Some More News - The Convoluted Biden Impeachment Drama And EVEN MORE Avocado (& Cheese) Toasts

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

Hi. Comedian Michael Kosta joins Katy and Cody to talk about Hunter Biden, Elon Musk's frightening influence on the world stage, tennis, toaster ovens, and solo problem-solving. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/somemorenews Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh Subscribe to the Some More News and Even More News audio podcasts: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews Slow down the news ticker in your mind. Upgrade to better Natural Solutions from NextEvo Naturals. Go to https://NextEvo.com and use promo code MORENEWS to get 25% off.

hello welcome back to even more news the first and only news podcast my name is katie stoll hello katie stoll the first and only news podcast host in the world i'm cody and i guess i'm i am not a news host because you're the only one hi thanks for having me you're so yeah you're welcome you're so welcome joining us today we are very excited stand-up comedian and daily show correspondent michael costa hi thank you for having me this This is fun. This is cool. I feel like it's cooler for us than you. That's great. No, we're very cool. I had

something on my calendar today because of you. Oh. That's all we can ask for sometimes. When you're double striking and unemployed and putting something on the calendar is nice. Yeah. We've been talking about that a lot here. The double strike that keeps going. and unemployed and putting something on the calendar is nice. Yeah, yeah. We've been talking about that a lot here.

The double strike that keeps going. I guess we didn't... Not for everybody, though. Not for everybody. Yeah. That was an interesting tweet that he just put out. I think you're talking about Bill Maher, I think. Or Drew Barrymore, take your pick.

Mostly Bill Maher. Well, the Bill Maher thing was a long time coming. He's been grumbling about the strike since the beginning, pretty much. Like, all right, when are you going to go back? Like, obviously, this is your plan. Was it last week we talked about that clip? Yeah. What is time?

It's all five months. It's an illusion. Upsetting developments in the double strike. It's particularly entertaining with him because it's not like he can say look we need to sell ads it's yeah it's hbo so it's like you're you just are bored and want to go back to work yeah essentially and kind of using like the uh other people as like kind of like a cudgel like well other people need to get back to work well you could pay them you're a millionaire you could pay them and also yeah we all understand this sucks this sucks for everybody that is not able to work and the impacts are very far reaching and it's

important to note that it's not the people striking it's not their fault that yeah you know also like the uh in his tweet saying like well we're not going to do uh we're not going to do monologues we're not going to do new rules or the death segments in the spirit of the strike we're not going to do those like well the spirit of the strike is to strike that's what the spirit of the strike is it's so well it'll be a bad show so that's fine but and true yeah it's it's interesting it's interesting because typically the late night hosts that have done this in the past they've said they felt pressure from the network or so it is a different i i i am curious to see if others do the same and will that dilute the strike right this is sort of

like the the door opening like okay well he's doing it. HBO's kind of doing it. Because like, yeah, like John Oliver doesn't seem to have pressure to go back and they're in the same camp. Right. Interesting. Yeah. It just seems like he was waiting for somebody to do it. Drew Barrymore did. It was like, oh, well, now I can finally hop on.

Yeah. The floodgates are open. Hopefully it's not a floodgate, though. oh, well, now I can finally hop on. Yeah, the floodgates are open. Hopefully it's not a floodgate, though. Yeah, and I really, really hope that America, the studios, the viewers,

monologue jokes and desk pieces, those are the best. Those are so poignant and socially, they're well-crafted art. And to just move forward with a show without that and if people become accustomed to that I think that's shitty. So I want comedy to be done at the highest form and that's what the writers can give us. So you're new here, Michael.

Yes. Normally we save all the commentary for after this fun and very important exhilarating segment exhilarating segment where we uh find something to celebrate because every day is a holiday and today september 15th is national cheese toast day everybody get out there i actually i as we were getting ready for the show i made myself a piece of cheese actually it was a satisfying snack before we a little bit of fat a little bit of carbs a little bit of protein there so i withdraw my exasperation a little bit so happy that day and it's also national felt hat day so wear your felt hat while you're eating your cheese toast

take a load off wait felt hat yeah like a craft well yeah well okay like here's the tidbit quote don a felt hat to boost your fashion and put yourself in the shoes of previous generations who wore hats far more regularly than most do today i don't know if they did previous generation were they big on felt hat there's no way way this holiday wasn't submitted by a hat company. I mean, they were big on hats in general, so one has to think that some of them would have been felt. You'd think so. I think felt was a more popular fabric.

