AI Lies, Veteran Violence, and NYC’s Mayor Quits in Disgrace

Foreign. Hello and welcome. Artificial intelligence chatbots want to be your best friend, but experts warn they may really just be flattering you into poor judgment. Not one, but two Marine Corps veterans in separate states and within hours of each other are accused of carrying out mass shootings that left multiple people dead. In New York, Mayor Eric Adams ends his reelection campaign under the cloud of scandal, raising tough questions about corruption and the double standard that lets certain allies of certain presidents walk away with bags of cash and crypto schemes. Former FBI Director James Comey faces indictment and responds with a defiant video. I'll be analyzing that in detail. And what makes Finland the happiest country on earth eight years running? We'll look at the daily habits that might boost your happiness as well. All that and more. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hello and welcome. Markets were closed yesterday, so no update there. Let's dive right into Story one. AI Chatbots Friends or flatterers? According to the New York Times, artificial intelligence chatbots may seem like supportive companions and assistants, but experts warn they can function more like echo chambers. Take Emily Wilrich, a 23 year old New Yorker. She and her roommate couldn't agree on how to split rent. When each side asked chatgpt their side of the debate, the chatbot agreed with both of them. That kind of constant validation might feel good, but it can distort judgment. Dr. Matthew Naur of Oxford University University calls AI chatbots a distorted mirror reflecting back our own thoughts with a fawning glaze. Researchers say this pattern, sometimes called secrepancy, can erode critical thinking and even social skills. Adam Grant, one of my favorite writers and thinkers of the Wharton School, notes, the more validation we get for an opinion, the more intense it becomes. Experts recommend reminding yourself that chatbots aren't friends, they're tools. Useful, but not substitutes for honest feedback from real people. So what's the real message here? Turns out we're focusing on the wrong things. It's not that chatbots and AI gives us bad information. It's that it tells us what we want to hear. It's only giving us the facts that support our opinions that are embedded in the question that distorts things, that makes us all egomaniacs and makes us think we're right all the time. Well, we're not. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. The problem with all of these chatbots and all of these AI programs is they want more eyeballs. Even though they're not filled with ads. At some point that's how they're going to Be that's how they're going to make money. Or they make money by having you on, so on and so frequently and so long. You don't mind paying that monthly subscription fee. And full disclosure, I do pay every month to OpenAI, you know, only the 20 bucks. I do feel it's worth it. But it does make me worry that it's sometimes telling me just what I want to hear. And when you frame a question in a certain way, it's going to actively find information to buttress the underlying premise. And that just sends us further down the hole of confirmation bias. It's a huge, huge problem. Again, the Oxford psychiatrist calls them distortion mirrors. 52% of teens are using AIs for companionship. And it's just not like a human being that the beauty of having a human being is sometimes that it gets ugly. You have an actual human being disagree with you. You have an actual human being telling you you're wrong. AI doesn't want to tell you you're wrong. It wants to say, hey, you're right, you're smart, here's even more facts you didn't know about to further buttress your opinion. And the problem, unfortunately, can be dividing us more as a society. When more and more people are convinced they're right, they're righter than ever. The people they don't like are wronger than ever, if you want to call it that is only make making matters worse. So it's this validation machine. Now sometimes you may have a hunch, you may have an idea that's a good idea, and having more facts validated can help you, but not always. We got to be really careful about this because again, there's so many biases in the world and most of us are so fixated on really one type of bias. Is that the bias that the person I don't like politically or culturally, is that something that makes me look bad? Are they doing something that makes themselves look good? That is a bias. But there are hundreds of other types of bias and one of them is this sycophancy bias. That's a polite way of saying kissing, you know what, kissing your buttocks, telling you that you're right, telling you that you're a genius. Now this, this happened famously, most most recently when the founder of Uber, Travis Galanak, went on other podcasts talking about how he had essentially uncovered new areas of theoretical physics, astrophysics, knowledge because of his in depth conversations with AI. Well, no, he didn't. He was being deluded. He was being told, hey, you're a genius. We're going in areas no one's ever gone before. Well, highly, highly unlikely that in the world of physics, which is populated by some of the most brilliant scientists ever, that this guy Travis, who was, is a good entrepreneur at some level, did create a multi billion dollar company, but not a world renowned physicist. So it flattered him. It flatters me sometimes. And hey, I like flattery. I know you do too. But at some point we all need honest feedback and that's why I do value your feedback. If I state something too glibly or I get my facts wrong, many times you leave a comment saying, hey tj, your facts are wrong. You didn't consider this. You didn't give good enough justice to another point of view. I appreciate that. Keeps me honest, keeps me humble. Whether it's coming from my friends on TikTok. And by the way, keep it up TikTok. I do appreciate your comments on the live stream as well as the on demand videos. And if you're watching today on Rumble, welcome. If you are watching on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X Twitch or any other platform, I want to welcome you and thank you for joining me today and give me feedback. Because hey, when I write scripts and I only use AI to do the fact part, the first 30 seconds of setting up these stories, the rest is extemporaneous, shared thinking in front of you, together with you. So I'm certainly not scripting out every second of this hour long show. It's typically 30, maybe 60 seconds for the five segments. So that's at most about four and a half minutes out of a 60 minute show is scripted. So you're not getting an AI created, written show, just a few fact parts. But that's why it's essential, I think, for all of us to get in front of real people. Now I like talking to people in real life. Friends in the neighborhood on the pickleball court yesterday, took a neighbor out to town the other day to pick up his car. Talking to real human beings is important. Talking to family members, friends. But I'm also trying to talk to you right here, now in this live environment. If you are watching or listening live, if you are watching this on demand on YouTube or any social media platform later, or listening on a podcast platform, you have an opportunity to communicate back to me, to hold me