Minnesota Fraud Explodes, LA & Australian terror + US Labor Sec Lori Chavez-DeRemer & OPM Director Scott Kupor

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary

Episode: Minnesota Fraud Explodes, LA & Australian terror + US Labor Sec Lori Chavez-DeRemer & OPM Director Scott Kupor
Date: December 16, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Notable Guests: U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, OPM Director Scott Kupor

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on a wide range of pressing issues: a massive Minnesota fraud scandal, left-wing extremism and terror plots in the U.S. and Australia, and features two major interviews with Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer and OPM Director Scott Kupor. The hosts dissect systemic failures in government oversight, discuss American worker policy, and respond in their signature irreverent, candid style.

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1. Key Discussion Points

Minnesota Fraud Scandal Exposed

Timestamps: [00:00]–[12:23]

• Massive Pandemic-era Fraud: Billions destined for aid—especially to feed children—were instead misappropriated or lost to organized fraud, including ties to international criminal networks.
• Lack of Accountability: The state, under Democratic Governor Tim Walz, failed to provide oversight—fraudulent entities billed millions from programs like "Feeding Our Future."
• Comedy in the Absurd: The hosts lampoon the state’s leadership, particularly Tim Walz’s attempts to deflect responsibility (including an oddly self-congratulatory claim about MSP Airport punctuality).

Memorable Quotes:

“The former vice presidential nominee, Tim Walls, he is just. Well, he is what he is. He's dumb, sort of fat...” — Holmes [02:31]

“Turns out that, like, a lot of the tax money that I contributed towards feeding children in need ended up in the hands of Al Shabaab and Somalia. And your response is, well, the planes are running on time because of me. Get out of here, dude.” — Smug [05:07]

• Investigative Journalism: Fox News visited "fraud incubator" buildings—registered as the business address of 22 schemes—to reveal the physical emptiness behind the bureaucratic paper trails.
• Systemic Oversight Failures: The group questions how such massive fraud could go undetected for so long and ridicules political excuses.

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Interview: Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer

Timestamps: [13:25]–[41:10]

• Mission and Approach: Chavez-DeRemer outlines a worker-focused Department of Labor (“every decision should be made through the eyes of the American men and women who built the country” [15:05]).

• Minnesota Fraud Response: The DOL is deploying strike teams to audit for further unemployment insurance fraud in Minnesota and other suspect states, after already recovering $1.4 billion nationwide.

• H-1B Fraud: She details Project Firewall, targeting abuse of work visas that undermine American workers.

• Workforce Revitalization:

  • Elevates trade schools and apprenticeships as vital for filling skilled labor gaps—highlighting high earning potential straight out of trade schools.
  • Emphasizes the importance of workforce flexibility, wage growth, and parental influence in educational choices.
  • Clear rejection of Democratic narratives on affordability and economic stewardship.

• AI and the Future of Labor:

  • Advocates for demystifying AI and preparing the workforce for technological change, stressing state-led skills initiatives and AI literacy.
  • “We have to be competitive for national security as well.” — Chavez-DeRemer [32:03]

Notable Quotes:

“No tax on tips, law enforcement, any construction, no tax on overtime… when the Biden administration cut wages by $3,000 a month and the Trump administration is now in the net positive of a thousand, that's a $4,000 delta.” — Chavez-DeRemer [27:00]

“I'm 57 years old… my dad was a teamster. Built things… The pride in doing so, that seemed to have gone away. The narrative was: go to a four year school...and that narrative is hard to change, but it's not impossible.” — Chavez-DeRemer [23:29]

Three Quick Personal Questions:

• Last meal: “Ribeye steak. Salt and pepper. A glass of red wine.” [34:09]
• Dream job if not in politics: “I would have loved to have been a judge. I think I’d have been good at that.” [35:22]
• Motivation: “I am [driven by] the agony of defeat… The recovery and the resilience.” [38:10]

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Commentary & Reaction: Minnesota Politics

Timestamps: [41:14]–[43:35]

• The hosts joke about Minnesota’s political class, lampooning Senator Tina Smith and the state’s inability to elect “big personalities.”

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Question of the Day

Timestamps: [43:36]–[49:17]

• Prompt to Audience: “What does the American worker need most right now?”
• Listener Comments: Satirical responses to various Democratic “delusions,” with hosts riffing on classic political gaffes and policy failures.

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Left-Wing Terror: LA and Australia

Timestamps: [49:17]–[64:29]

• LA Terror Plot Thwarted: FBI arrested would-be bombers associated with the “Turtle Island Liberation Front”—a left-wing, anti-American, pro-Palestinian extremist group.

  • Coordinated New Year’s Eve attacks were being planned.
  • Lists of suspects disclosed, group’s radical agenda analyzed.

• Rise of Left-Wing Extremism: The crew debates the roots: college radicalization, idle privilege, and misplaced blame on America.

• Australia’s Hanukkah Attack: A mass shooting during a Jewish festival, drawing sharp criticism from leaders who claim warnings were ignored.

  • Narrative: Governments prefer to “punish citizens” with more gun control rather than address the roots of radical religious violence.
  • Emphasis on the global trend: antisemitism as a radicalizing force.

Memorable Quotes:

“That is a terrorism opinion. And we can’t be unclear about that.” — Holmes [61:00]

“Pro-Palestinian cause is just another piece of flair for these people… What they are is just anti-Western civilization.” — Duncan [63:18]

• Critique of Democratic leadership (especially Chuck Schumer) for awkward and inadequate responses to anti-Semitic violence.

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Interview: OPM Director Scott Kupor

Timestamps: [65:59]–[81:56]

• Launch of US TechForce: Initiative aims to bring 1,000 early-career engineers (“modern software development, AI expertise”) into federal government.
  • Addresses both tech talent shortfalls and the aging federal workforce.
  • Private sector (Apple, Nvidia, OpenAI, etc.) involved in mentoring and placement.
• No Degree Requirement: “If you’ve never gone to college but you are the most killer developer in the world… we’re going to rank you top of the class.” — Kupor [71:06]
• Meritocracy Focus: Hiring and advancement based on skills instead of traditional credentials.

How Listeners Can Apply

• Applications open now at techforce.gov

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Variety Segment: UK Water “Rescue” & High School Football

Timestamps: [83:22]–[86:41]

• Comedic Relief: Video of UK firefighters “rescued” a woman from ankle-deep water draws laughter for the over-the-top response.
• High School Football: Dramatic last-second touchdown in Florida state championship provides a moment of celebration.

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2. Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• [02:31] Holmes on Minnesota Governor: “He is what he is. He's dumb, sort of fat...and an idiot.”
• [05:07] Smug: “A lot of the tax money… ended up in the hands of Al Shabaab and Somalia. And your response is, well, the planes are running on time because of me. Get out of here, dude.”
• [27:00] Chavez-DeRemer on tax cuts and real wages: “Biden administration cut wages by $3,000 a month… Trump… net positive of a thousand, that's a $4,000 delta.”
• [38:10] Chavez-DeRemer: “I am [driven by] the agony of defeat… The recovery and the resilience.”
• [55:49] Smug: “It's how you end up with like queers for Palestine. It's like anything left, they're like, oh, it's all one thing. And meanwhile they throw you off a roof.”
• [71:06] Kupor: “If you have never gone to college, but you are the most killer developer in the world… we're going to rank you kind of at the top of the class…”

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3. Tone & Format

All discourse is in the show’s trademark irreverent, sharp, and conversational style, often using sarcasm and dark humor to highlight absurdities in politics and policy.

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4. Essential Takeaways

• State-level corruption can easily balloon without oversight, especially when federal “slush funds” are distributed too quickly with little review.
• Federal agencies are responding with targeted strike forces and audit teams to investigate and recover misallocated taxpayer dollars.
• There is renewed conservative emphasis on labor force revitalization: promoting trade education, apprenticeships, domestic manufacturing, and programmatic hiring based on merit.
• Rising left-wing extremism, antisemitism, and global terror plots highlight the need for moral clarity and seriousness among leaders, not platitudes or deflection.
• New government initiatives are breaking old bureaucratic molds—especially in hiring for tech roles, opening career paths for younger, nontraditional applicants.

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5. Timestamps for Key Segments

• Minnesota Fraud Scandal: [00:00]–[12:23]
• Interview: Labor Sec. Lori Chavez-DeRemer: [13:25]–[41:10]
• Reaction/Minnesota Politics: [41:14]–[43:35]
• Listener Question of the Day: [43:36]–[49:17]
• Left-Wing Terror & Australia Attack: [49:17]–[64:29]
• Interview: OPM’s Scott Kupor / TechForce: [65:59]–[81:56]
• Variety Segment & Sports: [83:22]–[86:41]

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6. Final Thoughts

The episode is an energetic exposé on both government dysfunction and remedies, with colorful (and often pointed) commentary on contemporary politics, labor, and security. Both major interviews provide actionable insight for concerned citizens and potential jobseekers, while the hosts remind listeners of the importance of policy vigilance and plainspoken accountability.

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Key Question for Audience:

“What does the American worker need most right now?”
Responses will be featured in the next episode.

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Transcript

[A]

It turns out there's some fraud, Waste, fraud and abuse. No better time to think about how you're getting stolen from than when you're trying to put Christmas presents under the tree. No.

[B]

First off, this is not an educating people crime is wrong problem. This is a prosecuting criminals problem.

[A]

Democrats wanted to tack on these massive slush funds into states and localities which Republicans argued at the time rightly were gonna be ripe for waste, fraud and abuse because there was no oversight capability for any of it. Well, lo and behold, look what happens right now. We're talking about billions.

[C]

Our nation is standing up for American workers, restoring the pride of making products here at home. That's what we do every day. We're America's beverage companies, making American products with American workers in America's hometowns, delivering brands that have been enjoyed for generations.

[A]

Creating good paying jobs, the kind that require only a strong work ethic. Because we believe in the promise of.

[C]

America and the people who make it great. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[B]

Keep the faith, hold the line and own the lids.

[C]

It's time for our main event.

[A]

Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program, a program that is a bit of a newsmaker today. Well, you know, we like to make news almost every day, but this one in particular has got some meat to it.

[B]

This is gonna be a tremendous episode.

[A]

Yeah, we got the labor secretary here, Lori Chavez Durimer. We sure do. She's here and she's gonna break some news and we're gonna talk a little bit about the news that she's gonna break first before we get into it has to deal with that situation in Minnesota that we've been talking about. It turns out there's some fraud, waste, fraud and abuse. No better time to think about how you're getting stolen from than when you're trying to put Christmas presents under the tree.

