12-2-24 Morning Rush - Australia Bans SOcial Media For Kids Under 16! & President Biden Pardons Son Hunter! & Bachelorette Star Jason Tartick Warns Folks To Cut Spending

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Welcome to the rush hour, your daily dose of pop culture for your rush hour ride, buckle up and enjoy the drive with your host standup comedian, Dave Neal. Good morning, everybody. Happy December 2nd to you. It's Monday, 2024, and we have all of your entertainment and pop culture news in one place on today's episode of the rush Australia bands, social media for kids under the age of 16.

It's a first of its kind. It's kind. We'll break that story down. Plus, this was big news over the weekend. President Biden pardons his son Hunter, uh, and we'll get a comment from him and also a comment from his son. And then singer Megan Trainor reveals she's had too much Botox to smile. And I have found my favorite comment.

Christmas movie of the year. Cannot wait to tell you about that. And another canceled show by Justin Timberlake. Is this an old millennial trying to dance injury or something more? Did he hit the flow for the wrong reason? Uh, plus I've got a quarterback proposal over the weekend. We'll break down that and a huge box office weekend for wicked becoming the Biggest movie ever made based on a musical.

I've got all those stories and so much more coming up next on the rush. All right. We are full blown Christmas season now only three and a half weeks till Christmas. It's actually feels a little quicker this year because Thanksgiving was kind of late. Did everyone have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend?

Did you guys do any black Friday shopping? Did anyone fist fight somebody in a Best Buy parking light for a discounted ring camera? Oh, a time to be alive. Well, I'll tell you what it was. Uh, it was on a Saturday. I was heading back from Kentucky with my wife and baby, uh, where my wife's parents live, and that's when I realized, uh, how insulted I was over the lack of love that my cranberry sauce received.

Now, as you guys know, I'm a. I'm a big proponent of a traditional Thanksgiving, you know, just the basics, turkey, you know, smashed standard mashed potatoes, you know, buns, whatever, you know, you can throw in a couple of curve balls, but you know, squash and cranberry sauce. That's what you do. Well, I made my cranberry sauce for probably the fifth year in a row, uh, for my wife's family and.

On Saturday, when it came time to return, after all the leftovers had been eaten, what I realized was nobody ate my cranberry sauce and nobody ate it during leftovers, even with cold Turkey as a leftover people opted to not eat my cranberry sauce. So here's what I want to know from you folks in the Midwest and the South is cranberry sauce.

Just one of those elitist new England things. Uh, or, or is it just, do I have a bone to pick with my specific family here? Because I made it, uh, from scratch with a fantastic recipe. I mean, it really is cranberry crack and yet, uh, not to be bogged down by the insult of not, uh, you know, eating my food, but. I kind of feel like I'm, I'm taking it personally.

So I'd love to know any Kentuckians or Ohians or any, uh, any Southerners out there, maybe Alabama is cranberry sauce. A big thing. I have a gallon of it now. I can't get rid of this stuff. All right. Well, anyhow, let's go into the news of the day. We've got a wicked defying the box office, highest grossing movie based on a musical ever.

And I'm sure Joker is like, well, We were kind of going for that. But of course, Joker was a musical that no one asked for. Wicked is the one that people wanted. So it is very popular. And again, becoming the highest grossing movie. Uh, based on a musical ever, according to Deadline, the movie's running domestic gross hit 214 million through Friday, eclipsing the lifetime gross of Grease, which came out almost 50 years ago.

Yeah. I mean, look, it isn't too often people are clamoring to go to a musical. You know what I mean? I mean, personally, I love musicals and I love Tom Cruise. If we could get a Top Gun. Musical I'll bring cranberry sauce. We'll all eat it at the theater. How about that? So either way, I've yet to see the movie.

Uh, now that Al Roker spoiled it for me, um, live at the, uh, well, he didn't spoil it, he just spoiled the cameo, but you know, you ever, you ever get a spoiler and you're like, well, I can't watch that movie for years until I forget the spoiler. Um, but I think it'll be good. I just am not much of a movie goer these days when it comes out on streaming me and the old millennials will watch it.