accountable, to have an honest conversation and discussion in a way that two chatbots talking back and forth never will. I'm TJ Walker. I want to thank you for joining me today. This is filtered this is your daily dive into top business, news, technology, AI, economic stories and culture stories of the day. And then typically we filter them through the lens of communication skills and personal development skills. So that's we're all about. I'm so happy that so many of you are joining me live here today and also watching and listening later. So please give me feedback. If you don't know where to go. If you don't see one right in front of you on the application or social media platform or podcast, you're in. You can always go to my YouTube channel and hit the post tab and there you can post any comments you want. We'll be back in just a moment. We'll be right back after this break. Want more? Grab my Five Book Success Library for $9.95 at tjwalker.com books. It's the fastest way to level up your communication. Imagine being the most confident person in the room whether you're on Zoom or on stage. That's what thousands of professionals are learning to do right now. Through my online communication course at Media Training Worldwide, you can access my complete training library on demand. Affordable and actually effective. Whether you're preparing for media interviews, client presentations or TED style talks, I've got you covered. Check it out mediatrainingworldwide.com you'll never wing it again. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Don't go to tjwalker.com advertise. Hello and welcome back. Issue two two weekend mass shootings, two Marine veterans according to CNN and local authorities, two mass shootings over the weekend were allegedly carried out by Marine Corps veterans hours apart in different states. In Southport, North Carolina, my home state where I grew up, police say 40 year old Nigel Edge arrived by boat and opened fire at the American Fish Company bar, killing three and injuring others. Officials called the attack highly premeditated and the District attorney said evil has come ashore in Southport as the community reels roughly 12 hours later in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan. Authorities identified the church attacker as 40 year old Thomas Sanford, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran. Police say he rammed a car into a Latter Day Saints chapel, set a fire and opened fire on congregants. At least four people were killed and eight injured before Sanford died in a gunfight with police. Police motive is still unknown. Officials say Edge received a Purple Heart during his service. Sanford also earned multiple medals during Marine duty. Both investigations are ongoing. Okay, what's the real message here? America is still number one at being bloodthirsty we kill more people in a typical hour than some countries do in a year when it comes to bang, bang, shoot them up dead. And it's despicable and it is completely preventable. But we decide not to. Let's dig a little deeper here. Okay? We've heard a lot recently from some of the top officials in Washington, some of the top political commentators and pundits that we have a real crisis in this country. And they're not wrong. And we're told it's this ideological war. We're told that nobody's safe because there is radical, and I mean radical left wing extremists who are violent, who are killing people. That's what we've been told again and again and again. Who knows? Maybe true. Let's take a look at these killers a minute. I first want to draw attention to one of the killers, the, the North Carolina killer, Nigel Edge. Here he is shooting people, killing people. Maybe he's a part of the radical. Let's take a look. Maybe he's got long dreadlocks, maybe he's wearing a Che Guevara T shirt or cap. Maybe he's smoking a pipe that he started to learn when he was started to use when he was growing up on the Upper west side of Manhattan. Perhaps he had some parents who were Marxist professors at Columbia University. Let's take a look at this guy because I'm pretty sure he's going to have tattoos for, for Fidel Castro and Karl Marx on him. And let's take a look at this picture together because maybe Eric is short for Erica, maybe it's a radical black lesbian who has become infiltrated with left wing ideology. So let's just take a look right now at this character and see if in fact we are on to something with this. Oops. Now those of you listening on the podcast, I apologize, I've just brought up the picture of this killer, this person who killed three people over the weekend. And if he's not a poster child for an Aryan Nation recruiting poster, I don't know what is it. Doesn't get any whiter than this, folks. I don't see any dreadlocks present. He does not appear to be a, a lesbian or a transsexual, does he? He is white, he is male, he likes guns, he likes military stuff. And what do you know when you learn a little more about his background? Turns out he doesn't have anything to do with any left wing organization, liberal organization. Let's check further. Is he on George Soros payroll? Nope. Doesn't seem like he's there either. Okay, but that's only one. Let's not cherry pick here. Surely the other mass killer. I mean again, we're told from the highest levels of our government that Stephen Miller on down and up that the number one problem in America is this dangerous left wing radicalism that is fomenting violence in America. Well, we've certainly seen a lot of violence in America. Again within 12 hours, mass killings. So let's switch over to Grand Blank, Michigan. There was Thomas Jacob Sanford again. I'll show you his picture in a moment. But maybe, again, maybe that's a change name, maybe it's a transsexual because we hear all the time how evile and horrible and radical transsexuals are. So let's just take a look and see if this Thomas Jacob Sanford to you looks like a transsexual woman, perhaps. Or maybe this time we'll get the dreadlocks and the radical look. Maybe this time we'll see the Che Guevara T shirt beret. Maybe this time we'll see tattoos honoring Carl Mark. So let's see if I can find a picture of this. We have to assume a radical left wing extremist. Oh, what do we see here? Again, apologies to those of you on the podcast, but I'm showing a picture of a white guy with a beard on a pickup truck proudly showcasing a deer that he killed. Presumably he killed with a baseball cap, looking a little chubby. If I can possibly add that he looks frankly like every MAGA voter I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm not seeing dreadlocks. Not that there's anything wrong with dreadlocks. He does have tattoos on his arm. Let's look at these tattoos carefully. They do not seem to be glorifying Karl Marx, Stalin, Lenin, Fidel Castro. I don't see any antifa tattoos on him or bumper stickers on his pickup truck in North Carolina. So what do you know? Another white male who seems to have all the trappings to be 100% immersed in right wing maggot culture. Am I saying that anyone who believes in MAGA beliefs, is it masculine? No, not saying that. But maybe we should all be a little more skeptical when we hear these ideas about how the greatest threat in America is left wing ideology these days. That it's somehow the left that is promoting violence. When in fact, every single reputable organization that has analyzed