Some More News - Supreme Court "Originalism," The Democrats Have No Plan, and EVEN MORE Black Mirror Episodes

Episode Date: June 24, 2022

Hi. In today's episode, Katy and Cody talk about the Supreme Court's bad gun decision, the pointlessness of suspending the gas tax, and Amazon's weird, unsettling, voice-mimicking Alexa technology. Plus, we take a moment to express overall frustration about the Democrats' fecklessness and the state of things in general. Get our new BILLIONAIRES ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS merch here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949 Please fill out our SURVEY: HTTP://kastmedia.com/survey/ We now have a MERCH STORE! Check it out here: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news Stop wasting time and start saving money when you use HTTP://Stamps.com to mail and ship. Sign up with promo code MORENEWS for a special offer that includes a 4-week trial, plus free postage and a digital scale. No long-term commitments or contracts.Support the show!: http://patreon.com.com/somemorenewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

hello hello welcome back to even more news the first and only news podcast my name is katie stole hello we are recording the show uh we being katie stole and the second person who is me who is who is you boy we're really bringing it strong starting strong starting fresh i am starting high to see if this energy can get us through the next hour oh i'm starting high because i smoked some weed just kidding i. I'm not. Is he? Is he not? Is he not? No, he's not. No, he's not.

No guest this week. Just us and beloved Jonathan. Beloved Jonathan. Beloved Jonathan. Hello. Hello, guys. We're going to chit chat more of this, but we're going to first do the thing that we do every week for some reason.

Holidays. June 23rd. That's today. National Hydration Day. Ways to celebrate. I'm drawing a blank. How do you celebrate National Hydration Day? You stay hydrated.

You stay hydrated. Okay. Yeah. Good advice. Generally. Water or tea. All the time. Every day.

Do that every day. Tea count? I don't think Do that every day. Tea count? I don't think so. Doesn't it have caffeine? It's got a lot of water in it, too. Does it have a lot of water in it, or is it like a nice little cup of tea? I mean, it's all water and an extra-strength black teabag. PG tips, baby.

A little bit of almond milk. I mean, that's fine, but also have you know water by itself it's good for you it's also hot out yeah i'm double fisting i've got multiple beverages per usual a water a tea you gotta stay hydrated sometimes stay hydrated let it greens is a good way to stay hydrated wow wow is it moving right along june 24th national take your dog to work day i do that every day because i work from home oh that's that's the national call of take your dog to work day i was gonna get maggie to howl but she's sleeping don't do it don't do it hard you don't need to set her off took a long uh hot uh walk at the park today so she's she's just not gonna do it also it would probably be not pleasant for everybody we don't want that

once she starts we don't want that she's like a can of pringles once you start you can't stop want that she's like a can of pringles once you start you can't stop it's very cute unless you're trying to shoot something or like be relaxed or like be relaxed yeah also an impediment to that yeah so go forth armed with the knowledge of the day uh the day and celebrate them take your pet to work day you know take your pet to work day, you know. Take your pet to work. And even though it's not June 23rd anymore, I would urge you to keep your dog hydrated. Regardless of the day. It is summer, folks. Also, like, everybody needs water every day.

We did a whole video about it. We did do a whole video about it. But also, especially your dog. Think of the dogs. All right. We're chit-chatting for a bit. about it. We did do a whole video about it. But also, especially your dog. Think of the dogs. All right. We're chit-chatting for a bit. Hold on. What?

Hold on. I'm thinking about the dogs. Okay. God, they're so fucking cute, aren't they? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I send Cody so many animal videos on Instagram. Mostly dogs.

Mostly dogs. Sometimes cats. The most recent one was a cat who lifted up his arms to get wasn't that so cute very cute it was he like wanted yeah wanted uppies he wanted uppies i love a cat that can communicate you know it really takes your your relationship to the next level communication is key in any relationship i know i would I would say. Are Maggie and Benny friends? Yeah. Well.

Yeah. Benny loves her. Maggie is a little standoffish because he's just very. He's an intense. He can be intense. But she likes him. She plays. She runs around.

But she's not much of a dog. She's more of a human in a dog outfit. You know? You know that type of dog. Yeah. she's not like gonna be super social with dogs uh dog park where she's gonna go say hi to every human being there but you know it's like she perks up i mean they start running around together uh she's also excited to see me when i come over with benny so that there's part of that but they'll sleep in a

pile together yeah they'll sleep in a pile again mostly Benny's doing, but she doesn't remove herself from the situation. That's true. But Benny can be a bully with toys. If she's got a toy, he'll take it. Anyway. Oh, yeah. Cody, how the heck are you, man? How's life?

What? Yeah. How you doing? I'm avoiding talking about the news for just a few minutes. And people seem to like it when we talk to each other. So I'm letting us have that moment. And I'm asking how are you? That's so nice of you.

