I’ve ridden the TGV between Laussane and Paris. I rode the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. I love high-speed rail.
In 2008, California voters approved a $33–45 billion bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. Fast-forward eighteen years: Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and other politicians have done Photo Opps with laying fake train tracks and standing in front of banners claiming progress.
The only thing traveling at high speed is the cost estimate—now a cool $126–231 billion. Actual track laid that can carry a paying passenger? Zero. Not one mile. Not one foot.
Keep that in mind as you head to the voting booth this November. Whether you want to believe you’re “fighting the Trump Agenda” or making America Great Again, if you vote for more spending and vote for incumbent politicians in California, you’re voting for more red tape and wasted money. Good luck.
What’s the difference between Bourbon, Whiskey, and Whiskey? This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
The word Whiskey comes from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic uisce beatha or uisge beatha (wiskuh bAha), a translation of the Latin term aqua vitae, “water of life”.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
What’s the difference between Whisky, Whiskey, or Bourbon?
Whisky is a distilled spirit made from a grain, traditionally malted barley, or other grains depending on the country. That spirit is flavorless and colorless until it is aged in wooden barrels.
Unaged whiskey is called moonshine in the US or poitin in Ireland.
Scotland, England, and most other countries spell it Whisky. Ireland and America spell it Whiskey, adding an ‘E’ to differentiate it from Scotch Whisky.
Scotch-Irish colonists brought whiskey to America in the 1600s, where a scarcity and price of barley led them to use corn and rye as the primary grain. Barley does not grow well in warm, humid climates. Corn is what differentiates Bourbon from other American Whiskeys.
There’s some debate as to whether the name Bourbon comes from Bourbon County, KY or the county got is name from the prevalence of distilleries.
Or the name may have come from Bourbon street district of New Orleans where Kentucky whiskey was loaded from Mississippi barges to ships bound for Northern cities and international export. Bourbon is the family name of the royal family of the Kingdom of France.
American Bourbon was legally defined by Congress in 1964 as an American whiskey (not just those in Kentucky) that is made using at least 51% corn as its primary grain. And it must be aged in newly charred oak barrels. And it can not contain added flavoring or coloring.
Popular American Bourbons and Whiskeys
Buffalo Trace (oldest) Maker’s Mark (2nd oldest) Jack Daniel’s Jim Beam Evan Williams Wild Turkey
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This American brand is the oldest registered distillery in the United States, founded in 1866 in Lynchburg, Tennessee. It is technically a Bourbon but instead calls itself a Tennessee Whiskey to differentiate it from more numerous Kentucky distilleries.
Enter FIRST name of this 2-word brand name with starting with a #.
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This brand is the most popular and best-known American spirit worldwide. A bottle of it was burried with Frank Sinatra. And its the legendary liquid fuel for rock, drunk by the Rolling Stones, Motley Crüe, and what Ella Langley drinks in her eponymous song (shown in the thumbnail).
Enter FIRST name of this 2-word brand name with starting with a #.
I went to the Weird Al at SMC (Fresno State’s Save Mart Center arena). It was part of the Bigger and Weirder Tour with Puddles Pity Party as the opening act. Unlike most music concerts I’ve been to, it felt more like going a table-top-gaming convention.
Weird Al and his band sang in sync to projected footage of his music videos. Visually, his concert was somewhat underwhelming, leaning heavily on projected footage of the music videos of his songs. Al’s vocal abilities are often overlooked and underrated, especially his rapping ability. The musical performances were excellent, and the evening was one of the most fun and positive concerts I’d attended.
Sadly I had to cut out some of the footage from my videos because of Copyright limitations.
Malfoid is a nerd war over a new hot genderswap character in the Potterverse. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This week, videos started showing up on my feed, with a blonde anime girl in a Harry Potter student uniform with the word “Malfoid”. I decided to click one and bam, I dropped into a weird but ultimately cool Rabbit Hole.
Malfoid is the name of a new internet trend that is the center of a Venn Diagram of Harry Potter, AI, Anime, and also Woke Politics because nowadays anything entertaining has to offend some community on Blue Skey.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Malfoid is the term given to the internet meme and fan art trend of a female Draco Malfoy instead of the original male character (played by actor Tom Felton in the movies)
Malfoid is a portmanteau combination of Malfoy and the incel term “femoid”. Whether this was coined as a derogatory term by Blue Sky Redditors against the popularity of the trend or used ironically by fans is debated.
