Tomorrow - Big Tech’s Big Election

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

It's a big week, Josh and Rani discuss how tech companies are positioning themselves for Trump's America 2.0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, and welcome to tomorrow. I'm your host, Joshua Tupolsky. And I'm your other host, Roddy Mola. And we come to you at the dawn of a new age in America. The dawn. The day after election day. Dawn, dawn day, Donald Trump. The day after a historic election in America, a presidential election, where Donald J. Trump, Donald John Trump, horrible middle name for, I think,

in between Donald and Trump, in my opinion, but that's just one man's take. Let's skip it. Donald Trump. Donald John Trump has my opinion, but that's just one man's take. Let's get that Donald Trump. Donald John Trump has reclaimed the office of president. He's reclaimed the presidency in America. And it's really a sweeping win. I mean, in a very, it's not like,

it wasn't like last time we were waiting till like Friday for Georgia to count the vote. I was like checking, right? I'm like, how long did it take Georgia to tell us who won Georgia? Last election with Biden and Trump, it was until I think they didn't call it until Friday. And this was very decisive.

And it looks like the Republicans are gonna take the Senate. They've taken the Senate rather. It looks like they're gonna take the House. They have control of, they have a majority, conservative majority on the Supreme Court. So yeah, I mean, new era for America. Trump has obviously promised some pretty sweeping action,

mass deportations and a crackdown on his political enemies. He wants to clean out the government of long-time government employees and either, I guess, empty those roles out or replace them with loyalists or whatever. So we're entering a really interesting age in America. Interesting, he's doing a lot of work there. Interesting, he's doing a lot of work there. Interesting, he's doing a lot of work. I'm, you know, my stance on it is, you know, America went out and voted.

America voted and they voted for what they wanted and now we have it. And, you know, obviously- And now we're gonna sleep in this bed. Oh, about half the country didn't, but the turnout was actually low on the, on the Democrat side. What it's looking like is a lot of people

who showed up for Biden did not show up for Kamala Harris. Now, this is not a political podcast. We're not gonna go too deep into the politics side of it. I certainly, I'm sure anybody who has ever heard me talk about anything knows I could speak for, I'm sure both of us, Ronnie, could talk for a long time about the political implications. Yeah, but I will not be doing that.

I think we're, yeah, I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that quietly and at home to the wall. But, because you know, I don't wanna waste my breath basically, I think, but there are like, there are some really interesting things at play now in the country. I mean, besides obviously what, you know, is, I think, look, you know, without, again, without turning this into a political conversation,

there are a lot of people in the country who are probably very worried right now. And there are a lot of people in the country who are probably very happy right now. And I think- It's about half and half, I think. It's about half and half. By the vote.

And I'm not sure that the latter, the happy people have a perfect idea of what's in store. You know, so, but I think the, and I think we're all sort of like, there's a question of how far will Trump go now that he has all of this power, has consolidated all of this power. But what's interesting to me,

I mean, there are many things that are interesting, obviously. Couple of things. One on, I feel like it's clarifying a little bit to know, like you had, you know, we had a choice. We had all the facts in front of us. There wasn't any, you know, the election fraud, which Trump talked a lot about leading up to the election

and was happening, you know, according to him, early in the day on election day, cleared up at night, which was great. I think that's terrific. Around the time when he realized he was gonna win. Are we terrific that we got, we nipped the election fraud quickly and got that. Cause I haven't heard anybody say anything about it.

And so that's good. But you know, it's very clarifying to go, all right, well, this is like, this is kind of like, it's very, it's not like, well, we have a divided, you know, the Senate's over here and the presidency is over here. It's very like one track. There are going to be some big and rapid changes. I think so.

And the other thing is that this is very much a, so far, I mean, obviously Trump's claim to fame is he's a businessman, and successful or not, he's certainly has painted himself as a successful businessman. And he is in this one, there was a lot of the, the voices from the business world and voices from the tech world, our world,

spoke up pretty loudly and pretty clearly about Trump. And many of them, many of those voices were very much pro Trump. I mean, I'm thinking of like the Mark Andreessen's, you know, like people like Jason Calcanis. I'm thinking of, you know, the richest man in the world. Sure, Elon Musk. Elon Musk. I'm getting to him.

I'm getting, I'm working my way up the ladder, you know. There is this sort of consensus and we've seen it, it reflected in the market at the moment that Trump is the guy who's gonna be good for business, that he's going to deregulate, that he's going to give corporations and their leaders attractive tax breaks, that it's going to be kind of a free for all when it comes to the free market, in a way.

And free in this case. The free for all market. The free for all market is you heard it here first. Ronnie has coined it. And she has to receive a small percentage of anything you do based on that. Now that you've listened to her say it. Um, but, but, uh, the, yeah, it's like Elon Musk, I think played a, I would don't know how much of a role he actually played.

I mean he was the biggest donor, the biggest donor. So money and money is absolutely a big deal. And, and on his platform, you know, he was the biggest donor. The biggest donor, so money, and money is absolutely a lever. Money is a big deal. And on his platform, you know, he has a big social, obviously like arguably, you know, arguable how important it is, but it is a certainly a platform that he was putting his thumb on. I think with Twitter X, as they call it now,

certainly a platform, certainly, you know certainly a few hundred million people on that. I think questionable as to whether or not it actually swayed anybody. I think there's a lot of agriers on Twitter at this point. I don't think Musk's fan base, the really hardcore fans, the ones who are cheering him on on X or whatever, on Twitter are like, you know, very disagreeable when it comes to his sort of stance on things.

So I don't know how much it had anything to do. I don't believe that Twitter had any impact on the election whatsoever. But for Musk personally, the election has, seems to have huge impact on him, right? Right, yeah, I wrote about this today. You know, there's a lot of talk going into it, like why is he sort of shooting himself in the foot?

He has an electric car company. And Trump has said, I'm going to get rid of subsidies to electric car companies. A lot of Tesla's profit comes from these credits. They get money for, because they have electric engines, they trade with other car companies. They trade like these credits and they make a lot of money that way because they don't put out any emissions from gas engines. So that's like kind of weird scheme. I think weird scheme thing, but it's like not probably not actually doing anything

that positive for right. Not directly. It's kind of just offloading that and giving, putting money into Tesla's pockets. And people have criticized it before Tesla before saying that that's a, that's kind of not a fair way to, you know, say how well their business is doing because they're kind of just getting credits from other businesses that don't have electric cars or as many. Anyway, so people were wondering like, you know, why would he side with Trump who's said that he would get rid of a lot of subsidies to electric car companies. You would think that that would be bad for Elon Musk,

but it seems to me that he's been just, he's been bigger picturing it. Like every time you listen to like one of his earnings call, he's like, no, no, no, you guys, you're missing the point. You're missing the point. It's all about autonomous. It's about the future. It's about the future. It's about the future.

