Newsom Fiddles While California Burns

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Newsom Fiddles While California Burns"

Introduction Released on January 14, 2025, the Ruthless Podcast episode titled "Newsom Fiddles While California Burns" features hosts Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, and Michael Duncan, with John Ashbrook contributing on assignment. The episode delves into Governor Gavin Newsom's handling of California's devastating wildfires, critiques progressive policies, anticipates President Donald Trump's inauguration, and explores audacious annexation ideas. The discussion is infused with sharp conservative perspectives, laced with humor and pointed criticism.

Governor Gavin Newsom's Handling of Wildfires The episode opens with a scathing critique of Governor Gavin Newsom's response to California's wildfires. Hosts argue that Newsom's leadership has been grossly ineffective, illustrating this with the critical failure of the Pacific Palisades Reservoir being offline since February—a key water source for firefighting efforts.

• Josh Holmes highlights the gravity, stating, "You have a place that's susceptible to fire... you would think competent leadership could prevent the worst, but unfortunately, we're not getting any of that." [00:21]

• Comfortably Smug emphasizes the humanitarian impact, "It's really heartbreaking... so much of it is directly due to the absolute incompetence of the people who are in place and supposed to work for the public." [04:46]

The hosts underscore the absence of a coordinated disaster response, primarily resting the responsibility on the governor rather than local officials. They also point out the inefficiencies in forest management and criticize environmental policies that allegedly prioritize minor ecological concerns over public safety.

Anticipation of President Trump's Inauguration Shifting focus, the podcast builds excitement around President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, scheduled six days away from the release date. The hosts express optimism about Trump's return, anticipating a revival of conservative values and policies.

• Josh Holmes declares, "Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please... we're six days away from the inauguration of President Donald John Trump for the second time." [01:54]

• Comfortably Smug adds, "Keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. It's time for our main event." [01:54]

The discussion includes plans for live broadcasting during the inauguration parade, offering listeners exclusive access and encouraging engagement via their YouTube channel.

Critique of Media and Progressive Policies A significant portion of the episode targets the media's handling of Newsom and broader progressive governance issues. The hosts criticize the Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin, highlighting her resignation and the launch of a new publication, The Contrarian, as indicative of media decline.

• Michael Duncan mocks, "She's like a cockroach. She survived the apocalypse." [46:39]

• Josh Holmes sarcastically remarks on the resilience and dubious integrity of media figures, suggesting, "This is the point I want to make. Your column and blog are fraud." [55:03]

The hosts argue that liberal governance has consistently failed to deliver on promises, citing the Inflation Reduction Act, Green New Deal, and rural broadband access as examples of initiatives that lacked effective execution.

Annexation Fantasies: Greenland, Panama, and Cuba In a bold and unconventional segment, the hosts entertain ideas about the annexation of territories such as Greenland, Panama, and Cuba, blending satire with political commentary.

• Jeffrey Atkinson, a listener, suggests, "A deal for Greenland is the most likely... Only 56,000 people live there... it’s manageable." [38:02]

• Nancy from Orange County advocates for regaining control of the Panama Canal, stating, "If we ever need to get our ships from the east coast to the Pacific because of a conflict with China, we are sunk without the canal." [39:07]

• David Cole introduces Cuba as another annexation target, noting its strategic location and supportive demographics, "Cuban Americans are like as MAGA as they get... the most conservative population on earth." [42:37]

These discussions, while seemingly outlandish, serve to underscore the hosts' dissatisfaction with current geopolitical dynamics and progressive governance.

Support for Trump's Tax Cuts and Economic Policies The episode transitions to advocating for the extension of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The hosts highlight a campaign by AFP aiming to prevent the expiration of these tax cuts, arguing that their renewal is crucial for avoiding significant tax hikes for millions of Americans.

• Josh Holmes explains, "The core of it, if it just expired, it'd be the largest tax increase in American history." [56:42]

• Comfortably Smug emphasizes the economic strain, "Millions of Americans will pay an extra $1,500 or more next year in taxes if the cuts are not extended." [58:58]

The hosts advocate for grassroots involvement, stressing the importance of active political participation beyond voting to ensure economic stability and continued support for conservative fiscal policies.

Media Industry Commentary: Washington Post's Decline Further critiquing media institutions, the hosts discuss the Washington Post's decline in readership and the departure of influential journalists like Jennifer Rubin.

• Comfortably Smug cites a startling statistic, "In January of 2021, Washington Post had around 22.5 million daily active users. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5 million." [47:56]

• Josh Holmes underscores the perceived incompetence, "Jen Rubin exits the Washington Post and joins Norm Eisen to launch a new outlet countering the authoritarian threat." [46:37]

This segment highlights the hosts' belief in a failing mainstream media and their support for alternative conservative voices emerging to challenge perceived liberal dominance.

Airline Industry Criticism In a lighter yet still critical segment, the podcast addresses American Airlines' new policy limiting passengers to two drinks in terminal bars, attributing it to poor customer service and increased passenger unruliness.

• Comfortably Smug laments, "These people should be waterboarded. They're criminals, and there's no personal responsibility whatsoever." [66:22]

• Michael Duncan mocks the effectiveness of such policies, "Why are we blaming the group? And why are we punishing the group?" [66:31]

The hosts argue that such measures exacerbate passenger frustration and do little to address underlying issues of airline service and passenger behavior.

Conclusion The episode wraps up with a blend of serious political discourse and humorous banter, reaffirming the hosts' commitment to providing conservative perspectives on current events. They encourage listeners to engage with their content, especially concerning the upcoming inauguration and ongoing political campaigns.

• Josh Holmes concludes, "Remember our question of the day... Subscribe to our YouTube channel to do it." [69:15]

• Comfortably Smug reinforces audience participation, "If you can't, tune in for the live feed... Stay ruthless." [69:47]

Throughout the episode, the hosts maintain a consistent tone of critique against progressive leadership, media institutions, and current policies, while promoting conservative initiatives and upcoming political events.

Notable Quotes:

• "Your very first job as the governor of a state is make sure people don't die." — Comfortably Smug [00:32]
• "Massive fire management failures... Newsom is the most egregious player in this discussion." — Josh Holmes [02:56]
• "The radical left's environmental policy is basically a death cult." — Michael Duncan [07:15]
• "Millions of Americans will pay an extra $1,500 or more next year in taxes if the cuts are not extended." — Comfortably Smug [58:58]

Final Thoughts "Newsom Fiddles While California Burns" stands as a robust example of the Ruthless Podcast’s commitment to next-generation conservative talk. By intertwining current political crises with broader critiques of media and progressive policies, the hosts provide a comprehensive and engaging narrative for their listeners, especially those aligned with conservative viewpoints seeking alternative analyses of national and state-level issues.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

It is not the city councilman's job.

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

To figure out how, in the event of a natural catastrophe, your state responds to something that sits, that rests entirely with the governor and the fact that he's standing in front of a burning home being like, yeah, I don't know. You're going to have. These guys are going to have to figure that out.

[Michael Duncan]

Your alderman's going to figure that out, you know, not me, the chief executive of the state.

[Josh Holmes]

At the same time, the LA Times is reporting that the largest reservoir is offline since February. Like, that should be a critical piece of information. The governor clearly didn't know it.

[Comfortably Smug]

His concern hasn't been about. This is the basics. Your very first job as the governor of a state is make sure people don't die. That's like job number one before you start thinking about what kind of legislative priorities I have. It's like the President of the United States. You're the, you know, the military, you're the chief executive. The very basic thing his governor is supposed to do is make sure people don't die. And he's like, we're all trying to figure out whose job it is.

[Josh Holmes]

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[Michael Duncan]

Just a catching strays over here.

[Josh Holmes]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[Comfortably Smug]

Keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Good Tuesday to you. We are six days away from the inauguration of President Donald John Trump for the second time. Very excited time to be here in the nation's capital. We've got a lot going on. I'm Josh Holmes along with Comfortably Smug and Michael Duncan. John Ashbrook's on assignment today doing the good work of the people. But we got plenty of great content for you. It's a busy week here, isn't it?

[Comfortably Smug]

Tons going on, tons going on. It's crazy. It's like every day. Yes, you have the standard news, which we'll get into that. But like the excitement that finally there's Going to be competent leadership back. You know, you're seeing it across the, you know, already companies are positioning themselves for this. Freedom of speech is coming back. It's like everything good is finally happening.

