Some More News - Trump's Iowa Victory, Nikki Haley's Two-Person Race, and EVEN MORE Frozen Cars

Episode Date: January 19, 2024

Hi. On today's episode of "Even More News," Katy, Cody, and Jonathan discuss the ramifications of Donald Trump's Iowa caucus victory, the end of Vivek Ramaswamy's relevance, the genocide case against Israel at the ICJ, bad websites, electric cars, and a new fan-favorite character. Go to https://ground.news/SMN to stay fully informed. Subscribe through our link for as little as $1 a month or get 30% off unlimited access this month only.  Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/morenews to take your retail business to the next level today. Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh   Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  

Hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. Hi, Katie. I can't wait to talk about the news with you for the first time ever. First time you're ever stoked, excited for the news. No, no, no, no, no. First time we're going to talk about the news. The first and only news podcast and the first episode of it. It's amazing we've gotten so far.

Without doing a pilot episode, but here it is. Without ever doing a pilot episode about the news. Jonathan's here too. Oh, I'm nervous, but I think we're going to nail it. I think that's what this team was built to do, is talk about the news. Jonathan's here, too. Oh, I'm nervous, but I think we're going to nail it. I think that's what this team was built to do, is talk about the news on a podcast. I think so, too. I think we can do it. And I hope everyone likes us.

Hi, world. Oh, welcome to the show, world. Please like us. And subscribe to us. Okay, well, I'm going to move on. If you're listening to this, you probably already did. Yeah, thank you for that. Keep it up.

Just us this week. Yeah. We're going to have fun. What are we talking about? Well, we'll get to that. First, we're going to talk about the holidays. Oh, good. I was missing holidays.

It's been weeks. Well, it's been one week since we've celebrated the holiday. This January 18th, National Thesaurus Day. Jonathan, did you write this blurb or was this what they... Well, you can't see, but Jonathan had a sweet little smile and nodded. He wrote it. I knew it. Do you want to read it?

Or should I read your words? I want you to read it. Okay. Because I spent too much time trying to be funny How much time did you spend on this? Not too much time A couple of minutes The exact right amount?

Want to see your vocabulary burgeon? Why, look no further than a thesaurus A helpful compendium and onomastas I don't know this word Onomastacon? Onomastacon A helpful compendium and onomastast I don't know this word. Onomastacon? Onomastacon? Onomastacon. A helpful compendium and onomastacon of scholarship.

Acquire a thesaurus. It's not just for cruciferbalists, but enough of our palavering. On with the pageantry of tidings. We have fun here. Beautifully. It was perfect. Beautifully done. Well executed.

That sounded fun. Glad somebody does. I was perfect. Beautifully done. Well executed. That sounded fun. Glad somebody does. I have fun. I had fun. Sometimes. Usually my fun dips somewhere around the 35 minute mark. Oh gosh. Don't say that out loud to everybody listening to the show.

No, it's not that my fun dips. I would say that if there was an average of when I get angered by the news of where I'm at in the in the show, it's usually somewhere in the middle where I'm like, oh, another bad story. Anyway. OK. That's reasonable. I'm having fun. I wouldn't still be doing this. On with the pageantry of tidings.

On with the pageantry of tidings. January 19th. Yeah. the pageantry of tidings. On with the pageantry of tidings. January 19th. Yeah. National Popcorn Day. Yes. My day has finally arrived. I hate this day. I love popcorn so much.

Katie, you hate popcorn? Okay. Hate's too strong of a word, but I don't particularly care for it. No. Love it. Love it. I love popcorn. Best snack.

Get stuck in things. I don't like how save it for later hands are all like kind of greasy yeah like them later and i always feel well i call it feeling salty when you eat a bunch of popcorn i've got salt i have to have buckets of popcorn taken away from me like two-thirds of the way through a movie because I'm still full speed crunching, crunching, shoving handfuls in my mouth. I love popcorn. It's the best snack. It's the best snack.

Might I recommend to our listeners something called Flavacol. It's a flavoring for popcorn. If you make it at home, you put it in a little pot a little oil a little popcorn sprinkle the flavor call in there before it pops it's delicious it's amazing i think it's only available like online from like one factory in ohio so no promo code uh no promo code unfortunately but flavor call if you're listening i will write you a jingle and do your ads for you. Decades, this flavor. It's amazing. Check it out. Or. Kettle corn can hit the bricks, though.

I don't. Wait, kettle corn? I was going to say that's. I kind of like kettle corn. I can deal with it. It's fine. But I just don't. Salty buttery popcorn.

That's where it's at. People hand me the popcorn at the movie theaters. And I say, nah. You're the real odd couple He loves popcorn She hates it But she likes kettle corn Not for him

Not this guy Okay that's enough holiday talk Let's You know what let's listen to an ad Just real quick For the news Cause I'm contractually obligated to Let's, you know what, let's listen to an ad. Just real quick. For the news. Because I'm contractually obligated to.

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Full circle on whatever was introduced at the beginning. We, what a complete story. And we're back. Cool. Back from our contractual obligation. How's it going? Which we are very grateful for. Obviously. Okay.

