Analyzing Global Strife, Domestic Scandals, and Consumer Safety Tips

Tensions are soaring, and we're unraveling the complexities of the Israel-Iran conflict in a way you've never heard before. Grasp the gravity of intercepted drones, the strategic maneuvers of Iran's attempted major attack, and the resilience of Israel's Iron Dome. As we dissect history and present-day strategies, we shine a light on the international chess game unfolding in the Middle East, giving you the clarity needed to understand the regional reverberations.

The courtroom drama involving former President Trump takes center stage as we scrutinize the controversial hush money trial. Feel the palpable sense of indignation as we dissect the legality of the charges, the jury selection, and the trial's implications on Trump's personal life, including its interference with family milestones. Throughout, the episode peels back the layers of political motivation, government oversight, and the Supreme Court arguments that are reshaping American politics.

Lastly, your safety should never take a vacation. We're exposing the new risks for rental users and highlighting the measures you can take to protect yourself and your loved ones. Plus, we're not shying away from the economic dialogues either. Tune in as we weigh the consequences of minimum wage hikes on employment and bring to light the community triumphs and challenges, celebrating our YouTube viewership milestone and the engaging dialogues it's sparking. This episode promises to be as informative as it is impassioned, leaving you equipped and connected.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everyone, Welcome to the show. We are ready to get it started. As usual, we've got great topics, interesting topics that we think you're going to enjoy. They're not always happy and peppy, but they're important. They're news, right, Clay? I mean, it's what's going on in the world.

Speaker 2: 0:19

Listen, that's what we do. That's what we're here for. We've got to talk about what's going on. That's why people tune in. For some reason, they like to hear our take on things.

Speaker 1: 0:27

I love it. I'm great, I listen, I'm grateful. I know you're grateful and we are. We are ready to hope for when this is what you do, but I, I hold out hope that one day, just one day, we're gonna get on here and go hey, nothing happened this week. It's a, it's a quiet world, everybody's happy, everybody's getting along, everybody likes each other, nobody's doing bad things, not a chance. And then I woke up right, no, no, not a chance, it's been wild.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Um, as Clay knows, maybe, as some of you know, uh, I was once again down in Florida. This was a quick turnaround, and you know, but while I was there, I was there for about a week just under, and, of course, while I'm there, it's, you know, it's a busy news cycle, lots of things happening. Of course, it's never not a busy news cycle, obviously, but yeah, so I was kind of like chomping at the bit to. I was loving my time there. I didn't want, not want to trade it for anything, but I was ready to get back and and get to this and, um, we've uh, like we said in the beginning, we've got some great topics for you, uh, right off the bat.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Uh, israel and Iran. This is obviously, uh, huge, what's going on there. Uh, as, as everyone knows, now Clay is going to take over on this one, I'm just going to give you the quick little overview here. Maybe, listen, maybe there's somebody who doesn't know, I don't know, I mean, it's possible, somebody, there's a lot of people that say I don't watch the news, I don't want to know, I don't want to hear anything, and you know. So maybe this is their one news source. But, yes, iran launched a major attack Well, intended to be a major attack, right, I mean, everything was intercepted, right, was?

Speaker 2: 2:29

it.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Tell me.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Yeah, so I mean, you and I have been talking about this since October, right, and really everything. You know when I said something on the socials a couple of days ago, you know, you and I, since the attack in October by Hamas, we've been pulling the pieces together, right, because it's all Iran funded and it's Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis, and it's everything going on in the Middle East and Iran sits in the middle of it and they're backing all these organizations, these terrorist groups. And then, you know, the Israelis basically said enough's, enough, you know, outside of just dealing with Hamas, which they have been, you know, they they really said we're we're we're going to, you know, we're going to take some action. And they, they killed the commander of the IRGC. Yes, just like we did, right, they killed the guy who took over for him, because that's the organization that funds all of these terrorist organizations, that's the official Iranian military organization that's behind all of this.

Speaker 2: 3:37

So they called in for an airstrike in Syria and killed this guy at an Iranian consulate. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago and so now this is the Iranian response and it happened, you know, I guess, here in the United States it happened on Saturday daytime, which means it was Saturday evening. Right, you know which Saturday is the holy day in Israel, which you know. It's interesting that they chose to wait until Saturday night instead of doing it Friday night, when you know the Israelis would have been celebrating the Sabbath, you know why do you think they held off like that?

Speaker 2: 4:21

I'm not positive, to be honest with you. You know, part of it is like the holy day for Muslims is Friday and the holy day for, you know, jews is Saturday and the holy day for Christians is Sunday. Right, I don't know if that played into it or not, but they did do it Saturday. What would have been Saturday night in Israel? And they launched hundreds of these suicide drones, right, and some. You know, there was some really bad, bad reporting by all the news agencies, because there was, oh, they've launched all these drones and then they've launched um cruise missiles. No, wait, no, they haven't launched cruise missiles. No, wait, they have no way. No, no, no, now it's ballistic missiles, which are different things, you know. And then, and then it was, you know, now Hezbollah is getting involved in their fire and artillery from Lebanon, and you know all kinds of stuff, and you know, everybody in the region kind of paused to see what was going to happen, because this was, you know, the flight time for the drones is long.

Speaker 1: 5:20

It was like 12. Is it like 12 hours or something? It was a long time yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:24

You know radar picked them up right away.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Everybody knew they were coming. You know the Iron Dome got fired up. They had to. You know they had to cross over Iraqi slash, jordanian airspace, which we are in Iraq. The United States are still in much smaller numbers, obviously.

