The Republicans are committing unnatural acts. They really are. It looks like a weird sex position, the way they have drawn these things, and it's grotesque.
Hi everyone. This is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast Network. I'm Kara Swisher.
So I didn't hear from you yesterday on Mother's Day, but that's okay. I know I'm teasing. Please.
Yeah. I can't even imagine the royal Ascot wedding coronation jubilee that is Mother's Day at your house.
Seriously, you got three mothers.
You got three mothers, an ax, a ceramic mug business, and somebody definitely crying in a Subaru. It's got to be... That's Lou. It's got to be... There's a lot of mothers.
A lot of mothers. Yeah. No, I have to say. And also my mother, too.
Well, I'm glad you had a nice Happy Mother's Day, Kara. What did you do for your lovely wife?
Uh, not a lot. All I do is remind the boys to call her.
That's what I do. I basically send a lot of angry texts of something along the lines of, 'Have you called the person that gave you life?' Oh, nice. That kind of thing.
Anyway, we should get to the news. Um, this is a really interesting story. I thought, and I was paying attention, was a way the FCC's lone Democratic commissioner is accusing the Trump administration of waging a quote sustained coordinated campaign of censorship and control against ABC. In a letter to Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, Anna Gomez said the FCC under Brendan Carr has been weaponized to pressure a free and independent press and all media into submission. The letter comes after ABC accused the FCC of attempting to chill free speech, which it did in a petition filed last week. That filing is tied to the FCC's probe into whether The View violated equal time rules when Texas Senate candidate Colin Allred went on the show earlier this year. ABC argues The View got an FCC exemption in 2002 as a bona fide news interview program, which it is, and that ruling remains in effect today.
And you know, as usual, Brendan has said so many things publicly that are really damning in terms of when they come to court. You know, as being such a suck-up to the Trump administration and not an independent person he's supposed to be. He can have his opinions about things, but he has become more censorious than all the left he accuses them of and is making all manner of business threats. It's interesting that Disney and ABC is pushing back rather hard under this new CEO. Something probably I suspect Iger wanted to do but felt he couldn't at the time. But any thoughts on this?
Well, yeah, they're learning that... you said this, you sort of predicted there's going to be a lot of standing up. Well, they're learning that they have figured out that sucking up to Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump's [__] has not paid off for them. Remember the economic warfare that DeSantis was trying to levy for political reasons, and it doesn't pay. It doesn't pay to appease these guys.
They did push back on DeSantis, if you recall. Remember they sort of played games with him for a while.
Yeah, they did. They did.
Well, with Trump they did not. That is correct.
And now go to the legal veracity. This isn't legal ambiguity. This is a government harassment campaign with an FCC seal on it. Um, saying that the equal time probe or that The View violates equal time, that basically essentially means Fox and Friends have been violating equal time for 25 consecutive years. This is just ridiculous.
And then the lone Democrat on the FCC is a woman named Anna Gomez who essentially is yelling into a void while the institution continues to be weaponized against the press. It's not... I mean, Commissioner Gomez basically can't even dissent. It's more like a hostage note when she writes her letters of dissent. So this is nothing but again more weaponization of media or weaponization of our government agencies to try and squelch free speech. It's just insane when they talk about... I mean, all this [__] that supposedly Democrats call for violence and the language they use. Ridiculous. And Brendan is just making it worse by giving these stupid speeches with his smug little, you know, [__] eating grin that he always has on his face. And again, Brendan, I'm following you everywhere you go after you leave office and I will make sure people understand what you did constantly. Constantly. Anyway, sorry. Go ahead.
This is... and I hate to say this, and it goes into our next story. Do you want to talk about gerrymandering?
