You know, it's really hard to believe that it's already the
14th of June 2008. And we've been doing this for about 35
times so far. It is no agenda coming to you from the curry
manner the United Kingdom. I'm Adam curry.
And here in the United States of America, Northern California.
I'm John C. Dvorak.
Yeah, Johnny Boy, how you doing?
Foggy today?
Really? Oh, it's it's been nice here. We've had a pretty good
week.
Well, it's been nice and hot here all week. But the we're
getting you're looking at like, looks like our classic
California summer weather where the fault where it's cold and
foggy in the morning, and then it might break up and then it
gets nice and warm in the afternoon. Of course.
Oh, this is kind of weird, huh? Something? Something really
weird is going on here. John, hold on. Oh, wow, my. That's
weird. All of a sudden one. Yeah. Well, all of a sudden my
microphone started to the fader just went down automatically.
Okay. It seems to be fixed. No worries.
We're good. Is this sounds the same? Yeah.
Was this one of those Mark Twain? What is it to? The
coldest winter was summer in San Francisco? Is that what he was
famous for?
Yeah. July I think or July? I think he may have said because
actually, July is when it really is. It doesn't warm up. It's
just July, people come out to kill. It's actually fun. It's
like a local joke. I mean, because people will come out
from all over the world to San Francisco in like July 10, which
you would think would be like one of the worst farm right?
Imagine the high days? Yeah. Right. And it'll be fogged in
and freezing. And then the fog never goes away. And it can be
just chilly. And even the locals actually, it's kind of amusing,
because every year you kind of say, well, you know, you always
think about them, when it rolls around, you remember it. But
even the local sometimes they're caught off guard and you float
around without, you know, the sweaters that you need to be
wearing in July. And I warn people seem to forget to come
out. I mean, it's not always that way. But it's most often
that when I was wanting people to come into the San Francisco
Bay area in the middle of summer that they're, you know, going to
be in for a shock. That said, you can always go up to the Napa
Valley. It's nice to warm up there.
And you know, that's over here in the United Kingdom, which of
course has a reputation for being horribly damp and chilly
and cold and foggy and windy. In the summertime. And I've been
here now this is the third 123 This will be our fourth summer,
I think. And it's just you know, yeah, you get clouds and the
rain is seasonal, but it's really quite nice. And the women
in London man when it gets above like 71 degrees, who boy, they
start dressing like it's 1000 degrees. They're not used to the
hot weather, so they have to take the clothes off. I think
it's different. It's not that they're not used to it. I think
it's a cultural thing where they're basically saying to the
outside world. We have great weather here. Look, see see how
how warmly how we're dressed for the heat?
Maybe the think they just like to take your clothes off.
Man, we got a shitty connection today. You were great when you
started off. And now you're coming through like,
well, you know what happened in connection? That connection kind
of fell apart when you had that microphone anomaly? Really?
Yeah.
Well, it's coming in. And I mean, you're you're legible. No
problem. I read you four instead of five.
Yeah, you're very ever since that microphone anomaly. You
have been flaky?
John, I don't think that was since the microphone anomaly. I
think that's been that way for the past 25 years, perhaps.
We use that joke every time. Do I
really I need some new material. I gotta call John Stewart having
write some new shit for me.
I'm telling you, it's that you you've used that at least three
times on the show?
Well, when you get to be 43, you're allowed to, you know,
make a jokes over and over again. I'm noticing that Yeah.
So what's on the agenda that are there? Or what's on the no
agenda and what's going on? I mean, the only thing news that
I've seen that's kind of interesting is that Ireland, I
guess voted no to the EU. And that's just showed up on our
blog.
Yeah, well, that's something I've been tracking on the daily
source code for the past couple of weeks. But we didn't we
talked about this last week. We did touch on it.
We talked about Yeah, we did. We talked about how Ireland can
save the world by you know, rejecting, rejecting the EU.
So he so I'll recap them because I'm really deep into this. And
it's really it's very interesting because we're
watching the formation of a huge entity with 500 million people
known as Europe. In each of the 27 member countries are actually
known as states. So it's in a way it's kind of like the United
States but in many ways not. But they have so essentially the
background of this in 2005, the European Parliament in which
sits in Brussels actually alternates between Brussels and
Strasbourg I think every other month or something, they they
change location, some kind of dumb political thing. They put
together a constitution and they called it the Constitution and
it was filled with, it was a lot of language very lawyer esque
type language, very hard to understand. Not as simple as,
for example, the Constitution of the United States, which, you
know, is pretty, you know, anyone can kind of read that and
understand, you know, it's open to interpretation, obviously.
And it's always under attack from interpretation, but it's
reasonably easily easy to understand. And so this went to,
to all the states in 2005, and they had to vote and I think
every country held a referendum, which is a public vote, you
know, yay, or nay, we're for this or against this. And two
countries in particular, who were pretty disappointed with
their governments at the time, France and the Netherlands,
voted it down by a rather large margin. And so then, you know,
every member state has to ratify this constitution, or any
document of this scope in order for it to go into effect. So
that basically fell apart because of the Dutch and the
French voting down. So what appears to be kind of like a
railroading move. In the past couple of years, they came up
with a new a new treaty called the Lisbon Treaty. And it's
really nothing other than a document with a whole bunch of
references to the original constitutional document with,
you know, it's it kind of like it is, again, it's a legal
document, you know, change this word for that word, change the
word constitution to Lisbon Treaty. And the main reason for
that is, if it's not a constitution, you don't
necessarily have to call a referendum for it. So the big
critic criticism of Brussels for the past couple of years, as
this Lisbon Treaty has been coming to fruition is supposed
to was supposed to start January 1 2009, was that most of the
member states just kind of like, passed it through their
governments really fast, no referendum, except for one
country, which was Ireland. And they, for whatever reason, they
differed from the other states and said, you know, we're gonna
hold a referendum anyway. And I think the same thing basically
happened with the addition of the fact that that, you know,
first of all, people can't read it. I've read it. It's it's very
complicated. I certainly don't understand all of it. I've asked
ministers of European Parliament for explanation on some points
have gotten some satisfactory response. But again, I'm like,
no will where can I read what you're saying in this document.
And there's all kinds of protocols and directives. And
all I mean, it's just a, it's a, it's a huge mess. They didn't
communicate it to the public. A lot of these countries are up in
arms, saying, you know, Hey, what the hell happened here, you
guys ratified something, we don't understand what's going
on. And I think that was had a lot to do with the Irish who by
a margin of I think it was 55 to 45%, or something like that.
They basically turned it down. And this is, yeah, this is a big
deal, because now it's all fallen apart. And the main
things, as far as I can tell, the main drivers that Brussels
was really going for is one of possible common taxation across
all of Europe. And to know actually three things. Common
taxation, common immigration policy, and probably the most
important one, a common army, a European army, which, if
necessary, would also go outside of Europe to act in whatever
theatre they might be called to. And understandably, people
aren't just going to say yes to that. No one got the choice
except for Ireland. And there you go. They said no. So this
thing is basically kaput.
sullair Hilarious.
Well, it's, it's, it's frightening, because, you know,
now we're in now we have to see what happens, you know, both
Sarkozy, President of France and Angela Merkel, who is Prime
Minister of Germany have said well, it's not really can't put
you know, it certainly won't be implemented by January 1 2009.
But they've got to go back because it's all all these legal
things that's all these guys live for in in Brussels is you
know as to get this document set up to to be able to execute on
whatever their plans on which of course the public has no frickin
idea no clue is what it actually is.
It looks like sounds like some sort of fascist takeover the
entire European continent
Thank you. Well, this of course you know me mister conspiracy
theory. That's exactly what it is. Of course, it's a fascist
type fascist takeover.
The common army would have me concerned if I was French.
Why particularly French?
Well, I mean, because it was a common army is gonna be run by
the Germans. Let's face is reality?
Good point? Well, a lot of is going to be wrong. But in fact,
that is another part of the treaty, I forgot to mention. And
I don't have all the exact numbers in front of me. But the
way, the way it's set up, if something goes to vote in the
European Parliament, which, of course, most laws will now have
to go to Europe, instead of your individual countries, you have
to have a majority, but not just a majority of member states, I
think you have to have at least 15 states that will agree with
you. But you also have to have majority of people. So
basically, if France and Germany, if they decide
anything, they want that together, they have enough
people to pass a vote. And then all they all they have to do
essentially, is just call up these little member states,
which are completely reliant on them anyway, and just say, Okay,
we need, we need 30 more you guys to say yes. Which basically
means that if 15 smaller states got together and said, hey, you
know, which is a majority in number of states, they still
wouldn't be able to pass anything, because they don't
have enough people in these little mini states. So it's, to
me it's kind of a clusterfuck.
It sounds terrible. I mean, I can't sell anything can get
done. So I think it's going to give the only way the only
solution is to pass broad reaching laws that have sketchy
powers attached to them. So you end up with a fascist state is
the only way it's gonna work.
That's yeah, well, if you go back and look at history, I
think you could see a lot of parallels in this.