Speaker 2: 5:46

And then the Jordanians don't put up with any of this stuff, like they have been allies, you know we worked with them Even in the earliest days of Afghanistan. The Jordanians were pitching in For a Muslim, you know, kingdom nation. They have always been opposed to you know the anti-West sentiment and have always pitched in. So they certainly were not going to tolerate this stuff violating their own sovereign airspace. They were not messing around. So they you know Jordan shut down their airspace and allowed the Israelis full access fly through if you need to do what you have to do. And then they started shooting down drones. And then the US started shooting down drones. And then they started shooting down drones. And then the US started shooting down drones.

Speaker 2: 6:25

And then anything that got through that, which was a lot, you know hit the Iron Dome and truthfully, I think the kill rate was like ninety, nine point something percent. They destroyed almost every single thing that came into. You know that, even made it to the Israeli airspace, I think one or two, maybe three you know very small numbers got through. So totally ineffective, right, totally so. That's kind of the nuts and bolts of the attack. Now, what preceded it was evidently us, the Turks, and I think somebody else. The intelligence apparatus told us that this was coming Right, right, which that's what drove President Biden to make the don't, don't statement, which was yes if nobody knows, yeah If nobody.

Speaker 1: 7:17

If somebody not, nobody. If somebody has not seen that, of course, we have that bold, strong statement from our leader, ready for it. Here it is, mr President. What is?

Speaker 3: 7:27

your message to Iran in this moment? Don't.

Speaker 1: 7:34

Can we just make a comparison? I have a comparison for you. How about it here?

Speaker 3: 7:40

it is A brutal killer. One who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm another innocent man, woman or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place. He was a sick and depraved man, and now he's gone.

Speaker 2: 8:12

That was when we killed Soleimani, right, I mean? And right, there's something behind that. And what happened after that? Truthfully, you know, iran got put on all the sanctions or you know, sanctions continued and, we've heard, in the aftermath of this, president Trump wasn't shy, right? Listen, this is all President Biden's fault and he's not wrong, right, but the intelligence apparatus gave us enough warning that we knew this was coming, right, even the news is asking, quite the reporters are asking questions about it. And the president gave the don't answer. And Iran said and they did it, exactly, they did. They thumbed their nose at him.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Yeah, and they launched the attack and it wasn't big, we don't care what you think but at the same time, it was completely it was. You know, there was early warning. It was such a slow build. You know, I mean, this is like hitting somebody with a car. You know a half a mile away and you're creeping at five miles an hour, like it's just, you know it's this slow, slow build. So, really, the israelis had plenty of time. There was no injuries reported as a result, and you know it was. This was saber rattling in its purest sense. This was Iran saying we're not going to tolerate you, everybody in the Arab world pay attention. We're not tolerating this from. Israel launched this big attack that they knew was going to do absolutely nothing.

Speaker 1: 9:39

Yeah. So I find that absolutely fascinating and baffling, really. I don't understand. So I mean, you know. So my brand of logic, which is not always the best brand of logic, says so they must not really want to go to war, they don't want to antagonize, right, like they just want to make a statement and say we're so mad, right, but not enough. So I mean because otherwise, sending drone missiles that take, you know, like 10, 12 hours to arrive at their destination seems kind of silly, you know, when you look at it in that sense. So am I on the point here with on the point here on?

Speaker 2: 10:25

point here with that Saber rattling. This was purely, you know, beating their chest and understanding that. And they gave the United States and specifically Israel, I think the term that's being used as an off-ramp, but they gave them an out and they basically said, after they launched everything, and I think even after most of it was shot down, they said we have decided this is Iran, we've decided that this attack is concluded and there will be nothing more. And you know, and blah, blah, blah. So they gave Israel the opportunity to not respond Like we're done. Clearly it was ineffective, you know you'll get no more from us. So the opportunity and because they haven't responded yet, they continue to have the opportunity to not respond which is really what I was hoping for right yes, and that's what people, including the us, are encouraging a non-response right, which is horrible it.

Speaker 2: 11:21

It's terrible, terrible. That's why we're here now, right? Yeah, we're in this position now because Iran has been allowed to run their mouth. They've been allowed to do things like this without any punishment for the last three and a half years. Right, there has got to be a response, right? I honestly thought Iran wasn't going to respond after Israel killed the commander of the IRGC.

Speaker 1: 11:46

I mean we talked about that a little while.

Speaker 2: 11:48

Yeah, and it took them a little while. Well, yeah, they had to charge the batteries in the drones, but you know they responded, and very, you know, ineffectually they responded. And now they're crossing their fingers that Israel doesn't turn around and respond, because their biggest fear is that Israel hits them in their energy capabilities. It's not even oil, really. It's really about nuclear program. They can't afford for Israel to hit them again like they did, whatever it was, 10 years ago, and set them back again in their nuclear development program. So that that's, and, trust me, the Israelis will do it. I'm actually surprised they haven't already.

Speaker 2: 12:27

But I think no response is a huge strategic mistake for Israel and for the region. This is a bad message to send to everybody, whether it's you know, pick your country, lebanon, whether it's, you know, syria as it rebuilds itself, or Libya or whoever. This is a bad message for Israel to let this slide with no response, like they can't have a in-kind, ineffectual, you know, kind of limp response. It's got to mean something. It doesn't have to be huge. I mean we're not talking about rolling tanks into iran from you know, through jordan or anything, but I mean a flight of fighter planes flying in and doing damage to a very strategic and very important target, sending a message and saying you know, hey, this wasn't the presidential palace, but it could have been. Isn't the ayatollah's residence, but it could have been. Let them know that you know, don't do this again, don't keep your nose out of this. It's bad enough. You're funding Hamas, but you know, keep Iran itself out of this. So we'll see how this plays out over the next week or two.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Yeah. So just out of curiosity, what you think could this be Iran's way of essentially like poking the bear, so that the bear will make the the big move, the first real move, and then they can justify whatever they you know, I mean justify all out war, or are they legitimately afraid?

