February 22, 2025 • 61 mins
This podcast episode prominently features a discussion regarding the evolving dynamics within the realms of social media, specifically focusing on the impending implications of potential governmental interventions in platforms such as TikTok. The speakers contemplate the ramifications of a United States investment in TikTok, postulating that such an action could transform the platform into a state-influenced outlet, thereby altering its operational integrity and user experience. Furthermore, the conversation delves into the significance of emerging alternatives like the Neptune app, emphasizing its unique proposition of user-driven content curation, which starkly contrasts with algorithmic-driven models prevalent in existing social media frameworks. The dialogue also traverses personal narratives, including the experiences of the hosts with their respective career trajectories and aspirations, thereby humanizing the overarching technological discourse. Ultimately, this episode serves as a critical examination of the intersection between technology, governance, and individual agency in the digital age.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:40):
The All About Nothing podcastmay have language and content that
isn't appropriate for some.
Listener discretion is advised.
Welcome Nothingers, to anotherepisode of the All About Nothing
podcast.
This is episode number 243.
I am Barrett Gruber.
I am joined by Mr.
Bill Frey, who of course youall know Bill because he was our
intern last summer and nowhe's jobless and needs something
(01:03):
to do on a regular enough base.
Do you want to defendyourself, Bill?
No, no, I'm jobless.
I am.
I mean, well, not quite jobless.
Doordash helps.
Helps a good bit.
Doordash is a thing.
No how.
Well, we'll get into a littlebit of that.
We'll get into that.
Please subscribe and share the show.
That's how we get new listeners.
Also, if you could pleaseconsider supporting the show financially
(01:24):
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Across all of social media youcan Find links to theallaboutnothing.com
is where you can find links toall of that.
Registration going on nowthrough March 28th for the everplay
(01:45):
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(02:08):
If you're watching this rightnow, next weekend is the Coastal
Comic Con in Wilmington, NorthCarolina at the Wilmington Convention
Center.
But if you're watching thisregularly or you're listening to
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Next weekend, March 1st and2nd, Wilmington Convention center
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You can check out CoastalComic Con.com for tickets and details.
(02:29):
Vendors, artists, voiceoverartists, including TV and movie actors
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Tickets available now.
Go do that.
So Bill Fry, what have youbeen up to?
(02:53):
Oh man, you graduated.
Congratulations.
I graduated in December.
Uh, yeah.
And since then I've kind Of.
I've kind of been taking it easy.
I've been.
I've been.
Like I said, I've been doing alot of doordash.
Applying for jobs.
Yeah, I'm working on a coupleof things I can't talk about yet.
(03:14):
Maybe I'll tell you off camera later.
Uh, okay.
So secret.
Look, there's.
There is.
There's.
There's quite literallynothing to be embarrassed about.
About a.
Having a, you know, a robustporn career.
There's nothing embarrassingabout it.
No.
Most of the state, you can getaway with it as long as it's a New
Jersey address.
(03:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Two months.
Two months out of college.
It really, really did get to me.
But I was gonna say this isthe time to start.
Do it now.
Some of us are too old forthat sort of thing.
No, you.
So, yeah, graduate of theSchool of Journalism from the University
of South Carolina.
You did that back in December,and that's exciting.
(03:55):
You're a.
You're.
You're a step ahead of me because.
I went through before.
Before I was graduated, I wasworking on Carolina News, which was
the craziest thing.
I mean, we put probably 50, 60hours into that.
I wasn't even.
Like, we were not paid.
All the.
Everything we did, like, allthe gas, all the things we did, every
(04:17):
bit of it.
Travel, I mean, nine to fiveand then even later, and then planning
over the weekend for the next thing.
It was.
That was also a wild programto be a part of.
So.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Political Bill sc, who is mypartner on the kind of Daily show,
has made a comment.
Apparently he thinks that I amgoing to supply the music for your
(04:39):
career, maybe.
Possible.
So one of the things that I'mthankful to have Bill here is because
coming up at the end of March,as most of our regular listeners
know, Zach is going to be onpaternity leave because he and his
(05:01):
wife are having twins.
And his attention is going tobe focused elsewhere and elsewhere.
And in order to not go back tothe episodes of this podcast where
it was basically me just doinga running monologue for 20, 30, 40
minutes, we have.
(05:21):
We have been in the process oftrying to find people that we could
utilize as the.
The, the co host of thisprogram, because ultimately, yeah,
it's still unpaid, Bill.
But.
But, yeah, so essentially,because Zach's gonna be out, we're
(05:42):
gonna have.
We're gonna have some peoplestand in right now.
The preference is that Bill doit because he is used to what goes
on with this podcast and howlittle he probably gets to talk because
I talk too much.
But so essentially, Bill Fryis going to stand in as much as he
can, hopefully all of it.
(06:04):
But it's, it's going to be,it's going to be a good time.
I'm glad Bill's going to be back.
It makes it easier on me, too,because it's, it's easier on me if
everyone has the same name.
So between you and Bill Kimlerand then Bill Fry, I can, I can,
ultimately, it makes it easieron me because I can just start to
(06:25):
call everybody Bill and, andget away with it.
So if you are on YouTube andyou have any comments to make, please
make them.
We'll throw up on the screen.
Bill Kimler wants to know whatcelebrity impressions can you do?
Celebrity impressions?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
(06:45):
That's putting me on the spot immediately.
How's your, how's your Matthew McConaughey?
I don't have a Matthew McConaughey.
Do you have a Matthew McConaughey?
No, not, he's not here currently.
But if he were, he, if he werehere, he'd say, all right, all right,
(07:06):
all right.
Anyway, all right, all right.
And I promise I will never dothat again.
So, so, yeah.
So you graduated fromUniversity of South Carolina.
You now have a journalismdegree, which you know, ultimately
broadcast journal.
Ultimately.
What I meant to tell youbefore you started the whole process
(07:28):
was become a doctor or doanything, potentially.
Something.
Yeah, anything other thanpodcast journalism.
Because you're gonna, you'regonna find a lot of disappointment.
It happens.
I, I, I can't tell you thenumber of the internships that, that
(07:49):
I, I, I attempted.
I, I had several successfulinternships that did turn into actual
jobs, that one of them beingthat I worked for radio Station Atlanta,
WKHX FM kicks 101.5, which wasa country station.
I worked for it for severalyears that then moved over into hosting
(08:10):
my own morning show on a verysmall AM radio station between Athens
and Atlanta called wimo.
That was, that was, that was afun, that was a fun time.
I worked for some very, veryinteresting people that, I'll just
say it was a very interesting,it was a good time.
(08:32):
I enjoyed it, but I was alsoglad when I moved on from there.
But it was a very small, itwas a thousand watt radio station
that before 5 o'clock in themorning, we would go.
Our transmitter, our antennawould go, we would be directional.
And it just happened that thedirection pointed pretty much east,
west, or mostly like, or maybelike east northeast and west southwest.
(08:57):
But we were pointed directlytowards the UK and I would get emails
on the morning show frompeople listening in Scotland or in,
in, in.
In the uk which was, which waskind of interesting because I definitely
encourage them.
Don't call, do not, do notmake that long distance call.
(09:17):
Of course now you can FaceTimeand whatnot.
Which is, which is fine, makesit easier.
But, but yeah.
So you know when we talkedlast week or was it last week or
the week before?
I think it was the week.
Maybe it was the, I think it.
Was a week before maybe, maybeit was the week before the last episode.
(09:38):
Maybe like I'm guessing to 10days ago, something like that.
Yeah, it was right before werecorded with Ashley and Chris of
the Neptune app, which again,if you haven't listened to that episode
yet, go back and listen to itbecause Ashley and Chris were fantastic
and really look forward toseeing what comes out of the Neptune
app.
Because as, as Bill and I werediscussing before we started recording,
(10:01):
we both have a sickness ofTikTok currently because I think,
and I guess we could start itoff with that.
My, my biggest concern aboutTikTok is I, I don't know what it's
going to be.
There's the, you know, the,the looming ban is going to kick
back in, in like another 30days or so.
(10:23):
And so at that point It'll bethe 60 day notice.
Now I know Donald Trump said aweek or so ago that he could just
push, you know, kick the can alittle further down the road, but
that isn't true.
The ban only allowed for a 75,75 day ban if they use the 75 day
ban.
(10:44):
But under Trump, his decisionwas only a 60 day ban.
I guess down the road.
Yeah, the ban is literallyjust a bluff all the way until America
owns a large portion ofTikTok, which is going to be difficult
as I also the fact that anyapp is being, it's almost like people
(11:07):
at like certain apps are safe.
I was talking to my brother inlaw who's a computer scientist about
a lot of this and it's like alot of the apps even like Blue sky,
like I started a Blue skyaccount recently which was like the
former CEO of Twitter startedit and then gave it to somebody and
they're just like, oh, we'renot going to give it up or anything
like that.
But as long as there's like aprivate CEO of anything, I mean they
(11:31):
have a price tag.
So I just like TikTok.
Even if America buys thisthing, it's like there's going to
be something else.
I mean it's going to beconstant, which is why like my brother
in law is trying to like getpeople to just use Mastodon because
there's no like actual.
I think, I think the term islike, it's federated, so it's like
(11:52):
there's no single owner of it.
And it's like a thread that's interesting.
So I've, I've missed some ofthe stuff on the Neptune interview
that you did last week, butI'm curious to see like if they became
billionaires, would they,would they sell it?
Would they sell it?
Well, as of, as of right now,it, it sounds like when it comes
(12:12):
to investors that they havenot, they have not seeked out a lot
of in the way of investment.
They basically bootstrappedthemselves for this app, meaning
that they're paying for, youknow, the incidental cost of getting
the app to market and that.
So, so there have been, itsounded like there have been some
(12:32):
conversations aboutpotentially doing investors and that
sort of thing.
But see, with investmentsthere's a, there's a responsibility
to those investors that youreally have to make.
And sometimes that includesselling your soul.
It includes, you know, givingup portions of the app that you think
are important to you that theypotentially want like, you know,
(12:55):
I don't know, legacy softwarepieces that would be an addition
to it that would potentiallybe something that would benefit an
investor or with venturecapitalists, you have them come in
and basically purchase a pieceof it or, or invest in it so that
they own a majority stock inwhat you've created.
And then the idea is, is thatthey have to then get give that they
(13:18):
could potentially, potentiallysell off what it is that they own
and now somebody else owns you.
So I think what it sounds likeis they're trying to do is for the
most part they're trying toavoid all of that just by having
their investment in it beingtheir own and maintaining the app
as the Neptune app, as theirown, as permanent, as permanently
(13:42):
as they can.
But you know, I've seen, I'veseen some models of it and you know,
granted it's, it's going tolook a lot like the other social
media apps that we have,whether you know, whether it's the
infinite scrolling like TikTokdoes or your own profile page and
things like that.
So there are a lot ofsimilarities in what is already out
(14:03):
there.
But it's the behind the scenesstuff I think that excites me the
most with, with Neptunebecause popularity won't be something
that drives content to your,your view.
It's not going to be, it's notgoing to be something that is as
important on the algorithm asyour own personal, you know, choices
on things.
