Not So Civil Layoffs and Attacks on The Press | 02.19.25

In this episode of 'The Civil Union,' Alex and Ryan, a married couple, delve into various topics while navigating the chilly winter in a conservative state. They discuss the ongoing layoffs affecting crucial U.S. departments, including the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration, and the implications for national security and public safety. They touch on the controversial DEI lawsuit against Starbucks by Missouri's AG Andrew Bailey and express worries about potential changes to press freedom through a Supreme Court case involving Steve Wynn. The hosts also highlight rising misinformation and its impact on public perception, particularly regarding vaccines and recent measles outbreaks. Lighter topics include personal stories about Valentine's Day, upcoming sporting events, a humorous whale encounter, and the unusual rise in 'egg heists' amid soaring egg prices. They also play a fun game comparing quotes between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

00:00 Introduction to the Civil Union Podcast

00:39 Winter Weather Woes

04:22 Mass Firings and National Security Concerns

09:36 FAA Understaffing Issues

14:05 Comparing Federal Job Cuts: Clinton vs. Trump

17:53 Missouri Attorney General vs. Starbucks DEI Practices

23:28 Mid-Show Game: Bill Clinton vs. George W. Bush

26:49 Steve Wynn's Supreme Court Appeal

31:11 AP Reporter Barred from White House Briefings

35:54 Texas Measles Outbreak and Vaccine Misinformation

38:55 Real-Life Geppetto: Swallowed by a Whale

40:48 Egg Heists Amidst Rising Prices

42:28 Conclusion and Farewell

Music: What's The Angle? by Shane Ivers -

https://www.silvermansound.com

Transcript

0:07

Welcome to the Civil Union, the podcast where politics meets partnership. We're Alex and Ryan, a married couple navigating life and debates in a conservative state. We bring you sharp insights, bold opinions. and honest conversations about political issues shaping our lives, especially those living on society's margins. Tune in for real talk, a touch of humor, and plenty of passion, because when it comes to politics, every voice matters. And we're here to make sure they're heard. All right, well, Alex, um, it's snowing again. Again. For the, like, hundredth time, I feel like. It's been such a snowy winter. I was commenting this morning on one of my, on my Blue Sky, I was like, I feel like I'm in North Dakota, like Fargo. Like, we were walking out of work, and it was so gross and cloudy and snowy. It's like, I feel like I'm Francis McDormand, and I should have an accent because it's so funny. freezing outside. It's not normal. Yeah, it was six degrees this morning. They said it felt like negative eight. I took a picture of the outside, like front lawn, and we're kind of on a moderately busy road and like everything's covered in snow. The car, the driveway, even the main road, like just everything. And I made a post on my Instagram. It's a story and I wrote, uh, should I ask my husband where my Starbucks is when he gets home from the night shift? And, uh, I will say 86 percent of people said yes. How many people? 86%. How many people is that? Well, and then one of the no's was my mom. So I will say that. Well, good. I, you know, you read, I would love to announce who actually said yes, but I, it's not all your coworkers did. So, well, No comment. Hey, and so, uh, even though it's, it's, it's freezing, it's bitterly cold outside. Um, it's supposed to be like 40 on Saturday, I believe, which is the first, CitySC home game, which I'm so excited about. I'm really, really excited about it. I, you know, it hasn't hit me yet that we're actually starting Saturday. Like I keep forgetting we even have a game Saturday, but I'm really amped about it. I think the day of I'll be really excited. Do you like the new Jersey? Don't. I don't. You don't like it? I like it. I don't like the collar. I don't like that the, it looks like they have pit stains. I don't know. I, maybe it'll grow on me once I see more people wearing it and things, but for now I'm debating whether I want to purchase one. I'm just, I'm so excited to like reconnect with all those like friends again and just to see Celio play he's playing again and then Roman Burki. So it'll be good. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited for this new. iteration of our team. I'm excited for the new coach, see what he's going to be doing. Yeah, I'm really, really excited for this new season. So how was your Valentine's Day? My Valentine's Day was filled with roses and romance. Oh, mine was too. I don't even like Valentine's Day, but we went out to dinner at Favazza's, which is one of our favorite restaurants and Italian food. It was packed. We were seated in the back of the restaurant and it was like, All these tables were just couples. It was just tables of two. It was kind of funny. Yeah, it was really fun. And then we got to go out to our favorite little, uh, dive bar, hole in the wall bar to see all our friends. So it was a really good time. I really enjoyed it. It was a good night. Did you see that? I don't know if you saw, but Cheryl Crow, she's one of my favorite singers, by the way. Um, she, she sold her Tesla car and donated all the proceeds to NPR. It was, it was kind of funny. It was very funny. And you know, it's funny even seeing Teslas around town. Every time I see one, I don't think I haven't seen one where there hasn't been a sticker on it, either denouncing Trump or saying they bought the Tesla before, like everyone wants to make a comment, like I have this car, but don't think I Elon. so talking about those. Those, uh, people, there were like mass firings going on. last week, Within hours of a Russian drone striking the infamous Chernobyl power plant in Ukraine, employees of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, otherwise known as the NNSA, received termination letters, reading effective today. Media outlets reported that more than 300 employees were terminated, but a spokesperson for the Department of Energy Energy, which the NNSA falls under said the number was more like 50. However, the Trump administration wants to rescind these firings after growing concerns that the employee dismissals could jeopardize national security. Even more appallingly, our government can't find these employees that they fired because they were locked out of their federal email accounts. Just what is the NNSA responsible for? They're responsible for designing, building, and overseeing the US weapons stockpiles. They also oversee refurbishing the US's 3000 plus nuclear warheads. They also supervise the production of new nuclear warheads. The, the team has like a 25 billion, like annual budget and around 2, 000 directly hired employees who manage some 55, 000 contractors who play integral roles in warhead production. I was seeing that the government accountability office has said back in 2024 to that by next year, 2026, the agency would be 200 positions below the level deemed necessary for the agency to even run properly, which is not very comforting. These firings, even if people come back, it shows a sense of instability within this department, within our nuclear program, not only with the actual workers at the agency, but think of how that looks to our adversaries. That is not an image we want for our nuclear program, especially after the supposed Russian attack strike on Chernobyl. It's, it just makes us look weak. It makes us look like we don't have our shit together. Exactly. This comes at a critical time for the NNSA agency as they are trying to modernize the rapidly aging nuclear weapons arsenal that we currently have in the U. S. Last year, they were carrying out seven modern modernization programs for the Department of Defense, and the New York Times actually reported last year that the U. S. military was expected to spend 1. 7 trillion to overhaul the nuclear weapons infrastructure and warheads that were designed and built several decades ago. decades ago. Yeah, back in 2024, so last year, the NNSA administrator at the time, Jill Hruby, said that the agency was being asked to do more than at any time since the Manhattan Project. I mean, they have a lot of projects going on right now within that agency. It is important to note, too, these firings within the NNSA, they were firings, and you mentioned this earlier, but I want to reiterate. This affected the entire Department of Energy, not just the NNSA, which is within that department. This included people at the Grid Deployment Office. I think 18 people were fired there, which that department seeks to modernize the power grid of this country, which again brings it back to all these natural issues. events going on, like hurricanes and things that need, we need a good power grid system. And also it affected the loan office with 45 workers being fired, which gives billions of dollars of loans to clean energy projects and clean vehicle projects that also heavily affected the Pacific Northwest region of this country. This move fired more than 100 probationary workers, probationary workers. When they say that means they're just newly hired. That's all it means. And within this instance, these hires were hired within the last two years. This, along with the federal buyouts previously happening, like what, a couple weeks ago, means that they have lost over 200 workers and rescinded 90 job offers. This also piles on top of the hiring freeze. Which is enacted so they can't even get new employees and new talent at the Bonneville Power Administration. This freeze means they can't hire a chief financial officer. So they're without a chief financial officer right now. And there's no, there's no plan to get one because there's a hiring freeze. This cripples the entire energy sector in that region. U. S. Senator Pat Murray, Democrat for Washington, said these layoffs pose a serious threat to energy security and will raise energy cost. She did say too. These positions are funded by ratepayers. So you