Podcasts about caesars

Phoebe and Patrick tackle the first Flavian - Flavian Flav, the first man to wear a big sundial around his neck: Vespasian.You can buy Milo's new special 'Sentimental' on Patreon for £10 here (Please don't do it in the iOS app or you will be charged more!):patreon.com/collection/2201154You can get Patrick's book LOST WORLDS in all good book shops and you can get the WOLF HALL MINISERIES on the We're Not So Different Patreon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com Vegas is on a roller coaster ride and the numbers are wild. This week Mark and Shawn break down the woman who allegedly married 14 men in Las Vegas, eat a little crow as the Golden Knights fall to the Hurricanes, and dig into the Vanderpump Hotel grand opening (drone show and all). Plus an A's ballpark update with the big arch now in place, Palms' adult-only "Camp Palms," Swingers After Dark, Joe DeSimone selling The Pass while scooping up the Bighorn and Longhorn, White Castle's Casino Royale replacement, a couple of jaw-dropping jackpots — and the headline of the week: the Nevada Gaming Abstract showing Strip net profits plunging 81% while Downtown actually out-earned the Strip on a fraction of the revenue. Debt servicing, distressed properties, and what it all means for the MGM and Caesars deals. Episode Guide: 0:00 - The Woman Who Married 14 Men in Vegas 0:44 - Golden Knights Out, Hurricanes Win the Cup 1:38 - Vanderpump Hotel Grand Opening & Drone Show 3:43 - A's Ballpark Update: The Arch Is Up 5:14 - Camp Palms: Adult-Only Summer Camp 6:57 - Swingers After Dark 8:06 - Local Casino Shakeup: Bighorn & Longhorn 9:34 - White Castle Out at Casino Royale 11:12 - Big Wins: Cosmo Jackpots & a $1.1M Royal Flush 13:39 - Nevada Gaming Abstract: Strip Profits Crash 81% 14:33 - Why the Strip Bleeds: Debt, Leases & Thin Margins 16:25 - Laughlin, Tahoe & What It Means for the Caesars Deal 19:29 - Final Thoughts Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

Den 2 september år 31 f.Kr. avgjordes Romarrikets framtid utanför Actium på Greklands västkust. Det var ett sjöslag som inte bara avgjorde ett inbördeskrig, utan också markerade republikens slut och början på den romerska kejsartiden.Efter mordet på Julius Caesars år 44 f.Kr. kastades republiken åter in i kaos. Ett nytt triumvirat bildades av Octavianus, Marcus Antonius och Lepidus, som delade upp imperiet mellan sig. Men precis som tidigare maktdelningar kunde inte heller denna bestå.I dagens avsnitt av Militärhistoriepodden berättar idéhistorikern Peter Bennesved och professorn i historia Martin Hårdstedt om slaget vid Actium – den avgörande uppgörelsen mellan Octavianus och Marcus Antonius i Joniska havet, vid inloppet till Ambrakiska viken.Octavianus, Caesars adoptivson och arvtagare, visade sig vara en mästare i politiskt manövrerande. Med propaganda, allianser och ett skickligt utnyttjande av Caesars eftermäle stärkte han sin ställning, samtidigt som relationen till Antonius gradvis försämrades.När konflikten övergick i öppet krig blev östra Medelhavet den avgörande arenan. Antonius och Kleopatra etablerade sig i västra Grekland, medan Octavianus förfogade över en ovärderlig tillgång: den briljante strategen Marcus Agrippa. Genom en rad amfibieoperationer mot Antonius försörjningslinjer skaffade sig Agrippa initiativet och lyckades successivt pressa in motståndaren i Ambrakiska viken. Samtidigt urholkades Antonius ställning av avhopp, bristande försörjning och ett allt intensivare psykologiskt krig.I avsnittet diskuteras också den romerska sjökrigföringens utveckling, styrkeförhållandena vid Actium och de osäkra källorna kring Kleopatras dramatiska flykt från slagfältet. När striden väl var över återstod bara en segrare. Antonius och Kleopatra tog sina liv, medan Octavianus återvände till Rom och blev princeps – ”den förste medborgaren”. Därmed inleddes en ny epok i romersk historia: kejsardömets tid.Bild: Slaget vid Actium 31 f.Kr., här skildrat i en målning från 1672, där Octavianus flotta besegrar Marcus Antonius och Kleopatra. Segern blev avgörande för slutet på den romerska republiken och början på kejsartiden. Målning: Laureys a Castro, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.Klippare: Emanuel Lehtonen Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com Shawn signs off from his last show on the road as he and Mark run through a packed week of Vegas news. We dig into why Caesars might be the real winner of the MGM and Caesars buyouts thanks to all the Strip land it still owns, whether Caesars' new $199 Ultimate Steakhouse Tour is actually a deal (spoiler: we're not sold), and the casino shakeup that lands The Pass with the free-food crew at Rainbow Club and Emerald Isle. Plus Four Queens turns 60, a beloved Hugo's Cellar sommelier retires after 41 years, Sigma Derby gets its own Fremont Street parade, a 90s themed speakeasy that falls flat, the downtown Low Line park dream, and the big question to close: is Oyo in trouble after falling behind on its taxes? Let us know what you think in the comments. Episode Guide: 0:00 – The Venetian slushy guy 0:32 – Aria's carpet swap & the machine that rips it out 1:32 – Golden Knights tied 2-2 in the Stanley Cup Final 2:13 – The Pass sold to the Rainbow Club & Emerald Isle owners 3:56 – Caesars vs MGM: who really owns the land? 6:33 – Caesars' $199 "Ultimate Steakhouse Tour": deal or not? 8:54 – Four Queens turns 60 (and that jeweled keychain) 9:35 – Hugo's Cellar sommelier John retires after 41 years 11:14 – Sigma Derby gets a Fremont Street parade 13:25 – The "Saved by the 90s" speakeasy at the Venetian 16:21 – The Low Line: downtown's High Line dream 18:24 – Is Oyo in trouble over unpaid taxes? Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

Subscribe to This Week in Hospitality wherever you get you podcasts: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5oPExA0txHMjEI5Ye13IUy Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-week-in-hospitality/id1849637233 Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@ThisWeekinHospitality   Two of the biggest casino operators in the world became takeover targets in the same week — and the squad has thoughts. Barry Diller's People Inc. just offered $18 billion to take MGM Resorts private, days after Fertitta agreed to buy Caesars. MGM's own CFO didn't argue the company was fairly valued — he argued investors aren't doing the work. Ben, Scott, and Edwin debate whether public markets are simply too lazy to underwrite experience-driven hospitality, and what the next-generation casino actually looks like. Then: the deal that almost rewrote the industry. On a recent podcast, Airbnb's former Chief Strategy Officer Chip Conley revealed that Marriott and Airbnb spent six months negotiating a major partnership in 2016 — including talk of earning and burning Bonvoy points on Airbnb stays — before Marriott's owners killed it. Was it the most expensive "no" in hospitality history? Plus: Zach got access to Odesia, the AI travel search platform from Sonder's co-founder that just landed $6M from Sequoia — and it's the best AI trip-planning experience he's seen, full stop. And a new survey of 2,000 travelers reveals what premium guests will actually pay more for: quiet rooms, verified sustainability, and tech that connects rather than dazzles. Spoiler — it's a home-field advantage for independents. Spice of the Week covers a sandwich shop that turned away revenue over a tiny dog, why full hotels fool owners into thinking their marketing works, the OTA-fee budget shell game, and Zach's big announcement: Journey's new strategic partnership with Cloudbeds. This Week in Hospitality is presented to you by Journey. Journey is a loyalty platform built specifically for independent boutique hotels and high-touch hospitality brands. Our mission is to give operators the same powerful rewards engine, data intelligence, and guest insights that major chains rely on — without asking them to give up the individuality, soul, or story that makes their property extraordinary. If you're an owner or operator of an extraordinary, independently owned and operated hotel or residence — and you want to see whether your property is a fit for the Journey Alliance — you can learn more and apply at https://www.journey.com/alliance   Key Topics & Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 05:08 — Story #1: MGM's Take-Private Bid and the Value of Live Experience 16:31 — Story #2: Marriott and Airbnb's Partnership That Never Happened 33:43 — Story #3: Travelers Will Pay More for Quiet, Calm, and Credibility 44:54 — Spice of the Week   Your Hosts: Zach Busekrus — Journey LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachbusekrus/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/behindthestays/   Scott Eddy — Global Travel & Hospitality Expert @MrScottEddy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrscotteddy/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrscotteddy/   Ben Wolff — Founder of Onera & Oasi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-wolff/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambenwolff/   Edwin Kramer — Luxury Hotelier Consultant & Former GM LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwinckramer/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwinkramer/

On episode 281 of the Atlantic City podcast, Kyle and Craig discuss the latest Irish Pub news and some recent openings in Atlantic City before getting into the big news... Read more »

Washington has always been draped in Rome. From the Senate to the Capitol, from the marble columns to the imperial domes, from the eagle imagery to the fasces displayed in Congress, America's ruling class built its civic temple with Roman hands and Roman imagination. The United States presented itself as a republic, but it borrowed the language, architecture, symbolism, and ambition of the empire that came before it. Rome was never as far away from America as we were told. It was carved into the stone from the beginning. Now the symbolism has stepped out of the marble and onto the White House lawn.“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17, 17,18 (KJB)On this episode of the Prophecy News Podcast, Rome understood spectacle. Rome understood how to command the imagination of the people. The arena was never merely entertainment. It was power on display. It was the empire telling the masses who ruled, who conquered, who mattered, and who could be crushed. The Caesars knew that the people could be governed through bread, blood, theater, fear, glory, and distraction. The arena was Rome's pulpit, and the empire preached itself through violence, triumph, and applause America learned the lesson well, very well. The White House, the palace of American executive power, becomes the stage. The fighters become the spectacle. The cameras become the amphitheater. The nation watches as combat entertainment is fused with politics, patriotism, celebrity, military pageantry, and national celebration. Just as it was in the days of Rome. This is not just another headline in a collapsing age. This is a prophetic snapshot of the Roman spirit of empire rising in the modern West. America is not named in Daniel as the final empire, but America has carried the Roman spirit across the modern world. It has exported Roman-style law, military order, global dominance, civic religion, political symbolism, mass entertainment, and imperial power under the banner of freedom and democracy. America calls itself a republic, but it increasingly behaves like an empire. That was Rome's path as well. First the republic, then the strong men, then the spectacle, then the empire. And finally, the inevitable collapse of all of it. The White House lawn has become the arena, and that old Roman spirit is speaking once again. Here at our 250th anniversary, our republic is fading, the spectacle is rising, the Beast system is forming. And the final empire of Antichrist is preparing for its last act before the King of kings returns to break it in pieces and set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. Is America Mystery Babylon? That's the question we will be looking to answer here on Day 2,279 of 15 Days To Flatten The Curve!

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com It was a wild week of Vegas news while we were away, and we're catching up on all of it. On this episode of MTM Vegas, Shawn and Mark break down the biggest story of all — both MGM (to People Inc.) and Caesars (to Fertitta Entertainment) going private within a week of each other, what it means for the Strip, the property sell-offs likely to follow, and why Hard Rock coming online next year could force everyone to compete. Plus the news Vegas fans have been waiting for: Primm is saved, with Terrible's stepping in to operate the casinos ahead of the planned July 4th closure. We also dig into Hoover Dam's massive new 300-foot American flag lit up through Independence Day, the 3.8 earthquake that rattled the valley, F1 locking in Las Vegas through 2037, Downtown Summerlin's controversial new "DTS" logo, the Neon Museum adding the iconic Mirage sign, the world's biggest In-N-Out opening at BLVD, and the closing of Le Cirque at Bellagio. Episode Guide: 0:00 – Planet Hollywood "leak" & Vegas is healing 0:38 – Greetings from Barcelona + a wild news week 1:00 – Hoover Dam's giant 300-foot flag for July 4th 2:38 – Las Vegas gets a 3.8 earthquake 3:44 – F1 locked in through 2037 4:46 – Primm is SAVED: Terrible's steps in 7:44 – Downtown Summerlin's new "DTS" logo 9:01 – Neon Museum adds the Mirage sign 10:01 – The biggest In-N-Out opens at BLVD 11:30 – Le Cirque is closing at Bellagio - See the tasting menu 13:41 – MGM & Caesars go private: the Strip changes forever 18:30 – Hard Rock is coming in hot 19:21 – What's next? Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

SUMMARY: A small earthquake shakes up Vegas while airport parking is in flames. Caesars is going private; will this move spur some much-needed innovation? At last, Paul sees Masters, and we get the deets! Also, a cowboy samurai roams The Strip, more Bricks & Minifigs talk, and a Freehold Scoopardy!

This episode covers WSOP weeks 1-2.... (0:09:19): Announcement: The PFA hashtag for WSOP updates is BACK!.... (0:16:28): Druff does super late registration for his first two events -- how did they go?.... (0:57:49): Isildur (Viktor Blom) stupidly mucks ace high without showing it down, after getting called by king high, in major WSOP event.... (1:15:33): HUGE dealer fail at critical stage of WSOP GG Million$ event busts Ricky Landais when he had opponent almost drawing dead.... (1:40:13): Andrew Moreno not allowed to deposit money from Aria tournament win at WSOP cage -- but is there more to the story?.... (1:57:24): Malfunctioning parking arm issue continues to dog tournament players exiting WSOP garage.

