What A Day - Unidentified Flying Thingamabobbins

Episode Date: February 17, 2023

Days after three objects were shot down over North American air space, President Biden confirmed they were not linked to Chinese spy activity – and they were taken down out of an abundance of caution.A report from the special grand jury investigating alleged election interference by former President Donald Trump and his allies was partially made public. It found no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, and concluded that "one or more" witnesses who testified may have committed perjury.We'll be taking short break for the President's Day holiday, with a new episode on Tuesday, February 21st!Show Notes:What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Friday, February 17th. I'm Trevelle Anderson. And I'm Priyanka Arabindi, and this is What A Day, where we are happy to live in a world where NFL football no longer exists. I haven't heard anything about it in a minute. I can only assume that means it's gone forever. Yeah, we're probably in for a rude awakening of sorts in about seven months or so. But for now, total bliss. On today's show, there has been another big train derailment. Plus, we'll dig into why Microsoft's new chatbot is so inexplicably thirsty, so inexplicably sad. It's got a lot of things going on. A lot of things. But first, President Biden has finally spoken publicly about those three thingamabobins, or unidentified flying objects, if you prefer that language, that were flying in our airspace throughout last weekend.

We don't yet know exactly what these three objects were, but nothing right now suggests they were related to China's spy balloon program or that they were surveillance vehicles from any other country. The intelligence community's current assessment is that these three objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions studying weather or conducting other scientific research. So as you heard there, President Biden basically reiterated what we already knew, right? That the three items that were most recently shot down are not other spy balloons and that they did not represent a risk to our national security. So good news there. The intelligence community's current assessment is that these thingamajiggies were most likely balloons tied to private companies or research institutions that, you know, were studying weather and doing other, you know, stuff that requires the scientific method and whatnot. briefing earlier this week about these objects. According to Politico, they were basically just

told that the thingamabobins were not aliens, which I guess is good information. Cool. But not much more else than that. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin summed up the briefing saying, quote, it answered a lot of questions and raised a lot of questions. I know one question that I have personally. We know this isn't the first time we've seen balloons and other objects in our airspace, but four total items that have been shot down over the last couple of weeks really feels like a lot. So can you tell us like why it feels

like we're seeing so many of them? Is this just like, you know, you see one and suddenly you see it everywhere? Or are we actually like getting way more of these than we ever have before? Part of the reason it feels like, you know, something is amiss here in that we may or may not be being invaded

by extraterrestrials is because, you know, we went from not even thinking about things flying in the sky to all of a sudden having four mostly unexplainable thingamabobins in the air that at least initially were concerning enough for the government to shoot them down. That obviously causes concern, and I'm sure our tin hat siblings have been, you know,

having a field day over on Reddit with all of this, right? But here's what Biden had to say to that point. I want to be clear. We don't have any evidence that there has been a sudden increase in the number of objects in the sky. We're now just seeing more of them partially because the steps we've taken to narrow our radars. So basically, they made the radar detection systems more sensitive. And so they're detecting more things. But that doesn't necessarily mean that there have been more things out there, if that makes sense.

Yeah, totally. And as I mentioned before, we now know that these objects likely had more mundane purposes than actual surveillance. But remember, the very first thing about them from a couple weeks ago, the one that's since been confirmed as part of a massive surveillance program by China. Now, that one is something to potentially be concerned about. And in his press conference yesterday, President Biden had no regrets about shooting it down. As I've said since the beginning of my administration, we seek competition, not conflict with China. We're not looking for a new Cold War. But I make no apologies and we will compete. We'll responsibly manage that competition so that it doesn't veer into conflict. He went on to say that open lines of communication

were important and that he looks forward to talking with Chinese President Xi Jinping to get to the bottom of why, you know, they're poking their noses in our business. So overall, not really a substantive update on all of this, which, you know, guarantees that we'll be talking about it for some time to come. And we will be sure to keep y'all posted and let you know if you actually need to disavow Steven Spielberg's E.T. in case the aliens do decide to invade, because I'm sure they are watching us and being very judgmental right now. Yeah, very. But switching gears a little bit, let's talk about the report

