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. Caitlin. We are thrilled to be joined by one of the hosts of popular Cradle podcast, a podcast about Palestine. Also co hosts five to four, a podcast about all the ways
the Supreme Court is a fucking disaster. She's a supervising attorney at Texas Law, has worked as a public defender in Rio Grande City, Texas, and an activist who got arrested for protesting Israel's ongoing atrocities against Palestine. Please welcome back to the show. Rihann and Hmo me.
I didn't prepare any eight, but yeah, I guess that Rhiann and Hammam aka jail Bird. I don't know.
Yeah, that's right, that's right. You've since we last spoke.
That's right. Yeah, great to be back.
Thank you for having me, Thank you for being here. Yeah, you got arrested protesting on the campus of the University of Texas, do you. I'm sure you've talked about it. I know you've talked about it on five four. I heard you talked about it on five four. Yeah, but can you talk about kind of what what that experience was like has been like.
You know, it was, it was. It was super crazy. It was super crazy. It was really quite random, you know, if people kind of followed this of course, you know, like things like the student encampment movement and that kind of like tactic of protests on campuses was really intense and widespread over the spring. At UT. On the day that I was arrested, there wasn't even a student encampment.
It was just students gathering for like you know, a teaching and some art activities and talking about the genocide. And yes, State of Texas through UT basically just called the cops on this crowd, called the cops on a bunch of kids standing on standing on the lawn at their school. So yeah, I got arrested there. It was
really it was. It was so wild. You know, it's hard to like derive really like any like strong lessons out of it, like about the law or something like that, because it's just like, no, the lesson is like the state will call in cops to beat up some kids if they don't like what you're saying, right, Like, that's that's kind of.
It, and we'll rescue and do and do violence regardless of whether you respond, you know, do respond to what they're telling you to do.
Yeah, yeah, all for exercise your first Amendment.
Exactly, exactly, Yeah, kind of like I guess I learned the wrong first Amendment in law school, but something different than what the U than what state troopers in Texas learned, I guess.
Yeah. Yeah, I like that. They weren't ready on the day of the actual protests, so they were like, that's not going to work for us. But there are people here, so can we just like kind of go through with this. I already have like the shit on me, Like I have all the got on. I brought a huge but comfortable.
And I also brought thirty massive horses. So can I just let loose on these nineteen year olds or what? You know?
That's right? All right, Well, I'm sorry you went through that, but thank you for your courage in the face of state violence and you know, just fucking the ongoing horrors of this civilization we live in. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are.
I googled this phrase dating apps that don't suck shit?
Oh okay, and.
I didn't yield the results I was up for.
Didn't yield results about.
It was just like, here are some dating apps that you already use and that do traumatize you in real time. Yeah, so didn't really find what I was looking for, but I think I made a valiant effort.
Yeah, that was a good search. I don't know how they got around that search that seems pretty air tight.
Well, what is the name of the like when someone's attracted to somebody's intelligence, sabio sexual? They had an app that was like that, and it was all the dumbest people, right, it's like people who just found out what the word sabio sexual means.
Sure, people, and I'm sure it attracts a lot of people who do their own research, which are not always actually the smartest people I have found. And that's just
a personal opinion, but it's what I have found. Yeah, I feel I feel like a like there's probably a dating app that like their log line, their pitch is like We're the dating app that doesn't suck shit, and it's just the worst dating app, probably because like, that's just how capitalism, this modern version of capitalism works, is like, so we'll claim that we don't do the thing that we actually do, and then we do that thing harder than any anybody.
Else, anyone else. Yeah. Yeah, they all seem to be competing with each other for the suck shittiest.
The shit suckingest app. How is the.
Meeting people in real life situation right now?
Given that the app sucks so bad, I feel like I'm people might be going back to that.
Is that true? I think?
So.
I keep hearing about people joining like running clubs to meet people, and here's the thing. I don't want to be in running club. But I did join a co ed soccer team.
That's There's like, so there was a moment where meetups were a thing where they would do like Peyton wine nights and it was just like strangers, you know what I mean, or people who were trying to make friends and stuff. And I feel like that's kind of coming back in. Maybe not in that format, but.
Yeah, I think so. I did like a speed dating like my first ever speed dating event, I don't know, like a while ago now, is like probably six fish months ago. But it was kind of as it was pretty suck shit as well. Yeah, it's just it's the quality of the people is the big problem. I think. So I don't have anything against it's the people who suck shit.
And that's the whole thing with dating is you have to interact with people, and if they suck shit, the whole experience shit.
That's right, And it just so happens that most people suck shit.
So you got to get through the ship suckers to find a real diamond sucker.
You know what I mean exactly.
There's a lot of ship around diamonds.
That's true.
The diamond in the rock more like the diamond in the ship.
Yeah, yeah, the diamond in the heavily compacted ship. You know.
Okay, car Pie, all right, Daily's sikes, No, no, I wasn't getting you on track at all.
Trust me.
I would never do.
