Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Ep 718 | Separately Together

Episode Date: September 28, 2021

Facebook says Instagram not toxic for teens… Pausing Instagram for kids right now… TikTok passes a billion users / should you be one?...   Plumbing Poverty… Email on Coke Zero ruse… Email o...n Antonio Soprano… Subscribe to the YouTube Channel… Email to Chewingthefat@theblaze.com Subscribe www.blazetv.com/jeffy Promo code jeffy… Goliath / Tiger King 2… FedEx rerouting packages… USPS slowing down and going up… Walmart losing layaway… Amazon new fee for food… Costco using ships… Blackstone sells Cosmopolitan 5.65 Billion... CAA and ICM Partners join… Airlines want to join forces… Unvaxxed and the Vaxxed… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca. slash Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. So Facebook has said that the report from Wall Street Journal
Starting point is 00:00:40 saying that Instagram was toxic for teens, they claim that is not true. You know, but we're going to go ahead and pause our Instagram for kids' version that we were planning on doing. You know, I sure Wall Street Journal had that leaked document. from 2019 that showed where Facebook acknowledged, we make body image issues worse for one in three teens. So that doesn't prove anything.
Starting point is 00:01:14 We're not toxic for teens. And sure, we were talking about having an Instagram for kids, you know, under 13. But we're going to go ahead and pause that for right now. That's not the reason, though. That's not the reason at all. we're just putting it on hold for now because we've decided that it's not quite right. Okay.
Starting point is 00:01:40 So don't start coming after me like that. Did I mention that TikTok now passes a billion users per month? A billion users per month on TikTok. Remember earlier this year, we talked about the report from The Bleeding Edge. and Jeff Brown where he talked about how the Chinese-owned bit dance or bite dance,
Starting point is 00:02:09 whatever they go by, B-Y-T-E-D-A-N-C-E dance, was fine for violating child privacy laws here in the U.S. And it turns out, according to Jeff Brown and Bleeding Edge, that it's even worse than what he was talking about a few months ago.
Starting point is 00:02:30 a researcher reverse engineered TikTok and determined exactly what information was being sent back to bite dance or bit dance. The app collects everything about the user's phone. It documents the phone's hardware specs and every app that's been downloaded. It pings the phone's GPS location roughly every 30 seconds. That means TikTok tracks exactly where all its users are. at all times.
Starting point is 00:03:02 TikTok also knows which Wi-Fi networks its users connect to. It documents the address of the router as well as every other device connected to each network. And if that wasn't scary enough according to Jeff and
Starting point is 00:03:17 his group, TikTok has written its software code to allow it to potentially it's not saying that it could do that is doing it. It could potentially do it. Download software to Android phones and then run that software without the user's knowledge or consent. And the software could do anything, malware or surveillance software. Pretty sure, that's illegal, though.
Starting point is 00:03:43 So they wouldn't do that. Duh. And of course, the information all goes back to, I don't know, China. So according to Jeff and Bleeding Edge, this is way worse than way worse, far worse. than anything Google or Facebook do. Okay. We'll see about that. And we know that, you know,
Starting point is 00:04:08 TikTok is generating attention. India has banned it, along with 58 other China-based apps. Indian officials went so far as to say that these apps were a direct threat to national security and defense. And we were looking into doing something like that with TikTok for about a minute in this country.
Starting point is 00:04:28 And then that went, away. So when people say, you should probably get rid of that TikTok and use, you know, Instagram or Snapchat or Facebook, if you're going to use one of these social media apps, but not TikTok. Yeah, that, that argument is out the window. Did I mention that TikTok has over a billion users a month? Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat. You know what that is? That is Moink bacon. I know.
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Starting point is 00:07:36 That's one year of the best bacon you'll ever taste. For a limited time, go to moinkbox.com slash Jeffie right now. Spelled M-O-I-N-K, box.com slash J-E-F-F-F-Y. Moinkbox.com slash Jeffie. See you at the frying pan. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Let's get down to business. Winkbox.com slash Juffy.
