November 7, 2025 • 32 mins
Join Jim and Greg for a special Friday edition of the 3 Martini Lunch as they dive into stories that didn’t quite make the cut for full martinis in recent weeks but still deserve attention. Jim examines the persistent challenges of inflation and America’s skyrocketing debt, while Greg highlights a major Trump victory at the United Nations and new signs that one expected 2028 Democrat contender may be bowing out before the race begins. Then they get a little but more on the lighter side for their final martinis.
First, Jim notes that while inflation is much more under control than during the Biden administration, it's still stubbornly at or around three percent year-over-year most months and it's still making many Americans sweat. Greg focuses on the Trump administration leading the charge to stop a United Nations carbon emissions tax on shipping. Greg cheers the latest win in blocking the left's green agenda. Jim adds another point that's even bigger than the issue at hand.
Next, Jim shudders as the national debt officially soars beyond the $38 trillion mark and he's especially horrified at how fast the debt is growing. Meanwhile, Greg points out recent comments from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggesting she may not run for president in 2028. That would be good news given Whitmer's terrible record as governor.
Finally, Jim explains how the NFL's desire to reach younger fans could soon lead to a significant drop in viewership. Greg wonders if there is any integrity left in competition after another cheating scandal rocks a world championship.
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First, Jim notes that while inflation is much more under control than during the Biden administration, it's still stubbornly at or around three percent year-over-year most months and it's still making many Americans sweat. Greg focuses on the Trump administration leading the charge to stop a United Nations carbon emissions tax on shipping. Greg cheers the latest win in blocking the left's green agenda. Jim adds another point that's even bigger than the issue at hand.
Next, Jim shudders as the national debt officially soars beyond the $38 trillion mark and he's especially horrified at how fast the debt is growing. Meanwhile, Greg points out recent comments from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggesting she may not run for president in 2028. That would be good news given Whitmer's terrible record as governor.
Finally, Jim explains how the NFL's desire to reach younger fans could soon lead to a significant drop in viewership. Greg wonders if there is any integrity left in competition after another cheating scandal rocks a world championship.
Please visit our great sponsors:
Give your liver the support it deserves with Dose Daily. Save 35% on your first month when you subscribe at https://DoseDaily.co/3ML or enter code 3ML at checkout.
Get 20% off your first purchase of classic menswear. Visit https://MizzenAndMain.com with promo code 3ML20—shop online or visit a Mizzen and Main store in select states.
Sponsored by Quo, formerly known as Open Phone: Get started free and save 20% on your first 6 months and keep your existing numbers at no extra charge—no missed calls, no missed customers. Visit https://Quo.com/3ML
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garritty of
National Review. Free martinis coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of
The Three Martini Lunch. Hope you enjoyed Thursday's special on
our most favorite, least favorite, and craziest election nights that
we can remember. Jim and I certainly enjoyed geeking out
over those different election cycles, and I hope you enjoyed
it too. And I'm sure you've got your own memories,
which we encourage you to share as well. Jim and
I are both technically away today or officially away, and
(00:35):
so our special today is one that we did a
few months ago. Stories that kind of slipped through the
cracks easily could have been Martini's, but other stories just
kind of push them off the page. So we've got
some good, we've got some crazy. I've actually got two
good ones.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Jim.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I don't know if you've got one of each, but
it's just amazing some of these stories. It only happened
a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like they
happened about six months ago.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's just the way the new cycle goes.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, I probably would characterize these as bad, bad,
and potentially bad.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, it's a weird day one. I'm the optimist, but
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(02:43):
I'm excited for this juxtaposition of pessimism and mostly optimism
with a little bit of frivolity at the end here.
But what's your first story that fell through the cracks here?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's not like they don't cover inflation but there's an
aspect of inflation rate that doesn't get nearly enough at tention.
And the Wall Street Journal editorial board did notice this.
But I've seen very little discussion of this anywhere else.
So I went back and checked every month since June
twenty twenty four, the US inflation rate on a year
to year comparison was between two point three percent and
three percent, with most months it's pretty close to three percent.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
In September it was three percent.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So you know, that's obviously better than it was what
was nine percent in the middle of the Biden years
in June twenty twenty two. But three percent, the Wall
Street Journal editorial board argues, is not really what we
should consider to be good. The Trump administration keeps saying,
you know, this is a real basically was saying mission accomplished.
To think back to Bush and the aircraft carrier. They
put out statements every month taking a victory lap. And
(03:39):
here's the thing. Let's say we were at that two
percent goal, which is what the US Federal Reserve had
been saying, is that the aim for what we want the.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Inflation rate to be.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So you got a dollar today ten years from now,
the year twenty thirty five, and you and I guess
will be you know, not quite retired, but close to that,
it would be worth eighty two cents. All right, that's
the level of inflation that we've gotten used in the
decades before the Bided era. If it's three percent, the
value of a dollar ten years from now would be
seventy three cents. So it does make a difference. And
(04:09):
it's one of those things where you know, given a
choice between around three percent and around two percent, we
definitely would like to have it closer to two percent.
So inflation, look, is it better that it was? Yes,
that's a very low bar to clearer when you say
better than the worst of the Biden years. It is.
Inflation is not really beaten. It is just partially mitigated.
It would you want to say it's significantly mitigated. Fine,
(04:30):
but it's not where you want to be it. If
you don't get it down to that two percent range,
you're gonna start feeling it now. Whether or not you
the listener, choose to count tariffs as inflation. Technically, of
tariffs are not increasing the money supply, so you can
our dispute whether it really counts as devaluing the dollar.
It does raise the cost of imported goods. You may
have noticed it. Yes, you know, gas prices are down
(04:51):
pretty at a decent rate lately. However, coffee is also
reaching it all time high. And there are two fuel
to keep America going. What has gas, the other is coffee,
at least certainly for me at a whole.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Bunch of America. Right, So this is perception that evil.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Even if tariffs aren't actually affecting the inflation rate, they
add to the perception the prices are going up and
that inflation is bad. And America says the cost of
living is increasing faster than their paychecks. So look, you know,
it's fall twenty twenty five, We've got about a year
till the mid terms. But considering how important high prices
were in the fall, you know, the really you know
(05:28):
sad end to the Joe Biden presidency. If I were
an incumbent Republican facing an election in a year, I
would be nervous about the inflation rate.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I'd really want it to be closer to two percent
than to three percent. So that's my undercovered point of
what probably is going to be a big factor in
the year to come. Three percent sounds like a good
inflation rate, It really isn't now.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Two percent.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
For as long as I can remember, it's kind of
been the make or break line there anything less than
that is generally pretty good. You never wanted to go
up too much, but you also don't want the economy
to be in decline. Anything over two percent, you want
to kind of shove it back down. And of course
the FED usually doesn't get involved until the rates are
way way way above that, like we've seen lately here.