That, Daily zyke eves people. If you know a single person who doesn't suck shit, damn me. So that it doesn't go to Caitlin's inbox, I can send all of you filled all that.
Yeah, thank you.
Kaitlyn deserves the best, and then maybe we'll get one person who is perfect for you.
Oh, let's hope. So they have to like Paddington and that's about it.
Does anybody know Paddington? Does anybody know Paddington?
Do you know him personally? I just want to date you to get to Paddington. Yeah, yeah, that's that's what this is. All all comes down to the people on the dating apps suck ship because they don't know Paddington.
I met this person on a dating app. They were a real Paddington fucker.
And that was that was like a story of a great experience, right, that was the beginning of a tail that ends with wedding bells.
Yeah, that's me meeting Caitlin on a dating appy, just asking about Paddington.
Yeah, my cousin. Yeah, have you tried AI? I've been told by the creator of Bumble that we're all just going to be on dating apps using AI as our personal our ais will date each other to figure out if we're compatible.
I'd rather walk into the ocean.
Muttering to yourself with fish. Yeah. I think that's a better plan actually than the their plan. What Jody is something you think is under I.
Don't know if this is underrated. This might be more what I've been listening to lately, but I was, but I've been personally riding the rated and overrated and underrated roller coaster with Charles Mingus lately. And that's because, in part because of the Kamala stuff and all those pictures of her holding up all those records and one of them was a Mingus record, and do you know what I'm talking about, those those.
Memes of her.
So there was there was this video of Kamala Harris, like from a couple of years ago, and it started flying around when she was when she captured the nomination, and it was like her coming out of a record store and she had like some you know, a lot of great albums, and one of them was a Mingus album. And then someone made a little thing you could where you could like insert have her had like a photoshop automatically photoshop her holding up any album you wanted, and
it was very clever. But anyway, so it just Mingus has been one of my favorite hours for a long time and and seems weirdly criminally underrated, and it was nice to see Kamala buying a Mingus album and it's put me back on a very big Mingus kick over the last couple of weeks.
Is a jazz musician.
Oh yes, sorry, jazz musician who also trained his cats how to use the toilet. But that's another story.
Really, that's why I'm a fan of him.
Yeah, I actually wasn't aware of his jazz work.
I just yeah, you're a fan of the Charles MGAs a catalog for toilet training your cats. He used to be able to write Charles Mingus a letter to a peel box in downtown Manhattan and then if you and enclosed two dollars and then he would mail you back a photo come method with his.
The Mingas method.
It's incredible. Yeah, wow, do.
We have access to that method? Yeah? We did.
I did a whole radio piece for it one time, and then tried to train a kitten using the Mingus method and it didn't work that way.
But but yeah, I talked to a cat.
I talked to a vet and like sort of cat psychologist who who validated that Mingus really had sort of tapped into something about cat psychology in terms of the method he was using to coax cats into using the toilet.
Was one of the steps like play just the smoothest jazz for them, like so that they get super relexzz.
There's some joke about scatting in here is there.
Is It's in there.
I saw Kamala won some Italian pasta making contests, like all of these things from when she was like from twenty twelve or something. All of these random facts are coming out about her, and it's just very surprising. Like, what's what's being unearthed?
That's cool? What is something you think is overrated?
S'mores? Okay, shit, dessert everything shit. I don't know if this is just me or if other people are experiencing this in the world, because like we obviously did a ZEITGEISTI in turn where now it's dark chocolate out paced milk chocolate, which when I was younger, it was milk chocolate everywhere. Yeah, s'mores are everywhere now that I'm seeing there's smores flavored. So yeah, things trying to taste like smores. It's a stupid word, has needless apostrophe. Some moores? You
want some morees? Fuck you get out of here, dry cracker, Like, I don't understand why other better things like a fine chocolate at a chocolate tears are trying to taste like s'mores.
Yeah you already better.
Really a thing that's like a nostalgia thing of like being around a bonfire or being like at a like going camping, and they're trying to take that and change the ethos of it to make it like fancier or different or whatever. And it's like the reason this is good is for the memories. You know, if I'm sitting at home, like eating a s'more, I'm like, this is not this is sad.
Now.
Yeah, my argument is, just eat chocolate and throw glow sticks into the fire because they explode and then you glow and it's awesome. Yeah, I probably carcinogenic.
Yeah, it's probably not good for you. And then the glowing gas.
You have a different than I do. You're so sick.
We did do that, that was one of our And then because they get hot and boil and pop and then you have dots of glowing ship all over you and you play hide and seek and there. Well, that sounds really super fun.
Psychedelic and fun. It would make a.
Good nostalgic like J. J. Abrams movie scene, Yeah, kids playing Yeah, yeah, I.
Think you zeroed in on it with the dry crackers. You mentioned the dry crackers of the s'mores, and I think that it's always the thing that when I crackers.
And marshmallows are mid they're not They're not bad.