I'm doing all right. I'm, you know, it's a little hot today, a little tired. Yeah. But it's all good. Filmed an episode yesterday. You sure did. Continuing to talk about the news, which we love. Oh, can't get enough of it.

Here we are avoiding doing it. Yeah, exactly. There's no talking about the news right now um other than that you know i'm good i'm perpetually working on an album that'll never come out so that's nice and fun for me personally but not for anybody else who will never listen to it we'll see about that we'll see about that not if i have my way it'll it'll make it into people's eardrums how are you doing i'm good cody um i've been a little angry this week with the news and frustrated by things no no no no no no it's too late you already kind of mentioned it you talked about how we shot an episode we weren't gonna talk. Sure. I didn't say that. We shot an episode yesterday about abortion and the ruling that we are all dreading. At the time of this recording, it has not been announced, but the Supreme Court added

an extra day tomorrow, Friday, National Take Your Dog to Work Day. Highly recommend taking your dog to work day highly recommend taking your dog to work tomorrow if you if you want something to cheer you up because there's a good chance that this news will come out tomorrow it's going to be a good episode written by katie golden that was it was it felt good to to shoot that i think it felt cathartic in a way but also very frustrating and heartbreaking yeah so anyway guys we're not gonna really talk about that this week on this episode here but next week you will be getting something from us maybe the news that comes out tomorrow won't be as terrible as we're all expecting or maybe maybe they change their minds yeah maybe they all change their minds except for all the other stuff we're going to talk about today. But about this specific issue,

they all changed their minds. Maybe the leak made them rethink everything that they've been working towards. Wouldn't that be fun? It is weird to think about like the Alito opinion doesn't come out and it's the Roberts like 15 week compromise, which will still be very bad, but not nearly as bad as we're anticipating and the weird sense of dread slash relief that will come from that i mean by the time anyone hears this they'll know and it's not it's irrelevant but like i don't know very tough time i mean maybe maybe the maybe the decision comes out next week there is a world, but it kind of feels. So we are going to talk on news. And there has been a slew of decisions today and yesterday.

Yesterday or is it all today? I don't know. The bunch were earlier this week. Yeah. It feels like they're timed specifically, especially with this adding of the Friday date. It feels like it's trying to bury some of this. But before it gets buried, let's pay a little bit of attention, shall we? Jonathan, why don't you walk us through? century-old New York state law that required applicants for concealed carry of firearms to show that they had, quote, a special need for self-protection and good moral character. The conservative majority in a 6-3 ruling found that the law violated the Second Amendment,

which means that similar laws called May issue laws in states like California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maryland, and also Washington, DC are probably going to be unconstitutional. There's a lot kind of we don't know based on individual laws and individual states. For example, in Los Angeles County, if you want to have a concealed carry weapon, you have to take eight hours of training courses. And there are a bunch of different misdemeanors that will get those gun rights taken away and you have to show a special need. But some of the other legal requirements might stand if they don't need to show that they require that kind of special need. Does that make sense what I'm saying?

Yes, it does. It does. Right. So there's like 10,000 mini laws in all of these places. And a lot of them are going to be challenged now with whether they do or not stick with this ruling that Clarence Thomas made today. It's very frustrating. We're going to talk about it. I mean, just the whole basis of this decision is just absurd. Absolutely.

It doesn't make sense. It's especially upsetting given that this is the week when we're supposed to be celebrating this landmark gun legislation. I mean, I, big fat from us here, but I can't, I don't mean to speak for you both,

but no, I mean, there is some, but there mean there is some but there there is some benefit to the bill i'm not gonna just make it a complete raspberry but the majority opinion that clarence thomas wrote has a bunch of stuff in it that frankly just doesn't make a lot of sense it goes back to this originalism yeah that it's like oh if it's it's got a historical precedent and it's written in the constitution then it can stand and anything not part of that is gone. So Thomas says that like in Breyer's dissent, he talks about how 45,000 people died from gun violence in 2020.

And Clarence Thomas is like, well, that doesn't matter. It could be 10 million. It's as if the if the Constitution of the Second Amendment says you have this right, then no one can take it away. And of course, that's just like a willful misreading of the Second Amendment says you have this right, then no one can take it away. And of course, that's just like a willful misreading of the Second Amendment, right? As if it doesn't have like a first 12 words or whatever. But yeah, he's basically suggesting you have to repeal the Second Amendment in order to like put almost any regulation on carrying weapons. And it means, you know, in Los Angeles County, I don't know how many people here are going to want to. It terrifies me to think of the implications of this, you know, honestly, immediately, as soon as it takes effect in the different places, but especially down the line as people feel more emboldened to and just what will happen, the amount of incidences that we will see, you know, violent altercations.

