Why Libs Attack Doge And Tesla

Summary

Ruthless Podcast: Episode Summary Title: Why Libs Attack Doge And Tesla
Release Date: April 1, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook
Description: Smug, Holmes, Duncan, and Ashbrook elevate next-generation conservative talk with a no-holds-barred analysis of daily news and "fake news."

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview [01:16 - 02:06]

Josh Holmes kicks off the episode by outlining the primary focus: understanding why the political left is targeting Tesla and Doge. The hosts emphasize that their analysis goes beyond typical media narratives, aiming to uncover deeper motivations behind these attacks.

Josh Holmes [01:16]: "We're going to be talking about a bunch of things here today, including the real reason, from our perspective, that the left is attacking Tesla Doge."

John Ashbrook adds pride in the episode's unique insights, differentiating their discussion from conventional media portrayals.

John Ashbrook [01:44]: "It's not the standard discussion... but there's more to it and we really have a lot of good info on that."

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2. Main Topic: Attacks on Tesla and Doge [02:06 - 36:00]

A. Increasing Violence Against Tesla Owners [07:11 - 16:03]

The hosts discuss a series of violent incidents targeting Tesla vehicles across the United States, highlighting a disturbing trend.

• Arizona Incident: A Tesla was box-encroached by a green car, leading to a violent confrontation with a 61-year-old woman.

  Josh Holmes [07:19]: "It's repetitive, it's a pattern. And the intent is to try to scare..."

• Other Incidents: Vehicles set on fire in Las Vegas, graffiti in Colorado, and keying incidents in Dallas.

Comfortably Smug emphasizes the real victims are ordinary Americans, not Elon Musk himself.

Comfortably Smug [08:49]: "When the left targets people... regular Americans suffer."

Michael Duncan underscores the pattern of repeated hostility towards Tesla and Doge, suggesting organized efforts rather than isolated events.

Michael Duncan [16:03]: "...the left is trying to brainwash all these people..."

B. Institutional Rot in Government and NGOs [26:27 - 33:16]

The discussion shifts to the overstaffing and inefficiencies within government agencies, particularly the IRS and NIH.

• IRS Overstaffing: The IRS employs 1,400 people solely for provisioning laptops and cell phones, a role that could be handled with far fewer staff.

  Michael Duncan [25:46]: "Like, every day. If he's got... you could repopulate the entire workforce."

• NIH Funding Mismanagement: Universities retain 40-45% of NIH grants, diverting funds away from crucial cancer research.

  Michael Duncan [26:27]: "If you're NIH researcher and you get a $100 grant... you get to spend 85 of that."

John Ashbrook criticizes the financial mismanagement, linking it to escalating costs in education and healthcare without corresponding improvements.

John Ashbrook [28:27]: "They have billion dollar endowments. Drag these clowns in front of Congress..."

C. Media Manipulation and Smear Campaigns [24:29 - 36:00]

The hosts argue that the left employs smear tactics against individuals like J.D. Vance and organizations like Doge to maintain institutional control and suppress dissent.

• Bret Baer Interview: Praises for the Atlantic editor Sahil Desai's critical coverage of Doge, exposing inefficiencies and corruption.

  Josh Holmes [12:47]: "Clip five, you've got overstaffing... like the IRS has got 1400 people..."

• Democratic Smear Tactics: Repeatedly attacking individuals to control narratives and eliminate opposition.

  John Ashbrook [24:09]: "They have all been paying for it... Dear listener, your tax money that's getting ripped out of your pockets..."

3. Special Elections Update [44:22 - 50:07]

Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook provide critical insights into ongoing special elections in Florida and Wisconsin, emphasizing their importance for maintaining Republican control in the House of Representatives.

• Florida Races: Highlighting races like Matt Gaetz's replacement and Mike Waltz's replacement, stressing the need for Republican voters to participate to prevent Democratic dominance.

  Michael Duncan [46:57]: "When you start losing elections in a significant way... it's pretty important that they have confidence in the coalition going forward."

• Wisconsin's Supreme Court Race: Emphasized as pivotal for future judicial appointments and maintaining conservative influence.

  Josh Holmes [45:21]: "Wisconsin, especially, at a time in which President Trump is facing so much opposition..."

4. Hack Madness Bracket Tournament [50:24 - 56:22]

The hosts delve into "Hack Madness," an interactive bracket tournament determining the biggest journalist hack in politics.

• Current Standings: Notable rise of Mika Brzezinski and Margaret Brennan as top contenders, with John Ashbrook leading the prediction rankings.

  Josh Holmes [51:43]: "...Margaret Brennan would be the number one overall seed."

• Audience Engagement: Encouragement for listeners to participate by voting through John Ashbrook's profile on X (formerly Twitter).

  John Ashbrook [50:25]: "Remember, go to my profile at Comfortably Smug on X comfortablysmug vote."

5. Variety Segment: Airline Incident [56:28 - 62:27]

A lighter, yet critical segment covering an outrageous incident on an American Airlines flight where a passenger masturbated for an hour next to a CEO, with negligent responses from flight attendants.

• Incident Details: Neil Elshriff, CEO of a vegan leather brand, sued after enduring the harassment without adequate crew intervention.

  Michael Duncan [57:05]: "An attendant did nothing... taking legal action. That must have been a stressful experience."

• Hosts' Commentary: Critique of American Airlines' handling of the situation, linking it to broader themes of institutional neglect and incompetence.

  John Ashbrook [59:58]: "There's essentially no difference anymore. They're all low cost."

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6. Conclusion and Final Remarks [62:27 - 64:10]

Josh Holmes wraps up by reiterating the importance of exposing institutional corruption and encouraging listener engagement in both voting and interactive segments like Hack Madness.

Josh Holmes [63:26]: "Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to the means."

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Josh Holmes [00:03]: "Tesla and Doge. It's not because they're trying to make government more efficient. It's that they're exposing the racket."

• Comfortably Smug [08:49]: "When the left targets people... regular Americans suffer."

• Michael Duncan [25:46]: "Like, every day. If he's got... you could repopulate the entire workforce."

• John Ashbrook [28:27]: "They have billion dollar endowments. Drag these clowns in front of Congress..."

• Josh Holmes [45:21]: "Wisconsin, especially, at a time in which President Trump is facing so much opposition..."

• John Ashbrook [50:25]: "Remember, go to my profile at Comfortably Smug on X comfortablysmug vote."

• Michael Duncan [57:05]: "An attendant did nothing... taking legal action. That must have been a stressful experience."

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Key Takeaways

1. Systematic Targeting of Tesla and Doge: The political left is orchestrating attacks to destabilize companies like Tesla and Doge, not out of environmental concerns but to expose and undermine perceived governmental and institutional corruption.

2. Government Inefficiency and Corruption: Significant overstaffing and mismanagement within agencies like the IRS and NIH are highlighted, with funds being siphoned off by bureaucrats, leading to inflated costs in education and healthcare.

3. Media Manipulation: The hosts argue that mainstream media and left-wing organizations employ smear tactics to control narratives, suppress dissent, and maintain institutional power, often at the expense of ordinary Americans.

4. Importance of Special Elections: Critical races in Florida and Wisconsin could determine the balance of power in the House of Representatives, affecting future legislative and judicial appointments.

5. Audience Engagement through Hack Madness: An ongoing interactive segment encourages listener participation in identifying media hacks, fostering community involvement and critical evaluation of journalistic integrity.

6. Variety Segment Insights: A discussion on an inappropriate airline incident serves to illustrate broader issues of institutional neglect and cultural failures within large corporations like American Airlines.

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, introductory remarks, and closing statements to focus solely on the substantive content discussed during the episode.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

This is the real reason why the left.

[Michael Duncan]

This is it.

[John Ashbrook]

This is it.

[Josh Holmes]

Tesla and Doge. It's not because, you know, they're trying to make government more efficient. It's that they're exposing the racket.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Josh Holmes]

That there is institutional rot in all these left wing NGOs and nonprofits who do studies where like the Biden administration can appropriate billions, tens of billions of dollars to build out electric charging stations. And they build a.

