Wednesday-5-13-2026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The CaCO Day radio program and Wednesday Morning, So for
whatever that is worth, glad to have you along. Now
every other Wednesday we chat with Congressman Brad Not this
is not his Wednesday, no pun intended, So we're actually
to be chatting with Dave Bullet coming up today, the

(00:22):
state auditor, who continues to find himself in the news. Specifically,
well there's a couple issues, but specifically about the forty
that this number staggers me every time I'm forced to
remember and recitate it. The forty seven thousand percent increase
in five years of people who are getting reimbursements for

(00:45):
autism services in the state of North Carolina. It's a
crazy number. And I find here's the conclusion that I've
come to because like it's really easy right now to
feel like everybody's dipping their beaks, because everybody's dipping their beaks.
I the problem is, I think between what you know

(01:07):
people like Bullock in North Carolina are doing and what
you're seeing at the national level, whether it's through dose
or you know, the the exposing of many of these nngos,
just getting a peak behind the curtain up at the
congressional level. I mean, stuff that you instinctively knew was
going on, but you but you're seeing it like you're

(01:29):
seeing the numbers pressed. I think the problem that the
terrifying option and where I'm at is it's not like
they're exposing all of it. They're rubbing the edges right now.
And if they're rubbing the edges and this is what
you're seeing, it has to be so much worse. ROSSA.
Does that make sense what I'm talking about? Like, I

(01:50):
think I think that every shocking moment where we see
things like this, I think it's just a tiny peak
behind the curtain. I think if you ever got to
look at the whole apparatus, we are being rob blind,
like we like, to the point where it would it
would feel third world desk spot because there's no way
everyone in Congress is getting this rich. All of these

(02:11):
nonprofits that I continue to still exist even after all
of the cutting where they're taking money is like hundreds
of millions of dollars that were raised for people after
the fires and Pacific Palisades, which then got showed up
and ground through the gears and the multi levels of
all of these different nonprofits, they're they uncovered another thing

(02:32):
where Gavin Newsom and his wife are essentially built in
the system. Every way they can, they get a new
diaper hustle, where if you look at it on paper,
very few babies are getting diapers. The mayor Bass out
there announced teeth for what was What the hell was this?
It's it's so stupid basically free teeth for meth heads.

(02:57):
I'm not even I'm not even paraphrasing the stupid title
of this thing. It's something that dumb. And instead of
just giving them money into the dentists and then you know,
giving them the meth head and then you know, they
put the teeth in. No, it's got to go through
multi levels of organizations, one of which is essentially like,
you know, teeth for attics or something. I think we're

(03:19):
still only seeing the edge of this, and I think
that if we ever saw it in its entirety all
at once, people would go that there'd be straight gallows.
And I don't mean that to like it sounds like
I'm trying to be over the top, but it's just
this sad realization that I come to in my head
every time we do one of these stories. I mean,

(03:42):
we're being released by so much if.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
They found this without even having to do a deep dive.
What else is there?

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Everything? I think I think that if you actually got
into it, and state by state it's going to vary.
But I really feel because even in states like North Carolina,
which remember our essentially managed by the GOP for the
last what twelve years? More than that, right, I just
everybody's in it. I hate everybody. I just assume now

(04:12):
at the onset, if you've been in government for more
than five five years, you, at the very least, even
if you're not partaking, you have had to be exposed
to it to the point where you should have become
a whistleblower. You should you, you you should have. You,
you should have you should have flipped the tables. Okay,

(04:36):
let everyone know what's going on. I don't know what
the percentage is. I think it's easily a fourth of
everything I think. I think I think a fourth of
all of the money that passes through government is being stolen,
just being stolen. And they may not think they're stealing it,
but they're stealing it by setting like, oh well, I

(04:57):
just look if I have one more nonprofit in the
thing here, never thinking that you're gonna take another eighteen
percent administrative, and now that's gonna cut down on the
money going. You're gonna get in government, you're gonna give
contracts to your friends. This is why I find it
all so lowsome. I don't know why I work in
this business. Probably put myself in an early grave. I mean,
stressing over this stuff.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
You would think it'd be harder to find, right So,
I mean they're sitting there and they're like, lit's open
the nose and see what we find. And like right
off the top, they're like, whoa, look at this thing.
So what are we gonna find? When they actually do it,
like a really deep investigation, trying to find like fraud, fraud, fraud.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know what I mean, it's gonna be sacks. But
that's the dead giveaway. I think the reason that it
was so easy to find even what's here is because
they've been getting away with it so long they don't
fear getting caught.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, you don't even have to hide it behind like
you know this shell or that shell or no, this
stuff around is do it.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
Nobody's gonna be there, just yeah, because here's the thing.
You know that the person on the other side, who yeah,
you're gonna go on and spar with on the Sunday shows.
They got their own skeletons, and if they really want
to get into it, you'll take them down with you.
That's that's where my head's at. And and and you
know what, Har'd convinced I'd write more and more and

(06:08):
more every single day and nobody, nobody will really pay
the price. They'll get one or two here, one or
two there. You gotta look like you're doing something, and
for the most part, it'll just continue on because there's
so much at stake. There's so much at stake, because

(06:29):
here's the thing. Bullet can sit there and find this,
but what can he do about it? That requires that
requires Jeff Jackson to go ahead and do something. You know,
there was a little shot that was taken by Senator
budd yesterday. I don't know if you guys caught it
when he was when he was when I asked him
basically that, and he made a TikTok joke. The reason

(06:51):
he's making a TikTok chokes is because the only thing
Jeff Jackson is good at other than falling in line
with all the other Democrat ags and filing lawsuit after
lawsuit after lawsuit against Trump is making stupid TikTok videos.
That's it. That's that's that's the guy's claim to fame.
I've never seen anything productive at him. He's he's he's

(07:12):
absolutely nasty. And so we continue in this long line
of ags who they're going to do the political stuff.
But holy hell, there should everyone should be outraged. I
understand that it's federal monies that are getting built through,
but it's still a North Carolina problem in the same
way that it's a national problem. How dare you think

(07:35):
you can get away with that? And how dare you
operate a system where you don't have some eyeball on
a on on a spreadsheet or in today's day and age,
just a computer program that's like, okay, if we see
a if we see a year over year increase of
one hundred percent, that's going to trigger something where we
need to ask questions unless it's in the initial startup here, right,

(08:00):
you expect to see that. And if you see a
forty forty seven thousand percent increase over five years and
nobody asked questions, then then they're fundamentally your oversight is
is awful to the point of almost the dereliction of duty.
Right if you're the one in charge of handling this

(08:21):
and providing oversight or two, you know what's up and
you understand that after one. Because here's the deal. Criminals
talk to each other. Criminals talk to each other. What's
the one thing a person will tell you one of
the things a person will tell you about prison you
go to If you go to prison, you can come

(08:42):
out a much better criminal because guys will sit there
and they'll talk about stuff. And then when you get
in with family members, you get in with cohorts and
friends like you see, or in insular communities like up
up in Minneapolis with the Somali community, somebody figures out, Hey,
I got this great hustle and they're like, oh, what's
what's the hustle? What is uh? You know, what is
Ishtar up to? And then they're like, oh, well he

(09:03):
opened a home healthcare thing right. Oh, and it's great.
He doesn't even have to do anything. And look at
that he's got a brand new navigator. Oh please tell
me how to do it. Oh well, they're so dumb.
See it's like what you saw with PPP. People figured
out that there was no oversight, and they robbed it blind,

(09:23):
robbed it blind. And while there's the criminal edge of it,
there's also the monies, like I said, going back to
the NGOs that are being made, I don't want to
say quasi legally because it shouldn't be, but where they're like,
oh no, we're just we're just another ngo, We're just
another charity. And I and I've told you what happens.
It's what you saw with the fire money. It starts

(09:46):
with whatever the main apparatus is and then rather than
the money's being doled by that to the person, they
just they just farm it out to others, and then
they farm it out to others, and then they farm
it out to others. And there are models within charitable
giving where this kind of is a thing where it

(10:07):
makes sense right where there's a bigger organization that then
farms out like oh giving an example, one of the
one of the charities that I've that I've involved myself
with previously was Big Brothers Big Sisters. I think that's
a pretty good organization. And I recognized that when at
the national level taking monies and then spreading it out
to the state organizations, that kind of makes sense. That's

(10:30):
not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about
the way the United Way kind of goes about it,
where they have that giving periods and then any of
the recipient organizations maybe don't do their own fundraisers during
that time, and then it passes through the United Way
like there's models out there, but then there are abusive models.
And I'm really scared that we're not all of a

(10:51):
sudden getting a peak at all of the all of
the crap that's going on. And I'm sorry I'm ranting
about this at six oh dark thirty in the morning,
but I think that we're only seeing five percent of it,
and that is far more terrifying. That's far more terrifying.
And even though we're seeing it as far as enforcement
goes on it, we're not even seeing a good effort.

(11:15):
So let that terrify it as we get things kicked
off here on the Wednesday morning, all right, coming up
on the show Zionist Rape Dogs. That's a tease, huh, yep.
It just goes downhill from there, six eighteen hang on.
I was kind of like cleaning out my fridge. It
needed it, you know, when you get that one little like,

(11:37):
what is that smell? Not a bad smell, but just
an unusual one. So I'm going through there, and I
had some like meatballs in a it wrapped up, but
they were wrapped up for a well, so that's what
it was. But I'm in there and there I got
to pack a bacon sitting in there, and I'm looking
at it. I realize the expirations here in like a week.

