Episode 3094 - The Scott Adams School 02/13/26

Summary

Real Coffee with Scott Adams: Episode 3094 - The Scott Adams School 02/13/26

Date: February 13, 2026
Host: Scott Adams (with co-hosts Erica, Owen Gregorian, Marcella, Sergio)

Episode Overview

This episode takes a deep dive into current news stories and world happenings, all examined through Scott Adams’ signature “persuasion filter.” The core four hosts bring their perspectives to topics ranging from brain science, online banking and gender, leadership psychology, the growing problem of cartel-operated drones, and US immigration enforcement updates. Expect lively debate and relatable personal anecdotes as they break down the big issues of the day in the familiar community tone Scott Adams fans appreciate.

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Key Segments & Insights

1. Show Introduction & Community Announcement

[00:42 – 04:05]

• Erica welcomes listeners across multiple platforms and reaffirms the ongoing legacy of Scott Adams’ Coffee with Scott Adams and the Locals community.
• Plug for Scott’s content: Listeners are encouraged to subscribe to Scott’s Locals channel for in-depth, unconstrained interviews and community engagement.
• Recap of recent guest Brian Romelli and upcoming opportunities for fan questions.

2. Simultaneous Sip & Scott’s Opening

[04:05 – 05:26]

• Scott opens the episode with his famous “simultaneous sip” and humorously introduces the “hoax of the day.”

  “You got your hoaxes. And we have a brand new hoax…the losers and suckers hoax. Goes well with the fine people hoax, the drinking bleach hoax…”
  — Scott Adams [04:16]

• Entertains with his signature wit, referencing Michael Forrest Reanol, and kicks off a day packed with real and fake news.

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3. Science: Brain Rewards and Anticipation

[05:39 – 08:24]

• Owen brings up a recent study on hippocampal neurons showing how brain reward peaks shift earlier with training (in this case, in mice).

• Key point: Our brains can “anticipate” rewards and get dopamine hits before the reward is actually received—anticipation itself becomes a reward.

• Scott Adams tie-in: Reference to Scott’s advice that intermittent rewards keep people motivated.

  “It’s that whole dopamine cycle. Once you get into a habit that is rewarding, you start anticipating it, and the anticipation becomes better than the actual realization.”
  — Owen Gregorian [07:33]

• The hosts riff—often humorously—about the joys of sneezing, and Scott’s trick for suppressing sneezes by visualizing the sneeze, with mixed results among the co-hosts.

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4. Social Change: Online Banking & Household Money Power

[09:47 – 15:12]

• Owen discusses research showing that online banking is making women five times more likely to manage money independently within marriages, leveling the household financial playing field.

• The panel swaps personal stories about division of financial responsibility in their homes.

• Marcella raises the point about billionaires’ spouses and left-leaning philanthropic spending.

• Discussion expands to the challenges even rich people face in money management, referencing lottery winners and athletes.

  “If you’re starting out poor and then you suddenly get millions or billions of dollars…it’s a difficult thing to manage…I think it really does depend on what your prior experience was.”
  — Owen Gregorian [14:00]

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5. Leadership Psychology: Study on Self-Esteem

[15:18 – 16:36]

• Owen relays new research: High self-esteem predicts leadership pursuit; low self-esteem triggers a “prevention focus.” He questions the value and novelty of such findings.

  “I would probably counsel to focus on confidence rather than self-esteem because…I think self-esteem is like your personal opinion of yourself, and confidence is more how you present yourself.”
  — Owen Gregorian [16:21]

• The group explores the difference between “self-esteem” and “confidence,” touching on “impostor syndrome.”

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6. Crisis at the Border: Cartels & Combat Drones

[16:38 – 26:07]

• Highlight story: Mexican cartels are using drones daily for smuggling drugs, surveillance, attacks, and human trafficking, with up to 27,000 incidents along the US border in late 2024.

• Drones can carry up to 100 kg and have been weaponized since 2021, making countermeasures urgent.

• The US is testing laser technology to shoot down drones; recent Texas airport shutdown illustrates the frictions between federal agencies.

• Sergio, a drone pilot, gives first-hand perspective: Confirms rampant deployment of DJI (Chinese) drones by Mexican cartels; expresses concern about mistaken identity for legal drone operators.

  “The main maker of drones is DJI, a Chinese company…cartels have been using those, you know, for war basically against each other and against the military.”
  — Sergio [22:00]

• Panel expresses fears over the increasing difficulty of regulating drones and security risks of Chinese-made hardware.