Donnie recently listed his most prestigous $1.5K events, and Jeff Madsen won one to earn his fifth career WSOP bracelet.Follow Donnie on Twitter: @Donnie_PetersFollow PokerGO on Twitter: @PokerGO Subscribe to PokerGO today to receive 24/7 access to the world's largest poker content library, including High Stakes Poker, No Gamble, No Future, and more. Use the promo code PODCAST to receive $20 off your first year of a new annual subscription. Join today at PokerGO.com.Play free poker against real players anytime, anywhere on PlayPokerGO. Build your path to poker mastery for free with Octopi Poker. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pokergo-podcast--5877082/support.

An action-packed week of Vegasy updates, including updated Hard Rock plans, Caesars and MGM transactions, and restaurant and show news The post FHBM #1008: Moths, Minivans, Loons and Pontoons first appeared on Five Hundy By Midnight.

Caesars Entertainment just sold for $17.6 billion — and if you own VICI Properties, you need to hear this. Russ sits down with Travis from Dividend Collection Agency, a retired Navy vet and TipRanks Top 1% analyst, to break down what the Caesars sale actually means for VICI shareholders, whether dividends are overhyped, which covered call ETFs are worth owning, and whether AI is the next airline industry — great for everyone except investors. Oh, and the mistress is always sexier than the wife. You'll have to watch to understand that one.[⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Link to YouTube Video⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠]

Au début des années 2000, Las Vegas est cette ville où l'on vient jouer, évidemment, et applaudir des légendes un peu has been. Dans les casinos planent l'ombre de Sinatra, Liberace, et plus récemment de Tom Jones. Le Vegas de Tom Jones, c'est des smokings ouverts jusqu'au torse, des femmes qui lancent leur lingerie sur la scène et des serveuses qui traversent la salle avec des plateaux de cocktails aussi grands qu'elles. À Vegas, les stars sont des mecs du genre alpha John Wayne. Des types qui boivent, séduisent et chantent jusqu'au milieu de la nuit sous les néons et dans le chahut des machines à sous.Alors, lorsque le Caesars Palace annonce qu'il va construire une salle gigantesque spécialement pour Céline Dion, aussi célèbre soit-elle devenue, nombreux sont ceux qui crient au casse-cou. Car à Vegas, les chanteurs viennent quelques semaines, des mois au mieux, comme cela a été le cas avec Elvis. Mais une résidence permanente pendant trois ans !Mais les travaux commencent au Caesars Palace, on détruit un ancien théâtre, et peu à peu apparaît ce Colosseum inspiré de la Rome antique, avec ses colonnes, ses dorures et sa salle pensée autour d'une seule voix. Les techniciens eux-mêmes n'en reviennent pas.Et la ville continue à Vegas. Des joueurs perdent leur retraite aux machines à sous, les mariages express se succèdent dans les petites chapelles climatisées avec des Elvis partout, tandis que des vieux habitués parlent encore des soirées folles du Rat Pack comme des anciens combattants.Quelques semaines après les débuts du spectacle de Céline Dion, les premiers à comprendre qu'il se passe quelque chose ne sont ni les journalistes, ni les producteurs. Ce sont les chauffeurs de taxi. Parce que, eux, ils voient arriver les gens avant tout le monde. À l'aéroport de Las Vegas débarquent en effet des couples du Midwest, des groupes de femmes quinquas, des familles entières, des Québécois surexcités, des Européens émerveillés du voyage, tous avec la même idée en tête : “Ils sont là pour Céline !”Puis ce sont les serveurs du Caesars, les restaurants qui se remplissent après le spectacle, ça fait quand même 4000 personnes dans les rues d'un coup, les boutiques ouvrent plus tard et les casinos découvrent qu'une chanteuse capable d'émouvoir une salle entière rapporte davantage qu'un championnat du monde de boxe. Car Céline Dion attire des gens qui jusque-là ne venaient pas à Vegas. Des couples ordinaires. Des touristes qui économisent pendant un an pour se payer le voyage. Des gens qui ne jouent même pas au casino mais qui veulent simplement vivre “leur soirée avec Céline”.Vrai, Céline Dion a transformé Vegas au point que tout le bizness veut y avoir sa résidence : Elton John, Cher, Britney Spears, Kiss, Adele et même U2 y poseront leurs valises.Oui, le véritable tournant de l'histoire de Las Vegas n'a pas été l'annonce de la résidence de Céline par les patrons des casinos. Il a commencé un soir où un chauffeur de taxi a vu monter dans sa voiture un couple venu uniquement pour écouter Céline Dion chanter en plein désert du Nevada.

Station Casinos belatedly acknowledged a cybersecurity breach this week – almost three months after the hack allegedly happened in March. It's the latest high-profile cybersecurity incident for Las Vegas casino giants, though so far less serious than the ransomware attacks that forced a payout from Caesars and hobbled MGM Resorts in 2023. Even so, Stations is now the subject of a class action lawsuit over the breach and we're left asking: Are Las Vegas casinos doing enough to protect their customers' data? Host Jesse Merrick sits down with Greg Moody, director of UNLV's cybersecurity program, to find out.  Are you a local business owner and need help? Check out UNLV's Cyber Clinic. Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719. For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. Learn more about becoming a City Cast Las Vegas Neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com I went on vacation and they sold Las Vegas. Live from Montenegro this week because the news would not wait — both of the Strip's biggest operators are heading toward going private. Barry Diller's People Inc. (the former IAC) has put a non-binding, all-cash offer on the table to buy the 73.9% of MGM Resorts it doesn't already own at $48.30/share — an ~$18 billion deal — and take the company private. Pair that with the Caesars / Fertitta Entertainment take-private we covered last week, and Las Vegas may be entering a brand-new era owned by the billionaire class instead of Wall Street. Is that good or bad for the guest experience? I make the case. Plus: the Cromwell has officially reopened as the Vanderpump Hotel (new lampshades, the Gigolo cocktail garden, and why it's still the best Caesars property to base yourself at), the Rio's new $27 buffet that's drawing comparisons to a highway motel breakfast, and a little Star Trek: The Experience nostalgia. Episode Guide: 0:00 They sold Vegas while I was gone (live from Montenegro) 0:25 Cromwell is officially the Vanderpump Hotel 1:44 Inside Vanderpump: the Gigolo bar & saved Cromwell chairs 2:50 Best Caesars property to base at — comps, parking, rates 3:30 The "headless man" at Park MGM 3:47 Star Trek: The Experience & the onion ring tower mystery 4:31 Rio's new buffet: the Hyatt Globalist breakfast backstory 5:24 $27 for THIS? Rio vs. the Carnival World Buffet 6:46 Hyatt keeps letting standards slip 7:08 The big one: two Strip giants going private 7:42 Barry Diller's People Inc. bids $48.30/share for MGM 8:50 Hornbuckle stays — what the deal needs to close 9:44 Why Diller wants MGM 10:28 Big picture: the billionaire era of the Strip 12:16 "Best thing to happen to Vegas"? The guest-experience case 13:29 Wall Street, Macau & MGM's crown-jewel assets 14:34 A new era for Vegas — could the land come back? Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

The top 2 movies right now are from YouTubers… The gatekeepers have fallen in film.The most viral 2026 glass water is designed to look like plastic… It's the Darth Vader strategy.Why is People Magazine's owner buying Caesars?... Because it's a “really hard asset.”Plus, Hoarder's Almanac Week #323… We're running outta Whey Protein.$DIS $CZR $IACGrab your Tickets to the IPO Tour: Our In-Person OfferingSan Francisco 9/23: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0064AFB5F688BDBoston 10/14 (21+): https://tickets.citywinery.com/event/tboy-the-ipo-tour-in-person-offering-8cdhupSeattle 11/4 (21+): https://www.axs.com/events/1446394/the-best-one-yet-ticketsNEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Tim Conway Jr. Show Hour 1 (6.1) It’s a Mark T Monday, and Conway kicks off the hour with a wild freeway rescue after a driver rear-ended a semi-truck on the 10 Freeway in San Dimas. Nothing says Monday like traffic, wrecks, and a freeway story that makes everyone grip the wheel a little tighter. Then the crew dives into the madness of Costco gas, where people will line up forever to save a penny a gallon. While the rest of the country complains about gas prices in the $4 range, Southern California is still living in the land of $5 and $6 gas. That leads to talk about electric cars, charging times, and Elon Musk explaining why filling an EV with electricity takes a whole lot longer than pumping gas. The big Vegas story of the hour: Caesars Entertainment, one of the most iconic names on the Las Vegas Strip, is being sold in a massive deal involving billions in cash and debt. With Vegas tourism facing pressure and casino revenue under the microscope, Conway breaks down what it means for the future of the Strip. Plus, Irvine is getting a new In-N-Out, and this one may have the biggest drive-thru setup yet — because in Southern California, burger lines are basically a competitive sport. Trending Keywords: Mark T Monday, 10 Freeway crash, San Dimas, Costco gas, California gas prices, electric cars, EV charging, Elon Musk, Las Vegas Strip, Caesars Entertainment, Vegas casinos, Fertitta Entertainment, In-N-Out Irvine, drive-thru, Southern California traffic, Conway Show, funny podcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Milo, Phoebe and Pat are digging into the big man, the Marcus Lepidus of 69 AD - Aulus Vitellius. He may only have been emperor for 8 months but what an eight months...Milo has a bunch of work-in-progress dates around the UK coming up which you can find here:https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/liveshowsPatrick's book can be found here:https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/lost-worlds-how-humans-tried-failed-succeeded-and-built-our-world-patrick-wyman?variant=56057524650363The Wolf Hall mini-series can be found here:https://domainmasterspod.podbean.com/e/wolf-hall-episode-1/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode:Quick Hits: Spurs advanced to the NBA Finals, Vegas Golden Knights advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, Caesars gets purchased by Tillman Fertitta, Gambling Gold Medals, and Bad Neighbors with a ridiculous story from CasetNews: Gigolo Cocktail Lounge opens and Restaurant Week is here for you to maximize comps and InKind while helping a causeDegen Lounge: pool time!Casey sends Degen Luck for June...and an inappropriate strap referenceENJOY!

Two blockbuster deals in one week put Barry Diller and Tilman Fertitta on track to control a massive chunk of Las Vegas hospitality, Southwest Airlines confirms it's going international and eyeing lounges, and Hilton just launched a brand new hotel concept targeting a market most chains have ignored. On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why the MGM and Caesars deals signal a new era of ownership concentration on the Strip, how Southwest's latest reinvention is starting to look a lot like the airlines it swore it would never become, and whether Hilton's college-town bet can survive the notoriously seasonal economics of campus hospitality. Articles Referenced: Honorable Mention: @AskAConcierge on IG Barry Diller Moves to Take Over MGM Resorts in $18 Billion Deal Caesars Agrees to $5.7 Billion Takeover by Tilman Fertitta Southwest Moves Toward Latest Reinvention: Long-Haul International and Lounges Hilton Launches Undergraduate Hotel Brand for College Towns. Here's What the Numbers Say. Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.