So if you've got your cheese toasty and you're wearing a felt hat, look up and the Beatles are probably playing on a roof somewhere. That's the era we're talking about. It feels like once you have a day, you can't repeat the same day. And we're just at the point now where it's like, I know we've done cheese day. I know we've done toast day, but cheese toast. And also, I guess we should say you don't put the cheese and the bread in the toaster at the same time. Michael, I'm so glad you brought this up because we just unpacked this a little bit.

Okay. the toaster at the same time michael i'm so glad you brought this up because we just unpacked this a little bit okay this um how your method of cooking is gonna vary jonathan over here has a toaster oven so what he's doing is he's toasting he's broiling all at the same time an efficient machine and a rich kid for sure snobby i just have you know like a 30 dollar toaster that i got off of amazon i couldn't do it you know i'm just a good old gal living in the mountains i feel like i have to defend myself i value toaster ovens uh i think more than the average person i like to put my uh my frozen chicken strips in there i don't want to heat up the full oven. Absolutely. Listeners should understand that when Jonathan's saying this, he's sipping a double mocha frappo latte.

I've got avocado all over my fingers from just gnawing on. He did an avocado cheese toast. But if you're going to make it without a toaster oven, you've got to toast it, but not too much. And then you've got to put the cheese on. Then you've got to pop it under the broiler I did something very gauche I didn't have time to use the broiler because you were joining us soon I microwaved it made it kind of soggy oh god yeah it was still good but I'm in a little New York apartment and like we turn on the oven we don't turn on the oven without a family meeting because it just heats the whole building so it's like are we doing the oven tonight you know yeah you were

being booed also just by throwing around that you turn on the oven whenever you want he's like okay mr big time can afford the ac bill i I guess. During the recent heat wave here in LA, completely separately, my wife and I were like, you know what sounds good? Baked potatoes. And we just like had the oven on for, you know, two and a half hours in the middle of like a 95 degree day. We're like, we better really like dig into these.

Yeah, these better be amazing. Feels like you could have used the toaster oven for that, Jonathan. Oh, it sure does, Jonathan. Hey there, it's Cody. into these better be amazing feels like you could have used the toast oven for that jonathan oh it sure does jonathan hey there it's cody you know from the mall earlier you didn't see me but i saw you summer can be a lot of fun cookouts swinging the bat around beach days but it can be stressful too like whenever the bat bites you and you have to get rabies shots. Personally, I'll pop a Next Evo Natural CBD gummy or two. According to them, their CBD products are clinically proven to absorb four times better than regular CBD oil. They have this sleep support

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to get 25% off. That's 25% off at N-E-X-T-E-V-O dot com promo code MORENEWS. See you at home. Your home. Oh, okay.

We got to talk about things, but first I want to talk about you, Michael. To be like quiet or whatever. Just mute me. I don't know. Like not at all. I've listened to your podcast before and enjoyed it very much, but I can't remember if the guest just jumped in.

Jump in as much as you want. That's our ideal. We don't, uh, there's no set of rules here. We prefer it when a guest jumps in but you know everyone has a different vibe and an energy and this is a safe space but i want to talk real quick about the fact that you were a tennis champion that's yeah that's that's a stretch but we'll take it i don't know that's what i've got but you are yeah i mean as a player as a player i mean i i won the worst the levels were the more i won so like juniors i was winning a lot but then as you kept going up i was losing a lot well i'm not a champion of anything so i find it impressive okay but you also you know you you resistant men's coach at

the university of Michigan. I'm all of this is to say, this is a big change in your life trajectory as to how you ended up stand up daily show. And, uh, you know, tell us a little bit of how the hell did that happen? Well, I think growing up in Michigan, I always wanted and love show business, but there's just no, you know, before the internet, you just, that just was not a Midwest thing you could do.

I mean, I don't know. It just seemed like maybe now if I grew up under the same circumstances, I would say, I want to be a comedian. I've seen it on all these specials on Netflix and I can go or I can just record in my bedroom or whatever. But I was a very good tennis player and sports was how I identified. And that's how I got to college. It's how I got free college. So I like that. And, but all the while in a family of four, the youngest that no one really ever said, I love you. And they just

teased you. I would write down things that made me laugh or times that I said things that made other people laugh for whatever reason that resonated with me. And so by the time I was like 23, I had these notebooks of ideas or real life examples of things that were funny. And that turned into my first standup comedy set, which by the way, was horrendous.

But it at least started with some foundation yeah that's very cool that's very cool and i like tennis a lot because you're problem solving alone and oftentimes under difficult circumstances and that's basically what stand-up comedy is on your feet yeah on your feet and if you fail it hurts and if you succeed you think you're the best yeah but there's also just in general i mean perhaps tennis of all the sports it's just you unless you've got a partner and that's what stand-up is and for me a barrier to entry for stand-up specifically is that yeah that there's nobody else up there to support me if things go south, you know, and it's very intimidating. So, yeah, actually, there's a connection there. Yeah.

