A new segment was added to the show . Tentatively, for now, we calling it Mo's 'Final Thought.' And we'll be compiling the Thoughts over the course of the week and posting them for you to review and ponder each Thursday night.
We welcome your feedback at laterwithmokelly@gmail.com
We welcome your feedback at laterwithmokelly@gmail.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh lad with You might have heard Mark Ronerd discuss
a story or previous story regarding Mayor Karen Bass and
(00:24):
her text messages which are not available for January seventh
and January eighth, which happened to coincide with her time
in Ghana and also the beginning of the fires here
in Los Angeles and also Los Angeles County. So I
wanted to focus in on that, and for my final thought,
it's this. Let me just start with the obvious. Mayor
(00:48):
Karen Bass will probably be re elected, probably most likely,
And that's not an endorsement, not in the least. That's
just a reflection of not having any real compet petition,
at least not at this moment. But she surely has
done herself no favors in recent months. I really hate
when politicians and elected officials try to insult my intelligence.
(01:11):
Maybe you don't have any problem with that, but I
sure as hell do. We can disagree on policy, we
can disagree on strategy and messaging, we can disagree on
the path forward as far as what's best for our city, county,
or state, but we can't agree on you insulting me
with wild, unbelievable stories which defy reasonable explanation, and I'm
(01:34):
all about reasonable. After a public records request for Bass's
text messages from January seventh and January eighth related to
the fires by the LA Times, the time said the
city had no responsive records. No responsive records A mayor's
text messages from only a month ago are nowhere to
(01:56):
be found. Bass was in Ghana the Palisades and eating
fires broke out on January seventh. I remember I was
covering it. You might remember as well. I was spending
from seven pm to midnight here talking about it for
multiple days. I remember it, and also Bass spent much
of that next day traveling back from Ghana more than
(02:19):
seventy five hundred miles to Los Angeles. And she said
she was in communication with officials here, so I assume
she was on the phone, she was texting whatever. You
know what she was doing beyond traveling, coordinating, not just communicating.
And if you communicate with anyone for any length of time,
(02:41):
you know that texting is not only more efficient, but
it's more easily accessible for the person on the other end,
as opposed to leaving a voicemail. I'm sure there are
multiple people trying to get in touch with the mayor simultaneously,
and since she's in air, it stands the reason that
texting is more efficient than calling. But none of those
(03:06):
records are quote unquote available. That to me, and I'm
just talking about me. Maybe you don't care, but that
to me is insulting my intelligence. According to David Michaelson,
an attorney for the city, indicated that the mayor's phone,
and I'm quoting, the mayor's phone is set to not
save text messages. It auto deletes. And I know something
(03:31):
about smartphones just a little bit. Auto delete is a
manual setting. It's a choice. It's not a factory setting.
It doesn't come to you out of a box and
you install a text messaging app and just auto delete
stuff after thirty days and beyond that, I also know
that text messages have both a sender and a receiver.
I know that just deleting a message from a device
doesn't delete it from a server, So the messages themselves
(03:53):
are not lost forever. But that's beside the point. It's
a principle, and as an elected official, there is every
reason to believe that a mayor's text messages during an
emergency have relevance and importance beyond thirty days. It's a
crisis situation. There is every reason to believe that the
mayor knows this as well as I do, as well
as you do. I don't question whether her phone was
(04:15):
set to auto delete. I don't question that at all.
I absolutely questioned any such motivation, and so would any
reasonable person. So let me end where I began. Mayor
Bass is probably going to be re elected borderline definitely.
And that is in part because she likely won't face
(04:35):
any serious challengers. And I've told you about that and
how that just really sticks in my craw. No one
is actually going to step up. And that is why
setting auto delete for your text messages during a crisis
in which there have been numerous investigations and allegations of
incompetence will not matter one single bit. And I get it,
(04:58):
I really do. When there are no consequences, you can
aught to delete your messages, even during a crisis. How
do I know? Ask the Secret Service during the January
sixth insurrection. We never found those text messages either. I
try to be consistent, and I really hate when politicians
act like we're stupid. I know for a fact I'm not.
(05:19):
I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'm not.
I just would rather they, as in politicians, they as
an elected officials, just own up to it and say, yeah,
I deleted the damn messages. They are probably important and
I know you can't do anything about it. I'm still
going to be re elected, so deal with it. Close
quote that would be easier to swallow. But politicians and
elected officials do these things and will continue to do
(05:40):
them as long as they know they won't be voted out.