[Michael Duncan]

We will unleash the power of American innovation.

[John Ashbrook]

We will soon be on the verge.

[Michael Duncan]

Of finding the cures to cancer, Alzheimer's disease and many other diseases.

[Comfortably Smug]

The cure for cancer is closer than ever.

[Michael Duncan]

But the Biden pill penalty is forcing.

[Comfortably Smug]

Researchers to abandon breakthroughs that could save millions of lives. Only President Trump can fix it. He'll ignite a golden age of innovation to defeat cancer once and for all. Tell Congress, end the Biden pill penalty.

[Michael Duncan]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Josh Holmes]

Just catching strays over here.

[Michael Duncan]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Comfortably Smug]

It's time for our main event.

[Michael Duncan]

Good Tuesday to all of you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I'm Josh Holmes along with comfortably smug Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Left to right across your radio dial. As always, we're going to be talking about a bunch of things here today, including the real reason, from our perspective, that the left is attacking Tesla Doge. A lot of developments over this. I'm sure you've seen a lot on the news. We're going to put in a fine point on this for all of you to know exactly why all of this is happening.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing. So we started discussing this topic and I think we, we really came up with some insightful stuff. I'm really proud of what this episode's gonna have because it's not the standard discussion that you're seeing online and on cable news of being like, boy, this is just, you know, some paid left wing activists going crazy. But there's more to it and we really have a lot of good info on that.

[Michael Duncan]

Lot of good info. We're also gonna be talking a little bit about special elections happening today. Today.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Michael Duncan]

Great state of Florida, also a big one that we've discussed on the program in Wisconsin and that Supreme Court race, all of that stuff. We're going to provide you with some updated numbers and some context and predictions potentially about where all of that goes. Very, very important stuff in terms of how governing goes going forward. And then We've got literally the greatest show in the digital universe. Hack madness.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And an update on all that smug.

[John Ashbrook]

Huge. I mean, thank you all so much for your votes so far. It's been exciting again to go vote for this. This is picking the biggest hack in media, biggest left wing hack in media. And you go to my profile on X at comfortably smug to vote. The votes have been pouring in and there's lots of surprises. We're going to be covering.

[Josh Holmes]

I also reran the numbers in the prediction rankings.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Both in the public bracket of all the people who submitted a prediction. Also, thank you to everyone who did. We got like over 1100 brackets submitted in this and then us, the four of us, so we can.

[Michael Duncan]

Let me guess who's winning it.

[Josh Holmes]

Do I have a. I'm not going to spoil it.

[Michael Duncan]

No, I'm sure you don't. Well, you want to hold suspense on that one, don't you, old man?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it's a tease.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, breaking news. The old man's probably winning it because he wants to talk about it. So we're gonna do that. And we've got some variety. This one's a disgusting mess on variety. So you're gonna want to. You're gonna want to tune into that before we get into the meats of all this. Fellas. I've had the disturbing trend in my personal life on the weekends. We have a lot of fun here during the week. And then you go on the weekend, kids, sports, all kinds of different stuff. We're running around like a crazy person. But there's a new disturbing trend where my wife has planned things that I have to go to that require a costume.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, wow, that's a bit much.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it was several weeks ago. I had to go, like there was a costume party. Right. I had to dress and like, I don't know about this stuff until like two hours beforehand. I'm like, jesus, I got it. And she's like, oh, well, here's your costume. So I wish, I wish I could tell you I'm like, running a real tough household where I'm just, you know, this is the guy. I'm gonna. Dad needs rest this week. No, that's not at all the way it works. The way it works is I show up, I take kids to things and then they're like, no, but dress up like, you know what? And, you know, then make fun of yourself. So this is. I had this a couple weeks ago this weekend. It's a western themed auction thing at one of my kids Schools like there could be worse, right? I can. But you dressing up as a. As a cowboy in Northern Virginia, there's a certain connotation that comes. You're not in Texas, you know, you're not in Wyoming. You're not even in South Dakota. Like, you're. You got a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle, cowboy boots. In Northern Virginia, people could get the wrong idea about what's going on. Anyway, I show up, I have a nice dinner with some people. We're on our way to the auction. My wife hits a curb in the car and blows the tire.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, my God.

[Michael Duncan]

So I find myself in Rosalind, which is the closest possible metro thing to. It's literally sharing a bridge with Washington D.C. laying along the side of the road, where I sent my wife along with friends to go to the auction. And this gentleman, who's just a terrific guy, decided to stay along and help me out with all this. But we're changing a tire and laying on the side of the road in.

[Josh Holmes]

Full cowboy uniform, looking like a lot lizard.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, absolute humiliation. I can't even imagine what people were thinking as they were driving past me, but this is my lot in life. On the weekends.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I gotta tell you, it says something about you that you changed it yourself. You didn't call aaa, you didn't call a dealership. You got out there, as humiliating as it might be in costume, and you broke those nuts.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, well, that's what everybody else was thinking I was doing alongside of the road.

[Comfortably Smug]

And then you jacked it up.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh, geez. And then you changed the tire.

[Josh Holmes]

Did a couple of cars slow down and roll window, see if you needed a ride?

[Michael Duncan]

May have been proposition. May have been. But I mean, this is like. This is what I'm dealing with.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah, that. That doesn't sound fun at all.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a humiliation. I don't know. I'm sure all of you can relate to this at some level. You don't have control of your weekends at a certain point in your life.

[Comfortably Smug]

Testament to personal responsibility it is.

[Michael Duncan]

I love my kids and my wife very much, but it has its. It has its limits. Anyway, all right, let's get into this big story. You guys have all seen all of these headlines. If you're on social media at all, it's all over the place. But what's happening with Tesla as a result of Elon Musk running Doge is unbelievable. And starting to get a little scary.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[Michael Duncan]

It used to be sort of your one off attack. Somebody driving something. I mean, who doesn't get attacked for something in America these days, but. But it's the repetition of the pattern and going after the dealerships and all of these things. I mean, they're skyrocketing, you know, and you look at, there was arrests that were made by DOJ in Vegas. All kinds of different stuff that's happening here. But let's start with a setup clip, if you don't mind. Clip one, please. This is video from the victim's Tesla camera. It shows a green car pulling up to a Tesla on busy Route 66, then swerving in front to box the Tesla in. The driver then walks over to the 61 year old woman in a Tesla and reportedly starts hitting her while she's sitting behind the wheel. At one point, the woman says she bit the man's hand. Moments later, the passenger of the green car appears to walk over and pull the attacker away. They finally get back in their car and drive off. Okay, all right, so this is in Arizona, or a Flagstaff woman was targeted. This, according to AZFamily.com, the violence against Tesla is building in cities across the country. Vehicles set on fire in Las Vegas, graffiti on cars in Colorado, a man caught on camera keying in Dallas. And then, you know, what you just saw in Arizona. It's repetitive, it's a pattern. And the intent is to try to scare like, let me jump to like a little bit of a. I don't want to ruin it for you, but you're wondering why it is that people are doing all that brain damage. Brain damage.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's exactly right. And that's what the left does to people. They pretend like they care about Elon Musk. And this is going to hurt Elon Musk, but who it actually hurts is that lady sitting in her car trying to get from A to B, and a lunatic comes over out of nowhere and starts ruining her day. You know, she's the one who suffers. The people who are key in these cars that have to go and take them into a body shop and pay $1,000 to have their car fixed, they're the ones who suffer. Elon Musk isn't the one. When the left targets people, when communists target people, regular Americans suffer.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, I mean, look, there's no question about it. She's not alone. Can we play clip two, please? Baguettes.

[John Ashbrook]

Lee was on the way to a doctor's appointment in Lynwood Wednesday morning when she says all of a sudden a driver behind her just laid on the horn as they came up to A red light.

[Michael Duncan]

Things spiraled out of control when a white SUV followed her and cut her.

[Josh Holmes]

Off, stopping in the middle of the road.

