Showdown
Showdown Episode 16 3-11-24
I'm pacing to be with us momentarily. He is on the scene of something right now, so I was just going to hold the fort until he gets here. I wanted to go over and see what everybody thought about today when it came down to the politics. Currently what I've noticed was a lot of stuff in regards to Trump today. So the number one thing that I've noticed was the fact that apparently he has lied again, he has lied in reference to exactly how much money you have and where he has property, so on and so forth. So my thing is that if you're going to lie about the kind of money you have, hey Mark. - Well, hello there, Steph. I was just talking about Trump and the fact that he lied as we discussed previously, but now it's written that he lied about his assets and how much money he has and his properties and he recorded insufficient properties and so on and so forth, including properties he does not have. Did you see that? - Well, not only did I see it, but I have been saying it all alone for years because I knew, but see, I'm going to take it one step further because I've always said that he is broke. The man has nothing and I understand he's got buildings, but if he pays everybody back, I'm saying he's negative. - Well, I must agree now, 100%. I was TD-toting with it for a minute because of my now, maybe, but now when they're finding out that he has actually reported properties that he does not have land, that he does not have, you know, that puts up a big huge red flag. - Well, look, the man's a liar and he is clearly mentally ill. And the amazing thing is, is that anybody in the country follows him. Not that all of these people do, but that anybody does. So anyway, that's for sure. By the way, Steph, thank you for handling everything here. As it turned out, I was about 45 seconds late, which, hey. - You just missed the introduction, so you're here. - Yeah, no, I made it. Now, a number of things I was going to talk about anyway connected with him in this stupidity, but one thing that hit me when I was driving in, and I've been waiting for this one to tell you the truth, I thought that this was going to happen. But I haven't heard the details on how this is going to play out yet. And I don't know, but on the March 25th case, which is the New York election interference case that involves Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, my understanding is that Trump, his attorneys, are now asking the court to postpone that trial until after the Supreme Court makes its decision on the immunity case. Now, I don't know that that's something that they can get away with, maybe they can. I don't know. I know that I have been thinking about it. I've been wondering about it. And so unfortunately, that's where we are. So apparently they have the right to ask for that deferment, but the other side is, will they get it? I don't know. So that's one part. The second thing is, is that I understand that the case in Florida with that crazy Judge Cannon, Aileen Cannon, that in that case, they've asked that is Trump, they have asked for the case to be, of course, thrown out. And apparently, there's at least some talk that Aileen Cannon may throw the case out. She may just say, case dismissed. But if she does, there's an automatic appeal available to Jack Smith to go to the 11th district. And at the 11th district, undoubtedly, number one, they will not throw out the case. And number two, they will probably remove Aileen Cannon from the case. So if she really is thinking of dismissing the case, well, she must know better. She must know better, but it doesn't matter with these Trump people, they don't care. So that's another thing. Now here's another one for you. Have you heard the latest on Victor Orban? - No. - Okay. - I was too busy on the Trump thing. - Yeah, no, I get it. So, and all of this is just breaking news, but Victor Orban has now announced, after having his meeting over the weekend with Trump, that Trump told him that he's going to end the war immediately with Ukraine by withholding every last penny of aid to Ukraine, that if he can get in office, that he's just gonna hold it all, that he will give Ukraine nothing, that he will block it, that he will do everything he can to make sure that Ukraine loses. - You know what I did read that. - Yeah, so, you know. - I did read that. In the first place, what does he do in telling this to Victor Orban in the first place? I mean, you might as well just call Vladimir Putin, and I'm sure he already has. I mean, I believe he has. But now we know for a fact that he has directly told this information to Victor Orban. You know, anybody who thinks that this behavior is anywhere close to acceptable, not that anything else he has done is acceptable, but it's just that if you think this is all right, well, you've got a serious problem. - Yeah, there's a lot going on. - Well, there is. This is just the latest breaking news, like in the last hour, so that's ridiculous. Now, let me say that before any of this other nonsense showed up, I was already gonna