No Agenda Episode 409: "Head Lag" (2012-05-17)

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Transcript

John C. Dvorak:
I always keep a bottle of Helium in the house.
Jingle:
intro, Adam Curry John C Dvorak
Adam Curry:
It is Thursday 17th 2012 time for your Gitmo nation media assassination episode four zero niner.
Jingle:
this is No Agenda
Adam Curry:
Testing my headlag here in Camp MoFo Capital of the drone star state, Austin Texas. In the morning everybody, it's Adam Curry.
John C. Dvorak:
And from northern Silicon Valley where it's Gloomy, I'm John C. Dvorak.
Jingle:
It's crackpot and buzzkill, in the morning
Adam Curry:
Wow, what a stinger!
John C. Dvorak:
Stinger.
Adam Curry:
opening with a stinger
John C. Dvorak:
So, it's gloomy here
Adam Curry:
Donna Summer died
John C. Dvorak:
Oh, really?
Adam Curry:
Yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
You told me that a couple minutes ago. Yeah that was a shocker, of course my comment was it was the cover-up of the Mary Kennedy assassination.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, that was real nice, real nice. It wasn't a assassination, John. I heard it on the news this morning she died due to lack of oxygen because of the rope around her neck.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, how many women do actually hang themselves?
Adam Curry:
Ooh! That is a good question, for a statistic.
John C. Dvorak:
It takes a lot of effort, a lot of crazy work, you have to be kind of nutty, and it is ridiculously showy.
Adam Curry:
It is so selfish!
John C. Dvorak:
I mean no it is not selfish, it is just showy.
Adam Curry:
Someone has to cut you down, it's a pain in the ass.
John C. Dvorak:
hanging there and it makes an impressions if a kid sees it, it's ruined for life, it's not right.
Adam Curry:
isn't it a really old fashioned way of committing suicide?
Adam Curry:
And I think she was no stranger to pills.
John C. Dvorak:
You know I think that might be exaggerated. I mean maybe she was a rich woman that was wasted all the time on something or other.
Adam Curry:
Mhm. It just seems like there are so many other easy ways to go.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, the ah... Typically, women will slit their wrists.
Adam Curry:
Do you have some scientific proof of this or are you just making this up as you go along.
John C. Dvorak:
I am just saying. Look it up.
John C. Dvorak:
Look it on The Google.
Adam Curry:
I got to say, I'm a little depressed, John.
John C. Dvorak:
Why?
Adam Curry:
Well...uhh...
John C. Dvorak:
Did the weather turn south there in Austin?
Adam Curry:
No, I'll say the weather's beautiful today, but we were in Los Angeles for a couple days. We went to visit uh..
John C. Dvorak:
Oh! That'd make you depressed!
Adam Curry:
[chuckle] Well, for a number of reasons.
John C. Dvorak:
Did you take a vaccination against douchebaggery?
Adam Curry:
[laughs] I should have!
Adam Curry:
Actually, what happened is we were staying with a guy who used to work at my first company in New York, and he was an art director. I kept in touch with him over the years. When I was in Amsterdam one time, he came to visit. Very creative, crazy kind of guy.
John C. Dvorak:
[blows nose]
Adam Curry:
We had kind of a down-donation show on Sunday. Now for today's. which you'll find out in a minute, it's also down.
John C. Dvorak:
So you're down?
Adam Curry:
Well, I'm okay normally. I'm his ex-boss, you know, he's like, "Hey! Come!" He's got a great place in Malibu.
John C. Dvorak:
And he's got some mansion?
Adam Curry:
[scoffs] Dude.
John C. Dvorak:
Dude!
Adam Curry:
No, dude. Not only a mansion on the beach, he's got a brand-new Ferrari. Not that I crave a Ferrari, but I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing?"
Adam Curry:
He says, "Oh! I have a website." Type this into browser: x-art.com. If you're playing along to the live stream and you're listening to the show this is *Not Safe For Work.*
John C. Dvorak:
No, this is a porn site.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, but look at it. It is high-end.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, it's that kind of more uh...
Adam Curry:
No, high, high-end.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, it's slick.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, he's doing stuff with Red cams; and he's printing money!
John C. Dvorak:
You can do that. You know, you could have gotten into the porn business at some point as well.
Adam Curry:
This is my point! This is why I am so down! I'm like, "Really? You make movies of people having sex, and you make millions and millions, and millions of dollars. I, on the other hand read government legislation, and I'm just getting by."
