The Rufus and Craig Show
The Rufus and Craig Show is a candid podcast centered on real conversations about culture, leadership, work, and everyday life. Hosted by Rufus and Craig, the show offers honest dialogue, thoughtful perspectives, and moments of humor without the noise or performative debate. Each episode explores current issues, personal experiences, and ideas that shape how we navigate the world. The goal is simple: meaningful conversation that makes you think and keeps it real.
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The Rufus and Craig Show
Travel Trouble and Economic Shifts
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This episode covered everything from travel disasters to economic uncertainty and major cultural headlines. We opened with ABC7NY’s coverage of Hantavirus before discussing Spirit Airlines passenger luggage issues, airline loyalty programs, Delta cutting snack service on short flights, and shocking aviation incidents involving United and Frontier Airlines. We also talked about McDonald’s removing self-service drink stations, Walmart scaling back self-checkout due to theft, and reports showing more people are leaving the United States than moving into the country. In our “Wow” segment, we discussed countries projected to disappear by 2100 and New Orleans continuing to sink. We closed with sports updates on Stefon Diggs being found not guilty, Deion Sanders celebrating his children graduating college, and nine former NFL players now working as Jacksonville police officers.
Health officials now suspect the first victim to contract the virus picked it up in Argentina before getting on that ship. In mid-March, he visited a landfill during a bird watching tour, and officials suspect he contracted it for rodents. He likely infected his wife. There are now a total of 11 suspected cases, including a KLM flight attendant now quarantined with mild symptoms. Officials say she had contact with the first victim's wife who died a day after the flight, with 82 passengers and six crew members from that flight now being tracked by the World Health Organization. The WHO says a Swiss man who returned home tested positive for Hontavirus yesterday. He remains hospitalized.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Welcome to the Rufus and Craig Show, everybody. I'm your wonderful host, Craig, and there is Rufus. Nonetheless, everybody, we're happy to have you all here today. We got a great show lined up for you. We're excited to be with you this week. Um, it's been a lot going on. And when I say a lot going on, it's really been a lot going on. If you paid attention to social media, um, you know, it's just been a thing. And so, all things considered, we're all trying to hang in there. And what you just heard was ABC 7 that's out of New York, really mentioning what's going on in the world. Um, everybody's kind of wondering, is this the second round of COVID in the form of a what is it, Hunter virus is the name of it. And so I said, you know, for me, I'm not one to be afraid of sitting alone, but you know, such is life, such it is, and and and being on lockdown, I think with the way everything is going right now, we actually might need some time alone. Um might be averse to that. For those of you, I'm I'm sure you'll find your way to cities like Atlanta that stayed open during COVID-19. Um, I'm trying to think of what other cities were open during that time, but I know Atlanta was the hot spot. I didn't really hear too much about Miami, but nonetheless, all things constant, we know it was a big thing. And so keep yourself safe as much as possible and avoid any contact with people that you don't know, but that's gonna be hard to do because we don't live in the world alone. One thing that's happening is what travel. So I wanted to make sure we started the show with the um those of us who like to go on cruises. I myself have gone on a cruise. It was back in October, my partner and I went to celebrate his sister's uh 50th birthday, and that was actually Carnival Cruise, and it was really nice. And I don't remember in my adult years ever doing a cruise by myself, but I mean not by myself, but really going on a cruise, and I do remember motion sickness. So if you're like me, drama mean is gonna be your best friend. Um and yeah, it's just it works, it works. And kind of as a follow-up story to what we did last week with Spirit Airlines, you know, I remember looking at some of the stories. Um, and one thing that we don't consider when flights are canceled, where the hell are your bags? And I remember coming across this story in particular where a lady said, Hey, my bag is gone. You know, she had five bags. She was actually going, I believe, from Miami. That may have been a connecting flight, Miami down to Columbia. And I think, did I fly spirit to Columbia from Philadelphia? I'm unsure. I very well could have, not sure. But nonetheless, you know, we have to be in constant meditation for ourselves, but also those that are, you know, in transition. You know, this lady said five bags, that was pretty much her life. I guess she was moving back home, going back to Columbia. And so, all things considered, it just didn't work out. She said she was pretty much standard, stranded, not standard, but stranded at the airport. And I think one thing Rufus and I talked about, it may have been even yesterday, the uh loyalty points program. Um, I forgot what company, I can't think of the name of it, but they said they were going to allow them to actually keep um their loyalty points. The loyalty points. And continuing on with that, Rufus, did you have anything to add in regards to Spear? And everybody saying, Well, I once was a Spear Airlines pilot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that shit is stupid. Like, if you were actually a pilot, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be creating an AI picture of you in a pilot's uniform with a spirit badge on. Like, you're not gonna get if your plan is to get a job at another airline as a pilot, this is this is just not gonna happen. You have to verify all that experience. So I think this is stupid, but that's just you know, my little potential thing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and one airlines that's scaling back, and this kind of touches on you know, we talk about the economic impacts of things that are going on right now. Um, Delta Airlines is no longer offering snack service on trips 350 miles or less. And one thing I would tell you when I've flown Delta and really any other airline, and it wasn't that it was even within 350 miles, they were doing that water stuff, and it wasn't due to turbulence because you know they'll come on the mic and say, Hey, we're not gonna do our in-flight service today. We want to make sure we keep the flight attendants safe. And all things considered, you know, they may be able to come down, do a water. I think it's is it water, tea, and coffee?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you and usually it's for flights that are a certain amount of like a shorter distance, like less than an hour. Usually they'll they'll just serve water, whatever, so they can get it done quick. But um, I think that's the same case for Delta right now with that new policy they implemented.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, they they they've been not serving snacks, if I may say. I I think it's seriously, I'd be like, okay, but it's not turbulence, you know.
