The Press Box - Bloomberg Is Serious About This, Plus: Devin Nunes and Saving SI | The Press Box

Episode Date: November 26, 2019

Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker  discuss Michael Bloomberg announcing candidacy for the Democratic nomination (03;00), the Overworked Twitter Joke of the Week (16:00), an attempt to rescue Sports Illustrated from The Maven (18:30), Devin Nunes and the Ukraine scandal (26:30), Deval Patrick puns (34:00), and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For over 115 years, Orris has been making purely mechanical watches in Holstein, Switzerland. Staying true to a rich heritage, Orris is one of the few Swiss watch companies to remain independently owned and operated. And watches come in four themes, diving, aviation, motorsport, and culture. So Oris has a watch for everyone in every occasion. Shop the collection at oris.c.c.c.com slash pressbox to go your own way. David, Thanksgiving dinners can be awkward You can talk about religion, family secrets, politics But what I want to know is

If you found out a family member had self-funded a trip to Ukraine To dig up dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden Which family member would that be? Oh man, I hope you have a good answer for this Because I, I Perhaps happily rarely get into political discussions with most of my family. And I don't know that I have that like that kind of stereotypical loudmouth right wing relative.

Who would be there? Yeah. It's not going to be our immediate family so we can cross them out. I don't know. I mean, listen, my uncle Jim is incredibly liberal. But he's so politically active that I like he like almost his liberalism is like, His activity makes me think that maybe he would be so passionate about, no, I couldn't put that on him. Wait, he went over there to actually save Biden to find, like, anti-dirt about Biden.

I just think, no, no, I was just saying, like, being, like, politically active makes you more, like, closer to the closer to buying that plane ticket than someone who's just oblivious, you know, just, like, apathetic to the whole thing, even if it's a total 180. You say that, but it's the quiet one sometimes, David. Yeah, you're right. You're right. man that maybe it's like I had no idea that Auntie was a member of Trump's inner circle you know I just I really had no I had no idea that got involved in Ukrainian politics over the years

that's just a shocker to be oh my gosh now you know I'm gonna do I'm gonna go home over Thanksgiving and try to suss out who it is I'm gonna have to be like asking leading questions of my parents and stuff to figure out which member of the family is most likely damn we are the uncle Lev Parnas of media podcast this is the press box a part of the ringer podcast Network.

Media consumers, you've got Brian Curtis and David Shoemaker here. Lots and lots to get to today, including a last-ditch attempt to rescue Sports Illustrated from the Maven. Congressman Devin Nunes finds himself close to the center of the Ukraine scandal, a treasury of Deval Patrick puns, plus the overworked Twitter joke of the week. But first, David, we need to talk about the actually official presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg, and especially about candidate Bloomberg's journalists, or former journalists in some cases. On Sunday, Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, officially announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination and made his first campaign stop in Norfolk, Virginia, home of the world's largest naval base.

His website is up with the slogan, a new choice for Democrats, proven leadership for America. and if you thought that was generic, check out some of the text in his mission statement. The stakes could not be higher. We must win this election. I'm so glad, David, that Mike Bloomberg addressed the question, could the stakes be any higher? Because I feel I haven't heard a single candidate address that. Could the stakes be any higher? Bloomberg also spent a ton of money set to spend, in fact, $31 million this week on advertising,

the most ever spent in a week by a candidate. Ads are running from Massachusetts to California. And Bloomberg could spend half a billion dollars on ads throughout the 2020 cycle. Let us begin here. Is it any solace that Mike Bloomberg is just publicly buying the election? We're not pussyfooting around anything here. Remember Trump? Oh, I'm self-funding.

Oh, I'm not self-funding. and all that stuff. Mike Bloomberg is just trying to buy the nomination. Does that make you feel any better about a billionaire running for president? No. I mean, I guess I'm just jaded and thinking that no matter what they say, they'll be flexing their personal economic muscle one way or the other.

And listen, I mean, I guess there is something sort of validating with the fact that he's out there spending his own cash when he could be spending somebody else's. But at the end of the day, I mean, it's that his wealth is the only reason that we're paying. attention to him right now. So, I mean, obviously he was the mayor of New York, but again, his wealth had almost everything to do with that. I think that it's hard to find anything to get too enthused about, especially from like the philosophical starting point of this campaign.