The, the things that you wantto see if you, you know, when you
(14:25):
initially do your setup, ifyou say, I really like country music,
but not like mainstreamcountry music, like, you know, bluegrass
country music, so maybe a lotof the content that gets driven to
you will be more in, in linewith, with that.
So, and that's a terribleexample because I cannot imagine
anyone ever being out thereand going, you know what?
(14:47):
I need more bluegrass.
And I know a lot of people.
Know a lot of people actually.
Yeah, you know, it's possible.
So I do have a genuine fearthough, that, that if the United
States makes some sort ofinvestment into TikTok, like what
does TikTok then become?
Because you have to imaginethat the Trump way of handling everything
(15:14):
is to basically makeeverything Trump.
Like, right.
I mean, yeah, they moderate it because.
It'Ll be interesting to see.
I mean, it's kind of like Twitter.
It would be different fromwhat happened with Twitter and X.
Like it's, it's a verydifferent situation, but I feel like
(15:34):
it would just be abandoned also.
Or maybe also they just try toget more private investors investing
into it.
So that's not like governmentmedia because I, I don't know, it's,
it's going to be very strangeto see what happens to it.
Well, unlike True social, truesocial TikTok comes with an immediate
(15:57):
70 something million users andmillions of small businesses attached
to it.
So like, right off the batyou've got, you have basically just
an onslaught of visibilitythat, you know, just like, just like
Facebook and whatnot.
Where True Social, I thinkhas, I want to, I want to say, I
(16:20):
think like the statistic I sawon True Social recently was that
they have something like30,000 daily users that actually
use the app prettyconsistently or that, that 30,000
unique individuals.
It's actually not a lot and I.
Would have found more.
No, it's a, it's terrible.
(16:41):
I like, like there may be,there may be a number, they may have
a bunch of users, but, but forthe most part it doesn't see a lot
of traffic because there's nota whole lot of content on it.
Like nobody's going on TrueSocial to express their artism or
to go on and talk about, youknow, their feelings as far as.
(17:04):
Unless they are directlyrelated to their love of, you know,
certain orange fruit shaped Presidents.
Yeah.
Which the interesting thing about.
There is something interestingabout Mastodon or about Truth Social
is that it's actually aninstance of Macedon that they like
(17:25):
copy and pasted it.
And then that's also why itwas very, it was easy to hack it
in the beginning.
Like I think they, someoneripped everything down immediately
and put a picture of a pig orsomething up there.
I can't remember the exactthing, but I remember that happened.
But it was just because it wasrunning off an old update, Macedon,
which in that case, if youwanted to start a Republican thread
(17:49):
or a far right thread, you cando that if you want because there's.
I think, I think I'm using it correctly.
I'm not sure.
But it's like the federation of.
It is.
You can literally do whateveryou want and start your own thing,
be the ruler of whatever formyou start.
Bill Kimler, the, the host ofBlack, White and Blue in the south,
(18:11):
he is, he has mentionedMastodon many times.
I still have even pulled it up.
I've never, I've never lookedat it.
I got it now.
He, he seems to, he seems tohave some loyalty to it.
He can, if he's stillwatching, he can certainly throw
something in there.
But yeah, I think ultimatelyone of my biggest fears about the
(18:34):
United States governmenthaving any sort of investment into
TikTok is, you know, what doesa state run social media platform
become?
I mean we kind of see it withtrue social, but like I said, TikTok
has 73 million users that theyprobably want to.
(18:54):
Yeah, I can't think ofanything that is like that.
I mean, red note, which isChina's thing.
But that's a completelydifferent, that's a completely different
thing.
Yeah, I'd be shocked if therewas a, if there was something like
that.
But I mean, who knows?
It could, could happen.
Given a month, anything could happen.
There is, there is an all likelihood.
(19:17):
Well, I mean we have state runTV media.
I mean we've got Fox News.
Well, okay.
You were going with it.
I mean it's, it's true though,that's state run.
It's.
Yeah, government has a hand in it.
And that's a big question forjournalists is should we be okay
with there being a statefunded media at all?
(19:41):
Well, let me ask you aboutthat because I know that's one of
the things that that Trump'sadministration is trying to do is
they want to bring an end toNational Public Radio, public television.
They want to end that becausetheir feeling on it is that NPR and
state run or, you know,national public Television, public
(20:01):
radio, those sorts of thingsare those channels that they are
left leaning.
And I've never worked for likeSC TV here in South Carolina.
I've never worked for npr.
I've never, you know, I'venever, I've, I've, I've listened
to NPR plenty and I've, I've,I've always recognized in my opinion
(20:25):
that those, those mediasources, in my opinion have always
been pretty much justreporting facts or reporting the
news.
I didn't feel like there was ahuge slant.
I mean, you know, you do haveTerry Gross who does a program or
used to do a program, she maystill do a program.
(20:46):
But I always, I always feltlike, you know, they were just reporting
what this, you know, directlyfrom the source.
They weren't, they weren'tputting a left or right slant on
things.
But even talking to peoplelike my father in law, who ultimately
believes that NPR is justsocialist radio, which is a weird
(21:09):
thing to say, Wild for sure,because it's, well, but by definition
it is socialist radio becauseit's literally radio that's being
paid for by grants from thefederal government as well as donations
from, from viewers like youand me, you know, so, yeah, I understand
that, but again, it didn't, itto me it never really gave a slant
(21:32):
on, on what it was that was discussed.
Like if, if they reported newsthat made, you know, George W.
Bush sound like a warhawk,then it's probably because George
W.
Bush was a bit of a warhawk.
Yeah, I don't, don't know.
So I, I kind of have had a lotof grave feelings on a lot of stuff
(21:56):
when it comes to likegovernment run media because I'm
not against it at all.
Also, if the government runmedia wants to hire me, I don't want
to, but because I would, Iwould 100% work for the government.
But at the same time it islike how, how controlled is it?
(22:18):
Because that's, especiallywith bias.
I mean bias is in everythingand it's hard for any media to not
have some bias.
Personally, I think it's finefor the time being.
I mean, I'm gonna normallylisten and read stuff from like AP
or CNN just because I like, Ilike a more centered thing.
(22:41):
That's also why I like ground news.
Ground news is like just areally nice way to see how things
lean.
But for the most part, like I,I'm not against it, but I would,
I would be interesting to hearwhat some of my professors who have
doctorates in broadcastjournalism would like, would say
(23:02):
about it.
I mean, you mentioned the ap,and I was going to ask you about
that.
The AP was banned from OvalOffice press junkets.
I can't really call them.
I can't call them like press conferences.
And they're, they're, they,they're almost pressers.
(23:24):
But like, it's basically, it'salways Donald Trump sitting behind
the desk.
And ultimately, I think that'sbecause at the age of 78, that his
legs have begun to give outfrom the immense whale weight that
he carries.
And, and I say that completelyacknowledging my own weight, whale
weight, whatever.
But, you know, he, so he hasthese things.
(23:47):
Well, he banned the AP becausein their reporting, because of the
fact.
And this is, this is my opinion.
I don't know this for a fact,but the AP is used by news sources,
or I guess news resources likelocal television, newspapers.
The AP is used around the world.
(24:09):
Yeah.
And outside of the UnitedStates, default set.
Like, if you want to get yournews, you get that.
And then you can take from itand write about it and say, this
is the report.
Yeah.
Everything.
Fox News, that CNN uses it,OEM will use it, the Young Turks
probably uses it.
I mean, it's such a big deal,for sure.
Yeah.
And, and, but because the APreports on news around the world
(24:33):
and they report on news in theUnited States.
Around the world.
There's eight.
You know, how.
What are we at?
8.6 billion people on theplanet in the United states makes
up 300 million of that.
So 8.2 or 8.3 billion peoplearound the planet that would potentially
read the AP News, they stillreport the name outside of the United
(24:55):
States as the Gulf of Mexico.
And that's because the onlyplace on the planet that recognizes
it as being the Gulf ofAmerica now is the United States.
So it seems natural to me thatthe Gulf of America would only be
stated in AP News when it'sspecifically about the Gulf in reporting,
(25:19):
that is, you know, that thecontent's being refreshed in the
United States.
Outside the United States,refer to it by the Gulf of Mexico,
because that's what everybodyelse refers to it as.
But because of that, the WhiteHouse made the decision that they
were going to ban the AP fromthese Oval Office little press junkets
(25:40):
they still have front andcenter in the, in the press, in the
press room.
But it seems so menial that.
Or like they're like that ultimately.
Like, I keep coming back toone of the things that, that I kept
being said or what Kept beingsaid to me when, when Trump was in
office the first time was Ikept being referred to as a snowflake
(26:02):
because I made observationsabout Donald Trump and it was constantly,
I'm a bear, it's a snowflake.
He's not coping with the factthat Hillary lost.
He's a snowflake.
And it's like for something astrivial as how one particular news
source has the name listed, itseems so snowflake.
(26:23):
Ish.
For the White House to beupset that the AP is referring to
the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulfof Mexico instead of the Gulf of
America outside of the United States.
Like, why do they care whatthe reporting is outside of the United
States?
Like, what, what, whatdifference does it make?
Yeah, he just, he just does itto assert dominance.
(26:45):
Like he literally just, justto make people upset.
But it, it truly is likethere's going to be information that
AP normally would write aboutthat CNN and Fox and every media
source would typically pullfrom just.
Well, I mean, it's, it'spretty close to censorship.
I'm going to be perfectly honest.
I am not aware of the laws orif there's any rules that are set
(27:09):
around that to where it'sperfectly okay to be barred from
any, anything.
But I feel like he would havedone that with other medians or like.
Already because, well, CNN,CNN's in there.
CNN is in those pressers.
Because I hear Caitlin Collinsasking questions like, she's the
(27:30):
White House staff reporter for cnn.
She's in the White House.
You know, every, I hear herasking questions every single time.
It's funny you mentionedDonald Trump establishing his dominance
again at the age of 78 years old.
Like, I, I just, I just wantto keep reminding people this is
(27:51):
not a young man.
He does not have the, thevitality that he had when he was,
you know, 40 or 60.
Like, he's, he's almost 80years old.
And the fact that people keeplooking at him as being like this,
bigger than life, whatever,he's 78 years old and, you know,
(28:11):
ignoring the age of myparents, 78 is old.
It's not young.
And the people that keepacting like this, that he has some
magic powers, I don't know.
Bill Kimler said he thinkshe's just going to live forever,
but like out of fear, I think.
But today, you know, youmentioned establishing dominance.
(28:31):
He posted on his True socialat about 2:00 Eastern Time.
He said congestion pricing isdead Manhattan and all of New York
is saved.
Long live the king.
He referred to Himself as the king.
He referred to himself as the king.
(28:52):
And then to follow up on that,in all of the White House social
media, they posted what was acreated article or front page of
a magazine with Trump wearinga king.
And underneath said long live.
Or on the news.
On, on the, on the, the pageit actually said long live the king.
(29:15):
I, I don't even, I don't knowhow we're here.
I really don't.
Like, it's just.
Well, the other day he did thestuff where he was.
What, what do you say?
He who, what did he say?
He said something like, he whois in power must control the law
or something like that.
Determines.
Basic.
Yeah, paraphrasing.
Basically, he, he who is he.
(29:37):
He.
He who is in power determines.
Basically gets to makedeterminations on the law.
Is, is, is ultimately what hewas saying.
