Why The Deep State Is Freaking Out

Summary

Ruthless Podcast Episode Summary: "Why The Deep State Is Freaking Out"

Release Date: February 25, 2025

Hosts: Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug (Cutlerleaf), Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook

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Introduction

In the milestone 500th episode of the Ruthless Podcast, hosts Josh Holmes, Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook delve into the escalating tensions between the Trump administration and the so-called "Deep State." The discussion is marked by the hosts' signature blend of conservative analysis, humor, and critical insights into current political dynamics.

The Deep State’s Ultimatum to Federal Workers

Josh Holmes opens the episode by highlighting what he perceives as the Deep State's aggressive maneuvers against the Trump administration. He states, “The deep state is coming full on at the Trump administration. At this point, they're using the media as their microphone to try to do it” (00:00).

Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook discuss the tensions within federal employment, criticizing elitism among government workers. Ashbrook mocks ABC News' portrayal of federal workers as anxious, countering, “Because every other American has to do that at their job” (00:17).

Elon Musk’s Directive to Federal Employees

The conversation shifts to Elon Musk's controversial directive requiring federal employees to report their weekly accomplishments or face termination. Holmes critiques the media's sensationalism, mentioning an ABC News segment that portrayed Musk negatively (06:45).

Cutlerleaf defends the legitimacy of Musk's approach, comparing it to standard managerial practices in the private sector. Duncan adds, “Anybody out here, out there who's working in sales does that to their boss every week as a matter of course” (08:36).

Pentagon Purges and Military Leadership Changes

John Ashbrook and Michael Duncan express outrage over President Trump’s firing of high-ranking military officials, including Air Force General Charles C. Q Brown. Ashbrook points out the unusual nature of such high-level dismissals, questioning the rationale behind “President Trump can fix it” (14:10).

Holmes criticizes the media's negative framing, stating, “What an outrage. I can't believe that this is even suggested” (14:10). The hosts discuss the potential dangers of undermining military leadership and the importance of President Trump’s authority as Commander-in-Chief.

EPA and Stacey Abrams Grant Controversy

The hosts turn their attention to the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a $2 billion grant to an organization led by Stacey Abrams. Cutlerleaf vehemently criticizes the allocation, saying, “They spent $2 billion on an organization that had been stood up three weeks before they got a grant” (20:28).

John Ashbrook labels it a "cash and carry government," emphasizing the perceived misuse of taxpayer funds to support liberal causes. The hosts draw parallels to past scandals like Solyndra, highlighting what they view as systemic issues within the current administration.

Media’s Criticism of Elon Musk and Democrat Alignment

The discussion shifts to the media's ongoing critiques of Elon Musk, whom they accuse of being unfairly targeted by Democratic outlets. Holmes remarks, “They always act like he's just off the wall” (16:22), while Ashbrook and Duncan argue that Musk’s actions are being misrepresented to fit a broader anti-Democratic narrative.

Hack Madness Tournament and Media Accountability

The hosts introduce their "Hack Madness" tournament, a playful yet pointed critique of liberal media figures. They select and evaluate journalists based on their perceived biases and factual inaccuracies, drawing attention to figures like Joy Reid.

Josh Holmes explains, “We picked 64 of the worst journalists in all of America and we set up a March Madness bracket style competition” (43:31), highlighting the show's commitment to holding media accountable through humor and competition.

The Firing of Joy Reid and MSNBC Shake-Up

A significant portion of the episode focuses on MSNBC's decision to fire Joy Reid, a prominent liberal host. The hosts dissect the implications, with Cutlerleaf mentioning Reid's controversial past statements and the network's reactive measures: “It's just proof that they have their own rules” (45:13).

John Ashbrook criticizes MSNBC's choice of successors, suggesting that new hires may inherit the same biases and issues that led to Reid's departure: “They are like not crazy enough” (54:37).

Airline Industry Chaos and Public Behavior

Transitioning to lighter topics, the hosts discuss recent disturbances in the airline industry. Josh Holmes humorously condemns Southwest Airlines' new policy against speakerphone use: “Please don't listen to a movie or a video or any kind of audio on your speakerphone on the plane” (57:19).

John Ashbrook laments the deteriorating behavior of airline passengers, attributing it to overbooking and the constraints of modern air travel: “Too many people are allowed to fly” (59:23).

