Pivot - Fed Chair Investigation, Trump's Oil Deals, and Scott's Absence Explained

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Scott is back — and he has a lot of explaining to do about his recent absence. Then, he and Kara discuss Fed Chair Jerome Powell's response to the DOJ's criminal investigation. Plus, Trump pressures oil executives to invest in Venezuela, and California’s proposed wealth tax has billionaires fleeing. Watch this episode on the ⁠⁠Pivot YouTube channel⁠⁠.Follow us on Instagram and Threads at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcastofficial⁠⁠.Follow us on Bluesky at ⁠⁠@pivotpod.bsky.social⁠⁠Follow us on TikTok at ⁠⁠@pivotpodcast⁠⁠.Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world flock to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show. And they spend a week trying to sell each other on the weirdest gadgets you've ever seen in your entire life. This week on The Vergecast, we're talking all about everything happening at CES. From the TVs to the AI gadgets to the humanoid robots that everybody is hoping might someday do your laundry and wash your dishes. All that and much more on the Vergecast wherever you get podcasts. This winter, the cold and flu have been especially bad. And the culprits? Well, they're everywhere.

Literally, the entire planet is just packed with viruses that are infecting everything. And I mean literally everything. Even other viruses. This week, unexplained to me from Vox. Those pesky microbes getting us sick and how they might also be helping us stay well. New episodes, Sundays, wherever you get your podcasts. The bottom line is, if I have fuck you money, I want to fuck you face. Hi, everyone.

This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Fox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher, and guess who's back, back again? It's Adi Cornish. You wish. She's good. You know what I learned from her? What? She said something.

She had the best line of any guest host. She said, you asked her for advice on the economy. You asked her for input. And she said, no, this isn't my area. I'm here to learn. Yeah. I have got, I sent our notes saying, I took real notes from that because I have yet to find the confidence to actually say that I don't know and that everything doesn't demand my judgment. Anyways, Audie Cornish gets co-host or gets substitute host of the week.

How are you here? Did you miss me? I did. I need you to explain where you've been to people, sir. Well, Kara, I was presented with an opportunity to bring potable water to the good people of sub-Saharan Africa. No. which is Latin for I have had cosmetic surgery, Carol. And essentially, I just wanted to look natural.

And I guess if looking natural means looking like you're surprised all the fucking time and your nose looks like a minivan from the 80s, we've achieved that, Kara. We have liftoff. So the camera is off. Sorry, folks. I'm confident enough to be transparent. I'm not confident enough for the comments that we would receive right now. I have seen the pictures, the pictures,

Scott kindly sent me a picture, and I was, at first I was like, oh, come on, how bad could it be? And then I'm like, oh, no. And there was no response. You usually respond within like 10 seconds with something really crisp and funny or supportive.

You're a very, people don't know this about you. You're actually, you're a very loving, kind friend. People don't get that vibe. And you were just silent for 15 minutes, and I'm like, is she going to respond? Anything? Oh, you're off the tramadol by then.

I told, I told my doctor, I said, I wanted to look, people have compared me to Ryan Reynolds' older brother. And I'm like, that's the look I'm going for. And I do look like him, but I look like his grandfather after he's gone into witness protection from literally trying to flee narco terrorists and has had bad cosmetic surgery in Brazil. This is good. I hope it's good. When you're going to see, we're going to see what it is. But when you have the big reveal or something like that. I love to actually talk about it because men don't talk. Most people don't talk about their plastic surgery or whatever. And there's been a huge boom in men doing this. Huge. It's the fastest growing part of the market.

Yeah. Explain why you did it. I have never had plastic surgery. I do not judge it. A lot of people I know have it. A lot of blefts. That's what they keep saying, the word bleft to me. That's why I had.

I don't, my mother had it. Like, tell me, it's mostly women. I don't know a lot. I mean, I do know some VCs who have gotten it. And I can't say this was many years ago. It worked well. I am glad to be back with these questions masquerading as virtue signet. What is this not being able to make a shit ton of money because you're not so fucking talented thing that people complain about?

You are so going under the knife. Give me a fucking break. By the way, you were asking me questions. I never will. Never, never. Well, anyways, the honest answer, Kara, after having a lot of Xanax and opiates to think about it is I cannot for the life of me figuring out the fucking hole I am trying to fill here. I think it comes from a lot of places.

I was very insecure about my looks growing up, as I think was probably natural for a teenager. And then in my 20s and 30s when I put on some weight, and we've talked about this and my skin cleared up, I then got a lot of confidence from my looks. And I really like that part of the program. And also, I think in a little bit of my business, I have felt, I don't want to call it ageism, but I've been really cognizant of my age

recently. A lot of people, a lot of people online are referencing my age to criticize me, like, what does this guy know? And also, I think just more practically, I've been on TV a lot because of the book tour, and I've just noticed the dark circles under my eyes. And also, to a strange extent, I'm kind of interested in the technology. Oh, all right. And also, the bottom line is, if I have fucking money, I want to fuck you face. Yeah, okay. So you said something really interesting. You said it's mediation, not renovation, although these doctors are very convincing, right? You weren't going to do as much as you did, or were you? Well, I mean, it's very easy to get, I was going to just do my, I was just going to do my eyes.

I didn't do a lot, but I, you add on stuff because. Can you explain what the eyes is? It clears up. Well, the circles around your eyes. You have dark circles on your eyes as you get older. Or hooded, when people have hooded. Yeah. And what they do, is very simple is they transfer fat from other parts of your body into the soft tissue that creates the dark circle. And the temptation to keep adding stuff, if you're not careful, is appalling. Everything heals at the same time. And if you're going under the knife, you just start thinking, yeah, sure, I'll have fat transferred from my hips to my chin. You just, they will add on stuff. I had some crazy fucking laser that they wouldn't dare. Do you have any fat? You're so skinny. You're such a skinny.

Yeah, I'm entering that nice part of my life where I'm skinny yet fat at the same time, which is really attractive. But yeah, it's easy to get upsold, and I find the whole thing fascinating. I of course made friends with my surgeon and his team. And I'm being serious now. The most inspiring part of the whole process was I went to this place called Pearl Recovery. And it's this amazing family-owned business where they take over a, floor of what is a fairly mediocre hotel, and they have nurses around the clock looking after you. And I had, you know, through the different shifts, four or five different nurses, and they were all

out of central casting. They were all the same person in the sense that they were all immigrants in their 30s and 40s, all single mothers, and all working their ass off and the loveliest, most talented women. It made me feel so good about America. It made me realize how important, again, not that I need to know this. Immigration is. These women are all women working four to six, 12-hour shifts, all with a single, all with a kid, all come to America, all making a good living. They do get paid well. I think nursing is actually a fantastic profession and something that will probably survive AI for a while. And they just couldn't, they brought expertise, empathy, humanity. They were great interacting with me. They had great leadership skills. Occasion I'd be like,

no, I don't want to sleep upright. And they'd be like, get your ass upright. I mean, they were fantastic. They all Google you. They all like, who is this? Is this a star? Because they can't tell. Oh, right.

