D.O.G.E, The American Dream, Google's billion trillion dollar fine

0:00This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over 1 million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over 6 years and over 400 episodes. You ready to start snapping next and cashing checks? Well, it starts right about now. What's up guys? Welcome to Right About Now. It's our weekly business news of the week here on November 15th, 2024. Wherever you are, however you are, thank you for listening. We appreciate you, and I appreciate Mr. Chris Hansen. What's up, Chris? What's up, Brian? How are you? I am good here in a little chilly South Carolina, but I'm good.

0:46A little cooler today moving in, but Brianna, how are you? I'm good. It was colder than expected this morning. I really wasn't expecting it when I walked out of my house with my jeans, got a little holes in my knees today. I don't know. Does it get this cold in California? Definitely does not. Okay. Not until like January. worry then it gets then it gets cold all right so it's a little a little early but we've been spoiled it's been beautiful here so i've been enjoying we have like 80 degrees that's the funny thing in south Carolina 80 to 50 really in a hurry so nothing like talking about the weather everybody loves the weather i heard that uh we have all four seasons in one day here that's about right that sounds right chris how's sunny miami it's been beautiful man this is the best time of It's sunny, breezy.

1:34I love it. Does it hover right around 80? Yeah. But the low humidity? Lower? The humidity can vary. It was a little wet the other night. Still tropical, right? What's happening in Miami this time of year? Got Art Basel coming up in December. That's kind of what everyone's preparing and talking about. I'm getting a lot of buddies reaching out that are coming down wanting to connect. I just have one thing to say, and that is that I will be wearing this cozy, warm, soft sweater. Oh, yeah. For the rest of winter, as it is too cold for me here. Yes. Hey, it does get cold. Hey, oh, you're a spark, too.

2:23We're both sparks, you know. And yes. And, you know, you know how you stay warm, though? You got to go to brandofbills.com. They've got all the merch you want. And look, hey, it's all about bills, about hats. But their hoodies and their T-shirts will surprise you. This is, I will, I don't just say this, you know, their sponsor, you know, probably know that by now if you've been listening to the show. But these are the most comfortable hoodies I've ever worn. They have that perfect metal of softness. and they aren't like you can oversize it and make it fit how you want but I love how they fit like not too bad it doesn't like I'm a big dude anything that's too baggy and I look like you know walking you know Barney the Clown I don't know like just round and round and proud but it fits tighter on me at the size that I wear which I like it's fitted a little more fitted but still being a hoodie so anyway great merch i heard chris that you actually got a package delivered we finally made it happen and it's honestly it's perfect timing because it's hoodie weather at walking the dog and i consider myself a hoodie connoisseur and i will say these have that good weight to them like they feel expensive premium you know you can tell it's quality and i love one and then the inside of the hoodie it feels completely like you know like fleece soft buttery they are buttery it's like post-workout hit the shower throw that on go take a nice walk with the dog i am freaking chilling man it is it's cozy it's nice i too do not like baggy because i look stupid because i have little legs have you been skipping leg day hell no i've been you missed leg day bro but like what ryan's saying i just don't look as like roly-poly i just look more of like a treetop you know if i wear a real baggy hoogie hoodie so and obviously i'm rocking the brandon bills hat right now another business of mine vacay with ryan literally every hat i have in my house is brandon bills because they're awesome yes that's what you see here on set when we're here i'll hold one up that's got a right about now logo send us a dm we'll send you some merch and again, go check them out.

4:43Brandofbills.com. Click that button in the right corner. It says custom. Give your brand a boost. They will customize it. That's the thing. They don't just throw your logo on it. They'll do something funky, fun, interesting, patches, leather patches. Their design team is more than just a logo, throw it on their team. They actually design and they'll do some things and push the envelope. And they'll mock it up for you. I had them mock up a couple months ago. Ryan was saying no beta men. So we had a mock up done of the no beta men shirts. So yeah, they're a fantastic team over there. Yeah, no beta men.

