Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one NonStop infotainment laugh stravaganza. Yeah, so, without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. We are thrilled to be joined by the executive director of Civil Rights Corp. Which is a nonprofit dedicated to fighting systemic injustice. Has been a civil rights lawyer, a public defender, named
twenty sixteen's Trialer of the Year by Public Justice. Author of several books, the incredibly compelling Usual Cruelty, which we've had him on to talk about before. He's got one coming maybe this year. Most importantly, a great follow on Twitter and all the social media. Is just kidding, that's not most important. But please welcome back to the show. The brilliant, the talented Alec Carricazana. What's up about you?
Thanks for having me back.
Oh, thank you for being here. And the reason we're talking like auctioneers is because we only have you for forty five minutes, so we wanted to get right into it.
You' all found great Thank you man, revved up many just getting through it, just getting through it.
Just some people from White House, and they they've got some Daddy's little helpers is what they call him. No, it's amazing to have you back. You know, we usually do search history underrated, overrated, but I think I think we can just skip that unless there's something you desperately want to get off your chest that you think is overrated or underrated or something from your search history.
I don't have anything I'm dying to tell everybody. I don't think.
Okay, okay, good, then we'll ask the questions.
We'll ask the questions here, Alec. All right, So last time we checked in with you, there was this is a little over a year ago, or maybe actually a little less than a year ago, but there was a lot of talk in the mainstream media still about how crime was up because everyone defunded the police. And there's been an emerging story that crime has been plummeting, much
much less popular story with the mainstream media. And I'm pretty sure there hasn't been like a corresponding like the police were never defunded, so like their theory of the case seems to have been exposed as bullshit. So presumably the mainstream media has been flooded with articles explaining what they got wrong and taking a long hard look at their methodology. How are you seeing these latest crime statistics where crime has gone down.
I think it's important for us to just take a step back and understand that, whether we're talking about last year or the year before, the year before that, overall levels of police reported crime in this country are near
historic loves. So even when there was all that frenzy about retail theft and shoplifting or car theft or violent crime or robberies, you know, we were still at a stage in history where all of those things were were extraordinarily low relative to you know, what they were, let's say in the nineties or or in the early two thousands. And it's also important to understand that when you hear about crime statistics in the news, it's really only seven or so crimes that the police track and report to
the FBI. And even then most people don't understand that, like forty percent of police departments don't even report that data to the FBI. So a lot of it is just like FBI statistical estimates based on the police reporting like a few what they call index crimes. So what is left out of crime statistics well, almost all the crimes committed by police themselves, almost all the crimes committed
by and prison guards, almost all white collar crime. Right, So while you hear a lot about theft in the news and retail theft and shoplifting, what don't the police report and what doesn't the FBI report when it's talking about crime rates tax evasion or wage theft. You know, and wage theft is about fifty billion dollars a year, So that right there is three times all of the
crime that FBI is reporting is property crime combined. And so you just have to understand the way the media talks about crime stistics is really messed up on like a lot of different levels.
Yeah, wage theft and tax evasion being two crimes that the general populace, the readership, the intended audience of the mainstream media are the victims of Those are the ones that get ignored, the ones that that's not breathlessly reported, are the ones where Procter and Gamble is, you know, is the victim, and that's that that's treated as like the more important crime.
And I think this is really important lesson for people, like you can really mislead people by giving them a few anecdotes. So, for example, if you have like a week of news stories, even if the anecdotes you're giving are true, like you report on seven true examples of shoplifting from Walgreens every night, you give the people the impression that shoplifting is a huge problem it might be increasing even, Right. It's kind of like if I compiled a video of every shot Michael Jordan missed in his
career and put them all together. Yeah, you could create the impression that Michael Jordan is a terrible basketball player just by taking all of the shots which he actually did miss, right, if you don't show the other shots, right, And what the news is doing is something very similar. It's not showing the public any of the tax evasion or any of the wage steps, or any of the pollution violations. Right, there's one hundred thousand violations that we
know about of the Clean Water Act. Every year. It causes enormous death, cancer, rotting teeth, children suffering from a variety of different preventable illnesses, et cetera. Those are not treated as urgent. And so there's this and they're not reported on the daily news. And so just through through its reporting of anecdote even if those anecdotes are actually happening and true, the news can distort our much deeper truths about like what kinds of activity is really harmful
to us? And shoplifting is a good example because tax evasion is about a trillion dollars a year, so that's you know, sixty times every property crime the FBI reports combined, and yet everyone is freaking out of our shoplifting and nobody is thinking about tax evasion, right.
I feel like the shoplifting thing is still like vibrating through like my childhood neighborhood. Like there are people who like lived in the neighborhood I grow up that are still harping about like, well, you know, there's nothing at CBS anymore because all the shoplifting, and like we need to have like a neighborhood meeting about this. And it's like, dude, this is like a two year old conservative take on crime that you're like being like, it's it's happening, and
it's the scores of our community at the moment. But like I'm curious for this stuff that you're talking about, Like where is there like a centralized place where you can see like where like DA's or something are reporting things like wage theft or like in a centralized place, so I can be like, well, what about this stuff? Or is that more just having to be really vigilant about what is actually coming out of the courts and things like that.
Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, one of the big scandals of our time is that the agencies who are supposed to be investigating a lot of these crimes have been completely decimated. So, for example, the federal antitrust regulators have been completely decimated. They're far fewer regulators even looking into whether companies are doing price fixing and doing all kinds of illegal stuff that drives up the costs of goods for consumers, et cetera than there were forty years ago. We have fewer
people investigating that stuff now. And the same is true with the so called war on drugs, Right, they shifted a huge percent of federal agents who were working on things like white collar crime, fraud, corporate fraud, tax of asion, et cetera, and they shifted government resources toward the drug war, and so there's just fewer people actually even looking for
the crimes that are committed by wealthy people. And that means that unfortunately, a lot of the crimes that are happening just like aren't even brought into the legal system at all, So they're not being reported by prosecutors, not being reported by police at all. And so we rely
on nonprofit organizations really good investigative journalism. Some times the government will will itself investigate in some ways that shed some light on some of these things, and you would have to cobble it all together.
Yeah, it's yeah. I mean you realize too, just how much of that is just to kind of emphasize what, you know, sort of the status quo wants to even define as crime. Well, it's like, well, don't look at that stuff because then all these other people get caught up in our perception of what criminality is. Absolutely don't want to do that. It's to actually just be like, no, no, no, it's the shoplifters. It's these kinds of things that are big capital ce crime that we need to worry about.
When yeah, so like everyone's saying these are the ones, like these other things are the things that affect the everyday person on a much deeper level. Were they locked up Old Spice at CBS.
Also, we're the victims there. I do not want to wait fifteen extra seconds to get my old spice deal ran out of the plastic case.
But it embarrassing to say, I want to are using old as a victim?
Anyway, Yeah, oh yeah, we're just gonna pretend you didn't say that, because what about as rate? And it's a combination of acts and old.
Spice, I mix it together. It's a home blown.
The axe is the new, the old spice is the old. And that's why I smell great to myself. Not not everybody agrees. What is something that you think is underrated?
Okay, guys, if you must ask, I'm gonna tell you not enough people are talking about the nineteen ninety four film Angels in the Outfield with Danny Glover and Joseph Gordon Levitt. Wow, it's just so good and having Christopher Lloyd as the wacky angel, Like I just watched it on a plane recently, saw my goddamn eyes out. What a heart expanding story of hope and upliftment. And then when he also surprised adopts JP like the literalist, the cutest kid I've ever seen in my life. Couldn't believe it.
And then also to see like the bit parts of the early launching pad careers of Matthew McConaughey, Adrian Brody, Tony Danza. No, I mean yeah, they had really small parts and it was like yeah, and it was just a delight and incredible. Why have we forgotten? Why don't we have more sports movies with angels mixed in? Amazing?
Right? Is the story that like did a team plane like go down or something? Why are there's so many angels in the outfield for this?
Okay, this was another shocking thing because like I've had a lifelong attraction to Dermot mulroney, which I've just failed to mention. He is the dead by dad that causes all these issues. And he says to tiny we'll get together.
Yeah, no, oh, yeah, he.
Says, the tiny little Joseph Gordon the child. He says, like.
Joseph the child, which is.
He says, he says, you know, if the Angels win, then we can be like a family. Again. What a horrible thing to get.
To, yeah or something is No, he's just like angels way.
Because the Angels were so bad. So it was basically like, if the Angels win, then I'll be your daddy in so then of course, little baby Joseph Ward love it. He's praying, praying, praying, like for the angels to win, thinking that it's gonna come true and he's gonna get his dad back. So then the angels arrived to make them win.
Yeah, so they answer little kid prayers if they're like sad and pathetic enough.
But then they got him a different dad. So I don't know.
Yeah, so it's not I don't know why I associated angels with ghosts. Angels aren't ghosts right in a way.
They are. I don't think you're too far off. They're like like incredible beings.
In City of Angels, was Nicholas Cage an eternal being who had never been alive? Or was he like a dead guy? Anybody remember we had a real run in the nineties of angel movies. Huh yeah, I just.
Saw this movie again in the last year. Also on plane, you know, I you know my passion angel.
Yeah, angels on planes for you that whenever you're on a plane, you're like to get an angel flicking.
Yeah.
Well, I'm like, I'm probably pretty close to them up here. You know, maybe I should.
Reading the paper.
Just hold me up.
Yeah, it's a good movie. I loved it. I love those I gotta I love those movies.
Michael, the John Travolta movie, which I don't know anything other than what if John Travolta was an angel?
Though?
Oh my god, I also watched that movie.
Did you Wow? You really are an freak for the angels.
I didn't realize how many of these I've watched in the last year.
Did you even see Alita Battle Angel?
Now?
I've never seen that one.
Is that good?
No? It's not.
Oh okay, it's not.
It's and it barely has nothing to just there was like a sort of title of the character.
Have you watched the Bone Thugs and Harmony Crossroads video lately?
Not lately? I can't say I have, But I can't do it after this podcast. That's no problem. I can fire it right up.
There's a There's an Angel with big old wings, big old honkers.
I do have a recollection of that from my childhood, actually.
Touched by an Angel. Superducer Justin is pointing out Touched by an Angel was a big nineties.
Oh yeah, I watched the shit out of that on Channel four cable as a child.
You know.
I was like, maybe if I watch them, they'll come to my room.
So were you was that like an obsession of yours when you were a child, did you like when you were in school, were you like drawing angels and shit?