And so I'm gonna flip it a little bit and
(06:10):
give credit to the Trump administration here for a move
they made at the UN. This is from I think
two fridays ago. This is from the editorial from the
Washington Examiner. President Donald Trump scored a victory for consumers
on Friday by effectively blocking a United Nations carbon tax
scheme for at least a year. The battle isn't over yet.
It's the Trump administration still needs to convince forty other
(06:31):
nations to abandon what would be the world's first global
carbon tax. It comes from the International Maritime Association, which
was created by the UN in nineteen forty eight and
is the implementing international agency for several international treaties, including
the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
otherwise known as MARPOLE. Because if you have an organization
(06:53):
called the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.
Obviously the acronym is Marple. Maybe it's from a different langage.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
But in twenty eighteen, the International Maritime Organization adopted its
initial greenhouse gas emission strategy, a regulatory effort that eventually
became a draft net zero Framework that was set to
be approved by International Maritime Organization voting members on Friday,
and yes, we're part of that. If adopted, the net
zero Framework would charge vessels of more than five thousand
(07:23):
gross tons between one hundred and three hundred and eighty
dollars for every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere,
depending on how badly each vessel overshot an emission's target
set by the International Maritime Organization. The stated goal is
to end the use of oil and shipping, reducing the
net emissions of the sector to zero by twenty fifty. Now,
(07:43):
the Examiner points out global shipping is responsible for just
two percent of all greenhouse gas emissions each year, meaning
that eliminating all of its emissions would have virtually no
impact on global climmeter temperatures, but the impact of the
first global carbon tax would be at least ten billion
dollars a year. That's what proponents, not critics say. You
and bureaucrats would then waste the ten billion dollars, the
(08:05):
examiner says, on whatever corrupt kickbacks struck their fancy. And
if shipping companies have to pay ten billion dollars, guess
who's really going to pay that? The people who get
this stuff that's on the ships. And according to the
editorial Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Right John Duffy, the
Transportation Secretary, announced strict measures they would take against any
country that voted to approve the net zero framework. That
(08:28):
included visa restrictions, commercial penalties from contracts with the federal government,
port fees, increased tariffs of course, and it worked with
Singapore and Saudi Arabia leading the effort to delay a
final vote on the framework for at least a year.
You need two thirds to support anything to get.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It to pass.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So, Jim, if you leave the left of their own devices,
and if you had a Biden administration, you and Representative
I don't think they would have fought this at all.
They were all aboard the climate change agenda, and so
saving businesses and saving consumers most importantly, a lot of
money from a really stupid idea. That's a pretty big one.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So, Greg, my first observation is that Marpole is my
favorite PBS British detective series.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Thank you for that laugh, because like I'm sure like
this is that one of them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Secondly, remember Obama and all of these other people who
support this want to remind you that Donald Trump is
a monster because he wants to make it more expensive
to trade internationally, unlike their proposal, which will simply make
the fuel for ships that take things across the sea
more expensive. You know, it's totally different when they do it.
And third how many of these people either participated or
(09:39):
in spirit participated in the No Kings protests or rallies
or celebrations because to me as an American and the
UN wants to, you know, like impose attacks on what
authority we don't reckon. We the only authority above the
US government is God, right, you guys, You know, I
don't care if you've got blue helmets. I don't care
(09:59):
if you've got to nazzy building and foggy bottom. I
don't care if Sean Penn made a movie about you
are you have no authority over the US. We also
don't recognize the International Criminal Court. We've basically made clear
in NATO we're in NATO, but US troops will always
be commanded by US commanders, like we don't recognize any
other government as being above ours. And so the idea
(10:21):
of UN taxation strikes me as just like it's self,
inherent inherently ridiculous, inherently unenforceable, and unworkable. But I suppose
if you want to do it on international shipping, that's
the place where the UN can say, ah, we're not
in America, we're just offshore, and therefore we can impose
these taxes.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So excellent selection. And yes this was undercovered.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
International shipping doesn't got a huge amount of attention normally,
but this is the sort of thing that probably deserve
more attention, and I'm glad that we're getting to it belatedly.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Stay in your lane, you and I'm not even really
sure what that is anymore than strongly worded statements you're
not going to back up and are usually wrong in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
But oh no, Hanspricks. For all the officionados of Team
America World Police out.
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Speaker 2 (12:48):
All right, Jim, what's next in terms of the undercovered
or slip through the crack stories in the last few weeks?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Here? All right, this wasn't completely undercovered. This is one
of those got a little bit of attention. A page
a twenty seven style story when it probably deserved to
be page A one. Look every year, you know we
do on this podcast three Martini lunch End of the
Year awards, and one of our categories is undercovered or
underreported stories every year. Strong contender could be national debt
(13:16):
or the annual deficit. They're always bad, never get enough attention.
Uncomfortable issue for Democrats, but also an uncomfortable issue for
Republicans a lot of years who don't really live up
to their promises on fiscal conservatism. Well, not too long ago,
October twenty second, the US national debt hit thirty eight
trillion dollars. Now that by itself is not what was undercovered.
(13:37):
What was undercovered was that the debt hit thirty seven
trillion on August twelfth of this year. So, in seventy
one days, less time than it took for the New
York Jets to get mathematically eliminated for the playoffs, the
US added one trillion dollars to the deficit. That is
the fastest rate ever other than the pandemic. And back
(13:57):
then we had the excuse of you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Know, the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
No to everybody's getting laid off, nobody's getting paying into taxes,
massive expenditures for all like that that You look at
that and you're like, Okay, that's really bad, but you
can understand why twenty twenty five. It's not that it's
been a quiet here, but there's nothing wildly out of
the ordinary going on. It will be dramatically increasing US
government expenditures or dramatically reducing US tax in you know,
(14:20):
tax and payment income. In fact, because of the tariffs,
we're supposed to be having a whole lot money more
money coming in.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What's why is it so high?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, A punch portion of it is interest rates are high,
and when you know we borrow a lot, we have
to pay more in interest to maintain the debt financing.
I don't think you can say you look, the Republicans
do not have a big majority in the House. You know,
we've talked about the problems they have in the Senate.
It's not a huge majority either, and President Trump is
really not a diehard fiscal conservative. I like dog and
(14:49):
what they did, but I think it's you know, we're
talking they're saving millions and tens of billions when we're
talking about you know, adding trillions, And I just want
to one last thought, Greg, you and I have been
doing this podcast for a very long time, back to
the twenty ten election cycle. Back then, the fact that
under Obama we added a trillion to the debt was
just considered like the worst thing ever went and justifiably Republicans, conservatives,
(15:12):
fiscal conservatives were tearing their hair out back then because
the debt had really the death sit had increased a
trillion dollars in one year, and now we did it
in seventy one days, and not even in a COVID
level pandemic crisis. We're not in a fighting Iraq or
afghanistate like you'll go, where's all the money going? So
that is, I would argue, the second really big undercovered
(15:34):
story of the last few months.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, both parties are to blame for this. Republicans have
talked a good game. I think there's a number in
the Congressional delegation and all these cycles that are serious
about it and others that just aren't. They see it
as a means of getting elected, and Democrats, as you
saw from nineteen ninety two and Bill Clinton, we're going
to reinvent government. We're going to be the new Democrats.
