Cole is diving into the evolving landscape of the value4value model in podcasting, particularly focusing on recent changes with Alby and its impact on podcasting apps. Throughout the episode, Cole invites listeners to engage with the AMERICAPLUS community, offering feedback and suggestions on the topics of V4V and DOGE. He concludes with a song from Grieve the Astronaut.
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Cole McCormick:
Is value for value dying? What's up, everyone? It's America Plus. I'm your host, Cole McCormick. It's another week, another episode. What's going on, everybody? Beautiful week to be here. Happy to see all of you here. Welcome to another beautiful episode of America Plus. We're talking about innovation, people. We're talking about the innovative systems happening in America and the world, dude. And we got a lot to talk about today. I just okay. Here's a quick breakdown. I wanna tell a quick story of what I did today, then we're gonna get into the value for value news. There's been some changes going on within the value verse, as some would say, with Alby and, you know, what's gonna happen with that? What's gonna happen with all the apps who are connected to Alby? And then, if it fits in, I'll talk about Doge.
Doge. Doge is saving the world. We're saving America. So we'll see how that goes. Okay. So first things first. I'm recording this right now. Okay. It's it's currently 10:27 in the PM. I am sitting in beautiful, sunny Arizona. It's nighttime right now. But, beautiful, sunny Arizona, visiting my family, for the American holiday known as Thanksgiving. And, come on, dude. The fuck? To this okay. It didn't it didn't stop recording. Okay. Sorry. I I had a pop up on my on my computer. I had a I'm in Arizona for Thanksgiving and, early Thanksgiving. I'm working for Thanksgiving week and, like, Thanksgiving day. I'm working on the freaking holiday, which is super annoying.
But, you know what? Just it just works. So I'm here early. I leave tomorrow, afternoon. I was able to be here for the weekend, which is super nice, and, you know, it's just one of those things. I'm a freaking adult. I live out of state. I gotta come here when I need to. So we're just in a different phase in life, dude, since my dad died. And, you know, so this is my second time coming home since my dad died, and I just wanna give a brief story of what I did today. The first time I visited, we went to Mexico, and it was like a fun trip and weird trip, you know, because my dad wasn't there.
And this one, this Thanksgiving weekend, you know, this is the first holiday, the first, like, real holiday without my dad. And so I wasn't sure what the vibes are would be going in. I'm not everyone is going through the grieving process on their own. So me, personally, I just wanna be with my family. I just wanna just be private. You know? I really don't care about hanging out with anyone else. I don't care about seeing someone. I really just wanna be with my family. I wanna be with my sisters and my nephew, and and just hang out with my mom. I wanna talk to my mom, be with my sisters, and play with my nephew. Just like, if he wants to wrestle, we'll we will wrestle. If he wants to go do something, we'll do it. You know? It's just just all in the family. You know? Just family focused.
And my sister invited me to go hiking today. And, where I'm from in Arizona, we got a mountain, a legit mountain, called Superstition Springs Mountain, and there's this famous hike. It's it's like the hardest hike in the area. It's called Flat Iron. Flat Iron. Hang on. Flat Iron. Do you ever hike Flat Iron? Have you ever have you ever heard of this trail? It's, like, super niche. It's a super Arizona niche trail. It's a really good trail. You literally ascend a mountain. It's awesome. It's like I think the mountain's like 3,000 feet high. It's a or, like, 2,000 feet. I don't know. It's something like that. It's it's a it's a good mountain to climb, And, I'd never done it with my sister before, or sisters, I should say. At first, it was gonna be just, like, me and my one sister, but then my other sister wanted to chime in. She was like, yeah. And then, some some friends of ours wanted to do it. I was like, okay. Let's do it then. Like, it's not totally in the family, but, like, I'm still for it because they're good people.
And so I was like, alright. Like, let let's do it. Let's go to Flatiron. And that's what we did. We woke up early this morning at 6 AM, left at 6:30, and took like 45 minutes to get there. And, it takes it's a 3 mile hike up and then a 3 mile hike down. Okay? So, like, usually, it's like an hour per mile. So 6 hour hike in total, and that's what it was for us, and it was just beautiful to be there. You know? I just wanna put a spotlight on the mountain, and how godly nature is, and how just calm I am when I come to Arizona. You know, even when my dad was dying.
You know, Arizona's home. It's where I grew up, so maybe this is just connected to just hometown stuff. But, you know, just Arizona in general, like, I feel calm here, and I feel good here. There's solace here. And that and that's what I was thinking about on the mountain while I was going up and going down. I just feel good. I feel like Arizona's good. There's solace here. You know, just peace here. And at the same time, I just feel drawn to not live there, which is so interesting. Like, I feel compelled to live in California. I feel compelled to stay in to stay out there, but I was able to acknowledge, like or I guess acknowledge and differentiate, because I've been sort of struggling with figuring out, you know, do I move back? You know, do I move back home? And I remember when I first moved to to, to LA, a friend of mine who was a former mentor, but then, like, the mentor thing stopped, and then we sort of just became friends. When I first moved out to LA, he was like, you need to burn your boats, Cole. If you're serious about being here, if you're serious about your dream, you need to burn your boats.
And I was like, what does that mean? I was like, what are you talking about? I drove here. Like, what do you what do you mean? And, he was just talking about, like, mentally, you know. Just mentally don't give yourself an out. Don't give yourself a way to go back home. And, you know, the, you know, the the context, you know, it's pre pandemic. I just moved out. It's literally 2017. Like, it's like the hype the hype train is real, like, in the world. Like, everyone's moving at like, I was 20 years old, and I'm like, yeah. You know, I'm never like, fuck Arizona. Fuck this place. And and now I'm just like, you know, I like this place. This place is nice. This place is, like, this place has life.
So I've been struggling with with, like, figuring that out, but today, I was able to realize, you know, Arizona is just peaceful to to be here for for a minute. Arizona is peaceful to visit, and there is value in it. And, you know, maybe one day, I will move back here, but that opportunity is just not here. That instinct is not present, and, you know, long story short, like, I guess I'm just staying in LA. Like, that's just like a personal thing for me. Like, I'm just staying in LA indefinitely. And I'm just I'm I just keep on trucking. I just keep on moving on. So, that's the story. I I I had a beautiful time with my sisters. I had a beautiful time with our friends. We went up to the top of the mountain. We got some sick photos.
And I just it was just very healing. It felt very healing, and I feel very calm right now. And so I'm just very thankful for that. You know, there's they say the spiritual people say, mountains are alive. You know, you don't need to believe that. But I think everyone can agree that there is something special about there's something about climbing a mountain. You know, like, why is Mount Everest such a big deal? You know, like, why is the height Is it really the height of Mount Everest that makes it a big deal? Or is there something else? Is there an essence to Mount Everest? Is there an essence to these places, to these peaks?
You know, I've I'm going to believe that. And so Superstition Springs is a very unique place. And so shout out to that mountain. Shout out to the mountains in the world, baby. Beautiful big titty, big mountains don't fall out of the sky, you know. Whatever. Yeah. Beautiful day. Okay. Let's get into the main story. Okay. So we gotta talk about value for value. Okay? And everyone's been talking about this. This has been on the podcasting 2.0 stuff. It's been talked about on the Mere Mortals podcast with Kyren and Juan. It's been talked about a lot of changes are happening, and the entire conversation is happening right now.
Albie is shutting down their lightning wallet, and they're they want everyone to move towards their Albie hub, which long story short, I see 0 value in doing. I see 0 fucking value in moving into Albi hub. Why the hell am I gonna spend 10,000 satoshis to be able to receive and send sats. Like, what the fuck is this service? I literally can't tell you, dude. I can't explain what Albie Hub is good for. So I can connect to different apps. Anyway, that's not the story. The story is Albie's ending their wallet. Most modern podcasting apps connect to Albie. Okay? And this has always been a fear of, like, you know, Albie is centralized, and so what's gonna happen if they change something or they shut down?
