Some More News - Some Less But Actually Mostly News, Questions, And Clips

Episode Date: July 4, 2025

Hi. Happy 4th of July. Today's episode, which we recorded on Tuesday, July 1, is only available in audio form on the podcast feed! Katy, Cody, and Jonathan talk about the Senate nudging through their horrible police state bill, JD Vance's hypocrisy, and Trump not understanding a simple question. They also answer some fan questions asked from our patrons and break down a bizarre interview with Peter Thiel.PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/joinPluto TV. Stream Now. Pay Never.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Hi guys, welcome back to a little less news, working title. My name's Katie Stoll. Way little of the less news and some of it is here for your cues. Hi, I'm Cody coming at you live three days ago. Yep. How you doing?

Jonathan is also here. Hi. There he is. You guys might be confused. You might be confused and I don't blame you, so I'm gonna explain. The day that this is released will be the 4th of July. Happy that day to everyone.

Whatever. Happy it. But anticipation, in anticipation of that day, we are recording a podcast earlier in the week. It was gonna be a way less news, the version of the show where we do everything possible to talk about anything but the news. However, there's just too much news. So much is broken this morning. So we're

going to talk about a little bit of it. And then we're going to talk about other things and maybe answer some questions. It's going to be an extravaganza. Yeah. It's every podcast we've ever done mashed together. Well, I don't know what I'm gonna title it. It'll be a surprise. Way. To me, not you. You know what it is by now. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Even way little news.

I don't know, we'll figure it out by the time this is released. No, more news. But yeah, this morning, it's just, we can't not talk about it. There are a few things happening and developing that need to be addressed. And even though in a couple of days, there'll be more developments there and more things to get angry or depressed about. We got to we got to.

Yeah, to let listeners know where we're coming from This morning the bill passed the Senate 50 to 50 with JD Vance giving the tie-breaking vote Yeah, really bad they they basically said all the horrible stuff in this bill doesn't apply to Alaska so that Murkowski would buy for it, and! And she's like, well, all the bad stuff is good for the rest of the country, but not me. Yeah, so Murkowski said, I'm gonna quote her directly, because my goodness, Murkowski said, I know that in many parts of the country, there are Americans that are not going

to be advantaged by this bill. Incredible phrase, not going to be advantaged by this bill. Incredible phrase, not going to be advantaged by it. Okay, go on. Are they going to be disadvantaged by it? Is it even? Is it a neutral bill? Are they gonna be nothinged by this? Just like-

That's a masterful semantics. Just like, congratulations to her for managing to say that, I guess. But what a wild characterization. They won't be advantaged by moving on. And she's the one who could have stopped. Yep. Right. She goes, no, it's no. Then then they got to go back to the drawing board. And Trump rants about that all day instead of ranting about how the concentration camp they built in Florida is great.

Fucking cowards. They're cowards. Like, JD Vance is not a good dude. Just these fucking tweets. Like, he's just a scummy guy. JD Vance, quote, tweet, last night, everything else, the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutia of the Medicaid policy, is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions. The minutia of the Medicaid policy.

Just a real disgusting characterization again. Interesting that it's the middle tweet of a thread and it's got the least likes. Maybe your tweet fucking sucks, JD. Maybe people know that you're full of shit. I mean, yeah, it is very ghoulish to just, I mean, literally minimize. The minutia of Medicaid. of 12 to 17 million people right literally life and death decisions

here Compared to the ice money and immigration and immigration enforcement provisions. Okay, so none of that means anything The only thing you should care about is how much we're doubling down on this disgusting, abhorrent practice and policy that we've put into place. Okay, cool. Yeah, it's just like, he's such a slimy little weasel of a guy. Because what you're saying, Katie, is like,

yeah, if you really do think all that other stuff is immaterial compared to the ice money or whatever, do that separately. I mean, don't do it separately. And obviously, you're packing it all in because this is just how you do things now, this is how you have to get things done. To just say that none of this other stuff matters

and the real thing that matters is our Gestapo that we need to fund. Really gross. Yeah, well, he is, you know, highlighting one of the headlines of this bill. And obviously, throwing tens of millions of people off Medicaid is horrible. But it is one of the big headlines, if not the biggest one, that we're giving forty five billion dollars for ICE detention and enforcement. I mean, that is significantly multiplying Trump's personal racist paramilitary force. It's grotesque. They constantly say, look, we spent so much money on everything. Why are we

doing this? And then we're going to, yeah, that's so much money. Has literally anybody acknowledged, you know, on the right, the reality of what will happen to hospitals all across this country within the very near future? It's immaterial. Like, is there... It's immaterial. But it's like, they only, only, only focus on... No, the Medicaid cuts are, you know, because we're kicking illegal immigrants off of it.

But nobody's addressing the reality, which is that and it's going, you know, our hospitals are subsidized by Medicaid and rural communities specifically are going to be decimated by this, etc. We've talked about this so much, but I haven't seen anybody addressing that at all. Well, he's also, it's based on a lie, right? He's still pushing this thing that importing millions of illegal immigrants and giving them health care, which is not happening.