5:22And friends don't let friends order merch from anyone, but brandabills.com, official sponsor of Right About Now. Yeah. Tell if you need to be watching if you're not watching. So if you're listening, we appreciate you. But you need to go check out the YouTube channel and or on Spotify. You watch the video because you need to see. And I want Chris to explain his glasses, which make him look really cool. But I think there's a specific use for those in there. The blue light blockers. Yes. Yeah. It's a very important topic. You guys should get educated. We have a show called Vibe Science. And we just had a great guest on that told us all about it.

6:02Andreas Christo. uh the uv light can play a lot in your circadian rhythm and that's uh i me myself learned a lot of lessons from it so go check out that have you noticed a difference because i've seen you in pictures and like on social and when i catch it with you i see you having one more on video so have you noticed any difference i do feel like yesterday i was pretty consistent and this is again i'm experimenting this is my first time doing this really i did feel a little bit more calm into the evening, you know, kind of like my body was adjusting to the natural rhythm, right? Of the sun and the moon.

6:39Yep. So I do feel like I was feeling a lot more relaxed and ready for bed earlier than I usually would. I did notice on TikTok, your breakdancing rhythm had gotten a lot better. So is that, is that the kind of rhythm it improves? Yeah, baby. Whatever rhythm you want. Circadian breakdancing rhythm. put it this way we know blue light is bad we set our phones too much can't hurt to rock a pair yeah no i i will say this i'm gonna age myself you guys probably don't remember this an old man i'm the old man in the group but they had this infomercial back in the day either late 80s early 90s blue blockers and they were these big huge square like bifocaled and this was this was early man this is late it was early 90s go look it up blue blockers they were a thing they were the ugliest big bifocal looking things but they were i think my dad had a pair 1995 whatever it was back in the day that is a vibe oh yeah again in like 2008 yeah but i mean i think maybe they were ahead of their time doing a similar thing right i don't know they were who knows those infomercials some of them out you know some of those products actually turn out to help.

7:54And then I just end up in the, uh, I tell you what, we were a yard sale family. We had yard sales like three times a year. You know, that's what happens when you're poor. You have yard sales a lot. And so, uh, but a lot of those infomercial stuff would be in our yard sales. My mom and I'd average suckers, I think for that stuff. And then I think it passed on to me because I'm kind of a sucker for that. Oh, man, look at that. Holds 8 ,000 batteries case. You know, like that looks so like organized, but you never put those things in those things. They just have been a drawer. The crappiest drawer ever.

8:31Like everybody's got that drawer. Oh, yeah. Everybody has a drawer. Don't act like you don't have that drawer. You got that drawer. Oh, I do. Mine's bad. So this was at night. I got a tray in my kitchen instead. Oh, man. Your keys and everything, but it's like a mountain of keys, mints, pocket knives. Yep. Yes. We've got a drawer and a tray. So. Oh, drawer and a tray. We have, look, we have four kids. There's six of us. We have like five of those drawers. Yeah. One in every room. I'm a pretty neat person like on the surface, but I have at least 12 of those drawers going on. You know, like. You open up the doors and the chaos.

9:12Everything falls in, you know. I think that's my mom taught me that or something. Because when I go to my mom's house, it's spotless. But if you look around enough, you'll find a closet. It's like, don't open it too fast. You never know. Oh, what's happening in the news? Well, we are doing good here in the U.S. I've got a record-breaking Bitcoin surge to$90 ,000 on Trump's win. It's actually interesting because Chris had told me and us and all the listeners to invest in Bitcoin. And pre-election, I noticed that it was trending right around 75 ,000. I think we talked about it last week. And I was like, oh, I should buy some or whatever.