So the worldwide tally when it comes to musical flicks, wicked is trailing La Miserable, which had 442 million in Greece, 396 million in the great white whale of international musicals. Mamma Mia at 611 million. Well, I guess so that's what that's internationally. Yeah. Mamma Mia is a big one. I mean, that's a big one.

I'm surprised. Uh, I don't know if wicked will be able to, uh, be in the running for Mamma Mia, but we'll have to see. All right, let's go to some NFL news. Uh, Josh Allen and Haley. Get engaged. Uh, she said, yes, she said, yes, that's right. They got engaged during their buyer week. They, uh, had a romantic Instagram post on Friday, the actress and Buffalo Bills quarterback posted a photo of Allen down on one knee, asking Steinfeld to marry him with a beautiful sunset coloring the scene.

Framed by a gorgeous flower arch. She leans down and plants a kiss on Josh's mouth in the snap that tons of candles surrounded the couple in the shot. I mean, it was quite a, it was quite a romantic look. Whenever you see something like that, it makes, as a guy, it makes you go, okay, well, you just raised the bar for the rest of us.

So anyhow, they've been dating 2023, uh, or at least that's when it went public, but of course, uh, stay, uh, Haley, a musician, a, an artist. Actress kind of does it all. I mean, it was a pretty good power couple. Well, another NFL news, Trevor Lawrence took a massive hit over the weekend. Have a listen to the call.

Oh, there's no doubt that Trevor represents that. Well, that'll be Al Shire who's flagged for the big hit on the slide. And that's going to start a little bit of a scrum afterwards as the Jaguars come in to protect their QB. All right. So everyone starts fighting. I mean, look. I, to be quite honest, I'm sympathetic with the defender here because it's such a bang, bang play.

It seems so obvious when you watch it play out in real time. Uh, no, of course he got flagged with the penalty and apparently, and I could be wrong, there's a new rule here where if you get injured on an illegal play, in this case, uh, Trevor Lawrence got hit, uh, like illegal was, uh, you know, uh, hit to the helmet or whatever, helmet to helmet contact, whatever they call it.

If you get injured, there's a new rule where you get, you know, hit, A part of the voting process to decide what the penalty should be for the defender, which is kind of interesting. Um, but again, I don't know, I mean, it was, it was a bloody bad hit, but you know, I think, I think it's easy for us to watch that back in slow motion and go, Oh yeah, it was completely horrible.

I, and I think it was, but you know, you're running full speed out of each at each other. And then the quarterback at the last second can kind of like take a knee and slide down. So it's kind of like, you have to do your best to get out of the way. And they did not do that. All right. Well, we're going to keep it on the NFL.

Cause going back to the proposal, this is kind of how it works, right? When one of your friends gets engaged, the pressure is then put on you to get engaged. Same thing happens when you have, when one friend has a baby, it's like, well, when are you going to be next? And it's like, shut up, Trisha. Let me live my life.

Well, now fans are pressuring NFL star, Travis Kelsey to pop the question to Taylor Swift. You're next says people online. Now that, uh, now that we've got Haley Steinfeld saying yes to Josh Allen. Yeah, look, I'm, I'm, I'll be honest with you. I'll be honest with you, Travis, Kelsey, you better hire some choreographers because I'm guessing if you're going to be proposing to Taylor Swift, it better be something pretty massive.

Maybe at one of her sold out shows, but that's, that's where it gets to the issue where is anyone ever truly surprised with a proposal? I mean, look, you don't want to surprise somebody so much that they might say no. You know what I mean? You have to have a, you know, Pretty good feeling. They're going to say, yes, you got to float the idea by, you know, by them, by the mom, a best friend, you know, you can't, you can't just go in blind because you know, confirmation bias online will show us all of the proposals where she said yes, but there's a lot of videos that never got uploaded where she said, no, thank you.