And everyone's like, no. No. No. Don't worry about it. It's fine. It's Albie. Albie's good. They like us. We like them. It's Albie. And, you know, long story short, like, the whole thing just crumbled, and now we, like, we gotta make a pivot. Like, v for v apps, value for value stuff needs to make a pivot. I got an Albie wallet that's about to be shut down, which is no dude. It's absolutely no good. So I gotta figure that out, and I don't know how to. I don't know how to. What's the right wallet to go to? How are podcasting apps going to adjust? And the larger discussion is what is value for value? And how does value for value move forward, as a system? And that's for every podcaster to decide for their own. And, Kyren and Juan on the Mere Mortals, you know, they were sort of discussing definitions and, what other shows do and and and and things like this. And pretty much value for value, this is a relationship between the podcaster and the audience, and the best example is No Agenda and Adam Curry and John c Dvorak. You know, they have relationships with their audience.
They have people doing specific tasks for their podcast. People have made the No Agenda website for value for value. People have made the art generator and the art for value for value. Everything affiliated with the show, except for the newsletter, is produced by a producer via Value For Value, and no other podcast is doing this. Value For Value in the podcasting 2 point o space is directly connected to Bitcoin. And while maybe we can all agree that it's that that, technically, value for value is not tied to Bitcoin. Within the podcasting 2 point o space, it is.
Fountain is the most popular podcasting 2 point o app. Fountain gives you a Bitcoin wallet. Value for value is directly connected to Bitcoin. Like, these things are intrinsically connected because of the truths in front of us. What are the most popular apps? The most popular apps are the ones that give you a wallet. Okay? And what we've seen with these apps is there have been some apps that have been leaning deeper into the Bitcoin realm, and, and tied to the Bitcoin realm is Nostr. And so Fountain has gotten deeper into Nostr. Wave Lake is a Nostr client as well, and I, myself, am a Nostr. So, like, if if you wanna be on that, follow me.
But what I'm saying is Fountain and Waverly, they're not just trying to be their own app that has a Bitcoin wallet where you can send SaaS to each other. They wanna be connected to a larger network, and they like Bitcoin, and the philosophy of Bitcoin, extends into Nostra. And so that's why I'm into it, and and there's evolution there. And oh my god. Can I just dude, I keep getting this freaking pop up? Do you want your iPhone to be a microphone? No. How do I stop this pop up, dude? I literally I updated my computer, and I can't shut my computer up for the freaking life of me to ask. I have this does do not disturb not happen? Does I have do not disturb on. Why are you giving me pop ups, dude? I never want to be disturbed. What is the point of this freaking it's on. I I want it on forever, dude. Good gore. I'm sorry.
And and then it looks like the audio is pausing. So if if this is glitching out, it's because of this pop up. So I'm sorry. Anyway, there's certain Bitcoin apps in the value for value space that have expanded their their efforts into a larger network known as Nostr. There's other apps that connected themselves to a centralized service, and they're gonna have to make a pivot. And so right off the bat, you know, it's possible if these and those apps are, you know, it's it's Podverse, it's is it Cast O Matic? It's Podcast Guru.
If these apps love Bitcoin so much, do they make a shift to Nostr? And do they try to just be more a part of that? And do they provide a lightning wallet themselves? This this also goes into another question of, how do we pitch value for value? What is value for value? Like, what needs to happen? Like, can value for value include dollars? You know? And and this goes back to my my most recent episode, on number 139 with Zach Mahoney, the founder of IndieHub. You know? He's using Bitcoin Lightning as the as the payment structure to repipe Hollywood, to repipe the entire financial side of how movies and TV shows are made, and which is admirable, and I and I'm a part of it.
But if there's podcast apps that aren't able to, like, connect a wallet, is is this other service able to connect a wallet? Is IndieHub in trouble too? Because, you know, you sort of wanna hook up your Albie to IndieHub, or you wanna hook up your your Albie to to to these other sites, and it's just not it it seems not worth it. AlbieHub just doesn't seem worth it, and there needs to be a new thing. There needs to be a new way, and the whole reason for Bitcoin, the whole reason to use Bitcoin was because of the microtransactions and the ease ease.
Okay. I'm gonna click this thing. Do not show me ever again, dude. Oh my goodness. Don't use. Do not show me ever again. I'm sorry. It keeps distracting me. Podcasters are going to have to extend themselves into a different area, and Bitcoin itself is I mean, the price is rising. The price of Bitcoin is rising, and there's a theory going around. I'm not sure if it's true yet, but there's a theory going around where if the price of Bitcoin goes higher, people will not want to spend their Bitcoin. People will not want to send their sats to podcasters, and musicians, and people, and so on.
So if that's true, that means that the higher Bitcoin goes, the less Sats moving through Lightning decrease. So that's a matter of time. We're gonna have to see. We're gonna have to wait and see on that one. You know? If if Fountain is experiencing less Satoshis being ran through, then that's an indicator. You know? I don't know if that's true. I'm just saying, like, that is an indicator if that theory is correct. I don't think it is because if the price of Bitcoin keeps going up, that means Bitcoin is valuable. If Bitcoin is valuable, you're gonna wanna use it for things for other things that are valuable. You know?
People talk about buying Bitcoin with a car. I'm sorry. People talk about buying a car with Bitcoin because the price of a car in Bitcoin goes down. Does that mean the price of like, the value of my podcast is going down in Bitcoin? Like, the biggest boost I've ever gotten is, like, 50,000 sats or something or, like, I don't know. I I forget the exact number. But does that mean, like, the highest amount of sats that I'll be getting lowers, but the value of that sat of those individual sats are are bigger? You know? Like, there's this fluctuation conversation that needs to happen, which is purely on time.
So there's the Bitcoin side, there's, like, the network side of what the apps are connected to, and then there's the relationship side between the podcaster and the listener. And so what needs to happen is for the people that are early adopters for podcasting 2 point o, who saw the value in connecting these decentralized entities, Bitcoin and RSS and value for value. These are all decentralized. There needs to be more emphasis on the relationship between you and the audience. That is the only way to move forward. The reason I say that is because we're not in charge of Bitcoin.
I'm literally not in charge of Lightning. I'm not in charge of these things. There's no I'm not in charge of what Trump does with Bitcoin. I'm not in charge of what of what BlackRock or MicroStrategy does with Bitcoin. I'm simply not in charge of these things. I'm not in charge of Strike. I'm not in charge of Alby. All I can do is look at what's on my screen and make a choice to to what to do. And I've been really focused on the Bitcoin side, and, like, wanting Bitcoin, getting Bitcoin. I for me, personally, America Plus, I wanted I want America Plus to be the best thing. I want it to be a hard asset.
Like, if America Plus is is a hard asset, then I should be receiving a hard asset in return of that value. You know? That that is, like, how I think of it. That's how I want to think of it. But I think I need to begin to be more specific with what I'm looking for, from producers and from people who listen to the show, and for people who wanna donate, and people who wanna help out. You know. And whenever this discussion comes up and they even said it on the mere mortals, you know, immediately, Kyren went into, like, oh, we're a charity now. We're a charity. We accept checks. We're a charity. It's like, I don't know, dude. Like, the bank accepts checks. Is the bank a charity? Like like, just because you accept checks doesn't mean that you are a charity. And you don't have like, why is a charity bad? You know?
There I think we just need to lean into the barter system. I think, when it comes to people who are into Bitcoin, I think there's a level of worshiping money that is unhealthy, and that goes for Adam Curry as well. That goes for all the Christians who are into Bitcoin, and for all the non religious people who are into Bitcoin. You know, there is a worshiping of money when it comes to this thing, and that's something I've been identifying. Maybe I'm totally off on that viewpoint. We'll see if anyone attacks me for saying that, but if you love Bitcoin, and if you think Bitcoin is gonna change the world, and if you think Bitcoin is the only way to fix things, you know, I I'm mostly aligned with you, but I'm not about to, like, give my whole life to this thing because I'm not in charge of it. How am I supposed to give my give my entire life to a thing that I have 0 influence on. Like, what?
Like, that doesn't make any sense. So what do you think of that? Like, am I off in my thinking? I guess, long story short, maybe value for value needs to move away from Bitcoin, but that's on a podcaster individual level. You know? Bitcoin needs to be like the little club. Like, does Bitcoin need to be like the main thing that shows like, that your show is valuable? You know? And if you want it to be that, there are platforms and apps that allow you to go deeper into that. You know? Because that's why I'm on Nostr. Like, I I I when when Fountain integrated Nostr, I was like, you know what? Let's just try this out. Like, let's see what what this is about.