You can't necessarily control what politicians do. You can control
whether they get to hang around and continue to do them.
For k if I am six forty, I'm o Kelly.
(06:12):
And for my final thought tonight, I was really taken
back by the news of what is happening with the
Department of Education. So let me go there tonight. Both
of my parents were educators for the entirety of their career,
on the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. They
took out a second mortgage on the family home to
(06:33):
make sure my sister and I could attend college. My
sister went to Howard University in Washington, d C. I
went to Georgetown University, also in Washington, DC. My father
was the first in his family to ever attend college.
Education was always the priority in my household, and it
is something I have always carried with me. But I
(06:54):
know that my value of education is not shared by
many Americans these days. But let's talk about this from
thirty thousand feet up, as they say. In twenty twenty three,
South Korea spending on education reached seven point two percent
of GDP, and that exceeds the average of five point
seven percent and ranks second highest in the world. Japan
(07:18):
dedicates only four point one percent of his GDP to
educational institutions, and although the spending is well below average,
the focus within the country is top tier. In twenty
twenty four, last year, the United Kingdom spent approximately four
point one percent of its GDP on education, also well
below the global average of five point seven percent. That's
(07:41):
really important put a pin in that as well. Last
year twenty twenty four, the US spent five point five
to nine percent of our GDP on education, just below
the average of five point seven percent, but far more
than Japan and the United Kingdom. As for overall rankings
of education populations in the world, that expenditure of those
(08:04):
various countries translates as follows. The US, without a doubt,
is the wealthiest nation in the world and we can't
even break the top thirty in terms of educated populace.
We're number thirty one, Korea number one, and they're number
one just seventy two years after the Korean War. Japan,
(08:27):
remember they only spent four point one percent of their
GDP their number six eighty years after the end of
World War II and having to pay reparations to other
countries up until nineteen seventy seven. That's within my lifetime.
United Kingdom number twelve. And just in case you're curious,
(08:49):
China is thirteen, Canada is fourteen, Frances sixteen, Israel twenty one,
Russia is twenty two two, Hungary is thirty, and we're
thirty one. Here's my point. There are Asian countries, European countries,
(09:09):
North American countries, small countries, large countries, war torn countries,
wealthy countries, impoverished countries. For example, California's GDP is almost
twice that of Russia. Russia's population is three and a
half times that of California, but somehow Russia managed to
beat the United States by nine slots. When it comes
(09:32):
to education, my point tonight is rather simple. It's not
money per se, it's not wealth of a nation, it's
not size of a nation, just importance of education to
a nation. Spend some time in Korea. You'll see how
important education is in every facet of life. Then it
starts to make sense how education directly benefits the rest
(09:52):
of society. There's a direct correlation between education, level of crime, health,
and general welfare. Spend some time in the and you
see how little we value it relative to defense spending,
health care, and other items. The idea of American exceptionalism
is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique,
(10:14):
or exemplary compared to other nations when it comes to education.
We're not, and we haven't been for quite some time.
And since we're not, we're not the technological leaders we
once were. Either we don't make the best cars, we
don't make the best semiconductors. Just for example, we shame
or try to shame those with education today as somehow
being elitists, like as a scarlet letter or some badge
(10:38):
of shame. More evidence of that today with the news
that about half of the Department of Education was gutted today,
with some thirteen hundred employees being let go. According to
most published reports, the cuts will all but incapacitate the
agency in its efforts to distribute billions in federal money
to colleges, schools, and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Oh,
(11:02):
nothing bad could come of that, right well, In short,
it would likely cripple our educational infrastructure in many ways.
No preceding forensic audit, no scalpel to these cuts, just
a chainsaw while blindfolded and discriminate because the Department of
Education evidently has no value to America in twenty twenty five,
(11:24):
and there will be a hefty price because of it,
and no amount of firings will make enough room in
which to afford it. For KF, I am six forty,
I'm mokell And from my final thought tonight, it was
(12:03):
guided by the story earlier tonight when I talked about
the father whose daughter died from measles and he was
still standing by his decision not to vaccinate her. He's
a menday Night, a Christian sect which doesn't really believe
in vaccines, even though nothing like that is in the Bible.