Yeah, well, nothing quite that this ambitious. This is the
probably the most interesting. I mean, they've always been trying
to unite Europe. I mean, various you ever see, you go back to I
guess you could go back to Charlemagne at Summit, you know,
I mean, but meanwhile, you have the Napoleonic Wars to try, you
know, in some ways you're trying to unite Europe. And then you
have the the fascism, which was a movement that tried to unite
Europe, of course, always, never got very far, because you'd
think we'd had to be done by force. And I think this is the
I'm not absolutely sure some European historian may want to
chime in on this. But I don't know the any kind of bloodless
coup attempt that has been that has been made on this sort of a
scale, which is essentially what we're looking at here, which is
the takeover of all of Europe, by a single entity, you know,
out of Belgium of all places. Even though it may be the puppet
masters may be elsewhere, and I think they're, you know,
combined.
Well, I mean, John, obviously, where did this all start? This
started after the Second World War. It started with the United
Nations that that of course, the United Nations, famously started
with a was like an $8 million donation from the Rockefellers I
believe. You know, that that combined with NATO and a couple
other organisations like this, essentially once they once they
got the euro in the common currency, which officially took
took hold in 2000 and I think it went into effect everywhere
either 2001 or 2002. That also meant they could combine all the
central banks so we have you know, a European Central Bank
which maintains you know, what central banks do except now not
just know now it's all over 500 million people who are using
this or almost all of them are using the same currency it's
still kind of interesting how countries like the United
Kingdom get away with not not converting to the euro. And I
think what it's one other country isn't it to Sweden I
think I think Sweden has their own Yeah, yeah. The thing the
kronor or whatever right um, so even though they have a little
bit even though the new the new British money and then a new
Swedish made they have to you know, I went there a few years
ago when they made this transition, and I had some pound
notes but the pound notes that are only acceptable Now
generally speaking, have to have a little EU stamp someplace on
the note. Yeah,
well yeah, everyone everyone changed their money one way or
the other. And if you have
shows the pound nope has had his little EU things. So if you have
the old towns because I always have a drawer full of you know,
alien money because I travel so I grabbed that put it in the
thing and so I have some some minor news by a cab without
having to change money when I show up someplace. So I show up
and I dropped down some pound notes that logistic exactly the
same. No, no, no, you can't use these. Your money's
no good here, Mr. Devore. AK, but like it's really no good
here.
It's like no good. So what am I supposed to do with this? And I
said, Well, you can you can go to certain banks and they'll
swap it out. And so I went to the bank, swapped it out and I
got exactly the same money. back except for this little beadings
there's a little bitty bug on your little bitty thing that
says EU.
So I am, I did learn a couple things. I spoke to a Dutch
Minister of European Parliament. And he said, You know what, we
have no plan B. We don't know what he's going to be in
Strasburg starting Monday. They're all getting together and
trying to figure out what they're going to do.
And no Plan B they expected everybody just a roll over.
Yep. Well, everyone did roll over. I mean, if you look at
this some great video online, I put one on curry.com You have to
go back a week or two. I like a week and a half ago. It's a it's
one of the British members of European Parliament stands up
and has this whole rant and he literally says, you know, you
guys are horrible. And basically, without saying that,
he said, there's almost like a fascist state. You know, you're
all railroading this thing through without referendum in
each individual country, you're doing it because you're afraid
that people will actually vote it down again. You know, you're
doing all this backroom politics. Yeah, that's they had
no plan B that's every single member of the Parliament and the
Commission all said that they expected it to go through and
only Ireland they thought Yeah, fuck it Ireland, you know, no
problem. And but there were there were ministers of foreign
affairs from almost every single country in Europe who were
campaigning in Ireland either for or against I think a lot of
them were against or certainly if they were opposition parties.
There was a it was a really it was a really really intense it
was it's a big deal. It is still a big deal. You know, I haven't
picked up my my weekend copy the Financial Times. But I think
this is this is going to be messed up for a while. Of
course, it happens at exactly the same moment. We're in the
middle of the largest media event Europe can even imagine
which of course, you know, is what European football
championships. Oh
yeah, I can't imagine anything bigger than that.
There is nothing bigger in Europe than the than the
European football championships. There really isn't. And, you
know, no coincidence there. I'm sure that all this is going down
at the same time.
Well, I don't know. If you don't think it's like, Oh, you think
there's some? You think there's a connection? I don't, I'm not
getting that one.
So of course, there's a connection. The media is
dominated by sport. No. Look, no one wants anyone to understand
this document. Otherwise, they would have made it
understandable. So you got to be suspicious. At least people
aren't stupid anymore. This is what these guys forget. They
make all this shit available on their website. You know what
people actually take the time they download it and they look
at it and say what the hell is this shit? I don't get it. Yeah,
so they're old. They're they're thinking and acting old fashion.
You know, people are just not stupid anymore.
They're not sterile fashion. Those people
and a lot of them are younger than I am, believe it or not,
but they're still acting really old fashioned. i Oh, we can
ramrod this through it. Anyway, here's a here's kind of a fun
story on the side. So yesterday, I was set to fly back from
Rotterdam I paid a quick visit. And I was gonna fly and and
usually I go to Hilversum some other small field but for a
number of reasons. I decided to go to the, to the rather bigger
airport, Rotterdam. They have a jet Centre, which of course what
it sounds like it's meant for jets is for private jets. So
here I come in my little you know Cessna 182, right. I park
it in the jet parking. I like it because, you know, they roll out
a red carpet, they carry my bags, you know, they take care
of the aeroplane says fine. So I'm going to leave. And you
know, the Hague, of course, where the where the government
in the Netherlands sits is right right next to Rotterdam. And so
I roll up. A friend of mine dropped me off and it's like his
Volkswagen bus. Like a VW bus. And I already saw like a couple
of official looking cars outside and so I walk in and like Oh, I
see there's the there's the royal jet is on the tarmac. John
literally nose to nose with my plane, right, which of course
was just flying by itself. And this is a you know, it's like
where's your camera? Where's
your camera?
I'm a some such a dick. Well, let me tell you, I didn't even
think about that. Because here's what happened. So I walk in, I
see like, it's like 50 suits, right? And there's a couple of
waiting rooms in this place. And they're all filled up. And all
these guys have orange ties on I'm like, Oh, of course. They're
gonna go watch the Netherlands play France in Switzerland
tonight. And I knew that the Minister of Foreign Affairs
France Timmermans. Because I spoke to him on the on the Dutch
radio earlier in the week. I knew that he was going right. So
I'm like, oh, that's kind of cool. He must be here and I'd
never met the guy. So So I asked around. I like it. So one of
these one of the astute guys, I'm like, Hey, is is Mr.
Timmermans here and you know, the Minister of Foreign Affairs
and you guys would be like, Why? Why do you want to know? Well,
you know, I met I'm on the phone the other day and I just wanted
to shake his hand. Do you have an appointment with him? I said,
No, dude, I'm here. I'm gonna go fly my own frickin plane. I'm
leaving. I just want to say hi, Is he around? So while this
dialogue is going on this shithead is like staring me
down. This woman walks by and says, Oh, Mr. Curry, yes. Hi,
I'm Bonnie, you know, your producer spoke to me. And oh,
please come on through, I want you to meet Mr. Timmerman. So I
walk in and into the waiting room. And as
you should have given the raspberries to that creep. Well,
no,
wait, the raspberries gets even better, because he followed
behind me and what he saw made him total shitless. So I walk
in, I walk straight to the guy, and it's like, there's like 10
guys in this waiting room. I say, hey, phones, because we're
on a first name basis phones, how they how you doing? And
yeah, so it's like, oh, yeah, it's good to meet you. And I
know I'd love to talk again is Oh, limit, let me introduce you
to this guy over here. And I turned the rights the Prime
Minister Balkan end, and I'm like, Oh, hey, nice to meet you.
And the Prime Minister goes, Oh, yes. And he's kind of a dorky
Harry Potter looking guy. You know, if you see him, you just
laugh. And he says, Oh, yes. Well, I know you. Of course,
you're famous from radio and television. And I said, you
know, you're famous from radio and television, too. He says,
Oh, we were kind of like colleagues, and I said, Well,
don't I just wish we were colleagues. So it was it was
like this really weird encounter. And we stood there
and talked for like 10 minutes about football. Meanwhile, the
referendum was taking place at that very moment. The results
came out no more than like an hour after that, because I was
listening in the plane to the BBC World Service. And yeah,
these guys couldn't give a shit. They were they were they were
getting added to Switzerland to go watch the game. By the way,
Holland killed France four to one What an awesome game that
was. Holland has a real chance this year in the channel.
You know, this is funny. I Edie Campbell predicted that you say
something about the stupid football game on the show here
today and man told me to manage and I guess I don't know whether
this is true or not. But I guess the coach of the of the Dutch
team looks like a serial killer.
The Tote the coach of the Dutch team, who was Marco from Boston
was one of the best players Holland ever knew. He does not
look like a serial killer at all. That would be the French
coach who looks like a serial killer. Okay, well, maybe they
haven't missed he has the wacky like curly freaked out hair. Oh,
no, it was the French guy if anyone's referring to serial
killers. Well, of course I got it. I'm really proud. And by the
way, all of Britain's behind the Netherlands because half the
team plays for UK football teams. Anyone? Everybody plays
for
UK football teams or Brazil. Yeah.