(11:57):
So I did the thing because I like, I like
bel to Ross, you like Blt's you fin of b olts,
Oh yeah, oh yeah. So I'm like, all right, so
I'm gonna cook this entire pack of bacon, right so
it's all cooked, and then I'll put it in tup
aware and then I I'll have belts or you know,
if I want to have some breakfast with bacon and eggs,
it's quick to reheat. Do you know how impossible it

(12:18):
is to cook a pack of bait and a bacon
and not eat most of it. That's like a singular
challenge right there. Man, not most of it, but like
enough where you probably shouldn't have that much bacon for dinner.
I have zero self control doing.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
I know. What's even harder is like the pre cooked bacon,
you know what I mean. So like you just have
to heat.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
It up right.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
Yeah, yeah, if you open that, you're gonna eat the
whole pack like it's gonna be gone.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Because I want two things. I want to cook the
whole pack of bacon, but I also want the bacon
grease so I can put it, you know, the skim
it put in a little container and then you know,
if I fry eggs up right whatever, perfect stuff. And
I'm sitting there and I realized, I am a grown
ass adult and I just can't like it's dangerous, man,
So I think I ended up with two thirds of

(13:04):
the thing of bacon. But then it's funny because I
woke up this wrm. My whole house smelled like bacon.
I mean, yeah, bacon is pleasant. Bacon in itself is dangerous.
So even if you're like cooking it, cooking it like
the raw bacon, I'm like, you know what, I might
even like, I'm gonna, you know, i'll cook it. Yeah,
I'll take you my chance with the parasites. I might
even eat it before I cook it. It's so good,
you know what I mean, crispy, love it crispy. So
I ended up with a bunch of strips, and then

(13:25):
I crumbled some too. I'm like a salad with that.
But ah, sorry, I just is it possible. I don't think.
I don't think if you asked me to sit down
and cook a pack of bacon that I could do
it and not eat a little piece of it. I
don't think it's humanly possible.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, Markie will buy it, and then she'll be like,
she'll go back in the fridge. She'll be like, where'd
it go? And I'm like, in my stomach.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Oh no. The bacon thief man, Yeah, yeah, the bacon
burglar of wake Forest. Isn't that a thing?

Speaker 3 (13:52):
Stall?

Speaker 2 (13:52):
I mean everybody's talking about them.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah yeah. It braks into your house, steals the bacon,
gets out of there. Man. All right, So we got
a few things cooking this morning. We'll get to the
dog story here in just a moment. Joy Behart may
have outdone herself yesterday. Good Lord with this woman. All right,
so check this out.

Speaker 4 (14:14):
We get you. But what gets you.

Speaker 5 (14:15):
What gets me is this sort of this lie that
they care about children. They seem to care about white children,
but like when they say more Trump babies, what does
that mean, okay, I'm just asking the question, and I
would like to just remind people that this administration dismantled USAID,
which helped children around the world. They cut thirteen billion

(14:37):
dollars in foreign a, resulting in an estimated five hundred
thousand children dying and four point five million children under
five could die by twenty thirty due to lute.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
By the way, these are bs University of Pennsylvania, I
think one of the Northeast universities numbers where they just like,
oh yeah, five hundred thousand children just died. There's nothing
back in this that I've seen that I believe.

Speaker 5 (15:02):
Well preventable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, HIV, malaria, and tubercular says. So,
don't tell me you care about children. You only care
about these children that you call Trump children. But it
is accessible to any American.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
But that let's look at it. A child's not a
Trump child. It's accessible to I mean, working.

Speaker 5 (15:21):
At the overall picture of this administration to stop bssing me.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Okay, by the way, there is a conspiracy. These are
tied together. So there's this report that was supposed to
it did come out yesterday and I'll tell you what
was in there, some of the stuff that was in there.
But everyone knew this report was going to come out
and what the report was supposed to document, and it
was supposed to document sexual torture that was committed by

(15:49):
Hamas going back to October seventh, right, give a definitive,
get rid of the noise on both sides, really look
into it all the available because there's so much video.
There's so much video and communications that you're able to
pour over. And they wanted to get a sense of
what tactics were deployed. And one of one of the

(16:12):
tactics that I've seen before this is something that was
being done with the Hutus and the Tutsis and long
before that, by the way, And it's one of the
most despicable acts of war you could possibly think of.
And it's weaponized rape. And I'm sorry, I understand this

(16:35):
is tough stuff. I'll try to be delicate, but you
got to understand what this is because I've seen it
pop up before and it goes like this. It's not
just what you're thinking where somebody breaks in, right and
they're going to you know, in this case, some monster
arena they're gonna rape the the Israelis. They find it's

(16:55):
darker than that. One of the tactics is you break in.
Let's say you break into the house and you have
multiple generations of families hiding in there. Okay, and so
you got mom and dad, you know, you have a
couple of the kids, maybe they they have spouses and
then their kids. Right, three generations there. And instead of

(17:16):
just going in there and maybe sexually abusing whoever they
find there, it's far more devious. And one of the
things that they'll do is they will force family members
to rape other family members. Yeah, I'm gonna pause there
so you can take in the darkness of what I
just said to you. And again, this was something that
was well documented with Hutoo's tutsis. This is stuff that

(17:38):
has historical documentations. It's really awful stuff or or worse,
parents raping their their own children children. And they knew
this was going to pop into the report. So oddly,
knowing that this report was supposed to come out, you know, yesterday,
and it did, The New York Times wrote a piece

(18:00):
on their front cover. It was labeled an opinion piece
and it was by a writer by the name of
Nicholas Christoff, and I know the national shows had probably
talked about this a lot, and in it was. It
was basically a counterpiece to this, except it didn't have

(18:21):
the first level documentation, right, It had anonymous sourcing, it
had anecdotal stories, it didn't have some of this stuff happening.
And a lot of people saw this as just a
disgusting act of journalism or non journalism, i should say,
and people were demanding that they retracted or at the

(18:43):
very least source, and in fact there was some discussion. Again,
they didn't label it news, they labeled an opinion. The
whole thing was strange, and some of the allegations are nuts.
The one that really stood out, I think to a
lot of people is in this and you better have
a lot to back this up, they claimed, and it's
not the first time I've heard it. They claimed that

(19:06):
the that the Israelis had dogs that were trained to
rape Palestinians. What how does that? How does that even?

Speaker 6 (19:18):
What?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
And what kind of dogs that would be?

Speaker 6 (19:22):
Ross?

Speaker 1 (19:23):
I guess we got to do this. Uh what kind
of what breed of dogs are we talking about here?

Speaker 6 (19:28):
Right?

Speaker 2 (19:28):
So I'm gonna go we need dog bomb.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Why is it always the docss man? What do the
docsins does work?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
I'm gonna go with a kosher we need dog bob oh,
like an all beef we need all beef dog. That's
what I do.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Like the Nathan's all beef kosher hot dogs. No, No,
it was some larger breeds, wide variety. There do not
see docsins listed. The point is it's a pretty that's
a pretty significant allegation. That's a pretty significant allegation. So

(20:05):
the question becomes, all right, well, what do you have
backing that?

Speaker 3 (20:07):
Up?

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Here is Charles Stratlander, that's the guy's name, spokesperson of
the New York Times who's responding to some rumor. There
was a rumor MILLI yesterday that there were already discussions
about retracting portions of the column due to issues with
source credibility and lack of evidence. However, no indication that

(20:33):
christoff sourcing mistakes were deliberate, which I don't know. The
New York Times pushed back and they said that that's
not the case and they stand by it. Quote, there's
no truth to this at all. Nicholas Christoph is a
two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who's reported on sexual
violence for decades. Let me get to the sourcing. He

(20:54):
traveled to the region report firsthand on stories from Palestinians
who say they've suffered to be and the article collects
accounts and the victim's own words backed by independent studies.
Notice they don't say back by, you know, evidence of
these individual incidents to the whole thing. The whole thing
is nuts. But and I I admittedly I hadn't really

(21:17):
like dove into it, probably as much as I should
until yesterday. But this is gonna be your news cycle today,
So just go ahead and prepare oneself. Okay, oh no, what.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
No?

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Why? Oh no? Ross just sent me. Oh no, hang out.
What was his character's name in the movie before I
start talking?

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Well, he was in he was in that movie that's
in the right right now, but also in the Revenge
of the Nerds.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
But I bullet rat his name in blood Sport with Jackson.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Right yeah, and then Ogre in Revenge the Nerds. We're
talking about actor Donald Gibb, who apparently has passed away
at the age of seventy one. Yeah, so he is
Van Dam's buddy, kind of biker looking buddy, they're in
blood Sport and by the way, the victim of bad

(22:21):
sportsmanship too. I would argue, right, what do you do?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
He put him in the hospital, right, yeah, we put
him in the hospital, and he took his headband, took.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
His headband that leg. Yeah, that'd be all f you there.
Oh man, Oh, you hate to see that. Chong Lee
was was an a hole, we can agree, right, but
what a great villain man, as far as eighties movie

(22:53):
villains go, Shong Lee.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Right, they had him, they had him cheating, they had
him getting up on the mat doing coke. You know,
he's like doing the thing of his nose like area.
Oh it's great, you know what I mean, what a
great man. Now I gotta watch blood Sport again, just
in honor there. Sorry, I got distracted. Man, you hate
to see it.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
We're getting it, you know, And I understand that for
members of the audience who are like fifteen twenty years older,
you guys have already gone through this. But just the
absolute erasure of all of the awesomeness of our childhood.
It's funny. There's a video game. If I could just
get distracted for a moment, there's a video game called
Mixtape that people are arguing over now. It sounds like

(23:32):
as far as a game, as far as a video
game goes, it's not that exciting, like you don't get
to really control much. Apparently it plays out in just,
you know, hours, so there's not a lot of longevity
of the game. But it's it's called mixtape, and it's
a pure nineties nostalgia thing. And basically the premise is

(23:53):
it's got very like John hughesy vibes. But the premise is,
let me just read this teen Stacey Rockford, Van Slater
and Cassandra Marino are best friends in a fictional northern
California town called Blue Moon Lagoon in the nineties, And
basically the whole premise of this is they're just they're

(24:13):
just use growing up in the in the nineties, and
they run around and entertain themselves. They go skateboarding down
hilly roads, they build jumps, they hang out in parking
lots and chat with each other. They get a little
intimate right they're getting their first kisses in you know,
skipping rocks. Just basically filling the day doing nothing and

(24:35):
everything all at once till the street lights come on
and then you got to go home. And the controversy
that I'm seeing from some is not just that they
think the game's not great, which is fine. Apparently the
soundtrack's amazing. Soundtracks amazing, as it should be, but rather
that people find it younger generations find it unbelievable that

(24:55):
that's how we would fill our days in the nineties. Like,
you're not sitting at home home doing video games, although
you were sometimes, but no, you were out and about
and you were active, and you were finding things to
do because you didn't have all of the instant stimuli
that we have now. You might go over to the
pizza place where they got the one Mortal Kombat game,