Speaker 2: 13:56

So I think what Iran was looking for was an uprising of the fellow Muslim nations in in, you know, the middle East, Okay, and? And they didn't get it Like it, you know nothing, right? I didn't get it at all, so you're never gonna. You know, I think the bridges that were being built by president Trump are standing pretty, pretty well, you know, you didn't hear a peep out of Saudi Arabia.

Speaker 2: 14:25

You didn't hear a peep out of Kuwait and some of that might be the Shia Sunni thing that always persists in the Middle East, but you didn't hear anything out of any of those countries in support of Iran at all, and I think maybe they were hoping for that and didn't get it.

Speaker 2: 14:41

And now I think they're just putting their head back down and saying, man, I hope. Now, you know, I think they're just putting their head back down and saying, man, I hope this doesn't escalate outside, cause they're not going to get any help, right, you know, and they and they can't. Truthfully, they couldn't go to war with Israel right now, because it wouldn't be war with Israel, it would be war with all kinds of people, it'd be us and you know all kinds of friends of Israel. Um and oh, by the way, they can just keep pumping money into Hamas to do what Hamas is doing, and then they don't have to do it. So right, I really this, this whole thing, didn't make a lot of strategic sense other than a little bit of chest beating and saber rattling, so I don't think much is going to come out of it except I do expect an Israeli response within the next week or 10 days.

Speaker 1: 15:26

All right, clay called it, so get ready, get ready. I need to mark this in our show notes so I can go right back to it. Right? Hey, listen, we were talking. We mentioned our guy Trump, there. What is a week without talking about Trump? I mean, we have to talk about this because this is a big news, as always. Big news, as always.

Speaker 1: 15:47

So the criminal trial this is the hush money trial. Another sham, another miscarriage of the system here. It is absurd, absurd, I mean, there's no other word for it. It is absurd. It's obviously a, you know, witch hunt and, of course, the witches is Trump and they're, uh, you know, they're looking for everything that they can. So that's what's going on. Uh, monday, the uh, it started and they are, it was jury selection is going on. Uh, lots of things going on with that. Um, you know, maybe not the biggest thing about it, but just something I wanted to point out that I think is just absolutely atrocious and disgusting and indicative of just how vindictive and hateful they are. Barron Trump's graduation is coming up and they've denied. If there's, you know, court that day, which assumably there will be. They've already denied Trump's ability to go and see his son graduate.

Speaker 1: 16:53

It didn't murder anyone. This isn't a serial killer. This isn't a flight risk. This isn't any of the reasons or people that you would say no to for something like this. This is vindictive, scumbag behavior. It really is of the reasons or people that you would say no to for something like this. This has been addictive scumbag behavior. It really is, and, and you know, and worse are the people that are like cheering and laughing about this and finding it, you know, amusing and entertaining.

Speaker 2: 17:16

You're, you're a bunch of, I won't swear so let's not forget, too, that this is the only reason that this is a thing right, and I hate it when you know it is known as the hush money trial. Right, you said it yourself. That is the common name that all of the media outlets are using. This is not about money going to Stormy Daniels or any of the rest of them. It's not about the money being paid to them. Right, right, okay. It's not about the use of hush money. It's not about out of court settlements, you know? Oh, by the way, president Clinton did the same thing. What?

Speaker 1: 17:57

Among others. Right, wait a minute, but Clay, he said this.

Speaker 3: 18:03

But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again I did not have sexual relations with that woman strange.

Speaker 2: 18:17

Yeah, so I love that you had that queued up.

Speaker 1: 18:22

I was so excited that you gave it.

Speaker 2: 18:23

I swear to you that was not coordinated. Not one bit. We're just like mind-meld.

Speaker 1: 18:29

I was so excited that you said that. I was like are you kidding me?

Speaker 2: 18:33

Yeah, yeah, that was awesome, thank you. The reason that this is a felony case is because the district attorney, right the prosecutor in this, has determined that this is improper use of campaign funds, which makes it a felony. Now there's no proof of that, no, none Zero.

Speaker 2: 18:58

They just elevated this to felony level to be able to control what's going on. This is at best a misdemeanor trial, but because it has that campaign funding twist on it, that turns it into a felony. And you're 100% right. It is out of spite and you know we talked. How long ago was it that we went through all of the Trump trial stuff?

Speaker 1: 19:32

I mean we went down by the numbers. Yeah, that was a couple of few weeks ago, for sure, we went down all the numbers.

Speaker 2: 19:37

Yeah, it was. It's crazy, yeah, right, so we went through all of those and we, we talked about, you know, this one and this one and this one and this one, cause there's whatever, there is nine of them, and and it's and it's about being vindictive, and it's about controlling the narrative, and it's about keeping him off the campaign trail and it's and it's all of those things and this judge being out of control, you know, as the way he's handling this. But we also said where in the United States either for or against could President Trump get a fair jury trial? Right, because everybody either loves him or hates him. Right, there's not a lot of in-between rational people.

Speaker 1: 20:16

Yeah, there's no gray area, generally speaking.

Speaker 2: 20:19

And you said it, they're doing jury selection. They dismissed half of the pool immediately because they were like, okay, who thinks they can't be unbiased? Half the pool raised their hand.

Speaker 1: 20:28

You can all leave now you know, and the other half is lying.

Speaker 2: 20:32

Exactly, and so they got six, I think yesterday. Again, folks, we're recording this is Tuesday, today's day two of the trial, so I think they got six. They were looking for another six today, or maybe they got six today and they're looking for six more tomorrow, but the number sitting is six. The jury selection alone is going to take a week.

Speaker 1: 20:49

I'm amazed that it won't take longer just because of that, but just so you guys know. So of course, we do our research before we get on here. We try and get as much info as we can, so I found this fascinating. Now, alvin the DA, alvin Bragg, he, you know, like you said, the underlying felony that he's resurrected with the campaign funds using that blah blah. This was already brought to them. They rejected it. They said, nah, this isn't a thing, and they it dropped. It was dead. Like it was a dead thing. It was already decided.

