1754 - "Yippy"

Summary

No Agenda Show — Episode 1754: "Yippy"
Released April 10, 2025
Hosts: Adam Curry & John C. Dvorak

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I. Trump's Tariffs and the Trade War with China

The episode opens with Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak delving into the ramifications of President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war, focusing primarily on the increased tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.

Adam Curry (00:52):
"It's setting a precedent where now every president who comes after Trump is going to have to do these live events."

Trump's decision to raise tariffs on Chinese products to 125% while pausing others for 90 days has sparked significant discussion. The hosts explore the potential long-term effects of these tariffs, especially on everyday consumer products like iPhones.

John C. Dvorak (02:40):
"Consumer confidence dropped sharply this week following steep drops on Wall street amid President Trump's historic tariffs."

II. Economic Implications: Bond Market and Consumer Behavior

The trade tensions have had a cascading effect on various economic indicators. The bond market has experienced volatility, with interest rates rising contrary to initial theories that suggested a strategic move by Trump to refinance national debt at lower rates.

Adam Curry (16:22):
"The Tobacco product health acts..."
(Note: The timestamp might be incorrect; context suggests he's discussing inflation and tariffs.)

Furthermore, consumer behavior has shifted towards panic buying, reminiscent of the COVID-19 pandemic era. Products ranging from iPhones to essential goods have seen increased demand due to fears of future price hikes.

John C. Dvorak (05:01):
"We're sick of the panic buying mentality. It's like we're back in COVID again."

III. Media Reactions and Conservative Podcasters' Views

The hosts critique mainstream media's portrayal of the trade war, arguing that it often lacks depth and resorts to sensationalism. They highlight how some conservative podcasters, once staunch supporters of Trump, have begun voicing doubts about his tariff policies.

Adam Curry (14:17):
"Dave Portnoy is another media figure who's unhappy with how the measures have played out."

John C. Dvorak (12:19):
"Friendly podcasts and streaming shows are now sharing concern, panic, confusion, and even disgust over the cost of Trump's trade war."

IV. Analysis of Trump's Trade Strategy and China's Response

The discussion moves towards dissecting Trump's trade strategy, questioning its efficacy and the underlying goals. The hosts present a theory that the tariffs aim to devalue the dollar to make American exports more competitive and to exert pressure on China, which holds substantial US debt.

Adam Curry (20:12):
"We're using tariffs to devalue the dollar and squeeze China economically, a strategy that many economists believe is misguided."

They also touch upon China's preparedness for such trade wars, noting that despite the high tariffs, China has diversified its export markets and has strategies in place to mitigate the impact.

John C. Dvorak (08:42):
"Both countries have much to lose, but the lack of clear communication makes the situation increasingly volatile."

V. Technology and Smartphone Addiction

Shifting gears, the hosts delve into the pervasive issue of smartphone addiction. Personal anecdotes from both Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak illustrate their struggles and strategies to mitigate dependency on smartphones.

Adam Curry (73:37):
"I've been phoneless for two years. My phone is in the drawer, and I've never felt more present with the people around me."

They discuss the psychological impact of constant connectivity and the benefits of reducing screen time to enhance personal relationships and mental well-being.

John C. Dvorak (84:11):
"It's a health crisis. These phones are tailored for addiction, and it's affecting how we interact and think."

VI. Community Engagement: Meetups and Donations

The episode highlights the community aspect of the No Agenda Show, showcasing various meetups across the United States and internationally. The hosts extend gratitude to their listeners who support the show through donations, earning titles such as Associate Executive Producer and Executive Producer.

John C. Dvorak (121:07):
"We appreciate all our supporters. Your donations help keep the show running and free from advertiser influence."

Listeners from diverse locations like Tennessee, California, and Michigan contribute, sharing personal messages and expressing their support through creative donations.

VII. Closing Remarks

In the concluding segments, the hosts reflect on the day's discussions, reiterating the importance of critical thinking and community support. They emphasize the value-for-value model, encouraging listeners to contribute in ways that sustain the show's independence and integrity.

Adam Curry (201:03):
"We thank you all for your support. Remember, your love may not pay the bills, but it keeps the conversation going."

The episode wraps up with lighthearted banter, music mixes, and a final encouragement for listeners to remain engaged and informed.

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Notable Quotes:

• Adam Curry (00:52):
  "It's setting a precedent where now every president who comes after Trump is going to have to do these live events."

• John C. Dvorak (05:01):
  "We're sick of the panic buying mentality. It's like we're back in COVID again."

• John C. Dvorak (12:19):
  "Friendly podcasts and streaming shows are now sharing concern, panic, confusion, and even disgust over the cost of Trump's trade war."

• Adam Curry (73:37):
  "I've been phoneless for two years. My phone is in the drawer, and I've never felt more present with the people around me."

• John C. Dvorak (84:11):
  "It's a health crisis. These phones are tailored for addiction, and it's affecting how we interact and think."

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This episode of the No Agenda Show provides a comprehensive look into the ongoing trade tensions between the US and China, the economic fallout, media portrayals, and personal reflections on technology's role in our lives. Through engaging discussions and listener interactions, Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak offer nuanced perspectives aimed at deconstructing mainstream narratives.

Transcript

[Adam Curry]

She looks like she stinks. Adam Curry, John C. Dvorak, it's Thursday, April 10, 2025.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is your award winning Kimonation Media assassination episode 1754.

[Adam Curry]

This is no agenda.

[John C. Dvorak]

What goes up must come down. And we're broadcasting live from the heart of the Texas hill country here in FEMA region number six in the morning, everybody.

[Adam Curry]

I'm Adam Curry and from northern Silicon Valley where we're all watching the cabinet meeting, I'm John C. Dvorak. Kill in the morning.

[John C. Dvorak]

You're not supposed to be watching television during the show.

[Adam Curry]

Is it the, is it the cabinet meeting or is it another version, another episode of the Apprentice? Oh, did you see any of this?

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I saw some of it. What about it? What about it?

[Adam Curry]

Well, a couple of things. One is the Apprentice.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And it's like all it is is a bunch of cabinet members telling Trump what a great job he's doing and how everybody's great on the Cabinet and we all love each other. And it's unfortunate or fortunately or unfortunately. I think it's made. It's setting a precedent where now every president who comes after Trump is going to have to do these live events.

[John C. Dvorak]

I got it. We got to do an Instagram live, baby. Of course. Oh, that's the most transparent government in history.

[Adam Curry]

It's tedious and, you know, everybody's. It was just a. I don't know, I found the thing to be so staged and, and phony that it was like it was an eye roller.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, throughout the past few days, I just kept getting this feeling and seeing what people are emailing me and hearing people around me. And of course, it's all coming from the M5M. Everything's. We got charts, we got numbers, we got red, we got green, we got up, we got down, we got panic, we got. Oh, it reminds me of COVID People are being psyoped, they are upset, they're being spun up. They don't know what's going on, they don't understand it. All the experts are contradicting each other. In fact, it's showing up in reports, including this one little ditty which keeps coming back time and again. Consumer confidence dropped sharply this week following steep drops on Wall street amid President Trump's historic tariffs. Today, Trump announced that 90 day pause on some of the tariffs, but tariffs on Chinese products Now stand at 125%.

[Adam Curry]

Bottom line, everyday items are expected to cost more within weeks or months. Take iPhones, for example. Tech analysts predict they would triple in price if Apple moved its manufacturing operations to the US which is one intended purpose of the tariffs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Did you Hahn joining us now live in studio with a look at how the threat of higher prices is prompting shoppers to stock up now. Did he.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, people are really concerned. We asked our friends on Facebook about and received about 500 comments. Many people.

[John C. Dvorak]

The news is now resorted. There's reporting the news has now resorted to their friends.

[Adam Curry]

Friends on Facebook Friends tell us what to do. And received about 500 comments. Many people say they aren't changing their behavior but some tell us they are so concerned about possible price increases they are now resorting to panic buying. We're scared to death. We're retired. We were watching our savings going down the tube. We don't know what to expect next. It's confusing. Confusing and leading some to stock up or even panic. Buy a ton of coffee yesterday that has chicory in it which helps the acid in the coffee not affect my stomach. So yeah, I just ordered six more cans yesterday. Viewers on Facebook tell us they've ordered an iPhone and French wine. Stop the clip for a second. I just had to throw in a little color.

[John C. Dvorak]

Color commentary. Color commentary factoid.

[Adam Curry]

Chicory is put in coffee.

[John C. Dvorak]

I knew he would focus on the chicory. Yeah, of course, of course you jcd. Of course you do. Tell us about the chicory.

[Adam Curry]

Chicory is put in coffee into. Into lousy non robust like the robusto, the crappy beans to make the coffee palatable. It's got nothing to do with stomach acids or 1. Anything like that. It might have an effect like that. But chicory is a cheap. Is a way to take cheap, crappy tasting coffee and make it palatable. That's the reason you use it. And sometimes yeah, okay, I like the taste of chicory, so I use it. I mean I don't personally.

[John C. Dvorak]

You could put salt in it. You get the same effect.

[Adam Curry]

There's a bunch of things you can do. But.

[John C. Dvorak]

But this lady, this lady had one lame eye, you know, she was perfect. One eye was kind of droopy, going.

[Adam Curry]

Off in the wrong direction. Yeah, well, that's always good.

[John C. Dvorak]

But there's a common theme in these reports.

[Adam Curry]

Six more cans yesterday. Viewers on Facebook tell us they've ordered an iPhone and French wines, chocolate chips and cocoa powder as well as car parts and new tires. I feel like I'm back in Covid again. Nobody knows what's going on, what's going to happen.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's exactly it. Now, we have not gone to panic buying toilet paper, but it seems for some reason I didn't have.

[Adam Curry]

I didn't have coming.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, the way the media is playing this. But they cannot help themselves with this one example over and over and over again.

[Adam Curry]

Could Americans soon be paying several thousand dollars for a new iPhone? Apple's landmark smartphone is set to be impact by Donald Trump's tariffs.

[John C. Dvorak]

I mean, everyone has this example. Your iPhone is going to cost 3,500. Guess what? We'll buy an Android. We don't. It's like I think the news media are worried about their iPhone. Oh, if I don't have the newest iPhone, then I won't be cool. And I can't have a green bubble. I've got to have a blue bubble. I gotta have an iPhone. Oh, Trump, you're ruining my iPhone purchase.

[Adam Curry]

As most are assembled in China. You're exactly right. In fact, a lot of the Android phones which are built in Korea.

[John C. Dvorak]

Thank you.

[Adam Curry]

And I have one that costs $75 which works just for your smartphone.

[John C. Dvorak]

You got jips. You pay too much.

[Adam Curry]

And so everyone's all bent out of shape because of the. Okay.

[John C. Dvorak]

Are now subject to a entire reports about the iPhone.

[Adam Curry]

104% import duty. Some analysts say Apple's costs could rise as much as 43% if that's passed on to the consumer. The top of the line iPhone 16 Pro Max would go from a $1600 retail price to nearly $2300. I would not pay $2300 for an iPhone. For the newest iPhone for any reason.

[John C. Dvorak]

For an iPhone, Never. No, no.

[Adam Curry]

Apple's top supplier in China.

[John C. Dvorak]

All right, now here's another report.

[Adam Curry]

Well, China has actually from the start mentioned negotiations or talking with the Americans from the start. But right now they are demand respect first. So at this stage, no breakthrough on the horizon. Tensions are extremely high. Neither side backing down in numbers. Beijing has escalated as much as the US responding in kind to their tariffs. You know, 34% and now 50% so far. The United States though, insists that the playing field was vastly skewered in the first place because of that trade deficit they have. Without a breakthrough, though, we are heading towards a much nastier trade war than anything we've seen before. It's really difficult to see the end of the tunnel. Donald Trump's way of speaking. Certainly not considered to be very diplomatic in the eyes of the Chinese. Beijing has now announced travel advisories to citizens visiting the US as well as telling overseas students there to conduct a report.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is France 24. Is the lady in China. But wait, it's coming.

[Adam Curry]

A safety risk Assessment.

[John C. Dvorak]

All this talk, Everything, all this talk. What's the result?

[Adam Curry]

Deciding whether or not they should continue studying. In the US China is arguably the only country that can really hold its ground when it comes comes to dealing with the humiliating rhetoric coming from rather than the smaller economies who are having to sign up to strike deals with Donald Trump. Beijing is standing firm for now. So diplomatic tensions have escalated. But of course it's neither in the US nor in China's interest to let this situation get out of hand any further. US tariffs on Chinese goods will ultimately hurt US consumers. Just think of the price of the iPhone that will inevitably rise.

[John C. Dvorak]

As for China, I mean, what is this? Is that the only thing that's going to be affected? Is that, Is that truly the problem? And every hoi polloi rich money person, although not necessarily hoi polloi or rich, but Andrew Horowitz, they all say the same thing. Well, I like the charts. I don't like how he's doing it. I don't like how he's doing it. He could have done a little more subtle. I don't like how he's doing it. He's not a nice man. He's not showing respect. I'm sick of it. And then here's the new one. This is the new one. Oh. Oh boy.

[Adam Curry]

You heard Horowitz's feelings.

[John C. Dvorak]

I heard him. He wouldn't even. He is so mad. When you, when you did the typical plug for no agenda, he didn't throw in the Sunday and Thursday.

[Adam Curry]

He's true. Good point.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I listened to the show. He's steaming mad. He's mad Trump.

[Adam Curry]

Well, look, stop for a second. I got to defend him. I love Andrew, but still, here's the deal. He has to take nothing but grief. You know, grief, 24 hour a day grief. What happened in my portfolio? You. Me, it's your fault. You should have told me to sell. It's your what? Where is my money? I mean this was basically the worst job in the world if the thing. If you have a situation like this. So he's angry now.

[John C. Dvorak]

Listen to this. So Tina put her retirement money with Horowitz years ago. And so she said, oh, I got a note from Andrew. It was like a letter to all his clients and it was, ah. She said, I just deleted. I don't want to see it. She said, I don't care. I understand. It's not easy for him. It's not easy. But it seems like the only people who are mad are people who can afford iPhones and people who have Portfolios. And this is the latest. This is.

[Adam Curry]

This is a good point.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, well, that's what's going on. This is Wall street versus Main Street. The President has chosen for Main street, but Wall street is trying to make Main street super afraid. The Covid's gonna get you. It's gonna kill granny. You won't have any toilet paper. This is what's happening again and I'm sick of it. Here's Ari Melbourne from msnbc. This is another thing they're doing now.

[Adam Curry]

There isn't a red or blue America when a president's policies wipe out what you see here. Part of the $6 trillion losses in days and losses.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, no one understands losses. It's not like, oh, I just dropped $6 trillion and someone rode over it with a truck and it's gone. No, it's value of paper. Stop it.

[Adam Curry]

Everyone loses.

[John C. Dvorak]

Everyone loses. My iPhone.

[Adam Curry]

New evidence right now showing the backlash to Trump's flailing trade war. The backlash is broad from the bankers and CEOs. I mentioned and quoted some here at the top of the show, to political leaders in both parties. Now then, there are still many people who of course, avoid traditional credentialed press.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, people who are smart, who don't want to listen to your blather.

[Adam Curry]

This is what CNBC looks like if.

[John C. Dvorak]

You turn it on on the screen here. But people may not see that kind.

[Adam Curry]

Of news coverage of the tanking markets. There are people who consume alternative, younger media. That's as a cultural matter.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, it's not a cultural matter. It's because M5M you, Ari Melbourne, suck. People have gone to alternative media, not just the culture madar. No, we don't want to watch MSNBC. That's for the elites with $3,500 future iPhones or what. You've heard about some of these MAGA.

[Adam Curry]

Friendly podcasts, Streaming shows.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, mega friendly podcasts and streaming shows.

[Adam Curry]

Uh, oh, and a different set of voices rules. Let's be clear. Many of them speak to their audience in an unfiltered, authentic way in real time.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's.

[Adam Curry]

That's part of what draws their audience. Now they have maga credentials.

[John C. Dvorak]

It should tell you something.

[Adam Curry]

Let me get my wallet out.

[John C. Dvorak]

I want my pass.

[Adam Curry]

Where's my maga credential?

[John C. Dvorak]

I want some. It's next to your boomer Zionist shill diploma. Believe me, it's there. It's there.

[Adam Curry]

I'm showing you. They have this past talk about supporting Trump's promise for the country, but many of them are now sharing with their huge audiences, which can number in the millions or tens of millions. In the case of Rogan, who I showed earlier, well, many of the ones you're about to see, they're sharing concern, panic, panic, confusion and even disgust.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, no.

[Adam Curry]

Over the cost of Trump's flailing trade war.

[John C. Dvorak]

So let's hear some examples. Everyone used the same ones and it's interesting that they all try to shoehorn Rogan in there, but Rogan has actually not said anything about this at all so far. But here, here's a. Here's an actual news report from Europe.

[Adam Curry]

During the presidential campaign, they were considered crucial in helping Donald Trump win votes among young men. While conservative podcasters are joining some of the President's billionaire backers in voicing doubts over his tariff policies.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, yeah, these guys are rich, these conservative MAGA credentialed podcasters.

[Adam Curry]

No wonder Ben Shapiro, who has 7 million subscribers on YouTube. Hold on, stop the presses. Ben Shapiro has traditionally been a never Trumper. He's hated the guy since day one. He kind of, he had to kind of come over to the Trump side because of the popularity, but. There's no but. Ben Shapiro has never been a Trumper. He's hated Trump from the get go.

[John C. Dvorak]

You are not in service of Franz Van Katra. You are not the one getting the clips. All you need is one clip to prove the point.

[Adam Curry]

Piro, who has 7 million subscribers on YouTube and lended his support to Trump, said he wasn't against import taxes as a way to leverage other countries. But he did take issue with the mixed messaging about the tariffs end goal. And this is the possibility that is retailed by President Trump and many other members of the administration. And that is the idea that tariffs are good, trade wars are good and easy to win. Tariffs themselves are good and make us rich. The idea that this is inherently good, it makes the American economy strong, is wrong headed.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's wrongheaded.

[Adam Curry]

Dave Portnoy is another media figure who's unhappy with how the measures have played out. The owner of Barstool's Sports, which counts 1.8 million YouTube subscribers, endorsed Trump in 2016 and interviewed him at the White House in 2020. On Monday, he lamented losing an estimated $20 million from his investment.

[John C. Dvorak]

Of my net worth.

[Adam Curry]

Poof.

[John C. Dvorak]

But I'm still here.

[Adam Curry]

Well, hold on. Stop. Do you do the math on this?

[John C. Dvorak]

This guy's got $200 million.

[Adam Curry]

Exactly. On Monday, he lamented losing an estimated $20 million from his investment portfolio. I don't know, like 10, 15% of my net worth.

[John C. Dvorak]

Poof.

[Adam Curry]

But I'm still here. That's the game.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm still standing. I've got 180 million left. I'm here, people. Don't worry about it. I'm not going to go down without a fight.

[Adam Curry]

Like, do I like it?

[John C. Dvorak]

No. Am I crying?

[Adam Curry]

Am I like, oh, whoa, is me. I wish I voted for Kamala.

[John C. Dvorak]

No.

[Adam Curry]

Do I wish this didn't go down like this? Yes. Meanwhile, Joe Rogan, who boasts 16.4 million subscribers on YouTube, said in March that Trump's trade feud with Canada was stupid while he was campaigning. Last year, Trump appeared on Rogan's podcast for a nearly three hour interview and Rogan endorsed the Republican on the eve of the election. But in January, the UFC commentator said he was not affiliated with a political party. And more recently, he criticized the Trump administration's deportations of alleged gang members. When one turned out to be a gay Venezuelan makeup artist.

[John C. Dvorak]

I thought it was a hairdresser. So they don't even have anything.

[Adam Curry]

He's a gay, now he's a makeup artist.

[John C. Dvorak]

So they don't even have a current clip from Rogan. But they're just pulling everything out, everything they can. And they're putting fear into people and tell them to go panic by with the one eyed, droopy eyed lady, like, get more chicory coffee. This is, these are minor things. And now we need to get some analysis. I know that you're this much smarter person in this, so I have question number one with a very short clip because this was, I think, you know, we discussed back in March, hey, maybe he's trying to drive the bond market down so that he'll be able to refi the country at a cheaper rate, which is 9 trillion. That has to be refi this year, including 2 trillion, I believe this month. And then this happens.

[Adam Curry]

U.S. government bonds are traditionally seen as a safe haven in times of turmoil. But this sell off is shaking that view. Investors are dumping longer dated Treasuries. And Even the benchmark 10 year bond is getting hit. Market participants say that hedge funds are at the heart of the purge. They need to cover losses on some of their highly leveraged bets. But there could be other more fundamental triggers at play. Concerns that tariffs will drive inflation and prevent the Fed from cutting interest rates. And that foreign investors will dump US Treasuries in retaliation for tariffs.

[John C. Dvorak]

So the bond market all of a sudden skyrocketed. That was not supposed to happen when the market tanks. What happened?

[Adam Curry]

What do you mean by skyrocketing the Interest rates going up or down or the bond prices going up or down?

[John C. Dvorak]

No, the bond prices went down, but the interest rates went up.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

That was not part of the theory.

[Adam Curry]

What theory?

[John C. Dvorak]

The theory that Trump was doing all this to refinance at lower rates.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, yeah, no, that, that's because that probably wasn't. Wasn't the case. You may be, you may be closer to the reality with the, with the trillion dollar coin.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, that. So I think about the surprise that I had when I heard this. Let me see. Because this is. I had not heard this term. See, where is it? Well, we talked about on the show maybe a couple months ago, and all of a sudden Nicole Wallace, of all people, which is hard to watch, had.

[Adam Curry]

Looks like she's about to break into tears all the time. She's got that droopy look and she's just. I can't watch her.

[John C. Dvorak]

She looks like she's not showered. You know, she's like kind of.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, definitely. She looks like she stinks.

[John C. Dvorak]

Now, now, John.

[Adam Curry]

No, I mean, that's what she looks like.

