ACHP Episode 389 – Edca Returns, Dunbarton Takes Over, and Cigar Prices Go Up?

Transcript

Welcome to episode 389 of the Cigar Hustler Podcast. Perfect. Yep. Yes.

That's it? That's the welcome. Oh, okay. Now, there's some witty banter.

No, we usually talk about your trends and what are light topics here. Am I tilted the wrong way way too much? Because I'm having to turn my head way left. No, that's great.

I think you're fine. m. Yeah. Are you on any other podcast?

Yeah, thank you for the input. Are you on anything this week? Do you have any podcasts you're doing in it? No, I get the week off.

Beer 9-1-1, or Cigar 9-1-1? Cigar, Beer, 9-1-1. Nothing, huh? Nothing.

Oh, how'd that one go? How'd the beer one go? It was good, man. You know, T-Money is a good dude.

So, I've done it before. Last time I did it, though. Oh, have you? Yeah, it was in a hot box.

It was in my sauna. You did it from a hot box? Yeah. Not this time, though.

So, just your head was showing? Yeah. Can we do this one that way? Sure.

That sounds amazing. Did you really? That's so weird. Oh, yeah.

I've totally done that before. Okay. You know he has to be wearing no clothes to be in the hot box, Paul. Yeah.

Well, right. That's what I'm assuming. So you're stuck in there. So you can't get out.

So if it goes long, you're just kind of stuck. You're just going to tell him you got to go. Yeah. All right.

I'm done here. I got to go. Yeah. Pretty much.

All right. We officially launched our merch storm. We have. Mike, tell everybody about it.

com, and we have our first limited edition t-shirt. This one right here. Bam. Mr.

BDP himself. Bam. We made 50 of these. And first come, first serve.

We're still ironing out a couple of the kinks on the site, but it is operational. So, yeah, don't critique. So, no, I always like to hear feedback and stuff that I miss. Oh, there's gibberish at the bottom of the website.

There is gibberish, yeah. There's some gibberish. There's some Latin. But we're on.

That's what matters. The buying part works. The buying part does work. com and be one of the first to get this BDP shirt.

And what sizes do we have? All sizes. Small to 4XL. The 4XL is what I was looking at.

I didn't know how high we went. Yeah, all the way to 4XL. Nice. Choose the size on the website.

Yes. And thank you in advance for your support. Only 50. Only 50 of them made.

Only 50. Yep. All right, today at ACHP, from playful presidential moments to parade chaos, plus updates on the WNBA's biggest star, and why your cigars might cost more soon. They always cost more.

Well, they might cost more, more. Well, we're making it more now. Okay. All right, we start in France, where video of President Emmanuel Macron, is that how you say his name, make, make, what would be the French pronunciation of Macron?

Macron? Macron. Croissant. And First Lady Bridgette Macron went viral this week on what looked like a mid-air squabble.

As the presidential couple stepped off a plane in Vietnam, cameras caught Bridgette playfully pushing, that didn't look playful to me, Macron's face, hands on one of his, hands, wait, hands on, one on his mouth, the other on his jaw. " But Macron brushed it off saying they were simply joking. He called a moment of complicity warning the public not to fall for social media hype or conspiracy theories. We'll have more on that in a minute.

Okay. Then over in the UK, a celebration turned into chaos in Liverpool as a car plowed into fans during Liverpool's FS victory parade. Police say it's not terrorism. Okay.

What else? These intros are a little long today. Yeah, your headlines are too long. " Well, you know, I used to do that, and then you said they need to be longer, like the other one that we use as an example of.

Yeah. So his are longer, so ours are longer, now they're too long. Tomato, tomato. Somewhere in the middle.

All right, so the pendulum has swung the other way, and now I need it somewhere. Now you've got to be in the middle, buddy, you've got to be in the middle. Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will be sidelined for at least two weeks with a left quad strain. Okay.

She heard to win a wig. And, McDonald's is pulling the plug on its space-themed spinoff, Cosmix. C-O-S-M-C-P-O-S. Very interesting.

The Drink Forward concept is spotted by a retro alien mascot. Did you even know they had them? No, but had I known, I wouldn't. Had we known?

Maybe if we would have gone to them, they would have not had to close them. They probably should have told us about it. Me? They have an app and everything, they could have said, hey.

Oh, they have an app specifically, we'll get into that. Oh, okay. A lot of buzz online about possible stimulus checks in 2025, so we have the bottom line. Oh.

Yes, we're all getting more money. Who's excited? Who's got excited about it? Oh.

New data shows a troubling rise in reported sexual assaults aboard Disney cruise ships. That's kind of creepy. It is kind of creepy. It's not the happiest place on earth anymore.

And then in cigar news, if you're a smoker, expect to pay more for brands like Altidus, Oliva, and Casa Corilio are raising prices while sales of handmade cigars in the US are down. Prices up, sales down. Recession in play. And finally, leadership changes at the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, Brett Kaplow is now in charge.

And we have some of his background information, which seems a little suspicious. You think his last name's Kaplow? K-O-P-L-O-W, Kaplow. Kaplow.

That's how we're saying it here at the Cigar Hustler Podcast. Kaplow! Kaplow! Until he comes on the show and tells us we're doing it wrong.

Okay. Now that you're caught up on it. Please cease and desist. We haven't received one yet.

We haven't received one yet. We're still waiting on the first one. All right. Now that you're caught up on this week's, let's jump into what the world's searching for right now, the Google Trending News.

All right. Mr. Beast requests hood skin at Fortnite. Hood?

What? Hood skin. I figured you knew what that meant. Maybe, is that a type of skin?

I have no idea. Is that just a hood he wears? Or we have Fortnite? Is this what you're talking about?

Yeah, Mr. Beast, he wants his own skin at Fortnite and it's called a hood. He already has a skin. Well, this is something specific then.

Okay. Let's go. YouTube star Mr. Beast recently went viral by engaging with the Hood Mr.

Beast meme on May 26, 2025. He humorously requested Fortnite developer, Epic Games, create a new skin based on the meme. This playful interaction showcases how viral memes can influence gaming trends and possibly lead to a new in-game content. Are you Googling it?

I'm trying to see what the hood meme is. So apparently he made a specific meme and he wants that meme turned into a skin. He made it yesterday. Maybe it's one of his highest.

When you're Mr. Beast, you can request things and you're probably going to make it. right mr beast hood meme is it a meme of him with a hood no i guess it's like him very gangster-esque oh like he's like hood mr beast oh he's like in the hood yeah no he's not like in the hood but he's like hood beastie i guess i don't know it's like if we gave bootsy like a little bit of a fro and you know dressed him up in adidas wear i guess which we should do - We should totally do that. - We should totally do that.

- How would you feel about that, Boots? - The years of dressing up on the show are over. - Until we get a camera. - Wait until you have a camera.

- Until we get another camera. - When you get a camera, guess what, buddy? - We're bringing it back. - Guess what?

- Oh. - Yeah, exactly. Our fans missed that. - Yeah, I got rid of all the masks, so we got all new ones.

- I get comments about it daily, private messages, where is the Boots costumes? - Where are the masks? If you find a good match, maybe get a t-shirt. Mr.

Hood, Mr. Hood Boots, Mr. Hood Boots, Mr. Boots Hood.

We'll just mimic all of Mr. Beast's memes. I don't even know who Mr. Beast is.

Are you kidding me? What? Do you live in a cave? No, I live at my house.

How do you not know who Mr. Beast is? How can you not know? I mean, my kids don't really play Fortnite.

I don't know. He's not a Fortnite person. He has his own TV show. His own TV show.

He's like the biggest YouTuber. His own candy bar. Ever. I don't follow the whole YouTuber thing.

Have you ever seen any of those videos where they go, okay, we're going to bury this guy alive for six months and just feed him through a tube? And then they put roaches down the tube? No, man, I'm watching... That's Mr.

Boots. I'm watching different stuff like Dave Chappelle skits or Key & Peele or this new one, Bad Friends. I like that one, too. Kane & Peele, are they even still around?

Fits right in there, Bad Friends. I mean, you don't even have to watch a show. It's the three of us. It's the three of us.

There you go. Bad friends. I don't watch that damn YouTube. Or the other guys.

One comedian with the mullet. I forget his name. You got that internet. One comedian with the mullet?

Yeah, he does a podcast. Theo Vaughn? Yeah, Theo Vaughn. Oh my goodness.

Geez. You know, he got started on MTV. Did he? MTV, when they used to do the people living in the house together.

Real World? Real World, yeah. That's where he was first on one of those. Really?

Isn't that ridiculous? That's a long time ago. That's not ridiculous. Well, he's so famous now.

He worked really hard. He's got a great podcast. He talks about some funny stuff. How's his podcast different than ours?

Other than he has sponsors. He gets real people on, like the president and stuff. Did the president do this? D.

S. D. Vance was on or the president? I think they were both on.

Yeah, oh wow, I can't confirm that, I don't know off, I mean, did he have the, uh, the leader of France on? Uh, not yet. Oh, well, France's first lady appears to push her husband on a plane. Yeah.