and I, when we pay our energy bill, we are paying for those positions. These positions are not funded from federal funding, so it's not even going to make a big difference in the actual government cost. Like Elon is saying. Yeah. Well also last week, some 10, 000 federal employees were let go. This also includes the estimated 75, 000 workers who accepted the offer from the white house to leave voluntary. Voluntarily, which includes, the FAA firings. So this is another big one that I had to talk about is that hundreds of FAA employees were let go just weeks after the fatal crash in DC exposed yet again, under staffing issues at the agency. The union representing the employees called the firings that hastily made decision that increases the workload. Of a workforce already stretched thin the firings hit the FAA when it faces a shortfall in air traffic controllers for years, federal officials have been raising concerns about an overtaxed and understaffed air traffic employees. Especially after a series of close calls between planes at us airports. This is not new news. We've been seeing reports of this for the last few years, post COVID. In fact, our flight was in the midst of landing. We were on our way to Las Vegas last June and it quickly like pulled back up and flew around the city of Las Vegas. We all felt the G force of it briefly. Remember that? Yeah, I do remember this. It wasn't a good feeling, but I never read any like reports of almost collisions or whatever, you know, but I almost want to know how often these missed calls actually happen that go unreported. I remember reading about this a couple years back. I don't know whether it was Vanity Fair or Vogue or whoever wrote an article about it, but they wrote a very extensive article about all these very missed close misses that were happening across the country. I mean, Texas, multiple states where planes were weren't being directed correctly and they were having, like, they were missing each other by very close, like hundreds of feet. And it's because these aircraft controllers are being worn out and they were understaffed. And so when these crashes happened, the one in Washington DC, that's exactly where my mind went. And when we went to Vegas, that's exactly where my mind went. this has been an ongoing problem. We're just now seeing. Actual things repercussioned from it. Yeah. So it's not a good idea to be firing these people. Right. Um, but among the reasons for the controller shortfall, they've cited uncompetitive pay, long shifts, intensive training, and mandatory uh. Retirements in the January 29th crash between the U. S. Army Blackhawk and American Airlines flight, which is still under investigation. One traffic controller was handling both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the same time. Just days before the crash, Trump had already fired all the members of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, a panel that was mandated by Congress in After the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, that committee was in charge of reviewing safety issues with airlines and airports, but they're not there anymore. So who's doing this to me? I feel like with all the crashes of late, it is probably not the time to treat the FAA as a budgetary item. These are roles that help aid. in public safety. This doesn't help the aviation industry with public trust. I don't, I don't feel very You know, confident flying right now. And I would be curious if this will affect the air travel industry over the next year or two. Also, I found that the FAA remains about 3500 controllers short of targeted staffing levels. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy came out and said that fewer than 400 employees were affected by these firings, and they were all just probationary. Again, that word probationary, meaning they were hired less than a year ago. Like that's any better. Duffy said he feels this move will usher in America's golden age of travel. Here's the thing, why would someone who is wanting to be a TSA agent or controller, even though these firings supposedly didn't involve those roles, supposedly per Duffy, why would you want to risk being hired within an agency that terminates, just quote, new people? It's not comforting. Like, I wouldn't want to get a job in that agency knowing that I would be easily expendable. I don't see how the FAA will fill the 3, 500 controller jobs needed if they are scaring people away with these firings. so, I have a little rant or some research I've done that I found today. So I want to, I want to share this piece of information with everyone since it relates to federal firings and everything. So I've, I've started to see like right wingers come out and say things like these firings are just what happened during the Clinton years in the nineties. Gosh, remember the nineties and how happy we were. Of course I was a child, but, you know, I did know that I was a Democrat back then. And I did know that everyone deserved the same amount