Colin Powell Dies, Betty White Survives

I eventually, Oh, look, this isn't news. This isn't me trying. I just see. I mean at least not at least once a week, but often enough for me to say that, Um, you know, there's some poised post about somebody protect Betty White this or that, and I'm like, gosh, she's almost a hundred. She is nice. She's gonna die. It is a miracle she's still around, and like, yes, be grateful for every second you have with her. But it's she's gonna die. She should die like some breaking news alert.

You're just so sorry. I don't. We were talking about how everybody was gonna die, die, die, to die, die and this is something. Yeah, White's gonna die because she's gonna die, going to die is Patrick's gonna feel really bad at that, Katie. If it happens this week, at the end of the world will just be the two of them fighting over a volcano chess. But Donald Trump is not going to die, but he's jealous of Colin Powell. Tye, Yah, Katie. If Betty White dies this week, we need to have

a talk about your time traveling. I know, I know. Um, I hope that does not happen. Say it every week for me, it does. Do not at me, do not at me, alight when she you can at me when she dies. Fuck, we've been talking about this for too long, speaking of do we want to talk about We'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. How are you guys doing? Um? You know I'm sad about Betty White potentially die. No,

I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just need to say. The point of me saying that is to enjoy every minute. Do not live in the future, do not live in fear, but be prepared. That's all. You don't need to pre emptively. More so, enjoy every minute with like your loved ones. I mean, if you if she is your loved one, then that people listening to the podcasts who are very close friends with She's got a huge This is actually going to be a surprise to you, Cody. But um,

Betty White's family comprises a huge subset of our listeners. Um, she's got a huge family. I know you think that she's kids. Rate review and tell us about your relationship to Betty White. Still alive? She's still alive, Guys, when she's found dead, police should look at Katie first. Oh god, damn it. I've now sworn several times and it's three minutes. Should we Should we talk about Colin Powell? Should we just dive in and talk about the deceased? Why not?

You know what? Why not? Yeah? He's dead as ship. He sucks. I mean, that's the blunt summary of his career. The long summary of his career is that he did a bunch of war crimes for I don't know, like fifty issue years and then he died. I listened to UM the Daily talking about Colin Powell when it was amazing. I mean, it really tried to paint a more sympathetic picture of him. I guess is not amazing while still grappling with you know, you know who didn't Donald Donald Trump,

Donald Trump, Donald Trump real Trump. Um. I hope that we talk as nicely about him when he dies. Yeah, I'm just gonna read it because it's funny. They both suck. He Yeah, No, when he dies will be like, thank goodness, you eat ship dead man. Um, when he dies, I've already planned that. I'm going to tweet Ding Dong the witch is dead. I've thought about that for several years now. I'll do that for all of them. I was just going through. Um. So Powell, you know, fought in Vietnam,

was an infantryman. We have like his his his diaries kind of his notes that he took on a daily basis, and every day it's like I went to village, burned crops, shot insurgents. Uh. You know. He talks about how the helicopters would like anytime they saw a man dressed in a certain way, shoot near him, and if he moved, it was evidence that he was he was viet Cong, so they would just kill him. Um. They would steal food from villages and then destroy the rest of the

food in order to like starve the villages. Out and you know, presumably stopped them from providing food to the Viet Cong um. And then he played a fairly minor but not insignificant role in trying to cover up the Mylime Massacre after repeatedly executing and starving civilians as part of one of the cruelest warfare strategies in the history

of US conflict. And then as a as a big boy, as a big man, big old, big old man, he got up in front of the United Nations and was like, there's no, this isn't a this isn't a debate, There's no, this is objective facts. Adam Hussein has has all these w m d s. We gotta we gotta go in and stop him. I'm Colin Powell. You can trust me. I'm not one of these crazy neocon nut fox And then it turns out he was. So I'm gonna talk

a little bit about what I was hearing today. I think it was it's frustrating hearing uh, the journalistic media presentation of this same story. Um, you know, they of how he struggled and and and fought against and pushed back and was trying to be the voice of reason to George Bush and delay this, but ultimately he did it. He was told to go stand up there specifically because the world trusted him for whatever reason, and they didn't trust Dick Cheney, you know, so they had him go

and convince people. And he's he knew what he was doing. He knew what he was doing at the time. So regardless of whether or not you want to frame him as trying to be the voice of reason, he wasn't. And he's complicit. Yeah, they all knew what they were doing. I think it was interesting, this whole Powell doctrine thing. Do you know about this? It's so funny. Uh, not funny, it's horrifying. The Powell doctrine being what he uh learned from Vietnam, being that you can only should only go

