What could be less important than the holidays in a country where you don t live? Probably nothing, but we re going to make this special anyway, and all you need is a cup or mug, a glass of water, a chalice, a spork, a teapot, a mug of your favorite beverage, and a flask of any kind to get you started on your day.
00:09:28.580Well, he has two thumbs and is disgruntled about not winning a Pulitzer Prize.
00:09:33.800This guy. This guy. Yes. I'm very bitter about it. I'm bitter about winning the prize that
00:09:40.660I have no, I put no value in whatsoever. It's true, by the way. I am actually bitter about
00:09:45.940it. I swear to God, I'm bitter about it. And the reason is that other cartoonists have
00:09:51.580won the Pulitzer. So Gary Tudeau's won once or twice. And I think Brooke Brethage won. And
00:09:59.480then lots of, you know, political cartoonists have won. And I always said to myself, I feel
00:10:06.480as if Dilber has defined the workplace in a way that if somebody deserved a Pulitzer Prize
00:10:14.740for cartooning, you know, for commentary about the world and even having an effect on the actual
00:10:20.320workplace, honestly, with complete humility, I deserve a Pulitzer Prize. Just based on how
00:10:32.160they're given and what they're for and the context. And, but I don't think I've been nominated.
00:10:43.820So you can't actually win it unless you're nominated. I think you nominate yourself.
00:10:47.320So, no, I'm not high. But thanks for asking. So somewhere halfway into my live stream pretty
00:10:56.720much every day, or no matter what time of day, somebody says, I think he's high. Now, if
00:11:03.680you think that, now somebody says Gary Larson is a hundred times better. And I agree, but
00:11:09.680you're off point. You're off point. Calvin and Hobbes is also the best cartoon that's ever
00:11:15.960been made, but made, in my opinion. But Calvin and Hobbes doesn't get a Pulitzer because
00:11:21.420the commentary is not serious about the world. Dilbert is actually serious commentary in humorous
00:11:29.240form. So you have to at least be political or social in nature before a Pulitzer is applicable.
00:11:36.420Yeah. So I feel like I'm in that domain. All right. Here's an interesting factoid, a little
00:11:48.320positivity for you. So because of the Roe decision by the court, people are asking ridiculous questions
00:11:57.160about other things. And one of the ridiculous questions is, will the Supreme Court somehow make
00:12:02.920it illegal to have interracial marriage? Now, there are some predictions I make that I'm
00:12:13.340like, oh, I'm really like 90 percent sure. I'm not 100 percent sure. But this is the only
00:12:17.540one where I'm going to go out on a limb and say 100 percent sure interracial marriage will
00:12:22.660remain legal in the United States. Does anybody want to argue that point? I'm 100 percent sure
00:12:29.380it's not a problem. Anybody? Talk about a revolution. Oh, my God. There's probably not a single thing
00:12:40.760that we've ever discussed that would be more volatile than that. All right. Now, I live in
00:12:46.980California. If I hosted a party at my house and just, you know, invited 100 people that I
00:12:53.920know from my social circle or whatever, there would be so many interracial marriages. Now,
00:13:00.180I live in California, so maybe there's just more of it. But I almost don't see the other
00:13:05.360kind. Where I live, it's mostly interracial. Now, interracial depends how you define it,
00:13:11.760right? So we're not counting just black and white. You've got to count Hispanic. You've got
00:13:17.740to count Asian. You've got to count everything, right? So interracial marriages where I live,
00:13:23.920I don't know. Like, it is so far beyond anything you could ever reverse. Just no way. Define
00:13:34.140racial, yeah. So everybody might define it a little bit differently. But here's the point
00:13:39.400I was going to say. There's a scientific, let's say, idea that has been confirmed by studies.
00:13:48.000Of course, we don't believe studies are necessarily true unless they agree with our biases. And this
00:13:53.160one does, so I'm going to say it's good. Somebody says, lull, Pleasanton is not mostly interracial.
