Michelle Pesca (0:00)

Today we'll attempt a feat once thought impossible. Overcoming high interest credit card debt. It requires merely one thing. A SoFi personal loan. With it you could save big on interest charges by consolidating into one low fixed rate monthly payment. Defy high interest debt with a SOFI personal loan. Visit sofi.com stunt to learn more. Loans originated by SoFi Bank NA member FDIC terms and conditions apply nmls696891 hi, it's Saturday. It's the Saturday show. We bring you one from the vault and one from the week and I think there's the best news of the week. I don't know, it wasn't a great week for news unless. Unless you're a fan of 50% copper tariffs. Who knows, maybe you are a domestic copper producer or someone who just likes to pay a whole lot for a radiator. Maybe hate the Brazilians and their ability to actually enact punishments against Bolsonaro. But that's a side point. The greatest thing that happened this week was that TSA said you could keep those shoes on, baby. Not everywhere, not all at once, but the little outlines on the ground that look like shoes now can be worn by people actually in shoes. So we talked about this on the show in a spiel and I ended with a quiz trying to ask you to figure out, can you take it on the plane? Can you check it out? Someone did point out, I think I say that. Well, not just me, but all of TSA says you could take a live fish on the plane, but they're not letting you take more than three and a half ounces of liquid. That's kind of odd, isn't it? I guess as soon as you get there you should ask for your Poland Spring. So that is the best of the week, that spiel. And I'm going to give you an old spiel, an aeronautical spiel. I actually forgot that I did it and was searching through the archives, newly spruced up by Leo Baum and it turns out that in July, July 17th of 2017, so we're almost at the fantastic eight year anniversary and Coulter got in a fight with someone on a plane and she took pictures and she said the person had sausage limbs. Anyway, it was a whole thing and I spieled about it because that's what I do. That's how I process. So enjoy this spiel and that spiel and think of the skies. Foreign. Are you buried under non stop meetings and something important happens and you forgot, wait, what was discussed? Fireflies is your AI teammate Boom Pops up is on top of things so damn useful. You don't even have to prod it. You don't have to feed a coffee to wake it up. We're all trying to figure out how to work smarter and not harder. And this is where Fireflies come in. Just say, hey Fireflies. Boom, it's there. Like I say, boom, it's there. Hey, Fireflies. Maybe if you're in a meeting while listening to the show now, and I just said, hey, Fireflies. You got Firefly. It's good. You'll be better off for it. Fireflies are the number one AI teammate that transcribes, summarizes and analyzes your conversation so you get the most out of every meeting. It's a smarter way to work, as I said. And it seamlessly integrates with with the tools you already rely on. It has integrations across more than 60 apps. Apps like Zoom, Google, Meet Slack, Asana, Zapier, and your CRM. You know, some of the things it provides are real time and up to date. Web search, shareable sound bites. I like that. Timestamp notes that allow you to pinpoint key moments. That is important. And bookmarks. What are you waiting for? Join the over 500,000 companies already using Firefly. Hey, Fireflies. And right now, when you sign up for a yearly Fireflies subscription, you get your first two months free. Just go to Fireflies AI slash the gist. That's right, two months free when you go to Fireflies AI slash the gist. That's Fireflies AI slash the gist. So summer's in full swing. You're like me. Hey, let's brush up and spruce up the closet. Spruce. Not being a summer tree, but you get it. Let's dandelion the closet. I don't want to waste money on clothes that I will only wear once or for a season. And I was talking to my wife and she agrees that Quints Quint's clothes are timeless. They feel luxurious, they look elevated, and the quality is way beyond what you'd expect for the price. Let me put that another way. The quality is really high, but the price is super affordable. European linens. 100% European linen starting at $30. Washable silk dresses and skirts. If you are of the dress and skirt wearing variety. Soft cotton sweaters. I have a Quint sweater. It's green. It's like a hunter green. I've worn it in, I think in the video I did with Robbie Hoffman, one of the funny you should mention videos. I think it looks good. I think it looks really good. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury without the markup. And we want you to know they work with factories that are safe, ethical, responsible and premium fabrics that are also safe, ethical and responsible. They make the fabrics be responsible. So I have my Quint stuff. I love it. I think you'll love it too. They got some great shorts, some European shorts. You might see me sporting them. Not sporting, squirting them, but sporting them around. Give your summer closet an upgrade with quince. Go to quince.com the gist for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.com/the gist to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com the gist and now the spiel. This weekend, two of society's great malefactors, Delta Airlines and Ann Coulter, got into it on Twitter in an effort to determine which is the more loathsome institution. Here's a hint. Ann Coulter never gave me a free set of headphones to watch Paul Blart mall cop on select domestic flights. Coulter was moved from her pre purchased God given seat, which