May 23, 2026 • 45 mins
ERIC EPSTEIN AND MILLENNIAL BRIAN TALK ABOUT GAS PRICES, EL NINO, AND MEMORIAL DAY.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well welcome. We should have a really good audience today.
I love it when the weather man says the weather's miserable.
Why don't you just stop there? I mean, it's not great.
First time I can remember in May where I think
my toes almost froze. We are Rock the Capital. We're
a good government, anti corruption organization. We do not take sides,
(00:24):
we take aim. We were founded in twenty twenty five.
Please visit our website by typing Rock the Capital into
your search engine. It just seems early for Memorial's Day?
What it May twenty third.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
May twenty third, I guess, I mean what sort of
as far as starts with the end of the school year. Yeah,
and then Labor Day is kind of like the beginning
of the school I know, it doesn't exactly line up.
This score sort of a few weeks before or.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
After last Monday, I believe in May. Yeah, and it's
interesting what days the governor the government decides to make
a three day weekend. Yeah. I mean, I think if
we did this to Christmas, people would be out of
their mind, you know. Make it said of December twenty fifth,
(01:11):
December twenty third. Yeah, there's some things you can't negotiate.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, that's like a locked and day and you always
bring up the one we need is the super Bowl.
Oh yeah, yeah, we need the super Bowl. No one,
no one that Monday's doing anything.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, it's so in art. Feel free to chirp in here.
But I never minded football and Thanksgiving. That made sense.
It was part of a tradition. But it doesn't work
for me. Football and basketball on Christmas, it doesn't seem right.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Eagles Cowboys on Thanksgiving. I can live without that. Yeah,
I just don't need that. You're trying to be in
a happy mood and it's like Eagles Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's fifty. It's better when the games have
no meaning, which is normally what they are.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now it's changed because Detroit got really good and so
that used to be just a throwaway game. And then
the Cowboys. The Cowboys. Cowboys are always interesting even if
they're not good, because it's just there.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
They they're a draw. But I think on a weekend,
like so Thanksgiving normally Wednesdays, the heavy travel people take
off Thursday and Friday. It used to be Bucks season
started Monday, but it's now on the weekends, right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yes, so it's it's a Saturday opener. Yeah, so essentially
they have to so it starts, so it starts so Thursday, Friday,
Saturday's at open. So people always when you go to
these meetings, people can plain. They say, basically, have to
cut Thanksgiving short to get out there because that first
weekends when you get all the good bucks and stuff
like that. And that's what they say. Obviously, you know,
(02:35):
different is different issues for different parts of I think
they're trying art.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Did you hunt growing up?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I did not know?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Okay, neither did I? What about you? I did not?
I did not.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
But I think what they're trying to do is are
trying to bring in younger people.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So they're trying to grow the industry. There's still a
lot of buck out there. But what I was going
to say, the only holiday I think that doesn't have
a distinct sporting event as far as I know, is
July fourth. I mean it's maybe Wimbledon is on.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Wasn't it Baseball? Isn't baseball like on the whole time?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, they had baseball on the whole day.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, but baseball, I guess it was baseball. Yeah, Baseball's
on it every day all the time. It seems like
when they get the season going, so it's justn't the same.
But listen, the reason why I do that is because
you know, everyone's home. Everyone's home, they want to watch
they don't want to, you know, talk with their families.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It was supposed to be everybody was home, but they
were outside. They weren't inside. You know, these are holidays
where people used to go out. So I checked the
price of gas for Pennsylvania. We're at average four point
fifty six. It was three eighteen last year. But I
saw another nugget of information that was really interesting. Fatalities
(03:47):
automotive automobile fatalities apparently at one of the lowest rates ever.
But that doesn't track with bicyclists.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, so essentially what was happening, So with gas.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
High, more people driving bikes and more people, I guess
there's more fatalities because you see the more bicycles out there.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, so I think what's happening is biking is becoming
more popular and it's getting more integrated into the roads,
and so you're just going to have because we're not
we're less used to driving with cyclists. It's not like Europe.
We're gonna have those. But on the car side, I
actually think it's because of the safety features and all
these new cars, yeah, sort of beepers and blinkers and
like automatic stopp features, which is actually making it safer,
(04:30):
because I don't think the drivings improved.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I think it's some so are There's not many people
coming over the mountain on a bicycle, is there?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I haven't seen any now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, so I think in some areas it's bicing has increased,
and I think, you know, there's been an effort to
trying to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians, but uh, it just
doesn't work in some spots.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean, well, we know, going into Harrisburg, they took
away essentially a lane to add for bicycles and walking.
I'm not saying that's a bad idea in principle. You know,
when you're going in, you're like, we need an extra lane.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, we also need a rickshaw lane. You know, we
need so people that want to walk and you know,
make some money. So I just threw this in here
for my own edification. I'm not really sure what El
Nino is, but why is the next al Nino supposed
to be? Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So Onino is actually it's a phenomenon. We're essentially warmer
than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern
tropical Pacific Ocean changes the way weather patterns normally move.
And this this happened a few years ago actually in
Texas with the big freeze. We're essentially the winner in
the northern part of North America was actually much milder
(05:46):
than usual, but that it got way worse in Texas
and they don't have the you know, climbate infrastructure or
weatherization of all their their energy grid went down. It
also increases the severity of hurricanes and stuff like that,
and so tropical.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
How would you know anymore? Every storm seems like supercharged.
Every storm seems like a McDonald's supersize. You know, there's
nothing's ever mellow.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's I mean, that's that's just the media environment where
everything's twenty four to seven and they and now weather
channels want to like cut through the main stream. When
can the weather channel cut through the mainstream? Is when
every you know, every hurricane is a five you know,
a five degree hurricane.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Well, but it's almost rooting for bad weather because the
weather station is twenty four to seven and you're not
going to cover a nice day. That's the weather station
has become like the news. It's about bad things.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now that everything's about like kind of clicks and cutting through.
That's what they look for, they look for. It's it's
kind of like John Stewart had a great line about
you know, the best time for CNN is nine to eleven.
Maybe not for then the country obviously, but that's when
you tune in for that breaking news.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
We talked about this with Ted Turner's death, the Iraq
War really mess right, CNN. We were glued to the TV,
all right. So we're in the air Brian's segment if
you haven't noticed, And I forgot to also tell the
viewers that this is a thunderdome, this name of the show, WHP,
(07:11):
and we are rock to Capitol. So I don't know
why this didn't get a lot of media, But explain
to me how this guy, the Supreme Court of South
Carolina unanimously overturned the double murder convictions and the life
sentences of Alex Murdoch. Murdoch, the disgraced former prosecutor and
lawyer who killed his wife and his son. What I
(07:35):
mean it was you know, unanimous, so there must have
been a good decision. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So in this case, they I mean they threw it out.
So they threw the twenty twenty three guilty verdicts. It
was based on bias instructions. He'll allegedly told jurors to
watch the body language who.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Told him the judge.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I don't think it was No, it was the warrior.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So the warrior.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So there's financial motivation. The defense argued that he'll pressure
the jury for a quick guilty verdict to drive up
sales for his book. And then there was a civil lawsuit.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
This is the prosecutor. Yeah, so this is the he's
writing a book before the case, before they've been sentenced.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yes, so the yes, So the South Carolina Attorney General
announced that it's good. Yes, so they're gonna have a
retrial for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdeaux. They Murdoch,
I'm sorry. And then and then they wanted to seek
the death penalty. And apparently they're using this essentially as
(08:45):
a campaign, so essentially to run a campaign to have
Bene the next attorney general order. This happened before with
the Ducal Cross case. Remember the Ducal Cross case. Accused
yes and so, And it wasn't until there was physical
evidence and then such a video of the at M
where they suchially were able to.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It was clear when after it was all put together.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Right, and and so it looks like it's the same
thing where essentially there was someone who wanted to run
a campaign on this. It was a high profile case
of South Carolina. They're going to use it to essuchually
fund their primary run and their book. Their booksells well.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But but I mean the difference is, and I shouldn't
say this, but he looks guilty by everything I've seen
in her. So in a case like this, does he
get out until the next.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Case there's going to be a retrial, yeses so yes,
so he's going to be Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'd be going to an island in the Caribbean. Yeah,
I mean there's one I know for sale. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But just because it was biased doesn't necessarily mean he's
innocent either. So so I think if you just look
at the case, there was pressure and it was I
guess if you're going to have the judicial process, it
was misrun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, including by the court course, so the core courk Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Just given the injury, false information.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And well that's just stupid.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, I mean, that's not even the warrior at that point.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's yeah, well before we go to break. So this
is another idea I have. When you have a high
profile criminal like this, you take their passport, they get
around it. So yeah, you know, cases like that, you
should just chop off a foot and then you know
they're not going anywhere, right, they stay in place. Eric
eppsteined with Millennial Brian the name of the show, it's underdone.
We're Rock the Capital. We're being produced by Art Selby,
(10:27):
and we'll be back in just a moment, all right.