I mean, like, no, it's not just angels, and it really hasn't stopped, like it's been consistent as every year of my life. But I just have a lot of interest in like what could possibly be and like God, Like I don't know what God is, but like I pray a lot, and like I love the idea of angels, like I don't know if it's real or whatever. I also love like fantasy shit like witches and magic and wizards and things like that, even though I'm jock and very cool and not nerdy at all. So it's confusing.
Do you think if you were an angel, like in a child made like a sports prayer, like it would have to be like volleyball based for that way You're like, I got this one. I can handle this one.
Not at all. Like I don't even feel too large off a tie to volleyball, although I love that sport. But no, I'm not like volleyball is supreme sport.
You know, I'm saying as an angel if you're giving your expertise, So like, am anybody do baseball up here?
No?
All right, we got another kid who's praying to the family reunites if they can win this beach volleyball tournament. Anybody they need a defensive specialist?
Yeah, you know, Miles, you pose an excellent query. As always, I think I would have to go with the child who you know needed me most really, But that's just sort of the type of heart I have.
I appreciate that you're humble and highway to any highway takers. That so that was that was the eighties. That was probably before the show. That was a show where it was like, what if the guy you see hitchhiking on the highway is actually angel though and it but and the guy was Michael Landon, who was a very ansome like, oh.
Well, might have to check that out.
Also, yeah, worth worth the shot. What's what's something you think is overrated?
The VIP area?
Oh, I think tell him where you live, tell him how you lived?
TVK how many times because I've we've been to this, You've been doing things like, oh, we have this area for you. You guys actually be over there and you'll like be at a club or a bar or whatever. And as a person who I don't frequent the VIP area, I'm not of the lev but but oftentimes people the VIP area, they're like, if you want to get in and be a part of the party and have fun, you have to go out into gen pop.
Right.
Yeah.
So it's like people pay these tables to do bottle service just to like stand there and not really be a part of the party. But if you do decide, if they're like, what have you do this for, let's be a part of the party, Well then you realized you didn't need the VIP area.
No, what you wanted was a place to sit.
Which I can understand. But oftentimes if I need to get out, just sitting somewhere in these lights and music is I will want to have stepped outside for a minute anyway, right right right, And that's the greatest VIP area of all outside.
The out of doors God's VIP area.
Nature Gya Gaya nailed it. Yeah, that's right.
No, yeah, the VIPs I mean cause it's it's it's wild how different like when back when, back when I was going to clubs in the early odds, the ship was there was maybe only a couple VIP tables, and it was mostly still a like a place you got fucking gnarly, sweaty dancing and ship and then you left.
And it's interesting to see how over time, like the flex culture has taken over even the like spaces that were just meant to get like sweaty and dancing, where it's like now it's like forty percent fucking tables or fifty percent tables and no one dances and it's just to be seen. And that's like where I feel like so old.
I'm like damn, like okay, but like I think about this too. It's like in Vegas, right, if you're living that VIP life, you probably like, when I go to Vegas, I'm there to sort of run them up with the peasants. We're all peasants running around freak out. So like I want to go to the pool at the Flamingo and just people watch while drinking Miami.
Yeah, just tall in the sphere.
No, if you're like VIP lifestyle, you're like, oh, we got a room and it has its own pool, Well that's gonna be the most boring pool in Vegas, right, Yeah, ext So what's Yeah, Hey, guy, I worked coming over. Yeah, guy, I work with who I flew here with. And now it's just me and him in this pool in this room.
We paid, I got the PB and j over there in the in the fridge, in the fridge, and it's in fridge actually, so it's still pretty hard, right.
But like you get a great room, like the room has its own pool, and I'm like, yeah, but I'm in Vegas. This isn't the pool I want to be.
Yet, right, yeah, for sure.
It gives me syphilis, Yes, I give it right back. Right.
I want I want someone to say, you didn't open your eyes underwater there, did you? And then you go why what? What's wrong?
Oh? I can already see it. Yeah, yeah, No, I don't agree. I don't. I don't really do VIP areas the times, the very few times that I've encountered, I feel like there are two types of VIP areas. They're the ones that are like kind of off to the back, and then they're the ones that are like in the center of everything, feel like right to like the look at me, the look at me VIP area that feels like so desperate and thirsty to be in that area, like that's embarrassing to be in a VIP area that's
like in the middle of the whole thing. Yeah, yeah, Like, what the fuck are we doing?
Can I sign a question you guys really quick?
Yeah?
Have you seen any like lately in your life or just on the internet, Like when they do bottle service at a club that's like what they're riding on the signs as they walk out, like holding you know, sometimes it just says like happy birthday again or whatever. But I've seen recently where they're so like left field and hilarious, Like they're walking out and the sign says, she's not going to text you back. They're walking out and the sign says it's just paper right like they're they're they've
become like meme boards and they're hilarious. And I always wonder does the club do that or is that what the person requested when they ordered the bottle? Because I don't ordered a bottle. I have no idea how this works.
I would Hey, I'm gonna pay you one thousand dollars for a single bottle of booze? Could you roast me? Well you bring it out to me. Could you just absolutely rinse me in front of all these people. I'm so desperate to impressed. I'm sorry, that's so cool.
This So the smearkoff is one thousand dollars for a seven to fifty mil Yeah, yeah, okay, I guess I'll take that. Then that's the cheapest one.
Yeah.
Do we get orange juice.
With that for seventy eight bucks?
Yeah? Yeah.