talk about the fact, which is amazing by itself, that Trump is out here screaming against E. Jean Carroll. Suddenly he woke up, decided that he can do whatever he wants, that the $91 million was in fact not enough to stop him. So as a result, he's off yelling at her again. Now, she will without question file another lawsuit against Trump. - Oh yeah. - And if she does, and by the way, I'm pretty sure that if she does, that this is not part of the immunity deal, that in other words, it wouldn't have to wait for the immunity ruling, and the other ones may not either, but this one doesn't, 'cause this one's already, we know, been to trial, and he's already out $91 million. But here's the thing, they could get an injunction against him talking about her anymore. And again, he must know this, his lawyers must have told him this. - Surely-- - This is like a child, this is like a child that has consistent bad behavior. - Oh. - How many times, I mean, how many times we're gonna put him in the corner? - Well, I mean, we keep putting baby in the corner. This is a baby that don't need to be in the corner. - Yeah, well the answer is you're right. Now, the next thing though, that follows on top of the injunction is that if he doesn't stop then, he could be put in jail. And if he's doing it now, they should put him in jail. - Well-- - He didn't already got it, they have already again came to him, charged him again, as he made him say, "Hey, because you did this the second time "we need some money." I mean, how many more times we gotta go through this? - Well, you know-- - I'm afraid at some given point in time now with knowing that he does not have ample enough money and that he lied when it came to his man in regards to property and so on and so forth, that he's gonna end up filing bankruptcy, then he won't have to pay. - Well, I think he made file bankruptcy, that's another story, and he might, he might. But let me take it one step further. No, 'cause I think that's a good point. I mean, 'cause I don't think he's got anything. I don't think he can afford to pay this. I don't think he can afford to pay the money that he would have to pay to the person that co-signed on this bond. - Right. - So, you know, who knows what deal he made on that? And I say who knows, again, remembering, which I know a lot of people on the right don't wanna hear it, but you know, Russia, Russia, Russia, that is correct. And for all we know, this may be Russian money that guaranteed that bond. So, you know, I don't know, and that one, hey, we don't even have to worry about that, although that is a Trumpian thing to say. That's his favorite thing that he does. He says, "Well, I've heard this from other people, "but I don't know if it's true, "but puts it out there in a way "that makes it sound like it is, "but at any rate, it is very well possible "that this may be Russian money "that is backing him on what he has to pay, "and don't forget, there's 500 million more dollars "that he has to cover between now and the 25th of March. "So that's coming up. "Now, here's the thing. "On Eugene Carroll, "I think maybe he wants to go to jail." I mean, really. And think about this too. Maybe he feels that if he goes to jail, that somehow it would help him on his other cases, I don't know, the sympathy from his followers, I don't know. I'm just positing this because the man is crazy and he is pouring it on with the Eugene Carroll thing. He was on television being interviewed and the interviewer attempted to stop him from talking about Eugene Carroll and Trump yelled over the guy. I mean, he would not be stopped. He refused to be stopped. So all I'm saying is, I mean, he may feel that there is some advantage for him to actually be in a jail cell because I'll tell you this, if they get an injunction and he then goes against that, it will open the door to putting him in jail. Now-- - I have a question. - Yeah, and let me say one more thing. I understand why-- - Go for it. - I understand why you say that it really is frustrating that he can get away with all this, but it's due process. He's getting his due process. And so from that standpoint, I mean, I'm all right with it, but I also know that because he's pressing this to the limit, that he may put himself in jail anyway, and that may be his intention. Yeah, go ahead, I'm sorry, Steph. - No, you're fine, I'm just trying to understand when you're saying due process, how many men or women have committed the crime of rape, been to trial, have been deemed by the courts that yes, you have done this and just get off with paying a fine. (laughs) I'm sorry, there are people who have committed one rape that are doing 20 to 30 years. - Yeah, but those are criminal trials, and this was a civil trial, and this had to be a civil trial because the criminal statute was already exceeded. It had gone beyond that time. So you couldn't get him on a rape charge. You could only get him on the defamation suit, which did come under a civil court, which then meant that only money could be involved. - Okay, so then he defamed her