And, and part of the problemis that J.D.
vance, who is a frigging Yale graduate.
Right, Yale.
He went to Yale Law School.
Yeah.
Like he perpetuated with that,that the courts shouldn't be.
(30:00):
And again, paraphrasing, butthe courts shouldn't be participating
in any actions or whateverthat, that make the executive branch
look weak.
And it's like, what are wetalking about?
How are we here?
It is wild.
I, because it, but it's alsofunny because a lot of the things
(30:23):
have been very authoritarianand he's said the things that I've
seen.
Just anybody can look at itand just be like, oh, these are clear.
Like he wants to be king.
He wants to be a monarch.
The only, the only thing thatis holding them back from doing that
are some of the checks and balances.
I was having a debate theother night about whether or not
(30:43):
we're in a constitutional crisis.
And it just, the further wego, it feels like our checks and
balances are being tested inways that were never before thought
about.
And now that the core iscompletely right leaning, I mean,
just very openly rightleaning, I don't know where we're
(31:05):
at.
Like, we're pretty close to it.
Like two months in not even.
It's been like six weeks whereit hadn't.
It hasn't been six weeks.
Today's February 19th.
He was sworn into office onthe 20th.
It's been one month.
It's, it's not, it's not beena month tomorrow.
Yeah, and it does, it feelslike we've been in this never ending,
(31:29):
just rampage of nonsense for.
Yeah, it feels like it's beensix months.
But because, and, and one ofthe things I I, I go back to is that
back in, in during Trump'sfirst term, one of the things that
Steve what's his name, Bannon,that was an advisor to President
(31:52):
Trump in, during his firstterm that Steve Bannon basically
gave away some of the playbookwhen he told a reporter that what
we have to do in thisadministration is basically just
flood the market.
That's not what he used.
He.
But, but essentially justevery day hit the press with, with
(32:12):
as much as you can everysingle day so that some of the other
stuff doesn't get seen.
Some of the other stuff justsort of skirts past and essentially
they didn't do it that wellduring Trump's first term because
I, I don't incompetence, Iguess or maybe it was because there
were a few adults in the roomthat, that prevented there being
(32:36):
as much damage being caused.
But you know, there were, hehad, he had hired legitimate statesmen
as far as being able to, youknow, when, when it came to like
his cabinet, there were a fewpeople in his cabinet that were,
you know, at leastconstitutionally minded.
And, and, and now we have zeroof that.
(32:58):
We have, we have a, a defensesecretary in Pete Headspath or whatever
his name is that thatliterally told the, the European
Community in Germany thatthere is no, you know, that, that
the likelihood of UkraineGetting back to pre2014 territory
(33:22):
borders between them andRussia was, was not going to happen.
You know, that it wasextremely unlikely.
And it's like, and then, andthen he said that they're being accepted
into NATO was extremely unlikely.
Which I'm, you know, I stilldon't know where we're at with, with
NATO because from myunderstanding, Trump said multiple
(33:43):
times over the past two yearsthat he wants to completely pull
out of NATO.
I mean, like, well, don't,don't put.
It in the universe then he'sgoing to remember he said it.
Yeah, I, I mean, I remember.
So I mean, I don't know.
I don't know where, wherewe're moving.
(34:04):
It's very also like it feelslike we're just trying to evade other
stuff.
We want, they're trying totake Panama, they want to do something
with Canada.
They, I, which that thosethings if it happened, I, it's going
to cause so many wars.
I don't know how it actuallywould not be just bluffs, but it's
(34:25):
possible.
I mean also the red white andblue land thing, like I thought that
was an Onion post when I read it.
I, I could not believe.
Oh, the Onion could Not havewritten it any better.
The fact that there is a, ARepublican Congress representative
from Savannah, Georgia, whomhas, has put forth a bill to potentially
(34:52):
have Greenland.
Well, it allows for Trump tonegotiate with Denmark about the
potential absorption ofGreenland into the United States
or, or the purchasing ofGreenland, but at the, at the, at
the finish of the acquisitionof Greenland, that there would be
(35:16):
a bill that would then renameGreenland to Red, White and Blueland.
And as ridiculous as thatsounds, which, you know, it being
named Greenland is sort ofridiculous in a sense anyway, because
it's not.
I mean, you know, it's coveredin ice.
(35:36):
I mean, you know, for a littlewhile longer, that will come to an
end.
We will not have ice onGreenland at some point in the next,
I don't know, hundred years.
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, it's gonna, it's gonnacome pretty close.
But.
But, yeah, and then, you know,you look at the other things like
these tariffs that are beingenacted on Canada or that he wants
(35:59):
to enact on Canada because hethinks that there's.
And there is a deficit as faras what is.
What is being shipped intoCanada versus what is being shipped
out of Canada in the United States.
So we do have.
There's a difference in theimports and exports.
We definitely import a lotfrom Canada, whether it's oil or
(36:19):
lumber, pharmaceuticals.
We get, you know, our pharmacy.
The pharmaceutical companieshere in the United States, they bring
in a lot of their product from Canada.
Like, it comes in throughCanada is.
Canada is, you know, it's.
It.
A lot of stuff comes through Canada.
Yeah.
And the thing is this.
(36:40):
I, yeah, not in my, in myopinion, it's not a bad idea ever
to strengthen relations to thepoint of.
With other countries.
Like, I, I would love to see aNorth American union.
I would like it would be.
That's an interesting conceptto me.
But absorbing a country basedout of force and taking it as our
(37:01):
own state, that's the scarything to me.
But, yeah, I don't know that.
Well, even the North American,like there's a, like a North American
union would even becontroversial in itself.
But also it'd be interestingto see how we could deal with labor.
If we could make, if we had astronger union with Canada and Mexico,
how would we deal with labor?
How we deal with immigration,like they do in the.
(37:23):
We had, we had nafta.
We had NAFTA for decades.
Like, the North.
North American Free TradeAgreement was in place, and it basically
was, it wasn't a, it wasn't asuper great thing.
When it came to some jobs herein the United States, I will fully
admit that it definitelywrecked havoc.
(37:44):
Yeah, that too.
So it wasn't really great.
But then the uscm, what is it?
The uscam, the Usecam is theUnited States, Canada, Mexico Trade
Agreement that was underTrump's first term also, basically,
you know, for the most part,it was a carbon copy of nafta.
(38:06):
It just had a different nameto it.
And it didn't really, itdidn't really strengthen the economy
for any of the countries.
I mean, maybe Canada a littlebit, they benefited some from it,
but it didn't really make awhole lot of changes.
But the idea that tariffs arethe way to go against your two closest
(38:28):
allies on the planet isasinine to me because tariffs don't
do anything but raise pricesfor us, the consumers.
If Canada pulls and attachestariffs to things that they get from
the United States, it's reallyjust going to affect their consumers.
Like, this is a, this, it'sone of those, it's one of those weird
(38:49):
trade wars between countriesthat don't really affect the country's
governments.
It only affects the people ofthose countries.
And that's what tariffs do.
We, we pay for those tariffs.
Yeah, well, and we would for sure.
And to an extent, like Chinawould feel that, which is also kind
of why we had a weird.
(39:10):
It's kind of like Cuba, Cubawas the same thing.
And the tariffs are so strong.
I mean, it, the peoplesuffered from not having us as traders.
And also we as well, I mean,it just hurts.
Well, and, and we put anembargo on them.
So basically canceling out anyof our allies from being able to
really trade with Cuba.
Yeah, which because, and Ithink that was, I can't remember,
(39:33):
was it Obama that lifted that?
I think Biden put it back in so.
Well, actually, Obama lifted it.
Trump put it back in.
Trump.
There.
We had, we didn't really have.
It wasn't that we had freetrade with Cuba, but we, we, Obama
did open Cuba up to tourism, travel.
(39:56):
And there were, I think thatthere were some, there were some
sanctions that were liftedagainst Cuba because, you know, it's
been 50 years, 60 years, andultimately, what are those sanctions
really doing to a country thatdoesn't have an attachment to as
the Soviet Union anymore?
Because it doesn't exist.
Really.
(40:16):
It was just us kind of puttingour thumb on them, trying to try,
trying to convince them thatdemocracy is the way to go.
But, you know, if Cuba'swatching right now, look, this is
what democracy Gets, you getthe dumbest timeline with this current
(40:37):
democracy.
I, I even hear like, like whythe tariffs were implemented.
It is just like the, the wholething with him is he's wanting it
to be more everythingmanufactured and collected from American
resources to be used which isjust right.
(40:58):
That's, that's, it's likesometimes there's like things where
it's halfway there.
If we still had the open tradewe can manufacture it all the things
here as long as we deal withthe imports and we can say it's made
in America.
We fully put together cars in America.
If we can have free importsfrom Germany and China and all these
other places it's sure it'sjust impossible and sustainability
(41:24):
is impossible.
All of these issues.
There's no way you could buildall those things here and not sell
them to just the ultra richonly like cars would immediately
soar.
It's just not, it's likehalfway there and then that's just
demolished every, it's justgoes everything reasonable goes out
the window.
(41:45):
As much as people want to denythat we are the United States is
just a fraction of thepopulation of the planet.
Like that to me is one of thethings that, that I am still dumbfounded
by what how little peoplethat, that are so close minded that
don't use any critical thinking.
(42:05):
They, they do not recognizethat the United States is a mere
fraction of what goes on onthis planet again.
300 million.
300 what?
60 million people.
330 million people.
Something like that make upthe United States.
The world population is like8.6 billion or more.
And it's like the idea thatyou ignore the most obvious that
(42:29):
the United States isn't the majority.
We may spend more on ourdefense than the next.
What eight countries combinedis not an indication of just how
strong the United States is.
I sure militarily, sure I getthat we have a military that could
(42:49):
basically obliterate anyoneelse on the planet but it is, it's,
it's insane to me that peopledon't recognize that we are such
a small part of this giantplanet and, and, and the fact that
we could have such you know I,I, I, I go back to Star Trek that
utopian sort of, you know,ignoring all of the, the military
(43:12):
buildup by section 33 of, ofthe, the Starfleet, uh, you, you
ignore that part and it's autopian society where people basically
live to better their society.
And I, you know as much aspeople out there want to argue that
they think that's a terribleidea and we shouldn't do that sort
of thing.
I, I, I have to always go back to.
(43:34):
But wouldn't it be better ifwe worked in partnership, if, if
we could figure out a way towork in partnership with everybody
to make things better, likeimprove lives ultimately?
That's the, that's the role ofthe government is the, our, our federal
government should be workingto make our lives better.
And under this currentadministration, I mean, that's.
Yeah.
Working for us.
(43:55):
That's the whole point.
Which it's just funny thatthere's, there's a lot of people
that are just like, well, youcould say it like that.
And on paper it sounds great,but it just, just can't be done.
And I'm like, the thing we'redoing right now doesn't even sound
good on paper.
Like, no, it just.
What are we doing?
Like, we just can't.
Yes, we can't do this.
It is a, what we have rightnow is an ex.
(44:16):
It was basically just ascorched earth way of trying to handle
the government.
And in part of that I get.
I'll bring this part up andwe'll probably wrap up here in just
a little bit to this, but my,my mother sent me an email with the
timeline of all these paintplane incidents.
(44:38):
Yeah, that was.
Another one wasn't.