But, you know, let's try. I'm a little surprised that he actually went through with it. Me too. I think when you and I talked about this a couple of weeks ago, our loose consensus was he's not really going to run. He wants the validation of Morning Joe. He wants some, you know, Democrat in quotes to write like an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying, we need Mike.

And then he's going to be totally done. That mission accomplished. But he's running. We thought that about Donald Trump, too. I struggle. I mean, maybe there's some sort of common thread here. I mean, maybe it is that he like, you know, that Bloomberg, like, clicked over to 538's, you know, 2019 stakes watch and realized for the first time that the stakes

couldn't be higher. But, I mean, maybe there's something else going on that, like, these sort of, like, you know, masturbatory, like, you know, rich dude campaigns are not as, you just can't get the same sort of feeling of fulfillment out of faking, and a head faking the run anymore. You got to do it. Or maybe, maybe, like, the greatest trick that, like, the Russian trolls ever pulled was like infiltrating, you know, maybe they have a secret agent who's just a really rich political contributor who just gets in these guys' ears. And he's like, no, you really have to run. You could really win. And that's, I mean, that could be the greatest, like, the greatest monkey wrench they could have possibly pulled. The bet, yeah, you're totally right. If I were a Russian troll,

I think I would at least have it on the whiteboard that I should impersonate former Bill Clinton strategists and just go around to every kind of conservative Democrat billionaire. here and say, you know what? We're getting a lot of data that says you should run, because that would be one way to monkey with all this. The data angle is actually really interesting. I mean, who knows if it'll pan out? But, you know, in the sports world, we see, you know, increasing instances of just sort of like how the more data we have, the more, the more, like, deaf we are to it, or to the truth, to facts or whatever, it just sort of blinds us with numbers. And maybe there's some element to which, like, just there is a way that you can see, you know,

numbers prove when you know, when a, when numbers prove that you actually have a chance of winning, that's somehow more compelling than someone patting you on the back, you know, over cigars in telling you that. And that and it's just sort of undeniable to somebody like Bloomberg. Who knows? A lot of media entanglements with this campaign. Gary Briggs is the former chief marketing officer of Facebook. He's now the Bloomberg campaign's digital director.

I think the biggest news came out of a leaked staff memo from John Micklethwa. the EIC at Bloomberg. The memo said the outlet will not investigate Bloomberg, his family, his foundation, or any of his Democratic rivals during the primary. But the outlet will still cover news throughout the primary and will, quote, continue to investigate the Trump administration as the government of the day, end quote,

that policy will be reassessed if Trump and Bloomberg were to face off in a general election. So how do we square that? Bloomberg, the journalists, can cover Trump, investigate Trump, pull Trump's pants down, but they can't do anything when it comes to the guy whose name is on the shop. I mean, it's just like, I mean, I feel like every week there's just something where I'm, I just say, I'm just very disheartened by this turn of events. I don't really know what to do or what to say. You know, I mean, it's like it's, yeah, I mean, it's a terrible situation. And it's one that you would think that, you know, in a situation where the stakes could not be higher, this seems like a really easy one, right?

You just divest yourself. You get out of the way. You, you know, you sell the company. Hell, I mean, how hard could that be? He's talked about that before, apparently, right? He did. Yeah, Dave Weigel pointed this out on Twitter that he, it was last December. He told Radio Iowa's O.K. Henderson, he would sell if he ran for president.

Quote, we've always had a policy that we don't cover ourselves. I happen to believe in my heart of hearts you can't be independent. and nobody's going to believe that you're independent. And quite honestly, I don't want the reporters I'm paying to write a bad story about me. I don't want them to be independent. So now, instead of divesting, selling, he's put them in a strange position where they're supposed to keep trying to be great reporters, but just ignore him. And that just seems like the most, I think you've got to be with journalism, you've got to be either all in or all out. it's very hard to do the hedge, right?

You know, even Bezos and the Washington Post, Washington Post is allowed to write about him. They're, you know, again, could and would that hit some snags somewhere along the line, sure. But his idea is the Washington Post is all in. Bloomberg says that we're half out. We're out on me, but you can continue to write about Trump. There's sort of like a reversed, you know, you remember with this is such a strength. metaphor, but with advanced interrogation,

that people always use the 24, the 24 is the point of reference, a TV show where it's like, it's fine that it's illegal because in instances where it's a moment of national security, that like that person, you know, the interrogator will presumably be acquitted because of the circumstances.

