SCRAMBLE: BREAKING: Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire!!!!

Summary

Garage Logic: Weekly Scramble

Episode: SCRAMBLE: BREAKING: Elon Musk has become the world's first trillionaire!!!!
Date: June 12, 2026
Hosts: Chris Reivers & Mike Fratelloni

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Episode Overview

This lively episode of the Weekly Scramble dives into one of the most momentous financial stories of the decade: Elon Musk’s newly crowned status as the world’s first trillionaire, following SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO. Chris and Mike unpack the financial intricacies, societal reactions, and broader implications of Musk’s wealth, while not shying away from local Minnesota politics, government programs, and classic Garage Logic banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Catch-Up and Party Talk

• [02:01–06:15]
  • Chris praises Mike’s daughter’s graduation party, the innovative food truck, and the backyard bar setup.
  • Mike jokes about blending current and ex-wife dynamics after the party:
    • “My current wife ... and my ex wife Jill were standing in the garage crying together. So I did one of those slowly back out moves like Homer Simpson.” (Mike, 02:55)
  • They riff about starting a Fratelloni food truck—the Frat Pack 5000—spotlighting local meat, sausages, and the logistics of such a venture.

2. Elon Musk Becomes World’s First Trillionaire

• [06:17–14:10]
  • Major focus on Musk surpassing $1 trillion due to SpaceX’s IPO and share surge.
  • Stats Shared:
    • SpaceX IPO valued at $75 billion.
    • Musk's net worth now estimated at $1.1 trillion.
    • His SpaceX holdings alone are valued around $690 billion.
    • Many SpaceX and Tesla employees are made millionaires by equity.
  • Chris: “He’s the absolute definition of the American dream.” (08:20)
  • Mike: “He's a self made trillionaire. ... If your net worth is $200,000, he is 5 million times richer than you.” (08:24)
  • Discussion about relative wealth: “He can spend $1 million every day ... and he wouldn’t run out of money for 2,700 years.” (Mike, 09:54)
  • Musk’s lifestyle:
    • Lived in modest $50,000 modular home in Texas.
    • Invested all Paypal proceeds—$180 million—into SpaceX, Tesla, and Solar City, leaving himself cash-poor:
      • “I literally had to borrow money for rent after selling that for $180 million.” (Chris relaying Musk's interview, 13:00)

3. Reactions and Backlash to Extreme Wealth

• [10:12–14:10; 16:40–20:44]
  • Discussion about political responses, specifically Democratic "meltdowns" over Musk’s wealth.
  • Critique of politicians like Governor Tim Walz and Elizabeth Warren for using Musk’s success as a political football.
    • “If you don’t want wealth, give it up, right? ... It’s not your money. ... The government doesn’t get to take it.” (Mike, 24:14)
  • Comparison with historical wealth:
    • John D. Rockefeller and 14th-century Mansa Musa peaked at ~$400–500 billion adjusted.
    • “Elon ... is widely believed to be the richest man in Earth's history.” (Mike, 16:53)

4. Impact for SpaceX Employees and American Dream

• [17:33–22:03]
  • Highlighting stories like welder Juan Hernandez, turning 10 years of work and 6,500 shares into $880,000.
  • “All of that wealth ... came from the same source, a group of people who believed that if nobody built a truly reusable rocket, humanity would never leave Earth and decided that was an unacceptable outcome.” (Chris, 19:56)
  • SpaceX IPO created between 600 and 1,000 new millionaires, plus larger windfalls for executives.
  • Deep dive into motivations of these instant millionaires: most will keep working, driven by the mission.

5. Market Mania and Investment Thoughts

• [22:03–24:22]
  • Discussing the extreme valuation: SpaceX trading at 95x sales.
  • The mania around Musk-led companies, and how even cautious investors are piling in.
  • Chris quips about how only politicians outperform:
    • “Unless you were Nancy Pelosi you made way more than that on the stock market.” (23:17)
  • Critique of political hypocrisy, especially from Elizabeth Warren.

6. Minnesota Politics: The Promise Act and Government Spending

• [25:42–31:05]
  • Transition to local government initiatives; skepticism about the Minnesota Promise Act.
  • Critique:
    • "Why is the state of Minnesota taking my tax dollars to give to nonprofits? I give to nonprofits... Why do they have to be the middleman?" (Mike, 29:10)
  • Frustration with inability to “opt out” of government programs, feeling forced to pay for questionable initiatives.
  • “I don’t have that ability. ... I’m just forced to write this check every April, and it’s maddening.” (Chris, 31:06)

7. California, Voting, and Political Cynicism

• [31:45–39:44]
  • Sharp take-down of Gavin Newsom's criticism of Musk:
    • “What balls on this guy. The system's rigged. When you're sitting at the French Laundry ... you hypocrite turd.” (Mike, 32:24)
  • Questioning the integrity of election results in LA County and the 2020 presidential race.
  • Scepticism over rapid and anomalous vote swings after early and mail-in ballots.
  • “When you lose integrity in elections, it's done.” (Mike, 37:57)
  • Controversial musings about voting rights for the homeless or inebriated, using tattoo parlor rules as analogy.

