Minnesota Shootings, No Kings Protests, and Israel-Iran Attacks Escalate

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Do you feel like you have a clear sense of what that goal is? I mean, do you really think it's regime change? Yeah. I think it's full consolidation of power in his own hands. The ability to act unfettered. The ability to control and corral the opposition. And the opposition here is broadly construed. It's not just the Democratic Party.

It's the press. It's cultural liberals. I mean, he recently called for an investigation into Bruce Springsteen. This week on The Gray Area, how much has President Trump changed America? Listen to The Gray Area with me, Sean Elling. New episodes every Monday, available everywhere. You know, it's con, according to my wife, who speaks French. No, it's not. It's can. Why is it can? But not to the French, it's not. That's how you pronounce it. But it's not. Okay, Kara Schweitzer.

Hi, everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher from France. I'm in France. And I'm Scott Galloway. How are you doing? I was worried about you this weekend. Are you doing all right? Yeah. Why are you worried about me? A lot of stuff. Although, good news, some compensation when I get worried about you. You know, there's this amazing...

new antidepressant targeted at lesbians. Oh, really? Oh, no. What is that? Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you've heard of it. It's called tricoxagon. Try Cox again. Word is. Word is. It works for about a day, and then continued usage makes you worse than you were previously. Oh, my God. How do you come up with these? That's not good. Try Cox again. No.

I have been waiting all weekend to say this joke. First of all, it's a terrible joke. And many lesbians have never tried that. Just so you know, I have. But yes, many have not. But so I was able to make my conscious choice. was a good one, I think. I feel good to this day. Yeah, apples, pears, no contest. Uh-huh, exactly. Or bananas, pears. Oh, okay. I don't know where we're going. Let's not do the fruit thing. By the way, just as a segue here. Oh, my God.

You do not know how to spend. We're both in France. We're both literally near each other. We're both doing the exact same thing. You do not know how to spend your money. I do. Look at my hotel room. Look at yours. Okay. Your place literally looks like a Hampton Inn near the airport where you end up naked and Googling, can you get chlamydia from a karaoke mic? Look at where you are. I am at the very fancy hotel on the Croissette right now, just so you know. Everybody, okay, hold on. Here's Cara.

Here's Kara for the YouTubers. Here's Kara who does not know how to spend her money. And here's Daddy. Daddy. Daddy. Daddy has an assistant. Well, if you put, if you're so worried about me, you could put me up at the hotel where you are. Anytime. You know, I love to shower you. I love to spoil you. You're like a hot young woman I'm trying to have sex with. I spoil you all the time. That's never, speaking of trying.

Coxon that's never happening. Just for the listeners, that's an upsetting and triggering thing. It's never happening. Huge disappointment on my end. Anyways. We're in France. Explain why we're in France. Explain why we're in France. We're at our favorite event. We're at Cannes. We love it here. You know, it's con, according to my wife, who speaks French. No, it's not. It's con. You're a hundred. You totally mansplained at me, but it's con. I've illuminated you.

I'm saving you from yourself and your pretentious friend who thinks that if they go gone, that means they took French in 11th grade at some overpriced private school. It's can. No, my wife speaks French fluently, but go ahead. It's can. Why is it can? but not to the French. That's how you pronounce it. But it's not.

It's not. Okay, Kara Schweischer. No, but anyways, we're here at Cannes. We're doing a bunch of events. We love it here. Did you just get here? Did you take the ride? I just got here. Yes, that's why I'm looking like a little haggard here. Kara, I have to carry the show up.

I didn't take a red eye. I left at 5 o'clock at whatever time day it was. That's called the worst red eye in the world. That means you get no sleep. No, it was nice. It was British Airways. It was lovely. And I went through London. Oh, you got it. There's no direct flight from Washington, D.C. I got it. I gotta speak to your brother. This is enough.

I'm doing an intervention. Okay. You need to learn how to take better care of yourself. You need to come Friday. What are you worried about? You need to hang out at the pool. Oh, no, I can't do that. I can't. Have a little rosé. No, couldn't bring the kids. Do you know how daddy's getting into the palais tonight? He's taking a...

Zodiac, I'm putting on a jacket, I'm crashing Meta Beach, and they'll all be freaked out. I'm like, I have a meeting with Sheryl Sandberg. Wait, you're coming here? I'm going where you are tonight, supposedly. Oh, yeah, to the, what is it, some iHeart party or something? Yeah. Is that iHeart party?

I think it's a casting party, yeah. They're all having competing parties at your fancy hotel, but go ahead. And then I got a Salesforce thing and then a Google thing. Wow. Yeah, I got a bunch of stuff going on. Wow. All because of you.

Oh, see, I'm glad. Well, you should fly me here on a private plane. That would be nice for all the money I've got you over the years. It's probably not a big amount of money, but it's a substantive amount. Anyway, we're in France because we're here shilling advertisers. We're going to do a live pivot. which will be fun. I ran into many people on the plane who love Fibon.

I love it here. I love the South. I'm warming to French people. I love the food here. It's so nice. Macron is like a great world leader right now. I think France is occupying. He's got a spicy life. occupying the space he commands i don't like it here isn't he not here he's with the g7 right is he in canada yeah they're in canada

So he's not here. France, Canada, same, same. Anyway, we're going to be getting together a lot and we're going to have a good time here. We always do. But we've got a lot to get to today. There's actually some very serious things happening besides the rain on Trump's military parade, which was a big...

He caught the L train on that one. The No Kings protests, which were actually quite substantive in the United States, and the missile attacks between Israel and Iran. But first, I mean, this story dominated the headlines this week.

Again, a Minnesota man has been charged with the murder after two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot. early Saturday morning in their homes in what Minnesota Governor Tim Walz called an act of targeted political violence. Officials are also considering federal charges against the suspect, 57-year-old Vance Bolter.

who wore a weird mask and pretended he was a cop. State Representative Melissa Hortman, who sounds incredible, and her husband were killed. State Senator John Hoffman and his wife were seriously injured. Authorities found a list in both. Bolter's car naming around 70 potential targets, including Democratic politicians and abortion providers. A 2020 state report lists Bolter as having no party preference, but his roommate says he voted for Trump and was a strong supporter.

Elon Musk had his own thoughts as usual, inserting himself. grotesquely into the proceedings of this writing. He said the far left is murder. What did he call them? Marxists? Is that right? Marxists. That was Mike Lee from Utah. It was also a heinous piece of shit. He said the far left is murderously violent in response to an ex-post about the shootings and other attacks.

