S2. E1. 'POLITICAL 'WHACK-A-MOLE

0:03 Well, hello, hey stranger, how are you? How are you happy season two? Or happy season Douet, season Dose, season Deuet season Billy and Billy and Billy or season Doi in Portuguese? How about in Japanese Knie. Season Ni. Yeah, I love it because it's itchy knee san chi go so Knie. Oh we're so international, aren't we? Hi? But I'm also really and I'm really smit with. Him by and by m bile and bia Mba which is a hele for mbla, which is number two. So again our podcast listeners, DoD was shaking as not us, So.

0:44 Welcome back to season two. Is this this exciting? Is this exciting? It's a new day, a new year. New day, and I've got new. Equipment, Dodd, I thought we were going to bring that up. Well, my new equipment is basically this big briting front of my don. It's a microphone. Really, oh is that what that is? And it's really happy to see me right now. So a podcast listeners, you got to get us on YouTube. Come on, it's only for the visuals. So yes, I'm very excited to get us back for a season two. What are we talking about this week? Garrie. Well, I mentioned it's a new year, and we are, you know, six weeks into it. But what a year it's been so far. There's something happened on January twentieth, what was it? Oh? Yes, a new president was inaugural. Oh, and there's been a lot of activity, a lot of drama, a lot of anxiety. So this episode is aptly called political whack a mo mole, and weigle not take a deep dive, but we will touch on that.

1:55 Yes, yes, so it has been quite a couple months. We've taken our time getting started, but we're here with full engines, gassed up and ready to get on the chat way. And so right back, welcome back to Don and Gary doing sixty. We're here to unwrap and unpacked, navigating the world at.

3:00 I'm sorry what this age? This age? And Don, what age would that be? Never you mind, it's a new year and we're gonna just be editing whatever age that might be, whatever we feel like being this year. So just be clear, you're not going back in time, are you. I'm trying not to. Okay, I'm trying not to, So don't forget. You can find us on Instagram at Donnia Gary doing sixty. We are on YouTube at Donna Gary doing sixty. Please for the full frontal for all of us, all of this great stuff. And we're trying to see if we're going to create a presence on Blue Sky soon. So if that does happen, I will absolutely place that into our credits and into the screen so you can see what that might be and you can join us there on Blue Sky. And not to mention, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other fabulous podcast platforms.

3:47 That's why you hear Gary, You keep me in line, and you keep the credits. Going, just keep the check coming. So let's talk. Let's start new season. What's going on? Well, before we dive into the political whackable as I call it, I wanted to share with you a shocking revelation I found out about myself. Okay, well, I remember the last time you gave us a shocking revelation and that actually went viral, so, not to mention a virus probably was created. But ah, go ahead, what was my shocking revelation before I forget? Something about sex? Oh right, yes, well this one does include sex. I'm still the same Gary in every way. But okay, so a little side note is that, as I've mentioned before, my mother is older. She's in her late nineties. Yes, and one thing I go see her. I've talked her every day, but I see her every Saturday. And you should go out for lunch. So as we're heading out of the house, you know, it's a good son. I hold out my hand so she's walking down the steps, and if I happen to wearing the short sleeve shirt, you know, she grabs my arm and her fingers are like ice. I'm like, you've been inside. Why are your hands so cold? It's like, well, you know, she's older, less insulation. Well, the revelation about me is that. And I don't know if it's because of my age or the fact that I've lost over forty pounds that, like I tell people, I've lost forty pounds of insulation. When I go out now during these winter months, yea, you know it's gonna be the low fifties. For other people

5:19 that could be nothing, right, but for me, normally I run hot, so low fifties is nothing. But lately I've been putting on the gloves, the scarf, the nit hat. I think I mentioned recently that I went to live theater the show Some like it hot, and it was like an ice box in there. Inside It's that does something is not hot in some like it? Well, I think my caption, well, it might be hot. It's supposed to be the name of the show is something like a hot But it was not hot in there. It was an ice box. I kept my gloves and nit hat scarf on inside the theater that throughout the whole show. Oh my shocking revelation is that I've got the cold hands of a ninety seven year. Old woman and the old heart of a twenty three year old.

6:02 How is that possible? Listen, it might be the insulation thing. I think you're right. I mean you're looking good, you're on your your ozempic journey, which is taking. But I lost weight in my hands. I think you lose it everywhere. I think it just it. Also, you're you know, there's less little insulation. Girls are always cold, always cold. Well, listen, since you mentioned ozempic, I have to say there's a tie to you on a zempic in that. This was a story, a real quick story on CNN. Anderson Cooper was talking to doctor sanche Kupta and they talk talk about ozempic, it says. A Steady says that ozempic reduces drinking and alcohol cravings. I know you make that face. I'm thinking, God, you could never go on a zempic. That For me, it's like, you know, food cravings are you know, like appetite suppressive type of thing, But I never thought about alcohol cravings that would go away.

