How Did 30 Tons of Explosive Material Go Missing? – Mo News Rundown

Hey everybody, it is Friday, May 26th. Happy early Memorial Day weekend. If you have to work today, I hope it's a summer Friday, a half day. If you're listening to us in your car ride, we'll have some updates on that. When to be driving to your holiday location. This is a long way of saying, well, come to the most podcast. I'm going to show you. And I'm Jill Wagner. This is the place where we bring you just the facts. And we read all the news and read between the lines. You don't have to, Jill, as you can tell, I'm already in holiday mode here. I'm thinking, did he introduce me yet? Have I come on yet? No, no, I guess I'm getting all my airtime. I'm taking the next week off. We're going on a baby moon by wife and I, likely one of our last big vacations before God willing, the little one is coming in September. So I'm in full vacay mode here, Jill. Enjoy it, Moshe. Well deserved. And definitely take it while you can get it because vacations, once you have kids, take on a whole new meaning. I've witnessed it. Now it's getting closer to reality where I'm watching the people with the stroller, trying to check the stroller and then they got the kid and then the baby's crying. And there's always someone who's just so impatient with baby crying on the plane and more and more, especially now that Alex has been pregnant, I'm listening to the baby crying and I'm like, oh, that's my reality. And who can give someone crap for that? I hate that, you know, there's people on the plane who are like, you need to shut that baby up. But that's not even what I mean. I'm not even necessarily referring to the travel component, which is in and of itself a whole that we could do a whole podcast on it. I more just mean that sometimes when you have kids and this may sound terrible, but the week, the school week is actually easier sometimes than a long weekend or vacation. I've been coming to Jill all week for the reality shotgun children as I've been getting lovely notes from the rest of you listening being like, most like welcome to period. It's the best experience of your life. And Jill's like, yeah, you'll see, you'll see. It is the best thing ever. I love it. I really do. But I don't think people talk honestly about how hard it is. So most me be that person in your life. Jill as a journalist who likes to keep the facts straight, I'll have a much better sense of this in the fall, winter and the coming years. But at the same time, I do want to just give my gratitude to all of you who have written in this week, the support from the Monos community has been incredible. We released the podcast yesterday of me interviewing my wife, Alex, about the pregnancy revealing the sex of the baby live. We've learned it live in the podcast. So you can go check that out if you're a Monos premium member. And if not, go check you can join it mode.news slash premium to listen to that. But your comments have been incredible, your support has been incredible. And Jill, I've been reading the latest reviews over on Apple podcast. And I just want to read this one from Kristen who wrote that I start every morning by listening to this podcast. It's fun and light and they do a fantastic job of sharing the news in a fact based on biased way as a stay at home mother. This podcast truly helps me stay connected to what's happening in the world. Kristen, thank you for listening. We're so glad we're able to have that impact. And to all of you, if you haven't left us review yet on the podcast app of choice you listened to us on, please leave us a review. These do make a difference and help us grow the podcast. Yes, thank you so much, Kristen. Stay at home, mom. Hardest job in the world. Thank you for listening. Much appreciated. All right, Moshe, I think it's time to get to some headlines. It is T minus one week until the US could run out of money to pay its bills, where things stand when it comes to debt ceiling negotiations, 60,000 pounds of an explosive chemical disappeared from a train. What authorities think happened and don't get too scared. They think there's explanation for it that isn't totally going to freak you out. A Supreme Court decision that limits the EPA's power to address water pollution in millions of acres of wetlands overseas. The man arrested after crashing a car into Downing Street, some major sentences handed down to two January 6th rioters, including one man who said he regretted not bringing his gun to the Capitol that day. What we can expect from this year's hurricane season, we'll tell you what Noah is predicting for this year. And it is Memorial Day weekend, the best and worst travel times. Plus Moshe has on the stay in history. Starting with the transportation team from Memorial Day, Jill will give you a little history of the Volkswagen, which celebrates a birthday this weekend, from a Nazi vehicle to counterculture, a fascinating history, and then also a birthday this weekend for what a feeling from fame. What a feeling. There you go. We're so on cue, Moshe. We're so on cue. We're so on point. We'll actually play a bit of the song for you later in this spot. And cheers to the freaking weekend, what we are watching, reading and eating this Memorial Day. Let's get to it. Okay, we are T minus one week from when the US could run out of money to pay its bills. And before we get to where things stand within negotiations, a quick note about why this all matters, the Treasury Secretary has said June 1st is the date at which the US could default for the first time in history. It would likely send the stock markets both in the US and overseas into