And they'd be coming and they'd be coming and they'd like, so I listen to your podcast. I'm like, oh, really? What'd you think? I'm like, sit down. I'm going nowhere for the next two days. Sit down and tell me what you think. And they were just such lovely women.

I was really. I'm glad you had this international experience. while you get your face. Oh, it was fantastic. Can I ask just one more question? We'll move on and we're going to have a big reveal. Is did you, what we talked about whether you should say anything, and I said, I am not going to pretend if it looks really different,

and it does, it looks slightly different, I would say, from what I do tell. Well, no, we don't know. I'm really swollen right now. The reality is we have no idea. Your nose is very swollen. Yeah, we have no idea. Yeah. I mean, most, when people get their eyes done, there is a refresh, and you can, you assume that.

That's what it is, but what they've done today, everybody looks pretty good, unless it's like, you know, some people, it hasn't worked well. Oh, no, this guy, this guy is known for, I said the following thing. I said, I want modification, not transformation. And if we're going to err here, and I kept saying this, we're going to err on the side of underdone, not overdone. I see. And I think most surgeons probably say this, but they say the key is that people think you look good, but they don't know how you've had anything done. I see. It looks. It's, it's, it's, it's, Chris, Chris, Chris, Jenner sort of is, like, you see, you remember ones. We were joking about Jennifer Gray. Everyone noticed it immediately because she changed her entire look. And she got, she got piled the fuck on. I used to, I thought that was very unfair. She wants to do that. You're public figure. People, if you're known for your looks, you're going to be known for your looks. That's about line.

Yeah, well, that's what you're known for. Yes, that's right. That's right. For that. Well, I'm not, I don't. I don't. want to have any facial surgery done. I don't. Kara, it's not easy being a four. And you know what's so scary is last night. It's always been a four. Last night, I was looking at Ferraris. I have, saved me.

What? What is the twin? I don't know. I don't know. I really don't know. What is next? I don't know. ED drugs.

That's what's coming next. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think. Oh, my God. No, definitely. Oh, God. Well, you'll be dating the guys from heated rivalry soon enough.

That's where we're going. Those dudes are great actors and they're hot. Did you watch? Oh, my God. I could have won the award for visual effects last night. I just should have showed up and accepted the rush the stage when they said, and the award for visual effects and then would have figured out it was me. Our podcast would be number one right now.

We should have won that. Because I was staying at the Waldorf, which is next to the hotel that was having the visual effects. And I walked around with all this plastic surgery and it was really strange. It was like having a credential badge. Say, let me go wherever I want. Because if you have plastic, clearly you have just had a note. Those jobs are like, oh, they must be a star, let them in. Right.

So I could have rushed the stage and picked up the award, and I decided definitely it would have been the award for visual effects. That we should deserve the podcast award, honestly. Amy Poller is very nice. That was a weird dog's breakfast of a group of podcasters. None of them were like each other. I thought, you know what, though? I got to give it to the Golden Gloves.

I read the list of nominees, mostly because we weren't on it. But I thought they did a great job. I thought all of those podcasts, Mel's great. I love Dak Shepard. Was Jay Shetty in there? Who else was it? It was NPR. Stevensky.

Fantastic. Yeah, Stevensky. Amy Poehler, obviously. Fantastic. The guys from Smartless. Those guys are amazing? Yeah. I thought, wow.

And by the way, I've been on every one of them except for Call Me Daddy and Amy's. I've been on Amies. I was, I don't know about you, I was a little bit, I don't know what the term is, a little bit, I don't say resentful, my understanding of Amy Poe, she's a lovely person and I haven't listened to her, people love it, but I was kind of bummed that it was someone who felt like they were late to the game who got it. I was kind of hoping one of the original gangsters would have got it. Yeah, but I thought, actually, you know what, it's interesting, that's a big moment, I think that's a big moment for podcasting. Here's the only thing. There was an interesting article in the New York Times. It's like, these are all, all the others are just so disparate and everyone's in their place. You can't really put, like, they didn't have any narrative podcasts, which sort of began this. They should have more podcast awards, that's all. Well, that's what they'll do, eventually. Well, that best crime drama, best episode, best, best host. But they already do that. I mean, we're up for Webby's again. Yeah, there are a couple. Everyone wins a Webby. Everyone's like, you know, best male, co-host who's going through the mother-of-all midlife crises. It's like they've, they've decided the webbies and the streamies have decided they need to make money. Yeah. So they charge you and

they have a million categories. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's fine. I think it's a huge. It's a $2.4 billion business now. I mean, it's really. It's the fastest growing media. It's growing now faster than Google or meta off a smaller base. But we've said this before. It's because of the audience who are attracting. We're geniuses. Now we're going to have plastic surgery. They don't call it. What do they call it now? Is it plastic surgery?

Facial cleaning. I don't know. I like you doing it because I'm living vicariously through you because I find out all manner of nonsense. Do you want to drive my Ferrari in Palm Beach? Wait, did you buy a Ferrari too? I'm thinking I, the fact I'm even looking at one, right now I don't own a car. Right now I don't own a car. I literally I take the tube.

I'm coming back to the U.S. I take the tube and I take this amazing ride-hailing service called wheelie and when I'm in the U.S. I take Lyft because I like the CEO. He's very spiritual. I would like him to be my rabbi. But no, I don't, I haven't owned Dakar in a bunch of years, but I'm seriously trolling Ferraris. They're so beautiful. I think they would say that I'm refined and elegant and young lady, you should have a random sexual experience with me. No, I don't think so. I think you should think about a Chevy Bolt. Yeah. Hasn't even entered. Like you literally, I don't know what you could do. I don't know what the opposite of an ED drug is, but that's what the term

Chevy Bolt is for me. I am telling you, look how well I'm doing with my Chevy Bolt. I'm successful. I have a beautiful wife. I just don't. I think you have all of that despite the bolt. No, it's not. I love my Bolt. I think the Bolt does say, you know what, I don't care. Yeah, I'm looking at the new Rivian. It's really cool. Oh, those are great. The new one. It's small. That is the Aspen car, by the way. And then I'm not looking at the You say that. When my house was ready in Aspen, you're literally, my house and Aspen, you're literally going to be like, hey, just FYI, I'm swinging by Aspen. And no pressure at all, but I'd like to stay there for the spring. I would like to stay there. I'd like to stay there for the spring. No pressure. You can say no, but I'd like to meet Jeffrey Swisher and my uncles and cousins and lucky for the spring. That is so coming. So do not mock Aspen. I am waiting for that. I think Aspen is a little too much now. I used to like it.

It seems like something pomp and she is not. A little too much. Awesome. Awesome. All right. Okay. I do. I'm putting in my reservation now. All right.

We're going to move on from Scott to Jennifer Gray. Renee said. We didn't want to do a brain. Welcome back. Adi Cornish. Otty Cornish. Audic Cornish is not in plastic surgery. She has perfect skin.