And when I first logged on, I was like, okay. So I don't have any of my followers. Like, I have very few followers. I need more followers. There's this thing called Zaps. If I make a good post, I can get a zap. And so I gotta, like, go back and forth between a few different apps to make new connections. And so the like, that is how I'm thinking for the Bitcoin side. Like, I need to for me personally, I guess what I'm saying is I'm going deeper into the Bitcoin side, and I wanna go deeper into the relationship side with you, the listener. I want the producer, the America Plus Producers, to do some innovation and to be a part of this to be a part of this project. Like, America Plus is a project. It's a discussion.
I do my best to bring to bring discussions of of innovation and of things that are helpful for society, and, you know, and I want people to be a part of that. I want friends like that. I want producers like that. And so I don't have, like, I guess I can copy no agenda. I can ask one of you to make me a website. But, like, is that the right thing to do? I don't know. Like, maybe that's an issue with me with not having, like, a firm mission, you know, because no agenda. Like, they deconstruct media. Like, they can explain no agenda in one sentence.
Cool. What's America Plus about? It's about like, I talk about, like, narratives, and I talk about, like, things that I think are, like that need to be, like, healthier, and I am like, it's not a mission. It's maybe I need to be more specific about my mission. And then when I'm more specific about what I'm doing, I could be more specific with what I want from you, with what I need from you. And then maybe things will start clicking, you know. Maybe people will start understanding, and people will start engaging a bit more. So that's a rough idea.
Follow me on Noster. Noster seems to be a better place, like a healthier place than other social medias. You know? I'm I I still pay for Twitter. I paid for the blue check. The blue check has helped me out, like, just with my own personal network of people, so I I I see value in that. I'm not getting paid from Twitter, dude. I'm not this a I'm not Tiffany Fong. I'm not getting retweeted from Elon. I'm not, like I'm just, like it seems there seems to be a a very specific way to make money on Twitter, and I'm just not in that lane. And I gotta figure out my own lane. You know, that's just the truth for my life. I need to figure out my own lane.
Like, every time I try to be mainstream, every time I try to be, like, with the crowd, I get not I don't wanna say screwed over, but I just get, like, I'm it just doesn't work. Does anyone else feel that way? They it just doesn't vibe. And so I wanna carve my value for value lane, in a way that is more specific. I need to be more specific. So maybe America Plus accepts checks. Maybe America Plus, Desmarvaertring. Maybe I can have one of you wash my car. I don't know. Maybe I should wash your car. You know, that's value for value. So what do you think of that? I I need input on this. I need to know what you think on this because this is an important topic. It's an ongoing discussion.
And clearly, because no agenda is the gold standard for value for value, I think we should do more into, like, replicating that. You know, if what's the what's the philosophy or, like, what's the way like, if it's if you can replicate it, then it's good. Right? Or is that right? Like, if it's there's something about replicating things, and if you're able to replicate the experiment, then it's true. Is that correct as well? Am I thinking correctly on that? If if if you're within, like, the scientific world, if you replicate an experiment and you get the same result, that means that the theory is correct. Correct?
So if value for value is correct, I need to replicate value for value. I need to replicate the most successful thing, the experiment of no agenda. So maybe I should make a list of things that I need, and to actually make a mission, for America Plus, and that is, you know, getting more it's it's malleable. You know? It it it is becoming more and more a part of the system, man. So tell me what you think of that. I I'm really interested in that. I need to know, and, we're gonna figure out together as a team, as a community. You understand? As a community.
It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Talking about value for value, let's talk about, let's talk about the Boostagrams, dude. Whoops. Let's talk about What? The Boostagrams, everybody. America Plus is a value for value show where I accept Bitcoin, from a few people who feel like doing it. Let me go to my Gmail real quick. I should have had this opened up a while ago. I'm gonna read the Boostagrams from last week. Now here's the other thing about value for value. I I record this video on my phone, and I need to go to my email, and I type in Albie.
There's no other way for me to look at the boostograms on the interwebs than to go to my email and type in Albie into my inbox, and then I gotta sort through all this stuff. And so let's see what we got here. So most of these Boostagrams are for meme. We got a Boostagram from Pies. This first one comes in from him, and he he he sends in 4 a 120 sats. It's a bunch of emojis. This is on the conversation with Zac Mahoney. He sends in beers, cheer, mushroom, rocket ship, moon, strength, America equals up. Hell, yeah, dude. I freaking love PS. Boost. Thank you, PS. You're awesome, man. You are awesome.
Another one comes in from oh, yeah. Pod Home boosted my show with a 1,000 sats. Shout out to Barry from Pod Home. I'll talk about, Pod Home right now. Barry says, boost. Boosting is loving. Oh, wait. Boost. Boost. That's a good one. Thank you, Barry. Shout out to Barry. If you didn't know this, I'm making videos for Barry. I make promotional videos for Pod Home. I set up a YouTube channel called Podcast Normie, and it's instructional videos, tutorials, and walk throughs, and explanations of what Podhome is, what podcasting is, podcasting 2.0, and I'm just doing my best to make the most entertaining videos for a podcast hosting service. So check out that YouTube channel, podcastnormie.
I'm also, just, like, posting on LinkedIn, I guess. I feel like I need to do that as well. So I this whole social media thing is so hard when you're, like, making multiple things of content. It's like, what do I post? How do I post it? What do I post? But shout out to Barry, dude. Shout out to Pod Home. I love Pod Home. And I think that is all this oh, wait. Oh, yeah. No. That that Boostagram's for me. So shout out to shout out to everyone who sent in a Boostagram. Shout out to everyone who's streaming sats. A few other people were streaming sats. I I saw Frillis streaming. I saw Shannon. Shannon sent in a boost, or she she was streaming as well.
So shout out to Shannon, and, thank you to all those people who saw value in the conversation with Zac Mahoney, dude. That was a really fun time. What do you guys think about the long conversations? Do you want 2 and a half hours for America Plus? Do you want longer? You want shorter? You know, this one's gonna be I think I'm just gonna talk for, like, another 15 minutes or so. But tell me what you think about the long episodes. Is it worth it? Am I a good interviewer? Should I look for more interviews? I definitely want to. It's just hard to set them up. You know? Especially with where I'm at, like, where I'm at in life. Like, it's hard to set up an interview, but I enjoy doing them. So let me know what you think. Comment down below. Send in a boost to gram if you want. You know, value for value is based off of time, talent, and treasure. So thank you for giving me your time, and thank you for giving me your treasure, and thank you for giving me your talent. And that talent is more of that talent will be will be coming up.
Coming up on America plus. Alright. So the last thing I wanna talk about is Doge. We need to talk about Doge. Doge is super This is like the meme gone wild, bro. Doge is So Adam Curry's criticized Doge. He doesn't think So this is Elon and Vivek. This is the Department of Governmental Efficiency. Okay? We gotta get the government more efficient. And this goes in and the reason I'm bringing this up is because it's a system. Like, the government is a system, and America Plus, we need to upgrade we didn't make these systems more efficient. So this seemed to be aligned. And there's really nothing to go off of right now because they are like, Trump's not even in office yet.
But I do have, something to share. So on Twitter, on x, I follow, Chamath Papatia, Palapapatia. And, he does these little recap tweets of, like, what he read throughout the week, and this is his recap. I put this recap tweet through 11 Labs. So this is what this is what Chamath Palip Papatea let me just go to his freak I don't wanna disrespect it because I actually like the guy, c h a. Palihapatea. Chamath Palihapatea. He does these incredible, recap posts, and I really respect it. And, I put it through 11 Labs, and this is what he was reading about, Doge.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
Elon and Vivek shared their plans to reduce the size and scope of the US federal bureaucracy. Their plan focuses on 5 main areas. First, they aim to remove regulations that Congress never explicitly authorized using recent Supreme Court decisions as legal backing. 2nd, they plan to cut the number of federal workers through workforce reductions, bypassing civil service protections by using existing reduction in force authorities rather than targeting specific employees. 3rd, they will stop federal spending that wasn't authorized by Congress, which they estimate exceeds $500,000,000,000 per year.
4th, they intend to improve cost efficiency in government procurement by conducting large scale audits of old contracts. 5th, they plan to address waste at the Department of Defense, which has a budget of more than $800,000,000,000 and has failed its 7th consecutive audit. They plan to make these changes using presidential powers granted under existing legislation rather than trying to pass new laws through congress with a goal to complete this overhaul by July 4th 2026.