absolute turmoil. It would also mean that many Americans who get Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and other benefits might not get their checks on time. And in the last 24 hours, we got a new warning from the Fitch Credit Rating Agency about US debt. Fitch Ratings, one of the big three ratings agencies that we talked about on Wednesday's podcast saying that it had now placed the United States triple A status on quote rating watch negative, strongly suggesting that if Congress cannot reach a deal to either raise or suspend the debt limit before that June 1st deadline, Fitch would downgrade America's credit rating from triple A. In a statement, Fitch says the failure of the US authorities to meaningfully tackle fiscal challenges that will lead to rising budget deficits and a growing debt burden signal downside risk to US credit worthiness. It would be a negative signal of the willingness of the United States to honor its obligations in a timely fashion. The bottom line here, and we talked about this earlier in the week, the reason why a credit rating downgrade matters is think about your own credit rating. It means that you either have to pay higher interest rates or you have more difficult time getting money out. And that's the key to why the triple A rating so matters for the United States. Okay, so where do things actually stand here? On the one side, President Biden on the other side has speaker Kevin McCarthy. They appear at least as of this recording on Thursday evening to be nearing some type of deal that would cut spending and raise the government's 31.4 trillion dollar debt ceiling. President Biden is insisting that default not on the table. Congressman Kevin Hearnne of Oklahoma, he's a Republican who's helping to lead negotiations. He says he thinks it is likely that a deal could be reached by this afternoon. So there's some reporting from CBS that the White House is proposing extending the debt ceiling for at least two years. This would be a similar timeline to what we've seen in the past. In fact, the last increase of the debt ceiling was back in December 2021, which raised it to the current 31.4 trillion. And lasted, as we're looking at the calendars now, about 18 months, Jill Bloomberg News on Thursday posted a headline that US Treasury cash balance has dropped just below $50 billion, meaning the US Treasury, the US government has about $50 billion left in its account. Bloomberg noted that there's actually 24 individuals on the Bloomberg billionaires list that have more than that in their account right now than the US government does. People like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, etc. And so just looking at how much cash on hand the governments had, just six months ago, they had about a trillion in their bank account. They're down to, again, just under 50 billion. This is about the amount the Treasury was at the last time we had to raise the debt ceiling back in December of 2021. Now unlike that last debt ceiling increase and most of them that we've seen over the past couple of decades, it's not a simple increase. Republicans are demanding more from the White House than just saying, we'll raise the debt ceiling because we're worried about credit rating decrease and all these other things. So they're saying Biden has to find spending cuts. Biden has offered to freeze what's called discretionary spending or optional spending, including for defense. But Republicans actually want to spend more for the military and cut more from everything else. So it's possible here that in order to reach a deal that prevents default ahead of next Thursday, that's the deadline, June 1. Democrats will have to accept an agreement that allows the military spending to go up, even as non-defense spending for things like education, housing, et cetera, either stay flat or fall. Whatever the deal, it remains likely that it's going to disappoint lawmakers in all parties, the progressives, the conservatives, Kevin McCarthy saying this week, I don't think everybody is going to be happy at the end of the day. Jill, that sort of is the essence, definition of compromise here that no side is going to be completely happy, but it is something rare in Washington because no side wants to compromise anymore and they want everything they wanted. And keep in mind, Kevin McCarthy's majority in the House is only a handful of seats. So he's got to get the Marjorie Taylor Greens and the Matt Gaetz of the world to agree to whatever he agrees to with Biden. And they have shown the ability to stick their finger in his eye various times over the course of the past few months. I'm literally picturing them sticking their finger in his eye. Jill, if you watch some of what happened in that floor fight over Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker in January, him and Matt Gaetz came pretty close to maybe getting into something physical. They were pointing at each other and got hyper aggressive. And that's something you could see next week, depending on what this compromise looks like and whether Kevin can get his side in order. And then whether Biden can ensure that he can keep his side in order over in the Senate, where again, Democrats have a very slim majority and there have been people like Bernie Sanders, this Warren, other progressives who think that Biden is doing too much to compromise with Republicans and are really upset at him. According to the latest reporting, as we talk right now, the two sides, according to some sources are about $70 billion apart on a figure that would be well over $1 trillion. So it looks like they're pretty close to each other, though $70 billion does sound like a big number. They are trying to keep the markets calm. You can imagine if there is no compromise by the time markets reopen on Tuesday, that's where traders could start to really push some buttons here and make clear that a compromise needs to happen. Keep in mind, the last time we got this close in 2011, Republican House, President Obama, similar situation, we did see the US credit rating go down according to one of the agency's S&P and they never raised it again. And they did that despite there being an agreement because we just came so close to the edge. So that's where we're at. What is going on vacation for Memorial Day for the entire week, though they will be pulled back into session. Should there be an agreement to vote on? And that's where we're at. Some Democrats, by the way, are just so annoyed at this. They think Biden should pull the trigger on what's called the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution has a phrase that says that the validity of the debt of the US shall not be questioned. It has never been tested in a debt ceiling situation, but some Democrats believe that that phrase, the validity of the debt shall not be questioned. Give us the president unilateral authority to raise the debt ceiling saying, we don't need to use Congress. Just do it yourself. Biden not ready to pull that trigger yet because it's been untested and he's not sure it's constitutional. Meanwhile, there's some new polling out that shows what Americans are feeling when it comes to the debt ceiling. And the results are a little bit conflicting. One thing is clear, though, risking default is highly unpopular. And a CNN poll, just 15% of adults said that they think the US should default on its debts and not raise the debt ceiling. A poll from the AP, NARC, found that 16% say the US should not increase the national debt limit under any circumstances. Another takeaway, most Americans do want some type of cuts to federal spending as long as it means that we're not going to default on our debt. All right, so my reading of those polls, Jill, is that one in six Americans should definitely not be in charge of the government or the threshold. One in six, one in six of you listening to this podcast right now think we should default on our debt. No, thanks. But I guess the good news is if you reverse those numbers, 85% of Americans don't believe that we should be defaulting on our debt. Jill, for the most part, it appears that when you look at most polling, Americans do feel that they are concerned about the amount of debt the government is in. 60% of Americans think the government spends too much, though the majority, again, don't believe that we should be defaulting on debt. Another big takeaway from these polls, by the way, Jill, and these are probably not the most news community people who listen to this podcast, half of Americans are not even paying attention to the current debate. But that's also understandable because Congress does this all the time and you're kind of like, they're going to figure it out. They just like to wait till the last second on this stuff. One interesting thing, Jill, will be how this narrative gets spun after the fact. And that's a concern here among some Democrats is that Kevin McCarthy has been very vocal. He's going to cameras several times a day. Biden not so much. And this is where the president's age and just their lack of commitment at the White House to have him communicate daily with reporters or his inability to communicate daily with reporters is concerning Democrats that no matter what happens here, that Republicans will be able to spin a better narrative out of this than Democrats will be, especially concerning in an election cycle. All right, moving on now onto a real mystery, a 30 ton shipment of explosive chemicals has gone missing. It was last seen last month on a railroad car headed to California from Cheyenne, Wyoming. The train departed on April 12th from a plant that was operated by an explosives manufacturer. Two weeks later, the train car was found empty at a rail stop in the California Mojave desert. That train was loaded with 60,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. According to an incident report filed by the company, Dino Noble, the chemical was released, quote, due to an unknown cause. Always reassuring to hear the unknown cause press release. I feel so much better now. A representative for that company again, Dino Nobel says that they believe the chemical leaked through the rail car while in transit. They tell USA today that the rail car was sealed when it left the Cheyenne facility and that a leak through the bottom gate on the rail car may have developed while headed to California, releasing pellets of the ammonium nitrate onto the tracks over the two week trip. The route though covers more than a thousand miles. It goes through long stretches of remote territory. So sources A could be somewhat challenging to pinpoint the missing cargo or how it may have been released. You might be thinking what exactly is ammonium nitrate? It is a chemical that can be used as fertilizer or an explosive under certain conditions. That's because if it's mixed with something flammable and exposed to flame, it can explode and it's been this key ingredient in both terror attacks and also deadly accidents. However, a law enforcement source tells NBC News that the recent disappearance of the chemical does not appear to be connected to any sort of domestic terrorism threat. Yeah, spokesperson for Union Pacific told NBC that the rail company transporting the chemical said that the disappearance of the