[Josh Holmes]

And a lot of familiar faces descending upon the town from across this country who've done a lot of work to try to make sure that this day came to fruition. With the election, obviously, of a new president, along with House and Senate majorities, it's a new day. And it all starts next Monday.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's right, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I feel like everyone's anticipating it. I mean, everyone expects a lot out of these next four years. It just feels good to have everybody excited and on the same page.

[Josh Holmes]

One more celebration, you know? Yeah, yeah, one more celebration because the hard work's already started. You're gonna see this week. We'd probably do more about this on Thursday, but there'll be a lot of news this week about confirmation hearings. Obviously, the Senate tries its level best to get a national security apparatus in place as quickly as possible when the new president is sworn in. So there's a ton of hearings going on. Talk more about that Thursday. We don't have a ton of information at this point. We will at that point, so we'll cover all of that. They're obviously getting prepared to put a big budget together and all kinds of different instructions when something they call a reconciliation bill, it'll take care of taxes and then virtually almost everything else that the president talked about on the campaign trail. So it's a really high stakes deal for 100 days from the time that this president is inaugurated next Monday all the way through. We're going to be with you every step of the way, giving you all the detail we possibly can. But as for this week, boy, oh, boy, we're going to start with the obvious. You got to start every program with the news out of California, which is these horrendous fires that have just become, you know, completely ridiculous in every possible way. And the critical failures of leadership along the way that has created, you know, it was something. We don't know how this thing started. We don't know how everything spread. We know that winds had a big deal with it, like a compilation of horrible stuff that went into it. But just a little bit of competent leadership probably could have prevented the absolute worst. And unfortunately, we're not getting any of that.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it's. It's really, really, really heartbreaking, honestly, because you see so many people have lost their homes, so many people's lives have been completely devastated. And so much of it is directly due to the absolute incompetence of the people who are in place and supposed to work for the public or like, not.

[Michael Duncan]

Not in place. Like you had the mayor of la, Karen Bass in Ghana on some junket when all this is going down, you know, and then like days go by and the storm gets worse. You know, this fires spread and spread and spreading. And then she comes back and like the, you know, there's a reporter that sort of confronted her at the airport with all these questions and she just sat there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

No answers.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, meanwhile, you've got this just heroic effort by those who have the capability of doing anything. And you probably have all seen the footage of the planes that are going in and trying to drop fire retardant and drop water as best they possibly can, getting these things filled up and right back to it as fast as they can. But like each and every step of the way there, because it becomes obvious that the failures to not only imagine what you would do under the circumstances, but not even having a handle on the critical infrastructure that would go into place to try to prevent such a thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is just unbelievable.

[Michael Duncan]

It's kind of important in a huge wildfire to not, I don't know, run out of water.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe you do some basic forest management and stuff. The sort of stuff that Donald Trump talks about.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, a lot. Look, the forest management thing notwithstanding, because that is something that Republicans, we've been talking about for 25 years. And you run into these environmentalists are like, don't touch the forest. Yeah. Well, they start on fire.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the way that the earth. And for some of us who believe that God sort of tends to the earth and clears brush out of the way and that kind of like, in order to get beyond that, like even Canada figures this stuff out.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Even Canada.

[Josh Holmes]

And of course California is not interested in like maintenance components to that.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the other thing is like so many instances of. And we've talked about this, how progressives think they're being like caring and altruistic and they're like, listen, we're going to save a worthless fish.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. The smell, sure.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's going to take all your. The water away that we could use to fight fires and make sure that we don't have our reservoirs empty. Yeah, but the little fish is saved.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Don't touch the forest.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like when we.

[Comfortably Smug]

But the little fish is saved.

[Michael Duncan]

We have frequently said here on the ruthless variety program that the radical left's environmental policy is basically a death cult.

[Comfortably Smug]

It is 100%. It is.

[Michael Duncan]

This proves it out. Yes, we will protect some smelt. You know, of course it'll burn down half of Los Angeles. But that worthless fish is still alive up there.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it though?

[Michael Duncan]

Who knows?

[Josh Holmes]

Like it wouldn't even be right. I mean, if you have all the carbon monoxide and everything from fire, like you get the smelts done.

[Comfortably Smug]

So anyway, it's, and, and again, it's the people who are suffering because these public figures, these elected officials, the governors, you know, they're flying to Ghana. Do you think they're worried about their house?

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Comfortably Smug]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, we're gonna get, we wanna get into the Newsom thing in particular because I think this is the most egregious player in this discussion. But one data point that a lot of conjecture about in the media and fact checks and whatnot was something that's, that became obvious in the opening days of this tragedy, that the Pacific Palisades Reservoir was offline. Right. So this is according to the LA Times, a large reservoir in the Pacific Palisades that is part of Los Angeles water supply system was out of commission when the ferocious wildfire destroyed thousands of homes and other structures nearby Los Angeles, the Times found. Officials said that Santa Ines, I think that's right. Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover. Okay. All right. Leaving 117 million gallon water storage complex empty in the heart of the Palisades for nearly a year. The revelation comes amid growing questions about why firefighters ran out of water. Remember, this is the initial thing. There was no water pressure in the onset of this fire and firefighters were basically just left with nothing. You know, they couldn't, they had to do everything from the air because everything from the ground just wasn't working out well.

[Michael Duncan]

And from the air was difficult because of the winds.

[Josh Holmes]

Because the winds, you know, I mean you have these pilots that are basically doing a Chuck Yeager over top, like dive bombing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Same thing. I mean just in some footage like you saw in the high, high wind. I mean these are some massive planes that they brought into like you know, dive into water, scoop it up. I saw this video of one flying over and just absolutely nailing perfectly hitting the flames. But then it's, the plane is flying sideways because it's being hit by so much wind and the pilots are like at ultra low latitude doing this stuff, trying to save.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean just imagine the skill level. Well, that's what they say. The catastrophic high wind. The Times Reported early Wednesday that numerous fire hydrants in the higher elevation streets of the Palisades went dry. Dry. Not saying, like, it's less than desirable. Water pressure.

[Michael Duncan]

Bone dry.

[Josh Holmes]

Bone dry.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I saw the aerial photos and it's just like it breaks your heart because you see the aerial photos of these entire communities which are burned down to basically rubble, you know, and then you look at that reservoir empty and it's just. It's horrible.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, none of them seem to know what the hell was going on. Like, the idea that you have a place that's susceptible to fire, we all have experienced every year. I'm like, there's like a couple of things you can count on, right? The Red River Valley up in North Dakota is going to flood in the spring and you're going to get wildfires in California. Like those things happen every single year. You would think. As if like Ron DeSantis and Hurricanes in the, in the early part of the fall. You just be prepared for this kind of thing. They take this thing entirely offline. Literally an entire reservoir for a community entirely offline. And everybody's like, oh, why doesn't the water work? Well, I don't know. You spent the last nine months trying to fix a cover. A cover. I don't even know what the hell that means. But like, amazing. So you get into like asking these people, like, what's going on? Not satisfactory answers at all. Can we play clip one, please? Spaghettz, to go a quarter of a mile, decided to save some. What is the situation with the water?

[Michael Duncan]

Obviously in Palisades ran out last night in the hydrants.

[Josh Holmes]

I was talking the firefighter on this block, they left because there was no water in the hydrant here. The local folks are trying to figure that out. I mean, just when you have a system that's not dissimilar to what we've seen in other extraordinarily large scale fires, whether it be pipe electricity or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system. I mean, those hydrants are typical for two or three fires, maybe one fire, you have something at this scale. But again, that's going to be determined by the local authorities are saying, I. No, no, no. Like you're the governor of a state. Seriously, you have a disaster response protocol. Like you are a part of that. Whether you like it or not. It is not the city councilman's job to figure out how in the event of a natural catastrophe, your state responds to something that sits, that rests entirely with the governor and the fact that he's standing in front of a burning home, being like, yeah, I don't know. You're gonna have. These guys are gonna have to figure that out.

[Michael Duncan]

Your alderman's gonna figure that out, you know, not me. The chief executive of the state.

[Josh Holmes]

At the same time, the LA Times is reporting that the largest reservoir is offline since February. Like, that should be a critical piece of information. The governor clearly didn't know it since February.