She has perfect skin. That's what happens to me at plastic surgery. You're sitting there wrapped up like a fucking. on mommy going, Audi Cornish has perfect skin. That's my week. Can I tell you, we want to thank everybody

who was filled in for you during this time of trauma for you, everybody. Don Leonard, Cameron, Camerley, Stephanie Ruhle and Bill Cohen. She was spicy. I figured out Stephanie's,

I came to so many observations under the influence of opiates. Stephanie's peanut butter and chocolate is she is smart and spicy. She's smart and spicy. Yeah. She's like hot but irreverent and smart. Yeah.

Oh, my God. Where are you now? You had to skip TV. Oh, my God. I had to fly back from L.A. last night. I had to try and pretend to sleep. Hello, Lunesta. And then I'm going after this.

I go to Miami for a speaking gig, which should be interesting with this. I was just there. With this face. Yeah, my friend said he saw you. Yeah. And then I have to come back for another speaking gig on Wednesday. And then I go to Davos on Sunday.

So you also are being in. interviewed by me, so we may have to rethink it. When am I being interviewed by you? Yeah, for my CNN thing. We're doing a follow-up on our sound bar, our sound. Is that how poorly the show's going? I'm on twice? No, it's going great.

I'm on twice? No, we just wanted you were, we wanted you to talk about, we need someone to talk about loneliness and digital and you've been, one of the things you've been talking about on your book tour is you're linking it to everybody in isolation, so I think it's important. It's supposed to be on Cold Bear Thursday night. Let's get back to me. Let's get back to me. I'm supposed to be on Cold Bear Thursday night.

I think I'll top you know where I am right now. Where are you? Morgantown, West Virginia. I'm going to fill up my dad's grave today. But how do they relate that to health, or is it just what it's like to... About longevity. I hate to say this, but one of the feedback from the stuff we've filled before is... Is it a void of all emotion or humanity?

Take her to her father's grave. She needs a facelift. She refuses to get her eyes done. take her to her father's grave and wide angle, focus back. Focus back. We have speaking, we have so much to talk about. You missed quite a bit, does this just say? Oh, my God.

Like crazy on your tramadol's. First time in my life, I was scared to look at the news. I literally scared. I'm like, you know, I think I'm just going to ignore the news. Yeah, which you can't, actually. Hot white butt sacks off the ice. Okay, let's start that. The Justice Department has opened.

This just happened yesterday has opened a criminal investigation. Fed Chair Jerome Powell over at the central banks' renovation of its headquarters and whether he lied to Congress about it. The inquiry includes analysis of Powell's public statements and spending records. Powell called the investigation unprecedented in a video released by the Fed on Sunday. Let me say he's finally said enough is fucking enough. Let's listen to the clip. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates

based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation. This guy is a fucking corrupt octopus. When asked about the investigation, not Powell, Trump, President Trump said he didn't know anything about it. He's a liar. Powell's term as chair ends in May and his term as governor, though, runs through January 2028. What in the world is he doing? But they've been lowering interest rates. I think they were going to keep them the same for this particular next session. But what in the world? He's going to get his guy in May. He actually pointed Powell, but let's move on from that. Thoughts? Well, before Chairman Powell released that statement, there was a 15% likelihood that he would resign before August.

By the end of his statement, it had dropped to 5%. And that is the market, or the wisdom of crowd said, this guy's going nowhere. He's very good. He nailed his speech. He did exactly what he needed to do. He wasn't defensive. He just stated the obvious. This is prosecuting or criminally pursuing your political enemies. And I think even most Republicans deep down acknowledge that. Also, Republicans who are supposed to be the ones that are more fiscally responsible, recognize that one of the keys to the most prosperous economies in the world, and the majority of Western economies that grow their economies, while not risking spiraling inflation have one thing in common. And that is they have an independent equivalent

of a monetary association or a federal reserve that is independent because of the following. Presidents are under huge pressure to perform. And usually there's term limits and they're only there for a limited amount of time. So it would be almost near impossible for them not to believe that it would be good for them, the country and the world to lower interest rates. Because people don't typically realize lowering interest rates is full stop putting more money in people's pockets. If you lower interest rates, you pay a lower fee on your credit cards, your mortgage, your auto loan, your student loan. If you take mortgage rates, or excuse me, if you take interest rates from 5% to 2%, you're putting somewhere between a few hundred dollars or a few

hundred thousand dollars every month in the pocket of consumers, corporations, CFOs. Everyone in the short run is happy. But the problem is you risk having, having too much money facing few two products, the supply chain doesn't increase, and you end up with upward spiraling inflation. And the thing about inflation going up is that if people get to a point where they start panicking, and that is they don't hold the currency and they constantly transfer it into goods, it can spin out of control. And a lot of revolutions start because of inflation. The primary job of an independent Fed is to say, look, we're going to point you for 12 years, and your job is not to listen to anybody but the data. And maybe

make sure this entire society doesn't crumble under massive spiral in inflation. And just a few data points on Chairman Powell, he had an unprecedented increase in rates when he saw inflation peak at 9 percent, and he's brought it down to about 2.8%. He will go down, arguably, is one of the most seminal figures positively in terms of the U.S. economy. The inflation has mostly moved towards its target. He avoided a deep recession. He pulled off a Mary Lou Retton like sticking the economy landing. Yeah, there was a little complaint about a little too much. Remember that part when they were doing something?

Everyone was complaining when he was doing it. The far left is like you're hurting Americans. The far right was you're hurting corporations. But this is the bottom line. He managed to cool inflation massively while avoiding a recession. Yeah, he did. People don't. I mean before this, what is it called? He kept something going too long. And I'm like-easing? Quantitative easing? Yeah. Well, Janet Yellen basically said, and I've made this argument, we pumped $7 trillion into the economy and 85% of it wasn't spent. It's impossible to argue we didn't overdo it. Her viewpoint is the risks of overdoing it are far outweighed by the risks of underdoing it. If you look at the real economic strife throughout our society, it's when the thing that took the Great Depression and turned it in from a great recession or a Great Depression is we decided to tie. rather than loosen. Anyways, also he's done, including up until the point of the speech yesterday, the Fed has maintained institutional credibility and independence. The piece of insight is, I think everyone realizes this is prosecuting or pursuing your political enemies. Like Patricia James.

Those cases are all falling apart, by the way, but go ahead. They couldn't even get an indictment against her. The evidence, the grand jury or the evidence presented, they said it's not even worthy of an indictment. The piece of nuance that I found interesting here are the, the little bit insight that people may not know is the following. This isn't about trying to intimidate him into resigning. That's not what this is about. This is about trying to intimidate him into resigning from the board of governors because his role on this board, basically on every board, this is the dynamic. There's 12 board members, say on a board, a public company board,

it's usually less than that, but let's say it's 12. There's a, Everybody speaks, everyone nods, and then there's one or two people when they speak, everyone fucking listens. You got to believe that when Chairman Powell is just, is no longer chairman, but the governor, when he speaks, everyone's going to listen. He's going to have huge influence. And Trump, Trump wants him off. Trump wants someone, Trump wants a board of governors that is not independent, that will take interest rates way down and give him the sugar high he wants. And if Powell is still on this board, what we are going to have is a much safer, much more robust economy. Oh, he's not going anywhere.

This isn't. Well, even he's done in May. This is about trying to get him to say, fuck it, I get it. I'm just saying he's not coming off the board. This is like. I don't think so either. Oh, I think he's, he wouldn't have. This is not a man who makes a video like Trump.

