December 20, 2025 • 45 mins
Eric Epstein and Millennial Brian talk about Bytedance/TikTok, the Trump/Kennedy center, Susie Wiles/Vanity, Political Violence, the Death of Reiner, and more.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey folks, December twentieth, probably our last show of the
year if I'm able to do math correctly. It's cold.
It got cold again. It's been a unusually diverse week
of weather crap. So I'm Eric Epstein and I'm with
my trusted sidekick, Millennial Brian. We're Rock the Capital. We
(00:24):
are a anti corruption good government group formed in August
twenty twenty five after the illegal pay raise. We don't
take side, we take aim. We don't care what parties
involved with the corruption. We just want to know who's
throwing the party. So I don't know if we'll have
time to get to it this week. We had a
(00:44):
busy week. We got to the Turnpike and also to
the ICA, the oversight board for Harrisburg. But I came
across a couple of terms and I thought i'd ask Brian,
and maybe Brian can explain to me and you all
the you know, just the importance and these There's no
really consistent theme for this, but I'm trying to understand
(01:08):
how TikTok is now an American.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Company, right, So basically what happened is TikTok obviously just
exploded the scene and was when the first social media
web our websites and platforms that came outside of the
United States, and they just come from outside the United States,
and it came from Europe, it came from China. So
there were security concerns that people were gonna have their
data breach. There was propaganda concerns potentially, and so what
(01:33):
uh the administration did is basically say we're not going
to shut down the app, which originally was the plan.
We're gonna switch it over to American ownership and have
American companies buy it. So one of the biggest shareholder
is Wharry Ellison at Oracle.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He's gonna own it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The UAE is going to as their private equity.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Find got right there. The UAE has become I'm not
really to me, is be come too close of a
perceived ally.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
They're every there, They're and everything. I mean, they're trying
to do business, trying to make you buy. Basically what
New York and London were and have been in these
past centuries is it's sort of the place of their
national business, but also culture and stuff. I mean the
Middle East in general, sorry Arabia had a big fight
last night where they put on it and stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So yeah, that, I mean, it's it's make believe. But
so the other another chunk is owned by I don't
know who they are. It said the private equity from
Silver Lakes. Yeah, so that's the U A E.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
No, the E fund is right, mg X Oracles Ry Allison,
Civil Lights is an Americans probably equity fund.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So they're owning it.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So it's leaving Chinese government ownership coming into American ownership.
Now there's still concerns about you know, potential speech censorship,
other stuff. It's not this doesn't take that away because
it's this sort of a government forced purchase. So the
idea is that if the US government's forcing them to
sell it, can they force the buyers to have something?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So part of the theme this show is going to
be do you remember when do you remember when when
mister Trump was full throttled anti TikTok?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, in fact, he's the one that passed legislation to
get a band right, and then that carried over and
then they switched the position. I think the thing that
switched them is one during the election campaign they used
it very well to get their message out, the clips
for their supporters making their arguments, and then two is
that they didn't want to be the people that shut
(03:38):
down the most popular social media platform for people under
eighteen or under thirty. And that's sort of where it's going.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
But that's to that Trump security concerns.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right, Well, it was, it did. But the argument is
that the security service will be met because they're switching
from Chinese ownership to this. And the question is, are
you essentially switching out these security serns for like I
would say government interference concerns on our apartment, not even government?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I mean, are you under the naive impression that there's
no such thing as corporate intelligence? Happens all the time. Look,
the other thing I wanted to get to is, you know,
Trump put his name on the Kennedy Center, which is
not legal. It has to be done by an Act
of Congress. And he said the board voter unanimously. They
(04:24):
were all his appointee, right. But seeing Trump's name on
that is like seeing the Burger King logo at the Vatican,
you know it just so, I mean, it's gonna be real.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
He likes the whole the spectacle. He saw that with
the changes making the White House, of bringing new stuff in,
making stuff gold plated, he likes, kind of like the spectacle.
In fact, his argument is that America used to do that.
America used to build big monuments to presidents of America,
and so we need so he's part of that kind
of great big I think we look at now we
(05:00):
see and we say, well, this just seems kind of
corrupt in vain.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But the people that he's speaking about, Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington,
Trump is not in that league.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
He may be delusional enough to think he is, but
I don't remember any other president bulldozing portion of the
White House or stamping their name on every stop side.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think it's also part of the modern era.
Whereas like in the modern era with internet twenty four
to seven communication stuff like that, I think it's hard
for any president to get almost this like unanimous support,
like a Kennedy, like we just the Kennedy name because
he got assassinated because he says it early on in
his presidency is almost impeccable. Whereas people that actually govern,
(05:41):
like LBJ or Nixon.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Let me stop you for a second. I don't care
what you know. Generation we're in. Breaking the law is
breaking the law, you know, and the Trump people can
wrap it up any way they want. The Congress authorize
the Kennedy Center, right or wrong, authorized the Reagan Airport,
right or wrong. That was an official act. Right, this
(06:05):
is piracy. So in a couple of minutes we have
it's good to see we're getting along. So well, I
call it the dynamic duo. You had two women close
to Trump and his orbit who made the news. At
least Stephonic is not going to run for governor and
she is a powerful congresswoman who's also close to Trump,
(06:28):
and she's not going to run again for her seat.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Is there anything there?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, I think it's just that that he's fallen out
of popular and see he had this ascendency where Biden
was unpopular, he had inflation. Trump wins the election, he
comes in sort of supporters think that's going to lead
to new gains and territories, and you're seeing kind of pushback,
especially in places like New York which are traditionally Democrats.
So she has like very little chance to win there.
(06:54):
She lost her un spot. So so she's just I
never understood that she got uh, she got pushed out
by Democratic Congress, where I think for some things she
said about other congressmen. Actually, I think Elinor Omar and
stuff like that, and and stuff. The Democrats went supporter,
so they they pushed her out on that. And then
(07:15):
Susie Wild Susie Wilds.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I just want to go back to Stefani.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So she was an opponent of Trump before a lot
of Republicans became supporter of Trump. She's also I think
in a moderate district, which would hard for her to win.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That's true. Well, yes, and then also so it's interesting,
so she got so she was a moderate Republican and
then she got popular during the Ukraine impeachment of Trump,
where she defended a very vigorously, and that's how she
rose the ranks. Right, if you're in a modern district
in New York and you have backlash against Trump, you're
seeing those other those are the people, are the people
(07:49):
that are pushing most for the healthcare reform or the
budget and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And then yeah, Susie Styles did a uh Jusie Wilds
Susie Wilds rather the picture.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It's the picture of her with like the power folks
behind Trump, the blood vessels. There's spots, there's dots, spars
of makeup. It almost looks like a mafia lineup. However,
and I love the fact that she did an interview
with Vanity Fair so I love the name goes right
with Trump.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But she said some.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Things that were very critical and he just won't criticize her.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I think that's I think she came she was
part of the coalition that formed on the Trump So
when Trump initially came in during the election in twenty sixties,
this is going way back. Steve Bannon went to Mitch
McConnell and basically said, we need to we need to
kind of like a go between between kind of the
establishment Republicans and kind of these new form people. And
now a lot of people have fallen off, but the
(08:50):
two people that raise the head are basically Steven Millwer
that's kind of the Trump New Republicans, and Susie Wilders
was kind of the connection to the establishment Republicans. And
that's what and that's kind of how they run the
ship because they need those votes. You have to have
established Republicans in the Congress to vote with you, and
you have to have a new Trump people because that's
where the energy is and that's for the new people.
So that's where they kind of had that marriage. It's
(09:12):
a Stephen Miller and Susie Watts.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
She is credited with letting him know when he's gone
too far, trying to keep him on track. I mean
from the comment she said, his personality is like that
of an alcoholic quote. Trump doesn't drink alcohol, you know,
he said a number. If you read the interview, she's
very impressive and I think she had a lot to
do with Trump winning this time, but checked the pictures out.
(09:39):
I usually don't say that, and Trump was actually complimentary
of her.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, yeah, I think I think she got a little
of respect to where she's she criticized him and got
and helped him win, but then also stayed loyal enough
to where she pushed his agenda for it, which is
kind of that balance of because a lot of his
supporters just defend him no matter what. And then in
Christmas and that's kind of where I guess someone like
her will come in.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, so let's take a break. It is Look, I
don't even know what time, but it doesn't matter. Eric
Epstein was Rock to Capital. Brian Kimmitt Millennial Brian, Actually
we just gave away your name. If anybody was listening.
You can find his address. Our Selby's producing. The show
is Underdome and we're rock to Capital back in a minute.
So I don't know if your art. Remember we were
(10:25):
doing a list of the unsafe toys. Remember the one
where there was what was it an aersel propelled.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah, yes, the ping pong. Yes, you can go
up to forty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah yeah, Well you know, I don't I don't want
to shine the light off of our sponsor, but that
seemed like an interesting product. So, uh, very bad week
for a number of things we had. Uh. I just
want to share a quote I saw from a report
(10:59):
in Australia. Where political violence is that Arthur said, haunts
our history.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It is patient.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
It's a virus waiting for chaos and confusion and then
finding a new victim. It fantastasizes slowly and then explodes.