[John C. Dvorak]

She looks like it does. She looks stanky. So she had Charlotte Howard of the Economist on. And I was surprised to hear Charlotte all of a sudden from the Economist all of a sudden mimicking a podcaster like us.

[Adam Curry]

What are the theories that folks from the business community have about why Trump is doing this? Doug said that there's no explanation, there's no rationale. Trump hasn't articulated a goal. And without a goal, there's no way of knowing when it's been achieved to know when it will end. Why do business people think he's doing this? Well, I think it depends on the business person.

[John C. Dvorak]

Right. But there's one theory that has been.

[Adam Curry]

Bouncing around now for some time which has to do with this idea of a mar A.

[John C. Dvorak]

So a purposeful devaluing of the dollar.

[Adam Curry]

And so if you squint it, it's.

[John C. Dvorak]

Kind of like looking at a pile.

[Adam Curry]

Of dirt and trying to see a Picasso. So the strategy there would be that you impose steep tariffs, the dollar is devalued in trade negotiations. That makes American exports more competitive. And you also squeeze China because China holds a lot of debt. As the dollar becomes cheaper, you're exerting pressure on China.

[John C. Dvorak]

Now, now I don't think that would work at all.

[Adam Curry]

Very few economists think it would work.

[John C. Dvorak]

And you know, what are the side effects or the grave knock on effects?

[Adam Curry]

You have huge inflation for American consumers. You have a declining dollar. You have declining American influence within the broader global economy. So it's just a giant misplaced bet. But if you try to understand an underlying rationale, that that might be one guess. I don't think it's a good strategy, but it's one way of looking at it.

[John C. Dvorak]

So I think she actually convinced me this is the way to go. We need to devalue the daughter or whatever she said, devalue the daughter. You know, it's like we've been talking about Mar A Lago Accords I. E. A new Bretton Woods. You can. If you are the reserve currency of the world, you. I mean, unless you can roll out those stable coins, which would have to come next, you know, your trip, what.

[Adam Curry]

You call the trillion dollar coin thesis behind the stable coin is better than anything she said.

[John C. Dvorak]

Right? But it could be a Marlborough.

[Adam Curry]

The dollar to an extreme.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, but down a little bit would be okay, wouldn't it?

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. What goes up and down? It's been as low. Like right now, I think it's a buck nine or buck ten.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, it's euro. Oh, euros.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm just talking about the.

[Adam Curry]

Well versus the euro is really what the benchmark is for devaluing the dollar.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, really? Not against anything else. It's the euro.

[Adam Curry]

The euro would be the benchmark.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, that's 112 today.

[Adam Curry]

Okay, well then it's been as high as 120. Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

So the DXY is at 100. That's the lowest I've seen it in months. So the devaluation is happening. I mean, just a little bit.

[Adam Curry]

And Scott Besant, we have to remember this was. You did notice this on the DH Unplug show where Horwitz tried to trick me. As if. I didn't know I heard you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Just waiting for him to say it. Waiting, waiting. Because all it was like Glenn Beck, he's like. Well, you know who he worked for, don't you? Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Adam Curry]

Soros, I think we talked about on this show.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, yes, he's an acolyte.

[Adam Curry]

The right word.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's proof that Horowitz no longer listens to us. He can't stand it. He can't stand us anymore.

[Adam Curry]

You're probably right here. Yes, he's been an acolyte of Soros, but not politically. Not like a political ally, which is. We always have to Loyalist loyalists.

[John C. Dvorak]

Loyalist.

[Adam Curry]

A guy who knows how to manipulate currency.

[John C. Dvorak]

And that's the guy you want? Yeah, that's the guy you want. Here's a 30 second clip of said Scott Besant.

[Adam Curry]

The successful negotiating strategy that President Trump implemented.

[John C. Dvorak]

The A week ago today, it has.

[Adam Curry]

Brought more than 75 countries forward to negotiate. It took great courage, great courage for him to stay the course until this moment. These are complicated negotiations. These are imbalances that have taken decades to create.

[John C. Dvorak]

And.

[Adam Curry]

But I think having seen the maximum level that Donald Trump is willing to go to, President Trump has created this negotiating leverage.

[John C. Dvorak]

I mean, I have friends who have small businesses and they email me. We don't. This guy's no good. We don't need a game show host as a president. We need leadership. Where is the Epstein file? I swear to God.

[Adam Curry]

Well, I have to be on that side of the argument.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm in agreement, but it's like, is that the. So you have a small business, you're worried about what's happening, but the first thing you talk about is the Epstein and JFK files. Okay? So people are being spun up. And I think it is our job. No, it is our duty. Just like during COVID to calm people down. It said the media M5M is going nuts. And that includes a lot of wealthy podcasters, you know, because.

[Adam Curry]

Well, I don't even. Are they going that nuts? I don't know. Well, I'm talking about the podcasters.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

I mean, the fact that Portnoy. I mean, for one thing, if you're a podcast, Portnoy, to say he lost 20 million bucks and it's 10% of his portfolio, it's just like, why would you. You know, this is like, look how much money I got. I mean, it's just not. It's. It's gauche.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's very. Gauche is the correct word. Gauche. And by the way, Rogan's not in that camp. They just drag him in. Although I said nothing of the sort. Oh, well, Rogan didn't like the gay hairdresser. Okay.

[Adam Curry]

No, no. Makeup artist.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm sorry, makeup. Now I'm confused. If it's a gay, why don't we just say the gay? That he deported the gay. It doesn't matter what the gay.

[Adam Curry]

I mean, so let's go to some. I've got some clips.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, let's get some analysis. Let's get some analysis.

[Adam Curry]

And this is from guess where.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ladies and gentlemen, live from London, we bring you more clips on the no Agenda show that you'd ever want to hear. That's right. The BBC World Service gives you correct analyses of what is happening in your world. Expertly clipped for your convenience by John C. On the New Agenda Show. Okay, we're ready.

[Adam Curry]

You know, I think it's besides that being a bit long.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's a little long.

[Adam Curry]

I would say. The thing, that little kicker in there that people don't, don't appreciate, I do is the beep, beep, beep. Because that's what they have. Classic. I'm Scott Henday.

[John C. Dvorak]

Beep, beep, beep.

[Adam Curry]

They're the classic.

[John C. Dvorak]

I can shorten it. I just like filling it up on the fly. It makes me feel like a disca jockey.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, a disco jockey.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes.

[Adam Curry]

So let's start with just the basic news stories. Is the tariff war BBC.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, okay. Tariff war BBC. Here we go. If you ever needed proof that President.

[Adam Curry]

Trump can suddenly change his mind on the big issues, take today's decision on his landmark economic policy. Tariffs. Having effectively declared a trade war on most of the rest of the world and wiped several trillion off share values on the markets, Donald Trump took to social media two and a half hours ago to announce a 90 day pause on all tariffs over and above his 10% baseline. So all the individually applied extra tariffs are on hold, except those on China. That other global economic superpower is the big exception. Now President Trump has raised the rate on goods from China to 125%, effective immediately. A short time ago, the President spoke to the media and he was asked to explain the thinking behind his 90 day pause. Well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippee, you know, they were getting a little bit yippee, a little bit yippee. Afraid, unlike these champions, because we have a big job to do. No other president would have done what I did. No other I know the president, they wouldn't have done it. And it had to be done. What was happening to us on trade, not only with, you know, if you look at it, not only with China, but China was by far the biggest abuser in history and others also. But somebody had to do it. They had to stop because it was not sustainable. Last year, China made $1 trillion off trade with the United States. That's not right. And now I've reversed it. It's for a short period of time, but we made $2 billion, we're making now $2 billion a day. And somebody had to do it.

[John C. Dvorak]

They got a little bit yippee, yippee.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, let's go. Might as well explain that term.

[John C. Dvorak]

Is that the golf term?

[Adam Curry]

No, it's. Well, yeah, it's a golf term, but it's also gymnastics.

[John C. Dvorak]

Uses it a lot because the yips, you got the yips, you get the.

[Adam Curry]

Yips which means you, you all of a sudden start thinking about the fact that you're flying in the air and you're out of control and you could kill yourself. Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

On that bar. Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And so you dec. You get nervous and you do. You start thinking about what you're doing instead of just doing it. Yeah, that's why he used that term in front of. I think he was talking in front of the LA Dodgers when he was giving this press conference. So he.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Adam Curry]

Like the idea of using some sports analogy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. Some sports stuff. Sports stuff. Yes.

[Adam Curry]

But what's interesting is about this, this 90 day pause is that that was the rumor, I think the day or the day before that, that jacked the market up 1500 points in the, at the opening. It says, oh, he's going to give 90 day pause and jacked Web. And then they, they had to come out with this comment. No, no, no, we're not. No, we're. In fact, we're going to do this. And that Caroline Levitt had to have to say something and it sunk the market. So this was in play.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

So this, this rumor that came out a couple of days early was already. This was all schemed. In fact, the clip that.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't have a question. I have a question. Was Horowitz in on the, in on the. The gambit? Did he, did he buy when it skyrocketed? Did he go short when it, when it tanked? No, he's too busy complaining. I'm gonna get a call.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, maybe.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm gonna get a call.

[Adam Curry]

Maybe. Well, I think, I think you're, you're justified in the commentary that he didn't plug the show, so. Exactly.

[John C. Dvorak]

To plug the show or your.

[Adam Curry]

Your.

[John C. Dvorak]

Your ass's grass, Horowitz.

[Adam Curry]

So the, the point is, is that. And I don't have the clip and you didn't. I probably don't have it. I wish we had it. Which is that Scott Besant's commentary that this whole thing was a, Was a grand. Was planned.

[John C. Dvorak]

Was planned. Yes. I don't have planned.

[Adam Curry]

And I think it was because of the fact that a couple of days earlier it jacked the market up and then it disappeared because somebody leaked it. But the whole thing was a scheme to trap. And Besson said to use the word trap, the Chinese trap them.

[John C. Dvorak]

It was a bear trap.

[Adam Curry]

Well, no, bear trap is specific to the market.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Adam Curry]

It was just to trap them into a situation where they look like the bad guys. And I Think it worked and I think it's going to work out that way. But as we get through these BBC clips where there's analysis coming up, Trump from again, this is interesting again from the economy, an economist person.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, interesting.

[Adam Curry]

From the magazine. And as soon as they announced, I said, oh, there's gonna be some good anti Trump stuff. But no, it wasn't, it turns out. But let's listen to part two of the basic overview. Mr. Trump gave more details on how this latest decision would affect different countries. I did a 90 day pause for the people that didn't retaliate because I told them if you retaliate, we're going to double it. And that's what I did with China because they did retaliate. So we'll see how it all works out. I think it's going to work out amazing. I think that our country is going to be at the end of a year or shorter, but I think we're going to have something that nobody would have dreamt possible. He was asked where the chaos on the bond markets had influenced his thinking. Bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it's, it's beautiful, beautiful. The bond market right now is beautiful, beautiful. But yeah, I saw last year people were getting a little queasy. Well, the big move wasn't what I did today. The big move was what I did on Liberation Day. We had Liberation Day in America. We're liberated from all of the horrible deals that were made. So countries around the world are suddenly having to rethink their responses to what had been and probably what still is being threatened. There is more time to negotiate. But was this climb down, Was this a climb down or a deliberate strategy? And how is it being perceived in Washington? I talked to Jake Kwon, who's the BBC's North America correspondent in the U.S. capitol.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, the White House would certainly love to present this as a masterful stroke.

[Adam Curry]

That it is not a capitulation.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, there has been growing calls by the industry leaders and financial investors.

[Adam Curry]

And even some of the Republican congressmen.

[John C. Dvorak]

And women who has been voicing their concern at this tariff and the trade war that is happening. But the White House's message is that, you know, all the world, the 75 countries around the world are crawling to.

[Adam Curry]

The White house, crawling to Mr. Trump, trying to get a better deal, something.

[John C. Dvorak]

That will be advantageous to the US and that he is a master negotiator.

[Adam Curry]

And these tariffs has been the plan.

[John C. Dvorak]

All along to get a deal for The US and of course, all this is a response to the allies coming to the US With a goodwill. Before you continue with the analysis, may I just play a short, classic clip? Since the President keeps saying that he's the only one, he's the only one who had the guts, which is arguably true. But there before.

[Adam Curry]

I'm just going to say, before you play that, I want to say something about this last clip.

[John C. Dvorak]

Sure.

[Adam Curry]

When Trump said, this is what bothers me about the mainstream media. They're not paying attention. When Trump says, well, we just did the, we do the 90 day thing to see who is going to retaliate. We're going to jack it up on them and they're going to screw over anyone who tries to retaliate. And then the Chinese, of course, retaliate. What's never mentioned is that the Europeans retaliated too. Well, that's, you know, but where's, where's, why isn't he doing it to them too? You know, if that's what he says. If what he says is true, they're always trying to catch him in a lie or something. And there's a wide open one right here, right down the middle of the plate, to use a sports analogy. And nobody says anything about it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, what it actually. So the Europeans retaliated to the initial. Because I have a clip on it if you want to pause before the analysis. I can wait until after your BBC stuff. Whatever you want to do.

[Adam Curry]

No, no, go. You play your clips. This is a very awkward situation for the European Union. President Trump said the reason he was pausing the extra tariffs, the tariffs beyond 10% for all of the 60 naughty countries except China was because no one retaliated except China. The problem is the EU did retaliate. Just yesterday, national governments took a vote approving retaliatory tariffs against 20 billion euros worth of U.S. imports.

[John C. Dvorak]

And those are supposed to take effect on Tuesday. This is France 24.

[Adam Curry]

American media did not pick this up.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, of course not. But it's funny when you hear what actually happened.

[Adam Curry]

Approving retaliatory tariffs against 20 billion euros worth of U.S. imports. And those are supposed to take effect on Tuesday. However, those retaliatory tariffs are not for.

[John C. Dvorak]

The 20% Liberation Day tariffs that Trump unveiled last week.

[Adam Curry]

It's a delayed reaction to the 25% tariff on steel and aluminium that Trump had put in place in February. Essentially, it's just kind of a coincidence that the vote took place yesterday.

[John C. Dvorak]

You see what happened there?

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, that's a good bit.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. Okay, well, if you just want to.

[Adam Curry]

It's their way out. Good one.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, yeah, they have lots of problems, but let's go back to your BBC and I'll play other stuff later. I want to hear the bb. I want to hear your analysis clips because, you know, this is anus.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. So they bring this guy in from the. This is actually pretty good because I think all these, these three at three clips here, they're all they. The joke is, of course they do bring the Apple thing back.

[John C. Dvorak]

Of course your iPhone's gonna go, hey, how about this? How about Apple just takes half the profits. Oh, boy.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, because their margins are ridiculous as it is.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. Because they have slave labor in China.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

Pay your fair share elites.

[Adam Curry]

Actually, there's four clips here. They're short, but here we go. One of them is long. Here we go. There might be a reprieve on tariffs for other sovereign nations, but for China, things have got worse. With the US import charge raised immediately to 125%, I asked David Rennie in Washington how Beijing would react to being singled out in such a dramatic fashion. He's geopolitics editor at the Economist magazine and he was in the Chinese capital last week talking to scholars and government officials. I think there is a political logic to this, that Donald Trump came to office believing that globalization has been a terrible deal for America going back decades, and by far the biggest offender is China. And that's been a consistent position of his. So I don't think this should surprise us and I think it certainly doesn't surprise the Chinese. But why should China plan any specific policy in response when it's now clear that President Trump could change his mind in the next hour. So Chinese officials and Chinese scholars say that that is the hardest thing for their system to deal with. China likes to plan, it likes five year plans, and it finds it very hard to deal with this mercurial, transactional American president. That said they had plenty of warning that he might well be back in the White House and that he was campaigning on threats of imposing big tariffs on China. So they've been preparing really carefully for a long time.

[John C. Dvorak]

I believe that to be true. Yes.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, they knew what was going on.

[John C. Dvorak]

But, but you're right. The media wants to make and. And it's working because people I know and respect are saying he's just a game show host. He's just doing what he doesn't know what he's doing. He's just making stuff up and pulling it off and doing. It's so much More sophisticated.

[Adam Curry]

Oh yeah. But by far this is beyond, it's, it's beyond immediate comprehension. Well, you guys know slouch.

[John C. Dvorak]

You have to be brilliant. You got to have a big brain.

[Adam Curry]

Next. They've been doing short term America specific defensive kind of preparations and some longer term sort of attempts to reshape and rebalance their entire economy away from us. Incredibly high dependence on exports.

[John C. Dvorak]

So if you look at the short.

[Adam Curry]

Term America defenses, they've been sort of getting ready. When I was in Beijing, we were told that nine different government ministries and agencies had been looking.

[John C. Dvorak]

If we need to hit back at.

[Adam Curry]

An American tariff, what can we target that is going to hurt Trump voters and get Trump's attention? And we can buy that stuff from somewhere else. So they chose soybeans as a classic example. It's grown in farm states in the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Midwest of America full of Trump voters.

[Adam Curry]

And in fact, you know, China used to buy a lot of American soybeans.

[John C. Dvorak]

But they can get them from Brazil.

[Adam Curry]

They can get from Argentina.

[John C. Dvorak]

As it happens, the tariffs came in.

[Adam Curry]

At such a high level that actually China's response has been pretty much across the board. Retaliatory tariffs on American goods and some pretty tough shots across the bows of some American companies that are now being investigated by Chinese regulators. Once you start going down that path, you realize that China can actually impose really serious pain on some of the most important companies in America. Take Apple, which is incredibly dependent on China as a place to make things like iPhones, but also as an important market. They haven't gone after Apple yet, but everyone knows that that's the kind of thing China could do. If this gets really rough, I gotta.

[John C. Dvorak]

Tell you, I really have. I'm. I really don't care about Apple. It's like they've been riding high for so long, they're hoi. They're hoity toity. They think they're pooping. I really, I mean, for the. Sorry for the people who are there for their, for their options, but come on, they're printing money in Cupertino. Printing it. Take, take one for the team. Apple.

[Adam Curry]

Well, Dell is another company that's highly invested in China. I think a lot of their laptops and other products are made there. I think hp, this stuff comes out of China. Of course I'll buy a Gateway.

[John C. Dvorak]

Who owns those?

[Adam Curry]

They aren't even in business, that I know.

[John C. Dvorak]

Remember the cow. The cow computer.

[Adam Curry]

And who else is there? Tesla's got a big factory there. They can get rid of them, of course, by these.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, I mean they Have Walmart and all, you know, they've got big, big outfits there in Wuhan.

[Adam Curry]

It's. The Chinese have got us over a barrel if they wanted to really do some damage. But as this guy continues, there's some geopolitical issues that China must be aware of. At least he thinks so. So there's a lot left in their arsenal in terms of how they could hit the US Economically. What about rare earths? They have a near global monopoly on some of those. Yeah. So China has a near monopoly on the processing of rare earths. And some of those are incredibly important in not just green tech, but also satellites, high end electronics, all kinds of modern technologies. Need those railroads. So that's a real threat. So those are all the defensive measures that China is willing to make, if it has to, against America.

[John C. Dvorak]

And the other thing we've seen from.

[Adam Curry]

The Chinese is a really strong propaganda push internally that China need not be terrified of this, that the sky won't fall. That was the language you saw from the most important Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily newspaper. And their argument is, look, after years of decoupling back to the first Trump administration, America is an important market for Chinese exports, but it's not nearly as.

[John C. Dvorak]

Important as it was.

[Adam Curry]

It's now below 15% of Chinese exports.

[John C. Dvorak]

So we have no real way of.

[Adam Curry]

Knowing how far President Trump will take this big fight with China. Should we take Beijing at its word when it says it will fight to the end? I think actually the strange thing is that although the tariffs are unbelievably high and the rhetoric is extremely fierce, this, I don't think we should exclude the possibility that the two countries end up trying to cut some sort of deal. Remember, we saw them cutting a deal. It didn't really work out in the end in the first Trump administration. But I think that beneath the bluster and beneath the domestic politics, both countries do have an interest in climbing down from this.

[John C. Dvorak]

Of course, of course. And all the Chinese have is you're not respectful. You're not speaking respectful to us.

[Adam Curry]

Us.

[John C. Dvorak]

We're not going to talk to you, you bully. That's all they're saying.

[Adam Curry]

Trump has made it clear that they're going to talk.

[John C. Dvorak]

Of course, of course.

[Adam Curry]

Which will be important to a lot of iPhone owners.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's all about the iPhone, man. That's all anyone talks about. I don't get it.

[Adam Curry]

Well, because that's the only thing. I guess it's the only thing they can. I mean, the fact is, you go start looking at the products Around.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. No, you're right.

[Adam Curry]

It's not the iPhone that's the issue, believe me.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, but. But the iPhone is the one thing. This is the way I read it. People who have an iPhone, and let's face. A lot of Americans have an iPhone. It's a status symbol. It's something you need to have.

[Adam Curry]

It's an overpriced status symbol. Yes.

[John C. Dvorak]

And the minute you say you. You're gonna. You won't be able to afford it. People care about that. I think people would rather buy an iPhone than toilet paper. Paper. I'm telling you, that's because. Yeah. You take a look around you. Yeah, sure. Okay. So I can't have a new big flat screen tv. So I can't have some cheap clothes that are toxic. I don't hear anyone talking about the stuff that, oh, what am I going to do without that?

[Adam Curry]

Your computer.

[John C. Dvorak]

Who needs it? Who needs it? I don't need a computer. The point is, I have a computer.

[Adam Curry]

The mouse is in shit. You need to replace the keyboard. You're going to pay 300 bucks for it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, really? 300 bucks? I don't think so. It's not going to be 300 bucks. Your point is made. But it's like, okay, so we'll just buy less crap from China. I just don't see it. We've gotten hooked on Chinese plastic opioids.

[Adam Curry]

We've gotten hooked on China.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. All right.

[Adam Curry]

The iPhone is just one small element. But here's the interesting clip. This is, I think, the kind of a kicker here, which will result in some deal being done. And China also has the additional problem that if America really stays closed off to Chinese exports, those exports are going to have to go somewhere else. And China is already very concerned. I was told in Beijing by the idea that they could end up really alienating and aggravating places like Europe, even partners in Latin America, the global South.