(12:24):
But that's what informed what I had to say for
this final thought. We all would like to think that
we're special. You, me, Stephen, Mark Twala, your neighbor, your gardener, everybody.
We all would like to think we're special. But some
of us want to believe we're special in a very
(12:46):
very specific way. Special in the way of knowing what
other people don't know. Like they have the inside track
on all the secrets of the world, or especially this country.
They have some particular insight to the mysteries that only
they know. It's the foundation of conspiracy theory culture which
permeates our society today. We have a nation full of people,
(13:10):
and I'm specifically talking about the United States. We have
a nation full of people who fancy themselves as knowing
something the rest of us just don't know. We tell
ourselves that regardless of the facts, the science or documented history,
our opinions and only ours, you know, often unsubstantiated and unvetted,
are somehow right. They know we don't. And because of this,
(13:36):
I argue, and I frequently argue, that this is the
dumbest nation on the face of the earth, because we
lean into that. In twenty twenty five, you will easily
find deep pockets of people who still deny that the
aforementioned Earth is spherical, despite all the available science and evidence.
At our fingertips. We have people literally who are building
(13:57):
rockets to prove that the Earth is flat twenty twenty
five or in twenty twenty five, some will argue with
you tooth and nail that vitamin A helps prevent the measles.
Like RFK Junior, we live in a time in which
conviction is confused with knowledge. Just believing something deeply is
(14:18):
far too often masquerading as legitimate knowledge. They are not
the same, and I'm sure that social media plays a role,
a damn large role, but not the only role. The
moment news sites like The Washington Post and New York
Times and others first attached a comment section to their
articles at the dawn of social media. Remember that, Remember
(14:40):
the first time you saw a comment section and you
could actually type in what you thought about an article
and it would get published. That moment, right there was
when it all started to go to hell. And here's why.
For the first time, people who had never been published
or been read on any level on a legitimate news
site were reading them sell and were read by others
(15:02):
right under legitimate news. Just by posting a comment right
under that article, which had to pass multiple editors just
to get published. You just went click, click, click, click,
click send, and you got published. It's if the wrong
message that just about anybody could have an opinion, and
that opinion had merit, and on most subjects, it probably
(15:25):
was not true. I'm here to tell you no, it
was not true, because not all opinions are created equal.
Some are more informed, some are uninformed, some are less informed,
some are misinformed. And because we live in this world
where we're meeting on the same social media platforms, it
sends the wrong message that any and all opinions are
either valid or have merit or on the same level.
(15:48):
You know, you have Twitter, I have Twitter, You have Facebook,
I have Facebook threads what have you? So therefore our
opinions must be equal because they're being expressed on the
same platform. No they're not. But that's how we got here.
That's why there are Facebook groups dedicated to exposing the
truth behind the Earth actually being flat. That's why people
(16:11):
still believe we didn't land on the moon any of
the six times we did. That's why people are convinced
iverbectin was and still is an effective treatment for COVID
because social media told them so. That's why people are
willing to risk having their child die from measles, even
recommending having measos parties, because they saw one video on
(16:34):
YouTube or some other random posts on their preferred social
media platform and feel they have more knowledge in every virologists, pathologists, immunologists,
and epidemiologists, who, of course recommended the exact opposite, because
why go to college for ten years when you can
just watch three YouTube videos from three people who aren't
credible but at least confirm your bias. That that, right
(16:57):
there is why polio and whooping cost our back, because
we all think we're special and live in an age
where we've been trained to not trust or believe actual experts,
and for that people die needlessly. Social media, designed specifically
to cater to our id and our worst selfish impulses,
(17:21):
is how we got here, elevating every ridiculous, uninformed, and
ignorant thought which crosses our minds, and in some instances,
it's getting us killed, including our children. For KF I
am six forty, I'm mo Kelly. My final thought for
(17:48):
the week. I'm gonna get financially nerdy, gonna have to
dig in deep here, so please bear with me. The
stock market has lost ten percent of its value since
January two, twentieth. That would be an inauguration day. In
financial terms, that's called a correction, and it would be
the first since twenty twenty three. In the past month,
(18:10):
the stock market is down thirty nine hundred points depending
on what source you use. There are about one hundred
and fifty to one hundred and eighty million Americans who
are actively involved in the stock market, and by that
I mean buying or selling or trading, or passively involved.
That means the four oh one k's three fifty sevens pensions,
(18:32):
meaning about half the country is impacted by the fortunes
of the stock market. As for the larger economic outlook,
we've been told that the Biden economy was an economic disaster.