John C. Dvorak:
Well, the difference is that you won't find your head on a stick because you cough up some money to mob boss. It always trends that way.
Adam Curry:
No. This is a very clean operation.
John C. Dvorak:
So far.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, and all these girls are from Czechoslovakia and they shoot it in...
John C. Dvorak:
I'm sure one of these girls is a girlfriend of a mob boss and when he finds out, he will have his head on a stick,
John C. Dvorak:
and the Ferrari's going to be burning in the garage.
Adam Curry:
Oh, thank you, John. You know how to lift my spirit, don't you?
John C. Dvorak:
You're welcome.
Adam Curry:
[laughter] Beside that, I was very happy to return back home to Austin. You know, you're in Malibu, you look up at the mountains and the smog in Malibu.
John C. Dvorak:
Isn't that pathetic?
Adam Curry:
Ah! We drove into town, obviously, to see Christina. You can't see town! You can see the city. You literally cannot see it.
John C. Dvorak:
Just this one time of year. October is just as bad too, which is funny.
John C. Dvorak:
I mean, it's an interesting effect down there. Even if there was no cars down there, they'd have smog because of the way the land's laid out.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, I remember when we lived there, there was one day, you actually looked at the city and you saw mountains behind it. You're like, "Huh! I didn't know they had mountains there."
John C. Dvorak:
It's amazing. You know one time I was in Pasadena, where it's really beautiful if there wasn't smog. And the mountains were all around the place. It was like, "Wow! This is really pretty." It's like once in a lifetime, apparently.
Adam Curry:
It really is. We only saw once in the two years we were there. Anyway, I did learn something interesting from my buddy. Because of course, I was really interested in the business. His wife, actually, she runs it. She runs the whole thing! So you know, their biggest problem is BitTorrent. Because, you know, their movies are the number one pirated movies on BitTorrent.
John C. Dvorak:
If it were't pirated, he'd have two Ferraris, is that what you're saying?
Adam Curry:
This is what I asked him, he said, "You know, no. I don't believe so." He believes it's the community aspect. And I was like, "Well! Hold on a second!" Because you know, the people who are members of his site. They know all the girls, they know what they're doing, what's the next movie is.
John C. Dvorak:
Just like hookers.
Adam Curry:
Yeah! Exactly!
John C. Dvorak:
They're you're friend!
Adam Curry:
They are! They're totally your buddy.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, they're your friend, those hookers!
Adam Curry:
But here's what happened,
Adam Curry:
he got a call from one of these law firms that does...they do it for the MPAA and the RIAA. They go after people who BitTorrent stuff. Here's how it works, basically they have single stringers all over the country. They'll do a conference call and be like, "Yeah, this is your lawyer in Mississippi. Yeah, here's your lawyer in Jersey." And it's like, you know, one guy sitting in his bedroom office. So the way it works,
Adam Curry:
So the way it works, the subpoena the ISP's for the contact information of the IP address, which is when you have a swarm of BitTorrent traffic you can get the IP addresses obviously - unless it's a magnet link. It's getting harder. Thank goodness. And then they contact these people and then they, essentially pressure them, like Mob into settling. The owner of the content gets 10%!
Adam Curry:
10%! So they once got a check for, check this out, for $300,000. And they're like, "Whoa! Hold on a second, what is..." And then they stopped doing this, because they thought inherently kind of wrong; but the interesting part of the story is that there was this one person who had settled for like $100,000. You know, most of these people are settling for like $3000, which is also outrageous, of course.
Adam Curry:
"How did that happen?" Turns out that one person, that was an executive at the Screen Actors Guide. And they were so worried that that would get out, that they - and of course, they were pressured like they mob-like lawyers, that they settled for $100,000. It's a complete Mafioso operation.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, of course. If anything is free money, that's where they go.
Adam Curry:
I'm like $300,000?! [exasperated sigh] And we're giving it away, John! You and me!
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah well, we're not hookers.
Adam Curry:
[chuckle] Not yet.
John C. Dvorak:
Well, you might be. I'm too old for it. I'm over the hill for being a hooker.
Adam Curry:
Oh, come on! There's always room for a GILF!
John C. Dvorak:
Hehe "GILF!"
Adam Curry:
Anyway, in the morning to you, John C Dvorak.
John C. Dvorak:
In the morning to you, Adam, and in the morning to ships at sea, boots on the ground, subs in the water, and feet in the air!