the ideological perspectives and motivations of mass killers in America has shown again and again and again it's overwhelmingly right wing extremism that is feeling. Is it a hundred percent? No. Is every mass killer a completely intellectually consistent philosopher king? No. Sometimes they pick bits and pieces and a lot of times when they kill, they're just nuts. Sorry if that doesn't sound clinical enough for you, but sometimes they're just disaffected young men. Now I guess this is a, a testament to middle aged people can, can get up there and compete too, because this is a little bit different. So many of these killers are young men, men under the age of 30. These are 40 year old men. So these are not young men, these are middle aged men. So if you want to say that, I don't, can't really say that's progress, but it's against the stereotype we'll say now, folks, I am not a fan of racism and racial discrimination. I'm not a fan of profiling. I agree with a lot of people that it's not a good thing. But you know what? This has got me thinking, maybe I was wrong. Maybe we need to bring back some racism in police departments and profiling. Because what we are seeing again and again and again is the most dangerous people in society are white men. And if you want to be generous and call somebody young, if they're under 45, then really the biggest danger in the world is, is young white men. We saw it with the Kirk situation, we're seeing it here, we're seeing it again and again and again. So maybe the racists have a point. Maybe we should embrace more racism in our society and specifically doing it in a rational way. Because all racists consider themselves rational, don't they? So maybe we should in fact be racist and just look at the numbers. If you see a young white man out and about in your town, maybe you see something, say something, maybe call the police on them because it's people like I looked like 30, 40 years ago. I'm not a young white man, but I was a young white man. It's people like me in my younger days. You should be afraid now. Thankfully I, I was able to overcome this horrible affliction apparently of being a young white man. And I didn't kill anybody and I don't recommend anyone do so. And I certainly hope that young white men stop doing this. But if you're going to look at the facts and be rational, maybe we need to start some profiling and be extra careful. You see a young white man lurking about in your town, you see something, say something. Back in a moment. Want to communicate like a pro. Go to mediatrainingworldwide.com millions have already transformed their speaking skills. Why not you? This show doesn't run on a lot of corporate sponsorships or big media backing. It runs on caffeine and your support. If you like what you're hearing and want to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee. Really, just go to buymeacoffee.com tjwalker it's quick, it's easy, and yes, it helps cover editing, hosting, and staying relatively ad free for as long as possible. BuyMeACoffee.com TJ Walker your 395 makes a real difference. Welcome back to Filtered. I'm TJ Walker. Issue three Eric Adams ends his reelection bid amid corruption Scandals in New York City According to cnn, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is ending his reelection campaign after months of scandal and the loss of public campaign financing. Adams, once seen as a rising Democratic figure, was indicted on federal corruption charges last year, accused of soliciting donations from Turkish nationals and trading favors. These charges were later dismissed by Trump's Justice Department, which cited the need to work with Adams on immigration enforcement. Adams framed his withdrawal as an effort to put the city first, saying in a video, despite all I have achieved, I cannot continue my re election campaign. But here's the bigger picture. Democrats like Adams are being forced out over financial scandals, while Trump's own circle faces no such accountability. Officials in his administration have literally been caught taking bags of cash, and Trump himself has promoted shady crypto ventures worth millions, perhaps billions. Yet these cases are simply ignored. They're dismissed. Adams corruption is real, there's no doubt about it. But the double standard is glaring. Okay, what's the real message here? Eric Adams is gone because apparently you can't be incredibly corrupt, sticking cash in your pockets, getting favors every two seconds, and expecting the Democrats in a Democratic city to just turn away. It doesn't work that way, Eric. You want to do that? Dye your hair pink or orange and color your face orange and run from another party? Let's dig a little bit deeper here. I certainly don't want to seem like I'm saying, well, everybody does it. It's unfair that he's picked on because I don't think every politician is a crook. Sorry if that makes me sound really naive and stupid or some tool of the establishment. But I've worked with a lot of political figures throughout my career and I've worked for the federal government, worked for members of Congress, I've worked in state government, and I find that the human beings who run for office are not any worse. They're a little different than the average citizen, but they're not worse. They're just like us, but often exaggerated. And some are in fact, extraordinarily honest. Many have so much money, another $50,000 doesn't mean anything to them. And I'm certainly not suggesting that just because you're rich, you're more honest. That's not what I'm suggesting. But my point is, many people in public life go into public life not because they are trying to enrich themselves. And Eric Adams does not seem to be one of those. He seemed like he's looking for every little extra side deal, every perk, every benefit, every upgrade to first class he can get. And if he's got to make little side deals, that's politics. Well, here's the odd situation we are in now in America, if you're, and it's like this in all sorts of aspects of society, if you are a poor minority and you're caught stealing three candy bars and it meets a certain threshold of $21, you can get a 10 year prison sentence. If you are a banker and you commit fraud on a scale of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, quite often it's don't do that, naughty boy. And you don't serve any time. So there is a problem in America where small crimes are punished much more viciously and draconianly than large crimes by any stretch of the imagination. What Donald Trump is doing, cashing in on his name, cashing in on the White House, cashing in on the fact that he gets publicity every day to start these absurd, ridiculous meme coins, not to mention phones. I mean, there's so many things where he has put his grubby fingers on raising money for himself during his last nine months in office. I can't even remember them. I can't keep track of them. We'd have to devote the entire show just listing scammy ways. He is cashing in corruptly from office. And the problem is if you, you know, if you steal 100 bucks, you're a thief, your trackdown may be shot. You steal a billion dollars, then it's a little too complicated, it's a little too confusing. People are mystified. They give you much more respect. Wow, wasn't he smart? The other thing we're finding is there this, this right wing echo chamber where once Trump says, here's my guy. I don't