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Hello, Hola, Guten Tag, Bonjour, こんにちは !
Welcome everyone,
this is a podcast for those wanting to learn about U.S. culture through Standard American English, also known as General American. We talk about various different topics related to the U.S. and the U.S.'s relations with other countries.
My co-host and I would like to think of this as more of a journey because you never know where it’ll take us. Plus, since the journey’s more important than the end or the start, we hope that you’ll be willing to join us!
Let’s see where it takes us!
Hello and welcome.
My name is Christopher Chandler.
And my name is Chris Schauer.
And we are Generally American.
In our podcast, we discuss events,
culture, whatever else we want from a
generally American perspective.
From our differing viewpoints, our goal is
that we can offer others and ourselves
nuanced opinions on fascinating topics
related to the US.
We invite you to be part of the discussion
and we hope that you'll stick around to
see where the conversation takes us.
So let's dive in.
and we are live.
We are and if you remember from last week
where uh I got a little surprised at the
beginning because our countdown system
didn't work.
I got the first half of it this week so
not completely caught off guard.
Yeah I do love the countdown it is really
good.
Uh so the so the weather actually I heard
that it was supposed to snow
like a lot of snow, like a couple feet.
And I woke up this morning and I was
really excited to open my window and see a
boatload of snow and all this all was
rain.
So it definitely didn't snow here.
It might snow next week.
They're saying next Wednesday, but you
know, I'm not holding my breath.
But I really wanted to have a white
Christmas.
But it's not gonna happen.
It hasn't happened in the past 12 years
since I've been here and I don't think
it's gonna happen this year either.
But.
You know, who knows, stay positive.
What about your side?
So it was we're recording this two days
after Thanksgiving.
So November 25th, the forecast had said it
was supposed to snow all day Thanksgiving.
And forecast change at the last minute,
and it was just cold, no snow.
There were like a couple of flakes, but
nothing that stuck around.
And now it's just now it's just cold out.
I think I kind of lied.
We did have a few snowflakes, but from the
city next over.
And I only know that because one of my
neighbors works there and she drove over
here and I saw her car, but that doesn't
really count.
But you said Thanksgiving.
We're not going to spend the whole episode
talking about Thanksgiving.
Although we could do a Thanksgiving
special maybe next year.
I didn't really do anything, any
particular, to be honest.
Actually, I kind of forgot.
It was my wife who reminded me.
And she's like, oh, is it next week?
Isn't it like next Thursday Thanksgiving?
It's like, oh, yeah, you're right, it is.
And no, we just kind of used her birthday
for that.
And just like, let's just combine your
birthday and Thanksgiving and just do all
that on one day.
But I'm in a lot of American groups, so a
lot of Americans in Germany celebrate
Thanksgiving and import stuff or go to
American shops.
I didn't do any of that.
I just, you know, I called my family and
said, I love you guys.
I'm thankful for you.
And that was my Thanksgiving.
What about yours?
Went over to the family's.
There's like 19 people total.
Oh wow.
Yeah, we made two turkeys, had a bunch of
food.
Did you deep fry them?
No, I want to try it one day.
It's not that dangerous if you thought
you're turkey.
Like you need to have a thawed out dry
turkey.
So for those who don't know, so obviously
Thanksgiving is the last.
I think it's the second to last Thursday
of the month.
And yeah, you come together and celebrate
with your family and you give thanks and
everyone eats turkey.
And a lot of people like to deep fry their
turkey for whatever reason.
I honestly don't know why.
It's supposed to be fantastic.
I've never had it.
And so every year you read stories about
someone who deep fried their turkey and
you have to picture that you have like
this, what do you, like this huge pot full
of like boiling cooking oil.
I don't know how hot it gets, but it's
pretty hot.
And you know, you throw in your turkey.
And then the whole thing explodes and it
catches your household fire.
So, and you're out of a turkey and out of
a house.
Yeah.
So I don't know if you saw this.
So when we were growing up, that was like
a huge deal.
People are better about it now, but the
fire department would always release like,
don't do this.
And they make a video.
Why?
Like they used to say, don't use your cell
phone when you're fueling your car because
it can make a spark.
So they made a video where, uh, and
everyone's in like hardcore safety gear.
where you're fueling your car, spark
happens, and you basically turn the gas
pump into a flame thrower and douse your
car and everyone around you.