This dude does not scare easily. No. He didn't get on there and start being defensive about the action. thing he's been accused of. He's like, he's basically said, this is nonsense. And anyone with half a brain isn't even going to get near this. Even Fox News, I don't think, is going to go after him. They realize, okay, this is, this is a bridge too far. The whole thing is so cockamamting. Like, well, everything they're saying now is coming out of their mouths is a lie. So, I mean, what's really interesting was this video that he find there's a lot of sudden pushback in lots of

different places you're starting to see, including Republicans voting against him. Oh, the ACA subsidies? Yeah. I have to say this was, this is such a like a signal of, you know, what's incredible to me is he's very active and everything he's doing to me is it, I think it's this one reaped of desperation because he can't, this is not going to work. And it does, it makes Powell stronger. That is my feeling.

Like this gives him much more credibility to influence the Fed, even after. he's gone. You know, he's going to, whoever he picks is no match for Jerome Powell, even if he's not the Fed chair. I have never been more confident about a future recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom than Chairman Powell. Yep, yep. I mean, he kind of defines, right now he kind of defines leadership. Yeah, maybe Ms. Majjada will give him her peace as well. Anyway, let's go on a quick break when we come back, the ongoing fallout from the ice shooting in Minneapolis. Support for this show comes from Delete Me. The new year can be a perfect time to get your digital house in order, and a great way to do that is by making sure your data is protected.

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join Deleteme.com slash pivot and use the promo code pivot at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to join deleteme.com slash pivot and enter code pivot. That's join deleteme.com slash pivot code pivot. Support for today's show comes from Upwork. If you're a small business owner or inbox is in the double digits before you even logged on, it might be time to bring in some help. Even though it may feel like it, you don't have to be the CEO, CFO, and COO. Upwork says that with their help, you can start hiring top candidates and stop doing everything yourself. With Upberg Business Plus, you don't need to spend weeks sorting through random resumes. You can source and vet a curated shortlist of proven candidates for skills and reliability.

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makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash pivot. That's betterhelp.com slash pivot. Scott, we're back with more news. Thousands of people across the country took to the streets this weekend to protest the killing of 37-year-old Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. This as Homeland Security Secretary, Christy Nome, says she's sending hundreds more federal agents to Minneapolis this week. The Trump administration also cut state and local officials out of the investigation into goods death, leaving it all to the FBI, which minimizes credibility. A new cell phone video has spread across social media showing the moments for the shooting from ICE officers' perspective, which is quite damning to the ICE officer. Vice President J.D. Vance and others are arguing that the footage supports a claim of self-defense. Most people don't, well, most people aren't lying. Don't agree

with that. Meanwhile, Good's wife spoke out saying on Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns. You shared your thoughts with me. And, you know, this is a terrible thing. And of course, you know, I think people rightly point out that that it gets an enormous amount of attention. This is a white woman coming back from school. I mean, the narrative is really quite something, but it still has sparked protests everywhere. Because, and especially when it's combined

with all these videos of these thugs going around with masks on, you see reaction from sheriffs and local police who don't like it. They don't wear masks. Talk a little bit of what you, you think is happening here right now. Well, I just want to acknowledge a point of your reference and that the black community is like, yeah,

welcome to our world. The very founding of America, the very principles and the reason why people took so many risks and brought together such thoughtful people to start this new experiment called America, the very cornerstone of why America was founded was to avoid this shit, was they didn't want an autocrat with unchecked power.

They could harm them. And so, So this in so many ways is just a violation of everything we're supposed to stand for. And the worst thing you could say about Ms. Skid is that she was, I don't even say fleeing the scene, but leaving a controlled environment without permission. That is absolutely the worst thing you could say about her. But Department of Justice policy clearly states, you cannot discharge a weapon or use lethal force when someone is fleeing the scene.

And I'm not even sure it qualifies his wing the same, but take the worst interpretation of what she was doing. You still cannot justify what this agent did. And also, if you're in front of a jury talking about situations like this. And look, federal agents and police deal with very hot in the moment complicated situations. And a lot of it goes to what they refer to in court as state of mind. Let me give you this guy's state of mind. fucking bitch. He put three bullets in the torso and face of a woman who was not physically threatened him

and then decided after she had clearly been killed and ran off the road to say, fucking bitch. That was his state of mind. This is a tragedy on a meta level for American principles. It's obviously a huge tragedy for her and her fans. family, what it was even more disappointing and salt in the wounds of the current state of America, is conservative media, including Fox, used a lot of code words when describing this good, and I'm sure you saw this. First off, a self-proclaimed poet, bullshit. She was an award-winning

poet. A divorce person, oh, divorced people aren't as worth her. And then the one, I'm sure you noticed, they kept referring to her as a lesbian. Yep. Okay, the guy who shot her three times in the face, I would bet 95% probability, he sleeps with women. That makes him no more or no less guilty. And the fact that she sleeps with women makes her no less or more guilty of anything or no lesser tragedy or a victim.

And when Fox consistently describes her as a lesbian activist, what they're saying is, Dear viewers, we think you are such raging fucking homophobes that if we highlight that this woman sleeps with other women, you will have an easier time justifying the murder of this woman because being gay is a bad thing. In other words, dear viewers, we think you too are homophobic. And we took out a mouty lesbian. That's exactly what they're doing. All of this coded language to try is basically an acknowledgement that the viewers of whatever conservative media starts using those words, it makes no, it makes no, if we ever get to a point of America, it makes no sense in any trial or jury to talk about someone's sexual orientation.

I have long said, and also I think the left sometimes has a problem with wrapping virtue around people if they're of a certain special industry group. They're no better and they're no worse. This had nothing to do with that. It was terrifying because I think it was someone who has, there's some personal thing happening here with him and gay women. Well, supposedly he had another altercation with a car, right? I don't know. Something else.

Her errors are going to be rich. Fucking bitch says a lot to make. Something else was going on here. And so, you know, that would really, look, this guy is clearly a thug, right? just wanted, and this is what they hired. This is the people that killed all those people in Germany were thugs. Hitler did not kill everybody.

He hired people who did so. And one of the things that you notice from this is the reaction from people who know better, the J.D. Vance is the Christie Nomes, etc. And Trump himself, who immediately, you know, decided she was guilty no matter what and kept pushing this thing before any investigation. The only person who tried to say, well, let's just wait and see was, of all people, Tom Homan. And then he was slapped back. Like, it was incredible.

He had the correct response, which is, let's wait and see. Like, because, you know, and of course, now we're living in an era of video. And when they release that thing and let fucking bitch out, like they think that helps their case. It sounds like this guy was in a rage from someone in her last words of her life or, I'm not mad at you. you dude. Like, honestly, the juxtaposition and her name good, it was, and it's so clear what's happening in that video. I think what's really going to, what's grotesque is, and I have to give credit to Jake Tapper

for riding Christy Knoem about this, which was, how can you, she showed pictures, obviously, of January 6th where they were squeezing a police officer, hitting them with, with, with, pipes and flags, and squeezing one officer in a door. And they got pardoned, you know, and she was like, everyone gets the same law. And he's like, but they don't. And she goes, everyone gets the same law. And then he shows the pictures again and says, she's saying, I'm not mad at you, dude, and driving away. They are attacking police officers.