[John Ashbrook]

Gets out and walks straight up to my D.O.

[Michael Duncan]

Window mask, wearing a mask.

[John Ashbrook]

And I said, what is the problem? And he goes, you need to sell your car. This is a Nazi car.

[Michael Duncan]

You're driving it.

[John Ashbrook]

You need to sell your car.

[Josh Holmes]

Lee says she's been driving a Tesla.

[John Ashbrook]

For the last two years. Okay, all right, this is a Nazi car.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, not for nothing, but the vast majority of Tesla owners are not hardcore Republicans. We're talking about an electric car here. The vast majority of the center of this country doesn't want anything part of an electric car. And it is overindexed off the left from the very beginning. Like what they're doing here is basically attacking like center left humans who probably have absolutely no idea what it is a political statement these lunatics are making.

[John Ashbrook]

But I mean, I think that's the thing, is this isn't necessarily like a partizan thing. Like they're not like, I'm trying to attack Republicans or conservatives. This is yet again something that the left has been doing for the better part of almost two decades at this point.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[John Ashbrook]

On the left, you're not left enough unless you toe the line 100%. Because it's like 10 years ago, if you tried asking, you know, your standard progressive, should you have a gender surgery on a kid? They'd be like, no, of course not.

[Josh Holmes]

Right?

[John Ashbrook]

You ask them that today and they say no. It's like you're going to a gulag, you're out of the party. So they want like this anti compliance is like 100%. It's like a compliance test of you have to be with the party, comrade, 100% smug.

[Josh Holmes]

You're absolutely right because you always say it's not about principle, it's about power. Look what it is, it's not the Rules don't actually matter to these people. It's the enforcement of the rules. It's keeping everybody in that same group think about what we're supposed to believe. That's more important than actually believing in anything.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so what's funny is we're talking about, you know, who is the customer base for Tesla generally. Right. And it's not just random people who, you know, are in these news clips who are horrified, scared of these interactions they've had with other people. It also is the senior associate editor at the Atlantic. Oh, I have a story here from Newsbusters.

[Michael Duncan]

This should be good.

[Josh Holmes]

This is fantastic. You're going to love this. So this Atlantic editor, Sahil Desai, was driving around Washington, D.C. in their Cybertruck. Oh, they have a Tesla cybertruck.

[Michael Duncan]

This is the Atlantic.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the Atlantic guy.

[Michael Duncan]

What a. Steve works for the Atlantic.

[Josh Holmes]

So, you know, he's left wing.

[Michael Duncan]

Talk about, like, immediate regret on that purchase.

[Comfortably Smug]

By the way, Atlantic must pay an awful lot of money.

[Josh Holmes]

He put up an article on Saturday called My Day Inside America's Most Hated Car.

[John Ashbrook]

Fantastic content.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll just read some excerpts here. On the first Saturday of spring, I surrounded. Surrounded by row houses and magnolia trees, I came to a horrifying realization. My mom was right. I had been flipped off at least 17 times. What the called motherfucker in both English and Spanish, and a fucking dork. A woman. A woman in a blue sweater stared at me, sighed, and said, you should be ashamed of yourself. As I idled with the windows down on the street in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, a woman glared at me from her front porch. Fuck you and this truck. And Elon, you drive a Nazi truck. She slammed her front door and then opened it again. I hope someone blows your shit up.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, my God. No, I mean, this is what's going on.

[Josh Holmes]

These people have lost their minds.

[Michael Duncan]

Derangement. Derangement. Which, you know, we're gonna get to after the break. I got a couple more clips for you, but we're gonna get to why this is all happening and put a fine point on it that will, like, you'll lose your mind when you find this out.

[John Ashbrook]

That story up until the lady who is like, you know, you drive a Nazi truck when it's just people being like, you should be ashamed of yourself and flipping them off. I thought he might have been just wearing a hat that says, I work at the Atlantic. Yeah, because I hope that's what their days are like.

[Michael Duncan]

But, like, it would have been so.

[John Ashbrook]

Conflicted, the fact that for Driving a Tesla. They. It's insanity.

[Michael Duncan]

Totally in total insanity. So you remember the firebombing at the Tesla dealership? We got an update on that one in clip three here, Nikki. So this is the several vehicles that were set on fire. They burn and explode and all of that.

[John Ashbrook]

And bullets were fired.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, this is the one.

[John Ashbrook]

Fire rounds at him.

[Josh Holmes]

The one in Vegas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, so arrests are made on that. And we've got a update from Pam Bondi on Fox News. And clip four, please.

[John Ashbrook]

What's happening with this Las Vegas Tesla criminal who. He was arrested and now federal charges have been filed against him.

[Michael Duncan]

This was.

[John Ashbrook]

This was something that was needed given everything we're seeing happening to those dealerships and those cars.

[Josh Holmes]

Look at this guy.

[Michael Duncan]

That was remarkable police work.

[John Ashbrook]

Working with the state police department.

[Michael Duncan]

They have been going, looks like an Asian ZZ Top. This guy is in custody, Laura. He is facing five year minimum mandatory.

[John Ashbrook]

To 20 years in prison. And this was great police work.

[Michael Duncan]

This guy thought he got away with it. So these people better look out, they.

[John Ashbrook]

Better cut it out because we are coming after you.

[Michael Duncan]

And at my direction, there will be no negotiating on these people. Now, please. Seeking 20 years in prison.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They are setting off bombs, the huge fires.

[John Ashbrook]

Look what you're seeing.

[Michael Duncan]

Huge, massive fires in residential neighborhoods.

[John Ashbrook]

Someone's going to get killed.

[Michael Duncan]

Charging stations. Someone is going to get killed.

[John Ashbrook]

A citizen is going to get killed.

[Michael Duncan]

And these people, we are not doing.

[John Ashbrook]

Any plea negotiations on them.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they better cut it out.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, let's go.

[Michael Duncan]

So why is that important? It's important, obviously, that we enforce the law and everything else. It also stands in stark contrast to the experience that this American society had during the George Floyd riots, during COVID Everything else, when everything was just whether it was a federal government or local, which has really been the problem, state and local, through communities throughout this country, you'd have random acts of violence, burning down police stations, for crying out loud, without any sort of prosecution whatsoever. And the message to the public writ large was there's no real law and order here. And if you got an opinion, it's because you're probably repressed and the society has failed you. And so go commit whatever crime you want.

[Josh Holmes]

Fiery, but mostly peaceful.

[Michael Duncan]

Fiery, as CNN said aptly at the time. But what it did is prolong the period of time that we saw all of this incredible random acts of political violence. They're shorting this timeline here by having a really aggressive prosecution at the federal level. I'm heartened to see it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And that's the thing is, when Pam Bondi says that there will be no plea negotiations, because I think, you know, especially during the Biden years, Americans got demoralized because you just accept that, hey, you know, there are cities in this country where you go into a drugstore and every single thing you'd want to buy is behind a piece of glass. Because prosecutors in this city have made crime legal. And you're going to walk outside and people are going to be shooting drugs and selling drugs. And you just have to accept that because the prosecutors in this city have decided that crime is legal. And you just became used to that, you know, so when you set this new standard, there's no plea agreement here. We're shooting for 20 years. Because what that says, it's a very simple thing, it's worked throughout time, is when you put criminals away, it discourages crime.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and the reason why it's really important, I think, is, like, given the context of the rhetoric that the Democrats are employing on Elon Musk and Doge, because, like, if a reporter asks a Democrat right now, like, will you condemn this violence? Of course, what they say, this is the standard thing they had their comms director, you know, type up, which was like, of course, I abhor violence and we should not have violence in our.

[Michael Duncan]

Political discourse in America.

[John Ashbrook]

But.

[Josh Holmes]

But a lot of people are very upset that Elon Musk is killing kids with cancer, firing nuclear safety officers. You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

The transition is something like that. At the same time.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, do it. Do it.

[Michael Duncan]

I do it. I understand the frustrations of people throughout the country who feel as though Elon Musk is ruining access to children's education.

