Trump Trolls Trudeau

Summary

Ruthless Podcast: "Trump Trolls Trudeau" – Detailed Summary

Episode Overview: Released on December 12, 2024, the "Ruthless Podcast" hosted by Josh Holmes, Michael Smug, Comfortably Smug, and John Ashbrook delves into the ongoing political theatrics surrounding former President Donald Trump’s provocative remarks about Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The episode navigates through Trump’s antics, media manipulation, campaign financing scandals, and contemporary political figures, all delivered with the hosts' signature conservative wit and sharp analysis.

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1. Trump’s Provocative Moves Against Canada

The episode kicks off with an animated discussion about Donald Trump’s continual trolling of Canada, including his exaggerated threats of annexation to boost Republican Senate seats.

• Josh Holmes [00:00]: "We're sort of compatriots in this effort to bring Canada into the United States. It should be multiple states, whatever sort of arrangement gives Republicans the most Senate seats possible."

• John Ashbrook [06:36]: "What Trump trolling about the tariffs thing and being like, I'm going to annex Canada and everything, is that Donald Trump more than any politician in history understands the power and the theater of humiliating your opposition."

The hosts humorously debate various tongue-in-cheek methods for annexing Canada, such as gerrymandering, turning provinces into non-voting House delegates, and taking strategic regions like Alberta.

• Comfortably Smug [04:44]: "We absolutely should gerrymander it either way, no matter what."

Insight: Trump’s theatrics are seen as a masterclass in political theater, effectively using humor and provocation to undermine opposition and maintain public interest.

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2. Media Manipulation and Campaign Financing Scandals

The conversation shifts to the manipulation of media narratives and the controversies surrounding ActBlue, a prominent Democratic fundraising platform.

• Michael Smug [20:27]: "They have a whole system of nonprofits that have been known to take money from foreign billionaires and then sort of launder it through this whole system of 501C4s."

• John Ashbrook [21:27]: "It's an elaborate money laundering operation... how is it that a Swiss billionaire gets to fund a state ballot initiative?"

The hosts express concern over foreign influence in American elections, emphasizing the need for stringent oversight and accountability.

• Michael Smug [23:11]: "Well, Speaker Johnson weighed in... the House Admin Committee will continue this important investigation into ActBlue next Congress."

Insight: There's a strong emphasis on the vulnerability of the Democratic Party to foreign-financed nonprofits, suggesting a systemic issue that could undermine electoral integrity.

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3. Anthony Weiner’s Potential Political Comeback

A significant portion of the episode critiques former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s attempts to re-enter politics despite his past scandals.

• Comfortably Smug [40:47]: "Former congressman sex offender Anthony Weiner files for papers to run for city council. Yes."

• John Ashbrook [43:07]: "He's a psychopath. Broke them."

The hosts discuss Weiner’s history, linking his personal failings to broader Democratic Party vulnerabilities and mocking his persistence in seeking office.

• Michael Smug [44:35]: "His original sexting scandal was 2012... he was sending."

Insight: Weiner's repeated attempts to return to politics are portrayed as emblematic of flawed Democratic strategies and personal accountability failures within the party.

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4. “King of the Hill” Game Segment

In an interactive segment, the hosts engage in a humorous game called "King of the Hill," where they critique and mock various political figures and their actions.

• John Ashbrook [57:51]: "Ron Philipowski with his first ever round win."

• Comfortably Smug [60:22]: "Well, it's brunch. That's self-evident. But it is a drinking afternoon."

Quotes from participants are peppered throughout, adding levity and sharp criticism of public figures’ missteps and media portrayals.

Insight: This segment serves to highlight the absurdity and incompetence perceived in political figures, using humor as a tool for social commentary.

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5. Caitlin Clark and Woke Sports Culture

The hosts express frustration with the politicization of sports, specifically targeting WNBA star Caitlin Clark’s recent outspoken stance on social issues.

• Comfortably Smug [74:53]: "Caitlin Clark went completely woke and was like, this is a direct quote from her... It's over. The era of this woke garbage is over."

• Michael Smug [75:29]: "Nobody ever made it about."

The discussion criticizes the intersection of athletics and social activism, arguing that it detracts from the purity of sports and alienates traditional fans.

• Comfortably Smug [77:08]: "Caitlin Clark should be banished."

Insight: There is a clear disdain for what the hosts view as forced political correctness in sports, suggesting that athletes should remain apolitical to preserve the essence of competition and unity in sports.

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6. Critique of Legacy Media and Call for Balanced Reporting

Throughout the episode, the hosts consistently attack mainstream media outlets, accusing them of bias and complicity with Democratic agendas.

• Josh Holmes [30:25]: "This is why the Ruthless Variety Program talks... it's the need for balance in the media."

• Comfortably Smug [31:26]: "We should get Speaker Johnson here asap, because this story is huge."

The hosts advocate for alternative media platforms that they believe provide unbiased and truthful reporting, free from mainstream media manipulation.

• Michael Smug [32:16]: "Everything is going to get better than anything you've ever seen on any of the legacy media outlets."

Insight: There is a strong call for media reform, with the hosts positioning themselves as a counterbalance to perceived mainstream media failures and partiality.

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7. Concluding Remarks and Future Outlook

As the episode wraps up, the hosts reflect on the state of American politics, emphasizing the need for continued vigilance against Democratic strategies and foreign influence.

• Josh Holmes [33:57]: "We have an incredible opportunity next year to get the country back on track."

• Comfortably Smug [81:47]: "Until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs."

Final Insight: The episode concludes with a reaffirmation of the hosts' commitment to conservative principles, media independence, and political activism aimed at strengthening the Republican foothold in upcoming elections.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

1. Josh Holmes [00:00]: "We're sort of compatriots in this effort to bring Canada into the United States. It should be multiple states, whatever sort of arrangement gives Republicans the most Senate seats possible."

2. John Ashbrook [06:36]: "What Trump trolling about the tariffs thing and being like, I'm going to annex Canada and everything, is that Donald Trump more than any politician in history understands the power and the theater of humiliating your opposition."

3. Comfortably Smug [04:44]: "We absolutely should gerrymander it either way, no matter what."

4. Michael Smug [20:27]: "They have a whole system of nonprofits that have been known to take money from foreign billionaires and then sort of launder it through this whole system of 501C4s."

5. John Ashbrook [21:27]: "It's an elaborate money laundering operation... how is it that a Swiss billionaire gets to fund a state ballot initiative?"

6. Comfortably Smug [40:47]: "Former congressman sex offender Anthony Weiner files for papers to run for city council. Yes."

7. Comfortably Smug [74:53]: "Caitlin Clark went completely woke and was like, this is a direct quote from her... It's over. The era of this woke garbage is over."

8. Josh Holmes [30:25]: "This is why the Ruthless Variety Program talks... it's the need for balance in the media."

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Conclusion: The "Trump Trolls Trudeau" episode of the Ruthless Podcast offers a compelling mix of political satire, sharp criticism, and conservative commentary. The hosts effectively dissect Trump’s strategies, media corruption, campaign finance scandals, and the intrusion of politics into sports, all while engaging listeners with humor and pointed analysis. For those seeking a conservative perspective on contemporary political issues, this episode provides a thorough and entertaining examination of the challenges and maneuvers shaping the political landscape in 2024.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

Were sort of compatriots in this effort to bring Canada into the United States. It should be multiple states, whatever sort of arrangement gives Republicans the most Senate seats possible.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's how President Trump should do it.

[Michael Smug]

And I think we could make it like Alaska East. Yeah, I guess that's not bad.

[John Ashbrook]

But again, non voting delegates to the House.

[Michael Smug]

Or we can take Alberta and they can get the rest of it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Or we can gerrymander the hell out of it too.

[Comfortably Smug]

We absolutely should gerrymander. Gerrymandering either way, no matter what.

[Michael Smug]

Let's think about that. Like a good gerrymandering could work.

[John Ashbrook]

I think what it reveals, all of this, you know, Trump trolling about the tariffs thing and being like, I'm going to annex Canada and everything. Is that like Donald Trump more than any politician in history understands, like the power and the theater of humiliating your opposition.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And no one in politics and smug encapsulates this well in his whole diatribe.

[Michael Smug]

On basically the way he rolls is.

[John Ashbrook]

That is the politics of humiliating your opponents is a very powerful. When you're the President elect of the United States, the leader of the free world.

[Michael Smug]

Totally.

[John Ashbrook]

And we should feel more comfortable doing that, especially in a jocular fashion. Look at the end of the day like they are our neighbors, but like, you gotta give them a little bit of sometime.

[Michael Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention.

[John Ashbrook]

Just to catch your strays over here.

[Michael Smug]

You'Re in for a hell of a show.

[Comfortably Smug]

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

[Josh Holmes]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Smug]

Good Thursday to you and welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duck and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial. Fellas, there's a lot going on and, you know, trying to deal with transition stuff that, like, we did our whole Tuesday episode. It felt like a cork TV episode with all the things we were working on. And then, you know, you got like nominees all over the place. They're trying to Clean up some legislation in the House and the Senate plan for 2025. Yeah, we're just trying to entertain. I mean, around here.

[Comfortably Smug]

Today's episode is going to be incredible.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, the content does not stop. Trump remains focused on annexing Canada.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, I can't think of how better content we could get for this show.

[Michael Smug]

Let's start there. Yeah, let's start there. We have King of the Hill. We got some variety. There's gonna be games, there's fun, there's everything.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's been a great episode.

[Michael Smug]

But, like, one of the things that you really miss when you don't have Trump in the center of things, which we haven't here for four years until we're now about to have four straight years of the Trump show is like, just how hilarious things can get.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Michael Smug]

And like the collective lack of imagination by the media and by the punditry or whatever. They're outraged about everything. The first four years. I can detect a little sense of that that's receding a little bit, at least amongst smart people where they're like, that's Trump show. Let's do see a little bit more.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

Can't wait.

[Michael Smug]

Rather than just like throwing up arms in outrage. Massage was sort of lost on Canada, which we'll get into in a minute. But Donald Trump continues. And I know you guys did. You were on Jesse Waters last night talking about, oh, the war.

[John Ashbrook]

The war on Canada.

