The Scott Adams School - 05/22/26 The Home Team w/ Jeff Callahan. So much news on Fun Friday.

It was my fault.

I mean, it kind of was actually, but it was a happy fault. You guys, welcome! Let's let everybody get in. Owen's just parking the car. And look, this is our friend Jeff Callahan.

Woohoo! Hey, how's it going?

Oh, I just threw my ring across the room.

That's Jeff. That's Erica over there. If I can—

it's Friday, y'all. It's Friday. Good morning. Okay, so Owen's parking, so I think in the meantime, if he doesn't mind and you guys don't mind, let's just get our sip in before he gets here because I am just so anxious for my coffee today. Let's go.

And you came to the right place. Chances are you came prepared. You might have everything you need. The rest of you better hurry up and grab what you need. And what you need is, well, a cup or a mug or a glass, a tank or chalice or stein, a canteen, jug, or flask, a vessel of any kind. Fill it with your favorite liquid. I like coffee. And join me now for the unparalleled pleasure, the dopamine hit of the day, the thing that makes absolutely everything better. It's called the simultaneous sip, and you're about to experience it. Go! Ah, and with that sip, feel yourself connected to people all over the world who are enjoying this Periscope simultaneously.

All right, and with that, Owen is not joining today. I just saw a note in the chat. We'll miss him. Owen, have fun today. At work. Okay, so you guys, I want to introduce you to Jeff. I posted about, um, Jeff on X the other day and asked you to give him a follow. He's @TheJeffCallahan. And Jeff was so— we met for the first time the other night, and you came on a subscribers-only stream on Scott Adams' channel on Locals. We had a good time. We did a lot of Spencer talk and all of that good stuff. And you should know that Jeff has his own show he does on X. Right before this one. So he was kind enough to end his show a little bit early today and come on over here so he could join live with us. So, Jeff, I really want everybody to know, you know, what your connection to Scott is, how far back it goes, and tell that story.

Yeah, like we talked about on the local stream. So my, my backstory is I, I was a big Dilbert fan as a kid. As I'm sure a fair amount of you guys are too. So I remember being like 10 years old, getting the, the Dilbert book where Scott wrote his notes underneath the comics, and I obsessed over that book. Like, I loved it. It was like my favorite, my favorite possession, mainly because I, I'd never seen anything like that where the artist was detailing what they thought about the, the comic that they were writing. And so I love that. And, uh, and so fast forward, you know, 2015, uh, I started watching Scott Adams, uh, that summer when he started doing Periscopes. And, uh, shout out to all, to all the, the OGs that, uh, were Periscope people back in the day. And, uh, you know, was a simultaneous sipper and still am. I You know, it's been going on 11 years now. And so that's my connection to Scott, you know, and he was truly just good, good people, as they say.

Absolutely.

You know, it's kind of crazy, like having— being a fan of the art earlier in life and being a fan of Scott later in life. And so, yeah, things work out that way.

And aren't you so glad that both things met your expectations and exceeded them?

Yeah, met and exceeded.

You know, like sometimes you see a celebrity and you're like, oh my God, I love this actor so much. And then you meet them and then you're like, oh, okay, and we're done. Happens all the time, right, Marcel?

Most of the time.

They also look very different in real life.

Oh yeah.

Like they look a lot skinnier in real life than they do on camera.

The camera adds 10 pounds. I'm always like, just realized I have 7 cameras on me right now. So you guys, I didn't even say my name is Erica. Marcella's here and we have Jeff. Owen's off today and you are at the Scott Adams School. And you guys, did you enjoy yesterday if you were here with Gad Saad? I mean, that was so fun, I have to say. And I hope you guys are, you know, considering if you haven't purchased his book or any of his books, or you haven't— maybe you got, uh, Suicidal Empathy and not The Parasitic Mind. And he has so many books that They're all amazing. So, um, he's, he's a great, a great guy, author. I'm so happy we got great feedback. So thank you so much, um, and thank you everyone for being so good in the chat. Um, so first I want to just say, um, I don't know much about this, but, uh, Kyle Busch died. He's the NASCAR driver at 41 years old, and I mean, it was like pretty sudden. He got sick. I have a clip of him, I think it's last week. Here he is. Yeah, Kyle Busch, your 69th victory in this series, your 5th right here. Why do these moments never get old, Kyle?

Because you never know when the last one is, you know. So, uh, I know all too well, unfortunately, with, um, the Cup stuff, but, um, you know, here with the truck stuff right now is, um, it's awesome just to be a part of Spire Motorsports Of course, thanks to Jeff and Dan and Mr. H for the opportunity. HendrickCars.com. I'm sure it looked great out front leading the race, and it wasn't just Kyle Larson doing it. So, um, you know, feels like— feels good to have another Kyle being able to do it and putting ourselves in victory lane. So, uh, love coming to Dover, always one of my favorite places to race.

Ah, that's— you know, like, how many times you hear people say that? You know, you just don't know when the the last one will be. So I think it was complications from pneumonia, I believe, is what it was. Yeah. So, you know, we just say rest in peace. Um, you know, NASCAR is fun. It's got a huge community, huge fans. So I'm sure they're feeling that today.

And he has such young kids, you know. It's so sad to see. Yeah. But, um, wish, wish well to his family. Condolences.

Yeah.

Okay, so I have a fun update for you. Look who was playing golf. Gary.

Oh, Gary.

There's little Gary.

He's such a model.

Oh, you want to see? Oh, well, here's another little model for you.

Hang on. Roman.

Little Roman. Now this is what— So Roman has like this necklace around him. Like, see, like in the lower collar, he's got like a bigger necklace. That's Roman. And Gary said, "Wait a minute, how about this?" And so Gary gave us a little tongue sticking out action. And you guys all recognize that indoor putting green. That's at Scott Adams' house. And then Roman, just because, you know, fair is fair, we have to have two of each.

Aww.

Look at that.