[00:34:22] Cole McCormick:
So we got 18 months to figure this out. We got 18 months to achieve these five things. So, you know, the the biggest thing is the defense thing. So let me start from the bottom. The $800,000,000,000 that has that has been lost within the the Defense Department, you know, people you know, Adam Curry, no agenda will criticize Doge, specifically about the Defense Department, specifically about the military industrial complex. Do they have any leverage in reducing those those numbers, reducing the money that that that that department gets? I don't know. You know? No one really knows. This is a big experiment.
The criticism is that there have been discussions about this type of board, about this type of, agency in the government before, and nothing has come about it. You know? So people are highlighting this as just another nothing burger about getting bad money and bad bureaucracy out of the government. The military thing is the biggest one. We'll see if they can do that. You know, my opinion on this is, first of all, I don't like my tax dollars going to war. I also don't like the fact that my tax dollars are just being lost. What the fuck? What do you mean lost? What do you mean they're lost? What do you mean they, like, what do you mean what do you mean the government is failing audits? What do you mean? The money came from me. The the audit is from the money came from me. Like, what do you mean they failed the audit? Like, what do you mean the and they make announcements of sending money, 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars, 100 of 1,000,000,000 of dollars to Ukraine?
What do you mean they lost the money? What do you mean they failed the audit? They make a fucking announcement where they're sending the money. So that's a little confusing to me, but the American people have a right to know where their money's going. And if there's pushback on this topic, then that just shows you the dark entities running running defense. You know, who's in charge? How deep does the rabbit hole goal go? You know, if someone is gonna say that reducing money within the defense department is, like, immoral, then just that's just suspicious to me, dude. It's very suspicious.
And everything else that they listed, it seems pretty pretty pretty pretty good. They intend to improve cost efficiency in the government, large scale audits of of old contracts, that's important. One thing was, okay. So this is they will stop federal spending that wasn't authorized by Congress, which might exceed $500,000,000,000. But the so okay. So there's this 500,000,000,000 number and then an 800,000,000,000 number for the Defense Department. Are these two numbers connected at all? Are there entities that are authorizing spending that then gives that that then spends that money on the military.
So that'd be interesting to see if they can figure that out. But how many how many agencies are allowed to spend my tax dollars without Congress's approval? Like, that's nuts. That's nuts. We just need and and if the if the Doge if Doge is good for anything, if anything, it's transparency. It will at least ask the right questions that seek transparency. You know? I'm of the opinion right now that it if none of these things happen, you know, is that a failure of Elon Musk? Sure. But what are they going to do in the next 18 months? Because they're ending this whole this whole Doge situation on America's 250th anniversary, July 4, 2026.
If nothing comes about this, I believe at the very least, we will have first principle questions to be asked to these agencies and to these problems. And when it comes to these first principles questions about these problems, you know, that's that's very easy to send around. It's very easy to keep asking the question. It's not a issue of manipulation or misinformation or emotion. You know, if if there can be 2 people or a group of people that can ask, actually ask a real question that can be communicated to the government, you know, I believe the people have the chance to press that.
We can press the government. You know? Some people wanna say that every election is rigged, and the government doesn't care about us, and it's all bullshit, it's all stupid. You know, this is one system that I continue to believe in, the system of America. You know, the system of the American government needs to needs to be at least, like, asked the question of. You know, like, we this is an ongoing experiment. America is an experiment. And people wanna say that the experiment failed, but I'm saying we just need to ask better questions, and we need to continue to press our government. This is why I believe Trump was elected, so the people could press their their government. We could just it's a full court press, dude. Like, that's why it was a that's why the election was such a sweep.
Like, the the news said that it was gonna be, super close, but I believe that it was a sweep because the people chose to do a full court press on the fucking system, dude, and we won. We did that shit. And we'll see what happens in the next 18 months. We'll see what happens in 2 years. Like, we'll see. I don't is America crumbling? I don't think so, dude. I believe in America. I want America to be great again, and if Doge wants to MAGA if Doge wants to MAGA, I'm all for it, bro. Like, what's wrong with this? And so it's sort of when I hear Adam Curry, like, poo poo this idea, it makes me think he now, I'm so not trying to cause beef, but it makes me think he's, like, not pro America. Like, this is literally the only fucking solution to any fucking problem that America has with spending, and you're gonna criticize it because Elon makes satellites?
Like, what are you talking about? Like, oh, the guy who makes who has defense contracts is saying there's too much money being wasted on defense. Isn't that a good thing, Adam Curry? Like, what is your problem, dude? Like, I'm not trying to suck Elon's dick at all right now. I'm just saying, like, it seems like he's so autistic, he's willing to ask the right question. Like, can we remember that? Elon's fucking autistic. Like, he's not an evil guy. He's autistic. And maybe our society doesn't respect autism enough because and that's a real opinion I have. That's a real hot take. I don't think enough people respect autism.
Okay? We all wanna respect our identity. People want their fucking genders respected. People want their fucking hairline respected. But when when someone's autistic and does autistic shit, it's all of a sudden not acceptable and, like, suspicious. And that's just a that that's a brief thing. That's a like, I just think Elon's autistic, dude. Like, he's autistic. That's it. So and he's so autistic. He's making fucking things for the government. You know? There's a spiritual side to Elon Musk that I see that I think as well. I'm not sure if you guys are ready for it. Okay. I'll just say it because I because I brought it up. Have you guys heard of this theory that it it it it I'm not sure if it's a theory, but if you believe in reincarnation, there is this idea that the soul that was Nikola Tesla has reincarnated into Elon Musk, and he's doing everything the opposite way. He's doing everything, like like, just bigger and better. Like, Nikola Tesla died alone in a hotel.
Elon's dying with 50 kids around him. Nikola Tesla was criticized for his ideas, and he was pushed down by large entities. Elon Musk is criticized for his ideas for 2 months, and then all of a sudden people start respecting him. Like, his ideas are actually coming to fruition. Maybe he's a little late on some things, but this idea that Nikola Tesla is reincarnated as Elon, I really I sort of vibe with it, and there's, like, like, these little things that make me think it's real. And so this whole, like, him being him being so close to the Defense Department, along with him asking these questions about the defense department, it makes me think he's literally, like, the guy. He is the right guy for the right time.
Simple as that, dude. Simple as that. Maybe you disagree. Maybe this is the worst take of my life, but we'll see. We'll see. I just think it's important, dude. Like, Doge Maga. Doge Maga, it's a fucking meme. It's a meme that might help. What do you think about that, dude? Am I crazy? Am I going crazy? Is that do I sound stupid? People call me dumb all the time. Somebody just called me dumb on Instagram last night. I couldn't give less of a shit if you call me dumb, dude. Like, call me dumb. I don't care. At least I'm willing to have a conversation about this thing, you know, and that's the real that's my I I think that's why I sort of get defensive about people calling me dumb, or, like, maybe I get afraid of people calling me dumb, because I know I'm thinking.
I know I'm willing to talk, and I'm just so I have more balls than most people. I'm willing to put my thoughts on the line. I got my thoughts on this fucking RSS feed. Where the fuck are your thoughts, dude? Like, comment down below. Tell me. Send it to boost a gram, man. This is value for value, dawg. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But we just gotta move forward in life. We gotta move forward. We're gonna wrap up the episode right now, guys. I'm gonna play a song. This song I found this song from oh my god. I totally wait. No. I have it right here. I found the song on Wave Lake. I just vibed with it. This is an instrumental song that's gonna wrap up the episode. This is from an artist called Grieve the Astronaut.
And when it comes to value for value, I'm playing a song that's released via value via RSS feed, and I'm giving them a 90% split of your, Bitcoin Satoshi donation in a modern podcast app. That's one of the biggest innovations with Bitcoin within value for value, and I will continue to do that for as long as I'm able to. And, this Grieve the Astronaut. This song is called Painter's Moon, dude. So just hang out. Enjoy. If you're I I hope you're working out, or I hope you you wanna be in, like, a focus mood, because this shit is it, dude. Grieve the Astronaut. Painter's Moon, dude.
Enjoy That's America Plus, bitch. Stay free.