No. It's already illegal under federal law to use that federal Medicaid money for undocumented immigrants. They like to point out that blue states do, right? California gave its own Medicaid that it pays for to several hundred thousand Yes, undocumented immigrants, but that's not like affected by this bill This is based on a conspiracy theory that he is peddling to his

Supporters that the ice thing is all wrapped up into it, right the Medicaid cuts Well, we're just getting these immigrants off of Medicaid. It's all wrapped into the same thing. So the minutia, which is like the people that he wrote his book about that he holds in great contempt, they're losing their healthcare in Trump country is not important to him. He's being relatively honest here, except when he says the dishonesty is off the charts in this tweet, because he is the one who is lying.

Oh yeah, this response to, because Maddie Glacius, fan of the show, Maddie Glacius tweeted a response to that gross Vance tweet saying, millions of people losing their health insurance is not immaterial. A very simple point from Matt Iglesias, again, fan of the show.

And yeah, Vance is just like, well, this guy wants to bankrupt Medicaid by importing millions of illegals. Now he pretends to care about them is like, I can't believe the brazenness of this, again, disgusting, grotesque, pathological liar. John and the pointed out earlier, Greg Sargent has pointed out that in, let's say, 2017,

back when JD Vance was referring to Trump as either America's Nixon or America's Hitler, one or the other. I guess J.D. decided it was both and he liked it. Back then he constantly talked about how Trump and Trumpism are betraying working people with all of these attempts to cut Medicaid. It's, he explained the grift to everybody that they're doing. It's the same with Josh Hawley,

all these fake teal populists who are saying, well, we're gonna protect Medicaid. We know this, we're this, we're working class, but they aren't and they don't care. And they will just throw all those people under the bus because as Jonathan pointed out, they have only contempt for them and they don't

care if they live or die as long as they get to do their secret deportation police and build more and more and more concentration camps for them. For example, something they are referring to as alligator Alcatraz. Good transition, Cody. Thank you. I mean, talk about grotesque. This is just like the grotesquerie variety hour. Yeah, this is like the main, like today it was just like kind of depressing.

And this did it. Yeah. This does it. They toured this, it's like a abandoned, not even abandoned. I think they seized this airport in the Everglades from someone who was convicted of child porn. Am I getting that right? And now they are reconstituting it into a 3,000 bed, again concentration camp for whoever they're rounding up and so Trump and Kristi Noem and Ron DeSantis wander

around in there today marveling at how great the cages are. This is gonna happen more and more. They're going to do more and more of this stuff. That's why they want all those billions of dollars in addition to hiring more agents who, again, if you wanna join ICE in 2025, got bad news for you. What kind of person are you? A Nazi person.

What do you support? What do you support? Who are you? Why are you doing this? I don't think you have news for them. What are you signing up for? They know what they're signing up for. But in addition to that, it's the camps.

We talked about this for so long. What does mass deportations now mean? Well, it either means you need to kick everybody out, round them up and kick them out with no due process, and that will also involve detaining them for a while in camps, or you do give them due process and then you collect them in more and more and more of these private facilities to hold them indefinitely, basically. Again, concentration camps. So we're gonna do this more and more and more. And now they know, they know after hiring

the game show host to be the president, hiring him, after getting that guy in office who's now selling gold plated cologne or whatever, they know they're the branding people. They're the disgusting American fascist nation that wants to, and this is very lazy and tired comparison, but it is that idiocracy thing of the professional wrestling president

just doing all their branding. Look at these concentration camps brought to you by Gatorade like that is Yeah, the kind of shit that we are in right now and Here is the walking evidence. I This is this Benny Johnson tweet is just yeah, let's see it. He reads he says in his tweet Hi guys, I've just been handed official alligator Alcatraz merch. repeat this prison has merch things are going insanely well. Here's what he says

I just want everyone to know that there's official alligator Alcatraz merch There it is provided to us by the state of Florida And yeah, would you rock this drip look at that Incredible. And, yeah. Would you rock this drip? Look at that. What a piece of shit. I hate him.

A soulless, empty man. And who the fuck wants to wear that on their head? Nazis. What the fuck? I'm trying to quickly Google any private contractors. Did they have Auschwitz merch? Like you can just replace that word on his hat. Like this is, he, I mean,

we don't need to spend a whole lot of time on him. He was a plagiarist at Buzzfeed. He happily took Russian money to do propaganda. He's a disgusting piece of shit. And he doesn't really believe in anything. He would, like, he's a disgusting piece of shit and he doesn't really believe in anything. He would like he's a crisis king. Bro, you would have nailed that guy to the cross and you would have said, well, he broke the law, right?

That's what this man would have done. When Trump was down there, you know, the whole thing is just him answering questions. People just journalists follow him around. They shout out ideas of bad things he could do, and he's like, oh, that's an interesting idea. At one point, and we're gonna play this clip that I don't think either of you have seen yet. Mr. President, is there an expected timeframe

that detainees will spend here days, weeks, months? And does that have anything to do with the immigration judges you just spoke about being trained and staffed here? When you say, what was the first part of your question? Is there a specific time frame you expect the detainees to spend here? Days, weeks, months? In Florida? Yes, here at alligator Alcatraz.