7:01 I did not know it had that effect. Well, that's why you're not on a sent But. Here's the thing. It's actually interesting because you know, back to you, kudos and applaud for you for continue on the journey. Has this number increased anymore since the last time you updated us? Umm, I'm down like forty four pounds, so whatever, I don't remember what I said last time. I remember I was excited when to hit the forty pounds. Forty four a great last season you were on forty but now you've got another four pounds gone. So yes, that's amazing. But again, reminder everyone in audience that Gary is doing this the complete, wise and educated way by using endocrinologist a nutritionists, using their doctor, not jumping in there and overdosing no unintents, right right way that most a lot of people have been doing. So, I mean I got to say your pictures look good.

7:47 Yeah, I mean it's a slower, steady process. But it's healthier and better that way than you know, doing the quick fix one. And because all that weigh is going to come back eventually if you do it that way. But anyway, let's talk about you. We pasted Valentine's Day? So what did you and your husband? Do you know what we did? You know we did the day before? I said, no cards, no chocolate, not necessary. We just don't. I mean twenty five years, it's like, okay, how many more cards and how many more chocolates? Now? Of course, to make him feel that, I did go buy some chocolate and put in the back of my car, and when I volunteered, I threw it on the table, said, there's your chocolate, where's mine?

8:29 You threw them on the table. Romantics. We actually met up with our friends Scott Michelle out in Hermosa Beach that night too. It's like, what are you doing? Said where they've been married a long time? She said, I don't know. Let's let's go get a drink. So apparently none of us is an ozembic. Well, yeah, I mean it wasn't. Honestly, I mean, yes, it's a nice day, it's it's all that good stuff. Of course, everything's still good, but it's like, okay, there's only so many times we need to do this. It's like Christmas is almost the same thing, like what do you want? You know, what do you want? I don't know. I don't need anything. So, in other words, every day is Valentine's. Stay with you guys. Let's go with that. Yeah, go with that and realize that it was just was not that big a deal. I get to say, how about you.

9:13 Yeah, okay, I'm glad you asked. So this year Valentine's fell on a Friday night. So what I told my friends, Well, it's Friday night, I'm in San Francisco. I'm getting ready to stay home alone again. I was working on updating my living trust. Can you be any more romantic? Yeah, so that's what I did Friday night. Okay, hey, you know what, do what you got to do? You BEU. But I will say that this long, this is holiday weekend, there's I would say, hundreds of thousands of people converging on San Francisco for a couple of reasons. One is it's the culmination of the Chinese New Year celebrations. So last night was the Chinese New Your Parade through downtown San Francisco, and it draws literally hundreds of thousands of spectators.

10:06 So I went with a friend of mine and we checked it out. We've done it, you know, several times. It's just it's just a good fun parade. It's I and I believe I'm not mistaken. San Francisco has the largest China town outside of China. Really. I mean, other cities have their Chinatown, but I believe ours is one of the the biggest or one of the biggest. But yeah, so it's a big draw and you know, everyone's there and different groups and it so that was really fun. And then also happening this weekend is the NBA All Stars. Uh that's basketball down the big orange Yes, the big orange ball that bounces. Yes.

10:46 And I always thought it was like one big game where all the major players from all the basketball converge and play against toute it. But apparently this is like a multi day round robin type of things. So there's been events outside of Chase Center where the Warriors play, which is near my house. There's been events at Moscone Center, the Convention Center, which is also near my house. And then I've heard stories of you know, the basketball players visiting different schools and neighborhoods and doing fun events for the kids. So there's really a lot of pr So it's been Friday being Valentine's Day. The mayor who I follow on Instagram, the Mayor of San Francisco. Oh aren't you buddies with apparently going to wed.

11:27 Well, I've met him a few times. I saw a posted he put on Instagram saying that two hundred and fifty couples showed up at City Hall on Valentine's Day Friday to get married. Wow. And so you know, and underneath the Grand Deur of the City Hall, beautiful rotunda, beautiful setting, and so he performed some ceremonies. It's nice to see that the ones he posted was a straight couple and also a gay couple. So it was just really nice. Yeah, just there's a lot of love and hope and positivity in the air. So yes, and I think honestly on that note too, we need a lot of love and hope, and it was great to see them. The diversity being celebrated with Chinese New Year because of course I love San Francisco and I love the food, but also the Chinese representation in that city is huge because of the population, huge press. Yeah, yes, absolutely, and it's some place we've been to millions of times and enjoyed everything with their culture, so it's great to have that. Plus I did read about the two hundred and fifty couples going to get.

