Trendkin Spice Latte 10/07: Trump, Aaron Sorkin, McDonald’s

0:00 Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Trenkin Spice Latte. That one's courtesy of Vanadium Silver, who, again, is going to eat for weeks off of the list of October short show titles that Vanadium Silver dropped in the Discord. Thank you. Thank you for your work, Vanadium Silver. Hope to meet you one day. My name's Jack O'Brien.

0:24 That over there is Mr. Miles Gray.

0:26 Yep.

0:27 Hope to meet everybody one day. Jack O'Lantern. is obviously my October name.

0:33 That should be mine, to be honest.

0:34 Do you have an October AKA?

0:38 Gay Slimer.

0:39 That's just your, that's just what they call you in the piss pig parties that you go to.

0:47 I just remember when we were doing, like, you know, we're so obsessed with Durante's anagram name. Gay Slimer. I was like, what do I got discord? And it was like, I don't know, Gay Slimer.

0:55 All right.

0:59 Slimer was cool. Slimer was cool.

1:02 I mean, yeah. What am I giving off?

1:05 I don't know. Gay Slimer. No, no.

1:07 Anagram name. Actually, both.

1:09 Yeah, it actually works out both ways.

1:11 Yeah.

1:12 Anyways, it is Wednesday, October 7th. And this is the episode where we tell you some things that are trending in the news. And Miles, let's kick it off with just a bit of an update on the story where Donald Trump has been buying ads that are like little mini works of propaganda about how.

1:36 Good he is. Fan cams for him. Yeah.

1:38 He's uploading his own fan cams to broadcast television and paying millions of dollars for the ad space. Right.

1:44 And then at the end, a lot of people, they noticed the thing at the end, it said.

1:47 Paid for by the U S government, AKA us. AKA us.

1:52 Yeah.

1:53 We're paying for that bullshit.

1:55 I like to brag that I'm a movie producer. So this is nice for me.

2:02 Oh, yeah.

2:03 A few short films.

2:04 Recent thing. I don't know if you saw that.

2:06 Love me.

2:08 Ad with Trump. Yeah, that was us. That was us.

2:11 Anyway, many have pointed out that, like, you can't use taxpayer funds to buy TV ads for your shit ass.

2:19 Uh, and the administration, many.

2:21 Are pointing out in that exact words, just what fool, what is this? Re your shit ass because your shit ass, your shit ass ads, dude.

2:31 No.

2:32 Um, and the administration predictably laughed it off, but it seems now they have grown tired of pretending. They can't hear people asking them, how do you think this is even remotely above board?

2:42 Yeah.

2:42 And, Trump posted he decreed on Truth Social, like any really strong man, that due to the radical left being upset, he's he'll I'll actually be paying for it. He posted the radical left is upset with the fact that I am taking ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our great USA and paying for them with USA money.

3:05 Oh my God.

3:06 He's getting fucking dumber every day. This is a rather standard thing to do, but rather than doing that, although it's not standard, uh, nothing will make them happy. I have decided to do the patriotic ads among others and pay for them myself.

3:22 And with money I raised for MAGA.

3:24 Yeah, no shit. Um, so again, like every other politician prior to this point in history.

3:30 Yeah, exactly.

3:31 You're if it's an ad for your benefit, that's not, that's a partisan thing. And these aren't, these aren't fucking you idiot. And also, you disarmed the entire Free America radio. You're the real propaganda arm of the government. That's not even funded anymore. So, yeah, I guess you're left with this kind of shit. But such a loser move to clearly be violating the law and then act like you're switching up only because the radical left is crying about it.

3:55 Because we all know real tough guys, they cave to crying babies.

4:00 We all know that.

4:01 Oh my God. Fine. I'll stop committing crimes. You guys are such babies. I can't be stopped. That's some real billionaire shit.

4:08 Yeah, exactly. It is.

4:10 It's the same thing where it's the version a lot of people have pointed out, especially after the elephant graveyard thing.

4:17 The billionaires, it's called an oopsie.

4:19 They all get oopsies where they transgress and people go, what the fuck is that?

4:22 And they go, oh, sorry. Oopsie.

