Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of I Trends twenty twenty four. Four more years, four more years. Just thought i'd keep the energy going that we had before we started recording. We'll talk a little bit more about it tomorrow. But back at your psych you were saying, you really, Oh thanks, Scot my years old.
He's literally so old. I just I guess, as as a woman of color in this country, I don't know what it's like to have that type of power and to aspire to that type of power. It has never been modeled for me. So I just don't get the idea of not wanting to rest. You know, you get to a certain age and don't you just want to spend time with your grandkids, just be home. Yeah it does not work. Nope, what about that age says I want to be president again?
Oh come on, man, I tried that, Jack, You're in the Trump administration is a boring man. I guess so Jill got on my nerves, kept falling off my bike. Yeah, it's wild. It'll be interesting to see if he survives long enough. Literally a little dangerous. With the alternative being you know, it didn't really focus on whether Kamala Harris is going to be his running mate. But that is a pretty important question because he's so old. When he got sworn in, he was already the oldest person who's
ever been president. We're four more years. Obviously, people are doing more stuff at older ages than they have historically been able to. But I don't know. It's just got a bad feeling about this one. The news that's trending now beyond Joe Biden is people are bidding a fond farewell to Harry Belafonte, rip to a real one. He passed away at ninety six from congest heart failure. Just kind of going back through his life. I knew he
was an activist. I didn't realize that he supported Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez and like, you know, he was real. He was like a true socialist, bankrolled nineteen sixties initiatives to bring civil rights to black Americans, campaigned against poverty. There's a cool story our writer jam was pointing out. There's a documentary called The sit In. Harry Belafonte hosts
The Tonight Show. Apparently, like at the height of the popularity of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson had to take a week off and had Harry Belafonte host The Tonight Show for a week. He's a hugely talented singer, actor, performer, so it makes sense. But also that week he had on guests such as Martin Luther King Junior, Bobby Kennedy. Just months before they were both a sad Martin Luther King Junior towards the end of his life was very
much focused on, you know, poverty and fighting poverty. It's wild that this happened. It was like a rating success. Yeah, and it's just been completely memory hold. I think it's the thing that we talk about a lot on here that I always say is that like America is allergic to socialism. And I don't think it's necessarily the people
themselves that are allergic to socialism. It's the institutions. And so even though a lot of people watched this and took it in like, there was no echo, there was no follow through because I'm sure it was just completely rejected by the mainstream media of what, Yeah, this never happened.
Systems at large that stand to fall apart if we were to gather together in socialism. So yeah, that's incredible. I definitely want to check that out it seems to be on peacock.
Seems to be on peacock. But yeah, it also reminds me of like when Bernie was having success then like these artificial barriers that stand in the way of people's interest in socialism just kind of rise up and then it's like, yeah, see, you can't you can't do that in America because people don't have the appetite. And it's like do they not or is it just like institutionally and structurally built to keep any sort of idea of
socialism at Bay. Yeah, people are unhappy. There's been some changes at McDonald's apparently they're they're introducing in certain select markets out west more onions seem to be the thing, which is just a wild Like I'm sure it just like taste tested well in their you know, laboratory kitchens or whatever. But they're they're putting onions on earlier in the process, so like grilled onions factoring more heavily in
all of their burgers. And I don't know, like onions were the thing that I hated the most about food when I was a kid, Like I was just like, no, fuck onions, Like keep onions away from me. And this is like wow, right, like you you always liked onions.
I've always been team onions since I was like a baby. I love onions to this day. I'll eat them raw cooked, saute, however you want to give them to me, I'll eat them whatever type. I'm gonna eat them.
I love them now. But it's just for a food thing that's like sowed down the middle, like broad like to to be like our big change is gonna be like going real onion heavy.
Well, it does seem that they want to cook the patties on the same grills as they cook the onions, and actually cook the onions, because I don't know. Every time i've been to McDonald's they are chopped white onions like they're not They're raw, they're not cooked. So I guess they're trying to cook the onions a little bit to get some flavor. But I guess some of the complaint not only has been the flavor, but maybe the
cross contamination with onion allergies. I did not really think about that personally, as someone who gobble gobble gobbles onions, I did not think it was that common of analogy. But I guess when you go to somewhere like McDonald's, where a the food feels pretty artificial as it starts. You're not anticipating a food allergy when you walk into that type of environment.
Yeah, so yeah. People who aren't fans of onions are like, it's just harder to get the onions off now. But they're saying it in a very measured way because it's on social media, so they're saying, uh, this is fucking disgusting.
I'm t more onions. I want to. I mean, I try not to eat fast food. Luckily, I live in New York where it's like you're not running into fast food anywhere.
You know.