So Brian cautioned me that I shouldn't say that folks
are guilty based on what we now have DNA tracking.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, so if you look at cases in the past,
you know, because of DNA evidence, we were basically being
able to find out that lots of people that we've
resumed were guilty in the past are now innocent. Of course,
you know, you don't want to say the reverse or
pretend like none of these people beforehand were obviously lots
of them were guilty.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I just believe in the old adage give them a
fair trial, then hang them. So one of the things
I wanted to get to was, is this interesting up
ed I read on China before that though, there is
a apparently an old joke that says the US is
a very fortunate country because everywhere it goes to bring freedom,
(11:23):
it finds oil.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
In fairness though in fairness to the US sometimes, you know,
if you think about the Middle East, I think about
other countries, a lot of the technoledge they used to
discover their oil was invented by the US, and they
become rich. I mean UAE, Saudi Arabia, the idea of that,
you know, they haven't benefited from their oil. I mean
Saudi Arabia. They're diversifying now, but they used to have
eighty percent of their government revenue come from oil.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, and you've got to be careful. I mean when
it comes to solar. Clearly this administration is hostile to
solar and win. But the most populous and fastest growing
state economy, which is California, gets two thirds two thirds
of its energy from renewables, wind and solar. In Texas
(12:08):
is a huge and then that's that's in the heart
of oil world. So I just wanted to make up
a couple of points here. One is that apparently the
continent that's most friendly to solar is Africa, and China
exports to Africa search last month eighty three percent, and
(12:30):
so apparently what we're seeing is that the Chinese are
also now betting on the African market for energy development.
So it's not like Russia and China going to take minerals.
This is interesting to me because now you basically are
given a continent a way to generate energy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, and that's this is gonna sorry, So there's there's
two gonna be two accelerations. One is going to be
domestic oil, gas and coal production of the tutritional fossil
fuels simply because the Middle East right now is in
essentially a standoff where they can't export anywhere near the
pre war levels. And then it's gonna be a switch.
So it's gonna be switched to renewables expansion. And with
(13:10):
obviously solar over the past twenty years has gone from
a subsidy needed industry to now it's meeting market rates.
And the essentially the limiting factor is not that they
can't meet market rates, it's transmission. And then storage, and
so can we get the batteries to store the energy
when the sun doesn't shine? And can you get to
areas essentially where let's say the energy is in Arizona,
(13:32):
could you transmit it to Michigan. And so when you
look at Africa, you know only a small you can
essentially you would argue power the entire continent with so
war the question is those two. Can't do you the
infrastructure to transmit it to every part of the continent?
And then do you have the storage when even when
no Africa obviously is you know, it's not like Canada,
(13:53):
where it's much harder to get solar. You still have
to store it when the sun doesn't shine or where
you can't get that energy.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I mean, it's also that's the key for them industrializing
as a continent and moving from a agriculture based economy.
But the transmission issue has been stifled willingly, willfully rather
by the grid operators because they prefer, you know, yeah,
twenty four to seven. So the key and renewables do fine,
(14:25):
they're not twenty four to seven. Actually nothing is. The
key is going to be a problem that I think
has been solved. I think large scale battery storage is
now a fact a life.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Well it's coming and that is the key. So essentially,
if you think about the limiting factor, if you go
it went from originally which was the marginal cost, which
is why you need subsidies. Now it's a combination of
transmission and battery life. Once the battery life gets better
or large scale battery life gets better, then it's all
gonna be transmission and then the grid operators should if
(14:55):
even in a free market sense, want to bring them
on because you're right right now, you know, what do
you do when the sun doesn't shine? Type of problems?
They have to switch to essentially gas, But.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
It doesn't mean when the sun is always essentially shining
except at night, so the sun is getting through. I mean,
I think there's a misnomer. But you know, going back
to Africa, you have six hundred million people on that
continent that don't have electricity. So if you are able
to empower folks in a remote area where that could
(15:26):
be an issue to do, you know, rooftop solar folks
are Now there's a new solar that's actually doing well,
Balcony Solar. So I mean the options are there that
you have a mindset that's still fossil fuel based. And
let's be honest, oil is with with chemicals, pesticide, fastics.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it's not just your gassing away. But I think
what's going to happen is this is if you can
essentially have a higher percentage of energy onto renewables, different
you can, the oil price will come down because right now,
I mean we're seeing it right now, we have a
supply shock, the demand's still going up. There's you know,
you're not going to get rid of plus. If you
essentially expand all your energy of production fossil fuel and
(16:11):
renewable included, you're going to see those prices come down
and lower prices and energy is the best kind of
tax cut. It's essentially a tax cut. We wouldn't lose
any revenue, but you've gained all the consumption producer surplus.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's maybe a tax cut, but higher prices are research bonanza.
You know, you're not going to go out if you're
an oil corporation and do exploration and innovate technology when
you're losing money. So you know, for politicians in America,
the gas of price of gas being this high as treacherous.
(16:47):
Let me just ask you a question. Though. If the
price of gas was this much and Joe Biden was president,
I think the country would be out of their mind.
Well they were.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Remember for a short period in inflation got noticedly above ages.
Gas was I think a little bit below this, but
not you know, too much, and that that that's signfically
hurt him. He's look at the approval ratings basically from
that point on. I think it was the Afghanistan withdrawal
and then when inflation went out, he never recovered from that.
(17:18):
He never recovered. We'll see what happens in the midterms.
But the price of gas, because it doesn't just hit
you at the puppet, hits you essentially at the supermarket
every single That's why whenever you see a country developed,
the most the most basic building block is cheap and
reliable energy. That's what I mean, That's what China works on,
when that's what India is trying to do. That's what
we'll see what Africa. That's the key.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, on the Afghan uh departure was a debacle. You know,
there's no way to justify that. However, President Trump could
a deal with the Taliban, and if you think that's
a good party to sit down with that.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I wonder with the withdrawal though obviously it was handled poorly,
but if we were, let's say, still there, would people
will be happy. I almost felt like it got this
is kind of like low attention but very unpopular take,
which is I think most people said, why are we there?
The goal was to get rid of essentially been a
lot in the terror that's done.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Is it just to build? You know?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Especially it's it became almost like like a policing job.
I think most people would even now, I mean, what's
the most Iran is going to be the most unpopular
part of the Trump administration's policy because people are gonna
said it.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
But do we have to be there Afghanistan? Nobody complained
that we broke a taboo and sat down and negotiated
with terrorists, And at the time for Trump, it was
consistent with him no more forever wars, right, And I
think that's what people saw. There's it's really never Look,
I don't you probably saw the images in Vietnam when
we were, you know, leaving the well, pushing our fighter
(18:48):
jets off of carriers. I mean that's not a good
image either. But look, I want to get back to Africa.
The point for me here is this, and this is interesting.
There is a huge mineral rush, whether Greenland or the
continent of Africa. Yeah, so even if the you know,
if these countries get six hundred million people, if they
get electricity, how does this change It changes their way
(19:11):
of life, but how does it change the political outlook?
You know, now you have a citizens, communities, nations that
don't need certain minerals.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, I mean, I think for Africa the question, I
think the guy did what the Middle East did on
their oil, so UAE, for example, didn't look at oilized.
This is our business. It's like, this is our foundation
to build the money and investment to expand to other
areas because essentially you need to expand infrastructure, education, and
then market access is the big thing. It's like, can
(19:43):
they create essentially from this their own companies, their own economy.
When you don't have that market access, you're subsidy dependent
and you're also dependent on these deals. Which listen, whether
it's China, Russia, United States, or Europe, you're not it's
not getting to the point where people were are developing
consumer income, which is which is the big jump. You
have to have to get out of.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That, but you have, it goes back to China. They
have a monopoly on rare earth minerals. They're they're way
ahead of everybody on electric cars.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And on a refinement of those minerals. So even if
you have the minerals, you still have to send to
China to refined.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, but I think it goes to show in America
has demonstrated unfortunately, you can never be totally. You're always
going to be dependent not just the supply chain, but
one component. So what six hundred million people without electric Yeah, yeah,
it's a lot. So that's basically America's population times too.
(20:40):
But I guess what I was trying to lead you to,
and maybe I'm incorrect, is if those people have electricity,
do you think it creates a more stable uh society?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, so you would assume because economic development obviously
leads to, you know, all the better outcomes political stability,
social economics on the individual level, and then upward mobility,
and then you can and then the debate becomes how
much we invest in let's say education, infrastructure, and then
how much should we invest in essentially the private sector enterprises.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's right in hand in hand with that, the Trump
administration is cut off foreign aid to some of these countries.
That's true, and that my worry is that China looks
like a more attractive partner. Yeah, in China, unlike Russian
and America, really has no experience with foreign military presence.
That's unlikely to occur. But everything is changing so rapidly.
(21:40):
And the irony is oil really I think sunk forward
in some degrees. It's some carter. The first thing, one
of the first things Reagan did is he took the
solar panels off the White House. And whether that's right
or wrong, I think there needs to be a recognition
that we're going to be a fossil fuel dependent society.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah for a while, even just with the plastics, the petrochemicals,
other stuff, not just filling up your car. I think
the argument is for energy, especially as we want energy
consumption to go up, is that you can't You can't
sell green and then tell people we just got to
use less, you got to have a smaller house. People
won't buy into that, so I think you have to
(22:21):
You have to sell and, like all in above, an
energy approach which is reliable and cheap reliable and cheap.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Look when Carter and and then we'll break with this.
Carter asked people to turn down their thermostatus, wear sweaters
and go fifty five. People lost their mind going fifty five.
I mean there's even a I forget the name of
the song, I can't drive. Going fifty five just doesn't happen.
So look, I'm americaps down them in with Mallennial. Brian.
