The Daily Zeitgeist - Red White And Trend Land 2/11: Trump, Google, John Larson, Duolingo, Luigi Mangione

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

In this edition of Red White And Trend Land, Miles and special guest co-host Andrew Ti discuss Trump bringing back plastic straws, inefficient lightbulbs and more, a Trump fealty update (feat. Paramount, ABC, and Google), John Larson experiences a BSOD during a speech on CSPAN, the tragic passing of Duolingo's mascot, Luigi Mangione's GiveSendGo legal fund and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions. What do you remember happening on that night of December 16th? It actually rotated around our house, looking as if it was peering in each window of our home. I'm Gabe Lenners from Imagine, I Heart Podcasts and Lenners Entertainment. Listen to Obscurum, invasionasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcasts.

Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and my latest episode is with Bill Gates. This is a world where somebody can have over $100 billion. What is that? Social networking, we're still arguing about what the policies should be. Algorithms reward outrageous things. These fortunes are almost illegitimate unless in a very smart way given back. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When I smoke weed, I get lost in the music. I like to isolate each instrument. The rhythmic bass, the harmonies on the piano, the sticky melody. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

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hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, I'll see you there. If you feel different, you drive different. Don't drive high. It's dangerous and illegal everywhere. A message from NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people, like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone.

You know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school, then write at night. And after nine hours, you come out with seven pages and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello my people and welcome to this wonderful afternoon edition of Red, White and Trendland, formerly Greenland. Shout out Arch Cam Cam on the Discord for that short show title because yes, we continue to harass Denmark and say, hey, how much y'all want for that little Greenland over there?

Can we get some of that? And now Buddy Carter, Republican in the House introduced a bill to this like, and we can call it red, white and blue. It's fucking stupid. I'm so sorry to everyone on earth. Not that I have anything to do with this, but unfortunately my passport says I'm from here unless I use my Japanese one little key Yeah now and you know the and that comes along with a lot of baggage Look because this shit is fucked and been fun. But anyway, here we are. It's me miles along with Andrew T

Hello. Hello there as Brian the editor and and I think Victor was pointing out there is another story too where there's a petition going around in Denmark to buy California for one trillion dollars and that has 200,000 signals. I'm fine being a part of Denmark. Yeah. I've been there. I mean I like it. Can't be worse than this. I have plans to go. The fire kind of messed things up but I do have plans to go to Kownaum or Copenhagen, as some people might know it. But anyway.

You literally had specific plans to go or? Yeah, I've been before. It's nice. The food is good. The people's temperament is good. It's like anything you know when you go to places that have socialized medicine. There's a few frequencies of anger that just aren't there because those needs you know I think most people travel know this anxiety is not there

yeah at least that one it's more so they're like what is this what is American doing in my fucking store well yeah and then I'm like I'm okay man I'm okay I'm okay I'm just here to buy some two Borg beer and drink it by the river but anyway here we are Andrew T in the place to be along with me miles G the main MC on this pod CAST okay known as TDZ damn now should have been a fucking rapper in the 80s too much. Yeah. Yeah No, I only know how to do 80s rapping. You know what I mean? Yeah, just like basic iambic pentameter Mm-hmm. And like that that that that that that that yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much rapping you know what I mean yeah just like basic iambic pentameter and like that that that that that that yeah yeah thank you so much but anyway let's dive

into it this is what's trending Trump is doing more dumb nonsense again now he's you know he he went after paper straws yesterday and he's like we're get we're off that it's all back to plastic I signed you know he did this thing where he holds up an executive order and feels like he's done something. And now he's off to undo the light bulb efficiency standards, the shower head flow restrictions, the toilet rules. He's liberating us from the reign of terror

that Biden half unleashed on us for whatever reason. This feels like, again, he's running out of stuff. Like, because I know a lot of these, while these executive orders are meant to completely destabilize certain agencies and all the other things, it's also, it's also performative. So all of America is like just, you know, in like a state of paralysis because of how potent that Trump seems to be. But now that he's doing executive orders on like straws and Toilets, I'm like, oh we lose him here. You learn the limits. It's also very much the fuck you make me of it

