$6 Million Bananarama

A banana duct-taped to a white wall sold at a Sotheby's auction for $6.24 million on Wednesday. Meanwhile, California wants money back that it lent workers for unemployment insurance that it "lost." and are making up for it by having business owners pay it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dana Lashes of Search Truth podcast sponsored by Keltech.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
It's his laugh mission to make bad decisions. It's time
for Florida.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Man, all right, So first, uh peer, I've got to
pull this. An FBI arrested a homeless Florida man in
an alleged plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange.
Uh okay, her run Abdul Malik Jenner, you have too

(00:36):
many names, made a series of audio recordings that he
wanted to send to NBC around the time of the bombing,
according to the complaint, so he wanted to force a
reset of the US government. He came under scrutiny after
he was Someone tipped off the FBI that he was
storing bomb making schematics and a storage unit in Coral Springs,
and they got his permission. They searched the unit and

(00:56):
they found all this stuff of drawings with landmines and explosives, missiles,
all kinds of IED's and uh yeah, he said he
was creating rockets and volatile chemical mixtures that would explode
if they were mixed in correctly. You know what he
kind of sounds like. So when I was a kid,
I was little, I was like four, I would make uh.

(01:17):
I always try to be a scientist. And I would
mix up my mom's shampoon conditioner and all kinds of
weird stuff, her makeup and the little bowls, and I
was like pretending that they were it was my lab.
But I didn't want to get caught, so I would
shove everything under my bed. Right, I had all this
weird stuff under my bed because it was my lab. Right,
I'd pull my lab out and I would be a scientist.
I'm not even kidding you. And she was vacuum in

(01:38):
my room one day and she was like, what is
this mess under your bed? And I feel like it's
Jenner's little storage thing. That's the you know. I was,
I'm mixing up stuff, mob because I'm doing some science.
So I was I was doing I was doing I
was doing science anyway. So yeah, he's he's this guy's
in trouble. Mine actually couldn't blow up. I didn't really
have a goal in mind, you know. And I was

(01:58):
mixing up her various house sold like cosmetic items. I
didn't have a goal in mine. It was just you know,
so yeah, they they He was charged with the attempted
use of an explosive to damage or destroy buildings. Blah
blah blah blah blah. He's gonna be he's in he's
in trouble. He's in trouble. A Florida man found a
forty thousand dollars engagement ring and returned it. That's really

(02:18):
nice of him. How nice is that? That's like so
nice that never happens. He yeah, he found this. Uh,
he actually returned the thing. Isn't that nice? I'd read
this story to you, But the Central Oregon Daily News
where it is, is such a horrible website with their
stupid pop up ads that their web team needs to
be fired and dragged publicly behind horses through the streets

(02:41):
because this is horrible. I mean, don't, don't. Don't make
a site that has so many pop up ads and
everything else that nobody can find the story, you morons. Anyway,
that's nice that somebody found that it was a Florida man.
I found a forty thousand dollars engagement ring, another Florida
man assuming Netflix because of the buffering that was taking
place over the Paul Tyson fight, thousands of people were

(03:01):
upset and now they want Netflix to pay up. There's
a class action suit that's been filed. Maybe they shouldn't
have spent so much money on that game show deal
a suitcase chick and that ginger spare How much? How
many millions did Netflix spend on those two losers that
didn't even fulfill their contractual obligations or actually put any
effort into towards creating content for Netflix. Maybe they could

(03:22):
have used that those funds, I don't know, to better
stream the Mike Tyson Jake Paul fight. So they yeah,
they had major issues. So this lawsuit has been filed
against them. And someone was saying this should have been
on Amazon and not Netflix. I actually was surprised that
it was on Netflix. Can I be honest? How did
that happen? Netflix ended up getting it? It's wild, I

(03:42):
don't know, but yeah. Interesting. Also, let's see here, got
a few others for you as well to hit. So
this Florida man said he was just being stupid. He
got in trouble for allegedly shining a laser at a
sheriff's helicopter. And if you asked me, was this Florida
man shirtless? Dana, Why, yes, yes he was. He was

(04:05):
shirtless out into the woods just randomly shining these green
lasers out of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Helicopter aerial video
shows Cody Goudenoff thirty six. He was hiding behind a
mobile home wearing a pair of red shorts and nelf
and when deputies were guided to his location and asked
why he did it, he said he was quote just
being stupid. Now he's getting facing a kount of misuse

(04:29):
of a laser lighting device. I mean, he's who does that?
You're out there just out there in your red breeches,
you know, out there staying at hide and behind, hiding
in the woods, and you're gonna point up your laser
device to the Sheriff's chopper. Who does this?