of freedoms as like their neighbors and friends and everything. So anyways, but the Clinton initiative cut over 377, 000 federal jobs in the 90s. However, this is not comparable to Trump's efforts. And why? Well, according to testimony of Elaine Carmark, the director of Clinton's initiative, it had eliminated some 400, 000 federal roles between January of 93 to September of 2000. Looking back, it's strange to imagine a time when a presidential campaign was won on a promise to balance the federal budget. Bill Clinton did it too. The U. S. federal budget had a surplus between 1998 to 2001, the only time there's been a surplus since 1970. By the way, our government's current debt stands at 36 trillion dollars at the time of this here recording. so this year, Trump gave Musk control of our government in an effort to eliminate federal programs and jobs to dramatically slash spending. It's true that Clinton reduced the federal workforce by more than 377, 000 jobs, an initiative originally called the National Partnership for Reinventing Government. However, there is a key difference between what Clinton did and what Trump and Musk are doing. In. March of 1993, Clinton announced the initiative, which was to be led by former Vice President Al Gore. Its, its goal was to make the entire federal government both less expensive and more efficient. The review of the initiative At the beginning lasted six months and made some 384 recommendations to improve the federal government. The implementation of those policies took a lot longer and required some legislation to be passed through Congress. Clinton's program continued to make recommendations for government reform. Overall around, you know, the 400,000 jobs were reduced through buyouts between 93 to 2000. The the Buyouts by Clinton's program and what Trump and Musk are doing are just not the same right now. Clinton's buyout plan had overwhelmingly by. bipartisan support from Congress, and a law was signed after the review period was over, which lasted six months. Meanwhile, Trump and Musk offered the buyouts just one week into his second term, with no review process, no consideration by Congress, which is probably why chaos is ensuing between the nuclear and FAA firings, amongst others. Yeah, that is a really interesting point. I mean, there is this idea too, with all the newer firings that Trump is doing and in extension Elon, they may be intentionally acting on these mass firings. knowing they will be challenged, knowing they will go to the Supreme Court, which leans into the GOP's favor with six Republican appointed judges, which would mean it would, if the judges rule in Trump and Elon's favor it would set a new precedent and expand on presidential power, which may be their goal in this this entire time. we will see. Yeah. So, moving on to good old Missouri, our attorney general, Andrew Bailey, who is in my opinion, absolutely crazy. Um, he is suing Starbucks over their DEI practices. Bailey alleges the coffee chains push to hire more people of color and women violates anti discrimination laws and slows down coffee orders. I guess he got a bad, bad experience at Starbucks or something. So the, the lawsuit he filed, opens a new legal front in the war on diversity and in corporate America. It aims to strike down the most common DEI Programs that Starbucks and other businesses used to expand opportunities for minorities, women, and historically underrepresented groups. Hey, buddy. I, uh, I want to let you know that I worked for the coffee chain for 13 years and I am a white male. So just FYI. You, that means you, you created very fast orders and made his coffee delicious. I guess I did. Who knows? Huh? So Starbucks denied Missouri's allegations and said its policies were designed to ensure the strongest candidate for every job every time. This suit alleges that Starbucks mentorship programs with the goal of Connecting minority employees to senior company leaders is just a, quote, mere pretext for its actual commitment to unlawful discrimination, end quote. Starbucks has a goal of Achieving 30 percent minority representation across all corporate levels and 40 percent of all retail stores by the end of this year. Actually, Bailey also accuses Starbucks of making hiring decisions based on race rather than merit, which he claims it leads to more mistakes on the job and higher costs for consumers. Um, in my opinion, sounds like someone needs to be decaf and yes, if you're a I would definitely give you decaf. Oh my god, I remember doing that to people. Decaf ing people. Yeah, absolutely. Because they deserve it. And you know, you had mentioned a goal of achieving 30 percent minority representation in corporate levels and 40 percent of retail stores. That's not that huge of a thing. I mean, that should be normal, I feel like, with the way America's going. But anyway, I find it hilarious. This guy is trying to blame the cost of your venti ice pumpkin spice latte, which differs in price, by the way, by region and cost of living