Mamdani's Doxxing Campaign, Idaho In-N-Out Shooting & Sophie Cunningham vs WNBA | PBD Podcast #839

Folks, we’ve got a packed one: an AI fund’s margin-call danger, the Idaho In-N-Out shooting, CNN versus RFK, and baseball cards eating art’s lunch. We’ll hit Mamdani, Newsom, Ukraine, and the strange question of Bill Gates holding top nuclear clearance.

Scott Galloway said, hey, give Mamdani a chance. Then a property-tax map exposed roughly nine hundred thousand New York addresses, though only a fraction mattered to the proposed levy. Why publish a celebrity-home map after the UnitedHealthcare CEO murder?

The DSA isn’t just another faction in a big Democratic tent. It’s a Trojan horse taking over the tent. People expected a little more socialism and higher taxes on the rich; they’re finding a movement built around taking assets and redistributing wealth.

How are you shocked? Tell people landlords and owners caused their struggles, then hand them a map of where they live. The party obsessed over Trump, stopped standing for much else, and now wonders how Marxists got inside.

Major Democratic donors are holding back, the DNC has debt, and MAGA groups have a bigger war chest. Democrats must decide whether they’re socialist or not. Republicans still have to address affordability, especially insurance costs crushing families and employers.

CBS reported California missed high-speed-rail deadlines and still had not bought promised trains. Newsom blamed Trump, then California dropped its lawsuit. He said tracks were being laid; the state built a staging facility, not track. Show me the resume, not another promise.

I’ll ease up on CBS, because this reporter has a serious investigative record. But when mainstream outlets put Newsom’s missed promises on the board, that’s bad news. His approval was already sliding; the reporting is catching up.

At an Idaho In-N-Out, a gunman killed three people and wounded others. Jordan Salinas, a thirty-five-year-old caregiver arriving after horseback riding with his girlfriend, engaged him with a handgun until police arrived. Jordan, respect, sir. Free In-N-Out for life seems appropriate.

This is the guy we should talk about. He trained, moved toward a nightmare, and held the shooter back until police engaged; the shooter then took his own life. At an In-N-Out, this could have been far worse. God bless Jordan Salinas.

That’s why a trained, sensible armed population matters. I’m not making light of the victims. A criminal should wonder whether someone nearby can defend himself or others. And we need to ask what drove this young man to it; the mental-health crisis is real.

Leopold Aschenbrenner, an Ivy League valedictorian at nineteen, built an AI investing vehicle after work around FTX and OpenAI. He raised billionaire money, bet on AI infrastructure, reportedly returned 439 percent in six months, then used serious leverage. Holdings dropped, Adobe—one of his shorts—rose, and margin calls came.

Margin calls can cascade: forced selling starts, red hits the board, and everybody runs for the exits. Citadel bought positions and provided liquidity. Sure, it was a distressed bargain in Citadel’s interest. It also helped prevent an uncontrolled waterfall.

Margin magnifies a bet. Four-times leverage means a 25 percent gain can double your money, while a 25 percent fall can erase your equity. I got called years ago over a few thousand dollars; it’s scary. This was billions: high risk, high reward in living color.

Boomers may leave nearly a trillion dollars in art that kids, buyers, and museums do not want. Storage, insurance, upkeep, and authentication are brutal. Meanwhile, a Boca Raton father pulled a one-of-one Shohei Ohtani dual-autograph relic from a box, and it sold for $11 million.

I owned what I thought was an Andy Warhol artist proof, and people still told me to be careful. Art authentication can be a train wreck. A card has scarcity, documented origin, patches, signatures, and a clear market. Confidence plus scarcity creates value.

I bought two Gretzky cards for about $540,000, sold them eighteen months later for over $2 million, and they later went much higher. It’s not every card; it’s the right card. This is like a Willy Wonka ticket, except you have an asset.

RFK’s CNN interview with Dana Bash was fiery. He kept asking for the study proving COVID-vaccination benefits for children and accused CNN of repeating a narrative instead of reading underlying science. Agree or not, he would not give the old expert class a pass after reversals on masks, transmission, natural immunity, and origins.

They’re not that dumb. CNN took pharmaceutical advertising money, pushed the message, and helped turn Americans against each other. Kids lost school, friends, normal life. If you pressured your child into a medical decision and now feel misled, accountability matters.

CNN crossed from reporting into advocacy, and that distinction matters if lawsuits arrive. Their posture looks like ducking and covering: find studies, say vaccines worked, insist nobody was misled. People will ask what outlets knew and how aggressively they promoted it.

On Ukraine, cheap drones are changing war. Ukraine has hit Russian vessels and infrastructure with machines costing thousands while targets cost millions. I’m not a Zelensky fanboy, but survival can mean outworking, out-improving, out-strategizing, and simply outlasting everybody.

An F-35 costs enormous money; a cheap drone can disrupt a ship, plane, or supply line. Zelensky wants Patriot capability against incoming attacks, but Trump’s approach remains negotiation until something is signed. Nothing is done until it’s done.

Finally, Bill Gates reportedly held Q clearance through Energy for years, normally tied to nuclear weapons, critical infrastructure, and classified research. Nuclear-energy work may explain it. But if DOE will not clearly say why it was granted or who originated it, people will ask questions after COVID.

I worked around nuclear facilities, and Q is not casual—this is not ordinary civilian-tech-guy access. Add pandemic warnings, foundation-government connections, Event 201 before COVID, and population talk. Call it coincidence, but people deserve straight answers.

The Gates Foundation has faced questions over population-control thinking and overseas health programs. COVID, Epstein-related reporting, and this clearance story make it stickier. Buffett creating distance answers nothing by itself, but the questions are not going away.