(25:16):
spend an hour over there, and then me and my
daddies would cruise around and yeah, we just did nothing
and everything.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
Yeah, no, one of our moms or dads would drop
us off at the mall and we literally spend the
entire day really there and like, yeah, sure, video games
the arcade was part of it, but then you'd run
out of quarters, yeah right, and you.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Go interact with your friends or or you're not friends or.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
And it is amazing how much time we spent outdoors. Yes,
just amazing the amount of basketball I played it as
a kid so much I can't even put it into words.
And I'm in I would sweat. I would love to
know how many calories I was burning on a daily
basis playing basketball.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
We had a giant. We had a giant. We had
the largest free outdoor pool in the United States, which
is uh which is crazy stat for little o Buffalo,
Wyoming because we had like a Olympic and a half
size outdoor freepool. I M dude, But three hours out
of any summer day was also spent there, you know,

(26:14):
laring and splashing and doing flips, and then you go
and then we would we'd be in the woods. You're
playing basketball. We're burning like two thousand calories a day.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Remember when Stranger Things came out? Same thing, Like the
younger generations were like, did you all really spend time
on your bike? Yeah, we spent a lot of times
on our bikes, like you said, like you said playing
in the woods, and that was a testity, but that
is definitely a thing we did. Yes, I was reading
a rapport talking about there's a theory as to why
all these young athletes now are blowing out there like
like breaking their ankles and blowing out their acls.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
I just looked this up, by the way, because you
were telling me this. It's not just that they say
that the number of sports injuries among student athletes is
up like two hundred percent, right, and they're trying to
the last fifteen years, right, But you right, But you
also see this on the per professional level, where you'll
have these professional athletes and obviously they're in good shape,
but it's like they're lower but like their they're calves

(27:07):
and their an right now, Yeah, you know, this is
what's going on with Cad. She may have Tracy mcgratied
her back, oh yes, But they're trying to figure out, like,
what's the different.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Why is this happening now at a much larger or
faster rate than before. And the theory I was reading
is these kids aren't getting the same sort of stimulation
or like activity that we When we were kids, we
were kind of training, yeah, constantly riding our bikes or
jumping over fences or doing stuff like you weren't supposed
to be doing, and that doesn't happen these days. Yeah, yeah, dude,

(27:42):
I thought I almost killed myself doing a couple of jumps.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Well one I did. I put the bone out, myselt out,
my damn arm, right, but that didn't Then the next
the next week, you're like, all right, let's build a ramp.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
You build a ramp out of anything. That's Another weird
thing to think about is talking about the jumping over fences.
I've jumped over a lot of fences. I don't know why.
It's definitely something I did because it was there, Like
it needed to jump shortcuts going to and from school.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
We do that. Yeah, dude, this was all so normal. Also,
we used to play truck tag. I shouldn't even explain this.
Don't do this, okay, don't in retrospect. This was a
bad plus when we as soon as we got four
by four trucks, dude, there was we would we would
get We would try to run up hills that were

(28:29):
so steep and jump trucks so that we had like
a step you know, a step rail on the side
of my Buddy's Z seventy one, and that it we'd
be on the hill and we'd feel the vehicle start
pitching up on one side, and so two of you'd
have to jump out and stand and lean off the
window to do what you're doing. But then we go

(28:49):
play truck tag, and truck tag was simple. One person's driving,
another person's in the truck, and then you're trying to
tag another vehicle that's moving where you have to then
jump out of the truck stock them in an alleyway
so you can tag the truck and you just got
to tap it because if not, you break your damn
arm doing that. All horrible ideas, all out of necessity,

(29:12):
just trying to find something to do. So, whether it's
when you're still on bikes and you're riding fifteen miles
a day with your buddies, you get your vehicle, you're
doing the coming of age stuff right, because there's a
whole scene in here where these two teens are trying
to learn to French kiss. I'm sorry that was a thing,
and I'm sorry you don't like the reality of it,

(29:32):
but that is that was our days, and for better
or for worse, like Ross is talking about, maybe for
better where we you know, we were more fluidly physically
trained just because we would do one hundred different things.
It's funny because it's kind of like how you guys
structure your workout routine. You don't just go in and
do one thing, right, you do a bunch. You have

(29:54):
a whole set of things, and then some days you
do different.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Things, right, Yeah, different different parts of the body, right,
you to the upper lower, push pole, whatever the or
like we said yesterday, working on the thumb machine. Yeah,
thumb machine is very important. Yeah, if you don't know
what we're talking about this yesterday's podcast, very important. You
think thumbs would be uh, they'd be like super super

(30:18):
uh built now with all the videos right right, But no,
not necessarily the case.

Speaker 1 (30:25):
So again, the game doesn't the game doesn't sound that exciting.
It sounds more nostalgic. But I just think it's very
funny where you have people going this is not an
accurate repuce.

Speaker 6 (30:33):
No.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I checked out the trailer for that yesterday because it's
on game Pass. I think it's on game Pass. Maybe
it is, I don't know, maybe this in the store.
But I checked it out and I watched the trailer
for like three minutes and I was like, man, it
looks okay, yeah to play it, but there was nothing
controversial about it. I was like, yeah, that's something that happened,
like I wouldn't have ever, never even have thought that
that was controversial, riding your bike all day?

Speaker 1 (30:52):
What dude, there should be a whole level of just
you and your buddies finding your dad's playboy stash. Yes,
you know that should be that should be its own thing. Man,
I know y'all don't want to hear that, but what
a day that was for you and your friends?

Speaker 3 (31:07):
All right?

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Six fifty hang on, So I'm looking at this video.
In fact, Ross, would you retweet that that I just
sent you? Please? And we don't know that this is
going to be the final play of Lebron James's career, right,
we don't. We don't know if he's retiring, whether he's
coming back another year. We'll see, but there's a very
real possibility that it is. It's just, you know, he's

(31:30):
achieved the the longevity numbers that he wants. But and
what it is if you didn't see the the end
of the game of the final playoff game where the
Lakers were eliminated, it's down to uh, you know, under
thirty seconds they inbound the ball. Lakers got to go
down there, down by one, it's one ten, one eleven,

(31:52):
and it's it's the it's against Okac, and it's one
of those clutch moments that I think really finds a
basketball player, and we saw it. We saw it with
Jordan as a freshman making that shot at UNC the
seal the national championship, and there was a lot of
discussion about why you're giving a true freshman the ball,

(32:14):
but clearly, clearly it worked. There are all of the
moments that we saw with Jordan in his professional capacity,
with people like Larry Bird who'd be there at the
very end of the game, guys who wanted the ball
and not just wanted the ball. I think the way
Rosstaida had a plan for it and were able to
execute in the most definitive clutch moments the highest strength.

(32:37):
That's to me, when you talk about an athlete and
the legacy of an athlete, I think one of the really, really,
really important components is not just straight numbers, right, here's
the number of points that they scored in the career.
Super important, don't get me wrong, but the ability to
score those points, or if you're a defensive player, to

(32:59):
stop the score to those points in the most stressful,
in the most important moments. And what you saw with
Lebron is him basically get the ball, hog it around,
run around, take nine steps things that should be traveling,
and then ultimately missed the shot by a mile, miss
it by a mile. Didn't have it in him to

(33:20):
be clutch. And it's and and it's that's a mindset thing.
But also he looks like a he looks like a
bull rushing somebody at you know, like a Russian, a matador.
I don't even know how to describe it. So for
every argument, the moment that Lebron and I know it's
already started, but the moment that he retires, every argument,

(33:42):
I'm sorry. When it mattered the most, you weren't there.
And I'm not saying I could do it. I'm not
a professional basketball player, but I recognize the difference between
an athlete who is scary scary in those moments where
you're just like that guy gets the ball, he's probably
gonna score. And you see it not just in basketball.

(34:07):
You see it guys who are experts at the two
minute drill in the NFL, guys are able to go.
I'll even admit it. Bn when when when, oh god,
I hate to say it, I hate to say it.
There was there was a moment very early in the
second half of that of that Super Bowl, where Atlanta

(34:27):
was up twenty eight to three, where you saw the
momentum building on the side of the Patriots and you
realize they're still like twenty one points to go, and
you're like, son of a bitch, they might win this thing, right,
because you saw the ability to go down and just
execute in those moments, and Lebron just doesn't strike me
as somebody can do that.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
I saw stat yesterday it says Lebron in those situations, yeah,
like playoffs or finals or you know, clutch is owen a.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Clutch clutch see And I'm sorry there's in the discussion.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
There's no control of the situation. There's no pacing. It's
like you give that ball to Jordan or Kobe in
that situation and they would slow down. It was like
they were like moving in slow motion but still fast
as hell. They can control the people around him. They
had a crossover, they had a fade away, they had
a mid rage jumper, or they would see the person
under the hoop and give it to them or throw

(35:22):
it to a Packson or a Steve Kerr.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Right, there was there was a.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Basketball IQ. There Lebron, and this has been my issue
with him since day one. I am a day one
Lebron hater. I will I will admit that. Okay, he
takes the ball and he runs to the hoop like
you said, like a bowl in a china shop, like

(35:47):
just chaotic, and he throws the ball up. There's not
even like a car. I'm alone post like, I can't
even express to you how in that situation.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
You're like, I'm gonna take the ball.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
I'm going to physically move my way and put in the.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Put there, Carl Malone, and I just can't.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Even I just dude, yeah, in your situation, and he's
always done that, and it's a management situation I mentioned.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
So he gets the day inbound with like twenty eight
seconds left, you're down by one. The proper way to
play this is you're gonna go like you said, you
need to slow it down. You need to go down
and get in a position, watch that, you know, let
the let the play clock burn down, let the actual
clock burn down. You want to be taking that shot

(36:30):
with just a few seconds left so that if you score,
your opponent can't go down and have enough time to
set up and take another shot shot. He ended up
shooting that ball with twenty one seconds left. That's not
what you do every time. Management is so important, and
that's having your head in the game. You you you

(36:52):
pass that ball around, you move it around, you do
whatever you gotta do. You you put the screen up
with like seven eight seconds left, you go ahead and
you drive that lane. And again you got to be
clutch enough to make it on yourself a few seconds.
So if you have to get a rebound, maybe you
get another shot.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
But that's what you do the only way I can
explain it. And I've said this before, and I felt
that once again from day one of watching Lebron. You
would watch Michael Jordan. Not only was he in control
of the situation, not only did you know he was
going to hit this shot, and most of the time
he did. Yeah, but when you watched him, it was
like watching poetry and motion. It was graceful, it was controlled,

(37:32):
it was athletic. And you watch Lebron and none of
that is there. It's not the same. Comparing the two
of those. You cannot compare Michael Jordan to Lebron James.
It's absurd.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
This is why it's gonna make me, because as time
goes on, the argument will actually just increase rights. And
the further you get away from being able to watch
either of them live, you know clearly Jordan's not in
it anymore, but even Lebron, so you can make some comparisons.
People are forget about these little things and they're just
gonna look at the stat line and they're gonna be like, well,
look at that. Lebron went to more championships than Jordan did. Okay,

(38:08):
but did he win them? And how did he win
him in the ones that he did win, how many
years did they play? People will forget about the fact
that Jordan just he took a couple of years just
to do his own thing, which is crazy because he's
just like, yeah, I'm gonna do this other thing now,
all right now, I'm gonna come back and do this
thing as good as I've ever done it. These are

(38:29):
the little intangibles. Man, I could go on.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
It's like your game has to develop, or like Shaq
was huge and at one point he was that player
where I'm just gonna take the ball and charge towards
the hoop and I'm gonna bully the people, and my
size is gonna win out and he's I'm gonna dunck
the ball. Eventually, though he developed the game in.