There's some sort of like ugly inverse of that going on where, like, I guess there's a point where even where the most calloused and jaded journalists will say, you're working for the Washington Post, you might say, you know, if I'm writing this piece that reflects negatively on Bezos, there's a chance that, like, at the last second, someone will intervene and it won't get published, right? I mean, it's similar to some of the stuff we saw with, you know, some of the Harvey Weinstein story that didn't break and all that.

I mean, you know, had a hard time getting published and everything else. But there's, but the idea of setting the ground rules that you can't cover something ahead of time is paralyzing, right? I mean, it's absolutely, like, you're, you can't, you're not going to, you're not going to track down stories that even have a whiff of having, you know, a third degree relationship to your boss. And, and you're, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, you're going to be intervention from the top in journalism, as sad as that is, all the time. But to set these guidelines just seems like even if they're trying to, even if they're on the up and up, just trying to be clear about what they're doing, you know, complete just full disclosure, complete honesty. It just seems like, like it's just a terrible situation. Yeah, I don't know how you do journalism when you say, please don't cover part of your beat. I just don't, I don't know how that happens. I don't get it. I don't know how you do journalism when you say, regardless of whether or not this is your specific beat, when you say there is a giant beat that no one's allowed to touch. Like if I, if you were right. writing about music for Bloomberg, you'd be freaked out about what albums you were writing about. You know, I mean, there's like, there's, at that point, it just like, it infects everything.

Another thing about this memo from John Micklethwaite that made my eyebrows go up was this. The place where Mike has had the most contact with editorial is Bloomberg opinion. Our editorials have reflected his views. David Shipley, Tim O'Brien, and some members of the board responsible for those editorials will take a leave of absence to join Mike's campaign. We will suspend the board so there will be no unsigned editorials. Now, wait a second. Those journalists work output so closely mirrored Mike Bloomberg's ideas that there is no reason for them to exist if Mike Bloomberg is running for president. And in fact, they are no longer going to be journalists.

They are going to work for the Bloomberg campaign. I mean, that just retroactively, to me, is like an accidental. insult of their careers. You were, your job was to channel Bloombergia into these editorials. And then now we're just completely shutting it down and you're working for the campaign. Rather than continue, I mean, Tim O'Brien is the guy who's the Trump biographer. Who's, who's, you know, you see on TV every time we need some Trump analysis. He's working for Bloomberg now for the campaign?

Like, what? I don't know. that just that just sort of blew my mind and I don't even know what to do with that. I'm David Chippley's a former political speechwriter, but still. David, I want to leave you with some Bloomberg merch before we leave this segment. If you go to the shop section of his website, you will find a t-shirt that says this, in God we trust, everyone else bring data. And then you flip it over and it says Bloomberg 2020.

Now, Charlie Worsell asked this question on Twitter and I want to ask you, who the hell is buying this? I'm a Bloomberg for president fan and I'm going to go around and in God we trust everyone else bring data. You remember when when Mark Cuban bought the Mavs and one of his first big moves

was just to totally redo the merch shop and there were some pretty cool stuff compared to like the other stuff that was out there in the NBA that was produced but at the end, but it did it did, It did sort of feel like he was just taking the existing merch operation and turning it into a manufacturer of long-sleeved t-shirts that he wanted to wear. And I'm not sure that this is the same situation.

Mike Bloomberg, I can't imagine him out there on the campaign trail in a everyone else bring data t-shirt. But man, I would love it if that were true. Do we think Mike Bloomberg wears T-shirts? Mike Bloomberg is definitely the guy who puts the t-shirt on over his shirt and tie when he goes to a basketball game and gets a freebie. Like, that's definitely his look. I remember one of the things about him being New York mayor was all the things we would find out about him. Remember, he, like, loved Cheez-It's. Oh, yeah.

