The Daily Zeitgeist - The Texas Trendsaw Massacre 10/29: Master Chief, Trump's 3rd Term, Ape Escape, Japanese Fascism

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

In this edition of The Texas Trendsaw Massacre, Jack and Miles discuss Master Chief @ the White House, Trump: "It's too bad" he can't run for a 3rd term, an ape escape on a Mississippi highway, and a chat with Ayumi Shinozaki about Japan's struggle with creeping fascism!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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to help him escape. So we're saying like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader and I fear I've angered her.

Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder.

I think they might be part of a cult. Hold up. Real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day.

My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development. for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What's up, everybody, it's snacks from the trap nerds and all October long. We're bringing you the horror. We're kicking off this month with some of my best horror games to keep you terrified. Then we'll be talking about our favorite horror in Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always die further. And it's the return of Tony's horror show. side quest written and narrated by yours truly we'll also be doing a full episode reading with commentary and we'll cap it off with a horror movie battle royale open your free iHeart

radio app and search trap nurse podcast and listen now hello the internet and welcome to this episode of the texas trend saw massacre oh that one courtesy of new chris on the discord my name's Jack O'Brien that over there is Mild Gray. Oh, there you go. He didn't scream at you. Yeah, I didn't want to go too hard, you know? Thank you, man.

No, you're a loving co-host, Jack, and a loving father. And you're, I felt, I felt warm. It felt warm. It didn't feel, didn't feel shitty at all. Didn't feel too droopy. No, no. Droopy or floppy, no. All right.

Jam-packed episode. We're going to talk about some news. And then later on, we have a very special guest to talk about some things outside of the United States and how they affect the United States and how they're related to the United States because we are an American-centric. Yeah, and full transparency.

You know, being Japanese, I have a bit of an interest in what's happening in Japan. So you got a dog in this fight? Got a dog in this fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. Sure.

Not me. I just, I'm here. Why don't even care, dude? I don't care, dude. I usually want to hear about what the latest fashions are that I can vulture onto. Jack, your clothes are not nearly as baggy as they need to be if you wanted to fit in. Oh, I bet.

Yeah, I noticed because I was over there and skin tight clothes. Yeah. Well, your clothes would see, even though you're not wearing like painted on jeans, even just your normal jeans would look skin tight. Yeah, yeah, the fashionable Japanese youth. All right. Let's get into some news. The White House and ICE are doing a fun thing.

Is this for Halloween? They're using Halo imagery to promote their stuff. That's fun, right? Fucking master chief. Jesus. Trump as master chief in front of the White House is unbelievable. I mean, again, it's all AI slop nonsense. This is power to the players?

Is that GameStop? That says that, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, you're asking the right guy. I know, and I don't want you to be modest, Jack. I know how you are with that Alienware. And I know you are with that Nintendo Switch. I can confirm based totally off of my memory. of GameStop slogans.

Incidentally, Victor happened to text you something about that. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Victor confirmed it. Okay, okay. Yeah, thanks Victor. Yeah. But yeah, he's standing there looking Shredsville, um, saluting the flag, holding Halo weapon in his left hand. It's sick.

It's sick. There's another one with them in a wart hog, destroy the flood. There, I mean... Oh, that one's not good. Oh, no. Yeah. destroy the flood join ice dot gov yeah yeah look they're doing everything they can i mean they're i'm sure they're like hey steve bannon said something about gamers maybe we can get them um yeah famously

in peak physical condition all of us gamers um as a gamer myself have they seen my arms how thin they are i don't know if i can do any kind of real street work out there i can i can maybe choke somebody out for saying they went they left anger management early in the theater. As long as they're in middle school or below. Yeah, as long as it's unsuspected. And as long as they're not, they're not ready for it.

Yeah, that is your move. Which also seems to be like the ice strategy. There's a video of a young woman walking into a store and two ice agents just like roll up on her from behind with like a fucking Jesus Halloween costume, like just scary-ass, like full black mask

over their head with like goggles. They're like, are you from here? Where were you born? Are you from here? No. Heroes. Heroes is what we call them. But the flood, that feels, hmm.

Yeah. Is that a reference to anything? Is that? Yeah, yeah, that is from Halo. Okay. Yeah, yeah, that is, like, they're lucky that there is the flood in Halo. They're truly just trying to be like, hey, man, isn't Halo just like immigration, y'all? Come on in.

