The Pour Over Today - Friday, October 1, 2021

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Congress passes stopgap funding bill, Dollar Tree raises prices, Britney Spears’ father is removed as conservator, and other top news for Friday, October 1st. Stay informed, while remaining focused on Christ, with The Pour Over.

Happy Friday. It's October 1st, and you're listening to The Pour-Over. Thanks for joining us. Here's the quote of the day. God's goodness is the root of all goodness, and our goodness, if we have any, springs out of His goodness. William Tyndale Well, hello to all the U.S. government employees reading this on their work emails. Yes, Congress passed a stopgap funding bill yesterday, narrowly averting a government shutdown. Unfortunately, that was the easy part. America will default on its loans on October 18th unless the debt ceiling is raised. And that threat is being used as a powerful bargaining chip by multiple groups on Capitol Hill.

Republicans won't raise the ceiling unless Democrats rein in spending. Democrats could raise the ceiling alone by adding it to the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act. Say that five times fast. But progressive Democrats won't pass the bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill unless the Build Back Better Act is passed as is. Senator Mankin, a Democrat from West Virginia, won't pass the Build Back Better Act unless the Build Back Better Act is passed as is. Senator Mankin, a Democrat from West Virginia, won't pass the Build Back Better Act unless the price tag is dropped to $1.5 trillion. Followers of Christ are not identified by their political affiliation, but by their love for others.

And yes, that means loving people that you believe have unloving stances on tough topics. Romans 12. 18 says, if it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Annual inflation hit 4.2% in July, the highest in three decades, causing price hikes across the economy and triggering an existential crisis for one retailer, Dollar Tree. Since they were incorporated in 1986 as only $1 Inc., the company has remained true to its name, but on Wednesday, their CEO announced supply chain bottlenecks and higher costs have forced them to do the unthinkable, sell items for $1.25 and even in some cases $1.50. Wall Street, who has been trying to get them to

break the buck for years, celebrated by sending their stock up 16%. Meanwhile, initial claims for unemployment rose for the third week in a row to 362,000, still well below their 2021 peak of 904,000 in January. Our hope is never contingent on an economic outcome. It's much more secure than that. Regardless of whether things get worse or better during your lifetime, everything eventually ends well for followers of Christ. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

Philippians 4.6 Present your request to God. Philippians 4.6 Britney is almost hashtag free. A Los Angeles judge removed Jamie Spears as the conservator of his daughter's $60 million estate after fittingly calling the situation toxic. The conservatorship still exists, but temporary oversight has been given to a Britney-approved California accountant, and the judges expected to terminate the conservatorship entirely at a hearing on November 12th. The Elder Spears first sought a conservatorship after the pop star's

public struggles with mental health in 2008, and was given astounding control over Britney's career, finances, and personal life. Britney first expressed concerns over the arrangement in 2014, and the hashtag Free Britney movement went mainstream over the arrangement in 2014, and the hashtag FreeBritney movement went mainstream with the release of a slew of documentaries in the last year. Now, united by Britney, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is taking on conservatorships. In other brews, we've got a rapid round of updates. YouTube, which had previously banned misinformation about COVID

vaccines, announced a sweeping crackdown of misinformation related to other vaccines proven safe by health authorities, such as those for measles and rubella. The new ban, announced on Wednesday, was immediate, and several prominent anti-vax YouTubers had their pages removed. Roughly two-thirds of petrol stations in the UK don't have petrol. That's gasoline to us Yankees. Surprisingly, there's not actually a gas shortage, just a lack of truck drivers to transport the fuel. The British military is stepping in to drive the tankers and stop the panic buying. Elon Musk says he's planning to send a silver medal and a giant statue of the number two to Jeff Bezos after reclaiming the title of world's richest person this week. The billionaire space rivals are worth $192.5 billion and $200.7 billion respectively, so it could be a really, really big statue.

This week saw the deadliest prison fight in Ecuador's history when inmates gained access to a different wing housing rival gang members. The gangs battled with explosives, knives, and guns, leaving 116 people dead. It took 500 police officers and five hours to restore order. In the months before the 2020 presidential election, 19 out of the top 20 Facebook pages for American Christians were actually run by Eastern European troll farms, according to internal Facebook documents leaked to MIT Technology Review. This was part of a larger campaign that reached nearly half of all Americans. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. If you found this podcast helpful or informative, we would really appreciate it if you would consider sharing it with someone you know,

or we'd love it if you just left us a five-star review. Otherwise, we hope you have a great day and we'll see you back here on Monday.