So this was from Australia and the point of the
article this guy was reading about was if you globalize
the Intifada, then why would you be shocked at what
(11:32):
happened in Australia?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I mean and within this band.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Pro Palestinian Supporters, Jet Progressives, Influencier's Greens, the podcasters, all
those impeccably right on cool people who spent two years
making Zionists the dirtiest word in the Australian vocabulary. You
see in Australia, they're folks that march down Oxford Street
during Marti Gras holding signed and said globalized. So as
(12:03):
the author said, well, congratulations here it's been globalized.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Mission accomplished.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And you know it's interesting people say, well, what's the motive?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, is there really? Is this a mystery?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, really don't know. It's just describe on Bondi Beach
and outside of Sydney there was a Honka celebration and
obviously there's it's clearly a Jewish holiday and they were
they were trying to target the Jewish community and there
might have been non Jews there, but there was. It
was clearly targeted the Jewish community and the guy and
(12:38):
this goes back to Australia where they had they had
we had marches everywhere, but you had unfortunately specifically bad
mortgs where there was other violence at some of these
different marches there. So it's just it it's it's it's
sad because you what you have is you have basically
people that have connected Jews with Israel or let's say,
(13:01):
Muscles with Iron, or Christians with let's say the Vatican
or Italy, and you can't it ended up it ends
up being that the whole community it gets targeted by
people that essentially don't know the issue or just have
you know, hate the heart.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
There's always been hate for Jews. I mean there's all
kinds of anti Semitism. Racial, we hate them for their
biological makeup, Religious, we hate them for the religion. Economic,
we hate them for the money. So this or the
purported control of money. This has been there forever. So
people have been softened up. But recently when they talk
about globalizing the Intifada, it romanticizes attacking Israel and fails
(13:45):
to look at who Hamas is and it's like, are
you really a gay person supporting Hamas?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I mean, well, it just became it became an issue
where it became a cool right so like on the
left became kind of progressive issue, kind of new almost
like a global warming type thing. And then on the
right it became kind of like and I want to say,
like an identity thing. So you have these too to
both camps kind of got hit with people that used it,
and then you see the users an issue just kind
(14:15):
of sparked, I would say, spark their own agendas, but
then also just had you know, kind of soften their hatred.
Because typically with like racism or anti semitism or is that,
you want it to be unpolite.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You want it to be.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Like is like if if I if someone came out
and said, you know, I don't think you know, black
and white people should get married and stuff like that,
or we're gonna attack this guy. That there's like almost
social consequences to where like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Can't you know you?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
People want to be friends with you, people want to
I think what happened to the Israel Palestine is what
used to be unpolite and stuff like that, is that
it kind of got.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
New, like.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Muddied with like oh, it's just Chris is a miseryl.
It's like, well, hold on a second, you know, is
one thing to say I don't like nat. It's a
whole other thing to be like, you know, attacking innocent people.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
If you mean, if you look at Hamas, the goal
is to eradicate every Jew on the earth, right, It's
pretty clear and the threat I wanted to weave here
is the rhetoric, and the author finished up with a
pretty interesting uh excuse me, observation.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And he was saying, you know you posted it on
that's you the supporters on Instagram stories with their little
watermelon emojis. I mean, which is a sign, right right?
So you built this, You laid the foundation brick by rhetorical, brick,
post by viral post march by march with your inverted
(15:44):
red triangles and your signs bearing the words Zionists or
neo Nazis. So now you've so we've gone past the
shrill language and the polite language to you. Now you're
back again to the only solution is we got to
kill the folks.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So it's always funny because they say it was Jesus
said we don't want him here, But then we also
don't want them where they go or right, so it's
like it's like both.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So on the same day, Rob Reiner and his wife
were murdered, and I just wanted to point out I
think he was beloved, as was his dad, who was
one of the on the team that did the Dick
Van Dyke Show.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And so.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You just wonder if our president has any empathy at all,
the ability I mean, I'm serious, the ability to understand
the loss, because almost immediately after he was killed, he
actually started out his post.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Uh, this is interesting. Let me just read it because
it's hard to paraphrase this. All right.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented
movie director and comedy star, has passed away together with
his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused
others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a
mind crippling disease known as and this is upper Caves
(17:18):
Trump derangement syndrome sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Refer to t d S.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then at the end this was so bizarre, he say,
may Robin Michelle rest in peace. So in what the
author was saying is that this is also maga language.
Now you were talking about a language that stings or identifies.
This was really no different than when Nancy Pelosi died.
(17:45):
And he was but you're right, yeah, Robin Mitchell didn't die.
They were murdered and it was her father got her husband.
Uh the ballpen hammer, I mean, god, it's been two
years ago. And so he said, we'll stand up to
crazy Nancy Pelosi who ruined San Francisco. How's her husband doing?
(18:09):
Anybody know, Trump said to a raucous crowd of Republicans,
quote and she's against building a wall at our border,
even though she had a wall around her house, which
obviously didn't do very good. So the point is this
is that I've seen Trump, you know, dispense empathy, like
(18:29):
when he was in North Carolina when it's a red state,
you know. And and so if you start putting all
this together, I don't know what song the country's singing.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, it's bad, it's bad. It's no I mean, he
saw it after Charlie Kirk. Luckily none of the I
would say like professional or like politicians on the left,
but you saw we're just general public on the left.
And it's an enemy supported distinction where basically, okay, you're
against me. So no matter what happens to you, we
can't look at her share humanity. I'm just coming for you.
And you know this is this is this kid the
(19:02):
family or the Rob Reiner and his wife were killed
by their son who was like in out of drug addiction.
I mean, it's just horrible. It's just like the worst.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, look the thing with Charlie Kirk, and where Hey
and Rob Briner are linked is Rob Bryner publicly he's
very liberal, was very liberal publicly criticized the murder of
Kirk and said this is not the way, you know,
not the way to go by the way last week
and I don't know how political wonkersh folks are. The
governor of Utah and the governor of Pennsylvania. Josh Shapiro
(19:34):
did a presentation two of them at the Washington Cathedral
on faith. It was very, very impressive. So the last
thing I wanted to point out is we had the
murderers on Brown where my daughter used to go to school,
and the murder I guess at MIT and I'm not
really sure if we know the motive here, and then
(19:56):
you have a different I guess feel for this.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
A lot of the FBI has been moved to.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Border security or to anti immigration or to deport immigrants, right,
and so the issue is that Reddit, not cash, buttel
solve the crime.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, yes, so I think there's also something about a
change in philosophy, which is as we've been through the
Internet age and as we have just more data information
out there what used to be intelligence gathering and everydence
was just kind of like behind the scenes human work
is going to have mass almost computer and human collaging
(20:33):
of open source information. When I mean open source, I
mean public information, information that's already out there you can
find on the Internet. Because the way you're actually going
to solve these cases not through like finding uncovered secrets
or Sherlock homes in it. It's actually just finding information
that's already out there, but putting it all together. So
when we talk about the Reddit post, basically was people saying, hey,
here's the information can you get and sort.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Of homeless dude, right, homeless dude, I guess have Internet access.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I saw this done in school with what with reports.
So people would say, hey, I'm running report let's say
in the Civil War, and they would put out questions
on it, and then they would go to the Internet
and then people would reply with not just with public information,
like here's a source on this or here's what happened here,
essentially put it all together. Now with AI, you can
(21:24):
essentially do that on masks like super fast all over
the Internet. So it's turning. So the idea was it's
to take one person's sort of paper and their information
and then basically got to the whole public and trying
to get tons of people to put in. Now that's
gonna happen, I think on a lot of these cases,
and I wonder if it's gonna make it harder to
get away with stuff. I thought about this when Manngioni
(21:47):
did the killing and that got that was super viral,
super on the internet. Originally, if it was like twenty
years ago and he was smart, he could have been
in Mexico. But if you put everything on the internet,
you could probably find his car where traveling real quick.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, but I think you'll find a lot of people
to commit the crimes want to be known. Yeah, And
I think the FBI, you know, has labs, has analytics,
you know, has experts that you need.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I think this is an additional tool to solving crimes.
But you know, just for me, raise the issue of
combating crime is no longer the FBI's main mission, and
it's border and four. Well, I think we're past the
border enforcement. I think we're finding people to deport. But really,
(22:37):
you know, the week before Christmas is a terrible week
in terms of some of the strategies. I think tragedies.
Did I say strategies tragedies?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
But people heard me?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Right, So anyway, Eric Epstein and I'm in with Manie
O Brian.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
We're a rock the Capital.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The show it's Thunderdome, and we're being produced by Art Selby.
So Art, you wanted to make a comment concerning some
the things that Rob Reiner said that, Well what he
did say when Rush Limbaugh died, Well.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah, the day after Rush died he called Russia lire
and you know, towards the end, Trump and Rush were
getting pretty close there, so that that had something to
do with it as well.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Maybe that could.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But yeah, I mean that's a good point for context.
