Robert Mueller and Masculinity Legacy

Springs blooming at Starbucks. A new season calls for new discoveries like our iced ube vanilla matchelate. Smooth, creamy and nutty, balanced with notes of vanilla. It's a treat for the e toyoes, with vibrant lilac hues to brighten your spring mood. Hot or iced, there are so many ways to love this stunning salve. Uber vanilla. Pouring now at Starbuc ks. Subject to availability while stocks last. Support for the show comes from CoreWeave. Everywhere you look, AI is expanding what we thought was possible. And at the center of it all is CoreWeave, medical research and diagnosis, education, complex visual effects for movies, science and technology breakthroughs. CoreWeave powers AI pioneers around the world with purpose-built tech, building what's never been built before. CoreWeave is the essential cloud for AI, ready for anything, ready for AI. To learn more about how CoreWave powers the world's best AI, go to Coreweave.com slash ready for anyt hing. Support for this show comes from MongoDB. If you're a developer stuck fixing bottlenecks instead of building the next biggest thing, then you need MongoDB. Mongo is the flexible unified platform that gets out of your way. It's ASIC compliant, enterprise ready and built to ship AI apps fast and it's trusted by so many of the Fortune 500 with their most critical workloads. Developers have a word for that kind of reliability. Actually five words it's a great fucking database. Start building at mongoDB.com/slash bu ild. Let's get to the news. Oh, let's not . Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher. And I'm Scott Galloway. How you doing, Scott? Uh I'm tired. I took the red eye back from Mexico. Mm-hmm. But uh fortunately, the infrastructure is so superior at the airports in Mexico now. Took me about three minutes to get and I'm not exaggerating. I agree. I texted my assistant, I said, should I get to the airport early? And she said, Oh no, not to worry, it's Mexico. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, how far off we'd fallen? It's really weird, I have to tell you. I'm so glad I'm not traveling this week. We traveled a lot last week for South by Southwest, and it was quite fine. The idea it was building in these airports. Um we'll talk about it, but I am so happy I'm not traveling and it seems like airports. It's like lines, delays, crashes, and ice, like the and of course plane riding was never the most fun thing in the world. Um but did you have a good time in Mexico with your friends? I love when you do that. Yeah, I I go every year um with the same guys and because we because one of us pa one of us passed, we now feel as if uh in a weird way now we almost feel a weird obligation to go every year. Um but we love I love it down there. I I can't stand the I don't know catastrophizing or demonization, whatever the term is of Mexico. I think it's a fantastic place to vacation. I think the food is incredible. I love the weather. I love the people. From your friends, did you come to a conclusion? Like did you have a moment, a hug, cuddle puddle? One of my friends, Adam I mean there's a couple of things. As you get older as guy friends, you are very competitive early on. It's sort of you get together for kind of a non a series of controlled boasting trying to show how well your life is going. Yeah. And get drunk and be more outrageous than the other. And and then as you get older you do sort of pivot to really enjoying and celebrating each other's achievements. But I'm now at the stage where, I mean, just last year, there's this great gym called Jungle Gym and Tulume, and me and my friend Adam and Augusta would go to the gym together. Now me and Adam get up early because we can't sleep. And we take a long walk. Oh, become lesbian. Because he's getting his knee replaced. So I mean things have changed. Yeah. Yeah. You do. And men need to do that. I think it's really you know what I did last night? What'd you do? Mahjong. Oh, that's great. My mom used to play mahjong. Yeah, well it's the thing now. It's the hot thing in case you're interested. Are you good at it? You know what? It was a mahjong lesson. I got it from my school auction and I invited 16 people, uh at friends who didn't know each other, which was really good. And we had a teacher there at my my school and little snacks, a little wine, a little beer, and we learned American mahjong. There's two different kinds. I happen to like the Chinese Mahjong better for various reasons. Uh but it was fun. And I have to say everyone was thrilled afterwards because it was interaction, brain work, some wine, and learning. And you know, these were all different I had different ages of people too. Was it all women? No, it was men and women. And it was fun. Okay, hold on. Any straight men? Yes. I don't believe you. Yes. No. There was an oil trader there. Let me just tell you. Yeah. It just was really interesting. I'm telling you, Mahjong is the pickleball of twenty twenty six. You look it up, Sky. It is. Everyone's playing it. It's challenging. It's interesting. It's um my it it's a it's a mind fuck of a game because you really have to think and it's also tactile. The the noise of the clickety tiles and everything is very satisfying and it's it's it's about strategy and cooperation and non cooperation. Anyway, it's a great game. S y Sharing, when we were in Tulum, we played Maj oh no wait, we bought Molly from a woman in the men's bathroom. Very similar. You and I are gonna play Mahjong. Very similar. We're gonna play Mahjong. We had dinner with someone, the food down there is amazing. And at one point, this person said, I think I'm gonna go get Molly from the woman in the bathroom. And I'm like, what could go wrong? What could go wrong? I'm like, that's the sentence of the weekend. I'm gonna go buy Molly from the woman in the bathroom. Um Pung. Pong. That's what I did. Do you know what that means? Pung. Is that like a uh uh Jin Rumi for mahjong? Essentially, yeah., No it's means you have I think three in common. Women are amongst the many things women are better at. Women are better at friends than men. Yeah. And men after they get married or find a partner, generally lose contact with their friends and the only friends they have are through their partner or through school or through work and they don't do a good job. No, you do. You have a lot of male friends. That's something I'm really good at. And you are something also, my partner is very she does girl trips. I do a lot I do two or three guys' trips a year, and I find them incredibly grounding and fun and rejuvenating. And we always try and um not always, but I would say every other time we try and bring uh uh you know, a tourist, a new guy in, and then uh like mean girls we decide if we're inviting them back or not. No, you are not worthy. I always have visualized your vacations as like White Lotus of the three women and I'm not sure which character you are, the Trump or uh the other. No, no, no. The remember the three girls they're on the three women, they're on their thing and they're gonna latest monologues in streaming history that woman gave about friendship. Friendship, yeah. Oh god, she's fantastic. She was in the leftovers with our friend Justin Thoreau. Yes, she's also in the Gilded Age. Everyone talks about the Sam Rockwell monologue That was jaw drop. A woman watching him get fucked by another man, which is a moment. But I thought the best monologue was the one she gave about friendship. She's an amazing actress. Carrie Kuhn. She's amazing. She's amazing. She's so I love her in the Gilders. You're very good. Actually, you know something? I've noticed this about you. What? You are a very loyal friend. You keep showing up with the same women over and over again. I know it's true. And I'm like, oh there's Tammy. Oh, oh there's Brooke. You're you are lots of friends. You take your friends very seriously. I do, I have tons of them and I love them. I love them all. Anyway. Um not all of them. And I I cut some out. I do when it when things get troubled. I have been cutting more people out too at the same time. Um let's get to the news. Oh let's not. Let's let's let's talk about getting Molly from a woman in a bathroom into loom. I've had it. You know I've never done Molly. Just so you know I've never Oh you should start. You should start. I can't