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.
Miles.
Yes, we are thrilled to be joined by the head of represent Us, a good government group that does work around anti corruption, changing voting laws, just general trying to fix democracy stuff for something. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Hey, if that's what you want to do with your time, I guess you know what we saying. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But you know, I guess he's got ideas. So welcome here the show.
It's Josh.
Hey, Josh, what a great as.
My voice cracked on, Josh, but you are specially welcome.
Yeah, thanks, good to see you guys. I'm sorry I didn't bring a song. I didn't know I was supposed to bring a song.
It's okay, okay, that's how we started setting. That's level setting energetically. So now you come you're coming in in a deficit and now energy.
Is up here. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you got you got a lot of love to Josh.
You guys. It was like it was inspiring. It was inspired.
Thank you, thank you. Oh yeah, anyway, nothing else happening this week? What are you gonna do for Halloween?
Yeah, let's just talk about moo dang.
Just talk only about Halloween.
Yeah, I mean, I guess maybe a little a little bit we can, but we have to if we have to.
Yeah, here, you're in Massachusetts and you said that you are familiar with some Wu tang saying Wu tang yard signs that I wasn't aware of.
Oh yeah, presidents are temporary.
Wu tang is forever. I like that, So don't vote, right, is that basically what we're saying.
I'm not sure that's the message, right. I think it's like American version of keep calm and carry on a right.
Yeah.
Yeah, Oh it's wild because I'm seeing versions that are definitely done in the maga style, which I guess makes sense that you some people would have like a visceral reaction to that font and be like what the and they're like oh good, yeah, yeah, yeah, good to know.
I feel like that that trick is not that fun, Like when somebody has a mega hat that like doesn't actually say mega. It says like made you look dude, Yeah, the major look guy? Yeah yeah, what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are? Yes?
So I love the Halloween season. I love a Halloween playlist, but I realized that the you know, the difficult part of the Halloween playlist is like you don't got a lot of songs to choose from. I love having one on around the house, but like, okay, it's Monster Mash, it's Psycho Killer, I put a spell on you, and like maybe something from Nightmare before Christmas. But then you just gotta like repeat, so you know, it feels like
it's the same five or six songs. But I think something people do not know is that Bobby Boris Pickett, the guy who wrote the Monster Mash, just kept writing monster songs. He just kept doing it. Every couple of years, every time there was a new trend, he would do another monster song. There's a monster Christmas song, and so yeah, this guy just like has he's got you, He's got your back if you like feel like there's not enough
Halloween songs. So I was kind of going through his catalog and in the eighties, at the height of hip hop, he did the monster.
Rap and I believe in the eighties. This is from the eighties.
Yeah, it has a very like eighties you know, hip hop production style.
Oh right, yeah. At the same time I was, I was assuming it was more recent than that because eighties rap is so I don't know, like think about like the Rodney Danger for you old rap and like you know those like theme rap songs. It is very much in that mold rap and Rodney Mister T's rats not that bad. It's not doing the nursery rhyme thing where they're like, well, my name is Dracula. I'm here to say that, you know, like they it's it feels like
it was written by people. Well let's let's here listen to rat. Okay, sorry I'm not heard guess too much.
Yeah, nineteen eighty four. I believe it's the.
Dast tell Yeah, you're of my supposed birth.
Went without episode, came down his head winds app Okay.
To rap, shock, the body shock, the body, body shock, the.
Shock, the.
Voice.
No million, I don't know who this is.
Okay, So one party is definitely like you know, some sugar Hill Gang old Sea rap style.
But what he said the body bought like.
Shot the body shocking.
He needs to he needs to sue Playboy CARDI thank you. The body part was.
That?
Yeah, I really enjoy Jordan thank you so much. Like usually people tell his search history, and this is like, I can use this immediately. I'm putting this on my kids playlist for Halloween tonight.
And just shirt down.
And just search for It'll replace all the Christian porn ship in your search his exactly, because again, this guy's got so many. He's got one called the Monster Swim that's like a parody of beach party songs. And then at some point in it he goes, it's better than the mash has to say, like bringing about that old one. We're all doing the Monster Swim now it's better.
This one also opens with him saying I was still in the lab late one night, like so he's like he's just like, uh, he kind of sounds Rizon like the he's doing character work because he is getting like more annoyed by Igor as it goes along, Like now he and Igor are like kind of an old married couple in this song, Like he gets mad at him a lot. Wait, there's a chopped and screwed version of the Monster mash.
Yeah, Broy, Wow, he really is doing the hip hop ship. If he's doing a chop like a DJ threw slowed down version, was that him?
This is slow? Yeah?
This is on the Bobby bors Picket YouTube channel that Jordan's sent through. Like one of the clips is monster mash parenthetical.
Slow and spooky version.
That's good. Yeah, he knows, he knows how TikTok works. People love the slow down version of famous songs too, So he's just getting in there. He's smart.