00:14:00.180I'm going to disagree with you. I'm going to disagree with you. Because I said, if I threw
00:14:04.500a party of my social circle, I didn't say, you know, a generic Pleasanton event. But I
00:14:11.600don't think you could have a generic Pleasanton event that wasn't just full of at least, you
00:14:18.380American plus others, Hispanic American plus others. You know, there's less black-white
00:14:24.440where I live. But the interracial part is pervasive. I think whoever just said that Pleasanton doesn't
00:14:32.560have interracial marriages, I think you're discounting how many different groups there are. Because if
00:14:38.880you throw in Indian Americans, you know, people born in India or not, it is very high in interracial
00:14:47.020marriage, very high. In a good way. So the idea is that proximity makes people less bigoted.
00:14:56.440In other words, if you simply spend time around people, instead of disliking them more, because,
00:15:03.600you know, you get to see all their warts or whatever, it's the opposite. The more time you
00:15:08.880spend with people who are different from you, the more accepting you are. Does that make sense
00:15:13.120to you? Do you believe that? I mean, does that study sound like that makes sense? Now, some
00:15:19.700of the examples they gave, I thought, were bullshit. And I'll tell you why. One of the examples
00:15:25.060was that people who served in, back when the military was segregated, there was a period when
00:15:31.380there were still segregated units, and then integrated units. And if you followed up with
00:15:36.960them, you found that the integrated units, years later, the people who were in it, were
00:15:42.660less bigoted than the people who were never integrated in the first place. Does that make
00:15:47.560sense? And so that was part of the evidence of that working together makes you less bigoted.
00:15:52.880Do you see any problem with that study? There's a big problem with that study, isn't there?
00:15:57.200Well, let me ask you, at a time when there was a transition, and there were still segregated
00:16:04.600units, and then, you know, integrated units, do you think there was anything that those units
00:16:10.440had in common before the study? Almost certainly, the ones that were integrated first were in places
00:16:19.520where they thought it would work. Right? I'm just guessing that the units that perhaps were made
00:16:28.220up of, or comprised of, more, you know, old Southern boys, so to speak, I've got a feeling
00:16:35.200that they didn't integrate right away. Like, maybe they needed to wait to see if the Northern units
00:16:41.000worked it out, and once they did, you know, everybody could do it. But I have a feeling that
00:16:45.680the ones who decided to integrate first had something in common. In other words, it was
00:16:53.280a group of people where you said to yourself, well, that could work with that group. But
00:16:57.140I'll bet there were other groups. Yeah. I'll bet there were other groups where they just
00:17:07.460said, okay, let's wait on this group, because these are all just severe racists in this group.
00:17:11.780So I'm not sure I believe the study. Do you? But it also tracks with my own understanding.
00:17:22.280Meaning that, I would say that's true. I would say that exposure makes you more open to other
00:17:27.240people. Would you disagree with that? Is there anybody who would disagree with that, just sort
00:17:31.540of commonsensically? Or does your own experience say, yeah, the more time you spend with other
00:17:36.020people, the more accepting you are? Now, I'm almost positive that that proximity thing
00:17:43.500is why I'm so much more pro-immigration than a lot of you are. I'm almost positive. Because
00:17:50.420I have a proximity thing going on. If you take the people coming across the border illegally,
00:17:57.360or people who have, and have, you know, recently, you know, maybe it's the second generation,
00:18:01.540whatever. If you take that group as a class, I've had, you know, extensive, extensive exposure
00:18:09.440to them, because of where I live. And my opinion is, they're better than the people who are already
00:18:16.100here. Sorry. Now, when I say better, I don't mean, you know, smarter, taller, better as sports.
