Hello. We made it through another year. But stuff
still happened. So what's up, dear listener?
It is the end of the year. And you didn't warn
me. Not a single one of you sons of bitches sent
me a calendar invite for the end of the year.
I don't know how I was supposed to know this
was happening otherwise. Uh, yeah. End of the
year. It's true December. Cold time. Unless you're
in the southern hemisphere, in which case, warm
time. Enjoy that. So just real quick before we
get into everything that I'm gonna talk about
today I just want to say remember to take a second
to just like Be in the moment as we close out
the year. It's been a it's been a hell of a year.
It's been a lot It's been a not good one. I ranked
them I ranked every single year and this one
it wasn't in the top 50 % But that's okay. I'm
gonna keep saying that at least because if you
go outside and you take a second you're gonna
hear The wind rustling through the trees, you're
gonna see some critters hopping around, prepping
for the winter. Life is going on. And yes, life
is really bad for a lot of people right now.
And things are getting pretty crazy. At the same
time, we can't fix all of it by just... being
aware of it. We fix it by taking action. We fix
it by being able to take care of ourselves and
the people around us. Spiraling out of control
and just saying everything is hopeless and just
being purely doomer is not what I'm going for
here. So I highly encourage you to just take
a second and just base yourself every once in
a while. I'm asking you to be based. Can you
do that for me? Let's move on. We'll start with
the big one, the obvious one. They released the
Epstein files. Kind of. Sort of. So there's this
like pesky little thing in the United States
government called the Legislative Branch. It
contains the Senate and the House and they made
a law that said release the Epstein file. They
voted on it. It was a whole ass law and it went
to the desk of the guy that's the president who
signed it. Keen listeners will recall that when
the Legislative Branch passes a bill and the
president signs it... that becomes a law. So
what's in the bill? It's like two pages long
and it's actually pretty short, which honestly
is a bit of a problem. So the bill says that
the Department of Justice has to release the
unredacted Epstein files within 30 days of the
bill becoming law. That time has come and gone.
But here's the thing, that's kind of all it says.
That's basically it. It doesn't say what happens
if they don't. It just says, we... We super expect
this to happen. And so there's been politicians
that are like, ah, Pam Bondi is breaking the
law by by not releasing the Epstein files. And
it's like, OK, so arrest her. There should not
be any expectation that they're going to do something
about this. Like there's not nothing's going
to happen. There does not exist the political
will to actually hold the administration accountable.
Now. That doesn't mean there won't be fallout
from the Epstein files. So they released like
300 ,000 documents or so and they said that more
are going to be coming over time. These documents
were super heavily redacted. The bill says that
it could be redacted but that they couldn't redact
for the sake of protecting a public figure who
should not be protected for being a pedophile.
And like obviously... Like, we know that Trump
is in the Epstein files. Anyone who says otherwise
is delusional. But of course, as I kind of predicted
on my stream recently, they essentially just
released the files that are going to incriminate
low -hanging fruit for the Republican party.
Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, really anyone named
Bill. Sorry to all the Bills out there. Maybe
one day you'll become a law and then it won't
be a problem anymore. So they release a bunch
of redacted files. People aren't particularly
happy about that. Everyone's scouring through
the files and they discover a handful that didn't
redact Trump's name. And then some of those have
now gone missing from the Department of Justice's
website. They were like, oh, we removed them
because there were other concerns that had nothing
to do with Trump. Stop asking questions. There's
been murmurings of the victims of Epstein, like
releasing their own concrete list or something.
We've learned a bunch of garbage about the FBI
ignoring warnings about Jeffrey Epstein, but
like it's the FBI. I don't know what anybody
expected. If I'm coming across jaded here, I'm
not trying to just be... jaded. I'm just trying
to look at things through a sober lens. This
administration is just doing crimes. They just
do crimes, right? Like we're just... That's normal
now. And so people being like, oh, the Department
of Justice is doing crimes by not releasing the
full Epstein list. Like, okay, sure. But they've
also been doing crimes this whole time by not
enforcing the TikTok ban. Those aren't morally
the same thing, but legally they're the same
thing. Like the Trump administration has just
been not enforcing that law because it's politically
expedient. It's the same situation. So to think
that they're going to act differently and to
think that this time Congress is going to go
after people because it's the Epstein List, I
just don't see that happening. And so I'm tempering
my expectations and remaining angry at all of
them. Like we've got Tim Kaine over here being
like, nah, nah, it's too early to hold them accountable.
We can't be doing that. That's too aggressive.
God. The Democrats are wild, man. Guys, we can't
support trans people because Republicans might
make fun of us. That's the platform, basically.
Let's move on. Let's move on and be more patriotic.
As patriotic as we can get. If you are a viewer
who does not live in the United States of America,
you are now an honorary member of my nation.
I determine who has citizenship and you haven't.
You can have mine. You want to switch, actually?