It's about the future. And I think that's what he's getting to, because Trump has promised that he would make Milan this sort of cost cutter in chief. I mean, yeah, there's the EV. Well, there's also a piece of this that's like new EV makers get the offer. There's tax incentives, right?

Tax incentives. For buying an EV car, buying an EV. And now I think they're saying, because Tesla has already kind of like worked through, it's like, there's a certain, like the way the regulation was set up is that you get a certain number of vehicles, like you can sell a hundred thousand of them or something

that get credit or get like, you know, whatever, there's some number and then you're done with the tax credits you can't offer. There's some, there was some notion that, that automakers who are enjoying, like you being able to offer that will like that will, they'll run that they'll kill like, like to Elon's advantage, they'll kill that.

So it kind of levels the playing field in terms of like, well, you're not getting a tax credit if you buy a Rivian, you know, and I think currently people are, there's stuff like that going on. But I mean, I think, the thing about EVs is interesting. I don't, I mean, I haven't looked at, I don't know what the, I don't have the data in front of me. I haven't seen the demographics on who's buying Teslas

based on, I would say anecdotal evidence based on like what seems to be the trend line amongst, you know, Trump seems like seems like Trump supporters. There's not a huge Republican like love of EVs as a concept, obviously, like you think about like the traditional GOP alignment with fossil fuel industries. Internal combustion engines, et cetera. Classic automakers, you know, in, exactly like,

so it'll be interesting to see how much that actually plays out in reality. It sounds to me, just like from some of the chatter I heard about Trump and Elon on election night, that he's a big fan, that Trump has become a big, big fan of Elon Musk. I mean, he would too, if you got all that money from him. And like there were strange bedfellows and now they're sort of, he's like, Trump has become a big, big fan of Elon Musk. I mean, he would too, if you got all that money from him. And like there were strange bedfellows

and now they're sort of, Trump has like come around. He's like, Elon is a genius. I think, and I think it's also partially, there is this huge push from Musk and Joe Rogan and people like that. There's this kind of like getting like young men to go out and vote for Trump. That seems to- It was the cyber truck, wasn't it?

It was just the cyber truck. I mean, the cyber truck, that does seem like- It was the out and vote for Trump. That seems to- It was the cyber truck, wasn't it? It was just the cyber truck. I mean, the cyber truck. That does seem like- It was the best advertising of all time. Yeah, and I think there does seem to be, that does seem to have, I don't wanna say that it was effective

because I think people are still sorting through the demographic numbers of the election, but I think that it's perceived as being effective. I think Trump perceives it as being effective. So like what, yeah, Elon is entangled already with the government a bunch of different ways. Starlink and SpaceX have contracts with the government.

There's all sorts of regulation stuff going on with all of his companies. Seems like he will have an opportunity to just bust through regulatory hurdles. Right, if he is the guy in charge, if he is the guy in charge of cutting, I think he said $2 trillion from the federal budget, he's obviously going to cut things that would be a pain in the ass to him.

And they say that now. I don't think people care about the federal budget. I don't think Trump cares about the federal budget. I mean, if I recall under Trump from 2016 to 2020, it was a huge spike in federal spending. I think, I mean, you can get, you know, fact check me on this. Yeah, I'm looking this up.

I think that he massively inflated our debt. And I don't, I think this is, I think there's a little bit of a, it's a bit of a ruse to talk about like cleaning. I think where they wanna clean houses in places that inhibit things that Trump values, like business people getting things they need to do, you know, to do business.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying any of this will like actually happen, but I do think like, I do think if Musk is in charge of cutting something, like why wouldn't he cut the government bureaucracy that's been the most painful to him? Yeah, no, no, no, for sure. I mean, he can get rid of whoever is in charge. The FAA, the National Highway and Transportationists.

Yeah, presumably he's like, well, I wanna be able to ship my autonomous taxi or whatever, even if the software is like, kind of like only 60% there. And like there's some regulatory body that would prevent that or at least like go after him for it. I'm sure he could eliminate that. It'll be interesting to see.

I mean, also again, interesting doing a lot of work because like the federal agencies that he's been complaining about a lot are, you know the FAA, the, you know, aviation association and like the national highway traffic safety administrationation Association, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Sure. He's been getting- OSHA. He's gonna get rid of OSHA probably,

so there's no workplace regulations. That's- Right. I mean, for sure. Like he was, I mean, I think the- There are pain to him, but they also are protecting us. Like they're protecting- No, listen- People who drive on the roads and fly in the air.

Sure, I mean, you can make all kinds of reasonable arguments, Ronnie, like the FAA is good because they create regulations for the airlines and the airplane industry. And that keeps us safe because they're like, hey, you have to make sure your doors don't fall off or whatever the rules are. Right, you made a bunch of last minute plans, Elon Musk. You can't have a pilot who can't fly drunk, or they can only do a certain number of hours. are. You made a bunch of last minute plans, Elon Musk. A pilot can't fly drunk

or they can only do a certain number of hours. But that gets in the way of squeezing every dime out of the consumer. And I think, look, it'll be interesting to see how much chaos is actually sown and where it takes place. I mean, there's like RFK Jr. Who's another one of his like the buddies now Trump's buddies. He's there like, we're gonna put him in charge of like

the FDA, the food and drug administration. And it's like, he wants to remove fluoride from the water because there's a conspiracy theory that fluoride is used for like mind control or whatever. So we got like raw milk and no fluoride. You know, one thing, I actually heard RFK, I heard an interview with RFK, I was just after the, you know, one thing, I actually heard an interview with RFK, I was just after the, you know, today,

early today or something. And maybe it was, I don't know where it was from, but it was somebody was asking him like, what would you do, you know? And he actually made one interesting, somewhat cogent point. I'm like, of course, like loathe to lay on too much credit to RFK who normally says completely insane things. Like, he doesn't think, like he's like-

Is the guy who ran over the bear and killed the bear? He didn't run over the bear. He didn't run over the bear. Killed the bear? I mean, that's what he said. The bear was found dead, which is- And then put it in Central Park? Okay, that guy.

Sure, he placed it in Central Park, I think that- Who among us? Who among us has not? But he actually did make a, he did make a comment about food in America, which is true. And if you have traveled at all outside of America, you will find that this is an interesting reality.

He mentioned how in, I think he actually specifically says, Fruit Loops or Fruit Roll-Ups or something. He specifically cites like a- To the bottom of my food pyramid. Yeah, but he was like, how come it has like 19 crazy processed ingredients in America and you go to Canada and the same thing has like four ingredients.

And I do think there are different standards in this country. I mean, in a way what he said is actually an unbelievably thoughtful and maybe attractive point, which is we've, because of the way that big business has had a connection to our federal government and our regulatory bodies, if they can create Froot Loops for cheaper

using microplastics instead of flour or whatever. They're like, hey, we can make the fruit loops 4 cents cheaper for us. And certainly, our regulatory bodies are not like, hey, wait, what's in that stuff? I mean, there's a lot of situations where we found super processed food and all these chemicals that are put in them are actually like.