Starting point is 00:08:19 Now, I see this story, and it makes me question truthfulness. There's a lot of stories that we read and that we talk about here on chewing the fat that makes one question truthfulness. This story. Almost half a million U.S. households lack indoor plumbing. The conditions, according to this headline, the conditions are inhumane. Well, okay. All right.
Starting point is 00:08:56 I guess I'll give you that. Now, they break down, they talk about San Francisco, and they talk about one lady and her seven-year-old daughter who live in a tight studio in San Francisco's Chinatown in a century-old building where 60 or so residents on each floor share a bathroom. So there's one bathroom on each floor. Okay.
Starting point is 00:09:24 Along the back wall of the room is a plastic potty, the kind designed for toilet training toddlers. The shared bathrooms are out of order so often, so rank and unhygienic. that she usually, they're quoting this lady in the story, uses a plastic potty instead. It's safer and she uses it, you know, in her apartment, I guess, and then does a bathroom run at night,
Starting point is 00:09:48 which is what people used to do. Remember the phrase, don't have a pot to piss in? That was back in the day when there wasn't any plumbing, you know, for everyone. And I can remember my grandparents' farmhouse. having an outhouse, not having a bathroom when I was a really little kid. I don't remember, I remember if they had a, and I should say this, I remember pictures of their old farmhouse with a, with an outhouse. Because I don't remember using it.
Starting point is 00:10:27 Anyway, and I remember in my grandparents' home, the one house that they had in the city where they had one bathroom. So many houses just had one bathroom. And, you know, it was two stories. They had a couple bedrooms upstairs. So if you stayed the night, you had a night body where you would, that you would use
Starting point is 00:10:50 if you had to, you know, go to the bathroom and then you would bring it down and, you know, empty it in the morning, cleared it in the morning because there was only one bathroom. Now, you could go all the way downstairs in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. but why?
Starting point is 00:11:06 So they say in this story that half a million households lack basic indoor plumbing with renters and people of color in some of the country's wealthiest and fastest growing cities most likely to be living without running water or flushing toilets. Oh, okay, so they're most likely. Now, there's a big long list
Starting point is 00:11:32 of households without indoor plumbing in the 50 biggest U.S. cities. And number one appears to be San Francisco. They claim that there's 14,787 households without piped water. That's 0.9% of the population. In San Francisco. 0.6% in Portland. 0.5% in Milwaukee and San Antonio. 0.4% goes all the way down from Austin, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Memphis, New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, Seattle, Nashville, Sacramento, Houston, Boston, Richardson, Riverside, Pittsburgh.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Nope, Riverside's the last one. Pittsburgh is 0.3%. And you get 0.3% almost all the way down to the last 2, 4, 6, 7 cities. and that's 0.2% starting with Washington, D.C., Tampa, Charlotte, Hartford, Jacksonville, and New Orleans, and all the other cities in between, they're, you know, pretty big cities. They have 0.3% with 3,000. Wow, Philadelphia. Let's see, who has the most. San Francisco has the most with 14,000.
Starting point is 00:12:44 No, I apologize, San Francisco. You're not number one. You're number one in the percentage of population, but you're not number one in population. New York is number one, of course, with 26,931 people estimated households without piped water. San Francisco, Los Angeles has 17,586. Who has 9,000? There was one I saw that had 9,000. Chicago, right?
Starting point is 00:13:18 All right. And there's a few that are 3,000. Detroit has 5,000. in Miami has over 7,000, according to this, estimated households without piped water. Man, that has got to, if this is true, and I know that this is, you know, I'm not saying it's not true. I'm saying that it's probably less than truthful. I know that they blame this on affordable housing, declining incomes, post-recession transformations, wealth gaps, black urbanization.