Good little boys over there.

Stalking her. Yeah, they seem like best friends.

They are. And they have— we, we mentioned before, they have two dogs now as siblings. Two big, um, I want to say they're Goldens. They're like white Goldens, and they're obsessed. So that's your Gary and Roman update. They're doing great, you guys. They're doing great. It's so nice that we care. We do. They're doing great. Um, so you guys, so it's Friday, and we're gonna just have like a little hodgepodge of fun. Um, And Marcella, there's— I think there's one story that you wanted to get right into. Um, I'm gonna— I'm just gonna have you go first, so I'll just zip it for a minute. But tell us one of your fun stories for the day.

Well, we'll start with the fun science story, uh, in honor of Owen. Um, so you don't want to grow old, don't you? Nobody wants to grow old. So What do you do? You drink—

let me guess, what do you think?

Coffee? I'm sure it's coffee.

Is it coffee?

If you insist.

Yes, you guys are so— oh my gosh, you're on the spot. If you don't want to grow old, you drink coffee. But not only that, you have fruit that could be the answer to, um, you looking young. If you eat dark fruit and drink 1 cup of coffee a day, uh, it can slow the body aging process. So there was a study, of course, um, and First Post talked about it, and the research was for polyphenol-rich foods. As you know, uh, dark fruits, berries, apples, and 1 cup of coffee— that's a polyphenol. The University of Navarra studied over 1,700 adults. And, uh, what do you think, um, what do you think Scott Adams would have said? Imagine Jeff would know.

About, about this study. Like, you could have just asked, just ask Scott Adams or any of us.

You know, we still, after what, 11 years almost of listening to Scott Adams and drinking coffee with him, we look just as young, don't we?

We haven't changed a bit.

We have not aged.

I think the chat, Marcela, is worried. Is it just one cup or at least one cup? I think you can have one cup of coffee.

You can have more.

Look at you jumping.

How many gallons can you, can you drink before you start aging backwards?

Oh, no limit. No, I'm just kidding. Disclosure, this is not, uh, we're not a doctor. I'm not a doctor. My legal disclosure.

So we're doing something right, you guys. Just keep drinking the coffee is the answer. And I'm gonna be changing my coffee habit soon. You guys are convincing me I've got to stop with all the the sugar in my coffee. I'm gonna work on it. Not today or tomorrow, but soon. Okay, um, so I, I actually, I feel like this was some fun AI story, and I want to warn you men and women out there, you never know who you're talking to. And, and also, I want to say this again, men and women, listen, you know how you're always trying to like achieve the impossible look. Oh, I don't look like her. These people with filters and this and that, like, stop it, okay? Because this could be the person you're talking to. Ich weiß, ich seh täuschend echt aus, vor allem für die ältere Generation. Aber ich bin nur ein Prompt, der beliebig geändert werden kann. Egal ob beim Autofahren oder im Badezimmer, alles fake. Ich kann mich manipulieren, wie ich will, und du bekommst es nicht mal mit. Wirklich niemand kann mehr zwischen KI und Realität unterscheiden. She's hot. She's hot. They were all hot. Is that nuts?

I mean, literally, is that really you, Erica?

I mean, I'm really that guy, and I just, I go like with this average look just to, you know, be realistic.

Yeah, so I, I saw, um It was a YouTuber that he exposes scams. He's the guy with the Scottish accent. I think his name might be John. And he was on a call with someone who— he was on a video call with a scammer. And he kept trying to get the scammer to put two fingers in front of his face in between him and the webcam, because that would alter the AI face model that was plastered over the scammer's face. And It was funny because the scammer kept doing like he would do anything but have the two fingers over his face. And, and the guy's like, no, I want you to do it over your face. And he wouldn't do it.

Yeah.

And you could tell, just you could only tell extremely slightly at the hairline because it didn't quite match up. But it's kind of getting scary. Like, I joke with my friends and family, like there's going to come a day not too in the not too distant future where I'm going to go over to someone's house and like, have coffee with them and hang out and then like ask them for $5,000. And it was just a hologram the entire time because that's where scams are going. Uh, and so, man, I don't know, in the future, uh, I think we're going to be pretty well cooked.

Oh yeah. For those coming in late, this is Jeff Callahan. And you know what, Jeff, we didn't mention your book. He's a, a big Dilbert and Scott Adams, um, student, and he wrote a book called Confidence Maxing. Why don't you give them a quick, uh, Yeah.

So I wrote this book, Confidence Maxing, and I have a gigantic poster in the background just in case you forget what the book looks like. Its main purpose is to make you more socially confident. So I am a communication coach by trade and I work with clients from tech companies mainly, like think your Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, like the FAANG and the Mag Seven crowd. But I also work with startups and startup founders and that kind of thing. And the book's main, main purpose is to make you more competent and confident, limit— to help you talk to yourself like a friend, tell better stories, talk about yourself more confidently. And wrote that and released it in earlier this year, and it's already an Amazon bestseller. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty happy with it.

Good for you already.

They can get it, they can get it on Amazon.

Yeah, it's on Amazon. It's on Audible. Uh, and, uh, uh, if you're an audiobook person, I hired this great guy named Lyle Blaker who did an even better job reading it than I could, and I was incredibly impressed.

Awesome.

And, uh, I was just gonna ask, I'm an audiobook person personally.

Yeah.

Oh, so we'll, you know what, we'll link it, um, after the show when we repost the show. Yeah, for sure. All right, so check that out, you guys. Um, okay, so I thought that was crazy, but keeping, just keeping with this theme for one more second. You guys always remind me if I forget to turn the music down, but I can't— see, I don't really want to turn the music down because the sound effects going on are so good. So we're gonna, we're gonna go up and down, but God bless.

Look at this, up and down, are we?

Oh, the robots. They're taking over. It's the sound of going up the steps. Watch, it's like, oh, oh, if I was a robot. And the crowd's so quiet, it's just laying there like—

I think it's part of the show, maybe.