[C]

Right, right.

[A]

And then we got Scott Cooper, OPM director with some major news.

[B]

Huge. Huge. I mean, this episode is basically like a salute to the American worker.

[A]

It kind of is. Yeah, it kind of is. Which is, you know, where our heads should be this time of year. I think maybe what we should do is just jump right into the fraud and then take it from there.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

It turns out there's not a whole lot of accountability to go around.

[D]

You don't say.

[A]

Yeah, no. The former vice presidential nominee, Tim Walls, he is just. Well, he is what he is. He's dumb, sort of fat.

[D]

And an idiot.

[A]

And an idiot and an idiot.

[D]

Dumb, fat idiot and a liar, too.

[C]

And A liar.

[A]

He's an idio.

[C]

Comes from upbringing. Parents are probably idiots too.

[B]

Yeah, it's good use of the board.

[E]

That is good.

[A]

Right up right off the top for people.

[D]

I want the listeners and viewers to know that pre show I gave Ashbrook some shit because he doesn't use it enough. So I'm glad to see he's taken that advice.

[A]

Well, he has. He's responded in kind. It seems like he's reaching for the board fast and furious right now, but. All right, so Tim Walls has had to deal with all this not very well. He's been on a bunch of different shows and tried to answer. He was like, yeah, that's why we're bringing all of this justice. And was like, well, you know, we're 6 billion light in the wallet before anybody could bring any justice. And it certainly wasn't Tim Walls who brought it. But here's clip one.

[C]

Yes, yes, I take responsibility for everything. I take responsibility for Covid, I take responsibility for George Floyd, I take responsibility for balancing the budgets and I do take responsibility for making this state one of the best in the country for children to live. So the outcomes. I also note to folks that one airport that has remained on time is Minneapolis St. Paul. I take responsibility for that. I appoint everybody to the Mac Council and I am fully responsible for it. So I'm not sure Minnesotans know that part. Yeah, they don't know that part because anybody who's flown through that airport has had a delay of some sort. They don't know that part because it's not true. Tim.

[A]

I gotta imagine just in politics in general, it's.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And he's probably, you know, he's pissed cuz somebody's blaming him for something that happened on his watch. That's the way Democrats operate, by the way.

[B]

Like what a sterling example of leadership. Yeah. Really. You're just gonna be so mad about all of this happening for years under your watch that you're gonna make a joke at try to just get pissy like grow up. You're the governor. The buck stops here.

[D]

It's the politician version of the interview question. What would you say is your greatest weakness? And you're like, I just, I care too much.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

I'm a real stickler to be on time.

[A]

I have a tendency to work too hard. Yeah, you know, that's part of the. Yeah, no, that's what this guy is doing here. And also just taking. I can't imagine being saddled with the on time arrivals of an airport is the best political Advice the guy could have received. But, you know, if you want to just hand us the printouts of MSP from here on out, we can happy to blame him for every delay.

[B]

Yeah, it turns out that, like, a lot of the tax money that I contributed towards feeding children in need ended up in the hands of Al Shabaab and Somalia. And your response is, well, the planes are running on time because of me. Get out of here, dude.

[A]

I know.

[B]

The voters get what you deserve. The voters get what you deserve. I always feel that.

[A]

Yeah, well, he's got more to say about all of this. The way of justifying, Remember his first inclination was to come out against President Trump because he correctly pointed out that this is happening in Somali communities in north Minneapolis with no accountability whatsoever by state officials because they see him more as a constituency that they hope to indoctrinate rather than like humans that are worth taking a look at if they're committing crimes. Well, anyway, clip two to blame them.

[C]

And say that they should have been responsible for stopping it, I think that's a pretty hard reach. I think we continue to educate folks about why they shouldn't commit crimes, and we hope that it's being taught both at home and at schools and in our society. But no, I think this idea that the Somali community is to blame for this because they didn't do more. I think that's how we got into this. And that's, you know, again, don't. I know we're not going to lose the whole plot here. All this work is being done. Donald Trump brought this to the attention like, this is something brand new. This is not brand new.

[E]

Amazing.

[C]

Been being worked on, but he made it white hot and very dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

[B]

Can I say, he has lost the plot. And I think that's a central problem between, like, liberals and conservatives. Here is when he's like, you know, we're doing everything I can to. We can to try to educate people that crime is wrong. No, first off, this is not an educating people crime is wrong problem. This is a prosecuting criminals problem. It's not your job as governor to be like, maybe I should come up with a curriculum to try to teach these people that fraud is wrong. No, your job is to lock up the criminals and to keep your taxpayers safe and to not let them get taken advantage of. This is unbelievable. Like, seeing it as, oh, you know, we gotta educate people. You shouldn't steal from us.

[C]

Are you familiar, you know, that $8 billion somebody got away with stealing? Next time it might not be so Easy justice. Read this curriculum. You won't be able to steal 8 billion again.

[D]

Isn't that really the heart of it? It's like, how is it that 8B in fraud could happen without you noticing a B? Like, that's the thing is, like, it's not even on the prosecution side or the education side, as ridiculous as that sounds. But how do you lose track of $8 billion without somebody figuring it out first?

[E]

If you can't figure it out if.

[D]

The first billion, what the hell are you doing?

[A]

Well, yeah, if you choose to ignore it.

[E]

Right.

[A]

But that's what the whole thing was to begin with, is that Democrats argued strenuously during COVID that states and localities needed slush funds. It's why these initial efforts to try to make sure that people who were thrown out of their jobs were supplemented but could only get over the finish line because Democrats wanted to tack on these massive slush funds into states and localities, which Republicans argue at the time, rightly, we're gonna be ripe for waste, fraud, and abuse because there was no oversight capability for any of it. Well, lo and behold, look what happens right now. We're talking about billions being gone. And what is it with these assholes in crime, by the way? Way. Yeah, it doesn't matter if it's like street crime, white collar crime, just rampant tax fraud. They always see it the same way. It's like, you know, if only there was a curriculum. If only there was a, you know, maybe like. And you get stabbed and they're like, oh, a social worker could have prevented all of that.

[B]

It's like, dude, you stop seeing the criminal as the victim and start caring about the victims and in this case, taxpayers.

[A]

It's unbelievable. So Fox News did an updated piece on this about this massive fraud scheme that's now at least over a billion dollars, where they visited several locations that received funding through programs like Feeding Our Future and found several inconsistencies exposing the depth of the scandal. The now infamous Griggs Midway building housed unusual concentration of fraudulent entities involved in the HSS scheme. According to Acting U.S. attorney Joseph Thompson, 22 businesses connect connected with the HSS program were registered to this single location. So, like, I mean, I don't know what the number is. Well, they say later on that 22 fraudulent businesses build Medicaid for a staggering $8 million. Eight billion.

[B]

Oh, eight million.

[A]

I'm sorry, $8 million in 11 months.

[B]

22. And I love they put businesses in quotes because these are just like entities created that don't actually do shit and.

[D]

The government is sending that $8 million to 22 businesses all registered at the same address.

[A]

Same address.

[D]

And like nobody that. That doesn't like raise a red flag in the system.

[A]

I mean, I guess it's the point, right, is that you would only not find that to be curious if the whole goal was to ignore it in the first place. Which is what we're seeing here. And this whole thing has just been. Here's a picture of the building, by the way, in graphic one. Amazing, well appointed. That looks like an 8 million doll for our listeners.

[B]

This is why you want to be on the YouTube to see this. It is the most obviously empty abandoned building ever. And it says on the side of it space available. And just not like, yes, this looks like the kind of building that would house 22 outfits that should be billing the government $8 million. It was like they went to Google Maps and searched abandoned building.

[E]

It's so.

[A]

And now it's all that thing back up there. I mean, seriously, I blame first of all, not tearing something like that down.

[C]

Look at it.

[A]

My gosh, what an eyesore.

[B]

Is available in size 3000 font.

[A]

Oh, geez. Just a terrible looking oun. That's like a 1950s sort of like.

[B]

Like the most clearly abandoned. Like if you walk in there, I'd Wager it's like 50, 50. You're gonna get stabbed by a hoax. This is not a place of business.

[A]

Oh, you're looking for floor too. That's the meth distribution center, right? We have hookers and PO Glow on the top floor. We're running small arms out of the basement.

[E]

It's unbelievable.

[B]

And kudos to Fox News Digital. They're like, we actually went to the building. This is what they had.

[A]

This is what we found.

[C]

A fraud incubator. I don't think I. I don't think.

[A]

I'd knock on that door though. I mean you can get all kinds of different.

[C]

Yuck.

[D]

Anyway, one more thing I wanted to point out here is Tim Waltz's life lying about Minneapolis St. Paul Airport. There are 90 delays today and five cancellations according to Flight aware.

[C]

We should call him Liar. He said he's taking Liar.

[D]

This is the time. This is the time to hit the board. Ashbrook.

[A]

Yeah, that's the board. The board thing. The reason we have that.

[B]

Liar.

[A]

There we go, that's good.

[C]

Got to rearrange that now.

[A]

Well, yeah, we got it got put together after all. All right, so coming on up, we have Lori Chavez de Rimmer. She's the secretary of labor and she's going to talk a lot about what we just cover and what the Department of Labor is doing about it. You're going to want to hear it because it's pretty important right after this.

[C]

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[A]

Want to welcome to the program somebody we've been anxious to have here live and in person. She's the Secretary of Labor. That is Lori Chavez. Darimer, how are you?

[F]

Way to go. That's a good job. On my name, We've never talked about it, so it's even better.

[A]

What I wanted to do was overly pronounced, make sure that I had, you know, separation from some of my colleagues that apparently have a problem with my name.

[F]

Well, it's funny that you say Secretary of Labor. I was sitting. I went to a UFC fight.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

A couple months ago. And I happened to be sitting next to Shaquille o'. Neal. Okay. I've never met him. I was. But you can imagine, right. He's a large individual and he's on the end and I'm here. But he was, you know, like all men do, sit with their legs wide open, take up the whole thing. And I'm like, do you think I could just sit in my little part of the chair? And we started laughing. But it was funny because he says, who are you? Like, why are you here in the front row? But the reason I brought this up is because you said secretary of Labor. And I told him, and he was like, what is. What is that? Like, what is even that? But some people across the country really don't know what a secretary of labor does in the administration. It's one of the lower profile departments or agencies. But since I've been there in the year, it's one that touches all Americans from the time that, you know, through education, their current jobs, future jobs, and into retirement. And so I work with all the agencies, but it's. So anyway, it's funny, Secretary of Labor, people are like, what do they even do they do anything?