Speaker 1 (38:42):
The post, right yeah, yeah, like yeah, no, he's he
was when you look at him when he first came
in Orlando, very different player size, wives too, like he
had a different They they had to like recreate his game,
and I'd say it worked out. It's worked out. Okay,
all right, That's what I could go on for the
rest of the show on this. It's just like I said,

(39:04):
we retweeted it, go watch it. It's not good basketball,
and it's it's not one of those situations where I
have any confidence he's gonna go down, he's gonna hit
the winning shot, which is unfortunate because he's had a
lot of success, had a lot of success, more so
than most players, which is why he's even in that
discussion for you know, top five, top three, top best

(39:26):
player of ever, you know ever in these in these
stupid ESPN segments. But then you you watch that side
by side to that move that Jordan put where he
literally flew. I don't know how to describe flu.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
You know, they keep what you keep seeing on social
media is the side by side the first will show
the Lebron final shot, his parent final shot, and then
they'll show the Jordan final shot against the against the Jazz.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Yeah, he almost punches the guy in the face after
he makes the shot, celebrating. So it's a it's a
it's iconic, man, and it's it's it's not only a
kind of it's devastating for his opponents because they all
knew it was coming and they realize they're powerless to
stop it.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
I think he did it two finals in a row
as well, I believe so.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, one was from the one when he's literally flying
from the free point line, and then the other one
where he's taking that outside shot on the left, which
you know famously just nothing but net.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
That that to me, that's the sign of being as
dominant as possible in your sport, when you're lined up
against the best of the best. Right, you're lined up
against five of the other best basketball players in the world,
which is a much more limited number than even football
just due to roster size. Everybody's good. Everybody's Goodna.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Well.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I saw an argument yesterday from younger people on X
where they were saying Jordan beating the Jazz in the
finals wasn't impressive because get this, Stockton and Alone were
past their prime. Now under stand Karl Malone won MVP
that year. Yeah, and then he wanted again two years
later in nineteen ninety nine. And Michael Jordan is five

(41:11):
months older than Karl Malone.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
These are things get lost. You're gonna get lost to
history and remember it. So you had you had, and
then you also had Byron Russell. Right, who was on that?
I'm trying to think because it wasn't just it wasn't
just those two. It was Byron Russell. You had what

(41:37):
was the Yeah, who is the shooting guard?

Speaker 2 (41:41):
Beginning with an H like hornet?

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Second, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah Like these
these guys were no slugs who were on these teams?
Manh Anyway, all right again, I gotta I gotta get
away from this, gotta. I got a few other things
we got to share with you, all right. So I
don't know what's gonna come this story. I think it's percolating.
So there was a Russian cargo ship that was sunk.

(42:12):
It's just as it suffered multiple explosions. However, the explosions
that it suffered seemed to be torpedo style explosions, and
more specifically, the amount of damage that was done to
the ship, knowing that what it is made of, suggests
that it was what is known as a barrakuda. I'm

(42:35):
gonna mispronounce this word super cavitating. No, I think I
got it right. Torpedo. This is a very very powerful weapon,
to the point where we have some. There's a handful
of NATO countries that have them. Russia has them, Iran
is believed to have a few, and there is speculation

(42:55):
that Ukraine may have been provided some, but there's no
proof of that. And that's important because if this Russian
cargo ship was in fact sunk with this particular like
badass torpedo, the suspect list is pretty small. Now, what
was thought to be on the ship That's where this
gets real interesting. So the speculation is that the ship

(43:19):
was even though it had not listed it on its
manifest and instead listed and I'm not making this up,
manhole covers, instead was transporting to let's see here, two
nuclear reactors that were believed to be headed for North Korea.
Whether there was atomic material attached at this point, I

(43:42):
don't know.

Speaker 6 (43:42):
That.

Speaker 1 (43:43):
I don't know that that's been confirmed. However, there is
an arrangement. A lot of people maybe don't realize this.
One of the ways in which Russia continues to feel
a military is the North Koreans are sending a bunch
of North Korean milielitary people who are just cannon fodder.
They're just getting there because then the Russians put them

(44:05):
out on the front line. They're getting absolutely devastated. But
it's how North Korea operates, right. They will sell their
own people essentially to be military slaves so that they
can continue to get things coming in. We already know
that North Korea sells opium as well as other manufactured drugs.
They use diplomatic pouches to move them into places like Europe.

(44:27):
North Korea will do whatever North Korea has to do
to get money. They'll stage these little hissy fits so
that they get, you know, dollars for food in medicine,
which they then resell for fifty cents on the dollar,
and then the money just goes to dear leader. So
the idea that the Russians, in some sort of payment,
may have been shipping any sort of nuclear technology to

(44:48):
North Korea might explain why that thing just took a
torpedo upside and was essentially disabled and sunk.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
Ross.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Do you think we did that? Do you think there's
a possibility that we're the ones who did that?

Speaker 2 (45:06):
I mean, it would be it would be a shame
if we did, would it.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
You know, like maybe some guy was in one of
our subs and then like leaned on the button or something.
Right that happens. I'm sure right, he just whoops left, uh,
hit the red button with your shoulder because it's very
compact inside submarines. And now now you got torpedo. So
look for that maybe to become a rather interesting I
don't know what Russia can do about it. And the

(45:30):
fact that they did not disclose on the manifest what
was actually on there, Like they can't even admit that
that's what was sunk. Whole things By the way, it
happened like off the coast of Spain, because you know,
it has to go all the way around and they
were gonna cut through and now it's now it's a
reef for fish, and I'm sure we got divers down

(45:52):
there figuring stuff out. It's uh, pretty crazy stuff, all right.
Seven twenty one here on the KCO Day radio program.
Once again, I'll remind you we got our conversation with
state auditor that's coming up at eight oh five. The
discussion in the North Carolina legislature we'll get into this next,
is a discussion that I feel like happens every couple years.

(46:13):
It's one of the things I find the most interesting
about North Carolina, always have since I moved here, and
that is this continued dual support for privatized liquor sales.
I think the ABC system is a mess, and it's
interesting because on one side you have Democrats who love

(46:33):
it because of the good old boys club nature of it.
It's always been my read, which by the way, I
think there's probably a lot of corruption in the ABC system,
but that's a I don't know, maybe has a bullick
about that. But then you go on the Republican side,
where you know, feasibly they should want private industry. Why
wouldn't you want private industry? Why would you leave some
in the hands of government if you don't have to.

(46:55):
But then you realize you also have the you have
a religious component that doesn't want it. Who every time
they have that discussion, like no, you know, because we
from a religious standpoint, we want less access to alcohol,
which is fine. I can understand that. That being said,

(47:18):
I don't know that that's a strong enough argument if
you claim to be for free markets. But they're having
that discussion again at the legislature. I'll give you the
details of that. And I'm just curious where people's heads
are at, especially as more and more people are not
from North Carolina and find the ABC system weird. So
all that more coming up in just a few If
you lived in North Carolina all your life, maybe the

(47:38):
ABC systems, it just is what it is, right, It's
just always been here. But it was always weird to
me as somebody who moved to North Carolina. I'm sure
for a lot of you, and I know there's other
states that have ABC systems, like Pennsylvania and others, but
I had never lived anywhere where it was, you know,
the government sold you booze. Like the whole thing was

(47:59):
so strange to me, and it got it got extra
strange during COVID too, because it was like, because it's
like it's such a revenue thing, and I already got
an email or a message from somebody. Uh and and
I will reiterate what they wrote, because I get it.
The the amount of revenue there, uh is not in substantial,

(48:19):
is not unsubstantial. I get that. That being said, conceptually,
the idea of government controlling that entire swath of business
always sat weird from a from a conservative standpoint, right
where it's like, let, you know, let the free market
handle this. Let people let individuals who have convenience stores

(48:43):
or grocery stores or the club stores as in a
lot of stes. So in a lot of states where
they have private liquor sales, they'll have liquor sales liquor
stores as part of like Costcos, Sam's Clubs, things like that. However,
like I'll give you an example, in the state of Minnesota,

(49:04):
while you needed a membership to go to Costco to
buy anything else, you couldn't do that with liquor. So
any Joe blow off the street could go into the
Costco liquor store, which is generally had a separate entrance
and usually pretty good prices there, so it ebbed and flowed.
But if you went to a mom and pop kind
of Bodego style little convenience store, chances are you're gonna pay,

(49:28):
you know, you're gonna pay a premium for liquor, right
just because they were you know, they were open the latest,
or they you know, were the were they the most
convenient because they were in your neighborhood, those kinds of things.
On the on the Democrat side, I always saw it
as just kind of protectionism of a revenue stream and
also the ability because control is something you really like.

