Will SNAP be fully funded? What's going on with Italian pasta?
Hosted by:
- Jamon Fries
https://mindlessmeanderings.com
(00:00:20) IOC vs ISC mix-up
(00:01:52) 50-year mortgages
(00:05:26) Starter homes
(00:07:44) How to lower housing prices
(00:09:57) Falling prices
(00:12:16) SNAP court tangle
(00:16:29) Shutdown mechanics
(00:19:35) Filibuster frustration
(00:27:12) Tariff dividend
(00:27:52) Rethinking healthcare
(00:33:02) Passports gender marker change
(00:34:49) Dearborn plot foiled via foreign-call surveillance
(00:36:43) Arizona teachers’ Halloween shirt controversy and overreaction
(00:42:41) J6 pipe bomb identity speculation and skepticism
(00:45:10) Flight cancellations amid shutdown and real-life paycheck impacts
(00:48:16) Italian pasta tariffs: dumping claims and an Italian-on-Italian proxy fight
(00:48:16) Foreclosures, tax sales, and changing laws on surplus proceeds
(00:51:48) BBC editing scandal, royal charter woes, and Doctor Who funding drama
(00:58:06) Russia-Ukraine energy strikes and shifting Syria alliances; Germany on refugees
(01:00:28) France’s Sarkozy in-and-out of jail and value-for-value break
(01:03:20) Business block: OpenAI asks for credits, bailouts debate, and odd ideas to fight floods
(01:09:54) EV reality check: Ford Lightning, infrastructure chicken-and-egg
(01:12:25) Tesla news: trillion-dollar pay plan and robotaxi "cyber cab"
(01:14:11) Card networks settlement: swipe fees, points cards, and Apple Pay policies
(01:19:03) Legal roundup: pardons with no effect and gay marriage case rejected
(01:22:35) Studies corner: daily orange juice and gray hair vs cancer
(01:26:15) Closing credits and next episode teaser
Good afternoon, everybody. It is, yeah, Monday. I always keep forgetting that day. It is Monday, October or November. Yep. Messed me up. November 10, and we are live with episode 78 of the minus meanderings. I'm Jesse Friese. And I just learned that the the International Olympic Committee has, banned trans from women's sports.
[00:00:47] Jamon Fries:
And I'm Jamin Freese, and, yeah, I knew that a while ago.
[00:00:54] Jesse Fries:
This just came down. How did you know that work?
[00:00:57] Jamon Fries:
Oh, no. That's right. It was the, it wasn't the
[00:01:01] Jesse Fries:
Olympic Committee. It was the International Sports Committee. Yeah. Yeah. Which is headband that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep. But, no, the IOC has banned transgenders from
[00:01:15] Jamon Fries:
female sports. Not for men, from what I can understand because well Well, I mean, hey. You know? Yeah. If women are good enough to compete against the men at that level Yeah. Then by all means, let them compete against the men. No. Exactly. Exactly. So yeah. So there we go. There we go.
[00:01:31] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Okay. So what we what do we have today?
[00:01:39] Jamon Fries:
Well, we have a lot today. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. Lot that happened over the weekend. It was a very busy weekend. It really was. It was. Yes. Yeah. One thing one thing that I ran across was Uh-huh. That, and this is there's nothing official done about this. Trump posted something that hints at it. Uh-huh. So he he posted a picture of the president that brought in the thirty year mortgage. Right. And then he posted a picture of himself with fifty year mortgage on top of it. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:02:19] Jesse Fries:
Because So
[00:02:21] Jamon Fries:
I that that would be one way to make housing more affordable is because the price of your mortgage payments would be decreased because that you're paying it over much a much longer period of time. Yes. Yes. So there's that benefit, but then, you know, there's the whole okay. So you get thirty years in and according to the the mortgage, you know, charts and stuff like that, you've only paid for 15%
[00:02:49] Jesse Fries:
a year almost after thirty years. Exactly. Just think how quickly you could get underwater in them thing. Oh, I know. Seriously. It's it's like when I bought my house, everybody was given over asking, you know, because that's what it was. We paid, what, like, $5.50 or something like that. Now it's down to $4.70. Oh, yeah. If we had a fifty year mortgage and didn't put down, like, a 20% deposit, yeah. No. We'd be underwater. You know? It's like possible. Yeah. And that 50, it's like, come on. You know, that's Yeah.
I guess if you wanna buy the one house for the rest of your life, you know, I guess There is there is one way that you could turn a profit and be have it be beneficial to you. Uh-huh.
[00:03:38] Jamon Fries:
And that is if you find out how much a thirty year mortgage would be, and you pay the premium of a thirty year mortgage putting the extra towards the principal alone.
[00:03:50] Jesse Fries:
Right. Right.
[00:03:52] Jamon Fries:
That would drive the principal of the house down very sharply. I could see that. I could see that. And you'd be able to pay off your loan very early doing that. So Mhmm. I mean, it it's we if you're if you're gonna do something like a fifty year mortgage, god, that seems like a very long time.
[00:04:10] Jesse Fries:
Well, you entire life right now. Well, you know something. Technically, do you know where the word mortgage comes from? No. It it comes from French, and it literally means dead pledge. So it's really accurate, really, when you think about it. Yeah. So yeah. It is. Yeah.
[00:04:30] Jamon Fries:
Well, you know, that that that that put the whole new meaning on the, reverse mortgages.
[00:04:36] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. Exactly. You're coming back to life. You know? Yeah. No. It it's I find it stupid. How about we you you know, I think nobody likes to think about maybe having a smaller house. But, you know, if you look at, like, square footage, houses actually are pretty uneven keel for inflation. Yes. It's just that nobody builds those small starter homes that they had back in the fifties and sixties.
[00:05:09] Jamon Fries:
That is where it you you look around and I mean, even even looking at, manufactured homes and if you look at modular homes Mhmm. Which is one where it's built in a factory and then they put it on a solid Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's a better way to do it if you're gonna buy if you're gonna build. Oh. It's much better way to do it. Absolutely. It's cheaper. Yep. You don't have the you don't have the word they don't have to worry about weather when they're building. So, you know, it just yeah. But I have never seen a manuf a modular house that had less than two bedrooms.
[00:05:45] Jesse Fries:
No. Yeah. Yeah. They they used to build houses of them are three bedrooms. They used to build houses with one bedroom. Yeah. I don't think you could even find a house with one bedroom nowadays. I really don't. I don't Except maybe a cabin, like, up in that sort of thing. You know, if you're building a cabin, for skiing or whatnot. But I think that's really about it. Even that, it'd probably be two, more or less.
[00:06:08] Jamon Fries:
You know? It it's Now if you're going with manufactured homes, the which is, you know, mobile homes, trailers, then you can find one bedrooms. Okay. Okay. That'd work. But I haven't yet found a one bedroom trailer home that had a washer dryer in it.
[00:06:27] Jesse Fries:
So they don't need one. Washer or dryer. Yeah. That's hilarious.
[00:06:31] Jamon Fries:
That's hilarious. Which is completely ruled out the one bedroom for me because there ain't no fucking way in hell at 50 years old that I'm going to
[00:06:38] Jesse Fries:
a 100,000,000 again. No. I I I understand. I understand. But, yeah, you know, it's like a house used to be a living room, dining room Yeah. Kitchen, one bathroom, two, three beds. Yes. That is it. Yeah. You know? And so but now nobody wants that house. You know? You you you even if you're just starting out no. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, most of the places where those houses are, it's like it's in the city. Oh, yeah. Right? Yeah. And, basically, what happens to them is that when somebody buys them, they go for way over what they're actually worth Oh, yeah. Just so that they can tear it down and then put up a two, three story.
Yeah. So, yeah, it's those types of things don't but that would actually help the housing crisis.
[00:07:28] Jamon Fries:
Yes. It would. Be between that and all of the investors that are buying houses from Oh, yeah. BlackRock and whatnot. Yep. Yeah. Between you get so there there's three things that I think would would drop the housing prices massively.
[00:07:44] Jesse Fries:
Mhmm. A,
[00:07:45] Jamon Fries:
build some smaller houses because not everybody needs a big house. Right. Right. B, make it so that you so that there are detriments to buying house for investment. Like, you know, like, what Florida stock was talking about doing at one point in time where they were going to eliminate property taxes except for on investment houses. No. Yeah. Completely. Makes absolute sense. It makes it so that it makes it I I think that the house would would be a lot more affordable for a single owner. Mhmm. The third thing is and this is something that's that's I I'm not I'm kind of shocked that I haven't seen the result of it quite as much yet.
As the illegals go, more houses are available.
[00:08:42] Jesse Fries:
No. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
[00:08:44] Jamon Fries:
That is true. Those are the three things that can really drive down the housing prices that I think are good ideas to do. And, you know, thank you for at least doing one of them so far. No. I agree.
[00:08:59] Jesse Fries:
Now the thing is, also, right now, we're kinda stuck in this, quasi in between to where all these people that have houses, the a lot of them wanna sell. Like, around here, they wanna sell. And I see a lot of houses that are up for sale. Yep. But given the interest rate and everything like that, they are not willing to lower the cost their price on a house. So they're just sitting there empty. So many of them because Yeah. They're like, oh, no. I want my $500,000. I want it. You know? It's like Yeah. Good luck with that, dude. You know? It's like, if you wanna sell it, you need to it's come down from there, you know, by quite a bit. Yeah. So whatever you think you were gonna sell it at, you you you just can't anymore because of, well, there's so many houses out there.