He's absolutely wrong, this guy. I'm sorry, Democratic state senators are murdered? Yeah, murdered by someone who is very clearly disturbed and also... Trump supporter. I want to discuss these shootings, the implications, but first let's listen to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who both of us know, talk about her friend who she had dinner with the night before she died, Representative Melissa Hortman on Meet the us.

We started out together in politics, moms with young kids, and somehow she was able to balance getting to know every doorknock, every house in her district, while raising two children, Girl Scout leader. She taught Sunday school, and maybe all that juggling made it easier for her as she worked her way up in the legislature and became this extraordinary Speaker of the House, ushering in everything from free school lunch.

to working with the governor and other leaders to do some landmark legislation on paid family leave, to this year working with her Republican counterpart when we pretty much had a tied legislature to get the budget done. That's Melissa Hortman, my friend. Anyway, she's been quite broken up about it, obviously. Violent threats against members of Congress hit a record high last year.

I've been told this by very well-known people, congressional people, that they've gotten a huge amount of death threats this year, Democratic ones. For the second year in a row, according to Capitol Police, there have been other recent incidents. In the last few months, there was a killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in DC, an arson attack on Governor Josh Shapiro's home. We saw, obviously, the two Trump assassination attempts last year. One got very close.

What do you think about this rhetoric? And will it get worse? I mean, I don't know what to say. People are in their homes. It's easy to find people. A lot of the people who are state senators and local politicians do not have the protection that U.S. now. international people have, but even those people are pretty exposed. What has to happen here? Pam Bondi, thank God, made the appropriate response, and so did Trump, although light, I would say.

So what do you make of what's happening here? You've talked about this. You know, you were talking about civil war, obviously, recently. But this is something that I guess is not a surprise and yet is horrifying at the same time. Yeah, well, look. There's no getting around it. It's a tragedy for the family, senseless death, senseless murder. I thought Senator Klobuchar was very statesperson-like in her comments.

I thought Governor Walz did his best to address the situation in the correct tone. If you think about... I was thinking about climate change, and that is we've created a context or atmospheric such that we might have mass migrations, super fires, terrible weather events that hurt the economy, hurt the poorest.

And the two big puffs of carbon into the air that created these atmospherics were the industrialization of China and the consumerization of the car, specifically Americans moving to the suburbs in the embrace of the car.

And I think we've created an atmosphere for a lot of political violence and the two puffs of carbon into the air, if you will. I do think social media... which has a profit motive around pitting us against each other, has just created an atmosphere where we're convinced the enemy is within. And then polarization at the hands of income inequality, people are just generally angry.

You know, when they wake up and they feel like they've worked hard and they have medical debt and then social media convinces them that their enemy is their neighbor. And so. Like what can be done? This is a multi-pronged problem. This talks about access to guns. This talks about mental health. This talks about, you know, the strain of lack of job prospects. This obviously political violence.

What you hope you get from our leaders is thoughts around bold solutions that decarbonize the atmosphere as opposed to trying to take advantage of the moment and start issuing blame on the other side because there's been political violence against both parties. But other than saying we all have an obligation to try and take the temperature down, I do think it's time probably for some sort of, and you've been talking about this for a while, legislation around hate speech that says...

But this rhetoric, this tone, when you call someone, when your first reaction is to call these people Marxist, that's not helping. Yeah, it's also inaccurate. Yeah. It's also inaccurate. So, you know, I don't I'll finish where I started. My your heart goes out to the families of these people who were murdered. And then you hear about this guy's background. And he's a murderer, and I trust and hope he's brought to justice, but you...

You know, the whole thing is just awful. The whole thing, it just leaves you with a pit in your stomach. Yeah, he sounds like someone who's been drifting, but although not your typical profile of sort of these sort of loner, angry people. He has five kids.

Very religious, which is no thing against him. Tried to make it, like, we sort of pretend. Being a cop and his business apparently didn't get off the ground. He was working in a funeral home. He was collecting eyeballs for operations for people. He had a series of sort of jobs and he was living in Minneapolis or near Minneapolis. And he lived, his family lived in rural Minnesota, but was living with, this is why this roommate knew him.

so well but like struggling struggling of someone who's struggling obviously become more and more religious and had become born again which has nothing to do with this but he just he got sort of very politicized around his religion, abortion specifically. And just, this is someone you wouldn't necessarily think of cracking, right? It reminds me a little bit of the Luigi Mangione thing, too, who seemed to be...

And that's what it reminded me. I was like, why did this guy? Yeah, but that kid was high school valedictorian. I mean, that was really strange. That was really strange, but he was angry and he had a back pain and he had all kinds of things. Again, no excuse, zero.

explanation like you can sort of start to see how this pieces together but what set him off to say this I mean looks like he was going to target some of these no kings rallies it looks like what's what got him was it mental illness was it um you know just what was it you know that he was cosplaying a cop and had to do this and um you know and this woman sounds wonderful like did all these astonishing things um helped people

enormously like one of these wonderful public servants who just was service service service service to other people and brought them all all manner of things protecting kids from gun violence free lunch abortion access etc so it's just I just I really would like to

This is, it's sickening. It's sickening because it's not, I don't, maybe he was mentally ill. I don't know. I don't know. But it seems like everybody's mentally ill now in that regard and not your classic loner gunman kind of thing. I mean, and, you know. He's got five kids. To take that step is really, I couldn't even begin to understand it. It is this rhetoric. It's the polarization.

it's um you know religions getting too political like right the southern baptists deciding they're going after gay marriage now what is wrong with them like you know you thought that was sort of settled and it's not obviously um but creating levels of anger and um ways that were different rather than the ways that were same i don't know it's just

It's just sickening, and I am scared for a lot of people. I have to say I'm very scared for, and I've been told by a number of politicians that the death threats have gone up substantively for them. Yeah, for me, it... I mean, it's a tough one, but we don't have a monopoly on mental illness. We do have a little bit of a monopoly for a nation as prosperous as us around income inequality and polarization. But I still think almost all of this comes down to easy access to guns.

It just, you know, when there's a mentally ill guy who goes on a rampage in Britain, he stabs two people and one of them survives. Although in Austria they just had an attack, but go ahead, a school attack. But just the prevalence of... This is just awful all the way around. It's very hard to find a single cause. But again, I think the politicians on both sides.

You know, it's just so upsetting when you see people try and politicize it and use it as fodder to blame the other side. Musk and Mike Lee were repulsive, were repulsive. Like, even Trump knew. not to, right? He may do it in the coming days. But both Mike Lee and Elon Musk just exactly reacted in exactly the way they're not supposed to, as always, because they're, you know, and of course, look at me, you know.

in a situation that has nothing to do with either of them. They should keep their mouth shut, that's what they should do. But anyway, our heart goes out to these families and there's two people recovering, supposedly, the people who were shot, John Hoffman and his wife. But to come to people's homes and do this is just a height of depravity. I don't know what else to say. Anyway.