[Michael Smug]

The war on Canada.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, Jesse takes that very seriously. And I think that's why we're sort of compatriots in this effort to bring Canada into the United States. It should be multiple states, whatever sort of arrangement gives Republicans the most Senate seats possible.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's how President Trump should do it.

[Michael Smug]

And I think we could make it like Alaska East. Yeah, I guess.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But again, non voting delegates to the House.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. Or we can take Alberta and they can get the rest of it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Or we can gerrymander the hell out of it to.

[Comfortably Smug]

We absolutely should gerrymander it either way, no matter what.

[Michael Smug]

Let's think about that. Like, a good gerrymandering could work.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, you got Alberta, you got places that are, like, indistinguishable from North Dakota and South Dakota in the center of that country. And then you've got, you know, the Quebecs.

[Comfortably Smug]

Have you guys been to Canada much?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a horrible place.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, everything's a great place.

[Comfortably Smug]

Everything is weird. The people are weird. Very nice people. They're strange people. They eat strange foods can you elaborate on that? Yeah. Putin's disgusting. And they get, like, offended when you tell them the truth. And you're like. Like, poutine is disgusting. Just have ketchup with your fries, bro. Why are you doing this to yourself?

[Michael Smug]

Have you ever been to a nice place where you, like, you're fishing in the middle of nowhere?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Well, I was. I went through Alaska, which was beautiful. I mean, gorgeous state.

[John Ashbrook]

What about Tim Hortons? You don't like Tim Hortons?

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, they're okay. I prefer Dunkin. American made stuff. Yeah. But I went through Alaska. I went to Canada. What's the closest one? Is it Alberta?

[Michael Smug]

Well, you're talking. No, no, no. You're closest to what? I mean, the West Coast.

[Josh Holmes]

You've got, like, multiple provinces that border the United States.

[John Ashbrook]

He had a night. He had a night out in Windsor, across from Detroit. And he's like, I know.

[Michael Smug]

Canada.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Michael Smug]

He's like, oh, Canada.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, it was. It was horrible. All the people are so strange. The very weak people. Oh, my God. They're not good people either, you know, that's outrageous.

[Michael Smug]

We had.

[Comfortably Smug]

So we should colonize them, but don't let them vote. They're not Americans, you know, they'd be very weak Americans.

[Josh Holmes]

One of the best aspects of colonizing Canada would be that Trudeau falls under the purview of Cash Patel and you can finally get to the bottom of the Fidel Castro to Justin Trudeau handoff.

[John Ashbrook]

I think that's really important. And I said it on Jesse Waters last night. I called him the Putin princeling.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Which he certainly is. But I think what it reveals, all of this, you know, Trump trolling about the tariffs thing and being like, I'm an annex cannon and everything, is that like Donald Trump, more than any politician in history, understands, like, the power and the theater of humiliating your opposition.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And no one in politics and smug encapsulates this. Well in his whole diatribe on Canada.

[Michael Smug]

Well, that's basically the way he rolls is.

[John Ashbrook]

The politics of humiliating your opponents is a very powerful tool when you're the president elect of the United States, the leader of the free world.

[Michael Smug]

Totally.

[John Ashbrook]

And we should feel more comfortable doing that, especially in a jocular fashion. Look, at the end of the day, like, they are our neighbors, but, like, you gotta give them a little bit of shit sometimes.

[Michael Smug]

Well, you have to. Especially when they got out of line.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And also, you know what? They control this maple syrup reserve. The strategic reserve. Maple syrup.

[Michael Smug]

They're the damn strategic.

[John Ashbrook]

They are.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's true, dude.

[John Ashbrook]

They are the De Beers of the maple syrup industry.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, maple syrup in America would cost like 10 cents a bottle if it wasn't for Canada messing around with.

[Josh Holmes]

I just. I don't. We make maple syrup in Vermont, Vermont, Hampshire, and everywhere else. There are maple trees all over our country. We don't need the Canadians.

[Comfortably Smug]

Not nearly as enough as they do. And that's the other thing.

[Michael Smug]

So just clear cut it.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing. You're arguing against sheriffs. I'm saying we go into Canada and we colonize them, right? We tell the people, stay in your igloos, Everything is under control. We shoot all their bears, we shoot all their deers, we skin them. Food prices are going down. We take all their maple trees, right? All of them. We just SAP the hell out of all of them. Maple prices go down. What's really funny, Drill, baby, drill is.

[Michael Smug]

Like an underlying principle of everything to deal with that is always comes back to the bear rug he wants in his home. We take that, we kill the bear, we skin them, of course.

[John Ashbrook]

For the precious skins, of course.

[Michael Smug]

It always comes back to the bear skin rug.

[John Ashbrook]

He'd literally be in favor of invading a country if he got a rug out of it.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's so much more satisfying. If it was a Canadian bear, you.

[Michael Smug]

Know, I'd be willing to serve as some kind of an ambassador to, you know, this more like a Puerto Rico. Like, you don't want the Senate and the House and involved in all of that.

[Comfortably Smug]

They don't vote. We just get all their stuff.

[Michael Smug]

But, you know, just like, presiding. Just get their stuff. Yeah, like, we fish your walleye.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's it. We take their fish.

[Michael Smug]

We take their little uppity, I will say. And look, they're super up there. Like, I spent summers in Canada and.

[Comfortably Smug]

You notice uppity people.

[Michael Smug]

No, it's gotten up. Like, when I was a kid, it was like, really no difference. They were like, they knew what they were and we knew they knew what we were. More importantly and all sort of like, we used gentle ribbing and it was fun. And then they really got up at.

[Comfortably Smug]

A. Yeah, Canada is like the smarmy nerd. And America needs to just stuff them in lockers and bullying them around, make them remember that we run the show.

[Michael Smug]

I like that they.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, it's North America. It's not north Canada.

[Michael Smug]

All right, well, it turns out.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, everybody knows who's calling the shots here. We all know that if you don't tell the full story on your tax bill, you get audited. But when the IRS does it, they apparently just get good press. They're pushing their built by government direct file system engineered by Elizabeth Warren. And bureaucrats at the IRS have been claiming that taxpayers overwhelmingly love their new software. But Americans actually using the system are telling a different story. According to newly revealed documents, taxpayers find it, quote, creepy, invasive, and unsettling. These are the results the Biden Harris administration gets after giving the IRS 80 billion taxpayer dollars and building this new software with absolutely no oversight. But President Trump is coming back and he's going to shake up Washington, streamline it, and this is an excellent place to start. Americans don't want the IRS to control their lives, and they certainly don't need the government to be even more invasive. Learn more@ protectingtaxpayers.org so it turns out.

[Michael Smug]

That the President Elect sees the world the same way as you do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Smug.

[Michael Smug]

When he tweeted out, it was a pleasure to have dinner the other night with Governor Governor Justin Trudeau, Governor of the great state of Canada, which, if you recall our question of the day last week was, what would you name a state of Canada? Well, Donald Trump has answered the question for us.

[Comfortably Smug]

Let them keep their name.

[Michael Smug]

He would say keep their name. Just, you know, affiliate. I look forward to seeing the governor twice in one tweet. Yeah, Again soon. So we may continue our in depth talks on tariffs in trade, the result of which will be truly spectacular for all. Signed djt. And when he does that, he wants, like a special annotation. Everybody knows I wrote this.

[John Ashbrook]

He's like, I want you to know it was my joke to call him governor twice.

[Comfortably Smug]

Tell Justin from Canada. It was me having the.

[Michael Smug]

Having had the pleasure of watching him do those ones. When he adds the special DJ T to it, like, it's really like immensely proud. It's like the emphasis. Nope, I said it.

[Josh Holmes]

He's a pure showman.

[John Ashbrook]

He really.

[Josh Holmes]

He really is so good.

[Michael Smug]

Well, it turns out Canada finds less.

[Comfortably Smug]

Humor, of course, you know, like you were just saying, as one does, they.

[Michael Smug]

Get so mad, gotten a little uppity about things.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's always cold. You have to live in an igloo. These people are irate, expressing a lot.

[Michael Smug]

Of opinions, and there's a lot more dual citizenship than I'd prefer, frankly. I've got a ton of family members that have dual citizenship from the both of them. They're all kind of like lefty leaning, of course, good people, but like, they don't see the world the same way and they don't live in Our country. So, like, why. Why would they.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, they lost their sense of humor because all of Canada's most talented comedians come to the United States.

[Michael Smug]

They do.

[John Ashbrook]

Jim Carrey, right. Seth Rogen, a crisp delivery, I've noticed.

[Michael Smug]

Out of Canadian comedians. I like that.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Michael Smug]

I like that.

[John Ashbrook]

And so that's why the ones who end up staying are the uppity ones with no sense of humor.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're the leftovers. Canadians, just a leftover.

[Josh Holmes]

The only thing they have in Canada is jokes. I mean, the rest of life is so meaningless.

[Comfortably Smug]

It is.

[Josh Holmes]

They have to come here to. As a sort of a release.

[Michael Smug]

My mom is probably going to murder me. My dad's going to be laughing hysterically. But, like, you know, she likes to keep the family peace when she can. When she can. And I do have family up there. But anyway, why don't we play? Why don't we play Clip. The first clip here of the Canadian Green Party that has no chill about any of this situation. If you don't mind spaghetti.

[Comfortably Smug]

Trump on his true social this morning.

[Josh Holmes]

Called greeted the prime minister as the.

[Michael Smug]

Governor of the 51st state.

[Comfortably Smug]

Something along that line.

[Michael Smug]

Have you seen that?

[John Ashbrook]

Do you have any thoughts about that.

[Michael Smug]

About the dynamics of the relationship?

[Unknown Speaker]

I haven't seen that. So I probably shouldn't comment. Just that with the truth social post of Donald Trump planting a Canadian flag on a Canadian mountain, I have to say that to the extent that this 51st state thing was a joke, it's not funny. And I find that pursuing it on social media makes me increasingly nervous. Mr. Trump has. We have to be very, very careful with the president elect and we have to pull together. I think all opposition party leaders and premiers, all elements of the Canadian political establishment, such as we, are better pulled together to make sure we don't create any cracks that allow Fox News or Mr. Trump's social media to exploit us and say things about Canada that aren't true.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, no. The Canadian premiers, we're so worried about them. What are they going to do? Send in the Mounties? You're a joke country.

[Michael Smug]

I'm the Mountie.