she had researched and paid an extra $30 for for the leg room. And in her place, a woman was seated. The woman was described by Ann Coulter as dachshund legged. As an adjectival description, dachshund legged ain't bad, but Ann Coulter is. She tweeted a photo of her sausage limbed usurper who was only a private citizen who never asked for any of this, who only wanted to get a seat on a plane. And since we established it was a Delta plane, this poor woman in a way already was a victim. So Coulter threw a fit, no doubt thinking that America hates the airlines so much she would generate sympathy. What she didn't count on was the possibility that America hates Ann Coulter more. This is what social scientists call a natural experiment. Perhaps you've seen March Madness style brackets trying to pit the worst things in America against each other. Well, we have an actual experiment in real life, Ann Coulter listed as a four seed, the airlines listed as a five seed. But we wouldn't know who would really win until the event really happened. And that's what happened. So Colter screeched. Delta hit back. Coulter jabbed. Delta took umbrage. We're disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers by posting derogatory and slanderous comments and photos on social media. The company further described Colter's behavior as unnecessary and unacceptable. Coulter claimed vindication and did so by linking to an article in the Reverend Sung Young Moon's owned Washington Times. I will read from some of this article. Americans are sick and tired of being treated like chattel by airlines. Seats are smaller, legroom is far less, ample fees come fast and furious. Lines are outrageously long, customer service is about zero or less, and complaints, no matter how valid, are handled with the most dismissive of attitudes and seem to sneer. Yeah, we switched your seat, we lost your baggage, we. But what are you going to do about it? If airlines were Democrats, the passengers would be black voters. Wow. So in this analogy, would Republicans be Amtrak? No, that's government funded. Maybe Republicans would be like just walking to Disney World, personal responsibility at stake there. And if airlines were Democrats and the passengers were black voters, then it would be true, as with the Democratic Party, that passengers would make up 21% of the airlines. So wouldn't that lead to better legroom? Anyway, crazy analogy. It was the best pro Ann Coulter argument I came across. And the method I came across it was that Ann Coulter tweeted a link from another Twitter feed. And that Twitter feed is called Antensity. I will read you the description of that Twitter feed. Ann Coulter is jaw dropping, gorgeous. Face the facts and join us. This is a fan page. Yes, we are occasionally retweeted by Ann Coulter. Hashtag deplorable intensity. Coulter has since been on the Joyce Kaufman show for an hour talking about the injustice visited upon her. And also in their little social justice warrior response here. No, they haven't given one answer on this. They've given a whole series of answers. But their main answer is to abuse me. Continue to abuse me. You know, that is a unique and crystal clear argument. Sort of like a snowflake. Of course there were some fair minded nonpartisans who took Ann Coulter side. Sam Fisher. Just a guy on Twitter named Sam Fisher. But he raised an interesting point. He said, I dislike Ann Coulter as much as anyone. All right, so now he's in my good graces. We have common ground. And then he said, but in reference to the Twitter response, he said but this is the most ridiculous baby ish Trump esque response. Think about this. What he does is he gives you another target and another frame to consider the target. Maybe Delta is wrong. Let's put aside the Ann Coulter question. Let's think about Delta. Remember Delta, the airlines, they were a four seed in the March madness of odiousness. Was Delta behaving like Trump. Trump, obviously a number one seed in our brackets. Delta tweeted, we're disappointed that the customer has chosen to publicly attack our employees and other customers. You know, that is actually a little like when Trump acts all apocalyptic over a minor incident or blows up a smallish fact into something major. Like when he tweeted, wow, CNN had to retract big story on, quote, Russia with three employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories? They do fake news, so they caught fake news. CNN cold. But what about NBC, CBS and abc? What about the failing New York Times and Washington Post? They're all fake news. Huh? That is something to think about. I mean, Coulter was on the ropes. She was about to advance over the airlines in our tournament of repugnance. But Delta really did do some Trump esque tweeting. Maybe the question is, how does a right wing provocateur like Ann Coulter respond when they're attacked? They can release about a liter of slime which clogs the mouths and gills of their assail, making them unable to breathe. Well, that was actually a description of slime eels or hagfish. Maybe you heard about them when a truck overturned in Oregon. Slime the highway, slime the cars, slime the environment. I only mentioned the slime eels because they are a surprise number 15 seed that has advanced in our tournament of detestability and will face in the next round. And Coulter, she beat the airlines. Tune in to see who makes it to the final four. And if anyone can unseat Trump, reverse mortgages pop up ads, antibiotic resistant gonorrhea, and every last employee of the restaurant featured on Vanderpump Rules. It's a tough field of the detestable, but if anyone's up to the challenge, it's you, Ann