Now here comes his owner. He's like, oh, uh, sir, you've had too many drinks, it's time to go. We're going to just pull you out of here. Oh my God, that is amazing. I love that. It's like so Napoleon Dynamite. I just think that's so funny. So I'm not overly scared yet of the robots we can build yet. If that's—

Well, at least you have— dancers have a safety net, the safe for work, because robots can't compete against real dancers.

No. Well, for now. All right. So yeah, so dancers, you're safe for now.

Yeah, I think I covered— I think I mentioned this on a live show. I was like, we need to only build robots that are smaller, weaker, and more clumsy than us.

Yeah.

Like, imagine I'm a sucker for the Terminator movies, and so I like Terminator jokes and Terminator movies. And so imagine the future instead of these like really big, scary skeleton robots. It's just like kind of a bumbling robot in an oversized t-shirt trying to chase you through, through the ruins of a city. Like, you're like, go, I think I could do that, that sounds fun.

I love that. Um, all right, so Marcella, give us, uh, give us another one of your stories. You had a few picked out.

So we have a 50/50 issue. Um, daylight savings. Do we change it? Do we keep how we have our system? So President Trump announced yesterday legislation to advance to make permanent daylight savings time through the Sunshine Protection Act and demands Congress to make it law. And basically he talked to— he talked about it at the White House in the Oval Office, and he said, you know, some people don't like it, some people like it. He talked about the cost to hundreds of millions of dollars to change those big clocks, you know, any city, state local government. We all have to do it, you know, our phones change. But there's sometimes if you have an— if you have a stove and, uh, it's an older one like mine, I sometimes just keep it there, like I don't change it. But there's times where I get confused about time anyways.

Um, so I know so many people that believe their stove clock, it's— or the one in their car, they're like, I don't know how to do it.

Or the one in their car. So he, he actually noted that it be a winning issue for a Republican Party. And he said, take it. It's a win we need to take. You know, kind of like Scott Adams would say, it's free money. You pick up free money. Uh, we're going with the far more popular alternative, Save Daylight, uh, which gives you a longer, brighter day. And who can be against that? This is an easy one. Thank you to everybody who supported the bill, he says, and specifically Chairman Brett Guthrie and Bern— Buchanan, and it passed the committee 48 to 1. Right now it's at the House. Um, it might reach the, the big boat today, might reach the, um, the floor eventually. But basically, you know, it's— he's gonna make it happen. How many, how many people have said that they're gonna do this and they don't do it?

Roger, I like your idea of fall back only a half hour, then keep it that way. It's a compromise.

Yeah, what's the difference? The half hour becomes becomes the, you know, just the regular.

I'm confused enough. I'm confused. Like, just do it. Just do it. Like, I think it annoys people more than not. And I don't believe it's 50/50. I think it's got to be more. I mean, who doesn't want a lighter, brighter, longer day? I mean, I keep my Christmas tree up, you guys, until March because I'm trying to trick myself. I put the little lights on every night and then I— because like, if I take it down right after Christmas or the New Year, then you're like, okay, now I'm just sitting in the dark, you know, through the winter. But I trick myself and I pretend I'm still in the holiday season and the little twinkle lights are on. And then in March when I take it down, I'm like, oh, look, it's so much lighter earlier now. So I feel like if they could do, do this for me, then I can take my tree down like, you know, mid-January. That— so it's for me at this point.

Yeah, I, I always think about how, uh, when, when it's time to fall back you always feel— well, at least for me, it's like, oh no, like we're gonna fall back and then it's gonna get darker. And then by the time it's, you know, depending on what part of the country you're in, you know, it's 4:59 and it's already getting dark and you're like, oh no.

Like, I know, at like 6 o'clock I'm like, is it time for bed? I'm like, what, it's 6 o'clock?

The animals get confused too. They're like, we want food. I'm like, no.

Where are you, Jeff, again? What part of the country?

I'm in Arkansas, so that's right. Oh, if you're, if you're really in far in the north, uh, like in Minnesota, I believe the argument is like just because the curvature of the Earth, uh, now I'm gonna get out in front of my skis, but it's gonna get dark at a different time, you know, uh, and, and, uh, I'm in favor of light. Like, it's, it's easy to be in favor of light.

Yeah, so the age golden. So you're saying the Earth is round, Jeff? Is that what you're trying to say?

He is.

Actually donut-shaped, and there's just a swimming pool.

Oh yeah, that would be amazing.

Introduce new conspiracy theories that no one's ever even thought of.

I like it. So the Earth is a donut and there's a big giant pool in the middle. Yeah, and that pool is a Carnival cruise ship.

Okay, yeah, that's where all the cruise ships go.

Yes, right, right, right. Okay, um, I love that. All right, so you guys, I want to get to a little bit more serious news if you don't mind. Oh no, I don't. One more thing, one more thing. Not that I don't, but yeah, Marcella was talking the other day about how DC cleaned up that fountain. I was thinking it was a water fountain. It's a beautiful, like, step fountain. And I'm so happy this woman videoed because I have not seen DC like this in 8 million years. But take a look at this.

Yeah, I'm gonna dox myself because I'm moving, but I've lived near Meridian Hill Park in DC for almost 2 years now. And the water's never been in the pond there.

This has never happened before.

I was always too afraid to come here because of the homeless people, but they're all gone and it seriously looks like Paris. I mean, I've never seen this many people out here. I mean, look, everyone is enjoying it. Everybody. A year ago, Trump said he was going to clean up DC, and he did. It is clean, it's calm, it's quiet, except for the Chipotle down in Navy Yard apparently this weekend, but I wasn't there for that. The homeless are out, the birds are chirping, the water is in the ponds, the fountains are working. Thank you, Mr. This is the benefit of having a construction man as your president.

