Andre  0:00  
They're doing to the to the country, what is happening to 1000s upon 1000s of people in the tech industry? They're stripping it for parts and trying to wholesale the value, kind

Chris  0:14  
of like a private equity acquisition. Yes,

Andre  0:17  
that's awful for when it when it comes to people that depend on that sh!t. It's really

Chris  0:22  
awful. I mean, how often has private equity actually benefited the company that it purchased?

Andre  0:33  
So the target boycott for like, 40 days, we're not built like they were built back in the 60s and 70s and late 50s.

Chris  0:43  
Do you mean that you don't think people are capable of doing that? That's what you mean. No. So the reason why the silver target boycott is not the answer, right? Well, it's

Andre  0:53  
part of the answer, but we're not built like that. Burn the

Chris  0:57  
targets down. That's no the answer. So face the targets. So there's

Andre  1:03  
a clip of the Tesla dealership being burnt to the ground in France, right? So they're a game. The Hustle and game in Europe is different than our hustle and

Chris  1:16  
game. If this sh!t was happening in France there, they'd already have heads rolling, let's just say Right, right.

Andre  1:22  
But I was also contrasting that to what happened during the the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. I grew up in Harlem, like there are burnt down buildings there, like there were things like, just done. We're not built the same way as our ancestors. I'm not built the same way my mom was. I'm not built the same way that my grandparents were.

Chris  1:49  
Right, and there's a reason for that, right?

Andre  1:53  
Yeah, I'm going to speak as a black man that grew up with grandparents that fought in the Civil Rights Movement. My mom went to segregated schools. The the the struggle they went through, is different than my struggle. Their complacency is a consequence, but we're dealing with the consequence of the complacency right now. So the civil rights movement should never, like take in like a breather, because it wasn't so much as to just for me to go to schools that had white kids and black kids and Hispanics and stuff like that, were just not built the same way that the complacency is the problem. And right now we're dealing with a situation where the the people that are on the quote, unquote left, or the the non wackos, have sucked out all the oxygen in the room, and nobody knows how to respond, you know? So for me, it's like it's a moment we talked about this with George Floyd. It's a moment that I hope that people can remember after they're uncomfortable for a little bit. That's kind of how I feel, what I feel, we're there now. So that was just my brain dump. We just started recording, and I was listening to James Brown, and it just kind of, this

Unknown Speaker  3:30  
man will make your liver, whoever. This man will make your bladder splatter. This man will free your knee, if you will. Let's all welcome the world's Godfather of Soul. Soul brother number one, James Brown, James Brown, James Brown. You.

Andre  4:00  
Wow. It brought up memories of like things and stories. My parents told me about their struggle. What you got?

Chris  4:12  
So it's interesting, right? Because there's this stupid, maybe it's not stupid, but there's this, the phrase that keeps going around the internet lately, especially on Reddit, where it's, you know, tough times create tough men. Easy times create weak men. Something along those lines. And it's interesting because somebody, I don't remember where I saw it, but had kind of made the point that it's like, you know, the people who are kind of cozying up to the fascism and authoritarianism now are people who have never had to experience that themselves,

Andre  4:50  
but they'll be the first ones to slaughter, sure, but you

Chris  4:54  
know what I'm saying? Like, part of the reason and that somebody was basically saying that, like. Yeah, and I didn't really get this, because it was they were basically saying that the impending recession, even during Joe Biden, that, like the tough times under Joe Biden, made people more willing to embrace authoritarianism, because that felt safer than democracy, which

Andre  5:21  
I don't, I don't know if i i buy that all together, to be honest. To be like, super clear,

Chris  5:25  
yeah, I'm not sure that I buy that that bit, either. I think

Andre  5:32  
it was a power move, like we've I'm gonna address a comment because of a bad title and a bad thumbnail that I've been holding close to my chest. We understand the economy. If you listen to the being a marketer

Chris  5:53  
I was, I was wearing my marketing hat a little too, too heavily.