So anyway, so it's, it's a mess, man. It really is.
Well, I congratulate the Irish.
Me too. I think that I think it's fantastic. And
you know, what was going on? You know, this is it. This is all
headed in one direction, the way I see it, no matter because
they're gonna keep trying to ramrod this EU down everybody's
throat. You know, I mean, I think a trade agreement between
the countries works out, but they have a single government.
So you have, you know, the Germans telling the French how
to make cheese really seems to be a problem.
I don't think it's exactly that. I think the biggest problem is,
none of the people who are making the laws in Brussels have
been elected. You know, I'm saying, Yeah, that's bad. That's
like a real problem. And people don't want that. And, you know,
it's worrisome. Yeah. You don't think about these things often,
you know, but then you realise, you know, shit, wait a minute,
you know, this really is going to impact my life one way or the
other. For example, July 1, all of Europe, all member states are
adding three I think it's 3% or three cents, but like three,
let's just say 3% additional tax to diesel to combat co2
emissions. And at this moment in time, the last thing anyone
needs is any rise in the in the cost of diesel. And so none of
the individual states can really do anything about it. Everyone
just kind of has to implement it. You know, that's a perfect
example of Fuck no, you know, we need we need to we need to be
able to change and not every state has the same prices by the
way. Cuz there's, you know, there's different different
pricing and different taxing structures. It's it's very
confusing, and all people see is money flying out their pocket.
That's all they know.
Yeah, well, that's a bad thing. But anyway, this thing all looks
to me looking at it from a long term kind of perspective,
especially if you even have a clue about the history of
Europe. That and then if you're thinking about the way the
United States is history went, it looks to me as though at some
point if this thing actually started coming together, one of
the states would start to resist I mean, it didn't mean the smart
money already resisted completely Norway and
Switzerland never joined as operation they far as are
concerned they don't that's something they don't need. And
but these other The guys who kind of agreed to it, at some
point, if they start to resist, there's going to be what amounts
to a civil war, especially if you have a national, you know,
an army. That is an EU army, which will be a German army
seems to me, and you get some little country like Portugal or
Spain deciding that they don't like what's going on, they're
going to just march in there and take them over, it's just going
to be a mess.
Well, I think what's kind of what's kind of weird about it is
that the citizens of of Europe get along fine. You know, we
trade with each other, we visit each other's countries, we do
business together. We have cheap airlines, so we can visit each
other. We're on the internet, we're talking to each other.
We're emailing we're cyber sexing. Yet somewhere in
Brussels all these people are like doing all kinds of other
shit. And as you say, like now all sudden, the Army's gonna
march bit in march into a country like, yeah, it's, it
feels so wrong.
Well, it is wrong. And I'm against it. But you know, I'm
just over here. carping? Yeah, it's
like the states is is all fine and dandy, politically speaking.
Yeah, well, we have our own armies marching around. Exactly.
Yeah, no, it's not as if. But me who needs another situ? I mean,
the thing about I don't know, it's just I've never been. I've
never subscribed to the EU ever actually working out from the
from the first time I've heard about it to today. I'm a sceptic
about it. And every time one of these situations falls apart
like this with this Irish deal, I'm just going there you go. You
know, I mean, it's just like, it's not working. There's too
many languages over there. And this would have to I don't know,
I don't want to get into because I'm not that knowledgeable. What
else do we have to talk about?
Yes, shit. I don't know. It's no agenda, man. I'm not planning
stuff. Well,
you know, there's somebody's wanting me to talk about that.
We have a commentator over here has become quite popular. In
fact, there was an NPR special about him the other day, I was
just in northern Michigan giving a speech to a newspaper group,
telling them you know, that well over, went over. But I'm going
to turn this speech into a monograph because it's pretty
much outlines, I think, what's wrong with the assumptions made
by newspapers when they think they can begin to be able to go
online. And it's, anyway, so but I'm floating around this part of
Michigan, which I've never been to before, and it's absolutely
beautiful. And, you know, there's just north western
Michigan along the Long Lake Michigan, up into the upper
peninsula, which is called the Up Up Down and ever say a
penance for some reason. But anyway, so I'm listening to this
this special on NPR about this. guy who does MSNBC.
Olbermann, oh, Keith Olbermann. Sure. Oh, okay. Yeah, we were
gonna talk about this, right, remember?
Yeah, Keith Olbermann. And somebody says it was a British
listener to the show said, you know, what is the deal with this
guy? Because he seems to be, you know, he's getting attention
overseas. I'm not sure what the international implications are.
But he wanted a little background. Keith Olbermann
started off years and years ago, as a commentator on ESPN. And
he's the one along with a couple other guys. I don't know if he
invented it, but but ESPN, in its early days, was still trying
to figure out where it was headed as a broadcasting entity.
And he is one of the people who became the wisecrack oriented,
sports guy, you know, where you'd be given sports
highlights, and then you'd have snide comments to make
constantly about whatever you were witnessing.
I didn't know that. His background. That's interesting.
I didn't know that he came from ESPN.
Yeah, he came. He has his roots as a TV guy in terms of his
popularity. I'm sure he did other TV someplace locally, or
whatever, because he had to, but was at ESPN. And he got so good
and so popular at ESPN, that he the way the story goes into this
a lot of this is folklore, of course. But he got caught. But
this is a fact that he was extremely popular. And he wanted
more money. And Disney basically just fired him. And so that
ended got a bunch of people mad. In fact, my stepson Eric is
still mad at Disney for firing Keith Olbermann, like 15 years
ago, because he was a real fan of his. Anyway, so Olbermann,
then kicked around for a while and he never really found
himself and then he showed up at MSNBC doing this kind of
political show instead of sports. He gave up on sports and
he and he but he's this style is exactly the same. It was like
just snide remarks and you know, that in his own distinctive
Wait, because I do started snide remarks, but I don't do him in
his style. He has a unique style. And you know, and he had
a show, and this show has been on for a number of years, and he
had got zero traction whatsoever. Then he decided to
start focusing on Bush bashing. And so he became a number one
bush basher, and this is what, in all of a sudden, during the
election, this last election, primary elections, his show on
MSNBC or him doing commentation, or commentating on MSNBC became
the number one thing and they they actually took over the
whole scene from Fox he beat Fox he beat CNN, they did all they
just, and it was all because Olbermann was Bush bashing
during the whole primary seizure season, and people were loving
it.
Honestly, I've watched a couple of his videos, cuz I don't, I
don't get to see it live on MSNBC. But there's a lot of
YouTube videos, and probably once every two weeks someone
will send me a link to a Keith Olbermann, state. And it usually
starts out with Mr. Bush, you're a liar. You know, you have
consistently lied to this country. You are, you know, he's
almost he's not just this short of calling Bush, a war criminal,
which he might have even said, somewhere along the line. And I
must admit that just about every single rant he's done, I have
enjoyed thoroughly.
Yeah, of course. I mean, it was just fun to watch. But you know,
the thing is, it's very, it's very partisan and pretty focused
on bush, and the Republicans to a lesser extent. I mean, he did
a John McCain thing recently that one of my bloggers put up a
shipment of art gallery slash blog. And, you know, I looked at
him and I, you know, he's essentially doing what Jon
Stewart does. Only with a little more a little more mean spirited
version of Jon Stewart, where you take some guy who says,
yeah, no, I think that we should close this bridge. And then you
find 45 examples of him saying that we should open the bridge.
Right, right. Right, you know, clips, the clips from the
archives.
This is so what this listener sent in, I remember now, he
said, this is a thing that is now sort of another one of those
links that I get sent 1000 times please don't stop sending him. I
appreciate it. And it was John McCain on the Today Show with
Matt Lauer. And and I think it was actually taken out of
context now that now look at the video. But the essence was
pulling the troops out of Iraq. John McCain's quote was, that's
not important. What's important is no casualties. And and so
that's what this entire rant. Olbermann rant was built around
that I that I.
Yeah, yeah. No, because he used the term that's not important.
And the thing that McCain is doing is he is parsing a little
too much for my tastes, but but if you start really listening to
him, he's almost saying that I'm still have this opinion, I think
McCain is the only one with the standing, who could actually
just take office. And then the next day, say, We're pulling all
the troops out, I looked us over, I don't like what I'm
seeing why they they've already won, you know, we've already won
over there, we're removing the troops, or we're keeping a small
army in the green zone or something like that. I mean, he
could do that.
The grandson, which by the way, is big enough for 50 bases, or
some shit like that the green zones the size of Texas,
huge. And it's the only safe part of the country, but you
know, so they could just turn into his own country. Anyway, so
the green zones a joke, I have friends actually, that are in
the green zone as we speak. And anyway, the so I mean, he could
get away with that, and nobody else could. So I'm not convinced
that you know, he's this horrible person who wants to use
a war monger because if anybody's not a war monger, it's
probably him having suffered from being a prisoner of war for
such a long time. Anyway, and this will all eventually shake
out. But But Olbermann has gone after him now. And then this
last thing I thought was actually weak. And I did think
it was taken out of context, and I'm not absolutely sure he's
going to be able to maintain this. This bashing with for much
longer for a couple of reasons, as somebody pointed out, one,
MSNBC is owned by General
Electric. Yeah, that's it. I was not going to last long as what
you're saying.