We've heard that time and time again. In fact, some
people are still saying that even though GDP growth was
hovering at about two point eight two point nine percent
(18:54):
per quarter, that's gross domestic product and two point eight
two point nine percent, that is healthy, full stop, no exaggeration,
not really debatable healthy. Didn't say it was great, but
it's healthy. And unemployment is still historically low at four percent.
I don't know if you know this, but unemployment at
(19:14):
five percent, a whole point higher is still considered full employment.
These are just facts. Well, why does this matter? It
matters because, as I said, the talk this week was
whether the country might be on the verge of a recession,
meaning if the economy is not in a recession presently
(19:35):
and not near a recession presently, at least as of
January this year. That also means the economy is not
and was not a disaster. Also, a recession is a
very specific economic term. They're parameters because in a recession,
principally we have negative GDP gross domestic product for consecutive quarters.
(19:56):
That's that's a necessity. Meaning going from the two point
nine percent we've seen in the past two quarters that
I just told you about to negative numbers, it would
be a sharp turn. Golden Sachs, which knows a little
bit about money, just a little bit, release a statement
this week that the prospect of a recession is about
fifteen to twenty percent, but could increase if the Trump
(20:19):
administration remains quote committed to its policies even in the
face of much worse data. Close quote their words, not mine,
and let me translate that. They're saying that a recession
very much rests on the shoulders of and the choices
made by the Trump administration. It's not inevitable, not necessarily,
(20:40):
Joe Biden, not anything happening prior to now, But what
happens now and going forward again, If the economy is
not in a recession, and it's not for the reasons
I just gave you, then by definition, it's not a
disaster and it's not horrible, despite what some people keep
try trying to tell us, or put it another way,
(21:02):
lie to us. But that all could change rather quickly.
And I know what some of you are thinking, But mo,
what about the cost of eggs? What about the cost
of milk? And I would remind you that's not the economy.
That's one of the four major food groups that's not
the same. Each year there is an issue with a
food item due to supply chain issues. Right now, there's
(21:23):
also a soybean shortage. Mad Cow sent beef prices through
the roof in the nineteen nineties. It was oranges in
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. But that's not
the economy. But if the actual economy as a whole
should go into a recession, that means we have been
slowly sliding to economic hell for six consecutive months or
(21:46):
two quarters leading up to it. Going back to the
two quarters of negative GDP, it takes six months just
to officially be in a recession with no guarantee of
how long it would last after that. But let me
go back to the stock market and thirty nine hundred
points in the past month. It's fair, and I try
to be fair. It's fair to argue that the stock
market could get all of it back in the coming years.
(22:09):
It's possible, but it's not likely, and not everybody has
those years to wait. Maybe planned on retiring this year
or next, or you will be forced to retire due
to age restrictions. If so, you just got kicked in
the teeth with your active and passive investments. You won't
ever get that back. Maybe you're one of the thousands
of veterans who were laid off as the federal employee
(22:30):
purge continues. Maybe you're a veteran and disabled and lost
not only your job but your benefits and a good
portion of your retirement all in the last thirty days.
You're not getting any of that back. If the firings hold,
You're just out of the game for good, saying nothing
of what life may look like if we do end
up going into that recession in the meantime, And that's
(22:53):
saying nothing of the possibility of medicaid and social security
being cut as well. Here's the larger point that I
want to close with. It's all fun and games and
trying to call an economy bad or a disaster right
up until a real economic disaster shows up and demonstrates
the difference. I said some time ago that the markets,
our allies, and our adversaries will respond and be exceptionally
(23:17):
clear on our terraffs, our disregard for our allies and
disregard for our veterans. And now they have responded, And oh,
they have responded, So I want to add to what
I said. Then this is just the beginning. The market
slide is not going to stop, hear me, unless the
terrorists stop and the talk of annexing Canada and Greenland stop.