Andre  5:57  
We gotta stop. We gotta stop doing that. And that's fine,

Chris  6:00  
to be fair, right? I said, Hey, you know what, you're absolutely right. The thumbnail and title were both misleading. So I have updated that I appreciate the feedback. I know, I know, but this is for everybody else that isn't going to take the time to go. So I'm not a f*cking asshole, all right.

Andre  6:17  
He's a marketer. Yeah, look at the jacket, right? My marketing jacket. I think that this is a, it all depends on when you want, when you want, to start the history, right? It's a 56 year plan, and the plebs are losing the unfortunate part is the people that the plebs are trying to protect in spite of will suffer, right? I shared a video. Hopefully we can put a link somewhere here or here, of the of Puerto Rico, right

Chris  6:59  
down. I'm not pointing to my crotch, just to be clear. Okay, it's gonna be down here, because that's where links outside of, well, actually, no, if it's a YouTube video, then I might be able to put it up there. Okay,

Andre  7:12  
there's that video is kind of indicative of a potential future this country has

Speaker 1  7:21  
Puerto Rico, a US territory, but not a state. Is the poorest, most unequal part of the United States, and it's in free fall, a 20 year economic crisis, austerity, hurricanes, earthquakes and a pandemic hit the island hard.

Andre  7:35  
The way that the United States is treating Puerto Rico is how rural non GDP impacting counties states will be affected by the things that are happening right now in my in my humble and gracious opinion, well, that's

Chris  7:55  
what I think a lot of people maybe don't understand about several of the federal agencies and programs that are being hacked to death currently is that it's not, you know, it's like, whoa is Dei, whoa, blah, blah, blah, but it's like a lot of that stuff actually is helping the rural areas that don't have the Funding, that don't have access to things to get additional funding to get, you know, materials, like the things that they need to be able to educate their kids, and it seems like a lot. It's,

Andre  8:32  
let me, let me pause. It's, I'm sorry not to interrupt you. It's a long video. Most PR attention spans, for whatever reason, are not designed to engage in that stuff. But like, you take Puerto Rico out, and you put Kentucky, you take Puerto Rico out, you put Louisiana, Missouri, or you take Caswell County in North Carolina, Buncombe County. And like, that's your that's your potential future. So I just want to make sure I am more specific about what I'm saying. Yeah,

Chris  9:04  
and right, North Carolina is already, I mean, here in Wilmington, right, they have the bridge, the big bridge, Memorial Bridge, that goes across the river. And they just got done doing a repair job, because it the project to replace the bridge, which is ultimately what needs to happen, has been delayed repeatedly. Well now, thanks to Elon Musk and Doge, they've paused the funding that was supposed to go towards that project. Now, so they've had to again delay the replacement of the bridge project for like the third time. And I mean Asheville, right, which is which just decimated by Helene, and that whole area now is losing access to FEMA. They're losing access to other agencies that were there to help you. Right?

Andre  10:04  
I Huh. I don't have answers or solutions for the problems that are like, super complex,

Chris  10:16  
no, but we're not supposed to right? Donald Trump said that he was going to fix it all on day one.

Andre  10:23  
I don't want to get I don't want to get caught in that trap. I don't here's, here's the, here's what I would propose forget how I feel about Donald Trump. He's a piece of sh!t, right? I've, I've not changed that position. I've said years ago, he's a Hitler and Mussolini type person. You my friend actually said that's kind of far.