And Yeah. The high interest rates. And
[00:09:48] Jamon Fries:
and I think that's going to cause an issue for them even more. And this is one thing I don't understand about a lot of people. Mhmm. They look at the current trend of housing, which is the prices are starting to drop again.
[00:10:02] Jesse Fries:
Right.
[00:10:03] Jamon Fries:
And they think, well, I can hold on for a year or so before, you know, to to before I sell it, hoping that that they'll go back up to get my to get the price that I want out of it. Right. Right. Well, what do you do if it just keeps going down for the next four years?
[00:10:20] Jesse Fries:
Seriously. And, you know, I bet it will. I really do. I don't think Oh, yeah. Yeah. I don't think housing prices are gonna go up. You know? I hope when I sell, I can at least, pay off my mortgage and have enough to put down a down payment on the next house because I put down a down payment on this one. But Yes. I'm not even betting on that down payment. Down pay? I really am not. No. I mean, it it's,
[00:10:44] Jamon Fries:
yeah. It the the minimum should be pay off the mortgage. Oh, completely. I cannot sell the house for less than to pay off the mortgage. Yeah. No. Otherwise, you have to get with the bank and say, well Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a whole hassle. Yep. And then they have to transfer it from a property mortgage, or you have to roll it over roll that amount over into the next mortgage that you're gonna get or something. Yep. And I don't know exactly how that all works. I've never I've never owned a house. So but, I mean, I I can I could see that there's certain different ways, you know? If you're selling the house, then maybe they could roll it over to a to a put the lien on some other property that you own, like vehicles or something like that, you know, don't own too much. Right.
Or roll it over into a new mortgage on a house, which means that you're gonna have to borrow a hell of a lot more money Mhmm. Because it would get tacked on to the price of the house. Oh, yeah. So oh, yeah. I mean, it just, yeah. It's so at least try to if you can if you can sell your house if you're looking at selling your house and you can sell it to cover your mortgage cost, you can cover your mortgage. You don't need to be concerned about anything else. I mean, it's it would be nice to get more money. Yep. See, that's the thing. It's that's how we're gonna be able to help. Minimum that you can accept,
[00:12:10] Jesse Fries:
it's to cover your mortgage. Oh, yeah. I I'd agree. I would agree. Yeah. Let's see here. Let's, go on to well, let's go with, I guess, Snap and the shutdown and everything like that. There's a whole bunch of stuff Yep. With that. Oh, yeah. I thought that. Let's see here. So just for SNAP itself, it's kinda funny. It's like so Trump was ordered to pay and use other funds that weren't part of SNAP to try to give full benefits for SNAP. He was worth that. Then he asked the Supreme Court to get involved in the Supreme Court. And this is just Jackson. So very liberal judge.
Mhmm. She gave him a pause on it. She in saying, well, this let's let this go through. But for now, there he doesn't have to pay that. The the remaining balance on the snap, not just the partial. And now in appeals court, like, last night at midnight, said that he has to pay it.
[00:13:11] Jamon Fries:
So in a guilt's court overruled
[00:13:13] Jesse Fries:
No. No. No. No. No. That's not that's not. Well, I mean, because the Supreme Court's that still holds. So that hold still holds. It's up until Tuesday. Okay. It's just that, basically, the appeals court wasn't dealing with what Jackson said, with what the Supreme Court said. They were just dealing with what the lower court said, and they said that the lower court was right. Partial payment. Correct. No. No. No. Full payment. Oh, full payment? Full payment. Because Trump has do full payment. No. Trump and well, the administration, they did the partial payment.
They did that. That is not what they were arguing about. It was the full payment because, a judge said, well, some states can't do this, which is what the administration said. Yes. And so and then some states just went and did a full payment, and then the administration says you shouldn't have done that. You can't do that. You have to take some of that back. It's a huge mess, dude. Whole snap thing. It's just it it's when right now what's happening is that the courts, they're overstepping the bounds Oh. And they're trying to dictate where funds come from and what funds can pay for what funds Yeah. Which is not their role in any of this. That's the purview
[00:14:39] Jamon Fries:
of congress and the presidency.
[00:14:43] Jesse Fries:
Well, it's the legislature that gets to decide where these funds go to. And then the administration to actually do it. Yeah. Yeah. The the legislature
[00:14:52] Jamon Fries:
determines what areas the fund the funds go to, and then the legislature determines the individual projects that it goes to. Yeah.
[00:15:04] Jesse Fries:
Unless the unless the legislature does a line item, this project has to be funded. Well, right. It but that the money, it's not it's for certain things. It's not just Yes. Yes. It's this much for this, this much for that, and everything like that. It's earmarked for certain areas. Correct. And the judges are saying, well, you need to take it from that to pay for this because you can't do a partial payment. It's like and the administration had said, we can't do a partial payment because of this. This is why we are holding up that snap to begin with, and then the judges forced that. And so it just caused this whole train wreck of a situation that's going on right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you, of course, get what happened last night as well. Right?
[00:15:54] Jamon Fries:
You know? Which is what? Which is, the house senate finally advanced the bill for the to, stop the government shutdown. Yeah. Like, five or eight. I've heard both, Democrats Well, the they they originally there there were a total of eight that crossed over. There there there were originally three that, three that had that were voting with with Republicans. They got another five to get them up to the 60. Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. Got it. That makes sense. That makes sense. So So it all depends on how people are saying it. But yeah. No. Yeah. Essentially, five new ones to add on to the three old ones, which gave them the eight. Okay. And minus the one Republican,
[00:16:38] Jesse Fries:
Rand Paul. So pure craziness. It's pure craziness. I'm gonna say it's, but that's that's almost a done deal, but it's not quite they it was just one hurdle that they passed on the whole thing. So So so I've I've listened to an explanation of what happens next. Uh-huh. So next to vote, next to decision to fast track everything comes up. Okay.
[00:17:05] Jamon Fries:
The problem with that fast track option is if there is a single representative.
[00:17:11] Jesse Fries:
Mhmm.
[00:17:12] Jamon Fries:
A single person that says, no, we can't fast track. I wanna talk about this. Yep. It gets slowed down. Yep. They have to go the slow route. That's all they still go the slow route. Which which will take about three to four days, they figure.
[00:17:26] Jesse Fries:
Yep. Yep. Yep.
[00:17:30] Jamon Fries:
The House of Representatives, the leader of the house has called for all of the members to return now. Mhmm. So that he's given them thirty six hours to return. Gave them longer because of all the flight delays and stuff like that. Mhmm. But, so so he's so he's got thirty six hours for the they they gave them thirty six hours to come back. So as soon when they get when they're back, if the if they do end up doing the long route, as soon as the as soon as the senate votes on the bill, then the house will be able to vote on the bill almost immediately.
[00:18:08] Jesse Fries:
Okay.
[00:18:09] Jamon Fries:
If the senate fast tracks it, then the vote could be today. The the the final senate vote could be today, and then when the when the house gets enough people there to hold a quorum Right. They could vote on it as well. Makes sense. Makes sense. At that point in time, it goes to Trump to sign. Yeah. Well, you'll pretty much need all Republicans
[00:18:33] Jesse Fries:
in the house to be there Yes. Because it's a slim majority, and the Democrats are still fighting it. Yep. From what I understand and everything like that, people talked about this before. They said the way this is gonna happen, how it's gonna end is that, Schumer will know it's over, but he can't do anything about it himself as if he can't vote against it because that would make him look weak and everything like that. So he needs to get other Democrat senators, especially moderate ones, to vote the way he wants them to vote even though he won't vote that way. Yeah. Just so that you can open up the government and he can save face. Even though he's he's done. He's toast. He's not gonna be the next he's not gonna be senator anymore. I really don't think New York will reelect him. They'll probably be AOC or something.
Yeah. But yeah. It's just this whole it's a farce. It's a whole farce. Yes. And it's they should just get rid of the filibuster. Just get rid of it. Yeah. Trump's finally on my side. You know? Yeah. Yeah. The the
[00:19:37] Jamon Fries:
the senators say no way in hell are we getting rid of it, though.
[00:19:41] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Yeah. But it's because they like their power. They're power hungry. Idiots is what they are. And they'd love to be able to hold it over people's heads. And but they go, oh, it's because we want decorum. We want to really think about things. We want to blah blah blah blah. No. No. You're power I would I would just say that the filibuster is undemocratic. Well
[00:20:06] Jamon Fries:
well, but that's not a problem. We're not a democracy. So who cares? I know. But, you know, I mean, everybody keeps saying how that's that's, you know, the the opposite of democ of dem Democratic. That's not democratic. Right. Right. Right. Well, a, we're not a democratic, so that's fine.
[00:20:24] Jesse Fries:
Yep. Yep. But
[00:20:26] Jamon Fries:
at the same time, you're also holding on to shit that's undemocratic and not letting that be changed. So why do you have an issue with this one?
