Erica (2:15)

so do the math. And it's like, sometime in April. And I think that was in reaction to the President Xi meeting being rescheduled for May because they didn't want to

Owen (2:26)

do it while they were at war.

Erica (2:27)

Yeah.

Erica (2:28)

So I think they're kind of planning a timeline. I don't know if they'll stick to it, but that's the plan.

Marcella (2:34)

Happy birthday, Gracie.

Erica (2:36)

Gracie. Happy birthday. Hey, YouTube Rumble. Come on in. I see you guys filtering in. There we go. Everyone's getting in. Grab a chair. We have a little fun show today for Friday. Got to end the week on a high note and go into the weekend happy. And. Oh, and you'll be doing spaces tomorrow, right?

Erica (2:58)

I will.

Erica (2:59)

Yay. The after party returns with Owen tomorrow. That's on X, you guys. That's on X. Okay, good. I think everybody's in. All right. I am just craving a sip of coffee in the worst way. I'm waiting. And now we're ready. So grab your vessel of any kind, y'. All.

Scott Adams (3:18)

Once again, our news is full of nothing but happy things. Well, that's not 100 true, but most of the news is good news. And in order to enjoy it, in order to enjoy it to its fullest, what do you need? I think you know, you need a cup or a Margaret glass, a tank or a chalice or stein, a canteen, jug of flask. A vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I think, you know I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure. The dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes everything better. The simultaneous sip goes. Oh.

Erica (4:06)

Oh, that was good. That was good.

Erica (4:08)

Vintage. Vintage. Pre era. Erica mug sip.

Erica (4:12)

I know. I think we're getting. We're getting closer as time goes on, as lighting's improving, as we go, the flow of the sip is getting better. It's good stuff. Good stuff. Welcome, everyone. My name is Erica. You are at the Scott Adams School. It is Friday, March 27, 2026, in the year of our Lord. That's, like, my new favorite thing. So, listen, we have some news for you. I have a couple of clips ready for you guys, but I did ask Owen to start today with a lighter story. Maybe something sciency. Owen?

Owen (4:51)

Sure.

Erica (4:52)

Well, there's a study that was done that shows that chatting with people beats interactions with AI chatbots to reduce loneliness. So I think we can say backwards science, maybe. Or you could have just asked Scott. In this case, maybe more appropriate. But I think you probably could have just asked Scott, I think. But the study had people texting with a bot, but some of them were people, and some of them were chatbots. Over two weeks, it said the AI offered a short boost but was not sustained. They had this chat bot named Sam that was mimicking an ideal friend. So, I don't know, maybe an ideal friend isn't the best friend to have. But they said people were twice as likely to continue the chats with humans. So apparently, people are still valuable. You can still be someone's friend even if you don't have a job.

Erica (5:43)

Listen, that's so good to know you guys. And by the way, you know, yes, people are valuable. And last night on. On Locals, for the subscribers, we had Jimmy on who created the Scott Adams meetups. So a lot of people are now finding each other. And if you Go. He has a new website, you guys. It is so good. You do have to be a, an ex subscriber. Okay. But the website is called Scott Adams meetups.com and you can either click, you know, how do I host a meetup? Or, or host a meetup. It's so super, super, super simple. Please check it out. Please host a meetup and if you have any questions, you can D me. He said just feel free to DM him on X at Scott Adams Meet. So it's at Scott Adams Meet me on X&DM him for questions. He's so happy to help you. But man, the feedback's been so good of people. You know, if you're tired of talking to a chat bot or, or, you know, not talking to somebody in person, definitely host one and people will come, even if it's just you and one other person. At least you have Scott in common to start with. And I think that's so fun. So great feedback from that. Okay, now, Marcella, what can you tell us about some news today? If you have a nice little story for us.

Marcella (7:12)

I have several, but the first one, it's there. There were robots at the White House. On Wednesday, the first lady Melania Trump introduced a walking, talking humanoid at the White House. It wasn't Biden, but he walked like. Biden briefly suggested that robots could replace human teachers. Again, the whole chatbot versus human interaction, it's to be determined whether that's a good idea or not. But the actual robot that was walking there was figure 3 from US California startup figure during that final day of the White House Summit for Education. She had him come in. He talked or she talked because it had a female voice. And a lot of people. How did I say it? They criticized the voice of Figure 3 because they had a valley accent from California. Not, not, of course, not like my voice, but. So it was interesting to see it walking and talking and doing everything. And it wasn't some actor or some kind of puppet. It actually did all of that. And then Melania, the First lady, did actually indicate that it would be a good idea to have them as robot, the robots as teachers. And some people in the comments in X said that that was a better idea than having the leftist teachers that we have today. However, you never know how they're going to be programmed.

Erica (9:08)

But yeah, I wouldn't trust that at all. I would say it's even more likely to do it and maybe it would even do it in a more insidious way where you're not really picking up on it because it can be more sly about how it slips in all these little things here and there.

Erica (9:22)

Somebody said when you saw all the, like, there was like a clip of like all the different, like robots, like marching, like in the factories and whatever. And I saw somebody say, wait till they hand each one of those like a. An ar, you know, like a rifle. And I'm like, oh my God, they're gonna turn on.

Marcella (9:39)

I mean, great.

Owen (9:42)

Yeah, yeah.

Erica (9:42)

I mean, I don't, I don't think we're far from that. I think they're actually starting to test that in Ukraine.

Erica (9:47)

Awesome. Good times.

Marcella (9:48)

Testing grounds. Good times.