chemical should not threaten the public. This is a fertilizer that's designed for ground application and quick soil absorption. The reason for the alarm here is of course ammonium nitrate has been the cause has been very lethal in the past used as an explosive. Timothy McVay infamously used two tons of ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil to destroy the federal building in Oklahoma City back in 95. That killed 168 people. That's two tons of ammonium nitrate. This is 60 tons that has gone missing here. In 2013, ammonium nitrate was the cause of that huge explosion in West Texas that killed 15 people. Jill, I don't know if you remember covering this. It injured 200, wiped out hundreds of houses. It's about 10 years ago now that huge explosion in West Texas. And most recently in 2020, some of you might remember this, that massive explosion in Beirut Lebanon was caused by 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate that detonated. That killed 200 people injured thousands, destroyed a pretty big section there in central Beirut. Now again, the chemical is relatively harmless on its own, including if it leaked out over these train tracks. But it can explode again if it is added to a fuel source and then subjected to heat. In this case, again, as you go into this weekend, investigators don't believe there's anything malicious going on, but still caught our attention and has caught the attention of many of you that 60 tons of ammonium nitrate just went poof on the rail line between Wyoming and California. Okay, we have plenty of more news to get to, including today's speed read and on this day. But we want to begin with a couple exclusive offers for the Mo News community for all of you listening. We want to start right now with our partner Bolin Branch Sheets, their brand that helps you get an amazing night's sleep. They have a great sale right now for the Mo News community specifically for Memorial Day, which I'll tell you about in a second. First, Bolin Branch Sheets are made with 100% traceable organic cotton. They get softer with every wash. Jill, we were just talking before the pod. You need some more sheets. I do, Mo, and I happen to love our Bolin Branch Sheets. And like they say, they really do get softer with every wash. So the longer that we have them, the more we like them. Jill, you're not alone. Millions of people have bought the sheets, including apparently four American presidents have used Bolin Branch Sheets as well. So let's get to the deal here. You can get 20% off your first order this Memorial Day weekend when you use the promo code, what else? Mo News, M-O-N-E-W-S over at Bolin Branch.com. That is Bolin Branch B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com, promo code Mo News. Starting this Thursday, you can get a free striped beach towel ready for Memorial Day weekend and the rest of your summer with your purchase for a limited time only. That begins on Thursday. And that's of course, while supplies last, exclusions do apply. Seaside for details. Now to our good friends at Athletic Greens and their AG1 supplement, if you're not taking it already. Jill and I have both been using it since the fall. The Athletic Greens AG1 powder is just one scoop with a glass of water in the morning. It allows you to get 75, more than 75, important ingredients, vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics for your gut health. It allows you really easily, really quickly to get on with your day knowing that you've gotten all of that. Right now Athletic Greens is offering a special deal for the Mo News community. Mo News listeners get a free one year supply of Vitamin D and five free travel packs of the AG1 supplement. This all comes with your first purchase. You can visit athleticgreens.com slash Mo News to take advantage of the offer. You can get a discounted monthly subscription. You can try it one time for just a month. Again, it's athleticgreens.com slash Mo News, the code again, mo AnyWS for this special deal. It'll allow you to again, get all your vitamins that you need and start to take ownership of your health. Okay, time now for the speed read from the New York Times, the Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the EPA's authority to police millions of acres of wetlands delivering another setback to the agency's ability to combat pollution. Writing for five justices, Justice Samuel Alito said that the Clean Water Act does not give the EPA the power to regulate chemical discharges into wetlands near major bodies of water unless they have a quote, continuous surface connection to those waters. The decision was a second major blow to the EPA's authority and to the power of administrative agencies generally. Last year, the court limited the EPA's power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. Experts in environmental law say the decision undercuts the EPA's authority to protect wetlands under the Clean Water Act, letting companies pollute in certain wetlands without penalty. Yeah, one former EPA lawyer who worked at the agency from Clinton through Trump was quoted as saying that this now affects more than half the nation's wetlands based on that interpretation by Alito and the five justice majority that the major bodies of water have to be connected, have to have surface connection to wetlands for EPA to have a jurisdiction there. Now the reason this case got to the Supreme Court is this is based on a dispute between a family that's trying to build a home near a wetland and they were coming into contention with the EPA and they were arguing the EPA has no authority to regulate here. Now all nine justices