in that area. But Bailey seems to think it's caused by a lack of white men serving and making your coffee. There is no proof whatsoever of a white man being discriminated against at Starbucks in the state of Missouri. There is also no proof that due to DEI hires, Starbucks customers are faced with slower service times. I pray to the mermaid gods that Starbucks fights this lawsuit because so far Ford, Google, McDonald's, Meta, which is Facebook, Target. And Walmart have all cowered and scaled back or eliminated their D. I. initiatives altogether. If they fought it, it would give me hope that there are still some backbone in corporate America with this presidency. It's also important to note Bailey is banking on the Supreme Court's 2013 ruling that had to do with Harvard admissions that ruled affirmative action is unconstitutional. Bailey had said, quote, eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating All of it, end quote. Basically, he's saying white men are being racially discriminated against due to Starbucks DEI initiatives. But affirmative action is different than DEI initiatives. So there is no merit for that argument. There was also a case that I had found back in September of 23 in Washington State between National Center for Public Policy Research versus Schultz. That was a suit brought by a conservative think tank alleging that Starbucks diversity initiatives were in violation of the Civil Rights Act and state anti discrimination laws. A month later, it was dismissed, and Chief Judge Stanley Bastian, in his oral decision, said that, quote, Courts of law have no business involving themselves with legitimate and legal decisions made by the Board of Directors of public corporations. And went further in saying based on the briefing and nature of plaintiff's self described political interests, it is clear to the court that plaintiff did not file this action to enforce the interests of Starbucks, but to advance its own political and public policy agendas. With all that said, chances are this lawsuit will be thrown out anyway. But, with that also said, This is probably just a big note, a precursor to what we should expect from Pam Bondi and what she will do now that she is the head of the DOJ, because she has said she plans on going after private companies and higher education institutions that have DEI programs in place. So, what Bailey is doing, we're gonna probably expect more of this going forward. Yeah, this isn't the last time we're going to hear from this guy anyways because he's just he's He's trying to make a name for himself. That's essentially what he's trying to do because he is, um, untamed is what I will call him untamed because he is just, he goes after the LGBT community. He goes after just everything. That's a minority. He has really singled out and is just bringing case after case against, against people. Um, all right. So we're at the middle of the show. It's time for a game. it. Let's do it. I love this part. All right. So this one is, um, since we talked about Bill Clinton, so it's Bill Clinton and, uh, George W. Bush. Um, so you're gonna pick. Okay. Okay. Ready? Yes. All right. First one you can put wings on a pig, but you don't make it an eagle George W Bush bill Oh, man, that sounds so country. I thought it was definitely Bush Well bill is from Arkansas. So that's true. Okay, so second one. Here we go I just wanted you to know when we talk about war. We're really talking about peace bill or George I'm going to say George W. Bush because he obviously started the Afghanistan war and stuff. Yes, George said it in 2002. All right, number three. This is a hard one, so forgive me. Here we go. I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe. I believe what I believe is right. Bill or George? George? Yes! 2001. He used to stumble his words all the time. Alright, here's number 4. The 22nd Amendment should probably be modified to say two consecutive terms instead of two terms for a lifetime. Bill or George? Bill. Bill. Yes, you're correct. Ooh. I hope that doesn't come back and bite him in the ass. Holy shit. That's scary. That is scary. Uh, we don't like that quote, Bill. Um, so all right, here's number five. I still believe in a place called hope. Bill or George. Bill, referencing his hometown of Hope, Arkansas. All right. Number six, here we go. Every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non fatal shootings and folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it. Bill or George. This is terrible. Definitely George. Yes. He used to say folks all the time. That's his little Texas twang. I had no idea. All right. And then, uh, the final number seven, here we go. You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror. Bill or George? George. Yes. George said it in a 2000 interview with Katie Couric. Interesting. Those are good. The hardest part of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror, but didn't we like go to war with Iraq against terrorism? God, remember those two presidents? Like