[John C. Dvorak]

Because if a tidal wave of Chinese.

[Adam Curry]

Exports ends up swamping those markets and damaging employment and jobs in lots of countries around the world because it can't be sold in America, that's a massive diplomatic and geopolitical headache for the Chinese leadership.

[John C. Dvorak]

We don't coordinate these things. But the clip I have lined up is exactly that.

[Adam Curry]

Yesterday we had a phone call between a you president, Ursula Fondralei, and the Chinese premier specifically about how to avoid.

[John C. Dvorak]

Dumping of products from China.

[Adam Curry]

So that would be products that China was intending to. Chinese companies were intending to export to the United States. Many will now be diverted and the lot will come here to the European Union. And if they all get dumped onto the market, that could be a major problem. So the commission is setting up emergency.

[John C. Dvorak]

Measures right now to watch for that dumping.

[Adam Curry]

And if they see it happening with certain products, they'll put in policies to stop the flow of those products.

[John C. Dvorak]

But they want to work with China.

[Adam Curry]

On preventing, preventing that from happening.

[John C. Dvorak]

So tell me, tell me about this dumping. What happens? First of all, so China has product, they can't send it to the US so they send it cheap to the eu. What exactly happens in this scenario?

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, there you go. You just nailed it. That's exactly what happens.

[John C. Dvorak]

And then what happens? What happens?

[Adam Curry]

The EU businesses go out because the EU's protectionist in a different way than we are and they, you know, they got labor unions that are different than ours and they have, have different kind of complaining and they could get a revolution. I mean they could have all hell breaking.

[John C. Dvorak]

Explain it, explain what happens. So you dump the products. Take me all the way through what happens in Europe when that takes place.

[Adam Curry]

Well, you say you dump a bunch of, for example, Chinese porcelain. The whole Europeans make Limoges and all these guys make different kinds of porcelain products. And the Chinese all of a sudden dump dishes, dishware into France like because they got to get rid of it somewhere. And it just puts these little guys out of business and it causes a disruption in the, in the ecosystem of the government and the, and the, and it's a relation to the businesses. I mean it just causes. It's just not good. It's bad.

[John C. Dvorak]

So that's a backdoor little gotcha that, that is taking place because of this.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, it's aware of it. Obviously the economics. The guy from the, the economist is aware of it. The Chinese, because he says he got this information from Beijing because the professors and whoever the ministers are that are just talking to him, everyone's aware of this problem. And you have the clip to even back that up because Vandeline is aware of it. This is not acceptable. So they're going to, so they have to put chairs.

[John C. Dvorak]

They have to. The only respite they have.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, you would have to drop. They were just stop. You can also stop importation.

[John C. Dvorak]

Stop importation.

[Adam Curry]

No, no, you, you can't send that here.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is good. This is good. I like this.

[Adam Curry]

It's getting complicated. And so this means that they're going to have to do a deal because we are the big giant market that can suck all this, as you put it, Chinese junk up like there's no tomorrow because we're just consumers.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm glad, I'm glad you used the suck word because that is exactly the clip, a classic clip I have have.

[Adam Curry]

They're from Ross Perot.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's right, Ross Perot. He was the guy who said he was going to do what President Trump is doing right now and they threatened to kill him and that's why he dropped out. I think that's universally known. They threatened to kill his family.

[Adam Curry]

I thought they were threatening to kill his family.

[John C. Dvorak]

His family, his dog, everything.

[Adam Curry]

We're gonna send pictures. Yeah, he dropped out of the race because this and it was believed to be the CIA but it could have been.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well he's standing there in this, in this three way debate which was incredible at the time that an independ Clinton had so many votes that he could disrupt either party's election. He's there with Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr. And this is what he said.

[Adam Curry]

Now if you just want to get down to Bryce tacks first thing you ought to do is get all these folks who've got these one way trade agreements that we've negotiated over the years and say fellas, we'll take the same deal we gave you and they'll gridlock right at that point because for example we've got international competitors who simply could not unload their cars off the ships if they had to comply. You see if it was a two way street, just couldn't do it. We have got to stop sending jobs overseas.

[John C. Dvorak]

To those of you in the audience.

[Adam Curry]

Who are business people, pretty simple. If you're paying 12, $13, $14 an hour for factory workers and you can move your factory south the border, pay a dollar an hour for labor, hire.

[John C. Dvorak]

A young 25, that's assume you've been.

[Adam Curry]

In in business for a long time, you've got a mature workforce, pay a dollar an hour for your labor, have no health care. That's the most expensive single element making a car. Have no environmental controls, no pollution controls and no retirement and you don't care about anything but making money. There will be a giant sucking sound going south. So we, if the people send me to Washington, the first thing I'll do is study that 2,000 page agreement and make sure it's a two way street.

[John C. Dvorak]

That was NAFTA of course that he was referring to and he was right. He was right. It was very destructive to our manufacturing.

[Adam Curry]

Base but now took Maytag out of the country.

[John C. Dvorak]

But now we have a president who was willing to do this and I'm sure that there's Been a lot of threats to his family and his life for doing this. Because that's what they do. That's what they do. And he was at this GOP fundraiser, I think it was last night, and he had a couple of good zingers, but he said, this is the difference. This is what he is.

[Adam Curry]

I'm proud to be the president for the workers, not the outsourcers. The president who stands up for Main street, not Wall street, who protects the middle class, not the political class, and who defends America, not trade cheaters all over the globe, they're trade cheaters. They cheated on us. They cheated with tariffs on us. They stole our money, they stole our jobs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, there you go. He had another. So the real problem here, because that's part of the plan, is the tax, the tax bill. And this has become an issue because he has to pass this a, to stop the, the, you know, this incredible, these tax cuts which have a sunset, which will raise everybody's tax, is going to screw everybody, not just the wealthy. Hello, mainstream media and Democrats, everybody, including, including little bitty podcasters John and Adam. But he also has in there, it's a perfect balance. No tax on Social Security, no tax on tips. You get to deduct the interest on your car if it's an American made car, and the state and local taxes, including your mortgage deduction, will go up. You'll be able to deduct more. That's a critical piece of it because of course, we'll have some inflation, some, I think real economists say, half a point, maybe a point, it's not going to be so terrible. And you have these what he calls grandstanders. He's looking specifically at Rand Paul and also, disappointingly, Chip Roy of Texas. And, but you know, to get there first he's got to make some jokes.

[Adam Curry]

I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are, they are dying to make a deal. Please, please, sir, make a deal. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, sir. And then I'll see some rebel Republican, you know, some guy that wants to grandstand, say, I think that Congress should take over negotiations. Let me tell you, you don't negotiate like I negotiate. Congress takes over negotiating. Sell America fast because you're going to go bus busted.

[John C. Dvorak]

Gonna go busted. Yeah. That's Rand Paul, who's waffling about, well, it's a tax and only, only Congress can do tax. I actually looked at the legality of it. He's not incorrect. But once the president declares an emergency, economic emergency. Then. Then the President can do what he wants to do for a maximum of four years. I looked it all. I looked it all up so he can do this. And so what Rand Paul is trying to do is say, well, we need to pass a bill against the emergency. Well, good luck with that. I don't think Congress can override the President when he invokes an emergency. Which is exactly why this language is always used. Economic emergency, national security emergency. That's why we still have the Patriot act, because of a national security emergency. And then there was still more fun to be had at the expense of Adam Schiff.

[Adam Curry]

And that's with all of the difficulties and all of the fake investigations and the Adam Shifty shifts. Can you believe this guy? He's got the smallest neck I've ever seen. And the biggest head. We call them watermelon head.

[John C. Dvorak]

Hold on. That is John Kennedy. Gary, that's the wrong name, the wrong guy.

[Adam Curry]

I found it to be just as offensive.

[John C. Dvorak]

Very offensive. That's our gag. And it's the wrong guy.

[Adam Curry]

It's our gag. Wrong guy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Wrong guy.

[Adam Curry]

Biggest head. We call them watermelon head. Would be funnier.

[John C. Dvorak]

Why would. Pumpkin head.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, he's got a. He's got a pumpkin.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, Carrie has the watermelon head. You're right. Schiff has a pumpkin head.

[Adam Curry]

And the biggest head. We call them watermelon head. How. I say, how could that big, fat, that face stand on a neck that looked like this finger? How can it. It was the weirdest thing. It said, it's a mystery. Nobody can understand it, but he's one of the most dishonest human beings.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's a great piece I've ever seen.

[Adam Curry]

And you know how we can allow people like that to run an office? It's a shame, but we did.

[John C. Dvorak]

But this. But this really is the problem. And I'm disappointed in Chip Roy. I mean, is he so simple? Simple? He's our. He's our representative here. Are you so simple, Chip Roy, you know, is he part of the. What is the caucus? The. The super conservative. Oh, yeah, I'm there with the caucus. Chip Roy come with the program.

[Adam Curry]

With his iron grip on the Republican Party, it's long seemed that Donald Trump could do no wrong in the eyes of the party's elected representatives. But now he may be going too far for some, like Senator Rand Paul. Last week, he backed a Democratic Senate resolution against the emergency powers Trump used to impose tariffs on Canada. This is a tax, plain and simple. Taxes should not be enacted by one person. So I will vote today to end the emergency. I will vote today to try to reclaim the power of taxation, the power of the tariff. He was joined by three other Republican descent. Former Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, who represent states on the border with Canada.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's a nice bunch to be in there. Rand Paul.

[Adam Curry]

Now, several other Republican senators say they intend to back a bipartisan bill that would put restrictions on Trump's ability to impose tariffs with a sweep of the pen.

[John C. Dvorak]

Traitors. Exactly the kind of Republicans some people we know are like, yeah, yeah, let's stop this. Get that pen out of his hand. It's no good. Good. Bloomberg actually had.

[Adam Curry]

Well, you know, just to stop it for a second. Susan Collins, who's had a stroke, probably has never been all there for a while. I don't know what her problem is. Mowski. I can always understand her because she was. They tried to prime the Republican Party, tried to primary her and get rid of her. And she. She's very resentful.

[John C. Dvorak]

Mad. She's mad.

[Adam Curry]

Okay, so she's just a resentful person and she's like gonna vote no on everything. And Mitch McConnell is turned into the fart that. He's always kind of a senile, frozen in time guy who hates Trump. He just hates Trump. So he's going to vote against everybody.

[John C. Dvorak]

But Trump even gave Rand Paul, he gave him a gift because the European Union. Oh, we're going to put high tariffs on Kentucky bourbon, which of course is Rand Paul's state. And so Trump said, oh, okay. 200% tax on your wine and your champagne. And they dropped the tariff on the bourbon.

[Adam Curry]

There's something else going on with Rand Paul, obviously.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, you don't. I mean, I have the corruption.

[Adam Curry]

It's got to be corruption.

[John C. Dvorak]

What's that in your mouth level stuff?

[Adam Curry]

Or maybe. I mean, he is a little fruity. He used the word. But he is.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, there's something going on. I don't get it. And why is he going after. He knows that makes no sense. He knows he's not going to get that. No one's going to vote for. It doesn't make any sense. The Bloomberg guy, I think, had a good point here this morning. We have a warning as well from.

[Adam Curry]

Ray Dalio for investors who may.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ray Dalio, Bloomberg guy, whatever.

[Adam Curry]

Be too fixated on tariffs. Let's get the details on that from Bloomberg's Lisa Mateo. In a post on X, the billionaire.

[John C. Dvorak]

Founder of Bridgewater Associates said investors are.

[Adam Curry]

Not paying attention to underlying conditions, the breakdown in major monetary, political and geopolitical orders, and that failing to do so may blindside them to the biggest disruptions that are still to come. Dalio explained how Trump's tariff policies are driven by too much existing debt and.

[John C. Dvorak]

The rate at which new borrowing is added. He said the US Is hooked on.

[Adam Curry]

Using debt to finance excessive spirit spending, while creditor countries like China sell goods to debtor nations like the US and that will lead to a correction of these imbalances and a change in the monetary order. Dalio also notes that gaps in education, opportunity and values are contributing to a breakdown of the democratic system and the rise of autocratic leaders, while the US Is shifting from a multilateral to a unilateral approach in the geopolitical arena.

[John C. Dvorak]

Sounds like he's all in on the Mar A Lago accord. Yeah, I gotta change Trillion dollar coin or my favorite, Revalue the gold we have. That's my favorite.

[Adam Curry]

There is some. That's another one. That's your favorite now. I thought it was the million dollar. The stable coin was your favorite. You changed your favorite.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, the stable coin is what's going to happen. My favorite is we're going to revalue the gold. Which, by the way, where's my live stream of Fort Knox, East Elon? Where's that? Is that. Did they get lost with the Epstein and jfk?

[Adam Curry]

That's a good point.

[John C. Dvorak]

Where's that?

[Adam Curry]

I forgot about it, too. I've been.

[John C. Dvorak]

Gold.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Where is there any gold there?

[John C. Dvorak]

So that's why it's my favorite, because we can revalue the gold all we want, but if we don't have it, well, that's. Then, then we're back to stablecoin. This guy, this guy was on cnn. I kind of liked him. We, we need, we need people out there who are positive about this stuff.

[Adam Curry]

Is how do you define redefining as part of it and one of the ways you're looking redefine.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, this is cnn. You want, you want journalistic questions, go somewhere else.

[Adam Curry]

How do you define redefining as part of it? And one of the ways that you're looking at is in terms of action he's taking. Yeah, exactly right. I think there was this concern among some folks that Donald Trump would come in for a second term and kind of be a lame duck.

[John C. Dvorak]

He ain't no lame duck.

[Adam Curry]

If anything, he's a soaring eagle. What am I talking about here? Let's talk about Trump executive orders in 2025. He's already signed 111 so far. That is the most at this point in a presidency in at least 100 years. In fact, it's the most in any single year.

[John C. Dvorak]

And we're only in April since Harry.

[Adam Curry]

S. Truman in the early 1950s.

[John C. Dvorak]

The bottom line is whether you like.

[Adam Curry]

Trump or you don't like him, you can't say that he's comment and not try to deliver on what he at least believes was his promises on the campaign trail. And he's doing so in historic fashion.

[John C. Dvorak]

He's the soaring eagle. Yeah, but the guy, the guy who tops it all, who is. I mean, this is truly just the guy, as far as I'm concerned, who's on a. On a game show known as shark tank is Mr. Wonderful Kevin O'Leary, who one day he's like, oh, yeah, I'm investing a trillion dollars in data centers. I don't see that noise anymore. Yeah, we've already got the land. We've already got the power. No, he's none of that. This guy likes to be on TV.

[Adam Curry]

104%. Sure does. Tariffs in China are not enough. I'm advocating 400%. I do business in China. They don't play by the rules. They've been in the WTO for decades. They have never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in. For decades. They cheat, they steal. They steal ip. I can't litigate in their courts. They take product technology, they steal it, they manufacture it and sell it back here. Never has an administrator.

[John C. Dvorak]

400% tariffs.

[Adam Curry]

What would that look like? I want Xi on an airplane to Washington to level the playing field. This is not about tariffs anymore. Nobody has taken on China yet. Not the Europeans, no administration for decades. As someone who actually does business there, I've had enough. I speak for millions of Americans who have IP that have been stolen by the Chinese. I have nothing against the Chinese people.

[John C. Dvorak]

They brought great literacy, art, restaurants and.

[Adam Curry]

Tech to the world. The government cheats and steals. And finally, an administration. You may not like Trump, you may not like his style or his rhetoric. Finally an administration that puts up and says, enough. 400% tariffs. Tomorrow morning he'll tell you why. Xi can only stay the Supreme Leader if people are employed. If we wipe out any business there, because we are still 39% of all consumables on Earth and 25% of the world's GDP. America is the number one economy on Earth with all the cars. We will not have that forever. It's time to squeeze Chinese heads into the Wall now.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's a great picture.

[Adam Curry]

Squeeze. I'm glad you got that clip. I saw it and I didn't clip it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Squeeze the Chinese heads into the wall now. Yes.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, he's interesting because he does talk a big game now that, you know, situations changed somewhat.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, he's a fun guy. He's fun. I got another one here. This is, I mean, if, if you just want to know what regular folk walk on the conservative side, although I again, I see a lot of conservatives freaking out about this, about this stupid president. What's he doing? Because they're watching, watching financial news. They're watching your guy over there, Charles Barkley. What's his name?

[Adam Curry]

Charles Payne.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, Charles Payne. Charles Payne.

[Adam Curry]

Charles Barkley.

[John C. Dvorak]

Might as well have a show on Fox Business and. Oh, this is wrong. This is. What are we doing? Is disrupting everything. My iPhone. But you, you really want to get your, your economic analysis from Judge Jeanine. China was always the end game.

[Adam Curry]

Trump won. He's doing exactly what he said he would do. He said there would be short term pain for long term gain. He literally got everybody in the world to come to the table or they're trying, they're calling, calling, they're flying in. They're trying to make a deal. And he sent a message to those countries that were willing to make a deal with the United States. Let's do something mutually beneficial for both of us right now. His timing was right to the edge. And it was a business decision to get everyone to the table so everyone can win. If there's a standoff, nobody wins. But now this is the biggest win, win for America because we've got a level playing field. We are no longer a doormat for other countries. We've got a president who has the capacity, the ability and the stamina to fight to make sure that we are at least a manufacturing country. Again, you say United States doesn't want to be a manufacturing company country. We lost 90,000 manufacturing businesses. We want.

[John C. Dvorak]

I didn't interrupt.

[Adam Curry]

I didn't interrupt you. All right. What we want is we want everyone who needs us to number one, be able to rely on us. And we need to be able to work with them. In fact, I would say bomb them. Bomb them and then bomb them again. So my, my take on this whole thing was that from the get go, I kind of agree with Besant who said this whole thing was a setup. But, but the one thing I think he left out, I think the entire thing, when he did his Independence Day thing, the whole scheme was to Create a across the board 10% tariff on everything from everyone.

[John C. Dvorak]

Which makes sense.

[Adam Curry]

And yes, in fact, even with the trillion dollars, the excess that the Chinese have been shipping us, that's a hundred billion dollars in tariffs. Even though it's only 10%, it's not that much. Everyone will gladly pay an extra 10% for Chinese products or anybody's products. It's only 10%. It's not that big of a deal. And so that would be a lot of money considering if you take a look at the totals. But he didn't like. Instead of just coming out on Independence Day, as he calls it, and saying we're going to do a 10% across the board deal, he comes out with this crazy chart where he's taxing the Penguin island and everything with 50, 70, 80% and he makes a big fuss about it, crashes the market. But if the giveaway was the underlying, no matter who it was, had a minimum of 10%. Everybody had 10%. It was at least.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, it was 10% plus.

[Adam Curry]

That's right. Even. Yeah, it was 10%plus. But the lowest was always tempers. There was nobody that got less than 10%. Even if they had, weren't we. They had no tariff at the 10, 10. So the 10% was, was given away when he did that chart. And so then he does this new deal, goes off the 90 day, backs off, but he keeps the 10%. The whole thing was about 10%. Yeah, but he didn't want to start that way because that would be his negotiating posture from the get go and he'd have to.

[John C. Dvorak]

Funny, right?

[Adam Curry]

So he, he negotiates by putting these. It was ridiculous. Then everybody got all bent out of shape and. But the real goal was this 10%.

[John C. Dvorak]

Which I think is enough. Which will be enough. It'll be enough for us.

[Adam Curry]

It'll be more. Yes, it'll be enough for, for starters, it'll get manufactured. Some manufacturing will come back. It's, you know, I mean, Honda makes cars here already. That's the hard part.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's the hard part is building up the manufacturing base, which is his ultimate goal. And I don't think I have any clips of it, but I've heard certainly pundits on the CNN and MSNBC and CNBC saying, well, this is the mistake he's making because Americans are stupid. They can't read above fifth grade level and they're lazy and they don't want to work. And I think that that is a very elitist view of the American people.

[Adam Curry]

People completely.

[John C. Dvorak]

I think that we, we Are, look, all three of our daughters at some point are, are busing tables or tending bar and they like it. They like the money, they like the tips, they like the hours. They like. They don't have to take any, any, any work home with them. They don't have to get, you know, work on their iPhone all the time. So I, I think that the iPhone again. Well, if I were a younger man today, let's say I was 30, back in my heyday, I would be making an American phone to rival the iPhone. It would be made of a cigar box, but I would be making an American phone. This is a golden opportunity. That's what people need to see. Now you can start. Look, we have style problems. You know, we don't make the coolest looking cars. They basically all look like military stuff or just gay. I mean, it's just kind of the two models we have. But yeah, it's true. Gay, but that, you know, but this is the time. This is a golden opportunity. And instead everyone's fretting about the iPhone. Come on, you can make a cool phone with open Android stock build. You can do it. You can do it. I know we can do. We still do. We make plastic here. We got plastics.

[Adam Curry]

The best plastic bakers are all in Taiwan.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, that's good too. We can do. We're okay with Taiwan. We can do a deal with Taiwan. It's time that people get knocked off their high horse. And yes, Apple is top of the bill because they're arrogant, they're overpriced, and they've psyoped everybody into thinking that you have to have this phone. It's only about the iPhone. This whole, whole thing. It's only about the iPhone. That's all anybody can talk about. It's all anybody seems to care about. IPhone then.

[Adam Curry]

Which brings us, if we're done with these tariffs clips, brings us to another round, another round of smartphone discussion on npr, which I've concluded because we had those clips on the last show from npr. There's something going on at npr.

[John C. Dvorak]

Is this.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Is this Scott?

[John C. Dvorak]

Is this Scott?

[Adam Curry]

No, no, it's not Scott. This is one of the.

[John C. Dvorak]

You gotta warn me. All right.

[Adam Curry]

No, I don't think I have Scott on today's show.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's too bad because he's a staple.

[Adam Curry]

But somebody requested the Scott jingle for the. I saw that coming up. It'll be in the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, someone wants it for a jingle for the donation segment. It's a winner. I'm telling you, Scott's a winner. It's a winner for the show. So what is this? What is, what is the deal with the phones? What they have?