Yes, we know it is very bad for you. And yeah, we do not want to be eating plastic. I for you and like, yeah, we do not wanna be eating plastic. I hate to be like, yeah, like he makes a good point, but there is some stuff where you go, yeah, okay, I agree with him. We should scrutinize, are we, if we look at countries like France or the UK or Canada, wherever, are we doing worse for the citizens

by kind of having these alignments and allegiances with corporations? But the funny thing is like, that's what Trump wants everywhere. So how does this square? Cause like for them, if you ask like Procter and Gamble, like why do you have 19 ingredients and you know, Fruit Loops in the US,

where it's not because like the FDA was like, you need to add this stuff. It's because they were- It's because they're a big business and they're like, we could eke out two more cents on this. They're looking for cheaper ways to produce the food. And maybe they need like preservatives that are stronger so they can keep it on the shelf longer.

There's all these like implications. And in Canada or wherever, they're like, hey, we don't do that. And it's harder for them to like be as profitable as they are here probably. So the question is like, what happens when, I mean, it's probably, they're probably that many good ideas, but like. Okay, so he has a good idea, right?

But then it runs up against this idea that we have. It'll be interesting to see. We have a very pro big business candidate who like would be at odds with that. Well, I think if he can make vaccines illegal, which seems like it'll be high on RFK's list of things to do is to outlaw vaccines, then he probably will give in

on like the processed food side of it. But anyhow, so, but it is this like, I guess what I'm pointing out is the thing with Musk and we should, we can talk a little bit more about where Musk is going with this, but there is, this does seem to be the conceit here is it's a very business and commerce and capitalism-focused

like brigade that is like looking at, it's like looking at the government through the eyes of, you know, when he talks about, when Trump talks about tariffs and when he talks about immigrants, like they're all, it's all very much. I mean, you know, he's having business conversations. It's like America is this business

and we have to make the business stronger. This is sort of like, if you take him at face value, which honestly, like, I think you can take Trump at face value for the most part. Like, it's not like he says one thing and does another. Like- Wait, what? Yeah, I think Trump usually is like, I'm gonna deport everybody.

And then the next day, like there's a deportation like thing. And like, we're just saying like the budget went up a lot. And then, well, no, I mean, that's like, that's, that's just, that's not, I mean, I don't even know if Trump is ever actually saying that he says random stuff. That's like not important, but when, but there's a bunch of stuff he says where he's like, he's going to do something. It sounds crazy. And you know, the people are like, oh, he won't do that.

And then it's like, he definitely will. Okay. So I think like... So believe him when he says crazy things. I do think it's, yes. I mean, there are obviously it's, he lies a lot, but not about things that are like, when he's like talking about rounding people up

and deporting them. I don't think he's lying about that. He just lies about what the... He lies about like not spiking federal spending or whatever. Like he doesn't care about, that's like dumb, annoying politics that I don't think Trump- It's like quiet nerd. Yeah, it's like there's some other guy

who's got to count the beans or whatever. That's not what he's focused on. So he might say it, cause it sounds good. He's gonna protect healthcare or whatever in America, or he's gonna come up with something better. But ideally, what he's gonna do is, I mean. But ideally, like what he's gonna do is like, I mean, he's just saying that like, cause people wanna, some people wanna hear it.

Again, I'm not, this is not political commentary. I just think we've seen, he says a lot of stuff that it's not like, but when he makes a thing like, I'm gonna do, and he's like, I'm gonna do this. Like a lot of the time it's like, okay, he is gonna do it. So, so I do think like, yeah, he will definitely put like RFK in charge of like the food and drug administration. And that will be really interesting. And again, interesting, he will definitely put like RFK in charge of like the food and drug administration

And that will be really interesting and right again interesting. He's doing a lot of work. It'll be crazy to see Elon Musk get better for you know fruit by the foot and You know no vaccines. I mean how much in the real world does Elon Musk's like plan work? I guess is the question it's like he gets let's say he gets control of these regulatory bodies, and he's getting rid of the corruption and getting rid of cutting the fat. And it's like, at some point, cars fall apart or something.

Cars crash, and a ton of people die. Right, but in that interstitial space, that sucks for a lot of people. That's horrible, right? I'm actually saying, let's go further than that. It sucks in that interstitial interim period. But then do we now just, because of the way things are arranged in the government,

is it like Elon Musk is like, hey, I don't want regulations on self-driving cars anymore. And they're like, OK, done. And then he's like, I'm releasing full self-drive, and it's going to be perfect, and everybody's going to love it. And then people start using it, and everybody's getting into crashes. Right, and a botnet of white Teslas comes after you.

Yeah, but then there's a lawsuit, right? Because somebody's like, hey, these cars are unsafe, and we're filing a class action lawsuit against Tesla. But then it just goes eventually to the Supreme Court, and they toss it out because they're part of the system. So is that the way it'll be then? It doesn't matter. There are no consequences for anything, do we think?

He can kind of actually do whatever he wants. I don't mean Trump. I mean Elon Musk. I don't know. He's obviously such an iconoclast in so many ways and has the money and the gumption to do all this. So like, maybe like I'm not going to, I don't really think I'm going to wait for like a class action lawsuit to like put him back in his place or something. Yeah, like as you said, it would go up to the Supreme Court and then maybe that wouldn't even work there. That's a terrifying future where there is like no consequence to anything where you can kind of like, it's like, it does feel a little bit like moving backward,

like how automobiles used to be. Wasn't that like the history of very dangerous cars? Oh yeah. And then there was regulation because the killing of people unnecessarily. Totally, and you've got systems there that can be like utilized to affect change. I don't know in the current makeup of the government

as it will be like on January 20th or whatever, I don't know that those structures exist. But who knows? I mean, it'll be an interesting era. Again, I don't wanna keep using that word. It'll be a, it's an, we're in uncharted waters for the, what's that? Back to free for all.

Yeah, free for all. Free for all. I mean, we're in very uncharted territory in terms of like what happens to the kind of concept of how America does things. And I think that relates directly to, you know, you look at, we were talking about this before we started, the regulation, the attempt at breaking up big tech.

This is an interesting one actually, right? Because JD Vance has praised Lena Kahn. Right, he said she's actually done some pretty good work and like he- To break up big tech companies, right? To focus on Google or whoever. Something he sort of supports as well, the idea of breaking up some of these big tech companies like Google. Right. And so it's interesting there is like you've got a little bit of,

I'm loathe to use the word bipartisan, because I don't think that that's a term that makes sense in America at this point. What's it called when your president and vice president disagree maybe? That's not bipartisan. Yeah, no, I don't know. I don't know what that is. But I think the question of big tech is a really interesting one to me

because what is the stance? It does seem to be like everybody's like, I mean, I think there's like two different sides on this. Like what the Democrat might say or what it feels like the Democrats were saying was these companies are too big. They have too much control and too much influence and they're squeezing out other businesses and we need to do something about that.