Adam Curry:
And all of our human resources all charged up ready to go in our chat room, NoAgendaStream.com and NoAgendaChat.net. Good to see y'all depleting your human resource value of 9.2 million dollars. And welcome to the show, the Best Podcast in the Universe. I tried to get on the Joe Rogan Show too, but I got now answer.
John C. Dvorak:
Ah, you'll get on.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, but I was in L.A.
John C. Dvorak:
Oh right, right, right! Well, you have to let him know way in advance.
Adam Curry:
Oh!
John C. Dvorak:
I mean, a few days. Don't show up and be like, "Hey, Joe! You home?"
Adam Curry:
[chuckle] I did.
John C. Dvorak:
No.
Adam Curry:
On, like Saturday I said, "How about Tuesday?" And I didn't hear back.
John C. Dvorak:
Oh well, you didn't...
Adam Curry:
I know, I know. I screwed up. I did I wrong. I got some BBC press for us though.
John C. Dvorak:
What?!
Adam Curry:
Yeah, I got some BBC press for us.
John C. Dvorak:
Alright.
Adam Curry:
It was the BBC called me was was like, I don't know, some really bogus thing about, I guess...
John C. Dvorak:
Did you get a plug in there?
Adam Curry:
Yes. Flipboard was doing a - I got it here, hold on a second.
Adam Curry:
Flipboard did a deal with like Sound Cloud, or something.
John C. Dvorak:
Oh, God!
Adam Curry:
Yeah, and I was basically like - well, I thought a did pretty good, actually. Uh.. where is it uh .. "Flipboard starts integrating.." Here we go.
I was on the homepage of the BBC. Uh... let's see - "Mr Curry blah blah blah blah."
Adam Curry:
"It's a win for consumers without a doubt," Mr Curry noted, "You now have a very interesting model which surpasses the traditional media organizations are doing, (which I didn't say, of course,)" but he questions the business angle. "I don't know where the money comes from yet, other than a typical advertising play." Then I go on to slam Spotify..
John C. Dvorak:
[chuckle]
Adam Curry:
Yeah, here it is, "Spotify or Pandora, or any music service that's apples or oranges," Curry added, "Both have yet to prove their model actually works. Actually everyone's losing money." And then here it comes:
Adam Curry:
"Mr Curry co-hosts his own podcast, No Agenda with technology pundit, (I didn't say that, "technology pundit") John C Dvorak. The show 100% listener-funded, and is profitable, despite there being no ads, Mr Curry said. Of course, $1 is... [chuckle]
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, that'll make it profitable with our overhead.
Adam Curry:
[chuckle] Yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
It is profitable.
Adam Curry:
It's profitable! So I thought that sounded pretty good.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah.
Adam Curry:
Of course, they didn't put a link to No Agenda. I hate that.
John C. Dvorak:
Oh! They could just put "No Agenda." Did they say the name?
Adam Curry:
Yes, they did.
Adam Curry:
"No Agenda."
John C. Dvorak:
Okay, people can Google it. We got 9 pages of returns. Unless their idiots, they should be able to find it - although you still run into people that will ask you the dumbest questions that you will just - all you have to do it type it in The Google. And they won't do it. They just don't think to do that. There are people who do not think to use Google.
Adam Curry:
Really?
John C. Dvorak:
You haven't noticed this?
Adam Curry:
Um..
John C. Dvorak:
Apparently not.
Adam Curry:
No. I think, well maybe. People always say, "How do I find it?" [chuckle] That's what they always [say]. "How do I find this thing?"
John C. Dvorak:
You type it in.
Adam Curry:
You type in "No Agenda" into Google. "Oh!"
Although, Google changed their algorithms, and uh.. on the first page of the No Agenda results at the bottom, we've got uh..
John C. Dvorak:
Uh oh, we've got a lurker. We've got to get our guy back on this to check this out.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, we got "No Bini agenda against Oshiomhole" It's like, some African dude.
Adam Curry:
But then page 2, we're back.
John C. Dvorak:
[Googles No Agenda] Oh, my god! There's like No Bini agenda. With No Bini! No Bini! with Adams Oshiomhole
Adam Curry:
[chuckle] Get "Omobohole" off of our page!
John C. Dvorak:
Orobosa Omo-Ojo is the Special Advisor to Governor Adams Adams Oshiomhole, an arts.. What is this guy doing here?