Erica (9:50)

Yeah. And they're bulletproof, basically. Oh my gosh. Well, and, and did you guys see the clip that there? I wish I pulled it for you guys. There was a clip of Biden walking anywhere with that same like robot, like a side by side screen. It's uncanny. Did you like, did you guys see that? It was really uncanny.

Marcella (10:11)

Came from the factory.

Erica (10:13)

Yeah.

Erica (10:13)

And then I was like, well, maybe. Well, the only thing that I didn't think was a robot, a Biden, is when they brought out that six foot five. Yeah.

Marcella (10:23)

He was like, he, he like, he was outside the White House. They filmed him. The rose garden.

Erica (10:31)

There you go.

Marcella (10:31)

And he, he almost touched like the ceiling of where the pillar meets. And I remember there was like memes made like this giant like Barron Trump

Erica (10:42)

like figure thing was, was that this very spry Biden esque looking thing just came like waltzing out to the rose garden. And he's like all charismatic and like 20 years younger and 5ft taller. And I was like, are we never discussing that again? What did you think about that? Owen wasn't that suspect?

Erica (11:05)

Oh, yeah, definitely. It didn't look like him at all. And I kind of wonder, you know, why there was never much follow up or questioning about that in the media, because it's like that almost obviously was some kind of double, like a body double. And it was like with the first lady, I think. And you know, it's like, what's going on here? Like, you know, I don't doubt that they do have body doubles for things like this, but. And maybe they just want to keep it secret. But it's like that one was not well done.

Erica (11:33)

It's not, not.

Erica (11:35)

It was not convincing.

Erica (11:37)

I was like, I wish he was like that, but no. Oh my God. See you guys. Now, Owen's probably not the biggest conspiracy theorist. And again, just because they say it's a theory doesn't mean it's not true. So there was a lot of Trump stuff yesterday. Just like little interviews and clips I saw everywhere. Will you guys indulge me for about two minutes? Because I just found this conversation so entertaining. And it's Trump and he's got Hegseth next to him. I can't. I don't even remember who's on the other side, but we'll see in a minute. But this is Trump. He's being very practical here. Oh, is it Marco? He's being very practical here, and I like the way he's thinking. So let's. Let's listen to President Trump for two

Donald Trump (12:23)

minutes for 25 million. And it would be better. It would be better. See this pen right here? This pen is an interesting example. It's the same thing. So this pen is very inexpensive, but it writes well. I like it. They can't have the pen the way it was. You know what it is? I don't want to give too much publicity, but they do treat me a well Sharpie. So I came here. They have thousand dollar pens. And you know, your hand pens out, you sign a. And you hand them out. You're handing them to all these people. Sometimes you have 30, 40 people and they were thousand dollars a piece. Beautiful pen. Ballpoint thousand. It was gold, silver, gorgeous. But I'm handing it out to kids that don't even know what they are. What is this, Mommy, it's kids. They're getting a pen for a thousand dollars. They have no idea what it is. And I feel guilty because I'm like, you know, I'm by nature, I don't. You know, it's the government. I love the government like I love myself economically. I want to save money. So I'm saying, this is crazy. And it had another problem. They didn't write well. So I take it out and I sign and there's no ink. And I got all you people looking and you say, there must be something wrong with Trump. And there's no ink in the pen. And it cost a thousand dollars. This one. I called the guy, I said, I'd like to use your pen, but I can't have a good gray thing with a big S on it saying Sharpie. As I'm signing a trillion dollar airplane contract to buy brand new fighter jets, Ben. Brand new B2 bombers, of which we just ordered plenty. I can't do that with the press. Use your pen. But I like the pen the best, but outside. And I could do like Biden did, you know, give it to somebody else to sign or an auto pen or maybe sign it separately in another room. But I can't use. Use your pen. He said, well, I can make it nicer, so what can you do? He said, I'll paint it black. I said, that's nice. And I can even paint the White House on it, sir, if you like, in gold. Almost real gold. Not bad. And I can even do your signature, sir. And by the way, this was not staged. I just saw the pen sit there. I thought of this as an example of how $25 million spent by me at the Federal Reserve Building would be a better job than $4 billion that they're spending. And, you know, one of the things that Kevin was showing me for 25 million would be better.

Erica (14:50)

Okay, I love that. I was like, he's in there with, like, the whole press and all of his top people, and he's going on about this pen. But did you guys know that Those pens were $1,000 each? No.

Erica (15:03)

Had no idea.

Erica (15:06)

Every time you guys would see a president signing an official document and then they're handing pens out, each pen was a thousand dollars. That is so stupid. So I love that. And, I mean, we. We all love a good Sharpie. I've got, like, 20 of them right here. So I did love that. So I got.

Erica (15:24)

I got a couple of the Trump Sharpies after the Sharpie gate thing, and he started selling it as merch. I thought that was just so brilliant. I'm like, I need a couple of those. Let me order some.

Erica (15:32)

That's amazing. That's amazing. I'm just looking. I know the waist. It is so annoying. All right, so I want to get back to some news again, and, Owen, I think you are up next. But I just thought. He's just so funny. He's. He. I mean, not to, you know. All right, you guys are gonna make fun of me for the Jersey thing, but doesn't he remind you of, like, Don Corleone sitting there? He's like, I said, I need a better penny, you know? And he's. He's gonna even put your signature on it. Oh, my God. He's so funny. I love him.

Erica (16:06)

I posted a similar clip of Trump just being really.

Owen (16:10)

I don't know.

Erica (16:11)

I just loved it. It was.

Owen (16:12)

He.