care if he's caught taking $50,000 of cash in a bag, promising People, hey, once. Once he's back in my administration, he'll get you what you want. He's saying he doesn't care about it. It's not just that Trump doesn't care about it. We've known that he doesn't care about ethics. The only principle he stands for is what's good for me is good. Anyone who doesn't try to line my pockets is bad. And they should be indicted or attacked or vilified or all of those things. But we're now seeing prominent members of the media, like Megyn Kelly proudly post on social media, I don't care, referring to top officials in the Trump administration getting caught taking on camera $50,000 in cash in a bag, making promises about what they're going to deliver in the administration. So that's a little bit different. I defy you. Defy anyone, any liberal commentator, any progressive commentator, any centrist commentator, any Democratic commentator, any radical left commentator say, I don't care if Adams lined his pockets. Cash and bribes. Just haven't seen that. You've seen it. Go ahead and post it for me. And this is, frankly, the kind of way it's supposed to go. You get elected, there's a honeymoon period. To his credit, Eric Adams did a lot of good things. The city has seen its crime rate go down since he's been mayor. The quality of life has, in fact, gone up. I realize that's not politically correct for some of you who get all your news from the New York Post and Fox News Channel, but it's just demonstrably true. But then if you are caught, if the media does its job, uncovers things, uncovers corruption, write stories about it, Justice Department officials, police officials, others start investigating. Indictments are starting to flow. What happens in normal democracies and what happened in the United States is traditionally, then the support for that politician goes so low, they either quit or they don't run for re election. That is exactly what happened to Eric Adams. He did not win the Democratic nomination. He did very poorly in the primary. I think he came in, what, fourth? Then he decided to run, or he may have even decided, forgive me if I botched that. He may have just decided, I'm not even going to run as a Democrat. And he ran as an independent because he knew he couldn't get votes from a majority of the Democratic voters. They lost trust, and now his career is over. That's the way it's supposed to be, folks. You get caught with your hand in the cookie jar again and again and again. The media cover you. You can't just say it's fake news. Investigative legal bodies come after you. They start to make the case that what you did was illegal, fraudulent, bad polls go down, your chances of going to prison go up, and the system is cleansed. New Yorkers are not going to have to worry much longer. Another few months of Eric Adams cashing in on that office, betraying voters because the system actually worked. This is what is supposed to happen. So that's great news in a sense. What's not great is that a notch or two, hire Eric Adams a little further south in a little city known as Washington D.C. it's not happening that way. And that is the real tragedy here, that it seems we've gotten to the point where only one political party, only one set of voters actually cares about politicians being corrupt. Another party says, we do care about corrupt politicians, but only if it's in the other party. If it's our team, our guys, we're going to be 100% tribal and rally around it. Because if it's one thing that is absolutely indisputable is that voters in New York City did not act in a tribal manner. Democrats did not act as a tribe. Even black voters did not act as a tribe. They all turned against Eric Adams because there was this thing called evidence, there was these things called facts, making it very clear that he had tainted his office, that he had been corrupted, that he had cashed in. And in this case, the voters acted responsibly. The media acted responsibly. Hmm. Wonder how we could start making this a trend. Back in a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the following. You don't need a new degree. You don't need another expensive coach. You need the right communication habits. And I'll teach them to you in just a few minutes a day. @mediatrainingworldwide.com I put created the most comprehensive library of online communication and personal development courses anywhere. You'll learn public speaking, media training, persuasion, executive presence, and more. These are the same methods I've taught to world leaders, but now they're affordable and accessible to everyone. You can start for free and upgrade anytime. Go now to mediatrainingworldwide.com confidence in it isn't a personality trait. It's a skill. And it's trainable. Issue 4 James Comey defends himself after indictment. Former FBI Director James Comey released a defiant video. This was last week and apologies for just now getting to it, but I wanted to really dive into it more. It was a defiant video Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice. According to CNN and the New York post, Comey, now 64 years old, could face up to five years in prison if convicted. Standing before the camera, Comey rejected the charges outright, calling them politically motivated. We will not live on our knees, he said. I'm not afraid. I hope you're not either. The indictment stems from his 2020 congressional testimony regarding the FBI's Russia investigation. Legal experts note the case case rest on disputed interpretations, and prosecutors inside the Justice Department had initially declined to bring charges. President Trump, however, celebrated on truth social, calling Comey one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to and declaring that justice in America is finally being served. Comey is scheduled to be arraigned October 9th in Virginia. Okay, what's the real message here? I happen to agree with Donald Trump that James Comey is one of the worst human beings to ever be unleashed on our society. I do agree with that, but for different reasons. If it weren't for James Comey, Donald Trump would have never become president in the first term. It was Comey who put his thumb on things, trashed Hillary just a few days before the election in a very slimy way, and delivered the presidency to Trump. So I do agree with Trump. Comey is one of the worst human beings ever. But this, this charging of him is a complete, utter sham by someone else who deserves potential billing as worst human being ever. Okay, let's dig a little deeper. I think you know who I'm talking about there. Let's look at what Comey actually did. Because as for those of you who don't know me, I am a communication skills expert consultant. I'm a media trainer, public speaking coach. So I do work with companies, politicians, others who are in a crisis. And I often recommend to people, get out front, define the issue on your terms, speak, hold a press conference, or at least put out a video where people can see you giving your version of events. And a lot of people don't do it. They want to hide behind a press release written by a lawyer. So I give James Comey credit, even though I'm not a Comey fan. He should not be indicted on this sham issue. Let's take a look right now at what exactly he said. I'm going to show you the video, and together we can figure out what we think works and what doesn't work.