I'm going to spend a lot. Look, this is my home state. I love it. I love your government. I love all the people around. These are all friends of mine. They know very well. I mean, I'm not surprised that they do so well. I love your government. I love all the people around. These are all friends of mine. They know very well. I mean, I'm not surprised that they do so well. They're great people. Ron has been a friend of mine for a long time. I feel very comfortable in the state. I'll spend a lot of time here.

I want to, you know, for four years, I've got to be in Washington, and I'm okay with it because I love the White House. I even fix up the little Oval Office. I make it, it's like a diamond. It's beautiful. It's so beautiful. It wasn't maintained properly, I will tell you that. But even when it wasn't, it was still the oval office, so it meant a lot. But I'll spend as much time as I can here. You know, my vacation is generally here because

it's convenient. I live in Palm Beach. It's my home. And I have a very nice little place — nice little cottage to stay at, right? But we have a lot of fun. And I'm a very nice little place, nice little cottage to stay at, right? But we have a lot of fun. And I'm a big contributor to Florida. You know, pay a lot of tax. And a lot of people move from New York. And I don't know what New York is going to do. A lot of people moved to Florida from New York, and it was for a lot of reasons.

But one of them was taxes. The taxes are so high in New York, they're leaving. I don't know what New York is going to about that because some of the biggest wealthiest people and some of the people that pay the most taxes of any people anywhere in the world for that matter, they're moving to Florida and other places. So we're gonna have to help some of these states out, I think, but thank you very much.

I'll be here as much as I can. Very nice question. I think, I'm cringing so hard. Very nice question, he says. People can't see our faces, but shock and horror. He was asked that question multiple times. Twice. He was asked, how long will the detainees been staying here? He doesn't he goes, I'm sorry, can you repeat that detainees days, weeks, months, he goes, I love this state. I'm gonna stay here a long time. Can you imagine, and I don't wanna just do a one-to-one,

like imagine if Biden had done this and rent, like, they, cause they let him go. Biden would have had someone tapping him on the shoulder saying they're asking about detainees. How long will the detainees be here? 100%. I am going on every major news Website, I don't even see a subhead. I'm barely see like that should be a pretty big news story that he either can't hear

or has Real trouble processing simple information simple information 100% and then he's talking about the Oval Office. It's a diamond I'm in now it was a before, it was not maintained very well until him, until he came along. That is absolutely fucking wild to watch. Am I nuts? Shouldn't that be? That should be. Yeah, that was- It should absolutely

be a story, Jonathan, and I would imagine that even though we are releasing this on Friday, a significant amount of people won't have seen it. Yep, oh yeah. Because it'll trend for five minutes and then be gone or whatever. Well because also, so this is him being

big beautiful brain I guess. What a wild clip. It's also paired with another question about whether or not he, I forget the exact phrasing of the question, but it ended with, do you have anything to say about communist Zoran Mamdani? And his answer was that we're gonna deport him

and they shouldn't be here. So like, that's the thing that gets, hopefully that gets attention too, and Democrats who refuse to acknowledge that he exists will defend him from this. But I feel like that's like the thing that would get the traction. And this moment of Trump clearly like losing his mind is not going to be. Well, Trump suggests that Zoran Mamdani might be here illegally, which is not true. And also the question asker, he surrounds himself

with these people. The question asker intentionally mispronounces his name and calls him Zorhan twice. Yeah, this is a point we've kind of already made. But what are we doing asking these questions? We're just setting them up. We're giving him the idea. Now that's a thing that's in his head.

Now that's where he's going. Now that's a statement. It's because they want that headline. It's because that is something that everyone will click on. And yeah, we should all be watching him struggle to answer, I mean, not answer a question. No, he didn't struggle to answer it. He was answer, a question in Rambo's Revival Movement. He didn't struggle to answer it, he was very confident answering a question nobody asked.

Like the best case version, struggle to hear a very clear question. Why would anyone ask how long you're gonna stay in Florida? What do we, like he just thinks people like ask him questions and he just likes to hear himself talk. And I think- Give him a podcast, not a country. Like why are you doing there, man? Why are you there? He just thinks people like asking him questions and he just likes to hear himself talk and I Country like what are you doing there man? Why are you there? Like what is the like you're there for this thing? Like if you never heard the word detainee before good by the way, I'm not even saying that

Biden's mind was a non-story Clearly no, it was you know, it's just like the the American people saw the coverage of that they saw how there were times when Biden had a hard time articulating himself and grasping the issues, more articulating himself than potentially understanding. But at any rate, saw that and I think accurately determined this guy shouldn't be the president, right? I think if you I think you need to see this on a loop over and over. I think Americans aren't gonna see this clip

and they need to see a man who clearly is slipping and unable to. It's hard to continuously vent about the hypocrisy, people's inability to hold Donald Trump to the same standards as literally anybody in the world, but especially Joe Biden. But here we are again. Go ahead, Cody, you had something.