We shouldn't go into open ended wars. You should only go for a really solid reason, but then also come in with enough might to get done quickly and leave and end endless wars. And then fast forward a number of years later to the war which he is directly responsible for. Have the consequences of our actions. Yeah, for a little bit of clarity, Like the Powell doctrine, it's it's a list of questions that you should have to answer if you're going to, like if you the United

States are going to send troops in somewhere. Question one is is a vital national security interest threatened? Question two is do we have a clear attainable objective? Question three is have the risks and costs been fully and frankly analyzed? Question four is have all other nonviolent policy means fully exhausted? Question five is is there a plausible exit strategy to avoid endless entanglement? Question six? Have the consequences of our

action been fully considered? Sections? Question seven is the action supported by the American people? In question eight, do we have genuine, broad international support? And that was involved, you know, in Vietnam whatever. He was involved in some shitty stuff, but he was more or less just a dude on the ground, right, didn't have any kind of leadership role

at a significant level in that conflict. He did have a major leadership role in the invasion of Panama, which killed more civilians, uh than Noriega had killed during his time in power um and then had been killed by his military. The vast majority of people who died in the Panamanian invasion where civilians killed by US troops during indiscriminate bombing. UM. Again, question number six is have the

consequences of our action been fully considered? Uh? Yeah. He was also um the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Desert Storm invasion. UM. And Uh, that's generally seen as like the good war that we had because it was over real quick. Not a lot of people died from an American perspective. Well, that's when he got the Everybody was like, oh, Colin Powell, this guy

knows what's up. Yeah. But one of the things he orchestrated during that was a bombing campaign that completely destroyed Iraq's civilian infrastructure, which led to tens of thousands of people dying because they didn't have clean drinking water or access to food. Um. Was a direct violation of the Geneva Convention. We didn't like. We we like again, it was it was a good war because not a lot

of Americans died and we were out quickly. And you could say, in fairness when you're asking like, does do we have a clear attainable objective? Like Desert Store in Panama were both examples of yeah, I mean we did. You can argue that it was like criminal to go in there in the first place. But the objectives in both cases were clear and there was a clear to find end date. So in that case they were better

conflicts than anything that's come since. UM. But it still is this situation where, at no point, in any of the numerous conflicts that Powell had a leadership position during where the consequences of military action fully considered, at no point was Number six ever ever seriously asked or answered well, I was answered by like the actions taken? Yeah, yeah,

I mean yes. It turns out I've seen a lot of people talking about how he uh in the years since you know, nine eleven and and her invasion, the never ending more and et cetera, how he has admitted that the intelligence was false UM, and admitted and under did his role, but also backed off from it, saying, well, I'm gonna I'm doing what the president says. What am I supposed to be at the end of the day,

you know, like he's a warrior. But it's like he and he bemoaned UH in different interviews, like I know this is going to be the first line of my obituary. Um. And there's almost like this bitterness as if he didn't deserve it, he does deserve it exactly what he deserves. And it's appropriate that, Yes, it is the first line

of his obituary, of every article, and it should be. Um. I guess there is a degree to which it's frustrating that, like, of all of the crimes against humanity committed by individuals in the Bush administration and by the administration collectively, like he's getting slammed for it, um harder than perhaps some others have gotten slammed for it. Um. Because he was the guy up in front of the UN making that argument. Um, but I don't know. And it's also the guy that

got in and to make that argue. He's the guy who let not the one the only person that we blame. But yeah, you know, and he's convinced us and you convinced the world. Yeah. And he's the one who at least tacitly admit we made a lot of mistakes, um, which is like proof that he could have known that he could have been should have known at the time. Um, and he didn't. Uh. And it's it's of him. Well, if I don't want to go to war, but if we are going to we'll go to war, then I'm

the one that should do it. Yeah, and that's dumb. Um. A lot of a lot of soldiers throughout history have had that opinion, um, and their names in a number of cases where the German general staff in World War Two, Um, and you know what we call those people now, fucking Nazis. Um. That's always yeah, part of it, part of the argument, right, Yeah, I have no It's one of those things. I I would be willing to bet if you met Colin Powell, all of the things being equal, you would have liked him.