Well, there was definitely one yesterday.
There 17.
My.
Where was that one?
Because I think there was one.
Canada, Arizona.
Is there one in Arizona recently?
Today?
Oh, my gosh.
Okay, so fact check me on thatbecause I don't, I don't want to
(44:58):
be.
Well, read misinformation.
As of, as of yesterday, Therehave been four deadly plane crashes
in the United States in 2025.
In total, 85 people have died.
There has not been.
Now, prior to January 29th,there had not been a deadly incident
involving a US airliner since 2009.
(45:19):
So you're talking 15 yearsthat there had not been.
Nearly 15 years there had notbeen an incident in the United States.
So January 29th, we saw theAmerican Airlines flight collide
with a Blackhawk helicopterover the Potomac river, which then
killed 64 people on the plane,as well as the three in the helicopter.
Two days later, a medical jetflying out of Philadelphia killed
(45:42):
seven people, including ayoung patient who had just basically
been given her life back toher after treatment.
Seven people were on boardthere, but.
And then 24 people injured onthe ground.
And then what, seven dayslater, a Grand Caravan Cessna operating
(46:05):
out of the, I guess flyinginto Nome, Alaska, crashed into the
bering sea they 10 people diedon that one 13th there was a plane
that went off the end of theRunway at Buckeye Municipal Airport
in Arizona.
That was that.
That three people were on board.
FAA is still investigating.
(46:26):
There was a crash at theCovington Municipal Airport in Georgia
around 11:40pm on the 15th of February.
Two people on board that one.
The FAA and NTSB are currentlyinvestigating that.
The next day there was aCessna that crashed near Perland
Regional Airport in Texasaround 10:45pm on Sunday, February
(46:49):
16th.
Only the pilot was on board.
The FAA is investigating that one.
And then on the 17th, DeltaAirlines flight operating by a dever
for air crashed while landingin the Toronto Pearson International
Airport.
And if you've watched thevideo of that, that is quite the
spectacle.
That was crazy.
Did you climb out of it withthe video?
Yeah, I was, I could notimagine being in that situation.
(47:13):
It was wild.
The plane rolled over inflames like, and, and all 80 people
got off that.
That to me is the.
Yeah, that to me is the mostamazing part.
But the fact that, that thisplane trying to do one of these crab
maneuvers is essentially whatwas going on because there were 40
(47:34):
mile an hour winds with higherwind gusts and the plane was, the
plane couldn't come in straight.
So what they do is this crabmaneuver where they basically, they're
flying into the headwind andjust trying to edge themselves over
the, over the Runway to thepoint where they finally, just right
before, right before they comedown, they yanko yank to the right
or whatever so that they canthen make the landing.
(47:56):
Well, they hit the, they, theydid it pretty successfully up to
the point where the plane thenstarted to make that turn to try
and put itself onto the groundand the wind caught it and basically
just pushed it out, pushed itover on top of itself and 80 people
walked away.
But.
Right, this is the end.
Go ahead.
(48:17):
I was just gonna say that Ithink, I think this is the endemic
of having so many people beingfired from jobs.
These are career civilservants that have been in these
jobs for in some cases decades.
Especially when it comes toair travel.
Like literally the people thatare guiding planes in via radar at,
you know, working the towersand in all of these airports across
(48:39):
the hundreds of airportsacross the country.
And the idea that they maypotentially not have their job anymore,
that Elon Musk is going tocome in from SpaceX with some brand
new software that's going tomake everything super great.
Even though SpaceX doesn'twork on software, that's not their
thing.
They Put rockets in the airand they only really do it 60% of
(49:04):
the time.
Are they successful?
Like, Elon Musk is notoriousfor SpaceX blowing planes up and
then him tweeting out, well,that was exciting.
It's like you just blew up a$15 billion rocket and that's exciting.
It's insane.
It just, it really made, it'slike, what could we have done with
(49:25):
that money to help people?
I just.
Right, like 15 billion.
That's enough to help SouthCarolina out and raise teacher salary
immediately.
Just immediately.
And it's like, well, we've got.
15 billion.
Would take care of salariesfor teachers for probably the next,
I don't know, 50 years andwould reinvest into their pension
(49:46):
program for teachers for thenext hundred years.
Like $15 billion in just southCarolina education.
You know, unless, of course,you know, it's.
The Republicans are just goingto give it all away to voucher programs
and things like that.
But, you know, aside fromthat, yeah, $15 billion would be
an unbelievable investmentinto education for one state that
(50:09):
would, would have lastingresults for into the next century,
you know, because $15 billionis a lot of money in.
South Carolina doesn't spendthat much money on education.
That's, it's just insane.
No, it's just, it's disgusting.
It just really is.
I don't, I just don'tunderstand how we're at a point where
(50:31):
that kind of money that justgoes into something like that.
Because I'm also like, how areyou a space truck?
But, but private.
The pri.
But you can do it without that.
I don't know.
I'm all in favor of us sendingElon Musk to Mars.
I have zero issue with thatbecause that I, I think we, we all
(50:54):
benefit from that becausethat's not.
There's no return flight onthat one.
I, I don't care what they say.
I, I don't, I don't, you know,the, the belief that we can have
a sustained life on a roundtrip from, to and from Mars.
You have read too many sciencefiction books and none of the science
(51:16):
fictions or none of the actualscience papers on, on exactly what
it takes to get us to and from Mars.
Because Elon Musk ain't comingback from that one.
I don't care how manyroadsters he puts in that, that rocket
with them.
Well, even developing a wholeatmosphere, a livable place on another
planet.
I'm like, we have a planetright now that if you're saying that
(51:39):
you, you know how to fix that.
On Mars, you should be able tofix it.
Here you should be able to dothat, but we can't.
I don't, I don't understand,don't understand where people are
getting this from.
And then they're just like,oh, yeah, I'm on board with that
all the way.
I don't know.
There's, there, I, I have, Ihave no intelligent answers for this.
(51:59):
I have no intelligent answers.
Like, I need, I need experts.
I need, Yeah, I, I, I am, I amwaiting for Elon Musk to investigate
himself and the federalcontracts that have quite literally
made him $300 billion.
He has made $300 billion atthe teat of the American government.
Where is, where, where's theaudit on that?
That's what I want to know.
When is that going to happen?
(52:20):
Real quick, though.
Do you, do you want to talkto, you want to talk to RFK Jr.
I met him one time.
Did you?
Well, then maybe, maybe he'll recognize.
He'll, he'll remember you.
Bobby, Bobby Jr.
Is, is on the phone with us.
How's it going, Bobby?
I'm gonna try, I'm gonna tryand play this link.
(52:41):
It's working.
Oh, my God.
It's, it's RFK Jr.
Now, he's a little hard tounderstand, so I guess I can't understand
a single thing he's saying, but.
(53:02):
Well, I, maybe, maybe we canjust get like, inflection or something
like that, but.
Bobby Jr, are you excitedabout being the Secretary of Health
and Human Services?
Is that a good.
Interesting.
I still don't understand aword he's saying.
It's really hard, but I'm,I'm, are, are you going to actually
(53:26):
make a lot of changes when itcomes to vaccines and, and things
like that that are availablethrough, you know, a lot of the programs
with the United States as itis now?
Yeah, I, I, I don't understandwhat he's saying.
(53:46):
Interesting.
Well, I, I think, Bobby, Ithink, Bobby, we're probably just
going to have to let you go onthis one.
We'll, we'll try and connectwith you again.
But you're, you got somethingin your throat.
Sure.
I, again, don't understand asingle thing you're saying, but thanks
for stopping by.
(54:07):
That was something that isgoing to be, that is going to be
a running gag.
We are going to have RFK on,we are going to have RFK junior On
our show all the time now.
We're going to have to make alot of assumptions about what it
is he's saying.
But I'm sure it's interesting.
Last time I spoke with him, hereally went back on a lot of the
(54:28):
things that he told me.
It was, I don't, I don't doubt.
That he came here to Columbiawhile he was running for president
and every single thing.
He, like, recorded him oncamera, spoke with him, had all these
things.
And then almost everythingthat he said to Congress is the exact
opposite of what he told me.
(54:48):
Is, of course, very, veryweird to see that in real time.
Yeah, it, yeah, I, you know, Igot to interview Marianne Williamson
when she was running for president.
Yeah.
RFK was not one that I couldget on the show.
Like, I reached out to him, Ireached out to Biden's, you know,
campaign and tried to getBiden to come on.
(55:09):
I reached, hell, I reached outto Trump's campaign to try to get
on, but apparently you have tobe a.
Via Theo Vaughn or.
Oh, Joe Rogan.
Yeah, Joe Rogan or whatever inorder to get Donald Trump on, which
is fine.
I don't care.
My feelings aren't hurt.
But.
But yeah, you know,ultimately, RFK is the forgotten
(55:32):
son of the Kennedy family.
Like, he's mostly alienatedhimself out of their graces and the
result is, is now he's theSecretary of Health and Human Services.
And when he was asked, are yougoing to, are you going to go to,
to work for a medical companyor potentially a pharmaceutical after
(55:52):
you are no longer in this,this seat, which ultimately I think
it's fair to ask, are yougoing to turn this job into a job
that then creates you a massamount of money, being the face of
Pfizer or something like that?
It's fair to ask that question.
Couldn't say no.
He couldn't say yes.
He couldn't say no.
And ultimately I don't.
It wouldn't have turned outany differently.
(56:13):
But just, you know, be honest,tell us.
Yeah, I'm using this to get meback into the money that the Kennedys
have.
You know, Kennedys,Carlisle's, whatever.
Just insane, isn't it?
The Carlisle is the Kennedys.
The Carlisle's.
Carlisle, Kennedy.
Yeah.
(56:33):
Lexington beat.
Oh, Put myself on the spot.
I was trying to think of whoit was.
The Republican woman.
Oh.
Yeah, yeah.
Somebody in the comments overhere said Blake Hungerford said that
Theo Vaughn is not funny.
(56:54):
Totally agree.
Theo Vaughn is.
Theo Fawn is trash as far asI'm concerned.
That may not be everyone'sopinion, I tell you, I just don't
find him funny.
I watched, I did watch himlive he was a, it was an interesting.
I know, yeah, I was gonna sayI know people that watch him live,
but he's not like, he's notreally a professional comedian.
I don't actually know what itis that he did to get famous unless
(57:17):
it was just the Internet.
I assume he just made his fameon the Internet.
He was on a lot of like,little shows and stuff for a while.
But he was, he, he was theweakest part of the, the, the, the
Johnny Knoxville movie thatcame out last year about him being
in a rehab softball team.
(57:38):
Theo Von was the weakest partof that entire movie.
And ultimately I've seen hisstand up.
I, I don't know who writes forhim, but they have to be disappointed
in how he carries out their jokes.
That's, that's, that's howI'll say there's a timing issue.
Well, Bill, I reallyappreciate, I know you said you've
got to get out of here for,for, for stuff that you've got to
(58:00):
do.
I just real quick want to wrapit up.
The Coastal Comic Con iscoming up March 1st and 2nd.
Zach and I are going to be there.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
We're going to have to get asmany people as we can to come and
visit with us.
We're, we're going to be doingsome lives while we're there at the
coast.
On again.
Wilmington Convention centerin Wilmington, North Carolina.
