The 21st is Wednesday. It's 11 o'clock. That can mean only one thing. It's Trump week. I'm Tim Apachele, your host. And today's title is 2020 election plan, pity party, insults and attacks.  It's deja vu all over again. And here we are. It's 2016 campaign, not the 2020 campaign. And with Donald Trump, his primary focus seems not to focus on policy and a vision for the future, but his 2016 tactic of insults and attacks. Let's just go through a quick list of them, because there are many in the, even in the last week since this show, Donald Trump has really accelerated his, his attacks on just about everybody. So let's just don't have time. I thought about that and I had to truncate this list. I want to make sure that we have time for you and everybody else on this show. Thank you for that observation. That is absolutely correct. So let's look at Governor Whitmer of Michigan. He called her a dictator. He said, I guess she was threatened, right? So he's, he's questioning whether or not she was even threatened by those militiamen or kidnapping her and potentially executing her. So that was left up in the air. Number two, Joe Biden. He's, of course, he's calling out for Bill Barr to investigate him prior to the election. And he's calling Joe Biden and his son criminals and they need to be investigated and prosecuted ASAP. He should be in jail is, is the quote of the day. When you, we're losing, he's losing the votes. He's losing the 65 plus vote. He's losing the women's vote. And there's probably a reason for it. And that reason is how he's being mocked. He's mocking Joe Biden. If you have a visual there on this, this was a tweet from Donald Trump. This was a Photoshopped so that Joe Biden is head is on a, an individual in a wheelchair amongst other seniors in wheelchairs. And it says Biden for resident. The peas struck out. And I can't think of an easier, better way than get the 65 plus vote than mock seniors in the way that he just did with that tweet. Look, look at the tax on Dr. Fauci. Dr. Fauci, he's been around for over 500 years.   Let's look at the pandemic. They're all tired of it. Everyone's tired of it. And they're not buying it.  So we just go on and on. Where's the pity party? Well, the pity party is Donald Trump is always a victim. And that was no sooner clear than in Michigan when he goes suburban housewives, do me a favor. Please like me.   Begging and pleading for support from suburban housewives. He's just out of it. So you're right, Jay. We don't have time to go down the list, but that's just a quick little rundown. And I'd like to ask you, Jay, first off, like to introduce everybody. Welcome, everyone. We have Jay Fidel, Stephanie Dalton, Cynthia, Lee Sinclair, and Winston Welch. Welcome to the Trump Week Show. I appreciate you all being here. Jay, in the last week, what was your moment that struck out most at his campaign rallies? What was the top hit parade for you? I think he's out of his mind. But here's what it is, though. When I say that, it occurred to me that he is running the campaign of 2016. He's doing the same things he did in 2016. It's like a time warp. It's like, he's not responsible for what has happened in the past four years. We're still doing the old thing with Obama and Hillary Clinton. Now, that's really weird. He thinks that people are all in the time warp. And he can get them sort of to ignore everything he's done or not done in the past four years. It is the strangest thing imaginable. So I don't think it's going to work. I think the media has made that clear. It's not going to work. It isn't working. But from his point of view, this is what he's got. And it's the scariest thing you ever saw. Is he telling his campaign staff, I know better than you are. You're paid professionals, but I know better, and this is the way we're going to go? He's telling everybody that, including some people who now refuse to do it, like asking Bill Barr to make an investigation at the last minute and died all his adversaries. It's the strangest thing. And I think he's losing traction among the people who were his sycophants before. So what we have is a bit of a disconnect, but we still have the base. The base is still there. You mentioned about the housewives. I saw a piece in the paper that said he's actually turning housewives. It's extraordinary. The lies are incredible. And I hope somewhere in this show, Tim, that we discuss the revelations about his finances, his finances with China, and all the trouble that we have now seen revealed about him. Okay. Thank you, Jay. Winston, any particular attack or insult that came to your mind in the last week, and particularly those attacks or insults that are doing the most amount of damage to his campaign and his election chances? Well, it's interesting to hear that he, as Washington Post pointed out, that he keeps talking about losing and that he's leaving the country. He'd never come back again. I think that there's some realization that this is going to happen. And it's a way for him to leave without all of the bluster. It's sort of, I think the sharks have been smelling blood, and it's going all around. But we often also realized that he still has a solid 42% of the country. And I think Nate Silver, 1035, said that he still retains a one in seven chance of winning. And so that's an actual possibility. I think Bulkies in Vegas are saying it's not going to happen. And that might be one of the ways to go. But more concerning is, let's say that, assuming that the polls all work out, that the elections, there's going to be some shenanigans. We've had some Supreme Court cases or state court cases that say you can count the votes after this date. You can't count them up to that date. We have ballot shenanigans in Texas, the whole nine yards. That's to be expected. But at the end of the day, Donald Trump is going to lose. And he is, we're going to have to deal with it as a nation. And I think there's some important points that we need to address, which is that the Republican party could become more extreme afterwards. Or there's a more hopeful version. And that is an article in The New Yorker where it was on the 18th of October. Could Joe Biden actually bring America back together? And I think that we need to hold that higher vision because we've had enough of this. And so when Donald Trump is gone, we also need to let all of it go and bring ourselves back together. I actually was most interested to see Savannah Guthrie, who I didn't realize what power she had in her. But that interview that she gave for years, just coming back and back and back, I thought was really... It's something rare that we don't see our journalists doing of late. And that is the follow-up question and the insistence of answering the question. Jonathan Swift. It's Jonathan Swift. He was the only other one that even approached that. But I mean, I thought, I didn't know Savannah Guthrie gave any more information. I don't watch the Today Show, but I didn't know she talked more about the color of the year red or green. So I was really pleased to see that she did not let up on that and answered, asked those questions, and just exposed Donald Trump for the lies. And that when he couldn't answer the question about, even did he get a test, you know, if you got a test today of the debate. These things were not. And so I was able to reveal his evasiveness on this. Yes. And so I'm feeling hopeful that Americans are seeing this. They're disgusted by it. And we want to move on as a people. And we're like, you know what? We tried that. There's still some important differences that we may have, but we don't need these characters involved. We can solve these in different ways. So I'm looking forward to a post environment where we work on the issues honestly and fairly with sane, rational, respectful people. Okay. Thank you very much, Winston. Hey, Cynthia, given Donald Trump's 2016 tactics of insults and attacks, are we to believe that he's as close as he is in Florida and Arizona? If he loses Florida, you could pretty much say that's the end of the game. Not that I believe the polls completely, but he's been keeping a consistent, steady margin. And he's slightly ahead in Florida. Despite all his insults of seniors and threats of taking away social security by removing the payroll tax. Are you surprised at all? Well, I would be surprised if he actually gets the votes. That would surprise me. But the fact that we remain having him in place, that won't surprise me because I believe he's going to cheat like I've been saying all along. Now I have been doing some more research on the Ivanka trademarks for voting machines lately. Okay. And there's a new full, well, not brand new, but Forbes on September 20th had an article just this past September 20th. It was written by Tommy Beer. There were 41 trademarks for companies that were for the president or his daughter. And they're Trump incorporated that happened 40% faster than any other time after he was elected. Out of 18 of those trademarks, the Ivanka, of course, branded ones that were for her clothing line and all that stuff, but stuck in there in the background voting machines. Yeah. We've talked about that many times in the past, and she did get the trademarks. There's no two ways about it. And the question is, how are they being utilized? Are they being utilized? And I don't know if you've got a news report story on that exact topic. And to your credit, Cynthia, you have identified it. And you're right. The media has not picked up on it. So kudos to you. And I think regardless of the voting machines, I think Donald Trump's imploding and Stephanie, to you, in what specific area do you think he's imploding the most? Is it through his insults or is this pity party? Or is it some other lack of vision or policy that he's not portraying to the American people? What specific thing do you think is taking place that people are pulling away from him? Well, he is what he is, and he's being it more and more. And it will continue as we go through the 13 more days. And Kevin only knows what awaits us in the interim. But my thoughts have been that if we had had a Democratic Senate and House portion, you know, one for part of the four years, I would think that then he would have had some more press back instead of just from the advisors that he could hire and fire as he wanted. But if the Senate had actually been responsible, then there would have been, you know, something that would say stop. And he didn't have that. So my concern right now with the election is that we get the Senate. Okay, because that is the key because there's this other miscreant in this mix. And that is Mitch McConnell. And if we don't get the Senate, we can have Biden as president, we can have the House and we are still up against it almost as badly. So what is, so here again, you know, the focus gets so stuck by the media and they're all running after the cheese when there's the voting machines that Cynthia's brought up. There's, you know, really what's going on with crazy Giuliani and how come he hasn't been committed yet. And then there's the Mitch McConnell. Now, I know we have seen a little more about how his race is going and interviews with the wonderful person that's going to get Tim, I'm so sorry, can't rip up, right, you know, say her name right off the top of my head. But she's outstanding. And it's time for Mitch McConnell to go. I mean, so anyhow, so that's my concern right now. Yes, he's going to unwrap all the way down to God knows what. And then we're going to be having this Senate issue. It's a it's arisen and we need to watch that that's going to go Democratic. Otherwise, they're there enabling him. It's back to the Mary Trump book. And her question is, why does everybody enable him from the time he is three years old until he's in the president? Well, I would say that you just took a page out of the Nazi Germany's book, the power of propaganda, persuasion, rhetoric, the misuse of the tool of rhetoric. And he is quite quite effective at it. And he's probably one of the better ones we've seen do the sort of thing. And that's to answer your question. Rhetoric is a very powerful tool. And in the wrong hands, it's a hypnotic effect. And I think that answers the question of why no one stands up, why people go along and enable him as they do. And it's they're under the cult of personality and the tools of persuasion.  