And Obama has already shown that he doesn't mind burning bridges
because he already burned the Disney bridge when he was at
ESPN, and in some way, and he probably will go down in flames
here too, if he doesn't, you know, even John Stewart tries to
balance his act a little bit. It's not just me he's not
Olbermann is Obviously an Obama, like many of the media here in
the country, a huge effect my question, this group that I was
talking to I had about 150 people that were in the
newspaper industry, and I asked them, How many people in the
group would be for McCain? You know, after prefacing it with
the, with the comments that, you know, the media is very left
wing, generally speaking. And Democrats, and I, and I have
like 150 people, 100 people, maybe three people raise their
hand, you know, which sucks you about, right? One, a fourth
person came up to me afterwards, which I thought was amusing and
said, You know, I would raise my hand too, but I just started
working here, I didn't think it'd be a good idea shit. Oh,
great. Okay, well, that's good to know.
So let me just say, I watched this clip. And just just about
the context, bit for one moment here, I think what John John
McCain answered a question. And when he said, it's not
important, I think he was referring to what he thinks is
not important, not necessarily about the troops being pulled
out that it's, you know, there was it just felt like it was
taken out of context. And then what really bothered me because
I do like, Olbermann rants, it completely came across as if,
you know, he was saying shit, I've only got until November if
I really want to keep the keep this gig going. I got to start
picking on somebody really big and indeed you're right
immediately it's like Obama spokes people on the phone, you
know, three or four of them you know, then right back to you
know, all the so called gaffes that McCain has man made, like,
you know, we could be in Iraq for 100 years now. And I don't
know what McCain's thinking, you know, whether he's four again,
so I really don't know at this point, because, you know,
there's so many conflicting information out there presented
by the media, but to me, it felt really contrived. And, you know,
making a huge thing out of something. We already know
McCain's a kook when it comes to that he's just a kook.
Yeah, he is, is the obvious Scrooge. And, you know, we have
to, but anyway, yeah, I think I agree with that. I felt that the
thing was a stretch. And it's almost as though you're trying
too hard to be mean about this, you know, right. Because it
wasn't making the point. I mean, it's not like he, you know, they
fight they had even my own bloggers say, you know, it was
they keep using the word GAF I'm trying to think what's the gaff
here? I mean, where was a gaffe? I mean, he's just saying what he
said what he says I gaffe is where you say something really
stupid. Like, you know, just a potato spelled with an E. You
know, something Dan Quayle was made gaffes all the time. And
Bush makes gaffes all the time. He says dumb things, but Well, I
mean, what where's the gaffe? Technically, I'm not saying one.
I'm just saying, you know, just be contradictory. You know, if
you know what Donald he said three years ago, it's not what
he's saying today. I mean, but who doesn't do that? Yeah,
exactly.
Oh, yeah. Well, that's the whole thing. You know, now the big
journalistic thing is become to catch somebody on their words,
which is a very internet thing, by the way. Yeah. And boy, can
you interpret words differently, let alone what comes out of
someone's mouth? So it's like the Hillary Clinton thing where
Hillary Clinton said, you know, under sniper fire, we arrived at
the at the airport, and then someone pulls the tape and finds
the tape where of course, it turns out that wasn't true at
all. I think that's what what what journalists are looking for
these days is, you know, how can we catch someone on his own
words, you know, how can we nail them down to something they
said, aeons ago, which you're right people change their mind,
come up with the, with different theories. Thank God, people's
opinions change. What really bothers me, though, in all of
this, and it dawned on me that there's something going on.
There are conference calls, press conference calls being
made that particularly during this election, so I know the
Obama camp has a conference call every day with reporters. Then
there's the of course the Clintons. I don't know if they
still do it, but they certainly were. McCain, every candidate
had their own conference call. And, you know, these are not
like public conference calls. It's basically, you know, the
candidates or any political parties version of talking
points, and they hand them out to reporters on these conference
calls, which we're not privy to. In fact, I would really love to
be able to get like mp3 ease, or, or a dialling number for all
I care. So I can listen into what these people have to say,
but it feels like we're really one step removed from a lot of
important information that is being interpreted by what I
consider to be pretty much lazy journalists.
Yeah, there's no reason that these things shouldn't go
directly to the public to have the journalists become kind of a
filter when they do such a crappy job of it, and they're
all biassed. I mean, everybody's like, I mean, you could just see
I mean, everybody's essentially all Barack Obama. I mean, they
think Obama is the next John Kennedy or something and so they
all hoping for this you know, this change as it were, you
know, he's not gonna he's just another Senate. Under it the
thing about Obama by the way in terms of catching it with his
words he's never He never he's interesting because he never
says anything anything
except change. Of course we all want change that's that's a
great message. How simple are we as Americans dude? How fucking
simple Are we that we go behind the Pied Piper and just because
he says change, you'll Hell yeah, of course we want change.
But I have not I've yet to hear anything of substance. I totally
agree.
So anyway, so you can't catch him contradicting himself
because he doesn't really say anything. And in his also had, I
saw I was listening to his ponderous style. And I realised
that you know, he sounds like if you if you start listening to
him, he sounds like he's doing an imitation of Walter Cronkite.
Seriously, he's he's doing his type of speaking because it's no
I thought it was oration but I realised now it's, it's it's all
fashion network news is the style. He obviously when he was
a kid, he was
like Paul Harvey, this is Paul Harvey. Good day.
Did I forget a bit of that without the without the this the
Paul Harvey had? Or still does, he has a kind of an abrupt Miss
that's hard at the beginning. Whereas Walter Cronkite would
have an abruptness. In other words, they have the pregnant
pause, and then hit the word. And it would be a little softer.
And it would be a little more amenable to an to a network
audience listening to a newscast. And that's what
Obama's doing. I mean, you're right, he could probably
transform himself into a Paul Harvey if he wanted to. But I
think that it's gonna you know, that style of presentation is
old fashioned. And I think it's going to catch up to him.
Yeah, but it is working dude. I mean, he's totally got people
loving him.
Yeah, no, I agree. I mean, he's seems like a very likeable guy.
That I don't know. And even, you know, to me, he doesn't seem
like a very likeable guy.
Well, I mean, he'd seems like, yeah, maybe you're right. I
mean, I've heard stories that he's actually kind of mean
spirited. And one of those guys likes to boss around the hired
help.
You know, by the way, John, just before we embark on this, do you
know that a lot
of kind of
silly crap, I knew that was going to happen? Let's get John
back on the line. Hold on. Oh, okay. We're back. A little Skype
crashed there. As you pointed out, it's amazing. It works at
all. And what oh, what I was gonna say you were in the middle
of your rant. I was just gonna say that after the last show. We
did. And we talked about Obama, I got a lot of really angry
emails from people saying, Who were we to bash Obama? And I'm
like, Dude, we didn't bash and we bashed everybody. You know, I
don't think we, you know,
I don't know, Obama. Obama is essentially the Macintosh of
politics. There you
go. You can't say anything.
You can't say anything about him. You know, the thing is,
again, though, the public is, you know, this is early. I mean,
we're talking about to the election in November. And at
some you know, this though, everything is like, we haven't
even seen you know, what's going to happen when, you know, the
fickle public is going to react to a bomb over time. Especially
when, and if the comics take him on and the and the real critics
jump in and they start putting his feet to the fire and say,
you know, okay, which did work changes cool, but, you know,
what does it mean? Now mean you sure we just dropped issue we
dropped the Constitution. That's a change
Weymouth know what, just to clarify, he didn't actually say
that anywhere, did he?
No, no, but I'm just saying I mean, you if you just want
change for change sake, why don't we do instal a king?
Yeah, yeah, I You're right. I mean, I wouldn't mind here, you
know. So just getting back to Olbermann, kind of in a
roundabout way. You could also conceive that entire episode he
did and I'm sure Bubba Martin will put some amazing links in
the show notes either you I saw it was on diboride got to work
obviously. So you can you can find the the video that opened
up over there as well. You could also construe this as being a
setup with the Obama camp.
Yeah, that could be I mean, he's obviously I mean, it's almost
does bother me that that people who Jan Winter came on Jan
Winter came on he and which is what his name should be. Yeah.
Jan winter. The publisher of old stone came on. He was on MSNBC
in an interview show with Michael Eisner. And the two of
them were going banned when he just comes out says he's a big,
you know, they're pushing Obama Yeah, I don't know, publication,
you know? I don't know. I mean, I guess if you're just in their
camp, and I don't think he's anything wrong with, you know,
advising the public at some point but to become a tool of
propaganda, I think is another issue. And I think that's it's,
it's dubious. I mean, even on the blog, we have a mixed bag of
people who like this and that, but we try to at least everybody
gets their, you know, their opinion. It's not like one
thing. I think it's, by the way did come up with a good one,
though. My wife actually came up with it. I'm promoting it. It's
too it's the it's that McCain should take Hillary as the vice
president.
I saw that. Right. Okay. That's real realistic, John. Nice.
It's possible. Hey, you know, they
were talking about libre mineral. That's not possible.
I think it is.