Just in addition to all of these things, let's say that that person did ask him how long he was gonna stay. His answer was still bad. Yeah, oh yeah. It was still very rambly and he didn't need to talk so long. He didn't need to talk about the poor state of the Oval Office

up until he became the president. He rambled on for a minute and a half. He could have just said, I'm going to be here for as long as I'm needed here. And then I'll go back to the White House to fight for the American people. But no matter where I am, I'm always fighting for the American people.

Next question. So like, there's no world where this is a normal, good, appropriate answer. Yeah. Well. And then at the end he goes, very nice question. Thank you for that. What was it? What do you think the question was? Do you like Florida?

What? Like a nice question? What are you, like a child who went to Disneyland or Disney World? Sorry. Yes, he is Here's the way less news part of the show. Here's the cues part of the even more cues Yeah, whatever even more There's some I mean I intentionally asked for non news questions because I thought we were gonna be like so this is gonna be a harsh pivot But it's gonna be a palate cleanser perfect

Talk about another more scum poetry. Oh These are questions submitted to us by our wonderful patrons patreon.com some more news to ask us questions sometimes and It feels great to interact. Leo Puppytime asks, have y'all ever missed out on or bungled an opportunity, professional or otherwise? Oh, sure, lots, many, so very many. I was a professional actress for a very long time,

so there's audition horror stories left and right. Is there one that got away, you think, a part that you thought you were like perfect for? Is there a part that I thought I was perfect for? Yeah, all of them. There was a period of time where I got really shook to my core. There was a lot of life stuff going on. But I was also getting the most auditions and I kept getting called into this one casting office. And I went in for a part,

this is in my early mid-20s when you're still playing kind of high school, college. I went in for this part and I, I'd been in this office many times, so it felt like a pretty good opportunity, but I was so nervous and anxious that I got super dizzy in the room and I told them I had to stop it,

I had to sit down and like take a breath and I thought I was gonna throw up. So, that's not a fun story, but yeah, that happened. Yeah, what was the role? It was some sort of recurring love interest character on one of those high school shows. Or no, it was a college show. I can't think of the name of it,

but it was very popular on the WB for a while. And I believe my friend Jessica Rose got it. So at least there's that or she got a different one. Anyway, there's that. I bet I could think of another story. Is it called Sorority Forever? No, but I did work on that show. Okay.

I helped produce that show. Ooh. That was big, fantastic. My first, they did Prom Queen, which was like my first acting job in LA. And then I worked for them and helped them produce Sorority Forever. That's where I met Jessica.

That's cool. Okay, well then I have no other guesses on what this show was. I'm on her IMDB page. I believe she was on it. Me too. What was something around that cooking up? No Greek Greek that's what it was it. Yeah

100% that's what it was. Yeah But there were lots of others boy there were lots of others there was the time I auditioned for the newsroom didn't get that Heartbreaking I was was, I think- That's his name, right? Pretty close, yeah. The Better Call Saul. I think in the last five to maybe be the blank check kid. That's right. I remember that. Didn't get that one.

Oh. Yeah, I can't think of a specific, like, a big, like, missed opportunity. Maybe that commercial audition, Katie, you had me go to for you. I don't know if I- Yeah, we auditioned. No, we auditioned together for something. They're like, bring it. Sometimes they'll say, bring a friend of it.

You know? And then I, you know, for whatever parameters of the audition is, with good chemistry that you guys have, this, whatever the casting call is. And so I was like, Cody, you want to go? And, uh, he didn't know how to audition for a commercial. I was like, you have to say your name. Show your hands. Show my hands? What are you talking about?

I don't know. Excuse me. And then like, I had to like teach you how to audition. Do I spell my name too? Like what is going on here? Willing to shave, no. God no. Although yeah, sure I am.

Sometimes. Sure. Sometimes. A Kodaroku asks, hey Cody, what's your play in? Uh, thank you. Notice they didn't ask me that question. They will eventually when you get hooked. Never! Maybe not.

Thank you. I believe this is a reference to some other YouTube thing about games. They're asking what games I'm playing right now. I'm playing a game called Dune Awakening. Ever heard of it. It's obviously based on Dune.ening. It's... Ever heard of it? Ever heard of it. It's obviously based on Dune.

The IP, ever heard of it? It is a, it's like a survival base building kind of survival type game, like a Valheim, a little bit with RPG elements. There's like a story going on as well as the survival game. I've not yet seen a survival RPG which is actually... so for a long time I've been wanting to play a game much like Grand Theft Auto but in the Star Wars universe where you can also build bases and do like survival stuff.

And that game's never going to exist. Dune is pretty close. Grand theft ship. Grand moff auto. Grand moff auto. Grand smuggle moff. I would play a game called Grand Moff Auto. O-T-T-O.