I was in Japan recently for a friend's wedding and at the at the end of their wedding, like it was very low key, like a just super chill wedding, like it wasn't a huge affair, and afterwards the bride and groom were like, we kind of want to go dancing. So like me and a few of our other friends, we'd like we didn't get them a gift because they're like, you guys traveled all the way here, please don't get
us gifts. But we're like old and we went to a club and we're like I kind of need to sit down, dude, Like I'm not young enough to want to be up in it right now, Like I'd rather just sit off to the side. Luckily, bottles in like Japan were not expensive, so like between the six of us, we're like all right, we all put in like eighty bucks, like we can all sit down, and we did that, and the funny part was they go, oh, where you
guys from America? So when the bottle came out, they had like sparklers and they were just waving American flags and shit, and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, we don't got to do all that. But then like the people next to us are like Australia. Then they brought an Australian flag out and they're like, you're making it rain napkins and shit. Like it was just very then the sparklers, and at that point I was like, see this is why I'm I'm the way home body when it comes to.
It, Draco any liquid as if it has a sparkler and an American flag, And it got to yeah, the only way I can wet my whistle.
That's how your dad made your lunch.
That's fine exactly. It goes go back to my childhood. All right, let's uh, let's take a quick break and then we'll get into some news. We'll be right back and we're back. We missed you.
Bye, oh hi, oh Miles? What by fuck you said bye? I didn't I thought we were over. He just threw me off with the buye Hi.
Well let's talk. He caing a bye. He didn't speaking of bye Joe Biden. That's what That's what you were saying. You were just trying to get started on this next story. What's he up to this time? Miles been.
You know, Joe Biden's presidency has been a lot, like recently, a lot of one for them being the GOP, and one for you, the the left or Democratic base or people who thought the world could be a better place. But yeah, Biden hasn't really done much to differentiate himself from Trump, you know when it comes to immigration, Like he left a lot of policies in place from Trump's administration and even like altered some of them a bit.
And then he really pissed off his own supporters by appeasing Republicans and cracking down on the number of asylum seekers that can enter the country. Well, I guess Biden decided that now, or at least on Monday, which was the anniversary of the DACA program from Obama, is the day he will announce a policy that is the biggest push to grant amnesty to undocumented immigrants since Obama's DACA
program in twenty twelve. So what does it do. It essentially gives a path to apply for permanent residents to undocumented people and their children that are married to US citizens. So basically anyone undocumented spouses step children of US citizens can apply. This is around five hundred thousand spouses and about fifty thousand of their step children that could be eligible for this new program. And these people do have the opportunity to apply for permanent residents already by being
married to an American. But if you've entered the country without proper legal permission and stay for over one year, you have to leave the US and stay abroad for at least ten years before you can actually apply for permanent residents. So again, this means that families don't have have to be broken up despite their immigration status, which
is a great thing. And to qualify for the program, non citizens must as of June seventeenth, have been living in the US for at least ten years and have been married to a US citizen before that date, and the administration they've they estimated that the average time that applicants have spent time in the US is twenty three years, so This isn't the kind of like immigration bill where Republicans can claim that like the borders are open, but
obviously that will not stop them because nothing is about fact and it's just about cranking up the xenophobia before the election. So yeah, a bit of good news despite the last thing that came out of the administration reguarding immigration.
But this is so they're like addressing for people who are married to somebody who aren't actually like allowed, because if you get married to an American, like that doesn't automatically make you a US citizen.
I did, well, you know, you're a whole time. You can apply, but if your legal status was not, like if you didn't have the proper permission to be in the United States, then that would cause people to have to exit the country for ten years.
Because this is so crazy, Like I thought, I thought it was gonna be like, Okay, go back and then come back and you're good.
But no, yeah, you're you're good.
You just need to leave the country for ten years.
TV shows, like every TV show is like, oh, you murder for a green card?
Yeah right, but you could do that if you can't. Let's say you had a visa to come in and during that time, like you were actually allowed to be in the United States and here legally here in the US.
Yeah, that's what is exactly the ninety way visa that allows you to date like mad and hopefully find a spell.
And then from there you're usually like in a very long process to get you know, your Green card or permanent residence status and things like that. But this will allow people to work and do other thing, so it's you know, it's not as disruptive, and a lot of people wouldn't go through to apply for permanent residents because they would have to leave for ten years. I'm like, well, I have fucking kids, and shit, I can't do that.
So yeah, yeah, this is years is so little wits tiny small victories and also helps there's also some streamlining of the laws for people in the DACA program. But yeah, this was a I'm surprised that the front page of the Drudge Report did not have them screaming about this new sort of program as it relates to immigration from the Biden.
They had the fucking Boston Celtics Championship and it's like, oh, okay, man, I.
Was so excited to come on here. The day I say the NBA Finals.
Of course Boston Celtics get a front page drudge report.
It's a win for US Bruins, you know, because of Drew Holiday.
But god, I don't even know why I hate the Celtics at this point, Like I know why player the team, something about it.
Maybe it's anti Lakers inherent, Yeah, that's I mean, that's yeah, we have a we have a just a lifelong we can't handle it here, yeah, seeing that have one more banner than us. So yeah, I've already received plenty of dunks on the internet already from my an eighteenth banner. But hey, we accept it, and we breathed through it.
Yeah, and we breathed through it.
The last time the Celtics won, the last five Celtics championships were followed immediately by at least one following, a record that will soon be broken. Exactly. They're not good, not with this team, not with these owners, probably not with these guys.