I mean, what clearly happened and this, of course, is where
your your theory that Hillary would get the nomination no
matter what. Now, what clearly happened is that some of the
seeped over into the institutional money, guys. And I
think they all just, you know, kind of said, well, screw it,
you know, we just want a winning horse here. We'll just switch
over to Obama, you know, and they started backing him. And
then you know, it was done. It was over with.
Yeah, it was, I think it is over with him. And I don't see how
she can pull a rabbit out of a hat. Now. I think it's, I mean,
I thought it was possible. But she never did get that one. I
mean, she couldn't get quite get the momentum back when she lost
in a lot of STEM is bad. And everybody will say the same
thing. It stems to her arrogance at the beginning, thinking she
was gonna get the nomination. Jon Stewart had a real funny bit
where he showed all these people predicting it early on and
guaranteeing it to all these pundits on TV, that she was like
you I never Well, I did. Yeah, you're right. But I yeah, I did.
You're right. I'm one of them. But I'm not on TV doing it. I
guess that's
okay. It makes it beside the point. I
still have the bit the other way. So, anyway, yeah, you're
right. And I feel bad. So but anyway, so the point is, is that
she was she was cocky at the beginning. And she had a bunch
of her pals doing all the work for she didn't have any of the
hot political consultants that you would normally hire. She was
using her friends, you know, her sorority sisters. And they
dropped the ball. Yeah, you know, they screwed up left and
right. She had to fire a two different groups of them before
she get on track. And but by the time she got on track, she was
so far behind in the race that she couldn't catch up. It was a
disaster.
Yeah, I think it'll go down in the history books as how not to
do it.
Yeah, no, absolutely. It could, you know, total screw up. It
was. I mean, it was incompetence at every imaginable level, which
makes you wonder what kind of a president she'd be.
Nice way to run a show Hillary.
So I mean, it's just essentially given it away. I mean, Obama was
on some interview showing Asami was was talking to somebody in
his plane, and talking about how he says, look at we look at
that, you know, I can manage, check, check out what I've been
doing with this election. You know, this is a management job
that I'm doing here, and I'm winning it does that say
something for me, and it does in that regard. It's definitely
says that, you know, Hillary, if she was the president, you just
lie in the office with a bunch of cronies, we just have another
democratic version of
Bush. And amongst all of this, a very important player in, in
this elections in the United States passed away Tim Russert
from Meet the Press, which was, you know, I actually, I saw it
on your blog. That's where I first read the news. And it
really shocked me, it's, you know, I was like, wow, fuck, I
didn't expect that to happen.
Yeah, it was out of the blue. You know, I was just one of the
guys at the office was watching him. He said he saw him a week
ago or something. He said he didn't look right. Maybe it's
something you know, one of those weird heart conditions. Yeah.
Well, I should, because he's only 58. Yeah, I
showed a picture too. Because, you know, obviously I talked
about this with Patricia last night I said, so here's here's
two things. First of all, you could say there's a conspiracy
because of course he does have a lot of knowledge about the
Valerie Plame affair and all of that and said but take a look at
the picture. And Patricia looked took one look she said Look at
those eyes. They're puffing he has huge pressure behind his
eyes. I bet he was a he was suffering from high blood
pressure and something just blew up
maybe although I like the conspiracy thing a lot. He liked
that one. Well, you know it doesn't take much in a little
plastic acid and there's other techniques to make you look like
he had a heart attack and it's can't be traced well I don't
know whether you want to kill him I mean, you
know there's a lot riding on that he you know, he is
mentioned in a lot of these documents with his this Valerie
Plame thing is no joke. I mean, this people are gonna go to jail
over this. There's people sitting in jail now I think.
Perhaps, generally speaking, they just keep denying it and
then it goes away. But maybe whatever the case is, yeah,
well, yeah, he was a big I guess he wasn't. He was pretty
neutral. Yeah, he has been criticised by the right wing
talk show guys for being alive. After weighing character because
of all his background, he was like he worked. He's a
politician or worked in politics, most of his life. And
then he became a journalist later, but I always thought he
was pretty, pretty good as a neutral commentator.
Well, to me, he was just as important to my Sundays as the
Financial Times and PG Tips. You know, I get the, I get the
podcast version, which downloads around five or six o'clock on
Sunday afternoon, Sunday evening. And I always enjoyed
watching it. There's only two shows. It's like the McLaughlin
group, which reminds me of a political, like Dvorak was
McLaughlin. And, and meet the wrong. Bye bye.
Yeah, McLachlan I saw him in New York once you know, he just
looks like I mean, he does look like a cranky geek. I think more
than I do.
Hope. Yes. No worries, John.
So anyway, so that's kind of the Olbermann team that's about the
best we can do is say he's just essentially an Obama, you know,
Guy period to what it is. So
just to go back on that I really liked to be able to get in on
these conference calls. I mean, that's, that's the shit that
I well, you know, there's gotta be somebody out there, this got
to dial in number you would expect I mean, they sent it
seems to me that if you have a dial and here's what bothers me
about the media again, if you got a dial in number, why aren't
you recording this thing? And then posting it someplace? Just,
you know, I think it'd be more interesting than your
interpretation of it. Oh, yeah. I had a call yesterday with a
guy who wrote to an the latest book on the death of Marilyn
Monroe. So I'm gonna post the audio of it. I have the whole
conversation to about 18 and a half minutes. And it's actually
quite interesting.
Quite interesting. Was this is a chat or did you interview?
No, you know, here was an interview. So it was not
interview. So I ran as such by didn't read that the same much.
He's one of those guys with a million stories. He's an old
because he worked with the coroner's office or something
during that era as an older guy. And it'll be I'll be posting it
probably Monday or Tuesday.
Oh, cool. You're going to do that on tech five, or just under
vorak? Are we gonna do that
I just do it on divorce. It's not really a tech five. As you
know, tech five has got to be about tech because nothing high
tech about Marilyn Monroe being, you know, cajoled into killing
herself, which is basically
that's theory. That's the theory. Okay. Well,
the guy wrote a book on on how there are personality types that
are prone to suicide. And they often match up with personality
types. In other words, they get married to or they hang out with
people who drive them to suicide. I actually wrote a book
on this years ago, as I think was his college dissertation for
his PhD thesis. Was it a dissertation once it whatever
you do for the PhD, and dissertation? So anyway, so he's
he says, These people match up a lot. And he had examples of how
one woman married one of these pro you know, these one of these
soft males who was always threatening to kill himself, and
he was serious about it. And so one day, she said, with the
comment that you if you ever left me, I'd kill myself. If you
ever left me, I'd kill myself. And so she wrote him a note one
day he says this documented by the way, he wrote, she wrote in
my notes as I'm leaving you, and then she left a gun there and
her last comment was, you know what to do? And he shot himself.
No shit. Oh, cry, Oh, man. You know, with all this, with all
this, with all this Marilyn Monroe stuff, because I think
there's also some, some new footage on scene footage, which
is being auctioned on Monday or Tuesday. There's a lot of
pictures that are now in the press of Marilyn Monroe again,
that kind of heats up and I was looking at one of her more
famous pictures. It was a really big it was in a restaurant in in
the bathroom on the wall, you know, as you do, you're kind of
sitting there or standing. I'm sorry, doing your business. I'm
looking at this picture. Alright, you know, she wasn't
really all that hot
Well, it did. By today's standards, you know, it's hard
to say she had I've seen a lot of photos of her because you
can't not and she I thought she was really had a really pretty
face.
Yeah, but she made them in a MILFy way but not like in a in a
young sex bomb way. If you look at her hands and her fingers,
and you look at the condition of her skin around her around her
neck. I mean, I'm really picky about this. I'm really looking
at it inherently. Yeah, but you know, I had I was there for
like, two minutes. I got nothing better to do and, and so I'm
really examining this and like, you know, and also But maybe I
should say this. Maybe it's because I've become so used to
looking at these photoshopped completely, you know, unnatural
looking beauties that are in today's media. This is what
women actually look like, honestly. And they didn't use
any of those techniques back in the day and maybe it's that
could be, although you might just be hypercritical, so that
we were trying, which, which is probably more like it. So
meanwhile, I'm you So this reminds me of a
story. Fuck you very much. Okay, your next story. Yeah.
So I'm going I'm in Amsterdam with this group of people and
we're floating around the area where all the hookers are there
were these girls in those little booths. There's like, rows of
them and they're all over the place, which is rolling around
notice the red light district.
Anyway, but it's the one that for the tourists, you know that
apparently there's a couple of them there. And it is but it's
like a bunch of people guys walking down and see anybody
even doing any business but it's kind of fun to walk by. So I'm
walking by it just as I'm about to turn a corner. I'm looking
I'm with a bunch of these other people in this group. And I look
inside and I and this girl's in there. And I just make the
comments that she's not that hot. And so I turned the corner
apparently there's I guess the windows there are so thin. She
heard you think she was I didn't think she would was here. I
didn't heard that. So she apparently comes role at roaring
out of the little booth thing and start screaming at this
group of people. Meanwhile, I have turned the corner I'm gone.
So she just berating them and cussing them up and down and
just the way the story was told to me and then they come and
finally catch up to me and they say You son of a bitch. You know
what? You got us into trouble? That's common. I was completely
oblivious. And she was that hot though? That was the point.