Oh, he'll never get back close to that. Oh, boy. Yeah, we let me go to you on Stephanie's point. And that is hypothetically, hypothetically, Donald Trump wins the election, but he loses the Senate. So the House and the Senate are retained by the Democrats. Does that save democracy in our country for the next four years? Oh, no, if he's president, and we have a fully Democratic Congress, there'll be some more control for sure. But as president, he is more powerful now than the president was before ever before. And he can wreck the world as he has been doing. I also agree with her point that if the Senate remains Republican, and Biden is the president, we're in deep Kim Chi, because they won't agree with him, they'll stop him at every at every door. Well, we'll have a repeat of the Obama administration, gridlock. But you know, I'd like to like to go back for a minute to the shiny objects, you know, just as we were in 2016 and before, we're in a time of shiny objects, we're in a time of a reality show, right? And so you get these outrageous self-victimization, you get these insults. It's great theater. It's great television. Here's the man who watches television all day and all night. He cares about getting eyeballs, getting views. It doesn't matter what he says. He just wants people to spell his name right. And I think we always have to keep that in mind. He may not be affecting the vote that much. He's obviously not affecting the vote that much, but he's holding their eyeballs. In the meantime, with all the shiny objects, you have these extraordinary things going on. And you have to really focus on what he's doing behind his back. I'll give you two examples quickly. One is nuclear proliferation with Russia. So he's the one that pulled that deal when he first got into office. No nuclear, you know, proliferation agreement. Nothing. Gone. And then, okay, now two weeks before the election, he's trying to cut a new deal with Russia that we should both, you know, stop making nuclear bombs and allow inspection from one side to the other. Well, we have three times the nuclear bombs the Russians do. Who's winning? Who wins that deal? See, it's brilliant. You think about it. Everybody thinks now he's going to win the Nobel Peace Prize for cutting a new deal. At the same time, it's probably going to be Putin who wins the deal, because Trump is a bad negotiator. So he's giving away the store. We don't notice it. The other thing I think is extraordinary is Nicaragua with the beef. Okay, this country is being supplied with beef from Nicaragua. Nicaragua is substandard beef. It's not healthy. There's no labeling. If you go into Safeway, they have it. Okay, but you can't tell. It's not labeled from Nicaragua. Why is it not labeled from Nicaragua? It's because Trump pulled the labeling regulation. So we can't tell where it's coming from. There's a million things like that that affect our lives that he's doing behind his back while he's putting out shiny objects in front. Okay. Thanks, Jay. I'm going to shift a little bit on my agenda here. Winston, to you, you know, there's some things that have been reported of late that aren't shiny objects. They're really jaw-dropping news points, yet they're getting lost in the mix because we're in this election cycle period. And a couple of them are the 545 children at the border that cannot be reunited with their parents. We have Mark Meadows telling the Fed judge that he should not take Donald Trump's tweets seriously. So anything that Donald Trump says via tweet is not to be believed. And he had to sign a sworn affidavit to that fact. We have the report that Donald Trump has accounts in China, bank accounts. He's paid $200,000 in taxes. These news interjections into this cycle would normally cause a week's worth of news attention, but now they're barely a 10-minute blurb. Any of them that come to your mind as far as potentially damaging to Donald Trump in this? Well, you're right. It's the constant barrage, the hourly barrage, but a part to see in the Wall Street Journal that over a thousand current and former CDC officials criticized the US COVID-19 response that read Donald Trump in there. Also, what was particularly egregious for me was when he had the rally in Michigan where he says, lock them all up as the chance continued to amid a sea of red hats. The digital director for Governor Whitmer criticized this as dangerous. Of course, it's dangerous. I see everything that said about her and online. The director tweeted, every single time the president does at a rally, the violent rhetoric towards her immediately escalates on social media. It has to stop. It just has to. Whitmer had the same message saying, this needs to stop.  I think that part is straight on the head. You had his former White House chief of staff, one of his generals, saying that he is telling that friends that he's the most flawed person he's ever met. That was from John Kelly. You're seeing bits and pieces come out here that add just a little bit more. The kids, I mean, that is so tragic that something like that has happened and that we're still 500 kids that can't find their parents years later from this policy that was one of the very first hallmarks of this administration. All of it together is adding a little bit more. Like you said, that's the picture of Joe Biden in the wheelchair. That's your strategy for gaining seniors. But you also had the federal judge you mentioned about tweets. Are his tweets law or not?  The other half say, actually, that's a directive. The federal judge in, I believe it was Washington, when he said he wanted to declassify all the Russia records. That was a tweet. The federal judge ordered the Justice Department to say, is this law or not? Because you can't have it both ways. It looks like we're still a nation of laws. We've got that. But one thing I did want to stress is also about the New York Times coming out with a pretty strongly worded, the USA Today editorial board said they're a diverse ideologically group of journalists that's separate from the new staff. Said they broke from tradition in, since the first presidential race in 1982, they broke with tradition four years ago and urged voters not to vote for Donald Trump, saying he was unfit for office because he lacked the temperament knowledge, setting us an honesty that America needs from its president. They did not endorse Hillary Clinton at the time. He said this year, the editorial board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation, a harbour of calm and acceptance. So we're seeing, I thought that the, for those of you that haven't looked at the New York Times and their editorial about why we cannot have four more years of this, it's important to read. And I know a lot of people aren't thrilled with the New York Times. They think it's too partisan, but honestly, they've hit it right on the head. And America just won't exist as we understand it if we had four more years of Donald Trump. So I encourage people to read a variety of news sources, people reading this show, hopefully, if they're on Think Tech, they have some open minds. So go out there, educate yourselves, educate your friends and family who might be on the fence, the elusive five, 10%. But we've got a lot of cleanup to do after this election is over. And so we need to keep our eyes on the prize. The shiny objects are, yes, they're appalling, but at the end of the day, America's going to elect a sane, calm, rational president. Hey, Cynthia, you have any reaction to Donald Trump's demands and shouts that Bill Barr needs to conduct this investigation immediately and appoint someone so that charges could be brought up against Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden prior to the election? Have we ever seen anything like this in the history of a presidential race? Have we ever seen a Banana Republic strategy as that which he's played out? Yes, we saw it in 2016. He did the same thing, only it was Hillary instead of Joe Biden, right? It was E-mail. Okay, good point. His son doing something untoward, which has already been investigated. How many times with three times by, you know, nonpartisan entities? And then there was two times. And then one time, it was investigated by one of his Trump's own people and still came back with nothing. So the fact that Rudy Giuliani went over there and was hanging out with their patches, his name, I think their PASCA, something like that, the guy who has now been named as a Russian operative is the guy that supposedly, you know, Rudy got all this stuff from. And then their big thing that they're holding their whole case on is the thing that really gets me the most. They left and it had incriminating evidence on it. Oh please, for three years it got left there.  You don't, if you're that rich, you just buy a new laptop. You don't take it to the shop to get it fixed, right? And if you know there's stuff on it that could incriminate you or your father, you're definitely not going to leave it there. So the whole premise that they found this stuff, to me, is laughable. It's absolutely, there's no- Well, they came out of the New York Post, it is laughable. So that's your news source. The authors wouldn't even put their sign their names to the story. That says everything to me. Yeah, me too. I think it's a last-ditch effort. We knew it was coming too. We knew that Rudy's been over there trying to hunt something up or create something for months and months or more than a year he's been over there trying to drum something up. So we knew it was coming. We were promised this October surprise and I'm sure that Trump expected that to be the October surprise. Well, it wasn't a surprise. It was more of a joke. Hey, we're running out of time and I want to get to Stephanie for one last question, or unfortunately, you know, this 29 minutes goes way too fast. Stephanie, I don't know if you saw the CNN special called The Insiders where key members of the administration spoke out about Donald Trump. We had Bolton, we had Mattis, Olivia Troy, various admirals, and is there anything that they're going to say that's actually going to put a hole in Donald Trump's boat, so to speak? I don't know if you saw that special or not, but the things that were in that special were just unbelievable and in any other election it would have been the end of that candidate. But yet here we are today in 2020 where it's not the end of the candidate. Well, everything is so through the looking glass with the Alice and the Queen hearts. I mean, everything that happens is what Trump's already done. I mean, the whole Hunter thing is the Don thing is the, I mean, the whole thing is like through the looking glass, everything reflected back, totally crazy. So it's, no, I don't think it's going to make any difference for anybody. They'll chew on it and be grateful for having it. And praise Giuliani, who I understand is drinking all the time and is never as rarely sober. And so that's been going on for a long time. So there's, there's just a lot of American drinking and hardly always hardly sober, even though it's hard not to be drinking and be sober in America. But I was going to say, yeah, so the problem is that this thing could go on because people are not shifting. All right, so yes, some who were in that independent group knew that we're undecided. But as you say, the base is not and that's a pretty large, scary number as far as I'm concerned. So I don't see that moving. I think we're just going to all go along here and suffer for 13 more days until we get the news and be happy to endure whatever comes next if we get a change in the Senate and or Biden as the president. So the other thing is I wanted to mention that they've been talking about Kamala's definition of manslaughter, Jay, it's the, I'm sorry, Stephanie, we've run out of time. I got someone in my ear on this point. You know, we need another 29 minutes to be honest with you and I wish we had it. But I get to thank you for joining us. Jay Fidel, Winston Welts, Cynthia Leeson-Clair, and Stephanie Dalton. Thank you very much for joining us. Join us next week, Wednesday, 11 o'clock for Trump week. Aloha, everyone.


