Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 391: The Things They Carried

Episode Date: May 8, 2025

This week we start off with a story about JD Vance's hapless brother trying to be mayor of Cincinnati. Then we pivot to a review of Trump's latest statements, as well as a discussion about AI and what's going on with the global economy. Finally we cover a story in Politico about Elon Musk's new company town in south Texas known as "Starbase" Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Boys, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you up front, I had a Terrence Ray-esque night of sleep last night, so I am not firing on all cylinders, but that's all right. The great ones show up in the tough moments, you know? I mean, I have the opposite effect, I think, between, I was telling Terrence to think between last night, yesterday actually, almost all day, and last night, because I wasn't feeling too well,

I got too much sleep, so I'm in a mind'm in a mind fog. I'm dabbing on us with the sleeper. Oh, man Yeah, you get some sleepies nice Thor. That's it. That's fun. I am mad, but both is partially due to depression, you know I have the exact opposite. I can't sleep when I'm depressed To hopped up on cortisol and some degree diet coke I know to hopped up on cortisol and some degree that coke I feel poorly today Did you guys know? Alright, this came across my desk this morning

Did you guys know that JD Vance has a brother and that he's trying to enter politics? What's his name MD Vance? He's a doctor trying to enter politics what's his name MD Vance he's a doctor trying to enter politics MD Vance yeah JD is doctor of jurisprudence like he's a lawyer JD Vance because he went to law school and the brother went to medical school is MD Vance that's some sleepless humor right there. So let me ask you a question. Is this the brother who supposedly I heard that he

is a brother who apparently is not too fond of him and has talked shit about him, at least to the media. Is this not the same brother, or at least a brother who doesn't agree with this politics? No, this brother is... Has to make that up Probably just made that maybe you're thinking of Barack Obama's brother doesn't he have a bomb brother that like Is like a MAGA guy I?

Think so his Twitter is pretty funny. I think so I know this guy's name is Cory Bowman he's JD Vance's half-brother. I like Cory Bowman he's JD Vance's half-brother. I like Encouraged the audience to look him up like I've known so many guys like this in my life But like this is what he looks like is that guy that ran for mayor of Cincinnati and got washed He's he's currently running for mayor of Cincinnati For a minute for a minute I thought you free well I thought of Cory Bowman That's his name you said and I thought of curry Booker and Jamal Bowman like a fusion You know like they both got trapped in the fly machine

It came out as JD best brothers about what you've just showed me on that phone Terrence is them is like the median Midwestern, dude Yeah, you if you I don't mean that as a disrespect either. I just there's a there's a type of guy there You could somehow imagine a guy that's even worse at politics than Cory Bo or Cory Booker and Jamal Bowman. That's JD Vance's brother Cory Bowman I like Cory yeah, Cory Bowman. Let me read you this JD Vance's little brother tries his hand at politics. It's not going so well Cory Bowman says he wants to be mayor of Cincinnati he might have other things on his mind a Lonely microphone in an empty chair set at the end of a long yellow cloth drape table where JD

Vice-president JD Vance's half brother Cory Bowman should have been sitting if Bowman had been there It would have been one of a handful of key appearances ahead of the first election for potentially the first role of his nascent political career, Cincinnati mayor. It was a Tuesday night in April inside a community center with a local NAACP chapter was holding the second and final debate ahead of the May 6 mayoral primary. And Bowman, a local evangelical pastor, coffee shop owner, and the first Republican to file to run for mayor here in 16 years was nowhere to be found He had at the moment just landed back in the city from a trip to Fort Lauderdale Where he had posed for a photo with Patrick bet David the conservative podcaster Instagram followers big things ahead Bowman had posted the day before the debate Sounds like it

So this is this is the hat. This is the half brother that you only See, you know on holidays like maybe Thanksgiving Christmas occasionally and this is the guy that you want to avoid talking to through the whole entire night because he's gonna tell you About some right-wing podcast he's been listening to and the latest conspiracy theories Well, I'm curious why he's a value-tainment guy I mean usually they have like mafia turncoats and like, you know that type of guy on that show on the Patrick bet David show Occasionally Mike Tyson. Yeah, I'd say he's as far from Mike Tyson as you could get The um

He's a very specific archetype That I know very well He is a Christian coffee shop owner. No. He's a Christian who owns a Christian coffee shop. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah He said he hits the trifecta of Christian manhood if only he was a member of the volunteer fire department He would check every box Given he's definitely given a speech to a room of 16 year old boys about how they should not masturbate Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he is in the back of the coffee shop, but you know like what what what is it?

What is the Christian? But yo, like, what does a Christian coffee shop denote? Does this mean that when your barista makes the drink and they use that froth and foam, and you're like, cappuccino, is it in the shape of Jesus' face? Is it a piece of toast or something? I'm so glad you asked this question. Go ahead, Tom, I'd like to hear your answer.

No, go for it. No, you go for it. No, no, no. No, you go for it. No, go go for no you go for it. No, no, no. No you go for it. No you God damn that's what for the ages. Okay, I Have anything to say No, he does he does. No, I'm not going I'm not I refuse to go

I'll sit here to Reverend silence I refuse to go. I'll sit here and reverent silence What do we have? Do we have listeners who were who were patrons to the Christian coffee shop? Well, okay So your question Aaron I guess is like what is a Christian coffee shop? Like why does it exist? Right. If I if I could like date it Accurately, I think it goes back And I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure it goes back and I could be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure it goes back to when Donald Miller's book blue like jazz came out because that was an attempt to make Christians into sort of beatniks kind of

yeah I mean like you know it was the way the gravy turn of modern Evangelicalism yeah, it was like it was a wave of gravy turn of modern evangelicalism like they were trying to make They were trying to like fuse Beatnik or hipster dumb that's what it was They were trying to fuse like hipsterdom on or graft it onto Christianity in an attempt to make it more sort of like palatable to a more mainstream Client I know exactly what you're talking about this sounds sort of like um

I don't know if I could use the word like this kitschy sort of cozy Kind of Christianity you know when you walk when you walk into the coffee shop, and you don't even know It's a Christian coffee shop You know because it looks like the coffee shops down the road owned by like, you know when you walk when you walk into the coffee shop, and you don't even know it's a Christian coffee shop You know because it looks like the coffee shops down the road owned by like a you know a 30-something year old I would say well for you will know I would say no I would say you'll know and there is a few signs the first is that There's definitely a wall in the Christian coffee shop. That is It's like they've taken old rustic

Or more almost rotting two by fours or two by six boards and like made a wall out of it Does that make sense? It's like yeah. Yeah, it's it's like um and then and then maybe they've got some like nine-inch You know Railroad spikes, but like they're supposed to be like stand-ins for like the nails they you know Nailed into Jesus on the cross. There's a lot of wood is what I'm saying and nails artisan artisan wood and craft artisan wood and nails right What in nails but probably in the shape of crosses and such.

Something you probably weren't aware of, Thorpe, because you weren't as steeped in this, is that in Christendom, two boards plus three nails equals four given. Not five given. That's what the rug, when you enter, is that like a welcome mat. That's what it would say That's exactly right you'll point is there are signs a tree is known by the fruit it bears They'll also probably have a copy of relevant magazine laying on one of the tables Yeah, this is all a product of the early 2000s attempt to make I Mean it's weird because they don't have this anymore, not to the extent that they used to.

Like, there used to be like a whole Christian music industry that would ape a lot of the same genres and styles of the mainstream music industry. But at a certain point they just gave up doing that, and then they just basically made all of their songs more praise and worship anthemic. And then they just basically made all of their songs more praise and worship and themic. But in the process they established brick and mortar places, establishments that would get people through the doors that weren't churches. I guess it was like this thought that like, oh we're building out a whole subculture and like parallel society, sort of in a Gramscian sense. And we're gonna get people into brick-and-mortar

Establishments that aren't churches but that can like facilitate them towards churches And I think it was like also like Christians in the mid-2000s We're trying to experiment with ways to get fucked up without actually getting fucked up So it's like coffee and you can have an occasional beer So it's like coffee and you can have an occasional beer Yeah Jim Baker jr. Took it to the next level and he tried to have church in a bar and everybody was tired when the press runs But that were like man This young progressive Christian is changing the face changing the way we go to church and then I just never heard from him again