(15:56):
The more moderate Democrats, and as soon as he got
a Democratic Congress, those first two years, he spent like crazy.
He had a big tax increase and basically broke a
ton of campaign promises and paid for it in the midterms.
And so that's the kind of the democratic instinct, and
the Republicans don't follow through on their efforts. And now
that you're up to thirty eight trillion dollars, it's really
hard to get the horse back in the barn. Jim.
(16:17):
For my next one, also a positive one. If you
go back to last year, twenty twenty four, and when
Joe Biden reluctantly, I think we can safely say, announced
he was not going to remain the Democratic nominee for
twenty twenty four. He did then pull a fast one
on all the people who wanted him shoved out by
endorsing Kamala Harris. And for the most part, every Democrat
(16:37):
immediately got in line. A bunch of people immediately said,
you know, and we're not going to run. But the
person that held out the longest, I think was Barack Obama.
I think Pelosi and Schumer did his well for a
few days. But Obama's plan, in addition to wanting a quick,
open primary. Somehow he specifically wanted the ticket of Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, which you
(17:01):
would think, even though they weren't part of the campaign
that year, would kind of elevate Gretchen Whitmer into a
strong candid for twenty twenty eight. But not only is
she an afterthought at best in the polls now it
looks like she's not even going to bother running. She
was in Canada not long ago, and after giving a
speech at the Empire Club of Canada in this interview,
(17:24):
the twenty twenty eight campaign came up, and she says,
a lot of this is what you would normally say
at this point. I got a big job right now
to stay focused on, and I'm going to do that.
I don't want to take my at the ball and
to go out having missed something, having lost something, or
having a catastrophe happened under my watch. That's all standard
boiler plate stuff. But then she says this, I don't
know if I need to be the main character in
(17:44):
the next chapter, but I want to have a hand
in writing it, and I think I've got an important
vantage point as the governor of an important swing state,
and so I anticipate helping, but I don't know if
I'm going to be the person. You usually don't try
to pour cold water on yourself. You usually just kind
of give the focused My current job can't possibly focus
on that yet. But once you start putting statements out
(18:05):
there and I don't think I'm the right person for
this job, it's not a no, but it's a pretty
good sign that she's probably not going to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Greg, those are some sharp, sharp eyes that I had
not heard that comment, and it does like you are correct.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You do this long enough, you've.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Heard every version of hah. It's too early to even
start thinking about that. My plate is full with all
of my responsibilities here in the In fact, I've got
a ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow, you know, and a prayer breakfast.
So I don't just I haven't even fun about running
for president. It certainly isn't something I'm obsessed with for
(18:40):
the last decades and decades, you know, I'm certainly not
ansumed with ambition for drug, lust for power. No, No,
that sounds genuinely, if not unenthusiastic. Then having mixed thoughts
about it, and maybe you know you watch these cycles. Look, everybody,
almost every Democrat, including our old friend Irving Schmid, lab
(19:02):
ran in twenty twenty, and for almost all of them
there can only be one nominee. One Kamala Harris ended
up as the vice president and almost everybody else things
did not turn out well for unless you want to
count Toolsey Gabbert, who's now Director of National Intelligence in
a completely different party at a completely different administration. But
most of the time you run for president, it does
(19:22):
not go well. Most of the time you run for
president with this, you know, Stuart Smalley esque Doug Garnet,
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough. People like me, and
it turns out we actually no, they don't like you
so much. You go to Iowa and they just want
to get some ranch dressing and for you to get
out of their way, like they did, and like, twenty
twenty was a really vivid cycle for a whole bunch
(19:42):
of Democrats who had managed to get glowing profiles and
vanity fairs and the cover of like you know, it's getting,
you know, liberal MSM reporters to write glowing profiles of
you really not that hard. I feel like I run
to a whole of Beto, right, you know, but actually
getting people's votes. They can only vote for one and
it's tough, and so I I almost say good for
(20:02):
her for recognizing the difficulty and the fact that like,
maybe this is not you can do great things in
America without running for president.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
It's early.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
They're definitely not ruling it out. And generally when people
don't want to run for office, they say I don't
want to run for office. But those are thing, Yeah,
the signify that feels just like so it feels like
if there was genuine interest, those comments would have come
out differently. Yah.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And it's a good martini because Gretchen Whitman would make
a terrible president. She's been a terrible governor of Michigan,
although she's one comfortably both times. She's term limited for governor,
and now her lieutenant governor and secretary of State, among others,
are duking it out for the nomination next year. You know,
she was one of the five governors in America that
put COVID patients in nursing homes, along with Cuomo and
Murphy and Wolf and Newsome. I mean that's a that's
(20:48):
not a fraternity you want to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's an all star lineup right there.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, exactly, murderers row, quite literally, murderers row.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And then twenty eighteen is when she got elected governor.
Her whole thing was fixed, the darn roads, and maybe
a few got fixed, but I've driven in Michigan a
lot over the last few years. There's a lot of
them that didn't get fixed. And so I think that
she fell short on that. She's been caught vulgar mocking
the Eucharist with the whole Dorido stunt a while back,
(21:18):
and so I think she would have had trouble probably
winning the nomination. But you know, again, the door's not
completely shut, but it's.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Closed, Greg, Greg, she hung out in the Oval office
with Trump. She didn't want people to say.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's probably what actually would have killed the candidacy.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Right there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You were in the same room as Donald Trump, and
you weren't screaming at him. She was hiding her face
behind a binder.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
But other than that, Kevin Jenet Mills could do that.
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(23:02):
of a walk on the lighter side here, I think
for both of us in the final Martini here, Jim,
what do you have?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
So I came across this on a YouTube video a
few nights ago, and I've been thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
If I said to you that a decade or two,
at some point in the future, not super far in
the future, the NFL may not be the most popular
sport in America anymore. Yeah, would you find that likely
or unlikely?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Pretty unlikely in the next few years anyway.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
So, because you're looking at that and you're like, yeah,
you know, it's top of the world. You know, even
if you're a first And by the way, we joke
about the Bears, we joke about the Jets. But you
and I have been fans our whole lives, and you know,
and you have this idea of like, no, it's on
top of the world. Everybody watches the Super Bowl is
like the last great everybody in America is watching the
same thing, kind of event. You'd think this thing is
going to stay on top. It's an interesting argument. So
(23:50):
just for in the last couple of years, the NFL
has started doing its games on streaming platforms. The Thursday
Night Football is on Amazon Prime. And by the way,
what I'm about to say is not a not on
Ryan Fitzpatrick. I have happy memories of the twenty sixteen
season that you're like, they're doing fine, but there's somebody
made this interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Point that right now.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And also they're gonna have a game on Netflix this year,
two Marquee games will show fake showcase NFC Division rival
space off Dallas Cowboys versus Washington Commanders, Detroit Lions versus
Minnesota Vikings right stream live on Netflix. Right this is
on Christmas Day, twenty twenty five. Well, Netflix, it's popular,
but according to survey, seventy percent of US adults have
(24:31):
used Netflix.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Another one said that eighty three percent of US households
have subscription video on him and that's pretty darn high.