Welcome back to summer camp presented by Ford. I'm Maritah Rodman, alongside my good friend Susan Walton, the radio broadcaster for the Yankees. She has been covering the Yankees since 1987. Wow. Ten-year anniversary of George Steinbrenner's passing. Susan, I know he meant an awful lot to you. Just how influential was he on your career? Well, everything. And when I got to the Yankees and started running around with a microphone, you learned really quickly that, unless you had Mr. Steinbrenner, you had absolutely nothing. And George used to go into, they used to say things like the eagle has landed, or Steinbrenner, and everybody would run into outside the old clubhouse. And George would go out the back door and run to the elevator. And I used to follow him, Mr. Steinbrenner, Mr. Steinbrenner, and if you weren't allowed to get into the elevator and if I beat him up the ramp, when he got off the elevator before he went into the office, he would talk to me. And I did this for a long time. I sometimes think he waited for me, but it was really cool. And Lee became, I won't say friends, but really he was really instrumental because the next winter he always had beat writers Christmas luncheons. And that year they were going to 21. And I wanted to go. And I wasn't invited because I was a girl and it's only for guys and you're not a real reporter because you have a microphone, you don't have a pencil. And so they went and I didn't go. And I wrote Mr. Steinbrenner a letter. What I did was get the sales department of WFAN to find out how many people listen to my 505 spot and how much advertising they sold for that spot. And so I wrote it down. This is why I am important. And this is why you should see me. And I said I'm coming down to Tampa. And I demand an interview and send it off. And I went down to Tampa. I didn't tell him I was going to a spa, but I was going down to Tampa. And the little blinker on the phone was blinking when I got to the hotel and his secretary told me I was going to see you at nine o'clock in the morning. And by the way, I have Xeroxed every letter of this and I've given it to every woman in the building. So I said, okay, I'll be there. So I go there. It's nine o'clock in the morning at American ship, which was in Tampa at that point. And I walk in. And he said, well, I said what? And he said, I don't like women cops. I don't like women in the army. I don't like women sports casters. I don't like women firefighters.  And I said, I can do that. And then I said, now about the pitching staff, which you think is really good and is really awful. And he started a laugh and that's where that started. It was not easy. George was really tough on me.  George was really tough on me. I was really tough on him. I did not want to make him angry. But over the years, he started trusting me. And I really got a lot from him. And a year after that, he had said to me, Weldman, always called me Weldman never. Susan till the end, always Weldman, one of these days I'm going to make a statement about women in sports. You're it. And I hope you can take it. This was before the death threats and George getting me is anybody in my life except for my mother and my grandfather and he taught me a lot. He was really hard on me. But what I learned to do was to I learned toughness from George. You know somebody like whenever you have a problem and I always say don't don't fight with me. I learned from the best. And that was George. I have to ask you about that picture behind you. This is when George was reinstated in baseball after the suspension. W F A N let me and my producer Steve Cohen fly down to Tampa and we had like a welcome back George night we started at nine o'clock and it was like an opening presence we had we're getting on and mattingly and Reggie was on. Reggie was on everybody was on and then at midnight magically George appeared the clock struck 12 and there was George on the other side of the update and I've still got that tape and we play it every now and then but that was from that night. March 1st midnight when George came back from being reinstated for when he's reinstated. You also really got him and Yogi Berra back together a big radio moment one that you thought would either help better your career. Or career. Well well that was you know that was something that it was almost an accident. Yogi was going to open his museum and our program director Mark Schoenfeld said you know you're going to host Yogi and the 73 Mets and he's opening the museum and wouldn't it be cool if you could get George and Yogi to make up on the radio and I said oh yeah yeah sure I can everybody had tried Arthur Richmond stick Michael everyone I knew had tried to get them together enjoy well. So a few days later George and I were talking and he said I said George I want to ask you something about Yogi and he said why what's wrong. And as soon as he said what's wrong I said OK go for it. And we started talking about it and don't forget I had never I had never met Yogi Berra. I mean I was not there and my allegiance was to George and and I I worked this out with Dale Berra the two of us on a phone on how this would happen. And a lot of times I thought it wasn't going to happen. We weren't allowed to tell anybody just in case it did not happen. And George timed it from the airport there. He actually flew to New Jersey in January and came in. And I was hiding behind a post I remember and and Dale Berra had said to me what are you doing. And I said well either this is going to be great or my career is going to be over in two seconds. Meanwhile I had I had gotten I had set up things Ted Williams was going to call in and junk a Rajiola and Bill White and all Yogi's friends and said oh please let this work or I'm going to be here for three hours with the 73 Mets. And I you know what am I going to do with that. So it did work and I remember after an hour George got a little tired and he went back to the hotel and I called him afterwards and I said what do you think George. He said what a great night for the New York Yankees that he stopped and that George tone came out and he said yeah and it wasn't too often bad for you. Wildman wasn't so that was that was George. You always have to get a little zinger in there at the end. Now I know he's had an incredible influence on you.  You've been covering since 1987. There we are. My ninth season with you. You took me under your wing showed me the ropes not only in terms of baseball but also exploring some cities. Susan we have had some good times over the years. What we have and the good thing about Meredith is that Meredith we are in the hot dog. Yeah. The good thing about Meredith is like I'm up at six o'clock in the morning. So and there's a whole day when you go on the road and most people don't want to go out. Most people there we are we're in San Francisco. We went everywhere. But you know you got up early like I did. And I think we went to Niagara Falls. We went to the falls in Washington. Yeah we were with different different mascots. That was sweet on you Susan. Remember that he came in. Yes all that that and the one in Seattle was a good one to we like that. And there we are in Washington on those little scooter things where we see I try a lot of things because of Meredith or else I you know I've been there done that. There we are in Niagara Falls. I think that might have been my favorite except for the wineries that weren't really good. But the falls were good. And also we had a great trip to Maine as well for your birthday which was quite lovely. We did. We went to a banquet which we went to. There we are in Christmastime. A banquet Maine is where I was in theater. I did a show up there like 40 years ago and I went in the theater and I showed Meredith where the theater was looked exactly the same. Nothing has changed in a banquet. And you know that was great. We've had some good times. See it's all because you get up early because most people don't get up early. It won't do those things. What we didn't do was the paddle boats in Baltimore. And I haven't taken you on the swan boats in Boston yet. But eventually we'll get back there. We are on the list hopefully 2021. There we are in London where we went to go have high tea at the festival. We went to the hospital. The hospital was a fire. That was a really cool experience because not only were you there, Claire Smith was there as well.  Thank you. Claire Smith, Hall of Fame. Newspaper writer is one of the best of all time. If you think I had trouble, Claire Smith had the same kinds of stories. And so it was very tough back then. But we made it through it, Meredith. And we got to be at the top of the spire with a high tee and our little hats, whatever they call them, those little fascinators. The only thing I didn't get to do was meet the queen because I thought she'd like me. And I wanted to meet the queen because I think we'd get along actually. Well, if I could make it happen for you, I'd certainly make it happen for you. But unfortunately, I don't think I have that kind of pull. Well, you might. I mean, if we can get to her, I think she would have liked coming out with us. I think so too. She would have had a great time. Now I want to go make a list of things to do in 2021 because we're not going to get to do it in 2020. So maybe that's what I'll do when this interview is over. Okay, I think that's a good idea. Susan, thank you as always for the time. Thank you so much. See you soon.