As sad though, like I you know, everyone on Twitter was like trending saying it was the worst nbah like championship game ever. But there is something I mean, It's great for the winning team, but for the viewer, like a low Alley is just like not fun.
Yeah, yeah, and no exactly. The ratings are way down. I feel like people generally don't like the Celtics. So when the Celtics are doing good, when things are good for the Celtics, America is losing Celtics. When America loses, just keep that in mind, NBA and the referees. I'm just saying, guys, help on the thing with the immigrants. I was just gonna say, like, I guess the important
thing is the numbers, right, They're putting up numbers. Five hundred thousand spouses, fifty thousands of their step children could be eligible. That's the thing. I just from a political perspective again, it feels like a lot of people are probably like wait, I thought those people already had like access to legal immigration. Anyways, I do want to just talk about immigration in general, because there's just all of
this evidence that immigration is just a win. It's like when win, when like wins all the way down for America if they would just let it happen. And the thing that has been happening is that both sides have been you know, bowing to racists and like racist fear. But like if you just I don't know why this point isn't being made more consistently, Like it seems to help all the things that like conservatives claim to care about, like the economy, like that, it's it's not just that
the US can handle more immigrants. We desperately need more immigrants, like the it's the thing that drives the US economy. Like anytime the US has like an uptick in economic success, it's usually because immigration is up. Right, Like the right is always like so scared about like population growth and like, well, like the birth rate's going down, so we're fucked. And it's like, well, actually not if you just allow people to immigrate, like like yeah.
We're not fucked because the birth rate is going down.
We're the birth rate going down.
It poses economic challenges that they really want to emphasize and be like where fucked you guys? This is no, this is bad.
News because make it better.
Well.
And also a lot of billionaires are like we need more people, like it's a crisis, like Elon Musk and.
Like that's why you have said me yeahsed, He's like if we had more people born, we could have more Mozarts and more Einstein's and things like that.
But the thing that they failed to like really acknowledge is like you need a level of stability for people to become Mozarts or Einstein's and if.
Yeah, and you don't even have enough days in the week to go visit all your kids.
So and by the way, the last generation of billionaires they were freaking out because the population was growing too much. So like they just they just always want to have a thing to freak out about that allows them to speculate about getting rid of huge swaths of people or
everybody fucking them in this case. Right, But just like putting aside the moral responsibility the country has for safely welcoming migrants into the country, like the so the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected a smaller deficit and national debt than last year because of an unprecedented spike, like not unprecedent but like just normal pre pandemic levels of immigration.
Like it's the thing that is allowing the US economy to bounce back, is immigration going back to pre pandemic levels.
But if there's immigrants, my wages go down.
No that your wages actually go up, Like that's the other Yeah, it's good for like that's the there's just so many details of this argument that we've been hearing for fucking decades that just like aren't true, and like the mainstream media has just been allowing, like Fox News to say them and not being like, actually, no, it's
the opposite of that. The immigrants boot. So there's a study that showed immigrants boost the economy by sparking innovation, driving up wages, driving up wages like across the board, as well as appealing to foreign investors opening long term export opportunities. So it's like all the shit that the mainstream media loves to talk about, Like you think about your country as an investment, it's like all that stuff immigration like drives that is like the best thing for that.
There's this one article that notes that the so called immigration surplus boosts the GDP and raises incomes for non immigrants. And if you're wondering what left wing rag printed that story, it's the goddamn George W. Bush Institute.
I didn't even know that.
Oh, Blair, you must. I've got some more articles I have to share with you there, Yes.
Please do thank you.
Painting workshops, yeah, yes, how to draw an apple tree?
Oh and there's like elderly art galleries and stuff.
Yeah yeah, and good studies on immigration.
Wow, beautiful, so well rounded.
He's yeah, a true renaissance man dynamic. He can both lead directly to the deaths of all the soldiers and do a like c plus job of painting them after they died. He's got all the bases covered. The US Department of Health and Human Services published a groundbreaking report which concluded that refugees and assi les had a positive net fiscal impact on the US government over a fifteen year period, totally one hundred and twenty three point eight
billion dollars. Again, like, I think it's weird to like quantify people human lives and like the need to do the morally correct thing in dollar figures. But it is the like the main stream, like supposedly left leaning media is allowing. It is just like leaving all this shit on the table that they love talking about or even.
Like perspective, right, because there's always like this handring about like I mean, you know, because many people are sort of bought into this idea. It's like we're letting too many people into the country. But if you actually add some context to that, we're like really low on the list of developed nations that are actually, like the amount of people that are entering the United States as immigrants is completely different than you know.
We're between forty and forty one on the legal immigration list and like thirty fifth on overall immigration, so right, yeah, like behind.
Like in terms of per capita, per capita.
Per capita immigration.
Yeah.