4:25 I didn't know I couldn't do that.

4:27 Exactly.

4:28 Yeah. Thanks, Dave. How is just ad spending in general going for the Republicans? That's something that they... I've been getting some emails, some very troubling emails, actually, from Democrats saying that we're behind in spending on the Democratic side and we need to... I need your contribution so that we can spend as much as the Republicans have war chest. Yeah.

4:54 I'm not giving you a cent for your war chest because you don't know how to. However, the Republicans don't either know what to do with their war chest because since like Labor Day. Trump and the party, they finally started spending money up to a half billion dollars on fucking ads to try and sway voters back to hell.

5:20 And sadly, pissing half a billion dollars away on ads that could have gone to literally anything else to help people has not had the intended effect.

5:32 It's measurably done. Fuck all.

5:34 It looks like in the Washington Post, they're writing, quote, high quality public surveys show Democratic Senate candidates tied or leading in Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas.

5:45 Those are the same. I've heard of all of those states. Yeah. Yeah. They're still in trouble because I'm not a big states guy. Yeah.

5:52 Yeah. And I know those ones.

5:55 And again, this is all the same as before Labor Day. So nothing has changed.

6:01 Nothing has changed. Surely they cut into the lead with these ads that they're.

6:05 Democrats lead on the generic congressional ballot has slightly widened since.

6:10 Okay.

6:11 Well, at least the one, because the one that I have heard is like, they're really going after Tallarico. They're really going after, uh, um yeah yeah yeah well after him like how about this.

6:22 Put on put on your 10 gallon hat uh mr lone star because more voters hold a favorable than unfavorable view of texas democratic senate candidate james talarico according to a late september new york times sienna poll despite more than 115 million dollars spent attacking him our friend in michigan michigan democratic Senate candidate, Abdul El-Sayed, favorability actually increased by five points.

6:48 So when the Democrats were like, you can't nominate this guy, he's going to be so easy to take down. We're fucked if you nominate this guy as the Democratic nominee.

6:57 They spent 76 million and it's a swing and a miss.

6:59 Swing and a miss, huh? I mean, like, so he hasn't been incredibly easy to take down. And the thing that people have instinctively kind of respected about him, that he's willing to hold unpopular opinions that are actually popular with the mainstream, but like unpopular with the DNC, that that is actually. He's tightrope walking.

7:19 I'll say, Abdul, I'll say, he said the thing recently where he was like, no, all for capitalism.

7:23 And I'm like, oh my God, dude.

7:24 Sure, sure, sure, sure.

7:25 Yeah, sure, sure, sure. You say whatever you got to do to survive, man.

7:29 Not that I was believing in him as being like.

7:31 Yeah.

7:32 During the Democratic primaries, it's always like, you got to choose the centrist or else we're fucked. And then the... They weren't anyways. Yeah. Uh, this is also how, you know, AI isn't working because you know, you know, the AI companies would be working with the report. The other way, you know, it's not working is just looking at the war in Iran. Um, but like, yeah, American AI, uh, the, like you, we have power, we have access to the most powerful machines and machine learning. And we, you know, the, presumably the, this is the most, uh, AI-integrated ad spend ever for the Republican Party, and they don't have shit to show for it.

8:15 On both sides of the equation.

8:17 You have candidates and campaigns.

8:21 you know, we talked to like maybe earlier this year about like, there's a whole operation where like they're creating AI versions of voters so they can like figure out in real time how they think human beings will respond to their racism.

8:34 And shit like that.

8:35 And then on the other side, more and more people are using AI to be like, how do I vote?

8:40 What good, what bad? Um, so it's, it's the idiots leading the idiots.

8:46 Uh, but you know, listen to this show and listen to us because we're just slightly more idiotic, but at least we're humans.

8:55 And you can count on that. You can count on that.

8:56 Hey, speaking of slightly more idiotic, uh, actually just speaking of more idiotic, generally way more than slightly more idiotic, uh, Aaron Sorkin's, the social reckoning has dropped. The critics have viewed it and, uh, It's not good. Miles, it's not good.

9:17 I saw alliteration headlines were like, Sorkin's Facebook follow-up film falls flat.