So in this video, I'm gonna give you my take on the whole virus situation. Just take you through the kind of steps and actions I'm taking with my own drop shipping stores. And then also answer some of those most popular questions that I've been getting asked, which are typically from beginners, wondering whether now is a good time to start a e-commerce business. And then also from those people who are already running existing businesses, and they're not sure what to do basically whether they should turn their ads off, pause their stores, stop doing things all together, or try and source their products elsewhere. Just answer those type of questions. First of all, I wanna start the video off by saying that not all Chinese suppliers are shut down. I'll put some screenshots up on the screen now so you can see that some are still running some art. So in terms of giving kind of blanket advice, it's pretty impossible to do. The best advice I can give you is to speak to the individual supplier, send them a message, reach out to them like I have and simply ask them what their current situation is. In terms of actually running a online retail company, a mail order company, then I think there's a really huge opportunity to be had. So if you can actually source your products, then I think you should continue as normal and simply just focus on your marketing. Obviously, keep an eye on the data, keep an eye on the numbers. And as long as things look good, then just keep running as normal. One thing, or one piece of advice I would give you is if you do speak to a particular supplier, so send say half a dozen messages out to different suppliers. The same scripted message that you can pre-write, something along the lines of hey, how are you currently fulfilling your orders? What is the lead time on order fulfillment? And those that come back and say we're operating as normal always run a test purchase to find out. Last thing you wanna do is switch your ads on, make say 50 orders in a day and then realize they're actually taking a week, two weeks to actually fulfill those orders. So just make sure you run a test purchase and they stay true to their word. Like I mentioned earlier then for a split second, I think now is actually a great opportunity if you are running an e-commerce business or drop shipping business, doesn't matter what kind of business. If you're selling things online, I think now is a great opportunity. For many reasons really, because of the whole situation, then a lot of people, I've spoken to many people in fact that have switched off all their Facebook ads. Me, for the certain products that I can't source, I've done the same. So what that means with Facebook ads being a bidding platform, the auctions are gonna be cheaper and in return you're gonna see lower CPMs which is actually something I've seen already just in the last few days. So definitely a good thing. The second thing as well is with people isolating, spending more time at home. What do people do at home? They watch TV and they go on their phones. They scroll through social media. They talk to each other, tag each other. There's gonna be so much more activity on social media now. So again, that's another great opportunity to be had or a great reason why now is a good opportunity because more people are gonna be spending time, spending more time on Facebook and more time on social media. So my advice then for those existing businesses just to kind of summarize is that do not switch off absolutely everything. Don't quit, don't pause. Just try and resume as normal if possible. So like I said, send loads of different messages out to different suppliers, try and source your products and if you can't then only at that point pause things. Whatever you do, do not continue to sell our products that you can't fulfill. For those existing audience where it's gonna look like it's gonna be a few weeks you haven't got a supplier to fulfill them for you. Make sure you get in contact with your customers, do the decent thing, explain the situation to them and let it be their decision whether they want to wait or not. Do not force them or hold them to that if they want to refund because they don't wanna have to wait two, three, four, five, six weeks, whatever it's gonna be and then do the decent thing or refund your customers and ultimately just keep operating as a legitimate business. Now for all those people watching this video that haven't got a drop in business but have been looking into the business model for quite a while then to offer my advice I would say now is a great time to get started especially if you're one of these people that or at some point maybe everybody in this country will have to kind of spend a certain amount of time at home when they come into contact with somebody or it could be a multitude of reasons. So you're gonna have more time now than you probably ever will get between now and any time in the future until you retire. So now is a great time to kind of capitalize on that free time and even if you don't start running ads at least start building a Shopify store you get a two week free trial and even after that two week trial you can create a new email address and create a new store and just keep developing your skills building your store get some products ready create some ad creatives and when things do go back online or when you get to that point where you can start to source your product then you're ready to jump on Facebook ads or Instagram influencer marketing or any kind of marketing you like as soon as possible and like I said with more and more people spending time at home now is the time to be an online advertiser. Now with all that being said then and the kind of drop ship inside of things being covered I just wanna kind of finish this video off by mentioning the fact that drop shipping is not the beyond and for end all it's not absolutely everything you can do like there are progressions on from drop shipping which can make you or set you up to be better equipped for situations like this. So typically the business model while we're running at the moment is I'll use drop shipping to kind of test products within Facebook on the market typically to the UK as well and see if I can sell a product consistently and profitably for at least a couple of weeks preferably longer if I can and then what I'll do from there or what I'll do to progress from there is start sourcing that product in bulk from Alibaba. So we're going to Alibaba try and find multiple different suppliers get some quotes and find out MOQs different materials people use, et cetera order samples and then try and then start stocking items in the UK. So when situations like this happen albeit not very often then you're better equipped but to be honest there's a ton of more advantages to stocking your own items in the country you're selling it to from short delivery times which in return will lead to less refunds better customer service higher customer retention and I won't bore you in this video because it's not a topic but perhaps if you guys want more content on that sort of thing make sure you let me know by putting a comment in the comment section below I read every single comment as well so if there is a question you guys want to ask me simply post it down below and I will get back to you and that pretty much it I don't need to make the video very long hopefully I've covered all the kind of questions and fears and worries that you guys might have but again like I said if I haven't just simply post it down below and I'll try and answer your questions as best as I can thank you very much for watching I hope you enjoyed it I hope it helps you out if it did please do make sure you do me the favour of hitting that like button please subscribe as well for regular content and finally make sure you guys stay safe and healthy and I'll see you in the next video


What I'm saying, I'm not worried about the millionaires. Nobody that's a millionaire is going to apply for a miserable $190 a week in transitional assistance. But Falkov's big plan to help those of us who lose our jobs in the recession is backfired badly, leaving him firmly on the back foot. Does Labour have a policy that covers him? Or was this some kind of blanket idea that you had that would have sucked in limitless numbers of people who could have then claimed it? I can't announce the detail of it until we've done the policy work. Right at the start it was a casual interview with the Herald. I said look we haven't worked out the detail of this but- I've never tripped up, I've never tripped up, I've done it, I've done it-


What's up everyone? Welcome to a brand new movie review for a film that I've been very highly anticipating ever since I saw the first trailer and it warmed my heart so much and that is Christopher Robin. Now Christopher Robin's one of these new Disney live action films that Disney's been kind of making them up for. They've did Cinderella, they've done Jungle Book, Maleficent, Beauty and the Beast and now we have a retelling or a slightly different twist to the Winnie the Pooh tale. What is that slightly different twist? Well if you didn't see the trailer it's about Christopher Robin grown up as a gloomy adult or should I say as a huffleump, trying to just get through in life in his work days with his family, trying to take care of them and he's forgotten about Winnie the Pooh and the 100 acre wood gang and that's where our story embarks on. It's about him trying to find his childhood self again. The thing that I think a lot of people shouldn't need to, I think a lot of people need to find their childhood life in them.  That's where I really liked where they put the message within this film. I think the message in this film is very contained, it's very simple but also very essential to the story and very essential to life in general and I think that's where I can really recommend this film to adults and kids because as strong as the message is for kids, I think it'll hit the adults just a little bit harder. This film is about growing up, it is about forgetting about your childhood and you getting lost within your work. All the other stressful things that happen when you get older. Yeah there's some more things to that point where it could be a con which we'll get into a little bit because this film isn't a masterpiece, it isn't perfection, it isn't any of that but what Christopher Robin is is that it's a simple, sweet, all-around Disney film and like when I say Disney film I do mean it. It is a straight Disney film, there's no certain twist to it other than Christopher Robin being grown up where I feel like that could have been missed the mark and I think it was in some aspects where I think Disney could have tackled the darker tone a little bit more or tackled this message a little bit harder and gone for a little bit more of a serious story with the heartwarming elements of Winnie the Pooh and the gang but again it's a simple, sweet Disney film and that's kind of what I expected. I kind of was just hoping for a little bit more of that and I think could be a con for some which is kind of where I'm getting to it is that the message again was strong and effective especially for me growing up and I think for other people around me as well and I think when adults see this film they'll recognize that. It's kind of wished they a little tackled it a little bit harder. You're here not just to see Christopher Robin all grown up with Ian McGregor playing him who Ian McGregor is fantastic in this movie. Here's one of the best actors working today like so underrated. I also have Hailey Atwell playing his wife and his daughter in here is adorable both do good performances would have liked to see a little bit more of them. Here's that you came here to see your old friends still there still adorable you got Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Kanga, Rue and Owl and you have them living in the Hundred Acre Woods and I think this is the best part about the whole film is seeing them all ruffled up all kind of dirty up because they're all stuffed animals and it's cool to see how they realize them I think the CGI really worked for all the characters I think it really just touched and there's a lot of scenes in here and the cinematography is so beautiful because it lits a lot of these areas all very well done in some super creative ways. It's kind of where I wish the editing would have been a little bit better which is this that's all the like a filmography like kind of person would notice is the editing I think could have been touched up in some departments sometimes it felt a little bit lazy and I think would have enhanced the cinematography a little bit but seriously the cinematography in here is just beautiful in the way that they color in the color palettes and stuff yes it's kind of a Logan-esque color palette but they do some colorful touches that kind of makes everything brighten up a bit which it's just unique again hearing a lot of these voice actors coming back especially the guy who does Winnie the Pooh it's just wonderful yes some of the voice actors aren't back but I think everyone does a very effective job as these characters each and every one of them has a scene that just makes you smile or makes your heart feel with joy or you just feel with joy because that's what I felt within this film was joy and heartwarming elements being honest I think Eeyore probably stole the whole entire show he has some of the best moments in this film some of the funniest but Tigger is great in here too it's kind of hard to go back because again each of our four main people Winnie, Piglet, Tigger and Eeyore all have great moments that really do steal the film and who can like Pooh Bear is just one of the most essential characters that any Disney thing he always has these fantastic quotes that make you think about life but also analyze it real fast and I love that for all I really enjoyed Christopher Robin I think this is a very heartwarming tug at your strings kind of film and yes it's all around Disney it doesn't take anything escalate it to super high it's a very simple sweet story and it's nothing that's going to make you cry maybe a little bit because of all the heartwarming and tear jerky moments in here and I do think Disney could have pushed the envelope in a little bit in the couple of the sections just to see where it can go and see where it can get to you wish they would have hit those marks but I didn't expect them to I was just kind of hopeful that they would kind of go further with the message but seriously the message is still very strong within this film the cinematography is great the score is great and gets you into the whimsicalness of Winnie the Pooh and I'm not gonna lie I want to see another film with a grown-up Christopher Robin this family enjoying the many wonders of Winnie the Pooh all that said I'm gonna give Christopher Robin a B guys what do you guys think about Christopher Robin are you guys looking forward to this film have you seen it already let's talk about it down below in the comments can't wait to hear you guys thoughts on Christopher Robin leave me down below what is your favorite live action Disney film I think my favorite one so far is either Cinderella or the jungle book because both of those had a lot of magical touches to them of course if you guys are new here hit up sandwich on films also down below because right down there you guys can get into advanced movie screens check out some movie news and also some movie reviews you guys do not want to miss out on that till next time though you guys all stay classy and have a great rest of your


