February 17, 2021 • 56 mins
Today we talk about post-impeachment, the lies about Texas' power grid, and the terrifying planned future of virtual reality.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, A production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything, So don't don't hello, Welcome back to
(00:22):
Worst Year Ever? Is this the way I'm opening the show?
I think it is. My name is Katie. You guys,
don't go anywhere. It's gonna get better. Oh, it can't
be better than this. The energy is at an all
time high. Speaking of Hi, Hi, I'm Cody. H I'm
(00:45):
also Cody, but better Cody. That's also true's leg and that.
But this information contradicts what I already know about you,
which is that you are Robert Evans. That doesn't sound
right the Robert Evans, you know, Katie. In journalism, we
require three sources to confirm a fact like that, and
(01:06):
I don't believe you have that much confirmation I've got,
and Cody confirming doesn't seem like Cody is confirming. I said, so,
I think I think this This is The Washington Post
would call this a disputed fact. We're at two and
a half pinocchios. Right, It's impossible to the truth. I'm sure.
(01:30):
I'm sure I could dig up a birth certificate, but
who cares. We've got to cody that thing a long
time ago to protect myself from the government. Can I
just say, can we just say Cody Squared, Cody's Johnson.
We're work shopping new bits that we can put on
T shirts. Maybe that's one of them. I don't know.
(01:50):
That's a good one too. Send us your fan art.
We're work shopping new bits for T shirts. That's a
new slogan. That's the today. We're just cataloging new slogans. Yeah,
that's what we're talking about today, only that as these things.
Welcome to the news. Yeah, um well, there's there's a
(02:11):
bunch of stuff to get through today. We're gonna have
a Hodgepodge wild Bride, good time vibes all around. Um,
let's start with impeachment. Speaking of wild hodge Podge Wild,
what was your guys experience. I've been trying my best
(02:32):
to turn off the internet on the weekends at least
a little bit more stay away. I'll check in the morning, um,
you know, just to see what kind of likes I've
been showered with. Um, I think you had this viral overnight.
Um no, but then I I will maybe check in
at the end of the day. Or I think you
(02:53):
had the exact same thing as me on Saturday. Were
you unplugged, like right when they said they were doing
witnesses and then you went back and then he was acquitted. Yes,
that's what I was building to. I had the exact
I read your dream. I was like, say, yeah, so
like up in the morning to the news that they
will be calling witnesses. There was that. Uh was at
(03:17):
the Washington Post that was reporting on Friday about the call.
Uh was Kevin McCarthy, Uh the day of the insurrection
on this phone with Donald Trump saying called him off,
called him off. And then Donald Trump was like, oh, yeah,
those are a bunch of Antifa people, and he's like, nah, dude,
their Trump supporters. And then Donald Trump says something to
(03:39):
the lines of well, at least they care enough to
do something about it. And we've got people willing to
testify and talk about it, and we're all gung hope.
But then by the end of the day he had
indeed been acquitted. That was a wild ride for me, guys,
you but um, we did it. We held him accountable,
(03:59):
We held account got all the facts in front of everybody. Yeah.
I mean they didn't even do that because they didn't
call witnesses. Because I guess the Republicans threatened to drown
them in a bunch of witnesses and keep it going,
and everyone wanted to go home to get fucked or
too fuck or to fuck to bone at the now
(04:20):
open restaurants that were can have another. And it's like, God,
I'm just so that was disgusting first of all, so
black pilled right now because it's it's we couldn't do it,
couldn't do a proper impeachment, couldn't call all the witnesses
we need, couldn't impeach the guy, which I guess I
can forgive, just because the realities of how that vote
goes are what they are and the Republicans are monsters,
(04:41):
but I can't forgive. Is like the Democrats have completely
failed to get any kind of aid package out. They're
taking another week long break, and while we have no
aid package, people are not getting checks. A horrible winter
storm is hitting, the President is getting ready to start
touring again. Joe Biden decides that the next the next
big priority is to start throwing out shit about gun control,
(05:04):
when again, no one has a fucking aid package. Like,
it's just this, We're gonna help people, We're gonna get
into all of those different things today, I believe, But yeah,
it is. It is unbelievably frustrating. Also, okay, so I
want to wrap things up. They want to get things going,
move things along, to focus on of these other very
(05:25):
important things such a believe. Right, So you're not doing that.
You spend these things up to not do that. But
what what was the point thus far? If you're not
to get the information out but then to get it
all out? What are you doing? What is this half
(05:46):
asked measure? Like it's largely political theater, right, Um, to
give the illusion that they're doing something. Um, and uh,
they I mean they knew, like, yeah, he's gonna get
a quit it. Although seven votes and Republicans is more
than I expected. So, I mean it is like historic
and that more people voted to of the president in
(06:06):
questions party voted to impeach and than has happened before. Yeah,
it was more. It was more bipartisan than one would expect.
But also like, yeah, they did the thing. Also, they
want to get back they you know, time to get
back to the real stuff. Really helped the people. They're
also doing what a nine eleven commission style thing about
the January six, So like, that's so you're not actually
(06:29):
gonna the trials? Really offensive to me, to be honest,
it was not a trial because the jurors were also
the victims and also co conspirators, and also met with
the defense lawyers in the middle of the trial. And yeah,
it's like if you were putting a serial killer on
trial and the jury was an even mix of family
(06:51):
members of the people he killed and the folks who
sold him bone saws um. Also, one thing I'm very
upset about actually is that they deprived us of the
opportunity to see Donald Trump speak, yes at this trial. Yeah,
(07:11):
why why couldn't you at least give us that what,
watch him do his thing, give him to give him
a few minutes? Lawyer? Could you have made him come?
Because they were turned it down? Is there some protections
as a former president that we're talking about the come
of elected leaders? I think this is this is my wheelhouse,
Katie So talking about Donald Trump semen I mean, I've
(07:34):
got about forty six pages prepared. Should we just he
prepares he produced a semen um. Yes, he's had a
long held theory that he's never had sex. So I
I don't know that he's had sex. You can produce
semen without having sex um And have you have you
ever bitten into a fast food hamburger and then had
(07:54):
a glob of mayonnaise fall down so unhappened to the
side of your hand and then it just sort of
like oozes down onto the sleeve of your jacket. That's
that believe it's called toothpasting. That's how he ejaculates. But
I also imagine that it smells exactly like apple cider vinegar. Yeah.
(08:18):
Also the drip, I don't know that it's inside, it goes,
it drips down and back into his ure. Cider vinegar
has a lot of health benefits just putting that out. Yeah,
this is not that case. It is not only this
is corrupted apple cider vinegar. Yeah, it's like apple cider
vinegar that's been mixed with mayonnaise and left in a
(08:40):
gym bag on a hot day, like an app an
apple cider vinegar sauce that's been left in jim shoes
in a gym bag in the back of a Ford
Fiesta and a hundred and fifteen degree heat with nineties
percent humidity, with dope of cottage cheese. Right before we
started recording, he had a call to discuss T shirt designs,
(09:03):
as I I hinted at earlier in the episode, and
the only recurrent bit we could come up with was, um,
you know our discussion of politicians come and here we
are continuing that. Well, yeah, it's I don't enjoy it.
Although to be serious for a moment, Okay, perhaps if
(09:25):
we let Donald Trump speak, um, uh, he would have
incited for violence. Honestly, there is absolutely something you've said
about that. Let's give him back a platform, Let's put
him in front of a camera again. Yeah, let's see that.
(09:45):
I will say. I will say though I've already seen, um,
a federal lawsuit being filed against him and Rudy Giuliani.
Uh the end of a c p on behalf of Rep.
Benny Thomps and who's a Democrat from Mississippi. Um and
other other Democrats in Congress are going to be joining
in as plaintiffs. So but then you know, the lawsuit
(10:09):
basically argues that h well, I'll just read from the
New York Times. The lawsuit contends that Mr Trump and
Mr Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act in eighteen
seventy one statute that includes Protections against violent conspiracies that
interfered with Congress's constitutional duties. Suit also names the Proud
Boys far right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group.
(10:30):
So you know this continues. But um, I mean, I
mean in in Mitch McConnell's own speech, the speech where
he made a very well articulated case as to why
the president is indeed responsible for January six and then
(10:52):
goes on to acquit him but also says that he
uh leaves the door opened for civil lawsuits. Yeah, that
was one last frustrating you know, cherry on and again
expected like uh, you know, weak of the thing. They
do the thing you expect, and then they laugh in
(11:13):
your face about it, um, with no consequences because Ms
McConnell can get away with anything. Um. Literally Like it's
it's as if he wrote the speech based off of
him voting to convict and then read the speech anyway. Yeah,
I mean we've been talking about it for weeks. How
do you reconcile these two different parties within the party,
(11:35):
these factions, the pro Trumps and the never Trumps. Um,
I guess you do exactly what he just did, which
is condemned and still equit exactly. He can't he's he's
not doing anything. Yeah, No, reconciliation is necessary because they're
all the same. It's just some are more blatant about it.
The Trump wing of the party, that's what you want
(11:56):
to call it, is just an extension of the other
part of the party. Uh. It grew from the same
pot of soil. Uh. They're the same. Uh, just some
are more willing to try to like, you know, talk
outside of their mouths about it. Um. So you know,
it's there they are. It's Trump's party and they did it,
(12:18):
and congratulations. Also like one of the I forget which
Republican senator voted to Uh, convict um. It was also
like spreading this lie about the election being stolen like
for weeks. Um, and now he's being like paraded out.
Is this like oh wow, the this in a bipartisan move.
(12:38):
He he comes out against Trump's like, no, he did
he helped he did it, and now he's this like,
you know, again the resistance sort of hero type, just
like the responsible Republican who voted against Trump even though
he helped him beforehand. So you know, it's all. Trump's
lawyers were also like horrible. They were like far for
(13:01):
the course. They were so embarrassing. The guy didn't even
know if he was like, oh, I'm not sure if
I'm under oath yours the lawyers aren't under oath do Yeah.
My favorite part was when he called the impeachment constitutional
cancel culture, which is so much about like they have nothing,
(13:22):
it's just cancel culture, cancel culture, cure. I have so
many thoughts about cancel culture political strategy, because what cancel
culture actually is is the idea that like, doing bad
things should have consequences, and they've turned that into if
you get angry at us for hurting you, you're the problem. Yeah,
(13:48):
facing its fucking wild like that is like the Bill
of Rights is constitutional virtue signaling, Like no funk off.
