Chewing the Fat with Jeff Fisher - Why Now?... | 7/9/24

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Aquaculture growing… Beryl’s path of destruction… Chicken recall… Tech Hoity Toit summer camp… Stay home vacations… A look at lotto… Ohio had big winner… [e-mail] First Edition Frankenstein sold… Dolly Madison Daguerreotype sold… Sherpas doin clean up… Biodegradable six pack rings… Mars habitat study over… Starliner not stuck at ISS?... Boeing to plead guilty… TSA sets record… Baldwin trial begins… Vending machines from ammo… Checks at Target no more… Joke of the Day…   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Blaze Radio Network. And now, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. Aquaculture is actually working. At the latest count, the average American is eating five pounds more seafood per year.

year than they had been in the 1990s. And globally, the consumption of seafood has been outpacing population growth since the 1960s. That is why they are happy about aquaculture. So in the latest, I know, it's aquaculture. And I was reading a story that for the first time, aquaculture has overtaken the wild caught fish for the first time in history. Good. Thank you. Appreciate it.

We're making more food. I don't know why that's a bad thing. So we now farm more fish than we catch. That's the story. And the practice of aquaculture. Rearing fish and sea plants and controlled ponds, pens, and pools produced more than 94 million metric tons of seafood. Wow. I mean, that's what they did in 2020.

22. I'm sure they're doing more now. And yes, it's being hailed by some as means of sustaining seafood production. Yes. Thank you. In the face of depleting wild fish stocks. Okay, so let's go ahead and create aquaculture and then throw some fish back in the ocean. You know what? We didn't eat them all. Throw them back in the ocean. That's fine. Set them free and let them repopulate the ocean. Gee, there's a thought. Although I didn't see that. in this article. All they're talking about is how fishing, commercial fishing is driving, terrible seafood catching in the oceans. And so we're back to aquaculture. There's no more fishing boats without their catch of the day. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so? The catch of the day

comes from pond number three at some aqua farm. Boy, that sucks, huh? Okay. It just drives me insane. They want this to be a bad thing. And I don't think it is. We're creating more food. That's always good. Welcome. Welcome to chewing the fat. So we talked yesterday about Burrell making landfall and it definitely made landfall. It's left two million homes and businesses without power. Most of them in the Houston area caused over 1,400 flights to be canceled. It also disrupted oil production causing crude prices to fall. Wait, what? The production was disrupted, so the prices fell. The storm, which grew into a Category 5 hurricane. Yeah, that was way out there in the Atlantic, though.

And it went through the Caribbean and did some serious damage. It was only a one, barely a one, when it made landfall here in the U.S., but did some serious damage. And eight people, at least eight people, lost their lives when Burr, made landfall yesterday. Pretty incredible that a category one did as much damage as it did. I don't know why that is. It's a storm. Jeff, it's a hurricane. I know. I know. But it just seems like, wow, it did a lot more damage than a one would normally do, or at least you would assume one would only do, flooding the roadways and causing deaths and, you know, anyway. So the power's out for

those of you listening to Chewing the Fat with your, you know, battery powered radio, uh, honing into the podcast. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Here's the deal, though. Uh, you know, first of all, everybody's working to get your power back on and get your AC back on as fast as they can. But don't eat. You know that chicken you had in the freezer? Yeah, it's probably recalled. I know. You're thinking, well, you know, I could, even with the power off, don't open the freezer unless I'm actually just going to open and grab something out of it and get it out of there. so it still remains cold. Yeah, well, they've issued a recall of 2,000 pounds of ready-to-eat-eat-frozen chicken that may be contaminated with Lesteria.

So now, not only do you have to worry about the power being out and your home being flooded and not being able to have AC, well, that happens when the power is out, you have to be careful with what chicken you're eating too. So the chicken was distributed by El Salfa, no, L-S-A-Safa, El Saffa, L-Safa, A-L-S-A-F-A-U-S-L-C, located in Ontario, Canada. Those damn Canadians. So there's plenty of chicken products being recalled, and they're being recalled because of the possible contamination with Listeria. Oh, man, and you do not want Listeria. fever, stiff neck, headaches, stomach issues.

Yeah. So just watch what you're eating. I know you're in a predicament because you're hungry and there's no stores open and you want to have that chicken. You just want to fire up the grill and cook some of that chicken. Just make sure that it's not from El Salfa. Why do I want to call it El Salfa? El Saffa, U.S. LLC.