He seems like a thoroughly pleasant, likable human being who was who was nice and considerate in his personal life to to the people who were in it. He was good at charming people. Um. A lot of journalists who are very critical of of the Bush administration and talk to him liked him quite a lot. Um. You'll find a lot of cases of that. And that that doesn't matter because a lot of the most charming people in

the history of the world have been war criminals. Because you can be a very nice person and a fucking monster. And in fact, it's more normal for monsters to be extremely nice, pleasant people than it is for them to be like howling. Yeah, Trump is a little bit of an anomaly. Most of them are very pleasant. You would you would probably all other things being cool, like George W. Bush if you got to know him, because the reason he got to be George W. Bush is he's charming.

This ality of brutality, yeah, how it's how you really get it done. It's one of the reasons Trump wasn't able to do as much as he probably wanted to because he's he's violent, like really unpleasant, like yeah, just unpleasant. Pas. Look at the Trump administration obviously committed certainly at least its fair share of crimes against humanity. Um And but there were constant leaks, right, constant backfighting and people like selling each other and selling the administration out. That ship

didn't happen to George W. Bush. You know why, because he inspired loyalty. Because he's a very pleasant person to hang out with. People tend to like him. But if if you're if you're leader is like a paranoid freak. Yeah, like that vicious to everybody around him, no matter who. Um And, Yeah, that's gonna not only are people not gonna like that, but it's gonna rub off on other people, and this is going to create a culture where everyone

is a paranoid freak. Yeah. I I think if you really under want to understand how what evil people are, like truly evil people, not just people who do bad things, but but but the real monsters amongst the folks who most deserve that term. Um, The Act of Killing is still like the best documentary for that because it features a journalist hanging out with these people who in some cases strangled thousands of human beings, like with machines on their own, and uh, you could that most of them

are very nice people. M M. Yeah, it's uh yeah, it's uh, I mean content warning. I guess it's fucking hard to watch. Yeah, it's it. It should be hard to watch. But that's that's the reality of of the most damn in a lot of cases, the most dangerous kinds of evil is it's yeah, they're they're people you would like in another context. Colin Powell, you probably could

have gotten along with. I bet he was an exceptional dinner guest, right, And that's why like you get you know, uh, the marvelization sort of effect, like yeah, like you're not if you're not performatively a villain, then people aren't going to assume that things you're doing are villainous. Yeah, but if you are and you live in a golden tower, then maybe people will be the more suspicious of your actions. Yeah,

and that Cody is why. The best depiction of a villain an American pop culture is Homer's boss from Heck Scorpio from that that episode one of the absolute classic. Um yeah, uh, he's so likable, he's so charming, it's amazing. Um, he is a literal super villain. Um. And even then after watching it, like Hank's all right, Yeah, I don't have a problem with Hank. You know what, I don't have a problem with Yeah, I don't have a problem with them at all. I love products and services. You

can't tell which I love more, but they're both great. Well, you don't have to compete. It's not a competition. You don't have to What is this the Communist? Yes, I haven't seen the show, so I'm just going to react really neutrally adds together everything and now we're back already, Yeah, we're we're back, and we're I don't know, I had enough of a rant on Colon Powell. I figure I

don't know. You know, one of the fair criticisms people could have of Behind the Bastards is that I have not really delved into the Bush administration in much of any detail. And some of it's just because, like I think everybody knows more or less what they did. Blow is a great podcast if you want to really granular

look at it. But some of it's that just like it all makes me so fucking angry because I've spent a lot of time in the middle of the ship that they kicked up, and it I'm just bad at talking about it without like extremely it's extremely personal for you, for all of us, because we're a child doing it. It was the it was the war crimes that my parents like enthusiastically supported, um and it's a big part

of your career. Yeah, it's just I don't know, one of those days we will, like I should like knowing what was going on even when it was happening, and like I didn't. I was like a dumb right wing ship head, Like I said, I probably would have been. That kind of feels like a different project than Behind the Bastards its own little So that's walking an arc that walks through your experience of it. I don't know, as we can. I can pitch you on your own life.