That was Jim Baker's son Yeah, yeah. Did you see this week that Jim Baker said that he said he was like I need 1,000 of My audience members to donate $1,000 or else I'll be sleeping out on the streets classic classic TV preacher maneuver, yeah Or Roberts claimed one time that God was going to send him to heaven if his followers didn't send him four million. So this is a marginal improvement. He's like, God, Christ definitely doesn't want me to sleep on

the street. Fuck all those other people. Yeah, man, I don't know what to say about the others that he said that he loved in the scripture, but he don't want me out there with him. That's a weird message. He's gonna send me to heaven It's like his followers you would think they'd be like, okay, that's cool. Okay. Well Yeah, I'm gonna send you no money then I Love that televangelist thinking though They don't think like if it's way harder to get a million people to send you a dollar than it is to get a thousand people to send

you a thousand dollars that's how we need to start fundraising on here we deserve to be millionaires so we need three million dollars we need three thousand of our listeners to send us three thousand dollars it's not easy to organize if not we're gonna end out on the streets Well, I like that um, I like the JD's half brother is like a Okay, well the thing I took away from this article is that everyone in this family must be lazy as fuck Like they just like have no initiative like JD's brother obviously lucked okay also Once again you gotta come for money to be able to become a swaggy

youth pastor coffee shop owner You know what I mean the Christian right and then and then launch a mayoral campaign like not even get to like entry-level Politics you know yeah like being a cat city councilman or some shit like that Yeah of a semi major US city, you know, I mean, that's not like peanuts Yeah, his um, so I love his coffee shop called King's Arms. We're in the King's Arms coffee Like that's his King's Arms King's Arms like you would want to be drinking coffee while you're in the King's arms. I Think I'm not lying to you. I think I've been to this place Actually, the King is creating Lee cradling you like a baby and he's giving you a bottle full of coffee But he's like a big really big John King cuz he's supposed to be God too

And you're just baby Jesus getting cradle getting you getting fit hot caffeine well there's a history of this like in oh my god I have been here you've been there before I have patronized this business I well I stand corrected Thorpe you didn't know it was a Christian I had no idea the name didn't know it was a Christian coffee shop? I had no idea. The name didn't give you away? King's Arms? I thought it was like a British thing. King's Arms Crossing or something. Yeah, tea shops.

I guess I could see that. If you wanted to be more explicit, you should have said like Line of Judah or something. No, then you'd think it was a Rasta coffee shop. Right, right? Right now a play on Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, actually that might be a turnoff Sodom and Cappuccino, I don't saw them out saw them out coffee No, that's actually the blast beer coffee shop across the street. Yeah

That's the denim and leather coffee shop across the street. Yeah, the BDSM coffee shop. That's right Well, I think the thing is is like no other religion is trying to specifically make inroads into the Unwashed secular masses through coffee, right? Like there's not not a set there's no such thing as like a In a Muslim coffee shop, I mean like there's coffee shops that Muslims frequent, but they're not like you've been evangelizing through it Right right. They're not commodity. They're not commodifying like through their sale of a product and a religion you know yeah Sale of a product and a religion, you know, yeah Yeah, I guess that'd be like I guess I guess that entryway or that kind of carving into like

subcultures or Alternate like alternate cultures aside from the mainstream is sort of like like what if there was I mean, I guess is there Christian punk? You know like going to a punk scene and carving out a Christian. I guess there is there used to be that we don't we don't have enough time Going to a punk scene and carving out a Christian. I guess there is there used to be no, you know, we don't we don't have enough time There's not anymore. I don't know like again there used to be like in the Mid 2000s, but it all right it all went away It is just like arena like Jock, well not even jock rock just arena like praise and worship type stuff Yeah Just arena like praise and worship type stuff Yeah, um K love now, it's just it's just that it's not any

Guy you punk or Christian rapper and that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it's like it's praise and worship like anthemic like I love you Just crying over the track yeah Lord we lift your name on high and by that of course I mean the rafters of the Capital One Center I Remember being I remember being a church camp one time And I was like standing at the back and like it's one of those where everybody like had their hands up there like oh My god, I love you like I had their eyes closed You know your swing and I was just like sitting there and I wasn't doing any of that And like my youth pastor came up behind me and like put his hand on my shoulder, right? He was just like he was like don't you want to get into it? Like they are don't you want to you know?

and I was just like I was like I Not definitely not now Well, I just read blue like jazz man or I would so, you know Kind of cramping my style right now Yeah, that just reminds me of this Langston Hughes story Where this kid is I think he's supposed to like either get baptized or like, you know See the light of God and everyone else in the in the church is like, you know

They're you know swaying waving arms, speaking in tongues, crying. And he's the only one that really doesn't feel the Spirit of God. And then he ends up lying, you know, at the end of it, and he feels so bad at night. He's like, you know, I'm straight up going to hell, but also I don't believe in God, so. Man, I've been there.

I've been there. I don't believe in God, but where'd you go to hell? Yeah, oh, yeah Yeah, brother Well back to Cory Bowman Dude, I know that you pointed that out Aaron. I can't not think about Cory Booker and Jamal Bowman like Did it just fuse together if Cory Booker and Jamal Bowman and Cory Bowman Formed like a political party reliance

You know like or like Power Rangers like they were like a symbol. You know to me like that would be a formidable fucking They would form like Voltron. Yeah instead. It would be like some lit. It would be some Bergen type flesh monster Multiracial Multidisciplinary Boys, I will be honest with you. I Until just right now and y'all said this when JD I saw JD tweet this out like go vote for my brother I thought it meant like go read my brother Aaron's story, you know what I mean?

We're not blood brothers, but I thought he was talking about that sense. And I fully expected Cory Bowman to be like a burly former middle linebacker from University of Cincinnati, like a tall, big, burly, bald black man. That's what was in my head, you know? Wait, is this, so it's his half brother. Is he, is he, is he white? He's white, yeah. Is he, he's white, okay, yeah, yeah.

He has a name like you, man. You would think it was a black guy That's right. He just Reading here whether he is sincerely pursuing a career in politics as anyone's guess people in the room that Tuesday night of the debate Knew only one thing he wasn't there Kevin Farmer a local podcaster and recently registered Republican saw a certain shrewdness in his Absence he needed he noted that Bowman needed to knock on doors instead of talking to people who have already made up their mind.

On that evening though, just 21 days before the primary, Bowman had only done two rounds of door knocking so far. The next day when I reached him by phone at his coffee shop, he acknowledged the fundraising was going about as well as the door knocking. We actually haven't even started fundraising, he told me. You first go you know what to be fair when I used to be a campus sir for the Democratic Party there'd be some days where I would without by my my level of success and achievement and motivation was exactly that you know Well, I like two blocks. I was just gonna point out Terrence literally knocked more doors in Cincinnati for Bernie Sanders, and this guy's not Terrence literally knocked more doors in Cincinnati for Bernie Sanders than this guy's not

They there's a story in this that fucking killed me so he went out knocking doors with the Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose who is yeah, I guess Frank LaRose is like in He's like working. I didn't even know that was possible. I didn't know like the secretary I knew that those are partisan positions, but I didn't know that while in office you could go and knock doors for a certain candidate But apparently yeah the guy responsible for elections to right right right? And this is and this is Cory Bowman's running for mayor right mayor of Cincinnati right? So this is someone from the governor's office helping out like you know what I mean um and I think last check he was getting washed So listen to this The rose and Bowman knocked on doors for about an hour as he approached one door Bowman looked to the house next door were two

Young volunteers who looked to be in their 20s knocked on a home with a rainbow chime win in a blue and yellow Ukraine flag Bold choice, bro. I heard Bowman say Bowman and La Rose weren't having much luck at the doors instead leaving hangers that read our city deserves a choice And calling out seven issues bubble-blum Bowman talked to one just go ahead No, no, no, I just want to point out really quick. Um Bold choice, bro So you don't want to go and speak to people at a at a town hall or a rally or something like that people already agree with you but you're also looking at you know the

stuff outside people's doors to see if you should actually go and talk to that person you know what i mean like if you see like an lgbtq flag like nope not going to talk to that person skipping that house this guy is the worst at politics Dude listen listen is Bowman talks to one woman At her door Bowman said he can't stand people interjecting national issues in the local races She nodded and Bowman thanked her for her time and left. He reminded her about early voting He did not ask her for her vote for after about an hour Bowman in La Rose filmed a car filmed a video for social media Bowman headed back to his car. He had talked to two voters the vice president's half-brother had done enough for the day That's great that you they were what he's like Waluigi JD

You know what I mean like JD for all of his warts JD is a go-getter. You know what I mean? Like JD, for all of his warts, JD is a go-getter. You know what I mean? He is like ambitious as fuck. This guy's the laziest human being I've ever heard of. I mean, it's just kind of crazy for you to be the candidate knocking on a prospective voter's door. Remind them about early voting, but not tell them to vote for you. You know what I mean?

Not push that you should be voting for me. I'm the guy running. Here is my platform policy. But no, you should actually just go if you can vote for anybody. It doesn't matter. We're just trying to get voter participation up this year, you know. There is a thing when a man runs for office for the first time where he doesn't take himself seriously. It feels a little silly to like ask somebody for your vote

because it all feels like theater you know what I mean So to some degree I get it, but like your brother was also the vice president like he could yeah, you know I Just a little more initiative. I just love being out there for one hour and just talking to two people like that's And then calling it a day after that too just really like all right We don't know like what were you doing the rest of the time just hanging out at a park or some shit He's probably looking for his brother's name to carry him across finish line, but what he doesn't know is that nobody likes that guy Yeah, man, he's like no, I'm actually the more likable brother. I'm the doctor. That's what I would go with I Would go with my brother's insufferable.