12:21 Married that yeah city. Hell yeah in your city hall. And also the tra Mayor's actually performing these so yeah, you know, on what's been a really tough couple of months, Yeah, nice to see these little nuggets of positivity and cultural diversity and things that are going forward that keep the country strong. So I don't know about you, but I've had a big tough time with this transition. It's been very alarming. It's been disconcerting. We talked about, you know, social media and also a lot of local things. You know, how SMIT and I am with Palm Springs. Unfortunately, there's a lot of negative things taking place and starting to happen in Palm Springs against LGBTQ plus right community out there.

13:03 So yeah, let's let's dive into this. And you know, I mean there's a lot to unpack, as we mentioned in our intro, and so it's coming in so fast and furious, so too much to cover. So we're just gonna you know, hit the have everyone look at high points or low points, and just you know, have a little discussion. But one thing that was interesting I saw online a interview that Steve Bannon did back in twenty nineteen, and I didn't see the whole interview, but this segment he was talking about how the media can only concentrate, like on one big story at a time. So what you need to do is flood the zone, said, which is exactly what all these executive orders and Doge and we're going to talk about been doing. They've been things have been coming out so fast, so furious that that's what I thought of when I saw this was that game that you see at a fair Whack a mole, you know, a big table with a bunch of holes.

14:04 They give you a sledgehammer and I don't know, some animal, some rodent, it's a mole. A oh yeah, hello, whack a mole. A mole A mole said, will pop out at different holes and the point of the game is to take your sledgehammer and and hit them. So maytimes you can get them, but you keep missing them. And that's exactly how I equate what's been happening in these first six weeks of so much going on. So just to list some of the topics that were brought up, whether an executive order or some action by joje is you talk about border control and immigration, birthright citizenship, the pardoning of a fifteen hundred insurrectionists, the tariffs, which I want to talk about. You know, the issue with Canada becoming up the fifty first US state, changing the name Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. I guess he wants buy the Panama Canal. He wants to take over Gaza Strip and make it a resort. He wants to buy Greenland and call it Red, White, and Blue Land.

15:11 Executive order saying there's only two sexes, there's no gender ideology, so you're a man or a woman, and that's it. All the LGBTQ issues, banning from serving the military, blocking funding for gender affirming medical care for minors. One of the big things in beginning that you don't hear about anymore is TikTok, a right that was a big, big deal. He withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, he withdrew from the World Health Organization, and then he created. DOJE with Was that his creation or was that the other one? Well, who came up with the idea? No, but Elon Musk is the one heading that charge, and he's basically giving him free rein. So he's going after the following departments or agencies within the government, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, the Department of Education, the FAA, USAID, which is the Agency for International Development. They say they're America's main global provider of humanitarian aid. He's fired over two hundred thousand federal workers based game walking papers, and with these different departments, I'll just say quickly say that the President's Press secretary said that the intention of DOGE is to audit and review the various departments for any waste management.

16:32 I'm totally on board with that because we all know whether it's federal, city, or state level, there's always room for improvement and audits all for them. But this is an audit to me, is we're going to go meet with your department head, show me your records, let's review it, come back and say here's what we found. But he's basically just taking you know, an axe whatever and just chopping every one down. And that's what I and of course it's a massive upheaval anxiety, animosity just across the board. And also the fact that they don't know they're doing this indiscriminate. They're not knowing what they're doing because I don't know if you saw the latest update I think it was yesterday where they're saying they had fired all of the people who were technically responsible for the our nuclear weapons, or they hired them back after they fired them because they didn't realize that they had fired them, and they had no background or people with background and technology to handle nuclear weapons for the country. So that was just an update too. But just back too quickly to what you're speaking of. I know, you know who Roy Cohne is, right, Roy Cone was also a master manipulator at the time, back in the eighties and nineties.