And Trump was saying like, they're not giving me, it's not fair to me what's happening on Instagram or Metta or Twitter or whatever back in his first term. That's what he was complaining about. Correct. A lot of the Republican talking points around tech has been they're censoring us. They're not allowing free speech. It's not usually about the big monopoly. It sometimes is.

I don't know how you make the argument now though. There seems to be no good argument for it. I mean, if the election is a reflection of the kind of waters that we're all swimming in, in a case like, let's say, you know, censorship of speech or whatever, it wouldn't seem... If the people saying it, like, we're being censored, are the winners, if their message got across, it doesn't seem to mirror... Can you still be the victim then? Well, for sure.

Of course. You can always be the victim. I think, so it's an interesting, like, will they pursue that? I think they're not going to keep, they're going to do away with pretty much anybody who's in a position of power at this point, right? And replace them with somebody who is more loyal to the Trump and the Trump agenda. And the big, I just put up a thing of the, all the big tech CEOs coming out and publicly congratulating Trump. This is obviously what they did for, they did this for Biden too,

except actually Musk and Zuckerberg didn't publicly congratulate Biden after his inauguration. Because Biden doesn't care and they know it and they're like, well, maybe I don't like Biden or whatever, but like, it's not going to matter. This is a very much a kiss the ring type of situation. Yes, definitely. It feels real ring kissy to me.

You could just feel them, like they all had almost like identical copy in their tweets or their threads posts, like Zuckerberg and Bezos and Sundar Pichai and Satya, like, it was like the same thing. They're all like, congratulations on your decisive victory. I can't wait to work with you. Yeah. And a couple of them were like, you know, this is a, we're, you know, America's leading innovation and I look forward to it. It's like, you know, sure. I think these business

people, Mark Cuban had a, you know these business people, Mark Cuban had a, you know, Mark Cuban, who was a staunch Harris supporter and was like, Trump sucks and he's an idiot, was like, it was a decisive victory, you know, well done or whatever. You know, it's like all of these people who have been swimming in the ultra rich waters and have wield some form of power through money or through their businesses or whatever,

I think are acutely aware now of the kinds of trouble a kind of total Trump control of the government can make for them. It's incredibly pragmatic. I know that that's why they're doing it. I mean, they are literally like there is no, I mean, not that this is on the table, obviously, but you never know. There's nothing preventing Trump from going like,

we need to put Jeff Bezos in jail because I think he's selling secrets to the Chinese or whatever. And just he can do that now. Like there is not a body that can prevent that from happening. I don't think that there's like a legal structure that exists that would stop him from basically saying like, we have to do this to protect like American democracy.

So if he was mad enough at one of these guys, which he absolutely could be, like for sure. I don't think over like an endorsement in a newspaper, I think over other things. I think these guys are all like, oh yeah, like I know what power, how you wield power and he'll definitely do it. And now they're like, wait a second.

Let's be nice, really nice. Let me, let's make you know. It's getting so obsequious though. It's just like, you know, cause they've all talked to him before the election, like, you know, just to, yeah, anyway. I mean, it makes sense. I understand why they're doing it. It's just a little bit like.

It all makes sense. I don't think anybody's like, it doesn't make sense, right? I mean, I feel like. It's just a little bit like- It all makes sense. I don't think anybody's like, it doesn't make sense, right? I mean, I feel like- It's just watching them trip over themselves to be like, congratulations. It's like, okay guys, all right, all right, all right. I think it's great. I think like, I'm wondering, I'm, you know, I think,

I don't think it's great. I mean, I think it's like, I think it's an interesting bit of theater that we're witnessing. You know, admittedly, I, you know, there are gonna be a lot of people in America who have really tough times because of the, I think the promises of the Trump,

of Trump's like platform. You know, it's hard, it's hard a little bit to be like, oh, let's just talk about the business side of it. But there is a little bit of like, you know, America really resoundingly sort of made this choice. And now it's like, little bit to be like, oh, let's just talk about the business side of it. But there is a little bit of like, America really resoundingly sort of made this choice. And now it's like, what are the things that are actually gonna be the most immediate? And it feels like the business side of it,

the markets are responding unbelievably positively too, to Trump right now. Unless things have changed in the last few hours, last time I checked. It's definitely a good day to be, you know, private prison or Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who he said he would reprivatize. Yeah. It's also like what other companies were on there.

Oh, yeah, his own company, DJT. DJT is, I mean, soaring. I think we ran a story that they have the revenue of like a single McDonald's franchise or something. Yeah, like a typical McDonald's franchise. Like one, not like a group of them, right? Like a McDonald's. Yeah, it continues to be like a very bad business

on paper, but now its stock is up and to the right. I think it's cool. But yeah, but on the, did Tim Cook say anything publicly? Yes, Tim Cook did. He was the last one. I was actually writing this, like I've tried to put up all, and I was like, I had written already that, you know, Tim Cook hasn't commented, but he'd talked to Trump before. And then as I was doing that, like Tim Cook, Cook posted, you know, to be the last of like the big tech CEOs was like, congratulations and you know, et cetera, et cetera.

I mean, look, he, he, you know, he he is reentering the office of the president and all these guys have to play ball with him. And it's not that surprising. I do wonder like the tick tock ban, like, let's talk about that first. Like our dude, does the U S continue to try to ban tick tock? Is there any, I mean, Trump hates China. He's talked a lot about, he tried to do a tick tock ban in the first term, right? I don't remember. Did he start the TikTok ban?

Is that another, can we establish another wonderful bipartisan opportunity? Yeah, Trump signs executive order that will effectively ban use of TikTok in the US. And this was August 6th, 2020. I can't see any, wow. August 6th, 2020. I can't see any, wow. August 6th, 2020. I can't see any, I can't see that being a priority.

Although I guess if he thinks that, I guess if they think like the Chinese are using the data to like spy on Americans, that might be a hot point. Right, and as you said, a big opportunity for like bipartisan support here. If they were going for that. Maybe the US government will buy TikTok and just run it as a government service.

Maybe DJT will run TikTok. DJT would be a great, I mean, they probably have, what's their market cap right now? Do you happen to know? I'm looking it up. Like, do they have enough? Market cap of seven billion. Seven billion, okay.