I mean hopefully right. I think the difference between somebody
like Reiner and Trump is that Trump is not going
to involve into an empathetic creature. And Reiner was part
of it. I mean, there's no doubt about it. He
was also beloved. I mean I knew him from all
in the family. I was just stunned when he was
(23:36):
making movies. I mean, like Harry met Sally or what
was the one with the Marines and Guantanamo Bay?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, good, good men.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, So I think you know, one of the things
that Brian just spoke to is now the reality is
that whatever you say, whatever you record is.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Preserved, and it's sures really not preserved in context. That's true.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And plus I think it's two things. We have everything's
recorded and and it's also super there's like a low
gatekeeping and putting stuff out there, so your worst moments
or your better intuition it kind of goes out. And
too is that we're in a politically polarized environment. I
mean Art just brought up is that we have no uh,
we're in that straight enemy support distinction, whereas even the
(24:25):
worst we can't have any shared humanity, which is it's
sad because you want you'd want people that would disagree
with you if something truly had terrible happened, to give
you the bet of the that we're seeing both sides.
I mean, we saw what Charlie Kirk I think, thankfully
no politics, but lots of people go out to TikTok
and Instagram and put a lot of stuff out. I
know that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way
where they celebrated Charlie.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Charlie was in sycendery. Yeah, but basically it's I was
saying to Art, when a tragedy like that happens, if
you don't have anything good to say, just let it
go because there are people, you know, who mourn them.
The divisiveness that we see today leads me to believe
that we could never again summon the strength to fight
a world war. I mean, you're gonna have people say, Okay,
(25:10):
you know he's wounded yet, but he's a Republican.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
You see that with disaster relief. It's like, oh it's
a red state. Oh it's a blue state. It's like
it's terrible. It's like it's the it's the opposite of
the nine to eleven Katrina where everyone everyone helps, everyone
hands on deck, and that's and it's sad. I was
watching and this is I guess I don't know if
it was just sad, but it was just I was
watching the nineteen nineties Bush the Father against Clinton in
(25:35):
a debate and the conversation around it. It was so
obvious that the country was as just a country in
a more patriotic and unified place, even if we were
having our disagreements versus now where it's like it's like
almost every issue even stuff that's not political becomes criticized
in tribal It's just it's sad. You wish she had
(25:55):
those moments.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I mean, back in the nineties you didn't have little
like parents being rap out of the kids, you know,
for a strike call and you have you know, so
I think Reagan brought back a lot of patriotism, which
you know, helped frame Bush's campaign. And people need to
understand Clinton was a centrist. Yeah, he moved the party
(26:17):
to the center. You know, the Republicans really complained, whether
with his welfare reform or NAFTA.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You know, there's there's a there's a quote and it's
real good. It's it's tip be used in Britain about
Thatcher and Tony Blair. But I think it's good for
is is is Clinton's the best Republican present they ever had.
You know, it's just he was he you know, he
he got he got free trade done. He was he
was I would say, way more against immigration or had
much stricter immigration policies than almost anyone after him. He
(26:48):
got Yes, he get raised taxes, but he got welfare
reformed on and he balanced a budget. I mean, over
comparing comparing him now part of that is also new
Congridge in the Congress that kind of forced those well,
but comparing him to I said Democrats today, he's much.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
More saying nuke.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Genrich has felt and he has said that he's sorry
for the partisanship he created. He was a he was
an idea guy and energy guy. I thought the Republicans
taking over the House was badly needed. The Democrats had
been sitting on it for too long. I mean, at
some point you got to flush the toilet or backsop
and yeah, and so I just want to Brian and
(27:25):
I worked the Turnpike again this Tuesday, Yes, Tuesday. So
the Turnpike is patting itself on the back because you're rating,
he s is only going to be three percent. I
think it was four percent. I'm sorry, four percent. It's
been six percent the last three years. And as we
repert I'm pretty sure we reported. So you'll get your
(27:53):
rates increase. And the Turnpike views this as a victory
up through twenty fifty.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yes, it was a great victory.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So they're gonna say, look, your rates went up because
we had to. I think it was Act forty four
way to give four hundred million five hundred million a
year to pend on. The problem is half of their
debt is because of that. So I just wanted to
do a segment on colon candy and this may strike
you as odd. So Brian and I were at the
(28:21):
turnpike did a presentation. There's a fourteen hundred acre expansion
for an underground coal mine under the turnpike. Yes, at
the Donegal exit under the turnpike.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And there's already been cracks and road damage which they
have to pay for it. And so that's that's great.
And also on the debt. The one excuse they always
use it. We just want to bring this up is
that they they were blocked in by Act forty four.
They got released of that in twenty twenty two. Yes,
but the increase is stay. No matter what happens to
the turnpike, right, the increases stay. It's always going up.
And we should say this is the most expensive turnpike
(28:54):
in the history of the world, and it's always getting
more expensive.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It will.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So here's what's interesting. Actually, it's gonna price itself out.
It was economical when it first came on, a revolutionary idea.
So the type of coal that's being mined is called
medical and it's used for you know, I'm trying to
think of the right way to put this, so it's metallurgical.
I'm having putting that out. It is mostly seventy percent
(29:21):
of it is exported overseas, so we're gonna mind coal
under the turnpike send seventy percent overseas. And what's interesting,
at least to me, I mean anyway, is the Turnpike
has a mission statement that says driving the turnpike past
green and into sustainable and ultimately towards restoration restorative practices
(29:47):
across our five hundred and fifty miles toll road operations.
Now you're not going to see this, but just on
the face of it, it was like wow, because it
has yeah, based on the report, has the potential for
acid mind drainage for.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
All these environmental but people think about coal. They only
think about the global warming CO two, but there's other
environmental issues. The other thing is that you have to
pay for all the damage it costs. So not only
is the most expensive in the world, but any damage
it caused is you have to pay for you brought
up that coals coming back and that that's gonna be
(30:25):
a new thing. And it also this is the other
thing we talked about the data centers, is that Pennsylvania
takes on the environmental risk, takes on the infrastructure damage,
takes on the costs, and then they export it to
these other places, other states, other countries, and they don't
even derive the benefit of it. I mean, some of
the benefit for the say the data centers of the
coal is completely outside of the state. So you're so
(30:46):
it's the worst of all worst. We're eating the costs,
we're getting none of the benefit, and then we're dealing
with a turnpike that it is completely devoid of any
private business or any personal expensive bring costs down. In fact,
we even know licaus later in the in fact, this
year they raised their own salaries. So all while this
(31:09):
is going on, all while you're paying more, will.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, let me let me hit that because the rays
of their salaries. Well, that's that's the Sunday on top
of the cherry. And you had a situation in March
which Brian covered the meeting where and nobody was really
aware of what was going on. There was this three
hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars rays for top executives
behind closed door, no public vote, totally illegal, and that
(31:35):
really should be the turnpikes mon vote.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That should be the Yeah, no sunshine, terrible service, very
expensive and only getting worse.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So when you looked at the when so we told them,
first of all, for the coal we're going to file
right to no requests and for the compensation will file
right to know requests. We're gonna have to sue them
at the State Ethics Commission will likely lose. You know,
there were two recent decisions. One that said after Shapiro
(32:08):
took money built security for his own home before getting permission,
right that, Yeah, I guess it was okay.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
People will forget that because there was assassination attempts. They
don't want to look like that. But the other one is,
you know, well they don't want look like they're being
mean mean, even though you know this is a perfect
example of people using government to enrich themselves.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, but State Ethics Commission should be much more aggressive,
more critical. And you know, when you don't enforce the laws,
it just encourages more to sprout out. But when you
look at the salary, so the chief executive makes seventy
eight percent more than the executive director of the Ohio
Turnpike and one hundred and thirty eight thousand more than
(32:54):
the CEO of the Florida Turnpike.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Which were both let's say, cheaper, better run and not
in debt, which is just. And so this is this
is an example of not only are they getting paid
more of the market rate, they're not even performing.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know, you could argue, you know, showing Atani gets
paid a lot, but he performs. This is the exact opposite.
You can, you know, show it a Tani money and
no performance.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I mean it kind of sounds like my sex life.
So uh, but as we get back to it and
make our final transition or you know, with the Turnpike,
just one last thought is I think we're really getting
to the point where electric bills are becoming like the Turnpike.
(33:37):
You almost anticipate and you do get a raise every year,
and the.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Quality of service hasn't changed. Absolutely so and that's not good.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Look, we'll go to the break and see if there's
anything else stupid. I can say, Eric Epstein, Millennial, Brian
and we have Art Selby producing. We are Rock to Capital,
the Show's Thunderdome and we'll be back for the final segment,
all right, so I will come on the last segment.
I mean, this time of year is always dark and cold,
but the light I guess some of the people have
(34:07):
theorized that Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights is because
I guess the.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Shortest day of the year's December twenty fourth. Is that summer.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I thought it's number twenty seventh, but you could be
right around. It's around that we're talking.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean, so one of
the end, the last segment of the year. You know,
it's another un art. How long have you been with
the station? You've been here since its founding, right.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Yeah, we're working on thirty one years. It'll be thirty
one in April.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
That's unbelievable, it is. And you've been to here same
more amount of time almost that.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
So I just wanted to share with you I've been
I did a couple of PC interviews over the last
couple of months. Actually one the last a week or
two I think, is when we went over there.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
You know when you say pay raise and how much
the turn bike makes and people see a lot of
times just shut down and so to give you a
sense of where we rank as a state commonwealth. The
average salary for a legislator in the United States of
America is forty eight thousand dollars word one hundred and thirteen.