Amen. The birds were chirping, the water's in, people were sunbathing, hanging out, taking selfies. I love that. And, um, and what was going on at the Chipotle at the Navy Yard? It was a teen takeover. Yeah.

So on the fountain thing, I, I watched that video and I think it's, it's really important. Like my soapbox is, and this is why I've gravitated towards covering Spencer Pratt a lot on my, on my live show, is that people need to feel safe outdoors.

Yeah.

Like this is, this is an incredibly basic thing. That you can't have, um, on a lower, on a lower Maslow's hierarchy of needs level, like, you got to be safe. Like, you got to be safe. And then maybe higher up, you fix the fountain and the fountain looks nice and people like to go and enjoy the area around the fountain so that they can talk to each other and have a better experience living in a city. Uh, and so for, for President Trump to, to actually go around and start fixing things up and, and taking care of some of the homeless problem in DC. You know, I know, I know he deployed the National Guard and things like that. It, it is a net positive for society. And I think this is why you, you also see stuff like Spencer Pratt and his campaign catching fire. Well, probably that's not the right way. That's not the right way to say it. That's the wrong way to say it. Getting a groundswell of attention because he's saying, I am going to fix the homeless and the drug problem, like he just had a 9-minute video that dropped yesterday about it, um, it is extremely hard to counter the argument of like, hey, I'm going to fix up your home and make you feel safe. There's no legitimate counterargument to that. It's impossible.

Democrats seem to make one, which is Trump. It's like, don't go out there. Don't— yeah, then don't go use it. Don't go sit by the fountain. Now, Marcela, don't you think that with like the way D.C. looks now, you know, like Jeff saying people want to feel safe outside. And you know what else makes you safer? Longer periods of daylight. Yeah, right.

Mm.

Perfect connection.

So I have an idea. I want you guys to tell me what you think. Okay. I have an idea that could solve some jobs issues and help with crime issues. So in New Jersey, we do not pump our own gas. Okay, that's like the only flex I have for you. That's it. We don't pump our own gas. So I'm thinking, let's put out there that from now on you don't pump your own. You can have the option, like maybe one pump is for self-service, but let's hire people. So people need jobs. Let's hire people to pump gas at gas stations, um, that there should always be at least two people there. So I see so many crimes happening at these gas stations, and like, why wilding, and you're talking about fuel, like, you know, fuel. And then I always say to my friends that don't live in New Jersey, I'm like, aren't you scared when you go get gas? Even, you know, plugging in your car, Marcela, can be scary. Um, in my house, right? But, you know, like, you go to get gas. So, uh, I just asked my friend about this the other day. I'm like, so now what do you do? Do you like lock your car door when you get out to pump it? Like, aren't you afraid someone's gonna jump in your car or take your bag out of your car? Or, you know, people try to steal your your kids in the car. But seriously, like, it's really, really dangerous. So my thought was, let's stop with the pump your own gas, hire people at gas stations. It creates jobs, it'll create safety, and I think that— and also it'll be like a really nice feature, especially for people who are more vulnerable, older women, handicapped, whatever it is. I, I mean, I think it would just be a really good thing. Is anyone in on this with me? And can we make one of those little petitions that we send to the White House? I'll draft it, I'll post it, and will you guys sign it? That's my question.

Yeah, I'll sign it. Um, you know, it's funny, there's an understanding in my house, like, I'm, I'm the one that pumps gas for everything. Um, you know, oh, that's why. And I don't know if this is a controversial statement or not, but like, it's just a note, like, we, we live in a good area and, and we're outside, outside of the city, so Uh, the— our gas station is, is not exactly, you know, uh, a cesspool, but the, like, the thought process is, is like, I don't— like, my wife is in agreement with me on this. I don't let her go and pump gas because I'm happy to do that for her, right? Um, and she, she's fine with it too. Like, she enjoys it. Uh, but my thought is— and you're exactly right, Erica— when there's just a disproportionate amount of, of, uh probably shenanigans, we'll call them, that, that take place at gas stations at all hours. And right, uh, and so if you can, like, if you can do something to mitigate that and have it staffed, uh, just more eyes and having people observed changes behavior. And so I, I'm all for that because I think it, it would make those situations most likely, uh, safer.

It's funny, I'm, I'm guessing— so there's a lot of people that hate this And I'm so—

I personally don't like it because I don't like government being involved in what a gas station—

well, I shouldn't say government, but I mean, listen, you guys, I think a lot of it—

it's a great idea for gas stations, and they're doing it in California. There, there is— they're hiring security officers to patrol some gas stations in very, um, high-end places like Beverly Hills.

Well, there's— so there's teen takeovers. I mean, it's It's the same old BS. But a lot of you guys may not have a gas station near you that's not, you know, safe. But there's a lot of people that live in cities and areas that aren't safe. I mean, if you lived, you know, let's say in a, a wild neighborhood, but it's like that's your gas station and you're maybe a single mom or just a mom or a young girl who just got her license, I think you'd feel differently, um, for those people. And I'm not saying it has to be mandatory, you can still pump your own gas, but would be nice to have that full service thing. So it's so funny, everyone's like, no, I'll do my own gas. I'm like, God, have you ever had anyone pump your gas? It's delightful.

Um, I saw one comment that said, uh, don't pump gas on the ends. And like, I only ever pump gas on the end, so I guess I'm a target.

Oh really? Oh, I didn't know.

I don't know if that's— if that's a real thing, because I feel like you're gonna like when I pump gas, my protocol— and people can, can steal this— is don't look at your phone. Like, it sounds really basic, like, don't look at your phone. I put my back against the, you know, the vehicle, and then I just look— like, I look around constantly.

Okay, this is crazy.

And, and this should be, should be fairly common sense stuff, but where, as I talk about a little bit in, in the introduction of my book, The Algorithmic Vampires That Control Our Phones, um, Our phones are addicting for a reason. There's billions of dollars of tech infused into them, so you have to break that to just be aware of your surroundings, and it could literally save your life.