[00:20:37] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. Exactly. But, you know, the yeah. It it's all stupid. We need to get rid of it. Yeah. It's it's Yep. It's been holding things up way too much. It really has. Oh, yeah. The the how partisan things have gotten since the nineties, and it really started in the nineties. It's just gotten, basically, once the Soviet Union fell, we've been screwed. Yeah. Our system is starting to have a common enemy. No. Exactly. Exactly. There wasn't something that both sides could come and agree upon. Yeah. Yeah. No. I I I completely. I I think that's really Damn it, Ronald Reagan. You fucked us over. Exactly. We needed that great enemy, you know. Maybe that's what they're trying to get to now. Maybe that's why they want Russia to be our enemy again. You know where it's Yeah. That could be. Although, I thought we had China for that. But, I mean, China's never has never really done anything to us. So Yeah. Not yet. Not yet. We haven't pissed them off enough. And Russia hasn't done anything to us either. So No. They haven't.
Yeah. Yeah. It was Germany that did something, you know, I and Japan, you know, but, you know Yep.
[00:21:42] Jamon Fries:
But now they became our greatest of friends, but our allies back then. No. They're our enemy. Exactly.
[00:21:53] Jesse Fries:
Geopolitics. Gotta love it. Right? Yep. Yep.
[00:21:58] Jamon Fries:
No. Do you know another another reason why we why we can't see China as the enemy Uh-huh. Is because it's communist and, well, the Democrats want us to become more socialist slash communist. No. No. The Soviet Union was communist. That doesn't matter. I don't think that No. No. I know that. But back then, even the Liberals were not going nearly that far with socialism and stuff like that. Well, right. Whereas now an outright communist almost Is is about to be mayor. In control of the mayor is gonna be in control of New York City.
[00:22:32] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. But it looks like a lot of his plans aren't gonna work because apparently, he needs a lot of help from the or he needs the approval of the governor and the legislature to actually get things done as in higher taxes and everything like that. And they're, like, go Hochul is, like, going, I don't think so, dude.
[00:22:50] Jamon Fries:
So And then did did you see the, video that he put out requesting money now? No. So during during the election, he kept telling people, we've got you don't need to send us more money. Stop sending us money. Stop sending us money. Uh-huh. We we can do this on our own. Stop sending us money. Okay. As soon as he got elected, he's like, well, you know, all these changes that we need, you can start sending us money again.
[00:23:21] Jesse Fries:
Hilarious.
[00:23:24] Jamon Fries:
And he wants to send directly to his transition team.
[00:23:29] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. No. No. Sorry, dude. Sorry, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You you you put yourself there. You know? That's, yep. Yep. That's fine. Yeah. That's fine. Let's see. Speaking of money, there's that, $2,000 tariff dividend Trump Yeah. Kinda hinted at. He's talked about, but he can't just do it on his own. He needs commercial approval. But,
[00:23:54] Jamon Fries:
Yep. No. The back when he back when he originally was talking about giving out a dividend for the for for the, income from the tariffs, There was actually a bill that was created in in the house Mhmm. To give out a $600 check to everyone.
[00:24:13] Jesse Fries:
Right.
[00:24:15] Jamon Fries:
And but that has never even been discussed in the house yet ever since some ever since how will he put it put it out? No one's ever talked about it. Yeah. Yeah. Same thing will happen with this, I think. So Probably. Yeah. But, yeah, that was kind of interesting that he wanted that he was talking about that.
[00:24:38] Jesse Fries:
I could use it to pay down my student loans. You know, that'd helpful. That is true. Yes. Yes. Especially if both me and Carol get one, that'd be $4,000 I could put on that. You know? It's like Yeah. And then if the kids get one, then I would just Yeah. It it's for every citizen of The United States. Well, right. For high income earners. But, see, I wouldn't take the kids. I would put that into savings, you know, for for college and everything like that. So I I I move that to there. But then for mine and Carol's, I we'd probably use that to pay off. Oh, no. You got you guys might not get one, though. Yeah. I know. That's the thing. It should be for everybody. Classifies as high income people. I know. It should be everybody. Because, you know, what does it matter that extra million people?
I know. You know? It's like
[00:25:24] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. No. I mean, it it's it's one of those things where he's where I mean, Trump is a liberal. He is a democrat. He's a he's the old old school democrat. Yep. Yep. And so he his mentality, probably, he still has the same thoughts that all old school Democrats had, and that we don't need to help the rich. We only need to help the poor. Right. Right. And so this is where that, you know, except for high income people is coming from. Mhmm. No. I I I completely understand. That's usually how they do all these things. Yeah. It's like even on one of those As far as I'm concerned, a citizen of The United States is a is a citizen of The United States no matter how much money they make. Therefore, if you are going to give money to the citizens of The United States,
[00:26:15] Jesse Fries:
you have to give that money to every citizen of The United States. I would think so. I would think so just across the board, you know, because it wouldn't some of them wouldn't care, you know. It would just be Well, right. I mean, many people wouldn't care.
[00:26:28] Jamon Fries:
The the problem is is that the constitution and the law of The United States specifically says you have to treat everyone equal. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. You cannot make a law that only affects certain people. Mhmm. It has to affect everyone. Therefore, a stimulus or a rebate or whatever they decide to call it has to affect everyone.
[00:26:56] Jesse Fries:
No. I I I I'm I'm with you. I'm with you. I'm with you. It'd be nice. It would be nice. Yeah.
[00:27:03] Jamon Fries:
It would it would give me a down payment for it would give me all all the money that I need for a down payment for a trailer I'm looking at buying. So, yeah, I'd be That's perfect. That's perfect.
[00:27:12] Jesse Fries:
Yep. Yep. Yeah. And another thing he could do, you know, as he was talking about, he put on truth. He said, I recommend to set Republicans at a 100 that the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money sucking insurance companies in order to save the bad health care provided by Obamacare be sent directly to the people so that they can purchase their own much better health care?
[00:27:34] Jamon Fries:
Well, I I actually was was thinking about this. Mhmm. I don't think I've said it on the show before, but it's kind of an interesting thought that I had. It's something that I something I thought about, like, about three or four weeks ago. Mhmm. And one thing that I was thinking to a way to revamp the, to revamp everything for with the with the health care system as far as insurance goes. If everyone had a health savings account for their general care Mhmm. And then those that felt like they were at risk for big things like cancer or if things like that, huge expenses
[00:28:23] Jesse Fries:
Mhmm.
[00:28:24] Jamon Fries:
Could purchase a separate insurance premium that would handle
[00:28:30] Jesse Fries:
catastrophic events like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That makes sense.
[00:28:34] Jamon Fries:
That way you've got the regular health savings account. You're paying your own money, your cash, to the doctors keeping the prices lower because everyone knows well, you should know if you don't, that it's that someone without insurance does not pay nearly as much to a hospital as someone with insurance.
[00:28:53] Jesse Fries:
Seriously. And you can also shop around for deals that way. Yeah.
[00:28:58] Jamon Fries:
Yes. So by having full control of your of of the money that's set aside in an in a health savings account Mhmm. You could handle all of your general needs, You know, your doctor's visits, your emergency room visits, stuff like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But then you but then but then I can also see a reason to look at a higher end insurance plan for, say, cancer or other diseases that are
[00:29:29] Jesse Fries:
extremely expensive to to fix. Yeah. Like heart disease and whatnot. You know? Yeah. Well, some of that some of that's cheap on the cheap side. Right. Right. Like a like a stint is like nothing almost nowadays. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. No. Yeah. I I'm I'm with you on that. I'm with you on that. It it makes sense. You know? Why do we need this behemoth UnitedHealthcare whatnot, Blue Cross Blue Shield that tells visit. Exactly. You know? Okay. I'll pay, what, pay a $100 a visit or something like that. You know? Yeah. And then you're you're you're done. Because generally, until you get old I can understand Medicaid, for or Medicare for old people. I really understand that.
[00:30:14] Jamon Fries:
Yeah.
[00:30:15] Jesse Fries:
Or if people really old and disabled is definitely a great thing. Yes. But beyond that, most of us are healthy and don't need it. Yeah. You know? Except for catastrophe, and so we spend so much money on whatever, you know, and Yeah.
[00:30:31] Jamon Fries:
Well, I mean, you've got you've got what? Maybe I don't know what the percentage rates are, but a very, very small percent of the population actually has extremely expensive care that they need taken care of. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Completely. The rest of the population doesn't need to be paying these insane premiums just to go see a doctor. And if they're trying to get sick
[00:31:00] Jesse Fries:
For a high deductible plan. Yeah. You know? So it's like
[00:31:06] Jamon Fries:
It's a a boy. There's some some deductibles are so freaking high that no matter how many times you and your kids go to the hospital, you never get to the point where is it where it starts paying for everything. Unless if you have a catastrophe.
[00:31:20] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. It's the only time. Exactly. Yes. So it's way too much coming out of your pocket for when you don't need it. Yep. Yeah. No. I I'm with you. I'm with you on that one. The whole health care industry is messed up, yo. It really is. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I don't think having the government get step in or anything like that would help or anything. No. Let's just make it how it was. You know, you pay per visit. You know, you pay for this. You pay for that. You know? That's it. Yeah. You know? And I Set up payment plan. Support. I I fully support having a
[00:31:55] Jamon Fries:
separate type, you know, like, we've got savings accounts now that are for education Mhmm. Where grandparents and stuff like that can put money into it for their for their grandkids' education and stuff like that. We can absolutely continue that type of thing with a health savings account. That's all it is. It's a it's where you put money into so that you can use it only for health care. Oh, yeah. I'm with you. And it makes absolute sense.