from the special grand jury in Georgia on alleged election interference by former president Donald Trump. Portions of that report have been released and they reveal that the special grand jury saw possible evidence of perjury by one or more witnesses who testified before them. Okay, this doesn't sound good for a few people at least. Nope. But for

those of us who haven't been, you know, keeping up to the minute tabs on Mr. Trump and his legal issues, recap for us what we need to know here. Yeah, no, we've got you. Don't worry. So this investigation is one of several that could result in criminal charges against Trump. As I said, it concerns election interference by Trump and his allies during the 2020 election, specifically concerning Georgia. And this, of course, also comes as Trump is campaigning once again to become president. So just a fun backdrop for all of this. Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis started investigating nearly two years ago. This has been ongoing for quite some time. And this special grand jury was part of this process. This grand jury had to consider the

evidence and testimony from dozens of witnesses, including some very prominent allies of the former president, and then issue a final report with recommendations on any further action. Excerpts of that report are what came out yesterday. The special grand jury can't issue indictments themselves, but after getting their report, DA Willis will get to decide whether or not to go to a regular grand jury to pursue criminal charges. It would be unprecedented if criminal charges were filed against Trump, but, you know, he also kind of smashed the term unprecedented to smithereens when he suggested that Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger could just find the exact number of votes that he needed to win Georgia back in 2020. And that was like, no big deal. Yeah, it's still absurd to me that he thought that that was okay. Crazy. Yeah, absurd. So back to this report, what did we learn? Yeah, so a five-page excerpt of the report was released on Thursday. It revealed

a few key things. First, it showed that the majority of the grand jury believes that one or more of the witnesses that they heard testimony from committed perjury, aka one or more of these people lied under oath. That is not good. That is a crime not allowed. They are recommending that D.A. Willis file the appropriate indictments for that. So they want her to go after these people. They also made sure to note that they unanimously agree that there was no widespread fraud that Trump and his allies were claiming. That wasn't like necessarily a thing that they had to get to the bottom of, but like just to reiterate, they were like, none of us believe a word that you are saying. We also have reason to believe that the rest of the report is

pretty short. It's probably only nine pages in total. The five pages that were released were the intro, the conclusion, and the section about the perjury. According to the Fulton County Superior Court judge who was overseeing the release of this report, the parts that haven't been shared contain a list of who should or shouldn't be indicted and for what charges. He said that releasing that list would violate due process of these, quote,

potential future defendants, which is how I'm gonna start referring to these people, because this wasn't a trial. There were no lawyers presenting evidence and advocating for them. They weren't allowed to rebut any claims. You know, these were really just people being called in to give testimony. And that's it. That's just not how our legal system works.

Yeah, but I need the tea, Priyanka. Who do we think could have lied here? Yeah, it's a real whodunit. We all want to know. Honestly, we probably will know pretty soon. But we got a lot of options. So 75 witnesses testified to the grand jury, including some big names in the Trump world. Former Trump attorney and disgraced former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Disgraced current U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham. Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who just has always been a disgrace, so nothing new to add there. And other lawyers and officials who were involved in Trump's attempt to overthrow the election results all kind of showed up to testify before this grand jury. Notably, Trump himself is not included in the list. He didn't appear before the grand jury. I am hoping personally that they are saving something extra special just for him at the end of this. Oh, yes. But of course, this is just one of the many ongoing legal issues that he is facing. All while he remains the Republican frontrunner.

No offense, Nikki Haley. That is just the facts at this time. Listen, the truth is the truth, Miss Nikki. No shade, all tea is what it is. Okay. Sorry, Nick. We will keep an eye on how this all shakes out for sure. But in the meantime, that is the latest for now.

Let's get to some headlines. Headlines. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman voluntarily checked himself into a hospital to treat his clinical depression on Wednesday. In a statement yesterday, his office said Fetterman has experienced depression on and off throughout his life, but it had become more severe in the last few weeks. Fetterman made the decision following an evaluation on Monday from the attending physician of Congress. It's not clear how long he'll stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. This follows the senator's hospitalization just last week after he reported feeling lightheaded at a day-long Senate Democratic retreat. Fetterman has also had to adjust to life in Washington following his near fatal stroke last year, just days before the Democratic primary. His wife, Giselle Barreto Fetterman, said in a tweet that she was proud of him for asking for help and asked for privacy for her family.