That was a thing. Like, Mike, so it's just like, somehow with Mike Bloomberg, it's almost impossible to imagine a private life. So I think you've gotten pretty close to it. Sitting courtside at an NBA game with the everyone else bring data T-shirt pulled over an incredibly expensive shirt and tie. and then just like hand reaching into a bag of cheeses. I'm not quite sure what he's drinking in this scenario, but maybe our listeners can help us out. All right, David,

time for the overworked Twitter joke of the week where we celebrate a gag that was so obvious that all of media Twitter made it at exactly the same time. Excuse me, please send your nominees to at the press box pod, where they are always gratefully received a variant on the Trump Thanksgiving turkey pardon bit.

we had a few shows ago. I saw on Twitter this week pictures of the White House turkeys at the Willard Hotel in Washington. A tweet says, quote, their names will be revealed tomorrow and on Tuesday at real Donald Trump

will do the pardon. It was an overall Twitter joke to write what war crimes did they commit. Thanks to Tom Pino and Matt Jameson. David, how about the unveiling of that Elon Musk cyber truck? Yes. A lot of good gags for that,

especially for the, kind of very strange angles on that truck. One was, I think my computer is still rendering the cyber truck. Another said,

Elon Musk must really love the movie Total Recall with some side-by-sides. That was amazing, wasn't it? I watched it a recall this weekend, and I was,

and that's the, I couldn't get that out of my head. It was amazing. My favorite came from college football writer and all-around writer, Spencer Hall. I think they made this truck

on the Nintendo 64. Thanks to Adam Waltonbaugh for that. And finally, David, I give you Grunk. Probably retired tight end. Rob Grancowski appeared on Fox on Sunday. He was doing the halftime show. Truly one of the great TV moments was watching

Gronk try to get out the halftime monologue. And everyone else on the set was just completely silent when he was done. Like they just didn't have anything else to say. gronk wore a turtleneck with a sports coat and a pocket handkerchief turtleneck a sports coat and a pocket handkerchief a lot of people asked on Twitter what does he look like among the best responses gronk looks like a guy heavily involved in a figure skating steroid scandal gronk looks like a marian williamson campaign volunteer

Gronk looks like a German tech mogul with quote unconventional desires And finally, Gronk looks like a guy who officiates CrossFit weddings. If you clown the way Gronk looked But passed on clowning the way Gronk talked Congrats, you made the overwork Twitter joke of the week. All right, David, in the notebook dump,

NBC's Dylan Byers had a big scoop on Friday morning That there was an effort to buy Sports Illustrated Before the magazine fell into the hands of the dudes from the Maven, according to Buyers's buyer's market newsletter, strain pun alert. The offer came down around the time of SI's October layoffs in which one third of the staff lost their jobs. The Maven dudes, who we've talked about

on this pod before, paid $45 million to license SI. The athletics swooped in and said, wait, is that all? We'll give you $50 million to license SI. Buyers reports, quote, Alex Mather and Adam Hans plan was to upsell Sports Illustrated print subscribers to the digital athletic product, allowing them to continue supporting the journalists it would have acquired in the deal. Alas, buyers continues, the athletic offer was flatly declined. It came in too late, for one thing.

Maven took full control of Sports Illustrated the same day the layoffs were announced. But even then, it's not clear that authentic brands, the new owners of SI, was interested. I got a bunch of things to say about this, but the first is, can we note how the guys from the athletic who 10 minutes ago were boasting to Kevin Draper about bleeding newspapers dry have now truly,

and maybe officially been recast as the Menchy saviors of sports writing? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, listen. It's like the athletic, it's like the athletic or the Maven. I've picked the athletic. The athletic or Alden Capital.

I'm going to go with the athletic. The athletic or geo media. They suddenly look like the good guys. Yeah. Well, listen, I mean, it's not that hard to turn yourself into the good guy in this media landscape, right? And at the end of the day, regardless of what you think about their business model, I mean, they're paying writers, right? I mean, they're paying good writers to write good stuff. They're paying writers is the baseline for being a minchi media mogul.