Starting point is 00:13:58 It's all based on the racialization of America. According to this, black people made up 9% of San Francisco's population, but accounted for 17% of households without indoor plumbing. So they were 17% of the 0.9% of the people who didn't have water, piped in water. Okay, you got me. I know that this has to do from research from the plumbing poverty project,
Starting point is 00:14:34 a collaboration between King's College London and the University of Arizona. While some rural and indigenous communities have never had indoor plumbing, the vast majority of unplumbed Americans are in fact found in urban areas. I want to go, I don't ever remember in my life knowing someone who didn't have running
Starting point is 00:15:02 water. I mean, I, you know, I'm going to talk about camping or, you know, a cabin somewhere, but I don't remember anyone. I mean, we didn't have any money in it. We were living in, you know, a little crappy house with, you know, two bedrooms and one bathroom but there was a toilet, a sink, and a bathtub, and there was a kitchen sink to wash dishes in. I don't remember there was a faucet outside for a hose. So, I mean, we had running water.
Starting point is 00:15:36 It wasn't unplumbed. And I don't remember, I mean, I remember the first time I was in a house, I think, and they had two bathrooms. And now you're talking about living large. Now you're talking
Starting point is 00:16:00 about America, my friends, two bathrooms. You can't, nobody can live that good. No one could live that good. You can't even walk by a house. Well, I guess you can.
Starting point is 00:16:12 In these places, you can't walk by houses that don't have more than two bathrooms. but, you know, some people, let me just say that. Some people can't walk through their neighborhoods without seeing a house with at least three or four bathrooms. You just go ahead and, you know, look through the for sale lists in America. And, boy, especially here in Texas, man.
Starting point is 00:16:42 Wow, you can't, you know, you can't, you look at houses and you're like, oh my gosh, that only has three bathrooms? What? No, the house, no, that can't happen. We've got to have a couple upstairs and two downstairs. I do you, any of your mind? What are we in caveman days? But apparently some places are,
Starting point is 00:17:07 and it's really sad if this is true. But you think many of these buildings, like these buildings they talk about in San Francisco, that have one bathroom on a floor. That's, you know, that's back in the 1800s. Have we not evolved past them? Where's the city inspectors? I mean, I thought we were supposed to be checking.
Starting point is 00:17:27 We've got shutting buildings down because they think they're going to crumble in Miami. But we've got buildings in San Francisco that have one bathroom, a floor. Come on now. All right, let's go to the break room. I need something cold to drink desperately. Oh, man, I got something out.
Starting point is 00:17:44 of something in my plumed home. Oh, so good. All right, speaking of Coca-Cola Zero, I talked yesterday about finding a couple of bottles that were the old black labels, but the cans are still are the new Coke Zero red labels for sure. But I got an email yesterday. I got a couple emails, actually,
Starting point is 00:18:14 that I'm going to refer to today. I've got several emails. obviously every freaking day at chewing the fat at the blaze.com. But this particular email from Bill said, Jeffie, first 20 stars best podcast ever. You can quote me on that. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate you listening.
Starting point is 00:18:32 He making sure that I know that he knows he's aware of the rules of chewing the fat subscribership. But second, he said, be warned. Coke is pawting off all the old packaging. I thought I had found a cash. of old stock. Turns out they used the old black box to put red cans in.
Starting point is 00:18:54 Bastards. Six 12 packs. Keep up all the good work. I'll find it a suitable substitute for the Coke Zero. If you find a suitable substitute for Coke Zero, let us all know. The new stuff is just not as refreshing. I know. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:19:11 I know. Now, I will say this. That should be illegal. Coca-Cola. That should be illegal and he had a picture of the packaging and the red cans of the packaging so i have no reason to doubt him there was actual photographic evidence that should be illegal for coca cola to be packaging their old coke black zero boxes and putting the red cans in there that should be that should be against the law there should be an arrest made at coca cola headquarters Absolutely.
Starting point is 00:19:51 The other email I got from Helen said talking to me about the many saints of Newark, which drops this Friday on HBO and at the theaters. And I'm excited as the prequel to the Sopranos. And I've gone on record as saying I hate all the promos that continue with the Antonio Soprano, because it's not Antonio freaking Sopranos. who was Anthony Soprano forever and ever during the HBO Sopranos series. Now, in this email, Helen goes on to say, way back many years ago, I lived in New York. I attended Catholic school.
Starting point is 00:20:31 My classmates were Irish and Italian. In elementary school, the nuns called students by the name that they were given at baptism. Many of the Italian students had old world names. In some cases, their parents were first or second generation, U.S. citizens. They chose names that were common in their family. So little Antonio went to school and was known as Antonio for eight years. Then came high school. The boys have grown a foot over summer.
