you know, what is you? you accomplish and they go oh you know that building where where they send you to have your arms cut off and replace with driftwood i built that i helped build it with my you know i i with a bunch of other we had this you know me and 20 other guys had this weird circular yoke that we all put on and we had to move in and the guy whipped us as we moved in synchronicity you know

like you know one two three heave one two three heave and eventually we moved these bricks to build that building where you now go to have your arms cut off when you're 16 years old to the place of driftwood. You go, well, this future city that you're talking about is dystopia?

They do this to kids. Technically, they won't be kids anymore. You know, 16 will be the legal age you can get drafted and have your arms cut off a place of driftwood. I mean, why would that stay 18 in something this bleak?

Oh, but you'll still have child labor laws. I don't know. That might go the way of the dodo. But don't quote me. What are kids doing with their free time anyway? I tell you what they're not doing is building a place where I can get my arms cut off. That's a problem. I think it's a very big problem.

I would like, so I wish this woman's girl, good luck. It just seems to me, look, I mean, I think I just displayed a bunch of nuance, right? Yeah. And like, it's not that I don't care. I'm not compassionate. But it's more like, after hearing all that, would you go, well, no, but I, but I, like all this stuff that's like really this makes people kind of like really mad at like you shouldn't be you should be able to go look I don't think this is true but overall like let them have a nice life right but it drives people to overreact and is it really worth it to play volleyball in high school yeah like I think that at some point some some advocates kind of got the idea that sports historically has been have been like big moments for other kinds of equality right like racial equality has had like in this country has had like big

historical moments and sure but it's just not gonna work Jackie Robinson right yeah but it's like but this stuff yeah this is like anti Jackie Robinson kind of like yeah the the visibility in this arena actually might actually do more harm than good oh yeah yeah i mean it's it's it's very because most trans people aren't like like like not as good just not as good as Jackie Robinson that's the biggest problem. If you show me trans people who are just as good as Jackie Robinson, we'd have a different discussion, but they don't tend to be. You show me the trans Jackie Robinson.

Jackie Robinson was, like, amazing. You know, would they, you know. You're right. Actually, in order to have a trans Jackie Robinson, you would actually have to have a trans woman compete with men and just dominate them. What if LeBron James, here's a real question, what if someone who was the best at being a man, like LeBron James was, right? But he's getting older now.

and now he wants to like say you know i'm i'm gonna compete maybe against the wmbaa you know where i could just i could beat michael jordan of the wmbaugh because he's got a whole thing my lebron james is very much like hey i uh like you know kind of pathetic i've always like lebron but like pathetically it's becoming pathetic the extent to which he wants to be the goat and like people behind his scenes making a case that he's the goat and like rich rich paul and all these guys and like pushing it and stuff you know it's come from him and it's like all this thing like it always it's always new metrics like oh his longevity and like oh no players ever gotten this many layups after in his 23rd seasons like well most guys don't make it that

long um whatever my point is like it's like it's like little jordan just play every season he like was in not don't don't at me but the impression is just you know the whole vibe is like when i play i win right if you don't count when he went to the wizards i'm not sure why but reality is you just knew it you knew he was the goat you go no one no one really argued a few guys like i like robert parish better you know why think larry birds the goat but mostly people like this guys i've just never seen him like this you don't have that with lebron you don't have that same kind of like well no one's ever going to beat this guy right in history this record people say about rude no one's going to break that record hang garen did whatever i think marison

the other guy did too mantle but people got feel that way right they've never really felt that way about LeBron, but if LeBron was competing in the WMBA, oh, it's a different story. Now people are going, no one's ever going to top this, unless another top man transitions plays here. But I mean, you know what I mean? You realize how much he dominate? He would run that league forever. He can play until he's 60 probably.

Not everyone could, but he's like, he pays a billion dollars a year to make his body tight. And you realize how much, he spends a million, he spends like over a million dollars a year, just to keep his body in shape. Yeah. I think I heard close to a billion. Well, I said that just that, but it's not a billion. He might have one billion. He has spent it every year.