(49:49):
And look, there's a lot of famous uh uh tall
tales in North Carolina as as far as it pertains
to historically things that have come to pass with the
the ABC system, right, we've had some scandals things like that.
So I've never understood why every time this conversation comes up,

(50:10):
there seemingly is and it's one of the few things
that they'll agree on. There is this agreement almost this
uniparty effect where yeah, we're just going to keep that privatized.
But they're having a conversation. A proposed series of reforms
is dividing two key camps to the Republican party that
controls the state legislature, business interests and conservative Christian groups.

(50:33):
And this is this is how this goes down all
the time. Here are some now they're not talking about
undoing this and privatizing it. Oh no, no, no no.
But they are talking about adding a few things, like
giving ABC stores the option. This would be at the
county level, right, This is in the counties do have
some flex and control. It's why in some counties you

(50:55):
can buy liquor. It's open earlier, some stores they're open later,
those kinds of things. So there is some flexibility for counties.
So this would merely give the option to open on Sundays,
with the exception of Easter and other holidays. Which that's
the other thing that always weirded me out, the idea
that you couldn't go by liquor like on Fourth of July.

(51:19):
What are we doing? So that would that's one proposal.
Allow people to order two cocktails at once at a bar, which,
whether you know it or not, is technically against the law.
Every now and then it'll get enforced, and then you're
kind of weirded out, even though your budd's sitting right
over there or your date or whatever. But you you know,

(51:39):
allow grocery stores to sell canned cocktails, although other liquor
sales would be confined to ABC stores, lift regulations and
mobile bar services. This is like when you hire people
for weddings other large events and allow bars, restaurants, hotels,
and others to purchase their liquor from any ABC store,

(52:02):
not just those in the same county, and then even
within the county a lot of times if you're a
it's different if you're a bar because of the stamp
issue there. So I don't I don't know how it
would tweak that. Now here's the arguments if you get
outside the Christians, the Christian conservative Christian component, right, and

(52:26):
this is actually somebody I know who actually well just
let's just say that they work in the periphery of this.
If we go private, one of the things you can
expect bourbon prices are going to go through the roof,
like in South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. This is true, right.
One of the things that North Carolina does do is
through their ABC system is they keep the prices you know,

(52:50):
maintained at a certain level. And yes, it is generally
cheaper to buy, especially you know, like the high demand
bourbons like Blantons, things like that. Angels envy to some extent,
you know, things people will go etither way to look
for at pretty reasonable prices. So you can get a
bottle of Lantin's under one hundred dollars. That's just not
something you can do in most of the neighboring states.

(53:12):
He also points out the state could lose millions and
millions of dollars. Counties are going to take a hit.
A lot of money will be lost if we go private.
Where are we going to make that money up? They're
going to raise taxes. Well, you tax liquor even though
it's sold in a private capacity. I know a lot
of people don't like to hear it, but that's the
model that that most of these most states actually, you know,

(53:36):
that's how they do things. So I don't know what
you think, because there are trade offs to it, but
I think that if you genuinely believe that free market
is the best way to go on things, a lot
of the laws that we have here in North Carolina
don't make a lot of sense. And look, there's a
lot of people's livelihoods are tied up within the maintenance

(53:58):
of the system, right, that's why you have al officers.
I don't know how it would impact that necessarily, but
we've never really gotten to that discussion phase because it
immediately gets tamped down for a variety of reasons, and
then you're begging for scraps, you know, like the idea
that you know feasibly Fourth of July. Right, fourth of
July is a Saturday this year, I believe. Let me

(54:20):
just check real quick, believe I'm correct on that. Yeah,
fourth of July is a Saturday. So you're going to
run into a scenario here for Fourth of July weekend
where you can't buy you can't purchase liquor in the
state of North Carolina on fourth of July or on
the day after. So if you're doing like a long
beach weekend, as a lot of people will do, you

(54:41):
better make sure you got whatever it is you need
getting on Thursday or chuse me, on Friday, because that's
that's going to have to last you all week. And
so if you get to a situation where you need more,
you're you're out of luck. Whereas in most of the
neighboring states you could you could go remedy. Then, so
I throw it out there, Let me throw the phone

(55:02):
number out to you eight eight eight nine three four
seven eight seven four. The whole thing just strikes me
as weird. Every time we have this discussion. All right,
let me grab a quick phone call here back on
the Lebron thing. Scotty. What's up, hey, Scotty, are you there?

Speaker 3 (55:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (55:23):
Yeah, Hey, good morning. What's up?

Speaker 3 (55:24):
Hey? Kay?

Speaker 7 (55:25):
Think yeah, man, I was just talking to Ross about
the uh the uh self appointed King James and Michael
Jordan's uh yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:36):
I have a nephew and my son in law both
they We had this conversation. Actually it was just like
last night of it. I'll be enough. Just last night
he was over, and they seem to think, just like
we do, there's no debate. But they're on the other side.
If they're Lebron James, how old there's no debate. He's
unfortunately early early twenty.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Yeah, it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Yeah, so, and I kept telling them, I told him
last night. That's the first off, James went shay from
high school, so he got a head start. Number one,
Jordan played for the Bulls for twelve seasons. Lebron James
has played what sixty five seasons already, I think, And

(56:20):
so the raw numbers, they go by the raw numbers,
and I was like, look, Jordan won three titles in
the East in the nine thirty retires for two comes
by when three more? Do you really believe he wanted
to have won those two in the middle had he played.
I mean, if you really think about it and then
out and.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Think about and think about what what the other teams
were in that era, think about what the Pistons were,
think about what I told them. It's the Celtic, Yeah, the.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
Patrick Ewing, Patrick Ewing, Larry Bird. I mean, you got
Pistons with Thomas and not the bad boys, and you know,
you got all those guys. And and then I said,
you know, and he won those six titles and he
never went to a game seven. Bro, he never even
played in a game seven. He destroyed his opponent and George.

Speaker 6 (57:15):
Made his.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
He made his team makes better. He he no matter
who he played with, he made his teammates better. And
I'm a Buffalo Bills fan, so I'm not a Tom
Brady fan. So but Tom Brady had that too. You know.
He put guys like Wes Welker and Edelman and Gronkowski
and he made them great players.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
And he just had that Yeah those are yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
And what really what really pissed him off, Kse is
when I said this, and I said, and number two
who is a player that's most like Jordan, that's the
closest to him. And his name is Kobe Bryant.

Speaker 6 (57:50):
And they're like, what, Lebron. You won't even put Lebron
James number two?

Speaker 3 (57:54):
And like, no, Kobe's number two in my book.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
And that's that's a better argument, yes, but all right,
glad you held your own.

Speaker 6 (58:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
Mike sisk said the same thing. He was on the
Patnacacy Show about a month ago and he said they
were asking him his top players and Pat McAfee was
watching him in Siski said, well, I coached Michael Jordan
in the Olympics and he said he's just a killer.
And they said why is he the greatest? And he
they he said he's just a killer. And he said

(58:30):
and then you got Jabbar and you got uh Kobe
and and Tim mcafe's like Lebron James and he's like,
I'm not going to go there, and he said what
and he said he's not in the room. And he said, yeah,
he's in the room. And I'm like, you see, I said,
coach Caset doesn't even have James in a hop five
so and he he would.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Know better than not and and and yeah, because because
that's a guy who would then thanks for the for
the call there has been tasked with putting a roster together,
you know, you and I maybe do it in fantasy
you know, fantasy sports. That's a guy who's had to
sit there and go, I got to beat the rest
of the world, or I've got to beat the best
opponents in college basketball, or conceptualize what it looks like

(59:12):
in the NBA. And I'll trust Skrzyzewski's take on that
a lot more because he understands that it's not just
all right, this guy's averaging twenty three or twenty five
points a game, let's get him in there. He's realizing
that in certain clutch situations, that's a different player you
want in there entirely. So he's just going to go
in and just dominate, all right, I gotta go, oh,
look at that poor ray stage. All right, Well, we'll

(59:34):
get this real quick. Seven forty seven. Let's just check
your weather now with mister Stag from the Weather Channel.

Speaker 8 (59:42):
All right, case, as I mentioned, just a little bit
of go, let's go first to the PGA tour kicking
off tomorrow. Temperatures of the morning likely the forties, and
I don't see much of a rain chance at a
light breeze and about sixty five in the afternoon. Let's
just say the weather is going to be great, very
little chance of rain if any light brayze. Around seventy
as we go through Friday, upper forties to low fifties

(01:00:04):
in the morning, and then low eighties Saturday and mid
upper eighties Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
So maybe a little bit.

Speaker 8 (01:00:08):
Warmer on Sunday as our weather we'll get too, as
this ridge is going to build the east and hot
weather up and down the eastern seaboard. We'll be near
eighty today tonight with the front coming into shower thunder shower.
It is a cold front, so it's down a little
bit tomorrow at or just above seventy, with low's by
Friday morning in the upper forties to low fifties, cooler
out towards the mountains, and then sun mid upper seventies

(01:00:31):
on Friday, well into the eighties Saturday and sunny, and
on Sunday ninety plus and that could continue casey ninety
plus even into Monday and Tuesday as the dry weather continues.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Okay, well, eighties is fine. We don't need to go
to the nineties, but I guess whatever you gotta do,
that's raced agic there from the Weather Channel. Coming up
in one week from tomorrow, the final Cold Bear Show airs.
That's it. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air
its final episode on Thursday of next week, and it

(01:01:05):
is shaping up to be just as insufferable as you
think it's going to be. I'll give you details on
that next hang on Stephen Colbert Late Show, which is
set to air next Thursday. And we're now getting a
sense of how insufferable this is gonna be. So other
late night hosts, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel have announced they
will stand in solidarity with Colbert right because this is

(01:01:30):
a great struggle session, and we'll instead choose to air
reruns in their slots so as to I guess push
audience to Colbert since he'll be the only one air
in a new show that day. It's also assumes they're
going to make surprise appearances. Maybe this is going to

(01:01:51):
be awful. Ross Do you think the entire thing will
be Trump sucks or do you think maybe they'll make
some other jokes? Because I feel like if Kimmel and
fallon then come on with Colbert. More so, Kimmel, that's
what this entire thing is gonna be.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Well, it's gonna be Stephen Colbert. So at some point
there's going to be some cringe insufferable musical number, that's
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Yeah, maybe they get those syringes back.