Go ahead and get tickets.
(58:21):
Coastal Comic Con.com checkout ZJZ Designs, their winner.
They're, they're St.
Patrick's Day T shirts are available.
Go check them out.
Buy those because they go to agood cause, which is the elderly
and.
All right, Bill, thank youvery much for being with us and I
look forward to many more of these.
(58:42):
I guess I'll just wrap it up.
Links to past episodes,podcast, platform, social, social
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it's gonna do it for episodenumber 243.
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Thank you very much for listening.
You all stay safe, be kind andkeep your hands to yourself.
The All About Nothing podcastis a product of Big Media and produced
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Welcome Nothingers, to anotherepisode of the All About Nothing
podcast.
This is episode number 243.
I am Barrett Gruber.
I am joined by Mr.
Bill Frey, who of course youall know Bill because he was our
intern last summer and nowhe's jobless and needs something
(01:03):
to do on a regular enough base.
Do you want to defendyourself, Bill?
No, no, I'm jobless.
I am.
I mean, well, not quite jobless.
Doordash helps.
Helps a good bit.
Doordash is a thing.
No how.
Well, we'll get into a littlebit of that.
We'll get into that.
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(01:24):
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is where you can find links toall of that.
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(01:45):
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(02:08):
If you're watching this rightnow, next weekend is the Coastal
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But if you're watching thisregularly or you're listening to
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(02:29):
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Tickets available now.
Go do that.
So Bill Fry, what have youbeen up to?
(02:53):
Oh man, you graduated.
Congratulations.
I graduated in December.
Uh, yeah.
And since then I've kind Of.
I've kind of been taking it easy.
I've been.
I've been.
Like I said, I've been doing alot of doordash.
Applying for jobs.
Yeah, I'm working on a coupleof things I can't talk about yet.
(03:14):
Maybe I'll tell you off camera later.
Uh, okay.
So secret.
Look, there's.
There is.
There's.
There's quite literallynothing to be embarrassed about.
About a.
Having a, you know, a robustporn career.
There's nothing embarrassingabout it.
No.
Most of the state, you can getaway with it as long as it's a New
Jersey address.
(03:34):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Two months.
Two months out of college.
It really, really did get to me.
But I was gonna say this isthe time to start.
Do it now.
Some of us are too old forthat sort of thing.
No, you.
So, yeah, graduate of theSchool of Journalism from the University
of South Carolina.
You did that back in December,and that's exciting.
(03:55):
You're a.
You're.
You're a step ahead of me because.
I went through before.
Before I was graduated, I wasworking on Carolina News, which was
the craziest thing.
I mean, we put probably 50, 60hours into that.
I wasn't even.
Like, we were not paid.
All the.
Everything we did, like, allthe gas, all the things we did, every
(04:17):
bit of it.
Travel, I mean, nine to fiveand then even later, and then planning
over the weekend for the next thing.
It was.
That was also a wild programto be a part of.
So.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Political Bill sc, who is mypartner on the kind of Daily show,
has made a comment.
Apparently he thinks that I amgoing to supply the music for your
(04:39):
career, maybe.
Possible.
So one of the things that I'mthankful to have Bill here is because
coming up at the end of March,as most of our regular listeners
know, Zach is going to be onpaternity leave because he and his
(05:01):
wife are having twins.
And his attention is going tobe focused elsewhere and elsewhere.
And in order to not go back tothe episodes of this podcast where
it was basically me just doinga running monologue for 20, 30, 40
minutes, we have.
(05:21):
We have been in the process oftrying to find people that we could
utilize as the.
The, the co host of thisprogram, because ultimately, yeah,
it's still unpaid, Bill.
But.
But, yeah, so essentially,because Zach's gonna be out, we're
(05:42):
gonna have.
We're gonna have some peoplestand in right now.
The preference is that Bill doit because he is used to what goes
on with this podcast and howlittle he probably gets to talk because
I talk too much.
But so essentially, Bill Fryis going to stand in as much as he
can, hopefully all of it.
(06:04):
But it's, it's going to be,it's going to be a good time.
I'm glad Bill's going to be back.
It makes it easier on me, too,because it's, it's easier on me if
everyone has the same name.
So between you and Bill Kimlerand then Bill Fry, I can, I can,
ultimately, it makes it easieron me because I can just start to
(06:25):
call everybody Bill and, andget away with it.
So if you are on YouTube andyou have any comments to make, please
make them.
We'll throw up on the screen.
Bill Kimler wants to know whatcelebrity impressions can you do?
Celebrity impressions?
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
(06:45):
That's putting me on the spot immediately.
How's your, how's your Matthew McConaughey?
I don't have a Matthew McConaughey.
Do you have a Matthew McConaughey?
No, not, he's not here currently.
But if he were, he, if he werehere, he'd say, all right, all right,
(07:06):
all right.
Anyway, all right, all right.
And I promise I will never dothat again.
So, so, yeah.
So you graduated fromUniversity of South Carolina.
You now have a journalismdegree, which you know, ultimately
broadcast journal.
Ultimately.
What I meant to tell youbefore you started the whole process
(07:28):
was become a doctor or doanything, potentially.
Something.
Yeah, anything other thanpodcast journalism.
Because you're gonna, you'regonna find a lot of disappointment.
It happens.
I, I, I can't tell you thenumber of the internships that, that
(07:49):
I, I, I attempted.
I, I had several successfulinternships that did turn into actual
jobs, that one of them beingthat I worked for radio Station Atlanta,
WKHX FM kicks 101.5, which wasa country station.
I worked for it for severalyears that then moved over into hosting
(08:10):
my own morning show on a verysmall AM radio station between Athens
and Atlanta called wimo.
That was, that was, that was afun, that was a fun time.
I worked for some very, veryinteresting people that, I'll just
say it was a very interesting,it was a good time.
(08:32):
I enjoyed it, but I was alsoglad when I moved on from there.
But it was a very small, itwas a thousand watt radio station
that before 5 o'clock in themorning, we would go.
Our transmitter, our antennawould go, we would be directional.
And it just happened that thedirection pointed pretty much east,
west, or mostly like, or maybelike east northeast and west southwest.
(08:57):
But we were pointed directlytowards the UK and I would get emails
on the morning show frompeople listening in Scotland or in,
in, in.
In the uk which was, which waskind of interesting because I definitely
encourage them.
Don't call, do not, do notmake that long distance call.
(09:17):
Of course now you can FaceTimeand whatnot.
Which is, which is fine, makesit easier.
But, but yeah.
So you know when we talkedlast week or was it last week or
the week before?
I think it was the week.
Maybe it was the, I think it.
Was a week before maybe, maybeit was the week before the last episode.
(09:38):
Maybe like I'm guessing to 10days ago, something like that.
Yeah, it was right before werecorded with Ashley and Chris of
the Neptune app, which again,if you haven't listened to that episode
yet, go back and listen to itbecause Ashley and Chris were fantastic
and really look forward toseeing what comes out of the Neptune
app.
Because as, as Bill and I werediscussing before we started recording,
(10:01):
we both have a sickness ofTikTok currently because I think,
and I guess we could start itoff with that.
My, my biggest concern aboutTikTok is I, I don't know what it's
going to be.
There's the, you know, the,the looming ban is going to kick
back in, in like another 30days or so.
(10:23):
And so at that point It'll bethe 60 day notice.
Now I know Donald Trump said aweek or so ago that he could just
push, you know, kick the can alittle further down the road, but
that isn't true.
The ban only allowed for a 75,75 day ban if they use the 75 day
ban.
(10:44):
But under Trump, his decisionwas only a 60 day ban.
I guess down the road.
Yeah, the ban is literallyjust a bluff all the way until America
owns a large portion ofTikTok, which is going to be difficult
as I also the fact that anyapp is being, it's almost like people
(11:07):
at like certain apps are safe.
I was talking to my brother inlaw who's a computer scientist about
a lot of this and it's like alot of the apps even like Blue sky,
like I started a Blue skyaccount recently which was like the
former CEO of Twitter startedit and then gave it to somebody and
they're just like, oh, we'renot going to give it up or anything
like that.
But as long as there's like aprivate CEO of anything, I mean they
(11:31):
have a price tag.
So I just like TikTok.
Even if America buys thisthing, it's like there's going to
be something else.
I mean it's going to beconstant, which is why like my brother
in law is trying to like getpeople to just use Mastodon because
there's no like actual.
I think, I think the term islike, it's federated, so it's like
(11:52):
there's no single owner of it.
And it's like a thread that's interesting.
So I've, I've missed some ofthe stuff on the Neptune interview
that you did last week, butI'm curious to see like if they became
billionaires, would they,would they sell it?
Would they sell it?
Well, as of, as of right now,it, it sounds like when it comes
(12:12):
to investors that they havenot, they have not seeked out a lot
of in the way of investment.
They basically bootstrappedthemselves for this app, meaning
that they're paying for, youknow, the incidental cost of getting
the app to market and that.
So, so there have been, itsounded like there have been some
(12:32):
conversations aboutpotentially doing investors and that
sort of thing.
But see, with investmentsthere's a, there's a responsibility
to those investors that youreally have to make.
And sometimes that includesselling your soul.
It includes, you know, givingup portions of the app that you think
are important to you that theypotentially want like, you know,
(12:55):
I don't know, legacy softwarepieces that would be an addition
to it that would potentiallybe something that would benefit an
investor or with venturecapitalists, you have them come in
and basically purchase a pieceof it or, or invest in it so that
they own a majority stock inwhat you've created.
And then the idea is, is thatthey have to then get give that they
(13:18):
could potentially, potentiallysell off what it is that they own
and now somebody else owns you.
So I think what it sounds likeis they're trying to do is for the
most part they're trying toavoid all of that just by having
their investment in it beingtheir own and maintaining the app
as the Neptune app, as theirown, as permanent, as permanently
(13:42):
as they can.
But you know, I've seen, I'veseen some models of it and you know,
granted it's, it's going tolook a lot like the other social
media apps that we have,whether you know, whether it's the
infinite scrolling like TikTokdoes or your own profile page and
things like that.
So there are a lot ofsimilarities in what is already out
(14:03):
there.
But it's the behind the scenesstuff I think that excites me the
most with, with Neptunebecause popularity won't be something
that drives content to your,your view.
It's not going to be, it's notgoing to be something that is as
important on the algorithm asyour own personal, you know, choices
on things.
The, the things that you wantto see if you, you know, when you
(14:25):
initially do your setup, ifyou say, I really like country music,
but not like mainstreamcountry music, like, you know, bluegrass
country music, so maybe a lotof the content that gets driven to
you will be more in, in linewith, with that.
So, and that's a terribleexample because I cannot imagine
anyone ever being out thereand going, you know what?
(14:47):
I need more bluegrass.
And I know a lot of people.
Know a lot of people actually.
Yeah, you know, it's possible.
So I do have a genuine fearthough, that, that if the United
States makes some sort ofinvestment into TikTok, like what
does TikTok then become?
Because you have to imaginethat the Trump way of handling everything
(15:14):
is to basically makeeverything Trump.
Like, right.
I mean, yeah, they moderate it because.
It'Ll be interesting to see.
I mean, it's kind of like Twitter.
It would be different fromwhat happened with Twitter and X.