Is there a game called Pew Pew Pew? There better be one day. There's no game called Pew Pew Pew. Why isn't there a game called Pew Pew Pew? Let's make it. I don't know how to do that. Can we ask? Me neither.

ChatGP. Google? ChatGP too good, sorry. Anyway, that game is never going to exist, but Dune Awakening is pretty close. You're on a desert planet, you do the survival stuff, you get the spice, and you ostensibly have the force and the lightsaber and the blaster.

This sounds like a game that I would like to watch someone play. You might enjoy it. There's a bit of a grind to it. I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far while they fix. I love the grind, baby. And then it builds to this sort of like communal PVP person versus person type combat system

where like you go to this massive desert and try to get the spice before the worm gets you. The worm is in the game also, by the way. Oh, okay. And it eats you in the sand. It's very fun. I would recommend it. Hopefully they fix a lot of the problems with it.

And one cool thing I would say, the plot of it, if you're familiar with Dune, have you got any Dune heads on the show? Katie, you've seen Dune? I like the Dune. You like the Dune movies? I've seen the Dune movies for sure. Yeah, it doesn't sound like you have.

No, I have, I did. I just said it weird. Okay, you said it as though you had not. The premise- No, because nobody, I just said it weird. You said it as though you had not. The premise- No, there's nobody, I haven't read the books. Well the premise is that Paul Atreides, Chalamet, is basically having this spice fever dream, and the story is if Paul wasn't born,

if Paul was a woman instead, because the whole part of Dune is that there's this prophecy, and it's gonna be this woman that she's gonna marry off to the Harkonnen and stuff, but it's Paul instead, and then he continues, goes this Golden Path stuff. We've all seen Dune, but basically it's just like, what if there was no Paul, what would happen?

What's that Rushmore clip with Owen Wilson? Presupposes. Everyone knows about it. Big hers. But this book presupposes is What If It Didn't. That's all I can think of. That is basically what it is. Yeah.

Yeah. It's Dune, but What If It Didn't. Any more cues for you? Sure. Let's do one more cue. This one's a more Katie-centric cue. Dune awakening. David asks, what's the best wildlife interaction you've had up in the mountains and in the city?

Currently dealing with a skunk situation underneath my house, which is unfortunate. Shimmied down underneath there for the first time since I've lived there here and realized that the door to the crawl space was open. So that is now closed and I'm hoping that it was closed with the skunk outside and not inside

because in that case I've trapped them in there. And I don't know what to do. What if when a skunk dies it smells good? I don't think that's how it works. Maybe that is the thing that happens. And I'm just worried about it. I'm going to dig into it this week. But I can get someone to trap it and remove it.

But a lot of times, they kill them. And I don't want to do that. But if you just release it, then it comes back. So I'm hoping to deter it. I don't know. It's a situation that's evolving. Cody, what's your story? You must develop that situation. Good luck with the smells. I mean I don't have, I don't live in the wildlife area and I don't have amazing bear death stories. I did a cross-country trip a few years ago, probably more than a few now, and was heading to a family thing, and I stopped by the Grand Canyon for a couple of days,

and while there, I brought my dog, I had her on a little backpack, and it was just a line of deer got really close to us, and she was very fascinated by them, and it was a cute little, I'm a sucker for any sort of cross species friendship. Okay, well, I'm gonna put the, oh sorry, keep going. That, I don't know, there were some peacocks

in my backyard a couple weeks ago. That's cool. Yeah, that was nice. That's a city one. It was cool, but one was injured. Just a note on the deer. Oh. Yeah. That is sad.

Yeah, I called the. And I don't mean to brush past that, but I do have something important to say. But you're going to, so. That I thought. Yeah, called. And I don't mean to brush past that, but I do have something important to say. But you're going to. That I thought about sharing, and now that you mentioned deer specifically and cross species, keep your dogs away from the deer. Keep your dogs far away from the deer, especially.

Like ticks and stuff? Yeah, they have a lot of ticks, for sure. That's a big thing. Feeding deer in general, interacting with them makes them come into populated areas. But they are not, they are very aggressive. Deer are very aggressive, especially with small dogs. And there are a lot in my yard and it's fun

and I think they're beautiful and cute. They do eat my plants. But last week, a person I know had their small dog trampled by a deer to death. Well, that's terrifying. Because the babies were apparently nearby and the doe is very protective. But both the does and the, what's the other one?

Stags? Buck. Is that a male buck? Thank you, stags, something else. Now who lives in the mountains? Aha, not me. Yeah, anyway, so, admire from afar, wildlife in general.

To be clear, we did admire from afar. I wasn't like, I'm not like carrying her up to the deer and having them do like a selfie. I'm saying that because it's a, no, no, no, for sure. I'm not throwing you under the bus here. But I just think that's a good piece of knowledge for people to have when they're,

because deer we do not associate with being aggressive. And there are lots of people in my community that interact with the deer and would say, no, no, no, it's fine, but I've heard a lot of stories about deer. I mean, in general, just like don't get up with, like, wildlife in general. You want to keep your distance and keep them, you know, pristine and pure and safe. For yourself as well.