Speaker 1: 21:26

I'll read exactly what it says here the claim was rejected by feds because campaign finance officials looked at this and determined that payment to Stormy Daniels was not a campaign finance violation but a man trying to stop his wife from hearing the gory details of an affair. So yeah, and this now, alvin Bragg. As some of you may know Clay, I'm sure you already know he ran on the promise of how many times he sued Trump and promised to do it again. All he was going to do is spend all his time suing Donald Trump.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Yeah, it's. This is, this is the epitome of George Soros. That's what this is. Right. Bragg is a funded, put in office by Soros district attorney, as there are many you know in Fox in Chicago and all the rest of these that you know. That's how they got there. He put him in exactly the people that the democratic party and specifically source himself, want an office to do these kinds of dirty things in the name of system Right. And that's what brag is and and that is his only goal, and the only goal of this entire trial is to keep president Trump off the campaign trail as much as humanly possible. Yep, getting a conviction is, I honestly believe, is secondary, because they know, like you said, you read it, the feds looked at it like it's not a case. So it's not about the conviction, because they know they're probably not going to get it and if they do, it's because of a skewed jury and there's going to be appeals, and this is about disrupting the campaign, which I think is also backfiring.

Speaker 1: 22:55

Oh, badly, I think badly. You're making a martyr of him. Basically, exactly right a percentage of people out there that were maybe either on the fence, maybe didn't care one way or the other, but they're seeing this and they're smart enough to realize that if they're doing this to a former president, what can they do to you? And that is a really serious question to ask, because of what this administration is doing and what they're allowing, what they're pushing through. You can go anywhere from the gun laws to everything we've talked about over these past weeks and months, really All of these instances of blatant attempts and success at government control, government oversight and things that they have no business being in. And yet they are, and only going to be more so if this continues.

Speaker 1: 24:03

So I'm hoping that this is making enough people kind of come to their senses. And even if you're someone who can say, listen, I don't like Trump, I never will, never have, never will. He is not the president I want or would want, but right now he is the one that we need because of what's going on. And you know, I don't know, fingers crossed, prayers up, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 24:30

So and people are starting to connect the dots because there's other legal matters going on at the same time which, fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to call it, are. You know people are connecting the dots because they're going on at the same time, which, fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to call it, are. You know, people are connecting the dots because they're going on at the same time and you can actually watch it on the evening news, where they're talking about, you know, the Trump trial, and they're talking about arguments in front of the Supreme Court, about things related to January 6th and, oh, by the way, a lot of the arguments that you know this was an insurrection and all these other things are being argued. You know the basis for that argument is now failing in front of the Supreme Court, but people go well, that was all drummed up. And then we've got the Trump thing going on, and then, oh, by the way, you've got the attempts in Congress to, you know, approve or re-approve the FISA, the FISA allowing the government to truthfully spy on American citizens, right?

Speaker 2: 25:24

So you've got all three of those things going on at the same time and you do have people who wouldn't normally pay attention or be able to put those together and see the connections between the three that, just by happenstance, if you watch the news and they go in rapid succession and people go right, that's a lot of bad going on at the same time as a result of, you know, current administration in the last three and a half years. So, yeah, it's very, very, um, it's not going well. You know, I think all these attempts and we've talked about this too All these attempts are not, they're not successful.

Speaker 1: 25:58

No, no, they're not successful in a lot of ways, but the biggest way in it's it's not putting public opinion in their favor as much as they thought it would. I think it's like you said it's having the exact opposite effect, really.

Speaker 2: 26:17

Yep For sure.

Speaker 1: 26:18

Yep, so, and you know they keep getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar to getting themselves into trouble. What is it? Letitia James is assistant is under, I think, criminal investigation. I miss that. Yeah, yeah, I mean there's, you know, they got, they got lots of things happening there that let's put it this way. Let's just put it this way Something to do with Trump, because that's what, everything you know. That's like the running joke. Now, right, anything that happens in the world. I stubbed my toe.

Speaker 2: 26:47

Trump's fault, you know they blame the Iran attack that White House did on President Trump. Of course that was the immediate reaction. This is all Trump's fault, right? How stupid do you believe we are Right, it's crazy.

Speaker 1: 27:04

But sadly there are enough stupid people out there, because I see them in my comments section Yep and going it's Trump's fault, you know like how so. And then of course, you get crickets as soon as you ask them a question like to you know. Expand on that a little bit, clarify, explain to me, give me you know, give me proof here, show me facts that tell me that, and you know it's crickets.

Speaker 2: 27:27

Here's the litmus test. Here's the litmus test and we'll go on to our next topic. If they, if anybody, blames this on President Trump, you know problem, you know folks, we're talking about the fact that the FBI went out to, you know, the Baltimore Bridge at media bias problem. But right um, this unfortunately is is feeding the conspiracy theories, because as soon as people hear yes, guy, and as soon as they hear investigation, they start thinking that this was purposeful and and and and all of these other things, sure, sure yeah, that does not, does not help with that at all and and I'm not going to lie, I also.

Speaker 1: 28:21

My first thought when I read that was hmm, were they right again? Is it another?

Speaker 2: 28:28

And so people have to understand that the FBI is out there and they are right. They flew out to the wreckage, you know they they're on the boat, they're digging through files, they're talking to the shipping company that's been, you know, that's responsible for the ship itself, all of that stuff, but so is the National Transportation Safety Board. So NTSB is doing a safety investigation, right, which is par for the course with something like this. I was just going to say, yeah, that's pretty customary for something like this, you have to investigate it. Criminal negligence, right, is just as likely, or probably more likely, an explanation than criminal conduct.