In Halo, what? But who is the flood? What is the flood? It's a life form that's like the main bad guy. Right. Which are like pretty insectoid, right? They're like parasitic. They're gross.

They look like. Very Nazi vibes to be comparing immigrants to, uh, the parasitic organism from halo, I feel like. Yeah, of course. But are people connecting it are with our educational system? People might be like, wait, Trump was in halo. Because that's all. damn trump halo collab i mean i think they're trying obviously the recruitment is been bad despite the bonuses because the people that are willing to do this work are just like

there there aren't many of them and the ones that are just not even close to doing it the way they need to is brutally i guess considering the firings that have happened at ice but i think they're just trying to get as many of these messages to resonate with all the different weirdos out there because there's also, like, the new ice posters that are done in the very explicit, like, Nazi aesthetic of, like, knights. Yeah. Because that was, like, the Nazi propaganda back then was depicting them as knights and, like, their, their conquest to retake Europe sort of thing. So there's ice imagery now that's putting people, like, in sort of night armor also. Yeah, I mean, it's not a secret.

Like, once Teenage Mutant Ninja Gerbils, like, did his speech modeled on a. a Nazi speech after Charlie Curse. Yeah. That was a pretty good sign that it's mask off. We're Nazis. We admire the Nazis. We want to borrow their iconography as much as possible. Do you get like how they're trying to wink, right?

They're like, if you know, you know, bro. Look what we're doing. Sure. But then also, is that as effective for, I would say most of the population isn't up on the semiotics of Nazi Germany? Yeah. Like, it would be like, oh, yeah, dude. But I guess maybe they're just like in the same way, the Weimar Republic is like, well, yeah, nights.

They're also unoriginal and have bad aesthetics. And so I feel like their second option might have been comic sans, you know? Like they probably just are using it as a crutch to be like, that should look to cool, you know? Jesus Christ. Well, yeah, the mask is off. And guess what? Donald Trump is actually master chief now that the mask is off. Yeah.

I still go back. to, like, the shit that Steve Miller must say behind closed doors that, like, Trump was like, I don't want to know what he really thinks, or I don't want him to say what he really thinks. That might be too much. Yeah. It's like, Jesus, man. What the fuck. When, yeah, when the guy who had mine camp by his bedside table is like, I don't know about this guy. Yeah, a little too much. Yeah. A little too much dip on his chip. In worse news for him, maybe, I don't know, he, maybe it's bad news for us because it seems like he had forgotten that he wasn't allowed to run for a third term and just found out about it. Yeah. Yeah. So like on Sunday, we were talking about that flight

on Air Force One where he was... What a flight, Jesus. What a flight, man. He, like, there was the, I dare you to see if your brain is as damaged his mind challenge that went out to AOC and Jasmine Crockett. Yeah. Which he described as like, I'd like to see how they do on this advanced IQ test that I took and east and it was it was like connect to the dots yeah it was like if a is one and B is two what is C right

uh lion swish no swish I mean swish I mean swish um so he told it on that flight the first one he was sort of like yeah you know he was talking about a third term I was like here he fucking goes again but he's changed his tune now so on the next flight headed to Korea from Japan he told reporters on air force

when it quote it's pretty clear. Excuse me. I'm burping because I'm, I don't know, sorry. I had a hot dog for breakfast. You had a hot dog for breakfast? Look, Jack, what the, I'm reading Mitt Romney's book. I'm reading Mitt Romney's biography. I'm trying to, I'm trying to mimic the people that I want, that I aspire to be. And that was his routine. That's not, that's not too far off from Scrapple. Yeah. But he said, quote, it's pretty clear that he can't run again. And then he added, I guess I'm not allowed to run. Which is, I guess I'm not allowed to run. It really feels like he just found out.

Yeah. Like, you didn't fucking know, or are they scolding? You sound like a scolded child. Like, I guess I'm not allowed to mix the ammonia and the bleach. That's what mommy said. Can't do that. It caused a toxic cloud. He did ag, though, his trademark.

But we'll see, as he always says, with everything. But he wasn't, he was just kind of like, yeah, not really committed to that bit. And people said that this kind of happened maybe right after he had a call with Mike Johnson, who he said had spoken to him about, quote, the constrictions of the Constitution. So maybe Mike, I don't know if Mike Johnson's like, hey, dude, there's fucking no path here for this unless you're fully just breaking everything down. Based on what we know from history, and I'm having to look way back to the Biden administration on this one. But the people who are working with a president who's, you know, suffering from dementia are way more aware than the general public about, like, what's going on behind the scene. So this might be the one case where, like, the people around him are just like, buddy.