Erica (16:12)

He was asked something about, you know, the Iran war, and he's like, well, we can't use the word war because we're supposed to ask for approval. So we're going to call it a military operation. So I'm going to use the word military operation. And I just I, what I love about that is that he, he's just like breaking the fourth wall, right? Like, it's like, okay, I'm gonna tell you the stuff I'm not supposed to say, and I'm gonna be on your side of the, you know, this, like, I'm gonna explain what's going on with this whole game we're playing in the government. You know, we haven't had a declared war since World War II. So Vietnam was not a war, supposedly Korea was not a war. Iraq was not a war. But it's all just a game, right? It's all just. We're going to classify it this way because then it goes under this part of the law and it doesn't trigger all these other things and we don't have to vote, so we don't have to go on record saying we support it. And I just, I love when Trump does that. Like in the past, when he's said, you know, we're there for the oil, he just comes out and says it. And the media always just like, their jaw drops and they're like, wait a second, you're not supposed to say that, even though everyone knows it's true.

Erica (17:20)

So I just love that at least he's transparent. And you can't say he didn't know. And if he said anything else, they would. It doesn't matter what he says, actually. But, Marcella, what do you think about that whole theory? I like him breaking the fourth wall.

Marcella (17:34)

He's, he's unique. He. There's no one, there's no one else like him. And, and he makes in order. He's the funniest president we've ever had. I mean, I think yesterday the, the clip you showed was from a cabinet meeting. And in Cabinet meeting, Mar Rubio was talking about Venezuela and how Venezuela loves him and so much for what he's done. Trump. And he explained, I think another, another cabinet secretary, if you, if you know who it is, put it in the chat, said that, that Venezuela was thinking of building a statue to him. And so then they started talking about other things, like actual, like more serious stuff. But then Trump came back with a one liner saying, well, wait a minute, let's go back to the whole thing about my statue again. So, you know, it's just no one, no one's like him. But the left, every time he is like, that gets so, oh, my gosh, they get so angry. Like, I've seen it where I see people while in person looking at these things and they, oh, my gosh, he sets them off so badly, and I just laugh.

Erica (18:56)

They're like, it's not funny.

Erica (18:57)

Tying into both. Doug Bergen tying into both of these stories, Trump is going to be starting to put his signature on money, on paper money. So instead of the Treasury Secretary that has been putting the signature on it, it's going to be Trump's signature. So that is going to be another, you know, setting off the left moment where they're going to see Trump's name all over their. They're doing that for the 250th anniversary, apparently.

Erica (19:22)

I wonder if he's like, oh, if I put my signature on money, it'll make people flock to Bitcoin and maybe, you know, their bitcoin thing will. Will become more valuable.

Erica (19:33)

I mean, you could argue that it might help with inflation because people might think of it as a collector's item because it's.

Erica (19:38)

Oh, and are you in the bathroom? Come back.

Erica (19:42)

I'm still here. Sorry, do I sound better now?

Erica (19:45)

Yeah.

Marcella (19:45)

Yes, now.

Owen (19:46)

You all right?

Erica (19:47)

I think my microphone might have been different than I thought it was, but, yeah, I'm here.

Erica (19:52)

But I love. I love. That's Trump. Trump wants to see giant tees and Trump and his name everywhere and in lights and statues. Yes. Buildings, monuments, you know, name everything after him. I mean, he. That. Those are people that thrive on legacy. So it's like, you know, they want to leave a legacy, you know, for all eternity. So that's Trump, the ultimate. I know Trump on Rushmore. Right, let's go. I mean, honestly, there's never going to be another Trump. I know a lot of people are like, thank God, but there just won't be. I mean, the, the, the changes, the, the. I don't know, just the energy behind him and how so many things shifted. It's just. I think he should be on Mount Rushmore because he's. He deserves to be there. Whether you like him or not, whether you're mad or not. Right now, he is consequential.

Owen (20:51)

I think he changed reality, and I think it's never going to be the same. I think he changed politics. I think he set our country in a new direction. And I'm hoping that after that someone like Vance can just bring back some stability, but keep going in the right direction and, you know, but I think things are never going to be the same after Trump.

Erica (21:09)

No, definitely not. So one other thing, you know, we were talking about the other day. Oh, my gosh. Now, I can't remember what exactly it was, but we were talking about. Oh, I think it was a reframe about, you know, having your opinions and how you think. Oh, let me click this, because I found a clip here I wanted to show you. I think it's here. Nope, it's here about elections and thinking for yourself and, like, looking at both sides of a story. And I know the other day when BJ was here, we were talking about Joe Kent was going to be on Tucker. And I said, okay, so watch him on Tucker and also watch him on Mark Levin, because everybody's trying to shape a narrative, and I think you guys will be happy if my computer gets together here. I wanted to show you this clip. Here it is of Scott talking about. We discuss this all the time, how our opinions are assigned to us. So again, another couple minutes. Let's just jump in here and then we'll talk on the other side.

Scott Adams (22:20)

I say that censorship is the new voting. What do you say? Because we've got this big debate over whether Musk is improving free speech or making it worse, say, his critics. But whichever way it is, would you agree that the following is true, that censorship determines what narrative is the important one? Would you agree? If you never see a competing narrative, you latch onto the one that you see. So censorship determines what narrative rises to our attention.

Erica (22:56)

Right.

Scott Adams (22:58)

And the narrative would determine your opinion. So that's how we get opinions. We don't really make opinions on our own. Opinions are essentially assigned to us by the way the narrative is presented to us. So the censorship determines the narrative. The narrative determines public opinion. Public opinion determines what the vote is, because then we vote our opinions. So you've got the censorship determines the narrative. The narrative determines our public opinion. Our public opinion determines the vote. And that's it. That's our current system. The current system is it's just a censorship game. The vote actually becomes a somewhat subsidiary downstream, guaranteed effect that is guaranteed by what happens upstream.