The marshmallows are really good marshmallows. Marshmallows think you're better than regular markers. And I'm but like when I was vegetarian, like my meat eating friends, they would do that thing where they're like, this is actually better than the original.
I actually believe you.
You ever hear people say vagan and go what vegan? Yeah, I'm encountering vegan lately to vegan?
Is that? Are they saying vagan like instead of vegan?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, instead of I'm hearing vegan pronounced vegan.
But are they doing it as a bit like I'm vaguely vegan? No, actually vegan. They're doing it like more acutely vegan.
And yeah, I think it's like they're implying that it's the proper pronunciation.
Yeah, I'm so vegan that this.
Against it, Like this is like meat eaters saying, like, what, how can we make them more fucking annoying?
Have you ever had? I mean, I guess if you don't like two of the three ingredients, you're probably off. But if you replace the dry crackers with some moist cookies. It's actually pretty good.
And like, oh yeah, squishy chocolate chip cookie sandwich with marshmallow.
And chocolate, marshmallow and chocolate. Yeah, the chocolate. Yeah yeah.
Okay, now you guys sound like you're trying to elevate this Moore again. It sounds like you're doing.
We're doing a bit of an elevated some more concept.
A deconstructed construction.
And also like the dry crackers just like crumble too much. They're just you take a bite into them and it's now in forty five pieces.
You know, that's the beauty of it. That's why we can't escape the nature Valley Granola Bar. We love the mess. We're just messy bitches.
You know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is myk I just need that ship to be like crumbs in the crumbling on my chest, ba baby, yeah.
Bums in the streets, crumbs in the sheets.
I also, you mentioned that we went from milk chocolate to dark chocolate, and I'm I want to go back me too.
I love chocolate it always, but like dark chocolate people were like very pretentious because they made.
Me feel bad about it.
They're like thirty percent just a treat sometime when you want to feel extra adult and you have that acquired taste fifty percent, sixty percent, seventy percent dark chocolate, and it's all you can get at the grocery store.
Well, control over the percent of dark chocolate. Everything in the rest of your life is crumbling. But if you were able to take this bitterness, just like you are your coffee and your beer.
Then you can take the fact that your wife, Susan left you.
Yeah. I just eat baking cocoa actually, and that's my preferred form of chocolate intake.
I new trend raw dog and cocoa audience coco.
Yeah. I feel like it's for people who take pride in the wrong things about being an adult. You know, they're just like suffering. I've had people say to it be like you like chocolate, Oh, you you like like dark chocolate? Like how dark? You know? They like, I want to get into like a dark chocolate darkness off And I'm saying that I don't.
It feels very Silicon Valley tech bro. I'm having like flashbacks.
Yeah, leave me out of your sick fucking game man. Anyways, milk chocolate for life. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back and we're back, and we're back, and we're back and Trump v. United States? Is that how we pronounce that. We pronounced the verses as v.
Yeah.
Yeah, in the realm of Supreme the Supremes, you got it. Yeah. So a lot of people have talked about how scary the prospect of trump next Trump presidency is in the context of Project twenty twenty five, and they are right. Yes, However, this ruling is just straight up feels like the Supreme Court intervening on behalf of Donald Trump to say he can do whatever he wants, like including I feel like everything he did in the first in his first presidents, right, yeah,
Like they're just like, yeah, he's the president. He can do all of that shit. Like if Juary sixth happened with this being the law, the only thing he did wrong really was not make it a military coup. If he had used the military, then that would have been okay, in line with this ruling, because then that's part that's him using his official capacity as president.
Yeah, yeah, that's right. So, Like the question here is like, okay, when do presidents get immunity, and like, well, you have to step back and think like why why is there such a concept in the law of presidential immunity, And it's because you want the president, you want certain government officials to like be able to do some stuff that
the normal person wouldn't be able to do. You already talked about like leading the military, the president's commander in chief, Like, you know, you order the military to do some stuff, there's going to be consequences that for me to order somebody to do that, that would be a crime, right, But we want the president to be able to do it.
That's why there's presidential immunity. And so the way courts in the past have like decided, like what does where does presidential immunity lie is if basically is if the president is doing an official act, right, if it's an act that the president is doing, because the president is the president, right, so you know you could you can hold them legally accountable for doing something. Yes, they're the president,
but they're not doing an official act. So you know, the president the president, and I get an offender bender, you know, six blocks from my house, Yeah, I would be able to sue the president he's not doing his presidential duties in rear ending my car.
You know, yes, but especially he kind of fucked up your twenty fourteen right, yes he should be, he must pay.
But yeah, so in this case, the Supreme Court, this is a majority decision written by John Roberts, basically says, if you're the president, almost anything you do is going to be an official.
Act, including for treason.
Basically, yes, yes, yeah. What's so so wild is what the Supreme Court says is or what the majority the majority. Let's be real, the hyper conservative six maniacs.
Yeah, but John Roberts is the middle of the road guy who was gonna save us all I thought, let.
