Rage Bait, War Crimes, and Phones That Break Kids’ Brains

We begin with a word that defines our fractured information ecosystem, rage bait. Oxford just named it the word of the year, a reminder that anger isn't just an emotion online, it's a business model. Then the smartphone question every parent agonizes over. A major new study shows that giving a child a phone before age 12 is linked to higher rates of depression, poor sleep and obesity. We'll break down what the evidence really says next. Young workers are quietly returning to the office, not because they love it, but because remote work is choking off the mentoring, feedback and career opportunities they need to advance. Fourth, a rare moment of bipartisan alarm. Both Republicans and Democrats now warn that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Caribbean boat strikes may amount to actual war crimes. We'll look at what that means for accountability in government. And finally, Oregon's governor is threatening to investigate and even prosecute federal immigration agents, a sign that if Trump is wildly inventive in expanding his power, Democrats may need to be just as creative to protect Democratic norms. All that and more today right here on Filtered. Welcome to Filtered with TJ Walker. Hi and welcome. Glad you're here with me today. We are live. It is Monday morning, December 1st. Happiness in my household as December is a big holiday time, a lot of gift giving and fun and joy. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are as well. Let's dive right in with Story one Oxford word of the year is rage Bait According to the New York Times, Oxford University Press has chosen rage bait as the 2025 word I guess they should say phrase of the year. The term describes online content designed to provoke anger or out outrage, the lifeblood of today's attention economy. Usage of the phrase has tripled over the past year, and Oxford's researchers say people instantly recognize the meaning, even if they've never heard it before. The short list included Aura, Farming and Biohack. But rage bait dominated both public voting and linguistic analysis. Casper Grathwald of Oxford Languages says the goal isn't just vocabulary, it's cultural reflection. And nothing reflects our online reality more than a word that captures how platforms profit from fury, division and outrage. Past winners like Post, Truth, Toxic, and Riz show how deeply Internet life shapes our speech. But this year, the message is blunter. The Internet runs on anger, and we are both the audience and the fuel. So what's the real message here? The fact that Oxford selected Rage Bait as the word of the year is big trouble. It means we as humans are tearing ourselves apart more and more and more every day. Now the surprising Thing is, when humans are actually face to face, having a meal with each other, talking to their friends and neighbors in the streets, people can still be civilized. So maybe the answer is spend less time online. Let's dig a little deeper here. Now, I realize I'm talking against my own book because here I am online with you every day, Filtered comes to you seven days a week, audio, video, text, every format, every platform. But I want to be honest with you, not everything is about dollars and cents or me making another buck. I do think it behooves all of us to spend more time talking to friends, family, new people we meet, new neighbors. Because human beings are much more civilized face to face. There's something about that anonymity of you're on the screen, you got a keyboard and you're dictating where you just want to rip one and tear somebody apart. And it's nasty, it's vile. And unfortunately, our tech lords at Facebook, Google and all other social media platforms realize this. They are playing you and they are playing me. They realize, okay, if you've got a hundred friends and 99 of them are showing positive things about what their kids did well, or improvements in their community or something they did to help needy in their community, you're not going to click on that and share it. But if they show you one person who says that somebody you like, somebody on your team, is beyond the pale, crazy, a part of a lunatic fringe. Facebook, Google, all the social media poobas know, if they show you that and put that at the top of your feed, that's going to get you angry, that's going to get you clicking how dare they. That's going to get you responding. And if it's somebody attacking someone you also hate, all the better because Facebook and Google and YouTube as well, they all understand that you're going to hit a like and share without even reading it or watching it. Unfortunately, we as humans are programmed to want to eliminate risk. And therefore if we see someone awful, if we see something that strikes us as outrageous, we want to alert the world. And if there are really no facts to back it up, Sorry, Charlie. That is the attitude of most humans, unfortunately. Let's dig a little deeper into the facts. The term rage bait usage tripled in 2025 according to Oxford. Now, the definition is content crafted to provoke anger, not inform. You see this every single day on this plat, every platform we're on right now. So and so, owned, so and so. The reality is they probably had a conversation or an interview and there was a disagreement. But you can't say that. You can't post content on the Internet and say here two thoughtful people from different perspectives had an honest debate and exchange of opinions. If you do that, you can practically hear the sucking sound of losing subscribers to whatever feed you're on. Far more effective to say this person owned that person, humiliated that person, destroyed that person. Putting rage in it unfortunately works. All the social media outlets know this. The more time we spend on content on their platforms, the more money they make by pushing out Toyota ads and Coca Cola ads. And the easiest way to get you to engage, to share, to comment, is to do something that outrages you. So it's unfortunately a defect in human psychology. And our tech overlords are exploiting it to the max. And they're becoming, well, those who aren't already billionaires are becoming billionaires. And those who are billionaires are going to the centibillionaire stage and sometimes beyond. Okay, let's look more at the details here. The Oxford Corpus includes 30 billion words from global sources. Now, that's not 30 billion separate words. They're just adding them all together. Public Word for the year drew 30,000 participants. And I don't think this is a good trend, obviously they point out, which I just covered. Anger based posts generate higher ad revenue per ad impression. Outrage posts are shared much faster and with more velocity. It gets more retweets, it gets more comments. And that's the real problem with this, this clickbait. Now, we used to think of clickbait of something tantalizing, titillating, perhaps a beautiful young person dressed in scantily scanty attire that used to be what people thought of as clickbait the most or a cute kitten being clickbait. Those still work, let's not kid ourselves. But what is even more effective quite often is rage. It's anger. Now, some of you may have noticed I try to run a different show here. If you're watching you on TikTok, I thank you, I appreciate you. I appreciate Kevin and Ron and Cindy for joining us today. If you're watching on YouTube or LinkedIn or any other platform, or if you're listening on Spotify, Amazon Music or Apple Podcast, I appreciate you doing that. But you may have noticed I'm trying to go the other direction. Typically the first three stories or more that I cover on this show are more purely business, technology, economics focused. I try to cover the things that frankly outrage me the most at the end of the show, sometime even in the grab bag section because I don't want to be contributing to this problem, but do I get outraged from time to time? Sure. Do I share that with you? Yes. I'm not suggesting you don't have the right to be outraged at things in the world, but when it's your only focus, I find you dig deeper and deeper and deeper and it just becomes a huge problem. And