9:24 And I was like, Jesus Christ. They're so bored that they're just like, could I write a whole review that's just all Fs?

9:30 Alliterative? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

9:32 To mimic the... Farron Forkin. It's a grade that I've given this one. Yeah. the social reckoning come see aaron sorkin himself off yeah um the yeah so people people are saying that it's bad script which is kind of his whole thing like he's supposed to get out of an aaron sorkin joint is a cracker Jack script. But if you, if you watched newsroom and shit like that, you might have noticed that he's getting a little hum handed, uh, with, with a mention.

10:08 Yeah.

10:08 Yeah. Uh, and this is like the newsroom. If he, so the newsroom was his HBO show where he like set it inside a newsroom in like from three years ago. So they could like have the debates a couple of years later and like everybody could already know all the facts. And it's just like, uh, it was just kind of a ridiculous show. And this is also a period piece. This, uh, the social reckoning is like about 2019 to 2021. And it's apparently like the, it, All right. Spoilers for anybody who's like really excited to see this.

10:49 Spoiler alert for Farron Forkin's flat follow up to Facebook social network.

10:58 According to Wired's review, the climax of the social reckoning is January 6th. And it's blamed in part on Facebook's failure to either get a handle on election fraud, conspiracy theories, or remove Donald Trump's account as he stoked inflammatory falsehoods. And it just feels like we're so far beyond, like that is a quaint time when Mark Zuckerberg was even trying, like when that would, when that was a, a critique that would actually like even register for him and like bother him in any way whatsoever. Yeah.

11:31 Yeah, that is so rear view for these people now.

11:34 They're all in the next.

11:35 I mean, most people, a lot of the write-ups I've seen are more like saying that artificial is actually the real spiritual companion follow-up to the social network.

11:44 Right.

11:44 Sam Altman, the Luca Guadagnino movie.

11:47 More than this literal follow-up to the social network.

11:51 That fell flat.

11:52 I mean, we were talking, like, from Jump on this, when they released the trailer and it has... the wall street journal reporter played by, um, the bear and, uh, you know, uh, what's his, what's Mikey Madsen. What's that?

12:09 What's that guy, Jeremy Allen white, Jeremy Allen white. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

12:12 And, uh, he's interviewing the whistleblower paid by, played by, uh, Mikey Madison. And it's like, it takes place in a field, uh, like a Virginia field with like a soft mist in the background. Like it looks like a, like a Clydesdale Budweiser ad for some reason. And we were like, wait, what is happening? Like, I don't know. I definitely think that there is a world where you could tell a story about like what has happened with social media, but like ending it on January 6th feels, feels just like so kind of, It's 2001 NPR brand, you know? Yeah.

12:56 But I mean, like Aaron Sorkin writes for a very specific kind of like liberal person.

13:02 Yeah.

13:02 So I could see that for the brain of that person, they're like, and this is, that was the worst thing that ever happened that day. I don't know what else is going on, but I can really, I really remember how terrified, I mean, it was, it was a sight to behold. I remember like on the day we were recording, we're like, what the fuck?

13:20 No, it was crazy. But like the argument is like, he's actually complicit in January 6th. And since that time, Mark Zuckerberg is like, competing to impress him and like be like competing with other tech oligarchs to be like who can bend the knee the lowest and you know the hardest like it's like yeah he he would love for a message to be that like he helped Trump get elected that's that's the argument he's been trying to make you know he wants Donald he wants Donald Trump to think that he's on his side so I don't know.

13:59 I mean, maybe having Jeremy Strong play him will serve as another wake-up call for him.

14:04 He's like, Jesus Christ.

14:06 Yeah, they said that one feels weird. People are saying that it feels like when Martin Short played that child psychopath in the movie Clifford. They're like, the age difference is so weird. Um, but like, it's just not, it's unacknowledged. If Clifford had just never, like that wasn't part of the premise of Clifford was that this is Martin Short playing a child. If they had just been like, yeah, no, we think he can pull it off. Actually. We, uh, we think he's going to be good at this.

14:43 I remember that Charles Grodin was his dad.

14:46 Yeah.