again. - And he-- - After that judgment. - Right, now up to 91 million, right? - Right, and now he's defaming her again. - Correct, nonstop. So it's like, how many times are we going again? Allow him to do this and just keep giving him a dollar sign? - Well, again-- - What is the punishment? To me, that's not a punishment for him, because he seems like he could constantly get away with what he's doing. - Well, that's why I said, what they would go for next would be an injunction against him doing this. Now, it sounds like nothing, but it is something because it's a legal requirement for him to stop. And then if he doesn't stop, it's essentially like being in contempt of court. - Right. - And he would then be in a position where the judge could say, okay, if you can't be quiet and you obviously can't, go to jail. That would end it. Well, I say it would end it, it wouldn't end anything. He can still run for president in jail. You know, people say to me, if he runs for president in jail and he wins, which he's not going, he won't win. But if he runs for president in jail, could he serve? The answer is yes, because the only requirement for being president is number one, that you'd be 35 years old or older. And number two, that you'd be born in the United States. And he meets those requirements. So he could run from jail. No, I'm sure. First of all, I'm sure he's gonna lose anyway, but I'm sure that he could go to jail, run and lose. - Right. - I mean, you know, the only person who has run from jail, well, I should say there may be two. Gene Debs was the head of the railroad union back in the time of World War I. And he ran in jail, but he was in jail because they said that he was not allowed to make the statements against the United States government that he made. And so they put him in jail. Now, essentially he was a political prisoner. Not he hadn't broken any other laws, but he certainly, in their opinion, they claimed that he had broken the laws from wartime. So that was the first thing. The second thing was Lyndon LaRouche. And I believe Lyndon LaRouche may have been in jail for a period of time when he ran. And he was in that case, of course. But he never came close. Gene Debs came up with, I believe, 10% of the vote. He got a million votes in jail. - Wow. - He was popular, but he wasn't Trump. Look, could Trump get 35% in jail? Probably. I doubt he could get more than that. I doubt it. And it's silly to even be in a position to even be talking about him in jail, except for the fact that I think that's what he wants, Steph. I think he just wants to go to jail. - But then send him. - Well, no, I think you're right. - Send him. - I think you're right. - Give him a one-way ticket. - Yes. - No, that's correct. But in any case, yeah, I think that we may come to that. Listen, this is not going to end quietly. It is not going to end quietly at all. This is going to end in the most incredible election activity. It's not going to just be a vote, because I'll tell you this. Even if it were only a vote, he's going to say when he loses, that he won. He's going to demand recounts. Well, that's all fine. That's within his right. But before he's done, when he loses, I guarantee you he's going to ask his people to come and try to take over the government again. - Again. - Yeah. So I do think that what we've seen so far is practically nothing. It's pretty amazing. Anyway, I'm going to get off of Trump for a second. I want to talk about a few other things. So first of all, have you heard about Fonpong University today? - Wait a minute. I saw something come up. I don't even know. I didn't read it, but I saw it pop up. - Yeah. It's the end. - Yeah, okay. - They're shutting down. This is their last year. - They're closing. - Yeah. - And I'm surprised. - Well, yes and no. I mean, I'm surprised in a way, but I'm not shocked, because I knew a lot about it, because obviously I taught there for 12 years. They were in trouble when I left. And they've increasingly made some mistakes, which nobody can blame you for making mistakes, but they have. They also are suffering from something else. And that is this belief across the country, the college education is irrelevant. Where did that come from, Steph? I mean, I'm asking you, how do you feel about that? I mean, I know you think college education is important, but I'm wondering what you've heard from people in terms of them not believing that college has any value. - You know, I guess it just depends on what you want to do as a career. 