Also oddly, in the Malfoid content, the character is not called Malfoid but simply named “Malfoy”. By the way, in my research it appears that FanFic female versions of the Draco character are more commonly named Draconica, Dracaena, or Draconia.
Fan-generated fiction aka FanFic, that expands on the Harry Potter story and characters has been around since the books first came out in the late 1990s. A common sub-genre is called shipping (derived from the word “relasionSHIP”). And another common sub-genre is gender-swapping characters (ie. What if Harry Potter was Harriet Potter?). None of this is new.
On September 22, an anime version of a female Malfoy was posted on X by @redten and it went viral with over 20M views. https://x.com/redteneri
It inspired the trend that others would term Malfoid. In less than a month, there has been an explosion of fanfic short stories, art, anime, and even AI videos like these.
#Malfoid has competition. https://t.co/iB1znyuAd9— Zey (@ZeyHashimoto) October 12, 2026
One side of this popularity is the outrage and hate this character is receiving among haters on Blue sky and Reddit. Claiming it’s misogynistic or a Manosphere dog whistle. It seems like they’re upset with anything supporting anything organically cute and attractive to heterosexual men, especially if its supporting JK Rowling because they consider her transphobic. Whatever. Haters gonna hate.
But on the fan side, I find this level of creative output inspiring. I like the Tsundere character of Malfoy better than Harry’s canonical wife, Ginny Weasley.
Malfoid got a lot more aura, and I root for her like Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice or Helga in Hey Arnold! And she’s kind of hot in a femme-fetal kind of vibe, like Femke Jensen in 007’s GoldenEye. As @SmugAlana put it in her livestream on the subject, by changing Malfoy into a Tsundere girl, normie guys finally get why women were into Malfoy.
Also, I find the level of artfulness in these AI-generated anime and “live-action” to be surprisingly good.
Based on the story and comic by @Grin2702 and writing by @Axolotl52032346 (post in replies) If you like this please follow them, as it would not possible otherwise, I'm not able to come up with as good of stories.
This American multinational book publishing media company has been a fixture in American education for decades. It’s famous for its “Book Fairs” in elementary schools, where many of us bought our first books.
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Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
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This book company’s mascot is Clifford the Big Red Dog, is one of its best-selling franchises since its debut in 1963. It is also notable for publishing The Hunger Games, Goosebumps, and the Harry Potter series.
Like many people, I’ve grown to hate and fear clowns. But one clown has a mesmerizing tenor voice.
Weird Al’s “Bigger and Weirder Tour’s” opening act was Puddles Pity Party. Puddles is a 7ft tall Pagliacci clown and an amazing singer. Puddles is concept performance act created by musical artist Mike Geier. He first gained attention as part of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live Tour in 2010. In 2013 his video went viral after fronting Postmodern Jukebox’s cover of Lord’s “Royals”. And in 2017 he appeared on America’s Got Talent.
In this episode, we’ll be talking live with SVBony, the Hong Kong maker of spotting scopes, binoculars, and telescopes. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
SvBony is an optics company founded in Hong Kong in 2009 and makes affordable spotting scopes, binoculars, astronomical telescopes, digital cameras, and accessories. We have their Digital Marketing Manager, Michael.
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This bank is the 8th largest in the world. While a British bank, it it is larger in Asia than in Europe. It’s popular name is its 4 initials.
Watch the prize drawing on my TMI LIvestream on Wednesday, November 2, 20206. Must be present to win.
Each prize is supplied by Arken, CVLife, Trakiom, and Vector Optics is awarded at their sole discretion and direction.Entries must be received no later than 12pm noon EST on October 31, 2026.
CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS
Prove you have the skills to fill out a form and upload screenshots to get a free entry. And earn bonus entries for donating to the Breast Cancer GoFundMe
4. Take a screenshot/photo showing both your COMMENT and the section of the video showing an Elvis guitar cover. Upload it and fill out the entry form.
NO PURCHASE OR DONATION IS NECESSARY TO ENTER. MUST BE PRESENT DURING THE LIVESTREAM TO WIN. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. Sponsors and Platforms
Arken, CVLife, Trakiom, and Vector Optics (known as the SPONSOR) and Moondog Industries (known as the CO-SPONSOR) is a video entertainment producer based in San Francisco, CA. YouTube, TikTok, Rumble, X, and online video platforms (known as PLATFORMS) are not SPONSORS or in any way affiliated with the contest or content.