Speaker 1: 29:33

Right, right, right, yes, and and this, this ship did have this is not the first incident with them. They had an accident. I feel like it was like two Did I? Did I save it? And I feel like it was like did I save it? I don't know if I did, it was like 2016,. I want to say the same ship, kind of the same thing. They scraped against another bridge or they scraped against something, so this isn't their first incident. Don't know if it's the same crew or not. Probably not from that time span, not likely, but it's certainly something that you would have to look into. You know these are monstrous ships. They're cargo ships, they're massive, so you really should have people on there that know what they're doing. It's kind of a problem if you don't. So definitely, you know, here we are a complete bridge collapse.

Speaker 2: 30:17

Yeah. So when this happened, I my, my, my gut reaction and I don't know anything about this stuff I truthfully, you know, I was like, well, why wouldn't they have tugs to move something that big right Under a bridge, between the pylons, in the dark, right? You would think that you would have, you know, trained craft and crews to do that kind of thing? Sure, right. So now what I have heard and I haven't no consistency in this is that what they do have are pilots, boat pilots, boat captains that come out, they steer the ship out of the port through the obstacles and then, before it heads out to the open sea, either the pilot gets off and he gets onto a smaller boat, or they come get him with a helicopter or whatever, but they pull that guy off. He's just there, he's like a valet, right, he drives it in and out, because that's what he does to prevent things like this happening.

Speaker 2: 31:07

Now, I have heard that as a concept and supposedly is in practice in that harbor. I don't know, I don't know what the circumstances are with this ship. So, you know, you could extrapolate this out and say did they have the right guy? Did they have any guy at all? Did the guy who was on there have the training he was supposed to have? Did he fabricate? You know what I mean. Like there's a million different directions this could go, but everybody wants to turn this into terrorism. They want to turn it into you know some, you know some horrible attack on America. I get it. People say FBI, they say criminal investigation. They say those things and everybody's head explodes right out of their tinfoil hats. I don't think I'm wrong on this one. I really think that criminal negligence is what they're looking at and that's probably what they're going to find. It's not criminal in the sense of anything other than that.

Speaker 1: 32:03

I'm so glad that I have you to temper my, my tinfoil hat conspiracy. I'm so glad you're such a good balance for me. I'm not going to lie, clay. I pull out that tinfoil hat so fast so fast that I don't even know what and I put it right on and I'm like, hmm, I think that and I start going down those rabbit holes and and you know, and I need a good, I need a good talking down when I, you know, I said it, I think it was the week- one of the weeks you were gone, one of the weeks you were gone, I brought up Occam's razor's razor and you know, and that is like you know, the most likely answer is probably the right one.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Um, you know, that's the, that's what that is, and I, that's me. I'm that guy like the most likely and, trust me, I run scenarios in my head all the time on everything you can ever think of, but it always, almost always, comes back to the. You know, common sense explanation is is usually what happened, which is why I don't believe in haunted houses, I don't believe in aliens, why I didn't believe in aliens not in the sense, like you know, little green men walking amongst us, but you know what I mean like ghosts and haunted houses and all. I don't believe in any of that stuff. Yeah, why? Because it just doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 1: 33:13

Yep yep, no, I like that. That's. That's good for, like I said, that's good balance for me, cause I'm I'm right away, like you know what that means. All of a sudden I started talking. Yeah, I started talking to like a Wilford Brimley or something out of nowhere, like what was going on with her.

Speaker 2: 33:30

Hey, I'll give you a little, a little comic relief, a little Wilford Brimley wake up, right. Yeah, you know how old he was when they filmed cocoon.

Speaker 1: 33:38

Oh God, no, how old was he? 52. Oh, oh my heart. Do you remember how old he seemed? Oh my, I'm 52. That is.

Speaker 2: 33:48

Yes, yeah.

Speaker 1: 33:50

I feel like that man has been like 70 his entire life Like how is that even possible there?

Speaker 3: 33:55

you go.

Speaker 1: 33:56

I'm blown away right now. That's insane. That's like the golden girls. They were like some, like crazy, yeah Right, and it's they say you know well, I don't know there's no explanation for him. Like with women, they say it's all about the hairstyle. Like you, change the hair.

Speaker 3: 34:20

That doesn't work for him.

Speaker 2: 34:20

The man has been terminally a hundred, you know with the with the diabetes diabetes, diabetes, diabetes, diabetes, diabetes.

Speaker 1: 34:23

Thank you, yes, I say that way more than it's necessary, guys. By the way, I will randomly say is it the diabetes? I don't know.

Speaker 2: 34:31

I'm sorry, that's good advertising that's stuck in your head forever.

Speaker 1: 34:34

Exactly, that was brilliant, that was brilliant Marketing. Yep, yes, absolutely All right, let's anyhow. Sorry guys, we digress.

Speaker 2: 34:42

Let's get back All right. So we were on, we're on track. That criminal negligence is probably what the FBI is investigating. That's fine. Anything at all. That's probably what they're going to find. It could be maintenance could be training, could be a lot of things, criminal negligence, that's. That's, I think, where we're at.

Speaker 1: 34:59

Yes, and I will say you know. So I will say, since we're, you know, we're, we're joking about it and we're laughing about it, and I'm laughing about my tinfoil hat and all those things, um, but I, I will say, like a serious sense that that it's because that it is just another thing that has happened that makes makes your eyebrow go up, like Hmm, this is, you know, wow, you, you line all of these things up. It's getting harder and harder to say coincidence, coincidence, you know.

Speaker 2: 35:28

But yeah, I'm not going to add to your tinfoil hat in this, but over the weekend I don't know if you saw it a bunch of barges broke loose on the Ohio River and went into Pittsburgh and ended up shutting a bunch of the bridges down in the city of Bridges, right.