(23:41):
Why Because Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal and just
about every respected economist has told us as much. I'm
not saying it, they're saying it. Your four oh one
k is saying it. If we end up in some
open ended recession, ditch, it will be because our government
chose it, because it doesn't have to happen this way,
(24:01):
it does not have to happen. We do not have
to end up in a recession. They said, only a
fifteen to twenty percent chance. If we do not continue
down this path. It won't necessarily happen on its own,
but it will be a choice. So choose wisely. For KF,
I am six forty. I'm mo Kelly
Oh lad with You might have heard Mark Ronerd discuss
a story or previous story regarding Mayor Karen Bass and
(00:24):
her text messages which are not available for January seventh
and January eighth, which happened to coincide with her time
in Ghana and also the beginning of the fires here
in Los Angeles and also Los Angeles County. So I
wanted to focus in on that, and for my final thought,
it's this. Let me just start with the obvious. Mayor
(00:48):
Karen Bass will probably be re elected, probably most likely,
And that's not an endorsement, not in the least. That's
just a reflection of not having any real compet petition,
at least not at this moment. But she surely has
done herself no favors in recent months. I really hate
when politicians and elected officials try to insult my intelligence.
(01:11):
Maybe you don't have any problem with that, but I
sure as hell do. We can disagree on policy, we
can disagree on strategy and messaging, we can disagree on
the path forward as far as what's best for our city, county,
or state, but we can't agree on you insulting me
with wild, unbelievable stories which defy reasonable explanation, and I'm
(01:34):
all about reasonable. After a public records request for Bass's
text messages from January seventh and January eighth related to
the fires by the LA Times, the time said the
city had no responsive records. No responsive records A mayor's
text messages from only a month ago are nowhere to
(01:56):
be found. Bass was in Ghana the Palisades and eating
fires broke out on January seventh. I remember I was
covering it. You might remember as well. I was spending
from seven pm to midnight here talking about it for
multiple days. I remember it, and also Bass spent much
of that next day traveling back from Ghana more than
(02:19):
seventy five hundred miles to Los Angeles. And she said
she was in communication with officials here, so I assume
she was on the phone, she was texting whatever. You
know what she was doing beyond traveling, coordinating, not just communicating.
And if you communicate with anyone for any length of time,
(02:41):
you know that texting is not only more efficient, but
it's more easily accessible for the person on the other end,
as opposed to leaving a voicemail. I'm sure there are
multiple people trying to get in touch with the mayor simultaneously,
and since she's in air, it stands the reason that
texting is more efficient than calling. But none of those
(03:06):
records are quote unquote available. That to me, and I'm
just talking about me. Maybe you don't care, but that
to me is insulting my intelligence. According to David Michaelson,
an attorney for the city, indicated that the mayor's phone,
and I'm quoting, the mayor's phone is set to not
save text messages. It auto deletes. And I know something
(03:31):
about smartphones just a little bit. Auto delete is a
manual setting. It's a choice. It's not a factory setting.
It doesn't come to you out of a box and
you install a text messaging app and just auto delete
stuff after thirty days and beyond that, I also know
that text messages have both a sender and a receiver.
I know that just deleting a message from a device
doesn't delete it from a server, So the messages themselves
(03:53):
are not lost forever. But that's beside the point. It's
a principle, and as an elected official, there is every
reason to believe that a mayor's text messages during an
emergency have relevance and importance beyond thirty days. It's a
crisis situation. There is every reason to believe that the
mayor knows this as well as I do, as well
as you do. I don't question whether her phone was
(04:15):
set to auto delete. I don't question that at all.
I absolutely questioned any such motivation, and so would any
reasonable person. So let me end where I began. Mayor
Bass is probably going to be re elected borderline definitely.
And that is in part because she likely won't face
(04:35):
any serious challengers. And I've told you about that and
how that just really sticks in my craw. No one
is actually going to step up. And that is why
setting auto delete for your text messages during a crisis
in which there have been numerous investigations and allegations of
incompetence will not matter one single bit. And I get it,
(04:58):
I really do. When there are no consequences, you can
aught to delete your messages, even during a crisis. How
do I know? Ask the Secret Service during the January
sixth insurrection. We never found those text messages either. I
try to be consistent, and I really hate when politicians
act like we're stupid. I know for a fact I'm not.
(05:19):
I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I'm not.
I just would rather they, as in politicians, they as
an elected officials, just own up to it and say, yeah,
I deleted the damn messages. They are probably important and
I know you can't do anything about it. I'm still
going to be re elected, so deal with it. Close
quote that would be easier to swallow. But politicians and
elected officials do these things and will continue to do
(05:40):
them as long as they know they won't be voted out.
You can't necessarily control what politicians do. You can control
whether they get to hang around and continue to do them.