it can absolutely consume you. What we're about right here in Filtered is looking at the top business stories, technology and culture stories of the day, filtering them through the lens of communication and personal development skills so that you become more successful in your personal life and your professional life. So ultimately it's about building you up, making you more successful. Frankly, the opposite of rage. That's what we're about right here. If that's for you, please continue listening or watching. Please consider subscribing. It doesn't cost anything. And please consider leaving a review back in just a moment. Filtered is brought to you by the following get the deeper takes I don't post anywhere else. Subscribe now@substack.com J WalkerSuccess and stay in the loop. For years, people have asked how they could get one on one coaching from me inexpensively. Well, now you can. Anytime, any, anywhere. With the TJ Walker AI clone, it's like having me in your pocket, ready to help you prep for a speech, polish a pitch, or calm your nerves before a big meeting. You talk to it, it responds like I would, based on my real world coaching of thousands of readers and communicators. Check it out at tjwalker AI. It's not just smart, it's personal. Welcome back to Filtered smartphones before age 12 and health risks, According to the Times, a significant new study published in Pediatrics is giving parents one more reason to delay the first smartphone, as if they needed another reason. But let's dive in. Researchers followed more than 10,500 children in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study and found that kids who had a smartphone by age 12 were more likely to show symptoms of depression, obesity and poor sleep than peers who didn't yet have a device. The younger children were when they got their phones, the greater the risk. Lead author Dr. Rand Barzale says parents must see smartphones as a health decision, not a convenience. Experts stress this is correlation, not proof of causation. But the evidence is strong enough that many say families shouldn't wait for perfecting or for perfect data before acting. One near universal Takeaway phones in bedrooms disrupt sleep, and removing them at night is one of the simplest Ways to reduce harm. Okay, what's the real message here? If you're a parent and you give a cell phone, a smartphone, to your kid before the age of 12, you are essentially decreasing their odds of growing up to be a healthy, successful human being. You're increasing their odds of poor sleep, of obesity, of cognitive problems. Why would you do that? Take the phone away. Give it to your kids when they're older. They may hate you now. They'll appreciate it later. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Again, here are the facts. This was a study on 10,500 people, 500 kids. It is true. They concede that they cannot, with 100% certainty establish causality. It's a correlation. And you can't do everything based on correlation. If I jump up and down and dance today and say I'm doing a rain dance and it rains five minutes later, it's correlated. It doesn't mean my rain dance caused the rain. So I want to be fair about this. But at some point, again, this is a study of 10,500 children. I would also toss the question back to parents. What is the causation? What proof do you have that giving your child a phone is going to help them in any way? You could say, well, you know, my child did their homework better, faster. Well, maybe that was just correlation at some point. I do think that a sane, sensible person says, okay, I can't prove 100% causation, but the correlation seems so overwhelming in so many different ways and I can't find any other causes that I'm just going to have to go with this. It's the best I can do for now. Of course, it's possible that randomly there are space aliens coming down and shooting lasers into children, causing them to have bad sleep and causing them to have increased odds of obesity has nothing to do with the cell phones. I don't think that's very likely, do you? Let's look at some more of the facts. The median age for a first smartphone was 11. I am ashamed to say that is I believe when my daughter got her cell phone, not because I wanted it, but I was out vetoed that. Nearly 100% of US teens now have smartphone access, according to this study in the publication Pediatrics. Late childhood is a sensitive development period, according to the experts. And this is not happening. 17% said phone alerts woke them up in the past week. So your children need. We all need sleep. We live in a sleep deprived world. Cell phones are making it worse. There's simply no Doubting that. I have a strict rule. I do not let my cell phone in my bedroom. Well, if it's during the middle of the day and I happen to be there, fine. But if I'm going to bed, I place my cell phone in another room for an absolute emergency from a family. A couple of people, and I mean a couple of people have my home phone line. So if you really need to reach me. But texting, a random call, spam call, those don't ever wake me up. But guess what? They are waking up your child because their best friend just had to text them at 3am about what they're wearing to school tomorrow. That is destroying their ability to get maximum recovery for their brain. It's harming their cognitive abilities. Now, according to this survey, the sleep disruption affects mood, learning, and weight regulation. Here in the United States and in many other industrialized nations, we're seeing an absolute epidemic of obesity and people who are overweight. Diabetes, stroke, heart attacks, all the things that cause follow from being obese. Well, if you can't get a good night's sleep because you're waking up to check your phone or one of your friends texted you with something so urgent they couldn't wait till homeroom the next day, you're setting a lifelong pattern of not getting enough sleep, not giving your brain time to rest and rejuvenate. So the researchers say policies must also update youth tech guidelines. Smartphone effects are not equal. Young brains are much more impressionable. They're more malleable, and there's a much greater capacity for damage. So, you know, we regulate cigarettes. And let's face it, for a long time, there was no conclusive evidence that cigarettes cause cancer. Some of the tobacco industry still don't admit it, but there sure was a lot of correlation. An awful lot of people said, you know what? All my aunts and uncles smoked cigarettes. They all got lung cancer, and they all died at 40. Maybe this is back in the 40s and 50s. Maybe, just maybe, this smoking isn't good for you. Then later on, clear causation was established. I think we're going to see exactly the same thing with cell phones. And whether it's 20 years or 30 years from now, parents who gave their kids smartphones today and last year and the year before are going to be looked upon as exactly the same as parents who encourage their children to smoke cigarettes in the early 60s. It's going to seem as bizarre and beyond the pale. What do you think? I'd love to hear from you. We are live broadcasting today, December 1st, 1st day of December 2025. If you're watching this on demand or listening on demand, you can place comments on whatever platform you're consuming this show. Or you can always go to my YouTube channel, which is TJ Walker Success, and post comments in the community section, in the post section there. So let's take a look at some of the comments. Orlando writes in says, happy Cyber Monday. I forgot about that. I did see some mention of that. So speaking of Cyber Monday, it's this is another big thing our tech overlords have convinced us. It's not enough to have things on sale. It's not enough to have Black Friday. We have to have yet another day where we're supposedly so jazzed up we gotta buy, buy, buy, buy, buy stuff. Now look, I buy stuff. I'm not a hypocrite. I like nice stuff. I did purchase a house earlier this year. So I am in a mode still where my family and I are buying tremendous amounts of stuff every day, whether it's furniture, decorations, you name it. So I'm not anti capitalist. What I am