That was French President Emmanuel Macron's explanation Monday for video images that showed his wife, Brigitte, pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from their plane to start a tour Southeast Asia this weekend. Looked like my wife after you had a few drinks and you put her on the plane. Did you see the video? I've seen the photo, not the video.

I watched the video. The moment quickly made headlines in France with media trying to decipher the interaction that cameras spotted through the just opened door of the plane. Oh, it just landed. I thought it was leaving.

Right. So it just landed. Yeah, it just landed, it opened up, and he was kind of in the background, and she was off the camera, but you see this hand come out. Your hands come out.

And mushes him right in the face. Please, sit down, we have not landed the plane. Oh, is that how they sound? That's how they sound.

They're from France. I thought they sound like ho, ho, ho. That's the same thing. You cannot.

Ho, ho, ho. You have to throw the ho, ho, ho. I must leave first. You cannot get off with me.

You sound like Pepe Le Pew, the cartoon character. Exactly. The headline of a story on the website of the daily La Parisienne newspaper. Asked, slap or squabble, the image of Emmanuel and Bridget Macron disembarking in Vietnam triggered a lot of, what are they doing in Vietnam, a lot of comments.

Macron later told reporters that the couple married since 2007 after meeting at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher. Uh oh. Oh. A little scandal.

Those French people. We were simply joking around, we are squabbling, and rather joking with me wife, he said, adding that the incident was being overblown into a Sort of a geoplanetary catastrophe. In video taken by the Associated Press at the Macrons, arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday. An uninformed man, oh, uninformed, yeah, uninformed man can be seen pulling, oh, uniformed, sorry, not uninformed, uniformed.

Oh, my God. Uniformed. He was uninformed. He was uninformed, too.

He didn't know about the push. He was dressed really nice, but he was uninformed. Can be seen pulling open the plane door and revealing the president standing inside. Oh, watch this, I should open the door.

Dressed in a suit and talking to someone who wasn't visible, Brigitte, arms in red were seen reaching out and pushing Macron away with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose with the other was on his jaw. " a little wave, and subsequent images of Macron and his wife wearing a red jacket appeared at the top of the stairs. He offered an arm, but she did not take it. Because he's in trouble.

He's in trouble. They walked down the carpeted stairs side by side. The French leader argued that the images were a reaction to them, offered a cautionary tale about disinformation in the social media age, noting that in recent weeks, other videos had been used to circulate made-up stories about him. "Everyone needs to calm down," he said, and his office also downplayed the interaction.

It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before they decompressed by slapping each other in the face. Yeah, that's what the French do. That's what the French do, very French. Yeah, it's very, it's passion.

The very passionate people. Very passionate. Oh, it's respectful, passionate. It's respectful, passionate.

It's a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorist, his office said. Brigitte was Brigitte Azur, a married mother of three children, when they met at his high school. A teacher, she supervised the drama club, where Emmanuel, a literature lover, was a member.

The deeds come out, huh? That's right. He moved to Paris for his last year of high school, but promised to marry Brigitte. Later, she moved to the French capital to join him.

Of course you do. Of course you do what? Okay, I don't know who she was married to before. Okay.

Not him. But the leader of France offers to marry you and move you to his, whatever it is they have, to the French capital to join him. Well, you have to because it's not done with the French. You think it's okay that you just packed it in?

I don't think it's okay, but maybe her other husband was a baker or something. And the president of France went, oh, you come leave in my chalet? I marry you? So what you're saying is if you don't make a lot of money, you're not successful, it's okay for your wife to upgrade and leave you?

Exactly. Yes, exactly. Yes. Makes sense?

Yes. Okay. Well, I don't know if I agree with that. How do you, how do you feel about, uh, get, would you get mushed in the face by your wife in, in public?

Are you, would you be okay with that boots? I mean, if, if she was able to, there might be a little choking going on. Why are you going to hit her back? You know, as the door, as the door opens, you see her hands on face, and you see him go, shish.

No, you are out of the line. Sit down. Go back to the baker. I am the leader of France.

Yes. I don't know, man. They're big on duels. He takes a glove out of his pocket, and then pulls out a sword.

If you look at it. And then there's sword fighting down the stairs. The cigar gloves. If you watch the video, he gets mushed, and you can see that he knows he's on camera.

It kind of like tightens up. So yeah, there's nothing he could do. Yeah, he just stood there. Like, bam.

Oh, this is so funny. Fucking deal with you later. She does this all the time. Yeah, this is.

Very passionate woman, my wife. This is okay. I understand. She's very upset with me.

She had a Valium on the plane. I can saw her. She's not a good flyer. We're not buying your ex-husband's croissants anymore.

So, what about you? If your wife mushed you in public? Would I what? How would you, what would you do?

" You think it's the first time that they playfully mushed? I don't think it was playfully. Allegedly playfully mushed? No.

No. What are the odds? That's the very first time he's caught on camera. She was comfortable with it.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's true. Let me ask you, have you ever playfully mushed your wife in the face? Other than, you know, when you get married and maybe the wedding cake?

Yeah. But we didn't even do that. So, no? But who were we with?

We were with somebody this weekend and they were complaining that they got mushed with the wedding cake in the face. But you've never been joking around with your wife and said mush in the face? Nothing I can think of. No.

Nothing sticks out in my head. Have you ever playfully mushed your wife in the face, Boots? Me? No.

Yeah, I can't say that I have either. Your wife would kick your ass. She might kick my ass. Well, the French are different.

They do weird stuff. Maybe that's like a weird... I don't know, Palmer, tell us. Is that like some erotical...

I don't know. How am I the erotic expert now on the show? Yeah, thank you, Boots. You're right.

What if he just went in for a small kiss and she was like, "No, no, you'll mess up my makeup"? I don't know. Do they do those in those wearerotic rooms or something? Yes, in the eyes white shut where you wear the mask, it's exactly what happens.

Is that how it goes down? Exactly, exactly. And there's some mushing? When Tom Cruise comes in, everybody mushes.

Tom Cruise? Yes. You know it's him because he's four foot two or something? Right, he's the smallest guy in the room.

And he's got a little mask. He's got a small mask? Does he jump on the couch? He makes airplane noises all the time, it's so weird.

Does he jump on the couch? No, no, I was just on Oprah. And then goes around mushing everybody in the face. Didn't he do that because he was so in love with the wife that left him?

He was, yes. Yeah. He was very excited. Apparently, that didn't work.

Scientology, man. He's Tom Cruise, though, man. It's not like he's going to be without one. Everybody talks so nice about him.

I saw two interviews this weekend about people that- Doesn't he do the cake thing, you said? Yeah, he does the cake thing. I still want the cake. Yeah.

I still want the cake. Coconut cream cake in the erotic rooms. You're never going to make the cake list. No, I've never made the cake list.

I just want you to know. I heard Mission Impossible was not- Oh, really? I thought you heard it wasn't any good? Yeah.

So disappointing. I have not seen it yet. Too be determined. How old is he now?

Is he in his 60s? No, I think he's like late 50s. Yeah, he's gotta be like late 50s or early 60s, somewhere around there. You know what, I will say this, for me, at this point, I don't know where I stopped watching Mission Impossibles, so I don't want to watch another one.

Oh, really? The last one, the story wasn't that good. I'm just not up, I'm not up to date, so... Yeah, because they're all connected.

Yeah, so what do I do? I gotta go back, I gotta start, I gotta go 30 years back and start over? Seven movies back. You know?

No, I think the last, you could watch just the last one, 'cause they picked up where that one left off. Yeah? It's the AI monster program thing. Oh, there's an AI monster?

Yeah. Like Google, or Grock, or ChatGPT? I think it's called Grock. It's called Grock?

No, the last movie started with it taking over a submarine and sinking the submarine or something, so that it-- Oh, it tricked it, or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, to make it think there was another submarine. Yeah, and it fired its own missile or whatever at itself.

Right. That was Mission Impossible? Yeah. That was on TV.

I was watching. I was like, oh, that's interesting. Yeah, and when it starts, you're watching and going, is this Mission Impossible? Ah.

Wow, okay. All right. You want to know what I did try and watch this week that really kind of pissed me off? What?

I tried. South America? No. That's going to be on.

The Music Awards. No, I didn't try and watch that either. Wow. I tried to sit the whole family down, the whole squad.

Yeah? And watch the original Ace Ventura. Oh, really? Yeah.

Yeah. The kids probably showed no interest. They absolutely showed zero interest, and I was extremely upset about it. Yeah, because when we were kids, that's our stupidity.

We liked that. It was amazing. Like, just the opening scene with the UPS guy, HPS coming through, or whatever he was. Got a package, people.

But here's where I just gave up, because for one, they weren't interested. When he's in the tank, I rented it off of Amazon, when he's in the tank and he usually pops out and he's talking to media and he has that whole accent or whatever, they cut that entire scene out. Oh, I wonder why. I wonder why.