14:46 And Mary Steenburgen was the most.

14:48 Yeah.

14:51 That's such a that that's so jarring to remember that film and then have that in the context of like dude jeremy strong is like when martin short.

14:58 Was clifford he nailed that voice that way he should have just like played him in an snl sketch you know right yeah that's yeah um all right let's take a quick break uh we'll come back and we'll talk about why mcdonald's is being sued oh All right. And we're back.

15:22 All right.

15:23 And we're back, people. So McDonald's is currently facing a federal class action lawsuit due to its alleged use of an AI tool to determine pricing across independent franchises. So basically they have this price machine, this AI price system that analyzes customer willingness to pay in your area. This is what inflation is, guys. They have prices. They're using all the data they have to charge you as much as they possibly can.

15:52 It's not out. Just remember, it's not out of your control. The operative phrase, customer willingness to pay. That's now it's all built on.

16:01 It's not what the market is or what the cost of materials is or labor.

16:06 Yeah.

16:06 It's how much can we fucking squeeze out of you for you to get this double quarter pound?

16:12 What are their pressure points and how do we exploit them to make them squeal like little pigs? Um, so, but the problem with it, like, yes, any, any company can be like, okay, we're deciding to raise prices in this specific location because And it sucks for all of us. And this is what's happening. And then the wall street journal will be like, no, this is just simply supply and demand. Um, but the problem with McDonald's is that McDonald's is not a bunch is not like a board that controls all of their locations. They are franchisees who are supposed to be independently operating, uh, with one another.

16:50 And what they're doing is essentially price fixing with like in between the, uh, franchisees. And I think because they know that this is illegal, uh, they are like, it's an optional tool, but then McDonald's is making the franchise owners, uh, either use the tool for pricing or explain why they didn't use the tool for pricing and be like oh you charged less what were you thinking on that what.

17:16 Are you what are you trying to fucking feed your neighbors or some shit we're here to make the line go up what's there even defensive because clearly outwardly we're very cynical like yeah you're using this to just gouge customers.

17:29 It's merely a helpful tool for franchisees to make, quote, the best decisions for their businesses and customers. Like, how are you going to pretend that using AI to set the highest price possible in your region is the best thing for a customer?

17:47 The best thing for the customer is for them to pay me as much money as financially realistic for them.

17:53 Well, because how are they going to get our great deals and great hamburgers if we're out of business? That's how they would justify that.

17:58 Okay. So, okay. Okay.

18:00 Let me, let me just run with this. So, We'll charge less and then we make less money.

18:05 And then what? How does that help them?

18:07 How does that help? Because then when I'm gone. I'm mad.

18:10 I'll leave. I'll leave.

18:12 I will pack up my McDonald's and I will leave.

18:14 It is really just all the same argument that the billionaires were making when Mamdani was about to be elected. Yeah. We'll fucking leave. We'll go. And then it is really the central like mistake. that billionaires exploit in there, like how they think about the world is just like, I am a job creator. It's like, no, you are in a position that is, has the responsibility of, uh, having control over people's jobs. If you weren't there, you would be replaced. And you're just a person who is lucky to be filling that position.

18:51 You know how many fucking guys.

18:53 You do not leave and take your toys with you if you're not making as much money as you want to.

18:58 You know how many bored dudes in their 40s I know with a Blackstone flat top grill making smash burgers nonstop for people that they don't even know who's going to eat them? right there are people willing to step into the void already but yeah it all it is like it's just this weird pump fake of like what are you gonna do without me like on some level it's like yeah there's enough consumer momentum where you're like.

19:20 Well what would we do with mcdonald's.

19:22 But get get fucked you're not we're gonna do we'll eat something else no one like yeah no one's counting on mcdonald's to be there all the time however but i also get to if you like are in a food desert and you only have this option, then you're stuck having to buy this shit all the time also.

19:38 Right, right. Yeah. But even just like them being like, I'm I'm the franchisee, like I, I own this. So like you, you need to, it's like, no, somebody else would just come in like that. You're not important. Like the, because America has this ethos of like bootstraps and like, you know, individualistic, like I, I earned everything that I have.