He's smart. I think he has passed on.
But you know, okay, well, whoever's running this YouTube k yeah put this out two months whoever?
Yeah?
Yeah, I love just like finding a thing and sticking to it, you know, just all courage.
Yeah, I know.
And it's like creative people. I think we all, you know, we think a lot about like oh am I being pigeonholed, like should I branch out? Have I been doing this too long? But it's like this guy is just fucking not monster songs, new monster song every couple of years, and like yeah, I mean it's it's admirable. I like, I like get a lot of inspiration, find.
Your pigeon hole and just keep drilling, yeah, drilled.
Yeah.
It's like it's like being like Angetti's or like the Wegman, the photographer who just takes wine mariner photos, and it's like, I.
Do one fucking thing, don't yeah anything else. It's these dogs in clothes. Okay, one hundred years from now, this is going to be the one thing that is artistically respected from our time. His monster songs like the only really lasting music of their time.
We don't we don't know much about them.
They're mysterious people, but he knows that they're They did that.
Their monsters didn't get together for a lot of different kinds of parties.
Right, and their female deity haktuae right to this place.
Of course, what is something you think is underrated? Dange?
This is going to sound very basic, but seasons, and I'm sure that's come up on the podcast before. It's coming up for me. I live in New Jersey on the Jersey Shore. It is as we record Halloween, it's very spooky October thirty first, it is eighty fucking degrees outside right now. Wow, And there's a lot of like global warming hand ringing to be done about that, because this is just like like fundamentally not the way that
temperatures are supposed to go this time of year. And sure, I agree with all those reasons it's bad that we're killing the world, but also, very specifically, to me, seasons are important. We have already taken the fall decorations and clothing out of storage and are ready to move the summer decks into storage, but we can't right now because the weather is being so ridiculous and it's just turned my entire closet topsy turvy, and I don't know what to do with myself.
I think of the closets. Yeah, you think of the closets, the fossil fuel industry, yeah, please please.
I love Yeah, I love seasons just because growing up in LA we only have like two seasons, like hot and not as hot, right, So I like, I like wearing sleeves, I like hoods, jackets, pants, and the like.
But yeah, yeah, seasons, I do too.
And on a day like today, it's hard not to think back to my childhood trick or treating in New Jersey and how grateful you were for the temperature to drop a bit so you're not walking around in like full WCW sting makeup in eighty degrees of a pillowcase of melting chocolate on your shoulder.
It would just be a nightmare. I will say it's a little chilly. It was a little chilly here this morning, so it's not global warming.
I don't know you're talking.
Okay, yeah, so we're good there. What, Caitlin, is something you think is overrated?
Well, I know that it's whatever National candy corn Day, But candy corn, it's most overrated that ever happened.
Because happens every year.
We lo Look, we lose about ten percent of our audience every October. We're down to about fifteen people. And I'm sorry, but yeah.
It's truth.
It's so disgusting.
Is it for you?
Disgusting? Is it underwhelming? Is it? No?
Well it's not to me. It's not edible. Speaking of candy that is not edible, I'm eating sugary wax that looks like shit and it tastes like shit.
I hate it. Boom. I mean your ship is better, it's cooler looking the mind, clearly, But I my the thing. I am a I'm an icing bitch. I will eat the icing off your cake. You know, if you didn't ask, even if you didn't ask, I will just like you. You shouldn't have left it unguarded like that. And I think of candy corn as basically hardened icing, as opposed to the wax, which does kind of fuck it up if you think about it too much.
Either way, It's like, hey man, what if you think it recontextualized it as old ass icing?
And that's how I get into it. And that's yummy. Yeah, I like sugar.
What could I say?
But it's buttery. It is buttery. It's buttery sugar.
Maybe I just need to like have like a bespoke candy corn, like the ship that's like extruded from machines like by the millions. No, it's like a hand crafted candy, hand rolled one. I'd be open to that, and I probably end up offending them by being like.
This also is so bad?
You fucking dumb?
Yeah, all right, let's uh, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll talk about porn and the upcoming election. We'll be right.
Back, and we're back.
We're back, and all right, So we want to talk about how money operates in politics these days, in particular with we did just remember over the break that the elections coming That was the thing. Besides Halloween, there is a presidential and many other elections coming up. Are you voting in a week? Are you going to vote?
Dude?
I mean, I think I've proudly said that I'm undecided, still making up my mind.
I don't even know if I want to get out there, but I guess I will. It seems seems pretty grim out there.
Yeah, you got to vote, guys, man Josh said, all right, come, all right, no, yeah, we are kidding. I I do just find it funny the idea that there are still people who are undecided.
It's really wild, right, it is.
I think some people who are willing or unwilling to reveal their terrible biases.
Maybe they just really like public opinion polls, and so they attention.