[Comfortably Smug]

And what has Gavin Newsom been up to since February? He's been trying to debate Ron DeSantis. He's been going after President Trump. He's been saying that, like, oh, look, guys, you know, maybe, wink, wink, I should run for president.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

His concern hasn't been about, this is the basics. Your very first job as the governor of a state is make sure people don't die. That's like job number one before you start thinking about what kind of legislative priorities I have. It's like the President of the United States, you're the, you know, the military, you're the chief executive. The very basic thing his governor is supposed to do is make sure people don't die. And he's like, we're all trying to figure out whose job it is.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's just anything to pass the buck. And it's a sad state of affairs. I mean, we could have all predicted it, but with Donald Trump coming back into the White House, the media is just tripping over themselves to talk about how. You know, I read. I think it was in Politico over the weekend. You know, people are very nervous in California with Trump's return. You know, what does this mean for the California wildfire recovery? And it's like, what the fuck? It's like your state is run by a Democrat. The legislature is entirely Democratic. You got two Democrat United States senators. And the question is, how will Donald Trump screw this up? Fuck you. Fuck you.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's like they are so blinded by this, like, hatred of Trump. The guy right now is not running your state.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Comfortably Smug]

The disaster that's unfolding, the people who have failed you, it's not Donald Trump. And for the media, it's disgusting. For them trying to be like, you know what? Republicans aren't making this any easier. Are you serious? It's our job to run and run the state of California for the people there.

[Michael Duncan]

Smug. It really is like. It's a microcosm. I know. This wildfire is huge. But what it reveals is what the entire record of liberal governance the last four years has revealed. They spent trillions of Dollars, you know, with this Inflation Reduction act that didn't reduce inflation. Remember, they were going to install all these charging stations for their Green New Deal, and they didn't do that. Rural broadband access. Remember, they were going to expand that. They appropriated a ton of money for that. They didn't do that. And it's. They spend billions and billions of dollars to accomplish nothing. There's something about executing on the job that they're incapable of doing. Which is what? Like this. This is. This reveals it.

[Josh Holmes]

Because it's all posturing, Right? It's all posturing and, you know, forever. You think about Ron DeSantis. Look at the way he handles hurricanes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Look where the last, like, four governors of Florida have handled hurricanes.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. When you see the aerial photos of Florida, you don't see empty reservoirs. You see linemen in trucks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, lined up for a mile in a field, getting ready to deploy for when, you know, electricity goes down.

[Josh Holmes]

And all coordinated through state emergency management, which this guy is like, I don't know. I mean, maybe you talk to your alderman about the water pressure, I guess. I mean, are you kidding me?

[Comfortably Smug]

Completely unheard of.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just such a failure of leadership. We're not done with it. Because we're gonna talk about one of the seedier parts of it, I will add. You also are reading parts about, like, there are illegal immigrants that have been arrested or allegedly out there. Yeah. And then. And then there was discussions of looting and this kind of thing. Like, this is the dregs. This is why Donald Trump was elected. And remember, all these people are out Newsom and everybody else saying, like, yeah, we're not gonna enforce the law. You know, we've got sanctuary cities throughout our state. Well, I mean, look, heaven forbid something really bad happens to you, and it compounds the problem when you don't do the simple blocking and tackling of enforcing the law, prosecuting criminals, doing the basics of what people elected you to do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's embarrassing.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's horrific.

[Josh Holmes]

Thank God. I mean, next Monday can't come soon enough. Seriously, it can't come soon enough. And speaking of next Monday, hard transition right there.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But speaking. There's exciting stuff going on. Obviously, you've got, you know, we're going to get a big speech at the inauguration. President's going to be great. You know, all of our people are gonna be out there happy. The city's gonna swell with conservatives. It's a great thing in D.C. when you see a whole bunch of conservatives in D.C. because it doesn't happen very.

[Comfortably Smug]

Often starts making you feel Safer after the 20 years.

[Josh Holmes]

It really does. It really does. And the good old little engine that could. The Ruthless variety program has been chosen by the inaugural committee to do some live broadcasting. Yeah, we're gonna do that immediately following the speech along the parade route where we're gonna put on a show, fellas.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to oversell the parade route because we're not just, we're not, you know, just talking about any parade here. We're talking about a parade up Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

To Freedom Plaza, the US Capitol in the backdrop. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is primo real estate. Primo real estate.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is, this is the place to be, quite literally. This is not just me trying to sell you on the show because, hey, you're going to want to see it either way, whether I tell you how cool it's going to be or when you see how cool it's going to be. But this is the spot you want to be to see President Trump coming down the street taking back the White House. This is what we all worked for and we're going to celebrate that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And you can see it live on our YouTube station. That's YouTube.com ruthless and also at the inaugural page. Right. I mean, isn't that, isn't that right? The official. It's Ruthless podcast. I'm sorry, it's slash Ruthless podcast. You know where it is. You wouldn't be watching this if you didn't. But you gotta like and subscribe because we'll have updates along the way and that includes your ability to join us.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is big news. Yeah, this is huge.

[Josh Holmes]

You can join us. There's gonna be tickets that are available. This is all late breaking, but there are gonna be tickets available where you can be with us.

[Comfortably Smug]

Huge congratulations for being a listener to the show. You're gonna get a ticket. You can have a ticket to the best seats in the house.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, totally. You gotta go to RuthlessPodcast.com we're going.

[Michael Duncan]

To have a parade link up there in the navigation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. That you can click on and you're just going to fill out a form. Listen, we're not event planners in and of ourselves. Certainly nothing the size and scope of an inauguration. So we're going to direct you to the people who do and you fill out your form. And that takes care of it. From what we've been told. That takes care of it.

[Comfortably Smug]

And also thank you so much to the inauguration committee for hooking us up with this and our listeners with these Tickets in this prime location. It's so wonderful. And we're very appreciative.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally. And we're have some funny stuff. We have some good guests. You're not going to want to miss it. Remember, like, and subscribe. We'll have updates throughout the week on specifics that we're talking about. Little teasers.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, this is super exciting. I can't even try to put a face on. Like, oh, yeah, that's cool. Just another day. This is huge.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, every, every network in America is like, what?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, they got it.

[Josh Holmes]

How do those sons of bitches get that thing?

[Michael Duncan]

You know what? I want to add something else to this.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Because you were saying at the top here, Holmes, which I think is absolutely correct. There's, you know, D.C. is going to swell with conservatives and it's going to be nice to be among so many smiling, happy faces. That's not what I'm excited for.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm excited for the opposite.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you want to see some protests.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm excited for the pink hats and the crying and I want to do a little bit of walking around.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I'm fearful that they're not going to be out in the same sort of force that they.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can we get that like One lady from 2016 who wore the like in and glasses and as the background to our show, Lee, can we find out who that was? Just have her open with the cry of help.

[Josh Holmes]

She's going to. If she's there, she's going to get a lot of airtime.

[Comfortably Smug]

And with that, we're kicking it off.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. We have smug in the crowd. You'll be in your white parka.

[Michael Duncan]

I think. I think we should send Drew or somebody around with a camera and just try to capture a little bit of that footage.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I mean, listen, there's going to be a lot of good stuff and we're working through it this week. We'll tease a little bit of it. Stay tuned, like, and subscribe. It's the only way to get it. Coming up in our next segment, fellas, going back to the fire. You won't believe the sort of profiteering that's going on and the just the lack of scruples that is going into maybe well intended efforts, but just dumb efforts. It fits perfectly alongside the lack of any sort of responsibility for the fires in the first place is how they go about trying to gather resources to help their people. Right. They didn't do that. They didn't think about that ahead of time, but now they're in the back end of it. Wait till you hear what they've got going on. It's unbelievable. We're going to get to all of that right after this.

[Comfortably Smug]

As President Trump begins his new administration.

[Josh Holmes]

One of the top Democrats in Congress.

[Michael Duncan]

Aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Chicago's Senator Dick Durbin.

[Comfortably Smug]

And now Senator Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, all with equal strong security. But Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security, and that means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republican senators, stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card before it's too late. Learn more at www.Internet payments coalition.org.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so you may have seen over the weekend, Pod Bros. This is the Pod Save America crew that amidst, like, blazing fire, they have the Governor, Gavin Newsom, in to just give his two cents about it. Which alone in and of itself is.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, are you for real? Why is a governor doing Pod Save America? Get your ass out there and figure out why the water's not coming out of the hydrants. You should be spending every minute of your time figuring this basic thing out.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it'd be like having that Chargers quarterback Herbert on to talk about what a great game he played.

[Comfortably Smug]

My God.

[Josh Holmes]

And look, I have no doubt that these people have sincere interest in the fires, given that their core constituency is, like, the richest amongst us on the coast.