They've made videos with the frying of the
turkey where it shows like a worst case
scenario, and it's instant.
Anyone who's ever cooked in a professional
kitchen, frying a lot of frozen things,
you know what happens when ice and water
gets in the fryer.
And turkeys, if you don't thaw them
properly, and it can take like a week,
have like a big ball of ice in the middle
of it.
And it's like a bomb waiting to go off.
Like you gotta leave that thing in your
fridge for like a week.
Yeah.
So, and I was just kind of doing a quick
Google check to about like the whole
message from like the fire departments and
whatnot.
And they did it this year and whole bunch
of states and.
If you Google it, you'll see a whole bunch
of articles of people who, unfortunately,
have lost their homes or have died because
of turkey fires.
So it's not like something to really,
obviously we're not joking about it, but
it's, it's something you read about every
year, kind of like on, you know, New
Year's Eve and whatnot.
People like losing their limbs because
they play with fireworks.
So, no, I would.
Ultimately though, it's, if you know what
you're doing, it's safe.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think most people just don't know
what they're doing.
That's the biggest problem and I have no
idea how to do it properly Which is why
I've never done it Truth be told I don't
even think you're allowed to do it here.
I wouldn't know where to do it I mean, I
mean, I think you'd have to set up like a
burner outside and a big stock pot with
oil I'd have to go like into like a field
like there's no way they'd let me do this
like in the community garden like they
called the They call the
Even if it's fine, you spill the oil
everywhere, kill all the plants.
Yeah, I don't know.
That would be quite a scandal in your
apartment complex.
It definitely would be.
We're going to get to scandals here in a
second.
But one thing before we transition, I
haven't once really watched any news in
the US recently, but did they say anything
about like pardoning a turkey?
Was that on the news at all?
Like Biden do that?
Oh, probably.
Let's you know what?
Every now and again, it doesn't happen, I
think.
I think it's been that way for like the
past 50 or so years.
Right, because they don't.
Oh, apparently he parted multiple turkeys.
Oh, OK.
Yeah, it's I don't know.
It's such an odd tradition.
And so basically, as most people know,
that a lot of Americans celebrate
Thanksgiving and the main dish is turkey
and I guess maybe chicken to a certain
extent, but usually turkey.
I'd say ham is like the number two.
If people don't do turkey.
Yeah, that's true.
I would say that's fair.
Like turkey and ham, assuming you eat
meat.
And if you don't eat meat, then
you're gonna have a hard time.
But like, it's not like a, I wouldn't say
it's a super old tradition.
It hasn't been around forever, but it's
been around for at least a couple of
decades.
To, so basically, the president will pick
a couple turkeys and pardon them and I
guess they live to die another day.
I think those turkeys just get to live
like good lives.
And then they never have turkey for
Thanksgiving in the White House.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Which considering the White House has a
private chef and all the resources in the
world, I think they're gonna be fine.
A lot of, not a lot, but it's not unheard
of for families to do like prime rib for
Thanksgiving.
I would be okay with a prime rib
Thanksgiving if I was the president.
Yeah, Thanksgiving for us is usually
either just pumpkin pie or pizza, because
it's super easy to make.
But anywho, that's it for like, you know,
the holiday and weather report, the
bi-national holiday, bi-national weather
report.
So as mentioned a minute ago, scandals.
So that's what we're gonna talk about is
scandals, and more scandals.
There are so many scandals, we can't get
through them all, but definitely touch on
a few that I feel like most people in the
US have at least heard about.
Maybe not in depth, but are very, very
common.
And me being the reactionary I am, I
wanted to bring up the latest one I know
about.
Okay, we'll start there and work or work
our way back.
Now, this isn't necessarily a national
earthshaking scandal, but if anyone's like
on the online community and YouTube, you
probably heard about this recently.
There is a YouTube channel called The
Completionist.
And for about what I think like 11 years
at this point, he has participated in like
a yearly charity drive thing where they
raise money for Alzheimer's research and
things like that.
And they do it every year.
And I think they're a little over, I think
they raised like six to 800,000 somewhere
in that ballpark dollars.
And all this money.
for like a decade, they add to it every
year, has just been sitting in an account,
doing nothing, depreciating in value.