Yeah, and the New York Times will oblige. They will fly to your house, throw you a viewing party for the latest debate, and then ask you, huh so tough choice between and to have the person be like, yeah, I still didn't hear enough. I'm not sure what what you didn't hear enough racism? But there is Trump to be all right, but so One of the goals of this episode I've heard so many billionaires getting involved in
this race. I really want to, like school house rock this shit, like, help us understand how one million dollars in billionaire's bank account or let's go one hundred million dollars make it more realistic in a billionaire's bank account goes from numbers in account to us not having more effective plans to address climate, you know, like, how exactly is that working? Right?
Because they most people, the most of us, we hear like, oh, this bill like they're getting in the race to the tune of X million dollars, and I think most people like it sort of stops is like, okay, so that'll be used for like ads, probably because airtime's expensive, but it manifests in a myriad of other ways. So how how should we How does it manifest in those other ways? Aside from obviously, I think the most visible stuff are like the ads that you.
See right and the ads. So let's just back up to like what they're actually trying to do, which is convince people to vote one way, one way or the other for one candidate or another. That's ultimately what the race is about. And the way that that gets done is ads tell you the story, but also flyers getting mailed to your house, people knocking on your door, ads that chase you around the internet, content that gets created.
I don't know if you get a fundraising emails and emails on your phone, all that text messaging, all of that costs money. Right, Like that's all right now too, I'm blowing up. Biden texted me last night.
Yeah, I have one from maybe Nancy Pelosi.
I like that, thanks, Siri, Yeah, maybe, And so yeah, let's just like let's go through the how it actually works, right, So who's running those ads?
Who's paying for all that stuff? You've got the DNC and the RNC, the Democratic Committee and the Republican Committee that are supporting the candidates. You have the candidates campaigns themselves, so like Harris has a campaign, Trump has a campaign. And then there's all these things we call independent expenditures, which are people in groups who are organizing outside the party apparatus to spend money on campaigns. And those are
known as political action committees or packs. And so you can have a pack, or then there's a super pack, which is basically the same thing with no spending limits at all. It's just a different denomination. And the only thing with super packs is they're supposed to be totally separate from the campaign. But like, if you've got a pack called the Maga pack, we all know who they're supporting.
There's no ra actual separation, right right, And so these people are raising and spending tons of money and then running their own ads and doing their own mailers and their own door knocks to get out support for that candidate.
Mega pack is Donald Trump. I just googled that. Sorry, I just wanted to.
I'm glad you check out. Are you an undecided voter?
So I'm a low information undecided voter.
I should be clarified that I think Maga Yeah, okay, maybe not this one.
Oh that's him.
That's Trump. Yeah, I knew it. I knew I like, I just had to google to make sure.
But so this all fits, I think, because like we also hear about like dark money spending, Like there's all this dark money that goes into our elections and things like that, a lot most of it in the form of like you know, nonprofits that have like opaque donor lists.
So you're like, I think I know who's I don't.
I don't.
I actually don't know, but there's they have a lot of money. What is like, you know, I think looking at them, not even just this race specifically, just generally, I think we've we've gone from like Obama in eight sort of being like, oh, you know, public public funds might be good to be like who am I kidding?
Man?
These like you're gonna get destroyed if you're not taking like this like huge these huge sums of money from outside groups. What's been kind of like the evolution I know, like obviously Citizens United is a is a Supreme Court decision we talk about a lot because it's like, hey, yeah, you the corporation have the same rights as a person to spend as much money on a race. But what what's kind of like we're was it ever in a
good space or does is it truly that? I feel like since my time in politics that was really like when it just went completely bonkers when you know you're ordained by the highest court in the land to be like, yeah, man, just let it rip with your dollars however you want.
And you said those two are not unrelated, you being in politics and things just going from bomkers, as I think you said off Mike, I was smoking on that super pack, you were.
Low.
Yeah, yeah, I did turn my hat backwards and skateboard into frame to say that.
Force pierced your own ear. Yeah, that's cool, that's good.
I'm sorry. But actual question.
Let's just talk about how much money it really is. We're talking about five point one billion dollars this year, be a billion with a B going into these super packs getting spent on the elections. And you kind of lost me with.
The has it ever has it ever been good or less bad?
Oh? Yeah, right, Like it's just been different bad. If you go way back in American history, right, like we all know the stories of the smoke field rooms and like, and that's yeah, that's how politics used to happen. And then smoking on that superpack. Yeah, that's exactly smoke field
rooms twenty twelve Citizens United happens. And it takes us from the era of past, so people being able to get together and spend some money on politics with regulation saying there's a limit to how much you can spend, so they just rip the roof right off of it, so it became unlimited and all billions and billions of dollars start flowing in and the problem is we the American people can't see where candidates are getting their funding from, so like it could be coming from overseas, it could
be coming from people with bad intentions. We know a lot of it comes from a big industry here in the US that's trying to stop regulation from moving, and so they create these big packs and they basically like, let's say I was a lobbyist and I was like, hey, Myles, I know you're running for office, and I think it's great that you do. But I've got one hundred million
dollars in a pack. Great, And I know you got this candidate Jack who's running against you, who might be a little bit you know, you might be a little bit cooler with what we need to have done. And so where do you think that hundred million about smoking?