[Comfortably Smug]

I'm going to summon all the Canadian premieres. What? Who the hell cares about the Canadian premieres?

[John Ashbrook]

She violated the first rule of the Internet. And that is the first person to get actually mad loses.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bingo.

[Michael Smug]

It is true.

[John Ashbrook]

She's like, actually mad about it.

[Michael Smug]

She is actually mad about what she should be mad is the fishing licenses that they provide for Americans when you go there, which is. Are truly outrageous. Yeah, they're like one Day. And you have to, like, mortgage your house to get the damn things.

[Comfortably Smug]

Every fish in Canada belongs to America. Every single one.

[Michael Smug]

It is pretty amazing. I mean, they started years ago where they were like, if you got, like, a dui. First of all, the entire country is a bunch of drunks.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, I heard that.

[Michael Smug]

For real. Let's just be honest. They just are, and I'm not. It's cold.

[John Ashbrook]

What are you going to do except drink?

[Comfortably Smug]

It snows every day. They sit in the igloo. They're a bunch of drunks.

[Michael Smug]

I actually thought it was one of their more redeeming qualities right up until the point where then they started stopping people who had ever been had, like, DUI or anything from ever getting into their country.

[John Ashbrook]

Really.

[Michael Smug]

This is true.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Comfortably Smug]

But they're a country of drunks, right?

[Michael Smug]

So, like, the hypocrisy was apparent. It was more of a punitive thing. This is what I'm talking about. By being a little lumpy, they got.

[Comfortably Smug]

To be straightened out.

[Michael Smug]

I defended him for, like, 30 years. I'm no longer defending these guys.

[Josh Holmes]

What's wild about that is that they let every Uzbek terrorist who wants to walk into their country free of charge.

[Comfortably Smug]

They got a big. They have a huge terrorism problem in Canada. It's true. Yeah, they actually do. They got a lot of radicals up there. And Justin Trudeau. I know this happened a couple of months ago. Like, some terrorists got killed in Canada, and he was like, oh, well, he was still a Canadian citizen. If your people are terrorists, they're going to die. Like, let's be serious about this. America does whatever America gets to do, and Canada has always put up with it. Things aren't going to change. I don't care how many angry little school teachers you put on TV being like, I'm going to summon the premieres.

[Josh Holmes]

What is this?

[Comfortably Smug]

A clown show, fake country and a fake government? Get over it. Trump's in charge. Like, just be honest with yourself. Life is easier.

[Michael Smug]

You guys want to hear of the cbc? Yeah, it's like the Canadian Broadcasting Network.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, come on.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. It's not clear why President Trump is going public with the annexation taunt. Eh, The.

[Josh Holmes]

Eh.

[Michael Smug]

It could be. Well, the problem is he's got several different accents. The CBC is usually a little bit more British, but I like the, like, regular sort of center of the country accent better.

[Comfortably Smug]

Don't they talk, like, French or something like that?

[Michael Smug]

Well, Quebec is just straight French. Yeah, but there is. There's a very Euro vibe to, like, the.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's why they're so weird because they got a Euro vibe. They're weird people.

[Michael Smug]

They speak with great diction. Right. Except, you know, you get this because they're mad.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, they're angry. So they're always enunciating.

[Michael Smug]

But yeah, maybe, but like, the center, the center of the country is like, very committed to, like North Dakota on steroids.

[Comfortably Smug]

Okay.

[Michael Smug]

Right. Which is like, I can kind of get on board with.

[Comfortably Smug]

So they're the moderates on the ground. We arm.

[Michael Smug]

Right, Right. These are. If you had to get into a conflict, these are the people, the moderates that you would. That you would arm. So those people are more like. It could be because Trudeau suggested Monday that Canada is prepared to take some sort of action against the US if Trump imposes a punish 25% tariff on all Canadian imports. That's like their thing.

[Josh Holmes]

What are they going to do? They just going to erase every Gordon Lightfoot song on the Internet so nobody can listen to it? I mean, what is actually there? This is the thing you guys are talking about maple syrup, but we can make that here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Is it Canadian bacon?

[John Ashbrook]

Just like thick cut pork. John candy.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, what is it that they're actually hanging over our heads?

[Comfortably Smug]

And it's easy. If you don't want to pay the tariff, just surrender. When our troops come marching across Niagara Falls, just put up the white flags. That's what they're good for. It comes naturally. French.

[John Ashbrook]

Anyways, Canadian bacon is just ham. Right?

[Josh Holmes]

It's ham.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, that's just another fake thing.

[Josh Holmes]

We already have that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So what are they gonna hold back?

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know. Well, we do buy a lot of oil from Canada.

[Josh Holmes]

We have it here. We have it here now that President Trump is gonna unleash American oil.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I mean, listen, America has a wonderful history. If a country's got a lot of oil and some terrorists, we find a way to take control of that situation. Yeah. I think Canada's next on the list.

[John Ashbrook]

I do think we would be greeted as liberators.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. 100.

[Michael Smug]

There are some of them that get the joke.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. They. They don't like their own government.

[Michael Smug]

There are some people that get the joke. And I've noticed a couple of them, they're very anti. Anti Trudeau. Sort of like, you know, they want to have fun with this whole thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

So, you know, let's have fun.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. This guy, Pierre Polaver. Yeah, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

The guy who owns a bunch of lives. Like when they interview.

[Josh Holmes]

He is very, very good.

[Michael Smug]

I love that guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Very good.

[Michael Smug]

We should try to get him on the podcast.

[John Ashbrook]

We should definitely get him on. And I think part of the whole reason why the Canadians are having such an overreaction to this Trump joke is the fact that they have a federal election next year. Right. And that guy is going to be running in opposition to Trudeau. So Trudeau has to be sort of a tough guy, even though everybody knows he's a weakling.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, well, that guy is a guy that Trump would respect.

[John Ashbrook]

Absolutely.

[Michael Smug]

You know, you wouldn't try to annex him. You do business with Bingo Bingo Trudeau. You know, not so much.

[Comfortably Smug]

Nope.

[Michael Smug]

Not so much. Anyway, this whole thing has made us laugh, and we figured it would make you laugh, too, because it's. It's ongoing. And I can't imagine, you know, if you know anything about Trump, you know, it's not going anywhere.

[Comfortably Smug]

Calling him the governor of Canada. My God. So good.

[Josh Holmes]

This holiday season, millions of families across America will rely on credit card rewards to visit their loved ones. So why are D.C. politicians trying to pass a bill that would end credit card rewards, making it more expensive for families to be together? The Durbin Marshall credit card bill is a big government handout to corporate megastores that makes them more money, but eliminates travel rewards for you tell Congress to guard your card because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn [e-mail].

[Michael Smug]

Back domestically, you know, we've had a lot of questions, we raised a lot of questions on this program about the funding.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yes.

[Michael Smug]

Of Democrats. And we noted throughout, accurately, that they have a whole system of nonprofits that have been known to take money from foreign billionaires and then sort of like, launder it through this whole system of 501C4s.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Whatnot. And like, it does electoral benefit for Democrats.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, the extent of which I'm not sure we totally know, but we know the money's in the system.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it is, I think it's fair to call it a elaborate money laundering operation.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

Because you have money that comes from a Swiss billionaire, Hans Jorg Weiss, and gets filtered through Arabella Advisors network of nonprofits and groups that pay groups that pay groups through all of these grants that the money gets essentially washed through the system and ends up doing things like funding state ballot initiatives to put abortion on the ballot in a battleground state. And it's like, how is it that a Swiss billionaire gets to fund a state ballot initiative?

[Michael Smug]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

It's insane.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know who was one of the, like, top five donors to Kamala super pac?

[John Ashbrook]

Who?

[Comfortably Smug]

Arabella Advisors. Oh, that's how they wash the money.

[Michael Smug]

It's interesting. It's interesting because that is the recipient. Right. I mean that's, that's what we've been talking about all along. We are longtime listeners. You followed along as we've had people come in and talk about their studies and then what they found on all of this and the investigations that have basically gone nowhere and during a Biden administration. But yeah, you never know under a new administration how that thing goes. Well, things have gotten a little bit worse because one of the other advantages that they've had is a huge hard dollar. What I mean by hard dollar is the amount of money that goes directly into campaigns. And they've had a. Democrats have had a big advantage over that over the last 10 years basically because of something called ActBlue where all of the left of center nonprofits blow all of their donors into one central spot and they all have basically an Amazon like one click ability to donate to a whole bunch of things. There's a network effect to it, an upsell effect to it. They have a ton of donors all in one spot. And so you know, that's where you get who was it like John Tester or somebody who raised like $40 million in a quarter. Un. Heard of number for a Senate race.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

Certainly one that the guy was almost surely going to lose.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

And so you start asking questions about that. Well, Speaker Johnson weighed in.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

On this and he said breaking Act Blue was accepting foreign gift cards until September. This is illegal. The House Admin Committee will continue this important investigation into Act Blue next Congress. Our work here is just getting started.

[John Ashbrook]

Fantastic.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bad news for them.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, because like the Arabella advisors whole scheme, you know, which I would consider my opinion is money laundering. I don't know if that's actually technically illegal. I think maybe the Democrats just have very creative lawyers.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think they are a little crazy ass Marco Lash.

[Michael Smug]

They've been known to color outside the lines and know that they're never going to be brought to account.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

But like that, like the Arabella Visors thing might be a gray area. This is pretty clear. This is very clear.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. So now Republicans have not only leadership in the House with House Admin, but we will get cash Patel and he is going to get to the bottom of it. And you guys remember what Marv Levy said, if it's too hard for them, it's just right for us.

[Michael Smug]

Well, it's interesting, right? I mean it's like hundreds of millions of dollars that are being Processed through this outfit. And apparently they had no block whatsoever on foreign gift cards. I got to understand the gift card thing. And my understanding is in Congress right now, and you may see this even by the end of the week, there might be legislation that's passed through there dealing with the gift card component. Because, you know, I mean, you didn't think to have to legislate on how people give money unless it's coming from overstate, like, standard, illegal thing.

[Josh Holmes]

Unbelievable. Remember at the beginning of Trump's first term, how they, how they just like made up all of this bullshit about Russian interference and foreign interference in our elections and they literally are taking gift cards from foreign entities to fund Kamala Harris's dumb ass.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, straight up. And think about it like this. I mean, we know in the run up to the election that Iran was running a foreign influence operation to defeat Donald Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Not only defeated, to try to kill him.