I mean, also, the other part of this justification is that the government can only pass gun laws if they're, quote, consistent with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. But there's no parallel our guns now have nothing are nothing to do the not nothing to do but they're vastly different this technology didn't exist back then so there's not really like any context to base regulatory laws apparently is what they're saying so we're just like yeah good luck guys basically go be the wild west and the law that they're striking. So we're just like, good luck, guys. Basically, go be the Wild West. And the law that they're striking down is a very old law,

which would mean it's part of this historical tradition. But no, anything that, any law that they don't like is not part of that tradition. Curiously.

I just don't know what we do from this. I don't know where you go from here. You make your voice heard. Have uh you um make your voice heard have you guys all made your voice heard have we all tried doing that yeah i bet if we all said it at the same time maybe they'd hear yeah it's the uh what's the what the president said uh i call i call on americans across the country to make their voices heard on gun safety. Lives are on the line. So there you go.

That's what the president wants you to do. Oh, yeah. Like this part that you included in our notes here, Jonathan, Leo decided to be a dick and added his own little opinion that New York's law didn't stop the Buffalo shooter. Ew. Yeah. Big fat ew. What a piece of shit.

He said, he's talking about Breyer's dissent. He says, why, for example, does the dissent think it is relevant to recount the mass shootings that have occurred in recent years? Does the dissent think that laws like New York's prevent or deter such atrocities? Will a person bent on carrying out

a mass shooting be stopped if he knows that it is illegal to carry a handgun outside the home? I mean, this reads like the federal. Yeah, it does. Also, like, maybe, maybe it did. Then they didn't happen, which is why you can't talk about them because they didn't happen. All of this that we're talking about is basically isn't it is a misrepresentation of the Second Amendment in general, which outlines that a well regulated militia. I always think about that, you know, like a well regulated militia. It's not necessarily just everybody in the United States. And what's the well regulated part? How do regulate obviously we're not going to i just think like i've read this sentence a bunch of times and i'm not a constitutional scholar i just read sentences a lot and see what they're talking about and it's clear that it's that when it says

the right of the people to keep and bear arms it's clear that the people in that sentence is referring to the people in the militia because if it's not then why would you start the sentence with a well-regulated militia comma being necessary to the security of a free state comma like it just doesn't make any sense and that's how it was interpreted for for a long time 200 plus years i mean that's the that's the thing like it's it was understood that that's what it meant for a very very long time and then it got muddied and here we are yeah but it's important to point out how it's gotten muddy because people just say blindly like well okay it secures our right right there in our constitution

it's the second amendment well this is a really fucking important pivotal thing that's now changed along the way sometimes when we talk about the constitution it feels like we're talking about the fucking bible where people are parsing it out like this is what we meant this is what we meant and it's like this is a text that was written a long time ago how about we look at the world we're living in right fucking now? It's not a religious document. This is a governing. It's like it's something to help us govern our country and our country has changed and evolved. It's not a sacred text. Does that make sense? And so even parsing out the meaning of regulated, look at what's happening based on that. This is obviously not the intention. This is obviously not what the fram of regulated. Look at what's happening based on that. This is obviously not the intention. This is obviously not what the framers envisioned.

You know what I mean? Yeah. But anyway, you know, I mean, yeah, but to many people, it is a religious text. Moving right along, I think, there are other things they decided this week. We've spent a lot of time on the first one, the Maine education case, perhaps. Earlier this week,'ve spent a lot of time on the first one the main education case perhaps earlier this

week the supreme court ruled that the state of maine can't block private religious schools from a public tuition program even if those schools are openly discriminating against lgbtq teachers and students this stems from a main law that required rural communities without public secondary schools to find a way to arrange for kids in those communities to get an education. And one way to do that was through paying private schools through a public tuition program. And some of those parents wanted to send their kids to religious schools in violation of the program's rules they brought this to the supreme court and the court says that yeah even though there's schools in this the state that want to or won't hire lgbtq teachers or won't accept lgbtq students or would expel transgender students if they were there they have to in fact the two this specifically i believe that is includes two of the schools that are involved in this case specifically like have anti-lgbtq like have fired somebody for that yes the the two schools in

question that that people wanted to use this program for um are openly discriminatory and now the supreme court says that the state if it's part of this program, you know, like that states don't have to open up public funds to private schools, but once they do, they can't choose not to include some of these religious schools in there speaking of the constitution and you know the framers i'm pretty sure they wanted a separation of church and state i'm pretty sure that that was mentioned right am i right am i wrong yeah so if they're these public funds do they not have to am i understanding this right that like they because if they get if they get these public funds then they need to adhere to like laws uh no is what the supreme court is the answer ah but like no but but they get the but the public funds are theirs yeah what they're saying is like it's main's fault for even establishing a program for how people could

go and use public funds without going to public school because of that these people should be able to choose whatever school they want so like I get what you're saying and what the Supreme Court is saying is no

okay fun that's fun that's a fun update seems like the ramifications of that are probably going to be pretty bad. No, they're going to want to find more ways to funnel. Well, and also this sets some sort of a precedent, I'm sure, for other states to follow suit. So similar, I'm sure that there will be more of this in other countries, states. Yeah, they don't like public education and they're going to find a way to funnel money to private religious education. And if they can, just take away public education because it's school choice. It's pretty bad.