17:43 Who was this person who the current president's mentor was, Who's basic if you read anything about this gentleman, I will loosely call them a gentleman was basically inciting chaos, which is what you're talking about right now, where everything is happening all at to keep you looking over at everything happening here, and yet we don't know what's happening on this over. Right here, solid distractions, and so. They're creating all of this mass amount of chaos and unrest. A lot of people are, myself included, very traumatized from this. It's one thing that I find it's incredibly overwhelming on social media because everyone's got a story now, left, right, middle, center, extremist, everyone has a story now, and a lot of pages that I used to follow on Facebook have turned only to inciting more unrest or trauma by posting the latest thing that's happening. So I'll be honest with you, I'm jumping back off of social media a great deal. It's caused me a lot of angst ice I hear you, and I think, I mean, I definitely we should jump into this a little bit more of the specific ones that you wanted to talk about, But I definitely believe that a deep dive is necessary later for us to come back into it.

18:55 So what's on the top of your. Mind right now with regards to all this, Well. So one of the big topic that came up was that of the tariffs, because he said, We're going to, you know, put a tariff on China and they are going to pay for it, just like I said, Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Right. Well, you know that never happened. Neverppen. But the reason why I mentioned tariffs is because in the business the company I work for, we deal with tariffs. Our products are produced in China, so I know very well what happens. There's this misunderstanding when you interview the man on the street that they think China's going to pay for because that's the message that has been given to them by you know who, Yeah, that you know, we're going to make them pay for it. And it's like, no, they don't pay for it. They charge a tariff. So if I'm the company who's importing product from them, I as a company have to pay for it. But I'm not going to pay that tariff. I'm going to make my customers pay for it. So in our case, what happened during his first presidency, we say I'm gonna increase the tariffs. Now there's there's always been tariffs, but they've been relatively low. So prior to his first term, when we'd quote a customer, the tariff is kind of built into that, right, so we just gave him a price.

20:14 Here's the price of the product, and there you go. Well, when he raised the tariff in his first term, what we did was say, hey, customers, as you know, presidents increase the tariffs, and so for this particular order, randomly say the tariff charge is five thousand dollars. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna absorb half of that. So we're only gonna charge you half of that. That was in the beginning, but then with the pandemic, this thing dragged on way too long. So at some point we said, you know, it's a drag on, so sorry, customer, you're gonna have to pay the five thousand dollars tariff in the full amount. So the company can't afford to continue to absorb. Right right. It was a matter of you know, empathy, customer service. What they want to do. You want to keep your customers happy, like we're all in this together.

20:59 So in the beginning, you pay half, we'll pay half, you know, fair, okay, But then it dragged on. Then it went to we'd have them pay the full amount. Well, now, you know, we always include on our quote the product separate line out of tariff, et cetera. But then all the chatter about tariff's going up again, so customers are contacting us, Oh, well, you quoted us X back in January. So what's going to happen now? What I've seen on communication is that we will honor that amount that we put on the quote for X you know period of time. But let's say that same customer comes back to us next year. Because you know, the orders don't get processed right away. They might get a quote and it could be a year or two before they implement it.

21:43 So your quote's good for a year basically, or until. You yeah, it depends. Yeah, it's like nine months a year. You know. Sometimes they'll ask for like how long is this quote good for? And then we'll say, if it's January, might say it's good till the end of September or December or whatever. But let's say a year goes by, like way, we quoted this back in twenty two, twenty four, so we will update the quote, but it's now going to reflect the current tariff, right, So yeah, so that's kind of why we do it. But that's a long way of saying that the end consumer pays the tariff. Oh yeah, so China does not pay the tariff. I completely understanding that is applicable to quite a few borders in different countries, right, especially with Canada also who hit back and yeah, so a lot of these things that and I guess the thing that's interesting about these statements that he's making is that he starts them off and they actually who knows. I don't know where the one with China's going, but I think the one with Canada was actually rescinded for a number of days.

22:42 Both Canada and Mexico fought back and whatever, so he said, oh, we're there. It's on pause for thirty days and they're trying to figure out. So I haven't heard any other update, right. The problem with that is that he's claiming that as a win. Of course. Yeah, I think that's where unfortunately, like what I think, and I think our audience will also learn that we're probably going to start diving into this a bit more because it requires more information to be out there for more people to understand it. Not everyone is pursuing all the details that you're going into right now, Gary, with everything that we're going to talk about now and in the future. But we need to educate ourselves so we understand what's actually happening, because this whack a mole game is keeping us distracted and all those things being thrown out there. I aka Roy Cohen, who was the master of this, who taught this man how to do all of this, created all this chaos, and unfortunately it causes so much duress and trauma to us that we get inert and maybe don't react to certain things. So I mean, I hear you. I think, and what's interesting and what we'll talk about. I think with our next episode when we talk about possibly financial planning, is the big balloon of inflation that might be heading our way due to all of these increases in tariffs and whatever else he's doing.