TikTok's gonna be more expensive than that. Definitely. But Elon Musk could definitely get the money together. I feel like a TikTok, Elon Musk purchase of TikTok feels pretty reasonable. Yeah, I'm seeing TikTok as more like 100 billion. Yeah. I think, yeah, but you know, like, I think Elon Musk

could probably put together, he could maybe get a government loan. Get a government loan for a hundred billion to buy TikTok and run it as a part of X. Run that loan against the 44 billion he paid for X or TikTok or Twitter. Whatever it's called, whatever they call it. Honestly, that's like probably not

the most unrealistic scenario is that Elon has banks go in on another. It's just wild in how many, since he has so many businesses, how many ways he could sort of win from this. Like it was like, yeah, yeah. Pretty much all of his businesses stand to gain from being buddy buddy with Trump and helping him. It's beautiful, when you see the free market

come together like this. You know, these public private partnerships are so beautiful. Yeah, I mean, it's just we definitely are going to be on a different footing when it comes to regulation, when it comes to, I mean, obviously, around technology. Is there any impact at Google?

If this sort of attempt to break up or penalize Google for being too big ends, is there a different tactic from the right? Is there a censorship or free speech tactic? Do they change the way they function as a business? Do they have to be more transparent about their algorithm? Do they have to be more transparent about the data?

Google has YouTube. That's always a point of contention, like how it's putting up what it puts, how, you know, how it wasn't the whole thing, how it radicalized young men sort of thing. It did it. It did it. I want to, I do want to talk about, I am curious to talk about that actually. I think this is another topic I've been thinking about today

is there was a big, in this election cycle, there was a big sort of feeling, at least you got a feeling from the media to some extent, I think from people on social media, from certain writers, you got the feeling that AI was going to be this huge, you know, obviously we talk about AI all the time, was gonna be this huge tool for misinformation and for deep fakes and for that the electorate would be.

Yeah, we're definitely worried. Everyone was worried about this. Yeah, and like, I think good old fashioned, I mean, regular misinformation worked much more effectively. Yeah, yeah, regular just like botnets. Like Joe Rogan saying, you know, Trump did a back flip or whatever, like over a bullet is like much more more effective than any deep fake that was out there. I didn't see, I mean, maybe I'm wrong,

but I didn't really see any moment where technology, just in terms of the stuff that I think people were talking about, where there was a piece of it that seemed to have any major impact. Maybe I'm forgetting, because it was, you know, it's a long, it's a long election cycle we've been on. I thought I remembered something about.

I mean, I think about the, I think about the video, I'm just thinking about the video of Trump and Biden from the first debate, which somebody like, somebody used, I guess, like whatever software is like, you know, the AI like replacement, they like had them singing like, um, like a, like a Chinese folk song or something. Have you seen this video where they're doing a duet? Beautiful Trump and Biden coming out of out in a touching show of unity. I really want to have some like really good noodle soup now.

It's making you think of the Chinese restaurant this music is what you're saying. Yeah, it's like thinking of like Taiwanese beef noodle soup. It's just like what I think of like the most impactful, um, deep fake that I saw. I think it's the one where they're doing that duet. I think like for me, I don't, I don't feel like we were dealing with, which has like a no effect on like the election. It's just, and everybody, and everybody knew it was fake. It wasn't like, it was like, people were like, what is this? I mean, I guess I'm saying there was a fear that there would be some huge like misinformation campaign.

Obviously there was some- Right, can you believe Biden, or sorry, can you believe Harris did this? Or can you believe Trump did this and it was totally fake? Or, hey, you know, watch out because all of these Republicans or all these Democrats are sharing this video and it's not real or whatever.

I mean, there's some, there were some little pops of that but it didn't really make any waves. I think like there was a kind of ongoing conversation about foreign interference. I don't know how much it actually like made an impact on social media. I think like, I don't think people's ideas about why they were voting had anything to do

with like some posts they saw on Twitter about, I mean, they probably had more to do with Elon Musk's posts about like immigrants replacing us or like, you know, they're gonna steal the vote or whatever. But like just regular good old misinformation, not like good old like just bullshit. Old school misinformation, not this highfalutin, high tech stuff.

Right, not like a deep fake of Biden falling down. Committing crimes, yes. Committing crimes, which would be, I don't know. I mean, that would probably have gotten him more support based on what I'm seeing in America right now. Yeah, no, no, but they like the crimes. People like crimes. It's cool to do the crimes.

There's a right kind of crime to do that they're like, I'm voting for the felon, but there's a wrong kind of crime. Where there are- It's the same way that there's election interference if your candidate didn't win. Did not win, right. I mean, at least-

If one candidate did not win. In one party, in one party. Yes. But yeah, so I think that's interesting that that didn't happen. There were like on election night, some bomb threats that were called in in Georgia, which everybody seems like some kind of Russian interference, which to me sounds like good old fashioned misinformation also probably was like teens, you know, but like, because that's like,

that's what teens do. They're like, I'm gonna call a bomb threat into a polling place in America, teens in America, I mean. So anyway, I guess like, yeah, I guess there was not the impact that everybody feared did not seem to come to fruition. I think they were like AI is gonna hallucinate stuff. And, you know, I mean, we, you know, we reported on some like some weird AI hallucinations, but the reality is it,

nobody's even paying attention enough to see the stuff that's just wrong. Like there's plenty of wrong info that's created by human beings that people are paying attention to. So yeah, I mean, I saw a post from Trump's, the team that ran his social accounts, I guess his like campaign social accounts, it was like four guys in MAGA hats.

Apparently the Harris campaign had many more people doing social. I mean, I think- And they were like profiled, they were very good, they were Gen Z, they were like doing crazy, like, you know, upstart stuff, like they were just like, had free reign, and I guess it didn't work. I think my overwhelming impression of this election

is that social media didn't actually matter that much. It doesn't seem like, I mean, what mattered, I think what mattered is a voter perspective on, I guess there's a larger question about literacy and believability when it comes to traditional media more than anything. Like, I think if you read the New York Times, especially in the closing arguments

of their closing arguments of the election, if you were like, hey, the people who run the New York Times really know stuff, closing arguments of their closing arguments of the election, if you were like, hey, the people who run the New York Times really know stuff, I should listen to what they're saying. You would get the impression, you'd go, okay, wow, they're like, this could be really bad, maybe Trump is the wrong choice for America. And lots of other really smart people would have said, hey, look, here's all the reasons why,

even if you like Trump's style, even if you like his policy positions, here's a bunch of reasons why he might be a bad choice. And I think at the end of the day- No one's reading that? I think it's just that the bigger issue that we see rising is not like, yeah, it's not like people were misled in some way.

It's like they had the facts in front of them. They just chose to say, well, I don't really feel like these facts match with my take on reality. And the facts that like sort of really resonate with people are probably the ones that are most closely associated with fear. Right? You know, fearing immigrants, you're worried about... The economy is a real concern.

The economy is a real one. People are like, hey, it's more expensive now. Trump's like, I'm going to make it cheaper. And they're like, OK, like I get he's a... I mean, in some way, I think there's like a little bit of a... Maybe if he's such a great criminal, maybe he can like do some criminal acts for us. Like maybe he can like... Do some crimes for goods.