It's like okay. What the fuck sure dog, but you can decree this all you want but like right Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Again, this, I think while like other experts like it's scarier if he had come like if these were acts of Congress, but he's circumventing all of that. And now it's just gonna end up being something like Russia where it's just like, it's just the threat of violence that he uses to rule over everything and along with his oligarch buds. So that's happening. Keep an eye on that, I guess, or shout out to y'all who can now throw up those unrestricted shower heads and blast your corpse with wonderful water pressure. I already feel like, man, now I kinda wanna know

what an illegal shower head feels like. Previously, pre-banning a ban showerhead is like, like, is that going to blow my skin off? Cause I don't need that. I, yeah, they're, they're at no point have I ever been like, I'm being restricted by like physical throughput of what's available on the market. Like, yeah, I mean, this goes back to like just the general shit of like,

well, I mean, it goes back to like just the general shit of like, well, I mean, it's also to like all of these Biden things he's doing, we're kind of like, you know, corporate technocratic half measures anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Work that good also. So there's a little bit of like. That was also an illusion of potency in office too. It's like, well, I know you're talking about qualified immunity and getting rid of that for cops, but we're not doing that.

But, but your shower head will be a little bit more environmentally friendly. Yeah. So it is like just arguing over like, I know the nothing of it a little bit. No, that's why I'm like, but I'm also curious. Like I wish there was someone who did a demonstration was like, this is what your showers were like under Biden. Yeah. Okay.

This is what they're like now under the Trump regime. And I'd imagine it would be imperceptible, but God, this is, I mean, it does reveal on both sides how little the government does to actually improve people's lives. And like, while there are certain measures that did do that, not in the way that everyone is clamoring for, you know, cause that everyone is clamoring for. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, cause that would upset the status quo. It is a little also like, like how happy does this stuff really make mega people? Like, I mean, I guess I can make them happy, but it doesn't like do anything. Yeah. And the bigger stuff too. I'm just like, like, you know, I think the one that is super material is like if they, if they take away like, like, you know, I think the one that is super material is like, if they, if they take away like equal marriage, like it will literally not improve a single mega person's life. Yeah, no, 100%.

In a way that I'm like, what, how happy could you really be about it? I'm told that's the problem with your, your main priority is just seeing someone else suffer. Yeah. Because you actually don't, there's no room for your life to improve if you're sort of metric for what is good policy is does it make little libs cry? Yeah. Then you're like,

okay, dude, this, I know this ends not well for the people who are all in on that sort of ideology. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But here we go. Well, let's also check in on who's bending the knee this week preemptively. So step one of resisting fascism

is to not preemptively roll over and become a subordinate, just so we're all clear on that. You say, no, no, these are norms that I believe we need to preserve. I'm like, whatever you want. Clearly our media and tech companies have ignored that for their own enrichment. We knew that ABC previously settled with Trump before he got into office

because they weren't being nice by donating like $15 million to his future library. And now Paramount, the parent company of CBS, is following in a similar manner where they may settle an easily winnable case that Trump brought against them because they just don't want to make Trump mad. they may settle an easily winnable case that Trump brought against them because they just don't want to make Trump mad and also they're down to just curb stomp the freedom of the press I guess and also they got a little bit of a merger you know that's all right here Skydance Paramount you don't want them to fucking call that whole thing off either so guess what we will licketh the boot and

Google now they've been doing all kinds of shit fuck shit They're getting rid of diversity. They've you know, we're now seeing how what Google Maps will look like depending on one cut What country you're in when you zoom in on the Gulf of Mexico? In the US it will just say straight up Gulf of America. If you're in Mexico, they're not fucking with you all sovereignty They're just saying it's the Gulf of Mexico in the rest of the world This is so fucking stupid if you go to look at the Gulf of Mexico. It will say Gulf of Mexico parenthetical underneath Gulf of America So thank you so much for that Google. You've you've really done it. I mean, here's the thing. I will just say though, it's like, when you say like resisting fascism or like not like, not like comply in advance,