This week in Vegas history: June 4, 2020, Nevada casinos reopened after the COVID-19 shutdown.   After more than two months closed, casinos across Las Vegas began reopening, including properties on the Strip, downtown, and around the valley. The D and Golden Gate reopened at 12:01 a.m., while other properties followed later that day.  NEWS:   Fertitta Entertainment is buying Caesars Entertainment in a deal valued at $17.6 billion, including about $11.9 billion in assumed debt. The deal would take Caesars private. Shareholders would receive $31 per share, which Reuters describes as nearly a 50% premium to Caesars' stock price before the deal was first reported in February. Tilman Fertitta's company already owns Golden Nugget casinos, the Houston Rockets, and a large restaurant/hospitality portfolio, including brands like Rainforest Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp. Caesars has been under pressure from softer Las Vegas visitation and growing competition in online betting, where rivals like FanDuel and DraftKings are stronger. Caesars' current leadership is expected to stay, including CEO Tom Reeg and CFO Bret Yunker. The deal includes a “go-shop” period through July 11, meaning Caesars can still consider competing offers. If completed, the acquisition would give Fertitta a much larger casino footprint: Caesars controls more than 50 casinos across North America, including Caesars Palace, Harrah's, and Eldorado, plus retail and online sports betting. The article notes the deal could face regulatory scrutiny because of the size and scope of the combined gaming/hospitality business. Vital Vegas reports that a private grand opening party for the newly rebranded Vanderpump Hotel will be held on June 11.   The Heart Attack Grill closed abruptly on May 18. The property posted a passive aggressive rant on their door, stating that the closure was due to casinos pricing out average Americans.   EDC goes to two weekends next year The plan was billed as a way to reduce crowds by spreading them out over two weekends, lol The first of those weekends, “EDC Dusk,” will roll out from May 14-16. The second, “EDC Dawn,” is set for May 21-23, while the full “Dusk Till Dawn Experience” will party from May 13-24.    Johnny Kats is reporting that a new magic-based show “Now You See Me Live” will be moving into the David Copperfield theater at MGM Grand.   Soul Belly BBQ, has opened a new location in the Miracle Mile shops.   New Mirage bar at MGM Grand pool. A user on reddit posted photos of signs at the MGM Grand pool area, directing patrons to a new “Mirage Bar,” complete with the former strip property's iconic palm trees logo.  A look at the pool complex map on the MGM Grand website confirms the change. The site was formerly called the “Splash Bar” and is located between the “Splash Pool” and “Reserve Pool.” MGM Resorts has retained the rights to the Mirage name after selling the Mirage resort site to Hard Rock International.   Tailgate Social, Mandalay Bay's answer to Stadium Swim at Circa downtown, officially opened on May 16. Snoop Dogg performed at the opening The 50,000-square-foot venue features more than 125 feet of LED screens, three heated pools, 25 luxury cabanas, and two premium bungalows    The Clark County commission will be voting to extend the annual Las Vegas Grand Prix, potentially through 2037.   Nellie's Southern Kitchen Closing: The Jonas family restaurant near MGM Grand closed after May 25 service, reducing Southern comfort food options on the Strip.    Drink Las Vegas, a culinary and cocktail festival, will run from Sept. 24 through 27 at four MGM Resorts properties: Aria, Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan, Park MGM. “Drink Las Vegas” will incorporate an opening party, panels and seminars, food and cocktail tastings, lunches, dinners and other experiences at more than 30 venues inside the properties. The event recently announced the chefs, restaurateurs, mixologists, sommeliers and other hospitality professionals who are participating.    Virgin Hotels Las Vegas is reporting its strongest casino performance since reopening in 2021. The property has adjusted its focus to Las Vegas residents first-quarter 2026 data showed slot revenue up nearly 30 percent, coin-in up 10 percent, and table games revenue up 88 percent compared to the same period in 2025.    Tony: Vital Vegas reports the Luxor is getting a new atrium light show. No word on when the show will debut.   The Vegas Golden Knights swept the Colorado Avalanche in round 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs This is the third time the team has become the Western Conference champions in their 9-year history Though the Eastern Conference champions are still undecided at the time of recording, it's likely that the Golden Knights will face the Carolina Hurricanes in their bid for another Stanley Cup win.    Oceans 11 returning to theaters Ocean's Eleven is returning to theaters nationwide on June 21 and June 24, 2026, for a special 25th-anniversary re-release as part of Fathom Entertainment's Big Screen Classics series. The film is being screened in crisp 4K and features an exclusive introduction by film historian Leonard Maltin. Review: “The Jiggle Room” at Cheapshot on Fremont East Tickets are $20-$30 at thejiggleroom.com Vegas: Icons & Legends is available to purchase on amazon.com.    Neon Lounge Merch!   Where to find us: Keren: @360VegasKeren  Tony: @360VegasTony  Josh: @360VegasJaydubs Neon Lounge Socials: Discord (360 Vegas Server) Xitter Facebook YouTube Reddit neonloungepodcast@gmail.com (702) 900-7964

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com Tillman fertitta just bought Caesars Entertainment for $17.6 billion and the Vegas Strip will never be the same. 60 casinos, the biggest gaming operator on the planet, and a loyalty program tying it all together. Plus Palace Station's new Gaudi Bar is a showstopper, and the Vegas Loop still doesn't have a fire truck after five years. What we cover: Excalibur's dragon is still alive A's stadium construction drone update Bally's and the power station problem Baker, CA — Alien Jerky, UFO hotel, World's Largest Thermometer for sale Tacos Escobar — $20 all you can eat tacos on Fremont East Remembering Irving Pete Berger — Ellis Island pit boss, 55 years in Vegas Palace Station Gaudi Bar renovation BREAKING: fertitta Entertainment buys Caesars for $17.6B Vegas Loop still has no fire truck Episode Guide: 0:00 The Excalibur Dragon Lives 0:26 A's Stadium Drone Update 0:57 Bally's & the Power Problem 1:53 Baker — Alien Jerky & World's Largest Thermometer 5:02 Tacos Escobar — $20 All You Can Eat 7:48 Remembering A Vegas Legend 9:05 Gaudi Bar is world class 11:57 BREAKING: fertitta Entertainment Buys Caesars for $17.6B 15:33 Vegas Loop Still Has No Fire Truck Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community.

After months of speculation, Houston-based billionaire Tillman Fertitta announced Thursday that his company would buy Caesars Entertainment in a deal worth $17.6 billion. It's the second Caesars sale in just six eight years – but will it change the complexion of the Las Vegas Strip? Host Jesse Merrick is joined by Kip Kelly, Founding Creative Director at the Beverly Theater, and Executive Producer Layla Muhammad to break it all down. Plus, the team discusses the wide-reaching ripple effects of BTS's Las Vegas takeover, and whether or not Vegas Golden Knights fill-in coach John Tortorella deserves an apology from … basically everyone after the Knights punched their third ticket to the Stanley Cup Finals in just nine years. Plus, in our members-only bonus segment, we look at why Las Vegas' tax revenues are riding high – and why that hasn't translated for the people who actually live here.  If you enjoyed this interview with IS LUXURY's, Luxury Real Estate Advisor, Hollly Erker learn more here. Want to get in touch? Follow us @CityCastVegas on Instagram, or email us at lasvegas@citycast.fm. You can also call or text us at 702-514-0719. For more Las Vegas news, make sure to sign up for our morning newsletter. Learn more about becoming a City Cast Las Vegas Neighbor at membership.citycast.fm. Looking to advertise on City Cast Las Vegas? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise.

This Day in Legal History: Rhode Island Ratifies the Constitution, 1790On this day in 1790, Rhode Island became the thirteenth and final original state to ratify the United States Constitution, doing so by a margin of 34 to 32 at a convention in Newport. Rhode Island's hesitation had been considerable: the state refused to send delegates to the Philadelphia Convention in 1787, and twice rejected ratification in popular referenda — a curiously democratic method for refusing to join a constitutional union founded in part on the premise that pure direct democracy is dangerous. The state's small-farmer and debtor classes, the same constituencies that had backed the paper-money policies that horrified Madison, were deeply suspicious of a strong federal government that would constrain state-issued currency, ban impairment of debt contracts (Article I, Section 10), and override state-level debtor protections.Ratification finally came under the gun: Congress, frustrated by the foot-dragging, was openly threatening to treat Rhode Island as a foreign nation for tariff purposes, which would have devastated the Providence merchants. The convention's narrow margin reflected a hostile deal more than a meeting of constitutional minds.Importantly, Rhode Island's ratification was conditioned on a lengthy list of proposed amendments — many of them mirroring the Bill of Rights that James Madison had already shepherded through Congress in September 1789 and that would be ratified in December 1791. With Rhode Island in, the original Union was at last complete, and the practical question of whether the new federal government could function with one stubborn holdout fell away. The episode is a useful reminder that the constitutional founding was not so much a singular moment as a slow, contested, occasionally coerced bargain — one that ended in Newport on a humid Saturday in May.The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday handed down a narrow 5-4 ruling in Pitchford v. Cain, reviving a Mississippi death row inmate's challenge to the prosecutor's race-based use of peremptory strikes at his 2006 capital trial. Justice Kavanaugh, writing for a majority that included Chief Justice Roberts plus Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, held that the Mississippi Supreme Court unreasonably applied Batson v. Kentucky's three-step framework for challenges to peremptory strikes.The Court found the trial judge accepted the prosecutor's race-neutral explanations without giving defense counsel a meaningful opportunity to argue that those reasons were pretextual, and the state appellate court compounded the error by treating that omission as a waiver. The prosecutor, Doug Evans, used four of his twelve strikes to remove four of the five Black prospective jurors, leaving a jury of eleven white jurors and one Black juror in a Mississippi county that was then roughly 40 percent Black.The Court leaned heavily on its 2019 Flowers v. Mississippi decision, which involved the same prosecutor and the same trial judge and had already found Evans's pattern of striking Black jurors discriminatory. Federal habeas relief was appropriate because the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act's deferential “no fair-minded jurist could agree” standard cannot rescue a state-court ruling that simply skips Batson's third step. Justice Gorsuch dissented, joined by Justices Alito, Thomas, and Barrett, arguing the record showed counsel chose silence rather than being denied an opportunity. The case now returns to the Fifth Circuit for further proceedings.Justices Revive Mississippi Death Row Inmate's Batson Claim | Law360Caesars Entertainment agreed Thursday to be acquired by Tilman Fertitta's privately-held Fertitta Entertainment in an all-cash deal valued at roughly $17.6 billion, including the assumption of approximately $11.9 billion of Caesars' outstanding debt. Shareholders will receive $31 per share, a 49 percent premium over Caesars' unaffected share price as of February 25, and the company will be delisted from Nasdaq upon closing. The agreement includes a go-shop period running through approximately July 11 — a Delaware deal-protection mechanism that lets the target board solicit competing bids without triggering a termination fee, and that helps insulate the sale process from a Revlon-flavored fiduciary-duty challenge by signaling the board actively tested the market after signing.Latham & Watkins and Skadden are representing Caesars (the latter on antitrust), White & Case is advising Fertitta, and Freshfields is counseling the Carano family, which holds a roughly 5 percent stake and will roll part of its equity into the combined entity. The combined company would control more than 60 casino resorts and over 200 retail sports betting locations under the William Hill brand. Antitrust review will be the inflection point given the overlap on the Las Vegas Strip — where Caesars operates eight properties — and across digital betting. Funding will come from Fertitta equity and committed debt financing arranged by a syndicate of ten banks.4 Firms Steer Fertitta's $17.6B Caesars Entertainment Buy | Law360The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday finalized a long-awaited overhaul of the federal Independent Dispute Resolution process under the No Surprises Act of 2021, the statute that pulls most out-of-network billing fights out of the patient's hands and into a baseball-style arbitration between provider and payer. The headline change slashes the per-party administrative fee from $115 to $15 per case, undoing a sharp 2023 hike that providers had successfully challenged in the Eastern District of Texas as having been adopted without notice-and-comment rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act.The rule also expands batching, so economically similar items and services can be bundled into a single arbitration, which the agency says will cut transaction costs and ease the chronic IDR backlog. HHS is also rolling out a centralized federal dispute portal and a payer registry intended to fix the persistent problem of providers being unable to identify which entity is actually on the hook in any given case. Reactions from physician and radiology groups have been mixed, with broad support for the fee cut but lingering concern that the qualifying payment amount methodology — the benchmark arbitrators must consider — still tilts the field toward insurers. APA Section 706 challenges to portions of the earlier IDR framework remain pending in the Fifth Circuit.US HHS finalizes rule to streamline dispute resolution under No Surprises Act | ReutersABC's New York affiliate WABC-TV filed an objection with the FCC on Thursday, calling Chairman Brendan Carr's April order requiring early license renewals for all eight ABC-owned stations an “unconstitutional” act of viewpoint-based retaliation barred by the First Amendment. WABC submitted its renewal under protest, arguing the agency has not demanded simultaneous early renewals from a commonly owned station group in more than fifty years and that the Media Bureau's stated rationale — possible violations of the Communications Act of 1934 and the FCC's nondiscrimination rules — is pretext for punishing disfavored editorial speech.The doctrinal hook is the Bantam Books line of cases through last term's NRA v. Vullo, which holds that government officials cannot use the implicit threat of regulatory sanction to coerce private intermediaries into suppressing protected expression. The order followed a separate FCC inquiry into whether “The View” has been violating the agency's equal-time rule for political candidates, and came against the backdrop of repeated White House demands that Disney fire Jimmy Kimmel. Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez has openly urged Disney not to “flinch.”On the same day, the FCC issued a broader notice warning all broadcasters that licenses could be reviewed early if stations are deemed to be failing their statutory public-interest obligation — a posture that drops the question of broadcast licensing back into Red Lion-era First Amendment territory.FCC Targeting ABC Licenses To Punish Speech, Station Says | Law360 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's camp sending a legal warning to Underdog over a foul-baiting board game has sparked a much larger conversation about where the line is between creative sports content and athlete representation rights. Jacob Gramegna, Chris Dierkes, Mike (Peanut Bettor), and Shipper break down what actually happened, why Underdog is refusing to back down, and what this says about how sports brands, players, and platforms are colliding in real time. The crew also dives into a major betting exchange controversy involving bot errors and inconsistent market voiding decisions. When obvious pricing mistakes happen, should exchanges always void the market to protect fairness, or should every bet stand once it's matched? That debate leads into a broader discussion on market integrity, prediction markets, and whether the industry applies rules consistently or selectively depending on who benefits.