The peacocks left eventually. Poor little injured peacock. The summer of cinema is here! I mean, it's been here for a while, even though summer technically didn't start until June 20th. But it's even here-er now-er and Pluto TV is exploding with thousands of free movies. It'll feel like summer all year round, but especially now in the summertime of the year with action packed films like gladiator

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Okay, cut. Speaking of keeping wildlife at a distance, do you want to talk about Peter Teal? Okay. Speaking of So I got two clips here Along because he has a hard time

Getting it out Let me just set this up. I guess by saying that he's talking with Ross doubt that doubt that thought do do I've never never heard it. I only read it. They're having a conversation about transhumanism and The potential for AI to help human beings become a higher Form of life kind of I already hate this and they're having this bizarre kind of a

Philosophical conversation about what that means. So there's two clips. They're they're pretty closely related Here's the first one Or do you think it's just hype? Do you think people are trying to raise money by pretending that we're going to become build a machine god, right? Is it is it hype is it delusion? Is it something you worry about you? I think you want you would prefer the human race to endure right? worry about you I think you want you would prefer the human race to endure right you're hesitant well I yes I don't know I I would I would this is a long hesitation there's so many questions in the human race survive yes okay but but Yes. But I also would like us to radically solve these problems. And so, you know, it's

always, I don't know, you know, yeah, transhumanism is this, you know, the ideal was this radical transformation where your human natural body gets transformed into an immortal body. And there's a critique of, let's say, the trans people in a sexual context, or I don't know, is someone who changes their clothes and cross dresses, and a transsexual is someone where you change your penis into a vagina and we can then debate how well those surgeries work. But we want more transformation than that. The critique is not that it's weird and unnatural. It's so pathetically little.

We want more than cross dressing or changing your sex organs. We want you to be able to change your heart and change your mind and change your whole body. And then Orthodox Christianity, by the way, the critique Orthodox Christianity has of this is these things don't go far enough. Before we say anything, I just want to note that I think he is terrifying. Watching him, there's something so unsettling and unnerving, like a different version of his life where he didn't become this billionaire, whatever he is, I think there's something

deeply wrong with him. Yeah, I mean, he's the guy who co-founded the paying people online app who cares what he thinks about like human machines cyborgs to like what are you talking about as if he Yeah, our big thoughtlier Cody you you're you've got something in the chamber. I mean You're right who cares like you you're the banking online guy. I do find it interesting that he does these interviews semi often and he never, he doesn't have like a guy who's like, we're gonna like put a little makeup on you.

We're gonna like make you look like, he looks almost translucent. Like he's, you can almost see like his blood flowing through him. He's sweating so profusely and just looks like the most tired person I've ever seen in my life. And he doesn't need to be, he's a billionaire. That's beside the point, but it's just so weird.

He doesn't want to present himself in a positive light to reach people or convince people. He's just like, yeah, I'm like a little gremlin, and we should be able to change ourselves into super gremlins. Yeah, that's not on his radar at all. But that's unimportant. That aside, it's unimportant.

But these, yeah. Yeah, just he shouldn't pause so much. He sounds like Magneto. Sure. It's too much. There's some real super villain vibes here. Once we cross this threshold and we've transformed ourselves,

I get the sense from listening to him that he will be done with humanity, right? Like he aspires to this transformative thing to get to this next step, but then what do you do with people who don't make that choice, who don't want to do that, who want to stay human beings? Don't have the means to. That's the magneto of it all, that life is bothersome.

If someone asks you if you want the human race to endure, you say yes. You say yes, exactly. He took him a while to get to yes, and then I don't believe he said yes, but I think he said yes. He did say yes, but. He did say yes, but. It was yes, but.

I wasn't sure if it was yes, but or yes, and. That but. No, he's not yes, and. Well, some people could use that interchangeably, but he even said literally butt. That immediately dismisses the first part, if you put butt before your first sentence, I think we all can agree with that.

Generally. And then to pivot entirely into this weird space of, but we're more than humanity, we can be robots, we can be, we're more than humanity, we can be technology, we can be robots. We are more than humanity. We can be technology. We can be science. We can be gods, essentially. Some of us can. Yeah, some of us can. And it doesn't matter if humans, as we know it, survive. He seems to also think that the issue that many Americans have with trans people is that they don't go far enough.