Uh, you know, you know, I mean, maybe if you're the jumbotron probably gets that pretty often, you know, a lot of the Canadian football games where, you know, some guys drink a little too much beer. And next thing you know, He's proposing and she's like, no, you're not going to do it to me this way. Uh, but either way, uh, the clock's ticking.

You officially have six months, uh, Travis Kelsey. No, I mean, interesting. I mean, they've only been together for like one solid year, even though the relationship has run a little quickly. In the public eye, will they take more time? I mean, who knows? No one's getting younger out there. And speaking of not getting younger, we have Megan Trainor.

She says she cannot turn her frown upside down because of Botox. I got too much Botox and I need help. I messed up. Listen, I've had Botox like a handful of times, just a few times, just up here, just my forehead. You know, um, and someone convinced me with my little lips that if you did a lip flip, you put filler right above your upper lip, that you could have a beautiful flip on your upper lip.

And I could have one for the first time in my whole 30 years of living. It was not true. Uh, and also I cannot smile anymore. So here it is. Uh, oh boy, this podcast sounds, I don't want to say it sucks, but, uh, I'm having a tough time getting through this clip. Uh, so there's Megan Drainer explaining how. Uh, and again, I don't know if anyone's going to feel bad for her.

The story itself is not really funny. I don't mean to be salty towards Meghan Trainor. It's like, all right. I mean, you get a little too much Botox, but it does wear off. And can't you, or I guess you could dissolve fillers, but I don't know about if you can dissolve Botox. I've made the choice and I don't judge anybody else, but I've made the choice in my life To lay off any Botox or fillers.

It's just not for me. You know what I mean? If, if I have any wrinkles or lines, I want people to know that I'm wearing it well, but again, I won't judge anybody else. Just, you know, make sure you don't get too much. We wanna see your nice smile, right? Or, you know what? Get so much that we can't see your smile.

I don't really, you know what? Do whatever the hell you want. What you know. What am I supposed to say? I feel like when it comes to, it's very interesting when it comes to offering your opinion on other people's bodies, right? Because people do whatever the hell you want. And I'm like, sure. No, I get that.

But can't we also say it's pretty crazy if you do have to, or want to alter who you are to fit in? I don't know. I don't know, folks. Like I said, get your, get your body. Boobs done and your calves, uh, implanted and just live your good life. Do whatever the hell you want. Uh, if you ask me, okay, well, you see how I backpedaled out of that one.

Sometimes I'm like, am I going to delete this clip? No, I'm keeping it in. It's Monday morning. We can only go up from here. We'll be back with more content right after this. Well, this is going to be a bummer of a story. James Vanderbeek from Dawson's Creek. He's being treated for colorectal cancer, and he's pitching something to his Instagram followers can help pay his medical expenses in the expenses of others in a similar situation by ordering one of his varsity blues, uh, high school.

Uh, jerseys from the, you know, the, The movie varsity blues, and I guess he's going to autograph it, which by all means, that's a good cause. It's good. It's good to help out with people with medical expenses. It's just sad that we live in a world where we, we live in a country with the greatest medical expenses and we get the least from it.

I mean, why it's, it's, why do we do this? What are we doing? Why is this a thing? You know what I mean? You shouldn't get wiped out. Medical debt should not be a thing that exists in 2024, uh, in the, what is supposed to be the richest country in the world. I wish, I wish more of us realize that like we, we deserve better.

You know, some people get sick and, and, and, and the care is expensive and we spend more than any other first world countries. I'll die on this hill. I will literally die on this hill with bad medical insurance. Uh, and then, you know, whatever. Okay. You get the point. Um, so let's move it on. Cause it's a bummer of a story.

Alfonso Ribeiro is the host of dancing with the stars. He also. Played Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. My generation has loved them since the mid nineties, right? Well, here's what Mark Ballas, a pro dancer had to say, or former pro dancer about how good Alfonso Ribeiro is going from a, uh, dancer, from a celebrity to the host.