They cut the entire scene out. Because you rented it, so it should have been the entire movie. Uncut, yeah. Yeah.

Is that one of those things that they just don't show anymore? Yeah, it hurts somebody's feelings or something? Hey, there's a whole movie that's not even in existence anymore that I love. Really?

Yeah, you ever seen The Cowboy Way? No. Yeah, Woody Harrelson and... Oh, yeah.

I know what you're talking about. You can't get that movie anymore. Really? Why not?

They did a Disney movie? No, they said it was a racial type movie or whatever. Yeah? Because it was about cowboys and they talked about certain things of slaves and stuff.

I'm like, what? So now you can't watch it? No, it was a great movie. That's not a slave movie.

Right. It had like, like, innuendos or whatever, I guess. I read last week that Disney and some other theaters, other people do it. They will just take a movie completely out, like a movie that came out years ago.

Yeah. And then they can write off all the production for that movie. It becomes a loss. Really?

And they can take the entire thing. Can you download Blazing Saddles still? You see people put that on Facebook all the time that this, you know, what movie would not be made today? And that's always the one they show.

Oh yeah, that's gotta be. Any Mel Brooks movie would definitely not be allowed. That's just not on Amazon. I just thought that it was crazy that they removed that, once I saw that they removed that scene, I was so pissed, I'm just like, whatever.

What was wrong with that one scene? I have no idea. It's so weird. Maybe it was the Free Willy movement.

Because the dolphin was no longer in the tank? I don't know, maybe like the Sea World. I heard that you can get that movie that you like. Cowboy?

The Cowboy Way? Yeah, it's called Cow They Way now. Yeah. Cow what?

The Cow They Way. The Cow They Way. The Cow Them. They have different pronouns now.

They've now DEI'd it. It's the Cow People Way. Cow There. Oh.

The Cow Their Way. Okay. It was one of Woody Harrelson's greatest movies. I'm kind of intrigued to watch it now.

Well, you can't. You can't watch it. I'll find it. Apparently it's gone.

Bit Torrent. What's that thing called back in the day? Pirate Bay. Pirate Bay's probably got it.

Pirate Bay? You remember Pirate Bay, where you could download stuff illegally? Yeah, it was like Napster. Allegedly.

Yeah, like LimeWire. Allegedly downloaded stuff. Allegedly, yeah. Yeah, Napster started it, it ended at Pirate Bay.

Oh. And now I got viruses and it shut everything down. 50 on my Ace Ventura movie that I did not watch to rent. 50?

59 or something like that. I think it'd be in the 99 cent bin, especially since it's not in its entirety. Yeah, it's not even a whole movie. Right.

It's ridiculous. What are we doing, man? What are we doing? We're becoming French.

We're becoming woke. No, apparently, yeah. Everybody's woke. We're becoming woke?

Everybody, yeah, it's all offensive now, I can't put anything up. I bet you, you know what, I'm gonna try and watch it on like FUBU or something, on one of those regular free things. I bet you the full movie's there. That's weird how some streaming services you have to pay for the movie, but if you look around long enough, you can find it for free.

Yeah, with the ads or whatever. Yeah, I do that all the time. Cause I'm cheap. Alright, now a quick trip to England, Liverpool parade car collision incident, not terrorism.

Okay. Police have said that the incident of a car colliding with pedestrians in Liverpool City Center during Liverpool's football club's premier league victory parade is not being treated as terrorism. The police confirmed the arrest of a 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area, and in a news conference, the assistant chief constable said that they believe him to be the driver of the car. Okay.

It is also believed that he acted alone. A representative of the Northwest Ambulance Service confirmed that 27 people were taken to the hospital, where four people remained, including two with serious injuries. A total of 47 people were injured, Liverpool City Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham told the BBC there were still four people who are very, very ill in the hospital. We are hoping, of course, that they pull through.

How'd they get ill? I know, it's not like they were just sick. Right. But no, they're the four people that the ambulance guy said are still in the hospital.

They get hit by the car. are the chief fire officer of the city fire and rescue service added that four people same four people i'm guessing right including one child were trapped under the vehicle several police cars and ambulances responded to the incident on water street and an air ambulance also arrived at the scene a video on social media showed a car driving into fans lighting the street at one point appearing to swerve away from the most densely crowded area police surrounded the vehicle shortly Shortly afterward, another video showed angry fans attempting to reach the driver. In a written statement shortly after the incident, the police said, "We are currently dealing with reports of an RTC, a road traffic collision in Liverpool's city centre. m.

British Standard Time today, Monday, 26th of May. following reports a car had been in collision with a number of pedestrians in the water street the car stopped at the scene and a male has been detained that's the way it is in a later statement the police said we would ask people not to speculate on the circumstances surrounding tonight's incident on water street in liverpool city center we can confirm the man arrested is a 53 year old white british man from the liverpool area he's in trouble was he drunk or something Maybe he was a fan of the other team. I don't understand why I'm not allowed to speculate. I want to speculate.

They don't have any details. There's not enough details to speculate. Yeah, but you're not gonna stop me from speculating. Well, if people didn't speculate, we wouldn't think the French guy got smacked in the face by his wife.

Yeah, that guy is obviously out of line. Maybe he had something on his face, and she was just trying to get it off before he walked out in public. Or maybe she just beats him. Maybe she's just tired of his shit.

Could be. You know? " It seems like the same thing over and over and over, but- I mean, the guy, what if, it could be anything. What if the guy had a heart attack, chest pains or whatever, and just kind of veered off?

I mean, I think they're assuming, this is just my speculation, I'm speculating. You're speculating on the speculation? I'm speculating, because he swerved away from the most crowded areas. Right.

So if it was terrorism, I think he would aim for that. Right, he would have kept going. They're like, "Oh no, I've lost control of my car. Oh no, I've lost control of my car.

" Right. Maybe he was texting. Could have been texting. Maybe he's watching a video about the French guy.

You're an older guy. Can you text and drive successfully? No, not well at all. Well, Palmer, when you get chest pains, do you just drive into people?

I mean... Well, I would try to miss the most crowded areas. I try to stay away from parades as a rule. Yeah, it's better safe than sorry.

Right. I don't like crowds. Do you not like to drive at night anymore? No, I don't like to drive at night.

No? No. Why not? The lights seem brighter.

Because you can't see. Yeah, it's harder to see. Do you wear your glasses at night? My glasses are just for reading.

I can see far away fine. I mean, if I need to read license plates, then I have to put them on. That's just, if I text and drive, I have to put my glasses on while I look at my phone, or I can't even see what it is anyway. So that does create a problem.

So that's extremely dangerous. No. So, do you think that there should be bigger penalties for people that text and drive, like, over the age of 50? What is the, over, oh no, because everybody doesn't have the same eye condition.

No. No. I'm sticking with it. I think if you're over the age of 50, I think you should have to take the driver's test every five years.

Over 50 every five years? Wow. Well, just because, you know, health changes so much. Yeah.

You know, after that age group, so. I don't know. I think terrible drivers are terrible drivers for the most part. Yeah, you can be a terrible driver at 35.

Look, here's my problem. I'm fucking tired of Sundays, okay? Motherfuckers need to stay off the road. On Sunday.

Sunday drivers. Yeah, I don't know what it is about that day. Okay. So that's it for British yada yada.

The scenes in Liverpool are appalling. My thoughts are with all those injured or affected. I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing responses to the shocking incident. It's only four of them are ill though.

Only four of them are still, yeah, got sick from it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, one of them is a child.

That's not gonna make fun of the child. I don't think that means that they're sick. I think they just use as they're still injured. That's their term.

I think it's, yeah, I think it's the language problem there. Yes. I think ill, they should have been injured. Right.

So, but nobody died. They didn't report. They didn't. Oh, yeah.

No, but there's still the four. So, you know. Right. Still have odds.

Okay. We have been in contact with Liverpool Fire FC. Liverpool Fire Captain. Sure.

And offered our full support following the incident. On behalf of FIFA, President Gianni Infantano. It's FC is Football Club. FIFA.

Yeah, I understand. Oh, Football Club. Thank you. Thoughts and prayers.

Everybody's got thoughts and prayers. He's very into it. He knows soccer very well. Apparently.

I know some. Liverpool Football Club and all fans of the club following the horrific incident, he said, on a Post and X. All right, now we're turning to the world of sports. We were just in the sports.

Caitlin, what? No, I thought we were just in the sports. The parade was not sports. That was traffic.

Yeah. Oh, I thought it was for Liverpool. Yeah, that was traffic. That was international news.

International traffic. Oh. Caitlin Clark out of for at least two weeks with a quad strain. Indiana Fever star, Kaitlyn Clark, will be out at least two weeks with a left quad strain.

Oh, I was on my iPad wants to update. The team announced Monday, further updates will be provided following re-evaluation, the team said. Fever coach Stephanie White said that she wasn't sure when the injury happened, but that Clark reported some pain in her leg after the team's loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday. Didn't the season just start?