You cannot say this. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Christy Noam needs to be impeached and hopefully go to jail. But J.D. Vance is particularly loathom in this thing. And that, to me, was sort of a shock, this idea of like trying to impugue. this victim long before there's an investigation. And then not letting the state also be participatory. This is not going to end well for any of these people at some point. Well, the administration has been consistent.

It's the Roy Cohn communication strategy. Double down, deny, attack, attack, attack, never admit any guilt. If they'd had a really talented communications person with the president's here, what would have actually helped the administration is if the president had done the following. I saw the video, quite frankly, I found it very upsetting.

Americans, you know, ICE is there for a reason. I need to review this. I need to see what the full investigation says, but I found what I saw disturbing and then say nothing else. I think that actually would, quite frankly, have given ICE more cloud cover and license. If he had just said that, I don't know if you remember when George Bush,

they had video of when Saddam Hussein was hanged. And I remember him, saying, yeah, I watched the video and quite frankly, I found it very disturbing. And it was a real moment where you said, okay, I feel better about this guy being president. You know, as angry as he was, as much military hardware as he committed, he knew he had been, he had been sentenced to death, but he just said, I found the whole thing disturbing. They, they would have helped themselves if they had just said, we need to have a full investigation, anyone who saw the video, including us, found this disturbing.

And we need to investigate it. Yeah, and we'll see what the full investigation turns out. These people are out of control. I mean, I've talked to a lot of, this is him unhinged with people, you know, essentially his low-rent versions of the SS with them. That's what it feels like. And my heart goes out to the children of this woman, which is to drop a kid off at school. and then.

She had stuffed animals in our glove box. Yeah, I mean, there was a dog. This is not a dangerous person. Yeah, driving a Honda pilot. I know, speaking of great cars. Anyway, that's it. But he's also trying to roll over big oil companies. He says they'll invest $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry,

but executives do not say this, and they did not say it in public. At a White House meeting, oil companies expressed interest, but didn't commit to spending, which means they don't want to. And I have talked to several people, They do not want to, with Exxon CEO calling Venezuela uninvestable under current conditions. Trump is now saying he's inclined to keep Exxon out. I guess he's doing them a favor. They don't want to be there.

He's also turning up the heat on Cuba, warning the country will receive zero oil and money from Venezuela and telling them to make a deal before it's too late. I mean, this guy is like a mobster. If you were an oil company executive, I mean, most of them are like, no matter what he says, they're not going to waste their money on things. They've already lost, he, as correctly, these oil executives pointed out, they lost money there. It's sunk costs that they're never getting back, and they've written down a lot of these asks. They had to explain a lot of this to him, you know, because he just didn't have any idea of what seemed not to have any idea what had happened in Venezuela.

So what do you think about this? That was really interesting for the Exxon, the biggest oil company, to say, yeah, no, I don't think so, right in public and at the White House. I know what's going to happen here. The old companies will just, you know, give them a hand job, say they're very interested in looking at it, wait them out, but economics are going to win here. And the economics at a very basic level of the following, the type of oil that Venezuela has, and it does sit on the largest untapped reserves of oil in the world, but it's heavy crude. And heavy crude requires special chemicals and more efforts to extract. And basically the cost. Yeah, that's right. But the cost. just of extraction, are 70 to 80 bucks a barrel. And right now in the open market, it's about $62. Now, they continue to do that because they have fixed costs they need to cover. But right now, at the current marketplace, it just doesn't make an economic argument for any incremental investment.

In addition, big oil companies have made massive multibillion dollar investments in Venezuela twice. And each of those times, their assets have been seized. So they're kind of like, okay, fool me once, full me twice. Full me, three times. We don't need it. They don't need it. Well, there is something, and I will come back to Venezuela because I have a lot of thoughts on it, and I was Jonesing to talk about it. But what I do think Rubio, but the president doesn't seem to understand, is that while oil has shaped the world, where it is now is that it's not about the amount of oil.

The U.S. is a net exporter. We have more oil than we need. On an inflation-adjusted basis, oil is cheaper than it was 50 years ago. but the control of the flow of oil is actually very important because you can, in fact, shut China off. So 90% of their oil experts from Venezuela were going to China. There was a shadow fleet coming in and out of Venezuela, and it was going to the people, quite frankly, that we don't like. So the ability to turn off that tap, if China, if you were able to basically sequester China from supplies of energy, they'd be out of business in about six to eight weeks and cannot wage war, whereas the U.S. is

energy independent. That is a big, big deal. But for Exxon or Chevron or name your fossil fuels company, they have shareholders, and on a risk-adjusted basis, they look at this thing. It might be worthy of some incremental investment if they get guarantees or backstops from the government or something like that to upgrade certain facilities. But be clear. This isn't going to going to be a massive, it just doesn't, it doesn't pencil out when the oil is at 62 bucks a share. Now, if oil goes to $110 a share, then they're going to get, you know, they're going to get their wallets out and say, okay, we'll buy futures to lock in that price and we'll make sure that the president gives us a sweetheart deal and security guarantees from the Venezuelan government.

But the old regime was wildly corrupt. Guess who's there right now? The same regime. I know. So we're not going to see, I don't see in the near future, a wave of additional incremental investment capital where you could see massive investment capital is Chipotle in the four seasons. There's a lot of companies that are probably interested in. I'm actually more optimistic about Venezuela than I am, say, about Iraq or Afghanistan, where you had basically these countries that are a mishmash of different tribes with borders drawn up by, you know, the British. Venezuela has been a democracy. many times. It's an homogenous population. I'm actually quite optimistic, not with this administration, but I'm optimistic in general about the prospects. Anyways, I'm getting off track. We're not going to see big capital investments in the short term from oil companies. No, but it's true. And you have to think about the economic benefits of this country, right? I mean, in terms of what he's done here. And it was really interesting. I think he expected them all to follow the script, and as the tech pros tend to do. And they absolutely didn't, which when he said that, my head jerked up. I'm like, oh, wow, that's a big word, uninvestable. Like, it wasn't like, oh, it's problematic, but we'll figure it out. It was un-invath.

It was sort of very clear. And he was obviously irked by that. But leaving them out, listen, he's not going to be able to leave them out if they want to be in there. They're the oil companies. They'll do what they want as much as he thinks he controls everything, as he likes to say that. The more he says, I control everything, the more I know he doesn't in so many ways. We don't have an embassy in Caracas.

We don't have boots on the ground. I'm not exactly sure, other than the threat, I'm not exactly sure how we control it. Nobody wants to go there. Do you think Americans want to, especially his base? They absolutely don't want to go there. I think Venezuela could be one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world if this is handled rightly. This is, and again, this might have been me thinking about this under the influence of opiates.