(22:48):
We'rerock to Capitol. The show is Thunderdome and we are
being produced by the latest Hall of Fame inductee Art Selby.
So before I forget Brian, either one of you have
Memorial Day plans? No, I mean, I mean because I've
(23:08):
asked you what your plans are for the last several years,
and it's always watching the playoffs? Art, are you going
to do something other than watching the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Visit my parents and I'm gonna try kayak kayaking?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh where you gonna kayak?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Probably up in Newport at Little Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, that's it's nice up there. How's your dad feeling,
I know he had some hard issues.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
He's doing pretty good. Last year at this Tommy was
a little in a rough state, But this year is
doing good.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, all right. Well, I don't ask myself what I'm
doing on Memorial Day because I do the same thing
I do every Memorial Day, and that's wait till the
end of the Indianapolis five hundred. See if there's any accidents.
I shouldn't say that, because there was a tragic death of.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
A racecar driver recently. Yeah Bush, Michael Bush.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, I think it was They said sepsis.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Or that's not an actual I think the last big
one I wasn't alive was Earnhardt.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Actually, if you go back a couple of years, there
was a guy killed in a sprint car race I think,
who had walked onto the track and he was hit
by a famous driver. He was he was, he was
on I mean, he basically was on the track and
got hit while I was trying to exit. I don't art.
Do you remember that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, So it seems kind of insane that you would
you're at a race car track and you run right
on the place.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
No, no, no, no. I think he was just trying to
get off. I think he had crashed. I mean, it's
look you have, it's dangerous to cars. I mean they
oh yeah, said the one build up that they go
two hundred and thirty miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, even in F one, which is a different type
of race. They made a movie about the fact that
every year it was something like back in the seventies
and eighties, like one or two drivers would die on
the circuit. And these are obviously the best drivers.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, those those Formula one zone Man, when they go
they get torch. I remember growing up, we used to
have Golly, I can't think of it now. It was
those figure eight things, yes, and it was demolition derby,
so you couldn't help but getting hit. Yeah, yeah, look
the thing that caught me. I don't know if you
(25:16):
I don't want I'm not being disparaging of our sponsors,
but it was so fast at the end of that
commercial and that you said again, first of all, if
you're deaf, you're screwed. If you're definite gamble, you're gonna
be broke. But who that I mean? Honestly, if you
want to get the one eight hundred number, you'd have
to listen to the radio for about three weeks, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I think was I think it's it all goes back
to that South Park skit where they're talking, they're talking
about alcohol, and it's like, you know what the end
of the every alcohol commercial they have to say respond
to you to drink responsibly. But the whole commercial is
basically like alcohol is awesome, party stuff like that, And
that shows we're switching to eight. I would say, especially
from a tax space perspective, a syntax man, you can
(25:59):
always raise out call taxes. You can always raise cigarette taxes.
You raise gambling taxes. It's hard to raise.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Do you think I don't smoke anymore? I used to.
I like camels. I started with camel non filters, and
what I tell people, if you have a camel non
filter and a cup of black coffee in the morning,
you'll never be constipated. You know there there will always
be movement. But what I'm saying is when do you
get to the point with tobacco, Because I've seen people
(26:26):
that still smoke. They go to generic brand or they
start rolling their own. But I mean it seems to
be I think.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think with the the syntaxes, the argument is you
have in elastic demand. People are going to have to smoke.
They will pay whatever, and so they'll go and go, go.
And with with other products, you have essentially last of demand,
which is if you put the taxes too high and
let's say clothes, people will just not go to cheaper option.
Or I mean we see it with states. They'll drive,
(26:57):
They'll drive from west of New York to New Jersey
where there's no sales tax, to drive from Washington to
Oregon because where.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
There's so that Again, by the way, there was an
article in the Inquirer about a week ago saying it
was called the love of gas. Some uh, you know,
relationships are breaking up because it's too expensive. It's like
this is easily resolved. You know, put your girlfriend in
a cannon, blast her over and then bring her back.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So you're always ahead of these saving relationships right now, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
We should be calling me the profit. So just one
thing is with tobacco, alcohol, uh, marijuana, gaming, these are
mostly behaviors that are viewed not encouraged, but yet we
need growth in those sectors in order to fill the budgets.
(27:49):
I mean, the gaming revenue, especially the revenue on the
internet is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well it changed. You used to have essentially only really
you have to you have to go to get the
vegas to gamble. Then you have to be able to
go if you gambling was leaning in your state to
a casino. Now it's just on your phone, it's right there.
And so it's just everything becomes so much more accessible.
Kind of the barriers entry, the national bearers entry, you know,
cut people out limited stuff. And so the question is
(28:17):
do we have to bring some of those barriers back?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Well, I would say yes. But also if Pete Rose
was alive, I think you'd have a good lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Oh my god, he's got the fact that they you know,
before it was like oh so taboo Mickey manno and uh,
I forget the other got essentially banned from Major League
be it's not bamed.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
But so they were with greeters at casinos. Unless they stopped,
they would have been banned.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, And so I think and now it's like now
you have gambling TV sites, we're essentially on you watch
the game on the site. They have live odds going.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, if you look at some of the race car
drivers and who sponsors it, you know we're the next
step is on the lapel will be you know, napalm,
you know Agent Orange.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
There was there was a joke about politicians where they're
like they should be like NASCAR drivers where they have
to put all their biggest donors on on their like outfit.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Well that I think that might work for Federman. He's
the only one casually dressed. So we've talked about this before.
But what's really interesting is post World War II Europe
had basically been run by either Christian Democrats, which were
centered right, or Liberal Democrats, which were center left. That
(29:31):
and that is about to be blown out of the water.
You have Germany where the far right party is now
the majority party has twenty.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well yeah, so it's polling at twenty eight percent. Now,
Germany has a PR system, so essentially, if you'll get
all the other parties combines, PR me so essentially it's
proportional representation.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yeah, because I see a lot of people would have
gone with public relations.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
So essentially they have like six parties, five or six parties.
They have two major parties, but essentially you get a proportion,
so you're gonna get basically a quarter of the MPs
or the parliamentarians are gonna be from the a f D.
But because all the other parties combined to have more,
they can form a coalition to keep these people out
(30:18):
of power. Now that's different at the state level. Essentially,
they're you know, they're let's say Byron, the Byron area
or the different states. But but they're gonna have influence.
They're gonna win mayor, they're gonna win those local elections.
So there's gonna be more influence and eventually I think
it's gonna have as the Christian Democrats are gonna make
(30:39):
a deal with the a f D essentially for me
center right coalition.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So using that as example, you have the surge in uh,
the United Kingdom with Nigel fara.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Right, the reform parties. This all goes back to Brexit.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
So yeah, but these guys are using Brexit as a
stepping stone to win your power.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah. Yeah, So the Brexit referendum happened, I think I
believe it about a decade ago. Yeah. It essentially allowed
the UK to leave the EU. There was complaints that
they were getting unfair deal, that the EU was taking
advantage of them, and they couldn't control the big thing.
They couldn't control their borders. That was the big thing.
And we're seeing in all these European elections it all
(31:20):
comes down to immigration. We're essentially we can't control our borders.
We have restrictions. That's affecting our welfare states. They're saying
it's affecting the long term their long term pension benefits
and that they wouldn't have much stricter because remember up
till basically a few decades ago, these countries were essentially
(31:40):
ethno states. You're talking about the UK outside of London
was all British, Germany outside and let's say Berlin was
all Germans. So they have very big demographic transformations and
their policies are season.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Look when I first heard a Indian from Europe with
an accent, you know, was stabilizing. You weren't used to
seeing a British mouth with an accent. Same you see
a French immigrant from Africa speaking French. So you hammered
on two things. And this is what is actually I
(32:13):
think attributed to Trump's success, the immigration issue and the
demographic change. All Right, there's more people coming into the country,
although I don't think anybody's coming in now, and you
have which may catch up with us later when we
need labor. But all these countries throughout Europe that are
moving to the right, Immigration is the key.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's the issue. So I think what happened is Denmark
and Australia. I'm gonna use these two examples. They both
enacted the left wing parties enacted much stricter immigration policies,
essentially saying we're going to calf a number, we're gonna
create a points system where the people coming in have
to pay a certain amountain taxes to be let in,
and they've been able to hold on to power. As
(32:55):
like center left parties. Australia has their own thing, and
that's because they have sort of credibility on the security
and the control area where they suchially can still have immigration,
but they don't. They're not incredible where I think these
other left wing parties they're incredible.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
They have no security implementations, they have no regulations on
welfare and tax benefits, and people don't take them seriously,
so that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, they're going to have to move to the right
on this in order to survive. I think that the
difference is immigration issues in Europe are a little more
profound and destabilizing because the people, like this example, the
Turks coming to Germany don't want to integrate. You know,
when people come to America, they want to assimilate they
(33:39):
want to be American, you know. When you know you
get immigrants from a foreign country, you know, and they
want to maintain their customs it and you should be
able to maintain some of your identity. But there just
seems to be full on immersion in America, whereas in
the other countries it's like, no, thanks for letting us in.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I always wonder if that's because American culture so strong,
the TV shows, the music, just the sports environment where
it's actually easy to kind of latch onto some part
of that. And with these other countries, their cultures is
so I would say, born from their ethno their ethnic backgrounds,
it's harder to come in. But you see others. London
(34:19):
one is a very good example of lots of people
from lots of different countries coming in, very involved.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But as pointing out, a lot of these countries are
having an immigration problem from people coming from countries they
once colonized.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That's one hundred percent sure, ye, So.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
You know they're coming in with kind of an appetite.