we thought that was a low at certain points of their presidencies and now look at us and where we're at. I know. I thought that was like the worst presidency ever and it can't get any worse. And now I look back at it and I'm just like, wow, we had it. Yeah, I miss his Texas accent actually, like we need that back. Trump is so annoying. Yeah. So, okay. All right. Moving on to our next subject. So this is something that hasn't hit the major news waves, but I do feel we are going to start seeing more about it because it will have direct implications hugely with the way journalism works in this country. Casino mogul Steve Wynn has asked the U. S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal that, if granted, could give the justices a chance to revisit libel protections for journalists enshrined in a landmark 1964 ruling. The ruling was New York Times versus Sullivan. This was a landmark case. It represents the Supreme Court's most important attempt in resolving the tension between free speech. It And defamation or quote, actual malice, it created a simple test in which public figures can only win defamation cases if they prove the speaker either knew their statement was false or showed malice. quote, reckless disregard for its truth. Minor factual errors, differences of interpretation, or even heated exchanges about public figures aren't enough to trigger liability. Only lies that are deliberate or statements made while willfully ignoring clear evidence of facts. falsity can qualify as defamation plaintiffs then have the burden of proving that the defendant knew that it was a lie when they published or spoke it. This has been a cornerstone of free speech for the past 60 years and made costly defamation lawsuits harder to charge. It allowed journalists. to write stories about the rich and powerful while minimizing the threat of them being butthurt and casting privileged lawsuits left and right just because they don't like something written about them. Which leads to Steve Wynn. Wynn is a prominent casino magnate and Republican mega donor. Back in 2018, the Wall Street Journal had a big Big expose accusing him of a wide variety of sexual abuse and harassment. This was followed by other media outlets reporting on other police files in Las Vegas, in which there were other claims of sexual assault by Wynn reaching all the way back into the seventies. Wynn turned around and sued the Associated Press and a reporter, her name was Regina Garcia, for defamation, this case was dismissed under Nevada's anti slap law, S L A P P. They said there was no actual malice. Having lost in state court, he is now bringing it up to the Supreme Court. He is petitioning the courts to overturn Sullivan's, quote, actual malice standard, or at a minimum, make it to where it doesn't apply to public figures. This is the most direct assault on press freedom in America since 1964, and if he is successful, it will demolish the guardrails that have protected journalism for the past six decades. It's important to note several justices have shown hostility towards the case of Sullivan in the past, and we should also know by now. This Supreme Court is not afraid of a pen saddled Supreme Court precedent. I mean, Roe vs. Wade was a perfect example of that. But up to this point, no one has legitimately tried to overturn Sullivan. Now, what All of this is important because this administration has targeted the press and attacked journalists who they don't agree with. What will the implications of this be if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Sullivan? The court still needs to decide if it will hear Wynn's case. By having at least four justices agreeing to hear the case. But right now, due to previous history, it would seem likely Justice El Salido, Clarence Thomas and Gorsuch would hear this case. That means only one other justice would have to bend that way as well, which is not true. Very far fetched. The Associated Press has until March 6th also to respond. So keep an eye on this story developing in the next month because I think we're going to hear a lot more about it probably in the next few weeks, up, up leading into March 6th. Wow. Good story, Alex. That's impressive. Yeah, I don't think a lot of people are covering it, which is really surprising because it's directly affecting journalism, but we'll, we'll hear about it. Yeah. So speaking of the press, um, an AP reporter, Associated Press reporter was ousted from the White House briefings recently because the company still uses the Gulf of Mexico and not Mexico. The Gulf of America. First of all, this whole Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America, I cannot believe this is even a talking point. It's sad that it is a talking point in this country. Um, in escalation of this, this past Friday actually, The White House barred a credentialed associate press reporter and photographer from boarding the presidential airplane for a weekend trip with Donald Trump. I mean, who would love to do that? They have