Is value for value dying? What's up, everyone? It's America Plus. I'm your host, Cole McCormick. It's another week, another episode. What's going on, everybody? Beautiful week to be here. Happy to see all of you here. Welcome to another beautiful episode of America Plus. We're talking about innovation, people. We're talking about the innovative systems happening in America and the world, dude. And we got a lot to talk about today. I just okay. Here's a quick breakdown. I wanna tell a quick story of what I did today, then we're gonna get into the value for value news. There's been some changes going on within the value verse, as some would say, with Alby and, you know, what's gonna happen with that? What's gonna happen with all the apps who are connected to Alby? And then, if it fits in, I'll talk about Doge.
Doge. Doge is saving the world. We're saving America. So we'll see how that goes. Okay. So first things first. I'm recording this right now. Okay. It's it's currently 10:27 in the PM. I am sitting in beautiful, sunny Arizona. It's nighttime right now. But, beautiful, sunny Arizona, visiting my family, for the American holiday known as Thanksgiving. And, come on, dude. The fuck? To this okay. It didn't it didn't stop recording. Okay. Sorry. I I had a pop up on my on my computer. I had a I'm in Arizona for Thanksgiving and, early Thanksgiving. I'm working for Thanksgiving week and, like, Thanksgiving day. I'm working on the freaking holiday, which is super annoying.
But, you know what? Just it just works. So I'm here early. I leave tomorrow, afternoon. I was able to be here for the weekend, which is super nice, and, you know, it's just one of those things. I'm a freaking adult. I live out of state. I gotta come here when I need to. So we're just in a different phase in life, dude, since my dad died. And, you know, so this is my second time coming home since my dad died, and I just wanna give a brief story of what I did today. The first time I visited, we went to Mexico, and it was like a fun trip and weird trip, you know, because my dad wasn't there.
And this one, this Thanksgiving weekend, you know, this is the first holiday, the first, like, real holiday without my dad. And so I wasn't sure what the vibes are would be going in. I'm not everyone is going through the grieving process on their own. So me, personally, I just wanna be with my family. I just wanna just be private. You know? I really don't care about hanging out with anyone else. I don't care about seeing someone. I really just wanna be with my family. I wanna be with my sisters and my nephew, and and just hang out with my mom. I wanna talk to my mom, be with my sisters, and play with my nephew. Just like, if he wants to wrestle, we'll we will wrestle. If he wants to go do something, we'll do it. You know? It's just just all in the family. You know? Just family focused.
And my sister invited me to go hiking today. And, where I'm from in Arizona, we got a mountain, a legit mountain, called Superstition Springs Mountain, and there's this famous hike. It's it's like the hardest hike in the area. It's called Flat Iron. Flat Iron. Hang on. Flat Iron. Do you ever hike Flat Iron? Have you ever have you ever heard of this trail? It's, like, super niche. It's a super Arizona niche trail. It's a really good trail. You literally ascend a mountain. It's awesome. It's like I think the mountain's like 3,000 feet high. It's a or, like, 2,000 feet. I don't know. It's something like that. It's it's a it's a good mountain to climb, And, I'd never done it with my sister before, or sisters, I should say. At first, it was gonna be just, like, me and my one sister, but then my other sister wanted to chime in. She was like, yeah. And then, some some friends of ours wanted to do it. I was like, okay. Let's do it then. Like, it's not totally in the family, but, like, I'm still for it because they're good people.
And so I was like, alright. Like, let let's do it. Let's go to Flatiron. And that's what we did. We woke up early this morning at 6 AM, left at 6:30, and took like 45 minutes to get there. And, it takes it's a 3 mile hike up and then a 3 mile hike down. Okay? So, like, usually, it's like an hour per mile. So 6 hour hike in total, and that's what it was for us, and it was just beautiful to be there. You know? I just wanna put a spotlight on the mountain, and how godly nature is, and how just calm I am when I come to Arizona. You know, even when my dad was dying.
You know, Arizona's home. It's where I grew up, so maybe this is just connected to just hometown stuff. But, you know, just Arizona in general, like, I feel calm here, and I feel good here. There's solace here. And that and that's what I was thinking about on the mountain while I was going up and going down. I just feel good. I feel like Arizona's good. There's solace here. You know, just peace here. And at the same time, I just feel drawn to not live there, which is so interesting. Like, I feel compelled to live in California. I feel compelled to stay in to stay out there, but I was able to acknowledge, like or I guess acknowledge and differentiate, because I've been sort of struggling with figuring out, you know, do I move back? You know, do I move back home? And I remember when I first moved to to, to LA, a friend of mine who was a former mentor, but then, like, the mentor thing stopped, and then we sort of just became friends. When I first moved out to LA, he was like, you need to burn your boats, Cole. If you're serious about being here, if you're serious about your dream, you need to burn your boats.
And I was like, what does that mean? I was like, what are you talking about? I drove here. Like, what do you what do you mean? And, he was just talking about, like, mentally, you know. Just mentally don't give yourself an out. Don't give yourself a way to go back home. And, you know, the, you know, the the context, you know, it's pre pandemic. I just moved out. It's literally 2017. Like, it's like the hype the hype train is real, like, in the world. Like, everyone's moving at like, I was 20 years old, and I'm like, yeah. You know, I'm never like, fuck Arizona. Fuck this place. And and now I'm just like, you know, I like this place. This place is nice. This place is, like, this place has life.
So I've been struggling with with, like, figuring that out, but today, I was able to realize, you know, Arizona is just peaceful to to be here for for a minute. Arizona is peaceful to visit, and there is value in it. And, you know, maybe one day, I will move back here, but that opportunity is just not here. That instinct is not present, and, you know, long story short, like, I guess I'm just staying in LA. Like, that's just like a personal thing for me. Like, I'm just staying in LA indefinitely. And I'm just I'm I just keep on trucking. I just keep on moving on. So, that's the story. I I I had a beautiful time with my sisters. I had a beautiful time with our friends. We went up to the top of the mountain. We got some sick photos.
And I just it was just very healing. It felt very healing, and I feel very calm right now. And so I'm just very thankful for that. You know, there's they say the spiritual people say, mountains are alive. You know, you don't need to believe that. But I think everyone can agree that there is something special about there's something about climbing a mountain. You know, like, why is Mount Everest such a big deal? You know, like, why is the height Is it really the height of Mount Everest that makes it a big deal? Or is there something else? Is there an essence to Mount Everest? Is there an essence to these places, to these peaks?
You know, I've I'm going to believe that. And so Superstition Springs is a very unique place. And so shout out to that mountain. Shout out to the mountains in the world, baby. Beautiful big titty, big mountains don't fall out of the sky, you know. Whatever. Yeah. Beautiful day. Okay. Let's get into the main story. Okay. So we gotta talk about value for value. Okay? And everyone's been talking about this. This has been on the podcasting 2.0 stuff. It's been talked about on the Mere Mortals podcast with Kyren and Juan. It's been talked about a lot of changes are happening, and the entire conversation is happening right now.
Albie is shutting down their lightning wallet, and they're they want everyone to move towards their Albie hub, which long story short, I see 0 value in doing. I see 0 fucking value in moving into Albi hub. Why the hell am I gonna spend 10,000 satoshis to be able to receive and send sats. Like, what the fuck is this service? I literally can't tell you, dude. I can't explain what Albie Hub is good for. So I can connect to different apps. Anyway, that's not the story. The story is Albie's ending their wallet. Most modern podcasting apps connect to Albie. Okay? And this has always been a fear of, like, you know, Albie is centralized, and so what's gonna happen if they change something or they shut down?
And everyone's like, no. No. No. Don't worry about it. It's fine. It's Albie. Albie's good. They like us. We like them. It's Albie. And, you know, long story short, like, the whole thing just crumbled, and now we, like, we gotta make a pivot. Like, v for v apps, value for value stuff needs to make a pivot. I got an Albie wallet that's about to be shut down, which is no dude. It's absolutely no good. So I gotta figure that out, and I don't know how to. I don't know how to. What's the right wallet to go to? How are podcasting apps going to adjust? And the larger discussion is what is value for value? And how does value for value move forward, as a system? And that's for every podcaster to decide for their own. And, Kyren and Juan on the Mere Mortals, you know, they were sort of discussing definitions and, what other shows do and and and and things like this. And pretty much value for value, this is a relationship between the podcaster and the audience, and the best example is No Agenda and Adam Curry and John c Dvorak. You know, they have relationships with their audience.