20:04 They just don't they can't separate themselves from like the good luck that they've had. Right.

20:09 And they don't, and they're completely like sort of, they've self mythologized in a way that completely takes out the context of them relying on the collective to even get to where they are.

20:19 Yeah.

20:20 Cause it was fucking labor exploiting. Who's, who are the people buying the shit to get you to where you are? And then like, I don't know, man, now it's got to fucking do what's best for the business and the customer.

20:30 And in so doing, what's best for the customer?

20:33 Dude, they fucking love paying so much for this shit.

20:36 They love it. So what am I going to do? Fucking make them unhappy? No, dude, I'm doing what's best for them too.

20:43 Scientists have finally figured out why weed makes us paranoid, Miles. Or possibly. Scientists at Northwestern University have been working hard to get to the bottom of why weed can make people paranoid. And they may have actually found the answer to So they injected mice with varying doses of CP55940, which you know what that shit is.

21:09 Oh, yeah, dude.

21:10 That's CP55940. Dude, CP55940, dude?

21:15 Chris Paul 55940? Yeah, dude.

21:18 I had the jersey. It's a synthetic cannabinoid that mimics the effects of THC. the main psychoactive compound in weed, and they found that cannabinoids suppress a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. Let's just call it GABA. Let's call it Yo-GABA-GABA. Yo-GABA-GABA-GABA, which tamps down brain activity. In other words, the drug essentially weakens our central amygdalas breaks. Like we can't put on the brakes when you smoke weed. And so fear and anxiety just run wild.

21:54 Wow.

21:55 If you're headed in that direction, it seems like.

21:58 Yeah.

21:59 And the more I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, thank you for learning about my own brain. I'm like, I'm getting closer and closer. I'm like, I need to go to like a clinician.

22:07 For a diagnosis on some level. Cause I'm like, do I have ADHD? Do I have inattentive ADHD?

22:14 And I'm like, Oh, like I'm starting to read more and more. I'm like, okay, I'm, I'm, I'm realizing the differences too. And I also realize how much that. correlate or like there's a lot of connection to like weed smoking and ADHD too.

22:25 Yeah.

22:26 But also the one thing I've also, I've, I have not been the parent. I've never been the paranoid type.

22:33 Yeah. You've not. And then I'm always like wondering like, what is, it makes me more fascinated.

22:37 With my brain. Why am I so much better than these people?

22:39 I'm like, am I self-medicating in a problematic way?

22:43 Who knows?

22:44 I mean, it's not like that all the time, but it's always interesting to read these studies and, um, They.

22:49 Also give, I'm also like, oh, that's interesting. And now I'm going to start reading about this thing and maybe, is there a connection to me? I'm learning more every day.

22:58 As I talked about, I did, I was a paranoid weed smoker and, but I was so... like adamant that I didn't want to be that, that I would continue to smoke weed. Right. Because it would only make me paranoid sometimes, but I would like, it was bad enough that any sane person would just not have smoked weed after, after one experience with that. Oh, I know what it's like to have a terrible, like crippling anxiety. And, uh, the, uh, Yeah.

23:33 And I would just be like, yeah, well, I don't want to say no because people, well, sometimes people are like, are you cool, man? And I can't say no to that. I have to be cool.

23:43 What am I thinking?

23:44 I mean, I think other people pointed out too, that like this, it's like a limited study in terms of like how mice are responding.

23:51 However, that's, there's some interesting stuff there. One thing I know, I'm no damn mouse for sure.

23:57 That is true. Um, I am mainly interested in just watching mice get stoned. That's what's interesting to me.

24:04 I like seeing lab animal abuse. Kind of my thing.

24:08 Get that fucker high. Why inject it? Just blow some smoke in their face. Why you gotta be so hard?

24:15 OG people who used to get animals high.

24:19 Brian the editor asks an important question. How can you tell mice are paranoid? I think they're measuring brain chemicals more so than They're they're asking the mice, like, do you currently think that everybody in this room is laughing at you and slash hates you at the dumb and dumber for the three hundred and seventieth time? Um, yeah, I think, I think it's brain chemicals, but I guess you can't do that to humans. You can't get people high and then take chemicals out of their brains.