For k if I am six forty, I'm o Kelly.
(06:12):
And for my final thought tonight, I was really taken
back by the news of what is happening with the
Department of Education. So let me go there tonight. Both
of my parents were educators for the entirety of their career,
on the elementary, middle school, and high school levels. They
took out a second mortgage on the family home to
(06:33):
make sure my sister and I could attend college. My
sister went to Howard University in Washington, d C. I
went to Georgetown University, also in Washington, DC. My father
was the first in his family to ever attend college.
Education was always the priority in my household, and it
is something I have always carried with me. But I
(06:54):
know that my value of education is not shared by
many Americans these days. But let's talk about this from
thirty thousand feet up, as they say. In twenty twenty three,
South Korea spending on education reached seven point two percent
of GDP, and that exceeds the average of five point
seven percent and ranks second highest in the world. Japan
(07:18):
dedicates only four point one percent of his GDP to
educational institutions, and although the spending is well below average,
the focus within the country is top tier. In twenty
twenty four, last year, the United Kingdom spent approximately four
point one percent of its GDP on education, also well
below the global average of five point seven percent. That's
(07:41):
really important put a pin in that as well. Last
year twenty twenty four, the US spent five point five
to nine percent of our GDP on education, just below
the average of five point seven percent, but far more
than Japan and the United Kingdom. As for overall rankings
of education populations in the world, that expenditure of those
(08:04):
various countries translates as follows. The US, without a doubt,
is the wealthiest nation in the world and we can't
even break the top thirty in terms of educated populace.
We're number thirty one, Korea number one, and they're number
one just seventy two years after the Korean War. Japan,
(08:27):
remember they only spent four point one percent of their
GDP their number six eighty years after the end of
World War II and having to pay reparations to other
countries up until nineteen seventy seven. That's within my lifetime.
United Kingdom number twelve. And just in case you're curious,
(08:49):
China is thirteen, Canada is fourteen, Frances sixteen, Israel twenty one,
Russia is twenty two two, Hungary is thirty, and we're
thirty one. Here's my point. There are Asian countries, European countries,
(09:09):
North American countries, small countries, large countries, war torn countries,
wealthy countries, impoverished countries. For example, California's GDP is almost
twice that of Russia. Russia's population is three and a
half times that of California, but somehow Russia managed to
beat the United States by nine slots. When it comes
(09:32):
to education, my point tonight is rather simple. It's not
money per se, it's not wealth of a nation, it's
not size of a nation, just importance of education to
a nation. Spend some time in Korea. You'll see how
important education is in every facet of life. Then it
starts to make sense how education directly benefits the rest
(09:52):
of society. There's a direct correlation between education, level of crime, health,
and general welfare. Spend some time in the and you
see how little we value it relative to defense spending,
health care, and other items. The idea of American exceptionalism
is the belief that the United States is either distinctive, unique,
(10:14):
or exemplary compared to other nations when it comes to education.
We're not, and we haven't been for quite some time.
And since we're not, we're not the technological leaders we
once were. Either we don't make the best cars, we
don't make the best semiconductors. Just for example, we shame
or try to shame those with education today as somehow
being elitists, like as a scarlet letter or some badge
(10:38):
of shame. More evidence of that today with the news
that about half of the Department of Education was gutted today,
with some thirteen hundred employees being let go. According to
most published reports, the cuts will all but incapacitate the
agency in its efforts to distribute billions in federal money
to colleges, schools, and manages the federal student loan portfolio. Oh,
(11:02):
nothing bad could come of that, right well, In short,
it would likely cripple our educational infrastructure in many ways.
No preceding forensic audit, no scalpel to these cuts, just
a chainsaw while blindfolded and discriminate because the Department of
Education evidently has no value to America in twenty twenty five,
(11:24):
and there will be a hefty price because of it,
and no amount of firings will make enough room in
which to afford it. For KF, I am six forty,
I'm mokell And from my final thought tonight, it was
(12:03):
guided by the story earlier tonight when I talked about
the father whose daughter died from measles and he was
still standing by his decision not to vaccinate her. He's
a menday Night, a Christian sect which doesn't really believe
in vaccines, even though nothing like that is in the Bible.
(12:24):
But that's what informed what I had to say for
this final thought. We all would like to think that
we're special. You, me, Stephen, Mark Twala, your neighbor, your gardener, everybody.
