Fed Chair Investigation, Trump's Oil Deals, and Scott's Absence Explained

24:19This dude does not scare easily. No. He didn't get on there and start being defensive about the actual thing he's been accused of. He's like, you know, he's basically said this is nonsense and anyone with half a brain isn't even going to get near this. Even Fox News, I don't think, is going to go after him. They realize, OK, this is this is a bridge too far. The whole thing is so cockamamie. I mean, like, well, everything they're saying now is coming out of their mouths is a lie. So, I mean, what's what's really interesting was this video that he found. There's a lot of sudden pushback in lots of different places you're starting to see, including Republicans voting against him.

24:54No, the ACA subsidies. Yeah. I have to say this was, this is such a like a signal of, you know, what's incredible to me is he's very active and everything he's doing to me is it, I think it's this one reaped of desperation because he can't, this is not going to work. And it makes Powell stronger. That is my feeling. Like this gives him much more credibility to influence the Fed even after he's gone. You know, he's going to – whoever he picks is no match for Jerome Powell, even if he's not the Fed chair. I have never been more confident about a future recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom than Chairman Powell.

25:39Yep, yep, 100%. I mean, he kind of – right now, he kind of defines leadership in our country. Maybe Ms. Machado will give him a surprise. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, the ongoing fallout from the ice shooting in Minneapolis.

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29:16Scott, we're back with more news. Thousands of people across the country took to the streets this weekend to protest the killing of 37-year-old Renee Goode by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. This, as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says she's sending hundreds more federal agents to Minneapolis this week. The Trump administration also cut state and local officials out of the investigation into Good's death, leaving it all to the FBI, which minimizes credibility. A new cell phone video has spread across social media showing the moments for the shooting from ICE officers' perspective, which is quite damning to the ICE officer.

29:49Vice President J.D. Vance and others are arguing that the footage supports a claim of self-defense. Most people don't, well, most people aren't lying. Don't agree with that. Meanwhile, Good's wife spoke out saying on Wednesday, January 7th, we stopped to support our neighbors. We had whistles. They had guns. You shared your thoughts with me. And, you know, this is a terrible thing. And, of course, you know, I think people rightly point out that it gets an enormous amount of attention. This is a white woman coming back from school. I mean, the narrative is really quite something, but it still has sparked protests everywhere.

30:30And especially when it's combined with all these videos of these thugs going around with masks on, you see reaction from sheriffs and local police who don't like it. They don't wear masks. Talk a little bit about what you think is happening here right now. Well, I just want to acknowledge the point you referenced in that the Black community is like, yeah, welcome to our world. Mm-hmm. Look, the very founding of America, the very principles and the reason why people took so many risks and brought together such thoughtful people to start this new experiment called America, the very cornerstone of why America was founded was to avoid this shit.

31:09Was they didn't want an autocrat with unchecked power. They could harm them. And so this, in so many ways, is just a violation of everything we're supposed to stand for. And the worst thing you could say about Ms. Skid is that she was, I don't even say fleeing the scene, but leaving a controlled environment without permission. That is absolutely the worst thing you could say about her. But Department of Justice policy clearly states you cannot discharge a weapon or use lethal force when someone is fleeing the scene. And I'm not even sure it qualifies as fleeing the scene, but take the worst interpretation of what she was doing.

31:49You still cannot justify what this agent did. And also, if you're in front of a jury talking about situations like this and look, federal agents and police deal with very hot in the moment, complicated situations. And a lot of it goes to what they refer to in court as state of mind. Let me give you this guy's state of mind. Fucking bitch. He put three bullets in the torso and face of a woman who has not physically threatened him and then decided after she had clearly been killed and ran off the road to say fucking bitch. That was his state of mind. This is a tragedy on a meta level for American principles.

32:40It's obviously a huge tragedy for her and her family. What was even more disappointing and salt in the wounds of the current state of America is conservative media, including Fox, used a lot of code words when describing Ms. Good, and I'm sure you saw this. First off, a self-proclaimed poet, bullshit. She was an award-winning poet. a divorced person. Oh, divorced people aren't as worthy. And then the one I'm sure you noticed, they kept referring to her as a lesbian. Okay. The guy who shot her three times in the face, I would bet 95 % probability he sleeps with women. That makes him no more or no less guilty.

