Episode 98
Episode 98: 2024 Recap Part 1 & Spicy Eats & Spicier Headlines 🔥📅
Welcome to a spicy 🌶️, news-packed 📰, and flavor-filled 🍽️ episode of Get It Right Texoma with your favorite hosts—Mike Hendren, Terry McAdams, and Trey Sralla!
Here's what's cooking on Episode 98:
- 🚨 Terror Hits Home: A closer look at recent shocking terrorist incidents in New Orleans and involving a Tesla truck. Coincidence or connection?
- 🍽️ Local Flavor Spotlight: Pioneer of Texas steals the spotlight with its legendary enchiladas and down-home chicken fried steak. Terry says: "Move all the other stuff—just give me those enchiladas!"
- 👑 Epstein Bombshells: Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton hit the headlines as explosive documents drop.
- 🌘 Solar Eclipse Shenanigans: Texomans and Americans alike chased shadows—and some cloudy skies—during April’s big solar event.
- 🏈 Chiefs Double-Up: Kansas City Chiefs clinch back-to-back Super Bowl victories for the first time in two decades.
- 🌉 Bridge Bust: Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collision shakes up lives, commutes, and sparks massive repair bills.
- 💥 Trump Trials & Tribulations: Trump’s hush-money saga and its surprising political aftermath.
- 🛩️ Trey's Travel Tips: Skip the budget airlines and avoid airport fistfights—stick with comfort, folks!
- 📺 Remembering Icons: Paying tribute to Bryant Gumbel, Jimmy Carter, and Linda Lavin ("Kiss my grits, Mel!").
Special shoutouts to our awesome local businesses:
🎧 Follow & Subscribe for more Texoma talk: Get It Right Texoma Website
📍 Businesses & People Mentioned:
- Pioneer of Texas (Wichita Falls restaurant)
- McBride family restaurants (historical reference)
- MacTech Solutions
- Eddie Hill’s Fun Cycles
- Lollie and Pops Sweet Shop
- Dr. G’s family (local entrepreneurial reference)
- Ronny Jackson
- Charlie Ferris (local Wichita Falls advocate)
Transcript
You make this rather snappy, won't you?
Speaker A: y heavy thinking to do before: Speaker B:Hey, welcome to another episode of Get a Right Texoma with the trio Mike, Terry and Trey.
Speaker B:And Happy New Year.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:This is really.
Speaker B:It's not our first show of the year.
Speaker B:We had Anne Arnold Ogden on already, and so she was.
Speaker B:Well, we actually recorded her interview in.
Speaker A:24, so this is our first recorded.
Speaker B:This is our first official drop.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:She's dropped now.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, I need to.
Speaker B:So, anyway, welcome.
Speaker B:Happy New Year.
Speaker B: Hope you're telling what: Speaker B:It's got to be.
Speaker A:Well, I think.
Speaker A:I think all the earmarks are there.
Speaker B:I hope so.
Speaker B:I hope so.
Speaker B:You know, just.
Speaker B:We don't have this on our list and we'll.
Speaker B:And we can get more into this later when we get more information.
Speaker B:But in the.
Speaker B:In the days prior to us recording this episode, there were two terrorist attacks in this country.
Speaker B:One in New Orleans.
Speaker B:Guy drove a rented truck into a crowd of people.
Speaker B:Last I heard that the Death toll was 10 or 11.
Speaker B:Is it 15?
Speaker B:15 people dead.
Speaker B:Now, a lot of people hurt.
Speaker B:A lot of people hurt.
Speaker B:And then there was a Tesla truck that was bombed.
Speaker B:A bomb was detonated.
Speaker A:Don't know about a bomb, but some explosive devices were detonated.
Speaker A:It wasn't really a.
Speaker B:It blew the truck.
Speaker C:It was a pretty big bomb.
Speaker C:And then there were fire.
Speaker A:There was a lot of fireworks and there was a lot of stuff in it and some accelerants.
Speaker B:I don't think it worked quite like the guy thought it would.
Speaker B:No, here's the.
Speaker B:Here's the part about this.
Speaker B:And again, more information will come out in the days ahead, at least at better.
Speaker B:The two guys that were involved in this, in each attack apparently both served at Fort Bragg.
Speaker A:Well, they were both, by the way.
Speaker A:Yeah, let's go back to.
Speaker A:Let's clear this up.
Speaker A:These were both Americans, Right.
Speaker A:These were not.
Speaker C:These were not US born.
Speaker A:They were not people who came in through the southern border.
Speaker A:And I'm not saying that there's not threats out there.
Speaker A:I'm just simply saying these two things were not people who snuck in on the southern border and are from Syria or some other place like that.
Speaker A:These were American citizens and Americans that.
Speaker B:Served in the military, but they committed terrorist attacks here in this country.
Speaker B:The guy in New Orleans had an ISIS flag.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:On the back of his truck.
Speaker B:It also turns out, I've heard in the last 24 hours prior to us doing this episode, that the the trucks were both rented from the same company, right?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:So for the FBI to come out and say, oh, there's no connection.
Speaker B:Bull crap, there's absolutely a connection.
Speaker B:There.
Speaker B:There is.
Speaker B:They.
Speaker B:They are connected somehow.
Speaker A:There's some similarities, for sure.
Speaker A:I mean, you got to start chasing all those things and find out.
Speaker B:I don't, I don't.
Speaker B:I don't believe too much in coincidences.
Speaker C:Y.
Speaker C:Very coincidental.
Speaker B:And I think that they're going to find out whether they tell us honestly or not.
Speaker B:Most people probably look at this and go, yeah, this was a planned attack.
Speaker B:This was a coordinated attack on some level.
Speaker B:Now, maybe it was just these two guys.
Speaker B:Maybe there were other people involved.
Speaker B:My spidey senses go off and tell me there's more than two people involved.
Speaker A:And I tend to agree with that.
Speaker A:But let's look.
Speaker A:We don't want to jump to too many conclusions and go down some bad rabbit trails.
Speaker A:I, I do, I do think there's a good possibility, a very strong possibility that these are, these, these are somehow connected.
Speaker A:But to say they were both had served at Fort Bragg at some point.
Speaker A:Probably everybody who's been in the.
Speaker A:Probably half the army people who have served in the army have been at Fort Bragg at some point.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:For Bragg's a massive base.
Speaker A:It's not, it is, it's not Shepherd Air Force.
Speaker C:Basically, if they were, you know, in the same.
Speaker A:If they were in the same unit, squadron or something, that's a, That's a whole different deal.
