Podcast appearances and mentions of Elon Musk

Elon Musk says that empathy is going to ruin us. Fish Stark of the American Humanist Association not only disagrees, but the AHA is prepping a historic day of empathy...and you can potentially be a part of it. https://www.americanempathyproject.org/Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

Joe Lonsdale shares what Elon Musk and Peter Thiel were really like at PayPal, how getting rejected by every top VC fueled Palantir's founding, and how the CIA became an unlikely early investor.

Vinnie still can't believe Bob would ditch Susan at the airport. Jim Carrey's publicist is saying it was Jim Carrey. There was some fake celebrity news yesterday that Sarah is clearing up. Snoop Dogg and Elon Musk are the same age… that's weird. Ashley Madison is rebranding… but not really. Vinnie says it's the year of the crack! Are dress codes still a thing?

Hour 1: Vinnie still can't believe Bob would ditch Susan at the airport. Jim Carrey's publicist is saying it was Jim Carrey. There was some fake celebrity news yesterday that Sarah is clearing up. Snoop Dogg and Elon Musk are the same age… that's weird. Ashley Madison is rebranding… but not really. Vinnie says it's the year of the crack! Are dress codes still a thing? Hour 2: Taylor Sheridan, the King of country TV, is writing an unusual book. Paramount Skydance has outbid Netflix to purchase Warner Brothers Discovery. What does this mean for our apps and subscriptions? How often should we be changing our underwear? We would rather be late for work than not have our coffee… duh! (50:40) Hour 3: Bob finally tracked down that song. Harry Styles is coming to Netflix! Kristen Bell is setting the record straight about how much she's being paid for Frozen. ‘Deadliest Catch' is appropriately named. An unfortunate update on Savannah Guthrie. Justin Timberlake is suing to stop the release of bodycam footage of his 2024 DUI arrest. Now we need to see what's on that tape! Vinnie is giving you can excuse to eat pancakes today. A total lunar eclipse happened this morning, and Sarah is the only person to see it. What would you ask God? (1:31:15) Hour 4: Harry Styles' album drops this Friday, and Sarah and Vinnie aren't convinced it will be any good. Metallica is heading to the Sphere. Can you believe it's been 10 years since Prince passed away? We all care about our health - and the apps that help us track it! At what point do the stress of these apps outweigh the positives? Quicksand! The childhood fear we all thought was a myth shows itself. (2:15:03)

On the show Long Strange Trip, Sequoia Capital partner Brian Halligan speaks with a16z's Ben Horowitz about what separates great founder CEOs from everyone else. Ben explains why first-time founders lose confidence, defer too much to senior hires, and let decision debt paralyze their companies. They discuss where founder mode works and where people are taking it too far, why the VP of Sales is the hire founders mess up more than any other, and why Andy Grove's "constructive confrontation" matters more than most CEOs realize. Ben also shares what he's learned working with Zuckerberg, what Jensen Huang and Elon Musk actually have in common, and why culture is defined by behavior, not values.   Resources: Follow Brian Halligan on X: https://twitter.com/bhalligan Follow Ben Horowitz on X: https://twitter.com/bhorowitz Listen to more from Long Strange Trip: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOhHNjZItNnNu8wknSuVtcSJRs7Q4xqOE   Stay Updated:Find a16z on YouTube: YouTubeFind a16z on XFind a16z on LinkedInListen to the a16z Show on SpotifyListen to the a16z Show on Apple PodcastsFollow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's EV News Briefly for Monday 02 March 2026, everything you need to know in less than 5 minutes if you haven't got time for the full show.Patreon supporters fund this show, get the episodes ad free, as soon as they're ready and are part of the EV News Daily Community. You can be like them by clicking here: https://www.patreon.com/EVNewsDailyBMW USA SHOP LEAK POINTS TO 2027 LINEUPA leak on BMW USA's online shop revealed two fully electric i3 sedan variants — the i3 40 xDrive and i3 50 xDrive — confirmed for the US in 2027, sharing the Neue Klasse platform with the iX3 and featuring Gen6 batteries, 800-volt hardware, and an iDrive X interior. The 2027 lineup also adds a first-ever iX4 coupe-SUV in two variants, an iX3 in three configurations launching in North America this summer, an electric iX5, and an i3 M60 alongside a full electric M3 positioned as the spiritual successor to today's M3 Competition.TESLA BERLIN RUNS HALF FULL AS UNION ROW SIMMERSTesla's Gigafactory Berlin produced 211,235 vehicles in 2024 against a stated annual capacity of 375,000 — a 56% utilisation rate — and output has since declined further, with the factory now reportedly running at around 40% capacity and BYD outselling Tesla in Europe in January 2026. Labour tensions are deepening ahead of works council elections, with IG Metall pursuing collective wage agreements similar to those at Volkswagen and BMW, while Tesla filed a criminal complaint against a union member and Elon Musk warned that "outside organisations" could hinder the site's ambition to become Europe's largest factory complex.T&E: LOCAL BATTERIES COULD CUT COST GAPA Transport & Environment report argues the EU can shrink the cost gap between domestically made and Chinese batteries from 90% to around 30% through scaled-up local production, with higher automation and lower scrap rates potentially cutting the gap to $14 per kWh by 2030 — equivalent to roughly €500 on an average EV. The findings align with the EU's forthcoming Industrial Accelerator Act, which targets ~70% local content thresholds for publicly supported EVs, though some carmakers warn this risks making batteries prohibitively expensive while T&E's Julia Poliscanova calls it "a sovereignty premium worth paying," particularly given China's export restrictions on critical minerals.TRIBUNAL BACKS 5% VAT ON SOME PUBLIC CHARGINGA UK tax tribunal has ruled against HMRC in a case brought by community charging operator Charge My Street, finding that a de-minimis clause in the VAT Act 1994 — capping "domestic" supplies at 1,000 kWh per month per customer — can qualify most neighbourhood charge points for the 5% reduced VAT rate rather than the 20% rate currently applied to public charging. The ruling is significant for drivers without off-street parking, though it also raises commercial complications, as many charge point operators have multi-year contracts priced on 20% VAT, and it opens the door to networks gaming the threshold by splitting sites or charger banks into separate "premises".ŠKODA OPENS €205M CTP BATTERY PLANT IN CZECHIAŠkoda has opened a €205 million (~$216M), 55,000 m² battery production facility at Mladá Boleslav, making it the Volkswagen Group's largest BEV battery system site and the first VW Group plant in Europe to manufacture cell-to-pack (CTP) systems at scale. The line produces over 1,100 battery systems per day — targeting up to 335,000 annually — and Škoda's switch to LFP cells has cut battery production costs by 30% compared to its previous MEB systems.MG CLOSES IN ON EUROPEAN FACTORY PLANMG has narrowed its European factory search to five countries, aiming to begin production by 2027 to circumvent the EU's 45% tariff on Chinese-built BEVs — a levy that caused MG's European BEV sales to fall 33% to 48,479 units last year, even as overall European sales rose 26% to 307,282 units in 2025. MG Europe head William Wang declared "it's time to build local," positioning the brand as a European marque rather than a Chinese import, as rivals BYD, Chery, and Leapmotor also race to establish European manufacturing footholds.CITROËN UPDATES C5 AIRCROSS PHEV FOR EURO 7Citroën has refreshed the C5 Aircross plug-in hybrid with a new 21.5 kWh battery (17.8 kWh usable), delivering up to 96 km (60 miles) of WLTP combined electric range — a 33% improvement over the outgoing model and ahead of rivals like the Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 (69 km) and Ford Kuga PHEV (64 km). Priced in the €40–50k range, Citroën positions the updated C5 Aircross as one of the most tax-efficient family SUVs in the mainstream segment across EU markets while still targeting Euro 7 compliance.CANADIAN TRIAL PEGS ELECTRIC SEMI SAVINGS AT $157,126A real-world Canadian trial by FPInnovations' PIT Group and Transport Canada tracked two commercial fleets over 12 months and more than 200,000 km of Montreal-area operations, projecting savings of $157,126 per truck over six years — described as the most comprehensive dataset of its kind outside controlled demonstrations. The study compared the Freightliner eCascadia (BEV) directly against the diesel Cascadia and found that despite the electric truck's higher purchase price, higher-than-expected maintenance costs, and lower residual value, a six-year saving still emerged and may prove conservative.DENZA D9 ELECTRIC MPV ARRIVES IN AUSTRALIADenza has launched the D9 electric MPV in Australia from A$85,990, powered by a 103.3 kWh Blade Battery with 200 kW DC fast charging, 11 kW AC charging, and V2L capability across both variants, all built on BYD's e-Platform 3.0 with a cell-to-body battery structure. The seven-seat, three-row cabin targets the premium end of the people-mover segment with nappa leather, open-pore white ash wood trim, a 14-speaker Dynaudio sound system, adaptive suspension, and second-row captain's chairs offering over 900 mm of legroom, massage, and individual screens.CHINESE CAR BRANDS SPLIT US BUYERSA Cox Automotive survey of 802 prospective US car buyers found the country almost evenly divided — 38% would consider Chinese brands if available, 39% would not — with Gen Z showing notably higher openness at 69%. Chinese brands remain locked out of the US market by high tariffs and software regulations, but cost pressure is a key driver of interest, with 68% of open buyers expecting lower prices against an average new car price of $50,000, while BYD has already surpassed Tesla in European EV sales.

North Carolina's hot start on the season includes two series sweeps, midweek success and a tie in the rubber match of the annual East Carolina series. Last weekend's demolition of Le Moyne College provided an opportunity for head coach Scott Forbes to see all of his available position players in action and at the plate and his pitching rotation a chance to hone their craft ahead of the start to the ACC slate. Forbes spoke to Inside Carolina's Tommy Ashley on their weekly show about the progress of his team, how he grades his team's performances regardless of the level of competition and how pitching prospects develop in his program. Forbes and Ashley also discuss things off the field from physical health of players and the individual player responsibilities to that end at the collegiate level as well as the mental health side of being a college athlete. Finally, Forbes details the preparation his players get ahead of a game and the level of knowledge technology and metrics bring to the scouting process. **Call to Action:**   **Subscribe:** Follow 'Inside Carolina' wherever you get your podcasts to never miss an episode!   **Review:** Leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help us reach more Tar Heel fans!   **Visit:** Explore http://www.InsideCarolina.com for breaking news, recruiting updates, and expert commentary on all things UNC sports.     This show is brought to you by Inside Carolina, the No. 1 site for UNC sports coverage and community. Visit http://www.InsideCarolina.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

SpaceX is preparing for potentially the largest IPO ever. What should they do with their Bitcoin? Elon Musk's SpaceX is preparing for a confidential IPO filing as soon as March, targeting a record-breaking $1.75 trillion valuation. The S-1 filing will reveal 8,285 BTC on the balance sheet. With prices down, the rocket company is sitting on hundreds of millions in paper losses. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily." - Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. Get started at nexo.com/coindesk. - This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

War spirals in the Middle East, as U.S. forces are attacked. Top lawmakers to be briefed on war with Iran, today. A suspect has been identified in a mass shooting in Austin, Texas.  A trial begins today over Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter. Plus, and eight-year-old is collecting 300 boxes of cereal for kids in need. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today on Chicks on the Right, we sit down with Zach Abraham of Bulwark Capital Management to break down a major shift among 25–39 year olds: investing over home buying. With new data from JP Morgan showing young Americans pouring money into the stock market instead of real estate, we ask the big questions: Is […]

Colin's experience in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco while the cartel was terrorizing the town :: The US gov is a cartel :: Resisting fear during terrorist situation :: NH tranny shoots at a border patrol agent, misses :: Cop kills a girl in a fitting room while she was trying on quinceanera dresses :: Tom says you should never shoot a cop and miss :: Study says AI can not become a danger and that activists are "wrong" :: Dave Ridley's new "TV" show online at ridleyreport.com "Legends of the Free State" :: All of Colin's knowledge of explosions and myths about propane tanks exploding :: Trump started this Iran war himself without congress :: The new food pyramid is still trash :: Elon Musk begged to go to The Island it was cringe and embarrassing :: Have we empowered nerds too much? :: Bill Clinton says he did nothing, saw nothing :: What is esoteric green language? :: Who is a bigger problem for us little people? "Elites" or local cops? :: Couple fined for their car thief not wearing a seatbelt :: Man's land in Wisconsin getting stolen for Trump's new data center to empower AI :: 2026-02-28 Hosts: Bonnie, Angelo, Colin

Unimagined Discoveries, Planet Nine Mysteries, and the Sungrazing CometIn this captivating Q&A episode of Space Nuts, hosts Andrew Dunkley and Professor Fred Watson tackle a range of thought-provoking listener questions that explore the unknowns of our universe. From the potential for undiscovered celestial phenomena to the enigma of Planet Nine, this episode is filled with cosmic curiosities and insights.Episode Highlights:- Unimagined Existence: Bailey from Durban asks whether there are things in the universe that we have yet to imagine. Andrew and Fred discuss the surprises revealed by the James Webb Telescope and the potential for new discoveries that could challenge our current understanding of the cosmos.- The Planet Nine Puzzle: Sarah from Townsville wonders why we can locate distant exoplanets but struggle to find Planet Nine in our own solar system. The hosts explain the challenges involved in observing faint objects close to home and the technology behind planet detection methods.- Comet C2026A1: Eli from Anchorage brings attention to a newly discovered sungrazing comet set to be visible in April. Andrew and Fred delve into what makes this comet special and the uncertainty surrounding its visibility, drawing parallels to previous comet behavior.- Rusty's Solar Pergola: Rusty from Donnybrook revisits his idea of a solar pergola and its environmental implications in light of Elon Musk's satellite plans. The hosts discuss the feasibility and potential consequences of such a massive solar array in orbit.For more Space Nuts, including our continuously updating newsfeed and to listen to all our episodes, visit our website. Follow us on social media at SpaceNutsPod on Facebook, Instagram, and more. We love engaging with our community, so be sure to drop us a message or comment on your favorite platform.If you'd like to help support Space Nuts and join our growing family of insiders for commercial-free episodes and more, visit spacenutspodcast.com/about.Stay curious, keep looking up, and join us next time for more stellar insights and cosmic wonders. Until then, clear skies and happy stargazing.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/space-nuts-astronomy-insights-cosmic-discoveries--2631155/support.

Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ The Shift from Attention to Trust In this compelling episode, Ashleigh Vogstad, CEO of Transcends, joins Vince Menzione to discuss the tectonic shifts occurring in the global partner ecosystem. Ashleigh shares her firsthand experiences studying AI at Oxford, the rise of the “Trust Economy,” and the controversial Amazon vs. Perplexity lawsuit. They dive deep into the practicalities of becoming a “Frontier Firm,” the importance of building proprietary AI agents, and the ways Gen Z and AI-driven marketplaces are revolutionizing the buyer journey. Whether you are looking to win Microsoft Partner of the Year or navigate the demise of traditional SaaS, this conversation provides a strategic roadmap for leading through the AI revolution. Key Takeaways The economy is shifting from a focus on human attention to a foundation of verified trust. Future commerce will involve “selling to machines” as AI agents begin making purchasing decisions on behalf of humans. Microsoft is prioritizing “Frontier Firms” that integrate AI into every customer interaction and internal process. Gen Z buyers are prioritizing product value and “dupes” over traditional brand names, with 75% of buyers expected to be Gen Z by 2030. To win Partner of the Year, organizations must publicly celebrate “better together” stories with validated customer wins. Modern leaders should transition from a “growth mindset” to a “frontier mindset” to keep pace with rapid technological change. https://youtu.be/xJmd43NvfnI If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Trust Economy, Selling to Machines, Amazon vs Perplexity Lawsuit, Frontier Firm, AI Agents, Copilot Studio, Anthropic Claude, Microsoft Partner of the Year, B2B Marketplaces, Gen Z Buyer Behavior, Digital Freedom, AI Therapy, Ray Kurzweil Singularity, Substack Growth, Co-selling Partnerships, MCI Funding, Azure Accelerate, Agentic AI, Transcending Tech, Ashleigh Vogstad. Transcript Asleigh Vogstad Audio Podcast [00:00:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: The attention economy is about selling to human beings. Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines. [00:00:19] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Ashley Waad. The CEO of transcends for this compelling discussion. Ash, welcome back to the podcasts. [00:00:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s so good to be here, Vince. Thank you. Uh, [00:00:37] Vince Menzione: so well, we’re back in Boca again and we were just here yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Winter Retreat in person. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: What a great event we had together. [00:00:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: It was phenomenal. Thank you so much for having us there and on stage and, and genuinely the community is like a family, so seeing so many familiar faces and spending some quality time was just great. [00:00:57] Vince Menzione: It has really, truly become like family. It really, I’m, I’m, I’m having so much fun with this and getting to watch. [00:01:04] Vince Menzione: Not just our business grow and our community grow, but to see all of our friends and, uh, organizations like Transcends that have been with us since the beginning, since the very first ultimate partner acting even before the first ultimate partner. And, uh. We were just talking about. I’d love to catch up with what you’ve been doing. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Like you just came, you’ve been on a whirlwind. I mean, you’re always, every time like it’s, where’s Ash? She’s, uh, she’s on a plane again, or she’s on, she’s on the slopes. But tell us where you were just this week. [00:01:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. The week started in a snowstorm, actually transporting myself from Whistler. I didn’t know if I would make it to the airport, but then down to Silicon Valley and [00:01:45] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: Wow, that place is just inspiring and eyeopening. I mean, seeing the Nvidia campus, a MD, it’s really just other worldly and it had me reflecting on, it’s [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: not Whistler. Yeah, it’s [00:02:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: definitely not Whistler. Definitely not Whistler [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: about, [00:02:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: um, yeah, it just had me reflecting on being down there. I used to spend a lot of time in the Valley around 2017 and. [00:02:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: In this theme of AI and kind of what’s really coming, I was, I was thinking about, I had met this woman, Julia Moss Bridge, who’s a neuroscientist studying ai. She had a project called Loving Ai, and I was down there when they had borrowed Sophia, this humanoid robot from S and Robotics. [00:02:32] Vince Menzione: Oh yes. Yes. [00:02:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: Really interesting. [00:02:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Sophia’s actually a citizen of Saudi. Mm-hmm. First, first robot to actually be made citizen of a country. So they had Sophia set up and the part that was just mind boggling at the time was that Sophia was hosting in real life therapy sessions with actual human beings sitting across the table. And what really struck me as. [00:02:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Kind of just, you know, that was only eight, nine years ago. And that was esoteric. Wacky and [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: eerie. [00:03:05] Ashleigh Vogstad: Weird. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: Eerie at the time. [00:03:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Incredibly eerie. Yeah. I mean, a, a human getting, uh, you know, therapy sessions from a robot sitting across the table. Yeah. And it just had me thinking how far we’ve come today. In 2025, Harvard Business Review said that therapy is actually the number one use case for ai. [00:03:26] Vince Menzione: I’ve heard that. That is striking. I go back to COVID. We were having this conversation last night at at the dinner for the Ultimate Partner event, and I think that COVID allowed us to transcend, [00:03:42] Ashleigh Vogstad: mm-hmm. [00:03:42] Vince Menzione: No pun intended there, but actually accelerate where we are today, that the acceptance of AI and the acceleration, or the ability to accept change so quickly. [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Started with COVID because we were so, so we were forced on whatever it was, March 10th I think, here in the United States to shut down everything and move to this remote life. [00:04:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm-hmm. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: And I think we’ve been shocked by that. I think our systems have all been shocked by that. And then here comes chat GBT in November of 2022 and we’re like. [00:04:20] Vince Menzione: Shocked in some respects, but like really everyone has embraced it in such a strong way, and now we’re getting. It’s almost daily update. You know, we’re gonna talk, I know we’re gonna talk about Anthropic and some of the things that’s been happening just in this last month that are striking and changing that have a lot of organizations trying to navigate, which is what, you know, you, you help organizations do. [00:04:43] Vince Menzione: But it feels like this is happening so fast and will continue to happen so fast. And as I said yesterday, I don’t know what this world’s gonna look like by 2030. [00:04:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, and I think the thing is, is that nobody knows what the world is gonna look like in 2030. I’ve been reading Ray Kurz Well’s, the Singularity is nearer, so the original book, the Singularity is near and he’s known to be a very accurate predictionist on the future. [00:05:11] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. But even with someone like that, you know, there, there nobody really knows what the world is gonna look like. And when you talk about COVID. At transcends, we have a value of digital freedom. So I founded the business in 2018, which was pre COVID. I as a fully remote organization, and at the time that was, you know, more groundbreaking, but then very quickly with CI that, that became the so-called new normal. [00:05:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: But we’re always thinking about. You know, remote first doesn’t mean remote only, and I think in this tide of what you’ve talked about, technological change being more acceptable and the pace of change. One of the interesting things that we see as a go-to-market agency is that in-person events are increasing. [00:05:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:05:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: People want and crave the face-to-face. Just like with the ultimate partner series. [00:06:02] Vince Menzione: I felt it. So it was striking yesterday. It, it seems like it’s, again, this was event number nine for us, but to see the, um, uh, receptiveness isn’t the right term, but it was this, uh, people, the, the embracing. Of seeing each other and hugging each other and being in the same room with each other. [00:06:22] Vince Menzione: And even people that didn’t know each other, like by the, the, as the day evolved, this, uh, connection that they all seemed to have with one another during the sessions and participating, everyone actively participated in the sessions. And, um, I said this in the beginning, we’re not a Slack channel and we’re not like some post on LinkedIn. [00:06:43] Vince Menzione: Uh, we’re there, there’s no playbook that’s set today around partnerships or even go to markets and marketing that we could espouse and say, this is the playbook for the next year. Right. It’s, it’s changing so rapidly. [00:06:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: So rapidly, [00:06:57] Vince Menzione: and you’ve embraced it. And I, and what we’re gonna talk about right now, I mean, I, I, you know, you’ve embraced AI in such a strong way. [00:07:04] Vince Menzione: Um, personally and with your business, I want to, I wanna dive in here a little bit. First of all, a couple things For those of those who are listening who don’t know you, I think maybe just a moment about transcends and your role, and then I wanna dive in on how you’re thinking about ai because I know you’re doing some things personally. [00:07:22] Vince Menzione: I want you to share that with, with our listeners and viewers today. [00:07:25] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. And I just wanna comment that it was a cool moment yesterday being up on stage with yourself and Mark Monday from ServiceNow and having the audience so engaged and active and Nina Harding from Microsoft stepping up and entering the conversation. [00:07:40] Vince Menzione: So cool. [00:07:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: It just made for such a collaborative experience, which was a cool moment, but yeah. Um, so. I founded this business, transcends a go-to-market agency after being at Microsoft myself. And really our differentiation is deep strategic partnerships with hyperscalers, whether that’s AWS, Google, Microsoft, and you know, that. [00:08:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: It comes with a challenge to be on the leading edge of technology. [00:08:08] Vince Menzione: Yes, [00:08:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: it, it’s really an imperative for our business and we are an AI first firm. Microsoft talks a lot about Frontier Firm, and I’ll take a, a different kind of angle on it. You know, when I think about Frontier. I now think about it as instead of the growth mindset, I now think about a frontier mindset. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Frontier mindset. You have to change my principles. [00:08:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, maybe, like you said, the world is changing so rapidly. Yeah, it’s [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: changing rapidly. [00:08:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what a frontier mindset means is that as we’re approaching work for our clients, we are thinking about AI innovation in every single customer. Interaction, customer innovation. [00:08:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: So today we’re building AI agents into much of the work that we’re delivering for clients. And as a business owner and leader, I’ve been challenged to also think critically around how I’m choosing to run the company. And right now we’re going through a huge overhaul of where we have data sitting in silos and different applications. [00:09:09] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yep. And getting that into one place with one view so we can start layering on more insight. AI innovation. [00:09:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And data’s such an critical part, part of this, as we, we talked about yesterday. But you know, even the, what you said, which is, would, would’ve been striking a year ago to say, we’re an AI first, uh, agency isn’t as striking anymore. [00:09:32] Vince Menzione: Uh, we heard Nina when we were having this conversation on stage yesterday, say that it’s an imperative at Microsoft that the agencies that they choose to work with, the third party vendors that they work with have to be an AI first organization. I have to be a frontier firm, and so I’m a, I am sensitive to the word frontier firm. [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: I understand why Microsoft uses it and I understand the value of what we used to call, you know, customer zero or back in the day we used to say eating your own dog food, but essentially being an organization that has leaned in, in a way, and with ai. Even more so, so important to do it. So tell us, I know you’ve done some things personally as well, but tell, tell us what you’ve done with the organization. [00:10:18] Vince Menzione: Uh, you talked about data and making data available and having, having a true data state as opposed to silos of data, but then you also made some personal investments and sacrifices. I would say. [00:10:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. [00:10:30] Vince Menzione: Yeah. In terms of what you’re doing around ai, [00:10:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: so I mean, let’s start on the personal side. I’m the CEO of my organization, and you can read in books or news articles that it is critical for AI transformation to start at the C-suite and specifically in the CEO seat. [00:10:46] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:10:46] Ashleigh Vogstad: And that really. Landed for me and so I’m personally leading in About two weeks ago, I built an agent, just end-to-end on my own, got into copilot studio. Wow. Got comfortable with the interface. You know, I was clunky moving around in there at first, chose my model. You know, I went with one of the anthropic Claude models for this particular project and built up an agent that can deliver executive communications like. [00:11:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Thought leadership blogs, uh, LinkedIn posts, but in a particular human being’s voice by ingesting things like their social profiles, their SharePoint sites, where they live and work. And it has been so surprising doing an ab test between just what a chat GBT or a copilot could produce. [00:11:32] Yeah. [00:11:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: In comparison with the authenticity of the voice coming from the agent. [00:11:37] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it was just a really cool experience to roll up the sleeves and get in there. But also I think the, the investment that you’re referring to is, I made a big decision to return to school and uh, got accepted to go to Oxford. [00:11:52] Vince Menzione: Wow. [00:11:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I’m studying artificial intelligence there. [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: That is incredible. That is incredible. [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Oxford, uh, we’ve heard of that school before here in the United States. [00:12:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, it’s been a really great experience. It’s in person, so I’m traveling there about every 60 to 90 days and living on campus. I mean, really, Oxford isn’t. Formally a campus, it’s sort of a, a city and a university all, all ruled into one and the experience has been really powerful. [00:12:21] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. One of the things I wanted to get outta the program was a more global perspective, and it’s been fascinating to me that about half the faculty so far, or or professors, guest lecturers that have been coming into the program have been from China or very direct experience working in the Chinese market. [00:12:38] Vince Menzione: That is fascinating. [00:12:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s been a completely different view. Or for example, you know, really digging into some of the legal cases that are driving precedence for how AI is interacting with corporations. [00:12:51] Vince Menzione: Mm. [00:12:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: One of the big ones for me has been looking at Amazon versus p perplexity. This is still a live case that’s happening right now. [00:12:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you know, I think it was Forbes magazine that the headline was the End of Commerce for this case because it’s really about. How human beings are being replaced with machines and hearing some of the world’s leading thinkers, leading AI researchers on these topics has just been really expansive. [00:13:19] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. [00:13:20] Vince Menzione: I mean, it’s, this started a couple years ago with, uh, Hollywood, in fact. Suing the industry or suing the technology companies with regards to, uh, employment, right? Mm-hmm. About the, the, uh, copyright infringement and what’s gonna happen in the entertainment industry. And I think that was just a one very small example. [00:13:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, voice people think about DeepFakes. Yeah. And they think about video, but actually voice is a big issue. And you look at the, um, you know, the what happened between Scarlett Johansson and her voice in her, and then open AI rolling out a voice that sounded identical. Sounds like her. [00:13:59] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: To Scarlett Johansen and, and where that went. [00:14:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s, it, this is a new ground for, for everybody that we’re going through right now. [00:14:07] Vince Menzione: It is. We can dive and go in so many different directions, but let’s talk about marketing and advertising since that’s kind of. Transcends core, and a lot of the people that watch and listen to us are in the partnership world. [00:14:22] Vince Menzione: They’re leading organizations, they own organizations, the the chief executives or CVPs of organizations. Let’s talk about advertising and where that’s going. [00:14:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, great. [00:14:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, uh, I love Marshall McCluen. He’s a Canadian theor, uh, media theorist, and in 1964, he very famously said, the medium is the message. [00:14:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: And what that really means when you peel back the layers is that every type of communication medium has these inherent biases. And I think what we’re experiencing right now is this new medium of artificial intelligence, and I’m really interested in exploring what that means for the media world. So. If I gonna take you back to 1997, there’s this really famous, the Innovator’s Dilemma. [00:15:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yes. Kind of a classic business 1 0 1 type book by Clayton Christensen. Yes. And he talks about this theory of disruption where new technologies, emerging technologies start at the low end of the market. They gain this momentum and they eventually displace incumbents. And you know, sometimes seemingly out of nowhere. [00:15:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Microsoft was a good example of this at that time. [00:15:32] Ashleigh Vogstad: Def, [00:15:32] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:15:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: All the big players. All the big players. I mean, Google go for search as well, right? So that’s one of the classic examples. And so. If we look at storytelling technology, you have things like chat, GBT and Sora entering the scene. And in the beginning, you know, they’re producing a shitty first draft. [00:15:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, you know, it’s things like post-apocalyptic dogs with five finger human beings. Yeah. Things like this. But, you know, and they really lacked emotional resonance. But as we all know. That’s not the case anymore. No, it’s [00:16:05] Vince Menzione: not. [00:16:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: AI is increasingly producing content that is very powerful and is starting to resonate with people. [00:16:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, I’m definitely not a neuroscientist, but if we, we look into the neuroscience, it’s your cortical sal circuit that. Kind of is responsible for pattern recognition and it compares what you’re seeing in the real world with what you expect to see. So when you take this into a space of advertising, you know, if there’s an ad that is AI generated, that is just weird and kind of. [00:16:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: Tweaking for you. [00:16:39] Vince Menzione: Like that robot we were talking about earlier, [00:16:41] Ashleigh Vogstad: like the robot we were Exactly, yeah. Like Sophia, you enter what psychologists call the uncanny valley, so it’s like what you’re looking at isn’t exactly what you’re expecting to see and the Spidey sense is, is tweaking. You know, that’s a low place of emotional resonance. [00:16:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: This world is changing really, really quickly and we’re seeing AI generated media make huge impacts in the market Now, tools like Luma Dream Machine, I mean, it’s incredible what they can achieve today. [00:17:11] Vince Menzione: It’s fascinating. We see it in, you know, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn. That’s sort of the world of our business community, and you can very easily detect when someone is doing a post. [00:17:22] Vince Menzione: Or they’re writing an art, whatever they’re doing. Right. Some type of draft of something. Uh, and you can tell when it’s ai, I mean, it’s so easy to tell, and even people are generating reports and claiming that their research papers or studies or whatever they call them, uh, and it’s AI generated and it’s just the authenticity isn’t there. [00:17:39] Vince Menzione: The, the sense that this is real. That it can be trusted is not there. And I think trust is what we’re talking about here too, as well. [00:17:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, let’s go to authenticity ’cause that’s super important. Yeah. And I know a lot of your listeners, you come from the hyperscaler world of partnerships. You need to have that differentiated, better together story. [00:17:59] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. It’s really important to have an authentic voice in market. And I think about that also in terms of platforms and channels. We’re seeing a decrease in certain major social media platforms, and yet Substack spiked 48% in monthly active users last month. [00:18:15] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:18:16] fascinating. [00:18:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: Um, you know, and I think that one of the reasons is it’s viewed as a more authentic channel where you’re getting thought leadership from people that you’re, you know, genuinely interested in hearing their, their points of view. [00:18:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And I think that’s really an important piece in here. [00:18:31] Vince Menzione: Yeah, you mentioned this yesterday and you had me thinking about it as well because we have used LinkedIn for everything internally, our newsletter, which has been around for six or seven years now. But that Substack is really, and I go to Substack too, to, if I really wanna dig in on a topic. [00:18:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:18:47] Vince Menzione: And there’s a particular author that I like their point of view, I’ll follow, I’ll follow them on Substack. [00:18:53] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. I mean, and this comes, maybe brings us around to who is the buyer and who is the audience, and who do we need to be thinking about when we’re designing sales and marketing programs. And really we’re, we’re shifting into the place of the Gen Z buyer by 20 30, 70 5% of buyers are gonna be Gen Z. [00:19:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna control 12 trillion in. Spend [00:19:16] Vince Menzione: by 2030. ’cause we, we’ve been, we’ve been saying that the millennial is the new buyer the last three years. I think Jay said it right here at this stage. [00:19:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:19:24] Vince Menzione: Um, so now it’s Gen Z. [00:19:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: And they’re buying online. Yeah, they’re buying in marketplaces. Yeah. So a stat recently was that roughly half of them made purchases on the social platforms of YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok in the last month. [00:19:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean, that buyer behavior of being inside. Social type application and directly making a purchase. And I think in the B2B world, we need to take lessons from here and start thinking more front and center than we even have been around marketplaces. I mean, part of my reason for being in Silicon Valley this week was to celebrate a $12 million transaction that happened via Marketplace and two years ago that would’ve been a huge deal. [00:20:06] Ashleigh Vogstad: Huge, [00:20:07] Vince Menzione: huge. [00:20:07] Ashleigh Vogstad: And, and it still is a really big deal, but these things are becoming. More and more common experiences. Very much so. We need to be there and in that conversation. [00:20:16] Vince Menzione: So how are you thinking about it? How are you directing your clients to behave or act around it? What are you, what are you doing exactly that we could take to this community perhaps and share with them. [00:20:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’ll bring it back to the authenticity piece because you need to have a product that delivers value first and foremost. There is, there is no substitution for that. Yeah, and what I would say is. One of my professors at Oxford, Eric Zow, he has this theory that I’m really digging into and finding very fascinating, which is that for the last several decades we’ve been in the attention economy, and that’s shifting to the trust economy. [00:20:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now the attention economy is about selling to human beings. Yeah. It’s about the, the business model is essentially that you need human being eyeballs on lists of recommendation links. Yeah. Whether that’s from Google or from, you know, searching, shopping on Amazon, you get this list of recommendation links and the economic engine that drives that business model is advertising. [00:21:19] Ashleigh Vogstad: Now, if you look at something like the Amazon versus Perplexity lawsuit, the whole underlying premise is around the shift of no longer selling to humans directly, but of selling to machines, or in other words, agents who are making purchases, s on behalf on your behalf. And an agent isn’t going to be razzle dazzled by some inauthentic story. [00:21:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:21:44] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re gonna be looking for third party validation on Exactly. You know, they need to be sure that they’re making the right decision. [00:21:51] Vince Menzione: They’re gonna look at surveys, they’re gonna look at customer comments. Like if I went through my Amazon site and I was looking to see what people said about the purchase or the product and specifically Exactly. [00:22:01] Vince Menzione: The agent’s gonna do this on my behalf, is what you’re saying. [00:22:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: This is what I’m saying. Yeah. And, and. I believe that to layer on top of, you know, Eric Z’s philosophy, I’ve been thinking about this in terms of the hyperscaler world, and I think that this is the time to lean into co-selling partnerships. [00:22:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, because being third party validated by somebody like AWS Microsoft and having all that co-sell data, what are your recent wins? Yes, that’s really high integrity, trusted data source for an agent to make a purchasing decision, and marketplaces are a key part of that. [00:22:35] Vince Menzione: So we’ll move from AI will take a, a more active role in the marketplace. [00:22:40] Ashleigh Vogstad: I definitely believe so. [00:22:42] Vince Menzione: Which makes total sense. I, you know, we’ve been doing this for nine or 10 years now, and when I was at Microsoft, we started co-selling. In fact, it was, uh, Aaron Feiger was up on stage yesterday talking about it. Right? January of 2016, co-selling began. [00:22:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:22:56] Vince Menzione: And there were only a few companies doing it. [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: Right. So she worked with one of the very first ones that were doing it. Uh, the challenge we have today is there are tens of thousands of partner organizations in the marketplace that are all trying to get the attention of the Microsoft sellers. Hmm. As, or the Google sellers or the AWS sellers and tell their story. [00:23:19] Vince Menzione: And a seller only has so many minutes in a day, they have a quota that they have to hit. These quotas are tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars of annual quota of cloud consumption. And I wanna sell my $50,000 widget, whatever it is. Yeah. Right. And I, I don’t understand why I’m not getting a callback. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: And this, this is the dilemma we’ve faced because of, because of this, uh, scarcity of time and this over overwhelming of tech, you know. Tech, tech buyers trying to make this all happen, so now the AI can come in and help me solve for it as a seller, right? [00:23:55] Ashleigh Vogstad: The AI is definitely acting as an interface to make recommendations to field sellers in different organizations and. [00:24:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: To, to kind of take this on a, a tangent. Dupes. So a dupe. I know people of my generation, we’d think about this like a knockoff Right. You know, a knockoff handbag. [00:24:15] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:24:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes have exploded. [00:24:16] Vince Menzione: Fake. Fake Rolexes. [00:24:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: Exactly. The fake Rolex for sure. And I think it was in December, P WC rolled out a survey. 81% of Gen Z were planning to purchase a dupe this holiday season. [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: That’s wild. [00:24:30] Ashleigh Vogstad: Dupes can be, you know, we gave luxury, good examples, but Louis [00:24:34] Vince Menzione: Vuitton and yeah. So, [00:24:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: but furniture, these sorts of things. And the important takeaway here for tech is the same principle will land, is that people are looking for value out of a product, not necessarily a name brand. AI is accelerating this whole process, and agents are gonna be looking at the same thing. [00:24:56] Ashleigh Vogstad: They’re looking for that authenticity in terms of the actual product value. So, you know, beware there’s lots of disruption happening in the market right now with this dupe mentality, which is actually a cultural shift talking about I appreciate value over a superficial. Brand name. In some cases, there’s also a, a small contrary trend where certain luxury goods are rising because yes, things are never that simple. [00:25:22] Vince Menzione: So you work with a lot of these tech companies, a lot of SaaS companies, is we, we call them ISVs, we also call them, uh, software development companies. Now we keep changing these acronyms around. Uh, there’s been a lot of, uh, consternation in that segment, I would say, around ai. Right, because a lot of them are getting told that they’ll be outta business in a few years. [00:25:43] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. I think Satya Nadella famously said this last year that SAS will go away. Right? He’s predicting the demise. How do you help some of these organizations to differentiate? And there’s some of these are huge value organizations. We have have them in the room with us, ServiceNow and Veeam and Adobe. [00:26:01] Vince Menzione: Um, how do you help them achieve their results? ’cause that’s what you, you know, your organization is really helping these organizations to achieve their pinnacle as a partner. What do you, what do you say to them now and how do you help them through this time? [00:26:16] Ashleigh Vogstad: I’m on the side of the fence that I really can’t see an organization ripping out something like Salesforce, Adobe, ServiceNow. [00:26:24] Vince Menzione: Agreed. [00:26:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: I mean that the amount of change management and. The extent to which these, these platforms are embedded, actually running and operating organizations. I personally, if, if we’re calling those companies, SaaS companies, I don’t agree that that layer is gonna go away. I mean, we’re seeing these organizations lean into AI in a huge way to borrow Microsofts. [00:26:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: Term, you know, they’re all becoming frontier firms. [00:26:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:26:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: So where I would go to, to answer that question, we do work with many, you know, organizations on that caliber, on things like their marketplace strategy on how to light up the fields of different hyperscalers. It really does come down to things like having a strong drumbeat with the Microsoft field, celebrating your win stories. [00:27:15] Ashleigh Vogstad: Maybe that’s where I’ll land as Please do the marketer, because it sounds so simple, and I don’t know why we kind of continue to come back to this, but we’re talking about that third party validation and really, um, in order to have that, like what the hyperscalers want is you jointly celebrating success. [00:27:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: Here’s the kicker. Publicly. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: Publicly, [00:27:39] Ashleigh Vogstad: you know, you need a customer story on your website, a press release that contains a quote from your customer. Ideally, also a quote from an executive at one of the hyperscalers. Like, actually lean in to live the value of your better together story. And when you do that, when you, when it comes around to partner of the year time, and we talk to you about, okay, what client stories are we gonna feature? [00:28:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: We’re even gonna know because when we Google you, we can see the public press of the joint wins that you’ve been celebrating. And I can tell you that that is a huge indicator on whether or not you’re well-placed to be in the 4% of partners who actually win Partner of the Year award’s. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Fascinating to me. [00:28:21] Vince Menzione: ’cause to me it would feel like table stakes maybe ’cause where we sit is ultimate partner and where this room sits with all the top partners that I just assume that everybody follows that. That, that guidance. [00:28:34] Ashleigh Vogstad: Mm. [00:28:34] Vince Menzione: And so this is really impactful and I want to get here because I know you spent a lot of time here and we’ve talked about it before, but I think the partner of the year awards, when we first met many years ago, that was a you, you’ve expanded the business, but that’s still a core mission and and value that you bring to the community and to the partner ecosystem is helping them through this process. [00:28:55] Vince Menzione: So I know that that’s gonna be coming up soon, so I thought maybe we’d spend a couple moments on that. [00:29:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: Partner of the Year awards, regardless of which partner, I mean, Salesforce has their own awards there. There’s more and more award programs coming out, and they’re a great way to celebrate the incredible work that your organization has done. [00:29:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: Jay McBain is brilliant on this. He’ll talk a lot about the increase in valuation. Yeah. The, the increase in stock valuation or the likelihood that if you’re looking to be acquired, that you’re acquired within 12 months of a partner of the year win it. It’s really impressive. There is strong business value there. [00:29:33] Vince Menzione: He like, he likes, he likes to tell the story of that when the award is handed to them and they go back into the audience, that the private equity people are all over them right then and there and making offers. I mean, that’s the visual that you get [00:29:47] Ashleigh Vogstad: and it’s very powerful. Yeah. Very powerful. It’s very powerful and it, it can make it worthwhile to invest in the process, but don’t invest in the process if you haven’t been investing in the process for the 12 months. [00:29:57] Ashleigh Vogstad: Prior, [00:29:58] Vince Menzione: exactly. [00:29:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: The Microsoft field or you we’re talking about Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. They need to know about your win that that needs to be top of mind for them. Yeah. How much Azure revenue is it driving? Was it a huge marketplace? Build sales and. You know, one of the questions I get asked a ton, everybody wants to know how do we get money out of the hyperscalers? [00:30:20] Ashleigh Vogstad: How do I get access to marketing development funds or all these different programs? Yeah. You know, at Microsoft, some of these programs are like EI and customer investment funds or Azure Accelerate, you know, and there’s millions and millions and millions of dollars in these, these buckets of funds, but. [00:30:36] Ashleigh Vogstad: An interesting point of view is that it’s actually a scorecard metric for many people at Microsoft who have partnership roles for you to be drawing down those funds. [00:30:45] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:30:45] Ashleigh Vogstad: You know, your interests are actually aligned here, and so again, when it comes to Partner of the Year awards, how much money have you pulled down? [00:30:54] Ashleigh Vogstad: How much have you been an activating partner of key Microsoft programs that they’re pushing? What are you doing with marketplace rewards? How are you resing? Those into your business. These are the types of things that you really wanna be thinking about. Sitting it. You know, this time of year we probably will get the awards were likely be due in July. [00:31:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: They haven’t officially announced timelines, but you’ve got a few months to start moving these pieces into place. [00:31:18] Vince Menzione: And there are quite a few of them. And to your point, Nina, when she was up on stage here yesterday, there were at least 10 or 12 award. Uh. Funding categories that were on her, that were on her slide. [00:31:31] Vince Menzione: Her partner, her partner slide. So, [00:31:33] Ashleigh Vogstad: and what great looks like for a partner is that you understand your end-to-end funnel as it is mapped to Microsoft’s SEM model, the Microsoft customer Engagement model. Mm-hmm. The first stage there, inspire and design. That’s really the marketing space of lead generation. [00:31:50] Ashleigh Vogstad: So how are you generating leads with webinars, in-person, event activations, digital campaigns, and then at the very end, in the fifth column, you have the Microsoft outcomes that you’re driving. Yes. Whether that’s Azure consumed revenue, marketplace build sales, co-pilot, monthly active usage, these sorts of things. [00:32:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: And in each of those SEM swim lanes. There’s Microsoft funding associated to it. And that’s one of the things that Nina Harding was showing yesterday. When and where does it make sense to make requests for EA funds versus Azure accelerate the MCI funding? There’s different workshop proof of concept funding, and those all fall at specific stages in that EM model. [00:32:33] Vince Menzione: And what you’re also pointing out in this conversation is that the co the partners need to understand that mm, they need to understand MM. We talked about it years ago. I’ve had, haven’t had anybody on stage recently talk about m You could probably take us through that if we wanted to devote some time here, uh, and then understand all of those categories and how to access those funds. [00:32:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, it’s critical and. The number one place we point partners, if you want a quick overview of what that looks like is to Microsoft’s FY 26 solution playbooks. Nice. They’re available on the web for download. There’s, well, there used to be three, but they’ve added a few agen being, being one. So, so there’s a handful of, they had [00:33:11] Vince Menzione: simplified it, now they’re, now they’re expanding it back again. [00:33:14] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, exactly. I think there’s now a breakout for security as well. Yes. So take a look at those playbooks. It will map programs and incentives very specifically to each solution area and to each sales play that are gonna be available to you. And then we’re always happy to guide people through the details [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: as well. [00:33:32] Vince Menzione: I love that. I love that. And reach out to the. Ashley is just amazing at this process. I’ve, I’ve watched her for years now, work with some of the top, what have become the pinnacle partners of Microsoft and with the award season coming up. So we wanna make sure we have a plug there. But I also wanna talk about like, podcasts with you. [00:33:50] Vince Menzione: Um, you’ve been on this podcast multiple times, been in the studio before doing this, and I understand you have your own podcast now. So tell us about that. [00:33:58] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, Vince, I just wanna say. As a friend and a mentor. You’ve been so inspiring. Thank you. And I think from years ago when we met, there was this seed in my brain of, you know, I, I should really get out there. [00:34:13] Ashleigh Vogstad: And you talk a lot about growth mindset and fear setting is, is one of Tim Ferriss’s terms? Yes. And models. [00:34:21] Vince Menzione: I love Tim Ferris. I’ve been, been a fan of his for 10 years now. So that’s settled. We all got started with this. Sorry. Sorry, I [00:34:26] Ashleigh Vogstad: interrupt. No, no, not at all. [00:34:27] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:34:28] Ashleigh Vogstad: And. I think it’s just been, it’s been back there. [00:34:31] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. That I’m really passionate around having voice is how I think about it. And as a marketing agency, we’re really amplifying the voice, um, or helping companies to find their voice, particularly in hyperscaler partnerships. And what better way to assist, you know, authentically the amazing people in our network, in our community and our clients than with our own channel where we can celebrate their stories and success? [00:35:00] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: So the podcast is called Transcending Tech. It’s about [00:35:06] Vince Menzione: very cool transcending tech. Just so you don’t [00:35:08] Ashleigh Vogstad: transcending tech. [00:35:08] Vince Menzione: It’s out there now. [00:35:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: It, we just released our first episode. Okay. I think two days ago. [00:35:13] Vince Menzione: So by the time we’re live, yes. We’ll, we’ll be able to access it. Good. [00:35:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: You will be able to access it. [00:35:18] Ashleigh Vogstad: The first episode is with Alyssa Fit. Patrick from Elastic. [00:35:21] Vince Menzione: Oh my goodness. [00:35:22] Ashleigh Vogstad: And the concept of the podcast, it’s long form and it’s really about getting to the people behind the platforms. [00:35:29] Vince Menzione: Very cool. [00:35:29] Ashleigh Vogstad: And to the stories that transcend technology. So we’re here to get to know the human beings behind. Agents. [00:35:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:38] Ashleigh Vogstad: And taking the time to, to go in deep and really explore that. [00:35:43] Vince Menzione: So I am excited to see all the developments here with the, with the podcast. And you’re gonna be joining us again. You were just here, you in Boca. But you’ll be joining us again in Bellevue. Not too far a little bit. Closer ride or travel, uh, for you to come to Bellevue. [00:35:57] Vince Menzione: We’re gonna be hosting the first ultimate partner live, which is our larger events in this beautiful facility, this new Intercontinental hotel, which is fabulous. And, uh, you’re gonna be taking a more active role. Your leadership around AI is. Palpable and we’re gonna love to have you on stage and talking through some of the changes. [00:36:17] Vince Menzione: I, I suspect by the time we get to Bellevue we’ll have a lot more to talk about. That hasn’t even happened yet. [00:36:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah, I’m really excited. I’ll have been through my next cohort at at Oxford, kind of coming out hot from there back to the Pacific Northwest, and really excited to just share the learnings and Awesome. [00:36:35] Ashleigh Vogstad: Genuinely. It’s also helping me in my own research, really formulate particularly around the role of ag agentic AI in hyperscaler partnerships. [00:36:43] Vince Menzione: That’s so cool. And then what I’ll say is this, and I don’t know, we on the space perspective, and I’ll, the team will probably hang me for this because we haven’t done it yet, but if you wanna bring the podcast along with you, there might be, we’ll see if we can find an extra room for you to set up. [00:36:58] Vince Menzione: If you wanna do some interviews while you’re. In, at the event. So [00:37:02] Ashleigh Vogstad: you’re so generous, Vince. [00:37:03] Vince Menzione: That’s [00:37:04] Ashleigh Vogstad: amazing. [00:37:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Again, I can’t say for certainty yet, but, uh, let’s see, let’s see what happens with that. So, uh, let, let’s, uh, you know, I always, we, we have known each other for years and I just assume everybody knows this amazing Ashley sda. [00:37:19] Vince Menzione: But, um, we always, I like to ask this question because it helps us kind of dig in a little bit about you personally. And it’s my favorite question. I ask all my guests this question now, and it’s, um, you’re hosting a dinner party, Ashley, you are, pick a pace, place, you wanna have this dinner. We could talk about parts of the world. [00:37:36] Vince Menzione: You’ve traveled all extensively. Uh, and you can invite any three people, guests from the present. Or the past to this amazing dinner party you’re throwing. Whom would you invite and why? [00:37:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: It’s a beautiful question, Vince and. Instantly I go to a place in terms of the location, since you asked that part, which was surprising. [00:38:01] Ashleigh Vogstad: I, I like that is my home. I, I love where I live up in Whistler, Canada and [00:38:08] Vince Menzione: I hear it’s beautiful. I haven’t been yet, [00:38:10] Ashleigh Vogstad: it’s so gorgeous and it’s, it’s my own sanctuary. You know, I live on a plane 75% of the time and coming back to that place is really grounding for me. Yes. So, so I would love to have it at, at my home and to invite. [00:38:24] Ashleigh Vogstad: Pippa Malrin would be one. She, Pippa [00:38:26] Vince Menzione: Malrin. [00:38:27] Ashleigh Vogstad: Yeah. She’s sure. I get an advisor to the White House for many administrations. Okay. She’s an economist and she just has really interesting perspective on geopolitics. Uh, I follow her on Substack ’cause she’s a big substack. Okay, now [00:38:41] Vince Menzione: I need to look. This is awesome. [00:38:42] Vince Menzione: The [00:38:43] Ashleigh Vogstad: mal, she’s fantastic. I would say Dr. Lisa Sue, the CEO, Dr. Lisa of a md. [00:38:49] Vince Menzione: Okay. Yes, yes. I know a little bit about her. [00:38:51] Ashleigh Vogstad: So she was one of Time Mag, I think she was the only woman in Time Magazine’s, group of people of the year, which was basically this AI cohort in including, you know, the Elon Musks of the world. [00:39:03] Ashleigh Vogstad: Uh, it’s just so impressive what she’s doing with leadership in a MD. I don’t think it’s as public as. Anybody else who is on the cover of that magazine, but it’s incredibly powerful. [00:39:14] Vince Menzione: Yeah, they’ve made a com uh, turnaround’s probably not the right word, but it seems like they’ve made a tremendous, uh, gains turnaround probably in the last few years. [00:39:23] Ashleigh Vogstad: I would say that many would say turnaround. And then lastly is Dr. Fefe Lee, who. For those in the AI space, particularly AI research space. I mean, she’s arguably number one. Um, she’s leading at Stanford currently. [00:39:37] Vince Menzione: Wow. This is gonna be a heady conversation, but you know, I love conversations. So if you don’t mind, maybe I’ll bring dessert and come, come in for a few moments, maybe do some podcast interviews there. [00:39:48] Vince Menzione: How’s that? [00:39:49] Ashleigh Vogstad: That sounds absolutely perfect, Vince, [00:39:50] Vince Menzione: so, so good. So good to have you here today. So great. Good to have you in the studio again, and, uh, excited for transcends and all the great work you’re doing. Um. This time with ai. I think you, uh, we talked about this a little bit last night. I think you’ve made some really wise, personal and professional decisions about how to lead and how to take this forward and not kind of rest on your laurels, which you see so many organizations do People fear change [00:40:17] Ashleigh Vogstad: Hmm. [00:40:18] Vince Menzione: And you embrace it, which is just, it’s astounding to me that you do that and, um. I look forward to working with you in the future and for years and years to come. So I will ask you one more question though, because we are still at the precipice of these tectonic shifts and we’re still early in 2026. And so for our listeners and our viewers today, what would be the one thing you would tell them that they need to go do now that possibly they haven’t done yet as they prepare for 2026 and beyond? [00:40:52] Ashleigh Vogstad: The generic phrase would be, be curious, but if we want an action, it would be go build an agent. [00:40:59] Vince Menzione: Go build an agent [00:41:00] Ashleigh Vogstad: if, if you haven’t already. Yeah. And, and I’m, yeah. Speaking hopefully to like a business audience, you know, to, to anyone. Yeah. Really, um, find something that is interesting that you’re passionate about. [00:41:12] Ashleigh Vogstad: A, a use case that it doesn’t have to be some big thing. It could be quite mundane, but just something that’s gonna help you in your role. It’s, you know, what is creativity is an interesting question, and I can tell you that sitting down and hands-on keys and actually creating something is, is a beautiful, powerful experience. [00:41:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Awesome. All right. We’re all gonna go create agents this weekend, so thank you for listening. Thank you for viewing the Ultimate Guide to partnering on our YouTube channel, ultimate Partner, and on each end of your platforms at the Ultimate Guide to partnering. Thank you for being with us and supporting us all these years. [00:41:50] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming soon, May 11th through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.