now. It's too scary. So speaking for a friend, eighties music has never sounded more magical than from what I've heard. I like it just by itself. I can't do it. I'm too scared I'm scaredy cat of a drugs. I'm scared. Cocaine, I I'll die. I ne'vever done cocaine. I've never done that. If I do like ecstasy, I'll die. Like I have this whole vision. It's uh the first the first time I ever this is the last thing I'll say, the first time I ever hitchhiked, only time in my life I got I got grapped by a guy. I literally I was like, I'm not gonna because there's people could grab you. And someone's like, oh come on, just do it. And the only time I did it, I got gra bbed. Hitchhiking? Yeah. Hitchhiking. I hate to hear that. That's awful. I know. But I was like I avoided it my whole life and then I did it once. So that's why I feel the same way about drugs. I'll do it once and I'll be like you'll be reading about drugs. It's like I don't know what made me think of this, but of course I'm that overbearing parent and my son at the age of I don't know what was like ten or eleven, wanted to walk to his friends on uh by himself in Florida. And of course his mom made me follow him stealthy in our car. So I'm following him trying not to get caught, and I park and immediately fucking neighborhood control these two ninety year olds come out like what are you doing here? And I'm like I'm stalking I'm like, don't worry, I'm stalking my son. I'm I said, I'm I'm following that ten year old boy, which did not come out right I was literally like Inspector Clousseau, like driving uh two hundred feet behind, making sure he didn't see me and then he'd go around a corner and fall. Anyway, we have to get to the news. Two pilots are dead after an air Canada plane and a fire truck collided at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday evening. There's stoppages at Newark everywhere. As we record this, LaGuardia is closed. The accident comes as airports chaos across the country, not just TSA lines uh due to a DHS shutdown because they're not paying the TSA security people. The Trump administration is now sending ICE agents into airports. They're they can't wear masks because there's no criminals, apparently. Border control uh czar Tom Homan says ICE will be there to help move these lines long. I think he was told about it in a truth social and then he had to do something about this poor feckless guy. It's like, oh God. Trump just announced if I'm enough to help at the airports, he'll bring in the National Guard. TSA workers have been calling in sick in record numbers, and more than four hundred officers have outright quit since the shutdown beginning in February. They're not being paid. Um, there there was just a report that there was an agreement between John Thune and the Democrats, which Trump rejected. This is fully in Trump's this chaos, is Trump's chaos. Um he's uh he's trying to send ICE to do this. Elon Musk, as usual, because he can't, you know, because he's a narcissistic prick, has inserted himself into this, offering to pay TSA salaries during the shutdown. This is not how we want to fund government. President Trump says that it it's it's the Democrats' fault. It's clearly chaos is follows him wherever he goes and he won't do any deal because if the Democrats want to put strictures on some ICE activities, which seems appropriate. And airports suck for people. You're seeing videos after video after video of the lines, the chaos, uh, the shutdowns, the the lack of security, the possibility of accidents everywhere you go. Aaron Powell Another attack on the middle class is that probably the most obvious investment in the middle class is investments in infrastruc ture because when people can get to work, when people have more opportunities, when people can spend more time with their families, when people have an absence of stress, when they can take their kids to Disneyland , you know that,'s that's accretive to the prosperity of their life. And a a fairly decent metric for the progress of a civilization and how much it cares about its middle class is its investments in infrastructure. And when you see this type of political warfare breaking out, I mean here's what's happened. It it doesn't the one percent that that controls our government now has their own infrastructure. They do. I mean uh their own their own transportation, their own plants, their own security, their own police force, if you just give a little bit of money away, you can get you know your own pr practically your own fan government. So I'm not exaggerating. I I go to the Cancun Airport, uh, you know, I I buy a you know, I whatever I bought, some Cervasa. Yeah, I bought a modello especial, and there was no security line. And I thought, oh, I have to come to Mexico for an investment in the middle class. Anyways, I find the whole thing incredibly discouraging. Typically before our podcast, I do 30 seconds of research in this one, I just couldn't do it. It just Yeah. Well it it's not a very good look. Who do you look, I hate to say who looks better here, but I think this is one of these visceral things, the way the attacks on Minneapolis were. This is a visceral fit thing that goes on the other side. Do they blame Trump or do they blame government in general? I think they blame Trump. I think chaos follows this guy. And they and it looks like there's very clear reports the Republicans tried to settle it and he refuse he's refusing. He refuses to give in. Well that's but see that's the problem. If you wanna if you wanna get air traffic controllers and TSA paid, it's pretty easy. Just cancel all uh uh immediately pass legislation that grounds all tail numbers that are private planes. Private planes have their own special type of tail number. And all of a sudden, the prunes are going to come through the constipation of the legislative process and they're going to figure out a way to fund TSA. But the people who control our government right now, unfortunately, aren't as affected by this. No, they aren't so And Trump doesn't care. He doesn't care about the He doesn't think he gives a shit. The lines are long at it Yeah. What's interesting is the airports that are working had private pe private security there, like San Francisco and some others. Um and the ones that had TSA, obviously. And if I was a TSA person, I would quit too. I mean, he was urging them to stay working without pay. No, no. Just settle your differences and everyone knows that. And then to send ice in of all things. So ineffective, so inefficient. What was the rationale I don't know what they're gonna do. I think I I literally from what I the reporting was, Izzy tweeted it or threaded it or whatever that whatever he's on, truthed it. And Tom Holman was like, oh no, what do I do? And they have to all act like, okay, you know, we have to do something like of course we're on it, but they're not on it. It's like crazy mad King George. I think what we have to have a conversation about, and we'll talk about around is it he has lose he has lost his mind. He is cognitively disabled, mad King George, as it's getting, and it's getting worse, as you saw from the tweets. Let's as we record, he says he's postponing strengt strikes on Iranian power plants for five days, claiming productive talks with Iran uh to end the war. Iran is denying the talks with the U.S. just as U.S. presidents denied talking with Trump about how what a good idea it was. I think he's having com he's like Nixon. He's talking to the portrait on the wall over Over the weekend, Trump was threatening to obliterate uh Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn't. Then he said he wasn't, and then he said he was in Cox, and then he said this. He says a lot of things. It changes from absolutely minute by minute. Iran said it would irreversibly destroy essential infrastructure across the Middle East if the US attacked its energy sites. They are not backing down. They are a lot stronger than well, Trump didn't do any homework at all. Oil prices fell and stocks rose after Trump postponed these uh strikes, b but he threatened them and he may threaten them again in the next 15 minutes. He seems to be literally changing his everything by the second. Uh he probably got spooked by oil and gas prices. High gas prices in the last few weeks are sparking uh more interest in electric