Speaker B:So when you're, if you're an investigator, one of the things you do when you're looking at multifaceted.
Speaker B:Multifaceted crime like this, one of the things you do look for are what are the commonalities?
Speaker A:Well, absolutely, you need to do that.
Speaker A:But what I'm simply saying is you can't.
Speaker A:I mean that, to me, that.
Speaker A:That's a very broad one.
Speaker A:I want to look for some more narrow.
Speaker A:And I think they're there.
Speaker A:What I'm saying is I believe they're there, but what I'm saying is I want to look.
Speaker A:Oh, they were both at Fort Bragg.
Speaker A:Well, so was.
Speaker A:Yeah, millions and millions and millions of people at one time.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But they both were in the military.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Once again, there was a.
Speaker A:There was millions of people, but there you start, start.
Speaker A:You start there.
Speaker A:They were both in military.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Then they were both at Fort Bragg.
Speaker A:But now let's start really finding some specifics.
Speaker A:You know, the car rental thing, that is a.
Speaker A:That's an unusual one.
Speaker B:Now, that.
Speaker A:And it's not a.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's not Hertz or.
Speaker B:No, it's.
Speaker B:It's not.
Speaker A:It's something.
Speaker A:Rent a car.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I don't even know who it was.
Speaker A:I'd have to look and see who it is if I heard of it.
Speaker A:It's not national or anything like that.
Speaker B:The article that I read described the company.
Speaker B:I don't recall the name of it right now, but they described the company as the Airbnb of vehicle rentals is what they described it as.
Speaker B:So it was.
Speaker B:There was no.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:No one I'd ever heard of before Turo, and no one I'd ever use.
Speaker C:Car sharing.
Speaker C:Apple called.
Speaker A:Okay, well.
Speaker A:And see, now that's a.
Speaker A:Okay, that's.
Speaker A:That's not.
Speaker A:That's different than.
Speaker A:Yeah, that is different than, like, renting from Herzer national, then.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's.
Speaker A:If that's an Airbnb, that sounds like something that you were.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:I don't know anything about them.
Speaker B:But somebody has a vehicle and they put it up for rental.
Speaker A:For rent.
Speaker A:Rental.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah, I.
Speaker B:I heard of doing that kind of thing with, like, you know, motorhomes and travel trailers and things.
Speaker A:Like, there's actually a guy here from Wichita Falls who went off to.
Speaker A:I think he went off to Harvard or mit, and he ended up in San Francisco and started a company at one point who was working on something like this.
Speaker A:And it was like, people who were.
Speaker A:And I think it was at lax.
Speaker A:You were.
Speaker A:Say you were going to be parked there for a week or two weeks at LAX while you're out of town.
Speaker A:You could rent your car out.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:For people to use there at the time.
Speaker C:Is that Dr.
Speaker C:G's?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:I was gonna say he's been involved in a lot of different.
Speaker C:Yeah, that family is just.
Speaker B:But I just wanted to mention that because it's topical, it's something that just happened, and obviously not a great way to start our new year.
Speaker B:But I do think that the FBI, the authorities, they need to be more forthcoming with information as much as they can.
Speaker B:When they hold back information, when they look like they're trying to keep information from the public, then you open that door even more to speculation, and that's the biggest problem.
Speaker A:Best thing you can do is be transparent.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Because what you do is you create a.
Speaker A:You create a void.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:And then people want people.
Speaker A:We're desperate as human beings to know answers.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker A:Especially if things that are baffling us.
Speaker B:It's your human nature.
Speaker B:It's our human curiosity.
Speaker A:And so we're going to, so we're going to make shit up.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:If we, if you, if you don't help us fill that void with something that's plausible.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Then as human beings, we're more likely to speculate.
Speaker B:You got to put, put the facts out there.
Speaker B:We're all big boys and girls and we can handle it.
Speaker B:Tell us the truth and stop treating us like mushrooms, you know, feeding us crap and keeping us in.
Speaker A:The bottom part of it is though, let.
Speaker A:But by the same token, I say on the other side of that is let the investigation happen.
Speaker B:Well, sure.
Speaker A:Don't everybody just jump to conclusions that that is one of the other problems.
Speaker A:People are so desperate now in this, in this information age to come out and just say something because people will jump to their own conclusion.
Speaker A:So it's best to let things happen.
Speaker A:Go, let it go slowly.
Speaker A:Let all the investigation happen and then demand answers.
Speaker B:Let's, let's go ahead and talk about our local restaurant in focus this week here.
Speaker B:We do this every, every show.
Speaker B:We talk about the website up real quick.
Speaker B:Talk about a locally owned, usually family owned restaurant here in town.
Speaker B:And this week we're talking about Pioneer of Texas.
Speaker B:Now for those of you that aren't from the local area and don't know the Pioneer restaurant chain, the website, the.
Speaker A:First, the home landing page on the website's got their famous enchilada.
Speaker C:Okay, well, we'll pull that.
Speaker B:Trying to try to pull that up.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Nope.
Speaker B:Well, not working.
Speaker C:Well, the, the URL that they.
Speaker C:Oh, here.
Speaker C:Texas restaurant dot com.
Speaker B:The Pioneer restaurant chain originated here in.
Speaker A: Wichita Falls in: Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:And at one time there were eight, seven or eight pioneer restaurants.
Speaker B:There we go.
Speaker B:What, what input do we have that on there, by the way?
Speaker C:That's on the four.
Speaker A:Four.
Speaker B:Okay, there we go.
Speaker B:So there's a picture there.
Speaker B:There.
Speaker A:That is the enchilada plate right there.
Speaker A:That is, that is the pioneer enchilada plate.
Speaker B:Probably the most famous thing they serve right there is that enchilada looks like coleslaw.
Speaker B:I don't care what it is.
Speaker B:It's the enchiladas we're after.
Speaker A:Yeah, the enchiladas at the bottom.
Speaker B:But anyway, you can move all that.
Speaker A:Other crap off of the enchiladas.
Speaker B:So here's the deal.
Speaker B: So you said: Speaker B:So they had these multiple Pioneer restaurants around town.
Speaker B:They dominated the restaurant scene here for many, many years.
Speaker B:The McBride family owned it.
Speaker B:They also had McBride's branded restaurants.
Speaker B:McBride Land and Cattle, which is downtown.
Speaker B:McBride Seafood, which was west of the city and several others in town.
Speaker A:And El Gordo's was their Mexican restaurant.
Speaker A:El Gordo's that had their enchiladas.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Which is right next door to the McBride's downtown.
Speaker B:McBride's downtown.