But the thing about broadcast TV is that if you
have a TV, you can get that channel right And
thankfully most of the NFL games are on broadcast television
or basic cable here in the Washington area. My understanding
of most NFL games, if you let's say the game
(24:54):
is in Washington, it's you know, the game Monday Night
Football is on ESPN, but the game will all also
be simulcast on the local ABC affiliate. Disney owns both
ABC and ESPN. You see a lot of cross politization
between ESPN and ABC Sports, So if you can watch
your team, And this guy's argument was, you know, certain
people have their NFL fandom genetically inherited, like I did,
(25:18):
and I've passed along to my kids. Sometimes you just
you know, get into it. And the interesting thing is
that sometimes people don't become fans of their hometown team.
They like something because they really like it. Rich Lowry
is a Tennessee Titans fan. And I say he grew
up in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
How did that?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
He's like, Well, when he was growing up, Earl Campbell
of the Houston Oilers was just you know, running over
the entire arrest of the league.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
So he became a Houston Oilers fan.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So the thing is at NFL right now, You've got
Thursday night game, which is, as we mentioned, was on Amazon.
You've got the one o'clock game on Sunday. You've got
the four o'clock game on Sunday. You usually have two networks.
Usually you've got Fox doing NFC games, AFC games on CBS.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Sometimes they switch and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You've also got Sunday Night Football on NBA, and then
you've got Monday Night Football, and so that's like five
games that theoretically you could watch. You know you're gonna
have the best teams usually featured in those games, but
the NFL tries to pick teams and good matchups for that.
So let's say you live in the New York area,
but for some reason, the Los Angeles Rams have really
caught your attention.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
There's a good chance even if you.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Don't have the streaming services, even if you don't have
NFL Sunday ticket, you'll get a decent number of chances
to watch that. NFL contracts will expire in a couple
of years. The expectation is is that Prime obviously will
put a ton of money on the table that Netflix
wants to get into this on a more regular basis,
so eventually the NFL will start to have its games
behind a paywall. And the argument is is that look,
(26:39):
every year, this is actually the really breaking news in
this one. Every year americans die. Generally, these Americans are old,
and generally these Americans have been a good chunk of
these our football fans, so they're passing away. So if
you're a sports organization. You need new fans to keep
being attracted each time. If you put your games behind
a paywall, all of a sudden, the number of people
(27:01):
who can be exposed to it gets restricted unless they're
already subscribers to that pay service. So the argument is
is that this is actually a very dangerous move for
the NFL to make. It's a very bad idea to
put your stuff behind pay walls because you need people
to casually get into it.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
If you have stranger things, right, if you have something
where you know people are going to seek it out.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
People talked about it. It's been popular for a while.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
That's fine, But the idea is the argument is that
the NFL is cutting off the idea for people to
pour casual fans or not that into it, to get
into it by watching the games because the game is
designed for television. I don't know if I totally buy
into this, but I do think it's kind of interesting
that this switch over. And look, when you and I
were growing up, baseball was a huge deal world series
(27:42):
of you know, Dodgers and Blue Jays. It's a much
smaller deal like last year it was Yankees and Dodgers,
and it was on. The game was on one night
for Halloween party last year, and like five people were
watching out of like you know, dozens and dozen people.
Baseball is just not what it used to be. The
NBA's picked that up. Some NASCAR is a bigger deal
than it used to be. I hear people more Americans
(28:02):
are getting it into Formula one hockey and allSome. But
like this one of those things, like not every sport
is guaranteed to stay to have to keep their audiences,
and there's a real danger I think for football if
they end up becoming the sort of thing where you
need to have a bunch of subscriptions, you're you're going
to eventually overtime lose your audience.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
The more it goes behind and pay weall the less
interested I am. I'm not going to fork over any
money for Peacock. I'm not gonna watch on Netflix. You know,
conservatives are already kind of in revolt against Netflix because
of too many shows that leaves people squeamish about you
looking like child exploitation, and so that's not going to
be a huge draw. But as time goes on, the
way things are done is changing rapidly, so it wouldn't
(28:39):
surprise me that it happens, But I think you're going
to diminish the market. They'll probably charge enough for it
so that it won't matter, because once you're paying for it,
you know you can you don't need as big of
an audience, but it could be it could be a
definite drop in total numbers.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
The argument is this is eating your seed corn. This
is you know, you're you're getting profits up front by
getting you know, getting Big Tree TV deals with the
streaming services, but you're actually cutting off people's ability to watch.
The casual fans would come in and grow into adult fans.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, that could be a major controversy for professional football, gym.
There's no shortage of controversies in sports altogether. We've certainly
seen football players suspended for gambling at a big scandal
just blow up with the FBI, making arrest with the NBA.
So you're thinking, is there any any sport or activity
where honor is still at the center of the competition,
(29:29):
And unfortunately the answer seems to be no. I've held
on to this one since middle of September. This is
from the New York Post World Stone Skimming Championship tossed
into chaos by cheating scandal. This is a very well
written article. No stone was left unturned at this global
championship rocked by a cheating scandal. At least several competitors
(29:49):
were tossed like the stones they threw at the World
Stone Skimming Championship on the small Scottish island of Easdale
earlier this month, a handful of four hundred participants were
accused of you using suspiciously circular shaped stones that help
them more easily bounce along the water, instead of following
rules that require them to use natural stones found on
(30:11):
the island. Kyle Matthews, who organized the event, on the
BBC that the stone cold cheters held their hands up
and issued apologies for doctoring stones when confronted Jim, if
we can't trust stone skimmers to follow the rules and
participate with integrity, is there any competition where we can
expect fidelity to fare competition?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Great Soviet stating you.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Know which celebrity I think is right all behind this
this nefarious plot is that the rock you started out
with this and I'm like this is ridiculous. I can't breage,
but like halfway the suspiciously circular shaped stones. I was like, Okay,
I want to see those stuffs. I want to see
what counts as a suspiciously circular stone versus a naturally stone.