Yeah, do some crimes. Some Robin Hood it. Yeah. Exactly. I'm not exactly sure what form that actually takes in reality. I don't know that it does, but it wasn't like, yeah, it wasn't like we had this situation where social media and AI and deep fakes and what would, I feel like when most voters responded to it were not like they heard some, even the conspiracy stuff about what Elon Musk was saying,

I think it was more like people were like. Prices have gone up and it did go up substantially. Trump says he'll make it cheaper and I don't really care that he is a convicted felon. I don't really care. But do you think it matters if he makes it cheaper though? He's gonna round people up.

Do you think, all right, so like obviously the last four years the prices of things went up, right? They went up a lot. Are they going to come back down in the next four years? Do you think that like, that people are gonna keep tabs on that and decide accordingly? I think there are ways to short term, there are ways to lower costs of things.

So as milk couldn't be and eggs, they're gonna be cheaper for me now. of things. I think- So as milk couldn't be, and eggs, they're gonna be cheaper for me now. I mean, I think this will be an interesting test of, you know, I'd love, I would love to see, look, by the end of 20, by the end of Trump's first term, people were not happy. Like there were a lot of people who were like,

I don't, not loving the way things- I mean, that was the beginning of COVID. We have the beginning of COVID, which was in large part created by a lot of mistakes made at the federal level when it comes to handling infectious diseases. There was a lot of policy stuff that people didn't like, like immediately following the beginning of the pandemic.

You know, the economy wasn't- It's like we forget, everyone like blames that. The economy wasn't doing great. I mean, we had a huge problems with the economy, partially, I mean, largely because of COVID. I mean, a lot of his policies were unpopular. There were some close races in 2020 for sure. And it wasn't like he didn't get any votes,

but you know, Biden got like millions and millions and millions more of the popular vote in addition to winning the electoral college, right? It wasn't like a fluke. It wasn't an accident. People were like, I reject the way things are going under Trump. That's like a lot of the country said, you know.

I sometimes wonder if we're like destined to just do that over and over again, forever until we die. I mean, maybe our memories are you know, I was talking to, to Laura, and she was saying, how, how you deal with trauma is, Laura, my wife, and you know, how you deal with trauma is you forget, like forget like, and I think there is a, a certain piece of this where there was like a very traumatic four year period that ended culminated with like COVID plus then the January six stuff. And I think it's like, you know, you go, wow, like, but like, if you, if you, if you need to like, there's a certain state you get into where you go, I can't be in that state of mind all the time. And your mind will kind of like,

will kind of learn to kind of think around it. And I think there's a part of it that's like, I think that's sort of what we're doing right now. I also think we have a tendency in America just to be like, I don't like the thing that I have now, let me swap it and see if there's a difference. Like very much the economy is a trigger for, that's like everyday stuff that people deal with, right?

Like that is like, hey, eggs are more expensive. That's a real world, like I gotta eat, my kids have to eat. Like if it's not going well right now, the easiest solution seems to be like swap out the person who's in charge of that stuff, like ostensibly in charge and put a new person in and see how it works. A lot like all the CEOs we've had lately of these companies, like their stock goes up,

a company stock will go up when they swap out the CEO. Everyone's like, yes, awesome. This'll do it. Right, well, I mean, and it's great. And should, maybe. You know, Boeing replaced its CEO recently, right? Right. I think. Starbucks.

Starbucks, right. Does it change the fundamental nature of their business? Not really. Will that CEO infuse, like Bob Iger came back to Disney, right? It was like the Bob Iger era of Disney was like the Marvel movies were crushing, Star Wars was crushing.

It was like the golden age of like. And they had the different Bob. And they had some other guy. And he, and then, but everyone was like, oh, it Wars was crushing. It was like the golden age of like. And they had the different Bob. And they had some other guy and he, and then, but everyone was like, oh, it's bad now. But I don't know that Disney changed its strategy at all. I think it just like, the audience was evolving and fatiguing from certain things and they didn't have any like really great new ideas.

Now, Bob Iger is back and it still seems like they don't have any great new ideas. I haven't seen like Disney break out in some way that's like, wow. And they're looking for someone new, right? I think so. But you know, Inside Out 2 was always was coming out anyhow. It wasn't like the other Bob was like, don't do Inside Out 2. That was happening.

You know, the new Star Wars series that they were working on, they're still putting them out like the new Marvel stuff. It's just that the audience is fatigued and And it's, so it is like, yeah, you can't change the fundamental nature of the business without an actual upheaval of the business. And for people to respond to the swap. Yeah, the market responds at least. Right, if you swap out the figurehead,

that's like enough to like appease people a little bit, be like, something's gonna change. And there was a piece, I'm sure would recently, I think it was Max wrote it, about all the changes that the new Chipotle CEO is bringing to Starbucks. I thought it was just so funny because there's like a lot of them were like... They're doing burritos. More burritos is actually...

They're bringing back Sharpie markers to write people's names on things. It's a big, they're wrapping things in foil. Like cinnamon, the condiment bar, all these things that seem just so like. Wait, are they really? Yeah, like the list is so boring and it's like these are your big ideas, this is the guy who's gonna save this?

I mean, think about Starbucks for a second. Like think about your relationship with Starbucks. Like what would it take for you to care about Starbucks in any meaningful way? Like what would it take for you to be excited about Starbucks in any meaningful way. Like what would it take for you to be excited about Starbucks? Me? Anyone.

They would have to have good coffee. They could start there. Do they have bad coffee? I don't know. The coffee tastes bad and it's a soulless horrible place. Right, a soulless horrible place. I mean, how do you feel about McDonald's?

It's bad for me and I don't really go there. Okay, but what's your opinion of McDonald's if you have to go there? Because maybe I'm asking the wrong question. I guess McDonald's is a, it's been hurt in some ways by other fast food businesses, but like. Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask that.

Maybe you are. I'm just gonna be like, I would never eat at any of these places. Well, okay, got it. I hear you, you're definitely like a coastal elite. I understand. But for the rest of us in the real America, me being slightly less North,

you're actually more in the real America than I am, but that's beside the point. I eat McDonald's every now and then. I just kind of feel bad about it. You don't have to say you eat McDonald's, it's fine. Everybody understands you're too fancy to eat McDonald's. This is completely reasonable. Fry my own eggs.

But why is McDonald's, like McDonald's certainly has gone through, you know, times when it hasn't done as well, but like, you know, it's something sustaining about McDonald's that Starbucks is like, do we believe that Starbucks is the only coffee brand that will be in existence in like 50 years? And it's like, I don't know.

It's coffee seems like something that like a lot of people can do. It feels like there's a lot of other new coffee options like Dunkin' Donuts makes a pretty good cup of coffee. Like the Bodega down the street makes a pretty good cup of coffee. I feel like their competition is massive. I think their product has never been really the coffee.

Like I was saying, I don't think it's that good. I think it's more about like, it's kind of like a nice feeling treat. It feels a little fancy or something. Their product was definitely the coffee. Like when Starbucks became Starbucks in America, the people were like- Like when it was in like Seattle.