Like I would play that angle. That's an interesting angle. That's better than like, I'm gonna knock on two doors, hand on my hangers and be like, okay, well, that's good for the day. I'll just go up and be like, listen, yeah, my brother did some questionable things

to the family pets. There are some inconsistencies. We didn't even have a mamaw. That's proven to be, that cottage industry's proven to be more fruitful than siding up with Jade. Truly. the the the the the

the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the the the the Well okay, I mean there's a few things to cover this week in terms of news. I guess I wanted to cover some Trump news. Obviously, like his thing about wanting to reopen Alcatraz, his reasoning for wanting to reopening Alcatraz was really goddamn funny

I sent it to you guys in the chat But like this interviewer is like can you walk us through your decision for wanting to be to reopen Alcatraz? And he starts it with I was supposed to be a movie maker So he did quite literally walk us through his thinking there you know like where did this all start for you well I was supposed to be a movie maker well I mean I told you he saw escape from Alcatraz he was like you know it's a damn fine film yeah it's a we should open that place back it is a great movie but like I was supposed to be a filmmaker is one of the funniest things that that he could have uttered

Jesus you're supposed to be a music guy remember when he's supposed to be music I had an aptitude for it. Mm-hmm Okay, then there's this also thing about did you see him praising the Huthis bravery He said you know we hit them very hard they had a great capacity to withstand punishment They look true. They took tremendous punishment. You can say there's a lot of bravery there It was amazing what they took but we honor their commitment and their word It's like he He really does like he honors the winners and hates the losers like about him bagging on John McCain, you know what I mean like we

We like winners. I Have to say the man's consistent if nothing else. Yeah, he has a respect for um sportsmanship. You know I guess you could say or Just tremendous power once again, just using that kind of, not doxy moron, but using what you would think would be a positive association, you know, with killing people, yeah. Well, he's also treating a bombing campaign that, you know, damaged property and probably killed people like a soccer game, like a soccer match. You know what I mean? Right. We took, we took their, like, I think in Trump's mind, nobody really dies in war.

It's just kind of like, just like video game guys on the screen, they just kind of go away and whoever has more of those at the end wins and then that's what decides it. I don't think he actually thinks there's casualties of war, like people actually died more. Yeah. I think you're right. Um, yeah. Casualties of war like people actually died more. Yeah, I think you're right

Yeah Okay, so there was that yeah, I don't know that just Basically it's just like I wasn't there and didn't another jet fall off of a aircraft carrier this week, too It's like I mean it's been pointed out many times but like the Houthis are about to find out why Americans don't have health care like has become one of the funniest Prophecies one of the funniest statements ever uttered because it was true, but not in the way people People thought we were gonna wash them with our superior advanced technology It's like no we just got it got just like you know a couple million dollar jets Just tumbling off the side of an aircraft carrier

Into the fucking sea Every time I see that yeah I see it playing just fall into the sea and I just see a letter from the IRS being fucking melded my house What like there's also there was this story, Trump says May 8th will be quote, victory day for World War II. The President's proclamation came a week after he said he wanted to rename

Veterans Day as Victory Day for World War I. So, I'd like, it's, I mean, okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you guys kind of feel like now that the hundred days is up It's like kind of returning to the old Trump where it's just like it's kind of like returning back to like the game show Trump like the TV host Trump where it's like all right. We've done our really

extraordinarily racist you know totalitarian shit now We're like and they've experienced all this pushback from it, and it's not going as we thought it would so now It's just gonna resume You know how they ended the first administration That's why he brought up I would always want to be a movie maker quote because now he's just gonna recede back into even more of a spectacle I was supposed to be a filmmaker now like suggesting that somewhere out in the ether there is Donald Trump footage of some sort of

Narrative story that he put to feel uh-huh. You know, that's I just have to say too like, you know You know for anybody who reveres like the presidency, you know and the awesome power of the executive Just that'd be like a brain surgeon, you know stopping and the awesome power of the executive just that'd be like a brain surgeon, you know, stopping in the middle of surgery and saying like, I was supposed to be a ballerina, you know, you know, those two jobs, those two professions do not seem to be very congruent, you know, it should alarm you. I mean, not that it should alarm you. But I mean, come on, dude. It just it just tells you what he it just

tells you what he thinks about the presidency. It's all for show, it's all about creating fantasies and not even filling them, but just maintaining the spectacle and being the star of the show. Just see this story float around that like they said, Melania Trump's not doing a lot of the traditional first lady jobs, like picking out lights for the house and decorating all that stuff, so Trump's picked it up himself.

Which is actually what he was called, he wasn't called for filmmaking or to play music, unless it was musical theater. He was called to be an interior decorator though. It's true, he's the queen that stepped up. Yeah, that's true. He is at once the President and the First that stepped up. Yeah, that's true. He is at once the president and the first lady. Right. Yeah, I saw that she's been there 14 days out of the first 100 days of his administration.

You know what I thought was funny about his first term is that you know how every first lady has to have this sort of pet project, you know? This impositive initiative. lady has to have like this sort of pet project, you know, this um, this positive initiative like from Michelle Obama, it was um, you know, making school lunches healthier, you know, was it was child obesity, I think. And then from Melania, her first time it was like this anti bullying campaign that she went on, you know, which given her husband, maybe maybe it was actually apt, you know, but but now she's now she's too now she's just too disinterested to even come up with anything else. Yeah What's going is it because Trump has a mistress isn't is Laura Loomer still his mistress

I know that he tried to like distance her and like he rebuked her over the summer But like I feel like there's been several stories recently that he's fired people after she Can in you know encouraged him to do so so I? Have to say and I know to some degree they used to be partners in crime, but Laura Loomer seems like a Clinton side piece She's firmly in the Clinton wheelhouse of like what he's into you know yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, like for all Trump's warts. Yeah, Trump's into you know yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah like for all Trump Swartz yeah Trump likes uh you know not her I heard that he um he banned her off of his tour bus campaign bus yeah yeah they were like no you can't know that

maybe that's all like show maybe that's like Because like I said I've seen some stories recently where like he's fired a few people Or distance himself from a few people because she she said to do so she got in his ear about it So like I there's obviously still some connection there. You know what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying Well, yeah, yeah, Melania's a pissed about it man. Yeah, yeah, as is her right as is her right? Yeah, and I would be too if I was like, you know Eskimo sisters actually take it out With the worm creature from Beetlejuice, you know They had the same smile you ever notice that they had the same smile. You ever notice that? They have the same smile. It's like a crocodile smile.

Are you wait, Laura Loomer does? Yeah, yeah, yeah She looks like a fucking crocodile. She does it looks like her jaws can open up extremely wide and possibly swaddle a water buffalo Yeah, you can see her teeth like back into her hair. She Like she has like a Glasgow smile like Heath Ledger Joker. Yeah Cut your shit. Yeah Glasgow smile Used to call it Glasgow Laura

Well, okay, so I mean like yeah, there's the Trump stuff like there's not a whole lot more to say there, I mean they announced today that they got a Trade deal with the UK. It's like not entirely sure what that means I saw that the EU had basically drawn up a retaliatory trade deal against the United States in the event that the trade negotiates and it's break down. But like I guess-

Can I say- Oh, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, this is a broad question. Maybe I should have saved it. But as they're, I mean, I'm pretty sure that like many foreign conflicts and possibly global wars like World War II, if I'm not wrong, parts of these like they part in part they start because of trade wars. So do y'all think that this could ever bubble over into like a hot war or some kind of like, you know, actual conflict?

Is that is that possible or or do you think they'll just come to a deal because business is good you know it's hard to say like I kind of sometimes I think that like the defining structural feature of our time is anti-climax it's like it's I mean well what with nofap November and everything yeah yeah well I'll say you're right the end of the year nofap November that is the definition of anti-climax yeah I don't know it's running on an hour. So We got a We got I feel like we had a long discussion about this over the weekend during the derby after actually like if it would actually

escalate into any sort of like because like Yeah, India struck Pakistan a few days ago in retaliation for Appeared to me almost to be like almost a sort of like false flag operation that killed a bunch of Indian tourists in Pakistan. And I don't know, man. It's like on one hand, I think maybe it would escalate into something like that. I just don't know how this works out because like You if you look at the role of the United States in the global economy the the gun that the u.s. Holds everybody's head is that? we are The the consumer nation right it's like where people dump all their goods because we buy all the shit

right and so um so they get to is an important role and I Don't know if the global Economy is ready to lose that like there's certainly no one who could replace it is what I'm saying like Europe couldn't replace it like They don't have the same cultural values as America. Our religion here is consumption. We're not gonna go to war over the increased price

of the Switch 2 or some shit like that. I just heard somebody say, I guess the conversation was kind of about America becoming sort of a pariah and the nations of the earth just choking us off over all this belligerent shit that we're doing. And I was like, you know, when that sort of happened with the Soviet Union at their collapse,

like it feels as if though, you know, 80 years of, you know, an attempt at communism sort of is a very different mentality than 200 years of rapacious individualist consumption practices. You know what I mean? Right, right, right. It's like Russia can kind of weather that. I don't mean that in like, I'm like peddling tropes about how steely and hard and Spartan

they can live. I don't mean that. I just mean it's a very different mentality growing up under the Soviet Union or communism versus here where we're all taught that we're the special boys, that we gotta go give all of our money to Coca-Cola and Apple and Nike and whoever else.