Speaker B:So anyway, over the years, the family sold off multiple restaurant properties, locations closed down, and only one of the Pioneer restaurants now is back.
Speaker B:That as far as I'm aware, is actually back in McBride family hands, and that's McBride's Steaks on Maplewood.
Speaker B:But Pioneer of Texas sprang from that same family, that same organization, that same group of restaurants, and still serves, as far as I know, much the same menu that they served.
Speaker A:Yeah, 50, 60 years came with us with the sales and stuff.
Speaker A:But they're well known for chicken fried steak, well known for enchiladas.
Speaker A:Oh, that's great.
Speaker A:Great food.
Speaker A:They're good people.
Speaker B:Take a look at that way.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So if you Awesomeness, right.
Speaker A:You got a hankering, hunkering for some from some good down home cooking bride.
Speaker A:Pioneer of Tech.
Speaker A:Not McBride Pioneer of Texas.
Speaker A:Out on Maplewood is a great place to go.
Speaker B:Yeah, great, great food and great restaurant.
Speaker B:And like I said, been around since 43.
Speaker B:There's not, there's not many chains of any sort that have been around.
Speaker B:Well, I guess we're going into the nine decades now, nearly.
Speaker A:Yeah, well, and I think, I think they're actually.
Speaker A:The McBride family started doing restaurant sales before that.
Speaker A:I think they started around in the World War I era.
Speaker A:I think the pioneer was that.
Speaker A:That's when they branded it.
Speaker A:Pioneer was in 43.
Speaker A:And I don't know that 100%.
Speaker A:That was on their website.
Speaker B:The story I had heard previously was is that they started serving sandwiches at Coal Field, Cole Field, the World War I airfield here.
Speaker B: So that would have been: Speaker B:1918, somewhere in that era.
Speaker B:Well, the war ended, I guess, in 18.
Speaker B: , you know, somewhere between: Speaker B:And then, you know, over the years they opened up restaurants.
Speaker B:It just, their, their food, it caught fire.
Speaker B:People loved it.
Speaker A:The history is out there somewhere.
Speaker A:I read it while waiting on my food at a pioneer restaurant.
Speaker A:They had, they had our history and I read it and.
Speaker A:But that was 20 years ago.
Speaker A:So I'm kind of going off my, my memory there.
Speaker A:But anyhow, also, guys, we in less than a week.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:We lost Bryant Gumbel, Jimmy Carter and Linda.
Speaker A:Laughing Yes.
Speaker A:What an eclectic group that was.
Speaker B:I know.
Speaker B:Well, Jimmy, I'm not sure.
Speaker B:How was Brian Gumbel?
Speaker A:He was in his 80s, I believe.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Former host of the Today show and football.
Speaker A:He did a lot of sports casting, too, as well.
Speaker B:Jimmy Carter was 100 years old.
Speaker B:He's been suffering with.
Speaker B:He's been in hospice care for quite a while now.
Speaker A:I think over a year and a half.
Speaker B:He had a brain tumor.
Speaker B:And I think after.
Speaker B:I think after his wife Rosalind passed, he went into hospice care.
Speaker B:And then, of course, he passed away at 100 years old.
Speaker B:And then Linda Lavin was 87 or 88.
Speaker B:Yeah, of course.
Speaker A:By the way, that's Alice.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:For the TV show Alice.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I think she spent really most of her career on the stage.
Speaker A:So if you weren't into theater, you probably didn't know that she was still doing things.
Speaker A:But her big show was Alice, and that Alice was a cool show when I was growing up.
Speaker A:And what was the most famous line from Alice?
Speaker B:Kiss my grits, Mel.
Speaker A:Kiss my grits, Flo.
Speaker A:Flo.
Speaker B:So if I'm not mistaken, the TV show sprang from a movie.
Speaker B:A film called Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
Speaker A:I think that's right.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I think the only star from the film that transitioned over to the TV show was Vic Tabak, who played Mel.
Speaker B:Mel, he was in the film and then came over to CBS to do the TV show.
Speaker A:Stow it was his big river.
Speaker A:Stow it, Alex.
Speaker A:Stow it, Vera.
Speaker B:You know, you look at that.
Speaker B:Of course, you know.
Speaker B:Well, I think all of the main cast have passed away now.
Speaker A:Oh, I'm sure.
Speaker A:I don't know if the son.
Speaker B:He has passed away.
Speaker B:He passed away, and I know we lost him a few years ago, but Linda Lavin, I think she was the last of the original cast to still be around.
Speaker A:I always thought it was funny because Vic Tabak was in.
Speaker A:Interesting when you see him.
Speaker A:And that was my first experience of seeing Vic Tabak was in that.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:And then when you see him in some of his other roles and he's completely.
Speaker A:You know, you forget that these people are actors.
Speaker A:That.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That is not really them.
Speaker A:That is a character they're playing.
Speaker B:I can't remember what show it was.
Speaker B:It was an old Western.
Speaker B:Maybe it was Bonanza or something like that, where he's.
Speaker B:He's playing a character.
Speaker A:I think it was on Bonanza.
Speaker A:I'm pretty sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And it.
Speaker B:You look, you go, is that Mel?
Speaker A:That's Mel, yeah.
Speaker A:He didn't have his.
Speaker A:Didn't have his.
Speaker A:His Navy tattoo on.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Mother or Whatever sailor's hat and have all that, you know, to see him in that western garb and in that setting is.
Speaker B:It was kind of weird because when we were growing up, he was.
Speaker A:It was male.
Speaker B:So, you know.
Speaker B: ut some of the top stories of: Speaker B:So I guess we'll just start with January.
Speaker B: Yeah,: Speaker A:Most of this I kind of put in somewhat of order of my tried.
Speaker B:To big stories of January of last year.
Speaker B:A Boeing jet made an emergency landing after a panel known as a door plug blew out mid flight.
Speaker A:Fortunately, nobody was actually injured in the thing.
Speaker B:Well, you know, in the movies, traumatized.
Speaker B:But in movies, when a physical, when a plane deported pressurizes, people get sucked out.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, I don't think that happened in this case.
Speaker A:Well, if you got your seat belt on, you're not going to be sucked.
Speaker B:You're not going.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, but it has.
Speaker B:That's a scary thing.
Speaker A:Oh my God.
Speaker A:Can you imagine being in a plane all of a sudden?
Speaker C:Yeah, your ears pop and.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, it's got to be.
Speaker A:Got to be completely traumatizing.
Speaker A:But yeah, it did happen.
Speaker A:And of course, that was a major thing for Boeing because it launched investigation into Boeing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And they've lost Boeing billions in stock pricing and stuff like that.