You're confident in yourself. Well, yeah. Or just confident in the uncomfortableness, if that makes sense. Because, by the way, that's not to say, like, if you're in an improv troupe, you've backed down from the challenge that is stand up. Everyone needs to go the path that they go. But I did feel comfortable being alone, failing and crying after said performance. Yeah, well, good job. It's worked out for you.

And both of these and both of these arenas. Did tennis ever make you cry as much as stand up did? Tennis definitely, definitely made me cry. I mean, some of my biggest cry moments were like when I was 10 and I lost to Bradley Adams and I thought I was going to win. Fucking Bradley. You know, fucking Bradley.

What's that guy up to these days? I don't know. But, you know, not to get all sad and real, but I lost my father two years ago. He passed away. But so many of my grieving moments thinking about my dad were like him hugging me while I was crying because I lost the tennis when I was nine. And it's just so funny.

I hadn't necessarily thought of those moments for so long. But yeah, there was a lot of crying with tennis and comedy. No comedy. I wasn't crying you're more just you just feel hurt and yeah question your life and it's a detonator it's yeah it's a dulling down of the sadness yeah yeah but at the end of the day all of this is tied to what your expectation is what you think you're supposed to be doing or or get or deserve but if you really just try to focus on the fact that it's fun to tell jokes and make people laugh then it can be

it can be a rewarding experience i'm saying this as much to me as i am to anyone else it's like a little self pep talk yeah but thanks for mentioning that and we just had the u.s open which is a fantastic tennis event and um i encourage anyone out there to go play some tennis great sport okay i will folks yep there's a tennis court around here you're probably at altitude you're much higher yeah so that means the ball is going to go even faster which means you could serve even faster i remember when i was oh that's very appealing to me because we're all about fast over here i uh i had a friend as a kid we got to talk about the news but i had a friend who they were a tennis family and uh i would go and play with them but i just kept launching it in out of the court out of the fence it was too much yeah i'm

a softball player yeah or i was i'm not now one of the coolest parts about tennis in particular the grand slam we just had is that all of these different people from different countries are competing and intervening with each other and one of the most interesting stories, in my opinion, is the Ukrainian players have decided to stop shaking hands with the Russian and Belarusian players after matches. And tennis is this isolated little country club wealth bubble. But it's always fun when real stories and real life break through the country club tennis world because it was interesting to watch all of that unfold so that should be a nice segue into our news perfect other things we love watching unfold absolutely that was really good you are good at this we don't have to talk about

russia ukraine but it was it was it was really interesting that like interesting that that went down. Yeah, seeing dynamics beyond just the individual. Yeah. Yeah, we're not talking about Russia and Ukraine right now, but we are talking about Joe Biden and impeachment. So I like this title, this segment. Finally. Jonathan gave us.

Get in. We're going impeaching. House Speaker Kevinarthy this week announced that he was calling for a formal impeachment inquiry into joe biden uh this is despite him previously saying that an impeachment inquiry could only be initiated by convening a full vote from the house but he is under lots of political pressure from the right wing of his party who are threatening to remove him the reason he has the job yeah yeah we love it he's a strong man in power here just so now he's calling for several uh committee hearings and an inquiry into uh i mean we'll get into what i guess guess, the Hunter Biden stuff, we'll say.

Yeah, the Hunter Biden stuff. So when they call for the impeachment inquiry, that's not to say they've decided on what he should or shouldn't be impeached for. It's just saying we're going to start digging into this. We're hoping we find something that we can. to start digging into this we're hoping we find something that we can yes yeah the main thing they keep saying is they'll say like okay this is about hunter biden what evidence do you have of wrongdoing and they'll say things like we've got the bank records we've got him on the phone and it's like okay the bank records that say what on the phone saying and doing what and we can get into like those details because we've got them here but But it's a lot of saying that Joe Biden interfered in that.

Because just saying Hunter Biden did a criminal thing doesn't mean the president gets impeached. Well, right. And right now what they have is Hunter Biden did a making money from businesses overseas thing, which is not necessarily a criminal thing. Could be if he didn't report it or if he tried to peddle influence etc but but that also doesn't implicate the president unless he's calling me like he gotta you gotta give my son money i'm the president man or vice president at the time all of this is grasping at straws yes all of it is justification for a reason to do a full inquiry to like you know see what we can dig up but there