Chris  10:46  
Like, yeah, I probably did. That sounds

Andre  10:48  
right. And I was like, Nah, dude, those are the same characteristics of Mussolini, Hitler, Castro, and that's a slippery slope. And I'm paraphrasing the multiple conversations we've had about the same topic. Yeah, I've been very consistent in how I feel about him. Months ago, like a few months ago, I said, as a business person, who's a, I'm a I'm a capitalist, I'm a free market guy. I don't think you want a CEO running government like that is my honest personal opinion

Chris  11:27  
any CEO, let alone this sh!tty

Andre  11:30  
especially a sh!tty business person with

Chris  11:33  
an extremely sh!tty track record, right? Like

Andre  11:38  
I would not hire Donald Trump. I would not hire Elon Musk. Now you can get at me in the comments. I can, I can point you to various reasons why I would not hire either one of them as an employee. They're they're pathetic, they're they're not the person you want running your business as a business owner. I would not hire them as employees, because they're just their history of employment is ass, and the way they're trying to strip as a tech guy, they're doing to the to the country, what is happening to 1000s upon 1000s of people in the tech industry. They're stripping for parts and trying to wholesale the value. It's

Chris  12:29  
kind of like a private equity acquisition. Yes, that's awful

Andre  12:33  
for when it when it comes to people that depend on that sh!t, it's really awful.

Chris  12:37  
I mean, how often has private equity actually benefited the company that it purchased. Right? I was just reading the other day about why Joanne fabrics is going out of business because they were acquired for $1.6 billion a private equity firm. But the private equity firm doesn't take out a loan in their own name. No to acquire that company, they take out a loan in Joanne fabrics is named to acquire Joanne fabrics. How the f*ck does that make any sense? I don't understand that for the life of me. And then saddle the company that you just bought with the debt that you just used to acquire the company that you bought and strip it for parts, and then you sell off the parts, and then you're like, oh, wow, we're a billion dollars in debt. No sh!t you took on $1.6 billion in debt when you acquired them. I just and,

Andre  13:30  
but I also believe that companies should die,

Chris  13:32  
yeah, yeah, right. Some companies should die. I'm not right, but, but part of the issue is also that Joanne fabric had been extremely successful up until that point, right? Like their track record, they had no debt up until they were acquired by private equity. And so it's, it's not always the case, right, that a private equity company comes in and acquires an extremely successful company that has no problems. And I'm not saying that Joe Andre fabrics doesn't have any problems. A good

Andre  14:01  
contrast would be like any company that Warren Buffett and Berkshire like eventually acquire, right? Sure. So there are good companies on the books and there are struggling companies on the books, and most investors aren't like war. But that's the the anomaly, yeah, in our current economy,

Chris  14:20  
literally the anomaly

Andre  14:24  
in our current economy, or recent economy last 15 years. Well, actually, let me go, that's not true. Go back, yeah, I go back to the.com bubble. We have, we have have this need to create bubbles, I've been talking about AI, Microsoft just put out in their recent investors call. They've made no money off of AI, right? And they're, they're calling back their investment. I've been saying that well before that was a thing, yeah.

Chris  14:59  
I. Do you think Sam Altman is looking to do the same thing now?

Andre  15:03  
Well, no, my back to politics, and I really, I've been trying not to talk about politics because or even the economy, but god damn this sh!t show, yeah,

Chris  15:25  
I forgot to check is today a tariff state or a no tariff state? I

It's, I mean, that's not, I'm sorry. But even if you think that this is all just posturing. How can you look at that Andre there's this belief that the stock market is not reacting to the instability in the White House and the tariff situation, but rather the the cutting of public spending that this is the economy going through basically withdrawal symptoms from cutting government spending, and that eventually we'll get clean of it, and then we'll be sober and we can all prosper together moving forward with the government not spending any money.

Andre  16:20  
I I don't know what's going on.

Chris  16:27  
This is literally sh!t that I have read people like, and people, yeah, no, this is, you're exactly right. This is just once we cut off the government teeth, then we'll be good. That's like,

Andre  16:39  
Okay, I think it's 17 states that are very dependent on the on federal funding. Federal

Chris  16:48  
funding. Do you happen to have any any clue how most of those states tend to vote at a federal level?

Andre  16:55  
I'm gonna guess there.