the thing is it's like all of these tech companies have always been white supremacist. Oh, you sure. Sure. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I'm talking about for people just just so we understand how quickly, just how different the ideologies are for a profit-seeking corporation and a human being that respects, you know, wants just agency over their life. But these people bend Nazis, they stay Nazis, it is what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So now they're just full on disappearing other holidays and events in the calendar, in the Google calendars. So if this shit celebrates people that aren't white sis het men, oh We don't need that. So they've literally we're in the what is Jane is February 11th. I said, yeah, bro Sorry, it's February 11th. They already it's not Black History Month anymore I know you thought it was but guess what that shit ain't in there anymore They've also got rid of, uh, women's history month, Hispanic heritage month, uh, indigenous peoples month, Jewish heritage month, pride month, all of that

just absent from their calendars. And when they were asked like, Hey, like, what the fuck are you doing? Why are you just getting rid of all of these calendars and acknowledging, you and acknowledging the diversity that exists within the country? They basically just said, it's like not really sustainable or scalable to have like hundreds of like events that we have to like, look, dude, just we don't care.

That's kind of like, sort of like, it was such a half-assed answer where it would have just been easier if they're like, look, dude, we don't give a shit, but they try to couch it in scale. I mean, they had to do work to remove those things. So it's like, like, yeah, they're actively, you know, being who they've always wanted to be publicly and it kind of,

you know, I mean, don't use Google if you can, obviously duck, duck, go, you know, yeah, try that shit. Try fucking, don't use Chrome. Just generally from a usability standpoint, shit fucking sucks. Sorry, I am not sorry. Well, there goes our Chrome deal. Anyway, let's also check in with, God, so the Democrats.

I pointed out the previous episode that, you know, when Chuck Schumer and like Al Green like lifts his cane in the air and they're like, we're basically 80, we're so old. We know what the stakes are for me in the next five issues. I don't know, anyway. Well, they do know what the stakes are and they're very low. Yeah, for them, for them.

They are insulated, unfortunately. So we have to deal with it. So 76 year old congressman, John Larson, a democratic, Democrat, I said, Dementicate, a Democrat from Connecticut, a Dementicate, if you will, was giving, you know, a speech on the house floor, talking about, you know, was giving a speech on the house floor talking about social security and why we can't just fucking throw it into the fucking dumpster so we can save some billionaires more money, and has a medical episode mid-speech. I'll play the audio because it's so... i'm like it's it's like so dip i don't know i'm like so sad for just the

state of everything when this is what what were kind of up a third this is the state of the house right now here's john larson speaking uh... on the way is ways and means subcommittee don't worry no one on the republican side in the house and senate who control both the house and senate is going to speak up Hmm yeah, he's like he's like mid burp and challenges. Oh He's not he's this he's just not saying anything right now. Yeah

He's not really moving. It's like something like I'll skip ahead 20 seconds. He's still not talking for 40% No one is helping him. No one is doing anything. The people are just social watching him. Is the basis for their retirement. Okay, let me jump ahead. As well. An aide put a glass of water next to him. That's, I don't think it's because he has cotton mouth. Just so you know.

And then, he's about to get hit with just a fucking terrible blow right here. The gentleman's time has expired. Okay. Okay. The gentleman's time has expired. Okay. Okay. He apparently had, they said it was an adverse reaction to a new medication. I take no joy in seeing that. Not even for any reason. I mean, it's also clearly a lie. Yeah. I mean, either way I can. We have we there.

We really need term limits because not just for the fact that like people who are like in their older age, we'd like for them to just enjoy their life and not have to, you know, pretend that they still got it. Yeah. Like we see this constantly in, in politics, like where people just cannot let go. Um, and many people are willing to just look the other way because the moment they're Their their boss or the most powerful person in the room. So they just like oh, yeah. No, you're good