Yeah, that was wild! As if they, oh, they're setting their sights on like the thing that makes them feel whole and like a person setting their sights too low and they should think the way I think and want to be... Like, this is a fundamentally broken model. Yeah it's very bizarre. Also like you know there's like there are things that are going to happen in the future that are like have these elements of transhumanism where we're having these implants we're doing this and cyberics, all kinds of things to sort of adjust and enhance or not enhance, adjust and fix sort of like limitations on that we have on our fleshy little

bodies. We have, we created telescopes because our eyes aren't very strong, all these sorts of things. But what he's talking about is this bizarre, like, like millions of years in the future sort of like God like ascension via this, I find very weird, not weird to make sense. He's just these people talk out both sides of their mouth, these people talk out both sides of their mouth, talking about trans people, talking about them in such a way, almost positively, because he seems to be saying that like,

well, because we've brought this up too before, where like all these sort of like transhumanists, like future, quote unquote future thinking, like tech freaks have these ideas about how we're gonna change the human body but they hate trans people you know like they they reject this this part of it and so that is a sort of contradiction there but him talking about it almost positively as like yeah and we're gonna go even

farther than that like you should be able to do this and then we're gonna go farther you fund people who are actively working against trans people constantly. Like everyone in your circle who you fund is the opposite of what you're saying. Supports the opposite of what you're saying. I wouldn't say that he's talking about it positively so much as indifferently.

Almost callously, I would categorize it like that. Yeah, no, I don't mean like positively, like he's supporting trans people. But to your response, no, no, no, I know you're not. I totally get what you're saying, but I think for him, the human lives of trans people are irrelevant,

but the technology or the ability, the science is interesting. That's what I get from that. And it's like, why are we wasting our time with people living their best lives? We could be doing this, we could be doing this. We could be doing more. Why isn't anybody talking about that? And it's like, dude, we can barely have the conversation as is, but also you don't give a shit about those? And it's like, dude, we can barely have the conversation as is, but also you don't give a shit about those. Yeah, you're actively working against them. Oh, that's a good point.

I think that's true. But yeah, he's actively working against them. And he's also using them as this like, manipulating, using this as a stepping stone to what he actually wants to achieve. This next clip is a few stone to what he actually wants to achieve this next clip is a few minutes after what we just watched and he's

basically saying that This is kind of what he says right before this so we're jumping into his anti Christ spot But he thinks that people are gonna become so fearful of The power of AI and how all this technology can upend our lives that we will all seek out a Leader who promises peace and safety and will become a one-world totalitarian government. This is his fear He's a Donald Trump supporter, by the way but he thinks that someone's gonna come and promise peace and safety from the scary technology and will become a one world totalitarian government and he likens this to

the Antichrist. Interesting, but before we play I have to point out that um, he's doing that with AI. He promises peace and safety because of AI and his technology and his companies. He's doing the promising. Peter, all right. And I don't know if it's in this clip, maybe it is, but Ross Douthat does point that out. Good. Good job, Ross. How does the Antichrist take over the world? He gives these demonic, hypnotic speeches and people just fall for it. So it's this plot hole. It's this daemonium.

It's totally implausible. It's a very implausible plot hole. But I think we have an answer to this plot hole. The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop. You talk about existential risk nonstop. And this is what you need to regulate. It's the opposite of the picture of Baconian science from the 17th, 18th century, where, you know, the Antichrist is like some evil tech genius, evil scientist who invents this machine to take over the world. People are way too scared for that. In our world, the thing that has political resonance is the opposite. The thing that has political resonance is we need

to stop science. We need to just say stop to this. And this is why I think environmentalism is pretty powerful. I don't know if it's absolutely powerful enough to create a one world totalitarian state, but man it is. I think it is not. It is. In its current form. It is. I want to say it's the only thing people still believe in in Europe.

Like you know they believe in the green thing more than Islamic Sharia law or more than in you know the Chinese communist totalitarian takeover and the future is an idea of a future that looks different from the present. The only three on offer in Europe are Green, Sharia, and, you know, the totalitarian communist state and the Green one is by far the strongest. I don't think... Wait, what?

I think maybe... Sorry, you go Jonathan. Go, what? Part of this, he's obviously trying to deflect any sort of accusations and attention from himself. He knows what he's doing. He knows the companies that he is in charge of. He knows all the people he funds. He knows the president that he is charge of. He knows all the people he funds.

He knows the president that he supports. But also, he sounds kind of dumb. No, he does, for sure. It's not, the logic doesn't quite map out. There's no reason, actually. He's just sort of saying stuff. Also, so many people are like, the green stuff, they call that the communist authoritarianism, right? I thought that's what it was.

But right, in Europe, that's what he says is taking them over, that they're so fearful of climate Armageddon that they will turn to some sort of antichrist figure like he's so fundamentally he's so concerned with these big questions I'm a big questions guy I'm gonna answer these huge uh uh philosophical questions he doesn't stop to think that if the if what he's saying is in any way mirrored in reality right it if it's in any way moored to reality at all. Like, it's just, he seems like a, you know, incoherent. Yeah, he's a, like, a shallow. Like a preacher on a street corner.