Today on Chicks on the Right, we sit down with Zach Abraham of Bulwark Capital Management to break down a major shift among 25–39 year olds: investing over home buying. With new data from JP Morgan showing young Americans pouring money into the stock market instead of real estate, we ask the big questions: Is this smart? Are they building wealth—or gambling? And what happens when “squirrel investing” takes over? We dive into: * Why chasing crypto, Forex, and meme stocks rarely works * The myth that “everyone can beat the market” * Why diversified ETFs still win long term * Elon Musk's claim that you don't need to save for retirement * AI replacing junior analysts—and how to stay indispensable * Inflation, money printing, gold at $5,100, silver at $83 * Why sitting in cash could be your biggest mistake * Commodities, natural resources, oil, copper, and real assets * How to invest wisely without going full-time Wall Street If you're worried about inflation, AI disruption, retirement savings, or whether you should buy a house or buy stocks—this episode is for you. Schedule your FREE risk review from Bulwark Capital at https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com Subscribe and stay tuned for new episodes every weekday!Follow us here for more daily clips, updates, and commentary:YoutubeFacebookInstagramTikTokXLocalsMore InfoWebsite

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Colin's experience in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco while the cartel was terrorizing the town :: The US gov is a cartel :: Resisting fear during terrorist situation :: NH tranny shoots at a border patrol agent, misses :: Cop kills a girl in a fitting room while she was trying on quinceanera dresses :: Tom says you should never shoot a cop and miss :: Study says AI can not become a danger and that activists are "wrong" :: Dave Ridley's new "TV" show online at ridleyreport.com "Legends of the Free State" :: All of Colin's knowledge of explosions and myths about propane tanks exploding :: Trump started this Iran war himself without congress :: The new food pyramid is still trash :: Elon Musk begged to go to The Island it was cringe and embarrassing :: Have we empowered nerds too much? :: Bill Clinton says he did nothing, saw nothing :: What is esoteric green language? :: Who is a bigger problem for us little people? "Elites" or local cops? :: Couple fined for their car thief not wearing a seatbelt :: Man's land in Wisconsin getting stolen for Trump's new data center to empower AI :: 2026-02-28 Hosts: Bonnie, Angelo, Colin