And we're God's elect. and whoever else and you know and we're God's elect yeah yeah we don't have I mean I mean our dude our air our airplanes are falling off of our aircraft carriers like we are a paper tiger in every sense of the word like I you know there's that we have the gumption for it well There's that quote you know that the I think you mentioned it on the patreon Tom about like after Trump Smoked Sula Mane. It's like the Iranians were like who could we kill spongebob, and it's like yeah But you could kill Trump you mean you if you guys if kill him, this entire thing falls apart, right? Like that's, I'm saying like a foreign power. Like a...

Right, right. Yeah, this is not a call to violence, this is just an analysis of what would happen if a foreign country assassinated the president. Yeah. I mean, like the entire right wing would fall apart. left wing is or the liberal wing is already in disarray we are in inculcating an entire generation of Subliterate and perhaps fully illiterate morons like that We don't have that is true We don't have a future in any kind of like innovative sense in any leadership sense like there's

in any literate sense in any super yeah literate sense I mean you're they're deporting go ahead no I just wanted to riff on that for a second it's like like with the kids thing and we'll probably talk about the chat GPT thing that was going around but like a friend of mine is a university professor and she showed me like some of her students like writing prompts. And it was like, man, when the Persians traded rugs and carpets with, you know, whoever it was, the Chinese for their silks and whatever else. That was really cool.

And a genuine show of brotherhood between the two nations. They talk like, almost like they're texting a friend. All men are brothers. But with an all men are brothers, we're all proud Ottomans and Turks kind of vibe. You know what I mean? brothers like sort of like we're all proud Ottomans and Turks kind of vibe you know it's like they have like that shit oh they have like a good heart about them they're just dumb as hell and replacing like learning you know or reading with summarizations by chat GPT well they want to Destroy humanities programs they even want to destroy stem programs

But they're also going to deport everyone with h1b visas like you're more high skilled workers like there and then We're not gonna do anything about the widespread use of chat GPT and and cheating and AI in schools in high schools and universities. In fact we're going to use this moment of acute crisis as an excuse to further accelerate the drift of universities towards just massive hedge funds and real estate companies and then you know completely purge every bit of critical thinking or or even practical innovative application of universities you know what I'm saying it's like right where you think you think you know I'm just saying you think you're gonna win against China like when you have a stupid country you know yeah a lazy

country right a country that's also really really mad you know at the top 1% of whatever it is right that is doesn't seem conducive to making America great again Yeah, the the the the the problem that the globe the world has to figure out is How do you continue because we've talked about this before but like global profit rates have been declining for some time No one even puts up double-digit growth numbers in GDP anymore that's a thing of the past and in that global environment you've also got to take into consideration now like well okay so the US as a global hegemon as you know holder of the reserve currency as a safe place for assets and investments,

if that's not even gonna be the case anymore, if we're gonna be offshoring not only manufacturing from America, but also finance, I mean, then you've gotta like ask yourself like, well then, how do we construct a global economy around that? And that's what I'm saying, like the one function, the one role America has left in the global economy is just this dumping ground for all of the world's commodities, cheap commodities and goods, because we're the consumer nation.

No one consumes on the level that we do. And I'm saying everyone from the higher classes to the lower classes, it's built into our ways of life and it is our religion It's the thing that like gives us purpose and so you're gonna have to construct a new Global economy around that like and I've read an article go ahead Tom. You're so right. You're so right like You don't like they don't they're not even thinking about exactly how much they're rocking that boat Like you can go and do this shit But just know that it's going to radically change the fabric and like and that fabric is what made you

Yeah, exactly exactly Well, this is why it's kind of like they just don't know what they don't know. Yeah. Yeah There it's a it's a combination of arrogance and greed but stupidity and self-hatred It is like all these almost sort of psychoanalytic things more so than it is any kind of like structural thing because it's like they the very things that made them are now like they are sort of like trying to cut out from under from beneath them and Right like the tariffs thing because they ever go ahead No, I was just saying that they think they're approachable right yeah that nothing can be done to them right that they're infallible

Essentially 100% well the tariffs thing kind of undercuts the only remaining thing like dude We just got our shit handed to us by like you know a ragtag group of like half of them seafaring pirates in the Red Sea you know what I'm saying and like if we if we had any other president than we do right now like we probably would have been dropping actual nukes but weirdly enough in this weird almost anti-climactic way we have Trump who is like They're good fighters. They're very commendable. They're very brave like we have to You got you got Jack Sparrow a bunch of fucking Jack Sparrow is versus like you know an aircraft carrier f-16

The pirates are winning dog Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. I tell you he doesn't view it as like actual warfare He views it like playing a video game or a sporting event or anything. He's like not got ahead it to him It was a great effort. It was a great effort. We all went to TGI Fridays afterward One so me and the Houthis obviously we don't even have like an imperial Hegemony anymore like that's falling away. We fucking suck at fighting wars. We've never been good at fighting wars Listen for a country that hangs its head on it. We're really bad at it The um

the whole premise of having an army is comradeship and Being able to follow orders. But if your whole army is drawn from the ranks of consumer nation, individual nation, snowflake nation, like you can't have any kind of like actual bond there. It's just- Oh, you'd rather have like soldiers fragging their officers. You know what I mean or deserting or something like that Cowardice yeah, that's the thing like at the end of the day

That's why I almost said that warfare movies should be required viewing because at the end of the day like what are you fighting? For you're fighting for the median 53 year old like burger American in the villages in Florida to be able to like buy as much Cheap dumb shit as possible. That's the values and shit. You're fighting for her like everyone You know this like I mentioned this book this short story before but um the things they carried by Tim O'Brien Yeah, which just shows the pointlessness of the the Vietnam War all the equipment right that these men are carrying But instead of soldiers carry equipment through the jungles of Vietnam it's like some some guy fucking leaving like a Walmart you know or a

target the things they carry yeah that's I'm gonna I'm gonna write a book called the things they carry that it's gonna be like a spiritual like sequel to it but it's just gonna be a refrain it's just it's gonna be like a spiritual like sequel to it, but it's just gonna be a refrain. It's just it's gonna be like sucian I'm just gonna name things. They're carrying and then I'm just gonna say oh the things they carried It takes place on a black Friday. Yeah, yeah seven Egyptian cotton towels a fanny pack and some 40 watt amber light bulbs What amber light bulbs oh the things they carry?

Yeah, except. I'm gonna move it out of the jungles outside Saigon and move it to the black Friday at Target. Yeah Target parking lot yeah, yeah like tripling each other Columbus, Ohio. Yeah Jesus Christ man Like we fucking destroyed Native American burial grounds and mounds for this you know It's just a fucking parking lot dog. I mean it's just like paved paradise to put up a parking lot Truly It's just um my point being is that the last,

the last vestige of any kind of hegemony that the United States would have would be as this market of, it's like, if you look at the development of right-wing politics over the last 40 years, a big part of it has been a result of the offshoring of manufacturing right like the Deindustrialization of big parts of the United States has contributed to a right-wing populism

and I shudder I Shudder to imagine the most the grotesque forms of right-wing populism that are going to result from our offshoring of Not just the manufacturing but now the finance the trickle-down Spigot you know what I mean like that was already yeah like dude. It's going to be I can't even go there. I can't even go there I watched Big Trouble in Little China last night

go there. I can't even go there. I watched Big Trouble in Little China last night and it's going to be like we're going to have like the thing that's hanging on the back of Kurt Russell's truck at the last shot. That's like that's the type of people we're going to have running for office. Like actual yeah like Cronenbergian beasts. Yes, it's warlord. Not even flesh and blood humans anymore. Yeah. I mean so it's just this country's gonna tear itself apart because you're gonna now you're gonna turn off the trickle-down spigot you know what I mean like it was already bad enough but like now if the United States is not a safe haven for investments anymore if the dollar is not something that people want to try to collect and and and and store Yeah, no, but but like the did but then as we were saying a second ago