They have people doing specific tasks for their podcast. People have made the No Agenda website for value for value. People have made the art generator and the art for value for value. Everything affiliated with the show, except for the newsletter, is produced by a producer via Value For Value, and no other podcast is doing this. Value For Value in the podcasting 2 point o space is directly connected to Bitcoin. And while maybe we can all agree that it's that that, technically, value for value is not tied to Bitcoin. Within the podcasting 2 point o space, it is.
Fountain is the most popular podcasting 2 point o app. Fountain gives you a Bitcoin wallet. Value for value is directly connected to Bitcoin. Like, these things are intrinsically connected because of the truths in front of us. What are the most popular apps? The most popular apps are the ones that give you a wallet. Okay? And what we've seen with these apps is there have been some apps that have been leaning deeper into the Bitcoin realm, and, and tied to the Bitcoin realm is Nostr. And so Fountain has gotten deeper into Nostr. Wave Lake is a Nostr client as well, and I, myself, am a Nostr. So, like, if if you wanna be on that, follow me.
But what I'm saying is Fountain and Waverly, they're not just trying to be their own app that has a Bitcoin wallet where you can send SaaS to each other. They wanna be connected to a larger network, and they like Bitcoin, and the philosophy of Bitcoin, extends into Nostra. And so that's why I'm into it, and and there's evolution there. And oh my god. Can I just dude, I keep getting this freaking pop up? Do you want your iPhone to be a microphone? No. How do I stop this pop up, dude? I literally I updated my computer, and I can't shut my computer up for the freaking life of me to ask. I have this does do not disturb not happen? Does I have do not disturb on. Why are you giving me pop ups, dude? I never want to be disturbed. What is the point of this freaking it's on. I I want it on forever, dude. Good gore. I'm sorry.
And and then it looks like the audio is pausing. So if if this is glitching out, it's because of this pop up. So I'm sorry. Anyway, there's certain Bitcoin apps in the value for value space that have expanded their their efforts into a larger network known as Nostr. There's other apps that connected themselves to a centralized service, and they're gonna have to make a pivot. And so right off the bat, you know, it's possible if these and those apps are, you know, it's it's Podverse, it's is it Cast O Matic? It's Podcast Guru.
If these apps love Bitcoin so much, do they make a shift to Nostr? And do they try to just be more a part of that? And do they provide a lightning wallet themselves? This this also goes into another question of, how do we pitch value for value? What is value for value? Like, what needs to happen? Like, can value for value include dollars? You know? And and this goes back to my my most recent episode, on number 139 with Zach Mahoney, the founder of IndieHub. You know? He's using Bitcoin Lightning as the as the payment structure to repipe Hollywood, to repipe the entire financial side of how movies and TV shows are made, and which is admirable, and I and I'm a part of it.
But if there's podcast apps that aren't able to, like, connect a wallet, is is this other service able to connect a wallet? Is IndieHub in trouble too? Because, you know, you sort of wanna hook up your Albie to IndieHub, or you wanna hook up your your Albie to to to these other sites, and it's just not it it seems not worth it. AlbieHub just doesn't seem worth it, and there needs to be a new thing. There needs to be a new way, and the whole reason for Bitcoin, the whole reason to use Bitcoin was because of the microtransactions and the ease ease.
Okay. I'm gonna click this thing. Do not show me ever again, dude. Oh my goodness. Don't use. Do not show me ever again. I'm sorry. It keeps distracting me. Podcasters are going to have to extend themselves into a different area, and Bitcoin itself is I mean, the price is rising. The price of Bitcoin is rising, and there's a theory going around. I'm not sure if it's true yet, but there's a theory going around where if the price of Bitcoin goes higher, people will not want to spend their Bitcoin. People will not want to send their sats to podcasters, and musicians, and people, and so on.
So if that's true, that means that the higher Bitcoin goes, the less Sats moving through Lightning decrease. So that's a matter of time. We're gonna have to see. We're gonna have to wait and see on that one. You know? If if Fountain is experiencing less Satoshis being ran through, then that's an indicator. You know? I don't know if that's true. I'm just saying, like, that is an indicator if that theory is correct. I don't think it is because if the price of Bitcoin keeps going up, that means Bitcoin is valuable. If Bitcoin is valuable, you're gonna wanna use it for things for other things that are valuable. You know?
People talk about buying Bitcoin with a car. I'm sorry. People talk about buying a car with Bitcoin because the price of a car in Bitcoin goes down. Does that mean the price of like, the value of my podcast is going down in Bitcoin? Like, the biggest boost I've ever gotten is, like, 50,000 sats or something or, like, I don't know. I I forget the exact number. But does that mean, like, the highest amount of sats that I'll be getting lowers, but the value of that sat of those individual sats are are bigger? You know? Like, there's this fluctuation conversation that needs to happen, which is purely on time.
So there's the Bitcoin side, there's, like, the network side of what the apps are connected to, and then there's the relationship side between the podcaster and the listener. And so what needs to happen is for the people that are early adopters for podcasting 2 point o, who saw the value in connecting these decentralized entities, Bitcoin and RSS and value for value. These are all decentralized. There needs to be more emphasis on the relationship between you and the audience. That is the only way to move forward. The reason I say that is because we're not in charge of Bitcoin.
I'm literally not in charge of Lightning. I'm not in charge of these things. There's no I'm not in charge of what Trump does with Bitcoin. I'm not in charge of what of what BlackRock or MicroStrategy does with Bitcoin. I'm simply not in charge of these things. I'm not in charge of Strike. I'm not in charge of Alby. All I can do is look at what's on my screen and make a choice to to what to do. And I've been really focused on the Bitcoin side, and, like, wanting Bitcoin, getting Bitcoin. I for me, personally, America Plus, I wanted I want America Plus to be the best thing. I want it to be a hard asset.
Like, if America Plus is is a hard asset, then I should be receiving a hard asset in return of that value. You know? That that is, like, how I think of it. That's how I want to think of it. But I think I need to begin to be more specific with what I'm looking for, from producers and from people who listen to the show, and for people who wanna donate, and people who wanna help out. You know. And whenever this discussion comes up and they even said it on the mere mortals, you know, immediately, Kyren went into, like, oh, we're a charity now. We're a charity. We accept checks. We're a charity. It's like, I don't know, dude. Like, the bank accepts checks. Is the bank a charity? Like like, just because you accept checks doesn't mean that you are a charity. And you don't have like, why is a charity bad? You know?
There I think we just need to lean into the barter system. I think, when it comes to people who are into Bitcoin, I think there's a level of worshiping money that is unhealthy, and that goes for Adam Curry as well. That goes for all the Christians who are into Bitcoin, and for all the non religious people who are into Bitcoin. You know, there is a worshiping of money when it comes to this thing, and that's something I've been identifying. Maybe I'm totally off on that viewpoint. We'll see if anyone attacks me for saying that, but if you love Bitcoin, and if you think Bitcoin is gonna change the world, and if you think Bitcoin is the only way to fix things, you know, I I'm mostly aligned with you, but I'm not about to, like, give my whole life to this thing because I'm not in charge of it. How am I supposed to give my give my entire life to a thing that I have 0 influence on. Like, what?
Like, that doesn't make any sense. So what do you think of that? Like, am I off in my thinking? I guess, long story short, maybe value for value needs to move away from Bitcoin, but that's on a podcaster individual level. You know? Bitcoin needs to be like the little club. Like, does Bitcoin need to be like the main thing that shows like, that your show is valuable? You know? And if you want it to be that, there are platforms and apps that allow you to go deeper into that. You know? Because that's why I'm on Nostr. Like, I I I when when Fountain integrated Nostr, I was like, you know what? Let's just try this out. Like, let's see what what this is about.
And when I first logged on, I was like, okay. So I don't have any of my followers. Like, I have very few followers. I need more followers. There's this thing called Zaps. If I make a good post, I can get a zap. And so I gotta, like, go back and forth between a few different apps to make new connections. And so the like, that is how I'm thinking for the Bitcoin side. Like, I need to for me personally, I guess what I'm saying is I'm going deeper into the Bitcoin side, and I wanna go deeper into the relationship side with you, the listener. I want the producer, the America Plus Producers, to do some innovation and to be a part of this to be a part of this project. Like, America Plus is a project. It's a discussion.