Yeah, So it feels like the main issue is that because of racist fear and these tropes that like immigration's bad for the economy and like bad for just the country in general. Safety safety, Oh yeah, and by the way, safety, first generation immigrants are the least likely people to commit crimes, Like across the board, they are, Like this is a thing that's obviously raised repeatedly by the right wing when
it comes to immigration. Immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than people born here in any demographic, just across the board. A new Stanford white patriots are even white patriots. Stanford study found immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated for a crime the native born white Americans. And this has been true since the eighties, and by that I mean the eighteen eighties. It's just straight up always been true that immigrant has come, they do great work,
they pay, like they pay into like Social Security. There's like all this money coming in. They you know, they pay taxes, they don't commit crimes all like just we have massive troves of data that say that, like this is the best thing that the US has going for it is that people want to come here, and when they do, they do great work essentially, and they don't commit crimes. Basically the opposite of all the bullshit that
it dominates mainstream media accounts of immigration. But because of racism and white supremacy, they like it becomes a political issue, and then they don't fund this like intake systems, the systems for like bringing these people in and safely like
integrating them into the society. And so now you need to be seeking asylum, you need to be like fleeing something terrifying, and then they don't fund that and they don't have the necessary infrastructure to like help those people in, and so you have these areas that are just like overwhelmed with people. But it's not because there are too many people. Again, Miles, like you said, we are low on the list of per capita immigration. It's it's not that we had there are too many people for the
US to handle. It's just the US is hit choosing not to handle the people because of racism.
Well, and also like we're constantly meant to think that we're living in this like fucked up zero sum game too, where it's like there's just no there's nothing, there's just not like we can't handle anything. If that happens, then you lose something. Like That's always how so many things are framed, Like when we're trying to progress societally, it's like, well, if those people do better, then you're going to lose something. It's like always like sort of the default context that
we're operating in or how these things are presented. But yeah, like you say, all these charts make it look like line go up, right.
All the charts, all those charts that y'all seem to love is line go up and does not seem to matter in this case. You seem to be very selective of when you care about line go up. Yeah, So it really I feel like a lot of it is just like, yeah, I think their music's weird, man, Like I don't. I don't like their music, you know, like the ship that the same fear that like old people
have of young people. I feel like it's just that it's like they're different, and so I don't I don't want it in my country, Like I don't want to be replaced by that.
And it's just mm hmmm. It's like, well, you're going to be replaced either way, because you're going to be replaced and the thing that you're working demographically or because of your existence. But that's inevitable. So let's embrace the thing that helps people. And also, like I think that's the other part too, Like we were talking about this with Alec Krri Cottennis is like there's so many like so much of the reason people end up having to
flee their countries typically intersects with US imperialism at some point. Yeah, and it's like yeah, maybe, I mean, look, we.
Could have a great perpetual machine where we export imperialism, make their countries unlivable and then take them in if we were just if we just embrace it, you know, and then we would.
The Olympics at every competition.
Get really good at soccer. Finally, you know.
Oh, we run the way, We're on our way, We're on our way.
Are we about to get our ass kicked in the Olympics or I feel.
Like Copa America, Copa America, that's the that's that's the next tournament.
But no, they're doing all right because.
Precisely that because it's like it's you know, servicemen abroad, and also because of like people who come from countries with strong soccer cultures are making sure they look for even even the American sports argument immigration.
Yeah, we got a lot of big We got a lot of big, big people in our country too.
Yeah, we have I think compared.
To others, right, do we have the I feel like Americans are how what do you see, like which country is the biggest bodies?
Yeah, Like we got a lot of antibiotics in our food and ship like that growth hormones, don't you think.
Yeah, let's see, maybe.
Not resonant for soccer, but for other sports, you know. Oh yeah, I mean I still need to be a tally. For soccer, you got to be like a little quickie.
You gotta be quick man. So about that lateral speed, fast twitch.
Yeah, Dutch people are the tallest in the world.
You're the tallest.
Why are they so tall over there?
You know, I don't know, but we get we got the body mask we have to be top in the body mass.
That Pacific Pacific Islanders too, Yes, let's go.
Also yeah, and also we got like a lot of like protein culture I.
Feel here, yeah, yeah, at the expense of our health declining. Expected life expectancy dropped for the second year in a row.
Is that true.
Yeah, yeah, it's like it's that's like a historic it's never happened before too. Straight.
My grandma and great Antie just died at like ninety eight and ninety seven, and then I just went to my other great aunties one hundredth year birthday, and then I think these people were like smoking and drinking and stuff like I don't know what makes sense.
Fully, I wonder how much of it too, is like because I think about that with like my mom's mom in Japan, she lived to be one hundred and one, and it's like she didn't start eats. She didn't start eating like processed food until like the seventies, so a huge majority of her life is like I was growing food or like eating food we made by hand, whereas now I need my two cans of pringles.
I know, I know, it's very sad we've gone so far away. I feel like Japan. Is Japan one of like the what are they called those places, like the.
Blue blue blue zone, Yeah.
The blue zone.
Yeah yeah, I mean it definitely has like some of the highest life expectancy.
I used to yeah, by the way, not sure. Cheese Doritos introduced them the seventies, nineteen seventy two.
So Jack, you're sick and you need God.
And that's not I wasn't reading that off the internet. I was reading that off the tattoo that I have on the inside of my arm.
Very nice.
Hong Kong, Macau and Japan are the top.
Three the the longest, then Switzerland, Singapore, Italy Blair.
Yeah, let's go I had crazy pollution like that. There was a lot of lung cancer there is That not true?
Their life on average eighty five point eight three years for both.
WHOA, that's high as how.
Great Hong Kong, I've never heard that. I've always heard Japan that one town in California.
Due from c I A dot gov because I never got.
To here's some here's a problem we got to fix guys.
Well, actually, their latest one says Monaco has the highest What the fuck are they doing in Monaco?
They're just rich as fuck. I know, gambling, Yeah.
Damn to eat ship like Doiredo's. They're at the gambling the craps table a like good for you.