Shall we talk about some news? Some Iowa caucus news? If we gotta. They nodded. They nod nodded they did a sense consent have you ever been to iowa nah um i've been through iowa driving but that's it you didn't make any stops i didn't caucus um i don't think i made any stops either just breezed right through yeah i think i breezed right through it was from uh going from like chicago to colorado so it's like a a brief little okay well no caucus so no so no i didn't uh stop and caucus in iowa i'm sorry

all right well jonathan what happened in iowa was it flat yeah were you there that was the yeah i went i covered the caucus uh everyone was telling me they said, one, corn, two, Trump. That's all I gotta know. I gotta get out of here and report on that. No, they did the Iowa caucus. The Republican, not the first primaries, first caucus. Donald Trump won with 51% of the vote, followed by Ron DeSantis

with 21.2%, and then Nikki Haley with 19.1%. The vague Ramaswamy came in fourth and then dropped out of the race. We'll talk about that. Sounds like Vivek couldn't take it. Couldn't take it.

I prepped for this show and that's what I got. You have a separate document that says Vivek couldn't take it. What else you got? What else is on that doc? You have a separate document that says Vivek couldn't take it. Do a... I just... All up here. What else you got? What else is on that doc? All right.

Trump is still the clear front runner. Gasps. Obviously, despite waving hands around everything. He's everywhere. He's in court. He's being kicked out of court. It's all over the place. He's in court.

He's kicked out of court. I mean, he's in the news all the time. There's video clips of him going news all the time there's video clips of him going up all the time talking about liquid gold corn is liquid gold i don't know if you saw that it doesn't i didn't see that that's fun no there's something we got to do with that because we've got our own kind of yeah what's why is he grabbing our business well because he does what he does it's like i want to use it as, except for that I'm advertising for him in a way. No, we're not.

We're not doing that. We're not doing that. There's been a lot of reactions somehow of liberals being like, gasp, how is Trump still popular after everything he's done? After eight years of all this, how is Trump still getting half the vote? And I think it's long past time we should understand what Republican voters want and like about Trump. A new poll this week found that 81% of Republican voters, of registered Republican voters, agree with his statement that immigrants in the U.S., quote unquote, illegally are poisoning the blood of our country. 81%. That does shock me, that 81% that resonates with them.

I guess I'm not shocked or surprised. I am. Yeah. I mean, I'm not surprised that Donald Trump is the front runner. I am 0% surprised that they still want Donald Trump. Right. That statement, I find find disturbing it's like really right there's an element of trump support that often at least for a little while for a little

while i guess uh people could sort of get away with like well i don't agree with the way he talks or what he says but like he does this or like i want him to do this um so seeing the pretty full-throated endorsement of statements like that is, I suppose, a bit upsetting. I genuinely want to go investigate that some. What do you mean? Do you mean it literally? Because a percentage of them do. And then when they did this poll in a couple different ways, they said the poisoning the blood statement and didn't say it was Trump who said it.

And then the other half of the people,'t say it was trump who said it and then the other half of the people they said it was trump who said it and when the language was attributed to trump the statement was 10 higher it was like 82 versus 72 so that's interesting that's interesting uh still way too high um the 72 72 without trump saying it is still really high but it is interesting that if you add trump's name to anything, any statement, then there is a – Because in a way, it becomes like, well, yeah, I'm going to support my guy. So I got – or sure. Oh, if he said it, then yeah. Because also sometimes Trump says shit and you're like, I'm not quite sure what it meant.

Trump says shit and you're like, I'm not quite sure what it meant, but. Yeah. A poll like this is less surprising than if they did it with a statement that most Republican voters don't agree with and then to see how different it would. Because I bet if they said immigrants are the lifeblood of our country and this nation has always valued people coming from somewhere else and being a part of our society and economy, that would pull low but then they said oh trump said this it would be oh 60 65 right i bet that's a it'll be a larger margin too where it's like yeah you have this like okay yeah y'all hate immigrants okay um oh 10 more i

love the language now but if it's that sort of statement like things like that or even just like you know we talk about like if trump said like yeah we're actually gonna do like the socialist health care people would just be on board no matter what he says i would be i would be interested in that that kind of polling right that the narrowness of the margin suggests this is what republican registered voters believe right it's i i accept the suggestion i think that that's probably true that that is what they believe sometimes i'll get into a conversation with somebody and i'll be really shocked you were saying mountains right because i recently moved to the mountains okay and then once i peel back the layers it's less shocking than it's still bad so but it's hard

to humanize this it's hard for me to see what layers there are to peel back on a statement like that you know yeah he's getting i mean yeah uh it's gonna be worse and worse worse than 2020 worse than 2016 he's gonna say evil stuff yeah he is i mean he's already saying right that like the president can do anything he wants uh no matter wait did he talk about building a dome over our whole country what well like in like they did in springfield in the simpsons movie that's too big a dome that would be a very unless he means some sort of metaphorical iron you know like that kind of a dome yeah trump said he would build an impenetrable dome over the u.s as he warned of a possible world war three i guess he seems like he's talking about some sort of iron dome situation right it does seem like that i can't imagine he needs a literal even trump i cannot

imagine he means it it must be you know weapons system yeah star wars probably there's like a two percent chance he meant a literal dome made of made of hurricanes and snakes or whatever i don't i'm not going to read this whole thing but uh there's been a lot of debate on whether trump really is serious about being a dictator and then he truthed he truth socialed out this morning this this whole all caps screed about how the president should be able to commit infinite unlimited crimes you know because he's like because he's like the president needs total immunity or else you have a sometimes you just have to live with quote great but slightly imperfect all presidents must have complete and total presidential immunity or the authority and decisiveness of a president of the

united states will be stripped and gone forever that means i should be able to commit as many crimes as i want i'm the dick he's just saying i'm the yeah i i would urge if uh if joe biden's listening brandon um he got some problems but uh if you are listening um you should kill donald trump with a gun and be fine am i allowed to say that am i allowed to say, you should kill Donald Trump with a gun and be fine. Am I allowed to say that? Am I allowed to say that you should kill Donald Trump with a gun? A metaphorical gun? No, a real gun with bullets to shoot him dead.