against is our tech overlords hyping us up, tantalizing us. Oh, it's 80% off. Well, is it really 80% off? Maybe they had that product for sale at a hundred dollars for five minutes on a Tuesday morning at 4am a month ago, but it's actually been twenty dollars ever since before that, after that. And they're manipulating you. Never ever buy anything unless it's a great value to you. Don't buy something just because it's on sale. Because if you don't use it, if you don't really want it, if you don't enjoy it, it's 100% waste of money you're not saving. So 60, 70, 80, 90%. You're wasting 100% of your money. The other problem with so much stuff is you're wasting your time. The product comes to you, you got to unwrap it, you got to throw away the packaging, you got to put it together sometimes you got to store it. You realize you don't use it, but you don't want to throw it away. So now you put it in your garage, it can get to the point where your stuff is owning you rather than you owning stuff. So sorry to sound like a curmudgeon on this Cyber Monday. If you really do see good deals on something you were going to buy anyway and you can buy it without putting it on credit card debt. Okay to use a credit card, but not if you can't pay off your credit card 100%, figure out some way of going without. Believe me, I had times when I couldn't buy anything. I didn't even have a credit card working anymore. I think in about 1997, my entire income for the year was $5,000, and that was living in New York City. And my sole source of income was $400 a month as a commentator for the Voice of America radio network. So I know what it's like not to be able to buy stuff you want for Christmas or holiday gifts for yourself and for others. But buying it now and racking up credit card debt is not the way to go. More topics, more news, more news analysis in just 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've 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 isn't a personality trait, it's a skill. And it's trainable. Most people can't afford a full time coach and even if you could, good luck finding one who's available when you need them. That's why I created the TJ Walker AI clone. It's built on my 40 plus years of real world coaching and training. You get my exact advice, style and frameworks instantly. Ask it how to handle a tough question. Get feedback on your elevator pitch. Rehearse your next big talk. This is the next generation of communication coaching. It's smarter than an app, more personal than a course, and always ready. Start using it today at tjwalker AI. You'll wonder how you ever did without it. Welcome back to Filtered. I'm your host, TJ Walker. More comments coming in. I want to share some of those with you. This is related to our previous story. Daniel says my kids were not given smartphones until they were around 12 or 13 years old. They didn't like that everyone else had them. But I've never regretted it and today neither do they. You should see them now. Off the charts. Well Daniel, thank you so much for sharing that. And it's it's a classic dilemma of a parent. You, you love your children. I know I love my daughter. You want to make them happy. But if all you do is focus on making your child happy, what's going to happen? You're going to feed your child nothing but processed chicken fingers and candy. And every second of the day they're watching TikTok videos and YouTube and becoming intellectually challenged. So obviously nobody wants that. So it's always going to be a dilemma. And I think any responsible parent has to be thinking long term. Children, I don't care how smart they are, how well they do in school, by their very nature are short term thinkers. They're thinking about how can I have pleasure now? And it's our job as parents to think about, okay, some pleasure some of the time, but most of the time we got to be thinking about long term. Let's head over now to story three Young Workers returning to the office According to the Times, new research shows younger workers are paying a quiet price to for remote work. Economists from the New York Fed, Virginia and Harvard found that early career employees working from home receive less training, fewer opportunities to advance, and even face higher unemployment than older colleagues. At one major e commerce company, young engineers who sat near their teams got roughly 20% more feedback on their code than remote peers. Many also asked more follow up questions, often online, simply because in person, proximity made communication easier. Young workers themselves are noticing the difference and are now spending more time in the office than older workers. They say they're seeking mentoring, visibility and better odds at promotion. The study concludes remote work is can boost productivity for experienced employees but may stunt career development for those still learning the basics. Okay, what's the real message here? If you are a young person just starting out your career, you are crazy to select remote work versus working in an office. You're slitting your own throat. When you work in an office, you can actually communicate with employees, get mentors, get feedback, have all sorts of spontaneous interactions. This will give more opportunities for you to grow, learn and get promoted. If everything is remote, guess what? You're also the easiest person to fire when there's a downturn. Let's dig a little deeper here. Look, I get it. If you are just out of college, you're kind of used to your own schedule. You're kind of used to well, I'm going to take classes in the afternoon. I like to sleep late. I like to stay up late, party and get up at 11am the idea of showing up at an office at 8:30am each day, leaving your home at say 7:30 sounds harsh. I get it. But you know what else is harsh? Being unemployed from age 25 to 30, when your colleagues are advancing in their careers, getting more money, getting more promotions, getting more mentoring. Now, I do have a number of young people who ask me for guidance and mentorship. Family, extended family members and others. I always say, do whatever it takes to work in an office. If you have two different job opportunities, one of them even pays more. But it's remote work. But the other one is in an office where there are other people and people senior to you. Mid level managers, senior managers. Do whatever it takes to get into that office. Long term, you will make more money. But tj, I don't like to commute. I'm comfortable at home. I have my coffee cup just the way I like it. Guess what? Nobody cares about you and your career. I'm sorry to say that. And the companies you work for may say that. Oh, employees, our people are our number one asset. And let's tell you how much they love you. Guess what? They don't. If there's an economic downturn, you're going to be fired. If some AI chatbot can do your job cheaper than you can, you're fired. If there's a merger and the acquiring company already has someone in your position, you're out on the street. So you've got to think selfishly about what is in the best interest of your career. I'm just laying it out for you selfishly. It's going to be better off for you to be in an office where you can form real relationships. Sometimes it's in the form of a mentor, sometimes it's just in the form of a colleague. That maybe they work in something adjacent to what you're doing, but it's not the same department. But you become friends, they get a better job offer and they go to another similar company in your industry and they like it. And now they are asked to find new employees because you've already talked to this person in the lunchroom. Maybe you went out for drinks. A happy hour after work on Friday. There's already a personal relationship with that person. They have your cell phone number, you have theirs. And they say, hey, got a great job opportunity that just opened up here. We don't have time to advertise for it, but I can set up a meeting with my boss Tuesday morning. Can you come in? That's gold for your career. You know, everyone says they love competition. Love competition. No. You know, Peter Thiel's, I'm not a huge Fan of Peter Thiel, but he's