So we're all Americans now. Yeehaw. whiskey,
baseball, so... War. We're doing it, right? Like,
we're doing it. Like, we're trying to do it with
Venezuela right now. We're, like, stealing their
boats and bombing their boats. Lots of stuff
with boats and bombs. But besides that, the so
-called Department of War has decided to send
out checks to service members at a value of $1776.
For all my new Americans in the audience, that's
our freedom day. That's when the Declaration
of Independence was signed. And it's like a big,
it's a big deal number over here stateside. So
Trump goes on TV and he announces that he's giving
a payout to members of the military paid with
tariffs. Like the money made from tariffs will
be going to members of the military. They'll
each get a check for 1 ,776 buckaroonies. Hey,
guess what? That was so easily disprovable. It's
not from the tariffs. And it's dumber than that.
Instead of taking from the tariffs, which is
already stupid as fuck because that's basically
saying we're gonna give you a check for money
that you had to pay extra and the check that
we're giving you is less than you would have
had to pay otherwise. What they're doing is worse!
They're taking it from a fund that was appropriated
specifically for housing assistance for low -income
members of the military. It was a 2 .9 billion
dollar budget that was earmarked in the so -called
Big Beautiful Bill that was supposed to go towards
helping these people have housing. It's a common
program in the military. It's basically like,
okay, we need to put these many people in this
place. They're low -ranking members of the military
and we pay them like trash. So we'll subsidize
their housing using this fund. Now, depending
on the level of income of the member and where
they need to be stationed and various market
factors, that money was doled out. case by case.
So what they did was take that money instead
of using it for its intended purpose, which was
supporting affordable housing for the military
for the next year. They're just doing this little
gimmick check. Is it going to help some people?
Yeah, definitely. Absolutely. You got the money?
Spend it. Go hard. Have fun. Yikes. The back
of the napkin math is that this is a $2 .6 billion
spend out of a $2 .9 billion fund. They have
essentially cleared out the fund that was meant
to help pay for housing for the military. Cool.
Well done. This is essentially what we're gonna
see on Loop Forever, right? It's what we've been
seeing on Loop Forever. It is performative gesturing
towards the military that's not actually for
the military. It's for people who are not in
the military, who think that empty gestures to
the military equates to patriotism. If you are
a struggling military family, and you were told,
hey, you're getting a one -time check for $1
,776, but now we can't supplement your housing
costs, which are far more than that per year,
you're probably not thrilled. Instead of, you
know, covering for our veterans and providing
mental health care so they stop killing themselves
at an alarming rate. We're just doing this, and
it's 1776, guys. It's the patriotic number. Don't
you feel American, doll? Doesn't that make you
feel good? What are you talking about? What affordability
crisis? Speaking of affordability crisis, Disney
cannot afford for you to not see Avatar a lot.
So Disney slash Marvel have been working on the
upcoming new Avengers movie, Avengers Doomsday.
And it's kind of a mess. We'll go over some of
the reasons why it's a mess, but... Up front,
they've decided recently to make four different
trailers for the movie to send out to theaters
to show before showings of the new Avatar movie.
Also, there's a new Avatar movie. I didn't even
know that. But the idea is that they're only
going to show one trailer per showing of Avatar.
So if you want to see all the trailers, you have
to go to at least four showings of Avatar. It's
certainly a choice. It is certainly a choice.
Now, I want to get a few things clear up front.
I'm not a giant Marvel fanboy. I am just a casual
member of society in which Marvel exists as an
entertainment franchise. I've seen the movies,
most of them, and they're fine sometimes. That's
fine, okay? But... This shit's whack. So 10 years
ago in 2024, they announced Avengers Doomsday.
And in that announcement, they made a big deal
out of how Dr. Doom, the new big bad evil guy
for the entire franchise, is going to be played
by Robert Downey Jr., who used to be Iron Man.
Now, Robert Downey Jr. had, there was a scene,
spoiler alert, there was a scene in Endgame where
some rocks killed him. And then he left the MCU.
So RDJ was just like, OK, I've done this enough.
I'm out. Whatever. He's back. Bitches, so okay
cool. Whatever fan service That's kind of weird
that you're gonna have like one of the main characters
who played a hero turn around like I get what
you're doing Maybe it'll land so one of these
four trailers comes out and turns out Chris Evans
Captain America is also returning so also in
Avengers Endgame the previous movie Chris Evans
also leaves the franchise, but he's back He's
back. So we've got that But apparently we've
also got a situation where the script hasn't
really been completed, which is not super rare
for Marvel projects, but there are actors who
don't even know if they've finished recording
or not. They've basically been in like a non
-stop rewrite in part because Dr. Doom wasn't
even really supposed to be the next big bad evil
guy. It was supposed to be Kang the Conqueror.
So this is what I'm really getting to the limits
of my Marvel knowledge here, but my understanding
is that Kang and Thanos and Dr. Doom are all
like real big bads, right? Like real big bads.