Flava Call has just canceled their sponsorship, unfortunately. No, I take it back. Oh, God. We should also talk. I mean, we should talk about all these candidates. But Nikki Haley came in third, which is not the best because she was like, I'm the new second place. Pretty close behind DeSantis, though. Close behind him, but still not in front.

But then there's this, in her celebratory speech, she said, I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race. It's an interesting takeaway it's a really interesting takeaway from from those results nick nicky honey that's so funny i think she means her and trump she's gotta be her right well desantis is not looking good in general wait what's next is new hampshire and he's pulling behind like christy who dropped out in new hampshire like he's not gonna do well he's gonna get that wave of christy support gonna get that wave of christy support maybe not it's also like oh he's not any christy support hates donald trump um well de santis i meant oh no but i mean like who's de santis trying to be if not don Trump, right?

So that, but right, that must be what she's saying is like, Christie's out, so that support goes to me. I'll be in second in New Hampshire, because right now she's trailing Trump by 16 points, based on this poll that came out this week in New Hampshire. And then after that is South Carolina, which is her state, so she'll presumably do well there. And so I guess she was paraphrasing, or maybe said something earlier in a clip I couldn't

find, but talking about like, oh, well, DeSantis is done. He's out. So for Nikki Haley, she also this week was trying to defend the United States against allegations that it's a racist country. She said, we're not a racist country. We've never been a racist country which i mean she could watch it i mean we have some videos but it's you know she doesn't have to watch our videos there's lots of resources for well she also watched the reaction to vivek ramaswamy

um and oh i didn't see that just a racist people not really liking his name oh yeah oh i thought you meant vivek's face when he heard her say that or something i was like oh interesting it's not racist to not like vivek's stupid face that's totally yeah he's got a stupid face yeah no it's very preaching to the choir here i mean she's preaching to her choir too they want to hear that but it's just so wild to say like one of those things i saw i saw a very clear uh concise quote tweet responding to this which was literally just then why aren't you using your real name yeah that's great that's a great response and like she has always gone by nikki like she's allowed to go by Nikki. She's always gone by Nikki. And I think Trump is immediately seizing on this by calling her

Nimrata, which is not her. Her first name is Nimrata. And he, I think, I might be wrong on this, I think he calls her Nimrata because it sounds like Nimrod. And it's close to her name. Or he's just pronouncing it wrong.

I think it's nimrod trying to pronounce her name wrong and call her a nimrod yeah he's either being a dumb racist or a dumb racist who's like yeah yeah when donald trump's on a roll where you find yourself feeling bad or wanting to defend somebody else you also don't like, I resent it. I'm like, well, I don't like a woman being called a name like that. You know, I don't like anybody being called that. But there's something in me that anyway, that's just the thing that I've forgotten about Donald Trump that he's racist. Yeah. And unpleasant in general and insulting to everyone all the time, even the people that are on his quote unquote side. He is just awful.

Abusive. OK, yeah. This is not a racist country, has never been a racist country. This country that was built by slaves and, you know, reservations with burial grounds of, you know, indigenous children, not a race, never, ever been racist. It's such a weird way to frame it in even in her position, because she's not saying, like, we're not a racist country, we got over it, we, we dealt with that, and so on and so forth. And I grew up and I didn't deal like well whatever you can't say we never were that's absurd like obviously it's like obviously like there are issues with this with saying like we're not a racist country but like saying that we never were

is just absurd on its face so hard can we not be honest about our i mean no we can't no we can't apparently can't we we can't be honest about the reality mean, no, we can't. No, we can't. Apparently, can't we? We can't be honest about the reality of what happened, because I think that if they there's a lot of people, if they accepted the reality of this country, what it was and continues to be, they wouldn't they would have to fundamentally change their lives. They they would have such a it would be a trickle effect of everything breaking apart to your entire justification. I just don't think they're capable of it. Here's this quote from an Iowa voter that was interviewed about Vivek Ramaswamy.

He said or she said, I'm not being prejudiced, guys, but I don't like his name. I don't like where he came from. After 9-11, I still harbor a lot of hard feelings. after 9-11 i still harbor a lot of hard feelings oh my god anybody with the name that is uh that's uh yeah so maybe i don't know some racists still in the country i guess like in that even like vivek was born in cincinnati i mean even if you believed that and still thought like, well, that, you know, because his parents are immigrants and that. But still, like, what do you know about? I want to ask that person, what do you know about 9-11? Just tell me open ended.