Yeah,
you gotta be careful man. What do you
say? Just kind of sense it but now I know not to say anything
around those that think because they can hear you
now they don't understand any more because now they're all
from Croatia. They don't they don't speak any English or
Dutch. It's they've ruined the whole vibe.
Yeah, I've heard bad things. Yeah,
it's really it's no more fun there. I'm reliably informed.
Oh, well for you. So big thing happening over here.
By the way, Croatian women are pretty hot looking. The ones
when I go to well, maybe the ones they're shipping out aren't
maybe that's what that deal is as possible. But I'll tell you
when I was when I was in Croatia I've been there a couple of
times because I write for a magazine there so I go there
float around there. There are more women there that are Dead
Ringers for Natalie Wood than any place I've ever been.
Unbelievable. You know what I'm going to send you this link
right now I got a link from a guy and it was the link it was
titled A Iranian women are hot and he's got this
I know man with a Persians a Persian women you know are
traditionally hot
Holy crap you got to see this man it's like they are they're
terrible looking. There's no there Syria Captain Chris sent
it to me here. Oh, it's a YouTube video. Here we go. Hold
on. Captain Chris, who's a commercial pilot. And he sent
this to me says dude I had so no, you should
send it you should probably send a copy to should send a copy to
Baba.
You mean the link will post it? Yeah. Yeah. Well, hold on. Let
me just I'll just send it in through the you can because I
don't think there's even sound with it. So you can just take a
look at it. But wow. smokin hot is what I'd say.
Well, probably a good thing. They're being kept down by the
moolah as I as it were.
Well, it's just kind of sad when I think about it, you know,
because there's all this talk about bombing Iran, striking
out. And I only realised just the other day when I actually
looked at a Google Earth I can remember what I was looking for.
But yeah, it finally hit me when I saw Afghanistan and where it
lies in position to Iraq. And then all sudden, I understood
why we're actually in Afghanistan. Well, it's we're
surrounding Iran.
Well, we seem to be Oh, yeah. People need to look at them. You
know, people don't you know, Americans in particular. We
don't look at maps enough. I forgot to
tell you, John, I got a really big piece of news for you. I got
a scoop of Rooney. Oh, good. So I was allowed to ask on behalf
of my Dutch audience a question to the president of Iran. Mr.
Karzai.
Now that you said the President of Iran,
I'm sorry, Afghanistan. Right. And so you want to know the
question? Yes, of course you do. The question was, which I wish
was chosen for many entries was how are you going to beat the
top The Bong, which I thought was a genius question, because
of course, it has a false bottom, seeing as the Russians
tried to beat the Taliban for 10 years. And you know, now the
deal is that the coalition is supposed to stay in Afghanistan
until 2010. At which point, we pull out our Well, that's what
the deal is everyone pulls out their troops, and then the, you
know, the Afghan army and and their police should be strong
enough to take care of their own. And he answered back, he
said, you know, what, I probably don't think we can actually
defeat him. He sent it out, right? He said, I don't think we
can defeat him by 2010, we won't be able to do it. You know. So
here we are pouring billions into into the country on a
promise that we can get out by 2010. And the guy literally
says, No, I don't think we can do it. Well, it's probably
right. And then
we had our shot at I don't understand your one of the
things I've always thought is that I don't know why we even
send troops into these places. We should just send assassins
and and cruise missiles. So these guys, so the Taliban takes
over they you know, they're having a big meeting, you just
bombed them. Come back, you know,
but here's the whole problem. The follow up to his answer was
the core. The core, Taliban is in Pakistan. He said they're not
even in Afghanistan. So
ya know, I think that's, I think everybody knows that. Right?
Yeah. But the whole messed up is that we don't have any troops in
Pakistan.
Ya know, and every time we do everything, some over there,
they'll get all bent out of shape.
Yeah. And they got nuclear weapons. How about let's, let's
go after those guys, you know, screw the rest of them.
Because well, we were in bed with them.
Yeah, why? How? How are we in bed with them?
Well, in that head that goes way back. Because what happened
years and years and years ago was the India. During the Soviet
Union era, India became allies with Russia. And that's where
they bought all their weaponry and everything from and so
because of that, we decided, well, we have to be allies with
Pakistan. Because with no religious issue at the time, it
was just all you know, geopolitics. So the so the
Indians were allied with the Russia the whole time. And in
fact, most of their weaponry and all the jets and ever they were
buying everything from Russia. And so we got in bed with
Pakistan at that point. And you know, even though when you
started looking at the analysing it, if any, if we're close to
any country is India, because they speak your while they speak
English in Pakistan too, but, but they're, you know, more
connected to the British, that most of the people that
immigrate to the United States are more likely to be Indian and
Pakistani. You know, we eat Indian food, the British are
like eat Indian food as if it was Chinese food here in the US.
I mean, they have to go take out and delivery and it's amazing.
And, but because of the geopolitics of it, that's the
reason. I'm sure could be clarified by one of the experts
out there. But essentially, that was it was the alliances of
those of the Soviet era.
We're all going to hell in a handbasket. Man.
It's a joke.
Well, you know, me, Mr. Conspiracy Theory, all I can see
is, you know, just more and more proof that this is all about
money and control over people and control over territories
and, you know, forces at work that aren't necessarily the
politicians, we think her running the show?
Well, I mean, I think there's elements of that. But you know,
a lot of it is just the way things have evolved because
they're distributed. I mean, if you'd look at, I don't, I mean,
there is a control issue. This banks love to get in on certain
deals. And I mean, right now, the oil crisis, I think that's
going to ensure the Bible because it finally looks like it
just passed the legislation needed to,
or the close the loophole on closed or Enron loophole. Yeah.
And that was there was a piece of it left open. And so they
could do all that. And the guys who are the bad actors? Here,
again, we're talking about Dubai, and the London
commodities, people that are the ones who are racking these oil
prices up. Then when it turns around, which is going to be
probably right after summer,
I think it's still gonna go higher before it turns around.
John, I think that just gonna go for it.
Well, I think it's right now it's gonna be harder because of
the scrutiny has changed. And, but I mean, you can, I mean, a
lot of my Smart Money friends are already going short. I'm at
about 140 oil, right, hoping to catch it on the downside because
when it starts to go down, I think I think you might be
right, it could go to 161 70. I don't think it's going to make
200 now, but when it starts to turn around starts to slide.
It's going to fall so fast. You will know what happened. And
then everybody He's gonna go oh gee, well, that's interesting.
The thing that's weird to me is that how the public is like
bamboozled, like me the best example was the Enron, you know,
the energy crisis that we'd had years ago when they were having
these rolling blackouts in California, which made no
logical sense. And they had all these all these writers in the
old newspapers, well, we don't have enough power. And people
were using too much. There's all these these rationales for this
when the whole thing was rigged. And they were just turning the
power off. They were shortness, they were basically cutting us
off so we have to pay more. And nobody was paying any attention
to that there was all this you know, all the greenies came out
going on and on about oh my god, we you know, we have to conserve
more energy. We have to do this. We have to do that one. It's
just the whole thing was a scam.
If you've never seen smartest guys in the room, which is the
Enron story produced by what's the what's the maverick guy
name? What's his name?
I know the smartest guys in the room. I can't remember who
produced
the guy who the guy who sold broadcast.com to Yahoo the
Mavericks Cuban Mark Cuban right Mark Cuban produced that yeah,
that's his.
Why didn't know that. Okay. It's called the zoo for him. Yeah,
it's called the smartest guys in the room and you will literally
hear recordings of these energy traders. That's with a D for
delta. And literally hear them saying all right, man, screw
those guys. We're just going to turn them off. All right, ready?
Yeah. Black Mr. Black them out. You know, it was like fucking
crazy. Right? Meanwhile,
who was writing about Demi, who was investigating? This was all
the reporters were the journalists. No, they're all
talking about how we should be more green.
Yeah, there you go. And it's happening again, right before
our very eyes is the big institutions. They're all you
know, they're rolling over these these investments in oil
commodities month over month, they keep tapping it up. And
they're screwing everyone. They're absolutely screwing
everyone. And I bet you there's recording somewhere that will
surface and 10 years from now. We hear these guys going Hey,
fuck, I'm gonna take the oil to 170 Come on, we can do it. Screw
everybody you watch that'll come out?
Oh, yeah, it probably will after the fact and everyone, then
that'd be the next scam. You know, and these things come and
go and nobody picks up on it. And the funny thing that
bothered bothers me the most. And it really bothered me with
the rolling blackouts during that era is that it was obvious
that it was a scam. Yeah, I mean, you don't have you don't
go from having you know, 24/7 great power to having rolling
blackouts every month. Or even when it's not as you know,
there's no, there's no weirdness going on. It's not like we're
having a blizzard.
Yeah, well, no, too many air conditioners are on
top. There's no air conditioners in California. We don't use
them.
But that's what the story was. There's too much air
conditioning being used.
Yeah, don't use your air conditioners. It's unbelievable
and know what it had been. And we had a Governor Grey Davis who
was an out and out idiot. And he was like, didn't do the I don't
know who he had working for him. But there was he was buying
right into it. Oh, yes. You know, this is a problem because
we don't have enough power capability generation
capability. And, you know, this is gonna be the way it is from
now on. In fact, they were telling us this was gonna be the
way it's gonna be forever rolling blackouts in California
and and never gonna end. Nobody thought this was like a little
odd.