Yeah, we will. Yeah, I can read. I mean, for people who don't know, obviously this got big press. As redistricting wars ramp up ahead of the midterms, Democrats are facing some major setbacks. The Virginia Supreme Court just struck down a voter-approved map that could have netted the Democrats up to four House seats. It's not over yet, and we'll see. It's going to go to the Supreme Court. Um, but the Supreme Court, of course, did its business by weakening the Voting Rights Act in a recent ruling, setting off redistricting pushes in several southern states. Republicans could now have around 15 new winnable districts, but Trump's approval ratings are still a massive hurdle. As one Democratic strategist put it, Trump has the power to rig the maps, but he doesn't have the power to get his approval rating higher. It could slap back at them. Um, it's really interesting. One of the longshot options reportedly tossed around in Virginia: lower the mandatory retirement age for the state supreme court and replace the entire bench. Uh, I think there's a bunch of things they may have to do, but what's a real shame is that now the Democrats are going to have to gerrymander their states, which is not good for any of this. None of this is any good to be breaking this precedent of 10 years following the census to do this, what is essentially stealing. Just when you look at the map in Tennessee, it's insane. Like there's like people are 210 miles away from other voters, which is crazy. It's a crazy map and it's all done to retain power. Um, which I think they won't actually doing this. I think people are offended by having their votes stolen from them.
Well, Democrats, and I agree with this, wanted to fight fire with fire or gerrymandering. And they lost both the map and you could argue the moral high ground, although I think it was the right move. Uh, and you can't argue with the fact the other side is destroying democracy. Um, I mean, Tennessee is the template, right? There's two Democratic Congress people in 2020, Nashville and Memphis. Republicans redistricted Nashville in 2022, and now it's Memphis. The playbook is pretty straightforward here. They find a Democratic district, and they redraw the lines until it disappears. Now, I actually believe... I don't believe... I mean, a really interesting message and the right message for a candidate, specifically a presidential candidate, and right now the only one actually talking about [__] issues is Rahm Emanuel. They're all just cosplaying Obama, hoping rhetorical flourish and talking about breaking bread with Jews and Muslims and we need to come together.
I say Newsom got the job done in California. He like hit them hard and won.
He fought back and he won. He fought the law and he won. But we need structural reform. One, a really decent talking point, an issue for a president, a presidential candidate would be the following: Within 90 days, I'm putting up for a vote in the Congress and the Senate to de-gerrymander the entire United States. Six Republicans, six Democrats. We're going to use technology. It might be just as much as putting a grid on top of the United States map and saying, 'Okay, it might be AI, whatever it is, but we need to de-gerrymander the United States.' And then I think another structural reform, and it goes to a larger issue. A lot of the world's problems right now can be reverse-engineered to old men who won't [__] leave.
It creates fascists who find reasons to deny democracy. It creates public investment that lacks investment in young people and children. It creates a demographic collapse because young people don't get money because old people keep voting themselves more and more money. I see it in academia. Young academics are leaving the field because there's no [__] room for them. Because a guy who was the bomb in 1988 in gap one accounting won't [__] leave because we give them tenure about the time they become totally unproductive. There needs to be a shedding, a healthy shedding of skin. I have self-imposed term limits on boards. You need to move on. And one of those structural reforms should be term limits and age gating for the most important people of the long term of the United States. And that is our Supreme Court.
Absolutely. We need... or term limits and age gating both. Right. Correct.
Well, at both at the same time or one or the other.
Yeah. For God's sakes, if you're 72, your prefrontal... your brain is shrinking. Your brain starts shrinking at 45. By the time you're 72, most people have a very difficult time with cognitive function. And I'm sure there's exceptions. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was very smart at 80. She should have been forced to retire at 72, as should the rest of them. You need young thinking. You need people who occasionally have a [__] child in the house so they can relate to the issues facing young people. You don't want to pack the court because all that means is when a Republican gets in, they're going to expand the court from 12 to 30 people under their watch. You need age gating and you need term limits. But more than anything, a great talking point for a Democrat right now would be: I am going to de-gerrymander the US within 90 days. I'm going to put a vote up and you can find out who is not up for true democracy here.