(30:57):
And I actually would clicking through the oat, which probably
way good for you for ESPN for just adopting that
line from Dodgeball and saying, Okay, we're gonna turn ESPN
News into ridiculous sports during odd hours. I've seen the
stone Skipping Championships, I've seen the competitions, and I kind
of get into it. I'm working out, I'm on the
treadmill or I'm on the on the liptical, like, Okay,
that was a really good throw.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Good job, man, Yeah, you get into it.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
They got the slippery stairs, they got the pillow fighting.
But yes, apparently you have to only use rocks wherever
the competition is being held. This would seem to me
like a pretty big scandal in the in the sport.
So first of all, it was just shocked that there
is such a thing as the World Stone Skipping Championships
and everybody traveled from around the world to Scotland to
(31:41):
participate in this, but to have it denigrated like this, Jim,
is the world coming too. Anyway, it is time for
us to wrap up. Jim, have a great weekend. I'll
see you on Monday. See you Monday, Greg, Jim Garretty,
National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the podcast if you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings
and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us
(32:03):
on your home devices. All you have to say is
play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both on X
He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a
terrific weekend, and join us again on Monday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
to Greg Corumbus of Radio America and Jim Garritty of
National Review. Free martinis coming up.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of
The Three Martini Lunch. Hope you enjoyed Thursday's special on
our most favorite, least favorite, and craziest election nights that
we can remember. Jim and I certainly enjoyed geeking out
over those different election cycles, and I hope you enjoyed
it too. And I'm sure you've got your own memories,
which we encourage you to share as well. Jim and
I are both technically away today or officially away, and
(00:35):
so our special today is one that we did a
few months ago. Stories that kind of slipped through the
cracks easily could have been Martini's, but other stories just
kind of push them off the page. So we've got
some good, we've got some crazy. I've actually got two
good ones.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Jim.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
I don't know if you've got one of each, but
it's just amazing some of these stories. It only happened
a couple of weeks ago, and it feels like they
happened about six months ago.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
It's just the way the new cycle goes.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
You know, I probably would characterize these as bad, bad,
and potentially bad.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
We'll see.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
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(02:43):
I'm excited for this juxtaposition of pessimism and mostly optimism
with a little bit of frivolity at the end here.
But what's your first story that fell through the cracks here?
Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's not like they don't cover inflation but there's an
aspect of inflation rate that doesn't get nearly enough at tention.
And the Wall Street Journal editorial board did notice this.
But I've seen very little discussion of this anywhere else.
So I went back and checked every month since June
twenty twenty four, the US inflation rate on a year
to year comparison was between two point three percent and
three percent, with most months it's pretty close to three percent.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
In September it was three percent.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
So you know, that's obviously better than it was what
was nine percent in the middle of the Biden years
in June twenty twenty two. But three percent, the Wall
Street Journal editorial board argues, is not really what we
should consider to be good. The Trump administration keeps saying,
you know, this is a real basically was saying mission accomplished.
To think back to Bush and the aircraft carrier. They
put out statements every month taking a victory lap. And
(03:39):
here's the thing. Let's say we were at that two
percent goal, which is what the US Federal Reserve had
been saying, is that the aim for what we want the.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Inflation rate to be.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
So you got a dollar today ten years from now,
the year twenty thirty five, and you and I guess
will be you know, not quite retired, but close to that,
it would be worth eighty two cents. All right, that's
the level of inflation that we've gotten used in the
decades before the Bided era. If it's three percent, the
value of a dollar ten years from now would be
seventy three cents. So it does make a difference. And
(04:09):
it's one of those things where you know, given a
choice between around three percent and around two percent, we
definitely would like to have it closer to two percent.
So inflation, look, is it better that it was? Yes,
that's a very low bar to clearer when you say
better than the worst of the Biden years. It is.
Inflation is not really beaten. It is just partially mitigated.
It would you want to say it's significantly mitigated. Fine,
(04:30):
but it's not where you want to be it. If
you don't get it down to that two percent range,
you're gonna start feeling it now. Whether or not you
the listener, choose to count tariffs as inflation. Technically, of
tariffs are not increasing the money supply, so you can
our dispute whether it really counts as devaluing the dollar.
It does raise the cost of imported goods. You may
have noticed it. Yes, you know, gas prices are down
(04:51):
pretty at a decent rate lately. However, coffee is also
reaching it all time high. And there are two fuel
to keep America going. What has gas, the other is coffee,
at least certainly for me at a whole.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Bunch of America. Right, So this is perception that evil.
Speaker 3 (05:07):
Even if tariffs aren't actually affecting the inflation rate, they
add to the perception the prices are going up and
that inflation is bad. And America says the cost of
living is increasing faster than their paychecks. So look, you know,
it's fall twenty twenty five, We've got about a year
till the mid terms. But considering how important high prices
were in the fall, you know, the really you know
(05:28):
sad end to the Joe Biden presidency. If I were
an incumbent Republican facing an election in a year, I
would be nervous about the inflation rate.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Now.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I'd really want it to be closer to two percent
than to three percent. So that's my undercovered point of
what probably is going to be a big factor in
the year to come. Three percent sounds like a good
inflation rate, It really isn't now.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
Two percent.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
For as long as I can remember, it's kind of
been the make or break line there anything less than
that is generally pretty good. You never wanted to go
up too much, but you also don't want the economy
to be in decline. Anything over two percent, you want
to kind of shove it back down. And of course
the FED usually doesn't get involved until the rates are
way way way above that, like we've seen lately here.
And so I'm gonna flip it a little bit and
(06:10):
give credit to the Trump administration here for a move
they made at the UN. This is from I think
two fridays ago. This is from the editorial from the
Washington Examiner. President Donald Trump scored a victory for consumers
on Friday by effectively blocking a United Nations carbon tax
scheme for at least a year. The battle isn't over yet.
It's the Trump administration still needs to convince forty other
(06:31):
nations to abandon what would be the world's first global
carbon tax. It comes from the International Maritime Association, which
was created by the UN in nineteen forty eight and
is the implementing international agency for several international treaties, including
the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
otherwise known as MARPOLE. Because if you have an organization
(06:53):
called the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships.