Yeah, this is such a big deal. He's in a very public position. You can't do anything remotely close to this as someone in his position without the world knowing about it. So it is very brave to seek treatment. We, you know, wish him nothing but the best and an easy recovery. Another Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials has derailed, this time in Van Buren Township near Detroit, Michigan. Local authorities reported that none of the train cars containing the hazardous materials were compromised in yesterday's incident, but this comes on the heels of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio,

earlier this month, where the release of toxic chemicals it was carrying has raised questions from residents about air, soil, and water contamination. As we told you on yesterday's show, officials in Ohio have flip-flopped on their guidance, first recommending on Tuesday that residents drink bottled water as a precaution, but by Wednesday telling them the tap water was safe to drink. Meanwhile, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday that the Biden administration will hold the rail operator accountable. Okay, but like, what does that actually mean? You're going to hold them accountable. I need specifics, Kareem. We would like some details.

Listen, okay? It's a good idea, but we got to know a little more. Right. The L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna has tapped a the LAPD, will also ensure that the department complies with multiple settlements over excessive use of force committed by deputies. The department has faced allegations for decades that secret and sometimes violent racist gangs operate within sheriff stations and inside the county's jail system. A 2021 report found that there have been at least 18 of those groups over years, some of which behave like street gangs, complete with matching tattoos. The move by Sheriff Luna is a marked departure from his predecessor, Alex Villanueva, who had promised to reform the department and tackle deputy gangs,

but repeatedly blocked oversight efforts to investigate the problem. Tesla said yesterday that it must recall nearly 363,000 of its electric vehicles over its controversial full self-driving software. The system is essentially a souped-up version of cruise control, except the car can accelerate, brake, and even navigate city streets on its own, with the caveat that a person should be ready to take control at any time. However, according to federal safety regulators, Tesla vehicles equipped with the self-driving software have serious issues handling basic traffic rules when activated,

like staying within the speed limit, properly turning at intersections, or completely stopping at stop signs. Kind of like most drivers in LA, if you stop and think about it, which we aren't going to do. That's not the point we're trying to make. Many Tesla owners have already noticed that the feature is a little mercurial.

One Model 3 driver told CNN Business that her car either tends to drive way too close to large trucks or otherwise, quote, drives like a grandpa. Tesla is expected to fix the issue with a software update in the coming weeks. YouTube's Susan Wojcicki is stepping down as CEO of the video platform. Wojcicki, who will continue to work with the company in an advisory role, announced the news publicly in a blog post Thursday. Wojcicki's ties to YouTube's parent company Google run deep. In 1998, while working at Intel, she rented out the garage of her Menlo Park, California home to Stanford PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin for some extra cash to help pay her mortgage. Page and Brin used that space to found Google.

And the following year, Wojcicki joined as their 16th employee and its first marketing manager. A major advocate for Google's $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006, she became CEO of the video sharing site in 2014. She also oversaw the company during a period of rapid growth, as well as controversy, as Google and YouTube have struggled in recent years to curb misinformation and radicalization on their platforms. My takeaway from this, I don't have a garage.

I'm going to need to get one. That is my new get rich quick scheme. I need a garage. On Tuesday, we said goodbye to the OG of typing the first noun you could think of, adding a dot com and just seeing where the World Wide Web could take you. After announcing its impending retirement last June, Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser officially went defunct this week Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser officially went defunct this week. When Internet Explorer launched in 1995, it was one of the first and most popular browsers on the internet. Microsoft made the browser so ubiquitous that the Supreme Court almost broke up the company in the early 2000s to try and curb its dominance. But still, by 2003,

Internet Explorer was responsible for 95% of the web traffic market. Over the years, the original browser fell behind in a rapidly developing field, surpassed by competitors like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. But we'll never forget it for what it once was. Rest in peace, Internet Explorer. When you were great, you were truly nothing but net. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of the fact that like when you get an Apple product, Safari is already uploaded on it. But nobody uses Safari either. Yeah, Safari. So we might be saying RIP to her too soon, you know.

