The Bugle - AI is taking over the world!
Episode Date: February 14, 2024Andy Zaltzman (South London) is joined by Hari Kondabolu in Brooklyn, New York and Neil Delamere in Dublin, Ireland.- Imran Khan claims election win with AI victory speech- Volcano scrolls deciphered ...by AI- Exclusive extracts of Julius Caesar's diary- Trump v Biden: two elderly men arguing publicly about who's going to end the world- Tucker Carlson's softball Vladimir Putin interview- plus post-Super Bowl analysis Send thoughts and questions for Andy at hellobuglers@thebuglepodcast.com. Click follow to make sure you get every episode and please drop us a nice review or rating wherever you choose.PLUS: Become the owner of an exclusive episode of The Bugle, on 12 inch vinyl! It's your last chance to get your name on the artwork. Become a premium member NOW! https://www.thebuglepodcast.com/donateThis episode was presented and written by:Andy ZaltzmanHari KondaboluNeil DelamereAnd produced by Ped Hunter and Chris Skinner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hello buglers and welcome to issue 4291 of the Bugle Audio newspaper for an unapologetically
but increasingly annoyingly visual world.
I am Andy Zoltzman, the former 38 year old, coming to you live and pre-recorded from the
shed where truth comes to die here in south London.
The sky is blue, the grass is green, the fox is crapped on the patio again.
It's an oasis of unchanging calm in the universe of chaos, by which I mean my career has plateaued.
Joining me this week to hold up the mirror to the world, to ask the world if it's happy with its haircut and then to mutter under
our breath that the world looks f***ing ridiculous with that self-inflicted mullet. I'm joined
by from New York City USA, the land gripped by a potentially incurable case of election
fever, the kind of fever that produces harrowing hallucinations, inexplicable behaviour and
a slow and agonising death. It's Hari Konda Bolu. Hello Hari.
Hey Andy.
How are you? It's been a while actually since you've been on the Google.
Yeah, it's been a minute, thank you.
Why do you ask me how I am every single time I'm on?
Oh right.
You know the answer, every time you say it, it's like saying,
Hari, so you still don't know how to read and you don't follow the news at all? Like why do you say it, it's like saying, hurry, so you still don't know how to read
and you don't follow the news at all?
Like why do you say that?
Just say hello and every time with the,
is better than are you all right?
Which as an American every time,
as an American depressive,
every time I hear that in London,
you're very startling.
Well, it's just the way we Brits have always introduced to ourselves to people pretty much
ever since the Romans came over here and we made them feel probably slightly more at home than
would have been ideal with hindsight. Anyway, it's great to have you back on the show and
joining us from Dublin, Europe, it's Neil Delamere. Hello Neil, how are you?
I'm very well.
Thank you for asking.
I think it's a very polite way to start a conversation.
I am excellent.
Thank you for your concern for my welfare.
And how are you?
Adequate, adequate.
Excellent.
I'll see you're welcoming the Romans
and I will raise you us welcoming the Normans in 1169.
Which in hindsight, I mean, it went well for the King of Lenster at the time. But after that, I think, Soad's division is the easiest way to say what happened in the next 800 years.
I'm sure that these things will work through these things in no time at all.
We will.
We will touch on certain related matters
a bit later in the show.
We are recording on the 12th of February, 2024,
the morning after the Taylor Swift Super Bowl
as it will surely forever be now.
We will talk about that.
Did you both watch it?
Yes, I did.
Yes, I think I did.
Right. I have no idea what I watched. I'll be honest with
you. It may have been a prolonged usher, usher, tete, fever dream I had.
We will, I was up till half past four in the morning watching it with my son, so I might not be at my absolute peak of alertness today. Anyway, on this day,
in 1429, the Battle of Herrings took place near Rouvre in North France. So what happened,
you may ask, and why is it called the Battle of the Herrings? Well, to be honest, I didn't
read beyond the first line of the Wikipedia entry, which entertained me because it's called The Battle of the Herrings.
It was during the Siege of Orléans.
Now, I know some people believe the Battle of the Herrings was the origin story
of the British comedian Richard Herring, famously immortal, of course,
and his battle to the death with his brother, Prince of all, almost 600 years ago now.
Doesn't time fly very much the cane-enable Romulus and Remus story of British comedy
But it wasn't that sadly. It was in fact an English military victory
It's been a while since we had one of them
But back in the 15th century you didn't have the human rights lobby jumping all over you saying how about negotiating like grown-ups everyone
simpler times it was a battle during the Hundred Years War
Between England and France bloody hell you can barely a one year were off the ground these days without everyone complaining
between England and France. Bloody hell, you can barely get a one year war
off the ground these days without everyone complaining.
And well, having not done my research,
I assume the English under the seven year old
King Henry VI intercepted a battalion of French soldiers
trying to swim to freedom in herring outfits
up the Loire River by using a mixture of fishing rods
and hastily improvised nets.
They caught the fish-copologists,
and that's the origin of the term
something fishy is going on.