Is it crazy to see Alfonso go from contestant now to host for you? Um, not crazy at all. Like, um, when they announced him as host, I was like, He's great. I love I have so much love for Alfonso. He's just a good guy. And he cares. And he's so talented at everything he does. Everything that he does is awesome.

Incredible, incredible, incredible host. Um, and he goes the extra mile like he's at the dress rehearsals. He's at the camera blocks so that he has Insight on to what you're going through that week. So he has great questions for you. He really cares for the competitors. He's just You know top notch. I love Alfonso.

Is there anything specific about the show that you love the way that they operate now? Yeah Like in what sense like for me? I thought it was so impressive that when they do the entire blocking day, the judges are not there so they don't see yeah The test run, which makes sense, but I feel like on a lot of other shows, they might have to be there.

No, yeah, yeah. They, um, that's always been the way they've never been in the dress rehearsal. You know, that's what makes it so cool to me as a fan that it's authentically real. I need to get myself like a press pass for the next season of dancing with the stars. I feel like I should be there hanging out with these folks, right?

I don't know. Are we becoming a dancing with the stars podcast? I guess so. Uh, well, we also love the bachelor and we love bachelorette. contestant star of the show, Jason Tartick, his podcast, uh, trading secrets, uh, talks about trying to cut your expenses down in a world of inflation and so much going on there.

Here's what he had to say this year. I want everyone to really, really focus on stop spending like an asshole. Just stop. The price of everything has gotten out of control. Companies are clearly taking advantage of that. Obviously there are supply and demand issues. There's inflation issues. I think we'll keep seeing inflation because you have unemployment that's not moving when the cost of capital is growing exponentially.

And at the end of the day, when you go to a restaurant, when you go to the grocery store, it's going to continue to go up. And if you are not a smart consumer right now, you're going to get buried. If you thought credit card debt was bad before at like 19, 20%, when interest was at zero, you have 30 year mortgages.

They're at like 7%. So now credit card debt percentage is going to be like, 30, 40%. You get yourself stuck in credit card debt right now. That's rolling because of these costs, it's going to be impossible to get out. Now he posted this in January of 2023, just to be fair, he reposted it saying it's still heads true.

I would say the only thing that doesn't hold true here is that inflation has kind of been put under control. Now, hold on a second. I'm not saying the cost of goods aren't high. I'm just saying the percentage at which it is Growing has, has, has slowed down. And now we, now we need to do a better job of getting those prices down.

That's probably more because of corporate greed, uh, than it is because of inflation itself. Uh, but yeah, it's wild out there. And yet they're saying that this black Friday was one of the busiest, or if not the busiest black Friday ever. So which one is it? Is the economy terrible or are people doing okay?

Or is it just like some people are doing okay. And some people are struggling. You know, they say most of the country can't afford a 400, um, an emergency, which is just. It's just terror. It's just terrible out there. We should not be in this situation that we're in. And we shouldn't be okay with these corporations just, you know, raking it in billions in profits where we barely scrape by.

All right. I got a good one for you. I've been looking forward to hearing this story. Australia's banning social media for kids under the age of 16. Are we cool with this? Would we want this here in the good old U S of a, have a listen. The world's first law to ever ban social media for children in Australia, platforms like Tik TOK, X and Instagram now have a year to figure out how to impose this.

After that, they could face fines of up to 33 million if they fail to keep kids under 16 from having accounts. Australia's Prime Minister says the law supports parents concerned by online harms to their children, but Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta says the legislation was rushed. An Australian lobbying group says the ban was passed in just a week and that no one can explain how it'll work.

And some mental health advocates have also warned of potential unintended consequences, including isolating children who use the platforms to find support. Now, the ban doesn't apply to educational services, including YouTube, WhatsApp, and Google Classroom. The big question is how now they will verify a user's age, because the law states These platforms can't just require a government ID.

And of course the big question, will other countries follow suit? All right. You know, here's what I love and hate about this. What I hate is this is like when Bloomberg tried to ban large beverages in New York and people were like, no, you can't ban our beverages. And he was like, I'm just trying to do a good thing and battle childhood obesity.