Item number SCP-263. Object Class. Safe. Special Containment Procedures. SCP-263 is to be stored in a low-value item storage vault at Site-19. It may be removed for testing provided permission from a Level 3 researcher in a fire-resistant area to conduct testing in. All testing with SCP-263 is to be recorded. Subjects testing SCP-263 are allowed a mobile telephone, a PDA, or a netbook computer, with full unrestricted access to a complete synchronized copy of the Foundation's data banks. Stored in a dedicated database server to guarantee full retrieval of any records entry in no more than 200 milliseconds, if and only if they are terminated immediately after testing is concluded. All recordings of testing on SCP-263 are to be reviewed by a researcher with Level 4 or higher clearance and censored where necessary to prevent access to restricted material. All researchers observing SCP-263 during testing are to be administered a local amnestic and have their notes confiscated. Research notes from testing require permission from a researcher with Level 4 clearance to access. Description SCP-263 is a black-and-white television bearing the logo of the Thompson Company. It matches no known model of television but has a similar style and construction to televisions built in the year 1961. SCP-263 is fully intact but has sustained minor cosmetic damage to the screen and frame. SCP-263 has been observed to function even when not connected to a power outlet. When switched on the TV always displays the interior of a studio whose design bears similarities to studios of television game shows from the 1960s. A large logo saying cash or ash in large stylized letters can be seen on the back wall of the studio and an unidentified music piece is playing in the studio at all times. The only man visible in the studio is SCP-263-1.  SCP-263-1 has a demeanor that has been described as blithe, enthusiastic, and over-the-top. SCP-263-1 is smiling almost constantly. As soon as a human turns SCP-263 on, SCP-263-1 will look directly at the subject and say that the subject is a new competitor who just tuned in to the cash or ash show. He will then state that he wishes the subject lots of luck in answering three fiendish questions and getting the cash and not ash. SCP-263-1's exact phrasing varies slightly between each usage of SCP-263. SCP-263-1 will proceed to ask the questions. The questions asked by SCP-263-1 are always related to the environment surrounding SCP-263. If inside of a fully enclosed structure, SCP-263-1 will ask questions about the owners, history, and design of the structure. If outside of a enclosed structure, SCP-263-1 will ask questions pertaining to the history, geology, ecosystem, and weather patterns of the surrounding area. While inside of a foundation facility, all of the questions are related to various SCPs in possession or in the records of the foundation or about the history and architecture of the site in which it is stored. Many of them are inquiries upon rather basic information easily found in documents accessible by low-level personnel but some of them concern specific minutiae found only in certain esoteric documents which require high clearance and or are rather complicated to find or reach. In each case though, the information needed to correctly answer the question can be gathered from foundation records. If within the next 45 seconds the subject supplies a correct answer, their success will be acknowledged and briefly congratulated upon by SCP-263-1. If however, the subject answers incorrectly or does not answer within 45 seconds, SCP-263-1 will say, times up, so sorry and the subject will immediately combust. The flames are always of both high temperature and intensity and will fully enclose the subject within four seconds. All attempts to extinguish the fire up to this point have been unsuccessful. After 42 seconds, the fire will disappear along with the remains of the subject who burns entirely. After 42 seconds of past, SCP-263-1 will look out towards the place where the subject combusted and state that the failure is a pity and that hopefully the next competitor will avoid the ash and get away with the cash. SCP-263 will then turn off on its own. If during the 45 seconds someone whispers to the subject, audibly speaks to the subject. The subject leaves the area directly in front of SCP-263 or the subject interacts with a computer greater than 27 centimeters. SCP-263-1 will accuse the subject of cheating and the subject will combust in the same manner as described above. SCP-263 will then remark on the dwindling ethics of today's people and SCP-263 will switch itself off. Portable consumer electronic devices such as mobile telephones, PDAs, and laptop computers smaller than 27 centimeters do not cause the subject to combust thus allowing the subject to find the information required to correctly answer the question within the provided time. If the subject correctly answers all three questions, SCP-263-1 will say congratulations you have won the cash. Here's your prize.  The prize is given away by SCP-263 appear to have no discernible theme or pattern. So far the following prizes have been given a marble figurine of a dragon 5.3 centimeters long microscopic observation confirmed that micrometer size details are present value 48,237 dollars jade statues which appear similar to ordinary us dollars however the faces of the presidents are all replaced with a smiling face of SCP-263-1 same detail and carving as the dragon figurine listed above value 226,703 dollars a clockwork figurine 4 centimeters tall made of brass and walking around randomly when wound the figurine depicts an unknown vaguely squid-like creature value 21,424 dollars a series of eight gold-plated miniature statuettes resembling humanoid anomalies contained at site 19 including SCP-1770 the statuettes are marked with the anomalies object number on the base and do not appear otherwise anomalous value 17,315 dollars all attempts to inquire SCP-263-1 about himself or SCP-263 have proven ineffective SCP-263-1 does not react to any questions or statements save for the question answers or any cheating attempts lesson complete if you missed the previous orientation go watch SCP-262 a coat of many arms right now or for the complete course watch this playlist


It is March of 2024 and both TrueNAS core and TrueNAS scale have deprecated having built in minio or S3 object storage emulation that allows you to use your TrueNAS server as an S3 storage device. But they have moved it to being an application. This is why they deprecated it because applications are easier to update than updating the TrueNAS appliance itself. So this was done for security reasons. When they first did it, there were some bugs I will admit to have complained about that have now been addressed where certificates weren't working properly. Now that all this has been fixed, let's get started and show you how to set it up in TrueNAS scale. Are you an individual or forward-thinking company looking for expert assistance with network engineering, storage or virtualization projects? Perhaps you're an internal IT team seeking help to proactively manage, monitor or secure your systems. We offer comprehensive consulting services tailored to meet your specific project needs. Whether you require fully managed or co-managed IT services, our experienced team is ready to step in and help. We specialize in supporting businesses that need IT administration or IT team seeking an extra layer of support to enhance their operations. To learn more about any of our services, head over to our website and fill out the hire us form at loren systems.com. Let us start crafting the perfect IT solution for you. If you want to show some extra love for our channel, check out our swag store and affiliate links down below that will lead you to discounts and deals for products and services we've discussed on this channel. With the ad read out of the way, let's get you back to the content that you really came here for. Now the first thing I want to talk about is certificates because we got to go here to credentials and certificates and I created a certificate authority called MinIO and then I created a certificate called MinIO. These are just self-signed certificates. If you wanted to have a signed certificate, there are options here under the ACME DNS. You can use Cloudflare Route 53 OVH or your own shell script to do this. Diving in further to this is out of scope. So is a reverse proxy. Those are other options you can have for this, but you can put certificates in here. I'm simply going to go the self-signed certificate route. And as I said, it's as simple as adding the authority, follow the questions and then go ahead and add the certificate here. You can just use the true and ask default certificate. That is an option. I just prefer to have a dedicated certificate for the MinIO. Next, we want to go over to our data sets and I'm going to create it here on this particular pool called SSDC. So let's go ahead and add a data set. We're going to call that data set MinIO YouTube demo. I'll just give it the same comment. We'll leave everything here at default and then scroll down here. We want to change the share type to application. That's important because this is going to be dedicated to the S3 app and this will set the permissions automatically. So we're going to hit and hit save here. Now we can go over to the applications, go to discover apps, type in min, you'll find the MinIO high performance native object storage. Go ahead and choose install. And we'll give it a name demo. You can have more than one. So if you wanted this dedicated to the first demo and call it demo one, another demo and call it demo two or maybe more aptly calling it something like Synology, you can have an instance provided you don't reuse supports for each one, but we're just going to call this one demo because we're only going to do one instance for this demonstration here. We'll scroll down, leave these things all at default. And now we have to set a root password and root user will give it the name bucket list. And we'll use this as our password. Then we're going to scroll down a little further, we're going to leave these at default because it's the only instance I have but these can be changed to something different you want. And here is our TrueNAS default certificate, but I'm going to choose the MinIO certificate. And then we're going to scroll down further. And we're going to enable host path volume. And we're going to choose that particular pool and this MinIO YouTube demo as the data set. And we'll scroll down here to the bottom and simply click install. All right, now the application is up to date, we're going to go ahead and click on the web portal and use the credentials that we put in. And we're going to go ahead and create a bucket. And we'll call this bucket xcpng because that's what I'm going to use as a test. I'm not going to worry about any of the other functions in here, but we'll head and create a bucket. And while we're here is I want to do another test with Synology. So we'll create a bucket for Synology. And now we have two buckets here. I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through all the functions here because you can find this all in the documentation of MinIO and all the extra features you can do. I just wanted to get the basics covered here to get you this far, but you can create specific access keys and get granular with permissions that's all built in here as well. Now I'm going to go over here to my demo system and just show you that it works. We're going to go ahead and create an Amazon web services S3. We'll give it the name S3 YouTube demo. We'll scroll down here. We got to give it an endpoint. I'm doing this by IP address. So this is the IP address of the churnass server and colon 9000 is the port. That's the default port setup for the MinIO instance. And we're going to head and allow an unauthorized certificate so we don't get an error. The bucket name we created was xcpng. The directory I want this in is just going to be called backups. The access ID, I didn't create a new one. So I'm just going to use the credentials we created for MinIO, which was bucket list and this password. And we can hit save configuration. We can see that it's green and then we can do the test remote and it appears to work correctly. It is able to write to this. So now I'm able to use these backups. This works much the same with Synology. We're going to go here to hit plus. Go ahead and do next. Choose S3 storage. We want to change it to custom server URL. Server address is going to be the same. For Synology, we put an HTTPS in front of that. We want to choose version B4. Access key is bucket list. The secret is that same password. And when we hit the pull downs, there's our xcpng and Synology buckets. We want to choose the Synology one and you can call this whatever you want. Go ahead and hit next. And we can choose what we want to back up on this particular system. Give the task a name next. I like the smart recycle option. Go ahead and hit next. Done. Say yes. And you can see now our Synology is backing up. All right. Our Synology has successfully done the backup and we can go back over to MinIO and see the reported usage or we can go to our object browser and see the different objects in this particular bucket. I didn't run a xcpng backup so there's still no objects in there. But this pretty much gives you an idea how you can use this. Now, one more thing I want to note over here in our TrueNAS, if we go to data sets and we look at that data set we created, the MinIO YouTube demo data, you'll see it says owner 473 and group 473. This is the user for MinIO. You don't have to do anything or create this user. It's already there. But if you change it, you will break it. Just want to note if you're wondering why that appeared there is it doesn't use the normal apps. It actually creates its own user. Nothing you have to do, just something I wanted to note. Now, I did this video using TrueNAS scale 2310. But I have tested the beta 24, which is due to be out in about a month from now. And maybe you're watching this in the future when it's already out. The creation process looks the same in the beta. So if the video needs an update, let me know in the comments down below, or maybe I'll have already got a new video out. Also worth noting, MinIO is really cool. Really nice open source project has a lot of documentation. I kept it simple by only covering the getting started. But yes, there's a whole lot more you can do with MinIO. Leave some comments down below if there's something else you want me specifically to cover, or maybe this let me know what your use case is for it and what you have tied to your S3 object storage. Like and subscribe to see more content from this channel. Head over to my forums, forums.lorensystems.com, to have a more in depth discussion about this or other topics you've seen on the channel. And thanks.