8. Humor and Light Moments

• Throughout episode—esp. [40:22–42:09]
  • Mike’s story about a misunderstood tattoo with his nephew, blending earnestness with self-deprecating humor.
  • Garage Logic’s trademark blend of everyday stories and serious commentary shines through.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Musk's Risk and Drive:

  • “He just basically said, well, I got this nice chunk of change. I'm going to double down and I'm going to gamble on myself. And holy crap, did that.”
    — Chris Reivers (13:26)

• On Wealth Disparity:

  • “If your net worth was $200,000 ... he is 5 million times richer than you.”
    — Mike Fratelloni (08:28)

• On Political Hypocrisy:

  • “If you don’t want wealth, give it up, right? ... It’s not your money. ... The government doesn’t get to take it.”
    — Mike Fratelloni (24:14)

• On The American Dream:

  • “All of that wealth ... came from the same source, a group of people who believed that if nobody built a truly reusable rocket, humanity would never leave Earth and decided that was an unacceptable outcome.”
    — Chris Reivers (19:56)

• On Government Programs:

  • “Why is the state of Minnesota taking my tax dollars to give to nonprofits? ... Why do they have to be the middleman?”
    — Mike Fratelloni (29:10)

• On Voting Integrity:

  • “When you lose integrity in elections, it's done. It's a problem.”
    — Mike Fratelloni (37:57)

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Important Timestamps

• [06:17] — Breaking: Elon Musk becomes world’s first trillionaire
• [08:24] — Explaining just how staggeringly rich Musk is
• [09:54] — The “spending $1 million a day for 2,700 years” stat
• [13:00] — Musk’s post-Paypal reinvestment story
• [16:53] — Musk richer than anyone in history; Rockefeller/Mansa Musa comparison
• [17:47-20:44] — SpaceX IPO creates “army” of new millionaires
• [24:14] — Mike’s broadside against forced wealth redistribution
• [29:10] — Rant about government grants and nonprofit funding
• [32:03] — Gavin Newsom’s tweet, and the hosts’ scathing response
• [37:57] — Integrity of elections questioned
• [40:46] — Mike’s tattoo story, Garage Logic humor

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Episode Tone & Style

The conversation is sharp, candid, and irreverently witty, mixing hard numbers and cynicism about politicians with gleeful “garage talk” and personal storytelling. Chris and Mike maintain a distinctly populist, practical, and sometimes contrarian tone, skewering hypocrisy on both political and corporate sides.

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Summary for the Uninitiated

This episode is a tour-de-force on why Elon Musk’s trillionaire status is both an economic marvel and a political lightning rod. The hosts celebrate hard work, risk, and the American Dream as they see it, while remaining deeply skeptical of government overreach and political grandstanding, especially in Minnesota and California. Garage Logic’s trademark blend of blue-collar sense, civic-minded questioning, and good-natured sarcasm is in prime form—making this a must-listen for anyone interested in money, politics, and real-life perspective.

Transcript

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[Mike Fratelloni]

SpaceX is up 19.81%.

[Chris Reivers]

That's what we are going to talk about.

[Mike Fratelloni]

This is the Weekly Scramble, a place where we chat about life over a cold one or two. It's time to belly up to the pod with Mike Fratelloni and your host, Chris Reavers.

[Chris Reivers]

That's right. It's time for the weekly Scramble podcast. My name is Chris Reivers. With me as always. His name is Mike Fratelloni. Hello Michael.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How you doing Reivers?

[Chris Reivers]

I'm doing well. Thank you so much to you and your family for inviting me over yesterday for the grad party. What a spectacular job you did. Your family is nothing short of of amazing. And you know what it did. I got my car and I'm like, my son's gonna be in ninth grade next year And I gotta do this in a couple, but your family is so kick ass. I just wanted to say that your daughter Addy, what a beautiful young lady. I'm super happy for her and she's just gonna be awesome.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Thank you. We did have at the end of the day, it was a long night and we had been like kinda hanging out and drinking some wine and stuff like that. And at the end of the night I walked out into my garage and my current wife. My Pick, right?

[Chris Reivers]

Yep.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Nicole and my ex wife Jill were standing in the garage crying together. Oh. So I did one of those slowly back out moves like Homer Simpson.

[Chris Reivers]

Homer Simpson.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm like there's nothing about this makes me want to be in the middle of this conversation. Either they're crying about my lack of preparedness or sex appeal or whatever I was.

[Chris Reivers]

Damn it. You beat me to the leg. Maybe they were both talking about you. I'm stuck with him now.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Can you believe we got suckered into this guy? I don't know. And then it turns out at one point in time I just said hey, I'm going to bed. And they were sitting on the couch chit chatting.

[Chris Reivers]

Oh God.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And I thought, where does this go? How does. And about 2 o' clock in the morning my Pick came to bed. My ex wife had left earlier than that. But she had some other stuff to do. She cleaned up every single thing. The end of this party had been a long, long, long day. I bet she cleaned everything up. We woke up this morning, it was all perfect. Wow. Well done Pick.

[Chris Reivers]

By the way, let's give a shout out the food truck you had with the tacos.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. Gastro truck or something like that.

[Chris Reivers]

Holy. I am not joking because I. One of my favorite things about San Diego, California are the street tacos that they make.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

Like legit. Not some guy with some dudes. Coleman Mag. Coleman cooler in a wagon. But the street tacos down there were amazing. I told this guy that last night. He made these Thai chicken tacos that were incredible. They were so good.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You know what else? Okay. So I thought it was really cool. We had that bar there. It's called Mini Social. Yeah, right. And so it's basically an ice fishing trailer that they've turned into this bar. Right. So they go drop it off at your house. Pull the truck away so it looks like it's built in. And I'm such a cool guy that people came up to me and said when did you put that bar in? They thought it was a portion of my house.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay. Had I never been to your house before.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You could have thought it could have been.