Adam Curry:
Get off our page! I don't know! Someone SEO'ed him.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, no kidding!
Adam Curry:
[chuckle]
Adam Curry:
"Special Advisor to Governor Adams Oshiomhole." How is this possible?
John C. Dvorak:
It's on Vanguard.. it's some weird web address it's VanguardNGR.com. It's like a newspaper.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, this has got to one of those big PR companies doing SEO's.
John C. Dvorak:
The probably lost the top thing for a while.
Adam Curry:
They suckered some African nation into SEO'ing their guy. That's how it works.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah. This isn't even American!
Adam Curry:
[chuckles] Get off of our Google site, you! [chuckles] "It's not even American."
sfx:
Ding
Adam Curry:
Stop that, you!
Anyway, despite the low turn-out, I did some work, man.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah well, do you got anything good? I got at least one thing, at least that's particularly interesting to me.
Adam Curry:
Oh good, let's hear it. Let's hear it.
John C. Dvorak:
Well you might as well bring it up right away,
John C. Dvorak:
because it kind of does relate to this non-American guy. One of the big news items this last week was the guy at Facebook whose going to renounce his American citizenship. He was a Brazilian, came here and got a citizenship and made a billion dollars.
He's been living in Singapore, and he doesn't really want to..
Adam Curry:
Yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
..be an American; But everybody, all the pundits and everybody on-line. "Oh, he's an idiot! He's un-American! How can can anyone do such a thing?"
John C. Dvorak:
So, I have a friend/associate/co-respondent who had gone through this process. He's worth about half a billion dollars.
Adam Curry:
Oh, this is the guy that kind had..
John C. Dvorak:
I'm not going to say he had to do it.
Adam Curry:
He had to do it? [chuckle]
John C. Dvorak:
He didn't have to do it.
Adam Curry:
And you complain about my friend, the porn producer.
John C. Dvorak:
You should send him a note about this guy. And this is interesting: First of all - before we go into this I want you to go to Wikipedia look up "FACTA"
Adam Curry:
Facta?
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, FACTA.
Adam Curry:
F-A-C-T-A?
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, "FACTA." The Fair... uh.
Adam Curry:
Okay. The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act.
jd. Yeah. Do you see anything in there that looks remotely onerous?
Uh...well...
John C. Dvorak:
It's supposed to protect. It's like the Child's Protection Act. It's going to protect the public from - for fair transactions, right?
Adam Curry:
Yeah?
John C. Dvorak:
Let me read the note. It's a little long but it's interesting.
Adam Curry:
You're asking analyse an entire Wiki page in 3 seconds.
John C. Dvorak:
There's nothing there, let me tell you in advance.
Adam Curry:
Alright.
John C. Dvorak:
"As I see it, there are a number of renunciations are exploding is not due to any desire to avoid taxation that the so-called "FACTA Law" has made it almost impossible for US citizens or Green Card holders abroad to live their lives!"
Adam Curry:
Oh!
John C. Dvorak:
"The reporting requirement imposed on banks and other financial institutions for routine bill paying accounts opened by US citizens are estimated to be in the thousands of dollars per year"
John C. Dvorak:
and those institutions have responded by simply refusing to open accounts for US nationals. And in some cases, pre-emptively closing accounts opened years ago."
Adam Curry:
That's true, that's true. You can't have that any more. That's true.
John C. Dvorak:
By the way, none of this is in the Wiki page. "Now suppose that you are a US citizen on a foreign assignment as a branch manager or a branch manager of a big European subsidiary. If you cannot open a local bank account, it's extremely difficult to receive your salary, pay bills, or pay your tax obligations to the local authorities. Even worse, some US banks have taken the step to open, or maintain the accounts of US citizens.."
John C. Dvorak:
with foreign addresses. In this environment, you can find yourself un-banked!
Adam Curry:
Wow! "Un-banked"
John C. Dvorak:
Un-banked. "Effectively a financial poria[?], simply because you carry the wrong passport. Now, people on foreign assignment who intend to return to the US when it's done, may put up with this somehow, although I expect the increasingly difficult to find candidates to take in any of those positions overseas, and once they understand the difficulties."
John C. Dvorak:
Those who have permanently established themselves in other countries severed all ties with US-bought properties, and in some cases married, an obtained another citizen in their new domicile. If they have no intention of returning to the US, the burden of maintaining US citizen is increasingly difficult to justify."