Speaking of weirdnesses, being in Washington this weekend for this military parade was odd, I have to say. This town was empty. It really was. He had his birthday military parade, Trump did. which included over 6,000 soldiers and 100 tanks, and probably far less than the expected 200,000 attendees. I would be surprised if there were 100,000 there. It was a ghost town. It was really interesting. The parade was sponsored by several brands.

with close ties to the president, including Palantir and Coinbase, meaning pay-per-play. The whole thing was overshadowed by over 5 million people attending over 2,000 No Kings protests around the country, which... looked like a lot of fun. They seemed largely peaceful, I think, and quite festive almost, and also determined, which was interesting. I don't know if it makes a difference. Let's read off some fun signs that people had.

If a dictator throws a military parade and no one watches it, did it really happen? Off with his toupee. If Kamala were president, we'd be at brunch. Donnie the quicker fucker upper. We're all to catch now. You sucked in Home Alone 2. There were tons of them. One was a picture of Melania Trump dressed in The Handmaid's Tale of Taco, which I thought was very funny.

um i i here's the one thing there was a piece by max booth that got a little negative attention i think was about the military looked good looked like they, you know, we should honor these people that serve. But doing it at the behest of Trump and making it a pathetic kind of parade was, you know, there was some really interesting revolutionary stuff. It's the 250th anniversary of the army.

which was founded at the beginning of our country at the same time. And so they do deserve attention and being. treated with respect and everything else. There were all kinds of sort of conspiracy theories all over the place, including that they were marching. They weren't marching correctly as a protest, which was odd. I have to say I did notice that.

I just don't think there were a lot of people there. I don't know if people might have cheered if there were a lot of people, but it was empty as could be, which was just interesting. I thought there'd be more people there. Anyway, your thoughts? I think it's like when I've heard of friends getting a bar, a bar mitzvah late in life and like no one, everyone shows up and pretends this isn't strange. I just, or, you know, they get a Christian.

or my favorite that I've never been to, which says I'm banging my assistant, a recommitment ceremony. Those are my favorite.

I got to be honest, I thought it was so fucking hilarious. I just enjoyed reveling in how stupid and lame this thing was. And there's no way he didn't know it. I turned on the TV. just to see some footage. And actually, I thought to myself, you know, actually, it looks pretty cool. And I realized I was watching the Mexican Independence Day parade.

Like I love when I was in San Francisco, which is the most liberal city in the world, the whole place loved Fleet Week and F-15s used to buzz like planes. And you go and you kind of just look up and regardless of your political affiliation, you think. The Blue Angels, yeah.

Yeah, you think, wow, it's pretty cool to be American. And I like the fact that if anyone fucks with us, they got to deal with these guys. Fleet Week is fun in San Francisco. You're right. It really is. Yeah, and it's great. And it's a show off of military hardware. But doing it.

You know, the whole thing, I, you know, I got to be honest, I enjoyed it because it was just so sad for the president. The Russian state, the Russian state media was laughing at Trump's parade. They're like, they don't know how to throw up. They do. The Soviets know. My favorite was. The No Kings ones looked really fun. I didn't go to any.

They looked really fun, especially in smaller cities. They looked like kind of festive and everything. There was tons and tons and tons of those. Really well done. That was the contrast. I think that's what No Kings did correctly from a marketing point of view. And the other, the whole...

No Kings with people on the beach in San Francisco and Ocean Beach, spelling out No Kings, but with bodies, which was cool. And they had a drone shot. Very creative, very fun. And again, the small... cities was very moving I know and all these all these people were really coming out it was you know from a marketing point of view I don't know Scott thoughts

You're exactly right. Not only were they really successful, but the key was the contrast. Philadelphia had the biggest turnout, Seattle, San Diego, of all places. And they were creative. It looked like a good time.

And generally speaking, there are three firewalls between what has traditionally been... you know, a constitutional democracy and the things we've come to, I think, take for granted in this, what I think is this slow, increasingly fast burn to fascism. And the first is the courts. And I would argue the courts are mostly holding. There's been some controversial decisions.

down from the Supreme Court because they're not used to a criminal president. But most of the issues that have been presented before the court, the court says, no, we can't do this. Unfortunately, he can move faster than the courts and a lot of the damage can't be undone. The second buffer is the media.

And I think, you know, I'm mixed on the media. I think it's doing its level best. I think it's the lack of coverage around this multi-billion dollar crypto scam has been very frustrating for me, but they are unafraid. I do think there's been good coverage of a lot of, especially around the immigration issue and the illegal deportation.

of people. I thought they were trying to be too fair on this thing. This was a bust of a parade. It just was. There was no other way. That's called the New York Times. The self-hating New York Times, they can't ever have moral clarity around anything. I know, but it was kind of like...

come on. It was, you know, CNBC did it too. I was like, I know you're trying really hard, but this wasn't good. And even Marco Rubio looked bored. Well, CNBC has anchors that speak to tuck in the president every night. But the contrast from a marketing standpoint. It was Coke versus Pepsi, and Pepsi just cleaned Coke's clock. Because the moment they went from one image to the other, it was like Trump sitting there like...

Supposedly, as a high schooler, the best thing you can do to establish social capital is to throw a rockin' party. You can be a near-cool kid and elevate yourself to cool-dom by throwing an amazing party when your parents are out of town, where they show up and the garage is on fire and the dog is pregnant, right? have like a fucking crazy party and this was okay i have more money i'm more powerful and i threw just the lamest party and then the the the juniors the kids who aren't as cool

had impromptu parties all over and they were much more fun and they were much bigger and everybody showed up. But where I was headed was the third firewall here is citizenry and citizenship. And I do think that Americans have become somewhat fat and happy and that a lot of us take for granted the incredible prosperity and rights that we have we have inherited many of us have not earned and to see citizens take their weekend day

from their kids, from relaxation, from making more money, and go march with several hundred thousand of their fellow citizens. It's really inspiring. And there's some data on this, actually. I guess about 1.8% of Americans turned out. And there's actual research that shows if you get to three, There's never been civic activity or protests where more than 3% or more of the population shows up where there isn't significant change around the policies there.

And so we're getting close. Yeah. You know, Paul Krugman wrote an interesting piece. He went to one of the rallies and it was titled Trump's Parade Flop. No Kings was a hit right now. Images largely determine the outcome.