We all would like to think we're special. But some
of us want to believe we're special in a very
(12:46):
very specific way. Special in the way of knowing what
other people don't know. Like they have the inside track
on all the secrets of the world, or especially this country.
They have some particular insight to the mysteries that only
they know. It's the foundation of conspiracy theory culture which
permeates our society today. We have a nation full of people,
(13:10):
and I'm specifically talking about the United States. We have
a nation full of people who fancy themselves as knowing
something the rest of us just don't know. We tell
ourselves that regardless of the facts, the science or documented history,
our opinions and only ours, you know, often unsubstantiated and unvetted,
are somehow right. They know we don't. And because of this,
(13:36):
I argue, and I frequently argue, that this is the
dumbest nation on the face of the earth, because we
lean into that. In twenty twenty five, you will easily
find deep pockets of people who still deny that the
aforementioned Earth is spherical, despite all the available science and evidence.
At our fingertips. We have people literally who are building
(13:57):
rockets to prove that the Earth is flat twenty twenty
five or in twenty twenty five, some will argue with
you tooth and nail that vitamin A helps prevent the measles.
Like RFK Junior, we live in a time in which
conviction is confused with knowledge. Just believing something deeply is
(14:18):
far too often masquerading as legitimate knowledge. They are not
the same, and I'm sure that social media plays a role,
a damn large role, but not the only role. The
moment news sites like The Washington Post and New York
Times and others first attached a comment section to their
articles at the dawn of social media. Remember that, Remember
(14:40):
the first time you saw a comment section and you
could actually type in what you thought about an article
and it would get published. That moment, right there was
when it all started to go to hell. And here's why.
For the first time, people who had never been published
or been read on any level on a legitimate news
site were reading them sell and were read by others
(15:02):
right under legitimate news. Just by posting a comment right
under that article, which had to pass multiple editors just
to get published. You just went click, click, click, click,
click send, and you got published. It's if the wrong
message that just about anybody could have an opinion, and
that opinion had merit, and on most subjects, it probably
(15:25):
was not true. I'm here to tell you no, it
was not true, because not all opinions are created equal.
Some are more informed, some are uninformed, some are less informed,
some are misinformed. And because we live in this world
where we're meeting on the same social media platforms, it
sends the wrong message that any and all opinions are
either valid or have merit or on the same level.
(15:48):
You know, you have Twitter, I have Twitter, You have Facebook,
I have Facebook threads what have you? So therefore our
opinions must be equal because they're being expressed on the
same platform. No they're not. But that's how we got here.
That's why there are Facebook groups dedicated to exposing the
truth behind the Earth actually being flat. That's why people
(16:11):
still believe we didn't land on the moon any of
the six times we did. That's why people are convinced
iverbectin was and still is an effective treatment for COVID
because social media told them so. That's why people are
willing to risk having their child die from measles, even
recommending having measos parties, because they saw one video on
(16:34):
YouTube or some other random posts on their preferred social
media platform and feel they have more knowledge in every virologists, pathologists, immunologists,
and epidemiologists, who, of course recommended the exact opposite, because
why go to college for ten years when you can
just watch three YouTube videos from three people who aren't
credible but at least confirm your bias. That that, right
(16:57):
there is why polio and whooping cost our back, because
we all think we're special and live in an age
where we've been trained to not trust or believe actual experts,
and for that people die needlessly. Social media, designed specifically
to cater to our id and our worst selfish impulses,
(17:21):
is how we got here, elevating every ridiculous, uninformed, and
ignorant thought which crosses our minds, and in some instances,
it's getting us killed, including our children. For KF I
am six forty, I'm mo Kelly. My final thought for
(17:48):
the week. I'm gonna get financially nerdy, gonna have to
dig in deep here, so please bear with me. The
stock market has lost ten percent of its value since
January two, twentieth. That would be an inauguration day. In
financial terms, that's called a correction, and it would be
the first since twenty twenty three. In the past month,
(18:10):
the stock market is down thirty nine hundred points depending
on what source you use. There are about one hundred
and fifty to one hundred and eighty million Americans who
are actively involved in the stock market, and by that
I mean buying or selling or trading, or passively involved.
That means the four oh one k's three fifty sevens pensions,
(18:32):
meaning about half the country is impacted by the fortunes
of the stock market. As for the larger economic outlook,
we've been told that the Biden economy was an economic disaster.