You know, remember us, you took all our minerals, our oil,
and married our queen. So last thought before we go
to break is this in Europe where immigration is the
cornerstone issue. It's moving conservative folks. Clearly has been a
really game changer for Trump. But in Europe and people
(34:58):
you know are complaining about Trump his position on NATO.
Isn't this a sign that a lot of European countries
are Probably these guys are also running against NATO that
are winning. They're running on immigration and they're running against NATO.
So I think you're going to see a changing of
the guard. We need to take a break. This is
Eric Epstein. I'm with Millennial Brian Warrock to Capitol. The
show is Thunderdome and we're being produced by Art Selby
(35:21):
the First So I get up every morning and I
have pre recorded the sound of the Los Angeles Lakers
when they enter the forum. Oh yeah, it just gets
me off on the good. But so I just wanted
to before we because we really need to spend some
time on a Memorial Day. It's a not just a
(35:42):
three day holiday. It's important. I just wanted to say quietly,
you know, mister Trump has dialed down criticism of Canada
and Mexico, but Mexico has assassinated some of their most
premier drug dealers, a guy named El Mencho in February.
That was interesting because they wounded him and apparently he
died on the way to the airport or the hospital.
(36:03):
R they got. Yeah, but that ignited like a civil
war in twenty of the thirty two of the Mexican states.
Twenty of the states erupted and they just kept killing.
I'm not yeah, but what I'm saying is I want
you to respond. But also respond is Trump. I don't
want to say he's going to take credit, but he
(36:25):
probably provided a platform. It's like, look, if you can
go capture the guy from Venezuela, we can start knocking
out these guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
So I think, and this goes back, there's two CIA
efforts that got killed. Actually, that's right, Yeah, doing operations.
I think the president of Mexico and Trump. Part of
it is because of the trade deal. That's very you know,
Mexico depends on essentially American market access and also with
their own country. You know, the cartels are very powerful.
(36:55):
They are not popular though, and so even though she's
maybe doesn't agree with everything, taking out cartel members is
still popular among them. In the Mexican e actuates. The
worry is always the blowback, which is can you deal
with you know, when they killed almenshow when they killed
(37:16):
not Chopo's son or they arrested them, you had huge blockades,
so said, they blockade all the major streets in the city.
They go to the police officers, their family, let's say, suburbs,
and threatening. I mean they we're talking about very very.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Powerful people, are gonna kidnap and retality, They're gonna murder
at some point, though you have to stand up to them.
But my question to you is based on the Venezuela
experience and based on the Mexican experience. When is the
time when I can't imagine that organized crime in America?
(37:50):
Gangs in America, you know, they control geography. Do you
see a time where we send troops in to start
killing American criminals.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
In like Chicago. I don't. I don't think so. I
think there'd be too much of a blowback. I think
because but.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I'm saying, there would be blowbacks from the public. But
they're okay if we do it in other countries.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yes, they're absolutely okay. And also because the car let's say,
let's let's say for example, Chicago, the gangs in Chicago
don't control the mayor. They don't control the police chief.
I mean for people to understand when you have you
have small states in Mexico where the eighty percent of
the economy is the cartel economy, so they control the
police officers, they control the mayor. I mean, the ZETA
(38:30):
is very famously in the I three five corridor killed
the mayor, hung them from a bridge, had a banner
and then reported They reported on the local news. And
so we're talking about super powerful gangs or even let's
say areas of the country where the gangs are more
prevalent or there's difficulties to deal with them, they don't
have that type of power. So I don't think you'd
have the same level I think about the FBI.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I'm not saying it's the same level. You're right, they're
basically a shadow government. Yeah, and they control infrastructure, and they,
you know, different than Middle Eastern terrorist organization that provide
medicine education. There's some favorable fallout to it. But I
mean there are areas in American cities that are controlled
by gangs. Y. But I mean it's I'm not condoning it,
(39:18):
but I think it's an interesting thought.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, Well, I think listen, we had there's there's there's listen,
there's huge benefits to essentially enforcement of repeat violent offenders.
To basically see, every city where the the indictment rate
for repeat violent offenders go was up, crime goes down.
That's like one of the most I guess the problem
is that you can't have a police state where you have,
(39:42):
you know, essentially block for block, you don't have you know,
you have police everywhere. I don't think people would accept.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
That before we move on to Memorial they just make
this point. There are Europeans that don't travel to America
on vacation because they don't think part of the vacation
experience should be being raped in murder. Now there's places
where Americans don't go for the same reason, for the
same So I want to get to Memorial Day because
(40:11):
it's always important to recognize military personnel who died for
their country, and that is the main tenet of Memorial Day.
If you remember, I think we did this last year.
It used to be Decoration Day. It was a post
Civil War tradition where citizens put flowers on the grave
(40:33):
of folks who pass. This is interesting. The appropriate greeting
is not happy Memorial Day, it's better to express gratitude
for the people who served.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And that's so on Veterans Day is reversed. So Veterans
is also is for living and deceased military personnel. That
started started around Armistice Day, so that's when the end
of World War One is commemorated.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And by the way, I think the World War Ones bart,
you can grant me from among I think it was
eleven eleven eleven, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Yeah, so it was, and uh, it's also separated. Is
celebrated in Europe. It has different names. It was same
it with the same day, whereas I think Memorial Day
is only celebrated in the United States because it's actually
it's a direct line from the Civil War.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
There is a different experience. You know, the last two
wars took place in Europe in Asia. It didn't happen here.
Civil War actually and obviously took place here. I think
there has been a resurgent appreciation for the military. At
the same time, there has been a resurgent opposition to
(41:49):
American troops being sent to foreign.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yes, I think the most popular policy and you see
it basically in every presidential campaign on different levels, which
is bring the troops.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Home, no more wars.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
He's not with Trump, It's all with Obama. You saw it,
you know, Kamala Harris came out. Basically everyone wants to
say we should pull back, but then we always just
sometimes for you know, extinuating circumstances get pulled back in.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
So we get it. We react emotionally. Look to me,
the cornerstone issue is when veterans come back and they're
wounded or need emotional healthcare. It shouldn't be the way
it is where it's difficult to get healthcare or different
difficult to get mental health counseling. So you know, obviously
we need to improve that facet of our government. You know.
(42:40):
But what I find striking now, and we've talked about
this before, is bigger is not better anymore. It's an
asymmetrical war in Ukraine. I mean, Ukraine has stifled the
Russian navy with drones.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, well listen, we were seeing that. Now drone warfare
is completely changed and AI is going to expand that
a lot. Because you can produce cheap drones. You can
essentially create a call like death zones orre essentially any
infantry tanks, anything that tries to move forward to take
land is essentially immediately taken out with drones. And the
most effective way to get around that is not through
more infantry or more tanks, it's through essentially anti drone
(43:18):
defenses like radar disruption, where essentially all the drones are
an area will just get turned off and fall down,
and then you can move and take land. So I
think what's gonna happen is any taking and holding land,
it's gonna become much much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
I've always said, when you invade a country and they
don't want you to come in, you can win for
a period a week or year, ten years, maybe more,
but there's gonna be always gonna be resistance. And so
you see with Ukraine where that war is probably at
a stalemate, Russians have what a million casualties.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
A million dead or wounded. So we're talking, yeah, it's
just huge, like almost u imaginable numbers and people, if
you don't know, we're talking about a few thousand in Afghanistan,
a few thousand American troops in Iraq, obviously horrible numbers
in Iran, the most recent war, we're talking about twelve
combat dests. I think seventeen. Overall, we're like, just the
numbers are just huge. And then but even in the
(44:12):
IRA situation, or was Iran using using just shine down
the straight that's threatening oil infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
But there, I mean, the world has changed and you
know there's not going to be American casualties. But with
you don't have a ground force in place, the outcome
may be in jeopardy. Was that j Hey, Jase, how
you doing? Man? Are we got what we got? Two minutes?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
About a minute and a half?
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Well, anything you want to share with the several hundred
million people listening.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Jac says, Hi, there you go.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Well that's it. I mean that's a cop out. But okay, uh, Brian,
I know you're gonna watch playoffs listen.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
I think the playoffs have been good people. People were
very down in the NBA regular season because there's a
lot of tanking and stuff like that. NHL, NBA innational
players have delivered.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Nobody saw the New York Knicks.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
I mean there was a switch.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
They're beating everybody. I watched one game and they were
up by fifty. They should have a mercy rule for adults,
or you should be able as a fan, you know,
to just you know, no one was the electric shot.
All right, Look, folks, it is Memorial Day holiday. As always,
please don't drink and drive. I'm certain that there's gonna
(45:25):
be a lot of traffic oversight and place. It's rainy,
it's nasty. Stay home and listen to reruns of Rocky Capital.
You've got several years worth that would be productive art.
Have a great weekend. Please tell your wife your lovely life.
We said hi and catch you two weeks. Y'all,
Well welcome. We should have a really good audience today.
I love it when the weather man says the weather's miserable.
Why don't you just stop there? I mean, it's not great.