I don't want to. I wouldn't want to center my life experience, but you can war but you can talk about the shift and like you can talk about there's a lot through that lens. That's that's all that's interesting to hear. There's a lot to say. Um, But I don't know. I'm just gonna I'm just chilling out this week and having a fun read about all of the kids who got molested by the Boy Scouts, Like a hundred thousand Cody, It's outrageous. That's so fu Yeah, it's

it's it's out of its mind. It's like Catholic church number. That's like, so that's such a large number that, yeah,

it's it's it's like database of all this um. It's yeah, actually kind of The Boy Scouts started keeping one in nineteen twenty called I think it was the p Files for Perfect files of like people who weren't supposed to be allowed to be Scout masters again because they've molested kids and gotten fired, but like a huge number of them got in again and again, and the Boy Scouts have this whole policy of like, well, we're never going to call the cops about this, like we'll just try

to not hire them again. In but also when every other youth organization in the country starting A five starts requiring criminal background checks for their employees, which is literally the minimum, they fought like relentlessly against the idea UM and as a result, repeatedly hired convicted child molesters. No it doesn't um. Yeah, anyway, a little preview of an upcoming behind the Bastard Building the Leaders of Tomorrow. Yeah, unfortunately because like literally like more than a quarter of

Congress people were Boy Scouts. Uh, it's like huge. I mean I was a boy Scout. I loved the Boy Scouts. A great time in the Boy Scouts had an okay time. It's one of those things when I when I talked to like my parents about like like my dad was Catholic and so I talked about like the crimes of the Catholic Church and he's like, like, I get it. I know it happened, but like I was an altar

boy and like nothing ever happened. And I can get that because like, yeah, I was in the Boy Scouts for a long time and it was great for me, And I don't think I or anyone in my troop was molested, but like a hundred thousand kids were. So it's just like thing, it's this, it's it's yeah, and it's it's the thing that um is so morally complicated about it. It's just like squaring like, well, this was

great for me, it was also a nightmare. Like on the whole seemed to hold both truths in their mind that just because I had this experience doesn't mean someone else has a bad experience. And it's my job to listen and hear what other people share their experiences. And it could have happened to me, Yeah, it sure could have. I was alone a lot with a bunch of dudes that my parents decided to trust me with because they were boy Scots, and it turned out they were all fine.

But who knows, you know, happened to a lot of kids. The P files, the P files, Yeah, something like that. Um, it's bleak. And there's a lot of weird ship about Robert Baden Powell, uh uh, and some stuff he said about kids, although I don't think he was a child molester, but he definitely said some messy stuff. Maybe not but uh, I think he was sexually attracted to boys. I don't think he ever had sex with any boys. Yeah, it's he was. He was a weird one. UM. There's a

lot to say. Again, we're gonna We're about to do an episode this week. It's going to be a fun time for everybody. Robert's really looking forward to that. UM. What should we talk about now? Guys talk about some strikes? IATs yeahs YATSI. UM. So you might have seen in social media that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television UM producers have reached a tentative contract deal with the

IoTs leadership. UM, and there there was some celebrating because you know, otherwise this strike would have begun a gun yesterday Monday. UM. But the reaction is very very mixed, and so the jury is still out on this. It seems to be a little bit of a clusterfuck of a situation here. UM. Part of the problem being that this is you know, I mean, the amazing thing about this is that it's a industry. Why strike, you know,

what would have would have been or could be. UM. So there's a lot that needs to get incorporated into this deal. And I think that there were some things that were meant and there was a lot that has not been met, and the prevailing feeling that I'm getting from my social media feeds. But I shouldn't say in general because I don't know. I'm not a member. Um Uh. It seems to be disappointment and frustration at giving in too soon during a once in a lifetime opportunity when

you have the world's attention. Um. And it seems like like that might be true. Yeah, I'm going to read a quote from Max schwartz Um, a studio electrical lighting technician and the local seven to eight Young Workers Committee

co chair. UM. He wrote the statement, while people may argue that this is a historic victory, and for some locals like eight seven one, it is, it feels to live up to the situation before us, never again in history, while our union have the leverage against mega corporations like it has now to create deep sustainable structural change. UM yeah it so. Yeah. I'm not sure exactly where things stand now, but I think that it goes back out and people are gonna like talk about it individually within

their different chapters. I don't know, I hear there's a lot of complaints still that it doesn't go far enough. There's still like a lot of time people are going to be required to do. There's some discussion I've seen online, uh, particularly in comments on Naked Capitalism where people involved in this and the John Dear strike or kind of chatting, and there's discussion that maybe the success of the John Deere strike and the leverage they have is going to

inspire ayatsy folks to not accept the deal and push back. Yeah, I mean I want them to get everything they can because for for fucking sure, the companies like the Disney and whatnot are well right, and like also like now is the time right, Like if except this literally the only time, then yeah, because there's there's this there's clearly this attempt where they're like, oh, you might not get the Mandalorian in time to like rally the fans against