Mm-hmm. Um, so every— you know, a lot of people are like, no, gas prices will go up and this and that. Listen, our gas in New Jersey is not that high. When, like, you look at other places with higher gas, they don't have gas attendants, so I don't know. I personally like to pull up in my car. Maybe it's like a crappy day and I just crack my window a little bit. I'm like, hey, could you fill it with regular? And I slide my credit card to the guy and he hands it back to me. It's a delight. I'm still on my phone. I'm doing my thing. Maybe I'm filing my nails. I'm kidding. But yeah, Jersey gas is less expensive than PA, than Pennsylvania. So I, I, I like it for safety and for the economy, but I understand and I agree it shouldn't be like mandated, but It's a really good idea. Maybe, you know, state-by-state governors could think about that. But even Jeff, you know, Jeff's a man. He's like, well, I make sure I stand with my back to the car and I keep looking around. Like, that's crazy, you know? And all my girlfriends don't go at night.

And I've never been actually, at least to my knowledge, I've never been targeted. But who knows if that was just in California. I'm not going to— I'm not going to go after the guy that's constantly looking around. I'm going to find someone easier. Um, and so, you know, that might be part of it. But to your point, Erica, like growing up as a kid, we had full-service gas stations here. In fact, most of the, most of the, the gas stations were full-service, and, and self-serve didn't really become much of a thing until the mid-'90s maybe. Uh, and, you know, I remember riding with my mom and like she would do the same thing. She cracked the window, talked to the attendant because it was usually the same guy, and he would pump the gas and we would stay, stay in our car. And it kind of felt like a luxury. And so this, this was— I don't know how many states were only full service for a long time, but this is something that's, you know, 25, 30 years old, at least where I am.

Yeah. And so you guys, you know, for me with the business that I own, we fill up like 6 massive trucks at the gas station also. So for that, you know, we go to like a bigger gas station and the guys pump the— like, the, the station's like, go ahead and just, you know, do it yourselves. Um, but, you know, so they'll go pump the gas. But, you know, so there's obviously some people can just go do it, but it's just— I just think it's nice. I thought it solved two problems: safety and jobs. So it's just my, my little experiment. I love how, um, chitty-chatty it got though. That was kind of fun. All right, Marcello, you, you grab us a story.

So we, we talked about— I don't know if you have the video, but we talked about, um, Minnesota and Nick Shirley a while back ago regarding, uh, fraud.

So this is great, you guys.

Vice President came out regarding, regarding this fraud.

Okay, let's listen to our Vice President, then Marcela is going to take it at the end.

Just like all of you, I was shocked last December when I watched Nick Shirley's bombshell investigation of migrant fraud in Minnesota, which called attention to the now infamous Quality Leering Center instead of learning and other schemes across that state. This morning, the ringleader of the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud scheme in Minnesota was sentenced in federal court to over 40 years in prison, bringing justice to the countless schoolchildren and families she had scammed. And on top of that, today, federal law enforcement launched a massive raid in Minneapolis. Across the city, agents have arrested 15 people for suspected fraud that amounted to $90 million. This includes two of the largest Medicaid fraud cases in Minnesota history, as well as the largest autism fraud scheme ever charged by the U.S. federal government. With this action, we're bringing justice to some of America's most vulnerable citizens and justice to the American taxpayer. In 2018, Minnesota tried to provide housing services for the homeless. They estimated that the cost of the program would be $2.5 million a year. By 2024, the program had exploded to $104 million annually and almost all of that, almost all of it, was because of fraud. As a result, the state had to shut down the program and can no longer provide those services to Americans in need. So we've got homeless veterans sleeping on the streets because fraudsters got rich. But it's not just the homeless who are the victims of these fraudsters. The victims in the cases announced by DOJ today —also include disabled Americans who rely on community support to live full, independent lives. And citizens for whom defrauding such programs is literally a matter of life and death. In one of the most horrifying cases charged today, a recipient who needed 24-hour care was supposed to be receiving exactly that through a Minnesota Medicaid benefit program. But he received nothing. No care, no services, nothing for months on end. And then he went quiet. For 2 days, a neighbor tried to check on him, knocking on his apartment door. Nothing. Shortly after, he was found dead. One day before this man died, the fraudster in question had tried to bill for the nonexistent services. The services that if they had been provided, this man might actually be with us today. To get rich off taxpayers, even at the cost of others' lives, just as that fraudster had for many months before. This kind of behavior is sickening. It's disgusting. It's an affront to all of us as Americans. And today we're saying clearly, no more. Our message is simple. If you are committing fraud, our task force will find you. We'll come after you, and we will not rest until justice is served. Don't defraud the American taxpayer. Don't get rich by trying to steal from them, or we are going to come after you until justice is served. That's our promise, and we're going to stick to it.

Love it. Wow. That was not AI, you guys. It was just a blurred background with like a 5K camera. That's all.

Oh man. Like, uh, can we talk about the, the video quality?

That was crazy good. Yeah, that was amazing. All right, so Marcela, he's on fire. I love it.

You know, he's reporting great news. We're, we're winning the war against this fraudsters, but it's also a message to all of the rest of the world, or the— especially in America, that are causing this fraud. Tampón Tim. Um, so it's, it's basically a message to them, um, and to say, you know, if you're gonna do fraud, we're gonna go after you. We're not going to stay by the wayside and talk about it. Um, so I like that because a lot of us are like, where's the action? Where are the you know, where are the convictions? Where are the indictments for all these things? Because a lot of the times we talk about the Russian collusion, we talk about this other collusion and this and that and the other. And a lot of people— I think Erica recently was asking me why hasn't there been any indictments in regards to certain things with Comey. Um, and sometimes that takes time, especially if it's a big fish like that. But I, I love the fact that things got done. And the other thing that can show us is that you can make a difference. Nick Shirley, with his camera and his crew, um, uncovered this and made a difference. Um, and a lot of us feel like we can't, we're just one person, but one person can do the difference.