very clear about this. Great businesses don't want competition. They want Monopoly. Now, he's, I think, taking it too far. But in terms of your own career, the best possible way of job hunting is when you already have a job and somebody who knows you, knows your work, has had a meal with you, has had coffee with you, recommends you internally to someone else at another company. So, yeah, if you do see the job opening on monster.com and you're putting in an email and a resume with 10,000 other people, it doesn't get lost because your friend is saying to the boss, hey, this guy's applied. Here's his name, or here's her name. Let's make sure that they at least get to an interview. That's what you need. That's what it takes to succeed. You minimize your chances of ever doing that if you are working remotely. Now, let me be fair. I understand there are plenty of people where they really, really do need to work remotely. If you're 35, you've had your first couple of jobs, you have some seniority, you have credibility, you're doing something valuable in the marketplace. And now you have kids, and you really need to spend some time each day taking care of your kids. You don't want to waste the two hours of commuting. That may be a great situation for you. Let's say you are really established in your career and you're a consultant or you have some highly defined skill where people know you're producing something, whether it's a piece of software, whether it's a novel, whether it's a consulting report, it's highly, highly valued, and you can now live anywhere. Okay. And you're not trying to advance to the CEO level of a big company. Maybe you don't want any more promotions in life. I mean, that's frankly where I am. I'm not looking to be promoted within a company. I'm looking to build my own media company. The success of my podcast, my courses, my AI clone and others, and to be able to see the world and go anywhere I want and do what I want, when I want. I didn't start off with this attitude in my 20s. It's something I had to earn through a lot of toils, failures, and a lot of successes to get me here. Apologies if that sounds smug, but that is reality. If you're at the advanced stages of your career. Wow, I made that sound like a disease. If you're in the later stages, more established parts of your Career and you want to structure things so you can work remotely and you've got multiple sources of revenue, by all means, live it up. I know I do. Which reminds me, next week I'll be broadcasting to you live from Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, the week after that from Taipei, because I can and also because I'm working in some of those places making money as well. But as a junior employee, those opportunities are not really there for you yet. You might get one job that says, okay, you can work remotely, but it's much harder to build relationships. It's simply human nature. It's as well that if you're working face to face with someone every day, you share information about family, friends, ups and downs, your pet died. If it's all remote, you don't share those things. So when there is a downturn for your company or your industry or your sector, and those are inevitable, if you're just a remote employee, you are the first to get fired, to get laid off. If you're working there face to face with other employees, with your boss, it's just human nature. They're much less likely to fire you. Let's look at some more of the facts going on here. Younger workers received 20% less feedback if they were software developers. That stunts your growth. Absolutely stunts your growth. Physical proximity. The closer you are sitting to someone, even if their office door is closed, the easier it is to have not only in person communication, but online communication. If you know someone's in the cubicle right next to you, you already said good morning to them, you're more likely to send them a message on slack or text or email. So it's. That's somewhat surprising, but makes sense when you think about it. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan says, quote, the young generation is being damaged. He was referring to remote work. He's absolutely right. Now younger workers now go to the office more than older colleagues. Again, the context for this story was things are changing and more young people realize they're kind of losing out. It's also frankly boring if you're just working from an apartment or your parents basement and you're not leaving the house for 24 hours a day. It's just boring. Life is boring. You lose out on so much serendipity, things that can happen on the bus ride to work, the car to work, the subway to work, chance encounters. Walking out of an office, you bump into an old friend, bumping into perhaps a new friend and say, hey, let's get together for a bite, a coffee, a drink you lose out on all of those things with the remote work. Quite often workers report fewer promotion opportunities when they work remotely. We've talked about that. Not surprising. Mentoring is much harder in teams when you're across time zones. Now again, it's great to be able to work remotely. I have been able to train ambassadors and United nations officials in Japan and throughout Asia when I was in my home studio in Florida. That was great. But it's not the same as when I go to them and we have a meal before, we have a meal after, we have chit chat during the downtimes and lunch. It's not as powerful a connection, but it's great to be able to have that option. Good onboarding requires in person contact. According to one study, you've actually got to look at someone from HR or your boss. They've got to look at you to really make good assessments. One firm recently required office attendance as young people struggled to get up to speed. Good for them. And if your employees don't like it, you know, look, I don't want to seem callous and mean and mean spirited. And I'm not someone who thinks that in the overall power relations, employees have too much power in the world today. Clearly when you look at how the spoils of major companies are dispersed throughout our economy, the rich are getting richer, the middle class is being hollowed out, union organization is at an all time low in the last 80 years and that's why we see so few people who are so called working class having middle income jobs anymore. So I'm not suggesting employers are somehow disadvantaged and employees have all the power. But on this one issue, come to work to get paid. I am going to side with the bosses on this one because ultimately it's really in the best interest for you, especially if you are young. And that's what we're about right here on Filtered. This is not simply a news show, although we do cover the top five business, technology and culture stories of the day. It's all about building skills for you to make you more successful in your personal life as well as your professional life. Let's take comments from you. Cher writes, Solidarity, Solidarity Warrior Boring comes from within. And you may be referring to the earlier topic about people buying stuff on Cyber Monday, because a lot of times people buy stuff just as a hobby. Horrible thing to do for your bank account and your retirement fund. But if you're referring to something else, please let me know. We'll come back to that in the next segment. There's lots more to come right here on Filtered. We'll be right back after this break. Want to advertise here? You better be legit. No crypto, no junk food, no supplements. Go to tjwalker.com advertise Most people can't afford a full time coach and even if you could, good luck finding one who's available when you need them. That's why I created the TJ Walker AI clone. It's built on my 40 plus years of real world coaching and training. You get my exact advice, style and frameworks instantly. Ask it how to handle a tough question. Get feedback on your elevator pitch. Rehearse your next big talk. This is the next generation of communication coaches. It's smarter than an app, more personal than a course, and always ready. Start using it today at tjwalker AI. You'll wonder how you ever did without it. Welcome back to Filtered. Bipartisan