Owen (23:49)

Right.

Scott Adams (23:50)

The vote is downstream from censorship. I'm borrowing Andrew Breitbart's famous saying that politics is downstream from culture, but the vote is downstream from censorship. Now, was this always the case? Has this always been our system? Because I don't think so. It feels like it's something that could evolve because of social media and the media, the media landscape.

NPR Announcer (24:18)

This message comes from NPR sponsor Paramount and the new original series the Madison, Taylor Sheridan's most intimate story yet. The Madison follows a family raised in a world of digital distraction, forced by tragedy to truly see one another and come together. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, the Madison New Series streaming now only on Paramount Plus.

Erica (24:46)

So we talk about this often. Let me get my chat back up. So, Marcella, I'm going to come to you first on that. And I. It's. I do think it's changed. Do you think it's changed?

Marcella (24:58)

You know, I think I respectfully disagree. I don't think has. I think what has happened is we are. We're more knowledgeable, we're more informed about what is happening. But in the past, I think things were a bit similar. It's just that people didn't know, weren't not informed. They didn't have the Internet, didn't have newspapers. I mean, back in, you know, back in my day, back in John Adams day, you know. So I think in general, it has become worse, it has progressed. I do give you that.

Owen (25:33)

So, yeah, Owen, I think it's gotten. I think the censorship aspect has gotten better, certainly since Elon took over X. And I think more people are getting their news from the Internet or social media than they were before in terms of just getting it from legacy sources or newspapers or things like that. So I think the censorship was more centralized in the past and it was easier to control. I think it's harder to control now. But I certainly still think the battle is being fought. I think people are still trying to get their message out and stifle the other side, But I think to me it's more like they have to fight the other message and maybe try to drown it out, rather than being able to just stop people from being able to say what they want to say or express their opinion. And I think a lot of that's also happening with things the Trump administration is doing in terms of working on universities to have more, less stuff and not censoring Republicans or conservatives and pointing out that they need to be more balanced and you have a long way to go. But I think in some ways, I think we're moving in the right direction.

Erica (26:54)

I think we have to be careful. You know, I think if we're aware that this is potentially what is happening or could happen, you know, really keep your head on a swivel, you know, what's being put in front of you and embrace the nuance and, and realize that, yeah, people are always trying to assign opinions to you. And I think sometimes we can get lazy and be like, oh, okay, like, I trust that person. Like, I'll just go with that. But, you know, I don't know. I think if you just really step back. Like, I was, I was talking to someone recently who is a devoted Q follower. QAnon. And I don't know much about Q, but he told me, you know, oh, you know, like, you know, Q gets so many things right and this and that. And I was like, well, honestly, tell me, what did Q get right? Like, I don't know anything about Q. And he's like, oh, a lot of stuff. And I'm like, okay, well, like, tell me one. Like, I was using Scott's book Persuasion, right? Like, okay, well, if you got a lot right, just tell me, tell me one. And he's like, well, I'd have to look and then I'll let you know. And I said, well, I just want you to really beware that you've been following this for, you know, a decade and you're in your mind, you're believing that they got so many things right because you're reading and like, hearing this narrative that they're feeding you. I don't know if it's every day, but. But when asked, like, well, what's the one major thing or the one thing that stands out and you can't really think of one. That's what I mean. Like, you've got to pay attention. Okay, so like, there's a lot of, like, hyped up podcasts, and yes, Candace Owens is one of them, you know, so it's like, all right, well, did any of these things come true? You know, is that real? You know, it can fully be entertaining and that's fine, but just remember, it might be entertaining. Maybe that's what's keeping you there is the, like the cliffhanger every day and this thing's going to happen, and I hope it's going to happen. So is it the entertainment that's shaping your opinion and the promise of the thing that's going to happen, or are the things really happening? And so just be careful of what's being assigned to you.

Owen (29:13)

And you know, when I, when I observed what was going on with Q, and I think this is important to just think about when you're saying, okay, who am I going to follow? Or, you know, where am I going to spend my time on in terms of media consumption? It's like the net message or the net persuasion of where Q was pushing people was complacency and inaction. Because when you looked at what they would say, they'd make a bunch of predictions and they'd, you know, say, oh, this is going to happen at this time, or Trump's going to do this, or look at, you know, look at the timestamp of this and how it matches up exactly to that. And it got worse and worse in terms of what it was claiming were predictions. It ended up descending into, like, numerology. And that's when I got really fed up with it. But as I was thinking about it, what I thought was, well, the main message they're pushing is patriots are in control. You know, they were predicting that, like, Hillary and all these other people from the deep state were about to be arrested and the military was going to arrest them and that the military had taken over and that, you know, all the patriot people were taking control of the government, essentially, which sounds like a coup when you step back from that. But the end of. Obviously most of that never happened. But I think the net message to the listener was, don't worry about it, we've got this. You don't have to worry about any kind of election fraud. You don't have to worry about voting. You don't have to worry about anything. Just, we got it. We're going to be in control. All the bad guys are about to go to prison. Just wait and see. And so that was the message, was, wait, don't do anything. And I think it was destructive for sure.

Erica (30:58)

Marcela, do you have a Q opinion?

Marcella (31:00)

I mean, my Q opinion is very different. When I hear the word Q, I think Star Trek, and that's as much as I know. There was a queue in Star Trek and there's where I go, so Trekkie. There's the nerve in me.