And so they were going to try to go from like,
okay, Thanos, you know, everybody knows the snap
thing, the, you know, all the memes. We've moved
on, right? The next big one was going to be,
hey, but there were a few problems. One of those
problems was that his like, debut villain movie
was Ant -Man Quantamania and did not do well.
And then the other problem was that he was played
by Jonathan Majors, who was arrested for domestic
assault. Disney didn't like that. Very much and
so they had to scramble and instead of recasting
him. They just said fuck it We're gonna do an
entirely different everything. This is the part
where I'm just gonna raise my hand and say They
could have recast him to Michael B Jordan and
it would have been fucking spectacular That would
have fucked that would have saved the franchise.
But instead very thankfully we got sinners instead
of that so Nature's healing Anyway, they had
to pivot away from Kang the Conqueror as their
new big bad guy. And they're like, what do we
do? Doctor Doom? Played by Robert Downey Jr.
Fixed it. It's a mess. It's a mess. And I'm genuinely
curious to see what happens here because like
it's a Disney Marvel movie. It's going to do
well. It's going to make a lot of money. I have
no expectation that it's going to flop. But if
it did. I am so curious to see what happened.
I've barely even touched on all the problems
that have leaked out of the production of this
movie. I'm genuinely curious to see what happens
if it did fail. Could this fuck up Marvel? Could
this actually end it? I don't think so. I don't
think so. I think the most likely case is it's
gonna do just fine and like it's just gonna continue
being a cheap win for Disney every once in a
while. Who knows? But damn, four trailers. Go
see Avatar, guys. Dear listener, we are heading
into the last lightning round of 2025. I want
to say thank you for being here with me and for
spending what little time we have together, together.
What I decided to do for this last little lightning
round is just pick some stories from the entire
year that... I think are really cool scientific
advancements that give me some hope. So these
are in no particular order and they didn't even
all happen recently necessarily, but they all
happened this year. And it's important to remember
that good stuff still happens. So with that said,
lightning round! For the first time ever in the
first half of 2025, renewable energy produced
more energy than coal. worldwide. This is led
in part by China and Australia who have been
making massive strides in solar production. It
is genuinely getting to the point that energy
companies seem to be spooked at the idea of too
much energy production, making it not profitable.
There was a lot of drama around Nobel prizes
this year, but I want to talk about one of the
recipients in the in the chemistry sector. A
small team of scientists created a device that
is capable of extracting potable water from desert
air using nothing but ambient sunlight. like
hundreds of liters of water per day, drinkable
water, just using ambient sunlight and whatever
else is available. That's incredible. In the
field of HIV research, we are inching ever closer
to an actual cure for HIV. I'm not going to say
we're right there, but there was a really cool
advancement this year using mRNA. mRNA, you know,
it came into the public consciousness when the
COVID vaccine started to roll out. It can do
a lot of cool shit. And one of the cool shit
it can do is essentially make its way into the
white blood cells of a person to convince that
white blood cell to narc on HIV. So, like, HIV
hides in white blood cells, and it's difficult
to find, it's difficult to target. They essentially
use it to camouflage themselves. But researchers
found a way to devise some mRNA and bundle it
in such a way that it can get through the white
blood cells, and it reprograms them to reveal
the HIV. Now, because mRNA goes away pretty quickly,
it doesn't create a lasting effect, that's just
not how it works. So it can temporarily just
help target HIV. There's not really a next step
yet. Here it's more of like a, ooh, this opens
up a new avenue, but that's rad. More biology.
Hoo -ha! Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University
may have found a new alternative to how we currently
approach antibacterial stuff. So there's a huge
problem in the world of medicine about, like,
bacterial resistance, where if you use that antibacterial
soap that's like, oh, it kills 99 .9 % of bacteria,
guess what? That .01? Coming back with a vengeance.
We are essentially speeding along the process
of natural selection to make bacteria resistant.
tube antibacterials. But these researchers have
found a new way to target the bacteria that doesn't
just kill it, but essentially deactivates it.
This could be huge. Bacterial resistance is a
massive problem. So that's pretty exciting. And
finally, this is not a scientific advancement,
but I think it's just as important. This year
in California, the indigenous Yurok tribe completed
the largest land back deal in California's history.
I flubbed the reading here and it was supposed
to be California. I said American in California
history. Still a big deal. They were fighting
for 23 years to reclaim some 73 square miles
of land. That is 47 ,000 acres. I cannot conceptualize
acres, or square miles, or time. They got back
a bunch of ancestral land that has culturally
significant landmarks on it, and largely it's
just, it's a major milestone. I think that we
could do with a bit more of Do It Right by the
Indigenous folks. that we've got here. I don't
know. I could think of a few more steps we could
take. Thank you so much for listening to today's
episode of Stuff Keeps Happening. Head to skh
.news for sources, bonus content, and a two month
extension on the end of the year to finish up
all the things that you meant to be doing. My
name is Endeavorance. We'll talk again soon.
Take care and be well.