(35:20):
We're the largest legislature that gets paid. There are ten
full time legislatures. There are four times twenty four part time,
so most are part time and the rest are a hybrid.
When you look at other ways to do the compensation,
nineteen states have compensation commissions, and these two states I love.
(35:43):
The voters vote on it, which means you're never getting
a raise. But at the end of the day, where
we're at, excuse me, in terms of compensation for legislators,
I think can be remedied by three things. One part
time legislature than the pay that simply goes way to
a compensation commission, which is what they have in California.
(36:07):
And number three, if you decouple the pay rates from
a pension bounce, people aren't gonna want to hang around.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
That's yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
The pension thing is the big thing because it rewards
essentially seniority, not performance. And then also people just they
don't just hang around. They try to double dip and
triple dip and then live off the dime forever. So
it's like it's you know, it used to be that,
you know, you took a public sector job. The pay
wasn't as good, but you got a great pension. If
you're a politician, that pays great, and you get a
(36:35):
pension and you get to double and triple dip no
matter how your performance is.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well after ten years you have a lifetime health insurance.
So I think that that's where the old days is
the same with teaching, you know, you were viewed as
a public servant. You had essentially a recession proof job,
good health care, and good pension. So as we kind
of end up here, going going down the road, a
(36:58):
couple questions for you, you and Art. All right, so
if you guys are ready, all right, how many deer
are in Santa sleet twelve?
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Is that right? All right? I'm looking at you. I'm
not sure. I don't.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
That doesn't seem right to me.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
An odd number. It was an odd number. I thought eleven.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's nine or eleven?
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I mean, so you start thinking, if they have an
even number of deer on their sleigh, I guess it's
no problem for fear to have an equal number of
board members twenty okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It just never got that.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So it's Christmas is and I just the twenty fifth
is like immutable. It's not going to be like any
other day where you're just moving. What is Does anybody
know why the Christmas for the Serbian churches later?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
You know, it's probably there's I think there's dispute over
when Jesus was actually born.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Maybe that was around that's a calendar deal.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, I think there was. There was an argument. I
heard that it was like July sixth, But that's just
not it's better for the end of the year type stuff.
I be honest, it's that's way above my pay grade.
As far as Wilmerson.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Now, when we would go down to Chuna in a
different hemisphere, you know for Christmas it was warm, it
always was kind of peculiar.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Well this is there's summer months.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Right yeah, right, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So the final question is is Christmas still the economic
juggernaut it used to be or has has our world changed?
I mean it used to be Black Friday, I guess
up until Christmas.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
For some people that was their year.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, that was how they made their money. I think
it's one hundred percent. It's still it's just online, so
it's not you know, everyone's rushing the stores. It's like,
can we get the shipping in and get all these
trucks in for Christmas? I mean every year, I think
it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
There's always people that say that they have every times
they were supposed to before Christmas and they get them
after Christmas. It's a big deal. I think that last year.
I guarantee they'll have it this year. And this is
gonna become more and more as online shopping becomes kind
of the norm and you know, the day to day
shopping comes are I.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Mean, I agree with Brian plus plus the amount of
decorations that people buy. Decorations are just everywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, you don't see many Hanikah Harry's out there with
the Bazuka, but I you know, and I know growing
up there were a number of Christians who thought it
was becoming too material and wanted to move back to
the reason for the season, right And look, I get
you know, the presidents and the gift giving, but I
also will tell you January's man a tough month because
(39:42):
you're only looking forward to what President's Day.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh yeah, once you get past this holiday period, you
got a long and it's cold too. It's not like
the summer. It's like it's cold outside. So this is
like kind of the the you know, it was up
to New Year's basically, basically up to New Year's of like,
this is the fun period that you got. You know,
everyone back to work, everyone's back at school.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
So I'm not going to see it to that. Art
any New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Oh boy, the typical need to lose some weight. I
would say that's probably my biggest resolution.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, Millennial, Yeah, same here to get in better shape.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, definitely. I agree. You both need to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I've had the same resolution for almost forty years. My
resolution is not to make a resolution because I never
honor my resolution.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Well, and every year you're successful in not making a
resolution that you don't.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah, so, Art, I know it's going to be a
sore subject the college playoffs. You know, Millennial has a solution.
I think what is it? A playing playing games? In fact,
Orton and I were discussing this earlier in the week.
I think that the solution is the problem is the committee.
(40:52):
The fact that the playoff is not access based, but
committee based makes everything because.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Now you have the eye test, strength and schedule. The
way I would look at it is like this is
that you have you have ways to get in the playoff.
Let's say you qualify for the top four conference games.
That's eight. Let's say have a sixteen team playoff. The
other eight spots are determined by playing games. You have
eight playing games during the conference championship weekend. If you win,
you're in. If you lose, you're out. And so everyone
(41:20):
in and around that can play in. And if you
complain about well, I don't think this or because people
always complain about everything, they'll play out seating. If they
switch to sixteen, they'll complain about it. But for me,
the way it should work is if you win, your in,
If you lose, you're out. And so you only give
yourself to play if you're if you're if you're in
the playing game, you'll have yourself to play. So if
you think about Nerdame taxes, you know Vanderbilt, all these
(41:44):
teams are in and around it, they would have playing
games if they want. Let's say Nor Dame wins, they're in.
If they lost, and so now it's access determined rather
than committee determined, which is the big thing.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Art, What do you think?
Speaker 4 (41:55):
All right, that's that's a good point by Brian. My
biggest problems with the whole thing the way it went
down is you had that show on Tuesday Night for
five weeks that had Notre Dame in. Notre Dame did
nothing wrong, they won all their games. Then they get
to the last week and for no reason at all,
Alabama passes them Alabama, and then they tell you, well,
the conference championship games don't matter, so b why you
(42:17):
drop so Miami can move up to be head to
head with Notre Dame. But Alabama doesn't drop when they
got blown out, So that made no sense. So those
are the things that really bother me. Now, obviously Alabama
and Miami have won their playoff games, so everyone's going
to say, well, they deserve to be there. Well, Notre
Dame probably would have won those games too, so you know,
it's just.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Much pressure though for them coming in. I guess the
thing that concerns me is I don't like it when
you pick out comes. I mean, we live in a
time now that we should have metrics.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
You shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I'm not worried about the optics, you know, I'm just
worried about who the best team is. And it's like
any sport at the end of the year, the best
team at the end isn't the same as the best
team at the beginning, you know, you know, Frank, But
there was a game today, there was a game yesterday.
I like how that gets broken up. But as a
Penn State fan, I don't know if you remember our
(43:08):
ninety three Penn State was undefeated. They beat Ohio State
sixty three to seven, and they finished second to Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yeah, that was just like the year you were Notre
Dame in Florida State. Both went eleven and one, and
Notre Dame beat Florida State head to head because we
lost to Boston College, we finished too. To me, it
was kind of the same deal with Miami. Okay, they
beat us head to head, but they lost to two
unranked teams, so you can't just throw that out the windows.
So I guess it's Notre Dame fans were going to
(43:38):
go back and claim that national championship now since had
the head matters so much.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, no, I'll help you storm the gates, but I
guess to me. The thing is when you have humans
involved with the decision of that magnitude, it's always political. Yeah,
I mean Nixon back in sixty nine. I think Penn
State versus Alabama could have been Kansas wad In. You know,
it's just so important. I think we got what a minute, two.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Minutes, about about a minute or so.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
All right, art anything for Christmas, anything you want.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
I honestly, there really wasn't anything physical I wanted this year.
Just so many friends and family members were suffering this year.
I just wanted everybody to be healthy and have a
nice Christmas, and that that's what I'm hoping for.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
How does your dad fully recovered?
Speaker 4 (44:23):
He's pretty close to four recovered, so you know, I'm
just thankful he's still around.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah. That so Briant. Well, after that, I just want
to I mean, you did whatever you say after that. Yeah,
it's not bad.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I just want stuff to associated with coffee, either gift
cards or big Ahead due I mean the.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Amount of coffee you drink. I'm surpriased Brazil is at bankrupt.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
I mean they love me.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I'm a revenue generator.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Actually that's true.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
So you know, I think artists you get older Actually,
I think as time goes on, especially if you have
kids or pets or whatever, you wind up giving more
than you receive. And I'm happy to do that, honestly.
I just got to say, a great time of the year.
And last question ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yep, yep. All right.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Well we'll do the last question in January. Okay, all right, holiday, yeah, hey,
show him me all
Hey folks, December twentieth, probably our last show of the
year if I'm able to do math correctly. It's cold.