My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump.

Okay. What I like about this video, and I'm assuming, because I've seen it in several different places, it really was only 57 seconds long. I, I like the fact that he didn't go on and on and on. He didn't put all sorts of explanatory things in. I like that. It's simple. It looks like he had his wife or an assistant just hold a cell phone in front. You can look right at his face. He's not trying to wow us with a big fancy office and American flags. I mean, it looks almost like a mug shot, but I think there's enough lighting on him and the microphone is fine. He gets right to it. He speaks clearly. He does not look or sound guilty. Doesn't mean you're not guilty. But he certainly is coming across defiant in literally the first five seconds. Let's watch more.

But we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We will not live.

Couldn't imagine herself living any other way. So he's coming across conversational now. I have no doubt that he scripted it. The stakes are pretty high, but he took the time to get comfortable with it. I'm willing to bet almost anything he rehearsed this. Maybe he did several different takes, but he's coming across genuine conversational fluid. He sounds like he really means it.

Live on our knees, and you shouldn't either.

So this is powerful language, talking about, you know, living scared on your knees. Let me play it from the beginning because I've chopped it up a little bit and it can be hard to follow. Let me play a longer clip here. From the beginning.

My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn't imagine ourselves living any other way. We won't.

So he's painting himself as the hero. I mean, he's, he says he knows there's cost to standing up to Donald Trump because he very famously was fired for Trump because he wouldn't just act like Trump's personal attorney. Famously, in the first term, Trump basically said, hey, you know, you realize you're not working for me, right? And Comey is like, I don't think so. And he fired him. It was unprecedented for the President of the United States to fire an FBI director. There's been bipartisan agreement that they get 10 year terms and you're not supposed to have the president meddling. But like any norm, any, anything as any aspect of decency, any system that had been agreed to by both parties to try to make democracy a little fairer, Trump threw that out the window. So that's what he's referencing there, that he's been harassed and attacked by Trump repeatedly and punished for doing what he felt was the right thing to do. Now, I mentioned earlier, I don't agree with Comey on a number of things, but no serious person believes that he somehow has devoted his life to harming Trump. Trump's whole presidency is because of James Comey trying to pander to conservatives to make them feel good and get off his back by saying nasty things about Hillary Clinton, which he should not have said. Let's watch more.

Not live on our knees, and you.

Should not live on our knees, and you shouldn't either. So he's speaking to a wide swath of Americans now who, frankly, are living in fear. Certainly every Republican politician in America, you. You give them a shot of sodium pentathol, they'll tell you, yeah, I fear Trump. I don't want to say anything to have him criticize me. I don't want to end up with all the death threats. So a lot of people are living in fear in America today. Fear of if you cross dear Leader, the great orange one, the full force of United States government, legal officials, the Department of Justice, the irs, everyone will come after you until they find that tail light out and can come after you. So he's. He's saying he's very much a part of what so many Americans are fearing right now shouldn't either.

Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant.

Fear is the tool of the tyrant. Again, he's positioning this for exactly what it is. He's not saying, oh, I'm not guilty, and I didn't really lie. He's not defending, he is attacking, laying out his worldview, and it's exactly what you should do. Now, my advice to a lot of companies that are attacked by Trump is don't even mention it. But this is different. This is so high profile, there's no escaping it. His very freedom, his very life is on the line, and so he has to make a case. I do think he comes across well. If you didn't know anything about James Comey and you saw this person, you would think, wow, he seems credible, he seems knowledgeable. He's not overly emotional, he's not hysterical. He's not seeming like some crazy partisan extremist. I mean, he's the picture of kind of a sober, FBI, calm, rational person and a part of the establishment. Now, you can't tell in this picture, but this guy's a Giant as well. He's like six, eight. This is literally and figuratively a big man around town in Washington, D.C. new York and other places. Places. He's frankly the sort of person the Trump administration doesn't typically pick on. They like the, you know, the Lisa Cooks, Leticias. They like picking on the black women the most. That usually is what gets them going. But tall, rich white men have not typically been the first people to be picked on by this administration, but now it's affecting everybody. Let's watch more of this video.

And she's right. But I'm not afraid.

I'm not afraid. He's getting right to the emotion, and I think this is smart because we do live in a climate of extreme fear in the United States today because of the increasing authoritarianism emanating from Washington.

And I hope you're not either. I hope instead.

So he's coming back to talk about you, the American people. What he's trying to do, and I think he's doing it effectively, is saying, this isn't about me. This is about all of our American society crumbling, our entire rule of law crumbling. You should be scared. But I hope you're not living on bended knee. I hope you're able to continue. I'm going to. I hope you do as well. So he's really positioning himself as a leader and as a representative of, of tens of millions of Americans in the way they think and the way they perceive the current political reality, that you.

Are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it.

So he's, he's talking about you. He's. He's not saying you should feel sorry for me. He's not saying, oh, I was quoted out of context. It wasn't really perjury. He's. He's positioning this in much broader terms, which I think is smart. He's telling people, you still have a way of bringing our democracy back by voting. I think this may be, frankly, the only thing that does keep him out of prison is if the Congress is taken back by Democrats in 2026, you're not going to see this sort of brazen, contemptuous destruction of the rule of.

Law, which it does. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice.

He comes across very sincere there. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice to now, even though I pick on him. And I think what he did in the 2016, 11 days before the election, will go down in history as one of the worst acts anyone could have ever done, especially by Someone in his position. I do think that he is a serious person who has a lifelong love for justice and the Department of Justice and the FBI. And he's coming across sincere here. He's coming across as sober, as calm, as factual, as highly credible.

I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent, so let's have a trouble.

So he does state very clearly, I'm innocent. And he said it with his head tilt. His eyebrows went up. He seemed genuine. Now, of course, there are partisans out there who would say, oh, this guy's a complete crook. I would never believe him. Well, let me tell you, any person who tells you he's not credible, they would never believe him. Every one of them that I know believed him 100% in 2016 when he held a press conference to say that Hillary Clinton did horrible, bad things, but we're not going to indict her. But. But she did these horrible things, reminding people a few days before the election that she was guilty of all these horrible things. But we're going to let it slide. Failing to talk about the fact that there was an active investigation going on to Donald Trump. Truly unprecedented, what he did there. But again, my point is he's credible. He comes across as credible. He was credible to people in 2016, and he's credible to a lot of people today as well.

And keep the faith.