SPEAKER_02I've always had snacks unless it was one of those shorter flights.
SPEAKER_01And who do you mostly fly?
SPEAKER_02Southwest or Delta.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I'll write it. But who do you mostly fly?
SPEAKER_02Southwest right now.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So, you know, I think that's the bubbly fun company until they got last for these. What? What is it? Um, oh my goodness. What is it called? Um, the seat stuff, right? Then they they're coming like under fire with the the guy came and said this isn't a real business class, there's no curtain, it's just supposedly it's definitely not a real they don't they don't even call it business class, it's just like water seating at the front of the plane.
SPEAKER_02There you go. But yeah, they have a sign seating now. I think they started that in January.
SPEAKER_01He said it wasn't worth it. So for those of you that's his opinion who are frequent Southwest, and and shout out to um a dear friend of mine and and one of the sponsors for the show, the sponsor Meet You Builders LLC. Thank you for your um support, sir. Um, you know, nonetheless, he's connected to Southwest Airlines in a way as well. And yeah, good opportunity and and keeping it in line with what the hell is going on in the air and travel. I don't know if you saw this story, I'm sure you did. I saw this guy, I was a black guy like a box truck or a tractor trailer, um, attempting to deliver, he wasn't delivering hell, he was on, it had to be 95. And a United Airlines plane hit a light pole, which in turn, the light pole hit his truck during the landing in Newark. And and one thing I would tell you, living in the great city of Philadelphia is great to somebody. Um, and going to New York, you pass by the Newark Airport and you see the planes, and they do come close to the ground. And that the the beauty of this, you know, everybody has a camera in their car, people have cell phones out at any given time. And and Rufus has done his time. Um, thank you for your service to our country. So he's very familiar with with airlines and things of that nature. But they were flying low, man, and it just, you know, the guy was like, Oh, I don't think he cussed. He didn't say Jesus either, but he was like, Oh, I don't think he thought it was a goner, but he survived, he got minor injuries, and everybody was like, Oh, yeah. The United Airlines.
SPEAKER_02Was this LaGuardia or DFW? It was United.
SPEAKER_01No, it was Newark. It was Newark, Newark, New Jersey. He was going over 95, and the the the um, I guess the wheels, I don't know if it was the tail of the plane, I don't know. Something hit a light pole, and that in turn hit that guy's that guy's truck.
SPEAKER_02So did you hear about the incident in Denver?
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. And Denver, yeah. So someone breached the fence and walked onto an active runway where a frontier airlines flight was taken off, not sure where they were going, not important. And you know, and they the person got is it ingested? They got sucked into the engine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think part, yeah, I think they got hit and then they got sucked into the engine, at least at least partially. Ooh, okay.
SPEAKER_01And the thing about phones, you know, they tell us what get what do they tell you when you de-plane or or if it's an emergency landing, leave your bags behind. Same thing. And these people didn't look like Rufus and I. And if you did not know, shout out to everybody in South Africa. We appreciate you listening. Um, can't wait to come back and visit you again in Cape Town. But nonetheless, we're black, and so I didn't see any black people, but I saw a lot of cell phone footage. I saw a lot of people with bags, and so I don't think they necessarily follow directions when deep planning in that emergency situation. But one thing I would tell you is I don't know if it was either on threads or Twitter. They show it was like bloody, and it just, you know, I think someone reported even seeing limbs out there. Didn't see any limbs, but you could see the person was whatever happened. Is that called a turbine? Turbine?
SPEAKER_02Turbine, the engine, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That thing, yeah. That that thing, um, yeah. It wasn't the the best thing. And also, somebody had an inside view of that where they were kind of, you know, you record. Well, Rufus don't do that, he don't really care for planes. The inside and fly, he's not a good flyer, like I'm not a good rider in cars. I get sick. But nonetheless, somebody was recording their takeoff, and that's when you start a boom. I'm hoping it's true because we see a lot of people pulling old videos, and it's not necessarily relevant to the current news cycle, but I'm gonna ride and say that that was real um with their frontier. So, yeah, Rufus, that that's a lot.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, that definitely was real.