Right. Absolutely. I mean, one of the things, just that when you look at these maps, you know, at some point, obviously gerrymandering's been around forever, but these are like... they're unlike... the Republicans are committing unnatural acts. They really are. It looks like a weird sex position the way they have drawn these things. And it's grotesque. It's grotesque. And they, you know what it was? I have to say those images from Tennessee with those fat white old men laughing at young, very vibrant, interesting black legislators... you're nothing more... they really did look like the Confederate South. They look like the Confederate South. It was a version. And then laughing, you all, by the way, y'all are going to die of a heart attack relatively soon because you look like you could get out for a walk or two. But one of it just was the visuals were so like these old racist [__]. And I'm not sure that's... And then at the top of the heap is Trump who looks like... who's cognitively... I keep saying this, Scott, we have to, you know, we did it with Biden. I think we have to zero in on his cognitive difficulties that just continue. And today Dr. Oz and the other one, Katie Britt, were like talking to him like he was a toddler, like a toddler when he was something or the Mr. Pres. It's like you talk to someone in an old folks home.
Age gating. No one should be allowed to run for president if when elected they're going to be older than 70 or pick a number. Have neurologists decide. You need a physically and mentally ridiculously capable person. But at some point, neither Biden nor Trump should be entrusted with overseeing the Sixth Fleet or NAFTA agreements or trying to stay up till 4 in the morning to get the votes they need, whatever it is. Yeah, this is a young person's job.
Agreed. You know, when I said that to you, I think you were surprised. You were like, when I said I'm leaving at 72. I have 72 and that's it. That's it. I'm gone. I'm off to Cambridge.
That's the number you fix. 72.
Yes. I bought myself a cap in Norway. I bought myself a cap. I love it. I'll send you a picture. Um, yes, that is it. 72. And I'm gone. I'm gone. Like, see you later. Maybe I'll sit and write historical novels from my cottage in Cambridge, but I'm gone. Like gone. Gone.
I'm pretty sure your third wife's going to be Susan Collins. I think you're going to be one of those tech people that goes MAGA on us.
And I'm up to you, Mary. By the way, she has a tremor.
If a man and a woman need a marriage license to get married, what do two women need?
Oh, very funny. Very funny.
I don't think that's sexist. See, I think it's profane and vulgar, but I don't think it's sexist.
Isn't the issue I have any... No, it's not that funny.
It's not that funny. Anyway, these redistricting... I think he cannot fight the polls. The polls are so bad. Everyone doesn't like him. That's one thing I did, the message I gave to people. I was like, he is widely... he has his group that like him, but I got to tell you, you got to watch the cracks in MAGA and you got to watch the polling, which is everyone is sick to [__] with this guy. And he is cognitively disabled. I'm going to say that in every single show until the 20 past the 2026.
That's the cold comfort that we as progressives are serving ourselves up this morning, and that is that Trump can't rig the... he can rig the maps, but he can't rig his approval rating.
Infuriate people, although... that's the hope that basically... segregating voting again with taking away, neutering certain parts of the voters' rights acts, this ridiculous corrupt gerrymandering, that it'll come back to haunt them. And my fear is the following.
Okay, tell me because I have a fear.
I believe that America is still highly sexist, highly lookist, and opts for a person who may be wrong more often than not, strong, but is effective versus people who are right and ineffective.
And this is the key distinction between the Democrats and the Republicans right now: is the Republicans are wrong and being highly effective, and Democrats are right and virtuous and totally [__] ineffective.
I'm not so sure. This whole thing with the ballrooms and the weird... the thing with the weird title base and etc. It's just... it's getting...
Vote based on a ballroom.
No, I know they don't, but it's part of the whole crazy old man thing. Um, one thing that I will say, I was with a bunch of cyber experts and the two things they did point out, I think correctly, is one, the Russians are preparing to attack during the midterms, you know, in Trump's favor, as recent studies have shown they did obviously against both Clinton and attack, you know, online, like a lot of online cyber, not just cyber, cyber and information fuckery essentially. And then the second thing is I sat next to one guy who's an American who was talking about, who's obsessed with Steve Bannon and he feels they're going to try to... and Trump has sort of talked about it a little bit, put... go to 80 districts that matter and put martial law in place or create all manner of ICE and Proud Boys etc. If you listen to Steve Bannon, he does talk about this. And I think a couple of the cyber people were paying a lot of attention to Steve Bannon and what he's doing. And you know that meat sack of rumpled whatever is very effective in many ways. Speaking of effective, although I can't believe he keeps hanging on looking the way he does. Anyway, um, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, a game-changing feature coming to Apple's AirPods.