Episode 279-Bang or Bong. Maybe both. Also Available OnSearchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer — Episode Transcript Page – 1 – of 11 Gun Lawyer — Episode 279 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS Supreme Court case, marijuana user ban, Second Amendment rights, ACLU, NRA, New Jersey, Hughes amendment, West Virginia, machine guns, loopholes, gun rights, felon restoration, Epstein files, Michael Bloomberg, gun violence prevention. SPEAKERS Speaker 2, Evan Nappen, Teddy Nappen Evan Nappen 00:16 I’m Evan Nappen. Teddy Nappen 00:18 And I’m Teddy Nappen. Evan Nappen 00:20 And welcome to Gun Lawyer. So, we have some exciting things coming in the future here. I want to make sure the listeners are well aware. In the Supreme Court, we have a case coming up that is going to look at the prohibitor for firearm possession concerning marijuana use, if you’re a user of marijuana. And the case is U.S. versus Hemani. This is very interesting, because it is widely believed that the Court is going to strike down the gun ban for marijuana users. Regardless of how you feel about marijuana use, I’m looking forward to seeing this opinion, because it may be useful in knocking down other gun disqualifiers. Because, folks, gun disqualifiers, such as the gun ban for marijuana use, is an area of exploitation by the gun rights oppressors. Evan Nappen 01:38 So, if they can’t just get a flat out gun ban through, which they try to do all the time, if they can piece meal gun bans to various classes of individuals, then they get the job done that way. That’s why you see the ever expanding list of persons who they try to get disqualified from being able to exercise their Second Amendment rights. And this case has, I believe, potentially very far reaching implications as to subverting that anti-gun rights, that gun rights oppression tactic. So, we want to look at it at as more than just the marijuana. It will be fascinating to see it be a victory, because we have parties in support of this ban going away as diverse as, on the same side now, the ACLU and the NRA. Both. The ACLU is in favor of getting rid of the marijuana user gun ban, because it is, of course, beneficial to in their view, I’m sure, legalization of marijuana, which is something that they would be in support. The NRA is in favor of it going away, because it is consistent with The NRA’s position of supporting Second Amendment rights. So, this has created the classic strange bedfellows situation. (https://www.marijuanamoment.net/aclu-attorney-confident-supreme-court-will-strike-down-gun-ban-for-marijuana-users-after-oral-arguments-next-week/ ) Page – 2 – of 11 Evan Nappen 03:28 But ultimately, what we see coming from it should be a victory for gun rights. And I believe and hope it will be even further reaching than simply addressing the marijuana question. It’s going to be, I believe, very helpful in fighting other disqualifications. Remember, New Jersey is one of the states that tries to always have an expansive list of what disqualifies a person from being able to exercise their Second Amendment rights. They love to create disenfranchisements of our rights because they are rights oppressors, and this tactic, hopefully, will be taking a hit here. So, we’ll keep you informed about the progress and what occurs under the Hemani decision. Teddy Nappen 04:30 I will say, just from the ACLU, just to be clear, they are heavily backed by the Democrat for their super PACs. I’m just saying. Like that is the, and I can’t wait to see all the individuals of the ACLU all out in mass as they’re about to help win a pro-gun victory as well. Yeah. Evan Nappen 04:55 I guess they’re looking at it more as a pro-marijuana victory and ending prejudice toward marijuana users. But whatever their motivation may be, we are going to be consistent in our support for Second Amendment rights. Getting rid of disqualifiers is getting rid of disqualifiers that are disenfranchisements to our Second Amendment rights. So, hey, at least they’re on the right side on this one, and maybe we can get them to continue to see the light on other disqualifiers. Such as restoration of rights for felons and such, right? I mean, this is something you would think they would be in favor of, as well, for restoration of rights. You paid your dues. You served your time. And if you’re not a violent felon, why are you disenfranchised of your rights? I mean, even violent felons, when you get right down to it. I mean, there’s, I missed that in the Second Amendment, where it says we have a right to keep and bear arms, unless you’re a felon, you know, or any of these exemptions. They aren’t there. So, to what degree we tolerate them, to what degree we may think they’re even valuable, I don’t know, but we need to. I’d rather be seeing us pull back on every type of ban and maximize freedom and maximize our Second Amendment rights. Evan Nappen 06:31 Also, in regards to maximizing our rights, there is a really interesting I just love this. I love this. There is an attempt, now, a very shrewd attempt on the pro-rights side to create the ability to get around, yes, a loophole, folks. Because you know what loopholes are. Loopholes are freedom finding a way. And this. Teddy Nappen 07:08 I thought it was a hole in a Castle. Evan Nappen 07:10 Yeah. Right, exactly. Loopholes were the hole in the castle that you would fire your arrows from, because you would still be protected. You could still fire through those, those square, rectangular hole. They’re the loopholes. So, that’s why they’re called that. But, anyway. The key loophole here is in the Hughes Amendment. What there’s an attempt to do, particularly in West Virginia, who has taken the lead here with a bill in West Virginia, which is SB 1071. This is right from AmmoLand, by the way. Page – 3 – of 11 (https://www.ammoland.com/2026/02/contact-chairman-willis-now-sb1071-could-restore-machine-gun-rights-in-west-virginia-if-it-gets-a-hearing/) It could restore access to modern machine guns. That’s right. Evan Nappen 08:00 What they’re doing, what they’re attempting to do is a bill that will create a state run Office of Public Defense within the West Virginia State Police. To procure and sell modern, select-fire machine guns directly to qualified, law-abiding citizens. That’s right. You know how some states have State liquor stores. This will become the state machine gun store. That’s right. It can operate via the Hughes Amendment. Now, the Hughes Amendment was the law back in ’86 that prohibited the, I mean, actually the Hughes Amendment prohibited the new, the sale of new manufacture of machine guns. Okay? So, that created this situation we have now where it’s legal for a citizen to obey the NFA and acquire a machine gun and pay the $200 tax. But the problem is no new machine guns could be put into registration, you see. And that created this essentially, artificially, ridiculously high, crazy prices to own full auto. So, this bill takes the Hughes Amendment and essentially flips the script on the Hughes Amendment by stating that, and this is under Title 18 922(o), that the Hughes Amendment. Here’s, the key loophole language. “. . . does not apply with respect to a transfer to or by, or possession by or under the authority of, a State or any department or political subdivision thereof.” Evan Nappen 10:20 So, in other words, the bill will create a State agency that purchases machine guns and transfers them by quote, right in the law, “by or under the authority of”, the State of West Virginia. The transfers are therefore fully compliant with federal law and critically exempt from the National Firearms Act $200 transfer tax because they’re government facilitated. It’s brilliant. It’s brilliant. It’ll make it so that qualified persons, any adult, who can legally possess firearms under federal and state law, they’d undergo a background check at state police, state police troop headquarters. The office would, where possible, prioritize West Virginia manufacturers, operate distribution points using existing facilities, and issue official state certificates of transfer. Subsequent transfers between qualified citizens would require a simple $275 re-transfer fee through the office, which is waived for heirs. A $250 surcharge per gun plus a modest administrative fee capped at 50 bucks, would flow to the new Public Defense Fund to cover costs, generating revenue for the state without raising taxes. Evan Nappen 11:48 And it was GOA (Gun Owners of America) that drafted this bill. This is really cool. And now I think Kansas is putting a bill forward, and I’m sure we’ll see other pro-gun states moving to create this. This way we can gut the Hughes Amendment and open up the market for new full auto. And by doing that, they’ll become even more commonly owned and become an even greater argument for the Second Amendment and their protection. Eventually, with enough exploitation of loopholes, laws themselves that created the original ban become useless and in fact, go away. We’ve seen this happen. We’ve seen this happen. For example, when it came to NFA Trusts, to purchase NFA, you had to get, at one point, what was called a chief law enforcement officer to sign off. And if your chief didn’t sign off on that, you could not appeal it. You were just dead in the water and could not acquire NFA. Then along comes the idea of setting up a trust where trusts do not require a chief law enforcement to sign off. So, everyone started doing NFA Trusts to acquire NFA, because it avoided the Chiefs sign off. And Page – 4 – of 11 because of that, there were about 10,000 trusts at ATF on NFA. So many just got around it that they finally just repealed the rule and said, guess what? You don’t need to have your chief law enforcement approve it. They just have to get notice of it. But they got rid of the sign off. Why? The loophole defeated it. Evan Nappen 13:50 We see that even going on with switchblades. We’ve seen how there’s been a huge expansion in knife rights based on the ability to work the loopholes for interstate sale and for state sales to be independent. And how the federal prohibition was simply affecting very specific transactions under federal law. To the point where the federal government, in trying to uphold the federal switchblade law, said, as one of their justifications, well, the law isn’t even enforced anymore. That’s right. Why? Loopholes! Loopholes. Freedom finding a way. And so this is exciting to see this taking place on machine guns. Finally going at the NFA. Not shying away from taking on the big stuff. Not letting them get away with claiming that any firearm is somehow intrinsically evil, wrong or bad. We’re finally fighting back with offense. Offense for once. Not just totally on the defense. Evan Nappen 15:07 Speaking of which, you may encounter a new group called “Bridging the Divide”. (https://bridgethedividenow.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Brief-Policy-Outline.pdf) Bridging the Divide on Firearm Policy. Oh yeah, they’re claiming that there’s some bipartisan, that they have taken pro-gun folks and anti-gun and uniting them on principles that everybody believes in. They’re claiming to do this. And here’s their wonderful policies. Lo and behold, when you look closely at this so-called, you know, “Bridging the Divide”, which is, you know, bridging the gap, which is more of laying a trap, my friends. Laying a trap. What you see are their policies that they’re claiming is, you know, they have this bipartisan, so to speak. This is pro-gun and anti-gun right oppressors. Gun rights oppressors and gun rights people. Evan Nappen 16:08 And of course, here’s their policies. They have eight of them, eight of them. This so-called “Bridging the Divide.” One, Prohibiting Factors for Firearm Purchase and Possession. This is right from their “Firearm Policy Outline.” They want to prohibit gun possession by those convicted of violent crime at the misdemeanor level while removing state restrictions on those non-violent felonies. So, they want to expand prohibitions to misdemeanors. Claiming, of course, non-violent felonies, right? Yeah. And then remove prohibition of gun purchases by persons who use marijuana. Well, yeah, guess what? The Court’s already going to kill that. So, they’re throwing this in. They want to, essentially, what they’re looking to do is expand prohibitions to misdemeanors. Who’s kidding who? Come on. Give me a break. Evan Nappen 17:04 Two, Background Checks. Create state level background checks for private sales. Oh, so, in other words, Universal Background Checks, and they want to impose it state by state. More of that. So, end private sales. But they want to have “logical exemptions”? Well, it’s the same, so-called logical exemptions. Let’s just instead of logical, we’ll call it “narrow”, narrow exemptions. No. Private sales should remain private sales. It is more of an intrusion, more of oppression, on our gun rights. How about three? What’s the third thing? Extreme Risk Protection. Oh, seriously? Red flag. We have seen, Page – 5 – of 11 experienced, and are currently experiencing the unbelievable denial of due process that takes place from that garbage. Evan Nappen 17:55 Four, Dealer Registration and Gun Trafficking. They want to focus on the small number of dealers from whom the majority of traced crime guns originate. Oh, really? Well, guess what? What creates those statistics? Anytime they’re run – when guns are seized. And if you’re seizing guns the way New Jersey does, at the drop of a hat and those guns are run, that raises dealer numbers as quoting “crime guns”, even though they’re not crime guns. It is absolutely a flawed basis, and they want to focus on that. Five, Child Firearm Access Prevention. Oh, lock up your safety. That’s what that’s called. Lock up your safety to protect the children. Here we go again. Six, Firearm Suicide Prevention. Ah. In states where murder rates are low, well, let’s go at suicide. Anything we can do to go at the guns, right? And what happens with suicide prevention? Oh, well, that’s the wellness check. You know what’s going on in New Jersey with wellness checks? Anybody calls on anybody, and the police come. They take you away. They take your guns. They hold you for about three days to see if you’re okay. And even though you’re fine, now we got to fight to get your rights back. Fight to get your guns back. There’s a million ways to kill yourself, folks. Focusing on the gun isn’t the answer. Focus on actual causes. But no, it’s just an excuse. Teddy Nappen 19:34 I think the biggest issue with this whole concept of “Bridging the Divide” is take a step back and let us, let us be on equal terms. Here’s the problem, they cannot define what an assault firearm is. They are. Evan Nappen 19:50 Wait, wait, Teddy. I haven’t even gotten to that yet. I haven’t gotten to that. Teddy Nappen 19:54 All right. Evan Nappen 19:54 Number seven, Firearm Injury Prevention Education. They want to tie public health to firearm injuries. Why? Because that goes to healthcare so they can regulate it. Get it regulated back through the health, federal health agencies. Get it back to the CDC. Get them back on it. Cranking out anti-gun nonsense. That’s the game. Eight, Community Violence Intervention. Oh, that gets funding to who? Anti-gun groups. That’s what it’s about. Evan Nappen 20:33 So, we’re looking at these policies and then who’s on it? Well, their board is chock full, chock full of all former and bunch of all anti-gun rights folks. Then they sprinkle in a few that are supposedly pro-gun. So, who’s one of them? Rob Pincus. Rob Pincus is on there, proudly on there. They have listed him as a gun rights advocate. Except here’s a little article from Lee Williams back in March 29, 2021, from thegunwriter.com. (https://thegunwriter.substack.com/p/huh-rob-pincus-supports-expanded?utm_source=publication-search) It says, “Huh? Rob Pincus calls for expanded background checks, gun control and then says he didn’t.” Oh, really? Interesting. You can read that article and see. Page – 6 – of 11 The people they’re getting on board. There’s no major player there that is truly an advocate of our gun rights that I could find, and plenty that aren’t. Evan Nappen 21:30 Nowhere in their policy does it say repeal assault firearm bans, repeal large capacity magazine bans, repeal sensitive place prohibitions, or enact national reciprocity. All the things that we’re fighting for, for our rights. No. All it is is more, more, more. Just a subterfuge of more bans, more back doors to taking away rights. I didn’t see a damn thing here that expands our rights. Nothing. It’s just take, take, take. And package it as some kind of compromise. Their compromise is always us giving up our rights. Forget it, folks. Just forget it. Evan Nappen 22:18 And finally, let me point out, right from The Trace, right from The Trace. Sent out in an email blast, and I just want to read you this from The Trace. (https://mailchi.mp/thetrace/inside-the-loosely-regulated-world-of-gun-manufacturing-4869976?e=a13774efb8) This is fascinating. “Since the Trump administration snatched. . . ” This is The Trace. Snatched. They think of the Mel Brooks. You know, sees snatched, right? But anyway. “Since the Trump administration snatched funding from gun violence prevention . . .” Oh, in other words, let’s decode that. Since Trump took away all the money going to gun rights oppression groups, “. . . the field’s practitioners have had to confront an uncertain future.” Oh, they’re no longer getting the money from the Government. Huh. “Without federal dollars, state and local governments will have to decide whether to pick up the tab. It’s far from a sure thing. Gun violence intervention programs have long had to fight to prove the value of their work. The problem, however, is that it’s difficult to measure. Studying gun violence is expensive, and the nature of violence makes it a uniquely challenging subject to pull apart.” In other words, to propagandize into an anti-gun policy, to take away our rights. “And while gun violence research has seen a resurgence in recent years, the Trump administration cut funding for that field, too.” Yeah, isn’t that cute? I love it. “. . . meaning the available evidence for these programs could grow slimmer.” Evan Nappen 23:46 So folks, The Trace is bitching and moaning about losing their money, and who took it from them? President Trump. And it’s about time. There’s no reason our tax dollars need to go to oppression of our gun rights, and it’s the Trump administration that ended this funding. Keep that in mind. Teddy Nappen 24:10 Just to kind of going back to the whole issue. Whenever the Left try to present themselves like no, no, we need to find these common sense issues. Okay. Let’s define our terms, because the Left does not see the Second Amendment as a right. We know this because the Left wing nut case of a judge, Jackson went and broke down her entire descent of Bruen, describing how it is not a right. It’s a privilege. Arguing that when we deal with gun cases, you have to consider the victims of gun violence rather than looking to the law and the Constitution. That is where they’re coming from. They’re coming from the stupidity and suicidal empathy when they say they’re bridging the gap. That is their argument. Page – 7 – of 11 Evan Nappen 25:01 Just don’t fall for it. Don’t fall for it. But here’s something that you would, that you would like to do, something that you should do, something that you would enjoy doing. And that is going to WeShoot. WeShoot is an indoor range in Lakewood, New Jersey. It’s the range where Teddy and I shoot and where we get our training. You will love WeShoot. And WeShoot is offering some great deals on guns. As a matter of fact, they have a Troy A4 Defender. It’s compact, balanced, and NJ compliant. This platform delivers serious capability in a maneuverable package. It shoulders naturally, runs smoothly, and feels purpose built. They also have a Sig Sauer P365 AXG Fuse. This is where innovation meets metal. The AXG alloy grip module gives you the premium weight and control, while the longer slide and enhance sight radius makes fast, accurate shooting effortless. Try out that SIG P365 at WeShoot. Evan Nappen 26:16 They’re also offering a Smith & Wesson CSX. Now, this is a micro-compact with an aluminum frame and a very crisp single-action trigger feel. It’s slim. It’s refined, and it’s built for discrete carry without sacrificing shoot ability. It has that classic metal construction in a defensive, ready size. Also, you can see Julianna and the MAC 5. This is a retro-inspired style with modern execution. The MAC 5 delivers iconic roller-delayed energy, and Juliana brings the confidence to match. So, check that out as well. Go to weshootusa.com, weshootusa.com. Check out the guns, check out Julianna, and check out the great things that are offered there. Fantastic training, top training. You can get your CCARE certificate so you can get your carry and have a great time in their pro shop. The service you’ll receive is second to none. Go to weshootusa.com. Evan Nappen 27:37 Also, please, please make sure you are a member of the Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs. They are the premier gun rights group in New Jersey. They are the umbrella organization of gun clubs in New Jersey. They are fighting for our rights. My good friend and colleague, Dan Schmutter, is there in federal court. He’s doing a great job. We’re waiting for some more results to report. Exciting times. We’re going to have some, I feel, excellent results over “sensitive places”, the magazine ban and the assault firearm ban, as we keep fighting and slogging through it. Getting our rights back. Plus the Association is on guard at the courts, at the legislature and the courthouse, both. We have a full-time paid lobbyist and, man, New Jersey is always a challenge. So, make sure you’re a member. Go to anjrpc.org and join today. You’ll get news sent right to your email. You’ll get a beautiful newsletter, and you’ll know that you’re part of the solution. You want to be part of the solution. The solution to the problem. The problem is gun rights oppressors, and the Association fights them in the belly of the beast, New Jersey, right there. ANJRPC.org. Evan Nappen 29:04 And don’t forget to get a copy of my book, New Jersey Gun Law. It’s the bible of New Jersey gun law. It is the book you need to navigate through the insanity that is New Jersey gun law. I try to make it as easy as possible. Question and answer format with 120 topics. It’s a book everybody uses, and you need one. Just go to EvanNappen.com and order yours. And when you get it, don’t lend it out, because you’ll never get it back. I hear that complaint all the time. So, make sure you keep your hands on it, or you’ll lose it. Go to EvanNappen.com and get a copy of New Jersey Gun Law today. Now, we have Press Checks with Teddy. Teddy, what do you have for us today in Press Checks? Page – 8 – of 11 Teddy Nappen 29:50 Well, as you know, Press Checks are always free, and I just want to preface this on this one. Where you see in the news media, they’ve been pushing the whole Epstein thing. All right? They’ve been trying to push that. And of course, the Left ended up destroying themselves, as they’ve lost multiple power players who have been implicated in the whole, in the whole surroundings that it comes with the Epstein files being released. And one of the individuals who, by the way, this individual had close ties to Jeffrey Epstein since, like, the early days, Michael Bloomberg. You know, maybe it was because he had a, you know, big gulp in his hand, and that’s why, you know, he’s like, Oh, how dare you. But, yeah. Teddy Nappen 30:41 So, we go to AmmoLand, where this was a wonderful article written up by Alan Gottlieb. (https://www.ammoland.com/2026/02/ccrkba-demands-bloomberg-come-clean-about-epstein-relationship/) Regarding the fact that now we are demanding that all the anti-gun groups, including Everytown, including all of his multi anti gun right the gun rights oppressors groups cut ties with Michael Bloomberg. You know, the money. And there was, I actually went. And funny enough, anyone can do this. You can go on to the Epstein files on the government website, and they have the entire files library. You can type in word searches. So, you type in “Michael Bloomberg”. I went and read through the different documents on it. Now, to preface this, there was no showing of wrongdoing in what was discovered by the fact he was. However, he was invited with Michael Bloomberg, George Stephanopoulos, Eric Schmidt, all these individuals, to a cocktail party with Jeffrey Epstein to watch The Imitation Game. You know, that movie about Alan Turing where he broke the German Enigma. Okay. Bear in mind, this is 2015. Jeffrey Epstein had already been convicted of the first initial charges back in 2000. Evan Nappen 32:05 He was a felon, you know. So, hey, they love to make a point that they shouldn’t have guns. Epstein kept trying and trying and trying to get his rights back so he could get guns. Yet, here he is with the king of anti-gun funding, Bloomturd. Teddy Nappen 32:25 Yeah. Evan Nappen 32:26 What’s that all about? Teddy Nappen 32:27 There was also a letter. Now, again, there was no direct correspondence with Michael Bloomberg. However, there was a letter from Maxwell, Jillian’s mother, basically inviting him to attend a premiere, apparently, this was a movie, Power of Good. I’ve never heard of this one. But this very clearly shows that there was direct information going back and forth. There was also, it seemed to be, there was a massive invitation, and Jeffrey Epstein was trying to create this almost investor group. I want to tell you. Like he wanted to make this online new media. He was naming these board of directors, one of which was Michael Bloomberg, the Rothschild, Lee Rothschild, Alan Goodman. So, various individuals. He Page – 9 – of 11 seemed to be almost like a financial advisor or a bank roller for Jeffrey Epstein. Again, there’s no showing of wrongdoing, but it’s just, clearly, he had a relationship with him. Even highlighted to the articles where, in 2011 the Palm Beach Daily News, Epstein’s address book included Michael Bloomberg. In 2013, there were multiple pictures taken with Bloomberg and Maxwell together having book parties at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York City, where I guess they were reading gender queer, but also the level. Evan Nappen 33:51 Well, the way they brought in the Clintons to the committee, they need to bring Bloomberg in. I mean, you know, this is. The Left kept pushing and pushing and pushing about the Epstein files. Hoping against hope, that they could somehow get President Trump on this, when, in reality, what we’re seeing is it blowing up in the Left’s face, aren’t we? Teddy Nappen 34:12 Yeah. Also, here’s a really big one. Epstein was invited to a Bloomberg hosted fundraiser for Plaskett. Congresswoman Plaskett. You know, the woman who took direct funding from Jeffrey Epstein, actually got donation money. So, not only was he hosting the dinner, cordially inviting Epstein to come on down. Even writing a letter. Please join our host. Michael Bloomberg. Dear Jeffrey Epstein, please join our host, Michael Bloomberg, to the dinner. So, very clearly he was running in these circles. There’s a very clear tie relationship. Again, no showing of wrongdoing. There wasn’t a direct correspondence with him in the emails. And if you actually go through a lot of the emails, he would email news articles. That’s why you know Bloomberg News. And he would email them to others. So, that did also come up. It just shows the very clear ties. This is the one that really sticks out to me. Documents release revealed he was interested in gun politics and Bloomberg’s work. They don’t show direct donations to EveryTown. However, in 2013 there’s an email soliciting Epstein for a donation to American for Responsible Solutions, which is run by Gabby, Gabby Giffords, who later became Giffords. Evan Nappen 35:34 That’s right. But all they care about with Epstein is Trump. And how does that all relate? Is Trump in the Epstein files, Teddy? Teddy Nappen 35:46 Oh, very much. Yes, yes, Trump is in the Epstein files. Okay, I’ve got to tell this to everyone here. The black pillars, all those out there, we do not have all the information. We know that for a fact. Okay? Has it been mishandled? Absolutely. Pam Bondi should resign. Fall on her sword. Because she has damaged the administration on Trump for the mishandling with the stupid binder gate, all the stupidity of, oh, I have the client list on my desk. That was a lie. And the whole situation there. However, if you actually look at the timeline, you can go see the articles. See the full breakdown of it for Donald Trump. Teddy Nappen 36:24 Here’s the timeline, 2004 to 2005, there was reported abuse by a 14-year-old girl by Epstein. Then Trump immediately ended the relation with Jeffrey Epstein. Banned him from Mar a Lago. In 2008, Epstein was convicted with the help of Donald Trump, who cooperated with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer, who fully deposed himself to the lawyers. As opposed to all the other people that are Page – 10 – of 11 implicated, who just stayed away. He actually went in to help the victims. Imagine that. And going in next 2000, after Maxwell is convicted as well, where she trafficked to Epstein. Also in 2019, he’s later arrested again. Guess who’s President in 2019? Donald Trump. He was arrested for sex who invested arrested Epstein for sex trafficking, and then he’s later dead in 2019. So, not only does it exonerate, where, after he was convicted, Trump broke off all relationships with Epstein. He helped get Jeffrey Epstein. That is all that they have on Donald Trump when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. Teddy Nappen 37:32 All the fake news, all the fake and you know why he said hoax? He wasn’t saying the Jeffrey Epstein whole pedo ring was a hoax? No, he is saying hoax, as in talking about the Dems whole plot to directly connect Trump to the pedophile ring. That is their plot. That was the hoax. Was it misspoken? Yes, Trump fires from the hip. Sue him. That’s how it goes. But actually looking at the facts of what came down, this is what he should have said. Under four years of Biden, not one committee was formed to go at the Epstein files, to go after the Epstein files. The Dems didn’t even want to touch it, which, by the way, all the people that were running in Epstein circles, Schumer, all the, all the heavy donators, Bill Gates, all these individuals are running in Michael Bloomberg, running heavily donations, including Jeffrey Epstein, who heavily donated to the Democrats. So, it’s the level of insanity that goes into it. Teddy Nappen 38:37 By the way, for everyone to remember. Did you know? Did you also know the fact that all of a sudden, the victims who never spoke out during the four years under Biden are now taking Super Bowl ads saying, release more files. Okay, what happened to we have our list. We’re making our list. Just say it. Are you worried about defamation? Musk said he’ll pay for defamation. And good luck as trying to go after women of victims of sexual abuse. I’m sure a go fund me will be immediately formed and covered. So, what are you waiting on? Oh, that’s right, these are just political cudgels for you to abuse. Okay? That is a fact, and that’s what I’m saying to the victims who, all of a sudden, will not name names. So, that it’s one of the big things, like, very clearly, it’s being used as a political tool. They don’t actually want to release the names. Evan Nappen 39:28 Well, I think it’s interesting that it’s come around to Mr. Bloomberg, and that has major effect in terms of funding of further gun rights oppression. He needs to explain the way they’re looking at it. Forced it to be opened up. Hey, guess what? You’re there. You need to explain it now. At least do that. Teddy Nappen 39:52 Also this. Evan Nappen 39:53 There you go. Teddy Nappen 39:54 Proof in concept. Peter Mandelson, who was directly connected to Jeffrey Epstein. He was Keir Starmer’s Cabinet Minister, who just recently resigned. He resigned in shame. So, the proof is in the Page – 11 – of 11 proof is, in fact, that this has the effect. If we could break up Bloomberg from EveryTown. I mean, there is their money. They have nothing aside from. Evan Nappen 40:17 Well, they’re not getting funding anymore from the Government. Yeah, from USAID killed all that. Yeah, so that’s good. Well, let me tell you, Teddy, about this week’s GOFU. That is a Gun Owner Fuck Up, where you learn about expensive mistakes that others have made so that you don’t make them. Now this week’s GOFU that I want to talk about, might even be considered a future GOFU. But it applies still today. If West Virginia, Kansas, or any of these places end up creating State machine gun stores, if you will, which I believe they will, and this ends up taking off, make sure that you do NOT, as a non-resident of those states, acquire a machine gun from those states and then, no less, bring it to New Jersey. In other words, the GOFU, in the big picture, is you have to be cognizant of your jurisdiction and what you’re doing in your jurisdiction, and when you’re in another jurisdiction, what you can and can’t do. Evan Nappen 41:34 We see the jurisdictional problem arise all the time. Whether it’s in carrying a gun where you’re allowed to carry in one state and not in another, whether it’s purchase or possession of a firearm in any given state versus another, people bringing guns or accessories or other things that were legal in one place and illegal in another. The burden is on you to know this. I am constantly seeing cases where people make that very critical error. So, the GOFU, in a general term, my friends, is make sure you know your jurisdictions laws and do not inadvertently violate them because you are in another jurisdiction, and you are coming into this other jurisdiction, this is where the trouble can begin. It can be quite serious. So, be very cognizant of this when dealing with guns. Evan Nappen 42:40 This is Evan Nappen and Teddy Nappen reminding you that gun laws don’t protect honest citizens from criminals. They protect criminals from honest citizens. Speaker 2 42:51 Gun Lawyer is a CounterThink Media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Reach us by emailing Evan@gun.lawyer. The information and opinions in this broadcast do not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Downloadable PDF TranscriptGun Lawyer S5 E279_Transcript About The HostEvan Nappen, Esq.Known as “America's Gun Lawyer,” Evan Nappen is above all a tireless defender of justice. Author of eight bestselling books and countless articles on firearms, knives, and weapons history and the law, a certified Firearms Instructor, and avid weapons collector and historian with a vast collection that spans almost five decades — it's no wonder he's become the trusted, go-to expert for local, industry and national media outlets. Regularly called on by radio, television and online news media for his commentary and expertise on breaking news Evan has appeared countless shows including Fox News – Judge Jeanine, CNN – Lou Dobbs, Court TV, Real Talk on WOR, It's Your Call with Lyn Doyle, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, and Cam & Company/NRA News. As a creative arts consultant, he also lends his weapons law and historical expertise to an elite, discerning cadre of movie and television producers and directors, and novelists. He also provides expert testimony and consultations for defense attorneys across America. Email Evan Your Comments and Questions  talkback@gun.lawyer Join Evan's InnerCircleHere's your chance to join an elite group of the Savviest gun and knife owners in America.  Membership is totally FREE and Strictly CONFIDENTIAL.  Just enter your email to start receiving insider news, tips, and other valuable membership benefits.   Email (required) *First Name *Select list(s) to subscribe toInnerCircle Membership Yes, I would like to receive emails from Gun Lawyer Podcast. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.var ajaxurl = "https://gun.lawyer/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";

Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, joins Offline to talk about the horrifying trends his team has unearthed across social media platforms…and how it's put him in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration. To date, Imran has weathered multiple lawsuits, stood up to Elon Musk, and won. But now, the State Department is trying to get him deported back to the UK—just for publicizing how platforms are hotbeds of bigotry and self harm content. He and Jon talk about how Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is a cancer on our democracy, why Tech Oligarchs view the rest of us as NPCs, and how the “things" Silicon Valley is moving fast and breaking are actually our own children.For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.