9:55And I didn't. And then yesterday I got the notification. It was up to 89 ,000. And I was like, dang it. Could have made 10 bucks. Get off the sidelines, man. Get in the game. You could have bought.00001 of it. I know. No. Did Chris, what's it? What are we at now? Are we still holding it like that 89.90? Or has it gone back down? It's ripping today. I mean, honestly, Dogecoin is the real big hitter right now. Yeah. I mean. Did you get in on it? Yeah. Honestly, I just took a much larger position this morning. Oh. So. Here we go. Yeah. I decided to jump in a little heavier myself, you know, because I've been in it for a while Well, now I got the conversation with my family last night.

10:41You don't need to be complicated, right? Get on Coinbase, set it for$20 a week into Bitcoin or whatever it is, like you would an investment fund, take 10 % of your income and do that. And just chill. And, you know, check every month and you're going to be happy. It's funny because last night my mom goes, how do I get into that Coinbase account you set up for your father? They haven't looked at it in four years, right? Four years ago, they're like, how do I get out of this thing? so again history repeats itself everyone's happy again the news is talking about everyone wants to buy it it's not too late people set your tithes for bitcoin yes you know say your prayers send your tithe and set it and forget it and walk away and look back in a year with this administration that's pushing it and Elon Musk around and see what happens.

11:40Yeah. Speaking of Elon, we have Elon heading up the Department of Government Efficiency.

11:50Doge it is. Yep. How awesome is it that that just happened to work out to the acronym? What are the chances? Yeah, I don't know. I was actually wondering if that was on purpose or a coincidence. Oh, it was convenient that those, because I think that's similar wording to what I think that he was going to have Elon do no matter what. But you shit. Nothing's accidental. They're like, dude, I'm just saying we can capitalize on this. Yeah. Marketing. What do you call it? Borrowed interest. Borrowed interest. Yeah. Shared interest here. Because good for both. High tide raises all ships. both directions you know they want good marketing of the new department of government efficiency and then of course the doge coin going up i'd like to know privately what how much doge trump owns yeah i'd like to know too i don't think we'd ever uh learn that but i bet he owns some the team uh did bring it to my attention that elon uh he made a post on x says the department of government efficiency, the merch will be fire.

13:09Oh, you know what? You know how the government, you know how the Doge department could get started? Invest in Doge and use the earnings to pay down the national debt. Yeah. Brilliant. The memes. Yes, gamble with government money. the memes are amazing on x right now if you are not seeing them in related relation to elon and the election they're hilarious it just goes to show you like i mean with like eon he doesn't take himself too seriously like he posts himself with the gold chain like doge on it like he's i think at some point because i'm not sure he was always that way like 10 years ago i'm not i don't I'm not saying he wasn't brilliant and different and all those things, but I feel like he loosened up and just said, I'm going to embrace all this shit and own my different.

14:08And it's worked out for him. He is showing us kind of a lovable side of Elon, which I'm enjoying. Yes. He's a dork, and I like it. He is. So I want to see what the Department of Government efficiency is. He's doing it with Ramsovay. I can never say his name. Vivek. Rems. Rems. Something. Someone say it. That's better than me. Ramaswamy. I love the guy. I just wish I could say his name better. Ramaswamy. Yes. Yeah. He's cool. I like him. Every time I see him talk, I'm like, that dude's smart. Yeah. It looks like. So they'll be regulating federal spending in a statement released Tuesday. Trump referred to the new agency as DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency.

14:57And it says, it's not clear whether this entity will exist within the federal government or outside. So we're going to have to see what the two of them come up with. Yeah, I'm here for it. You know, like, let's try something different. Like, we've been doing the same shit in politics and in government for you know 100 years like let's let's try some different things and see if you know some true entrepreneurs can figure it out or hey they might all cry uncle he might all cry doge and go home politically yeah yeah it's going to be really interesting uh ramaswamy here said we will not go gently um in a post on x um and then elon musk said this is going to send shockwaves through the system and everyone involved in government waste, which is a lot of people.