Oh dude, I love whatever you're doing.
Man, I love crypto, I love gasoline, I love plastics, microplastics.
So dude, I'm your guy. I'm your guy. What about a NFT made of fossil fuels. I'm just saying, like, no, but you said the Supreme Court ripped the roof right off of it. That actually sounded really cool, but it's bad what they did right, ripping the roof right off, because I do that sometimes to a party, and when I do it, it's kind of cool. But yeah, what bet it is? Yeah yeah, all right.
Yeah, but you're not taking American democracy down with you. Oh so let's just go back that was twenty twelve, right, and we say, okay, forget it, there's no more rules about money in politics. And since then, we've seen the two parties move further and further apart, which means that big money has more control over these two parties that
run everything. We've seen the American people get more and more disillusioned with the political system, like we all just kind of take for granted now that're like, oh, the whole thing is bought, like it's all bought, sold and paid for, and so like they're never going to do anything for me. And then we see studies from major universities that actually underscore the same point, which is like, yep,
the political system doesn't work for you regular Americans. And I think if you tie a line back to twenty twelve, from twenty twelve to January sixth of twenty twenty one, you kind of think, like, well, if people are that disconnected and that angry and that correct that the whole thing has been bought and sold, it's no surprise they're going to show up being really angry at the Capitol. Like we've turned it into a breeding ground for that kind of behavior.
Right, because it's all like it feels, it's like an illusion. People are like, but I thought this is I'm the outcomes I'm looking for will be achieved through this quote unquote political process. But all I'm seeing is like an exacerbation of all the things that make my life more difficult. And the people that are being enriched look nothing like
I will. My life looks nothing like the way theirs look. Yeah, and I feel like that just turns into apathy or anger or whatever, and more and more people just you know, when I think we all understand it is Uh, it's frustrating to see that, but absolutely because there's no rules.
The people that have the money to make one hundred million dollar donations, they are doing just fine. They've been doing just fine since twenty twelve. They're getting more and more and more share of the economy going to them, and meanwhile regular Americans are getting completely left behind. And right now, neither party is stepping up to fix it.
I mean, there's a clear difference between the parties. Obviously we were joking around before, but like clear difference in the two parties, and nobody seems to have the balls to actually step up and deal with the problems with the political system when they're in power. Otherwise, you know, maybe like maybe Obama would have done it when he had power in both houses in his first term, but like they didn't get done.
Because the other part is like the FEC.
Also, it's I remember at that time when Obama was in office, like there was a chance to maybe put more competent or people who are more dedicated to enforcing campaigns finance laws, like as commissioners at that VC, and that just kind of came and went.
And yeah, that's where you kind of I think, and that's where it.
Becomes easier to see, like, well, what are the differences, because at the end of the day, like they're all sort of both both parties are beholden to playing this sort of game of like, well, I also have to answer to like corporate bene factors, which we've now just kind of we're taking the mask off. That's kind of what's going on. They it's all about money. They have the money, What am I going to do? Swear off
that money? And they completely blown out like in an ad war or something because I just don't have the funds to compete. And it's yeah, now we're at this place where we're I guess at.
The bottom already.
Can we get more bottom? Oh we can always get.
More of the bottomer, Yeah, we can go bottomer Yeah.
Sure, yeah, it's so. Yeah, the signal is no longer like the idea of a democracy is signal goes from people to the politicians or the institutions that can actually do something about the will of the people. And that stopped happening like kind of completely in the.
Last Yeah, I don't want you to guys to get like totally blown up on the internet. So we're going to talk about the democracy versus republic thing. Yeah, everybody say, we're not a democracy, we're a republic. We are a republic that is also a democracy, and sure, it's just worth saying that, and so yeah, yes, what you said, like, we're supposed to be able to vote for representatives in our republic who we're supposed to do the will of
the people, but they don't. They do the will of special interests and the people that are funding those super PACs and the people that are funding their campaigns, that's who they have to work for.
Yeah, if you if you think about it, like the the body politic, the metaphor of like a body the signal not getting from the eyes to the brain that moves things, because like that would be a disorder.
That person would be in trouble or they would be really high off that lab pack.
All right, I'm just I'm picturing somebody like involuntarily punching themselves in the face. Yeah, it feels like the metaphor you're going for.
Yes, exactly, because they're high off that super peck of Okay, Yeah, you said something in our last conversation that kind of put a lot of this into perspective. Just when I hear dark money, I never really thought about the fact it's only dark to us, like we don't know where the money comes from. But the politicians know that. That's just like so like they have to do the extra work to keep us from knowing who is funding their campaigns. That's just totally so inherently sinister.
