Kump - Ep. 252 Stranded in America

Episode Date: May 4, 2026

https://www.patreon.com/raykump Support the show + get bonus episodes every weekSpirit Airlines has officially shut down, gas is barreling toward $10 a gallon, and the American road trip is dead. Ray breaks down why the government and corporations want you trapped exactly where you are, and how to survive the new era of being "stranded". Plus, Ray pitches a new military strategy for Germany , explains why we're all just factory chickens now , and dives into the dystopian coping mechanisms of Pokémon scalpers and Disney Adults.

Due to rising fuel prices in the wake of the Iran War, Spirit Airlines, America's last affordable humiliation ritual, has shut down. Spirit allowed you to trade away luxury, comfort, and basic human dignity for the right to travel over the decaying sprawl of the United States. And much like the mythic god Atlas, they held the world on their shoulders. They were a bulwark against the rigged rat race, where nepo babies and white-collar crackheads constantly remind us that we need to work more hours,

own fewer assets, and sell ourselves into indentured digital servitude in order to continue making a nut that forever goes up as the quality of everything except fentanyl goes down. Some people might say, I'm romanticizing. That spirit was a human cruelty engine that would deny drinking water to a pregnant gunshot victim who was shot by another passenger during the flight. And that may be true.

But regardless, air travel is about to become as unobtainable as home ownership. $10 a gallon gas is looking likely, and grocery prices are rising so quickly that recipes for gruel are trending on Pinterest. The world is being reimagined on the fly by an ad hoc coalition of AI companies, pharmaceutical drug cartels, and a bipartisan coalition of politicians on the take. The only thing not rising in price is labor. Human ingenuity is valued so low that chatbots are being used to plan mass shootings. And the devil wears product too is leading at the box office.

The only people with any hope left are the Pokemon card scalpers squatting at Target, and 19-year-old looksmasters bashing their faces in with hammers. But don't get discouraged. The bubonic plague may have killed a quarter of the population of Europe, but that ended up leading to the Renaissance. So, you know, stop whining. Welcome to the plague. Welcome to Kump.

Spirit Airlines is going out of business. The airline said early this morning that it has begun shutting down operations. It's also canceled all upcoming flights. This is what customers see when they go to the Spirit website. The discount carrier says customer service is no longer available. It's also advising passengers not to come to the airport and to rebook their travel on different airlines. 17,000 workers are now out of a job.

Damn shame. You know, imagine you're at the bottom of the barrel as far as price. You go with Spirit. You know, this is a company that, as far as I've never been on it, but, you know, they give you nothing, basically. You know, you don't get assigned seats. You don't get a meal. Everything is out of card.

And, you know, from, you get where you're going. I don't think you ever crashed, but I never heard a good thing about it besides that. And then you basically, you make these plans, you know, air travel is a nightmare, right? If you, you know, if you're traveling private, if you're traveling first class, it can be quite nice. But, you know, it's already an indignity. They've, they've, even the main. major airlines have shoved you in like a caged animal on most of these flights. They give anyone who, you know, who wants to dare, Dane to travel across this country without

being a wealthy, you know, finance bro is stuck on this yellow, you know, behemite in the sky, just shoved him, you know, there's just no amenities. And then they rip this out from you, is the point. This is what America's becoming. even the things that you can't enjoy because there's nothing to enjoy, you can't have, right? It's like it used to be that people had these little, I wouldn't even say creature,

these little moments of respite from the brutality of life. You would go on a plane or a train and be treated like a person. You would go to a restaurant and they would not blow smoke in your face and they would not serve you, microwave slop. You know, they wouldn't judge you when you ordered, you know,

weird combinations. You get a lot of lip now when you go out. You get a lot of guff from people. No one treats you, you know, no one does their job anymore. And I'm not even judging. I don't do my job anymore. I don't know what my job is anymore.

No one knows what their job is anymore. But you have these, these elements that keep it going. Oh, well, you know, if my, you know, if I have to take my kid, because, you know, there's black mold in the apartment that I can barely afford because and the rent keeps going up every, you know, week. Now he's got, you know, he's got some kind of black mold in his lungs. I have to take him to John Hopkins, which you can't.

You can't afford John Hopkins. Whatever strange, you know, strip mall, bootleg clinic. that's going to try to cut your son's lungs open and cut that black mold out of them, it's across the country. So you have to drag on spirit because you have to sell whatever assets you have just to get on this plane.

And now they're ripping that away. Here's the point. They don't want you going anywhere. And I've been saying this for a while. They want you in jail. They want you in prison. And I've made this one appeal to the American people is that meet them halfway.

Because this AI revolution where all the jobs are being, you know, removed, and you're being replaced with these chatbots that, like, never seem to do the job, right? You see, in customer, I mean, you can, don't show me the kiosk at McDonald's. That's not AI. That's just the thing.

You're typing it in. I'm talking about, you know, anything that replaces a person. You know, it's bad enough that you couldn't understand the person on the other end of the line. You're pretending they were in the same country as you. And I'm, you know, you can barely. But that was bad. And you'd wait an hour to talk to them.