Speaker 1: 35:43

I added another layer to my tinfoil when I saw that, yes, yes, so don't blame me, blame the event, all right, so, yes, so we're going to keep an eye on that. If there's more to report on it, we will certainly bring it to you. And listen, here's the thing. I don't want to be right. I don't want to be right. I want it to be face value. I want it to be what it is. I don't, I don't want it to be anything more than that. So, yeah, so, all right. So we're on our criminal track here. Criminal stuff and things track Clay, you brought this one to my attention. I was oblivious of it. What a surprise. What a surprise. I was oblivious, yeah, so this is crazy. Go ahead and tell them about it and then we'll talk about it.

Speaker 2: 36:22

So this is our public service announcement for the week. So summer's coming right. Vrbo, vacation Rental by Owner, airbnb you know all of these short-term rental apps and programs that you can get into, people love them. I've used them before, you used them before. They're great, it's nice to have a house right To go in and out of, versus a hotel, and you know, you get a little bit more freedom and flexibility. But here's the here's the warning.

Speaker 2: 36:53

Um, criminals are starting to target these things, and so I'm not I don't want to give a how to, but this is kind of what's going on, and if you're a vacationer and you plan on doing this this summer, you need to be aware because this is going on. Um, what the criminals are doing is they are getting on the app, right, putting in there, putting in their zip code, um, what Airbnb or VRBO or whatever is in the area, and then they start targeting them. Right, so they'll do, drive by, they'll check the house Okay, we know that's one who's in the driveway now, what kind of car and then they'll check because you can availability, so they'll know when it's occupied and when it's not. And what they're doing is they're targeting the houses while the tourists are in them because it's not your house. What they're doing is they're targeting the houses while the tourists are in them because it's not your house, right, you may miss a door lock. There's probably not a security system in a lot of these, right? It's all of those things. So they target the house.

Speaker 2: 37:46

They watch that you're there, you're not there, you're on vacation. So it's not like you're just going to sit in the Airbnb the whole time. Maybe you are, but if you're not, then they're going to take advantage of that. But what they're also doing is taking advantage of the fact that you're a tourist. You're probably in a rental car. In a lot of cases, you're definitely in a city that you're probably not familiar with, or your vacation it's not your hometown, and they're going to take advantage of your lack of situational awareness. So what are they doing? They're carjacking tourists, right, so go to the Airbnb. We know that's a tourist, we know they're driving this car and they follow you. You go to the gas station, carjack you. They rob you, right, not pick pocket I'm talking like mugging style robbing. So they're using the information right, and me being an army guy intelligence of these apps and they're applying it to criminal activity right. So they're using that to help them target tourists. It's reprehensible, I mean it's it's awful.

Speaker 1: 38:45

And you know what a surprise. People find a way to ruin everything once again. Once again, people find ways to be absolute garbage humans. And yeah, this is a perfect example of that. And and to your uh question comment before yeah, I I've quite a few times we've used uh, airbnb. I think we've used both of both of them. Um, great experiences every time.

Speaker 1: 39:07

Uh, one of the things that I did pick uh or look for when I picking the places and this is probably a good, I think maybe it's a good recommendation for people who are looking for Airbnbs or the other one is check if they have. They will say, typically, they will say if they have a security system and you know, at the very least, like a ring doorbell. I don't, I don't know if all of them say, but the ones that I've used did say that they had some type of security there. So that was kind of a priority. Yeah, I mean, you really do. You have to be smart.

Speaker 1: 39:40

And then you know, just add that to the other layers of personal safety and security. When you do that stuff, I mean you should be checking for. You know you should be checking for cameras. You know this is not to do with the external criminals. This is to do with more of the owners of these things that may not be the best people in the world, right? So you know you should be checking for cameras. You know little tiny cameras in the vents and all of those type of things, like I mean. Just add it to the list of all of these safety measures that we have to take because of a handful of really scummy people in the world. It's bigger than a handful, I know.

Speaker 2: 40:20

And then so, and then on top of all that, right, so you've got, as a traveler, you've got all of that to worry about, which sucks, because now you're on your vacation, right Now you got to worry about that on your vacation. But what does that do? Right? And and it's already they're already starting to see impacts in specific places where this is, you know, kind of on the on the rise. So people are, as this becomes more public knowledge and the incidents are becoming more reported, people are going to stop using vrbo airbnb in those areas because of criminal activity. So what do they do then? They go back to hotels, right? Or or they stop traveling, which is even worse, but not right. If they're bound to travel, then they're going to go back to hotels. Now, the owners of these are are, now they have a rental property that doesn't get rent out the harder time to

Speaker 2: 41:09

rent. So they're going to do what business people do. They're going to lower the price. They're going to do you know what I mean and it's going to affect this as an industry. So you know there's caution there too.

Speaker 2: 41:24

If you're an Airbnb, vrbo owner and you're, you know you have this as an income stream for you passive income kind of thing Good for you. But you may want to start looking to be a little more creative in how you take care of your customers and clients Could be a boon for some people. Like, if you figure out how to make sure it's a great, secure, safe experience, you may get like repeat business upon repeat business because you crack the egg on this thing, or crack the nut on this thing and figured out how to do it. But if you're somebody who just is like, hey look, I can't afford to dump money into extra ring cameras or extra security systems or whatever you know, then you're going to this is might be painful for you. You might end up losing out on this Right. So it has an effect on the, on the industry as a whole and and it really is a shame it really, really is a shame.

Speaker 1: 42:20

It is because what you know, it's it's really such a cool concept, it's such a cool idea and there's so many of them. I mean you, can you know? There's just so, so many of them and, like I said, I've always had great experiences. We haven't done it a ton of times. I don't want to make it sound like I've, like you know, been to so many of them. No, I mean maybe, maybe like four times, which probably isn't a lot but right.

Speaker 2: 42:40

It's enough.