So something that's been coming up more and more frequently over the last couple of years is how many YouTubers are opening up and talking about their own depression. And from the outside looking in, so many of us can wonder, how can it be that somebody who seemingly has everything be so depressed? And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in this video. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, what I try to do is take different topics from the YouTube community, try to see what lessons we can learn from them to improve our own mental and emotional well-being.  So if you're into those things, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And real quick announcement, make sure you're following me over on social media at the Rewired Soul because I have been working my butt off to finish writing Rewire Your Anxiety. All right? I finished like the written version not that long ago and I've been like recording the crap out of the audiobook. So it should be out this weekend. My editor Zach, he's editing the audiobook. So make sure you're following me on social media. I'm already giving away 20 free copies. I'm going to be giving away more, but you got to follow me on Instagram and Twitter at the Rewired Soul if you want to get yourself one, all right? So anyways, yeah, let's let's talk about this. This is something that's been on my mind a lot. It's always on my mind like mental health is just in the forefront of my mind. Those of you who are just now meeting me, hi, I'm Chris.  I was in active addiction for almost a decade. I just celebrated seven years clean and sober. And it's something that I often look at because I part of my mission in life is to give people hope, right? I used to be in that dark place and don't get me wrong, depression and anxiety still flares up, but my life is a million times better today. And something I try to do with my platform is not only teach all of you, but hopefully if I can help some of the other creators out there, that'd be awesome too. So the first thing I want to talk about in this video, I'm going to be talking about different factors that play into depression, not only for YouTubers, but just a lot of you might be able to relate to this too, but I'm not going to dive deep into the biological stuff, but I do just want to mention that like there are biological factors for depression. I highly recommend you check out a book called Lost Connections by Johan Hari, and there's some other great books out there like Upward Spiral. Like I have a whole reading list, all right? But anyways, biological factors don't play as big of a role in depression as a lot of us may think. So yeah, in this video, I want to talk about some of the other factors, right? So like I said, like for a lot of people out there who are watching this, like most of you are viewers, like there's only a small percentage of us who are creators, and then a lot of you are viewers, and I know me personally, even with my own depression, like looking at other people, like it made sense why I was depressed, but how could these other people be depressed? These people who are rich or famous and they have everything, or maybe they have like a wife and kids or whatever it is, you know, always going on vacation, like how, how are these people depressed? And one thing that I really think plays a major role in YouTuber's depression or even celebrity depression, or even if you're somebody who's worked your way up like the corporate ladder and experienced depression is the bill of lies that we've been sold since we were kids, especially here in the United States. And what that is, is what will equal happiness, all right? And by the way, I did like a 45 minute podcast episode talking about this a little bit more in depth. If you want to check that out, it'll be linked in the description. But what I mean is, especially in the United States, you know, like we have a capitalist society. So like we are taught from a young age, like work hard, make money and everything like that and like do your thing, boo. But we're taught that if you make X amount of money, if you get a certain amount of power, you will be happy. So especially like you see with the new generation and everything like that, like one of the most common careers that young people say they want to get into is like YouTube or a Twitch streamer, right? But even in other fields, right? Even if you just want to be like, I don't know, like a bank owner or something or bank owners, even a thing. I don't know what it is, but anyways, we're taught that if you achieve this thing, you will be happy. Now I can share with you from my personal experience that I learned a long, long, long time ago that money does not equal happiness. All right?  Right? Like they were like, what? You make all this money. How could you be depressed? Oh, there's people like me struggling. And like, here's what I try to teach people. Money does not equal happiness. Money just equals decreasing stress. There is no guarantee that once you make X amount of money, you won't be depressed. But the problem is, is that so many of us think that it will be. So I just want you to kind of picture this for a second when it comes to your favorite YouTubers, when it comes to celebrities, when it comes to people who you just feel are better off than you.  You're told at the top of that mountain is pure bliss. Right? And then you get there and it's not what you expected. You know what I mean? And my personal experience was that like when I was deep in my addiction, my drug addiction and alcoholism, I had everything you could imagine. From the outside looking in, I had everything. I had a great job. I was making a boatload of money. I was making so much money that I was able to fully support my son's mom. I was fully able to support my son. I was able to, you know, we had the house. We had two cars. We were going on vacations, all these things. And I was more miserable than I've ever been. And for me personally, I'm grateful for that experience. Like in my 20s, I saw what it was like to make all this money and be absolutely miserable. Right? And something that I absolutely loved was one of my favorite authors, Mark Manson, he wrote like the subtle art of not giving an F and everything is after his newer book.  And what he's talking about is no matter what we do in life, there's always going to be a struggle that comes along with it. Like there's this delusion that a lot of us have that, oh, once we get here, our struggles are going to go away. No, no matter what you do, there's going to be a new struggle, right? Like YouTubers have YouTuber struggles.   You have manager struggles, right? Same thing. Like when you're in high school, you have high school struggles. When you get to college, you have college struggles. Once you graduate college, then you got adult struggles. You see what I mean? Like there's always going to be struggles, but a lot of us fall victim to this delusion that once we get from point A to point B, the struggles are just going to be gone. And this is why it's so important, no matter where you're at in life, that we have to constantly be working on our mental health, right? Because of these expectations we have that once we get here, everything's going to be fine. The problem is, is that good old fashioned, hedonic treadmill where the goalpost keeps moving, all right? We constantly want more. We constantly crave more. It's hard for us to just stay in one place, especially when you look at people who are so passionate and motivated to keep improving their life, like they're never satisfied. And part of that is good, right? Because it keeps us in this forward momentum, but part of us needs to look at this and say, okay, but I also need to be grateful for where I'm at right now. And the last thing I want to talk about is I was actually just reading an article on Mashable about how like depression and anxiety has become trendy. And as many of you know, we just had the tragic loss of Edeka. And a question a lot of people have is, like, why wasn't more done? How did some people not know?  I'm looking at this, I'm like, man, like, it's right there. Like, we see it going on. But when I was reading that Mashable article, I'm like, man, like, it makes sense. It makes sense why things fly under the radar and I'll link the Mashable article. But like so many people right now, we're diluting the message of mental health. Like, I'm so glad that more people are talking about mental health, but it's like the pendulum is swinging in a different direction. First, we had nobody talking about mental health. Now we have everybody talking about mental health. So it's difficult for people to see, like, which situations are more serious because you have a lot of people where they're saying they're depressed when they're actually sad. You're seeing a lot of people saying they have anxiety when they're actually just experiencing nervousness, right? And I think this is one of the reasons why it's so important for people to be more educated about mental health because there are varying degrees. Like some things are just natural human emotions. These are things that we're all going to experience at some point or another, right? But we need to be able to differentiate between is this person depressed or are they just sad, right? Like, at what point do we start taking this seriously? Because in the sad case of like, Edykah, how many people were out there just saying like, oh, he's just trying to get views. He's just trying to get attention. And the worst part is like so many people, it woke them up, right? When we lost Edykah, but this is happening all around us every single day. Like how many people in your life are people saying like, oh, they just want attention. Oh, that's all they're doing. Like this is this is not something new. And this is why I just encourage everybody to get educated about this stuff, right? Like I'm not a therapist. I'm not a psychologist or anything like that. Although I've worked in treatment. I've done a lot of peer support. I do some sober coaching and life coaching and things like that. But like I'm nobody special. Like before I even worked in the facility before I got my certifications and everything, I was constantly educating myself about mental illness because it's so, so, so important. We we hold physical health on this huge pedestal, right? And it is very important. A lot of physical health can help your mental health as well. But you can have a six pack and be utterly depressed the same way you can have millions of dollars and be completely depressed, right? So anyways, I would love to know your thoughts on this subject down below. Like, do you think that too many people are talking about mental health and they don't really understand the difference between sadness and depression or nervousness and anxiety? Do you think that's diluting the message? Or do you have any experience with thinking that once you get to this one place, you'll finally be happy. But it just came with new stresses. All right. But anyways, again, if you're struggling, like, do not be afraid to get help no matter how much you have or don't have, help is available. OK, if you cannot afford therapy, like find support groups, find people to talk to. All right. But anyways, again, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter at the rewired soul, rewire your anxieties coming out this weekend, the ebook and the audiobook. So make sure you stay tuned for that. All right. But if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And if you would like to become a patron, support what I'm doing here, get access to some perks and benefits. Some people even get free books. If you're at a certain Patreon to you can click or tap right there. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.