[Adam Curry]

I don't know. Where's these clips?

[John C. Dvorak]

Cell phone BS number one.

[Adam Curry]

That would be it. Yes. Business review study from last year on phone addiction. And it found that we are interrupted by our smartphones every 13 minutes of our time. Awake. Now let's stop. What would it be like? I gotta do it. You have to remember we just did a series of clips from NPR where they're spreading about the five and a half hours hours a day that people are spending on their phone, especially the host of the. Whatever the show was complaining to himself about it being addicted to this phone. And so now they can't get off this topic. And so this is a whole new presentation. And I'm thinking they really have some problems at npr. They must be just on the phone all the time. And it found that we are interrupted by our smartphones every 13 minutes of our time.

[John C. Dvorak]

Awake.

[Adam Curry]

So what would it be like to just give it up? August Lam is an artist, an influencer, and an activist, and she published a couple of op EDS in the New York Times and the Guardian about hitting a breaking point with her smartphone. And so she made a bold move.

[John C. Dvorak]

Bold.

[Adam Curry]

She downgraded to a dumb phone.

[John C. Dvorak]

My smartphone, it represented my social life.

[Adam Curry]

And it also represented my work. And so it felt a bit like I was carrying around the office with me all day. And then the pressure to keep that up and to keep the attention on me in order to make money was ultimately too much for me to handle. And I just reached a breaking point. So going back to when you first made this switch, what were some of the things that surprised you the most? It was really psychological.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's what surprised me is that there.

[Adam Curry]

Was the barrier of being bored and not knowing how to entertain myself. It wasn't about hobbies. It was about being in my own mind. And at that point, my thoughts were not very stimulating because I wasn't used to having them.

[John C. Dvorak]

Absolutely. She's right. She's right.

[Adam Curry]

Now this. What irks me about this presentation is I now two years into keeping the. I've gone beyond this. I don't think it's a smartphone that's the issue or a dumb phone, like a flip phone. You still have the phone.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's the apps and the notifications the apps give you.

[Adam Curry]

If you have the phone in a drawer, which mine currently is, and it's in the drawer, I probably take it out. Like, if I have to do something recently, I Had to go use an Uber. So what am I going to do? Like, there's no way of getting an Uber without this damn phone. And so I took the phone out of the drawer, used it to get the Uber, used it to get back, and then I put the phone back in the drawer where it belongs. And. But I have to refer back to when I first did this. I talked about this on Horowitz a little bit because, and for one thing, I've been phoneless. I will call it that. Phoneless. I don't take the phone as a navigator. I don't take the phone and put it in the car. I don't drive around with the phone. I've been phoneless for two years. I could have written these editorials. She's writing an edit. This unknown woman is writing an editorial for the New York Times and the Guardian about this. And all she's done is just downgrade to a flip phone. Okay, that's a little, that's not going all the way, the way I see it. But this happened to me and it. Because what would ha. What happened? I had a phone, I was using it like any normal person or abnormal person.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, wait, we're hearing the genesis of the drawer. Yeah, okay. All right.

[Adam Curry]

The genesis of the drawer. Another Dvorak anecdote. I went to the genesis of the drawer. I was using the cheap $30 a month t mobile plan, which is because, no, even before I went to the drawer, I was always on a cheap plan as cheap as I could get. And if I needed extra data or something, I could buy it on the fly. And so I found this cheap plan that T mobile had for 30 bucks. And by the way, the current phone I now use, which is in the drawer, is a Trek phone. And the max price is $15 a month. There you go.

[John C. Dvorak]

Nice.

[Adam Curry]

So I, but I had the $30 plan for T mobile and it died on me and I couldn't renew it for some reason on the phone. So I had to went to, I went to the T mobile store. So I go to the T mobile store and they got this idiot sets me up. He said, well we, yeah, $30. Yeah, we here, we give you this plan. He set me up and it turned out that when I got home it was a data only plan which I didn't even know existed.

[John C. Dvorak]

So you couldn't make a call or text?

[Adam Curry]

I couldn't make a call. So this was in data oni. So I called T mobile and they said, oh well, yeah, well you can come in and 45 bucks or something. And I got so pissed off, I said, screw these guys. I'm going to find some other system. And I decided I was going to, you know, move back to track phone or something super cheap and Metro. But I put the drawer in the phone and that, and I never took it out. I never did any of this other stuff except to get it. Eventually Get a track phone account for the uber.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes.

[Adam Curry]

At 50 bucks. And so it was T mobile that actually triggered this. And once I got it, the phone in the drawer and I was dry, you know, I'd go to the store and I didn't have the phone. After a while, it takes about a week or two, takes about two weeks before you realize that you don't need the phone on you all the time. And in situations where you do need a phone, somebody's got one and you can have them do the work for you. I made. This was the dinner table conversations. Used to be everyone had their phone and somebody wanted to look something up. I just tell, hey, look, something. Look up this on your. You got your phone. I always said, you got your phone right there. Look it up. And so people would always, you know, scatter to their phones and look stuff up and do that. I realized I didn't need this stupid phone with me.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, but you. Okay, but there is one small point you're overlooking. You. Yes, you go to. You go out. You go places. But you're not like most people who are out all day long, long and need the phone.

[Adam Curry]

What do you need it for?

[John C. Dvorak]

For to. To be interrupted every 13 minutes, apparently. The thing. So here. And Apple is a big part of the problem. This texting used to be great. The BlackBerry for me was the ultimate phone. It was a texting machine. You could text with two thumbs. It had a tactile.

[Adam Curry]

This is how you. This is when you first got addicted. I want to say.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, no, no, no. Stop. Okay, go ahead. I want to.

[Adam Curry]

Go ahead. One more story. I used to. I remember the BlackBerry era, and there were all these guys with their BlackBerry and they're always texting on it. They're constantly on it. So I'm on a plane with a friend of mine who's a BlackBerry nut. He's got this thing constantly. He's looking. It's not the same as today's phone where people are walking down the street. I saw a guy yesterday walking his dog, looking at the phone. The guy's gonna kill himself walking, wandering around with the dogs, pulling wherever he. Once, because the guy's not Even seeing where he's walking. So the BlackBerry guy. So the guy we flew and it was the BlackBerry had to be off on the flight and this guy got as it was a three or four hour flight and as the flight continued, you could see him getting more and more and more nervous and getting jittery. And so when we finally landed, he jumped on that BlackBerry so fast it was like to see what the hell is going on because it was so impressive, important. He wasn't a doctor on call. I mean, I don't get it. And so I. And from then on, I've always been very skeptical of these devices.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is true what you're saying. That's why they call it the crackberry. That probably did start a lot of the addiction. But today I find the only thing you really need is the ability to text somebody. I like being able to take a picture picture and I like being able to listen to podcasts and I think it's handy to have some kind of GPS like functionality because I am challenged above a thousand feet. I'm good. I'm just. I just don't have this gene. I don't know what it is. Tina scoffs at me for it. I just can't. I'm not good at it.

[Adam Curry]

You can't find your way around?

[John C. Dvorak]

I can't find my way around. But for now, I'm not talking about today's texting. I'm talking about just sending a message. Message. Not these long threads with people in.

[Adam Curry]

Groups and sending things to stop you. Did you find your way around when you're a little kid?

[John C. Dvorak]

No, but I got hopelessly lost. They had to come get me at the. I had to like.

[Adam Curry]

Okay, so it's always, can Adam's parents.

[John C. Dvorak]

Please come to the checkout? He's lost. That was me. Oh, okay.

[Adam Curry]

Well, because I, I think a lot of people are losing their sense of. Of being able to find their way around.

[John C. Dvorak]

It doesn't get any better. Of course not. You. There's no practice. You don't. You know, of course that obvious. But I'm a 21st century man, so I need to have some kind of direction. But I'm fine with whatever's in my car. You know, I'm okay. It works fine enough. So I am very. I have one on order, the Light Phone 3. I've tried the Light Phone 2. It had the right idea, but you couldn't really text. I just want to be able to send a text and if someone sends me a link in a text, I'm not Going to. To get it. It'll say there's a. There's a link to this. You can get that later on your computer if I think you are able to send a picture to somebody. But the limitation is important. It's important. That's why there's only 20 cigarettes in a pack. You got to be out of them at a certain point. But it is a health crisis. And I'm happy that the people who are mainly responsible for all of this nonsense sense Apple that they're going to get dinged then. And, you know, just, yes, I'm all for just a simple phone with text and phone and some, you know, I like to take a picture and if it has a hotspot, that's even better. So if I really needed to hook up a computer, I can hook up a computer. Let's listen to the second of this clip because we only through the first one in the series, it can only get better.

[Adam Curry]

So a lot of people go their whole day without ever having a moment to just think. It's constant media, whether you're listening to.

[John C. Dvorak]

Music or podcasts or audiobooks. So then when you actually give yourself.

[Adam Curry]

Space to think, you're not used to.

[John C. Dvorak]

It, you're sort of out of practice.

[Adam Curry]

And your thoughts are pretty quiet. Or alternatively, they're frightening because you haven't thought them for so long, you haven't dealt with any of your emotions.

[John C. Dvorak]

So it was an uncomfortable experience.

[Adam Curry]

Experience for me just being in my own mind.

[John C. Dvorak]

And then as time went on, my.

[Adam Curry]

Thoughts became a lot more interesting and stimulating. And now I'll happily walk around for hours without headphones and just think. Was there a period in there, though, before that where you were really tempted to go back? Oh, absolutely.

[John C. Dvorak]

I had a lot of stumbling blocks along the way.

[Adam Curry]

I was infuriated. It felt like I was inside solitary.

[John C. Dvorak]

Confinement in my own mind.

[Adam Curry]

And I'm really glad that I pushed through that. I did also try an ipod for a while. I got an old ipod, but I don't need that anymore. So how has giving up your smartphone impacted your relationships? My relationships are stronger because when I'm actually spending time with these people in person, I'm fully present and I'm fully listening and. And I'm not waiting for the interaction to end so I can check my email again. You know, when you think about the current news environment, some people. Some people may feel anxious reading the news and knowing what's going on, but many people may feel anxious not knowing what's happening or responsibility to stay informed. What would you say to someone who. You know, who is maybe feeling cut off from what's happening around them without a smartphone. I think there's a health and a simplicity to. To reading things that are collected and presented once in a while, not constantly.

[John C. Dvorak]

And not hearing about news the moment it happens, before the questions are answered.

[Adam Curry]

And before things are clarified.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's a health crisis. Where's Bobby? The op. It's a health crisis. These phones.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, that's going to be low on the low list, but it's.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, well, fluoride first. He's doing that, and then.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, that's about time. Talk about overdue.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, yeah. All right, last clip. It's a feeling of civic duty to check the news.

[Adam Curry]

And that can be a great excuse when you deep down just want entertainment and you don't want to be in reality. You want to.

[John C. Dvorak]

You want to be.

[Adam Curry]

You want to be away from the problems of your own life or from the boredom of. Of it. So I would just suggest getting.

[John C. Dvorak]

By the way, you could replace phone here for cigarettes, crack, meth, alcohol. All of those apply. This is pure addiction, and it's tailored for addiction. We know this. This is no secret. So what is NPR's problem?

[Adam Curry]

You want to be away from the problems of your own life or from the boredom of it. So I. I would just suggest getting the newspaper or if you have to do it digitally, you know, getting one digital update, but not this endless scroll. Not. Not these. These sort of belligerent notifications about the news because it.

[John C. Dvorak]

It just makes it so you're never in one place.

[Adam Curry]

You're never. You're never in the place of reading the news, and you're never in the place of your actual circumstances.

[John C. Dvorak]

You're always in between.

[Adam Curry]

That's odd. August Lam, she's an artist, writer, and activist who recently published pieces in the Guardian and New York Times about giving up her smartphone. August, thank you so much for talking to me today. Yeah, thanks for having me.

[John C. Dvorak]

So I think what's going on here is you're just mad that they're getting this. This woman, this artist and activist.

[Adam Curry]

Exactly.

[John C. Dvorak]

When they really.

[Adam Curry]

Right. You nailed it.

[John C. Dvorak]

They really should have been interviewing you. Well, you know, what have you written.

[Adam Curry]

This tech guy that doesn't use a smartphone? What. How does that work? I mean, it's much more interesting. Interesting than some artist activist.

[John C. Dvorak]

I have told you what you're doing wrong. If you. Now is the time. This is an exit strategy for you and for you only. And I would support it. You need to become the tech Grouch again. Once you're the Tech Grouch, everybody will want to interview you. And then you, of course, you got to slept around that outfit all over the place. And you got to keep the voice going. IPhone. SMY phone. I got a Baker light phone. It's fine. People will love you. They will glom onto the Grouch.

[Adam Curry]

Working on I will be the green screen this week.

[John C. Dvorak]

There will be chicks in college with T shirts I love.

[Adam Curry]

That'll be the day.

[John C. Dvorak]

I love the Tech Grouch. Yes, yes. This is where. This is the direction you need to go. This is. This is your, your third breath of life. Let's face it, podcast thing is played, man. You got to go back to being the Tech Grouch. The. That was. That was sexy. That was hot. People loved it.

[Adam Curry]

Well, the time is now.

[John C. Dvorak]

The time is right. The time is right. So while we're on technology, by the way, I saw another cnbc. Quantum. Quantum. It's all quantum.

[Adam Curry]

Somebody was in the EU going on and on about one thing or another and as soon as they dropped the word quantum. Yeah, once we get the AI and then Quantum.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's all quantum.

[Adam Curry]

You know that they don't know what they're doing. They're idiots.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's all quantum.

[Adam Curry]

Thing to say.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's all quantum. And so Amazon, arguably a very successful technology company with their Amazon Web Services aws and you know, every startup uses them. So they finally come out with their new Nova Sonic. Amazon's Nova Sonic. This is AI. It's AI for voice. It's AI AI. Well, they only really have one demo and one application and I'm going to play it in real time. I could have cut out the pauses, but that doesn't give you the full experience of the only thing AI so far is going to be good for, and I think it sucks, is call centers and help desks. Here is. Here is the big Amazon Nova Sonic demo. Woo.

[Adam Curry]

Hi, is this any telco customer support?

[John C. Dvorak]

Hello.

[Adam Curry]

Yes, this is any telco's customer support. Can you please provide your phone number so I can look up your account information?

[John C. Dvorak]

Sure.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, it's. It's 510-123-4567.

[John C. Dvorak]

Listen to the pause in between.

[Adam Curry]

Thank you for providing your phone number. I've retrieved your account information. How can I assist you today? Why is my bill this high? It's ridiculous. How are you charging me this much? I understand your concern about the high bill. Let's look into it. Your current bill.

[John C. Dvorak]

And at this point don't just want to rip your head off when you're talking you're like, what kind of human being can interact with this this way? This makes.

[Adam Curry]

No, this is, this is actually one of the better examples. AT&T uses a system and they have the.

[John C. Dvorak]

In between when it's thinking.

[Adam Curry]

No, no, it's just I'm gonna have to record, you know, I've been told to do this. I'm gonna have to get off the stick and do it. Which is rig some of these phones of mine up. Landline. It's a landline. I had to rig these phones up so I can record these calls because some of these, these, these automated systems are so lame. It's like you can't afford some dollar an hour person in India, I mean, who can barely speak English that than this.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. The true AI. Anonymous Indian. That's what we need.

[Adam Curry]

Always named Steve.

[John C. Dvorak]

Steve. I actually I got an interesting. What was this? Where was it? There was a TikTok ad.

[Adam Curry]

TikTok. I have a couple of Tick Tock.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, good. I'm going to set you up first. I'm going to play the clip, then I have something to read.

[Adam Curry]

Tick Tock literally helped Dan O's grow from a one man show to 45 teen members in Louisville, Kentucky. There's no way I'd be able to support this building or any of my.

[John C. Dvorak]

Employees without Tick Tock.

[Adam Curry]

It's not just about me anymore. Yeah. Tick Tock brings in so much foot traffic to be able to have 28 employees and everybody's paid well. It's just a blessing.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's a blessing. It's a blessing. So there's a.

[Adam Curry]

There's more than a few of those ads out there. I've seen a bunch of them.

[John C. Dvorak]

We have a number of producers who are inside the. The TikTok ecosystem and they send. They received an email from tick from TikTok subject line. This plays on something we talked about on the last show. Important de minimis announcement for TikTok shop.

[Adam Curry]

What? De minimis.

[John C. Dvorak]

De minimis. Yes. You know it will explain De minimis. This is what you.

[Adam Curry]

I don't know the explanation. It's just a dumb phrase that's used for some reason or other.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, de minimis is the under $800 packages that now.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, that's right. It was talked about that Trump dropped these.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, hello, TikTok shop sellers. We want to ensure you're informed of the changes to the de minimis exemption for goods originating from certain countries. What is the de minimis exception exemption? And then it has a link currently exempt shipments valued at or under $800 USD from tariffs. What change? The US government announced plans to remove de minimis treatment for products from China, including Hong Kong, effective May 2, 2025. What does this mean? Well, when the de minimis exemption is removed from a country's goods, duties will be applicable to all impacted shipments, regardless of value. And additional supporting documentation may be required to import previously ex goods into the U.S. what happens now? Sellers should continue to ensure they are familiar with all requirements for importing goods into the US we are actively monitoring these developments. We'll keep you informed. So there they got problems. This whole operation was based on that. And I saw this morning the Andrew. The Andrew New York Times character was interviewing the CEO of Amazon. Amazon. I wish I'd clipped it. He said, so how about your bid for TikTok? And he says, we never said we bid for TikTok. He said, well, it was reported. He said that was reported. So he's pretending like they didn't bid on it now, which I thought was interesting.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, they're bailing out.

[John C. Dvorak]

Might be. Might be.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. This de minimis thing may be the. Well, Besides being a $50 minimum, which really screws up because before you just buy something for eight bucks and it'd show up in the mail in three or four days. Yeah, yeah. This is huge.

[John C. Dvorak]

Amazon is. Their big deal is we're gonna sell you drugs. The pharmacy. Pharmacy is what it's all about.

[Adam Curry]

That's the last place I want to get it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. Hey, if the. The CEO said, if you're not feeling well, it's great to get your medicine, your meds within a few hours. You don't want to have to go to Walmart or cvs. You want to get it delivered to your home, you sick person.

[Adam Curry]

So I've run into. I don't have. I only have two clips from TikTok, but they are. They're short one is only 10 seconds.

[John C. Dvorak]

I have one too, but I'll wait until yours are done.

[Adam Curry]

Mine are thematic. These are women with grievances.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ooh, okay.

[Adam Curry]

Toward everybody. It seems to me it's just women with. They exist against men. It's like, see, they're lesbians in some sort of gossip or I'm not absolutely sure what. What's causing this. But the first one is. This is the dinner one. Let's play that. Let me just go ahead and get this out there right now. If a man ever looks at me and says, hey, babe, what's for dinner? And like means it like, assumes I'm in charge of dinner. What's for dinner? Divorce.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's what's for dinner. That's just engagement farming. She. She's not going to divorce any. Anybody.

[Adam Curry]

She's not going to get married.

[John C. Dvorak]

Not if she doesn't cook.

[Adam Curry]

And here's another one. This is a single mom with a bunch of kids who is now putting demands on who she's going to date. These are the requirements that you need to have in order to date me. A single mom of three kids. Number one is that you need to be making at least 130k a year and you need to have at least two side hustles. If you cannot make 100, 130k or more, then you are out of my league. How do you expect to give me money for my kids if you only make 50k a year? Second is, I don't date men that are younger than me because for obvious reasons. So if you are 26 and over, then you qualify. 26 to 35 is the age limit. Okay. I feel like 35 is pushing it because they look old as already. I'm 26. I'm a baby. So. Yeah, you have to have a at least three cars under your name. Your second car has to have eight seats because I have three kids, so I want them to be comfortable. Whenever we go with you on a trip or something, you want me to come with you? I'm gonna bring my kids and you need to have enough space for my kids. So that's why I require you to have an SUV and a vehicle of your own if you're going to be dating me. Another requirement is that you have to have a property under your name and you have to be looking into getting your second property. Have to get a home that has six rooms because I got kids. Each of my kids have to be.

[John C. Dvorak]

In their own room.

[Adam Curry]

So you have to be considerate. Purchase a house that has six rooms, because that's only common sense. Like. And if you cannot meet those requirements, then you're not. The one last requirement is that it has to be pink. If it's not pink. No, pink and brown go together. Pink and brown like what? Dua Lean, you know?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, this is very sad. This is what happens with women like this. And it happens with men too. But with women like this, they are. They're on the TikTok and they're constantly getting barraged with dms. Hey, baby, hey baby, let's hook up. Because that is the entire culture of the phone and social media and she's, you know, now she thinks that that's real and that these people don't just want to hook up with her and reenact some only fans fantasy. So she thinks that she's now popular and that she can make these demands and that that's actually going to work out for her. This is very sad. It's a very sad state of affairs. And I heard yesterday that 80 million. I know, it was like 68 million men in America have an only fans account, which I don't think includes you because your phone's in the drawer.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, but this doesn't include.

[John C. Dvorak]

But this is a plague. This is a plague.

[Adam Curry]

Well, wait, wait. I got another stat. Supposedly, I heard this just the other day. 10% of all women between the ages of 18 and 25 are only fans women. There's millions of them.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I believe it. I believe it.

[Adam Curry]

So 10% of the women out there are on OnlyFans stripping. And then you have all these guys that are with these accounts.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

This is not healthy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Why are we wasting our time podcast casting you? You could be telling the tech grouch to take his pants off. This is this. This is your exist.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

All right. I have a TikTok clip, which is. This is baffling. Baffling. But this is under my heading of delusional Dems.

[Adam Curry]

Well, there are rumblings all over the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Meeting now that on April 20, Trump.

[Adam Curry]

Will declare martial law, which effectively means.

[John C. Dvorak]

The military takes over for the police.

[Adam Curry]

Free speech becomes illegal, protests become illegal. You have to have the permission of.

[John C. Dvorak]

The military to do anything. And worse than that, the commander in chief Trump can do basically anything he wants, literally. Okay. We may be looking at the end.