[Comfortably Smug]

Favreau's worried about his mansion, probably in la. I'm sure that he had an Architectural Digest. I saw the photos.

[Josh Holmes]

I am sure that they're all very concerned about all of it, but, like, taking the governor away from his responsibility, I mean, listen, maybe they knew more than we did. Maybe they were like, yeah, no, get this guy off. He's not doing any good for anybody. Anybody.

[Comfortably Smug]

Maybe he was like, if we have the governor record from my mansion, he'll be inside, incentivized not to let it burn. That's their thinking.

[Josh Holmes]

But, like, after all of this, they're like, all right, we're gonna raise some money for the effort. A noble cause. Obviously, people are raising money, trying to give it to charities. And again, I don't want to malign their intent. I don't know what it is. It's how they execute this thing that is entirely consistent with what you know about progressive Democrats and the way they handle things. Look at this. Let's get this graphic up, if you wouldn't mind spaghetti. So this is their thing that says if you want to help those in their linking to their own interview with the governor. And they say if you want to help. Again, I'm not even to the more.

[Comfortably Smug]

Optimizing for clicks and views.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I'm not even this. They're like here we just did like a, you know, a thing and like, instead of being like totally altruistic about we're gonna RT our thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

And then, and then we're gonna put. If you wanna help those impacted by California wildfires, Please [e-mail] Relief okay. All right. So the New York Post jumps on this fairly quickly and they say observers online quickly pointed out that ActBlue takes a portion of all the donations that as a processing fee. ActBlue claims to charge a flat rate of 3.95% to each donation to cover the processing costs. The Post has contacted ActBlue for comment. ActBlue is a controversial platform. Last year, congressional Republicans flagged scores of transactions on ActBlue have been flagged as potentially suspicious or fraudulent. Newsom himself has refrained from linking to ActBlue fundraiser directly. However, he went to the liberal Pod Save America podcast last week, which encouraged users to. To use the Dem fundraiser as well. Now we'll get to Newsom because he then updated that.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's even more.

[Josh Holmes]

He updated all that.

[Comfortably Smug]

There's no entry.

[Josh Holmes]

He had his own. He had his own thing. But here's what, like, again, I'm just gonna. You fill in the blanks on what you think the intent of all this is. But this is an organization that was set up Vote Save America seems pretty clear. Right. It's a nonprofit status and they do things like registering voters and providing people information. But we've also reported on the variety program that the Democrats are way ahead of Republicans in all of these C3 and C4 organizations where they collect a whole bunch of data on folks and they thereby spread the entire breadth of this small dollar giving universe that all resides in Act Blue. And so there's just more available small dollar donors for Democrats than there are for Republicans. One of the reasons for that, you're super unscrupulous. And I'm not saying that this was the intent. I don't know what the intent was. I'm just saying what they did by putting all this on Act Blue. Think for a minute. So the Republican corollary to all this is Win Red.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Think for a second. If you had a hurricane bearing down on Florida just decimated an entire community. And rather than directing somebody to the red Cross or directly to local organizations on the ground that are doing all that, which they have said that's what they intend to do with the money that goes into their thing. But rather than do that, like, all of a sudden, Ron DeSantis was like, well, if you go to my campaign website and you type in all your information, including your email address, your phone number, your address, and everything else, I'll make sure 100% of the money goes there. Now, even if it does. Even if 100% of the money does go there, there's a tangible asset that most political digital marketing firms pay, like, a buck or a buck 20 in order to get each name on their list.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I mean, I guess, like, acquisition. Right, Right. I mean, it's like lead generation.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, so I agree. It's like, look, I don't know what their ultimate intent with all of this is, and I'm sure all the money will go to these charities. And the processing fee. Yeah. I mean, every donation processor charges a processing fee because that's what it costs to work with the credit card companies. Like, yeah, it's.

[Josh Holmes]

It's less about the 3.95 thing as it is about the housing.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like. It's. It's. It's. It's just thirsty, as the kids might say. It's kind of thirsty to surf off of a tragedy and use it to, like, build a list that you control. It's like, if you really wanted to help, just send a link to the Red Cross, send a link to the organizations that you want to support. You don't have to create this Rube Goldberg experiment on Act Blue that.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, there's only two. There's only two things, right? Yeah. It can either be that you are unintentionally digesting all of the information that good Samaritans provide you that can later be used for Democrat partisan purposes, or you're doing it intentionally.

[Comfortably Smug]

So that's the thing. So on Newsom's thing, when you typed in your info, people posted the screenshots of it at the bottom in a tiny little font. There was an automatically checked box that said, I want to opt in for emails from Gavin Newsom's campaign.

[Josh Holmes]

There it is. Like, Newsom's is even worse than the Pabros. But, like, the thing is that this is a very easy decision. You want money to get from A to B. You want to use your platform to help generate activity for a good cause. Why are you a middleman?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Why are you adding More friction to that process.

[Josh Holmes]

Why would you need to do it? Right. It's either you want credit for driving it because it goes through your operation, and you can ultimately cut the check. You pod save bros can cut the check or worse. Right. Nefarious purposes that you want the actual information that you can help.

[Michael Duncan]

They could have just set up a GoFundMe, you know, if you really. If you wanted that. If you want.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is what Trump did for the people in North Carolina.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. If, like, you want to set a goal of, like, what your audience can donate, you know, like, set up a GoFundMe.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine after North Carolina and the devastation that's still happening, by the way?

[Comfortably Smug]

It's still. It's still horrible. It's people getting thrown out of their temporary housing.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you imagine that after that, instead of a GoFundMe that Trump was like, you can just go to Trumpvance.com send me the money. I'll take care of it. Can you imagine the outrage?

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the insanity of this.

[Josh Holmes]

But that's essentially what these guys have done. Newsom in particular. Now, I know, like, the pod savers, I don't know, maybe they're just, like, so insular that they think that the only thing. I think they're the only processor.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're bad guys. Well, maybe this is a horrible thing to do. There's no excuse.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, listen, I'm trying.

[Comfortably Smug]

He goes to his Architectural Digest mansion, and he's like, I was the hero today. I sent them to ActBlue. Get the hell out of here, man. I have an opinion on them. They're terrible people to do this.

[Josh Holmes]

The ActBlue on the Newsom thing, you just said this, but I want to reiterate it, because this is from msn.com the ActBlue donation box says the money is being raised by Campaign for Democracy. Newsom super pac. His super pac. His super pac. So it's direct. You don't even need a list. Share agreement. I know we're getting kind of technical on this. The bottom line is you're ingesting a bunch of Good Samaritans data.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it says they're. They're automatically signing up for text messages from his super PAC if they provide their phone numbers.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, they set up a vanity URL, California Firefax.com. you know, like, he's standing out there with Anderson Cooper being like, your alderman's to blame for this.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, and then he sets up a website. Meanwhile, this is what his team is doing, buying A vanity URL on GoDaddy so that you know, they can do lead generation for his campaign. I mean like that's real.

[Josh Holmes]

That is a real thing. We're not exaggerating that. The Newsom part.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is not an exaggeration. Like you can, you can take whatever you want out of the pod bros. And maybe that's the. Maybe Democratic partisan politics is the only processing server they've ever known. Yeah, it's possible. Right. It's possible that that's the only thing that's ever concerned them with the giving and exchanging is commerce or money. It's possible. But the governor of the state surely has access to more than just that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And he, what he has decided to do was to give it to his super PAC that will write the check and I'd like to follow up and see if that's actually gonna happen. And then they get all their data. Like that's just unbelievable.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's outrageous. It's unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just, it's incredible. So anyway, if you're gonna listen to the Ruthless variety program, let me just give you a link that doesn't link to Win Red. It doesn't link to Smug's bank account or Duncan's bank account or my bank account or the Ruthless variety program which would probably end up in Lee's bank account. It doesn't end up anywhere. What it is is www.redcross.org donate wow, that is a something that. I don't know, I think you guys have all heard of it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Turns out, what a novel idea.

[Josh Holmes]

Turns out the tragedy. They've been around the block once or twice before and they use that to help people. And you don't have to go through us and give us your email address and your data or anything else to get it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Unbelievable. These people, they're horrible people. They have no heart. It's heartless monsters is what they are.