[John Ashbrook]

Right, right, right. They were trying to kill him. We know that they had a hit list, Mike Pompeo and others who've been on the program.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But like, there would have been nothing for, you know, to stop an Iran, a state actor from buying hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars of gift cards and funneling it through to Democratic campaigns.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's the thing. So Ashbrook, the greatest irony here is so the Democrats, that's during Trump's first term, we're making up all this Russia, Russia, Russia nonsense. But you see this article, they say the revelation that ActBlue was not blocking foreign gift cards is a potentially significant revelation and ongoing investigation to whether China, Russia, Iran or Venezuela.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep, right.

[Comfortably Smug]

Elicit money to Democrat candidates.

[Josh Holmes]

This is why we need cash. Patel.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

He is going to get to the bottom of it.

[Michael Smug]

Can somebody give me a little sense of just the news, what this article.

[John Ashbrook]

Is that we're reading from, I think John Solomon's outfit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Smug]

John Solomon's outfit.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. This is John Solomon.

[Michael Smug]

That's all I needed to know.

[Josh Holmes]

Hey, Pulitzer winner. Yeah, you guys. One of the best investigative reporters in American history. Like, and he's got this. He's got this outfit. And they are very good at getting to the bottom of things.

[Michael Smug]

Like, it's fascinating.

[Josh Holmes]

Very well sourced.

[Michael Smug]

It's fascinating. It's also fascinating that something this seismic is just exclusively in just the news. I mean, this is, first of all, speaker of the House tweeted about it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right, right.

[Michael Smug]

It seems significant.

[John Ashbrook]

The New York Times isn't going to write.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's exactly it. And like, Asheville can really get in on this. But again, this is news that hurts Democrats tremendously. The revelation that they could be bringing in illegal overseas money to fund their candidates. Of course CNN's going to.

[Michael Smug]

Guys want to make it. Do you guys want to make a bet right now?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

The, the first time that the corporate news media writes about this will be in a week, maybe 10 days. It'll be like, well, Republicans didn't. They accepted gift cards too. And like no evidence whatsoever there was foreign gift cards or whatever.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. It's just a gift card.

[Michael Smug]

But it'll be like in a murky territory that both parties have engaged.

[John Ashbrook]

It's he said, she said.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. And so he like just tries to muddy the water about, like, where this whole thing is headed.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude. That is exactly, exactly how they're going to do it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Or it'll become a process story about whether, you know, the legislative outcome of this piece of legislation rather than the principle behind it.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, totally. And like, nevermind the fact that we've all known that something's fishy.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

And we've talked about it on Act Blue. Now, we haven't like, pointed fingers because honestly, we don't know the answer as to how it is that they have these monumental small dollar cash leads. But they do.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

And you know, there's been plenty of things like circumstantial that have been unearthed over the last few years that show that there are people who never thought they donated, who've been donating tens of thousands of dollars. And like, how the heck does that happen?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

A few months before election Day, we had that story of where there were journalists going to the houses of these grandmas being like, according to Act Blue receipts, you've donated 14,000 times in the past month to this Democrat candidate. And they're like, no, I haven't donated a penny to Democrat.

[Michael Smug]

And then when you get the story from the mainstream media, they find the one person who checked the auto donate button on a Republican thing and they're like, well, I didn't know that. And they're like, well, Republicans have been practicing predatory. You know, it's like their goal in the small dollar universe as they cover it. And this has become the lifeblood of how campaigns fund themselves. But the goal is always to try to stop Republicans from catching up to where Democrats are. Like, nobody ever asked any of these questions before the advent of a Republican small dollar machine.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. The collusion between Democrats and the mainstream media is so much more sophisticated than any of us. And anybody listening to the show would ever imagine. The Journal buddies are in it for the Democrats. And I gotta tell you, thank God for Trump. Thank God for Cash Patel, because these guys thank God for John Solomon. I mean, think about, like, they're not handing Pulitzer Prizes out to normies on a routine basis. He's probably the last normie who actually won a Pulitzer.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And he is getting to the bottom of it, and he is exposing this bullshit in a way that people really want to read about. And it's just like, it shows you the absolute need for balance in the media.

[Michael Smug]

If you want, like, they keep, you know, they're always asking these, like, sort of introspective questions. The media, I'm talking about after an election like this where they're like, well, you know, how do we get back to more balanced? And then they switch around the prime time lineup or they do whatever they.

[Josh Holmes]

Add, like hire one Republican.

[Michael Smug]

They add one Republican who isn't very fond of Donald Trump or whatever it is. And that's like, okay, now we're set. If you want to know how it is that you actually get. But break this story. Don't rely exclusively on conservative media, because this is something that should be in your remit if your job is to cover campaign finance. And you've just, I don't know, happened to notice a multibillion dollar difference over the last five years between what Democrats raise and what Republicans raise from $50 or less donors. Like, doesn't it occur to you to maybe look into it?

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

It just. That's just the way it is.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's a huge story.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, it's a huge story. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

There's this video floating around on the Internet with Leslie Stahl From CBS News, 60 Minutes, sort of whining about the death of legacy media in this country. And the only thing I could think watching that entire thing is like, you did it to yourselves. People want information. We say that over and over on our show.

[Michael Smug]

They don't.

[Josh Holmes]

They don't want a sermon from a leftist who's trying to, like, convince them to adopt their worldview.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And, and this is one of the great. Like, I don't mean to just keep going on here, but this is one of the greatest gifts that Elon Musk has provided for free speech in this country. It's that media is not dominated by the culture in New York. For a generation, New York has written and sold every single story that people are supposed to believe in this country. But because of Elon Musk, normal people in flyover country are allowed to say on their own platform, Hey, I don't. It's not that way for me. It's not that way in my neighborhood. And I think that that is the most upsetting thing to these libs.

[Michael Smug]

Well, it's why, look, it's why you listen to the Ruthless Variety Program, which I, you know, pump our own tires for a minute. It's why you like and subscribe. That's why you're part of our culture. And there's now, you know, millions and millions of you that have listened to the run up to the election and now what we're going to cover going into 2025. But you're going to hear from everyone that it's going to make a difference in not only rooting out stories like this, but like you're going to get to know them personally. You're going to know all this stuff right here on the Ruthless Variety Program in the next few months. I promise you, the content is going to get better than anything you've ever seen on any of the sort of legacy media outlets because one, they want to come in here and talk to us and two, they know these stories are important and nobody else will cover it.

[Comfortably Smug]

We should get, we should get Speaker Johnson here asap, because this story is huge.

[Michael Smug]

We should.

[Comfortably Smug]

Huge.

[Michael Smug]

We should. I think, I think that's gonna happen. So coming up, coming up on the Ruthless Variety Program. Boot.

[John Ashbrook]

Boot is back.

[Michael Smug]

Boot. PETA. Jej. He's got something going. He's not done with politics, believe it or not. Like the Secretary of Transportation was not the highest arc of his career that he imagined. Yeah, maybe not exactly what he envisioned with his life and times.

[John Ashbrook]

You're telling me that the McKenzie Ivy League grad is ambitious?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, well, it wasn't just the bread prices, Michael. It wasn't just the bread prices. It turns out he's got a state that he's got his eyes on. Although it may not be a perfect fit. We're going to get to all that right after this.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, so I just got to point out that my friends at Americans for Prosperity made a huge difference this year. AFP volunteers made millions of votes, voter contacts, which is absolutely mind blowing. They are the largest, most effective ground game operation in the country to defend and advance the conservative movement. But now that the election is behind us, the hard work of turning electoral victory into policy wins begins and the grassroots army with Americans for Prosperity will again be in the thick of it. We have an incredible opportunity next year to get the country back on track. But it means we're all going to have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. If you're ready to join a winning team making a difference across the country, check out my friends at AFP and you can learn [e-mail].

[Michael Smug]

All right, so boot PETA Jitsch. You know, he moved out of South Bend. He was mayor of South Bend. It created.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ran out of there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Created such a dump that like, he had to leave.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. They were not.

[Michael Smug]

They hated him.

[Josh Holmes]

Clear cut black neighborhoods all over the city.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, he did.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. Yeah. The great irony, by the way, is that he was run out of that presidential race by African American people in South Carolina. Like, dude, you are horrible for us.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, do you remember? I remember flashback to that election because people forget this, but like, his team ahead of South Carolina put out a list of endorsers.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And people on that list were like, I never endorsed you. It was just like they put out a list of all of these African American leaders.

[Michael Smug]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And they were like, bro, no. What are you doing?

[Michael Smug]

We never said anything to you about it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I had forgotten about that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

The racket continues. And you know, a lot of people with you talking to Democrat circles, like, they're just trying to find a way out of this. Like, they know that they've got a real problem. First of all, you know, like, the guy who's number one is not long for this world. Let's be honest. I'm not trying to be crass about it, but like, you know, the president is not looking great. Not. Not so. They're kind of like, whoa, it's the next generation. They look back, last presidential election, the open primary, they're like, yeah, Buttigieg Boot, Peter Judge. Anyway, he is moved to Michigan.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bro's just like searching for where he can run.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He's like, now, how about Michigan?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. Like, I have no idea why Michigan? I guess it's relatively close to where anybody knows he's not going to win anything in Indiana. So he's like thinking about running for governor of Michigan. Right. So like, first thing out of the gate, Secretary Pete, I apologize. Now that you're a Michigander, who do the Lions play on Sunday?

[Josh Holmes]

What did he say?

[Comfortably Smug]

So he's in a union hall outside Detroit and everyone there is skeptical of this fucking clown. And this dude's like, so you're a Michigander. Who are the Lions playing on Sunday? Oh, my God.

[Michael Smug]

So as it turns out, according to CBS News. Interesting. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana could not Provide an answer.

[Josh Holmes]

Of course, this is the best season the Lions have had. Who knows?

[Michael Smug]

However, if you are a dude who lives in Michigan, you know who the Lions play this week? It's a big game. They play in the Bills.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, the Bills.

[Michael Smug]

They play in the Bills. It's a big game. They've got, you know, the season. Like, they look like they're a one seed. They look like this is a Super bowl year.