'Cause when I talk to students and I've talked to even adults, your teacher taught her back and forth, especially growing up figuring, oh, I want to be this. So I know I want to be this. No, I think I want to be this. But once you get to the age to where you actually are getting ready to graduate from high school, you're getting ready to make a decision on if you want to go to college, you're not. A lot of young people, and I don't know really a percentage, but I know a lot of young people want to actually get into an industry where they can start making money fast. So a lot of them start going towards union-type jobs, CNA-type jobs, like healthcare-type jobs, clerical-type jobs, so where they can actually start making money pretty fast. So I don't know. I personally know it's important. But again, I've gotten one portion of the career and stay there. It was healthcare for me at the age of 18 and I stayed. - Right. Well, you know, I've told people, for as long as I can remember, that I think that college is essential for everybody. And I don't care what your job is. I don't care what you want to do in life. I think that everybody needs to go to college. And when I say that, I don't mean because you need a job, although the statistics say that if you go to college, you'll make a million dollars more in your lifetime, but that's not even it. I really think that in order to be the best person that you can be, that college is absolutely essential. - Yes. - No, I'm not saying that anybody that doesn't go to college is a horrible person, nothing like that. But I'm saying that for your own good, to be as much as possible, to know as much as you need to know about the world that you live in and to be as best as you can be in terms of relating to other people and to socializing in the world, I think. - Yeah, being independent as well. - Yeah. - I mean, it's a lot that comes with going to college. - Well, sure it is. You know, they always say your kids gonna come back home once, but you know, when they don't go to college, it just seems like they just stayed with you and today about 50. (laughing) - Well, that's another issue. - Yeah. (laughing) - You know, I've got two daughters who both have advanced degrees. And, you know, obviously, if I've been saying this the way I always have, I have to tell you that I have done everything to help push my kids in the direction of college. And they never, never considered not going. They never considered it. I mean, they just knew that they were going to college. They had to, you know? So, to me, that's valuable. Now, somebody could say, well, what if you can't afford it? So here's my answer to that. If you can't afford it, you can get a Pell grant and you can go to community college or in some places they call junior college. And you can go for two years. So first of all, that would guarantee somebody two years in college anyway. - Right. Plus there's thousands of different kind of scholarships you can apply for. - Of course. - Thousands, not like 100, it's thousands of them. - Absolutely. And if you go to community college, when you're done, you could transfer straight to somewhere like Omsel. - Right, transfer your credits. - Where you would then be able to access money, even if it were loan money for a couple of years. It's not the end of the world. I mean, it does have an enormous value, but they'll also put you on work study programs. So you're actually working to pay for what you do in college. I mean, there's so many ways to do this that it just doesn't make sense not to have everybody in college. Now, I think of course, as I always say, that we should pay for everybody to go to college. - Yeah, I was getting ready to say that dollar sign on those loans is also what a lot of people are terrified of. Because student loans is one thing you can't file bankruptcy on. Once you get them, you have to pay it back. So a lot of people, especially since this last episode with all of these student loans hanging over people's head and they finally started writing some of that stuff off, it scares people. - Yeah, well, you know, your messes with your credit and messes with your life. You can't get this, you can't get that. And I'm just gonna bring this up real quick. It was a gentleman from Mexico and they really couldn't tell if he currently, and I can't think of his name, currently lives in the US or Mexico. And he stated a fact that was pretty much true. He said that a lot of, he said that he didn't understand why a lot of people from Mexico want to come to the United States when Americans are poor. And they will stay poor. They will always owe their government no matter what. Where in Mexico, they own their houses, they own their cars, they own their land. They don't pay anything after they buy it the first time. They don't pay extra taxes. They don't have to keep paying on it. To where he said our government system is made to where we never truly own anything. Makes sense. - Well, Steph, there's a lot to be said for that. And certainly we give access to credit to people in a way that puts people in a very bad position throughout sometimes their whole life. So I don't deny that in any way. Look, our country could do capitalism a thousand times better if we got together and made an effort to fix certain things. Of course, we have not done that. In fact, we've gone the other way. Joe Biden created a tax credit for people with children so that their kids would be out of poverty. They could afford childcare. I mean, all kinds of things that they did to try to make it better for people. And when the Republicans won the House of Representatives, they blasted all of that out. So, you know, he's sitting here talking about trying to reinstate those things after he wins another term. - But again, I mean, I hear that, but you know what? I have to, when I read that today, it really disturbed me. 