And he wrote something, he goes, Trumpists, however, haven't fully consolidated their hold. America steals a chance of reclaiming itself from the grip of brazen corruption, mindless destruction and contempt for both the rule of law and for our erstwhile allies. We don't have to become country bullied into submission, but we're...

teetering on the edge, one of the most important ways we can step back from that edge is for ordinary Americans to engage in mass protests. And I think he's right. I think it's- I think it's just not just that because crowd size does matter. I mean, we all joked about Trump making saying that he had a bigger inaugurate initial inauguration than Barack Obama, which he didn't. But but it's it's like this. It has the feel of a loser to it, and I think it sort of makes people.

feel more bold if that's the case. But it doesn't mean that difficult times aren't ahead because these people aren't going away. I mean, they're bringing their guns, they're bringing their... Like they're bringing their threats and everything else. But it is important, you know, as several politicians like Pritzker and others have saying this is what has to happen. And there is a weariness that comes with.

this kind of thing. But it was, I think you have that juxtaposition of this bad parade and this enthusiastic, it gives him, it affects his image, I think, of being old. and a loser kind of thing like and i think that does stick with people maybe not there is a correlation between people's ability to bring signs to any public place and have free speech

And at the same time, there's an inverse correlation. The nations that are more prone and opt to have tanks and military hardware on public streets, generally speaking, have a citizenry that has few rights. And so you're just signaling to the world an erosion in individual rights of its citizenry the more often you have tanks on boulevards. There are laws built in a couple hundred years old that said, for example, the military can't be weaponized to arrest citizens.

There's the whole point is our military. We're not even very good. Our fine young men and women aren't very good at marching. Why? Because they train to kill people and defend our shores as opposed to. They are good at marching. That's what several army people were. Like, that was on purpose, just so you know. And I was like, I don't know. Well, okay. I would rather they be good at killing bad guys than practicing marching all the time in Pyongyang. It's just...

That's not an indication. Your ability to throw on a parade and march by dear leader in unison is not an accurate reflection of the strength and fighting power. And again, When you see your tanks on Wilshire Boulevard or on Fifth Avenue or marching up Northwest 17th or whatever the street is, that's a bad sign. You're not supposed to have that. That's the sign of a society where the leader is either not focused on the well-being, the psychological and material well-being of the citizens.

and has decided to, in some way, try and intimidate the local populace. No one's scared of that. I don't think it was scared of that. I'll tell you, the best part of this was sort of the old costumes, the old tanks, the old weaponry. The vintage stuff. The vintage stuff was interesting. And so were the outfits, even the revolutionary ones. And then I like the feet. of strength on there. Everyone was making fun of this. I'm like, wait, what are you?

care if they're doing feats, you know, they were hanging off of things, doing a lot of health stuff. I thought that was fine. I know Pete Hegg says loves that stuff, and that's the only part that I think was cool. Well, anyway, Trump, you're a loser, Elon. Whatever. Leland even tweeted a No Kings thing. It was interesting. We'll get to that in a second, actually. Okay, Scott, let's go on a quick break. And when we come back, Trump tries to make peace between Israel and Iran. Oh, dear.

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Scott, we're back. President Trump is urging Israel and Iran to make peace, saying the two countries should make a deal and will make a deal. The long-sealing conflict between the two countries escalated late last week with Israel's surprise attack on Iran.

Trump signaled it pretty clearly. The attack targeted Iranian nuclear and military facilities, killing top generals and nuclear scientists. Iran retaliated and missile strikes from both sides have continued for straight days, rising civilian casualties.

The White House is denying any U.S. involvement in Israel's actions, though Trump reportedly nixed a plan to kill Iran's leader over the weekend. He's also warning that Iran will face the full strength that might unite U.S. armed forces if the U.S. is attacked in any way. Oh God, this feels like...

Gulf, the Gulf again. I don't know. What have you been thinking over the past few days? And what do you think about his role in all this? A lot of people feel that it was, you know, stopping these Iranian centrifuges from spinning up. very good idea at the same time. Trump seems way past his depth. And there's a fight within MAGA over this. Marjorie Taylor Greene or another don't think we should be there at all. So it's also politically problematic for him.

Well, obviously, I think a lot about this. I think the Ukrainian army and the IDF are doing the dirty, dangerous work for the West. I think of the presidency and leadership as around capital allocation, and I think there's a few things that have shown a greater return than backing. the Ukrainian army and also the intelligence and military support of the IDF. America has four quote-unquote enemies or perceived enemies. China, Iran, North Korea.

and Russia. I would argue China's actually not an enemy. They're a competitor. And if a competitor is doing really well and getting in striking distance of America, America tends to think of them as an enemy, which I think is a little bit unfair, but that's another talk show. But three of the four have a nuclear weapon.

And I just don't think there's any getting around it. I think the West, the U.S., and especially Israel, are our closest ally in the Gulf. And in my view, the only ally we can count on, given it's a democracy and shares our values if shit gets real over there.

We are just better off if Iran does not have a nuclear weapon. And the Atomic International Agency just last week issued a statement, and it's 35... member nations, many of whom are not pro-Israel, saying that Iran was barreling towards a nuclear weapon and had engaged in massive deception. And that Biden had tried really hard through diplomacy to take them back or get them.

to step back from the development of a nuclear bomb. I think Trump trashing the agreement in 17 probably didn't help, but it was clear despite the bluster and Trump thinking as a dealmaker, they were barreling towards a nuclear bomb. And Israel, in what again is what will go down as this remarkable military operation, took out what is the equivalent. of the joint chief's staff, be the head of the army, killed them all within minutes of each other. And then because essentially the Iranian...

air defenses have been totally obliterated, Israel not only controls the skies, but what became clear here, they control the ground. And that is the Mossad has so deeply penetrated the intelligence arm of the IRGC that everyone is vulnerable. And just as interesting as who they killed is who they didn't kill. They didn't take out any political leadership. But this is essentially, in my view, taken back around a year, two years, hopefully three years.

from nuclear capabilities or nuclear bomb capabilities, which I just think it's hard to argue that that's a bad thing. Now, having said that, war in the Middle East rarely turns out as you had hoped. It's just... I mean, there is a real risk here anytime there is war in the Middle East. This wasn't a military operation. I do think these two nations are at war right now.

I also want to acknowledge that there is a legitimate concern that this is a wag the tail situation where Netanyahu, similar to Trump, is running to stay out of prison. And unfortunately, and this is tragic. If we had better leadership in the White House and a president who didn't see his ability to get reelected based on a war footing.

that Trump wouldn't be taking planes from Qatar, he'd be putting pressure on Qatar to put pressure on Hamas, and that Netanyahu would be more sincere about trying to end the ongoing, let's be honest, death and destruction in Gaza. So this is, I mean, this is a complicated situation. But if you look at the IDF, they took more terrorists off our most wanted list in six weeks than we had done in 20 years. And Iran not having a nuclear bomb.