Obviously the acronym is Marple. Maybe it's from a different langage.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
But in twenty eighteen, the International Maritime Organization adopted its
initial greenhouse gas emission strategy, a regulatory effort that eventually
became a draft net zero Framework that was set to
be approved by International Maritime Organization voting members on Friday,
and yes, we're part of that. If adopted, the net
zero Framework would charge vessels of more than five thousand
(07:23):
gross tons between one hundred and three hundred and eighty
dollars for every ton of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere,
depending on how badly each vessel overshot an emission's target
set by the International Maritime Organization. The stated goal is
to end the use of oil and shipping, reducing the
net emissions of the sector to zero by twenty fifty. Now,
(07:43):
the Examiner points out global shipping is responsible for just
two percent of all greenhouse gas emissions each year, meaning
that eliminating all of its emissions would have virtually no
impact on global climmeter temperatures, but the impact of the
first global carbon tax would be at least ten billion
dollars a year. That's what proponents, not critics say. You
and bureaucrats would then waste the ten billion dollars, the
(08:05):
examiner says, on whatever corrupt kickbacks struck their fancy. And
if shipping companies have to pay ten billion dollars, guess
who's really going to pay that? The people who get
this stuff that's on the ships. And according to the
editorial Marco Rubio, Energy Secretary Chris Right John Duffy, the
Transportation Secretary, announced strict measures they would take against any
country that voted to approve the net zero framework. That
(08:28):
included visa restrictions, commercial penalties from contracts with the federal government,
port fees, increased tariffs of course, and it worked with
Singapore and Saudi Arabia leading the effort to delay a
final vote on the framework for at least a year.
You need two thirds to support anything to get.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It to pass.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
So, Jim, if you leave the left of their own devices,
and if you had a Biden administration, you and Representative
I don't think they would have fought this at all.
They were all aboard the climate change agenda, and so
saving businesses and saving consumers most importantly, a lot of
money from a really stupid idea. That's a pretty big one.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
So, Greg, my first observation is that Marpole is my
favorite PBS British detective series.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Thank you for that laugh, because like I'm sure like
this is that one of them. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Secondly, remember Obama and all of these other people who
support this want to remind you that Donald Trump is
a monster because he wants to make it more expensive
to trade internationally, unlike their proposal, which will simply make
the fuel for ships that take things across the sea
more expensive. You know, it's totally different when they do it.
And third how many of these people either participated or
(09:39):
in spirit participated in the No Kings protests or rallies
or celebrations because to me as an American and the
UN wants to, you know, like impose attacks on what
authority we don't reckon. We the only authority above the
US government is God, right, you guys, You know, I
don't care if you've got blue helmets. I don't care
(09:59):
if you've got to nazzy building and foggy bottom. I
don't care if Sean Penn made a movie about you
are you have no authority over the US. We also
don't recognize the International Criminal Court. We've basically made clear
in NATO we're in NATO, but US troops will always
be commanded by US commanders, like we don't recognize any
other government as being above ours. And so the idea
(10:21):
of UN taxation strikes me as just like it's self,
inherent inherently ridiculous, inherently unenforceable, and unworkable. But I suppose
if you want to do it on international shipping, that's
the place where the UN can say, ah, we're not
in America, we're just offshore, and therefore we can impose
these taxes.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So excellent selection. And yes this was undercovered.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
International shipping doesn't got a huge amount of attention normally,
but this is the sort of thing that probably deserve
more attention, and I'm glad that we're getting to it belatedly.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Stay in your lane, you and I'm not even really
sure what that is anymore than strongly worded statements you're
not going to back up and are usually wrong in
the first place.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
But oh no, Hanspricks. For all the officionados of Team
America World Police out.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
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All right, Jim, what's next in terms of the undercovered
or slip through the crack stories in the last few weeks?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Here? All right, this wasn't completely undercovered. This is one
of those got a little bit of attention. A page
a twenty seven style story when it probably deserved to
be page A one. Look every year, you know we
do on this podcast three Martini lunch End of the
Year awards, and one of our categories is undercovered or
underreported stories every year. Strong contender could be national debt
(13:16):
or the annual deficit. They're always bad, never get enough attention.
Uncomfortable issue for Democrats, but also an uncomfortable issue for
Republicans a lot of years who don't really live up
to their promises on fiscal conservatism. Well, not too long ago,
October twenty second, the US national debt hit thirty eight
trillion dollars. Now that by itself is not what was undercovered.
(13:37):
What was undercovered was that the debt hit thirty seven
trillion on August twelfth of this year. So, in seventy
one days, less time than it took for the New
York Jets to get mathematically eliminated for the playoffs, the
US added one trillion dollars to the deficit. That is
the fastest rate ever other than the pandemic. And back
(13:57):
then we had the excuse of you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Know, the pandemic.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
No to everybody's getting laid off, nobody's getting paying into taxes,
massive expenditures for all like that that You look at
that and you're like, Okay, that's really bad, but you
can understand why twenty twenty five. It's not that it's
been a quiet here, but there's nothing wildly out of
the ordinary going on. It will be dramatically increasing US
government expenditures or dramatically reducing US tax in you know,
(14:20):
tax and payment income. In fact, because of the tariffs,
we're supposed to be having a whole lot money more
money coming in.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
What's why is it so high?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Well, A punch portion of it is interest rates are high,
and when you know we borrow a lot, we have
to pay more in interest to maintain the debt financing.
I don't think you can say you look, the Republicans
do not have a big majority in the House. You know,
we've talked about the problems they have in the Senate.
It's not a huge majority either, and President Trump is
really not a diehard fiscal conservative. I like dog and
(14:49):
what they did, but I think it's you know, we're
talking they're saving millions and tens of billions when we're
talking about you know, adding trillions, And I just want
to one last thought, Greg, you and I have been
doing this podcast for a very long time, back to
the twenty ten election cycle. Back then, the fact that
under Obama we added a trillion to the debt was
just considered like the worst thing ever went and justifiably Republicans, conservatives,
(15:12):
fiscal conservatives were tearing their hair out back then because
the debt had really the death sit had increased a
trillion dollars in one year, and now we did it
in seventy one days, and not even in a COVID
level pandemic crisis. We're not in a fighting Iraq or
afghanistate like you'll go, where's all the money going? So
that is, I would argue, the second really big undercovered
(15:34):
story of the last few months.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah, both parties are to blame for this. Republicans have
talked a good game. I think there's a number in
the Congressional delegation and all these cycles that are serious
about it and others that just aren't. They see it
as a means of getting elected, and Democrats, as you
saw from nineteen ninety two and Bill Clinton, we're going
to reinvent government. We're going to be the new Democrats.
(15:56):
The more moderate Democrats, and as soon as he got
a Democratic Congress, those first two years, he spent like crazy.
He had a big tax increase and basically broke a
ton of campaign promises and paid for it in the midterms.
And so that's the kind of the democratic instinct, and
the Republicans don't follow through on their efforts. And now
that you're up to thirty eight trillion dollars, it's really
hard to get the horse back in the barn. Jim.
(16:17):
For my next one, also a positive one. If you
go back to last year, twenty twenty four, and when
Joe Biden reluctantly, I think we can safely say, announced
he was not going to remain the Democratic nominee for
twenty twenty four. He did then pull a fast one
on all the people who wanted him shoved out by
endorsing Kamala Harris. And for the most part, every Democrat
(16:37):
immediately got in line. A bunch of people immediately said,
you know, and we're not going to run. But the
person that held out the longest, I think was Barack Obama.