That's like you can't it's just melted all together. So
U and cancel culture just become a catch all term
for anybody coming under fire for anything at all. Uh,
cancel culture police, this and that woke police. And this
(14:10):
is a bit of a general general conversation that I
just said, I want to keep having about different things,
but like it frustrates me. I've seen people in my
own life here in l A and Hollywood. You know,
over the past couple of years becoming increasing this isn't
about politics specifically, but increasingly worried about saying or doing
the wrong thing and how that will come back to
haunt them, and whether or not sharing information is worth
(14:33):
ruing somebody's career. And I'm always like, how I think
we we've inflated the impact because for the most part,
people who get canceled aren't canceled. They've just been called
out on something. They get to use that as an
opportunity to address the problem, to rectify it. You we
give them an opportunity if we want people to grow
(14:54):
in general, that's what we see from this accountability leading
to change with when people are are open to that anyway,
it frustrates well and also more of that's different these days.
Cancel culture is kind of uses just a career move right, like,
oh no, I got canceled. Now I can do my
cancel tour and go on all the canceled shows. It's
time for this stage of my career exactly. It's just
(15:17):
it's not it's not some career ruining thing. It's a
moment where people get to say you fucked up? What
are you going to do about it? Potentially, but also
it's an opportunity for grifters and people that don't actually
want to change to just weaponize it. And it's certainly
not impeaching the president. That is also not canceled culture.
(15:38):
I've just been thinking about it so much this year. Well,
that's what because they're they're pushing it. That's like one
of their main strategies going to is going to be
like the cancel culture stuff because they're all they're all
in for for Trump is um uh and and yeah,
they can't not be They've given everything to it. Exact
is it's the only thing left in the party. Yeah,
it's it's pure, pure Trump from pure and Mitt Romney
(16:03):
in that photo where he's sitting with Trump and knows
that it's going to be made into a meme. That's
mean you mean that photograph taken by David Lynch Restaurants
and it's incredible. No, it just looks like it's a
lot of layers, bizarre, unsettling aura of a David Lynch film.
(16:27):
Romney has the the unique skill of taking pictures where
the expression on his face is genuinely and genuinely an
expression no human being has ever worn before. It is
It's amazing. Can I give up positive of the impeachment trial?
It's my very, very small silver lining. I thought, so,
are you going to talk about how sexy McConnell looked
(16:48):
in those pants and not just horrified by the statement?
And I'm going to go to hr about that comment.
You can see the spider web stains on the n
C like he looked like he was smuggling hot dog
buns in a briefcase. That was he actually wearing Was
he actually wearing interesting pants? Or you know, I just
(17:13):
wanted to an inappropriately sexually. I was just gonna say
some of the videos they showed that weren't previously shown
and have been widely seen by more Americans that are horrified. Yes, yes,
getting to see how close Mitt Romney and Mike Pitts
came to being torn apart by a mob was valuable
(17:33):
historical insight for sure, for the record, for the record,
for the historic to it. You do love No, I
don't love to see it. I do love to see
it because at least it means that history books in
the future will know we have a video component terrible.
These people were assuming it's legal to make history books
(17:55):
in the future that are not just pictures of George
Washington punching an Indigenous person to death and and Trump
of hugging that flag. Yeah, and the two pages in
our history books in the future, by which I mean
Texas in a year. Well, I think it's time for
(18:16):
us to take a little ad break, come back, talk
about some other things that's not about right, we'll talk
about speaking of cancel culture. Katie just canceled this podcast
so that we can make money, but then she'll renew
the podcasts, revitalized the reboot playing three Dimensional Chess, and
(18:40):
you guys are ruining it by commenting on just like
Louis c k no no together everything. Those were ads. Lord,
(19:01):
they share word. Should we get into Yeah, let's talk
about some Texas. So I'm in Texas right now because
my mom has advanced pancreatic cancer. Um, I'll be here
for the next couple of weeks. Um, and we are
we rented a place an airbnb. Who we happen to
(19:23):
know the person or a friend of the family. Anyway,
we're in an airbnb. Um, and it's in Planoh, which
is because it's a more affluent suburb and because it's
a suburb so it's not in the middle of the
city or whatever. UM still has power. UM, at least
mostly we have not lost it yet. UH. In general,
one of the things that people are pointing out, particularly
(19:45):
within Dallas, is that the wealthiest neighborhoods in this city,
Highland Park being a very noteworthy example, have not lost power,
but a bunch of neighborhoods in a circle around Highland
Park have lost power for significant periods of time. UM.
One of the things that's, you know, noteworthy about this
is that Highland Park is not just a wealthy part
of Dallas. It's one of like, I don't know, the
(20:08):
twenty or so richest neighborhoods in the entire country. Like
it's real big money is Highland Park and they have
not had not lost power for a minute, while a
whole circle of neighborhoods around them have all lost power.
And when a local Texas journalist kind of called this
out and documented this, their answer was to open their
(20:31):
their library from UH ten am to five pm as
a warm one floor of the library, right whole library,
the coldest parts of the day ten am to five pm.
And you need that warming center shining in the library.
So it's read, obviously, pack everybody pack into the library,
(20:53):
uh during the pandemic to warm up briefly together for
warmth inside. Please. It's fun that or interesting to me
that the two cities in the United States that seem
to have been like most disrupted by uh, the the
ice storm have been Portland, where I left in Dallas,
(21:14):
where I can say, and now I have to admit
that I don't know the weather of these areas, but
this is extreme, right, this isn't normal. Yes, Portland's normally
gets snow every year, but not a lot, like a
couple of inches. It got like eighteen so and there's differences.
So the reason if you look at like maps of
(21:37):
power like grid ship in the United States, Portland is purple,
which is the bad color, and all of Texas is purple,
and or the reason like kind of North Oregon is purple,
I think has more to do with the fact that
infrastructure was physically damaged by the weight of snow um
power lines went. But it was also a demand thing.
(21:58):
But like a lot of ship just got we had
a safe way in in Portland collapse. Like the ceiling.
The city just isn't built to take snow like this, right,
So it's it was, it's it's the it's the increased
drain on the grid shure that was a factor. But
also just like the sheer mass of snow was not
anything the city was built for, because Portland's really not
(22:18):
is really not much better equipped to handle snow than Dallas.
Oddly enough, um, we don't really have a fleet of ice.
One of the ironic things about Portland is they don't
like to use um salt on the roads because it's
bad for the water. But none of the people who
stopped that stopped the tear gas canisters from going into
the rivers. It was very funny. Also, doesn't the salt
(22:39):
in the isn't that good for No? No, I mean
it's good for safety. Yeah, it's not good. It's not
great for water, but it's you know, a trade off,
And I would argue a better trade off than poisoning
the water in order to tear gas children. I'd rather
have salt in the water than gas. As with the fishes,
I suspect we'll pull them. I know this is worst
(23:01):
year ever, but can we just say the hotels that
are hiking up their prices right now, guys are bastards.
Oh yeah, pieces of ship and technically illegal under Texas
state law. Not that it will get penalized, because it's
like hotels are are doing a thousand dollar a night things.
And I've seen it in in Dallas and Austin. My
(23:22):
brothers in Dallas, and he has friends that couldn't find
a hotel and they just left because they have no power.
It's just it's fucked up, and I think it's important.
This isn't just hitting you know, Oregon in Texas. There
are lots of states and lots of places that are
experiencing extreme winter or weather conditions. And we're having fun
(23:48):
here talking about this, but the reality is that a
lot of people are in a terrible situation being in
uh yeah, these condition is without heat, without power, uh,
not to mention water, uh you know. Population. The particular
(24:09):
problem is it's everyone's getting hit by this. Specific parts
of the country are unable to cope with it realistically
because they're not prepared for it. And at least one
of the things that I will say for Oregon as
opposed to Texas, people in Oregon are much better equipped
for cold weather. It doesn't get that cold in North Texas,
(24:32):
not often. Um. And so in addition to having the
power out, not having access to heating, you know, in
Oregon and in places that tend to get a lot
of cold weather, you have a lot more wood burning
stoves or at least like gas of it, you have
like a lot more ability for people to heat. They're
they're the place they live in. And also people own
(24:52):
better jackets and more. They're just better ready for the
weather and better ready to drive an icy condition. And
it just is Texas is completely When I was a kid,
when we would get an inch of snow or may
or two, it would shut the entirety of North Texas
down for days. Sometimes. Um, we're we're closing in. I look,
(25:13):
I think we're just based on what I'm seeing outside,
it looks like we're closing in on a foot. We're
going to get more tonight, um, And it's just there's
no capacity to handle. I think I'm the only fucking
person in this town with snow tires on my car.
And so it raises an interesting conversation online today, there's
(25:33):
a lot of people talking about the hypocrisy of say,
Senator Ted Cruz, who a few months ago was mocking
California for rolling blockout blackouts during our our wildfire season,
and and you know what, that's valid, You know what, yes, absolutely,
and cringe Shaw for sure, peen all of it. I
(25:57):
would like to just also point out that it is
true that our leaders elected officials in general are not
uh preparing for uh extreme weather patterns and changes the
climate change uh the way they should. We are not
prepared to handle any sort of emergency, as this past
(26:21):
year has highlighted. So for me, there's a little bit
of an element with the online conversation like yeah, of
course that guy's an asshole, uh and and a hypocrite
and and all sorts of things. But the real problem
here is that we have a bunch of our our
our government is reluctant to embrace and acknowledge that climate
(26:41):
change is real and start proactively doing things in advance
to prepare for worst case scenario outcomes. The reason we
will read the reason we will not do this in
most of the country is that properly preparing for these
things requires a commitment to invest in public welfare, requires
(27:02):
a a belief that is widespread, that the that public
safety and health is valuable and that we all have
an individual responsibility to contribute to it. And fully half
of this country believes that is literally identical morally to
the Holocaust. That that's conservatism, right, That the idea that
(27:25):
we all contribute to each other's welfare is the same
as being a Nazi. That's that's where the Hitler was
a socialist. Stuff leads right. That is the essence of
the American right is that And this is this is
everyone has known this was coming. I was just one
of my very favorite UM blogs on pathos. Um it was.
(27:45):
It's by the same guy. Uh oh, jeez, I'm spacing
on his name right now. Um. But he he wrote
a very long series of views about the left behind
books he analyzes like evangelical culture. He put together an
article in like two thousand eleven pointing out that the
US power grid everyone knows is heading towards collapse. And
one of the points was that all of the infrastructure
(28:07):
in our national power grid was made on like a
thirty year cycle, and we're now past like fifty five
years without replacing most of it and upgrading most of it. Um.