I just failed to see how that is anything good, anything but good, anything but good for the West. So quite frankly, again, I'll finish where I started. I believe the IDF and the Ukrainian army. are doing the West's dirty and dangerous work and should be celebrated for it. Well, that may be, but now what happens? And I think it's really interesting that there's a real shift in the MAGA coalition in terms of...

America first. And of course, Trump said America versus whatever I say it is because I invented it, which he didn't, of course. But it's a it's a question of what now and how do you stop it? Like I think a lot of people I admire. who I pay attention to are like, okay, it's the right thing to do, but you don't know the right way to stop it, right? Because they're in their fourth day of heavy strikes and the attacks are not going down, they're going up.

Right. And this is obviously a volatile area open to any kind of like continued fighting in the Mideast is something that cannot happen. And I think it's, you know, especially with it's in Netanyahu's interest. I think Nenyo has other ideas besides peace, right? He doesn't want peace. Yeah, that's a legitimate concern. So this is like, I get that you want to take out these generals, I get that you want to take this, the fact that we managed to get him not to kill them.

main leader is something, I guess.

But it just seems like any number of bad things could happen here. And Trump is not the president you want in this situation, right? You may agree with him, but boy, is he nuts. And so I think that's... problem we have here and a lot of you know a lot of the smart thinkers are like good but good but Sure. This is a bad decision between bad decisions, but you described it. It distills down to one fulcrum or one decision, and that is the risk of going to war against Iran is a real risk.

There's going to be unintended consequences here. The calculus is the following. Are those risks outweighed by the risks of Iran being closer to a nuclear weapon? And I would argue that the former risks are the ones worth taking. And I do believe... that unlike a lot of people in the Republican Party and some on the far left, I do believe there is a bad peace and I believe there are good wars.

And it was clear a lot of nonpartisan agencies were saying that Iran was engaged in deception and moving closer and closer to a nuclear weapon. And while their air defenses were down, they had been...

pretty, you know, there really hasn't been a lot of civilian casualties in Iran. And again, they didn't go after the political leadership. So I think what they're saying is, okay, If you continue to have a clock in the middle of Tehran that's counting down to our destruction and saying what the equivalent of saying amen in the U.S. is death to Israel is a common phrase at the end of every sentence.

that we are going to take preemptive action against you. And what I don't know, what is interesting here, is whether or not Israel said to the U.S., we're doing this. We feel that this is too big a risk to ignore. Or they were totally coordinated with the U.S., who was claiming they were supposed to have talks today. And whether it was a coordinated head fake and the U.S. engaged in it, because without U.S. at least cooperation, the Israeli...

Air Force is flying F-15s and I think it's F-35s. They can't even repair them if the U.S. would decide to not support Israel. So some level of cooperation. is probably taking place here, especially around propaganda. Iran was caught totally flat-footed. They thought they were about to head into negotiations on Sunday. True.

But they made their point, right? I'm sorry, who's made their point? Israel in terms of doing this. So one of the things there's no, it's called, I guess it's called deconflictation is a word. Is that like de-escalation? It's like that, but it's de-confliction, I guess. And obviously, apparently one of the key sites, the enrichment site, is buried deep underground.

It's, you know, it's one of these things that might be impossible to do, but you can cause it damage or slow it down, etc, etc. I mean, I don't know a lot. This is not my area of expertise, but But the thing is, it all it depends on President Trump again, because we have the ability to. help them do that, right, to really destroy the nuclear bombs that are being made there. And whether the United States intervenes is, I think, a big decision and is huge.

consequences. Anyway, he probably wants to avoid direct crime since his whole thing was let's not get the wars everywhere. um so and now with these he's he's been negotiating with iran by the way um so it's all come down to trump and i'm like oh the military parade guy i know but what better

As people who, if you're like me, who doesn't believe the president and his national security team are top-notch, what better ally to have that can do this, I would argue, strategically and as effectively? What was interesting here is that... or what I found interesting, is to your point, these hardened targets, we have bunker busters that can go about 20 or 30 meters down, but if they dig deep enough and have, you know, these centrifuges.

The question you're bringing up is how much can you decapitate of their nuclear programs? Within minutes, they killed... several very top-ranking military officials. They also killed two or three top nuclear scientists. But what I think must be so chilling about... the IRGC right now or the Iranian leadership, what they may be thinking, is that essentially the Mossad now has control of the ground. And that is they basically demonstrated we can kill anybody here.

And if you're a mid-level security, a part of the security apparatus in Iran, you got to be thinking, okay, what did I sign up for here? Because nobody, I mean, imagine in the U.S. if all the Joint Chiefs had been murdered. or killed the head of the Navy, the head of the Army, and our top six scientists and AI were all dead within 30 minutes. We would recognize, all right, we had been totally our security apparatus. had totally broken down. And that's what's happened in Iran.

I think today the Middle East is actually a safer place than it was on Thursday. Interesting. I just think escalation of this war is so disturbing. Anyway, we'll see if it's up to drop. Maybe he'll do a better job than his military parade. All right, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, the White House reviews SpaceX contracts amid the fallout of the Trump-Elon feud. The support for the show comes from Selequa.

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Scott, we're back with an update on the girls who are fighting. I don't care if you're mad I say that. It's funny. By which I mean Donald and Elon. The White House directed the Defense Department and NASA to gather details on billions in contracts with SpaceX.

And they should. This is a good thing. You shouldn't have one person running things. The Pentagon is reportedly thinking about scaling back SpaceX's involvement in the Golden Doom, which is this protective shield, whatever the heck thing. Meanwhile, President Trump said he was amazed Elon ever endorsed him.

listen to a clip which literally does sound like a breakup now i know why elon doesn't like me so much which he does actually he does and he never had a problem you know it's very interesting this was this is not something new This has been there from day one, Speaker, right? We're going to abolish the EV mandate. And Elon still endorsed me because, honestly, he never, ever spoke to me about that. And I used to say, I'm amazed that he's endorsing me because...

That can't be good for him. I'm abolishing the EV mandate. And I once asked him about it. You never talked to me about that. He said, well... As long as it's happening to everybody, I'll be able to compete. It was a very interesting answer. I thought it was a very honest answer, to be honest with you. Oh, so strange, these two. Honestly, they should just fucking stop. I don't know what to say.

We'll see. I mean, obviously, Elon's under threat by Trump. Who knows if he'll ever carry through. I think one of the things I've always thought is even when Elon got contracts from Lockheed and.

and others I thought that was a good thing because of competition and better cheaper things and this and that so they certainly have an upper hand here and shouldn't there should be lots of competitive bidding on this stuff as competitive as it can be because it's the government um but it was uh it's just so it's such

a strange relationship. I think Trump's passed him. I do think Trump's passed him, but I don't know about what you think. He keeps trying to kiss up to, Elon keeps trying to kiss up to Trump. I think this is kind of over. Well, what is it, Occam's?