23:57 Because when it comes to financial planning, I don't want to go down here. Now. It's how your portfolio is set up. If it's majorly in stock market right now, does it make sense to stay there if a large inflation balloon is coming because that will affect the stock market. So, yeah, you thought about that nugget, but I have it. It's another thing to consider. So not I don't want to go down that one, because we'll talk about it when we talk about financial planning and all that stuff that's required for us at this age. But yeah, what else you got? What else was on your mind with that? Well? I think the you know, going back to DOGE, that's another one. And all the departments and agencies they're going after it because obviously they're not only you know, forcing people out of their jobs without any Here's the thing that bothers me. It's like when Musk and the President were in the his office with recently last week, with a bunch of reporters asking them and Elon specifically about DOGE.

24:58 It's like, oh, about transparent? So if you go on the do's website. Well, I've not gone there personally, but people who have gone said it's one it's hard to find and two there's really nothing on there. So if you want transparency, put on the website. But there's nothing there to read. So we don't have any understanding of Like I said previously, I know audit is a great thing, right, but tell us what you found. Why are you suddenly firing two hundred thousand workers in the federal workers. You're going after the FBI and the CIA and asking for names of people of agents who worked on specific cases that really were going after Trump. Right, so he's on his vendetta tour.

25:45 Yes, I have a question though, and I guess maybe I don't know if you can answer this for me, because I question Elon's a private citizen, right is he able to as a privacist and have all this ability to do this? Well, he didn't go through a security background check, as nor did Jared Christian and all the others in the first round. But he's, according to President A like a special government employee because he doesn't have to be approved by Congress. He's not elected into it. It's a tempera appointent. Apparently I saw somewhere and it's heard a couple of times that he can only work one hundred and thirty days.

26:27 Yes, if they follow that. Yeah, And I guess it's you know, because well, obviously he's got multiple businesses that he runs. But here's the other thing is that some of the departments are many of the departments that he's going after. There was something a report of like they had over thirty two investigations into things against his company, and suddenly they're not investigating those anymore. And she is interesting now the government it has a contract with Tesla to spend four hundred million dollars on his toaster truck car.

27:09 That is yes. So the thing that's interesting to me is that, I mean, again, I guess so far it's legal. What's happening is that? Right well? Ending a bit the. Way he's going after different departments, it's like the way he's written in the Constitution. You may want to do that, but you have to get approval from Congress. So all that is just being swept aside. So where's the approval from Congress? So there, this is not truly legal. What's happening right Well, you've seen stories of different judges who have tried to stop certain of these because it's illegal or whatever, or put a pause on it, whether it's going after an agency or after a department. So there have been several judges who have done that. There's been groups of people who have filed class action suits.

28:00 I had this massive firing of the inspector generals. He fired seventeen inspector generals from various departments. They lead independent investigations, audits, or inspections when waste fraud abuse are suspected in the agencies they serve. So that's what they were already doing their job, and as bipartisan is to investigate the department and look for that. Well, he's fired all of them, and now he is doing at random, whack them mold, just knocking out all these departments. And I question what this billionaire's qualifications are other than being friends with the president. There entimelement I mean again again and also didn't indiscriminate, but I mean one another little tributary story I heard was about the employees who were fired from Yosemite.

28:48 Oh I had heard that one. Yeah, those people had all been let go to because of all and because of that, all the people that control the crowd regulation, the traffic in and out, a lot of those services are now going to be gone. So Yosemite actually could be quite overrun wow tourists, because there's no one there to monitor the ingoing, outgoing, the trash. All those things that keep the national park services running have been cut, so there's a lot more chaos. And I know that was a side note story, But the other thing I'd mentioned, you'd mentioned the website there was a website for clarity or transparency, you said, But they've actually changed that because I just was hearing on NPR yesterday that there's a new website coming up that actually goes in real time to update what's happening the transparency in regards to that process. Because at one point there was just a PDF that was produced once a day, that was sent out in the morning that basically didn't tell you anything. So now that transparency is changing a bit too. So there are things that people are doing to create transparency. The problem is, or the challenges a lot of us are not taking the time to educate ourselves again, right, and there is, but the thing is back to whack a mole. There's so much happening where where do you look, where you follow, what do you follow?

30:09 And then we have to start asking, like what can we do about these things? Because that, for me is going to be the next goal, like what can be done? And you know you mentioned about the anxiety and how people feel overwhelmed when I see interviews, whether through the news or I see posts on Instagram and such, where there are farmers and other folks who are directly feeling the impact of some of these changes, and you know, I feel badly because this is their livelihood. Now, on the other hand, it's like, well, you voted for you say you voted for him, but they feel deceived and it's like, that's not what you know he said, which is true, he said he's certain things. But then on the other he did say a lot of things that what he wanted to do. He didn't go to specifics.