It is unbelievably reckless, and everyone knew this was going
to be a problem. The only power grid in the
nation for all that people shipped on California that's not
(28:30):
completely fucked right now is the West Coast power grid.
Even the East Coast grid's doing better than Texas is grid.
And we'll talk about why Texas has its own grid,
but it has. It has been overstressed, and the only
reason that it did not have a cascading failure the
last day or two is because Montreal gave us power
right um. And by the way, the only reason texas
(28:51):
is power grid didn't collapse entirely during a series of
storms in two thousand eleven is that Mexico contributed power.
So we're the equivalent of a guy who keeps going
into the doctor and the doctor says, hey, you're drinking
nineteen coca cola is a day and you're pre diabetic.
You have to cut down on the soda. It's the
single part of your diet that is pushing your body
(29:13):
towards calamity. And every year you go, well, fuck that guy, uh,
and then you wind up with horrific health consequences. And
it's it's it's not a surprise, and that is what
we're doing. We have the ailment was diagnosed like twenty
years ago. The solution is very very clear. It is
(29:35):
not hard. It is not beyond our material capacity or
our financial capacity to handle. We chose not to deal
with this, and in part because we chose to invest
in foreign wars, but in part because there's just an
extreme distaste by many Americans and not just Republicans, because
Democrats don't like to spend money on infrastructure either, not really,
(29:58):
not in a way that's COMPREHENSI ever effective. Um, they're
better at it, Which is part of why I think
we'll talk about Texas is grid in the second it's
part of why Texas is doing the worst out of everybody,
because Texas has this commitment to right wing libertarian ideas
of deregulation. Um. But this, this, none of this is
(30:20):
a problem of This is not even really a climate
change problem. Right. The more severe weather is an aspect
of climate change. But the fact that we're dealing with
power issues is not climate change is fault. It's our
fault because we knew this was a problem and refused
to take action. Climate change stresses this in such a
way that shows the problem for what it is. But
(30:41):
if not this something else, we could have horrible climate
change related disaster and a functional power grid. Which is
not to say that we should be horrible climate change disaster.
If you're not going to take any action on climate change,
might at least have a functioning power grid. But we
we don't and we won't. I don't know. It's just
(31:01):
it's so important. Like we can criticize the Ted cruise
as we can criticize those dummies all we want, but
we have to also understand that it's on both sides
of people being ineffective, um, and that not we all
come together. This is nonpartisan. But yeah, we need some
people that are willing to be brave, be brave because
it is not the most popular thing to talk about.
(31:24):
And you know, but it's critical. It's just it is. Yeah,
it's it's um, it's completely critical. And I guess now
we should talk about why Texas is having a particular problem.
So Texas wind, it's wind's fault. There are it's we'll
talk about that too. There are three power grids in
(31:46):
the continental United States. There's the East Coast Grid, which
is not called the East Coast grid, but it's the
eastern chunk of the country. There's the western chunk of
the country grid, which is like from like Wyoming over
to California and north to south. And then there's Texas UM,
and all of Texas is not on the Texas grid.
Part of the Panhandle, like around Lubbock believe or Leah
around Lubbock is UM part of the West Coast grid,
(32:08):
and a little bit of the eastern side of Texas
is part of the East Coast grid. But about eight
percent of Texas is on its own grid, and it
is the only state that is like that UM. And
there are a number of reasons to it. There's a
great Texas Tribune article on it that basically says that
you can sum it up as fuck the Feds, right,
(32:29):
funk the federal government. UM. Texas did not want to
be not just like they didn't want to be part
of the federal government's grid. They didn't want to be
subject to regulation by the Department of Energy. Right that.
That's the key part of it UM. And as a result,
it allows because the system so deregulated UM, a decent
(32:50):
chunk of Texas functions under like energy monopolies. UM, and
you've got and it's you know, it's it's more profitable
and whatnot. There's there's most Most of the state is
run by a nonprofit called air COT, which is the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas UM, which is technically a nonprofit,
(33:11):
and they're the ones who are supposed to be managing
UM all of this ship. But it it because Texas
has its own grid that is not subject to Department
of Energy regulation. UM, they don't have to keep up
to the same standards, and as a result, while the
entire US power grid is in bad shape, Texas is
(33:33):
in Texas is in particularly bad shape. So let's talk
about wind power. People have been talking about how, oh
the wind, Like, the reason Texas failed is because the
wind power plants failed. That's literally the opposite of the truth. UM.
What people are pointing out is that the total amount
of wattage UH that that we're short by is slightly
more than the capacity that wind power should provide in Texas.
(33:54):
That's not accurate. We're out about thirty or four thousand
megawatts something like that. UM, it's about thirty thousand is
what UH Texas is. Windpower is potentially capable of generating UM,
but that's not what it ever generates, right, It's not
(34:16):
supposed to generate that much. It goes lower in the winter,
and based on their expectations for this month, windpower has
been punching about, has been over providing, it's been providing
more power than they anticipated for it to provide. The
reason that Texas had a shortfall is because natural gas
funked up in the weather. Right, Our natural gas plants
(34:37):
stopped functioning, and some of our nuclear our nuclear plant
has like a nuclear plant has gone offline as well. UM.
It is not wind energy that caused the shortfall that
is currently a problem for Texas. UM. It's more than anything.
Are outdated and and completely like predictable problem. And one
(34:58):
of the things that could have helped is we that
natural gas tends to have these kinds of failures in
these temperatures. If we were connected more to the rest
of the national grid, we could potentially be pulling power
from the West coast or something. UM. There are ways
they could have prepared for this. I found a good
article in the Houston Chronicle, UM, and I'm going to
quote from this now because it puts a lot of
(35:18):
the problems in context, and more broadly speaking, it puts
the issue that we are in the that are that
the US electric grid is in right now, in the
Texas electric grid is in right now in some context
that I think is interesting, especially given conservatisms dimensions in
this quote. Ed Hers, an energy fellow in the Department
(35:38):
of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures
on the states deregulated power system, which doesn't provide power
generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and
improving power plants. The Aircot grid has collapsed in exactly
the same manner as the old Soviet Union, said Hers.
It limped along on under investment and neglect until it
(35:58):
finally broke under addictable circumstances. For more than a decade,
generators have not been able to charge what it costs
them to produce electricity, said Hers. If you don't make
your return on your money, how can you keep it up.
It's like not taking care of your car. If you
don't change the oil and tires, you can't expect your
car to be ready to evacuate, let alone to get
you to work. So again, all very predictable, all very reasonable,
(36:26):
all based on deregulation and a refusal to invest in
any sort of of community safety or welfare whatsoever. Um,
it's cool ship. I love my home state, and I
think that we can all expect to see some significant
(36:46):
changes being made in the near future to address this. No.
I think they're going to blame wind power and try
to cut funding the Wind Pact, and they're going to deregulate. Yeah. Um, yeah,
are going to invest in the free market. Yeah. Have
you guys seen any conversation or response about when they
(37:08):
can expect to be putting people, turning people to electricity
back on getting power back? Um geez. I think probably
later in the week. But we're getting another ice storm
and snowstorm tonight. Um. I don't genuinely worried about so
many people right now. Yeah, I don't think there's really
(37:28):
a good understanding of when things will get better or
how likely it is that they will get better. Um.
I mean this, this has the potential to be like
a Katrina level problem. I'm hoping it won't get that bad.
But four million Texans and change or have no power
right now. Last I checked, more than a hundred thousand
people in Dallas under a boil advisory because water treatment
(37:51):
plants failed as a result of the oil advisory. A
boil advisory means that the water treatment plants are not
treated water. So you need to boil snow or whatever.
You need to boil water that comes out of your
faucet in order to make sure it's clean. Actually, you
don't really thought it was a warning for people about
some condition that will give them boils. Um, No, it's
(38:13):
and and and now also Corpus Christie. I believe it
is on the coast is under a boil advisory, and
I'm sure it will have spread more by the time
you hear this episode. Because just again, necessary basic infrastructure
that is required in order to maintain what we consider
to be the basics of modern life was not invested
(38:35):
in because it's expensive kind of money. Where would we
make that kind of money. Where would we get money
to to pay for these things? We're tapped out, got
these people asking for handouts. We've got to give the
rich people tax breaks, We've got to spend money on
the military, all of the money and the police. So
(38:58):
I'm sorry everyone, you just can't have electricity. I don't
think you're sorry, Hi, you're right. Yeah, it's rad It's
very frustrating. Also physically the lies, like the blatant lies
where it's like, well that's just not true. Um. Yeah yeah.
There was a snort snow tornado in Texas that was
(39:25):
I couldn't agree more, Katie snort. Um. On that note,
I think it's time for a little a break, no
day together everything, So don't don't We're bad. Oh I
(39:53):
should say one other thing about infrastructure and collapse and
ship um, because this is another another example of how
climate change is a massive problem, but also a lot
of the problems that we're having as a result of
climate change are actually problems as a result of us
to take very basic preparedness steps and preventative steps. Um.
(40:17):
In Portland's right, one of the big reasons why their
grid is so fucked and so many people are out
of power is that Portlands has above ground power lines,
which are not the best way to do power lines. Um.
The fact that it makes them you know, they get
they get shipped on them, they collapse. Uh. They Also
the reason we had so many fires in Oregon last
(40:40):
year is because power lines would go down in the
wind and then spark and then catch hundreds of thousands
of acres on fire, and people died as a result
of this. And there was there was a great video
at the time, because there are these all these myths
that Antifa was outstarting the fires. There was a wonderful
video of a group of wildlands a wildfire firefighters like
on their way to fight a fire, and one of
(41:01):
the guys was like, look, there's one thing starting all
these fires. It's fucking power lines. You know how I
know that because every year, for years, one thing has
been starting all of the forest fires. It's fucking power
lines getting blown down and then sparking. And we can
fix this because the twenty one century and we can
(41:22):
bury our fucking power lines. And it's again this like, yes,
the dry conditions, the increased wind, the increased heat, uh in,
the increased rain that leads more vegetation to burn, all
climate change related problems, but a lot of the fires
are just starting because we won't bury our goddamn power lines. Um.
And there's a lot of that in California too. There's
a ton of it in California. Modest investments in infrastructure
(41:47):
could fix these things. We won't do it though also
for forest fires, we could also look to that, especially
here in California mentioned this at the time. You're the
wildfire season here. We ignore the history of indigenous people
that lived here before us, and we do not respect
(42:07):
this earth that you know, And yeah, we just ignore
the advice and the wisdom that other people have accumulated.