Occam's razor, the obvious answer is usually the right one. I think it's pretty obvious what's happened here. And that is Elon got the president elected or at least played a major role in his election. And as a result, believes he should have input.

you know, was comfortable usurping congressional power and the power of the person making not even administrative suggestions around cutting costs or trying to root out, you know, waste and fraud, but making political decisions that we should cut off USAID, which supposedly. or reportedly, according to Boston University, is already responsible for 300,000 incremental deaths.

He was comfortable doing that and then felt that he should have been put around the picks around the IRS, the CIA, NASA, and people in the White House got sick of an unelected co-president. Elon got very angry. And started, and then to his quarter of a billion followers, accused the president of being a sex criminal. Didn't bother him before when he was allowed to be in the White House in his Hot Topic outfit with a black eye.

But when he got basically kind of shoved out of the White House, decided that the president was a pedophile. And then what hasn't been reported, but I believe will be reported because it seems fairly obvious to me, is somebody. whether it was Speaker Johnson or a go-between, I don't know, Peter Thiel, I don't know who the kind of emissary, there's always a go-between.

Called Trump and said, OK, I'm sorry, called Musk and said, OK, I don't think you realize who you're fucking with. This is what he could do in about 30 to 90 days. Cancel every contract, every subsidy across SpaceX and Tesla, respectively, which would take the value.

you a SpaceX from $300 billion to about $100 and probably put Tesla out of business. He could threaten to deport you. He could start looking in. He could sit the IRS on you. He could rehire and triple the number of inspectors, generals who are trying. to put in safety standards around your autonomous driving. And then Tesla goes from being worth $900 billion to being worth $50 billion. I mean, he could do that in about 90 days. And somebody communicated that to Musk.

And Musk realized, oh, maybe I went too far. And that was his next tweet. He didn't all of a sudden, in a fit of sobriety coming down from K, decided that he had lost control of his id. Somebody called him and said, listen, bitch. This, you fucked with the wrong cowboy. Whether you like this cowboy or not, he's got the biggest badge in town and he can literally put you out of business and deport you.

Somebody made that call because that's the truth. Though, let me just say though. So far on his Twitter, he was sort of supporting him on the protests and stuff, but that's out of the news right now, right? All those protests. What is interesting is all he's doing is... Tesla things and things self-aggrandizing how good he is and people complimenting him on Twitter. And then every now and then he's put up these no kings. No gods are kings, only men. No gods are kings, only men.

He's acting like a drug addict. I know, but I was like, what's he doing? Because he's not just saying it. We keep looking for reason and rational behavior here. Why is he putting those up? He didn't put those up. Kara. He's a fucking drug addict. Okay. All right. But I'm like, he can't help himself, right? I mean, most of it is like, isn't the future with Elon Musk or rockets and cool cars? He just has all this complimentary stuff up, which is sad.

But can you imagine? I'm so great. Look how Pete feels like I'm great. But I think Trump is going to just put him, put baby in the corner. He already has. But keep him in the corner. Somebody called Musk and said, Okay, Elon, are you relatively non-high right now? Call me when you have 10 or 15 minutes where you feel like relatively not out of your fucking head. And I'm just going to break down what the president, this president, who is corrupt.

and willing to avoid the courts or bypass the courts, this guy will deport you, Elon. This guy will cut off all subsidies the next day to you. How are you going to explain that to your shareholders? The thing is, he's not going to do better with the Democrats either. It's just like... Oh, no, that he would because the Democrats will honor the Constitution in courts. I don't know. I think they're going to...

target him. Like, before he was like, they're targeting me. I'm like, they're really not. And I'm like, I think they're going to this time. But what you're highlighting is why autocracy is so dangerous, because quite frankly, in the short run, it's so much more effective. Because if you believe Biden would never do this to me, Biden would never threaten to cut off my subsidies or do an illegal asymmetric.

targeted attack against my companies or me individually, I am safe to shitpost Biden. But be careful. Don't come out and say anything bad about the autocrat who's willing to bypass the courts and prosecute his perceived political enemies. That's the danger of an autocracy is it is very effective. I think he's in trouble either way.

Either way, he's in trouble. I don't know who could win that wants a piece of him. I think he really overplayed his hand really rather badly. See, I wonder if it could go the other way. Oh, that they're nicer to him? Well, I just wonder, Cara, I wonder if it...

decent strategy and I'm again just about controversial yeah but go ahead I think you know what you're gonna say Try and invite Elon back into the Democratic Party. No, that's just, you should, Ro Khanna sort of brought it up, but he didn't exactly even, and to be fair to him, he didn't actually say, but Andrew Yang said it.

And they got like run over like a mower, like a power mower. It was interesting. But you said something, occasionally you say things that do resonate with me. And you said something a few weeks ago or a couple of weeks ago that made a ton of sense to me. and I've been talking about it. We got attacked, mostly you, online for suggesting that Obama come back. Oh, yes. And people are like angry. Questlove.

Who is Questlove? Questlove. Oh, yeah. Amazing artist. I'm sorry, Questlove. But basically they said, look, it's not up to Obama. We need new leadership. It's insane of you to expect him to come. I mean, but. And I think that's a valid opinion, but the attacks got personal. And I thought to myself, what you said is exactly right. The Democrats are just the first to attack.

allies that are imperfect. And I thought, I don't weigh in anymore on the comments. I just don't do it for my own mental health. And I find it's not productive. People don't want to have a civil conversation. So glad you're reading my comments now. No, but people attacked you. People started strafing me because I co-host this show with you. And I thought, you know what, folks?