But again, in this environment, that's big. You're actually paying people. Yeah, I mean, at first blush, this story feels a little bit like a little bit of revisionist history. I mean, and based on absolutely no actual knowledge of this situation, it seems a little bit convenient for the athletic to be able to kind of come in after the fact and be like, oh, we tried guys. We really, we wanted to, we wanted to save the day and we were blocked from doing it. That said, I mean, because obviously the PR advantage that you were just discussing is significant. that's sad. I think that there is some sort of, there is a sort of conspiratorial logic to it, right? I mean, there are people who, and this is not a reflection of the opinion of this podcast or the ringer,

but there's certainly people who have theorized that, that ABG and Maven kind of had their deal in place before SI was sold, right? And I mean, I think we know that Maven made a bid for that was declined and then immediately after the sale the maven offer the the the maven deal just sort of like miraculously falls into place um if there were uh you know and that makes a little bit of sense when in terms of like you know them just turning down the extra money um if if they don't you know if if you know maybe it was too late but if it if there was any time at all you'd think they would have gone for that cash um and you know this sort of feels like the the ending was predetermined i mean there was a lot of this whole deal is

just so messy and borderline scandalous that I kind of almost believe anything. Well, it makes it sadder, doesn't it? Because you could just imagine if the athletic had been able to do that, S-I's brand at the end and the athletics brand right now match up pretty exactly. Yep. Which is, you know, open, you know, eyes wide open, you know, menchy. that's the last time I'll say that word by the way on this podcast. You know, smart sports writing. Like it's almost exactly the same thing. And you can imagine not only the people who are still at SI, at least for the time being,

but the people who lost their jobs back in October just going to work for the athletic. I can't, I'm going through the list right now. It's like Tim Rohan, Joe Nees and I, it's like I can imagine all those people in the athletic empire in some way or another. Yeah. So, but that just, again, it just, it's, it shouldn't be mind boggling this late in the game, but it is mind boggling that we needed the last ditch effort from the athletic to save Sports Illustrated. That's what it was going to, that's what it was going to be. That's, that was the only hope.

Remember how long Sports Illustrated was for sale? Yeah. And it was just deafening silence. And every group you'd hear about, you'd go, oh, really? There weren't any that you were like, oh, well, that could be, you know, maybe that'll work out okay. And then now we hear that there was potentially this better timeline that everybody could be on. I don't know. It just makes me feel sadder about the whole thing.

Because I'm like, if that could have happened, you know, again, we've talked about, is the athletic viable long term? Is a great question? Is Sports Illustrated owned by the athletic viable long term is a great question? But at least in the short term, and all I care about now is the short term. it would have been better. Yeah. And that would have been, at least it would have been any worse than this.

Yeah. I mean, listen, this is the situation that we're in. This is where venture capital being the, you know, the primary source of financing and, and if not the only source, certainly the most desirable one,

you're not going to become a billionaire just like starting up a local newspaper. And, you know, you're probably not going to get a lot of VC money if you like buy the rights to whatever, to like a defunct magazine or a struggling magazine just because it has an incredible history, right? I mean, you need to come up with a catchy new name and a new platform and a new app, and that's how you're going to get people to back you, even if the model is, you know,

the model is, you know, secretly exactly the same is what you came from. So, you know, it's nice to see that the athletic respects or values, sees the value in something like property like Sports Illustrated, if only to upsell its current subscribers. I mean, that might be the best thing that Sports Illustrated had going for it. but, you know, it is. It's depressing. Whenever anybody hits me with, well, the athletic is going to, it's not sustainable. In a couple years, it's going to go under and all these people are going to be out of work. I'm like, but this is where we have to weigh the two things.

Even if you're right, isn't it better that X number of journalists got three years worth of great pay? I mean, I don't know what 20-year prospect does anybody else. else is looking at in journalism right now. I'm looking at, I'm looking at a three year prospectus. Let's let's get to 20, 22 and worry about it then. Right. I mean, you know, when you look at these people who are a lot of, many of whom are still out of work, the thing is, what's my, what am I going to do now, you know, not where's my retirement coming from? What do I do? What do I do right now? Yeah. And, you know, we see that with the, with the deadspin people. We see that with, with lots of the SIP.

people. We see that with a hundred newspapers that have now, you know, been gutted and now we've almost forgotten about it because there's been this unending, you know, trail of bad news. But I just think, what happens next? And, you know, we found out with the Maven plan that it was involved laying off a third of the staff. Lots of great staff writers go, go out, get are out of work. So, you know, I don't know. I don't know. That's just, I just depressed myself more about the state of journalism, which is really, really hard to do at this point in history. Let's talk about Devin Nunes. Let's brighten things up.