What's 9-11? Yeah. What is 9-11? Yeah. That was like so many things wrong with just that. I feel like you can learn more about an average American by just asking them, what is 9-11? you can learn more about an average american by just asking them what is 9-11 and then it's anybody who isn't like pale white with john smith is their name i guess it's crazy how the bush administration went to such lengths to try to beat to connect uh al-qaeda with iraq and they didn't

even need to work that hard they could have thrown a dart on the other side of the map and been like let's attack india could have been anybody they could have gone another dart on the other side of the map and been like let's attack india could have been anybody they could have gone another thousand miles around the globe and been like we're gonna attack them people would have been like yeah yeah we gotta get yeah bruno i did that let's get them the whole thing is just like it's like one of those like because vivek sucks and well sure i will also say that i think we are the only people who have been pronouncing his first name correctly i did hear it correct you did on some show but most people said it wrong but good for them most people say it wrong um so he made a whole rhyme about it it's so easy to remember but and he sucks but it's just like so sad and like it's the kind of thing that people like it's kind of thing that

people have already said even when he's running like man, this is not the party that's going to accept you. Some people will. A lot of them won't. And seeing that happen is just kind of sad. And like what that Babylon B article. I know. Trump promises to make an administration position running the White House 7-11. Vivek an administration position running the White House 7-11.

Just like it's like, are you saying that Trump, you know, that Trump's racist? Or are you saying that you're like just racist and that's fine? Or what is the joke? What is the joke? And if you I mean, obviously, the Babylon people will just repeat the joke to explain it. And I think they've done that already. But they won't explain why it's funny. I also I did point this out i think it's slightly relevant that this uh this vivek uh 7-eleven joke uh about how trump's racist is just something that joe biden said in 2006 for real on camera about one of his gaffes from

back in the day yeah is about how you can't go into a Dunkin' Donuts or 7-Eleven without an Indian accent. Yeah, yeah. They should have said Biden. Was that a joke? Then the Babylon Bee should have used Biden as that example. They easily could have done that if they were not incredibly lazy and racist. But the Babylon Bees, you read the article, Jonathan. I did.

And it's not, I mean, it's very lazily written and silly. But the joke is that the headline is Trump promises Vivek an administrative an administration position running the White House 7-11. And the joke is that Trump is racist and just thinks that's what he should do. It's a very lazily written article, but the Babylon Bee does seem on board with the joke that Trump is racist Yeah, I bet they'll drop that the second anybody else says that he's racist because that's well because they like him Like I don't whatever He'll destroy wokeness for them regardless. It's

Who's truly I mean whether or not it's deeply humili humiliating thing. If I was Vivek, I would feel awful. And you'll be able to learn tons about him on his podcast that launches. I'll be able to learn everything I need to know about him on his podcast that launches. If he's not vice president, he's trying to be vice president. Do you think Trump would ever go for him? I don't know. For Trump and Vivek? For Vivek, yeah.

Oh, no, no. He's, I don't think so. He needs someone who'll do what he says. right i don't know if i mean vivek's been making it very clear he puts donald trump on a pedestal and will be you know his yeah i think that that's i don't know if that's enough and i think that also trump probably sees that as more of like a tool to like put him wherever but like see it's like kind of a sign of weakness to him too right like he knows he's got vivek under his thumb because of the pedestal that vivek is lifting him up onto and i think he's a little too like vegas is a little too like a little too online i think uh in not the same ways that like Trump would go off on wokeness or whatever, but in other ways that are off putting.

Mm hmm. I just don't think he's a I mean, maybe he will. I just don't think it's a smart move. But does then he just have to go with someone from the Matt Gaetz MTG crowd, like someone who will just do his bidding, but might be like very off putting to a lot of the country? Um, I think he might try to find somebody more like Nikki Haley. do his bidding but might be like very off-putting to a lot of the country um i think who does he go with try to find somebody more like nicky haley i do think he's probably he'll probably try to uh find a woman um because he's woke but and in that sort of camp of like kind of plausible deniability like it's not the wackos of the mtg variety but uh they're willing to overlook the wackos to get that position of power

but i don't know uh he's a he's a wild card i guess he'll guard that one he will see it i think as risky to pick nicky haley because nicky haley would do the same thing mike pence did oh totally i don't think her specifically unless like unless she says i'll i'll do it i mean yeah that would depend on nicki haley but i think it might be over the next few months to find the right person for him um i just don't yeah i just don't see the fake thing happening yeah and he's not popular he dropped out after the first caucus so if he had any kind of groundswell of support he would still be around right he's just not popular but you know uh kamala uh dropped out before anybody uh in like

december of 2019 so who knows and she's uh i guess the vice president of the united states i couldn't speak to that but i have heard about it so we'll see just got a few more months fingers crossed that we have a vice president. Because the president might die. Oh, that feels like a good time to go to an ad break. Oh, fun. Ads, ads, ads. Ads, ads, ads. Is that the sound of commerce?

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Not to mention that they'll let you track every sale across your business in one place, including in-person and online sales. Plus, their plug and play tools help you build entire marketing campaigns on social media. That sure beats whispering in people's ears while they sleep at home, I'll tell ya. Businesses have come a long way since the days of scratching your phone number in the sides of parked cars. It's time to evolve and check out Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash more news all lowercase go to shopify.com slash more news to take your retail business to the next level today shopify.com slash that's right more news shopify.com slash more news we've been through this people

okay we're back yay okay that's fine that was a good little break oh boy here we are ready to talk about israel and palestine it's been a couple weeks feels like we should check in with what's happening in the genocide is it okay for us to say genocide here is this a safe space uh some people don't like it but well i think the case could be made and is trying to be made don't worry i'm sure i'll piss off lots of people when we talk about this but we got to be able to talk about it yeah so i mean there are a few things here we can talk about uh last week the uh the south african government the South African government presented a case to the ICJ, the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel's actions over the last few months

could amount to genocide. I don't want to go through the definition of genocide as the ICJ describes it, because that's what a lot of the intricacies of this case are, but just to go through, since it's been a bit and it's been over three months since October 7th, the South African government pointed out that Israeli forces have killed over 23,000 Palestinians, about 70% of whom are women and children. That's in addition to 60,000 wounded and maimed Palestinians and over 85% of the population of Gaza displaced.