I think the analogy I would use as a bond film, and that is bond films always have amazing openings. They always nail the opening. But then it goes on to be great, good, or awful. There's been some awful bond movies. There's been some great ones. Whenever we do these adventures and overseas conquest, it almost always starts really well. We were able to do, when I say we, I'm talking about the best performing organization in history, the U.S. military, we were able to do in 35 minutes what Putin is. has not been able to do in 35 months.

I mean... In Ukraine. You're talking about in Ukraine. Yeah, I'm sorry. In Ukraine. Thank you, Kare. This was such a flex and an extraordinary demonstration of skill, strength, and bravery from the U.S. military.

I mean, just absolutely extraordinary. Now... If they hadn't won, though, come on. It's as well. Sorry. Okay, but hold on. Not a single U.S. fatality or casualty. If there had been, I would have been.

I would have been like, what in the hell? How did we lose one person in this? Oh, God. Of course not. You have mercenaries all around them. No, I get it. They know they're coming. You would have thought, supposedly the people on the ground there didn't even hear them coming. Right. This was such an unbelievably massive flex. The problem is the administration has not taken a note out of the most obvious and best written geopolitical strategy in history. And it's the following, the Marshall Plan. All right, we have the Imperial Navy, which was shooting surviving sailors in the sea. We had the Third Reich, which obviously did some terrible things.

So what did the American people in our leadership decide to do? Give them money. We invested in their nations. Yeah. And we weren't punitive. We invested. We rebuilt. And what do you know?

Germany and Japan, 80 years later. are amazing allies. Well, we're turning on them now because of Greenland. Well, hold on. Let's just stick with Venezuela. The opportunity to not say, give me your fucking oil and more deeply impoverts them and have a transition government and then have international voting oversight, free elections, have our great institutions, our great in companies, encourage to invest in Venezuela, give Venezuelan people a shot, show them why democracy and capitalism is so wonderful,

created an amazing ally in Latin America. Yeah, you're talking about the wrong presidents. The movie could have been so... This is a Bond film. It started amazing. Now we're going to find out this may not be a great movie because already he's saying, give me the oil?

Yeah, pretty explicitly. So that's, you know, related is both Greenland and Iran. President Trump is considering very strong options to intervene in Iran a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. He likes to help protesters and other countries. But human rights groups say over 500 people have been killed in the last two weeks with over 10,000 arrested people. Other estimates are much higher.

People are saying reports are coming out much higher than 500. Internet access has also been shut down telephone service. Iran's foreign minister just a little while ago that the country is ready for war but prepared to negotiate. Obviously, most smart people on this issue, whether it's free, there's all kinds of people talking about it. This regime is facing some, you know, they have, this has happened before, but most people feel this is really bad for the regime, which is good for everybody. But taking military action again is, ugh, quagmire, feels quagmire and rather dangerous, although it's maybe the point to attack because this country is on the brink, I think, from what I can read from experts. I can't think of a military operation that has an IRAOI for the world and for women and for feminism right now. We have been here before where it looked like the regime was going to fall.

And because of the IDF and the U.S. Air Force, we have taken out around Zaire defenses. It is clear that the Mossad has penetrated the highest levels in terms of soft assets and espionage. We should absolutely be supporting incredibly brave young women and men. who are risking their lives every day, and we should be striking civilian support centers. We need to help these folks finish the job. This is argued, we are on the precipice of care of what is arguably the greatest unlock for women's rights and to unlock what is an incredible civilization and turn and stabilize the Middle East for decades.

There is so, in my opinion, there is nowhere in the world that cannot. notes a better reason and a bigger opportunity for why we spend more than the next 10 militaries combined. We should be coordinating with our allies in the West, although they're not going to coordinate us anymore, but Israel will coordinate with us, and we should absolutely be providing military cloud cover and on-the-ground assets to make sure that this isn't the 11th hour for the regime. This is lights out. Right. Like that. So again, as you noted, this has happened before. There have been protests across the country. And they beat them back. To tamp them down over and over again, this regime.

But so many people still, suppose I read this morning that 2,000 people have been murdered. The best way to end a war is to win it. We have the resources. They have no air defenses. We have assets. Russia is preoccupied. I mean, I'm a hawk. I don't think there's any reason to spend $1.1 trillion on the U.S. military and then not use it in situations like like this. So what does that look like? Does it look like, again, I mean, you know, does it, does it have that Bush feel to it, that, of course, I suspect much regret for the United States as involvement there, whether it was Afghanistan or Iraq, et cetera? I think, I think that's a fair question because the reality is we are, we are very good, and I think it would not incur much

danger to our men and women to foment regime change here. The problem is when we decide to start trying nation-build. But Iraq, I think that there is an infrastructure and a populace, and they even, you know, everyone's excited about the Shah's son potentially coming back, and he has said the right language that he wants to be a transition leader to free and fair elections. But the current, what we know is the current state is not good for the people of Iran. especially bad for the women of Iran who have been subject to what is arguably one of the worst gender apartheids in the world. Keep in mind, Iran just a year ago was considered the superpower of the Middle East. In addition, I mean, when you look at geopolitics, you're not only going to look at what's happened, what's not happened.

Have the Houthis been causing problems in the Suez Canal? No. Has Hesbel have been firing rockets into their neighbors? No. We need to finish the job here. and just personally, having grown up at UCLA and having friends, David Ossil, my mentor, Hamid Mogadam, Bitoch, Basiri, Alex De Sili, I have never met a group of people who are more American than Americans than Iranians. And I think they could actually be an outstanding ally for us. I think the cultures are much more similar between the U.S. and Iran than a lot of our existing allies. Well, then weigh in what the hell he's doing with Greenland then? I'll tell you exactly what's...

I'll tell you exactly what's going on, Kara. It makes apps of fucking looting no sense. It's all downside. Anything that we say we want, they're like, fine. Put military bases here. Do you want... Do we have rare earth? We're allowed to, as I agree David Sanger.

We can put them there. Yeah, rare earth? Sure. What's your idea? Instead, we want to go to war with NATO? Mm-hmm. I mean, this one is really out of a, out of a, maybe you've done some reporting here or talked to someone. Here's what I think. This is what people around, he just wants to take land to show he'd be the first president to do it since, I don't know, Jefferson or whoever.

Like a real estate deal or something. Yeah, yeah. And he's, someone was speculating, you know, the map, it's called a Merrickator map, shows Greenland is enormous, but it's actually not. It's not as big as, just because the way maps are made. It's a real estate deal that he's obsessed with. And of course, it'll create so much damage to our relationship with Europe. If we start attacking a NATO ally, yeah, I don't, I don't, this makes sense.

I got to think even the administration would go, what are we going to do? No, they seem to be going along with him. They seem to be like whatever crazy shit comes out of his mouth. But we'll see. Do you think you'll take military action here? Prediction Scott. I don't. Yeah.

Well, let me go to say. I think they would just show up. But in Iran, yes. I'm really hopeful. I think this is why we have. I think if we're really serious, I was trying to find what Secretary Clinton thought about this. Because the thing about Secretary Clinton, which she was always pragmatic, was always willing to exert U.S. force.