'Cause then I started thinking about the fact that we can sit up here and we can pay a two to five year loan on a car, including the taxes and everything goes for a car. And at the end of paying for that car, we truly don't own it because then we pay in personal property tax every year. San goes for our houses. We don't truly own it because every year we have to pay for just having a house on some land that we would truly pay for. You know, so it's like, I get it, I really get it. And so he made that point to our way to also say, this is why there's a lot of Americans now leaving the United States. This is why they're leaving. Because they can go to another country and make $38,000 in American money and be in that country and own everything that they wanna own. And almost live like a queen or a king. - Yeah. Well, I can say this, if you go to Canada, you can live better than you live in the United States for less money. I mean, there's no question about that. So personally, I don't wanna leave. I like the United States. I like being here. I don't know if nothing else, I love baseball. I got baseball coming in two weeks. I love my baseball. But no, seriously, I do like the United States. You know, a lot of people get crazy. They freak out about how they love the country and so forth. You know, I don't love a country. I love the good things that the country could do. And I hope that we do the good things. And if we do, then I love those. And if we do bad things, then I don't like that at all. And, you know, 'cause I just, I always look back at Germany. You know, all those people at Nuremberg with that hand stuck up in the air yelling, "Sig Heil." Nah, I don't want that. I understand patriotism can be very dangerous, very bad. And, you know, so I'm saying that, you know, the country always has to do right in order to get my consent. But then again, I have to say, I like being here for sure. And look, we have to pay taxes. If this country, if we don't pay taxes, who's gonna pay for the things that we get? I mean, we have to pay taxes. Even if we're paying taxes in order to pay for the interest that's paid on the debt that our country has, which by the way, every country has debt and we have to have debt or we couldn't operate this place. And we've had debt from the very first day. And I can tell you right now, the debt is not harmful. And I can also tell you that China has more than twice as much debt as we have relative to their gross domestic product. So, all these people who think that China is some kind of a paradise that's ridiculous and also not true. But let me say also, it's 4.36. So, it's time to talk about some sponsors. And also, let me add to that. Yeah, it's 4.36, okay. But this idiotic daylight savings time, I hate it. And I think everybody- - I love it. - It stays light longer. - Okay, so you like it. But I really can't stand it. And it makes everybody sort of on edge feel weird, you know, for a little while until everybody gets used to it. And also, there's a- - It's one hour. It's just one little pinky hour. - Yeah, well, it's one hour. But by the way, people drop dead all over the place from the disruption of their circadian rhythms. And that's no joke. People have heart attacks and strokes because of that one hour. Just telling you, it's true. - Okay, well, you're right. That's why I haven't said anything. You're right. - Yeah. - I agree. - I mean, they haven't gotten me yet, but- - Or me, thank God. We're still here. - But apparently they got font-bond. (laughing) Okay, so let me talk to you first. About the food. Let's start with wenties at 18,000 Chesterfield Airport Road, right here in Chesterfield Valley. And wenties, which I see on the screen, 1994. So, you know, I know they're there for 30 years. But I can tell you this, if you go there, you have to walk in and go find Ben. He's there. What a great guy. And I'm not just saying that. I mean, I mean it. Ben is terrific. And if you don't think so, or you don't know, well, just go to wenties and find out. And you're gonna call me and you're gonna say, "Kason, you're right. He is terrific." - Yes. - And, you know, all of these businesses that have their owners on site, tend to be the very best, for sure. And, you know, I was talking to, well, I'll tell you in a minute, but let me say on the food side, you know, I originally I was talking about the baby back ribs and the onion rings and the pizza. But I have to tell you that I love a great patty melt. And they've got great patty melts at wenties. I mean, I love hamburger. I just do. And that's just part of wenties. It's really good. So, you know, check it out. You know, love the food. Meet Ben and go to wenties. Now, I was also over the weekend. I was over with Al at the jewels on Hampton. - Oh, okay. - And, you know, I