33:26And the fact that she sleeps with women makes her no less or more guilty of anything or no less a tragedy or a victim. And when Fox consistently describes her as a lesbian activist, what they're saying is, dear viewers, we think you are such raging fucking homophobes that if we highlight that this woman sleeps with other women, you will have an easier time justifying the murder of this woman because being gay is a bad thing. In other words, dear viewers, we think you too are homophobic. And we took out a mouthy lesbian. That's exactly what they're doing. All of this coded language is basically an acknowledgement that the viewers of whatever conservative media starts using those words.

34:15It makes no – if we ever get to a point of America, it makes no sense in any trial or jury to talk about someone's sexual orientation. I have long said – and also, I think the left sometimes has a problem with wrapping virtue around people if they're of a certain special interest group. No, they're no better and they're no worse. This had nothing to do with that. It was terrifying as a, you know, because I think it was someone who has, there's some personal thing happening here with him and gay women. Well, supposedly he'd had another altercation with a car, right? I don't know, something else.

34:50Her errors are going to be rich. Fucking bitch says a lot to me. Something else was going on here. Yeah, 100%. And so, you know, what really, look, this guy is clearly a thug, right? And this is what they hired. The people that killed all those people in Germany were thugs. Hitler did not kill everybody. He hired people who did so. And one of the things that you notice from this is the reaction from people who know better, the J.D. Vances, the Christy Gnomes, etc. And Trump himself, who immediately, you know, decided she was guilty, no matter what, and kept pushing this thing before any investigation.

35:32The only person who tried to say, well, let's just wait and see, was, of all people, Tom Homan. And then he was slapped back. Like, it was incredible. He had the correct response, which is, let's wait and see. Let's wait and see. You know, and of course, now we're living in an era of video. and when they release that thing and let fucking bitch out, like they think that helps their case. It sounds like this guy was in a rage from someone and her last words of her life were, I'm not mad at you, dude. Like, honestly, the juxtaposition and her name, good. And it's so clear what's happening in that video.

36:10I think what's really gonna, what's grotesque is, and I have to give credit to Jake Tapper for writing Kristi Noem about this, which was how can you, she showed pictures obviously of January 6th where they were squeezing a police officer, hitting them with pipes and flags and squeezing one officer in a door. And they got pardoned, you know, and she was like, everyone gets the same law. And he's like, but they don't. And she goes, everyone gets the same law. And then he shows the pictures again and says, she's saying, I'm not mad at you, dude, and driving away. They are attacking police officers.

36:48You cannot say this. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, Kristi Noem needs to be impeached and hopefully go to jail. But J.D. Vance is particularly loathsome in this thing. And that, to me, was sort of a shock, this idea of, like, trying to impugn this victim long before there's an investigation and then not letting the state also be participatory. This is not going to end well for any of these people at some point. Well, the administration has been consistent. It's the Roy Cohn communication strategy, Double down, deny, attack, attack, attack, never admit any guilt. If they'd had a really talented communications person with a presence here, what would have actually helped the administration is if the president had done the following.

37:30I saw the video, quite frankly, I found it very upsetting. Americans, you know, ICE is there for a reason. I need to review this. I need to see what the full investigation says. But I found what I saw disturbing and then say nothing else. I think that actually would, quite frankly, have given ICE more cloud cover and license if he had just said that. I don't know if you remember when George Bush, they had video of when Saddam Hussein was hanged. And I remember him saying, yeah, I watched the video and I, quite frankly, I found it very disturbing. And it was a real moment where you said, okay, I feel better about this guy being president.

38:11You know, as angry as he was, as much military hardware as he'd committed, he knew he had been sensed to death, but he just said, I found the whole thing disturbing. They would have helped themselves if they had just said, we need to have a full investigation. Anyone who saw the video, including us, found this disturbing. And we need to investigate it. We need to investigate it. Yeah, and we'll see what the full investigation turns out. These people are out of control. I mean, I've talked to a lot of, this is him unhinged with people, you know, essentially his low rent versions of the SS with them.

38:48That's what it feels like. And my heart goes out to the children of this woman, which is, she dropped a kid off at school and then. She had stuffed animals in her glove box. Yeah, I mean, there was a dog. This is not a dangerous person. Yeah, driving a Honda Pilot. It was like something out of a. Speaking of great cars. Anyway, but he's also trying to roll over big oil companies. He says they'll invest$100 billion to rebuild Venezuela's oil industry, but executives do not say this, and they did not say it in public. At a White House meeting, oil companies expressed interest but didn't commit to spending, which means they don't want to.