That was not I was solid you told them you told them Yeah, this and then also just the stakes involved with our Our futures like I can't like people who are at the latter stages of their lives are not looking at the future The same way that people who have 50 years out of them 40 years they don't they clearly don't have the capacity to pivot on like things that like I mean Literally ossified into their like worldview. Yeah in in their fucking 20s, which was half a century ago or more yeah yeah like yeah it's just like like watching these people try to navigate this world it's it's one of the biggest problems with what we're living through is like yeah we can't do anything about

right now we're asking people in their 80s in their late 70s to cross swords with basically like sophisticated AI scammers Yeah, these people yeah, they are these are the same people who are like wow This is such a beautiful image that this African child put together Jesus using only tires. Yeah husks of coconut Like that's AI slop and they are also the same people. Anyway, so this is very... But, like you should ask yourself this question. Would I trust my senator with access to my bank account? And if the answer is patently no, like this one is. Would you trust them with your bank account when they get a text message on their phone that says, hey, Linda, when are we going

to play golf next? Yeah. And then they get sucked in I'm not sure. You're looking for the please. I'm in terrible help. I need your help. Please give me something. Oh, no. Anyway, that's what's going on there. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back to check in on Duolingo's fucking wild ass marketing right after this. Have you ever looked into the night sky and wondered who or what was flying around up there? We've seen planes, helicopters, hot air balloons, and birds, but what if there's something else, something much more ominous that appears under the cover of night, silent, unseen, watching. They may be right above

your car late one night as you cruise down the road or look like mysterious lights hovering above your home. Drones. Or are they? We used to work drone because it was comfortable to other people. One minute it was there and one minute it wasn't. Oh, that is beyond creepy. Do you feel like this drone was targeting you specifically? Yes, absolutely.

Listen to Obscure Invasion of the Drones on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. unless in a very smart way given back. One of the biggest names in business tech and philanthropy. Exploring and investing in innovative solutions to some of the world's toughest problems. Bill Gates! Starting with Microsoft where I had monomaniacal focus, giving up weekends and vacation.

It wasn't some big sacrifice. I loved it. I've always underestimated how incredible my father was. He would say, hey, I'm sorry I worked so hard. And I'd say, no, no, that was fine. I feel lucky that he lived as long as he did. It brings tears to my eyes because he was incredible. Do you remember one of the final conversations you had with him? Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeart Radio app,

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To start the conversation, visit talkaboutvaping.org brought to you by the American Lung Association and the Ad Council. Everyone's forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them. Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy is this ranch. And I protect it with my life. Hosted by Bobby Bones, the official Yellowstone podcast takes you deeper into the franchise

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I look forward to it. Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go to work. And we're back. So Duolingo just posted an announcement. We talk about this a lot because if like if you have Duolingo on your phone, like the icon changes over time, like the less you like it's like kind of dynamic like the shit that the Duolingo icon looks like on your on your phone. Anyway, they put an announcement up on their Twitter said duo formerly known as a Duolingo owl is dead. And apparently they go on to say authorities are currently investigating his cause of death and we are cooperating fully. TBH, he proves that he's a Duolingo owl is dead and apparently they go on to say authorities are currently investigating his cause of death and we are cooperating fully TBH he probably died waiting for you to do your lesson but

what do we know and then it just says please also include your credit card number so we can automatically sign you up for Duolingo max in his memory people like did they get fucking hacked no no. This is just their unhinged marketing strategy. They do all kinds of stuff. He had a beef with Google Translate. Like most of us do. It was really, Duolingo was into Dua Lipa. God, that's fucking depressing.

I mean, I was gonna say- Long may wacky marketing live. Hopefully, at least it doesn't work because it is very like heck bro humor. This is just like that level. Um, look, I haven't followed up on the story, but I do think probably this is still true. Fuck a dual lingo. They use so much AI in setting up their lessons. And, um, so there are tons of errors and they, they are not using like, um, human who speak multiple languages to do these that make them less than plants

So yeah, that makes sense because I tried to order some food in Spanish and some dude put a knife to me That's right. And if they made them now I think about it probably has something to do with me. Yeah I don't know why I called him a mighty bossa But that they told me it was a butterfly why I called him a mariposa. But that they told me it was a butterfly. So anyway, yeah, those language apps, it's funny too, because it's almost like we've turned our backs on all the ones that like, we had known worked for the longest time. Like, remember, like, there were ones like they were like, I'm not that it's a good advertisement to like, the CIA uses this to get their agents like fucking Ready to subvert any fucking government anywhere, but I'm like