[00:32:21] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. It really does. It really does. But they're not gonna do it. The health industry is way too big. Too much money coming into the There's too there's too many strong lobbyists working for the with the insurance companies. Oh, yeah. Completely.
[00:32:35] Jamon Fries:
Lobbyists still never allow it to happen.
[00:32:38] Jesse Fries:
No. You just have to do it and let them yell and scream and everything like that. That's what they're doing with Trump when he's trying to change that. Some things. Some things he's letting them go, and then some things he's, fighting all those lobbyists on. So Yeah. Yeah. The only the only thing I don't like about the, bill getting rid of the shutdown
[00:32:56] Jamon Fries:
is that they put in there that, everybody that Trump fired is gonna be rehired.
[00:33:02] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. I I think that's a small one that you can do good. Okay. Here. Have a win. You could say you did something.
[00:33:09] Jamon Fries:
You know? It's like Yeah. I I really like the concept of Trump using this to really chart to to really
[00:33:18] Jesse Fries:
get rid of some of that bureaucracy though. Well, right. Right. But some the only ways that he can do it now. But some judges already said that he couldn't right. But some judges had already said he couldn't do it. So I know.
[00:33:30] Jamon Fries:
No. That would be like a court telling Microsoft they they can't fire a redundant janitor.
[00:33:38] Jesse Fries:
Well, maybe that janitor is specially trained, Jim. Just just me. Yeah. Let's see. Trump did get a win, though another will win at the Supreme Court. Okay. The Supreme Court is allowing, the transgender and binary to be taken off a passport. So now it's either just male or female. Yes. Yep. So there is that. They they said, well, it's the state department. They can do what they want. Yeah. So there is that. There is that.
[00:34:13] Jamon Fries:
That is good.
[00:34:14] Jesse Fries:
Yep. Yep. Yep. And then it comes to tariffs. Yeah. More than likely I still don't know how that's gonna go. Some people say it'll go one way. Some people say it'll go the other way. It's it's it's too up in the air right now.
[00:34:32] Jamon Fries:
It it's one of those situations where it's such an iffy concept of what he did that we have no idea what the hell is gonna happen when it gets us when it when the Supreme Court makes their decision Oh, yeah. Now.
[00:34:46] Jesse Fries:
Completely. Completely. Yeah. Let's see here. The Dearborn, terrorist attack and everything like that or the failed one, the one that they stopped and everything like that. So everything I can see, this was not this was not a a FBI informant situation. So this was not necessarily, they they there's nothing that I know that so shows that there was an informant there. But what it looks like it was is it was using, you know, our ability to under the Patriot Act, we could actually, like, listen in on foreigners' calls. Yeah.
And if that one if that foreigners' calls was to a US citizen, it would be caught up in that. Yeah. And it was okay per the courts. Yeah. Everything like that. Right. Well, that's how they caught these guys. Okay. Uh-huh. Yeah. So they used the the surveillance of foreign phone calls of known terrorists and everything like that or subjects, and they got these Dearborn guys. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. So you can complain about it, but
[00:35:57] Jamon Fries:
not usually a big fan of the Patriot Act on a whole, but there are certain aspects of it that
[00:36:05] Jesse Fries:
are beneficial to us at least. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, ever since that whole thing came out, I I because I have family, you know, whatnot overseas. You know? So, yeah, my phone calls are probably being intercepted. Text messages are being intercepted. Yeah. I I just know this. You know? And, my father-in-law, he worked a bit with the state department there for for a little bit. So our state department. Okay. So, yeah, I'm sure those calls are Oh, yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a Yep. But yeah. So there's that. And then
[00:36:43] Jamon Fries:
we got I'll I'll do my story. Okay. So in Arizona, there was, some high school math teachers that decided to reuse last year's Halloween t shirts
[00:37:01] Jesse Fries:
Okay.
[00:37:03] Jamon Fries:
Which are white t shirts Uh-huh. With red fake blood stains on the left side Uh-huh. That says problem solved.
[00:37:17] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. I saw this.
[00:37:24] Jamon Fries:
Now I'm not the the the the it was used for Halloween last year. The the t shirt was was designed, it's just sold on Amazon. And they're mathematicians. Yeah. They're mathematicians. They're math teachers. So I mean, it it it makes sense. And at the last year, they're they had, like, a, I think they were doing it again this year, a zombie, one of those zombie run things. Right. Right. Right. Sponsored by by the students. Yeah. And so they they bought these t shirts to fit in to the to fit in with the group. And Uh-huh. They actually what they actually won an award in the school for the for their costume and everything Uh-huh. Like that. And so they they so this year, they were deciding they were trying to figure out what to do for Halloween again. Uh-huh.
And it came down to two choices, which was reusing the old t shirt or going with with a costume that was, that was off of the six seven thing that you brought that you taught me about. Yeah. Yeah. Six six seven.
[00:38:33] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. And you have to do the hand gesture with it.
[00:38:38] Jamon Fries:
But, so so they decided that they didn't wanna spend any more money, so they went with these t shirts. Uh-huh. Yep. Yep. Oh my god.
[00:38:49] Jesse Fries:
And I mean,
[00:38:51] Jamon Fries:
the first time I saw that t shirt Mhmm. I thought it was in very poor taste.
[00:38:57] Jesse Fries:
Right. Right. Right.
[00:39:00] Jamon Fries:
Because when you're look when you're when you're looking at reusing a Halloween costume, especially one that says problem solved
[00:39:09] Jesse Fries:
Well, not only that. Like with that. The the thing is is that, like, the what is it, left or right arm? I don't know if this is swapped around. Yeah. It's the the left no. It was the same side. It was the same side. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's the left arm. Yes. And that whole side is bloody.
[00:39:24] Jamon Fries:
Just, yeah, covered with blood. And and and
[00:39:28] Jesse Fries:
and and Yeah. It it's about Charlie Kirk. This is why everybody says that that's why it's it's in poor taste. Yeah. This yep. Because it seems to mimic his freedom shirt. Yes. Pretty much so. Yeah. Because it's a white shirt with red on one side. These poor teachers. I swear to God. I I I know. I know. Because some of them actually were Kirk supporters and everything like that. That's what I can tell. So yeah. No. It it was wrong time, wrong place. You got screwed. You know? Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Nobody put then you you go, oh, so yeah. Should we just reuse what was last year? It's like, yeah. Yeah. And you're just thinking Halloween. You're thinking how of it as it was last year. And then all of a sudden
[00:40:13] Jamon Fries:
You don't, you know and and what has happened in the recent past wouldn't even come to mind with this. No. Exactly. Because you're thinking about last year, not not not what's going on now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. So I I I have absolutely no doubt that there was absolutely no thoughts of this being a symbol of anything or anything like that. Uh-huh. Yeah. I don't think there's any way that it was. If if it was there was one teacher, it was like, oh, let's use that shirt. Yeah. Yeah. Let's use that one and convince the rest to do it. But, I mean, that would be the that that would be the the the closest to being problematic that I would that I would say any of this is. And that's stretching it in my book, you know. Usually, the simplest answer is the best answer. Yeah. The simplest answer is just it's the shirt that everybody had. They didn't wanna spend more money. Yeah. Yeah. And everybody loved that shirt last year. So Yeah. Why not pull it out again? Exactly.
[00:41:16] Jesse Fries:
No. It's a good Halloween shirt. It's just it it was the wrong year, people. Yeah. It was the wrong year to do it. It really was. I mean, it's the the school has decided had decided
[00:41:28] Jamon Fries:
that they're going to allow every phone call now to go straight to messages. Oh, it makes sense. Makes sense. Yeah. Because the the people that were answering the phone calls were getting death threats. Yeah.
[00:41:42] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Which is not safe in general if you No. Parents need to get to their kids sometimes. So yeah. Yeah. It's
[00:41:51] Jamon Fries:
yeah. No. Yeah. No. This was this was a the response to it is completely insane.
[00:41:58] Jesse Fries:
It is. It is. Yep.
[00:42:02] Jamon Fries:
I can understand a when you first see the picture, I had the same guttural reaction when I first saw the picture. I'm like, what the fuck did you do? But then I found out that it was last year's t shirt. So I'm like, okay. Unless they're prophetic,
[00:42:19] Jesse Fries:
you know. Yeah. Yeah. You
[00:42:22] Jamon Fries:
you no. Exactly. You know what? And then I saw the t shirt sold on Amazon, and I'm like, well, shit. It's been sold on Amazon for a year for a few years at least now. I mean Yeah. You know, this has absolutely nothing to do with Kirk. Nothing. Nothing at all. So
[00:42:39] Jesse Fries:
yeah. Yeah. So there you go. Yep. Let's see here. Speaking of another whatever weird right wing thing, it's I'm not even sure this is real. I've seen some people say it's not, but some people I think it was the Blaze. They said that they have, identified the, the person that put the pipe bomb on J 6. Okay. They say that they identified her. I'm not gonna say her name or anything like that, but, apparently, she was the Capitol Police, and now she works for the CIA Oh. As a security guard. Security guard CIA. Not Okay. Actually CIA. So Okay. Yeah. When you hear c I hear you go, oh, that's definitely a spook and then you go Wait a minute. This puts a lot more cred credibility on that story. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. They they did the walk, but, apparently, they they they checked the a they had the AI check the gait of the walk and everything like that, and they compared it. And they said, oh, 96. Woah. I mean, 98%, whatever. It it's definitely her, and it's like, Yeah.