the people against the people without whom there's no content, and they're trying to like UM and it's hard. It's tricky. I understand that this is a daunting um position for leaders to be in UM because a strike obviously would fuck the student deos, but they are rich the people that the strikers are not. These people are fighting for a living wage. And it is a precarious situation to be putting everybody in Um, how long will we be

out of work? What's going to happen? Um? And so I understand that it's a really big cost benefit analysis, but again, once in a lifetime, this is the moment. This is the moment, and we kind of need people to seize this moment. We need people to stand strong right now and fight, fight, fight for the things that are important. UM. And the fact that there are people, uh that there communicating with these other industries and other

people on strike seems like a very good sign. Yeah, that's the kind of organization that and create real power for each movement. UM. I didn't realize that that's what was going on. And that's very good. Yeah. I mean, hopefully we'll see, but I do want my mandalawan ms. Look. I mean, I think what's clear here is that Pedro Pascal, if he really wants to support the struggle of people to to liberate themselves, needs to just put out a daily video during the strike where he just he just

he just reads stuff. I don't care what it is. Get your shirt off, maybe take your shirt off and read stuff in front of web. Maybe take your shirt off, maybe keep it off, maybe keep it off, reading like a toylightsaber and go. Yeah, literally anything, just just just move shirtless on camera for us. These are all great suggestions. Yeah, hit hit Pedro up on Twitter, ask ask him to support Yachtzi by um, just because it also it looks so confining on him, you know, in l A's warm um.

So you know, even now, even in even in October, even in October, take your shirt off, Pedro, Come on, Pedro with enough sexual October, Pedro. We know that friend of Betty White, Pedro Pascal is listening right now, so off, well, they have to be friends because Betty White was on the community and Pedro Pascal was on the community zoom thing where they read that one episode, and he took over for that guy's role in the episode after there.

So there they got to bed. He read, uh what Shane, Yeah, yeah, the the lawyer guy who was like reading Pierce's will. Yeah, that's what That's what he thought. He must know Betty White. Yeah yeah, alright, no, yeah, he definitely, he definitely does. I don't know. I think all celebrities know each other.

Incredible news for all of you right now. Um, so on our work email, we we get these these updates, these inside radio updates that are about like just stuff happening in the world of radio, because we're for I Heart Radio. And uh, the email I just got was you know, the title was external because it's from outside the company. Dan Bongino on Cumulus. We're going to have to come to an agreement quick, and it's about some

Dan stuff. I don't care because the stuff, yeah, it doesn't matter because in my actual inbox, you know, it doesn't display the whole title. You get a shortened version on the title. And the shortened version of the title is Dan Bongino oncome. Ah, it's so good, Dan Bongino oncome, it's so good man, I am. That really just made my week. All right, Well, that's going to do it for us today from there, Yeah, as a society, I

don't know. Yeah, no, I think we did it. We can pack everything up right, Um, that's incredible the screenshot at and then just like I'm literally tweeting it right now. Okay, well, I'm not sure if we can end the show just yet, but we can throw it an ad, break a brick together everything, So don't don't. Okay, back and other news just broke. That's not related to Dan Bongino on. Come, I'm sure that we I'm sure that we can find

the through line here together. Um yeah, Sophie. Sophie sent us um this page six item of Kanye West Dawn's bizarre mask. It's also like more I just want to clarify. It's also in like more reputable sources. I'm sure, but that's what. It's also in the Rolling Stones, Patrick said the best photos. Sorry, it is an unbelievably disturbing mask. It's true. What do they do? What are they doing? Guys? It reminds me of the mask that our friend Dave Bell wore for forty eight straight hours while he was

playing the Alien Isolation video game in his bedroom. It does. It is reminient, reminiscent of that. It is, Oh my god. Yeah, it's fucked up. It's fucking weird. Like it's the kind of okay, it's the kind of thing that like, okay, Kanye walking on with his mask. I don't care why if it's like an anxiety thing or like some art bullshit whatever, Just exactly don't care. Fine, more power to you, Love you buddy, keep wearing the mask around. It's very disturbing.