[Chris Reivers]

I would have thought the same thing.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And I thought, oh, you're giving me credit that I have just in my driveway a full on bar in there. And then I started to think, these people expect more of me than I'm giving and I maybe need to put a bar in the middle of my driveway.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm telling you right now, and I jokingly said this to you last night, but the more I've thought about it in the last 13 seconds, I'm telling you right now, a fratelloni food truck style thing would be a million dollar idea.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I love it. Seems like a lot of work. I can barely do the stuff I enjoy. Last thing I want to do is be involved in the food truck.

[Chris Reivers]

The things that you're connected to at the hardware store. You got the grilling stuff, you got the master's MAPL seasonings. We've got the. We've got the sir. We got everything.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We could really do it.

[Chris Reivers]

It would be spectacular.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You know, you're kind of talking me into it.

[Chris Reivers]

The frat.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't want to run it at all.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay. The frat pack 500 fraterni. Sorry, the frat pack 5000. Frat alone food truck. The alliteration alone.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So smooth. So smooth. And then I could sell like hot dagos. I don't know if you can say hot dagos anymore, but being Italian, I think you can say it like hot dago sandwiches or sausage on a stick.

[Chris Reivers]

But think of that too. It would open up the door for us to partner with. You know, we had that great connection with Grunthoffers years ago. It opens the door for us to Master's Maple to check out a different meat company that's out there.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay.

[Chris Reivers]

I think we're sitting on something.

[Mike Fratelloni]

If you have great meat, call reverse. Is that what we're supposed to say?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, that might be in the works because I have been talking with one person about that. The problem is I don't know that that person can do enough business, can handle that kind of demand. Once we open up those floodgates, it's gonna come rolling.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It is kind of true, actually.

[Chris Reivers]

So I had to start with one story and one story only today. And I know you've been in the weeds with graduation parties and everything like that, but your guy Elon Musk has been in the news and it broke. I think this happened during gl. So I'm gonna guess like in the noon hour today that Elon Musk ladies And gentlemen became the world's very first trillionaire. Elon Musk surges in to become the first trillionaire. And the Democrats are melting down.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's a lot of money. Stock, it's at 160 right now. It's up $25.95 today or 19.22%.

[Chris Reivers]

And Tesla stock also went up a significant amount as well today. Here it is. This is from fox news. After SpaceX raised a record $75 billion in its IPO. Musk's net worth shot up to $1.1 trillion when the stock began trading today, putting him in an economic class of his own. Combined with his holdings in electric vehicle maker Tesla as well as other investments and assets, his net worth is now estimated at $1.1 trillion. Musk's stake in the rocket and satellite company alone is now estimated at a staggering $690 billion. Also a life changing moment for thousands of workers at the company who hold equity. Investors who watched Musk help turn Tesla into an automotive giant are now betting he can do the same in space and artificial intelligence as SpaceX launches the largest IPO in history. Cause it was also announced that some of the employees at both SpaceX and Tesla also are now basically worth a million dollars because of the shares that they also own millions of times within the company. So I don't understand. It's probably just coming straight from a place of greed why people hate Elon Musk. Sure. Why?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, why?

[Chris Reivers]

All he does is work. He's the absolute definition of the American dream.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I think he doesn't even own a home.

[Chris Reivers]

He's a self made trillionaire.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Here's a couple of neat things. If your his net worth is over a trillion dollars, if your net worth was 200,000, like an average American's net worth is roughly $200,000, he is 5 million times richer than you. So if you have $1, he has 5 million. For every $1 you have in net worth, he has $5 million.

[Chris Reivers]

There was another stat I saw. The second largest or second wealthiest person in the world, Larry David and Paige.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Paige. Thank you.

[Chris Reivers]

If you have $1 in your wallet and that's all you have to your name, you are closer to, to Larry Grove than Larry Grove is to Elon.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Larry Page.

[Chris Reivers]

Larry Page.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. Larry Page. God, we're really screwing that up. Yeah, that, that's really interesting. I mean a trillion dollars is a lot of money.

[Chris Reivers]

Yes, it is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That is.

[Chris Reivers]

And hey Elon, will you buy the twins please?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't know. I mean, just Think of that. When he gives away a dollar, that's the equivalent of us giving away $5 million if our net worth was 200,000.

[Chris Reivers]

Wow.

[Mike Fratelloni]

So now I'm kind of pissed at him.

[Chris Reivers]

Why?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Because all you'd have to do is give me $1 worth of value. Right? I mean, $1 to him is what feels $5 million feels like $1 to him. Does that make sense?

[Chris Reivers]

It does make sense.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's a weird, weird thing. That's a really interesting statistic.

[Chris Reivers]

Go ahead.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He can spend $1 million every day. Every single day. And he wouldn't run out of money for 2,700 years. Wow.

[Chris Reivers]

That's incredible.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And I don't even think that math is right, but I'm reading it from the Internet, so it's got to be something that can't be right, because that would be 270. 70 billion. And he's worth a trillion. So he could do it for way, way longer than that.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay, so one of the clips that surfaced was from your guy, Governor Tim Walls. Upon the news, he wants some of that money. No, upon he's got food fraud to pay for. Do you remember what he said a couple years ago about Elon Musk? No one should saying on my phone. I know some of you know this. On the iPhone, they've got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day. 225 and dropping. So.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And.