Also, due
to the way with victory assure that the English just for fun used cricket bats to whack the
stragglers whilst wearing primitive eyewear to protect their eyes from the ranted, loyal water.
The term fish-hits and goggles, which transmuted mistakenly, as language often does over the
years into the commonly used English phrase, fish-hits and giggles. Let me just check if that
was the case. It wasn't, sadly.
It wasn't. So it was something to do with a fight over a convoy containing lots of barrels
of herring. Worth several hundred people dying for in my book. But anyway, history's...
Can I ask, was this in Orléans?
It was near Orléans.
Right, so the maid of Orléans, famously Joan of Arc, you're noticing they like to smoke things.
Yes. You're noticing you kind of a they like to smoke things. Yes. But by the looks of things both fish and teenage generals. Yes. I don't know if they they cooked some of the herring on the same barbecue that they cooked Joan of
Arc on. I'm not sure. I think it was a couple of years before the Joan of Arc hot dog incident. How is early on spells? Is it O-R-L-E-A-N?
With an S on the end.
Wait, so it's the old one.
It's supposed to be new early on.
Is that what it's supposed to be?
Yeah, I think so.
Oh, that's wild.
Yeah, that's the wildest thing about this story.
That's the wildest thing about New Orleans.
In fact, it's pronounced New Orleans.
Yeah, all the herring, see that's how herring would originally be caught and they had one
moment according to the French mythology of how to get out of the net.
And what they would do is they'd take off their top and they would be given beads and
the beads would grow on the herring's neck and they would let free if their breasts were
sufficiently impressive.
Are we learning, you English? Are we learning? if their breasts were sufficiently impressive.
Are we learning, Euglis? Are we learning? Anyway, history is written by the winners, so we're going to ink that particular version of the Battle of the Herrings
into the history books for all time. Our section in the bin this week, well, Wednesday, the 14th
of February, is of course Valentine's Day. St. Valentine, the anonymous Bishop of Horne,
as he himself described himself back in his third century Valentine, the anonymous Bishop of Horn, as he himself described himself back in
his third century pomp. The patron saint of epistolary card-based stalking has his saint's day
on the 14th of February. But why did Valentine become anonymous, anonymous with love and courtship?
Well, as well as being the patron saint of love and lovers, also according to catholic.org,
he was the patron saint of young people,
which might explain some things about the history of the Catholic Church. But let's move on from
that. Also, the patron saint of many other things, he spread it around the big V to be fair to the
lad, including bees and plague. So if you're sending someone a Valentine's card this year,
try to be authentic and factor in all of some Valentine's hobbies. I don't know how you do that,
what rhymes with stung by a swarm of bees while suffering fatal bubos?
I'm not entirely sure.
But for our section in the bin, we have a free Valentine's Day audio Valentine's message
for you to play anonymously to someone that you are romantically interested in.
It's very clever technology.
The technology hijacks your intended belovedable's Bluetooth headphones
and plays your Valentine's message over whatever they're listening to at the time,
but with no way of them knowing from whom the anonymous love message has been sent. The audio
is also disguised so it doesn't sound like your voice, so the recipient of your
anonymous amorosity cannot recognize you as the sender. It comes with a special heart sound effect
at the end. So here is your audio Valentine's message. Please use it wisely.
The reason for that rather heavy-sounding heart is not because of the heaviness of the love struck heart, but it's that we had to use an ox
heart and the butcher. They wouldn't let me use a human one at the local hospital. They said they
needed it for a transplant or something. Anyway, that's your Valentine's Day message in the bin.
Pretty weird tradition when you think about it.
Top story this week, AI is continuing to take over the world. Usually exciting moments in the history of the AI gradual takeover of this planet.
The jailed cricket legend Imran Khan has claimed victory in the Pakistan general election
using AI to make a victory speech.
Obviously, when you're in jail, it's quite hard to make an official victory speech,
but he has authorized an AI version of himself to claim victory. I will not try to explain the
politics of Pakistan, suffice it to say it's complicated. An oversimplified version of that
complexity in the aftermath
and aftermath of the election is that a former prime minister who had previously been convicted
of numerous crimes and was living in exile to avoid going to jail, but was recently just
in advance of the election, in fact, exonerated and allowed back into the country is claiming
victory as is another former prime minister who had previously not been convicted of
numerous crimes, but has now recently just in in advance of the election in fact, been convicted of numerous crimes,
de-exonerated, if you will, and is now in jail from where he claimed victory. And I mean this
surely is the future embracing us within its warm and terrifying
Embrace that's that now you can claim victory in election whilst in jet and this might prove useful hurry
For certain candidates in the American election in the not too distant future. I mean this you must be hugely excited by this Oh, are you talking about using AI to a weekend at Bernie's, Biden?
Yeah, basically.
Just keep him up as long as we possibly can.
This technique, I mean, it is the future, but it's only like part of the future,
because like, you know, Nawaz's party, I'm sure could have released a video of Imran Khan
accepting that said something completely different, right?