It's been going for a couple of weeks, I think. Yeah, it's been going for a little bit, yeah. This feels like Aaron Rodgers all over again. Well, I mean, she's literally doing everything.

That is true. Clark subsequently underwent an MRI and was diagnosed with the strain. Although White said she did not know it's great. Apparently it was not a very good MRI.

Clark was not present for the open viewing portion of the practice Monday. White said she was unsure whether Clark will travel with the team while she is out. 3 assists through four games a season. So does that mean they've only had four games?

Yeah. It's a great opportunity for what? They just started. And she's already injured.

Yeah. No more shooting from the logo. It's a great opportunity for our team to find an identity, it's a great opportunity for our team to play in a different way, and I also think it's a great opportunity for Caitlin to watch the game And from the sidelines and grow to almost a coaching mind and mindset, they're already putting her out the pasture? She just got started.

She just got started. Now she has an opportunity to learn what a coach does. She doesn't have a championship yet. She doesn't want it.

Yeah, they're just helping her grow as a player. They just want her to grow. She's the face of the league. We'll get to that in a minute.

So, I mean, they're saying that ratings are up for the WNBA, the highest they've ever had in history. Right. Yeah. Now they've got a, they've got a villain and they've got a superhero.

Right. So now do the ratings drop back down to where they were because she's not playing? I mean, for two weeks, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. Nobody's going to watch a Fever game without Galen Clark playing. Right. Right.

And there's no feud between her and Reese right now because she's not playing. Right. She'll be watching like everybody else. Yeah.

Everybody else who's not watching. Right. Everybody else is not watching. I think that, look, I think that it has the ability to grow.

They can grow, and it can become something. Yeah, you know the Indiana Fever game, like, every single game is sold out. Is it? Yeah.

There you go. Say that one more time, Booth, what? Every single Fever game is usually sold out. " I don't think they can return the tickets.

They were sold out before the season started. Yeah, well, there you go. Uh-oh. The Fevers 2-2 next travel to Baltimore, where they face the Mystics 2-3 on Wednesday in the first game without Clark.

After that, Indiana will host the Connecticut Sun on Friday and the Mystic on June 3rd before heading back to the road to play the Chicago Sky on June 7th. Some of these names are kind of lame, though. They are, aren't they? Indiana Fever?

I don't know why. Minnesota Lynx? Lynx? L-Y-N-X, like the cat?

Well, they go based off of, you know, animals in the area, or, I don't, I don't know why they come out with these fucking names, to be honest. Las Vegas Aces? Yeah, because of cards. Well, I understand why.

Why couldn't it be the Las Vegas Dice, or the, you know, the Las Vegas... Or Gold Crushers, or, you know, come on, man. Las Vegas Degenerate Gamblers. There you go.

Las Vegas Free Hookers. The Las Vegas Homeless People. I wouldn't, I think Free Hookers, that doesn't track well in a WNBA league. Oh, yeah.

I guess, I don't know. Well, it could be for fishing. Yeah, maybe they're fishing experts. It could have dual meaning, who knows?

That's fair. Yeah, we've got a lot of good fish here in Vegas, in this desert. Is there a lot of fish in Vegas? It's a desert.

Yeah, there's a ton of fish, yeah. Yeah, we only fish at night. Yeah, a lot of lakes. Really, really?

In a desert? Come on, Palmer. It's a desert. That's why there's no water, because they call it a desert.

So you think there's lakes? I have no idea. Apparently, you say there are. I mean, there's got to be lakes somewhere.

Perfect. That's why you're naming the teams, Palmer. I can't believe they removed Gullible from the dictionary. They did what?

They removed Gullible from the dictionary. No, they didn't. McDonald's to close all locations of the Cosmix spin-off restaurant. I got it.

The company also said it will discontinue the Cosmix app. Is this like the ice cream machine incident? No, they started a whole new chain of stores, apparently. We're shutting it down.

It's not working. Have you gotten to McFlurry recently, by the way? No. I don't even want to attempt anymore.

Yeah, I know. You see, you're like rolling the dice. They're going to have the ice cream machine working or not. No, it officially works.

It's the saddest thing ever. It's just, all they do now is they take soft serve ice cream, and they just dump some shit on top of it and hand it to you. Oh, they don't stir it up with the thing anymore? It's no longer flurried.

Oh. Yeah. What, they used to hook the straw onto the machine and spin the straw? Yeah, it would spin.

Yeah. Nope. Nothing, huh? It's out the door.

See, that's the problem. You have this anticipation and you have this expectation when you're going there for the McFlurry. Right. And then when you get there and you get that kind of crap, you'll never come back again.

This is the last time I eat at McDonald's ever again until next time. Right, exactly. I'm never doing that. I'm never eating it again.

They go, oh, I miss McDonald's. You pull up and you're like, hi, can I have a McFlurry? And they go, well, sir, our ice cream machine. Don't you dare.

Don't you dare. I saw the article. You guys are faking it. Don't you tell me.

I'll call Trump. We stopped there a few weeks ago to grab lunch as we were like traveling or whatever, and lunch had not kicked in yet. Oh, 10:30, yeah. No, it was after 10:30.

Oh, they didn't? Was it after 11? I think it started at like 11 or something. Yeah, lunch starts at 11.

There's a 10:30 to 11:00 o'clock window of you don't know what you're going to get. Un-American. Yeah, so I'm like, well, can't you just take my order and I can pull up? It was like a legit a minute.

Oh. Like, no, I'm sorry, sir. Okay, give me a second. I need to read the menu.

I'm like, okay, I'll drive around. I'll do a lap. So I did a lap, and then I ordered lunch, and then I was like, oh, God. You thought I had to wait 15, 20 minutes before...

Well, yeah, they have to, you know, eat breakfast at the place. You think that they would anticipate that or something? They gotta take all the water trays out. They gotta remove the water trays.

They gotta scrape the grease from the sausage, so they have the grease for the hamburger. Exactly. It's very sad. McDonald's is closing all of its cosmic locations on May 23rd.

On May 23rd, the fast food company announced that it will be closing the doors to the standalone restaurants in late June where it plans to add Cosmic-inspired beverages to some McDonald's menus. Cosmic-inspired. Hold on, we have a list of what the drinks are. So, wait a second.

So, Cosmic drinks are going to be at McDonald's now? Yes, Cosmic's had specialty drinks. Instead of the actual Cosmic restaurants that allegedly existed? There were five of them.

There were five. There were five. Was there a reason why they're shutting down, like they're not working out? Apparently, well, it's a breakfast-themed space restaurant.

Okay. So you could never get lunch there. Damn. So now what they're going to do is they're going to take the drinks and bring them to their standard McDonald's.

Just some. A galactic drink. Yes. Let's hear the flavors.

Let's go. Okay, the company said they're currently five locations, one in Illinois, four in Texas, the official loyalty program. You got to use your points up before the 23rd or you're out. Yep, right.

They have a loyalty, they don't even have that at McDonald's, do they? Yes, they do. Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do.

That's why they want you to use the app. Yeah. They're always asking, are you ordering on the app? They're like, no, I'm talking to the speaker.

I'm talking to the speaker. Yeah, one fucking app. Let's see, the company was launching Cosmix, a space-themed restaurant specialized in drinks and breakfast food. The spinoff chain leans into nostalgia and gets its name from the McDonald's extraterrestrial mascot Cosmic from the '80s.

No kidding. No idea who that is. With our new dedicated category team focused on beverages, we now can bring more delicious, innovative drinks to more fans, the company said in the release. Will we get a – oh, then it jumped.

Are you okay? Are you having a stroke over there? Apparently, we don't have the list of drinks. Do you remember the moon guy?

Vaguely. The moon face dinner at McDonald's? Oh, the Jack the Night. That was his name?

Yeah, with the big quarter moon? Yeah, that was Jack the Night. That was for their new nighttime menu. There's always a reason why they get rid of that name.

Jack the Knight? Jack the Knight? Yeah, that's not good for McDonald's. Why not?

And they showed him playing the piano like Jack the Knife. Yeah. That was the theme song. Like Mac the Knife?

Whatever it was. Yeah, because it was not Jack? No, not Jack. Was it Jack in the Box?

No, there was no Jack in the Box. No Jack. Well, there was Jack in the Box, just not a McDonald's Jack in the Box. Uh-huh.

Okay. So why'd they get rid of Jack, Jack Knight? Why did they get, what's wrong with that name? No, he said, he said, Jack the Knight.

Yeah? Yeah. Like, Steal the Night? Sure.

Jump to that. I want to know why. I don't understand the problem either. It just doesn't sound good for a kid's voice.

Ah. Well, I think what they were trying to do is reach an adult market for nighttime sales. Oh. Well.

I mean, if you're seven, you don't want to go to McDonald's at 11 o'clock. You can't turn Chuck E. Cheese into a strip club at night, man, okay? It just doesn't work that way.