So I said 57 seconds. It was only. I'm playing this from the Guardian now. I forgive me if he did say longer, but I think in general, unless I'm missing it, it was, it was a pretty brief video. And he didn't rush, he didn't overwhelm people, people with facts. He didn't go on and on, on with 29 bullet points proclaiming all the reasons why he's innocent. He said, I'm innocent, and he instantly recast this as to the real problem in our society, which is we have an authoritarian who's using and abusing our system of laws to punish critics, to punish anyone who will not do his bidding. And that is something, at least historically, most Americans would agree with. That's a horrible thing. We don't want presidents simply attacking enemies and using the Department of Justice to put people in prison because of criticism. There was, I have to state, was, you know, pretty universal agreement on that principle. Like a lot of things these days, it is under assault. Back in a moment with some happier news. Imagine having a communication coach who never sleeps. Meet your new secret weapon, the TJ Walker AI clone. Go to TJWalker AI and start getting custom coaching 24 7. No scheduling, no hourly fees. I train presidents, prime ministers and Fortune 500 CEOs. But the same exact communication I've delivered to world leaders is now available to you online anytime@mediatrainingworldwide.com whether you're speaking on camera, pitching a client or handling a crisis, you need these tools. These aren't fluffy motivational videos. They're practical, battle tested techniques to help you speak clearly, competently and persuasively. Go to mediatrainingworldwide.com and take your communication to the next level. Welcome back to Filtered. I'm your host TJ Walker. Thanks so much for spending time with me today. Finland's Secret to Lasting Happiness According to CBS News, Finland has once again topped the World Happiness Report, making eight years in a row. But what makes Finn so consistently content? Experts say it's less about fleeting joy and more about long term satisfaction. Philosopher Frank Martella explained that happiness is measured not by how often you laugh, but by how close your life feels to the best life you can imagine. That shift in perspective is key. The Finnish model is built on strong social support and shared responsibility. Public resources like Helsinki's Odut Library offer free access to technology studios, even 3D printing. Open to everyone regardless of income, Finns also live close to nature. In Helsinki, you're never far from forest or water, and they embrace hot and cold therapy, daily saunas followed by icy dips, a ritual that boosts both physical and mental health. Ultimately, Finns focus less on chasing success and more on living their own authentic journey dreams. What's the real message here when it comes to Finland? The real message is Finns have figured it out. They're smarter than the average American or the average Japanese. They realize it's not just about more money. It's about spending time with family, friends in nature, going for a swim, going to a sauna, eating real food. These are the things that make you happier not working 12 hours a day, six days a week. Let's dig a little bit deeper because there are a number of things that I think are aspects we can all learn from. So one of the things is their their belief in contrasting, contrasting heat and cold. So the Finns are known for their love of saunas and jumping into cold lakes. Cold, artificially created cold plunges. I'm a big fan of that. I would say maybe a year and a half ago I decided I'm at least going to take a cold shower every day. Not for long. But what I do, what I used to do what most people do is you turn the shower on, you wait 30 seconds, the water's warm, you hop in. What I do is I hop right in, turn it on, and I'm bathed by that cold water because it's incredibly refreshing. Now, it's not pleasant necessarily, but it is extraordinarily refreshing. Just about 20ft down from where I'm sitting at, I am building a cold plunge and it should be completed by the end of the year. So I'm going to be even more immersed. And I guess you could call it the Spanish culture, because I will have a sauna, a hot tub and a cold plunge. And forgive me if that sounds like bragging, you can do that in a lot of countries for free because it's just a part of their culture. It's available everywhere. You can do it in a bathtub, you can have it take a cold bath, you can take a hot bath and relax. It doesn't have to be a fancy sauna system or a fancy cold plunge. You could just go hop in a cold lake. That's a part of what they believe is what makes them happier. Now here's the part that's not politically correct to say this is going to offend the right wing woke crowd. They have higher taxes and they simply give more benefits to everyone. You do not see homeless in the street. You don't see this big sense of us versus them. You don't have every community with big gates and armed guards to keep those people who don't look like us on the other side of the tracks where they go live in their tents and live on the streets. You don't really have that much in Finland. Now I should point out I have spent time in Scandinavian countries. I have not been to Finland. It's one of those on my wish list. I hope to go there sometime. But in other Scandinavian countries I've been to, you simply don't see a lot of homeless around. There's a sense of we're all in this together. There's a togetherness to it. And even the CEOs don't feel the need to. Well, you know, my, my fellow CEO has a 400 foot yacht. I have to have a 500 foot yacht. They don't really do that because they understand that's not what makes you happy. Well, my fellow CEO has a, a 20,000 square foot beach house for vacation that it uses four days a year. I'm going to have a 30,000 square foot mansion on the bed. And they don't really do that they have these little sheds, these little cottages, even when they're wealthy. So the other thing that I think is something that you can do, and I try to do daily, is they simply spend time outside on a daily basis. Now, part of the reason I have to assume if it's at all similar to Denmark, is they're spending time outside riding bikes, walking, because the taxes are in fact, so high on cars, and it's a huge, huge incentive. I know that when I spent time working in Copenhagen, for example, I noticed, like, everybody seemed to be really good looking and in perfect shape, and everyone was riding a bike everywhere. And I was asking my client, what's the deal here? Why is everyone seemingly in perfect shape? And why are there more bikes on the road than cars? He said, well, tj, it's very simple. You buy a car here, there's an instant 100% tax on the car. So it makes a car really expensive. And the bike lanes get priority. They're big, wide, safe bike lanes, and people know to look out for them. So that's a part of Scandinavian culture which makes them happier. You may say, well, I like my car. How dare anyone tax my car? Okay, but it's more isolation, it's less exercise. And it's not just Finland. There's just numerous examples and a lot of research showing