My name is Imran Khan and I love bacon.
If you voted for my party, it's because you eat pig and spurn the will of Allah.
Also, I played cricket while wearing women's undergarments.
PS, I love India.
Well, I've recently married a Danish cartoonist.
Here is our photo album.
It is quite possible that he did play Cricket in Women's Underwear by Repute.
He might have had an opportunity to collect quite a bit of it in his
very handsome heyday. Hey, if it's working you don't change it.
Imagine being caught with women's underwear and going, a very handsome high day. Hey, if it's working, you don't change it. Yeah. You don't change it.
Imagine being caught with women's underwear
and going, listen, I have some superstitions,
and I won a G-string once, so now I just have to do it.
It's not my fault.
Do you remember, he approved this message,
and the AI did it out.
Do you remember when, if you wanted to get a message in
or out of a prison, somebody had to put something up their bum at some point?
Like, that is how you gauge commitment.
Anybody can just really, he's sitting there with a script going,
yeah, I want myself to say that.
If you really want to gauge commitment, you go,
Imran, you're going to have to cut this speech short because John has to bring it out.
I don't know, you've got pages and pages and pages and pages.
That is how you tell.
It's very weird to see if you're from Ireland or the UK or this side of the world, just
how powerful the Pakistan army is.
It's just an odd thing to see, given that we've seen so much hand-wringing over the
dwindling numbers of the UK armed forces in the last couple of weeks.
A friend of mine is from London and he lives in Dublin and he said to me, like out of the blue, Neil, there's
80,000 people in the army now in Britain. 80,000. You could fit all the British army
in Croke Park Stadium. And I said, I don't think I'd let them in again.
To be honest.
It hasn't always gone well though, has it?
You know, fooling me once. Shame on me, Andy. That's what I would say there. At this point,
I believe AI could do anything. At this point, if you would tell me that Andy's ultimate
is died 10 years ago and the bugle has been presented
by a George Foreman grilled with an accent,
that would be it.
You were so extreme with a classics degree,
I'm firmly convinced you died in like 1997.
A couple of quotes from some of my early reviews there.
You were so extreme with a classics degree.
He's bubbly, but ultimately calorifically
f**king unabhorrent.
So as you said, now as sheriff, he's the former prime minister
claiming victory. Imran Khan, the other former prime minister
claiming victory, the main difference between the two
candidates other than the fact that one is in jail and one isn't.
But until recently should have been was Imran is one of the
greatest cricketers in the history of the sport.
And, but he's incurred the Roth as you said,
of the Pakistan army.
Now, Pakistan democracy, again,
it's always hard to look at another country's democracy
from an outside perspective,
but it seems to have long operated
on the traditional one person, one vote basis,
but added one army, more votes than all the one
persons put together, which is a key part of it. David Cameron, the foreign
secretary, God rest his soul if it's ever found, said there were serious concerns
over the fairness and lack of inclusivity of the Pakistan election. And this is
David Cameron we're talking about, who has just been plonked into the House of Lords without being elected, so he can take up one of the most important
positions in government. So he knows a f**king thing or two about unfairness and subverting
democracy. So his words carry a lot of weight. So the 1992 World Cup winning captain is in
jail, he was ousted from power in 2022. His supporters say the 362 test-wicket fast-bolling
all-rounder has been convicted on trumped-up charges
for political reasons, but his opponents say the 7,500
international run scorer abuse his power
and betrayed his people.
Since being ousted of the 71-year-old former Sussex
and New South Wales player has faced numerous different
convictions.
Charges have included leaking state secrets,
which he's serving 10 years in jail. Corruption, 14 years, contravening marriage laws, seven years.
His wife was also jailed and taking 40 wickets in a series against India in the 1982-83 season,
with one of the all-time great displays of fast bowling. His pace, skill and master of the arts
and crafts of bowlsmanship're simply unplayable in a
series in which no other bowler thrived, no
years for that crime. So we've filled in
some of the gaps. I have several questions.
First of all, arts and crafts of bowling.
I can understand the art of it. At what
point does he fashion some sort of ball
or bat himself? Is there a craft involved?
Have I missed this part? The craft in the infinitesimally different way of using the fingers of angling
the seam of breaking the wrist.
Okay, okay. Alright, that answers my first question. Secondly, I don't really understand
cricket that much but is it right from what I've seen if he makes a run from prison, does
somebody else have to run into the prison?
I think that is the case.
Is that how it's done from about 22 yards away?
Yeah, yeah.
That is the case.
If you smuggle something up your bottom into a prison,
is it called something in the crease?
We're gonna have to do a bit of background checking
on that, but let's assume the answer is yes.
Okay.
Andy, quick correction.
Earlier you had said Omar Sharif,
instead of Nawaz Sharif.
Oh, right?
Omar Sharif is an actor who passed away several years ago.
It was in the film Lawrence of Arabia.
Oh, right, okay.