Speaker A:And then I think they announced that they're going to lay off about 17,000 workers.
Speaker B:Oh my gosh.
Speaker C:But the thing is though, on that the Spirit Airlines was spun off.
Speaker C:That's an assembly company.
Speaker C:This is in Wichita, Kansas.
Speaker C:I was up there for eight years and Boeing had a big presence up there.
Speaker C:And when they had spun off the assembly or fuselage assembly or something off to this other company that called Spirit.
Speaker C:So they, because they even had contracts with Airbus as well.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:Now they brought.
Speaker C:They're bringing it back.
Speaker C:I think was the last I had heard about all out of.
Speaker C:As a result of some of the issues they've had quality control and all that, they're getting that pulling it back underneath.
Speaker C:FAA has been, you know, all over.
Speaker B:Them along those lines.
Speaker B:I saw a story probably a week or so before Christmas.
Speaker B:They were talking about all the holiday travel, the number of people that were traveling by car versus airplane versus flying.
Speaker B:I was like, it was under.
Speaker B:I want to say the number was under a million that were expected to fly somewhere within the continental US versus driving.
Speaker B:Now they didn't.
Speaker B:I don't think they were counting international flights.
Speaker B:And obviously if you're going to Hawaii or Alaska, you're going to fly.
Speaker A:You're not going to drive.
Speaker A:I was going to say you would.
Speaker C:Well, you know, don't they have a ferry?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Catch a cruise ship.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Better leave eight days ahead of time.
Speaker B:But anyway.
Speaker B:But no, it's, it was, it was.
Speaker B:The number was really stunning to me and the number of people driving.
Speaker B:It was, it was just a gargantuan number of people driving.
Speaker C:But we know.
Speaker C:I think a big part of that is, is it's such a pain.
Speaker C:And plus they nickel and dime you now literally.
Speaker C:I mean, they are charging some outrageous fees now.
Speaker C:I flew to Florida when I went to the, to the Apple meeting and everything that I went to back in October.
Speaker C:And you know, that was first time I'd flown in quite a while and it was a good experience.
Speaker C:Now I was looking at what was the airline, either Frontier or Spirit.
Speaker C:I've heard don't do front.
Speaker C:Spirit for sure.
Speaker C:But Frontier is probably not too far away from the way they.
Speaker C:But yeah, their, their pricing was like.
Speaker A:Look, yeah, here's my, here's Trey's travel tip.
Speaker A:If you're gonna fly, just, just fly American, United, Delta, fly somebody who's a name brand character, you're gonna pay a little bit more.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's not.
Speaker A:But, but couple.
Speaker A:Not a huge amount.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:When you get it all, when you have to do all.
Speaker A:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker A:You're gonna pay a little bit more up front, but you're not gonna get nickel to dime.
Speaker A:And quite frankly, I'm just going to put it out there.
Speaker A:When you get air travel that is so cheap that everybody can afford it, you get people who aren't used to flying and show up in their pajamas.
Speaker C:And like the Walmart of.
Speaker A:Yeah, it really is.
Speaker A:It kind of is.
Speaker A:And it's kind of like everybody just shows up there and, and you see more fist fights and stuff like that.
Speaker A:And Nearport, there's a lot of that.
Speaker A:And I think part of it is because air travel used to be kind of one of those things.
Speaker C:It was kind of dressed up.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:But it was kind of expensive and you kind of saved up and it was kind of credit card.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was really cold.
Speaker A:But now it's, it's almost like, almost like we're gonna run you in there like cattle and you're gonna act like cattle.
Speaker C:Southwest has been for a long time now they're doing reserve seating.
Speaker C:But yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I would say just stick with one of the major airlines and, and in the end you're, you're probably gonna, I Don't know that you'll save money, but you're probably gonna break even or close to, and I think you're probably gonna have a better experience.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Overall.
Speaker C:Well, again, since I hadn't flown in so long, when I sat down, even on I flew American and ultimately when I, When I sat down to pick my seats, and if it's a center seat or there's anyway there's certain seats you're gonna pay a little extra for.
Speaker C:And they say they, they have participated in this nickel and diming as well.
Speaker C:If it's one of the rows that has a little bit extra room, you know, with the.
Speaker A:But that's fine.
Speaker A:You know, ahead of time, you can either pick that seat or not pick that seat.
Speaker B:Well, that.
Speaker C:No, that's true, but it's still.
Speaker C:Anyway, I, I just was surprised.
Speaker C:And then, you know, depending on your ticket, the one you get, whether you get a checked baggage.
Speaker C:Of course, I didn't need checked baggage, but they checked my bag anyway.
Speaker C:That's your hack, by the way.
Speaker C:Used to be the hack is you could do a gate check and they didn't even do it now.
Speaker C:Every time, both times I flew, they wanted me to check it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:Even though I didn't have to pay for it.
Speaker C:You know, I would have had to pay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you, if you gate check it, then they don't know you don't pay the extra.
Speaker C:Unless.
Speaker C:Unless they see it and they go, that's too big, then they'll turn you.
Speaker A:But also, you have people, people don't want to fly anymore.
Speaker A:You have people that are.
Speaker A:That are trying to put stuff into overhead bins.
Speaker A:You know, you have your Americans and your stuff like that that tend to not be quite as critical.
Speaker A:But then you have your spirits and stuff like that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, it better fit down in that overhead.
Speaker A:You know, the template and all.
Speaker B:I had a guy tell me the other day over the holidays, he flew out because of.
Speaker B:They were going to meet a family member, and then they were flying up to the northwest and they flew out of San Antonio.
Speaker B:And he said it was a much better experience than he's ever had at dfw.
Speaker A:See, I don't mind dfw.
Speaker A:I've been in and out of DFW a bunch of times.
Speaker A:I pick people up there, I've dropped people off and I've flown in out there.
Speaker A:DFW doesn't bother me.
Speaker A:Well, I hear that all the time.
Speaker C:But did you.
Speaker C:Do you fly?
Speaker C:You flown more than me, I guess.
Speaker C:But do you do the pre TSA pre.
Speaker C:Did you do that?
Speaker C:Yeah, I did.
Speaker C:I went ahead and signed up.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:Well good for five years or something like that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:So it's worth.
Speaker A:You know, I've already renewed it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B: Also, January of: Speaker B:Some Jeffrey Epstein documents were unsealed revealing the names Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton.
Speaker A:And this did not make the news as much as I think it should have.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:Well, that was deliberate.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, I know, but it's.
Speaker A:It's like, why is it that Bill Clinton, of all people gets a pass and has gotten a pass for years?