First time I can remember in May where I think
my toes almost froze. We are Rock the Capital. We're
a good government, anti corruption organization. We do not take sides,
(00:24):
we take aim. We were founded in twenty twenty five.
Please visit our website by typing Rock the Capital into
your search engine. It just seems early for Memorial's Day?
What it May twenty third.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
May twenty third, I guess, I mean what sort of
as far as starts with the end of the school year. Yeah,
and then Labor Day is kind of like the beginning
of the school I know, it doesn't exactly line up.
This score sort of a few weeks before or.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
After last Monday, I believe in May. Yeah, and it's
interesting what days the governor the government decides to make
a three day weekend. Yeah. I mean, I think if
we did this to Christmas, people would be out of
their mind, you know. Make it said of December twenty fifth,
(01:11):
December twenty third. Yeah, there's some things you can't negotiate.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah, that's like a locked and day and you always
bring up the one we need is the super Bowl.
Oh yeah, yeah, we need the super Bowl. No one,
no one that Monday's doing anything.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, it's so in art. Feel free to chirp in here.
But I never minded football and Thanksgiving. That made sense.
It was part of a tradition. But it doesn't work
for me. Football and basketball on Christmas, it doesn't seem right.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Eagles Cowboys on Thanksgiving. I can live without that. Yeah,
I just don't need that. You're trying to be in
a happy mood and it's like Eagles Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, yeah, it's fifty. It's better when the games have
no meaning, which is normally what they are.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Now it's changed because Detroit got really good and so
that used to be just a throwaway game. And then
the Cowboys. The Cowboys. Cowboys are always interesting even if
they're not good, because it's just there.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
They they're a draw. But I think on a weekend,
like so Thanksgiving normally Wednesdays, the heavy travel people take
off Thursday and Friday. It used to be Bucks season
started Monday, but it's now on the weekends, right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yes, so it's it's a Saturday opener. Yeah, so essentially
they have to so it starts, so it starts so Thursday, Friday,
Saturday's at open. So people always when you go to
these meetings, people can plain. They say, basically, have to
cut Thanksgiving short to get out there because that first
weekends when you get all the good bucks and stuff
like that. And that's what they say. Obviously, you know,
(02:35):
different is different issues for different parts of I think
they're trying art.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Did you hunt growing up?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I did not know?
Speaker 1 (02:43):
Okay, neither did I? What about you? I did not?
I did not.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
But I think what they're trying to do is are
trying to bring in younger people.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
So they're trying to grow the industry. There's still a
lot of buck out there. But what I was going
to say, the only holiday I think that doesn't have
a distinct sporting event as far as I know, is
July fourth. I mean it's maybe Wimbledon is on.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Wasn't it Baseball? Isn't baseball like on the whole time?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, yeah, they had baseball on the whole day.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, but baseball, I guess it was baseball. Yeah, Baseball's
on it every day all the time. It seems like
when they get the season going, so it's justn't the same.
But listen, the reason why I do that is because
you know, everyone's home. Everyone's home, they want to watch
they don't want to, you know, talk with their families.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
It was supposed to be everybody was home, but they
were outside. They weren't inside. You know, these are holidays
where people used to go out. So I checked the
price of gas for Pennsylvania. We're at average four point
fifty six. It was three eighteen last year. But I
saw another nugget of information that was really interesting. Fatalities
(03:47):
automotive automobile fatalities apparently at one of the lowest rates ever.
But that doesn't track with bicyclists.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yes, so essentially what was happening, So with gas.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
High, more people driving bikes and more people, I guess
there's more fatalities because you see the more bicycles out there.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, so I think what's happening is biking is becoming
more popular and it's getting more integrated into the roads,
and so you're just going to have because we're not
we're less used to driving with cyclists. It's not like Europe.
We're gonna have those. But on the car side, I
actually think it's because of the safety features and all
these new cars, yeah, sort of beepers and blinkers and
like automatic stopp features, which is actually making it safer,
(04:30):
because I don't think the drivings improved.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I think it's some so are There's not many people
coming over the mountain on a bicycle, is there?
Speaker 3 (04:39):
I haven't seen any now.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, so I think in some areas it's bicing has increased,
and I think, you know, there's been an effort to
trying to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians, but uh, it just
doesn't work in some spots.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
I mean, well, we know, going into Harrisburg, they took
away essentially a lane to add for bicycles and walking.
I'm not saying that's a bad idea in principle. You know,
when you're going in, you're like, we need an extra lane.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Well, we also need a rickshaw lane. You know, we
need so people that want to walk and you know,
make some money. So I just threw this in here
for my own edification. I'm not really sure what El
Nino is, but why is the next al Nino supposed
to be? Uh?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So Onino is actually it's a phenomenon. We're essentially warmer
than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern
tropical Pacific Ocean changes the way weather patterns normally move.
And this this happened a few years ago actually in
Texas with the big freeze. We're essentially the winner in
the northern part of North America was actually much milder
(05:46):
than usual, but that it got way worse in Texas
and they don't have the you know, climbate infrastructure or
weatherization of all their their energy grid went down. It
also increases the severity of hurricanes and stuff like that,
and so tropical.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
How would you know anymore? Every storm seems like supercharged.
Every storm seems like a McDonald's supersize. You know, there's
nothing's ever mellow.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's I mean, that's that's just the media environment where
everything's twenty four to seven and they and now weather
channels want to like cut through the main stream. When
can the weather channel cut through the mainstream? Is when
every you know, every hurricane is a five you know,
a five degree hurricane.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Well, but it's almost rooting for bad weather because the
weather station is twenty four to seven and you're not
going to cover a nice day. That's the weather station
has become like the news. It's about bad things.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Now that everything's about like kind of clicks and cutting through.
That's what they look for, they look for. It's it's
kind of like John Stewart had a great line about
you know, the best time for CNN is nine to eleven.
Maybe not for then the country obviously, but that's when
you tune in for that breaking news.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
We talked about this with Ted Turner's death, the Iraq
War really mess right, CNN. We were glued to the TV,
all right. So we're in the air Brian's segment if
you haven't noticed, And I forgot to also tell the
viewers that this is a thunderdome, this name of the show, WHP,
(07:11):
and we are rock to Capitol. So I don't know
why this didn't get a lot of media, But explain
to me how this guy, the Supreme Court of South
Carolina unanimously overturned the double murder convictions and the life
sentences of Alex Murdoch. Murdoch, the disgraced former prosecutor and
lawyer who killed his wife and his son. What I
(07:35):
mean it was you know, unanimous, so there must have
been a good decision. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So in this case, they I mean they threw it out.
So they threw the twenty twenty three guilty verdicts. It
was based on bias instructions. He'll allegedly told jurors to
watch the body language who.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Told him the judge.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
I don't think it was No, it was the warrior.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
So the warrior.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
So there's financial motivation. The defense argued that he'll pressure
the jury for a quick guilty verdict to drive up
sales for his book. And then there was a civil lawsuit.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
This is the prosecutor. Yeah, so this is the he's
writing a book before the case, before they've been sentenced.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Yes, so the yes, So the South Carolina Attorney General
announced that it's good. Yes, so they're gonna have a
retrial for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdeaux. They Murdoch,
I'm sorry. And then and then they wanted to seek
the death penalty. And apparently they're using this essentially as
(08:45):
a campaign, so essentially to run a campaign to have
Bene the next attorney general order. This happened before with
the Ducal Cross case. Remember the Ducal Cross case. Accused
yes and so, And it wasn't until there was physical
evidence and then such a video of the at M
where they suchially were able to.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It was clear when after it was all put together.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Right, and and so it looks like it's the same
thing where essentially there was someone who wanted to run
a campaign on this. It was a high profile case
of South Carolina. They're going to use it to essuchually
fund their primary run and their book. Their booksells well.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
But but I mean the difference is, and I shouldn't
say this, but he looks guilty by everything I've seen
in her. So in a case like this, does he
get out until the next.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Case there's going to be a retrial, yeses so yes,
so he's going to be Oh.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I'd be going to an island in the Caribbean. Yeah,
I mean there's one I know for sale. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
But just because it was biased doesn't necessarily mean he's
innocent either. So so I think if you just look
at the case, there was pressure and it was I
guess if you're going to have the judicial process, it
was misrun.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah, including by the court course, so the core courk Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Just given the injury, false information.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And well that's just stupid.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Yeah, I mean, that's not even the warrior at that point.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
That's yeah, well before we go to break. So this
is another idea I have. When you have a high
profile criminal like this, you take their passport, they get
around it. So yeah, you know, cases like that, you
should just chop off a foot and then you know
they're not going anywhere, right, they stay in place. Eric
eppsteined with Millennial Brian the name of the show, it's underdone.
We're Rock the Capital. We're being produced by Art Selby,
(10:27):
and we'll be back in just a moment, all right.