been blocked from various events all last week. The associate press has Mexico. has argued that the mapping policy violates Mexican sovereignty because the U. S. only has jurisdiction over around 46 percent of the Gulf. The rest is controlled by Mexico, which controls in 49%, and Cuba, which controls around 5%. The name Gulf of Mexico dates back to 1607 and is recognized by the United Nations. Also, Mexico's president, Claudia, is saying, per the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a country's territorial sovereignty only extends 12 nautical miles from its coastline. So the name change, if applied, would only apply to the 12 nautical miles of the coastline. into the Gulf, not the entire Gulf. Also, it is kind of interesting. All these actions are rich coming from the White House because VP JD Vance was in Germany at the Munich Security Conference, I believe on Friday, which funny enough was the same day the APA reporters were barred from Air Force One. But he was making statements in front of the entire world One quote was, he said, I believe that dismissing people dismissing their concerns or worse yet shutting down media, shutting down elections or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing. In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. J. D. Vance said that. He also said, quote, Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There's no room for firewalls. He said these things the same day the White House barred A. P. Press from the Air Force One. He was called out by numerous officials on his remarks, saying he was picking a fight with European allies, which isn't great. And he was insulting to the entire world. The AP White House standoff is still ongoing. This is not ending yet. Multiple other media outlets have made statements, but it also seems they're tiptoeing around the subject. A lot of people are, like, scared to say anything, I think, just because they're afraid of losing their credentials as well. But we'll see how far this escalates and how long this goes on for. Yeah, I heard, like, the president of Mexico wants to sue Google for changing the body of water name, but I scrolled past it. What, what, what? What was that? Do you know anything about that? Yeah. Yeah. She is actively. I think they need to respond. There's like a date they have to respond by, but if they don't respond or do something, she's going to take it to court or something. Yeah, she's definitely going to go after. Yeah. And so I was like doing some more research on the Mexico president and everything. And I was like, I briefly went on Tik Tok, you know, which you can't download on any phones unless you already had it on your phone. Do you have to talk? Yeah. I do have TikTok. I don't even, I don't even know if I'm signed into it, honestly. Interesting. So I, I saw this story and I just wanted to bring this up that, um, it said something about the Mexican president is requiring all Americans to obtain a visa before entering into the country, which we, we did our research here and we couldn't find anything like on that. So it, it was clearly false, but this, this video. And multiple videos had like 200 plus likes on it and like views on it. And it's like people are seeing just fake news everywhere and believing it. It's, it's really scary. It's crazy how, uh, this is going on. Well, remember back to our, I think our first or second episode, we talked about how the youth between the ages up to 30, I think, or maybe at 35, uh, 70 percent of them get majority of their news from TikTok. Like that's unsettling. When things like this are falsified on TikTok, you're seeing it and you're having to question its validity, validity. Like I researched into this on a line, like to extent, and I couldn't find anything about it. But yeah, this is why people are so misinformed. Yeah. It's, it's very scary. So anyways, remember that Texas measles outbreak? Speaking of misinformation on vaccines. Yeah. Yeah. Misinformation about vaccines. Remember that texas meas about like last week act were going to be like mor the cases went from 10 ca 30 years. Other states are seeing outbreaks to, uh, for example, New Mexico, which borders the hot spot, we'll call it Gaines County, Texas, um, had a teenager with measles and that team did not travel outside of the states, which is unclear how he actually contracted the disease before the vaccine measles vaccine became available in the 19 sixties, some 400 to 500. mostly Children were dying each year from the disease, according to a recent poll, though, 17 percent of parents said that they have skipped or delayed a vaccine dose in their Children. That's 10 percent up from just two years ago. The best way to prevent getting sick is to be immunized, immunized from two doses of a vaccine against measles, which is primarily administered as the combination of the measles mumps, rubella vaccine, two doses of the MMR vaccine are highly effective at preventing the measles. So make sure you get your kids, uh, vaccinated, please. Yeah, something