But yeah, I don't know that. That's them's the rules, unfortunately, you know, not guessing him up. Just trying to, Mr. President. Switch it to J.D. Vance. He's like, look, man, your donors from Silicon Valley, you know they want J.D. Vance as your vice president. president you know why you know why no all right all right well let's go get let's go take another uh ike test shall we test and another brain scan uh real quick Halloween story like a story that seems like it's out of a horror movie uh and i think that's

might be why it's happening so there's bad news and then there's aggressive monkeys infected with covid hepatitis C and herpes have escaped news um the a truck containing a cartload of Reese's monkeys from research center, affiliated with Tulane University, crashed in Mississippi, leaving a hole just large enough for the primates whose cages were broken during the cash to escape into the Mississippi valleys, multiple Mississippi valleys. At which point, law enforcement just started shooting them, which would make sense, except apparently nobody investigating the case or reporting the story actually checked with the university because the university has claimed that the monkeys aren't infectious, and they're sending a team of animal care experts to assist

the cops who have been busy shooting the monkeys. But I do feel like this might just be the U.S. media being like, we need a horror movie scene and stat for this Halloween news cycle. Herpes monkey spill in Mississippi. Monkey spill. I mean, that's an inciting incident, if I've ever heard one. Yeah. I like how the cops are like.

The driver said the monkeys were dangerous, so we had to just fucking blast them. I mean, our ready testing on animals is so fucking fucked up. On top of that being like, yeah, I got to shoot them now. Cool, cool. They aren't even, what amazing outlet gave us this headline? Aggressive monkey infected with COVID and STIs running loose in Mississippi after transport trunk overturns. I'm a little disappointed by how literal it is.

because it is, of course, the New York Post. Which you'd think they would have been able to come up with something a little bit better than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were just going for straight fear, straight adrenaline. Yeah. Aggressive? Like, where is that even? I mean, yeah, because they've been caged for so long.

The charts on the aggressive scale. Yeah, because we're locking them up in cages and making them sick. Yeah. These monkeys are real assholes. Like, that's essentially the equation. I'm surprised the New York Post didn't, like, connect us to, like, Zora Mumdani or something in some way. Yeah. It feels like it's coming.

Because they're trying everything this week. They're keeping their powder dry on that one. They're going to have a big, a big news story on Sunday. Yeah, Brian, the editor points, isn't this how, yes. The monkeys were infected with rage, I believe. Yes. In that opening scene. And they got, but as Brian, like, they just got STIs, you know what I?

They just need some antibiotics. Hey, that'll put anyone in a bad mood. Yeah. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with our special guest. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. How'd you know she's a cult leader.

Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things are. keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia. A real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual?

No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did! And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In the new podcast, Hell in Heaven, two young Americans moved to the Costa Rican jungle to start over. But one will end up dead. The other tried for murder.

Not once. People went wild. Not twice. Stoned. But three times. John and Anne Bender are rich and attractive, and they're devoted to each other. They create a nature reserve and build a spectacular, circular home high on the top of a hill. But little by little, their dream starts to crumble, and our couple retreat from reality.

They lose it. They actually lose it. They sort of went nuts. Until one night, everything spins out of control. Listen to Hell in Heaven on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, Here We Go Again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies,

but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15, seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we heading towards another financial crash like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lily Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is.

But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Crying Wolf Podcast is the story of two men bound by injustice, of a city haunted, by its secrets, and the quest for redemption, no matter the price. White victim, female, pretty, wealthy, black defendant. Chicago, a white woman's murder, a black man behind bars, for a crime he didn't commit. I had 90 years for killing somebody I have never seen. He says the police are his friends, and then that's it.

They turn on it. A corrupt detective. How he was interrogated the techniques. That's crazy. A snitch. and a life stolen. They got the wrong guy. But on the inside,

Lee Harris finds an ally in his sally, Robert, who swears to tell the truth about what happened to Lee and free his friend. And if you're with me, you're golden. I'll take care of you.

I'm going to be with you. You stuck with me for life. Listen to the Crying Wolf podcast, starting on October 22nd, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. and we're back and we're thrilled to be joined in our second act by a very special guest,

a brilliant artist, translator, writer, and podcaster here to talk to us about what's happening in Japan after the most recent election. Yes, also a bestower of the AKA Laureate title. Yes, his master general. Coming to us all the way from Japan. Welcome back to the show. Ayamie Shinnazaki Ayupi! Hello! Hello.