Speaker 1: 42:41

I mean it's enough, and you know I mean it's, it's, it's been, it's been fine, it's been great. But yes, you do look for certain things and that's really important. And, and to your point, you know, like you said, that affects the prices for these things too, because, like you said, it could either do one of two things it could drop the prices because they're so desperate to get people to stay, or because they have to add so many new security measures and protections. Now it's going to jack the prices up of these stays. So it's, you know, yet another thing that's going to be.

Speaker 2: 43:12

I'll throw one more little wrench in this. Yeah, you know yet another thing that's going to be.

Speaker 2: 43:17

I'll throw one more little wrench in this yeah, if this administration continues, expect more regulation, because this is a generally unregulated industry, right, right? So, like Lyft and Uber you know all the reasons they had such an impact like taxi cabs, as you know, in in all big cities, were regulated like to the nth degree by the city governments and those kinds of things. And then Lyft and Uber were like, hey, it's your car and it's your thing, and it has been generally unregulated. Vrbo, airbnb, short-term rental also very unregulated. So when you've got the big gov folks who love to add, you know, bureaucracy and regulation to things, this is a prime example of something that, if this continues, you're going to see more government involvement in that industry, which is going to do nothing but hike the prices regulate your vehicle that you drive and your stove that you use and the light bulbs you screw into your things there, so um you know maybe this will vote for and who you vote for.

Speaker 1: 44:19

Of course, you know so many things to control, so little time. Terrible, I guess. I technically mean that very literally because they're, they are throwing everything, uh, at the wall to see what will stick, because they know potentially their, their time is is almost up, so you know it's. I mean, one way or the other man is going to be. I don't know if you're. If you're a Christian, I know that you're not clay. If you're a Christian, you are holding onto that Bible and and you are, you are reading revelation right now, over and over again man.

Speaker 2: 44:54

I went to eight years of Catholic school and me and God are good I love it Me and God are good. I like that revelation I'm familiar with.

Speaker 1: 45:03

Yes, that's a. That's intense stuff right there. We won't go there for you guys. Really, everybody relax, we are good, good, good, all right. So more criminals. Let's talk about California again. We've got like two running themes here week after week that they all, they can't stay out of the news, and of course that's Trump and California.

Speaker 2: 45:28

Yeah, yesterday, I think you and I figured out yesterday was the first official day for the $20 minimum wage in California and and they're, you know, in anticipation of that, they were already starting to see the impact. Yes, in um, you're seeing small businesses already starting to. They had to raise their prices to pay. You know the the $20 minimum wage. Um, you saw the first I I I have to go to this place to believe this to be true, but I know, I've seen it in multiple places. The first automated McDonald's.

Speaker 1: 46:05

Oh, yes, I was hearing about that. Yeah, fully automated, right yeah, like one person there probably, right yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:10

It's like absolute minimum staffing. You know, you're basically there to tell people that the shake machine is broken.

Speaker 1: 46:16

Um, because that's yeah, it's always broken.

Speaker 2: 46:19

It's always broken really makes me angry except during shamrock shake season. Thank god, yes, but but anyway, yeah, I mean, that's. That is, I think, the extreme of this, but that's reality right now.

Speaker 1: 46:32

Yeah, yeah, it's like a matter of course, right, like it is Um, it's just.

Speaker 2: 46:38

It's so much um that hasn't been thought through, right? The one? We've talked about this before. You can't like minimum wage jobs are not pay the bills. Jobs.

Speaker 2: 46:51

They're there, really, right, they're, get you on your feet. They're high school kid jobs, right. That's. That's what that's about. They're not sustainable living jobs. That's not the intent behind those $20 puts them in that sustained employment realm. The problem is is that now you are, you know, lessening, you're lessening the number of those jobs available because they can't pay as many people Right? The economics of this make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1: 47:22

No, no, and you look at, you know, not even just California, look across in my state, I'm sure it's in your state as well Grocery stores, most of the checkout, the checkout area. It's not checkout lanes anymore, it's a checkout area where it's all self-checkout. And it started off and I remember this uh, it started off with there being like maybe two, two self-checkout lanes and now there's, um I'm just thinking I'm the grocery store I frequent the most there's um, uh, half a dozen, eight maybe, of self-checkout stations and at any given time, like they still have their lanes with the cashiers, but there's usually like one, maybe two people on those and they will direct you. Most of them they have somebody like directing you over to the self-checkout rather than the lines you know, and it's that's everywhere now and that's part of all of this.

Speaker 1: 48:17

You keep raising that minimum wage, and I'm not saying that they should never raise the minimum wage. I mean, you know there is, you know, we're not saying that at all, but within reason, within sustainability, for for businesses, that's just common sense, right there. As soon as you do that, exactly what Clay is saying will happen Well, there's going to be layoffs. That's just common sense, right there. As soon as you do that, exactly what Clay is saying will happen. Well, there's going to be layoffs. There's going to be, um, not even layoffs, firing. You're just gone. We can't afford you. You're out Um closing of stores, stores moving somewhere else. This is, this is such an obvious consequence of what they're doing, and they were at well, where they were at $16 an hour and they bumped it up to 20. And you know, and the impact, of course, is pretty immediate, right, I mean, it's it's pretty quick.

Speaker 2: 49:03

Yeah, I mean it's. It's simple math because it you know it goes by force, right? So if you've got, if you were $16 an hour before, assuming no increase in your prices and no increase in your costs, right, all of that remains. If you go from $16 an hour to $20 an hour, you have to cut one employee. Right, immediately, right, that's minimum. Cut one employee, so that's 20% of your workforce gone. It's taken out of the equation.

Speaker 2: 49:32

And if you're a place that has hundreds of workers or even dozens of workers, especially if you're a place that runs multiple shifts where people work on minimum wage, now you're starting to, you know, you're starting to. The impact of one out of five when there's only five people working at the place is one thing. The impact of one out of five when there's a hundred people working at the place, you've just lost 20 jobs. Yeah, that's 20 people out of work to sustain this $20 minimum wage. So, while you've got 80 people that are making $4 more an hour, you've got 20 people who are now making nothing, right, out of work, and it's just that none of it makes sense.