David, because every so often during impeachment, liberals have allowed themselves a moment of Schadenfreude. But on Friday, the Schadenfreude meter exploded after a CNN report tied Devin Nunes to the Ukraine caper. CNN's Vicky Ward reports that the lawyer for indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas is ready to spill the beans about a 2018 meeting in Vienna. The meeting was between Nunes, a member of the House Intel Committee and staunch pro-Trump defender, and Victor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general. Shokin, you'll remember, is the guy who falsely said he lost his job because he was investigating Hunter Biden's company. The Daily Beast earlier had reported that Lev Parnas was helping make contacts in Europe for Devin Nunes's office last year.

CNBC's Christina Wilkie on Twitter says, after scrapping plans to fly to Ukraine this spring to meet with sources for Biden dirt, a top Nunes aide asked Lev Parnas to set up Skype meetings and phone calls for him. That way they wouldn't have to notify Adam Schiff that they were traveling. Nunes denied the story to Breitbart, but also ladled out some weapons-grade non-denial denials. And the New York Times headline reads,

Devin Nunes denounces reports he played a role in Ukraine denounces which is not the same as refutes and it's not saying they are false I don't know that you and I are really going to have a great debate over the facts here it's almost more like

how happy are people on the leftward side of the political spectrum that somehow Devin Nunes of all people is allegedly caught up in this. Yeah, I'm pretty happy, I guess. I mean, or maybe totally. It's just so weird. Yeah.

You know, I think that the worst part about this is that, how to say this, like there was a time not that long ago where I would have said like the saddest or, you know, most disturbing part of, of modern conservatism was that there are people out there, you know, your Rush Limbaugh's and whoever else,

all the people writing the bestselling books that were pretending to believe crazy stuff for the sake of sort of like, you know, inflaming the base, inflaming their audience, right? They're like, it was, but now, you know, it was, it was bad enough that they were, that there were people who, who should know better that were pretending to believe this shit.

But as the shit has gotten crazier, how have we gotten to a point, an even worse point that, like, the people in power actually believe this shit? I mean, that Devin Nunes would, like,

let's forget about the ethics violations. Let's forget about, you know, whatever, I mean, his two-facedness and trying to, you know,

be an interrogator, be an inquisitor in these, in these hearings. Like, he actually thinks that there is dirt to dig, up on Joe Biden out there? Like he actually believes this like tiny, this like weird conspiracy theory

enough to the point where he thinks his presence in Ukraine is willing to make a difference. Like he, does he see himself as like, like a John Le Carre of the character of like the modern conservative movement? Like this is, it's, it is bonkers.

I can't help think of LaCari every time I read one of these stories. But it's even, it's even almost too vast for him because I mean like whenever whenever there's like kind of a bad you know let's say bad but just kind of TV quality HBO movie about this whole thing Devin Nunes will be an amazing comic character first of all just getting the look right but then having him fly to Vienna to to to sit down and hear these charges for himself it's just incredible I am I am very interested in your question of We've talked about how does Trump really believe this?

Does Devin Nunes really believe this is a fascinating sequel to that question? I have no idea. I don't think so, but I have no idea. I could definitely believe it either way, that he really thinks that Ukraine either attempted to meddle in the election or was sort of, you know, that there were these elements that were Joe Biden was you know, attempting, intervening to protect his son. I just, I mean, that's just, it's amazing. And by the way, for the La Karai thing, something that's come out since we've,

or at least come to the foremore since we had our last podcast, the whole bit about Ukrainian meddling, according to American intelligence, is this is a Russian operation. Yeah. Russia to deflect attention from their own meddling in the 2016 election, put out this idea that Ukraine. meddled in the election. And now that's being repeated by Republicans up to it, including the president of the United States.