This past Supreme Court term be the dead of that idea. This we we've got Roberts on decisions all over the place where he is like articulating a frankly psychotic conservative vision of the law and of the constitution. This guy is not a moderate. Please stop saying that.
You know.
Yeah, so yeah, in in this case, they're saying, like, yeah, basically everything is a presidential official act because you know, we can't decide whether something is official conduct or unofficial conduct by looking at by inquiring into like the president's motives. Right, So that means like it doesn't matter for what purpose the president does something. It doesn't matter how self interested,
it doesn't matter how violent. As long as it's like draped in the shroud of the presidential office, then the Supreme Court says the president is insulated from prosecution. Right. So it's like kind of like I think Peter said this on the on the on the episode that we did about this, but he's like, Okay, if if basically like if the office of the presidency is like a gun, what the court said here is that when you become the president, you gain the completely unfettered right to use
that gun however you want. It doesn't matter who you shoot at, it doesn't matter why, it doesn't matter you know how you abuse that access to the gun, right right, The only thing that matters is it's your gun. It's an official act, and so you you are immune from prosecution for any criminal acts that you do with that gun. Right. Yes, it's it's really really really it's really wild. Yeah, And like you said at the beginning, like we have we're doing monarchy now.
And if Trump gets back in the White House, it feels like he's going, I mean, he's going to really explore the studio space with this like this, this is like it feels like it's like a like a request, like a band that's doing a request for some like he's like, could you play this one?
Like it's really a dare, Like I dare you just to test the limits of this limitless power question mark.
Yeah, there are limitations, like I think you guys brought up, like the president doesn't have the right to regulate emissions or force federal employees to be vaccinated. Those are executive powers like a Democrat might use, but he has the green light to orchestrate a coup and subvert an election.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's it's a little bit different, but it is related. Like it's a good point, but like it's a little bit different because this is about criminal prosecution, right so right, but yeah, it's like saying like, yeah, there are other areas of the law that are going to like rein in executive power, rein in the administrative state. Oh no, you can't do that, No, you can't, you can't.
You know, the EPA can't say as part of a presidential administration that EPA can't you know, regulate waterways in this way because all of our waterways are polluted and uh, water is poisoned in the US. No no, no, no no, that's like a that's too much power, right, but all these crimes, you can definitely do that. And what's crazy? You know you brought up like okay, like the next a next Trump term, he's gonna really be trying this stuff out and really empowered by this crazy decision. And
that's true. I mean, like the decision itself is not just saying like, oh yeah, in general, you're getting carte blanche, although it does say that, but it is about specific acts that Trump took leading up to and are on January sixth, right, And so you know that, you know, the accusation that Trump like leveraged the Department of Justice right to like open sham investigations or to threaten sham investigations into voter fraud so that states would be like
coerced into changing their electors. He also threatened to fire the acting Attorney General for not cooperating with that. Like that's those are the specific accusations that Trump or anybody else could be criminally prosecuted for. And you know, the Supreme Court John Roberts in this decision says, well, no, that's like part of being that's just part of the office.
Yeah, he's the president. Yeah, of course he's going to fire. Like remember how big a deal it was when he fired Comy. We were like, holy shit, we have entered and then he like went on that Lesser Wholt interview and I was like, yeah, I didn't really like that he was looking into me, so I you know, it was like, oh my god, we've like entered a new world where he's just going to try and get away with it. And now the Supreme Court's like, yeah, no,
that's like totally fine. What yeah, like shut the fuck up straight, complaining.
Everybody, right, And so if you can like misuse abuse your power with like ordering the DOJ to do illegal sham shit, right, then yeah, in this second term, like that you there's really no telling. And the court said, yeah, it's not just this stuff for which he's immune, it's also like, here's how you think about these cases in
the future. And again that's just like if it's connected to the office of the presidency, if it's you know, just kind of draped in this, if he can say I did this in my capacity as the president, then yeah, he's immune from criminal prosecution for anything that comes out of that.
And it really felt like a broad and unapologetic collusion between like the Supreme Court and Trump, like they delayed the ruling for him and then found even more strongly for him than what he was seeking. Yeah, it's just like now, in retrospect, I think we're having a hard time getting our mind around just like how off the
rails this has gone? No, yeah, yeah, just listening back to earlier episodes of your show, of like any show like from before this, you know, like when I I remember being like, oh, I'm coming back from a trip with my family on July eleventh, so that'll be like when Trump is sentenced, so we'll find that out then, Like that's just gone. It's like the worst case scenario was like him not seeing jail time, and now we're just like, oh no, actually, maybe what he did is legal.
Maybe like he's not a felon because because the Supreme Court is like, he can do whatever the fuck he wants.
Everybody absolutely, yeah, No, it's super crazy, like the yeah, like the discourse was about like you know, I never thought Trump was going to see prison time, right, but it was like okay, like maybe he would be like on house arrest for like a couple of weeks or something, and then he's just like on probation and like that would be crazy and ha ha.
Ha clean Highway.