Chris  16:57  
Would you consider them red states? There may be

Andre  17:01  
possibly red states. I don't

Chris  17:10  
I'm sorry. I'm doing that thing where you start something, and I just insert joke here, and I completely derail you. You, you you were saying that you didn't want to. You wanted to get back to politics, but you haven't been wanting to talk about politics or the economy, but holy crap.

Andre  17:29  
What a show. Yeah, I actually had a phone call yesterday, a conversation this morning, with people I'm pretty confident may have voted for this administration. Remember how I said after the election? I was kind of, I was kind of dumbfounded that I forgot that we're a racist, misogynist country. Sure, yes, I do remember that. Yes, now I'm meeting people were leopards have

Chris  18:01  
eaten their faces. And how does that make you feel?

Andre  18:14  
Like, whoa, it's legit. That's my response. Like, whoa, we had this conversation months ago. What are we doing? Like, why are you complaining? Yeah, like, I'm gonna mind my black business, and like, I will more than likely be okay, but you're complaining about things that you you purposely did to yourself, right?

Chris  18:38  
Like you voted for this, whether you realized it at the time or not, whether you believed it at the time or not, you were given plenty of warning, like it was all out there if you chose to do your own research, right? I know you do, but I use it all the time because I hate it too, and it's stupid, like it's, you know, don't trust scientists. Trust RFK Jr sitting in a steak and shake telling you Measles is basically the same as chicken pox. It used

Speaker 3  19:11  
to be when you when I were kids, everybody got measles, and the measles gave you protected lifetime protection against measles infection. The vaccine doesn't do that. Vaccine is effective for some people for life, but many people, it wanes.

Chris  19:27  
I am worth f*cked like, like, this f*cking country is f*cked for a hot minute here, at least, here's,

Andre  19:35  
here's, what I kind of think is gonna happen. We're gonna be like, isolationism is a bad theory,

Chris  19:42  
but it's gonna happen, right? Like, that's where we're moving towards. I assume

Andre  19:48  
you know what, I'm kind of thinking it's hopeful that if the stock market goes down another 1000 points, yeah, they'll impeach him. I.

Chris  20:00  
Right? Why? Why would the stock market going down 2000 points be the thing that finally convinced them to impeach him?

Andre  20:08  
I think it'll be the gag reflex of Citizens United, so the lobbyists, which are predominantly funded by those people, will regurgitate and just like, can't take the swallow on this one. They're like, now we're good. I think you've had enough time, and you're, you're f*cking everybody. That's why it's, it's very pie in the sky,

Chris  20:37  
yeah. I mean, I, I don't see it happening. I would love to, love to see that happen. I would love to see that man marched out of the f*cking White House in handcuffs, but I don't think I'm ever going to get to see that or under a sheet.

Andre  20:55  
Glad you said it not me, because

Chris  21:00  
I will f*ck when he dresses up as a KKK member for Halloween this year. I was just kidding. No, he's gonna be dead, f*cking dead. There's no way this motherf*cker lives another four years,

Andre  21:14  
right, right? I can't see it. I don't see it either i i Um, yeah, he's, he's in a Hitler, muslini Chavez f*cking, like, Castro level. I think fumagido from Peru, like, that level of like, No, I don't want that. Yeah, I don't know, dude, like midterms can't get I want the Democrats to shut the government down. F*ck it. Just like go. Let it go. You can't

Chris  21:54  
fund this government and then continue to complain about it. I eat that you can't do both. So and, I mean, any Democrat that votes for this,

Andre  22:07  
John Fetterman, that guy, yeah,

Chris  22:12  
yeah. I mean, it's, it's the whole, you know, like, oh, maybe if I play enough ball, then I can get the stuff that I want for you know, like, it's what everybody does, right with it? It's like, oh, maybe I can suck up just enough that I can get Trump to give me what I want. But it's like, what you you're selling your f*cking soul to get what you want, even if it's not for you, even if what you you want is for your constituents, like those are

Andre  22:43  
that's that's not even, that's not even the case, though, right? But look at all these like weekend like Country Club members in North Carolina. Yeah, whenever I see a person that like reps the GOP real hard, I just want to slap the sh!t outta them. They say the dumbest sh!t you got Josh, Josh Stein on the rope. So, like, well, we want you to not to argue against President Trump's Man, f*ck President Trump. Like, we don't want you. We're gonna, like, neutere you.