on the court actually agreed that the homeowners who brought the case should not have been subject to EPA authority. The issue here is that there was sharp disagreement among the justices about this new test that was established as to why that the EPA doesn't have authority. And you had the five member majority there that believes that the EPA just doesn't have that much power. And then you had the four in the minority, the three liberals plus Justice Kavanaugh said that this harms the federal government's ability to address pollution and flooding here. Though this does come, Joe, you mentioned the other EPA case from last year as the Supreme Court, the majority of conservatives, at least on the court with Kavanaugh now with the liberals, at least on this case, saying that they're being very specific when it comes to EPA authority, saying, I don't read an EPA bylaws. I don't read a law from Congress that gives the EPA authority. They're being very literalist here. And so they're saying, if you think EPA should have that authority, Congress, write it into the law. Whereas in previous decades, the EPA and government agencies were given more leeway, so to speak, when it came to regulation. Heading overseas from the BBC, a man's been arrested after crashing a car into the gates outside of Downing Street. The Metropolitan Police said he'd been held by armed officers on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving. One witness said he saw officers pointing tasers at a suspect who was held face to the floor as he was arrested. There are no reports of injuries. The investigation is ongoing. Joe, this comes just a day after we told you about that man earlier this week who tried to do the same thing near the White House in Washington, crashing a car into the gates. Not completely uncommon. We usually see these things a couple times a year. Odd coincidence though, to have a couple of these in a matter of days, but again, no connection between the incidents. Jill, there were a lot of photos and videos online in the aftermath of the crash showing police pointing tasers at the man. Footage of the car, it was a silver kia, shows it slowing down as it approached the main entrance of Downing Street. A 10 Downing Street, famously, is the home and office of the British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who happened to be there at the time of the crash. But again, there were no injuries. From NBC News, the founder of the far right Oath Keepers has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison in connection with the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Following his conviction on seditious conspiracy, the sentence for Stuart Rhodes is the longest imposed on a January 6 defendant to date in a politically charged speech in the courtroom. Just before sentencing, he called himself a political prisoner and said he hopes that Donald Trump wins in 2024. Trump has said that he will part in many of the January 6 convicts. The judge disagreed that Rhodes had been locked up for political reasons, saying it was his actions that led to his criminal convictions. That judge, Amit Mehta, saying, quote, you sir, presents an ongoing threat and a peril to this country and to the Republic and to the very fabric of democracy. So Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy back in November, along with another member of that Oath Keepers militia group. Rhodes had written a message ahead of January 6 saying, they won't fear us until we come with rifles in hand. After the attack in a recording that was played in the court during the trial, he said his only regret was they should have come to January 6 with rifles. In other January 6 news, a federal judge this week in a separate case convicted a guy named Richard Bigo Barnett. You might know him as the Capitol writer who was photographed with his feet on Nancy Pelosi's desk. He had also left her a note with an obscenity that day. He was convicted and sentenced to four and a half years in prison this week. He's one of those 350 rioters now in just the past two years who've been convicted for their role in the riot. That image of Barnett in Pelosi's office has become one of the most well known images from that day. And for a time he actually sold autographed copies. He would send copies of the photo and charge supporters for them. Barnett's lawyers though argued that he shouldn't have gotten more than six months in prison. They said, listen, he's a 63 year old retired firefighter, bull rider from rural Arkansas who came to DC for the very first time to peacefully protest but was unfortunately, in their words, caught up in the events that turned an ordinary Wednesday into what will be known as January 6. Prosecutors disagreed saying Barnett knew what he was there for. He had prepared for violence in advance with a stun device, a 10 pound steel pole, both capable of inflicting serious injury. He only left the Capitol after he was hit by chemical spray and then bragged about the actions to supporters, gelled the judge in court said, listen, Barnett, you're 63 years old. You were way too old for this nonsense. I don't buy the argument that you were just caught up in the festivities in the actions of that day. From USA Today, the federal government predicts a near normal 2023 hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin. So what is normal? They're thinking five to nine hurricanes could form. Overall, no forecasts about 12 to 17 named tropical storms will develop in the region. That includes the Atlantic, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The season officially begins next Thursday, June 