vehicles. We'll get to that in a second. But where are we this? Because this this shifting is is literally minute by minute. Like it's not it's like there's four minutes that goes by and then he says something different than the previous thing he just said when he gets in front of a a microphone. Well this is a continuation of just a total lack of objectives and no ability to communicate what the objectives are such that he could declare victory and win. It feels as if it's spinning out of control. A clear lack I mean, at some point a confidence comes to roost. I I was always thinking it's just amazing that shit hasn't gotten worse or that we haven't had a disaster when he keeps appointing podcasters and talk show hosts and conspiracy theorists to the most important positions in America. And now we're starting to to see that come fruition. Uh of course they were going one of the downsides of globalization, incredible prosperity, a lowering of prices, um you know, you outsource comparative advantage, globalization, I would argue on the whole has been just an unbelievable unlock, incentive cooperation. The problem with globalization is it creates a series of choke points that can bring the global economy down. One of those choke points are the Straits of Hormos, and a lot of people said it was a choke choke point, but f whoever was saying that they weren't they weren't listening to. And you have eff effectively the world is likely going to go into some sort of fairly either modest or maybe even a deep recession, and everyone talks about our energy independence. Yeah, we're strategically or from a defense standpoint not that vulnerable, but we're going to have to pay the same higher prices as everyone else. And even the numbers around, well, oil prices were down today because they claims to be having talks. There's now fear that uh he's sending combat troops and amphibious vehicles into the region and they're Then he said he wasn't. Then he said he was. And then he said he was, and that they they're gonna try and maybe take the island of Carg, which is responsible for 95% of the throughput, in exchange for them opening Hormuz. The president of Finland said that Europe should support the efforts to uh escort ships to the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for Trump committing to supporting Ukraine. And what's interesting about what's interesting I think or the dynamic I see emerging here is the key word that's coming out of both this and this war and the war in Ukraine is one word, asymmetry. And that is well, two words, asymmetry and distraction. And that is, generally speaking, the world's powers shaped by economics and military strength. And if you go to the latter, military strengths with a function of really expensive, sophisticated platforms, of which only a few nations could produce a small number of them, and they were devastating. Now it's moving to the following dynamic: a Shahead drone costs $25,000 to $40,000, but the Patriot missile to shoot it down costs $4 million. And so all of a sudden, you have the ability to create cheap and cheerful, massive armaments using AI and GPS that can overwhelm the most sophisticated machines. And speedboats. You know, I had that interview with with Tender Warren recently where he talks about this. Aircraft carriers versus Zodiacs. Weeks ago he's like, look, we're gonna lose because this drone that costs nothing is gonna, you know, to take we is gonna hurt our ships or these these zodiacs or whatever it happens to be. But they have the ability to do this, and I think they miscalculated just how many of them Iran had and just how strong the government was. I think they I think both Israel and the United States thought there'd be a popular uprising. There hasn't been. Um it certainly could happen, but it doesn't seem to be happening because as Warner noted quite correctly, because he does his homework, this group of people have has a grip on power there. Terrible group of people, but they they are in control of this company country in a way that Trump did not seem to understand, I guess. I think long term that's a strategic blunder on their part. But we used to worry that our aircraft carriers might be vulnerable to a Chinese hypersonic missile. It's not. They're vulnerable to hundreds of zodiacs going 30 miles an hour. Also, I mean, I mean, it's the th the reason why Ukraine has, despite unbelievable odds, been able to push back against a far superior military power and economy in Russia is the same reason that Iran is a greater threat and is able to create more disruption now than we'd anticipated. And it's all comes down to this one word, asymmetry. And then the second word is distraction. And that is, and Fried Zakaria did a fantastic piece on this. At the end of the 20th century, Britain was the world's dominant superpower, controlling about a quarter of the world's GDP, very similar to what we control. And they got bogged down in a series of conflicts overseas that took away their political, their economic, and their military focus, and weaken them at home such that Germany can industrialize. And the we might be falling into the same trap. A little group of Americans with just guns and some moxie. You know, that's the kind of thing. I mean, you have to sort of make these historical links because no one would have thought we would have beaten the British, right? But we had more at stake, right? Or we had more reasons and good reasons. Um but I think the I think the problem is again, Trump equals chaos. It's like it doesn't have a point. The this this airline thing doesn't have a point. It's gonna hurt airlines, it's gonna hurt customers, it's gonna hurt travel and tourism. Uh it's gonna get people not to travel. It's gonna hurt the economy in all manner of ways. And the same thing with this. It's gonna hurt everybody. Now, interestingly, with this oil and gas price spikes, uh high prices are sparking more interest again in electric vehicles, which had seen a fall-off, and searches for EV models are up quite a bit, 20 percent here in the U.S. since the Iran conflict began. It's not just in the U.S. BYD dealerships across Asia are also seeing a spike in demand. Um it's a really interesting moment because for people to don't understand, let me tell you, range anxiety is really going away. It's in a way that's really significant. So you said range anxiety? Range range anxiety. Oh, I said. And that is not doesn't exist now. It doesn't matter. I tried Xanax last night and even that shit didn't work. No, just a plug. That's all you need is a plug and these are the I have several of those, but I do that for fun. Yeah, exactly. Oh wait, no, I'm sorry. Excuse me, never mind. Anyway, electric vehicles are the one thing seeing a spike. This is not a surprise, but I have to say, uh for the first time in m my I haven't have a gas car and electric car. I'm thinking of just going all electric because I don't feel range in z that'ss the isue is that I better have a car to get out of here in case of the apocalypse, essentially. Well that might be okay. So that might be if there is a silver lining here over the medium and the long term, it does put a rent. You know, uh uh $60 a barrel oil does not help alternative energy. And uh this m I I don't think this is gonna be worth the price. I've been more optimistic about the potential outcomes of this this what should have been a conflict or a military operation out of war than most people. But hopefully this does give a renewed focus on I mean, if China hadn't busted a very strong move to alternatives, they would be really fucked and they're still fucked. But it kind of renews the importance of being independent and not being subject to these choke points around in a variety of ways. Not just And actually did I tell you this? Your your ex-wife we spoke at Where was I? Oh yeah. South by Southwest. And she ran after of course my favorite South by Southwest moment was after a talk. She came up and started answering questions for me as people were asking me questi ons. And by the way, her answers were pretty good. Anyways, she this time she ran after me as I was headed out and because I was talking about Iran and Could be anything. And she showed me this site and it shows at any given moment where Texans are getting their electricity for air conditioning and everything. Oh