Service has to go win him on community service days, you know, right, you know.
Like erase all that, and he is king, yeah, yes.
He's going to be king yeah yeah.
Well, and he's like he's like explicitly saying this. He's saying like, if you vote for me, you're never gonna have to vote again. Yeah, Like like he's ready to just post up and be like I can't commit a crime.
Like, yeah, we're good here, he's done donezo Yeah yeah, Cuckoo. Really feels like we'll never get him out of office the if he wins this time. And yeah, in the next act, I want to talk about how I like it feels like he's specifically signaling that this is his plan. Is like his ace in the hole is that he has like the Supreme Court on his side, or at least a lot of judges and election officials. But the day that this came down, he was like, we should
be thinking about prosecuting Liz Cheney for treason, Like he knows. Yeah, he's ready to use this power. Yeah, Like the the DJ is like is his gun now he is going to be able to do the thing that he was joking about, joking in quotes, but like clearly you know has always wanted to do, which is like shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and like get away with it.
Yeah, exactly. He's like it's like not that far off from what he's been talking about right for for years now,
and it's just about like him. That's that's what's so dangerous about a Trump administration in terms of things like Project twenty twenty five all all of that that comes with it is we've already seen it in a first Trump term that he installs the people who allow him to do this, right, who build up, who changed laws, who interpret laws, so that when he has power, he can do exactly what he's saying he wants to do
with it, you know. And so like you know, from our from from my perspective, like watching the Supreme Court, you know, you always have to go back to Trump had three nominations to the Supreme Court, got him, you know, got all three confirmed, and you know, you just have to be real. I think, you know, like legal analysts, political analysts, all of that kind of thing. You have to be real that Trump installed those three people for
very specific reasons. Right, One, which they've been super upfront about and which they already achieved, was overturning Roe v.
Wade.
He put those three conservatives because he knew those three conservatives would vote that way. Right, and now with that like kind of it's very direct, like a quid pro quo, like I put you on the court to do X Y Z, and here we go this like crazy conservative super majority. They're ready to do it. They're they're yeah.
They're doing it more than really Yeah, they're x Y and zing it exactly do we it does? You're right, it does feel like this has been a plan all along. I was wondering, like because John Roberts had been more like he hadn't been this out and out like right wing crazy, had he? Or am I was I just
like not paying attention. It's entirely possible. I wasn't paying attention, But like it feels like I don't know that like Brett Cavanaugh got in there and he's just like a bad influence on everyone or something like it just feels like it's like a total it's taken a real turn.
I think that's right. Like John Roberts has always been a conservative, Like he's always hated things like voting rights, you know, like they're his legal career before he was ever a judge, Like shows a lot of his a lot of super conservative positions on a lot of things. I think this past term might show us the past couple of terms at the Supreme Court might show us maybe two things. One is that John Roberts now is the chief Justice presiding over cases at the Supreme Court
where the Overton window has shifted dramatically. Like the cases now being decided are not like, Okay, what's this little tiny what's this little tiny tweak that we could make in the conservative direction on Roe v.
Wade?
Right, But it's like literally like is the president immune from criminal prosecution when the president does crimes?
Right?
And so it's like the conservative, the hyper conservative inside of John Roberts can totally jump out because because the cases in front of the Supreme Court right now are on issues that are just wildly wildly conservative, right, So there doesn't have to be the appearance of like the
questions they're answering within those questions. There doesn't have to be this kind of like sham appearance of like moderation, right, or sort of institutional legitimacy from the Court that John Roberts was like kind of using as a tactic in in years prior. Right.
Yeah.
And I think another thing too, is that John Roberts and the rest of the Conservatives on the Supreme Court and everybody on the Supreme Court is a human being who is influenced by the political moment and media and you know, shifts in popular opinion and shifts and development and conservative thought just like everybody else's. And so you know Fox News is writing is rotting their brains too.
Yeah, there, you can absolutely tell that they're just mainlining fucking Jesse Waters and yeah, oh yeah, I mean in the case of Alito As we'll get to fucking like Q conspiracies. But yeah, it's it's so wild. I mean, this is how fascism happens, right, Like the rule of law is not like it's not like fascists come in and just like say no more, Supreme Court. It's exactly
the rule of law. I think it was said on five to four by Peter like the rule of law is whatever fascists need it to be in a given moment, inconsistent, but it is. You know, they will use it like the cudgel, you.
Know, exactly, yeah, exactly, we're talking I mean, and there's so many cases from this past term that show that, you know, I think when we were talking about like fascism and the rule of law and that kind of thing.
That was probably on our episode about Snyder, which is the case about like bribery, like bribing elected officials, where the Supreme Court said like, hmm, well, actually you know this, this check that a trucking company gave to the mayor of this organ city for thirteen thousand dollars for awarding that trucking company trucking contracts. That's not bribery. And that's exactly like you know, all of these cases like on their own, you're like, oh that's fucked up. Oh that's
another fucked up decision. But when you see them all together and you realize, like what the Supreme Court is doing, like that is the overarching goal is about ushering in right a legal order where these conservatives are in charge. These conservatives are the ones saying what the law is and they will always use that to They will always use that to like reach the results that they want for their policy preferences, for that vision they have for the world.