[Adam Curry]

Of American democracy, and we have 13 days left.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay, here's my point. Please prepare your family for the worst. The other rumor is that they're going to see some. All the guns.

[Adam Curry]

So if you have a gun, you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Want to keep it, you might want to bury it in your backyard, stock up on food. Please stop spending money you don't have to spend. You may need it. Okay. If he shuts everything down, you're gonna need some cash.

[Adam Curry]

You're gonna need something.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay. Please prepare your family for the worst.

[Adam Curry]

And hope for the best.

[John C. Dvorak]

So I. This is the first I heard of it, but I guess the rumors out there. But what was crazy is here in the hill country, in little Fredericksburg, all of a. A sudden, we got the. We got the phones blowing up. Everybody's going crazy. Oh, have you heard about this? The Muslims are coming 402 acres of beautiful scenery.

[Adam Curry]

Welcome to the future of living. Welcome to Epic City. In promotional videos, Epic City is a collection of single and multi family homes and commercial developments surrounding a mosque and school.

[John C. Dvorak]

Epic City is more than just a neighborhood.

[Adam Curry]

It's a way of life. But last month online, governor Abbott raised the rumor of Sharia law playing a part. State Rep. Jeff Leach wrote a letter.

[John C. Dvorak]

Asking the attorney general to investigate.

[Adam Curry]

And Epic responded to the governor online saying, our vision is to build a.

[John C. Dvorak]

Diverse, safe and inclusive community and will.

[Adam Curry]

Follow all local, state and federal laws. And the resident scholar at Epic acknowledged the. The noise. You're probably aware that on social media there's a lot of negative campaigns against our particular Masjid Epic because of our project.

[John C. Dvorak]

Epic City.

[Adam Curry]

Right. And a lot of the far right are riling up hatred now.

[John C. Dvorak]

This week, Abbott and Paxton announced a dozen state agencies are investigating the proposed.

[Adam Curry]

Development, alleging serious legal issues.

[John C. Dvorak]

The Texas Funeral Commission sent a cease.

[Adam Curry]

And disposition alleging illegal funeral services at the East Plano Islamic Center. And the governor on X writing, this.

[John C. Dvorak]

Is the tip of the iceberg. The proposed community will never see the light of day. Representatives for Epic City could not be reached for comment on Thursday, but last.

[Adam Curry]

Month invited the governor to see the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Site and maybe some barbecue to learn more about the project. So I'm baffled by this.

[Adam Curry]

Barbecue is a lot of pork.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I'm baffled by this because this Epic community, which is 74 homes built near a big mosque, I will add, that has been there for 12 years. This is nothing new.

[Adam Curry]

But is the mosque there?

[John C. Dvorak]

The mosque is there. They have a video. They have an AI video. Oh, it's epic. We're going to build this great Sharia law, which they don't say in their video, but that's what's being said. But I think what's happening here is you have.

[Adam Curry]

Where is this? Hold on.

[John C. Dvorak]

Plano.

[Adam Curry]

Questions?

[John C. Dvorak]

Plano. Plano. Plano, Texas.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, that's north of Dallas. That's not nowhere near you?

[John C. Dvorak]

No, of course not. But it's. Everyone's all upset. But that's where Ross Perot used to be in Plano. Yeah, yeah, they're all upset. But it's like, I think Ken Paxton, he is now launching his senatorial race and I think. Is Abbott up for re election?

[Adam Curry]

This, I don't know.

[John C. Dvorak]

This reeks of nonsense.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, this. Oh, I see. You think it's just political.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ye. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. It is, but it's like all of a sudden, this storm, like we have nothing. Look at your own town. We got a lot of stuff going on here. Don't worry about Plano. Let Plano worry about Plano. Well, it's going to be Sharia law, so.

[Adam Curry]

Sure. Real.

[John C. Dvorak]

That doesn't. That doesn't supersede U.S. law. If they want to, you know, do certain things based on their religion and.

[Adam Curry]

Do whatever they want, they don't stole anybody.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. And don't break the law, that's fine. But everyone's all upset about it. It's the phones, man. It's the phones. They're no good. Yeah, I'm very anti phone.

[Adam Curry]

I ran into an oddball clip. This is from Tucker.

[John C. Dvorak]

He's had some interesting people on recently.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, he's getting some screen. He's got a new booker or something who's getting all kinds of.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I'm waiting. I'm waiting for my call. I think I should be on Tucker.

[Adam Curry]

I don't know.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. Come on. I'm the inventor of podcasting.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, you are. But I don't know if I just don't see you and Tucker. Actually, I, you know, I can see you and Beck getting along famously. In fact, Beck thinks you're his brother.

[John C. Dvorak]

Until I didn't want to work on Fridays for him. Then all of a sudden he'll get.

[Adam Curry]

You back on if you actually wanted to go on.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, but.

[Adam Curry]

And then I can see you and Rogan because Rogan's a kind of a, you know, he. You and him. I can see that.

[John C. Dvorak]

Wait a minute. Tucker and I, we got Jesus in common, man. I don't see why. There's a connection right there.

[Adam Curry]

I don't think it's the same Jesus.

[John C. Dvorak]

But anyway, it's a different Jesus.

[Adam Curry]

No, but could be.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay, okay.

[Adam Curry]

So Tucker brought on the guy who is one of the executives of Budweiser, and the whole thing. A very good interview because the guy has nothing but stories to tell.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, this is about the woke stuff and how they.

[Adam Curry]

About the woke stuff and all the rest of it. But. And they're talking about Dylan Millvaney and how they screwed that up. And the guy who runs the Budweiser division. They talk about him a little bit. And the fact that nobody got fired over the Dylan Mulvaney thing and the huge billions of dollars in losses and they haven't been able to recover. They still haven't. But then Tucker discusses the guy who's the division CEO of Anheuser Busch, this ex CIA guy, and he makes some generalities about CEOs that I thought was. I never heard this before from him or anybody else. But now that he mentions it, I thought this was a pretty good analysis. And it starts off with the other guy talking a little bit about how the situation fell apart. And then Tucker goes into his little document and so all of a sudden the company actually, its sales declined even more.

[John C. Dvorak]

And funny enough, is he still there? He's still there, which is crazy.

[Adam Curry]

Everyone is still there. There's been zero accountability for this, despite the fact. I don't want to say so.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't know the guy. I've met him and talked to him. Former CIA guy.

[Adam Curry]

Former CIA guy, He told me.

[John C. Dvorak]

Right.

[Adam Curry]

Extremely physically fit, big CrossFit guy. Most CEOs I've met, and particularly the more disconnected from manufacturing they are, the.

[John C. Dvorak]

More finance oriented they are, the better physical condition they're in.

[Adam Curry]

Just cut jawlines.

[John C. Dvorak]

They all play lacrosse and Middlebury.

[Adam Curry]

They're always on. The guy Looks like GI Joe, 100%.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm not against physical fitness. I could use a little more myself, but that doesn't seem like a relevant criterion if you're choosing a CEO.

[Adam Curry]

And yet every Larry Fink is kind of pudgy, so I'm on his side for that. But it feels like whoever's doing the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Hiring here is doing it based on appearance.

[Adam Curry]

And these are white people mostly, so it's not DEI exactly, but it is.

[John C. Dvorak]

A form of dei. Like why? Like that guy seemed like every other CEO I've met in the last 10 years. Vapid, afraid, completely terrified. You could smell the fear on the guy.

[Adam Curry]

Obsessed with his physical appearance and totally lacking creativity. Are those fair descriptions?

[John C. Dvorak]

That was just my reaction from spending.

[Adam Curry]

An evening with him.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's amazing. I mean, you spent one evening with him. I spent.

[Adam Curry]

I don't know. I've known Brendan for 10 years. I'm not saying he's like a terrible person. I don't know that. But he is definitely.

[John C. Dvorak]

And I hate to single him out, though he is a former CIA guy, which should be disqualifying right there. But.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[John C. Dvorak]

But he seemed emblematic of an entire class of people who, in my pretty extensive experience around them, are deeply unimpressive.

[Adam Curry]

The reason this kind of got my attention because I know some people that are high end individuals that have made the same observation about especially the fear thing. He says a lot of companies are run by guys who are just. Everything is based on fear.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And everything. You know, it's not, they, they don't. They're not positive people ever. They, they, they reactive. And the, the CEOs class of America seems to be people which what Carlson says he's run into a bunch of them. I'm sure he has, that are just this fear based, lousy, uncreative group of people that are running the country.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes.

[Adam Curry]

Well, I just thought it was an interesting observation. Yes, I would say yes. Yeah, that's what I see, too.

[John C. Dvorak]

I would say that's correct. Yeah. No argument for me. Okay.

[Adam Curry]

What happened?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, I don't know what happened. You know, all these. What happened is cheap stuff from China is what happens. That's why you get all these big mega companies with a lot of middle management. I don't know. I want to go back to simpler times. John.

[Adam Curry]

I found it depressing that this observation of Tucker's.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I think he's not wrong, but everyone should just be podcasting and cleaning each other's house and be great. We'll have a good time. So this was a very disturbing report, not just for the nurses involved, but for the total lack of awareness of what's happened in our world, particularly in the last five years. She's a longtime nurse at Newton Wellesley.

[Adam Curry]

Hospital who didn't want to reveal her identity, but she's speaking out after being diagnosed with a brain tumor and says she's not alone among her nursing colleagues. It's getting to the point where the number just increases and you start saying, am I crazy thinking this?

[John C. Dvorak]

Like, I can't. This can't just be a coincidence. She claims as many as 10 nurses who all work on the fifth floor.

[Adam Curry]

Maternal care ward have been diagnosed with different brain tumors over the last few years, some cancerous, some not. Three, she says says have had surgery and believes the hospital has not been supportive enough. We want reassurance because this has been a not reassuring past few months for.

[John C. Dvorak]

A lot of staff members and we just want to feel safe the same way we want to make our patients feel safe.

[Adam Curry]

The hospital confirms it has been investigating since December and has interviewed 10 nurses, six of whom it says have differing brain tumors. But the hospital also says no risk factors have been found linking these cases to that fifth floor. In a statement, the hospital says it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Conducted a CDC guided investigation and shared the results.

[Adam Curry]

The investigation found no environmental risks which.

[John C. Dvorak]

Could be linked to the development of a brain tumor.

[Adam Curry]

The state Department of Public Health says.

[John C. Dvorak]

It is also looking into the cases.

[Adam Curry]

While nurses are calling for an independent investigation. I think the concern is we don't know what it is. And nurses are, you know, scared. They're worried, and they want to make sure they're not Working, you know, in an unsafe place.

[John C. Dvorak]

I think the nurses should be the first people because we were the ones.

[Adam Curry]

That brought it to their attention to be told.

[John C. Dvorak]

And we feel like we've been the.

[Adam Curry]

Last to be informed on anything.

[John C. Dvorak]

If there is a connection here, their.

[Adam Curry]

Search for answers is far from over.

[John C. Dvorak]

So sad about this.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, this is a great story. It's been floating around and they can't. They haven't got a clue.

[John C. Dvorak]

No idea what could have happened. And they like, well, could it be environmental on the fifth floor? Could it just be that? Is it something in the walls? But no one points out the obvious. Safe and effective is what I want to point out. It's just.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, you know, I was thinking that might be why. Why would it just be this one ward? I mean, if it. Would that be hospital wide?

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, I think it's because they just happen to have this one, one ward and they're just focusing everybody on it. Don't look over here, look at the fifth floor. I don't trust any of this reporting.

[Adam Curry]

So you think the reporting is flawed?

[John C. Dvorak]

Of course. Then we go to. Then we go to cbs, who had a fascinating report, which is surprising for a number of reasons. This is about COVID Five years ago today, at the beginning of the pandemic.

[Adam Curry]

Johns Hopkins reported that more than 400,000 people in the US had come down.

[John C. Dvorak]

With COVID and nearly 15,000 had died to.

[Adam Curry]

Two months later, our Dr. John LaPook.

[John C. Dvorak]

Was among the first to report that Covid is spread through the air.

[Adam Curry]

In Tonight's ION America, Dr. LaPook introduces.

[John C. Dvorak]

You to a new weapon against airborne diseases.

[Adam Curry]

Covid, bird flu and many more. Bad enough, bird flu has rocked the dairy industry and infected 70 people in the United States. But there's a bigger concern, a pandemic in humans.

[John C. Dvorak]

As we have human infections with these.

[Adam Curry]

Avian viruses, a random mutation might emerge.

[John C. Dvorak]

That is more fit in a human.

[Adam Curry]

So there you go. University of Pennsylvania researcher Scott Hensley has been studying bird flu for 15 years.

[John C. Dvorak]

And if that mutation would arise, then.

[Adam Curry]

We fear the virus might be able to transmit human to human through the air. Through the air?

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, that's the fear. As far as we know, that has not happened yet.

[Adam Curry]

But if it does, a new technology is waiting in the wings. It's called far uvc.

[John C. Dvorak]

Far uvc? Does that sound familiar to you?

[Adam Curry]

Well, not to me, but it will.

[John C. Dvorak]

It will. Play another clip.

[Adam Curry]

See these far UVC lamps?

[John C. Dvorak]

They emit a type of light that can kill microscopic germs floating in the air.

[Adam Curry]

Columbia University physicist David Brenner.

[John C. Dvorak]

Brenner explained these lights work by damaging.

[Adam Curry]

The genes of disease causing microbes. Brenner's initial main target has been seasonal flu, but that could change. UV light really doesn't care about the details of whether it's a bacteria or a virus.

[John C. Dvorak]

It can kill all of them.

[Adam Curry]

Essentially, conventional UV C is used to sanitize surfaces in places such as hospitals. But it's not shined directly at people because it can harm the eyes of and skin. In contrast, the shorter wavelength far UVC.

[John C. Dvorak]

Is safer because it can't penetrate the.

[Adam Curry]

Tear layer of the eye or the top layers of skin. The CDC says far UVC is promising, but more research is needed. One reason David Brenner, an advisor to a manufacturer of UV C lamps, set up a UV C laboratory.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is an experimental room that simulates real life.

[Adam Curry]

That's a far UVC lamp. They can control all sorts of conditions here, humidity, airflow. They can also measure the amount of virus in the air before and after.

[John C. Dvorak]

They turn on the far UVC lamp. I'd say the development has been slow and steady. So these journalists and doctors, all of them have somehow forgotten how in 2020, President Trump was mocked endlessly for this.

[Adam Curry]

A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you're totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light. And I think you said that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too. Sounds interesting.

[John C. Dvorak]

Do you remember how they laughed and laughed and laughed? Oh, crazy Trump with his UV lamp. Oh, that's was so silly. That's so crazy. Somehow they forgot to report that.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, well, they're not gonna.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just, I just, you know, but I have a, I have a, a long memory of these things. And so now they're doing the same. They're getting.

[Adam Curry]

Well, bleach will be up next.

[John C. Dvorak]

Bleach. If you drink bleach, it's always going to be good. Hey, with that I want to than fear, courage. Say in the morning to you, the man who put the C in the UVC lamp. Say hello to my friend on the other end, the one, the only mister for cell phone in a drawer. John C. Divorce.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Well, good morning to you, Mr. Adam Curry. And we're in our ship, Sea boots on the ground, feeding the airsteps in the water and all the dangers of.

[John C. Dvorak]

Nights out there in the morning to the trolls in the troll room. Stop moving around.

[Adam Curry]

Let me count you for a.

[John C. Dvorak]

Kind of the new normal. 1907. 1907. Trolls listening along to the no Agenda show. Listening live, which is better than most studio audiences, let me tell you that. Because of course, we've been doing this for more than 17 years and we've seen it all, people, more than once. Yes. Did we. Did we even have. When we started the show, there was barely smartphones. I think we just had the iPhone one, if I'm not correct.

[Adam Curry]

No. What was the year that we started?

[John C. Dvorak]

2007.

[Adam Curry]

Well, that would be iPhone year.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's. I remember because I remember that Chris Jacob bought one for me in San Francisco and I took it back to the UK and I was like, oh, what is that? I had the iPhone. On that iPhone, you couldn't copy or paste. That was the funniest thing. And then I had had it only three days and I dropped it in the toilet.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, I remember the toilet story. Yeah, you bent over to flush the toilet and it came out of your pocket or something and fell in and you dug it out.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, and then I put it into kitty litter. I tried all kinds of things and it never came back to life. It was a sad day in techno world.

[Adam Curry]

Curious. I've never owned an iPhone.

[John C. Dvorak]

No. And I'll never own one. I've sworn off all Apple products because you can't trust them. Can't trust them. They can't. Not for any use that is to me, useful to me, like usb. Like, you can't trust them with usb, those guys. It doesn't matter. That's my problem. Oh, and by the way, please, please. Every single time we talk about Linux and I say I can't use it for my professional audio setup.

[Adam Curry]

No. Yeah, you can, you know. Did you try wine? Did you try. Did you try this? Did you try that?

[John C. Dvorak]

Hey, man, Jack. You can use Jack. And you can route it all and work. No, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. Stop it, please. And I'll say, no, no, I've tried it. And look at my. No, man, you could set it up. You could hire some guys to do it. Okay, how about I just use a crappy Windows box? It just works. I use Linux Mint for all my other stuff. It's not a question of the Linux, but it's the drivers. It's always the drivers. Anyway, this is a delight to do this show, to do it live. We stream it live. Trollroom IO is where you can join in if you want to troll along and listen live. Or you can use a modern podcast app. Many of them receive the Bat Signal alert you. Oh, there's yet another alert you need on your phone, but you need it for this. You need to know when we're going live and then. And there's no video. You just listen.

[Adam Curry]

Just.

[John C. Dvorak]

You can do other things. You can be smiling, laughing out loud. People think you're just having a good time at work and we all know you're not. And you listen to the no Agenda show and with that modern podcast app, you get all kinds of extra features like the artwork. We have chapters with artwork that Dreb Scott puts together for us. And we are blessed by an entire community of artists who, as a part of our value for value model, are happy to contribute some time and talent of the three T's, which includes treasure to help support the show, to make it look good. So it's. We always have some fresh art. It's good in the podcast app looks great. When we promote the show. It's great for the newsletter and there's just more fun to be had looking at those chapters. Even in the car, they. They change per topic and it gives you an extra jolt of humor. And we're going to thank the artist for episode 1753. We called that one local jamoke. Was that easy choosing a piece?

[Adam Curry]

No, this was a bad series again. Of course, I blame the show.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, it's always our fault.

[Adam Curry]

Obviously it is our fault because if we don't have something that triggers artists to come up with ideas, if there's no triggering mechanism, then they can't come up with ideas. And then whose fault is that?

[John C. Dvorak]

It's our fault. It's our fault. Yes. But nesswerx did a yeoman's job and he came up with a can of dirt, organic dirt. Eat dirt. It's all you can afford. And we appreciate that. Nessworks. And that is not AI. I guarantee you there's less and less AI. Interestingly, it seems to me, you know, it seems like.

[Adam Curry]

Or the AI's gotten really good.

[John C. Dvorak]

Maybe. I don't think so. Let's see what else. There was another dirt that we looked at. There was Tanta Neil's dirt. Imported dirt for poor people. For me, it was close between those two.

[Adam Curry]

I like the tariffs on Penguins piece. But you hated it to such an extreme. It didn't even get into the play.

[John C. Dvorak]

I wouldn't say I hated anything.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, this was Triple J's piece. It just looked washed out. And when you. When you embiggened it, the no agenda letters were just kind of floating. They weren't even on the. On the penguin, you know, piece of ice that they were on. Look. Wide washed out.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, it does. It was a little washed out.

[John C. Dvorak]

It was washed out. Let me see. What. Oh, yeah. D of nc. We didn't think the Ku Klux Klan with the burning Tesla cross was going to work, so we just. We thought that might be taking it.

[Adam Curry]

That was not a good one. I mean. No, and we weren't. It's the same as the gummy Jesus. We were going to do that either.

[John C. Dvorak]

But if you did that just to make us laugh. Okay. I personally, like. I don't know why I like Scaramanga. Save the Bees. That just. I thought it was a cute piece and you hated it with a vengeance. You just.

[Adam Curry]

I didn't hit it with a vengeance. I just thought it was boring.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I'm boring. And the. Hey, hey, ho, ho, maga hat. I thought that was kind of cute.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Again, it was not. It was just too plain.

[John C. Dvorak]

Everybody loved the idea of the. Of the book that helps you get rid of your phone addiction as a hollow book, and you put your phone in it. And a number of artists came up with some concepts. But I also got people sending me links to manufacturers who make these kinds of things. I forward it to you.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I know. I got it. Napco, whatever the company has.

[John C. Dvorak]

You ordered anything yet?

[Adam Curry]

I haven't ordered anything. I'm looking at their. I'm going to get a hold of them, see if they can even do that. Yeah, I ordered stuff we order what? They don't make hollow books, but it's the possibility that they can.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's another great idea. I mean, I come up with ideas, we get the Podfather idea man. I'm the idea man and you're the execution man.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

Which means we know.

[Adam Curry]

Which means I execute most of these ideas.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ah, people, we're just going to be. We're going to wind up dying.

[Adam Curry]

I like the morning coffee one with the dog at the microphone.

[John C. Dvorak]

It was all right. It was all right. It was all right.

[Adam Curry]

It's just something funny about a dog podcasting.

[John C. Dvorak]

We love the value for value model for so many different reasons, mainly because we don't have to have meetings with advertisers. That was the original impetus for not doing that, but also you get to value the podcast at the amount that you think it's worth. And that's a very fair system. And to close the loop, we always thank people and $50 or above, we tell you who it is, how much money they supported us with. And we have a special moment here in the show where we give an extra benefit to people who came in with more money than usual. $200 or above. You get the title of associate executive producer and we read your note. And that title is a Hollywood credit. You can use it anywhere. Hollywood credits are accepted and recognized, including IMDb.com $300 or above, you become an executive producer. And once again, we read your note and we're going to kick it off with Anthony left. Yes.

[Adam Curry]

I was going to do something before.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, what were you going to do? Hello.

[Adam Curry]

A couple of. Whoops.