[Chris Reivers]

And if you own one, if you own one, we're not blaming you. You can. You can take dental floss and pull the Tesla thing off, you know, and take out. Just telling you 406 today. What an utter buffoon.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. What day was that?

[Chris Reivers]

Governor of this day. It was I. Wasn't it when he was still years ago, Wasn't it? Was. No. Wasn't it when he was on the campaign trail with Kamala?

[Mike Fratelloni]

But now it's at 406. So if you would have done the exact opposite of what he said because it was at two something, you would have doubled your money in two years.

[Chris Reivers]

But the reason a buffoon like Tim Walls is saying that is he knows he's pandering to a base that will applaud him for that, which is the exact reason why the state is in the hellhole scape that it's in right now.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It is a little scary. I'm not saying there's anything we can do about it, but when a guy has a trillion dollars and he has some caveats to that, he can't go ahead and sell SpaceX stock for a year. He's got to hold it. Then he's probably never going to sell it because he knows it's going to just keep climbing and climbing and climbing.

[Chris Reivers]

Probably because I'm going to guess he doesn't need the money.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, he doesn't need the money. It was funny because when he bought X or Twitter, he didn't have the cash because it's all locked up in stock. He actually had to get some money out to do it. I'm not saying he's having problems, but the guy, if I believe right, he doesn't have a home. He just goes from kind of space to space to space. Right. Place to place to place. For many years, he lived on the couch in the Tesla offices.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm going there, but keep talking, keep talking.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, he's not a. He has a bunch of random children. He's a very interesting character. And is it a problem? Am I more afraid of the government making bad decisions, or am I more afraid of Elon Musk having too much power?

[Chris Reivers]

I'm more afraid of the government.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm more afraid of the government, too.

[Chris Reivers]

2012. I don't want to play this clip because it's way too long, but I found this very interesting and going along the lines of what you were just saying in 2012, I almost said Wusk, Elon Musk. I got to slow down, Joe, when I'm doing an ad. Elon Musk was being interviewed and he sold PayPal. Remember, that was one of his biggest things that he sold. So he says, my proceeds from PayPal after tax were around $180 million, which you think 2008 million. That's a lot of money. 100 million of that immediately went into space. X 70 million. And I listen, I listened to this whole thing before you walked in today. 100 million of that went into SpaceX, $70 million went directly into Tesla, and $10 million went to a company called Solar City. I don't know what that is, but I'm sure you do. He said. And then I literally had to borrow money for rent after selling that for 180 million. So he just basically said, well, I got this nice chunk of change.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm going to put it all.

[Chris Reivers]

I'm going to double down and I'm going to gamble on myself. And holy crap, did that.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And he did. Elon Musk does not own traditional property. He instead rents a modest $50,000 modular home in Boca Chica, Texas, near the SpaceX facility. Wow. A $50,000 modular home. That's not an expensive house.

[Chris Reivers]

He might as well just be in a hotel room.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I mean, I think he's. He's probably always traveling, but he rents a small unfoldable. Unfoldable, excuse me, prefab home that measures 361 square feet. Wow. And that's where he sleeps?

[Chris Reivers]

That is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

He's an interesting character. He's a very interesting character. I wonder if this makes him the richest man in the history of the world.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, of course it does.

[Mike Fratelloni]

No, I mean in today's dollars, like in. You know, because there was sultans long time ago, might have had the equivalent of a trillion dollars.

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'll look that up as you do this ad.

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

Hell no.

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

Just. Your oldest kid has to be getting close to driving.

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, he's still that far. But he could. He could get his permit one year

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

He could drive your ass down to Harmony. And he says you can stay out in the car.

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

you're driving dad home.

[Chris Reivers]

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[Mike Fratelloni]

so I looked up some Musk, right? Did I give a long enough break there? Did I do it okay? Yeah. So Elon, with his net worth exceeding $1 trillion, is widely believed to be the richest man in Earth's history.

[Chris Reivers]

Wow.

[Mike Fratelloni]

John D. Rockefeller, in today's dollars would have had 4 to 500 billion dol a hell of a lot of money, Right? And then mansa Musa, a 14th century ruler of the Mali empire, did not know him, had roughly $400 billion in inflation adjusted back into the 14th century. That's pretty interesting that he's the richest man by double in the history of the world. Cuz there's been some tyrants, right? Oh yeah, And I think Elon says he believes that the Russian president is the richest man in history, right?

[Chris Reivers]

Yes, 100%. I got to share this story because I also saw this because I became utterly fascinated about everything with SpaceX and Elon Musk and everything that went along with it. And this story is wild. Are you ready?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I am.

[Chris Reivers]

The most important story coming out of the SpaceX IPL this morning is not the over $1 trillion valuation, but it's about a gentleman, Michael by the name of Juan Hernandez.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Love him.