Dr. Shivago filmed in 1965. Okay. Well, it has nothing to do
with the Pakistani election. I don't want to start spreading that now. That's just all sorts of
confusing. Did I genuinely say that? I think so. All right. Pat, if I'm wrong, we can cut this out,
but I'm pretty sure. No, we can keep it in even if you're wrong. I'm happy with it. Look, it just
shows that in modern democracy, you can't trust anything.
You know, would Omar Sharif be a better or worse or more legitimate Prime Minister than Nawaz Sharif?
I don't think we can answer that question. So let's just leave it.
I think we can. I think we can.
And the answer is those smouldering if dead eyes, I would give them a go.
But like I said, I think this is this is great news
I think the controlled use of AI in politics can only be a good thing
Apart from it obviously potentially being and already being a very very very bad thing because not only does it allow politicians who've been incarcerated or emran on
Dubious grounds despite their outstanding
Cricket stats to participate fully in opening the democratic process, but it also allows
for example, awful politicians to be made to say reasonable things. Because I mean, technology always tends to head towards the negative pile driving of
the soul of humanity into the deepest available abyss.
But why not harness the wizardrous witchcraft of AI to make, for example, Bashar al-Assad
make a moving speech in favor of animal
rights or the late Sylvia Berlusconi to expand on the importance of respect and equality between
the sexes or even Donald Trump to say something that doesn't make you want to curl up and into
a ball and sink into a 200-year hibernation. As you hinted at, we can bring dead politicians back
to life. Hari, would you not, with the 2024 US election, would you not rather have Abraham Lincoln versus Frankie Roosevelt
than
Donald Trump versus Joe Biden? I
Would still have that I would I would dig them up
All right, so even without the AR you just take the the corpses. Yeah, okay. I think that honestly
Not that much of a difference at this point
We're talking a matter of years.
But also I think most importantly with AI being used like this, it brings honesty to
the lies that blight our politics because we know politicians are bullshitting us.
We're human, that's the way we roll.
But if we know that it's a lying version of an actual politician that is lying to us that is easier to take
It's like a double negative
I think light arms like was truth or is it libelous like was two lies either way either way it's better for all humanity
Volcano AI news now and well hugely exciting development in the world of
previously unintelligible almost 2,000 year old scrolls
Three students have won seven seven hundred thousand dollar prize for using AI to translate
Text from scrolls that were buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD
buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. These were part of a collection of 800 scrolls that were discovered almost 2,000 years after Vesuvius quite
literally blew its top in a dispute over whether or not people should be living
near a volcano, a dispute that the Celebrity Mountain won quite
conclusively at the time. This is massively exciting Neil, I know you're
obsessed with the ancient Roman world particularly.
Not only the ancient Roman world, but also how it interacts with any sort of
vulcanology, if that's the word. Yeah, yeah, this is extraordinary. Students did
this. Three students used AI pattern recognition that they built themselves to
solve a two thousand year old mystery. When I was a student I ate a Ram's testicle as a dare. These slats.
Let me tell you one thing, you have to take that in stages. Stage one get a good
firm grip of the Ram because this bad boy is not expecting what's about to
happen next and the second ball is even harder because he knows what to expect
after the first one. Anyway this is amazing. The CT scanned these scrolls, which by the way is a massive kick in the
teeth if you've been waiting for hospital tests.
You're on a trolley and the wheel in a scroll into X-ray. Listen, it's fine.
The tumor's only getting a little bit bigger. We need to look at what's in
these two thousand year old papyrus messages.
It could be something very, very time sensitive.
And it's taught that they were found
at what is Julius Caesar's father-in-law's house.
That's what they reckon, that's what the location is.
And then this morning, I don't know,
this is just breaking news, have you seen this?
They found Caesar's diary.
Oh right, okay. It's actually Caesar's, Julius Caesar's diary. I mean, breaking news. Have you seen this? They found Caesar's diary. Oh, right. Okay. Actually Caesar's Julie Caesar's diary
I mean, you've probably haven't seen this but I mean I can read it out if you wish and
The diary of Julius Caesar age 55 and three-quarters
Heading into town later on last night out. Whoo
Brutus has been in a bit of a mood lately, but I'm sure it'll be fine. I
Invented a salad this morning.
I haven't decided on a name yet.
A Julius salad? No, that's not right.
Anyway, today is the 15th of March, 44 BC.
All I was wondering what the BC stands for, I suppose we'll find out eventually.
My back is still at me.
Everyone is recommending acupuncture, but I'm not so sure.
I've been sent out to get bathroom stuff.
Cleo is still refusing to accept a diagnosis
of lactose intolerance.
Anyway, I'll write more tomorrow, I'm sure.
Peace out, J-dog.
Oh, that's...
It's very interesting.
I mean, we wouldn't have gotten this insight without AI.
That's right.
That's what, the BC, I think stands for breaded chicken
that goes with the salad for an extra
An extra fee. I think of course. Yep. I love how these scrolls took like
the article I read said that there was a there was a monk who painstakingly had this
Open these scrolls over the course of
Years so they wouldn't fall apart and then then you have to, they got this incredible machine
to analyze it, they had this contest
where these brilliant students finally pieced together pieces
of the scroll to figure out what it says.