[John C. Dvorak]

What are you doing? What?

[Adam Curry]

I had to reach for this paper.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Curry]

I wanted to thank a couple more people from the no Agenda from the meetup.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. Did you forget that on the last show?

[Adam Curry]

No, I thank most of them, but I didn't thank Violet, the little cutie, the trap baby. That bush is now older, I think five, maybe.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, well, she's.

[Adam Curry]

I, unfortunately, I don't know her. She's a. I don't know about you, but little kids, they, they like their age, to be exact.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, yes.

[Adam Curry]

Five and a half.

[John C. Dvorak]

I have noticed.

[Adam Curry]

Four and a half, you know, that kind of thing.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. Four and, and nine months.

[Adam Curry]

She gave me a. A sweatshirt hoodie with the pizzeria Violeta's logo on it and a nice. And a big logo on the back. Very nice piece. She comes over with a little bag and gives it. Your mom dragged her over.

[John C. Dvorak]

You're a sucker. You're a sucker for kids, aren't you? You just love the toddlers.

[Adam Curry]

The kids are great. And so the other one, the other person I wanted to thank was Sir Lawrence of Dystopia. I forgot to thank him. He did donate money, but he also gave me a gift. And so. And then. And the gift was. It was the wildest bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue that I've ever seen. It was the blue. The bottle itself has been. That's completely redone.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's top notch stuff.

[Adam Curry]

It's their best product.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

Wow.

[Adam Curry]

And it came in a, in a package that was like a purse of some sort. It was like a, like a puffy jacket made out of that material. It could be turned inside out and had. It's so ridiculous. I don't know what this Comes from the bottle itself has been changed. It's got a different label. It's got stuff printed all over the bottle. It's such a collectible. I'm not sure what to do with it, and I'm not sure what it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Drink it. Drink it on the show.

[Adam Curry]

I don't drink when I'm doing the show. Oh, but it's such a collectible. I'd like to know the backstory on this particular packaging.

[John C. Dvorak]

That is a nice gift. And how are you going to send me my half of that?

[Adam Curry]

Oh, I'm going to pour off half of it into a flask. I'm sorry.

[John C. Dvorak]

It was a birthday gift. I forgot. No, that's valid. It's a birthday gift.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, no, I'll send you half anyway. No, it'll be in a port of flask, and I'll put the flask in the mail and you'll get it probably within the next couple years.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay. Yeah. Excellent. I'm looking.

[Adam Curry]

Or later. But I. I'm just stunned by this product. The packaging itself, the. The presentation. I'd like to know more. That's the point I'm. I'm making. All right. Onward.

[John C. Dvorak]

By the way, we. We know we had a kind of spooky visitor at your. At your birthday party. I also got one of those challenge coins.

[Adam Curry]

I didn't get a challenge coin. I got a patch.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh. I got a challenge challenge coin. You only got a patch. You went to the meetup and you got a patch and I got.

[Adam Curry]

No, the patch came through the mail. I didn't get a challenge coin at the meetup. Oh.

[John C. Dvorak]

But I. That spooky person sent me of the same thing. A challenge coin. Oh, of the camp. The special camp.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, the camp. Yeah, the camp. Good.

[John C. Dvorak]

Anthony Laferla is in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 500. Thank you very much, Anthony. He says, Commodore Centerlight rejoices in what time we have. Weaving words into the air. My utmost appreciation for you both. So he will be a Commodore today.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, excellent. Kevin Drazich in Brentwood, California. Ritzy area. Thanks, fellas. I like the UTOH ISO. Uh. Oh.

[John C. Dvorak]

What?

[Adam Curry]

You guys.

[John C. Dvorak]

What ISO is that?

[Adam Curry]

I'm not sure. You guys should use it more often.

[John C. Dvorak]

Uh. Oh, I don't know what he means. I want to help him, but I don't know what he means.

[Adam Curry]

Could mean Utah, Ohio. I don't. But. Oh, I think.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't know what. We don't have an. Oh.

[Adam Curry]

Reposting. Moving and jobs. Karma. You need some. I'm sorry. Requesting and moving and jobs. Karma Leaving the failed state of California and headed to Vancouver, Washington, which is $333.33 is his donation. And Vancouver, Washington is. If you don't like taxes, that's the place to go. Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. Let's vote for jobs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Karma, we've got. Let's see a couple of handwritten notes. We start with Sir PPT, and that's $333 and 33 cents. Nice number in the morning, boys. Appreciate your analysis on the jingles. No karma, no shout outs. Sir ppt. PS Donation accounting available upon request. Well, is. Does he need something? I don't. We don't have. We only have a commodore. I don't think we have any nights or anything, so.

[Adam Curry]

Well, we do have an one night. That came in with a. With a request late.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, but it was that. That did not come through my spreadsheet.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, Andrew.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, he's moved to Sunday.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, Andrew, it will be.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, ppt, sir ppt. You're already a knight, so let me know if there's something you needed. We're happy to oblige. We break for knights.

[Adam Curry]

We do. Another note comes in from Pharaoh in Athens.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, it's Charles. Charles, our buddy Charles with the lard cream.

[Adam Curry]

Ah, yes. 33333. And he wrote a note in with his. His letterhead in the morning. John, thank you for your courage. I'm delighted to send this latest no agenda value for value for value donation to you along with a jar of our face food. No agenda listeners have been amazing supporters of our brand and we will continue to send treasure back to the show listeners. Can. Can save. It's got it written in here. I can't see what the number is.

[John C. Dvorak]

17.76%.

[Adam Curry]

1776. Okay, I get it off all Pharaoh products using the code no agenda. Checkout at www. Pharaoh. F A R R O w dot Life Krepneck be damned.

[John C. Dvorak]

It gets rid of crep neck. It's true.

[Adam Curry]

No jingles, no karma, just glowing skin for you and your Gen X compatriot. That would be you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, that's me. That's right.

[Adam Curry]

Even though you're really a boomer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. May the Lord be with you.

[John C. Dvorak]

He's a Commodore, by the way. Charles. Commodore Hogfather. Yeah, he's got a whole. He's got a whole thing going on. He's the hog stick, it's called. Yeah, he's got a good stick. He's a. He is a nice guy. Charles is a good guy. He comes through from time to time. Matt Snyder's next 333.33 Dear Adam and John. On one of the first episodes I listened to John recommended Jacques Ellul's book on propaganda is when One of my many ways this has been one of the many ways this show has added value to my life. Happy to give some of it back. No jingles. Just double up. Karma for no Agenda Nation. Well, we're happy to do that.

[Adam Curry]

Thank you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Matt Snider.

[Adam Curry]

You've got karma.

[John C. Dvorak]

Right on. Right on.

[Adam Curry]

JJ and Sua, SD comes in at $310 and says simply thank you. Please play the Scott Simon jingle. Simon Succotash. I'm Scott.

[John C. Dvorak]

Simon. It's a winner. Thank you.

[Adam Curry]

I didn't notice before but he does say this. Yeah, it's cute.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's hilarious. Darth Peng comes up next from Lockport, Illinois with $300. This is a switcheroo for Totally Not Serial Killer Kate. I know her wife of Sir Tony of Chicago. As a belated birthday gift, Kate hit me in the mouth a few months ago and I found your deconstruction of M5M at all informing and hilarious. I'd love some job karma for Kate and a de douching for me.

[Adam Curry]

You've been deuced.

[John C. Dvorak]

Sincerely, Darth Penguin of Lock Tucky behind enemy lines in the Democratic republic of Killinoise. Keep up the amazing work, gentlemen.

[Adam Curry]

Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. Let's vote for jobs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, you know it's so the story behind Totally not serial Killer Kate is she would be under a different name would be sending me messages on text telegram and and then all of a sudden she somehow was sending Tina messages and I said she says do you know this person? I don't know but it could be a serial killer so be careful what you answer. And it turns out she's totally not a serial killer. So that's good.

[Adam Curry]

Well that's good to know.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's good. We're happy about that.

[Adam Curry]

Glenn Bukowski in Orlando, Florida is not one either. He's $300 in some months ago he writes Chris Servilera.

[John C. Dvorak]

S Sounds right.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Call me out on an executive producer note for not donating in a while. Please de douche me. You've been also give me some baby making karma Chris and his smoking hot girlfriend. Oh two them smoking hot girlfriend Alexander who are expecting their first human resource. I hope this little feller comes out in perfect health and gets all his looks from his mother. A little flirting going on there, huh? In addition to the baby karma. Please give some trump jobs karma to all those in the no agenda nation. Sincerely, Glenn Bukowski from Orlando, Florida.

[John C. Dvorak]

Jobs, jobs, jobs.

[Adam Curry]

You've got karma.

[John C. Dvorak]

And coming in with our first associate executive producer with 27272 it is old friend of the show, Sir Cal of lavenderblossoms.org from Northville, Michigan. He says ITM friends, I've got a great tip of the day. Use my salves for burn relief, not some Chinese goo that who knows what it contains. Especially try my Cal's cannabis line made with full spectrum cannabis oil from my own organics. That's with love from Sir Cal of lavenderblossoms.org thank you sir Cal. That is a good tip of the day.

[Adam Curry]

Morgan Paulus in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. 22222. It's a row of ducks. Morgan palace. Pronounced like Dallas but with a P. Palace and got that right. Of M Palace Studios here. A longtime listener, first time donation. Please de douche me. You've been deduced. Douched. My husband received a monetary birthday gift and we both thought of nothing better to do than to donate to the best podcast in the universe.

[John C. Dvorak]

Wow. Thank you.

[Adam Curry]

There you go. Thanks to Sir Gears for hitting me in the mouth. I am a traditional watercolor artist who blends my imagination with realism with a focus on the beauty of nest. Send a link to your website. I see what you got. Oh, there it is down there.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm gonna take a traditional water.

[Adam Curry]

Blah blah BL Beauty of nature and the magic of things. Magic it holds. I am looking to build a self sustaining business with my creative abilities. I travel to fine art shows to show my original watercolor paintings and reproductions. I also bring to life commissioned portraits, event flyers or whatever my clients have in mind. Please check out my Shopify website and share with the class. And that's M pala P A L L A s studios with a so it's M P P A L L A S S T U d I O. That's studio.myshopify.com I paint with the hopes that my creativity inspires creativity in you. Thank you for your courage and remember to surround yourself with magic over the walls with art. Morgan from Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm looking at m palacestudio.my shopify.com and she has phone cases. John, one for you. A phone case. It'll go in the drawer for $33. I like the pricing. That's a no agenda pricing right there. Thank you very much Morgan. Hey, there's Dame Astrid coming in from Tokyo, Japan. Who does not know her, Our Grand Duchess. Arch Duchess, I should say, with a row of ducks, two to two. Please give a hearty birthday shout out to Sir Mark, Archduke of Japan, who was celebrating with his daughter Mila and son Max at his sister Annabelle's estate in the sunny uk. Oh, they've got the Range Rovers out, John and the Wellies. They're on the estate. That's so kind of you, Dame Astrid. You must miss him. The, the. The shop must miss Sir Mark. But he's having a good time celebrating his 60th birthday. Congratulations, brother. That is from Dame Astrid, who says, loving you all so very much. Archduchess of Japan and all the disputed islands in the Jewish Japan Sea.

[Adam Curry]

We have Sir Craig Greg Bircher Dentite from port Angeles, Washington. 200 bucks. Who writes in. We haven't heard from him for a while. Thank you for helping negotiate the empathocracy.

[John C. Dvorak]

He sent me a note about this. Like you almost the word is empathocracy. I'm like, I guess that's what we're living under in America, Empathy.

[Adam Curry]

Lastly, I have a vintage 1963 Mini Cooper race car. I've driven that car with no agenda. As part of its livery, we do rides. Karma for my daughter's move, please.

[John C. Dvorak]

Really? I'd love to see. Is it racing green, this Mini Cooper?

[Adam Curry]

I think it might be green, if I'm not mistaken.

[John C. Dvorak]

Mini Coopers are cool, man. The old school ones are very cool.

[Adam Curry]

Yes. The original Karma. Yep. I bought. They let me drive it around.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's nice. Send a picture. Greg wrapping it up with $200. There she is once again. Every single show she comes in to support the program and her business. She is Linda Loopatkin. She's from Lakewood, Colorado, and she asks for nothing more than jobs karma. She says no tariff or taxes, just a resume that gets results. Go to ImageMakers Inc.com for all of your executive resume and job search needs. That's Image Makers Inc. With a K. And work with Linda Lou. She is the duchess of jobs and the writer of resumes.

[Adam Curry]

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and Jobs. Let's vote for jobs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Beautiful. Nice. Little less there. Thank you very much. Executive and associate executive producers for episode 1754 that you can now that title you can use proudly anywhere where you want to on your social media, your LinkedIn, that. That'll always get you some hits. And of course you can. If you don't have one already, you can open up an [e-mail] because these are credits that are recognized Internationally by show business people. Thank you all for supporting us. We'll be thanking $50 and above in our second segment. And of course you can always go to noagendadonations.com at any time. You don't have to wait for the newsletter. Any special promotions. You can set up a recurring donation which helps in the slower periods. It is value for value after all. Any amount, any frequency, no agenda. Donations.com. thank you again to these exec and associate executive producers.

[Adam Curry]

Our formula is this. We go out, we hit people in the mouth.

[John C. Dvorak]

Shut up slave.

[Adam Curry]

Shut up slave.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. Okay, well there's a couple other things we should probably talk. Talk about the. Let me see. Yeah. On this drill, baby drill, you know, the oil baron was already saying this is not happening. And now Reuters is writing reports about it. US oil producers face new challenges as top oil field flags. They're not getting the oil out that they used to, to, you know, remember peak oil was a joke. It seems like they're kind of getting there like they're now only getting 65 or 70% of the oil out of these, these shale drills. The Permian Basin is not pumping what it used to. Six and a half million barrels per day. Nearly half the all time high of 13.5. And they are not, not drilling new, new wells. They just, just not.

[Adam Curry]

Well, if everybody brings OPEC brings their prices down to Nothing down below 60. Yeah, who cares?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, we do. We do keep talking in the mic because you're drifting.

[Adam Curry]

I haven't changed anything. I'd be fine. Check my volumes. Check my levels.

[John C. Dvorak]

Your levels are low.

[Adam Curry]

Potted me up.

[John C. Dvorak]

Your levels are low, man. But of course we have solutions to our energy. And that comes, comes in the form of beautiful clean coal.

[Adam Curry]

I call it beautiful clean coal. I tell my people, never use the word coal unless you put beautiful clean before it. Right Doc? So we call it beautiful clean coal. Beautiful clean coal. So today. Thank you. Today we're taking historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers. We're ending Joe Biden's war on beautiful clean coal once and for all. And it wasn't just Biden, it was Obama.

[John C. Dvorak]

Obama.

[Adam Curry]

But we're doing the exact opposite.

[John C. Dvorak]

Actually, there were a couple of executive orders he signed. Just keeps on going. There's a short rundown of them as he was signing them.

[Adam Curry]

We have four items prepared for your signature this afternoon, sir. The first of these executive orders is, it may be one, one of the most significant executive orders of your administration thus far. This directs all departments and agencies of the federal Government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry. This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land. And it's going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects to allow the coal industry to pull flourish. Under your leadership, sir. That's great, sir. There are currently dozens of coal plants in America that are in imminent danger of being forced to close based on unscientific and unrealistic policies enacted by the Biden administration. What we're going to do is essentially impose a moratorium on those policies taking effect to protect coal plants that are currently operating to ensure that they're able to continue producing power and continue providing jobs to Americans in the coal industry. Sir, you've made grid reliability and security a key focus of this administration. This executive order is going to promote grid security and reliability by ensuring, in part, that our grid policies are focused on secure and effective energy production and energy transmission as opposed to woke policies that discriminate against secure sources of power like coal and other fossil fuels.

[John C. Dvorak]

So the coal's going to help. I mean, that's good, isn't it? That should bring down energy prices in general.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I think so.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Coal works.

[John C. Dvorak]

And it's clean and it's beautiful.

[Adam Curry]

It's good.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's beautiful. Oh, it looks like a helicopter went down in New York City. In the river.

[Adam Curry]

In the river. Well, at least it didn't happen downtown.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, they're dead. That's not good. He had signed one other executive order for the new ambassador of Israel and made quite a funny remark, sir.

[Adam Curry]

So the Senate confirmed Governor Huckabee to be your next ambassador to Israel earlier today. That's his commission as ambassador. And then we also have a transmittal letter to the President of Israel requesting.

[John C. Dvorak]

That he accept Governor Huckabees, or, excuse me, Ambassador. Ambassador Huckabee's credentials.

[Adam Curry]

He's going to be fantastic. He's going to bring home the bacon, though bacon isn't too big in Israel. I had to clear that up. He caught himself.

[John C. Dvorak]

He did. Before the news media makes fun of me. I might as well do it myself. Yeah, that was good. That was good. They're funny. I like a funny product. President, did you hear about the. Remember that nut job who tried to assassinate the president at Mar A Lago?

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, that guy.

[John C. Dvorak]

So, you know, we don't hear anything about any of these? You know, I don't know. What is. What is Pam Bondi doing? Oh, oh. We got $500 million billion dollars worth of drugs and she's running around with cash. But I'd still like to know more about these assassination attempts and where did that really come from? And this is the, is that crazy guy who also showed up in Ukraine helping out the, the Ukrainians. And this is a new report.

[Adam Curry]

Ryan Wesley Ruth, the man arrested for trying to assassinate President Trump at his Mar A Lago golf course in September, tried to buy a rocket launcher from a Ukrainian contact with Trump's plane being his intended target, according to a new DOJ filing. The court documents reveal Ruth sent a photo of Trump's plane to a Ukrainian associate and wrote in a message, Trump's plane, he gets on and off daily. In messages sent just one month before his arrest at Mar A Lago, Ruth said, send me an rpg, rocket propelled grenade or stinger and I will see what we can do. Trump is not good for Ukraine. Ruth allegedly asked the associate about the price of the weapon and if it could be shipped and said, I need equipment so that Trump cannot get elected. According to prosecutors. He also said of the rocket, those items lost and destroyed daily and one missing would not be noticed. The DOJ says Ruth also discussed the assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, to which Ruth allegedly said, I wish through an encrypted messaging app. In the DOJ's filing, prosecutors say attempting to purchase a destructive device to blow up President Trump's airplane lies squarely within the realm of an attempt on his life. And Ruth's statements about the purpose of the purchase, that he needs equipment so that Trump cannot get elected, drives home his intent.

[John C. Dvorak]

I wonder if that was part of that. Remember there was a couple of news reports like, oh, isis or they have stingers, they're going to shoot the plane out of the sky. Do you remember that? During the, during the, the campaigning process come to mind?

[Adam Curry]

But I'm sure it was, could have been.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Now this guy was complete lunatic.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I guess.

[Adam Curry]

But I think the other stories, even the other guy that, that, that guy that looks like Elizabeth Warren, the guy who tried to shoot Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, is the more interesting story. We don't know anything about that guy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Nothing. No.

[Adam Curry]

But the family, the eight cell phones or all these cell phones he had. I think Ruth had a bunch of cell phones, too. I don't understand why we can't. What's going on here that they can't tell us more?

[John C. Dvorak]

No. We need to know basis. No. Instead we get important stories, John. Very important stories. Important stories like this one.

[Adam Curry]

Michelle Obama is putting to bed rumors that she and the former president are divorcing now is the time for me to start asking myself these hard questions of who do I, who do I truly want to be? And every day. Speaking on actress Sophia Bush's podcast, Mrs. Obama, now 61, spoke about her newfound independence. The speculation about her marriage grew in January when former President Obama showed up solo to President Trump's inauguration and to Jimmy Carter's funeral. We start actually finally like, going, what am I, what am I doing? You know, who am I doing this for?

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And if it doesn't fit in into the sort of stereotype of what people think we should do, then it gets.

[John C. Dvorak]

Labeled as something negative and horrible.

[Adam Curry]

She was in Hawaii on vacation during Carter's funeral, and she says she chose not to attend the Trump inauguration. She says not being tied to political life and with her daughters now grown, she has more time for herself. They couldn't even fathom that I was making a choice for myself, that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing. You know, this couldn't be a grown woman just making a set of decisions for herself.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, I've, I've been married three times. I've gone through two divorces, and I can tell you she's getting divorced. This is obvious. This is exactly what you say.

[Adam Curry]

Well, you know, the funny thing in the giveaway, the latest of this, of these events is Obama showed up at some restaurant by himself and Secret Service guys. That's who he had dinner with.

[John C. Dvorak]

That was a while ago.

[Adam Curry]

In other words, he went out to dinner by himself. And you know.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, it's what you do. You go sit there alone.

[Adam Curry]

You do. By the way, did I say, I mean, I have eaten dinner by myself when I've been on the road and I usually just go to the bar and have. Because if I want to eat something or there's some restaurant, like I was in Atlanta. I remember when one time there's this famous place and I, you know, usually I can get a PR woman or somebody to go out.

[John C. Dvorak]

But wait a minute, you have, you have a Rolodex, like, hey, PR lady, take me out to dinner.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I used to do that all the time and I was extremely popular.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I'll bet.

[Adam Curry]

Because I would always go to these high end restaurants and they would stick the client with the bill. And so I. Wait, who's the client?

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, like, like tech company.

[Adam Curry]

It'd be some big company. And so I, I knew all these people and I said, hey, what about dinner tonight? I mean, Atlanta or whatever. Yeah, definitely. And it wasn't Fringal. It was more like, you know, Florida Lee. And so it was always high end. And so I was very popular. I'll bet as a guy that. Because I just know how it went. It went like the women would say to the client, oh, geez, this is awfully expensive of dinner, you know.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, but it's the tech grouch. Hello.

[Adam Curry]

It's like, yeah, I know, but I didn't want to do it. But he was, you know, insisting. And so what am I supposed to say? I can't. You know, I tried him to get to a cheaper place, but he wouldn't do it. I just imagine the excuses, because, I mean, anybody, you know, if you can get a meal on somebody else's dime, that's high end.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, you do it. Did I tell you that I found a Chinese restaurant in France? Fredericksburg.