The trick for the Chinese and for whoever is around afterwards to construct a global system is like Okay, we know profit rates are going down. We know that in and We know that the United States is not even going to be a reliable partner in this anymore and that they're shutting themselves off to the world like consumer nation we can't even dump our cheap goods there anymore so where do we dump those cheap goods like I've seen all kinds of speculation that maybe China's markets will be durable enough to to replace that level of consumption and other South Asian markets

but that's not that's just not going to be enough once again, America's cultural, now you see when you're talking about political economy you see where culture comes in because like those nations are

based on cultures that are thousands of years old, right? and they don't have that same sort of like What's the word like worship and fetishization of consumption that America does commodity fetishism right right? So it's like yeah, I mean I guess you can like get close But it's not gonna be anywhere near and then like you could look at Europe But like Europe also doesn't have that sort of cultural background So it's like you're gonna have what I'm saying is you're gonna have to Construct a global economy. That's I mean it's degrowth

It's D. It's it's shrinking in a way. Who's the I guess what's the other? The only other country I guess that would probably rival us in consumption is like Japan Yeah, you know maybe but like you gotta think like outside of Tokyo, Osaka. Yeah, South Korea So there's like some of those Asian Asian nations that could maybe but like well I mean it's telling like the biggest like D growth marks a scholar going these days is that kohei sato Do you know Japan who's like the big D growth guy? So maybe he's like His wheels are turning probably because a lot of same things we're talking about even then like Japan and South Korea like I don't know population wise

How much what's the population of South Korea? Hi, I'm not sure I'd say 20 million people probably don't know Yeah, you got like a couple of really densely populated cities in the lap then I imagine the rest of it's fairly rural Yeah Yeah, I mean it's 51 51 million again right. It's like it's like the size of like a State in the United States Plus Japan, I don't know what the population of Japan is yeah That's also really selling what you said about these cultures being older than us and sort of not

not adhering to commodity fetishes and more like just the worship of the market and products but um It's like we kind of got that new car smell, you know Except that intermixed interlaced with the new car smell is this under smell of like death, you know and destruction You know what I mean? Well, I and we're and we're cultivating a we're cultivating a new culture of in curiosity of cheating I mean like the like that chat GPT story in in dude I can't even okay I want to throw three stories at you that I saw just just today in terms of AI and chat GPT The first is The first is a story in

New York Times and this is in America, but we are doing this in America Agatha Christie who died in 1976 will see you in class an avatar of the long dead British novelist is quote teaching an online writing course But do we want to learn from a digital price that I think built by AI so it's like that's so awesome Yo, we should bring back like we should bring back. Yo not even we should bring back like all these scholars and like literary people And academics, but instead like during a time when we invented the idea of racism, you know what I mean? So we should bring back, we should bring famed, who's an American scholar, man?

I'm thinking of somebody, a famed American scholar or academic who had problematic views that nobody really likes to talk about. Ayn Rand? I mean, she was Russian you know she wasn't American. Like have H.P. Lovecraft teach a creative writing course. Yeah that's true. Like come on this is awesome.

This is such a good idea. I love this dude. Yeah you just get, are we talking about some necromancy or are we talking about holograms? It's full hologram. Either one. Evil hologram. Yeah like Aysen's an about holograms? It's full either one Yeah, like this is an evil hologram Okay, there's that story There's this and then and then like there's the the chat GBT story that was in the New York magazine

Which I'll get to in a second, but um Then there's this story family uses AI to create video for deadly Chandler road rage victims Impact statement that's a weird fucking headline, but basically the gist is this The Alexander Avenia posted this I lost my shit Christopher Peltke was killed in a road rage incident in Chandler, Arizona in 2021 But last month artificial intelligence brought him back to life during his killer sentencing hearing. What the fuck dude. So they're not even trying to like try to do some necromancy shit to summon the dead victims, the dead victims ghost. But it's like this is an approximation of the victim.

Yeah, it's like basically how like these tech people think that equates to bringing somebody back from the dead, right? Yeah, that is not resurrection. That is just like That's blasphemous. That's just stupid. It's just dumb Like uploading your consciousness means you're still dead, dude And like I mentioned last time we were talking, just even, we don't even understand what consciousness is. We definitely can't make that shit on purpose. Definitely not gonna happen by accident.

I just don't believe it. You're seeing though that like, the main point here isn't that they're trying to actually replicate consciousness. They're trying to, and this they're trying to and this is also true with ag at the Christy thing they're trying to naturalize aspects of the rot so for example um you've got like I mean you could say that there's a crisis in criminal justice um we've got this we've got long-standing crises in criminal justice.

Everything from mass incarceration to the fact that you're more likely to go to jail if you see a judge at 1130 a.m. than you are at 2 p.m. because he's eating his lunch after 2 p.m. and he's less likely to send you to jail. That kind of shit. Like there's all these kinds of like... The fact that cops idling their stupid ass vehicles in that like Formation like this yeah for hours at a time just talking about like 16 year old girls. They can't wait to become legal It's destroying the planet, so yeah, it's it's you've got

you've got a stagnation in our ability to Treat like some of the externalities of capitalism one of which is you know Crime criminalization of survival strategies surplus population surplus land surplus government capacity You've got a crisis in all these areas We're not gonna actually deal with it in any way that again. That's humane rational saying We're just going to throw AI at it, and it's like okay The point isn't that they're trying to recreate the victim of that car crash the point is that they're trying to

Make the likelihood of a guilty sentencing higher because that manipulates the jury into thinking oh I'm actually speaking to the victim of this crime right Like that makes a likelihood of a guilty sentencing higher. And it's the same thing with like the, go ahead, Tom. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I was just gonna say that, and if the members of the jury are between 18 and 21, college age, it seems that they would fall for such a stunt. You know?

Yeah. Or on the whole other end of the gap, anyone who's probably over the age of like you know 60 yeah, right exactly right right? The demographic that's impressed with ventriloquism yes They were rounded with ventriloquism was first invented actually That the original how a hologram the ventriloquist Remember when David Copperfield first came out yeah But it's also the same one thing with like the Agatha Christy thing like you've got a stagnation in

Creativity you've got a stagnation in You've got a stagnation in creativity. You've got a stagnation in ideas. And so we're just gonna revive old thinkers. And then you've got a stagnation in the higher ed environment, right? Like as we've just spent the last 30 minutes pointing out, you've got all these things going on with the university. We're not gonna actually address it head on.

We're going to just use AI as this like sort of magical solution to Get around all of these things right instead of having to deal with them So it's not more profit exactly. It's not that we're actually trying to recreate Intelligence we're not that has never been the goal of any of it maybe it was in like the 80s or 90s, but like definitely since the 2000s the goal has not been to create art and another intelligence. It is to adjust for some of the structural deficiencies and externalities of capitalism that we cannot address anymore

through our conventional ways of doing it, like through state intervention, through nonprofit intervention. You know what I mean it's it's what we're gonna do is just we're gonna treat it with this completely bogus gonna make it even worse than even alien nature even more in the process exactly right so that's what I'm saying like every I mean and are they dealing with that are they using that in this way in like South Korea in China? I don't I don't know I mean, I don't think so because I don't think that you've got the same crisis of Social reproduction over there as you do here like it's

It's obvious that like we're in a deep structural rot and crisis of social reproduction In the sense that like you can see this if we're talking about like Deporting even h1b's visas and you know the higher skilled workers who would potentially be computer scientists and doctors and that kind of stuff then we obviously have a a Massive crisis of social reproduction that we're not even trying to like be a society in the future Well, I try yeah, go ahead'm sorry. No, no you get it. I was just going to say too, like I've heard Trump allude to having a certain amount of visas for people that want to come here and do low wage work, so you're like he also wants to perpetuate the racialized underclass,

you know, low wage work and all that kind of stuff. This is like he does some Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory type of golden ticket contest. Well the problem is- In which you can come to the Willy Wonka, the chocolate factory of the United States and work on a farm. That's true. You get filled with gas and float away like a big blueberry. But yeah, it'll be like, well if you like Indy and there's certain jobs you can do here

and certain jobs you can't. Like you can't be like a cardiologist, but you could like drive, you know, Uber or Lyft or like gig economy stuff, you know what I mean? That kind of shit. The thing is, is like, they're not even gonna be able to do that because this is what I've been saying for the past several months.

If they really believed any of this stuff, they would approach it like the Nazis. They would approach it with a kind of rabid efficiency and rationalization where they would not be scaring markets, for example. Volatility of the market is like, the reason we're kind of heading towards recession is nobody's spending right now. Everybody's hoarding cash. Nobody's buying anything because the uncertainty of everything has like really got people freaked out. And then you've got things like nobody's coming to America.