Owen (31:16)

So probably a better cue to follow. But, yeah, I would just advise people to say, like, when you're listening to someone, take a step back for a minute and just say, where is this person leading me? Like, what are they telling me I should do or not do? And what is. What opinions are they assigning to me? Just think about that. Just. Just think about, like, where. Where does this lead to? Because some of them might be just trying to create division within the party or trying to rip apart the Republicans. And it might be a way where you could detect, hey, wait a second, this is just a destructive force. There's nothing productive coming out of this. There's no good vision behind this. There's no good actions that they're wanting me to take. Whereas if you contrast to someone like Scott Pressler, everything he's trying to get you to do is a good thing. He's like, yeah, let's go out and register voters. Let's go flip this county red. And he's making things happen that are actually making a Difference. And there's a lot of voices out there that are not doing any of that.

Erica (32:18)

Yeah. And I. I also would say I don't think everybody's a fed, you guys. Everyone's reaction to people. It's like, you know, I mean, maybe some of them are. I don't know. But not everybody's a fed. It's just there's so much news, and there's so many sources. Like, back in my day, you know, we had, like, four news channels, and so everybody kind of got their news from one place, and there was no competition for the news. It was like, these are the channels. Here's where you get your news. But now everybody's competing, and so the more sensational you are, the more eyes you get on you, the more money they'd make. So everyone's competing for these dollars. Right. And so I've got to make sure they come back tomorrow. I've got to have a cliffhanger. I've got to say something crazy. Crazy. So people are like, what are they saying over there? So if you boil it all down and you're just left with, like, the salt at the end of the boil, you know, what. What's really happening and what really came true, and who are these people? And, you know, what is the end game? So it's the same thing when, you know, Scott would tell us, like, who took the poll, you know, who funded it. It's the same thing. So take everything with a grain of salt and then understand that some of it you're maybe consuming for entertainment, and maybe some of it, you want to get actual information, and you still have to do all the work yourself, and, like, peel away the onion and just say, okay, what are we actually left with? Like, what's provable? What has this person said before that actually did make a difference in something that happened? Can I see this person? What's their track record? And unfortunately, if you aren't that aggressive about getting your information, your opinions are going to be assigned to you. So. So follow me for an opinion, because I'll give you a good one. I'm just kidding. See what I did there? But anyway, so just be careful of that. Okay? So, Marcella, do you have another story for us?

Marcella (34:20)

Yes, I do. The Senate passed the DHS funding, but. But they left off ice, and they. They only did a partial funding. They left ICE and they left the Border Patrol in connection to the actual border tied to the enforcement of patrol operations, referred to as border patrol. So it's Customs and Border Protection. So CBP got financed or funded, but the part where it defends our country did not. And this was this morning at 2 in the morning, east coast time that it passed. And at that time, whoever was president didn't indicate who it was. Unanimous votes by all senators that were there. I, I don't know. This is exactly what the Democrats wanted from the beginning to do. Partial funding of DHS and leave out ice, leave out the Border Patrol. So it was a win in a way by the Democrats. The Republicans folded. I don't know which ones folded because it doesn't say who was present at 2 in the morning, but it just seems,

Erica (35:46)

yeah, yeah, ice is already.

Owen (35:49)

Do you think Trump's going to sign that?

Marcella (35:52)

So the next, then, then. So from here, from the Senate, it goes to Congress. Congress might not agree with that because there's a lot more Republicans there that against this partial funding, as we would call it, because it leaves out funding for things that they believe are essential to our, to our protection. So I, I don't see Congress passing it or if they do, they're going to take their time.

Erica (36:23)

Nothing happens.

Owen (36:26)

I mean, the last thing Trump said about DHS funding was he still wouldn't even sign any of it until we have the Save America Act. But apart from that, if, if it left out border, border protection and ice, I, I don't, I don't see how Trump would ever sign that. So I don't think it's going anywhere.

Erica (36:43)

I guess we'll have to wait and see today what we find out. So keep an eye out for those topics today. And again, grain of salt, it's going to change, you know, from this morning till this afternoon to tonight. So watch, watch the story evolve and keep changing. So don't get too dug in on any part of it. You guys, I, I always tell you, I'm like the emotional one on the panel here and I try to tell myself like, all right, don't get emotional because it's going to change. There's nothing I can do about it. But listen here and there and then we'll, we'll see what happens. There's nothing we can do. Right? So we'll just see what happens. You can vote, though. Okay, so interesting. 2:00am Somebody said in the comments, who works at 2:00am Are you kidding? These people never work. So 2:00am Good. You should be there every day at 2:00am okay, so what else do we have, Owen?

Owen (37:37)

Well, the Iran saga continues. I think there was a container ship that was attacked by Iran. So we still don't have A safe path through the Strait of Hormuz.

Marcella (37:47)

That actually was misinformation. It was, there was an attack, but it was on March 11 that that happened.

Owen (37:55)

Okay, well, that's good news. So sorry about that. I saw that on X this morning.

Marcella (37:59)

I saw it too. And I was gonna talk about it, but I was like, oh, wait, yeah,

Owen (38:04)

yeah, but I, I think in terms of stories I did see, you know, that they're certainly. Trump put another 10 day extension on the ceasefire, but I don't think Iran cares about that. I think they are still attacking Israel.

Marcella (38:19)

Did you think it was odd for that pause, that 10 day pause that he gave an actual Eastern time of when it would end? He said Monday, April 6, 8pm Eastern. That was very, very exact.

Erica (38:35)

Kind of funny.