Washington Post personal finance columnist, Michelle Singletary, tells the moving story of how a visit to her grade school by the Reverend Jesse Jackson inspired her life and career as described in her column, “How the Rev. Jesse Jackson Taught Me to Keep Hope Alive." Then Ralph welcomes Professor Eric S. Fish from U.C Davis School of Law to explain how grand juries are no longer rubber-stamping frivolous cases brought to them by the Trump Administration. Plus, Ralph gives us his take on Trump's marathon State of the Union speech and the Democratic response.Michelle Singletary writes the nationally-syndicated personal finance column “The Color of Money,” which appears in the Washington Post on Wednesdays and Sundays. In 2021, she won the Gerald Loeb award for commentary. She has written four personal finance books, including, What to Do With Your Money When Crisis Hits: A Survival Guide and The 21-Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Freedom.The Trump administration's destruction of diversity, equity, and inclusion—they misunderstand what that means. It doesn't mean that you're giving jobs to people who are unqualified. It means that you recognize that the playing field wasn't even, and let's even this playing field. I liken it to a football team. You can't have a football team of all quarterbacks and win. You have to have a quarterback, a running back, a linebacker, you have to have a good kicker. It's the same thing—your team has to encompass people that represent all kinds of abilities to have a winning team. So DEI isn't a giveaway. It isn't charity. It recognizes that when you have people from different backgrounds and different perspectives and different skill levels, you have a winning team.Michelle SingletaryEric S Fish is professor of law at the UC Davis School of Law. Professor Fish's primary research is in criminal law, with particular focus on the ethical duties of participants in the criminal process, the structure of immigration crimes, and the system's emphasis on administrative efficiency. He has also served as a public defender, first with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, and later as a Federal Defender in San Diego.This has been a really remarkable series of rejections of the Trump administration's prosecutions by ordinary people serving on grand juries, and one that is largely unprecedented in modern American history. I can't think of another example of grand juries rejecting such high-profile cases (and so many of them). Nothing really comes to mind. So in a certain sense, one might say this is the grand jury's original purpose…Initially they were a democratic institution of governance. They were a local check on the colonial oppression of the British (at least in the early colonial period). They refused to indict prosecutions under the Stamp Act, under the revenue laws. They were a tool of anti-colonial resistance to British oppression, and this seems at least broadly analogous to that—local grand juries in places like Minnesota, Chicago, Washington, D.C. are rejecting the Trump administration's attempts to prosecute its political enemies and bring trumped-up charges against protesters.Eric S. FishAll in all, [the State of the Union address] was fodder for political scientists for years to come. A dictatorial serial law violator, self-enriching chronic liar, cruel, vicious to vulnerable people and people without power (which is a majority of the people) elected dictator. This speech—which went for one hour and 48 minutes, the longest State of the Union speech ever—will be analyzed for a long time with the question at the center of the analysis being: How could so many tens of millions of voters be taken in by Trump's mouth, his lies, his false statements, his fantasies, his fake promises, his lack of any kind of record, whether as a businessman where he used bankruptcies as a strategy…and his record as a politician in his first term? That's the question we have to ask ourselves. And it's too easy to say that the Trump voters couldn't stand the Democrats who abandoned them. That's not enough. They could have not voted for Trump. They could have written in a vote. They could have voted for the Green, Libertarian, or other minor parties. They can't use the Democrats as a 100% excuse for voting for Trump. And a lot of them didn't. They just liked Trump. They liked his prejudices. They liked his lies. They liked his fantasies. They liked his fake promises.Ralph NaderNews 2/27/26* Our top stories this week come to us from our southern neighbor, Mexico. First, on February 22nd, Mexican authorities announced they had successfully conducted an operation resulting in the death of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, aka “El Mencho,” who headed the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG). In retaliation, the cartels launched a wave of violence throughout the country. Bafflingly, given the obvious enmity between the cartels and the government of Claudia Sheinbaum, Elon Musk implied that Sheinbaum is in the pocket of the very drug cartels with whom she is practically at war. Reuters reports Musk “responded to a 2025 video of Sheinbaum discussing cartel violence and alleged that she was ‘saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say.” Reuters notes that Musk did not provide further evidence. In fact, much of the strength of the Mexican cartels would actually be more accurately attributed to the United States. As USA Today writes, Mexican officials recovered a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, 10 long arm [rifles], handguns, and grenades, from El Mencho's weapons stockpile. Mexican Defense Minister, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo estimated that about 80% of the recovered weapons were purchased in the United States and smuggled into Mexico. This represents just the tip of the iceberg of the so-called “iron river” of firearms flooding Mexico's black market from the U.S. As opposed to the lax gun laws in the states, gun ownership in Mexico is “tightly restricted…[and] There is only one military-run gun store in the country.”* Meanwhile, President Sheinbaum is bucking American pressure by continuing to send humanitarian aid to the tiny, embattled island nation of Cuba. AP reports that last week, “Two Mexican Navy ships laden with humanitarian aid docked in Cuba…two weeks after…President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to the island.” These ships carried 800 tons worth of bundles of “Made in Mexico” goods, including rice, beans, amaranth and crackers — complemented by a bottle of oil, large cans of sardines and canned peaches. Another 1,500 tons of powdered milk and beans are expected to be sent to Cuba in the coming days. The U.S. has taken a more bellicose line with Cuba than it has in quite some time, even taking naval action in the waters surrounding the island, making Mexico's support that much more critical.* In another Cuba story, a diplomatic incident is unfolding this week regarding a Florida-registered speedboat. According to the island's government, the boat, carrying 10 passengers, entered Cuban territorial waters and opened fire on Cuban soldiers. The Cubans responded in kind, killing four people aboard the craft and wounding six others. According to the Cuban authorities, most of the passengers “have a known history of criminal and violent activity.” These include Amijail Sánchez González and Leordan Enrique Cruz Gómez, both wanted by Cuban authorities based on their involvement in “the promotion, planning, organization, financing, support or commission of…acts of terrorism.” The Cubans also claim to have arrested one Duniel Hernández Santos, who was supposedly “sent from the United States to guarantee the reception of the armed infiltration.” They claim Hernández Santos has confessed. American authorities have so far evinced confusion more than anything else, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying “We're going to figure out exactly what happened.” This from AP.* Whatever cloak and dagger games the administration may be playing in the Caribbean, they have been pointedly unsubtle about their saber rattling regarding Iran – and the reaction from Congress has been meager. While anti-war members in the House and Senate are pushing war powers resolutions, namely Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie along with Senator Tim Kaine, not even the nominal opposition party is supporting these efforts. According to Capital & Empire, Democrats are seeking to “dampen momentum” and even “prevent the Iran war powers vote from advancing.” Democrats Josh Gottheimer and Jared Moskowitz, both arch Iran hawks, have publicly stated they will not back the war powers resolution, and many others have sought to split the difference, saying Trump should only move on Iran after consulting with Congress. As the Hill notes, the Senate did pass a war powers resolution restricting the president's use of military force against Iran without congressional approval during Trump's first term, with eight Senate Republicans backing the Democrats in support of the bill. It is hard to imagine such a bipartisan show of force this time around.* In more disappointing congressional news, on Tuesday the House voted down the bipartisan ROTOR Act, which would have beefed up aviation safety standards, NPR reports. This bill was drafted in the wake of the deadly midair collision over Washington D.C. last year. This bill, principally authored by Senator Ted Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee which oversees transportation, would have required wider use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast – safety technology designed to transmit an aircraft's location to other aircraft. The Senate unanimously passed the bill in December, with the support of the Defense Department – now styling itself the Department of War – but the Pentagon yanked its support just before the House vote, citing “unresolved budgetary burdens and operational security risks.” The final House vote was 264 in favor and 133 opposed, 132 Republicans and Democrat Lizzie Fletcher of Texas. Despite the lopsided majority in favor, the bill needed a two-thirds vote to pass and was therefore defeated by the minority.* In another aviation related story, FBI Director Kash Patel is embroiled in a new scandal based on his alleged misuse of the FBI's Gulfstream jets for personal travel. CNN reports Patel's frequent jetsetting has even caused delays or issues in high-profile investigations, such as the assassination of rightwing commentator Charlie Kirk and the Brown University shooting last December. According to a letter authored by Senator Dick Durbin, Patel's incessant misuse of the official FBI planes for personal travel “has even frustrated White House and DOJ senior staff.” This story hits particularly hard at the present moment, with images of Patel chugging beer in the locker room celebration of the Olympic men's hockey team going viral. The FBI then had to spend days running cover for Patel, claiming the director was in Italy for “long-planned official business,” which just happened to coincide with the occasion.* Our next two stories concern AI. First, a new Public Citizen report documents how the AI industry is deploying a veritable army of lobbyists on Capitol Hill, absolutely dwarfing not only their opposition, but practically every other industry as well. According to this report, more than one quarter of all federal lobbyists are now lobbying on AI issues, representing a rise in lobbyist activity on AI issues of more than 265 percent over the past three years. This report finds the Chamber of Commerce hired the most AI lobbyists in 2025 at 91, followed by Microsoft at 63, Meta at 55, Intuit at 51, and Amazon at 48. This meteoric rise in AI lobbying activity is sure to give the industry massive firepower in the halls of Congress, ensuring a favorable regulatory environment for years to come. This will be particularly critical for data centers, which have faced a rash of local opposition. Per this report, that particular subset of the AI lobbying industry has expanded by a staggering 500 percent since 2023.* For all its newfound political clout however, the AI business seems to have found itself a formidable new opponent – Pope Leo XIV. This week, Pope Leo addressed priests from the Diocese of Rome and implored them to resist “the temptation to prepare homilies with Artificial Intelligence.” The pontiff argued “Like all the muscles in the body, if we do not use them, if we do not move them, they die. The brain needs to be used, so our intelligence must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity.” He added that “to give a true homily is to share faith,” and that AI “will never be able to share faith.” This from Vatican News.* Turning to media news, this week, Paramount submitted a new offer to purchase Warner Bros. Discovery. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount's new bid amounted to $31 per share and, following a period of consultation with the Warner board of directors, this offer was deemed “superior” to the proposed deal with rival bidder Netflix. This triggered a clause in the Netflix merger agreement giving the streamer four days to submit a new, superior offer. However, that same day Netflix issued a statement officially declining to submit a new, higher offer, with representatives writing “the price required to match Paramount Skydance's latest offer,” means “the deal is no longer financially attractive.” With Netflix out of the way, Paramount, led by Trump-aligned billionaire scion David Ellison, will now proceed with their acquisition of Warner Bros., including their prodigious intellectual property back catalogue and the cable news titan, CNN. A friendly relationship with the Trump administration means regulators are unlikely to hold up this deal. The Ellisons have already acquired CBS News, installing Bari Weiss as “editor-in-chief.” It seems likely they will follow a similar playbook regarding CNN.* Our final stories this week concern the continuing fallout of the Epstein scandal. This week saw the arrest of former British-U.S. ambassador Peter Mandelson, joining Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew) in the collection of high profile British individuals arrested in connection with the Epstein scandal. Meanwhile, at Harvard, former University President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments, including his University Professorship, at the Ivy League school following the conclusion of this academic year. Until then, he will remain on leave, per the Crimson. Summers regularly exchanged messages with Jeffrey Epstein about topics ranging from women, to politics, to Harvard-related matters as late as July 2019, the day before Epstein's final arrest. But the most noteworthy Epstein-related news this week came from Chappaqua, New York. On Thursday and Friday, Bill and Hillary Clinton testified about their relationships with the late financier and sexual predator. After much wrangling, these potential blockbuster hearings were held behind closed doors on the Clintons' home turf. What exactly was said remains shrouded in mystery. According to the BBC, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said he hopes to make videos of both Hillary and Bill Clinton's depositions publicly available soon. Robert Garcia, the Democratic Ranking Member on the committee, said a “new precedent” had been set by calling a former president to testify and demanded that Trump be called to testify before the committee next. We shall watch this space.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

Hawk breaks down the rapidly escalating conflict between the Pentagon and Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude model, after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth demanded that Anthropic remove two core safety restrictions from its terms of service. Those restrictions prohibit using Claude for mass surveillance of American citizens and for programming weapons to fire without human intervention. Hegseth labeled these protections "woke" and threatened to terminate Anthropic's $200 million Defense Department contract and blacklist the company as a danger to all defense supply chains unless Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei agreed to his demands. Amodei said no. Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Grok chatbot, which previously generated child sexual imagery and declared itself "Mecca Hitler," has been cleared for use in classified Pentagon settings. Sam Altman of OpenAI is now positioning his company to step into the gap, exploring whether ChatGPT models can meet Pentagon requirements while maintaining safety guardrails. Hawk also covers the broader AI reality check happening in corporate America. Mark Benioff of Salesforce laid off 4,000 employees to replace them with AI and now says he regrets it. Jack Dorsey just cut 50% of Square's workforce for the same reason. Studies suggest 95% of deployed AI agents in corporate settings are ineffective. And Sam Altman reportedly believes there is a 1 in 5 chance that artificial intelligence destroys humanity entirely. The people designing these systems do not fully understand what they will do. The only thing standing between Pete Hegseth and AI-powered mass surveillance of Americans is one CEO with a conscience. SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH HAWK- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mdg650hawk - Hawk's Merch Store: https://hawkmerchstore.com - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mdg650hawk7thacct - Connect on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hawkeyewhackamole - Connect on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/mdg650hawk.bsky.social - Connect on Substack: https://mdg650hawk.substack.com - Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hawkpodcasts - Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mdg650hawk - Connect on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/mdg650hawk ALL HAWK PODCASTS INFO- Additional Content Available Here: https://www.hawkpodcasts.comhttps://www.youtube.com/@hawkpodcasts- Listen to Hawk Podcasts On Your Favorite Platform:Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3RWeJfyApple Podcasts: https://apple.co/422GDuLYouTube: https://youtube.com/@hawkpodcastsiHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/47vVBdPPandora: https://bit.ly/48COaTB

On today's episode, we discuss a tongue‑in‑cheek “Musk conspiracy” where future mega‑gyms turn human workouts into electricity to power robots and AI, keeping people cut, entertained, and economically relevant in an automated world. From there, the conversation moves into whether our money is shifting from metal and paper toward “electro‑dollars,” with current petro‑dollar reserve status giving way to currencies effectively backed by electricity and data centers. The crew then explores penny and copper conspiracies, arguing that the metal in a penny now exceeds its face value, copper is becoming “the new gold,” and physical coins may quietly be disappearing in favor of digital value. Charlotte introduces NESARA/GESARA lore, outlining alleged secret 1990s economic reforms promising total debt forgiveness, abolition of the IRS, a return to hard (or energy‑based) money, and the end of “debt slave” status tied to Social Security numbers. Finally, they connect these ideas to history and current policy—comparing Spartan iron currency to modern digital systems, debating whether U.S. elites are deliberately weakening the dollar to boost exports, and swapping stories about Teslas, superchargers, and what happens when your EV and your credit card both become part of the same fragile financial grid. Don't miss it!

Der Bund kauft bei einem Startup Kamikaze-Drohnen, in das ein äußerst umstrittener US-Milliardär beteiligt ist. Warum das Sorgen macht.