24:55 They would inject like a threatening odor in like their, in like in their habitat or their enclosure. And based on how hard they responded to avoiding that was how they were measuring like the paranoia.

25:08 So, uh, no, not like a fart, like the smell of cat pee, I would have to assume. Um, all right, let's talk about mayoral content. Um, because Zeron has created a new era where like, uh, we we've witnessed him going out, fixing potholes, creating videos where he's there on the scene as potholes are being fixed. And then we've witnessed other mayors such as our very own Karen Bass try to, uh, mimic that. Um, she, her, her example was, Hey, we came here to fix these potholes. And, uh, there's actually a car legally parked, so we couldn't do it, but we're trying, um, which seemed to have missed the point of like what was working about the mom Donnie videos.

25:57 But anyways, apparently it's a broader, a broader problem that like, like, uh, Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, uh, announced he's running for reelection by dancing on a rooftop. Uh, San Francisco mayor, Daniel Lurie turned warnings about wild mountain lion being in the city into content, which seemed kind of like an important thing, but he's like doing the selfie announcement, walking video. Yeah.

26:28 It's also just like he has such big mayor energy.

26:31 Yeah.

26:32 It is Friday morning and we have an alert for you all there. Alright, you've already spectacularly failed, Mayor. I'm asleep.

26:40 And we have an alert for you. I'm already asleep. You're warning me at a fucking mountain lion? And you're like, hey, well, it is Friday morning, and we have... It's.

26:52 Like what happens every time these people completely misunderstand what's effective about it.

26:57 Like, oh, I think I should do, like, casual. I just need to be more casual about shit.

27:01 And by casual, I mean half asleep. Um... It's Friday morning. I haven't slept at all, guys. I fucking feel like shit.

27:10 It's like a mountain lion or something. Watch out.

27:13 He, I mean, Mamdani videos are like pretty, can be cringe as the kids say, uh, the themselves, but they're working. I mean, I, I think mayors look at that and they're like, look at his approval. It must be the videos that he's doing. So we just have to create that sort of content.

27:33 Yeah, because there's also a report like the crime rate has plummeted, too, pretty significantly in New York in this last year.

27:39 Nah, it's got to be the videos. The videos, dude. Here, throw me that basketball. Let me shoot some hoops on camera.

27:47 Jesus, you can't dribble with both hands. They're going to know you don't know what the fuck you're doing.

27:52 All right. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry did do a basketball video because Mamdani had posted one on March 18th. Yeah.

28:01 I think the other part that they're really underrating is that like like because Nithya also has like videos that are like that, too. Hers are, are also pretty good because I feel like in LA and New York, you have people who have careers in making like videos that you can tap.

28:17 Into you with your phone saying, all right, it's Friday morning. We're tired.

28:23 There's a ton of like funny people that are volunteering for both camp. Like it's, it's a thing that has like a group of support already from a like creative people.

28:33 Yeah. That will only benefit.

28:35 And not to say that there's no talent in San Francisco for videos like that, but again, I have a feeling that the very... you know, uh, reductive thinking that's happening in these offices is merely.

28:47 Okay, man, we just got to show you like, you're just more like lax about it.

28:50 Yeah. Come on. Worker rights.

28:55 Just actually stand for something. And like the ones that do, they're, they're reaping the benefits. And yeah, why not have a fun video?

29:02 It's very specifically in terms of social media, the talent pool of like young people who are excited about democratic socialists versus young people who are, you know, career DNC people has to be pretty, uh, a wide gap. Like the, yeah, exactly.

29:19 The people that are making videos that people watch most likely at this point are not fully in the like, man, I wish I could have been John Podesta in my, my former life.

29:31 Uh, all right. Those are some of the things that are trending on this Wednesday, October 7th. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. until then be kind to each other be kind to yourself get your vaccines while you still can get your flu shots don't do nothing about white supremacy and we will talk to y'all tomorrow bye.

29:53 The Daily Zeitgeist is executive produced by Catherine Law.

29:56 Co-produced by Victor Wright. Co-written by J.M.

29:59 McNabb.

30:00 And edited and engineered by Brian Jeffries.