Okay. It's a good story, but I don't know. And I'm not gonna Yeah. I don't wanna be sued, so I'm not gonna say her name or anything like that because I don't know if this is real or not. You know? It's Yeah. I don't know. But yeah. Real, it puts an entirely new light on everything? It does. It does. It would mean that the at least some aspect of Capitol Police were involved, which is messed up. Yep. And and and who is it that controls the Capitol Police? Yeah. Yeah. The Capitol. Yeah. Pelosi. Yeah. Yep. Mhmm. That would be Pelosi. At the time. Yep. At the time.
[00:44:25] Jamon Fries:
Yep. So yeah. That that would put an entirely new light on everything.
[00:44:29] Jesse Fries:
It would. It would. Apparently, the same officer also just started firing, like, what what is it? Eye irritant of some sort at all the protesters just for fun or something like that. So I don't know. Okay. Yeah. If you guys wanna look it up, you can look it up online. I'm not gonna but yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. There's that. Maybe.
[00:44:51] Jamon Fries:
Possibly. Who knows? So we'll see if anything comes up for a minute. See how we'll have to see what what the, when the FBI comes out and says that whether it's true or not. Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Completely. Completely. Let's see. As soon as this person is arrested, we'll know. Uh-huh. If they do get arrested.
[00:45:11] Jesse Fries:
Looks like, 1,700 flights were canceled today. Yeah. And Yeah. Seems to be growing. Another 4,300 were delayed because of all this and everything like that. Yeah. Trump's getting pissed. He tells told him to get back to work now. And you're like, oh, well, baby, dude. Just say it.
[00:45:32] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. I I I read I read Trump's post. It was like, get back to work now or we're gonna be docking your some of your wages.
[00:45:42] Jesse Fries:
You'd have to pay me first for that to even matter, dude.
[00:45:45] Jamon Fries:
Just saying I think essentially what he would do is he would dock the back pay that they're that they're gonna get. No. I know. I know. But still yeah. But yeah. And I'm I'm maybe not gonna do that. And I you know, I mean, we we've gone over a month. These people have to be have unless they unless they have a spouse that has an alternate source of income. Uh-huh. They had to find some way to make money in the meantime. It's like, do they even have gas money to make it there?
[00:46:12] Jesse Fries:
Right. Or or or subway fare or whatever. You know? Do they have
[00:46:17] Jamon Fries:
yeah. Yeah. They may not they may not be able to get there at all. Yep. Yep. It's a Or who knows? Maybe they were a month or two behind on their car payment, and suddenly because they lost because they lost all their money this time, their car got repoed.
[00:46:34] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. You never know. You never know how this I mean, it's like that happens all the time. It does. It does.
[00:46:41] Jamon Fries:
So yeah. No. I I had lost my job. Couldn't afford to pay the pay for new tags on my car. Unfortunately, it was I lost my job the same month that I had the month before I had to pay my tags. Mhmm. So the apartment complex that I was in had my car towed, and I could never afford to get it out of the tow yard because I didn't have a job. Mhmm. So they essentially stole my car from me.
[00:47:09] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. That's kinda how it works sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's that's how it, yep. It's, Yeah. It's messed up, yo. It's messed up. Big time. Yeah. It's why it's like with houses and everything like that, they're really trying to get laws changed, and they have a bit on where if they sell your house for back taxes, they have to give you the remaining. Whatever you don't owe. Oh, god. Yeah. No. That that's something I've never understood.
[00:47:35] Jamon Fries:
So a bank, you know, even if the bank or a or somebody else, I owe this I owe the bank this much money. Mhmm. If they foreclose and sell the house, they keep all the money.
[00:47:50] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Completely. Yeah. Even if they sold it for more than I owed. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you make hundreds of thousands off of it. No. It is. It is. Yeah. But no. They're they're they're getting around to fixing that and everything like that. Yeah. Some old grannies got involved, and they're a good sob story. So Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So so the law is changing on that, thankfully. Thankfully. Thankfully. Yeah. Yep. Then I have this interesting story. It's kinda international. It's kinda domestic. It's kinda business. It's Okay. It's hard to put exactly where it goes, but it's all about Italian pasta.
Okay. You mean, like, spaghetti, mushroom? Yeah. Yeah. Like but pasta that actually is imported from Oh, okay. Okay. Italy. Okay. Okay. So, basically, what it is is that there have been complaints about Italians, selling pasta for less than what it costs, and they just dump it on our market. Okay. And so there have been complaints since, like, the nineteen nineties on this. Right? Right. And so the, Department of Commerce or whatever, they said they've, that they they've started to punish, some of these, pasta makers, like, with an additional 100% tariff just on the pasta.
And it's just a a few of these pasta, companies and everything like that. Yeah. And they did it because they said when they went to investigate the whole thing, these companies were uncooperative, citing problems with their documentation, including untranslated Italian words, undefined acronyms, and failure to provide requested information. And so because of that, it applied and so because of that, it applied a hefty tariff on all on 13 Italian companies. Nice. Because but on 13 companies, because two companies had problems. They didn't look into the other 13. So they didn't look into 11 of them. They looked into two of them, and then they said, well, you're all guilty.
Okay. As our government does. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. But this story actually gets even more interesting. It really does. Yes. Yes. So, really, what this is is it's kind of Italian versus Italian. So what it is is that The The U the people that brought the complaints were US pasta makers.
[00:50:27] Jamon Fries:
Right? Right.
[00:50:29] Jesse Fries:
But, see, the funny thing is is that the company that brought it is a company called Winland, and it's a privately owned equity company, that's called Invest Industrial, which is ran by Italian businessman Andrea Bononi.
[00:50:53] Jamon Fries:
Oh, wow. So
[00:50:56] Jesse Fries:
So in Italian
[00:50:58] Jamon Fries:
other words, he didn't like his own competition Exactly. In the country.
[00:51:02] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. That is exactly it. So it's a Italian fight using The US Government in between them. It's a proxy war. It it's something. Isn't that crazy? It is. Yeah. I was, like, reading the story of, like, bad compliance and everything like that. Yada yada yada. Then I got to that paragraph, and I'm like, well, that changed everything, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Big time. Absolutely. Give me that cheap pasta now. I know. Get rid of that tariff. It it it's all just Yeah. Extra business crap. You know? It's Yep. Yep. Yeah. So there you go. There you go. Yep.
[00:51:49] Jamon Fries:
So on to some international news. Uh-huh. So, yeah, Trump threatening legal action against BBC. Well, they kinda deserve it. Suing them for a lot of money. Oh, yeah. They absolutely deserve it. Yeah. Yeah. They altered his speeches right the day before the election. I mean, that's a that's quasi election tampering.
[00:52:15] Jesse Fries:
Well, yeah, it's definitely best definitely liable on everything like that. Yeah. What they did is they took, like, the big it was j six was the speech that he gave, during j six. And this is before anybody was left for the capital. And then in the speech, they they spliced it really nice. I must say the splice is lovely. Did they? But I I haven't seen it yet. So Yeah. No. You it it's very it's imperceptible. It really is. Okay. But, basically, what it is is that he said, at the beginning of the speech, he said, and we're gonna something like, I'm gonna follow you over to the capital. We'll go to the capital and so on and so forth. Right? Mhmm. And then it splices. The time is something like a forty five minute difference in between the two things. So and then later on, he goes, and we'll fight, fight, fight, fight. And so what it is is that you have the I'm gonna join you over at the capital, and we'll fight, fight, fight, fight is the overall what Oh.
Yeah. Yeah. Even though it was, like, the it was separated by, like, about forty minutes or so. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And then also, they they they showed camera angles of, like, some proud boys or whatever. They were, like, walking to the Capitol, but those pictures were taken before the speech. But they showed, like, after he was after this speech and so on and so forth. But yeah. It Damn. The CEO. I mean, that that is massive. Oh, yeah. Oh, wow. That that's even worse than I than I than I thought it was just from writing reading the article that I read. No. Yeah. It it it was really, really bad, dude. It was it to the point where the CEO has resigned, of BBC, and another lady that was part of that documentary also resigned.
Yep. Just because yeah. It was just a shit show. It it was pure and they go, oh, we are unbiased. And you're, like, going, sure, dude. Oh, whatever you say. Yeah. Don't believe you. But, you know yeah. No. It was You know, we we may not have to worry about it for too much longer.
[00:54:28] Jamon Fries:
Why not? The BBC is might have some problems pretty soon.
[00:54:35] Jesse Fries:
What are you talking about?
[00:54:37] Jamon Fries:
Is there a Royal Charter Uh-huh. Expires in 2027?
[00:54:43] Jesse Fries:
Does it now?