It got cold again. It's been a unusually diverse week
of weather crap. So I'm Eric Epstein and I'm with
my trusted sidekick, Millennial Brian. We're Rock the Capital. We
(00:24):
are a anti corruption good government group formed in August
twenty twenty five after the illegal pay raise. We don't
take side, we take aim. We don't care what parties
involved with the corruption. We just want to know who's
throwing the party. So I don't know if we'll have
time to get to it this week. We had a
(00:44):
busy week. We got to the Turnpike and also to
the ICA, the oversight board for Harrisburg. But I came
across a couple of terms and I thought i'd ask Brian,
and maybe Brian can explain to me and you all
the you know, just the importance and these There's no
really consistent theme for this, but I'm trying to understand
(01:08):
how TikTok is now an American.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Company, right, So basically what happened is TikTok obviously just
exploded the scene and was when the first social media
web our websites and platforms that came outside of the
United States, and they just come from outside the United States,
and it came from Europe, it came from China. So
there were security concerns that people were gonna have their
data breach. There was propaganda concerns potentially, and so what
(01:33):
uh the administration did is basically say we're not going
to shut down the app, which originally was the plan.
We're gonna switch it over to American ownership and have
American companies buy it. So one of the biggest shareholder
is Wharry Ellison at Oracle.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
He's gonna own it.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
The UAE is going to as their private equity.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Find got right there. The UAE has become I'm not
really to me, is be come too close of a
perceived ally.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
They're every there, They're and everything. I mean, they're trying
to do business, trying to make you buy. Basically what
New York and London were and have been in these
past centuries is it's sort of the place of their
national business, but also culture and stuff. I mean the
Middle East in general, sorry Arabia had a big fight
last night where they put on it and stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So yeah, that, I mean, it's it's make believe. But
so the other another chunk is owned by I don't
know who they are. It said the private equity from
Silver Lakes. Yeah, so that's the U A E.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
No, the E fund is right, mg X Oracles Ry Allison,
Civil Lights is an Americans probably equity fund.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
So they're owning it.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
So it's leaving Chinese government ownership coming into American ownership.
Now there's still concerns about you know, potential speech censorship,
other stuff. It's not this doesn't take that away because
it's this sort of a government forced purchase. So the
idea is that if the US government's forcing them to
sell it, can they force the buyers to have something?
Speaker 1 (03:07):
So part of the theme this show is going to
be do you remember when do you remember when when
mister Trump was full throttled anti TikTok?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, in fact, he's the one that passed legislation to
get a band right, and then that carried over and
then they switched the position. I think the thing that
switched them is one during the election campaign they used
it very well to get their message out, the clips
for their supporters making their arguments, and then two is
that they didn't want to be the people that shut
(03:38):
down the most popular social media platform for people under
eighteen or under thirty. And that's sort of where it's going.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
But that's to that Trump security concerns.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right, Well, it was, it did. But the argument is
that the security service will be met because they're switching
from Chinese ownership to this. And the question is, are
you essentially switching out these security serns for like I
would say government interference concerns on our apartment, not even government?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
I mean, are you under the naive impression that there's
no such thing as corporate intelligence? Happens all the time. Look,
the other thing I wanted to get to is, you know,
Trump put his name on the Kennedy Center, which is
not legal. It has to be done by an Act
of Congress. And he said the board voter unanimously. They
(04:24):
were all his appointee, right. But seeing Trump's name on
that is like seeing the Burger King logo at the Vatican,
you know it just so, I mean, it's gonna be real.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
He likes the whole the spectacle. He saw that with
the changes making the White House, of bringing new stuff in,
making stuff gold plated, he likes, kind of like the spectacle.
In fact, his argument is that America used to do that.
America used to build big monuments to presidents of America,
and so we need so he's part of that kind
of great big I think we look at now we
(05:00):
see and we say, well, this just seems kind of
corrupt in vain.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But the people that he's speaking about, Roosevelt, Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington,
Trump is not in that league.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
He may be delusional enough to think he is, but
I don't remember any other president bulldozing portion of the
White House or stamping their name on every stop side.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I think it's also part of the modern era.
Whereas like in the modern era with internet twenty four
to seven communication stuff like that, I think it's hard
for any president to get almost this like unanimous support,
like a Kennedy, like we just the Kennedy name because
he got assassinated because he says it early on in
his presidency is almost impeccable. Whereas people that actually govern,
(05:41):
like LBJ or Nixon.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Let me stop you for a second. I don't care
what you know. Generation we're in. Breaking the law is
breaking the law, you know, and the Trump people can
wrap it up any way they want. The Congress authorize
the Kennedy Center, right or wrong, authorized the Reagan Airport,
right or wrong. That was an official act. Right, this
(06:05):
is piracy. So in a couple of minutes we have
it's good to see we're getting along. So well, I
call it the dynamic duo. You had two women close
to Trump and his orbit who made the news. At
least Stephonic is not going to run for governor and
she is a powerful congresswoman who's also close to Trump,
(06:28):
and she's not going to run again for her seat.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Is there anything there?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, I think it's just that that he's fallen out
of popular and see he had this ascendency where Biden
was unpopular, he had inflation. Trump wins the election, he
comes in sort of supporters think that's going to lead
to new gains and territories, and you're seeing kind of pushback,
especially in places like New York which are traditionally Democrats.
So she has like very little chance to win there.
(06:54):
She lost her un spot. So so she's just I
never understood that she got uh, she got pushed out
by Democratic Congress, where I think for some things she
said about other congressmen. Actually, I think Elinor Omar and
stuff like that, and and stuff. The Democrats went supporter,
so they they pushed her out on that. And then
(07:15):
Susie Wild Susie Wilds.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I just want to go back to Stefani.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So she was an opponent of Trump before a lot
of Republicans became supporter of Trump. She's also I think
in a moderate district, which would hard for her to win.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
That's true. Well, yes, and then also so it's interesting,
so she got so she was a moderate Republican and
then she got popular during the Ukraine impeachment of Trump,
where she defended a very vigorously, and that's how she
rose the ranks. Right, if you're in a modern district
in New York and you have backlash against Trump, you're
seeing those other those are the people, are the people
(07:49):
that are pushing most for the healthcare reform or the
budget and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And then yeah, Susie Styles did a uh Jusie Wilds
Susie Wilds rather the picture.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
It's the picture of her with like the power folks
behind Trump, the blood vessels. There's spots, there's dots, spars
of makeup. It almost looks like a mafia lineup. However,
and I love the fact that she did an interview
with Vanity Fair so I love the name goes right
with Trump.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But she said some.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Things that were very critical and he just won't criticize her.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, I think that's I think she came she was
part of the coalition that formed on the Trump So
when Trump initially came in during the election in twenty sixties,
this is going way back. Steve Bannon went to Mitch
McConnell and basically said, we need to we need to
kind of like a go between between kind of the
establishment Republicans and kind of these new form people. And
now a lot of people have fallen off, but the
(08:50):
two people that raise the head are basically Steven Millwer
that's kind of the Trump New Republicans, and Susie Wilders
was kind of the connection to the establishment Republicans. And
that's what and that's kind of how they run the
ship because they need those votes. You have to have
established Republicans in the Congress to vote with you, and
you have to have a new Trump people because that's
where the energy is and that's for the new people.
So that's where they kind of had that marriage. It's
(09:12):
a Stephen Miller and Susie Watts.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
She is credited with letting him know when he's gone
too far, trying to keep him on track. I mean
from the comment she said, his personality is like that
of an alcoholic quote. Trump doesn't drink alcohol, you know,
he said a number. If you read the interview, she's
very impressive and I think she had a lot to
do with Trump winning this time, but checked the pictures out.
(09:39):
I usually don't say that, and Trump was actually complimentary
of her.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Well, yeah, I think I think she got a little
of respect to where she's she criticized him and got
and helped him win, but then also stayed loyal enough
to where she pushed his agenda for it, which is
kind of that balance of because a lot of his
supporters just defend him no matter what. And then in
Christmas and that's kind of where I guess someone like
her will come in.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, so let's take a break. It is Look, I
don't even know what time, but it doesn't matter. Eric
Epstein was Rock to Capital. Brian Kimmitt Millennial Brian, Actually
we just gave away your name. If anybody was listening.
You can find his address. Our Selby's producing. The show
is Underdome and we're rock to Capital back in a minute.
So I don't know if your art. Remember we were
(10:25):
doing a list of the unsafe toys. Remember the one
where there was what was it an aersel propelled.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, yeah, yes, the ping pong. Yes, you can go
up to forty miles an hour.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah yeah, Well you know, I don't I don't want
to shine the light off of our sponsor, but that
seemed like an interesting product. So, uh, very bad week
for a number of things we had. Uh. I just
want to share a quote I saw from a report
(10:59):
in Australia. Where political violence is that Arthur said, haunts
our history.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
It is patient.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
It's a virus waiting for chaos and confusion and then
finding a new victim. It fantastasizes slowly and then explodes.
So this was from Australia and the point of the
article this guy was reading about was if you globalize
the Intifada, then why would you be shocked at what
(11:32):
happened in Australia?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I mean and within this band.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Pro Palestinian Supporters, Jet Progressives, Influencier's Greens, the podcasters, all
those impeccably right on cool people who spent two years
making Zionists the dirtiest word in the Australian vocabulary. You
see in Australia, they're folks that march down Oxford Street
during Marti Gras holding signed and said globalized. So as
(12:03):
the author said, well, congratulations here it's been globalized.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Mission accomplished.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
And you know it's interesting people say, well, what's the motive?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well, is there really? Is this a mystery?