So we could safely use the term ethnic cleansing at the very least, it seems. Is that allowed? Listeners, sounds off. I'll allow it. I'll allow it. And of course, then they highlighted speeches by Israeli leaders talking about how Gaza has to be erased, how the people

of Gaza have to be removed. They didn't even get a chance to point out how Netanyahu yesterday said there cannot be a Palestinian state and used the phrase from the river to the sea in reference to Israel having control of the entire area. He did say that. He should get expelled from some liberal university for his speech i mean honestly this feels similar to the conversation we just had in a way when we talk about racism in this country or the way people just deny it's like it's out in the open there's where was anybody shocked i mean that this word is being used

you know um yeah um it's i don't know it's it seems to be increasingly clear i am seeing a little bit of the um perception budge and sort of start to see like how uh and you know all these statements aren't helping or i guess they are helping uh to sort of see like how uh and you know all these statements aren't helping or i guess they are helping uh to sort of see like the intention is there you know you'll see like all these sort of like weird like talking points like look at the population of gaza uh how it like rose over the past like however many years and stuff and it's like well that that's not important to what we're talking about or what we're seeing right now and And the intention is very clear. And the intention is kind of one of the most important parts

when talking about this. If their intention is to remove everybody, either by killing them or simply forcibly removing them, and they are not open to any proposed Palestinian state and they want control over the area from the river to

the sea uh and they will not allow anybody to return to that area then that is that's crystal clear i uh it's very frustrating to see people sort of like twist themselves into knots to try to like talk around what is being said and what the intentions very clearly are also there's this list you know killing definition of genocide killing members of the group causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group deliberately lifting in inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about a group's physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births, forcibly transferring children. I've checked all of it. A lot of that seems to be checked off. Or in part is relevant. Yeah, it's just a really awful conversation to see happen. And then you

see like, you know, Biden's sort of like little statements like, well, we disapprove of that or like, well, you know, in response to what Netanyahu said and the White House scolded him immediately. Well, pull aid. Stop helping. Stop helping them. Stop helping it happen. That is the one like what else can we do? The scolding hasn't helped the last 20 times. You've scolded so much. it's been more than 100 days yeah and the scolding doesn't seem to work uh so maybe just stop helping and like it's just just kind of sick of like the little like back door like the leaks were like well they're very they disapprove of this prove it prove it um and then you see like a thing like oh they've agreed

on this um you know to get out by this date but then and that's being used like look biden's doing all the secret stuff behind the scenes to make it happen but that doesn't actually happen it's not like all these all these uh stories don't end up happening. The pattern is very clear. And it's just very frustrating when you see, you know, people who do use the phrase at like a protest or in a tweet about from the river to the sea, when it is talking about everybody in that area being free, whether it's a two state solution or a a one-state solution, maybe like a multi-ethnic democracy that I was told we all support. And seeing that, and then I was literally saying out loud, like, no, from the river

to the sea, we will have control over all of it. And they're not going to be able to come back. How can you get more clear than that? Yeah. There was an article in NBC News yesterday all about how the Biden administration is getting increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu, blah, blah, blah. And Biden has not spoken to Netanyahu since December 23rd, or at least that was the last call kind of on the record that they had. But Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, talked to him yesterday. And this is from that NBC News article. Blinken told Netanyahu that ultimately, there is no military solution to

Hamas, according to the officials, and that the Israeli leader needs to recognize that, or history will repeat itself and violence will continue. But the officials said Netanyahu was unmoved. So obviously, someone leaked like, hey, Blinken's trying really hard and told Netanyahu there is no military solution to Hamas. If he has always believed that, why is U.S. policy what it is? Why are why are we giving them tons of weapons to carry out their military solution? That is not going to be effective in the state of the goal like did he change his mind on that because i don't think that was they were willing to admit that two months ago not right away no it's been like slow this sort of slow drip um

and it's unclear if it's you know just the aides who were like you know and interns who were like up in arms about it and then it it like dripped up slowly to him. But this sort of like public statements and these private like scoldings is like, yeah. When, when did you come to this conclusion? What are you actually going to do about it? Is there going to be any move to just stop supporting? I don't know.