00:18:27.740I don't mean their DNA is, you know, better or anything like that. Not in some way that you
00:18:32.740should care about. I don't think they're better. Here's how I think they're better. I just love the
00:18:38.620fact that they beat the odds, that they took on something enormously risky and dangerous to get to
00:18:46.380the United States to better their lives. In my opinion, and I know how distasteful this is for some
00:18:52.060of you. Some of you are just going to hate this, especially on the 4th of July. But to me, America
00:18:57.580is not a border. We have to have a border. And I'm big on having, you know, strong borders and
00:19:04.640protecting them. So separate the fact that I think functionally, you have to have a strong border, more
00:19:10.680stronger than we have now. But I think America is a way of thinking. I think America is a vibe.
00:19:21.240I think America is a point of view. And the people who come here illegally, not all of them, I mean,
00:19:27.980they all come for their own reasons. But to me, they come with more of an American vibe than the
00:19:33.040people who are already here, and just were born into it and didn't work for it.
00:19:37.160Now, that's just a bias, right? Could I prove it? If I did a study, would it be backed up? I don't
00:19:45.180know. I have no idea. It is a complete bias that is informed by proximity. If you spend enough time
00:19:54.140around the people who came from below the border recently, you will love them. That's my opinion.
00:20:02.160If you spend enough time around anybody who came across the border, you could have a really good
00:20:06.600opinion of them. And it will definitely influence what you think about how tough we should be in
00:20:12.740sending people back or amnesty or all that. It completely changes once you've had direct exposure.
00:20:20.700Now, if the only thing you've done is watch Fox News and see these, you know, these armies of brown
00:20:26.280people coming across the border, it does look like an invasion. It looks scary. But if you're in it,
00:20:32.320like you're seeped in it, as I am, not people who just came across the border, but if you're
00:20:38.540seeped in the culture, it's very embracing. And it's not scary at all. Like, you know, if you wonder
00:20:47.560what your future looks like, if you're not in California, California is often your future,
00:20:53.280right? For good or bad, right? What happens here just happens a little faster. So we're maybe,
00:20:59.920what would you say, five years? California is about five years, maybe, depends on the topic,
00:21:05.880ahead of what's going to happen everywhere. And if you live here, I don't know anybody who is,
00:21:15.200has extended exposure to the recent immigrants who doesn't love them. I don't. Now, I'm sure they
00:21:23.740exist. And it has a lot to do with the town I live in, right? We're a pretty open town. So things are
00:21:29.800pretty good, like mentally, where I live. There's not a lot of hate, a lot of acceptance here. So
00:21:35.960I'm just giving you my view. Now, if you say, that's not how it feels where I am, well, that's the
00:21:43.640point. That is the point. It doesn't feel like that where you are. Because, but, but here's what
00:21:48.760I don't see. I don't see anybody who is, who is really surrounded by the, the immigrant culture
00:21:56.120who doesn't love them. I don't know anybody. In fact, privately, when people talk, they say,
00:22:02.360yeah, they're, they're awesome. That's what people say behind their backs. So how would you like to be
00:22:07.520that? How would you like to be the immigrant community that when people talk about you behind
00:22:13.280your back? It's almost always positive. I mean, that's pretty good. Talk about managing
00:22:19.940your brand. That's pretty good. All right. Elon Musk visited the Pope. And the big news
00:22:27.780that came out of that is that I expected it would be like matter and antimatter. And that
00:22:33.980when they shook hands, there would be some kind of a black hole or explosion. And both of them
00:22:39.740would disappear in a giant fireball. That didn't happen, which shakes my confidence and
00:22:45.440everything I knew about reality. But I also wonder what was the thinking of either Elon Musk
00:22:52.180or the Pope? Don't you say to yourself, huh, I wonder if the Pope converted Elon Musk from
00:23:00.180being a non-believer? Elon Musk believes in the simulation. I wonder if the Pope tried or had any
00:23:07.520success moving Elon Musk to become more of a believer. And then I asked myself, well, which
00:23:15.900one of those two is more persuasive? Pope? A plus. You don't become the Pope unless you
00:23:24.680got some serious Catholic skills. Am I right? Like, you know, there's a lot of work to become
00:23:29.540a Pope. That's not an easy entry-level job. So you have to say that the Pope probably is
00:23:35.300a real persuasive person, wouldn't you say? But he's not as persuasive as Elon Musk, which
00:23:43.020is interesting. Very rare situation. Somebody visiting the Pope who's verifiably, in my opinion,
00:23:51.160verifiably more persuasive than the Pope. I'll bet that's almost never happened. It was probably
00:23:59.240almost never happened when the person who's more persuasive is not a believer. So what
00:24:04.480I'm wondering is if Elon Musk had any luck convincing the Pope to abandon his religion.