The implications of this and the potential ways it can go is pretty bad. And that's not all, folks. Like I said, I think they're dumping a lot of stuff this week to bury it because they know it'll be overshadowed. But this Miranda Rights one, this is another fun one. Jonathan? Another 6-3 ruling here. Yep. Exactly who you think.

They said that individuals can't sue police officers for not reading them their Miranda Rights. So the Miranda Rights, you're still required to be read them. And if you can, like confessions still won't be admissible in court if you don't get Mirandized. But you can't sue police officers afterwards if you aren't explained your rights and then forego legal consultation. Yeah, that's a huge deal not everybody knows their rights it's also an intense moment it's a scary moment especially if someone didn't do the thing that they're being arrested for you know and and but you know who

does know cops that doesn't mean that they have to give people their rights. Doesn't mean they have to advise people of their rights. Well, cops don't have to do anything. That's the whole thing, right? They can do whatever they want with no consequences. And this is just another way in which they are allowed to do whatever they want with no consequences. Yeah, they don't have to help you. If they're Border Patrol, they can operate within 100 miles of the ocean and do whatever they want to you.

And you can't sue them. And now they don't have to tell you. They can just take your shit. Yeah. It's hard for me to articulate what I know we're all feeling, which is seeing all of this stuff we've been talking about for years happening. And it's like, I don't know, I feel like getting punched over and over. And also like, yeah, we've seen it happening, but that's a long time to be carrying this stress and waiting for this to happen. And now it's happening. All of these chips that have been

set up for a long time are finally dominoing. This is a person that i know who's like you know the left needs to organize the right did this after 50 years 50 years of programming and and chipping away we don't have 50 years we don't have fucking 50 years to protect our environment we're not gonna meet the climate the carbon emission goal anything we're not we're not doing it because nobody's fucking doing anything and we've got these motherfuckers i'm going to assume i'm sorry for assuming that when they're saying that the left needs to do this and organize and so on they're referring to like the democratic party yeah as like the left um which is not necessarily accurate and also they're not the people who are going to be willing or able to do these kinds of things that's what i said

they're not going to be like oh yeah we're gonna do this like oh yeah we're gonna like get all this fucking dark money here and we're gonna like all the all the all the sort of steps that needed to happen to do all these things the democrats aren't to be on board for that because also a lot of these things, a lot of these things aren't like necessarily in opposition to the Democratic Party generally. Right. Either. in relation to the supreme court rulings but rather uh biden's failing popularity and a conversation about frustrated with uh progressives and the youth you know especially his declining popularity of youth you know conversations about that and it's like do you wonder why do you wonder why people are disillusioned and and it and it became a conversation so that's where the conversation started actually i mean he could

solve quite a bit of that with just like fucking legalized weed literally just that just do that that would help that would help quite a bit but like yeah young people are gonna be constantly disillusioned and disappointed by politicians who say something and then don't do it or do the other thing. And the problem with the left is not. I'd like left, OK, however you want to do it, Democrats, the other side, the left side of the spectrum is that we aren't a monolith, that there are a lot of us that want way more and that the Democratic Party does not represent that. But we're left with no other options and they're not doing it. They're not. They refuse to listen to the people. They're out of touch. They probably it's they they are also fueled by dark money. They are also in the pocket of like

pharmaceutical companies. They are also taking money from gun suppliers they also are involved with the oil and gas and no they are not on our side so yeah what are we supposed to fucking do you're right i mean and like the democratic party like who i think this person's probably talking about like they are staunchly like pro-capitalism they benefit from it and like you said all the like the money that they get and things like that so they're going to lift up these systems while trying to like mitigate some of the harm and trying to reduce some of the harm but they're still going to uplift those institutions and that system and we will keep losing keep losing keep losing and if, you know, if you don't agree with that ideology, that's fine.