It would. Do you get unlimited arcade access? Right. How many tokens do I get?

Instead of the animatronics up there, there's girls dancing on bowls? Are those girls dancing on bowls? Animatronics are gone. They no longer have that.

Yeah, there's a guy that runs around in a little suit. Yeah, he pops out. I've seen the guy in the suit thing. So, there's no animatronics anymore into Chuck E.

Cheese? Yeah, it's gone. Could you imagine? I would love to be there for the conversations for the people that dress up.

Yeah. Like, behind the doors. Like, man, I just can't. Adrian was Chuck E.

Cheese when she was younger. What? Really? Yeah, she worked at a Chuck E.

Cheese. She dressed up as Chuck E. Cheese for birthday parties. Really?

Yeah. You can tell which employees dress up as the mouse. They're usually really agitated throughout the course of the day. That's what I'm saying.

It's very hot in that thing. You could see that... They're definitely on suicide watch every night. You could see as the time kind of goes and they're getting closer to their costume-esque moment or whatever, that they just get more and more pissed having to deal with anything on the floor.

I can't believe I signed up for this. Now I gotta be the mouse. She was a character at Six Flags, too. Oh, yeah?

I don't remember which one it was. Was it the cosmic one? Was she the flag? No.

One of the six? No. No? No.

Six Flags in St. Louis. She was the fifth flag? No.

She's always the first flag, Mike. She's the first flag? Always the first flag. Yeah, you better say that or else she's going to mush you in the face.

They'll push me in the face. I know exactly. And she'll try to take my stimulus check. That's it.

Status update on Trump's stimulus checks this year. Americans are wondering about the possibility of a fourth stimulus check in 2025. It's not going to happen. Or previous unclaimed stimulus and how they can still get it.

Here's what we know about the second, third, and fourth checks. Apparently there's a lot of checks out there. The opportunity to claim or file for the first stimulus payment issued in March and April 2020, or the second stimulus check was issued in January 15th, 2021, or the third stimulus check between March and December 2021 have now passed. Yeah, I mean, if you didn't get it.

If you didn't get it already, why people even think that you still get it? No, right, you're not getting it. The deadline to file for the third and last stimulus... Is that like four years ago that happened?

Right, yeah. Yes, yes. The deadline to file for the last check was April 15th, 2025. It marked a three-year deadline to claim any tax refunds, or in this case, the $1,400 recovery rebate credit for that year.

Even if you received a tax extension, you still needed to file your 2021 tax return by April 15th, 2025. Deadline to claim that third stimulus check, there are no extensions or appeals available for any missed deadlines and any unclaimed stimulus payments become the property of the US Treasury. While rumors and speculation about a fourth check of $2,000 to have surfaced on social media and unverified websites, there has been no official confirmation from Congress or the IRS to support this claim and any such news should be taken with caution as it could be misinformation or attempted fraud. It's over.

In February, President Donald Trump said he would consider the plan to pay out $5,000 stimulus checks to taxpayers in the form of DOGE dividends. During a summit in Miami, he explained it is using part of the 20% of the savings identified by Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and giving it back to taxpayers. However, he has not shared any further specifics or details about the possible Doge dividend or its certainty since then. Not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. There's no way. I don't understand that. If you're going to save the money and try and get the deficit down, why would you give away the money instead of paying back towards the deficit?

Well, he was only giving 20% of it back and he was just trying to stimulate the economy, which is the whole reason for stimulus check in the first place. Well, he's not doing any of that, first of all. No, no, it's just something he said in passing. It's something he stated, yeah.

One of the many things that he stated. And we're going to give you guys all $5,000. You guys want to come smoke these cigars or what? I mean, so far they threatened to release the Epstein list and that whole thing.

That's never happened. Well, I thought there was like little bits being released at a time. I have heard, but I think they're fake things. I mean, they're going to be celebrities, but you always hear the same, you know, handful of names all the time.

Yeah, there was a really, this AI stuff's getting out of control. Have you seen the Diddy stuff that's out there? No. That's all true.

Where they've got like Diddy in an orange jumpsuit and Epstein in an orange jumpsuit and they're like cuddling together on a bed and stuff. Oh man. Oh, AI photos? No.

It's pretty bad. My social media feed is totally different than your social media feed, just for the record. That's pretty bad. My AI stuff won't do anything that looks like anybody, so I don't know how people are getting these.

I can't even get Batman. Well, he's a copyright, he's like a trademark dude. I guess you're right, but I mean, I can't get... You can't even get Fat Man.

Right, I couldn't get Diddy if I put in, I need somebody that looks like Diddy, he'll go, this is against our standards or whatever they say. Against the policy. I'm sure that there's AI that does it. Yes, well, not the free one.

But you gotta pay a premium, and you're a cheap bastard. You gotta pay the premium, I'm a cheap bastard, so... Alright, we got Boots trending news. Boots, you got a piece of paper over there.

Oh, oh my God. I hope this one's good. It's short. Thank God.

It is short, thank God. Okay. All right. Wait, wait, wait.

Who are you on? Are you on me or him? Doesn't matter. I have a graphic.

On you? I have a graphic I'm putting on. I need it on him. I have a graphic.

I put it on him. Put it on him. I had it on you because of the shirt. Okay.

All right, put it on me. Okay, it's on you. All right. Hello, peoples.

Hello, peoples. Actor Choi Jong-woo. Passes away at 69, Cost of Death Unknown. Okay.

Choi Jung-woo made his debut in 1975 with the play The Life of an Actor. And Choi went to appear in numerous films such as Two Cops, Sympathy for Lady, Vengeance, Our Town, The Chaser, Secret Reunion, The Witch, Ransom, The Moon, and Project Silence. I've never seen any of those. Ransom?

You've definitely seen Ransom. You've seen Ransom. Mel Gibson? It's the ransom.

Oh, maybe. It's just ransom. Maybe. Well, I mean if it's that ransom.

If it's the actual... Yes. Mr. Wu was also active in dramas including Alone in Love.

Okay. Yeon Gesemun. Wait, wait, wait. What was that one?

Gesemun. Oh, favorite movie Gesemun. This is probably the best one. Yee San.

Got an Oscar for that one. Brilliant Legacy. You should rent that one. Prosecutor Princess.

The Quiz of God, The Legend of the Blue Sea, Marry Me Now, The Best Divorce, The Tyrant, and Mrs. Ox Story. All right. Wait, what was the last one?

Mrs. Ox. O-X? O-C-K-S.

Oh. Oops. Ox. Go ahead, please.

Take that one back to your place. Yeah, you take that one back to your place. Back to my place. With the masks and the...

There, with the eyes wide shut. We're still. Showcasing a wide range of performances through his career. Mr.

Wu's cause of death is still unknown. He was 69 years old. Young. That is, that is it.

Hmm. No funny statement? You don't have him saying anything absurd? Other than just words that he can't pronounce?

Words he can't pronounce. A lot of woos. Okay. And finally, it may be the happiest place on earth, but it's not the safest place anymore, allegedly.

Allegedly. Sexual assault allegations spike on Disney Cruise. Disney Cruise Lines has seen a rise in reported sexual assaults occurring aboard its US-based cruises, according to data from the Department of Transportation. Over the past five years, Disney Cruise Lines have gone from having between one and three sexual assault allegations on its cruises to reporting 15 in 2023 and 18 in 2024.

Okay. Go ahead. Oh, go ahead. No, you're probably going to say what I'm asking.

The cruise vacation arm of the Walt Disney Company reports five assault allegations in the first quarter of 2025. Nothing is more important than the safety of our guests and crew members, a Disney Cruise Line spokesman told Newsweek. We have zero tolerance for this type of behavior and take allegations of this nature seriously. We fully cooperate with law enforcement and local authorities in their investigations into any such allegations.

We're committed to promoting safety on board our ships, continuously reviewing our procedures, and providing our crew with specialized training to uphold the highest standards. The sudden rise in assault allegations comes amid a multi-billion dollar push by the entertainment behemoth to expand its fleet of ships from 6 to 13 by 2031. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has already added two ships since 2020, one in 2022 and another in 2024, which Newsweek understands has led to a 40% increase in guest capacity. S.

S. citizen. Companies are mandated to report these crimes, including allegations of sexual assault, rape to the FBI, which turned into share its data with the DOT. All crimes documented by the DOT are alleged and based on ship reporting and do not reflect the outcome of any law enforcement investigation.

So it's not employees. That's what, that was the question I was gonna ask. Not completely, no, but it's some, uh, employees. It is some, uh, employees.

It is some employees. Some employees. Some employees. Yeah, we don't have percentage of what, but yeah, it's...

So they have six boats. Six. And how many people are on each boat? Well, I have no idea.

Because the new ones are huge. They're probably a lot. How many people do you think are on a cruise boat? The big ones?

Let's say 40,000. 40,000 people? The big ones are ridiculous. He probably knows.

He goes on cruises all the time. Who? The gentleman sitting in this room with us. Ginger.