And there has been administrative charges
applied to it and things like that because
the kind of charity bank account they have
is completely available to the public to
look at.
And you can look at tax documents and all
these things.
So some people looked into it recently and
confronted him.
So.
That's the big, that's the recent, quote
unquote, big scandal going on right now,
where the whole Internet used to love this
guy.
And now they're like, why are you stealing
this money?
And so it was a charity thing.
Yeah, like the ideas it's supposed to go
to, you know, an organization like he
raises the money and then gives it to an
organization that researches Alzheimer's
or treats Alzheimer's patients, things
like that.
and it's just been sitting there.
Yeah, I think that's the biggest problem
for me is charities.
I have a hard time contributing to
charities for that exact reason.
And you see a lot of these things.
So I think the I can't really remember any
scales related to charities, but there are
always these charity drives.
The last biggest challenge I could think
of was like, wasn't it like the ice bucket
challenge?
That's pretty long ago, probably like five
or six years ago.
And there are like a lot of drives related
to that.
Um, but of course, because of YouTube and
like the whole influencer, uh, sphere, if
you will, I think it's just rife with, I
don't want to say corruption, but I mean,
everywhere you look, you'll find scandals.
I mean, I think that's just kind of, I
think it's become kind of a meme now to
where you become an influencer or.
a YouTuber or a TikToker, you can call
whatever you want.
You start off really benign, you know, you
do your thing, and then you kind of mess
up because of a scandal, you say you're
sorry, and then everyone forgets.
And I think if anyone looks at their
favorite YouTuber, they'll find at least a
couple of scandals that they've had, and
that people just kind of wait for, you
know, time to pass, and then they just
forget about it.
Well, I will say it does seem very, it
almost seems like a coin flip.
Like, is this scandal going to bury this
person forever?
Which maybe not necessarily bury, but is
it going to hang around them forever?
Or are people just going to move on?
Like there was, it's not even much of a, I
guess it's technically a scandal, but
there was some popular streamer, um, maybe
like four or five years ago who like threw
her dog on a stream.
And it's like a small dog and everyone was
like, Whoa, that's animal abuse.
That's not OK.
And then everyone, you know, got after her
for a while.
And then she's still a top streamer.
In fact, she was a stop streamer long
enough to have another scandal like a week
ago because she was like, Why aren't
people buying my cookies?
They don't cost that much.
Buy my cookies.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's it.
I think for like a lot of celebrities, the
scandal is just kind of.
blow over eventually?
But it's random.
It doesn't feel like there's any rhyme or
reason to it.
Sometimes it's that's it forever, goodbye.
And sometimes we forgive you.
I think if we kind of backtrack a couple
of years, I think this is all part of the
whole cancel culture thing, which
definitely wasn't around when I was
growing up.
I mean, I guess in one form or another,
people have always kind of been quote
unquote
canceled if you will but like this whole
like term cancel culture is really
something that popped up I want to say
about like five or ten years ago and I
think that's one of the reasons why we're
so quick to just jump on the band
bandwagon and just bury people for like
the smallest things They use the wrong
word or they have the wrong t-shirt on or
they don't support the right group or
maybe something that has to do with sexual
assault or whatever, true or not true,
overblown or not overblown.
And I think that's the reason why we've
been seeing so many scandals.
I mean, granted with, what'd you say, the
completionist's name was?
The completionist, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, embezzling money is- But
that's the thing, it's not necessarily
embezzling, right?
They weren't pocketing the money.
Oh, okay.
Like at-
Here's a, it might just be gross, gross
negligence, but like, can you imagine if
you're raising money for like Alzheimer's
and he claims it's like, oh, you know, my
mom had Alzheimer's.
It's a huge deal in our family.
We're all very passionate about it.
Can you imagine feeling that passionate
that you do like a yearly charity drive,
raise a bunch of money, and then you don't
follow up where a penny of it goes?
You're just like, all right, fill up the
account.
I'm not gonna,
I'm not going to like, hey guys, did you
get my month?
Like they didn't even have a charity
picked out.
It was just going to an account.
It was it's such a bizarre situation.
That is really bizarre.
And part of it was like his excuse was
like, well, you know, I wanted to make
sure we find a good charity.
Don't want to just be paying some doctor's
salary, which I don't know, like.
That's probably what you're gonna be
doing, because that's who does the
research and the care.
But I get it from like, there's sketchy
charities and nonprofits out there.
So real world example, this is happening
in my town right now.
If you wanna get a liquor license and
billings, one, they're super expensive,
like they can be like a million dollars.
And two, you need to go into a lottery.
to have a chance at winning one, unless
you're a nonprofit.
So some company got together, created a
nonprofit, got three liquor licenses, and
they're gonna operate it as a nonprofit,
but they're just gonna name themselves as
employees, pay themselves a salary and any
leftover money, they're just gonna feed
back into the business, and you can just
increase your salaries.
Like there's lots of sketchy ways you can
get around it.
So I understand wanting to vet something,
it shouldn't take a decade.
That's really weird.
Liquor license, and I guess for those who
don't know, liquor is just another term
for alcohol.
So if you wanna sell alcohol in the United
States, you have to have a license.
I would assume that's true for most
countries, although I don't know most
countries.
But I didn't know that there was actually
a lottery for that.
I assume you just- Well, it depends on the
county you're in.
Oh, OK.
So if you want to start up a bar in a
county of like.
Two hundred people, it's probably a lot
easier and cheaper, right?
But if you want to do it in a, quote
unquote, major city like Billings, at
least it is for us.
Everyone wants to open a bar here because
they make tons of money.
And they don't.
But the city doesn't want like a bar.
We already have tons of bars, but they
don't want like.
everything being a bar and casino because
it's already close enough to that.
So there's limits on it.
Do you guys have like dry counties?
Not that I know of there might be a small
one somewhere.
It's Montana is huge, like geographically.
I'm sure there's a there.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a tiny
county somewhere that is, but.
None that I know of.
Yeah, I was thinking it's kind of odd.
So this is a bit off topic, but I still
think it's kind of interesting for those
who don't know, um, in that you have like
dry and wet counties, I believe what
they're called where you, where you're
allowed to sell and consume alcohol.
So I think that those are the counties
that are wet and dry being that you can't
like do any of that.
And it's kind of funny because, um, I've
seen a couple of documentaries where.
A lot of breweries are actually in dry
counties.
So they produce alcohol there, but you
can't actually sample it because it's
technically illegal.
But don't ask me which they, because I
already forgot, but that's like a small
side note.
Yeah, but before we get like too off
topic, so yeah, like those are more like,
I guess, like more of like the modern
scandals, I would say.
So those really involve the internet.
Yeah, more localized to communities.
Yeah, so like a lot of these are like,
yeah, I would say really are.
So like you have like a lot of subcultures
on the internet.
But can you think of like any scandals
that like are super like well known with
context in these?
Of course, you got the big ones like Bill
Clinton and Monica Lewinsky's cheating
scandal.
I did not have sexual relations with that
woman.
So we definitely got to start there,
because I think that's like the biggest
one.
It's the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Um, it's super old, but I guess by modern
standards, because it's.
From.
It means about 30 years ago.
Yeah.
Oh God, don't say that.
Cause now it makes you feel even older.
But yeah, cause I'm, I'm a nineties child,
but it was from like the end of the
nineties and correct me if I, if I
misrepresent a couple of details, but
basically.
you had like the secretary Monica Lewinsky
working at the White House, I believe as
an intern, and she had more or less like
an on and off again kind of relationship
with the, with Bill Clinton, who was the
president at the time.
And I mean, realistically, he was probably
taking advantage of her.
I mean, the power age and everything
disparity was
Huge.
Yeah, and that's the worst part about it,
I would say, is she got the worst part of,
like, I guess the worst part of the
scandal.
And so basically what happened was, is, I
guess, for those who don't like stuff over
PG-13, it's kind of, I guess, PG-13 stuff
is, you know, there was basically oral sex
involved between the two of them.
So him being on the receiving end of
And, you know, everyone found out and it
became like a really huge scandal.
And then as Chris said, there's like the
immortal phrase, like, I did not have
sexual relations with that woman.
And obviously no one believed him.
And what became of that was even I think
worse because if I remember correctly, he
almost got impeached for that.
I can't remember if he did or not, but he,
because you know, like even Trump was
impeached twice, he was just never
convicted.
Yeah, so actually for like Bill Clinton,
for what he did with Monica Lewinsky, that
was perfectly legal, although maybe not
moral.
Well, no.
But I think what Bill Clinton almost got
impeached for was lying actually, not the
whole scandal part.
And so he went through like an
investigation.
They did like an investigation and he
denied everything.
He lied and blah, blah.
And that's what they tried to impeach him
on.
Although, honestly, I think that's not
like the worst thing.
Like, I think actually doing the thing is
worse than lying about it.
You know, at least you could admit it.
But it was a different world 30 years ago
politically.
Optics were a much bigger deal.
He yeah, that's definitely, definitely
true.
You couldn't just own being a scumbag and
become more popular.
Yeah, and I don't know if Bill Clinton
ever politically really suffered from
that.
Basically, as you said a few moments ago,
it's because of the power discrepancies
between both parties.
So him obviously being the president and
she obviously just being the secretary or
whatever she was.
She was an intern.
Like I think she was a college student.
Like I think she was like late teens,
early 20s.
And it's crazy.
Like I don't know if you've ever seen her
interview with John Oliver.
It's a great interview and she talks about
it.
And it's like, it's been a long time.
Like I can laugh at all the jokes and
stuff now, but you know, it's been, I've
had a million jokes and
rap lyrics made at my expense.
Nobody ever gets after Bill Clinton.
Nobody makes fun of him.
He just gets to, you know, we think of
Bill Clinton as being like the fun, sane
president we had and, you know, he'll go
on late night TV and play the saxophone
because he's a really good saxophone
player.
Nobody ever asks him like, hey, how about
that Monica Lewinsky thing?
How about you cheating on your wife?
Like, what was that all about?
Yeah, that is a good point.
And I think that's definitely a point that
came up a lot later down the road.
At the very beginning, it was more or
less, you know, about him cheating on his
wife and her maybe not being of good
character because she allowed herself to
be swayed by that or that whole situation.
Obviously we're not privy to like all the
details.
So I have no idea what-
what went on behind closed doors.
But still, I would say she got the worst
end of the scandal.
And like you said, like with like John
Oliver and like the rap lyrics, if you go
through all the references about her, it's
really, you know, distasteful, I would say
to say the least.
But it's definitely one of the scandals
that is.
I think by far one of the most well-known
in the US, if not like the most infamous
scandal.
But it's funny, it's like we were saying
earlier, it's a coin flip.
People just don't care anymore.
We moved on.
But there was a very similar, in that it
was a sexual scandal.
Do you remember Anthony Weiner?
Oh, yeah, I remember him.
So he for those of you who don't know, I
believe he was a New York state, U.S.
congressman, I believe.
So he was, you know, an upper mid level
politician.
And he was slowly starting to gain
popularity, like he was getting national
attention.
He was caught sending dick pics, I
believe.
And that was it.
He was done.
Nobody would touch him ever again.
The coin fell on the bad side for him.
Yeah, is he not doing anything at all?
I mean, he's probably doing something, but
like no more national media attention, no
more guest appearances on whatever talk
show, no more.
I can't remember if he like resigned or
whatever, or just served out his term
quietly.
But I think that was, that's gotta be more
than five years ago.
Like that was, I think that was like a mid
2010s thing, somewhere in there.
Yeah, I did a real quick check, cause it's
been a while.
So he went to prison and he got released
about four years ago and he's politically
dead.
But what did he go to prison for?
Was it not Dick Pix?
Was he sexually harassing people?
No, it was for transferring obscene
material to a minor.
Oh no, he was sending it to a minor?
Oh no.
Yeah, and was sentenced to 21 months in
prison.
A minor is basically an underage person.
It's a very interesting term to be honest,
but yeah.
And you have like a lot of political
scandals, and most of them either involve
money...
obviously, or sex.
And I think for the most part, a lot of
politicians kind of got away with the
whole like sexual side of things because
they were in such a higher like political
position, you know, they had just a lot
more leeway.
But then along came Weinstein, who wasn't
a politician, but like a movie director.
And
Bill Cosby, who was an actor.
And that was all around like the whole
like Me Too movement.