I love to cook, but I am a sucker for McDonald's. I am, you know. I grew up in the South, in the pit of all fucking fast food, and I will eat a you know, spicy McChicken and a spicy or not a spicy a whatever mcdouble put those things together makes a colloquially known mcgang bang. Yeah, fucking love that shit, and I might have to go get one just.
I feel like that's hurt my jaw.
It is not good for you in every facet of the way you eat it. How it feels going down the aftermath. None of it's good, but it feels good on the taste buds, and that's what matters to me.
Feels good on them taste buds. There's new polling that suggests that the Mega movement is wildly unpopular, which I don't know. Well, we'll see, but the polls can't be it all mean yeah, exactly. It says that only twenty four percent of people are really on board for this. Just twenty four percent of Americans have positive views of the movement, while forty five percent voice negative views. The forty five percent number seems low to me, like that as wild.
It does seem low.
That was the focus of Biden's like announcement video is what's your alternative these guys? And it does seem like the popularity of the Mega movement is less than we thought during the mid terms, But we will see because it's like it underperforms at the polls, like with actual votes when it comes to anybody who's not Trump, but then it overperforms when it's Trump. He always gets more votes than anybody's expecting. So we have that to look
forward to. Rematch rematches are reallys fun sequels are always fun. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back, and we're back, And a couple horrible pieces of news. There's a Texas school district that has voted to place armed civilians in schools.
Love it, Yeah, I mean it says they would be school marshals, So think like, like you know, flight marshals. Yeah, yeah, in essence, take the place of the hired off duty officers. They will not wear uniforms, but they will carry a concealed handgun and be a school district employee. According to the school board documents review by The Chronicle. Yikes, Like that almost feels worse because it's like, you, like, the students and the staff, are they going to be no,
like notified who the marshal is. I think that's kind of like the point of a fire marshals that like you don't know who they are, but like they're not a cop, so they're just like a civilian dressed like a gun employee with a gun who could go row. Yeah.
Just always want to introduce a person with a gun to your children's school day as much as possible.
Love it.
And then there's been like a battle taking place between the college board and right wing activists, and the right wing activists are getting their way. They are getting changes made to the ap African American Studies course after critics say the agency bowed to political pressure and removed several topics from the framework, including the Black Lives Matter movement,
slavery reparations, and queer life. So but yeah, one of the things that I think a lot of people have fallen back on is like, well, it seems like young people have socialist values and like gun control values, since they had to like come up at a time of like, you know, now marshals in the school, like armed marshals in the school, and like having a safe room in
your classroom, like seems like a good idea. So the right is really seems to be laser focused on finding ways to adjust that and churn out more right wing fascists. It all seems like it's part of a plan of like we gotta do some work on this generation, you know.
Yikes. Yeah, that's my views.
Tucker Carlson, as we mentioned the past couple of days, fired at Fox News, but apparently welcome on Russian TV.
This is something that yeah, I mean, he his show was always just heavily featured on Russian TV State TV because he's you know, constantly making America seem like the worst place on earth, like in ways that tie in nicely with Russian propaganda, and so RT the broadcast are formerly known as Russia Today, which is banned in dozens of countries because of its you know, it's just straight
up propaganda. But from their English language Twitter account, Monday tweeted, Hey, at Tuger Carlson, you can always question more with at RT underscore com. So makes sense guessing he's not going to take that job. He'll probably find it like a podcast on Joe Rogan's network or whatever from which to fuck shit up. But I also, you know, in thinking about who is going to replace him, I was like, there's got to be like a shitty replacement that I'm
just not thinking of. And somebody was like, oh, Jesse Waters, this is going to be the next Tuger Carlson, and that makes sense. Yeah, that guy's been just the worst for many years and is young and a misogynist and racist and smug and feels like he's definitely gonna get the job, So we'll say The Cut released their New York Girl issue, So the cut used to be New
York Magazine. Yeah, and that they're the ones who did the etiquette rules where they started off with you don't have to read every one of your friend's novels, so like that just to give you an idea of like who who they are and how down to earth they are. So what is their analysis of like who New York's it girl is? Or I guess they named one hundred and fifty one women who captured the city's attention.
They named over I think a century, so since like the nineteen twenties, all these different it girls of New York and as I was kind of like perusing the story, but I feel like they kind of purposely broke it up into like a bunch of different articles to make it a little bit confusing and maybe not highlight the fact that there weren't a ton of women of color, Like as I went through the main article, that was like the highlights they kind of gave you, like only
from like the fifties to today in these kind of grouped decades, like they're like fifties to seventies, you know, seventies and nineties, nineties to early ATS, early ASA today that was like one article and then they have another article that starts from like the twenties, and another article that starts like today. So it was a little all over the place. But as I was skimming all of it, I kind of was like, what I of the beholder,
is it to be a New York a girl? Which is I guess the interrogation that the articles trying to push of what does it mean to define a New York City girl and what that definition has changed over the years. And to me, it is a socialize obviously.