That's right. My Leering School sweatshirt should be here today, according to Well, we learned a lot from watching that video with—

yeah, with JD Vance. And what I'll say is that he— I'm not sure if you guys caught it, but like, like he frames it as the American people are all victims of this, which I think is a really good frame because few things will encourage anger faster than, hey, I took your money and I didn't do anything with it. And, and, uh, in fact, it— I, I let people die because I was supposed to be doing a service that I was not doing. And like, right, do you think they're going to cause more anger than that? And I think, I think it's fascinating that, um, this is another one of those issues that there's no coherent argument against it. Because why, why wouldn't we— why wouldn't someone be in favor of the federal government looking and checking if things are being done appropriately? Like, like, there's no, there's no counter to that. The— I think if you ask just your average ordinary American, like, when they start viewing the totality of the scope of a lot of this fraud that that's, you know, this, this last one was $90 million. And certainly this is going to go into the billions upon billions. Like, it is, it is just the most egregious form of theft in American history. Like, in my opinion, the fraud scandal— and I think they're only going to find more and more— it is, it is the biggest scandal in American history. Oh, it's brutal.

And I mean, I'm sure every single one of you listening to JD speaking, at some point you were like, You know, we all know somebody who is waiting for Medicaid to help with something. You know, I personally know two people right now. One in particular has been trying to find out if her 90, now 96-year-old father can qualify for Medicaid. They've been trying for years to get an answer. And I'm like, oh, so you're just waiting for this poor man to die. Before you'd be like, yes. I mean, so you go through all these channels, and then to find out that, you know, millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars are just flying out of here and funding fraudsters. I felt— I kept feeling like fraudsters is like not a good enough word. Like, I know that's actually the word, but while he was saying fraudsters, I'm like, no, it's like effing fraudsters. I'm like, it's got to be more than that. Like, I was like, it's just pissing me off so bad. Um, so, and then I was also thinking while he was speaking, you know, I asked this the other day, you know, do we only know about this because of what Nick Shirley did? He's kind of alluding to the fact, yes. Um, and so then you're thinking, well, this, like, how long has this actually been going on? And it clearly would have never stopped. And, you know, look at, look around, look around our country, look at what everything is turning into. It's turning into shit. Um, so, you know, I'm like embarrassed sometimes. I'll just be like driving somewhere and I'm like, why does everything look like garbage? Why are there holes in the streets? Why, like, why doesn't this place take care— like, every— it's like that whole broken window thing. I just feel like everything is just, you know, so the fraud is so big and bad and everybody's on the take.

This is just my opinion, but you know, you've had it, you know, Americans have had it. We've had it. I don't want this anymore.

I want everything focused on our country, making it better for the people, our cities, our money, you know, the whole thing.

Our veterans and every— and our elderly. Because the thing is, the fraudsters make this, uh, make out with millions, but at the same time, they're, they're targeting the most vulnerable— the, the, the, the people with disabilities, the veterans. Yeah, the elderly. I do conservatorship law as well. I, I do, I am a lawyer. Anyways, most of you know that. And there was, uh, you know, the FBI, when I worked in government, had to come in and, um, raid the court where I was working at because there was a huge, um, fraud scheme of, uh, certain people, trustees, um, saying that somebody was at some place being taken care of 24 hours, and they were not being taken care of. Oh no, how sad. And it's terrible.

It's really sad. You know, it could be your parent, it could be your neighbor, it could be anybody, and could be you. It could be you. And you know, I just have this thing, like, people that are vulnerable, like the elderly and/or disabled people, handicapped people— nothing upsets me more, uh, than taking advantage of these people. It just makes me crazy. So Um, Ilhan Omar, what somebody said in the comments, that her response was like, you know, bring it on, man. Oh, we're—

so in regards to that, when she said, oh, come and investigate me, I think she said bring it on. Well, the DOJ, as I told you just, uh, 2 days ago, they are investigating her for her potential fraud, uh, in marriage. Yeah, so many other things, I'm sure.

Let's bring it on. Um, so the other day— I'm going to switch to a different topic because, uh, yesterday we had Gad on, so we didn't get to talk about the interview Jeff Bezos did. He did a long-form interview. It was really interesting. I rarely hear him talk. I don't know about you guys, but I rarely hear him.

Did he look different to you? He looks better.

He's probably, you know, testosterone-ing it up, you know, whatever. Not like, you know, double. You mean like he had work done? No, like he might not be him anymore.

Oh, Marcello, you're segueing to the mask stuff, aren't you?

No, we're not doing the mask story. I don't have time today for the mask story. Marcello really wants to do the mask story, but I don't have time for the mask story today. I just want to get through these. So I do want to play this one clip. Um, this is from Jesse Watters' show, and it's great. It covers— this covers so much stuff. This is a 3-minute clip. Um, very interesting. Here we go.

Bezos is torching the left. He says Democrats can't deliver a pizza, let alone run a city.

If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system, right, your packages would take 6 weeks to arrive. We'd have to charge you a $100 delivery fee, and then when the package did finally arrive, it'd have the wrong item in it anyway.

Need proof? Just take a stroll through the City of Angels. Karen Bass promised zero homelessness by 2026. Zero. And she's right on track for zero results.

When you talked to Jake Tapper in 2023, you said that your goal was to end street homelessness in LA by 2026. It's now 2026, and we haven't ended it. We have not ended it, and we're not close to ending it.

How are you so off? Well, Basically, when I said that, it was at the beginning of my term. I didn't anticipate some of the bureaucratic barriers that I would experience, but I am prepared to take those on now.

Uh, not hard, Karen. If you really want to end homelessness, stop paying the people who profit off it.

Each bed in this facility, this specific one—

this is cheap, there's ones that are more—

each bed is $400,000 a year. One homeless person, $400,000 a year. Why?