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yes, really don't know. It's just describe on Bondi Beach
and outside of Sydney there was a Honka celebration and
obviously there's it's clearly a Jewish holiday and they were
they were trying to target the Jewish community and there
might have been non Jews there, but there was. It
was clearly targeted the Jewish community and the guy and
(12:38):
this goes back to Australia where they had they had
we had marches everywhere, but you had unfortunately specifically bad
mortgs where there was other violence at some of these
different marches there. So it's just it it's it's it's
sad because you what you have is you have basically
people that have connected Jews with Israel or let's say,
(13:01):
Muscles with Iron, or Christians with let's say the Vatican
or Italy, and you can't it ended up it ends
up being that the whole community it gets targeted by
people that essentially don't know the issue or just have
you know, hate the heart.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
There's always been hate for Jews. I mean there's all
kinds of anti Semitism. Racial, we hate them for their
biological makeup, Religious, we hate them for the religion. Economic,
we hate them for the money. So this or the
purported control of money. This has been there forever. So
people have been softened up. But recently when they talk
about globalizing the Intifada, it romanticizes attacking Israel and fails
(13:45):
to look at who Hamas is and it's like, are
you really a gay person supporting Hamas?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
I mean, well, it just became it became an issue
where it became a cool right so like on the
left became kind of progressive issue, kind of new almost
like a global warming type thing. And then on the
right it became kind of like and I want to say,
like an identity thing. So you have these too to
both camps kind of got hit with people that used it,
and then you see the users an issue just kind
(14:15):
of sparked, I would say, spark their own agendas, but
then also just had you know, kind of soften their hatred.
Because typically with like racism or anti semitism or is that,
you want it to be unpolite.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You want it to be.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Like is like if if I if someone came out
and said, you know, I don't think you know, black
and white people should get married and stuff like that,
or we're gonna attack this guy. That there's like almost
social consequences to where like, yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Can't you know you?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
People want to be friends with you, people want to
I think what happened to the Israel Palestine is what
used to be unpolite and stuff like that, is that
it kind of got.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
New, like.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Muddied with like oh, it's just Chris is a miseryl.
It's like, well, hold on a second, you know, is
one thing to say I don't like nat. It's a
whole other thing to be like, you know, attacking innocent people.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
If you mean, if you look at Hamas, the goal
is to eradicate every Jew on the earth, right, It's
pretty clear and the threat I wanted to weave here
is the rhetoric, and the author finished up with a
pretty interesting uh excuse me, observation.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And he was saying, you know you posted it on
that's you the supporters on Instagram stories with their little
watermelon emojis. I mean, which is a sign, right right?
So you built this, You laid the foundation brick by rhetorical, brick,
post by viral post march by march with your inverted
(15:44):
red triangles and your signs bearing the words Zionists or
neo Nazis. So now you've so we've gone past the
shrill language and the polite language to you. Now you're
back again to the only solution is we got to
kill the folks.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
So it's always funny because they say it was Jesus
said we don't want him here, But then we also
don't want them where they go or right, so it's
like it's like both.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So on the same day, Rob Reiner and his wife
were murdered, and I just wanted to point out I
think he was beloved, as was his dad, who was
one of the on the team that did the Dick
Van Dyke Show.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
And so.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
You just wonder if our president has any empathy at all,
the ability I mean, I'm serious, the ability to understand
the loss, because almost immediately after he was killed, he
actually started out his post.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Uh, this is interesting. Let me just read it because
it's hard to paraphrase this. All right.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented
movie director and comedy star, has passed away together with
his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused
others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a
mind crippling disease known as and this is upper Caves
(17:18):
Trump derangement syndrome sometimes.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Refer to t d S.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
And then at the end this was so bizarre, he say,
may Robin Michelle rest in peace. So in what the
author was saying is that this is also maga language.
Now you were talking about a language that stings or identifies.
This was really no different than when Nancy Pelosi died.
(17:45):
And he was but you're right, yeah, Robin Mitchell didn't die.
They were murdered and it was her father got her husband.
Uh the ballpen hammer, I mean, god, it's been two
years ago. And so he said, we'll stand up to
crazy Nancy Pelosi who ruined San Francisco. How's her husband doing?
(18:09):
Anybody know, Trump said to a raucous crowd of Republicans,
quote and she's against building a wall at our border,
even though she had a wall around her house, which
obviously didn't do very good. So the point is this
is that I've seen Trump, you know, dispense empathy, like
(18:29):
when he was in North Carolina when it's a red state,
you know. And and so if you start putting all
this together, I don't know what song the country's singing.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
Well, it's bad, it's bad. It's no I mean, he
saw it after Charlie Kirk. Luckily none of the I
would say like professional or like politicians on the left,
but you saw we're just general public on the left.
And it's an enemy supported distinction where basically, okay, you're
against me. So no matter what happens to you, we
can't look at her share humanity. I'm just coming for you.
And you know this is this is this kid the
(19:02):
family or the Rob Reiner and his wife were killed
by their son who was like in out of drug addiction.
I mean, it's just horrible. It's just like the worst.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Well, look the thing with Charlie Kirk, and where Hey
and Rob Briner are linked is Rob Bryner publicly he's
very liberal, was very liberal publicly criticized the murder of
Kirk and said this is not the way, you know,
not the way to go by the way last week
and I don't know how political wonkersh folks are. The
governor of Utah and the governor of Pennsylvania. Josh Shapiro
(19:34):
did a presentation two of them at the Washington Cathedral
on faith. It was very, very impressive. So the last
thing I wanted to point out is we had the
murderers on Brown where my daughter used to go to school,
and the murder I guess at MIT and I'm not
really sure if we know the motive here, and then
(19:56):
you have a different I guess feel for this.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
A lot of the FBI has been moved to.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Border security or to anti immigration or to deport immigrants, right,
and so the issue is that Reddit, not cash, buttel
solve the crime.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Right.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Well, yes, so I think there's also something about a
change in philosophy, which is as we've been through the
Internet age and as we have just more data information
out there what used to be intelligence gathering and everydence
was just kind of like behind the scenes human work
is going to have mass almost computer and human collaging
(20:33):
of open source information. When I mean open source, I
mean public information, information that's already out there you can
find on the Internet. Because the way you're actually going
to solve these cases not through like finding uncovered secrets
or Sherlock homes in it. It's actually just finding information
that's already out there, but putting it all together. So
when we talk about the Reddit post, basically was people saying, hey,
here's the information can you get and sort.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Of homeless dude, right, homeless dude, I guess have Internet access.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
I saw this done in school with what with reports.
So people would say, hey, I'm running report let's say
in the Civil War, and they would put out questions
on it, and then they would go to the Internet
and then people would reply with not just with public information,
like here's a source on this or here's what happened here,
essentially put it all together. Now with AI, you can
(21:24):
essentially do that on masks like super fast all over
the Internet. So it's turning. So the idea was it's
to take one person's sort of paper and their information
and then basically got to the whole public and trying
to get tons of people to put in. Now that's
gonna happen, I think on a lot of these cases,
and I wonder if it's gonna make it harder to
get away with stuff. I thought about this when Manngioni
(21:47):
did the killing and that got that was super viral,
super on the internet. Originally, if it was like twenty
years ago and he was smart, he could have been
in Mexico. But if you put everything on the internet,
you could probably find his car where traveling real quick.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, but I think you'll find a lot of people
to commit the crimes want to be known. Yeah, And
I think the FBI, you know, has labs, has analytics,
you know, has experts that you need.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
I think this is an additional tool to solving crimes.
But you know, just for me, raise the issue of
combating crime is no longer the FBI's main mission, and
it's border and four. Well, I think we're past the
border enforcement. I think we're finding people to deport. But really,
(22:37):
you know, the week before Christmas is a terrible week
in terms of some of the strategies. I think tragedies.
Did I say strategies tragedies?
Speaker 3 (22:45):
But people heard me?
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Right, So anyway, Eric Epstein and I'm in with Manie
O Brian.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
We're a rock the Capital.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
The show it's Thunderdome, and we're being produced by Art Selby.
So Art, you wanted to make a comment concerning some
the things that Rob Reiner said that, Well what he
did say when Rush Limbaugh died, Well.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
Yeah, the day after Rush died he called Russia lire
and you know, towards the end, Trump and Rush were
getting pretty close there, so that that had something to
do with it as well.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Maybe that could.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
But yeah, I mean that's a good point for context.