Speaker A:He got a pass when he was in the.
Speaker A:When he was in office.
Speaker A:I know he was the.
Speaker A:I will say Bill Clinton.
Speaker A:I believe that Bill Clinton was the beginning of the new era where politicians can get away with stuff.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because one cycle before that, we've talked about it here.
Speaker A:Right here was Joe Biden and Gary Hart.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Or one cycle before, weren't they?
Speaker A:One cycle.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B: Well, in: Speaker B:They backed that thing up and ran over him again.
Speaker A:And Gary Hart all.
Speaker A:He was.
Speaker A:All he.
Speaker A:He did have an affair with somebody, but he didn't do it while he was in office.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:In the White House, he was.
Speaker B:He was still a potential nominee.
Speaker A:Nominee.
Speaker A:Then Joe Biden was.
Speaker A:Was ousted because of plagiarism, if you remember.
Speaker A:I believe in that same cycle.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Bill Clinton comes along and he pulls what he pulls where, you know, he does have sexual relations with that woman in the White House on the clock.
Speaker A:And she was an in.
Speaker A:And she was an employee of the White House.
Speaker A:I mean, you think about that on so many different levels.
Speaker A:Yeah, that was wrong.
Speaker A:On so many different levels.
Speaker A:Somebody having an affair with somebody that's.
Speaker A:I'm not for that.
Speaker A:I'm against it.
Speaker A:Because you shouldn't have affairs, in my opinion.
Speaker A:But two grown adults making a choice to engage in sexual, you know, whatever on their own is.
Speaker A:That's their business.
Speaker A:But when you are doing it in the people's house while you're on the clock and with somebody who's on the clock as well and being paid by the taxpayer and you are their supervisor.
Speaker A:You're.
Speaker A:You're their boss.
Speaker B:Yeah, that.
Speaker C:And they're the ultimate boss.
Speaker A:And we're with all the feminists.
Speaker A:He got away with it.
Speaker A:And there was women that were letting this go.
Speaker A:And it's like, why aren't you screaming bloody murder?
Speaker A:That this guy had power over this person.
Speaker B:I will Tell you, I know women who are, who I would, I would characterize them as hardcore feminist types.
Speaker B:And they absolutely fawned all over Bill Clinton.
Speaker B:I knew it.
Speaker B:They couldn't get enough of him.
Speaker B:And there was one, I won't say a name.
Speaker B:There was one that I knew, haven't seen or spoken to her in many, many years now.
Speaker B:But I asked her point blank because I knew what her position on Bill Clinton was and I knew what her position was on certain social issues, too.
Speaker B:And I asked her point blank, I said, how do you reconcile your beliefs about certain male behaviors with the President's behavior and treatment of an intern under his direct control?
Speaker B:She went nuts on me, lost.
Speaker B:I mean, literally call me names you wouldn't believe and worse.
Speaker B:And I'm like, it's a legitimate question.
Speaker B:It's a legitimate question.
Speaker B:So I think you're right.
Speaker B:That was the beginning of that era.
Speaker B:I'm telling you right now, if I'm, if I'm, if I'm president and I'm walking into the Oval Office, my first question is, has anybody disinfected the resolute desk since 98?
Speaker B:Can we get a black light in here?
Speaker A:Yeah, well, I'm just saying, I mean.
Speaker B:Just, you know, Bill, check it out.
Speaker A:Bill Clinton was the age of the new era where people could get away with things that they, yeah.
Speaker A:They weren't able to get away with.
Speaker C:But now, to be fair, and you know, we're all, none, not any one of us was an original Trump fan.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:We, this is not who we would have chosen by any means.
Speaker A:Wouldn't even chosen him this cycle.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:But he ended up being the Republican nominee, which is the closest to what we believe.
Speaker C:So given that, just interesting that this Trump in his current form, for a lot of reasons, there's no way that he would have made it.
Speaker C:Now, sometimes given, given where we're at, have we lowered our standards?
Speaker C:You know, and, and so now we've lowered our standards.
Speaker C:But given what, again, who ended up in the top, he ended up being.
Speaker B:That we are clearly, as a society, we are more accepting of, of certain things than we would have been 30, 40, 50 years ago.
Speaker A:I think social media has a whole lot of that.
Speaker B:I think it does plays a role.
Speaker A:People are just desensitized.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:But I think that, that also there's some things that I think that were not I, I who do.
Speaker C:Who cares?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:There's some things about Clinton or any of them, like, who cares to the extent that can he get the job done?
Speaker C:That's that we've, but we've accepted more.
Speaker A:Well, but I, I agree with that.
Speaker A:I agree with that.
Speaker A:Except for you can't do it on the clock and you can't do it well.
Speaker C:No, no, no.
Speaker A:Trump was a scumbag in his past.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:There's no doubt.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And he, he cheated.
Speaker A:I mean, he cheated on his first wife with his second wife and he, I don't know about Milani.
Speaker A:I don't know what his business is.
Speaker A:And honestly, I could, I could from a morality standpoint, say, hey, I think it's wrong to, to cheat on your partner.
Speaker A:But, but that's as far as it goes.
Speaker A:And that's as far as it would have gone with Clinton.
Speaker A:I don't care that Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:I care that Bill Clinton had a very close based on who she was.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:And where.
Speaker A:When it happened.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:So that's what, that's what bothered me.
Speaker A:But as far as Trump goes, yeah, he's a scumbag for cheating on Ivana with Marla Maples.
Speaker B:Well, and you know, out here in the regular real world, where the rest of us live, you know, corporate America, whatever, you know, the CEO of whatever gets caught having an affair with, you know, an intern or an employee or someone under their control, it's going to create a major scandal, at least within that company.
Speaker C:It's not what's good for the company.
Speaker B:It's probably going to result in that guy or gal resigning from their position over it at a minimum.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:And you mentioned social media playing a role.
Speaker B:But here's the thing, though.
Speaker B: when he came on the scene in: Speaker A:No, I agree.
Speaker A:I think that was the beginning.
Speaker B:When the Lewinsky affair happened, there really wasn't any social media.
Speaker B:We had America Online.
Speaker B:I don't, I'm sorry, I don't count that as, you know, that was, that was a message board and they gave you a song.
Speaker A:We did have the 24 hour news cycle at the time that started it as well.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:But I think social media has exacerbated the standard.
Speaker B:I think it's easy to argue here that in that release of that information between Prince Andrew and former President Clinton, Prince Andrew definitely got the worst end of the treatment on.
Speaker A:Oh, sure, absolutely.