Guess the best part? They have no legal requirement to put a homeless person in a bed. They still get the money. So this whole building can still build a city.

Taxes are paying for this building, paying for the upkeep of this building, and paying the profits of the building. And the building's not really operating.

Spencer's buckled in and the Pratt Factor is taking off. It just hit the Oval.

Watch. You see yourself in him at all? A former reality TV star? I'd like to see him do well. Well, he's a character. I don't know. I don't know him. I assume he probably supports me. Does he support me? I think so. I think so, yeah.

I heard he does.

I heard he's a big MAGA person.

He's doing well. He's doing well, all right. Too well for City Hall. So Bass conjured up a Brentwood boogeyman.

And when your messages are so hateful, or when you demonize people, then you do provoke people who are unstable. Unstable, and you can jeopardize people's safety.

You mean like the throwing of the tomatoes?

Well, the throwing of the tomatoes, which look like blood, or drowning me and the governor in a reservoir. But there's also other violent scenes. And so I've noticed that, that it's taking on a violent trend, and that I find to be very scary.

Hey, you want scary, Karen? Try getting jumped on your own block in broad daylight. Or yanking your toddler past a meth head shooting up on the sidewalk, or I don't know, watching your home go up in flames while the mayor's in Africa. The only nightmare is Karen Bass's LA, and she's laughing while it burns.

What do you think Spencer Pratt would be like as mayor?

I, I, I can't even imagine.

I don't think I understand. He has a degree in political science, but he does not have a background or knowledge in how our government works.

Yeah, neither do you. We've seen the movie before. Hillary laughed at Trump too, and we all know how that one turned out.

In terms of, uh, the state of the race, you know, Hillary Clinton wanted to run against Donald Trump. Is there a chance that maybe Spencer Pratt is being underestimated? Maybe he's not the best person to run No, absolutely.

I mean, I take nothing for granted.

Nithya Raman said you'd rather run against Spencer Pratt.

Is that true?

Nithya Raman, I, you know, I don't think she can determine who I would rather run against.

Yeah, I guess neither can you, right?

Oh my God, that is amazing. Sorry, guys. That was a different clip than I thought it was. Oh my God. You know, I think that's what qualifies him is that he does know what's happening and he's done his homework and he's like, yeah, we're done, we're done here. And I do have to say, we— okay, so this is like, it's not that we were laughing, but at Scott's memorial, Marcela, remember when Trump came on and he was like, you know, Scott was with me from the beginning, and, you know, it's always about Trump. And like our little area, we all giggled a little bit because we're like, how does Trump always bring it back to him like that? It's, it's just so funny. Loyalty. Yeah, so I had to giggle when I see him do that. Um, so I'm actually going to toss this to Jeff first because you've been doing a deep, deep dive on your show with Spencer. So tell us all the things.

Yeah, so I— we talked about this a little bit on the, on the local stream, but in my opinion, Spencer Pratt, by June 1st, it's gonna feel like he is running unopposed. And what I mean by that is he has got the persuasion talent stack. I've only seen it one other time in the last 11 years, and I think you know who I'm talking about, right? So his skill stack and what he's doing is so rare that you basically never see it. And he— I've written a couple of articles on Axe, one about just the overview of his Persuasion skill stack, and I wrote a recent one about contrast. I'm writing a third one about the high ground maneuver that he consistently weaves into nearly everything that he does. Um, I want you to notice something with Spencer Pratt. He weaves in very visual language. Yeah, he, uh, he's— he takes the high ground in nearly every single instance. Uh, it's, it's actually a thing of beauty to watch because there's, there's No arguing with his, his positions. Uh, if you do argue and try to counter it, you look very small and very petty. Uh, and so it's been, it's been a fantastic thing to, uh, watch. And I think something that people are kind of sleeping on, because he actually, he talks about it some, but he doesn't really hammer it that hard, is he's going after the fraud. Like, he's going after the homeless NGO complex. Uh, he doesn't He, he started to feature a little bit more, but he's a little quieter on the fraud stuff than maybe I would like to see him be. Um, but that's coming down the pipe too. And, um, I would be very interested to see if he just wins outright with the 51% on June, June 2nd. What I think the big unknown is, I don't know a whole lot about LA machine politics, um, but the groundswell of attention that he's able to garner is It's unlike almost anything that we've seen in recent memory.

I think also, um, you guys can both— Marcella lives in LA, so you guys can tell me what you think. But, uh, so like you, Jeff, as soon as Spencer came out and made it official, I said the exact same thing. He is Trump 2015. It's that same energy, the same vibes. I was also like Scott Adams. I predicted Trump would win from day one. I also wrote in my journal in 1997 that I wish Trump would run for president because he'd win based on common sense and being a business person. So I think, um, the advantage for Spencer is that, uh, because he's a celebrity, um, that allows other celebrities to feel a little bit more comfortable endorsing him and, you know, going for him. And also, you know, if he wins, that can positively obviously affect their their livelihoods, right? I mean, LA's, um, celebrity industry is in the tank. So I think that's an easy way for people to back him. But the one thing I'm wondering, I said this the other day, Marcella, I, I don't know who it is going to be, but he has mentioned, and he said this openly 100 times, I have a great team of people that are going to help me, that are going to guide me, that are willing to do it. Like, I'm going to surround myself with the right people, which is like 90% of the job. So does anyone know who it is? Because Harvey Levin called one of the people to ask if it was true. The man said, yes, it's true, and I'm going to be helping him. And Harvey's like, wow, like, this person is the real deal, and like, everybody should be really happy about it. And I also think he's not mentioning the fraud so much right now because if he gets those people up in arms, he just becomes a bigger target. Um, so I think it's kind of smart to lie low on that for now. But Marcela, is anything changing on the ground in LA with people? I definitely see more people open to talking about him.