1st, the same day that we could potentially default on our debt and it runs through November 30th. Oh, June 1st. But typically, if you've watched the tropics this time of year, it's that latter end of August through October that we tend to be more concerned about. Though once in a while, there is an early storm. So this upcoming Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be less active than recent years because of a variety of factors here. After three hurricane seasons with La Nina present, that's the larger climate condition that comes out of the Pacific, no a scientist predict a high potential for El Nino this year and El Nino while it has a negative impact on certain things tends to suppress hurricanes coming out of the Atlantic. So typically, El Nino years are good things if you live in the southeast and you want less hurricanes. However, the warmer waters right now in the Gulf and in the ocean due to climate change effectively offset that El Nino advantage. And that's one of the reasons that they're trying to monitor these two things happening the same time. So Jill, you noted that there could be up to 17 named storms. So that includes tropical storms of those five to nine could be hurricanes. And then kind of zooming in here further, one to four of those hurricanes, they say could be major hurricanes, which is category three, four or five. Just if we're looking at their scorecard last year, their forecast last year was an above normal season of 14 to 21 named storms. And they and we ended up on the lower end of that 14 named storms last year. And of course, we did see hurricanes Ian, Nicole and Fiona, which did a lot of damage to certain parts of the country. So Joe, this is the NOAA forecast, the NOAA out of the government. There's another forecast out of Colorado state. They also predict hurricane seasons. And they're pretty much in line right now for eight ish hurricanes. Again, it's a prediction. There's a lot of things happening between El Nino and warmer water. So it does bear watching. And unfortunately, even if there was one major hurricane that hit a major US state or country, in Central America, you know, those things tend to be deadly or cause a lot of damage. So let's keep our fingers crossed this year for as few as possible. For Maxios with this upcoming Memorial Day weekend projected to be the third busiest ever on record, travelers may want to consider the best and worst times to drive or fly. Experts say with lower fuel prices and more travelers on the road compared to last year, whoever should expect long delays this holiday weekend, according to AAA air travel also expected to exceed pre pandemic levels. Airports will be packed with about 17 million passengers expected to fly out of US airports from Thursday to Monday. Road trips are up 6% from last year. So if you haven't left good news, AAA thinks the lightest traffic days will be Saturday and Sunday. Aside from those days, AAA says the best times to travel by car are before 1pm Thursday. So that already happened. And before noon today, get moving. A few more hours. If you're listening to us early, get moving. Jill, Alison will be traveling tomorrow early morning. So feeling good about flying on the Saturday from Memorial Day weekend. They usually try to time that out as far as your return home. This is something you can plan for right now. AAA says the best times to come back are either before 10am on Monday or Tuesday before 2pm or after 6pm if you have Tuesday off of work. So as far as busiest times, several of those times happened yesterday. So congrats if you didn't have to travel yesterday. And then today, starting again afternoon, it should get pretty busy. Monday afternoon will be pretty bad as will the Tuesday rush hour. These are metro areas like Boston, New York, Seattle, Tampa will likely see travel times double compared to normal. So download some podcasts. We have a bunch of interviews for you over here at Mo News. Join Mo News Premium. I got extra episodes over there too. Let us ride along with you as you get stuck in traffic. Hopefully, again, hopefully your traffic isn't too bad, but we have ways to keep you entertained this weekend. Jill, what's the furthest you're driving this weekend? Feed to the deli to pick up a sandwich or the liquor store to get wine. Good thinking, good thinking, good planning, good planning. I just had an idea, Moshe. I think that in addition to our podcast, we should put together a Mo News playlist with some of the songs that we do for On This Day. I think that's a great idea. Last year, actually for my 40th birthday, my wife, essentially, I think it's so available on Spotify, the Moshe 40th birthday playlist. So put together a playlist of the best of 80s, 90s, 60s, 70s, and today. But I think we should, the Mo News Spotify playlist is something we'll get working on. Jill, we have two interns joining us this summer, so I feel like that's the project to start them on. Actually, Moshe, I want that assignment. Jill, how about this? You oversee it and they'll build it, but it'll be heavily influenced by your musical case. This is the Jill Mo News playlist, the Moshe Mo News playlist, and then the Gen Z intern playlist. They will be different. Definitely. They'll be like, what? Yeah. What are you guys talking about? My parents liked that song. Moving on here to On This Day in History, as we begin here, this is our part of the podcast where we like to talk nostalgia, talk history. And we're so thankful this week that Magic Spoon's cereal has joined us as a sponsor for On This Day. One of the things many of us look back finally on is the cereals we ate growing