15:49Yeah. Yeah. Well, anyone that's been to a DMV knows that. Oh, God. Not in South Carolina. They're so fast here. Hey, it's gotten better. Oh, yeah. Oh, you should go to one in California. Used to be. I don't know what happened. It's like five years, six years ago, maybe. I mean, it used to be probably what you experienced. and they've entered, put in the number system and take a number and all that. I don't know. Somebody got that shit in order. They should get a raise. They really did because, well, I went into the DMV when I went to transfer my license from California to here. And I walked in and she was like, what do you hear for?

16:27Like the lady at the front, what do you hear for? Before you even get to pick a number. And I told her and she's like, okay, do you have this, this, this, and this? And I was like, nope. She's like, okay, go. Like you can't even get a number. You're not even getting it. No suit for you. I mean, they're the number Nazis, you know, like, no. no, no, no, no license for you. Like, it's like, they don't mess around. They know what you need. They're like, we're not, don't get in these lines. Cause it used to be a model of inefficiency. I'd be behind 10 people and they'd get to the thing and eight of them didn't have what they were supposed to.

16:57And they got that shit in order. I give them credit. Yeah. I'm thinking, you know, the government got right in South Carolina. The roads, let's not go there, but the DMV. The roads aren't that bad. Are you kidding? No, they're not that bad. Come on. They're really not. All right. You don't drive a sports car. Don't drive my Audi. Yeah. Yeah. They're not bad. If I'm driving my husband's lifted Tundra, they're fine. Yeah. My road driver's been in the shop and I can't wait to get it back because I'm done with the Audi and these roads. Interesting news. Article here to share with you guys. Mattel, the toy manufacturer, they had to pull a bunch of their Wicked dolls off the shelves after somebody misprinted the web address that's on all the packaging.

17:45So it was supposed to go to wickedmovie.com Oh boy. And it went to a different web address that was showing, it looks like, adult entertainment videos. This is like on ESPN, they have a segment. You had one job to do? yeah yeah like the the snapper you know like one job to do and you screwed it up and so it's hard to believe it's a mistake i thought that's where my mind instantly went you know my conspiracy theory brain but then if it was like cinderella movie.com okay i could kind of see how this was a mistake but being wicked do you think okay they paid somebody off like no one did a double check on that before they were like, all right, let's send it to the assembly line.

18:31Let me just say this. I used to, like my first job, you know, how things change. But I worked on my first marketing job with Verizon and I proofread brochures. I literally was a junior AE, like 200 page fine print brochures and other things like that. And that went through tons of checks. We got a lot more right than we did wrong about the volume. Our, our percentage was awesome. However, you would be surprised at how shit like that can and does happen. I'll just say now we never, luckily I probably wouldn't be sitting here today, um, printed any porn sites on any of those. But at the same time, there was a couple of ads that actually went out that we worked on that were print ads like newspaper and it went through to the top of the mountain to the bottom like the food chain of of people looking at this and proofreaders and you'd have a you'd have a word with like 40 point font and it was misspelled and no one fucking caught it yeah like it was like once in a blue moon and it's like i don't know i could i could believe the conspiracy totally but at the same time having worked on high volume like high profile stuff like this you would be surprised.

19:55I think they probably just put wickedmovie.com or whatever and everybody just assumed it was right. One person probably put it on there and nobody ever double checked it or typed it into Google. But yeah, don't put out adult entertainment sites on children toys. Not a good look. No, please don't. I thought this one was interesting. Russia has decided to find Google an amount of money I don't even know how to say. It's a two followed by 36 zeros, the equivalent to around 20 billion trillion trillion. man that's quite a lot of money here's where my head went is this enforceable will they ever see a penny of this like i i get that russ has a lot of people and google's a multi-continent you know multinational corporate global brand and provide services in these countries and is liable on some level i just don't think they're gonna write that check no no it's very interesting you know i think that especially like you know with this number yeah to your point like is that enforceable there's not even a number that yeah wouldn't even fit on a check i don't even know and even google i don't think has that sitting somewhere like they have a lot you know more money than god but But, you know, like it's they don't have that much.