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Plus we've seen how many stories have we had of
this where they the end result is always to get arrested.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yes, always, always, always, always, like you're never not going
to get arrested for that. I don't know, like why,
it just it, I don't know. It amazes me. I
have to tell you this story because I'm just blown
away by this, and then we're gonna get into some
of this other stuff. Do you guys remember this story

(05:10):
about the art festival that takes place in Miami. It's
called Art Basil Basil in Miami. So back in twenty nineteen,
there was this I don't know if you want to
call it artwork. Is it artwork or performance? I don't know.
This dude duct taped a banana to just a plain

(05:31):
white wall of the museum and it sold just sold
for six point something million at auction. It sold yesterday
at auction. So the art installation, so to speak, was
just a banana duct tape to a wall and Maruzio

(05:51):
Catalan's Comedian is what they called it. A banana stuck
to the wall with a strip of silver duct tape,
and they thought it was going to sell when it
went to auction. It debuted at Art Basl Miami in
twenty nineteen, and they thought it was going to sell
for one and a half million. According to Sotheby's, I
don't know. I'm trying. I can draw better than the

(06:11):
banana op taped to a wall and it doesn't even
have to be the same banana. Listen to this. This
is what they This is how they describe it over
at Sotheby's. Ready, Okay, no other artwork from the twenty
first century has provoked scandal sparked imagination and upended the

(06:33):
very definition of contemporary art, like Maruzzio Catalan's Comedian, whose
debut at Art Basil, Miami Beach in December twenty nineteen
captivated the world. Now with an estimate of one to
one and a half a million dollars, this viral sensation
is making history once again as it heads to auction

(06:54):
at Sotheby's Now and Contemporary Evening Sale. Would you like
to know about your potential purchase? It is comprised of
a banana fastened to a wall with duct tape, hung
exactly one hundred and sixty centimeters from the floor. Comedian
belongs to the rare league of artworks that need no introduction. Yeah,

(07:15):
I think they do. Oh my gosh. You know why
it's controversial because it's stupid and they can sit here
and subscribe all they can describe all these things to it. Oh,
it's sardonic, it's this or that. It's money laundering. It's
money laundering, that's what this is. So it didn't sell
for one point five million. This thing sold for six

(07:37):
point twenty four million. So how do you know it's?
What are you buying when you buy it? Couldn't you
just get your own duct tape and tape your own
bananda of the wall on your own home. How would
anyone know that it's not Mauruzzio Catalan's comedian right, he didn't.

(08:00):
It's like a literal banana, an actual real banana, and
just some.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Duct tape that will go bad.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Well, yeah, they got to keep replacing it. Why couldn't
you just do this in your own house? Because think
of it, the components to the piece are already there.
There's no way that the banana is a fixed to
the wall. There's no way in which the duct tape
is applied that changes any kind of movement or mood
to the piece, none at all whatsoever. In fact, even

(08:30):
where it's located makes it entirely arbitrary as to how
it's to be viewed. Because it's on a white wall
and a brightly lit museum. What if it's in your home,
on your wall and you have all the other different
you know, mood lighting, then it changes, right does it
not change? It becomes more ludicrous, I think, even in
that context. So this is dumb. This is so dumb.

(08:51):
If you want to give someone a great gift and
you can tell them that it's a replica of a
six and a half, you know, almost million dollar piece
of art. You can say, this is a replica of
more Rouzzio Catalan's Comedian, and just give someone. Guys, this
is your Naughty Santa gift right here. I'm helping you
all out, all y'all that go to these Christmas parties
and you guys do these goofy gifts. We do them
in our family. You get a banana and you get

(09:12):
some silver duct tape, and you can be like, no,
this is a replica of a six point two four
million dollar piece of art by Maruzzio Catalan called Comedian,
and literally just do it. Get a piece of like
styrofoam board and tape it to the styrofoam board, an
actual banana with duct tape, and then just like p

(09:35):
and then just like put a little label and like
glue it in the corner. Look, I got your Naughty
Santa gift for you right there. It actually does work.
It's a piece of art, right it's expensive.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Is it White Elephant or Naughty Santa?

Speaker 1 (09:47):
I don't know. I sure we've only ever done Naughty Santa.

Speaker 2 (09:49):
I don't think Naughty Santa is the thing.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yeah, it's like the Naughty Santa game. Okay, why I'm
just saying, isn't that what it's called?

Speaker 2 (09:56):
I'm just speaking out loud.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
What is it called?