Just do our own thing, and it's wrong and common
knowledge and sense all of that. But I think that
that's bears repeating, especially if we're talking about forest fires. Anyway,
(42:29):
We've got more topics to discuss this week. Uh, Robert,
you sent around that article, that VR article. Hell yeah,
I did want to dig into that. What were the
other things I want to talk about? Let's go with that.
Let's let's let's yeah end on a really Uh, unless
(42:49):
you'd rather talk about gun reform legislation, No, let's let's
talk about let's talk about this VR thing into a
few a full world where everything is fine, guys. You
don't have to aspire to a better life. You don't
need to have things that other people have. You can
have it in virtual reality. Yeah, things like a house
(43:14):
that isn't freezing, that heat, food that isn't spoiling you know, UM,
a government that isn't run by kleptocrats who steal your
money in order to give it to Jeff Bezos so
that he can send a penis into space. We should
we should describe this article first. We should describe this article. Yeah,
(43:34):
we should talk about the article. Sorry you want you
want to go, Katie? I just talked to bunch. Uh uh,
well we should Uh we'll circle back to the space penis. UM.
This So this is an article about UM. Basically we've
been Here's the title Billionaire CVR is a Way to
(43:57):
avoid Radical Social Change, O contell Yeah, it's about using
the VR basically as as UM. You know, this tech
gets uh less and less expensive, more and more of
the poores can have it, which means that we can
create worlds within worlds UM to basically give people a
(44:19):
taste of what they do not have in order to
placate them UM and not think that, um, the material
world is changeable, that better things can happen in the
real world because you have a virtual world to escape
to the gist. It's it's one of those things, UM.
And I see you see this a lot with a
(44:40):
lot of these just fucking billionaire nerds um who have
like uh read every single like sci fi dystopia and
gone like I didn't learn anything from that. Let's do
the things. Yeah, here's here's a good uh quote. Uh.
This is from John Carmack, who is uh Doom co
(45:03):
creator and former CDO of Oculus um and and he says,
for this article, not everyone can have a mansion, not
everyone kind of a home theater. These are things we
can simulate to some degree in virtual virtual reality. Now
the simulation is not as good as the real thing.
If you're rich and you have your own home theater
or a a mansion or private island, good for you. You're
probably not the people that are going to benefit from this.
(45:25):
Most of the people in the world lived in cramped
requarters that are not what they would choose to be
if they had unlimited resources. So yeah, station is to
give them a very experience left to them. Meets a
virtual kidfit who is still relevant. Also, it's right, the
Doom guy. It's very Uh. It's an extra fascinating too
(45:48):
because um like Zuckerberg isn't like heavily featured this article
or anything like that. He's not one of the quota
is slightly too smart to be interviewed for this, Yes, UM,
but I would UM, I would highly doubt that he
um is not you know, thinking the same kind of
stuff UM about VR and it's usefulness. Um. I'm just
(46:11):
as I was reading this, I was contrasting it with
UM Zuckerberg going on a virtual tour of Puerto Rico
that happened, but you're right, yeah, uh and talking about
how like it was actually it was to show how
useful virtual reality is to uh, to you know, give
people empathy, um, and be able to empathize with places
(46:33):
you're not. And it's just uh, it's so it's such
a great contrast to the article because it's like literally like,
oh yeah, if you're rich in this other in this
other society, uh, you can pop on the VR and
see the devastation that you don't have to experience. And
then if you are there, you get the worst VR
where you can pretend that you're you know, having a nice,
(46:53):
a nice cooked steak. There's there's another line in here,
um from Carmack. That's how the world gets better by
building technologies and distributing them to people so that they
have something better than they would have had if that
didn't exist. Okay, just the the image of you I
(47:15):
mean with this article is illustrating. Is also like how
these these tech companies um position themselves as you know,
changing the world, liberating the world. But it's actually quite
the opposite. And what are these virtual reality worlds that
are being built? Are you actually addressing systemic issues or
(47:36):
talking about stuff? No, you're you're I think the line
in here is like you're giving a glamorized version of
the world without the realities that we all face, you know,
without just tiptoeing around the ugliness, uh, so that people
can forget about it for a few minutes. Also, these
things are very expensive. Rich people are the only people
I can afford it. It's not even that I don't
(47:58):
even think the expense is the big part of it is.
What's so rational about this to me is the idea
that if you're living in a cramped, squalid home without
proper services, that is incredibly uncomfortable and bleak, putting on
a VR helmet doesn't let you simulate living in a
(48:19):
better home. It lets you look at a nicer home,
right Like, You're not You're not gonna feel like your
bed isn't a mattress you pulled out of the garbage
fifteen years ago. You're not going to feel like you
have hot water even though your hot water heater is broken.
You're not going to feel like you have a couboard
for full of food even though your check doesn't come
for another nine days and you've got nothing but two
(48:40):
packets of ramen in the house, Like, none of it.
You just get to look at a nice house. So
it's like, even within the concept of like what these
guys are saying it could do, the only actual impact
I imagine simulating wealth would have in virtual reality is
it would increase people's desire to pick up a set
of bolt cutters and break into the homes of the
rich and then do things that we can't talk about
(49:01):
in a podcast. He would hope, Yeah, I would hope it. Yeah,
it's um, it's uh selling people a picture of a
nice place, um and letting them look at it. It's
just scary. Also, you're like, I mean the goals ultimately, yeah,
make you feel happy with what you have content. Let's
(49:24):
let's scratch that urge without actually having to do anything
for you. But that's a dangerous dystopian novel to me
of all this Yeah, just sorry, No, that was the
end of every every just every day there's a new
thing like this that is just like and it's it's
such an easy go to but like, well that's a
(49:44):
black mirror episode. Well that's this sci fi dystopia. That's
that's that was warned about decades ago about what we
shouldn't do. And much like good power grids, right, like
just all this stuff. It's like, well, what do you
get out of those things? Um? Do you learn from them? Uh? Anything? Nothing?
You learned that Well, the people on top win, so
(50:06):
I should be one of those people and then make
life worse for everybody else. Um, it's just disgusting, uh
and bizarre, and we get closer every day and phrase
that he described peripheral, Yeah, God, I hate all of
(50:28):
these fucking people so much. Um, it's it must be
so frustrating to be one of the dudes who invented
cyberpunk back in the day as like a warning, seeing
instead everyone just be like, oh the aesthetics of this
are neat let's make it happen. Yeah, it's the miss
(50:50):
uh just misses the mark so much. Even his response
to like things that we're saying about um, like you know, well,
that's not really the real world. Then you're creating this
sort of false image of of like like you like
like you were saying, like you're you're showing them a
picture of what other people have. UM, And he's not right.
(51:12):
It's not a holidack. AND's not like I live in Dallas,
it's a hundred degrees here. Well not anymore, it's a
hundred degrees there. We change the world around us and
all that we do. We live in air conditioning. People
don't generally go, oh, you're not experiencing the world around
you because of air conditioning. That is what human beings do.
We bend the world to our world. That's not what
you're doing virtual reality. That's actual reality. You're creating a
(51:33):
condition that's habitable through air conditioning, so that it's not
it's not all it's real. It's real cold that a
person in air conditioning doesn't think like, oh, wow, this
is a picture of somebody looking cooler than than the
heat outside. No, it's literally you feel that way. I
(51:55):
think it's also important to acknowledge something that is acknowledged
in the article, which is that people keep saying virtual reality,
well we'll take over and you know, really take hold,
and we haven't seen that happen. Like, you know, there
has been a bit of a modest increase in virtual
reality headset sales during the pandemic UM, but not compared
(52:18):
to video games in general. Part of that is the
fact that it is cost prohibitive for most people. The
article discusses how eventually it will become more affordable for
the masses, and that's like the general goal, but it
isn't taking root. You know. I'm sure that's a distraction,
but it's not doing the thing that people want it
(52:39):
to do. And that's kind of what this feels like.
How do we make this drug more affordable and addicting
to people, to the people that actually could benefit from
virtual reality versus the people that are wealthy enough to
spend a most disposable income on a toy like this.
How do we subdue how we more efficiently subdue uh
people in poor conditions um and keep them there without
(53:04):
complaining too much? H put some soma in the water.
I don't know, I take it too far. I mean,
it's it is it is all like it's all that
stuff that I know, I just get weird quoting dystopian
novels seeing how often the right does it to us
about there in the wrong way, Like well that's the
(53:26):
thing they don't Yeah, they don't. Um, they don't do
it in the right way, even like they talk about
whenever they talk about any movie, like well did you
watch the movie? Did it? Yeah? Like what do you say?
How did we get suit very different messages from this?
How do you watch these things? Um? But it's like
what the ending of Ready Player? One bad movie, terrible book?
(53:50):
Why is this the future that people are serious towards,
they're striving towards it. It's so bizarre because like, yeah,
not only is it bad, it's a bad books, a
bad movie. Um, it's also not desirable. That movie ends
with the special boy winning the game and so he
controls the company, and like the victory is that like
he gets a nicer apartment. He does, and then people
(54:12):
like need to log off every once in a while.
They still have the terrible dystopian world in which they live,
which they can escape from via VR. It's still shit.
It's utter ship. It's so good, Cody. I think what
you meant to say is things are heading in a
good direction. We're on our way towards more free thing
(54:36):
is so sal sal salid. It's solid, it's solid, it
is fine, and no one's freezing today. We like the world.
Now things are better every we like the world and
all things are better and everyone's happy. I think that
(54:59):
does it for us today. Yeah, we can talk about
gun control another time. Yea, all the time in the world. Yeah, exactly.
Send us on vacation. Don't worry about it. Yeah, don't
worry about it. Like like Congress, we're going on go
cashing in early, not having done our full job, because
(55:22):
what are you? What are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do? Listen to listen to another podcast? You
fucking you're gonna listen to another You gonna listen to
the Chopos or the Cumtowns. No, you're not. You're addicted.
You're gonna stay here Motherfucker's So if you can, we
call the audience, motherfuckers. We're not near an ad. You
can follow you can follow us that Worst your pod
(55:44):
on Twitter and Motherfucker's Russet. You can follow Katie Stole
at Katie Stole. You can follow Cody at dr Mr Cody.
You can follow Robert and I write O motherfucker. Motherfucker's
song up Everything is so dumb and It's not again.