[Comfortably Smug]

They're playing really well.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, like, you see, you're on that.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, this is a team that has delivered nothing but heartbreak to a city that's been downtrodden for a very long time. So a lot of emotions for Michiganders are invested in the success of this team. I mean, think about the fact that they let go of Stafford and then he goes off and wins a Super Bowl. Like they've just had a rough run of luck.

[Comfortably Smug]

Dude, I would imagine being you're at a union meeting and this clown dude rolls up like, yeah, I'm going to be your next. Next king.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes.

[Comfortably Smug]

And you're like, who do the. Who do the Lions play? And he's like, I don't know. I think, how did he not get tarred and feathered immediately?

[Michael Smug]

But listen to how this is. Like, you can kind of tell how it's shaped within CBS News based upon, you know, like Democrats and can't wait for this. Caught off guard, the former mayor of South Bend in India of Indiana couldn't provide an answer. Familiarity with the schedule of Detroit's long suffering but recently soaring football team isn't an official prerequisite for holding.

[Josh Holmes]

Are you kidding me? Isn't an official pre Record.

[Michael Smug]

Hold on. But this is the next line. But the casual exchange illustrates the challenge Buttigieg may face improving his connection to Michigan voters. A hurdle some Democrats nevertheless hope he'll take on by entering a crowded governor.

[Comfortably Smug]

Wolf, when you put these together, could I get the name of the journal who writes the articles? And they're at on Twitter because whoever is responsible for this bullying and humiliation, bullied and ratioed into the sun, it's not an official prerequisite to know who the Lions are playing. Are you for real?

[Josh Holmes]

You just know that Mayor Pete's press secretary called the reporter and said, all I need from you is to include the line that it's not an official prerequisite.

[Comfortably Smug]

And they were like, please, I will.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes, sir, no problem.

[Comfortably Smug]

Unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

Interesting.

[John Ashbrook]

I think a pretty funny aside in all of this is like, Mayor Pete, he didn't like move to Flint or like move to Detroit. He moved up to Traverse City. It's the equivalent of like buying a beach house in Nantucket and being like, I'm going to be senator from Massachusetts.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know what I mean? The John Kerry plan.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, like Michael Moore, like the. I'm the everyman union guy. He's got like a $5 million lake house up at Torch Lake in Traverse City. Like, it ain't exactly like, you know, blue collar part of Michigan.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, if there's any justice, he's selling insurance by February. You know what I mean? Like, this guy is one of the worst public servants of all time. And it was all just so vanity from the very beginning. It really never had any answers for anything. I mean, he talks better than most Democrats. Sure. And he's got like, a personality that's like inoffensive, which is what Democrats are like. Oh, inoffensive, yeah. That's good, because most of us are horribly offensive.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right. His personality is like Ivy League psychopath is what his personality is.

[Michael Smug]

That's kind of right.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, when he walks in the room, okay, this guy went to Harvard, he's going to try to talk to me like he practices in the mirror. Like, talk to a blue collar person, dude. Talk about beer. Try to know who the football team is playing. He forgot that part.

[John Ashbrook]

He's. He is a McKinsey consultant. Right. Who speaks corporate boardroom speak in sort of like the smooth brain pablum of Barack Obama. That's what he does. And that's his pitch to your voter, is he just speaks in nothingness. And they're like, wow, that was so articulate. And it's all bullshit.

[Michael Smug]

Nothing offended me.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, if Cash Patel ever did a search on Pete's house, there would be, like, poor and homeless people in the freezer that he chopped up.

[Michael Smug]

This guy is a psychopath. Scares people.

[Comfortably Smug]

Psychopath. There's nothing behind those eyes.

[Michael Smug]

We're all laughing. We're very. We're funny. That's what we do here. Well, in a related story, ex congressman sex offender Anthony Weiner files for papers.

[John Ashbrook]

To run for city council. Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

Wait, how are those two related?

[Comfortably Smug]

Psychopaths who don't get a clue.

[Michael Smug]

I'm going to leave it to your imagination. You all recall former congressman Anthony Weiner. He's starting to plan a political comeback. This will be the third, if I'm not mistaken, filing paperwork with the city's campaign finance board to run for city council seat in Manhattan's Lower east side. Weiner went to federal prison in connection to a sexting Scandal involving a minor.

[Comfortably Smug]

Good God.

[Michael Smug]

Remember all that came out at the end of the 2016.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think that's all right.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, 2016 election. Because they were looking for Hillary's emails. They got a hold of Uma's Abidin who was then his wife.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. At the time. She was, yeah. And who's Huma Abedin is also Hillary Clinton's right hand woman. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

However that was actually part two. His original sexting scandal was 2012.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. I want to get into that for a minute because I was on the Hill when all that went down. But this is how.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Ultimately all of you became aware of who Anthony Weiner was because then they had her laptop and it turns out like he used her laptop. He was still doing it, but he was sending.

[Josh Holmes]

It was crankshots.

[John Ashbrook]

Crankshafts, Crankshots.

[Josh Holmes]

La.

[Michael Smug]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

And here's the beauty of it. When they were investigating him for that is when the Hillary emails came out. That's why the whole Hillary deleting her email, that whole scandal for having a private web servers because they're going through Huma's laptop because Anthony Weiner is using it to sex people. They're like, wait a minute, how does he have access to an email account that's also got access to Hillary server? That's how. Doing a search that's legit.

[Michael Smug]

How that went down. When you hear Bill Clinton and he just did this like a couple of weeks ago and he's got this like folksy way of trying to put everything in context and makes it. He's like the only Democrat who gives you a little inch about like humility about how their party's kind of off track and so it's kind of compelling and you listen to it. But then he always slips something in like, well, you know, Jim Comey getting involved in the end of a presidential race in 2016 cost Hillary presidential election. Not, not exactly like one. Just sending, well, sending emails on an unclassified server probably did that. Then deleting all the evidence that probably did that. Lying to the FBI that maybe did something. But really then just having your right hand person married to an absolute psychopath who's sending his dick to like minors at the time, which prompted an investigation that then found a whole treasure trouble with things they said that didn't exist, that caused the investigation.

[John Ashbrook]

Look, I think we're being a little too hard on Weiner.

[Michael Smug]

I think it's can't be harder on Weiner than.

[John Ashbrook]

I think we're being too hard on Weiner. I think it's.

[Comfortably Smug]

You keep taking a whack at this guy.

[John Ashbrook]

I think it's big.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, I know he's a jerk off and all.

[John Ashbrook]

I think it's big of Wiener to expose himself to public scrutiny once again.

[Comfortably Smug]

Look, things have been pretty hard for him, let me tell you why. So, so he, he, he. After the initial, the first 2012 sexting scandal where I guess he had some stripper or something he'd been texting.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then that becomes public. His wife's like, huma is, is like, okay, fine, I'll, I'll stick with him.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Hillary is my mentor and she's stuck with the fucking, you know, clown, even though he was doing whatever with women. Then the second time it happens where now it's minors, right? He goes to federal prison, she files for divorce. Do you know who she's marrying now? George Soros's son.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that. I saw that.

[Michael Smug]

So good, dude. So good. It's just sad.

[Comfortably Smug]

Things are pretty hard for Wiener dude now. He's like, unhinged, right?

[Josh Holmes]

Exploding back onto the.

[Michael Smug]

He should maybe take a blow from the political arena for a while.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, it's. It is only a true psychopath and malignant narcissist would like, have all of this in their past and be like, yeah, the public eye. I'm right for it. You know what I mean?

[Josh Holmes]

But smug. I'm interested in your take on this. The Lower east side, that's not exactly hard Scrabble in Manhattan.

[Comfortably Smug]

It used to be in the 20s and 30s and now it's just full of hipsters and NYU students. So there's a chance you could get over that? As a joke. They're like, well, he's a sicko, I'm a sicko. So there's a chance. I mean, it's not a bad idea if you're betting on a Democrat that, like, I'm a degenerate. Maybe degenerates will support me. That's worked for him in the past. I mean, Bill Clinton got reelected, right?

[John Ashbrook]

Smart, smart.

[Comfortably Smug]

So, like, it is, it is now kind of like a hipsterville kind of place. But this guy, I mean, honestly, like, New York politically is in such a messed up place because it's my turn to wiener. Yeah, that's. It's dawned on them that, like, so we kept electing idiots and this city's been running to the ground. Like, the fact that New York had a substantial portion of Democrat voters vote for Trump means it's gotten that bad. Like, they're sick of seeing, like, their prices are going up while migrants are being handed Visa gift cards.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

That shit's starting to get to them. So I don't know, like, how wieners are gonna try.

[Michael Smug]

None of that is anything that an impressive wiener can't clean up, you know? Can I revisit the 2011 thing? Yeah, for a second. So we were in Congress at the time, and he was kind of a rising star. He was in Democratic leadership. He was a pretty articulate member.

[John Ashbrook]

He was a cable news brawler. I mean, he was a real msnbc.

[Comfortably Smug]

Had a slot from every night, right?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, yeah. You can think of him as, like, sort of a left wing version of, like, where Ron DeSantis is for the right wing, where every time you see him on cable news, he's just kind of, like, destroying somebody. And it's like, you know, they love that. And so he was on his way up, and he was like, anything this guy wanted to do, he wanted to be speaker of the House, want to be governor of New York, mayor of New York City. Sky's the limit. And then all of a sudden, I think it was Dana Bash at cnn came across a set of tweets that he had inadvertently sent out. Not his DMs that were, like, onto his main feed. That was just crankshots.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, and he was like, oh, I remember the day this came out because we were all in the Ohio clock corridor, which is like, right outside the Senate chamber, and all the reporters sort of gather there, and they're like, oh, my God. And he's like, no, God. I mean, look, I'm one of many victims in this new technology age. Someone's clearly hacked into my account.

[Comfortably Smug]

He claimed his phone had been hacked.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. And, like, people were skeptical.

[Comfortably Smug]

He sent that tweet out. He was like, the phone, like, you know, it got hacked. But he was like, the toaster is loyal.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's like, the toaster would never hack me.

[Michael Smug]

Right. So. But he had a whole bullshit story, and they gave him, like, a few days because it was like he was. Yeah, there was a number of Democrats that had similar type stuff. Not like this, but, like, close to that. In that era where they're like, I was hacked. Enjoy. Reid have something like that?