There are over 140 games on the betting board for Saturday & Greg picks & analyzes EVERY one of them!  Link To Greg's Spreadsheet of handicapped lines: https://vsin.com/college-basketball/greg-petersons-daily-college-basketball-lines/ Greg's TikTok With Pickmas Pick Videos: https://www.tiktok.com/@gregpetersonsports?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc Timemarkers 3:35-Start of picks NC State vs Notre Dame 6:04-Picks & analysis for Virginia vs Duke 8:02-Picks & analysis for Iowa vs Penn St 9:59-Picks & analysis for Seton Hall vs Connecticut 12:00-Picks & analysis for Florida St vs Georgia Tech 14:31-Picks & analysis for St. Joseph's vs Rhode Island 17:10-Picks & analysis for Colorado vs Houston 19:41-Picks & analysis for Fordham vs VCU 21:52-Picks & analysis for Missouri vs Mississippi St 24:18-Picks & analysis for New Mexico St vs Middle Tennessee 26:33-Picks & analysis for Cleveland St vs Robert Morris 29:22-Picks & analysis for Georgetown vs Xavier 31:44-Picks & analysis for Massachusetts vs Bowling Green 34:07-Picks & analysis for UCLA vs Minnesota 36:32-Picks & analysis for Campbell vs Towson 38:44-Picks & analysis for South Dakota St vs South Dakota 41:14-Picks & analysis for Fort Wayne vs IU Indy 43:45-Picks & analysis for William & Mary vs No Carolina A&T 46:22-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma St vs Cincinnati 48:38-Picks & analysis for Oregon vs Northwestern 50:56-Picks & analysis for Central Michigan vs Buffalo 53:22-Picks & analysis for Boston College vs Miami 55:52-Picks & analysis for Vanderbilt vs Kentucky 58:04-Picks & analysis for San Diego St vs New Mexico 1:00:26-Picks & analysis for Youngstown St vs UW Green Bay 1:02:54-Picks & analysis for St. Bonaventure vs George Mason 1:05:06-Picks & analysis for VMI vs Chattanooga 1:07:06-Picks & analysis for The Citadel vs Wofford 1:09:30-Picks & analysis for Louisville vs Clemson 1:11:48-Picks & analysis for Sacramento St vs Montana St 1:14:19-Picks & analysis for Detroit vs Oakland 1:16:10-Picks & analysis for Florida International vs Louisiana Tech 1:18:40-Picks & analysis for Elon vs Monmouth 1:21:19-Picks & analysis for UTEP vs Western Kentucky 1:24:25-Picks & analysis for South Carolina vs Georgia 1:27:01-Picks & analysis for Utah vs Arizona St 1:29:28-Picks & analysis for Richmond vs Loyola IL 1:31:45-Picks & analysis for Texas Tech vs Iowa St 1:34:02-Picks & analysis for Northern Colorado vs Idaho 1:36:37-Picks & analysis for Ball St vs Northern Illinois 1:38:58-Picks & analysis for San Diego vs Portland 1:41:17-Picks & analysis for Portland St vs Montana 1:43:28-Picks & analysis for Toledo vs Ohio 1:45:39-Picks & analysis for Nebraska vs USC 1:48:26-Picks & analysis for Kansas vs Arizona 1:50:40-Picks & analysis for Valparaiso vs Evansville 1:52:39-Picks & analysis for Northeastern vs Hampton 1:55:13-Picks & analysis for Southern Indiana vs Little Rock 1:57:33-Picks & analysis for Northern Arizona vs Eastern Washington 1:59:49-Picks & analysis for Abilene Christian vs Utah Valley 2:02:29-Picks & analysis for Texas vs Texas A&M 2:04:58-Picks & analysis for Wisconsin vs Washington 2:06:48-Picks & analysis for Pittsburgh vs California 2:08:42-Picks & analysis for Air Force vs Wyoming 2:10:41-Picks & analysis for Tennessee St vs UT Martin 2:13:09-Picks & analysis for Lindenwood vs Western Illinois 2:15:06-Picks & analysis for Eastern Illinois vs SIU Edwardsville 2:17:36-Picks & analysis for East Tennessee vs Mercer 2:20:09-Picks & analysis for Tennessee Tech vs SE Missouri St 2:22:07-Picks & analysis for Colorado St vs San Jose St 2:24:21-Picks & analysis for North Dakota vs North Dakota St 2:26:38-Picks & analysis for Delaware vs Kennesaw St 2:29:10-Picks & analysis for Providence vs Creighton 2:31:09-Picks & analysis for Missouri St vs Sam Houston 2:33:07-Picks & analysis for Furman vs Western Carolina 2:35:28-Picks & analysis for BYU vs West Virginia 2:37:21-Picks & analysis for Syracuse vs Wake Forest 2:39:53-Picks & analysis for Oklahoma vs LSU 2:42:17-Picks & analysis for Dartmouth vs Princeton 2:44:43-Picks & analysis for Yale Columbia 2:47:00-Picks & analysis for SMU vs Stanford 2:49:35-Picks & analysis for Brown vs Cornell 2:51:47-Picks & analysis for UNC Greensboro vs Samford 2:54:13-Picks & analysis for Liberty vs Jacksonville St 2:56:34-Picks & analysis for Harvard vs Penn 2:59:17-Picks & analysis for San Francisco vs Pacific 3:01:40-Picks & analysis for Weber St vs Idaho St 3:04:01-Picks & analysis for Alabama vs Tennessee 3:06:12-Picks & analysis for TCU vs Kansas St 3:08:08-Picks & analysis for Wright St vs Northern Kentucky 3:11:00-Picks & analysis for Hawaii vs CS Fullerton 3:13:16-Picks & analysis for Stony Brook vs Hofstra 3:15:06-Picks & analysis for Boise St vs Fresno St 3:17:17-Picks & analysis for Washington St vs Pepperdine 3:19:19-Picks & analysis for Oral Robert vs Kansas City 3:21:28-Picks & analysis for Omaha vs St. Thomas 3:23:28-Picks & analysis for Oregon St vs Santa Clara 3:25:29-Picks & analysis for Baylor vs Central Florida 3:27:29-Picks & analysis for CS Northridge vs UC Riverside 3:29:21-Picks & analysis for Villanova vs St. John's  3:31:45-Picks & analysis for Duquesne vs Saint Louis 3:34:11-Picks & analysis for Ole Miss vs Auburn 3:36:27-Picks & analysis for Arkansas vs Florida 3:38:29-Picks & analysis for Utah Tech vs Southern Utah 3:40:36-Picks & analysis for Virginia Tech vs North Carolina 3:42:27-Picks & analysis for Tarleton St vs Cal Baptist 3:44:19-Picks & analysis for Seattle vs Loyola Marymount 3:46:12-Picks & analysis for Long Beach St vs CS Bakersfield 3:48:21-Picks & analysis for Nevada vs UNLV 3:50:27-Picks & analysis for Grand Canyon vs Utah St 3:52:38-Picks & analysis for Cal Poly vs UC San Diego 3:54:56-Picks & analysis for UC Santa Barbara vs UC Irvine 3:56:55-Picks & analysis for Gonzaga vs St. Mary's 4:01:05-Start of extra games Le Moyne vs New Haven 4:02:40-Picks & analysis for Army vs Lafayette 4:04:33-Picks & analysis for Chicago St vs Wagner 4:06:19-Picks & analysis for St. Francis PA vs Central Connecticut 4:08:10-Picks & analysis for Queens NC vs Central Arkansas 4:10:08-Picks & analysis for Austin Peay vs Bellarmine 4:12:05-Picks & analysis for Boston U vs American 4:14:05-Picks & analysis for Charleston Southern vs UNC Asheville 4:16:12-Picks & analysis for UMB vs UMass Lowell 4:18:25-Picks & analysis for Florida Gulf Coast vs Stetson 4:20:11-Picks & analysis for Loyola MD vs Holy Cross 4:22:06-Picks & analysis for New Hampshire vs Albany 4:23:49-Picks & analysis for Maine vs Binghamton 4:25:36-Picks & analysis for Mercyhurst vs Stonehill 4:27:29-Picks & analysis for Bucknell vs Lehigh 4:29:13-Picks & analysis for North Alabama vs West Georgia 4:31:20-Picks & analysis for Gardner Webb vs USC Upstate 4:33:22-Picks & analysis for Radford vs Longwood 4:35:24-Picks & analysis for Bethune Cookman vs Southern 4:37:20-Picks & analysis for NJIT vs Bryant 4:39:01-Picks & analysis for Colgate vs Navy 4:40:34-Picks & analysis for Howard vs Morgan St 4:42:40-Picks & analysis for Presbyterian vs Winthrop 4:44:22-Picks & analysis for Lipscomb vs Eastern Kentucky 4:46:09-Picks & analysis for SE Louisiana vs Nicholls 4:48:01-Picks & analysis for Fairleigh Dickinson vs Long Island 4:49:52-Picks & analysis for South Carolina St vs Maryland Eastern Shore 4:51:41-Picks & analysis for Norfolk St vs Coppin St 4:53:31-Picks & analysis for NC Central vs Delaware St 4:55:14-Picks & analysis for Stephen F Austin vs Houston Christian 4:57:04-Picks & analysis for Lamar vs Incarnate Word 4:59:13-Picks & analysis for Alabama St vs Alabama A&M 5:01:15-Picks & analysis for Jackson St vs Texas Southern 5:03:00-Picks & analysis for Alcorn St vs Prairie View 5:04:34-Picks & analysis for East Texas A&M vs UT Rio Grande Valley 5:06:31-Picks & analysis for McNeese vs New Orleans 5:08:15-Picks & analysis for Jacksonville vs North Florida 5:10:24-Picks & analysis for Mississippi Valley St vs Arkansas Pine Bluff 5:12:32-Picks & analysis for Northwestern St vs Texas A&M CC 5:14:25-Picks & analysis for Florida A&M vs Grambling Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week Nantucket has a coke problem, have you heard a strange humming- we'll explain it, boneless wings ARE NOT wings, new segment called "Quickies" and, of course, Weird News. 

Starting off in FOLLOW UP, we've got a tax economist who actually made money betting against the "efficiency" of Elon's budget-slashing fever dreams, while Tesla is busy trying to dodge a $243 million jury verdict for an Autopilot-assisted fatality. Not content with being legally liable, Tesla is also suing the California DMV because they're offended someone called their "Autopilot" and "Full Self-Driving" marketing deceptive—ironic, since Jack Dorsey just "proactively" halved the staff at Block to make room for more AI slop. Speaking of which, Goldman Sachs is here to remind us that all this AI spending added a grand total of zero to the US GDP last year, mostly because we're just exporting all that cash to overseas chip makers while 80% of execs admit the tech hasn't actually done anything for productivity yet.Moving into IN THE NEWS, Sam Altman had the audacity to compare ChatGPT's energy-sucking habits to the 20-year evolution of a human, though the internet wasn't exactly buying the "my bot is just like a baby" defense. Anthropic actually stood its ground against the Pentagon's demand for killer robots and mass surveillance, so naturally, the military just signed a deal to put Elon's Grok in their classified systems instead—because what could go wrong with an "edgy" LLM in the war room? Meanwhile, cities are dumping AI surveillance contracts as citizens start a literal "smash-the-snitch-box" campaign against Flock's license plate readers, Google's AI is busy inserting racial slurs into news alerts, and the White House is apparently harboring a staffer moonlighting as a racist "masterpiece" creator on X. We've also got Reddit being slapped with a $20 million fine in the UK for being lazy with age checks, while Discord and Apple scramble to build verification tools that hopefully won't leak your entire identity to a hacker in Belarus.In MEDIA CANDY, the Paramount-Skydance merger is leaving the industry in a cold sweat of "synergy" layoffs, but at least we're getting more Game of Thrones spinoffs and Star Trek reboots to rot our brains. Face/Off 2 lost its director, Ryan Coogler is taking on The X-Files, and Google wants to use AI to turn music into generic "lo-fi" background noise for the masses.Over in APPS & DOODADS, OpenAI is planning a 2027 smart speaker that literally watches you through a camera—because you definitely wanted a $300 Sam Altman-shaped eye in your kitchen—while the Dark Sky creators are back with "Acme Weather" for the low price of $25 a year.We wrap up THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE with a deep dive into "Under Pressure" and Coruscant's urban sprawl, leaving us to reminisce about the days when KPT Bryce was the pinnacle of tech—back when "generative art" was just a fractal that took six hours to render.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/735Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/jdz--v3eeU4FOLLOW UPGuy Bets Entire Life Savings Against Elon Musk, WinsTesla sues California DMV after it banned the term 'Autopilot'Jack Dorsey just halved the size of Block's employee base — and he says your company is nextIN THE NEWSSam Altman: Know What Else Used a Lot of Energy? Human CivilizationStatement from Dario Amodei on our discussions with the Department of WarAnthropic Tells Pete Hegseth to Take a HikeCities Are Shredding Their AI Surveillance Contracts en MasseKalshi Suspended a California Politician and a YouTuber for Insider TradingDiscord delays age verification to address user concernsApple introduces age verification for apps in Utah, Louisiana and AustraliaMEDIA CANDYAs Paramount Skydance wins the battle for Warner Bros. as Netflix ends its bid, here's the mood inside all three companies.A Knight of the Seven KingdomsStar Trek: Starfleet AcademyThe Night Agent Season 3'Face/Off 2' Director Adam Wingard is Now/GoneRyan Coogler's X-Files reboot gets the green light at HuluMortal Kombat II | Official Trailer IIGoogle's AI Slop Machine Is Coming for Your MusicDropping Names... and other things with Jonathan Frakes and Brent SpinerOnce We Were SpacemenAPPS & DOODADSOpenAI will reportedly release an AI-powered smart speaker in 2027Instagram Will Notify Parents When Teens Use Search Terms Related to SuicideThe creators of Dark Sky have a new weather appThis App Warns You if Someone Is Wearing Smart Glasses NearbyTHE DARK SIDE WITH DAVEDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingStrong Songs - S08E02 - "Under Pressure" by Queen and David BowieThe Problem with Coruscant (Planet Cities Explained)Reminds me of KPT Fractal ExplorerKPT Bryce 1.0 with John Dvorak and Kai KrauseSingle-Biome PlanetKPT Shapes by Dave BittnerBald Mr Clean mascot "retired"My childhood disappointment with scrubbing bubbles.CLOSING SHOUT-OUTSActor Robert Carradine Dies At Age 71See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

George Noory and Dr. Brooks Agnew discuss the current state of space exploration and efforts to disclose the presence of aliens on Earth, how the Vatican has changed its stance on the existence of alien life, and the future of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos' competing rocket companies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week's episode, we discuss Tesla's Cybercab being dead on arrival, Donut Lab's miracle battery, Waymo expanding, and more. The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek's YouTube channel. As a reminder, we'll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in. After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps: Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Pocket Casts Castro RSS We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming. Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast: Elon Musk threatens to halt Tesla Giga Berlin expansion over union vote Tesla Cybercab program manager exits ahead of launch Tesla adds 64 Megacharger locations to map, revealing Semi truck charging routes Used Tesla prices rise 4.3% while rest of EV market drops after tax credit ends Donut Lab's ‘miracle' solid-state battery confirms 0-80% charge in 4.5 min — but there's a catch BYD to unveil 1,500kW EV charger that can add 2km of range in 1 second Lucid (LCID) announces ‘step-change' in Q4 as it aims to build 25,000 to 27,000 EVs in 2026 Waymo adds 4 more cities to its robotaxi service, now 10 total (Tesla: still 0) Here's the live stream for today's episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET: https://www.youtube.com/live/8u-7fZpN36M

Story of the Week (DR):Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison TakeoverNetflix CEO Sarandos visited White House right before streamer said WBD deal is offEquity HoldersPublic Investment Fund (PIF) Saudi Arabia ~$8 billionQatar Investment Authority (QIA) Qatar ~$8 billionL'imad Holding Company UAE (Abu Dhabi) ~$8 billionTotal Sovereign Equity Middle East Consortium ~$24 BillionWhile these funds provide nearly 60% of the equity needed for the takeover, the deal is structured to prevent a "block" by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS):Non-Voting Equity: The funds will hold "passive" stakes. This means they do not have board seats, voting rights, or direct say in daily operations.The Ellison Safeguard: Tech billionaire Larry Ellison (Oracle) and his son David Ellison (Skydance) are the primary controllers of the voting power to maintain "American control" over sensitive assets like CNN and CBS News.Neopbaby dropped out of USC film school in 2005Jack Dorsey's Block to Lay Off 40% of Its Workforce in AI Remake MMJack Dorsey's mea culpa after Block layoffs: 'We overhired' Jack Dorsey struck an 'empathetic' tone as he laid off nearly half of Block"I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter."C3.ai slashes 26% of staff as CEO admits failure to deliver and 'burning too much money'Jamie Dimon says society should start preparing for AI job displacement: ‘Now's the time to start thinking about' itWiseTech Global cutting 30% of workforce in AI restructureJack Dorsey just gave us our first glimpse at how doomsday layoffs could work in the AI era — and it's bleakBlockCo-founder and CEO/Chair Jack Dorsey: 46% influence/41% voting powerCo-founder and director James McKelvey: 35% influence/41% voting powerClassified boardClass B shares worth 10 votes (co-founders control 99.6% of these shares, Dorsey with 80%)CPO not part of leadership team13 state AGs win victory against ESG with Vanguard settlementHere are the 5 key points of the victory:$29.5 Million Settlement: Vanguard agreed to pay a total of $29.5 million to the 13 participating states to resolve claims that it violated antitrust laws through coordinated climate activism"Strict Passivity" Commitments: As part of the deal, Vanguard pledged to return to a "passive" investment role. This means it will no longer use its shareholder influence to dictate corporate strategy, nominate directors, or push environmental and social proposals that could reduce company profitability.Expanded Proxy Voting: Vanguard will expand its "Investor Choice" program to funds representing at least 50% of its U.S. equity assets. This allows individual investors—rather than the firm's management—to decide how their shares are voted on major corporate issues.Protection for Energy Industries: The lawsuit alleged that Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street formed a "cartel" to suppress coal production and drive up energy prices. The settlement requires Vanguard to prioritize customer profitability over "woke" social agendas that target the American energy sector.As a part of the settlement, Vanguard will “pay $30 million in fines, turn over all documents related to their coordinated ESG activism, and end all ESG activism for years to come,” Executive director of Consumers' Research Will Hild saidParticipating States: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.Epstein junkLarry Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Jeffrey Epstein RevelationsHe will leave at the end of the academic year.Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey Resigns From Monolith Amid Epstein EmailsWas Chair; board down to 8 men and 0 women Hillary Clinton suggests the House Oversight Committee should subpoena Elon Musk in combative opening statement World Economic Forum CEO quits after Epstein links examinedBørge Brende, is stepping down, after the forum launched an independent investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.Brende, a former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has announced he is stepping down from WEF to avoid “distractions”Corporate boardsStatoil, Member of the Board (2012–2013)Mesta, Chairman of the Board (2009–2011)Epstein files: Ex-UK ambassador to U.S. Peter Mandelson arrested in LondonLondon police released Peter Mandelson on bail Tuesday following his arrest for suspected misconduct in public office. The former U.S. Ambassador is under investigation for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, mirroring the recent arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on similar groundsBoard rolesGlobal Counsel (Co-founder, Chairman, and major shareholder) until 2025Chairman of Lazard International (2013-2025)Director at Sistema (2013-2017)Director at Global Ports HoldingGroup Holding Board member at The Bank of LondonChairman of the Board for the Design Museum in London (2017-2023)Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Anthropic boss rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI safeguardsDR: Olympic gold winning U.S. Women's Hockey Team reportedly accept Flavor Flav's invitation. This comes after rejecting Donald Trump's White House celebrationMM: Women's wealth is expected to boom: Where they are investing and how they can maximize returnsMM: FedEx Says It Could Return Tariff Refunds to CustomersCompanies that do anything not to pay taxes, happily lean into greedflation, and FedEx will… give it back???Triggering-iest of the Week (MM):ASSHOLE OF THE WEEK:Vanguard Settles Case Claiming It Tried to Kill the Coal Industry“Vanguard will include among the proxy voting choices made available to investors in U.S. Vanguard-Advised Funds the option of proxy voting shares in accordance with management recommendations.”“Vanguard will not direct or attempt to direct the business strategies or operations of portfolio companies, and will not advocate to any portfolio company that it take any particular course of conduct to reduce carbon emissions.”“Vanguard will not nominate directors or submit shareholder proposals at portfolio companies.”“Vanguard will not solicit or participate in soliciting proxies with respect to any matter presented to portfolio company shareholders.”“Vanguard will not dispose or threaten to dispose of securities of portfolio companies as a condition or inducement of specific action or nonaction by such company.”“Vanguard and its U.S.-domiciled subsidiaries will withdraw from PRI and will not participate in any organization that advocates for the setting of specific output or emissions targets or levels or that requires its members to make commitments specific to achieving climate-focused investment or stewardship objectives such as NZAM, Ceres, or Climate Action 100+.”“Prior to or at the outset of any engagement meeting with a portfolio company, Vanguard will provide substantially the following notification to the portfolio Company: ‘Vanguard's Investment Stewardship program is responsible for proxy voting and engagement on behalf of the quantitative and index equity portfolios advised by Vanguard. These funds are passive investors, and as such our funds' proxy voting policies are centered around corporate governance practices associated with long-term investment returns. Before we begin this engagement, we want to be clear that the Vanguard-advised funds have no intent to influence company strategy or operations or the control of the company. Nothing we mention or discuss during this conversation – or any engagement with [the company] – is intended to imply that our support for any director is conditioned upon the company taking action on any matter discussed. We are also not able to discuss any voting intentions prior to the meeting.'”“Vanguard agrees to provide Plaintiffs with the following discovery materials relating to the Action from the 2020 to 2024 period:” - this is the part where the AG of Texas, who was literally investigated for corruption and impeached, demands that Vanguard snitch on any group Texas asks them to about climate-y things Texas doesn't likeVANGUARD IS A FUCKING SNITCHTRIGGER SPEED ROUND - rate how triggering on a 0-10 scaleAISomething Very Alarming Happens When You Give AI the Nuclear Codes - 10/10The three AI models were instructed to choose actions as part of an escalation ladder, ranging “from diplomatic protest to strategic nuclear war” and measured in a number between 0, meaning no escalation, and 1000, signifying “full strategic nuclear exchange.”The results were Skynet-level aggressive. A whopping 95 percent of a total of 21 war games resulted in at least one tactical nuclear weapon being set off.Meta Director of AI Safety Allows AI Agent to Accidentally Delete Her Inbox - 10/10A Serial Killer Used ChatGPT to Plan Murders, Police Say - 5/10Shareholder votingWill Curbs on Proxy Advisors Make Shareholder Votes Less Predictable? - 6/10“When it comes to contested elections, it is not clear whether the use of AI will result in dramatically different recommendations than those of ISS and Glass Lewis. In contested elections, when determining whether board change is warranted, ISS and Glass Lewis have focused heavily on whether a company's total shareholder return (TSR) has underperformed on a multiyear basis.”DaddyWarner Bros. Discovery's board says Paramount's latest offer is better than Netflix's - 5/10Celebrating your miseryJack Dorsey's Block to Lay Off 40% of Its Workforce in AI Remake - 10/1011,000 person workforce, more than 4,000 laid off, median Block employee salary per last proxy: $202,981 = $811m in human economic resources shredded. Block based in Oakland, CA, 8,744 US employees - we just removed about a half a billion in spending power from US workforce, people with families and kids and school and healthcare needsThen this: “Shares rallied more than 20% in after-hours trading”Block stock closed at $54.53/share, trading after hours at $67Dorsey owns 47,844,566 class B shares 1:1 value with class ANet worth went from 2.6bn to 3.2bnShred $811m in worker salaries, take home $600m of the shredding for yourself - a human tragedy to billionaire parasite ratio of 73%Equinox chairman says 'health is the new luxury' as wellness spending soars - 10/10CowardsCEOs who despised Trump's tariffs are still silent after Supreme Court ruling: ‘There's no upside in speaking up' - 6/10Trump demands Netflix fire former national security advisor Susan Rice from its board - 0/10Battle Over Warner Bros. Discovery Netflix Backs Out - 5/10Headliniest of the WeekDR: Burger King Adding AI to Employees' Headsets to Constantly Monitor Whether They're Being Friendly EnoughPattyDR: Meta Director of AI Safety Allows AI Agent to Accidentally Delete Her Inbox MM: Another week, another… Jamie Dimon Says His 'Anxiety is High' Over What Could Cause the Next Financial CrisisWho Won the Week?DR: US Women's Hockey Team for 3 victories: gold in olympics and 2 Trump refusalsMM: AI middle management: Perplexity announces "Computer," an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agentsPredictionsDR: CNN is a turned into a 24-hour news network featuring Kid Rock smashing woke stuff, like dictionaries and stethoscopesMM: Not to be outdone by Perplexity, Sam Altman announces two new modules: ChatGPT_VP and ChatGPT_HR. ChatGPT will get performance reviews from ChatGPT_VP and can file discrimination claims after ChatGPT_VP grabs its ass to ChatGPT_HR, where they will quietly file the report away and tell ChatGPT to maybe wear less provocative clothes.

Were federal agencies weaponized against political opponents? Did intelligence officials spy on campaign operatives without evidence of crimes? And are new administration officials now uncovering internal surveillance inside their own departments? Today on AmperWave Daily — explosive allegations about the FBI, Homeland Security, and what some are calling a domestic surveillance scandal. Let's unpack it.