Yeah, no, but also when it became a widespread chain, people were like, I mean, I wanna say this happened in like the late and started really in the late 90s. I don't, my memory of it, I mean, I'm sure we can look at a Wikipedia page and find out. But the, my recollection is that there was like this, coffee shops became a thing in the 90s, coffee shops were like a third space gathering place

for people, right? The first Starbucks opened in 1971. No, that's, but I'm saying they existed for a while in this kind of spectrum of coffee shops. In Seattle. In Seattle, and then like along with like the, there was like this moment of like grunge music in the early nineties into the midnight.

I feel like they were kind of a part in there also. It's like a Seattle thing, but like, I don't know. They escorted Nirvana and Starbucks. I don't know how much those are related, but I think that Starbucks started to kind of grow in the nineties and branch out. And at the time it was like, oh, okay. So what their strategy was very like Barnes and Noble,

I think, which was like, okay, find a place where there's an active store, an active coffee shop that's doing really well. And then people are like, their coffee is good and it's strong, strong being like, I think- And it's cool. Yeah. I don't know, maybe it was cool in the early days.

I suppose it was. It was definitely like a corporate America take on like they're like, we're going to take over where the other little independent coffee shops are doing well. I guess my point is, what is it that made Starbucks special? I can't remember. And is it still there if there's so many other competitors?

And I don't think it is. And it's like no amount of change in the CEOs. Maybe somebody will have an amazing new idea. Maybe Starbucks will become an ice cream shop or something. Or Jack Raines suggested a bar. Sure, I don't think anybody wants to drink at a Starbucks bar. Eight in the morning.

Yeah, no, it just doesn't. But I mean, I guess the point is like, yes, the swap. The swap and the weave. Those are what we're focusing on in America right now. So we got a new guy, a new old guy, a literal old guy and also the old guy. A very old guy. Back in and now he's got full control to do whatever

and let's see, this is it. Let's see if he can make America great. Let's see what happens. There are no barriers. So I'm personally checking out of reality as for as much as humanly possible. I'm dissociating for the next four years. You'll find me playing Death Stranding

and eventually Death Stranding too, which depicts a post-apocalyptic America where phantom death spirits are like invading the world with upside down whales. Wait, is it a video game or the second term? The second term. No, no, wait, I don't know. Great question.

But Death Stranding is a story about a disconnect, literally disconnected America in a post-apocalyptic world where everybody kind of lives in bunkers and delivery people are the most important people alive. It's like a wool, what's it called? What's the series? I don't know. There's an Apple series about people living in bunkers.

Okay, well, this is a- Well, it was a book, yeah, anyway. The point that I'm making here, Ronnie, is I'll be playing a video game for the next, however many years Trump's president, and just hoping for the best. And I think that's all any of us can really do. Except for Elon Musk, who will be actively making it

the best for himself. Right, he's having a great time and he's tweeting through it. Let's get to some Musk tweets. There's gotta be some doozies, and then we'll do feature bugs. I'm sure there's some doozies. I was going through them. There's just a lot,

there was a ton of election-related ones. I just kind of picked out ones that I thought were sort of fun. What do you got? I got the, let that sink in. Oh, this was him photoshopping himself in the oval office. With the sink, like he brought into Twitter when he took over and then fired 80% of Twitter.

It's a hilarious joke. I mean, it never ceases to be so funny that he's carrying a sink and he's walking into a building. Right, right, right. So it's, you know, it's wordplay. It's like a little bit of- It's wordplay. It's like a little bit of- It's wordplay. It's a little bit of things people say online.

Let that sink in. Prop humor, you know, let that sink in. And it's foreboding because he's gonna, you know, cut the government. I think it's interesting to think about like, I can very rapidly see like Elon being a little too popular for Trump, like a little bit too liked by Trump people, could be tension there.

Cause you know, Elon Musk is not going into the Oval Office, Trump is going into the Oval Office. So I could imagine them having an argument today about that tweet. Right, I think there was a Wall Street Journal piece that was like, you know, the election's here for Elon Musk, who isn't running, but like, you know, pointed out that he's doing everything

that seems like he's running. Unfortunately, well, I mean, maybe they'll change the laws so he can run. Oh yeah, he is not born in the United States. I suppose they can do that now, so. Yeah, maybe they can do it. Elon Musk will be the next president of the United States. And then there was just. Pretty cool idea.

Stop it. And now, I think we talked about this last time, just like, and a little bit on this podcast, the referendum on the media, he sort of said this time, you are the media now, he's had a few versions of this. So you, the everyday person are the media now. That's right, citizen journalism, I keep saying. Every so often you hear about citizen journalism.

He hates journalism, he hates being. Well, journalism is annoying. I mean, you have to journalism. He hates journalism. He hates the, you know, it's being. Well, journalism is annoying. I mean, you have to. Sure. Yeah. The people tell you, you said this thing and you lied. And you're like, I constantly have to be confronted with your own actions in a public setting. It is. I mean, like, you know, when it's done well, it is like, you're kind of like this thing happened and they did this and they said that. And it's like, sometimes you don't want people

to recount your activities. Every falsehood. Sometimes you're like, I'm, the robotaxi's coming out this year and then it's like. You've done it for 16 years and everyone gets mad. And then they're like, he said it was gonna come out this year and it's like, yeah, nobody wants to hear that. What a nag.

Between these two, which is the worst tweet? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. I mean, I think it's the tweet? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. I mean, I think it's the same let that sink in just because it wasn't good the first time and it's even worse the second time. Yeah, annoying wordplay pun. Honestly, it's really a softer Elon in a way.

How so? Well, it's just the let that sink in is just a sort of like meaningless. There's nothing really that, it's quite the let that sink in is just a sort of like meaningless. There's nothing really that it's quite tame by comparison to his pre-election tweets. Which were like, literally like racist, great replacement theory tweets. Interesting.

So yeah. That's your comfort. He would agree with Nazis. They're like, we gotta kill all the people of color in this, they don't say people of color, they say something worse. And he's like, much to think about. And it's like, I don't know, is there?

Yeah, interesting, interesting. I'm paraphrasing, but I'm sure you can find the tweet if you really needed to. All right, so do we agree that the, you let that sink in is going into the bracket? Yeah, although I am fearful for journalism, I'm gonna say the cringe, annoying, just like softer side of Musk. I

hate it. I'm not saying it's good. I mean, I like him to do what he does best, which is buy companies that have already made good things and then tell people about them. But Ronnie, I think it's time for feature or bug. Apple explores push into smart glasses with Atlas user study. And this is sort of like the thing that Apple always does, is like they decide after someone else has already made something, like we're going to make the meta glasses, but better.