are you know things he has said whilst campaigning of you know my son has not received money from china and what he has and you know whether or not joe biden knew about this like was he fudging the truth at some point does it matter if on a campaign trail he's you know he says something i don't like to go well look at donald trump because i don't want our politicians our leaders to be behaving badly at all but also you know like what are we actually doing here is that any of this actually merit yeah so what they've got biden on right now is a couple of either lies or not know about them yes um so during a debate in 2020 with donald trump donald trump's like well his son made millions from ukraine and china and here's the quote from biden nothing was unethical my son

has not made money in terms of this thing about what are you talking about china i have not had the only guy who's made money from china is this guy he's the only one nobody else not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about? China? I have not had. The only guy who's made money from China is this guy. He's the only one. Nobody else has made money from China. And that's not true. Hunter did make money as a consultant for a Chinese energy conglomerate, but it's not clear what Biden knew or when, and there's definitely no evidence that we know of yet

that Joe Biden personally benefited from the transactions. Right, there's just that one- Good job reading that quote, by the way. That was not easy words to put together. Everything that I- Well, especially recent presidents. The quotes should not be ever shown on video first. I think that they need to be read out loud by a person who speaks normally

to really really pinpoint like this is he's not talking so great right now but the one of the most fun games i think uh for trump is to just like no just read it read it like you're a person now um it makes no sense but but i think because i listened to that whole phone call of trump calling georgia looking for the votes not just the hey we need 11 000 but like the whole 12 minute phone call of Trump calling Georgia looking for the votes, not just the Hey, we need 11,000. But like the whole 12 minute phone call the perfect phone was just it was a true master class in saying stuff without saying stuff. Yeah, you know, and I'm like, holy shit, these guys are so good. And I'm buying on the other hand hand i feel like he does it accidentally but um it

really is nuts if you just look at the words like that even that quote like it's hard to even know what the shit is going on but still that back to our main point is this mean he gets impeached out of office no no relying on the debate stage well right exactly that's not a crime it's like people it'll be it might put people off this is just the justification for like we have more things to turn up here and ultimately all of this is is well it's obviously political also about what boat bear who else was holding out here about you know shutting down the government if we don't also open up the idea of yeah you know the usual suspects there's that going on here but i think that everyone's there it's a little retaliatory a little bit well sure it's because

of the timing because there's a like we did a video last October called Hunter Biden, all the president's son. And I think it's kind of notable that what they're bringing out now, there's absolutely nothing that's new from that video. And, you know, if you haven't watched that video, go back and watch it. But the thesis is, you know, some of this stuff doesn't look great. Hunter Biden was definitely trying to use his last name to get deals. Maybe we should kind of divorce families and politics or politics and business so that they're not able to just go back and forth and make a ton of money. But there's nothing really that implicates Joe Biden in this nefarious Biden crime family wrongdoing. And they don't have anything new

they've got the victor shokin stuff they've got the barisma stuff and then uh hunter biden just today was indicted on federal gun charges which he he he did he lied yeah well that's what even even in that video we're like the one thing he definitely did is this and he could probably be charged for that because that's a crime and an obvious crime but also yeah it has nothing to do with joe biden yeah and then they took the gun away from him because he was in a bad way at that time so it's just like okay so now they're doing it i'm happy to see somebody doing something about guns yeah it's good to see that finally maybe maybe and you can edit this out if it's too harsh maybe we need hunter biden to go do some mass shootings i mean maybe there's because that would finally do it maybe people would start regulating guns anyway there's so many things hunter biden could do that would just be

like make the entire republican party be like oh we gotta oh we gotta uh everybody gets health care now like all right yeah ted bruce should go after biden because of all of his doors like to me how do i succinctly phrase what i'm thinking right now yeah i don't i'm not real comfy with uh politicians children getting jobs presumably i mean hunter biden has a very publicly had a bad time. You know, he obviously has benefited from his last name and gotten employment from that. That is not to say that Joe Biden is implicated in anything that Hunter Biden has done. I have a problem with that in general. And it's the thing that happens a lot, you know. So there's that. And I feel so grossed out by all of the attention. So many families struggle with addiction and have children that have had similar problems that Hunter Biden does. And it's heartbreaking. And I know that that's probably been very hard on the whole Biden family. And, you know, Joe Biden has done his best or presumably has to protect his son from his career and the spotlight. And instead, it's just a circus.

This is their best way in at Joe Biden. And it's very, very, very ugly. I feel very conflicted about the whole thing for those two reasons. Can I be an optimist for a sec? Please do. Because I completely agree with what you just said. And I actually think this could really backfire. Yeah.

It's because there isn't a whole lot here. Every family has someone that's dealt with addiction and, and correct me if I'm wrong. Also death of his mother. Is that right? Yeah. And brother. And sister.