Yeah, shallow long thinker. He's a long thinker, but it's very shallow. He thinks for a long time, like this isn't... He's the grown up version of the guys, the douchiest guy in college, who loves to hear themself think and says big things and maybe is good at painting the picture or capturing people's attention,

but really isn't saying much at all. Is your saying, what words? What does he mean when he says, the only politically resonant thing now is stopping science? Who? Who are you talking about? I can think of a person and a movement, but you're not talking about that. You're talking about some other thing

that doesn't exist in the world. He's not talking about Donald Trump and all of it. Well, they probably mean more in the lines of tech science as opposed to other types of science, I suppose. Is that like he's saying, oh, the left wants to shut down AI and crypto? Is that what he's saying? That there's this fear of science? Or like that it's more likely that the left would even though the Democrats certainly wouldn't But what but right what science will get us to where he wants to be and I know he's doing this like long-termist thing

Where these are the building blocks it must does the same thing for thousands tens of thousands a hundred thousand years in the future Where everyone will Where there's going to be so many trillions of lives that are better than we have now So it's all this all this is worth it Yeah, the drug the drug jury and ourselves with every day is worth it But I don't I don't even connect how what he's talking about are the first Steps to achieving some better end also he's about, and I know it's metaphorical, but he's talking about the Antichrist.

I know. Like, well. I can, again, again. What? I can think of somebody who could fit that description, but I don't think it's who he's talking about. It's so funny, they're talking about, well, the someone who gives these demonic big speeches and scares everyone, that's not very realistic.

Here's what I'm really talking about, I'm sorry. I can't believe they both agreed. Even Ross was like, yeah, that's not plausible. That's a plot hole. It's a plot hole that there's this right-wing demagogue doing these speeches to applause about all this evil shit. What do you mean? And obviously it's because they support it,

but like it's just so disconnected from reality. Sometimes I'm like, how are you, how are we seeing different things? How are we perceiving reality so wildly different? Well, we don't have billions of dollars. What he's saying, yeah. I mean, just from him speaking, I get the idea of I don't care so much about the conditions

and the problems of now, but the potential that we're going towards and how can I make myself immortal so that I can see it and have enough money to last. I need to own it, I need to be in charge. Like they mentioned this, like, bro, you run Palantir, you're the tech guy. It's just so obvious and blatant that he's like, people used to think it was like some tech guy with all this technology who's gonna take over or whatever,

but like that's absurd, who would do that? I can't imagine something like that I didn't clip that out, but Ross does say like it seems like and I'm not accusing Yes, but it seems like you're built like that if you look at the companies you're building it seems like it's that kind of technological power that you're talking about and then He like sits there and he like that's a Peter Thiel thinks about it for a minute he goes well obviously I don't think

that's what I'm doing yeah we know man like it's so is again so transparent much like his skin and it's I I can't believe again and he's not like he's just gonna get his little vice president to become the president. And who knows, like any day now. Any day now. How about a poem, Katie? Yeah, okay, I found one. When we weren't gonna talk about the news,

I decided to talk about one good thing about Instagram for me has been poetry. I have poetry days and it started to be shown accounts and I love it. I'll bookmark them. And so today I suppose I shall read something from Mary Oliver and if it doesn't work we can cut it. But gosh, Mary Oliver, all of her pieces are so fucking beautiful.

But this one feels appropriate today for all of us this year, this lifetime, this Fourth of July. Anyway, it's called Don't Hesitate. If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don't hesitate. Give into it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise and not very often kind, and much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world It could be anything but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins

Anyway, that's often the case Anyway, whatever it is. Don't be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. I Like that one, let's wait this might be a little corny as well I like that one. This might be a little corny as well, but it's, you know, people will be listening to this on the 4th of July, so I feel like I'd like to read a little something that means a lot to me. Okay, Jonathan. Careful with it. Good morning.

In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind Mankind that world should that word should have new meaning for all of us today We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests Perhaps it's fate that today is the 4th of July and you will once again be fighting for our freedom Not from tyranny oppression persecution, but from annihilation. We're fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July

will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on. We're going to survive. Today, we celebrate our Independence Day.

That was beautiful. Donald John President. I think perhaps Jonathan, you brought this home for us today. I know you did. Is it home? It is. It is. United States fucking America. Okay, that's it. We're done, we're outta here, folks.

Yeah. I think we did a real nice hodgepodge situation of a show. Oh, we rubber banded this back and forth. Oh, I hope everyone had a wild time today. Absolute whiplash. But you know what's not whiplash? The thing that I say every week.

We love you very much. Welcome to Earth. The thing that I say every week. We love you very much. Welcome to Earth. Kick the tires and light the fires, Big Daddy. All right. Bye. From the waters of Lake Erie. It was raising flags.

He said, there's no way that that fish should weigh 7.9 pounds. It's just not big enough. To a nondescript office building in Richmond, Virginia, home to a $700 million fund for children with special needs. If there was a cliche list of how to blow money that you just stole very quickly, this guy did all of them. To the ski slopes of Salt Lake City,

where a former Olympic snowboarder landed on the FBI's most wanted list. Ryan James' wedding is one of those interesting narcos who have had two very successful careers, one legal and one illegal. We're pulling back the curtain on a fresh lineup of opportunists who stopped at nothing to get ahead. These are the stories of people who saw a loophole, a moment of weakness, a chance to get ahead and took it. I'm host Sarah James McLaughlin. Join

me for a new season of The Opportunist on May 19th. Follow now wherever you get your podcasts.