But now these chatbots don't answer you. They just give you the wrong. They hallucinate constantly. And that's fine. I'm not a Luddite, right? I'm not looking to go back to the 1950s and drink Malteds. All right? I embrace the future, no matter how much I'm crushed by it.

but there has to be something for us and that is prison but prison doesn't have to be gang fights and you know broken up by racial lines and you're fighting in the shower you're fighting in the mess hall doesn't have to be that it can be where you live wherever you live is prison now because you won't be able to travel the gas is going up the spirit is gone i mean literally it couldn't be there there's a thing here that's going on it's no it's no accident that it's called spirit and it's gone that's I don't like to be poetic right but that's kind of that's kind of the last

poem we'll ever get in America it's the last thing we have it's gone you know Trump tried to buy it out you know he did a bailout for 500 million he says it's a bailout but apparently he won like 90% in the company and like you want to be placed ahead of bondholders and bondholders don't like that. That's not really how you help with the bankruptcy. But, you know, he said we have to,

we'll do a deal if we get a good deal, which is like, you know, I don't know if the federal government was designed to be made around getting good deals. I know it sounds efficient. But, you know, I got to get my beak wet. Well, that's fair. They could have merged with JetBlue a couple years ago.

The Biden administration shut that down. Would that have helped? Would they have state spirit in that case? would they have stayed. I mean, Jeff Blue is not the most expensive, but they're not Spirit. I don't know. The point is they find a way to let a lot of companies survive. They didn't find a way here. It's almost like they want to make room wherever we're all going. They'd rather less of us were there. You know, and no one likes to be, I'm not saying that, you know, Spiro was taking on a lot of flights to the Mothi Coast in Italy. But, you know, it's a trickle-down

effect and they would prefer it's you know it's it's it's nice to be in a private jet i'm sure but you know if you get there and you're seeing some guy come out of a spirit plane and he's going to the vatican with you it kind of takes the sting out of it you know what's the good of lording over the poor if you're standing that you have to be this doesn't benefit me but i can empathize i'm an epithetic person and it's what they're doing and it's not right but what is so let me take a moment here I'm with you right I'm you're being beat upon you're being pressed down by the forces of the future let's just call it let's just call all these all these things that want you dead the future they want me dead too but you can help me be alive by joining patreon patreon. patreon.com

slash Ray Kump and helping me out a little bit. In the process, you help yourself out by getting an extra episode every week. Doesn't that sound better than whenever they're planning for us? This prison camp called life? You know? Imagine being in prison, but you get to listen to Kump.

That's what we have if you join the page when you get in Kump now, but twice the Kump. You have a lot of time on your hands when they take away the jobs and put you in the jail. And so, you know, enjoy the company you have. And if you want more, if you want to support the show, that's patreon.com slash Ray Kump.

I'm sorry to be a salesman. You guys, we all have to sell ourselves now on the internet. That's all we have left. It's kind of like communion. It's kind of like what Jesus Christ was always saying. Like, you know, oh, do one to others. Like, it's a holy communion. The Easter happened already.

But, you know, in honor of Easter, That's kind of what this is. You join your cousin's only fans. They join your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, your, UFO podcast. Um, maybe your, maybe your dad does, you know, uh, some kind of, uh, some kind of ranting about, about, you know, leather work.

You know, people have hobbies. If you have a hobby, think about monetizing it. If you have, uh, any kind of skills, think about, you know, maybe you could be, become some kind of gopher, digital gopher. I mean, it's like Morgan Freeman in the Shawshank Redemption. I don't know what he ended up getting for being the guy that everyone goes to, right?

Because he could get this stuff. He could get, you know, rock hammers for Andy and all sorts of cool stuff in the Shawshank Redemption. And he didn't have to do it, but he needs to keep busy while someone would throw him off the roof, like Andy Dufrain. same way, you know, gas prices are rising because of, you know, that is definitely because of the Iran War.

Now, I guess we can thank the government and, you know, because, you know, it's better to pay $450 and gas, I guess, than to get nuked by Iran, which we absolutely would have according to them. They said, it does sound kind of cagey. It sounds a little crazy, but they claim that, you know, we were going to, you know, we were two weeks from literally an ICBM hitting the Bubba Gump shrimp in Times Square. And that would be devastating. I don't know how far a modern nuclear weapon goes, or, to be clear, an Iranian nuclear

weapon. Maybe these things are smaller in range. I live in Brooklyn. Would I be hit by, but I'm not selfish. I don't only care just because, you know, if Bubba Gump shrimp gets destroyed, that in of itself is a problem. because the M&M store is not far from there either. You know, that's another thing that's really great.

These are the things that make us American. So, y'all, you're paying $450 for gas. You can't afford to drive. You know, you can't afford to go to work. What are you going to do? That's kind of what they don't care because, you know, they're trying to keep you safe from the nuclear bomb hitting the M&M store, which does not sound plausible.

But, you know, you're in jail now. You're in a prison. these gas prices went up 30 cents more than 30 cents a gallon last week how high could they go? Gas prices in the U.S. have gone up more than 30 cents a gallon as a straightforward moves remains closed. This straightforward moves is such an interesting

I think right now they're in the process of like it shut down. China is claiming they don't care, right? China's saying, hey, you can have an embargo. We're not going to, you know, that has nothing to do with us, basically saying like you're punks. So maybe there's a war with China on the horizon. Does that sound fun?

No. Would we be drafted? I mean, here's a thing. Think about this. Would you rather go, how does a war with China start, really? we're gonna you know because basically here's the thing they're saying they're not going to on the embargo ship goes by we attack the ship then i guess they retaliate does that end up with me in the middle of shanghai just like behind some kind of garbage can just shooting over you know you know

you think i'm going to be the guy who shot bin laden i'm going to be special forces they're going to force me into a war but i'm they put me in a war i'm going to be in a war i'm going to to be like you know going to spray and prey they go oh that's not efficient well i know i'm a little old to become a crack shot all right i'm not going to learn on the job in shanghai all right and i'm also yeah i'm not i'm not that into killing people it seems a little uh a little much but you know it could be good for the economy but that's the thing these are the kind of it's no longer like hey do you think uh you know the what would you even pickleball Do you think pickleball is the move?