[Chris Reivers]

Juan is a welder who got a phone call from a friend about a job at a company he had never heard of. He said yes. Anyway, showed up, worked there for 10 years, rose from the factory floor to supervisor, and held on to 6,500 shares the entire time. When CBS asked him this morning how much he stands to make at Oak, he said approximately $880,000. Tom Mueller, Musk's very first SpaceX employee, tells a version of the same story. He met Musk through an amateur rocket Club was convinced to do something exciting and says it was one of the best decisions he ever made. In those early days, he says the team simply believed they were going to change the world and then went ahead and did it. Juan and Tom are not alone. SpaceX has approximately 13,000 employees who hold equity. And analysts estimate today's IPO will create somewhere between 600 and 1,000 instant millionaires. Across the workforce, from engineers and software developers to machinists, welders and operations staff, the engineers and executives at the top of the stack are looking at life changing numbers of a different order entirely. Senior vice presidents and long tenured rocket engineers with large equity grants are expected to walk away with 10 million to 50 million or more, depending on their vesting history.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Wow.

[Chris Reivers]

Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and COO, who has been building this company alongside Musk for over two decades, is expected to become a billionaire on her equity stake alone. All of that wealth, From Juan Hernandez's 880,000 to Musk's trillion, came from the same source, a group of people who believed that if nobody built a truly reusable rocket, humanity would never leave Earth and decided that was an unacceptable outcome. Elon Musk made all of that happen.

[Mike Fratelloni]

How cool is that?

[Chris Reivers]

I freaking love stories like that.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That is really, really cool. He did say, and many of his former employees said they just can't keep up with. He's just ultra, ultra demanding.

[Chris Reivers]

He's manic.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, you are all like, he wants everyone to sleep on the factory floor. He doesn't want just himself to sleep on the factory floor, he wants everybody there. And I think if people had the vision and they knew they were around something really great and you could wait it out enough years, I mean to become a DECA millionaire all of a sudden, or a billionaire from this, or to be one and get 900 grand or 800 grand, that's pretty damn cool.

[Chris Reivers]

What would you do in that position if what like let's say you were one of those employees and you went from, not necessarily overnight, but you had put in, let's say, a decade, right? Like 2016 to now, you'd put in a decade of really good quality hard work. Whether again, whether you were Juan Hernandez or you were whatever, and all of a sudden you said, wait, I got 10 mil in my pocket, sure. What would you do?

[Mike Fratelloni]

You just keep working.

[Chris Reivers]

Would you?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, 100%.

[Chris Reivers]

Okay.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I don't think anything like that changes people. It's just now you have a safety net, right? It's just what does it matter? I mean, unless you want something and you have a vision lust of something,

[Chris Reivers]

because you essentially won a Powerball. Smaller.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Smaller Powerball.

[Chris Reivers]

That's true. You.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You earned a Powerball.

[Chris Reivers]

You earned a Powerball overnight, essentially.

[Mike Fratelloni]

But that doesn't. Yeah. And. But these are workers. These people are workers. It's a big difference between winning a Powerball because you were at the drugstore or at the liquor store and they sold you a Powerball. Right. And doing this, where you earned that, I guarantee the COO of that company isn't gonna say, oh, now I'm a billionaire. I'm out of here. They're like, okay, let's go. And it doesn't even matter. The number doesn't matter. I don't believe. Doesn't mean they won't do some nice things for themselves. But at the same time, they are going to keep working. I guarantee you that. All of them keep working.

[Chris Reivers]

They can cash out a little bit, but yet keep working.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. And they can't cash it out. Right. They have to hold it for a while. They do, yeah. And that's part of the reason that this is. So there's a lot of shares out on this, but many of the shares are held by private individuals that have contracts that they cannot sell. So there's more people wanting it and less shares out there. So the share price might go up. I think you'd be pretty silly. Even though it's selling at like 95 times sales, you know, revenue, not 95 times earnings. Right. The price to earnings ratio. Right. If it's. If it's selling for $95, you had $1 in earning, that would be 95 times price to earnings. This is 95 times sales. Right. So there is no earnings. Right. So this is a crazy price stock. But I think the. The people are tying themselves to the man who knows how to do it.

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And he literally may change the world.

[Chris Reivers]

And there's really smart people, like, I consider you one of them. And. And guys like Mr. Money Talk. I mean, he's been talking about this stock for weeks. And I'm not joking. He said, whatever you have, go out and get it. I record with him every single day.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And that may. It may work, may not work, who knows, Right. In the long run, we never really know. It's all just a CR. But you would have been up 25%

[Chris Reivers]

today, which is probably better than any other type of investment you can't make. Right?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, you surely can't make that.

[Chris Reivers]

Although, unless you were Nancy Pelosi you made way more than that on the stock market.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I did one time invest in the Swedish massage. It was $55. I'm going to tell you, that return was pretty good.

[Chris Reivers]

The best, though. That was a horrible joke. I know it was, but I was trying to get you out of it. Nothing better was because I love nothing more than hypocrisy with politicians. I love nothing more than that. And especially because of social. You can point out and fact check a lot of that stuff. Nothing better today than was Elizabeth Warren, your gal Elizabeth Warren, saying this is why the world can't survive, because trillionaires now like Elon Musk, where he could hand out and take care of health care and all that crap. And then someone reposted a video saying this you where it was like her being asked about how come on $160,000 a year salary, are you worth $15 million basically overnight?

[Mike Fratelloni]

How can you do that? And oh, by the way, if you don't want wealth, give it up, right?

[Chris Reivers]

Give it back, hand it over.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Just give it up. It's not your money. A hole. It's not your money. You don't get to take it from people. I don't care if it's $1 or a trillion dollars. The government doesn't get to take it. Yeah, you just don't get to do it. Oh, wait till we talk about the

[Chris Reivers]

Promise act here in a minute.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay. What's the Promise Act?