The CFTC is moving to withdraw its $5 million penalty against the crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, a Google staffer in Europe has been charged with fraud over his bets on Polymarket, New York City's pied-a-terre tax will take effect in July, Fertitta Entertainment is buying Caesars in a $17.6B deal, and drone strikes continue in the Middle East, despite a ceasefire. Thanks to the tech sector, markets are on the rise, but Sanctuary Wealth Management's Mary Ann Bartels is reading for a shift–eventually. Plus, New York City is buzzing with the first Knicks NBA final since 1999. Self-proclaimed “psycho fan” Gary Vaynerchuk discusses the eye-popping courtside ticket prices at MSG, pent up demand, and the power of paid media…when coupled with social media virality.   Mary Ann Bartels - 12:35 Gary Vaynerchuk - 24:38   In this episode: Gary Vaynerchuk, @garyvee Joe Kernen, @JoeSquawk Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Katie Kramer, @Kramer_Katie Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer and David Faber drilled down on tech and the AI trade: Salesforce shares fell in reaction to the company's mixed Q1 results and lighter-than-expected revenue guidance for the current quarter. Shares of Snowflake soared on news of its Q1 beat, raised outlook and a $6 billion commitment to its multiyear partnership with Amazon's AWS.  On the M&A front: Fertitta Entertainment agrees to buy Caesars Entertainment in an all-cash deal valued at $5.7 billion. Also in focus: Crude oil prices rise amid faltering hopes for a U.S.-Iran deal, Marvell extends its rally, Dell wins Pentagon contract, retailers surging on earnings, Meta launches subscriptions, Cramer's take on investing in Microsoft, economic data deluge. Squawk on the Street Disclaimer Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Gary & Shannon Show Hour 3 (05.28) – Gary & Shannon cover the latest mayoral polling, a coming “micro moon,” Caesars selling off its Las Vegas empire for billions, and Shohei Ohtani somehow throwing six hitless innings and smashing a homer while still screaming expletives in frustration. Plus: escalating Iran tensions, Trump-themed $250 bills, new revelations from Jill Biden’s upcoming book, some Shannon fragrance detective work, doll-collecting listeners, and how AI is quietly taking over the hospitality industry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Emperor Julian with Jeremy SwistWe are thrilled to welcome Assistant Professor Jeremy Swist back to the show to discuss all things emperor Julian! Julian's rule as Roman emperor was short, but it also created quite a stir because Julian was keen to turn Rome away from Christianity and to bring back the paganism. How did he do it? Why did he do it? And what's the legacy that he left behind? We consider the details.Jeremy Swist has a PhD in Classics from the University of Iowa, and his research interests include imperial Greek and Roman historiography and rhetoric, late antiquity, classical reception in heavy metal music. He is currently Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Michigan State University. Jeremy has published and presented extensively, and he has a particular interest in the intersection of heavy metal music and the classical world - we suggest you check out his blog, Heavy Metal Classicist, or our previous episode with him to find out more. In 2024, he translated and produced a dramatic reading of the Emperor Julian's Symposium of the Caesars, which starred some of the finest podcasters and actors in the WORLD! (Maybe us)The Emperor Julian, who ruled Rome between 361 and 363 CE, is one of Jeremy's great passions, and we are thrilled to talk to him about his new volume on this unusual ruler. The book is published by Oxford University Press and is entitled Julian Augustus: Platonism, Myth, and the Refounding of Rome.Abstract from Oxford University Press“The Roman emperor Julian employed both words and deeds to return the empire to paganism and reverse Christianization, inspired by his conversion to the Neoplatonic philosophy and radical pagan Hellenism of Iamblichus, and promoted by his own production of Greek literature. These works present a coherent vision of the providentially guided history and destiny of Rome as a series of (re)foundations enacted by rulers such as Romulus, Numa, and Augustus. Julian offers an Iamblichean approach to interpreting Roman legends, Platonic allegories, and myths of his own creation to articulate his own role in the refounding of the empire. Approaching the wider examination of Julian's imperial self-image on these terms ends up nuancing and challenging common assumptions influenced by the rhetoric of his contemporary proponents. In his reverence for the gods and for philosophy, the emperor's self-construction embraces the identities of a statesman and solider more than philosopher, Roman more than Greek, and mere human rather than semi-divine being. Julian's unique positionality as emperor let him invert the conventions of panegyric whereby rulers equal and surpass the demigods and heroes of myth and history. While distancing himself from the ideal models of virtue and founding that inspire him, he adopts a different set of exemplary figures as mirrors of himself. Statesmen such as Pericles and Scipio, and especially Augustus, serve as precedents for Julian's more realistic conception of his role in refounding the empire, as student and champion of philosophers, guardian of law and tradition, and servant of the gods.”The return to the old godsJulian's rule was short but it left quite an impact. We chat with Jeremy about some of the ideas Julian put forward about Rome, the foundation stories that underpinned its self-definition, and what might have been if weren't for an unfortunate spear that wounded Julian and ended his life just two years into his reign.Sound CreditsOur music is by the superb Bettina Joy de Guzman.For our full show notes and edited transcripts, head on over to https://partialhistorians.com/Support the showPatreonKo-FiRead our booksRex: The Seven Kings of RomeYour Cheeky Guide to the Roman Empire Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Turning Tides: Palestine will cover the period from 30,000 B.C.E. to Present, in which Palestine tries to maintain its diversity and cultural heritage, while being ravaged by the effects of colonization, settler-colonialism, and the violent weaponization of religious text to force conversion and assimilation. The fourth episode, Romans, will cover the period from 135 C.E. to 638, in which the Western Empire falls and the Eastern Empire holds, while Christianity becomes the dominant religion in Palestine.If you'd like to donate or sponsor the podcast, our PayPal is @TurningTidesPodcast1, or you can donate to us through our Buy Me a Coffee link: buymeacoffee.com/theturningtidespodcast. Thank you for your support!Produced by Melissa Marie Brown and Joseph Pascone in affiliation with Antiks Entertainment.Researched and written by Joseph PasconeEdited and revised by Melissa Marie BrownIntro and Outro created by Melissa Marie Brown and Joseph Pascone using Motion ArrayWebsite: https://theturningtidespodcast.weebly.com/IG/YouTube/Patreon/Substack/Facebook/Threads: @theturningtidespodcastBluesky/Mastodon: @turningtidespodEmail: theturningtidespodcast@gmail.comBluesky/Mastodon/IG/YouTube/Facebook/Threads/TikTok: @antiksentEmail: antiksent@gmail.comLink to Full Transcript: https://open.substack.com/pub/theturningtidespodcast/p/turning-tides-palestine-4?Episode 4 Sources:1. Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History, by Nur Masalha2. The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History: From 3,500 B.C. to the Present: Fourth Edition, by R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy3. Jerusalem: the Biography, by Simon Sebag Montefiore4. The History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel, by Gudrun Krämer5. The Invention of the Jewish People, by Shlomo Sand6. The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs, by Marc David Baer7. The History of the Wars, by Procopius of Caeserea, 1.24.36 - 37 full transcript (different translation) available at: https://topostext.org/work/6668. Wikipedia