Happy to be back. Oh, no. So good to have you. It's been too long. For those you don't know, look, if y'all are on the Discord and you're in that A.K. And title submit, you know, room putting in the titles. And you know, if you're trying to get that, if you want that yellow label, you got to hit up Ayumi. That is the person. So look, it's great to have you, I mean, thank you so much for us. Or just like let your words speak for itself and leave it. I've noticed a lot of times it is it is old heads who tag me to give someone else the role so

I love that you know what I mean it's a thriving community in there elders we love you all the elders look out for the youngers I'll have arms like Christmas hams just connecting this to the overall to the overall zeit guys I just want to do that real quick and then we'll get into the specifics but I feel like there is a global wave of conservative movements happening. My sense is that it comes from a rejection of neoliberalism, aka like the old trust corporations and global free trade to solve all our problems. People have been like, is this, it seems like it might not be working.

It seems like they might be mean and badge. Seems like just works for that. And in America, because the only two options are that, you know, just a neoliberalism, corporatocracy and fascism. Americans have chosen fascism. Surely that can't be happening in Japan, the place where I went recently

and the streets were very clean and nice. So I feel like you guys have figured out. Over to you, I, Amy. Oh, I have a few takes about the cleanliness, the secret behind all that. But in any case, yeah, so things have

been, I mean, things have always been conservative, right? Japan has been a conservative country for a long time, and we've had the LDB in power, the Liberal Democratic Party, for a long time. You know, thanks to one, Shenzhou Abe, may he rest in, actually, I can't even say rest in piss anymore because piss has become positive inside day, but, you know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah, you're out there. You're out there. You don't know if he's a piss pig. You don't know if he's like just luxuriating in that piss that he's resting in. You did catch the blast, though. But yeah, so, So, like, it's, you know, it had always been that way.

But, like, as you said, Jack, like, things are getting more and more to the right. And so, honestly, it's like, it kind of felt almost out of nowhere this year if you were, like, really weren't paying attention. Which, honestly, I think is the case with a lot of folks. I mean, anywhere in the world, it's not just a Japanese thing. But, you know, basically what we've seen is we've gone from the right to further right, thanks to what a group called. Sanseido. So this year we had a pretty big election in July. It was for half the seats in the House of Councillors, which is the upper house of the diets, the, you know, parliamentary group in Japan. Like the Senate. Like the U.S. Senate, essentially. Basically. But it also has like

the, you know, it's population based as well. So like I live in Tocchi Prefecture. We have only one counselor while Tokyo has six seats. So like it's, you know, so it's, it's, it was a very, obviously, very big election. And in Japan, one thing that I really think that, you know, other places, especially the U.S. might want to take into consideration is the campaign system is a very short-lived thing. Yeah. This is wild to me. Yeah. So like, basically, you don't hear anything about whatever is coming up in the election until just a few weeks before it happened. So they announced the candidates, uh, in this time around on July 3rd. The election was July 20th. So like what happened during the way is- They announced the candidates 17 days before

the election. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That fucking rules. Right. Right. I mean, there are people who are like obvious like incumbents and stuff like that. Right. People who, you know, are the usual candidates for the parties. You can assume they're going to be the candidate again, right? Stuff like that. But as far as like the official declaration, everything, that's going to be like at that time. They start putting up the first thing is like flyers, you know, up in every polling area. There's going to be a big banner where people put same size flyers for all parties. Right. It's all standardized. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's very, very standardized. So, you know, you can go past and like actually look at all the candidates and like. And because there are so many parties, like it's really easy for people to switch around and choose someone else. That being said, incumbents are more likely to get reelected. You know, that's that's pretty common. Yeah.

Tochigi's one was elected a third time. Though that being said, the Constitutional Democratic Party, which is the major left party in Japan, did get the second most votes. So that made me a little bit hopeful. So over the centrist. So Shenzhou Abe would be like a somewhere between like a Bill Clinton slash George W. Bush figure. Is that like where he stood on the kind of political spectrum? I mean, kind of. I think it's, it's, yeah.

that's kind of fair like i mean he has a whole system he's there's abenomics is named after him and it's a thing that's like that's an english-ish word but it's in use in japanese right up and no mix so it's um it's definitely like a thing that's like very similar i would say to something like oregonomics or whatever obviously they did not win they they came in third that that group of people came in yeah okay yeah so like the thing about the counselors is uh so in my case the incumbent was actually ldp but in Tocchi Prefecture. But in other places, what made Sanseido scare everyone

is that they seem to come out of nowhere, right? This is a group that was started through a YouTube channel. You know, these guys, these three guys started this YouTube channel back in 2019 that was like, here's how to make a political party. And then in 2020, they actually did it.

And Sanseito, the name, the official English name is the do-it-yourself party, right? Asante is like participation. The idea is like, you can also do the thing in government. And their idea was like, well, none of the other parties have good options. So we're going to make our own. Which sounds wild when you have so many parties, but sure.

Right. That sounds great. Like, if the politics were good. I mean, it doesn't sound like, I will say, based on my experience with DIY projects, that's not good. You don't want DIY associated with running your government. As someone who is currently wearing a sweater, I made. by hand. I do feel very personally offended. So like, you know, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, thank you. But the, yeah, like, I've noticed in

English they still use Sanse Dola, but the official English name is DIY party. Whatever. So actually, honestly, maybe using that might make them sound a little bit more silly in English. I'm not sure. So this one makes to think about. It's like an ultra-nationalist. It's like my worst nightmare as a half Japanese person. I'm like, this is all this shit. This is like, I mean, My mom left Japan for many reasons, chiefly because of how misogynistic the culture is. Absolutely. And that still continues to this day. But like with San Saito and like a lot of the ultra-nationalist right, there's like all, I mean,

even with the LDP, there's just like insistence of taking the domestic sort of defense force and like fully militarizing it. And that's definitely with the encouragement of the United States also. And that is leading a lot of people and be like, oh, guys, you know, there's a reason why Japan doesn't have a standing arm. me and that's going to, might bring up a lot of weird memories in the region because of it's imperialistic, uh, history. But yeah, like with Sanseito, I remember first being like, Jesus Christ, like the far right is also gaining seats, but also I think it's important to like look at the context of

Japanese politics too, because the LDP has basically been in power continuously since 95 for like, like there were two short blips where they weren't fully in control. but basically for since 195 they've been the like it's been one party rule essentially and also it's important to point out that the LDP which has again been in power

for this long you know they came to power because after World War II conservative and socialist parties they were rising in popularity and looked like they were going to gain control and guess which country came through with a bag full of cash to sway the election towards the LDP

the United States obviously. And the man who worked with the U.S. on this plan was none other than Abishinzo's grandfather. So, like, just to give you an idea of, like, how, where Abishinzo comes from. And there's a lot of ill will or, you know, ambivalence towards the LDP, LDP because they're like, they've been in power so long. Then yeah, yeah. It's just kind of like, well, what's the, it becomes a, I think, because voter turnout was looking at the numbers, like voter turnout is, is still like, it's like dropping year by year, right? It's, it's hovering around between 50 and 60%,

which is like fairly normal, but it used to be a lot higher. And so it definitely feels like, and especially I feel like after 20, like from my experience, after 2020, like, you know,

once Abe resigned, like he was just, he became so unpopular during like COVID. Like he totally the screwed up everything. The economy was in shambles. And so that like, there was like no way for them, even after they got new leaders in power to like,

kind of bring, back the, you know, power, like the interest in the LDP. So it kind of makes sense, I guess, if you are conservative, to go further, right, or like, pick someone else, even if I don't personally understand that, but whatever. And so, yeah, like, seeing the, the shock of San Saito getting so many seats in the House of Counselors this year really woke a lot of people up to, like, what the hell is going on? And, like, because it was so short, and, you know, I talked to, I, I don't live in Tokyo, but I have friends there, and I talk to them about their experience. And for them. It was also very sudden to see all of the stuff going on. And not all of their seats are in

Tokyo. Of course, it's like all over Japan. But like, it was just like, wait, what's going on? Why are we suddenly talking about like the invasion of foreigners and stuff? Like, foreigners make up 3% of the population. And honestly, if you like look at all the different talking points from the right, it sounds exactly the same as what you hear from Republicans today. Like, it's just, it's all the same stuff. They just got one playbook. Yeah. Yeah. No matter whether it applies or not. And, you know, in the United States, like states that don't have a border with a foreign country or some of the have the most people who are terrified of, like, invasion from.