Starting point is 00:20:54 Their voices had changed. Surprisingly, their names had changed too. Antonio was now Anthony. He wanted to fit in. He wanted to have some distance from his immigrant family. He wanted to be white bread. Yes, a boy can start out as Antonio and become Anthony. And now you know the rest of the story, Helen.
Starting point is 00:21:13 Helen, I hope you're correct. and I absolutely want them to address it in the movie. I hope that's true. That it was Antonio and he, you know, obviously changed. That was his baptismal name or that was his name that he was given at birth and he hated it. And some guy called him Antonio and he killed him. And now he's Anthony. Okay, I'm okay with that.
Starting point is 00:21:41 But they better address it. I cannot take him being called Antonio for. through the whole movie and with no addressing it at all. That will not happen. I will burn the house down. Well, somebody else's house. I'm not going to burn my house down. And you know what I found out yesterday that I didn't even realize had dropped on Amazon
Starting point is 00:22:01 was Goliath, season four. I thought season three was the final season, especially since it, you know, was with the COVID. But Billy Bob Thornton has dropped on Amazon the latest Goliath series. there's eight episodes. What, I mean, that was such a great surprise. I couldn't believe I had missed it. And so if you, if you have not seen Goliath on Amazon, the first, I mean, every season has been great. The third season was really, really, really different.
Starting point is 00:22:33 And this season is proving to be a lot different as well. So if you haven't seen the series, start with season one and just knock them out because it's well worth it. Bob Thornton is great and he's got a surrounding cast that is tremendous and just enjoy it. It's a lot of fun. He's an attorney and, you know, he has his own demons to struggle with. Speaking of demons as well, you know what else I saw? That is incredible that I don't think will, it's not even going to come close to what the original was, but Tiger King, season two. I know.
Starting point is 00:23:13 You thought, no, that's not possible. yes, it's possible. Tiger King's Season 2 premieres November 17th on Netflix. Unbelievable. I mean, it was amazing the rollout of Tiger King.
Starting point is 00:23:31 It could not have been any better, clearly, the beginning of the pandemic. Everybody was at home, concerned, and there was Tiger King for us to watch. I mean, I don't, without the pandemic, I don't believe I would have made it through the whole thing. Maybe that's not true either because I'm me. But it was tough to get through a few and number of those episodes.
Starting point is 00:23:55 And it really wasn't that good. But, you know, they show clips of our man in prison. So I don't know if the whole thing is going to be, you know, him narrating from prison. But it's coming out, Tiger King, too. So there's something to look forward to. Right? Right. the three ensemble
Starting point is 00:24:19 Cichora of the FACET that I've been to deniches who are the many of time? Mm, it's the ensemble. The format
Starting point is 00:24:24 standard and mini regrouped, that's all over. And the embellage, too be able that's pretty to do you. And I know
Starting point is 00:24:30 I'd they'd be these Summer Fridays and Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez. I'm just the most both ensembal
Starting point is 00:24:37 the fairos of the fair beauty, way, CeporaCylac and other parts of the VIT Procurate
Starting point is 00:24:44 and Mereupto for a Mereuble for a C4 or Magazin. All right, let's talk a little business, shall we? We touched last week on FedEx, rerouting, rerouting, if I could say it properly, more than 600,000 business packages a day. It can't find enough workers to process them at some sites.
Starting point is 00:25:15 So they're estimating their labor shortage is costing about $450 million a quarter. Wow, that is incredible. And if it's affecting FedEx, it's affecting FedEx, it's affecting. all delivery companies. They're rerouting more than 600,000 business packages each day, which is just amazing. So the competition for frontline workers for them have driven wages, higher. The company spent around $7.8 billion on employee salaries and benefits in the quarter,
Starting point is 00:25:53 up 13% from the same time period last year. they announced plans to hire another additional 90,000 workers for peak season. Good luck finding those 90,000. I mean, it used to be, hey, we're going to hire an additional, you know, tens of thousands of people for the holiday and everybody's knocking on the door. Now they're just hoping that people will show up and help them meet the demand. You had the United States Postal Service, which I wish they'd just call and put me in charge of this damn place.