That's kind of, those conversations seem to be over. Now we're preoccupied with, uh, will this embargo lead to Ray Kump, uh, cowering behind a garbage can? Maybe. Maybe so. I don't know. The cost for regular gas as of Sunday is an average of 446. And then, uh, there's also this chart here.

It ranges across the country. Like in New York, it's 445, and California, it's 6.10. That's regular gas. Now, it's not like it's never been that high before. It's the highest has been in four years. But it does seem like, when you look at the map especially, it seems like they kind of want you to stay put. And if you don't, there might be consequences.

Now, I guess it'll be a hierarchy of meat. Like, you know, if you make, I don't know, if you're a doctor and you make $300,000 a year, that will be the new economy, right? This whole matrix idea, that we're all escaping the matrix. People kind of get a little twisted, I think. You know, they tend to say that you basically,

because all these guys telling you know, you got to work 60 hours a week or to escape the matrix, right? They think they're going to be the top of the matrix. They think they're going to be like living in the life. But basically, you're just there. That just gets you out of the prison. That lets you move around. Are you going to like what you see when you move around is the thing?

The infrastructure that kind of connects America is going to call. They're not building high-speed rail. They're not building good roads. These roads seem to be constantly broken down. We can't seem to do infrastructure in this country. Why can't we just nationalize everyone and have them build, you know, wider roads? Some people like to argue Oh, these roads are too wide.

If you go to California, it's all just wide roads into other wide roads. I get it. It doesn't solve everything. But you know, you try to go out to Long Island to get some apples at apple season and it takes you three hours. It's untenable.

I love my apples. You know, if you go to Japan, I mean, which I have not. I'm not a travel person. They allow them move around their country. You know, it's very cheap in Europe to go or go. around Europe, right?

Go to France, go to Copenhagen, if you live in any. You know, there's not saying they have everything figured out, but they don't seem to have a problem with mobility. But in America, it all seems to be, like, oh, you know, you're getting kind of overexcited. You're getting kind of over-excited. And that's, you know, this is just kind of the ebbs and flows of the market. Maybe so.

Maybe it's just accidental. But I feel like it's a time to kind of look inward. Just look inside of yourself and find peace with not going anywhere. Because where are you going to, I mean, they're not going to let you leave the country in a couple of years. They've already pulled, they've pulled the military out of Germany. Germany criticized elements of the Iran War, and Trump just, decided to start pulling troops out of Germany, which is a huge hub for us.

I don't know that, like, Germany, I guess it's good for their economy. Do they get some money? Is it a NATO deal? Do we have a story on this? Trump warns there of more cuts following withdrawal of 5,000 troops from Germany. Trump said on Saturday he might pull even more U.S. military troops out of Germany, a threat that came one day after he ordered the Pentagon and withdrewed approximately 5,000 service members.

We're going to cut way down, and we're going to cut a lot further than 5,000, Trump told reporters, before boarding Air Force One in Palm Beach. The warning comes amid the president's public clashes with German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz and other European allies over their criticism of the U.S. military operation in Iran. Earlier this month, Mertz said that the Iran was humiliating the U.S. with its control over the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping corridor. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade in the waterway, and the effective closure has sent global energy rates soaring. Here's the thing. I am all for saving face. I'm not saying Trump should allow the German chancellor to talk a lot of shit, right? And that was a little bit of, you know, to say we shouldn't have gone in, fair.

To say that Iran, let's just say he said Iran has proved more formidable than many would have expected. That seems like fair play. Just say that we're being, what do you say? We're being, we're being humiliated? That's, you're trying to punk us out. But here's the thing. We, they would argue we don't need to be in Germany. It's very useful.

And I don't know that's like, I don't know that's a good, you know, punishment to pull troops out. I would just bomb Germany. Start bombing Germany. Why not? People have a big bias against Germany, right? Because there's a whole Nazi thing. They were Nazis.

that they're not currently, you know, not currently Nazis, but I mean, you know, it's a big stigma. And Trump could probably help, you know, it's an easy win for them. Just claim that you're doing it because you think there's Nazis there and start bombing them. Now, everyone's going to know it's not true. But they knew the Iran stuff was BS. You know, they need to hire me. I'm a very creative guy. You know, I'm not a painter.

I'm not like some kind of philosopher. but like I had these ideas, these schemes, and I think I'm not capable of putting them into motion. I don't have the will or the or the or the Hutzpah or the, you know, whatever. I'm not, you know, I sound weird. But you know, I had, they can, you take this

and run with it. Bomb Germany, right? And say, we think they're Nazis. You know, it was a Nazi stronghold. You bomb, I don't know, October fasting, say we thought it was a, you know, look, you have the plausible deniability. of who care.

Like, I might say plausible, that's not usually what plausible deniability means, but I think one thing Trump has proved it, you can just kind of do things if you're confident enough and like, call me on it. That's kind of, because that's effectively plausible deniability.

It usually means like, hey, these troops, they're actually like, you know, they're not really U.S. forces and, like, they're a mercenary group, and if they get caught, we can say that we have nothing to do with it. That's traditionally what it means. But we could literally just invade Germany and then just say, so what?