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. She claimed there was a time traveling transsexual who hacked the website.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's about the lines of what we're working on.

[Comfortably Smug]

Those hackers.

[John Ashbrook]

Like her blog. Her personal blog. Yeah. Right. Okay.

[Michael Smug]

So then the next, like, three, four days later, and I'm Forgetting the exact timeline, but it was a short amount before he ultimately copped to. It was a picture, a crankshot up shot which captured all of him and his face in the same picture. And it was, I'm not kidding you, one of the funniest days I've ever had on Capitol Hill.

[John Ashbrook]

Might I add something, because I think we need to give Andrew Breitbart his laurels in this rest in peace to. To that guy. Because conservative media wouldn't be what it is today. Totally for him. He was a complete pioneer and a trailblazer. And I'll never forget this. It's one of the most beautiful things I've seen in conservative politics. But Anthony Weiner was holding that press conference and he didn't get up into the podium. And Andrew Breitbart walks up there and just starts answering questions because he did all the legwork to communicate with the person who was the recipient of the crankshot.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

And none of that stuff actually would have gotten out there if it wasn't for Andrew Breitbart.

[Comfortably Smug]

He did. That is such a wonderful memory. I remember the day that happened. My jaw was on the ground because, like, Anthony Weiner calls a press conference. Everyone in the world is tuned in. He knows every eyeballs up there. Anthony Wiener's team isn't getting to the podium time. Breitbart just gets up there and starts leveling this dude with all the evidence.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a king, the legend.

[Michael Smug]

It was an amazing, amazing moment. I don't think I've ever laughed harder at a very hard job that I had at the moment than that day. Because it was like, oh, my God. It's not only the same crank, but it's up now. I got his face in it. You know, it's like, you can't deny.

[Comfortably Smug]

That now all the members come. It was. It was a girl like Sidney Leathers that he had been texting all that to.

[Josh Holmes]

Good memory.

[Comfortably Smug]

So then, like I want to say, it was some Republican outfit that then flew her into town and chases him around on election day while he's trying to go stop, to stop. And I remember Huma and him had to run into a McDonald's to get away from Sydney and the reporters with her. And then they go in there and you see Huma trying to cover her face in a McDonald's. Marrying this dude was such a mistake.

[Michael Smug]

Such a bad idea. Such a bad idea. And nobody, and I mean nobody sends a crankshot without previously sent.

[John Ashbrook]

And that vignette, that little moment in history is inextricably tied because of the resurfacing of Wiener to where we are at today. Donald Trump becoming president of the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

So this long story, we're telling you, former McDonald's employee.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Former McDonald's employees.

[Comfortably Smug]

Anthony Weiner's up at night sending crankshots.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Comfortably Smug]

And it eventually leads to Donald Trump elected president.

[Michael Smug]

So really, you all have Anthony Weiner to thank for making America great again. He's back, fellas. All right, so I think that leads to our question of the day. We read two stories there. We are very concerned about the future of the Democratic Party here on the ruthless Friday program. Is it Boot PETA J or is it Anthony Weiner?

[Comfortably Smug]

I don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

You guys tell us so much to choose from.

[Michael Smug]

So much to choose from. You guys tell us a lot of things to work through there. Yeah, a lot of things to work through. But I'm confident, confident you all can do it. All right, so when we come back, we're going to get to your question of the day from last Thursday or Tuesday, which was a good one. It might have been one of our best. It's a tough one of our best. Would you rather have your daughter on the pole or a Marxist journal? We didn't have an answer here. You've provided it, and I will say it seemed pretty definitive. We'll get to all that 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] all right. I hope you enjoyed the previous segment. I know we did kind of what we do here on the Rivers Friday program. But here we are to read your comments, which I believe is maybe the best question we've ever asked you, the viewer. And remember, you gotta like and subscribe to weigh in on this thing. But many, many of you have seems like it's close to consensus.

[Comfortably Smug]

Our question, it was in light of Taylor Lorenzo becoming completely unhinged. Being like, actually assassinating people is a good thing.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, Joy.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. And there was a lot of discussion about, like, you know, how you raise your kits and like, would you rather.

[Comfortably Smug]

Have Your daughter on only fans or becoming a commie.

[Michael Smug]

That's how it started.

[Comfortably Smug]

Commie journal, like, and then we short.

[Michael Smug]

Handed it down to like the pole or Marxist journal, which is, I think, a good binary choice for all of you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Tough one.

[John Ashbrook]

I got a lot of texts from friends back home.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, I mean, if you're. If you're a dude, this is what you aim to do with the bars?

[John Ashbrook]

No, we've already had this question many times. Having beers.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, it's like, you know, stuff that you've already worked through in your head and like, you've got real responses. So to do that, we always start.

[Josh Holmes]

With a voice first comment comes from Crystal D. Crystal writes prefer daughter on the poll or Marxist journal. Either way, I failed as a parent. That's from Crystal D. And I think she captured it.

[Michael Smug]

That I think. Yeah, I think that's. That's a good way of looking. It's a good way.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like the first. It's like the first stage of grief.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. You know, it's like, it's me.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

I'm the problem. It's me.

[Comfortably Smug]

All right.

[Michael Smug]

Comment too. Doug, what do we got?

[John Ashbrook]

This is from Dustin Curtis. Dustin writes, tough question of the day for those of us with daughters.

[Comfortably Smug]

Tough job.

[Michael Smug]

Tough job. You notice that Ashbrook took a long.

[John Ashbrook]

Slug of bourbon at that Three girls.

[Michael Smug]

Three girls.

[John Ashbrook]

I'd have to say journo because it's easier for them to return to normal after the liberal arts degree wears off. I just love how that's the same thing as the Onlyfans account.

[Josh Holmes]

We've got good writers.

[John Ashbrook]

More importantly, the best offense is a good defense. So I hugged my daughter tonight before bed, told her I was proud of her, and reminded her to keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lungs.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's important.

[Michael Smug]

Our best way to get through it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

If you know anything about being a parent, that's the funniest one, two combo of all time. It's like you gotta be present, make sure that they love you. Make sure you. They know you love them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Because that's how you keep somebody off the pole and then add some lib comment to keep off the thing. Hopefully we can avoid both situations.

[Josh Holmes]

Our audience can write.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, it's very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

Everything is so authentic with them and everything so good.

[Michael Smug]

Very funny.

[Comfortably Smug]

Oh, comment 3. This is a good one. This is from Timothy Britt. Timothy writes, guys, first thing, asking the question about choices for my daughter is like asking this. Would you rather have Kamala or Liz Cheney be president? Oh, man.

[Michael Smug]

Seriously, it's worse than that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Thank you for what you do. I have a short metro commute from Cleveland park to the Smithsonian, and your show keeps me entertained twice a week on both legs. Love what you do. Keep up the great work. P.S. where do us conservatives hang out in the D.C. area? Good question.

[Michael Smug]

That is a good question.

[Comfortably Smug]

The White House in about a month.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, yeah. We'll have a better answer for you in about 30 calendar days.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Smug]

That. That we will have and try, you.

[John Ashbrook]

Know, and wherever that is, we will be there.

[Michael Smug]

Maybe we'll work on something with bells on.

[Comfortably Smug]

You know, that reminds me. I don't think I brought this up to you gentlemen. So I heard a hot tip that Elon has rented out a bar for the entire month of January for when the festivities get underway. I'll get on top of that. Maybe we could report live from it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I heard.

[Comfortably Smug]

Now the goddamn libs are gonna look what you've done.

[John Ashbrook]

We'll. We'll bleep it.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, yeah. That's what we'll do in post.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Can we bleep that?

[Comfortably Smug]

Can we go hard? So Duncan did know the secret conservative location.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

It's very good that we didn't say that out loud. Okay, I. Look, I'd be remiss before I exit this segment to say that these were three incredibly well calibrated responses that I think can resonate a broad cross section of America. I read every one of them. I want to say it was about 97% in favor of the poll.

[John Ashbrook]

Nice.

[Comfortably Smug]

That tells you the state of journalism. One of them is an honest living. And what is it?

[Michael Smug]

Honestly, that's what many of them said.

[John Ashbrook]

It comes down to which is more degrading.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And which has some integrity.

[Michael Smug]

No, I'm dead serious. That was it. And the explanations that I read in a lot of these were like, oh, God, they mean a really good point. The poll is a far more significant way to make a living. An entrepreneur in a lot of ways.

[Comfortably Smug]

It helps some men, you know? You know, journalism helps no one.

[Michael Smug]

So, anyway, that's a cross. But I felt obligated to tell you that, like, just in case you were the one that came down on the side of the pole. You got about 97% that agree with.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the best episode.

[Michael Smug]

All right, fellas, if we haven't had enough fun, let's play a game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Let's play a game.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. We got King of the Hill back today for Thursday, and I am the challenger. I'm very excited about this. I'm bringing A new flavor to the game.

[Michael Smug]

I love this.

[John Ashbrook]

We haven't played him before.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, gosh.

[John Ashbrook]

But he's a real, you know, character. Yeah, I mean, a never trump brawler.

[Michael Smug]

Are you flat footing the ring announcer?

[John Ashbrook]

No, no, no, no. I previewed with him.

[Michael Smug]

Okay.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't know where he's gonna go.

[Josh Holmes]

Who is it again?

[John Ashbrook]

Ron Philipowski. Oh, yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Ok. Ok. And what, you're judge this week, right?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, I'm judge. I. You know how I do it. Iron fist and everything else.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right down the middle, fair and square.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, I appreciate it with all that. Let's go ringside.

[Josh Holmes]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. It's time for King of the Hill. In the red corner, fighting of who knows where, Ron. Philippa.

[Michael Smug]

Philippa.

[Josh Holmes]

Can't say his name anyway. Kouski. And now, in the blue corner, fighting from her own Twitter account, the queen and current champion of the world, Commie Cherry Jacob.

[Comfortably Smug]

He's been just killing it.

[John Ashbrook]

She's just the cheat code.

[Michael Smug]

What's the background of this Philip Housekeep?

[Comfortably Smug]

He works for one of those grift offices like Midas Touch.

[John Ashbrook]

Midas Touch. He works for Midas.