Well, and then also just being an island nation. Like, it's just, it's like you're, it's doubled, like that idea of like, who's coming in here. And I think the other thing worth pointing out, too, before we get into, you know, because a lot of people are being like, oh, wow, Japan has its first woman as prime minister. And you're like, well, let's maybe, yeah, before we start doing the girl boss golf clap to that, maybe let's look at the policies. But like before getting into that, like I think the thing with foreigners is really being, it's easy to really sort of gin up like frustration and anger about that because there, the amount of, I think there's a difference between tourists and the people who actually reside in Japan. Absolutely. There's a huge part of, because tourism has gotten red hot again since Japan reopened.

And because of the weak yen, a lot of people come in, they're spending their money. And that has also caused prices to rise for local people who have wages that are also not going up, just like most nations. Would it be safe to say that everybody's working for the week yen? Oh, brother, this guy stinks. Sorry, but you guys can go forward. Oh, my God, Jack. You know what? Sighting.

No, but, like, the tourist thing is so true because, like, I mean, it even gets viral, like, in the U.S., right? Obviously, whichever one of the pop brothers it was that, like, you know, went to the suicide force, everything. Like, that was also very viral in Japan, obviously very offensive. There was a viral video over the summer, I think, oh, no, actually, no, it was like in September of an Australian tourist going to a grave site where someone had, left an offering of a can of alcohol. Like, clearly, I guess, that deceased person's, like, their loved ones. Oh, yeah, like a one cup old Zeki or something. Yeah, something like that, right?

And they, um, they drank, they just, like, cracked it open and drank it just for the lulls of the TikTok or whatever. And obviously, yeah, that stuff enrages people. There's, like, so many stories of really rude tourists. And obviously, that is a problem. But the people who get affected are the ones who live in Japan, who are always following the rules. And that's the other thing that you hear all the time and like all these things like people will be like, oh, well, you know, they're coming to Japan.

If they follow the rules and stuff, then everything will be okay. But it's like they are, though. Like most people are doing really well. They're like working like, you know, like all the people I know that I interact with the most who are foreigners are, they're primarily from South Asia in my area, primarily Nepal. And they're working, you know, service jobs more than anything else. They're also often in school or working multiple jobs and, like, you know, trying to and help out their families back home and stuff. Like, it's a very familiar story. Yeah.

Very clear. Like, these people are not the problem. And also, like, again, there's such a small part of the population and they cannot vote. So what on earth do they have to do with, like, whatever it's going on in the nation, like, as a whole, right? It's very difficult to be a foreigner living and working in Japan, just already. You know what I mean? Yes, yes. And like to your point, it's like a lot of things like, well, like they're taking up the jobs like, you're going to work at a convenience store. Like you're going to work at a convenience store in the same way American people are like, do you know the jobs that these people are taking? And on top of it, the demographic crisis in Japan is like a whole other thing we can get into. Right. I'm curious though too. Before we started talking, you were saying a little bit about like the person, because I think going to Japan is so popular right now. Every fucking month, there's someone being like, hey, I'm going to Japan. Do you think you give me some tips? And I'm like, yeah, I'm always like.

Yeah, man. All the time. What's, like, and I think there's a perception of people that go to Japan and don't really understand what's there because on the surface, everybody's calm and ready to take from M&M. Deep down. Yeah. Yeah. You see some mom spaghetti on people's sweaters. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You see it out there and you know what's going on. But like, what do you, how do you sort of like, you, you're saying you kind of had a little bit to talk about on that, on that part of it of just sort of like the perception versus reality thing. Like, yeah, I love, I mean, I'm always happy when people can come to visit, because one thing, I can hang out with them, whatever, sure. I live close enough to Tokyo. I can go down there, whatever. But, like, it's like, you know, there's, I'm so, I'm glad that, like, people want to come visit. Like, I would say most tourists are not assholes.

