Centered From Reality

In this episode, Alex provides his analysis of President Joe Biden’’s State of the Union speech, as well as GOP Representative, Katie Britt’s, insane response. Alex gives Biden a B+ and thinks Britt is far from an Oscar for her performance. He argues that the SOTU is officially dead and instead, both parties have their own State of their Own Party that directly opposes the other. Alex analyzes both and tries to provide remedies for the partisan rot. 

In this episode, Alex starts by talking about the unanimous, 9-0 decision that the Supreme Court just released regarding the Anderson v Griswold case in Colorado that barred Donald Trump from being on the ballot in the state’s ballot for the national election. Though the court agreed that Colorado could not barr Trump from the ballot for a national election, Alex argues that it seems like this is a 5-4 decision masquerading as a 9-0 decision. All four of the women on the court (including a Trump appointee) disagreed with how far the other five wanted to go in the decision. It seems like the courts are now setting a precedent regarding section three of the fourtneeth amendment that will limit future cases regarding insurrectionist behavaior under this amendment. Finally, Alex looks at how Google’s AI chatbot, Gemini, appears to be generating skewed responses and images that are incorrect and show bias. Some on the right are calling Gemini woke. 

In this episode, Alex starts by debunking the idea that Donald Trump is an isolationist in foreign policy. He argues that Trump is actually quite involved in foreign policy, he just doesn’t agree with the current alliance-based system. Next, Alex dives into the economic changes happening in the United States’ skiing industries. After boom or bust seasons based on snowpack, large corporations like Vail Resorts ended up learning that they could charge different prices to different customers and make record profits. This led to overselling the Epic Pass (at a decent price), while also rising the average cost of day tickets. In a good season, this can lead to chaos and overcrowding (but profits), and in bad seasons, the passholders still feel obligated to ski. Basically, the ski industry has been able to increase output and demand (which is difficult in economics). Alex argues that this is why skiing feels less accessible than ever before but also more accessible at the same time. At the same time, price discrimination seems to be a new trend in the US economy and shows how the ski industry, the airline industry, and restaurants can make profits. Finally, Alex talks about how the Supreme Court has decided to hear Trump’s immunity case. It seems like SCOTUS is trying to stall a trial and it will help Trump in the election. 

In this episode, Alex talks about how the warning calls directed towards the Biden 2024 Campaign are now coming from inside of the party, as well as outside of it. The Michigan Primary has wrapped up and Biden won the vote of 81% of Democrats; however, turnout was down and the “uncommitted” vote came in second with 13.3% of the vote. At the same time, Donald Trump saw higher turnout, even though he only got a bit over 68% against Nikki Haley’s 26%. In a state as crucial as Michigan, Alex worries that the Biden Campaign should be worried about the left’s fracturing politics and the internal opposition to his own presidency that exists within the party.

In this episode, Alex starts by talking about how Taco Bell may be the last great unifier in the United States and how cartwheels are a dangerous abomination. Then he gets into an interesting case surrounding Air Canada, a chatbot that gave a customer false information, and a Canadian court ruling that the airline was responsible for the chatbot’s behavior. Alex argues this is a landmark case. Finally, Alex talks about the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that the embryos used in In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) are a life and harming these embryos is equivalent to taking a life. The GOP is all over the place on responding to this issue and Alex thinks the hypocrisy and ignorance is insane. 

In this episode, Alex talks the death of Alexei Navalny and about his legacy. He discusses why he was such an important opposition figure to Putin that held a mirror up to the Kremlin’s moral hypocrisy. Alex also talks about why Navalny was a complex and controversial figure, and while he was an imperfect opposition figure, he was necessary to unify Russians against Putin’s kleptocratic regime. Later, Alex talks about Tucker Carlson’s insane compliments about Russian infrastructure and supermarkets. He asks why question — is Tucker a useful idiot or a fellow traveler? Or could be be a bit of both?

In this episode, Alex starts with a dark rant about the origins of Valentine’s Day. Then he hesitantly celebrates the results of a special election held in New York following the expulsion of George Santos. In the special election, Tom Suozzi (the Democrat) beat Mazi Pilip (the Republican) in a crucial seat that could help Democrats take back the house in the 2024 election. For the rest of the episode, Alex talks about the Enhanced Games. The games have been funded by venture capitalists like Peter Thiel and are arguing that the Olympics is flawed and that performance enhancing drugs should be embraced, not banned. The games also are solely funded through private organizations with questionable motives. Alex finds that the games showcase a nightmarish intersection between ethical issues, anarcho-capitalism, flawed science, reactionary politics, and skepticism of international non-profits. 

In this episode, Alex covers Tucker Carlson’s journey to interview Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Nikki Haley’s loss to “None of the Above” in Nevada’s Primary, and the GOP’s bad week in the House and Senate!

In this episode, Alex focuses on the allure that many countries are facing — tradeoffs between security and liberty. The issue has been even more pronounced in a lot of Latin America where failed goverments and rising gang violence have driven the populace to demand security and economic stability. Alex looks at President Nayib Bukele in El Salvador and how he has locked up thousands of potential gang members without due process. The country is safer and the economy is doing better, but Alex worries that these tradeoffs may be appealing in the short term but could help entrench a wannabe-autocrat like Bukele in the longer term. 

In this episode, Alex starts by going through some clips from a recent Tucker Carlson event where he twists himself into a myriad of logical pretzels that he would have been ashamed of several years ago. Next, Alex briefly talks about how the European Union has agreed on giving Ukraine 50 billion euros in aid over the next four years. The EU was even able to get Viktor Orban to fold on his opposition. Finally, Alex dives into the primary/caucus chaos that is unfolding in Nevada less than a week out from its primary and caucus. Basically, there is a Republican primary on February 6th and a Republican caucus on February 8th; the problem is that Nikki Haley is only on the primary ballot and Donald Trump is only in the caucus a few days later. Alex argues this may cause more confusion ahead of the 2024 election and also shows the internal division in the current GOP.