39:24And I have talked to several people, and they do not want to, with Exxon's CEO calling Venezuela uninvestable under current conditions. Trump is now saying he's inclined to keep Exxon out. I guess he's doing them a favor. They don't want to be there. He's also turning up the heat on Cuba, warning the country will receive zero oil and money from Venezuela and telling them to make a deal before it's too late. I mean, this guy is like a mobster. If you were an oil company executive, I mean, most of them are like, no matter what he says, they're not going to waste their money on things. They've already lost.

39:55He, as correctly, these oil executives pointed out, they lost money there. It's sunk costs that they're never getting back. And they've written down a lot of these asks. They had to explain a lot of this to him, you know, because he just didn't have any idea. It seemed not to have any idea what had happened in Venezuela. So what do you think about this? That was really interesting for the Exxon, the biggest oil company, to say, yeah, no, I don't think so. Right in public and at the White House. I know what's going to happen here. The old companies will just, you know, give them a hand job, say they're very interested in looking at it, wait them out.

40:33But economics are going to win here. And the economics at a very basic level of the following, the type of oil that Venezuela has, and it does sit on the largest untapped reserves of oil in the world, but it's heavy crude. And heavy crude requires special chemicals and more efforts to extract. And basically the cost. Yeah, that's right. But the costs just of extraction are 70 to 80 bucks a barrel. And right now in the open market, it's about 62 bucks. Now, they continue to do that because they have fixed costs they need to cover. But right now in the current marketplace, it just doesn't make an economic argument for any incremental investment.

41:09In addition, big oil companies have made massive multibillion-dollar investments in Venezuela twice. And each of those times, their assets have been seized. So they're kind of like, okay, fool me once, fool me twice. Well, me, three times? We don't need it. They don't need it. Well, there is something, and I will come back to Venezuela because I have a lot of thoughts on it, and I was jonesing to talk about it. But what I do think Rubio, but the president doesn't seem to understand, is that while oil has shaped the world, where it is now is that it's not about the amount of oil. The U.S. is a net exporter.

41:44We have more oil than we need. On an inflation-adjusted basis, oil is cheaper than it was 50 years ago. but the control of the flow of oil is actually very important because you can in fact shut China off without, so 90 % of their oil experts from Venezuela were going to China. There was a shadow fleet coming in and out of Venezuela and it was going to the people, quite frankly, that we don't like. So the ability to turn off that tap, if China, if you were able to basically sequester China from supplies of energy, they'd be out of business in about six to eight weeks and cannot wage war, whereas the U.S.

42:20is energy independent. That is a big, big deal. But for Exxon or Chevron or name your fossil fuels company, they have shareholders. And on a risk-adjusted basis, they look at this thing. It might be worthy of some incremental investment if they get guarantees or backstops from the government or something like that to upgrade certain facilities. But be clear, this isn't going to be a massive – it just doesn't – it doesn't pencil out when oil is at$62 a share. Now, if oil goes to$110 a share, then they're going to get – you know, they're going to get their wallets out and say, okay, we'll buy futures to lock in that price.

43:01And we'll make sure that the president gives us a sweetheart deal and security guarantees from the Venezuelan government. But the old regime was wildly corrupt. Guess who's there right now? The same regime. I know. So, we're not going to see, I don't see in the near future a wave of additional incremental investment capital. Where you could see massive investment capital is Chipotle and the Four Seasons. There's a lot of companies that are probably interested. And I'm actually more optimistic about Venezuela than I am, say, about Iraq or Afghanistan, where you had basically these countries that are a mishmash of different tribes with borders drawn up by, you know, the British.

43:42Venezuela has been a democracy many times. It's a homogenous population. I'm actually quite optimistic, not with this administration, but I'm optimistic in general about the prospects. Anyways, I'm getting off track. We're not going to see big capital investments in the short term from oil companies. No, but it's true. You have to think about the economic benefits of this country, right? I mean, in terms of what he's done here. And it was really interesting. I think he expected them all to follow the script. as the tech bros tend to do. And they absolutely didn't. When he said that, my head jerked up.

44:18I'm like, oh, wow, that's a big word, uninvestable. It wasn't like, oh, it's problematic, but we'll figure it out. It was sort of very clear. And he was obviously irked by that. But leaving them out, listen, he's not going to be able to leave them out if they want to be in there. They're the oil companies. They'll do what they want. as much as he thinks he controls everything, as he likes to say that. The more he says I control everything, the more I know he doesn't in so many ways. We don't have an embassy in Caracas. We don't have boots on the ground. I'm not exactly sure, other than the threat, I'm not exactly sure how we control it.