Like it's, it's a verydifferent situation, but I feel like
(15:34):
it would just be abandoned also.
Or maybe also they just try toget more private investors investing
into it.
So that's not like governmentmedia because I, I don't know, it's,
it's going to be very strangeto see what happens to it.
Well, unlike True social, truesocial TikTok comes with an immediate
(15:57):
70 something million users andmillions of small businesses attached
to it.
So like, right off the batyou've got, you have basically just
an onslaught of visibilitythat, you know, just like, just like
Facebook and whatnot.
Where True Social, I thinkhas, I want to, I want to say, I
(16:20):
think like the statistic I sawon True Social recently was that
they have something like30,000 daily users that actually
use the app prettyconsistently or that, that 30,000
unique individuals.
It's actually not a lot and I.
Would have found more.
No, it's a, it's terrible.
(16:41):
I like, like there may be,there may be a number, they may have
a bunch of users, but, but forthe most part it doesn't see a lot
of traffic because there's nota whole lot of content on it.
Like nobody's going on TrueSocial to express their artism or
to go on and talk about, youknow, their feelings as far as.
(17:04):
Unless they are directlyrelated to their love of, you know,
certain orange fruit shaped Presidents.
Yeah.
Which the interesting thing about.
There is something interestingabout Mastodon or about Truth Social
is that it's actually aninstance of Macedon that they like
(17:25):
copy and pasted it.
And then that's also why itwas very, it was easy to hack it
in the beginning.
Like I think they, someoneripped everything down immediately
and put a picture of a pig orsomething up there.
I can't remember the exactthing, but I remember that happened.
But it was just because it wasrunning off an old update, Macedon,
which in that case, if youwanted to start a Republican thread
(17:49):
or a far right thread, you cando that if you want because there's.
I think, I think I'm using it correctly.
I'm not sure.
But it's like the federation of.
It is.
You can literally do whateveryou want and start your own thing,
be the ruler of whatever formyou start.
Bill Kimler, the, the host ofBlack, White and Blue in the south,
(18:11):
he is, he has mentionedMastodon many times.
I still have even pulled it up.
I've never, I've never lookedat it.
I got it now.
He, he seems to, he seems tohave some loyalty to it.
He can, if he's stillwatching, he can certainly throw
something in there.
But yeah, I think ultimatelyone of my biggest fears about the
(18:34):
United States governmenthaving any sort of investment into
TikTok is, you know, what doesa state run social media platform
become?
I mean we kind of see it withtrue social, but like I said, TikTok
has 73 million users that theyprobably want to.
(18:54):
Yeah, I can't think ofanything that is like that.
I mean, red note, which isChina's thing.
But that's a completelydifferent, that's a completely different
thing.
Yeah, I'd be shocked if therewas a, if there was something like
that.
But I mean, who knows?
It could, could happen.
Given a month, anything could happen.
There is, there is an all likelihood.
(19:17):
Well, I mean we have state runTV media.
I mean we've got Fox News.
Well, okay.
You were going with it.
I mean it's, it's true though,that's state run.
It's.
Yeah, government has a hand in it.
And that's a big question forjournalists is should we be okay
with there being a statefunded media at all?
(19:41):
Well, let me ask you aboutthat because I know that's one of
the things that that Trump'sadministration is trying to do is
they want to bring an end toNational Public Radio, public television.
They want to end that becausetheir feeling on it is that NPR and
state run or, you know,national public Television, public
(20:01):
radio, those sorts of thingsare those channels that they are
left leaning.
And I've never worked for likeSC TV here in South Carolina.
I've never worked for npr.
I've never, you know, I'venever, I've, I've, I've listened
to NPR plenty and I've, I've,I've always recognized in my opinion
(20:25):
that those, those mediasources, in my opinion have always
been pretty much justreporting facts or reporting the
news.
I didn't feel like there was ahuge slant.
I mean, you know, you do haveTerry Gross who does a program or
used to do a program, she maystill do a program.
(20:46):
But I always, I always feltlike, you know, they were just reporting
what this, you know, directlyfrom the source.
They weren't, they weren'tputting a left or right slant on
things.
But even talking to peoplelike my father in law, who ultimately
believes that NPR is justsocialist radio, which is a weird
(21:09):
thing to say, Wild for sure,because it's, well, but by definition
it is socialist radio becauseit's literally radio that's being
paid for by grants from thefederal government as well as donations
from, from viewers like youand me, you know, so, yeah, I understand
that, but again, it didn't, itto me it never really gave a slant
(21:32):
on, on what it was that was discussed.
Like if, if they reported newsthat made, you know, George W.
Bush sound like a warhawk,then it's probably because George
W.
Bush was a bit of a warhawk.
Yeah, I don't, don't know.
So I, I kind of have had a lotof grave feelings on a lot of stuff
(21:56):
when it comes to likegovernment run media because I'm
not against it at all.
Also, if the government runmedia wants to hire me, I don't want
to, but because I would, Iwould 100% work for the government.
But at the same time it islike how, how controlled is it?
(22:18):
Because that's, especiallywith bias.
I mean bias is in everythingand it's hard for any media to not
have some bias.
Personally, I think it's finefor the time being.
I mean, I'm gonna normallylisten and read stuff from like AP
or CNN just because I like, Ilike a more centered thing.
(22:41):
That's also why I like ground news.
Ground news is like just areally nice way to see how things
lean.
But for the most part, like I,I'm not against it, but I would,
I would be interesting to hearwhat some of my professors who have
doctorates in broadcastjournalism would like, would say
(23:02):
about it.
I mean, you mentioned the ap,and I was going to ask you about
that.
The AP was banned from OvalOffice press junkets.
I can't really call them.
I can't call them like press conferences.
And they're, they're, they,they're almost pressers.
(23:24):
But like, it's basically, it'salways Donald Trump sitting behind
the desk.
And ultimately, I think that'sbecause at the age of 78, that his
legs have begun to give outfrom the immense whale weight that
he carries.
And, and I say that completelyacknowledging my own weight, whale
weight, whatever.
But, you know, he, so he hasthese things.
(23:47):
Well, he banned the AP becausein their reporting, because of the
fact.
And this is, this is my opinion.
I don't know this for a fact,but the AP is used by news sources,
or I guess news resources likelocal television, newspapers.
The AP is used around the world.
(24:09):
Yeah.
And outside of the UnitedStates, default set.
Like, if you want to get yournews, you get that.
And then you can take from itand write about it and say, this
is the report.
Yeah.
Everything.
Fox News, that CNN uses it,OEM will use it, the Young Turks
probably uses it.
I mean, it's such a big deal,for sure.
Yeah.
And, and, but because the APreports on news around the world
(24:33):
and they report on news in theUnited States.
Around the world.
There's eight.
You know, how.
What are we at?
8.6 billion people on theplanet in the United states makes
up 300 million of that.
So 8.2 or 8.3 billion peoplearound the planet that would potentially
read the AP News, they stillreport the name outside of the United
(24:55):
States as the Gulf of Mexico.
And that's because the onlyplace on the planet that recognizes
it as being the Gulf ofAmerica now is the United States.
So it seems natural to me thatthe Gulf of America would only be
stated in AP News when it'sspecifically about the Gulf in reporting,
(25:19):
that is, you know, that thecontent's being refreshed in the
United States.
Outside the United States,refer to it by the Gulf of Mexico,
because that's what everybodyelse refers to it as.
But because of that, the WhiteHouse made the decision that they
were going to ban the AP fromthese Oval Office little press junkets
(25:40):
they still have front andcenter in the, in the press, in the
press room.
But it seems so menial that.
Or like they're like that ultimately.
Like, I keep coming back toone of the things that, that I kept
being said or what Kept beingsaid to me when, when Trump was in
office the first time was Ikept being referred to as a snowflake
(26:02):
because I made observationsabout Donald Trump and it was constantly,
I'm a bear, it's a snowflake.
He's not coping with the factthat Hillary lost.
He's a snowflake.
And it's like for something astrivial as how one particular news
source has the name listed, itseems so snowflake.
(26:23):
Ish.
For the White House to beupset that the AP is referring to
the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulfof Mexico instead of the Gulf of
America outside of the United States.
Like, why do they care whatthe reporting is outside of the United
States?
Like, what, what, whatdifference does it make?
Yeah, he just, he just does itto assert dominance.
(26:45):
Like he literally just, justto make people upset.
But it, it truly is likethere's going to be information that
AP normally would write aboutthat CNN and Fox and every media
source would typically pullfrom just.
Well, I mean, it's, it'spretty close to censorship.
I'm going to be perfectly honest.
I am not aware of the laws orif there's any rules that are set
(27:09):
around that to where it'sperfectly okay to be barred from
any, anything.
But I feel like he would havedone that with other medians or like.
Already because, well, CNN,CNN's in there.
CNN is in those pressers.
Because I hear Caitlin Collinsasking questions like, she's the
(27:30):
White House staff reporter for cnn.
She's in the White House.
You know, every, I hear herasking questions every single time.
It's funny you mentionedDonald Trump establishing his dominance
again at the age of 78 years old.
Like, I, I just, I just wantto keep reminding people this is
(27:51):
not a young man.
He does not have the, thevitality that he had when he was,
you know, 40 or 60.
Like, he's, he's almost 80years old.
And the fact that people keeplooking at him as being like this,
bigger than life, whatever,he's 78 years old and, you know,
(28:11):
ignoring the age of myparents, 78 is old.
It's not young.
And the people that keepacting like this, that he has some
magic powers, I don't know.
Bill Kimler said he thinkshe's just going to live forever,
but like out of fear, I think.
But today, you know, youmentioned establishing dominance.
(28:31):
He posted on his True socialat about 2:00 Eastern Time.
He said congestion pricing isdead Manhattan and all of New York
is saved.
Long live the king.
He referred to Himself as the king.
He referred to himself as the king.
(28:52):
And then to follow up on that,in all of the White House social
media, they posted what was acreated article or front page of
a magazine with Trump wearinga king.
And underneath said long live.
Or on the news.
On, on the, on the, the pageit actually said long live the king.
(29:15):
I, I don't even, I don't knowhow we're here.
I really don't.
Like, it's just.
Well, the other day he did thestuff where he was.
What, what do you say?
He who, what did he say?
He said something like, he whois in power must control the law
or something like that.
Determines.
Basic.
Yeah, paraphrasing.
Basically, he, he who is he.
(29:37):
He.
He who is in power determines.
Basically gets to makedeterminations on the law.
Is, is, is ultimately what hewas saying.
And, and part of the problemis that J.D.
vance, who is a frigging Yale graduate.
Right, Yale.
He went to Yale Law School.
Yeah.
Like he perpetuated with that,that the courts shouldn't be.
(30:00):
And again, paraphrasing, butthe courts shouldn't be participating
in any actions or whateverthat, that make the executive branch
look weak.
And it's like, what are wetalking about?
How are we here?
It is wild.
I, because it, but it's alsofunny because a lot of the things
(30:23):
have been very authoritarianand he's said the things that I've
seen.
Just anybody can look at itand just be like, oh, these are clear.
Like he wants to be king.
He wants to be a monarch.
The only, the only thing thatis holding them back from doing that
are some of the checks and balances.
I was having a debate theother night about whether or not
(30:43):
we're in a constitutional crisis.