Ladies and gentlemen, the railroad hour. And here comes our star-studded show train. Tonight, the Association of American Railroads presents the premiere performance of the new Lawrence and Lee play with music, The Pirate of New Orleans, starring Gordon MacRae and his charming guest star Dorothy Warren Show. Our choir is under the direction of Norman Luboff, and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon.  And now, here is our star, Gordon MacRae. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Well, sir, we have a brand new operator for you tonight. Dorothy Warren Show will be the unforgettable Suzanne, and I shall be Jean Lafitte, the pirate of New Orleans. You are liens on the old Gulf Coast. There's a walk-in, talk-in, sing-in, go.  You'll tell you, on nights when the fog sits on the river, and the moon is aching through the clouds, Jean Lafitte walks through New Orleans town, remembering the days he was a pirate king. Gentlemen, I propose a toast to the most daring, the most courageous, the most romantic bucket of you in the memory of man, my sir. Have we no majesty on Grand Air, Lafitte? Why should we have? Show me a man whose my equal dominique and I'll be modest. All we know about you is stories, Lafitte. Which is true? Well, it depends. What have you had? Is it true that you came from Guadeloupe, then moved to the town of Gumbo Soup? I've heard a lot of people speak, that you came from the Isle of Partidique. Perhaps. And your mercantile, like the king and queen, were guests of Madame Guillotine. Your username is Dominique, you see the way with your cut-off nose. There's not the whole thing of myself. There is sail and the wind and I sail, with a good glass of ale, I've never done, but we laugh with the raiders. Travel tonight, Lafitte. Is there a Spanish merchantman waiting to be relieved of its silver? No, Dominique. I'm traveling alone tonight. All of you will remain here on Grand Air. I alone will slip in the New Orleans. Is it safe, Lafitte? Governor Claiborne has set a price on your head. There are notices all over the city. I wish to read one of those notices and laugh at it. Also, tonight, I wish to dance. Dance? He's a masked great boy with a governor's mansion. I wish to hear the latest rumors about my closest friend, Marcel. I sure wear a mask and go in the disguise of a respectable citizen. How beautifully you dance, mademoiselle. Merci, monsieur. Won't you tell me your name? Ah, this is a night of disguises. Please. It is Suzanne Martin. Suzanne Martin. It rhymes. And your name, monsieur? Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of the world. With you and my arms, I feel like an emperor. Listen to the minuetes. How lovely it is. Yes. With your bait, hope it is all the rage you know on both sides of the Atlantic. Oh? If ever I leave this city, I shall think always of the coutiliers. Through the happy dancing hour. Lovely mademoiselle Suzanne. Would you come out to the balcony with me? One cannot refuse the request of an emperor. You have no idea how beautiful you look in the moonlight, even behind the alluring mask. Monsieur must certainly be an American, for they are the only people in the world who tell lies, almost as beautifully as Frenchmen. I am everything mademoiselle and nothing. I'm homesick. Boy, home I have never had. Oh? Have you listened to the city, Suzanne? Listen to it? Ah, the sounds of the river, the street glass. Don't put it away. There is an old Creole woman with a basket of berries, balanced on her head. The city is full of music. Even the chimney sweep sinks. You know I like to be a chimney sweep, Suzanne. Must be something like flying, a bird with dirty wings, in a very strange song. Is it you who live on love? A man would wish for a home in the city of music. Where is your home, too? The governor. Perhaps we better go inside and see what's happening. My friend, I wish to warn all of you to be on your guard. Jean Lafitte is somewhere here in New Orleans tonight. As you know, I have posted notices throughout the city offering a reward of $500, for the delivery of Jean Lafitte to the sheriff of the parish of Orleans. We look here. Alongside each of my notices, the scoundrel has posted this. I offer $1,500 for the delivery of Governor Claiborne to Grand Head. Signed Jean Lafitte. Mr. Governor. Yes, young man. Let me be the first to volunteer to lead a party to capture this devil. I thank you, young man. Do not go into the streets alone, ladies. I bid you good night, Suzanne. Be careful. Tell me, where can I find you? If by chance, some evening, assume the music and the moonlight lure me back to the city. Here, I am governor's to the governor's small son. Oh, governor's governor's. I like that. I will see you tomorrow night, Suzanne. For I have high doubts that I will succeed by then capturing a man as clever, as daring, as brilliant as Jean Lafitte. Good night, Mr. Sheriff. Until then, Suzanne, I offer a toast. To the sea we shall all... We'll return in a moment with the second act of the Pirate of New Orleans. In this America of ours, which depends so much on its vast system of transportation for both commerce and defense, which form of transportation do you think is most important? That was the question a well-known public opinion research organization recently asked men and women from all parts of the country. And as you might expect, most of them answered the railroads. I think as we all are these days of the importance of national defense. And it's obvious that only the railroads have the capacity to handle the tremendous transportation job involved in the long-distance mass movements of men and defense material. In World War II, for example, the railroads haul more than 90% of all war freight and 97% of all organized military travel. Equally important is the fact that our peacetime economy is built around the railroad freight train. Now, you may have heard it said in terms of transportation haul more tonnage than railroads. But the only way you could figure that is to leave out the all-important factor of the distance the freight is hauled. In other words, you would have to count a ton of freight moved one mile across town by truck. The same as a ton of freight moved clear across the country by railroad. Actually, of course, when you count both tons and the distance, those tons are hauled. You find, according to the figures of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the city freight transportation service as all the motor trucks put together. The railroads in fact moved more tons of freight more miles than all other forms of transportation combined and did it at charges which averaged far less than those of any other agency offering a general range of transportation service. Now, those facts are mighty important to you. Just imagine what it would be like if any considerable part of the freight that now moves over the privately owned steel highways of the railroads were to travel on the public highways you use and pay for with your tax dollars. And the more of America's freight that moves over the steel highways of the railroads, the less will be the cost of public highways and the greater will be your enjoyment and safety when you use them. Now, here is act two of the new Lawrence and Lee play with music the pirate of New Orleans starring Gordon Macrae as Lafitte and Dorothy Warrant-Scholl as Suzanne. A lot of stories about Mr. Jean Lafitte but this one we know is true because it's written down in the history books. Mr. Jean Lafitte you like the ex and so is I. Go to sleep, George, like a good boy. All right. Suzanne. How did you get in here? Through the window. A friend, George, a very nice man. I'm putting the boy to sleep. Suzanne. All right, George. Well, it's a wonderful story, George. All about the marvelous things you can see and hear once you sweep your cares away and start to dream. Now tell me a speaking story. You have had enough stories for tonight, George. Just one more. Let me. As George was about time, there was a pirate. A terrible pirate? Oh, very terrible. He seemed even like himself. And when at night he wished to sweep the dream path clear, he had no place to lay his head. He wished more than anything to belong someplace in a country or in a city in a parish. So he thought that if just once he could do a special favor for the people of a city, perhaps one day they might think of him as a fellow citizen. And he boys asleep. Yes. But I am suddenly awake, sir. What do you mean, Suzanne?  Suzanne, I...  Does it frighten you? No, but you must leave quickly before they find you here. Suzanne, I have defended burning ships at sea, island fortresses and ugly world of oceans. Suzanne, are you all right in there? Yes, governor. Please, climb out of the window quickly.  I thank you for your concern, Suzanne. Go to the door. Open it and let the governor in. No. Please, do as I say. The guard said he thought he saw a shadow and so I'm checking every room. La Fit. You're serving, Governor Clybourne. What are you doing in my house? The boy. Suzanne, you permitted this. There's a price on this man's head. There's a price on your head, too, Governor. It just depends on which poster you read. Five hundred dollars, really, Governor. For my head, it's hardly the price of a haircut. Just one moment, Governor. This morning at dawn, I was back on ground tear and I had a visit from the British. Commodore Patterson offered me thirty thousand dollars in gold. The captain seen the British Navy. If I would lead their ships into the Orient harbor. Are you here to bargain, La Fit? What do you want from us? Forty thousand and an admiral's braid? My men and I will join the American forces and aid you in repelling the invasion. All we ask is an act of oblivion for all that we have done up till now. I do not make bargains with pirates. Then I bid you good night. I shall exit the way I came. Bless you, Suzanne. What happened? Everything's all right, George. The story, go on with the story. How does it end? To this story, George, I am afraid there is no ending. Naturally, General Jackson, I refuse, Governor Claiborne. There might be situations where pirates could be right and governors could be wrong. I cannot imagine such a situation, General. You don't have to imagine it, Governor. It's happening right now. Communicate with La Fit at once. What? The United States government accepts his offer. Dominique, sing this song with your flag. We are flying. Fire! I have a communication from the President of the United States. I, James Madison, do proclaim a free and full pardon to every pirate who participated in the Battle of New Orleans and do declare they are citizens of the United States in the full enjoyment of their liberty. Welcome to the Victory Ball, Citizen La Fit. I thank you, Suzanne. Just listen to the music. I am certain no dance will ever replace the minuet. How good it is. Is that the feat for the high seas dancing with Mama Suzanne? Yes, the pirate. Imagine the insolence. Suzanne, I... Don't listen to them, Jean, please. No, I shall not make a scene, Suzanne. I shall not spoil the pretty picture of dancing hours, but I do not belong here. Come with me, Jean, out onto the balcony. No, Suzanne, it is no use. My friend, I cannot say to you what I feel. Perhaps I can tell you with music. Beautiful sentiment, Suzanne. But I do not belong here. Presidents may make proclamations, but I shall always be La Fit, the pirate. Where are you going? Back to the high seas. Dominique has an idea that perhaps we might rescue the great Napoleon from the island of St. Helena. I shall wander with the winds, Suzanne. No. The man is what he is. Perhaps someday I shall find a home. La Fit. Here's Dominique. Why do you stand here on deck and gaze across the water? What are you listening for? I don't know. Distant music, perhaps. A minuet, maybe? Cadillac. The face in the fog. The wail from the river. It's Mr. Jean La Fit. Citizen of New Orleans. Matthew Wanshell will be back in just a moment. Meanwhile, our thanks to Thoreau Ravenscroft, singer to Bill Conrad, who was Dominique Yu, to Herb Butterfield, William Johnstone, and Richard Beals into our entire company. The Pirate of New Orleans was written especially for the railroad hour by Lawrence and Glee. The railroad hour is brought to you each week at the same time by the American Railroads. Marvin? Next Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of the Army Transportation Corps, which directed the movement of the millions of soldiers and the millions of tons of freight they required, both in the United States and in World War II. And since the outbreak of war in Korea, the Transportation Corps is again moving men and materiel where they are needed when they are needed. The American Railroads, which worked closely with the Transportation Corps by providing dependable mass transportation service, proudly salute this youngest of the Army Technical Services on its 10th birthday. Dorothy, you were wonderful. What's on the show train next week, Gordon? Well, Lucille Norman will be our guest and we're going to recall the wonderful days of the American Railroads. The show is called Starlight. All aboard. Well, folks, it looks as though ready to pull out and so until next Monday and Starlight, this is Gordon Macrae saying good night. The railroad hour was transcribed in Hollywood. Gordon Macrae can be seen starring in Warner Brothers About Face. A choir is out of the direction of Norman Luboff and our music is prepared and conducted by Carmen Dragon. This is Marvin Miller saying goodbye until next week for the American Railroads. Now stay tuned for your Monday Night of Music on NBC. Next, it's H.C.O. Pinza as guest of the telephone hour on NBC.