So Brian cautioned me that I shouldn't say that folks
are guilty based on what we now have DNA tracking.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, so if you look at cases in the past,
you know, because of DNA evidence, we were basically being
able to find out that lots of people that we've
resumed were guilty in the past are now innocent. Of course,
you know, you don't want to say the reverse or
pretend like none of these people beforehand were obviously lots
of them were guilty.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
I just believe in the old adage give them a
fair trial, then hang them. So one of the things
I wanted to get to was, is this interesting up
ed I read on China before that though, there is
a apparently an old joke that says the US is
a very fortunate country because everywhere it goes to bring freedom,
(11:23):
it finds oil.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
In fairness though in fairness to the US sometimes, you know,
if you think about the Middle East, I think about
other countries, a lot of the technoledge they used to
discover their oil was invented by the US, and they
become rich. I mean UAE, Saudi Arabia, the idea of that,
you know, they haven't benefited from their oil. I mean
Saudi Arabia. They're diversifying now, but they used to have
eighty percent of their government revenue come from oil.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Yeah, and you've got to be careful. I mean when
it comes to solar. Clearly this administration is hostile to
solar and win. But the most populous and fastest growing
state economy, which is California, gets two thirds two thirds
of its energy from renewables, wind and solar. In Texas
(12:08):
is a huge and then that's that's in the heart
of oil world. So I just wanted to make up
a couple of points here. One is that apparently the
continent that's most friendly to solar is Africa, and China
exports to Africa search last month eighty three percent, and
(12:30):
so apparently what we're seeing is that the Chinese are
also now betting on the African market for energy development.
So it's not like Russia and China going to take minerals.
This is interesting to me because now you basically are
given a continent a way to generate energy.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Yeah, and that's this is gonna sorry, So there's there's
two gonna be two accelerations. One is going to be
domestic oil, gas and coal production of the tutritional fossil
fuels simply because the Middle East right now is in
essentially a standoff where they can't export anywhere near the
pre war levels. And then it's gonna be a switch.
So it's gonna be switched to renewables expansion. And with
(13:10):
obviously solar over the past twenty years has gone from
a subsidy needed industry to now it's meeting market rates.
And the essentially the limiting factor is not that they
can't meet market rates, it's transmission. And then storage, and
so can we get the batteries to store the energy
when the sun doesn't shine? And can you get to
areas essentially where let's say the energy is in Arizona,
(13:32):
could you transmit it to Michigan. And so when you
look at Africa, you know only a small you can
essentially you would argue power the entire continent with so
war the question is those two. Can't do you the
infrastructure to transmit it to every part of the continent?
And then do you have the storage when even when
no Africa obviously is you know, it's not like Canada,
(13:53):
where it's much harder to get solar. You still have
to store it when the sun doesn't shine or where
you can't get that energy.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
I mean, it's also that's the key for them industrializing
as a continent and moving from a agriculture based economy.
But the transmission issue has been stifled willingly, willfully rather
by the grid operators because they prefer, you know, yeah,
twenty four to seven. So the key and renewables do fine,
(14:25):
they're not twenty four to seven. Actually nothing is. The
key is going to be a problem that I think
has been solved. I think large scale battery storage is
now a fact a life.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Well it's coming and that is the key. So essentially,
if you think about the limiting factor, if you go
it went from originally which was the marginal cost, which
is why you need subsidies. Now it's a combination of
transmission and battery life. Once the battery life gets better
or large scale battery life gets better, then it's all
gonna be transmission and then the grid operators should if
(14:55):
even in a free market sense, want to bring them
on because you're right right now, you know, what do
you do when the sun doesn't shine? Type of problems?
They have to switch to essentially gas, But.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
It doesn't mean when the sun is always essentially shining
except at night, so the sun is getting through. I mean,
I think there's a misnomer. But you know, going back
to Africa, you have six hundred million people on that
continent that don't have electricity. So if you are able
to empower folks in a remote area where that could
(15:26):
be an issue to do, you know, rooftop solar folks
are Now there's a new solar that's actually doing well,
Balcony Solar. So I mean the options are there that
you have a mindset that's still fossil fuel based. And
let's be honest, oil is with with chemicals, pesticide, fastics.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it's not just your gassing away. But I think
what's going to happen is this is if you can
essentially have a higher percentage of energy onto renewables, different
you can, the oil price will come down because right now,
I mean we're seeing it right now, we have a
supply shock, the demand's still going up. There's you know,
you're not going to get rid of plus. If you
essentially expand all your energy of production fossil fuel and
(16:11):
renewable included, you're going to see those prices come down
and lower prices and energy is the best kind of
tax cut. It's essentially a tax cut. We wouldn't lose
any revenue, but you've gained all the consumption producer surplus.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
It's maybe a tax cut, but higher prices are research bonanza.
You know, you're not going to go out if you're
an oil corporation and do exploration and innovate technology when
you're losing money. So you know, for politicians in America,
the gas of price of gas being this high as treacherous.
(16:47):
Let me just ask you a question. Though. If the
price of gas was this much and Joe Biden was president,
I think the country would be out of their mind.
Well they were.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
Remember for a short period in inflation got noticedly above ages.
Gas was I think a little bit below this, but
not you know, too much, and that that that's signfically
hurt him. He's look at the approval ratings basically from
that point on. I think it was the Afghanistan withdrawal
and then when inflation went out, he never recovered from that.
(17:18):
He never recovered. We'll see what happens in the midterms.
But the price of gas, because it doesn't just hit
you at the puppet, hits you essentially at the supermarket
every single That's why whenever you see a country developed,
the most the most basic building block is cheap and
reliable energy. That's what I mean, That's what China works on,
when that's what India is trying to do. That's what
we'll see what Africa. That's the key.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, on the Afghan uh departure was a debacle. You know,
there's no way to justify that. However, President Trump could
a deal with the Taliban, and if you think that's
a good party to sit down with that.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I wonder with the withdrawal though obviously it was handled poorly,
but if we were, let's say, still there, would people
will be happy. I almost felt like it got this
is kind of like low attention but very unpopular take,
which is I think most people said, why are we there?
The goal was to get rid of essentially been a
lot in the terror that's done.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
Is it just to build? You know?
Speaker 2 (18:13):
Especially it's it became almost like like a policing job.
I think most people would even now, I mean, what's
the most Iran is going to be the most unpopular
part of the Trump administration's policy because people are gonna
said it.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
But do we have to be there Afghanistan? Nobody complained
that we broke a taboo and sat down and negotiated
with terrorists, And at the time for Trump, it was
consistent with him no more forever wars, right, And I
think that's what people saw. There's it's really never Look,
I don't you probably saw the images in Vietnam when
we were, you know, leaving the well, pushing our fighter
(18:48):
jets off of carriers. I mean that's not a good
image either. But look, I want to get back to Africa.
The point for me here is this, and this is interesting.
There is a huge mineral rush, whether Greenland or the
continent of Africa. Yeah, so even if the you know,
if these countries get six hundred million people, if they
get electricity, how does this change It changes their way
(19:11):
of life, but how does it change the political outlook?
You know, now you have a citizens, communities, nations that
don't need certain minerals.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, I mean, I think for Africa the question, I
think the guy did what the Middle East did on
their oil, so UAE, for example, didn't look at oilized.
This is our business. It's like, this is our foundation
to build the money and investment to expand to other
areas because essentially you need to expand infrastructure, education, and
then market access is the big thing. It's like, can
(19:43):
they create essentially from this their own companies, their own economy.
When you don't have that market access, you're subsidy dependent
and you're also dependent on these deals. Which listen, whether
it's China, Russia, United States, or Europe, you're not it's
not getting to the point where people were are developing
consumer income, which is which is the big jump. You
have to have to get out of.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
That, but you have, it goes back to China. They
have a monopoly on rare earth minerals. They're they're way
ahead of everybody on electric cars.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
And on a refinement of those minerals. So even if
you have the minerals, you still have to send to
China to refined.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, but I think it goes to show in America
has demonstrated unfortunately, you can never be totally. You're always
going to be dependent not just the supply chain, but
one component. So what six hundred million people without electric Yeah, yeah,
it's a lot. So that's basically America's population times too.
(20:40):
But I guess what I was trying to lead you to,
and maybe I'm incorrect, is if those people have electricity,
do you think it creates a more stable uh society?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, yeah, so you would assume because economic development obviously
leads to, you know, all the better outcomes political stability,
social economics on the individual level, and then upward mobility,
and then you can and then the debate becomes how
much we invest in let's say education, infrastructure, and then
how much should we invest in essentially the private sector enterprises.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That's right in hand in hand with that, the Trump
administration is cut off foreign aid to some of these countries.
That's true, and that my worry is that China looks
like a more attractive partner. Yeah, in China, unlike Russian
and America, really has no experience with foreign military presence.
That's unlikely to occur. But everything is changing so rapidly.
(21:40):
And the irony is oil really I think sunk forward
in some degrees. It's some carter. The first thing, one
of the first things Reagan did is he took the
solar panels off the White House. And whether that's right
or wrong, I think there needs to be a recognition
that we're going to be a fossil fuel dependent society.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah for a while, even just with the plastics, the petrochemicals,
other stuff, not just filling up your car. I think
the argument is for energy, especially as we want energy
consumption to go up, is that you can't You can't
sell green and then tell people we just got to
use less, you got to have a smaller house. People
won't buy into that, so I think you have to
(22:21):
You have to sell and, like all in above, an
energy approach which is reliable and cheap reliable and cheap.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
Look when Carter and and then we'll break with this.
Carter asked people to turn down their thermostatus, wear sweaters
and go fifty five. People lost their mind going fifty five.
I mean there's even a I forget the name of
the song, I can't drive. Going fifty five just doesn't happen.
So look, I'm americaps down them in with Mallennial. Brian.
(22:48):
We'rerock to Capitol. The show is Thunderdome and we are
being produced by the latest Hall of Fame inductee Art Selby.