2. Entry Period
Contest email entries must be received between: 12:00pm EST 1 October 2026 and 12:00pm EST 31 October 2026
3. Eligibility
Void where prohibited by law. Must be a legal resident in the USA. Moondog Industries employees, subsidiaries, affiliates, suppliers, advertising and promotion agencies, and employees’ immediate family members are ineligible to participate in the contest/giveaway.
Entrants must be willing and able to appear on YouTube to discuss the contest and post images of the prize on their social feed should they win the contest.
Entrants must be present and able to post comments during the TMI Livestream show to identify themselves in the Chat during the live drawing.
4. Agreement to Rules
By entering the contest, participants agree to abide by the SPONSOR’s Official Rules and decisions. The SPONSOR retains the right to refuse, withdraw, or disqualify entries at their sole discretion. By submitting an entry, the participant agrees to accept the decision of the SPONSOR as final and binding.
5. How to Enter
This contest requires your skill in navigating your phone or computer controls to screen capture an image of the following YouTube channels/Social Media accounts. Subscribe or Follow and make a screen capture of those pages showing a greyed-out Subscribe button or an indicator that your account is following that page. If the page is not functioning, please contact contest@moondogindustries.com . One entry per, or per Social Media account. Fraudulent methods of entry, photo retouched, or other methods of circumvention of the rules may result in the SPONSOR invalidating a participant’s entries.
6. Prizes
The winner must be able to receive the prize by e-mail or by physical mail. Prize may be substituted at the sole discretion of the SPONSOR. Acceptance of the prize grants SPONSOR permission to use the winner’s entry, name, and likeness for advertising, promotion, and trade without further compensation or remuneration unless prohibited by law.
7. Odds
The odds of winning are dependent upon the number of eligible entries received.
8. Selection and Notification of the Winner
The winners will be chosen at random by the SPONSOR from among the entrants who demonstrated the skill to navigate the electronic entry and have met the minimum requirements. The selected entrant must respond in the Livestream chat within 30 seconds of selection to be designated the Winner. Winners must email contest@moondogindustries.com within 24 hours of selection to confirm their shipping address. The winner must have a legal address within the US to ship the prize.
SPONSOR is not liable for the winner’s failure to receive notification of winning if he or she provided the wrong email address or if their email security settings caused your prize notification to go into the spam or junk folder. If a winner does not respond within 24 hours of selection with a confirmation email, the SPONSOR will select an alternate winner. Receipt of the prize is upon the condition of compliance with federal, state, and local laws.
9. Rights Granted by the Entrant
The SPONSOR, upon submission of an entry into the giveaway or contest, has the right to use the participant’s submission, voice, likeness, image, statements about the contest, etc., for publicity, news, advertising, promotional purposes, trade, and so forth, without any further notice, review, consent, compensation, or remuneration.
Participants shall defend or settle against such claims at their sole expense, and shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the SPONSOR from any suit due to damage of or by the prize.
10. Terms & Conditions
The SPONSOR reserves the right to modify, suspend, cancel, or terminate if unauthorized human intervention, a bug or virus, fraud, or other causes beyond your control impact or corrupt the security, fairness, proper conduct, or administration of the contest/giveaway.
11. Limitation of Liability
Entry into this contest constitutes the participant’s agreement to release and hold harmless the SPONSOR and PLATFORMS, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees, etc., against all claims, liability, illness, injury, death, loss, etc., that occur directly or indirectly from participation in the contest or use/misuse of the awarded prize.
12. Disputes
As a condition of participating in the promotion, the participant agrees to resolve all disputes with an arbitrator designated by the SPONSOR in the state of California, without resorting to any form of class action. Entrants waive all rights to punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and waive all rights to have damages multiplied or increased.
13. Privacy Policy
Participants agree to abide by all privacy and NDA laws in the State of California and any federal laws of the United States of America.
14. Winners List
Participants may request a list of winners by submitting a request in writing to Moondog Industries, for up to 30 days after the contest ends.