And so then there was like a lot more
focus placed on like how people were
acting behind closed doors, how people
were acting towards one another, if things
were like too close or you know, too
physical and whatnot.
And so a lot of things that people would
have just kind of brushed off like 20 or
40 years ago.
you know, as indiscretion, if you will, or
now like being hyper-analyzed.
So I think that's one of the reasons why a
lot of these politicians really don't
survive like any of these like sexual
scandals anymore.
That's my guess.
I mean, that could very well be the root
of it.
I.
The more I look at it, the more I'm still
not.
I don't 100 percent see the logic behind
everything.
No, because I mean, you know.
There are obviously sexual scandals with
politicians in modern days and people are
like, ah, we don't care.
Yeah, I think it just depends on, you
know, what group you're serving.
I definitely think a lot of people don't
really see it as being that big of a deal.
For me personally, I think it kind of
depends on like the whole situation of
like what kind of scandal it is,
especially if like there's sex involved.
If it's consensual for the most part.
It's pretty immoral.
I mean, you have to at least say that
it's, you know, it's immoral, like what
they're doing.
But for me, it's kind of like the whole
like art and artist kind of thing.
Like, is there any way for me to separate
like their personal life from like their
private life?
And if I can personally do it, then, you
know, like, eh.
I mean.
But I mean, I feel like for political
leadership, it's a little different.
If a political leader...
gave into something they knew was wrong
and immoral like cheating on their
significant other would who's to say they
wouldn't give in and do something immoral
politically like I mean it's all wrong
yeah they've already demonstrated they're
willing to do something wrong once yeah
that's definitely a slippery slope um but
yeah so I guess I'm kind of we can kind of
move on I don't know if you have like
anything else you wanted to touch on like
the whole monica thing
No, I think we're good to move on.
Yeah.
So going a little bit more back in time,
so before Weinstein and before Bill Cosby,
there was Hurricane Katrina.
So this is way back in 2004, which
honestly isn't that long ago, but for me
it feels like forever ago.
And
Yeah, there was a hurricane in Katrina,
basically.
So which is not in Katrina, sorry, in
Louisiana.
There we go.
So the hurricane was called Katrina.
For whatever reason, I think all of the
hurricanes have female names.
But I'm not sure why.
I can't remember the exact reasoning, but
there's like for all these like tropical
storms and everything, there's like a
predetermined list of names, like the next
one is going to be called this, the one
after that's going to be called.
And there's a cycle.
And when one is particularly bad, they
retire the name.
So Katrina was bad enough, Katrina has
been retired.
And so it was in 2005, I'm sorry, I said
2004.
Yeah, so Hurricane Katrina, I think is one
of those hurricanes, I believe everyone
knows, at least everyone, you know, who
survived and pays attention.
But like the fact that there was a
hurricane isn't the scandal because...
We have like so many hurricanes in the US
and so many tornadoes, it's nothing new.
What I think is a scandal is basically the
way Bush handled that.
So President Bush at the time.
And I think he was a pretty controversial
president, not in the sense of that he did
anything or said anything controversial
like Trump because Trump was super
controversial.
But he was definitely
considered, I guess, like a lackluster
president, especially for the way he
handled the whole Hurricane Katrina
situation.
So he got a lot of backlash for that.
Do you remember what happened on TV with
Kanye West at that time?
The George Bush doesn't care about black
people thing?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so.
like there was like a super slow response
to like helping people in Louisiana,
Katrina, the Gulf and all of that.
It was extremely, extremely slow, um, by
the standards at the time.
And so Bush got a lot of, you know, a lot
of flack for that.
And for those who don't know, especially
in the deep south, there are a lot of
people who are of Caribbean or like
African, quote unquote, African American
origin.
And so.
Kanye West goes onto TV and just says
point blank, Bush doesn't care about black
people.
I don't know if that's true.
I kind of lean towards the sides of it not
being true, but I don't know.
And yeah, that was pretty scandalous with
Kanye West and with Bush and all that, and
they were kind of at each other's throats
a little bit.
Yeah, well, and part of it was because, so
when Katrina happened, and something
similar happened with 9-11, big emergency
happens, president kind of goes silent.
And then I was actually just doing a
little reading on Katrina specifically,
which is what that quote was about.
Instead of like, you know, you always see
pictures of when there's a disaster.
the president goes to the disaster and
looks at things, right?