mean, I've never walked in there once, that Al isn't there and his son, AJ as well. And the place Jim filled with people, just, you know, looking at jewelry, buying, selling jewelry and coins, everything. It's a great jewelry store. Really is. And it's at 4506 Hampton and you need to go. We talked and really he liked. That is Al liked the fact that I also brought up the point that again, it's this part of the business where the owner is there because it really makes a difference. It really does. And certainly Al is there and, you know, again, Ben is there at wenties. So that's just a great business when you go and the owner is there. And with that in mind, I definitely want to send you to my suit company. And that's the St. Louis suit company. You see my suit, my, I don't know what color gray this is, but it's some kind of gray. And here's the other thing, Steph. I mean, I may not know colors because I am colorblind, but I know this. This is my purple day. Yeah, 'cause I can tell. I like that tie. Yeah, so you can see the purple, right? And the purple shirt. And the purple shirt, yeah. I don't even know. I can't see it, but I know it is. It's more like a lilac. I can feel it in the purple family. Okay. So anyway, so St. Louis suit company, they're on the corner of central and foresight. And I promise you, they have great suits. They're running out of the seersucker suits. And I understand there's a limit to them this year. The manufacturer is not coming up with more. So check it out because those $99 seersucker suits are nice. Again, it is St. Louis suit company in Clayton. They've been there 29 years. And the only thing I don't buy from them anymore is I don't buy the shoes because they don't sell converse. My chucks, I have to get it somewhere. I don't know where, wherever it is. But they're not there, not at the suit company. But it is fashionable now, you can wear chucks with the suits. So that's good stuff. Okay. Now we've got a guest coming on in a moment. And that's Chantel, Nixon, Clark. And she is a state representative here in St. Louis. And so we're gonna talk to her in a minute. But my question to you, Steph, I got an argument with a bunch of people over the weekend, which I love to do. Tell me. You're stirring the pot. You're stirring the pot, huh? You know, people just don't wanna hear me. But how about inflation? Do you think that there's a lot of inflation? I'm wondering. I mean, obviously you go to the grocery store and you know, or price is up. Everything is up. Everything is up right now. How high? I'm still trying to figure it out on why everything, everything just went up. Well, I can tell you why. My question is, how much do you think it's up? I mean, do you feel like it's up a lot? Or do you think it's insignificant? I think it's up at least double. But what it was. So when you say double, what do you mean? Give me an example. So if it was previously, let's say 42%, I would say it's an 84. Well, wait, I'm not sure what that means. But I mean, like when you buy a loaf of bread. Okay, so if a loaf of bread was a dollar, then it's about $4 for a loaf of bread now. Okay, so that's how you, okay. So here's the thing, I don't think so. See? Are you kidding me? When was the last time you went to the grocery store? Yesterday. And what did you get? Well, okay. When I, I'm gonna talk to you about it. Okay, so if I get steak, I was paying, say $12, $13 a pound for sirloin five years ago. Okay. So now it's maybe 14. And you don't think that's significant. I mean, it's a dollar more. Okay. I didn't say it, I mean, I can add up the money. It's, there's money. Okay, that, I get it. But, but- Well, it depends on what you're buying it. It was like, you know, salmon has went up. I think it's like 16.99. Yeah, and how much was it? Previously, it was down. I wanna say it was down to like nine. 'Cause I buy it all the time. Okay. So again, I don't know- So that's significantly went up. Okay, I don't know- Bread hasn't doubled. Well, bread hasn't doubled. Bread hasn't doubled. Okay, it has, 'cause you could buy bread for maybe a dollar something a loaf. And now you're looking at bread at almost two to three dollars a loaf. Okay, but it depends on what kind of bread you're buying. I mean, I used to pay three and a half dollars for a loaf of bread, and now it's probably four and a half. I remember buying bread at a dollar a loaf. Yeah, no, I know you could- And that wasn't 20 years ago either. No, you're right. You could find it. I'm just saying that the higher price bread was three and a half and that was four and a half. How about eggs? Are they having the eggs come back down? Eggs just come back down. Yeah, they have. When you can get- You can get 46 eggs for five dollars. Okay. So yeah, so yeah. So yeah. So I'm just saying, so the eggs are down. Now, for example, toothpaste has just rocketed. I'll grant you that. I don't get that either. You have 50 different kinds of toothpaste. You only have one kind of teeth. Yeah. Well, you know, I get sensidine, okay? And by the way, that's a pretty funny thing