It is the Paris Hilton's of the world. It is someone who has like a natural chrisma, who's very beautiful, very vivacious moving through the world, has an aura about them that just gets them in the door, and then they become something just based on their look, but not necessarily has to be a model or whatever. I did notice there was, you know, the woman a color, the highlighted. I feel like, we're like obvious, like very very famous women.
Whereas I feel like I, as someone who enjoys and digests a lot of pop culture, did not recognize a lot of these white women. I was like, some of them very obvious. They did highlight Paris Hilton. They highlighted a couple other models that were very famous in the sixties and seventies. They also highlighted like mcjagger's wife and
things like that. But I'm like, I feel like, why is it like Grace Jones, who's obviously so incredibly famous outside of being like a New York girl, and Patricia Cleveland also very famous outside of being a New York a girl, Like why aren't there more beautiful black and brown women? And also I saw no brown women, like, no Latinas, no other like ethnicities. It was like only
black girls or white girls. It was so crazy. I was like dumbfound it because New York is such a diverse place, and I just feel like they're talking about a very specific scene that doesn't highlight the true culture. I think that is Noeva York. So give me a read. I'm very intrigued on your thoughts and your opinions on maybe the diversity or the lack of diversity. But yeah, and I mean, all the women are beautiful. Congrats women, You're beautiful.
It's like New York magazine, like hipster editors, like Miss America pageant. It feels like for.
The Yeah, and like at the end when they did this separate article about like then, what does it mean to be an itck girl now? Because it is kind of a word that's been thrown around TikTok like all the time, like oh my god, like in your era, trying to be an it girl in New York and it's like just like more like fun and silly and goofy nowadays, Whereas back then though, it was like what does it mean to be like an icon? Like you're at Studio fifty four, you are like in the scene,
you are being invited to these parties. It is. It was way more elusive. I think back in the day, to be like a true it girl was like being a supermodel, you know what they considered like you know, the Naomi Campbells of the world. But even in their coverage of today's it girls, I felt like there weren't that many. Like it was a little diverse, but not as divers as I think it could be. And I especially think women of color are the forefront of what it means to be an IT girl in the city.
Like we drive fashion, we drive culture, we drive movements, and I think a lot of white women, especially today with TikTok steal from black women's trends, so I just thought more black and brown women could have been highlighted. Yeah, that's my take.
Here you go. And finally, there's this video that's making the rounds of this guy whose real name is Nicholas Alaverdian.
He faked his own death in America, moved to the UK, adopted just the worst fake British accent, changed his name to Nicholas Rossi, and like put a gas mask over his face to like, I don't know if it was like him trying to deal with the fact that he has a bad English accent, but it's just an amazing So he like went and did he did an interview with news group that's like what do you say to people who say you are clearly this guy and this
is all bullshit? And at one point he's like, if I was that guy, would I be able to not stand up? And he like tries to stand up and then like falls backwards. It's like an amazing unintentional comedy performance. If you've ever witnessed a four year old lying and it just like kind of becomes amusing, that's what's happening. And they're just like doubling tripling down too. Yeah, this is that, but it's okay to laugh. At the end, he sums it all up by saying that's a right low blow.
Which.
Yeah, he's dressed like a cartoon of an English person. He's got a bow tie like.
A little like little round glass little yeah.
Yeah, it's like, you know, community theater level. Okay, you have to put together an outfit out of air, proper room that make you British guy.
I cannot get over how he like falls into his wife's arms and he's like Hellen, like he just he's like so upset at the question that they're asking him that he's just like Hellen. And then she's like all right there, all right there. And it is I mean, it is very funny. I mean, obviously he's being accused of very serious cribs, but it is hard not to laugh. Yeah at this man. Like you can tell he's not using the mask like it's there, but there's no movement of air happening like it's on.
But he's not inhaling any of it. But he is like doing like a weird like quick breath thing to make himself sound like he's hyperventilating, which is then like steaming up his glasses. I think his wife is like having a hard time believing him at the various.
Point best that she can to stand beside him.
But it's hard, yes, But like just the audacity of his bullshit is truly, truly incredible, in a great metaphor for America at this stage, so worth checking out. We'll link off to it in the footnotes. That is going to do it for us this afternoon. We're back tomorrow with a whole ass episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, get the vaccine, don't do nothing about white supremacy, and we will talk to you tomorrow. Bye bye,