[Josh Holmes]

And cancer research because they don't want to actually talk about what Doge is. Really.

[John Ashbrook]

Bingo.

[Josh Holmes]

And that is super important.

[Michael Duncan]

That's the heart of existential.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

Which is what we're going to get to at the back half of all this when we come back, the existential piece to the left and why it is that they are totally involved in trying to brainwash all these people that are doing what you're seeing and making it seem as though there's something here that's not because they don't want you to talk about this is so critical.

[John Ashbrook]

Because you don't hear it anywhere else. And this is. I mean, this is the heart of all of it.

[Michael Duncan]

We're going to get to all of that and some hack madness and some variety right after this. Hardworking Americans know when it's time to roll up our sleeves and get the job Done.

[Comfortably Smug]

Now is the time to unleash our.

[Michael Duncan]

Nation'S energy, to create jobs, secure our future, and make life better, more affordable, and full of opportunity for all Americans.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the power of America's oil and natural gas.

[Michael Duncan]

Learn [e-mail] paid for by the American Petroleum Institute. Okay, so, you know, the violence you've seen the violence the left would have you believe that this is all sort of a, you know, an organic response to. Yeah, you know, what they see as great offense that's happening here. It's not organic at all. In large part is probably funded and organized by these radical 501 C4s that we've seen operate with Hamas protests.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, the BLM protests. I mean, this is a tried and true tactic of the left.

[Michael Duncan]

All part of the same.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And what you've seen in terms of how they've characterized Doge and look, this is a charitable explanation, to be honest with you, and we're involved in this, but up for the first couple of months, it's like, oh, it's run by a bunch of 19 year olds. They're like statisticians. No personal ability to relate to humans, that they just have a mission and they launch into all of these departments and basically just annihilate all of them, fire everybody and then dispassionately move to the next deal. And that's the way it's been characterized, and I would say widely. It's not just characterized in the New York Times and Washington Post and all the people who have an investment in the federal government, it's broadcast news. I mean, this is specifically the way that this has been framed. Well, Bret Baier and Fox News did an awful lot of work in one interview last week that from my perspective, changed the narrative entirely. This is not your 19 year old antisocial personality that is sort of roaming through. These are like some of the most successful people in our entire country who are very thoughtfully and meticulously going in and trying to figure out where there is waste in our government. And we have a couple of clips that I just sort of stood out. And then I know there are others that we wanted to talk about, but let's start with the first clip. In clip five, you've got overstaffing. A good example of overstaffing would be the IRS has got 1400 people who are dedicated to provisioning laptops and cell phones. So if you join the irs, you get a laptop and a cell phone, you're provisioned. So if each of those IRS officers or employees provisioned, two employees per day. You could provision the entire IRS in a little more than a month. So 12 times a year, why would.

[Josh Holmes]

You have 1400 people whose only job it is to give out a laptop and a phone?

[Michael Duncan]

Right. The whole IRS could be handled once a month. Think about that. Think about that.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's just wild. And this. And I know we're gonna go through a couple of other clips, but what struck me most about that interview and the context that you laid out ahead of time, where the Democrats painted this picture of people who were 19 and didn't know what they were doing. And then you see the reality. These are captains of industry, very smart people who are offering common sense reactions to what anybody would offer if they were aware of how bad this government is.

[Michael Duncan]

And not political ideologues. These are people that I'm not even sure you could characterize as Republican.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah, not at all. And what this moment reminded me of was how the left treated JD Vance at the very beginning of his announcement as vp. They said he is weird and he did unspeakable things to a couch and then all of a sudd.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

He is toe to toe with their national standard bearer and just annihilates the guy. And people are like, wait a minute, he's actually incredibly intelligent and he's exactly what top of this country.

[John Ashbrook]

Because they have completely lost touch with the American people. Their only method for convincing people is come up with some kind of made up lie about an individual to smear.

[Michael Duncan]

Them and then try to brand it.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, Blast that out there again and again and again and again and again. The way that you saw, like all those Senate Democrats released the same message talking to the camera, 20 of them at the same time. They put it online at the same time. Because in their minds, it's just like come up with the smear and hammer and hammer and hammer and hammer. You saw they've done it to Supreme Court nominees on their side. You see that they do it to J.D. vance. They did it to all the Doge people. This is their playbook.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. But we kind of did it to ourselves, though, a little bit too. Like, if I had a criticism of the Trump administration and Doge, it's that they should have been leading with this. Like they should have did more public media right out the gate to define the terms of the debate. In the beginning, it was a lot of stuff in USAID and all of that. I'm glad that they're cutting. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But then our opponents got to control the Entire narrative. And it was like, oh, well, these are 19 year old coders and big balls and all they could, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

They couldn't defend trans studies in Tanzania, so they had to attack the process by which I found it. Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is why I think, like, given everything we know now and watching that Bret Baer interview, you should have led with these guys.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. You know what I mean, I didn't know they existed to the extent that, I mean, I knew some of them, but this is just like a tour de force. If you haven't seen it on Fox, it's kind of on their website. And go to the Special Report tab and you'll find the full interview. Watch the full interview. It will change everything in how you view all of this. But what he was talking about was 1400 people that are employed at the IRS to give out. They're literally their only job is to hand over a laptop and a phone. And they could repopulate the entirety of the workforce twice a year, every day. You know what I mean? Like, every day. If he's got. You could repopulate the entire workforce. I mean, at no point does that make any sense. But if you understand that there is absolutely zero responsibility and accountability within an administration, you could understand where they're looking around. They're like, I don't know, we hired a bunch of new people. We can even laptop guy. And then every, like other month they're like, oh, let's find another laptop guy.

[Josh Holmes]

New laptop guy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, let's find another. And what these guys did, I thought was sort of dispassionately explain how all of a sudden a job offer goes out there and these people, like, you know, they see a job offer for the United States government and doing some IT stuff, they take it and they get the job. It's like, really their fault. The fact that the job was open in the first place is entirely the fault of an administration that has absolutely no concern about taxpayer dollars whatsoever. And they see that like that. That's just a very easy piece to understand. Let's get to a second clip, which I find even more fascinating. Clip 6 Care and Medicaid NIH, what are you finding?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, well, I'd say there's a couple things we're really committed to in our work at hhs. Number one, making sure we continue to have the best biomedical research in the world. And number two, making sure, which President Trump has said over and over again.

[Michael Duncan]

That we 100% protect Medicare and Medicaid. But there's a lot of opportunity so.

[John Ashbrook]

If I take NIH as an example today, if you're NIH researcher and you get a $100 grant at your university today, you get to spend 60 of that and your university spends 40 of that. The policy that we're proposing to make is that you get to spend 85 of that and your university spends 15. So that's more money going directly to the scientists who are discovering new cures.

[Michael Duncan]

Did you hear that?

[John Ashbrook]

That is such an insane statistic.

[Michael Duncan]

Did you hear that? So what we've read and what we have been told is that they're there cutting NIH budgets.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. We're going to have another pandemic because of Doge and Elon Musk that they.

[Michael Duncan]

Straight face you that there is no research that's going to be done into disease, the next pandemic, preventable health outcomes because they're cutting all this. What these guys are saying is, what we found out is that universities are taking a massive cut. The universities, by the way, that are raising your kids tuitions.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. That have billion dollar endowments.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And surviving exclusively on their nonprofit status to go rule over Palestinian protesters that are shutting your school down. Like they're taking the, the lion's share of the cut on that. And the researchers in of themselves that they applied and are doing the research are not getting the money.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, you hear all these statistics over how the cost of college has exploded, exploded over the past 10 years. How the cost has doubled, tuition fees has doubled and then the number of administrators at universities has exploded at the exact same rate. They have all these employees who are just administrators of. Administrators of bureaucrat, of bureaucrat. These people are taking a 40% rip off of that cancer research money.

[Josh Holmes]

This is immoral. It's immoral.

[Comfortably Smug]

That's the way you guys are looking at it. But I'm telling you, we will have another pandemic if every provost doesn't get a raise this year. It will happen.