I don't care what people meetings with Michael Cohen. What what the fun Because he's Kanye West. He just does ship. You shouldn't like what look he's like, he don't know, he's like you, I want to it's probably political. No, maybe not maybe, No, he's he's Look, he's he's he's ill, right, like he's been he's been committed before, like he's he's he's ill. But he's one of the wealthiest people in the world. So he's never going to get treated. He's

just gonna get enabled. And he's gradually pushed away the people who did at one point try to like push for him to get treated, and he's he's sick, but he's he's rich and I because he's rich, and because he's not ever going to like be in danger other than you know, not taking care of his mental health, but whatever purpose so that people would not recognize him the first ten minutes we can get down to people who wanted photos and to say hello. So he put

on this mask to give him someone. First off, I don't know Kanye well, not a fan of his music in particular, nothing against it. If I saw that walking down the street, I met, well, that's Kanye West. That's clearly Kanye West are more conspicuous. But Robert, that is a really important thing. That you said that he's not well. We have to all that doesn't mean what you guys doing. Yeah, he's not well. He's not well, and he like that should be the beginning of every conversation about on a

Kanye West stunt. Can we can we talk about Michael Cohen roll good guy? When we suggested, when we suggest to Cohen that maybe he should try wearing a mask around town from our privacy, he jokingly fired back, I've seen your face. Maybe you need a mask. What a man, what a great man? Like some classic Trump ship Hell

yeah yeah, same guy. Will say, the best thing about Michael Cohen is that he is responsible for the one good joke Donald Trump ever told a legitimately exceptional joke, which was it was when it was when Michael Cohen like came out and like said that he was testifying against Trump and started like doing his whole like throwing trumpet of the bus thing, and Trump just tweeted, I wrongly recommend that you not enlist the legal representation of

Michael Cohen's actually very funny. It was a good joke occasionally. Yeah, Well, the thing is, it's not even occasionally. It's just he's just a funny He's funny. He's the funniest president will ever have. There's no his Statementwell, it's hysterically like I don't want him back, and if it would be, it would be really nice if he redacted soon. But like, yeah, very funny. Yeah, but usually it's he's funny because he's just a goober. And that was actually telling a joke.

He's not being an alien man who like he was actually like that was actually just a very well constructed joke that he told on the Twitter dot com. Um, oh, well, we've really come around on Donald Trump here today, haven't look. I fairer not If a man tells a good joke, I'm going to give him credit for it. I spent too long in the comedy world to not not not do that. And you call it like you see him call him like a sea calling balls and strikes a

sticker or you know, nie slapper. There's the two the two options. Um, why is this the second meeting they've had together? I don't know. Like who again, who the fuck knows? Like they could be putting together an album, like they could be about to drop a Michael Cohen Kanye West joint. Nothing would surprise me, truly, could be

anything they say. Real estate, sure, yeah, of course if you're West, Michael Cool real estate scummy lawyers, yes, if i'm If I'm billionaire Kanye West, the guy I'm going to for my real estate questions is disgrace lawyer Michael Estate. Know they're they're making a book or some something. Maybe they're launching a podcast. We don't listen, but I definitely listen. You would definitely right now. Yeah, I only listen to one podcast. It's fine. What's the podcast you listen to? Oh?

And why is it? Come Town? It's called Rude Tales of Magic. It's incredible. Oh oh on on the Small Beans network. Right, No, it's a it's a it's a D and D podcast with Branson Reese, comic artists. Funny. This isn't like I wasn't intending to like plug this this show, but if you want to go to their Patreon, it's amazing. It's the only podcast I listened to and to us from. Yeah, no, you don't I know for a fact that you don't. Cody has never listened to

any of our podcasts the time. I don't listen to my pod. I've said it, it's been said. I listened to Knowledge Fight and uh, I listened to my favorite podcast, The Serial Vapists, which I downloaded seven years ago. What it was about. Oh, it's a podcast about vape culture in North Carolina. It's hosted by four men who are calling their podcast The Serial Vapists was a bad idea? Yeah, yeah, maybe? Wow? Did you know that there was that New Zealand had

an official wizard? Yes? Yes, I was aware of that because he had the job I wanted. Why don't they have it anymore? Wait? Wait, so I have so Robert, did you know about this before he uh was fired? Yes, it's it's literally the only job I've ever actually wanted. I'm sorry, you're going to have to explain this to me. They have a wizard, Katie. He's actually the city Wizard. If I'm not mistakes, He's the christ Church city Wizard.

What kind of wizarding does he dabble in? Well, whatever wizarding he dabbles in, he also dabbles in some sexual harassment, which is why he's no longer the Christ unpleasant. He's not a nice man. Look, he's a wizard. Nobody expects wizards to be nice. I didn't think that was a thing that existed in real life. Is my confinusence only once and only one place and not anymore, which is the greatest tragedy in his job other than sexual harassment.