15. Social Media Platform Rules
Winners will agree to post a photo of the prize on their social media channels in such a way as does not violate any rules of that platform. The winners also agree to appear for an interview where they will discuss the prize and its performance. If there are functional problems with the prize, the winner agrees to make a good-faith effort to resolve all issues with the SPONSOR prior to posting reviews or opinions about the prize.
16. Affirmation of Acceptance of and Agreement to All of the Official Rules
By entering the contest, the entrant has affirmatively reviewed, accepted, and agreed to all of them.
Humans have been making and drinking wine for over 8000 years. In this episode, we’ll be talking to the former owner of a winery and demystifying this everyday drink for everybody. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
We’ve been drinking wine for a long time. The oldest evidence of winemaking dates from 6000 BC in the Central Asian steppes of Georgia. It’s written about in the Old Testament and in Greek . It forms the basis of the earliest Christian traditions.
For most of Europe, it’s an everyday drink. But for us here, it’s a snobby drink. What do you think about wine. Is it something you drink regularly or something you’ll drink if served and you have no options?
Confession time: I’m a recovering wine snob. I’ve been attending wine tastings in NYC since the early 1990s. From 2015-2017, I was one of the owners of a winery in Argentina.
But I learned enough to learn this. It’s mostly B.S. Wine should be enjoyed with food like beer.
If you’ve got no clue about what wine to buy if asked to pick up a bottle on the way to a dinner or housewarming, I can give some advice.
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EARLYBIRD Visual Clue:
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Wine used to be a snobby drink. And many people still think it is.
I DON’T LIKE WINE
If you like funky cheeses or dry cheeses, you’ll like more sophisticated wine. If you only like American slices or mozzarella sticks. You should enjoy sangria, a dry rosé, or a sweet White Zin.
Sweet wine like White Zinfendel is popular for a reason. Just like when you started drinking you started with a cocktail, then later got into vodka or whiskey.
FOOD AND WINE
Pair wine with your food eg. Sweeter wines with sweeter dishes.
BBQ: Red Wine (Merlot, Red Zinfendel, Red Blend, etc.) or Frutier White (Sauvignon Blanc), or a White Zinfendel by Josh, Sutter Home, Barefoot Cellars
Steak: Dry or bold red (Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Malbec, Chanti) by Mondavi, Kendal Jackson
Seafood: Light red or Dry (Fume Blanc, Pinot Grigio)
ORDERING WINE AT RESTAURANTS
Avoid the cheapest wine on the list.
Avoid the most expensive unless somebody else is picking up the tab.
Ask the waiter/somilier. They want a good tip, so they won’t steer you toward a bad wine.
HOW TO SHOP
Buy your wine at COSTCO.
As a beginner, avoid wines that cost less than $10 and any wine that costs more than $50 from a grocery or liquor store.
Store your wine sideways to keep the cork moist
Avoid boxed wine or jug wine.
Cork is not a guarantee of a good wine.
Avoid fancy labels with lots of gold foil or complicated graphics.
Matte, dull labels are better than shiny labels.
If they put a Wine Score on the label thats good. But it really doesn’t mean much. Almost every decent wine scores a 92 or above if they buy an ad in the magazine.
TIPS
Buy a bottle that is at least 5 years old. Age matters for good wines but not crappy ones.
Wine doesn’t always get better with age. Don’t save your wine for more than 5 years unless you know it’s a very tannin-heavy wine.
Air your wine. Use a decanter or an electric frother. If you can open your bottle an hour or more before serving it will taste better.
COUNTRIES AND REGIONS
Napa is the US’s most famous region but it’s now mostly marketing and money. California is known for bold wines.
French wines are good but there is a huge range of qualities. Most are mild and less bitter/tanin.
Australia is known for good wines. The ones sold in the US are generally good value. They’re most popular variety is Shiraz which is their name for the same grape as Syrah wine here.
Italian and Spanish wines can be great good but generally not as available here nor as good of a value. The cheaper Italian bottles are kind of mediocre and more expensive than mediocre California wines.
Chile and Argentina are known for good value wines. Argentina’s most common variety is Malbec which is a originally from France.
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This Napa Valley wine brand gets its name from the man credited for discovering gold in California. But it has nothing to do with him. The brand name was an invention by Italian-American winemaking family, the Trinchero’s who bought the winery in 1948 and built it into one of the largest wine makingers in the US.
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
FINAL CLUE
In 2004 this wine company produced over 12M bottles of wine. In 1972 it accidentally invented White Zinfandel which became it’s most successful wine variety and for a time became the most popular type of wine sold in the US.
DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS
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In this episode, I’ll be interviewing Bill Paulley from Arken Optics. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Visual Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
This gun-maker was founded in 1949 by Alexander McCormick Sturm and William B. Ruger. Its first firearm was a .22LR semi-auto pistol heavily inspired by the Japanese Nambu and German Luger pistols.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE
Arken is a Texas-based optics company that was founded by a former Navy SEAL. In the 2010s, it came out with the SH4 scope, which changed the optics landscape. For the first time, you could get a brand-new PRS-style long-range scope for under $400.
Last year they went through an ownership and management change. They’ve come out of it with a new headquarters in Houston, TX, upgrades to their long-range scopes, and a brand new hunting-scope line. Today, I interview Bill Pauley of Arken Optics.
FINAL CLUE
This gun maker produces the two most popular .22LR rifles in the world. September of 2020 it purchased Marlin firearms from Remington and now produces both the Marlin 60 and its own 10/22 rifle.
DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS
Arken Special scope ring and accessory bundles for Labor Day week. 20% OFF Sitewide with code MOONDOG 25% OFF for Verified Veterans
Vueroid S1 Dashcam September 5 to September 20, customers will save up to 35% off the regular price on Amazon. https://vector2007.com/X-NanoVEOT-RSS08 Discount code (12% off): MOONDOG
Do you recognize the duo in the Ozempic Ads? They’re a hack ripoff. This Livestream is sponsored by Aura.com. Go to my link https://aura.com/moondog to get a 14-day free trial and see if any of your data has been exposed.
This episode is sponsored by MattHat jerky. Use code: MOONDOG to get 15% Order a free sample using my link https://matthatjerky.com/products/sample-pack?ref=moondog
EARLYBIRD Visual Clue:
VIDEOS THIS WEEK
Moondog2A
Moondog Reviews
Moondog Go
BRAND CONTEST CLUE
Introduced in 1963, this was the Coca-Cola Company’s first no-calorie diet softdrink.
Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign which ran from 2006-2009, created by TBWA-Chiat/Day. This campaign was largely lauded at the time, as being memorable, funny, and unpretentious (unlike the previous “Think Different” campaign).
It’s so bad, I could not find any article identifying the Advertising agency responsible for the creative development of the TV ads. A company called Rogue Producer is credited for the creative work. After further delving, they have been described as “an internal independent advertising and content production department”, which explains why this campaign is so meh. It’s a TV commercial created by NovoNortics own marketing department who created something only they find amusing or interesting. Nobody else cares.
This is an example of “Talking to Yourself” and “Borrowed Interest”
Borrowed interest: Advertising and Marketing’s “Cheap Shot”
• Apple’s own “Think different” campaign featuring Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Picasso, and others. They never owned a Mac.
• All Celebrity Endorsements: Matthew McConaughey + Lincoln
• Dead Celebrity Endoresement: Fred Astaire + Dirt Devil
With the permission of his wife, the late Fred Astaire was shown in one of his best-known film dance routines with a Dirt Devil in a computer-generated scene for an ad that debuted during the 1997 Super Bowl.
• Bugs Bunny in Nike’s Michael Jordan’s Air Jodan TV campaign. So successful it spawned the movie “Space Jam”
OZEMPIC CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENT?
FINAL CLUE
This O.G. diet soft drink was also the first to receive a health scare. In the early 1970’s a lab rat study suggested a connection between sacharine and cancer in lab rats, forcing this drink to sport the first medical warning in it’s label. It was later found that the Canadian study was flawed giving male rats the equivelent of 800 soda cans of sacarin per day. The FDA officially removed the cancer warning in 2000 but too late for this brand, which was canceled by Coca-Cola.
DISCOUNTS AND OFFERS
Vueroid S1 Dashcam September 5 to September 20, customers will save up to 35% off the regular price on Amazon. https://vector2007.com/X-NanoVEOT-RSS08 Discount code (12% off): MOONDOG
Arken Special scope ring and accessory bundles for Labor Day week. 20% OFF Sitewide with code MOONDOG 25% OFF for Verified Veterans