Like if you look at like consumer index forecast for the next several months, hotels and plane flights, like those two sectors like It's it's a dismal outlook because no one's traveling so they're not even gonna get the You know Indian guys coming to America to not be doctors and instead be uber drivers They're not even gonna get that at all. No one's gonna come to America at all period They're afraid of period yeah, because they're afraid of getting disappeared into some insane, you know complex bureaucratic Penal code. You know, I spent a little time on wiki travel because the question popped in my mind one night

What would happen if a quirked up white boy just decided to take a trip to cartoon, you know? I wonder what's it like there? You know what I mean? Like is it like what would happen to me? Is there like, you know, like pickpocketing petty violence like what goes on there? You know me because I like to read like what all the countries and all the stuff like that so like I was just picking like all these sort of Far-reaching places that my little dumb Anglo Brain is just like well that'd be pretty wild to go to Marrakesh. That'd be pretty wild to go to you know fucking You know wherever and these are like Spanish travelers and like probably like you know like the 900

Also look the places in Eastern Europe, too, you know it wasn't just you know But I was just wondering like okay, okay, this is, okay, you know, places you hear about being kind of crazy, you know what I mean? Right, right. And then, like, all the travel advisories pale in comparison to, say, like, St. Louis. St. Louis, you would think you were going to, like, you know, goddamn Fallujah in 2004, you know what I mean? By the way, like, that's like, the rest of the world views America is like an insane place to go even before this shit

But it's a doubly true now and yeah, right well you if you look at the amount of Like deportations are down under Trump compared to Biden for the simple fact that like no one is coming No one's even trying to get into the country anymore so it's like as you were saying Tom they want to preserve like that racial underclass of like with the simple fact that no one is coming, no one's even trying to get into the country anymore. So it's like, as you were saying, Tom, they wanna preserve that racial underclass of farm workers from Mexico, for example, but they're not even gonna be able to do that now.

Because they fucked up the bag so much, like they went so hard on that, that they can't even, they're not even going to be able to do that. So it's like, I don't know. I mean, granted you can't say. Hillbillies and blacks, we're out. We've done our part, so good luck.

Also, it makes me think too that if they even wanted to, you mentioned the Nazi analogy, Terrence, but even if they wanted to sort of mechanize, right, you know, its entire production force, that's not even gonna happen because where are the investment like what? What companies don't gonna want to invest, you know, they create that sort of technology so that you can automate this work You're exactly right. The investments are gone and then You're deporting all the h1b people who could end and also destroying stem programs Those people would be the ones who would have to oversee

the robots, the mechanized workforce, right? It's like, a mechanized workforce does require oversight and maintenance and people who can actually do that. But if you're gonna destroy the entire education system, like people who would be coders, or if you're going to incentivize using ChatGBT to do all this stuff where you don't even learn how to? Actually code or maintenance?

Machines and all this that's also a dream. That's also a pipe dream right it's not gonna happen Right it's not gonna fucking happen to be just one guy that's gonna press a button That's just gonna make all the machines go and turn it off when he's done right yeah, we're like we're involved in that man. Yeah It's crazy. They're trying to Re-engineer America without the concept of exploitation, but there's they're subbing out exploitation for incarceration and murder Yeah, yeah, so let's see if we can keep these gears running with them all in jail or dead That's exactly right Tom. It's it's neoliberalism come full circle. It's it's like the final

Chapter of it. It's like all of the things like neoliberalism is an extremely attenuated form of capitalism And so it's like once it finally reaches its logical endpoint. There was like a fucking you know that Zack Bo Camp Dickhead on Twitter who is thought it was Bo. I thought it was Bo Champ, it's Bo Champ. It's actually Bo Champ. Oh, my Bo Champ. Bo Champ. You're 16th French, you should know that. Yeah, you're right.

He says, every time someone blames something on capitalism or neoliberalism, they should be forced to answer questions about whether or not the same bad thing also happened in non-capitalist societies. It's like brother dude the things like okay like yes there are things in like the things in neo-neoliberalism that we have now like you would blow Marx's mind just like trying to explain that to him. You know what I'm saying? Like, what do you think he would say? Dashi shnit guta? It's just that- Go ahead. No, I was just thinking too, I know this is kind of going back, but I was just thinking about how, like, you were saying, you were saying, Tom, that they want to kind of sub

the exploitation with deportation with disappearing people, but it's like they're so racist because I mean a lot of this tariff policy is just based on like racism, right? Like the deportations as well, it's all undergirded with racism, but they're so racist that they can't even opportunize like the racial stratification and social stratification that already happens in this country. Right. and social stratification that already happens in this country. When you're that blind, when you're so racist, you're blind to that face of fact. You're in bad shape.

It's like you cease to get any benefit out of racism, you see. Exactly. You're supposed to have useful racism. Yeah, there was an upshot to the bigotry, you know? But you're removing an upshot to the bigotry, you know? But you're removing the upshot. You're so racist. You can't just hate a man for no good reason.

What is that? Not put him to work like god damn it. So racist that you've gone beyond racism. Just blind and you're consul- that's like just the fires of God Oh God, yeah, it makes it's really like I'm just we are engineering a future where there is no Like we're going to be living in like mud huts. I feel like I don't mean that cool I don't mean that in the cool way. I mean that in like, we're gonna be like,

building mud huts out of mud with like, malaria and parasites and worms in it. And like, we're all gonna be like, disease ridden and flesh eating bacteria. Like, we're going to be, each and every one of us, Cronenbergian monsters, like microplastic growths out of our head and like Not me dog. I'm going back to being quad pad. I'm taking to the trees

I'm not even I'm not even fuck around sprout a prehensile tail You ever see the hills have eyes we're gonna we're gonna be like that oh that you have no idea How much that movie is marked my life We're gonna be like that irradiated family living out of the desert and that mock nuclear head that bought back nuclear Suburban neighborhood and had to drop a box on Turned back nothing honorable is buried here nothing good happened past this point Honorable is buried here Nothing good happenin past this point

Well I teased on the patreon that we would read this article and I can't read the whole thing and I know we're well Over an hour, but like well, that's which one is it is it the ag? It's the Christy one No, it's all right out. I'm slap happy now like I've been up so long, but like I'm starting to get wired again. Yeah Yeah, it's it's out. Yeah, go ahead read. It's in politico. It's the one about the Elon Musk company town I that I talked about on on the patreon It's in politico that the headline is he's trying to colonize this community inside Elon Musk plan to take over this, Texas town So we're set in and and I can't it's hard to do this article justice without like Including some of the photos, so I'll have to include some of the photos because it really kind of

you know conveys some of the vibes of this but like It's just like here's one photo of just an empty sandy expanse Here's one photo of just an empty sandy expanse Close to the beach in Boca Chica Village, Texas with just these like lone skyscrapers rising up out of the distance just The way he wants Mars to look like brother. I swear to God with the and it's got like doge murals everywhere All right, I'm getting ahead of myself Driving down a long empty stretch of highway four in South Texas, there are few indications

that this windswept corner of the nation, bound by the Gulf of Mexico and the Rio Grande, is host to more than dense Mesquite thickets and the ghosts of the Civil War. The land feels vast, unchanging, and decidedly apolitical, bigger than people altogether. That is, until a break in the brush reveals an enormous gold bust of Elon Musk

staring into the distance. Then signs of the political moment are everywhere. Ice agents and bulletproof jackets flagged down, passing cars at an inland border checkpoint, a road leading off the highway highway reads Mars, a lago a hundred yards away. Booking. I made a joke I made a joke about it looking like the like you know this fucking Futuristic skyline of Mars populated with skyscrapers and literally it's right fucking there in the piece man

100 fucking hate this guy a hundred yards. Yeah, stop speaking things to exist and say Sorry a hundred yards away book ending an old black Studebaker parked for sale in a dusty pullout murals of Musk's face and the Doge Shiba in new plaster to 30 foot concrete towers God damn dog and finally rising from the empty salt plains in the shadow of a towering rocket ship and suborbital Launched vehicles sit homes in hangars, office buildings and neighborhood streets. This is Starbase, the soon to be newest city in Texas, and Elon Musk first company in town. The far-falling settlement, by almost entirely by SpaceX employees and construction workers is the site of

SpaceX's launch pad for their next generation of Starship rockets and home base for humanity's future colonization of Mars What's happening here is incredible said Kit Frederick an Oregon resident who bought a Nearby plot of undeveloped land recently someday every state long to be that shit stupid. I swear to God. And it seems like we're gonna get a new generation of that very soon. But, Jesus Christ. Starbase.