$50,000 to $60,000, you said, so I was close. So $50,000 to $60,000, and how many cruises do you think go on a year? I'm sure, I mean, let's say it's a three-day cruise. Yeah, a three- to seven-day cruise, so you're looking at 30 to 50?

More than that, 100. Well, there's only 52 weeks in the year, so seven days. Disney Cruise Line schedules approximately 370 annual departures. Oh, between the boats, yeah, because there's more than one boat.

Right. With itineraries ranging from 2 to 15 night sailing. So 370 times 50,000. That's a ton of people.

That's a lot of people. That's a lot of money. And we're talking about 5, 15 people, 15 allegations, sexual allegations. 000001.

Well, they've had 5 first quarter. Percent. That's still a staggeringly low number. Yeah, I would say that's actually pretty good on them.

And then to have only that many. Statistically speaking, that's not a lot. Right. That's not a lot.

Sounds like a hit piece. I'd like to know what the biggest crime of a cruise ship is, though. What, like the worst? Like what is the most common, I'm sorry.

What's the most common? Yeah. Probably theft. Yeah, I would imagine theft.

Somebody breaking into your room, stealing your stuff, somebody taking your stuff when you're sitting by the pool. Yeah. I've never been on a cruise ship. You've never been on a cruise?

No. Why not? I don't know, I just don't like to not see the land. You're scared?

You were in the frickin' Navy! I was not on the ship. I love the boat guy, the Navy guys. The Navy guy's afraid of the ocean.

Yeah. Maybe you should have thought about maybe the Army. " I made sure the job I was in, I was not going to the ship. Tell you what, Colonel, or whatever they're called, Admiral, So, when I sign up, I would like the non-water, John?

You got anything that's not on a boat? Something that's not floaty? Yeah, I need, I want something on the land, like, have you considered the Marines? Did you ever step on a ship?

I did step on a ship. But you had to make sure they were tied up? They were tied up, yes. Did it make you nervous?

No, not nervous, it was just really close quarters, yeah. Did you, did you sleep on there, or did you just get on and walk around? No, we used to do health and welfare checks with the dogs. Did you ever go saltwater fishing or anything?

Did you ever go on a boat and go fish? I don't really like to fish. You were on a boat a couple of weeks ago. I saw the social media post.

You were on a boat. I was on a pontoon boat in the river. Oh, so you could see the land. Yeah, I can see the land.

Oh, you've got to be able to see the land. I want to see the land. Fred Rui just did some cruise where he was like nine days, never saw land. Yeah, no.

Fred Rui is going to space with Bezos. I mean, you know. Well, yeah, I'm just saying, Could you imagine him on nine days, no land? No.

You know, we got to get him on a cruise, and we got to document the whole thing. But I've also... You haven't been on a cruise? No.

I've also been on like, so we, when we used to live in Europe, we went on ferries all the time. And ferries are really bad, especially with waters over there, because waters are super choppy. So, I mean, I used to get sick when I was a kid all the time on the ferries. That's a short trip.

Yeah, I don't want to go on a longer one, man. That's pretty funny. A ferry's like an hour tops. I just love the Navy guy that's never been on a boat.

Navy guy. Navy guy's afraid of the ocean. Yeah. No, I, listen, I will swim in the ocean, but I have to see the land.

So somebody offered you a cruise free of charge, a three day cruise, would you take it or not? I have it. I can get a free cruise. Military members get a free cruise on the Margaritaville.

Don't go on that ship. Whatever. Don't go on that ship. No?

Sexual allegations allegedly are higher? No, we did that cruise last year. It must have been a couple of years ago. You guys, teachers got a free cruise, too, so we only had to pay for mine, it's dirt cheap.

Oh, well, do you like Margaritaville stuff? No. Don't go. It's everywhere.

Yeah. So that's what the problem was? The boats painted, the music. It's all Jimmy Buffett.

All Jimmy Buffett, 24 hours a day, all the time. One of the big event, one of the big activities was a recorded Jimmy Buffett concert on a big screen. And that bothered you? Well, by the third day I'd seen it, you know.

Waste it away. Right, and then I always liked the shows and stuff that they have on there, well that was a Jimmy Buffet theme too, it was just people dressed up like Jimmy Buffet, singing Jimmy Buffet songs. Other than that though? Well, we got COVID.

Oh. That wasn't really a cruise. How was the food though? Cheeseburger in paradise.

There you go. A lot of cheeseburgers in paradise. A lot of cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers everywhere.

A lot of cheeseburgers. A lot of cheeseburgers. All right. All right.

Do you have any social media news, Michael? I have no social media news other than the fact that our clips have definitely gotten some attention as of late throughout the cigar world, but nothing really big to report. Nothing new, huh? I had one guy tell me that I was dumb and he reposted it.

We became friends. Oh. Yeah. Nice.

Mm-hmm. Is that the listener of the week? It is. I must have your microphone because this thing is slowly moving away from me.

No, mine's fine. No, that one is. This is the one you used to have. This is perfect.

Oh, man. Now we can't see your face. It's okay. In a minute, it'll be back down.

Okay. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Has there been any phone call?

Speaking of social media. Phone calls. Phone call from Coop? No.

No. Still no Coop. No, he's good. He's good.

He's fine. Everything's fine. Living his best life. perfect no news is good news it's what i live by there you go well you never actually heard from him you heard from someone else yeah right so you haven't heard from that person either uh i had correspondence with them but not on his behalf not in regards to that no gotcha all right from policy changes in public safety to pop culture and sports there's always something shaping the headlines but now let's turn to something a little more cigari let's start Yeah, it's still making waves in the business world.

If you're a cigar aficionado, listen up, there's a shakeup in the cigar industry with rising prices and shifting trends that could affect your next smoke. Uh-oh. Hit me. Price increases from Altidus, Oliva, Quesa, Corilio, and Esteban Carrera.

It was a great week for those looking for news that their cigars wouldn't be costing more, while ADV and McKay Cigar Company, Arango Cigar Company, Espinosa Premium Cigars, told Cigar Hustler Podcast They wouldn't be increasing prices. They're absorbing the tariff cost. They're absorbing the tariffs at this time. Altadis USA, Casa Carilio, Oliva Cigar Company, Esteban Carreras all said they either have or would be raising their prices in quite the week for the industry.

What? That didn't flow right, did it? This group of companies announcing price increase was easily the headline for the week. While I hate to admit it, it seems like only...

Oh, this is from Charlie. It seems like only that more announcements will be coming in the coming weeks as companies feel the economic pinch of tariffs or simply see the opportunity to raise their prices. Right. Do you think that it is because of the tariffs or do you think it's because of the opportunities to raise prices?

I think it's both at the moment. You think it's both? Yeah. I don't think it has anything to do with tariffs.

Yeah. I don't know if it really has anything to do with the tariffs, Mike, in my opinion. In my opinion. You think it's too far away from, or they would have already had it figured out?

I think a lot of these guys are just trying to make more cash. Opportunistic? Yeah. Do we have factual stuff on tariffs that have been raised in countries?

Well, it's 10%. 10%. Is that from what? Zero?

Like it used to be zero? Yeah. Is it? Was it always zero on cigars?

You know, well, there is a TTB, but there was never a tariff for cigars. Is the TTB stayed the same? Yeah. Okay, so then there must have been zero.

Okay, so it seems weird that it was zero. You think there'd be something with just about everybody? Maybe I'm misspeaking, but I don't think that there was one. If you are, someone will correct us.

Yeah, someone lets me know how dumb I am. Exactly. All the time. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. So yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I agree.

I don't think it's because of the terrorists. Yeah, I think that you're starting to see, you know, Oliva is, I believe, is linked up with Cigar Page. So now they're going direct to consumer. You would think that their prices would go down, but their prices are going up.

So me as a retailer, if I have to buy it, I pay a higher price. But if they're going to sell it, they're going to sell it at a lower price, direct to consumer, increasing their margin. And what they're really, I think that what they're doing is they're squeezing retailers. You know, I don't see the reason to carry that product anymore.

- Why would I? - Announcing we are no longer carrying Oliva Cigars. - No, I'm just saying. - Oh, no, no, that's wrong, we still are.

- No, you know, I did. - No, we're not doing it. - I did have another interesting take happen. - Yes, please.

- Well, without naming names. - Name names, that's what we do here. - I don't want to name names on this one, Mike. - All right, no names.

- So I had one, I had a person reach out to me. - Oh, I thought you said Juan was the name. I was like, you just said no names. You said O-N-E.

- Right. - Okay, sorry. I had a person reach out to me, and they tried to guilt me into purchasing stuff more than what I needed as far as other products. I'm like, well, I carry all your other products, and all these other things are in stock, and, you know, they had said that they had unforeseen circumstances as far as getting those head products, so they're holding them closer, and that I wasn't being compassionate by not purchasing the other things.

Oh my goodness. Yeah. So I found that very interesting. So instead what I'm just going to do is I'm going to clear out all the product from the shelves.