So, you know, I wish him well, but it's— even Trump has not won LA. So even with his persuasion, you know, what I, what I guess is going to happen is what happens all the time. You know, the machine is going to go out there and the Democratic machine and it's going to make it happen for Karen Bass. Um, now he has a great chance of making her run to June 2nd and not winning. Um, you know, uh, being able to make her, uh, do the runoff. Uh, but you know, I'm not pessimistic. I am realistic. You know, I've been living in the state for a million years, and I've seen it all. And Los Angeles, the last mayor of Los Angeles that was Republican was 1997 when he was elected, Riordan. Um, and so, you know, I, I hope for him that he— there is, uh, we talked about it when there was Trump, but there was this silent majority that didn't, you know, said, oh, I'm voting for Karen Bass, but secretly they were the secret Trump voter. So I'm hoping there's the secret Spencer voter, you know.

I, I'm gonna make a prediction that he's gonna win, and I feel like— yeah, yeah, I feel— I really— I just, I feel it like in my soul that he's going to win because I don't know how you don't watch the Palisades and all those other towns burn down. You have a celebrity whose house burnt down who understands the industry and is a lifelong California boy, like an LA guy. He's been there forever with his family, and he is so good. Like, when they told him that Trump, you know, was like, oh, what do you, you know, what do you think about Trump? He's, he's so good at walking the line. Like, he doesn't want to offend Trump. He, he doesn't want to be attached to MAGA. He's like, just leave me alone. Like, let me just— okay, great, you know, whatever. But the only thing I care about are the moms. I want the moms to vote for me. And that's just the right message, I feel like, at the right time. And And that one debate they did was so telling. So I don't know, my prediction is he's definitely going to win and I'm going to make a statement and say he's going to get 53% of the vote.

Yeah, so that's a big statement. I'm going to go with 51%. Okay.

I'm going to go with Karen Bass is going to win, but that's just— I live here, so I know.

You're right. We can't, we can't predict the future, but we can, two things that I think are very interesting. One is the climate in which he's running. He's running where I've called him the just look around candidate. Like all, all you have to do is walk out of your house. Now I'm sure someone who lives in LA can attest to this more, but look around, like look around, how are things going? That's a, that's a unique situation. The second unique situation is, uh, he's creating so many on-ramps for traditionally, um, Democrat people who would vote for, for Bass, or I don't think there's much overlap between him and Rahman. You know, I, I don't think Rahman's peeling any votes from, uh, Pratt whatsoever. I think Rahman's probably appealing votes from Bass. Yeah, but he's creating so many on-ramps for people, um, through not only his fantastic campaign videos but the fan-made AI videos that are surfacing as well. And so I think he's created an environment where it's extremely permissible, uh, to vote for him. Uh, and even if you'll notice, Eric, you probably saw this, uh, where he said— this is pre the pre-soft Trump endorsement— he said something like, I've got the only endorsement I need: moms and animal lovers. And it's just like What? Like, where has this guy been, right? Because that's— he— his skill of off-the-cuff, I know what to say and I know how to say it. My hunch is that being on the Hills for years and being a reality TV star and being hated as the manufactured villain on a reality TV show, that has inoculated him from all forms of criticism. And you layer on top of it the reluctant hero arc. Of my home burned down. I am going to fight for the city that I love. I'm going to protect your home as well. And I can, I can relate with this somewhat because my, my apartment caught fire in 2013. It was an arson. We lost everything that we owned and we were actually homeless, like effectively homeless. We moved in with some friends down the street, luckily. But I can relate to the fear and anger that people experience after losing everything in a fire. Uh, I'm like, you, after that, you don't feel like you have anything left to lose. And so you will go for broke. And my hunch is that's what Spencer Pratt is, is going to do. People feel that conviction where when you look at videos of Rahman or Bass, like empty suit politics, as Scott Adams would say, Rahman looks like a weaker copy of Karen Bass. Yes. Yeah. You could see it in the debate. And so So sure, machine politics may come into play, but I think he's, he's got the magic that we all talk about, and it's going to be really fascinating to watch.

So we'll keep our eye on it. We are out of time, you guys. So, you know, we'll see. Marcela, we are rooting for you to have him win, so we'll try to like will it so you can—

you know, Jeff, you need to work with Spencer. You do such a good job about speaking about him. We need to have First of all, we need to connect Jeff with Spencer, but they're already connected.

Well, Spencer does follow me and he, I don't know how much of my content he consumes, but I know that he does watch me and he does watch the live show, I think. Okay. I mean, he's a busy guy.

He needs to come on the show.

I've said it. Tell me how he's going to win. Yeah, so maybe in the chat, like tag Spencer Pratt and have him come on. I'll DM him.

I'll DM him. He's following me. I'll DM him. So, yep, we'll see. And we'll see.

I want a major American city like Los Angeles to thrive because it's good for America. It's good for America to see that, yes, things can get better and that we don't have to decline. Amen. That's a winning statement.

With that said, you guys, I'm going to run. Owen is doing the afterparty tomorrow on Spaces. You know the time, the place on X. And Jeff, thank you so much for coming on. This was so fun. I'm sure you'll be back with us again. Everybody enjoyed you. A lot of people said that, that you remind them of Scott Adams. How sweet. Um, okay guys, see, look, it's, it's Jeff on the mug. Um, so you guys, if I put a little hat on him. Okay, so, um, we want to thank, uh, Scott Adams and Shelley Adams for allowing this show to continue. We miss them, we love them. Um, you guys, thank you so much for being here this week. It's Memorial Weekend. Um, Oh, by the way, we'll let you know about Monday. I know I'll be on even if it's abbreviated for Monday. So we'll keep you posted. I'll post it on X. So you guys remember what Memorial Day is about. Okay. So with that, a closing sip to our beloved Scott, who we miss so much, and we will see you Monday.

To Scott. To Scott.

Bye, y'all. Thanks, Jeff. I'm gonna kick you out. Ready? Ready. See ya. And just like that. Okay, guys, thank you so much. See you later.