30:58 He didn't say I'm going to shut down arms, right, but basically the impacts of some of the executive words and things that he's done is doing exactly that, and he's not done, and he's not done, So there's a whole lot of buyer's remorse. Yes, And also the true fallout hasn't truly hit yet. Right when I mentioned inflation and you'd mentioned tariffs and what that will mean to the consumers right in the next months to come, And who is. It going to impact is the lower and middle class all of us, and yet the elon Musks and the Basos and you know, they're all. The billionaires that will continue to do so. And I've heard the word oligarchy thrown around a lot. Yes, for now, because basically this is what's taking place. I know we're going really deep and dark right now, but it's something that you want to talk about because we feel I think Gary you'll agree with me that we're kind of trying just to throw some education out there, just some information in case you haven't had a chance to look at things and start thinking about this, because it can be overwhelming. But the oligarch is basically a class of people rule, rich people rule everything, right, that's the base gist of it.

32:07 But yeah, yeah, but the question is what can we do. There's an article written by someone who said that what he's witnessing in terms of protests here and maybe lawsuits there, they're kind of all disjointed. There's no unity and strength in the fight back against everything that's been happening. There isn't one person or one agency that's kind of taking the charge. But I think, like I said, everyone, we're all so overwhelmed. There's so much coming. Ask where do you start? Because I could be impacted by four different things going on, and it's like which battle do you fight?

32:48 And what can I do as one one voice? Because he's already in the he's already got the job, So what can we do. I mean they say, oh, at the two year mark, you can you know, vote out some of your congress people like, well, they're not having any power now or do anything. So well, again, I mean just to backtrack a little bit because at one point, remember before we took a break for the season, you had mentioned why some of the reasons why we believed that the Democratic presidential Canada did not win. Yeah, because they weren't truly speaking to the people that made a difference in the voting, right. Also concerning I know, we're going through a lot of stuff, but I mean if you look at the actual results of people who voted, there was a lot of people that didn't even bother voting.

33:29 Right, which is the case in any election. True, True, more people did vote, but unfortunately not more people that would make a difference. Right. So there's a lot happening and a lot to be concerned about. So I'll try and add a little levity too some of the things that he wants to do or intends to do, you know, because all these others are so serious, but some just seems so silly. Like Kennedy Center honors, you know, celebrates the arts in all the different formats, and they always do a big event in a big award ceremony. They pick like seven or so different artists from different areas and they celebrate them in his televised it's a big thing. He fired the board president and named himself as the president, and then he fired all the board members and brought in his people, including the vice president's wife and some other folks. Just like in his cabinets. All the people he's picking are ones who you know, support him, kiss the ring whatever.

34:36 Until he doesn't need them anymore, and then go away and they're either not paid or he just turns on them. Right thing, It's like, how many people are going to come to Kennedy Honors? Can you only bring Kerrie Underwood and Kid Rocks so many times? Right? Right? So you'll see a definite They're still going to be artists who you know, maybe maybe you know like a carry into what I would say, she's she's she would deserve to be an onor ree if you will. Some of those I don't know. But by the way, she got a lot of flak for. I hope. So Kid Rock is already in the way out, but who. Gets no But see, because I had this conversation with a friend of mine, I said, yeah, I mean this particular inauguration to sing for him, I understand, But at the same time, it's like I think, maybe what she's doing it more for the country to to bring a little unity. No, okay, well next have that.

35:31 I don't care never. I will never listen to her music. She was a product. Wow. Okay, see that's at the top of my list in terms of love. I know. But it's like where you're talking Abou Kennedy Honors, and its like we kind of went down because you know, how many people are going to actually accept that invitation now except people that want to kiss the ring because most artists, a lot of people have walked away from the people who had acted booked there canceled them, right, A lot of people have walked out. Of course, nominees in the past have been quite substantial in the Hollywood, in the arts, artists, musicians who it's going to be very interesting to see who accepts these invitations going forward. Oh right, right, how they will be canceled. So yeah, but you know, the whole cancel culture thing is well.

36:14 That's one of our episodes that's in the vault that we're going to pull out in season two. Yeah, cancel culture. A couple of the things he wants. He's going after MSNBC and CBS to like get rid of them. Really, could they maybe have aired a story that was like criticizing him. I don't know, is that the I think I mentioned this earlier bit. But the things like changing the name of Golf of Mexico to Golf of America, changing the name of green well, we want to by Greenland, which is you know, run by the country, and change it to red, white and blue Land, like.