On Earth as in Heaven Acts 1 by William Klock It's been over ten years since I finished preaching through Luke's Gospel. I had planned to preach on the Acts of the Apostles after a short break, but it didn't happen and didn't happen and didn't happen, but as I was preaching through Ephesians these last few months and pondering the things St. Paul tells us about the what the church is and what that means for us, I got to thinking that I really shouldn't put off Acts any longer.  So I'd planned to jump into it last Sunday. Acts begins with the Ascension of Jesus, and then the very next chapter is Pentecost.  What providential timing!  And then scheduling and a trip to a clericus threw me off by a week.  So last Sunday, Ascension Sunday, you got Ephesians 6—which was a bit of an Ascension sermon—and now on Pentecost, you're getting the Ascension and next week, on Trinity Sunday, you'll get Pentecost! Now, in case you're wondering what Acts has to do with Luke, it's quite a lot. Luke probably wrote his Gospel around a.d. 59 or 60.  He addresses it to someone named Theophilus.  Theophilus means “lover of God”, so some think that Luke may have used this name symbolically and that the Gospel is for everyone who loves God.  It certainly is that, but an attribution like that seems to have been unknown in Luke's world, so Theophilus probably was a real person and was probably a patron who funded Luke's writing project.  Luke was not an eyewitness to Jesus or the events of the Gospels.  As he says in the introduction, he sought out the eyewitnesses so that he could scrupulously record the events surrounding Jesus' life and ministry.  And now Acts.  Luke wrote Acts not long later, sometime between 60 and 62.  The book ends with Paul, imprisoned in Rome, awaiting his hearing before Caesar.  There's a debate about exactly what happened to Paul after that time.  He was martyred at Rome, probably during Nero's persecution of Christians, sometime between 64 and 67.  The traditional view is that Paul's case was heard in 62, he was released, and may have travelled to Spain to preach the good news about Jesus, before returning to Rome to work with Peter to oversee the church there.  The more “modern” view is that Paul was imprisoned once and was executed between 62 and 64.  Whatever the case, since Luke doesn't mention such an important event, we can pretty safely assume he wrote during that time that Paul was awaiting his hearing.  And in the case of Acts, Luke was an eyewitness, at least to part of it.  He researched the early part of Acts just as he did his Gospel, but then he took up with Paul at the city of Troas, on Paul's second missionary journey around 50-51.  Luke spent the following ten or more years travelling with Paul as a missionary and records those events as a participant. And who was Luke other than a companion of Paul?  He was a gentile.  At the end of Colossians, Paul names him separately, apart from his fellow Jewish workers.  In that same passage, Paul describes Luke as a physician.  Beyond that we really don't know a lot about him.  He writes as we would expect a Gentile would write when writing to other Gentiles.  He writes in polished, educated Greek and he often describes Jewish customs for the benefit of his non-Jewish readers.  And when it comes to Acts, he jumps in right where he left off in his Gospel.  He ended with a condensed telling of the Ascension and he begins Acts with a more detailed account, so we'll start there.  It's page 1080 in your pew Bibles if you want to follow along. Luke writes, “Dear Theophilus, The previous book which I wrote had to do with everything Jesus began to do and to teach. I took the story as far as the day when he was taken up, once he had given instructions through the Holy Spirit to his chosen apostles.” Let me pause there.  Notice how Luke writes that in his Gospel he wrote about everything that Jesus began to do and to teach.  Brothers and Sisters, Jesus isn't done.  If Luke's Gospel were called “The Acts of Jesus”, Acts could very easily be “The Acts of Jesus: Part II”.  Jesus isn't done.  Remember what we learned from Paul in Ephesians: in the church, Jesus has established a people—purified by his blood from the stain of sin and filled with God's own Spirit—to be his new creation in the midst of the old, to carry his victory into the world to challenge the Caesars and the gods and the principalities and powers, to proclaim the good news until God's glory fills the whole earth.  Jesus continues his “acts” through us.  At the start of his ministry he told the people to pray: on earth as in heaven.  Now he's empowered us to be the people who will actually live out heaven on earth until he's finally ready to finish what he started that first Easter, and bring heaven and earth and God and human beings back together as they should be. Now, Luke goes on in verse 3: “He showed himself to them alive, after his suffering, by many proofs.  He was seen by them for forty days, during which he spoke about God's kingdom. As they were having a meal together, he told them not to go away from Jerusalem, btu to wait, as he put it, “for the Father's promise, which I was telling you about earlier.  John baptised with water; but in a few days from now you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.  So when the apostles came together, they put this question to Jesus: “Master,” they said, ‘is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel.'” Jesus must have been pretty exasperated by their question.  John Calvin wrote that there are as many errors in their question as there are words.  Jesus has spent forty days teaching them what his resurrection meant for them, for the world, for everything.  Think of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus on Easter Day.  Jesus walked with them for hours and explained what happened to them using the Old Testament scriptures.  We get the impression that as it all sank in they started to understand.  But clearly not fully.  Not even after forty days.  They're still thinking of the kingdom in terms of events like the Maccabean revolt.  The Messiah will raise an army and smite the pagan gentiles and put Israel back on the top of the heap—but this time it will take, it will be forever.  They're still thinking of Jesus as the king in waiting or the king in exile—like some of the Iranians wanting Reza Pahlavi to return to Iran and retake the Peacock Throne.  But that's not how God's kingdom works.  Think of all the parables Jesus told about the kingdom: It's like a tiny mustard seed.  Yes, it will grow into a huge tree, but it takes a long time.  It's like yeast.  Yes, it grows, but it takes time and the right conditions.  After two thousand years, I think we have a better grasp of this.  But not always.  There are still many, many Christians who still kind of ask the same question, as if Jesus is the heir apparent, in exile, still waiting to become king.  But Brothers and Sisters, he already is king.  The church's job is to announce his kingship—as it's carved out on our lychgate: “Jesus is Lord”— and to implement the fact that he really is king.  Now. Not someday.  Now. So Jesus responds to them in verse 7: “It's not your business to know about times and dates,” he replied. “The Father has placed all that under his own direct authority.  What will happen, though, is that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  Then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the very ends of the earth.” The timing?  How the kingdom is going play out?  When everything will finally be consummated?  Don't worry about that.  The Father has that worked out in his goodness and wisdom.  That' not your job.  That's not our job.  That' not even Jesus' job to know.  Their job, our job is to witness Jesus—his death, his resurrection, his ascension, the fact that he is Lord—to be God's new creation, to put off the old, lie-based way of being human to to put on the new—our job is witness that good news and God's new creation to the world.  And Jesus reiterates it again: I will make sure you're equipped for this.  He's told them already: As John baptised you with water, I will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.  The significance of that didn't seem to sink in.  It should have.  This is what the Lord had promised through the prophets over and over.  Filling his people with the Spirit was to be the great sign of the Messianic age.  It would be the thing that would finally set the hearts of his people right.  And so Jesus says it again: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  And then you'll be my witnesses from Jerusalem and eventually out to the whole world.  The mustard seed.  The yeast.  The king returning from the far-off land.  And then, to make his point, to drive home the fact that, yes, he really is king, Jesus acts out another prophecy.  He loved to do this and so it makes perfect sense that his last act before leaving them would be another acted out prophecy.  Verse 9: “As Jesus said this, he was lifted up while they were watching and a cloud took him out of their sight.  They were gazing into heaven as he disappeared.  Then, lo and behold, two men appeared, dressed in white, standing beside them.  ‘Men of Galilee,' they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into heaven?  This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven.'” Jesus acts out Daniel 7—maybe not something we're intimately familiar with (although we should be), but a passage—a dramatic image—any Jew knew intimately.  That's the dream Daniel had of the ferocious beasts representing the pagan kings and empires that threatened God's people.  And in his vision, Daniel sees the Ancient of Days take his throne to sit in judgement over these beasts.  Their kingdoms are taken from them and then one like a son of man comes on the clouds to heaven to take his throne.  And to him is given dominion and glory and kingship so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.  His dominion, Daniel says, is everlasting, his kingship one that shall never be destroyed.  This the vision of the Messiah becoming king and restoring the kingdom to Israel. So in his ascension, Jesus is showing the fulfilment of God's promise to Daniel.  Coming on the clouds to take his throne.  It was an unmistakable image for the disciples.  The kingdom has been restored to Israel—of course, that's Israel reconstituted around and in Jesus the Messiah—but restored it has been.  The Messiah is on his throne.  At the end of Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus gives the disciples what we often call his “great commission” he deliberately echoes Daniel 7: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  So you must go and make all the nations into disciples.”  The Ascension means that the world is under new management.  Maybe it helps to understand how they thought of heaven.  Unfortunately, we tend to think of heaven through a Platonic lens.  It's a far away and otherworldly place.  The opposite of earth.  The real world of which this is only a shadow.  But that's Plato—pagan Greek philosophy—not the Bible.  In the Bible heaven is earth's compliment; its other half.  God created them to fit together, to mesh.  Heaven is his realm, but the two were meant to overlap, for us to share his presence.  But his part, the heavenly half, was—in the Jewish view—it was like the control room or the CEO's office.  And that's where Jesus has gone.  To take the controls, to sit at the big desk, to accede to his throne—to rule and to reign: as Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:25: “He has to rule until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” But back to Daniel 7.  If the son of man has taken his throne, then that means that the kingdom has, indeed, been restored to Israel.  There are implications there for the disciples.  One of the twelve is missing.  Judas hanged himself after betraying Jesus.  The twelve are only eleven.  If the apostles represent the fullness of Israel reconstituted in the Messiah, they need a replacement for Judas.  Twelve tribes; twelve apostles. Maybe they didn't grasp this immediately.  Luke says that after Jesus' ascension, after the two angels asked if they were just going to stand around staring into heaven all day—because: he's one day coming back in the same way—like, didn't he give you work to do?—so they went back to Jerusalem as Jesus had told them.  Verse 13: “They then entered the city (‘they' meaning Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the zealot, and Judas the son of James) and went to the upstairs room where they were staying.  They all gave themselves single-heartedly to prayer, with the women, including Mary, Jesus' mother, and his brothers.” Luke makes a point of naming them all.  And there are eleven, not twelve.  He anticipates what needs to happen.  The apostles themselves apparently weren't sure what to do, so they did the right thing: they devoted themselves to prayer.  Brothers and Sisters, don't ever let prayer be an excuse for not doing what needs to be done, but when you don't know what to do: pray.  And pray some more.  Luke doesn't say that God suddenly spoke and gave them direction, but after days of prayer they began to understand what they had to do.  They knew the scriptures.  They'd listened to Jesus for forty days.  And as they prayed, understanding came.  Prayer has a way of doing that.  As we see here, the scriptures began to percolate in Peter's head.  That's often how God leads us.  It's not often that he speaks directly and we shouldn't expect him to.  But when we're already steeped in the scriptures and when we pray, the Spirit works and things “seem” to just come together.  I'm often amazed to see how this works when I'm preparing a sermon.  So Peter stands up in the middle of the disciples.  Luke says they'd grown to a hundred and twenty by this point.  And he says—verse 16: “Brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago by the mouth of David about Judas, who became a guide to the people who arrested Jesus.  He was counted among us and had his own share in this ministry.”  Luke then adds that Judas went to the field bought with the money used to betray Jesus, he hanged himself there, where he burst open and his guts came out.  Luke notes this bit as historical evidence.  The field was still called “Blood-Place” in his day. And Peter goes on in verse 20, quoting Psalm 69:25 and Psalm 109:8, “For this is what it says in the book of Psalms: ‘Let his home become desolate and let no one live in it' and again, ‘Let another receive his office.' “So,” Peter said, “this is what has to be done. There are plenty of people who have gone about with us all the time that our master Jesus was coming and going among us, starting from John's baptism until the day he was taken from us.  Let one of them be chosen to be alongside us as a special witness of his resurrection.” Through prayer and the scriptures and the prompting of the Spirit, Peter realised that if Jesus, the son of man, sits on his throne, the kingdom has been restored to Israel, and that meant that the leaders…the apostles…of this renewed Israel had better number twelve, to represent the full number Israel's tribes.  The symbolism was vital if people—particularly fellow Jews—were going to see how the scriptures and the covenant and God's promises to Israel were being fulfilled in the church.  “So,” writes Luke, “they chose two: Joseph who was called Barsabbas, with the surname Justus, and Matthias.  ‘Lord,' they prayed, ‘you know the hearts of all people. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to receive this particular place of service and apostleship, from which Judas went away to go to his own place.' So they cast lots for them.  The lot fell on Matthias, and he was enrolled along with the eleven apostles.” This may seem like a mundane detail to us, especially after the glory of Jesus' ascension.  But it was a big deal to the apostles and no less to Luke.  Their knowing the need for twelve, not eleven apostles, highlights just how much they saw the work of Jesus as being about the fulfilment and the restoration of God's people as the promises to Abraham were fulfilled and their mission was about be launched into the nations.  It was proof that this new movement wasn't really new at all.  It was rooted in God's promises and showed their fulfilment of God.  Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, Pentecost weren't just stand-alone events.  They were part of the great story that God had been telling his people for thousands of years.  In these events, God was doing what he'd promised, showing his faithfulness and revealing his glory.  That's why Peter takes us back to the Psalms here.  It's why Stephen, before his martyrdom in Chapter 7 recounts the history of Israel.  They wanted to make it clear that what's happening here in Acts was what God intended all along. I've always found it funny that for all the big deal they make choosing Matthias, he's never mentioned again. I say that, because it's a good reminder that what Luke records in Acts is selective.  As St. John writes at the end of his Gospel, if someone were to write down literally everything that Jesus did, the world could not contain all the books.  And just so with Acts.  Just so with the whole history of the church.  The world could not contain the books needed to record all the things, big and small and all amazing, that Jesus and the Spirit have done through Christians down through the ages, the famous ones and the ordinary saints like you and I.  But the little bit that Luke records for us in Acts, Brothers and Sisters, is a partial (and strategic) record—inspired by the Spirit—that ought to encourage us as it reminds us how God is fulfilling his promises here and now in us and as it exhorts us to carry on with our mission, knowing that the Spirit is with us and will equip us for everything he has for us to do. On that note, I want to conclude with two images.  Jesus was acting out Daniel's prophecy of the son of man coming on the clouds to his throne when he ascended, but there are at least two other unmistakable images in that act as well.  The first is Moses, ascending Mount Sinai, up into the clouds and thunder.  Moses went up and came down with the law.  In the same way, Jesus has gone up, but what has come down is not another law written on stone, but God's own Spirit, poured into our hearts.  Contemporary Christians often think of the Spirit mainly as the agent of amazing and miraculous gifts, but the most important work of the Spirit, Brothers and Sisters, the most amazing miracle of the Spirit, is to transform our hearts and to turn our affections toward God, to fill us with his law of love.  The other image here is that of the Prophet Elijah as he was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire.  As he went, he threw down his mantle onto Elisha, his protégé.  In that act, he not only passed on his God-given mission to Elisha, but he empowered him to do it.  That is what the book of Acts is about.  Luke's Gospel is about Jesus and his ministry—like the Prophet Elijah—and at the Ascension he's taken up in heaven and his mantle falls to the apostles, to the church, to you and to me, and the book of Acts is then like the continuing story of Elisha, carrying on the work and ministry God had given to Elijah.  Elijah's last act was to strike the waters of the Jordan with his cloak so that they parted, and Elisha's first act is to do exactly the same.  Brother and Sisters, that's Acts.  That's the ministry of the church.  To steward the good news about Jesus, to steward God's presence, to be his temple, ever expanding until it fills the earth.  Yes, it's a difficult job—some even lose their lives for it—but Jesus has equipped us and he's given us hope in the faithfulness of God to do what he has said.  His mantle has fallen on us in the gift of the Spirit and we know that he sits on his throne as Lord.  That central gospel truth is carved on our lychgate, a reminder as we come here and as a remind when we go back out to the world.  May Jesus' ascension never be for us a mere doctrine.  May it be for us the great truth that gives us hope, the great truth that is transforming creation. Let's pray: Almighty God and Father, as you have taken your son, Jesus the Messiah to reign in heaven, and as you have let his mantle fall on us in your indwelling Spirit, fill us with bold faith and certain hope that we might be faithful stewards of your gospel and for the sake of the world until the knowledge of your glory reaches the ends of the earth your son returns again on the clouds.  Through him we pray. Amen.

TPCCafe Radio Presents Classic Westens, Have Gun Will Travel: Caesars Wife

Saint Constantine was born in 272, the son of Constantius Chlorus, ruler of the western part of the Roman Empire, and St Helen. When his father died in 306 he was proclaimed successor to the throne. The empire was ruled at that time by several Caesars, each with his own territory. When Constantine learned that the Caesars Maxentius and Maximinus had joined against him, he marched on Italy. It was there that, on the eve of a decisive battle outside Rome, he saw in the sky a radiant Cross with the words "In this sign conquer." He ordered that a battle-standard be made bearing the image of a cross and inscribed with the Name of Jesus Christ. The following day he and his forces attacked and won a spectacular victory. He entered Rome in triumph and in 312 was proclaimed "Emperor of the West" by the Senate. (His brother-in-law Licinius ruled in the East.) Soon thereafter he issued his "Edict of Milan," whereby Christianity was officially tolerated for the first time, and persecution of Christians ceased. (Many believe, mistakenly, that the Edict made Christianity the only legal religion; in fact, it proclaimed freedom of religion throughout the Empire).   Licinius, though he pretended to accept the Edict, soon began persecuting Christians in his domain. In response, Constantine fought and defeated him in 324, becoming sole Emperor of the entire Roman Empire. In 324 he laid the foundations of a new capital in the town of Byzantium; in 330 he inaugurated the new capital city, naming it "New Rome" and "Constantinople." In 325 he called the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, attending its sessions himself. Shortly before his repose in 337, he received Holy Baptism; he died on Holy Pentecost, at the age of sixty-five, and was interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople.   St Constantine's holy mother Helen, in her role as "Augusta" of the Empire, founded countless churches. She traveled to Jerusalem and found the True Cross on which the Lord was crucified. In the Holy Land she established churches at the sites of Christ's Nativity and burial, which still stand today in much-modified form. She died at about eighty years of age.

Live @ Caesars Soiree (Early Juggling).mp3 by Mastermind Master Studio

Heart Attack Grill has closed in downtown Las Vegas after 15 years, and its goodbye statement took a flamethrower to modern Vegas. Shawn and Mark talk about whether the restaurant had a real point about Vegas pricing out the middle class, or whether the whole thing was one last over-the-top bit from a place built on excess. They also cover Travis Pastrana riding through Boulder Station, the Caesars/Omnia jump debate, Plaza's Wiseguy Getaway package, Commonwealth's redesign, Gaudi Bar returning at Sunset Station, EDC bottle service prices and Sphere Abu Dhabi. Episode Guide 0:00 Pastrana rides through Boulder Station 0:50 Heart Attack Grill closes downtown 4:00 Plaza's Wiseguy Getaway package 5:44 Commonwealth and The Laundry Room get a new look 7:25 Did they actually jump Caesars? 9:23 Why Vegas land is so expensive 10:36 Gaudi Bar returns at Sunset Station 12:16 EDC bottle service prices get wild 13:53 Sphere Abu Dhabi and Sphere Vegas profits Links Boulder Station ride - https://x.com/lasvegaslocally/status/2056072006538530970?s=46  https://x.com/LasVegasLocally/status/2056078988548907022?s=20 https://www.instagram.com/p/DYc1pzYvTR9/?hl=en Plaza Wiseguys - https://booking.plazahotelcasino.com/promo?propertyCode=1408&accessCode=WISE Commonwealth - https://neon.reviewjournal.com/dining-out/iconic-downtown-las-vegas-bar-unveils-its-redesigned-look-photos-3335393/ Land sales - https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/federal-government-squeezing-builders-developers-by-sitting-on-land-in-las-vegas-valley-experts-say-3797260/ Gaudi bar - https://x.com/sunsetstation_/status/2055851881394848183?s=46  https://x.com/SunsetStation_/status/2056418635120529746?s=20 EDC bottle menu - https://x.com/globaldancegde/status/2056122039300407651?s=46 Abu Dhabi Sphere - https://investor.sphereentertainmentco.com/press-releases/news-details/2026/YAS-ISLAND-TO-BE-HOME-OF-SPHERE-ABU-DHABI-A-NEW-GLOBAL-ICON-FOR-IMMERSIVE-ENTERTAINMENT/default.aspx

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor. Get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com Vegas had a huge weekend: OMNIA Dayclub opened at Caesars Palace, Colby Raha brought the fountain jump back, and EDC pushed through a windy final night. Shawn also covers the latest casino chip deadlines, Station Casinos food court upgrades, the Vegas Loop's next milestone and the push to keep F1 in Las Vegas through 2037. What we cover: OMNIA Dayclub and Skybar opening at Caesars Palace Colby Raha's Caesars Palace fountain jump EDC weekend, including wind-related stage and ride issues Plaza chip retirement and the Cromwell-to-Vanderpump chip transition New food court options at Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch Vegas Loop's Paradise extension and possible F1 debut Clark County's push to approve the Las Vegas Grand Prix through 2037 The LVCVA's F1 sponsorship rising to $10 million per year Episode Guide: 0:00 Caesars jump, EDC winds and F1 tease 0:16 OMNIA Dayclub opens at Caesars Palace 0:53 Colby Raha jumps the Caesars fountains 1:17 EDC parade, fireworks and wind issues 2:15 Plaza chip retirement and Cromwell chip switch 3:58 Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch food court upgrades 5:23 Vegas Loop's Paradise extension for F1 7:47 F1 extension push through 2037 10:16 LVCVA payments rise to $10M 11:59 EDC vs. F1: which event works for Vegas? 12:20 Vegas Loop, F1 and the long Vegas future Links: Caesars Palace OMNIA Dayclub jump announcement Colby Raha jump coverage EDC wind coverage Plaza and Vanderpump chip changes Red Rock food court quick eats Randy's Donuts at Red Rock Nielsen's Frozen Custard at Green Valley Ranch Vegas Loop Paradise extension Clark County F1 extension vote LVCVA/F1 sponsorship coverage Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community. Subscribe to our newsletter Watch on YouTube Apple Podcasts Merch milestomemories.com Advertiser Disclosure: This site/channel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site/channel. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers.