You know, he sometimes you needs some magic done. He's gotta go. He's gotta they're they're opening them all or something and they need some magic at them all. He doesn't magic hat trick. He's like a communicator for like the city. Yeah, but like he's like surgery. In Portland, we have a guy who rides a unicycle that shoots fire out of his bagpipes while he's on his unicycle, which is layman sucks. Actually, I'm sorry, but that um

is more specific to me than the general term wizard. Okay, I mean it's very specific because there's only one city wizard. But what's his job? Duty? And to be a wizard? Katie what? Okay, when you're watching of the Rings Katy story, when you're watching Lord of the Rings, are you thinking, what is his job? What? Does Gandolf do? How does he make his Moneyand I know has some specific skill set which is magic. Yeah that's what the same with the Wizard of christ Church. He does magic and he's

an asshole. Every wizard has the same job. They do magic and they're a dick from Elminster to Gandolf, whatever wizard you want to talk about their assholes and they do magic. That's wizards. They're just assholes. Didn't we have something like that? Yeah? We should. Actually that is literally the no Welcome back part or maybe working title was based off wid Yeah, it sure was. And fucking look, Alan Moore, wizard, comic book writer, tried to end the world with a spell, wove it into one of his

comic books. May have succeeded. You can't say he didn't look at what's happening. We're watching it happen, right, Yeah. Who knows where all this came from. Maybe a wizards job that lives inside of his soul, We don't know. All I want is to be a city wizard or a national wizard. I'd be the country's Well. I hear that there's a job opening there in christ Church, called me up. Just send a darn you call her up. You're the wizard. I know she's read one of my articles.

So maybe I'll get to be a wizard. Yeah. Hell yeah. You get an annual salary of grand that's enough. Pretty magical. Yeah, that's enough for wizard stuff. Can you zoom into your wizard duties? Um? No, but you can astral project, which is like zoom. Yeah, I can call. I can call it zoom. It's zoom but a little windier. Yeah. I can project my voice. Do you mean like make a phone call? No, anyway, I found out that there was an official Wizard of New Zealand. It's very fun. Fired

and I just I had to bring it up. Imagine getting fired from your job as a wizard. Unbelievable. It did. Yeah, but it's gotta be like one of the easiest jobs to keep. If you want to keep it, keep your mouth. I mean, can you give me the enample of a trick that the city wizard. I would say that what we know of wizards suggests there's actually high turnover. For example, the Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place over a roughly thirteen month period. We are introduced to two wizards,

half of whom are unemployed. By the end of the book. True, and also one the other one makes a career change. He does, he does, he does make a shift, He switches jobs exactly. It's greater white. So yeah, a lot of turnover, Robert. Yes, look, the job title alone is worth the It's like being a journalist, you know. I mean, I think that you're the wizard of my heart. So there's that thank you, thank you. But I could try to get that be my my job title. You could,

and you should, I think. Anyway, we're gonna have to get Alan Moore on the podcast. Okay, yes please literally my only dream. Yeah, absolutely, joke, but yes, no, he's a beautiful maniac. He should be the city Wizard of Christ or wherever he is. He's like the official Wizard of wherever he is at that moment. Yeah, it's somewhere in like the Midlands, I think, Yeah, the official Okay, I'm going to have to look into this some more, but we can continue. We can continue this conversation. Sometimes

we have a steam here today. Well, I have more to say about wizards. Well I always I have. We're not going to talk about it, but I just want to say, if you've been if you've watched if you're listening, if you've watched squid Game, you need to know tempoole and ah, some sort of contingent people on the on on the internet seem to believe not only that it doesn't really have a political message, but that if it did, it's anti communism, and um, it is hilarious. It's embarrassing. Um,

it's very funny. I love it because I love for them. We three of the people, three of the four people in the zoom room have not seen squid Game. But all of the people in the zoom room do are know that it is in fact political. It's clearly it's clearly is I mean, Yeah, there's a scene in which a lady it expresses that she fled North Korea for South Korea thinking capitalism would be better, and specifically does not say that it's any better, like while she's death game. Yeah,

while she's a death game. The message of that scene is not look at how much better capitalism is. It's actually these these are both trash and like the people of Korea deserve better than either of these systems. I love when people don't understand blatant blatant, their purposely misunderstanding it.