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Scott, we're back with more news. This is really interesting. Apple's reportedly reached the late stages of development for new AirPods that include tiny cameras designed for AI features. Who said they were going to put cameras? You and I have talked about this. The cameras would help Siri understand what's around you, so you could ask questions about objects, landmarks, or directions in real time. The new AirPods are expected to look similar to AirPod Pro, but with slightly longer stems to fit the camera hardware. Uh, this is astonishing. I think Apple originally wanted to launch the AI wearable sooner, but delays in upgraded Siri pushed the timeline back. Um, you will of course lose 50 pairs of these, Scott. Um, this is really 50, 100.
By the way, this has no pods in it because I can't find them.
Gosh. Jesus. And there's... I can attest in New York, Scott's New York apartment, there's so many AirPod cases everywhere and they're like one AirPod in them. Some are never been opened. It's really... It's a funny...
I love those things. I absolutely...
Yeah. So, talk about this because one of... there's obviously privacy because a lot of people have been pushing back on the Meta glasses which sell just okay. They don't... they're popular but not that popular. Um, so talk a little bit about this because there is a privacy issue here, like people looking out. At the same time, it's inevitable you're going to have these heads-up displays in some way and this is a version of heads-up display that isn't in your face, which I think is more effective, that it's in your ear, of a camera in your ear. I love your thoughts on this because you have big thoughts on visual, like heads-up displays.
Well, as much as I hated mixed reality headsets and the Oculus, I love this. And it goes back to a very anthropological thing. What is harder for people to adapt to when they lose their vision or they lose their hearing?
Vision, I guess, but not...
Hearing. Okay. All right. As a matter of fact, when your hearing goes, you stop processing words and you become more... this is going to sound strange. Well, it's not strange. People have a much more difficult time maintaining societal contact, relevance in relationships when their hearing starts to go as opposed to their vision starting to go. Your hearing... the last sense to go when you die is hearing. You're supposed to... when people pass, you're supposed to keep telling them that you love them. Supposedly, that's literally the last sense to go. And I think it's the most underrated of the senses. We have overinvested in visuals and underinvested in hearing. AirPods, if they were a distinct company, just AirPods would be a Fortune 50 company. And what is this? What is Apple doing here? They're turning your ears into eyes and sending the footage. You know, unfortunately, they might be sending the footage to Cupertino. But the AI wearable race is now happening. What's interesting though is it's not happening where people thought it was going to happen. It's happening in their ear canal. So Meta has Ray-Ban glasses. Apple has AirPods. Uh, Google probably has some glasses. I don't know what they're calling it this week.
Yeah, they originally had contact lenses. Remember they... long time we broke a story about them working on contact lenses with visuals in them. But go ahead.
The problem here, or I think it's a great idea and I'll buy one. The problem is the hardware for Apple, the hardware is always ready before the software and they wanted to launch this sooner but Siri is probably one of the worst tech products of the last 10 years.
It is. It really is. And Apple, I mean, think about it. Apple has the world's best supply chain and the world's most embarrassing AI assistant.
It is so bad. I hate Siri. I mean, essentially, AirPods, as they envision it right now with cameras, is essentially because of a very weak AI assistant overlay. It's like a Lamborghini chassis waiting for an engine that works. So, the hardware will be the best looking hardware, the best operating hardware. The problem will be the AI overlay. And I told you what I believe.
They have to get it right. They have to...
I think they're going to [__] can Siri and license it to someone else for tens of billions of dollars.
Right? Yeah. Why not just make it good? Like I am constantly, 'Siri, call Scott' or 'Siri, text Scott' or something like that, and it never works. It sometimes works and it just... it should work every single...
What if it was Gemini? What would Gemini... needs to catch up. What would Gemini pay Tim Cook or the new guy to design something? We're your default AI.
Look, Siri, just talk to me even though I didn't want to. Go away, Siri.
Sorry. Go ahead. I think they're in the pole position here. I think the most elegant move to massively throw 10, 20 billion dollars a year to the bottom line would be to have a bake-off and say one of you is going to be the Intel inside of Apple and that is your...
Kind of a big thing to give up though. But they're not good at it. Just like with Maps, they're just not good at it.
Well, search, they gave it up in search and it worked out well for them.