And whoever has the most money becomes the most powerful exactly.
Totally because you know, if Trump becomes president again, uh, and he exercises this ability to commit crimes with right is God given king, right, Yeah, the Supreme Court will just be like, Yep, we ruled that that was the choice, and that's great and good, do whatever you need to do, buddy. Versus if not Trump is elected and then that person tries to commit crimes, I feel like the Supreme Court would be like, well, in this case, actually no, and I own blub blah, like there's no objectivity.
Yeah, yeah, no. And you see the tools that they use, right, So, like they put like the appearance of legal analysis, and they say, well, like, well, you got to decide first if something is an official act or an unofficial act, right, And so you see that they're like building in the tools that they're going to use to reach the completely opposite result when they don't like the president who's doing
the acts. Right, So in the future, what they can say as well, no, that wasn't you know, if let's say Kamala wins, right, Well, no, Kamala wasn't doing an official act as part of the office of the presidency. That was an unofficial act, and you don't get presidential immunity for unofficial acts. Right, So it's all about just like recognizing like the law isn't like a mathematical equation where you go two plus two and you know what the result is going to be. Like, the law is
a tool. It's a political tool, and that's what these conservatives on the Supreme Court are using it as.
Right, They're like deliberately building in loopholes that they can exploit for whatever agenda they want under carry out.
Yeah, so the Biden can't actually do Supreme Court reform right, right, is how do you think about the Supreme Court reform that Biden has very just very cautiously hinted at wanting to explore like it is obviously he probably doesn't have the time to do it. Left, but is he at least like looking in the right direction, Is he at least starting the right conversations.
It's absolutely in it's absolutely looking in the right direction and starting the right conversations. You know it was looking
in the right direction and starting the right conversations. You know, four years ago when he ran on a platform of court reform, and when he took the presidency and struck, the Biden Commission on Supreme Court Reform had people, lawyers, judges, law professors from quote unquote both sides of the aisle come together and talk about where necessary court reform could take place, how it could take place, what it would entail.
Biden and the Democrats I think are speaking to that at least, at the very least giving lip service if you're kind of cynical like I am, because they know that actually it's publicly quite popular, Like people know right now that the Supreme Court is super fucked up and that there needs to be court reform, and so yeah, the Democratic Party will kind of throw that out that they're willing and able to look at it, and you know, want to get the conversation started and that kind of thing.
So yeah, the conversation, yeah, to be started and should have been started. And I think it's about like demanding that like the reforms actually happened.
There was just a really intense earthquake in Los Angeles, California.
Oh, my god, are you okay? Ye, justin Victor, everybody okay, shook my house?
Still pretty hard?
Oh my god.
Oh it's still going.
Still feeling like Victor died. Was reported that he died. I'm sorry, Victor, Oh my god. Well hope everybody listening also, okay, listening a day in the future. All right, let's uh take a quick break to gather ourselves to just steady, steady our our quakings and quaking hearts, and we'll come back to talk about how the Supreme Court might We've already talked about how if Trump gets elected, were fucked. Let's talk about how the Supreme Court can help get
him elected. We'll be right back, and we're back. And so we talked yesterday about how Apple announced last week they're reigning in they're spending on streaming after launching a bunch of shows and keeping them a secret, like like it was a trade secret, like there was no supposed to know about that. This is what I mean, just for me, that's right now. Paramount announced within the past
couple of days that they're shuttering their TV studios. But these are just examples of how economically depressed the American entertainment industry seems to have been for the past year.
Not just economically, buddy, have you seen my bank account?
It's it's bad out there. Like everybody I talked to who works in the entertainment industry is like, this is the worst I've ever seen it. Like that seems to be the and I've talked to I'm old as fuck you, guys. I've talked to some very old people who say it's the worst they've ever seen it well, like over thirty like even thirty five.
Oh, disgusting.
I try not to hang out with them, but you know, weird.
They take your life for us.
Yeah, they need their putting fed to them.
So but I feel like this is all because of and I don't know enough about it. So I'm kind of speculating here, but the that's what That's how this show should be, right, just like making wild guesses and yeah, all.
Weird caveat it, you can say anything.
Yeah, So I think I don't know enough about it.
There's like too much supply and not enough demand. There's just like too much content and they're spending money on all these shows and like all these things and every platform has like a bazillion original series and original movies and stuff like that, and it's like there's no conceivable way that any person who even like even people who consume a lot of media, such as myself. I'm constantly watching flims, but.
Like whim, I don't know. Yeah, Flims.
Okay, they're about three hours long with no breaks. Now you know flim Do you go to the movie Nicole Kidman talks at you at the beginning.