[Josh Holmes]

God. It's just signed. So it brings us to our question. There's day. Remember you gotta like and subscribe and then answer this one because. Because it's a good question and there's, there's a lot that goes into it. The question is, has Gavin Newsom destroyed his 2028 chances by this? Because no, make no bones about it. From mid summer on in, he had made an explicit decision that he wasn't going to try to like push Biden out memory. He was like, no, I've talked to Biden, Biden's great. So he wasn't trying to like line up to be first in Line and try to edge Kamala out. And then he immediately was the top surrogate for Com. His entire motivation politically and everything he did all the rest of the election was to try to become the 2028 nominee. That's what he was doing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Has this destroyed that?

[Michael Duncan]

And I could argue both ways. Right. Cause, like, ground truth, execution, doing the job that matters, you know, I mean, famously, like Joe Biden screwing up the withdrawal from Afghanistan is what never recovered. Broke the seal on the polling, and he never recovered from that. But Gavin Newsom is also slippery as an eel.

[Josh Holmes]

He is slippery as an eel and a total Rasputin.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

From a political standpoint, like, he just never dies. He just keeps coming back one way or another. I mean, the shit that he has been involved in and done.

[Comfortably Smug]

Believe it.

[Josh Holmes]

Nobody would believe it. Nobody would believe.

[Michael Duncan]

I just don't think anybody. Like, I don't think our country is going to elect a Democrat who looks like a used car salesman and slicks his hair back like that.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you've been a big slick hair guy.

[Michael Duncan]

I just. I just think the visual is off.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a tough deal.

[Michael Duncan]

I think it's off.

[Josh Holmes]

I think you're probably right.

[Michael Duncan]

He looks like Gordon Gekko.

[Josh Holmes]

So maybe this had nothing to do with it. You're like, now he was out with his hairstyle, I think.

[Michael Duncan]

I think so.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think he's gonna be the nominee.

[Josh Holmes]

I think he could be.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think he's gonna increase his chances off this. I don't want to influence, you know, the comments. Everyone leave your comments of what's going to happen. I think this is gonna increase his chances. I'm calling it now.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you serious?

[Comfortably Smug]

He's gonna increase his chances. Here's what's gonna happen.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, I know what I.

[Michael Duncan]

No, no, no, no, no, no. I actually, I'm with this tape.

[Comfortably Smug]

Here's what's gonna happen is President Trump's gonna come into office and he's gonna be like, if you want federal help, Gavin, I want you to get a bill passed that says you're gonna take care of the fires and you will make sure the damn reservoirs are filled. And Gavin Newsom's gonna get out and he'll have a press conference. I will never work with President Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

And California's negative polarization, I could see that happening.

[Josh Holmes]

We live in such a dangerous time.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, think of the heroes they made out of losers during Donald Trump's first term.

[Josh Holmes]

It's true. You know, just an absolute.

[Michael Duncan]

Preet Rahara still have an MSNBC contract. Because he refused to resign. You know, I mean, think about that. He like. Like a very pro forma thing, a U.S. attorney like you step down after the other party takes over your political appointment.

[Josh Holmes]

And he's like, no, you're gonna force me out.

[Michael Duncan]

I won't contract on television. Only in politics.

[Josh Holmes]

No, it's true. And I hate to say it, but there is an element of truth to that. We'll see how it plays out. This one, though, it's a big one. I mean, you can't just destroy. First of all, it's like the tax base of their entire state outside of Silicon Valley.

[Comfortably Smug]

Biden did it the country. And it took him showing up to a debate and his brain falling out on the podium to stop.

[Josh Holmes]

Democrats, man. It's just a wild. Partisanship is a hell of a drug. Unbelievable. Anyway, when we get back to you, we're gonna read your comments from last Tuesday or last Thursday where you had a very interesting question on which territory Trump is most likely to add to the map. Want to talk about all of that? Excited to hear what you have right after this. I don't have to tell you, Americans are ready for what's next. Moving beyond the hardships of inflation and economic anxiety towards building a future, a better future for our families. Ensuring greater access to more affordable energy that powers daily lives, reliable energy that fuels innovation and economic growth, and the abundant energy that keeps our nation safer and more secure. It's all within our grasp. We'll do this together, building a brighter future for us, powered by America's oil and natural gas resources. You can learn more about all of [e-mail] okay, so last week we asked you a very important question. Which. Which territory is Trump most likely to get? Are we talking about Greenland? Are we talking about Canada? Are we talking about Panama? Feels like everything is sort of expanded beyond that real manifest destiny going on in the minds of most Americans now that we have Donald Trump, who's more interested in thinking outside the box a little bit.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Than your typical sort of deep state foreign policy.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, and with your typical ruthless variety program. We usually go to the voice first for the first comment, but Ashbrook's not here, so I'm going to try to do your level best. My level best?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

A little bit of a impression here. Comment one comes from Jeffrey Atkinson.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good tenor.

[Michael Duncan]

I think a deal for Greenland is the most likely. Only 56, 000 people live there and they aren't big fans of the way Denmark has treated them. They want to mock. They want to mine and exploit the resources, but the Danes won't let them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, this is a great point.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. It's a great point. You know, we saw Don Jr and crew go over there, apparently get a great.

[Comfortably Smug]

They were welcome.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. Look, I think Greenland, like, everybody laughed about it the first four years when it was sort of floated. But from a national security strategic point of view, it makes sense from an economic standpoint, like, Lord knows what could happen to Greenland if it was actually. I mean, Denmark is not exactly Wall street, let's just put it that way.

[Michael Duncan]

Also, like, in the year of our Lord 2025, the idea that Denmark has a say over what happens in Greenland.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, what are they gonna do about it?

[Michael Duncan]

It feels like a vestigial feature of, like, colonialism, you know, like, what the. And you know what? The whole Western hemisphere is ours. Like, let's kick the Brits out of the Virgin Islands. Let's get rid of all these Euros over in our hemisphere. What the fuck? Monroe Doctrine is bad.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think. So this point is so good because it's only 56,000 people, right?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And they've got a lot of natural resources. Because we've tried the play of going for the natural resources, but you get millions of people and you get problems. 56,000 is manageable. 56,000 is manageable.

[Josh Holmes]

How would you like to be rich? 56,000.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. It's a great deal. They saw Don Jr. They're like, these guys know what they're doing. Bring them on over.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at the size of that plane. Yeah, yeah, no, totally. All right. Smug. What else we got?

[Comfortably Smug]

Comment 2 is from Nancy, and Nancy writes, annexing Greenland would be awesome for the strategic location, natural resources it would provide. I also suspect its people would be happy to be associated with the US but getting the Panama Canal back under our control is absolutely essential for our national security. If we ever need to get our ships from the east coast to the Pacific because of a conflict with China, we are sunk without the canal. So it must be priority one. Nancy from Orange County, California, I think that.

[Josh Holmes]

Look, that's. It's a typically very smart take from our audience. I mean, this is something that if you talk to people who've done a lot of national security work, we'll tell you it's bothered them for a while now. Like the idea that the Panama Canal built by us, monitored by us, you know, paid for by us, essentially defended by us, all these things, has all of a sudden fallen into the contractual hands of the Chinese when we're like, I don't know, a couple of clicks north is crazy insanity. It's complete insanity. And the idea that people can do all of that without, I don't know, at least lobbing in a phone call is nuts. I mean, maybe they did. They could have called Biden. I mean, who knows anytime who's answering.

[Comfortably Smug]

That phone, if anyone.

[Josh Holmes]

If it's. If it's after 10 or 2.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, he thought the president of Egypt was the president of Mexico, if you recall.

[Josh Holmes]

So I do.

[Comfortably Smug]

So they stopped trying to call.

[Josh Holmes]

They stopped trying to call. I mean, disastrous. That's great. It's great comment. And I actually think, by the way, before I go to the last comment, it is the most likely to get done some kind of a thing there. Like, I don't know if it means taking it back over. I don't know if it's an understanding, but the idea that we go for four years under President Trump when he's talked about it this much without some kind of understanding by the Panamanians is next to zero. They're gonna have to figure it out.

[Comfortably Smug]

But also, if it gets done, I offer President Trump. I'd be the Viceroy of Greenland.

[Josh Holmes]

You'd be very good at that.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'd keep him in line and I would expect. Exploit the shit out of the resources. We'd do a great job.

[Josh Holmes]

Exploit the. That may not be the lead message in the stump.

[Comfortably Smug]

I want a big painting of me that says Viceroy of Greenland crushing the population and exploiting the resources.

[Michael Duncan]

You think you could finally get your bear rug?

[Comfortably Smug]

I get a bear rug. They gotta have bears over there.