Adam Curry:
You know, I had part of this problem. Remember what happened to me.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah.
Adam Curry:
Is I was over there, I left the country the end of 1999, lived abroad, and then in 2005,
Adam Curry:
I started showing up because of Mevio payroll, and then the IRS came into the office with their guns and said, "We've been looking for you!" And I say it's another case of people who can't use Google. I wasn't hiding or anything.
This was then I still had money, but I spent tens of thousands of dollars proving that I hadn't lived America. I didn't have any liability because they couldn't find my report, and you have to report every year, and report how much you own in foreign companies, if you have a bank account.
Adam Curry:
It was not a fun time.
John C. Dvorak:
Well he goes on to say, "it could cost you $3000 a year when you're overseas to prepare a US tax return,
Adam Curry:
Yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
And if you should fail to file one of the disclosures for say, the account you keep at the post office to pay for your stamps, and train tickets, you can be sought for frightful penalties.
Adam Curry:
Penalities, yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
Right up... sorry?
Adam Curry:
Yeah, penalties. That's what they were hammering on me. I had the same thing.
John C. Dvorak:
And did you come back to the US, they'd still throw you in the green room, and maybe arrest you.
Adam Curry:
This is very close to what happened to me. It is true.
John C. Dvorak:
Well, it's apparently gotten worse.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, with the bank things, yeah.
John C. Dvorak:
This letter goes on and on, but he finishes with, "if I see anyone who believes that the US still offers the best freedom and opportunity needs get out more."
Adam Curry:
Okay...well..
John C. Dvorak:
Now along with that, there's a bunch of websites, what is this, this is amazing because it doesn't indicate any of this on the wiki page. I've found a Canadian site, that talks about the FACTA laws. It is called souverign investor: "The FACTA law applies to every conceivable type of offshore account or investment and in effect, blackmails foreign banks and financial companies, trying to force them for the first time to identify their American customers to the IRS, regardless of existing financial privacy laws in other countries."
John C. Dvorak:
They're just doing it by, essentially, when the new requirement takes effect in January 2013, every foreign financial institution must enter into a information sharing agreement with the IRS. Those that don't, will effectively be barred from accessing US markets.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, because when you know, where I think this stems from is the 'Screw The Rich' people who have their money offshore. It could only be the rich people that are doing that.
Adam Curry:
Where of course, there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of ex-pats, who are you know,
John C. Dvorak:
Who are working for American companies overseas.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, and by the way, getting paid in dollars, which is not that advantageous. Although, these days it's getting better.
John C. Dvorak:
It tends to be by agreement. They could be paid locally or in dollars. I know a lot of guys who have worked overseas and they make deals.
Adam Curry:
Not me, let's put it that way.
John C. Dvorak:
Okay, well.
Adam Curry:
I was hurting.
Adam Curry:
Anyways, yeah? So, the whole thing was bull crap.
John C. Dvorak:
So this guy who was living in Singapore, doing all his business there, he was to renounce his citizenship. He's called a douche bag for doing it, but he's forced to do it, from the way I read all these other documentation.
Adam Curry:
Yeah. Now but it's, you know what going on right now is, I don't know if you noticed...
John C. Dvorak:
It's what Ron Paul said, 'the fence is designed to keep us in."
Adam Curry:
To keep people in, yeah. Disregarding Facebook briefly, there are so many hit jobs going.
Adam Curry:
I can't believe that no one it reporting on the coverage of the Facebook IPO. This is what's interesting..
John C. Dvorak:
I know, isn't it weird?
Adam Curry:
You got all, all the mainstream publications are saying, "Well, that advertising thing don't work," and of course we know it doesn't work. We know display advertising is bogative! Duh! But now they're all coming out. They're trying to make them look bad. GM pulls their advertising. You know it's like, uhh.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, by coincidence.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, how did that happen? And they didn't even spend that much. They were spending maybe three [3] million dollars a year or something? Chrysler used to be my client. I built chrysler.com back in the day. And dodge.com. We know that it doesn't work. The way advertising for automobiles works is you see the flashy ad and then it's like your local dealer with his deal. That's how people buy cars. They don't look at a car and go "Wow! I need that." Just some ad on some banner. No! And that may even be some kind of pricing scam in itself. To get the pricing numbers down. Maybe the underwriters are happy. Tonight is pricing, if you don't know how an IPO works. That will be the number that the share opens at on the stock market and the lower it is
Adam Curry:
with a popular IPO, the more money the underwriters make. So it's very possible that these guys set it all up. "Hey GM, guess what? Why don't you pull your advertising so we can go the bottom range of the band, as they call it, and come out really low." Because of course it's going to be a popular IPO because people are idiots. All the dentists and doctors..