  “If China is making all the drone hardware and software, even if it’s the best stuff out there…they might even have some level of control over it or a kill switch…”
  — Owen Gregorian [25:12]

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7. Corporate Culture War: ICE & Border Patrol Confronted at 7-Eleven

[26:39 – 29:57]

• Viral video: Border Patrol agents reportedly denied service at a 7-Eleven (Speedway), with management explicitly declaring they “don’t support ICE.”

• Trump administration threatens to revoke government purchasing partnerships if such denials persist.

• Parallels drawn to previous incidents with other major brands boycotting or being boycotted due to political actions.

• The group laments the cycle of corporate boycotts and political weaponization of business.

  “I would certainly counsel any business to just stay away from politics…you’re cutting off half your customer base.”
  — Owen Gregorian [29:08]

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8. Immigration Enforcement: Legal Wins & Departures

[30:00 – 36:37]

• Appeals court allows Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for tens of thousands from Nepal, Honduras, Nicaragua, heralded as a “win for the rule of law.”

  • Marcella: Notes the significance given the Ninth Circuit’s liberal reputation.

    “For the 9th Circuit to agree with the Trump administration is like winning the lottery…So what this means is the law is very clear…temporary protection.”
    — Marcella [32:31]

• Voluntary Departures at record highs: 28–38% of detained illegal immigrants now leaving voluntarily, assisted by policies such as free flights home.

• Still, over 1.5 million with final deportation orders remain in the country, many with criminal convictions.

• Ice operations pulling out of Minnesota, with both sides declaring victory—a classic “two movies on one screen.”

  “I think this definitely is a case…where both sides are going to claim victory…It really is a matter of perspective.”
  — Owen Gregorian [35:54]

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Memorable Moments and Notable Quotes

• Scott Adams’ signature satire on “hoaxes”:

  “We have a brand new hoax. The hoax of the day. We don’t have a name for it yet. Let’s call it the losers and suckers hoax…”
  — Scott Adams [04:16]

• On anticipation as reward:

  “The anticipation becomes better than the actual realization.”
  — Owen Gregorian [07:33]

• On personal finances in marriage:

  “I’d bring him a sandwich…But then he’d get upset again…and then I was like, why don’t I just take that from you?”
  — Erica [11:42]

• On drone security concerns:

  “It might also mean that they’re watching everything you do with it and…have some level of control over it or a kill switch…”
  — Owen Gregorian [25:12]

• On corporate boycotts:

  “Now they’re going to get boycotted by the left. It’s a vicious cycle.”
  — Owen Gregorian [29:26]

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Timestamps Guide to Main Segments

• Intro & Community: [00:42 – 04:05]
• Simultaneous Sip & Scott’s Opener: [04:05 – 05:26]
• Brain Reward/Anticipation Study: [05:39 – 08:24]
• Sneezing, Habit & Dopamine Chat: [07:56 – 09:43]
• Online Banking & Gender Power: [09:47 – 15:12]
• Leadership Psychology Study: [15:18 – 16:36]
• Cartel Drones & Border Security: [16:38 – 26:07]
• ICE at 7-Eleven Incident: [26:39 – 29:57]
• Immigration Law Moves & Two Movies: [30:00 – 36:37]

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Conclusion

For listeners who haven’t tuned in, this episode captures the lively, insightful, and sometimes tongue-in-cheek approach of the Scott Adams School crew. From neuroscience to geopolitics, they cover a wide range—always with an eye for how narratives are constructed, manipulated, or misunderstood in the modern persuasion-laden media environment. The news curation, combined with open back-and-forth and real-world examples, makes for a rich, accessible analysis of current events.

Transcript

[Erica]

Oh, my goodness. Howdy.

[Owen Gregorian]

How.

[Erica]

Oh wait, can I see locals on Rumble Studio? Is that what's happening, you guys? Where's my earphones?

[Marcella]

Good morning.

[Owen Gregorian]

Is there an jw JB Rick sgv?

[Erica]

You guys, I'm in full Scott Adams mode today with technology and it is not fun but, you know, we'll see how it goes. Do I sound is. Are you right? Let's do a quick sound test. How do we all sound? Do we sound like we're in sync? Okay, everybody talk.

[Marcella]

Do we sound like we're in sync?

[Owen Gregorian]

Hello.

[Sergio]

Hello. Are we in sync?

[Marcella]

You're loud, Sergio loud.

[Sergio]

Okay.

[Marcella]

Yes.