Alarm over possible War Crimes According to the Times, lawmakers from both parties are now warning that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have overseen actions that amount to war crimes. The alarm follows reporting that Hegseth allegedly gave a verbal order to kill everyone aboard suspected drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, including survivors of an initial strike. Now, before you get all in a lather here, let me point out very clearly this is not just the MSNBC crowd. This is not the head of the dnc. This is not the radical left making these very stern allegations of war crimes. Republican member of Congress Mike Turner said such a follow up strike, quote, would be an illegal act. Senator Tim Kaine said the attack quote rises to the level of a war crime. And Senator Mark Kelly agreed. It seems to qualify. The House and Senate Armed Services committees, both bipartisan, opened investigations into the strikes which have killed more than 80 people since September. Lawmakers say they were never briefed on any policy authorizing the killing of survivors. Hegseth denies wrongdoing, but pressure is growing for complete transparency, including release of the unedited strike footage. So what's the real message here? It's no longer a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats now say there's a good chance that Pete Hegseth, the so called war minister, is guilty of war crimes for intentionally giving the order to kill non combatants in the Caribbean with these bombings. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. Again, Washington Post reports Hagseth ordered kill everyone on what they think were drug boats. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. Maybe they were fishing boats. Congressman Mike Turner, the Republican, says such action is illegal. Other Republicans are now showing real concerns about this. So if you are. If you think Pete Hagseth is great, that's fine. If you think the specific orders he did were wonderful, that's fine. But be honest with me. Be intellectually honest. Don't say, well, it's just the lunatic left complaining of it. It's not. It's Republicans who believe in separation of powers, people who believe in international law, people who believe that it's not the American way to shoot first and ask questions later. They're all profoundly troubled by what is going on in the Caribbean. Now, we don't even have time to talk about it today, but the bizarre situation where one of the biggest drug lords ever from Central America is about to be pardoned by this administration, that's certainly okay. That seems okay to a number of people. But some guy on a boat who might just be fishing or might be somebody who's. Who's Gilligan? He was just the. The guy out in the bottom of the boat getting winches and things like that is blown to smithereens. And the striking thing is, according to reports from the Washington Post and elsewhere, they bombed the boat. It didn't kill everyone. They see pieces of the boat. People are kind of floating around, hanging on like it's at the end of Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio. Although I don't think any Kate Winslets were out there. They're hanging on and the order comes, okay, hit them again until there are no survivors. This is just not the American way. The idea that the military in a non militarized zone where there's no stated declaration of war is just going to act as judge, jury and executor like that, that's profoundly disturbing to anyone who believes in constitutional democracy. It's profoundly disturbing to anyone who considered themselves a conservative law and order. Because that's not law and order. That is just the whim of a dictator or a dictator's minions. So it is going to be interesting to see if the Republicans who so far have expressed dismay about this are going to follow through or do they get pressure from the administration. How dare you talk about that. If you mention these illegal kills one more time, we're going to fund a primary opponent. Because that is what happens typically to Republicans in this administration. If they even hint at having a teeny tiny bit of backbone, they end up like Marjorie Taylor Greene, written out of the MAGA movement and treated as apostates and besieged with threats to their physical person hourly and not to mention thousands of pizzas being delivered to their house. By the way, why do you think people falsely deliver pizzas to someone's house. Part of it is it's annoying, it's intimidating, but it's also letting, in this case, a Republican official know that there are people out there who hate them, who know exactly where they live. So it's an act of extreme physical intimidation. So I'll be monitoring this closely. If you care at all about democracy, I think you have to. And of course, the great irony here is when Trump first ran for office, he said, I'm going to keep us out of all these wars. We're not going to be the American policeman anymore. And a lot of independent voters, and certainly a lot of Republican voters said, that's great. That's what we want. We're tired of these wars. We're tired of Afghanistan and the Middle east and being the world's policeman. It really resonated. And Trump was able to change the official policies of the Republican Party to not be this neoconservative keeper of Western liberalism for the whole world. He changed it and a lot of people liked it. Now he's going very far to the other extreme, whether it's authorizing bombings in the Middle east, whether it is just bombing and attacking people seemingly randomly in our own Caribbean. So it's a bit, a bit bizarre. We'll be monitoring this situation closely. What do you think? Post your comments here. If you are watching this on any social media platform, whether it's my friends on TikTok or YouTube, Facebook, anyplace else, if you're listening to this on tick on any podcasting platform, thank you for doing so. We're relatively new. In fact, I think tomorrow will be our official four month anniversary on podcasting. So we're very happy to be a part of the podcasting community. So if you're listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, any of those, we appreciate it. Please subscribe or follow on your favorite platform. And please, please leave a review. Okay, let's check in with you. Some other comments are coming in and we're always happy to have people with their comments, their questions, whether it relates to the topic we're discussing at the moment or other topics. This is a conversation I have. This is unedited, by the way, so if I make a mistake, you see it. A part of my mission here is to empower you to speak out as well. I don't have to be the only one speaking out. If you've thought of doing your own podcast, stop thinking about it. Stop trying to say, oh, should I get this camera or that Camera. Just start posting your, your, your commentary, your thoughts, whatever it is you do to help people. Let's take a question. This is from Aunt Darya. Hi. I have an English exam tomorrow. Could you give me some advice? Well, I don't know what type of English exam you're taking. If it's spoken English, I can tell you my biggest piece of advice is to speak. Speak. Record yourself on video. Not just audio, video. Watch yourself. Figure out what you like. Figure out what you don't like. Do it again. Do more of what you like. Try to do less of what you don't like. Do it again and again and again. You may want to look at role models. Perhaps a newscaster you admire or respect, perhaps an actor. Watch them say something. You try it. You don't have to mimic them, but try to make sure you're coming across as clearly as they are. And that would be a good help. I wish you well on the exam. If it's a grammar exam, a little study grammar. You know, it's rare. I find that teachers just give you tests on something they never covered in class. So look at your notes, read your text, and if it's anything spoken in terms of accent or pronunciation, don't just read. To prepare or the test, you must, I repeat, must speak it out loud. Watch it, record it, critique it, and do it again. And again. More. In a moment, we'll be back with our final big story of the day out of Oregon. 