[John Ashbrook]

No, but for real, that's eye opening.

[Michael Duncan]

It's the way that they view it and that they never disclose any of this. And by the way, it sort of all hooks into the other part of their constituency where they tried to make all college student loans the property of American taxpayers to make everybody go. But they still weren't changing the tuition.

[Comfortably Smug]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

It's all back to that same constituency, the people that run these colleges and universities. Can you imagine with a straight face having to defend the fact that you're taking a 40, 45% rip on every disease research.

[John Ashbrook]

Honestly, there should be congressional Hearings on this.

[Michael Duncan]

Like, how could you ever defend that.

[John Ashbrook]

They have billion dollar endowments. Drag these clowns in front of Congress and make them say, like Holmes just said, drag them and make them say, yeah, we deserve a 40%.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is the real reason why the left.

[John Ashbrook]

This is, this is it.

[Josh Holmes]

Tesla and Doge. It's not because, you know, they're trying to make government more efficient. It's that they're exposing the racket.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it.

[Josh Holmes]

That there is institutional rot in all these left wing NGOs and nonprofits who do studies where like the Biden administration can appropriate billions, tens of billions of dollars to build out electric charging stations and they build eight. Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

Which happened.

[Josh Holmes]

Or like, or like California passes high speed rail 15 years ago and it's still not even done.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. How $2 billion goes to an organization set up by Stacey Abrams five weeks before with $100 in the bank and no technical expertise in the grant that they're supposed to be administering.

[Josh Holmes]

And the reason why I think it's really important is there's a lot of discourse right now about this like, abundance thing that Ezra Klein's out there selling. He wrote a book and he did Gavin Newsom's podcast and he went on Pod Save America talking about how, you know, as liberals, we have to acknowledge that we've been really bad at implementing all these policy is like, you dumb shit, they fail on purpose. And they fail on purpose because 99% of the people in the Democratic Party wanted to fail. It's a trough for them to suck taxpayer money and put it in their wallet. They don't actually care about improving the lives of anyone. There are like seriously like 10 earnest liberals, think tanks putting out white papers, being like, we could change the world if we really try hard. And it's like their whole rest of their party is like, gimme, gimme, gimme. Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And Bernie ain't one of them folks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

The funny thing, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

And like, that's what Dosh is so good at doing, is just like investigating the institutional rot of the left.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And like, if you can take a step back, it's not just about government. I mean, we spent an awful lot of time on this program talking about institutional capture and what they've done throughout the country, particularly in the late 20 teens in, through the George Floyd post Covid era into the Biden administration of you have higher education, you've got entertainment, you've got corporate America for a large portion of that, and you've got the government and all of these things sort of all working together in what seems like a bonkers, leftward ideological pursuit that is totally divorced from the experience the American people have on a day to day basis. And you ask yourself, why? Well, it turns out they're all in on it. Yep, they're all in on it. And the federal government for the United States of America is big enough, prosperous enough to have this bleed over where you wonder how higher education ends up entirely institutionally captured by the left. Well, a huge part of their bottom line is from the left. They cut the checks. Somebody made the deal that 45% of the NIH research was fine. To just have as a slush fund sloshing around doesn't need to go to students or the researchers.

[Josh Holmes]

Fucking mafia doesn't charge a rip that high.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, they just, we'd be embarrassed. They'd be embarrassed.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that's the thing is this is, this is so eye opening because for so long, it's like the American people have had this abstract idea of like, why are things getting worse? Why is it when you hear all these statistics like, America spends more on healthcare than any other country and ends up with the worst outcomes in the western world. Why is it America spends more on education than any country and ends up with the worst outcomes in the western world? Why is it in every single instance we spend more than anyone and we end up getting the least? And this is what Doge has uncovered. The reason is all of it's been a ripoff. All of it's been a ripoff. And the left, their surge in power over these past 20 years is because you've been paying for it. Dear listener, your tax money that's getting ripped out of your pockets in two weeks has been paying for all these clowns.

[Comfortably Smug]

And I don't think we have the clip, but it extends to Social Security. There was a guy in that panel who talked about how Social Security money is going over to illegals. We talked about this before the show. Smug.

[John Ashbrook]

It's insanity. So. And Elon explained this as well at the rally he held in Wisconsin for Supreme Court. Everyone in Wisconsin vote on, yeah, we're.

[Michael Duncan]

Gonna get there for sure.

[John Ashbrook]

They have discovered multiple instances of payments being sent to illegal aliens through Social Security. So when you were being told that there's not gonna be Social Security for you when you reach retirement age, but it's there today for illegal immigrants who are being paid. And Elon is describing that their settings in the Social Security database was max give them max benefits, max payments, max everything. It's like this previous administration was doing everything they can to encourage people to illegally enter this country. They're just bribing what they were hoping for another generation of voters to just have permanent control over this country.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's at the expense of regular people who rely on this stuff. They're hoping Social Security will be there for them. They're hoping Social Security disability insurance is there if they actually need it. But the left is milking it dry. So it touches absolutely everything in government. And I mean, it also explains everything.

[Michael Duncan]

There is to know about the left. Yeah, like, that's the problem. The reason that you've got this full information flow through lefty chambers that are brainwashing these poor people that are out committing acts of violence is because they don't want you to know any of this stuff. They want you to think that Elon is a Nazi and that he's gonna take away your Social Security and all of that. Because they don't have a good answer for what it is that Elon's found. And what he's found is that the people who are claiming to protect your Social Security and protect your way of life and ensure that you have cures, diseases and all that are doing the exact opposite.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, the media would have you believe that those people are burning Teslas cause they're worried that there's gonna be an Ebola outbreak in Africa because of Elon Musk. Right. And we're here to tell you that's not true.

[Michael Duncan]

No, it's quite the opposite. I mean, if the resources that we dedicated to these problems were used for it, we'd be in a hell a lot better spot. But it also extends to their whole ideological point of view on elections and everything else. Well, you might wonder why it is that Democrats are so hard pressed to get power and keep power and all. Like you get Kamala Harris out, who's just an absolute fucking numbskull, who says her first line of a debate is like, I'm a champion of small businesses. Like, there's no. She's a lot of things. That is the furthest. Furthest thing from anything that she's ever. She's never run a business. She's never even been.

[Josh Holmes]

It'd be like me starting every debate saying, I am a NBA champion point guard.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, no, it's not funnier than that. I mean, it really is true. But you might ask yourself why, like, why would you be that disingenuous about your point of view? And the reason is because they don't want you to know, like they don't want you to know. And it's taken me a while to get to this spot, but I feel like we're now in a place where everything that Doge is uncovering is unmasking. The Democrats are less of a political movement. It's less of an ideological difference on how to solve the same problems we all agree are problems as it is institutional capture, power amassing and then central control over the way they think you ought to live your life.

[Josh Holmes]

And it can all be based on a lie. I did a thread over the weekend on X about this. But like Al Gore can say there'll never be snow again on Mount Kilimanjaro and create the entire green cottage industry out of thin air. And then it just exists and sucks out billions of dollars from our economy and from our government over the next 20 years. Like think about that. Think about what that power is that you can just lie and then people get paid billions of dollars on your lie.

[John Ashbrook]

The plastic straws going in the turtle nose. Yes, right. That was also a lie. Turns out that was a kids school project. Yes, that was done incorrectly. But Dems were like, listen well, based on opportunity for emotional. If it was because they love weaponizing people's sympathy against them, they want to use your emotions to make you do what they want. That was all a lie.

[Comfortably Smug]

But if it wasn't for Al Gore saying the earth has a fever, if it wasn't for the plastic straws and the turtle noses, then Stacey Abrams would have never received $2 billion to her small NGO, which Kamala probably thinks is a small business, to somehow change out stoves.

[Josh Holmes]

Small business.

[John Ashbrook]

And I saw another statistic that was put out this past weekend that America had the fewest 90 degrees plus days last year than the 1920s since the 1920s. So all these lies that become widely accepted, that the left has pushed only for one purpose. It's a money making operation. Yes, that's all. It's like Holmes says, they actually believe in nothing. These people are nihilists who just want money.