And what it ended up saying was they assume it was
from the philosopher Philodemus.
He apparently in those segments,
those passages they translated,
he writes about music, food, and how to enjoy life's pleasures. They spent all that money
and time and energy to discover an ancient blog. That's all that to just find out what a guy thinks about the stuff around him.
Like rest of the scrolls I assume will be a mix of reviews of local eateries and erotic
fan fiction based on the odyssey and the various poems of Ovid.
Yelpius Maximus I think it was mainly reviews.
Well, if the erotic fan fiction is anything like some of the frescoes that have been discovered
in Pompeii and Herculaneum, it is going to be absolutely monstrously filthy.
It's just going to be a picture book, isn't it?
Wangs everywhere.
But so, while it was with the eruption in 1790 preserved the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum
pretty much
as they were an incredible historical resource although when aged one and a half
my elder child did do a little bit of rearrangement at Herculaneum which was quite I don't think that bit should go over there darling okay you win so but I'm sure it wasn't that important.
So but this is we've only deciphered a tiny fragment of these, these 800 papyrus,
you say there's a lot of speculation about what they could contain lost scripts of classic
works of literature and drama, details of the history, life and politics of one of the
most influential civilizations in the entire history of Italy. The original Latin versions
of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, they could also contain the first draft of the laws of rugby union,
although only 800 scrolls have been found so probably wouldn't be all the laws
of rugby union. And they could also contain proof of whether Robert Oppenheimer
was really the guy who invented the nuclear weapon rather than, as some people now think,
the ancient Greek science was Euclid.
Though some people being you, Euclid, as I've planted the idea,
that is the power of new media.
It is slightly dispiriting, I think,
coming as we do from the 21st century,
that papyrus rolls submerged by a 400 degree Celsius
pyroclastic flow almost 2,000 years ago
have proved more durable than crucial WhatsApp messages
exchanged by leading political figures
during the COVID crisis.
I don't think that brings any glory to the modern age.
But if you're a spy, you know, and you know when they read the meet-up point or whatever
for the dead drop and then they light the piece of paper, surely this is just f*** that entirely.
You can't ever get rid of anything because in 2000, you're some student.
It's just going to decide for a final year project to read through your ashes.
American news now. Harry, what the f*** is going on in America?
I don't know. Right.
Right. What do you mean what?
Two elderly men are arguing publicly about who's going to end the world, all because
we elected a young black man to be president many years ago.
That's what's happening.
Now these two old geezers are going at it.
It's just horrendous, horrendous.
When the bugle relaunched, Hari,
you did the very first episode with me in New York,
and that was just before the 2016 presidential election.
Did you think that eight years later,
we'd be here with Trump and Joe Biden running for office.
I didn't expect eight years later.
Right, okay.
So this is all off from here.
It's a bonus.
Every day's a bonus, oh good.
So specifically, well Trump, I mean,
it's quite hard to narrow down Trump
to just one little section of the bugle
every week these days, but he did something that I don't
think many American presidential candidates would have done in the past, and that is encourage
an enemy nation to attack America's allies. He basically said, in a speech he reported a
conversation he said he had when he was president, saying that if a NATO country had not paid its bills
He would encourage Russia to do quotes whatever the hell they want
I mean this
I mean, it's gonna make the world exciting if he starts applying this when he if he wins the election
Exciting is was one word for it. Yes, it's an exciting turn of events.
I like it the logic I would encourage Russia to attack countries who are in
an organization that was created to protect countries from being attacked
by Russia. Like also it doesn't attacking a NATO ally mean that other NATO members
would have to respond it's like Russia hurt Portugal NATO attack Russia from
hurting porch like it's just it's a real ma it's a mafia Don type thing like
it's like Portugal like if Portugal doesn't pay its fees well then Portugal
maybe you don't pay your dues and when Russia attacks
I look the other way maybe
Maybe it takes a few extra hours to get there
Tropes just walk around knocking over buss of Ferdinand Magellan going oh, okay, it will be a shame if I broke the next one
Oh
You got a bus to Henry the navigator
It will be an awful shame if it was replaced by this Buster
Katheryn the Great, if you know what I mean.
You know, when you don't book a seat like on a plane,
you don't upgrade yourself.
And then you find out that there's a free seat
and you haven't paid for it.
And you look at the suckers who did pay for it.
And you've gotten the same result as them.
That's what Ireland feels like now
because we haven't joined NATO and it looks like you're all going to be attacked anyway.
The White House called Trump's comments appalling and unhinged and I guess the problem for Biden,
Hari, is that no matter how hard he tries to convince voters that he can be as
appalling and unhinged as Trump, he just can't match him on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis.