[A]

You gave a little primer, maybe. Let's expound a little bit. We've got some things that we want to talk about. But I mean, look, the Secretary of Labor, obviously, for those of us who have been around this world for a while, it is quite important. You got your hands in a whole bunch of different stuff.

[F]

Yeah, that's the good part. And under maybe other administrations, it might be different. The focus or the intentionality of what is the Labor Secretary going to actually do? And sometimes in the past administrations muck up everything that you can. But in this administration, it's simple. Every decision should be made through the eyes of the American men and women who built the country. That's it. That's the simplicity of it. And then go out and do your job and, and have the ease, ability of understanding what the laws are there to protect you, help you, and help businesses and the employees across the board. So for me, when people say, is this job hard? I think if not, if I use that lens, it doesn't seem all that hard. It's just you have to show up every day.

[A]

You gotta have the hard work.

[F]

Yeah, it's the lens.

[A]

Well, there's so much about Democratic control over the last 20, 30 years where if they get their hands on the Department of Labor and it's all about sort of institutionalizing their political advantages and creating ridiculous policy. And every time there's a Republican Secretary of Labor that gets in there, most are overwhelmed, honestly, in the first couple of months because they look around and they're like, good Lord, this entire place is just built to fail.

[F]

Yeah. A million square feet, 14,000 employees. And you're thinking, what do you do every day? What does this mean? How do you answer the call for every state? And there's a bunch of different. Right. We have 19 different agencies. For most people, they would say, what are those? They'll recognize osha. They'll recognize mostly for bad reasons. For bad reasons. Maybe there's an enforcement or they're fearful or they don't know how to navigate it. But you mentioned a 30 year rule and I mentioned, I live In Oregon.

[A]

Yeah.

[F]

30 years of Democratic rule up close and personal, served as a mayor, served in Congress representing a very, very purple district in Oregon. And so navigating that is one thing, but under this administration, when you're in the driver's seat of good policy, that can withstand the next hundred years, which is the goal of this president, not just three years, and then have it overturned in the courts. But we're talking about workforce apprenticeships, focusing on the American worker, the best jobs, more money in their pocket, flexibility, and knowing that choice for businesses and employees is the best economic driver we can offer, not mandates. And usually in the opposite, it's the mandates that people are tired of and they want that flexibility.

[A]

Very well said. We've covered on the program here for the last couple of weeks what's been going on in Minnesota.

[F]

Yes.

[A]

And typically, I think people think of the Department of Labor and they wonder what the overlap is in terms of how you can figure out where obvious fraud is going on in a whole bunch of different areas. But it sounds to me like you all, in addition to all of the labor components, employment components, that you do pay special attention to how people can game the system or not game the system. And it feels like in Minneapolis, you got to be involved there too.

[F]

Absolutely. Well, you know, any program that is, you know, somewhat comes through the federal government, whether it's. You've heard a lot of newsworthy breaks on the SNAP program, fraudulent behavior on that part of it. But I'm talking about unemployment insurance. And you know, there's different parts of unemployment insurance. That's a fund that people count on. It was established for a very distinct reason, and that was to bridge the gap between, through no fault of anybody's, their own, if somebody loses their job and it's a bridge to get him to the next job, that's a pretty understandable thing to have and what something might be offered. But under Covid, under the CARES act, we saw all of those dollars being printed and pumped into the system, which of course we'll talk about probably inflation at some point. But that being said, it has now been an organized criminal activity that people will weigh in and say there's a break here. Nobody paid attention. The oversight wasn't there from Congress. It was fast paced to deliver a lot of unemployment insurance. And then a lot of the blue states, maybe Minnesota and Minneapolis, maybe not the whole state. So I hate to paint it all in one picture, but certainly one area of Florida, Portland of Oregon or Minneapolis of Minnesota, where the state will then take advantage, is what you saw. And they asked for a lot of the waivers to continue these programs to offer, you know, more unemployment for a longer period of time. Now we're seeing the fraudulent behavior and we've recovered so many dollars even since the administration and $1.4 billion we returned to the treasury already to think about that. And that's just from taking a little bit of a peek under the covers. And now we saw the fraudulence come out of Minnesota. So today we have sent a letter to the state to say we will send out one of our unemployment insurance strike teams to determine where else is the fraudulent behavior happening. Because the American people don't deserve this. The American people who believe their dollars are going for one specific reason, and that's to keep that trust fund whole and spend the dollars where they're needed and not where they're taken advantage of. And, you know, we've uncovered a lot of those, and now we'll continue. And we've. We've had these strike teams go out and they're, you know, dol employees. We'll work with our regional offices to deploy that. But the President has been clear fraudulence has no place in any government. And that goes from the local all the way up. But at the federal level, organized crime happens, and we have the enforcement capabilities to take care of that. And that's what we're going to continue to do.

[C]

It's such a big deal that you're digging in on this kind of fraud. And I know this is sort of, maybe this is the next step, because I know you've dug in on a lot of H1B absolutely. Problems, and you've identified a bunch of problems with H1B. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.

[F]

Yeah. So we started our enforcement project firewall. H1B program was again established for a specific reason. When there are companies who cannot find employees in the United States of America to fill in the gap of a necessary, you know, high, you know, tech job or any sort, then they advertise to the public. That might be one possibility that they're required to do to get into the system. They might fraudulently abuse that. And then once in the system, the H1B system, they take advantage by not posting an accurate job description, by posting from an employer that's not even there. Once they have the employee on, if they let that employee go, they do not report back out to USCIS to know where that employee is in the United States.

[A]

Essentially just.

[F]

Just blanket usefulness. But at the end of the day, what we want to do is protect the American worker. So if you're going to use cheap foreign labor to displace an American worker, we're not going to allow that. And that's why Project Firewall was so important. We want to make sure we have a trained workforce here in America first. And that's again through that lens that the President has so passionately fought for and continues to fight for. So again, it's an easy task to take on, to say, wait a minute, have we not been doing this all along? And doing it right and you know, we're going to be sued by whoever chooses to, Oregon being one of them who wants to sue on whether it's the $100,000 fee. But why not protect the American worker first? It doesn't make sense to me. And common sense is, you know, first and foremost, what is at least the first step we should take.

[C]

Yeah, it does make so much sense. And you said something earlier that really caught my ATT about trade schools and about training up this workforce. There's so many opportunities out there for American workers. And you know, when we were coming up, everybody was like, oh, you got to go to the four year school, you got to get your, you know, your Gen ed degree or whatever. But there's so many opportunities for younger people to go to trade schools and to actually, really, really make their way in this world. And I wonder, you could just talk a little bit about that because it is a design desirable thing in this country to go to a trade school and to actually work with your hands and do something to make a better place.

[A]

Yeah, go figure.

[C]

And there's all kinds of opportunities that you guys are involved in now that just, you know, 10, 20 years ago weren't real.

[F]

Yeah, I think there's a couple of topics there that I think we can touch on. One probably about a 30 year narrative. I mean, I'm 57 years old. I was the first to go to college in my family. My dad was a teamster. Built things, you know, with your hands. The pride in doing so, that seemed to have gone away. The narrative was go to a four year school, get whatever degree parents struggled to pay for you to go to school, they went in debt on their own. And that narrative is hard to change, but it's not impossible. And I think with this president being, and I call him the President of the American Worker because he gets it, he understands that side of it, that blue collar men and women of this country should be proud to build with their hands. And you know, when shop class went away, all of that was gone. We now have to dig ourselves out of that. And then the policies that this last administration put in didn't help. So I focus on apprenticeships, I focus on the 700,000 job gap that we have for our Electricians, our machinists, our pipe fitters, our plumbers. All of that we need today. We still need our engineers, we still need all of our high degree employees, but we need the tradesmen and women, the craftsmen who can build instead of the foreign labor. So we focus on apprenticeship programs. We want private sector jobs, not just public sector jobs. So now private companies are investing a lot in the apprenticeship programs. We have increased. Since January, 290,000 new apprenticeships have been registered. Over 2,300 apprenticeship programs have been registered. And a lot of those are now with private companies who at one point maybe were afraid to say, why would I register with the Department of Labor? Why would I want to do that? Well, one, because we're on a mission to build in America, buy in America and have the reinvestments. We want to capitalize on the impressments in the President's trade negotiations. If you're going to bring in $18 trillion.

[E]

Yeah.

[F]

And we're going to build, you have the workforce that goes behind it. And that's, that's part of my job. So there's a lot to do, but we can't do it without conversations like this because it's the parents a lot of times who are like, yeah, right, but you can make a six figure job. I mean, I talked to Mike Farley from Ford. Some of their employees that they're training, they can make $180,000 a year coming right out of trade school. And it's not going to take four years. It's not going to cost you.

[C]

I can think of two guys who I went to high school with, they did not do the four year degree. They are electricians and they're the ones with lake houses.

[A]

No, it's true.

[F]

They at least invite you, though. That's the question.

[C]

Maybe now, maybe now that I'm talking to you, they're getting a shot.

[D]

Yeah, seriously, let's send OSHA their way.

[F]

Yeah, that's it.

[A]

You got those tools, too.

[D]

I wanted to broaden it out for a second. Sort of the state of the American worker. Right. And the challenges they face. How much of that is workforce development that we've touched on here? How much of it is getting investment into manufacturing and things like that here in the United States? And then how much of it is sort of the, is it wages? Is it on that side of the equation? If you could kind of describe the challenges the American worker faces today and how we're going to dig ourselves out of that.

[F]

Yeah. President laid the way, I think with this one Big, beautiful bill. We called it that during its time in legislation, you know, to get it over the finish line. And then the working family tax cut, you know, people were like, oh, another word. But think about it. Working families want to keep more of their hard earned dollars. That's a tax cut. Making those permanent, you know, from, from the previous Trump administration. But no tax on tips. So what do I do? I travel the country talking to the American men and women on my 50 state tour. 36 out of until the 43 day shutdown. We have 14 states to go, which now puts me in North Dakota and South Dakota and Iowa in January. Did Congress even ask me if I wanted to wait? What's happening? The 43 day shutdown put me in wintertime in North Dakota. But you know, the concern there is that, you know, we have a lot of service industry who want the no tax on tips, law enforcement, any of any construction, no tax on overtime. When that is realized and you think that they can, you know, when the Biden administration cut wages by $3,000 a month per family and the Trump administration is now in the net positive of a ousand, that's a $4,000 delta.

[B]

Yeah.

[F]

You raise families.

[A]

Yeah, it's a big deal.