44:54Nobody wants to go there. Do you think Americans want to, especially his base, they absolutely don't want to go there? I think Venezuela could be one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world if this is handled rightly. This is, and again, this might've been me thinking about this under the influence of opiates. I think the analogy I would use is a Bond film. And that is Bond films always have amazing openings. They always nail the opening. But then it goes on to be great, good, or awful. There's been some awful Bond movies. There's been some great ones. Whenever we do these adventures and overseas conquest, it almost always starts really well.

45:33we were able to do, when I say we, I'm talking about the best performing organization in history, the U.S. military. We were able to do in 35 minutes what Putin has not been able to do in 35 months. I mean - In Ukraine. You're talking about in Ukraine. Yeah, I'm sorry. In Ukraine. Thank you, Kara. This was such a flex and an extraordinary demonstration of skill, strength, and bravery from the U.S. military. I mean, just absolutely extraordinary. Now - If they hadn't won, though. Come on. It's Venezuela. Sorry. Okay, but hold on. Not a single U.S. fatality or casualty. If there had been, I would have been like, what in the hell?

46:13How did we lose one person? Oh, God. Of course not. You have mercenaries all around them. No, I get it. They know they're coming. You would have thought, supposedly, the people on the ground there didn't even hear them coming. Right. This was such an unbelievably massive flex. The problem is the administration has not taken a note out of the most obvious and best written geopolitical strategy in history. And it's the following, the Marshall Plan. All right, we have the Imperial Navy, which was shooting surviving sailors in the sea. We had the Third Reich, which obviously did some terrible things.

46:52So what did the American people in our leadership decide to do? Give them money. We invested in their nations. Yeah. And we weren't punitive. We invested. We rebuilt. And what do you know? Germany and Japan, 80 years later, are amazing allies. Well, we're turning on them now because of Greenland. Well, hold on. Let's just stick with Venezuela. The opportunity to not say, give me your fucking oil and more deeply impoverish them and have a transition government and then have international voting oversight. Free elections. Have our great institutions, our great companies encourage to invest in Venezuela.

47:30Give Venezuelan people a shot. Show them why democracy and capitalism is so wonderful. Create an amazing ally in Latin America. Yeah, you're talking about the wrong presidents. The movie could have been so – this is a Bond film. It started amazing. Now we're going to find out this may not be a great movie because already he's saying, give me the oil. Yeah, pretty explicitly. So that's, you know, related is both Greenland and Iran. President Trump is considering very strong options to intervene in Iran amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests. He likes to help protesters in other countries, but human rights groups say over 500 people have been killed in the last two weeks with over 10 ,000 arrested.

48:10Other estimates are much higher. People are saying reports are coming out much higher than 500. Internet access has also been shut down, telephone service. Iran's foreign minister just said a little while ago that the country is ready for war but prepared to negotiate. Obviously, most smart people on this issue, whether it's Farid, there's all kinds of people talking about it. This regime is facing some, you know, this has happened before, but most people feel this is really bad for the regime, which is good for everybody. But taking military action again is quagmire, feels quagmire and rather dangerous.

48:53Although it's maybe the point to attack because this country is on the brink, I think, from what I can read from experts. I can't think of a military operation that has a higher ROI for the world and for women and for feminism right now. We have been here before where it looked like the regime was going to fall. and because of the IDF and the U.S. Air Force, we have taken out around their defenses. It is clear that the Mossad has penetrated the highest levels in terms of soft assets and espionage. We should absolutely be supporting incredibly brave young women and men who are risking their lives every day, and we should be striking civilian support centers.

49:37We need to help these folks finish the job. We are on the precipice, Kara, of what is arguably the greatest unlock for women's rights and to unlock what is an incredible civilization and turn and stabilize the Middle East for decades. In my opinion, there is nowhere in the world that connotes a better reason and a bigger opportunity for why we spend more than the next 10 militaries combined. We should be coordinating with our allies in the West, although they're not going to coordinate us anymore, but Israel will coordinate with us. And we should absolutely be providing military cloud cover and on-the-ground assets to make sure that this isn't the 11th hour for the regime.