Yeah, you can't be pulling up with bad bad language skills in the CIA. So it's I mean, I think it's just they're just they're showing That they're a tech company not an educational company which right on utterly unsurprising But yeah, they're gonna do tech company shit tech Tech companies do tech company shit which eventually leads to Nazi shit. And then Luigi Mangione checking in with him. So if you remember there are people like donating to his like legal defense and people were like oh my god wow okay I can help Luigi Mangione fight off this this case for allegedly assassinating a health care CEO. Now, GoFundMe doesn't actually allow fundraisers for quote, the legal defense of financial and violent crimes or whatever. And a lot of fundraisers that have popped up were definitely scams. But there was a campaign on give send go that people were able to donate to and his lawyer at the time

was just like yeah He's replying not gonna be accepting those donations But things have changed now and Luigi Mangione is officially accepting the funds Right now the total sits like around 350 thousand dollars So, you know, this is this this will I'm sure just go to his lawyer But hey Luigi Mangione said, yeah, I'll take a dollar so I can fight this case. Yeah, I'm it's amazing how it's like, on some level, just the chaos of the Trump administration has completely, like, shot the momentum. And the

pun was intended there of like, just sort of like the little bit of class consciousness So that was coming out of the Luigi Mangione thing. It's almost like by design or something I don't know. But anyway, that's that's where we're at with that And but I still do see a lot of Luigi memes a lot of memes still I I think it's you know I I think the cord he's struck And it wasn't a minor Hopefully continues ringing and You know, I don't try to I mean more people are gonna get fucked over by all of these

Cuts to funding and stuff then yeah people realize like how vital some of these programs are and if like you aren't Depending on them. Sure. You can act like I don't know what the fuck happened But some of these people, it is very much a vital part of their lives. In some instances, it's their entire employment and how they have, yeah. Or their community's employment. Yeah. You know, I'm just saying sleep on it. But when your life is utterly fucked, when your family's savings, when your family's, um, you know,

just like livelihood is utterly fucked by Elon Musk. Remember that Elon Musk did this. Yeah. And yeah, you know, unrelated to anything Luigi Mangione may have done. But just remember that Elon Musk did this right now. He is he is taking our money. That's actually stealing it. Yeah. And he's just going to turn it into, I don't know, fucking Bitcoin or something. It's rockets that blow up. It doesn't matter. The point is, and this is unrelated to turn it into, I don't know, fucking Bitcoin or something. Basically. Rockets that blow up. It doesn't matter. The point is, and this is unrelated to Luigi Mangione, but Elon Musk did this to you and is going to do,

you know, if bad things happen to you, Elon Musk did that. Yeah. And, you know, don't worry. Elon Musk started the Eden fire. Yeah. You know what I mean? Allegedly. Allegedly.

All right, well, Andrew, thanks so much for joining me on. Thanks for having me, dog. Thanks so much for joining me on. Thanks for having me, dog. Thanks so much for joining me on this trending episode. We're gonna be back with a brand new episode tomorrow. Some described it as a, how do I say this, bonger? Banger, banger, banger, the bang. So join us there tomorrow, you know, the same place, same time and all of that.

Until then, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, get your vaccines, and you know, just don't do nothing about white supremacy because it's everywhere. Okay, talk to you soon. Bye bye. Peace. Peace.

Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. What would you do if mysterious drones appeared over your hometown? I started asking questions.

What do you remember happening on that night of December 16th? It actually rotated around our house looking as if it was peering in each window of our home. I'm Gabe Linners from Imagine, I Heart Podcasts and Linners Entertainment. Listen to Obscurum, Invasion of the Drones, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty and my latest episode is with Bill Gates. This is a world where somebody can have over a hundred billion dollars. What is that? Social networking, we're still arguing about what the policies should be, algorithms reward outrageous things.

These fortunes are almost illegitimate, unless in a very smart way given back. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Some people won't give you the real talk on drugs, but it's time we know the facts. Fentanyl is often laced into illicit drugs and used to make fake versions of prescription pills.

You can't see it, taste it, or smell it. Suppliers mix fentanyl into their products because it's potent and cheap, and the dealer might not even know. Keep yourself and others safe by knowing the real deal on fentanyl. Get the facts. Go to realdealonfentanyl.com.

This message is brought to you by the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people, like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone, you know, you do three hours in the morning, you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school

and write at night and after nine hours you come out with seven pages and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.