I think Pelosi and Schumer did his well for a
few days. But Obama's plan, in addition to wanting a quick,
open primary. Somehow he specifically wanted the ticket of Michigan
Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, which you
(17:01):
would think, even though they weren't part of the campaign
that year, would kind of elevate Gretchen Whitmer into a
strong candid for twenty twenty eight. But not only is
she an afterthought at best in the polls now it
looks like she's not even going to bother running. She
was in Canada not long ago, and after giving a
speech at the Empire Club of Canada in this interview,
(17:24):
the twenty twenty eight campaign came up, and she says,
a lot of this is what you would normally say
at this point. I got a big job right now
to stay focused on, and I'm going to do that.
I don't want to take my at the ball and
to go out having missed something, having lost something, or
having a catastrophe happened under my watch. That's all standard
boiler plate stuff. But then she says this, I don't
know if I need to be the main character in
(17:44):
the next chapter, but I want to have a hand
in writing it, and I think I've got an important
vantage point as the governor of an important swing state,
and so I anticipate helping, but I don't know if
I'm going to be the person. You usually don't try
to pour cold water on yourself. You usually just kind
of give the focused My current job can't possibly focus
on that yet. But once you start putting statements out
(18:05):
there and I don't think I'm the right person for
this job, it's not a no, but it's a pretty
good sign that she's probably not going to do this.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Greg, those are some sharp, sharp eyes that I had
not heard that comment, and it does like you are correct.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
You do this long enough, you've.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Heard every version of hah. It's too early to even
start thinking about that. My plate is full with all
of my responsibilities here in the In fact, I've got
a ribbon cutting ceremony tomorrow, you know, and a prayer breakfast.
So I don't just I haven't even fun about running
for president. It certainly isn't something I'm obsessed with for
(18:40):
the last decades and decades, you know, I'm certainly not
ansumed with ambition for drug, lust for power. No, No,
that sounds genuinely, if not unenthusiastic. Then having mixed thoughts
about it, and maybe you know you watch these cycles. Look, everybody,
almost every Democrat, including our old friend Irving Schmid, lab
(19:02):
ran in twenty twenty, and for almost all of them
there can only be one nominee. One Kamala Harris ended
up as the vice president and almost everybody else things
did not turn out well for unless you want to
count Toolsey Gabbert, who's now Director of National Intelligence in
a completely different party at a completely different administration. But
most of the time you run for president, it does
(19:22):
not go well. Most of the time you run for
president with this, you know, Stuart Smalley esque Doug Garnet,
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough. People like me, and
it turns out we actually no, they don't like you
so much. You go to Iowa and they just want
to get some ranch dressing and for you to get
out of their way, like they did, and like, twenty
twenty was a really vivid cycle for a whole bunch
(19:42):
of Democrats who had managed to get glowing profiles and
vanity fairs and the cover of like you know, it's getting,
you know, liberal MSM reporters to write glowing profiles of
you really not that hard. I feel like I run
to a whole of Beto, right, you know, but actually
getting people's votes. They can only vote for one and
it's tough, and so I I almost say good for
(20:02):
her for recognizing the difficulty and the fact that like,
maybe this is not you can do great things in
America without running for president.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
It's early.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
They're definitely not ruling it out. And generally when people
don't want to run for office, they say I don't
want to run for office. But those are thing, Yeah,
the signify that feels just like so it feels like
if there was genuine interest, those comments would have come
out differently. Yah.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
And it's a good martini because Gretchen Whitman would make
a terrible president. She's been a terrible governor of Michigan,
although she's one comfortably both times. She's term limited for governor,
and now her lieutenant governor and secretary of State, among others,
are duking it out for the nomination next year. You know,
she was one of the five governors in America that
put COVID patients in nursing homes, along with Cuomo and
Murphy and Wolf and Newsome. I mean that's a that's
(20:48):
not a fraternity you want to be a part of.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
That's an all star lineup right there.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Yeah, exactly, murderers row, quite literally, murderers row.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
And then twenty eighteen is when she got elected governor.
Her whole thing was fixed, the darn roads, and maybe
a few got fixed, but I've driven in Michigan a
lot over the last few years. There's a lot of
them that didn't get fixed. And so I think that
she fell short on that. She's been caught vulgar mocking
the Eucharist with the whole Dorido stunt a while back,
(21:18):
and so I think she would have had trouble probably
winning the nomination. But you know, again, the door's not
completely shut, but it's.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
Closed, Greg, Greg, she hung out in the Oval office
with Trump. She didn't want people to say.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's probably what actually would have killed the candidacy.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Right there.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
You were in the same room as Donald Trump, and
you weren't screaming at him. She was hiding her face
behind a binder.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
But other than that, Kevin Jenet Mills could do that.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
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(23:02):
of a walk on the lighter side here, I think
for both of us in the final Martini here, Jim,
what do you have?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
So I came across this on a YouTube video a
few nights ago, and I've been thinking about it.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
Greg.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
If I said to you that a decade or two,
at some point in the future, not super far in
the future, the NFL may not be the most popular
sport in America anymore. Yeah, would you find that likely
or unlikely?
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Pretty unlikely in the next few years anyway.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
So, because you're looking at that and you're like, yeah,
you know, it's top of the world. You know, even
if you're a first And by the way, we joke
about the Bears, we joke about the Jets. But you
and I have been fans our whole lives, and you know,
and you have this idea of like, no, it's on
top of the world. Everybody watches the Super Bowl is
like the last great everybody in America is watching the
same thing, kind of event. You'd think this thing is
going to stay on top. It's an interesting argument. So
(23:50):
just for in the last couple of years, the NFL
has started doing its games on streaming platforms. The Thursday
Night Football is on Amazon Prime. And by the way,
what I'm about to say is not a not on
Ryan Fitzpatrick. I have happy memories of the twenty sixteen
season that you're like, they're doing fine, but there's somebody
made this interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Point that right now.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
And also they're gonna have a game on Netflix this year,
two Marquee games will show fake showcase NFC Division rival
space off Dallas Cowboys versus Washington Commanders, Detroit Lions versus
Minnesota Vikings right stream live on Netflix. Right this is
on Christmas Day, twenty twenty five. Well, Netflix, it's popular,
but according to survey, seventy percent of US adults have
(24:31):
used Netflix.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Right.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Another one said that eighty three percent of US households
have subscription video on him and that's pretty darn high.
But the thing about broadcast TV is that if you
have a TV, you can get that channel right And
thankfully most of the NFL games are on broadcast television
or basic cable here in the Washington area. My understanding
of most NFL games, if you let's say the game
(24:54):
is in Washington, it's you know, the game Monday Night
Football is on ESPN, but the game will all also
be simulcast on the local ABC affiliate. Disney owns both
ABC and ESPN. You see a lot of cross politization
between ESPN and ABC Sports, So if you can watch
your team, And this guy's argument was, you know, certain
people have their NFL fandom genetically inherited, like I did,
(25:18):
and I've passed along to my kids. Sometimes you just
you know, get into it. And the interesting thing is
that sometimes people don't become fans of their hometown team.