50:25This is lights out. Right. So, again, as you noted, this has happened before. There have been protests across the country. And they beat them back. To tamp them down over and over again, this regime. But so many people still, supposedly, I read this morning that 2 ,000 people have been murdered. The best way to end a war is to win it. We have the resources. They have no air defenses. We have assets. Russia is preoccupied. I mean, I'm a hawk. I don't think there's any reason to spend$1.1 trillion on the U.S. military and then not use it in situations like this. So what does that look like? Does it look like, again, does it have that Bush feel to it that, of course, I suspect much regret for the United States' involvement there, whether it was Afghanistan or Iraq, et cetera?

51:18I think that's a fair question because the reality is we are very good and I think it would not incur much danger to our men and women to foment regime change here. The problem is when we decide to start trying nation build. but iraq i think that that there is an infrastructure and a populace and they even you know everyone's excited about the shah's son potentially coming back and he has said the right language he wants to be a transition leader to free and fair elections but the current what we know is the current state is not good for the people of iran especially bad for the women of Iran, who have been subject to what is arguably one of the worst gender apartheids in the world.

52:03Keep in mind, Iran just a year ago was considered the superpower of the Middle East. In addition, I mean, when you look at geopolitics, you're not only going to look at what's happened, but what's not happened. Have the Houthis been causing problems in the Suez Canal? No. Has Hezbollah been firing rockets into their neighbors? No. We need to finish the job here. and just personally, having grown up at UCLA and having friends, David Asile, my mentor, Hamid Mogadam, Bittak Basiri, Alex Dasili, I have never met a group of people who are more American than Americans than Iranians. And I think they could actually be an outstanding ally for us.

52:44I think the cultures are much more similar between the U.S. and Iran than a lot of our existing allies. Well, then weigh in what the hell is he doing with Greenland then? I'll tell you exactly what's going on, Kara. It makes absolutely no sense. It's all downside. Anything that we say we want, they're like, fine, put military bases here. Do we have rare earths? We're allowed to, as Andrew David Sanger. We can put them there. Rare earths? Sure. What's your idea? Instead, we want to go to war with NATO. I mean, this one is really out of a, out of a, maybe you've done some reporting here or talk to someone.

53:27This is what people around, he just wants to take land to show he'd be the first president to do it since, I don't know, Jefferson, I don't know, whoever. Like a real estate deal or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's, someone was speculating, you know, The map, it's called the Mercator map, shows Greenland is enormous, but it's actually not. It's not as big as just because the way maps are made. It's a real estate deal that he's obsessed with. And, of course, it'll create so much damage to our relationship with Europe. If we start attacking a NATO ally? Yeah, I don't, this makes, I got to think even the administration would go, what are we going to do?

54:10to be going along with him they seem to like whatever crazy comes out of his mouth but we'll see do you think you'll take military action here prediction scott i don't yeah well i'm gonna say i think they would just show up but in iran yes i'm really hopeful i think this is why we have them i think if if we're really serious i can i was trying to find what secretary clinton thought about this because the thing about secretary clinton was she was always pragmatic was always willing to exert U.S. force. She loved it. She loved it. She loved the bomb drop. And she never, she never forgot where she came from.

54:46And that is she always in the back of her mind said, we are here for a lot of reasons, but we're here to protect and advance the rights of women all over the world. And there's a double whammy effect there because the rights of women are largely a forward-looking indicator of your economic growth, prosperity, and your move towards democracy. So there's a lot of reasons to just champion that. Yeah, because Trump is a well-known feminist. We are on the verge of such an enormous unlock by toppling the Islamic Republic. And unfortunately, I didn't watch the Golden Globes, but I doubt there was very many mentions of Iran because when you're a president— They didn't mention—Scott, let's be fair to them.

55:28There was no political—there was hardly any— Yeah, but quite frankly, I would argue, you tell me, I would argue the amount of mentions around Iran is vastly under-proportionate or underwhelming relative to its importance. And this will trigger a lot of people, but I want a spicy comeback, and I've decided my theme for 2026 is zero fucks given. It's because of the moral color code. and that is the media and progressives on our side of the aisle, especially the far left, get moral paralysis when the oppressors are brown. And the number of people, I don't see any flotillas. I don't see Greta Thunberg.

56:09I don't see actors talking about what has been one of the most oppressive, misogynistic, anti-democrat. Kara, they blind women. I am aware of also So many of those countries, which they have protested against, come on, Scott. I mean, even if they're going in the right direction, that government should be eradicated. Let's stop there. And the way we do that is just as we should be supporting the unbelievable bravery of the Ukrainian people with our military hardware and intelligence, we should be supporting the brave men and women of Iran right now. And we have the ability to do it. We have intelligence and technology from the IDF, and we have the muscle.