[Erica]

So it's going to take a minute for them to get there, but in the meantime, I would like to say good morning to all of the platforms on X. I hope X is running well today. We know that there is a little glitch with it, but we're working that out. If it's not worked out, it will be. So welcome to the beloved locals to YouTube to rumble. Good morning. I'm Erica and this is the Scott Adams School. I'm joined today by our beautiful Marcella. Good morning, Gregorian. And our Sergio in Tucson. So you guys, just as always, we want to remind you that coffee with Scott Adams, which was like what brought us all here, still lives on its own. There's a thousand hours of Scott and his wisdom, his lessons, his genius on YouTube, but there's even more on locals. Okay, so he had his own subscription channel which was, I think it's Scott adams.locals.com but we'll make sure we post it. And also the locals community, you guys, is Chef's Kiss A the most amazing people. We've really formed a family. We are kind hearted and we're all walks of life, but we really love to bring everybody in and bond with you guys. So we encourage you to come over there. Our guest yesterday was Brian Romelli. He's going to be with us doing a long form interview where we can ask a ton of questions and we'll have not unlimited time, but we'll have a lot more time on the YouTube channel. Some people ask why we, you know, maybe a video to an hour. It's because we have to respect the time of our guests. So if we, you know, if, if we were Scott and he had the day ahead of him and he could go on for three hours, he could do that. But we're inviting guests to come in and we want them to know we respect their time, that we have a start time and an end time. But if we do want to do longer videos without a constraint. Those will be on Scott's locals channel for subscribers, so we encourage you, come on over. It's a good time. But anyway, today we have the core four here to do some news and some current events. And Owen Gregorian, as always, has picked some fun news stories, as he does every single day. And then he does a show on Saturday with his co host, Sergio, and they talk news for hours and hours and hours, and you can all participate there. So thank God it's Friday. Thank God it's a news day, and we're so happy you're here. So, Owen, we're gonna let you lead with the news stories. You want to talk about today?

[Owen Gregorian]

Absolutely not. You missed something here. It should be the simultaneous sip.

[Erica]

I told you, it's a day. We can't do news without the sip. So this. It takes a village, you guys, especially today. All right, you guys, are we ready? Lord, I'm gonna even do it from my phone, old school, like Scott. Here we go.

[Scott Adams]

Hey, everybody. Come on in. It's a very newsy day. There's news all over the place. You got your real news, you got your fake news, all kinds of news. You got your hoaxes. And we have a brand new hoax. The hoax of the day. We don't have a name for it yet. Let's call it the losers and suckers hoax. Goes well with the fine people hoax, the drinking bleach hoax, the overfeeding, the goldfish hoax, and all of the other hoaxes. But first, what do you need first to get ready for all this excitement? I think, you know, you need a cover. A mug or a glass, a tanker, gels, or stein, a canteen, jugger, flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip, and it's happening right now. Go. I feel the soul of Michael Forrest Reanol going to hell. That's good coffee. Makes everything better. All right.

[Erica]

And of course, who's. Like, who's Michael Forest re and all? I don't remember who it is and what that was about, but somebody is gonna look it up and let us know, so. So I'll drink to that, and I'll turn it over to Owen.

[Owen Gregorian]

All right, Much better now. So on the science side, to get us started, there's a story about hippocampal neurons shifting our activity backward in time to Anticipate rewards. I don't know that I would necessarily call this time travel. I think it's more that when you test it. This is, of course, like most things, a mouse study. And when they tested it with mice, they found that the reward, like the peak reward in the brain started off being when they would receive the reward, but then it shifted earlier and earlier to the point where they were getting their peak long before they got the reward.

[Sergio]

So.

[Owen Gregorian]

You know, it was basically going backwards in time over, you know, while they were trained. And so it, it, you know, shifted that reward cycle, I guess. And I think they're also tying this to being healthier in your brain. They said the favorable group that had like a bunch of, well, better lifestyle factors had slower memory decline as well. So they're getting into the healthy diet stuff and that it worked more for people with this APOE gene that I think is the one that puts you at risk for Alzheimer's. So combination of things there. But I think it was interesting to me to say that, you know, you, as you get trained to get a reward, and I think Scott taught us that it's often better to be intermittent. So sometimes you get the reward and sometimes you don't. But as you get used to that, it's. You start anticipating it and you actually get the reward far before or your. Your brain gets rewarded before you actually get the physical reward. So.

[Erica]

So the anticipation is also a reward.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah. And I think this definitely falls in the category of you could have just asked Scott. I think we probably all knew this, that, you know, it's that whole dopamine cycle. But once you get into a habit that is rewarding, then you start anticipating it and the anticipation becomes better than the actual realization.