Speaker A:And deserved it, by the way.
Speaker B:Done.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Moving on to February, the Kansas City Chiefs went back when, back to back Super Bowls.
Speaker B:First time in 20 years that they'd.
Speaker A:Done that or that anybody's wanted back to Back Super Bowl.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That was.
Speaker B:That was huge.
Speaker B:March.
Speaker B:A container ship struck Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Speaker B:That was, you know, and that was.
Speaker B:That still.
Speaker B:To me, that's still big news with a lot of unanswered questions.
Speaker B:There's still question marks all over that.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Why did that happen?
Speaker B:Why did it happen?
Speaker B:People lost their lives.
Speaker B:It impacted the lives of millions of people in that area.
Speaker A:That's exactly.
Speaker A:You said it exactly right, Mike.
Speaker A:Not only did people.
Speaker A:There were a few people that lost their lives in the accident itself, but the impact for people in that area was enormous.
Speaker A:And how many people did lose their lives because they couldn't use that bridge to get to hospitals?
Speaker A:There's a lot of knock on effects that could have happened.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Based on that.
Speaker A:Yeah, that did happen.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:It's just.
Speaker A:And a lot of it's unmeasurable because unknown because you don't know about grandma.
Speaker A:Who, who had that bridge been open maybe could have gotten to the hospital and gotten saved faster or whatever.
Speaker B:And this and this fell out of the news cycle very quickly.
Speaker B:You know, it was there and gone in no time.
Speaker C:Well, just a quick update.
Speaker C:In October, the owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the deadly Baltimore Bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than 102 million in cleanup costs.
Speaker C:But here's the other side of.
Speaker C:Could cost as much as $2 billion to rebuild it.
Speaker A:It's going to be 2 billion bucks to rebuild it.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:And it's supposed to be rebuilt in 28.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker C:That's.
Speaker C:I just the built just how abridged costs that much.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker B:Look what, look what we spend just on repaving roads.
Speaker B:You know, just repaving roads in our own community will cost us millions of dollars.
Speaker B:I forget somewhere down the line I've heard how much per mile it is, but it's a lot of money.
Speaker C:But then the bridge.
Speaker C:I don't know about this bridge, but most bridges though, in a town like that have a strategic purpose.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Because you.
Speaker C:To travel way around to go to another bridge.
Speaker B:And that's what they're having to do now is now you're having to reroute traffic.
Speaker B:You're adding for some folks, maybe hours.
Speaker A:Well, here in Wichita Falls is a perfect example.
Speaker A:There's an overpass that goes from the traditional downtown area to Eastside Drive.
Speaker A:And that was put in.
Speaker A:And there were a lot of black leaders back in the, I don't know, the 60s or 70s or whenever they did that.
Speaker A:That was put in for that reason because it was an inconvenience for east side residents because of railroad tracks.
Speaker A:And a whole lot of times there were.
Speaker A:There's a major railroad hub In Wichita Falls, 7th Street.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:And going across there, there were times that there were track, There were railroad cars in place, and eastside residents couldn't go.
Speaker A:Couldn't get to the other side of town, but especially hospitals, ambulances and all that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And Charlie Ferris was a big part of having that happen.
Speaker A:Wichita fall, which didn't.
Speaker A:Charlie Ferris was a huge part of making that bridge happen, and she fought for that, and that was.
Speaker A:That was the right thing to do.
Speaker A:So you're saying that's a perfect example locally of the strategic thing, because eastside residents could not always cross the railroad tracks when they needed to, so that.
Speaker A:That overpass was constructed so they would have access to the rest of the town at any time.
Speaker B:I used to work on the east side years and years ago.
Speaker B:And yeah, there were times where you would try to use that 7th street crossing a lot of times, and it's completely blocked.
Speaker B:And you come back through there five, six hours later and it was still blocked.
Speaker B:So for hours at a time, that intersection would be inaccessible and totally unusable.
Speaker A:And before you had that overpass, you had to go all the way down one direction or the other to maneuver there.
Speaker B:Well, you'd have to go.
Speaker B:I guess you would.
Speaker B:Had to have gone down business 287 Scott Avenue and come around and catch what was then east side Drive.
Speaker B:From that or Highway 240, you had.
Speaker A:To go all the way down to the end there.
Speaker A:Or you could have gone, depending on where you lived in Eastside.
Speaker A:If you live closer, you could have gone up to fifth street or.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, not fifth Street.
Speaker A:I'll take that.
Speaker A:You've gone up to Lincoln Street.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And gone into the Lincoln Bridge.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Not.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's a bridge.
Speaker A:It's not the Lincoln, Is not the Lincoln Tunnel.
Speaker A:It's just.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's a railroad track.
Speaker B:Railroad trellis.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:That goes over the.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:So you could have done that, but it's still inconvenient.
Speaker A:And when you're talking about minutes, if you're having an ambulance or something, that can make a difference.
Speaker B:Also in March, anti Israel protests erupt on college campuses.
Speaker B:We saw a lot violence, a lot of.
Speaker B:A lot of hateful rhetoric being thrown at Israel.
Speaker A:And that was college campuses that started, I believe, sometime around March.
Speaker A:But it carried through for.
Speaker A:Through.
Speaker A:Through the end of the.
Speaker A:That second semester of college.
Speaker A:And I mean, there Were lawsuits being filed.
Speaker A:There were colleges that lost millions of dollars because there were a lot of Jewish donors that were going, hey, if you guys can't take care of this.
Speaker A:And look, I'm all in favor of protests.
Speaker A:I'm all in favor of allowing protest.
Speaker A:I'm not a big protest person myself.
Speaker A:But allowing protests, peaceful protests.
Speaker A:But when you start, when you start, go impeding somebody else's way, keeping them in the library, not letting them get out of the library and that sort of thing, and putting fear into people, then you're wrong and you need to be dispersed.
Speaker A:You need to be thrown in jail.
Speaker A:You need.
Speaker A:That crap needs to end.
Speaker A:Or.
Speaker A:Or I'm also in favor of.
Speaker A:Or let's change the law to where.
Speaker A:If you're impeding me, you get what you get.
Speaker A:I get to go through you, and I'm okay with that, too.
Speaker A:So I don't care what.
Speaker A:How you want to do the laws.
Speaker A:We either need to have the law to where people's progress is protected by the law, or they can take their law into their own hands and handle it themselves.
Speaker A:You tell me what the rules are, I don't give a shit.
Speaker A:I'll go by either one of them.
Speaker A:But if you're going to have this law that I can't take the law into my own hands, then the government does have a responsibility to make sure that my rights are looked after.