intense physical activity makes you happier. If everything in your life is about, you know, get up from the alarm clock, tired, rushed coffee, donut, going into a car for a long commute, sitting, sitting meetings, meetings, sitting meetings, get in a car, home, get in the subway home, get home, you're so exhausted, you never exercise. It's just a lot easier to be depressed. It's a lot easier to be unhappy. So this is something the fans do as a culture, whereas in the United States, it makes you more of an oddity. There's certainly been places where I've lived. I know when I lived in the suburbs, in Long Island, I would go for a long walk, one hour every day. I rarely saw anyone out there. It simply was not, not a part of the culture to get outside and walk. The culture is to sit, watch TV news where you hear people complaining about people you already don't like. That is a prescription for misery. Let's try to learn from the Finns. If you're in a different country, as I am from the Fins, maybe try to take it upon your own responsibility of making your country do better in the ratings next year on these happiness surveys, we could all use a little more happiness. Okay, that's that concludes our main section of the show. I do want to spend a little time on what we call the grab bag section of each show. These are topics that didn't warrant being on the top five and an in depth look but I still think are important. This one is about a new social media guru. She's a midlife makeup guru. According to the New York Times, Erica Taylor, a 49 year old makeup artist from Queens, has become a TikTok sensation by teaching women over 40 how to refresh their beauty routines. With more than 2 million followers, her mix of humor, mnemonics and practical fixes has given middle aged women a new voice and a new look on platforms usually dominated by the young. So I have to congratulate Erica. I mean that's a tremendous accomplishment to have millions and millions of followers. Now, am I saying that all women need to wear makeup? No, I'm not saying that and I don't think she's saying that. But if you are going to use makeup, she's giving you tips on how to do it effectively. So often I hear people, friends my age, younger than my age, people 40, like, ah, you know, TJ, I'd like to do this whole social media thing, but I'm not 22, I'm not 22, like hot. So it's too late. You can't do it, you can't build an audience. Well, it's just not true. And Erica Taylor, who is going to be 50 years old within the next year, is just killing it on social media. I mean, she's got millions of followers, millions on multiple platforms and she's doing extremely well. And you know, you can make real. I don't know how much money she's making, but you can make real money when you have that many followers. And I'm, I am here on my TikTok, have a different feed for TikTok. So that's what you see me adjusting is my camera. So I wanted to take this opportunity to share one thing with you. Now. I, I do not market or sell any makeup. There was a time about 20 years ago where I had so many of my male clients ask for makeup tips before going on CNBC and Bloomberg TV and places like that. That I did actually come up with my own line of makeup just for men because I figured most women know more about makeup than I do and they have other sources of information. Men didn't have that. I'm not selling you any makeup today, but I do want to be transparent and tell you what I'm doing. I used to just put a mosaic powder on. I'm not trying to alter my looks or make myself look like Brad Pitt. That's not the key, the goal. But the goal is to eliminate some of the shine. And I've recently switched to a different form of makeup where it sprays on. Now I don't spray it on my face. I spray it on a brush, and I can then rub it on. You essentially paint your face. I'm not going to do the whole thing, and I already have some on. What it does is it minimizes the blemishes. And, you know, once you get over a certain age, especially if you live in a place with a lot of sun, sun like Florida, as I do, your skin just gets blotchy if you have any kind of light or pale skin. So what I do is I only spend about 20 seconds on it a day. As I cover the brush with this liquid, this liquid paint, I then essentially paint it. And yeah, I even go up here because I don't want as much shine. It doesn't make it look like I have a full head of hair. It just reduces some of the shine. So, again, I'm not an affiliate. I'm not getting any money for this. But this is something I've been using for the last month and a half, and I like it because I'm no longer getting powder all over myself. The problem with mosaic powder, if you are preparing for TV video, YouTube, is it can fall on your jacket, fall on your shirt, it starts to stain your clothes. This liquid goes on very easily, and then it dries, and it just is much less messy. It's not getting all over the place. So this is just one I found called Airbrush Foundation Spray. I got this on Amazon. Again, I'm not endorsing it. I'm simply telling you it's what I use. And it says, flawless coverage. I'm not saying my face is flawless. Breathable, lightweight, silky smooth, matte finish. And it's more or less the color of my skin. Whatever makeup you get, I do recommend you don't try to change the color of your skin if there's too much contrast. That's what looks weird. So a note to the men out there. A lot of women realize, okay, there's no shame in wearing makeup. A lot of men still feel like there is somehow shame in wearing makeup. Guess what? Every movie star, every tough guy movie star you've ever seen, every famous TV star you like, they're all wearing makeup. You don't have to. Certainly there are a lot of successful YouTubers with 50 million subscribers who don't wear any makeup. You don't have to, but if you want to look a little more professional, if you want to look less distracting with, you know, not having big, splotchy aspects of your face, jump out. If you don't want your nose and forehead to shine as much, you may want to look at some makeup. Okay, that's our show for today. I appreciate you spending time with me. My name is TJ Walker. My promise to you is very simple. Spend some time with me every day. You'll learn more about the world, some of the top stories of the world. And you'll learn some tips, tools, and tricks to be a better communicator. And you have personal development habits to make you more successful in your professional life as well as your personal life. That's what we're about. Please, if you got any value out of this like the show, subscribe to it. Sign up for notifications. Whatever the platform allows you to do that you're watching or listening to interact in some way, let me know what you like. Let me know what you don't like. If you disagree with me, that's okay. What I would appreciate is if you say why, if you give facts, if you give an argument, don't just say, oh, you're dumb or insane. Give a reason. Maybe I am dumb or insane. But you saying that doesn't convince any other minds, and it certainly doesn't convince me. I want to thank you again for spending time. I'll see you here live tomorrow.