00:24:10.180I mean, there's no reporting on it. We don't know what they talked about. But I don't know. I'd be a little worried if I were a Catholic and my Pope spent 10 minutes with the most persuasive person on the planet who also thought we lived in a simulation and that my religion wasn't real.
00:24:28.220I'd be worried about it. I'd be worried about that. No, I'm just joking. But it is weird that the world's biggest non-believer, or at least most famous for being a non-believer, would visit the Pope, of all things.
00:24:46.140It's a wonderful world. I'm glad that you did.
00:24:50.420Well, in California, a lot of Californians are getting what they call inflation relief checks.
00:28:44.420That's when everybody's traveling at the same time.
00:28:46.240So, it seems to me likely that the charging network is only designed for the 98% of the time when traffic is normal and not designed for the 2%.
00:29:45.640So, maybe something like that will happen.
00:29:47.280So, there's an ongoing debate about TikTok and whether or not China has access to information because it's a Chinese company.
00:29:56.480And Brendan Carr, he's on the FCC, and he's asking Apple and Google to drop the app because it's sending data to China.
00:30:10.000Now, TikTok had assured us it's not going to do that, but apparently it's confirmed that some of the data was available in China.
00:30:20.980And I think at this point, if we were fooled about what data is going back to China, and TikTok was involved in fooling us, you have to take it out of the app store.
00:30:34.180Now, I don't know if these two things are true, so let me say these are allegations.
00:30:40.280See, the allegation would be that people were concerned that China, you know, the government, would have access to all this private information in TikTok.
00:30:50.080And TikTok said to the world and to us, no, don't worry, because we moved our data into China, so China doesn't have access to it.
00:34:09.060Some of you are wondering what happened with the special live stream I started last night.
00:34:21.200I already explained this to the people on Locals, but if there's anybody on YouTube who saw me tweet about it, I started one that I had to bail in because something came up.
00:34:34.720If you're looking for it, it was never completed.
00:34:36.580And I may or may not complete it today or later.
00:34:40.440I would like to read for you some of the best, most important words ever written.
00:34:50.700Do you want to hang for that for a minute?
00:34:53.540Now, I want you to listen to this not only for the meaning of the words, but for how well it's written.
00:35:00.360Because remember, you know, one of the things that we've learned is you want short, clean sentences.
00:35:07.320But in the old days, they didn't write these short, clean sentences.
00:35:11.140They wrote these amazingly big, long, complicated ones.
00:35:14.540It's really hard to write a really amazingly long, complicated sentence and then have people read it and be inspired and, like, understand it.
00:35:22.940Like, you've got to really be a good writer to do that.
00:35:25.240So I'm going to read you some of the best writing I've ever seen in my life, which violates a lot of rules of writing.
00:35:32.860And I want you to see if it has a historical meaning that is still relevant today.
00:35:38.740So see if there's any relevance to this today.
00:35:46.200When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
00:35:55.240and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them.
00:36:03.260A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
00:36:14.220We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,
00:36:25.220that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,
00:36:28.860that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men,
00:36:33.460derived their just powers from the consent of the governed,
00:36:37.400that whatever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends,
00:36:41.800it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it,
00:36:45.460and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles
00:36:50.000and organizing its powers in such form,
00:36:52.760as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness.
00:36:59.500Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes,
00:37:05.920and accordingly, all experience hath shewn,
00:37:09.520that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
00:37:14.320than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
00:37:18.360But when a long train of abuses and usurpations,