Speaker B:We had a total, total solar eclipse back in April.
Speaker B:Big.
Speaker B:A big chunk of North America got to see it.
Speaker B:Fifteen US States saw the totality.
Speaker A:People traveled all over the country.
Speaker B:They did.
Speaker A:And then it was overcast.
Speaker A:I didn't see.
Speaker A:I was driving in California on the West Coast.
Speaker A:I mean, I was literally on the coast.
Speaker A:It got a little dusky, a little bit.
Speaker A:I didn't even stop the car and look at it because it.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, we.
Speaker C:We got out there and took a look.
Speaker B:Yeah, we had, you know, some of the solar glasses, you know, where you could look at it, you know.
Speaker C:Photos, man.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:I put up my phone behind the little glass.
Speaker C:I got some photos.
Speaker B:So, you know, it was kind of cool, but, you know, there was a time in human history when a lot of people would have been very freaked out by that.
Speaker B:Yeah, they would have sworn that that was a sign that the world was coming to an end right now.
Speaker B:And it would have caused all kinds of chaos.
Speaker B:And now we know it's no just the moon.
Speaker C:What are the flat Earthers say about that, by the way?
Speaker A:Guys?
Speaker A:With time constraints, you guys want to do May and then do the, we can next show.
Speaker A:Do the rest of the year.
Speaker B:Yeah, we can do that.
Speaker B:We'll end it.
Speaker B:We'll wrap it up here with May.
Speaker B:Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 charges in a hush money trial.
Speaker B:Boy, has the tide turned on that one.
Speaker A:Well, and that's to me, I think the last half of the year is going to have a lot of discussion.
Speaker A:So I figured, I mean, we'd be here for three hours if we, if we don't break it up.
Speaker A:But yeah, this is when that shoe dropped.
Speaker A:And then at this point there was a lot of speculation.
Speaker A:Is Trump really going to go to jail?
Speaker B:Here's the thing I said all along, there's no way Donald Trump serves a day in prison.
Speaker B:He was never, even if he hadn't won, he was never going to prison.
Speaker B:What, you got a lock, A dozen Secret Service agents up in the prison with him.
Speaker A:We had a little big discussion about that.
Speaker A:I totally agree, but come on.
Speaker A:But there was a lot of speculation out there, was he going to go to jail?
Speaker A:But if not, was he going to be sentenced to jail?
Speaker A:And if he was sinister, then how would that play out?
Speaker A:Because I don't know what the rules are.
Speaker A:If a judge says, okay, I'm confining you to, I'm reminding you in jail.
Speaker A:But then Donald Trump goes, hey.
Speaker A:So in other words, if Donald Trump feels threatened as a president, then he has presidential protection from the Secret Service.
Speaker A:So do the local police.
Speaker A:How are you gonna put handcuffs on the President of the United States if he says, I'm not going in handcuffs?
Speaker A:Does the Secret Service have an obligation to fight the local police to protect him?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker A:And we don't want it to turn into that.
Speaker A:We hope that every colt calmer heads prevail.
Speaker A:But you never know.
Speaker B:All of this was done for one reason and one reason only.
Speaker B:To try and upend his chances of being the Republican nominee.
Speaker B:That worked for you, period.
Speaker B:That's all.
Speaker A:And I think, I think it strengthened him.
Speaker B:Actually, it was a dog and pony show that backfired on.
Speaker A:I think that all of this actually contributed to Donald Trump winning the election with the margin he did.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah, it galvanized his base.
Speaker A:I mean, I think he was going to beat Jamala Harris anyhow, or Joe Biden for that matter.
Speaker A:I had, I mean, I said that early in the year.
Speaker A:I felt pretty certain that he was going to be the next president, but, but for sure, I think that this, this helped his, his margin had it.
Speaker B:Not been for this, I think the election, the results would have been much tighter, it would have been closer.
Speaker B:But this galvanized his base in a way that nothing else could have.
Speaker B:And it just, it worked for him.
Speaker C:It's just interesting how he has peeled away a lot of what we would call traditional Democrat voters again, you know, like Reagan.
Speaker A:Reagan Democrats.
Speaker C:Yeah, he does, but they're like, man, he just speaks the plain.
Speaker C:Even though he's not the best orator in the world, he still speaks to somewhat to the common person.
Speaker B:I think that's what served him well the first time around.
Speaker B:And this time is when he does speak and he does talk about these things, all the issues that a president has to talk or candidate has to talk about, he's able to sound more like us than he is them.
Speaker A:Well, here's the thing.
Speaker A:I think the reason is because I think, and I'm speaking for all of us working class people, I think that we don't mind as a whole.
Speaker A:I don't think we mind wealthy people.
Speaker A:But don't bullshit me about you being wealthy.
Speaker A:Don't tell me you're one of me and you're not.
Speaker A:Just say, hey, I'm rich now, here's how I got here or whatever it is.
Speaker A:You know, it's the people that are the very wealthy people who try to, oh shucks, I'm just a good old boy from, you know, so and so.
Speaker A:Or I'm just a good old gal like Nancy Pelosi.
Speaker A:Nancy Pelosi is rich people.
Speaker A:She is wealthy beyond imagine.
Speaker A:And she did it as a, in the House of Representatives.
Speaker A:You tell me how that happened.
Speaker A:And I think that that is one of the biggest things and I'm hoping that this administration could start to peel back that onion some and figure out why not figure out, but put some rules in place on keeping that shit from happening.
Speaker A:But I go back to, I think term limits are the number one thing.
Speaker A:If we put term limits in place, a lot of that corruption stuff will go away.
Speaker B:I think the term limits and you know, I've had this argument with a number of people as well.
Speaker B:We don't know, we don't need term limits.
Speaker B:You know, we got the ballot box.
Speaker B:Well, that hasn't worked.
Speaker B:The problem that we have with trying to rely on elections as a check on their, on how long these people serve is that when you get to the primaries, the challengers have no chance.
Speaker B:When your turnout for a primary is somewhere at or just under 10% of the total registered voters and 60 to 75% of those people are going to vote for the incumbent candidate.
Speaker B:Challengers have no chance.
Speaker B:So the incumbent remains in place and the incumbent in a general.
Speaker B:General election has an edge, if for no other reason, just due to name recognition.
Speaker A:Well, not only that, they get to campaign.
Speaker A:I've gotten three mailers from Ronny Jackson.
Speaker A:Yes, he's not campaigning, but he is in a way.
Speaker A:But he's.
Speaker A:Ronny Jackson is doing this, this and this.
