The Daily Zeitgeist - Trending Dailies 4/16: SCOTUS, Coachella, USC Valedictorian Speech

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

In this edition of Trending Dailies, Jack and Miles discuss the Supreme Court (ironically) ruling on an antibribery case, a Coachella check-in (feat. No Doubt, Grimes, and Will Smith),  USC cancelling a pro-Palestinian valedictorian speech… for "safety" and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties

you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume

women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit

Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, the internet and welcome to this episode of

Trending Dailys. Little baby. It's courtesy of C-Rex on the Discord. I don't know if it was a reference to Tripping Billy's Trending Dailysies but that's where i took it where i took it that's right i'm gonna take it there miles you took it right there man took it right there man they thought i would not do i did the damn thing you know what i'm

saying i heard that brother heard that um and i heard that uh my name is jack and i'm thrilled to be joined once again by my co-host mr miles hey pardon my voice i blew out a vocal cord screaming to holy shit when we're going to reference this in tomorrow's episode uh what's going on or whatever the actual title is by four non-blondes what's up i bro man the karaoke when i go out to japan like here listen to me this is at the end of the night i'm i'm fucking waved and jet lagged and this is me singing let's dance by uh david bowie oh shit oh you got the quote anyway i'm back and i don't know what time zone it is i need those i need those white house drugs man to get me like on point yeah yeah right yeah that modaf yeah afanil the air force pilot and pro provigional provisional yeah anyway is that like meant to be

like pro vigilance like it's meant to like that's how i take it yeah yeah yeah it seems like they were workshopping that one and landed on a good one by the way i my six-year-old the other day uh turned to me we were at dave and buster's because i'm a good dad um john legend was there for some reason uh also this wasn't a dream i was at dave and buster's john legend was there and my six-year-old turned to me and said dad why is sky rizzy so popular with so many people no he did not what yeah and then i realized like because i watch sports and there's sky rizzy commercial and i think he just like picked it up yeah but that at first i was like who is sky sky rizzy a rapper i know i think we we were joking about that when that shit first

came out we're like yo sky rizzy is a dope fucking MC name. It's a great name that they fucked up by giving to a plaque psoriasis medication. But they were just like, we just landed on this great name. And we got to use it. It's not appropriate for this medication necessarily. Yeah. But yeah, that shit is working on my six-year-old. Sky Rizzy had the fire mixtape that's you that's you should tell your kid yeah they're like oh you know i'll play some sky so many people yeah anyways uh welcome

back yeah to have you back and be here uh thrilled to get to talk to you about our supreme court um it seems to have like dipped into a new level like it feels like some of the just arguments that are taking place in this one case that uh i was reading about seem to be like our arguments from a reality television show like yeah it's there's just something so deeply American-brained, like, broken-brained, like, I don't know. I've always, like, thought that maybe that was going to happen is that the way people talk and argue on reality TV would infect people in reality since, like, that's what their shows claim to be. It feels like it's gotten to the Supreme Court based on some of these conversations. Yeah, yeah. No, yeah, it's idiocracy for Supreme Court based on some of these conversations. Yeah. Yeah.

No. Yeah. It's idiocracy for sure. Yes. It really is wild. Yeah. Because this was the case, right? A lot of people were being like, Clarence Thomas inexplicably isn't there to hear arguments

for a case talking about public officials getting gifts and kickbacks. And bribes. Yes. Yeah. So it involves- Let's call them gifts, Shaq. it involves call them gifts jack let's call them gifts okay my bad so uh yeah he skipped he played hooky on monday and people thought maybe it was because of this case um came back tuesday and was just like wow what happened nah i was here

what all good um but the case involves a guy named james snyder who was mayor of Portage, Indiana, who took $13,000 from a trucking company just weeks after he oversaw a bidding process that awarded them a city garbage truck contract worth over $1.1 million. Again, totally blown away by how cheap it is to buy a politician. $13,000 for $1.1 million? That's in Indiana, baby. Try that in New York City or Miami or fucking LA. Maybe the payout is better? I don't know. Yeah.

Or maybe we should all move to Indiana and start buying tiny cities. I know. Could you imagine? We're like, yo, Jack, let's just put like 13K together and just let's just fucking do some wild. And now we're the trash nightmare shit. Now we run sanitation for Portage indiana oh shit we're in over our heads so prosecutors say it's a bribe because that's what it is um snyder contends that it was merely a payment for his consulting service

um he was found guilty in 2021 because he's guilty uh appealed because he's rich and now the case is before the supreme court who have uh get get the chance to decide whether the country's anti-corruption law only apply to before the fact bribes or also to after the fact gratuities so that's what it was a thirteen thousand dollar gratuity um according to them uh so obviously it could be pretty consequential because a ruling in favor of snyder would essentially legalize the bribing of public officials for lucrative government favors but like gifts after the fact yes gifts after the fact my bad uh so neil gorsuch uh agreed with the corrupt guy's line of reasoning, pointing out that doctors and teachers take gifts all the time. He then suggested that the current law doesn't give fair notice to someone who may be breaking the law by, I don't know, paying for a dinner at the Cheesecake Factory?