[Michael Duncan]

They just want power money.

[John Ashbrook]

They got lots of it, so they snatch it from there.

[Michael Duncan]

That is the core of the ideological left today. And so at the end of this story, you look at what's happening to Teslas, you look at what's happening to Tesla dealerships and all of that. Just remember all of this is a considered like an effort on behalf of the left to try to convince these people, some of which have real mental health problems, evidently.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean that's their favorite that's their foot soldiers.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. To go do violence in the name of employing 1400 people to hand out laptops at the IRS or Trans Studies in Tanzania, or the fact that university provosts can keep 40% of NIH money instead of it going for cancer research as it was intended by Congress. Like, by the way, constitutional crisis. Yeah. You think that, like, we had such a problem with, oh, this was good. Congressionally appropriated money. How many members of Congress do you think knew they were getting a 40% rip from a pro vote?

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, in my entire life, I've been told that the Republican Party cares about cutting, you know, the waste out of government, and Doge is actually doing it. Like, for the first time in my life, I really feel like this is a priority for a Republican administration. And they're doing it. They're doing it out in public, and that's the important thing. Yes. It's like, we've worked a long time in this business, and you know how slow DC operates when you actually have to go before Congress and be like, well, we have this blue ribbon Commission, and these are our recommendations. And, like, now you can turn that into law. And that's a difficult thing to get done. So the most important thing, I think, is winning the argument first with the American people.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And that's what that Brett Baer interview did, and that's why it's so important.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Well, and we're giving you a little something to work on your neighbors for, because my sense is an awful lot of you have heard from either colleagues that you work with or folks that your kids go to school with or whatever. Some bonkers stuff. Yeah, bonkers stuff. I want to know for our question of the day, what is the most bonkers take on Elon and Doge that you have heard to date in your own communities?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Give us what you've got on that front. Throw in some stuff that you know you can. You can.

[John Ashbrook]

And what's the most shocking thing that Doge has even found? I want to know that. What do people think is the most surprising? Because for me, finding out that universities are taking 40% of the money. I had no clue.

[Michael Duncan]

No. Yeah. I mean, I had no clue, and I didn't know a lot of that stuff that came out on Thursday. It was like a real. Very rarely do you watch news and you're like, holy smokes, it changed my world. Yeah. I mean, that one did something else. Hats off to Brett Baer. And the entire crew had special report for airing that thing, because that was a Heck of an interview. Okay. Last Thursday, we did a very in depth overview of everything about Signal Gate. And I think, by the way, we've been proven entirely right about. I mean, the fact that literally zero people are still talking about it. I think we were right about it. Our big question was, is Signal Gate a real story? Because it dominated every newscast on the front page of every newspaper for all five days last week. Is it a real story? Is this D.C. palace intrigue of people just talking to each other about it? Your takes, fantastic. Remember, get a like and subscribe in order to get your takes on here, we read every single one of them. And to do that, we always start with a voice. Okay.

[Comfortably Smug]

First one comes from Catherine DeMille. And Catherine writes, if President Trump was a normal politician, he would have fired or at least disciplined either NSA or SecDef or both. But our president is way smarter than that. He treated it with all the sincerity it deserves.

[John Ashbrook]

I like that. I like that a lot.

[Michael Duncan]

Well done.

[Comfortably Smug]

Well written, Catherine.

[Michael Duncan]

Recall a successful mission, punishing people for a successful mission because the mainstream media doesn't see it that way.

[John Ashbrook]

That's it right there.

[Michael Duncan]

Not great management.

[Josh Holmes]

So we talked about this at drinks last week, and I. What I said then was like, another superpower Donald Trump has is he makes everyone so crazy that when he just says a normal thing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, he gets to be the most normal person in the room.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. They're all insane.

[Josh Holmes]

He's like, yeah, that was a problem. We'll fix it. We'll move on.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's like, they're like, what are you, full seizures?

[John Ashbrook]

Like, don't you understand?

[Michael Duncan]

We're going crazy, like, epileptic episodes all over the Roosevelt Room. And he's like, you guys okay? Everybody okay?

[Josh Holmes]

Seems like we goofed a little. We'll fix it.

[Michael Duncan]

We'll fix it. All right. Comment 2 Dunks or uncs?

[Josh Holmes]

This is from Martini Man. Martini man writes, this is obviously a government media complex. Ginned up, quote, scandal to harm the administration, as evidenced by the Washington or the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post piling on with their likely fictional, unnamed sources. No one cares that they use Signal for a real time chat about the bombing of the Houthis. We care about terrorists being decimated so shipping can return to normal. That was the real story.

[Michael Duncan]

Yep, yep. That's exactly our take. Great, great comment there. All right, Smuggles, what do we got for the third?

[John Ashbrook]

This one comes from the Homestead Journey and they write the dog segment on last episode was far more newsworthy than the Signal nonsense. I'm so disappointed that MSNBC didn't run a hot take about White House correspondent John Ashbrook giggling like a schoolgirl at Smoke's lack of care and concern for Fighter. Hashtag shame.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude, I love this. I love this comment because I think this is the first time I've seen, like, a blowback from the audience about a segment bleed into the next week's.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah, no, it's still dull. They don't care for it. They don't care. Well, it may. Some love it.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I mean, I would say the vast majority have loved it if, for those of you. It was two episodes ago.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Where there was a take about a woman taking care of her dog in the restroom because they wouldn't allow her on a.

[Josh Holmes]

Taking care of.

[John Ashbrook]

That's one way to put it.

[Josh Holmes]

That's a way to describe it.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, I'm the bad guy. I'm the bad guy. Smug.

[Josh Holmes]

You sound like Ralph Northam describing an abortion.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Did you catch that?

[Michael Duncan]

Smug.

[John Ashbrook]

The dog's gonna be taken to the restroom. It'll have some care.

[Josh Holmes]

A decision will be made.

[John Ashbrook]

A decision will be made.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, you laid out the conservative case for murdering a dog in a restroom. He did just leave it at that.

[Josh Holmes]

He did. It was wild.

[Michael Duncan]

People got people. They love it. They love it. All right, we're giving you election Update. So today, this very day, if you live in the great state of Florida or in Wisconsin, you got important stuff to do. There are two congressional races to fill two vacancies in Florida, both of which have gotten the attention, obviously, because we're dealing with a one or two seat majority in the House of Representatives. Taxes border. Everything to do with the Trump administration's agenda is entirely on the ballot for you today. And the first one, look, we're talking about the Supreme Court race, which we did a number and we had some folks in to talk about it. Really, really important stuff. I think, like, Elon's been involved. You've seen Don Jr involved. Typically, a Supreme Court race in a state doesn't get this kind of attention. This one is. What do you fellas think about it?

[Comfortably Smug]

Well, I think it's tied as a tick, and I think that if you don't get out and if you're in Wisconsin, you do not get out and vote today. You need to just check yourself tomorrow. Because if we lose, the left will continue to control the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. And what the left has in mind for your state and what they have in mind for the congressional districts that they will draw in that state is the absolute worst of the worst. You heard every reason of what the left is doing against our country right now. They're going to continue to do it in much, much worse fashion if they can hang on to that majority.

[Josh Holmes]

Wisconsin, especially, at a time in which President Trump is facing so much opposition in the judiciary on the federal level. Yeah, it's like Republicans. You got to pay attention to these local races, the Supreme Court fights and, you know, things like that, because it matters a ton. I mean, there's going to be a lot of stuff in voter id, not just drawing of the lines in, in, in Wisconsin. That's going to be very important for future elections. It's important that Republicans show up. The other thing I would say is, you know, we had this, this happened in the first Trump administration as well. It's like Donald Trump's coalition is its own thing. Yeah, right. It's a, it's a unique coalition of voters, a lot of them low propensity presidential election year only voters. And if you believe in the Trump administration and Donald Trump's vision for this country, you got to show up in the other elections.

[Michael Duncan]

You have to.