They have taken a Russian disinformation campaign and turned it into a political talking point in the United States. Think about that. I mean, whatever else we learn from impeachment hearings and bombshells to come and CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, just think about that fact. that I mean if you're if you're a Russian intel person how and you first of all you looked at the results of the 2016 election wow did we did we push things in favor did we gin up just enough distrust and chaos about Hillary Clinton to get Donald Trump elected now think the president of the United States is repeating our repeating our bit yeah wow I just that's just I don't I don't know what to say other than I just that it's almost hard for me to believe that that's the case but here we are here we are indeed To add to the Schadenfreude sugar high about Devin Nunes, David, he is suing a bunch of journalists. He has sued the McClatchy newspapers over a Fresno B article about his family winery. He has announced that he's going to sue Ryan, Liza, and Hearst,

owners of Esquire magazine over a long story Lizzo wrote about Nunes' family dairy. He is also suing Twitter and the accounts of Liz Mare at Devin Nunes, mom, and at Devin Cow. And on Sunday, Devin Nunes said this on Fox News. I'm going to sue Daily Beast. I know you've sued Twitter in the past. Do you think this is going somewhere? You're telling me that CNN committed criminal activity. Well, it's very likely.

Or they're an accessory to it, right? So none of this is true. So more lawsuits possibly to come. God Almighty. I love the constant lawsuit move. I mean, just like, what better a way to just admit that you're absolutely full of hot air than just like have a million lawsuits? It's the Trump playbook, right? I mean, it's just, it's so silly.

By the way, Devin Nunes Cow at Devin Cow has 661,000 Twitter followers. It's almost like he's an NBA insider or something. Unbelievable. David, remember that Deval Patrick declared he was going to run for president? Oh, yeah. Sort of forgotten a minute. I believe I saw an empty room where he was going to speak this weekend on Twitter somewhere. Well, we were talking about Deval Patrick puns, and I got a few of them for you here from our lovely listeners.

E. Miller says, Deval may care. Deval may care. That's good. pretty good. Andrew Whitlock says the later they run the heart of DeVall. I like that. And Joe Hardy says when Deval Patrick wins the presidency and introduces his cabinet

Deval the president's man. Thank you all for those. Which brings us nicely segue to David Shoemaker guesses the strain pun headline. Okay. Last Tuesday's pun book title by former Sunday Times editor Frank Giles was sundry times sundry times. Today's pun headline comes from Patrick Malzan.

It's from The Economist. The story is about monks in Thailand, David. The magazine reports, quote, about a half of Thailand's 349,000-odd monks are either overweight or obese. For the past year, the Ministry of Public Health over there in Thailand has been offering monks nutritional advice about how to lose weight. that's all you get monks overweight what is the economist

strained pun headline Thai monks are overweight yes that is not the headline but yes that is the gist of a monk wouldn't you

by the way would you have just gone with that kind of Frank Sinatra has a cold style Thai monks are overweight look at all these fat monks. I would go with, man,

what is it? Overweight, what a monk's carly? He's not heavy. He's my brother, right? That's good. Obeses,

overweight. God, I have no idea. I feel like this should really, should be really obvious. Monk. Monk. God, I don't know.

You're going to have to give me something here. What does a monk seek? Enlightenment? Oh, God, what is it? You got it. Heavy Thai monks seek enlightenment. Heavy Thai monks seek enlightenment. That groan is from David Shoemaker.

I'm Brian Curtis. Research by Crystal. I made a production magic from Jim Cunningham. We're off Thursday so we can watch football. But please join us next Tuesday where we will express our thanks with more lukewarm takes about the media. Happy Thanksgiving, David.

Happy Thanksgiving, Brian. David. Okay. Looks like a guy heavily involved in a figure skating steroid scandal. That's big. You're actually banned people. David looks like a Marion Williamson campaign volunteer. Oh, yeah.

You know, eyes wide open. T-shirt on over his shirt. shirt and tie when he goes to a basketball game and gets a freebie? Like that's, that's definitely his look. David looks like a German tech mogul with, quote, unconventional desires. Think about that. Finally, David looks like a guy who officiates

CrossFit Weddings. If you've loved the movie Total Recall, was some... I watched Total Recall this weekend, and I was just, and that's the, I couldn't get that out of my head. It was amazing. Who the hell is buying this? Pretending to believe crazy stuff for this. That's just, I don't, I don't know what to say other than, I just, that, it's almost hard for me to believe that that's the case. It is bonkers. We're not pussyfooting around anything here.

No one's allowed to touch. So, more loss it's possibly to come. God almighty. But here we are. Here we are indeed. So, so. You know, I don't know. I don't know. I just depressed myself from horror.

It's really, really hard to do at this point in history. I'm just very disheartened by this turn of events. I don't really know what to do or what to say.