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. Got feedback or a question for me? I actually read them. And if you send one, I'll send you a free mini course as a thank you. Just head to tjwalker.com feedback ever wish you could just ask me your question live? Now you can. Every week I go live with members only on YouTube. It's called TJLive. I review pitches, fix presentations and answer your questions on the spot. It's interactive, personal and hands on. If you want real time coaching and a small group setting, go to TJ Walker.com live and become a member. This isn't passive content, it's a two way conversation. Welcome back to Filtered Issue 5 Oregon governor threatens to prosecute federal agents. According to Breitbart, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek is escalating her showdown with the Trump administration by threatening to investigate and even prosecute federal immigration officers operating in her state. In a video statement, she accused DHS of, quote, violent actions, reckless tactics, and stoking fear in the name of immigration enforcement. Kotak says Oregon will monitor all ICE activity and prosecute any federal agents who violate state law. She framed the stance as both pro rule of law and pro immigrant community. This conflict is unfolding as Trump continues to invent new ways of expanding executive power and bypassing democratic norms. If Democrats want to preserve the rule of law, they may have to be just as creative with state authority, federalism and oversight. Not to undermine democracy, but to protect it. Okay, what's the real message here? The Oregon governor is a hero. She's saying, we're going to go after you. We're going to use the power of law to go after these immigration officials who are doing patently illegal things. Is it 100% what most legal experts think is the best relationship between a certain state government and the federal government? No. But neither is the current situation. So power to her. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. The governor of Oregon is saying DHS is guilty of violent actions in Oregon. She vows to prosecute the federal agents who break state law. Now, the feds have priority in interpreting and enforcing federal law, but states do control state law. Now, typically when there's an issue of law enforcement and the federal government says, you know, for example, we're sending in the National Guard to open up the university in Alabama. In 1962, for example, that took priority. The federal government was seen as the higher authority. There's a lot of constitutional law that says that when there is a conflict between the two, especially on issues of security, the federal government is praying. That's been the tradition. But guess what? The one thing we've seen again and again and again daily in the last 11 months, in some cases hourly in the last months, is precedents don't seem to matter anymore. It really comes down to can an official just do stuff, break things, declare certain powers, take actions, and do it fast enough before anyone can stop them or punish them? That seems to be the new mantra. Now, those of us who believe in constitutional democracy, not really big fans of that, but however, you can't fight by the rules of traditional boxing with someone who brings knives or guns to a fight. You just can't. So I give a lot of credit to this governor, this Democratic governor, who's saying, look, we have state laws against abusing people about committing acts of violence, and we're going to hold you accountable. Now, this sends a chill up some of the federal officials who work for ice. Good. Maybe they should think twice. What she's doing is, I think, putting ICE officials, Department of Homeland Security officials in a situation where they have competing interests. Because right now, if it's just their boss saying, go crack skulls, go find people with brown skin and start cracking skulls, shoot first, ask questions later, or knock over the head and ask questions later. If that's the only force they're getting, if that's the only sort of pressure they're getting, it's easy to just do whatever's pressuring you. Now they're going to have to factor in other forms of pressure. They got to think, wow, I'm getting orders from this government official from Washington to do this one thing. But if I do it, when they're long gone, when there's a new president, a new administration, a new dhs, this governor or this administration might still be here in this state, they could come after me and put me in jail and prison for things I know deep down. Probably not a good idea to just start going to Home Depot and looking for anyone with brown skin and throwing them in the back of a van. Probably not a good idea. So it's, it's putting them. I agree it's an awkward situation, but at least there's some competing pressures now to maybe do the right thing, which is, as Sen. Mark Kelly and five other prominent Democrats mentioned in a video recently, you have the right and the obligation to say no to illegal orders. If a member of the military simply tells you, execute the next five people who walk by who happen to have blonde hair, and you quickly surmise there's no rational reason for that, that has to be an illegal thing, don't do it. And that will be a good defense. And if you do do it, you could receive consequences. So the governor is showing some creativity. I think we're going to need more creativity from Democratic governors, Democratic lawmakers, certainly from Leader Jeffries on the Democratic side in the House and Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate. Got to get more creative because simply saying what the other side is doing is unconstitutional. Saying we're going to write you a sternly written letter isn't having much of a positive impact. It's not really accomplishing anything. What do you think? I would love to hear from you. Please post your comments here, whether you're watching this on Demand or live. I do read every comment. I try to respond to every question or comment. And hey, if I get my facts wrong, which I'm sure, like every human being, I can be wrong occasionally, call me out on it. Let me know. I'll make a correction. I will say, since we've been doing this show daily for the last four or five months, not only on podcasting platforms, but social media platforms, forms, I have not yet once had anyone give me evidence that I gave incorrect factual information. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm not saying there haven't been any factual inaccuracies. I'm just saying no one's once pointed that out. What I do get every single day is people saying, tj, you're wrong and stupid. You're an idiot. And they're not saying why. I might be those things. But you've got to make an argument. The premise behind this show is that in a democracy, people have to have real conversations and real debates, marshaling facts that are agreed upon by people across the spectrum and marshaling your own rationale, filtering them through principles and being transparent about it. That's what I'm trying to do right here. So it is annoying. I don't mind criticism. Occasionally someone will say, oh, tj, I hate your teeth, or wow, your hair is awful because you don't have any. Okay, fair enough. You make a perfectly fine point. I'm not really asking anyone to watch this program or certainly to listen to it because I have the best hair in the world. But if you want to talk about silly, trivial things, you can't. It says more about you than it does me, but you can do so. What I do find troubling is that so many people just want to say I'm bad or I'm awful. What they really mean is, tj, you said something I don't agree with. I don't have the facts to make a counter argument. I don't have the intelligence to show a different rationale. But I will simply say that because you disagree with me, you're wrong, you're bad, and you must be part of a team I don't like. Or you must be part of some radical extremist group simply because You've said something that isn't instantly confirming my worldview. I said it before, I'll say it again. If all you're looking for is confirmation bias, there's probably no reason to listen to this show. I'm a sane, sensible centrist, and I am going to try to present the world in a context that makes it more understandable to you so that you and I can learn and we can understand accurately messages that are being pitched to us on a daily basis that could sometimes have a huge, huge impact on us. More in a moment after this very brief commercial break. Hey, if you're enjoying this kind of take and want to hear more stories filtered through the lens of communication, make sure you're following the show whether you're watching or listening. New episodes drop every single day, and if there's a little notification option where you are now, go ahead and turn it on. It helps you stay in the loop. Welcome back to Filtered. It's time for the Grab Bag section. Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein. According to the Bulwark, Jeffrey Epstein didn't just have rich friends and famous academics. He also had Steve Bannon. Newly released emails show Bannon exchanged hundreds, and I mean hundreds of messages with Epstein, joking about private planes, jets, arranging meetings under the COVID of darkness, and even plotting a glossy documentary to rehabilitate Epstein's image. Bannon told him the allegations were a sophisticated op even as he publicly boosted QAnon style rhetoric about elite child abuse. Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard, has already been shamed and stripped of positions for his Epstein ties. And remember, he wasn't caught doing anything wrong with any young girls. Summer's entire career was destroyed simply because he asked for dating advice and continued to socialize with Epstein long after it was known of his criminal proclivities. Now, Bannon is the ideological architect of maga. He seems to be sailing through untouched. The less powerful man is punished. The power broker who weaponized conspiracy theories walks free without even a hint of remorse. So this is, this is bizarre to me because you have so many people. First of all, you have this QAnon theory that the entire world is run by an elite group of pedophiles, elite wealthy men, which a lot of people in the mainstream media ignored or laughed off, especially when it said things like, you know, Hillary Clinton was keeping children in sex slaves in a pizza part of their basement. A lot of things were completely ridiculous, but there was some aspect of it that was directionally correct. There were in fact a group of elite men protecting pedophiles but what MAGA doesn't seem to realize or even want to talk about is that the entire organizer, remember the chief strategist of Trump in his first campaign was Steve Bannon. He worked in the White House. This was a guy we now know was not just best buddies with Epstein. This is a guy who was trying to help rehabilitate his career, was giving him all sorts of career. It's all public now in the files that the emails that have been released about Jeffrey Epstein. And Bannon has hours and hours and hours of video footage with Epstein, but he's not released. But when you look at the email exchange back and forth, it's clearly Bannon is trying to help him rehabilitate his reputation, rehabilitate his career. And this is still the guy seen by many as the number one supporter of Trump. He doesn't work in the administration, he has his own war room. And he's involved in a million things around the world. But it is odd that someone like Larry Summers, where there is no indication he ever went to Epstein island, not really even any rumors that he was caught fiddling about with underage girls. His career is completely destroyed. He's Persona non grata among the liberal establishment. And yet Steve Bannon, the intertwined relationship, the nature of his involvement with Epstein, nobody even seems to want to talk about it. And the fact that the main guy who got Trump into power is the main guy, apparently who was seen as propping up, helping and supporting Jeffrey Epstein. And where's the QAnon crowd when you need them? You're worried about conspiracies and a small little cabal of people organizing the world, running the world, and involved with COVID ups of pedophilia. Here it is. Why aren't you talking about it? It's, it's truly bizarre. I mean, imagine if we could go back in times and all this broke, you know, 30 years ago, and it turns out James Carville was the number one guy for Jeffrey Epstein after having just been the campaign manager for Bill Clinton. Believe me, they would not have waited for Monica for the impeachment to happen. It would have happened in about five seconds when that news story broke. And yet this doesn't fit the narrative that's politically appealing to the conservative media establishment. The Fox News Channel, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post. It doesn't help their team talking about Bannon and showing these relationships. So it essentially gets buried. Now, you may say, well, you know, this guy Epstein, he knew a lot of people. He knew Noam Chomsky, nobody really thinks that, you know, 99 year old. I'm exaggerating only slightly. That 99 year old Noam Chomsky was fiddling about with young girls on Epstein Island. So let's not paint with a broad brush. Okay, fine. But Steve Bannon was someone who said, oh, my flight's delayed. And Epstein says, oh, I'll send my private jet for you. Will that be okay? That to me sounds like a pretty strong relationship, as the author of this Bulwark article pointed out. Ask yourself, how many friends do you have who will send a private jet for you? I have a lot of friends and I have some friends with means. I don't know anyone. If I say, hey, my plane's going to be delayed. I really need to get to Europe, any thoughts? And a friend would just say, let me just send my private jet for you. That sounds like there's a lot, a very, very strong, strong bond. And if it doesn't trouble you, then don't kid yourself. You never cared about pedophilia. You never cared about young girls being abused. All you're really caring about was using young girls as a tool to beat up somebody in another political party. Be honest. That's all I'm asking of you. Okay, let's get to the next grab bag issue. Netanyahu seeks a pretrial pardon. According to the Times, Benjamin Netanyahu is asking Israel's president for a preemptive pardon, something never before requested by a sitting Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu argues his corruption trial should end for the sake of national unity, while critics warn it would shatter the rule of law. The request comes just weeks after Donald Trump personally urged Israel's president to pardon him. This is yet another example of what a pernicious example Donald Trump is to the world. How the rot is affecting not just hard power ways, not just in terms of tariffs, but culturally, how the United States, which was once seen as a place where the rule of law was important, where at least our presidents were not openly corrupt. It's all gone. And many other political leaders around the world says, hey, if the US can do it, I can do it too. They the head of the US can steal whenever he wants and get away with it. I should, too. The head of the US can just start bombing people whenever he wants and not getting approval from a Congress or a parliament, then I can do it. Is defining deviancy downward. To quote the late, great Senator Moynihan from New York. That's what's happening. Our president is so deviant in his abuses of power, of giving pardon, of auctioning off pardons, of essentially saying, you can't ever attack me no matter how many crimes I commit, because that would be attacking the company and making us less unified. That's something in the past. Not all, but most political leaders, certainly of major democracies, would have been too ashamed to make that argument. For that matter, most presidents would have been too ashamed to make that argument. But we're seeing it out of Washington every day, and now it is spreading like a virus to places like Israel. And it's a shame. Our final grab bag story of the day Gray Rocking holiday drama According