John C. Dvorak:
Oh yeah. My writing about this has always said this is going to be a popular IPO because, you're right, the people who use Facebook are going to be the investors.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, they think it's valuable. And I love it. The bigger the blowup of this IPO the better. Because eventually people will realize it's just the Internet. It's just a dumb Internet interface. Nothing special. No one's ever made any big money off of people sharing stuff.
John C. Dvorak:
But I got a Like. I got a Like.
Adam Curry:
[laughs] What's the value of the Like. Well nothing! Duh!
John C. Dvorak:
I got a thumbs-up Like.
Adam Curry:
Where were these incredibly smart advertisers and marketers when the whole idea came out about paying for Likes? Stupid.
John C. Dvorak:
Paying for Likes. Idiotic.
Adam Curry:
It really is idiotic.
John C. Dvorak:
I'm hoping it's a big success because it will boost the economy locally.
Adam Curry:
That's not going to happen.
John C. Dvorak:
I think it will be. I think it's going to come out and go up at least thirty [30] percent on the opening. I think you're right. The underwriters will make a shit load of money. And then I think it's just going to keep climbing until it kind of levels off and then it will collapse.
Adam Curry:
Hmmmmm..
John C. Dvorak:
But, if these guys are smart they will do what all these dot com guys have done over the years..
Adam Curry:
They get a collar.
John C. Dvorak:
No, they get a car. They buy a couple of houses and the way they do it is they look at the stock market, they take their lump of stock, they take it to the bank and say "I want to borrow against this."
Adam Curry:
Yeah, a collar. That's what I said. The collar.
John C. Dvorak:
No, this is borrowing against. This is different than a collar. They're not going to sell it.
Adam Curry:
Hmmm.
John C. Dvorak:
These guys don't even know how to get a collar. They're very difficult to do and you have to know somebody that can do them. So that's not going to happen.
Adam Curry:
So you just pledge some shares and you get a loan against them.
John C. Dvorak:
You use it as collateral. The shares are worth so much. The bank looks at that and says "Okay, we're stupid. We'll give you some money" and they loan you the money. You buy a car and a house or two houses. Then the stock falls through the floor and you're broke.
Adam Curry:
[laughs]Yeah! Hey! Perfect.
John C. Dvorak:
It happened in ninety nine [99]. I ran into a number of guys who were worth a hundred [100] million dollars one day and because of the stupid way they handled their money, they were literally broke.
Adam Curry:
Yeah broke. I know lots of guys. By the way, my buddy in Malibu: not one of them.
John C. Dvorak:
You can always make money in the porn business if you have any chops. You can go do that and give up on the show and pretty soon you're going to be walking around with the open shirt. You're gonna have the chains.
Adam Curry:
[laughing]
John C. Dvorak:
You're going to look like a douche bag.
Adam Curry:
[laughing, coughs] Hold on a second. Just let me consider that for a moment.
John C. Dvorak:
I think you could go for it. No one's going to see it that much different.
Adam Curry:
[chuckles] Oh boy. I did some value for value work today. We'll wait until we have thanked some more producers because I didn't know this was going to happen. It came at me by surprise. But just when we had figured out the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, it turns out that was the National Defense Authorization Act two thousand twelve [2012]. Already now, in the House, the National Defense Authorization Act two thousand thirteen [2013].
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah.
Adam Curry:
So there's a whole new document.
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, isn't that funny?
Adam Curry:
And I read it.
John C. Dvorak:
Oh.
Adam Curry:
[laughs] And you won't believe it.
John C. Dvorak:
Okay, I'm looking forward to that. But, as a teaser, I do have a clip, kind of, about it.
Adam Curry:
Okay, what have you got?
John C. Dvorak:
This guy, Adam Smith, the lone voice. He's a democrat with the name Adam Smith, which has to be hilarious when you're in college. He was bitching about the NDAA, the parts that are onerous and take away our rights, and he just makes this comment thinking it will actually come up for an actual debate. He sounds like the optimistic town idiot. You can play it.