21:34I don't think. Well, it says that this number is significantly larger than Google's market value of two trillion dollars. That's the entire global economy. The global economy is one hundred ten trillion. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, this is 20 billion trillion trillion. The funny part is Google's response. Google referred to the fine in its recent earnings reports mentioning ongoing legal matters. so you know you and i and anybody we have some ongoing legal matters there those things can be very different you know yeah have the time and money to stretch this indefinitely yeah russia's got a lot of money i mean don't don't mistake some of this dumb shit going on over there if like there's a lot of a lot of money over there and we but here's what they said the company noted we do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect on earnings.

22:32Oh, it'd be like the equivalent of me getting like a$2 million fine from the government and being like, eh, not really going to affect much.

22:43Maybe. But all that tells me is they know that they're never going to write that check. Yeah, and it sounds like they ceased most of their operations in Russia and, you know, they're not going to probably go back to doing business there. Yeah. I mean, was Google like if you search for Russia, like were they putting up like pitchforks or something like in the search results? Like Putin and like, you know, Satan, like having, you know, lunch together. Like, what earned the fine this high? I guess just. I think they said that it was blocking. They were like blocking. Ah, OK. They were censoring pro-Russian channels.

23:24Oh, wow. Then what's the fine in the U.S. for censoring the Rogan Trump episode? So honestly, Russia is being a good model of what we should all be thinking about. Private companies are censoring vital information from the public. Yeah, that's right.

23:46That's just Google. No big deal. Well, it is interesting. I mean, this is a number that most people can't even fathom. Americans searching for the American dream. Yes. Do you like that segment? I did like that. You know what it is? It's a number big enough to get us talking about it. If it was 20 million, no one would even pay attention. Yes. It's almost you have to be so ridiculous to create the conversation. I mean, the American dream has become different. We're doing a segment with our good partner, Independence Center, and we wanted to bring it to life here on the show and really thinking about what the American dream is today and how attainable it is.

24:33I mean, when you hear those things, Chris, like, what do you think? I guess I'm going to ask you to think about it from two sides, like you personally, and then maybe what your sentiment might be for how, what other people think i know i'm not asking you to guess but maybe just your assumption of what people think the american dream is i think the assumption of the american dream is what we you know what we grew up thinking right a house kids dog you can pay for your kids school debt free right um at least that is to me well i'm i have larger dreams than that and i feel like i'm just not cut for that life to to be honest with you.

25:16I've tried to domesticate life. Yeah. I mean, everybody's dreams different, you know, like, right. But I do think it's much harder to attain with the tools we were taught in the resources. Right. And that's where I think forward thinking, I had a call this morning with a younger guy who's just launching kind of his own company and doing fitness training and stuff like that. He only's talking about, do I do a t-shirt? I said, no, dude, you, you're the brand because if you're pursuing that and you're building yourself, you can do all that other stuff, right? If people know who you are and you say this all the time, you know, the power being known, where I'm like, you know, a supplement, all this stuff, plus from an earnings standpoint, I always think of residual, right?

26:02That's the residual income is going to get to the American dream faster than one-off, two-off stuff. So, you know, I think, I still think the American dream is the American dream. I think it's, I don't even know if I want to say harder to attain. I just think the way of getting there is changed and we all need to pivot and learn new tools, explore new things. I mean, even in the marketing world, everything's evolving, changing. AI is coming into play in every industry. So you need to just be actively pursuing and trying to learn and evolve with that. You know, nothing's stuck in time. so you just got to change up your perception yep I have some thoughts I'm going to wait to Brianna what are your thoughts on here okay so I think I have a unique perspective on this right because I've been married for five kids I have been married for five years I have two kids we just bought a house this year we you know have been saving up to be able to do that you know college educated couple.