No. No. That little bit of integrity, knowledge, and expertise has prevented him from saying
batshit crazy things on a regular basis. and keep in mind. This is without Twitter
It would be so much worse if it was like when Twitter was using like when Trump was using Twitter all the time
This is you know the occasional public statement. So, you know
It's gonna get get if he wins. It's gonna be bad. It's gonna be really bad and fairness Biden does say
He does get mixed up. He doesn't say horrendous stuff like that,
but he does get mixed up. Like he said this week that when that when that report came out and it
said that he was a, what was the phrase he was, he had a poor memory and he would come across as
a sympathetic, well-meaning older man, but with a very poor memory. And then he did the press
conference to lay everybody's fears that he didn't have a poor memory. And he said that the president of Egypt,
El Sisi, was in fact the president of Mexico.
So, I mean, how do you mix up such distinct
and different countries?
It is very easy surely to keep such famous stories
about those places clear in your head.
Like whether it's little Zorro being floated down
the Rio Grande as a child in a basket a basket that later took his name and then years
later parting the Red Sea and fleeing with the Israelites or or Davy Crockett
fighting the Nazis at the Battle of El Alamo I mean and that is a portmanteau
between El Alamin and Alamo and if you can find a better pun on Mexican and
Egyptian battles I am all yours my friends. Do you remember
a couple of years ago when he ever gave him block the Suez Canal right in the heart of
Tijuana? Do you remember that? There was a suggestion that the captain got distracted
listening to the famous bangles hit Walk Like a Mexican. You remember this? In 1965 when
Carlos Santana played the lead in Dr. Chivago. He put Mexican acting on the map. He laid
down a marker. And it was him. It wasn't the president of Pakistan and the Sharif. It was
Carlos Santana. You cannot confuse these cultures. Is it for this that goddess Basne, the cat
of Ra, hunted Speedy Gonzalez? Surely not. Is it for this that Cleopatra killed herself
by being bitten on the breast by Tucho Owas?
No.
No, it's not.
And apparently she was so bitter about being vanquished by Octavian, the dogs licked a line
of salt down the shot and then beat her to kill the taste.
I couldn't even get to the end of that sentence myself.
I mean, to be fair, like, confusing Mexico and Egypt is a mistake any American could
make.
So, it's not gonna hurt him here.
Trump's defenders and enablers have claimed
that he doesn't really mean what he says
when he says these things.
And to us, I don't know if that would be better or worse.
I mean, for a start, A, he clearly does mean these things.
But if anything, he probably actually reigned himself
in a bit when he merely said that he would have encouraged Russia to do what the hell they
want.
I think what he probably meant was, chances are these countries are one or more of French
or German, so frankly I'd f***ing nuke the cheese and or sausage eating f***s myself
as soon as I can lock myself in the Oval Office with my big red button and 25 burgers
to keep me going whilst I watch Armageddon unfold on Fox.
So if anything, we should be grateful that he's, you know, obviously developed some kind of verbal
restraint. You mentioned the Joe Biden case there, the inquiry that found that Biden had
willfully retained and disclosed classified files but did not charge him and said in a 345 page report that was well extremely uncompromising
said that the president had significant limitations in his memory and it would be difficult to
convict him because quotes at trial, Biden would likely present himself to a jury as a sympathetic
well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. I mean, I guess it,
again, it tells a lot about the strange world of American politics in 2024, that being a sympathetic
well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory, obviously that's not ideal for a presidential
candidate, but it seems to be worse than being an antagonistic malevolent, cantankerous elderly
c***** with a poor and willfully selective memory, but I guess such are the times
What a choice Ari what a choice America is facing. I mean
You got it Trump's old to you have to remember Biden is like an old 81
That's a ridiculous thing to say, but he's like an old 81 and Trump is a young 77
Like you can you can see the difference.
I mean, I think my way, like my test to see
if someone should be president or not is,
do you trust them behind the wheel of a car?
Perhaps the country is a bad idea for Biden.
Still not gonna vote for Teddy Kennedy then, is it?
Right. Even though he's
no longer with us but that's not the main reason Harry would vote for him. Biden is
meant to have shared his classified information from his diaries with his
ghostwriter. Now, is anybody else feeling uncomfortable given how old Biden is with the term ghost writer?
I could just feel too close to the bone, doesn't it?
I mean, they're giving him all this shit for bringing documents home.
Like, I believe his response was, of course I brought documents home, otherwise I would
have forgotten what I did. Also, they were in the basement, the garage of his Delaware home and he was living somewhere
else in a different state at the time.
I'm moving at the moment and I have no idea where anything is.
There's no way he knew that.
I could open the fridge and Lord Longford would be talking to Cheragar about the fourth secret of Fatima.
You haven't a f***ing clue what anywhere. And never mind being 80 won. He didn't know what was going on. He didn't know where anything was.
So I'm going to give him a pass on that. Let's talk about Tucker Carlson, please.
Yeah, the Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin. I mean, possibly one of the,
it's gonna go down as one of the all time
great conversations in human history, isn't it?