Starting point is 00:26:28 But the mail delivery is they're talking about it going to get slower. So they're saying the U.S. Postal Service is going to get even slower. They're going to implement new service standards for first class mayor, mail, and periodicals. And the changes mean an increased time in transit for mail delivering, traveling long distances, such as New York to California. So most first-class mail, 61% and periodicals 93% will be unaffected by the changes. Okay. A single-piece first-class mail traveling within the same region will still have a delivery time of two days. But the Postal Service defines first-class mail as a standard-sized lettered and flats.
Starting point is 00:27:16 That's different from first-class packages, which are typically used for shipping smaller, lightweight packages. currently first-class mail and first-class packages have the same delivery standards, but that is what's going to go ahead and start changing. Lewis de Joy, Postmaster General in March, you know, had this plan drawn and it drew heavy criticism, but it looks like it's still going on. I love it in the story, the position of Postmaster General is not appointed or nominated by the president, but rather appointed by the Independent Postal Service Board of Governors.
Starting point is 00:27:53 Yeah, and I want to know that these stories all are now saying this thanks to me, pointing it out. You are welcome for adding to your knowledge of the world and the Postal Service. Because I always, I said all along, I wanted to be the Postmaster General. And then I found out that the Postmaster General answers to the Board of Governors. That's who you want to be, is one of the governors. They can't. I mean, those jobs are almost like the Supreme Court. I mean, once you're on the board of governors, you're there. And the Postmaster General is doing what you say.
Starting point is 00:28:34 Postmaster General is just the guy out front. But the Board of Governors is the people you want to be. I've done a whole special on this. And I just, you're welcome. That's all I'm saying. You're welcome. So they talk about how. the Postal Service has been riddled with financial problems over the years.
Starting point is 00:28:54 Yeah. That's why the AD should have put me in charge. I could have helped them through it. I still have some ideas and some plans that would help the Postal Service through it. I got it. But, you know, that one seems to want to, you know, call me. And I've got plenty of ideas for the future. And it's not going to be, you know, just looking at the backyard of those postal service.
Starting point is 00:29:16 If you look at the backyard of those post offices, all you see is those old blue mailboxes. Things need to change. And there's no question. Some things need to change. And they all talk about, you know, drive time greater than six hours is a problem. Un attainable forces rely on air transportation,
Starting point is 00:29:38 unreliable service. You know, well, FedEx is still coming to the table, and they're rerouting 600,000 packages a day. And they're still coming to the table. And I know that the postal service, you know, they all go on about their business saying, the mail never stops. It just continues on.
Starting point is 00:29:59 Correct. It does. But there's some ways to help that along. And just call me. It's all I'm asking. Just give me a call. You can email me, chewing the fat at the blaze.com. Or you know what?
Starting point is 00:30:11 You can direct message me on Twitter at Jeffrey JFR. You can message me on Facebook or Instagram. Jeff Fisher Radio. You know, whatever you'd like. That's fine. You can leave a message for me on my YouTube channel, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. Whatever. Whatever you'd like.
Starting point is 00:30:27 And I'll get back to you and I'll give you some of my ideas. You know, not for free. Tire to giving my ideas away for free. And let's go to Walmart. Walmart has a great idea. What's been one of the biggest, coolest things that Walmart has done over the years? I think it's make, bring the latest. away planned back. I love that.
Starting point is 00:30:52 You know, over the holidays, people are able to lay away items and make payments on it so their kids can have the Christmas or the birthday or whatever the case is, whatever you're doing the layaway for. And then, you know, there's always a few of those evil rich people that come along over the holidays and pay everybody's layaway and say, Merry Christmas and, you know, it's been a special thing. Well, it's been so special that Walmart is going to ahead and do away with the layaway now wait what yeah uh we we can't do that anymore we weren't charging for it that's a buy now pay later program and then you know now we're just we're going to get out of a program that is uh we're going to charge people you know interest we
Starting point is 00:31:35 have a deal with a firm that's a buy now pay later service that we don't have to we've partnered with them and we're just going to phase uh you know phrase phase out that layaway it's It's just we've had enough. Wait, what? Yeah, we're scrapping the layaway program. Wow. So times are getting tough. People are really struggling
Starting point is 00:32:00 coming out of the other end of this pandemic and we're going to take away the layaway program for people. Okay. So instead of having stores hold items from late August through mid-December while customers make payments until paid in full. Shoppers can now take the item home immediately and pay it off with a firm.
Starting point is 00:32:24 Unlike layaway purchase made with a firm, with a firm that may charge customers' interest, duh, and you know that they're going to, that means they're going to have to check your credit. And they talk about on here that customers can have an API rate on purchases of 10 to 30% depending on their credit. Right. So there's going to be interest charged depending on your credit.
Starting point is 00:32:49 Well, the reason that people have bad credit, that's why they're doing the layaway plan. They can't afford that. And not all customers are going to be eligible to use a firm because of their pre-qualification status. Wow. And purchases ranging from $144 or $2,000. And that excludes items like alcohol, groceries and food, personal care products, pets, obliged. Yeah, that was going to be part of the, that was.
Starting point is 00:33:16 going to exclude it in the layaway program as well, I guess. Just amazing that they're going to get rid of this layaway program. And that's a big deal for people. And I don't think that's a good move. That is not a good customer move. It does not a good look for Walmart, not one little bit. Amazon Prime is going to go ahead and start charging a delivery fee for Whole Foods deliveries. Yeah, we were letting you get that for free for a while.
Starting point is 00:33:45 but no more. Every order that's placed on Amazon Prime is going to include a $9.95 delivery charge. That's going to start at the end of October. Okay. Yeah, that free perk that usually came with paying Prime members who already pay the prime membership. Yeah, it's not for the Whole Foods thing anymore.
Starting point is 00:34:06 No, the Prime benefits keep getting diluted every year. We just need to rethink this whole thing. Okay. All right. So, I mean, if you have food delivered two or three times a month, that's jumping the fees. That's paying some extra money. So, okay, Jeff, I know you want to pay for your space program, but, you know, maybe there might be another way. But, you know, whatever. I see a big story on Costco talking about renting three container ships and several thousand containers to shield itself from supply chain delays and rising costs, which I guess is okay. They talked about how it's renting its own containerships to import products from Asia and US and Canada,
Starting point is 00:34:58 and it wants to sidestep the global shipping crisis and shield itself from shortages and rising costs. It's also renting several thousand containers. Isn't that called a warehouse? I'm a little, I'm a little perplexed. why that is such a big deal. I mean, okay, so they're renting a container ship. All right. So that means it's their ship, I guess,
Starting point is 00:35:23 and not belonging to someone else. I thought the backup was getting the ships into port. It wasn't whether to have the ships. The backup was getting the ships to port and then getting the delivery from the port to the stores or the warehouses, and then the warehouses to the store, right? It was that whole chain of delivery.
Starting point is 00:35:45 It wasn't having the ships. The ships are waiting out there with stuff. I'm not quite sure I understand why this is a bonus for them. I mean, I get it. I guess it's not a bad thing. Of course, you want your own merchandise on your ships. But how does having your own container ship make it better? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:36:11 I don't have to have that unexperienced. to me a little bit more because, you know, once you get the merchandise, you're the most important part of that process is getting it from the ship to your warehouse. Once it's there, then you are able to deliver it to stores, you know, as well as you can, right? I mean, you could have, you know, obviously it could be slow because you need drivers and delivery people, but it's still your property. While this is still your property on the ship, that's not, I mean, it's got to come into port, right?
Starting point is 00:36:50 It's really not real sure I understand. And I know the government doesn't understand. I mean, we have our White House spokesman saying that it's unfair and absurd that companies would raise cost for consumers due to high taxes. You're being lied to. And I don't know that you're being lied to. There's no way that they could believe that. There's no way that anyone in their right mind believes that companies are going to get charged higher taxes and not pay those, have those costs passed on to you, the consumer.