56:53It is time to move to the next stage of this incredible multi-thousand-year civilization. And the potential— I get it. I get it. We got to move on. But let me just say, if the goal is to do that, threatening our allies over Greenland is not— No fucking sense. No fucking sense. I agree. No fucking sense. All right. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, here's something else you have an opinion on. And California's elite is not happy about a proposed billionaire wealth tax.

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59:36The Insolvenzantrag is set. And suddenly everything is in all-tempo. For our protagonist, the hardest phase begins. In episode 4 of our series, Endstation Insolvenz, we show why Openness is the most important thing. Why a Insolvenz-Werr is not a Gegner. And how a company is stabilised or regulated. The internet is developed. In the podcast channel, good news stories from credit reform. Everywhere, where there are podcasts.

1:00:29It's a couple hundred people, actually. It's not that many people. But some of them are not have a problem with. Jensen Wong said he's perfectly happy to pay it. At the end of the day, I'm not so sure these people will cut ties. They all seem to come back to California over and over again. And that's happening right now, as you saw. San Francisco is sort of back baby kind of thing in general. I know you have an issue about this, the ballot passes. but a lot of it's not a great look and I suspect this is my feeling and I've been talking to some of these people is they'll have some sort of I think the smart ones understand the jig is up on them being rich like behaving the way they're behaving and the image of Silicon Valley and they know they need to do something to because I think they feel the smart ones do feel that there is a real backlash against enormous wealth and the gimmies they get.

1:01:29And so I suspect behind the scenes, there's a deal at play here. But I know behind the scenes, there's a deal at play. But thoughts that you have on this? I mean, I think the Google guys benefited from California. So did all these billionaires, the wonderful state of California. And it's not a great look the way they're behaving. At the same time, they can move anywhere they want. So if the objective is to signal to billionaires that income inequality is out of control and their weaponization of the tax code has really damaged America and created income inequality that threatens and tears of the fabric of our society, and you want to reduce receipts from the California government, then this is your bill.

1:02:12Because this is the bottom line, regardless of what you think is right or ethical, billionaires are the most mobile people in the world. And this has been tried before, And whoever wrote this bill has just not done their work. One of the people who's senior in this effort reached out to me thinking that I would get on board with it. And I said, there's no reason to do a call because I'm against this. In 1990, there were 12 European countries with wealth taxes. And now only three remain. France repealed its wealth tax in 2017. Sweden repealed it in 2007. Finland, 2006. Denmark repealed its wealth tax in 1997.

1:02:50Ireland repealed its wealth tax in 1978. Austria repealed its wealth tax in 1994. Where I'm living now in the UK, they have a non-DOM Act. And ethically and logically, it makes a lot of sense. For a long time, if you moved from Dubai or Hong Kong to London and you were paying zero taxes there, you got to bring your zero tax status to London. That's kind of unfair if you're using the UK infrastructure. So they said, fuck that. You've been here five years. You got to pay UK taxes. Makes all the sense in the world. Over 1 ,000 million, 10 ,000 millionaires have left. The UK government is going to collect less revenue this year, not more.

1:03:28Ethically also, or principally, I'm against it because I think once you get through the gauntlet of taxes, it's private property. And I think one of the things about the West is we respect private property. I don't think you can go after people's assets retroactively. what they should have done or what they should do. And I love tax policy. They should have an AMT. We don't care who you are and how many tax goodies you've come up with. You're going to pay at least 40 % above a million dollars AMT. Do away with the inheritance tax deduction or vastly reduce it. Raise corporate taxes. There's better ways to do this.

1:04:11But impossible, by the way, because they have all the money to stop every single one of those things. I don't mind the signal here to these people at all. And I think it is a signal. I'm not so sure. And I know there's some. I think our taxes are coming for the wealthy. You are, it's enough with you people. And I think the signal is enough to begin the discussions. And they, listen, they don't look good. Like here's, especially the Google guys, they made their fortune in California. So did Elon, by the way, all of them did. And to like kick it on the way out is such a look of greed. And it was really interesting that Jensen Wong, because he probably knows it's not going to really.

1:04:50Jensen doesn't think this is going to go through. That's right. That's such signaling. So he's saying, I'm happy to pay my fair share. I'm a good guy. I'm one of you. I'm in favor of this. He's not worried about it. He's not worried about it, but he also knows, he understands what's coming. See, I find him much more canny. They're just so fucking dumb and greedy. Like, they just always have to react when anyone wants them to do the right thing. Like, whoa, I don't want to have to do what I want to do, that kind of thing. And so I think there's a real interesting interplay here with these wealthy people, because I do think brand Silicon Valley is not good.