I mean, you may sort of mentioned Moses,
one of his chat with God that ended up with him
introducing the tablet to humanity
that's ruined our children's lives so much.
But Carlson and Putin,
that's gotta be right up there in terms of human communication,
isn't it?
How he got that whole thing down his throat is just unbelievable.
Probably, yeah.
I would imagine they warmed them up with a small one and then a slightly bigger one,
given that it's Russia, and then a slightly bigger one, and then a slightly bigger one given that it's Russia and then a slightly bigger one and then a slightly bigger one that's how we probably did it. Tucker Carlson who looks like Woody
from Toy Story mid-colonoscopy just covered himself in shame didn't he? He asked questions,
talk about softball it was somewhere between the questions a royal would ask at the opening of a
community centre and questions that you would ask at a teenage beauty pageant.
Or if you want to combine the two, the questions Prince Andrew would ask on a date. He allowed
a 20 minute lecture on Russian history from Putin and didn't fact check any of it. And Putin,
all the experts afterwards said, he made up all sorts of shit. It was like, oh yeah, when Jesus
was born, the three wise men came from the east. Now they were Stalin, Lenin and Lev Yashin.
That's right, the finest goalkeeper the Soviet Union has ever produced.
Anyway, it's a long story, but they gave Jesus a sour-unsuring of power and he went through
the looking glass where he asked Boney M to kill the Romanovs and that is how the state
of Russia was founded.
And Carlson was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds right.
He didn't ask any tough questions that a proper journalist would have asked the Russian
Premier. Like what about what about Maria Paul? How many dolls is too many dolls
inside each other? Should Ivan Drago have just used his superior reach and jabbed
Rocky into submission? None of the tough questions that we all want answered.
I've always wondered that as well. Strange thing though.
I mean, he clearly had the height Harry.
He clearly had it.
Why was he getting dragged in?
He should have boxed.
He should have bite it.
He shouldn't have gotten involved in a brawl.
I mean, just.
He tasted blood when he killed Apollo and he just wanted more.
That's what happened.
I know, I know, you see, many a man has lost in the fiction.
In a fiction boxing fight because of that.
I'm kind of, I was going to congratulate you, Neil, on the first...
Well, this is now 291st episode since we've relaunched.
I think we did 294 in the John Oliver...
First Leviashan...
Yeah, I was going to say, well done on the first Leviashan reference,
but I just did a quick search on my computer,
and I'm afraid I think it's the second Leviashan reference we've found.
Yeah, but I mean, how long is the gap between the two you see?
Well it was, I found it looking for a word search in issue 4058 so that's what
200 and 130, 34. I was gonna say Kanchelskis.
Right. But Kanchelskis was born in Ukraine I just thought that would mix up stuff. Oh, that could have been very provocative
Yeah, that's what I thought as well
So I thought I would go with somebody who was hardcore Soviet Union era. Anyway, well done. This is the research
I do for you. That's that is what I expect Neil and well done for stepping up to the plate
But Middle East update now and well, it's extremely hard to digest the news from the Middle East update now and well it's extremely hard to digest the news from the Middle East
so I'm going to give it to you in five seconds in the form of a single sound.
Let's move on.
Sport now and well the Super Bowl last night an absolutely spectacular game
that shifted through various moods and passages and ended up with a
Titanic finish with Kansas City winning a second consecutive Super Bowl.
How's it pronounced? The Hives? The Hives? The Kansas City Hives. The Hives. Beat the San Francisco 49ers in overtime.
Hari, I know you're a big sports fan.
It was an intense and dramatic game.
I just want to congratulate Taylor Swift on that amazing catch in overtime.
The way she cut and then was able to it was a
pressure situation she just pulled it in touchdown she was so shocked she didn't
even start celebrating because I'm like I just caught a touch on and and also
congratulations to Taylor Swift for throwing that touchdown her ability to
stay focused in such a difficult situation,
clutch moment and throw it to herself was something else.
And so congratulations to Taylor Swift
on her first Super Bowl victory.
That's why she's paid the big bucks,
one of the highest paid celebrities in the world.
And it's to do those kind of things
under that kind of pressure, I guess,
is why she's worth that.
That's correct.
Yeah. It was interesting afterwards that a number of the Kansas players and staff thanked God for helping them win their third Super Bowl in five seasons.
And you know the old saying from science, if three or more people say
something, it's probably correct.
That's also how news works as well as science and hype, of course, and and religion and the fact that
Kansas had God on their side that does raise a few questions one is
God a Swifty, I think we can assume that he is
to
should God not be
focusing on something more important than American football and
three why does God have it in for San Francisco?
Actually, let's probably not
Too closely but um
Also, is this the proof that conservative Christian America needs that Donald Trump is not the guy
They should be getting behind because it's well known that the chief's win was part of an overt conspiracy
By Taylor Swift to shape America according to her every win and still yet another election from Trump.
And God just helped Swift in the Chiefs to victory in a game that if played in a godless
universe on the balance of play over the course of the match, they would obviously have lost.