Be Strong in the Lord Ephesians 6:10-24 by William Klock We've made it all the way to the end of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians.  For just over five chapters, Paul's been explaining how the church is God's means of taking what Jesus has done in his death and resurrection and turning it into God's new creation.  He's shown us how, in Jesus and the Spirit, he's given us back the vocation that Adam rejected.  We've been restored to our position as stewards of God's presence and God's wisdom and God's glory for the sake of the world.  Even more than that, as Adam was placed in God's garden-temple, through the gift of God's indwelling Spirit, you and I—the church—have now become God's temple.  And as Jesus has been raised from death to go be the new Adam, so in him and in the power of the Spirit, you and I are now called to put off the old, corrupt, lie-based way of being human and to put on the new humanity exemplified by Jesus.  And if we will be faithful to be fruitful and to multiply—whether by having our own children and raising them in the wisdom of the Lord or through our proclamation and living out of the gospel that brings others to the Messiah—Brother and Sisters, the temple will grow and grow and grow, carrying God's presence to the ends of the earth, spreading his wisdom—the way of new creation and the way of truly being human—to the ends of the earth, until God's glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. And having established that this is what the church is and that this is what our mission is, he shifted in Chapters 3-5 to the how of living out this new creation, to the how of putting off the old and putting on the new.  Don't listen to the lies of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Speak the truth and live the truth of God's new creation.  Put aside anger and wrath, and start living out love and grace and patience and mercy with all humility—just like Jesus.  And don't believe the world's lies about sex and money and power.  Be holy as God is holy and trust in his goodness and faithfulness.  In other words, as I said last week, stop trying to write your own story.  You're bad at it.  We all are.  God did not design us with the capacity to write our stories for ourselves (or to be gods, as Genesis put it).  Instead, trust in the God who gave his own son as a sacrifice for our sins, to set us to rights at such a great cost, and live the story he has written for us.  And the world will take note.  Live God's story, and you will challenge the lies of the world.  Live the story in which Jesus is Lord, proclaim that story and seeing that glimpse of new creation, of redemption and renewal, of mercy and grace people around us will believe.  But, too, live the story in which Jesus is Lord and you will challenge the Caesars of this world.  Live the story in which God is good and faithful and generous, and you will challenge the greedy, grasping lies of the world.  And the world, the flesh, and the devil will push back.  Or as Paul puts in Chapter 6, the principalities and powers.  They've lost, but they don't want to admit it.  They don't like to be challenged.  And this is where Paul picks up in Ephesians 6:10 with his final bit of wisdom for the Ephesians and for us.  [This is page 1163 in the pew Bibles.] “What else is there to say?  Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power.  Put on the whole armour of God, then you will be able to stand firm against the devil's schemes.  The warfare we're engaged in, you see, is not against flesh and blood. It's against principalities, against the powers that rule the world in this dark age, against the wicked spiritual elements in the heavenly places.” Brothers and Sisters, know who your enemy is.  When things, when people, when systems push back against the gospel.  When we try to bring new creation to the world, when we try to live out the new way of being human we have in Jesus and the Spirit, we will experience opposition.  And it's critical we stand firm and fight back  But Paul stresses here: Know your enemy.  Because fighting the wrong enemy isn't going to win us anything. Paul knew this well.  Consider that he'd been a Pharisee.  The Pharisees were the party that traced its roots back to the Maccabean revolt two hundred years earlier, when the Jews rose up and threw off their pagan Greek overlords.  Paul—like most of his fellow Jews—grew up knowing that the enemies of God's people were the pagans: the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek, the Romans. In a couple of decades it would happen again in the Judean volt of a.d. 70 and then again in the bar Kochba revolt in a.d. 132.  Neither of those revolts ended well for the Jews. And when the Jews revolted, they went into battle with passages like Isaiah 11 in mind: The shoot from the stump of Jesse would come, full of wisdom and justice.  “He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins” (Isaiah 11:4-5)  But they added their spin to the scriptures.  The community at Qumran—the people responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls—the saw it this way: “With your sceptre may you lay waste the earth. With the breath of your lips may you kill the wicked…May justice be the belt of your loins, and loyalty the belt of your hips.  May he make your horns of iron and your hoofs of bronze.  May you gore like a bull…and may you trample the nations like mud…For God has raised you to a sceptre for the rulers before you…all nations shall serve you, and he will make you strong by his holy name, so that you will be like a lion.”[1] You can hear Isaiah in that, but then here the warrior girds himself up for battle, to trample the nations like mud.  He gores the nations like an ox and ravages them like a lion.  The picture begins with Isaiah, but it gets lost along the way.  In Isaiah 11 the Messiah's warfare ends not with a goring ox or a lion tearing flesh, but with the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the goat, the calf and the lion laying down together at peace and one like a little child leading them into a renewed creation where the lion eats straw like an ox. I fear we fall into the same trap.  Jesus said to his disciples: “Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more they can do. I will show you who to fear: fear the one who starts by killing and then has the right to throw people into Gehenna. Yes, let me tell you, that's the one to fear! (Luke 12:4-5) Brothers and Sisters, God had always urged his people to stand firm and to put up a fight, but our enemy, as Paul says here isn't flesh and blood.  It's not the people, however wicked they may be.  It's the lies the devil whispers—or sometimes shouts—into our world.  It's been that way from the beginning when Adam and Eve believed the first of his lies.  It's the lie that we can write our own stories better than God can.  It's the lie that security or power is to be found in money or in politics or in sex or in education or in all the other things to which we look that are not God—all the things that use and abuse and manipulate and exploit others for our benefit.  It's the lie that we can fight the gospel battle with bullets or with politics or with violence.  Paul's people talked about principalities and powers—sort of angelic beings whom God had created and appointed to oversee the nations, but who had fallen under the power of the devil's lies.  That's how they thought. I don't know if that's how it really is, but there are powers—political, economic, sexual, intellectual—that perpetuate the devil's lies and keep us in the dark, keep us stomping on each other, keep us at each other's throats, keep us seeing everyone else as the enemy so that we never stop to think that the real problem is the devil and his lies. So Paul reminds us.  The enemy is not flesh and blood.  Yes, other people enforce those systems.  Caesar believed the lie that he was the world's lord.  And his soldiers believed that lie too, when they arrested Christians and threw them to the lions.  But they were not the enemy; the lie was.  It still is.  They needed deliverance from it just like we do.  The enemy isn't Mark Carney or Donald Trump.  The enemy isn't greedy bankers or crooked businessmen or the people who run giant pornography websites.  It's not the abortionist or the therapist pushing gender ideology.  They're flesh and blood.  They bought the lie.  They need a gospel resuce just like we do.  And so Paul warns us, yes, there's a battle, put on the armour of God, and stand firm, but know your enemy.  Take your battle to the devil and the principalities and powers that perpetuate the lies.  Don't shoot their prisoners when what their prisoners need is to know the truth, the wisdom of God.  Brothers and Sisters, to fight them, to take the battle to flesh and blood, is just to fall prey to another lie of the real enemy.  Paul says that weird thing in verse 12, that these wicked spiritual elements are in the heavenly places, but I think his point there is that—as he said back in Chapter 2, we are seated in the heavenly places with the Messiah.  In his death and resurrection, Jesus won the decisive victory and now he's enlisted us, not to just sit in the church and be holy until he returns, but to be the new humanity who takes his new creation to the ends of the earth and, along the way, confronts the lies and the systems and powers that perpetuate them and declares that they have been defeated.  As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “he must go on reigning until he has put all his enemies under his feet.”  Brother and Sisters, the church is his means to bring that day.  (See, this has turned out to be an Ascension sermon after all!) So, Paul goes on in verse 13, “For this reason, you must take up God's complete armour.  Then, when wickedness grabs its moment, you'll be able to withstand, to do what needs to be done, and still be on your feet when it's over.  So stand firm!”  Now, what is the armour of God?  Notice the echoes of Isaiah 11 here.  “Put the belt of truth around your waist; put on justice as your breastplate; for shoes on your feet, ready for battle, take the good news of peace.  With it all, take the shield of faith; if you've got that you'll be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.” Notice that everything about this picture is defensive except the sword.  Again, the Messiah has already won the decisive victory.  He's won the ground.  Creation once again belongs to him.  Our job is to hold it against the enemy.  And, notice, as Paul has said before and as he says here in verse 10: We stand in God's power and might, not in our own.  We know what this power can do, because it's the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and now, as Paul has said over and over, we are “in the risen Messiah” and that makes us strong in the strength of his might.  There's an interesting parallel to this in Romans 4.  There Paul writes that Abraham was “strong in faith”, believing God's promise even though everything around him said not to trust this strange God.  He was strong because he trusted the God who had the power to accomplish what he had promised. Brothers and Sisters, we stand in that same faith, but unlike Abraham we have every reason to believe.  No one knew this God in Abraham's day.  You and I live with the witness of all the generations who have known and experienced this God ever since.  You and I live with the witness of the resurrection of Jesus, the greatest show of God's might in history and the event by which he has inaugurated his new creation.  If Abraham had reason to be strong in faith, we have reason to be even stronger.  So stand firm in the Messiah's battle and put on his armour to guard against the enemy who wants nothing more than to take back the ground he's lost to Jesus. As the Messiah puts on his armour for the battle in Isaiah, so should we.  It shouldn't be surprising that the first thing Paul says to put on is the truth.  All along he's been warning us not to believe the lies that have brought sin and death to the world.  All along he's warned us to be committed to the truth and not to be deceived by the lies around us.  In Isaiah 11:5 the Messiah puts on the belt of justice and faithfulness.  In the Greek “faithfulness” is translated as “truth”. The truth of God's creation and his new creation are the foundation of the gospel.  Isaiah saw the Messiah setting creation to rights, and to do that demands the truth to put an end to the lies.  The gospel proclaims Jesus' victory and the new creation that has come with him out of the tomb, the truth of the goodness of God's original creation and the truth of the goodness that he's now restoring it to.  Our calling now is to stand firm on that foundation and to wrap that truth around us like a belt.  The gospel is not about our feelings or our imaginations or what we think people will like or not like.  The gospel is about truth: God's good creation and Jesus' setting it to rights. But our main piece of defensive equipment is the breastplate—the breastplate of justice—or righteousness in some translations.  The Greek word means both.  Paul takes this image from Isaiah 59:17.  It's not just righteousness as we often think of it as moral goodness.  It's truly justice.  It's God's desire to see this broken world full of pain and tears truly set to rights.  In Isaiah 59 it's the divine warrior who goes out to bring God's justice to the world, but Paul understood that the divine warrior is Jesus the Messiah.  And he didn't go out to bash heads in order to bring justice.  He went in humility to the cross.  He gave his life to free us from sin and to wash away the stain of death, so that he could fill us with his Spirit and make us his temple.  And, in that, Paul's saying we're now called to follow in Jesus' steps to bring God's justice, his righteousness to the world as we live out Jesus' new—renewed—way of being human.  This is why Jesus talked in the Sermon on the Mount, about his people hungering and thirsting for justice.  It's our breastplate.  It's the thing staves off our own temptations to idolatry and greed that would otherwise cause us to bring more pain and tears into the world. And then the shoes of peace.  Another echo of Isaiah that Paul and the Jews knew so well: “How beautiful are the feet of the messenger who announces peace…who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”  Except whereas for people like the old Paul, this had become a hope of violent military victory over the pagans, in Jesus peace has come through his resurrection.  The enemy did his violent worst, and Jesus has trounced him with life.  And now he commissions us to be his ambassadors, running to the world to announce that in the risen Messiah, the king has returned to establish the peace that Israel had so long hoped for and the peace that even us gentiles hope for, knowing that the world is not as it should be.  Put on your gospel shoes! And then the shield of faith.  Paul seems to have come up with this all on his own.  He pictured flaming arrows that would set an ordinary shield on fire, but there were things you could do to prevent that—like stretching water-soaked leather over your shield.  Faith is like that, says Paul.  The Messiah's faith and then our faith that answers in return.  Faith will protect you from the enemy.  Don't let go of it. And then, back to Isaiah 59:17, the helmet of salvation—the helmet of “rescue”.  The divine warrior has won the battle and rescued the captives.  Brothers and Sisters, we've been rescued by Jesus, put that helmet on not only to stand your ground, but as with all these things, when we take up the Messiah's armour, we take up the Messiah's task.  He's rescued creation from the devil and now we're part of the battalion called to keep the devil from taking creation back.  That helmet of salvation reminds us—maybe that's why Paul puts it on our heads—that the Messianic mission is ultimately a rescue mission—to rescue creation and to rescue humanity from the enemies lies. And then there's the one defensive bit of God's armour: the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is God's word.  The word is the gospel, the good news of Jesus, crucified and risen.  The word that fulfils Isaiah 11:4 where the Messiah smites the earth with the rod of his mouth and slays the wicked with the breath of his lips.  His breath.  In both Hebrew and Greek the word for breath is also the word for spirit.  Brothers and Sisters, Paul knew that when he proclaimed the gospel, God's Spirit went to work: confronting idolatry with the true and living God and sinners with a message of hope.  The battle isn't won with violence.  It's won with the good news of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  But Paul knew, too, that if we're going to stand firm in the Messiah, and if we're going to put on his armour, we'd better be praying, too.  He continues at verse 18: “Pray on every occasion in the Spirit, with every type of prayer and intercession.  You'll need to keep awake and alert for this, with all perseverance and intercession for all God's holy ones—and also for me.  Please pray that God will give me his words to speak when I open my mouth, so that I can make known, loud and clear, the mystery of the gospel.  That, after all, is why I'm a chained-up ambassador.  Pray that I may announce it boldly; that's what I'm duty-bound to do.” The military imagery is still here.  Like a sentry on guard: stay awake and alert.  Pray and persevere.  Don't give up.  The lies will swirl around you like a hurricane, but stand firmly in the truth of God's new creation and pray.  Connect with him in that mysterious and inexplicable gift he's given us to speak with and to be in communion with him.  It's one of the main reasons he's given us his own Spirit.  And here, I think Paul is again thinking of Isaiah 59 and the divine warrior, driven by the Spirit.  “As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my Spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth…from now on and forever” (Isaiah 59:21).  So pray.  Pray, pray, pray and pray that the Spirit will give you—will give us all—the boldness to speak God's word: his truth, his wisdom, his gospel into a world so desperately in need of them.  It doesn't matter if you're chained up for the gospel like Paul.  That's the gospel paradox.  God reveals his strength when we are at our weakest—just as he did at the cross. And then the last few verses of the letter.  Paul wraps things up saying, “It's important that you should know how things are with me, and what I'm up to; so our dear brother Tychicus will tell you about it.  He is a loyal servant in the Lord.  I've sent him to you with this in mind, so that you may know how things are with us, and so that he may encourage your hearts.  Peace be to the whole family, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  Grace be with all who love our Lord, Messiah Jesus, with a love that never dies.” Tychicus is making the rounds to let them know what's up with Paul.  Again, Paul's said it several times: he's in prison.  We don't know what else beyond that Tychicus would have told them about Paul, but it's telling that whatever the news is, Paul expects them to be encouraged.  And it doesn't seem that it's news of a soon release.  I expect Paul would have mentioned something like that.  Instead, Paul seems to expect them to be encouraged by his chains.  Again, the opposition he's facing is a sign that the gospel and the Spirit are doing what they're supposed to do, that the gospel is marching on, that (so to speak) Aslan is on the move, and the principalities and powers feel threatened.  And that's good news.  So, knowing his brothers and sisters are standing firm and fighting the gospel fight, he wishes them peace and love with faith and grace—the heart of the gospel, the foundations on which God's new creation is being built. And then that last word.  I'll close with that.  To everyone who loves the Messiah: grace.  Grace with a love that never dies.  The Greek word literally means “immortality”.  Brothers and Sisters, this gracious love will never pass away.  When the battle is finally over, when we have fought the good fight, when we have stood firm and kept the faith, when the church has finally done what she was created to do and expanded God's temple until his presence, his wisdom, his glory have filled the whole earth and Jesus has made a final end of death itself, when we have done what our Lord has called us to do and find—maybe to our own surprise—that we're still standing on our own feet in those shoes of peace, when there are no more lies and Jesus is Lord, then our love for him—which may feel so imperfect and inadequate today—but our love for him that kept us strong through the storm and the battle, will turn out to have been only the beginning of the great gift of love that we will enjoy for ever in God's presence and in his creation set to rights, in that new heaven and earth in which there are no more pain or sorrows or tears or death, only grace and love. Paul began his letter by directing our gaze back before the foundation of the world and now he points forward to day when not only are all God's promises fulfilled, but when he himself sums up all things in heaven and earth himself, the fullness of all in all.  And here in the in-between, in the middle of the story we stand: rescued by love, given a new gospel life in love, equipped with God's word and God's Spirit in love, and filled with God's wisdom that, following Jesus, we will be the new humanity—the firstfruits of his new creation.  Not only for our sake, but for the sake of the whole word over which Jesus the Messiah is already ruling as Lord. Let's pray: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen. [1] The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition, ed. F.G. Martinez and E.J.C Tigchelaar (Leiden: Brill, 1997), 109.