Yeah, will come to this place for Flims. So it's just like there's too much. And that's why I'm guessing that's why there's such a because back in the day when Hollywood was thriving is because there were like I don't know, like Wayludes three. There's kludes and.
That salutes and cocaine. At the same time, we thought both of them were healthy and they're only like.
You know, five new movies coming out every month, and there was like just not that much content, and now there's there's too much. And if I know anything about the economics, which I don't, but I know, I know that it's like supply and demand, and there's too much supply and not.
The investing or like mentoring or allowing things to grow which I think is tied into that problem. They're not allowing good content. That's like kind of the As an avid reality TV show fan, I have to call out that the reason that they do that is because it's a lot cheaper to do that and pump out a ton of seasons of the same show rather than invest in like the development of characters and plot and getting
like the actors that you really want to get. That's like great, you know what I mean, They're not just not as invested in the quality of the content.
Yeah, I mean, so they invest they overinvested in streaming. They like went too hard on streaming, and now they have stopped developing like anything, like they just cut it off. And that's why like all these streaming companies are like you know, you're starting to see the headlines that they're like pulling it back after overinvesting without really any business plan of like how to make money off of that.
It was just so I think there's like one of the big things that happened is like there's no it's now controlled by like five big companies. Like in the past, Hollywood had been had enough regulations in place to prevent just massive consolidation like we have now and then slowly by slowly, like starting with Reagan and into like the Clinton reministration.
Reygun yeah, well famous breakdancer Reygun.
Yeah. Yes, she was the president of the US from eighty to eighty eight, and she came through and just deregulated, Like it's just deregulation over and over until now there's like only a handful of companies and and they're all chasing each other, and you know, so like one of them has like decides to invest in streaming, and so they all like over invest in streaming, and then there's just not the small companies anymore, who like when the big companies all do the same stupid thing, are there
to like zag and like do the smart thing that then the big companies like impersonate and like copy off of you know. So now it's just like big guys making terrible decisions and making the same terrible decision all at the same time, and nobody there to do the smart thing that like creates the market correction. That and then the other really big problem is that private equity has gotten like in two thousand and eight, you know,
when they were just basically printing money for free. Private equity got involved in Hollywood, and so now we have a hand full of like massive companies and they private equity money is involved, so their instincts are like private equity are these like massive companies and their model is like trying to make money as quickly as possible. They're just like extracting capital from these companies that they're investing in or taking over.
And so it's private equity equity. They're just like.
Us, yes, yeah, And so I just feel like we have fewer people calling the shots, and the people calling the shots have just way worse instincts. And this is how you get to the entertainment dark ages that we might be about to live through, which.
Is a bummart because so many good movie I feel like there was a period of like the content that was coming out and yet and like I'm speaking from a place of like my personal taste, yes, but but so so many of the movies that came out have come out within the past like and I'm speaking again also specifically about movies more so than TV. But I guess what I'm saying is no more TV, more movies. That's the platform that I'm running.
Slambs on Flims We've.
Entered this period in the past couple of years where like some really good not like major studio pictures, things that are like lower budget, not based on you know, comic books or any existing you know, huge properties, just like independent, low budget, but like really well done movies are coming out. Because there was like I don't know, there was like five years where I'm like, every movie
I've seen this year sucks. But within the past couple of years there's so much new good stuff, and I would hate to see that all go away because Hollywood doesn't understand what people want.
Right.
Everyone should see DD, Everyone should see mee Cap, everyone should see other movies that have come out recently, the end.
Thelma, Okay, is that good? Thelma?
I loved Selma. I thought it was so fun. And then like last year, there were all these great movies Theater Camp Dix The Musical, and also others. Unless I have a list in front of me, I never know what I'm talking about.
But obviously The Beekeeper is on that list.
I know for sure, The bee Keeper fully Inkeeper, Jason Statham, Indie actor Darling.
Yes, I just watched Trap. That sure doesn't make sense.
Uh yeah, but I'm a.
Huge advocate of Indian mediocrity. So I'm going to always support m Night Shyamalan.
And his kids and.
Taylor he said, yeah, he said that she was his niece in the movie. But it sounds but it might be as kids. It was fully just an album roll out for her.
Mm hmm.
I will say intrigued. I want to see that.
Yeah, I had such it's a trap itself because I had really high hopes and will be.
There anyone in your theater like trying to kill kill people?
Because I feel like no, well kind of because we went and Jackie's and I went and saw it, and Ryan from The Boys, the kid Homelander son in The Boys, was there with all of his friends, like the actor who played Oh wow, that kid, but he wasn't trying to kill anyone.
That's disappointing.
It was a trap in that I thought it would be fun and then it was fun, but also very confusing. One thing that I was going to say is like this is all like on a high studio. Oh, there are these conglomerates, deregulations, regularization level, but for how that affects like us individually, the fact that we can't pitch new shows.
But even beyond that, I'm seeing more and more huge celebrities in commercials that just nobody's like us should be in, you know. So the day to day it used.
To be just everyday actors.