Adam Smith:
What we developed over the course of two hundred [200] years is an enormous step for this Congress to take. So we have to ask ourselves the question: Is it necessary? It clearly is not. We have arrested, prosecuted, stopped countless terrorist attacks over the course of the last eight [8] years. Over four hundred [400] terrorists arrested, convicted and imprisoned in this country. From Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber in Detroit in December of two thousand eight [2008]. He was stopped, arrested, interrogated, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. We have a justice system and a law enforcement system in this country that is more than adequate to meet the threat. We do not have to undermine the constitution to do that. That will be the core of the argument. I look forward to those who are opposed to it arguing WHY that doesn't keep us safe. I think it will be a great debate. I urged people to vote for it, but I hope we will have that public debate on the floor tomorrow. It is an incredibly important issue, no matter which side of it you are on.
John C. Dvorak:
That's going on now. Of course, you what's going to happen. This guy is nuts.
Adam Curry:
Let's thank our producers and then just let me run through this document because there are a couple of gems in here that warrant discussion.
John C. Dvorak:
I'll bet. Okay. We do have two [2] Executive Producers and two [2] Associate Exectuive Producers for today's show, four oh nine [409]. I'm surprised somebody hasn't donated four oh nine [409]..
Adam Curry:
Four oh niner [409] to be correct.
John C. Dvorak:
That's also the four oh nine [409] cubic inch engine that was in the Chevy.
Adam Curry:
There's the four oh nine [409] cleaning spray.
John C. Dvorak:
Giddy up, giddy up, my four oh nine [409]
Adam Curry:
Yup. Four oh nine [409] cleaning spray.
John C. Dvorak:
Right! Sir Robert Goshko, Sherwood Park, Alberta, came in with four twenty oh seven [$420.07], which is a vote for the slide whistle also. "In the morning John and Adam from Gitmo Nation Back Bacon." Aye? "With this donation I will complete my wife's twelve twelve twelve [$1212.12] dame hood and with my eleven eleven eleven [$1111.11] knighthood, that makes us a twenty three twenty three twenty three [$2323.23] family."
Adam Curry:
Hey!
John C. Dvorak:
Hey! "I also threw in my seven [7] cents from the pro-slide whistle side. If it feels good, do it. It was a long weekend up here and I will be busy drinking at the lake and celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday." We have a holiday coming up this weekend. I didn't know we were celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday down here.
Adam Curry:
Well, we are now.
John C. Dvorak:
"Can I get a war on chicken/huntsman combo for the good weather and hopefully there will be more donors than boners out this weekend."
Adam Curry:
Let me give it a try.
Jingle:
The War On Chicken
Huntsman Chinese
You've got karma
John C. Dvorak:
A winner. Philip Meason, in Welshpool, Powys. Three thirty three thirty three {$333.33]. "I'm donating money so I can hear John butcher the pronunciation of Powys. He gets my name right, which many do not, but fails to pronounce Powys. English spelling pronounced pow iss, as in hiss. Or piss. Keep up the great deconstruction of the lame stream. Keep out of light aircraft and duck if you hear helicopters."
Adam Curry:
[laughing] Okay.
John C. Dvorak:
Dame Janice Kang, two fifty oh seven [$250.07]. I should look her up on email. I'll do that. She has a message, we'll run it at the break. And Sir Dirk Madrow, in Western Australia, two oh one [$201]. "My donation is late. Actually, I tried to donate in the last three [3] weeks, but I've failed. I'm humbly shamed as Black Knight who has failed in his mission to spread the love dollars. I listened to many shows before I donated drunk and I guess I'm the godfather of drunk donations. My siblings make me proud of my small offering." Oh, he is drunk while he's writing this. Let me try to read it.
Adam Curry:
Do the drunk voice. It works better that way.
John C. Dvorak:
[drunk voice] It makes me proud of my small offering shames me. Work has been bad of late. I've gotta go ATO equals IRS get off my back in three [3] weeks. I'm almost am ready to give all of the figures I'm running about sixty [60] percent of what I need to get by right now for the last four [4] months. So you can imagine when the Greeks greet me, my few remaining shares became homophobic. And I had major shrinkage. Resources low, but I figured it's love and sharing when I drive three hundred [300] kilometers to my job on Sunday I will hear you, it's time. Godfather Black Knight. Must donate. People may laugh. Donating drunk is no joke and should not be tried by anyone. It takes ninety [90] percent of any bootle of seven fifty [750] ml. forty [40] percent strength for me creating the danger is getting Wii. I wanna play Left For Dead now!"