27:09So we did everything quote unquote like right, you know, and like how we have been raised, go to school, get good grades, go to college. Then you'll be able to get out of college, get a good job, buy a house, have 2.5 kids, get a dog, go on vacation once a year, save for retirement. That is what I would argue has always been the American dream that you can, whether you're an immigrant coming to America or you are born and raised here, that that is the pathway to success. Go to school, get educated, work hard, you'll have success. It is not attainable in that way anymore. It is only attainable if you are smart.

27:53To your point, you can pivot, you can open a business, you can become an entrepreneur. Because here's the deal. In America today, you could make$7 million becoming a YouTube star as a six-year-old playing with toys faster than you could go through the path of becoming a doctor or a lawyer, you know, or any other kind of profession. And so that seven-year-old or six-year-old who, you know, made$7 million on YouTube is more successful potentially than somebody who spent 25 years honing their craft and becoming, you know, a cardiovascular surgeon. So how do you rectify the fact that the American dream is just different now?

28:35Yeah. I mean, it's different, but I think it's also a slippery slope that that's still a one in a million. Like, yes, it happens, but like, let's use Ryan, the kid that has all the toys and the YouTube and all that. It's multi-million, 20, 30 million now, maybe more. Yeah, there's a handful of those examples, but there's how many million children in the, so yes, you can, there's a lot of different ways to do it, but I think the glamour of that sometimes outweighs the reality of doing it is, is sort of the danger. I can understand how I, but I think the equivalent would be like our parents watching someone that was a gifted athlete that was a more clear path to like the wealth that you're talking about, you know, 30 years ago.

29:28Like that's still a one in a million athlete that had that path. And now there's more channels. But I do think, I think it's a combination of what Chris said. we do have these tools now and anyone can unlock them and go watch YouTube videos or come watch some of our content because we talk about it a lot and learn how to make themselves more known. And if you're willing to do that, if you're willing, and it's not for everyone, not everyone's going to take advantage of it because either self-doubt, either worry of judgment, or I'm not good enough, like, or whatever it is, that's fine, but it's an equal opportunity.

30:07It's just as American as anything, the opportunity to become your own. And I hate the word personal brand, but your own microphone, because you couldn't buy your own TV ads, you know, 20 years ago. You couldn't afford to do that. But we have this democratization of awareness generation that you have with social media, which allows you to then get more likely. I mean, to hit the jackpot socially, like you described, that's a lot more likely if you're playing the game. Yeah, definitely. And you learn the game. So, and there's nothing holding anyone back from doing that. I mean, cameras are easy.

30:52You just got to be creative, want to do it, put stuff out there. And I'm not saying it doesn't take more creativity than that, but it's equal opportunity. I mean, what's keeping you from being more social, like giving yourself more at-bats to that? Yeah. Well, and like everything, I think becoming successful with the American dream, it's just like a repetition, right? If you do it over and over again, eventually you'll become good at it. But if you try something and then it doesn't work right away and you give up and you keep switching gears, then it's going to take you a lot longer to get there.

31:27My bigger issue with like, you know, what I was going to say, like with the American dream is. I don't want to paint with a too broad a brush here, but this is my perception and not not how I feel. But, you know, there used to be the saying with the American dream. And it was kind of like with, you know, what can you do for your with for your country? What can you do? What can you add? Like be additive. and in finding the American dream, you know, you do a job that adds to the greater good and yourself. I feel like we've come to the what can the government do for me? Yeah. To help. How can the government help me reach the American dream?

32:07It feels like we've gotten a little bit like the younger generation, maybe. And I don't want to paint too broad of a brush. This is just my perception at a really high level of, you know, well, the government's in my way of the American dream or the government's not helping me reach. Well, the government was not put there to necessarily help you reach the American dream. It was a stay out of your way. And so, but to govern and keep things licensed and agree to that, you know, for just a greater good. And so we don't really supposed to be reliant on the government to reach the American dream. The only thing that was promised, you know, is promised to everybody is right.