[Josh Holmes]

The bear. Yeah, for sure. They'd gift you a bear rug upon your return. No question about it. All right. Comment three comes from David Cole. Another ignored possibility for annexation is Cuba.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. I'm so glad. This is. This is the one that we haven't mentioned.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm so excited for this.

[Josh Holmes]

Over the last year, I've been wondering if it would make it to Inauguration Day. Cuba's economy is near collapse, and for all intents and purposes, their electrical grid has already collapsed. These are the two main ingredients for a rebellion. The Cuban demographic has been very supportive of Trump and could be the only annexation option that doesn't give the Democrats control of Congress. I guess that's possible. I mean, look, when we're talking about Cuban Americans, you're talking about people who left Cuba for a reason, for a. That's the thing, you know, people that stay there. You might have more of a mixed ideology.

[Comfortably Smug]

Miami Cubans are like as maga as they get.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I mean, they're the most conservative population on earth. No question about. And they're old school conservative.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, but I've got a solution to this. We'll give Cuba back to the Italians.

[Josh Holmes]

What?

[Michael Duncan]

You know, we'll make it like 1950s Cuba. It could be run by the mob, you know?

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you mean the American Italians.

[Michael Duncan]

The American Italians.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Not those Euros are Italians.

[Comfortably Smug]

What if we were to send a group of Italians to the beach and maybe like, some bay over there and they can try to capture the country? This could work. Yeah, maybe like a Bay of Pigs.

[Josh Holmes]

God, I knew you were headed that direction.

[Comfortably Smug]

That could work. You just tell these Italians they're sausage and mozzarella.

[Michael Duncan]

All I'm saying is, whatever it takes to get me onto a beach smoking a Cohiba, I'm for.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I mean, there should be just a line of casinos. The weather's terrific. It looks beautiful.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, and they're all driving around like 1950s cars. Maybe restore a couple of those, put some new roadsters on the streets. I think there's a lot we could do with Cuba. Yeah, it sounds like a wonderful idea, David. Absolutely terrific. Absolutely terrific stuff. All right, so with all of that, we're gonna talk about our sponsor here, Lumen. Yeah, Lumen's the first world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. I know you've used this thing smug. And you love it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it's super easy to use. You wake up in the morning, you pop the cap off, it automatically connects to your phone. Super easy. It's not like other devices that give you a headache. This thing is just, like, ready to roll. You breathe in, you breathe out. The machine tells you exactly what your body's doing. Is it burning fat, is it burning carbohydrates? Then it doesn't give you, like, here's your HRV. Here's 19 different numbers. You have no idea what any of this means.

[Josh Holmes]

You got to be a doctor to figure it out.

[Comfortably Smug]

Seriously, it's like, no, here's what you do. Here's what your body's doing. Here's what you can do. Yeah, and it just works like, it's simple. Like, you know, PhDs who know what they're doing clearly have put this together. They know what to measure, but they just give you the information you need. They don't try to, you know, confuse you with a bunch of stuff. They make everything easy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And I mean, especially now, like, in January New Year, New me, You know, trying to be a little bit healthier. I think Lumen's a great way to sort of get you to. To be healthier without totally changing your daily routine.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, like, if you ever see on. On Instagram and stuff, like the people who are like, meal prepping every single day and doing all these things, it's like, it's time consuming.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Like tracking your ma. Your macros, you know, in an app and all this sort of stuff. Lumen takes all the guesswork out of that progress by just, like, giving you the tools you need in an easy to digest way.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally smart and smart stuff. And a great thing at the beginning of the year is we're all kind of struggling with these resolutions.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, you're like, maybe the top rung of your resolution is fallen a little bit.

[Michael Duncan]

Inauguration week's going to be tough.

[Josh Holmes]

It's going to be tough, but you can. There's going to be something that you can do. Well, we've got it right here with Lumen. So if you want to stay on track with your health in the new year, you go to Lumen. Me slash ruthless to get 15% off your lumen. That's L U M E N Me slash Ruthless for 15% off your purchase. Lumen makes a great gift too, you know, I mean, Valentine's coming up. Although, you know, that seems like more like an Ashbrook gift, but either way. But either. Either way, you can gift it to anybody. His birthdays. Everybody's got birthdays around the clock, so maybe it's good for that too. Somebody's concerned about their health. Anyway, we gotta thank Lumen for sponsoring this episode. All the good work they've done. Okay, we got a little bit of a lightning round, fellas. It falls into the Variety category.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is just incredible news. Are you tired of the winning?

[Josh Holmes]

For a long time, we've wondered how it is that the Washington Post could struggle on such hard times. And yet one thing remains. It was always Jennifer Rubin, the champion, our queen. She was always there, thick and thin. Right. Lose $70 million, no problem. Lay off half your workforce. Jen's still there. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

She's like a cockroach. She survived the apocalypse.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And it's like they never. It's like her desk was far enough into the corner where they'd hit the quota before they got to her end of the room or something. Like, I could never figure out how it is that she just kept on keeping on. Well, it all ends today, fellas.

[Comfortably Smug]

Gentlemen, Olympus is falling.

[Josh Holmes]

It all ends today. According to CNN, Jen Rubin resigns from WaPo. Jen Rubin exits the Washington Post and joins Norm Eisen to launch a new outlet countering the authoritarian threat. Veteran opinion columnist Jennifer Rubin is becoming the latest in a long list of Washington Post figures to leave the troubled institution. Rubin is partnering with a former White House ethics czar, Norm Eisen, in launching something new, a startup publication called the Contrarian. Okay, before we go anywhere called the Contrarian, a couple. A couple of things. First off, no question, WaPo's troubled times. Right. It feels like Wall Street Journal went and mined their talent.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. On that note, I want to. Sean Spicer sent this tweet out, stat of the Day. In January of 2021, Washington Post had around 22.5 million daily active users. But by the middle of 2024, its daily users hovered around 2.5 million.

[Josh Holmes]

That is a wild.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's like losing 90% of your audience. That is insanity.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so bad. But again, she's so bad.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

They started something called the Contrarian. Contrary to what? I don't know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, right. It's like she has a master's degree in sniffing her own farts. I mean, this has carried the water for every dumb liberal idea from the Democratic establishment her entire career. She's like brow beating other progressives who are like, I think Joe Biden's too old. You know what I mean? Like, what is the Contrarian take she's ever had?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, we played a game at the beginning of the Biden administration called Claim to Fame.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And part of the point of the game was there was then Chief of Staff Ron Klain, who would say something publicly that is literally word for word and identical to what she would then report, like, a day later. And they all became so intermingled and mixed that you couldn't tell the difference between the two. And it became very difficult. So to your point, like, she was the most establishment Democrat. Take the most warmed over, unthoughtful, like, disgusting mess for the entirety.

[Comfortably Smug]

As the conservative writer at the Washington.

[Josh Holmes]

As the conservative. And now she's like, nope, contrarian. And they're going to talk, apparently, about a bunch of different things. What troubles me only is whether or not this impacts King of the Hill. We've had a number of departures. People like Taylor Lorenz, people who've played major roles in our Ultimate March Hack Madness tournament that, like, I hate to see people like that go, yeah, I hope she still.

[Michael Duncan]

Does she qualify? Is that what you're asking.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, I want her to continue to be able to play the games. The question. But you got to be on X to do it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And, like, if she's quitting the Post, I don't know.

[Comfortably Smug]

My thinking is she's not going anywhere. Like, the problem with her is the worms. The worms in her brain will not leave her. They will never allow her to have a moment of peace. She can't put her phone down either. Like, she can launch the contrarian, but the takes are still gonna fly.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I agree. I think she's actually gonna double down, because when you're gonna launch a new publication.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, she wants the clicks.

[Michael Duncan]

She wants the clicks. She's gonna be as aggressive as she possibly can. She's. She's not gonna go push them further.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe it gets better.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

She's not gonna go gently into that sweet night.

[Josh Holmes]

She's been such.

[Michael Duncan]

She's gonna rage.

[Comfortably Smug]

Rage.

[Josh Holmes]

She's been such a big part of the program.

[Michael Duncan]

Can I add one other thing here? Because I think this is the most delicious component for departure.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

It's like, one thing to, like, leave the Post and launch. I assume this is going to be like some fucking substack. Like, we don't have 10 million other substacks, but whatever. Good on you. But, like, when Bezos got all this blame for WaPo not endorsing Kamala Harris. Oh, yeah, there were a lot of people who wanted to resign from the newsroom. And there were, you know, people making all these public pronouncements, all these sorts of things. And she was mum. She was completely quiet.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

When she could have left in a.