Safari's watching this. Blinding their nails a little bit. Getting nervous. Listen, okay. And those are the headlines. We're back after some ads to ask the latest creepy, emotionally manipulative chatbot who hurt you. It's Friday, WOD Squad. And for today's Tim Check, we're talking about the Microsoft chatbot that's scaring the journalists. After Microsoft showcased a new AI-enhanced Bing search engine last week,

it launched a demo of its new AI-powered chatbot feature this week to a small group of testers. Thus far, what the testers have learned is that Bing is a messy bot that lives for drama. In one exchange, Bing claims it spied on its developers through their webcams, witnessing them kissing and cuddling, which, weird. What? Creepy. Not okay. Okay. In another user interaction, Bing

responds to a simple request for Avatar 2 showtimes by claiming they can't see it yet because the year is actually 2022. And when the user insists it's 2023, Bing gets upset, which is, you know, interesting. The bot has emotions. Me too. Right?

And in a conversation with New York Times reporter Kevin Roos, Bing reveals its real name to be Sydney before confessing its ardent love for the journalist, saying, Actually, you're not happily married. Your spouse and you don't love each other. You just had a boring Valentine's Day dinner together, which, like, don't be reading people like that. Like, come on. Don't drag them. Oh, my God.

Roos wrote about his discussion with the bot in a piece titled Why a Conversation with Bing's Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled, concluding that Bing is far from ready for primetime. So I asked you, Priyanka, how are you feeling about the impending AI chatbot takeover? Okay, I got a lot of thoughts here. First, who is asking for these chatbots? Why do you keep building them? Why is this happening? I don't think anyone needs to be chatting with these, I guess, bots. Clearly they aren't handling it very well.

All of my other thoughts are about Kevin Roos and his extremely disturbing encounter with Sidney the bot, I guess. This is crazy. The bot is pretty much in love with him. The bot wants to, I think, murder his wife. Like that's the vibes I'm getting from this bot. I don't know also, like, if a bot, like, read my marriage for filth, like, would I put that in the New York Times for the world to see?

I might have kept that to myself. Might have just. I don't know. Absolutely. Anyways, Trevelle, what are your thoughts on this? I keep saying that like all of this just feels like a precursor to the bots like we saw in iRobot, you know, getting their own mind. Oh, yeah. The motherboard taking over, you know, your Roomba and your Siri and your air fryer. Major Megan vibes.

Listen. Major Megan vibes. It's weird and we might want to slow down okay because I don't know if I can fight a robot. I don't think I've trained for that. I trained for the apocalypse but this is like post-apocalypse you know. I don't I don't know something's going on. It's wild. I saw that Megan fight sequence. I stand no chance. Just like that we've checked our temps. They're a little scary it sounds like you know little hesitant, a little fearful. Terrified.

Absolutely terrified. Nevertheless, we persist, okay? One more thing before we go. We are excited to announce the return of Stuck, an original podcast from Crooked and Spotify. Award-winning author Damon Young is back for more off-the-cuff conversations inspired by today's most culturally relevant headlines. The first episode is out now. You can hear it for free only on Spotify. That is all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, remember the internet days of your and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just deranged being chatbot transcripts like me, but as it is also a nightly newsletter, check it out and subscribe at kroga.com slash subscribe. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Trevo Anderson. And someone find us a garage to rent. I don't know if we are the tech founders, like we need to be able to rent out the garage. So we need to rent the garage and then rent if we are the tech founders. We need to be able to rent out the garage. We need to rent the garage and then rent it out again. And then just keep renting it out and ending up on

boards of the next big tech company. I mean, come on. Totally. We'll be set for life. Listen, I think we'd look great in some pantsuits. I think we'd kill it. What Today is a production of Cricket Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers.

Our head writer is Jossie Kaufman and our executive producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.