You can bet that the hoity-toit tech moguls aren't eating recalled chicken. at the Sun Valley Resort in Idaho as we have the big Allen & Company's annual summer camp for billionaires. Yay! It's invite only. So I didn't get mine. If you got yours, good for you. I did not get one. So I'm a little buff that I did not get an invitation to the summer camp for billionaires.

Maybe you have to be a billionaire to get the invitation. And so it's at the lodge there in Sun Valley, the Sun Valley, the Sun Valley Resort. And that's where, I mean, Zuck's going to be there. Iger's going to be there. I guess Sherry Redstone's going to show up. She's going to be all happy because she's finally got, you know, her big Paramount Global deal with National Amusementance, Inc. So she's going to be worth a few more billion with David Ellison's deal. We can talk a little bit about that as well because I'm sure that's what they're going to be talking about there at the old at the old summer getaway for billionaires. So, uh, Paralymp.

Paramount plus Skydance. So Paramount owns CBS MTV, Nickelodeon, and the movie studio behind, you know, The Godfather and Titanic. So Ellison's Skydance previously teamed up with Paramount to release Top Gun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But Paramount has struggled to adapt to this post-linear TV world, is bleeding cash and hasn't been able to offset losses with the streaming service Paramount Plus. So Skydance and its financial backers, which include Ellison. who is the son of the other billionaire.

So I guess that makes him a billionaire. His father and Redbird Capital Partners is also donating some cash to this deal. So we'll provide Paramount with $1.5 billion in cash to help pay off debt and spend $4.5 billion to buy back shares from investors. The new leadership plans to use its tech know-how to speed up Paramount's pivot to digital and get viewers to spend more time on Paramount Plus. It tends to harness generative AI for efficiency gains and slash cost by two million. That means people will be out of jobs. Paramount's existing buses said they'll press ahead with previously planned layoffs. Yeah, no kidding.

And they'll be pressing ahead with a lot more, too, according to the way that reads. But they'll be just laughing it up and yucking it up at this lodge out in Idaho. Oh, yeah, we're going to have to get rid of those people. darn the luck. We're just going to have to use AI and we'll make ourselves better. And then I guess the NBA commissioner will be there. Is he a billionaire? Well, he is the head of a billion dollar company. Is Adam Silver a billionaire himself, though?

No. According to this, he's only worth 40 million. Wow, he's a poor man on a totem. He's going to be serving drinks at this place. Just trying to work out a deal for the NBA. So it's just, we'll be hearing all from these big tech. You know, I'm sure Sundar is going to be there and Tim Cook is going to be there, Bill Gates, and all the hoity-toits, all the tech hoity-toits are going to be there. In fact, this should just be called the tech hoity-toit camp out,

but it is the Sun Valley Resort, invite only Allen & Company's annual summer camp for billionaires. It's hockey season, and you can get any. anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes.

Because those are groceries, and we deliver those too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. So while the tech hoity-toits are on vacation there in Idaho, by invite only, remember, apparently there's a new poll that reveals most Americans are foregoing summer vacations due to unaffordable costs.

What? Yes. 44% plan to stay home, while 53% would travel if expenses were lower. Among those traveling, 64% are altering plans due to high living costs, with 55% choosing cheaper destinations. and 45% seeking cost-effective transportation. Oh, the Gen Xers are most likely to travel if costs were lower. Would you travel if costs were lower? Sure, yeah. Yeah, most definitely. I'm not doing it because costs are not lower.

But I would. Man, I would. I will say also in the study, it does say that 36% of Americans are willing to incur debt for vacations. Wow. that's kind of surprising. Yeah, well, and then, you know, who knows what those, you might incurred debt, and it might not be that great of a vacation anyway, and you're still incurring debt, right?

So, I mean, that's definitely possible. I mean, I guess you could win the lottoe and go on vacation. You're not going to get invited to the Hoyty Toit Tech camp out in Idaho at Sun Valley, Idaho, but you will be able to go on vacation. So there's a mega millions drawing. Tonight, as a matter of fact, for those of you listening live, it is the 9th of July, 2024 for $181 million, $84.3 million cash payout. You could go on a pretty nice vacation if you want that.