[F]

200, 300, $700 a month more in your pocket is the difference between making the choices for your kids, where they go to school, whatever it is, a new car, a new car payment, putting gas, utilities, all of that is what the family actually talks about.

[C]

Right.

[F]

And I know this affordability terminology. People want to own it. I can tell you Democrats, not a chance in hell should they own affordability.

[A]

It's an amazing concept for all of us to even hear them levy the argument.

[F]

That's right.

[A]

I mean, after the last four years, the idea that they woke up sometime this fall and said, you know, things are expensive. Yeah, well, maybe the 6 trillion dropped on everybody with no accountability whatsoever could have played a role at something like that.

[F]

Could have played a role at some point. And when I think about it or when I talk to the men and women, they're like, I just want more opportunity to work more hours. I want some flexibility. Obviously with safety precautions in there. We want to make sure we're protecting the employee as well and working with compliance of our employers. Not mandating yes, no, yes, no, but the freedom to move about the cabin within their own world. But you hear people say, I work harder and it seems like I don't still take home more money.

[A]

Totally.

[F]

So if they can keep more of their hard earned dollars, that's the working family tax cut. No tax on Social Security for our seniors who've worked hard their whole life. Maybe they're not ready to retire and they want some supplemental income, but the Social Security, they don't want it overtaxed. It's those kind of ideas and innovation that the White House puts out. It's easy to go talk about, and people understand that. So it's the buying power that I talk about from those dollars. What does $1 buy for a family? And that's so affordability. Sure, you want to use whatever terminology, but it's the buying power of the dollar. And do they have more of those dollars that they chose to work for and then keep? And so it's the simplicity in that. Doesn't seem that hard to translate, but we have to get out there and do the work.

[A]

But you got to do it because.

[F]

The Democrats should not own it. They don't. They shouldn't even have the luxury of talking about it, in my opinion.

[A]

No, I totally agree. One of the things that I love that you're doing here is contextualizing all of these pieces because, you know, you look at the grand anxieties of the American people when it comes to a labor force and looking towards the future, everybody's like, what AI? What does AI mean? What are all of these changes in the environment in terms of our labor force mean for the next generation, our kids and whatnot? And I think just some like 10 minutes, you've laid out exactly what you're talking about here. I mean, you're doing a special new emphasis, if you will, with trade skill. That's not going anywhere.

[F]

That's right.

[A]

You just need that and then an adaptability within a workforce to ensure that you can build on each successive generation in a way that puts more money into people's pockets. It's not out of fear, I guess, is what I'm saying.

[F]

Yeah. Demystifying the fact that. So let's talk about AI. I mean, that's something that people are like, did that just happen? Well, AI has been around for 20, 20 years. Generative AI might be a little bit different. Right. Some people are using AI within its own application. ChatGPT, whatever. ChatGPT. The kids use it. But generative AI is probably where the uncertainty happens. What will it create over time? As we put more information into AI, it's transformational, at least from the labor market's perspective. This is going to assist our employees. It's going to assist our employers to maybe refocus their dollars or their investments in order into the workforce. So I spend a lot of time with Department of Education, which the President has been clear he wants to give more to the states, the autonomy to the states to determine it. So there's some Department of Education employees coming over to dol the grant dollars. We want those right in the hands of the states who are focusing on apprenticeships, trades, trade skills, the CTEs, the community colleges, right in their own communities. And we're saying to them, listen to the market demands and draw a straight line to the workforce that you need not being, you know, convoluted by bureaucracy in Washington, D.C. so I work with Linda McMahon, I work with Kelly Loeffler at the Small Business Center Administration to hear what they're saying. It's not the Department of Labor's job to determine market demands, but it's my job to skill the workforce to fit the demands of today. And AI is here to stay. And the President has said we're going to win this AI race because, you know, who's not stopping? China, Russia. Every other country doesn't see the boundaries. And in the United States, we can't see the boundaries either. We need to be thinking ahead of the game. So we're going to demystify what that is. I sit on the AI task force, and we want to make sure we're getting the dollars out to the respective states so that every future worker is literate in AI and proficient in AI, because that's the job of the Department of Labor, is to make sure they have the skills needed to take on the jobs and be competitive. And we have to be competitive for national security as well.

[A]

It's the best framing. It's true. You're right. I mean, there's so many people want to push up against gravity and you can't. You got to figure out the best way to deal with it from a workforce standpoint, make sure that next generation has a little bit better.

[F]

But we have to prove it to the American people, too. So we have to put the controls in place. So we're creating the AI, an AI hub at the Department of Labor to go out and find out what is happening. Where are they? Let's gather the information. Let's listen into the private sector, take in their information as well, to know are we on the right track for the skilled workforce. You know, we don't want to just haphazardly go spend more money somewhere else. And it not, you know, prove out to be the right metrics that really well said.

[A]

So we ask every Guest that comes in here for the first time. Three questions. They're kind of fun.

[F]

Okay.

[A]

And they're the ones that people really listen to. All right, so you've got.

[F]

Forget all this other labor stuff.

[A]

A unique background. And so I'm interested in this question primarily, if you could plan your last meal on Earth.

[F]

Yes.

[A]

I imagine you've given this some thought. What would it be?

[F]

Steak.

[B]

Ribeye.

[E]

Ribeye.

[F]

I love a good rib eye steak. If it's not the whole rib eye, a strip steak. Fine. You know, I'll take that portion of it. And I wouldn't eat anything else with it. I really love. I mean, fine. I'm okay with sides. I don't know. Caesar salad is always good.

[A]

Immaterial.

[F]

But a ribeye cooked. Salt and pepper. You don't need all of the other stuff. I really would want a steak.

[A]

Maybe just a little glass of red wine in there.

[F]

Okay. That's my side.

[A]

Absolutely. Why not? All right, second question. You've done a lot. Mayor, local official, member of Congress, secretary of labor, small business owner. At one point. Now, at this stage in your career, you have a chance to look back at all of your life's experiences, and there's probably. If you could just do it all over again. The one thing that, like, you didn't do, but you really wanted to, or you think you're like, man, I would have really would have been good at that.

[F]

Yep.

[A]

Do you have something that could be.

[C]

It could be anything. Ted Cruz said he would have been in the NBA.

[F]

Okay, no, I would not have been in the NBA ever. I'm five two, and I've been five two since I was two years old.

[B]

Neither would he.

[F]

So there you go.

[C]

Yeah, he.

[F]

Well, I don't know if his would be height, but whatever the NBA. But yes, I would have loved to have been, and I think I would have been a good judge. Now, listen, I've met a lot of attorneys now, and I think when I came into this job, people said, well, she's not the typical labor. Right. My pathway here was you don't wake up and think you're gonna be the labor secretary. And you certainly don't think you're a labor secretary without being have a labor law degree. Because that's really kind of been the past. Not just an average American who cares about the workforce. So that. That's one pathway. But now, since then, I've met a lot of judges or a lot of attorneys, and I'm thinking, oh, I'm not so sure. I would have wanted to be an attorney, I might want to bypass that and just be a judge. I think you could be a sheriff without being a law enforcement officer. So I think you could be a judge without being an attorney. I think that's fair, maybe.

[A]

And the amount of legal disputes that you probably sit and watch people argue over in front of your desk. Yeah.

[F]

It feels like I have never been sued personally until now. As a labor secretary, I have my name on every lawsuit in America that has to do with. I'm like, fun. Yeah. But a judge would have been something that I think, you know, I went to college, put my husband through medical school, and decided to be a stay at home mom and raise my twins. And I really was out of the workforce until we started our company. And then I did the volunteer, you know, mayor and kind of the public service side of it. And that was the one thing I thought I could have done, that I should have gone back and done it at night school, whatever, all that.

[A]

That's a good answer.

[F]

And I just wish I had. And just to have it in my back pocket whether I would have used it or not. But a judge would have been, I love it.

[A]

I love it.

[C]

It is. And so responsible too. I mean, so many other people are like, ah, I'd have been a pro golfer. I'd have been an astronaut.

[A]

80% pro astronaut.

[F]

But it's the one thing, it sits back here that's good.

[A]

That's good. Wants to make a difference in people.

[C]

Yes. No, we could use some good judges right now.

[A]

All right, so the third question. We think that almost every successful person in the world is motivated by one of two things. We sort of colloquially refer to it as the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. And it's not that anybody doesn't love to win or that anybody, like, doesn't or likes losing. It's what motivates you to take the next step, right? To really dig in and say, like, I'm gonna get to this next level. Put in the extra effort. And our prototypical agony of defeat. Guys like Michael Jordan, right? Where he had to just like, invent sleights in order to take his game to the next level. And like, in the sports analogy, Phil Mickelson is a golfer. Just the ultimate thrill of victory guy, he could play it safe when never did was like, oh, I can do that. Sure, I can do it. You know, it's just like, it balanced out in his career, but it's what he'd used to take the next step. If you consider where you're at. In that compendium. Do you have an answer for this?

[F]

Yes.

[A]

You're an agony gal, aren't you?

[F]

I am.

[C]

And you knew I loved her.

[F]

I mean, the thrill of victory is great, but I think if you can reflect a little bit, I mean, you're like, I will always get there through a heartbeat. Right. If you've been given the foundation of hard work, I think you always know you're going to succeed at some point somewhere. Defeat is hard when you really try to work hard. But I think what's harder is being defeated more than once at the same thing. And then you're like, what is it that I'm gonna. How am I going to reach that pinnacle? So it's the in between is actually the answer. It is the recovery and the resilience. I think most people will fall short after one or two times of like, you know what? I'm just gonna go another pathway. It's the same pathway and the recovery. So then when the victory happens, you're like, I knew. I knew I could. But I don't know if people learn the recovery part of it very well.

[A]

It's what separates the most successful people from. That's why we do the question. And for Laurie Chavez Darimer, I think if the idea that somebody's gonna pull one over on her.

[F]

Not happening.

[A]

That seems like a driving force.

[F]

Yeah, that's right. It is. It is. I mean, raising a family, all of that, you know, the next generation coming up behind you. Did you leave good, you know, a pathway for somebody else to walk in it or, you know, you always think, do I have enough tail coverage, liability to cover what I just left behind, too? Sometimes you're like, oh, I left. I burned that one down. We'll see what happens there. But, you know, I've got twin girls who are 31 now.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

Making their way. You wonder. And I have a grandson now. He's nine months old. And you're like, okay, wow. This is the new. This is the legacy. So get it right. Sometimes it doesn't happen right the first time.

[A]

Yeah. No question about it. Well, you're doing a great job.

[F]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you for coming in. You're welcome anytime.