Yeah, then no one no one got the story. It was you go back and
look and see if anyone did get the story or not, if anyone ever
looked into that to any depth. And how ironic is it?
Well, you know, there may have been some alternative press,
maybe some alternative press picked it up. I don't remember
seeing anything.
So this is the thing that they were, this is a thing that I've
learned and which is just as bugging the shit out of me. So
we have this show, which only got 35 40,000 People listen to
it on a weekly basis, maybe more, I haven't looked in a
while. You know, and we're discussing a lot of stuff. We're
talking about a lot of things, but it has so little impact.
Whereas, you know, I get on a little frickin rinky dink radio
station in Holland, which is 10th in the ratings no one gives
a shit about and all of a sudden I get all this access doors open
up, I can get any kind of Member of Parliament ministers, you
know, anything I want just because it's radio because it's,
quote, mass media. It pisses me off. We're so far from the
tipping point on any of this stuff. It's all just it's this
noise in the ether, unfortunately, I think we are,
you know, opening up individuals and citizens minds to other
thinking and you know, kind of red pill like, you know, like,
Hey, dude, there might be something else going on here.
But it really has so little impact and I'm so frustrated by
it.
Yeah, it doesn't bother me. I figure it's got no impact, but
at some point we can sell these people something.
Now you're talking all right. That's the American spirit.
Some books done or something at least we have an audience for
God's sake.
Hey, speaking of books, have you ever McClellan's book yet the
former White House Press Secretary,
you know, I've seen that guy, you know, I, that guy bothers
me, too.
I thank you for saying that. I'm happy. Oh, by the way,
I was in New York can talk with my agent and I was talking to
some other literary people in the business. And in the story
behind the book was, I don't think is necessarily No, no.
Apparently he McClellan they had this manuscript that he's been
he was, he was schlepping around Manhattan agencies for quite a
while. And it was either the publisher or one of the agents
who said, Look, unless you come up with some stuff in here,
that's a little more spam, you know, scandalous. We can't
publish it, because no one's gonna buy this boring book you
wrote. So he went back to the drawing board and came up with
some stuff. And then they made him do some more along those
same lines. And so the whole thing was just created for the
purposes of selling the book. And I don't think he's sincere
about it. I think he's any when you see him, he seems very
sheepish. And he still talks about how great the President
is.
Yeah. You know, I've heard him in three interviews. Now. I
heard him on. What's Terry, gross, NPR. Whatever. That's
yeah. And fresh air fresh air. I heard him on another NPR on the
media. I've seen a couple of interviews, he has exactly the
same story, exactly the same answers. He's like, he's like a
robot. And it all seems to focus on two things. Which is
annoying, because you really rarely get any real content. In
fact, I don't believe there's any content of this book.
Because the things are the so called he says, well, it's very
clear that the White House had a meeting in the you know, in the
situation, room, whatever. And came up with talking points
about me and the talking points we're going to be this is not
the McCollum that I know this sounds like someone else wrote
this book. And of course, you know, everyone, you know, plays
the just like Jon Stewart does plays the bits of all the
different commentary, commentators saying exactly
that. And they all feel betrayed by this guy saying, Well, you
lied to us, and you're on on December 13 2005. You said this,
and he's like, yeah, thank you, hon. It's like who? It's just
like, get to the content of the book. It's not there.
Yeah, no, I agree. I have no interest. I mean, I've seen him
interviewed. I've heard the same things you're talking about. I
saw the Jon Stewart ridicule. It's just I don't there's no
nothing there. It's just uh, you know, it's a publicity stunt.
And I don't mean, not even impressed by it. But anyway, the
back story is that he what his real tale originally was just
dull. Like he is he's adult guy. I always thought he was a snot
when he was the press secretary.
So the point he's trying to make is that he too got sucked into
the way things are done in, in politics in general, and
certainly Washington specifically. And that's no
message no one gives a shit. Everyone knows it's like that.
Yeah, I know. It's not breaking any new grounds, that's for
sure. There's a lot of good books. The problem is there's a
lot of good books about this administration, lots of them.
And a lot of them end up the guru author show up on the
Stewart show. And this book is just a smokescreen book. And it
just takes it takes over. You know, it takes money out of the
pockets of the writers who are actually doing good work, and
puts it into this guy's pockets, and it doesn't accomplish
anything. I think it's a bad idea. I don't think people
should buy this book.
And by the way, if you are in the United Kingdom, and I
believe tomorrow, Sunday, the that'll be the 15th. I believe
George Bush is coming to visit the United Kingdom. I think he's
on his farewell tour. And there's some huge
demonstrations. It is is
he gonna be willing to share? Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be it's
gonna be President Bush shear and Bill Gates.
Yeah, they're all saying goodbye again. So I think there's some
huge demonstrations planned for his arrival. I think it's I
think it's tomorrow to be interesting. Yeah.
Yeah, those demonstrations have not been effective. Now, yes,
they make people feel good, but I think it's a pointless waste
of time.
Well, I think when people want to express their emotions,
that's good. You know, when people say Did it help? No, but
it made me feel good, I think yeah, I
guess that's okay. That's important. And if they have
creative sign signage, I think that would be cool. Yeah.
Creative signage. Nice. So what else we got anything? I think
we're done.
Me see. Yeah, this just in Germany and France moved to
isolate Ireland. The European Union.
What is this? Elena says really?
Yeah, Guardian, Germany and France have moved to isolate
Ireland in the European Union scrambling for ways to
resuscitate the Lisbon Treaty after the Irish dealt the
architects of the union's new regime of crushing, defeat,
refusing. So I get it, so you just like we have the votes.
It's like It's like making a bet with some guy. So okay, I'll
flip before it heads okay. 23 Yeah, okay. Okay.
Three out of five three out of five heads I win tails you lose.
Come on. Boom, boom, can I okay with the five out of seven and
then they will do it. I mean, you just like give me a break
as nuts there are local as well as European elections in Ireland
next year and Fianna Fail will not risk having to hold another
referendum not within the next 12 months at least. You know
these guys and they went for all I know this may be a great a
great treaty. Why don't they just spend you know 500 million
euros and go explain it to people
write a full rewrite. It's so absurd in simpler language.
Just you know give a give the guy blue collar guy a break.
We talked about this last week a good contract is is is clear.
And that's what this is. It's a conscious not a constitution.
It's a contract. You know, Constitution is that what like
the US has there's other ones it's simple. You know, it's
simple then you can you work with it. This is a is a giant
contract, obviously. But it's not clear.
Now you should take a look at a John you should you should I'll
send you the link he's just take a look at it. And just if you
want to laugh because you won't get through two pages of it. I'm
actually give it to my wife likes reading contracts. So
maybe I'll give it to her and she can plough through it.
That'd be great. Maybe she'll she can give us some info on it.
I don't understand it. So the only two things I think we have
left open one is on your side is cuz we really it was not well
explained here in Europe. Bush suffered some form of defeat
over the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.
Yeah, there's this is, uh, this one had this is actually an
interesting situations. The Supreme Court said that, that
the US government has essentially took the sovereignty
of the country and moved it off shore in some funny way. And
depends on how you've interpreted there's two
interpretations. One says this is a horrible thing that that
happened, because essentially, it gives rights, American
citizen rights outside of the country, to prisoners, but not
necessarily citizens,
but isn't going to learn them obey just like an embassy isn't
new. Because if you go to an embassy in any foreign country,
that
is not an embassy. Yeah, but it's not an embassy. territory.
Right. Okay. And, but it's considered on it's theirs. It's
a sketchy place, because it's, you know, really part of Cuba,
and it was part of some agreement, and it's hard to say
what its status is, in terms in terms of US law,
what is the deal? Right there? That's, you know, we kind of
gloss over it now. Guantanamo Bay, but why the hell do we have
a prison in Cuba? Can we make it Texas or Florida? Or why does
have to be?
Then you'd have then you would? Well, that's the reason because
then you would have a sovereignty issue. I mean, you
would have US law apply. This is essentially a military base,
like say it would be one in Germany. So you have a military
base in Germany. And and you put somebody in the brig. That is a
German, right? Does he have American citizens rights to all
to due process? When he's not an American? He's not in America.
He's in a germ. He's in a, in a military base prison in Germany.
Right. And so that's what they've said, Yeah, he did it.
So this has become a real problem. Mainly because they
think it's a slippery slope of, you know, you know, just it just
could be it. The total resolution of it is yet to be
determined. But it's, it seemed to be a setback, because Bush
didn't want this because it's going to complicate matters. And
so, and it was just a straight party vote. The Liberals on the
court voted for it and the Conservatives voted against it.
And the weird thing was, is that the votes against it required a
number of different dissensions. It wasn't not just one there was
I think, at least two or three of different interpretations of
why it's bad why it shouldn't go this way. So that's I that's the
best I can explain it. The only reason I can even explain it
that well is because I was watching night, you know, the
one of the PBS shows that had two people arguing both sides of
it.