Are you referring to the chat GBT thing, Tom? The new generation? Yeah, I still can't get over that. I still can't believe... I still can't get over that. I Didn't adequately dwell on that the article what we're referring to was in the new New York magazine And it was about like the widespread use of chat GPT in college Among college students and basically the takeaway was that every single college student basically is using chat PT Jet GPT to cheat on their test

and homework. And really it's a matter of whether you get A, B, C, or D, or failure, is just how good at chat GPT you are. Yeah, that's literally it, right. It is, I mean this has been true for a while to some degree, but the academy used to be a place of learning. And now it's just like, of just a place. It's not, it's not like you're getting access to

an education or even a vocation or any of that kind of stuff. It's just like matriculating to fucking like, you know, earn a credential or not even earn a credential just to get it a process of cred, it's a process of credentialization. It is. It's not learning. Well, it's so, I know, don't wanna go too far ahead, Terrence, but it just reminds me of something that DeBoer, you know, was talking about.

It's no longer about what you have, you know, or what you are, but the appearance of having things. Yeah. Yeah, so Starbase, what's happening here is incredible. Someday every state in the Union is going to want something like this. Right now this roughly one and a half square mile community is technically unincorporated Boca Chica village,

but on Saturday the 200 odd residents, the vast majority of whom are SpaceX employees, will decide whether the land surrounding Musk's Starbass rocket launch pad should become its own city. Starbase, Texas. Okay, that was last Saturday. I'm assuming they already approved that. Also just have to, you know, I don't know how far the spaceport, like the launch port is from the homes,

but it just doesn't seem like a good idea to have rocket ships fueled by combustible material where anything can go wrong. I wouldn't want to live around, I wouldn't want to live around that shit, you know? Never see anything good happen around that. And also with how much like his stuff blows up. Yeah, dude. It's even double-trick just yeah, man. This doesn't seem like I wouldn't want to live there

Yeah It seems like that is a concern for a lot of the people that live in like nearby Brownsville Residents of the closest city Brownsville population 200,000 a border community just 20 miles away are not uniformly ready to welcome mayor musk as their newest neighbor. Since SpaceX's arrival in Cameron County a decade earlier, rents have risen nearly 15% and access to a nearby beach has been restricted for locals during rocket launches. Drawing ire and frustration from residents shut off from their main point of access to recreation along the coast Do just fucking think about that man like you live in fucking Brownsville, Texas you make like $30,000 a year you just want to take your fucking kids to the beach and now you can't because this fucking asshole has Restricted access to it so they can shoot off his dumb fucking rockets

I mean somebody somebody else's prospects for the future right and has restricted access to it so he can shoot off his dumb fucking rockets I Mean somebody somebody else's prospects for the future right and trying to future hustle us now in the present You're you're you're you're you're enjoyment for that right there are only recreation activities that you can enjoy when you're not slaving away Work is being spoiled. You know by his little fucking pet project dude and brownsills right there on the border, too Yeah, yeah, it is so it's like it's like. I don't know Now 100 years after the era of the company town the richest man on earth appears set on reprising the concept for the space age Wait how many years after the company time? Says 100 years after the era of the company town

brother Try like 60 On a recent weekday in downtown Starbase a man on an electric scooter and wearing a t-shirt reading for God for country for space exploration whizzed down a newly paved road named memes street Need abduct this motherfucker broke and they need to abduct this motherfucker Probe that nigga dog They got they have to destroy him with whatever Futurized weapons they got there ain't no do not pass go do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not probe him,

do not take him up and abduct him. He will poison your species. Yeah. They should probably just drop like a tungsten rod, like one of those orbital weapons on this whole entire small town. It just obliterated to be honest with you. Listen, brings me no joy to like, you know, cheer for that but The open correction might be necessary to curb what being result of that command memes street dog Memes Street imagine you were raised on meme Street dude like okay Let's say that you were the child of some like Cape Canaveral like spit like a NASA

flight lunch operator whatever you know what I mean like you probably grew up something honorable right right right you probably grew up on like Washington Ave or whatever it's like now you live you grew up on starbase on meme Street and your dad helped the biggest loser on the planet make five billion more dollars to blow up a beach again back that back then your dad would be working at mission control right with a bunch of other men yeah glasses like my yeah thin black eyes sure yeah yeah yeah yeah sure or your dad might be an experimental jet fighter and you'd run to meet him on the runway now it's guys like this with electric

scooters and shirts like that we live in an aesthetically fucked time to well What's what everything's ugly what everything is ugly and one of the things that's so bizarre like I was telling Tom I was telling some people this over the weekend like One of the all-time great historical ironies that will go down in the history books Is that Hamas did not know there was a music rave festival next to a concentration camp on October 7th. Like they had no idea. They just stumbled upon it. Like and like could you imagine that's something that would not have happened in like Nazi Germany. Like there wouldn't have

been a music festival next to a concentration camp, but only in 2025 Everything is mashed together right just the most macabre of a whore and shit is mashed next up to The you know I mean like the most like when the cons Well the concepts might be the same because I mean he got zone the movie zone of interest again right so just living Next to that horror, but you're right. It's so kissy now. Yeah, it's kitchen Just so slopified that instead. It's like in it's like, it's so kitschy now. Yeah, it's kitschy. And just so slopified that instead it's like an E-music festival or some shit like that. Yes, right. Aaron, you've done it again.

You've disgusted me with your words. Yeah. I guess. Well, and it's even mirrored in our timelines. You know what I mean? In the sense that you can open up your phone and see some dumb influencer doing something stupid like Alex Earl trying on a pair of shoes

next to dead babies in Gaza, you know what I'm saying? It's like everything is mashed up next to each other in this completely surreal and really disassociative way. It makes you kind of disassociate from the surreality of everything Yeah meme Street Tesla's and cyber trucks fill most driveways Dozens of airstream trailers serve it as temporary housing There's a lot of construction in ten years if the election goes as planned this moment will serve as a postcard from the city's humble

beginnings, but already what is known as Starbase has undergone an incredible transformation. A decade ago, SpaceX arrived in South Texas with great fanfare and anticipation. After a public courtship with half a dozen other locations around the country, SpaceX had remarkably chosen Cameron County, once one of the poorest in the nation, to build its launch pad and rocket facilities. At the time, the company was widely perceived as a trailblazing start-up in the move Heralded as an economic coup for the approximately 400,000 person County Which has long struggled with high poverty and low educational attainment Yeah, I mean it just kind of talks about like the sandy beach like that that's why they chose it

I mean it just kind of talks about like the sandy beach like that. That's why they chose it There was concern over environmental degradation some residents were distressed by the intense vibrations and explosions of rocket launches Anxious that the earthquake like rumblings were cracking their foundations and knocking doors off hinges I Think like you know it just kind of goes on to talk about like some of the, um, you know, local opposition to this and how the big bust of Elon that, you know, we mentioned at the beginning of this was vandalized. Someone fucked it up.

And um, I don't know, it's just- Once again, I just have to say once again, man, that I've never watched a space launch in person. I'd like to go when they do that Artemis trip around the moon next year, I think, if that shit ever happens. But there's a reason why you stay such a far enough distance away, right? There's a reason why, I guess, there might even be if there's like you know housing that it's miles away on on the other side of a lake you know it just seems to be living somewhere so I

mean it's one thing to put a fucking factory next to a neighborhood but to put a neighborhood next to a space or to build a neighborhood around a spaceport well you're right it's's once again, like AI, space exploration is not about actually trying to learn about space. It's not about trying to learn about the cosmos or learn about our origins or even colonize Mars. That's not the point.

Like AI, it is another attempt to like I said control for the deficiencies and contradictions and externalities of capitalism It's like we we're going to use this pipe dream of space Colonization as a way to get around the fact that we're making the world unlivable through what capitalism? It's the same It's the same thing It's the same stopgap measure that like funnels more defense contracts and technology technological innovation quote unquote Into these pipe dream industries that aren't going to get us anywhere. They they purport They build themselves as you know, these innovative like renegade

rough and tumble You know these innovative like renegade rough-and-tumble Important industries that are like trying to answer the big questions, but like I think that they all know that deep down. That's really not That's why Peter till is now like you know babbling about fucking ancient prophecies in the Antichrist like they know this is all You know he's basically if he didn't have billions He'd be one of those guys with like one of those like board signs around his yeah front and back You know screaming about the end times at the town square 100% I think they all know that this is just it's not Like the early promise of this stuff in the 90s

And then the 60s right like space exploration the internet artificial intelligence and computing and all this did have the sheen of Capitalist innovation right like the claim of the capitalist Leaders that as opposed to the Soviet system Capitalism could solve all these problems, could answer all these questions, could solve hunger, could answer our...

Capitalism could bring us the future. It could bring us the future. It could bridge our chasm between us and the unknown. That it could actually tell us the truth about where did we come from? Why are we here? What is the, you know what I mean? These grand questions.

