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Hi, I'm Frank Kudla.

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And I'm Jaan Keppler.

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And this is the Two Minds, One Journey podcast.

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Your weekly stop to hear relatively ordinary people, ramble, rant, discuss everything from

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arts and sciences to current affairs and politics.

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We don't think of ourselves as controversial, I guess who doesn't.

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But we do have opinions, not all of which will be warmly greeted universally and not

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always that agree with each other.

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That's the Two Minds.

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We've been in a common journey now for over two decades.

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It could be a need for self-validation or sheer hubris, but we thought we might have

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something to say and share.

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If we're lucky, something original will occasionally come through the mics.

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And experience loses much of its value if it's not shared, so hang on.

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That's good.

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Before we go any further, I want to address the question, why, without any broadcasting

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or podcasting experience, and no background in journalism would we try to launch a podcast?

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Well, I'll be the first to admit, and I think Jen would agree, we've gotten out in front

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of our skis on this one.

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We felt that the middle needed a voice.

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Today so much is extremely polarized with everything being black or white.

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There are extremist shouting at the top of their lungs, while there's a massive quiet

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majority in the center that sees shades of gray but lacks a voice.

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Hopefully we can be that voice.

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Okay, that's the noble reason we give for starting this adventure.

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The truth is that the genesis of two minds, one journey, is a simple discussion, one evening,

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about a week ago.

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Jen still works while I'm retired.

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At the end of the workday, Jen likes to sit and unwind before dinner, and I'm anxious

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to talk to anyone that'll listen.

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This is some politics are our primary topics.

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This night the focus was on a certain controversial political figure.

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We have differing points of view on this person, but in talking we realized we agreed on much

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more than we disagreed.

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Jen blurted out, we should have a podcast.

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What I heard was, you can buy podcasting equipment.

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I love tech gadgets.

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Without much thought, I was on Amazon buying books and podcasting, then on the B&H app

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buying microphones, headphones, adapters, and cables.

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We were committed, or as Jen said, we should be committed.

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I do have to let Jen know this.

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I've been keeping it quiet most of the day, but I got a little bit enthusiastic.

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It might have been irrational on my spending last night.

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I put a deposit down on a time share in Gaza.

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Oh my gosh.

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Yes, yes.

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So we're back fresh from a trip to Trader Joe's this morning.

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Jen's idea was to go on Super Bowl Sunday.

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It wouldn't be that busy.

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It'd be the one day we'd actually be able to get a parking space.

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We actually did.

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We got a real Rockefeller right outside the front door.

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The store was not particularly busy.

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We loved Trader Joe's.

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It was a good way to kick off the day.

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Absolutely.

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I don't know if you want to dive in real deep right away or not, but I was thinking we'd

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talk a little bit about the topic that seems to be at the top of the news.

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I watched the Sunday morning news shows this morning.

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I was talking about the voluntary deferred resignation.

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That's what it is.

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It's a deferred resignation where you get eight months of pay if you stop working and

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they offer it to most of the government employees.

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And apparently about 65,000 people have taken it.

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I wanted to ask Jen because she's still working.

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If she had the opportunity to take such a deal, would she take a deal like that now?

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Or would you take a deal like that?

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No, I actually wouldn't because I want to work for longer than that.

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So I mean, yeah, I would not accept that.

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Yeah, well, my theory in this too is that it was a little bit hand-handed.

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Jen has a different opinion.

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Well, I should actually speak to Jen rather than just speaking to the audience.

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But I feel that the good people are the ones that took it because they can easily get jobs

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and they can double up on their salary for that eight months.

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But I know you feel it differently.

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Yeah, I do.

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I mean, to me, it seems logically, I think if you were concerned that you would potentially

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be losing your job through the process of the going through Doge and all that stuff,

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that I definitely take the money and run, at least you get like eight months' worth

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of severance.

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So it seems to me it's people who probably feel like they're not going to be around for

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the long term.

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Yeah, yeah, I still think they should have offered it in a selective or meritorious way.

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They should have offered it to the people that they wanted to get rid of and not necessarily

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offered to the people that they should be keeping.

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Just offering it to everybody across the board, you run the risk of losing the guy that knows

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how to turn the lights on.

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Well, yeah, I mean, and that's kind of my concern with the whole thing is just, it seems

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like it's more of a numbers game.

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Like how many people can you get to accept this versus you have departments that are

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some are more productive than others, some are more mission critical than others, and

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focusing that way.

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So it's, yeah, it is rather haphazard.

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Yeah, and I think everything else they're doing, they're kind of using a cleaver rather

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than a scalpel and assessing things first.

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Unless they did pre-assessments before he came into office, I don't think they would

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have had access to all that information.

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You wouldn't, yeah, I don't know, you wouldn't think so.

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No, I think they're just, like you said, it's just a game of numbers.

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They've said a percentage and said they're going to cut this much, and they're just cutting

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this much, whatever, whatever.

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And we'll find out how good or bad that is long term.

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Yeah, I'm eager to find out whether one of our daughters works for the USDA started about,

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oh gosh, about eight or nine months ago.

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So she's a relatively new employee, and so far she's been safe.

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Her department hasn't, she hasn't gotten the letter, but I'm a little bit worried about

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the cutbacks.

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I haven't heard them go after the USDA yet, but.

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Well, at least she got in before they put the freeze on hiring, actually.

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Yeah, I guess with the freeze on hiring, yes, she'd have no, she would have had no opportunity

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to put her degree to use.

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Yeah.

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The other thing that bothers me is, it seems like everything is being labeled that they're

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getting rid of, or what they're doing for the sake of, is that they're eliminating fraud.