[Chris Reivers]

Oh, you're about to find out. But let's first talk about North American banking. Company banking done differently since 1998 when they made a promise to deliver a better banking experience for their customers, where you get to know your banker, also get to know you. And guess what, ladies and gentlemen, they started this back in 1998. And you know what? A lot has changed since then. However, this commitment to being a true community bank in the Twin Cities, that has not, nor will it ever change. You get that feeling anytime that you walk into any one of their six Twin Cities locations. Whether it's Roseville, 50th in France, Woodbury, Hastings, Shoreview, and also in Maple Grove, they offer the same updated online and mobile banking tools as all of those other big national banks. Whether you're looking to buy a home, finance a new home renovation project, maybe invest in this Tesla stock, or get that new car that you've been dreaming about. Their experts make it so easy and also convenient. So see it for yourself. Nabankco.com to learn more. Once again, it's banking done differently. North American Banking company member FDIC is an equal housing lender. The weekly scramble. We will be right back. I was kind of kidding about the Promise act, but I have a feeling you don't know anything about the Promise Act.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Tell me. Tell me what it is.

[Chris Reivers]

Well, Michael, let's just put it this way. We spent an extensive amount of time on GL today and yesterday. The Promise act was developed by the state of Minnesota.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, good.

[Chris Reivers]

Because Lord knows they're making a promise. We have clearly solved all of the world's problems with all of these government projects.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Nothing can't be solved with enough money

[Chris Reivers]

that have been riddled with fraud. So apparently the Promise act is an attempt to take care of the people that might have been harmed by whether it's the COVID pandemic, whether it's the ICE operations here in the Twin Cities. Were you able to apply for.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, I remember this.

[Chris Reivers]

And the beauty of it is the list of people who had applied for this. How should I phrase this, Basically came from one section of the world.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Oh, okay, okay.

[Chris Reivers]

I know you're gonna find that shot.

[Mike Fratelloni]

That's odd.

[Chris Reivers]

But there were a lot of dashes, a lot of ABD bars and things like that. So Joe's question was, well, how do all of these people know almost instantaneously how to get their hands on these types of funds? And one of the people on the show knew someone who also had applied for this but was rejected because they didn't meet the standards. And I think that was more of an experiment as opposed to actually trying to seek help. But it then surfaced that Channel 5 had interviewed. I think this was a Tom Houser piece. In fact, I ran into Tom yesterday leaving here to go to your daughter's graduation party. And Tom had said. We interviewed Walz about this months ago, and he said, yeah, we think that there might be some loopholes here. However, we just want to be able to have something available to people that are going to need this. And if we. We basically are saying to the taxpayers of Minnesota, we know this is a $100 million boondoggle, but we're trying to help our neighbors and our brothers and sisters. I look at and say, you idiots, you just might as well take this money and flush it down the toilet. It's not helping anybody Much the same when they said $700 million was lost by Minnesota businesses due to ICE operations in the Twin Cities. And I said, say, that's B.S. there were a thousand businesses. Joe did the math, which is shocking. You can't tell me that each one of those, 1,000 businesses, each lost $700,000 for that couple weeks stretch of ice being here in the short cities. That's not plausible. I'm sorry. Go ahead.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay, so it's the $100 million grant or loan program. The revitalization program provides grants or loans for up to $50,000 for small businesses and nonprof profits. Businesses must earn under $750,000 annually to operate in designated communities. What I'm trying to figure out is how many do you think will be loans versus how many do you think will be grants? How many do you think will be for small businesses that are for profit? And then how many do you think will go to nonprofits? And what pisses me off about things like this is why is the state of Minnesota taking my tax dollars to give to nonprofits? I give to nonprofits. Why do they have to be the middleman? And then they say, oh, we have this big fund for you. You nonprofits line up because we're going to give you state funding. Why?

[Chris Reivers]

Why?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I'm supposed to choose what I give my money to. And I'm philanthropic. I give money to places and I vet them to the best I can. Vet them.

[Progressive Small Business Announcer]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Why do I have to filter it through the cog of Minnesota government that takes a huge ass cut and then it might fund something that I'm not in favor of. I can almost see, and this is me saying almost see, that if there's a small business that was adversely affected, they could get a loan and they'd have to pay back that loan. I don't believe they should do this. Right. But I can almost see that there's some logic there. But to give to nonprofits, it's not your job, state of Minnesota, to give to nonprofits. That's what philanthropic citizens in your state do when they're not getting shafted on taxes.

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Less taxes would give me more money to give to nonprofits.

[Chris Reivers]

And that's the part that really always has bothered me about a lot of this. And I know you and I have talked about it extensively, we've obviously talked about it extensively on gl, but everyone. Well, this is just. No, here's the problem. I don't have the ability to opt out of this program, meaning paying taxes. I'm forced to do so. Otherwise I go to jail. That's why this is a problem. I understand we have to pay for bridges, infrastructure, police, fire rescue. I get schools. I get all of that. And that's an even bigger discussion with what we're Paying for schools. The problem is I don't want to pay for all this other crap. But I don't have. It's not like I go to a food court and say, well, I'd kind of like French fries from this place and maybe a fruit cup from that place and a soda from this. I don't have that ability.