And now that's all worn off as neoliberalism has kind of completed its full circuit. It's all worn off and it's become just kind of laid bare for what it is. And it's why a lot of these leaders, they are, I mean like guys I've thought about that with Elon Musk, like just the fact that this guy's lost I think more wealth than any person in human history in the last three or four months like it's like

$300 billion or something. It's just like he was you would risk the Empire his empire just to trigger the libs It's like I think that they know deep down that this is just bullshit. That's what I'm saying. Sorry, right? Well ruin his whole reputation too man because like if it wasn't for him, you know, you know increasingly, you know Letting us know that he was transphobic, you know that he was fucking racist I mean, I guess he didn't you didn't know anything of these things before in the early 2010s Like when he cameoed on Star Trek Discovery Yeah But he just could have kept his mouth quiet

and just been like the Howard Hughes type figure that he wanted to be. And instead, it's just like now people fucking hate you and they know somewhat of the truth about you, but mostly they just don't like you because you're grotesque. Same thing as JD. Probably same thing as Trump,

who very much cares about what people people think about him, you know He wants to be perceived as cool and then touch for the Zack guys to the stuff These guys have all immortalized themselves as as like monsters, you know, and kind of like just out of their own ambition. Yeah Absolutely when I think that they know out of the Howard Hughes comparison is interesting because it's like Howard Hughes was coming up at a time when aviation was new, it was exciting, and it was something that the sort of capitalist West could feasibly, conceivably, demonstrate as, or exhibit as a demonstration of its technical capacity and of its ability to usher in the future, right? And like I said, like I think all these guys, they've kind of like come up against the hard

limit of what they're selling. Like once again, they all know that what we're actually selling when we set, when we pitch AI is not an actual artificial intelligence. It's a stopgap measure to get around the fact that we're not going to deal with the stagnation, the creative, the cultural, the political economic stagnation at the heart of America. And it's the same with SpaceX, Brytions, all this. They know it deep down, because they know that they like, because if they didn't, they really would be trying

to develop an AI that would like, you know, that would actually be an artificial intelligence, right? Like they would actually like try to grapple with this in a way that wasn't incentivizing 21 year olds to like actually not learn any new knowledge, but just cheat their way through a system. If they were serious about space exploration shit, like they'd be working on this new plasma engine. Yes! This breakthrough plasma engine that NASA's been working on.

It's kind of like also, I know we should close out, but it's like the star base thing perfect. A perfect example of something that I've mentioned before, like just trying to reupholster the past, you know, because it's like you have a star bay. You have the star base company town, which is this futuristic, you know, a city, you know, supposedly, or town that harkens back to a past that nobody wants to be a part of anymore, you know, and also a horrible future that is very much still possible, right? So it's just because really who likes company towns. You're right. Like nobody wants a company town like

the only company towns that you hear about in a futuristic setting are like, you know, like miners on Mars or something like that, you know No, that's right. We do do with our out of work coal miners is send them to the moon and let them mine rare moon minerals. White miners on the moon. White miners on the moon, yeah. Yeah, you're right, Aaron. It's like, if they were serious about that, yeah,

you would be pouring investment and research into the plasma engine or something, creating a generation's chip, probably, yeah, yeah, like if I mean I Don't know I just the the the quote from Elon this week was so goddamn funny like I I'm going to get it wrong, but it was something to the effect of like Well, you know the star the Sun is going to explode eventually, and that's why we have to get on Mars. It's like All right, nigga. We'll be way dead before that even happens, bro

Also, I'm sorry. Just what do you think's gonna happen to Mars when the Sun explodes? Is what they'll start monkeying around with the Sun and the moon Trying to do trying to do anything about climate change except the obvious thing that needs to happen. Yeah Yeah, I want to say something we had that eclipse a year to a weird things happen when you fuck with the Sun and Moon Yes, dude. We saw a car explode An hour later. It was like dark. We just saw like bats coming out like early because they thought it was nighttime like I Don't like it I'm dog yeah don't fuck with the Sun and the moon you have to revere them you have to worship them it's what I was saying yeah exactly I'm

like Harry Dean Stanton in the return I don't want you selling your blood no more I don't like it I also just get like the obvious friend that like he said this is why we have to colonize Mars because the sun, one, we're probably most likely going to kill ourselves and make this planet uninhabitable for us before that even happens But second like you mentioned Terrence. It's just one planet over. It's one planet away from the Sun It's not that much farther away from the Sun brother No, and like what yeah like I should hope that in three and a half billion years or whatever when the Sun explodes like we're not just

Either still on Earth or just on Mars I would hope that we've built a generation ship to get like on the other side of the left bit left the solar system Dog just leave the shit completely. Yeah, I did but it's not it's not gonna happen. That's the thing It's like it's Tom and I have a buddy who's a physicist and he's you know He was like dude. It's a pipe dream like we are never getting to like the universe is expanding right like We're never going to meet another intelligence species, and if we do we're probably never Understand them and you know I mean be like a Bee meeting a fucking bear or something it just does it's just like so outside of our conceptual

capacities It's just like so outside of our conceptual capacities. Even just living on Mars, man. What do you do about that radiation? You know what I'm saying? If we're somehow lucky enough to jump through all those hurdles, whatever emissary we send to meet these people has to say, take me to your dealer. Take me to your dealer, bro.

Let me get that cosmic pot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Damn. Oh shit. Yeah bro Let me get that cosmic pot It's all cope It's all cope AI space exploration. It's all cope To get around the fact that like it's this is not a sustainable way of life. It's not a sustainable mode of production well you know a common thing that'll happen like you see this happen sometimes in relationships where like a partner will treat their partner like piss poor at home, but like everybody else,

they're nice to the boss, like their colleagues, they're like good as gold, but like they shit on the person that's like closest to them or whatever. That's kind of how we treat our site. This reality that we like know and love, like if I know and like know that we need to protect it. Like we're just shitting on it because we take it for granted, you know what I mean?

And then like everything else is the big shiny thing that we're like chasing after, you know what I mean? No, that's such a good point, man. That's such a good point because it's like, it's also their future hustling, right? So you kind of ignore the harsh reality of the present, right? So that you can kind of hinge and hope on tomorrow, you know? And not even what your grandkids might enjoy, but it is literally just for you right now,

because they don't have an idea of succeeding generations, you know? They may say it faintly or they may believe it within themselves in terms of a eugenesis project, but for everybody else, no. I got that Liliana Daganova book, Discounting the Futures. We talked about it a lot And I hadn't said like a rub. I didn't get a free you know You know shame proof corrected copy. You know all right. She'll get a residual from that so that's time Yeah, okay, so

But I'm excited to dig into that we should maybe Tackle it together and see what's up seems to be like maybe covering some of the running themes we talk about. Yeah, I think that this concept has pervaded most social technologies in our current system. And I also just wanna say that when I advocate for a Luddism, I'm not doing it on the basis of, yeah, go back to mud huts,

just reject the modern world, all this. I have stated before, I think AI would be something that would be interesting to pursue. I think space exploration would be something that's interesting to pursue. I think these are all things that I would like to see explored in a limited capacity under strict observation and oversight, but

As it's become obvious like with every other thing like drugs for example like substances like Substances our current paradigm regime of substance abuse was a social technology to make capitalism more expansive, more efficient, more profitable, that goes back to the 1700s and sugar cultivation and all this. It's just how many times can we cope? How many times can we punch that button trying to like, bob and weave around the fact that this is not a sustainable way of life.

It's not a sustainable mode of production, but spiritually, physically, psychically, all this stuff. I love Star Trek, but I don't love it for the futuristic technology so much as the society that allows that amazing technology to exist in the first place, right? Which is a post- society based on you know mutual respect mutual aid cooperation you know

Actual true exploration instead of empty pleasures and even if you want those empty pleasures That's fine because you know you're not being gouged to enjoy yourself. You know yeah Well, it's as to go back to what we were saying earlier that that would be the challenge for the global leaders after The United States has finally put the shotgun barrel in its mouth. I mean, you know and finally pulled the trigger, but it's just like Are you gonna build a global system that like accounts for the fact that like this level of consumption is impossible like it's It's a challenge globally, so I don't know I guess that's the challenge before us but Anyways, um, that's that about covers it for this week. I Wanted to encourage everybody to go check out our patreon. The link is in the show notes

Please go support us. We would like your support Yeah, any any final thoughts before we depart I'm just still tripping out about starbase, man. That's a Yeah, just he's just don't know just gives me ideas. That's a that's a bad. That's bad bad No, I don't like that. Not any of that's bad, man. I I don't like you do I hope all those X they SpaceX employees suddenly um When the next launch lands or whatever like that? I hope they all get afflicted with some um with space madness You know with this um with this fear of the unknown of this deep cosmic horror. I'll decide to evacuate

Uh-huh. There's a they're all realized Yeah, yeah Yeah All right, we'll go check out our patreon There's a little realize we should be yeah, yeah Yeah All right, we'll go check out our patreon and we'll see you over there in a few days. We appreciate Your support and have a great weekend Adios peace the the

the I'm sorry. you