Yeah. I think it'll be great. I think it'll be great for people who love to wear glasses. And I think for that audience, big, big things is in store. For the people, so they stealing medicine. I want you to think of like Kendall Jenner putting on glasses, like, because they have like a, because they'll show you notifications or whatever.

Right. It's hard to compute the image. I mean, I suppose she'd do it if she got paid because she's smart about making money. But I'm just saying, like, think of like a person who doesn't need to wear glasses or you don't see in glasses very much. Yeah.

And think. I guess what I'm asking here is the feature or bug, the like, this process of Apple's being like, okay, let's have a little, let's ask around and see if we should get into this thing. I mean, the feature bug is like, is Apple, I think the feature bug question here is, is Apple like barking up the right tree or not?

I mean, I feel like the, I mean, yeah, Apple strategy of going like, this is already a popular or growing product category, let's get into it, is totally sound. I mean, they have proven time and time again that that is a feature. Right, that's smart. They know that this is something

that's already doing well with this. That's a feature map. They're like, oh, okay, Sanrio made a bad MP3 player? We'll make like a better one. Right. Okay, yeah. Sanrio, actually, it's not Sanrio, sorry. It's just Rio.

It's just Rio. Yeah, Sanrio is the company that makes Hello Kitty. I think, easy mistake to make, but Rio makes the MP3 players. I mean, I don't know what Rio is or if they even exist. I totally forgot about this. Yeah, Sanrio makes the Hello Kitty, which is a whole different genre.

Anyway, yeah, I think the feature, it's a feature that they do that strategy. I would say is the idea that smart glasses are like the next big thing from Apple. I think that notion is a bug, but I'll take that one to the grave. All right, I'm gonna say the bug on this one just because it feels like they have to jump onto everything.

Like you may, like it just feels a little bit like an afterthought. I don't wanna argue with you about this, Ronnie, but they don't jump on everything. They are very selective about what they jump on. They're considering about jumping on something that's like they already have done a sort of bad job on, which is the big vision pros. I'm going to have to disagree with you.

I think that strategy is a winner and a feature. All right, fine. And anybody who disagrees is a loser and a hater. And is getting fired from the government. Yeah, it's going to be removed from their position of power at the FDA. What else? What else do we have in the future? A bug category. What else do we have in the feature a bug category?

What do we think Trump controlling all of the government, the looks like Senate, House, presidency, and also we've got a conservative Supreme Court, what do we think feature a bug of America? That that's possible. Oh my God. Oh, and he also has presidential immunity to do anything. Right, crimes. do anything from what I can tell.

Feature a bug. Obvious bug. Feels like a bug. It feels like we have a major, a huge, I know this is not a tech thing, but it does feel like some of the ways we run the highest level of government has been very buggy in the sense that there's a lot of things

that are just basically notions Like they're like handshake deals. I'm like you won't do a bad thing, right? And the person's like nope watch me and for like and for like 240 years or whatever people were like pretty much like yeah, I'm not like there was a couple of aberrations But generally speaking they're not trying to do crimes So that's probably a bug right? I think we're in a heated agreement with that. Okay, here's an interesting one that brought up by our producer in my ear just now.

Nostalgic marketing, we were talking about Starbucks. And then bringing back all the stuff from the 1990s. To make you remember how great Starbucks was in the 90s or the early 2000s or whenever people were doing Starbucks for fun and profit. I guess there's two, I am like using, I'm like, I hate nostalgia. I hate it.

I hate it, I fuck, I do, I hate it. I hate when people are like, I mean, I honestly like feel very allergic to like people who are my age, who like are like super into Star Wars or like people who are like, I mean, I like playing like, I do enjoy like an old video game sometimes, but I don't think it's for like nostalgia purposes is because like I legitimately enjoy that like, and a lot of them I haven't played.

So I'm like. I mean, it does recap like Disney adult, right? Yeah, no, and it is like, and not a knock on Disney adults. Like if that's your thing, like fine. Like if you enjoy it, I mean, I'm not personally going to judge you. Oh, I am. Okay, fine. But, but, but that thing where people are like, I want to have like a setup, like in like my, my,

my basement, you know, the wood paneling and the CRT television. Smells like mildew. Whatever it is, it's like this thing. Like I find nostalgia to be pretty depressing generally. Did you not have a record player? Well, I have a record player, but that's completely unrelated to nostalgia. Okay, that's not manufactured nostalgia.

I've had a record player since I was 17, because I was a DJ. And so I actually had a real world use for records in real time. Okay, you're the wrong person to ask. I am the wrong person to ask. But also, I was a music producer, so I can tell you that there are sonic differences

between a record and a CD and an MP3. And they do sound better in a lot of ways, particularly for particular genres of music. But generally speaking, I mean, if you've got a nice analog amp and stuff. But I don't think that's nostalgia. That's like real world. Like I hear. That's right. And this is just like a feeling. Well, no, I think nostalgia is like, yeah, nostalgia is like, yeah, it is Disney adult.

It is like, it is like, you know, guys who fetishize like the eighties or the nineties. Like I find something very like, I, I, I, you know, I'm almost like a little bit allergic to listen to records that I was like, that I really liked in the nineties or in the early two thousands. Like sometimes I'll like get a notion to listen to them, but I find the, if I, if it was like something I really moved away from musically, I find the feeling to be sort of depressing. So I think when it comes to like, I don't know what it is in me, but as I think about this idea of like people revisiting

their like initial experience with Starbucks, I find it to be unbelievably cringe and boring and yet depressing. Like show me something new. Like I wanna see the new things. I don't wanna see, I mean, I think there's something to be said for like classic film, old, there's things that like, you can definitely say,

like the, not nostalgia, but to say, I appreciate the artistry of this thing, whether it's a video game or film or music or whatever. Of course we should look backwards and say, what is great here? And what can we derive from that now? But not simply because it is an older thing. I think there's a fine line between appreciating something

for what it is and that it's good because it is that thing. And maybe it's always been that way, whether or not it was like from 1960 or from yesterday versus trying to like, re-evoke a feeling you had before. Those are, I think those are different things. And I think like a lot of nostalgia is like, it wants you to evoke a feeling from your youth or from a youth, a more youthful period of your life

that I don't, I find to be unattractive. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I'm not as offended by it. It's fine to me as long as it's not like your personality. So I'm calling it a bug. It's fine. Call it whatever you want. It's feature-esque.

I don't know. That's fine. Feature-esque. Okay. Interesting. Well, all right. On that note, I think we got to wrap this.. I gotta go and see how my socks are doing. I guess under the new regime.

Well, anything else, Ronnie? Have we forgotten anything? I think that's it. Great, all right. Well, that is our show for this week. For this monumental historic week in American history. Glad we could spend it with you. I can't wait to look back in a nostalgic fashion

at this week and remember how good things were on. How good they used to be. November 4th, November 4th, 2024. Anyhow, that is our show for this week. We'll be back next week with more tomorrow. And as always, I wish you and your family the very best.