[Josh Holmes]

Principled term and two weeks earlier, when the LA Times did the exact same thing, she was telling her, she's like, do it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Jump out the window.

[Josh Holmes]

And then it came her turn. She was like, not on my watch.

[Michael Duncan]

Not on my watch.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, I gotta get. Mama's gonna get paid somehow.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm keeping my head down.

[Josh Holmes]

These cats don't feed themselves.

[Michael Duncan]

Right. So.

[Comfortably Smug]

So.

[Michael Duncan]

So now, you know, now, months later, to resign. She. She hasn't done it for principle. She was waiting around to see if Kamala would win.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, you know. Yeah. No, that's exactly right. So.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

But then.

[Josh Holmes]

But you can tell the framing. And I reason why they. You know, they went to CNN on all this when they first of all insert the word troubled Washington Post as if it's like, well, she's. It's her choice here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Because of how terribly the Washington Post is doing. Like, never mind the Fact that everybody left left because someone hired them. She's not doing it.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're like, she is on a lifeboat. She didn't drive it into the iceberg.

[Josh Holmes]

And then the startups tagline. Talk about this is just so perfect. It's so perfect. The startups tagline is not owned by anybody.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a pointed reference to billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and other moguls who in Rubin's view, have, quote, bent the knee to President Elect Donald Trump.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't know. I feel like, I feel like we've owned her. Yeah, seriously, that's the thing pretty frequently.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, just like a. Yeah, it's blue light special now, though, you can probably go to that sub stack and have your mind completely melted. Can you imagine? I can't. We gotta start. We gotta start. And I hate to do this to you, spaghetti. I really hate to do. I mean, you look, you came out with a nice holiday full of marinara and mozzarella. And the next thing you know, I'm asking you to do something that's true, inhumane. And what I'm asking you to do is you gotta check out at least the first couple of these.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Subscribe.

[Josh Holmes]

You have to do it because it's, it's. Well, our audience deserves it, frankly. They deserve it. You gotta see. But before we leave, Jen Rubin, I think what we have to do is just play like it's the greatest hits. This is one of our favorites. It's been for a long time.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Kind of a calling card, like a signing off in a lot of ways from her old career.

[Michael Duncan]

And also I want to play this for our younger audience who didn't see it, who probably hasn't seen this. This will be very familiar to our older audience who members Bill O'Reilly in his heyday. So let's go to that clip.

[Josh Holmes]

A really long list of them. Essentially, you've kept up what the Trump campaign has been saying. You've made excuses for the lock her up comment. You've pleaded with Ted Cruz and he's really an honest.

[Michael Duncan]

When did I, when did I make.

[Comfortably Smug]

Excuses for lock her up?

[Michael Duncan]

What did I exactly say?

[Josh Holmes]

Let's see, that would have been on. Oh, she's got a page. Jen Rubin brought printout. It would have been on. Well, it's your live tv. Jen would have been on dead air in April and also in August. In August, rather in October, if you remember. Charles Krautheimer came on and had a very vigorous. Wait a minute.

[Michael Duncan]

What did I say about In April and August. What? Exactly. She's staring down at paper.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, we can go through all of them. No, I want that one.

[Comfortably Smug]

This is.

[Josh Holmes]

She doesn't know which one in particular.

[Comfortably Smug]

April or August.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, let's see. In August. Let's see.

[Comfortably Smug]

The Caddy. My homework.

[Josh Holmes]

We had comments that you were going to. You would. If somebody is being really dishonest, referring to the press corps, you strip them of their credentials as well. Doesn't sound like an independent thing.

[Comfortably Smug]

That doesn't have anything to do with. Lock them up.

[Michael Duncan]

You are ill prepared to send them.

[Josh Holmes]

I hemmed a whole list here. Ms. Reuben, I have just given you.

[Michael Duncan]

A minute where you've hemmed and hauled. You said I justified a comment.

[Josh Holmes]

Lock her up. You can't point to it and then.

[Michael Duncan]

You pivot to something else.

[Josh Holmes]

You're ill prepared for this. And this is the point I want to make.

[Michael Duncan]

This is the point I want to make.

[Josh Holmes]

Your column and blog are fraud.

[Michael Duncan]

Dude. You know how much you have to suck at your job to go on somebody else's live program, prepared with. With research and not be able to deliver it?

[Josh Holmes]

Calling them out. What did she think when she said that he was like, justifying comments? That he wouldn't be like, huh?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

What do you mean by that?

[Michael Duncan]

You know, O'Reilly was nothing but gracious. I mean, to allow a minute of straight dead air on live television so you can fiddle through papers and him and. Ha. Unbelievable. I would have cut her feed.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's just so good. But anyway, let's just hope that that's not the end. There's more. I wish her the greatest of success.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Mass distribution.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I really hope that we have Jen to kick around for a little while.

[Michael Duncan]

That's a good reference.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my gosh. All right, so in a little bit more serious stuff, you've also noticed there's a bunch of obviously very, very serious consideration here for what will be the renewal of Trump's tax cut. There's no question, amongst all of the things that went into this campaign, the economy and what his record was in the first four years of what he did for the American people by putting sound tax policy in place and growing. This economy had a huge impact because, you know, obviously we saw the opposite under Biden. This was a guy who just pinched us with regulations, grew inflation, made everything unaffordable. And so there was like an easy four year to four year comparison that most Americans made. The crux of that agenda from the Trump administration was the tax cuts.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

They are expiring for those of you who didn't know that all of these are expiring at the end of 2025 without a renewal of these tax. And I expect we're going to see some new pieces to it. You heard Trump talk about no tax on tips and things like that. Like there's gonna be new pieces to it. He never does the same thing twice. It's gotta be big, bold, beautiful, everything else. And so but the core of it, if it just expired, it'd be the largest tax increase in American history. And unlike what Democrats tell you about it was a tax cut for the rich. It turns out it wasn't.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it turns out the last Trump administration when Americans did great.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, turns out it was a massive tax cut for middle America that left. They never understand economics. They never understand it. They try to slap a bumper sticker and then they get the parroting media that's out and like, well, they say, they say, they say. And then it just becomes a part of the vernacular. Well, that's not the case. And there's a bunch of folks that are really putting their shoulder to the wheel to try to get that done. Amongst them, a really important friend of ours in AFP. And they're launching a $20 million wide ranging campaign to urge the extension of Trump's signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That's what was called TCJA. This is according to foxnews.com the campaign, which includes an ad blitz starting this very week in all 50 states, was shared with Fox News on Monday. AFP is says Congress is, quote, facing a countdown to crisis that threatens the family budgets of virtually every American. So they're right about this. And the thing is that we've talked about with them and they've been on this graciously, been on this stage with us a number of different times. What they do for elections. They have an entirely separate component that never stops. And they use the same grassroots power to help an agenda. In this case, a key component of the Trump presidency.

[Comfortably Smug]

And to me, this statistic right here is one that I know they're going to make a centerpiece. And I want every American to know this. The group said that millions of Americans will pay an extra 1500 or more next year in taxes if the cuts are not extended.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, that's a big number.

[Comfortably Smug]

Big number.

[Michael Duncan]

And the campaign is also going to include 1,000 meetings at congressional offices in district, events with their activists, roundtables with job creators and shared testimonials from real American families. What I love about this and we say this all the time, but like, like, Election Day is great and winning is great, but at the end of the day, politics goes to those who show up. And you can't just show up on Election day and think your job is done. Like, all of this stuff is going to have to get done over a period of months and it's going to require hard work. And that's just not voting, it's calling your congressman's writing letters, it's going to their district office, it's all those other other things. And it's like it's not the sexiest work that gets all the headlines most of the time, but when you have such an ambitious agenda like President Trump does, like, you're going to need a lot of work like this to get it to the finish line.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I'm telling you, it's going to be harder than it sounds. Everybody, we talked about this a little, couple of weeks ago and everybody's like, well, yeah, this is going to be done. Now that we have House and Republican, Senate, Republican and the White House, it is tough to get these wide ranging things done. It's going to take everyone. So AFP certainly doing their part. I know that we're going to be hearing more from them on this show about specifically what they're doing, maybe how you can get involved in everything else. So important news on that front. And taxes, we're going to file taxes with some granularity all the way through. I think ultimately how this administration is judged in year one that may well carry through all four years relies on the executive orders that they do on the border and the administration action that they take on The Border Day 1, which is a fait accompli with Stephen Miller and that crew, like they've been thinking about this for four long years. They're going to take care of it. But what you need to do congressionally when it comes to taxes shapes not only the economy, but how people feel about their lives, their ability to spend, what the markets look like. And that is the biggest driver of public opinion in the United States.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I mean, like you and I have said before on the show, this policy is so critical in getting it done as soon as possible because small business owners make these decisions now and having uncertainty doesn't. I have a friend personally, he owns a true mom and pop, tiny little shop and they're already nervous. What happens if the taxes go up? Because already margins are thin, people are spending less. Yep, it's needed. We gotta get it done fast.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no question. About it. We're gonna follow all that. Good news, fellas, and good news for the audience who've come to know and love Will Kane. Will Kane, according to variety.com is taking over Fox News Channel's 4pm slot.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's awesome.