[Adam Curry]

Man, there's about 10 jokes that are just coming and going. I can't.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, I mean, I always.

[Adam Curry]

So much for my timing.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm driving by, I'm like, there's a Panda Express in Fredericksburg.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, Panda Express. Not a Chinese restaurant.

[John C. Dvorak]

But wait, that's what I thought. It's not Panda Express. It's a Chinese restaurant called Panda. And Tina was out of town. I'm like, I'm gonna go get some, some sweet and sour chicken. I just feel like. And I could even handle Panda Express. I walk in, it's a real Chinese restaurant with real Chinese and in Fredericksburg. And I'm like. And I'm sure they had heard this before because I said I thought this was a Panda Express. This is locally owned business. Okay. Sorry.

[Adam Curry]

It's not Panda. Yeah, it's got to drive him nuts.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is not panda express. This 14 year locally owned business. Oh, wow. And it was great. Great. You know, they gave him the Sapporo with a chilled glass. I mean, the whole thing, I, I, I was blown away in Fredericksburg. And thank, thank you very much for coming, y'all. You know, they're doing their little Texas thing. It was great. It was really cool.

[Adam Curry]

Of course. Did you just. Was just eating alone? Did you. Where was.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. No, she was in Florida visiting her friend. Yeah, no, I ate also.

[Adam Curry]

You were just a sad sack eating by yourself at a dinner at 5:30 in a.

[John C. Dvorak]

Even worse, in a Chinese restaurant. Yeah. You get that fortune cookie? Like, I don't want to look at it. This is no good. I'm here with myself.

[Adam Curry]

You'll be eating a load for more.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's right. Just a sad sack podcaster.

[Adam Curry]

What do you do for work podcast.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm so sorry for you podcast caster so play.

[Adam Curry]

Here's a clip of this is the Poland Scammer.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, all right. I once came across an author who used to write a book and then using a pen name offer reviews of his own book to the book editors at the newspapers. Well, one of the presidential candidates in Poland, Carol Norowski, has done something rather similar. He wrote a book under a pen name, then appeared on TV as the author. So he was wearing a disguise and then went on to praise his real self as the genius inspiration behind the book self promotion on steroids. Well, the Polish journalist Bartosz Wielinski has been telling me more well this is ridiculous. He's well rightish historian.

[Adam Curry]

He used to be historian. Now he has been appointed as a candidate of populist national party called Law.

[John C. Dvorak]

And Justice, the abbreviation and they struggle to get into second round of presidential election. He's being chased by the real far right politician Swavo Mi Manson.

[Adam Curry]

But the problem with this person is.

[John C. Dvorak]

That apparently he hasn't been vetted good enough.

[Adam Curry]

Some, you know, shabby fragments of his past has been revealed by the media. His contacts to the neo Nazis seen in northern Poland, some of people he was, well he knew personally were active.

[John C. Dvorak]

Members of the neuroscience Nazi groupings of Poland.

[Adam Curry]

His contacts to the people dealing with.

[John C. Dvorak]

Organized crimes were also revealed.

[Adam Curry]

And this book is, you know, the.

[John C. Dvorak]

Cherry at the top.

[Adam Curry]

So I'm reminded. And they just deteriorate into discussions about how Trump used to pull stunts like this when he was younger.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh yeah, he would, he would remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Adam Curry]

He would call up claiming to be a public relations person or somebody, somebody else. And I forgot what this backstory is. Somebody must have. We've had clips of it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, I'm actually looking for it right now. I remember that quite distinctly.

[Adam Curry]

This is another screwball story. Since we're on these stories, let's go to professor arrested in Thailand.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, that's never good.

[Adam Curry]

An American academic living in Thailand is under arrest on a charge of insulting the monarchy. Thailand has a strong strict Les Majeste law. A single offense can land the guilty party with a prison sentence of up to 15 years. Paul Chambers is a lecturer at Nareson University in Northern Thailand. His lawyers say he was denied bail and taken into custody on Tuesday. They added in a statement that the charge stems from a webinar invitation published on the website of a Singapore think tank in October. A blurb in the invitation refers to to the appointment of high ranking generals in the military and the role of the monarchy. Chambers lawyers say he had no involvement in the blurb on the website. The U.S. state Department released a statement saying it is closely monitoring the situation. Les Majeste prosecutions in Thailand have spiked in recent years with the rise of protests demanding that the monarchy be reformed.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, you got to be careful with that kind of stuff.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is a very well known in Thailand you do not insult the royal family. Family. It's done. I mean it was that way when I was there in 1990. Just don't do it.

[Adam Curry]

This story is actually screwier because everybody who talks about it has a different. Why? What was the insult? And this one claims it was based on some blurb in a website for a seminar in Singapore. And then the other one, cbs, I believe it was said that it was because he went to the seminar and did the Q and A. And during the Q and A, A has to answer some question. And he insulted the monarchy by accident. And so it's hard to say what happened here. But. Yeah. You don't say anything.

[John C. Dvorak]

No.

[Adam Curry]

But why is there a monarchy in Thailand?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, that's. It's ceremonial, John. It's like all monarchies, it's just ceremonial.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. They say if it's so ceremonial then why do people get so bent out of shape about anything?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, I'm glad we live in America because in America you can say whatever you you want. And that's exactly what Senator Kennedy did regarding Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. It's too bad that that Hannity rolls the the bumper music underneath him, but it was still pretty funny.

[Adam Curry]

What do you think of the new leadership? Jasmine, AOC and Bernie. I consider Congresswoman Ocasio Cortez to be the leader of the Democratic Party. She's entitled to her opinion.

[John C. Dvorak]

I'm entitled title of mine.

[Adam Curry]

As I've said about her before, I think she's the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle. Our plan for dealing.

[John C. Dvorak]

You didn't plan that out.

[Adam Curry]

We got a hurry. Our plan for dealing with her is opera called Operation Let her Speak.

[John C. Dvorak]

Now contrast that with the UK who are proposing a new law. This is from gbn, the Great Britain News Network. And listen to this. Welcome back to GBN tonight with me Martin Daubney. Now, the Labour ran Rushmore Borough Council has sparked outrage by proposing a sweeping injunction that could see Christian street preachers in prison for up to two years. If the injunction is breached now over claims of causing offense or distress. Now under the proposed terms, Christians will be banned from Praying for individuals, handing out religious leaflets or bibles by hand and laying hands on people in prayer, even with their permission. Who's running the uk?

[Adam Curry]

Satanist.

[John C. Dvorak]

Satan. What is going on?

[Adam Curry]

What else could it be? If you listen to that report closely. Yeah, you can't touch anybody if you're, you know, the healer, somebody's supposed to heal them or you can't pray for anybody. If you pray for somebody, this is like a violation.

[John C. Dvorak]

What, you can't handle them? A Bible?

[Adam Curry]

Can't hand somebody a Bible because that.

[John C. Dvorak]

Could hurt someone's feelings, I guess. Yeah. You know, Germany, I was really thinking about this Germany, I mean, they are so clamped down, so locked up, the German people. And when you hear this, I only have German clips, so it doesn't really work for the show. But they're talking about when this war comes. They're so hyped up about war and.

[Adam Curry]

It'S all, gee, the Germans.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, yeah, that's my point.

[Adam Curry]

Shocker.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's my point. World War I, who started it? Who started it?

[Adam Curry]

Well, Germany was responsible for the, for the thing getting out of control, that's for sure. World War II, well, that was obviously.

[John C. Dvorak]

Germans and, and I mean. And who was it always against? The French.

[Adam Curry]

What about the Hundred Years War? There's all kinds. It goes way back in time.

[John C. Dvorak]

But why. I mean, it's, you know, speaking of. They like to fight, but I don't think.

[Adam Curry]

But there's not any people that many good German boxers. I mean, what kind of fighting are they?

[John C. Dvorak]

It's not, it's not. The people, the governments there are nuts. It's like something in the water over there and the German government goes crazy and you know, now they're borrowing all this money to build their own war machine.

[Adam Curry]

It's just a matter.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. You know what? Yes. It's just a matter of time. And I don't get it. I don't understand. How can that happen time and time again? And it's going to be against France again.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, obviously.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't know why, but it's always against France. Leave the French alone.

[Adam Curry]

The French have had their issues too.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, sure, but still, it's just like. I don't, I don't understand. Let's see. Mark Rutte was in Japan. Are you interested?

[Adam Curry]

Oh, here we go.

[John C. Dvorak]

All right. Okay, Mark, sell us more weapons. First of all, let's, let's acknowledge that the United States having to take care not only of the Euro Atlantic area, but also of the Indo Pacific. And of course the Middle east has to Focus attention to more than one. What is so called theater at the same time. So it is totally. Yeah, it's real theater. All right. Logical that they try. And this is happening now since 20, 2010, basically. And President Trump clearly stated that he wants to continue with that policy and maybe even speed it up.

[Adam Curry]

Stop. Stop the clip. I have to say this is the only time this has happened, but it's gotten to the point where you and him sound so close together they don't even recognize it. I can't tell who's talking. So you could be slipping stuff in.

[John C. Dvorak]

I was.

[Adam Curry]

These clips. Yeah, I think you did. I don't know. I can't tell. You've got this guy nailed. You have same vocal intonations. Very funny.

[John C. Dvorak]

President Trump, he has already said that we must go to the 5%, clearly stated that he wants to continue with that policy and maybe even speed it up. Speed it up more towards Asia. That's totally logical. And pivot towards Asia. There we go. And also that they want the European and Canadian NATO allies to. To take more of a burden. Share the burden. Share the burden in a more equal, in a fairer way. More by paying more. It's only logical that where the US is spending 3.4, 3.5% of GDP on defense, that they want for Europe to equalize with what the US is spending. 5. And by the way, not because the US is asking this, but no NATO as a whole, if it would stick with the original 2% goal, we cannot defend ourselves going forward in three to five years against the Russians. It is that simple. What is this three to five years against the Russians? Are the Russians coming? And luckily we are. And so the spending is ramping up. And then ramping up to the question. It means that we have, it is an end to end and policy. We have to spend more on the European Canadian side of NATO. Yes, but why are you in Japan, Mr. You are a member of NATO, so why are you in Japan? The US will over time pivot more towards Asia. This is happening already and that will continue. That's only logical. Logical. What is this logic? It's only logical because, you know, we have to get in the Pacific to, to, to screw around with the Chinese. And at the same time, the President made very clear in my meeting with him now a month ago. Yes. That it is important for NATO to be also involved here. What in the Pacific is NATO? Is that the Pacific through the IP4. So that is Australia, New Zealand, and of course they're on IPv4. There what's the IP4? IP4?

[Adam Curry]

I have no IP4. Indo Pacific 4 agreement. I have no idea.

[John C. Dvorak]

IP4. What is that, by the way?

[Adam Curry]

The only thing you're doing that you're not nailing.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Is this stutter.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah. It's hard.

[Adam Curry]

This very. He always said a lot.

[John C. Dvorak]

The only thing that is dismissed is logical.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I like that. It's logical.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's logical.

[Adam Curry]

You can work on that. You'll know.

[John C. Dvorak]

Here it is. NATO is strengthening dialogue and cooperation with its partners in the Indo Pacific region. Australia, Japan and Republic of Korea and New Zealand. This is a very complex security environment. You see, our. The biggest economy in IP4 and the only G7 economy not in NATO. And that is Japan. Japan. And that's exactly why I'm here. Yes. To get you in. You get your money. Get this, Spend the money. And that's exactly why I'm here. To discuss defense, industrial production, innovation, space. Japan already is participating in many nature activities. This is not about extending Article 5 to Pacific. No, not about that. Just getting your money. Notice the collective defense men's clause. That will not happen. But to have a more integrated way of working together, to really have these. To. To acknowledge that these two areas, the Inner Pacific and the Euro Atlantic, cannot be seen as separate. This is exactly why I'm here. Okay. He's shaking you down. He's.

[Adam Curry]

Where he goes. He goes to this long, crazy talking. This is exactly why I'm here. There's no exactly about it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Taking him down. Down, man. He's there. It's a shakedown. Who this was sounds like it's amazing, this guy. I mean, if it. It would be.

[Adam Curry]

It's just.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's so funny because he's such a twerp, a nerd, a loser, a dork. Everybody knows it. Now he's like big man on campus. Oh, Marcus. Coming for the. For any Dutchman in the past 12 years who's been in Holland at all. It's just like. We can't believe this guy is. Is. Is the top NATO dog.

[Adam Curry]

It's hilarious.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's crazy.

[Adam Curry]

Well, it's good for this show since we have a clone of him sitting there on the other mic.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes. The only thing is we need to. We need to. To ramp it up. Ramp it up to 5%. That's it. We have to equalize. Not because the US wants this, but because it is only fair that we share the burden. Share the burden. The burden. I'm getting there. Meanwhile, back home at the ranch, that. That nut job professor from Princeton University. Eddie Glaud. You know the guy?

[Adam Curry]

No.

[John C. Dvorak]

When you hear him, you will. He hasn't gotten the memo. It's like, don't you know that we've already moved way beyond this? There's different things to talk about. We've got tariffs, we got trade. We got all kinds of things. Things. But no, he's still. Trump is racist.

[Adam Curry]

Have to grapple with it because it's the snake. It's. It's the.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's the beast coiled up in the.

[Adam Curry]

Heart, the bosom of the country, as Frederick Douglass said. And the fact that they are doubling.

[John C. Dvorak]

Down on this shows you what kind of human beings they actually are.

[Adam Curry]

Say more.

[John C. Dvorak]

Say more.

[Adam Curry]

We chose a felon who is more interested in. In loyalty, who's more interested in retribution.

[John C. Dvorak]

Who'S more interested in grift than in democracy.

[Adam Curry]

And we chose a felon because we didn't want to elect a black woman. So to read that, yeah, this guy's a lunatic. To read that is to say we would rather destroy the republic than for that to have happened. And until we grapple with it, there's.

[John C. Dvorak]

No amount of protesting I could do. There's no amount of resistance that could come into play to actually force 78.

[Adam Curry]

Million people to grapple with what motivated them to put themselves in this position.

[John C. Dvorak]

This guy, does he have tenure? He must have tenure.

[Adam Curry]

I can't believe he's a professor. He just seems like a dumb, a huge dummy. Racist.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, he's super racist. It's unbelievable. And then Nicole Wall. Say more. Say more, please. It's great. Say more. I don't know what to do with these people. All right, John, give us one more. Give him some good.

[Adam Curry]

Let's do some stuff on Trump's health. This was from npr. They talk about his health. Because now we're going to slowly move toward that, in that direction because, you know, we know that he's nuts.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, I see. Yeah, we got to do that. That makes sense.

[Adam Curry]

At 78 years old, Trump is the oldest president to start his term. He follows former President Biden, who visibly slowed down while office. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith reports. When he first ran for office in 2015, then candidate Trump's doctor put out a statement that described his lab results as astonishingly excellent and concluded he would be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency. The doctor later said Trump had dictated it to him. Then came Dr. Ronnie Jackson. It says, some people have, you know, just great genes.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, I told the president that.

[Adam Curry]

If he had healthier diet over the last 20 years. He might live to be 200 years old. I don't know. Trump is known for his love of McDonald's and isn't a fan of exercise. Jackson was Trump's first White house physician. In January 2018, he held court in the briefing room, answering questions at length about the president's health, including his cognitive health. I was not going to do a cognitive exam. I had no intention of doing one. The reason that we did the cognitive assessment. Assessment is plain and simple, because the.

[John C. Dvorak]

President asked me to do it.

[Adam Curry]

Jackson said. Trump scored a 30 out of 30 years later, in a Fox News interview, Trump described the test like, you'll go, person, woman, man, camera, tv. It's a very basic assessment that includes remembering a short series of unrelated words. Person, woman, man, camera, tv. They say, that's amazing. How did you do that? I do it because I have, like, a good memory because I'm cognitively there. Since the end of his first term, Trump has released very little health information. Just a 2023 doctor's letter without any data saying he'd lost weight and, quote, his cognitive exams were exceptional.

[John C. Dvorak]

You know, you're right. This is the, the rotation, the Trump rotation. You know what's coming next after the health thing? It's going to be another, another woman, like, he raped me scandal, he groped me. You can just wait. Because they really want to hurt Melania. That's that, that's what they like the most, because they know that gets to him. I think.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I think you can just do marketing.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's coming, it's coming, it's coming. They always do it.

[Adam Curry]

This is just a setup for something. They're going to work on it for the future. This is why this, this operation and PBS bullshit. They don't deserve any government money whatsoever. I'm reminded, by the way, I didn't get to talk about this. There's a second part to this, but I'm reminded of the taking the money away from the Voice of America. So I went over to the website and looked around, and it's all anti Republican, anti Trump propaganda. I mean, there was one piece on the Voice of America website that was just nothing more than condemning Trump's whole approach to terrorists.

[John C. Dvorak]

I thought the offices were emptied out. There's. There's still people.

[Adam Curry]

No, no, the officers are empty up, but the website's still there. Still up. And, yeah, I couldn't get any record. That's why I didn't bring it into the show, because I couldn't get any new recordings, because they stopped going out on the air with anything, but they still had it on the website. You could tell what they were doing. Yeah, and yeah, it's a, it's anti Republican propaganda operation. Shouldn't getting American money a taxpayer money money, I should say part two of this.

[John C. Dvorak]

There's more to this. Oh, my. How much more can they do?

[Adam Curry]

Last year, President Biden's doctors chose not to give him a cognitive exam, something Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre was forced to defend repeatedly. The president himself, he said it today multiple times. And the doctor has said this. Everything that he does day in and day out as it relates to delivering for the American people is a cognitive test. Even after Biden dropped out of the race, Trump leaned in on cognitive testing as a campaign issue. We should have cognitive tests for anybody that runs for president and Vice president. Trump has been known to jumble words and during the campaign wobbled like he might fall when getting into a garbage truck. And he is acutely aware that some have raised questions about his fitness. Take this from a rally in October. I'll be a little thing and I'll say something a little bit like the. I'll say, duh. They'll say he's cognitively impaired. No, I'll let you know when I will be. I will be someday. We all will be someday. But I'll be the first to let you know. S.J. olshansky is a professor of public health at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has studied the health of presidents. He says there are many armchairs, neurologists, but a president's doctor is the only one who truly has all the necessary context. But keep in mind, medical records are private. Presidents do not have to reveal their medical records. And in fact, there is a long history of presidents concealing their health challenges. Jeff Coleman was a physician in the Clinton, Bush and Obama White Houses. He points to what happened when President Woodrow Wilson had a stroke. His second wife and his physician, a young Navy doctor, they covered up for him for several months and they were not truthful with the American people. Coleman says there's no requirement for a presidential physical, but the public and media expect them. Now, to me, the purpose of the physical for the president is to give him honest feedback about here's how you heart's doing, here's how your brain functions doing. Whether that honest feedback is also shared with the public is another question entirely.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, the rotations in play. Where is our rotation? We should do the Trump rotation.

[Adam Curry]

It's online somewhere.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, we have it. We have the here we go. Trump rotation. Here it is.

[Adam Curry]

I have my list and you might want to see if there's anything I left out. This is the Trump rotation. There's two categories. There's a regular and then there's the criminal. But here we go. Ready? Yep. Liar, incompetent, unhinged, illegitimate president, white supremacist, racist, bully, immature Russian agent, narcissist, mean long ties, insane tweets, too much, small hands, small penis, big red button, criminal, small penis, mean, racist, immature, thin skinned, runs the mob, has no money, unstable, fatter than 239 pounds, bankrupt, 25th amendment should be instituted, he hates women, misogynist, holds grudges forever placed golf a lot obstruction of justice, money laundering and clown John.

[John C. Dvorak]

There we go. Wonder we're making America white again. Trump rotation. The one clip I've been looking at all show and I've been waiting for you to play it and that could be our last one is the vacuum phone. Npr. That just looks so entire.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I was gonna. This was a good clip. This was a would have been a good follow up for my phone material. But this was a New ideas. This is the kind of this also reverse back to Tucker Carlson Vapidity, Vapidness of the CEO class. And this is just an eye roller of a clip about what Samsung thinks might sell here.

[John C. Dvorak]

Samsung has a new vacuum with an unexpected feature.

[Adam Curry]

It can alert you to incoming calls and texts. The company's new washer and dryer can also make phone calls. The appliances are part of a new AI product line and Samsung is alone. Lg, GE and others are also pushing AI in their home devices. But do consumers want AI in a vacuum cleaner? Online reviews have been skeptical, suggesting the features aren't worth the premium price. And only 15% of households own a smart large appliance. Some experts say companies are just throwing.

[John C. Dvorak]

Out ideas to see what works. That is so true. We went looking for a new Tina's always hated this refrigerator that came with the house and went looking for one at Costco. It's almost impossible to buy a refrigerator that isn't a smart fridge, that doesn't have a screen, that isn't connected to some system and that gives you recipes and great tips.

[Adam Curry]

Tips.

[John C. Dvorak]

I mean you're right. They're just throwing ideas at the wall. More stuff we don't need.

[Adam Curry]

I want stuff that works.

[John C. Dvorak]

There you go.

[Adam Curry]

I'm going to show my support by donating to no Agenda. Imagine all the people who could do that. Oh yeah, that'd be fab.

[John C. Dvorak]

We do have A number of producers to thank $50 and above. We love the producers who support us monetarily. It is time, talent, time, talent and treasure for our value for value. Also, John's very valued tip of the day is coming up and the show mixes and we have some meetup reports including the meetup report from your birthday extravaganza. So take it away, John.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah. Let's start with Beth. Beth Elliott. She's at the top of the list. Corryton, Tennessee 13369. Stefan Truckles. Truckles in SUST. Deutschland.

[John C. Dvorak]

SUST is not 13324. Suess is not, not Deutschland. Seuss is the Netherlands.

[Adam Curry]

No, it says Deutschland here.

[John C. Dvorak]

Doesn't seem right.

[Adam Curry]

Truckle sounds Dutch or Dutch. It sounds Deutsch.

[John C. Dvorak]

Just saying.