And sister. Exactly. So anyway, we're not going to go through the list of sad personal stuff that's happened because that's not an excuse for lying on it, whatever, whatever. But it just doesn't feel like there's enough here to warrant all of this attention, resources, money. And I think real people are going to be like, this is so stupid and it's gonna hurt them i hope yeah i hope yeah that seems to be their method uh these days like just like all in on something

that most people don't care about or are put off by but they have they're like 20 who love yes did benghazi like it feels in the same world, like the obsession with it, did that hurt Hillary Clinton enough? I don't know. I'm asking that open-ended, like, because it kind of feels like the same path. Right. I think it works for the people it's for, right? Like it didn't, I don't think it really peeled anybody away from their support of her. Yeah, that's probably true.

The fact that this is so much more personal i think it's even more off-putting um and even like i don't know every once in a while some someone will be like look at this text from hunter biden or from joe biden to his son and it's like i love you son you need to call me i i know what a monster you're worrying us and it's like oh so he's like a pretty good dad i guess um you know i can tell when you brought up the addiction thing from everything that joe biden has said publicly about his son is like exactly what you want a parent to do with someone that's struggling like that but yeah the only thing uh there's a there's this one text that people keep bringing up from

hunter biden from like 20 or from joe biden like or no hunter biden to his daughter from like 2019 i hope you all can do what i did and pay for everything for the entire family for 30 years it's really hard but don't worry unlike pop joe biden i won't make you give me half your salary so they're taking this and being like oh so like hunter biden's been doing these secret like illegal deals for his dad and he's been like taking all the money he's like well he probably like owed his dad money from also sounds like what you say when you're doing coke you're doing yeah you're like just like just like all you know got all these things and like resentment and stuff and like you're yeah maybe that was mean what i said and i also don't for the record don't want hunter

biden to do mass shootings but my point is maybe then people will regulate guns okay so no it's it's uh we can be glib here it's okay we can be good i mean but it's a valid enough point of like to make because yeah the hypocrisy of when people care about something versus when they don't hunter biden does it then we all pay attention apparently apparently and that is gross to me yeah it feels like a nothing burger even though it feels like a big nothing burger but shit i didn't think donald trump i thought he was a nothing burger so right well just like this thing like it's that phenomenon all the time where they're like uh so you hate when trump does this but like what if joe biden did it like yeah that'd

be bad to impeach him i don't like whatever it's fine like if they find something where like yeah joe biden did all this illegal shit great get rid of them impeach him that's fine there's not this like intense like cultish loyalty to uh one person right uh where you're gonna blindly defend every single thing they do um but it doesn't seem like he did that the things yeah i think it could be like a like a slider like a small something burger if they were something slider yeah i know everyone's gonna be using that within oh yeah it's catching on already i think it could be a little something if they weren't trying to impeach him over it because you know during campaign, it got brought up and he always either sidestepped it or kind of lashed out.

Like the time he called that guy at the rally fat was because he asked about Hunter Biden. All right. Remember that clip? Thank you, Jonathan. remember that thank you jonathan but the idea of you know oh there are these emails where he was definitely trying to you like oh i'll get the big guy on this call or whatever it is you know to acknowledge like look that's not great i don't approve of that and there's a lot of things that my son is you know he said stuff like that about the drug use over time. But I think like this could have been a little bit of a mini scandal if they were pointing it out as a, Oh,

like Joe Biden is blurring the line between business and politics, but trying to way overstep themselves and impeach him over, uh, like six question marks that we hope we get emails for from the archives or whatever. Once we start doing the inquiry is a little silly. And I think it's going to be real tough to connect with, you know,

Americans who don't follow politics that much over this, because you can even hear in this segment, like we had to say a lot to just explain what this is, you know? Yeah. You have to really get into the weeds. It's not that he used his business to pay off a porn star after having sex with her,

but we're not comparing those two. Just had a baby, yeah. I do think one thing that it could be effective at is causing confusion in our judicial system, because even I, who's motivated to learn about this, didn't entirely understand how they had a deal. They had a plea deal. And then it somehow undid the plea deal.

So now I'm like, what's going on? And then, you know, they're also saying the Department of Justice is corrupt. Of course, they're saying all that. So maybe it's just to muddy all the waters. Of course, keep in in mind all this is happening in response to four indictments against donald trump too so exactly exactly that's the that's the context that should always be like brought up again because it should be like a

flashing thing that just says that clearly they're doing this thing because of this other stuff that happened yeah and it is a lot clearer because you go like stormy daniels payoff one documents two coup three coup four like it's very simple to be like here are the indictments we just spent 25 minutes trying to explain what the hunter biden thing is and still none of us have any clue we have a 70 minute video we all right 70 minutes and like ultimately it comes down to like yeah this gun thing okay right yeah do something about the guns please thank you also lying on a on a government form uh hello everybody nobody is among us we're gonna take a real quick break