Get $200 cashback after your first $500 payment with Melio! (sponsored) - https://www.milestomemories.com/go/melio A viral Rio elevator video turned into one of those Vegas nightmare stories everyone has imagined. In this episode we also cover Allegiant buying Sun Country, Omnia Dayclub opening at Caesars Palace, bad AI Vegas maps, Circa's Slotapalooza, Resorts World comps and Vegas adding even more sports. What we cover: 17 people trapped in a Rio Las Vegas elevator Omnia Dayclub opening at Caesars Palace during EDC weekend Allegiant completing its Sun Country acquisition Mandalay Bay's huge two-bedroom panoramic suite Circa's Murphy bed rooms and Slotapalooza return Resorts World, MGM and Caesars summer comp offers AI Vegas maps that get almost everything wrong Women's pro hockey expansion reportedly coming to Las Vegas Episode Guide: 0:00 Four Queens leg cup cold open 0:33 Rio elevator nightmare goes viral 3:23 EDC weekend and Omnia Dayclub opening 4:59 Allegiant buys Sun Country 7:02 Mandalay Bay panoramic suite tour 7:52 Circa Murphy beds make too much sense 9:28 Circa Slotapalooza returns downtown 10:40 Mark's new Resorts World comps 11:50 MGM and Caesars summer comp offers 12:37 Bad AI Vegas maps 14:19 Women's pro hockey coming to Vegas Links: Las Vegas Advisor membership — https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/shop/products/lva-membership-platinum/?ref=MTM MTM Vegas YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/@mtmvegas MTM Vegas podcast — https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mtm-vegas-fun-interesting-absurd-sides-of-vegas/id1574194686 MTM Vegas Patreon — https://www.patreon.com/cw/MtMVegas MTM Vegas newsletter — https://milestomemories.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=39c6737d725a04fea73324680&id=1e73edd8c8 MTM Vegas merch — https://mtmvegas.shop Rio elevator - https://x.com/lasvegaslocally/status/2054829995118530709?s=46&t=B9kWNUIY21TRZnc8tXrfRQ Four Queens cup - https://x.com/4QueensLV/status/2054690765649969649 Omnia tour - https://x.com/m6drop/status/2054409172964540750?s=46 MB suite - https://x.com/kerrybilicki/status/2050648934041972797?s=46&t=B9kWNUIY21TRZnc8tXrfRQ Murphy Bed - https://x.com/kerrybilicki/status/2053201863974293724?s=46&t=B9kWNUIY21TRZnc8tXrfRQ Slotapalooza - https://www.circalasvegas.com/slotapalooza/ Maps - https://x.com/stripstumble/status/2054306011004150001?s=46  https://x.com/StripStumble/status/2053833743870345455?s=20 PWHL - https://www.thepwhl.com/en/news/2026/may/13/professional-women-s-hockey-league-expands-to-las-vegas-and-hamilton-ontario-with-2026-27-season-debut

Primm is closing forever, Buffalo Bill's will not reopen and another piece of roadside Vegas history is disappearing. Shawn and Mark talk through the July 4 closure, the worker housing timeline and why this one hits harder than a normal casino shutdown. The show also covers a rumor about MGM Resorts closing its remaining Las Vegas buffets, the new Totally Awesome Bar & Arcade at MGM Grand, Flamingo's newly opened space after Carlos'n Charlie's was torn out, the return of Lotus of Siam's original location, the Evel Knievel Experience, the Mob Museum's expansion and Vegas' summer fireworks plan. Episode Guide 0:00 Vegas gives away gas in California 0:32 Record heat hits Las Vegas 1:18 Primm is closing forever 4:01 MGM buffet closure rumor 6:27 Vanderpump Hotel crest update 7:19 Lotus of Siam original location returns 8:42 Totally Awesome Bar & Arcade opens at MGM Grand 10:53 Carlos'n Charlie's removal opens up Flamingo 12:51 Caesars projects and Evel Knievel Experience 14:37 Mob Museum expansion moves forward 16:06 Vegas' summer fireworks plan Links   Miles to Memories MTM Vegas Patreon Gas giveaway - https://x.com/lasvegaslocally/status/2052778489942872303?s=46 MGM buffets - https://x.com/vitalvegas/status/2052880793161310646?s=46 Vanderpump crest - https://x.com/cinamongirl/status/2052498174301143249?s=20 Lotus of Siam - https://x.com/eatinglasvegas/status/2052769057196093569?s=46 Bonus Round Awesome Bar - https://mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com/en/restaurants/bonus-round.html  https://x.com/seventensuited/status/2052585033526091796?s=46 Flamingo update - https://x.com/seventensuited/status/2052197766110298410?s=46 Evel Knievel - https://neon.reviewjournal.com/kats/evel-knievel-museum-to-land-in-las-vegas-this-summer-3334640/ Mob Museum - https://themobmuseum.org/press_releases/the-mob-museum-acquires-adjacent-land-parcel-expansion-of-museum-footprint-to-enable-future-growth/ Summer fireworks - https://press.lvcva.com/news-releases/this-summer-in-vegas--expect-fireworks/s/7b79b330-488c-4caf-83fc-f5ee435dd52a?cat=news-releases  

Tom Holland is a storyteller whose range and erudition seem to be as unbounded as history himself. Already a wildly acclaimed bestselling author, his chart-topping podcast The Rest is History, the third most downloaded podcast globally, made superstars of Tom and his co-host Dominic Sandbrook. Now he shares with us his passion: Ancient Rome. The ancient Roman empire was the supreme arena, where emperors had no choice but to fight, to thrill, to dazzle. To rule as a Caesar was to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world. It was a world both familiar and utterly alien to our own. In this episode of the podcast he shares a glimpse into the inner worlds of the first twelve Roman emperors with legendary comedian and writer Armando Iannucci. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

*Due to a glitch this episode is being released on this fee two weeks late (after the Otho episode) but it should have been released on April 20th* Just Milo and Pat this week, cracking into the relatively thin text of the Emperor Galba - the Roman Liz Truss...or was he? Expect an Australian vibes round-up and also some apposite comparisons with the collapsing American empire. Get tons more like this on the Patreon for just $5 per month: https://www.patreon.com/mastersofpod

Milo and Phoebe are deep diving into yet another Liz Truss-coded Roman Emperor: Otho. Expect thrills, spills and castrated boy-wives. Get tons more like this on the Patreon for just $5 per month: https://www.patreon.com/mastersofpod

In this episode I breakdown who gets comps and how you can too. I breakdown why standalone hotels are some of the better hotels to try to get comps from and why is MGM Resorts and Caesars so hard to get free stuff out of.   Instagram: @conciergeconfidential_lv, @Brian_Ortega26 TikTok: @keystovegas

Caesars launched its first non-gaming Caesars Republic in Scottsdale, and the property built the guest experience around F&B partnerships like Lisa Vanderpump's Wolf. Glenn Haussman talks with Joe Iturri, SVP of Business Development at HCW, about what that launch required and what owners expect from hands-on management right now.

Venetian brings in two Broadway shows, Caesars is doing the motorcycle jump stunt again, The Griffin opens during the daytime and Phish fans are awful The post FHBM #1004: Soft-Serve Fish and Flaming Tits first appeared on Five Hundy By Midnight.