[F]

I would love to. Yeah, I would love to. You guys are awesome. Thanks for what you're doing. Thanks for talking about all the stuff. Most people, they gotta know.

[A]

People have to know this stuff.

[F]

But you kind of talk about it at a level where it matters now.

[A]

It's because we're not very smart.

[F]

Yeah, well, I'M not buying that. But simplicity helps. Whether you want to call that not smart, I think you have to just talk to the people and forget about all this other.

[A]

Eliminate the acronyms of which your whole life is incorporated.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[F]

I sat at a table this morning with all of my agency heads. 19 of them. I was like, I'm pretty sure I know what all of those acronyms are. Why should I know those? With 19 of them, I shouldn't, but I do.

[A]

It's a different language.

[F]

It is a crazy language here in Washington and across the board, but it's an honor to do this job. It's an honor to serve the President of the United States. It's an honor to sit in a cabinet full of normal people. We all work well together. The President's agenda is clear. And I don't wake up every day thinking, what am I supposed to do today? I know what I have to do today and tomorrow and for the next four years.

[A]

Well, thank you for doing it. Really appreciate it. Lori Chavez, Darimer. You're welcome back anytime.

[F]

Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

[A]

Okay, fellas. I mean, look, great interview. This is the first time I had met her. I know you had talked to her last year, but. Charming.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, and she's getting to the bottom of this stuff, you know, this is a woman who is taking her job very seriously, obviously. Working so hard to make sure that everybody has access to opportunities and employment and everything, but also getting to the bottom of fraud and unemployment insurance fraud, specifically in Minnesota. I can't wait to have her back to hear what she comes up with.

[A]

Yeah, my guess is she'll find something there.

[B]

It's like untold horrors. I mean, serious Minnesota hotbed of crime and fraud.

[A]

Well, when you see who they got mined in the store, it's like, of course. And any of those two senators, they. I always see that Tina Smith, you know, I think she's retiring or something. So they're trying to fill that. Every time she pops on the screen, I have two reactions immediately. First one is like, who the fuck is that?

[C]

Right, right.

[A]

Cause it looks like anybody's aunt who's had, like, you know, 30 years of alcoholism.

[E]

Oh, my God, what a blast.

[B]

We do not know that. Please don't sue us.

[A]

No, no, I'm not saying. Looks like. I'm not saying she has or not.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

I'm just saying, okay. There are many people similarities. But then the second thing is, like, this has got to be the least impressive human that I've seen. I can't believe she's United States Senator.

[C]

Right. And Minnesota's a place of big personality.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Right. You know, you got Herb Brooks.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Why can't you find a Herb Brooks acolyte to be in the Senate? Why do you have to have a nothing like Tina Smith? I don't understand it. And they're like, bigar. You know, somebody goes to her with a fraud claim, she's like, bring me my comb. I need a salad right now. I'm gonna stab you with it. How about just like ignore me?

[A]

I can't get it. They can't get it. They're going to have to do something. They got a couple of opportunities. There's a governor election, which Walls is on the ballot and they got a Senate election there. Let's see if they can get it right.

[C]

Is Mike Madonna live in Minnesota still?

[A]

Oh, gosh. He would get elected if he was. No, but Ken Herbeck does.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

Oh, dude, that would be great.

[A]

You know, he would be fantastic. I don't know.

[D]

Good things don't happen in Minnesota.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Seriously, Warren Moon.

[D]

You're going to get Jesse Ventura. That's the best.

[A]

We start winning football games after we're eliminated from the playoffs. That's about the way that about the size of it. But anyway, it is what it is. It leads us all to our question of the day, which we had a lot to think about from the Secretary of labor. What does the American worker need most right now? She talked a lot about the facets of it. I think there's a ton to consider there. But you think about your own community and what is the answer to that question? What does the American worker need most right now? When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments. Get back to the very next episode. So do that. And when we come back, your comments from last episode, which is which Democrat delusion is the most grand. There is a lot to choose from right after this. Some things stand the test of time, like America's farmers. And they deserve high quality, built to last machines with technology that reduces inputs and saves them money and time. That's why John Deere is investing billions in American factories and launching new tools to help customers repair their machines to keep building for their future. Empowering our customers, building America because our nation counts on our farmers and John Deere is proud.

[E]

They can count on us.

[A]

Paid for by John Deere.

[F]

I am a coach and an alum of girls on the run. Kids today carry a lot of stress from school pressure to social isolation. To overuse of devices. We created space where girls can connect, build confidence and learn skills like managing emotions, setting goals and speaking up. Each child's experience is different and families need support. I'm proud to be part of a comprehensive solution to youth mental health. Get involved [e-mail].

[A]

Okay, so when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments when you leave them for our Question of the Day Our last question of the day is which Democratic delusion is the most grand? We've covered a lot of them and it's hard.

[B]

Hell of a question.

[A]

Yeah, it's a hell of a question to get back to. We always start with a voice first.

[C]

One comes from Conservative Cookout and Conservative Cookout writes, the grandest delusion of the Democrat Party is that they think they have been successful with any of their policies over the last four decades. Every policy they propose ends in fraud, inflation, criminals being called outstanding citizens or outstanding citizens being called criminals.

[A]

That is so true.

[F]

It is.

[C]

What an abject failure they truly are. That's it, man. Conservative Cookout.

[A]

Yeah, just.

[B]

He's cooking.

[A]

Put the meal on it. Dunks. What do we got?

[D]

Comment to is from Cole. Garrett Cole writes, sure, we have a buffet of Current Affair delusional statements by Demps, but I love the classics. Number one, I did not have sex with that woman.

[B]

Wild Billy C. She attributes it to.

[D]

Wild Billy C. Which I love.

[C]

Nickname Bill Clinton.

[D]

And number two, I invented the Internet.

[C]

Al Gore.

[D]

I think that might be my favorite of all time.

[A]

It might be because there's absolutely zero overlap in terms of making that claim. Yeah, it's wildly inaccurate.

[C]

Baseless.

[A]

He went with it, though.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

He also, I think, predicted that our whole world would be done.

[B]

I think polar ice casters must have melted like 20 years ago at this point.

[A]

Yeah, I'm Pretty sure by 2025 or at least 2026, we were all supposed to be it was going to have Daisy.

[D]

He had. He had a graph and he had the scissor chair that went all the.

[C]

Way up the Earth has a fever.

[B]

You remember that? What an idiot.

[A]

So true. And he had that weird kind of effeminate dialect.

[B]

He got what he wanted out of it is a bunch of funding for his Flim flam bullshit. Free PJs to like Davos every year to give the same talk about how we're all going to be dead in 12 months. 12 months later he's back again. We're all going to be dead in 12 months. Yeah, eventually people are like, well, we're not dead. Why are we flying this idiot in that way?

[D]

Al Gore really is a pioneer of that government NGO grift. Yeah, you know, totally. He really.

[B]

He's not the father. He's the father of the NGO grift. No.

[A]

It's a hell of a thing. Smug. What do we got?

[B]

Comment 3 from HCG. HCG writes the biggest Dem delusion is that their policies are all brilliant and great for the country. They just have a quote messaging problem. It is not that their policies are bad and have failed countless times before. It's that Dem elites have not yet figured out how to explain their ingenious policies to the rest of us. Commoners. Dead on, dude. Obamacare is probably the prime example of exactly that. Where they're like, no, you don't see, you don't understand. We just have to message it better. Remember when they put out that whole thing of like, they had pajama boy and they're like, talk to your families this Christmas about. And then like years later, as Republicans said, it's all falling apart, it's all bloated and causing costs to go up. They're like, boy, Republicans, gotta fix this one for us. Incredible.

[A]

Yeah. And then they show up and they're like, well, if you don't throw more tax dollars on, it's all gonna explode. It's your fault.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Like, really?

[E]

Yep.

[A]

You built the fucking thing. And it's also completely complicit with this, like, real time deal on affordability where they're just like, we are going to create the worst economy in American history and then we're gonna turn around and like, why aren't you doing something about this? It's incredible that they can do it simultaneously without a hint of irony.

[D]

Yeah, it's sociopathic.

[A]

It really is. So coming up next, this one ties a bunch of things that we've been talking a lot about together in that the FBI has foiled a left wing terrorist plot against New Year's Eve celebrations in la. Also a horrific attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia. What's driving the uptick in the left wing extremism? We're going to talk about it right after this.

[E]

Okay.

[A]

Welcome back to the program. You might have read the news, which is good news, considering our government, FBI in particular, Department of Justice, working on our behalf to stop the bad news, which is yet another left wing terror plot and they've arrested a bunch of people. According to the New York Post, the FBI Arrested five members of a far left pro Palestinian. Interesting. It's funny how that keeps coming up. Extremist group on Friday in connection with an alleged plot to carry out coordinated bombings in and around Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. The credible and imminent terrorist threat to five unidentified companies, logistics centers in Los Angeles came from a radical members of an offshoot of the Turtle Island Liberation Front who to guess they were up to no good. I mean, first of all, if you got the name like you're up to something.

[B]

Am I stupid? Like what is Turtle Island?

[D]

Turtle island is like a pro indigenous peoples thing.

[B]

Are you serious, dude?

[D]

Yeah, these people are just anti American, they're anti capitalist, they're far left lunatics.

[B]

Yeah, we should just honestly just send the FBI into every college in this country. Like there's way this 100 sounds like something. A bunch of idiots who went to school.

[A]

So Turtle, Turtle Island.

[D]

Turtle island was like an indigenous term for like the world, like created by some myth of some turtle. I don't know.

[A]

Yeah, it's kind of the upshot anyway. They're psychopaths. Four of the suspects were colored in Lucerne Valley in the Mojave Desert where they were captured on video attempting to, to detonate improvised explosive devices. We have that video for you. Clip three, please.

[C]

So as I mentioned in my Talking.

[A]

Points, on December 12, a group of.

[C]

Individuals, again members of this anti government.

[E]

Group traveled out to the desert to.

[C]

Test their explosive devices. They had precursor chemicals there and they were going to, they were going to create these, these bombs in the desert.

[E]

What they are starting to do is.

[C]

Put their chemicals and components out on the, on the table. On the table there. This footage that you're watching is from our surveillance plane. And then what happened after this is.

[E]

The Los Angeles FBI SWAT team along.

[C]

With the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team moved.

[A]

In and arrested all four subjects.

[E]

Without, without it, man.

[C]

Thank God. Thank God this administration is taking left wing violence seriously. I mean, I cannot. For our entire lives all we have been preached at is oh, right wing extremism is the real problem in our country. And meanwhile they let the left wing just grow and grow and grow and there are so many bad actors on their side. We've seen it play out over and over again too many times and we know it's going to happen again. I'm glad they're, they're, they're taking this.