So before I forget Brian, either one of you have
Memorial Day plans? No, I mean, I mean because I've
(23:08):
asked you what your plans are for the last several years,
and it's always watching the playoffs? Art, are you going
to do something other than watching the playoffs?
Speaker 3 (23:17):
Visit my parents and I'm gonna try kayak kayaking?
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Oh where you gonna kayak?
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Probably up in Newport at Little Buffalo.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, that's it's nice up there. How's your dad feeling,
I know he had some hard issues.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
He's doing pretty good. Last year at this Tommy was
a little in a rough state, But this year is
doing good.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Yeah, all right. Well, I don't ask myself what I'm
doing on Memorial Day because I do the same thing
I do every Memorial Day, and that's wait till the
end of the Indianapolis five hundred. See if there's any accidents.
I shouldn't say that, because there was a tragic death of.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
A racecar driver recently. Yeah Bush, Michael Bush.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, I think it was They said sepsis.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Or that's not an actual I think the last big
one I wasn't alive was Earnhardt.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Actually, if you go back a couple of years, there
was a guy killed in a sprint car race I think,
who had walked onto the track and he was hit
by a famous driver. He was he was, he was
on I mean, he basically was on the track and
got hit while I was trying to exit. I don't art.
Do you remember that? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Yeah, So it seems kind of insane that you would
you're at a race car track and you run right
on the place.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
No, no, no, no. I think he was just trying to
get off. I think he had crashed. I mean, it's
look you have, it's dangerous to cars. I mean they
oh yeah, said the one build up that they go
two hundred and thirty miles an hour.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, even in F one, which is a different type
of race. They made a movie about the fact that
every year it was something like back in the seventies
and eighties, like one or two drivers would die on
the circuit. And these are obviously the best drivers.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, those those Formula one zone Man, when they go
they get torch. I remember growing up, we used to
have Golly, I can't think of it now. It was
those figure eight things, yes, and it was demolition derby,
so you couldn't help but getting hit. Yeah, yeah, look
the thing that caught me. I don't know if you
(25:16):
I don't want I'm not being disparaging of our sponsors,
but it was so fast at the end of that
commercial and that you said again, first of all, if
you're deaf, you're screwed. If you're definite gamble, you're gonna
be broke. But who that I mean? Honestly, if you
want to get the one eight hundred number, you'd have
to listen to the radio for about three weeks, you know.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I think was I think it's it all goes back
to that South Park skit where they're talking, they're talking
about alcohol, and it's like, you know what the end
of the every alcohol commercial they have to say respond
to you to drink responsibly. But the whole commercial is
basically like alcohol is awesome, party stuff like that, And
that shows we're switching to eight. I would say, especially
from a tax space perspective, a syntax man, you can
(25:59):
always raise out call taxes. You can always raise cigarette taxes.
You raise gambling taxes. It's hard to raise.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Do you think I don't smoke anymore? I used to.
I like camels. I started with camel non filters, and
what I tell people, if you have a camel non
filter and a cup of black coffee in the morning,
you'll never be constipated. You know there there will always
be movement. But what I'm saying is when do you
get to the point with tobacco, Because I've seen people
(26:26):
that still smoke. They go to generic brand or they
start rolling their own. But I mean it seems to
be I think.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I think with the the syntaxes, the argument is you
have in elastic demand. People are going to have to smoke.
They will pay whatever, and so they'll go and go, go.
And with with other products, you have essentially last of demand,
which is if you put the taxes too high and
let's say clothes, people will just not go to cheaper option.
Or I mean we see it with states. They'll drive,
(26:57):
They'll drive from west of New York to New Jersey
where there's no sales tax, to drive from Washington to
Oregon because where.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
There's so that Again, by the way, there was an
article in the Inquirer about a week ago saying it
was called the love of gas. Some uh, you know,
relationships are breaking up because it's too expensive. It's like
this is easily resolved. You know, put your girlfriend in
a cannon, blast her over and then bring her back.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
So you're always ahead of these saving relationships right now, that's.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
We should be calling me the profit. So just one
thing is with tobacco, alcohol, uh, marijuana, gaming, these are
mostly behaviors that are viewed not encouraged, but yet we
need growth in those sectors in order to fill the budgets.
(27:49):
I mean, the gaming revenue, especially the revenue on the
internet is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Well it changed. You used to have essentially only really
you have to you have to go to get the
vegas to gamble. Then you have to be able to
go if you gambling was leaning in your state to
a casino. Now it's just on your phone, it's right there.
And so it's just everything becomes so much more accessible.
Kind of the barriers entry, the national bearers entry, you know,
cut people out limited stuff. And so the question is
(28:17):
do we have to bring some of those barriers back?
Speaker 1 (28:19):
Well, I would say yes. But also if Pete Rose
was alive, I think you'd have a good lawsuit.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Oh my god, he's got the fact that they you know,
before it was like oh so taboo Mickey manno and uh,
I forget the other got essentially banned from Major League
be it's not bamed.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
But so they were with greeters at casinos. Unless they stopped,
they would have been banned.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yeah, And so I think and now it's like now
you have gambling TV sites, we're essentially on you watch
the game on the site. They have live odds going.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, if you look at some of the race car
drivers and who sponsors it, you know we're the next
step is on the lapel will be you know, napalm,
you know Agent Orange.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
There was there was a joke about politicians where they're
like they should be like NASCAR drivers where they have
to put all their biggest donors on on their like outfit.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Well that I think that might work for Federman. He's
the only one casually dressed. So we've talked about this before.
But what's really interesting is post World War II Europe
had basically been run by either Christian Democrats, which were
centered right, or Liberal Democrats, which were center left. That
(29:31):
and that is about to be blown out of the water.
You have Germany where the far right party is now
the majority party has twenty.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Well yeah, so it's polling at twenty eight percent. Now,
Germany has a PR system, so essentially, if you'll get
all the other parties combines, PR me so essentially it's
proportional representation.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Yeah, because I see a lot of people would have
gone with public relations.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
So essentially they have like six parties, five or six parties.
They have two major parties, but essentially you get a proportion,
so you're gonna get basically a quarter of the MPs
or the parliamentarians are gonna be from the a f D.
But because all the other parties combined to have more,
they can form a coalition to keep these people out
(30:18):
of power. Now that's different at the state level. Essentially,
they're you know, they're let's say Byron, the Byron area
or the different states. But but they're gonna have influence.
They're gonna win mayor, they're gonna win those local elections.
So there's gonna be more influence and eventually I think
it's gonna have as the Christian Democrats are gonna make
(30:39):
a deal with the a f D essentially for me
center right coalition.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
So using that as example, you have the surge in uh,
the United Kingdom with Nigel fara.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Right, the reform parties. This all goes back to Brexit.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
So yeah, but these guys are using Brexit as a
stepping stone to win your power.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Yeah. Yeah, So the Brexit referendum happened, I think I
believe it about a decade ago. Yeah. It essentially allowed
the UK to leave the EU. There was complaints that
they were getting unfair deal, that the EU was taking
advantage of them, and they couldn't control the big thing.
They couldn't control their borders. That was the big thing.
And we're seeing in all these European elections it all
(31:20):
comes down to immigration. We're essentially we can't control our borders.
We have restrictions. That's affecting our welfare states. They're saying
it's affecting the long term their long term pension benefits
and that they wouldn't have much stricter because remember up
till basically a few decades ago, these countries were essentially
(31:40):
ethno states. You're talking about the UK outside of London
was all British, Germany outside and let's say Berlin was
all Germans. So they have very big demographic transformations and
their policies are season.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Look when I first heard a Indian from Europe with
an accent, you know, was stabilizing. You weren't used to
seeing a British mouth with an accent. Same you see
a French immigrant from Africa speaking French. So you hammered
on two things. And this is what is actually I
(32:13):
think attributed to Trump's success, the immigration issue and the
demographic change. All Right, there's more people coming into the country,
although I don't think anybody's coming in now, and you
have which may catch up with us later when we
need labor. But all these countries throughout Europe that are
moving to the right, Immigration is the key.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
It's the issue. So I think what happened is Denmark
and Australia. I'm gonna use these two examples. They both
enacted the left wing parties enacted much stricter immigration policies,
essentially saying we're going to calf a number, we're gonna
create a points system where the people coming in have
to pay a certain amountain taxes to be let in,
and they've been able to hold on to power. As
(32:55):
like center left parties. Australia has their own thing, and
that's because they have sort of credibility on the security
and the control area where they suchially can still have immigration,
but they don't. They're not incredible where I think these
other left wing parties they're incredible.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
They have no security implementations, they have no regulations on
welfare and tax benefits, and people don't take them seriously,
so that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, they're going to have to move to the right
on this in order to survive. I think that the
difference is immigration issues in Europe are a little more
profound and destabilizing because the people, like this example, the
Turks coming to Germany don't want to integrate. You know,
when people come to America, they want to assimilate they
(33:39):
want to be American, you know. When you know you
get immigrants from a foreign country, you know, and they
want to maintain their customs it and you should be
able to maintain some of your identity. But there just
seems to be full on immersion in America, whereas in
the other countries it's like, no, thanks for letting us in.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
I always wonder if that's because American culture so strong,
the TV shows, the music, just the sports environment where
it's actually easy to kind of latch onto some part
of that. And with these other countries, their cultures is
so I would say, born from their ethno their ethnic backgrounds,
it's harder to come in. But you see others. London
(34:19):
one is a very good example of lots of people
from lots of different countries coming in, very involved.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But as pointing out, a lot of these countries are
having an immigration problem from people coming from countries they
once colonized.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
That's one hundred percent sure, ye, So.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
You know they're coming in with kind of an appetite.