You know, if you think about the motivations of somebody who's giving one hundred million dollar donation. It might be because they have a worldview and they really want to support it, Like it might be just totally all good, right, Like I want to see war rights for this group or that group, and I'm just going to give a
ton of money to support it. The other scenario is that they're piling up all this money and they're making a phone call to a political consultant or to a politician and saying, hey, I got this giant pile of money that's about to go to either you or your opponent, and we're going to make sure that if you don't support the thing I care about.
Then you're going to lose, right.
And it's that that's so sinister, right, And it's exactly what's happening with all this stuff. It's it's folks who are spending shit tons of money to make sure that they have political power that is over the power of the voter.
It's terrible.
Yeah, I mean, like, what are some examples that people that kind of go over people's heads and how like I think most people are like, yeah, they put money behind a candidate and then this person they get to office, they're able to find a way to make sure that that donation didn't go completely unheard, that the results in legislation that's favorable to them. I think that's like one
easy way to think about it. But like, what are some other ways that, you know, just just to kind of for people to fully understand outside of just sort of like these very easy to understand examples, Like what are the more nuanced ways that this is completely completely like perverting the process.
Yeah, So in twenty fourteen, Princeton and Northeastern University did a study together and they looked at eighteen hundred public opinion polls over the course of twenty years to find out whether or not the laws that Congress pass actually represent the will of the people. And when they plotted all of their data for average American income earners, they found that when zero percent of average Americans won something, there's about a thirty percent chance that Congress is going
to pass that law about that thing. And they also found that if one hundred percent of Americans want something, there's a thirty percent chance that Congress.
Is going to do it.
That's what the key takeaway is, Yeah, it's like it's not good, No.
It's not great, no matter what the American people want, there's about a thirty percent chance that Congress passes a law. In other words, we have near zero, statistically near zero impact on public policy. We the American people. They ran the same data for special interests and wealthy donors and all of that, and they found that those groups actually
do have influence. And then when you think about it, practically, like there's all sorts of issues that Americans really do agree on that are just like common sense solutions to stuff that we care about, whether it's whether it's background checks or abortion or like, there's lots of really difficult issues that Americans want solutions on, but the only way that we end up talking about it is it's this
incredibly wild, divisive way. And that goes right back to the It goes right back to the money in politics, because they have so much more power when we're all talking about the extremes rather than common sense solutions.
Yeah, there were there were just a a there's been some moments in the Biden administration where it felt like he was like, yeah, man, I want to jack, but like I just my hands are tied, where it felt like he wasn't talking specifically about Congress but it was like if they said he wasn't talking specifically to me, Jack, Jimmy, I know, I know that was confusing, but Jack and Mac and I feel like that is kind of what he's referred like when you're a politician, like you're stepping
into this system where you are beholden to these like massive moneyed interest groups, and you know, the stuff that he was able to get passed, for instance, with regards to like pushing back on just tech monopolies and the
power of the tech industry. I was reading this New Yorker profile like millionaires who are donating to Trump's campaign, and like it's there are some of these traditionally Democrat donors who like switched over because they're like, well, we just can't live like what Biden has done in this administration is like unconscionable. It's just like he's like trying to regulate, you know, completely unregulated tech power. So yeah, it just it feels like like it's pretty clear how
it works. I guess we just don't hear the specifics of it, like on a day to day basis. It feels like it's one of those things that like in the mainstream media they won't just be like, yeah, now all that money's going to Trump because there was pushback against like tech oligarchs in during the Biden administration, you know.
Totally the first time ever. This year, the crypto industry is the largest super pac industry. Like there crypto companies are giving more to politics than any other group, two hundred and four million dollars going into the campaign, right, and uh yeah, yeah, it's back to the same thing.
It's like they don't sure, I guess they don't want to be regulated, but like, isn't it the government's job to do what's in the best interest of all the people and not just like those that have already made a ton of money off the system that we have.
Yeah, and so what I think, because that's like all roads lead to Well, it's it's just the the just obscene influence of money that creates this sort of like legislative gridlock too, like to a you know, a much more extreme extent, because like to your point, whenever people are like when politics are like, well it's not that easy, what they're saying is like, well, in this game, if I step out of line, that special interest group they come in and they primary me and put someone else
up to race in the race against me that will be much better funded than me, and then I will lose my seat. And because I want to be the most popular person in my state, I have to do
whatever it takes to stay in office. And so it's really not so much about what you want, but like half of making it seem like I'm acting out the will of the voter in my constituents and the other half making sure I damn sure do not cross these donors, because that's really that's who causes the most damaged, because they can actually influence.
The voters more than the voters can influence me.