Speaker 1: 50:13

No, no, it doesn't. It makes zero sense. And you know, I mean, I guess, I guess, if you wanted to try and find some kind of upside here, I guess the only thing I could think of to say that might be positive in a really warped way is that, if my state is any indication of the country, which I actually know that it is, for the most part you can't get anybody to work anyhow. Nobody's working, they're not, nobody's showing up for their jobs. You know, all of these people are desperate for people to come in, which maybe is part of why they're attempting this. You know, minimum wage hike to encourage people to work. So you know, I don't know, is that a bright side? I don't.

Speaker 2: 50:57

It's not a bright side, it's the cost of living out there is so out of whack and but it has been for so long. I mean, you know I'll go back to 2003. Okay, that the and this was like the the bottom of the housing market. Um, we, you know, I had just been moved to a new duty station and bought a house, and I bought three bedroom, no, four bedroom, three bath, 20 something, 2400 square feet, two car garage, quarter acre lot, nice place in Kansas, right, 11 word kids. My best friend, who is in show business out in LA, bought a house exactly the same size, square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, lot size, garage sites. The only difference was he had a pool. Now, this is 20 years ago, right, I paid, you know, $180,000, I think, for that house.

Speaker 1: 51:58

Unimaginable, now yeah.

Speaker 2: 51:59

Yeah, he paid like $875,000.

Speaker 1: 52:04

Wow, that is such an extreme difference.

Speaker 2: 52:08

It's mind-boggling, literally within 60 days of each other, you know. So you look at the cost of living, the taxes, everything associated and the difference between middle America, the flyover states and coastal LA California 20 years ago. You see the difference. And now and this is where you end up when your cost of living gets that far out of whack, this is where you end up.

Speaker 1: 52:31

Yep, yeah, absolutely, absolutely, yeah, I mean. And another one to to sit back and watch and shake your head at you know, I mean, which has been like I'm. I'm looking at our, at our topics here. I feel like you know almost all of them. You're, you're, that's exactly what you're doing through. All of this is just shaking your head, man, I mean, we're all going to get like whiplash from having to shake our heads so much at the things that go on that are so incredibly illogical, impractical and unsupportable. You know, it's just unsupportable. All of these things that are going on, and you know, and what's the common denominator? This administration, you know, starts from the top and trickles down to all of us, and we're the one that pay for all of it, for everything that's happening. We pay for it financially, emotionally, everything, and man, oh man, I think we're all sick and tired of it you know we should do.

Speaker 2: 53:28

Let's do this. Throw a dart for next week, okay, no, get no. No, we don't know what's going to happen in the next week. Right, give me something that you think is going to happen between now and then and we'll see how good we are at predicting stuff.

Speaker 1: 53:45

Oh, so you've been so spot on with these. I think you're going to nail it. Let's see, okay, in relation to our topics or just in general.

Speaker 2: 53:53

In general.

Speaker 1: 53:54

Oh, oh, my God, you go first and maybe I'll be able to piggyback on that. I don't know, we'll see. Go ahead, you go first.

Speaker 2: 54:01

I'm going to pull one out of thin air and we'll see what happens. Somebody big in the administration, so let's call it a cabinet member or a key staff member in the White House, is going to quit or be fired this week.

Speaker 1: 54:17

Ooh, Ooh, that's it. You have Intel. Do you have some kind of Intel? I feel like that's that's overdue.

Speaker 2: 54:24

That's where I'm getting it from we're overdue.

Speaker 1: 54:26

Good point, Good point. Well, I think I'm going to be a little more general. That was pretty good. That was pretty specific. I think, like more specific than I'm going to be. I'm going to say that you know, we um, their distraction tactics are a little little lax at the moment. There's a little lull here. It's getting a little repetitive. Everybody's kind of getting glazed over. So I think they're going to have to put out something big as another, as a new distraction to something that they're doing. So I mean, I don't know what the distraction will be, but I think it'll be something big that we're all going to be. You know, because we're looking here. You know there's a lot of conversation about there's a lot of pressure for debates. So they really need to steer that ship in a different direction. They got to, they got to do like they did with that barge. Sorry, not a pile on, yeah, um, so, yeah. So that's going to be my prediction that they're going to throw something at us. That's absurd, right?

Speaker 2: 55:21

okay, that's what I'm going with all right, and you know what they could be. The same thing they could be they could very well be.

Speaker 1: 55:27

Yeah, I kind of, in a weird way, almost hope that it is because I like being right.

Speaker 1: 55:32

It's my favorite yes all right, guys, those guys, those, uh, we're, we're, we're. That's what we're digging our heels in right now. On that, you know the deal. You know what I'm going to say. Everybody, uh, we love your input so much. You've been so phenomenally interactive. We're so grateful. We love hanging out with you in the comments section and, um, yeah, yeah, I love doing the show with you, clay. It's just so much fun. You close them out listen.

Speaker 2: 55:59

It's been growing too. I I think we had our biggest youtube um viewership week was, I think, this past week the biggest one we've had so far and by far the activity in the. You know, I told you like I'm like national command center, while this is going on, the comments in YouTube this past week, as the show was, you know, as it dropped on Thursday night, we're fans they were huge. Like just comments and comments and comments. It was great and I love the fact that our audience members are interacting with each other yes, I love that.

Speaker 2: 56:27

I love that we got our own little community going, so let's keep that up. And uh, as always for me, folks, I love being here and I love doing this with Elsa, but till next week, keep moving, keep shooting.

Speaker 1: 56:37

Indeed. Take care, guys, we'll see you in the next one.