36:59 It sounds like an amusement. Park, right. Uh, the Gaza strip where he oh, we're just going to move to how two million Palestinian people off the land and then we're going to clean it up and make it the riv era of the mill ef So. Those two things you just mentioned, do people really believe that's going to happen? Are people so blinded that they believe this? Well, the ones who follow him, yes, But the reactions from other world leaders. Yea, Canada has been pummeling him. Mexico, that woman she is standing up to him. Obviously, he's alienated many, if not all, of our European allies. But there are also all around.

37:47 The held is taking all American products and putting them on the bottom shelf. In store or taking them off the shelf, like the bourbon or whatever off the shelf. And then like they supply energy to certain states in the h east upper east side of the country of the US, and they're threatening the like, well, just cut off the electrics. I mean, there are things that you're doing and. I'm like, keep becoming I'll buy a candle. Yeah, so you know, basically pardon my friends, but you're shitting on your friends. Yeah yeah, right. Canada, Mexico, Europe. I'm I don't know. And and Congress is not doing anything.

38:32 And that's I guess where I find the most trauma is like, what in our organized government is possible to push back to get reason back in place, or at least reviewing what's taking place before it actually happens before someone like an like must can go and fire thousands and thousands of people, right, Like, what are the the stop gaps? Where is reason coming back into And that's where I get concerned. Well, one phrase I've heard of there are no guardrails. Yeah, yeah, there's no guardrails. It's just it's a free for all and it's being allowed to happen now. Granted, you know, people and individuals and groups are finding back where they can, but their voices, I don't think are being heard loud enough.

39:23 Have you read anything about anyone getting together? I know, I mean there's been a lot of press about political rallies and you know, people staging protests and things like that, but those only have so much power, right impact, and it's got to be more on the government level. But I haven't heard anything yet, I read about anything yet. I mean, I'll see after the fact. Oh in this city, you know, they blocked off the streets and did this and that. Honestly, living in San Francisco, I never hear in advance of any protests coming up. Really, I should see them on the news after the fact, like, oh, I didn't know that of it. Know where they're protesting front of the city hall or they're blocking Here's how I found out about one protest when I was still driving up to San Refel across the Golden Gate Bridge to go to work, driving in the morning, and suddenly all the traffic has stopped on the approach to the bridge.

40:15 I'm thinking, oh, maybe there's an accident, right, you know what happens, and then police cars start showing up, and of course more cars keep coming coming and there's nowhere to go. You can't get out of the lane you're in. And eventually I saw through my rearview mirror that there was police were directing people the back to turn around, and you went the wrong way on the off ramp to get off that portion of the approach to get back on the city streets. So eventually got my turn. Maybe you turn went the wrong way, but you know, with guidance from the police, it's because it was protesters for whatever it was that time. I forget. They not only just blocked the traffic on the bridge where the cars go, but they cemented themselves two different things, so or chained themselves. You couldn't just like pick them up and drag them to the side. It involved machinery and you know, love cutting. So I ended up getting home I think about three or four hours later. Oh so I was basically stuck in traffic for like three hours and then because we couldn't go anywhere. So I hear about it after the fact. Had I known on my drive to work that those arena protests that hell, no, I'm working in from home today.

41:37 Huh. So you know, but to your point, yeah, it's gonna be protests, but are they organized? Are they people hearing about it? Does it have an impact? It might depending on what it is and how many people are there and who listens. Right, So I guess one of our jobs is to keep a positive note and maybe try and find more good nuggets out there of people doing well. Please if you have any good nuggets right now, because I feel like a Debbie Downer right now. No, it's not. It's a little those of reality. And you know, we didn't want to come in here just all doom and gloom, but we did want to also, you know, show you our listeners and viewers that we are concerned and we're trying to find ways to be involved, but also probably most trying to educate ourselves and illuminate things that are going on. So hopefully this will be helpful in some ways. So you can take a look at yourselves and see how you're gathering your information what you want to do with it.