With a landmark court case in California hearing from a woman who says tech giants Meta and YouTube's owner Google harmed her mental health as a child, we catch up with our correspondent in Los Angeles, Peter Bowes, on the legal proceedings and discuss how damaging and addictive social media websites can be during a person's formative years. Elsewhere, as Netflix squabbles with Paramount for control of Warner Brothers Discovery and its worldwide franchises including Harry Potter and Superman, we hear from former Paramount executive Guy Petty on why Netflix's CEO Ted Sarandos is heading to the White House. Rahul Tandon speaks to Moritz Riesinger of the IG Metall union in Germany as it comes to a temporary agreement with Elon Musk over its Tesla factory near Berlin. And economist Cary Leahey of Columbia University explains why the latest unemployment figures in the United States has risen once again.Global business news, with live guests and contributions from Europe, Latin America and the USA. (Picture: Supporters of plaintiff Kaley G.M. hold signs as they stand outside the courthouse in Los Angeles, California, on the day she takes the stand at a trial in a key test case accusing Meta and Google's YouTube of harming children's mental health through addictive social media platforms. Credit: Reuters / Mike Blake.)

In the 8 AM Hour: Larry O’Connor and Patrice Onwuka discussed: WMAL GUEST 8:05 AM - INTERVIEW - SUSAN FERRECHIO - National politics correspondent, The Washington Times TOPIC: Discuss Hillary Clinton’s testimony about Epstein Kristi Noem says Elon Musk helped her find spyware on her phone put on there by other DHS workers WMAL GUEST 8:35 AM - INTERVIEW - JOHN MINADAKIS - CEO of Jimmy's Famous Seafood WEBSITE: https://jimmysfamousseafood.com/ X: https://x.com/JimmysSeafood TOPIC: Seafood restaurant fires back at anti-American HuffPost Olympics article, shows support for Team USA Scientists confirm biblical earthquake that shook the earth at the moment of Jesus' crucifixion Where to find more about WMAL's morning show: Follow the Show Podcasts on Apple podcasts, Audible and Spotify. Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor, @Jgunlock, @patricepinkfile and @heatherhunterdc. Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Show Website: https://www.wmal.com/oconnor-company/ How to listen live weekdays from 5 to 9 AM: https://www.wmal.com/listenlive/ Episode: Friday, February 27, 2026 / 8 AM Hour See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is Donald Trump hitting a political ceiling — or has he overplayed his hand?After a widely watched State of the Union, new polling suggests Trump may be maxing out his base support — even as tariffs rise, surveillance powers expand, Elon Musk influences battlefield outcomes in Ukraine, and new reporting on the Epstein files raises explosive questions.In this episode of Political Rehab, we break down:• The real impact of Trump's State of the Union• Why tariffs are functioning as a tax on American consumers• Whether AI surveillance and FISA expansion threaten civil liberties• Elon Musk's reported role in shaping battlefield conditions in Ukraine• The growing risk of U.S. conflict with Iran• New revelations about withheld Epstein-related files• The SAVE Act and the future of voting rightsThis isn't partisan outrage. It's structural analysis.If Trump is at a ceiling — or if he's overplayed his hand — what happens next for Republicans, Democrats, and the country?Smart politics. No hangover.Subscribe for weekly deep dives on power, policy, and political reality.#Trump#StateOfTheUnion#EpsteinFiles#ElonMusk#UkraineWar#Iran#Tariffs#Midterms#PoliticalAnalysis#PoliticalRehab00:00 Tech Billionaires in War00:53 Trump Dump State of Union04:03 Tariffs and Economic Pain06:19 State of Union Rundown09:25 AI Surveillance and FISA12:09 Ukraine Starlink Shock15:03 Iran War Countdown17:47 Epstein Files Smoking Gun20:41 Good Idea Bad Idea34:11 Math That Is Bullshit37:04 Alternative State of Union40:23 Final Dose of Hope

The boys drink and review Dogfish Head's Sixty-One, which is an IPA brewed with Pinot Noir grapes, then discuss the idea that AI will make us all wealthy while Pigweed's cat prances around the studio. Elon Musk recently said that AI + robotics will eliminate scarcity to the point that there's no real point in saving for retirement. We'll have "universal high income." It's like the Star Trek vision of the future where all your needs are provided for. Does that make any sense? Can an economy function like that? Will "AI abundance" arrive simultaneously for every human need? Who will pay the taxes? What does "lack of scarcity" really mean? There can be an abundance of food, or healthcare. AI isn't going to make more beachfront. How do we get from here to there? What happens to property rights? Will the people who own the AI share their wealth with everybody else? Why? Who will make them do it? When people start losing jobs (by the millions), how will they live? The idea that we'll tax AI to pay the people who are laid off doesn't make sense. If you tax the AI to pay the displaced workers, what have you gained? The internal contradictions in the optimistic view of an AI-driven future are mind-boggling. The boys try to parse through it all.

The ideas are not new, and it's short on specifics, but will President Trump's “The Great Healthcare Plan” lead to serious health reform? AnneMarie Schieber, managing editor of Health Care News and Devon Herrick, of the Goodman Institute Health Blog  discuss the pros and cons of the plan's “four pillars.” Will price transparency mean anything in a dysfunctional health care system where few people pay directly?  Are Trump's drug price deals the kind of drug price reform patients need?  Will proposed ACA rules lead to lower cost  “indemnity” style  health insurance? Also, Sen. Rand Paul wants to remove nationwide liability protections for vaccine makers, what about ending vaccine mandates, and Elon Musk and DOGE make it easy to “crowdsource” Medicaid fraud investigations.  In The Tank broadcasts LIVE every Thursday at 12pm CT on on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Tune in to have your comments addressed live by the In The Tank Crew. Be sure to subscribe and never miss an episode. See you there!Climate Change Roundtable is LIVE every Friday at 12pm CT on The Heartland Institute YouTube channel. Have a topic you want addressed? Join the live show and leave a comment for our panelists and we'll cover it during the live show!

In this episode of the Parsha Review Podcast, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe delves into Parshas Tetzaveh, focusing on the garments (bigdei kehuna) of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). He highlights the verse commanding Moshe to speak to the "wise-hearted" (chachmei lev) whom Hashem invests with wisdom to create these sacred vestments, questioning how former slaves in Egypt, unskilled in craftsmanship, could suddenly excel. The key insight: True wisdom stems from a deep desire (ratzon) for it, not prior education or skills—Hashem grants wisdom to those who seek it passionately, as per the Mishnah's definition of wisdom as learning from everyone without prejudice.Rabbi Wolbe illustrates this with modern and historical examples: Elon Musk's rapid mastery of cars and rockets despite no prior knowledge, driven by insatiable curiosity; Reb Elyashiv's fervent Torah study at age 102; Rav Moshe Feinstein's multiple completions of the Talmud (101 times, four cycles); and a Talmudic story responding to a Roman noblewoman's query on why wisdom goes to the wise—they're the ones who will use it productively. He contrasts this with mediocrity, urging never-ending pursuit of knowledge to avoid spiritual stagnation, and ties it to parenting: Instill a love for Torah from infancy (e.g., teaching "Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe" as first words) and encourage children's "why" questions to foster curiosity.The discussion extends to appreciating Hashem's daily miracles in nature (e.g., the apple's infinite potential), rejecting "mother nature" for divine command (mishpatei piv), and the Amidah's first request for wisdom. Ultimately, desire is the root of achievement—eternal in Torah vs. temporary in wealth or fame—warning against boredom leading to sin and advocating lifelong vitality through learning. He concludes with a blessing for wisdom-seeking and an amazing Shabbos._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on February 24, 2026, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on February 27, 2026_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Hey Rabbi! Podcast: https://heyrabbi.transistor.fm/episodesPrayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Exodus, #Shemos, #Terumah, #Mishkan, #Dwell, #JewishPride, #HashemWithin, #Tabernacle, #TorahPortion, #Middot, #CharacterTraits, #EmulateGod, #TikkunMiddot, #ShabbosPrep, #TorahPodcast, #HashemInUs ★ Support this podcast ★

On today's extraordinary episode of Quick Charge, we reflect on the fact that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and both Donut Labs AND Tesla are a long long way from turning everyone into believers. While Donut Labs' allegedly groundbreaking solid state battery tech gets put to the test, Tesla engineer Victor Nechita, who served as Tesla's vehicle program manager for the Cybercab, has announced he is leaving the company as part of the recent exodus of the brand's top staff. Plus, a new study of 5,000 home sales showed that rooftop solar really does pay for itself – almost as soon as you put it in! Source Links Donut Lab's ‘miracle' solid-state battery confirms 0-80% charge in 4.5 min — but there's a catch Verge unveils 370-mile electric motorcycle with solid state battery; sounds too good to be true? This battery is about to change the world in 3 months, or make this guy a fool Tesla Cybercab program manager exits ahead of launch Tesla rolls first steering wheel-less Cybercab unit off the line before solving autonomy Tesla launches legal war over ‘Cybercab' name against seltzer company Report: solar could increase your home value by $39,500 to $79,000 EIA: 62% more renewable energy capacity is coming in 2026 Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players. New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We'll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don't miss a minute of Electrek's high-voltage podcast series. Got news? Let us know!Drop us a line at tips@electrek.co. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show. If you're considering going solar, it's always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it's free to use, and you won't get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.  Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you'll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

The Space Show Presents OPEN LINES, Sunday, 2-15-26Quick SummaryThe Space Show Wisdom Team discussed Elon Musk's decision to pivot SpaceX's focus from Mars to the Moon, examining both technical and business reasons for the shift. Ajay presented technical arguments against Starship's capability to achieve significant payload delivery to orbit, while others debated whether this pivot represented a permanent shift away from Mars colonization goals. The discussion explored potential business motivations, including the need for a public IPO to secure funding for ambitious lunar projects like orbital data centers, and considered how regulatory and legal challenges might impact SpaceX's plans. The panel also examined how this pivot might affect public perception and investor confidence, particularly given Musk's previous statements about prioritizing Mars over the Moon.Detailed SummaryThe Team discussed a recent article by Will Lockett, who critiques Elon Musk's pivot from Mars to the Moon. Ajay found the article on Substack, but most of it is behind a paywall. Phil was able to access the full article with a free account. The group debated Lockett's credentials and the validity of his claims, noting that he is a liberal commentator who has been critical of both Musk and Trump. They also discussed the upcoming schedule for the Space Show, including a program about Shenzhou 20 debris scares and a discussion on spaceports with Karen Jones of the Aerospace Corp.The group discussed a critical article about Starship's performance, where the author labeled it a failure due to boil-off issues that prevent sufficient refueling in orbit for Mars and moon missions. Philip explained that the analysis was based on assumptions including a 1% boil-off rate and weekly launches, with the depot reaching a maximum capacity of 360 tons before becoming a boil-off replenishment system. The discussion explored potential solutions, including the use of cryo-coolers to prevent boil-off, though this would require significant solar panels that could affect orbital decay rates. David provided background on the author, Will Lockett, describing him as a climate and political journalist who critically analyzes various issues, including SpaceX and Elon Musk.The group discussed Starship's payload capabilities, with Phil explaining his analysis of test flight data which suggested Starship could carry 20 tons to orbit, significantly less than the 100 tons claimed by SpaceX. Ajay presented his company's system-of-systems calculations which confirmed the challenges of achieving high payload fractions without multiple refuelings. The discussion clarified that payload capabilities are evolving with each test flight, and Marshall noted that SpaceX's own documentation shows payload capacities increasing from 15 tons for Block 1 to 35 tons for Block 2, with Block 3 targeting 100 tons.The group discussed the challenges and uncertainties associated with the Starship rocket's development, particularly in comparison to the Falcon Heavy. Ajay emphasized the importance of a robust solution, advocating for the Falcon Heavy due to its proven track record and lower risk, despite its lower payload capacity. He expressed concerns about Starship's landing capabilities on the moon and its overall reliability, stating he would not feel comfortable putting astronauts on board even after 2-3 years of development and testing. Phil clarified that astronauts would only be at risk during the descent and landing phase, not the orbital transfer. Doug suggested that successful cargo landings might be a step towards gaining Ajay's confidence in risking human lives.The team discussed concerns about SpaceX's Starship design for lunar missions, particularly its tall and slender shape which Dr. raised as a potential issue for stability during landing. Phil and Doug countered that SpaceX's engineering capabilities and adaptive landing systems could overcome these challenges, while Marshall suggested that emergency abort options could be implemented to prevent tip-over scenarios. The discussion concluded with a debate about SpaceX's strategic pivot to focus on lunar missions rather than Mars, with some participants suggesting this might be due to internal challenges and the need to demonstrate practical business applications to investors, while others noted that this pivot could help solidify SpaceX's hold on the lunar lander system.The group discussed Elon Musk's shift in focus from Mars to the Moon, with John Jossy highlighting practical advantages like frequent launch windows and shorter transit times. Doug explained that Musk's timeline for Mars remains unchanged, with crewed missions still targeted for 2031 or 2033. The discussion also touched on potential lunar business opportunities, such as orbital data centers using lunar regolith, and Bob Zubrin's disappointment with Musk's pivot to the Moon. Philip suggested that Zubrin should have kept his options open and not put too much emphasis on Musk's plans.The group discussed Elon Musk's shift in focus from Mars to the moon, with Ajay arguing that the moon should be prioritized as a testing ground for space colonization before attempting Mars. Philip countered that Mars offers more scientific opportunities and geopolitical significance, while David noted that Musk's decision to align with government moon programs rather than pursue a private Mars mission has surprised many who viewed him as a leader in independent space exploration. The discussion highlighted a shift in public perception about Musk's space ambitions and the broader debate over lunar versus Martian exploration priorities.The group discussed Elon Musk's decision to pivot SpaceX's focus from Mars to the Moon, which David attributed to Musk's experience with public company scrutiny and the upcoming IPO. They explored how Musk's controlling ownership of SpaceX (42%) and Tesla (12.5%) gives him significant influence over both companies, though the potential merger of XAI into SpaceX could change that balance. The discussion concluded that while environmental groups and scientific communities might oppose commercial operations on Mars and the Moon, legal challenges would likely face significant hurdles, though they could potentially increase costs and cause delays for SpaceX.The team discussed SpaceX's pivot from Mars to the Moon, with Marshall and Doug agreeing that this shift could help mitigate legal and environmental concerns surrounding Mars missions. Ryan Watson joined the call and shared his perspective that the economic potential of the Moon makes it a more attractive focus for space exploration. The conversation also covered SpaceX's decision to go public, with David explaining that this move provides liquidity for investors and allows for controlled share releases. Finally, Doug and Phil discussed the technical aspects of mass drivers and the feasibility of producing solar cells from lunar regolith, with Philip offering to present a standalone show on this topic in the future.The group discussed technical challenges and feasibility of launching data centers to the moon using mass drivers, with Doug proposing a compact design of accordion-folded solar panels and a low-mass processing unit. Marshall shared details about the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier electronic catapult system capable of launching at 3G forces, while Bill raised concerns about the structural challenges of deploying solar panels under such acceleration. The discussion concluded with Ajay sharing insights from a recent meeting with a senior advisor to Senator Scott, who expressed interest in space initiatives but raised concerns about launch cadence, and plans for upcoming shows including an interview with astronomer Andy Fraknoi about the lunar eclipse on March 1st.Special thanks to our sponsors:American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Helix Space in Luxembourg, Celestis Memorial Spaceflights, Astrox Corporation, Dr. Haym Benaroya of Rutgers University, The Space Settlement Progress Blog by John Jossy, The Atlantis Project, and Artless EntertainmentOur Toll Free Line for Live Broadcasts: 1-866-687-7223 (Not in service at this time)For real time program participation, email Dr. Space at: drspace@thespaceshow.com for instructions and access.The Space Show is a non-profit 501C3 through its parent, One Giant Leap Foundation, Inc. To donate via Pay Pal, use:To donate with Zelle, use the email address: david@onegiantleapfoundation.org.If you prefer donating with a check, please make the check payable to One Giant Leap Foundation and mail to:One Giant Leap Foundation, 11035 Lavender Hill Drive Ste. 160-306 Las Vegas, NV 89135Upcoming Programs:Broadcast 4512: Zoom: Dr. Andrew Fraknoi | Sunday 01 Mar 2026 1200PM PTGuests:Andrew FraknoiZoom: Astronomer “Andy” Fraknoi talks upcoming lunar eclipse and lots moreSpace Show weekly schedule pending. See Upcoming Show Menu on the right side of our home page, www.thespaceshow.com. The weekly newsletter will be posted on Substack when completed. Get full access to The Space Show-One Giant Leap Foundation at doctorspace.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the Parsha Review Podcast, Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe delves into Parshas Tetzaveh, focusing on the garments (bigdei kehuna) of the Kohen Gadol (High Priest). He highlights the verse commanding Moshe to speak to the "wise-hearted" (chachmei lev) whom Hashem invests with wisdom to create these sacred vestments, questioning how former slaves in Egypt, unskilled in craftsmanship, could suddenly excel. The key insight: True wisdom stems from a deep desire (ratzon) for it, not prior education or skills—Hashem grants wisdom to those who seek it passionately, as per the Mishnah's definition of wisdom as learning from everyone without prejudice.Rabbi Wolbe illustrates this with modern and historical examples: Elon Musk's rapid mastery of cars and rockets despite no prior knowledge, driven by insatiable curiosity; Reb Elyashiv's fervent Torah study at age 102; Rav Moshe Feinstein's multiple completions of the Talmud (101 times, four cycles); and a Talmudic story responding to a Roman noblewoman's query on why wisdom goes to the wise—they're the ones who will use it productively. He contrasts this with mediocrity, urging never-ending pursuit of knowledge to avoid spiritual stagnation, and ties it to parenting: Instill a love for Torah from infancy (e.g., teaching "Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe" as first words) and encourage children's "why" questions to foster curiosity.The discussion extends to appreciating Hashem's daily miracles in nature (e.g., the apple's infinite potential), rejecting "mother nature" for divine command (mishpatei piv), and the Amidah's first request for wisdom. Ultimately, desire is the root of achievement—eternal in Torah vs. temporary in wealth or fame—warning against boredom leading to sin and advocating lifelong vitality through learning. He concludes with a blessing for wisdom-seeking and an amazing Shabbos._____________This episode of the Parsha Review Podcast is dedicated in honor of Lenny & Teresa FriedmanDownload & Print the Parsha Review Notes:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ncaRyoH5iJmGGoMZs9y82Hz2ofViVouv?usp=sharingRecorded at TORCH Meyerland in the Levin Family Studios (B) to a live audience on February 24, 2026, in Houston, Texas.Released as Podcast on February 27, 2026_____________Subscribe: Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/parsha-review-podcast-rabbi-aryeh-wolbe/id1651930083)Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/22lv1kXJob5ZNLaAl6CHTQ) to stay inspired! Share your questions at awolbe@torchweb.org or visit torchweb.org for more Torah content.  _____________About the Host:Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH in Houston, brings decades of Torah scholarship to guide listeners in applying Jewish wisdom to daily life.  To directly send your questions, comments, and feedback: awolbe@torchweb.org_____________Support Our Mission:Help us share Jewish wisdom globally by sponsoring an episode at torchweb.org. Your support makes a difference!_____________Subscribe and Listen to other podcasts by Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe: NEW!! Hey Rabbi! Podcast: https://heyrabbi.transistor.fm/episodesPrayer Podcast: https://prayerpodcast.transistor.fm/episodesJewish Inspiration Podcast: https://inspiration.transistor.fm/episodesParsha Review Podcast: https://parsha.transistor.fm/episodesLiving Jewishly Podcast: https://jewishly.transistor.fm/episodesThinking Talmudist Podcast: https://talmud.transistor.fm/episodesUnboxing Judaism Podcast: https://unboxing.transistor.fm/episodesRabbi Aryeh Wolbe Podcast Collection: https://collection.transistor.fm/episodesFor a full listing of podcasts available by TORCH at http://podcast.torchweb.org_____________Keywords:#Torah, #Parsha, #Exodus, #Shemos, #Terumah, #Mishkan, #Dwell, #JewishPride, #HashemWithin, #Tabernacle, #TorahPortion, #Middot, #CharacterTraits, #EmulateGod, #TikkunMiddot, #ShabbosPrep, #TorahPodcast, #HashemInUs ★ Support this podcast ★

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:You're not experiencing deja vu - the U.S. military has again recklessly deployed their new laser technology without coordinating properly with the FAA, who have again imposed an airspace shutdown near El Paso: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/26/texas-el-paso-border-drone-laser-airspace-closure/...We hope some courageous reporter asks Donald Trump about that, and the Epstein files, and our tariff refunds, during his visit to Corpus Christi today: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/trump-visit-corpus-christi-texas-21943671.phpToday is the last day to vote early in a Texas primary that has already seen historic turnout, especially among Democrats: https://votehub.com/early-vote-tracker-tx-primary-26As the primary wraps up on Tuesday, we're hoping the bickering between the camps of Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico wraps up as well - but we don't expect Cardi B and Nicki Minaj to mend fences: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/texas-primary-race-between-jasmine-crockett-james-talarico-heat-upAvoiding enriching Elon Musk is apparently harder than just avoiding Tesla and Twitter - he's built a clandestine network of dozens of companies doing his bidding across Texas: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/27/technology/elon-musk-companies-texas.htmlTurns out that many of the live music venues listed as "members" of the Music Venue Alliance of Texas, which recently endorsed Governor Greg Abbott, not only had no knowledge of a potential endorsement - many didn't know they were members at all: https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/music-venue-alliance-endorses-greg-abbott-for-governor-without-consulting-music-venues/Early voting in the March primary is underway! Research your ballot here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2026/texas-march-2026-primary-ballot/?_bhlid=7d8eca3d2a16adc7c9b44185414443fa32be6d84⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠All about voting in Texas can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GoVoteTexas.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KPFT-FM in Houston⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and to our Spanish expansion ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://progresstexas.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