And it just, the further wego, it feels like our checks and
balances are being tested inways that were never before thought
about.
And now that the core iscompletely right leaning, I mean,
just very openly rightleaning, I don't know where we're
(31:05):
at.
Like, we're pretty close to it.
Like two months in not even.
It's been like six weeks whereit hadn't.
It hasn't been six weeks.
Today's February 19th.
He was sworn into office onthe 20th.
It's been one month.
It's, it's not, it's not beena month tomorrow.
Yeah, and it does, it feelslike we've been in this never ending,
(31:29):
just rampage of nonsense for.
Yeah, it feels like it's beensix months.
But because, and, and one ofthe things I I, I go back to is that
back in, in during Trump'sfirst term, one of the things that
Steve what's his name, Bannon,that was an advisor to President
(31:52):
Trump in, during his firstterm that Steve Bannon basically
gave away some of the playbookwhen he told a reporter that what
we have to do in thisadministration is basically just
flood the market.
That's not what he used.
He.
But, but essentially justevery day hit the press with, with
(32:12):
as much as you can everysingle day so that some of the other
stuff doesn't get seen.
Some of the other stuff justsort of skirts past and essentially
they didn't do it that wellduring Trump's first term because
I, I don't incompetence, Iguess or maybe it was because there
were a few adults in the roomthat, that prevented there being
(32:36):
as much damage being caused.
But you know, there were, hehad, he had hired legitimate statesmen
as far as being able to, youknow, when, when it came to like
his cabinet, there were a fewpeople in his cabinet that were,
you know, at leastconstitutionally minded.
And, and, and now we have zeroof that.
(32:58):
We have, we have a, a defensesecretary in Pete Headspath or whatever
his name is that thatliterally told the, the European
Community in Germany thatthere is no, you know, that, that
the likelihood of UkraineGetting back to pre2014 territory
(33:22):
borders between them andRussia was, was not going to happen.
You know, that it wasextremely unlikely.
And it's like, and then, andthen he said that they're being accepted
into NATO was extremely unlikely.
Which I'm, you know, I stilldon't know where we're at with, with
NATO because from myunderstanding, Trump said multiple
(33:43):
times over the past two yearsthat he wants to completely pull
out of NATO.
I mean, like, well, don't,don't put.
It in the universe then he'sgoing to remember he said it.
Yeah, I, I mean, I remember.
So I mean, I don't know.
I don't know where, wherewe're moving.
(34:04):
It's very also like it feelslike we're just trying to evade other
stuff.
We want, they're trying totake Panama, they want to do something
with Canada.
They, I, which that thosethings if it happened, I, it's going
to cause so many wars.
I don't know how it actuallywould not be just bluffs, but it's
(34:25):
possible.
I mean also the red white andblue land thing, like I thought that
was an Onion post when I read it.
I, I could not believe.
Oh, the Onion could Not havewritten it any better.
The fact that there is a, ARepublican Congress representative
from Savannah, Georgia, whomhas, has put forth a bill to potentially
(34:52):
have Greenland.
Well, it allows for Trump tonegotiate with Denmark about the
potential absorption ofGreenland into the United States
or, or the purchasing ofGreenland, but at the, at the, at
the finish of the acquisitionof Greenland, that there would be
(35:16):
a bill that would then renameGreenland to Red, White and Blueland.
And as ridiculous as thatsounds, which, you know, it being
named Greenland is sort ofridiculous in a sense anyway, because
it's not.
I mean, you know, it's coveredin ice.
(35:36):
I mean, you know, for a littlewhile longer, that will come to an
end.
We will not have ice onGreenland at some point in the next,
I don't know, hundred years.
Yeah, it's.
Yeah, it's gonna, it's gonnacome pretty close.
But.
But, yeah, and then, you know,you look at the other things like
these tariffs that are beingenacted on Canada or that he wants
(35:59):
to enact on Canada because hethinks that there's.
And there is a deficit as faras what is.
What is being shipped intoCanada versus what is being shipped
out of Canada in the United States.
So we do have.
There's a difference in theimports and exports.
We definitely import a lotfrom Canada, whether it's oil or
(36:19):
lumber, pharmaceuticals.
We get, you know, our pharmacy.
The pharmaceutical companieshere in the United States, they bring
in a lot of their product from Canada.
Like, it comes in throughCanada is.
Canada is, you know, it's.
It.
A lot of stuff comes through Canada.
Yeah.
And the thing is this.
(36:40):
I, yeah, not in my, in myopinion, it's not a bad idea ever
to strengthen relations to thepoint of.
With other countries.
Like, I, I would love to see aNorth American union.
I would like it would be.
That's an interesting conceptto me.
But absorbing a country basedout of force and taking it as our
(37:01):
own state, that's the scarything to me.
But, yeah, I don't know that.
Well, even the North American,like there's a, like a North American
union would even becontroversial in itself.
But also it'd be interestingto see how we could deal with labor.
If we could make, if we had astronger union with Canada and Mexico,
how would we deal with labor?
How we deal with immigration,like they do in the.
(37:23):
We had, we had nafta.
We had NAFTA for decades.
Like, the North.
North American Free TradeAgreement was in place, and it basically
was, it wasn't a, it wasn't asuper great thing.
When it came to some jobs herein the United States, I will fully
admit that it definitelywrecked havoc.
(37:44):
Yeah, that too.
So it wasn't really great.
But then the uscm, what is it?
The uscam, the Usecam is theUnited States, Canada, Mexico Trade
Agreement that was underTrump's first term also, basically,
you know, for the most part,it was a carbon copy of nafta.
(38:06):
It just had a different nameto it.
And it didn't really, itdidn't really strengthen the economy
for any of the countries.
I mean, maybe Canada a littlebit, they benefited some from it,
but it didn't really make awhole lot of changes.
But the idea that tariffs arethe way to go against your two closest
(38:28):
allies on the planet isasinine to me because tariffs don't
do anything but raise pricesfor us, the consumers.
If Canada pulls and attachestariffs to things that they get from
the United States, it's reallyjust going to affect their consumers.
Like, this is a, this, it'sone of those, it's one of those weird
(38:49):
trade wars between countriesthat don't really affect the country's
governments.
It only affects the people ofthose countries.
And that's what tariffs do.
We, we pay for those tariffs.
Yeah, well, and we would for sure.
And to an extent, like Chinawould feel that, which is also kind
of why we had a weird.
(39:10):
It's kind of like Cuba, Cubawas the same thing.
And the tariffs are so strong.
I mean, it, the peoplesuffered from not having us as traders.
And also we as well, I mean,it just hurts.
Well, and, and we put anembargo on them.
So basically canceling out anyof our allies from being able to
really trade with Cuba.
Yeah, which because, and Ithink that was, I can't remember,
(39:33):
was it Obama that lifted that?
I think Biden put it back in so.
Well, actually, Obama lifted it.
Trump put it back in.
Trump.
There.
We had, we didn't really have.
It wasn't that we had freetrade with Cuba, but we, we, Obama
did open Cuba up to tourism, travel.
(39:56):
And there were, I think thatthere were some, there were some
sanctions that were liftedagainst Cuba because, you know, it's
been 50 years, 60 years, andultimately, what are those sanctions
really doing to a country thatdoesn't have an attachment to as
the Soviet Union anymore?
Because it doesn't exist.
Really.
(40:16):
It was just us kind of puttingour thumb on them, trying to try,
trying to convince them thatdemocracy is the way to go.
But, you know, if Cuba'swatching right now, look, this is
what democracy Gets, you getthe dumbest timeline with this current
(40:37):
democracy.
I, I even hear like, like whythe tariffs were implemented.
It is just like the, the wholething with him is he's wanting it
to be more everythingmanufactured and collected from American
resources to be used which isjust right.
(40:58):
That's, that's, it's likesometimes there's like things where
it's halfway there.
If we still had the open tradewe can manufacture it all the things
here as long as we deal withthe imports and we can say it's made
in America.
We fully put together cars in America.
If we can have free importsfrom Germany and China and all these
other places it's sure it'sjust impossible and sustainability
(41:24):
is impossible.
All of these issues.
There's no way you could buildall those things here and not sell
them to just the ultra richonly like cars would immediately
soar.
It's just not, it's likehalfway there and then that's just
demolished every, it's justgoes everything reasonable goes out
the window.
(41:45):
As much as people want to denythat we are the United States is
just a fraction of thepopulation of the planet.
Like that to me is one of thethings that, that I am still dumbfounded
by what how little peoplethat, that are so close minded that
don't use any critical thinking.
(42:05):
They, they do not recognizethat the United States is a mere
fraction of what goes on onthis planet again.
300 million.
300 what?
60 million people.
330 million people.
Something like that make upthe United States.
The world population is like8.6 billion or more.
And it's like the idea thatyou ignore the most obvious that
(42:29):
the United States isn't the majority.
We may spend more on ourdefense than the next.
What eight countries combinedis not an indication of just how
strong the United States is.
I sure militarily, sure I getthat we have a military that could
(42:49):
basically obliterate anyoneelse on the planet but it is, it's,
it's insane to me that peopledon't recognize that we are such
a small part of this giantplanet and, and, and the fact that
we could have such you know I,I, I, I go back to Star Trek that
utopian sort of, you know,ignoring all of the, the military
(43:12):
buildup by section 33 of, ofthe, the Starfleet, uh, you, you
ignore that part and it's autopian society where people basically
live to better their society.
And I, you know as much aspeople out there want to argue that
they think that's a terribleidea and we shouldn't do that sort
of thing.
I, I, I have to always go back to.
(43:34):
But wouldn't it be better ifwe worked in partnership, if, if
we could figure out a way towork in partnership with everybody
to make things better, likeimprove lives ultimately?
That's the, that's the role ofthe government is the, our, our federal
government should be workingto make our lives better.
And under this currentadministration, I mean, that's.
Yeah.
Working for us.
(43:55):
That's the whole point.
Which it's just funny thatthere's, there's a lot of people
that are just like, well, youcould say it like that.
And on paper it sounds great,but it just, just can't be done.
And I'm like, the thing we'redoing right now doesn't even sound
good on paper.
Like, no, it just.
What are we doing?
Like, we just can't.
Yes, we can't do this.
It is a, what we have rightnow is an ex.
(44:16):
It was basically just ascorched earth way of trying to handle
the government.
And in part of that I get.
I'll bring this part up andwe'll probably wrap up here in just
a little bit to this, but my,my mother sent me an email with the
timeline of all these paintplane incidents.
(44:38):
Yeah, that was.
Another one wasn't.
Well, there was definitely one yesterday.
There 17.
My.
Where was that one?
Because I think there was one.
Canada, Arizona.
Is there one in Arizona recently?
Today?
Oh, my gosh.
Okay, so fact check me on thatbecause I don't, I don't want to
(44:58):
be.
Well, read misinformation.
As of, as of yesterday, Therehave been four deadly plane crashes
in the United States in 2025.
In total, 85 people have died.
There has not been.
Now, prior to January 29th,there had not been a deadly incident
involving a US airliner since 2009.
(45:19):
So you're talking 15 yearsthat there had not been.
Nearly 15 years there had notbeen an incident in the United States.
So January 29th, we saw theAmerican Airlines flight collide
with a Blackhawk helicopterover the Potomac river, which then
killed 64 people on the plane,as well as the three in the helicopter.