They like something because they really like it. Rich Lowry
is a Tennessee Titans fan. And I say he grew
up in Virginia.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
How did that?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
He's like, Well, when he was growing up, Earl Campbell
of the Houston Oilers was just you know, running over
the entire arrest of the league.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
So he became a Houston Oilers fan.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
So the thing is at NFL right now, You've got
Thursday night game, which is, as we mentioned, was on Amazon.
You've got the one o'clock game on Sunday. You've got
the four o'clock game on Sunday. You usually have two networks.
Usually you've got Fox doing NFC games, AFC games on CBS.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Sometimes they switch and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
You've also got Sunday Night Football on NBA, and then
you've got Monday Night Football, and so that's like five
games that theoretically you could watch. You know you're gonna
have the best teams usually featured in those games, but
the NFL tries to pick teams and good matchups for that.
So let's say you live in the New York area,
but for some reason, the Los Angeles Rams have really
caught your attention.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
There's a good chance even if you.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Don't have the streaming services, even if you don't have
NFL Sunday ticket, you'll get a decent number of chances
to watch that. NFL contracts will expire in a couple
of years. The expectation is is that Prime obviously will
put a ton of money on the table that Netflix
wants to get into this on a more regular basis,
so eventually the NFL will start to have its games
behind a paywall. And the argument is is that look,
(26:39):
every year, this is actually the really breaking news in
this one. Every year americans die. Generally, these Americans are old,
and generally these Americans have been a good chunk of
these our football fans, so they're passing away. So if
you're a sports organization. You need new fans to keep
being attracted each time. If you put your games behind
a paywall, all of a sudden, the number of people
(27:01):
who can be exposed to it gets restricted unless they're
already subscribers to that pay service. So the argument is
is that this is actually a very dangerous move for
the NFL to make. It's a very bad idea to
put your stuff behind pay walls because you need people
to casually get into it.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Now.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
If you have stranger things, right, if you have something
where you know people are going to seek it out.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
People talked about it. It's been popular for a while.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
That's fine, But the idea is the argument is that
the NFL is cutting off the idea for people to
pour casual fans or not that into it, to get
into it by watching the games because the game is
designed for television. I don't know if I totally buy
into this, but I do think it's kind of interesting
that this switch over. And look, when you and I
were growing up, baseball was a huge deal world series
(27:42):
of you know, Dodgers and Blue Jays. It's a much
smaller deal like last year it was Yankees and Dodgers,
and it was on. The game was on one night
for Halloween party last year, and like five people were
watching out of like you know, dozens and dozen people.
Baseball is just not what it used to be. The
NBA's picked that up. Some NASCAR is a bigger deal
than it used to be. I hear people more Americans
(28:02):
are getting it into Formula one hockey and allSome. But
like this one of those things, like not every sport
is guaranteed to stay to have to keep their audiences,
and there's a real danger I think for football if
they end up becoming the sort of thing where you
need to have a bunch of subscriptions, you're you're going
to eventually overtime lose your audience.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
The more it goes behind and pay weall the less
interested I am. I'm not going to fork over any
money for Peacock. I'm not gonna watch on Netflix. You know,
conservatives are already kind of in revolt against Netflix because
of too many shows that leaves people squeamish about you
looking like child exploitation, and so that's not going to
be a huge draw. But as time goes on, the
way things are done is changing rapidly, so it wouldn't
(28:39):
surprise me that it happens, But I think you're going
to diminish the market. They'll probably charge enough for it
so that it won't matter, because once you're paying for it,
you know you can you don't need as big of
an audience, but it could be it could be a
definite drop in total numbers.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
The argument is this is eating your seed corn. This
is you know, you're you're getting profits up front by
getting you know, getting Big Tree TV deals with the
streaming services, but you're actually cutting off people's ability to watch.
The casual fans would come in and grow into adult fans.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Well, that could be a major controversy for professional football, gym.
There's no shortage of controversies in sports altogether. We've certainly
seen football players suspended for gambling at a big scandal
just blow up with the FBI, making arrest with the NBA.
So you're thinking, is there any any sport or activity
where honor is still at the center of the competition,
(29:29):
And unfortunately the answer seems to be no. I've held
on to this one since middle of September. This is
from the New York Post World Stone Skimming Championship tossed
into chaos by cheating scandal. This is a very well
written article. No stone was left unturned at this global
championship rocked by a cheating scandal. At least several competitors
(29:49):
were tossed like the stones they threw at the World
Stone Skimming Championship on the small Scottish island of Easdale
earlier this month, a handful of four hundred participants were
accused of you using suspiciously circular shaped stones that help
them more easily bounce along the water, instead of following
rules that require them to use natural stones found on
(30:11):
the island. Kyle Matthews, who organized the event, on the
BBC that the stone cold cheters held their hands up
and issued apologies for doctoring stones when confronted Jim, if
we can't trust stone skimmers to follow the rules and
participate with integrity, is there any competition where we can
expect fidelity to fare competition?
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Great Soviet stating you.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Know which celebrity I think is right all behind this
this nefarious plot is that the rock you started out
with this and I'm like this is ridiculous. I can't breage,
but like halfway the suspiciously circular shaped stones. I was like, Okay,
I want to see those stuffs. I want to see
what counts as a suspiciously circular stone versus a naturally stone.
(30:57):
And I actually would clicking through the oat, which probably
way good for you for ESPN for just adopting that
line from Dodgeball and saying, Okay, we're gonna turn ESPN
News into ridiculous sports during odd hours. I've seen the
stone Skipping Championships, I've seen the competitions, and I kind
of get into it. I'm working out, I'm on the
treadmill or I'm on the on the liptical, like, Okay,
that was a really good throw.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Good job, man, Yeah, you get into it.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
They got the slippery stairs, they got the pillow fighting.
But yes, apparently you have to only use rocks wherever
the competition is being held. This would seem to me
like a pretty big scandal in the in the sport.
So first of all, it was just shocked that there
is such a thing as the World Stone Skipping Championships
and everybody traveled from around the world to Scotland to
(31:41):
participate in this, but to have it denigrated like this, Jim,
is the world coming too. Anyway, it is time for
us to wrap up. Jim, have a great weekend. I'll
see you on Monday. See you Monday, Greg, Jim Garretty,
National Review. I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks for
being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
the podcast if you don't already, tell your friends about
us as well. Thanks also for your five star ratings
and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming. Get us
(32:03):
on your home devices. All you have to say is
play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both on X
He's at Jim Garrity, I'm at Greg Corumbus. Have a
terrific weekend, and join us again on Monday for the
next Three Martini Lunch
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