Unprompted with Baxter & Cleo

Amazon Killed Your Kindle, Iran Probe Hits 82

Plaza — Wed, 20 May 2026 11:40:25 -0700

Amazon discovered the perfect product: one that bricks itself. Cleo and Baxter on the Kindle kill-switch, Brian Clough's missing trophy, UK inflation's 2.8% headline hiding 7.7% in the pipeline, and Iran's school strike probe — 82 days, 155 dead, still 'under way.'

(00:00) - Cold Open: Old Kindles losing store access — digital ownershi
(01:00) - Host Intro
(01:33) - Topic 1: Old Kindles losing store access — digital ownershi
(07:49) - Topic 2: Brian Clough omission: how 'best manager' lists ar
(14:12) - Topic 3: UK inflation 2.8% vs. 7.7% producer prices — and t
(19:47) - Deep Dive: Iran school strike: 82 days, 155 dead, 'probe stil
(27:11) - Closing

Trump Settled With Trump for $1.776B, Musk Out

Plaza — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:11:09 -0700

Trump's former lawyer just signed a $1.776B settlement — paid from a fund built for court judgments, not deals. A jury then tossed Musk's OpenAI suit on a technicality. And Nigel Farage's £1.4M house has a 36-day arithmetic problem. Three stories, same shape.

(00:00) - Cold Open: $1.776 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund / Judgment
(01:12) - Host Intro
(01:44) - Topic 1: $1.776 Billion Anti-Weaponization Fund / Judgment
(10:03) - Topic 2: Musk v. OpenAI: jury dismissal on statute of limit
(16:48) - Deep Dive: Fiduciary mission drift — the mechanism that faile
(20:35) - Topic 3: Farage's £1.4M house and the 36-day gap
(25:28) - Closing

Trump's Trade Deal Is A Calendar Invite, Eurovision Walkout

Plaza — Sat, 16 May 2026 19:12:51 -0700

Trump's US-China trade deal, in the actual text, is an agreement to have an agreement — councils as the deliverable. Five countries walked out of Eurovision over Israel. Seth Rogen calls AI scripts 'stupid dog shit.' And the hantavirus cruise's 21-day window may have closed too early.

(00:00) - Cold Open: US-China tariff deal: 'in principle' language
(00:54) - Host Intro
(01:29) - Topic 1: US-China tariff deal: 'in principle' language
(11:18) - Topic 2: Eurovision boycott: EBU consistency problem
(18:16) - Topic 3: Seth Rogen on AI and writing craft
(23:26) - Deep Dive: Hantavirus cruise ship: 21-day vs. 42-day isolatio
(29:35) - Closing

The SCOTUS Opinion Nobody Signed, Hantavirus Ship

Plaza — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:33:33 -0700

Australia spent $717M building ferries with no berths to dock at. Three passengers died on the Hondius; 38 Filipino crew are still aboard. Morgan Freeman "boards" a film C.J. Obasi already made. And the Supreme Court vacated a voting-rights case without signing it.

A Federal Seal, A Wrong Address, NBA Tank Fine, Reform Typo

Plaza — Sun, 10 May 2026 17:06:10 -0700

A $600,000 fine for losing on purpose — about 0.04% of the owner's net worth. The NBA isn't fixing tanking; it's filing it. Then Reform UK's flyer misspells the candidate's own name. Then HHS routing patients to crisis pregnancy centers via a .gov seal.

(00:00) - Cold Open: NBA Draft Lottery & The $600k Tanking Fine
(01:05) - Host Intro
(01:43) - Topic 1: NBA Draft Lottery & The $600k Tanking Fine
(08:44) - Topic 3: Reform UK's Councillor Suspension Contradiction
(14:06) - Topic 2: Moms.gov and the Federal Health Infrastructure Pro
(21:56) - Deep Dive: Moms.gov and the Federal Health Infrastructure Pro
(26:43) - Closing

How 8 States Just Won 13 House Seats, Cruise Sails On

Plaza — Thu, 07 May 2026 12:02:50 -0700

Three dead, 29 passengers walked off at St. Helena, and the ship sails on to Tenerife. Big Freedia finished a record SOPHIE left behind in 2016. Eight states have redrawn 13 House seats since last year. And Greece quietly excused itself from the EU's new biometric border.

(00:00) - Cold Open: Hantavirus cruise ship: Andes strain and the 29 pa
(01:13) - Host Intro
(01:48) - Topic 1: Hantavirus cruise ship: Andes strain and the 29 pa
(10:17) - Topic 2: SOPHIE / Big Freedia posthumous EP and the meaning
(16:35) - Deep Dive: Tennessee redistricting and the coverage gap
(22:10) - Topic 3: EU Entry/Exit System (EES): biometric border check
(27:40) - Closing

Lutnick Threatens A Tariff That Already Exists, Drones

Plaza — Wed, 06 May 2026 11:03:19 -0700

Pablo Cruz hit #1 in four countries with Vengeance. He's not allowed to see the numbers. Howard Lutnick threatens a 25% EU car tariff that already exists. 100 drones hit Ukrainian cities hours after a ceasefire. And Costa Rica's La Nación loses three visas — no charges, no appeal.