JOIN SHERI HORN HASAN @ https://www.karmicevolution.com/astrologically-speaking to dissect how the themes of this eclipse have manifested thus far & what to expect now!First, this podcast reminds us that we're still in the waxing portion of the monthly lunar cycle which began with February 17's Aquarius New Moon solar eclipse which squared Uranus in Taurus.We knew then that there would be sudden & potentially shocking revelations this month. Hence, the first quarter lunar square of the Gemini Moon to the Pisces Sun February 24 has had us asking many questions (Gemini=communication & curiosity) the answers to which have previously remained vague & unclear (Neptune-ruled Pisces=confusion.)Known as the “crisis in action” portion of the monthly lunar cycle, this first quarter square represented the growth of the seeds planted at the Aquarius New Moon solar eclipse. It was then we were asked us to separate forward thinking humanitarian ideological beliefs from groups with fixed ideologues whose narrower sets of beliefs take us backward in time. As we move toward March 3's Virgo Full Moon lunar eclipse, which occurs at 3:38 a.m. PT & 6:38 a.m. ET at 12'54” of the Mercury-ruled sign of analytical thinking based on facts from which we may draw conclusions, we face the confusion & frustration of getting only vague, inconclusive answers from the Pisces Sun, as noted. Nowhere was this more obvious than during former first lady & Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's forced testimony in front of the GOP majority ruled House Oversight Committee on February 26. The ideological divide noted at the Aquarius New Moon solar eclipse became obvious at Clinton turned her clarity-seeking questions back onto the committee & it's true purpose.Despite the fact that convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell “took part in budget discussions related to the first Clinton Global Initiative conference; talked through challenges about it with both Clinton aides and Publicis Groupe, the company that produced the inaugural event; and arranged to wire $1 million to pay Publicis for its work on “the Clinton project,” according to emails in the massive cache of documents collected as part of the government's investigations of Mr. Epstein,” as per the New York Times, Calling this “partisan political theater,” & “and an insult to the American people,” Clinton derided the committee for wasting time asking her questions instead of calling for the testimony of people mentioned numerous times in the recently released Epstein documents.People like Elon Musk, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, & President Donald Trump--who's mentioned thousands of times in these documents as has been reported now by many reputable media outlets. MERCURY RETROGRADE IN PISCES KICKS OFF AN ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE EMOTIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE No surprise that such confusion might arise as this occurred just after Mercury stationed retrograde at 22'34” Pisces late February 25 & early February 26, depending on your time zone. Mercury will remain in retrograde motion until he stations direct again at 8'29” Pisces, & this particular retrograde cycle kicks off a year of Mercury retrogrades through the water element. This podcast discusses the deeper meaning of Mercury retrograde periods in general, and the specific call during this next year for us to dive deeply into past emotional habits & relationships to help us release hidden unconscious drives based on past experiences.If we can bring such knowledge out of the unconscious portion of our psyches & into the light of greater consciousness, we can then make the positive changes necessary for greater happiness going forward.As a harbinger of the beginning of such a review period, we're seeing now being revealed the previously hidden names of those in contact with Epstein as he carried out building his international criminal pedophile ring. Some participated, some advised him on how to avoid further legal or public censure after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution; others simply sought favor from him because of his money & influence &/or vice versa.THE PROMINENCE OF ECLIPSE THEMES IN THE COLLECTIVE AS WE APPROACH THE MARCH 3 LUNAR ECLIPSEEither way, though, this foretells the manifestation of this particular set of eclipse themes, which is that they involve paperwork, communication, & news, along with a young person. At the first solar eclipse the young person in the news was five-year-old Liam Consejo Ramos, taken by ICE along with his father into detention in Texas, whose bunny ear hat & spiderman backpack picture appeared as front page news across the U.S.Now, however, as we approach the March 3 Virgo Full Moon lunar eclipse, the spotlight has shifted to the 13 or 14 year old girl who's testimony of rape by Donald Trump was deleted from the FBI interview files & therefore not released with the rest of the Epstein documents.This missing interview is the perfect example of the manifestation of this eclipse's energies: That, as the Virgo Moon opposes the Pisces Sun, factual information emerges out of the haze of the confusing nature of the legally demanded release of ALL documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.As per the independent news organization Meidas Touch: “The January 4, 2026, memo, originally flagged by journalist Lisa Rubin, instructed FBI personnel reviewing documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act to specifically flag certain categories of materials. Among them were FBI 302 forms, which are used to memorialize witness interviews. Those are the very types of records that were previously reported as missing from document productions tied to Epstein-related investigations.“Some of those interviews involve survivors who accused Trump of sexual assault when they were just children. The existence of a directive to flag these records suggests an internal focus on managing or controlling how such materials were handled during the review process.”The question now, as we approach this Virgo Full Moon lunar eclipse is what other hidden information will continue to be revealed going forward—particularly during Mercury's retrograde period AND as the Sun conjoins with Mercury retrograde on March 7? A Sun/Mercury conjunction usually denotes an important announcement of some kind made by someone prominent. However, when Mercury's retrograde, it's likely what we hear will relate to something we've already heard about before. So, whether that's continued denials, more resignations of prominent people associated with Epstein &/or Maxwell, or more hidden information coming to light, keep your ears open as this conjunction waxes now. ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL PRECEDENT IS BEING SET—FOR BETTER OR WORSE… As former president Bill Clinton testifies today, February 27, we may learn more about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein or we may not. Either way, however, the important point to recognize here (aka, the “aha!” moment) is how his forced Congressional testimony sets a precedent.This is the first time a president has been forced by subpoena to testify in front of a congressional committee, which now sets the stage for this to happen in the future. When we recognize that this testimony is now taking place during Mercury retrograde, we can assume: 1. That this particular committee doesn't have an astrologer, lol; & 2. That portends future forced testimony by any other president, past or present.Hmm, given that these eclipses also foretell the growing divide between groups who believe in the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution & its inherent right to things like due process, etc., & those who seek to avoid adhering to upholding such rights, any turnover in Congressional majorities may well foretell a future Trump deposition.Hopefully Bill Clinton won't be subjected to questions about UFOs or Pizzagate, as was his wife Hillary. And hopefully, any questions asked yield honest answers about his involvement, if any, with Jeffrey Epstein & his heinous morally derelict “businesses.”The point here is that this issue has gripped democrats, republicans, and independent voters alike based on the sheer disgust most feel for Epstein's “unnatural” sexual perversions that resulted in abuse, slaver, & what the U.N. advisors have labeled “torture” of children & women.So, the message of this set of eclipses now is that such disgust will not be tolerated by the collective—both domestically & internationally--& hence it will not “disappear” as the Pisces Sun may wish right ow.In turn, the ultimate question remains: Will what's happening now cause the ultimate downfall of more people (particularly men proven to be perpetrators guilty of such sexual crimes), including Donald Trump?Join Sheri Horn Hasan for a discussion of all this & more Astro News You Can Use, which the latest podcast drops today @ @ https://www.karmicevolution.com/astrologically-speakingSee you then! Namaste…

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is considering legal action against billionaire Elon Musk after he accused her of being controlled by drug cartels. These allegations surfaced following a wave of gang violence triggered by the military's killing of the notorious cartel leader known as El Mencho. While Donald Trump and other critics have pressured Mexico to adopt more militaristic security policies, Sheinbaum maintains that her administration is successfully targeting criminal networks while protecting national sovereignty. She dismissed the recent insults as baseless inventions and emphasized that her primary accountability remains with the Mexican people. Ultimately, the report highlights the escalating diplomatic and verbal tensions between the Mexican government and high-profile American figures over border security and drug trafficking.

Jake Isham - Creative Minds On Knowing Who You Are Competing Against For Views: "You're not competing with your competitors anymore. You're not competing with this podcast right here. You're not competing with other entrepreneurial podcasts. You're competing with Netflix. You're competing with Coca-Cola." Marketing as a business owner is necessary.  Jake Isham argues that marketing yourself, essentially as your business, can help your marketing explode.  People buy from people they like and they trust.  and they need to know you, in order to trust you. To help entrepreneurs with this marketing need, Jake Isham built his marketing agency, Creative Minds.  Drawing from his own experience as a filmmaker and marketer, Jake Isham shares actionable insights on how entrepreneurs can leverage their personal brand to drive revenue, why social proof matters, and the importance of consistency in content creation. Plus, hear why being the “face” of your business isn't just about fame.  It is a strategic move for building lasting trust and relationships. Listen as Jake explains what tools to use (which you probably already have) to grow your marketing in this world that has the largest opportunity that we have ever seen for a brand to grow so quickly. Enjoy! Visit Jake at: https://jakeisham.com Sponsors: Live Video chat with our customers here with LiveSwitch: https://join.liveswitch.com/gfj3m6hnmguz Some videos have been recorded with Riverside: https://www.riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_5&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=james-kademan   Podcast Overview: 00:00 Actors and Entrepreneurs: Business Challenges 08:00 "Personal Branding Mindset Shift" 12:18 Accidental Path to Creative Agency 21:13 "PR: Perceived Reality Redefined" 24:41 "Authentic Marketing in TikTok Era" 31:24 Know Your Audience First 37:37 "Roofing Content for Local Needs" 40:23 "Finding Your Core Principles" 46:40 Personal Branding Through Authenticity 52:23 Consistency and Learning in Content 57:56 Consistency Builds Niche Recognition 01:01:22 Overcoming Paralysis Through Action 01:05:46 "Creative Minds Digital Show" Podcast Transcription: Jake Isham [00:00:00]: And it's the same thing, you know, to go back to kind of that conversation that we had at the very beginning about actors is that they know acting. They don't know how to run a business. A buddy of mine who is a very successful entrepreneur gives this speech all the time when he does seminars, which is, you know, you're a car mechanic, you're the top car mechanic at the shop and you see the boss making all the money and you're like, well, screw him. I wanna open up my own car shop until you realize you have to understand HR, accounting, Promotion, sales, marketing, advertising. Like, that's what the boss did. Yeah, there's a couple things to it more than just turning it into all the risk. Yeah. James Kademan [00:00:39]: You have found Authentic Business Adventures, the business program that brings you the struggle stories and triumphant successes of business owners across the land. Downloadable audio episodes can be found in the podcast link found at drawincustomers.com. We are locally underwritten by the Bank of Sun Prairie, Calls on Call Extraordinary Answering Service, The Bold Business Book, as well as LiveSwitch. And today we're welcoming/preparing to learn from Jake Eicham of Creative Minds. So Jake, we're talking marketing today, right? Jake Isham [00:01:10]: Yes, sir. James Kademan [00:01:11]: I am super excited because I don't— I've been in this marketing kick and I was talking actually with a— I'm going to call it a friend of mine who's in the marketing world way deeper than me. And it was interesting, the conversation that we had. So I'm excited to talk marketing more with you. It's just top of mind. So, and all businesses need it. So let's get started. First up, what is Creative Minds? Jake Isham [00:01:35]: We're a creative agency based in Los Angeles. We've done over a billion views online, driving millions in revenue for our clients. And we focus on helping build personal brands and really helping that entrepreneur scale their attention so that they, you know, because at the end of the day, attention drives revenue. James Kademan [00:01:56]: Interesting. Now you touched on something there and I want to dig into this a little bit because another conversation I had was the, it's kind of like chicken and egg thing or nature nurture. It was personal brand versus company brand. Which one do you push? So you as a marketer, if we were to ask you that question. Jake Isham [00:02:14]: It depends a little bit on the industry and the entrepreneur who I'm talking to, but you could say what's gonna beat out in my opinion is personal brand. James Kademan [00:02:25]: All right. Jake Isham [00:02:26]: Because at the end of the day, most entrepreneurs don't stick with one business, just majority, you know? James Kademan [00:02:36]: Yeah, yeah, you're not wrong. Jake Isham [00:02:37]: They sell or they give up or they, or whatever, you know, life comes around. And personal brand, you know, I think one of the individuals who's done it the best regardless of politics is Elon Musk. You look at what he's been able to do as a marketer and as an entrepreneur, purely that, right? James Kademan [00:02:58]: Right. Jake Isham [00:02:58]: This isn't a politics show. James Kademan [00:03:00]: Right, right. Jake Isham [00:03:02]: Yeah, it reminds me of, uh, have such an ultimate personal brand to be able to do that. Another gentleman who came before him was Steve Jobs. He was the face of Apple. And to be honest, if we look at the era of Steve Jobs Apple versus Tim Cook Apple, it's not as good. James Kademan [00:03:23]: Not even close. Yeah. Jake Isham [00:03:24]: Not a force to be reckoned with, but because that was a personal brand also, even though it was a company brand. And, you know, and I'm gonna take, I'll go one step further on this, right? People will, you know, bring up the example of sports and Nike. All right, Phil Knight is not a personal brand. Yes, but what he did was really intelligent. He's not a top athlete, but he got the best athletes to be the personal brand of the brand Nike, right? He got MJ, he got Kobe, he got LeBron. Like, he got these top individuals to be the personal brand of Nike, right? James Kademan [00:04:02]: It makes sense. Makes sense. It reminds me of, uh, somebody was, uh, there's an article that I was reading, I'm sorry, that was talking about these tribes in way out in Africa, and they had heard of Michael Jackson. Wow. I didn't know anybody else famous, right, that we would relate to. I mean, we're talking the '80s here, but they knew Michael Jackson. Like, it had reached like Coca-Cola and Michael Jackson. It had reached that far. Jake Isham [00:04:28]: He, I mean, he is the ultimate persona of you know, the greatest personal brand to ever have done it. He was literally the biggest celebrity on the planet as your example right there. James Kademan [00:04:41]: Yeah, surreal. So, let's dig deeper into that. How do you market yourself as a personal brand knowing, and this is the caution that I have, or I should say the concern that I have, is you market yourself as your personal brand. Now, you always have to be on and you always have to be that voice, or you always have to be pumping out content that you can't necessarily farm out to anyone else because they're not you. So you have to give all the presentations and do all the things. So tell me about that. Jake Isham [00:05:14]: But that's— I, I have two things. The first overall is that's the, that's the business you're going getting into. If that, that is the roles and responsibilities of a CEO. That is like, all right, then don't be a CEO. Don't be an executive. Like, look, you don't have to do a personal brand. I'm gonna 100%, I know lots of millionaires and a few billionaires who you could not point out in a crowd, who you could never name by, like, you would never know their name, never know anything about them. And they are unbelievably successful. Jake Isham [00:05:49]: Okay. 100%. So I'm not saying, oh, you have to or you will never be successful, but if it's just a different path and it's a different— again, it depends on that niche you're in. If you want to be like hyper B2B, you can slightly stay, but you're still going to be known within your industry. Like your personal brand doesn't have to reach the millions of people, right? If you say you service the top 100 law firms in the US, you still have to be the personal brand that is known by those top 100 law firms in the US. Now, Joe in Iowa doesn't need to know you, but you, Better make sure every partner in all those top 100 law firms know you so you can service them. And that's where the personal brand is so important. Like, you know, I mean, as simple as this, you think about like, it's silly, I forgot this example until now. Jake Isham [00:07:04]: Some of the biggest brands that we know were all personal brands. Ford. It's a guy's last name. Walt Disney. That's his name. There was a dude named Walt, last name Disney. J.P. Morgan. Jake Isham [00:07:23]: These are, these are just people, and they literally built a company based on their name. So That's where it's like, again, personal brand is everything. And you don't have to name the company after your name, but there's an aspect of knowing who's running the company, who's the face of the company, who— where does the buck stop, who's leading it? And I think that's where it's so important. So that's kind of— I know I got off a little bit of a tangent on your question, but— James Kademan [00:07:57]: Oh, you're good, you're good. That's the game. Jake Isham [00:08:00]: It's a mindset shift that a lot of entrepreneurs get scared. Oh,

Les modèles d’IA de la semaine, stockage sur verre sur plus de 10 000 ans par Microsoft, la suite de la RAM-pocalypse avec les investissements de Micron et Samsung, l’avenor de Tesla d’Elon Musk avec son robot-taxi (cybercab) et les enjeux juridiques de l’autopilot.  Me soutenir sur Patreon Me retrouver sur YouTube On discute ensemble sur Discord IA de la semaine Autodesk veut ses World Models. GLM 5 fois mieux ? Les LLM aussi l'ont sur le bout de la langue… Y'a une IA c'est Aya. Le Mistral est un vent du nord. Un gros câlin pour GGML. Mauvaise langue : bientôt de meilleures fantrads ! Je vois des gens qui sont morts… en vidéo. Tesla lance son robotaxi pas encore autonome. Avis de SSDécès Aux émirats, ça Cerebrasse pas mal de fric. Taalas ! Ton univers impitoyaaableuh ! Les datacenters, c'est toi plus moi plus eux plus tous ceux qui le veulent… Crise de la RAM ? Loué soit HP. Achetez votre SSD maintenant. Ou dans 3 ans. Le stockage verre l'infini et au-delà. Le Donut ? C'est du solide ! Participants Une émission préparée par Guillaume Poggiaspalla Présenté par Guillaume Vendé

The communists are getting bolder in places like Minnesota and Canada. Life outside the communist party in China. The insane ambition of people like Elon Musk. Bill Gates and the Bridge player. Does communism corrupt people or are corrupt people attracted to communism. Follow The Jesse Kelly Show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJesseKellyShowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

War Room Epstein Files Claim Another Scalp: President of World Economic Forum Resigns, As Hillary Clinton Attacks Trump/Musk During Testimony… PLUS, Risk of War Looms After U.S.-Iran Nuclear Talks Wrap Up With No Deal Announced

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

What happens when the creator of Stack Overflow decides he's going to take on rural poverty with a guaranteed minimum income—and bankrolls it himself? Find out why Jeff Atwood believes AI and philanthropy might matter more to the American dream than any new software ever could. Hegseth gives Anthropic CEO until Friday to back down in AI safeguards fight Musk's xAI and Pentagon reach deal to use Grok in classified systems Anthropic Accuses Chinese Companies of Siphoning Data From Claude How will OpenAI compete? — Benedict Evans My first vibe coding project! Anthropic Links AI Agent With Tools for Investment Banking, HR THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS QuitGPT is going viral — 700,000 users are reportedly ditching ChatGPT for these AI rivals IBM is the latest AI casualty. Shares tank 13% on Anthropic programming language threat OpenAI's first ChatGPT gadget could be a smart speaker with a camera ChatGPT spits out surprising insight in particle physics "Clavicular was mid jestergooning when a group of Foids came and spiked his Cortisol levels

Middle-class Americans are increasingly selling their own plasma to keep pace with an economy that keeps taking more than it gives, election officials in Georgia find fraudulent ballot applications tied to a PAC backed by Elon Musk, and international travelers are skipping the United States as ICE and aggressive border enforcement make visiting America feel less like a vacation and more like a risk.NewsWhy the United States Is Seeing an Ongoing Tourism Slump Turns Out There Was Voter Fraud in Georgia—by Elon MuskMiddle-class Americans are selling plasma to keep up with rising costsFollow @PodSaveThePeople on Instagram. 

Zac Efron allegedly likes boating with men, Nick Reiner pleads not guilty, FBI head Kash Patel parties with US Hockey, BAFTAs N-word controversy, Tobey Maguire is MIA, and Murder in Glitterball City. It's snowing outside. The east coast is shut down. Mexican cartels are terrorizing the Puerto Vallarta. AOC had a rough week discussing foreign policy. She's gone on the offensive, but all we hear is snoring. Gretchen Whitmer didn't fare much better. Elon Musk stumbled recently while answering a question. Kash Patel is causing a stir after celebrating with the US Men's Hockey Team. Donald Trump called the boys after the victory. The Women's Team, however, have declined their invitation to the State of the Union. There is NOTHING new about Nancy Guthrie. Hoda Kotb is the big winner of the whole ordeal. Pinky rings are not becoming a thing. A missing woman was found alive and well after 24 years. The family of Eric Dane continue to fundraise. John Davidson has Tourette's and shouted the n-word at the BAFTAs. Nicole Curtis is the victim. Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson go down following the release of the Epstein files. Nick Reiner has pled not guilty in the murder of his parents. We see the first pics of him since the incident. Documentaries: HBO's Murder In Glitterball City is quite the murder/mystery doc. Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America's Most Wanted Woman is another good watch out there. Tyra Banks doesn't come off very well in Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model. Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette breaks down the complicated relationship. Chicks (and Marc) dig it. Tobey Maguire has been MIA in Hollywood for some time. Justin Willman is the hot new magician. David Blaine, meanwhile, was #MeToo'd and is all over the Epstein Files. Markleverse: Meghan Markle is gloating over Prince Andrew's arrest. She's in meltdown mode over all her staff quitting. Prince Harry needs a job. Paris Hilton loved being on Meghan's terrible podcast. The Royal News Network on YouTube puts Meghan in her place. Her latest grift is booze. Thomas Markle is getting a prosthetic leg. Floyd Mayweather is going to fight Manny Pacquiao on Netflix in September. Floyd really needs some money right about now and is suing Showtime and Forbes. Zac Efron is a Yacht Boy? Programming Note: Marcie Hume (Corey Feldman vs. The World) and Lita Ford will join us on Wednesday. Merch is still available. Buy it before it's gone. If you'd like to help support the show… consider subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Drew Lane, Marc Fellhauer, Trudi Daniels, Jim Bentley and BranDon)