[Josh Holmes]

It's, it's not his vision of what he wants to accomplish will not be made real unless you show up when it's less convenient. Well, it's not the presidential election.

[Michael Duncan]

It rattles the nerves of all of the people whose vote that agenda depends upon.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

When you start losing elections in a significant way, knowing you're on the same home team. Right. If you expect somebody to take a tough vote in June, July or August on whether it's taxes or whether it's border or whatever, whatever, it is pretty important that they have confidence in the coalition going forward. So these are the kind of things that make a big difference. The final thing I'll say is we just talked about power. Like the woman, the person who's running, Susan Crawford, the Democrat here, she basically, like, worked to try to get rid of voter ID in Wisconsin and now they're pretending like, oh, no, we're all on the same page on that. But they're going to go get rid of voter id. Like, what they want to do is dismantle any sort of electoral protections in safety in elections. They want to redraw districts to add two more Democrats in Wisconsin, thereby nullifying a Republican majority. They're not hiding this. Like, this is, this is what they intend to do.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, that's very critical, folks, because right now we know how razor thin the House majority is. We Know what a big deal it was that Trump won Wisconsin. This is their effort, the lefts right now to make sure none of that happens again. They want total control.

[Michael Duncan]

The other two big ones in Florida that we mentioned, the race to replace Matt Gaetz, he was the first District of Florida feels pretty good. Jimmy Petronas, Florida's chief financial officer, endorsed by Trump, faces Gay Valemont. There's a name for you. Gun violence prevention activist who ran for the seat in 2024. One of those like, sort of perennial candidates. That one feels pretty good. It's in the panhandle. Remember, we've got a nice little partisan index, but stranger things have happened. You got to go totally.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing.

[Michael Duncan]

You got to go out and vote and make sure that that one gets over the finish line. Because again, without the vote, we don't get the Trump agenda. The second one, which has been under huge scrutiny, is the race to replace Mike Waltz. Remember, he left to be the national security guy in the White House. And this race is more. I mean, look, there's a partisan advantage on the Republican side. No question about it. We should win the race. But when you have people firebombing Teslas, you know what the left is willing to do to try to disrupt the rest of the Trump agenda. And they're doing it here.

[John Ashbrook]

And I'd heard that the Democrat has raised $9 million.

[Michael Duncan]

Huge spending advantage.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. If you live in Orlando, you've seen those ads on TV every single day. And so if you're a Republican living in the Orlando area, you have to get out and vote.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. The district spans from St. Augustine down to Daytona Beach, Marion, St. John's Volusia counties. If you're in anywhere you got, you have to go vote. This one is a very, very big one.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. Honestly, if you know any friends or family that live in Florida, give them a call today. Ask them if they voted, and if they have not, tell them to go vote. If they say they don't live in that district, then that's one thing. But just cover your base. Make sure if they're in Florida, there's two House races there. Make sure that they vote.

[Michael Duncan]

Incredibly important stuff. So I'm glad we cover that. We'll on Thursday do a recap of where we landed on all those things. God willing, we end up on the right side. But I know all of you will do everything in your power to make sure if you live in those districts, to get things done. Hack madness.

[John Ashbrook]

There it is.

[Josh Holmes]

There's the music.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it's the greatest show on earth. And Hack madness is a race, as you request, call an online race to determine who's the biggest journalist hack in all of politics. It's a 676 person field, but there are 64 different games in this bracket to determine who's the biggest one. And we have whittled down to an Elite eight.

[John Ashbrook]

Smug, I like to call it the Elitist eight. You've got the worst of the worst hacks. And thank you, all of you who have been voting. I mean, it's been incredible, Incredible seeing the votes being cast, the debates being had, the results of these matches have been incredible. There's only eight left, so it's coming down to it.

[Michael Duncan]

Remember folks, some upsets.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, there's been upsets. But if you want to vote, you visit my profile at Comfortably Smug on X. I have it pinned right at the top to vote. And I mean, we're going to talk about this bracket because it's been, it's been mind blowing.

[Michael Duncan]

It's incredible. The powerhouses, a number of them that we've discussed, still very much alive here and a lot of interesting stories along the way. Michael, I know you have some statistics on what we've been doing here.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, what's interesting, I think here in the bracket, number one is Mika Brzezinski going on a tear.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Through Jonathan Capehart and then Phil Bump. She was a seven seed, as you'll recall.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah. Working her way. She's the lowest seed that's in the Elite eight.

[Comfortably Smug]

Look, man, she's tough, but she has run into a wall here in the elite estate because Margaret Brennan has been on a heater. She is headed for the championship and she will defeat Mika Brzezinski.

[Michael Duncan]

What's the, what's the March Madness thing? The, the metric, the guy.

[Josh Holmes]

Ken Palm.

[Michael Duncan]

The Ken Palm, yeah. I feel like if there was a Ken Palm evaluation of the hottest teams in this tournament, Margaret Brennan would be.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, number one overall seed.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, not only that, but she's been destroying the competition. She went through David Klepper, David French, Caitlin Collins, all like they were just standing still.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I think the, the closest she's come is like 80%. Like it's just been just total domination. On the other hand, what caught me off guard is her CBS coworker and debate partner for that J.D. vance debate. Nora O'Donnell's been taken out, folks.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it went down to Tapper.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, a number one seed. She was a number one seed. Went down to number five, Jake Tapper, who Also steamrolled number four, John Harwood. Like that one was Tapper. Tapper is on a tear.

[Michael Duncan]

That one was a surprise to me. I thought Harwood would skate to the finals. But he, you know, he. Listen, Jake got hot at the right time. Some residual anger, I think, over the election.

[Comfortably Smug]

Yeah. And he's facing Brian Stelter in this elite estate competition.

[Michael Duncan]

I think the best story of the tournament.

[Josh Holmes]

That's pretty great.

[Michael Duncan]

The potato, as you recall, wasn't a part of last year's field.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, he had to take a year off when CNN fired him, but he, he was way back.

[Michael Duncan]

Former champion.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, former champion. I mean, the potato was a dominant force in this game for years. For years. It was almost always a question of is it going to be the potato Stelter, or is it going to be Jen Rubin? Perennial champs battling it out. Stelter came in as the number three seed. He's been doing well. He beat Anderson Cooper facing Jake Tapper. I mean, the way that Jake Tapper's been just on a surge and all.

[Michael Duncan]

CNN lower bracket.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

The other matchup I'm really watching closely is this way too, online with Anna Navarro against Joy Reid.

[Michael Duncan]

Interesting, interesting. Anna Navarro, somebody who doesn't get kind of FaceTime that they have in previous years, was a relatively modest five seed. She's been much higher in previous years. Came in, but has been steamrolling. I mean, took care of Don Lemon.

[John Ashbrook]

That's to me, a surprise.

[Josh Holmes]

She beat Chris Hayes and Don Lemon back to back. And that's after Don Lemon knocked off the number one seed, Eugene Daniels in that part of the bracket.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I mean, big stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Big stuff.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Comfortably Smug]

But you can't take anything away from Joy Reid, who beat Joe Scarborough to.

[John Ashbrook]

Get to this round and beat sunny host Sonny Hostin.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty incredible.

[John Ashbrook]

It could be just like Joy Reid's last ride, you know?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

She lost her job.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. We got, listen, we gotta, we gotta. We got a top seed matchup just to round out the bracket. Nicole Wallace. I had her in the finals. She's been putting up numbies all the way through. She's taking on a very difficult co host at MSNBC and Rachel Maddow. That's going to be a barn burner.

[Comfortably Smug]

It is. But I like your prediction on Wallace to the finals. I've got a Wallace Brennan matchup for the championship, and I just think those two have really been standout players.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, Ashbrook getting to the prediction rankings as they are currently overall of all of the over 1100 brackets that were submitted. Our current leader is Farbo with 160 points.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a big number.

[Josh Holmes]

Coming in close second here. Rich Carter and 158 points. That's the overall bracket. Our internal numbers are closer here. And number one is yours truly.