Yeah.
So he flew over it in Air Force one, which
I mean, you'd be able to see what's going
on, but you don't really get to see the
human suffering and like, you know,
optically, like, oh, we're all down here
suffering.
There's the president up there in his
comfortable plane.
It was just a bad mix of things.
And I think he was silent.
George Bush was silent on Katrina for like
days.
Yeah, yeah.
Wasn't he like on vacation at his ranch in
Texas or something?
I believe so.
And yeah, he was really slow on the whole
response.
And for whatever reason, I mean, he
survived that political scandal, if you
want to call it that.
The way he handled Katrina for a lot of
people was just, you know, just horrible,
was just terrible.
But he still got elected.
Well, no, you said it was 2005, right?
Oh yeah, that's right, that's right,
right.
He already, because he served 2000 to
2000, so he would have already...
Yeah, that's right, his second term.
Yeah.
Yeah, he would have already been serving
second term.
But I kind of confused that with, I guess,
which was another...
poor handling on his side, which was like
9-11.
And like, there's this, I think for anyone
who's of our age or older definitely
remembers 9-11 and what happened and where
they were.
I definitely remember that even though I
was super young.
And there's this infamous scene, I use the
word infamous a lot, but for me it feels
kind of infamous where.
the planes were flown into the Twin Towers
and like Secret Service comes in because
at this time Bush is reading to like a
group of children like some story I can't
remember what it was and you know they're
like hey Mr.
President there's been attack and blah and
he just kind of freezes and doesn't like
do anything and he basically has two
options one
you know, and then just, you know, I'm
sorry, I have to go, you know, there's
been attack or to keep reading, you know,
those are the only two options that you
really have.
And he chose to stay and just kept
reading.
And he got a lot of, you know, flack for
that.
A lot of people were mad at him about
that.
I don't know if I really caught a scandal
though.
Well, I think what happened was, so they
told him when the first plane hit, right?
Mm-hmm.
And then he's like, he made the decision
to keep reading.
And then they came back and told him when
the second plane hit.
And then I think after that point, they
there's actually pictures from that day.
They converted that classroom into like a
little emergency command center.
Oh, did they?
Yeah.
Which is kind of cool.
But like the main controversy was like the
nation's panicking.
Like people thought the whole.
country could be under attack.
Nobody knew it was happening.
There were multiple plane attacks, so who
knows?
The president really needed to go on TV
and tell us what was going on, and he
didn't.
That's actually Rudy Giuliani, the mayor
of New York at the time.
That's why he became so popular.
He was America's mayor after that.
Because he like took responsibility of
like going on TV like this is what's going
on.
This is what we're doing to fix it
People loved him for a long time after
that.
Bush or Giuliani?
Giuliani.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's definitely true.
He was very well loved, especially within
New York.
Obviously because that was ground zero
where the whole, where 9-11 happened,
unfortunately.
But Bush reading the book and how he
handled that situation and reacted,
it's...
I guess it really depends on how you look
at the situation and how you want to
analyze it if he did the right thing or if
he did the wrong thing, if he could have
done it better.
I don't know how to necessarily categorize
the event.
I'm just glad that I've never been in that
kind of situation because I think you
really only know how you're going to react
when you're actually in a situation like
that.
And you know, it's not something that
happens every day.
But it's definitely.
For a lot of people, it is kind of a
scandal.
And so some people feel it is kind of like
a failing on Bush's part.
You know, he should have like stopped the
interview and ran out of the classroom and
I don't know, but.
But yeah, so all of those and a lot of
scandals.
There's one you reminded me of.
Oh, because you brought him up Kanye West.
Mm hmm.
Because I mean, Kanye West was always a
little odd, but the more influence and
money he gained and.
It definitely kind of fed into a bad cycle
of his mental health.
And I think, what was it like a year ago?
He was, uh, was he like going on like in
an interview, like, oh, maybe the Nazis
were right.
Like something to that effect.
I can't remember the exact wording.
Uh, and that was one of the few instances
where, so like he lost his shoe deal.
Uh, I haven't really heard any news about
him in ever since.
Uh,
And it's one of those sad things where you
get so rich and famous, you surround
yourself with people who will do anything
you say because they want your money and
nobody's going to help you.