1:05:25Oh, no shit. You know, so they need to make a deal here. The UK is talking about, UK, Australia, and Canada are talking about banning X. And it's only going to get worse. I think Europe is probably going to consider banning Meta if this shit continues with Trump. But just going back to tax policy, a better tax policy that would be more effective. I mean, this is the problem is this with this ballot and some of the conversation we're having here is something I've struggled with my whole life professionally. The difference between being right and being effective. Billionaires paying more tax in California to support the incredible infrastructure, the Cal State, the UC system, the hospitals, the environment.

1:06:03Absolutely, that's right. But the question is, how do you be effective? How do you actually increase the treasury to invest in the middle class and the infrastructure that made these people rich? And one thing you could do, it's boring, but it would be effective is the following. You get taxed when you recognize a capital gain based on where the wealth was accreted. So when Bezos accretes, whatever it is,$80 or$120 billion in wealth, and then he recognizes it, the tax authorities go, okay, we estimate that$90 of that$100 billion was accreted while you were a resident of Washington state. And so you are going to pay Washington state taxes on$90 billion instead of like, you know, I'm thinking about selling my stock.

1:06:46I'm going to piece out to Miami and shitpost San Francisco and then pay and pretend that I'm seeing my father. I couldn't handle San Francisco politics or homeless anymore. So I'm piecing out to a zero tax state. And you can literally be there for 12 months and then recognize the entire capital gain without paying anything back to the great infrastructure. I think there are much more, much more elegant ways. Yeah. No, I think this is the beginning of a dialogue. I just, I don't know, but I have a, let me just tell you, they can walk, you know, do their angry walk out of California, but they're coming for you folks.

1:07:20You're not, nobody likes you and they don't think you're heroes and they don't think you're great and they don't think what you've done is great. And so if there's one brand that's been more, has shot itself in the foot more. It's Silicon Valley. Not everybody, but a lot of people. Anyway, one more quick break. We'll be back for wins and fails.

1:07:48Okay, Scott, let's hear some wins and fails. Okay. My win is actually, well, the U.S. military that executed the capture of Madura, Delta Force, First Special Forces Operation Detachment Delta, which is an elite army special unit that led the direct raid and the apprehension of Madura, the 160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment. and then there are these quiet helicopters, just night prowlers, and then supporting our brave men and women on the ground there were elements from multiple units, intelligence, mobility, the United States Air Force, United States Navy, the Marine Corps, all had a role in this.

1:08:39I just think if you think about kind of soft power, if you think about America's influence around the world, of the 7 billion people in the world, 6.7 billion don't live here, and 6 billion are never going to come here, and 4 billion are never going to have any interaction, or 3 billion are probably never going to have any interaction with an American to an extent. So our ability to do business, to continue to attract the best and brightest, to convince them maybe not to cooperate with people planning to come here and harm us is based on our brand. And part of that brand should be soft power in a positive way.

1:09:18And that's why the cancellation of USAID was so terrible. But also some of it is, quite frankly, as Madeleine Albright said, Secretary Albright said, our reach as far in our memory as long. The brand message of this military flex and how it was executed has sent a chill down the spine of every adversary globally. Jesus Christ, did you see what they did and how easily they did it? I think that the win here, and I'm actually in favor of the operation. U.S., Russia and China were operating a shadow fleet. We also actually didn't get enough press. We seized a Russian tanker like it was wiping sweat from our brow.

1:10:01They did it so elegantly, even though it was being shadowed by an Akilo-based or class Russian sub. It could be an amazing ally. Anyways, we talked about this, but my win is the best performing organization in the history of the world, and that is the U.S. military. I just don't, I'm just fascinated by what people, my loss here is the moral color code of America, where unfortunately my business, academics have created a zeitgeist of oppressor. and oppressed. And we've decided the shorthand for that is the color of the skin of the oppressor. And we go into moral paralysis, whether it's in Sudan or Afghanistan, or in this case, Iran, when the oppressors are brown.

1:10:48And I just am disappointed that there's not more attention to what, I don't think you can call yourself a feminist if you're not talking about excited and very supportive of robust action to overthrow what has been one of the most oppressive regimes globally. And I just don't see that nearly the type of coverage that some other conflicts have received. And I think it's because in America, we do have what I would refer to as a moral color code. And that is the damage done to the oppressed, the violation of human rights, the pursuit of democracy, the out-of-control misogyny are not what dictates our response.