I think some people. I think some people are purposely misunderstanding it, Like there's no way Temple actually thinks that, Like, no, I can't know, he doesn't think anything other than what what is the thing I can say to get people to tweet angrily and thus make more money? Exactly? It's it's attention stuff and we're giving it to him now. I just think it's so funny, like it's out there and people some people do actually think that that this is true, that people read too much into things and

like you're interpreting it when it's not there. Um, And that's just like such a a sad sort of way to watch art. Yeah, it's the reason that conservatism is like so so fundamentally soulless and dead unless they're actively physically trying to harm people, which is why that's the only thing that like their street movements ever get excited about is is assaulting, and what most of art is about too. Yeah, it's just about all they have is

doing violence. Um, because they reject the idea that art should be about anything actually meaningful, because inherently meaning, like real artistic meaning, always runs against the things that they believe about the universe. Because the universe they believe in is is devoid of beauty. M hm. Yeah, unless it's like pretty columns or paintings of landscapes. That's all that's

all it is to them. Yeah, Hitler shit, um yeah, yeah, it's it was one of those like realizing as a kid, oh wow, the only art uh that that like as conservative as she was, My mom's very favorite movie was Alien, and the message of Alien is pretty anti capitalist. Actually, if you if you want to watch it, he's not. Ridley Scott is not saying nothing about capitalism in Alien.

Oh god no, I mean that's that's the other That's the fascinating thing too, because like you know, you see it with like an Ian Miles Tahn word ever talking about robo cop and like I bet you think political, yes, Paul Vera Hooven, it was never not talking about the fact that the United States was a death cult. Yeah, it's like it's it's just like and and there's you know, maybe an argument to be made that like some things these days are a little more on the nose and

more obvious. But yeah, I've seen people like candy Man, the new the new version candy Man came out and they're like, oh, they put their woke politics about gentrification in this, and it's like, that's what it was about. Like also, like the idea that putting politics and horror movies is like, why are you doing this? Like that's

like the one of the most political genres in existence. Yes, political, Um yeah, I mean I my opinion on drowning kids in the lake at Summer Camp was changed inevitably exactly because of the art. I used to be very pro that. I just go on a limb and say that art has always been political. Well it's a it's like an expression of like emotions and values and experiences. I mean, it's not always political, but it's always But that's been

a part of art tangled up in it exactly. Um. And it's just hilarious to look at something that is like not just like wow, there's like a message in there, but explicitly political, where even the creators out there talking about how like, yeah, one of the characters was is kind of like Donald Trump, don't you think? Yeah? And it's like, guys, come on, I I have to say Tim Pool's take on on the squid Game is very funny,

um and and as dumb as you'd expect. But my favorite is the guy who calculated that while they spent like ten he spent the writer spent ten years writing it, and the network spent twenty four million filming it, and it made more than nine million dollars. But if the writer had just bought fifteen thousand bitcoin in two thousand nine, he would have made more problems content. It's just I saw that that was I will say that was definitely a troll. It has to be. It has you're talking about.

It is exactly the kind of thing someone would say. It is, like you undis indistinguishable from reality, indistinguishable from like an ironic crypto discussically yes, um, Like you know, half the people that were that were responding that tweet were like, yeah, you're right anyway, go watch the Good Game and the then the Alien TV show that's political.

Now they're making Alien political. I can't believe it. Oh no, they're making Alien a show about low paid truckers whose lives are sacrificed for a tiny chance at profit by faceless corporate executives who we never see in the movie um and who literally have a member of the crew whose only job is to murder everybody if that is the most profitable outcome. Uh, that movie, they're they're, they're

they're putting politics in it. Coding is disgusting. I know they're putting politics in the series, whose second movie was fundamentally an allegory for the foolishness of the Vietnam War and the uselessness of advanced military systems and budgets in in fighting scumentation. I just watched, Uh, snow Piercer, a movie about how public trans about trains, about nothing but trains, and how trains are bad. Actually trains are bad. We

should just fly. Yes, the meaning of snow Piercer, I don't. Well, someone hasn't watched snow Piercer. Then, well, it's about how trains are bad, trains are bad, and we should give fish to the cops. Yeah, you're you're you followed. Yeah? Yeah. Is this a culture podcast? Yeah, I mean once a month culture cast, everybody comes and talks about the things that they're watching. Everybody comes and ye, starting with Dan Bungino. There we are back around, guys. You can check us

out online at Worst Year Pod. You can. And that's yeah, that into that everything everything so dull. It's again. I tried. Worst Year Ever is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.