Yeah, basically.
Yeah, Kanye West has been involved in so
many scandals with so many politicians and
celebrities.
I mean, you could do like a whole podcast
about everything Kanye West has said or
done.
I'm pretty sure people have done podcasts
about that.
Oh and Taylor Swift at the award show like
I was gonna say Taylor Swift won and he
got up on stage and Interrupted do you
remember what he said?
I?
Can't is like, you know all respect to
Taylor, but so-and-so I have one of the
best albums of all time Yeah, so I can't
remember who was Beyonce.
Yeah, so basically Taylor Swift was
accepting an award and I can't remember
for what?
and for what song, but she was accepting
an award.
And for whatever reason, Kanye decided to,
you know, interrupt the whole, you know,
awards ceremony and basically say, you
know, I really liked Taylor Swift.
She's a really good singer and this and
that, but this award should have gone to
Beyonce.
And everyone's like, what are you doing?
And I think, I think Kanye is definitely a
really good example of what you said at
the very beginning of the episode, which
is,
A lot of these scandals can either make or
break people, or if you're really lucky,
then just no one cares after a year or
two.
And Kanye West is definitely the prime
example of that, to where he says things,
he does things, like he participates in
scandals, or he causes scandals, and
nothing ever seems to happen to him.
People are mad for a couple weeks, they're
mad for a month, and then everyone just
forgets it and they move on with their
lives.
And I think...
you know, the last scandal with like the
Jews and like the Nazis and whatnot, which
is always a very difficult subject and
always something that you should be very
careful about.
You know, he just manages to like step on
that landmine and lose everything.
Which is kind of odd because it's nothing
new.
You know, if you analyze everything he's
been doing for like the past 2015 years
and like all of his comments.
then you kind of know his position on a
lot of these things.
But, you know, what was it like Nike or
Adidas?
Can't remember who he does a partnership
with.
I think it was Nike.
Yeah.
And they're like, you know what?
We're done.
That's it.
We're done.
He also has like a weird religious school
that like has super weird rules.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah, but I don't know,
celebrities or I don't know if I would say
interesting but peculiar
But as they say, you know, it's either
they talk about you or they don't talk
about you.
And so some people prefer bad PR, you
know, public relations as opposed to
nothing.
Hey, they just don't talk about them
anymore.
Yeah, I mean, they're really trying.
I've kind of blocked them out of my feed,
to be honest, just because like, I'm not
that interested.
But yeah, so like a whole bunch of
scandals.
I think we've gone through a lot of
scandals.
I don't know if there's anything else you
wanna touch on before we get out of here
because we're slowly running out of time.
No, unless you wanna create a new scandal
and start shouting at each other at the
end of the podcast and breaking up
forever, I think we're good.
Yeah, no, so that's definitely a lot of
scandals.
I always find them very interesting.
far the simple fact that it's part of
like, I guess, the American conscience or
like any culture really, every culture has
their like most famous scandals.
They have them in every country.
They definitely have them in Germany.
We go on forever about those.
Yeah.
And you know what?
I did have something I want to add.
I'm sorry.
No, it's too late.
No, I'm just kidding.
We're over.
I think I am and to an extent most of us.
I kind of enjoy following scandals.
Like when it's really serious stuff, like
the charity thing, like, I guess even I
enjoy following that a bit.
But like, obviously, I wish that didn't
happen.
Like sports scandals, whatever.
It's it's definitely has a aspect of a
little bit of like.
Enjoying is Shadenfreude of the right
phrase like you enjoy.
just enjoying like the absolute garbage
fire that some of these situations turn
into.
Probably shouldn't, but we're only human.
Yeah, unfortunately, you know, we like to
watch people suffer.
You know, as they say in news, if it
bleeds, it leads.
Yep.
And so people tend to gravitate towards
things that are kind of gruesome or like
raunchy in nature.
I'm definitely not one of those people,
but I'll admit that sometimes my curiosity
gets the better of me.
But I try to keep that in check.
Anywho, yeah, so I hope that everyone had
a great Thanksgiving, even if you didn't
celebrate it.
I hope that at least the day was good.
Thanks so much for listening, and we'll
catch you all in the next one.
See you in the next one.
Bye.
See ya.
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