Two days later, a medical jetflying out of Philadelphia killed
(45:42):
seven people, including ayoung patient who had just basically
been given her life back toher after treatment.
Seven people were on boardthere, but.
And then 24 people injured onthe ground.
And then what, seven dayslater, a Grand Caravan Cessna operating
(46:05):
out of the, I guess flyinginto Nome, Alaska, crashed into the
bering sea they 10 people diedon that one 13th there was a plane
that went off the end of theRunway at Buckeye Municipal Airport
in Arizona.
That was that.
That three people were on board.
FAA is still investigating.
(46:26):
There was a crash at theCovington Municipal Airport in Georgia
around 11:40pm on the 15th of February.
Two people on board that one.
The FAA and NTSB are currentlyinvestigating that.
The next day there was aCessna that crashed near Perland
Regional Airport in Texasaround 10:45pm on Sunday, February
(46:49):
16th.
Only the pilot was on board.
The FAA is investigating that one.
And then on the 17th, DeltaAirlines flight operating by a dever
for air crashed while landingin the Toronto Pearson International
Airport.
And if you've watched thevideo of that, that is quite the
spectacle.
That was crazy.
Did you climb out of it withthe video?
Yeah, I was, I could notimagine being in that situation.
(47:13):
It was wild.
The plane rolled over inflames like, and, and all 80 people
got off that.
That to me is the.
Yeah, that to me is the mostamazing part.
But the fact that, that thisplane trying to do one of these crab
maneuvers is essentially whatwas going on because there were 40
(47:34):
mile an hour winds with higherwind gusts and the plane was, the
plane couldn't come in straight.
So what they do is this crabmaneuver where they basically, they're
flying into the headwind andjust trying to edge themselves over
the, over the Runway to thepoint where they finally, just right
before, right before they comedown, they yanko yank to the right
or whatever so that they canthen make the landing.
(47:56):
Well, they hit the, they, theydid it pretty successfully up to
the point where the plane thenstarted to make that turn to try
and put itself onto the groundand the wind caught it and basically
just pushed it out, pushed itover on top of itself and 80 people
walked away.
But.
Right, this is the end.
Go ahead.
(48:17):
I was just gonna say that Ithink, I think this is the endemic
of having so many people beingfired from jobs.
These are career civilservants that have been in these
jobs for in some cases decades.
Especially when it comes toair travel.
Like literally the people thatare guiding planes in via radar at,
you know, working the towersand in all of these airports across
(48:39):
the hundreds of airportsacross the country.
And the idea that they maypotentially not have their job anymore,
that Elon Musk is going tocome in from SpaceX with some brand
new software that's going tomake everything super great.
Even though SpaceX doesn'twork on software, that's not their
thing.
They Put rockets in the airand they only really do it 60% of
(49:04):
the time.
Are they successful?
Like, Elon Musk is notoriousfor SpaceX blowing planes up and
then him tweeting out, well,that was exciting.
It's like you just blew up a$15 billion rocket and that's exciting.
It's insane.
It just, it really made, it'slike, what could we have done with
(49:25):
that money to help people?
I just.
Right, like 15 billion.
That's enough to help SouthCarolina out and raise teacher salary
immediately.
Just immediately.
And it's like, well, we've got.
15 billion.
Would take care of salariesfor teachers for probably the next,
I don't know, 50 years andwould reinvest into their pension
(49:46):
program for teachers for thenext hundred years.
Like $15 billion in just southCarolina education.
You know, unless, of course,you know, it's.
The Republicans are just goingto give it all away to voucher programs
and things like that.
But, you know, aside fromthat, yeah, $15 billion would be
an unbelievable investmentinto education for one state that
(50:09):
would, would have lastingresults for into the next century,
you know, because $15 billionis a lot of money in.
South Carolina doesn't spendthat much money on education.
That's, it's just insane.
No, it's just, it's disgusting.
It just really is.
I don't, I just don'tunderstand how we're at a point where
(50:31):
that kind of money that justgoes into something like that.
Because I'm also like, how areyou a space truck?
But, but private.
The pri.
But you can do it without that.
I don't know.
I'm all in favor of us sendingElon Musk to Mars.
I have zero issue with thatbecause that I, I think we, we all
(50:54):
benefit from that becausethat's not.
There's no return flight onthat one.
I, I don't care what they say.
I, I don't, I don't, you know,the, the belief that we can have
a sustained life on a roundtrip from, to and from Mars.
You have read too many sciencefiction books and none of the science
(51:16):
fictions or none of the actualscience papers on, on exactly what
it takes to get us to and from Mars.
Because Elon Musk ain't comingback from that one.
I don't care how manyroadsters he puts in that, that rocket
with them.
Well, even developing a wholeatmosphere, a livable place on another
planet.
I'm like, we have a planetright now that if you're saying that
(51:39):
you, you know how to fix that.
On Mars, you should be able tofix it.
Here you should be able to dothat, but we can't.
I don't, I don't understand,don't understand where people are
getting this from.
And then they're just like,oh, yeah, I'm on board with that
all the way.
I don't know.
There's, there, I, I have, Ihave no intelligent answers for this.
(51:59):
I have no intelligent answers.
Like, I need, I need experts.
I need, Yeah, I, I, I am, I amwaiting for Elon Musk to investigate
himself and the federalcontracts that have quite literally
made him $300 billion.
He has made $300 billion atthe teat of the American government.
Where is, where, where's theaudit on that?
That's what I want to know.
When is that going to happen?
(52:20):
Real quick, though.
Do you, do you want to talkto, you want to talk to RFK Jr.
I met him one time.
Did you?
Well, then maybe, maybe he'll recognize.
He'll, he'll remember you.
Bobby, Bobby Jr.
Is, is on the phone with us.
How's it going, Bobby?
I'm gonna try, I'm gonna tryand play this link.
(52:41):
It's working.
Oh, my God.
It's, it's RFK Jr.
Now, he's a little hard tounderstand, so I guess I can't understand
a single thing he's saying, but.
(53:02):
Well, I, maybe, maybe we canjust get like, inflection or something
like that, but.
Bobby Jr, are you excitedabout being the Secretary of Health
and Human Services?
Is that a good.
Interesting.
I still don't understand aword he's saying.
It's really hard, but I'm,I'm, are, are you going to actually
(53:26):
make a lot of changes when itcomes to vaccines and, and things
like that that are availablethrough, you know, a lot of the programs
with the United States as itis now?
Yeah, I, I, I don't understandwhat he's saying.
(53:46):
Interesting.
Well, I, I think, Bobby, Ithink, Bobby, we're probably just
going to have to let you go onthis one.
We'll, we'll try and connectwith you again.
But you're, you got somethingin your throat.
Sure.
I, again, don't understand asingle thing you're saying, but thanks
for stopping by.
(54:07):
That was something that isgoing to be, that is going to be
a running gag.
We are going to have RFK on,we are going to have RFK junior On
our show all the time now.
We're going to have to make alot of assumptions about what it
is he's saying.
But I'm sure it's interesting.
Last time I spoke with him, hereally went back on a lot of the
(54:28):
things that he told me.
It was, I don't, I don't doubt.
That he came here to Columbiawhile he was running for president
and every single thing.
He, like, recorded him oncamera, spoke with him, had all these
things.
And then almost everythingthat he said to Congress is the exact
opposite of what he told me.
(54:48):
Is, of course, very, veryweird to see that in real time.
Yeah, it, yeah, I, you know, Igot to interview Marianne Williamson
when she was running for president.
Yeah.
RFK was not one that I couldget on the show.
Like, I reached out to him, Ireached out to Biden's, you know,
campaign and tried to getBiden to come on.
(55:09):
I reached, hell, I reached outto Trump's campaign to try to get
on, but apparently you have tobe a.
Via Theo Vaughn or.
Oh, Joe Rogan.
Yeah, Joe Rogan or whatever inorder to get Donald Trump on, which
is fine.
I don't care.
My feelings aren't hurt.
But.
But yeah, you know,ultimately, RFK is the forgotten
(55:32):
son of the Kennedy family.
Like, he's mostly alienatedhimself out of their graces and the
result is, is now he's theSecretary of Health and Human Services.
And when he was asked, are yougoing to, are you going to go to,
to work for a medical companyor potentially a pharmaceutical after
(55:52):
you are no longer in this,this seat, which ultimately I think
it's fair to ask, are yougoing to turn this job into a job
that then creates you a massamount of money, being the face of
Pfizer or something like that?
It's fair to ask that question.
Couldn't say no.
He couldn't say yes.
He couldn't say no.
And ultimately I don't.
It wouldn't have turned outany differently.
(56:13):
But just, you know, be honest,tell us.
Yeah, I'm using this to get meback into the money that the Kennedys
have.
You know, Kennedys,Carlisle's, whatever.
Just insane, isn't it?
The Carlisle is the Kennedys.
The Carlisle's.
Carlisle, Kennedy.
Yeah.
(56:33):
Lexington beat.
Oh, Put myself on the spot.
I was trying to think of whoit was.
The Republican woman.
Oh.
Yeah, yeah.
Somebody in the comments overhere said Blake Hungerford said that
Theo Vaughn is not funny.
(56:54):
Totally agree.
Theo Vaughn is.
Theo Fawn is trash as far asI'm concerned.
That may not be everyone'sopinion, I tell you, I just don't
find him funny.
I watched, I did watch himlive he was a, it was an interesting.
I know, yeah, I was gonna sayI know people that watch him live,
but he's not like, he's notreally a professional comedian.
I don't actually know what itis that he did to get famous unless
(57:17):
it was just the Internet.
I assume he just made his fameon the Internet.
He was on a lot of like,little shows and stuff for a while.
But he was, he, he was theweakest part of the, the, the, the
Johnny Knoxville movie thatcame out last year about him being
in a rehab softball team.
(57:38):
Theo Von was the weakest partof that entire movie.
And ultimately I've seen hisstand up.
I, I don't know who writes forhim, but they have to be disappointed
in how he carries out their jokes.
That's, that's, that's howI'll say there's a timing issue.
Well, Bill, I reallyappreciate, I know you said you've
got to get out of here for,for, for stuff that you've got to
(58:00):
do.
I just real quick want to wrapit up.
The Coastal Comic Con iscoming up March 1st and 2nd.
Zach and I are going to be there.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
We're going to have to get asmany people as we can to come and
visit with us.
We're, we're going to be doingsome lives while we're there at the
coast.
On again.
Wilmington Convention centerin Wilmington, North Carolina.
Go ahead and get tickets.
(58:21):
Coastal Comic Con.com checkout ZJZ Designs, their winner.
They're, they're St.
Patrick's Day T shirts are available.
Go check them out.
Buy those because they go to agood cause, which is the elderly
and.
All right, Bill, thank youvery much for being with us and I
look forward to many more of these.
(58:42):
I guess I'll just wrap it up.
Links to past episodes,podcast, platform, social, social
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it's gonna do it for episodenumber 243.
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Bill again, thank you verymuch for being here everybody.
Thank you very much for listening.
You all stay safe, be kind andkeep your hands to yourself.
The All About Nothing podcastis a product of Big Media and produced
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Thanks to Cake for our intromusic Sick of youf.
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