I do my best to bring to bring discussions of of innovation and of things that are helpful for society, and, you know, and I want people to be a part of that. I want friends like that. I want producers like that. And so I don't have, like, I guess I can copy no agenda. I can ask one of you to make me a website. But, like, is that the right thing to do? I don't know. Like, maybe that's an issue with me with not having, like, a firm mission, you know, because no agenda. Like, they deconstruct media. Like, they can explain no agenda in one sentence.
Cool. What's America Plus about? It's about like, I talk about, like, narratives, and I talk about, like, things that I think are, like that need to be, like, healthier, and I am like, it's not a mission. It's maybe I need to be more specific about my mission. And then when I'm more specific about what I'm doing, I could be more specific with what I want from you, with what I need from you. And then maybe things will start clicking, you know. Maybe people will start understanding, and people will start engaging a bit more. So that's a rough idea.
Follow me on Noster. Noster seems to be a better place, like a healthier place than other social medias. You know? I'm I I still pay for Twitter. I paid for the blue check. The blue check has helped me out, like, just with my own personal network of people, so I I I see value in that. I'm not getting paid from Twitter, dude. I'm not this a I'm not Tiffany Fong. I'm not getting retweeted from Elon. I'm not, like I'm just, like it seems there seems to be a a very specific way to make money on Twitter, and I'm just not in that lane. And I gotta figure out my own lane. You know, that's just the truth for my life. I need to figure out my own lane.
Like, every time I try to be mainstream, every time I try to be, like, with the crowd, I get not I don't wanna say screwed over, but I just get, like, I'm it just doesn't work. Does anyone else feel that way? They it just doesn't vibe. And so I wanna carve my value for value lane, in a way that is more specific. I need to be more specific. So maybe America Plus accepts checks. Maybe America Plus, Desmarvaertring. Maybe I can have one of you wash my car. I don't know. Maybe I should wash your car. You know, that's value for value. So what do you think of that? I I need input on this. I need to know what you think on this because this is an important topic. It's an ongoing discussion.
And clearly, because no agenda is the gold standard for value for value, I think we should do more into, like, replicating that. You know, if what's the what's the philosophy or, like, what's the way like, if it's if you can replicate it, then it's good. Right? Or is that right? Like, if it's there's something about replicating things, and if you're able to replicate the experiment, then it's true. Is that correct as well? Am I thinking correctly on that? If if if you're within, like, the scientific world, if you replicate an experiment and you get the same result, that means that the theory is correct. Correct?
So if value for value is correct, I need to replicate value for value. I need to replicate the most successful thing, the experiment of no agenda. So maybe I should make a list of things that I need, and to actually make a mission, for America Plus, and that is, you know, getting more it's it's malleable. You know? It it it is becoming more and more a part of the system, man. So tell me what you think of that. I I'm really interested in that. I need to know, and, we're gonna figure out together as a team, as a community. You understand? As a community.
It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. Talking about value for value, let's talk about, let's talk about the Boostagrams, dude. Whoops. Let's talk about What? The Boostagrams, everybody. America Plus is a value for value show where I accept Bitcoin, from a few people who feel like doing it. Let me go to my Gmail real quick. I should have had this opened up a while ago. I'm gonna read the Boostagrams from last week. Now here's the other thing about value for value. I I record this video on my phone, and I need to go to my email, and I type in Albie.
There's no other way for me to look at the boostograms on the interwebs than to go to my email and type in Albie into my inbox, and then I gotta sort through all this stuff. And so let's see what we got here. So most of these Boostagrams are for meme. We got a Boostagram from Pies. This first one comes in from him, and he he he sends in 4 a 120 sats. It's a bunch of emojis. This is on the conversation with Zac Mahoney. He sends in beers, cheer, mushroom, rocket ship, moon, strength, America equals up. Hell, yeah, dude. I freaking love PS. Boost. Thank you, PS. You're awesome, man. You are awesome.
Another one comes in from oh, yeah. Pod Home boosted my show with a 1,000 sats. Shout out to Barry from Pod Home. I'll talk about, Pod Home right now. Barry says, boost. Boosting is loving. Oh, wait. Boost. Boost. That's a good one. Thank you, Barry. Shout out to Barry. If you didn't know this, I'm making videos for Barry. I make promotional videos for Pod Home. I set up a YouTube channel called Podcast Normie, and it's instructional videos, tutorials, and walk throughs, and explanations of what Podhome is, what podcasting is, podcasting 2.0, and I'm just doing my best to make the most entertaining videos for a podcast hosting service. So check out that YouTube channel, podcastnormie.
I'm also, just, like, posting on LinkedIn, I guess. I feel like I need to do that as well. So I this whole social media thing is so hard when you're, like, making multiple things of content. It's like, what do I post? How do I post it? What do I post? But shout out to Barry, dude. Shout out to Pod Home. I love Pod Home. And I think that is all this oh, wait. Oh, yeah. No. That that Boostagram's for me. So shout out to shout out to everyone who sent in a Boostagram. Shout out to everyone who's streaming sats. A few other people were streaming sats. I I saw Frillis streaming. I saw Shannon. Shannon sent in a boost, or she she was streaming as well.
So shout out to Shannon, and, thank you to all those people who saw value in the conversation with Zac Mahoney, dude. That was a really fun time. What do you guys think about the long conversations? Do you want 2 and a half hours for America Plus? Do you want longer? You want shorter? You know, this one's gonna be I think I'm just gonna talk for, like, another 15 minutes or so. But tell me what you think about the long episodes. Is it worth it? Am I a good interviewer? Should I look for more interviews? I definitely want to. It's just hard to set them up. You know? Especially with where I'm at, like, where I'm at in life. Like, it's hard to set up an interview, but I enjoy doing them. So let me know what you think. Comment down below. Send in a boost to gram if you want. You know, value for value is based off of time, talent, and treasure. So thank you for giving me your time, and thank you for giving me your treasure, and thank you for giving me your talent. And that talent is more of that talent will be will be coming up.
Coming up on America plus. Alright. So the last thing I wanna talk about is Doge. We need to talk about Doge. Doge is super This is like the meme gone wild, bro. Doge is So Adam Curry's criticized Doge. He doesn't think So this is Elon and Vivek. This is the Department of Governmental Efficiency. Okay? We gotta get the government more efficient. And this goes in and the reason I'm bringing this up is because it's a system. Like, the government is a system, and America Plus, we need to upgrade we didn't make these systems more efficient. So this seemed to be aligned. And there's really nothing to go off of right now because they are like, Trump's not even in office yet.
But I do have, something to share. So on Twitter, on x, I follow, Chamath Papatia, Palapapatia. And, he does these little recap tweets of, like, what he read throughout the week, and this is his recap. I put this recap tweet through 11 Labs. So this is what this is what Chamath Palip Papatea let me just go to his freak I don't wanna disrespect it because I actually like the guy, c h a. Palihapatea. Chamath Palihapatea. He does these incredible, recap posts, and I really respect it. And, I put it through 11 Labs, and this is what he was reading about, Doge.
[00:33:08] Unknown:
Elon and Vivek shared their plans to reduce the size and scope of the US federal bureaucracy. Their plan focuses on 5 main areas. First, they aim to remove regulations that Congress never explicitly authorized using recent Supreme Court decisions as legal backing. 2nd, they plan to cut the number of federal workers through workforce reductions, bypassing civil service protections by using existing reduction in force authorities rather than targeting specific employees. 3rd, they will stop federal spending that wasn't authorized by Congress, which they estimate exceeds $500,000,000,000 per year.
4th, they intend to improve cost efficiency in government procurement by conducting large scale audits of old contracts. 5th, they plan to address waste at the Department of Defense, which has a budget of more than $800,000,000,000 and has failed its 7th consecutive audit. They plan to make these changes using presidential powers granted under existing legislation rather than trying to pass new laws through congress with a goal to complete this overhaul by July 4th 2026.