Oh, and I'm not going to carry any of it? No. Yeah. Why would I?

Why would you? You're heartless. Yeah. Cause I'm apparently I'm heartless, heartless, terrible person.

I think that that's fascinating to me. When someone, if someone needs help and someone's in a bind, I have no problem helping them. Sure. But, uh, uh, accuse somebody of, to make an accusation that they're lacking compassion.

That doesn't really make me want to buy more from you. Right, it doesn't guilt you into it. No. Like, oh, he said I'm a bad person.

Yeah, that's a terror. I'll buy more. Okay. Well, we're not flipping cameras anymore.

So who knows who we're on? No, I've been flipping, but you've been talking most of the time. A little nappy nappy. So glad I looked at the camera.

If you look at the last episode, there's portions where we're back and forth, and we're just stuck on one. Right. So yeah, I found that extremely interesting. Well, it's a lot harder to do over there than anything, but still, I mean...

It is harder to do, but we've lost him. Right now, he's... And now he's just hitting it randomly. What's the case?

He's candy crushing. He's playing candy crush? He's looking at how to get that free cruise on Margaritaville. No, the tariffs on Nicaraguan cigars just got put to 18%.

No, they're 10. No, it went up to 18, now it's back down to 10. Oh, okay, so, okay. That was just from Cigar Fishing, not all that I was looking at.

Okay, so... But they don't have the real news there. You gotta go to Half Wheel, where Cigar Hustler Podcast gets all their news. One of the shows I did, they asked me if Charlie minds if we use his news.

I was like, no. Apparently not, because he knows. No, we asked them all. " And normally they have a watermark on there somewhere.

And I want to make sure that that's... It's visible. Images, yeah, but I mean, like, all our news comes from halfway. Yeah.

Somebody's gotta do the work. Right. Yeah. I told them I only get press releases from Dunbarton.

That's the only company that sends me one. Really? Yep. It's the only one we get.

Wait, do we send you one? Well, no. Well, yeah, technically, yes. Yeah.

Yeah, we do. I send one to myself. There you go. I do.

This is weird. So I get two of them. You're right. I get two.

Okay. All right, moving on. sales are down lower 2025 guidance due to tariffs scandinavian tobacco group the publicly traded company that owns general cigars cigars international and others i'm glad they went to others instead of listing them all still said that its sales were up in q1 of 2025 but profits were down more sales less money furthermore warned of a potentially rocky 2025 ahead not Patel. 29 million.

86 million. I like that they're blaming instantly the tariffs. Yeah, I don't think it's... Yeah, they haven't been around long enough to have that great effect on sales.

Right. Yeah. 3%. 3%.

The company says that revenue growth was due to the added McBaron pipe tobacco business, which the company acquired last summer in the growth of the XQS, the company's nicotine pouch brand. S. were down and SDG is no longer distributing Zin online. In addition, it cited issues with its implementation of SAP in its European cigar factories.

What is SAP in the European cigar factories? When nobody knows? No idea. All right.

I'm sure something will tell us. com, and Cigaro. It's a stabilization and association process. SAP?

Yeah. Oh, thank you very much. S. And others.

And others, yes. It sells. Crap. What the hell?

Everything. Everything. Agio. But it's alphabetical.

Well, listen. There had to be a pullback at some point. Right. You had a surge, 2020, 2021.

It's going to fall back somewhere. Right. It's sustained for a long period of time. Right.

It doesn't just go straight up. It doesn't just flatline. And it's, you know, it's just like any other market. It's going to level off and do something.

It's going to come back. Right. It's going to adjust, you know. Has anybody done numbers on before COVID, like a five-year?

I'm sure. I'm sure. Somewhere. All you got to do is just look at your imports.

Right. So, I mean, if the numbers today are up from those, then that would be normal. Because COVID wasn't normal. Right.

Those numbers are completely inflated. Right. Look, you know, at the end of the day, prices cannot continue to increase. Right.

The wages aren't increasing. Right. Things have to pull back. Yeah, they'll get to the point where things start really slowing down, and then...

You'll see adjustments. Yeah, it'll have to be an adjustment. I was trying to think of a fancy word for it, adjustment works. Nobody's going to pay $25 for Nika Roos to go.

It's not going to happen. How much? $25. Yeah, probably not.

I don't think they're close to that yet. No, he's using it as an example of what he can't get to. I'm just saying, as it rise it, yeah. No, no, we smoked a, on the Patreon this week, we smoked a $30 Argonosis, 25 anniversary cigar.

Oh, my Lord. So, they are up there. Yeah, that's high. All right, Brett Koplow.

Koplow. Named acting director of FDA Center for Tobacco Products. S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products, According to the report from Bloomberg, the announcements were made yesterday by Dr.

Marty Makkari, the commissioner of the FDA. What's wrong with these guys' names? Per his LinkedIn profile, Kaplow has worked for the FDA since 2011. He's an attorney who has worked in various legal roles for the agencies since 2020.

He has served as senior counselor to the commissioner. In April, Brian King, who had served as the head of the CTP. And the only guy with a normal name. Yes, King.

Yes, King, July 2022, was forced out of the job. King, that's because he had a normal name. King has since taken a job with Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. Oh, no, this is where the Tobacco Free Kids is.

Okay. A leading anti-tobacco group. He's so mad about being kicked out of the tobacco regulation, he's now completely against tobacco. Completely against.

Completely against. Completely against. Well, the Trump administration has tabled many of its proposed rules the FDA was working on under King's leadership, such as bans on flavored cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, and lipid While the Trump administration has tabled many of its proposed rules, the FDA was working on under King's leadership, such as bans on flavored cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, and limited limits on nicotine, there has been a major uptick in anti-vaping legislation at the state level, in large part due to Big Tobacco. So Big Tobacco stepping in?

Big Tobacco stepping in and trying to regulate the government. What? They're trying to regulate the government? The government's trying to regulate Big Tobacco?

I'm just trying to regulate big tobacco. I don't know how I read it. I don't pay attention when I read these things. Come on.

You don't even know what's going on? I'm still excited about Kaplow. Kaplow. I like his name, Kaplow.

Okay. I'll let you keep reading it. There's a lot of stuff going on in the tobacco world. What's going on?

Well, like DeSantis just approved where he's going to double tax Zen products. Zins? Yeah. Which that's going to probably get people to deter from that.

You think so? Yeah, I mean, if you're doubling it, right? I don't think it slows consumers down. No?

You don't think that they transfer to something else? They just transfer to Zins. Now, what is Zins? Is that a nicotine pouch or a caffeine pouch?

Yeah, it's a nicotine pouch. Nicotine pouch. Is it like nicotine and vitamins and minerals? No, I think it's like a synthetic nicotine.

So, can you swallow that? You swallow it. You put the pouch in your mouth and you swallow. Yeah.

You don't swallow the pouch. No, no, no, no. But like, Jason had nicotine pouches at the PCA. Jason from Romacraft.

Okay. And I was going to try one, but there was spitting you had to do, and I didn't want to ask myself, that just sounds gross, so I didn't do it, so I didn't know, he goes, well, you smoke enough cigars, you'll probably be okay if you just swallow it, I'm like, I don't want to take that chance, I'm not rolling the dice here, and vomiting over in the corner. I don't think it hurts you, like, kills you if you swallow it. No, no, I don't think it's going to kill me, but I don't want to get sick to my stomach.

Yeah, they were designed to be just like dip, but not all, you know. Right, but dip, because of the tobacco, you can't swallow it though. Look, I'm not sucking on a bag, I don't know. Yeah, me either, ever.

That's weird. Well, you don't suck on it, you just stick it in your gum and it just sort of mixes with your saliva. I'm not placing a bag in my mouth for the saliva to, that just sounds. Yeah, I'm about to Dr.

Sushi in a second and tell you what I'm not doing with bags or any of that. Yeah. Not in the house. Oh, I didn't know where you were.

Not with a mouse. Doctor, excuse me, are you going to put green eggs in hand? Yeah. All right.

We got a couple of reviews this week. You guys want to guess on the- Yeah, we're going to guess on those. A little extra segment here, but you know, we're just kind of letting that go. We don't know.

FDA may or may not be kind of doing things with the guys. There wasn't a story about FDA. There was a guy that they put in interim where they looked for somebody to be in charge. Oh, so there isn't- Mr.

King's done. He's an intern. He is out. This guy is in.

We still have no plans for anything. Trump has pulled back everything he said he was going to do until somebody is actually in charge. And he's an interim guy. Yes.

Marty McFly and Mr. Kaplow. Mr. Kaplow is your temporary.

He's been a lawyer. He's been around the FDA since 2011. They put him in charge. He's tall.

He's not like our guy. He's tall? He's a tall guy. He's not like our guy?

Not like our guy. No, he's a very tall guy. So he'd win in the fight? Well, I don't know.

He looks pretty scrappy. Our guy? Yeah, our guy looks kind of scrappy. That guy might be a little scrappy.