Or if you do whatever, but like saying like, oh, the left needs to do this. And you're talking about the Democratic Party. Well, what you're talking about is like the liberal wing of like the one capitalist party that we have that runs the country. that runs the country. And if you're not willing to talk about the horrible failings of capitalism or, you know, even better oppose it, then you're not really like left wing, but that's semantics and like not helpful,

but we don't have any other distinctions here in this country. We have one or the other. Yeah. And so no, you know, like the underlying implications of this conversation were that like you know people need to get in line if we want to do anything if we want to win and i say no to that i do not we are out of time there's no gradually waking people up

you know we this is a brick wall we're running towards climate change is what i'm speaking of right now but all of it you know all of it i've forgotten about climate change we didn't even talk about that well i mean most also most of the people in the like at least like in leadership the democratic party are pardon me and i don't mean to be ageist and i think everybody has uh worth and value and is important and but like they're all old as fuck and uh they're not gonna retire and they don't care as much about the future because they don't have to and so they're not going to do a lot of the things that need to be done in order to ensure a better future because they're going to get their bag and then go. We need to take a quick break for advertisements,

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I agree with you completely, Cody. Oh, cool. What did I say? You were talking about like the old gatekeepers and they don't, they're not going to be around i know that everybody

most everybody can probably relate to the increasing feeling of dread that i feel about my future about my peers future about you know everybody in our age group our kids the kids everybody younger i don't know how we bridge this divide i don't know how we get their attention and somebody like the cost of living is astronomical wait which which divide specifically i mean now i'm thinking financially between people like you know our wealth gap oh i mean like the class divide. I mean, that's divide. But it's like but it's the majority of people, even people that are middle class are everything is exacerbated right now. It's impossible for people to buy homes, to build equity, to save.

And there's no end of life care there's no there's no people are dying alone or you know can't afford treatment they can't afford health insurance they can't afford to feed themselves right now it's expensive in california they need a hundred thousand dollars from the government yeah it's a joke but I'm serious right now. I'm not a joke. It's what's literally fucking happening. It's going to do like, I mean, it is a joke, but it's not. Gas is pushing upwards towards $7 in California. And this is a good time to talk about this Biden gas tax suspension.

And we'll get to that in a moment. But spoiler alert, it's like PR. It's not actually. And we'll get to that in a moment. But spoiler alert, it's like PR. It's not actually. And we understand. We understand that there are situations happening around the world and that there isn't access to it. But fucking hell, we need to be diverging from gas. We need to be investing in electric cars for everybody affordable cars that people can drive you know alternative energy sources the the answer isn't doubling down and getting into bed with the other dictator or drilling for more oil well again like and oh we need like electric cars i mean you need to get that energy somewhere so that electricity is coming from somewhere but also like that just sort of exacerbates this like atomized like i

don't know instead of talking about we need to like a lot of democrats like yeah electric cars and like fords look at all their stuff doing should we be talking about like public transportation and how to like get clean energy and get people together to like from place to place and like creating a society that anyone can participate in instead of like and redesign our cities exactly you know like rethink like how we live our lives instead of like well what if we had like a thirty thousand dollar car that you could buy well that's still thirty thousand dollars fair fair for your little you-ton metal death trap. I take that. But I also say in the short term, yeah, people should be doing the things that they

can to afford to drive right now because we are in a transitional period where we don't have those things. But yes, absolutely that. I've been thinking about the fact, you know, urban areas are so much more hot because it's made of everything's concrete. Here's a simple thing like there's but there's lots of plans. You, Cody, used to talk about it. How do we how do we rethink urban planning? How do we rethink our cityscapes? How do we get more greenery and vegetation? Like how how are different ways that we can think about our our lives?'m just throwing shit out i'm not an expert i'm just saying that we aren't having those conversations at all we aren't even anywhere near having the one we needed to be having them already no it's i mean it's all like and i mean

the problems you're talking about too like people everybody has like whether it's like medical debt or like fucking gas or like i don't know it's always sort of framed as like this like it's like the dems and the republicans and like here's what they're saying here's what they're saying well it's like it is more it is about class it is this other conversation that's not really allowed to be had in united states specifically and if you do then you get trounced by like the purportedly left-wing party but they're not really allowed to have these conversations because then you're gonna get all these like you know people like at the fucking new york times like oh they're talking about class warfare we need to collaborate and like work together like well yeah that like look at what's going on and tell me class warfare isn't already like it's all it's like well yeah that like look at what's going on and tell me class warfare isn't

already like it's all it's already here it's just uh directed downward um and it has been but if you bring that up i don't know you're some woke marxist or well nobody wants to accept that you got you guys got all of these ideas from the film Lightyear, right? Yeah, for sure. The Marxist. Yeah, it's contaminated my brain. I saw two adult women kiss for literally half a second, and then I started thinking about class warfare.

I saw it a couple days ago. They rioted, burned down the police station. Oh, yeah. We all ran to the police station. We stopped off at House of Pies first, and then went right to the police station, burned it down. It's just, you know, it's...