[Michael Smug]

Was he conserved. Former conservative.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he was like a Republican lawyer in Florida, I believe.

[Michael Smug]

Oh, geez. Okay. All right, well, he qualifies then.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Well qualified.

[John Ashbrook]

We did the research. Yeah, because I. I had that same question when Spaghetti was out there looking for.

[Michael Smug]

I've seen his stuff and I never imagined that that came from the right at any point.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can you believe it?

[Michael Smug]

Which is we may have something new here.

[John Ashbrook]

Yes. Round one goes to you, Champion. Yeah, Champion.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay. Okay. For this Spaghetti, let's go to Exhibit 8 and just start off strong. Here you have a picture of Cherry Jacobus and. And a couple of other compatriots. She writes, after a champagne brunch, we're the only ones in the theater for 3D. Wicked, bro. With an exclamation mark outside of the quote. Cherry Jacobus, ladies and gentlemen, went to see Wicked with three, you know, two of her friends.

[Comfortably Smug]

That is exactly the crowd. Would you imagine after getting boozed up.

[Michael Smug]

Can I get that up one more time?

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, time to get boozed up at brunch. Go see Wicked. And like, that's the theater, I imagine. Yeah, that's the crew.

[Josh Holmes]

She wanted everybody to know that they were the only ones who were there.

[Michael Smug]

I also noticed traffic's down. Touch.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. Oh, look at that. Yeah, I appreciate that. The numbers are up there.

[Michael Smug]

Traffic's down a touch.

[Comfortably Smug]

Numbers not doing what they used to.

[John Ashbrook]

Everybody's over in Blue sky now.

[Josh Holmes]

And this was posted in the middle of the day, so.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, when else do you have brunch? You having it around dinnertime? Ashburg? Of course, it's middle of the day.

[Michael Smug]

Well, that is brunch. That's self evident. Okay. But it is a drinking afternoon.

[Comfortably Smug]

Seems kind of mid. Let's see what you got, Duncan.

[John Ashbrook]

Thank you. Smug.

[Michael Smug]

I love it. The bailiff is just chiming in.

[John Ashbrook]

I was going to editorialize, but that is now unnecessary. So I'm just going to go ahead and steal this round. This needs a little bit of a setup here. And that is, you know, Kimberly Guilfoyle is going to be ambassador to Greece. So that is the context of this. Exhibit number 14, please. Spaghetti. Ron writes, Stormy got 130k for five seconds and Kim got an ambassadorship for five years. Brutally hard, number one. Sexist, I might say. And then also, Stormy Daniels owes Donald Trump like half a million dollars, by the way.

[Michael Smug]

Also, how long? How does he know it's five seconds?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Have you seen Donald Trump's stamina?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. No, I mean, I just like he denies all allegations. As he should. Yes. Until proven otherwise. Yeah. His word for like that seems like some editorialization outside the coloring, outside the lines, if you will.

[John Ashbrook]

I appreciate him as a new competitor because he does do this pithy thing very well.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Although he got all of the facts wrong, as they often do.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And he didn't go to Wicked after brunch with two other non libs.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But that's just, that's the cultural side of Sherry. My Sherry, she does plenty of stuff with the cats and the sadness, you.

[Comfortably Smug]

Know, cats and the sadness.

[John Ashbrook]

But as far as political content goes, as far as political content goes, I don't think you can beat my take.

[Josh Holmes]

Cats and sadness is pretty funny.

[Michael Smug]

Let me just say this because I know a little bit of something about, like, the Kimberly Guilfoyle situation and like, I don't know what's going on with her relationship with Don Jr. I don't care. This is somebody who for years has committed an inordinate amount of time to try to elect Donald Trump president. Met with basically everybody you can meet with, tried to raise as much money as you could, worked her tail off. I mean, there's nobody that you look at in terms of what like ambassadorships are usually sort of a reward to a country that somebody particularly cares about that has done an awful lot.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

And then can do a job and represent the country. She's obviously well spoken and can figure all that out. So that piece of it takes care of itself. But, like, I would argue there's not a lot of humans who've done more.

[John Ashbrook]

And Ron reduces it to, like, oh, just like this porn star. Yeah. You know.

[Michael Smug]

Right. No, I mean that.

[John Ashbrook]

And he's a Democrat.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the thing.

[Michael Smug]

For that reason. And I'm sympathetic to the wicked midday brunch because that's all she's got going. And I was thinking I was headed there, but I think she's got this. I think this.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's go.

[Michael Smug]

Filipowski with his first ever round win.

[John Ashbrook]

Stealing the first round is big in this game.

[Comfortably Smug]

Also, mastership to Greece is a great gig.

[Michael Smug]

It's a great gig.

[John Ashbrook]

But honestly, Greek food is the best.

[Michael Smug]

I don't care what you think.

[Comfortably Smug]

I would never leave the beach.

[Michael Smug]

Like, I actually don't care what you think about Kimberly Guilfoyle. Like, she's in. Arguably earned consideration for a spot like that.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

You know what I mean? Like, it's. It's a very odd thing to, like.

[Comfortably Smug]

If you look at who becomes ambassadors of countries, number one, I would say, is loyalty and helping a. The person to pick you.

[Michael Smug]

Totally.

[Comfortably Smug]

She's got that in spades.

[Michael Smug]

Okay. All right.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, round two. I have to go first. This one's great. Spaghetti. Can I get exhibit number 12, please? Ron writes, virtually every question today at the White House press briefing was about the hunter. Pardon? As if that is the thing the American people care about most right now. The DC Press is so disconnected from the American public and serves them poorly more often than not.

[Michael Smug]

You're gonna. You're gonna have to bring a lot of game here. You're gonna. And Sherry's capable of it. But that is a. That is an amazing take he got.

[John Ashbrook]

I would just want to point out the metrics there. He got 2,400 retweets on, wow, I love lives.

[Comfortably Smug]

Being like, yes, the press is the enemy.

[Michael Smug]

They're asking questions that have no bearing on the national interest of the American public. Weird. I can't believe that would take over a single press conference, let alone four fucking years of a presidency.

[Comfortably Smug]

All it took was getting smoked in a landslide. Because now they're like, wait, the journals actually do suck ass.

[Michael Smug]

Okay, what do we got from Sherry Spaghetti?

[Josh Holmes]

Exhibit seven, please, where Cherry, my Cherry, writes, there is nothing that Elon Musk has done in his entire life that should make anyone believe he has the best interest of the United States at heart. Not a damn thing.

[Michael Smug]

Oh, my God.

[Josh Holmes]

Let the pillaging begin. I'll Block Hyde and then cut off his fake bots and trolls that will reply to this.

[Comfortably Smug]

That is so strong. That is so strong.

[Michael Smug]

I'm sorry, that was an awesome Filipowski tweet, but that's a no brainer. That's Sherry coming right back to tie this thing up.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, Judge, I actually agree with you on that. That what I, what I appreciate the most about sharing my Sherry and I know I'm arguing against my position here, but what a gamer. That she's still on Twitter, staying on Twitter and is like, I will block and hide all bots from Elon. You know, like that is somebody addicted to the game.

[Comfortably Smug]

And she's like, I'm going to drop a take so shit that I'm going to get so many people telling me I'm an idiot and you're all bots and I'm blocking all of you. You will not stop me from saying.

[Michael Smug]

Rocket on top of the thing. Upside down.

[Comfortably Smug]

Savings.

[Michael Smug]

She's never done anything.

[Comfortably Smug]

Due to saving astronauts providing Internet service to victims of the storm in western North Carolina. She's like, he's done nothing.

[Michael Smug]

Never done anything. Never done anything. That's a wild take. Even if you like ideologically disagree with the X thing, she's still an X doing it, which is such a great. Oh God. Okay. All right, what do we got for round three?

[Josh Holmes]

Exhibit six, please. Spaghetti. In the wake of the murder of an executive from an insurance company, Jerry Jacobus tweets. Last year the seven largest private health insurers collected 1.39 trillion in profit. Their business model is to let you die so they make bigger profit. Medicare for All. It's time. This is a former Republican talking about Medicare for All. She's gone from Republican to Bernie Sanders and she reminds people of her lunacy in the wake of a murder so she can surf off of the left wing plaudits from this guy's demise. And it is one of the sickest things I've seen from anybody on Twitter.

[Comfortably Smug]

It is, is. And that's the thing is.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's Cherry Jacobus.

[Comfortably Smug]

Especially in a lot of like all these journals who've been like, yes, assassination is good. Like the Tiller Lorenz take of being like I felt joy when he was murdered. They love this because all that it would enable is their sentiment that they can take by force everything you have and they're justified in it. This is the centerpiece of all this Marxist nonsense. That's exactly for a, quote, former Republican to be putting that out.

[Josh Holmes]

Right? Taylor Lorenz and All the antifa people on Twitter who have long been Bernie Sanders acolytes are one thing. A former Republican is quite another.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay. I mean, my turn.

[Michael Smug]

It's a very strong take.

[Comfortably Smug]

Let's hear it.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay. I think this is an important take because it encapsulates the entire ethos of the Never Trump movement, and that is they will tell you very publicly that they believe in nothing. Spaghetti Exhibit number 13, please. I just love this so much. One thing I actually learned from covering Trump the last four years is how to blame every problem in America and the world on the American President. I fully intend to apply what I learned over the next four years. It's like, you're just. It's like walking into a bank and calling the country, being like, I intend to rob this bank.

[Michael Smug]

I'm doing it deliberate.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I am going to be full of shit the next four years. And I just want to tell you I'm doing that deliberate.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's incredible. Like, Trump really, really broke these people.

[John Ashbrook]

Broke them.

[Comfortably Smug]

Like, fundamentally, they are now messed up mentally, like mental disorder, basket cases.

[Josh Holmes]

It's. It's a very strong take, but it is not. A former Republican aligning with antifa over the cause of a murder.

[Comfortably Smug]

I mean, that's a tough choice for you, Judge.

[Michael Smug]

I mean, I have to do just a touch. If you wouldn't mind just carrying on the conversation for a minute. I have to go into chambers and check one thing, because there's one thing that would render a verdict if I can find it.

[Comfortably Smug]

So here's my thinking. I think the central point to be made here is the argument is between grifting who is the biggest absolute grifter We've seen the, like, never Trump grifting that folks like Ron Flow Palski have done where it was like Duncan said, they are nihilists. They believe in absolutely nothing.