Oh, she loved a, she loved a bomb drop. And she never, she never forgot where she came from, and that is she always in the back of her mind said, we are here for a lot of reasons, but we're here to protect and advance the rights of women all over the world. And there's a double whammy effect there because the rights of women are largely a forward-looking indicator of your economic growth, prosperity, and you're moved towards democracy. So there's a lot of reasons to just champion that. Yeah, because Trump is a well-known feminist. We are on the verge of such an enormous unlock by toppling the Islamic Republic.

And unfortunately, I didn't watch the Golden Globes, but I doubt there was very many mentions of Iran. Because when you're oppressed... They didn't mention, Scott, let's be fair to them. There was no political. There was hardly any... Yeah, but quite frankly, I would argue. tell me, I would argue the amount of mentions around Iran is vastly underproportionate or underwhelming relative to its importance. And this will trigger a lot of people, but I want a

spicy comeback, and I've decided my theme for 2026 is zero fucks given. It's because of the moral color code. And that is the media and progressives on our side of the aisle, especially the far left, get moral polaralysis when the oppressors are brown. And the number of people, I don't see any flotillas, I don't see Greta Thumburg, I don't see actors talking about what has been one of the most oppressive, misogynistic, anti-democrat. Kara, they blind women. I am aware of also many of those countries, which they have protested against.

Come on, Scott. I mean, even if they're going in the right direction, that government should be eradicated. Let's stop there. And the way we do that is just as we should be supporting the unbelievable bravery of the Ukrainian people with our military hardware and intelligence, we should be supporting the brave men and women of Iran right now. And we have the ability to do it. We have intelligence and technology from the IDF, and we have the muscle. It is time to move to the next stage of this incredible multi-thousand-year civil. and the potential... I get it. I get it. We got to move on, but let me just say if the goal is to do that, threatening our allies over Greenland is not... No fucking sense. No fucking sense. I agree.

No fucking sense. All right, let's take a quick break when we come back. Here's something else you have an opinion on California's elite. It's not happy about a proposed billionaire wealth tax. Support for this show comes from Rubrik. A lot of companies are deploying AI agents now. They're automating tasks, handling workflows, and making decisions. But here's the thing. Sometimes they mess up.

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at netsuite.com slash pivot. The guide is free to you at netsuite.com slash pivot. That's net suite.com slash pivot. Scott, we're back with some more news. Google co-founders, Serté Bryn and Larry Page, are cutting some business ties with California ahead of a proposed billionaire wealth tax in the state. They aren't the only ones plotting for a way around it.

Silicon Valley leads have been privately organizing to block the tax to a signal chat group called Save California. The tax would be a one-time levy and people worth more than a billion dollars. It's a couple hundred people, actually. It's not that many people. But some of them are not having a problem with. Jensen Wong said he's perfectly happy to pay it.

At the end of the day, I'm not so sure these people will cut ties. They all seem to come back to California over and over again, and that's happening right now, as you saw. San Francisco is sort of back baby kind of thing in general. I know you have an issue about this at the ballot passes, but a lot of, it's not a great look, and I suspect this is my feeling and I've been talking to some of these people, is they'll have some sort of, I think the smart ones, understand the jig is up on them being rich, like behaving the way they're behaving and the image of Silicon Valley. And they know they need to do something to, because I think they feel,

the smart ones do, feel that there is a real backlash against enormous wealth and the gimmies they get. And so I suspect behind the scenes there's a deal at play here. But I know behind the scenes there's a deal at play. But thoughts that you have on this? I mean, I think these, the Google guys benefited from California, so did all these billionaires, the wonderful state of California. And it's not a great look the way they're behaving at the same time. They can move anywhere they want. So if the objective is to signal to billionaires

that income inequality is out of control and their weaponization of the tax code has really damaged America and created income inequality that threatens in tears of the fabric of our society, and do you want to reduce receipts? in the California government, then this is your bill. Because this is the bottom line, regardless of what you think is right or ethical, billionaires are the most mobile people in the world.

And this has been tried before, and whoever wrote this bill has just not done their work. One of the people who's senior in this effort reached out to me thinking that I would get on board of it, and I said, there's no reason to do a call because I'm against this. In 1990, there were 12 European countries with wealth taxes. And now only three remain. France repealed its wealth tax in 2017. Sweden repealed it in 2007. Finland, 2006. Denmark repealed its wealth tax in 1978. Austria repealed its wealth tax in 1994. Where I'm living now in the UK, they have a non-DOM Act. And ethically, and logically, it makes a lot of sense. For a long time, if you've moved from Dubai or Hong Kong to London and you were paying zero taxes there, you can't.

got to bring your zero tax status to London. That's kind of unfair if you're using the UK infrastructure. So they said, buck that. You've been here five years. You've got to pay UK taxes. Makes all the sense in the world. Over a thousand million, 10,000 millioners have left. The UK government is going to collect less revenue this year, not more. Ethically, also, or principally, I'm against it because I think once you get through the gauntlet of taxes, it's private property. And I think one of the things about the West is we respect private property. I don't think you can go after people's assets retroactively. What they should have done or what they should do, and I love tax policy, they should have an AMT. We don't care who you are and how many tax goodies you've come up

with. You're going to pay at least 40 percent above a million dollars AMT. Do away with the inheritance tax deduction or vastly reduce it. Raise corporate taxes, there's better ways to do this. Yes, but impossible, by the way, because they have all the money to stop every single one of those things. I don't mind the signal here to these people at all. And I think it is a signal. I'm not so sure. And I know there's some that they... I think our taxes are coming for the wealthy. You are, it's enough with you people. And I think the signal is enough to begin the discussions. And they, listen, they don't look good. Like, here's, especially the Google guys, they made their

fortune in California. So did Elon, by the way. All of them did. And to like kick it on the way out is such a look of greed. And it was really interesting that Jensen Wong, because he probably knows it's not going to really. Jensen doesn't think this is going to go through. That's right. So he's saying, I'm a good guy. I'm one of you. I'm in favor of this. He's not worried about it. He's not worried about it, but he also knows he understands what's coming. See, I find him much more candy. They're just so fucking dumb and greedy. Like, they just always have to react when anyone wants them to do the right thing.

Like, oh, I don't want to have to do what I want to do, that kind of thing. And so I think there's a real interesting interplay here with these wealthy people because I do think brand Silicon Valley is not good. Oh, no shit. You know, so they need to make a deal here. The UK is talking about, UK Australian Canada, talking about banning, banning X. And it's only going to get worse. I think Europe is probably going to consider banning meta if this shit continues with Trump.

But just going back to tax policy, a better tax policy that would be more effective. I mean, this is the problem. Is this with this ballot and some of the conversation we're having here is something I've struggled with my whole life professionally? The difference between being right and being effective. Billioners paying more tax in California to support the incredible infrastructure, the Cal State, the UC system, the hospitals, the environment. absolutely that's right. But the question is, how do you be effective? How do you actually increase the treasury to invest in the middle class and the infrastructure that made these people rich? And one thing you could do, it's boring, but it would be effective, is the following. You get taxed when you

recognize a capital gain based on where the wealth was accreted. So when Bezos accretes, whatever it is, $80 or $120 billion in wealth, and then he recognizes it, the tax authorities go, okay, we estimate that $90 of that $100 billion was accreted while you were a resident of Washington State. And so you are going to pay Washington State taxes on $90 billion. Instead of like, you know, I'm thinking about selling my stock. I'm going to piece out to Miami and shitpost San Francisco and then pay and pretend that I'm seeing my father. I couldn't handle San Francisco politics or homeless anymore. So I'm piecing out to a zero-tax state. And you can literally be there for 12 months and then recognize the entire capital gain without paying anything back to the great infrastructure.