up from back in the day, and Magic Spoon has replicated some of those flavors in a more wholesome way. Magic Spoon right now has a special deal going on for the Mo News community. You can head over to magicspoon.com slash Mo News to grab a variety pack today from a code Mo News. It'll save you $5 off your order. I'll have more on that in just a second, but let's get started here on On This Day. And Jill, I should say at the outset here, this is more On This Weekend in History because we had a couple of days to play with here. So On This Weekend in History in 1896, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was first published. So when people refer to the Dow, it's actually an average of several companies. Right now it's 30 major companies. When it was first established in 1896, it was 12 companies, including one you still know today, General Electric. GE was actually part of those original 12 companies. And then Stade is part of the industrial average for 120 years until it was removed in 2018. They tend to refresh the Dow Jones Industrial Average with companies they feel better represent larger companies and those that represent the larger market. So GE made it until 2018. Now it's comprised by 30 other major companies, companies you'd be very familiar with. But a happy birthday today to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. All right, fast forward a little bit. In 1937, this weekend when Volkswagen was founded by the Nazi Party in Germany, originally operated by the German labor front that was a Nazi organization under Hitler, it was part of his ambitious campaign to build a network of highways, the Autobons, across Germany. And then his pet project was the development and mass production of an affordable yet speedy vehicle. So the Nazi Party founds a Volkswagen and Hitler's big project is, I want you to be able to build a car that costs $140 for people to drive in. The knock was a car's were too expensive. That car by the way, Jill, is what would become the Volkswagen Beetle. That was the car that was designed as part of the Hitler priority there. So post World War II, Volkswagen sales continued to be very slow in the US because of that connection. And then comes a major ad campaign starting the late 50s, early 60s, dubbing the car the Beetle, spinning its small size as a distinct advantage for consumers. Over the 1960s, Volkswagen would become the top selling auto import in the US, a symbol of the counterculture and hippies, but a fascinating history there over a couple decades, going from the car that was designed and built for Hitler's ambitions. And then suddenly 20 years later, it's a symbol for the hippies. I will never look at a Beetle the same way. Jill, I love corporate history, always fascinating stories. This is one of the more fascinating ones out there. There's a podcast out there called Business Wars that I think is really interesting. If you're interested in business history, they tend to look back at like Hershey versus Nestle. Oh, right. You love this for a while. I'm obsessed. Yeah, like McDonald's versus Burger King, you know, all the various competitions forward versus Chevy, et cetera. And they go into the history of this. It's a HUD versus Domino's anyway, I've listened to a ton of them clearly. But if you're interested in that, go check out the Business Wars podcast. I think it's a wonderry podcast, but was very interested when I saw the Volkswagen thing is I remember reading something about it and I dug in and they're really interesting history. All right, Jill, your husband's favorite moment in the pod. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. So listen, I don't often do celeb birthdays anymore, but I just was struck by the fact that today three major musical birthdays, Lauren Hill is 48, Lenny Kravitz is 59. And this is also the day that Miles Davis was born, my fellow Gemini's. I have less musical talent than them, but this is a big day for musical birthdays. Totally. All right. We end here with a little bit of music turning 40 years old this weekend. ♪ Wanna feel it ♪ ♪ Feels with me then ♪ Jill, that's the song we attempted to sing at the top of the podcast. On this weekend in 1983, 40 years ago, what a feeling from Flashdance by Irene Cara reached number one on the Billboard charts. It would be in the top 10 for 14 weeks that year, the longest running top 10 single of 1983. ♪ What a feeling ♪ ♪ Doo doo doo doo doo doo ♪ I need to learn the words. Jill, I'm told by my mother that as a one year old, I was bopping up and down in my crib to this song. Been a fan for a while now, sadly, the singer of that song Irene Cara died in November. And finally, we're going to throw it back to Credence Clearwater Revival and their debut album that came out this weekend in 1968, 55 years ago today, Jill, it included this hit, Suzy Q. ♪ Oh, Suzy Q ♪ ♪ Oh, Suzy Q, baby, I love you ♪ ♪ Suzy Q ♪ Well, I figure I got to do a shout out once in a while to music made before 1990. So there you have it. My father-in-law will appreciate it. He loves that kind of music. ♪ All right, it is Friday. Cheers to the freaking weekend. Time for a look at what we are watching, reading and eating this weekend. Mosh, what are you watching? Jill, I see that there's a special from Norm McDonald on Netflix that's coming out. The late comedian, of course, sadly died a couple of years ago from leukemia, but he had self-taped a special by himself in his living room the summer of 2020 while undergoing cancer treatment. Netflix has put it together and they're putting it out as his posthumous final stand-up special this weekend. Norm, of course, you might