[Erica]

I could get down with that. I feel that way about sneezing sometimes. The anticipation of a sneeze is so good. I love that, like, especially if, you know it's going to come out. But if somebody says bless you to me before I sneeze, it ruins the sneeze and it's upsetting.

[Owen Gregorian]

Did you try Scott's method to try and stop yourself from sneezing?

[Erica]

No, I like sneezing. It's a reward. I like it. Oh, my gosh.

[Owen Gregorian]

I think I tried it and it didn't really work for me. So I'm not sure it worked for me.

[Sergio]

It worked for me. Oh, yeah. Every time since he talk about it, I have used it. Maybe one time it failed, but it has worked every time. And it also works with other, other secretions of Your body, you know, it could be like your tears. You know, it can be. You can cry in your mind and, and avoid a cry too. But it's better to cry sometimes. You know, the sneezing, it's good to sneeze too, but not in company. Right.

[Owen Gregorian]

So yeah, it does, it does matter what you're sneezing on. But for anyone who isn't familiar, Scott's method was that he would, in his mind, I guess, sort of simulate the sneezing. Like he would visualize himself sneezing before he sneezed and that if he visualized himself sneezing before he sneezed, then it would stop him from sneezing. And he seemed to think that was something that everybody could try and a lot of people could do. Sounds like Sergey was able to pull it off.

[Erica]

I feel like my head.

[Sergio]

Many more, many people.

[Owen Gregorian]

Well, I do. I'm kind of with you, Erica. Number one, it is kind of a pleasurable experience. And number two, I also just think it's healthier. Like, you know, you're sneezing for a reason, so rather let it out.

[Sergio]

My body, my choice. Right? You can choose to sneeze.

[Owen Gregorian]

I suppose so. I suppose so. All right, so there's another one here that says online banking may be shifting household money control to women, that it makes women five times likelier to manage their money independently of the men they're married to. And that, you know, this is probably in the uk, but I would imagine it extends to other places. It says they found that 49% of UK couples pool their income jointly, 17% manage independently and 83% make major decisions jointly. But male led decisions were only in 11% of heterosexual couples. And so it seems like the shift to online banking is somehow giving access to women.

[Scott Adams]

And.

[Owen Gregorian]

It says for men, online banking often increases their involvement in day to day money's management and reinforces our control over big financial decisions. For many women, it can level the playing field, opening the door to shared decision making, give them a stronger voice in the household. Who manages the money in your family, Erica? Me. Yeah.

[Erica]

I'm sure you're shocked to hear that.

[Owen Gregorian]

I, I am, I'm shocked, right?

[Erica]

Me controlling something.

[Owen Gregorian]

I think in, in my case it is probably more me, but I and my wife has asserted more control over time that more recently she's doing a little bit more stuff independently, like, you know, in her job, she would obviously have her own retirement accounts and she's taken it upon herself to learn a lot more about investing. So I think it's more of a joint thing at this point. But I would say earlier in our marriage, it was mostly me that I would just, you know, make sure all the bills are paid and make sure we had investments for retirements and all that.

[Erica]

So I didn't necessarily want to do it. I don't know what you guys experienced, but when we first got married 800 years ago and Keith would be doing the bills, he would get so, like, upset and, you know, not like, at this spending, but just like, oh, like, where's this thing? And what about this thing? And whatever. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I. I can't. Like, he can't get upset. Every time we do the bills, the bills are never gonna stop. And so I. I'd bring him a sandwich. I'd be like, hey, honey, doing the bills. And. And then he'd come and he'd be like, oh, yeah, okay, great. But then he'd get upset again. And then I was like, why don't I just take that from you? And then this was like, 100 years ago, and I was like, let's just avoid it. Like, so, you know, I'd make a mistake if you still wanted one, but I'll just do the bills. And it just has been great for the last hundred years.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I think that's a good way to work it out. I think certain people are a lot more anxious about stuff like that and other ones aren't. And it's probably better to let the person who's not going to freak out every time manage that process. But I think in modern times, you know, at this point, almost all of our bills are just automatically paid. Like, I don't. We don't write any checks anymore. It's not really even a thought process. I mean, we might review the bills or review the spending every so often. And I do track our spending pretty closely and quicken. But, you know, like, except for major things like if we're going to buy a car or a house or, you know, some big furniture or something like that, we usually do those things together. But otherwise it's kind of like it just flows, you know, we don't really do anything.

[Marcella]

Doesn't this. Doesn't this go back to billionaires and their wives controlling the money for leftists, like, left us charities and all that.

[Owen Gregorian]

So, like, we could certainly talk about that too. I. To me, I put that in a whole different category because that's where, like, you have so much more money than you could ever spend. And I would imagine there's no talk about any kind of budget at that point. Although I'm sure there are some billionaires that give their wife an allowance or whatever. But yeah, I think to me it's kind of like when you have that kind of money, it's your money manager.

[Erica]

Your, your finance guy.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I mean, I guess to me the, the, if, if I try to put myself in the shoes of a billionaire, I would say, okay, at that point I'm going to be more defensive. Like I want to make sure I never go broke. You know, I, I, I'm not so worried about making more money at that point. It's just, I want to make sure I don't get scammed. Nobody drains the account, nobody does something so irresponsible that all of a sudden I am broke. Cause that does happen to a lot of rich people, especially ones that aren't, you know, they didn't like slowly make their way to being rich if they don't have experience managing money. A lot of athletes and lottery winners, like most of them I think actually are high percentage end up broke or bankrupt because they just don't know how to manage money. And I think probably most billionaires are, you know, experienced by the time they get there with it that they don't have that problem. But I think it really does depend on, you know, what your prior experience was. Like if you're starting out poor and then you suddenly get millions or billions of dollars. Like it's, it's a difficult thing to manage, I think, because you just don't have the experience of saying, how do I avoid getting scammed? Or how do I make the right decisions? And so I think it is an important skill set to develop over time.

[Erica]

Yeah, all right. Yeah, skill sets are important.

[Owen Gregorian]

All right. Well, here's another one that's, you could have asked Scott. Self esteem may predict who pursues leadership roles. People with high self esteem with promotion focus boost leadership pursuit when it's encouraged. Low self esteem has more of a prevention focus and reinforces reluctance. Regulatory focus is pliable and you know, it's a little bit different than fixed traits like personality or gender. So I think they're pointing to self esteem is a big, big factor there. I, I don't know why anyone needed to spend money on this study. I guess we could just say, like Scott has said before, that, you know, being overconfident is a good thing and it will help you get ahead. And I would, I would probably counsel to, to focus on confidence rather than self esteem because I think those are different things. I think self esteem is like your personal opinion of yourself and confidence is more of how you present yourself.

[Erica]

Right.

[Owen Gregorian]

And they don't need to be the same. You know, you can have the imposter syndrome going on inside as long as you're confident externally. And you can be very successful, I think. But you know, it could be that they're not able to really tell the difference between the two when they're doing a study.

[Erica]

Right.

[Owen Gregorian]

All right, let's see. We can get into some of the political stuff. So we have story about Mexican cartels employing drones to smuggle drugs and fight enemies. I know Sergio perked up. The story looks like Mexican cartels are using drugs or drones daily for drugs, surveillance, migrant operations and attacks. Apparently there's been over 27,000 detected near the US border in late 2024. And they're shifting from planes to drones for fentanyl. Looks like the drones can have up to 100kg of capacity and they've had explosive drones since 2021. Now that's widespread and Mexico's trying to fight back, so seems like it's a bigger and bigger problem. There was a related story a few days ago where he was in Texas, I forget the city exactly, but it was one of the airports was shut down for 10 days. And it looks like what happened was we were testing lasers to shoot drones down and there was apparently some disconnect between the FAA and the Defense Department, I guess. And so the Defense Department started firing off these lasers and the FAA said, whoa, whoa, you can't do that. We got planes all over the place here. And the Department of Defense just said, we're going to keep doing it. And so the FAA said fine, then we're shutting down the airport. And I think they were just shooting at balloons or something. But there was some. I don't want, I don't know if I'd call it misinformation, but you know, there were some statements made about maybe they were shooting down Mexican drones, but I think that turned out not to be the case, that they were just shooting at balloons and stuff and they didn't really shoot any Mexican drones down during this operation. But it looks like we are certainly working on our anti drone capabilities and probably planning to use it at the Mexico border.

[Erica]

I still stand with that. The drones over New Jersey were very sus and we will never have the real answer on it. And I remember getting into debates with Scott about it and you know, people be like they look like airplanes. And it's like, no, there's something really sketchy going on. We know what the airplanes look like over our skies. These were not them. And I remember when Scott was doing the story about the drones that have machine guns on them. I mean, you know, like, drones are scary. I mean, the, the good thing is, is, you know, you, you don't have to have boots on the ground when you have drones in the sky. So technically it should save the lives of especially our troops, which is always a good thing. But I mean, how do you regulate the drones? Especially when there's so many commercial. Not even commercial. I mean, private drones. Like Sergio flies a drone and he does that for a. Part of his job is using a drone. And I can see clearly. I could think of a thousand scenarios of how bad this could go for people, and I'm sure you guys could too. And I would never say one publicly to put an idea out there for some psychopath, but I don't know. I think drones are really our future fear, like, should be. And how do you regulate this? It's very concerning.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely concerning to me, I think, especially since you have people like the cartels using this. I'm kind of surprised we haven't seen more attacks even in the US from the cartels, because it seems like they've got the equipment, they've got the money, they've got the technology, they know how to do it. And it does look like they are using it a lot in Mexico. Maybe they're just, you know, essentially not wanting to provoke the US into invading, which is probably what would happen. So. But it'll be interesting to see with all this laser technology because that seems to be the primary counter that's coming out. Ukraine had a similar story where they developed some kind of laser that was anti drone. And it seems like that's the counter technology. So could be that we'll be seeing a lot more lasers going off.

[Marcella]

I just wanted to clarify, Owen. When you say Mexican drones, you mean Mexican cartel drones or, Or MECH or the. Or the country?

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I'm talking about the cartels using drones. Yeah, I mean, I, I would, I would assume maybe the Mexican government has some drone capability. But I think the problem we're talking about is the cartels. There's been stories about this over the past.

[Sergio]

Chinese drones, mostly Chinese drones.

[Owen Gregorian]

You know, like some. Some people in Mexico have complained that they've had drone attacks from the cartels. Like, you know, any. If you get on the bad list and they want to get rid of you or get get you off your land or something.

[Marcella]

Oh, no way. Like send drones in for attacking?

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, yeah. So I think, you know, the stuff that's happening in Ukraine is spilling over into Mexico essentially and they're copying all the same technologies. So it is a scary time. I mean, you know, certainly I would never want to be chased by a malicious drone, but hopefully Sergio will never come after me that way. What do you think about this, Sergio?

[Sergio]

Well, the part about drones being used by the cartels in Mexico, I've known about that for a long time because I fly drones, right. I do real estate media, that's photography of houses for people videos. And the main maker of drones is DJI is a Chinese company that now they have pulled out of offering their drones officially in the US but in Mexico there's stores everywhere. In all the main cities you have all these stores for agricultural drones. The big ones, you know, they carry a lot. So the cartels have been using those, you know, for war basically against each other and against the military. So but it has been all always inside Mexico, like in Sinaloa, Michoacan and all those places where it's heavily controlled by the cartels. And now that is crossing into El Paso. For anybody in Texas, I will be like thinking about it more. Right. We really aware about it and ask to make sure that like Erika was saying, like in New Jersey, they were saying all these things that this is happening, that's happening. You know, just don't believe anything until you check. And it's going to be three years ago. I can disclose this because I didn't sign an NDA for this part, but we did some tests. We were hired by a company and I'm gonna say the name to test drone detection Radar. And I thought like, well, it's gonna be great. You know, we're gonna get paid really well. We have all these drone pilots there and we did this test about, for about two and a half weeks and the system was, I'm not gonna say it was not good. I mean it was not as good as it should be. And I was like, I hope they do something. So now that I see that all this is happening, I'm kind of like happy that it's happening. But also I'm afraid that my drones are going to get shot down sometimes if get mistaken for a cartel drone. But I think it's a good thing. Owen and Marcela, Yeah, these drones are Chinese made. Mexico doesn't have any drone technology at all. I think they have just a buy in technology, just to buy them. And like Ukraine, they have actually I heard reports maybe Owen, you know about this. They have a Ukraine Ukrainian pilots in Mexico training cartels. So it might be a rumor, I don't know.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I hadn't heard about that, but I don't doubt it. I mean, I think Ukraine is certainly trying to leverage their drone technology and export it. So you know, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them got hired by the cartel. I would hope that we might be able to get them to stop doing that if they are. But you know, at the end of the day it's probably, you know, kind of a losing battle. Like you're going to have people flying drones and it's not something you can really prevent from happening. I think the technology is too pervasive at this point. But you know, it is interesting that we did kind of ban the DJI DJI drones from America. I know, you know, you like them a lot and I'm not telling you to stop using them. But it does look like we're trying to move that industry here or at least out of China due to all the national security concerns, which I think are real. I mean, I think to me if, if China is making all the drone hardware and the drone software, even if it's the best stuff out there, it might also mean that they're watching everything you do with it and that they might even have some level of control over it or a kill switch or who knows what. And so I do think it's a legitimate concern and I would love to see more domestic drone capabilities where we could get American made drones and have it be competitive. So I'm hoping that's underway. I know we are doing that with Anduril and things military wise, but I haven't really seen anything on the consumer side.

[Sergio]

Yeah, that's the issue because it's been years since we've known about that this happening. It was not a surprise in the drone community. Everybody knew that this was going to happen and the companies were not incentivized. I guess it was the Biden administration that was doing it. So, you know, there's no surprise on that. So maybe now I'm thinking that there will be a renewal encouragement to get going. So. Sorry Erica, I interrupted you.

[Erica]

No, no, that's okay. I just, I want to make sure we get to other news too.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, well, so the next story is you may have seen this viral video of the border patrol people being turned away from a 7 11. I think it was a speedway, but they are owned by seven eleven. And you know, the quote from that is like, I don't support ICE and nobody here does from the manager of that speedway. So now the Trump administration is threatening to sever the partnership that they apparently have with 711 because apparently there is some kind of agreement where they can use their GSA fleet cards to gas up all the vehicles and, you know, buy snacks or whatever. And it looks like Trump is saying, you know, you need to start answering for this and stop this from happening, otherwise they might just stop doing that. And I think that could be a big monetary problem for 7 11. So hopefully they have some leverage there. But right now, apparently this GSA fleet card is mandatory for non tactical vehicles and it's accepted for 95 of stations. So looks like there's some conflict going on with 7 11. It looks like we've had similar denials from Hampton Inn and McDonald's. So seems like we're having a lot of corporate friction with our ICE and Border Patrol.

[Erica]

There has to be rules with the franchising of these places. I'm guessing that these people will have their franchise license. Take, take. Not the. Not 711 as a whole thing, but the individual franchise partner. Like, I'm. I can't imagine they'd be allowed to continue.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, I think there might have been at least one of those already. I think I remember a story like that where the, the individual store was going to lose their license and they'd have to become some other, you know, brand and not keep the brand. I don't know if it was 711 or something similar, but I think this is not the first time this has come up. So you might be right.

[Erica]

Jump on this opportunity now to dis Distance themselves from that and just say that they're taking their franchise license away because you, you see how it goes here. You know, when, when the majority gets upset, you know, they'll be boycotted and they will probably get run out of business.

[Owen Gregorian]

So, yeah, it's a bad. I mean, it's bad all around. I mean, you see what's happening in Target. There's even now people are doing some kind of boycott on Open AI. There's some kind of organized boycott trying to get people to stop subscribing to ChatGPT because of their involvement with the government. And I, I think it's just bad for business and it's bad for our economy. It's bad for everybody. And I don't think it works out well for the businesses either way. I mean, I, I would certainly counsel any Business to just stay away from politics and, you know, maybe have a policy that just says you can't discriminate and you can't make any political statements because it's just bad for business. It's like, you know, you're cutting off half your customer base.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Owen Gregorian]

And then worse than that, when you. When you see what happened with Target, with all the LGBTQ clothing they were selling, you know, they got boycotted by the right when they were selling it, and then when they pulled it off the shelves, now they're boycotted by the left and, like, they're just getting whiplash to the point where everybody's boycotting them. And that seems to be the natural path for these things. Like if. If 711 comes and says, okay, we're not going to turn away ICE now, they're going to get boycotted by the left. It's just a. It's a vicious cycle.

[Erica]

So this is why we can't have nice things, people.

[Sergio]

Yeah.

[Owen Gregorian]

All right, well, good news. The appeals court has ruled that Trump can terminate deportation protections for migrants from Nepal, Honduras and Nicaragua. The Ninth Circuit overturned the block on ending the TPS for 90,000 migrants. So all the asylum people from the post Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and then Nepal quake in 2015, we can send them all home. So Christine Owens saying that's a win for the rule of law. Tps, which I think the T stands for temporary, was never designed to be permanent. So certainly makes sense to me that especially for things like natural disasters, you know, it shouldn't be permanent. And so looks like some good news on the legal front that. And this seems to be a trend that a lot of the district judges are these activist judges that'll block stuff, and then it gets the appeal court level, and then it gets overturned. So it seems like things are moving in the right direction, at least at the appeals court level.

[Erica]

It's so nice to see the law working. Right.

[Marcella]

Well, the interesting part about this story is that it's the Ninth Circuit, which is the most liberal circuit in the entire country. So that tells you a lot.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, yeah. And I think in some cases, it might have to go to the Supreme Court, but, yeah, it is interesting that.