Speaker 2 (09:59):
I thought it was? Okay, white elephant.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I don't understand what that is. There are no white elephants.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
They're all great, just like there's no real art that
involves a real banana.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
What is this piece of oke to in in you?
What are your thoughts when you look at this piece
banana pudding and morons? That's what I think?

Speaker 2 (10:19):
Smooth?

Speaker 1 (10:19):
And how was this not money laundering? And also Hunter's
probably going, damn it, Hunter Biden's out there just kicking
himself that he didn't tape some fruit to a wall.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Please tell me you read.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Please tell me you read the follow up that in
the reply that NBC story put under it in their words.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Please tell me you saw that.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Oh that's next. So wait, reach out the goud. Sorry,
oh no, no, no, I'm glad you reminded me of
that because I was getting ahead of myself. I'm glad
you said. I'm glad you brought that up. So so
here we go. So the guy who bought it, his
name is Justin's son. He's a cryptocurrency investor. What everything,

(11:00):
He just screams money laundering. He spent six point two
million dollars on a regular banana duct tape to the wall. Right,
you could say that the artwork is appealing. I hate
myself now, So what does this do to the price
of bananas? By the way? Right? Anyway, So he bought it,

(11:20):
and uh, it's again Marizio Catalan's comedian. He battled six
other morons to launder their money through this banana tape
to a wall thing. And uh he paid in crypto,
of course. And he said, quote in the coming days,
I will personally eat the banana as part of this
unique autistic experience.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Autistic.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
He is going to eat the banana. He's going to
eat it. What in the world, I'm I don't know, man,
I'm he said, he's going to eat it. That's what
he's spent all that money till he's laundering.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Let's we get for a dollar.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
So what if I can make you a banana duct
tape to the wall and only charge you two million
for it. I'm saying it's the exact same thing, the
exact same tape, the exact same nanner right, and I
so I was looking at this is how lazy this
is because obviously they have to change the banana out
right in some of these installations because they got to

(12:25):
the banana rots and you know, it's just nasty. They
the stem of the banana is cut differently. Sometimes it's
a slanted cut, sometimes it's cut straight across. Like the
image that want is showing on the simulcast, that's not
even consistent. They're not even being consistent in the stem
or even the angle of the tape. It's literally just

(12:46):
half ass tap and fruit to a wall. I hate everything,
but this is money laundering because there's no other reason.
There's no other reason for this. This is why I
hate modern art, I really do. I reject modernity, embrace tradition.
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Speaker 2 (13:44):
And now all of the news you would probably miss.
It's time for Dana's Quick five.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
So Walmart is saying that prices are going to get
more expensive. They're talking about the tariffs. They're like trying
to saber rattle about this, and I mean, I think
there's a lot to We're going to talk more about
this as we get closer towards you know, January and
the new administration. And but they're expressing concern apparently Walmart
that the President elect his terror proposal is going to
impact consumers' wallets. They don't want to raise prices, they say,

(14:14):
but they're warning people that it may happen We're going
to talk more about this coming up. But that's just
the lead us from Walmart. The uh this, so this
Italian village is offering there's a million of these villages
that are doing this. They're saying, if you're trying to
leave the country, like for instance, if you're upset about
the election, come here and you can buy a house
for a dollar. But there's a lot of caveats attached

(14:34):
to it because the building materials. Usually you have to
spend x amount to rehab your property and you have
to do it in a certain time, otherwise it's all forfeit. Yeah,
but uh, there's like there's some Italian villages they're saying
over at ABC, they're like some of these they're some
of these villages are offering you know, accommodation and you
can stay here and you get your house all fixed

(14:56):
up or your property fixed up. But there's always a catch.
And then say nothing about the taxes that were there.
I mean, I love Italy, but the taxes are kind
of crazy. I didn't realize this. So apparently Patrick Mahomes
and Travis Kelsey they both have their their homes burglarized
and they're invest the authorities are investigating it, but they're
saying that it looks like this wasn't just like a

(15:17):
random even it was both of them break in that
it was a very sophisticated kind of like a cartel
of people doing this. So the FBI is involved now.
They said it's a very sophisticated crime group and it's
part of a spree of robberies in the Kansas City area.
Very interesting. So, I mean, this would be the first time.
Didn't the bling ring. Wasn't that like kind of the

(15:39):
same thing. Yeah, So they're saying it's there, So the
FBI is investigating it. A Michigan medical examiner is urging
hunters to get checkups after three so far where they died.
They died from heart attacks. So the medical examiner are saying,
go undergo a doctor's evaluation before you come out and