Adam Curry:
[laughing] [inaudible]
John C. Dvorak:
[inaudible]
Adam Curry:
Wow. Let me give him a karma.
Jingle:
You've got karma.
Adam Curry:
[laughing] Micky and I both agree that when you read the drunk donations, that's when they really come to life.
John C. Dvorak:
Ha! And you know, I can't get a job as an actor.
Adam Curry:
Yeah. Or as a hooker, for that matter.
John C. Dvorak:
That goes without saying.
Adam Curry:
By the way, I don't feel all that bad. NPR. It was pretty funny. Headline in the Washington Post. I'll read it to you. "NPR sees sharp downturn in advertising revenue."
John C. Dvorak:
All right!
Adam Curry:
"Leading to talk of cuts." So, Knell...
John C. Dvorak:
Ha ha. The scam is over.
Adam Curry:
Yeah, Knell or Nell, that's the guy who used to do Sesame Street, he's the new CEO. He had a meeting with the NPR employees and he almost said they would have to cut some staff. But he didn't go quite that far. Why do they face higher expenses this year? Because they have to cover the Olympics in London. That's bogative bull crap.
John C. Dvorak:
What?!
Adam Curry:
NPR doesn't have to cover the Olympics in London.
John C. Dvorak:
They don't have to cover the Olympics. They can send some reporter, a stringer.
Adam Curry:
Not even that.
John C. Dvorak:
And who cares. What does it got to do with the public good?
Adam Curry:
It's a huge, commercial organization.
John C. Dvorak:
Right. It shouldn't even be covered at all.
Adam Curry:
So..
John C. Dvorak:
Let NBC have it.
Adam Curry:
Is it NBC or ABC who has it this year?
John C. Dvorak:
It's NBC. They always have it.
Adam Curry:
Anyway, so we do appreciate all the help we can get. But, obviously, we'd like to have a little more value for what we're putting into this. Otherwise we'll just have to turn to a life of porn.
Jingle:
Dvorak dot org slash N A
SFX:
Ding
John C. Dvorak:
You can also go to channeldvorak.com/na, Noagendashow.com and noagendanation.com.
Adam Curry:
And there's also, in the PR segment, it doesn't really work on audio unfortunately, there is a video of little No Agenda producer Damien and it's really cute. I tweeted it the other day. His dad video'd him, so you hear No Agenda playing in the background with the whole Shut Up Slave bit, and you see the kid listening to it and he's like two [2] or maybe three [3] and all of a sudden..you know..I'll play it. See if you can get the idea. He's listening to that segment and then all of a sudden he starts singing along with it. I'll crank it up to see if you can actually hear it. Hold on.
Jingle:
{audio in background] Our formula is this. We go out. We hit people in the mouth. {tackle sounds and grunts]
Jingle:
New World Order...
Clip:
[young child says in unison] Shut up slave.
John C. Dvorak:
[laughs] Shut up slave.
Adam Curry:
He says it right on cue though. And he's so cute. He's so cute when he does..
John C. Dvorak:
It's catchy.
Adam Curry:
I'm telling you. Let me just indoctrinate the kids for a second. Hold on. Hey kids, go out and propagate the formula. It's real simple..
Jingle:
Our formula is this. We go out. We hit people in the mouth. [tackle sounds and grunts]
New World Order
Adam Curry:
Get ready kids. Sing along with your Uncle Adam and John. Come on, say it now..
Jingle:
Shut up slave.
Adam Curry:
Little Damien even had the whole Shut Up Slaveeeee thing right. Beautiful. America's youth.
John C. Dvorak:
Shut up slave.
Adam Curry:
Shut up slave.
John C. Dvorak:
Well, you get used to it.
Adam Curry:
All right. You want to do NDAA part deaux?
John C. Dvorak:
Yeah, go.
Adam Curry:
So, this is House Resolution four three one zero [4310]. And this is to authorize appropriations for fiscal year two thousand thirteen [2013] for military activities, Department Of Defense. And, just so you know, in the news, what they're talking about.. and this is how all that good stuff is being covered up..President Obama, the White House, has already threatened to veto the six hundred forty two [642] billion dollar two thousand thirteen [2013] Defense Authorization bill passed last week by the House Armed Services Committee. That doesn't mean it passed the house. It came out of committee. Because it spends too much on national security. They're talking about fifteen [15] billion dollars over five [5] years. So total cover up of the actual issues.