That's also in a different way plausible than that ability. So, I mean, I think that would be, because what's Germany going to do at this point? You know, we need to kind of regain face against China, against, you know, whoever wants to do us harm. And that's growing. That list is growing because we're acting so arrogantly. So when you do that, I don't want to be a bully, right? I don't want to be a military bully, but I think it might be a good idea to like, you know, if you're going to try to punish people, do it with a, don't, don't bomb people if you can avoid it.

That would be nice. You know, I'm sure they have bomb the black forest. That's right. Bomb something where people aren't. Because the people in Europe love that shit. They love like trees and parks and all that. it could be a nice thing and don't hurt people

but you know make your point but this whole pulling troops out it looks petty it looks a little petty and I you know I take issue a lot of things President Trump does but I do want a strong president I won't deny that now

we have a an ad to read let's pull this up you know it's a growing concern this comp this comp show and a lot of these brands these brands are all

a lot of them have been pretty questionable but you know hopefully this one is just you know I'm looking to have nice brands you know nice brands that just kind of let's see has this work travel hog

everything seems to be about the almighty dollar these days but let me ask you can you really put a price on memories, like walking your daughter down the aisle, or getting a chance to say goodbye to your parent in person. Of course you can, and with all due respect, that price is no longer worth it, but with Travel Hog, you can still make an appearance. Travel Hog works in one of two ways. either you can subsidize your flight by strapping a GoPro to your fat head and an iPad across your stupid chest like some cyberpunk beast of burden

and trotting your fat ass into the ICU so that some poor slob in Cleveland can say goodbye to his mother who was brutally beaten for $20 worth of copper or you can be on the other end of the deal and hire some scumbag who's flying to Cleveland to surrender himself to the police to make a pit stop at your grandson's first communion. I guess is it only in Cleveland? I've heard some people argue that would make some more sense to just have a family member hold up a phone and they wouldn't need to pay us. but that's a classless way to approach life. With Travel Hog, you don't have to inconvenience a third party.

And besides, we have this whole harness thing, so it's kind of like a person. They reply, it would still make more sense to just hire someone locally, like a task rabbit, but those people better shut the fuck up before their goddamn data gets leaked. And someone shows up at their door in a random home invasion. I don't have an inner monologue. You have no idea what I'm capable of. I mean, this must be me or he knows I'm reading it, right?

All right. Travel hog. Use the promo code Brexit 2018. Brexit. Use the promo code Brexit 2018 or else we won't let you use the app. Follow simple instructions or you can eat shit. Oh, that seems. I got to be honest, it's pretty, that's pretty aggressive for an ad.

But I mean, you know, look, there's some, I don't have Hyundai beaten down the door to, you know, have me do live reads for them. So, you know, do me a, find out where it is travel hog is. If you have someone in your life, then you, you know, again, these flights are expensive. I guess you can just send some, like, felon. I mean, what's he being? he's flying to surrender himself. I guess he's like, you know, person of interest.

He's a tax evade. I guess it doesn't matter. I mean, do they vet these people? It doesn't, it seems like this guy's very got a chip on his shoulder. I'm not sure. I mean, you would think they would vet people.

I don't want to be liable. But, you know, go to travel hog. I mean, this is what I'm talking about. Find ways to make a footprint in the new economy. Stop whining about what's gone. You know, oh, I wish, I wish, I could have kids.

and the family and the house and and live a job and see and see the sky you know we mean see the sky like oh they kind of it seems like a lot of smog lately like right because the data centers it's gonna be here's you know you there's a lot of data center discourse going on and I don't know much I mean it for now they're kind of playing a game where they're playing you know ball right and like not if people put up a stink they'll they'll kind of submit but as these AI you know if this thing keeps going is AI circus right uh I mean like I mean like you know not that's circ I mean I'm not trying to be pejorative but what's the world's the thing a ferris wheel the wheel right if the wheel

keeps going is my point uh you're any more data centers and maybe like you can just we don't just live like that we'll just live in data centers right why don't we just live like the Japanese have those little cubicles they live in when they're our traveling right there's a little you know that'll just be us we'll just live inside of server farms um i i think that's a reasonable uh compromise right i don't i don't see a problem with that that could be nice for everyone why isn't you know just think outside the boxes is my only point um anyway doomsday for california more is gas stuff a lot of gas these this day you know doomsday for last barrel of oil from the Middle East arising Long Beach.

California is now going to face its first real test of the energy crisis stemming from America's conflict with Iran and exacerbated by the state's green energy power. I mean, yeah, now it's not the time to save the planet. Excuse me. The last oil tanker to pass through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began, arrived at the port of Long Beach with two million. So it takes these things a while. I always wonder how long it takes a big, big boat full of oil to travel.

I guess, you know, was that two months? Is it take two months typically? Fascinating. Prior to this, the Golden State and other states were able to withstand eye-popping pressures on the energy supply as slow-moving ships that left the Middle East night before, right before the war, made their journeys as usual. Hong Kong's ship, New Corolla, which loaded up on oil in February, will soon depart, and the state will have to figure out how to make up

for 200,000. I mean, people who were like for the war or whatever were like, you know, hey, don't worry about the straight of horrors. We make our own oil here. I guess like shale oil or whatever. I guess we'll have to adapt. I mean, like, do we have pipelines to go to California? I mean, it's not what their will be blood was about. They built these pipelines. I mean, wasn't that, you know, stand and oil, you know, an ocean of oil under our feet. I mean, it shouldn't matter, right?

We're, like, we're fracking people's homes. We've been doing it for years. That, like, you know, it's something to do where you should, you take a really powerful hose. If I, if I'm correct here, and you, like, you know, you just kind of dig an initial hole under some, under the master bedroom of the house or into the foundation, and you start fucking shooting water.