[A]

Series, they are taking it seriously. And the four that were arrested in California, Audrey, Elaine, Carol Zachary, Aaron Page, Dante Garfield and Tina Lay. These people are exactly who you think they are. By the way, they're young people. And their organization, tilf, as they call it, that's the Turtle island situation.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

It says here the TILF Los Angeles chapter has posted photos on its Instagram of its members waving Palestinian flags and brandishing a Death to ICE sign. That's the thing, like, since Trump got elected. There's a photo of it right now for our YouTube folks. Since Trump got elected and started getting illegals out of here. You saw coast to coast, this kind of thing, like attacks on the convoys, attacks on members of ice, on the police, all these groups. You saw that countless times. Thank God something is being done about. Thank God they stepped in here before their attack, which was planned for New Year's Eve. Like, you know, I'm one of the people who are like, when are we gonna start having some action against antifa. Against these people who are attacking police, who are attacking ice? And here we have tangible proof. I wanna see a lot more of this. Kudos to the FBI, Justice Department for getting this done. I wanna see a lot of it because we have a tremendous problem with left wing extremism.

[C]

Totally.

[A]

They're saving people's lives.

[D]

I mean, in the world. We recently saw that. You know that attack on Bondi beach in Australia against that Hanukkah party. The situation that's up at Brown University, which I know they're still figuring out as of recording right now, they still don't have a suspect in custody, but brutal shooting happened on their campus. So there's a lot of stuff out there right now that's just really crazy.

[A]

Totally. And let's get into the Bondi beach thing.

[C]

What in the world is their grievance? I mean, like, they can't find an iPhone. Amazon deliveries aren't convenient enough. There's no food, they can't find flour at the grocery store. I mean, what in the world is their actual grievance?

[A]

I mean, if we're being honest about.

[C]

It, they're just unhappy. These people, all it is mental health. They were all born after Vietnam. They've lived in the great American century. This is the greatest country that anybody.

[B]

I think that's anytime in this world that's ever been born. That's part of the problem is these are idle hands. A lot of these are people who like, went to college. And we've lived through in America a period of tremendous growth and prosperity. And so these people are like, the problem is America. I've run out of things to keep me busy and I've Gone to college and they've said that America is the colonial empire and all the evils of the world come from America. And so that they've started to be like, well, I guess America is the problem. You see it coast to coast. These people have been blessed to be born in this country and they've turned into terrorists against it. It makes zero sense. They're putting. They're trying to blame everything that makes America great as being a problem. Being like, you talk about this, like Turtle island indigenous people thing of like the whole push by the left, starting like over a decade ago, of America's a colonial empire, America's to blame. That's the heart of it.

[D]

I don't think Zachary Aaron Page is a member of the Lenape tribe.

[B]

Exactly.

[D]

You know.

[A]

No, I don't think Zach or Audrey were in Gaza, do you? I don't think so, no. But look, there is a common thematic here. And this is kind of why we get pissed off when we talk a lot about the discussion everybody was having with Gaza and Israel and the greater Middle east and this idea that the left had basically bumper stickered. Anything to do with a pro Palestinian movement as a political debate of which virtue is on the side of the Palestinians.

[D]

Yeah, just resistance it is.

[B]

It's how you end up with like queers for Palestine. It's like anything left, they're like, oh, it's all one thing. And meanwhile they throw you off a roof.

[A]

Well, that's what this is. I mean, if you look at that graphic, that picture that we had in graphic, two of these people standing next to each other. You got one in the Hamas headdress standing next to a person who's got a problem with our immigration enforcement.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know what I mean? Like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't make a lick of sense. But this is what convenes them. It is an anti American spirit. But more particularly as this thing has gotten spiraled here in the last couple of years, the anti Semitism is doing the driving on this. And that's what showed up at Bondi beach, because this was a terror attack. I'm sure you saw over the weekend, horrific. A father, son, I think combo were out shooting people indiscriminately in Bondi Beach. There's an article out yesterday from Fox News that is entitled we warned Them. Jewish leader says after Bondi beach terror attack that kills 50, 15, 15 in the aftermath of a deadly terror attack at Hanukkah. I mean, it's Hanukkah, it's Hanukkah Regular Hanukkah, right? Yeah, usually we have a C in there.

[D]

Oh, some do the H, some do the C. Okay.

[A]

Well, I like the more traditional spelling of Hanukkah, but we do it either way, I guess. Anyway. In the celebration at Sydney Beach, Bondi Beach, Dion Taylor, a senior figure in the community, says the most painful reality is that violence did not come without warning. Right. We have been completely let down by our government, taylor, the communications manager of the Australia Israel Jewish Affairs Council, told Fox News Digital in a zoom interview. We warned them that the snowball effect was going to happen, was only a matter of time before someone got killed. The shooting took place Sunday evening during a Hanukkah event at Bondi beach, killing at least 15 and wounding dozens of others, according to the Associated Press and Reuters. It started with hate speech, then graffiti, then public demonstrations, then firebombing synagogues, preschools, people's homes, people's cars, and now murder, she said. Jewish leaders and community representatives repeatedly raised alarms, with state and federal officials warning that inaction could lead to bloodshed. Yep, that's basically what we're talking about here. And increasingly over the last six months, I would say, particularly after Donald Trump solved the crisis with the hostages and there was a ceasefire, where this thing went from like, no, we just support Palestine to all of a sudden, no, we support, like, the ideas of this movement, which, by the way, the unstated is we just want to kill all the Jews, which is what they want to do. Let's be clear about that. My entire lifetime has been demarked in moments, in time of this thing happening, whether it's happening in Beirut or Egypt or the Southeast or 9, 11 or what have you. USS Cole. This is the thing that is the consistent component of this is not a political debate. And that's what I think irritates me the most about this, like, entertainment of antisemitism that people have, acting as though, well, good people could disagree on these things. They can't. They can't, because there is one segment of people. I'm not saying that everybody who's ever associated with Palestine is a terrorist, but I'm saying that the elected leadership of Hamas certainly feels that way. And now you've got these groups that pop up, these people. Maybe these are individual events in Australia, but if these people were onto this enough to say this is going to happen, if you don't take serious action about it and then it happens, it's prevalent enough that you have a major underlying problem, and we do everywhere we're acting as though we're having a political debate. Gays for Gaza show up. We're like, oh, that's interesting and ironic. Hey, we're going about our day. Oh, Democrats now have a Michigan problem. Because it turns out a city, a major city in their state, is entirely populated with people who want to fucking burn down America. That's not a Michigan problem. That is a domestic terror problem. Something that you've gotta focus on in a very real way. And I don't understand why we're like taking pains in any way to try to like dignify an opinion on this. It's well established fact for like 40 years.

[B]

That's one of the things I think the comparison is very apt that you make with like, what's happening in Michigan, where I saw in the aftermath of this horrific attack in Australia, there's Australian elected officials being like, what we're gonna propose is an even stricter gun control. Where they already have like one of the most restrictive gun control. They're like, the problem here is we need to punish our citizens even more.

[C]

Yet somehow the ISIS guys end up with a full arsenal.

[B]

That's the thing is like, you know, conservatives have said again and again and again, when you ban guns, the only people left with guns are gonna be the criminals. And this is a prime example of exactly that. It's horrific. They see the problem as our citizens need to be punished more for this. Not we have a problem with radical Islam. It's unbelievable.

[A]

It's terror and murder. That is the underlying theme. The weapon of choice is immaterial. If you banned every gun from the face of the planet tomorrow, these people in Australia would have been firebombed or stabbed. I mean, we see that in the uk, they don't have guns, so they just rampantly stab people left and right, which is horrific. But that is. I mean, they just can't get it. But then more importantly, they act as though people who want to murder people, like, get rid of the Jewish people, get rid of the Israeli state, get rid of. They act as though that's a political opinion. That's not a political opinion, guys. It's just not like that is a terrorism opinion. And we can't be unclear about that. I think President Trump has been remarkably good in being very clear, having moral clarity on this issue. But, like, even on the right, we start entertaining these sorts of things as though they're a real discussion and they're not. This is not a real discussion. You can have disagreements with the state of Israel sure, no problem. But if you find yourself standing next to the person in the headdress who's like authorizing strikes against civilian Jewish people simply because of what their religion is like, that's not a political opinion anymore.

[C]

No.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, you can criticize the state of Israel, you can want a two state solution. That's a far flung opinion compared to globalize the Intifada, which is what these people do and why they march in the streets and why they target Jewish students on college campuses and why they do things like this.

[A]

Yeah, that's it. But then tie it back to the first story that we covered. What is the thing you remember about this story of these terrorists they arrested in the desert of California? One of their primary objectives, Pro Palestinian.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Do we ignore that? I mean, is that, is that serious? We're now at a play. I mean, maybe it's that like I grew up in the aftermath of 9 11, so I'm more sensitive to it, but I don't think that's the case. I think people understand objective fact at any part of society. And what we're looking at is a consistent leftist movement that is global in nature, that the adherence to it follows terrorism.

[D]

Well, yeah, because I think the pro Palestinian cause, as you would call it, is just another piece of flair for these people to wear because really what they are is just anti Western civilization.

[B]

That's it.

[D]

They just hate civilization, which is why they hate America. And so they just have all these different causes that they associate with under the banner of destroy America, destroy capitalism, destroy Western civilization. I mean, it's as simple as that, I think.

[A]

Totally. And look, this gets to our domestic politics. We've talked a lot about Chuck Schumer and his standing within the Democratic Party. Now part of it is because he's stuck in 2006. Like his best days are 20 years in the rearview mirror and he's sort of out of touch from a whole variety of things. But he came to rise in politics in large part because he was a pro Israel Democrat who saw the world clearly in terms of its global alliances and things like that. Well, that's no longer popular in the Democratic Party, certainly not on the left. And so he has gotten into it a lot of, a lot of issues. But just watch. I couldn't make this up if I wanted to. How awkwardly he tries to address all of this in a press conference over the weekend with this horrific news clip for.

[C]

And of course I'm going to say.

[A]

A few words about the terrible shooting in Sydney, Australia.

[C]

Okay. So, and first, of course, as I always say, no matter what, go Bills.

[B]

Oh goodness, dude.

[A]

It's in, in a nutshell, right? It's it in a nutshell. I got three political boxes to check, you know, one of which he used to identify his entire career as sort of supporting steadfastly in very serious times. Then he's like, go Bills.