Owen (38:36)

I don't know, I mean, maybe he's just trying to, you know, make it more like. I'm serious in that sense. Like, you know, if it's really precise, it's like everybody, you know, you could almost count down with a clock. Right?

Erica (38:48)

Yeah.

Owen (38:48)

So it makes it maybe seem more definite and maybe more just like real.

Erica (38:54)

And that is prime time on television. So.

Owen (38:59)

Yeah, but. So apparently Iran is laying a bunch of traps around Carg island, worried about a ground attack and there is some indication that there may be a ground attack or at least that we have some. We're preparing for some sort of ground troops because we have, I think the latest story I saw was that the Pentagon was considering sending 10,000 troops. So that would be more than they have so far. But I think they had, what was it, 2500 Marines already on the way, and they had another army airborne unit or, you know, on the way. And so it looks like we may be continuing to ramp up our, at least our capacity to potentially take some portion of the land. I think there's some speculation that they might be trying to take the land right around the Strait of Hormuz to secure that and then Carg Island. And I don't know if any of that's a good idea. I probably wouldn't want to do that. But it could be just part of a feint or part of a threat to say if you don't do this, then we're gonna, you know, we have the firepower, we have the manpower, we can actually make things happen. But I'm really hoping we don't put boots on the ground. So I'm hoping that doesn't happen. But it does seem like we're moving in that direction at this point.

Erica (40:13)

Don't you just feel Like Kharg island right now is just gonna have a bunch of missiles pointing outward. I mean, it's like, hey, here we come. Really slowly. We're coming. I mean, I'm just like, they know we're going there.

Owen (40:28)

Yeah, I mean, I know we, we bombed it already. We didn't bomb the actual oil infrastructure, but we bombed all the military sites. So we kind of cleared it out. And then now it looks like they're trying to set a bunch of booby traps and things and get it, you know, so that it's harder to invade. So I think they're at least thinking this might be a target. But yeah, I can't imagine. I just don't see that as a good military strategy because it's like a static small location. It's a, like a big target you're painting on your chest saying, here, hit me. And I know we've degraded a lot of their capacity in terms of missiles and various things, but we haven't seen if they have some, you know, remaining capacity or ability to do short range things like that. So whether they're drones or whether they're missiles or whether they're, you know, short shoulder mounted rockets or whatever, I would imagine there may be something that would be hard to control, that might get out. And I just wouldn't want to have our troops put in harm's way that way where they can't even move around. So I wouldn't want to do that. I wouldn't want to be those people. But that's maybe that's one of the reasons I'm not a Marine.

Erica (41:39)

Yeah, those guys are unusually brave and amazing.

Marcella (41:43)

It's funny you say that because Jocko made a post. Jocko was a former Navy Seal and they asked him about boots on the ground and he said the majority of people are against it. He's not, you know, he's not. He didn't indicate whether he was for it or against it, but he said all of the army and the mill and the Marines and the Navy, they're all for it. All these men are for boots on the ground. And he said that there's this, the other people in the comments said there's like this rivalry between, like a friendly rivalry between Army, Marines, Navy and like, if the army gets to do boots on the ground but Marines and Navy don't or so forth and so on, they're gonna be like, ah, they don't let us do it. So it showing that our soldiers, our American soldiers are patriots and they want to do whatever they need to do. However, you know, it's to be determined. But there was an expert, like war expert that I, that I sometimes listen to and follow, and they were saying that there's different invasion points. There's about four Car island is one of them because it does, it's a very important point where it holds all the oil expert terminal for Iran. So it could like cause them not to have any funds, not to be able to export or do any kind of thing like that. But there was another island invasion of Lyric island, which controls, it's a small island, but it controls the Strait of Hormuz, then seizing Abu Musa, two smaller islands and blocking other parts in the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, the idea is to clear that strait because one it gives to control it would be to control Iran, but also it would help the economy of the entire world. I know that the Philippines and certain other South Asian countries are in dire straits because they get all their oil from the Strait of Hormuz. And I believe the president of the Philippines called out a national emergency. The story is that they also are only working four days a week in order to save. And they're asked to commute together because the oil is becoming, they don't have it and it's becoming very hard to travel and more expensive. So it's affecting many, many places. And so Trump and the rest of it. But it goes back to Trump had this cabinet meeting yesterday and during the cabinet meeting, the press is there and one of the British, I don't know if it was the BBC, asked President Trump about Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and England. And he asked him what his thoughts are on all this. And he was saying that, that Q. Starmer shouldn't have done that, shouldn't have not helped the US and he was, he said that President Trump said he was surprised that, that England did not help the US because they've been, you know, connected together since the beginning. But, but at the same time, he says he sort of like he won't forget. And it just seems like a lot of different European countries are hesitant to help in the Strait of Hormuz. But it was interesting that the Keir Starmer and the whole situation because he talked about. That's when he went on. Trump went on in saying that NATO not so good because when, when they need us, we're there, but when we need we, we didn't need them. He said. But, you know, when we have some kind of conflict like this where we would need help More they denied it. So it was like he was kind of hinting at NATO going away, but

Erica (46:12)

that's wouldn't be the worst thing. I mean, it's so unbalanced. And I like, what, what's the other one called? The peace, the one that Trump made with the other nations border. Peace. Yeah, I'm, I feel like that's a little bit more important these days than NATO. I mean, NATO sucks, you guys. It's. It's a joke. It's more propaganda and money laundering. Wait, allegedly? And which one opinion? Either, Both. Both. But that's just me talking. Okay. So that's, you know, a lot of stuff going on. And I think the European leaders are really showing us who they are. And I'm also wondering, like, I'm, I'm not trying to think like Scott, trust me, because I can't. But I'm trying to think like Erica. And I just wonder if these European leaders are all kind of in a huddle and planning their own thing and purposely separating and are they making, this is radical. Are they making a deal with China? I don't know, like what's happening? Like they're splintering off and they don't have a leg to stand on these countries. Their armies are not equipped.