I mean hopefully right. I think the difference between somebody
like Reiner and Trump is that Trump is not going
to involve into an empathetic creature. And Reiner was part
of it. I mean, there's no doubt about it. He
was also beloved. I mean I knew him from all
in the family. I was just stunned when he was
(23:36):
making movies. I mean, like Harry met Sally or what
was the one with the Marines and Guantanamo Bay?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Yeah, good, good men.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Yeah, So I think you know, one of the things
that Brian just spoke to is now the reality is
that whatever you say, whatever you record is.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Preserved, and it's sures really not preserved in context. That's true.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
And plus I think it's two things. We have everything's
recorded and and it's also super there's like a low
gatekeeping and putting stuff out there, so your worst moments
or your better intuition it kind of goes out. And
too is that we're in a politically polarized environment. I
mean Art just brought up is that we have no uh,
we're in that straight enemy support distinction, whereas even the
(24:25):
worst we can't have any shared humanity, which is it's
sad because you want you'd want people that would disagree
with you if something truly had terrible happened, to give
you the bet of the that we're seeing both sides.
I mean, we saw what Charlie Kirk I think, thankfully
no politics, but lots of people go out to TikTok
and Instagram and put a lot of stuff out. I
know that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way
where they celebrated Charlie.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Charlie was in sycendery. Yeah, but basically it's I was
saying to Art, when a tragedy like that happens, if
you don't have anything good to say, just let it
go because there are people, you know, who mourn them.
The divisiveness that we see today leads me to believe
that we could never again summon the strength to fight
a world war. I mean, you're gonna have people say, Okay,
(25:10):
you know he's wounded yet, but he's a Republican.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
You see that with disaster relief. It's like, oh it's
a red state. Oh it's a blue state. It's like
it's terrible. It's like it's the it's the opposite of
the nine to eleven Katrina where everyone everyone helps, everyone
hands on deck, and that's and it's sad. I was
watching and this is I guess I don't know if
it was just sad, but it was just I was
watching the nineteen nineties Bush the Father against Clinton in
(25:35):
a debate and the conversation around it. It was so
obvious that the country was as just a country in
a more patriotic and unified place, even if we were
having our disagreements versus now where it's like it's like
almost every issue even stuff that's not political becomes criticized
in tribal It's just it's sad. You wish she had
(25:55):
those moments.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
I mean, back in the nineties you didn't have little
like parents being rap out of the kids, you know,
for a strike call and you have you know, so
I think Reagan brought back a lot of patriotism, which
you know, helped frame Bush's campaign. And people need to
understand Clinton was a centrist. Yeah, he moved the party
(26:17):
to the center. You know, the Republicans really complained, whether
with his welfare reform or NAFTA.
Speaker 2 (26:25):
You know, there's there's a there's a quote and it's
real good. It's it's tip be used in Britain about
Thatcher and Tony Blair. But I think it's good for
is is is Clinton's the best Republican present they ever had.
You know, it's just he was he you know, he
he got he got free trade done. He was he
was I would say, way more against immigration or had
much stricter immigration policies than almost anyone after him. He
(26:48):
got Yes, he get raised taxes, but he got welfare
reformed on and he balanced a budget. I mean, over
comparing comparing him now part of that is also new
Congridge in the Congress that kind of forced those well,
but comparing him to I said Democrats today, he's much.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
More saying nuke.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Genrich has felt and he has said that he's sorry
for the partisanship he created. He was a he was
an idea guy and energy guy. I thought the Republicans
taking over the House was badly needed. The Democrats had
been sitting on it for too long. I mean, at
some point you got to flush the toilet or backsop
and yeah, and so I just want to Brian and
(27:25):
I worked the Turnpike again this Tuesday, Yes, Tuesday. So
the Turnpike is patting itself on the back because you're rating,
he s is only going to be three percent. I
think it was four percent. I'm sorry, four percent. It's
been six percent the last three years. And as we
repert I'm pretty sure we reported. So you'll get your
(27:53):
rates increase. And the Turnpike views this as a victory
up through twenty fifty.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yes, it was a great victory.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
So they're gonna say, look, your rates went up because
we had to. I think it was Act forty four
way to give four hundred million five hundred million a
year to pend on. The problem is half of their
debt is because of that. So I just wanted to
do a segment on colon candy and this may strike
you as odd. So Brian and I were at the
(28:21):
turnpike did a presentation. There's a fourteen hundred acre expansion
for an underground coal mine under the turnpike. Yes, at
the Donegal exit under the turnpike.
Speaker 2 (28:32):
And there's already been cracks and road damage which they
have to pay for it. And so that's that's great.
And also on the debt. The one excuse they always
use it. We just want to bring this up is
that they they were blocked in by Act forty four.
They got released of that in twenty twenty two. Yes,
but the increase is stay. No matter what happens to
the turnpike, right, the increases stay. It's always going up.
And we should say this is the most expensive turnpike
(28:54):
in the history of the world, and it's always getting
more expensive.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It will.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So here's what's interesting. Actually, it's gonna price itself out.
It was economical when it first came on, a revolutionary idea.
So the type of coal that's being mined is called
medical and it's used for you know, I'm trying to
think of the right way to put this, so it's metallurgical.
I'm having putting that out. It is mostly seventy percent
(29:21):
of it is exported overseas, so we're gonna mind coal
under the turnpike send seventy percent overseas. And what's interesting,
at least to me, I mean anyway, is the Turnpike
has a mission statement that says driving the turnpike past
green and into sustainable and ultimately towards restoration restorative practices
(29:47):
across our five hundred and fifty miles toll road operations.
Now you're not going to see this, but just on
the face of it, it was like wow, because it
has yeah, based on the report, has the potential for
acid mind drainage for.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
All these environmental but people think about coal. They only
think about the global warming CO two, but there's other
environmental issues. The other thing is that you have to
pay for all the damage it costs. So not only
is the most expensive in the world, but any damage
it caused is you have to pay for you brought
up that coals coming back and that that's gonna be
(30:25):
a new thing. And it also this is the other
thing we talked about the data centers, is that Pennsylvania
takes on the environmental risk, takes on the infrastructure damage,
takes on the costs, and then they export it to
these other places, other states, other countries, and they don't
even derive the benefit of it. I mean, some of
the benefit for the say the data centers of the
coal is completely outside of the state. So you're so
(30:46):
it's the worst of all worst. We're eating the costs,
we're getting none of the benefit, and then we're dealing
with a turnpike that it is completely devoid of any
private business or any personal expensive bring costs down. In fact,
we even know licaus later in the in fact, this
year they raised their own salaries. So all while this
(31:09):
is going on, all while you're paying more, will.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, let me let me hit that because the rays
of their salaries. Well, that's that's the Sunday on top
of the cherry. And you had a situation in March
which Brian covered the meeting where and nobody was really
aware of what was going on. There was this three
hundred and sixty seven thousand dollars rays for top executives
behind closed door, no public vote, totally illegal, and that
(31:35):
really should be the turnpikes mon vote.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
That should be the Yeah, no sunshine, terrible service, very
expensive and only getting worse.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
So when you looked at the when so we told them,
first of all, for the coal we're going to file
right to no requests and for the compensation will file
right to know requests. We're gonna have to sue them
at the State Ethics Commission will likely lose. You know,
there were two recent decisions. One that said after Shapiro
(32:08):
took money built security for his own home before getting permission,
right that, Yeah, I guess it was okay.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
People will forget that because there was assassination attempts. They
don't want to look like that. But the other one is,
you know, well they don't want look like they're being
mean mean, even though you know this is a perfect
example of people using government to enrich themselves.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, but State Ethics Commission should be much more aggressive,
more critical. And you know, when you don't enforce the laws,
it just encourages more to sprout out. But when you
look at the salary, so the chief executive makes seventy
eight percent more than the executive director of the Ohio
Turnpike and one hundred and thirty eight thousand more than
(32:54):
the CEO of the Florida Turnpike.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Which were both let's say, cheaper, better run and not
in debt, which is just. And so this is this
is an example of not only are they getting paid
more of the market rate, they're not even performing.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Well.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
You know, you could argue, you know, showing Atani gets
paid a lot, but he performs. This is the exact opposite.
You can, you know, show it a Tani money and
no performance.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
Yeah, I mean it kind of sounds like my sex life.
So uh, but as we get back to it and
make our final transition or you know, with the Turnpike,
just one last thought is I think we're really getting
to the point where electric bills are becoming like the Turnpike.
(33:37):
You almost anticipate and you do get a raise every year,
and the.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Quality of service hasn't changed. Absolutely so and that's not good.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Look, we'll go to the break and see if there's
anything else stupid. I can say, Eric Epstein, Millennial, Brian
and we have Art Selby producing. We are Rock to Capital,
the Show's Thunderdome and we'll be back for the final segment,
all right, so I will come on the last segment.
I mean, this time of year is always dark and cold,
but the light I guess some of the people have
(34:07):
theorized that Hanukkah and the Festival of Lights is because
I guess the.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
Shortest day of the year's December twenty fourth. Is that summer.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
I thought it's number twenty seventh, but you could be
right around. It's around that we're talking.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, I mean, so one of
the end, the last segment of the year. You know,
it's another un art. How long have you been with
the station? You've been here since its founding, right.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Yeah, we're working on thirty one years. It'll be thirty
one in April.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
That's unbelievable, it is. And you've been to here same
more amount of time almost that.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
So I just wanted to share with you I've been
I did a couple of PC interviews over the last
couple of months. Actually one the last a week or
two I think, is when we went over there.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
You know when you say pay raise and how much
the turn bike makes and people see a lot of
times just shut down and so to give you a
sense of where we rank as a state commonwealth. The
average salary for a legislator in the United States of
America is forty eight thousand dollars word one hundred and thirteen.