Speaker 2 (01:02:12):
Yeah, I remember that during COVID.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yeah, the COVID dancing syringes. That'll be fun. Yeah. And
then just Kimmel's so keyed up, you know, he's staring
at the end already. And really, the totality of this
particular type of show I think probably I don't know,
what do you think? Maybe the next five years probably
doesn't exist anymore, not in the way that it exists today,

(01:02:35):
just because the audience loss is pretty significant. But yeah, man,
this thing's going to be a doozy. Unfortunately, that probably
means on Friday morning of next week, part of my
pre show little prep session is probably just gonna be
reviewing clips from that and poor Ross having a double
them in. So let's see here. Oh that's right, I

(01:03:01):
forgot they did that dumb thing. Others are speculating that
they will have a segment re introducing Podcast five. Do
you remember Podcast five during COVID when all the shows
essentially on hiatus. So these five just did like a
zoom call show. It was it was hard to watch.

(01:03:22):
But I actually, I'll say this, I don't think that
was totally on them. It's that's a very different way
to tie and plus your all lead hosts, so that's
it's a tougher way to do things. But just just
prepare yourself for this because I think that's pretty much
what it's going to be. All right, So here in
just a few minutes, we're gonna be chatting with Dave Bullock,

(01:03:45):
stayed auditor about autism. What I think is theft within
autism billing. I suspect that as we start drilling down
into other reimbursable things like hospice and childcare and things
like that, we might see that in North Carolina. By
the way, there is a story that Gavin Newsome actually

(01:04:08):
years ago, four years ago, when he came in as governor,
was presented with a report from the state auditor in
California saying, hey man, we're looking at these hospice things
and these do not appear to be on the up
and up. And then it actually demonstrated how they were
clustered in these business parts like the ones in LA
that they found, and it looks scammy. Coming up, we'll

(01:04:32):
check in with Ray Stagic one more time. That'll be
around forty five ish after, of course the Bloomberg update
to cap things off. All right, So we actually chatted
with this individual here, I think just a couple couple
few weeks ago, and there's been a lot of news

(01:04:53):
that has come out of the state Auditor's office, so
to really dive in on that and some big, big,
big troubling numbers. Welcome Dave Bullock to the show. Dave,
How you doing this morning?

Speaker 3 (01:05:04):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (01:05:04):
I'm doing great, man? How are you?

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
I'd be better if I wasn't watching forty seven percent
increases of autism therapy reimbursements traveling through the state of
North Carolina. You were working on this. You had not
disclosed this when we last chatted. I'm getting to the
opinion and you can talk me off the ledge that

(01:05:27):
what we're seeing with well, what you've uncovered, what we're
seeing in Minnesota, what we're seeing in California, what we're
seeing in Ohio, and I'm sure other states. As you
talk to your counterparts. I feel like we're still scraping
the edge of this stuff, and that is far more
depressing because it indicates to me that the rot is

(01:05:48):
so much worse than we think. Like everybody's in on it,
everybody but me getting enriched by this to the point
where it's it's almost like pitchforks at the gates kind
of stuff. So, and let's let's go over this and
we'll talk about a few other things. You're working on.
Forty seven thousand percent increase. Explain this to me like

(01:06:11):
I'm five daya.

Speaker 6 (01:06:13):
Yeah. So twenty nineteen is when we took our first view.
As I told you, we were going to take a
broad view across North Carolina to see where we could
find spikes, and the spikes in spending existed. So if
you go back to twenty and nineteen, there was only
about one point four million dollars billed on the top

(01:06:34):
six billing codes for the ABA therapy, which is applied
behavioral analysis therapy for individuals who have autism. And then
you fast forward to fiscal year twenty five and you
get six hundred and sixty million dollars in billings across
those same six billing codes. So that is definitely a spike,

(01:06:58):
and you know why does that happen, Well, there are
a lot of reasons. First of all, there is and
it's in the minutia. I've said this publicly. It's in
the minutia. It's in the billing rules that are established
by DHHS. The federal government allows certain things. States can

(01:07:21):
modify those billing rules to fit their individual states needs,
and so you can even have legal, perfectly legal billing
models where you might have two or three clinicians billing
for the exact same hour of service, and that calls

(01:07:41):
into question what is the ROI on that and why
in the world are we doing that? Why would we
not have some common sense billing rules. So those are
the types of things that our team has been diving
into to answer the questions. Because you see, our legislature

(01:08:01):
appropriated three hundred and nineteen million dollars to fill the
gap through the end of this fiscal year. When you
go from one point four million to six hundred and
sixty million over a very short period of time, a
six year period of time, you can see that that
delta case, that that additional money is where you're getting

(01:08:21):
the emergency need for additional funds, and that exists in
other places, not quite to that dramatic of an extent.

Speaker 1 (01:08:30):
Here's why, Here's why when you're you know, Joe blow
me or the citizens in North Carolina looking at this
and not just here, but in all of these instances,
because we recognize Let's say, let me give you a hypothetical.
Let's say I'm you know, my average water bills fifty
bucks a month, okay or whatever it is, and then

(01:08:51):
one month it's one thousand dollars. I immediately start asking questions.
I make a do I have a leaky toilet that
keeps running? Is the hose outside? Is there some sort
of leak under my house? And immediately you start asking
questions about it. And I feel like nobody's asking questions
over things that should be huge red flags. And that's

(01:09:12):
the example we keep seeing because while you're right, the
way that we the way that we code for the billing, uh,
maybe the way that the Feds require reimbursement, all these
things can change, but nobody are asked the question. Maybe
somebody figured out a really good way to run a
scam like we saw with PPP dollars told their criminal
buddies and now everybody's doing it, which is how you

(01:09:34):
get these hyper focused like business parks like we saw
in California or in the fourth Ward of Minneapolis where
you have a hundred of these very signed type of
service agencies. They're all in one building and when you
go there, there's nobody there. There's signs that says, hey,
we'll be back in five minutes, like the reporter saw

(01:09:54):
in Los Angeles, and then they stood, you know, stood
around all day and nobody ever came back, and so
nobody gets serious about it. That's the part that offends me.
So my question is how does that not exist in
the system to like notify you or somebody else, hey,
we might have a problem here, because why is this

(01:10:14):
all just coming up now?

Speaker 3 (01:10:17):
Well?

Speaker 6 (01:10:17):
Two things. One, you should be offended, because I'm offended.
Second of all, North Carolina has a relatively new state auditor.
I've been in office now sixteen months, and we're endeavoring
to actually tackle these big questions across state government that
haven't been tackled previously. Third, I believe there's lacks of

(01:10:38):
oversight over at DHHS. I've said that publicly. You know,
I agree with you when you see that type of spike.
Where is the oversight, where's the self reporting from DAHHS
over the last five years to the legislature. Hey, we
realize we've got an increase in spending here, we acknowledge it,

(01:11:00):
and we're going to dig into it. You know, I
have an issue with the lack of self reporting by
d HHS because that to me signals lacks oversight. But
let me tell you what I believe the bigger problem
is is that there's this assumption that there are mom
and pop organizations popping up around the state of North Carolina.

(01:11:22):
Are that are they're billing for these services and may
or may not even have clients. There may be fraud involved,
there may not be. I would submit to you that
I believe it's a much more, much more sophisticated effort
and that they're really smart business folks involved who are
potentially exploiting the building rules to the advantage of a

(01:11:46):
business model. And so that's what we're going to look at.
I mean, whether it's legal illegal, I believe there's some fraud.
Probably when you get that type of money involved, there
probably is some fraud to the extent I don't know
what that extent is. But I do believe there is
a business model at work here, but very intelligent folks

(01:12:08):
on how to exploit the system.

Speaker 1 (01:12:10):
But isn't that equally his problematic? Let me go ahead
and give that to you, because I've seen I've been
in discussions. I've been in yeah, no, no, no, here's
the deal. I've been in discussions with people where I've
heard guys who have a little bit of money, right
this is i'll call a country club discussion, and they
figured out that there's a loophole that they can go
ahead and buy like an ethanol plan. I remember this

(01:12:30):
conversation fifteen years ago because somebody tried to get me
to invest in it. And it's like, these guys said,
they don't care about anything, but they realize that there
is a system that exists within the government that if
they went and they bought this ethanol plant because of
the subsidies that were there, it was it was legal,
but it was an exploitive business practice. So I agree
with what you're talking about. But that's on then, and

(01:12:52):
I'm not just meaning you, but that's then on you
in government and people in your position, and people in
oversight at Dhi H HS and others like I have
an expectation that you should note that there's an exploited
business model and you should want to do something. So
what you're saying is even though people would see it
come up, they just go, well, all right, whatever, I'm

(01:13:14):
going to go look at something else? Is I mean?
Is that?

Speaker 7 (01:13:16):
Am I?

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
Am I being accurate here?

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
We'll know that it's that flippant. I wouldn't put that
on anybody, But I just think there is a lack
of initiative and energy to go ahead and drill down
on this. It's it's much easier to try to go
ask for more money than it is to really cut
around the edges and dig down to the to the
issues at hand. You know, that's why we've thrown a

(01:13:40):
jet fuel on AI here, because I do believe the
technology that we're implementing at the Auditor's office across state
government is going to help us to identify this more readily.
But to your point, and you and I have talked
about this before, Okay, we identify it now?

Speaker 3 (01:13:57):
What right?

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
I want to.

Speaker 6 (01:14:00):
Challenge Yeah, the challenge for us is is, you know,
getting to the bottom of it and if there is
criminal activity. You know, we're building an apparatus here to
hold people personally responsible. You saw that this league and
Pilot Mountain, that was our first run at an indictment.

Speaker 4 (01:14:16):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (01:14:17):
So, we want to hold people criminally accountable, want to
hold people civilly accountable. We also want to be able
to claw back fraudulent spending of funds, which your state
Auditor's office here in North Carolina now has the authority.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
To do that.

Speaker 6 (01:14:31):
So, okay, as we identify these we're gonna we're gonna
work to call back.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
I want you to be very specific about the process.
I need to know who needs to partner with you
to go ahead and actually do this. Does this require
Jeff Jackson's office? Does this require legislative leaders Does this
require the head of dhs HS who needs to be
on the same page with you so that we can

(01:14:57):
remedy these things, so that people have an understanding of
who need they need a petition if they feel strongly
about this.