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friends close friends patreon.com slash some more news do it or don't we love you either way and we are back as promised for even more well some more news you can say news it's right there in the name it's news we're we're back for even more news uh we're gonna talk about elon musk and all his power briefly jonathan catch us up on this as well how's he doing yeah how's he doing how's what's up with elon today no uh there's a new biography of Elon Musk coming out or just came out by Walter Isaacson, who's a well-known biographer. And there's an excerpt from that book that news organizations got detailing that Musk ordered his Starlink satellite communications network to be turned off near the Crimean coast to prevent a drone attack on Russian warships early in the war because he feared that it would cause an escalation to nuclear war. So that's alarming in itself. But then within days, Walter Isaacson, the author, clarified that he had misrepresented what happened and that the Starlink system was

off by default in that area and that there had been a request to turn it on and he said that would have been an act of war that he didn't want to be complicit in so we've got alarming news about how powerful elon musk is on the world stage and also immediate clarifications on this reporting yeah i guess i have two things about this so it sounds like so this isaacson fellow did he do a bad job then is his book wrong is he wrong in the book is was his tweet correct is he gonna print the tweet out and paste it in the book so people know the thing that happened um so that's weird it's a weird clarification maybe he felt pressure from elon to uh to lie about it i don't know who knows i don't know um but also like there's this element of like oh i don't want to be complicit in

this this act of war you are you are your satellite like starlink is there it's not in that area but like it's still being used for this so like what's the level of war that you're okay with where's the threshold that that mays like i don't want to be involved in any element of decision making in the midst of well pretty much anything but especially foreign countries at war find that terrifying but yeah this is weird this little uh book excerpt and then retraction misrepresentation it got published what it's a very weird uh mistake to make like saying to turn it off after the request is one thing uh it never being on is a completely different thing completely. But it was also never on because they feared,

because this is such a difficult region, right? So they almost preemptively said, just, is that, I mean, I don't know. I haven't read the book. That's the claim. Well, that's not, you don't need to read the book. You just need to read the tweet now. Yeah. It's interesting if basically these drones fly off

the satellites and internet and it's like how far back does the responsibility go if there is an attack on russia do you blame the internet provider you know i um it's it is this is a you think this stuff doesn't affect you or it doesn't tie into american culture or society or whatever the case may be but it's just it's shit's global everybody sorry to break it does but there's there's big implications for all of these things that and it's all new territory and it's all at the beginning of this war you know elon musk swoops in a little hero-like with, I'm going to provide Starlink. No, that's right. Even that is interesting to me

because he's inserting himself into this thing. Not that that doesn't have potential benefits, but there's also huge potential negatives and you are involving yourself now. So you have now made yourself integral to this. But it's the same thing. Things happen all around the world. And he's like, I can fix this.

Let's save those kids with my submarine or whatever. It must be exhausting to be that type of person who sees an enormous story or catastrophe and says, I can fix it. That would be exhausting. I see these things on the news and I go, God, thank god i'm not involved in that that looks like a fucking mess yeah how could you possibly there's also like i don't want to throw around terms and diagnose people because there's a lot of that but there is something about that a type of person that feels like yeah i'm the person that can fix this i'm the person

that it's actually a little terrifying you know we've done you want that responsibility yeah he wants that uh we've done i mean we did an episode about the terrible effects that uh excessive wealth has on your brain like billionaire brain basically is like a thing that you can observe um i think that's all like definitely part of it but also elon talks regularly about how like we're in a simulation and stuff and it does seem like he thinks that we are like he's talked about it enough in a way that at least like his front-facing view is that we probably do like his front facing view is that we probably do. And he's also like, he dabbles in like the NPC sort of like meme stuff and like,

sort of like framing the world as a simulation. And if he does think that, and he thinks he's a, he's like this powerful billionaire who can solve these problems. And he thinks he's the main character of the simulation and that he's winning. And that like, it's not, it's this sort of disconnect from humanity.

Isaacson did an interview a couple of days ago where he's talking about how like I was surprised that he bought Twitter because he has no empathy. And Twitter is about emotions and like advertisements and like interactions and humanity and stuff. stuff and so if you don't really have empathy and you are a billionaire and you have billionaire brain and you think you're in a simulation then you that all you're doing is trying to get the bars at the top of the screen to go up right you want the number the whatever score that you're keeping in the simulation you think you're in you want the numbers to go up and you think half the population are npcs that you don't need to worry about so like it's just very anti-humanity and it's alarming that he has this much power when he has this sort of allegedly view of the universe and how he is the center of it and he's the one making all the little little bars increase find it find it find it i wonder

how you turn starlink off and on is it just like a master switch in the garage? Just a button. Same thing with the- Yeah, it's kind of like a lever. You know, like, did he accidentally- Yeah. Yeah. This is interesting. Same thing with our quote tweets and you just, on and off. This 400 million billion? Oh, 400 million bill. 400 million dollar bill, yeah.