(56:06):
I tried Daniel. 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.
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, A production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything, So don't don't hello, Welcome back to
(00:22):
Worst Year Ever? Is this the way I'm opening the show?
I think it is. My name is Katie. You guys,
don't go anywhere. It's gonna get better. Oh, it can't
be better than this. The energy is at an all
time high. Speaking of Hi, Hi, I'm Cody. H I'm
(00:45):
also Cody, but better Cody. That's also true's leg and that.
But this information contradicts what I already know about you,
which is that you are Robert Evans. That doesn't sound
right the Robert Evans, you know, Katie. In journalism, we
require three sources to confirm a fact like that, and
(01:06):
I don't believe you have that much confirmation I've got,
and Cody confirming doesn't seem like Cody is confirming. I said, so,
I think I think this This is The Washington Post
would call this a disputed fact. We're at two and
a half pinocchios. Right, It's impossible to the truth. I'm sure.
(01:30):
I'm sure I could dig up a birth certificate, but
who cares. We've got to cody that thing a long
time ago to protect myself from the government. Can I
just say, can we just say Cody Squared, Cody's Johnson.
We're work shopping new bits that we can put on
T shirts. Maybe that's one of them. I don't know.
(01:50):
That's a good one too. Send us your fan art.
We're work shopping new bits for T shirts. That's a
new slogan. That's the today. We're just cataloging new slogans. Yeah,
that's what we're talking about today, only that as these things.
Welcome to the news. Yeah, um well, there's there's a
(02:11):
bunch of stuff to get through today. We're gonna have
a Hodgepodge wild Bride, good time vibes all around. Um,
let's start with impeachment. Speaking of wild hodge Podge Wild,
what was your guys experience. I've been trying my best
(02:32):
to turn off the internet on the weekends at least
a little bit more stay away. I'll check in the morning, um,
you know, just to see what kind of likes I've
been showered with. Um, I think you had this viral overnight.
Um no, but then I I will maybe check in
at the end of the day. Or I think you
(02:53):
had the exact same thing as me on Saturday. Were
you unplugged, like right when they said they were doing
witnesses and then you went back and then he was acquitted. Yes,
that's what I was building to. I had the exact
I read your dream. I was like, say, yeah, so
like up in the morning to the news that they
will be calling witnesses. There was that. Uh was at
(03:17):
the Washington Post that was reporting on Friday about the call.
Uh was Kevin McCarthy, Uh the day of the insurrection
on this phone with Donald Trump saying called him off,
called him off. And then Donald Trump was like, oh, yeah,
those are a bunch of Antifa people, and he's like, nah, dude,
their Trump supporters. And then Donald Trump says something to
(03:39):
the lines of well, at least they care enough to
do something about it. And we've got people willing to
testify and talk about it, and we're all gung hope.
But then by the end of the day he had
indeed been acquitted. That was a wild ride for me, guys,
you but um, we did it. We held him accountable,
(03:59):
We held account got all the facts in front of everybody. Yeah.
I mean they didn't even do that because they didn't
call witnesses. Because I guess the Republicans threatened to drown
them in a bunch of witnesses and keep it going,
and everyone wanted to go home to get fucked or
too fuck or to fuck to bone at the now
(04:20):
open restaurants that were can have another. And it's like, God,
I'm just so that was disgusting first of all, so
black pilled right now because it's it's we couldn't do it,
couldn't do a proper impeachment, couldn't call all the witnesses
we need, couldn't impeach the guy, which I guess I
can forgive, just because the realities of how that vote
goes are what they are and the Republicans are monsters,
(04:41):
but I can't forgive. Is like the Democrats have completely
failed to get any kind of aid package out. They're
taking another week long break, and while we have no
aid package, people are not getting checks. A horrible winter
storm is hitting, the President is getting ready to start
touring again. Joe Biden decides that the next the next
big priority is to start throwing out shit about gun control,
(05:04):
when again, no one has a fucking aid package. Like,
it's just this, We're gonna help people, We're gonna get
into all of those different things today, I believe, But yeah,
it is. It is unbelievably frustrating. Also, okay, so I
want to wrap things up. They want to get things going,
move things along, to focus on of these other very
(05:25):
important things such a believe. Right, So you're not doing that.
You spend these things up to not do that. But
what what was the point thus far? If you're not
to get the information out but then to get it
all out? What are you doing? What is this half
(05:46):
asked measure? Like it's largely political theater, right, Um, to
give the illusion that they're doing something. Um, and uh,
they I mean they knew, like, yeah, he's gonna get
a quit it. Although seven votes and Republicans is more
than I expected. So, I mean it is like historic
and that more people voted to of the president in
(06:06):
questions party voted to impeach and than has happened before. Yeah,
it was more. It was more bipartisan than one would expect.
But also like, yeah, they did the thing. Also, they
want to get back they you know, time to get
back to the real stuff. Really helped the people. They're
also doing what a nine eleven commission style thing about
the January six, So like, that's so you're not actually
(06:29):
gonna the trials? Really offensive to me, to be honest,
it was not a trial because the jurors were also
the victims and also co conspirators, and also met with
the defense lawyers in the middle of the trial. And yeah,
it's like if you were putting a serial killer on
trial and the jury was an even mix of family
(06:51):
members of the people he killed and the folks who
sold him bone saws um. Also, one thing I'm very
upset about actually is that they deprived us of the
opportunity to see Donald Trump speak, yes at this trial. Yeah,
(07:11):
why why couldn't you at least give us that what,
watch him do his thing, give him to give him
a few minutes? Lawyer? Could you have made him come?
Because they were turned it down? Is there some protections
as a former president that we're talking about the come
of elected leaders? I think this is this is my wheelhouse,
Katie So talking about Donald Trump semen I mean, I've
(07:34):
got about forty six pages prepared. Should we just he
prepares he produced a semen um. Yes, he's had a
long held theory that he's never had sex. So I
I don't know that he's had sex. You can produce
semen without having sex um And have you have you
ever bitten into a fast food hamburger and then had
(07:54):
a glob of mayonnaise fall down so unhappened to the
side of your hand and then it just sort of
like oozes down onto the sleeve of your jacket. That's
that believe it's called toothpasting. That's how he ejaculates. But
I also imagine that it smells exactly like apple cider vinegar. Yeah.
(08:18):
Also the drip, I don't know that it's inside, it goes,
it drips down and back into his ure. Cider vinegar
has a lot of health benefits just putting that out. Yeah,
this is not that case. It is not only this
is corrupted apple cider vinegar. Yeah, it's like apple cider
vinegar that's been mixed with mayonnaise and left in a
(08:40):
gym bag on a hot day, like an app an
apple cider vinegar sauce that's been left in jim shoes
in a gym bag in the back of a Ford
Fiesta and a hundred and fifteen degree heat with nineties
percent humidity, with dope of cottage cheese. Right before we
started recording, he had a call to discuss T shirt designs,
(09:03):
as I I hinted at earlier in the episode, and
the only recurrent bit we could come up with was, um,
you know our discussion of politicians come and here we
are continuing that. Well, yeah, it's I don't enjoy it.
Although to be serious for a moment, Okay, perhaps if
(09:25):
we let Donald Trump speak, um, uh, he would have
incited for violence. Honestly, there is absolutely something you've said
about that. Let's give him back a platform, Let's put
him in front of a camera again. Yeah, let's see that.
(09:45):
I will say. I will say though I've already seen, um,
a federal lawsuit being filed against him and Rudy Giuliani.
Uh the end of a c p on behalf of Rep.
Benny Thomps and who's a Democrat from Mississippi. Um and
other other Democrats in Congress are going to be joining
in as plaintiffs. So but then you know, the lawsuit
(10:09):
basically argues that h well, I'll just read from the
New York Times. The lawsuit contends that Mr Trump and
Mr Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act in eighteen
seventy one statute that includes Protections against violent conspiracies that
interfered with Congress's constitutional duties. Suit also names the Proud
Boys far right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group.
(10:30):
So you know this continues. But um, I mean, I
mean in in Mitch McConnell's own speech, the speech where
he made a very well articulated case as to why
the president is indeed responsible for January six and then
(10:52):
goes on to acquit him but also says that he
uh leaves the door opened for civil lawsuits. Yeah, that
was one last frustrating you know, cherry on and again
expected like uh, you know, weak of the thing. They
do the thing you expect, and then they laugh in
(11:13):
your face about it, um, with no consequences because Ms
McConnell can get away with anything. Um. Literally Like it's
it's as if he wrote the speech based off of
him voting to convict and then read the speech anyway. Yeah,
I mean we've been talking about it for weeks. How
do you reconcile these two different parties within the party,
(11:35):
these factions, the pro Trumps and the never Trumps. Um,
I guess you do exactly what he just did, which
is condemned and still equit exactly. He can't he's he's
not doing anything. Yeah, No, reconciliation is necessary because they're
all the same. It's just some are more blatant about it.
The Trump wing of the party, that's what you want
(11:56):
to call it, is just an extension of the other
part of the party. Uh. It grew from the same
pot of soil. Uh. They're the same. Uh, just some
are more willing to try to like, you know, talk
outside of their mouths about it. Um. So you know,
it's there they are. It's Trump's party and they did it,
(12:18):
and congratulations. Also like one of the I forget which
Republican senator voted to Uh, convict um. It was also
like spreading this lie about the election being stolen like
for weeks. Um, and now he's being like paraded out.
Is this like oh wow, the this in a bipartisan move.
(12:38):
He he comes out against Trump's like, no, he did
he helped he did it, and now he's this like,
you know, again the resistance sort of hero type, just
like the responsible Republican who voted against Trump even though
he helped him beforehand. So you know, it's all. Trump's
lawyers were also like horrible. They were like far for
(13:01):
the course. They were so embarrassing. The guy didn't even
know if he was like, oh, I'm not sure if
I'm under oath yours the lawyers aren't under oath do Yeah.
My favorite part was when he called the impeachment constitutional
cancel culture, which is so much about like they have nothing,
(13:22):
it's just cancel culture, cancel culture, cure. I have so
many thoughts about cancel culture political strategy, because what cancel
culture actually is is the idea that like, doing bad
things should have consequences, and they've turned that into if
you get angry at us for hurting you, you're the problem. Yeah,
(13:48):
facing its fucking wild like that is like the Bill
of Rights is constitutional virtue signaling, Like no funk off.