And then there's also the Powerball drawing, which I believe is tomorrow night. Now, the Powerball went way down because we had a winner over the July 4th weekend. We had a winner, which is incredible. So the Powerball drawing now, tomorrow, is only $41 million jackpot, 19.4 million cash payout. So there's that. I mean, you can still go on vacation with that money, but it's not going to be that nicer one. So the reason that the Powerball is so low is because we had the winner over the July 4th weekend of the Powerball. That was $138 million.

So they haven't claimed the money yet. I guess they're still busy planning their vacation. They could get the 30 payments over the next 25 years. Yeah, right. Or get the cash option, which would be $65.8 million all at once. Now, they won in Ohio. Congratulations to Ohio. I first saw the story, and it says Walmart ticket purchased winning ticket.

Walmart was where it was purchased. And I thought, well, heck, I bought my ticket this last Powerball over the weekend at this Walmart gas station. No, it was not in. Ohio. So Walmart Supercenter at 7680 Brant Pike in Uber Heights, you know where that is right there, and sold the winning Powerball ticket matching all five numbers plus the Powerball. Congratulations to them. Now, I guess they're saying in this story from the Dayton Daily News, and I'm a huge fan of the Dayton Daily

News, trusted since 1898, by the way, that's their tagline. In the 14 plus years that Ohio has participated in the Powerball lottery, only five Jackpot winning tickets have been sold. in Ohio. Now, the last one was, of course, you know, July 3rd. Hey, happy Independence Day. And the state has won only 1.2% of the jackpots ranking 32nd nationally. Indiana leads with more powerball winners than any other state with 39. That hurts. Followed by Missouri, 31. Minnesota's had 22. Pennsylvania has had 19. Wisconsin has had 19. I don't care how many these states, these winning states have had. Why?

there should be at least one more added to the state of Texas, and that should be me, but that's not the case. So if you win, at least you can plan on a nice vacation. Right now, I'm not planning on any vacation. All right, let's go to the break room. I need something cold to drink desperately. Be sure to follow me on my social media site. At Jeffrey JFR on X.

I am thinking about upgrading my X account. Okay, so I'm verified. on X with the blue check. But it's coming up for renewal, and I keep getting ads. You know, hey, go to premium. Go to premium. I think I'm going to do it. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and give Elon some more money and get the premium

account and see if it's worth anything. If I'm going to start getting some monetization, maybe some free ads for chewing the fat, maybe do some more live shows because I've been doing, I've been putting our Saturday morning live show with a, Brad and myself that we do, well, I say every Saturday, but the past month we've had some technical difficulties and some vacation times. Not my vacation, by the way. I already said I'm not taking one. Anyway, the, so we attempt to give you a Saturday morning live show every Saturday between Brad and myself. And I was thinking about, you know, I give, I put that up on X.

So I think I'm going to bite the bullet and pay for the premium for at least a year. And we'll see if it's worth anything. I will definitely let you know if it becomes worth anything. And if I start doing more things on X to generate some revenue. And we'll see if that actually happens. I see an ad here on the site right now as I went to. I can't upgrade on my laptop because I became verified over my phone. So it says, oh, no, you have to do it on your phone. You have to do it on the same device that you adder. Okay, all right. So anyway, it talks about if I subscribe to verified organizations,

then I get $1,000 ad credit every month for a limited time. Nice. So if I go to premium and then I subscribe to any verified organization, I think I get a $1,000 ad credit, which means I could promote chewing the fat. Well, we'll see. We'll see how that goes. But I'll let you know.

So follow me on X at Jeff EJFR on X. Jeff Fisher Radio. on Facebook and Instagram. You can follow me on YouTube, chewing the fat with Jeff Fisher. You can follow me on Cameo at Jeffey JFR. You can also order a cameo from me at Jeffey JFR. That, of course, is not free.

You do have to pay for that, but it's at Jeffrey JFR on Cameo. It is Jeff Fisher on the Cameo website. And so you just pay and then you tell me what you want. You want me to be happy, glad, sad, mad, mean, whatever you need. And I do the video for you. And then you get the video and a cameo gets their cut and I get my cut.

And everybody's happy. That's the way it works. And you can email the show anytime chewing the fat at the blaze.com. Chewing the fat at the blaze.com. So I'm looking at this auction site, heritage auctions. And they just sold a first edition of Frankenstein. A first edition of Frankenstein. It doesn't say who bought it.