We're not going to regain the White House with a Democratic Party that is less popular than a party head by a fascist if we start saying to the guy next to us, fuck you, you're holding the gun wrong. You're my ally, but I don't like the way you're holding the gun. It was interesting. Let me just weigh in on this. I did get attacked and Questlove really did attack me. Listen, I get your arguments. I don't want a magical.

black man to come and save us. That's not what I was saying. And actually, I'll tell you, I had a great talk with Karen Atiyah, who just wrote a great piece called Barack Obama is Not Your Emotional Support President. And she and I had coffee this week. She's wonderful.

was also Jamal Khashoggi's editor, by the way. Just terrific, terrific columnist and a really wonderful... person and she wrote a great piece about it but she listened like you know I'm like I'm not saying I want you know this magical person to come save us I'm saying we don't have someone And this is out of enormous respect for him, not out of, you know, let...

let that guy who's given up so much take care of it. We had a great talk. We ended up having a great talk, right? And she was hearing what I was saying. So I think it's easy to say, white ladies say, bring... you know, Obama to fix it. He's a very, he's the, and Karen wrote, look, I get it. Obama is a cultural icon. He's perhaps the only Democrat, the star power to take on a star power of Trump. But this is the.

thing about political power, Trump is the one who has it now. I agree. I agree. I just am waiting for... Other people are not. He's the only one with the gravitas, in my opinion. But, you know, I get why you don't think he should. But when you say, the only argument I don't get is, let George Bush do it. Let Bill Clinton. stunted in comparison to Barack Obama it's not it's

That to me is laughable. Let them do it. They're not capable, nor are they talented. But anyway. I think the other, the argument without the personal vitriol against allies attacking allies, which is how we managed to lose the White House again, is.

is that, okay, we need a new generation of leadership to step up here. And presidents do have a storied, dignified habit of not weighing in on politics once they're out of the White House. I think your point, and I agree with it more generally or more broadly.

is that a lot of wealthy Democrats are clutching their pearls in private and not speaking up in public, whether it's Fortune 500 CEOs, former presidents, people who have a platform. Because right now, and the autocrat's playbook is to disenfranchise incentivize you from saying anything because you will become a target and he will punish you unfairly. So the smart thing to do is just to stay quiet or just to give him $10 million to his library and neuter. the free press i mean the incentives

are just to stay quiet and stay out of his way. And there are a lot of people, and to your point, including former presidents, that have a really powerful platform that if there was a time to speak up, it feels like now is that time. And I think that not only goes for former presidents, whether it's Bush or Obama, but also, and I've said this, the people I'm most disappointed in are really wealthy Democrats. I agree. The CEOs, I agree.

Look, we're not going to have, Jamie Dimon, we're going to have 14% mortgage rates, and you know this, if we continue to be this fiscally irresponsible. You know, Bob Iger, a free press is super important. You can't give $10 million just to make a problem go away to his library. That has literally unleashed a ton of... of knee bending across all of media and set a really ugly precedent for what is the most important COP pushback against fascism, and that is a free press.

You know, the CEO of Nike, you have a huge opportunity to come out and talk about how important immigrants have been to immigration or to sport and competitiveness and American values. And all of these guys, 499 of which of the Fortune 500, wake up every morning, look in the mirror and say, hello, Mr. President. Well, the key to being president is leadership. And leadership is doing the right thing when it's really hard. And I recognize all of you are worried.

about your shareholder value. But Tim Cook, if you believe a man should be able to marry another man, guess what? We are headed to a very ugly place where your kids, should they decide to marry someone of the same sex, won't be allowed to. So I respect the fact he did not go to the Gulf. I respect the fact these guys, and let's be honest, 430 of them are guys, are in a very difficult spot.

But there were a lot of people who were in a very difficult spot, who made very hard choices such that we could have incredible prosperity and rights and live with an absence of fear that if we say something that the current administration doesn't like, they're not going to bankrupt us or deport us.

us to some hellscape. So gentlemen, grow a fucking pair. This is exactly the time to speak up. I would love that. I would love that too. The only reason I'm saying Obama is because I think he's uniquely gifted, loved by a lot of people that are Trump's. supporters. Absolutely. I don't think I can't say if you listen, if you disagree with me, come up with other people, maybe all of them together. But don't tell me George Bush, sorry, compared to Obama is stratospheric compared to George Bush.

Or Bill Clinton. Well, it's kind of all of the above, isn't it? Yes, it would be maybe all of them come together. Look at the No Kings. Like a couple million people decided they were going to take the risk in. Paint signs. Those are the most important people. I just, you just need a little, you know, I believed in the hope thing. So I just, that's where I'm with him.

And I saw this incredible group of inspiring women in Fort Worth, Texas, marching in a line dressed in Handmaid's Tale's outfits. And I'm like, these women got up and spent all week putting together these. frighteningly beautiful Handmaid's Tales outfits,

Because they want to send a message. Citizens are, you know, let me tell you, it shouldn't be Obama. It should be all the citizens, but it would be a hell of a nice. All of the above. All of the above. That's kind of thing. All of the above. And I just, it's a compliment to Obama, just so you all know. By the way, my son took the ACT last week, and I've decided that standardized tests, Kara, are really culturally biased against kids that don't give a shit. I hate those tests. Oh, my God.

I am much more anxious about the ACT than my son. That's the problem. He's like, I'm like, how'd it go? How'd it go? And he's like, I don't think it did okay. Math was hard, but you know, I think it did all right. Hey, do you think the pub will serve me a beer? I'm like, how did it go? Time for a donation from the Galloways. But one thing I will say is the danger of anyone, Obama or whoever, public figures speaking out is very high now, especially with the...

these deaths of these very brave people. Again, that's the autocrat's playbook. That's when you got to speak up. I get it. It's dangerous. So I guess we all have to do it together. Okay, Questlove, you're right. We all have to do it together.

Let's love. Come home. Join hands. Anyway. And I like your time. Let's embrace our imperfect allies. Yes, let's embrace them. When you get attacked and you're like, you say to people, you know, like, aren't at the end of the day, isn't there like an 80 or 90% overlap on the really important shit?

we agree on. So we're going to spend all our time should posting each other on the 10% we don't agree on. Yes, that's why I appreciate my talk with Karen. It was great. She's a great, everyone, I urge everyone to read her piece about that because I see her point too. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.

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But with Vanta, the amount of time you need to spend on it is. Go to vanta.com slash pivot to meet with a Vanta expert about your business needs. That's vanta.com slash pivot. Hi, this is Scott Galloway. If you're listening to this, you likely already know who I am. Kind of a big deal. Everyone's laughing. This message is for you, our loyal listeners. Prof G Markets is now, drumroll.

Daily. That's right. Monday through Friday, Prop G Markets breaks down market moving news, helping you build financial literacy and security. Don't miss it. Subscribe to Prop G Markets wherever you get your podcasts. The data analytics company Palantir has been working with the U.S. government for about 15 years on all sorts of things. This year, ICE is going to pay Palantir $30 million to improve how it targets and surveils undocumented immigrants.

And your response to this probably depends to some degree on your politics. But the Trump administration is also expanding Palantir's reach on something that would affect all Americans. The idea is to link together all the data that the government has about. This is unprecedented. So anyway, Theo Vaughn freaks out.