That's like you can't it's just melted all together. So
U and cancel culture just become a catch all term
for anybody coming under fire for anything at all. Uh,
cancel culture police, this and that woke police. And this
(14:10):
is a bit of a general general conversation that I
just said, I want to keep having about different things,
but like it frustrates me. I've seen people in my
own life here in l A and Hollywood. You know,
over the past couple of years becoming increasing this isn't
about politics specifically, but increasingly worried about saying or doing
the wrong thing and how that will come back to
haunt them, and whether or not sharing information is worth
(14:33):
ruing somebody's career. And I'm always like, how I think
we we've inflated the impact because for the most part,
people who get canceled aren't canceled. They've just been called
out on something. They get to use that as an
opportunity to address the problem, to rectify it. You we
give them an opportunity if we want people to grow
(14:54):
in general, that's what we see from this accountability leading
to change with when people are are open to that anyway,
it frustrates well and also more of that's different these days.
Cancel culture is kind of uses just a career move right, like,
oh no, I got canceled. Now I can do my
cancel tour and go on all the canceled shows. It's
time for this stage of my career exactly. It's just
(15:17):
it's not it's not some career ruining thing. It's a
moment where people get to say you fucked up? What
are you going to do about it? Potentially, but also
it's an opportunity for grifters and people that don't actually
want to change to just weaponize it. And it's certainly
not impeaching the president. That is also not canceled culture.
(15:38):
I've just been thinking about it so much this year. Well,
that's what because they're they're pushing it. That's like one
of their main strategies going to is going to be
like the cancel culture stuff because they're all they're all
in for for Trump is um uh and and yeah,
they can't not be They've given everything to it. Exact
is it's the only thing left in the party. Yeah,
it's it's pure, pure Trump from pure and Mitt Romney
(16:03):
in that photo where he's sitting with Trump and knows
that it's going to be made into a meme. That's
mean you mean that photograph taken by David Lynch Restaurants
and it's incredible. No, it just looks like it's a
lot of layers, bizarre, unsettling aura of a David Lynch film.
(16:27):
Romney has the the unique skill of taking pictures where
the expression on his face is genuinely and genuinely an
expression no human being has ever worn before. It is
It's amazing. Can I give up positive of the impeachment trial?
It's my very, very small silver lining. I thought, so,
are you going to talk about how sexy McConnell looked
(16:48):
in those pants and not just horrified by the statement?
And I'm going to go to hr about that comment.
You can see the spider web stains on the n
C like he looked like he was smuggling hot dog
buns in a briefcase. That was he actually wearing Was
he actually wearing interesting pants? Or you know, I just
(17:13):
wanted to an inappropriately sexually. I was just gonna say
some of the videos they showed that weren't previously shown
and have been widely seen by more Americans that are horrified. Yes, yes,
getting to see how close Mitt Romney and Mike Pitts
came to being torn apart by a mob was valuable
(17:33):
historical insight for sure, for the record, for the record,
for the historic to it. You do love No, I
don't love to see it. I do love to see
it because at least it means that history books in
the future will know we have a video component terrible.
These people were assuming it's legal to make history books
(17:55):
in the future that are not just pictures of George
Washington punching an Indigenous person to death and and Trump
of hugging that flag. Yeah, and the two pages in
our history books in the future, by which I mean
Texas in a year. Well, I think it's time for
(18:16):
us to take a little ad break, come back, talk
about some other things that's not about right, we'll talk
about speaking of cancel culture. Katie just canceled this podcast
so that we can make money, but then she'll renew
the podcasts, revitalized the reboot playing three Dimensional Chess, and
(18:40):
you guys are ruining it by commenting on just like
Louis c k no no together everything. Those were ads. Lord,
(19:01):
they share word. Should we get into Yeah, let's talk
about some Texas. So I'm in Texas right now because
my mom has advanced pancreatic cancer. Um, I'll be here
for the next couple of weeks. Um, and we are
we rented a place an airbnb. Who we happen to
(19:23):
know the person or a friend of the family. Anyway,
we're in an airbnb. Um, and it's in Planoh, which
is because it's a more affluent suburb and because it's
a suburb so it's not in the middle of the
city or whatever. UM still has power. UM, at least
mostly we have not lost it yet. UH. In general,
one of the things that people are pointing out, particularly
(19:45):
within Dallas, is that the wealthiest neighborhoods in this city,
Highland Park being a very noteworthy example, have not lost power,
but a bunch of neighborhoods in a circle around Highland
Park have lost power for significant periods of time. UM.
One of the things that's, you know, noteworthy about this
is that Highland Park is not just a wealthy part
of Dallas. It's one of like, I don't know, the
(20:08):
twenty or so richest neighborhoods in the entire country. Like
it's real big money is Highland Park and they have
not had not lost power for a minute, while a
whole circle of neighborhoods around them have all lost power.
And when a local Texas journalist kind of called this
out and documented this, their answer was to open their
(20:31):
their library from UH ten am to five pm as
a warm one floor of the library, right whole library,
the coldest parts of the day ten am to five pm.
And you need that warming center shining in the library.
So it's read, obviously, pack everybody pack into the library,
(20:53):
uh during the pandemic to warm up briefly together for
warmth inside. Please. It's fun that or interesting to me
that the two cities in the United States that seem
to have been like most disrupted by uh, the the
ice storm have been Portland, where I left in Dallas,
(21:14):
where I can say, and now I have to admit
that I don't know the weather of these areas, but
this is extreme, right, this isn't normal. Yes, Portland's normally
gets snow every year, but not a lot, like a
couple of inches. It got like eighteen so and there's differences.
So the reason if you look at like maps of
(21:37):
power like grid ship in the United States, Portland is purple,
which is the bad color, and all of Texas is purple,
and or the reason like kind of North Oregon is purple,
I think has more to do with the fact that
infrastructure was physically damaged by the weight of snow um
power lines went. But it was also a demand thing.
(21:58):
But like a lot of ship just got we had
a safe way in in Portland collapse. Like the ceiling.
The city just isn't built to take snow like this, right,
So it's it was, it's it's the it's the increased
drain on the grid shure that was a factor. But
also just like the sheer mass of snow was not
anything the city was built for, because Portland's really not
(22:18):
is really not much better equipped to handle snow than Dallas.
Oddly enough, um, we don't really have a fleet of ice.
One of the ironic things about Portland is they don't
like to use um salt on the roads because it's
bad for the water. But none of the people who
stopped that stopped the tear gas canisters from going into
the rivers. It was very funny. Also, doesn't the salt
(22:39):
in the isn't that good for No? No, I mean
it's good for safety. Yeah, it's not good. It's not
great for water, but it's you know, a trade off,
And I would argue a better trade off than poisoning
the water in order to tear gas children. I'd rather
have salt in the water than gas. As with the fishes,
I suspect we'll pull them. I know this is worst
(23:01):
year ever, but can we just say the hotels that
are hiking up their prices right now, guys are bastards.
Oh yeah, pieces of ship and technically illegal under Texas
state law. Not that it will get penalized, because it's
like hotels are are doing a thousand dollar a night things.
And I've seen it in in Dallas and Austin. My
(23:22):
brothers in Dallas, and he has friends that couldn't find
a hotel and they just left because they have no power.
It's just it's fucked up, and I think it's important.
This isn't just hitting you know, Oregon in Texas. There
are lots of states and lots of places that are
experiencing extreme winter or weather conditions. And we're having fun
(23:48):
here talking about this, but the reality is that a
lot of people are in a terrible situation being in
uh yeah, these condition is without heat, without power, uh,
not to mention water, uh you know. Population. The particular
(24:09):
problem is it's everyone's getting hit by this. Specific parts
of the country are unable to cope with it realistically
because they're not prepared for it. And at least one
of the things that I will say for Oregon as
opposed to Texas, people in Oregon are much better equipped
for cold weather. It doesn't get that cold in North Texas,
(24:32):
not often. Um. And so in addition to having the
power out, not having access to heating, you know, in
Oregon and in places that tend to get a lot
of cold weather, you have a lot more wood burning
stoves or at least like gas of it, you have
like a lot more ability for people to heat. They're
they're the place they live in. And also people own
(24:52):
better jackets and more. They're just better ready for the
weather and better ready to drive an icy condition. And
it just is Texas is completely When I was a kid,
when we would get an inch of snow or may
or two, it would shut the entirety of North Texas
down for days. Sometimes. Um, we're we're closing in. I look,
(25:13):
I think we're just based on what I'm seeing outside,
it looks like we're closing in on a foot. We're
going to get more tonight, um, And it's just there's
no capacity to handle. I think I'm the only fucking
person in this town with snow tires on my car.
And so it raises an interesting conversation online today, there's
(25:33):
a lot of people talking about the hypocrisy of say,
Senator Ted Cruz, who a few months ago was mocking
California for rolling blockout blackouts during our our wildfire season,
and and you know what, that's valid, You know what, yes, absolutely,
and cringe Shaw for sure, peen all of it. I
(25:57):
would like to just also point out that it is
true that our leaders elected officials in general are not
uh preparing for uh extreme weather patterns and changes the
climate change uh the way they should. We are not
prepared to handle any sort of emergency, as this past
(26:21):
year has highlighted. So for me, there's a little bit
of an element with the online conversation like yeah, of
course that guy's an asshole, uh and and a hypocrite
and and all sorts of things. But the real problem
here is that we have a bunch of our our
our government is reluctant to embrace and acknowledge that climate
(26:41):
change is real and start proactively doing things in advance
to prepare for worst case scenario outcomes. The reason we
will read the reason we will not do this in
most of the country is that properly preparing for these
things requires a commitment to invest in public welfare, requires
(27:02):
a a belief that is widespread, that the that public
safety and health is valuable and that we all have
an individual responsibility to contribute to it. And fully half
of this country believes that is literally identical morally to
the Holocaust. That that's conservatism, right, That the idea that
(27:25):
we all contribute to each other's welfare is the same
as being a Nazi. That's that's where the Hitler was
a socialist. Stuff leads right. That is the essence of
the American right is that And this is this is
everyone has known this was coming. I was just one
of my very favorite UM blogs on pathos. Um it was.
(27:45):
It's by the same guy. Uh oh, jeez, I'm spacing
on his name right now. Um. But he he wrote
a very long series of views about the left behind
books he analyzes like evangelical culture. He put together an
article in like two thousand eleven pointing out that the
US power grid everyone knows is heading towards collapse. And
one of the points was that all of the infrastructure
(28:07):
in our national power grid was made on like a
thirty year cycle, and we're now past like fifty five
years without replacing most of it and upgrading most of it. Um.