remember him back in the day from Saturday Night Live. Was always a fan, so I'm looking forward to watching that. Jill, what are you watching? I'm actually going to be watching something in the real world. It's the air show at Jones Beach. It's Saturday and Sunday and I'm going to try to make it. It's supposedly awesome. Somehow I've managed to live on Long Island for most of my 40-something years and never gone. Jill, that's going to require commute and traffic this weekend. Make sure to double-check those AAA times you just read. Which also means my husband will probably put the kibosh on his plan. Jill, you said on the podcast, we're not going further than the liquor store. That was my initial plan, actually. Moshe, what are you reading this weekend? Jill, I've been reading How to Human by Carlos Whittaker. That's a book by Carlos. You might know him from Instagram where he has a pretty significant following. I had the good fortune of interviewing him about the book this week. He talks about reconnecting with other humans. We just see that other these days were so divisive and it's a great book about how you can reconnect with people and how you can really make a difference. We'll be putting that out, actually, in my conversation with him about the book and generally speaking positivity in life over on the Premium podcast next week. So, make sure to join Mo News Premium to get that. Jill, what are you reading? Okay, so I'm reading this article in The New York Times. It's called The Strategic Fashioning of Casey DeSantis. That is the wife of Ron DeSantis. The subtitle here is with an eye to the Kennedys and the Trumps. Sometimes a wardrobe is a strategy. It's really fascinating because we're going to be seeing a lot more of Ron DeSantis on the national stage now that he has officially announced his presidency. And his wife has definitely come to play, Moshe. I mean, her wardrobe is spectacular. And according to this article, at least what I've read of it, it's all very strategic. She is a former news anchor from Jacksonville, which is how she and Ron actually met each other. Her outfits kind of harken back to either Jackie Kennedy or just make you feel a certain way. She definitely dresses the part. Yeah, they would be one of the youngest couples in the White House in a very long time. Casey DeSantis is only 42 years old. She turns 43 next month. And Ron is 44 going on 45 this year. So definitely a generational statement. He's not 44 going on 43. That's how it works. He's getting older. Got it. My understanding is that she's going to get older to 43 and he's going to get older to 45 despite some people on this podcast, hoping that the 40 is going to reverse as opposed to the other part as opposed to the other decades. Oh, all right, Jill. Finally, what are you eating this weekend? Moshe, it has been a long week. I'm going to be drinking. I don't know what, but booze liquid liquid meal. Maybe some Moscow mules. Jill sounds like a plan. We're headed on vacation this weekend for a few days. So I won't be seeing you in the podcast next week, everybody. But I will be engaging in a few Pini Kalata's next few days, Jill. All right. Well, well deserved. I hope that you and Alex have an amazing baby moon. Enjoy every second of it. We are going to actually be dark. The podcast is going to be dark next week. Again, we will have some of those special episodes. If there is any crazy breaking news, yours truly will bring it to you. Unlike Moshe's on vacation, I'm having a colonoscopy. So that is where I'm going to be for a couple of days next week out of commission. Listen, it's very important. Younger and younger, it's something I'm going to be doing later this year as well. Especially if you have family history, sometimes the insurance says, you don't need to 45 or 50 folks go get your colonoscopies early because it turns out that the rates keep going higher. So I don't envy you, Jill. It is the opposite of what I'll be doing next week, but I wish you luck. All right. Guys, I only tell you this because I believe in honesty on this podcast. Transparency on this team. Very important. All right. I want to thank our sponsor this week, Magic Spoon Cereal, which is sponsoring on this day in history, their peanut butter, frosty, cocoa, fruity. Speaking of sugar, sugar are all in the hit. It allows you to have a bin in nostalgia and a low carb way. The great thing right now, Magic Spoon is gluten free, grain free, soy free and sugar free. They're so confident in their product. They have a 100% happiness guarantee. So if you don't like it, they'll refund you. No questions asked. Remember, you can get your next big bowl of high protein cereal over at magic spoon.com slash mownews again, magic spoon.com slash mownews. Use the code mownews to get $5 off. All right. A big thank you for listening to the Mownews podcast. Follow us and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Review us in the app store so we can continue to grow. And don't forget to follow on Instagram, of course, with a latest and greatest at Mosh at MOS HEH and our newsletter, a couple of weeks old as a daily now gel. We keep seeing growth there. You can join sign up for the Mownews letter. It's a part of your daily Mownews diet. If you can't listen to the podcast, get the newsletter in your inbox. It's a huge in your inbox by about 445 in the morning over at mow.news. You can sign up today. And the newsletter will not be dark next week. Tuesday through Friday, we will be publishing. So check it out. All right. Bye everybody. Thanks for listening to the Mownews podcast. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. ♪♪♪♪.