Coulter. And now the spiel. For five years, the government has been debating it. For a few government patrolled locations, it was quietly relaxed, leading to uneven and confusing enforcement. But still, it was on the books and on our minds every time we took a flight. The requirement to take our shoes off at the airport. But now the TSA has announced the phase out will begin. NBC's Today show has more. Don't show up at the checkpoint today and think, oh, I don't have to take off my shoes. It's really a limited rollout with the goal of increasing that over the coming months and even years, guys. So Tom, you mentioned the new technology that exists now that did not exist back then. Is that part of the reason for the timing and to your point about the security posture, are there any potential security implications? No, there are no security implications. About a story of the tsa, the Transportation Safety Administration, relaxing a rule that was there to protect us for 25 years. What would, how would that possibly implicate security? I don't know. Maybe there are no implications in the sense that it's all explicit security considerations. The issue right now in front of the TSA is is it safe to allow the shod in line? As to the first question asked in that segment, new technology exists that did not exist back then. Is that part of the reason for the timing? Yeah, yeah, I would say that it is part of the reason, a lot of the reason. I want to offer insight that goes beyond. Yeah, you think. But in this case, let me just say. Yeah, you think. I understand the policy is kind of rendering us all stupid and it has over the last more than two decades because you go in line and they scan your face and they scan your body and they scan through your clothes. But the feet, the bottoms of the body, those could not be penetrated. They're the blockchain of human beings, so mysterious, so opaque. So we all stood inside those stupid outlines of shoes, saying to ourselves, and maybe the TSA agent, if you're an extrovert, you know, these are shoes. But we're not allowed to wear shoes. Some of us stood there not just in socks, but disgustingly in bare feet because we hadn't thought it all out. And we wondered, is this really necessary? Because it's not necessary in Europe where the shoe bomber I guess could never have thought to strike. Even though the shoe bomber was stopped on a flight to Miami from Paris, which is in Europe, one of the main parts of Europe, by the way, we should call this guy the failed shoe bomber. And he did try. Three months after 9 11. And we all freaked out because it's true. If, if but for the fuse failing to light or maybe the bomber himself being kind of an idiot, this could have led to another mid air disaster. You know, it just goes to show how responsive to terrorism we were and how much we're not anymore. And you could say, well you know, we've conquered the threat or the threat has subsided. No, no, the shoe bomber, do you know his name? Do you remember his name? It was Richard Reed. Maybe you remember his name. Maybe, maybe you remember, could conjure his face. Kind of a big bird looking fellow, he didn't even succeed. But he's called the shoe Bomber now. Do you remember the name? Samsud ding are you? Probably don't. I shall. I shall suggest you don't. He was an actual terrorist who actually killed people. A lot of people. Was it a long time ago, like 2021? No, it was a few months ago. It was January 2025, right before the Sugar Bowl. So it wasn't at a time that we weren't paying attention. He killed 14 people on Bourbon Street. New Orleans mowed him down. How about the name Sifulo Saipov? He carried out an actual terrorist attack with eight actual dead people and dozens more on Halloween 2017 in not a media backwater, New York City. And he was just like Jabbar was inspired by isis. We don't remember. We remember the shoe bomber. We react to the shoe bomber. I don't know what we've done for bike lanes or car attacks because they do keep happening, and I don't know if anything can stop them from happening. So I get that it was cautious and I get that it was wise to be cautious. But over the years, indeed, over the decades, we did certainly segue into security theater. Wonder if this has happened with other forms of actual security. Starts off as security becomes theater. I wonder if you go to Frontierland in Disney. Do you think those guys in the Wild west show think that they're actually. No one told them, but they think that they're actually performing real security. Are they the great, great grandsons of the actual sheriffs and the outlaws? And they just think they're living their responsibility, which was passed down from generations, and no one told them that this is all theater. No one even told them, why do we have to move to Orlando to shoot the bad guys? Everyone complains about security theater. Yeah, it's annoying. Just like everyone complained for years. You know, the more insidious form of racism was the subtle racism. That's even worse than the explicit racism. And then we got the explicit racism, a heaping dollop of Nazism and unfettered racism on the new acts. And we're like, oh, yeah, the implicit racism was a lot worse than the explicit kind. Just like the security theater is a lot worse than the security actuality quote, unquote, security that's going on now with ICE agents in our schools, our streets, our fields. That does seem a little worse than take off your shoes. So annoying. What? This hair gel is 4.3 ounces. Those guys cosplaying stormtroopers in a Star wars convention. Annoying. Actual stormtroopers, Actual boot on actual neck. We don't use the word annoying. We don't have