It is unbelievably reckless, and everyone knew this was going
to be a problem. The only power grid in the
nation for all that people shipped on California that's not
(28:30):
completely fucked right now is the West Coast power grid.
Even the East Coast grid's doing better than Texas is grid.
And we'll talk about why Texas has its own grid,
but it has. It has been overstressed, and the only
reason that it did not have a cascading failure the
last day or two is because Montreal gave us power
right um. And by the way, the only reason texas
(28:51):
is power grid didn't collapse entirely during a series of
storms in two thousand eleven is that Mexico contributed power.
So we're the equivalent of a guy who keeps going
into the doctor and the doctor says, hey, you're drinking
nineteen coca cola is a day and you're pre diabetic.
You have to cut down on the soda. It's the
single part of your diet that is pushing your body
(29:13):
towards calamity. And every year you go, well, fuck that guy, uh,
and then you wind up with horrific health consequences. And
it's it's it's not a surprise, and that is what
we're doing. We have the ailment was diagnosed like twenty
years ago. The solution is very very clear. It is
(29:35):
not hard. It is not beyond our material capacity or
our financial capacity to handle. We chose not to deal
with this, and in part because we chose to invest
in foreign wars, but in part because there's just an
extreme distaste by many Americans and not just Republicans, because
Democrats don't like to spend money on infrastructure either, not really,
(29:58):
not in a way that's COMPREHENSI ever effective. Um, they're
better at it, Which is part of why I think
we'll talk about Texas is grid in the second it's
part of why Texas is doing the worst out of everybody,
because Texas has this commitment to right wing libertarian ideas
of deregulation. Um. But this, this, none of this is
(30:20):
a problem of This is not even really a climate
change problem. Right. The more severe weather is an aspect
of climate change. But the fact that we're dealing with
power issues is not climate change is fault. It's our
fault because we knew this was a problem and refused
to take action. Climate change stresses this in such a
way that shows the problem for what it is. But
(30:41):
if not this something else, we could have horrible climate
change related disaster and a functional power grid. Which is
not to say that we should be horrible climate change disaster.
If you're not going to take any action on climate change,
might at least have a functioning power grid. But we
we don't and we won't. I don't know. It's just
(31:01):
it's so important. Like we can criticize the Ted cruise
as we can criticize those dummies all we want, but
we have to also understand that it's on both sides
of people being ineffective, um, and that not we all
come together. This is nonpartisan. But yeah, we need some
people that are willing to be brave, be brave because
it is not the most popular thing to talk about.
(31:24):
And you know, but it's critical. It's just it is. Yeah,
it's it's um, it's completely critical. And I guess now
we should talk about why Texas is having a particular problem.
So Texas wind, it's wind's fault. There are it's we'll
talk about that too. There are three power grids in
(31:46):
the continental United States. There's the East Coast Grid, which
is not called the East Coast grid, but it's the
eastern chunk of the country. There's the western chunk of
the country grid, which is like from like Wyoming over
to California and north to south. And then there's Texas UM,
and all of Texas is not on the Texas grid.
Part of the Panhandle, like around Lubbock believe or Leah
around Lubbock is UM part of the West Coast grid,
(32:08):
and a little bit of the eastern side of Texas
is part of the East Coast grid. But about eight
percent of Texas is on its own grid, and it
is the only state that is like that UM. And
there are a number of reasons to it. There's a
great Texas Tribune article on it that basically says that
you can sum it up as fuck the Feds, right,
(32:29):
funk the federal government. UM. Texas did not want to
be not just like they didn't want to be part
of the federal government's grid. They didn't want to be
subject to regulation by the Department of Energy. Right that.
That's the key part of it UM. And as a result,
it allows because the system so deregulated UM, a decent
(32:50):
chunk of Texas functions under like energy monopolies. UM, and
you've got and it's you know, it's it's more profitable
and whatnot. There's there's most Most of the state is
run by a nonprofit called air COT, which is the
Electric Reliability Council of Texas UM, which is technically a nonprofit,
(33:11):
and they're the ones who are supposed to be managing
UM all of this ship. But it it because Texas
has its own grid that is not subject to Department
of Energy regulation. UM, they don't have to keep up
to the same standards, and as a result, while the
entire US power grid is in bad shape, Texas is
(33:33):
in Texas is in particularly bad shape. So let's talk
about wind power. People have been talking about how, oh
the wind, Like, the reason Texas failed is because the
wind power plants failed. That's literally the opposite of the truth. UM.
What people are pointing out is that the total amount
of wattage UH that that we're short by is slightly
more than the capacity that wind power should provide in Texas.
(33:54):
That's not accurate. We're out about thirty or four thousand
megawatts something like that. UM, it's about thirty thousand is
what UH Texas is. Windpower is potentially capable of generating UM,
but that's not what it ever generates, right, It's not
(34:16):
supposed to generate that much. It goes lower in the winter,
and based on their expectations for this month, windpower has
been punching about, has been over providing, it's been providing
more power than they anticipated for it to provide. The
reason that Texas had a shortfall is because natural gas
funked up in the weather. Right, Our natural gas plants
(34:37):
stopped functioning, and some of our nuclear our nuclear plant
has like a nuclear plant has gone offline as well. UM.
It is not wind energy that caused the shortfall that
is currently a problem for Texas. UM. It's more than anything.
Are outdated and and completely like predictable problem. And one
(34:58):
of the things that could have helped is we that
natural gas tends to have these kinds of failures in
these temperatures. If we were connected more to the rest
of the national grid, we could potentially be pulling power
from the West coast or something. UM. There are ways
they could have prepared for this. I found a good
article in the Houston Chronicle, UM, and I'm going to
quote from this now because it puts a lot of
(35:18):
the problems in context, and more broadly speaking, it puts
the issue that we are in the that are that
the US electric grid is in right now, in the
Texas electric grid is in right now in some context
that I think is interesting, especially given conservatisms dimensions in
this quote. Ed Hers, an energy fellow in the Department
(35:38):
of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures
on the states deregulated power system, which doesn't provide power
generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and
improving power plants. The Aircot grid has collapsed in exactly
the same manner as the old Soviet Union, said Hers.
It limped along on under investment and neglect until it
(35:58):
finally broke under addictable circumstances. For more than a decade,
generators have not been able to charge what it costs
them to produce electricity, said Hers. If you don't make
your return on your money, how can you keep it up.
It's like not taking care of your car. If you
don't change the oil and tires, you can't expect your
car to be ready to evacuate, let alone to get
you to work. So again, all very predictable, all very reasonable,
(36:26):
all based on deregulation and a refusal to invest in
any sort of of community safety or welfare whatsoever. Um,
it's cool ship. I love my home state, and I
think that we can all expect to see some significant
(36:46):
changes being made in the near future to address this. No.
I think they're going to blame wind power and try
to cut funding the Wind Pact, and they're going to deregulate. Yeah. Um, yeah,
are going to invest in the free market. Yeah. Have
you guys seen any conversation or response about when they
(37:08):
can expect to be putting people, turning people to electricity
back on getting power back? Um geez. I think probably
later in the week. But we're getting another ice storm
and snowstorm tonight. Um. I don't genuinely worried about so
many people right now. Yeah, I don't think there's really
(37:28):
a good understanding of when things will get better or
how likely it is that they will get better. Um.
I mean this, this has the potential to be like
a Katrina level problem. I'm hoping it won't get that bad.
But four million Texans and change or have no power
right now. Last I checked, more than a hundred thousand
people in Dallas under a boil advisory because water treatment
(37:51):
plants failed as a result of the oil advisory. A
boil advisory means that the water treatment plants are not
treated water. So you need to boil snow or whatever.
You need to boil water that comes out of your
faucet in order to make sure it's clean. Actually, you
don't really thought it was a warning for people about
some condition that will give them boils. Um, No, it's
(38:13):
and and and now also Corpus Christie. I believe it
is on the coast is under a boil advisory, and
I'm sure it will have spread more by the time
you hear this episode. Because just again, necessary basic infrastructure
that is required in order to maintain what we consider
to be the basics of modern life was not invested
(38:35):
in because it's expensive kind of money. Where would we
make that kind of money. Where would we get money
to to pay for these things? We're tapped out, got
these people asking for handouts. We've got to give the
rich people tax breaks, We've got to spend money on
the military, all of the money and the police. So
(38:58):
I'm sorry everyone, you just can't have electricity. I don't
think you're sorry, Hi, you're right. Yeah, it's rad It's
very frustrating. Also physically the lies, like the blatant lies
where it's like, well that's just not true. Um. Yeah yeah.
There was a snort snow tornado in Texas that was
(39:25):
I couldn't agree more, Katie snort. Um. On that note,
I think it's time for a little a break, no
day together everything, So don't don't We're bad. Oh I
(39:53):
should say one other thing about infrastructure and collapse and
ship um, because this is another another example of how
climate change is a massive problem, but also a lot
of the problems that we're having as a result of
climate change are actually problems as a result of us
to take very basic preparedness steps and preventative steps. Um.
(40:17):
In Portland's right, one of the big reasons why their
grid is so fucked and so many people are out
of power is that Portlands has above ground power lines,
which are not the best way to do power lines. Um.
The fact that it makes them you know, they get
they get shipped on them, they collapse. Uh. They Also
the reason we had so many fires in Oregon last
(40:40):
year is because power lines would go down in the
wind and then spark and then catch hundreds of thousands
of acres on fire, and people died as a result
of this. And there was there was a great video
at the time, because there are these all these myths
that Antifa was outstarting the fires. There was a wonderful
video of a group of wildlands a wildfire firefighters like
on their way to fight a fire, and one of
(41:01):
the guys was like, look, there's one thing starting all
these fires. It's fucking power lines. You know how I
know that because every year, for years, one thing has
been starting all of the forest fires. It's fucking power
lines getting blown down and then sparking. And we can
fix this because the twenty one century and we can
(41:22):
bury our fucking power lines. And it's again this like, yes,
the dry conditions, the increased wind, the increased heat, uh in,
the increased rain that leads more vegetation to burn, all
climate change related problems, but a lot of the fires
are just starting because we won't bury our goddamn power lines. Um.
And there's a lot of that in California too. There's
a ton of it in California. Modest investments in infrastructure
(41:47):
could fix these things. We won't do it though also
for forest fires, we could also look to that, especially
here in California mentioned this at the time. You're the
wildfire season here. We ignore the history of indigenous people
that lived here before us, and we do not respect
(42:07):
this earth that you know, And yeah, we just ignore
the advice and the wisdom that other people have accumulated.