This sounds crazy, dude. And confronts J.D. Vance. It can tell if your kids are going to have a limp or whatever. He'll be in the Christmas play. Veep is like, it's going to be okay. But FYI, I also just learned about this. I actually just read about it. earlier today or maybe yesterday coming up on today explained what's palantir up to

Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Why don't you, I can go first or you can go first. You go first. I'm going to do something happier for my win, which is besides we've talked about the no kings. I thought that was a total win and everything else. But I got something silly. Lilo and Stitch, I see why it's making a billion dollars at the box office. You saw that. I saw it.

And I loved it. Did you take Claire? I took Claire and Saul and Amanda and I went and the popcorn was flowing and everything else. It was completely charming. What a charming, charming, wonderful cast.

Sorry, Maggie. It was diverse in a great way. It was just heartfelt. It was... great to look at and I know I can I was first like how's it making so much money I didn't like the cartoon version I didn't it is I didn't I never liked it of all the many movies I watch with my kids my older kids but this is it's a huge

It's a huge movie. It's a great movie. It's totally worth your time. And I enjoyed it. Every bit of it's utterly charming. And the two main characters, the two sisters, and the side characters are all great too, but are... are wonderful. I didn't know either of them and they were both wonderful and what a great job, Disney. Good job, even though you shouldn't have fucking paid Trump that money also. But great movie.

And my fail, it has to be a figure out a way to join together in the lessons of this note Kings. um to protect people because i i am so disturbed by how many people have told me who are public servants that they're terrified um and they and they should be as evidenced by what's happened it was some Guy gets in his head to be angry and take it out on people. I don't quite know how to prevent that.

It's scary. It's a very scary thing for people who are outspoken. I'm not sure there's a solution to that except just to bring it down, the temperature. And it's very hard when there's a president who loves raising the temperature almost continually into a fever that creates all kinds of bad impulses on all sides. Although I blame a lot of this on the polarization social media and gerrymandering and Trumpism in many ways because it's always dunking, constantly dunking.

it was dragged along into its ugly wake anyway that's my so you know my favorite line from uh lila and stitch was what it's can not gone on. Please write in. Everybody write in. It's not can. It's not. Look in my hotel room. Look at yours. It's canned. Okay. You can call it canned. Hi. Can I have the French fries? Get it? I'm about to go have a 62-year-old club sandwich. Yeah, a $62 club sandwich, which you don't finish. That's my favorite part.

I don't need a lot. I know, but why would you pay that much money? Because I can. Because I can. You can't. I cannot. It's like, why does a rich man get blowjobs in his Rolls Royce? Because he can. Anyways, I have two wins. My first already talked about. I do think that the IDF and the bold, courageous.

In my opinion, attack, I think the world is safer. I think there's risks in any war, but I do think Iran barreling towards a nuclear weapon was just a bad idea for everyone. And I think, again, the ukrainian army and the idf continue to do the dirty dangerous courageous work of the west who spends 800 billion on the military and yet has intra-party fights on whether we should or shouldn't do stuff i'm not entirely sure why we would spend this kind of money no one's invading

U.S. So unless we're going to make this isolationism from the far right, it's like, okay, if you're an isolationist, then let's take some of that military spending and put it back into Medicare or Medicaid. But to want to increase the military budget from 800 billion to 1.1 trillion and then wring your hands over trying to take a stated enemy.

who says, death to Israel, death to America, back from the brink of nuclear armaments. Okay, then fine. Then cut our military budget in half because Mexico or Canada are not invading us. Anyways, my win. is what I feel was an attack, a courageous attack on the nuclear facilities of Iran by the IDF to make the world a safer place. My other win is yours. I just think there's no kings, these protests. are just inspiring. I think that Americans who decide to give up a weekend day

and go join hand in hand with their brothers and sisters and peacefully protest creative signs, creative outfits. I just thought it was inspiring. And as someone who's living abroad, it made me feel really good about moving back. I'm really looking forward to moving back. I think that we have endured worse than this, and it's the citizenry, the media, and the courts.

that are the firewalls here up until this point i think a lot of people were worried like where is the citizenry here and we saw it on full display this weekend i thought it was just wonderful and hugely motivating inspiring for the rest of us uh so those those are my

Those are my two wins. And also, I'm excited to see you. We'll be together tonight. Are you coming? Oh, you're coming in. Oh, you're coming in for the dinner, right? Yes. Yeah, you're coming over to my hotel for this iHeart thing. A later thing. I'll be there later, and I'll be going through your room. I'll be ordering the club sandwich, but go ahead. Just celebrating just how dominant the radio business is. Yeah, yes, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, we're doing okay. We're up. Come on. Well, you can say that. Oh, no, we're podcasts. Oh, I guess our hardest podcast, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. They're doing pretty well. Well, have a good time. Don't worry. You know, my favorite. This is my favorite conference. My favorite conference in the world. We are still relevant conferences. Advertising execs give awards to each other. And we all realize that a Pepsi commercial doesn't really mean anything anymore. Anyway. I like ad awards.

They're pretty good. The ads are pretty good. I like that. No, they're wonderful. They're just irrelevant. Of all the award ceremonies, I like the ad awards best. Because I like them. Although I have to tell you, the Tony Awards were funny. The Tonys? I know, the Game Awards. Again, you need that tricoxigan. I understand. Anyway. That tricoxigan will take you off Tonys or Broadway. I've never taken tricoxigan. I don't plan to. That's good. You've got to admit, that's good.

Anyway, we want to hear from you. Send us your questions about business tech or whatever is on your mind. Go to nymag.com slash pivot to send a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe. This weekend on with Kara Swisher. spoke to a panel of millennial leaders about how to rejuvenate the Democratic Party. But let's listen to a clip of Representative Greg Kassar. It's pronounced Kassar, Scott, from Texas.

The Secretary of Education was in my committee the other day, Linda McMahon. She's worth $3.2 billion. The committee started like hissing at me for asking her how many millions of dollars she's going to make. when we passed this billionaire tax cut bill that was seen before as like rude but if it's the only way that finally our voters can hear us maybe we pick the right message but what if they don't even hear it in the first place

They can get filled with all the Republican propaganda on their phone without us competing. As you must know by now, politeness is not my favorite thing. I figured that out about halfway through this podcast. Anyway, it was a really interesting group of young people, and they actually had some great ideas, and they're pretty ballsy. I really am not sensitive, which was great, which was terrific, and they mixed it up a lot. I appreciate it. Anyway, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot.

be sure to like and subscribe to our YouTube channels. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, get on your Zodiac and come find me. But before that, read us out. You know it the most. Today's show was produced by Lara Neyman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin, and Kevin Oliver.

Ernie or Todd, enter into this episode. Thanks also to Drew Bros, Miss Saveria, and Dan Shalon, the Shakur Rose, Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine, Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine on mymag.com. We'll be back later. week for another breakdown of all things tech and business live from can