And they're like, yeah, we'll go F off, you know? And I, I love, I love this rule, even if people don't know how they're going to be able to enforce it. Right. I just love this. We don't. You know, the second you get on your phone, you know, the second you give your phone to a kid is the second that they are being robbed of the rest of their childhood.

Like you don't, you'll never put that cat back in the bag. Now you can have air tags tracking your kid. You can have a flip phone, you can have a GPS system, you can have a smart, you could literally have a smartphone. Just take the social media off of it, right? Like if your kid had an iPhone so they could get around so that they can make phone calls so that they could Google things, that's like, that would be okay.

Because I mean, that's not the addiction that's keeping people on their phone. It's the doom scrolling. I'm, I'm very, I'm very adamant about this. Obviously I, I, um, You know, had, had a thing go quasi viral talking about how we're not going to introduce screens to our child. Uh, and it's like, look, you know, it doesn't mean your kid's not going to watch TV here or there.

It means you're going to get it out of their hands. You're going to get it out of their hands because that's where like the Gosh, I mean it's it's it bums me out It bums me out when I see kids with the phone three inches off of their eyes. It feels like um, it feels like It's like, it's like handing a kid a pack of cigarettes.

I'm not mad at the kid. I'm mad at the people that thought this was a good idea. And I know you might get upset about that. You might say, Dave, you have no idea what it's like when all your other friends have it. I get it. So it looks like Australia is solving that problem. No one gets it. No one gets it.

Go talk to people in real life. Be a human. You know what I mean? Gosh, I sound like such an old fogey when I say that, but just be a human. All right. Well, um, uh, we have the big story of the day. President Joe Biden, pardoning son Hunter. And we'll get to that right after the break. So this afternoon on the afternoon rush hour, we will start our single mom or single parent appreciation list.

We've got 12 or more. We might have up to 15 actually, uh, people with Amazon wishlist, which we will be featuring. And for the next few weeks, that list will be shared this afternoon on that the afternoon rush. So stick around for that. You're going to hear everyone's story and it's going to be, it's going to be good.

It's going to be nice to sort of share in the abundance that some of us have. And helping out those that could use a helping hand. All right. Well, speaking of a helping hand, Hunter Biden is getting one from his old man. President Joe Biden pardons his son Hunter. This was big news. They came out yesterday and I'll play a few news clips and then I'll tell you my thoughts on it.

Here we go. News President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter, ahead of the end of his presidential term. That's according to a senior White House official with direct knowledge of the decision. Remember, Hunter Biden was convicted back in June on three separate felony charges related to his purchase of a gun in 2018, a time during which prosecutors say he was battling a drug addiction and lied about it on paperwork to get that gun.

It was the first time a sitting president's child was convicted of a crime. Hunter Biden also pleaded guilty to federal tax charges in September. In that case, he was charged with three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanors, including tax evasion and filing a false return. NBC News has learned that this pardon is expected to cover both Hunter Biden's conviction and guilty plea.

This marks a reversal for President Biden. Both he and White House officials have said, Republicans will win.

So the reason why Joe Biden flipped on this decision is he essentially said he felt as though the system was being weaponized against him, uh, because this isn't sort of, uh, you know, most people that commit this crime don't actually get charged, uh, you know, or they get brought lesser charges.

Essentially Hunter. Said he wasn't using drugs on a gun application when he was, and that's, and that's the crime. Initially, he had a plea deal, which I believe the judge then rejected, uh, and then it was sent to trial. So here is a little bit of the statement of what Hunter Biden had to say. So go Hunter Biden issued a statement from of his own stating, I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction, mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.

Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends. Hunter Biden continued in the throes of addiction. I squandered many opportunities and advantages in recovery. We can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives.

If we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded, I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have. Uh, rebuild to helping those who are still sick and suffering. You know, this is what's so interesting. I'm going to put my, I'm going to put a little Dave Neal spin on this little polish here is I, I find it courageous.