(16:00):
so that you know, in the wild in search of game,
because they said that you know you want to and
they said that these are preventable. Just make sure that
you're healthy because you don't want to, you know, be
out there in the woods and then go through those
and et cetera. And it's very interesting. He was also
talking about cardiac disease and people that he had not
seen it before unless they were elevated in age. He said,

(16:21):
for instance, I'm seeing cardiac disease and arteries that I
only saw twenty years ago in sixty five to seven
year olds. Now I'm seeing it in forty to forty
five year olds. That's wild. I'm behind on this and
I really wanted to get to it. I first saw
it from our friend, Chef Role. He's got owns a
restaurant out in Los Angeles, and he had said, we
just were in payroll. The payroll taxes were two thousand,

(16:43):
two k higher than calculated. We called the payroll company.
They summarized. They explained in summary that California has a
budget shortfall and that the federal government wants money back
that it lent California for UI that it lost. They're
making up for it by having business owners hate it.
Keep in mind that it was about ten percent of

(17:03):
our total payroll. And when people say, he adds, why
isn't California business friendly? Remember this. So the state defaulted
on their loan, and apparently businesses were the co signers
and they were unaware of it. This is one of
the craziest things. So they've had they had this eighteen

(17:24):
and a half billion dollar federal loan that was supposed
to be for UI unemployment insurance, right, and so because
they they've had all these financial difficulties, they well, they
apparently signed on. They had these business owners, all these
business owners, they did not know that they were co

(17:45):
signers on this loan that was supposed to it was
the unemployment insurance that was supposed to cover California during
the pandemic, right, And when the state decided to stop
making payments on the loan, that's when these businesses were
hit with us. That's one of the craziest things I've
ever heard in my life. Their payroll taxes two thousand

(18:09):
times higher than calculated. That's nuts, that is nuts. They
did not know. I mean, remember, they had a bad
IT system that appropriated and distributed these these funds from
the unemployed, the Employment and Development Department, and they were

(18:35):
one of the states that had some of the highest
levels of fraud with getting these funds. So they said
they had somebody who impersonated a person impersonating a one
year old, someone who impersonated Diane Feinstein. Thirty billion dollars
in fraudulent and unemployment claims during the pandemic, and they
said a single residential address got checks for sixty separate
individuals filing from that one singular address. So they they

(19:02):
had at one hundred billion dollars state budget surplus last
year because of the state's top earners. They got twenty
seven billion in federal aid for the pandemic. They had
a three hundred billion plus twenty twenty two to twenty
twenty three budget. All of this could have gone into
dealing with this debt, and even after they defaulted, they
could have still paid off and offset the burden on businesses.

(19:23):
That's what they were planning on doing in their twenty
three twenty four budget. But now they're instead they're making
businesses do this with these taxes. I can't even imagine
your business and that happens to you. And Chef Grulh,
he's in the restaurant industry, and it's already tough in

(19:45):
the food industry. It's even tough. It's still tough for restaurants.
They haven't entirely bounced back. I think some of them have,
some of them haven't. By and large, I don't think
you can say universally the majority of them have. But
this is wild. You know. The system that helped them
to default on this because it allowed all these fraud payments.
It's from the eighties, Kine. The software is over fifty

(20:08):
years old. That's the hang on. That's the I'm gonna
get this stright. The Employment and Development Department. The software
literally is over fifty years old, and the IT system
is from the eighties, and they've said that their IT

(20:28):
people tried patching the system. They tried fixing it for
years and they couldn't. They said it's just inadequate. They
got a grant in twenty thirteen from the Obama administration
and they were supposed to get this new software and
the software costs two million a year. Yeah. Yeah. It
was supposed to be a very effective software that quote

(20:50):
searches over databases and uses PROPRIETARYAI algorithms to identify for
ad abuse. And they discontinued its use in twenty sixteen
for some reason. The grant they it was two million dollars. Well,
the reason they couldn't continue it is because the grant
ran out. It's two million dollars a year to run it.

(21:11):
I'm not even kidding you. This is the stupidest thing.
It's like, it is like a knot of yarn trying
to get through this. This is crazy. Nobody. So what
you're telling me that you switched to the software that's
two million dollars a year and then you have to
discontinue it because the grant money came out. No one
anticipated that that would happen. Are you telling me that
no one in edd in California anticipated that they would

(21:33):
run out of money knowing that they had a certain
amount of funds for a grant to implement the system
and it costs X amount per year. Really? No, So,
now that's what's happening in California. It is one of
the craziest things. How could How do people live there?
I don't know the weather. That's not good enough for me.
Thanks for tuning into today's edition of Dana Lash's Absurd
Truth podcast. If you haven't already, made sure to hit

(21:56):
that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get
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