Speaker 6 (01:15:04):
A good question. So first, our attorney general, most people
think he's the chief law enforcement officer in the state
of North Carolina. The Attorney General has very little criminal
prosecution authority. So our partnership is really with the Conference
of District Attorneys and local district attorneys in each and
every county, and we have really good relationships with all
district attorneys. We have an ongoing partnership with the SBI.

(01:15:27):
In fact, we've got a plan at the legislature right
now to fund some additional fraud investigators to work directly
with the Office of State Auditor to handle these issues.
And then it is incumbent for us to work with
the Secretary of DHHS, and I do have a good
relationship with the current secretary and we're working to pipe

(01:15:50):
this information and collaboratively to get to the bottom of it.
I mean, you know, but you've got to have somebody
willing to publicly call balls and strikes, and I do
buy and closed doors and hope nobody's paying attention.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
Because here's the deal. If it is a just an
intelligent business model, then if you go to try to
do something, these are the same individuals that are going
to be lobbying. So nothing is done because you know,
you're cutting off the spigot there. So is it just
within the autism building or are we seeing similar spikes
in hospice care, home health aids and some of the

(01:16:24):
other things we've seen in other states.

Speaker 6 (01:16:27):
We've looked across that and more to come on that Casey,
I don't wanna jump up.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
I don't like the round. I don't like the sound
of that.

Speaker 6 (01:16:39):
Well, you want a state auditor doing this? I mean
you know, I mean, I'll just tell you it hasn't been.
We have been blessed to have a legislature that has
tremendous oversight authority, and they've worked really hard, I think,
to keep us from becoming Minnesota in California. But you know,
when you've got this type of funding, the amount of

(01:17:00):
money that gets expended, and the business models that are
based in minutia of rules and regulations deep within dahhs,
and you have sophisticated operators, there's going to be exploitation
of models. And it's in coming upon the state auditor
to root that out and let's make some changes for

(01:17:23):
some common sense delivery, because what we here's whose suppers.
Whose suffers are the individuals who need therapy for autism
that may not be able to get it because our
funds are being siphoned away by actors where those dollars
could be purposed across a broader spectrum of individuals to

(01:17:47):
get really needed services. It's not let's do away with
the services. Is let's make sure that we're actually getting
a return on investment, and then we don't have business
models that allow these corporations to benefit unfairly. Yeah, I'm
looking to looking to compare what ABA therapy, for example,

(01:18:08):
costs over a spread of time versus let's say heart surgery.
That would be an interesting comparison, wouldn't it case?

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
Yeah, I think it would.

Speaker 4 (01:18:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:18:17):
What what companies in North Carolina are the largest billers
of this?

Speaker 6 (01:18:22):
We've got a list of twenty companies right now, and
I don't want to don't want to release that because
they are under investigation by our office. That are the
top We started with the top twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
And are these standard medical providers? Are these the big
medical you know, like the big names like UNC Health
and Duke, you know, others that we're familiar with, or
are we talking about companies where this is really what
they do.

Speaker 6 (01:18:47):
They're they're not. They're not the big brand name companies
you know. We do have. I'll give you an example.
There's one company that went from fourteen hundred dollars to
forty one million dollars in about a four year period.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
That's good business right there, if you can get.

Speaker 6 (01:19:01):
It well, let's see. Yeah, look, I got to be
accurate too, as the state auditor. Our team wants to
be accurate. The numbers that I've released are accurate. Those
are our top line numbers. But you know, we don't
want to We don't want to release audits and reports
that don't have the fine minute details that really tell

(01:19:23):
the full story. And unfortunately that does take a little
bit of time, although we've been able to speed it
up compared to days gone by with new computers.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
Hey, Dave, I got less than ninety seconds. I want
to give you an opportunity. You mentioned the Pilot Mountain thing.
If people are not familiar, explained, because this isn't that
level of money. But clearly there's some problems there. So
in about a minute, what did you guys do in
Pilot Mountain.

Speaker 6 (01:19:47):
Yeah, we were able to release an audit that ultimately
has now resulted in the indictment of a previous town
manager of the Town of Pilot Mountain for a class
f as Frank Fellon for embelzlement by public officers, personal hotels,

(01:20:07):
visa gift cards, food and alcohol purchases, door dash gun ammunition,
et cetera. You know, this is what I promised the
people of North Carolina that if the State Auditor discovered
things that look to be stealing of public dollars, that
we would pursue accountability of individuals. And our investigation has

(01:20:31):
resulted thus far in allegations that have led to indictment
of a former town manager.

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
And this isn't I got ten seconds. Let me say this.
Thank you for joining us, and this is the important component.
People have to be scared that they're going to get
found out. So I'm glad that you're out there doing it.
Dave Bullock, State Auditor. I appreciate it, and we will
be right back. Former dhhs HT why can I not
say that it was all screwed up talking to the
state auditor about that Department of Homeland Security under under

(01:21:04):
Obama cabinet member my brain and state Attorney General in California.
It's just going back to some of his previous gigs.
You just want to see what entitlement looks like. So
there's a little bit of an outtake. I will give
kudos to KTLA for actually airing this part of it,
so they sat down to do an interview, right. One
of the reporters is interviewing him, just as you do

(01:21:26):
all the gubernatorial candidates, and I just I want you
to listen to the behind the scenes because this is
the part that I think gets lost when people start
talking about media bias. I want you to hear how
comfortable this guy is in trying to dictate how this
interview is going to go. And by the way, during

(01:21:47):
the interview, he gets called out for essentially lying about
something from a New York Times article, which is bad enough,
but you have to realize that to get to where
he is in this audio I'm about to play you,
this has been his experience for years as a democrat,
being able to go in in most media settings and
basically dictate how this thing's going to go. And he

(01:22:09):
can't fathom a situation where it doesn't go that way,
and that doesn't happen overnight. That level of entitlement is
something that is practiced and put into place and instruct
your attitude over years and years and years of being
in these situations. But just listen to the audacity of
this gay Kay.

Speaker 9 (01:22:29):
This is the start of our interview with Javier Brissetta
in Highland Park.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
By the way, this is a profile piece.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
This is not a gotcha piece.

Speaker 3 (01:22:36):
Right, Well, look, I.

Speaker 1 (01:22:37):
Think we're these questions are fair.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
It's in order to learn about you as a candidate.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
So it's about the profile.

Speaker 9 (01:22:43):
I don't know how you define profile, but I'd like
to begin the interview.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
The way I described profile is you talk about all
the things that I've done, things I want to do,
and along with some tough questions.

Speaker 1 (01:22:53):
But not only a tough question. Yeah, I mean, just
oh I could. This is a profile piece, mis reporter.
You need to understand. So you just get to ask
me about all the great things I've done. And let
me tell you, this is something that happens behind the
scenes a lot. We don't allow it on this show.

(01:23:14):
I Ross backed me up on this. What is our
answer when people go, hey, can you send me a
list of the questions? Which happens quite a bit right
when you're booking, Yeah, in your booking stuff. Yeah, we
don't do that. Yeah, no we're not. That's that's not
what this is about. This is going to be if
you're going to do an interview, I mean, clearly, if
I want to interview about something like we just interviewed Bullock.

(01:23:37):
He knows that we want to talk about the craziness
with the with the autism things, right, Or if I'm
doing an interview where I have an expectation that I
want them to bring specific facts which can tend you know,
tend to be numbers that they may have to which
you know, pull so that they're familiar with them. Just
because we're going to get really into something that's you know,

(01:23:58):
really down in the weeds. I may give a heads
up about what the what the type of interview is
going to be, like, hey, can we have you on
to talk about this new bill? Okay, Right, that's the
level of heads up you're going to get. But the
odd people will ask these questions a lot or the
last can we not talk about this? Well? I wasn't

(01:24:18):
going to, but now I want to? Right, why are
you even asking me that? But he's just as cool
as a cucumber going in and trying to dictate this woman.
Because he's probably gotten favorable coverage from LA media his
entire career. I'm sure that they've just been you know,
basically a stenographers for him. But things are a little different, right,
now so to actually hear it and for them to

(01:24:42):
air it. I was, or at least posted on their website.
I was super impressed by that. You know, she'll probably
get fired. I don't know somebody, I promise you, somebody
behind the scenes is complaining about it. All right, few
other little quick hits we got to get in for you,
and today it's not just Florida man, it's Florida men women.

(01:25:04):
And basically I don't know everyone in Broward County cooks
do this.

Speaker 4 (01:25:12):
Florida men, Florida men. Is something in the water, the air,
are sand that makes you do all that crazy crap.
It's like the state is one be dumb ass trapped.
Nowhere else has the Florida man.

Speaker 1 (01:25:25):
It is almost like, as the Weird Factor climbs to
find out it have been in Florida every time.

Speaker 4 (01:25:35):
Florida men, Florida man. If anyone can.

Speaker 6 (01:25:37):
Cheer me, if you know you can, just mind life
it crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
But of course, but it's not as bad crap crazy
as yours. Nowhere else are you gonna find him. They're
so used to it they don't mind him. Hooray for
Florida man.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
So I don't know if you know this. The Everglades
are on fire. I mean not all of them, but
thousands of thousands and thousands of acres are on fire
right now, and officials in Florida say they're running into
a very real problem as they go and they try
to contain these fires and put them out, and even

(01:26:13):
though they're a little ways out there, excuse me, I'm
screaming into my microphone trying to get my map to
show up. If you've ever seen a map of the
city of Miami or you've flown over, you know how.
It just abruptly ends as you head west, and it
ends at a highway called Highway twenty seven, which is
the highway you would take north to go to like

(01:26:35):
Okachobee or I guess maybe he reached seventy five, so
you can cut across to Naples. But that's pretty much
the barrier. That's where the fire is. So it is
on the cusp of being there on the into the
edge of Miami into place like Pembroke Pines weston Silver Lakes.
Let's see the hammocks. I'm not super familiar with this part,

(01:26:56):
but if I'm just reading some of the suburbs, so yeah,
it's a real so why can't they fight it? Because
they say that Highway twenty seven and a couple of
other barrier roads that they need to use to move
equipment around are gridlock because a bunch of people from
Miami are a bunch of lookie loose coming out to
watch the fire, and now they can't get fire equipment there.