And again, say what you want about Joe Biden as a president, but his story's insane, right? He, he had family that died in a car crash, which just, Sounds so horrifying that that would happen, right? And then he has a son who dies, what, brain cancer from, from, uh, being, uh, serving in the military and, and, you know, you know, it was exposed to burn pits and, and dangerous chemicals.

And then another son battling addiction. It sounds like he's been through hell and back with his family. And yet here in the very human moment, he says. My son's been targeted. I believe in the justice system, but I also feel like he was targeted because of me. Um, and I think he did what any father would do, which is, which is, um, you know, which is throwing that pardon.

I don't know. I don't know. Let me, let me, uh, sort of try to end this episode on a high note. And that being, you know, I've been reviewing Christmas movies, Red Light, Green Light, Yellow Light. If a movie even makes me teary eyed, I give it a yellow light. I don't know if I've given any hard red lights. I'm very kind with my rating system.

Well, I found my first flawless Christmas movie of the year. It's called the Nutcrackers or Nutcrackers and it's on Hulu and it stars Ben Stiller and it actually stars four brothers. They're actually all brothers in real life. Uh, they're like between the ages of like six and 13. They're, they're young, they're kids.

And this movie. Hit me so hard. I was watching it and I think I cried Consistently the last 40 minutes of the movie. I'm not kidding and I'm okay saying I'm like is this do I need therapy? Is this on me? I looked the movie up on Rotten Tomatoes. It only had like a 60 percent audience score I was like, what the hell is wrong with people?

people. And so I actually looked up, I actually looked up a lot of people's reviews and I think people gave it a bad review because they wanted, they wanted it to be like a meet the Fockers type of movie. Like they wanted it to be what was like a Ben Stiller kind of comedy. And that it's not that here's what I wrote as my review for nutcrackers.

I wrote this on rotten tomatoes. The movie was a slow build and felt like a home cooked meal. The characters took time to open up and felt like a bold choice in a world of cookie cutter formula. Those wishing it were funnier should see a therapist. This ain't meet the Fockers. It's uncle Buck meets little miss sunshine.

By the second act, I was rooting Ben Stiller on. I could see the ending from a mile away and yet I still wept. It's stuck the landing. I'm telling you right now, I need you guys to watch this movie and let me know if it hit you or it didn't hit you. Uh, like I said, again, I watched in, you know, you'll know after you watch the movie.

I'm watching it with, you know, my son sleeping on my chest and I don't know if it's like dad. I don't know if I have like new parent. Like I've always been a crier, right? I've always been one to like really feel my feelings. But as I'm watching this movie, my wife passed out. She was, she falls asleep. She wakes up and she goes, are you crying?

And I go, honey, I've been crying for the last hour. This movie was so good. It hit me to its core. Nutcrackers. On Hulu again, it didn't have a great rotten tomato score. I couldn't believe it. I think it'll change. I think over time people are going to talk about this movie as a real hit. Um, it's going to, and again, it's, it's a clean family movie.

It just has to deal with some death. I'm not giving anything away when I say Ben Stiller, um, uh, you know, has to, uh, look over some kids that aren't his. That's really the premise of the movie. And, um, it reveals itself very early on. And maybe it, maybe, maybe it was so obvious how it was going to go. And yet I was still rooting for everybody in this movie.

I was like, this is this, it was, there were so many bold choices. I thought, and I thought it was shot so beautifully that it was so unlike most Christmas movies. It's like, I went into it expecting some dumb, stupid Hulu Christmas movie. In, in a, I ended up getting poetry. That's how I felt. I'd love to know your thoughts, nutcrackers on Netflix.

I've, excuse me, nutcrackers on Hulu. All right, folks. Well, a lot of content to get to today. I'll have YouTube videos up, uh, one on Clayton Eckerd trial. Um, nothing big, but I'll be sharing some very interesting thoughts. Have a good Monday. We'll see this afternoon. I'm Dave Neal. This is the rush. The rush hour is a twice daily pop culture and entertainment news podcast hosted by standup comedian, Dave Neal lives too short for a boring ride.

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