Good evening. Welcome to the 58, where we discuss each of the week's five most messed up topics for eight minutes. Five topics, eight minutes, two hosts, a guest, some singing, a lot of curse words, and as many cocktails as we deem necessary. LB, how are you? Have you been reading? You look like you're in a fun library there.
I'm in the living room library. I've got our colleague, one of our colleagues on the couch next to me. So, that's sweet. I'm kind of loving it. So, if I look off to the side, it's because she's there and I love her. I'm okay. I'm okay. I had a good week. I think at the start of the week or at least the day after our last show. Here, I'm going to tip my camera down a little bit because we had the No Kings protest and it was really encouraging here. This is a small little village and I mean so many people came out. We had at least a mile and a half long line of people doing the honk and the wave and it was great. It was the biggest thing I've ever seen happen in this little sleepy little Olympic lake town. It was really neat. What about you? I know you had a good week. Or start of the week. I don't know. It kind of was a rolling mad roller coaster after.
Yeah, I had a good week. Saturday was great for you. Yeah, I spoke at the No Kings in Kingston, New York, which as I pointed out, Kingston is almost an anagram of No Kings, so it works out. Which was great. That went great. There was a lot of people there and the one thing that you know that I didn't anticipate were and we've talked about this before was it was the car horns because people were constantly driving by beeping the horn in support and the result was just this cacophony of car horns that never stopped for two hours right and it was great you know because there was a lot of people so many people that I you know people that I didn't see there came up after or sent me texts or whatever oh I was there you know it was impossible to see all the people that were there and it spilled out into the street and you know Kingston's a pretty small city, first capital of New York State by the way.
But I felt I had mentioned George Clinton in my speech who was the first governor of New York who was a real badass revolutionary war guy. And when I got to the stage behind me is literally a 20 foot high statue of George Clinton looking like this. Yeah, he's going to mess with anybody that isn't going to, you know, give us what we want to hear. So, it was really amazing and then I came home and watched all of the videos from everywhere from around the world. And, you know, it's really inspiring and I don't think anybody could even go outside and drive anywhere in the United States and not be aware that this was happening. So, even if they didn't see it on Fox News, if they went to the grocery store that day, they saw it.
They saw it. They saw it. We certainly had some people driving by like a couple just sort of shaking their heads like what are these crazy people these crazy liberals you know but it wasn't what like George Soros is going to bust us into you know Saranac Lake it's
No, he doesn't have enough money to pay for it all.
He doesn't he really doesn't.
He seems to have a lot of money to pay for every single thing except for all of the things that he's
Well you know what he's paying for. What is he not paying for? He's not paying for the new ballroom that we're getting at the White House.
Oh, the Epstein Historia, which you have dubbed the Epstein Atoria.
That's right. Because you know he had the Waldorf Historia and he lost it.
No, he had the Plaza. Did he have the Waldorf, too?
He did have the Yeah, he did. I thought that was Ivana's.
Was it with the Plaza? I thought, oh, was that Tom Barrack bought it out from under there was a lot going on in there. I believe so. I believe I'm correct in that, but everybody will correct me if I'm not because I'm always corrected and that's fine. Yeah. So, yeah, the Epstein story,
you know, we're laughing about it, but like
we're laughing about it, but it's, you know, that was it's grotesque. It's grotesque.
There's no other word for it. I live in a historic landmark house was built in 1951. 1951. A one and a nine. Not a one and an eight or a one and a seven. Right. And if I have to make any modifications at all to my house, my modest little house. In upstate New York. I have to go to a board. I have to get approval. All this stuff has to happen.
This mother, he just brings in the bulldozers.
That's right. One day they're just knocking the thing down.
Um it was could be why there was a government shutdown.
Um yeah, you know, he wanted he wants to do this. He's Look, you know, there's plenty out there about it. I think there's
Well, I want to get to sort of the hopeful part of this. Um, but you know, he's a it's like was it you making the comment of this is the one thing that this guy actually is qualified to do?
It's just the only thing he's ever done as president that he knows how to do.
Yeah. So, he's probably thrilled and absorbed in it and can't understand why there's this reaction. I think there is some reporting. Of course, we can't trust any reporting anymore because no reporters are allowed in. And it's just craziness in terms of covering the opaque and nature of this administration is another grotesque monstrosity, but he's absorbed in this. There's no way he's not absorbed in this. And I can't see that he would give up one decision to some for someone else to make. And this is a massive massive project. I Yes. He's paying no attention to historic preservation. He's never has before in the past. He's done this kind of thing in the past where he's just gone in and demolished, you know, buildings and defaced them and, you know, historic buildings.
So, he's got that he's got that also, you know, as of one of his things that he's good at in terms of destruction. But there's this is a this is a massive massive project and you know, I'm just remodeling our little kitchen.
Yeah. And I couldn't get a nap today because it was, you know, 8,000 decisions have to happen every single day. Little little things and, you know, you've got to be there for it if you're a control freak like him. And it's the one thing he knows how to do. And it's totally tied into his ego. Like this is this is his monument to himself. ABC News did break the story that spoiler alert, it's going to be called the Donald J. Trump ballroom.