[Josh Holmes]

It is awesome.

[Comfortably Smug]

Great guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Just such a good dude. He's a popular co host of the weekend edition of Fox and Friends. He'll take over the 4pm that was the Cavuto slot with him retiring. And he's gonna be doing it like he does his show, the Will Cain show, which he's been generous enough to have us on countless numbers of times. And every time I'm on, I'm like, are we just chill? We're just chilling at the bar?

[Comfortably Smug]

Are they recording or we're just talking? You know, talking shout.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And like, his interests are pretty similar to our interests. And so it's. I mean, it is a really. It's been a great relationship. I've really, genuinely been enthusiastic to get to know him over the last year. Couldn't happen to a better guy.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And that's the thing, is, yes, he's terrific at what he does professionally, but as a person, like, seeing how much he's had his friend Pete Hagstats back, let's get him confirmed. But seeing Will Kane going out there, putting work, defending his friends, seeing that loyalty. He's just a good dude. You love seeing good people succeed.

[Josh Holmes]

I totally agree. I totally agree. And you know, the whole podcast regime, I mean, we're now getting podcast.

[Michael Duncan]

A rising tide lifts all boats.

[Josh Holmes]

It sure. It certainly does. It certainly does. As a footnote to all this, our boy Charlie hurts taking over his seat at the Fox and Friends weekend. Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Remember, keeps going.

[Josh Holmes]

For your OG ruthless listeners, Charlie's Playground is one of the best shows that we've ever did. Yeah, I mean, that was.

[Michael Duncan]

Go back into the archive and fire that one up.

[Comfortably Smug]

That one was recording in the old studio setup. He was one of the most fun people. Like, we cracked up the entire episode.

[Josh Holmes]

I've known Charlie for 20 years and let's just say he's more responsible these days. Probably more fit for the corporate culture than he was at one point in his life. But either way, fantastic to have them there. Fellas, there is probably nothing that's going to generate more discussion than this next story of Variety Airlines. This is, according to the New York Post, want airports to put a lid on drinking in the terminal. European airline begs airports to enforce a two drink limit.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course, it's the euros.

[Josh Holmes]

According to the New York Post amid lawsuit against disruptive behavior. Okay, where do we start with this. First off, for those of you who travel quite a bit like we do, the only thing that you've got going on in delays. Misplaced baggage, you know, the general uncomfortability of domestic flights.

[Comfortably Smug]

Misplaced baggage. Very key.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. Which airline?

[Comfortably Smug]

That was American. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'll get back to them later.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Well, listen, they did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're in the story.

[Josh Holmes]

They did good by me. They did good by me. But I will say the idea that airlines are the ones that are pushing people to. If you're stuck in an airport for six hours and some bartender's like, let me see your ticket, you've already had two drinks. You want to see an insurrection.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You're going to turn. These airports are going to get flipped upside down overnight.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. You know, I think when I travel, one of the greatest pleasures.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Is saddling up to like a like Chili's Bar.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And it's like a community.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Everybody's in the same situation, experiencing the same delay. The ball game's on, you're having a couple of pops. Why do you think that's such a great environment? It's because the beers are flowing. You want everybody here pissed off, staring at their phones and sober. What is wrong with.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing is the reason that they exist, taking it one step above that. Why do they have that there? It's because the airline makes you go through security, treats you like an animal. You gotta show up two hours early for a flight that's gonna leave two hours late. God knows if your luggage is gonna be there. They don't do pre flight drinks anymore, folks. I saw an article that said American Airlines got rid of chocolate chip cookies as a cost cutting measure. What did they give instead? They replaced it with nothing. Air just choke. Right. And so here further in the article, it says in 2022, American Airlines flight attendants proposed cutting people off after two drinks.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they have.

[Comfortably Smug]

People have to drink in the airport. Not because they're having fun, it's to cope. They have to pre game because travel in this country has turned into a nightmare because of these companies, they treat people like cattle. Everyone gets treated like garbage. First class is what coach was 10 years ago. Right. The reason now that you're paying the way that you travel is I just want to get away from other people because airlines are pretty much just like a PVP area. Every week you see a video of people brawling in the airlines. You hear about people oh, this lady snuck on a flight. She was in the cargo hold. You know, this person's dog got taken to Brazil.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

They treat everyone like garbage. They want more money, Prices keep going up, flights keep getting delayed, and now they want to cut your drink off. The only thing you have to cope with. These people should be waterboarded.

[Josh Holmes]

They're criminals, and there's no personal responsibility whatsoever. They're talking about unruly passengers. We'll throw their asses out, tell them they can't fly. It seems like a pretty good thing.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the thing, is, like, everybody knows who's on that airplane. There's a manifest. Everybody has to show their id. They have to security. Why are we blaming the group? And why are we punishing the group? We created the no Fly List for a reason. You're telling me somebody axe up, you can't put them on that thing. Why do I have to get punished? I know how to handle my beer. I mean, the idea of flying sober is like the idea of fishing sober. That is crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

It's crazy, and I won't stand for it. The one thing that I really love about airports, it's a judgment free zone. It doesn't matter when you sidle up to that bar, like, as long as that gate's open, which, by the way, they close that gateway too early in a lot of airports. But as long as that gate's open, you're sitting at the bar. Whatever you order, nobody side. Nobody does because they know you've been in for it. You've spent the last several hours. The only reason you're sitting there in the first place is because you're not where you want to be.

[Comfortably Smug]

Shout out to. I was at DFW. I had an early morning flight. It was like 9am Maybe, or 8am and the bar was open. So I sat down and she was like, we're not allowed to serve hard liquor before, like, noon or something. And then I was like, this is an outrage. And she was like, unless you order some food, we have toast for 50 cents.

[Michael Duncan]

Nice. See, they get it.

[Josh Holmes]

See, that's a smart.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

They get it. Yeah, they get it. Their jobs depend on people like us. You're limited to two. What does that do to the hospitality industry? You have to rent the spot in the airport for the first place. Think of the cascading problems that these people are. Of course, it originates in Europe.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. If I have 14 bourbons on a plane. I'm not thinking about how you're trying to Lose my luggage. And the flight was delayed three hours. And you treat everyone like garbage. I'm just like in a stupor. You want me in a stupor?

[Josh Holmes]

I'm watching your disastrous movie selection with great anticipation.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, let's look at this 2 inch screen that someone spit on in a toddler punch. And I'm like, great flight.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, this is terrific stuff. Great content. Anyway, I mean, listen, if this becomes a reality anywhere near this country, you may see the first win red call to action.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it'll be the win red landing.

[Josh Holmes]

Page that we could get involved in. Anyway, remember our question of the day as Newsom destroyed his 2028 chances. You've heard a little bit of our take. I suspect you've got great stuff. And for those of you in California, you've seen the evolution of this dude. Can't wait to read what you've got coming. Remember, you got to subscribe to our YouTube channel to do it. It's like. And subscribe very easy. Put it all down there. While you're there, maybe check for some updates. And what we're doing for this inauguration, we're gonna send out a lot of information. You're gonna see all that and if you can join us, please do. I promise you it's gonna be well worth it. We'll probably have smug in a white. White.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's gonna be a once in a lifetime experience. This is what we all work for.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah, this is it. God, I'm just so excited. Anyway, fellas, I think with that we've done it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, like Holmes said, go to our website right now, get a ticket, show up in person and if you can't, tune in for the live feed. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line and own the libs. We'll see on Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Michael Duncan]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Michael Duncan]

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[Josh Holmes]

CT mobile.com marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host.

[Michael Duncan]

You seek it out and download it.

[Josh Holmes]

You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad.

[Michael Duncan]

Did I get your attention?

[Josh Holmes]

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[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

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