SPEAKER_01Oh, oof, just wow. Just could not imagine that and can only whoo okay. Well, that's that's interesting. And we'll take this time and roll right into our economy section here. Rufus, you know, you're different from me in that when I go to, and it's probably only one restaurant or what will be considered fast food, uh, well, really all of them, I get out the car, I don't do drive-through service, and I've noticed that this has been happening well before it's kind of like been announced. Um, McDonald's has been removing all self-service drink stations.
SPEAKER_02Why? Because the people have been filling up and they don't want to spend their money to buy new extra sodas or whatever.
SPEAKER_01You know what? I'm unsure. I think it's just to cut costs, right?
SPEAKER_02Uh almost to me, it almost goes along the same lines as Walmart having all those self-checkout things and then run it rolling back on it because people are stealing.
SPEAKER_01You know what? That is true. They are going back, they really are still in Walmart. Is doing that, I think it said something about 650 stores, but does that mean that humans get to come back and get those jobs again?
SPEAKER_02I would assume so, because how else are you gonna let somebody check out without either the either or either of the two?
SPEAKER_01Wow. I remember South Jackson when I lived in Jackson, Mississippi. There was a Walmart there, of course, right? Um, and this it wasn't the richest area um in the city of Jackson, but there were like 50 of those self-service registers. So it'll be interesting to see that come back because that's the chance that that could be, you know, 25 jobs in the event that people could come and run those cash registers. So I think that'll be good for communities, definitely, such as that.
SPEAKER_02Uh I would only advocate for Walmart to pay those people more than what the minimum wage is or whatever, they need to pay them more.
SPEAKER_01Walmart don't get paid?
SPEAKER_02Hell no, not unless you're a manager.
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, I yeah, they do make good as a manager, right? I think I've heard something similar to that.
SPEAKER_02And it's actually the store manager, not like a department manager. The store managers make good money, but you gotta the store manager has a lot of job responsibilities as well. So it's understandable that they make a lot of money. But the regular people that were working at Walmart, no, absolutely not.
SPEAKER_01Oh, wow. I did not know that. So I know they had that manager to your point training program, because I think about some of the people, I think it was those agribusiness degrees. Those people could go work for Walmart to eat the Sams Club right after college, and this was many years ago. And $50,000 10, 15 years ago, I would think would be a lot of money. Definitely not today, unless you live in, you know, the middle of nowhere, Iowa, I guess. Um, you know, where the cost of living is very, very low. Um, I I guess that $50,000 wouldn't be um, you know, yeah. It it wouldn't be. So, you know, shout out to everybody. We know you're cutting back, and we know that um, second to that, I remember reading the United States. Um, we pretty much are seeing the most like a mass exodus of people. The most people are leaving now, then coming into the United States, and this has not been um occurring since the Great Depression. So, shout out to everybody that has made the decision for themselves and their family or families to say, you know what, we're gonna try something different during this time. It is not to just talk about was it Roseanne Barr? Was it Ellen that left? Didn't Ellen she left.
SPEAKER_02No, I was talking about Rosie O'Donnell.
SPEAKER_01Oh, who is Roseanne Barr? Oh, the racist, the fake ambient.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, she's a comedian that had a TV show from the in the 90s and also in the in the in the 2020s or 10s, I guess. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it says that people are leaving. We're they're not staying here. Those people are getting the fuck on down. And uh, I think we've talked about this before in past episodes, but it just ain't the best place to be right now. Um, definitely not from a political view, and that's where we'll save that for uh another episode on another day. And so one story that I did come by, and I know Rufus loves to travel, I love to travel, and I remember this was years ago, where someone was saying, Well, you know, the Maldives will not be the Mal, is it Mal Dives or Maldives?
SPEAKER_02I think it's the Maldives.
SPEAKER_01Okay, Maldives. So I ran across this and it said that there will be, so we don't want that, right? Um, there are countries that will disappear. Yeah, yeah. Oh, because of the water levels, yeah. By 2100, according to the United Nations, these are the countries that will disappear. So Bangkok, Thailand, the Maldives, is that what you just said? Mao D's. Shout out to Laquanda, she's actually there right now. I saw that on Instagram, so she's actually taking in that Miami, the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Venice, Italy. I don't know what this is. T-U-V-A-L-U. Tuvalu.
SPEAKER_02That sounds Russian. Okay.
SPEAKER_01It's like just a strip of land. Look at that. You see that?
SPEAKER_02Is it in Russian?