It's yeah. Yeah. Doesn't seem like that's likely it doesn't does it even as things get more complicated in well maybe partly because everything's getting more complicated i don't know and there's that quote from uh this is that quote from uh from biden even today about uh the um airstrikes on the houthis. And it was the question was, if the airstrikes are working, and his response was, well, when you say working,

are they stopping the Houthis? No. Are they going to continue? Yes. I mean, that seems to be the policy, right, across the board. Who are they working for, though? Actually, ultimately,

they're working for the Houthis. You know, this is, they'll get more support. They're getting more anyway I mean it's just like it's just like absurd to like be able to like it's not working but we're gonna keep doing it which is Jonathan what you were just describing basically like you say it's not working but you're going to keep doing it so where does that leave anybody and it's almost as if this was predictable it's almost as if this is how every war has gone it's almost as if this is how every war has gone. It's almost as if this

is how Afghanistan and Iraq went. Well, it's not working, but what are we going to do? Stop doing it? That's it. Vietnam. I mean, you got to go back a ways before any of us or anyone listening to this was born likely to find a time when you can maybe argue. And look, I know there were a lot of issues with World War II, but I'm just saying if you're arguing a time when you can maybe argue and look i know there were a lot of issues with world war ii but i'm just saying if you're arguing a time when u.s military intervention helped in any respect like well it's almost as if this is inevitable just going to happen exactly it's what yeah it's it's and stuff that was said right when it started happening and it has been more than 100 days and there have been more than 25,000 Palestinians killed from this. And do they even have one hospital left? They bombed the University of Palestine, I think, yesterday.

Just zero universities left. That is like absolute famine. No medicine. It's genocidal. It's so medicine. It's genocidal. It's so horrifying. It's genocidal. And it's very galling to to be saying this for months and months and months and months. Yes.

I think, you know, like because their argument, Israel's argument in the to the International Court of Justice is, well, that's not our intent though. Like, yeah, all these people are dying. Yeah, the universities are gone, but our intent is to get Hamas, which we think is in every building. Like, it's laughable at this, but if you presented this court in a US court and it was a, you know, if it was like a drug,

you know, oh, well, we thought every building in Los Angeles was a drug den, so we bombed the city. It would be ridiculous. Unthinkable. Yeah. No one would be defending this. No one would say that this court case makes sense. Every legal analyst that they'd have on CNN, you know tubin would be on there saying this is absurd yeah how many you know how many uh members of hamas have you gotten how many uh

versus how many palestinians are dead um how many hostages have you gotten back like not during the ceasefire well they don't give a shit about the hostages well right well it's also like an absurd sort of thing to say like in response to that of like, well, that's not our intention. But we just like quoted a bunch of people saying that was your intention. And then you're saying that that's their intention. There's no there's no parsing that there's no like you can't argue it. I mean, guys, you can't argue that, but like they're saying the opposite. So the reality we live in now is where you can say things and then also deny that you've said those things

or forget about them and people are like okay yeah and then the i don't know i don't know if this was probably not an official but everyone like because it was just some some guy i think who tweeted like well the the bombing will stop the attack will stop if the hostages are released so why aren't pro-palestinian you know activists calling for that and it is like holding people hostage or it's like saying well like we'll blow everyone up unless you do this like one thing for us it's the same kind of thing right it's like we're we're holding people's lives the entire population political purpose so how is that different than what hamas did like i don't yeah i mean it's the same it's a good point you know it's the same thing with like um we've talked about before of like this sort of like reaction

of like oh you're so you're justifying what hamas did no but in and in doing that in that conversation there's justification for what israel is doing now yeah and i guess it is what about ism but i think what about ism is warranted when the thing that i'm what abouting is like you killed 25 000 people you're destroying their universities and hospitals um it's yeah the whole thing is i keep saying this it sucks it's a mess and sort of to your point or what you were saying jonathan about how you read somewhere but it could have been just some guy um it is still impossible to find out what is happening anywhere about anything and what is true and who is a real person on the internet and who is a grifter or a bot

or some engagement bait, some fake parody account, whatever it is. It's so hard to find out information. And so briefly, we're going to talk about how Google is worse now. And you're not imagining it, basically. Great transition. That was transition that was thank you so much i tried really hard appreciated it i respected it sometimes we talk about something like last week on the podcast and then a study is released four days later that confirms that we were this is one of those times one of those times uh know, we're not the first to say the internet fucking sucks now, but it does. And we were talking about it last week. And here's this new study about how Google is worse.

They found overall spam sites are basically just like taking up all that Google, Google space, whether it's like chat GPT articles. whether it's uh like chat gpt articles um it's weird like you know that crappy like monetization like monetized like articles that are like full of google ad sense plastered everywhere between every sentence utter garbage i don't know if john there are like specific quotes you wanted to oh i want to read this uh a little bit. This is from this German study. The researchers warn that this rankings war is likely to get much worse with the advent of AI-generated spam and that it genuinely threatens the future utility of search engines. Quote the line, or I'm sorry, some of that, what I just said was from 404 Media. This is from the study. Gotcha, gotcha.

The line between benign content and spam in the form of content and link farms becomes increasingly blurry, a situation that will surely worsen in the wake of generative AI. Gotcha, gotcha. I don't know you guys having lived in LA for a while you've probably seen these like meet so-and-so artists like Voyage LA stuff like that like that kind of spam and I yes kind of got to respect that spam because that was like a guy doing it that was like a person emailing a bunch of questions getting someone to write a bunch of content on their website for them and saying hey can you share this with like 10 other people who might want to be on it and then it's like a content farm and now ai is just going to be able to do that on its own and like multiply what used to be human-based spam by like right it'll be faster there'll be more of it it'll be more incorrect constantly pull you know even just like pulling like just i guess plagiarizing is the word just like basically copy pasting