[John Ashbrook]

He's basically saying in there, like, I am open for business. Whatever you want me to say, I will blame Trump for it, whether it's Medicare for All or whatever. It's like, he's like, I'll do anything.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then you've got Sherry's level of grifting, which is like, this is supposedly someone who's a Never Trumper because they're like a principled conservative now calling for the murder of executives and Medicare for All.

[John Ashbrook]

There is. There is no contestant that is going to approach anywhere the level of brainworms of Sherry, my Sherry. I humbly beseech this court to find that there's a nuance that is provided by Filipowski's tweets that I think are fundamental.

[Josh Holmes]

What Cherry is doing is saying that I was a Republican and now I'm ready to start a new community in Portland and burn down the federal courthouse. That's what she's saying.

[Comfortably Smug]

Sherry Light from Chasby.

[John Ashbrook]

Objection. This is hearsay. Far beyond the context of the tweet.

[Michael Smug]

It's beyond the scope. Let's be on the scope. The court will rule of that. I want to say that I've taken this under extreme advisement and I've thought about this deeply. I did some research back in chambers and I was prepared to not only rule for Sherry Macheri, but enthusiastically rule in support of what is one of the craziest things that I've seen in the same week as an assassination of a CEO of a healthcare company. What I'm lacking is the evidence to support that she has had a differing opinion. And what I looked for, because this is a former Republican.

[Comfortably Smug]

You did the research who looked.

[John Ashbrook]

He's looking for precedent.

[Michael Smug]

And had a contributorship public with somebody who spoke from the heart against Barack Obama during the Obamacare years. I could not find on my brief three minutes of research a quote that corroborated a long held view that the American healthcare system was in fact in high regard as a market based system. Now it may very well exist, but I don't feel like council has provided that for me.

[Comfortably Smug]

Interesting.

[Michael Smug]

And in lieu of a lack of of evidence, I'm going to have to give the first victory to Philip Housekeep.

[John Ashbrook]

You're a brilliant jurist.

[Comfortably Smug]

That was well thought. That was an incredible matchup.

[Michael Smug]

I thought all I would do is google her name and public option and I was going to get just a myriad of stuff and there could be something in there, but on the first page in the time allotted, I couldn't find it. I was working to try to find justice and in this case it was just sheerly a lack of presentation in front of this judge and jury.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, your honor, very, very intelligent decision as usual. What I can tell you is Cherry will be back.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, we know.

[Michael Smug]

There's no doubt. And for some reason Smash always has the Sherry.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, because she gets like a cool off period and then he's up again and he jumps her.

[Comfortably Smug]

She presents her stuff. Great.

[Josh Holmes]

Her crown continues to shine. Every single ruby at every peak.

[John Ashbrook]

But just remember Blueski Blue sky. Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Smug]

Blueski is still available now because of a. Because of a. An important ruling by Justice. Smug. Yeah, so it's available.

[Josh Holmes]

Maybe Reuben will come and I Need.

[Michael Smug]

I need spaghetti to think about that a little bit. We got one more little piece of the puzzle. Important look, we spoke a lot, I think, going into the Olympics about Caitlin Clark, about this, like, bizarre media environment where she was, like, castigated and made to be something that she wasn't. You know, WNBA and all the politics that went into that nonsense. People sort of held her out as a hero of somebody who's just not going to get into that social nonsense. And smug. You took some offense of something that did this. Yep.

[Comfortably Smug]

So I have some very terrible news about Caitlin Clark. She's gone woke folks. So like we said as men, for almost. It feels like a decade have been crying with the ESPN thing. It's like, I just want to watch sports. I don't want any of this woke nonsense. I don't want politics. I watch sports to try to get my mind off anything and just see competition. And, you know, I think Caitlin Clark for some time was emblematic of that, where. Where she's not weighing in, she's not taking a knee, she's not bowing during the national anthem, any of this kind of nonsense. And she was also getting it from other players. You had, like Angel Reese, who was clearly jealous of Clayton Clark, who isn't a superior player, was getting attention, and Angel Reese took offense to that. And then there would be all these stories about, like, is Caitlin Clark a white supremacist because she exists.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then Caitlin Clark's reaction is because I think she was like, time women's athlete of the year.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

Caitlin Clark went completely woke and was like, this is a direct quote from her. I want to say I've earned every single thing. But as a white person, there is privilege. A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible. I think it's very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate black women, that's going to be a beautiful thing.

[Michael Smug]

Nobody ever made it about.

[Comfortably Smug]

No one asked. No one asked you about this, number one. Number two, I saw charts on Twitter the other day. Something like 65% of WNBA players are black women. What do you need to elevate 65% of the player base in this game to say you have privilege when she gets flagrantly foul more than any player in the WNBA because of the jealousy she feels. And this enrages me so much. I replied to Megyn Kelly, who went in on Caitlin Clark, rightly I replied to Meg Kelly. It's like Caitlin Clark was asleep on election night and thinks, yeah, she still flies. It's over. The era of this woke garbage is over.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the weirdest part about it. Smug is for whatever reason, she still feels like she has to pay the indulgences to the system that was defeated on election day. And I don't know why that is.

[Michael Smug]

I think it's. Look, I think it's a system that.

[John Ashbrook]

Was against her from day one. Despite the fact that like she's responsible for not only an incredible growth of the sport, dude, they're selling out stadiums for her road games. She goes to another city in the place, sells out to see her.

[Comfortably Smug]

And that's what I. Anyone listening to this? Don't go see her games anymore. Don't see your games, don't buy her jersey, don't tell your kids about her. Don't do any of that. Because there has to be a price to. Okay. This country has suffered so much against this because of this race baiting nonsense the left has pushed to divide and conquer. Americans being like your skin color is this. It means you're evil colonizer. Your skin color is this, which means that you're oppressed and there's no chance for you. So you have to just do whatever Democrats want. Just vote for us and we will take care of you. That nonsense just divided this country. Pit Americans against each other.

[Michael Smug]

No, I think you're wrong.

[Comfortably Smug]

We have to make a person pay a copy if they want to further that system. Caitlin Clark should be banished.

[Michael Smug]

Look, I think it's complicated with Caitlin Clark.

[Comfortably Smug]

No, no, she's gotta go.

[Michael Smug]

No, listen, I understand and I totally appreciate your position on it. The reason it offends me is because of the discussion that we had with Wesley when he was here. And like when we grew up, this wasn't what we taught. We didn't differentiate between Kirby Puckett and Tim Laudner on the Minnesota Twins in 1987. Like Kirby Puck was the best player. Who's my hero? I didn't think if he was black or white. And this has just become a thing that the woke left has created to put people into a place where this even the question is even asked, let alone answered by a professional athlete. Gotta get away from that. This election was a huge repudiation to that outlook of America. I also think about it from her perspective in somebody who Is quite honestly, the most talented basketball player left off the Olympic squad. Fouled flagrantly. Her place of work is a hostile spot. And, like, nothing's going to change that for her. And, like, if you internalize that from your own perspective of what that looks like, I mean, I can understand how you can make a mistake in this area. I don't agree with it. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

She has teammates, right? Like, she's. You know, I can.

[Michael Smug]

I get it. Look, if it's all about principle all day, every day, you're not gonna work anywhere very long because people are gonna throw your ass out because you can't get along with anybody or whatever else. Principle's the wrong word. But if it's all about your sort of ideology. But I do think this was a big mistake. And I think she had the opportunity to rise above, to do what we were talking about with Wesley, which is like, I just don't look at the world that way.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Michael Smug]

And instead of saying the black players by which this league was built upon. The players.

[Comfortably Smug]

Bingo.

[Michael Smug]

By which this league was built upon, and everyone would know what it is that you're talking about. What, the color of their skin matters not. That's the whole point. And that's the reason, I think, that probably made you so incense.

[Comfortably Smug]

And here's the problem, is it's never enough for that mob. If she thinks she's gonna get less flagrantly fouled if she thinks, now they're gonna be nice to me. The mob does not respect anyone who kneels to them.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. They're not gonna.

[Comfortably Smug]

They always ask for more. It's never enough for them. And so I'm sick of her. She should be boycotted. I can't stand her. Horrible person.

[John Ashbrook]

I don't think you're gonna get Ashbrook's daughters on board with that, but I appreciate the scent.

[Michael Smug]

Yeah. I think she's also done a lot for women in athletics, and I think.

[Comfortably Smug]

And now she's going to set it all back.

[Michael Smug]

I think. I think this is a. Look, athletes make mistakes. And I think, you know, three years from now, she'd look back on this and be like, that was not the right call. And I want to give somebody an opportunity to look back on stuff.

[Comfortably Smug]

Who was the NASCAR driver she endorsed?

[John Ashbrook]

Trump?

[Comfortably Smug]

Was it Danica Keller?

[Michael Smug]

Was that Danica Patrick?

[Comfortably Smug]

Danica Patrick, there's an idol for your daughters right there.

[John Ashbrook]

She is.

[Michael Smug]

She is a great.

[Comfortably Smug]

She is.

[Michael Smug]

You don't need Caitlin Clark.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Smug]

I'm not going to argue with that. It's all a good point. It's a good point of discussion. I know that people are talking about, which is why the worthless Variety program talks.

[Comfortably Smug]

Cash Patel, if you're listening, jail Caitlin.

[Michael Smug]

Oh. So remember our question of the day, Wiener PETA J, Does Boot have. Is he the way back? Is the winner?

[Comfortably Smug]

Who's the future of the party?

[Michael Smug]

Who's the future of the Democratic Party?

[John Ashbrook]

The psychopath or the degenerate?

[Michael Smug]

Yeah, it's like, you know, it's tough.

[Comfortably Smug]

Usually with the Dem, you get both.

[Michael Smug]

It's a binary choice. Here on the Variety Program, you tell us your best argument and we'll go with it. Yeah, next Tuesday, which will be our next program with all that. This has been a very fun program, fellas. I'm glad we did it. You gotta subscribe, like and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Check out all of our merch while you're there. You got some Christmas gifts coming your way. And with that, I think we did it.

[Comfortably Smug]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to the Minions. It's clear you've been sharing it with your friends. We keep seeing our subscriber numbers go up. So until next time, Minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.

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