(35:20):
We're the largest legislature that gets paid. There are ten
full time legislatures. There are four times twenty four part time,
so most are part time and the rest are a hybrid.
When you look at other ways to do the compensation,
nineteen states have compensation commissions, and these two states I love.
(35:43):
The voters vote on it, which means you're never getting
a raise. But at the end of the day, where
we're at, excuse me, in terms of compensation for legislators,
I think can be remedied by three things. One part
time legislature than the pay that simply goes way to
a compensation commission, which is what they have in California.
(36:07):
And number three, if you decouple the pay rates from
a pension bounce, people aren't gonna want to hang around.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
That's yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
The pension thing is the big thing because it rewards
essentially seniority, not performance. And then also people just they
don't just hang around. They try to double dip and
triple dip and then live off the dime forever. So
it's like it's you know, it used to be that,
you know, you took a public sector job. The pay
wasn't as good, but you got a great pension. If
you're a politician, that pays great, and you get a
(36:35):
pension and you get to double and triple dip no
matter how your performance is.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Well after ten years you have a lifetime health insurance.
So I think that that's where the old days is
the same with teaching, you know, you were viewed as
a public servant. You had essentially a recession proof job,
good health care, and good pension. So as we kind
of end up here, going going down the road, a
(36:58):
couple questions for you, you and Art. All right, so
if you guys are ready, all right, how many deer
are in Santa sleet twelve?
Speaker 3 (37:10):
Is that right? All right? I'm looking at you. I'm
not sure. I don't.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
That doesn't seem right to me.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
An odd number. It was an odd number. I thought eleven.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's nine or eleven?
Speaker 1 (37:22):
I mean, so you start thinking, if they have an
even number of deer on their sleigh, I guess it's
no problem for fear to have an equal number of
board members twenty okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
It just never got that.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
So it's Christmas is and I just the twenty fifth
is like immutable. It's not going to be like any
other day where you're just moving. What is Does anybody
know why the Christmas for the Serbian churches later?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
You know, it's probably there's I think there's dispute over
when Jesus was actually born.
Speaker 3 (38:00):
Maybe that was around that's a calendar deal.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, I think there was. There was an argument. I
heard that it was like July sixth, But that's just
not it's better for the end of the year type stuff.
I be honest, it's that's way above my pay grade.
As far as Wilmerson.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
Now, when we would go down to Chuna in a
different hemisphere, you know for Christmas it was warm, it
always was kind of peculiar.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
Well this is there's summer months.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
Right yeah, right, all right.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So the final question is is Christmas still the economic
juggernaut it used to be or has has our world changed?
I mean it used to be Black Friday, I guess
up until Christmas.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
For some people that was their year.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, that was how they made their money. I think
it's one hundred percent. It's still it's just online, so
it's not you know, everyone's rushing the stores. It's like,
can we get the shipping in and get all these
trucks in for Christmas? I mean every year, I think
it's gonna be.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
There's always people that say that they have every times
they were supposed to before Christmas and they get them
after Christmas. It's a big deal. I think that last year.
I guarantee they'll have it this year. And this is
gonna become more and more as online shopping becomes kind
of the norm and you know, the day to day
shopping comes are I.
Speaker 4 (39:14):
Mean, I agree with Brian plus plus the amount of
decorations that people buy. Decorations are just everywhere.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, you don't see many Hanikah Harry's out there with
the Bazuka, but I you know, and I know growing
up there were a number of Christians who thought it
was becoming too material and wanted to move back to
the reason for the season, right And look, I get
you know, the presidents and the gift giving, but I
also will tell you January's man a tough month because
(39:42):
you're only looking forward to what President's Day.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Oh yeah, once you get past this holiday period, you
got a long and it's cold too. It's not like
the summer. It's like it's cold outside. So this is
like kind of the the you know, it was up
to New Year's basically, basically up to New Year's of like,
this is the fun period that you got. You know,
everyone back to work, everyone's back at school.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
So I'm not going to see it to that. Art
any New Year's resolutions.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Oh boy, the typical need to lose some weight. I
would say that's probably my biggest resolution.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
Yeah, Millennial, Yeah, same here to get in better shape.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
Yeah, definitely. I agree. You both need to lose weight.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I've had the same resolution for almost forty years. My
resolution is not to make a resolution because I never
honor my resolution.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Well, and every year you're successful in not making a
resolution that you don't.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Yeah, so, Art, I know it's going to be a
sore subject the college playoffs. You know, Millennial has a solution.
I think what is it? A playing playing games? In fact,
Orton and I were discussing this earlier in the week.
I think that the solution is the problem is the committee.
(40:52):
The fact that the playoff is not access based, but
committee based makes everything because.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Now you have the eye test, strength and schedule. The
way I would look at it is like this is
that you have you have ways to get in the playoff.
Let's say you qualify for the top four conference games.
That's eight. Let's say have a sixteen team playoff. The
other eight spots are determined by playing games. You have
eight playing games during the conference championship weekend. If you win,
you're in. If you lose, you're out. And so everyone
(41:20):
in and around that can play in. And if you
complain about well, I don't think this or because people
always complain about everything, they'll play out seating. If they
switch to sixteen, they'll complain about it. But for me,
the way it should work is if you win, your in,
If you lose, you're out. And so you only give
yourself to play if you're if you're if you're in
the playing game, you'll have yourself to play. So if
you think about Nerdame taxes, you know Vanderbilt, all these
(41:44):
teams are in and around it, they would have playing
games if they want. Let's say Nor Dame wins, they're in.
If they lost, and so now it's access determined rather
than committee determined, which is the big thing.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
Art, What do you think?
Speaker 4 (41:55):
All right, that's that's a good point by Brian. My
biggest problems with the whole thing the way it went
down is you had that show on Tuesday Night for
five weeks that had Notre Dame in. Notre Dame did
nothing wrong, they won all their games. Then they get
to the last week and for no reason at all,
Alabama passes them Alabama, and then they tell you, well,
the conference championship games don't matter, so b why you
(42:17):
drop so Miami can move up to be head to
head with Notre Dame. But Alabama doesn't drop when they
got blown out, So that made no sense. So those
are the things that really bother me. Now, obviously Alabama
and Miami have won their playoff games, so everyone's going
to say, well, they deserve to be there. Well, Notre
Dame probably would have won those games too, so you know,
it's just.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Much pressure though for them coming in. I guess the
thing that concerns me is I don't like it when
you pick out comes. I mean, we live in a
time now that we should have metrics.
Speaker 3 (42:47):
You shouldn't.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
I'm not worried about the optics, you know, I'm just
worried about who the best team is. And it's like
any sport at the end of the year, the best
team at the end isn't the same as the best
team at the beginning, you know, you know, Frank, But
there was a game today, there was a game yesterday.
I like how that gets broken up. But as a
Penn State fan, I don't know if you remember our
(43:08):
ninety three Penn State was undefeated. They beat Ohio State
sixty three to seven, and they finished second to Nebraska.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (43:17):
Yeah, that was just like the year you were Notre
Dame in Florida State. Both went eleven and one, and
Notre Dame beat Florida State head to head because we
lost to Boston College, we finished too. To me, it
was kind of the same deal with Miami. Okay, they
beat us head to head, but they lost to two
unranked teams, so you can't just throw that out the windows.
So I guess it's Notre Dame fans were going to
(43:38):
go back and claim that national championship now since had
the head matters so much.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
Yeah, no, I'll help you storm the gates, but I
guess to me. The thing is when you have humans
involved with the decision of that magnitude, it's always political. Yeah,
I mean Nixon back in sixty nine. I think Penn
State versus Alabama could have been Kansas wad In. You know,
it's just so important. I think we got what a minute, two.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
Minutes, about about a minute or so.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
All right, art anything for Christmas, anything you want.
Speaker 4 (44:09):
I honestly, there really wasn't anything physical I wanted this year.
Just so many friends and family members were suffering this year.
I just wanted everybody to be healthy and have a
nice Christmas, and that that's what I'm hoping for.
Speaker 3 (44:21):
How does your dad fully recovered?
Speaker 4 (44:23):
He's pretty close to four recovered, so you know, I'm
just thankful he's still around.
Speaker 3 (44:28):
Yeah. That so Briant. Well, after that, I just want
to I mean, you did whatever you say after that. Yeah,
it's not bad.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
I just want stuff to associated with coffee, either gift
cards or big Ahead due I mean the.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Amount of coffee you drink. I'm surpriased Brazil is at bankrupt.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
I mean they love me.
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I'm a revenue generator.
Speaker 3 (44:50):
Actually that's true.
Speaker 1 (44:52):
So you know, I think artists you get older Actually,
I think as time goes on, especially if you have
kids or pets or whatever, you wind up giving more
than you receive. And I'm happy to do that, honestly.
I just got to say, a great time of the year.
And last question ten seconds.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
Yep, yep. All right.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
Well we'll do the last question in January. Okay, all right, holiday, yeah, hey,
show him me all
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com