this uh other people's articles the internet feels claustrophobic to me now there's so much garbage and trash and uh wading through it and i don't and stuff being shoved at us that is bullshit and how it affects us. We're hurtling towards it being totally unusable. Well, and Google and Facebook did this to us because it was their emphasis on everything being super monetizable and having code to game that is the reason we don't have like websites anymore. Like it's the reason we don't have cool websites and stuff anymore. It's the cheapening of art, like music. It's the cheapening of things on Spotify, which is why like Pitchfork is going to be gone. You know, we don't get like original writing about independent music like

there's very few places anymore there's very few websites i type into my search bar being like i want to go here and read what they have to say yeah i don't go anywhere yeah we were talking about this a little uh before we started recording and i feel like there's a generation of people coming up who don't know that there used to be way more websites that were like destinations. We're like, oh, yeah, every day I check this website and I check this website. And yeah, you like go on like a Twitter or Reddit or something and social media. But aside from the social media, there were websites with human beings who like had thoughts and ideas or like funny things to say or interesting things to say

or cool things to make and present to you. And that just is not a thing anymore, it seems. There used to be a website called StumbleUpon where you could click and it would just take you to something cool on the internet that you didn't know existed. Oh, yeah, remember StumbleUpon. And dance around and find things. I just, in honor of this

conversation i just went to one of my old haunts and it's still going strong that's nice apartment therapy i love apartment therapy well that's the other thing too i do think people's habits have changed um so maybe there are more websites out there that are good that i just don't know about because my habits have changed and i'm getting old. But it does seem like there's been a fundamental shift in how the internet is operating. There is a fundamental shift. And it doesn't mean that everything's gone right away, but people don't use the internet the way they used to.

It makes me nervous, perhaps because I call it growing up. I was an adult, but a very young adult. And now I call it growing up I was an adult but a very young adult and now I call them kids uh with this internet explosion and Facebook and I've grown up with this in this era and seeing it shift but I also have worked in the internet and I expect the bottom to fall out of things you know I expect the other shoe to drop and it does feel like that's what's happening. You know, everything evolves and shifts and we're seeing this happen. How do you game it? How do you make the most money? How do you cut the most costs? It's not about creating something nice and special for a portion of the internet because that's the other thing that we knew early on.

If you wanted to make a web series, say, you can't just try to make something commercial. You need to find something that has its little niche. That's why the Guild was so successful. That was a specific fandom. Anyway, I'm rambling, but the same thing can apply to your apartment therapy is for people that love interior design and how to do that on a budget at your own home. And I love that. And I'm going to keep going there. But yeah, it's like, but we're squeezing all the joy, all of the individualism out of it. Yeah, everything needs to be monetized. Everything needs to get attention, as much attention and as broad an audience as possible and so it cheapens and uh kind of deadens any attempt at art in a very sad way and obviously like you

know it'll keep happening more and more on all social media and we're not going to talk about twitter right now so i apologize for even bringing it up but like incentivizing attention is just like ruining so much. And just like, yeah, if you get enough people to like interact with you, whether it's positive or negative, will give you a little money. And incentivizing that way of interacting with people and interacting with art is just so fucking sad. Anyway, now's the time to announce that some more news has been purchased

by CQT Capital Management Firm, a really well-respected hedge fund that I'm sure is going to take our content in bold new directions over the next... The stratosphere. We are off to the races, folks. Not FDIC insured. Ooh.

That's a joke. No, as far as I know, so far breaking news even more news is broken uh yeah before we go let's talk real quickly about this is framed as a tesla story but it's an electric car story in general electric car owners are having a hard time charging their cars in the frigid nationwide temperatures this week. I just, I mean,

it's very funny. I think it's ridiculous. I don't know. I just want, I feel like I piss people off when I talk about this, but electric cars, we're not there yet. And, you know, things like this, this is a very big deal when your car has to be able to drive in winter weather. When I see an electric car up here, I'm like, what are you doing? And it's a big deal. There's certain questions that we haven't figured out about them.

You know, getting the materials for the batteries disposing batteries there are questions but not all of them have been answered and i just yeah i mean they're clearly issues um and uh that need to be addressed and there's a lot of uh unpreparedness for situations like this um although i do hear that like uh these charging stations in like other countries don't have this issue necessarily so some of this might also just be uh us an america problem which wouldn't be surprising so you mean we're just manufacturing things poorly i think maybe that's yeah shockingly that might be the case it's like there there does yet to be i mean i don't think i there's an electric car that would take me from here to la without me needing well i think the

range is you know an issue um but uh those are all things those are things that would improve and sure sure there are plug-in hybrids that are gonna exist more um though i also hear the issues with plug-in hybrids um we should just uh try to maybe improve public transportation so we don't have to rely on cars so much this is interesting it is funny i would just say it's funny um especially in the context of people having to like punch through the layer of ice on their teslas to get the car door handles to work oh right because you can't slip your your finger there. So you gotta... That is funny. I will say that in general, newer cars, for reasons we've talked about, but there's certain things.