Starting point is 00:37:23 It's just that's unfair and absurd. It's not the other way around. But in today's world, I guess we're, it's the other way around. Okay, you got me. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my? My list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. At just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss? Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at
Starting point is 00:37:58 Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners find fabulous for less. So we talked a little bit yesterday about the Moon Hotel in Vegas that they're proposing and they're saying that it would be, you know, over $5 billion. And I was saying, no way that that makes $5 billion. That's an underestimate. You know, way you get that done for less than, you know, at least $8 billion, maybe $10 billion. Well, if nothing else proves that point, today we see a, story where Blackstone has reached an agreement to sell the Cosmopolitan Casino and Hotel on the Vegas Strip for $5.6.5 billion.
Starting point is 00:39:03 Okay. They bought it seven years ago for $1.8 billion. They spent an additional half a billion on upgrades and they rent a. The nearly 3,000 guest rooms. They built some luxury suites, and they added some new restaurants and bars. So the total profits for the sale would be about $4.1 billion, including cash flow from the property's operations. So the company made back nearly 10 times the amount of equity it had invested in the Cosmopolitan. That's pretty good.
Starting point is 00:39:43 That's pretty good. Now there's the deal separates ownership. of the property from the hotel and casino operations, which is being sold to MGM Resorts International for $1.625 billion, partnership that includes a Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust is acquiring the property for about $4 billion. I'm going to read that right. The deal separates ownership of the property from the hotel and casino operations, which are being sold to MGM Resorts International for $1.625 billion. So the partnership that includes a Blackstone
Starting point is 00:40:23 Real Estate Investment Trust is acquiring the property for about $4 billion. So they're buying it. Blackstone, Blackstone, Inc. is selling it to MGM, the hotel and casino, and then Blackstone Real Estate Investment Trust is buying the property.
Starting point is 00:40:55 Isn't that just selling it to yourself? The Buyers Group also includes Stone Peak Partners, Infrastructure Focus Investment Company, the Churning Family Trust, a Las Vegas-based family office for the founders of the Panda Restaurant Group. Deal marks the latest in a flurry of real estate sales
Starting point is 00:41:13 activities on the Vegas Strip. As the casino operators look to raise cash for growing operations like sports, betting, and entertainment by selling their real estate. Interesting. That's interesting. Is there a phone number somebody could call? Is there an interesting? In August, real estate owner of Visi properties agreed to buy MGM growth properties in a deal that was $17.2 billion, including debt. MGM resorts previously spun off MGM growth properties still controls.
Starting point is 00:41:46 rate, REIT, whose Las Vegas properties include Mandalay Bay, Luxor, MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
Starting point is 00:41:53 It won't be long before they're owned by, well, right now, I mean, it looks like they're owned by two or three
Starting point is 00:41:59 of the same people. Vegas Sands Corporation agreed to sell its Vegas properties to Apollo Global Management, which is a
Starting point is 00:42:06 real estate investment trust for $6.25 billion. I think it feels like we're just moving money around to the same people. And they're saying,
Starting point is 00:42:15 yep, This place owns it now, but we're just moving it around, and the price keeps going up. And we're making more money for each one of these groups as we're just moving it back and forth for the same people. Those rich bastards. How dare they? It's not going to matter anyway. It's not going to be any water. They can make all the deals they want in Vegas, man, until they come up with some way.
Starting point is 00:42:45 to pump that city with some water, the drought is going to, that city is going to go by, by, unless they can do something about the water. And that's going to happen to a number of places around this country very,
Starting point is 00:43:01 very soon. I'm talking about climate change, which, you know, oh my gosh, is absolutely something we need to look into. I'm just talking about how the drought is affecting those areas. Yeah, there's plenty of places that have water. But, if you don't have it, that's an issue.