And then, like, I guess it just kind of starts shaking things up. And eventually, like, it, you know, the pressure turns things to the gas. I know that can't be the thing. It can't be how it works. But it's really bad for the environment, they say. But the tradeoff was supposed to be that we don't have to worry about oil.

I never thought that would be like the concern was that our prices. Why are our prices that have to go up? I get it because of global supply. But I mean, maybe we should, you know, why are we so selective about the free market is my point? I get it because it's not for us. It's not really for us, is it?

Any of that. It's like free as long as we're not benefits. and then some people are some people you know people people feel not very mad this week uh because snap uh you know food stamps they're they're not allowed to get like rotissory chickens i guess other prepared hot food uh from the supermarket um but the big headline was rotissory chicken and people are mad it doesn't seem like a huge luxury right it seems like a real you know rotissory chickens are like five bucks a lot of times of supermarkets they use them as like a lost leader. It doesn't seem like a big luxury, but it seems like people are very mad on like

acts, you know, you're seeing this, because they feel like, you know, if Snap gets it, and I just don't know the logic, it might be true. It seems like it wouldn't work this way. That Snap benefits, whatever, people get food stamps or able to buy grocery chickens, then they'll just take all the chickens and the price of chicken will go to the $30. I don't think, I mean, I don't think you realize how cheap the life of chickens are in this country. They're very, like, they shove them, and it's kind of sad the way they shove these chickens and all these, you know, giant factories

and they can't move. But that's just, I mean, so I feel like they'll just build more data centers and they'll build more chicken farms, right? Like chicken, it's an interesting thing to bring up because that's kind of what is in store for us. Like you bring, let me see like a fun, factory chickens. They have a picture.

Yeah. So these are like a... Can I make this full? What is this? Make it bigger. Why can't they have an AI that just makes things bigger for me? You'll get the idea.

There. There's a factory chickens. You can see it's just all as far as the eye could see. That's going to be... That's effectively us. Right? And like you go in,

maybe we can learn something from them. They seem fine. Now, I feel, we feel bad when we see them, but maybe we shouldn't. Maybe the moral of the story is that, Doug, they're not writing the chicken version of the Gulag archipelago. You know, you ever seen it? You ever heard the chicken complain about his lot in life? They seem to just get on.

They peck at the floor. I'm at, you know, they, they, they shit where they eat. It seems cruel, but maybe the moral of all this is that it's fine. you're going to be a factory chicken and it's just fine. I don't know. I feel like that's more of a religious idea. If you really want to travel, you can just talk to these chatbots, I think.

That's kind of the night. It's a good timing, I guess. It can't be an accident. You know, these chatbots are very knowledgeable about it. I don't know that they're going to become sentient. Everyone says they are. And I have my little, you know, whatever, misgivings. But I'm not an expert.

What do I know? But, you know, but they, if you want to go to, you know, oh, I'd love to go to Italy and see and see where Jesus was beaten on the road to Golgata, right? The mountain where they crucify them. I got to see the Holy Land. They just summarize it for you. They're very good at that. They're good at kind of collating information.

And you can even, they'll even link you to pictures. They'll make AI pictures for you. Hey, Sean, like, what do you, what is most of your time when you travel anyway? It's a lot of like you're in a hotel, you're in public, you're, you're in public, you're whatever transport to the locations. A lot of this back and forth. It's fun, but there's a lot of in between, right? Unless you're doing one of these like things we just go into Sandals Resort and you,

and you just lay out in the sun, which that's what tanning beds are for, isn't it? You can just kind of like, you know, enjoy pictures and videos. on you do people go around and they shoot these things what do you need to see the what are you gonna be you have to do a pilgrimage you know you oh like jesus never asked you the like that's just like i don't remember anything in the bible he's like hey remember when they beat their they just fucking beat me oh and i'm like i'm not trying to make light of it but the whole crucifixion and everything you like remember that yeah i want you to go there he never said that that wasn't like one of one another is i have loved you and also check out where i you know my blood land

landed. He never. So that's, you know, I should really be the White House press secretary. That's what you should lead with. It's always good PR to just really go over the top. Like, you know, don't you think it could hurt business and people try to move around the country and it'll hurt mobility and it'll hurt the working poor? I go, look, Jesus never asked you to fucking lick his blood spot on Golgatha, right? as I was saying this I'll just stick to this I literally was thinking about Italy it's not that's in Israel right it's the Jerusalem

I was literally thinking of like the Vatican though which is just stupid on my part but I mean that's the thing I would show up to the Vatican and I know better I went to 12 years of Catholic school 11 a half I guess they did kick me out in senior year

but you know I know very well that Jesus was not beaten the death at the Vatican, but I feel like I would get there and then finally remember that. And then feel like an idiot. And I'd ask like, like, the cardinals aren't going to talk to me probably, especially the, let alone the Pope. But some dumb, you know, priest, I'm calling him dumb. I'm going to ask you, you know, where is Golgitha?

He's like, you know, the other part of the other half of the world, you idiot. It's not even in this hemisphere. And they would, you know, maybe I would be beaten in the Vatican. But it would still be nice to see, like, some of the, some of the trinkets. I'd like to go with the Vatican. I guess I'm not allowed anymore. Comment where you'd like to go.