But whatever. Still, I love how you're referencing me from five seconds ago. No, I'm referencing something else, but that person may have been wrong. They probably listen to our podcast. I'm a liar. But, uh, no, I'm just saying,

it's like, you realize how, um, how much you would spend to transit. I mean, just be a lot of, like, ever no no expense spared just the coolest the coolest skirts i want to say the shortest just the coolest the classiest skirts but they don't wear skirts any of the whatever they wear shorts same outfit keep the same outfit you get what i'm getting that though yeah he could run that league he could he could he could dunk oh when are women going to dunk now because it's lebron is lebron even like a could a woman not be lebron i just keep it lebron

call him LeBrah. Yeah, I mean, it's not... It doesn't totally not fit as a woman's name. What about LeBra, like a bra? Because, you know, like a, you know, not Bousier, but like a, a brassiere. La Brazier. You get, you get it. I'm just saying, look, I don't know what...

There's a lot of problems in the world. I don't, I mean, we're going to destroy the economy, most likely. Now, they're going to build it up into some new weird war economy. Maybe. Maybe olive egg on my face then. It'll be very expensive, but maybe I will. Yeah, because the eggs are so expensive. I'm trying to be like the Will Rogers of our time.

I'm trying to be like the witty, like the Johnny Carson. I'm trying not to make everything about, you know, how much, how many books I eat, what I'm going to cover off my body and replace it with. Nobody buys it, Ray. Nobody buys it. You can relate to real people. One day. Maybe I got transitioned to a person.

Is that intensive? Oh, what a bad guy What a bad guy this is Look at him, the mess of a man I could see that picking up steam On like, you know A lady Twitter in particular You know, why don't you transition

Into a person Yeah I can see that becoming a, you know That might be your big thing What you see that spreading around Gather around and witness The mess of a man I feel like that's me

What's Pygmalion about? That's George Bernard Shaw right more pygmalion i have no idea what's about pig malia that's the basis of my fair lady right really that really feels like a book about like a pigman yeah like me i was gonna say yeah i definitely for a long time thought it was about a guy who goes to an island of of pigmen or something it's just about a prostitute who like it's just it's a pretty woman basically my fair lady is basically pretty woman right that's what they based pretty woman on yeah yeah yeah or does she's all that what she well one of them is she's all that right is that taming of the shrew

but we're never i know you look you you want to be a literature podcast i'm trying you've always said right why can't we talk about like like public television like wp ix pbs why can't we bring up books and and and and old classy movies and perhaps uh history like book tv on c span and you go well yeah maybe we can and then i bring up the my fair lady and taming the shrew and you leave me hanging like i'm a big dunce for the driftwood arm. Ants in my ants in my hand.

It's probably we can't have nice things. Because when I, when I bring a Pygmalion out of nowhere, you got nothing for me. No, I'm kidding. Well, I was just like putting it myself for having a

getting us into that weird conversation. Let's read Pygmalion. And this is done. We should start a comic book club. Yeah. The first book will be power broker because I've already read it so I don't have to like you know I mean I can ease into this whole book club thing because people would be messers people people are very like

enthusiastic sometimes this pod and they'll message me immediately I'm already in page 200 I'm like what the fuck come on we I just I just I just upload the episode so this is good this is why don't you show me a little respect and not read faster than me you motherfucker yeah yeah I'm I'm the daddy this is not mutual thing I'm I'm the head of this centipede. You can be the head of your own centipede. You can make your mailman and your wife part of your down chain. It's like, honestly,

that's basically what direct marketing is. It's just human centipes all the way down. Right? There's always something with the downchain, right? That's right. I'm downchained and this guy. You know, you're in my centipede. Anyway.

Thanks so much for tuning in. Thank you. Thank you for Lucy. Thank you for Ray. And for all the delights. And thank you for, thanks to you and remember we have uh it's a lot of yeah there's a lot of episodes you can go listen to and if you and we have new ones that are on the patreon every week that's right extra episode you go oh i wish there's two episodes a week there are you got sign up for the patreon

and then they're there so it's not a big deal patreon.com slash ray comp and if you don't want to do that you can still like and subscribe that's literally the least you could do i guess the least you do is listen but come on i'm sitting here i'm pick i got i answer my hands and you won't even subscribe go to the notification bell go in there go in your settings and go make sure that when comp comes out you tell me about it and i know and then like you know it's just stop pretending like people best of you all the time well i thought you were gone for three years they were you they don't show you everything you realize there's how much stuff is on youtube and what they show you you know you you upload 10 minutes late one time and then

And then all of a sudden, you think someone's dead for 17 years. Make me part of your bell. Put me on your bell. You know, like the sandwich board, right? Like Trump's sandwich board with the bell. And you go, we're an episode here. Thank you, tuning in. Thanks so much.

A great week. See you soon. Thank you.