Speaker A:Well, that's great, but what I'm saying is.
Speaker A:But he's able to do that while he's serving.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:Whereas if you're, if you're.
Speaker A:Not, if you're a candidate and you're not don't have that job, you have to dedicate time and resources and everything to top of mind to campaign.
Speaker A:That, that.
Speaker A:Exactly right, exactly.
Speaker B:So keeping them top of mind.
Speaker B:Last one on the list here for May.
Speaker B:The Iranian president dies in a helicopter crash.
Speaker A:That was a big deal.
Speaker A:I mean, it wasn't necessarily a big deal to us, but if you were on that part of the world, especially if you're, I mean, that would be like our president dying in helicopter crash.
Speaker A:I mean, no matter how much all of us dislike Joe Biden.
Speaker A:I know I didn't.
Speaker A:I definitely to this day don't want Joe Biden to die while in office.
Speaker A:And I don't think you guys treat it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:We all agree that he's been treated very badly by his handlers and his, and his wife.
Speaker C:Allowing all of that.
Speaker A:That's a whole nother issue.
Speaker A:But what I'm saying is.
Speaker A:But you don't want the leader of your country.
Speaker B:No.
Speaker A:To die while in office.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, and I think one of the dangers when someone like this, the, the extreme leader of an extreme regime in an extreme country dies.
Speaker A:Iran.
Speaker A:You mean the democracy of dire of Iran.
Speaker A:So with someone like Democratic Republic of.
Speaker B:Iran, with someone like that in power dies.
Speaker B:The big worry for us and for other Western countries is is does it create a power vacuum?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And what's going to get sucked into that power vacuum?
Speaker B:What's going to take what happened to.
Speaker A:Iraq as horrible as Saddam Hussein was.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:As horrible as a person he was.
Speaker A:And the, the horrible things that he did to his people and he desired, deserved to die for it.
Speaker A:He kept everything in line to some degree.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:He was a madman.
Speaker A:He wasn't good.
Speaker A:He needed to be gone.
Speaker A:But the problem is you almost need to be sure that there's somebody better who's going to take that place because Iraq did fall into Chaos for a while.
Speaker C:Well, yeah, we may still be.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker C:Well, but we, we sort of had a handle on it for a little while.
Speaker B:Well, it's so sad when you look at photographs and video of Iran before the mullahs took over, when the Shah was still in power, when, you know, it looked like a very westernized country.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And by the way, the Shah was.
Speaker A:No, no, no.
Speaker A:Great guy.
Speaker A:Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker A:Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:No, no, no.
Speaker A:That guy took advantage of a whole lot.
Speaker A:They had a lot of money.
Speaker A:He took advantage of a lot of stuff.
Speaker A:I mean, it took advantage of his people.
Speaker A:It was basically almost like where you had the haves and have nots.
Speaker A:It was very westernized and if you were a have, you were shitting in high cotton.
Speaker A:But if you were a have not, you lived in swallow.
Speaker B:But it went from one extreme to the other.
Speaker B:When the Shah was assassinated and the.
Speaker A:Well, he was sinwidded.
Speaker B:Exiled.
Speaker B:Sorry, exiled.
Speaker B:When the Shah was pushed out of power, when he was exiled and the mullahs came into control in Iran, you saw this dramatic shift into this deep extreme Islamic tight fisted control of everything.
Speaker B:And you know, it just.
Speaker B:How many, how many women and children have been slaughtered?
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:It's horrible.
Speaker A:I mean, I mean it goes, it goes back to.
Speaker A:This is why as as many problems as we have in America, this is why democracy is best.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker A:Because.
Speaker A:And we can argue about democracy.
Speaker A:I'm using the broad term of democracy is best.
Speaker A:We have people who do come into power.
Speaker A:We do have people that take advantage, there's no doubt about it.
Speaker A:But they also leave.
Speaker A:And, and their control is not usually so tight fisted.
Speaker A:Even, Even when the government tried to control people with COVID there was a whole lot of people that said, f off, I'm not doing it.
Speaker A:A lot of people.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so that's, that's the nice thing about democracy.
Speaker A:Because if you have places like Iran or some of these extreme countries, you don't.
Speaker A:You have no say.
Speaker A:And you better keep your mouth shut.
Speaker A:And if you say anything, you're gone.
Speaker C:Well, they try to give the illusion that you have some say, but then when it really comes down to it.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:I think China is the modern example of that, of a country that, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, you look like you got some freedoms, you look like you got some leeway, but you better watch your mouth when you're talking about the government.
Speaker A:As long as you play the game.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You better be in lockstep.
Speaker A:I've heard from some experts that were Western People who spent a lot of time in China and that's what they're saying is if you go out, go to China, a lot of it, it does look like suburban, you know, suburban America.
Speaker A:You know, picket fence, three car, two car garage, two cars in the driveway.
Speaker A:You know what, 2.3 kids, three bedroom, two bath house.
Speaker A:You know, brick home and all that.
Speaker A:It's nice.
Speaker A:But that comes at a cost of your freedom of your thought.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:You are, you can think, your freedom of your speech.
Speaker C:You're playing along.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:You're scored on your social behavior.
Speaker B:You're scored on how you act and react within the system.
Speaker B:And if you react negatively, if you say negative things about the leadership, if you push back against anything, you run the risk of basically disappearing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Bad news.
Speaker B:You know, I mean, and there, I'm sure there's many millions of people in China that their families don't know what happened to them.
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:Unfortunately.
Speaker B:We'll wrap it up here.
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Speaker B:As it's known to the locals.
Speaker B:And you're open Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm Apple products of all sorts.
Speaker B:The only thing they don't sell the iPhone.
Speaker B:They don't sell the goggles.
Speaker B:And what?
Speaker B:There's one.
Speaker A:They work on all of it.
Speaker B:Yeah, but you can.
Speaker C:Well, we don't, we don't repair the goggles or the, the Vision Pro.
Speaker C:But you do repair the phones, but everything else.
Speaker C:Yeah, because that's an exception.
Speaker C:That's sort of a test thing right now.
Speaker C:But anyway, yes, we repair everything else and we can hook you up.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:But here's the other thing.
Speaker C:You know, we sell it too.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:Everything but the phone, like you said.
Speaker C:But we are also taking care of our business customers.
Speaker C:If you have a business and you need some technology, whether Windows or Mac, we'd prefer the Mac.
Speaker C:But we can help you with the Windows as well.
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Speaker B:Oh, it's huge.
Speaker A:We're off.
Speaker C:And everybody here.
Speaker C:And with AI, that's making it even harder.
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