[00:54:44] Jamon Fries:
Yes. The the agreement that was made where that allows them to, charge the Everybody. That watch everybody. I mean, anyone that watches any of their content anywhere. No. No. No. No. If you have a TV. 100
[00:55:00] Jesse Fries:
yeah. Basically. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:55:03] Jamon Fries:
They can charge two up to $230 for that or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And that gives you access to everything that they have, of course. Yeah. So Yeah. But that royal charter that dictates that that and and by the way, if they don't pay it, they go to jail. Yeah. Yeah. No. They come to your house knocking, making sure and if they suspect you might be watching,
[00:55:27] Jesse Fries:
they're gonna come and get your ass. Yeah. Yeah. You'll go to jail. So the February
[00:55:32] Jamon Fries:
2027, that royal charter that that allows that to to exist. And So Good. The BBC may have to very quickly find an alternate funding method.
[00:55:45] Jesse Fries:
Just like PBS. The way the dodo bird. Yeah. Yeah. Commercial TV, you know, or go PBS. You know? That's because PBS is the federal government is only, like, 1% of their budget anyways. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Who cares? Oh, that that that that works for me. You know, Doctor Who is pretty much dead anyways. So, you know, it's a a did you hear that one where, Disney pulled out of that one? Did we talk about that? No. I didn't hear about that. Yeah. So Disney, like, three years ago or four years ago, they signed a deal with BBC to help produce, the Doctor Who show. Okay.
And, basically, you you I'm not sure if you've seen the new Doctor Who or anything like that, but it was just a woke piece of crap. It wasn't even good writing. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah. It it it really stressed the the woke, the gay, the trans, the everything. It it it was just that is all it was. Okay. Which to me, I'm like, oh, okay. I I didn't even watch the last season. That and me and Carol have been watching ever since ever since, the guy before tenant. The when the first Okay. New iteration of the the doctor came out. I can't remember his name right now. He was really good. But we've been watching that whole time, and then this the the female was alright, whatever her name, Jody Whitaker or something like that. I can't but the writing was wrong on that one. She was good, but the writing was just horrible. The writing was horrible on that, and I think that was her downfall.
Yep. And then this guy, he didn't even really wanna be doctor, and the writing sucked. So, you know yeah. Yeah. So but Disney pulled out. They said this isn't working. So now yeah. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. For all you Whovians out there.
[00:57:44] Jamon Fries:
Let's see. Else we got interesting internationally.
[00:57:47] Jesse Fries:
Let's see. Russia knocked out every thermal power plant in Ukraine in a largest ever attack by Russia. It seems to be going the largest ever, largest ever, largest ever. Yeah. Pretty soon Russia will just take care of it. Carpet bomb the whole thing and, call it good, I'm thinking. So Yeah. But yeah. Trans rubble. You know? Nobody's gonna
[00:58:09] Jamon Fries:
there's nothing else to worry about Yep. Yep. For Russia. So
[00:58:14] Jesse Fries:
Then we have Syria, in the news, two different things. So The US, we're actually gonna be meeting with the leader of yeah. Yeah. He was ISIS or something like that. Okay. But now we're gonna be meeting with him, and he's now the leader, and we're kinda allying up to him. And this is this is how it goes. You know? It's Oh, yeah.
[00:58:39] Jamon Fries:
You And that that's the thing. You know? Everybody's I I keep hearing people say, you know, we shouldn't meet with them. We shouldn't even acknowledge that they exist. I'm sorry, but he is now the ruler of Syria.
[00:58:52] Jesse Fries:
Well, most of them just I think some of it's still disputed.
[00:58:55] Jamon Fries:
Well, yeah. But I mean, he is the nominal leader of Syria. Yep. We can't just pretend Syria doesn't exist. We still have to maintain normal relations. Regardless of where he comes from, regardless of who he is, just because we don't like him doesn't mean that we had that we ignore him. It'd be nice if we did that with Cuba.
[00:59:16] Jesse Fries:
It would be. Yes. Well, that'd be nice. Yeah. Yeah. But they're communist, so they're bad. Bad. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:59:26] Jamon Fries:
Terrorists are okay. Communist. So I know. Right? That's
[00:59:33] Jesse Fries:
hilarious. Sounds about right, though. Sounds about right. Yep. And then also speaking of Syria, Germany's, chancellor, Mertz, he wants all the refugees from Syria gone. Like, a million of them. He just wants them to call. Yeah. He's going, okay. Time to get out. War's over. Time for you to go. Yep. It's time to go back to Syria. So Yep. It only makes sense if it's asylum and you were fleeing the war. Guess what? No more war. War's over. Yeah. Mhmm. Yep. So, yeah, he he he's, saying that he's under pressure from the far right. But, yeah, the the far right, there's a reason why they're so popular right now is because you guys haven't done anything about the immigrations and the asylum seekers and everything like that. You need to do something about them. Absolutely. And with the war over, send them back so they can help rebuild.
[01:00:25] Jamon Fries:
Absolutely. Yep. Mhmm.
[01:00:28] Jesse Fries:
Let's see here. Then we have a French, story. So you remember Nicholas Sarkozy?
[01:00:36] Jamon Fries:
The name is familiar. I don't remember who he was, though. He was a president of France.
[01:00:41] Jesse Fries:
Oh, okay. But, anyways, he he he he was convicted of taking bribes from Libya. Okay. From, Muammar Gaddafi. Yeah. I I remember now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so and then he was gonna be he was sentenced to five years in jail. Right? Mhmm. So he went to jail on October 21, and, well, he's now out. So, yeah, he didn't really spend any time in jail. So there was no point. He will still be supervised or whatnot. You know, he'll be on parole or whatever. Yeah. But the whole thing was just a show. Yeah. It's all the political leaders know it was just a show. You know? It's, it's all stupid. It's all stupid. Yep.
[01:01:37] Jamon Fries:
Yep. So yeah. Outside outside of Trump, you don't put a political you don't put political leaders in jail. I mean, mean, that's just not something you do. Yeah. Yeah. So here's what you just to they wanna throw the book away with Trump, but everybody else, we gotta let him out.
[01:01:50] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. So he's in jail for maybe twenty days if that. Yeah. And that's a five year sentence in France, apparently. So Well, I mean, you know, it is France. So that doesn't make that doesn't not make a lot of sense. That doesn't not make a lot of sense. That's funny. I like it. I like it. Just like I like or wish I like that we are a value for value podcast here at the Mindless Meanderings. What this means is that you are the producer. If you wanna help us out in any which way you can, with money to help defray the cost or ideas for the show or anything, please help us out. You can help fund us, through PayPal. You can go to mindlessmeanderings.com, and there's a PayPal link that you can follow to help us out.
Or you can, also do it through any two point o podcasting app. You can, we'll take your digital currency and everything like that through that aspect as well. If you have any ideas or whatnot or you wanna send it to us in a different way, please, you can email us at jesse@mindlessc.com or even jamen@mindlessmeandreids.com. And please remember, jamen is the complaint department. Just saying. Yes. I am. But we've had no complaints. Ignore it. Yeah. You're good at ignoring it. Perfect. Perfect. Well, yeah, any which way you can help us out, the $300, a dollar, any amount can actually help defray the cost and help us keep doing what we love to do.
And now onto business. Looks like you have a lot of businesses, Steven. Yeah. Yeah. I do. So,
[01:03:28] Jamon Fries:
we'll we'll keep Tesla to last. Okay. So the first one, OpenAI. They they have asked the Trump administration to expand the CHIPS Act tax credit to cover data centers.
[01:03:48] Jesse Fries:
What is the CHIPS Act
[01:03:50] Jamon Fries:
again? It's a Biden era thing that, gives Oh, for chips. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For for for the chips. Yeah. Yes. The Samsung factory right next door here. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. So they want to they they're asking to extend that tax credit to give the AI data centers tax credits as well.
[01:04:11] Jesse Fries:
Because you can't make enough money, apparently.
[01:04:14] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. I mean, the OpenAI has, they've promised to spend, like, $1,300,000,000,000 in the next year or two. Uh-huh. But they're only bringing in, like, 400,000,000.
[01:04:28] Jesse Fries:
Wow. Yeah. Sounds about right. It it it's not a good business model. You know? It's No. It's not. No. Yeah. AI will stick around, but all these companies, I don't know about that. Oh, yeah.
[01:04:39] Jamon Fries:
Well and and, the one, one lady from from OpenAI had even asked to have the government back their loan, which would mean that the private bank would give them a loan that if they defaulted on, the taxpayers would cover the would cover it. Oh, Jesus. After that, Sam Altman came out and he said, no. We're we don't want a government bailout if we fail. Yeah. You do. And the government's like, there's five other major AI companies out there. Why would we bail one out? If it fails, it fails. Others will replace it.
[01:05:24] Jesse Fries:
I'm sorry. I don't believe in too big to fail. All those banks No. Back in o nine should have failed or o eight. They should have failed. Yeah. It's the automobile industry.
[01:05:33] Jamon Fries:
The automobile industries back in the day, they should, you know, Ford and stuff like that. They got so much money from the federal government
[01:05:41] Jesse Fries:
that they shouldn't have gotten. They got bailouts. It was it was mostly GM, actually. It was GM and Celentes that got the most.