42:38 And it was so much coming at us. Maybe you pick the one or two areas that maybe directly impact or may impact you, and do some research on that and see what can I do. Maybe you don't have to leave the effort, but you can find out, Oh there's this meeting or this protest coming up, maybe I can do something there. I mean, I don't know. There are ways to also boycott through consumerism and non consumerism, depending on what is being affected. I don't know. Yeah, if we talk about another episode, that was an article I found on that. But I mean, we are now probably at. Our saturation point, saturation point. But it's good that we're talking about these things, Gary, because I'd be honest with you, I was very shook. I was shook when this all started happening. And just a side note, I mentioned that briefly, Palm Springs is actually seeing quite a bit escalation in bullying and some a lot of racial slurs taking place in the LGBTQ plus community out there. That's where we spend a lot of time. But also there's been they've been a lot, a lot of local businesses have been targeted.

43:48 There have been some crazy, crazy people out there doing some really bad things and not being held accountable. So what good thing hits come out of that? Really quickly is that the local community in Cathedral City got together and protested the person that was creating this. There was one individual who's creating a lot of issues by using their bullhorn in their front yard and backyard. Oh constantly they would call the bullhorn bully and I'm using them as a non binary because I'm not going to single them out because there are more than two genders. So yeah, that person actually was finally cited after a lot of pressure from the community to the police department in Cathedral City to take action, which didn't happen. So some good things can happen after protests and bringing awareness to the community, so it can be done.

44:41 I don't know if I mentioned this to you before we start recording band. I don't know if I mentioned it during the courting really quickly on DOGE and the impact of that. So you know, they are going after federal agencies on different areas. But recently, I want to say last week here in San Francisco City Hall, they were a group of people who showed up wearing mega hats and DOGE T shirts visiting various departments within city Hall said around noon on Friday, demanding that employees turn over digital information related to alleged wasteful government spending in fraud. Turns out they were scammers. Luckily, the employees of those departments said, we're not giving you nothing, and instead they called the sheriff because the sheriff is within city hall and they do rounds. By the time they got there physically, those people had fled. So they're checking video surveillance see if thing track them down. But they said that Doge.

45:39 They said, the exact mission of which seems entirely up to Musk's capricious moods and conspiracies, is only focused on federal government spending and would not have any business in San Francisco City Hall. So these people, these scammers, didn't do their homework. They went into a city hall in San Francisco and give me your the We need to check for a waist. But thankfully those employees are like, you know, they gave them the finger and the road if the road jack. Yeah, So there's definitely going to be with all this going on, you know, there's going to be impersonator impersonators and scammers. You're going to get a phone call or an email or something that is going to think you're being targeted, but you know, and it's nine times out of ten it's going to be a scam, right, So that's another thing that comes out of things like this, And they could get some vulner like we warned my mom all the time, like never give any personal information or the phone or whatever, and lucky she's been good about it. But you just never know that there could be someone at home who could oh, yeah, here's my here's my bank account number, here's that you know, and everything gets just destroyed. So anyway, more conversations that follow on and we'll be.

46:58 Promise to light enough a little bit in the episodes to come. We do have some things in the ball to anybody got time for this interviews which we had back which is we still in the ball we have to release. Those will be fun. One of them I will say is I'm looking forward to while we already recorded it is a guest who is we are? She and I are cousins and she's also when you're growing up YouTube are next door neighbors? Yes, And for our long time listeners from here and three ps we mentioned a couple of times here and there big Angie as your next door neighbor. Well, this is my cousin Elena, who is big Anngie's daughter. She lives on the East Coast. We've not seen her in years, so this was a lovely reunion for the three of us.

47:42 So that's a really fun episode. We have a guest who appeared twice on three p's and is joining us for the first time on Don and Gary because he's a member of the sixty club now, so that's that's fun. And then we mentioned cancel Culture. So these are some episodes that are already recorded. They're coming up soon. Uh. You mentioned this couple of episodes we're when we talk about one is if you haven't done already at our age, I think you should already have in your vault a living trust, a will, whatever, arrangements for your next lifetime. So that's a topical conversation I have because you and I are both talking about we're updating our living trusts and things. So we'll talk about that and uh, and more to come, yes, and more guests.

48:33 And a little more lighthearted is coming your way too. We're just going to keep ourselves. Yes, please, I can't. I can't do things then, yes, but we're so good at it, so are we really to shut this down. Shut it down. Don okay, let's shut it down. So thank you for joining us for season Dewey or season and Billy and Billy and Billy for season two of Donning Gary doing sixty. You can find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. As carry said, also on Instagram and of course on YouTube. Visit on the year June sixty. Please join us next time as we navigate the deep waters of getting older, sometimes in the light boat for the.

49:14 Whole Wow that doesn't send bromstick. Although we've got a cork. I've got a cork, and. I'm not right. We'll put a cork in the plug. And on that note, we'll see you next time. We'll see you next time. By Gary N.