yeah, she's onto the Texan thing. And s at that moment she pulled it up. 60% of electricity was coming from wind power in Texas. And another 18% was coming from solar. So Texas, which is supposed to be the epicenter of oil and gas and landmen, at that moment was getting seventy-eight percent of its energy electricity from um from renewables. Yeah. This is getting it is so uh the the incompetence chickens are coming to roost. To roost. Yeah. And we need to be really thoughtful about this whole notion of asymmetric warfare. It just you can't and it's so interesting. They launch multiples of these drones and they change altitudes to the GPS locators trying to fight back get, confused. And then but Ukraine is coming up with all sorts of sorts of defense drones. It's just going to open up an entirely different I I think you're going to see massive and you you actually pointed this out, that Ukraine uh is gonna is gonna uh uh assuming we ever get to something resembling a state a sustainable peace that gives people the confidence to invest, you're gonna see an unbelievable, I think I actually if I were like advising my son Alex, I'd like to go to Ukraine when this is all over and you will ha you will be a billionaire. Like it'll be it's so it's gonna be so exciting there. I think. There's corruption issues there very, s significant, including with uh Zelensky's government and stuff uh especially with Zelensky's government. But yes, it's absolutely an opportunity. What's really interesting here is um is is again, all of this has chaos uh attached, and we do not need more chaos. Anyway, and uh by the way, on our 250th birthday coming up, guess who did this that kind of t military tactics? The US revolutionaries, um, in order to read the very much more organized and much more um at the time militarily uh superior British. Anyway, but we just hid behind trees. We refused to march in a first to march in a straight line. No, we did didnn't't marches. We move in. And have bright red coats that were great targets at dusk and light. So funny you're in my algorithm. I ha I got served that great tomahawk scene of Mel Gibson with his him and his kids killing about nine Yeah. I can't stand Mel Gibson as Mel Gibson, but I love all his movies. Oh, he's a fantastic movie. I know, but he's a terrible person. I do I love all those movies. I hate that I love them, but I love them. Every one of them.. Fantastic guy Anyway, that's the Patriot you're talking about. That's the Patriot, yeah. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Elon loses in co urt. Support for this show comes from Delete Me. Delete Me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. When you sign up, the experts at Delete Me do the heavy lifting of wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. This isn't a one-time service. DeleteMe sends you regular personalized privacy reports showing what info they have found, where they found it, and what they removed. I've tried DeleteMe, I use it all the time, and I've found incredible the amount of information about me out there, a lot of it inaccurate, but all of it compiled in a way that's really disturbing. You don't have to take my word for it though. Last year the New York Times wire cutter named Delete Me, their top pick for data removal services. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount to our listeners. Get twenty percent off your delete me plan when you go to join delete me.com slash pivot and use the promo code PIVIT at checkout. The only way to get twenty percent off is to go to joindelete me dot com slash pivot and enter the code pivot at checkout. That's joindelete me dot com slash pivot code piv ot. Support for this show comes from Mint Mobile. We all like our money, it keeps the lights on and lets us have fun. Unfortunately, big wireless companies also like your money. So much so that they come up with clever ways to squeeze more out of you each month. That's why Mint Mobile does things differently. They offer a premium wireless phone plan for just $15 a month. All of their plans come with high-speed 5G data and unlimited talk and text, and you don't need to bother getting a whole new phone or number, nor do you have to deal with long term contracts. Just activate online in minutes and start saving immediately. No more expensive monthly phone bill riddled with unexpected fees. Get three months of premium wireless service from Mint Mobile for just fifteen bucks a month. If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Shop plans at mintmobile.com slash pivot. That's mintmobile.com slash pivot. Upfront payment for $45 for three-month five gigabyte plan required, equivalent to fifteen dollars a month for new customer offer for first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes, and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for deta ils. Support for the show comes from Vanta. Risk and regulation. If you're a business owner, you probably know that both are on the rise and your customers need to know your proof of security. But earning that trust can be expensive and time consuming. Vanta says that's the challenge they're designed to solve. Vanta automates compliance to bring risk management and customer trust together on a single AI-powered platform. It helps companies achieve and maintain compliance across more than 35 security and privacy frameworks, including SOC2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA. The result? Faster compliance, less manual work, and more time to focus on growth driving opportunities. So if you're tired of sifting through old audits and spreadsheets, you can get a system that's always working in the background, keeping you compliant, reducing risk, and helping your business scale fast and with confidence. Vanta says that companies including Ramp and Ryder spend 82% less time on audits with Vanta. That's not just faster compliance, it's more time for growth. You can get started at Vanta.com slash pivot. That's V A N T A dot com slash pivot vanta dot com slash piv ot Scott, we're back with more news. A jury found Elon Musk liable for misleading Twitter investors in the run-up to his purchase of the platform in 2022. Damages could reach up to 2.6 billion dollars. Musk legal team obviously plans on appealing the ruling. He also he also didn't have the the worst of the of the things he didn't the jury didn't find around fraud and everything else. Um by the way he's been very busy this week besides offering to pay TSA. He's uh busy he's gotta shut up. I felt like that this week. He's busy keeping his hands in politics. He's been fixated on advocating for the passage of the Save America Act, a strict voter ID bill, attacking Senate Majority Leader John Thune in the process, even though there's very little um evidence. And by the way, the New York Times is just outright saying it that there there is any voter fraud in these areas or examples of it. He's still holding influence in Ukraine, by the way, in a positive way, having cut off Russian forces, Starlink internet access last month. That's because they were getting them through the black market, the Russian forces using Starlink, and he cut them off. Very good. Good job, Elon. Let's give you kudos for that. And over at his other business, Tesla semi-trucks are finally here actually winning over truck drivers. It looks like a pretty good product. And uh Tesla says uh Tesla and SpaceX will launch Terrafab chip project in Austin because semiconductor manufacturers aren't making chips fast enough. That's not a surprise. I think everyone's doing that. Everyone's going to be doing that. But sort of a mixed bag heel. We'll see. He'll probably like exhaust them with appeal after appeal. But the jury didn't like what they heard, how he behaved. And I he still has never paid for his misbehavior when it comes to the SEC and others. He tends to win or get off. Um any thoughts on that or any of these topics? Aaron Powell The definition of market manipulation is what he engaged in. If I were on a board and I went out and and said falsely on Twitter that as a board member with Insider Information, we have funding secured to take this company private at a forty percent premium to market and the stock ran up. And then it ended up not to be true and all the people who bought those shares at an elevated price. I think I'd be in