I had a Subaru last winter and didn't have to punch through ice to get in. But all of the electrical would be malfunctioning. But all of the electrical would be malfunctioning. And, you know, you couldn't turn on the heat until the screen came up, but it would be frozen like your body. And so you're shivering, waiting for your car to reset in order to turn on the heater, which will then take a long time to, you know. So there's certain things that just newer cars in general, but. I feel like it's relying on my computers and software and stuff. Yeah. And, you know, like I keep seeing posts like, oh,

and if you're in a post-apocalypse, Cybertruck is the one for you. No, dude, you need your fucking phone to start your Cybertruck and like get it to, what are you doing? I saw three cyber trucks within 10 minutes up here that's funny and i was upset yeah they're so scary i feel bad for people who like genuinely are like i want to get an electric car that's like a good

thing to do for the world i've wanted one for a long time and they're not they don't know that the guy who makes them is a dumb nazi like they're just not plugged in that way that he's saying all the Nazi stuff. And so they just genuinely want to do a good thing. And then the technology, because they live in Kansas City where it's negative 10 or whatever, and they can't do it. Like I do genuinely feel for those people. I do too. What I think is funny is, you know, the meme, I don't know where it comes from. It's like a cartoon of the superhero meme, I don't know where it comes from. It's like a cartoon of the superhero guy and he doesn't know which button to push. Because they're like the same thing with the two buttons.

And one of them is like, I'm a conservative, so I want to make fun of electric cars for not working. But also the guy who makes them is my Nazi guy that I like now. So what do I do now? It's a very interesting conflict. Yeah. I mean, he's also like coming coming around on coming around on uh saying that climate change isn't a big deal so i don't know well i um i want to make it clear i am all for green technologies i just keep seeing frustrating stories in regards

to the electric vehicle which i'm really pulling for, I think. But I have my concerns. Some sort. I just... Cities that are more walkable, public transportation. Horse and buggy, I think, seems really good. I genuinely think that

that would be a good solve. Not genuinely at this point, but in general, it's like... I don't know if we want to deal with iced over horses katie will we put our batteries punching through the ice to get their mouths to open so they can breathe you just need a bunch of blankets i think in a barn okay um more blankets then i think we've solved this barn blanket did you guys see the red spots On Donald Trump's hand disappeared Wait they disappeared

There's photos of him today Showing up to court and they're like Either significantly healed Or maybe gone I'm telling you it's X-Files stuff I think that He was abducted and part of the experiments That's why he had those marks

And then they left why he had those marks and then they left and the marks are gone. Yesterday he had the marks and today they're like way better or gone. Or unless he put the bronzer on his hand. There's makeup you see. We all have. Yeah but this looks like a good job. Yeah.

Wait. Now there's plenty of things you can do. It's a far away photo. It's a faraway photo. That's a faraway photo. Well, maybe he just had jelly on his hands before. And then, yeah, last night. Oh, yeah. Scabby Jelly.

Strawberry Scabby Jelly. Scabby Jelly, that's our new character, right? Scabby the Jelly Man. Hi, everybody. I'm Scabby the Jelly jelly man here to talk about the news oh no jonathan scrape me we've done it i think we've done it put it on a shirt i have to almost through my headphones we're done here i'm scabby jelly scrape me oh my gosh it's gonna be animated yeah so it's gonna be okay but it's gonna be animated like rendon stimpy so it's going to be animated. Yeah, so it's going to be okay. But it's going to be animated like Ren and Stimpy, so it's going to be disgusting.

No! You know that's my least favorite cartoon! You stuck your hand in a smucker's jar and now I'm on your hands. Did you know that Ren and Stimpy was my least favorite cartoon? Have I said that? What? I don't know if you've said that before. It grossed me out as a kid. That's what I kind of assumed.

It really off-put me as a kid. I was like, I was so, I could not stand it as a child. I was like, oh, my goodness. And I think that that's what ended my interest in cartoons in general. That could do it. Cody, do you love Ren and Stimpy? It's been so long, and I'm pretty sure the guy behind it has some stuff about him, but I don't know much about it.

But I used to watch it. I thought it was fine. You loved it. Funny old goons. Yeah. The regular old couple just being disgusting. Funny voices as well. I liked Doug. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- Powdered Toast Man?

Right? Yep. That's done. That's how it goes. And that's different enough that we're not going to get in copyright trouble. Exactly. So good for you. No, it was... Yeah, that was purposeful.

No, you're right. It was spot on. We can't keep it. We got caught. I mean, we're going to get sued. Oh, boy. We did it. We really got to the end of the show.

We did a wide range of topics. And I think we brought the vibes back up at the end. Not that they were ever down. Not that they're ever down. I don't know. I did feel mind dipper on the 35 minute mark. Because of the news we were talking about. It makes sense.

Yeah. It does make sense. But we're back, baby. Yeah. Talking about frozen Teslas. and scabby jelly. Charge your batteries. Ignore Cody and remember. Whoa.

I didn't mean it, Cody. Yeah, you did. It's fine. Just the scabby jelly part. We love you very much. Much. Not scabby jelly. Much.

Get out of here, scabby. Much. Much. Not scabby jelly. Much. Get out of here, scabby. Have you ever heard that story that Napoleon used the Egyptian Sphinx for target practice and shot its nose off? Or maybe you've heard that a French astrologer named Nostradamus correctly predicted nearly 500 years of human history. Or maybe someone told you that the legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in Mississippi.

These stories are what I like to call historical myths. Great little tales that may or may not have any basis in historical fact. On Our Fake History, we explore these historical myths and try to determine what's fact, what's fiction, and what is such a good story it simply must be told. If you dig stories about death-obsessed emperors, lost civilizations, desperate sieges, voodoo black magic, and famous historical figures you thought you knew, then Our Fake History might just be your new favorite podcast. If you dig it, then subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.