Just do our own thing, and it's wrong and common
knowledge and sense all of that. But I think that
that's bears repeating, especially if we're talking about forest fires. Anyway,
(42:29):
We've got more topics to discuss this week. Uh, Robert,
you sent around that article, that VR article. Hell yeah,
I did want to dig into that. What were the
other things I want to talk about? Let's go with that.
Let's let's let's yeah end on a really Uh, unless
(42:49):
you'd rather talk about gun reform legislation, No, let's let's
talk about let's talk about this VR thing into a
few a full world where everything is fine, guys. You
don't have to aspire to a better life. You don't
need to have things that other people have. You can
have it in virtual reality. Yeah, things like a house
(43:14):
that isn't freezing, that heat, food that isn't spoiling you know, UM,
a government that isn't run by kleptocrats who steal your
money in order to give it to Jeff Bezos so
that he can send a penis into space. We should
we should describe this article first. We should describe this article. Yeah,
(43:34):
we should talk about the article. Sorry you want you
want to go, Katie? I just talked to bunch. Uh uh,
well we should Uh we'll circle back to the space penis. UM.
This So this is an article about UM. Basically we've
been Here's the title Billionaire CVR is a Way to
(43:57):
avoid Radical Social Change, O contell Yeah, it's about using
the VR basically as as UM. You know, this tech
gets uh less and less expensive, more and more of
the poores can have it, which means that we can
create worlds within worlds UM to basically give people a
(44:19):
taste of what they do not have in order to
placate them UM and not think that, um, the material
world is changeable, that better things can happen in the
real world because you have a virtual world to escape
to the gist. It's it's one of those things, UM.
And I see you see this a lot with a
(44:40):
lot of these just fucking billionaire nerds um who have
like uh read every single like sci fi dystopia and
gone like I didn't learn anything from that. Let's do
the things. Yeah, here's here's a good uh quote. Uh.
This is from John Carmack, who is uh Doom co
(45:03):
creator and former CDO of Oculus um and and he says,
for this article, not everyone can have a mansion, not
everyone kind of a home theater. These are things we
can simulate to some degree in virtual virtual reality. Now
the simulation is not as good as the real thing.
If you're rich and you have your own home theater
or a a mansion or private island, good for you. You're
probably not the people that are going to benefit from this.
(45:25):
Most of the people in the world lived in cramped
requarters that are not what they would choose to be
if they had unlimited resources. So yeah, station is to
give them a very experience left to them. Meets a
virtual kidfit who is still relevant. Also, it's right, the
Doom guy. It's very Uh. It's an extra fascinating too
(45:48):
because um like Zuckerberg isn't like heavily featured this article
or anything like that. He's not one of the quota
is slightly too smart to be interviewed for this, Yes, UM,
but I would UM, I would highly doubt that he
um is not you know, thinking the same kind of
stuff UM about VR and it's usefulness. Um. I'm just
(46:11):
as I was reading this, I was contrasting it with
UM Zuckerberg going on a virtual tour of Puerto Rico
that happened, but you're right, yeah, uh and talking about
how like it was actually it was to show how
useful virtual reality is to uh, to you know, give
people empathy, um, and be able to empathize with places
(46:33):
you're not. And it's just uh, it's so it's such
a great contrast to the article because it's like literally like,
oh yeah, if you're rich in this other in this
other society, uh, you can pop on the VR and
see the devastation that you don't have to experience. And
then if you are there, you get the worst VR
where you can pretend that you're you know, having a nice,
(46:53):
a nice cooked steak. There's there's another line in here,
um from Carmack. That's how the world gets better by
building technologies and distributing them to people so that they
have something better than they would have had if that
didn't exist. Okay, just the the image of you I
(47:15):
mean with this article is illustrating. Is also like how
these these tech companies um position themselves as you know,
changing the world, liberating the world. But it's actually quite
the opposite. And what are these virtual reality worlds that
are being built? Are you actually addressing systemic issues or
(47:36):
talking about stuff? No, you're you're I think the line
in here is like you're giving a glamorized version of
the world without the realities that we all face, you know,
without just tiptoeing around the ugliness, uh, so that people
can forget about it for a few minutes. Also, these
things are very expensive. Rich people are the only people
I can afford it. It's not even that I don't
(47:58):
even think the expense is the big part of it is.
What's so rational about this to me is the idea
that if you're living in a cramped, squalid home without
proper services, that is incredibly uncomfortable and bleak, putting on
a VR helmet doesn't let you simulate living in a
(48:19):
better home. It lets you look at a nicer home,
right Like, You're not You're not gonna feel like your
bed isn't a mattress you pulled out of the garbage
fifteen years ago. You're not going to feel like you
have hot water even though your hot water heater is broken.
You're not going to feel like you have a couboard
for full of food even though your check doesn't come
for another nine days and you've got nothing but two
(48:40):
packets of ramen in the house, Like, none of it.
You just get to look at a nice house. So
it's like, even within the concept of like what these
guys are saying it could do, the only actual impact
I imagine simulating wealth would have in virtual reality is
it would increase people's desire to pick up a set
of bolt cutters and break into the homes of the
rich and then do things that we can't talk about
(49:01):
in a podcast. He would hope, Yeah, I would hope it. Yeah,
it's um, it's uh selling people a picture of a
nice place, um and letting them look at it. It's
just scary. Also, you're like, I mean the goals ultimately, yeah,
make you feel happy with what you have content. Let's
(49:24):
let's scratch that urge without actually having to do anything
for you. But that's a dangerous dystopian novel to me
of all this Yeah, just sorry, No, that was the
end of every every just every day there's a new
thing like this that is just like and it's it's
such an easy go to but like, well that's a
(49:44):
black mirror episode. Well that's this sci fi dystopia. That's
that's that was warned about decades ago about what we
shouldn't do. And much like good power grids, right, like
just all this stuff. It's like, well, what do you
get out of those things? Um? Do you learn from them? Uh? Anything? Nothing?
You learned that Well, the people on top win, so
(50:06):
I should be one of those people and then make
life worse for everybody else. Um, it's just disgusting, uh
and bizarre, and we get closer every day and phrase
that he described peripheral, Yeah, God, I hate all of
(50:28):
these fucking people so much. Um, it's it must be
so frustrating to be one of the dudes who invented
cyberpunk back in the day as like a warning, seeing
instead everyone just be like, oh the aesthetics of this
are neat let's make it happen. Yeah, it's the miss
(50:50):
uh just misses the mark so much. Even his response
to like things that we're saying about um, like you know, well,
that's not really the real world. Then you're creating this
sort of false image of of like like you like
like you were saying, like you're you're showing them a
picture of what other people have. UM, And he's not right.
(51:12):
It's not a holidack. AND's not like I live in Dallas,
it's a hundred degrees here. Well not anymore, it's a
hundred degrees there. We change the world around us and
all that we do. We live in air conditioning. People
don't generally go, oh, you're not experiencing the world around
you because of air conditioning. That is what human beings do.
We bend the world to our world. That's not what
you're doing virtual reality. That's actual reality. You're creating a
(51:33):
condition that's habitable through air conditioning, so that it's not
it's not all it's real. It's real cold that a
person in air conditioning doesn't think like, oh, wow, this
is a picture of somebody looking cooler than than the
heat outside. No, it's literally you feel that way. I
(51:55):
think it's also important to acknowledge something that is acknowledged
in the article, which is that people keep saying virtual reality,
well we'll take over and you know, really take hold,
and we haven't seen that happen. Like, you know, there
has been a bit of a modest increase in virtual
reality headset sales during the pandemic UM, but not compared
(52:18):
to video games in general. Part of that is the
fact that it is cost prohibitive for most people. The
article discusses how eventually it will become more affordable for
the masses, and that's like the general goal, but it
isn't taking root. You know. I'm sure that's a distraction,
but it's not doing the thing that people want it
(52:39):
to do. And that's kind of what this feels like.
How do we make this drug more affordable and addicting
to people, to the people that actually could benefit from
virtual reality versus the people that are wealthy enough to
spend a most disposable income on a toy like this.
How do we subdue how we more efficiently subdue uh
people in poor conditions um and keep them there without
(53:04):
complaining too much? H put some soma in the water.
I don't know, I take it too far. I mean,
it's it is it is all like it's all that
stuff that I know, I just get weird quoting dystopian
novels seeing how often the right does it to us
about there in the wrong way, Like well that's the
(53:26):
thing they don't Yeah, they don't. Um, they don't do
it in the right way, even like they talk about
whenever they talk about any movie, like well did you
watch the movie? Did it? Yeah? Like what do you say?
How did we get suit very different messages from this?
How do you watch these things? Um? But it's like
what the ending of Ready Player? One bad movie, terrible book?
(53:50):
Why is this the future that people are serious towards,
they're striving towards it. It's so bizarre because like, yeah,
not only is it bad, it's a bad books, a
bad movie. Um, it's also not desirable. That movie ends
with the special boy winning the game and so he
controls the company, and like the victory is that like
he gets a nicer apartment. He does, and then people
(54:12):
like need to log off every once in a while.
They still have the terrible dystopian world in which they live,
which they can escape from via VR. It's still shit.
It's utter ship. It's so good, Cody. I think what
you meant to say is things are heading in a
good direction. We're on our way towards more free thing
(54:36):
is so sal sal salid. It's solid, it's solid, it
is fine, and no one's freezing today. We like the world.
Now things are better every we like the world and
all things are better and everyone's happy. I think that
(54:59):
does it for us today. Yeah, we can talk about
gun control another time. Yea, all the time in the world. Yeah, exactly.
Send us on vacation. Don't worry about it. Yeah, don't
worry about it. Like like Congress, we're going on go
cashing in early, not having done our full job, because
(55:22):
what are you? What are you gonna do? What are
you gonna do? Listen to listen to another podcast? You
fucking you're gonna listen to another You gonna listen to
the Chopos or the Cumtowns. No, you're not. You're addicted.
You're gonna stay here Motherfucker's So if you can, we
call the audience, motherfuckers. We're not near an ad. You
can follow you can follow us that Worst your pod
(55:44):
on Twitter and Motherfucker's Russet. You can follow Katie Stole
at Katie Stole. You can follow Cody at dr Mr Cody.
You can follow Robert and I write O motherfucker. Motherfucker's
song up Everything is so dumb and It's not again.
(56:06):
I tried Daniel. Worst Year Ever is a production of
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