[C]

He's lost a step, buddy.

[A]

Dude, it's just so bad. I mean, his ass is gone, right?

[C]

You gotta think so. I mean, aoc. AOC is gonna have to barking down the door.

[A]

But even if she doesn't run against them, and I'm sort of skeptical, skeptical about that. Cuz like I think she's probably gonna run for president. But like if she. Like his Democratic colleagues, they can't have this, can they? Like next fall if they come up short in the senate again in 2026.

[B]

I think he's 100% in like the crosshairs of his party, the like young radical fringe element, which is now actually the entire party. They're done dealing with him.

[C]

I mean, we talked about that punch bowl poll last week that looked at Democrat staffers, asked them who they thought the best leader in Congress was, and Schumer got 6% among Democrats. It's not too good for him right now.

[A]

Not great at all. We got another big interview here. The OPM director, Scott Cooper.

[B]

I want to welcome back to the program a huge friend of ours, OPM director Scott Cooper. Welcome back.

[E]

Hey, thanks Bug. Glad to be here.

[B]

Thanks for being here. You have a huge announcement today. It is. The US Tech force has now begun.

[E]

Yes. So yes, we're very excited about this and we're appreciative that you guys are covering this for us. So let me just tell people what we're trying to accomplish and what TechForce is. So here's the basic facts, what we're trying to solve. We have two major problems in government. We probably have more than two, but at least two, at least that OPM can handle. One is we are just lacking enough people who have what I would call modern software development expertise, AI expertise. Expertise just because that's a tough skill to find. As you know, the private sector is clamoring for those types of individuals. So we've got a bit of a gap in government. And then the second problem we have is we talked this a little bit last time. We have an early career problem. So in government, only about 7% of the people in government are early career. I won't use an age, but let's call it five to seven years of work experience and that compares with about 22% in the non federal workforce. So like by a factor of three to one, like the federal government is not doing a good job of bringing in people who are early in their career into government. And on the other end, again, we got a bunch of people who are kind of closer to retirement age. So we've got a big kind of brain drain that we're setting ourselves up for if we don't do a better job of bringing new people in. So what techforce is going to do is our goal is to bring a thousand early career engineers in government. They're going to work at various different agencies. We have almost every single agency in government signed up to partner with us on this. And then We've got about 25 private sector technology companies who are also going to partner with us and help us do career development for these individuals. We're going to get speaker series going, we're going to do job fairs and recruitment. And so the overall goal is can we solve a major problem that government has with talent and also can we set people up early career to be able to do whatever it is they want to do? If they want to stay in government, that's awesome. They want to go back to the private sector after this two year stint, that's great too. We'll facilitate that. But we just want to start this process of getting really smart, ambitious people who want to do good and also do well from a career perspective. So, so super exciting news.

[B]

So for the launch video that you guys put out on X, first off, thank you for using Creed. It made it extra awesome when you saw that kick in, but it really, you know, it started describing the Manhattan Project and how there was a time where Americans saw, you know, public service and helping the government and helping America, moving America forward as this tremendous call that I feel like over the years has been lost where people start seeing government as just like gridlocked. I don't know if they can accomplish anything. And so the whole idea behind this is bringing back that spirit of kind of discovery and what is possible and especially among the young people in America. I've been hearing so many stories from folks that I know of, either they themselves or one of their kids is having a hard time finding a job after graduating and they went to school and they became like an engineer or they did software development or something. And it seems like they're told that I have to enter the workforce. Being asked if I have like four years of work experience but, right, I'm just entering the workforce. How would I have experience? Yeah, this seems like the perfect place to find these people who have these skills that they can. It's like a domestic AmeriCorps.

[E]

Yeah, I think that's right. And you know, you mentioned Manhattan Project, obviously, which was featured in our video. You know, the next closest thing to that probably is Kennedy and the space race. Basically, like, and you're right, which is we haven't had these narratives which are around these big moonshot opportunities that we need to do. You know, and I think AI, by the way, is that. And I'm very grateful because the President obviously has made AI a big portion of kind of the message of how we kind of rally people around something that is a economic issue, it's a military, you know, national security issue. But you're exactly right. Which is what we want to do is demonstrate like we want to bring, you know, I joked about this, you know, making government cool again. Magaca. Right. I think, I think I mentioned last time we were on. And you know, my kids again, hate when I say it, but I think that's right. Which is let's get some like real national spirit going. Let's like create a challenge for people. And yes, to your point, look, this is a great opportunity as an engineer to do something that's awesome for a public service perspective, but also learn a set of skills that will be valuable to you in your career. And so, you know, you and I were talking before offline, like the idea that some 25 year old has to make a 40 year commitment, commitment at that age and say, okay, I'm going to go be a public servant for 40 years. Look, there's very few people who are mature enough to know that, so we should stop asking that question and we should just ask the question which is, do you want to kind of spend some portion of time and two years to me is a really meaningful portion of time to help the country. And oh, by the way, then you know what, after that, if you want to stay in public sector, God bless you. If you want to go to the private sector, that's great too. But let's not force people into this false dichotomy between having to make career decisions that just don't make sense given the way people kind of go through their careers these days.

[C]

Well, I think our president was so smart in bringing a guy with your background into this job where you have, I mean, you're bringing in new people and you come from Stanford, you've got a Great history, great education. And I gotta think that there are a lot of kids from Stanford who would fit this bill perfectly. And probably outside of Stanford, you know, we have a lot of younger people who listen to this show who are pursuing careers in tech, who are thinking to themselves, wait a minute, this sounds very interesting. How could I get involved in something like this?

[E]

Yeah, so look, Stanford's wonderful. And yes, I spent a lot of money at Stanford, which is great. But what I'm being totally clear about it and you mentioned is, look, this is one of the big things also the President's done is we've made merit hiring a focus. Right. So what merit hiring means in my mind is we ought to be hiring people based on their actual demonstration of skills. And yes, a Stanford degree, it's wonderful. But that's a proxy for skillset, right? Like, what's more important is can you actually demonstrate that you can do the work? And so, you know, I certainly want your listeners to know, like, look, look, I don't care, quite frankly where you went to college. Honestly, in this program we don't care if you went to college. So again, one of the limitations we've had in government is we have degree requirements in most jobs and then we have tenure requirements in jobs too. And so if you're awesome and you can perform up here, but you've only had one year of work experience historically in the government, that holds you down and doesn't allow you to get elevated to the right level. What we've done with this program is we're using a special hiring authority where all we have to do is show demonstrated merit. And so if you have never gone to college, but you are the most killer developer in the world and you can demonstrate that to us in an assessment, we're going to rank you kind of at the top of the class and make sure you get paid appropriately, you get promoted appropriately and have the responsibility to commensurate that.

[C]

I mean, it's just so smart because there are so many people who are sharp, who have abilities but haven't gone to these blue chip colleges. And as you say, it's just sort of a proxy for ability. It's not as necessarily indicative of somebody's, you know, what they can actually bring to the table. So I feel like that's a pretty good, pretty good way of doing business.

[E]

Yeah, I agree. And look, we all know this. I mean, look, I was a beneficiary of it, but a lot of the zip code you were born into probably has a bigger determining factor of what college you ultimately go to than anything else. And so part of what I think the President has really recognized is if we're going to have a high performance culture, you've got to eliminate barriers to entry and eliminate barriers to promotion that are based on proxies as opposed to based on skills. And so we're trying to do both things, by the way, not just for this program, but more generally across government. We're trying to eliminate degree requirements in almost every job. We're going to try to eliminate tenure requirements. That requires, unfortunately this whole thing called classifications, which will put everybody to sleep if we talk about that on this call. But we have a lot of work to do that but select, we really want to create that environment which is we hire the best. And then you ought to be able to progress through the federal government as quickly as your skills enable you to progress, not based upon whether you've been there three, five or 10 years.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Also something that's really interesting to me about this, unlike whenever you hear about the government attempting something, is you're not trying to bring someone into the government for life.

[E]

Yes.

[B]

This is a two year commitment. And along the way, beyond just having the position that they'll get with the government, there's also like speaker series, professional development from private sector partners. And these are like, like the heavyweight companies out there, like Nvidia OpenAI, these companies are partnering with you. And then after the two years, like the way they put it in the video is you'll be the people, the participants in this program will be pursued.

[E]

I hope so, by the private company.

[B]

Because everyone's heard these nightmares of like, I apply, apply, apply. I don't hear back now, you're going to end up, if you're a member of this program, after two years being pursued by these big companies in the US that do this in the tech sector. How does that work?

[E]

Yeah, so a couple things. One, just at the front end, you're exactly right, which is we decided to make these term limited appointments for exactly this reason, which is, look, if people love it, then they want to stay. That's awesome too. But there's too much of that motion in government. There's too much of people kind of staying and staying and staying. And I just think, look, diversity and experience is great. Like it'd be great to have somebody come in and out of the public sector and private sector. I think that's good for government, it's good for the private sector. And look, people worry about ethics and all that other stuff, but like we can deal with those things. That's not a problem. On the back end, though, what we've got these private companies to commit to is we're going to basically run a big job fair at the end of the two years, Right? And somebody asked me this morning, well, you know, did the private companies commit that they will absolutely hire somebody? I was like, no, of course they didn't commit that. Like, you know, I'm not going to, I'm not going to ask them to hire somebody without interviewing this person and seeing who they are. But half of the interview process is having an opportunity to showcase your wares. Right. And so what we expect to do in this program is do a great job of recruiting people on the front end, do a great job of training them and giving them meaningful experience. And then, look, shame on us if the private sector doesn't want to grab all these people, because that means we haven't developed skills that are generalizable across a broader universe. And I'm highly confident we will do that. And I'm highly confident we will demonstrate that. Again, you don't have to kind of commit to a lifelong career on anything, basically, but you can kind of go in and out of government and private sector as appropriate.

[B]

What are some of the companies that you've partnered with on this?