[Mike Fratelloni]

You don't get choice.

[Chris Reivers]

I don't. And I'm just forced to write this check every April, and it's maddening.

[Mike Fratelloni]

I think there's a huge correlation. I think they've looked at this, and I'm not saying right or left. I think I'm in the middle. But I think there's one side of people that think the government can do everything. So they aren't philanthropic, and they want the government to provide for nonprofits and government to provide for people. Then there's the other side that is philanthropic and says, I think we can do it this way with our money, but it's my money to choose to do it. I don't have to give it through and filter through the government.

[Chris Reivers]

Did you just say government?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah. Why? Is there something great about government? You're so.

[Chris Reivers]

Let's head to California. Gavin Newsom is in the news. Gavin Newsom just sent the following tweet, which is going to play right into a story that Michael made me aware of. Gavin Newsom just tweeted the following. Are you ready for this, Michael?

[Mike Fratelloni]

I cannot believe this story.

[Chris Reivers]

Americans are struggling to. He tweeted this out, by the way.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Sure.

[Chris Reivers]

Americans are struggling to pay for groceries and gas while Elon Musk becomes a trillionaire. When the federal government is for sale, the rich get richer, and everyone else gets shafted. The system is rigged. Wow.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What an a hole.

[Chris Reivers]

What balls on this guy.

[Mike Fratelloni]

What an a hole. What an a hole. The system's rigged. When you're sitting at the French Laundry having dinner with 13 of your friends, and every other restaurant is closed because you're mandating them to be closed, you hypocrite turd. What a piece of crap that guy is. I mean, the simple fact is, you and I talk about this a lot. A long time. If you take 500 bucks from Elon Musk and give four people $100 and keep $100 for yourself, you've pissed off Elon Musk and you make four other people happy. Right. It's just so easy to hate the richest guy in the room because there's only one of them. He only has one vote.

[Chris Reivers]

But I'm curious, what role did government Play in Elon Musk building up these companies.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Well, government contracts to send things into orbit. And I'm sure they're saying that those are unfair. But why didn't NASA do it? Why didn't any other company do it?

[Chris Reivers]

Right.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They had an opportunity.

[Chris Reivers]

Everything else in California is running very smoothly. So I can understand why Gavin Newsom would take this stand.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And they won't even let, if I'm remembering right, they won't let Elon shoot his rockets in California. And Elon said, screw you, I'm moving to Texas. And move to Texas, right. Because there was one spot that was really a good spot to do this. Here's another story, and I really want you to vet this out. Maybe our listeners can help us on this. So with this LA county, all the. With Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman and the mayor there currently.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, Karen Bass.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Karen Bass. They had had on that election, during that election or during that primary, they had a let's increase taxes by a small percentage. Right. There was a referendum to increase taxes. And I don't know this to be true, but I think it is. The Internet told me that all of the early and in person voting. So if you got a paper ballot and you mailed it in and in person voting denied that and said, we do not want to increase our taxes. And I think it was a sales tax from 975 to 10.25. And it was pretty overwhelmingly against. Right? Early voting and in person voting. And then after it was over, after election day, all the late votes that were grabbed and picked up and farmed, that were brought in were overwhelmingly lost. Like almost all of them voting for the tax increase. Oh my God, if that's true. Okay, let me say something. I went to college for a handful of years. I'm a solid C student, but my little brain can say, wait, a data analyst can take those numbers and say the likelihood of this happening are 1 in 74 trillion or 1 in 980 million. Right. It would be so odd that that early voting and in person voting didn't want it to happen. And then all of a sudden after this, mail in voting comes a week later and they're tabulating all these late mail in votes or farmed votes, you know, where they pick them all up and hand 40 in at a time. And all of them are. A huge percentage of them are for the tax increase. Someone who knows data analysis has to wave their hand and say, this is bullshit. This can't happen this way. Statistically, it just can't. Happen. And I'm waiting for somebody. I'm hearing a lot of people on the Internet saying this is true. But somebody has to be able to do the math and say it's impossible. And then why can't we believe it's impossible and say time out, we can't accept this. The same way that Joe Biden could not have gotten 77 million votes.

[Chris Reivers]

It was 81 million, 81 million more

[Mike Fratelloni]

votes than any other person in the history of the United States. That guy, that old grandpa that elicited no charm. People weren't in love with him. He wasn't handsome, he wasn't the brightest guy Democrat. And a whole bunch of people vote Democrat. Right. I could see how he could still win, but how did he win by such a huge, huge margin when even Barack Obama, a beloved, beloved president, beloved, didn't come anywhere close to those numbers?

[Chris Reivers]

Well, and the thing is, you're constantly worried about being labeled as a conspiracy theorist, tinfoil hat guy and everything else like that. And I know I've been labeled that many times on gl, but here's the problem that I have have I can't see something and not believe it, or I can't unsee something, or I can't see something and be told. Well, you never saw that.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah.

[Chris Reivers]

No. And there was. I'll never forget this. It was during the 2020 election and there was a guy, this was in the state of California and he did this. He never revealed his real identity or his real name because obviously he'd be in jail. But he went to four different places and cast a vote and basically went in and said, hey, I don't have my ID on me. My name is, you know, whatever. He said, Tim Smith. And I live at 123 Main street and they said, well, do you have a utility wheel? I was like, ah, you know, I didn't, I didn't. And they're like, well, okay, so register here, blah, blah, blah. He'd go to the next place. Hey, I'm Tim Smith. I live on 123 Main Street. I'll never forget the audio of. I think it would have been about a late 20, early 30 year old female. And she says, don't worry about it, it's California. Meaning we don't care.