We've heard that time and time again. In fact, some
people are still saying that even though GDP growth was
hovering at about two point eight two point nine percent
(18:54):
per quarter, that's gross domestic product and two point eight
two point nine percent, that is healthy, full stop, no exaggeration,
not really debatable healthy. Didn't say it was great, but
it's healthy. And unemployment is still historically low at four percent.
I don't know if you know this, but unemployment at
(19:14):
five percent, a whole point higher is still considered full employment.
These are just facts. Well, why does this matter? It
matters because, as I said, the talk this week was
whether the country might be on the verge of a recession,
meaning if the economy is not in a recession presently
(19:35):
and not near a recession presently, at least as of
January this year. That also means the economy is not
and was not a disaster. Also, a recession is a
very specific economic term. They're parameters because in a recession,
principally we have negative GDP gross domestic product for consecutive quarters.
(19:56):
That's that's a necessity. Meaning going from the two point
nine percent we've seen in the past two quarters that
I just told you about to negative numbers, it would
be a sharp turn. Golden Sachs, which knows a little
bit about money, just a little bit, release a statement
this week that the prospect of a recession is about
fifteen to twenty percent, but could increase if the Trump
(20:19):
administration remains quote committed to its policies even in the
face of much worse data. Close quote their words, not mine,
and let me translate that. They're saying that a recession
very much rests on the shoulders of and the choices
made by the Trump administration. It's not inevitable, not necessarily,
(20:40):
Joe Biden, not anything happening prior to now, But what
happens now and going forward again, If the economy is
not in a recession, and it's not for the reasons
I just gave you, then by definition, it's not a
disaster and it's not horrible, despite what some people keep
try trying to tell us, or put it another way,
(21:02):
lie to us. But that all could change rather quickly.
And I know what some of you are thinking, But mo,
what about the cost of eggs? What about the cost
of milk? And I would remind you that's not the economy.
That's one of the four major food groups that's not
the same. Each year there is an issue with a
food item due to supply chain issues. Right now, there's
(21:23):
also a soybean shortage. Mad Cow sent beef prices through
the roof in the nineteen nineties. It was oranges in
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three. But that's not
the economy. But if the actual economy as a whole
should go into a recession, that means we have been
slowly sliding to economic hell for six consecutive months or
(21:46):
two quarters leading up to it. Going back to the
two quarters of negative GDP, it takes six months just
to officially be in a recession with no guarantee of
how long it would last after that. But let me
go back to the stock market and thirty nine hundred
points in the past month. It's fair, and I try
to be fair. It's fair to argue that the stock
market could get all of it back in the coming years.
(22:09):
It's possible, but it's not likely, and not everybody has
those years to wait. Maybe planned on retiring this year
or next, or you will be forced to retire due
to age restrictions. If so, you just got kicked in
the teeth with your active and passive investments. You won't
ever get that back. Maybe you're one of the thousands
of veterans who were laid off as the federal employee
(22:30):
purge continues. Maybe you're a veteran and disabled and lost
not only your job but your benefits and a good
portion of your retirement all in the last thirty days.
You're not getting any of that back. If the firings hold,
You're just out of the game for good, saying nothing
of what life may look like if we do end
up going into that recession in the meantime, And that's
(22:53):
saying nothing of the possibility of medicaid and social security
being cut as well. Here's the larger point that I
want to close with. It's all fun and games and
trying to call an economy bad or a disaster right
up until a real economic disaster shows up and demonstrates
the difference. I said some time ago that the markets,
our allies, and our adversaries will respond and be exceptionally
(23:17):
clear on our terraffs, our disregard for our allies and
disregard for our veterans. And now they have responded, And oh,
they have responded, So I want to add to what
I said. Then this is just the beginning. The market
slide is not going to stop, hear me, unless the
terrorists stop and the talk of annexing Canada and Greenland stop.
(23:41):
Why Because Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal and just
about every respected economist has told us as much. I'm
not saying it, they're saying it. Your four oh one
k is saying it. If we end up in some
open ended recession, ditch, it will be because our government
chose it, because it doesn't have to happen this way,
(24:01):
it does not have to happen. We do not have
to end up in a recession. They said, only a
fifteen to twenty percent chance. If we do not continue
down this path. It won't necessarily happen on its own,
but it will be a choice. So choose wisely. For KF,
I am six forty. I'm mo Kelly
Later, with Mo'Kelly News
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