[E]

So pretty much, you know, the who's who of all the big companies. So Apple, Coinbase, you know, Nvidia, OpenAI XAI. Apologies to partners. I'm missing Dell, salesforce.com, kind of pretty much any modern company. Robinhood, for those of you guys who are in the crypto space. So we kind of just went through and said, okay, look, like, what are all the companies that are on the cutting edge, doing interesting things, who also have a civic mindedness and who really kind of care about helping us build government? And look, we'll add other companies over time, so nobody should feel bad if they got left out of the initial announcement. We want to make this tent as big as possible because the whole goal is, look, a thousand is a big, big objective. But I want this to be 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 people over time. And then more importantly, and you know, you and I were talking about this before the show as well. This, I think, is a test case for how we can basically make government hiring much more efficient. So if we do this well, then we can go look at every job category across government and say, okay, you know what? The government's hiring. I'm making this up. We're going to hire 10,000 program managers next year. Well, every agency doesn't need to go do their own bespoke effort, right? So we at OPM can say, great, give us your requirements. We'll do the outbound outreach, we'll do the initial assessments, and then we'll hand you a set of qualified applicants to 10 different agencies. And each of those agencies can do their fit and finish and determine, you know, is this person better at State or are they better at Health and Human Services? It's a way better experience for the applicant because they don't need to know, like, what 50 agencies are doing stuff. They just need to know that the government is interested in your skill set and we'll make it super seamless. And then it's good for the agencies, too. Like some healthy competition for the agencies is good for them to basically have to convince qualified applicants why they should come to agency A versus Agency B.

[C]

So you're announcing this today. When can people start applying? Is this like 2026?

[E]

No, this is today. So go to techforce.gov you can follow us. I think it's Echforce is our Twitter Twitter feed. U.S. techforce. Sorry, is our Twitter feed. You can also follow me at Scooper. But yeah, people can apply today. And we're going to kind of basically do. I hate this term, but we're going to do rolling admissions, right? So the needs for the agencies are immediate. So every agency I've talked to is like, look, I need, like, people yesterday, basically. So as applications come in, we'll start vetting people. And then once we get to kind of critical mass, then we'll put all these programmatic elements around it and kind of introduce. Introduce this as the inaugural cohort of this program. But if people are interested, you know, you and I were talking about this, but this is a great, you know, kind of holiday conversation for all of you parents out there and all of you kids out there. You know, it's time to get out of the basement and come, you know, apply for a real job and the government's here for you.

[B]

I mean, that's the thing is. So it feels like in the job market today, especially for a government position, there's all this, like, red tape. And you'd feel this, like, monolithic wall in the way between you and the job of like, am I going to get lost in the application process? But the whole idea behind this is to cut that red tape to bring in qualified applicants, help them build that early career experience, and then unleash them on the private sector where their Skills are in demand. And also in the video it went to just like, we don't just rewrite code, we're going to rebuild infrastructure. Which is tremendous because there's always been this discussion of like, well, in America we know we need to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure. It's just we don't have the know how. And like, we have to think that this is a 20 years away kind of project. You said what all sectors of the government, like, which departments have gotten in touch with you for, for accomplishing what all.

[E]

Yeah, literally almost every. Almost every agency. But let me give you a couple examples, right? So Department of War, not surprisingly, do a tank, doing a ton of stuff on drones and other things like that that, you know, kind of real military ready stuff that needs technology. Hhs, you know, looking at how do we use AI to improve drug development process, right? Or how do we use AI to help make sure that, you know, patients get to the right doctors, if you're on Medicare and stuff like that. Irs, the new Trump accounts, you know, that have been put out, they've got to go build up all that infrastructure to be able to manage those accounts. IRS also like wants to rethink the entire way IRS works with the American people. Right? So imagine, you know, you guys remember this when, you know, kind of the former president, whose name I won't mention, you know, wanted to improve IRS enforcement. His goal was, let's go hire 80,000 new IRS agents. Well, like that makes sense in like 1960 or 1970. It doesn't make sense in a world where you have technology that can probably do 10x the amount of reviews than hiring 80,000 people. So stuff like that they're doing. But literally, you know, Interior is doing stuff. Department of Energy is doing a bunch of like supercomputing stuff to help with like fusion and quantum mechanics and stuff like that. So if you're interested in any of those things, I'm highly, highly confident we will find an agency that's interested in your skillset.

[C]

I just love this. I love this so much. Because if you are a technologically proficient high school graduate and you are deciding between do I want to redo the math class I just did my senior year for $50,000 in tuition, or do I want to take a chance at pursuing something where I can actually get ahead in a career right away and actually help my country and be a part of something much bigger than myself. That's exciting to somebody.

[E]

I agree.

[C]

I mean, I think that's very exciting.

[E]

Yeah, yeah. What got us started on this was, you'll remember, there was a Doge engineer, right, Who's. I won't mention his name because it's probably not politically correct with parents on the line.

[C]

He's very famous.

[E]

He's very famous.

[C]

He's a hero among our.

[E]

But it was interesting. I mean, this. This really kind of made me upset, which is there was a administration official who was quoted an article who said, we would never hire that guy here because he didn't have a college degree and he didn't have five or ten years of tenure. I don't know what it was. And I was like, wow, this is the problem, right? We've created all these artificial barriers. And look, I don't know the guy from Adam, but he's obviously very technical skilled. If you can operate at a great technical skill level. You're exactly right. Let's take a high school graduate and. Okay, we're not going to turn the nuclear codes over to that guy. I get that. That's okay. But like, that person, if they can add value, like, why do we care if they went to college? Why do we care if they have, you know, five years of tenure? It's irrelevant. What's relevant is their ability to actually produce. And we'll put them on a team, and that team will have some people who are college graduates and some people aren't. But, like, that's part of, like, the zeitgeist of what we want to do is create a culture where smart people realize they can do things that actually can make a difference.

[C]

Yeah, man, I love that.

[B]

Yeah, sounds great. And again, for all the parents out there, what was the URL again?

[E]

So the URL is techforce.gov the Twitter is techforce or Cooper S K U P O R for those of you who don't know how to spell my last name. But go apply. Send us your stuff in. And we look forward to seeing your application.

[B]

That's amazing. Thank you so much.

[E]

Thank you, guys.

[C]

Thanks, Scott. Scott Cooper. Man, what a great interview. And, you know, I could not help but think when he was talking about people who are just graduating high school, just graduating college, looking for something different to pursue in technology, get a jump on their career in the future. And I was thinking about guys like us, you know, I was thinking about the people who listen to this show, even. Even people who just graduated high school and they're like, do I really want to sit through Philosophy 101 under some lib professor, or do I want to take all the technological proficiency I've developed at my house and on my computer every single day of my life and put it to use in the government for a bigger cause. Yep.

[B]

I mean, just thinking of this as like a domestic AmeriCorps. Just to have young Americans get involved, put their talents to work for making this country great again. And they're essentially just like now on the radar of every major tech company who wants to hire them after two years. Incredible, incredible idea.

[E]

Awesome.

[B]

Scott came on to tell us about it.

[A]

Yeah, totally. And for those parents out there. Yep, Good news, right? I mean, I think a lot of us worry a lot about what kind of workforce our kids are going to go into. This kind of thing gives you hope that people are looking around the corner for good, solid, well paying jobs. Love it. A couple of newsmakers chose the old Variety program to come on and break their news today.

[B]

How about that heck of an episode?

[A]

Yeah, pretty good.

[E]

All right.

[A]

Want some variety?

[E]

Always.

[A]

Alright, so this one, I haven't seen the clip. I don't know if any of us have seen the clip, but apparently UK firefighters bravely rescued a woman trapped in six inches of water. Let's clip five.

[E]

No, no, wait.

[A]

It's not even a top of the wheel well. Yeah, she's in a car.

[B]

Yeah. For audio only, this is, I mean the firefighters have tossed this like buoy like, well, you know when these like life raft things. She's in her car, the water hasn't even gotten to the top of the wheel, even half, well halfway of these wheels and then she opens the door, steps out and is like, oh, it's like barely above my ankle.

[A]

Ankle deep water.

[D]

Come on.

[C]

Closes the door but still holds the.

[B]

Rope to be like just in case.

[A]

Look, it's not even, it's like maybe.

[B]

Top of her shoes does like that clip of like that journo in the raft. And then someone just like walks in past him behind in the shot. You remember that? Incredible.

[D]

The UK used to be the world's finest naval empire.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

It's been fallen far and now they're.

[D]

They'Re stymied by six inches of water.

[A]

Also, can you imagine the thought process that leads you to be like, you know, your car, it looked like she could drive out of it, to be honest with you. But like it gets to a point mid wheel and you're like, well, that's it. That's the way for the authorities on this one. Couldn't even step out.

[B]

Oh, so funny.

[E]

Amazing.

[A]

All right. And we've got some sports in here too, fellas. I haven't seen this clip either, but an insane ending to a Florida State high school football championship. Let's check out that clip.

[C]

Arm strength. He will be throwing.

[A]

Oh, to that end zone where the wind has been in the face traditionally, but the wind has quieted.

[D]

Oh, it's like a Hail Mary situation.

[F]

Eight seconds to go in the game.

[E]

Grubs drop back to pass.

[F]

This will be the final play of the game.

[B]

Grubs.

[C]

Four, three, two, one.

[E]

Barring penalty, final play to the five.

[C]

Deflected caught down at the two yard line.

[B]

No, he's in the end. No way, dude.

[C]

It's a caught by Schultz. Lateral to the left side. And in the end zone for a touchdown.

[E]

Go.

[C]

Oh, dude, they scored. They finally. You got to love high school football. I mean, and you gotta watch ruthless show on YouTube so you can see that clip because you learn exactly why you should never give up on a play. I mean, you saw the defense. Some of the guys were starting to celebrate. Oh, we blocked it. And then the guy in the offense caught it on the deflection. They thought they had him short of the end zone. And then he handed it to one of his teammates, too.

[B]

Good hit.

[A]

I mean, when he's eight, he's going to be telling that story.

[B]

That's just amazing.

[D]

That's just some really poor form tackling, I gotta say.

[B]

That's the thing.

[A]

That was zero time on the clock. Notre Dame commit. This is according to Dan Wenzel. Notre Dame commit Noah Grubbs Eve to Hail Mary and somehow, impossibly, it connected. A walk off touchdown in the final play delivers Lake Mary its first ever state title. The most dramatic fashion. Hats off to the good people of Lake Mary. You've got quite a memory.

[C]

Yeah. In Notre Dame. Wake up the echoes.

[E]

It's coming.

[A]

In an otherwise difficult month for Notre Dame.

[C]

Something to look forward to.

[A]

That's something to look forward to. Well, fellas, everybody's got to remember our question of the day. What does the American worker need most right now? I think you heard from two guests today that give you a couple of different perspectives in the same mission statement that President Trump is laying out. I love to hear it and I'm glad they chose the Variety program to break all that news. But you give us our your thoughts when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety Program. Reread all of them. We'll get back to the very next episode with that. Fellas, I believe we did it.

[B]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to our Secretary of Labor and thank you so much, OPM director Scott Cooper. And to the Minions, if you have not yet, go to the YouTube hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith. Hold line on the labs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.