[01:05:47] Jamon Fries:
Ford actually I know they got the most. They're 4,000,000 digits. No. They that's right. Ford Ford was the one that paid everything back. Correct. Correct. Yeah. If they even took anything. They barely took it. They did. They got a little bit, but they paid everything back. But, yeah, it was GM that,
[01:06:04] Jesse Fries:
yeah, yeah, yeah. My my wife probably wouldn't have a job now without that bailout. But it's still I I don't I I mean
[01:06:11] Jamon Fries:
So It's still the situation of if you're if if what you're doing is not something that Oh, glue. Keep you alive. Oh, yeah. It's not it's not the population of the country's
[01:06:25] Jesse Fries:
problem. It's more problem. I I I I I'm right there with you. It's like we would've just done something else with our lives. You know? It's not a big deal. But yeah. Yeah. No. It's no. I I I am I've never liked that whole too big to fail or whatnot. So No. No. Yep. Yep. Not at all.
[01:06:43] Jamon Fries:
And then there was one I I I kinda thought about leaving it for funny star for fun stories since we don't have one, but I don't think it's really a fun story. I think it's very troubling. Okay. So there there's a, a guy who founded a new company that believes that he can that he can save cities from flooding as the oceans rise by terraforming with robots. Okay. How? What he wants to do is he wants to take wood and a whole bunch of other chemicals and stuff like that and may to make it into a slurry and pump it underneath towns to raise their elevation.
[01:07:36] Jesse Fries:
What? Oh, do it. Okay. Yeah. No. No. You can move.
[01:07:43] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, the the problem that I have with this, and it's so hilarious, you know, wood I mean, he wants to use wood That decomposes. For this. But wood decomposes. But he's like, as long as it's still wet with this stuff we've put in there, it won't decompose.
[01:08:02] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. But then it'll leak
[01:08:03] Jamon Fries:
out. No. It's But then those chemicals are gonna get out there in the ground. They're gonna get into the ground water. Yeah. They'll start killing people.
[01:08:11] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. It always happens.
[01:08:13] Jamon Fries:
So all of a sudden this town that they saved by raising it up when it really wasn't probably In danger? Again, when anything? Move? Yeah. I mean, no nobody's gonna die as the ocean slowly rises. You just move. Well, not like that, but it's
[01:08:29] Jesse Fries:
barely even rising. If it is, you know, it's like one millimeter decade or something like that. Well, what what they what they found is that the land there is actually lowering.
[01:08:39] Jamon Fries:
Mhmm. So the land is sinking. So it's built
[01:08:42] Jesse Fries:
on top of something that the land is sinking in too. So It's like if Orlando started to sink. You know, I'm just Yeah. It's like, dope. Yeah. Yep.
[01:08:53] Jamon Fries:
And so so yeah. I mean, just so many problems could result from this. Mhmm. If it dries out because the liquid leaked out, it kills a whole bunch of people potentially depending on what the chemicals are. It at least makes changes to the environment. Right. But then the wood starts starts rotting and decomposing. Uh-huh. And you suddenly have huge sinkholes.
[01:09:20] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Yeah. And methane from the wood. Just saying. Yeah.
[01:09:24] Jamon Fries:
And that doesn't seem like a good situation for a smaller town. No. Because they're looking at this as a they're looking at the he he's he's trying to introduce this as an alternative to building dikes. Uh-huh. Because dikes are expensive to build.
[01:09:41] Jesse Fries:
Okay.
[01:09:42] Jamon Fries:
And so he says, we I've got a cheaper way that I can that I can do that we can do this. Sure. Sure. Yeah.
[01:09:54] Jesse Fries:
Okeydoke.
[01:09:55] Jamon Fries:
And talking about Ford like we were earlier. Mhmm. Ford is now talking about ending their f one fifty lightning.
[01:10:04] Jesse Fries:
Not a surprise. Not a surprise.
[01:10:06] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. It's it's they say it's the best selling electric truck in the market, but they've only sold, like, a few thousand a quarter.
[01:10:16] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Yeah. It's because they're not moving. You know? None of them are really moving. Yep. And maybe the Cybertruck's moving better, but I don't know. I don't know what's going on. Yeah. No. It it's, like, more than likely, it's not doing as good as because if they said it was the best in the market, that means it's selling better than the Cybertruck. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:10:44] Jamon Fries:
No. It's just trucks just is not the thing. You know?
[01:10:48] Jesse Fries:
Well, some of them can get, like, 400 mile range, so you can get decent range on it. But yeah. No. No. It's, unfortunately, it's just not been popular. They they there's been so many issues with it.
[01:11:02] Jamon Fries:
So Absolutely.
[01:11:03] Jesse Fries:
Maybe Without a doubt. See, the thing is is that the only problem it's like, EVs are fun to drive, and it'd be great if they got the system going, but you would actually have to put the vehicles there to get the infrastructure there. Yeah. It's like chicken or egg situation here. Yep. It's like now that everybody's cutting back on EVs, will the infrastructure keep growing, or are they gonna cut back on it?
[01:11:30] Jamon Fries:
Well and and that's the thing. You know, just to me, it's a matter of just like with, with the railway.
[01:11:37] Jesse Fries:
Mhmm.
[01:11:39] Jamon Fries:
Until the infrastructure is there, nothing else can happen. So what's gonna have to happen is someone will have to invest in the infrastructure without knowing Oh, yeah. Without 100%
[01:11:52] Jesse Fries:
knowing that it's gonna be useful. No. That that's what Tesla did, and GM is actually trying to do the same thing.
[01:11:58] Jamon Fries:
But GM to expand it a lot more, though. Well, right. But GM was using,
[01:12:03] Jesse Fries:
the, like, build back better fund or something. What what are those whole things where it's gonna be a whole bunch of EV, whatnot? So, yeah, I don't know. It it it's a tough thing. It's a tough thing. It's, they are fun to drive, though. They really are fun to drive. So Yep. Yep. Let's see here. Speaking of Tesla, Tesla shareholders have approved Musk's $1,000,000,000,000 pay plan.
[01:12:32] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. I heard about that. Yeah. Yeah. 75%
[01:12:35] Jesse Fries:
of people voted in favor of it. He has to meet certain targets and everything like that to get the trillion. But yeah.
[01:12:43] Jamon Fries:
The article that I read, its headline was Tesla gives in to Trump to, Musk's threats.
[01:12:56] Jesse Fries:
Maybe he threatened. I don't know if he did or not. I all I know is that, like, a CEO said, we need to do this otherwise.
[01:13:03] Jamon Fries:
So I I I had heard a comment somewhere that he's like that he was like, you know, if if you don't do it, I'm just gonna leave.
[01:13:13] Jesse Fries:
Right. Right. Right.
[01:13:15] Jamon Fries:
And so they decided that, they didn't want him to leave, so they they went ahead and paid for it.
[01:13:21] Jesse Fries:
Well, he he is, he can push. He knows how to push correctly to get things done. Yep. His one major misstep was getting into politics. That was Oh, yeah. Yeah. That that was that was a huge downfall for Tesla right there. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see if, we can problem. Let's see if things, can get back on track after a year or two. Yep. The right likes them, so now they're buying electric, which is funny. You know what I say? The world is crazy. The world is crazy.
[01:13:55] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. When when when when Musk was was with the left and with all the left people saying, wait. Everyone should go electric. The right wasn't even gonna touch them. But now all of a sudden, the left's not touching them, and we're touching them. So Oh, yeah. Who knows.
[01:14:11] Jesse Fries:
Exactly. Exactly. Keeping kind of with business, so Visa and Mastercard have actually reached a settlement with merchants to lower their fees.
[01:14:22] Jamon Fries:
Okay.
[01:14:24] Jesse Fries:
Also in that, though, is where where some of these, like, you know, the points cards where you can get points and everything like that. Mhmm. So, apparently, those cards actually charge more for transaction fees to the merchant than just a regular credit card. Okay. And so this will allow this whole negotiation will also allow merchants to say no to those. So they could so so they could tell me that I can't use my Capital One card there because I get points. So they could tell me that I'm I can't use that at their store. Mhmm.
But I would like I would go, well, fuck you. I'm out of here. That's what I'd be it it it's kinda like the whole Apple Pay thing. You know? Apple Apple Pay, they have to pay additional charge for Apple Pay. It's like a 1% charge or anything, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. And for a long time, like, Kroger and, Home Depot and everything and Walmart's still fighting it, but Kroger and Home Depot, they caved, and they now take Apple Pay. But they did it for the longest time.
[01:15:40] Jamon Fries:
Okay.
[01:15:41] Jesse Fries:
Apple's or, I mean, Walmart still won't do it. They they they will not take Apple Pay at all. So you can't use any touch devices, even a touch regular credit card, you can't use there. Because if it takes that, it can take Apple Pay.
[01:15:56] Jamon Fries:
Oh, okay. Okay.
[01:15:58] Jesse Fries:
So, yeah, Walmart won't allow it. You have to actually insert your card and everything like that or use their stupid app, whatever that is. I don't know what that is. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah. So I'd I I just wouldn't use their system then, you know. So I'd be to go, okay. I'm out here. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know how the Tesla go ahead. No. That's fine.
[01:16:22] Jamon Fries:
No. Okay. I thought you were done. Sorry. So I was gonna Yeah. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Tesla also said that they're going to be, starting a mass production of their cyber cab.
[01:16:35] Jesse Fries:
Oh, okay. Nice.