Remember like and subscribe to the show. And, you know, it helps the show. It helps to come to spread around. And comment where you, if you win the chance to, you know, because Delta's shutting down a lot of flights. I mean, like, I'm not trying to be alarmist here. You could still go somewhere this summer maybe. The prices are probably going up.

a lot. It's a trend, right? No one ever, you know, no one ever sold anything by like being subtle. So yes, you can still, you know, if you're making some money, you could still go to the Vatican. And I'm trying to tell you is it's probably not worth it for the prices you're going to be paying. You used to be able to take spirit and go and like ask these dumb questions. I'm out a few hundred bucks. You're going to have to start taking loans out to, you know, the backpacker, you know, these, oh, I'm a backpack around Europe. What am I? Like, a rich kid? I mean, is it my dad on Microsoft?

No, I can't back pack around Europe. Oh, you're an alarmist come. Who cares? What's the point of not being an alarmist? I don't even understand it anymore. Food prices are going up. But that's, you know, I've actually been eating a lot of tofu lately. Which, you know, you get like a pack of tofu for three bucks.

And you get like, it's like 40, it's 400 calories. It's got 40-something gram. of protein. It's not as efficient as chicken breast. But, you know, that's the other thing. Whenever you see a science fiction movie, it's always soybeans, right? Start eating tofu. Do we really need to have, like, you know, all these different food options? It's all about scaling down. It's all about kind of doing less with less, right? That's kind of the whole gimmick. This is a, this is an interesting story. Are Disney adults, the happiest debtors on Earth? For the Walt Disney company, most loyal fans, the pursuit of magic can come with a free,

what, five-figure credit card bill. And I think it's New York, these are just stingy New Yorker. They won't give me the free story, but it doesn't matter. It's a, it's a jumping off point. Look, does it make sense of this day, age? I've never been a Disney adult. I've never been the kind of guy who goes, hey, you should be into goofy. and Lilo and Stitch in your mid-30s, right?

That's never been my angle. I've always said, you know, grow up, concern yourself with the ways of the world, learn a little bit about culture, economics, history. You know, raise a family if that's your bag. You know, get good at something. But maybe that's kind of, like, maybe it's better to kind of reevaluate how,

interact with these kind of brands or these franchises, right? I mean, Pokemon car. I mentioned them recently last week in the ad in the ad. It came up in that ad is Pokemon cards, right? I didn't realize at the time. It's a huge bubble. I mean, they might take issue with that, calling it a bubble. I did tweet about it earlier. And I was like a simple joke, like, you know, if you don't have 30 K in Pokemon, like you're going to, you're not worth living and some crazy and like the amount people always take me out of it's not that's not the story but the idea i didn't the people just sharing me there's a whole world of like Pokemon card like uh i guess there's this there's the um what you call them

the scalpers but also the investors like people are investing in these Pokemon cards and you know it's it's never been a better time to bank on exploiting the same nostalgia because, you know, nostalgia's always been a powerful thing. Not so much to me. I never, you know, my childhood was fine. I'm not like, but I never wanted to be like, oh, I want to be a kid again. Like, you know, I didn't live in the sandlot, you know. I wasn't playing baseball with Benny, right?

It's fine. I mean, I have no complaints. But, I mean, I don't have these stories. I didn't find a dead guy, like, stand by me to bond over, you know, with my friends. You know, it was less eventful. So I'm never the guy who's like, I gotta be a kid again. But, you know, it's always been a very powerful draw, youth, the opportunity. But also like, you know, I do, Bucky O'Hare, the rabbit.

You don't know, most you don't remember, Bucky O'Hare. He was a space rabbit. I used to have the action figures. You know, sometimes I remember these toys I had. You go, that's now. You look on eBay, I've fallen for it. You buy it and ships to your house. and then I go, what am I going to do with it?

I'm a grown man. You put on your wall maybe, but it's like, I stop. Yeah, I got into Batman's for a while. That wasn't even nostalgia. I just got into Batman as an adult. And like, you know, you can buy these little things, but it's kind of, like, it's still, it's been, but Batman's inherently nostalgic, right?

And like you buy, you can buy these little bits of plastic that really are just like, it's just takes up space and there's a waste of money, uh, objectively. You know, I'm not saying you can, enjoy what you can, but it is kind of inherently a vac, you know, it's not like you're building Amish furniture, which, you know, whatever.

That's a glazy Amish. And so, like, to me, I was kind of like, you kind of look at these bins of figures and go, what am I to do with this shit, right? I kind of got over this, like this, you know. But you can buy a little, It's a way to kind of, it's kind of like cutting yourself. I never cut myself, but it can be a relief I hear to certain people.

You know, or anxiety. I'm not trying to endorse it. I'm just saying, but it's a more productive way of dealing with stress than cutting yourself. It's to buy a little Batman. To buy a Pokemon card. And that's kind of going to be a huge draw for people as the world gets worse and more. right you can't really you look i'm not saying no one can afford a home but if you make a few wrong moves you're kind of in bad shape credit wise you didn't get a great you know it's hard to you know

i mean the whole pipeline of like colleges to jobs uh you see some professors online saying it's gone which sounds scary uh that seemed to be a pillar of american life and work right and now it's like oh we don't and it no one really has an answer i mean I mean, if you're optimistic about AI, it's going to take all the jobs. If you're not, they're still going to fire you probably and then just figure it out later. It's going to be a lot of upheaval. So, but the point that maybe people will need to have a little respite, a little bit of, you know, just kind of relief from this whole thing. And then that's where these scalper, you know, scalpers, you know, I don't know, scalper sounds negative.