They're like, I actually got all my macros through these special millionaire.
Really good, really good for your gut biome Monico.
Yeah, they don't have.
What do you?
What's the adjective for Monica it is?
I think?
So wow, Hey monicin Monk one time or Monic canty all.
Right, monic gas is kind of cool though, that goes.
Yeah, yeah, I'm changing. I'm changing. I'm changing my nationality. I'm monogasque.
There you go.
Thank you.
Didn't know you could do that, Miles.
That's actually his superpower.
Kind of problematic when I go to ethnic restaurants, but hey yeah.
Or and by ethnic restaurants, he means the cheesecake factory. Yes, thank you, just like ethnicity firecracker chicken. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be back to hear about the cheating husband who blame Apple, And we're back, and so RFK Junior did not qualify for the CNN Debates. Were guys making a lot of metric? I didn't qualify for So CNN's polling threshold of fifteen percent in at least four approved national polls. Okay, so he got to three.
So congratulations. This was the big detail that I feel like is being under emphasized in the mainstream media. He also fell short of the ballot requirements to secure access in enough states to win two hundred and seventy electoral votes. So he this person who's like being given this much media attention is mathematically eliminated before the election starts.
Well, that's I think you're focusing on the wrong stuff. Agree, because he also hold On ticked. He ticked a couple of boxes. Is he at least thirty five years old to run for president?
Yes?
And I was born? Was he born of the United States?
Yes? He was.
Did he file for his candidacy with the Federal Commission?
Yes? Yeah, thank you giving it? Yeah?
Fucking white and vomited backstage.
Yeah, this is all.
It's all bad.
I mean, it is true.
You don't dude, even if you tried, I think the most he can get to like one sixty something, that's wild.
So it's all just to prove a high minded point, like this is what's frustrated, Like at that after the two thousand election, after you know, like Bernie made a run and then I was like, oh, the Democratic Party
will never allow something like that to happen. I think a lot of us were like, I wonder if there's ever a path to a third party candidate, And so the fact that he's doing this and is like a lot of the arguments he's making are also the arguments that I'm like, yeah, no, if if you were trying to prove a point other than that presidential candidates should do their own medicine and science, like, you know, like, if you had an actual point to make, I think
other than do your own research, I would be like, on board, we need it to be easier for there to be a third party candidate. But this guy fuckings it's.
Inspiration, it's inspirational. Survivors can run for president. But the thing that I think is also kind of wild too, is like, you don't it doesn't This also doesn't preclude him from running. It's like, do you even have the votes to be president? Nah? All right, man, you can keep running? All good? Yeah, nothing bars you from that? Would say do you have the votes to stop me?
Yeah?
Wait?
What?
Yeah?
Perfect dunk guy logic you really do doing a weekly podcast, let me ask you this, Can you kick my ass Chris Rock's Special?
Yeah, yeah, you think about a third Let's think about a real third party.
We're not we are not going to have a third party candidate until we've this is sort of a chicken and anything, until we've had a third party president, like the person we're gonna have a third party, until the person who is running in the third party like wins.
Yeah, well, I mean I think more than that, Like there actually needs to be more like third party people in Congress. That's really the building blocks you need, is like you gotta are getting people in Congress first before you can't just jump You can't just skip to the oval from there. Like yeah, I mean, I think that's the trouble that especially on like the left has with like the two party system is figuring out what the
best best path into that is. But the only way to start is to actually run people for Congress and at least get a foothold there because otherwise, yeah, it's going to be very difficult. But I think, like with rfk's campaign, the thing is even before all these you know numbers that mathematically quote preclude him from winning the presidency. Like the campaign was just fucking wobbly as shit, like
they were not making they weren't raising any money. He brought in that tech person Nicole Shanahan to be his vice president to put her own money in. It wasn't enough. Like the biggest person bankrolling this is like a Trump donor. He was even doing stuff. He's like, hey, man, if you fucking donate whatever donations you can get, I'll give
you fifteen per of whatever you gave to me. Let's just split it fifteen eighty five And wait what Yes, he was trying to again to bring the sharks into it, chum the waters by promising a fifteen percent return on whatever you helped fundraise.
Dark money goes in the water, You go in the water, exactly, it's in the water exactly.
So yeah, it's it's just all like there's another thing they did. It was like there was you could do like a luxury sunset sailing adventure, Like he tried to do raffles and stuff selling off my language. Yeah, I mean water is that in like hyanasport? Like is he doing the is he trading in on the Kennedy magic?
What do we maybe, Yeah, we're on a campaign like a school silent.
Auction exactly, that's what he's doing.
Yeah, right, or yeah, or I guess you can.
Yeah.
It turns out it's like, hey, does your.
Dad still work in the garage door business? Yeah?
You think you could like donate a new garage door and I could put that in the raw for people.
Free estimate. We could do a free estimate. Okay, yeah, yeah.
We'll take that. This thing is not running on anything except my brain warms.
The other thing that he's getting ridiculed for lately is claiming that the head of NPR is a CIA agent. This is another way he pisses me off because some of his conspiracy theories are good. I like the conspiracy theory that the head of NPR is the CIA agent. Personally, I don't I don't know it to be true. I haven't done my own research into this one, but there is a history of CIA involvement in American media. I
doubt the head of NPR is a CIA agent. But and then he's also getting made fun of for man, he's so close. If his whole thing wasn't just fuck science and medicine, I'd be a big fan. Because this other thing is like he's he's a weird bird person. He's like trying to train ravens in his yard with like scraps of meat, which got the bird. He has a pet emu that is like constantly attacking Cheryl Hines.