[Mike Fratelloni]

We don't care.

[Chris Reivers]

Just cast a, just cast a ballot. And I'm thinking, how can. That's why anytime anyone doesn't have faith in the election system, I can't say I blame them because I have doubts at times too. Especially when we have had Dan McGrath in this studio saying, laying out the reasons why. Here's how voter fraud can be taking place just in Minnesota, which leads me to believe that there are people out there that are, are manipulating the system. I'm sorry, I'm just never gonna be convinced otherwise.

[Mike Fratelloni]

It shouldn't take two weeks or a month to count in California. No, right. India, they count a billion people in India in a handful of days. Count, count. When you lose integrity in elections, it's done. It's a problem. There's a couple of videos where they were talking to some homeless people in California. And the homeless people said, and this is all probably bull crap, say they were getting paid to vote. And they said, oh, here's a tough take. Tell me if this is too edgy. Should homeless people be able to vote? I mean, they're not of sound mind. Many, many. Okay, wait. Drug addled people with mental issues. Should there be a team of people that go into these crack dens and say, hey everybody, it's time to vote. Is that the right thing to do?

[Chris Reivers]

That I don't know, should you be?

[Mike Fratelloni]

It would be like walking into somebody who's highly intoxicated and saying, hey, I wanna take going into a bar at 2 o' clock at night and saying, hey, let's all vote right now. I don't think that's the right time to ask people to vote. Let me restate that. Maybe they should be able to vote, but they have to prove that they're not inebriated or intoxicated or on something.

[Chris Reivers]

Isn't the entire ability to vote based upon your residence?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Yeah, but I could see street people, people that are unhoused, homeless people, that they have a legitimate right to vote. But we should also say, hey, if you're high right now, I can't let you do it. Sure, right. You're not of sound mind. Okay, let me ask you this. If I went into a tattoo parlor tonight and I was drunk, you know what they couldn't do?

[Chris Reivers]

Give you a tattoo.

[Mike Fratelloni]

They couldn't give me a tattoo. So if I'm hammered, cranked out on whatever people are cranked out on, why do they get to vote?

[Chris Reivers]

I'll never forget, quick left turn. I was in Mexico. Jess and I were down in Mexico. This is probably like 2010 and we were in Cancun. Well, we actually were technically in Riviera Maya, but we went to Cancun for the day to go hang out different restaurants and whatnot. And there was this tattoo parlor and there was these three I mean, just beautiful 20 year old girls. And one of them was just so smashed and she said, let's talk of tattoos. Oh, no, I like was, oh, hon, you are going to regret this for the rest of your life. And I thought, not my place, not my kid. No idea who this girl is.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Good luck.

[Chris Reivers]

Go get him. Go get him, sister.

[Mike Fratelloni]

And what do you get? What do you get? Drunk and, I mean, I have a couple of tattoos. I was sober when I got them, but I might as well have been drunk.

[Chris Reivers]

Yeah, I've never had one and don't ever plan on getting one. But I remember looking at her going, what do you think? Should we, should we get one?

[Mike Fratelloni]

What would you.

[Chris Reivers]

No, God, I've never get a tattoo. No.

[Mike Fratelloni]

God, I've got two times I've gotten them and they're dumb. I told you the story about my one, right?

[Chris Reivers]

Which one?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay, so you met my nephew again last night. Steven, right? Great kid. So Steven was in the hospital. He was young. Steven's like 35 now or something. He was really young and he was in the hospital. He was like three or four years old and he had like a respiratory problem. And I was in the hospital room with him and I had just gotten a tattoo right below my belly. Right, right below my belly button. So he had to like kind of pull down like your pants just a little bit. All right, so. So I said to him, and this is my first tattoo, I was pretty young, I didn't want everybody to know. And I said, do you want to see something right? And he's sitting in the bad hospital going, because he's all got something, right? And I show him this tattoo. It's a sun that I have on my belly button. It's stupid. I get it. It's stupid. But I was young, so I think it's cool. We're all happy. Everything's cool. I'm proud of it. I showed my little nephew. He's a great kid. Everything's cool about it. My sister comes in. My nephew turns to my sister and says, uncle Mike just showed me his penis. And I said, wait, wait, what?

[Chris Reivers]

What?

[Mike Fratelloni]

Like, nope, Uncle Mike did not just show you his penis. So I had to instantly show my sister, who I didn't want to share my tattoo. I'm like, hold on, sis. It's actually a son that I have like 2 inches below my belly button. A dumb spot, dumb spot. But she's like, yes, I believe you did not show your nephew.

[Chris Reivers]

In honor of George or Norm MacDonald. He said, he's choking yeah.

[Mike Fratelloni]

Okay. Oh, no. Hey, Reavers. You are the best.

[Chris Reivers]

Thank you, Michael. Please do us a favor. Rate and review the show wherever you happen to be listening to the weekly Scramble podcast. It helps others find the show. It helps us out as well. And we appreciate each and every single one of you. His name is Mike Fratelloni. My name is Chris Reivers. Thank you so very much for listening the weekly Scramble Podcast guest. We'll talk to you again next time. Until then, cheers.

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