You know, remember us, you took all our minerals, our oil,
and married our queen. So last thought before we go
to break is this in Europe where immigration is the
cornerstone issue. It's moving conservative folks. Clearly has been a
really game changer for Trump. But in Europe and people
(34:58):
you know are complaining about Trump his position on NATO.
Isn't this a sign that a lot of European countries
are Probably these guys are also running against NATO that
are winning. They're running on immigration and they're running against NATO.
So I think you're going to see a changing of
the guard. We need to take a break. This is
Eric Epstein. I'm with Millennial Brian Warrock to Capitol. The
show is Thunderdome and we're being produced by Art Selby
(35:21):
the First So I get up every morning and I
have pre recorded the sound of the Los Angeles Lakers
when they enter the forum. Oh yeah, it just gets
me off on the good. But so I just wanted
to before we because we really need to spend some
time on a Memorial Day. It's a not just a
(35:42):
three day holiday. It's important. I just wanted to say quietly,
you know, mister Trump has dialed down criticism of Canada
and Mexico, but Mexico has assassinated some of their most
premier drug dealers, a guy named El Mencho in February.
That was interesting because they wounded him and apparently he
died on the way to the airport or the hospital.
(36:03):
R they got. Yeah, but that ignited like a civil
war in twenty of the thirty two of the Mexican states.
Twenty of the states erupted and they just kept killing.
I'm not yeah, but what I'm saying is I want
you to respond. But also respond is Trump. I don't
want to say he's going to take credit, but he
(36:25):
probably provided a platform. It's like, look, if you can
go capture the guy from Venezuela, we can start knocking
out these guys. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
So I think, and this goes back, there's two CIA
efforts that got killed. Actually, that's right, Yeah, doing operations.
I think the president of Mexico and Trump. Part of
it is because of the trade deal. That's very you know,
Mexico depends on essentially American market access and also with
their own country. You know, the cartels are very powerful.
(36:55):
They are not popular though, and so even though she's
maybe doesn't agree with everything, taking out cartel members is
still popular among them. In the Mexican e actuates. The
worry is always the blowback, which is can you deal
with you know, when they killed almenshow when they killed
(37:16):
not Chopo's son or they arrested them, you had huge blockades,
so said, they blockade all the major streets in the city.
They go to the police officers, their family, let's say, suburbs,
and threatening. I mean they we're talking about very very.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Powerful people, are gonna kidnap and retality, They're gonna murder
at some point, though you have to stand up to them.
But my question to you is based on the Venezuela
experience and based on the Mexican experience. When is the
time when I can't imagine that organized crime in America?
(37:50):
Gangs in America, you know, they control geography. Do you
see a time where we send troops in to start
killing American criminals.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
In like Chicago. I don't. I don't think so. I
think there'd be too much of a blowback. I think
because but.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
I'm saying, there would be blowbacks from the public. But
they're okay if we do it in other countries.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yes, they're absolutely okay. And also because the car let's say,
let's let's say for example, Chicago, the gangs in Chicago
don't control the mayor. They don't control the police chief.
I mean for people to understand when you have you
have small states in Mexico where the eighty percent of
the economy is the cartel economy, so they control the
police officers, they control the mayor. I mean, the ZETA
(38:30):
is very famously in the I three five corridor killed
the mayor, hung them from a bridge, had a banner
and then reported They reported on the local news. And
so we're talking about super powerful gangs or even let's
say areas of the country where the gangs are more
prevalent or there's difficulties to deal with them, they don't
have that type of power. So I don't think you'd
have the same level I think about the FBI.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I'm not saying it's the same level. You're right, they're
basically a shadow government. Yeah, and they control infrastructure, and they,
you know, different than Middle Eastern terrorist organization that provide
medicine education. There's some favorable fallout to it. But I
mean there are areas in American cities that are controlled
by gangs. Y. But I mean it's I'm not condoning it,
(39:18):
but I think it's an interesting thought.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
Yeah, Well, I think listen, we had there's there's there's listen,
there's huge benefits to essentially enforcement of repeat violent offenders.
To basically see, every city where the the indictment rate
for repeat violent offenders go was up, crime goes down.
That's like one of the most I guess the problem
is that you can't have a police state where you have,
(39:42):
you know, essentially block for block, you don't have you know,
you have police everywhere. I don't think people would accept.
Speaker 1 (39:48):
That before we move on to Memorial they just make
this point. There are Europeans that don't travel to America
on vacation because they don't think part of the vacation
experience should be being raped in murder. Now there's places
where Americans don't go for the same reason, for the
same So I want to get to Memorial Day because
(40:11):
it's always important to recognize military personnel who died for
their country, and that is the main tenet of Memorial Day.
If you remember, I think we did this last year.
It used to be Decoration Day. It was a post
Civil War tradition where citizens put flowers on the grave
(40:33):
of folks who pass. This is interesting. The appropriate greeting
is not happy Memorial Day, it's better to express gratitude
for the people who served.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
And that's so on Veterans Day is reversed. So Veterans
is also is for living and deceased military personnel. That
started started around Armistice Day, so that's when the end
of World War One is commemorated.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
And by the way, I think the World War Ones bart,
you can grant me from among I think it was
eleven eleven eleven, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Yeah, so it was, and uh, it's also separated. Is
celebrated in Europe. It has different names. It was same
it with the same day, whereas I think Memorial Day
is only celebrated in the United States because it's actually
it's a direct line from the Civil War.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
There is a different experience. You know, the last two
wars took place in Europe in Asia. It didn't happen here.
Civil War actually and obviously took place here. I think
there has been a resurgent appreciation for the military. At
the same time, there has been a resurgent opposition to
(41:49):
American troops being sent to foreign.
Speaker 2 (41:52):
Yes, I think the most popular policy and you see
it basically in every presidential campaign on different levels, which
is bring the troops.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
Home, no more wars.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
He's not with Trump, It's all with Obama. You saw it,
you know, Kamala Harris came out. Basically everyone wants to
say we should pull back, but then we always just
sometimes for you know, extinuating circumstances get pulled back in.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
So we get it. We react emotionally. Look to me,
the cornerstone issue is when veterans come back and they're
wounded or need emotional healthcare. It shouldn't be the way
it is where it's difficult to get healthcare or different
difficult to get mental health counseling. So you know, obviously
we need to improve that facet of our government. You know.
(42:40):
But what I find striking now, and we've talked about
this before, is bigger is not better anymore. It's an
asymmetrical war in Ukraine. I mean, Ukraine has stifled the
Russian navy with drones.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, well listen, we were seeing that. Now drone warfare
is completely changed and AI is going to expand that
a lot. Because you can produce cheap drones. You can
essentially create a call like death zones orre essentially any
infantry tanks, anything that tries to move forward to take
land is essentially immediately taken out with drones. And the
most effective way to get around that is not through
more infantry or more tanks, it's through essentially anti drone
(43:18):
defenses like radar disruption, where essentially all the drones are
an area will just get turned off and fall down,
and then you can move and take land. So I
think what's gonna happen is any taking and holding land,
it's gonna become much much more difficult.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
I've always said, when you invade a country and they
don't want you to come in, you can win for
a period a week or year, ten years, maybe more,
but there's gonna be always gonna be resistance. And so
you see with Ukraine where that war is probably at
a stalemate, Russians have what a million casualties.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
A million dead or wounded. So we're talking, yeah, it's
just huge, like almost u imaginable numbers and people, if
you don't know, we're talking about a few thousand in Afghanistan,
a few thousand American troops in Iraq, obviously horrible numbers
in Iran, the most recent war, we're talking about twelve
combat dests. I think seventeen. Overall, we're like, just the
numbers are just huge. And then but even in the
(44:12):
IRA situation, or was Iran using using just shine down
the straight that's threatening oil infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
But there, I mean, the world has changed and you
know there's not going to be American casualties. But with
you don't have a ground force in place, the outcome
may be in jeopardy. Was that j Hey, Jase, how
you doing? Man? Are we got what we got? Two minutes?
Speaker 3 (44:34):
About a minute and a half?
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Well, anything you want to share with the several hundred
million people listening.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
Jac says, Hi, there you go.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
Well that's it. I mean that's a cop out. But okay, uh, Brian,
I know you're gonna watch playoffs listen.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
I think the playoffs have been good people. People were
very down in the NBA regular season because there's a
lot of tanking and stuff like that. NHL, NBA innational
players have delivered.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Nobody saw the New York Knicks.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
I mean there was a switch.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
They're beating everybody. I watched one game and they were
up by fifty. They should have a mercy rule for adults,
or you should be able as a fan, you know,
to just you know, no one was the electric shot.
All right, Look, folks, it is Memorial Day holiday. As always,
please don't drink and drive. I'm certain that there's gonna
(45:25):
be a lot of traffic oversight and place. It's rainy,
it's nasty. Stay home and listen to reruns of Rocky Capital.
You've got several years worth that would be productive art.
Have a great weekend. Please tell your wife your lovely life.
We said hi and catch you two weeks. Y'all,
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