And look, if you want to get anything done, you have to be in power right right, And the only way to stay in power is to fundraise. The New York Times did this awesome expose recently where they interviewed a bunch of members of Congress who are on their way out, so they're retiring this year or whatever, and one of them talked about, in order to get a bill put forward, you have to be on a committee,
right otherwise you can't even move a bill. And in order to be on the committee, you have to hit your fundraising goals for the quarter, which is some ridiculous amount two hundred fifty thousand dollars or something. But in order to be the person who decides whether or not the bill makes it to the floor of Congress, you have to be the chair of that committee, which is
an even higher fundraising goal. And so when we talk talk about like the system is designed to stop good people from getting good things done, it's that kind of thing. It's like, right, no matter how well intentioned you are, you're gonna have to go fundraise for special interest in order to get anything done, right. And if that's who you have to fundraise from, and then you cross them, you're cutting off your your source of power.
Right.
And so until we fix this problem, it's just gonna keep getting worse.
Okay, So there's a fix. Yeah a way, No, it sounds like we're fucked. I think the episode's over.
Yeah, really happy podcast.
All right, Well, okay, so I we we just cut there. Josh told us that there might actually be a solution. So we're gonna take a break, we're gonna come back and we're gonna hear what what could possibly be done about the way the system operates. We'll be right back, and we're back. We're back. Jordan, Are you a baseball fan?
You know I'm not.
I'm not a baseball fan, but I am really enjoying the World Series vibes around LA. I was in a in a restaurant last night where they were showing the game. LA lost, but just like great vibes. I don't know, it's really fun as a non sports fan but not I'll clarify, I'm not a sports ball guy.
I'm not a superb Owl guy.
Just a man who doesn't necessarily follow follows sports. But yeah, I don't know, it's fun when the home team's winning, It's uh, yeah, I'm liking it. I'm liking a positivity in the city for sure.
So on the night of the twenty ninth, three guys I think it was a group of three, two who were like the main perpetrators, got in just as a wire.
I think all three got kicked out.
Oh the video I saw was just the two, but anyway, maybe it was just the two, but they got in just under the wire. For like group costumes, if you don't have a Halloween costume yet, I feel like because one of the if.
You're in a throttle you got your guys.
Yeah, well they're wearing sunglasses at night.
Yep.
One of them has uh this was my favorite detail. One of them had a slide glove, like the glove that people wear one ride running bases that can only be described as like a oven mitt without the thumb part. Masculine of the most masculine. Yeah. Yeah, one of the had that for no reason like I've seen I've seen people go to games with baseball gloves because you are hoping to catch a foul ball. But like the slide bit is just I guess, announcing your intention to like
storm the field. Yeah yeah, yeah, but love their whole energy wearing sunglasses at night. The guy who wasn't had eyes like two pistoles in a snowbank. To quote my mom when I came in extremely fucked up one time.
I'll say the guy the kind of the main dude in this altercation, I would say his look is adult wrizzler.
Yeah, adult wrizzler. If Tim Robinson was playing the adult wrizzler. Yeah, so many, so many people have been posting I think you should leave memes to be like it was, whether it's the.
Phone one with him like this like yeah, so many.
Face expressions like yeah there is so what what happened for people who aren't watching and aren't up on it?
And may the World Series may well be over by now because five is tonight, but it game four fly ball was hit into like right the right field bleachers, and Mookie Betts went and made a spectacular catch, and a guy who was there in the crowd just grabbed his glove and held him there like aloft while his friend like held Mookie. That's risk. The first guy the ball out just pried the ball out like that was
the rules. Yeah, and yeah it was. It was very very weird, like it was the It was immediately called like fan interference and like the home team who they are rooting for was ruled out and then they were kicked out. But but for one game for just crazy Yeah, Steve.
Bartman had to exile to god knows where. Yeah, these guys who.
Touched the ball right as they were about to catch it and like hurt the Cubs chances of winning the World Series.
And like but this one, I guess because it's like, yeah, fuck them. I think that's really why it feels I think justified amongst fans and like I was texting some of my friends, I'm like, dude, if I was three to zero down, I would be doing some fucking toxic shit, I think out there, but.
Right, find your worst fans, get them as close to the game as possible.
Yeah.
I think it also speaks to the bitterness that, like you know, just sports fans experience constantly, just simmering rage. I should be out there catching the ball and I'm not. Yeah, just a new strain of dirt egg just dropped, I feel like, and it's I I remember the Steve Bartman moment. And this was year, like over a decade ago, Like like Myles was saying, like a Cubs fan caught a ball that would have been caught by the home team.
A lot of people say he cost the Cubs. And he had an iconic look because he was like wearing headphones and a turtleneck for some reason, and everybody that year, like there were so many good Bartman costumes. It was. It was such a good it's such an iconic look that I expect to see some Yankee dirtbag fans out there this year. But yeah, like you said, he's only banned for Game five. We got.