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And in some cases, sure, there can be fraud, and I'm sure there is, with different services

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and stuff, but it just seems like everything is being identified as fraud, which would

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be something that someone's doing intentionally, and not getting rid of redundancies, or cutting

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out some of the fat that's in government.

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And I think if it wasn't labeled as fraud so much, it would be maybe less upsetting for

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some people, because it just seems like they're, you know, not necessarily doing something

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wrong, there's just redundancies.

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Well, I think one of the things by calling it fraud you can do is then you can point

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a finger, because somebody did something wrong.

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I could see there being fraud in Medicare, or some fraud in Social Security, I'm sure

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there's a few people that do more than just bend the rules, but I don't think it's really

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that widely spread.

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I think there are things that we shouldn't spend money on that we do spend money on,

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but that's not fraud.

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That's just a bad legislative decisions.

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Right.

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And it's like this is making it more, you know, and good versus evil kind of thing.

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So I think it makes the, maybe the folks going through it feel a little bit more virtuous,

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because they're weeding out fraud, and that have been perpetrated on the American public

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when that's not necessarily the case.

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Yeah.

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In all cases.

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I think you're right.

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I think fraud is being spread around.

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They're painting with a very, very broad brush.

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But we'll see how it turns out.

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I don't totally disagree with the direction that they're going in and where they want

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to get to.

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I do believe there is a lot of fat in government.

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I think when they get to the DOD, they'll find quite a bit, although I'm conflicted

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about having Elon take a look at the DOD, because he's got billions of dollars of contracts

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with them for SpaceX and his satellite program.

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So I'm not sure if he's really the best watchdog to have.

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His checks will get cut first, and then everybody else gets paid.

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Yeah, right.

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And everybody else will get let go.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So I have to screw with what we're going on.

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I just have concerns about how they're doing it, because I just think it's being done really

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heavy-handedly.

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Right.

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And very quickly.

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And obviously, there was a lot of preparation before the inauguration and everything, especially,

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you can tell by the executive orders, the amount.

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And it just kind of feels like throwing a bunch of against the wall.

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And they'll end up seeing what sticks are.

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In some cases, it could be, I think you even mentioned this earlier, it could be subterfuge

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that they're trying to look shiny over here doing certain things like USAID while a lot

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of other stuff is happening.

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So I have issues with the personalities, and I know you know that, and you don't necessarily.

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And it's not that I disagree with all the policies either.

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It just doesn't seem like there's a lot of oversight.

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Yeah.

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No, it's a little bit concerning.

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Like I said, I've got to agree with the direction.

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I just am concerned about the methodology that's going into it and how they're doing

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it.

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But I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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It looks like a lot of this is going to come down to the courts.

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And it seems like the legislative branch, Congress, has been neutered.

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They just, the report, has been brought.

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That's a nice way of putting it.

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Neuter, a nice way?

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Yeah, it's a nice way of putting it.

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Yeah, well, they've been, yeah.

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That's what it really has happened.

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And so the judicial branch is the only one that's really pro-riding guardrails for this.

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And I know there's been a number of rulings at the lower court levels, mostly in liberal

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districts.

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I think that's where they filed most of these, the attorneys general filed most of the suits.

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But things have been put on hold, which, until they review the information a little bit more

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deeply.

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Most of the stuff is going to end up in the hands of the Supreme Court, which of course

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was stacked when Trump was the 45th president of the United States.

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So I mean, it almost seems like it was a master plan to me to get the judiciary lined up first

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time around and then second time around, push the gray areas of the law.

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And I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

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I was just, it's just one of those things that just came to me.

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No, no, but I mean, that makes sense because it's the three branches are executive, legislative,

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and judicial.

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So yeah, legislative or a bunch of weenies and executive is going 100 miles an hour.

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And then the judicial, I don't know.

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But whatever happens, at least things are going to change.

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And there are going to be things that get done.

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And I'm sure a lot of them are going to be good.

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Yeah, I think there are going to be some good things.

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I think the declaration, or not the declaration, what is an executive order?

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Getting males or biological males from participating in women's sports.

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I think that was a good thing.

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It seems like the NCAA has agreed with that and is taking steps.

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And I mean, if there's some schools that still want to do that, that's fine.

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They're just not going to get federal funding.

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I think it's Title IX.

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So I think that's a good one.

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I was just wondering, with the number of executive orders that were written, who actually, or

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was signed, who writes those things?

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I mean, they can't just be one page.

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I know he looks like he's signing just one page in the book.

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But that can't be the entire executive order.

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Well, you'd hope not.

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I don't know.

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He uses like a big crayon or a Sharpie to sign him.

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So yeah, maybe it is more than one page.

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But oh yeah, they clearly had a favorite.

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Whatever.

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Yeah, we're prepared for this and had them written up almost as if there was a game plan

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book.

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Yeah.

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I wonder what that would have been.

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Well, I do want to apologize for the sound.

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We haven't gotten our studio set up correctly.

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We'll invest a little bit more in some equipment if Jan permits it.

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But we'll get better at the, well, the content might make it better.

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I think Jan said that.

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The content might not get better.

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But the sound will get better.

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So if you can put up with it the first time, hopefully it'll be more enjoyable the next

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time.

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Yeah.

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So I think we've pissed enough people off for the day.

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We'll be back next week.

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I think we're going to be talking about AI.

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We have to do a little bit of research on it.

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That's obviously the other hot topic with deep search.

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Was it deep search?

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Not deep seek.

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Deep seek.

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Deep seek.

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Yeah.

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Kind of upset the market.

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So we could go, but we'll have some, we'll have some thoughts on that next week.

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And in the meantime, have a great Valentine's Day.

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And I hope your team won the Super Bowl.