So the big thing in the UK this week, was that a law was passed,
which has been a huge discussion point for months, maybe even
longer than that. extending the period, the government can hold
you captive incarcerate you, without process from 28 days to
42 days under the anti terrorism laws in the United Kingdom.
Which 42 days is quite a long time to go without, without due
process.
took really long time. I mean, it's like, you know, month and a
half of just sitting on your ass.
Yeah. And, you know, there's all kinds of stuff,
it seems to me as if you got somebody in jail, you should
have a reason for it.
Yeah, well, that would be the argument.
Let's just kind of incarcerate people randomly, what you could
do under these circumstances, you grab somebody you don't like
them, which I always think is do what you have. You know, I
always think there's a lot of this is going to be eventually
politically motivated, you get some desperate, you know,
running things. Okay. Well, there's one of my critics, it's,
we got 30 days for the election, throw him in jail for 45 days,
right? Or you got some non likeable guy, like, let me see,
oh, Adam curry exam. Just fuck with this guy. Let's just call
him a terrorist or the suspect and will throw me in the brig
for 42 days. Yeah, it would certainly shut me up. It would
be okay. My wife is so worried about this. John, I can't tell
you
because he, he's worried that they're gonna throw you in jail
for 42 days because you're a loudmouth note
she thinks she's afraid they're gonna throw me in jail, sabotage
my aeroplane, you know, sick that which of course, they've
done consistently trying screw me for no taxes. It this is my
life, the tax thing I've been investigated eight, nine times
in my life in my professional career. It's, it's, it's crazy.
It's a problem with with, I mean, the aeroplane thing
bothers me too, after having read The Confessions of an
economic hitman, because that's a methodology they seem to like
to use every day are they? But the point is, is that for the
most part, I think your wife should be assured that you're
really part of the machine that they need. You're not really a
force that makes things not work, or that you're not a
wrench that's been thrown in the works. I mean, I hate to tell
you this. No, no. And I understand what you're actually
a Mecca, you're part of the part of the system, I have to say
that probably am two, that actually keeps the thing you
know, we bring up these, these, these, these criticisms. But
they're not like the same thing as plotting to overthrow the
government or doing something really wacky, which is dangerous
to the status quo. We're not dangerous, I mean, is in any
way. And in fact, we're probably laughable to some of these guys
if they ever listened to the show. And so I would, I tend to
think your wife's fears are unfounded, not that somebody in
the government might not want to screw with you in terms of like,
investigating you for your taxes, because you're, you know,
you live the high life.
Well, now, that's someone you're
always flying back and forth, and back and forth. And you
always flying back and forth, you must be transporting money.
It must
be let's check this guy. But what you said there is, in a
way, comforting, and in a way extremely disappointing, of
course. And I hope that one day, because I think I'm finally
starting to find my calling in life, John, I hate to say it,
but I'm really, you know, clearly I have enough time on my
hands to, you know, to download shit and look at it, and I'm
really interested in it. And I'm interested in passing on this
information to other people. So yeah, I don't think I'm not like
a I'm like a monkey wrench that I throw into the machine. But
I'm more like a guy who has a pot of water and everyone's
sitting in it. And I'm just turning up the heat very slowly
and other people start start to turn up the heat and maybe one
day it'll come to a boil and maybe something will happen I
really hope so this
this is this is your wish a Ron Paul type of guy. You know,
you're kind of an annoyance to some people because you point
stuff out. But that's it. You're an annoyance is what you are in
this this is that's not worth dealing with. I mean, you know,
the the annoyances are necessary. They're good. They're
part of the mechanism.
Well, maybe I'll strike on something one of these days and
become more than you.
I'm not seeing it,
buddy. I really appreciate
this is not gonna happen. Yeah, but it's
someone's got to say something. You know, I can't just you can
say all you want in fact is that the mechanisms long sense
realise that saying things unless you're really good at it.
Not that you're not but I'm talking about when they're in a
Lenin Leninist style or Trotsky type of thing, which doesn't
work wouldn't work anymore. I don't know what the mechanism is
to get people riled up. I mean, let's face it, the public has
become extremely passive. And and and you're just, you know,
it's just The piston in the wind with some of this stuff and you
no matter how good
your information Yeah, right now, first of all, yes, you're
probably right. But I'm not going to accept that as a reason
not to continue. I'm not that you're saying that. But, you
know, I do see that every single day, there's another person who
will send me an email and say, you know, dude, thanks, you open
up my eyes. At least I'm thinking a little bit about this
stuff now. And maybe, maybe one day, we'll we'll be able to get
like this European Union thing. I truly believe that that
citizens around the world are smarter than the old fashioned
guys in Brussels, as we, as we discussed are the old fashioned
way of doing things. And they're saying, you know, fuck, no,
we're not going to do that. We don't understand what it is. So
Screw it. And I think that people are awakening, not enough
of them. But if we keep
the Irish the Irish woke up, even though they don't listen to
our show. The Irish didn't
wake up the the Irish. Well, they are suspicious. You know,
they're like, Wait, this just smells bad. But because of big
internet campaigns, and there's been a tonne of them online a
tonne of online action, telling people to say no, and that is
working. I think you got to believe that some of that is
spilling over.
Yeah, well, no, I'm not saying is completely a waste of time.
Made me feel so fucking worthless.
I'm just I'm just saying it's a lot of it is. There's a wheel
spinning mechanism involved in most of this kind of
complaining.
I'm not complaining. I'm just saying pointing out anyway, go
Europe. Go Holland. You guys will kick ass in the finals.
to It is what it always boils down to this is where they know
where they got. Yeah,
that's all people care about is football.
I think that's true. I owe at least over there over here
actually over here too. Except it's a different kind of
football. But then when the football season or football,
American football starts. That's all people care about as
although I have to say the Y generation the younger kids
coming up don't care at all about it. I think there's gonna
be a huge problem. Yeah, I think, go ahead. I think there's
gonna be a drop off in the interest in professional sports.
Somewhere along the line is going to be in the next 10 or 20
years and it's going to be dramatic, because I think
we're gonna see it first. The first time we're gonna see it is
with the Olympics, the Olympics. I predict we'll have nowhere
near the viewership. Despite the coverage nowhere near the
viewership that it's enjoyed in the past. I don't think people
care anymore.
Well, there's one other reason for that, of course, China.
Well, no, you're gonna have the camera up in the stadium and
then they're gonna they won't be able to get through the smog
with the zoom lens. So it's all gonna have to be done with
handhelds and nobody can run that fast. So I mean, it's gonna
be you know, tough what are
the Romans used to say? Give the people bread and games or what
is the saying?
Something like that? Yeah, games they love games. You know every
time by the way, I keep my point is this lesson we're gonna say
but they keep pointing this out when you see these reports
coming in from China where they correspondents talking about the
Olympics. Just look behind him and look and not see anything.
It's just like these guys in a smoke storm.
everybody we're here at the Olympics at the eye in the sky
at the Beijing Olympic Stadium and well, we see absolutely
nothing
you know, the Chinese DGA, and they're supposed to clear it up
by shutting down all the factories and everything. I
don't know if that's gonna help because they're gonna have to
get they're gonna have to shut down the factories that are east
of Beijing and there's too many of them mostly guys won't shut
down anyway, then they're gonna have to shut down the cars and
all the freeways of the town is crawling with you know, it's
bumper to bumper is and it's got a bowl like effect to the to
keep the cars out in town. I mean, I don't know how they're
gonna do it.
Well, John, no matter what, no matter if it makes no
difference. I enjoy doing this with you every week.
It's a good show.
And maybe one day we can make some money off of these people.
That's the worst thing you could ever say. I can sigh You
know, they know they know that they feel guilty. Listen to this
show, knowing that we're dying here.
Yeah, we're dying. Excuse me. I just stepped out of my own
plane. Hold on a second. I'm hurting so bad. Oh, boy. Oh, he
might get a tax problem. Yeah, people don't give a shit about
oh, by the way, Monday. I think Monday big news from me. VO Be
on the lookout for it. And I will I'm not allowed to say why
you know what it is? I'm not allowed to say what?
Good teaser. Yeah. Cool.
All right. All right. What's coming up this week for you,
John.
I'm gonna be around all week. There's an AMD meeting I'm
having because I, you know, have just my penance for writing a
nasty article. So I have to like listen to the lectures and
that's on Monday and then the rest of the week I'm thinking I
may go off to The auction will probably be around a whole week.
I probably just be doing nothing. I gotta clean up my
office.
Yeah, I've heard you say that about for two years now. I think
it's pathetic. Well, I think I'm coming out. Maybe for Fourth of
July. What are you doing?
I'm going up north are Fourth of July shit. Crap.
I gotta find a good hang for Fourth of July. We have
to be at the we're doing the Fourth of July parade. Our deli
is gassed to be in the Fourth of July parade. We one person is
going to be wearing a pig costume and then another one a
chicken. You know for chicken sandwich.
Okay.
So you won't see me.
All right, then I'll have to replan my trip.
I guess that's it.
All right, coming to you from the curry man or the United
Kingdom. Hi, I'm Adam curry.
And from foggy Northern California. I'm John C. Dvorak.
I'll
talk to you again next week right here on no agenda.