Yeah, I can't. He's got He and then there was a little bit of reporting. It's like he's really distracted and people around him are frustrated. He's not He doesn't have time for anything else but this. I'm telling you, he doesn't have time for anything else but this. This is going to consume him. And there's a silver lining in that, you know, it's it's the moment to get crafty. We'll get to this at the end of the show. You came up with some crafty things.
Um but this is the time I think this is an opportunity instead of um and yes, could it be a distraction? Um, you know, while everybody's like freaking out that they just took a bulldozer and there was no process and the country was not prepared and it's our house and it's this historic landmark. It's a monument in and of itself. No, the monument people seem to be bothered by this. The yes, it could be a distraction as well and distracting us from other things. But I really believe he thinks and I know you agree this is like the greatest thing going and it's probably quite a shock to him that he's getting everyone is appalled beyond appalled just like we're we're you know this is like a trauma now another trauma let's have another trauma and metaphorical in terms of what he's doing to our country he was always installed to destroy us I have said that for,
you know, years and years now. This is an intentional act to help this man and make sure and ensure that he got into office the first time and the second time. And I think there's nefariousness around all of that. Certainly front and center is the GOP abandoning everything they've ever stood on just to force this thrust this man at the top of the ticket and then make sure they jammed him down our throats as president. And just the way they've morphed and changed is all very grotesque and suspicious. And I just I think this could be his undoing. I think this is the like strangely this could be a thing that is his undoing because he's not going to be able to focus on anything else but this.
That's a good point. And I think like optically people are upset by it. It's viscerally upsetting to watch.
Even people that have not been paying attention. It's the sort of thing that could wake somebody up that's here to for been sleepwalking and taking a look around saying, 'Wait, what? What is he doing? How is this happening?' Um, and the irony is this is a complete cell phone. Nobody asked him to do this. Yeah. If this is the thing that takes him down, it's totally his own stupid fault. Um, I should say real quick, um, Sher Jacobus on her page was talking about the bunkers beneath the East Wing, and her theory is that he's going to build some kind of thing in there that we're not going to be able to go get him.
He's going to just camp out in there.
Oh, I'm sure in Hitler style, you know, and Sherry has been she's been right a lot. So, she's been right a lot. When she says stuff, I tend to listen. And we have a friend that's like he's going to keep going with this. Like there's parks across from that. Like he's going to full on Kremlin this thing and just keep building this palace.
Versailles right in the middle of DC.
Versailles right in the middle of DC. It's a palace. Don't there should be no ambiguity or any or even debate or discussion around that anymore. He's building a palace. And when personalities like this guy build palaces for themselves, they have no intention on leaving, nor do they have they their intention is to pass it along to their heirs. Um that's what a one of whom even is has a royal title as his first name, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Um, and speaking of crime families,
oh yeah, speaking of crime families,
we get to the next topic now. Um, this is a story that broke over the last couple of days.
involving things that are dear to both of us. In your case, the mafia and in my case, professional basketball. So, they've come together.
Our two worlds came together.
They did. They collided. It collided in this crazy way. Kash Patel just couldn't get enough of himself at the press conference. He was like, 'It's the mafia.' Okay. All right, buddy. Whatever you say, Kash Patel. So, I just want to talk through what happened because I know a lot of people watching this don't know anything about sports really or don't care. And this is one of those stories that may intersect with the larger world. So, there's two different indictments that happen. One of them doesn't involve basketball at all. It involves a poker ring, a crooked poker ring, and we'll cover that one second. The basketball one involves basically one player, maybe two very low level kind of guys that helped throw prop bets, they're called. When you bet on these games, you can make a bet that you know, LeBron James will score over or under 18 and a half points. So, if he scores 19, you win if you take the over. If he scores 18, you lose if you take the over. Sports books are very good at figuring out exactly where this line is.
You know, it's almost AI how good they are at it. Yeah. Yeah. People, what was happening is people would bet the unders. They would get information, you know, confidential public. Yeah. LeBron isn't going to play tonight or because one of the guys in it is friends with LeBron. LeBron, to be clear, did not do anything wrong.
You know, or in one case it is alleged that this player Terry Rozier, you know, told his buddy from high school, you know, he's known all his life like, 'Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to like fake an injury and leave the game.' So, if you bet the unders, you'll come in. And so they did. They bet the unders. And they made not even really that much money in the whole grand scheme of things. And especially Terry Rozier makes like $27 million a year or something. He doesn't need the money. That's the other irony of that thing. But the sports league has been tied to professional gambling now for a bunch of years. They're basically partners with the NBA and with a lot of and the NFL and, you know, all of these professional sports leagues. And what we're seeing is this, you know, the gray areas are coming out. And what's also interesting is the FBI Kash Patel so pleased with themselves who caught the damn people were the sports book. They knew right away that something was wrong. They're like, 'Who the hell is betting $200,000 on a Terry Rozier under? That doesn't make any sense.' And they can they know because and they figured it out and went to the FBI and so that's the first indictment.