Very well could have been Mercury 1. I don't know. It's an 1818 first edition copy of Frankenstein. Now, it's called the modern Prometheus, and it was published anonymously in three pink boarded volumes. And I just sold for $843,750. Wow. Now, there's only three left in the world,

and this is the only one that I think is owned privately. It's been a single owner, 60 years in the making, according to heritage auctions. There's three pink boarded first editions known to still exist. The only one in private hands. Yeah. The other two reside at the New York Public Library. Huh. That's weird.

The two reside at the Forsheimer and Berg Collections at the New York Public Library. How many times you've been to the New York Public Library? I'd like to see, though, Forsheimer and Berg collections, please. So next time you're in New York, just hop on over to the public library and say, hey, I understand you've got some rare books and manuscripts in the Forsheimer and Berg collection. I think I could take a peek, see if they let you in. Then, as I'm reading that story, I see another little story highlighted where they have found the oldest, I'm sorry, the earliest known photograph of an American First Lady. So the National Portrait Gallery has purchased an 1846 doggiro type of Dolly Madison for $456,000. Now, I will say this.

My first reaction, when I rolled down to see Dolly from 1846, ooh. It was three years before she died. And 80, so, I mean, but Dali, oh, man. She was 81 at the time. And it was in a studio in Washington, D.C., and she was clad in a crocheted shawl. And one of her famous turbans carefully arranged to cover most of her dark curls. And she, the first lady, met the camera's gaze with a piercing yet inviting stare. Was it?

It was more of a woo stare as far as I'm concerned. I guess she has a hint of a smile. Okay. Says Emily Bierman, the global head of Sotheby's photography department. I mean, that's a good gig. You can tell she was commanding and vulnerable woman. Yes, yes, you can. So it's a doggorotype, which I thought, what the hell is a doggorotype?

Well, why don't you look it up, Jeff? And I did. So it's a direct positive process. creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. The process required great care. The silver plated copper plate had first to be cleaned and polished until the surface looked like a mirror. Those are daughterotypes. And I guess there's not many dogototypes left.

And now we've got a beautiful one though. Dolly Madison. Whoa, man, she was something. She was something. You know what? To quote Emily Bierman, the head of South of East Photography Department, you can tell.

She was a commanding and venerable woman. I feel like that's a nice way of saying that she was although she was pretty incredible. She served as First Lady from 1809 to 1817, the wife of the U.S.

Fourth president. Oh, wow. I mean, she's, that's a long time ago, man. She saved, apparently, when the British burned the White House in 1814, she saved a portrait of George Washington, telling servants break the frame, extract its contents, avoid letting the president's license, likeness be mocked and desegrated. I mean, good for her. No question.

I guess she laid the groundwork to be, you know, the role of the first lady. So this is, there is another. another dog girl. I don't know if I'm saying that right. Where's my girl at? Degera type. Oh, man. I was way off.

Degera type. Is that right? Degera type. Yeah, Degera type. So I was way. Thank you. I'm glad you're, glad you're, I've led you're back from vacation. Degarotype.

I mean, there's no need to get fancy. It starts slowing down for me. Okay. I just needed to know how you pronounce the word. Thank you. I got it. So there is one of John Quincy Adams, which was, I'll see, an 1843 portrait. That's a guy that was the president. And that only went for $360,000 in 2017. So, okay. I guess Dali is now leading the pack in Deggerotype. Marshall's buyers travel far and wide, hustling for great deals. on amazing gifts, so you don't have to.

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Our buyers have got you covered. Marshalls. We get the deals. You gift the good stuff. Okay, so I'm reading a story about the Sherpas. on Mount Everest, and they're busy cleaning up all the garbage. And in fact, they've dug up a couple of dead bodies along the way on the Mount Everest Peak. And it's pretty incredible.

The Nepal government has funded a team of soldiers and Sherpas. They've removed 11 tons of garbage, four dead bodies and a skeleton from Everest during this year's climbing season. So Ang Babu Shurpa, who led the team of Shurpas, said there could be as much as 40 to 50 tons of garbage still at South Kahl. That's the last camp before climbers make their attempt to the summit. The garbage left there was mostly old tents, some food packaging and gas cartridges, oxygen bottles, tent packs, ropes used for climbing and tying up tents. And the garbage is in layers and frozen at the 8,000 meter altitude, which is 26,400

foot altitude where the South Kull camp is located. since the peak was first conquered in 1953, thousands of climbers have scaled it and many have left behind more than just their footprints. Now, in recent years, they've said, they've charged people, hey, you're going to lose your deposit

if you don't bring back your garbage. Oh, so I guess there's less trash now. So there's significantly reduced the amount of garbage left behind. But there's still a bunch there. Most of the garbage obviously is years old. And they collected the bodies at higher altitude areas.