I don't know, I'm just tired of it all. And like, the Democrats are like... Again, it's not... I'm just finding it hard to be like, God, just go and fucking get out there and vote, and like, do the thing, and like, it's the Dems are the ones that are going to come in and do it. It's like, no, they're not talking about any of the actual problems.

And when they do, they talk about it in a way that doesn't solve it. It actually maintains it and continues it. Well, that is a good spot for us to actually explain this gas tax suspension. So earlier this week, President Biden asked Congress to suspend the federal gas tax for 90 days. It's 18 cents a gallon

for regular gas, 24 cents a gallon for diesel. Biden says that if Congress does this and states suspend their own taxes and the oil companies start drilling a lot more, that this could save Americans a dollar per gallon at the pump this this just seems like something biden's doing to act like he's doing

something economists don't think it's going to do much also like sorry i'm sorry but like the idea these like you know uh the white house arguing like well if congress does this okay yeah good luck congress doing anything and then continuing like in the states to spend their own taxes. And if the oil companies start drilling more, like, so you, so you're like, this idea is dependent on Congress and oil companies doing something.

Also drilling more. It also is dependent on them drilling more. They don't need to drill more. They don't need to drill more. They don't need to do that. Uh, sneak preview from the, the energy episode I'm writing it's way worse

than all this yeah yeah so like for all if all of those things happened if everyone did what biden's asking them nicely to do right it would make a little bit of a dent it's not going to get rid of those let's go brandon stickers well right like this is just like i need to do something on inflation mostly there's no guarantee the oil companies would actually lower the prices they would just keep the money most likely or they could they could there's no enforcement of it so there's that so you probably wouldn't even feel it at all i mean they're already doing that like I mean, they're already doing that. Like, that's like. They're already doing it. They're making record profits and shit like that. Yeah.

So like what it like Biden's like, I would try to force them to pass on the savings to the consumer. But it's not clear how legally he could do that. And they would just like. It's dead on arrival. They would keep it. They would keep it. But it's it's interesting seeing like this kind of like half-assed like idea

uh floated about like gas and like you know every once in a while he'll be like wow ford's really doing great with electric cars and stuff and also amidst like all the tobacco stuff and the jewel things that are going on i mean where it's like so like just like taking like this like decisive rant seemingly random action against like tobacco companies when we've known for so long about what about that and then like lagging on the oil and energy like i'm imagining like 50 years from now like a democrat president being like we're gonna we're gonna take some of their oil like like like way too little way too late and just sort of like lagging on the actual like facts and public perception well like the jewel thing

is pretty silly i mean it's like it sure, but there's a million other products. And also, you haven't done anything about tobacco nicotine. Like, that's a new company. The big tobacco that have funded a lot of you guys are fine, you know. It's just a weird sort of like move and like going into like midterms that they know they're going to lose. move and like going into like midterms that they know they're going to lose and uh you know his terrible approval rating and just choosing that to be one of the things where he's like i'm gonna show that i can do something we're gonna take action we're gonna we're gonna get rid of jewels and we're gonna give havana syndrome victims a hundred thousand dollars it's like yeah like

finger on the pulse mr president. President, it's silly. Everything's silly. Guys, I think I'm ready to talk about something. I am hesitant to call this slightly lighter, but it's different. It's different. It's different. It's not necessarily a silly or lighthearted topic. If you're in the point of view that everything's going great and

technology's changing the way we do everything for the better, this is great. This is for you! Amazon says it's working on an Alexa feature that will allow it to hear short clips of a person's voice and then mimic that voice in longer speech.

They demoed this at their global AI event, which is called is called re Mars I think that's a recall in Mars I guess it's just pronounced re Mars and the demo had a since deceased grandmother read a bedtime story to a grandchild through Alexa my first reaction to this was that i feel like that's potentially confusing and harmful to a young child i i there's this i get the sweetness of it you know but like it feels different to me to have than having like let's say a video of a grandma reading a story that the child was like i saw that versus can grandma read me a bedtime story and now grandma's there and uh i don't know i don't know it's um but that's just me it's okay to accept the reality of death every person that's born dies that's the one thing that happens to everybody.