(01:27:18):
So the Florida Florida Department of Transportation, as well as
local authorities are begging residents of Broward County to stop
coming out to watch the Everglades burn because now they
can't put them out. So that's fun. The police in
Pembroke's Pine issued a warning to any driver attempting to
stop along US twenty seven and Pine's Boulevard, saying that

(01:27:40):
the car will be directed to move, and then it
will be moved. They will literally tow your car. So
it's pretty bad man. Yes, seven thousand acres scorched already,
and they say that currently they only the fire is
not even halfway contained, and they're running into all of
these issues. And that, of course too is a smoke.
You make it a very smoky and it's causing problems

(01:28:02):
for planes attempting to come from the south to Fort
Lauderdale and to some extent the Miami Airport, but more
Fort Lauderdale, because that's the natural flight path when approaching
from the south and the west. Right. Anyone who's ever
flown down to Miami or Fort Lauderdale, you know how
it goes. Right, You either come out, you stay out
over the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and then at the

(01:28:24):
last moment you kind of peel in and you fly
right over downtown Miami, which is it's a very cool approach,
love it. But if you're coming from the other direction,
let's say you're coming from Texas, or let's say you've
been in Mexico, like you went down to Cantcoon or whatever.
When you come back that way, you fly right over
where this fire is and then all of a sudden, boom,
the city starts, and then you fly over Trump's draw

(01:28:47):
and then you make that landing there in Miami. As
somebody who flies in and out of Miami quite frequently,
you know, pretty much pretty much probably fly it man.
But that's causing a huge issue down there, and everyone's
going out to get a peak. So not quite the
Florida man we're used to, but pretty good one nonetheless,

(01:29:08):
and finally, just because I think this is funny. So
believe it or not, if you want to go see Kit, Yes,
Kit from Night Rider, you can do it. The Volo Museum,
which is which is in Illinois, Illinois, houses a bunch
of cool little cars. But one of the things they
have is they have Kit from Night Rider. They have

(01:29:30):
the actual nineteen eighty two Pontiac Firebird Transam. Now it's
one of there was a few of them, but I
think it's one of the most more important ones. And
a strange thing started happening. The people who run the
museum have started receiving tickets in the mail for a
variety of things, speeding parking tickets, here's one for going

(01:29:54):
too fast in the school zone. And they can't figure
out how it's happening. Well, what the herman is Somebody
out there has themselves a replica Kit car and has
the custom license plate which says night on it, which,
believe it or not, actually was registered with the Department
of Motor Vehicles at one point, and they've just basically

(01:30:16):
recreated it. This is their theory. And now somebody's driving
around able to rack up tickets, and then they get
sent to the museum people or and I don't know
why they haven't considered this. Maybe Kit's just going out
doing stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:30:29):
I was about to say, have you seen at the museum?

Speaker 8 (01:30:32):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
Yes, yeah, maybe kid's just board he's up to no good.
Lord Nosey can drive around on his own. We know this,
this is you know this is. This has proven fact.
There's lots of video on it, so that'd be amazing.
But no, they have a picture because right with these
folk with the tickets, there's photos and like that's a
straight up eighty two Pontiac Firebird transam with the night

(01:30:54):
license plate on it. Black, same cut, looks, everything looks similar.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
I mean, have they asked Kit if it was him?

Speaker 1 (01:31:00):
Do they have the conversation, well, do you have to
mirandize kid? Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
Man, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:31:07):
I don't know. Does that extend to in this case?
I guess an aimobile? I don't know. And do you
think Kit will admit to it?

Speaker 3 (01:31:16):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:31:17):
Probably not, No, no, hell no, man. So they're trying
to figure it out. So that's their theory. I think
our theory here on the show much better, all right.
Eight forty five raced Agic from the Weather Channel standby
to well give you your weather. That's what he does.
What do you got?

Speaker 8 (01:31:33):
Good morning, Well, not much going on next to several days,
bit of cool down Tomorrow Friday morning the coolest morning,
but the hottest dage yet to comes Sunday, casey into
the low nineties. Yeah, and I may continue even into
early next week. So eighty today looking pretty good. Mostly
Sunday should work. I mean, there might be a few clouds,

(01:31:54):
but that's it.

Speaker 1 (01:31:55):
At tonight.

Speaker 8 (01:31:56):
The front will come through with limited fanfare. If there's
a shower thundersh hour, I would be shocked. Upper fifties
and then sun a little cooler Tomorrow, right around seventy degrees,
and then Friday morning mid upper forties from the triad
west and then near fifty for the triangle sunshine mid
upper seventies in the afternoon, and then we kind of
reset with a warm up coming mid upper eighties Saturday

(01:32:17):
and sunny at close to ninety or above on Sunday.
Now I didn't forget PGA. The weather is going to
be great. First round Tomorrow sixty five, low's Friday morning
in the forties but looking good seventy in the afternoon,
low eighty Saturday upper eighties on Sunday, case, no rain
in the forecast, actually very little chance of any rain,

(01:32:40):
and a light breeze will look a pretty good there too.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
All right, we'll take it, Thank you, sir. We'll come
back with Bloomberg news next. Hang on, pershkovitz Erica, what's happening?

Speaker 9 (01:32:48):
Good morning, Casey. Chinese suppliers to major retailers like Walmart
and Costco say they're hiking prices for the first time
in years. The increases depend on the product and type
of customer. Manufacturers are raising prices by up to about
five percent for some products for big box retailers, and
the increases go up to fifteen percent for smaller merchants,
home furnishings like festive cushions, or some of the hardest

(01:33:09):
hit products, with prices rising as much as fifteen percent.
Target will be replacing its shopping carts with a new
model that promises to hold more of your stuff while
making it easier to maneuver around the store. According to
Fast Company, the all plastic design will even hold your
big Stanley cup or Starbucks beverage. It's made of modular
components that can be swapped out if one breaks, plus

(01:33:30):
the carts have an improved seat for your kids. The
carts will be replaced over the next few years. Move over.
Tim Horton's Duncan is headed to Canada. The coffee and
doughnut chain is planning to open hundreds of locations. Right now,
there are no Dunkin stores in the country, but the
first locations expected to open late twenty twenty six or
early twenty twenty seven. And think of it as your
own personal music time capsule. To celebrate twenty years in business,

(01:33:53):
Spotify is looking back on your music listening history over
that time. Spotify twenty Party of the Year is an
in app experience where you can revisit your first day
on Spotify, your first stream song, your most listened to artists.
You can also get a top Songs playlist, which is
a collection of your favorite tunes ready to see to
your library. Lunchables is expanding beyond the lunch box with

(01:34:16):
a launch of Snackables, a new line of built around
bite sized, shareable snacks. Retailers are selling them for three
dollars and Lunchables unveiled the new Snackables Sharkooter ring as well.
It's a wearable mini shrcutery board ringing designed to hold
your snacks while eating them. And finally, casey if you're
a pickle fan, Smoothie King just launched a pickle smoothie
nationwide in partnership with Grillos Pickles. The limited times smoothies

(01:34:40):
mix Grillo's pickles with bananas, organic kale, and coconut water.
The Pickle Smoothie costs five ninety nine for a twenty
ounce cup and launches at more than twelve hundred Smoothieking
locations nationwide starting this week.

Speaker 1 (01:34:52):
Is what is with all the new pickle things? Have
we had some report? Not you, but I'm trying to
remember one of the other Bloomberg hosts was just doing
a pickle story here a couple of weeks ago. Is
this Are we just in this like pickle trend now
where everyone's doing the pickle chips and the pickle drinks,

(01:35:12):
And because it all sounds gross, is kind of my
going this sounds vile? Yeah, okay, all right, I want
to make sure we're on the same page, all right,
So they're just doing it to torture us, gotcha? I
think Eric Viral, well, you know, mission accomplished, but you
still got to you got to move the product. So
all right, Erica Hrskowitz there, Bloomberg News. Do appreciate it.

(01:35:33):
Thank you, m boy. I'm gonna go give me some
so Lasik later. I think I don't even know my
vision's fine, but listen to this bonus. A rare condition
has left a man hallucinating ten days after he had
Lasik surgery. His name is Mark Bryan, who had laser

(01:35:54):
surgery and his right red now to remove scar tissue
caused by what is his diabetic retinopathy if I'm saying
that right. But six days after the operation, he said
that he started having a bit of a surprise as
he every time he opened his eyes would hallucinate what
he describes I'm using his words as Baywatch style breasts.

(01:36:19):
Every time he opens his eyes, he sees pam Anderson topless. Basically,
I've never heard of such a side effect. Let's see.
Mark kept seeing the same busty image, which he nicknamed
Tallulah and then claimed it was it was like quote,
having Pamela Anderson pinned to my face, and that allowed

(01:36:42):
him to be diagnosed with an actual condition, Charles Bonnet syndrome,
which cards his hallucinations and could lead to more significant
vision loss. However, most hallucinations are simple patterns, whereas this
guy's clearly formulating a complex images of people who landscapes ross.
Would you want to be afflicted with this? Or do

(01:37:04):
you think that would be overkill?

Speaker 4 (01:37:07):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Where were? You'd almost like not want to because I
I don't want to. I don't want a scenario where
I don't want to see those anymore. I guess is
kind of what I'm implying here? And do you get it? Treated? Yeah,
but I guess.

Speaker 2 (01:37:22):
But what if it goes in the opposite direction?

Speaker 3 (01:37:23):
Though?

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
What is that?

Speaker 3 (01:37:25):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:37:25):
I don't know, you know, you're you're thinking, like you know,
somebody attractive or like Sidney Swingy or somebody like what
if it is like large march.

Speaker 1 (01:37:33):
Or what if you're seeing something on a dude right right?
See kid?

Speaker 2 (01:37:39):
What happens?

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
You open your eyes? Sports cars? Nothing but sports cars? Man, Oh,
that'd be truly terrifying, you know, for from it you.

Speaker 2 (01:37:46):
Keep yourself awake like it's Freddy Krueger. I mean, oh
that's true. Yeah, you don't want to fall asleep? Man,
close your eyes, man, so he gets you