now that you say it because I- I mean- No, no, no. I'll tell you what I just realized. I just realized that I've got a dentist appointment tomorrow and I will be canceling that because it's a 345. I'm not going. That's stupid. Oh yeah, you won't. I wasn't even thinking. But you know, that was- I set it up six months ago. So okay, I'll reschedule it. They'll probably move me up six more months because the dentist is all backed up. But that's another story too. Okay. So you are definitely in the camp that inflation is very high, right? Yeah? And I guess I compare it to this. I remember just maybe two years ago that we can push it to maybe four where you could go to the grocery store and for $200 worth of food, you could almost need two carts. Now you go to the grocery store and you can get 15 items that is like $75. And how I know that, I just went to the grocery store and it was $75. And it was 12 items. 12 and snooks, 12 items. I'm telling you, I wrote it down, 12 items for $75. Okay, so for $100, I wasn't going to even get a half a cart. It was going to barely skim the bottom. Yeah. That's ridiculous. Well, I'm going to agree with you that you need to be careful, number one, where you go and number two, exactly what you buy, right? In other words, you know, you could go and buy certain brands and push your costs through the roof or you could spend less. Correct. I mean, I know the cereal that I buy used to cost about $4.5 now it's five. However, however, I pay five at Target, but I would pay seven if I went to Snooks. So that's an extra $2. I mean, I'm not going to pay $7 for cereal that I can buy today for five. You know, I was getting ready to question what kind of cereal you eating. Doesn't have gold nuggets on it, $7. (both laughing) I'm just telling you, I will not pay it because I'll go to Target and pay less. And there are other things like that that you can buy at different places and pay less money for the exact same item. Here, I'll give you one. Listen to this, if this gives you an example of what's going on, the mouthwash that I buy that my dentist says is really good for you. - Which is? - ACT. - Okay. - I buy it at Target. At Target, I think it's 33 ounces, I pay $6. - Okay. - The same 33 ounces at CVS, which by the way is what's in Target, right? I mean, when you go to Target, you go to CVS in Target. Well, CVS in Target charges $6 for that mouthwash. CVS at the standalone charges $9 for the same mouthwash. Now, do you think I'm paying them $9? - No. - No. - I'm sure Walgreens would have been cheaper than CVS. CVS is just to meet overpriced and overrated. - Well, I don't know, but I know for a fact that it's CVS in one location, I can pay six, and CVS in another location, I can pay nine. - No, that's true. That depends on where you live at. That depends on where you live at. There is no difference in healthcare and how much they charge for you to go and see the same kind of doctor. It's geographic. It depends on where you live at and the prices are hard. If you go to a McDonald's in the middle of the city, compared to going to a McDonald's out in Maryland Heights, the prices are going to be different. - Okay. But again, what I'm telling you, the nine and the six dollar difference is right here in the Chesterfield area. So that you can even do it and be in the same area. Just, you know, listen, I thought that was amazing and... - Well, next time take a picture there and send it some, don't do some further investigation. - No, I'll do that. But I am going to say though, that inflation is not as horrible as people say, and I've heard this too, by the way. I've heard people say, oh, everything's up two to three dollars, which is not true. Everything is not up two to three dollars. And then the next thing is, they say that everything is in a smaller package for the same price. Well, that's not true either. I'm not saying it never happens, I'm sure it does. But everything, no. The prices are not that far out of control. Now, when you ask where it comes from, the inflation, I can answer that. That is very simple. First of all, between COVID and the war in Ukraine, it disrupted lots of economics, and it did add immediately to inflation. That's one thing. It's not unusual, it happens, every, you know, you get shocks in society, and sometimes it will lead to economic shock as well. It's not the end, you know, things adjust. And by the way, we had almost no inflation for the last two decades. For 20 years, people have been saying, the inflation is coming, didn't come. Sort of all came at once. But, and I understand that makes people upset, but it's not true that somebody did it. No one did it to us. I mean, I'm not even gonna blame Trump for it, and I'm definitely not gonna blame Joe Biden. Neither one of them. Furthermore, gotta tell ya, we're gonna have a downturn economically at some point. Is it gonna be-- - I'm sure. - Is it gonna be under Biden? Might be. Is it gonna be under the next president? It might be. And does it have anything to do with either one of them? And I'm gonna tell you this, with