jail. I know I could never serve on a board of directors again. But here's the problem. He's gonna be found I think he's gonna be found guilty. I think it's gonna be fined two billion dollars and, it doesn't fucking matter. And the the right answer is is just the damages in this it's not guilty. But he'll appeal it, right? He's appealing. It's liable, not guilty. Excuse me, because it's a civil case, it's liable, thank you. But here's the here's here's the unfortunate thing. It doesn't fucking matter to him. And it's not a the point of a justice system is not only punishment, but it's to create incentives so people don't do things again in in not only criminally but in civil litigation. And what we need to move to is what they're proposing with a wealth tax. And that is the whole point of a wealth tax is we're going to take a percentage of your wealth. Now, I'm against wealth tax tasks, not theoretically or philosophically, but practically, they just don't work. But we need to move to some sort of proportionate civil liability fines, and that is the following: it's not a $2 billion fine. It should be 20% of your net worth. And that is, if you if you commit this type of market manipulation that where people lose faith in the markets, you don't own $2 billion dollars. You owe 20 percent of your net worth. Uh otherwise, what is the incentive not to do this again? Yeah. So and the same thing should be happened uh should happen with when Meta is found guilty of creating addictive products and so is Alphabet. It shouldn't be the other case. It shouldn't be a billion-dollar fine. It should be ten percent of the market capitalism. But it won't be. So what's gonna like here, the juries and it's interesting. It wasn't a judge trial that they decided to do a jury trial. So jurors do not like this guy, obviously. And he he's he very clearly he's not a sympathetic character anymore. And he has gotten off on the pedo thing. He got off on the four twenty thing, he got off on funding. secured He's gotten off over and over again. And what he either he either wears people down or continues to attack, right? When he lost in in court to the center for um countering digital hate, he went back again, or he pushed the government into bothering the the person who founded it. I mean, this is the thing, is he just keeps on coming. And like this fixation on the Save Act, which is evidence free, um, that it there's issues that they're trying to solve here. And at the same time, here he is doing this kind of cool technology in Ukraine or the truck or the the I don't know if he's gonna be successful in the chip project, but I wish you would just do that. You know what I mean? I mean I was gonna say it's called Pivot, but there could be a podcast who's called Musk. He creates so much news. I mean, the guy is a big thinker and creates a lot of news. Look, I am I am super excited about the prospect. Uh I I'm anything that helps the brave people of Ukraine and their army defend against Russia and push back on it, I I applaud. I applaud Elon for doing this. I'm thrilled about it. At the same time, it represents something much scarier. And that is there shouldn't be one individual that has the ability to One of the most valid criticisms of Trump's unilateral war with just one other country is he didn't even he didn't even get any sort of advice or approval from Congress, much less do do what George Herbert Walker Bush did, and that is get a consent or get approval from the UN. He acted, some people would argue unilaterally. Now, a lot of people would say he didn't unilaterally, he got 79 million votes. Okay. Musk is changing the face of war, fortunately, for what I think is in the right direction. In this case. But should that's right. But should one man be able to accrete so much wealth and technical mastery that he or she can change the course of civilization and war. Yeah. Ooh, I like that. The idea of the wisdom of crowd, the idiot of the I just made that up. I think the mall is kicking in. There you go. You're just being nice to me because we've got an argument this weekend. We did. We did. But now that's done . Power corrupts and absolute power absolutely corrupts. And we should not have any individual that accretes so much wealth and power and technical sophistication that they can change the course of civilization. Now, some people would argue that Napoleon did that or Genghis Khan. But these people were incredibly people who've done that. But they were incredibly savvy and they worked their way through power structures. And ultimately, ultimately they fell. But I am uncomfortable with someone who is not elected by people who's not accountable to anybody, who can pay his way out of or appeal his way out of any civil or possibly criminal. I mean, Christ, I hate to go here. The only person imprisoned from the Epstein files is a woman. So it's it's okay if she should be there. I I'm not arguing that. Uh my my belief is there should be other people in the cells next week. One agrees, yeah. It looks like they shut down a lot of these investigations right at the beginning of the trial. But what happens when uh w but what happens if Musk all of a sudden decides I'm pissed off with the left criticizing me, I'll show them, and he turns off Starlink in the middle of I'm just telling you, it's up to the lady in the bathroom with Molly. That's the problem. But that's serious. What does he feel like today? Did he get Did he have a nice night with his lady friend or did he have a bad fight? So to a certain extent, Donald Trump in some ways, well, I mean he's more dangerous. But what's more dangerous? Someone who commands the US military or someone who commands two thirds of the world's low Earth satellites. Yeah. But has I say musk. Musk but is but is not elected by the public. I mean, yeah you can make the argument that okay. We didn't, but but Congress we also believe in three parts of government and that's what he has more legitimacy Correct. He has more m legitimacy to make these type of decisions than Musk. Yes, but not this decision. Good for him. I even put out a thread saying, well done, Elon Musk. And then I thought fuck. What I don't I want him to have to go to Senators Kelly, Clobushar, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What should I do? He may have. And Senator Warner. You think he might have? I don't know. I don't know. He might be coordinating. Who knows? That's a fair point. Maybe he's coordinating with our joint chiefs. My doubt. Who knows? I mean, I don't know. When I got approached many years ago by that Ukrainian defense person asking if I could call him to turn to stop geofencing Crimea, I was astonished. And they were like, Could you do that? I'm like, why is one person deciding this? Like, why isn't the guy I remember that's where it's the was the center of our beef at the I was uh But also I do want to say I do think just calling balls and strikes, I think the the Tesla semitruck is a winner. Looks great. We give you it that it looks good. We'll see if how how if they can roll it out, but it looks great. Um agreed. Agreed. It looked I was looking I was reading all about it this week and it looks fantastic. And not only that, but that is He can make innovative things. That's what I think the guy is clearly a genius. All right. Stop focusing on hate, Elon. Focus on the things you do that are good. Aaron Powell And I've always thought that ground zero, ground the most obvious autonomous, something like 90% of the damage done to our highways is trucks. And you talk about uh uh uh ten to four uh ten PM to four AM, it's not a great job. It's not a healthy job. So i it's always felt like if there's if there's ground zero for autonomous, I've always thought it's long hauled trucking. Yep. You should look at my interviews with the Aurora CEO, Chris Earmson, who started Google the Google autonomy. Well I was going to say how is Aurora doing, but I don't want to. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just saying I love all these efforts and I'm thrilled that. I've never wanted to own a semi-tructor trailer. I'm like, I'd like one of those. You are absolutely not getting one. Never. I'm I don't think you've ever driven me anywhere and I don't you're ever going to. I'm a great driver. I grew up in California on stick from the age of 15 and a half. I'm great driver. Well that what do you want? Two sensitive men so both people can be crying in the car and the parallel parking spot remains. I've driven you. I have driven you in a car, but I don't drive you. You're you are you're a good driver. Yeah. I know. I I don't think anyone would say that. I'm an angry driver. I try not to drive as much as I can. You had to sit on two phone books. That was a little unsettling. No, you didn't you're a big guy. You did to see over the steering wheel does it. I put you in a mini. I did. I put you in a mini. I sit way up front. So the Trump administration has also unveiled a national speaking of control of tech oligarchs over our government, unveiled a national AI framework to replace state by state rules with one federal standard. The framework proposes regulations like child safety rules and standards for energy use of data centers. It calls on Congress to address issues like intellectual property rights and preventing AI systems from being used to silence or censor. Lawful political expression or dissent, the administration says it wants to to work with Congress convert the framework into a bill in the coming months. I mean, I'm sorry. They are so everyone involved in the government right now is a tech industry shill. So it this is not the states have passed I think seventy one laws in t twenty seven states. It is chaotic at the same time the government has abrogated all power to these tech companies. So I don't uh I don't think any good will come of this. Your thoughts? There needs to be federal legislation. Absolutely. Because if California, in an attempt to maintain its economic growth, uh all of a sudden puts in place technologies that might inhibit the growth, such as, okay, you can't use AI for surveillance of Americans. I mean, the CIA has a role. One of the most covert organizations in the world, which I by the way think is the only organization in history that can keep a secret, they ha they have a rule. You can't they don't kill American citizens. There needs to be there needs to be regulation and legislation around AI and it needs to be a thoughtful discussion. And then but what I hate is just a all of a sudden a a race to the bottom around AI where, okay, Texas says it's a free-for-all and you can use it to surveil Americans or create I get it. It's just our government has not our federal government they never made so social media laws. They never made privacy laws. They're doing it to get everyone out of tech's way. To delay and obfuscate any attempt to regulate. Yeah, I think that's a good thing. If they were doing it for they would get together with Congress and do actual laws that are in everybody's interests. uh and and that and that tech would be a voice of many in this thing. They don't want to let me say this is yet another attempt to abrogate. States are the only groups that are doing something somewhat effective and they shouldn't be doing it. But they have to because the government has l the federal government has lost all responsibility for regulating what is a very frightening situation, uh that we should all be cooperating, not just in this country, but globally around AI safety, where it's going, who's you know, uh on jobs, on child safety, on cancer research, on everything. There should be rule about surveilling citizens, uh et cetera, et cetera. We are not this is not an administration I trust to do it because everyone in a position of power has someone else behind them who is in tech and they are all grabbing for things. Well in twenty twenty five, seven of the largest AI companies in America, Snap X, OpenAI, ByteDance, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta spent over $50 million on federal lobbying. And by the way, best ROI in history is not AI or CapEx, it's lobbying. And in 2025, hired 87 lobbyists, roughly one of every six members of Congress. OpenAI has ramped up its lobbying spend nearly 70% from last year. What's interesting is one of the greatest brand declines in history over this over the shortest period of time? AI. Think about how excited we were about AI just 24 months ago. One a Pew Research poll found that Americans are five times more concerned than excited about AI. There are roughly double the amount of Americans who think AI's effect on society will be negative than there are people who think it'll be positive. Aaron Powell Worse brand destruction. You're right. Two-thirds of Americans think that AI will eliminate more jobs than it creates, and less than a third of Americans trust AI, and three quarters of Americans think AI poses a threat to humanity. Let me just say ahead of the midterm, Silicon Valley has poured $100 million into a network of PACs and organizations to advocate for these strict AI regulations. And a report from Public Citizen found that one in four federal lobbyists now work in AI. Think about why do you think they're working their kids? They're not to help you. They're they're there to help them and they have the white House captive. In any case, it would be a great idea to do some bills, but not with this administration, not in its current. There no one on the Democratic side has been able to say we need federal AI regulation focused on these three things. No one has been able to articulate what is needed around regulation and AI, and it is a real opening for one of them because it's the technology of the day. It has got it's created a huge amount of anxiety, and yet no one has been able to articulate a vision for what re sensible regulation that protects Americans wh whileile ensuring that our thoroughbreds continue to run, because there really is economic value and we don't want to hamstring our best and brightest such that China gets out ahead. There are real concerns on both sides, but someone needs to thread the needle here and come out and say AI regulation at a federal legislation focused on the following, you know, three things. It's a big opening for a Democrat. It is. You know, you I just did a two-hour interview with Tristan Harris. He said the exact same thinging. It's a big open. Tristan. Tristan. He's so good. You know, we've been talking for ten years about this issue. Just Yeah, no, he was early to the to the I hate big tech game. He's very compelling too. You are incorrect. He does not. He's like Kara Swisher. He does not hate it. He doesn't like what they're doing. They've made a mess of our house. That's why I feel like I feel shamed. I feel shamed. Here's a great new documentary coming on called The Apocaloptimist. He's both positive and negative about it. Apocaloptimus? Apocalyptimist. It's called AI doc. Apocalyptimus. Let's go on a quick break. I think I have a phone blog, man. You should have him on the colocalist. Apocaloptimist. All right. Let's go on a quick break. When we come back, Nextstars approved to merge with rival Teg na. Support for this show comes from ShipStation. When your company is growing fast, order fulfillment can make or break your success. ShipStation's intelligence driven platform brings order management, rate shopping, inventory, and returns, warehouse systems, and comprehensive analytics all in one place, saving customers 15 hours per week on fulfillment. With ShipStation, everything you need to manage getting your product to customers is in one place. You can connect to over 200 sales channels, and instead of five to seven disconnected tools, you've got one. You can also set up time-saving automations. ShipStric, finds you the best rate, prints labels in bulk, and sends tracking updates. Done. Share tracking details can cut customer service increase by 12%. Returns management can give you data on what's coming back and why. And analytics can show you where you're saving and where to optimize. Try ShipStation for free for 60 days with full access to all features. No credit card needed. Go to ShipStation.com and use the code PIVIT for 60 days for free. 60 days gives you plenty of time to see exactly how much time and money you're saving on every shipment. That's ShipStation.com code pivot. ShipStation.com code pivot . Support for today's show comes from Select Qu ote. Life insurance. It can get confusing. If you already have a policy, do you know how much you're paying for it? And do you know how much coverage you're actually getting? There's a good chance you're paying too much for too little. It's not always the easiest thing to think about, but getting it right can be simple with Selectquote. For over 40 years, SelectQuote has been one of the most trusted brokers in insurance, helping more than $2 million Americans secure over $700 billion in coverage. Their mission is simple, to find you the right insurance policy for your unique needs. They shop, you save. And if you don't have a medical exam, it's no problem. SelectQ partners with providers that offer same-day coverage for up to $2 million, no doctor's visit required. When you connect with SelectQu, a licensed insurance agent can reach out right away to help you find a policy that fits both your life and your budget. Life insurance is never cheaper than it is today. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50% at selectquote.com slash pivot. Save more than 50% on term life insurance at SelectQote.com slash pivot today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash piv ot. Support for the show comes from Upwork. The fastest growing businesses aren't doing more quickly, they're simply delegating smarter. And with Upwork, you can bring in expert freelance fast so you can keep moving forward for the long haul. Upwork is a one-stop platform to find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, and business operations. Upwork can help grow your business by giving you fast access to specialized talent across 125 plus categories. You can fill skill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. And with Upwork Business Plus, you can access the top 1% of talent on Upwork and with AI powered shortlisting. So you'll get matched to the right freelancer in under six hours. No endless searching required. Thousands of growing businesses already trust Upwork to hire flexible, high-quality freelance talent for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. You can visit Upwork.com right now to post your job for free and connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's UPWOR K dot com Upwork. com Scott, we're back with more news. Broadcast station owner Nextstar will merge with rival Tegna after the FCC signed off on the six point two billion dollar acquisition, creating the largest operator of TV stations in the country. This is unprecedented. The Commission has waived the rule that bars a single company from owning TV stations that reach over 39% of the U.S. households. Guess what? The new entity is allowing Nextstar to own 60% and near doubling. The combined company would own over 250 stations, reaching over half of American households. Eight states have filed emergency motions to stop the merger. As usual, Brendan Carr, the bureaucratic Toadie, just waved it right through because it's their conservative, and they are uh and they are they were thanking President Trump. They're the people behind the Kimmel masks. They're one of the people. Conservatives are actually split on the issue. Some thinking it's a great thing because it helps the conservative side, their team. The other people feel as correctly you wouldn't like it if a bunch of liberals own these like sixty percent of the stations. That said, mainstream media has leaned well, it's leaned middle left, middle left kind of things. Um just what do you think about this? I mean, obviously this is open, this is something, this is Rupert Murdoch's wet dream from many years ago, the ability to own things across the country. Although who's watching local news at the same time? I'll tell you who's watching local news. Really old people and I could program local news. It's called What Stupid People Did Today. Two people were mugged in a parking lot at four AM this morning. Or the It Could Happen To You story. And the weather. Killer bees. It could happen to you. It could happen to you. And the weather. Mold on your penis. It could happen to you flow to a populace disproportionately votes , it it feels uncomfortable. At the same time , um these companies are in structural decline, and the only way they survive is through consolidation and cost cutting. I was on the board it's now time for the latest episode of Scott's Weak Flexes. I was on the board of a company that was a yellow pages company. Oh. And you know that one it's one of my best investments because typically these companies, we know we know local stations are fucked, but they're not they're not gonna go out of business as quickly as people think. So for example, in nineteen ninety nine you could buy a blockbuster. Everyone knew Blockbuster was going away. But in 1999, you could buy a Blockbuster franchise for two times cash flow. And they did go away, but they went away thirteen years later. I mean you you four or six decks. There's a lot of money. So you can buy these things at pretty distressed prices, and then you need to consolidate the back end. Back to the Yellow Pages Company. We knew that the Yellow Pages business was going to go away. You could buy these things at two times cash flow. So we would go buy every regional yellow pages company, quite frankly, consolidate the back end, which is Latin for lay off everyone but the salespeople. And then we went and bought the biggest yellow pages company in Canada, and then the biggest one in Australia. And it's a great business. Now, to a certain extent, is that bad? Is that too much concentration of power? So these companies are melting ice cubes. They need to consider the other thing. But it's the same thing here. D these businesses are going out of business slowly. And uh so I'm I'm of two minds. I don't trust this FTC to make these decisions. I'd want to see an economist say I'd want to see an economist issue or thoughtful people say that the the risk of job destruction, the risk of having the capital to do anything regardling investigative journal journalism at City Hall or the local, you know, loc local courthouse, that these guys need to consolidate. Having said that, this level of concentration feels pretty unhealthy. Yeah. 60 is a lot. I think you're right. I it's uh you know when, remember we were on when then we're on the tour and you know a lot or it was on one thing and everyone has asked me about CBS and I'm like the show of hands of who's watching it. And it was like no relevant. And I thought, so we're worried about one irritating person at a station that's that mean a a network that's declining faster than all the others, by the way. The other two are doing okay. They're double in size essentially. I was like, so no one's watching it, and even the strongest player is slowly dying, you know, who's doing okay. They definitely throw off a lot of money, right? Like your Yellow Pages thing did. Right now they throw off money. It went down, right? Like three. Five percent. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. And so you're sort of sitting there, you're like, okay, it's really irritating and grotesque. And at the same time but of this consolidation and these people that are doing, you know, performative, you know, uh blowjobs to Donald Trump, which they were, you know, around Kimmel. There's no such thing as a performative blowjob. Okay, okay. That's an oxymoron. I don't. I have never done one. Um I'm not gonna go into that. I'm not gonna touch that. Let me say I haven't. You should say nothing. I have had sex with a man, but I have not done a blue job. Anyway, thank you for that information. 'Cause I that's gross. Um Well you know Taylor Swift writes all these writes all these songs about men breaking up with her, but she's never written a song about blowjobs. Connect the dots. Ohne. Okay. All right. Um in any case, um I have the most interesting well anyway, I'm not gonna go into it. Um so uh God, is this Jellag or are you actually saying No, no, I just was I have a whole gay tailor thing called the g my gaylar playlist on Spotify. think it matters and yet it does because these they do have an impact on a certain population and watching someone like my mom or other people get twisted by propaganda on say a Fox News, it does actually matter, right? It's really bad information. That said, I don't think most of these local stations, except for a very small few, ha do journalism anymore. So I think that's they matter in local politics. That's right. That but they don't do much journalism. And I don't think they matter much. Because basically uh the dirty secret of specialty retail is that for forty five weeks a year it loses money and then for seven weeks The dirty secret of these local news stations in these swing districts is they lose money for twenty-two months, and then for two months they quintuple their ad rates as so and so overspends trying to you know trying to be the local representative. Yeah. That's where it has do you know the average age of a fox viewer? The average. That's exactly right. I think that's young. So w that means that if a forty year old accidentally turns on Fox, a ninety seven year old is also watching. Do you know what the average age of a local TV news viewer? 