Yeah, I think a little scrappy. Kind of like Conor McGregory? Right, he was in the news, but I didn't pull that story. Conor McGregor?

Yeah. Yeah, what did he do? It leaked out that he doesn't write his own, not jokes, but when he does the, ah, crap. Interviews?

When he does the interviews and he talks smack about you or something. Yeah. Somebody has come out and saying that they write all this smack for him. Of course they did.

Yeah, no kidding. I mean, the guy, you know. So what's wrong with that? Well, he's denying it.

Oh, who cares either way? Right, that's why I didn't pull the story. Yeah. That's fair.

All right, so you have pulled some cigar reviews. I have pulled two cigar reviews this week. And we're going to try and guess. Yes, I'm going to...

This is from Half Wheel. This is from Half Wheel. Charlie did both reviews. Okay.

All right, that's big. I'm going to read the description of the cigar that they give. I will give you a couple of clues at the end from his comments. Okay.

And then you guys guess what it was that he scored. Can we do this? can you start with the brand i'll tell you what the cigar is sure and then i'd like to make a speculative guess right off the with just by guessing the brand and then as you kind of go in i'll if i change uh you know okay is that cool that work with you boot you're into sure i'll play all right the first cigar is the lure oscuro line debuted with two different sizes each package I don't think it's in 10 account bundles. What's the brand name?

Lure? Lure. Lure. Okay.

Lure Oscuro brand. Well, the Oscuro line. The Oscuro line? Yes.

Okay. Yeah, I'm going 71. No, it's not that low. I'm going to say Charlie's safe number is 88.

I'm going to go 88. Oh, that's a safe word? No, it's a safe number. Oh.

That's the way he likes to scream out. 88! Yeah. Apparently.

It's a little too intense, he yells out 88. It's double infinite. All right, it's the Lure Oscuro, The Big Joe, 6x52, sells for $13. Okay.

Let's see, the Country of Origin, Nicaragua, Tabla Calera, Pages de Nicaragua, Wrappers, Nicaraguan Oscuro, it's got Nicaraguan Binder from Esteli, Filler from Esteli, Oman Tempe, 6x52, it's a round, sells for $13, it released in 2025. Okay. Okay, here's a couple of clues. Here's what Charlie said.

Each of my cigars ran into a burn issue in the second third. Above is the worst example that occurred. It was a photo. 86.

Okay, now you're at 86. However, apart from that, there were no other construction issues. Okay. All right.

I also love the little tag on the end of the bands of these cigars that has the year printed on it, since it makes it easier to know what year you bought them, even if cigars are outside the box. I guess we all believe that. That's thoughtful. Well, at least you know what year it was made.

Yeah, but when something says 2007, the cello's not even yellow. Okay. Yeah, that's true. All right.

Okay. All right. Now this is his... I think this is his final...

Going back to '88. This is his final... This is his final notes, and then I'll give you the score. Okay.

Yeah. This is an excellent example of how expectations can change once a cigar is actually smoked. From the company's description, I was expecting a full-string blend that might knock me off my feet. Oh, it's going down.

But what I found was a nicely balanced, full-flavored profile that topped out medium-full and never came close to pushing through into full territory. Okay. Each cigar has burn issues in the second-third, but that should not deter you from trying these for yourself. I'm sticking to 88.

Go ahead. I'm still on 71. 71. 88.

Oh! I got it on the money! Right on the money. Yes!

I don't believe it. That was pretty good, Michael. Thank you. Enduro, Robusto.

Charlie needs to stop being so dependable. Or, not dependable. Predictable. Predictable.

Sorry, yes. Okay, so now this is also by Charlie. Yes. Okay.

So we can safely just say 88 every time with Charlie. No, okay. Let's see. So it's Ernie.

What's the cigar? The Perez, Carillo, Endur, Endur, Robusto. Oh, probably got a high score. Probably got a high score.

I'm going to stick 88 again. I'm going to go 88. I'll go 90. Ooh, 90.

90. Ooh. Okay, this is a Robusto, a 5x50, sells for $18. Ooh, 86.

Cigar Rebused. You're at 86, you immediately dropped 86 again. The Enduro, let's see, Dominican Republic, Casa Corilio, Rappers Cameroon, Binders Nicaraguan, Filler Nicaraguan, it's 5 inches by 50. Cameroon's tough, man.

It's a hard scar. It sells for $18. Okay. Two things against it already.

He said three cigars again. Does he always do three cigars? Yeah. Yeah, he smokes them all differently.

Okay, so it's Cameroon's Dominican. It's Ernie. Right. It's a Robusto.

It's expensive. But it is an Ernie cigar. Yeah. Yes.

And that's all you're giving me? Well, I have clues, but this is where you were thinking out loud. Okay. All right, this is a pretty rare combination of Cameroon wrapper This is a good example of why we decided to start weighing and measuring cigars.

These cigars were originally reported as 52 ring gauge, the cellophane says 5x50, and the cigars were all 48 ring gauge. Oh, they're smaller. Smaller. Okay.

No adjustments? I'm sticking to 86. You're still at 86? Boots?

I'm sticking to 90. You're sticking to 90 still. He's already saying that it's too small. Yeah.

It's smaller than what they said it was. Smaller than what they said it was. Right. It was reported at 52, the cello says 50, he measured it at 48.

Okay. Did he measure it with his fingers, or? He's got a ring measure thing. Oh.

The ash that fell into the ashtray was very flaky and fell apart like shards instead of chunks making a mess. Okay. So it's shorter filler, allegedly. If I could pick individual parts of the three experiences smoking these cigars and stitch them together for one, there's probably a very good cigar.

Okay. This is not a great one. This is just turnaround stuff here. Everybody still sticking with their cigars?

I'm happy with 86. I'm going 82. 82? What a jump that is.

Unfortunately, the leftover parts have some pretty obvious issues, and more to the point, the best of the three cigars was far from the best Cameroon cigars I've ever smoked. The largest issue is that two cigars magically went out without warning, which is going to torpedo even the best blends. Still no changes? I don't know if I can go lower than 86.

Oh, man. I've never read any Charlie's reviews, just by the way. I gotta stick 86. Like, I want, like, my heart wants to go 84, but I'm gonna stick 86.

I stick 82. Okay, finally, I remain curious to experience more cigars that combine a Cameroon wrapper with Nicaraguan tobaccos. Perhaps I should try the Toro, can avoid the combustion issue, blah, blah, blah. Okay.

And what are you at? 86. This is the final vote. 85!

Oh, I was so close! Man, that had to struggle. I wanted to go 84. I still would have been off by one.

You still would have been off by one. You know, if you were Drew Carey Palmer, I would have won. Yeah, because you were over. Because I overbid.

Closest without going over. He would have won at the 82. All right, listener of the week is Stephen Farr, F-A-R-R, Michael's new best friend. My new bestie.

New bestie. Yep. Congratulations. And shop of the week for the pocket dials I received over the weekend, Clearwater Distillery, They're in Pleasant Grove, Utah.

Perfect. Pocket dialed me a couple of times. Hello? Hello?

Oh, I hear them talking. Hello? Hey! Oh, no, they're there.

All right. So, is that it? It's episode 389. All right, guys.

com and check out the new apparel, the BDP exclusive with some ash on it. Wait, they don't get that one. Not this one. This is the first one ever made.

Well, they were supposed to get his, remember? But it is a good quality shirt. If you want that one, there's an upcharge. We use next level products.

It smells like my 50/50. He'll take it off on the show and send you the shirt. If the price is right, I'll send you the shirt. Absolutely.

And a picture of him without the shirt. Right. No, that's no. That's not happening?

That's weird. Michael, it's for the money. Yeah, it's for the money. I'll only do it for Coop.

Say you're Coop. Oh, an order just came in. Here we go. All right.

Hey guys, I want the shirt. Well, thanks everybody, we appreciate you. Thanks guys, bye bye. Welcome to the Cigar Hustler Podcast, the show brought to you commercial-free.

But a massive shout out to our amazing patrons on the Patreon. Thanks to your unwavering support, we're able to do unfiltered, unbiased opinions, all things cigars, personalities in the cigar world. Your backing makes it possible for us to keep it real for our listeners. Cheers to you.

com and search the Cigar Hustler Podcast.

Show Notes

This week on Episode 389, we preview The Return of Edca and our huge Dunbarton Tobacco & Trust Event happening this Friday from 6–11 PM at Cigar Hustler! Michael officially launches our brand-new merch store and shares how you can get your hands on the latest gear by going to chpod.com  Then, we dive into the top stories from around the world: a viral Macron moment, a terrifying parade crash in Liverpool, Caitlin Clark’s injury update, rising cigar prices from major brands, and shake-ups at the FDA. Plus, Disney Cruise controversies, stimulus rumors, and a possible “Hood MrBeast” Fortnite skin?

Don’t miss it — it’s packed, punchy, and just what you need to stay in the know.