SPEAKER_01Uh Fiji. It's about Fiji. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It says gonna be fully submerged. Don't know how to say this. Kiribati. This is an island. Um yeah. But anyway, they're saying they're gonna be gone. If we zeroed in closer to home, um one thing that we have known, and and this has been a David, devastated, not devastated, but a devastated area for quite some time. And and I was there, oh gosh, twice, like back to back um weekly. And one thing is said, um, Tulane University has done a study um that is one Louisiana's vanishing coastline is past the point of no return. So those who live in New Orleans, they are telling you to get the fuck out and start moving north.
SPEAKER_02I was literally waiting on you to say New Orleans. Like I knew you said countries, but then you also said Miami. So I was waiting on you to say New Orleans in there. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that that other folks that did listen, it was United States, but they pointed out the city of Miami. You're right, you're right. So, yeah, they're telling um residents, you all need to freaking relocate. So I know, and it was odd, I stayed in that Hilton um hotel that's right off, I think it's called Hilton Riverside, and I think they have like the it's a mall attached to it. What's that mall in New Orleans? It's got like maybe some luxury stores in there, maybe not, like some outlets, but nonetheless, yeah, if you're on the ground level, the water is already above your head. Aren't those called levees? Yes, yeah, whatever that bordering thing, it's already the water give or take 10 feet. So I can just imagine with time something else coming in and it just kind of woo!
SPEAKER_02Take it about you know, all the ice caps is melting too, so that's probably gonna was making the water level rise.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But we don't need, I mean, it's probably more salt water, which is we need more fresh water, but hey, I guess we can't do nothing about that.
SPEAKER_01There we go, there we go. And as we round off our show, um, I know it's been heavy with a lot of transportation woes. We're talking about virus potentially coming back, and then states and countries actually being submerged by water due to bad decisions um of humans since they you know they didn't believe Al Gore years ago when he talked about global warming.
SPEAKER_02They didn't believe him.
SPEAKER_01Yep, but here we are. So Stefan Diggs found not guilty for those charges against his personal chef, you know. And I don't know, did you see some of those clips? Did I send them to you? No. Oh my goodness, sister. She's a 41-year-old with a BBL, and she claimed to have been his chef and friend of four years, and she there was a lot going on with her testimony. At one point, the judge herself had even gotten on to her. It was just a lot going on with that case. Um, and it only lasted two days. They wrapped it up really quick, so it wasn't a Diddy situation. So um, so I won't say shout out to him because he's facing another charge with a male accuser for sexual harassment. And more recently, like as of yesterday, uh, he and Cardi B were celebrating with, I think it's his um, what is that? That his his nonprofit, some kind of foundation, he was celebrating mothers in the Washington, D.C. area, and she was there and joined him. And people were saying that, hey, maybe she came back around because his ass was found. What? Not guilty because she did put some separation.
SPEAKER_02I definitely thought they broke up. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, they they back. They back, they back. Um, and I found this other story too. Nine former NFL players are actually Jacksonville, Florida police officers. They named five in the um article, but they did not disclose the names of the other four, or it could be the reverse. Four or five, whichever. But yeah, so it's good to see there's a life after the NFL for those who still have um uh well, what can we say? Movement in their bodies, like they can, because you know, I've seen people in wheelchairs, people are dying early deaths. We we say early, but you know, post-NFL career. But these brothers are out there and they're working, man. So shout out to you all for serving your community and and and doing something um, I guess positive with yourself and contributing to society. What do you have any thoughts on that, Rufus?
SPEAKER_02No, sir. You know, I'm not a big sports guy, so I don't, you know, I don't have much to add to that. It'll be it won't it won't be anything significant.
SPEAKER_01Understandable, understandable. And the last story, um I was actually at the school um when prime entered the the college sports space. Um and so shout out to uh Deion Sanders as two of his children, I think it's the younger two, Shiloh with with his, is this the second wife, Pilar? Um, you have Shiloh, uh, who graduated from Jackson State University, I think maybe in 2024, or is he the 24 or 23? Might have been 23. I think he graduated in 23. Um, but this past week, um, Shador Sanders, who is was the quarterback um for the uh Cleveland Browns, um he uh graduated with a sociology degree from the University of Colorado, and as of yesterday, his um baby girl, youngest child, um Shalomai Sanders graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Sports Management from Alabama AM University. That's my alma mater. I'm proud of her. So he's got two HBCU graduates, but even with those kids from Pilar, the three of them have finished a college degree. So shout out to Pilar as well as to Dion Sanders. And um, you know, congrats to her. Yep, absolutely. Well, we had a short show for you all today. Uh, Rufus got to get to bed and I gotta get to the bar because I got some things to do uh at the top of next week. But we always enjoy you all. We look forward to tuning in and sharing our thoughts on what's going on in the news and media. Have a great day. Bye. Bye.