But it's an opportunity. You're basically, it's almost in a way, it's kind of like one of those movies of conception where you're stealing each other's dreams. You're stealing each other's childhood memories and you're squatting on them. It's a, from an anthropological point of view, it's fascinating.

Because you basically, you're kind of punishing anyone for having any connection to the past when it was nice, right? Because, you know, they were disresisted, my point is this existed before. when like you know things were fine and you still want to go

oh Bob but I had the heat man right now it's like you know oh you don't know if your kid's going to be allowed to go to grade school or he's going to get put in the minds and you go maybe I'll just indulge myself in the Batman but the Batman is now like prohibitively going to be expensive

because they're going to squel on the Batman's but you also need it more it's a it's a it's a battle of will I guess because human um we have a loneliness problem i guess you'd say people are lonely and they need these little things to keep the video games aren't good the movies aren't very good right the movie we've got devil wears private too it's not very good i didn't see it but i mean how can it be i've read the

summary it sounds terrible i mean you're making this movie about fashion maybe if they dealt like if they if they incorporated the epstein thing into it where it turns out stanley tochie was you know I was friends with Jeffrey Epstein you know I did the whole thing actually you know that's not to plug the Patreon again but we I just released an episode yesterday the devil wears product three where I do a whole you know long uh scenario about because it actually might be making another one that's the thing these Disney you're a Disney adult it's the perfect it's it's time to be a Disney adult even though all the things

Disney owns aren't good they own devil worse product I guess because they own Fox. The Marvel movies aren't very good. You might say, you might be one of the people say they're never good. All right, they were, they were better. I think they were pretty good for a while. They're not good now.

The Star Wars is kind of crazy, right? And who wants to see the Mandalorian and Grogu? But that's the thing. You thought about, in the same way when you were a kid and you thought about growing up and like getting a job in a house and raising a kid and then, you know, The kid got you know and just yelling at the kid all the time like you got yelled at

Right like I want you shut up I'm trying I'm trying to watch more in order Learn to be a man stuff like that that's how you remember that be can't afford it because look You're not bastard. You're not gonna have kids you can't afford right and not I'm even judging having if you want I'm just saying all people out there don't they go oh people there enough people having kids well a lot of you don't want to have a kid that like you know The kids you know the kids are gonna want the Pokemon cards and you have to explain you've to explain to her kid now uh that a the Pokemon card that he wants because he loves Charzar is actually like you know five hundred dollars because a guy it's actually a rare slab i don't even know what

the slab is but apparently it's it's it's kind of like a like a like a blockchain or something it's part of the whole Pokemon card thing this was supposed to be a game i thought i didn't even know he's still around he's around when i was like growing up or like a teenager at least uh these pokey you know it's like magic of gathering or something It's just this is really, we can't like anything anymore without becoming part of the economy. And, but I don't, like, it's always part of the economy, but I mean like our, where we monetize our joy out of it. It's usually like, oh, you, I like Coca-Cola. I'll buy one.

Now they're, like, analyzing you with these, with these AIs and everything. They're looking at you when you post on X.com and you posted Instagram. They're learning things about you from Amazon about how you operate and what and what your political views are and your religious views and your and your racial views and all these views you have and they're in using that to price Coca-Cola and price the Batman figure and that's just off the jump. That's not the scalpers. That's that's that's just point of sale. You know, you're going to be paying you might be paying $10 for a Coke not just because you want it more. And that doesn't seem like a free market. Seems kind of nasty business. Am I crazy? I mean, it just seems like a little bit of a... Look, maybe there's a bright side to all this. Maybe there's a rainbow at the end of the tunnel.

I'm saying maybe. This is, you know, I'm not saying there is. This is what the Democratic Senator claims mathematically impossible. Retired top U.S. general says Trump has only one option where they ran resume bombing. Yeah, he's like, that's the thing. No one has ideas anymore.

You know, just the same way, I like to think I'm above that, right? Like, oh, it seems like we bombed for a while and they didn't care. And like, I thought these generals, you know, I'm not trying to tell, I wouldn't tell a dentist how to pull, you know, a rod of tooth out of my mouth.

But, you know, it's my point is, that's all they got. And so, I mean, I'm the guys that bombed Germany because, you know, because it's better than pulling troops out. It's a crapshoot. They always told us to learn Chinese growing up, more like in my 20s at least. It's, you know, aging myself a bit, I guess.

But it was like, oh, learn Mandarin. That's where it's going. And it might be. But it's super hard. I tried to learn Japanese last year. And it was a really, uh, wasn't great. It's very hard. I mean, there's a lot of characters, a lot of symbols.

It's a lot of, it's just not, nothing's easy anymore. And you're going to have to just deal with the fact that people are going to scalp baby formula. People are going to scalp, you know, like just the basic goods and services. It's kind of like, you know, we're going to have inflation now. We're going to have hyperinflation possibly. You know, we have too much debt in this country. If we don't go to a massive war, and I'm not one of those people who says, you know, go to war for the economy. that's kind of a like a miss you know whatever mischaracterization like you know you can do they can be

stimulating for the economy but they call like the broken window fallacy right like it's not good and like you know yes if you if you if you if you throw a rock through a window you're paying the glazer and you're paying this guy and that guy but like the guy you know and so it's good for the economy but like i think it's got like henry haslett said like yeah but what the guy who had who had the window he's ass out he paid for the new window. He's, you know,

it's not good for him. That being said, we have too much debt and it keeps rising. You know, this week, speaking of debt, you know,

the Trump had his whole thing against Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Fed. I've never been a huge fan of the Fed for, you know, obvious reasons, I think.