to the Apartment therapists say that Gray Rock Method acting bored, bland and emotionally flat can help people avoid fights with difficult relatives during the holidays. Now, if you're here in the United States, you probably just had a big holiday meal with friends and family members last week. Many people around the world, as we head into the holidays, New Year's, Christmas holiday, whatever you like to celebrate, it's a time to get people together. It's also a time to hear a lot of things that you consider obnoxious, toxic, wrong headed and stupid. How do you handle that? So there is this thing, I'd never heard of it actually called that the gray rock method. It deprives toxic people of the emotional payoff they seek. Experts warn though, that long term gray rocking can numb you emotionally and harm good relationships. So here's what it is in a nutshell. Someone says something you consider wildly offensive. They're expecting you to either agree with them or they want you to say that you think they're wrong and they can put you in your place. The Gray Rock method means you're essentially as boring as a rock. You're not vivid, you're gray and boring. So if someone says something to you that is completely anathema to your personal value, let's say it's an elderly aunt or uncle and you're at a holiday dinner and they say something to the effect of let's just say hypothetically, and you may agree with this, fine. But let's just say something like, well, I think anyone who's in a same sex marriage is guilty of perversion and they're going to burn in hell. Let's just say you had an aunt or uncle say that, and let's just say that you were in a same sex marriage. Presumably you would find this wildly offensive, but your aunt and uncle, 81 years old, they maybe had a couple of drinks already at the noontime dinner. You know there's no way in the world you're ever going to persuade them that they're wrong. So what do you do? This Gray Rock method simply suggests you act bored and boring and to say something along the lines, that's an interesting opinion. How's your job going? Or how's your needlepoint work going? You just say it's an interesting opinion, which it is. You don't have to point out you find it obnoxious, abhorrent and immoral. You can just say it's an interesting opinion. So we're not asking you to lie and then redirect with a question about either their job or their latest hobby or what their best friend is doing and the shuffleboard team, whatever it is, that makes for a lot more harmony in public or not public, in private. Private meals with family and friends at holidays. I think it's good advice. Now, am I suggesting you should always roll over when someone says something wildly offensive? No. You have to use your judgment. But if it's family dinner time at holidays, let's say you got 12 family members to get together and 10 of them, you get along really well. And the other 12, they're two are just obnoxious and nasty. What are you going to gain by turning the holidays into a scream fest while someone's carving the turkey and there's already a knife in it? You're not going to gain anything. So that's why I think this Gray Rock method, gray Rocking it's called, is actually a pretty good idea. Now, it's not the most brilliant original thing, but they did put a nice name on it. And I think it is helpful to think about. I know I'll be trying it from time to time as well. And then if you want to state clearly your own opinions, do that in a more public forum, a city council meeting, a civic meeting, a town hall meeting, or on your own YouTube or TikTok channel. Yes, clearly state your own values on a regular basis, but not every single time you hear somebody say something obnoxious, especially if it's based on ignorance, deserves and merits a full throated response from you. So I do recommend try this Gray Rock method. Okay, I'm going to close out the show the way we always do these days, which is taking questions from you. These are questions that don't relate to topics tied directly to the news, but go a little bit deeper. Because ultimately I believe if you're a newsmaker or someone who wants a quiet, successful life, your success depends on mastering a number of communication and Personal development skills. So that's what I take questions on. This one comes from Liam. Liam is a student in my course, voice training. You can speak with confidence, and the question is, how can voice training help improve confidence, public speaking situations? Well, Liam, I'm a little bit different from some communication experts. I actually don't believe that most people need official training on the voice and how to speak from the diaphragm. I think that is a little bit overboard. What is important, especially when it comes to confidence, is that you know that your voice is a tool that's helping you communicate, not that your voice is so golden and melodic. Everyone's thinking, wow, what a great voice. That shouldn't be your objective. Your objective should be knowing I'm speaking in a way where I know people can understand me clearly and perceive that I'm comfortable and confident. That's what I think you should be thinking about when it comes to your voice. So the number one way to train your voice is to practice speaking out loud and record it on video and audio and then watch it and listen to it, figure out what you like, what you don't like. The number one problem with all of my clients around the world, and I've trained tens of thousands of people in person in more than 40 countries, and they have 12 million online student enrollments for my communications and personal development courses. The number one problem most people have with their voice is that they're a little bit nervous. So they speak quietly. They speak too softly, and it makes them sound scared, timid, and nervous, and it makes them monotone. So that's the number one problem, is just the nerves having you tighten your body and your volume goes down. The number two problem that affects people with their voice is they're a little nervous. They figure, I want to get the heck out of here, Finish this speech, finish this presentation. So they start speaking faster, and they don't even realize it. Yes. My name is TJ Walker. I'm the president of Media training Worldwide. If I can help you, blah, blah, blah. So that's the second biggest problem with the voice. It has nothing to do with whether you're high or screechy or irritating. In my experience, those problems are actually pretty rare. So that's the second big problem. The third big problem people have is they just tell themselves, I don't like my voice. My voice is no good. I had a family member say that to me as recently as two days ago and to my ear, which is a lot closer to how she sounds to everyone else in the world. Her voice sounded perfectly fine. The way to get comfortable with your voice is to practice on video and to listen to your voice again and again and again, and to come to the conclusion that you sound the best you can. And that's principally by having enough volume, having variation in your tone, and not rushing. And that means things like pausing, as I just did. When you do that, do that repeatedly, you're going to sound your best and you're going to know you sound your best. If you're giving a big presentation, the number one way to be more confident about your voice in advance is the nut is the exact same thing as the number one way to be confident about whether your message is going to be interesting or understandable or you're going to seem confident and compelling. It's the very same answer, and that is practice your speech on video until you love every aspect of your style and substance, including how you look, your messages, your stories, and how you sound. I'm TJ Walker. I want to thank you for spending time with me today. Please, please take a moment and subscribe to the show. Follow it Leave a review if you're listening on any podcast platform. If you want to leave a comment, the best place to do it is right on my videos on YouTube or on the Community page, the Community tabs, the post section of my YouTube channel. Thanks so much. See you tomorrow.