Yeah. And this, it's just so weird and unnecessary. And like you're saying, unhealthy, like you should know. We already have a problem with how we handle death in this country. This seems to be like, let's make it even worse. Yeah, but it's also creepy the different ways that it could be used i mean this is like and like this is like an easy go-to and i'm not the only or first person to point this out this is literally a black mirror episode it's literally an episode of black mirror where you collect the person's like voice and then

their social media posts and then it's them look at that it's them they're speaking to you but no they're not it's empty um it's a robot pretending to be this person and it's like every step of the way elon musk has this problem too but i think i feel i feel like a lot of like most like tech companies and tech bro type uh approach to problems and technology is to like be like they're all like even like be like oh i love sci-fi i love like a science fiction and like all those like these stories and stuff but they never seem to grasp the point of those stories that like most sci-fi like the sci-fi they're talking about are like dystopian science fiction that has a premise of like what if we took this and like it got worse wouldn't that be bad but they sort of see it as like oh look at this fucking awesome tech and it's just like constantly like these cautionary tales missing the point completely

and being like yeah that, that is cool. This is designed for you as a warning to you. Also, the sci-fi that they're, anyway. Yeah. It's funny because, like, the idea of, like, bros missing the point of movie stuff, it used to not be with sci-fi. It was, well, I guess, like, with Fight Club

or Wolf of wall street good felt like stuff like that yeah and now it's like yeah like only taking the fun interesting early premise of the sci-fi movie and not seeing what that movie's really about like when when the cyber truck was out and everyone's like this looks like something out of blade runner as if blade runner is like a positive future we should we want Blade Runner we love we love wanting to be scared of that like yeah no it's

exactly it's exactly that it's like when there's like a look at this like yeah that's like well first of all the truck looks stupid but I mean it looks ridiculous but it is that sort of thing and like even you know and like yeah Muskin is like his hyperloop stuff and like is like atomized like oh everybody gets like this little car and you go

through a tube and you wait in lines like yeah that sounds awful just like finish the story um there's just like no media literacy anymore uh if you it like it's this part of it i think is i mean it's always sort of been true but this weird like it's like not a marvelization of it but this sort of like there's like some young adult fiction aspect of it too where it's like if it's happening in the book that means the author thinks it's good if the author wrote it then it's good if a if the character says it then it's good if a if the character says it then it's good but like that's not how fiction works that's not how stories work uh some things are bad some characters can have bad opinions like i saw like somebody at one point was talking about like that's the speech at the end of kill bill 2 part 2 that um that bill

gives about superman um it's like this is like and talking about how like the speech is correct and good and it's like well no he's the villain um the the movie's called kill that guy it's about how we got to kill that bad guy who like raped and murdered these people and then like stole their daughter well right he's trying in that scene to tell her what her identity is, because he's saying everyone else wears a mask. Superman's mask is Clark Kent. That's you. You're pretending you're a normal person, but you're not. You're a killer. And she has to, like, prove him wrong. Exactly. And like.

Spoiler alert. He's talking. Yeah. And he's like he's also like it says a lot about him and himself that he has this viewpoint of superman which is completely wrong um if you understand anything about the character he's wrong about it um and that's like a very specific example of of this phenomenon but like i see it more and more of like did you you could read it a second time and like really think about what happens in this story and whether or not the effects of this are good what is the logical conclusion to this technology or this idea that they explore via this story and maybe we don't need to watch the entire run of black mirror and go we should do that we should

do that we should do that we should do that because that's not what the show is about good rant i think it says a lot that that's not what the show is about. Good rant. I think it says a lot that that's the example Amazon chose to go with. Yeah, yeah. It was a deceased grandmother reading a story to a grandchild as like, this is the best possible application of this technology. And it's not great. It's not great. It's creepy and weird.

And like, you know, I, yeah, I'd love to like hear deceased family members talk again but not via an alexa robot that i know is fake like it sounds like a really painful experience to me if somebody took my brother and took his voice and i and had him i i mean i feel like crying even thinking about it it feels like a violation to me. Yeah. And like you were saying, Katie, like, you know, like my, when my grandparents passed away, we were like, could you sit down and like talk about like your stories from like the old country, like when you were a kid?

And so we have video of him talking about this stuff. That's lovely. And it's lovely. And we still have it. And it's great. But I don't want him to read me good night moon as a robot with that jonathan let's bring us home with this with this tweet that you guys were laughing about before we started first off tell people who keemstar is in

case they don't know who keemstar is because i did not with that yeah it's so the tweets i think amazing by itself but it is extra funny knowing who this person is so keemstar is he's like a youtuber guy um he's been around for a long time he's like i don't know mid 40s or something like that he does like youtube drama he like talks about like oh uh Bling Master 553 just got in a fight with like. It's so embarrassing. Yeah. And it's like that's sort of like it's like the Perez Hilton for you. Drama news.

Yeah. It's like entertainment kind of news, but like for YouTube and stuff. And that's a sort of his thing. I think it shows called Drama Alert or whatever. That's sort of his thing. I think his show is called Drama Alert or whatever. He also is very vocal and proud that he hangs out with young people. And all of his girlfriends are 20.

And he's very vocal about that. Okay. Which I think it kind of adds to this. All around stand-up fella. Okay. Yeah. So tell us what this loser thinks and tweet it. All right. Here's the tweet.