1:11:32What largely dictates our response is the color of the skin of the oppressor. Okay. All right. That's my fail. Also, I would be remiss if I didn't credit a lot of my thoughts around this to this really impressive woman who I had the pleasure of meeting, a woman named Elika Laban. And if you're not following her, you should. I think she's just so brave and so thoughtful around issues as it relates to Iran and other conflicts around the world. All right. It's kind of funny you say that because there was a story on Fox about wine moms, white wine moms being dangerous. White wine moms. Oh, my God.

1:12:04I love that. Mouthi lesbians and white wine moms. The women of white wine. Oh, my God. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That got started with that justice's wife who had drank wine and hung the flag upside down. Yeah, well, she's a different white wine mom. She's on the other side. Let me do my fail first. What's happening with Grok? And the fails are Apple and Google and, of course, Grok, as always, in terms of allowing child abuse and misogyny to just thrive in pretending it's free speech. Back in the day, I feel like child pornography was something we all agreed shouldn't happen. The fact that these companies haven't thrown Grok out or demanded changes or anything or been vocal about this issue.

1:12:48And maybe they are behind the scenes, but I don't care. they should say it publicly, about what Musk has been doing at Grok, which is disturbing. There were pictures of the woman who was killed in Minnesota with bikinis on in his spicy mode. Look, people are going to make these things, stupid anti-women things all the time, but this is really repulsive when it comes to children. And this is something we shouldn't, I'm going to do a whole show on it because I'm just so tired. And I don't think the media has paid enough attention to this, but I don't think it's the media's fault, so I'm not going to slap the media for it.

1:13:25I think Apple and Google have some influence here in terms of the App Store and everything else. And I know, for example, that a federal judge just ruled that the lawsuit against opening, I should go to trial, and that's perfectly fine. But the behavior of Grok is really pretty heinous. And so, and if they're never going to do something because it's Elon Musk and he has no values whatsoever at this point. But Apple and Google certainly should and stand up. And the lack of standing up by many companies these days is pretty disturbing on every level. But this to me is the most disturbing that I've seen so far.

1:14:02And my win is, my win continues to be people that, you know, that are standing up, whether it's Jerome Powell, whether it's even the Exxon executive. He just said the truth out loud about things. This is an administration of cronies and hacks and terrible people that are still doing damage, even if they're incompetent. And so anybody who speaks out and says things, I'm really, and Jerome Powell this week sort of gets that for me, absolutely, even in a small way. I don't love when actors do it from stages. And I thought actually Jean Smart, besides saying she's a greedy bitch for winning three times, which was very funny, was really, did it well.

1:14:46Like she said something very clearly and at the same time she understood. she's like I understand people don't like to hear actors talking about these things but I'm a citizen and we have to do the right thing I thought she did it in a really classy way so that was a small way I think Jerome Powell is doing the same thing and I think everyone who calls attention to all this fucking nonsense and also Jake Tapper for doing that excellent interview with Christine Ohm deserves credit for just saying oh come on fucking enough with you people anyway we want to hear from you Send us your questions about business, tech, or whatever's on your mind.

1:15:20Go to nymag.com slash pivot to send a question for the show or call 855-51-PIVOT. Okay, that's the show. Thanks for listening to Pivot and our new Scott Galloway. She's so pretty. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. We'll be back on Friday. Scott, welcome. Stop laughing. Stop laughing. I just, I love everything. It's lucky it's not at my expense. I got to say, everyone's like, why is Scott out? and I'm like, uh, and they're like, facelift. No, it wasn't a facelift. That's coming. Whatever, that was what they said. That's coming. That's coming. All right, read us out, you pretty little lady.

1:15:58Today's show was produced by Lara Neiman, Zoe Marcus, and Taylor Griffin. Ernie Nurtad engineered this episode. Rich Shibley edited the video. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Miss Rivera, and Dan Chalon, and Shaq Kroas, Vox Media's executive producer of podcasts. Make sure to follow Pivot on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media. You can subscribe to the magazine at edmymag.com slash pod. We'll be back later this week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. I asked the surgeon just to look natural, and I think he misheard me and said, I want to look naturally surprised.

1:16:31I'm looking at Ferraris, Kara. I'm looking at Ferraris. What is the hole I'm trying to fill here? What is the hole? Oh, it's a big one. It's a big one.

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