absolute expertise in all of this, because you know, my background is strong in economics. It's no one's fault. It's just no one's fault. It's just the way markets work. Markets go up and down. And everything that we buy and sell, it's all markets. You know, the cereal that we buy is wheat. The eggs you, you, they're in a market. Whatever it is, steel has, you know, iron compounds. I don't care what you buy, it's all markets. So markets go up and down. And they do go down. And let me tell you, the downside of it can be very upsetting. - You know what I wanna ask. - Yeah, go ahead. - Doing COVID. - Yeah. - Do you remember where all of a sudden chicken wings, you couldn't find them anywhere? - Well, now I don't remember the chicken wings now. - Yeah, you couldn't find chicken wings anywhere. - Okay. - Doing COVID. And then all of a sudden Turkey meat went sky high. - Okay. - Now you can find both, but Turkey is still higher, much higher than it used to be. - Okay. - I remember when you come back to Turkey legs before COVID, you go back to Turkey legs and pay like $1 a turkey leg. So a pack would be like $2.52. But let me also say that during this last Thanksgiving, we didn't pay that much more. We paid more, a little more, but we didn't pay that much more for a turkey. - Turkey, yeah. The whole turkeys was very cheap now. They've been very cheap for the last two years. - Okay. - But that I would attest to, but I was still trying to figure out why is it that we went through a pandemic and like all of a sudden, all the chickens were dying. So we didn't have enough chickens and we had way more turkeys. I didn't get that. So when you say economically, and I get it, and there's nobody's fault, what happened there? - Yeah, that I can't tell you. You know, I'm no expert on commodity markets, although I certainly understand markets very well. And I do understand that commodity markets move just like every other market, every market. I don't care if it's lumber or corn or wheat or soybeans. In the old days, the most volatile market there was was what they called pork bellies, which was, you know, bacon and, you know, people made and lost fortunes with pork belly prices going up and down. I'm just saying this, our overall inflation is not what people say it is. It is not horrific. It is up. There is inflation, but it's not what people describe it as. And I can tell you that when the economy gets into the downward cycle sometime, you're gonna see a lot of pressure on prices and people are gonna cry about that, as well as they will cry about losing jobs. Because, you know, we're down to 3.9% joblessness right now, which is, you know, the lowest in 50, 60 years, consistently under 4% that's full employment, which is part of the other reason that we have some inflation. Because when joblessness is low, inflation tends to rise, because people have more money, and they buy more things and it pushes prices up. I mean, this is economics 101. Blaming it on Joe Biden is stupidity. It's just not true. He has nothing to do with it. He goes to the store like we do. He doesn't have a policy that's affecting this. The Federal Reserve certainly has some impact on it, but I said some, not altogether. No, not at all. So, you know, people get messed up in all of this. - Yeah, 'cause it kind of, you saw gas go down, food went up. It just was kind of strange there for a minute, but it seems like it just, right now we're at an even keel. - Yeah, so let me finish up by saying this. Chantel Nixon Clark, the state rep, was on the floor in Missouri at four o'clock. She was legislating. So, she probably got hung up there. In fact, she was supposed to come on a 430 and then she said, well, it looks like it's gonna be 445, so it must have gone longer even still. So we'll talk to her, maybe tomorrow she's coming. I'll tell you who is also coming, and I don't know what happened to him, and that's Prince Carter, do you know his name? Okay, well, Prince Carter's been a long time radio buddy, and so he's, I don't know what he called me frantically at 345 wanting the link, and then I can't find him here. So that's fine, no big deal. I would have liked to have talked to him about inflation too, because he is in the barbecue business, and I would have loved to hear how he feels about that he sells barbecue in the city, but we'll have a chance to have that conversation yet too. Let me also say that I wanted to mention, it came out over the weekend, I'm sure we'll talk about it later, another day, but that is this Kate Britt business where she lied completely about that business, about the woman who was trafficked, turns out it was in Mexico, it wasn't even in the United States, and it was 20 years ago, it wasn't even now. So these people are just impossible, and then I got some things tomorrow to talk about with regards to Lindsey Graham. For right now, I'm gonna say that from Wenties to St. Louis Sioux Company, to Jules Unhampton, I'm Mark Casein. - I'm Stephanie Harmon, and this is... - Showdown. - Jules Unhampton. - And good night. - Good night.