708y0. Dead. The're dead, Kara. Anyway. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fa ils. Whether you're off to the big match , get in, enjoying a trip to the coast to catch up with friends or exploring some incredible history with your family . With up to a third off most rail travel, a rail card can help you save on train journeys all around Great Britain . Find the one for you at railcard.co.uk. D C supp ly. Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. May I go first? Of course. I'm gonna do a win. Let me just tell you, Project Hail Mary just brought in eighty million dollars of the box office. That's a record opening for Amazon. I did. I went on Friday night. I heard it's about friendship. I'm sorry to interrupt you. It's about a friendship between a man and rocks. Um, it is an alien who looks like a pile of rocks. Um, it is a wonderful movie. It is about science, it is fun, it is it made me fe it's infectiously delightful and it deserves I can see why I did $80 million., the box offs I saw it on IMAX film. You don't need to, really. There's some beautiful things in it and some beautiful photography, but you hardly you could watch it. It's a wonderful it feels like a little like E.T. a little bit. It's got He's sort of a reluctant hero, of course. And at the same time, it's about ingeniousness, it's about it's the same writer of the Mar Martian, same book. And everyone what's interesting, someone told me people read Project Hail Mary. Soneome who I didn't think read much read both the Martian and Project Hail Hail Mary. It's a lot of plot, not great writing, but the movie, the movies become marvelous. I think I love the Martian. It's about sort of fix it things. It's it's everyone in it is great. This rock character that becomes his friend. They're trying to solve humanity's problems together. Is you start to really love this character. It's a really great character, which is voiced by a puppeteer, I think, a very well-known puppeteer. Amazing. Like, I can't believe at first I was like, I'm gonna look at a rock character this entire time, and it ended up being delightful. I gotta say, it deserves I it did much better than people thought. Amazon, this is their first big hit that is an original. And congratulations to Amazon for this. I have to say. Wonderful movie. Again, Ryan Gosling can do anything. He can sing, he can dance, he's funny. He was great on SNL. Wonderful. What a movie star, but also totally approachable as a dude. That's why you'd like it. My fail, you know, there's so many obvious ones. I mean, more than nine months after its announcements, Trump mobile phone still hasn't launched. It never is going to launch, by the way. They're a bunch of grifters. Um but I think I think probably something that got a lot of press was President Trump's reaction to the death of Robert Mueller, uh former FBI director, special counsel, and bronze star marine veteran. He died this weekend at the age of eighty-one. I had no I had no idea he was sick. Well, former uh presidents Bush and Obama share their tributes to him. Trump went the other direction posting. I'm glad he's dead. Uh, you know, then Scott Bissent, the that little quisling week week weakling, w was like, Oh, he was the victim here of Robert Mueller and so he should be able to say that. But it does open it is really shocking when everyone sort of gave the left a hard time for not being unhappy that Charlie Kirk had died and by the way it was a terrible and murderous way and nobody should be celebrating that. This was just like very typical and it sort of opens the door to when someday Trump uh sheds these mortar coils for anyone to say that. Um so it just was like it's another gross, chaotic, mentally deranged madness of King George moment. That's I was like, are you can you just shut the fuck up and not give us your thoughts on every awful thing that crosses your your increasingly aging brain? Yeah. Uh I love those. But we're increasingly it's like when you hang out, people begin to look like they're dogs. We're becoming the same person. My fail was the same thing, so I'll take the other side of it. But before we get to that, I want to just talk a little bit more about blowjobs. If you're do you think it should bother you if your spouse has given hundreds of blowjobs to random men? Or is my wife overreacting? Oh my gosh. That's good. I bet you can be good at giving blowjobs. Anyway, sorry.. My win I would think you'd be better than me at it. Enough. Even I have limits. I knew that would stop you. I knew even I have limits. I knew it. Okay, so I don't know how to make a clean segue here. So my we we uh we uh talk a lot about what uh talking about an aspirational uh vision for masculinity um And I think unfortunately it's been confused with volume dominance and attention. And that's, you know, that's not strength, Kara. That's just insecurity with a ring light or a Twitter handle. And if you want an actual template for masculinity, you could do a lot worse than Robert Mueller. And this was a guy, he was a Marine in Vietnam. By the way, he volunteered. He didn't he didn't void deferments, no bone spurs. Also in high school, captain of his lacrosse hockey and baseball team, an amazing physical athlete, captain. All three teams decided he should be the leader of that team. Marina Vietnam, where he earned a bronze star, went on to lead the FBI for over a decade. And then later in his career, he took on one of the most politically radioactive investigations in modern history. And how did he handle it? He had there was no three theatrics, there was no personal branding. There was no need to be at the center of the story. He just did the job. And before all of that, uh, as I mentioned, a very serious athlete and a scholar went to Princeton. Bronze Star. And get this. Married for over sixty years, raising a family, including, I believe, two kids while building a life of service. You know, that's a decent outline for masculinity. Not performative outrage, no constant self-promotion, but discipline, restraint, and commitment, you know, to your work, your country, and your family. And his posture was simple. You know, service matters more than me, the work matters more than me. And I feel like I feel like with today, who we should be looking to for role models and masculinity, that's what we've lost. We've started rewarding people or men for being loud instead of being reliable, and that for being visible instead of being being credible or empathetic. And this guy was real strength. It's quiet, it's showing up, it's doing hard things, and it's not making everything about you. And so when we talk about using masculinity as a code or a guide for young men You know, if you're trying to figure this out, what it looks like, here's a filter. Are you are you optimizing for atten tion or for service, right? Because one of them is more immediate, but the other compounds over a lifetime. And I found it so upsetting that this guy, who's such an outstanding role model and such a fantastic example of what it means to be an American and what it means to be a man, that his family would have to endure that nonsense. Yep. So he'll be he'll be buried. That was the story is Trump's reaction to it. He'll be laid to rest with full, you know, full honors, and and there's few people that deserve it more. Anyways, Captain Robert Mueller, you know, United States Marine Corps. R inest peace. What a wonderful example he he he set for for all Americans and especially young men. That's my win. That's it. That's all I got. You said the fail. Okay. All right. I have one more win. Scott and I did get in a TIF this weekend and we settled it. And I have to tell you, you acted like a