Owen (47:32)

I haven't seen any indication that they're making deals with China. I mean, I may have missed something, but I haven't seen anything along those lines. And I think, if anything, I think this would be a boon for our defense industry because I think every, all the indications are that Europe is waking up to the fact that they don't have their own defense capability and they need to have a defense capability. So they need to raise an army, they need to have weapons, they need to have drone defense, they need to have missile capabilities, whatever it is. And so most of that is probably going to come through some kind of United States defense contractor type of company because they don't have that capability. But I think they are moving in that direction domestically. I think I heard that there was a Volkswagen plant that was going to go into drone defense. They were going to stop making cars and start making drone defense or some kind of missiles or something. It was some kind of defense thing. And so I think they are starting to say maybe we can start building our own weapons.

Erica (48:28)

And they should.

Owen (48:28)

They have certain technologies.

Marcella (48:30)

There's a difference at this point, there's a difference between mainline Europe and the UK Or England. So mainland Europe is going in the direction and in what I believe my opinion the right direction in progressing towards the Trump side of things. Yesterday, the, the European Union passed a law allowing European countries to be able to deport asylum seekers that they don't want in their country, which what they were not allowed to do different. And they have also. France has also supported the, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and all sorts of things. So they are aware that Russia is an enemy of theirs and the only thing that stops that is the United States. They're also aware that now they're aware that Iran can hit them because of that intercontinental missile or, you know, or that missile that they have that goes far, that go very far and can hit their nations. So that's my thoughts. It's, it's moving. A lot of. Also a lot of independent countries like Germany are becoming more conservative and are voting for more considerate things. And it's not just the old guard, it's the youth, Gen C that's voting more conservative.

Erica (50:01)

I think we should keep our eye on that. And if there's anyone that likes to do not that deep of a dive, but do a little deep diving over the weekend, let us know. Like, what do you see the European countries doing? Like, what do you. Do you. Somebody said that there was some agreements and deals being put in. I just wonder because they're, they're pretty cocky for people that can't stand on their own. And they're pretty cocky toward our country. Not, I'm, you know, yes, like, we are this, the, the most powerful country, blah, blah, blah. Not diminishing us, but they're pretty cocky toward the US who they always needed. So I just feel like, you know, is it like a bluff they're calling or do they have a backup plan? Because I just don't see these small army countries crapping on the country they need for their safety, perhaps unless they have something in the works like that's going to help them. That's just how I'm observing it. It's pretty ballsy.

Owen (51:08)

I mean, I think there have been some polls saying that they would have a real hard time if they had a draft in Europe in most of those countries that not very many people would want to serve.

Erica (51:18)

No. All right, so let's keep our eye on it and if anyone knows anything, you know, message us, DM us, put it on X and tag us. I'm just curious. I'm just, you know, very suspicious about certain things. But we'll see how it goes. Okay. What else do we. Oh, we have 10 minutes, you guys. What else do we want to make sure we talk about before we leave for the weekend.

Owen (51:42)

Well, there's some good news on the economy. There's record low jobless claims. It was flat at 2,200 10,000, which is near 1969 lows. So that's a long time ago we were this low. I think the continuing claims are lowest since May of 2024. So it's gone down the last couple years. But it seems like the sentiment is that it's a bifurcated market, meaning that the jobs are kind of hard to get, but there's no surgeon joblessness. So they're calling it the no hire, no fire economy.

Erica (52:17)

So can we believe that number? I think it's harder to tell anymore with everything.

Owen (52:24)

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But I think, you know, it is indicative of maybe some things, but I think certainly like there's lots of people out of the workforce that.

Erica (52:36)

Well also the gig industries.

Owen (52:39)

Yeah, and, and I think they don't necessarily count like part time jobs the way they need to, to make it fair. I don't even know how you would do that really put, make it one number. Yeah, but, and you know, certainly there's different qualities of jobs. You know, there's the baristas and minimum wage fast food workers and then there's professional jobs and white collar jobs and blue collar jobs. And so, you know, I don't think it gives you any indication of that, but there are other numbers for that like the wage increases and things like that. And I think to me at least there is some good indicators there that we are holding on to at least what we had in terms of employment, that we're not seeing huge layoff numbers in, you know, in excess of what we would expect. I mean, I know there's been a lot of headlines with tech companies laying people off, but I think really historically it's not any larger than we've seen in the past. So at least right now we're holding on to it. If it starts to deteriorate then we might have a bad problem ahead of us. But right now it seems like we're kind of at least treading water in terms of people keeping their jobs. And I, I've mentioned before that another breakdown of that shows that in the past native born Americans were actually losing jobs. Like I think it was when Trump took over that there were actually less jobs in like 2024 for native born Americans than there were in 2018. So for like six years it was going down and all the jobs were going to immigrants.

Erica (54:07)

And so you don't mean Native Americans. You mean actual Americans.

Owen (54:12)

So the way they break it down is native born Americans and immigrants, they don't break down illegal immigrants and legal immigrants, they just break it down. You know, are you, are you someone who was born here or not?

Erica (54:25)

Right.