So, is this going to turn Christian America against Trump, do you think, Harry?
No, first of all, this just proves that God is a gambler,
is a horrible gambler and likes to rig it.
That's all it is. He made a ton from Ganesha off this shit.
I mean, look, Taylor Swift is a weapon that the left could use if anyone
who's running the Democratic Party knows who she is since they're
all, you know, around Biden's age.
But the right hates her and she has so many fans, many of which are voting age, that actually
could have some impact.
I have also heard that perhaps if she said something
about what is happening in Gaza, it would have an impact.
But of course that's not going to happen because, you know.
I guess the wheel never ever getting back together
does lay out the difficulties of a two-stage solution.
Ha ha ha!
I was struggling for a punchline in that video Andy, thank you.
I was like, I come up with something.
Come up with something.
Rift something funny about Israel in Gaza right now.
I'm afraid I'm now out of Taylor Swift references with that one song.
I mean, thank God you rescued all of us there.
We're all reaching for why don't the other Middle East countries get involved and scrabbling
around for shake it off, spelled S-H-E-I-K.
You rescued that situation.
Thank God.
Thank God, Andy.
Which God?
Who knows?
Let's not get into the game.
It was a compelling game and Patrick Mahomes, the star quarterback, struggled in the first
half and then came through with some amazing play underpre-
And obviously I watch a lot of sport,
both recreationally and in recent years professionally.
And I have such respect for people who can do those
kind of things under pressure.
See, you know, a lot of the England cricket team
in pressure situations.
Because when I, I often find myself crumbling slightly
under the weight of potential victory
towards the business end of a game of past the pigs
on a family holiday,
when the opportunity to defeat my wife and two children
looms tantalizingly within reach.
And I can just feel that tension gripping me,
the decision making, getting a little bit clouded.
The one time I took a penalty in a shootout
in a football game as a student in a second 11 game from my college. And I mean college in the, not in the American
sense of something with thousands and thousands of people. This is the second 11 of about 300
people most didn't play football. And I had to take a penalty and I dribbled it straight down the middle
so slowly that the goalkeeper was actively laughing by the time the ball got to him.
And of course that was that time I found myself having to stand in for George Foreman in that
boxing fight in Kinshasa back in the day. And what I must say was a very realistic George Foreman
outfit and I couldn't make my early superiority count. I didn't keep that mental clarity you
need at those moments. I fell into the trap the other guy was setting. What was his name again?
I forget. But in mitigation I was only 24 days old at the time.
But still, I really respect those who can perform
with that level of brilliance when it matters most
within the sporting universe's scale of mattering a lot.
It was, yeah, it was, it was up to, yeah, 430 UK time.
It's not for you though, there's some degree
of comfort and uncertainty in a world where we're influenced by many things and
you know, are you European anymore if Britain has
Committed Brexit are you you know, are you what religion are you?
What race are you? I mean, I think there's some degree of comfort to take from the certainty that missing that penalty confirmed that at least
You are 100% English At least you know that. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Too soon? Too soon?
Well that brings us to the end of this week's Bugle. I'd like to have you both.
On Do You Have Anythings To Plug? Harry?
both on do you have anything to plug? Harry?
My special vacation baby still available on YouTube.
They haven't pulled it yet.
They haven't pulled it.
Apparently they can't pull it
because the quality control isn't an issue.
You can still put it up even if it's,
no it's a very good special.
You should watch it in three.
I got shows June 21st and 22nd
in a bugled, stronghold, Dayton, Kentucky, which is close to Cincinnati, to be very serious.
It's actually a border Cincinnati. And then Sunday, June 23rd in Cleveland, Ohio. So,
yeah, my website's hurrycundamolu.com, which obviously just means
you type in hurry on Google and see what happens.
Neil. Yeah, I'm doing a full tour around Ireland and the UK. I've added a few UK dates. I'm doing
London, Pleasants, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Glasgow, in the stand. And I
Liverpool Manchester Birmingham and Glasgow understand and I
Follow me on social media at Neil Dellimer comedy and our fifth series of our podcast Why would you tell me that is out in a week and we talk about really random stuff and I think people who like to be able to enjoy it?
I will now plug the bugle tour
In fact, we've got a QR code that you can... It's an audio QR code. So listen carefully. From the top left, obviously, you start with a black box inside a white
box, inside a black box protected to the right and bottom by a wall of white. Then top row,
little white square, two little black squares, little white square, little black square,
three little white squares, two little black squares, white square, black square, both
little white square. Just go to the website, the buglepodcast.com. It's probably easier live dates around England and Scotland
through March do come to all of those shows. Also, if you want to join the Bugle Voluntary
Subscription Scheme to help keep this show free from advertisements flourishing and
independent, go to thebughalpodcast.com and click the donate button. Premium level subscribers will get our exclusive subscriber only vinyl record, which is currently
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And also monthly ask Andy show for our subscribers when I answer all of some of your questions.
Thank you for listening.
Until next time, buglers, buy your tickets to the show and goodbye.