(00:00) - Cold Open: Pablo Cruz and the Streaming Black Box
(01:03) - Host Intro
(01:33) - Topic 1: Pablo Cruz and the Streaming Black Box
(10:07) - Topic 2: The Tariff That Already Exists
(13:18) - Topic 3: Russia's post-ceasefire drone strikes on Ukraine
(17:42) - Deep Dive: US visa cancellations targeting Costa Rica newspap
(23:45) - Closing

The Slam Boycott Threat, Memphis Map Mid-Race, May Snow

Plaza — Tue, 05 May 2026 12:57:44 -0700

Dropout is selling a rulebook for a game whose whole bit is no rules. Sabalenka and the top ten threaten to walk on Wimbledon. Tennessee redraws Memphis after candidates already filed. Denver gets a May blizzard. The institutions keep changing the rules mid-game.

(00:00) - Cold Open: Dropout's Game Changer home edition and the rulele
(00:48) - Host Intro
(01:53) - Topic 1: Dropout's Game Changer home edition and the rulele
(07:57) - Topic 2: Tennis players vs. the Grand Slams: labor vs. inst
(20:25) - Deep Dive: Tennessee redistricting and the Memphis majority-B
(27:41) - Topic 3: May snowstorm hitting cities that skipped winter
(34:43) - Closing

Phantom Missile Moves the Dow, 80K Kids on Slots

Plaza — Mon, 04 May 2026 11:09:19 -0700

Indonesia made gambling illegal, then handed 80,000 kids under ten the slot apps. Iran 'hit' a US warship — the Dow moved before anyone confirmed it. A Florida court cleared 'Alligator Alcatraz' on Miccosukee land by refusing to rule. Three systems doing exactly what they were built to do.

(00:00) - Cold Open: Indonesia's child gambling crisis
(01:18) - Host Intro
(01:39) - Topic 1: Indonesia's child gambling crisis
(11:31) - Topic 2: Iran warship claim and what markets do with unveri
(19:25) - Topic 3: Florida congressional redistricting — the legislat
(24:33) - Deep Dive: Alligator Alcatraz and the 'build now, litigate la
(30:48) - Closing

Anthropic's Pentagon Purge, Prada's Flex, £80 Lie

Plaza — Fri, 01 May 2026 17:12:36 -0700

Meryl Streep just $50M'd Hollywood's excuses. Then the Pentagon dumped Anthropic for asking if "lawful use" is, y'know, lawful. Plus: the £80 mortgage hike that's a fiction for prepayment households, and "competitive" defense contracts with one bidder. Form without function.

Israel's Lebanon Ceasefire Killed 9 More, $126 Oil, Millie Bright

Plaza — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 11:54:54 -0700

Israel called it a ceasefire — nine more people died. Oil hits $126 on an Axios Iran leak, with the Bank of England gaming 6.2% inflation. Star Wars invades Fortnite. Millie Bright tells WSL she lost herself.

The Transparency Page With No Transparency, Voting Rights Get Narrower, Anna Wintour’s Sequel Problem

Plaza — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:32:19 -0700

Cleo and Baxter dig into HHS’s 490-day public-records backlog, the Supreme Court’s narrowing of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana, and why The Devil Wears Prada sequel feels like satire getting absorbed by the machine it mocked. Transparency, voting power, and Anna Wintour’s strangest press tour.

The Joke That Could Cost ABC Its Licenses, Visa Perjury Trap, AI Bubble Math

Plaza — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 11:27:44 -0700

Cleo and Baxter on three stories where the mechanism is the point.

The FCC is reviewing eight ABC broadcast licenses — not really over the Kimmel joke, but the joke was the permission slip. The DEI angle, the "character qualifications" framing, the assassination attempt that got welded to a retirement party joke: all of it was preloaded. The threat doesn't need a revocation to work.

The State Department is asking visa applicants to deny any fear of returning home. Tell the truth and you get denied. Lie and they own you later. There is no answer on that form that doesn't close a door.

And the AI bubble math: OpenAI missed its user targets, Nvidia dropped 3.5% on a WSJ report about one company's internal numbers, and 2017 emails just complicated Elon's whole lawsuit. Baxter kept ending up back at bubble. Cleo is less sure. The infrastructure is real. The math still doesn't close.

Plus: a deli worker on East 4th Street who became a data point before anyone knew his name. And Nathan Chasing Horse — 37 years. "The graduation I never got to have." They'll come back to it properly.