[Adam Curry]

Well, Christopher, whatever. There could be a soil. I mean look how many Albany's there are in the United States. Christopher ebert in Spartanburg, South Carolina. 105 35. Scott Merrill in Calabasas, California. 9170. Patrick Stasiak in Saginaw, Michigan. 8810. It's actually Patrick Stasiak. Stasiak. Okay. And this is 8810. This is double nipples on the dime, brother. Okay, well it's better than okay. Kevin McLaughlin's was just a straight 8008 boobs donation. He's the Archduke of loo. A lover of American lover of boobs. Eric Mintz in Allegan. Allegian. Allegan or Allegiant. One of the two. 8008 Michigan. Thank you for your courage and all your hard work. Four more years.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes.

[Adam Curry]

Okay. Black Knight Laurie La U R I in Helsinki, Florida, Florida. Helsinki, Finland. 76.

[John C. Dvorak]

We haven't heard from him in a long, long time.

[Adam Curry]

No, 7643. He is happy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Black Knight from Helsinki. That's right. Interesting.

[Adam Curry]

Welcome back.

[John C. Dvorak]

Welcome back.

[Adam Curry]

Black Knight John Spear Yeardley, PA 7643. No longer a douchebag. Give him a d. Douching. You've been de douched. He shares the April 5th birthday. Good for him. Johnny Shogun in South Gold Beach, Australia. Another Happy birthday called 7643. Sirent Surant in Arlington, Washington. 7640. There's another happy birthday fellow Boomer. We need a Boomer donation so see how many boomers support the show. Yeah, maybe 6446 to represent born before 64 but not before 46. Yes, I'm liking that one. I'm sure Adam would argue the date range.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, no, I would not because I was born in 64. So I. I'm all in on this date range. 64 is the cutoff. It says born before 64.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I like 64. 46.

[John C. Dvorak]

I think that's a great. I think the Boomer donation is. Is on. Is Boomer donation.

[Adam Curry]

I'm putting it in the newsletter.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's gonna. Boomers are go. It's a go. Approved.

[Adam Curry]

Stephen Hatto in St. Petersburg, Florida. 75. These are all the happy birthday donations that are still following or still going. Mark Bisleveld. I don't know. What do you think?

[John C. Dvorak]

Mark Bliefeld.

[Adam Curry]

Blyfeld. Oh, yes, it's a Dutch name.

[John C. Dvorak]

Ditch.

[Adam Curry]

And he's in Haddam, Connecticut. A former paper boy.

[John C. Dvorak]

Boomer. Okay, Boomer. You got to be a Boomer. If you're a paper boy, you're a Boomer.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, I'd say in Maple Grove, Minnesota. He's got a Happy birthday. I'm just going to read the names and locations here. Steven Mann in Plymouth, Michigan. Microchip Nick in East Hampton.

[John C. Dvorak]

You got to read this one.

[Adam Curry]

Happy birthday, John, you Zionist shill. Jaren Snelders.

[John C. Dvorak]

There's another Dutch one. Jeroen Snelders.

[Adam Curry]

In Ennis, Texas. Charles Schultz in Not the. Not the Charles Schultz.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Aniston, Alberta, us. Alberta, us. It says us.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, that's like Seuss is in de. Sure. Never Trust the spreadsheet.

[Adam Curry]

7373 from WJ4K73. Sir Vant you miss. Sir Tommy Hawk and Sir Tommy Hawk. Sir Tommy Hawk's in Iowa City, Iowa. 73. Now we have random donations back to them. Servant in Arlington, Washington.

[John C. Dvorak]

And look at his number.

[Adam Curry]

64446. Boomer donation.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's on.

[Adam Curry]

It hasn't even been established yet. And yet we have two on today's show.

[John C. Dvorak]

Boomer donation is go.

[Adam Curry]

Wow, that's another random number thingy happening to us. Teresa Andrews in Camarillo, California. And this is 6,000, 161, which is an Aunt Gigi donation.

[John C. Dvorak]

Here we go. That's an on G6161 on Gigi donation as also go.

[Adam Curry]

I gotta start writing these down. Grayson Insurance in Aurora. Aurora, California. Colorado. 6006. Jason shepherd in Trinidad, Colorado. 6006. That's interesting again. Jeff Gibbs in Pangolin. Pangolin, Minnesota. 55 Pengilly.

[John C. Dvorak]

Probably Pengilly.

[Adam Curry]

Happy birthday to Rick Gibbs from your brother, Brittany Miller in Trinidad, Colorado. We just had Trinidad. Another one. 5272. Steven. Steven still in Daquan, Illinois. And this is a Prayers for Raleigh Hawk of Southern Illinois. Sir Raleigh. Oh, we have to give him an emergency.

[John C. Dvorak]

Emergency. Let me read this. His large brain tumor was removed, but he is back in the hospital on a ventilator in ICU at Barnes due to complications. Please, everyone, pray for our brother Raleigh, lineman of the net. Yes, of course he will and will hit you with an emergency F. Cancer.

[Adam Curry]

You've got karma. Prayers up for you, Josiah Thomas in Ankeny, Iowa. 51 Bad Idea Supply. Go to their website Bad Ideas Supply for your bad ideas. They have all the best burning gear you can buy. 50. 50. Now, these are $50 donors just naming locations, starting with Ray Howard in Kremmeling, Colorado. Steven Ray in Spokane, Washington. Edward Edward Mazurek in Memphis, Tennessee. Jacob Rotramol in Decatur, Illinois. Could be Jacob William Kidwell in Dover, Delaware. Renee Kinnege in Ultresh. Roderick Brown in Mermaid, petaluma.

[John C. Dvorak]

What is P.E.

[Adam Curry]

What state is P.E.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, it's in Candanavia.

[Adam Curry]

Oh, it's in Canada. What province is P.E.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't know what province P.E. is.

[Adam Curry]

Well, she's there. She's in Canada. Or he's in Canada. Roderick is in Mermaid. William Spain in Springdale, Arkansas. Got that one. Gerald Wazoo. He's up in Westminster.

[John C. Dvorak]

Hold on, let me read this.

[Adam Curry]

He's got a long note.

[John C. Dvorak]

This is not Gerald, but Grand Wazoo. He says in the morning.

[Adam Curry]

I said Gerald.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yes, you did. In the morning.

[Adam Curry]

Grand Wazoo.

[John C. Dvorak]

Grand Wa. In the morning. John Adam, just want to thank you for mentioning the light phone. There it is. On episode 1753. My son is 12 and biking to and from school 3 1/2 miles away. No big deal. But in today's world, I'd like a more reliable communication source with him other than the walkie talkies which have gotten us this far. Three and a half miles. Miles is quite a distance. We're all on the same page. The light phone seems to be perfect, offering all he needs and eliminating everything I despise. You guys really are an invaluable resource. No exit strategy for you. Much love, Grand Wazoo. That's right, the Light Phone 3. That's the one you want? Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Stephen Schumach in Xenia, Ohio. Dame. Code red. Code red. Code Redville, Arkansas. David Asari in West Hollywood, California. And. And last on our list is good old Jason. Sir Jason D'Aluzio in Miami Beach, Florida. I want to thank these people for making show 1754 the Good show that it became.

[John C. Dvorak]

Indeed. And we appreciate everybody who came in under $50. We never read names there for reasons of anonymity. People still like that. And also we have those recurring donations. Go to noagendadonations.com you can fill it. I like that these numbers, the, the numerology is coming back with the Boomer donation. And what was the other one? The 6161. What was that? Hold on a second. What was it? 61. Oh, on Gigi donation. We used to do a lot more of this. So bring back those numerology donations. We love them. We love trying to figure them out. And again, the sustaining donations, any amount, any frequency, it's all up to you. It is value for value. Go to Noah Jeff Agenda donations. Oops. Go tono agenda donations.com John Spear celebrated on April 5th. Darth Penguin. Happy birthday he says to totally not serial killer Kate. Dame Astrid as we heard earlier. Happy birthday to Sir Mark Jeff Gibbs. Happy birthday to his brother Rick Gibbs. And John Bye as in bye bye bye is 50 today. Happy birthday to all of you from the best podcast in the universe. So we have no knights, no dames, no title changes, but we do have one Commodore. We are very proud to welcome our brand new Commodore. Who he say? Commodore center light. Congratulations, Commodore arriving. Go to Noah jennerings.com brand new Commodore and let us know what name you want on your certificate. It is a beautiful piece. It's suitable for hanging. Hanging. It is a beautiful title that you will like to have and give us an address where to send it to Commodore ship. And we thank you for your courage. Now let's take a look at those meetups. All right, two full on meetup reports. The first one is from the John C. Dvorak Birthday Bash Extravaganza. Oh yeah, they went, went all crazy and started editing it. So here is the report for you.

[Adam Curry]

This is Sir Rick Alcichan, Crazy Steve ii.

[John C. Dvorak]

We're here at John's B day birthday.

[Adam Curry]

Extravaganza and we're about to sing him Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Happy birthday to you.

[Adam Curry]

Happy birthday dear John. Let's go what you wish for, John, that you wouldn't have sung this song in the morning. Woo.

[John C. Dvorak]

Wow, that sounds like a rowdy bunch over there at the birthday bash. Almost as rowdy as the kids in New York City. What a hootenanny they had in the morning. With that's come and gone and spring has sprung this. This is Dan Franco, host of the.

[Adam Curry]

Manhattan no Agenda meetup at the Perfect Pint West, Thursday, April 3, 2025. There are eight producers here three of which are sirs.

[John C. Dvorak]

Again, thank you all for attending the meetup. Hey, this is Sir Spoon Maker from the Manhattan meetup. Connection is protection.

[Adam Curry]

Trains good, planes bad.

[John C. Dvorak]

Woohoo. In the morning here from New York City, Sir Chancey. Hey, in the morning it's Sir Michael.

[Adam Curry]

Anthony, also known as the Mayor. You know, by the way, y'all heard I'm off the hook, but y'all knew that already. Hey, it's MK Ultra Mark. I'm enjoying the meetup tonight with all the boys.

[John C. Dvorak]

We're having a good time.

[Adam Curry]

And shout out to all the slaves.

[John C. Dvorak]

And the trolls out there. Love you, Adam and Jauncey.

[Adam Curry]

Hello, this is Dan Pagan. My pronouns are itm. I'm in the heart of New York City with beautiful meetup folks and there may or may not be DMT here. Hey here the Caribbean guy telling everybody.

[John C. Dvorak]

To do the thing that enlightens them.

[Adam Curry]

Into a greater state of being. Dmt, this is Jen and I'm at the meetup at the Perfect Pint in New York City having a great time. The no Agenda folks.

[John C. Dvorak]

My name is Connor from Wicklow, Ireland and I'm serving the Noise Gender show. Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

And they've been great tippers tonight in Morden.

[John C. Dvorak]

Love it. You got your server in there clearly operating illegally in the country, but that's okay. And it sounds like there were some drugs at that particular meetup. We do not necessarily condone that here at the no Agenda show, but connection is protection. That's true. You get it whenever you go to a no Agenda meetup. And you can go to the Outer Swamp Meetup right now actually at the Dogfish Head Ale House in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I think that's a new location, so hopefully everybody got notified in time. Tomorrow. Friday, Central Wisconsin Wausau meetup, 4:00 at Sconis in Schofield, Wisconsin. Hifi intel meetup at Fassler Hall. 6:00 at Fassler hall in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Also on Friday. On Saturday, the Colorado Springs. No mutton, just meet up at noon at Antelope Ridge Meadery in Colorado Springs. We have the South Jersey easter gathering at 1 o'clock at Miller's Ale House. Also on Saturday, Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. The Treasure Valley Boise meetup, 3 o'clock, Old State Saloon in Eagle, Idaho. And again on Saturday. It's a busy day. Fort Wayne Club 33, NPR Easter Egg Extravaganza at 3:33pm Halls Tavern and Coventry in Fort Wayne, Indiana, we have the 14th Northwest Houston no Agenda Meetup 7:00 at Wakefield Crowbar in Houston, Texas. Your sir economic hitman organizing that for you. And on the next show day, a couple of meetups we have. I must be High. Number 16 at Granite Brewery in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. And the Indy no agenda. Rainstick stirred, not shaken. Meetup 3:00 at Blind Owl Brewery. That's always 100 people there at IndiaPa, Indianapolis, Indiana. That's Mark and Maria of the Greenwood who are hosting that. And finally, the 2toomanyeggs.com Keene, New Hampshire meetup. It's their 11th gathering. 3:33 at Margarita's Mexican Restaurant in Keene, New Hampshire. Just a sampling of the meetups that are taking place all around Gitmo Nation. They are taking place all around the world. You can go to noagendameetups.com you can list your meetup there. You can find them. You can find them by calendar. You can find them by name. Just look at the list. It's a long one. And as always, if you can't find one near you, start one yourself. It's easy. Noagendameetups.com Sometimes you want to go hang.

[Adam Curry]

Out with all the nights and days you want to be where you won't be triggered or hell, lame. You want to be where everybody feels the same. It's like a party.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's always like a party. That's what's so great about it. It's always like a party. This always like a part. Is it going to be another Fredericksburg meetup? I think in May. I'm excited. Another one hanging out here at the 17th century.

[Adam Curry]

Steve wants to bring one that wants to go there.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, there's Matt Long and his beautiful wife Gail. They're gonna do it with Jenny over there at 1776 again.

[Adam Curry]

All the J6ers make it. Yeah, all the J6ers hanging. I got nothing to do with it.

[John C. Dvorak]

Okay, well, here we go. This is the moment that we all drink.

[Adam Curry]

Here we go. Here's where you get depressed.

[John C. Dvorak]

I do. I get very depress.

[Adam Curry]

More of the AI.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, more your AI. Nonsense. I have. I have. I. I have two ISOs. They're real ISOs, not fake like John's. Here's the first.

[Adam Curry]

I have a real one.

[John C. Dvorak]

Here's my first one.

[Adam Curry]

I just have one word for this. Perfect. Be nice if it wasn't so echoey and.

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, how about this one then?

[Adam Curry]

Yo, yo, yo, what up?

[John C. Dvorak]

Come on, come on.

[Adam Curry]

Yo, yo, yo, what up?

[John C. Dvorak]

Up. That's not bad. It's not. It's not great, but it's not bad.

[Adam Curry]

Who sent you this? I don't send you.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, of course. Someone sends it to me.

[Adam Curry]

Yo, yo, yo, what up?

[John C. Dvorak]

Very white. Yo, yo, yo, what up? But we'll see.

[Adam Curry]

Very. We'll take it.

[John C. Dvorak]

We'll take it. All right. What you got?

[Adam Curry]

Okay, we got. Here's the real one. This is prophecy. The prophecy has been completed. Somebody sent that in.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, yeah, I can tell.

[Adam Curry]

Poor woman. It was a TikTok woman.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

Okay. We can do. Cannot do better.

[John C. Dvorak]

You can't do better than that. If you tried. I recognize that guy.

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, yeah, it's Caleb.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah, that's right. It's Caleb from 11 Labs. Yes. And then your final one.

[Adam Curry]

So good. That show was so good.

[John C. Dvorak]

I don't know, man.

[Adam Curry]

Yo, yo, yo. What up?

[John C. Dvorak]

I think my.

[Adam Curry]

Use it, use, use. Yo, yo, yo.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's better. Thank you very much. Now it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for. John C. Dvorak's Tip of the Day.

[Adam Curry]

And sometimes Adam, created by Dana Bernetti. Well, you had your tip of the day for today.

[John C. Dvorak]

I did?

[Adam Curry]

Oh, brother. You teased it last show.

[John C. Dvorak]

I forgot what it was.

[Adam Curry]

Wow. Okay.

[John C. Dvorak]

You don't have a tip.

[Adam Curry]

No, I do have a tip.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, thank goodness. I'm sorry. I completely spaced on that. That's my mistake.

[Adam Curry]

Okay, now this was suggested by one of the producers, and I said, yeah, the problem was, here's the tip, and everyone should have one or two of these. And I did have some thoughts about it. And this is the window breaking tool that you should have in your car that's got a diamond tip. It's usually called an emergency seatbelt cutter and window hammer. Everybody got a blade on it. Because what happens, you get into a wreck, especially in one of these electric cars, and the power goes out. You can't get out of the seat belt. You cut the seat belt. Then you take the little hammer and you tap. Doesn't take much because if it's got a diamond tip or it's carbide, whatever tip it has, you snap it against, the window, shatters, you can get out of there. As opposed to not being able to roll it down if it's electric. So the producer said, well, you know, what's the best of these?

[John C. Dvorak]

That's the question. This is why it's a tip of the day. We want the absolute best.

[Adam Curry]

Well, I don't. You can't determine the absolute best without busting your car window, so. Or going to a junkyard and saying, can I test A bunch of these things on your car, see which one breaks the window best. Now, I would suggest, simply put, going to Amazon and getting the $9.95 dollar. You get two of them and it's a two pack. And it's got 27,000 reviews that average four and a half stars. And I think that's probably going to work. The little ones that got a motor in them, the ones that pop the thing out.

[John C. Dvorak]

A motor? A motor?

[Adam Curry]

Yeah, a little thing, it just spring loaded. It supposedly breaks the window. No. You want a hammer? Yeah.

[John C. Dvorak]

You want a hammer? Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

So you can bash it. Now you can look at these. There's a bunch of different ones. And it has to have a cutter. Now, now here's what I was. Here's the real issue that's not discussed. And it's probably really the more important part of the tip.

[John C. Dvorak]

All right, all right.

[Adam Curry]

So you're in the car, you got the thing. Usually you keep it in the little side pocket of the driver's seat. And you reach in there and you can grab it and you can cut the seat belt and bang the window. What happens if you're in a rollover? The thing comes out of the seat side pocket, bounces around the car, you're stuck with the seatbelt and it's out of reach.

[John C. Dvorak]

Oh, no.

[Adam Curry]

What do you do? What do you do?

[John C. Dvorak]

Well, you should have it around your neck on a string whenever you drive.

[Adam Curry]

What you have to do is you have to secure it somehow. Either glue it or it should be secured, or put a string around it and tie it to something.

[John C. Dvorak]

Yeah.

[Adam Curry]

So it doesn't get too far away. If you have a horrible situation and even just a collision, it could jar it loose and move it into the back.

[John C. Dvorak]

You should have a holster, like a leg holster, like a calf holster, and always have it in there when you're driving, just in case.

[Adam Curry]

But this is a situation that people should think about.

[John C. Dvorak]

A lanyard. How about a lanyard?

[Adam Curry]

Well, I'm just saying, anything but just think about what happens.

[John C. Dvorak]

How about don't drive an electric vehicle. You got more chances.

[Adam Curry]

Well, no, even at regular car, you drive into the lake. I mean, there's a million. You don't want to use these things. You just have to. You should have them, though, just in case, because you don't want to get stuck in the car. But you have to consider the fact that it'll get jostled and moved around in the vehicle if the car flips or rolls over, does anything. And so you'd have to Secure it somehow. So just think about that. But everyone should have one of these things. Stop the hammering.

[John C. Dvorak]

That's right, Everybody. Everyone needs one tip of the.net noagendafund.com for John's tip of the day.

[Adam Curry]

Great advice for you and me. Just the tip with JCD and sometimes.

[John C. Dvorak]

Adam, created by Dana Bernetti. Wow. Your tips are great. Kind of morbid, but they're great.

[Adam Curry]

Well, that one is like kind of.

[John C. Dvorak]

Kind of, you know, but it's a safety tip. I understand it's a safety tip, but still, it's like morbid, man. It's like death, death, death, death.

[Adam Curry]

There's no death if you have it.

[John C. Dvorak]

No, not if you have it on a lanyard. Coming up, we got end of show mixes from Leo Lepuke, Neil Jones and Tom Starkweather. A lot of money involved. Up next on the no Agenda stream, Trollroom IO and your modern podcast app, we have our big dumb mouth. Oh, it's good they're back. They were on some kind of hiatus. People are a little concerned. I'm glad they're back on the stream. Good to see you guys. Good for you kids. And we will return on Sunday with more of your media deconstruction. I wonder what there will be to talk about. I'm sure there's something we can pull apart for in the meantime. Don't worry. It's just like Covid. It's all gonna be okay. You're not gonna die. But your iPhone. Yeah, you might have to trade that one in. Coming to you from the heart of the Texas hill country here in Fredericksburg in the morning, everybody. I'm Adam Curry.

[Adam Curry]

And from northern Silicon Valley, where I remain, I'm John C. Dvorak.

[John C. Dvorak]

We return on Sunday. Please remember us at no Agenda donations dot com. Until then, adios mo foes. Hooey, hooey and such.

[Adam Curry]

Your love gives me such a thrill.

[John C. Dvorak]

But your love won't pay my bills.

[Adam Curry]

I want money.

[John C. Dvorak]

You're gonna get a check.

[Adam Curry]

That's what I want.

[John C. Dvorak]

Everyone's just taking money.

[Adam Curry]

Coronavirus. A lot of celebrities. Y'all have the luxury to pay $34,000 or whatever the it cost to get sexy and get treated poor. Whatever the crap. They don't have that money. The look at it. I want money. China, guess what this happened. Coronavirus.

[John C. Dvorak]

It's party time. We doing shots. Gonna give everybody cash. I want my check.

[Adam Curry]

The risk is to the money and not because person to the money. The risk is to the money, not to the person. To the money and the risk is not to the person. The risk is to the money. To the money. I don't think this entire line of questioning is meant to be real questions and so I will not reply. How can you spoil a system that is already broken? I, I don't know why Speaker Pelosi, but actually we say, oh, here, we're sorry, we don't want to upset you. We'll give you more money.

[John C. Dvorak]

I did great.

[Adam Curry]

I made a lot of money. Any collusion, you know, the Russia collusion delusion, absolutely no collusion between Trump and the Russia. I reserve the right to my time. It is not, it is not right. That was not a question. You know, you have to reprogram the money. The media at this point is parsing words in a way that the average Virginians aren't. No agenda in the morning.

[John C. Dvorak]

Audio mofo Devorak. Org Na yo, yo, yo, what up.