Starting point is 00:43:18 You can quote me on that. There's plenty of places that I have water, but if you don't have it, that's an issue. Pretty sure that holds true with a lot of things. Yep, because here's another story that looks to do the same thing. CAA and ICM partners are joining forces in a landmark agency merger that reflects the larger consolidation in an entertainment landscape. If the deal is approved, it would mark that shift in the Hollywood agency landscaping,
Starting point is 00:43:51 reducing the big four agencies to the big three with WME, UTA, and CAAs. Those are going to be the largest competitor. So, yay! It's just going to be one big happy, happy family. And as long as we're talking about coming together and just making big mafia everywhere. Let's talk about the airline industry, shall we? Delta wants other airlines to share no fly lists of unruly passengers. So if you got upset at one airline, you didn't think you're going to be able to fly on another one, did you? That would just be stupid. Oh, yeah. So the FAA
Starting point is 00:44:35 says unruly passenger incidents have dropped sharply since earlier this year, but the rate is still too high. Yeah, it's dropped sharply, but it's still too high. But it's still too high. and we can't be expected. We've got to know what's going on. One key lawmaker says airports should ban go-to-go alcohol cups. Maybe they should ban alcohol altogether at the airport. They can't even get a drink on the airplanes anymore. They do, I think, I think if you're in business class,
Starting point is 00:45:05 you can still get something to drink and maybe some pretzels or something. But if you're back with the unwashed masses in the back, you're not getting anything, all right? You're supposed to come on. You're supposed to look at the people in first class eating their pretzels and having their warm coffee before the flight takes off, and you just keep moving.
Starting point is 00:45:26 Don't even side-eye me when you walk by. And then you just keep going back there with the unwashed and shut your mouth. And make sure you're wearing your mask. And don't you complain about a single freaking thing. I will roll this plane back up to the... I will roll. it back up and we will kick
Starting point is 00:45:46 your ass off of here, okay? So that's just amazing to me. So now we want to have the entire airline mafia lined up and rode up. So if you got upset at something and
Starting point is 00:46:02 got thrown off a plane and you're on a no-fly list for United, Delta wants to say, oh, yeah, no, ooh, yeah, sorry, no. we don't want you flying on our airline either. So good luck.
Starting point is 00:46:20 Well, that's coming. That is coming. And we also know now that pilots and, I mean, every position now is under fire because of the vaccine mandates, right? We hear from pilots saying the vaccine mandates could just foil any of your holiday travel plans because there won't be, there might be plain scheduled, but nobody's going to be around to fly him. And so, okay. And I mean, are we going to call in the military to do that too? I mean, New York is calling in the military to work in hospitals
Starting point is 00:46:56 because if you're not getting the vaccine, you're going to be fired. We love you. Hugh frontline workers, we love you. Oh, you're not getting vaccinated. Yeah, we don't love you. Get out. Go beg on the streets. We're going to bring in the military to work at the hospital.
Starting point is 00:47:13 Oh, okay. I mean, we've got hospitals saying, look, we could help, bud, we're not going to have any workers because we don't have any. They're not going to get vaccine. They're not going to get the vaccine. And we're going to have to,
Starting point is 00:47:27 we're going to fire you. So, okay. Great. I think, I think if I'm a medical worker, I think I start my own medical care. Maybe not even a facility.
Starting point is 00:47:45 You could just do it online and come to the home, right? Do I, if I pay less for a doc and a nurse to come to my house and they're not vaccinated, do I care? I don't. Personally, no, I don't. It's okay. I think that's going to be coming soon. Just a thought from chewing the fat.
Starting point is 00:48:12 Other companies, too, Maybe these pilots could start their own airline. I mean, the whole thing can just be under the, you know, unvaxed. And we just divide us even more. And so if you're vaccinated and you want to fly on the unvaxed airplane, that's okay. We'll take your money. And I'm speaking if it was, I had anything to do with it because I don't. But, you know, if you're, because if the vaccinated don't want anything to do with the unvaccinated,
Starting point is 00:48:40 don't want anything to do with the unvaccinated, but the unvaccinated will definitely deal with other unvaccinated and the vaccinated. That's going to be your new America, right? The unvaxed, and the vaccinated can go off on their own until they go broke and realize that, oh, maybe we should go ahead and do business with the unvaccinated. What do you think?
Starting point is 00:49:22 Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at the blaze.com slash podcasts. Unwrap Holiday Magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to lux beauty and fragrance sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.

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