I think there are much more, much more elegant ways. Yeah. No, I think this is the beginning of a dialogue. I just, I don't know, but I have a, let me just tell you, they can walk, you know, do their angry walk out of California, but they're coming for you, folks. You're not, nobody likes you, and they don't think you're heroes, and they don't think you're great, and they don't think what you've done is great. And so if there's one brand that's been more, has shot itself in the footmore, it's Silicon Valley. Not everybody, but a lot of people.

Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Okay, my win is actually, well, the U.S. military that executed the capture Madura, Delta Force, first special forces operation to attachment Delta, which is an elite army special unit that led the direct raid and the apprehension of Madura, the 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment.

And then there are these quiet helicopters, just on night prowlers. And then supporting our brave men and women on the ground there were elements from multiple units, intelligence, mobility, the United States Air Force, United States Navy, the Marine Corps, all had a role in this. I just think if you think about kind of soft power, if you think about America's influence around the world, of the 7 billion people in the world, 6.7 billion don't live here, and 6 billion are never going to come here, and 4 billion are never going to have any interaction or 3 million are probably never going to have any interaction with an American to an extent. So our ability to do business, to continue to attract the best and brightest, to convince them maybe not to cooperate. with people planning to come here and harm us is based on our brand. And part of that brand should be soft power in a positive way. And that's why the cancellation of USAID was so terrible. But also some of it is, quite frankly, as Madeline Albright said, Secretary Albright said, our reach as far and our memory is long. The brand message of this military flux and how it's

executed has sent to chill down the spine of every adversary globally. Jesus Christ, did you see what they did and how easily they did it? I think that the win here, and I'm actually in favor of the operation. U.S., Russia and China were operating a shadow fleet. We also actually didn't get enough press. We seized a Russian tanker like it was wiping sweat from our brow. They did it so elegantly, even though it was being shadowed by an Akilo-based or class Russian sub. It could be an amazing ally. Anyways, we talked about this, but my win is the best performing organization in history of the world, and that is the U.S. military. I'm just fascinated by what people are.

My loss here is the moral color code of America, where, unfortunately, my business, academics have created a zeitgeist of oppressor and oppressed, and we've decided the shorthand for that is the color of the skin. of the oppressor. And we go into moral paralysis, whether it's in Sudan or Afghanistan, or in this case Iran, when the impressors are brown. And I just am disappointed that there's not more attention to what, I don't think you can call yourself a feminist if you're not talking about, excited and very supportive of robust action to overthrow what has been one of the most oppressive regimes globally. And I just don't see that nearly the type of coverage that some other conflicts have received. And I think it's because in America, we do have what I would refer to as a moral color code. And that is the damage done to the oppressed,

the violation of human rights, the pursuit of democracy, the out-of-control misogyny are not what dictates our response. What largely dictates our response is the color of the skin of the oppressor. Okay. That's my fail. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't credit a lot of my thoughts around this to this really impressive woman who I had the pleasure of meeting, a woman named Elica Labon, and if you're not following her, you should. I think she's just so brave and so thoughtful around issues as it relates to Iran and other conflicts around the world. All right. It's kind of funny you say that because there was a story on Fox about wine moms, white wine moms. White wine moms. Oh, my God.

I love that. Now the lesbians and white wine moms. The women of white wine. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. That got started with that Justice's wife, who had drank wine and hung the flag upside down. Yeah, well, she's a different white wine mom.

She's on the other side. Let me do my fail first. What's happening with Grock. And the fails are Apple and Google, and, of course, Grock, as always, is in terms of allowing child abuse. and misogyny to just thrive in pretending its free speech. Back in the day, I feel like child pornography was something we all agreed shouldn't happen.

The fact that these companies haven't thrown Grok out or demanded changes or anything been vocal about this issue. And maybe they are behind the scenes, but I don't care. They should say it publicly about what Musk has been doing at Grok, which is disturbing. There were pictures of the woman who was killed in Minnesota with bikinis on. in his spicy mode. Look, people are going to make these things stupid anti-women things all the time, but this is really repulsive when it comes to children. And this is something we shouldn't.

I'm going to do a whole show on it because I'm just so tired. And I don't think the media has paid enough attention to this, but I don't think it's the media's fault, so I'm not going to, like, slap the media for it. I think Apple and Google have some influence here in terms of the App Store and everything else. And I know, for example, that a federal judge just ruled that the lawsuit against opening I should go to trial and that's perfectly fine, but the behavior of GROC is really pretty

heinous. And so, and if they're never going to do something because it's Elon Musk and he has no values whatsoever at this point, but Apple and Google certainly should and stand up. And the lack of standing up by many companies these days is pretty disturbing on every level, but this, this to me is the most disturbing that I've seen so far. And my win is, my win continues to be people that, you know, that are standing up, whether it's Jerome Powell, whether it's, even the Exxon executive, he just said the truth out loud about things. This is an administration of cronies and hacks and terrible people that are still doing damage, even if they're incompetent.

And so anybody who speaks out and says things, I'm really, and Jerome Powell this week sort of gets that for me, absolutely, even in a small way. I don't love when actors do it from stages, and I thought actually Gene Smart, besides saying she's a greedy bitch for winning three times, which was very funny, was really did it well. Like she said something very clearly, and at the same time she understood. She's like, I understand that people don't like to hear actors talking about these things, but I'm a citizen and this, we have to do the right thing. I thought she did it in a really classy way. So that was a small way. I think Jerome Powell is doing the same thing.

And I think everyone who calls attention to all this fucking nonsense. And also Jake Tapper for doing that excellent interview with Christyneum deserves credit for just saying, oh, come on, fucking enough with you people. Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever's on your. mind, go to NYMag.com slash pivot. To submit a question for the show, or call 85551 Pivot. Okay, that's the show.

Thanks for listening to Pivot, and our new Scott Galloway. She's so pretty. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, welcome. Stop laughing. Stop laughing. I just, I love everything.

It's lucky it's not at my expense. I got to say, everyone's like, why Scott out? And I'm like, uh, and they're like, facelift. No, it wasn't a facelift. Whatever, that was what they said. That's coming. That's coming. All right.

Read us out, you pretty little lady. Today's show is produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Erdog engineered this episode. Rich Schibli edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Bros. Miss Rivera and Dan Shalon, the Chaukroaz, Box Media's executive producer of podcast. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine of Box Media.

You can subscribe to the magazine at Edmymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later. this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. I asked the surgeon just to look natural and I think he misheard me and said, I want to look naturally surprised. I'm looking at Ferraris, Kara. I'm looking at Ferraris. What is the hole I'm trying to fill here? What is the hole? Oh, it's a big one. It's a big one.