There it is. Boom. You're done. the cheesecake factory there it is boom you're done i like so uh you know justice sotomayor and the lawyer for the government were like no this is very clearly about transactions worth at least five thousand dollars what are you what are you talking about he's like i can't get taken out to dinner at the cheesecake factory anymore that's not what we're saying. This is sort of like when you're arguing with a very unintelligent person who just has to

contort reality in their mind so they never have to agree with you and keep pivoting and shit. So they're like, no, it's just $5,000 very clearly. That's a very specific specifically written into it. And then Snyder's lawyer countered that the plastic surgery she gets is worth over five thousand dollars what she's supposed to do not

tip her plastic surgeon um which again like doesn't even like it's just so like it it's just taking one of the numbers in the previous sentence and saying something so like weird and shocking around it right that you just are like kind of your mind can't keep up with like what is happening or like follow their train of logic the doctor removes your wart fine but the doctor who takes your gallbladder out or does your face like my plastic surgeon no that's worth over five thousand dollars i'm sorry worth over five thousand dollars was'm sorry worth over five thousand was the lawyer was the lawyer a literal straw man in a lawyer outfit like what the fuck is the lawyer was actually one of the characters from brazil who has their face like pulled in all different weird

directions um the but it's just i mean obviously asking this Supreme Court to weigh in on this particular issue is like asking Yogi Bear to curb picnic basket theft. Right. I don't know. It's just grim. I mean, yeah, look, you can already see where this goes. done a really bang up job uh this session um with already affirming their the state of the the rights of the state of idaho to to ban gender affirming care for for young people or in this other one mckesson uh versus doe where they're like nah we're not going to hear that and in that moment where they're essentially fucking saying that um you don't really have the right to organize

a mass protest in states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas that have these laws on their book that are like, hey, if you organize a fucking protest and shit gets violent, that's on you. And then they're like, but what if you had a fucking

saboteur come in from the group that's opposing it and be like yeah watch this i'm gonna throw a fucking rock and then now they're getting in trouble ha ha hacked it the matrix see ya yeah there's a lot of same it's on you um yeah that mckesson is duree mckesson who uh organized a protest and somebody got something thrown at them. Yeah, a cop, yeah. Yeah, they sued DeRay McKesson for organizing a protest. So they basically make it impossible to organize anything in these states. Yeah, yeah. So, wow.

Can't wait to see where this goes next. I mean, just back to the snyder case the guy like he so the garbage truck case isn't even the only example of him being accused of accepting bribes right a tow truck company owner actually pled guilty to paying snyder twelve thousand dollars in bribes so that seems to be his sweet spot where he liked it anything with trucks yeah trucks and around twelve to thirteen thousand dollars yeah in exchange for towing contracts which snyder claims was merely a loan i was gonna give it back oh my god why are you guys so mad at me um the city's superintendent had to go to the fbi office to report him, led to a three-year probe into the mayor.

And they also found that his $13,000 Cheesecake Factory dinner, aka consulting fee, was paid to a consulting firm that investigators later discovered was a fake company. So he had created a shell company to hide his payments.

Just like ordinary, everyday people do. It was a gift. I was just holding it for them. Oh my God. We were on a break. I can't believe how weird you guys are being. You're being so weird. You're probably going to say next, I can't even say thank you to someone.

This is where this is going. Yes. How is an everyday citizen supposed to know that taking more than 10 grand in payments rooted through a shell company is somehow illegal or not on the up and up from the eyes of the law everything's upside down man i get it thank you justice for standing up for what is right what the fuck fuck? Fucked up. Yeah. Thank you. Can't wait to see where this goes. Advertising the Cheesecake Factory because now I am hungry and I'm going to go there.

Yep. Chicken littles. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed.

Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and LA-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration. It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session.

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I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi everyone, it's me, Katie Couric. If you follow me on social media, you know I love to cook, or at least try. Especially alongside some of my favorite chefs and foodies like Benny Blanco, Jake Cohen, Lighty Hoyt, Alison Roman, and of course, Ina Garten and Martha Stewart. So I started a free newsletter called Good Taste that comes out every Thursday, and it's serving up recipes that will make your mouth water. Think a candied bacon Bloody Mary, tacos with cabbage slaw, curry cauliflower with almonds and mint,

and cherry slab pie with vanilla ice cream to top it all off. I mean, yum, I'm getting hungry. But if you're not sold yet, we also have kitchen tips like a foolproof way to grill the perfect burger and must-have products like the best cast iron skillet to feel like a chef in your own kitchen all you need to do is sign up at katiecurrick.com slash good taste that's k-a-t-i-e-c-o-u-r-i-c.com slash good taste i promise your taste buds will be happy you did And we're back.

Is that your move at Cheesecake Factory? Chicken Littles? Hey, come on, man. Look, until they bribe us for $13,000, you're not going to hear anything else from me. But yeah, I get Chicken Littles. Okay. There's that one rice dish that has rice, shrimp, and I think it's like the firecracker chicken or something. It's, oh, man.