It said they had to, it took some time because the one guy was frozen standing up. And then the weather gets bad so they have to stop. And then they have to go back and complete digging them out. And instead the Sherpa is like, it's not easy. Well, you know what? It's not easy being a Sherpa. I have a question, though. A couple things from this story.

One, what the hell of the Sherpa's been doing all these years? I thought that was their deal. They take people up and then when they come back, they make sure that there's no trash there, right? Apparently not. Apparently not. Now we've got to go through this, spend all this money and time cleaning up the dump. When you could have been bringing it down all along. But it was not my job. So the Sherpas now have to go up and get all the dig all the trash out. You know, during the time when it's not climbing season. So maybe they put a pause on climbing season this year, although I doubt it because it's a, you know, that's where they make their money. So I doubt they're going to, you know, nope, no climbing this year.

We've got to clean up the trash. No, that's not going to happen. But the other thing that comes to me from this story is that the dateline is Kathmandu, Nepal. And I'm sorry, but I just cannot read Catmandu without, I think I'm going to Kathmandu. I'm really winning where I'm going to. I can't, I can't do it. It's like it's impossible for me to read Catmandu without thinking of the, Bob Seeger'song. I know. Is it just me? I think so.

You know, speaking of trash and litter and garbage and left, I see where there's a story talking about how a brewery now has created biodegradable, edible six-pack rings to protect wildlife. And originally, I'm like, I'm not eating the plastic ring that wraps around my six-pack of beer or sodas. I'm not doing that, but that's not what they mean. They mean that it's okay for animals to eat them if it gets thrown into the ocean. So it's edible plastic rings to feed sea creatures instead of harming them. Isn't that special? So the rings are 100% biodegradable, compostable, and plastic-free.

They're made from beer byproducts like barley and wheat. Does that mean that when the whales start eating these, they get drunk? I don't know. Maybe we start turning whales into alcoholics because of these rings. No, Jeff. No, at least they're not choking the death from the rings. Oh, okay. No problem.

Anyway, yeah, that's a good idea. Sure, it's a good idea. I don't know. You know, they claim we've got the garbage patch out in the oceans with no one can ever find. But it's there. We know it is. And it's killing all kinds of animals.

But we can't find it. So, I mean, will it help? Sure. And go ahead. And you know what? You know what? Go ahead. Maybe if you have pet turtles or whatever kind of

pet sea life you have, go ahead and throw the rings in your fish tank and see what happens. That's actually, it would be a good study, see if your fish actually get addicted to the rings. So over this past weekend, NASA's four volunteers emerged from the 3D printed Mars habitat at Johnson Space Center in Houston after 378 days of confinement. They didn't talk about how long it took someone. The story. The story. It didn't reveal how long it took before someone cut their toenails in front of someone else.

Well, that's kind of a bug. Why didn't you ask them that if you were there? So they simulated the Mars mission inside the 17,000 square foot habitat, which focused on simulated spacewalks, harvesting vegetables, and limited communication with the outside world. So we'll get more information from them as the wrap-up of the studies continue. But why wasn't it a big, wasn't it a big bigger deal? Well, I'll tell you why.

Because NASA has Boeing's Starliner stuck at the ISS. And you can't tell me they're not stuck there. I know that's what they want me to believe, but it's not true. So according to Boeing and NASA, they are at the ISS now indefinitely. Indefinitely. They're saying that, well, we. We're working to analyze the ongoing helium leaks and the malfunctioning thrusters, but we don't know when the vehicle can return. But let me tell you something.

They're not stuck there, okay? Butch and SUNY could hop on the old starliner. I guess they're calling it Calypso, whatever. And I head back to Earth any time if there was an emergency. But we're not stranded, okay? and stop saying that we're stuck there because we're not. We're just saying you can't come home for a while because we've got to test some more things. Elon, go up and bring them back, would you?