I had looked up down the Texas Department of State Health Services website. All the 48 cases were all people who were not vaccinated or vaccination was unknown. All 48 cases. The majority of the cases are kids 0 to 17 years old. All of these counties are in West Texas as well, right under the Panhandle, which is a very, very red part of Texas. One thing I want to touch on, too, before we move on, because I feel like it's important, RFK Jr., who is now at the helm of the Department of Health and Human Services, has long sown disparities. It's important to note the increase of autism has been proven to be caused by increasing awareness and screening for the condition, changing definitions of autism to include milder conditions on the spectrum that weren't recognized in previous years, as well as advances in diagnostic technology. So this, the increase of measles that he keeps arguing about and people freak out about, which is probably why. 17 percent of parents have said they have, they have skipped their daily delayed vaccine dose in their children is because people are afraid that this could happen to them. And it's not the case. Autism has increased because of other reasons, not because of the vaccine. What a, what a fun packed episode. My gosh. Crazy. All right. Bring us some lighter news. Speaking of fun. So there was a real Life in Geppetto, you guys. I mean, do you remember Pinocchio when his father gets swallowed by a whale? Yes. There was an incident last week off the coast of Chilean Patagonia. Adrian Simancas and his father were both kayaking and a humpback whale surfaced. Swallowed Adrian and his kayak, then literally, like, spit him out. Obviously, Adrian was terrified. Adrian had, said he was more scared after he was released, worried for the safety of his father, because he had no clue whether his father was in danger or not. I mean, I know, I know, this is not necessarily light news, because it is kind of scary. But it's also really funny. His father actually has a video of the entire incident, so it's all on camera. It is worth a watch. I highly suggest going and finding it because it is unreal. What's ironic is to which I find funny. The guy, Adrian. He looks like a younger version of cartoon Geppetto. Geppetto was Pinocchio's dad. He looks like a younger version of him. Not even kidding. Also, could you imagine saying you survived being swallowed by a humpback whale? I mean, Mind blown. I'm kind of jealous of this whole situation. I remember a story like this coming out? Uh, well, this is the first, I believe the first time it's ever been caught on video because there was a story, um, several years ago about a guy off the, he was scuba diving off the coast of New England, I think off of New Hampshire, and he was literally swallowed by a whale, but it spit him out, but he never got a video of it, but he had the story, you know? So I did see the video. It was really neat. I wonder if it was the same whale. Cool. I guess. It is a really weird video video. It's scary. But yeah, obviously the whale didn't know what it was doing, I'm sure. But in other news, egg heists. Egg heists are a thing. That is the craziest double word I can think of matching and it's actually real. Egg heists. Eggs have been, obviously we all know this. At a record price lately due to the threat of bird flu, there are some restaurants, especially breakfast places that are starting to add surcharges per egg. We're talking like if you want to order like two eggs, it's like 70 cents per egg. The cost of eggs is up about 50 percent from last year. You can't blame the surcharges. I don't think I would be upset about it because I obviously want to support a business, but businesses have to stay in business and so they have to do those things. A diner in Ohio. Per the New York Times article that I'd seen said that a week cost of eggs typically cost them 300 bucks. Now this diner, it cost them 1, 000 a week. Well, the cost of eggs has now led to two different egg heists. One happened a couple weeks back in Pennsylvania. I don't know if anyone remembers hearing about this, but thieves stole a hundred thousand eggs, totaling about 40, 000. Making it a heist off a distribution trailer. Then in Seattle, 540 eggs were stolen in the early morning hours from a cafe that that was caught on camera, but none of the perpetrators have been caught egg handed yet. And I mean, these stories are kind of comedic, but I mean, we are living in crazy times. We're talking about people being swallowed by whales. We started a podcast because of it. So yeah, I agree. All right. Well, um, that's, that's all we got for you today. Um, I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week. Stay warm. Give us a follow on Instagram at the civil you that is just with the letter you and, uh, feel free to send us an email letting us know your thoughts, questions, what we got wrong, or anything we should discuss, um, at the civil union 25. at gmail. com. Have a good one guys. Thanks guys.