An imminent birthday means I need a cake for the obligatory celebration. Do I A. buy or B. bake a cake? For me, though, there is no choice. The systems of food marketing and manufacturing play upon the use of obligatory festivals in order to sell overpriced, over-engineered, sickly sweet cakes that give you a sugar rush. While the psychoactive alkaloids of the cocoa, the caffeine and fear bromine mess with your brain chemistry and metabolism to give you a mildly blissed-out feeling.  This post started with a rant about vegan chocolate cake. Someone posted a photo of a wondrous new acquisition. A vegan cake in a box with a prominent reduced was £6. Now £2.52 sticker on the front. I was not impressed. Vegan cake is so easy to make. I am amazed at anyone who would think any mass-market cake was a bargain at all. Cake is a beautiful thing. And thus it pains me that something which can be so easily and inexpensively made is mangled through mass-marketing and cult celebrity TV machination into something that detracts from its essential purpose as a simple gift to share. My response? Ignore the overhyped celebration of affluent excess and cut straight to the essential, simple, shared meal of brain-ultrant ingredients utilising some simple, punk, do-it-yourself practical action. As the table of ingredients shows, the most expensive part for chocolate cake is the cocoa, especially if you pay a fair price to that globally traded drug by using fair trade produce. Very simply, the more cocoa, the more intense the flavour hit, and buying your drug's fair trade gives a better, less bitter buzz. The economics of mass-market cakes requires that they minimise the cost. To do this, various additives are used, as well as a heap of sugar, that create the sticky, oily texture of mass-market cakes. In part, that's why I hate commercial cakes. They have an overpowering flavour of cheap processed sugar, rather than the main flavouring ingredient they are advertised as containing, be that cocoa or nuts or fruit. Most of these modern ingredients are not there to improve the cake, but to improve the shelf life of the cake. For example, humectants that trap moisture to stop the cake drying out. Personally, I think if a cake lasts long enough to dry out before being eaten, it wasn't tasty enough, or you need to be sharing it with more people. Any type of everyday cake can be easily and simply made without all those additional ingredients, and can be made for a fraction of the cost of the mass-market offerings. Of course, the immediate conclusion might be that if your cake is cheaper, you can have more of it. Instead, I prefer to increase the quality of the ingredients to increase the taste experience, which in this case means adding lots of cocoa. First issue, how much cake mix to make? Start with a cake tin. It's a simple ratio. Fill the cake tin half full with flour, then use about one-third the volume of oil as the weight of flour, and a quarter to a fifth of the weight of sugar as the flour. The baked cake will usually rise to twice the height of the raw cake mix. To estimate how much flour to use, just half fill the tin, then add the oil and sugar in the right proportions, unless you're using lots of nuts or mixed fruit, in which case deduct a little. This is just a plain, extremely chocolatey cake. You could halve the amount of cocoa and it would still taste of chocolate, but not as intensely. Likewise, you could double the amount of sugar if you wanted the standard, mass-market, overpowering, sweet flavour. You can play with the ingredients list. Add in ingredients as you like. For example, without the cocoa, and with a little nutmeg and mixed fruit instead, you would have a fruit cake. The basic mix of flour, oil, sugar and raising agents is the basis of all cakes. Everything else is just for flavour. Now mix everything together. Begin with the flour. I use white-self-raising flour for my more exotic cakes because you get a more spongy result. Whole meal works well, but doesn't quite rise as much during baking. I add extra raising agents to the flour, sodium bicarbon cream with tartar. The proteins inside the eggs usually used to make non-vegan cakes helps the cakes rise. Adding extra raising agent makes up for that, and it's essentially the difference between vegan and non-vegan cakes. Next, I add the cocoa powder and mix really thoroughly, making sure there are no small lumps of dry ingredients. Now I add the oil. If you want a more sticky, oily cake, use a little extra. First, mix the oil into the flour with your fingers, and when it has disappeared, start to blend everything between your palms. This might take a while. What's required is an even, uniform, crumb-like mass. To add stickiness and richness to the cake, I add molasses, which is essentially the natural equivalent of the glucose syrups used in mass market cakes. Dissolve 3 tablespoons of molasses in about 150 millilitres of warm water. Add the sugar to the mix. Then pour over the molasses and water. Then with a spoon, mix everything briskly until you get a smooth, but not too liquid goo. The mix needs to be wet enough to rise easily. The test is to mix thoroughly, and then lift the spoon. If you lift the spoon, and a sticky string falls off, and then another, it's just right. In the single string, it's too wet, and you should add a little more flour. If you lift the spoon and it doesn't flow at all, add a little more water, and mix thoroughly again. At this stage, if you wanted to drop in a chopped up bar of chocolate, or nuts, or mixed fruit, or other herbal flavourings, you should add them at this point, and then thoroughly stir them into the mix. Most importantly, the moment you add water, the raising agents are activated. Mix the cake as quickly as possible, and then pour into the cake tin, and get it in the oven. You should put the oven on to preheat before you start mixing the cake. Gas mark two and a half, 155 Celsius, 310 Fahrenheit. When the mix is the right thickness, pour it into the cake tin, and then gently stir inside the tin until it's well mixed. This seems to make the cake rise better than just pouring the mix into the tin, and helps to reduce the cake splitting in the middle as it rises. Put the cake tin in the middle of the oven, for at least an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how deep your cake tin is. A deeper cake requires a longer baking time. When it's ready, you should be able to press a thin knife into the centre, leave for five seconds, and then remove without seeing any wet streaks on the blade. When baked, turn it out into a cooling tray. It needs to stand for a few hours to allow it to cool fully, before eating or decorating. You could eat as is. You could melt a bar of chocolate, and spread that over the cake. For this event, I'm mixing four parts fondant icing to one part cocoa powder to make a really chocolatey sweet glaze. Put the cake on a plate, dump a little on top, and spread it over. I use a straight back edge of an ordinary table knife for this. To do the side of the cake, I dump a dollop on the top, then push it over the edge, and swirl it round the side. When finished, let it stand for a few hours until it is set. I'm dusting the whole top of the cake with icing sugar, then I'll scratch through with a point of a knife to write the message. How you decorate, or not, is completely up to you. It's part of the creative process, and can improve the flavour of your cake by adding, quite literally, a little eye candy. Why was I annoyed by that social media post about the bargain chocolate cake? A 454 gram cake, costing £2.52, works out at £5.50 per kilo. Though normally they sell for around £13 a kilo. I made this chocolate cake for £3.50 a kilo, and it's nutritionally superior. Making a cake isn't very hard. It was one of the first things I was taught to make as a child. Once you have the feel for how much flour and oil to use, how to blend them, and add just the right amount of water to make it rise, everything after that becomes free improvisation, adding whatever ingredients you wish to get the result you desire, or just making a simple cake with whatever ingredients you have to have available. Cake is as gift to share. It's something to stimulate the taste senses, put a little sugar rush in your blood, and cheer the spirit. Too much cake ceases to be a treat, and is made in moderation. But learning to make a good tasty spongy cake can make an event of any occasion. We've had the need to participate in the exploitative mass market for sweet goods that are frost upon society through the medium retail systems today.