My gosh, this is ridiculous. Oh, and speaking of Boeing, I guess they're going to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge stemming from the two fatal crashes of the 737 max in 2018 and 2009. that killed 346 people, very sad. Boeing is going to pay $244 million fine. I'm sorry, I believe it's $243.6 million fine. And invest at least $455 million in safety and compliance programs. So there you go.

They're fine. Everything's fine at Boeing. Don't worry about it. Now, they are in talks with the U.S. Defense Department over contracts that may have been compromised due to the guilty. but nah, don't worry about it. Everything will be fine. Don't even worry about it. Boeing is fine. The airlines, the space program, all of it, fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about at all. Oh, and congratulations to the TSA. You handled more people than ever. Yeah, I guess they had the big,

the big giant day over three million travelers were screamed. by the TSA, which is a record. Yay! Now, it just broke an old. Now, the new record, let me get back up for a little bit. June 23rd was $2.99 million. So that was, you know, an all-time high. But now, this past Sunday, was over $3 million. So that broke that record. So within a week, we set two records for the TSA. And it's an extraordinary achievement. It is. They did such a great job. And efficiently checked. according to the TSA, 35 passengers every second.

Uh-huh. Along with their luggage and carry-on baggage while demonstrating unwavering professionalism and respect for travelers during the intensely busily holiday weekend. Uh-huh. So congratulations to them

and you as well, Director of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who is I don't even, I don't get me into it. He's congratulated in the TSA and boy, I'm happy for them. That's great. Listen, they only received the Department of Transportation, which Majorcas is not in charge of.

That's Buttigieg. Received 97,000 complaints last year. So that's it. It's not as much as the pandemic year, 2020, where they got 102,000 complaints. But now we're back to getting 97,000 complaints. last year to the Department of Transportation. But that's not the TSA. Okay, so that's really strange

that the complaints go to the Department of Transportation, but the TSA is under Homeland Security, so they don't even know about the complaints. Okay, that's great. I'm glad everything is working like a well-oiled machine. It's the matcha or the three ensemble Cadoce SEPORA, de facto, that I'm energize o'clock. Hmm, it's ensembles.

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they're picking the jury today in New Mexico as we start the trial of Alec Baldwin.

But they already had some pre-trial stuff happen. I guess the state can't argue that Baldwin's role as Rust co-producer made him more culpable in safety violations. The judge ruled yesterday. So prosecutors also won't be able to show footage of Alec, where he allegedly was trying to hurry up the armorer who loaded the gun, Hannah Guterres Reid, who's already been convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Wow, so they're not going to be able to show that

footage which they thought was damning footage that they received because when this footage got out they've got it alec it is guilty we've seen it this is the film this is it so we'll see uh you know i mean he continues to say he aimed a revolver per her direction that it went off without him pulling the trigger prosecutors say fbi testing found the weapon couldn't have fired without a trigger pull yeah but that was after i hope the defense shows and i gosh i hate sticking up for him so bad. He's such a douche. But that was after they said that they took the gun completely apart and rebuilt it with new parts because they didn't have all the parts. So the gun that they actually fired was a different gun. They've got to make that case in the trial.

My gosh, that's embarrassing if they don't. I mean, the first time I read that, I'm like, well, then it's a different gun. They've got to make that case. I mean, they're smarter than me, right? Right? of course they are and all you have to do is ask the man himself Alec Baldwin and he'll tell you he's smarter than everybody so I'm looking forward to it

I'm going to have to try to reach out to someone in New Mexico and see if I can get someone that's going to be there in the courtroom every day and talk to them because I want to know what is happening in this trial and just fascinates me and as much as I dislike him I mean, I think him going to jail for this is just silly.

But would I hate it if he does? Not really. All right. This is America. And I love this about America. So now we have, and why I didn't think about this, I am so mad at myself for this. There is now a company that is selling ammunition out of vending machines in grocery stores.

I love the United States of our own. America. It's already got six in operation, and they have requests from stores all over America. American Rounds has its automated ammo retail machine in Fresh Value grocery store in Pell City, Alabama. And it has since installed four in Oklahoma, one in Texas, and there are plans for more in Texas and Colorado. Yeah, CEO Grant Meggers, said the company has over 200-store requests. for arm units, AARM units, covering approximately nine states currently in that number is growing daily. American round says it's AI-powered arm units use ID scanners and facial recognition technology before allowing a transaction to be made. This ensures that the individual is of legal age and that they are who they represent themselves to be.