Save big on Vegas with Las Vegas Advisor — get 10% off a membership with code MTM (new members, affiliate): lasvegasadvisor.com Is Las Vegas still fun expensive, or has it crossed into something worse? This week Shawn and Mark talk Caesars taking over the legendary Westgate SuperBook, another NBA arena proposal on the south Strip, wild Vegas food pricing, Vanderpump's purple takeover, and a Caesars Palace fountain jump coming back to the Strip. What we cover: Derek Stevens rides the Goodyear Blimp over Las Vegas. Caesars Palace is bringing back a fountain motorcycle jump for the Omnia Dayclub opening. The Nevada Independent argues Vegas has moved past greedy into cruel. The Vanderpump passport tour, VIP opening giveaway, and very purple hotel carpet. Vegas food prices, including a $138 baked potato, Bellagio steak complaints, and Alinea's $595 pop-up. Emerald Cove kayaking near Willow Beach and the beauty outside the Strip. The Las Vegas Diamond Arena proposal near Mandalay Bay. Caesars Sportsbook taking over the Westgate SuperBook. Episode Guide: 0:00 Derek Stevens in the Goodyear Blimp 0:43 Caesars Palace fountain jump returns 2:25 Is Vegas greedy or cruel? 4:17 Vanderpump passport tour giveaway 5:29 Vanderpump Hotel's purple carpet 7:10 $138 potatoes and ridiculous Vegas food 8:26 Bellagio steak prices go viral 10:02 Alinea's $595 Bellagio pop-up 12:05 Emerald Cove and Colorado River beauty 13:31 Another proposed NBA arena for Las Vegas 16:37 Cleaning up the Las Vegas Festival Grounds 17:56 Caesars takes over the Westgate SuperBook Links: Caesars Palace fountain jump Vegas isn't greedy, it's cruel Lisa Vanderpump Tour Martha Stewart baked potato background Alinea x Bellagio Alinea Bellagio announcement Emerald Cove kayaking Las Vegas Diamond Arena Caesars and Westgate sportsbook partnership Want more MTM Vegas? Get our exclusive weekly aftershow and join the community. Subscribe to our newsletter Watch on YouTube Apple Podcasts Merch milestomemories.com

Ralph welcomes journalist and author Megan Greenwell to discuss her book "Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream." Then, Ralph speaks to James Zogby (co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute) about the recent Israeli attacks on Lebanon.Megan Greenwell is a journalist who has written or edited for publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, New York Magazine, WIRED, and ESPN. She is also the deputy director of the Princeton Summer Journalism Program, a workshop and college-access initiative for students from low-income backgrounds. She is the author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream.The real trick with private equity (and this was the thing that made me want to write a book on it) is that when they take out those billions of dollars worth of loans (if you're buying a bigger company), the private equity firm is not responsible for paying those loans back. Only the portfolio company in whose name the private equity firm has taken the money out is on the hook for that money. And so what you end up with is this split in incentive where what's good for the private equity firm is not necessarily what's good for its own portfolio company.Megan Greenwell[Congress hasn't repealed the carried interest loophole] because Congress is in the pocket of the private equity industry. 88% of members of the House and Senate take donations from private equity. Interestingly, Donald Trump has called twice for the carried interest loophole to be closed. And still, even he, as much of a stranglehold as he has on the Republican Party, he can't build support for it among Republicans. Because they're all taking private equity money, as are the vast majority of the Democrats. So this is not a partisan issue.Megan GreenwellOne of the reasons I was really interested to write this book as a series of narrative profiles of people trying to do something about [private equity] is: none of them are trying to do something about it through the federal government. And I think when we talk about “Only the federal government can save us,” we really risk turning people away from trying to do anything. And I think we've seen on the private equity issue there has been some really interesting movement on the state level in several places—real reforms that are much easier to accomplish on the state level than on the federal level.Megan GreenwellJames Zogby is co-founder and president of the Arab American Institute, and he is featured frequently on national and international media as an expert on Middle East affairs. Since 1992, he has written a weekly column— “Washington Watch” —that is published in 12 countries. He is the author of several books, including Looking at Iran: The Rise and Fall of Iran in Arab Public Opinion, The Tumultuous Decade: Arab, Turkish, and Iranian Public Opinion - 2010-2019, Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters, and Palestinians: The Invisible Victims.Not only are thousands being killed [in Lebanon], but there's a process underway of demolishing villages, obviously expelling lots of people, creating internal refugees and sectarian tension as a result of it. And clearly (as Israel has stated, and I think we have to believe them), that they actually want to annex the territory up to the Litani River and maybe even further. They call it a buffer zone, but we've heard that buffer zone stuff before. It's merely a way of taking new land and providing opportunities for settlements.James ZogbyAs we saw ourselves in Vietnam, as we saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel is now getting PTSD reports that are deeply disturbing to them. They're getting suicides. They're getting an exhausted military. They're not exhausted with the weapons that they're losing (because they're losing a lot and they're using a lot), they're getting emotionally and physically exhausted. Look, when the soldiers do what they've been doing—which is basically inhuman behavior, I mean, it's disgraceful behavior—it begins to eat away at the soul. You get these suicides. You get these emotional collapses. And what gets me upset is that—72,000 Palestinians dead, a few Israeli soldiers having PTSD and trauma and committing suicide becomes a news story? My feeling has to be with the Lebanese and Palestinians.James ZogbyWhen I hear on the DNC from other members who say to me, “When you talk about Israeli genocide, that's anti-Semitic, it makes me uncomfortable,” I said, “You know what makes me uncomfortable? That genocide is actually taking place. And it makes me equally uncomfortable that you won't admit it or even want us to talk about it.”James ZogbyNews 4/17/26* Our top story this week comes to us from New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is delivering on yet another campaign promise thought impossible by mainstream pundits and beltway insiders: the creation of municipal grocery stores. Capping off his first 100 days in office, Mayor Mamdani delivered remarks in front of La Marqueta in East Harlem, the site of one of the original city-run grocery stores created under Fiorello LaGuardia. Mamdani laid out how the stores will operate, noting that while “A private operator will run the store,” they will “answer to the standards the city will set…[including] requirements that at our stores bread will be cheaper. Eggs will be cheaper. Grocery shopping will no longer be an unsolvable equation. And workers will be treated with dignity.” Mamdani plans to have the first of these stores open in 2027 and stores in all five boroughs open by the end of his term in 2029. This from NBC4 New York.* Meanwhile, in New York's 10th congressional district, former NYC Comptroller and Mamdani ally Brad Lander is aligning himself with AOC and calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. In a meeting with a group of local journalists, Lander said “We need to follow the Leahy Law and condition all of our foreign policy aid on human rights and international law compliance…At the moment, Israel is very far from complying with human rights and international law. So I would not vote for any more aid,” adding that he “hopes” Israel will “[get] there.” The Forward notes that this is an evolution from the position he took during his mayoral candidacy last year. At that time Lander opposed sending offensive weapons to Israel, but believed that the US should keep funding Israel's Iron Dome, per the New York Post. Through a representative, Lander's opponent in this race, incumbent Congressman Dan Goldman, told the Forward he “will always support defensive systems,” like Iron Dome.* The liberal Zionist organization J Street is also shifting its position. The Middle East Eye reports the group is calling for an end to “direct” US military support to Israel, according to a new policy paper. To be clear however, while this does mark a shift from J Street's previous position that the U.S. should provide defensive weapons systems – like resupply for Iron Dome, at no cost to Israelis – J Street now argues that Israel should simply purchase these weapons instead. In short, J Street is arguing that Israel is rich enough to provide for its own defense and that the American financial subsidies are “unnecessary and politically counterproductive, creating avoidable tensions in US domestic politics and in the bilateral relationship.” This is in line with statements by Netanyahu himself, who has made it clear that Israel wants to reduce its reliance on U.S. military aid “all the way down to zero.”* In other news, Reuters reports Apple is closing several of its brick-and-mortar stores, including the first ever unionized Apple store. Over 100 workers at the store, located in Towson Town Center mall in Maryland, voted to join the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM) in 2022; Reuters notes that “a similar union drive in Atlanta [around that same time] was withdrawn, ‌with ⁠Apple workers alleging intimidation.”At the other stores being shuttered, employees were offered the option to continue their jobs at other nearby Apple stores. At the Towson store however, Apple is claiming that the collective bargaining agreement prevents relocation. The union says this is “false” and is reportedly exploring all legal options. IAM also expressed “serious concerns that ​this closure is a cynical attempt to ​bust ⁠the union.”* Elsewhere in Maryland, the state legislature has passed the Protection from Predatory Pricing Act. This bill, which Gov. Wes Moore has vowed to sign into law, is designed to prohibit surveillance pricing, the practice of retailers charging different shoppers different prices for the same item at the same time based on information the store knows about them as an individual. While crucial and innovative legislation, Consumer Reports – which “engaged on the bill…throughout the legislative process,” argues that it has been watered down to the point of inadequacy via lobbying by the Maryland Retail Alliance. Some of the added exceptions include failing to establish any baseline or standard price – given that “with no set standard price, everything can be marketed as a discount” — and exempting any pricing associated with loyalty or membership programs or subscriptions. The bill also does not contain strong enforcement provisions, such as a private right of action. So, while this bill is a start – and you have to start somewhere – we echo Consumer Reports' urging that “other state legislatures considering personalized pricing legislation to build in stronger consumer protections and avoid loopholes that weakened this bill.”* In more consumer news, the scourge of sports betting continues to metastasize. A new report from Siena Research Institute has produced staggering findings: “27% of Americans and [52%] of men ages 18-49…[say] they have an active account with an online sportsbook such as DraftKings, Caesars, FanDuel, or BetMGM.” And, while most respondents maintain that they bet because it is “exciting” and “fun”, “31% of bettors report having had someone express concern about their usage of online sportsbooks, [42%] of bettors...say they have felt that they bet more than they should…Fifteen percent of bettors…say they have called a problem gambling Helpline or sought other help with problem gambling, and 22% of respondents overall say they know someone that has or has had a problem with online sports betting.” Taken together, this represents a deeply troubling gambling wave cresting in this country. And, while legislators are beginning to take notice, the sports betting interests are beginning to fight back, with Bloomberg reporting that these companies – FanDuel, DraftKings and Fanatics Sportsbook – are beginning to dump money by the truckload into new Super PACs. Just this year, they have contributed $41 million to Win for America, according to new FEC filings, and show no sign of stopping there.* In our final domestic story, this week saw the implosion of leading California gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Eric Swalwell. Swalwell ultimately opted to resign his seat in Congress after it became clear that the Democratic and Republican House leadership was mulling a deal to expel him and flagrantly corrupt Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick along with two scandal-ridden GOP Reps., Tony Gonzales and Cory Mills. The fact that Swalwell's resignation was paired with that of Gonzales lends credence to the idea that some deal was worked out behind closed doors. Yet, deal or no, this leaves Cherfilus-McCormick and Mills in their seats despite general acknowledgment that they should be expelled, per the Hill. This constitutes congressional horsetrading at its most base.* Turning to international news, this week Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has for months governed the country with a plurality in the House of Commons, has successfully secured a majority for his ruling Liberal Party. This majority was secured via three byelection victories, but more significantly, by five recent “floor crossings” – elected MPs switching parties to join the Liberals. Having secured a majority, Carney is now confident in his ability to stave off a no-confidence vote and will likely remain in power at least until the 2029 general election. Unfortunately, the New Democratic Party (NDP) saw improvement in their share of the vote in only one “riding” despite their new leadership. This just proves the party has a long, difficult climb back to relevance in Canadian politics. This from the CBC.* Looking Southward, this week, Peru held the first round of their presidential election. The top two vote getters will advance to a runoff, but who those candidates would be remained unclear for an agonizingly protracted period of time. Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the former Japanese-Peruvian dictator and a perennial far-right candidate herself, came in first with 17% of the vote. And at first, it seemed like the second slot would be taken by ultraconservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga. However, following days of vote counting, Aliaga moved down to third place, with the second place finisher proving to be Roberto Sanchez, a figure of the Peruvian Left and ally of ousted former President Pedro Castillo. Sanchez however is also allegedly allied with the Andean supremacist movement led by Antauro Humala in Peru. The Peruvian political system has been rocked by instability, churning through “eight presidents in the past 10 years, including four who were impeached,” per France 24. Castillo, the last democratically elected president, was sentenced to over 11 years in prison in 2025; if elected, Sanchez would likely pardon the former president as other left-wing Latin American leaders including Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum have urged. How long Sanchez, or for that matter Fujimori, might last in office is another question.* Finally, we turn to the United Kingdom where the dream of a new Leftist party – Your Party – is foundering. After a promising start, Your Party ultimately descended into infighting between the Grassroots Left faction, led by Zarah Sultana, and another faction, the Many, led by former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Your Party also chose to bar from participation any avowedly leftist organizations. These moves, alienating to the very constituencies most interested in backing the YP, paired with the meteoric rise of the Green Party under Zack Polanski and a threatened exodus by the Scottish YP segment, have rendered what could have been a substantial power in Parliament, pressing for concessions on issues if not achieving a majority itself, utterly toothless. An inside account of the internal battles is available at Counterfire.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

From March 14, 2025: This episode of the Lawfare Podcast features Glen Weyl, economist and author at Microsoft Research; Jacob Mchangama, Executive Director of the Future of Free Speech Project at Vanderbilt; and Ravi Iyer, Managing Director of the USC Marshall School Neely Center. Together with Renee DiResta, Associate Research Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown and Contributing Editor at Lawfare, they talk about design vs moderation. Conversations about the challenges of social media often focus on moderation—what stays up and what comes down. Yet the way a social media platform is built influences everything from what we see, to what is amplified, to what content is created in the first place—as users respond to incentives, nudges, and affordances. Design processes are often invisible or opaque, and users have little power—though new decentralized platforms are changing that. So they talk about designing a prosocial media for the future, and the potential for an online world without Caesars.To receive ad-free podcasts, become a Lawfare Material Supporter at www.patreon.com/lawfare. You can also support Lawfare by making a one-time donation at https://givebutter.com/lawfare-institute.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.