Yeah. 400 million billion? A the number has been discovered spacex had told uh the pentagon that uh it needed to you know pay for pay 400 million dollars a year to keep that service going on like yes i'm gonna bring starlink to ukraine for their benefit but you know it's expensive to set up a big satellite service so yeah you gotta you gotta pay for that a little bit so you know yes he swoops in like a hero but then to already set up the service and then ask and they're like oh well i'll turn it off you know he's he's inserting himself in ways that there is no selflessness like there's going to you have to look at the

advantages to him the the book apparently says that he referred to the china's repression of the uyghurs as having two sides because of course he doesn't want to upset china because of tesla yeah exactly um everything every single thing is calculated in that way. And I mean, that's why he was able to get away with it for so long. He's building this image of himself as Iron Man posts about it pretty regularly. And he's just a PR guy. He's, he's good at marketing and PR and presenting himself in a certain way when, yeah, he's just benefiting from it. He has so many like military contracts. He's a military contractor, but he's he's like i don't want to i don't want to get involved in like war like i don't you know if i if i turn the internet on over there then i'm i'm complicit like well you have all these military contracts are you not complicit in what they do with like your technology i don't know he's uh he's a guy he's got a third kid named Technomechanicus, so that's cool. Third kid? He has like 15 kids. Third one with Grimes. Oh, sorry. My dog is barking, but

maybe that's because we're talking about Elon. It could be. He's like, come on, we're tired of this. Everyone at home is barking, too. In my opinion, the big takeaway from this story is that he has this tremendous amount of power that can be laid out in all

different conflicts around the globe and that is eyebrow raising and scary yeah and it also is like it's always to the benefit of himself like it's it's not like there's no interest in really humanity yeah it's very and i'll add one more thing and say it's interesting to me the way he's now positioned himself and more right-wing people would say i would say oh yeah are on team elon you know i would say that but it's interesting for the the the group of people that hate big tech or big government and overreach and oversight and you know like the amassing it it just feels hypocritical to me that this is your guy well they don't they don't actually care about that stuff they want an authoritarian just to do the things that they want like they like elon they want him to make the decisions that he makes.

He's against the woke mind virus and all this stuff because he's against the things that they have discussed for or whatever. They're going to line up and support him no matter what. It's not really this anti-authoritarian thing. It just happens to line up with what they want to happen. Isn't it interesting how he uses comedy? Like, you know, he'll tweet a meme or a picture of him in Iron Man. It's like, oh, it's cute. Isn't it interesting how he uses comedy?

Like you know, he'll tweet a meme or a picture of him in Iron Man. It's like, that's cute. It's funny guy. But then it's like, well, wait, he can control Starlink, whether it attacks Russia or not. And I kind of makes me puke when he tweets like a cute, funny thing. Because I'm okay with that. If you're not in charge of Starlink, You know, it's like, that's okay. My comedy friends tweet funny things.

And you know what? They make me puke most of the time, too, to be honest. But it's like, I hate when they get to dip into comedy for a sec and show everybody, see, I'm just a cool, normal, whatever it is. Yeah, right. It's like, it's like, it's like cosplay. Cosplaying is like, it's like, I'm just, I'm just a normal guy. I joke around. I'm, I'm a human being i got the memes right but like it's weird like attempt to like i'm not i'm not

actually a powerful billionaire i'm like you guys but there's no you can't wash that off no and i can't just jump into starlink for a day right and then pop back out of starlink right he can steal your memes but you you can't steal his access to communication. Well, we don't have very much time left, but real quick, let's wrap things up by listening to this guy, Australian property developer, Tim Gurner. This is what he said at the Financial Review Property Summit. I think the problem that we've had is that we've, you know, we have people decided they didn't really want to work so much anymore through COVID.