Owen (54:26)

So it's not necessarily the ideal way of breaking down, but that's what the economic agency does. So. But that reversed under Trump that the numbers now have started going up for native born Americans and down for immigrants obviously because we've deported so many of them. We've deported like 2 million of them. So all those jobs went away and so I think we are moving in the right direction in some ways and more native born Americans are getting jobs and less immigrants are getting jobs. And I think that's the right trend. So even, even if we are just treading water underneath that, you might actually see that it's moving in a positive direction.

Erica (55:01)

The other good news too is who's in charge of this now? Who's, I forget who. We moved into the thing that's. I want to say thanks to Nick Shirley kicking out the fraudsters with these.

Owen (55:17)

Vance is in charge of it.

Erica (55:19)

Vance, he's.

Owen (55:20)

We didn't get up. Yeah.

Erica (55:21)

So what do, does anyone remember the stats on that? Like they, they closed down to the tune of millions and millions and millions of dollars these fraudulent daycare and hospice places.

Owen (55:35)

I know they've been making progress on that. RFK Jr came out talking about it how a bunch of those hospices seem to be run by Russian mobsters. But I don't remember exactly how many millions they've done. But I think it was many millions that they've shut down in those fraudulent hospice cares in California. And I think they are planning to expand that to Maine and New York and other places. I know they're also looking into a lot of stuff going on in Florida. So it's not all just blue states. But you know, they are really going after it. So I'm hoping it'll result in a lot, a lot less fraud going forward.

Erica (56:10)

I hope the, the money comes back to the taxpayers somehow. Like it actually gets like. I hope that the, not that we're going to get the money back. I mean, I don't know if we will. I feel like those kinds of good things never happen. But you know, I hope that the money that was spent on fraud or wasted on fraud will now come back to help our local communities and our states. It would be really nice for a change as every time I hit potholes everywhere.

Owen (56:38)

And another feel good story is there's an ice agent that saved a baby's life in the TSA line at JFK airport. He performed the Heimlich maneuver on him and did CPR or you know, I think it was a Heimlich maneuver mostly, but it restored his breathing. So. Ice. Ice baby.

Erica (56:54)

Yes, he put the. The ice and. Nice. Marcella, do you have a closing something for us?

Marcella (57:02)

So NASA is sending astronauts to the moon, which hasn't done since 1972 there between.

Erica (57:11)

Yeah. Or forever. Ever.

Marcella (57:14)

Well, on April 1st dis. Disregarding that, on April 1st, 2026, they'll land. They'll launch an SLS rocket with Orion spacecraft with four astronauts for a 10 day orbit testing deep space capabilities. This is under Trump under NASA administrator Jared Isaacmans. He underscores that reasserting US lunar dominance under is very important because we're competing against China, we're competing against Russia and being able to be again dominant in the moon or as some would say for the first time.

Erica (58:04)

But now I. I don't know about the first time. Did anyone happen to watch that Y Files episode we were talking about last week with the. The person who had the alien encounter? You guys, I'm so bad with names, but you know what I'm talking about. The Y Files podcast I know I linked was pretty amazing. So if that guy's right, and I want to say if Owen's right, I don't know why there's a whole city on the dark side of the moon.

Owen (58:36)

I'm just reporting. I don't think I have any opinion on how true it is. But it was an interesting story. It was very fascinating.

Erica (58:44)

Yeah. So it's called the Y Files. Wh Y. The Y Files. Someone's asking in the chat. So look it up on YouTube. The Y Files. And it was one of his. It's called like the Basement. He does like a segment called the Basement where he's like interviewing people in his studio that he calls the Basement and looks like for it's like a UAP type of story, like a UFO type of story. But and I also recommend unless you like really long, like dragged out, listen to it plain. I listened to it at like 1.5 or 1.75 and it was like a perfect speed for me. Fascinating story if true. I just want to say. So listen, here we are. We have two minutes to. To the end of the show. Thank you so so much you guys. I notice you guys are really helping us with the subscribe, the thumbs up, the likes, the hearts, sharing it, reposting we really, really appreciate that and we hope you're enjoying what we're doing. We are always thinking ahead and have, you know, plans moving forward. So Owen's going to be on tomorrow doing his after party party on Spaces at the usual Scott Adams time. So wherever you live, whatever time zone you're in, same time as today, and that's on Spaces. So make sure you're following Owen Gregorian on X. And what else? Oh, please, check out Scott Adams meetups.com. scott Adams meetups.com and host. Consider hosting a meetups. Okay. I'm hosting one in Tokyo and. Oh, yeah, in Kyoto. In Kyoto, go to Japan. Yeah, and Jimmy told us last night they've been in Thailand. There's been meetups in Thailand and Australia. Japan.

Marcella (60:38)

Even Japan, huh?

Erica (60:40)

I forget where else he said. But they're uni, you know, not universal. Well, universal. So worldwide. Worldwide. The moon soon coming to the moon. So thank you so much, you guys. We'll see you back here Monday morning. Over the weekend, do some deep dives for us. Tell us what you find and remember, you know, to pay attention, how you're getting your news sources. Boil it down to just the salt and see what you're left with. And we're going to be useful. We're going to touch grass and we're going to think about Scott and this community. I'm going to try to pop on over the weekend to say hi. So, Marcella and Owen, thank you so, so much. I totally love and appreciate you guys. And every in the chat, let's all stick together.

Marcella (61:30)

We'll.

Erica (61:31)

We'll have a closing sip to our beloved Scott. Shelly, we love you and we'll see you on Monday. So let's be useful, you guys. And to Scott.

Marcella (61:41)

To Scott.

Erica (61:47)

Bye, guys. I'll wait till you guys say bye and then I'll, I'll end it. Cheers.