But, you know, here's the thing. The Federal Reserve Reserve was created on behalf of the banks. You know, they got the, you know, the investment banks, you know, their agents, like Rockefellers and the Morgans, the Warburgs got together on Jekyll Island, Georgia,

to arrange basically like a cartel for the banks. So they could be keeping, the problem is you had, you know, originally you had all these regional banks, whatever, smaller banks, and then bank notes, and they would, you know, get banked. They would basically, it's all fractional reserve banking, right? So inherently, you know, you keep 10% on reserve and you loan the rest out. And it's because they figured out this gimmick where, you know, for the most part, that works.

Except, you know, every few years or whatever, it tends to screw you. I mean, it tends to, you know, because if everyone wants their money at once, what are you going to do? You can, you know, you can't. Now, this is exacerbated because, you know, people, banks always get a little greedy. People, you know, you're always hiring people. they want to make more money, more profit. When things are good, when the Pokemon cards are going up, buy more card. No one likes to think about the future.

It's very hard. It's very hard to be patient, right? So, I mean, I'm probably telling you a lot of you stuff you already know, but the point is, so, you know, the Fed, you know, it can be a stabilizing force to some extent. Because, you know, we had these bank runs and it would be a problem. And then, like, J.P. Morgan was bail out the country. But it's almost like, oh, he was, J.P. Morgan was burdens. This guy said it seems like a little fishy, but whatever. We're not going to get into a huge detail thing.

The point is I'm not a Fed guy. I'm not like, oh, but it's probably, if the alternative, if the idea is that, you know, the president just wants you to juke interest rates down. I think we're juke, but, you know, like just slat, which is kind of how we got in these problems in the first place, but how long is cheap money, right, artificially cheap money, which just kind of, you know, it can, in the short term, it gets you a little action.

and you pay for it later. It doesn't seem like that's a prudent move, right? You know, it's supposed to, I mean, the one thing that was supposedly good about the Fed was that it was not subject to, you know, political whims. And you might, some people might argue, well, yeah, because they're working with the banks, they don't want to be controlled.

That's an argument. But if the president, the president's argument that, you know, just flashed the rates, just slash it to zero again. it just seems like I don't want to be a Fed guy but that you know but Trump is basically trying to he he put a chairman Dight Jerome Powell because he like you know under some weird you know obviously BS about you know he renovated the Fed building or whatever and they dropped that because he's trying to get his new guy in now he's going to he plans on staying as a member of the board at least when a new guy gets in as a Fed chairman

and people have met you know and you got Janine Powell out there was that her name Dream Piro we're gonna reunite the thing I don't I'm not it's a sign of the time that we're being torn between like you know I have to somehow like

take the side of the I don't want to do that so you know it's just it's time to tune out maybe that's never the answer but it does seem like it's just it's nothing to you it's kind of like king Solomon's baby

you had his baby and he wants to cut in half um i told that story poorly no the baby they brought this baby the king solomon this woman i guess this one woman said hey that baby's mine which it begs the question how did you get the how did she get the baby you know if if two women come to you and you're the king and hey she got my baby and like i mean is she like a cat burglar or like how did you leave your baby at the coffee shop but regardless whatever they're both arguing over whose baby it is and uh king solomon it just says, hey, you know, simple problem.

We got two women. You got one baby. Cut the baby in half. And the woman who had the baby, that's fine with me. I love that idea. Half a baby's all I need. And the other one's like, no. I love it. This baby's great. Don't cut the baby.

You know, if it's going to be a baby cut in half, I don't even, just give it to her then. And he's like, well, that's her baby. Because she didn't want the baby cut in here. have. It just seems a weird criteria. I'm not sure why the other woman wanted half a dead baby, but also like, to me, it's just kind of like, it could be a different thing. And I think this metaphor is coming around full circle, right? Because if you, if you loved your baby so much and you're going to take it away forever, you might say to yourself, look, I love my baby to be

alive, but if all I, of all I can get is half a baby, I'll take that. And it's weird because, you know, the baby has to be cut in half. But, I mean, she's not thinking straight. She goes, I need, I'll take half a baby over nobody. I love this baby so much. And the other woman's like, basically like, wow, if I'm not getting a baby, you know, like, you know, it's almost like flippant, right? So it's, you know, King Solomon might not, you know, been that smart as my point.

He might not have figured out as well as we claim. Because, uh, may sometimes wanting, uh, half of a dead something, is a bigger sign of love than not wanting it at all. And that's kind of where we're at. You know, I'd like, you know, I'd like to have, you know, memories of going around the world and traveling and living and having a job. But if all I can get is a Charzar card, I'll take that. Because it's still some kind of, it's a dead life, but some kind of life.

So don't fret is my point. I think that's what the Bible is trying. I mean, I think people get the Bible wrong sometimes. Maybe he's trying to tell us, look, even if it seems like, you know, all you're going to, you're going to pay, you know, everything you have left and, you know, your desk egg to get a bunch of junk that, you know, that squatters have inflated in place of any kind of, you know, actual experiences. That's fine. It's still a life.

It's better than nothing. So, you know, it's, is that optimistic? Is that bringing the spirits up? I'm trying to make people feel better. I'm trying to be a positive force. I hope I succeeded. So thanks so much for tuning in and being part of Kump. And remember like and subscribe if you can.

It helps out. Comment. Tell us about, tell me about your life, your life stories, your hopes and your dreams. Patreon.com slash Ray Kump. You get extra episode every week, five bucks a month.

across the board. Very, just a lot of, a lot of optimism. A lot of joy. Have a great day.