When I saw these guys. My initial reaction was, I bet these guys still use the nicknames they were given in high school. Oh yeah, yeah, I bet these guys still call each other like dump truck or something.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
They're like there, where's bag of donuts? See bag of donuts? Fish the fucking ball of Mookie Betsmitt bro the fucking I love the quotes from this The fucking deranged dude are quotes.
I missed the call. I'm sure they were.
They found You'll never guess Jordan where they found him after he was kicked out. Oh my god, do I get a near got three guesses across the street.
Oh my god?
He wrote it on their shoulders. Yeah yeah. He said he had previously discussed with his friend that if a ball comes their way, we're gonna d up. I patrol that wall and they know that.
Oh no, this guy's he's made it his fucking thing.
He's like, it's my thing. I patrolled the wall.
Yeah, my god, I wonder who he's voting for.
Yeah, I patrol the wall.
Is a very interesting description of him getting ship faced and pretending he's on the Yankees.
But okay, right, I pray to be there. But I do a job. I do pay them. But I I'm the wall patrol guy.
But I okay, okay, I control my neighborhood too, boy, yeah, okay, what the controls are you on, sir? But yeah, I like I said quote, I know when I'm in the wrong, And as soon as I did it, I was like, boys, I'm out of here.
Well that shows that shows some maturity and reflection, you.
Know a little bit. Yeah, he knew, he knew where the line was.
And you know, Tony Hitchcliff would say, boys, I'm out of here.
Boys, I know when I'm in the wrong, and I sure fucked up. I agree later myself.
Yeah.
Yeah. I also I feel like every member of the Yankees and like this group of fans they all look like they leave the stadium and put on NYPD uniforms, like yeah, like they really like the guy who was like one of the heroes of the game last night for the Yankees, I was.
Like a big mustache.
It's just like that's yeah, yeah, they're going that's the only facial hair you can have as a Yankee.
Like that.
That ship is so like tightly regulated for being a Yank, which is also very weird. But yeah, I feel like half of those players are about to be like those scenes or like undercover cops who are usually Yankees Jerseys pull out the badge that's on a necklace.
Yea, yeah, I'd like, bro, whoa whoa NYPD asshole? Like, is that you have those underneath?
Maybe?
Yeah, all those punisher stickers with the blue Lives Matter flags exactly.
That they pull that out when the next time Mookie Bets have a fly ball next to the wall logo. Yeah, all right, let's talk haunting houses, guys, haunted houses, or as I call them, haunting houses. It turns out a lot of Americans believe in ghosts, sixty one percent more than is going to vote for any presidential candidate. And it's like it's actually a legal issue, because yeah, this
is interesting. Yeah. So there a person once sued because they bought a haunted house, the house and and the local court and it went all the way up to the Supreme Court ruled as a matter of law, the house is haunted, in a decision that's become known as the Ghostbusters ruling. I assumed this was in the thirties
at the latest. Eight it was in the nineties that somebody bought a house and then was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you didn't tell me it was haunted, and was able to get their money back because they hadn't completely revealed the degree to which was haunted.
Like the person who owned the house was like, this shit is haunted as hell. An old sea captain visits me at night. And then when a buyer came, they like, yeah, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. And then so it wasn't. It was only because that owner had out in the open been like you had like a New York Times baby, that they're like, oh, well, that's just so funny.
As a matter of law, the haunt the house is haunted.
Yeah, we should have judge down he got scared, spent one night and their hair was standing up from such a fright.
But it's basically spawned a cottage industry of psychics and exorcists who work with real estate agents to sort of get the haunted houses cleared.
Yeah sure, so this is this is literally a yeah, it is now just a real business.
Yeah right, yeah, yeah, I was. I was checking.
It's funny, that's the first thing I thought of, and I checked her Twitter. She hasn't posted since.
The name, Oh the haunted realtor from Nathan.
Yeah exactly. She's like, all my what was the bus bench? Ads? Like, all my house are one ghost free.
I mean that lady was just fucking ahead of the game. She should jump back in. Now.
It's apparently a legitimate business.
Yeah, it's a It is a legit business, and legit in that people give you legit money for pseudo scientific thing.
But they just come in and they're like, so good news and bad news. Good news. Uh, the spirit of the murdered Victorian out has been sent back to hell.
But I do have black mold. I'm sorry too. That's gonna be pricey.
Yeah that's no problem. Yeah, we'll see if we can get some concessions on that. I'll bring the price down.
A little bit.
But yeah, but yeah, four states have real estate disclosure laws that specifically mentioned paranormal activity.
I love that.
Yeah, like you have to tell people, and some real estate agents actually like bundle the service. There's a Toronto psychic realtor, Larry Medina.
Who I just like that.
There's like, yeah, fuck it fine, Like oh yeah I can actually so I know you're worried that the house is haunted. I can actually see ghosts. There is a ghost here. I'm gonna talk to them though, and well.