Yes, you know. For sure. And that's great. But, like, there is definitely, like, a frustration of, yeah, like, trying to, like, make sure, like, things go well and whatever. because, like, these days, oh, the other thing, I guess that's, like, really important that I think is, like, one of those, it, like, it feels really obvious, but then, like, is not just because of the nature of the internet and stuff. Like, one thing that people take super seriously in Japan is, like, recording videos without, like, permission and stuff. And there is a problem, especially from what I've seen in Tokyo in particular, of, like, nursery schools and preschools having to put out signs in front of the schools in English saying, please not record videos of the children at the school. because like that's and that's insane to me

that that's a thing that has to happen but like there's so much of that like it's not a zoo you fuck because they're like they're all wearing the same backpack and have the same hat on is I always see this show they have manners yeah it's like eat them alone and it's just like yeah like it's there's all this like dehumanizing stuff going on there right

and it's just like you want to live out your anime dream or whatever like I get it to a certain degree and you know having worked especially as an English teacher for a long time, I have dealt with the people who come to Japan because they just want to hook up with Japanese people. That's a whole other story. But like, it's like, yeah, it just like it feels like

it's, it's, I understand from like a pop culture perspective wanting to come here, but it's like we got we are also people and so like yeah, I don't know. And then there's just like the fact that like the average Japanese person doesn't watch anime. And like like, like statistics show it's about a third of us. I watch

anything anime. made it and that can include like stuff that's from abroad also so like yeah the average person's like I don't understand like why people are here what what they're doing over there like what they're dressed as or whatever yeah like why is their cosplay in the middle of the street like it's just like there's all this stuff it's very disruptive and again people are just trying to live their lives and they have a billion other problems that you know have nothing to do with the foreigners but the foreigners aren't necessarily make it easy when you know they're just trying to live their lives I don't know yeah and you're doing and you're like break yeah and you're like

break dancing in a subway car but all the foreigners but all also like it's not anyway like okay so actually I have a an anecdote I guess the other day so I have a I have a day job where I work at a supermarket right now as a cashier it's actually really been a good job for like getting to meet a lot of people and I like that a lot but the other day I it was like really busy and this you know one old Japanese man that I helped he like came he like pulled me aside for a second and was like like aren't there too many foreigners working here and I was like, what the fuck? Because like, wild question to ask in general, because what am I supposed to do about it as a cashier?

But also, like, you know, a lot of Japanese people, because I am, you know, also mixed, like, they don't necessarily always know that I am Japanese when they first meet me. So it's like, do the, does he think like I'm like, one of the good ones? What's happening here? Are you knifing me to my face right now? I'd like you to self-support. Yeah. A lot of foreigners here, huh?

It's like, it's like either that or you like things that I would be comfortable with. with, like, agreeing with him or something, but it was like, I looked around and only, like, two of our visibly brown cashiers were working. So I'm like, what the fuck is going on? But yeah, it was just like, the people, the fact that, like, people are starting to, like, be more open about these, like, weird things is just, like, really scary. That's one thing I've noticed, too, just growing up in Japan all the time is going from, like, just seeing tourists everywhere and then hearing people be irritated, like,

oh, guys, you know, like, saying, like, oh, my God, there's so many foreign. here. Like, that's becoming somebody I hear louder and louder. They're not, they're not being nice about it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, definitely not. Yeah, I thought that was the fun nickname they had given me when I traveled. Yeah, man, Guy, nice jeans. Hey, it's me. I think they like my jeans. No, they're calling you

Gaijing. Like, never, fine. But before we go, Ayumi, I just do want to touch on the historic, historic, yes, ascendancy of Takaiichi, who is the Japan's now first prime minister, a woman prime minister. Yes. And again, I think it's one of those things, much like with the Nobel Prize, I'm like, oh, that's got to be fine. It's like, well, sure, look at the person's politics a little bit and begin to understand that this person's idol is Margaret Thatcher. And she comes from the exact same machine as Abyshinzo. She also is, you know, she, she deals with like, Nippon Kaigi also, who's like, you know, the most far, like, they want to, like, erase Japanese history to be like,

nothing happened to world war two or before that or anything okay stop talking about it stop bringing old shit up that's like where she's coming from they're very big japan great again for sure 100% and they you know people call her japan's trump also like in the way that she can like she knows how to talk to him is you know the politics you know somewhat overlap but enough that clearly trump had a good time and i think she she like has enough in common and knows how to appeal to his vanity that it seemed like a good trip where she gave him gold and was like go golfing so simple yeah how does she figure these trump whispers how do they figure out how to him they also gave him gold also and he's like oh this is lovely crown yes oh my god yeah takayi she's like so i mean it's not shocking

that people would like just not look past the fact that she's a woman but it's just like it's very frustrating i mean yes she's bringing back like we're rewriting fascism into fascism it's like with the whole thing, but it's like, she's me. Yeah. Like, okay, so one of the main, when it comes to, there are a lot of problems,