Chris  23:18  
You're talking about Jeff Jackson,

Andre  23:21  
yeah, so they're trying to strip away the powers from the Ag of the state right to the coddle this guy, yeah, and f*ck that all day. Whenever I see these little f*cking like plaid suit wearing b!tches, I just want to spit on them. I just don't

Chris  23:42  
I don't, right? Because it's, I don't know it's really, it's irritating, and we've talked about this, you can't fight any of this with actual logic, right? There's no sense of shame, there's no sense of logic, there's no sense of critical thinking, and there's no sense of hypocrisy. It doesn't matter, right? There's always a way for people to twist themselves out of it. I should just go, la, la, la, la, I don't hear you, right? I should

Andre  24:20  
have sent this link to you. It's not, it's critical thinking is the is a gateway to the loss of of deductive reasoning, right? So I've read like several articles that are saying that AI, social media and a couple other things are making people dumb, right? Critical Thinking gives you the pathway to question the thing. Deductive reasoning helps you to draw a conclusion basically in layman's terms. And if we have so many people like that, forget how to do that. We're in. And we're in a world of hurt, yeah. So I started reading once I read the last articles, like, I need to read a book. I haven't read a book in like two months or four months. I need to start reading more books. So it's a personal weekly goal to read like 30 minutes a day. And I think that's the part where, whether you talk about what they hope, pray and are probably going to convince people to accept of reducing education. Again, the video about Puerto Rico is, is and could be a future of this country

Speaker 2  25:41  
to ensure that Wall Street and the vultures got paid, La Junta imposed a brutal austerity program on Puerto Rico that hiked tolls, water and electricity costs, lowered the minimum wage, cut labor protections and removed sick days, slashed education funding, which led to mass school closures, gutted pensions and healthcare, cut infrastructure funding and restricted access to food assistance, like, hands

Andre  26:04  
down. Like, do you watch the whole thing or do? No,

Chris  26:07  
I only got to watch the first few minutes of it, but I am planning on watching the rest of it, watch

Andre  26:13  
the rest of it, and then replace Puerto Rico, which you should what we're doing to Puerto Rico as a country is foul. The outcome is completely negative. Case in point, they cut millions of dollars from their educational system, but they had a study done that says that for every million dollars we spent, there was a $1.6 billion gain, yeah, for the for the country, right? A good business person says that is an investment, not even it's an it may be an expense, but

Chris  26:53  
it's an investment. It's an

Unknown Speaker  26:55  
investment like you,

Chris  26:57  
you as the government, are not in the business of making money, right right job, you do not need to generate a profit. Profit. You need to generate a return on the investment. And that return should be ending up in the people's pockets, basically, or, you know, in them themselves. Ultimately, this is not, you know, oh, I'm spending a billion dollars here. Well, I'm not getting compensated for that directly, so that's not worth it. Like,

Andre  27:35  
a million for 1.6 is a good ROI all day. Like, what are we talking about?

Chris  27:44  
Is a 60% return on investment.

Andre  27:48  
Like, what? Matthew, like, the average business can't even get a cash flow, free cash flow after expenses of 12%

Chris  27:58  
yeah, thanks for checking out the Chris and Andre show. Remember, unlike yourself in middle school, those like and subscribe buttons aren't going to hit themselves. And be sure to leave a comment with your favorite part of the show or a topic you'd like us to cover in the future, as always, stay salty you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai