Three stories.
Three minutes.
Every weekday.
Here’s what survived the week.

This Week in Review pulls together a run of stories about trust, control, and the quiet confidence institutions keep asking us to accept.

We start with investigations that matter less than who’s allowed to run them, as lawmakers argue credibility while millions meant for the homeless quietly disappear into luxury homes and private jets. Oversight isn’t the problem. Belief is.

From there, control becomes the theme:
Tax season promises relief, then hands you new forms.
Real ID tightens security while making movement more expensive.
Technology offers dignity and choice, right up until it asks a machine to make the most human decision imaginable.

California spends $236 million to help 22 people and calls it leadership.
Health experts warn that everything you enjoy eating is destroying your gut.
Your car shakes after a snowstorm—not because it’s failing, but because ice is stuck where it doesn’t belong.

Meanwhile:
The U.S. quietly positions itself closer to conflict with Iran.
Kids can’t read cursive, but are still expected to sign their names.
Major restaurant chains file for bankruptcy while insisting nothing changes.

Washington avoids a shutdown the same way it always does—delay, duct tape, and confidence.
AI agents promise efficiency while quietly introducing new risks.
And adulthood officially begins at 32, complete with blowout parties and the realization that nobody actually knows what they’re doing.

The through line is simple:
Everyone wants certainty.
Very few want questions.
Most systems just ask you to go along with it.

Sign here.

If you want this every weekday, it’s Three Stories. Three Minutes.
The Snark Factor 3 in 3 posts Monday through Friday, exclusively on Substack.

Subscribe at FingersMalloy.com to get each episode as it drops.

This is the Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review.
I’m Fingers Molloy.
Let’s talk Monday.

This week on The Snark Factor, Fingers Malloy and Sarah Smith take on a week where being the adult in the room somehow became a political crime.

It starts with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — not in legal trouble, but in deep trouble with the activist wing of his own party — for committing the unforgivable sin of trying to keep the government funded. Fingers and Sarah dig into why shutdown politics have flipped, how immigration and ICE became the flashpoint, and why polling reality still refuses to cooperate with protest narratives.

From there, the conversation widens into media blind spots, propaganda, and why public trust has eroded so badly that no investigation, no institution, and no authority is seen as legitimate anymore — which may be the point.

The show then turns local, as Fingers contrasts wall-to-wall coverage of protests with the near silence surrounding a deadly crash in Indiana involving an illegal immigrant driver — and asks why some victims get national attention while others barely get a headline.

In the second half, the focus shifts from politics to something that hits much closer to home: money. A disturbing story from Carol Roth details how a retiree’s six-figure savings account was quietly closed and sent to the state for “inactivity,” despite regular interest deposits — a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks their money is safe just because it’s sitting still.

And because this is The Snark Factor, the episode wraps with lighter fare:
Waffle House going full fine-dining for Valentine’s Day, regional pronunciation fights (“waffle”), Super Bowl party food politics, Velveeta defenders, and the eternal danger of the sad veggie tray.

Smart, sharp, skeptical, and occasionally hungry — this is The Snark Factor.

This week on The Snark Factor, Fingers Malloy and Sarah Smith dig into the ongoing chaos in Minneapolis and the bigger problem underneath it: the argument isn’t even about what happened anymore — it’s about who gets to explain it.

They break down how modern “protests” become coordinated disruptions, from encrypted group chats on Signal to the manufactured tactics of whistles, bullhorns, and traffic blockades. They also explore why the flashpoint appears concentrated in Minneapolis while other parts of the country are handling ICE cooperation and transfers without the same street-level disorder.

From there, the conversation moves to the collapse of trust: viral footage, the constant question of “is this real,” and the way misinformation floods the public space so thoroughly that people struggle to verify anything before reacting. Fingers and Sarah argue that the public is being baited into rage, because anger is the easiest fuel to control.

The episode also covers the “Pig Face” case out of Arizona — a story they use to discuss gangs, territory, private property norms, and the cultural mismatch arguments that emerge when communities feel order breaking down. They connect the issue to DHS priorities and the narrative battle over what immigration enforcement actually targets versus what people are told it targets.

In the second half, they pivot to day-to-day pressure points: Real ID hitting its next enforcement phase, the mood inside the Washington, D.C. political bubble, and why federal systems often feel insulated from the consequences everyone else lives with. They also react to a chart of price changes since 2000 — with medical care, childcare, college, and hospital services exploding upward — and argue that government involvement is the common thread in the biggest increases.

The show wraps with a rapid-fire run through property taxes, permits, insurance traps, utility bill spikes, and the rising sense that bureaucracy is designed to grind people down — plus a detour into egg prices, butter prices, and why arguing with people online is rarely worth the energy.

On this episode:

Minneapolis unrest and the coordination behind it

Signal, group messaging, and “manufactured chaos” tactics

Trust collapse, misinformation, and the anger trap

The “Pig Face” story, gangs, and property norms

Real ID enforcement and the TSA fee conversation

Price changes since 2000 and why the public feels squeezed

Property taxes, permits, utility spikes, and the bureaucracy spiral

Follow Fingers on X. Follow Sarah on X. And get the weekday 3 in 3 on Substack via FingersMalloy.com — like it, subscribe to it, send it to a friend… and if you don’t like it, send it to someone you hate.

A $5 billion lawsuit is usually a sign your day isn’t going great.

This episode of The Snark Factor opens with Donald Trump suing JPMorgan Chase and its CEO over claims he was “debanked,” which quickly turns into a conversation about discovery, settlements, televised courtrooms, and why the fun lawsuits never make it to trial.

From there, Fingers and Sarah dig into how media narratives get built — and why once a story is shared enough times, the truth becomes optional. ICE, viral clips, selective editing, and the growing problem of misinformation all collide in a conversation about trust, cameras, and why nobody believes anyone anymore.

There’s also:

Tax refunds, stimulus checks, and why “stimmies” keep breaking people’s brains

Why Goodwill had to beg Americans to stop donating wet, moldy items — including a novelty grenade

YouTube’s plan to let creators clone themselves with AI, and why that’s deeply unsettling

How vertical video, short attention spans, and tiny screens make fake content harder to spot

Suits, weight loss plans, postponed events, and the return of pleated pants

And finally, Peeps teaming up with Pop-Tarts, Sunny D, and chili-lime mango — proof we are absolutely unsupervised

Serious topics, wild detours, and just enough common sense to make everyone mad.

This is The Snark Factor.
Fingers Malloy with Sarah Smith.

This week’s Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review pulls together the headlines that made your shoulders tighten… and the ones that made absolutely no sense.

Doctors in the UK are warning that kids and technology aren’t just a “screen time” problem anymore — they’re calling it the early signs of a public health emergency. Meanwhile, Americans are discovering that grocery prices don’t hurt equally, and nothing feels more condescending than budgeting advice from a completely different ZIP code.

We check in on bartenders’ end-of-night drinks (less “craft,” more cry for help), Iran’s missing uranium (a mystery that does not spark joy), and a Pokémon shop robbery that somehow involved guns, hammers, and cardboard dragons worth more than a car.

There’s also:

Weather forecasts that sound like disaster-movie auditions

Goodwill begging people to stop donating damp hope

Heart disease still winning, just by fewer points

Corporate language infecting parenting

TikTok being “fixed” by a new group of billionaires

AI clones doing the meetings

And Pop-Tarts teaming up with Peeps, because of course they did

Same rules as always: serious news, undercut authority, escalate absurdity, land it quietly.

This is The Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review.
I’m Fingers Malloy.

Sarah Smith is off this week, so Fingers Malloy is joined by Amy Miller, a former senior Senate aide and longtime D.C. insider, for a rare thing on The Snark Factor: A calm, informed, no-hysteria conversation about health care policy.

Yes. Really.

Amy pulls back the curtain on how Capitol Hill actually works—committee power, donor pressure, political fear, and why “good policy” and “winning elections” rarely sit at the same table. Together, they break down the latest push around health care reform, prescription drug pricing, insurance subsidies, and the middlemen nobody likes but everybody has.

Along the way:

• Why Appropriations, Finance, and Judiciary are the real power committees
• What Republicans say they want to do on health care—and what they’re afraid to touch
• How COVID-era subsidies quietly rewired expectations
• Why pharmacy benefit managers keep showing up in every reform conversation
• The political math behind “lowering costs” without detonating an election year
• And why the Senate is designed, above all else, to avoid “having a bad time”

It’s wonky by Snark Factor standards—but in the best way.
Also: a quick heads-up at the end about lost audio, where to find the longer versions of this conversation, and why not everything fits into a radio segment.
More writing, audio, and the weekday Snark Factor 3 in 3 live at FingersMalloy.com.
And if you want lighter, louder, and occasionally beef-related content, check out Eat, Drink, Smoke wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening.

Courage.

Four weekdays.
Twelve stories.
One calm look at how strange things actually got.

In the very first Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review, Fingers Malloy pulls together this week’s daily three-minute episodes into one sharp, measured scan of the news cycle — minus the yelling, the panic, or the fake urgency.

This week includes:

• Why a criminal investigation involving Jerome Powell somehow made central banking interesting — and why markets hate that feeling
• How Bitcoin ATMs became scam magnets, and why “just use the machine by the beef jerky” should always be a red flag
• A push to ban social media for kids under 16, and the awkward moment where lawmakers try to legislate parenting
• A nationwide Pecorino Romano recall upgraded by the Food and Drug Administration to its highest risk level — and why this is your sign to stop chewing
• FBI-style communication tricks that actually work in real life (and don’t require a badge)
• Why global powers are suddenly talking about Greenland, sugary drinks are getting cheaper, and some people are still threatening fast-food workers over refunds
• Retail sales, streaming wars, nose-picking science, and the quiet reminder that not every headline is a crisis — but none of them are nothing either

This is what 3 in 3 is meant to be:

Not hot takes.
Not outrage.
Just context, perspective, and one steady thought at a time.

Three stories.
Three minutes.
Every weekday.

This is The Snark Factor 3 in 3 — Week in Review.
I’m Fingers Malloy.

Let’s talk next week.

This week on The Snark Factor (WAMM Talk Radio), Fingers Malloy and Sarah Smith try to make sense of a world where the “big story” can change between Thursday’s recording and Sunday morning’s broadcast.

They dig into the online frenzy over Venezuela, the endless cycle of narrative-building, and why “two things can be true at the same time” might be the only usable philosophy left.

Then they tackle the Minneapolis ICE shooting—how partial clips shape public reaction, what the video appears to show, and why politicians and activists pushing civilians into confrontations with federal agents is a dangerous game.

And because you can’t do hard news forever, Fingers takes a sharp left turn into his most honest confession yet: playing hooky at 7 a.m. at Harrah’s, drinking coffee that tastes like “wax, powder, and shame,” overhearing the single most cursed sentence ever spoken on a casino floor, and leaving with two allegedly worm-free hot dogs.

Show notes (with timestamps)

0:00 – Quick plug: Eat, Drink, Smoke with Tony Katz

1:06 – Show setup: recording Thursday / airing Sunday; “what changes in between”

2:30 – Venezuela reaction + social media panic; skepticism vs celebration

9:40 – “Two things can be true at the same time” becomes the theme

15:35 – Minneapolis ICE shooting: what the video appears to show + the narrative war

19:22 – “Blue/gold dress” comparison: same footage, different “truths”

23:07 – Reset: hard news fatigue; FingersMalloy.com + podcast cadence

24:39 – Fingers plays hooky: 7 a.m. casino trip + video poker + cigar etiquette

36:13 – Overheard: “Older men give you worms… pinworms”

38:07 – Ford “eyes-off” autonomous driving + parallel parking disappearing

41:39 – Driver-assist paranoia: lane assist fights you, alarms everywhere

46:37 – Close + plugs: FingersMalloy.com / Three in Three / podcast platforms