obviously, with misogyny in Japan, as you already mentioned. One of the main things that are still being fought about now is the fact that, legally when a couple gets married, first of all,

still no same-sex marriage, like overall. But also, if you get married, one of these spouses must change their surname, and most, most of the time, it's the woman

that does so. Takaichi actually, interestingly, is against this. Like, she does not want, like, she doesn't want the women to be able to keep their surname, which is the main fight right now. Takaichi is no longer her surname. She married and kept her maiden name

publicly, but that's not her surname anymore legally. So, like, she is going against her own, whatever. So, like, that's, like, the start of it, but also, yeah, she's against same-sex marriage becoming legal here and like a whole bunch of like you name it she's against it like that any any cool yeah she's like even against like overtime limits like again it's very much we have a word in japanese for death by overwork like what are we doing it's so it's so wild

a story to culture a story culture we have so yeah address the rising cost of living in her first beach so you know she's not going to do shit about it i can predict uh there anything we'll see It happens. We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, we'll just let you work harder. Like the main, so I guess when it comes to cost of living, there's a lot of things, right?

Stagnate wages for like decades. Oh, hey, same. The main thing that's like big here is that the price of rice has doubled in the past year, which is like obviously really huge. I don't know if you've heard about Japanese cuisine, but we kind of like to eat rice a lot. It's kind of a daily staple. I thought it was just what my mom was a way. weirdo about it, but it turns out everybody in Japan. You guys try making everything out

of corn, including rice? That's the next step, yeah. I mean, there was a whole thing where they were bringing in foreign rice, and that was a whole thing. There is actually a thing I can bring up about corn. I don't know when exactly this happened, but over the past few years, there's been a rise

in popularity of corn tea in Japan. So, you can either get it like the tea bags, or you can buy like a cold drink that's already made corn tea, but in the store, and there's like several brands. I don't know why that's become a thing, but it feels very connected to America. Yeah, it's called evolution. It's called Forward Progress in America. It's called corn syrup and

Mountain Dew. Eventually, everything will become corn like it has here in the United States. Well, IME is such a pleasure having you on the show. It's great to hear from you. Thank you for your service in the Discord. Thank you for coming on and telling us about things happening outside of the United States. Where can people find you besides the Discord? Great question. So I like finally removed X-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-W-E-E-E-W-S-E-E-E-E-W-S. You mentioned it at the top. I am an artist. As of this recording, I currently have no commissions, um, but usually the most commissions I get is around this time of year because it is gift-giving season. So if you want a painting of your favorite person or a pet, whatever, um, I'm, I'm always down for that. Um, I also sell prints of my

past artwork and, and all that good stuff. So you can find me all over the place there. Um, and my podcast, um, so my main podcast is Sparkle Side Chats with Magical Girl Ayu. That's where I talk to people about magical girls that is stuff like Sailor Moon or most recently K-pop Demon Hunters is the big one right now of course but there are still tons of other things you know dozens of series come out every year in the genre and it's awesome so if you want to know more about that or what else to watch if you want your kid to watch more than just K. Pop Demon Hunters check out that podcast and my next podcast coming out the feeds are open

but the first episode is not quite yet is called Charmpoint Radio which is about idle media and that one I'm actually doing with two friends Leon and Aaron who yeah they're just like me we love talking about idol media which actually K-pop Even Hundreds is also included in that but of a non-magical variety typically though our first episode

is going to be about zombie idols so it's going to get it's going to be an interesting ride right perfect time yes zombie time yeah check those out as well go check out IME's work very cool go commission something

really awesome work all right that is going to do it for us we are back tomorrow with a whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get your vaccines. What you still can. Get your flu shots.

Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. The Daily Zykeyes is executive produced by Catherine Law. Co-produced by Bay Wang. Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M. McNabb.

And edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries. Hello, America's sweetheart Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new true crime podcast, Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, from Smartless Media, campside media, and big money players. It's a wild tale about a gang of high-functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he's,

steals some rich and gifts to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon, then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million that had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're saying like, oh God, what do we do? What do we do? That was dumb. People do not follow my example.

Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast. So we'll find out soon. This person writes,

My neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals. And now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult. Hold up. A real life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota.

Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development.

for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everybody, it's snacks from the trap nerds and all October long. We're bringing you the horror. We're kicking off this month with some of my best horror games to keep you terrified. Then we'll be talking about our favorite horror in Halloween movies and figuring out why black people always die further.

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