Know, I'm gonna I'm gonna find them a nice little bungalow to move into.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I can. And I can get them to another place if you want, of your choosing. That's an extra fee. But yeah, anyway, well let's talk, let's talk. Let's talk offline about this.
They have looked into whether this would dissuade young people who don't have affordable housing, and it turns out young people don't give a shit over shit yeah, because they're like, yeah, yeah, millennials and gen z would live in the goddamn Overlook hotel if it was remotely affordable.
Yeah. I mean, it's also interesting to think like that the idea of the haunted house is like from an actual like just old big Victorian homes like be going abandoned like in the twentieth century, so like there was just this visual of being like that's from a bygone era. But now we've all collectively been like these.
Are haunted homes. Yeah.
There was a real estate panic called the Panic of eighteen ninety three, which was a prolonged American economic collapse that led to foreclosure and abandonment of property, and it disproportionately affected over large, newly built homes. And at that time the style of home that was popular was Victorian homes like the Family, the Adams Family, the Bates House, and Psycho like those houses that are basically what you
picture when you picture a haunted house. They were just all newly built when there was this real estate implosion and so for you know, the first two decades of the twentieth century, they were being left to rot, and so everybody was like, oh, the old spooky man are on the hill. And that's where a lot of our images of haunted houses come from, which well, I don't know which they gave discounts.
We're in a world now where there's like there's old goths, Like there's old goths who were probably buying houses. You can charge them more for that, right right.
Right exactly, Like somebody needs to come and take the opposite side of this and be like, I can get you a haunted house or like.
Wouldn't that just be like or in the place that has these disclosures laws, like you can just like con your way into a cheaper house and like, oh, this place is actually fucking haunted and they didn't say anything, so like we've got to knock the price down and this just hanted.
It's just haunted. I think, what this what let's call it like ten thousand? Yeah, okay, great?
Can I can I use that to like get out of shit at an airbnb?
Maybe?
You know, like how's kind of hitting you now with the stuff where it's like, ooh, you didn't strip the bed sheets. That's two hundred dollars, Like, well, it was haunted. I had to run out.
Yeah, and you didn't disclose. Yeah.
I couldn't weirdly strip the bed and load the washing machine like you want me to for some reason.
So right, but I'm paying you. Okay, I'm sorry I didn't I didn't separate the colors from the whites and that load that I left.
Sure, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
There was a towel on the towel rack anyway, Well that's haunted. I had to run out of the bathroom because now I.
Have to charge you one hundred and fifty dollars cleaning fee for that errand towel.
Would you guys move into a haunted house. Yeah, because I don't fucking I never and that'll ok.
Yeah yeah, and I think.
So I think, I'm I'm I'm I'm not a ghost believer either, so I think it could be and you know, a fun story for for cocktail parties and such and.
Yeah, exactly, yeah, I mean, yeah, worst case scenario, you have proof that there's like some weird spiritual realm. If the house is indeed haunted, you know, yeah.
It's like there's bigger things going on.
And then your life situation also when I because when I was a kid, and like I remember my grandparents' house in Japan was real creaky, and.
Then a kid, I'm like, mom, it's ghost.
It's like it's an old house and the temperature is affecting the wood, so you're hearing it's like alive, so it creaks. And I was so scared that I just held onto that for dear life to be like always dismit, like I don't give a shit now whatever I hear, I'm like, that's just the fucking house.
What am gonna do? This isn't some ghost shit going on. I grew up in a house, uh well next to in Dayton, Ohio. I lived next to this house where somebody had like killed themselves recently, and it was like right next to the driveway where I would like shoot hoops late at night, and like I was telling my friend about that one time that like, yeah, right there that house like that like a guy killed himself, like what our neighbor had been, Like this kid had modis
long and been the last one to see him. And then like the lights flickered and the like I swear to God, it was like two steps that I took before I was like in the kitchen, hiding under the table. Right. So even though I logically don't believe in ghosts, I
also recognize my ability to. Like one of the explanations is like people have like unconscious open, like open unconscious minds, and I feel like I have a mind that is like willing to just yeah, I don't let anything in because I don't doubt stupid.
I don't doubt when people are like this wild shit happened, Like I told, perception is reality. Sure, I just know my mind is totally closed off to that shit. So yeah, I'm I think I just I've shut down the channel that wouldn't maybe even perceive that, maybe because I'm so scared. Yeah, you know, and that's why, because ghosts are story.
I don't know. And then when I told my parents, you know, I was out there shooting baskets with my neighbor Fred and like this happened, they were.
Like, Jack, Fred died three years old.
Fuck, you're not.
Oh my god, Basketball? Who burned down?
Ago?
What were you throwing the ball at?
Just have a pile of ashes in my hand?
Me your mom? I passed away.
I'm not here. This story is not really holding together, guys. This is an even Dayton Ohio. This is a Bubba Gump shrimp code. 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.