Now, you think to yourself, well, heck, I'll just roll in and rob the store and take the machine. Well, the machine weighs up to 2,000 pounds. well secured from theft. We'll see about that. Unlike Redbox, they are only placed inside the stores, never outside. Users can buy shotgun, rifle, and handgun rounds via the machines. He said the company supports law-abiding, responsible gun ownership, and thinks his project is a safer alternative to buying ammunition off the shelf or online.

Those environments, he said, lead to inadvertent sales, to underage purchasers, and or, in the case of retail stores, a high theft rate. I mean, I guess that's true. You know, I got to know why stores that sell it off the shelf don't use the same technology that the machines use to purchase the ammo. But again, what do I know? This is a bearerica right here.

I love this. Living the American Dream, we're selling ammunition out of vending machines in grocery stores. Amen. Now, I'm pretty sure you're not going to be able to write a two. check to buy the ammo out of the machine, you're probably going to have to use your some sort of bank card to do so because even Target is now telling customers, hey, we're not going to take personal checks anymore. Starting the 15th of July, just days away, days away from this very broadcast, July 15th, 2024, Target is no longer going to accept personal checks. I know,

dry your eyes. I was trying to think of the last time that I actually wrote a check, And I remembered, there's the only place that I have to write a check at that saves me money is when I go to the DMV. And I have to get a new license plate and update my yearly tag to the king to be able to drive my car on the road in Texas. They, I can pay with a card, but they charge me more money. So if I write a check, it's less money. And it's, I mean, it's a significant amount. It's like $2 or $3. And I say that, not all jokes aside.

I mean, it's like $2 or $3 more. I'm like, why am I going to pay with a card and get charged more with $3 or $4 more? It's already like $70 some. So, you know, I write a check. I take a check. I have an old check book that I take a check out of and that I write the check to them. It's really amazing. And so Target said, we're not going to do it anymore.

Due to the extremely low volumes, we no longer accept personal. personal check starting July 15. Now listen, we still take cash. We still have digital wallets and snap eBT and credit and debit cards. And we have also Target pay later services. I'd like to see the interest rate on those. Plus, here's the thing. And this is nice of them. If you are a Target circle card member, you're still going to be able to pay off your balance by mailing checks to target. They'll still take those checks. That's nice of them. That's great.

And it's not just Target, seeing a decline in payment by personal check. You had no kidding. The personal check compromise. I'll see, 3% of payments made in 2023 down from 7% in 2020. Wow. Credit and debit cards remain the most used forms of payment in the U.S., followed by cash. Yeah. I mean, I don't know what does it cost them more to take a check?

I'd like to know that if it costs them more to take a check. I feel like if you just run the check through the machine like you do your card, it's the same thing, right? So I don't know why what the difference is. I'm going to have to find that why that is such a big deal. Because the code on the check should just run through the machine, right? Unless the new machines don't accept it. That's probably what it is. the new machines that you have to have your chip in,

don't read the paper check cards. Okay, all right, I got it. All right, fine. I worked it out of my own head. So anyway, just so you know, dry your eyes, you will not be able to write a check to buy your goods at Target any longer after July 15th, 2024. I know.

It's a sad, sad day. All right, I'll leave you with the joke of the day. and it's really not a joke, it's a joke, but it's being prepared is what it is. It's being prepared. I may have told you this joke already, but I ran across it this weekend and I've been laughing about it. And it's good to be prepared. Okay, it's always, you know that as well as I do.

We have sponsors on this show and on this network that talk about preparedness and how important it is to be prepared. So this particular joke is also a way for you to be prepared if it happens. I don't want it to happen, but if it does, you're prepared when it does. All right? Here's the joke. I rear-ended a car this morning that started off a really bad day. The driver got out of the other car and he was a dwarf.

He looked up at me and I said, I'm not happy. So I said, well, which one are you then? And that's how the fight started. So be prepared. I'm prepared now that if I were to get into an. accident with a dwarf, I can, I could be ready. When the dwarf says, I'm not happy, I can ask, okay, well, which one are you then? And then we'll just go from there. Always good to be prepared. Stream and subscribe to more Blaze Media content at theblaze.com slash podcasts.

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