Yeah, it used to be just every I went into audition and I saw somebody who have seen for I don't remember. He's one of those people you see him in everything. You don't know his name. He was also auditioning. I'm like, what are you doing here? You're like a TV movie star. Let me sell my soul for this?
Like why?
And you see that with also like what they're willing to take risks on. And then the second thing I wanted to say was I saw a clip that Jackie supposted today of like Matt Damon explaining why you can't make the same movies that you did in the nineties, and it's because of streaming and how like they had the DVD release and so they were able to get their income both from the box office and then the
later DVD release. But now it's it's only it's very it's a lot less in theaters because people have the option of streaming, which I think is great and accessible, but it just means that less money is invested into different types of films, and there's fewer risks that are being taken or fewer incentives for people to bet on these movies that might not have big box office summer action film Fast and the Furious thirty two Faster assert release.
Yeah, they because they've been taken over by corporations. Corporations always want to like eliminate risk as much as possible, which is impossible with art. But up to this point, we've had a bunch of federal regulations protecting it from being the way it is. Like right now, four companies controlled more than seventy five percent of WGA writers earnings, Like there's four companies that control the whole thing like that.
There were so many laws in place to keep that from happening, and now it's just these four companies who all when like one of them said we're going to do our launch our own streaming platform, like double down on content, they all did that. They created this like bloated thing that wasn't well thought through and like where they didn't know how they were going to get people to actually fucking watch the stuff that they were making.
And then when that failed, predictably. Now they're like, well, you know, the way that they're responding to that is like writers are no longer like they took away development pay. It used to be a thing where like they would sign on a writer to develop a pitch that they had approved or that they were interested in, and like that writer would be on the payroll for however long
it took to develop it. And now they've just like changed it so that writers have to do that all by themselves, Like they don't get paid during the development process.
Can you imagine a people to judge, like McKinley consultant coming in and being like you have to play Moms now you're too old? Yeah down, yeah, business person.
Yeah. I know writers who've like spent years developing projects that like are you know, have actors attached and like seem like they're gonna go and then never go. And that person just like worked for a year and didn't see like a single cent and it's just like that's the way it's set up now. It's like a really anti worker situation. It fucking sucks. Yeah.
Yeah, I have a friend who has been working for a couple of years on a script that's like a studio backed Superhero movie and like has not been paid to like frequently enough or enough like amount of money for all the work he has put in. And I keep being like like can you can you like, how do you advocate for yourself? Can you ask for money for the labor you're tirelessly doing? And he's just like, uh, yeah, I'm trying, but they don't want to pay. And I'm
just like, what is this? What is this world?
Yeah?
That's wild because also everybody is desperate and so there's always someone to replace you, and that just that feeling sucks. Yeah, Or like how during the writers' strike, I forget which executive said that they were essentially like trying to threaten us with homelessness.
Yeah, oh yeah, which guy was that? Which horrible monster?
It was either a Disney guy or Zazz the Zazz. But yeah, So the thing that they're going to because the development process has too much quote unquote like risk for these now like purely corporate entities that run seventy five percent of Hollywood, they're going to be even more reliant on IP, which is going to make movies shittier. Like we're already seeing people be like god like Shazam
two came out last year, Like I like that. I can't believe speaking of Libertarian last year, right, the same actor just drop what's his name, zach Levia.
Zackly, Zachary Levi and Harold in The Purple Crown.
Yeah, another another ip grab from like a nineteen fifties children's book. But because you don't have to like pay anyone whose idea that was, they're just like, I don't know, let's just grab fucking everything on our shelves and green light it. The Rubik's Cube, the movie like whatever.
You know, it's only okay when it's patented, right.
It's fine when it's pa and sometimes it works out.
It wasn't for those reasons, if it wasn't to avoid paying people, because then they could actually make a good movie.
Heard of.
The Purple Crown cost forty million dollars on production, probably another forty in you know, marketing it, and it made nine million globally like in its first week. Like it's just a complete And I could have told them if they had they had just asked me, I could have told them that was going.
To happen, and that money, that forty million is not going to Caitlin's friend who needs to get paid for them No going to other people's.
Going to this already rich studio execs and shit like that.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean the there's a good article on Harper's about this. Author basically argues that some kind of radical intervention, either from the government or the workers, will be necessary to fix the problem. But I think everybody, you know, everybody just lived through a really scary and difficult strike and now it's like worse than it's ever been. Daniel Bessner is the name of the person who were
at the Harper's article. So yeah, but that's like I think, I don't think people are quite aware of what's going on outside of Hollywood, But like inside of Hollywood, it's like no, no new ideas are being like, they're not even like responding to pitches anymore. They're just like that, Yeah. We there are a handful of massive companies and they have absolutely no appetite for risk aka like creativity or art.
Whatever you do, do not let this episode get back to my parents. Do not let them know that we're doing fine. Everything we're doing, we have health insurance. We're going to my house any day now.
That's right. Yeah, 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 you Monday. Bye.