The second indictment is this massive professional poker ring where there's cheating in almost like James Bond Q branch kind of ways where they had like goggles. Goggles, see under the table kind of thing. And they would bring in, you know, basically guys with professional players and also people with a lot of money who like to play. Allegedly Kevin Garnett, the former basketball player is one of the victims of this, which if you've seen Uncut Gems is that's what that's why Uncut Gems, one of the reasons why it was trending today because it's literally the storyline. Yes. And one of the guys in the NBA, Chauncey Billups, who was a Hall of Fame player and now at least until yesterday was the coach of the Portland Trailblazers, was involved with this scheme. He was I called him a face guy where he'd bring people into these illegal rooms basically and find the marks for these people allegedly. He was also involved in the other one. So there's a couple of people that are involved,
right? There's a couple of people that cross over. So you know who crosses over, LB? Some crime families. Some crime families cross over.
Uh yeah, this isn't look, this is I don't I don't know what's the oldest profession, but this seems to be, you know, you could argue that this is, you know, organized crime might be the oldest profession or just shaking people down.
Um so it's just a con, you know.
Yeah. Uh it's a con that works. It's an arena. It was in New York, right? That the where was the gambling the
It was in one of them was in New York and I think the other one was somewhere else but yeah organized by private privately organized. Yeah.
So that that's been you know there's movies about this now from you know 50 stuff that happened in the mid as there was a big everybody knows that Molly's game there was that big thing a lot of pardon at Trump Tower you know. Big thing in Trump Tower with God, now I can't remember his name. Sorry, guys. Helly
who got who got pardoned by by Donald in the first round of corrupt pardons we had Helly is a was an individual who organized helped organize these games but they were laundering doing tremendous amount of money laundering through the for transnational organized crime through the games as well. So, it was a laundering vehicle. Just, you know, it's not good. Don't get in, don't get in the bed with these crime families.
No. No. Well, they did they did the muscle. They were doing the muscle, you know.
Yeah. And then they try to steal one of the machines. Like, it's the whole thing. And they all have like crazy nicknames, you know. They're all like called like Pooky and Pooch and Black Tony and all this, you know, Albanian Albanian Bruce or whatever. Like, you know, crazy names. And of course you've got Gambinos, you've got Bananos, you've got bananas, all these families working together.
And those families for this these type of criminal rackets generally have the same there's like one or two attorneys that represent kind of everybody. Um so and law firms that specialize because you know it is in that sense it's still sort of old world of the Robert Duvall character from the Godfather the consigliere like when you do have an attorney that you can trust and that works you stick with that guy even as corporate as everything has become so we'll sort of look for these I'll if I start seeing some very particular names pop up around this case. We'll come back and revisit this and we can get dive into a bigger history of it.
The other thing just real quick before we move on that I want to bring up is that the NBA is the most liberal of the professional sports leagues.
It's the most progressive. It has the players who are the most outspoken in terms of, you know, social justice. It has the most black people in the league percentage-wise. The NBA All-Star game that week is known as the Black Super Bowl. So, it's very much, this is also Kash Patel there grinning like a heel. I don't think it's totally accidental the way that they rolled this out because even Rozier's lawyer was like, 'Why do they have to come and perp walk him?' Like, he didn't do anything wrong. He was like, he was cooperating and they didn't need to do that. And it's like they want to get the visuals and all that kind of stuff. And it's
I'm going to say it. It seems racist to me. It does.
Yeah. I mean, at the very least, they're all taller than Donald, and we know we can't have that. And so,
not to make light of people's misery right now, but can't be tall.
No, can't be taller than him.
Yeah, he's unless you're Barron, you know.
Yeah, I guess it's okay if you're Barron.
I guess it's okay. Barron, who's going to inherit Epsteinia? the Epstein story. Oh, look at that. Perfect timing. Um, all right. So, I'm gonna apologize to Miley right now. Sorry, Miley.
The White House ballroom is too small for all the grifters I know. So I will build and over gild make it more like Mar-a-Lago a ballroom beautiful and more suitable for me to make more money off for maximum opulence will spare no expense fit for home and off. I came in like a wrecking ball, demolishing the holy swing. I couldn't build one, so I raised the wall. And you can't stop me, cuz I am a king. It's stupid, but I am your king.
Oh my god. This is where we're at. This is where we're at in the thing. We're making a
I didn't know what we were going to see from Chuck. Thank you, Chuck, with our animation. I thought maybe he would be sort of naked on the wrecking ball as it comes in. So, I like it better in the king thing.
I like it better with the king coat.
It's And this isn't even now metaphor. It's He's literally
He's literally doing it coming in like a wrecking ball. Okay, enough enough about that. Um, our guest is the president of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. Uh he's worked for Google. He's worked for Microsoft. Um he knows a whole lot about AI. He's the co-author with Eliezer Yudkowsky of a book called with a very sunshiny title of If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Why Superhuman AI Will Kill Us All? Nate Soares. Welcome. How are you?