[00:34:22] Cole McCormick:
So we got 18 months to figure this out. We got 18 months to achieve these five things. So, you know, the the biggest thing is the defense thing. So let me start from the bottom. The $800,000,000,000 that has that has been lost within the the Defense Department, you know, people you know, Adam Curry, no agenda will criticize Doge, specifically about the Defense Department, specifically about the military industrial complex. Do they have any leverage in reducing those those numbers, reducing the money that that that that department gets? I don't know. You know? No one really knows. This is a big experiment.
The criticism is that there have been discussions about this type of board, about this type of, agency in the government before, and nothing has come about it. You know? So people are highlighting this as just another nothing burger about getting bad money and bad bureaucracy out of the government. The military thing is the biggest one. We'll see if they can do that. You know, my opinion on this is, first of all, I don't like my tax dollars going to war. I also don't like the fact that my tax dollars are just being lost. What the fuck? What do you mean lost? What do you mean they're lost? What do you mean they, like, what do you mean what do you mean the government is failing audits? What do you mean? The money came from me. The the audit is from the money came from me. Like, what do you mean they failed the audit? Like, what do you mean the and they make announcements of sending money, 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars, 100 of 1,000,000,000 of dollars to Ukraine?
What do you mean they lost the money? What do you mean they failed the audit? They make a fucking announcement where they're sending the money. So that's a little confusing to me, but the American people have a right to know where their money's going. And if there's pushback on this topic, then that just shows you the dark entities running running defense. You know, who's in charge? How deep does the rabbit hole goal go? You know, if someone is gonna say that reducing money within the defense department is, like, immoral, then just that's just suspicious to me, dude. It's very suspicious.
And everything else that they listed, it seems pretty pretty pretty pretty good. They intend to improve cost efficiency in the government, large scale audits of of old contracts, that's important. One thing was, okay. So this is they will stop federal spending that wasn't authorized by Congress, which might exceed $500,000,000,000. But the so okay. So there's this 500,000,000,000 number and then an 800,000,000,000 number for the Defense Department. Are these two numbers connected at all? Are there entities that are authorizing spending that then gives that that then spends that money on the military.
So that'd be interesting to see if they can figure that out. But how many how many agencies are allowed to spend my tax dollars without Congress's approval? Like, that's nuts. That's nuts. We just need and and if the if the Doge if Doge is good for anything, if anything, it's transparency. It will at least ask the right questions that seek transparency. You know? I'm of the opinion right now that it if none of these things happen, you know, is that a failure of Elon Musk? Sure. But what are they going to do in the next 18 months? Because they're ending this whole this whole Doge situation on America's 250th anniversary, July 4, 2026.
If nothing comes about this, I believe at the very least, we will have first principle questions to be asked to these agencies and to these problems. And when it comes to these first principles questions about these problems, you know, that's that's very easy to send around. It's very easy to keep asking the question. It's not a issue of manipulation or misinformation or emotion. You know, if if there can be 2 people or a group of people that can ask, actually ask a real question that can be communicated to the government, you know, I believe the people have the chance to press that.
We can press the government. You know? Some people wanna say that every election is rigged, and the government doesn't care about us, and it's all bullshit, it's all stupid. You know, this is one system that I continue to believe in, the system of America. You know, the system of the American government needs to needs to be at least, like, asked the question of. You know, like, we this is an ongoing experiment. America is an experiment. And people wanna say that the experiment failed, but I'm saying we just need to ask better questions, and we need to continue to press our government. This is why I believe Trump was elected, so the people could press their their government. We could just it's a full court press, dude. Like, that's why it was a that's why the election was such a sweep.
Like, the the news said that it was gonna be, super close, but I believe that it was a sweep because the people chose to do a full court press on the fucking system, dude, and we won. We did that shit. And we'll see what happens in the next 18 months. We'll see what happens in 2 years. Like, we'll see. I don't is America crumbling? I don't think so, dude. I believe in America. I want America to be great again, and if Doge wants to MAGA if Doge wants to MAGA, I'm all for it, bro. Like, what's wrong with this? And so it's sort of when I hear Adam Curry, like, poo poo this idea, it makes me think he now, I'm so not trying to cause beef, but it makes me think he's, like, not pro America. Like, this is literally the only fucking solution to any fucking problem that America has with spending, and you're gonna criticize it because Elon makes satellites?
Like, what are you talking about? Like, oh, the guy who makes who has defense contracts is saying there's too much money being wasted on defense. Isn't that a good thing, Adam Curry? Like, what is your problem, dude? Like, I'm not trying to suck Elon's dick at all right now. I'm just saying, like, it seems like he's so autistic, he's willing to ask the right question. Like, can we remember that? Elon's fucking autistic. Like, he's not an evil guy. He's autistic. And maybe our society doesn't respect autism enough because and that's a real opinion I have. That's a real hot take. I don't think enough people respect autism.
Okay? We all wanna respect our identity. People want their fucking genders respected. People want their fucking hairline respected. But when when someone's autistic and does autistic shit, it's all of a sudden not acceptable and, like, suspicious. And that's just a that that's a brief thing. That's a like, I just think Elon's autistic, dude. Like, he's autistic. That's it. So and he's so autistic. He's making fucking things for the government. You know? There's a spiritual side to Elon Musk that I see that I think as well. I'm not sure if you guys are ready for it. Okay. I'll just say it because I because I brought it up. Have you guys heard of this theory that it it it it I'm not sure if it's a theory, but if you believe in reincarnation, there is this idea that the soul that was Nikola Tesla has reincarnated into Elon Musk, and he's doing everything the opposite way. He's doing everything, like like, just bigger and better. Like, Nikola Tesla died alone in a hotel.
Elon's dying with 50 kids around him. Nikola Tesla was criticized for his ideas, and he was pushed down by large entities. Elon Musk is criticized for his ideas for 2 months, and then all of a sudden people start respecting him. Like, his ideas are actually coming to fruition. Maybe he's a little late on some things, but this idea that Nikola Tesla is reincarnated as Elon, I really I sort of vibe with it, and there's, like, like, these little things that make me think it's real. And so this whole, like, him being him being so close to the Defense Department, along with him asking these questions about the defense department, it makes me think he's literally, like, the guy. He is the right guy for the right time.
Simple as that, dude. Simple as that. Maybe you disagree. Maybe this is the worst take of my life, but we'll see. We'll see. I just think it's important, dude. Like, Doge Maga. Doge Maga, it's a fucking meme. It's a meme that might help. What do you think about that, dude? Am I crazy? Am I going crazy? Is that do I sound stupid? People call me dumb all the time. Somebody just called me dumb on Instagram last night. I couldn't give less of a shit if you call me dumb, dude. Like, call me dumb. I don't care. At least I'm willing to have a conversation about this thing, you know, and that's the real that's my I I think that's why I sort of get defensive about people calling me dumb, or, like, maybe I get afraid of people calling me dumb, because I know I'm thinking.
I know I'm willing to talk, and I'm just so I have more balls than most people. I'm willing to put my thoughts on the line. I got my thoughts on this fucking RSS feed. Where the fuck are your thoughts, dude? Like, comment down below. Tell me. Send it to boost a gram, man. This is value for value, dawg. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But we just gotta move forward in life. We gotta move forward. We're gonna wrap up the episode right now, guys. I'm gonna play a song. This song I found this song from oh my god. I totally wait. No. I have it right here. I found the song on Wave Lake. I just vibed with it. This is an instrumental song that's gonna wrap up the episode. This is from an artist called Grieve the Astronaut.
And when it comes to value for value, I'm playing a song that's released via value via RSS feed, and I'm giving them a 90% split of your, Bitcoin Satoshi donation in a modern podcast app. That's one of the biggest innovations with Bitcoin within value for value, and I will continue to do that for as long as I'm able to. And, this Grieve the Astronaut. This song is called Painter's Moon, dude. So just hang out. Enjoy. If you're I I hope you're working out, or I hope you you wanna be in, like, a focus mood, because this shit is it, dude. Grieve the Astronaut. Painter's Moon, dude.
Enjoy That's America Plus, bitch. Stay free.
Introduction and Episode Overview
Thanksgiving Reflections and Family Time
The Arizona Experience
Value for Value and Podcasting 2.0
Bitcoin, Nostr, and the Future of Value4Value
Boostagrams and Listener Engagement
DOGE
Episode Wrap-Up and Closing Music