[01:16:37] Jamon Fries:
There's they they're starting up the production lines. And the some of the major differences of this with this versus other vehicles is it will not have rear view mirrors. Uh-huh. It won't have a steering wheel or the gas or the fuel pedals or anything like that. Right. So it's basically just a fancy looking box that's gonna drive you around.
[01:16:59] Jesse Fries:
Well, that's what a cyber car would be for. Right? Just a robotaxi? Yeah. No. Yeah. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, you wouldn't need, like, what was that? Total recall, remember, with Schwarzenegger. Remember that there was a robot taxi driver Mhmm. That that spun around. And I mean, I'm not sure if you remember that. But, yeah, if you watch it Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So we're not going that chintzy. So it'll just be everybody will have a seat, and every seat can be used by passengers. Right?
[01:17:28] Jamon Fries:
Yes. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, that's to me, that's a pretty good idea.
[01:17:35] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. They're already just doing regular Teslas. So Yep. Yeah. Makes sense. Makes sense. Why have something to grab on to? You know? Yeah. It may take you off the cliff. You know? I'm just saying. But, you know, it's, there's been a few of those sci fi shows. Right? You know? It's like Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Took control of my car. Oh, it was a car accident. I'm so sorry.
[01:18:00] Jamon Fries:
Yep. Well, I mean, yeah, like, you you don't have to have a AI driven car to be able to do that. I mean, vehicles have so many computers in them now. You can take over everything. I mean, the steering, the gas, everything is is run by the computer. You no longer have that solid steering wheel, the solid solid steering column or anything like that.
[01:18:23] Jesse Fries:
Some cars still do, I think. So Yeah. I don't know. I I don't know. Because I know some still have, like, like, the the shifter. It's the for lower end cars, it still is like a mechanical shifter. It's not just a electronic shifter. So, yeah, I'm sure some are still the old way. It's just whether or not the computer can take control of it or not. You know? So Right. Yeah. Mhmm.
[01:18:51] Jamon Fries:
Yep. Yep. Let's see. But, yeah, the so I thought that was interesting. They're doing that so that they can bring the costs of it down massively. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Completely.
[01:19:01] Jesse Fries:
Completely. Okay. Under legal? Yes. Okay. Looks like we have the same story. You can take that one.
[01:19:11] Jamon Fries:
Yes. So Trump has pardoned Giuliani as well as everybody else that, according to the where you know, I got it from I think it was NBC. It was either NBC or ABC. So, of course, the headline is Trump pardons Rudy Rudy Giuliani Johnny Rudy Giuliani and others involved in bid to overturn the twenty twenty election.
[01:19:34] Jesse Fries:
Yep. Yep. Yep. Is
[01:19:37] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. Essentially, he gave a blanket pardon that pardons anyone and everyone that has made attempts to question to question The twenty twenty election results. The twenty twenty election results. Yeah. Yep. Yep.
[01:19:58] Jesse Fries:
No. I figured he'd do that at some point. I'm surprised it took him this long really. So The problem is though,
[01:20:05] Jamon Fries:
is that none of the none of the charges were on the federal level. So this pardon means absolutely nothing.
[01:20:14] Jesse Fries:
Oh, that's hilarious.
[01:20:16] Jamon Fries:
They were all done on the state level. So Trump's pardon did does nothing.
[01:20:21] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. Yeah. Sounds about right. Sounds about right. So Giuliani went off the rails there towards the end, though. He he kinda yeah. That was one of those sad things of seeing them go bonkers on live TV. It just it just wasn't a pretty sight. Him and his hair dye that kept streaming down his face, and it just wasn't pretty. It wasn't pretty at all. Yeah. Not not at all. Let's see. People that have gay marriage is safe. The Supreme Court rejected, the one court case. They weren't even gonna hear it. So so many people thought that they would hear it, but they're going, why would we hear this? So Right. Yeah. It it's it was a stupid thing. It was basically what? Because a county, whatever, didn't want to give a marriage license to a gay couple because it was against their religion.
Yep. Well, okay. It's one thing for a private business, not or Yeah. A private business to use their religious exception to, not bake them a cake or take their photographs or something like that. That that that's one thing. Don't get me wrong. It's stupid. I if you're in that business, you should just be okay with it. It doesn't matter. But Yep. But it it's their right. I think that's their right. But you work for a government?
[01:21:53] Jamon Fries:
You don't have that right? Yeah. No. You don't. If you work for the government, you have to do what the government says. Yes. You have to follow the government's rules. You do. I mean, that's Plain and simple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to me, it wasn't even
[01:22:05] Jesse Fries:
I don't even know why it got up to the Supreme Court or was almost to get to the Supreme Court because it's like Yeah. That doesn't make a lot of sense. It doesn't. It was the law of the land, so that's what you have to go by. You have to go by the law of the land. I it's it's like mine and Carol's marriage. Okay. So you don't like interracial marriage. Okay. So what? You still have to give me the marriage certificate. You know? It's yeah. To me, it's the same thing. It it it's what has been decided, so you just go from there. So Yep. Yep. Absolutely.
[01:22:34] Jamon Fries:
Mhmm. And with Now onto studies.
[01:22:38] Jesse Fries:
Yes. And please remember, studies are mostly inaccurate, but sometimes they're accurate or so a study says. But we don't know if that study was accurate or not. And on we go.
[01:22:57] Jamon Fries:
What do you got? So do you wanna go with your study first or mine? No. I'll go with mine last. It's I can make it funny. Okay. So my study is drinking orange juice daily may fine tune genes tied to cardiovascular wellness.
[01:23:15] Jesse Fries:
Okay. How now?
[01:23:20] Jamon Fries:
Essentially, what it according to according to the article, it says that, it says that the so it it can affect how things are sent around in the body, I think, is what is essentially what it does. No doubt. I it the the the article was very, very, the this the website that I look at, they they go very scientific, and so it has a lot of terminology that I'm not familiar with. Okay. Okay. But it helps the heart. That's that's what you're saying. Yes. Yes. It it does. Just the and and according to the article, it also says that it also depends on your BMI. Okay. How it how it makes changes. So if you have a high BMI, it affects the lipids.
If you have a lower BMI, it affects something else more.
[01:24:21] Jesse Fries:
Interesting. Interesting.
[01:24:23] Jamon Fries:
Yeah. So I'm not really I mean, now this was a very small they only they they had a very small studies group, so it was, like, 20 or 30 people. So, you know, I mean yeah. I mean, so I mean, you you can't really trust much of these results at all.
[01:24:39] Jesse Fries:
Yeah. So so so it's basically a study to try to get a new study done.
[01:24:43] Jamon Fries:
Yes. Yes. The the they didn't they didn't give any conclusions in it, which is where I normally am able to say that this is what it means. Right. Right. So they didn't give any conclusions. They just said that this is that this is something that shows that this might be an area to look further into.
[01:25:00] Jesse Fries:
Okay. I think the funniest line from this is chronic o j intake. You know? Chronic when you describe drinking OJ. I'm not sure if chronic I I I know what it means, but it just seems weird to say chronic OJ intake. Yeah. It does. That's funny. Chronic chronic o j intake. Woo hoo. Yep. Okay. The study I found is that, apparently, I am a cancer fighting machine, Jamin, because because gray hair could be be protecting me from cancer. And And I have a lot of gray hair people. Holy balls. I have a lot of Yes. Yes. My whole period is You went gray very early. Yes. I did. I did. We which apparently means that you might have heart issues, but, apparently, it stops cancer from attacking you. What this says? So, you know, so
[01:25:55] Jamon Fries:
Well, you know, so so it it increases risks of one way of death, but it decreases risks of another way of death. So Right? Right? So it's all good. It evens out in the end. Right?
[01:26:06] Jesse Fries:
Somehow. Somehow. But yeah. So I am a super cancer fighting Superman. Nice. That's what I am. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I know. Right? I'll just die from heart failure, you know? Yeah. And with that, I'd like to thank you guys for joining us for episode 78 of the mindless meanderings podcast. I'm Jesse Fries. And I'm Jamin Fries. And we will see you all on Thursday.
IOC vs ISC mix-up
50-year mortgages
Starter homes
How to lower housing prices
Falling prices
SNAP court tangle
Shutdown mechanics
Filibuster frustration
Tariff dividend
Rethinking healthcare
Passports gender marker change
Dearborn plot foiled via foreign-call surveillance
Arizona teachers’ Halloween shirt controversy and overreaction
J6 pipe bomb identity speculation and skepticism
Flight cancellations amid shutdown and real-life paycheck impacts
Italian pasta tariffs: dumping claims and an Italian-on-Italian proxy fight
Foreclosures, tax sales, and changing laws on surplus proceeds
BBC editing scandal, royal charter woes, and Doctor Who funding drama
Russia-Ukraine energy strikes and shifting Syria alliances; Germany on refugees
France’s Sarkozy in-and-out of jail and value-for-value break
Business block: OpenAI asks for credits, bailouts debate, and odd ideas to fight floods
EV reality check: Ford Lightning, infrastructure chicken-and-egg
Tesla news: trillion-dollar pay plan and robotaxi "cyber cab"
Card networks settlement: swipe fees, points cards, and Apple Pay policies
Legal roundup: pardons with no effect and gay marriage case rejected
Studies corner: daily orange juice and gray hair vs cancer
Closing credits and next episode teaser