I'll read it. This tweet is not from a month ago. It's from June 20th. A couple days ago. He said, anyone been listening to Running Up That Hill on repeat? 80s song from season four Stranger Things. I feel like I'm in an 80s movie. What is fucking dork.

I love this so much. When I first saw this, and I couldn't even tweet about it because it sounds like a lie. I laughed for six minutes straight. I couldn't stop laughing. I couldn't keep it together. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Because it's sincere. It's sincere. It's the sincere thing. Where have you been? Isn't he a YouTuber? Haven't people been talking about it? Oh, right. And like, okay, there's so many things about this.

First of all, like, anyone been listening to Running On? Yeah, everybody. Literally everybody for a month. Everybody. Like the idea of like, anyone else doing this? Like, am I the only one who's like doing this thing? Have you been asleep? That I know everybody is doing. of like anyone else doing this like am i the only one who's like have you been asleep that i know

everybody is doing historically like quiet about this kind of thing kate bush has given multiple interviews and statements in the last month it's it's clearly blew up it like got to number one of the charts i think at one point because of this it's in the background of every fucking tiktok now no you're not the like i know you didn't say like am i the only one but anyone been listening to yeah everybody is listening to that fucking song i was on a walk like a week ago and someone was i could hear it in somebody's headphones very very loudly um and i was like yeah cool everyone's doing that it's fine so like that i think is just like very funny way to frame Like, even though this is a month too late.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Even if it were the first week of that show and it's like, oh, wow, this is this. Even if it was earlier on saying anybody listening to Running Up the Hill on repeat is like so funny. He's not making a joke, right? No, he's sincere. No, he's just sincere. And then he explains it. Well, it's an 80s song from season four stranger

things oh oh which is like oh okay i now oh now i know what that is uh you didn't even say like who is whose song it was no um also like 80s song from season four stranger things is such a funny sentence to like season four of Stranger Things you could have said it's not even it's an 80s song it's just like 80s song from season 4 Stranger Things it's like and then next line I feel like

I'm in an 80s movie an 80s movie and this is it's just like a culmination of the entire tweet because no you don't feel like you're in an 80s movie. You feel like you're in an episode of Stranger Things. Running up that hill is not like a song from an 80s movie. It's not like a famously used song.

That's why this worked and happened right now is because. It's a song from that era used now to elicit the nostalgia that you're experiencing now and you're not the only one also everybody's been listening to it just gonna piggyback on that point that character whose name is eluding me right now but i'll remember max is like they're all odd kids yeah they're not the standard school. When you think of an 80s movie, you're thinking of like, oh, the teens bopping around or whatever.

Pretty in pink, shit like that. She's specifically listening to an edgy, like alternative 80s song that we now have appreciation for from our perspective. But there's a reason that Kate Bush is a darling, like a treasure for people, because she she's like not some hit 80s icon more like an artist that has longevity so i'm just honestly i'm just further strengthening your point which is no this is this is not us anyway we've spent a lot of time talking about this yeah no it's like

it's like it's just like it's like he's like tweeting like in like if like eight years ago he was like anyone else enjoy like sending people a link to a video but it's actually never going to give you up by rick assley i feel like i'm in an 80s movie like no you don't and everyone's doing that like years ago years before you did this or like like a fucking replacement song or something and it's like these aren't what move like what what 80s movie do you feel like you're in he's like i feel like i'm in the money pit with tom hanks and shelly long this just makes me feel Like just like terms of endearment Yeah

I feel like I'm in Joe vs. the Volcano Like what Anyway That was fun It's not important I just love this tweet so much Every single part of it every line Well thank you for sharing it with us And so that we all can share in that delight the sheer delight but like anybody else doing that is anybody else doing

that listening to that song right at the hill yeah i've been doing that yeah good yeah like everybody cool i have i was proudly doing it before now i'm like keeping it down a little quieter i'm like i just want to know what adc thinks he's he feels like, keeping it down a little quieter. I just want to know what 80s movie he thinks. He feels like he's in. That helped? You feel better, Jonathan? It helps. I feel better than I did, you know, when we weren't talking about that.

That's good. You feel better? When we were talking about all the bad stuff. I feel better. Now I'm thinking about how bad I felt when we were talking about all the bad stuff. But let's not dwell on that. This has been fun. Way to end things. Guys, you're a treat but like not only is it a month later that song pops up in

like the third episode yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah it's not even like later on i just finished stranger things anyone else doing this no no no it's like it's like one of the first episodes of the season and then she plays it throughout the rest of the show arguably too much okay okay that's it for us guys this has been a treat you know where to find us i'm not gonna plug our things you're already here you're enough yeah family anyone else been listening to even more news right now yeah i feel like i'm in uh fucking can't hardly wait okay you know what guys we love you very much much