Oh, bang, bang, chicken and shrimp? Yes. Hey, why do I know that? Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it at all. But God almighty, that thing is probably the most... You can feel how calorically dense it is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's kind of the appeal.

Each one of these is so deep fried. One bite, you can hear your blood coursing through your head with every heartbeat. All of a sudden, you can just hear your blood pumping in your ears. I hear that. Should we check in with Coachella? Yes. Oh, I saw that. Did you see the Gr Coachella? Yes. Oh, I saw that. Did you see the Grimes clip?

I did not see the clip. I just read descriptions of it. It's horrifying. Oh, God. It's horrifying. The big thing was No Doubt reunited, joined on stage by Olivia Rodrigo. One of the very first concerts I ever went to without my parents was uh was no doubt bush uh no doubt opening for bush damn in the year 19 and 96 okay damn how so oh you're about to okay that that tracks because

my my first concert solo was the stankonia outcast solo solo um an exhibit open for that's much cooler that's much cooler um went on a little date to that one at rup arena in kentucky and uh anyways uh less successfully grimes had to apologize to fans on twitter her technical issues during her show some of her keyboard software was messed up which she blamed on having outsourced the work to idiots um uh i don't know if she called them idiots but no she said i shouldn't have let other people do it i always do it myself like her apology was like basically these other people messed up and that's on me and that's on me uh a perfectionist it's yeah it's like listening to a passive-aggressive person who's just like

um it's it's because i didn't do it myself and i'm you know i should know that everybody else is fucking stupid exactly exactly and that makes me dumb so but i like caused her to repeatedly scream into her microphone during the set just like um if she was djinged too and you're like i'm sorry is anybody who's dj'd it's like the bpms are coming out all wild and stuff i don't know what's going on part of me is like can you you can you do that by ear like that's sort of one of the first skills you learn in mixing is knowing like sort of where your tempos are not me um yeah not me i do everything by sight and by uh intense spreadsheet work that i don't have time to do up here also will smith made a surprise appearance during jay balvin's set uh showing up in his men

in black suit to sing uh to sing get miami yeah welcome to miami uh no he's saying men in black uh to remind people he's the guy that we all love to men in black uh there's a giant alien head and dancing aliens uh but no tommy lee jones apparently tommy lee jones thinks he's too good for coachella hey look that's another guy with the same birthday as me and look we both weren't there so yeah conspiracy maybe maybe same birthday same year same birthday same year he looked like shit and i was also al gore's roommate at harvard did you know they were roommates yeah yeah of course anyway look we look we're dude like look me and tommy we look good for

77 although we will be 78 this september so you know send send your gifts in then yeah there's been i forget when we talked about this. Oh, it was on tomorrow's episode, but, uh, there's a real, I've had two people, uh, both Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman sightings in the past week that have like really made me realize like you, once you hit 90, it's all over. You, you're, yeah, it's, I don't know. I'm sorry. It was over for Gene Hackman a lot sooner than that all over. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I don't know. I'm sorry. It was over for Gene Hackman a lot sooner than that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, I don't know, man. And I'm talking only looks. But they all look like this now. Hey, well, look, with the medical technologies that we have, we may see the end of the earth. That's right. So that's cool. With enough money.

And hey, man, that's pretty cool. That's pretty cool i mean all right and speaking of the end of the earth uh usc has canceled a pro-palestinian valedictorian speech uh but not over politics over safety it was purely logistical miles oh is that right yeah it's just purely logistical huh yeah yeah yeah it my goodness that you want to talk about something so backwards uh to say that it was over safety concerns when the valedictorian who you know identifies as like a south asian muslim uh was like uh you know i don't i never heard about any threats against me i never heard about any threats or disruptions to this. But why are we using this angle somehow to then be like, we just want to silence someone with pro-Palestinian views who may have a platform to voice those views. It's hard for me to see it like any other way than that because we are, I mean, this is all we've been seeing since october the 7th are people with pro-palestinian

views having a lot of trouble getting those views out into the world um and another thing we even reference uh in tomorrow's episode like even like the german police uh disrupted a pro-palestinian conference uh because why i don't know safety yeah it must be safety we're actually concerned about their safety uh mainly is what we are worried about we don't want the people protesting to get hurt yeah it's just more islamophobia manifest uh into our you know college campuses and um the the valedictorian asna tabusam uh said made a statement quote although this should have been a time of celebration for my family friends professors and, anti-Muslim

and anti-Palestinian voices have subjected me to a campaign of racist hatred because of my uncompromising belief in human rights for all. Yeah, it's really it's a shame, but USC isn't quite the bastion

of free speech and progressive ideals that I think maybe people think it might be just because it's in Los Angeles University. And they have like their own police force that are keeping the undesirables out at all times. Yeah. All right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this Tuesday afternoon. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves.

Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy. And we will talk to you all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.

And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour.

If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil.

I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing

for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah

Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.