So he's in his own version of the staircase.
Yes exactly.
Yeah, if Cheryl ends up with like a weird what he calls raven injury, then we'll know, Yeah, absolutely what happened.
He could tell by the scratch marks.
It was definitely a raven dude. And finally Grimace is back.
Grimace grims left.
Grimace is like the Kennedys and that we are just dying for any way to get him into the zeitgeist. Just give us anything. So in this case, Grimace is a baseball sensation. So last year it was he put out a milkshake that was made of his calm. We pointed that out on our show a lot of.
People a year ago.
Yeah, off it.
Then you know McDonald's profited off of it. Was almost like we were c i A plants who had been put there to make that joke.
To all agent Gray and O'Brien, you got to get people to think this Grimace smoke shake is his come.
This is so trust is for national securities, not.
Really just just selling me think interesting to see where it goes.
All right, all right, this is like the winds of change that like create a meme, a bunch of memes about the Grimmat milkshake. All right, So the Mets are having all I know about the Mets is heading into the season. Their fans are like, but this is like it's a literal super team, Like we have paid all the best players in Major League Baseball to play for
the Mets. How could it go wrong? And then the next time I hear about them, they are having a like disastrous season, Like that's those are the two times. Because I don't really like pay that much attention to baseball, so it's like those stories pop up every one. So that happened again this year. They have the highest parle three hundred and eight million dollars. Started the season thirty nine, twenty nine, and thirty seven, and then a little something happened.
They invited Grimace to throw out their first pitch and they won that game, and that's it. No, no, no, Then they won, then they won seven more. They won seven in a row after Grimace throughout the pitch, and everybody has been speculating this is Grimace is doing because like some of the wins have come with like bizarre errors by the opponents. Like, so Grimace, this is magic is like malevolent, it's like fucking people up, like it's causing other teams to have errors and fall down and
hurt themselves. So I'm just saying, so they they finally the Grimace winning streak came to an end and a lost to the Texas Rangers last night.
But get them back out there.
Yeah, I mean they weren't gonna win every game. Grimmas can only do so much.
If I don't like that. I don't like that kind of limited thinking. I think we really need I think they should lean the fuck into this and hope to fucking God this is what's going on, that Grimace is the savior of their season. I think that's that makes a better Angels than the outfield type movie. Yeah you're just talking about that with Blair.
Grimas should be like their JOBU from Yeah, major.
League exactly, whatever, their yeah defensive yeah exactly. That always blew my mind when I started watching twenty four and like, yeah, my like movie conscious, like Mike, yeah, like my, like my awareness around Dennis Haysbert's career was like murky, so you showed him, Like, dude, that's fucking Serrano from me to the president is an American. I thought that guy was forwarded so stupid, like just not understanding what a fucking movie is, but also what an insult to the
fucking players, Like it's fucking Grimace man. And I get that a lot of it was like self inflicted by their opponents, but that's gotta be terrible for morale when everyone's like, dude, we gotta fucking pray to our Grimace statue tonight because that's what's gonna help you uns.
All Right, So I've heard it said baseball player is not always the smartest and in many cases not Like is there a sport of the professional athletes?
Is there any sport though, where we would say that we're like, you know those guys, Yeah, I was really smart.
Baseball offense or basketball offensive lineman and quarterbacks tend to be really have to be really smart, but.
Us really baseball players are insanely superstitious more than I feel, like, yeah, exactly exactly.
They're super super right, So they're very superstitious. Yeah, they're I feel like like the the Red Sox had that big turnaround around the team motto that they were the idiots. I think like they they called themselves the idiots. I think in baseball it actually helps to be like proudly stupid in some cases, and so I feel like this would actually be a good thing for them to rally behind,
just be like, yeah, great, it's good. Like we we now just like Sarah prayers to Grimace before we go out there, because yeah, it's it's happening one way or another. A player was literally asked how much credit do you give to Grimace during the post win interview, Like literally that.
I hope that straight face that player said all of it. We don't give them all the credit.
And you're always very articulate, but I want you to be very thoughtful about this next answer. How much credit do you guys get to Grimace for this reason? I mean, hey, you know, I don't know, I don't.
Know about coincidence and so you know, I mean, he definitely correlates with us, you know, going on this run, and you know, if that's what you want to attribute it to then then I'm all for it.
Whatever it is, let's keep it going. I'm all for it.
There it is.
I like that like correlation and causation. He was like, keeping the relationship straight even in his answer, I.
Know correlate, Well, fuck me. Then this guy's knows correlation causes.
This guy is no, you're right this play. Yeah, whatever it is, let's keep it going.
Yeah.
He like he also doesn't want to lean into it. He's like because he in his mind, he's like, we can't let him know. It's because of Grimace.
Man, Now, that makes it look so much like he's coming like that sucks it up. I'm sorry, who is Grimace? Sorry, not the baseball player. I was just looking at a picture of Grimace and his mouth just looks it is like yeah.
Plus he's sort of always looking down at his sexual partners saying like that, yeah.
His eyeline match does is you know, could be read as pornographic if you are looking to read its lustily. I am, and we are, we always are, and that's why we love you. Daniel van Kirk all right, that's gonna do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show means the world to Miles. He he needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to him Monday. By Fact