time. We're just trying not to get choked, you know, it's fun. I checked out the TSA site for rules on what is allowed on board. Let's play a game. Drones are unmanned aircraft system drones allowed on board an airplane. All of these will be two part questions. Carried on in bags or check with airlines. So do you think drones are allowed the airline within the airline, if you will. In both cases, the answer is check with airline. Wow. All right, let's start off. One easy one, one hard one. Right. Hammers and hand grenades. You know the old expression, it's like hammers and hand grenades? No, you don't know that expression. That's not the expression. Because they're not alike. While neither can be carried on, of course hammers can be checked. You'll be happy to know that hand grenades cannot be checked. Also allowed to carry on, but not checked. Live coral. Similarly, live fish. Carry them on, don't check them. Want the opposite? Live lobsters can be checked. They just get a check mark under check. Don't worry about it. Check your lobster. But with carry on, it's check with airline heating pads. No, you can't take them on. You can't take gel heating pads onto the plane. You can check them. Heating pads, electric. Those are both allowed on the plane. Heating jackets and sweaters, which I had never heard of. Yes, but there are special instructions about batteries. What is the difference between a heating pad and a heating jacket? Just the cut, just the sleeves. I don't know. There's a category of weapons that were from like the 19th century. They seem okay with brass knuckles. Can't take them on the plane. Can check them. A blackjack, which the TSA defines as a self defense item. Can't take them on the plane. Can check them. There are some weapons that can't be even checked. This was great. Rocket launchers. I'm glad they have this. Let's go back. Let's go back half a step from rocket launchers. I'll give you some easy ones to orient yourselves. They actually have categories for comic books and Chapstick. Both can be taken on the plane. Both can be checked. And then they go to rocket launchers. And it turns out rocket launchers cannot be taken on the plane. Cannot be checked. But almost every type of firearm, every type of gun. Can't take it on the plane. But you could check all of them. They're really into allowing you to check all manner of firearm. However, here's an interesting one. We'll play the game. Do Realistic replicas of firearms. Are they allowed to be taken on the plane? They are not. Are they allowed to be checked? Yes, they are. What about realistic replicas of explosives? No, for both. Quite fascinating. There's also a whole food category. Not meeting food from whole Foods. They don't have a separate Trader Joe's category. They just have categories about foods and they list a lot of broad categories like juices. There is a separate juices and juices for babies. Very similar rules. Right. You can't get it on the plane if you're like, ah, but this is for a baby. They have very broad categories. Jams and jellies. Yeah. You could check them, follow the rules. But weirdly, they have tamales as their own category. They're allowed. You could bring them on. You could check them. But they have their own categories. But no separate categories for steak tidbits or lasagna. I, I found that odd. Putty balls. Check them, take them on. That's fine. Propane don't do either. And prosthetics, that would be mean. Wouldn't that be mean if you weren't allowed to take on your prosthetic? They have water for babies. Yeah, you're allowed. They have water for chocolate. No, senior, they have projectors which they say, please place the console in a separate bag for X ray screening. I don't know, maybe I'm just projecting. I don't even think the TSA agents know all these rules. I think selective enforcement, which is the cousin of security theater, takes place. But I will leave you with this because for all the officiousness, bureaucracy and backwards ness, I was backwards this backwardianism. I was somewhat heartened by their rules on the Magic 8 Ball. Now to level set, they have a special category for Harry Potter wands. You're allowed to carry them on. You're allowed to check them. I guess they assume these are non working Harry Potter wands. Replica Harry Potter wands. If you are Harry Potter, don't you have an owl to get places? Never really read beyond book one. But the Magic 8 Ball has its own category. Can you check it? You can check it. Can you carry it on in a bag? The answer is no. But the explanation is for carry on bags. We asked the Magic 8 ball and it told us outlook not so good for check bags. We asked the Magic 8 ball and it told us it is certain. I had only hoped they'd ask the tamale. Si, senor. And that's it for today's show. Corey War is the producer of the gist and Astra Green runs our social media and Kathleen Sykes, she does the gist list. And Ashley Khan, she's the production coordinator. And Michelle Pesca, she does it all. Plus always shaking that magic eight ball to try to get what she wants. Leo Baums, intern who PRU GPRU do prove things. Thanks for listening. This is one of the most spectacular venues with all kinds of character and hospitality scenery. These people in this Gitas Valley, they love when you come to see what they have to offer. I'm J.J. harris, an Ellensburg Rodeo clown and I want to invite you to the rodeo. Come hang out with us in Ellensburg. Great rodeo. Great time. Two performances on Saturday. One is the Extreme Bulls of the Year event. Do not miss the Ellensburg Rodeo August 29th through September 1st. We'll see you there. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.