[Michael Duncan]

Is that right?

[Comfortably Smug]

Surprise, surprise.

[Josh Holmes]

133. John Ashbrook is second at 123 points. Josh Holmes at 101 point.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, I've moved up to three.

[Josh Holmes]

Smug is in the basement at 97 points.

[Michael Duncan]

Wow, that is surprising. I feel maybe you went with your heart on a couple of those third rounders.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, I mean, I wish I would have focused more on this bracket than the March madness one that I'm, you know, at the top.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Dominating.

[Josh Holmes]

You focus too much on the bracket. That doesn't matter. Exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

This is the one that matters.

[Michael Duncan]

So are we putting out the next round today?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, the voting. As you watch this show, listeners and viewers on YouTube voting should be live. When you're seeing this, eight goes to four. And then we're gonna have a final four, folks.

[Michael Duncan]

And there's been hundreds of thousands of people who voted.

[John Ashbrook]

Hundreds of thousands of votes. It's been huge. Remember, go to my profile on X comfortablysmug vote. It's happening now.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just the funniest thing.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the best.

[Michael Duncan]

Absolutely. Love it. Thank you for your participation. You guys ready for a little variety?

[John Ashbrook]

Always.

[Michael Duncan]

This one's gonna. Yeah, we should probably preemptively apologize to Karen Duncan.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

Your mom.

[Josh Holmes]

Sorry, Mom.

[Michael Duncan]

If you want to turn down the volume or if you've got children in the car, maybe this is a good time to hit pause. Hit pause and come back to you. You're not gonna wanna miss it, but you probably wanna watch Mixed company. There's a story in the New York Post which I think accurately covers many of these airline problems that we've been having. This headline, perv passenger next to female CEO masturbated for hour on first class flight.

[Josh Holmes]

An hour.

[Michael Duncan]

An attendant did nothing. Suit alleges. There's so much to get to. Let me read a little bit then we. I want some commentary on it. There was a snake on the plane.

[Josh Holmes]

Only the New York Post. Only the New York Post.

[Michael Duncan]

A first class perv on American airline plane masturbated for an hour next to a stunned fashion entrepreneur on a flight from New York City to Milan. But a flight attendant dismissed his result revolting behavior, saying, quote, men just do stuff like that. Oh, my goodness. Neil Elshriff, the CEO of three different companies, including a Luxury vegan leather brand. Mila said she was terrified to go to sleep during the May 27 trip out of JFK Airport, fearing her seatmate would assault her. The man, identified in court papers only as John Doe, chug multiple glasses of. Of champagne before she noticed him grabbing his groin and rubbing his genitals over his pants. She said in a legal filing. She froze in her seat and began to panic. She felt extremely uncomfortable and helpless. The court docs read John Doe continued to masturbate for approximately 60 minutes and during that time, neither flight attendant nor the American Airlines crew member walked through the preview of economy cabin. So she was left to fend for herself. When he finally stopped, she left her seat and found a flight attendant but got no help. She continued, this is all according to her lawsuit. Flight attendant told her there was nothing really that she could do about it other than move the businesswoman to coach, which is frankly on one of those airline. If you're going overseas to Milan, I'll take the master bag.

[Comfortably Smug]

But here's the thing.

[Josh Holmes]

For the free champagne, I'll take the.

[Comfortably Smug]

Can't the stewardess just say, hey, buddy, can you stop? Like, what's the. I can't do anything about it. That makes no sense. Why. Why can't they just. And if. If it's a stewardess and she doesn't feel comfortable approaching the guy, find the guy who's with maybe the co pilot come back and say, hey, fella, not here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not.

[Comfortably Smug]

Maybe not. Sitting here on the plane.

[Michael Duncan]

Maybe not.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, the stewardess is acting like it's a Chihuahua humping your leg. It's like, oh, just let him, you know, let him go.

[Michael Duncan]

Let him do it. Men just do stuff like that. Come on, lady, I don't know about you, but men just do stuff like that.

[Comfortably Smug]

It's not exactly a boys will be boys situation. You know what I mean? It's a public airline, for crying out loud.

[John Ashbrook]

So I have a lot of thoughts about this. Oh, boy.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

I think I kind of understand why a lot of this is happening. First off, first clue here, it's a flight from New York City to Milan. So extremely high likelihood this is an Italian guy. Okay. That's. If you start there, you start putting the pieces together.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, hot blooded.

[John Ashbrook]

There you go.

[Josh Holmes]

Finally, the soundboard.

[John Ashbrook]

Now, I think there's also some important things to clarify. So the New York Post in this like, headline says, this happened in first class.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Then you read a little bit and it says premium economy.

[Josh Holmes]

I noticed that too.

[John Ashbrook]

And then it Says this guy was slamming down some champagne. So you've got, folks, premium economy is economy. It's just.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just.

[John Ashbrook]

It's just coach, where you're delusional. Delusional coach.

[Michael Duncan]

It's coach with an embroidered headrest.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, that's the difference between premium economy and economy.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the same, folks. You've got Italian in economy. Well, I was wondering who's slamming down champagne, But I was wondering about that.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, that's a good heads up because you should have on a seat mate here. And typically a first class international flight.

[John Ashbrook]

You get those pods and I just. All the pieces are there, folks. It's an Italian guy in economy slamming down champagnes as maybe Italians attendants who are like, oh, you know, that's just what guys do in Italy. Maybe in Italy. Maybe that flies in Italy. You know, bunga bunga parties or whatever they do. We all heard about these Italian things.

[Josh Holmes]

What is.

[John Ashbrook]

It's all well known. It's very documented.

[Josh Holmes]

You're right.

[John Ashbrook]

You know, it's a very well known thing. And last. Oh, my God, it's American Airlines. Folks, I could probably. American Airlines. You know, this is. This is what you get.

[Michael Duncan]

Wait, this is. You're now on American. I thought we were in Southwest and all that.

[John Ashbrook]

No, no, no, no.

[Michael Duncan]

You're looping in Americans.

[John Ashbrook]

There's essentially no difference anymore. They're all low cost.

[Michael Duncan]

I like my people in America.

[John Ashbrook]

No, American is trash. Horrible people. They treat you very badly. They don't care about their passengers anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

That's outrageous.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the truth. It's the truth and I'm not afraid to tell it.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm not afraid to tell.

[John Ashbrook]

And if you're flying on.

[Michael Duncan]

I've had a luxurious experience.

[John Ashbrook]

If you're flying a US carrier internationally, you're going to be treated like you're flying domestic, which is to say terribly.

[Michael Duncan]

He said you bought your ticket, you knew the risks. I say let the plane crash.

[John Ashbrook]

The Italian man should be jailed, though. I say let the masturbator Italian jail, 100% jail him.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, he's got some legal trouble on her hand. I mean, she must have been really. If you're gonna take this kind of thing public. Yeah, yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

I hope she sues the hell out of him. He gets locked up.

[Michael Duncan]

This is. If you're gonna deboard the flight and be like, I'm taking legal action. That must have been a stressful experience. I mean, tough stuff. Tough stuff on the airline. All right, well, that's our variety for today. I'M glad you all got a chance to hear us talk about Italian airline trips. Jesus, we're going to get hate mail for that spaghetti. You all right? You going to make it through that? I feel like I could hear La Civita coming up the stairs through that. Anyway, remember our question of the day. What have you heard from your friends and neighbors about Elon or about Doge that just blows your mind now that you've gotten a handle on the truth of what it is that they're doing and what's the most shocking thing you found out that they have uncovered? Both of them contribute. You gotta like and subscribe to do it. Please do. Thanks for all of you who do. It's how everybody sees and listens to our program. Thanks for all of that. And with that, fellas, I think we did it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to the means. Remember, if you have not yet hit that subscribe and like button on YouTube, it's more fun in video and vote in hack madness, go to my profile on X Fortably smug. Make your voice heard. So until next time, minions, keep the faith. Hold line and own the lips. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Comfortably Smug]

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[Josh Holmes]

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[Comfortably Smug]

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