[Marcella]

I mean, they might appeal this decision, so then it would then go to the Supreme Court, and they might reject it under Satoria, but you know what I mean? So it. It's still appealable.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah.

[Marcella]

Because 9th Circuit is not yet the up to the higher level. Yeah.

[Erica]

Okay.

[Owen Gregorian]

As Scott would often say, it's often too complicated to follow These things. I'm sure you can maybe understand it, Marcelo, given that you're a lawyer. But, you know, it's like you get all these stories, and sometimes when they say, like this one where it says we overturned a block, it's like, well, that might just be a temporary ruling. Like, that might not actually be even the case. They might still have to hear the case and then decide, but they're making some preliminary ruling just to say, okay, we're going to overturn the injunction. And the injunction itself was not necessarily an actual ruling on a case. It was just, we're going to block this. Right.

[Marcella]

It's temporary. And most of the most injunctions are temporary unless they're permanent. The word permanent, isn't it?

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[Erica]

So getting through the ninth Circuit is a good step. Like, it's leaving them now it.

[Marcella]

For the 9th. For the 9th Circuit to agree with the Trump administration is like winning the lottery. It's not often. So the. So what this means is the law is very clear on this because it's TPS temporary. It's a temporary protection.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah. So we got to win there. And then more good news, just overall, there's a record high number of detained illegal aliens that are voluntary leaving the country. So what this gets into is that as of 2025, 28% of the detainee removal cases ended up in a voluntary departure, meaning the person agreed to leave. And that's a record high. And it went actually higher near the end of the year. So I think it's up to something like 38% now. So ICE detention hit 73,000 by mid January. The bond grants fell to 30%. Asylum fell to 29%. So Trump is saying over 3 million people have left in Trump's first year. And of that, 3 million 675 were actual formal deportations, but 2.2 million were self deportation. And they still have that CBP home app where you can get a thousand dollars in free flights home. So it seems to be working. And we've had 3 million people leave, apparently.

[Erica]

Wow.

[Owen Gregorian]

All right, so progress. And we still have a ways to go. The next story was actually that we, in some congressional testimony, they said there's 1.5 million illegal aliens with final deportation orders are still in the country. And of Those, I think 800,000 are have criminal convictions. So there's still a large number of people we're trying to get rid of. So we haven't reached the end. But that does mean that if they follow through with that, it means we might have another 1.5 million leaving. So it could get up to four and a half million, I suppose.

[Erica]

You know, it's so amazing how slow the process has to be, though, considering how many. Many flooded over during Biden's term.

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, yeah. So the next story, I don't know if it's good or bad news. Homan announced they're ending their operation in Minnesota. Homan is calling it a victory, like basically saying, we've done our job, you know, mission accomplished sort of thing. Other people are saying he backed down. Homan's response is saying, to those people, you know, we're prioritizing public safety threats and we're focusing on national security and other things. Doesn't mean we're forgetting about everybody else. But it looks like they are pulling out of Minnesota. So hopefully that will at least mean that we'll have less of the organized resistance that we've seen in Minnesota. But I'm sure ICE will be going somewhere else, so we'll have to see what pops up elsewhere. I think California has certainly been mentioned, and that may be another hotspot. But, you know, I think it seems like the overall trend is they might be going to friendlier places where they're not going to have as much resistance and hopefully just you know, still be getting rid of good numbers of people.

[Marcella]

Wouldn't that be two movies on one screen thinking that them pulling out is a victory for them, but the administration thinking it's a victory also for them? So it could be. It's always that way, isn't it?

[Owen Gregorian]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I. I think this definitely is a case of that two movies on one screen where both sides are going to claim victory. And, you know, I think it really is a matter of perspective. I think I can certainly see Tom Omen's point of view that they got rid of a lot of people and they, you know, also got some concessions from Waltz and the rest of the government to cooperate more and to, you know, work with them. But certainly pulling out, you know, means they're not going to have those agents there. And so, you know, I could see the other side, too, but I think it is going to be one of those things where the left thinks they won and the right thinks they won.

[Erica]

And they said that the people that are leaving, the agents that are leaving, were protecting the people, the. The agents that were trying to do their job. So they were actually. They were actually protecting protection for ICE that was trying to do their job. So if they don't cooperate and things act up again, they'll just bring them back. But I also feel like they're going to follow Nick, Shirley, wherever he goes. And he's in California now, so we'll see what fraud he uncovers, and then they'll need a distraction.