And that has had a massive issue on productivity. You know, tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. You know, they have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years. And we need to see that change. We need to see unemployment rise. Unemployment has to jump 40, 50 percent, in my view. We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people that they work for the employer, not the other way around. I mean, there's been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them, as opposed to the other way around. So

it's a dynamic that has to change. We've got to kill that attitude. And that has to come through hurting the economy, which is what the whole global, you know, the world is trying to do. The governments around the world are trying to increase unemployment to get that to some sort of normality. And we're seeing it. I think every employer now is seeing it. I mean, there is definitely massive layoffs going off. People might not be talking about it, but people are definitely laying people off and we're starting to see less arrogance

in the employment market. And that has to continue because that will cascade across the cost balance. Woof, there's so much. Lots on pack. High arrogance. Arrogance. This is so, I mean, it's honestly great that he said this um because this is something

that we know uh people in a certain class think they do have this uh analysis of the economy and workers employers they just like the dynamics it's the stuff uh it's like it's like in a way it's like this sort of Marxist view of the world. But like but it's good. Actually, there's no problem with the dynamic. They like the dynamic, but they rarely ever say it out loud in a way that's like very insulting to everybody and just lays out the contempt. That is there, and it's kind of good that people can see that. Yeah, the mask off. that is there and it's kind of good that people can see that um yeah like no this is what they

this is what they say very rarely on a stage with a camera running um he had to go to his his company and be like i wasn't talking about you like the next day he sent out a release basically saying like i didn't mean you people who work for me you're not the you're not the dregs of society who need to be put in their place who are then everybody else the others podcasters podcasters sure this is also the uh the millennials need to stop buying avocado toast guy from six years ago we should actually that same guy this the same guy okay so he's a bit of a headliner he's a he's a bit of a headliner. He's a he's a bit of a, yeah, speaks in these terms. Everybody felt a lot of corporations made a lot of money during COVID. And a lot of people re-evaluated their lives and said, I hate this. I don't even have the human connection part of my job, which was the one thing that I liked. And so some of this is accurate,

but I would argue it's incredibly important that people came to that conclusion. And I think that workers are sticking up for themselves now more, or they feel empowered from writers, actors, and let's get showbiz out of it. UPS just avoided a strike. The United Auto Works. UAW today.

UAW. Like, it is really, really good if people reevaluate their work situation and say, this is fucked up and we need to fight to make it better. And of course, this guy wants it to stay the way that it is. Yeah, he wants to protect his way of life with what's happening for him. But this is,

this is too late, baby. It's changing cats out of the bag. We have X amount of years to live on this planet and we don't want to be wasting our time working for people that don't value us. I'd rather go off and do my own thing. Yeah. It's it's,

it's just, it's, it's just it's it's it's so great that he said this um because it is like most of most of the things he said were are true like here's what the government's trying to do here's the dynamic that exists here's what people realize you're all these things and like you're you're you're right and then he hits you with like and i think it's uh terrible and actually we need to go back to the way things were it's uh it's very good that people understand that you don't need to toil um like he's basically saying like actually toiling is great and you love it um i don't do it because i'm up here um but everybody else needs to respect me in my not toiling ways um and uh yeah it's just, it's great to see that. And I'm just surprised that this guy's willing to go out in public and say it. Well, and there was a lot of during COVID,

in particular with healthcare workers, there was a lot of like, come on, stick together, we can do it America. And, and then it's like, whenever they kind of do that, it's like after the dust settles and two years go by, you realize, oh, we were taken advantage of. And now's our time. This happens in sports all the time. You have three great seasons, but you're on a terrible contract. Well, the fourth season, you really fight hard to make money because you're being paid for the work you did previously. And I just, yeah, shit's getting shaken up right now. And it should. And workers should fight for what they

feel they're valued. I think maybe I don't know who said the word value, but this is that's what this is about. Yep. People wanting to be valued higher, valued for your labor and also not dedicating your entire life to just work and that's the thing i think that he was really saying is it like no you actually need to dedicate your entire life to just working all the time instead of realizing oh i can like learn hobbies and stuff if i have a little more time at home michael we know we have to let you go this has been very fun yes virtual handshake do you want to plug anything are Are you allowed to? What are you allowed to plug? Yeah, I mean, I'm on tour. MichaelCosta.com slash shows, Phoenix, South Florida, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., La Jolla, Detroit.

Would love to have you guys come out, anybody who listens. Thank you very much for having me. Yeah, it was our pleasure. Thank you. Thanks for coming on. Watch the tour. I'm going to go try to toil with the starling yeah away and i will take this moment to say you know what what folks what hey that was fun fun folks we love you very much Much.

Have you ever heard that story that Napoleon used the Egyptian Sphinx for target practice and shot its nose off? Or maybe you've heard that a French astrologer named Nostradamus correctly predicted nearly 500 years of human history. Or maybe someone told you that the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi. These stories are what I like to call historical myths. Great little tales that may or may not have any basis in historical fact. On Our Fake History, we explore these historical myths and try to determine what's fact, what's fiction, and what is such a good story it simply must be told. If you dig stories about death-obsessed emperors, lost civilizations, desperate sieges, voodoo black magic, and famous historical figures you thought you knew, then Our Fake History might just be your

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