Listener Engagement and Feedback

The episode concludes with hosts reading and reacting to listener comments, celebrating the show’s milestone and fostering a sense of community among their audience. Cutlerleaf shares appreciation for listeners' support, while Michael Duncan highlights the podcast’s impact on providing alternative viewpoints:

• “Congratulations on your YouTube award and the 500 episodes. ... Keep holding the line and calling out those crazy ass journos with a heart at the end.” (38:02)

Conclusion

In this episode, the Ruthless Podcast navigates through a landscape of political upheaval, media critique, and societal observations with fervor and unfiltered commentary. The hosts emphasize the ongoing struggle against what they term the Deep State, advocate for transparency and accountability in government, and criticize mainstream media narratives. Through a blend of serious discourse and humor, they engage their audience in a call to action, urging listeners to stay informed and resist perceived government overreach.

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Notable Quotes:

• Josh Holmes (00:00): “The deep state is coming full on at the Trump administration. At this point, they're using the media as their microphone to try to do it.”

• John Ashbrook (00:17): “Because every other American has to do that at their job.”

• Michael Duncan (08:36): “Anybody out here, out there who's working in sales does that to their boss every week as a matter of course.”

• John Ashbrook (14:10): “What an outrage. I can't believe that this is even suggested.”

• Cutlerleaf (20:28): “They spent $2 billion on an organization that had been stood up three weeks before they got a grant.”

• John Ashbrook (45:13): “It's just proof that they have their own rules.”

• Josh Holmes (57:19): “Please don't listen to a movie or a video or any kind of audio on your speakerphone on the plane.”

• Cutlerleaf (59:23): “Too many people are allowed to fly.”

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions and viewpoints presented in the "Why The Deep State Is Freaking Out" episode of the Ruthless Podcast, providing a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the episode.

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

The deep state is coming full on at the Trump administration. At this point. They're using the media as their microphone to try to do it.

[Michael Duck]

The Ivy League types who went into a government job who are looking down on the guy who went into sales are like, no, I went to the Ivy League. I worked for the government.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is I don't have to respond when ABC News was like, federal workers are anxious having to explain what they do around here. It's like, really? Because every other American has to do that at their job.

[Josh Holmes]

We finally beat Medicare. He's right. He did beat Medicaid. Beat it to death. Joe Biden's legacy for seniors. He raided Medicare, made premiums skyrocket, and drove up drug costs. Worse, the Biden pill penalty is already slashing the development of affordable drugs, forcing seniors to pay the price of Biden's failed policy. Biden broke Medicare, but President Trump can fix it. Call Congress and urge them to end the Biden Biden pill penalty. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Cutlerleaf]

Just a catching strays over here.

[Josh Holmes]

You're in for a hell of a show.

[John Ashbrook]

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

[Michael Duck]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, if it isn't a good Tuesday to you. I'm Josh Holmes along with Cutlerleaf, smug Michael Duck and John Ashbrook. Left to right, across your radio dial as always. Fellas, we celebrated 500 last week. Can't thank everybody enough for showing up and make it a very special occasion.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, it was a home run. It was great. Thank you, gents, for that surprise, having the YouTube button.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, you got the. Yeah, the button.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I mean, it was top to bottom, amazing show. Had a great time and hope everyone enjoyed it.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, dude kind of went after it there.

[Cutlerleaf]

I mean, whenever you get a chance to throw a party for yourself, you know it's gonna be a good time.

[Josh Holmes]

It is gonna be a good time.

[Cutlerleaf]

I was like, right in the pocket. Like you ever seen that clip from.

[Josh Holmes]

I saw some suggestions in the comments that. That maybe thought perhaps the pocket was exceeded at times.

[Cutlerleaf]

No, no. There's that line from Trailer Park Boys. Sober enough to know what I'm doing, drunk enough to really enjoy doing it. That's right where I. Right where I was.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, it was a good time.

[Cutlerleaf]

It was a great time.

[Michael Duck]

It was a great time. And it's always fun with you fellas.

[Josh Holmes]

It is.

[Michael Duck]

I tell you, everybody who watches the show, they're like, man, are these guys really friends. You know, Brian Kilmeade, always gives us a hard time. Tell me you guys aren't really friends behind the scenes.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah. He always tries to like pit us against each other.

[Josh Holmes]

He does, but that's his thing. He likes to create drama.

[Michael Duck]

The reality is, if you were sitting around a bar with us, this is exactly what you would get. And that's what we try to deliver here on the Variety program.

[Cutlerleaf]

The only time I was legitimately upset was when I was giving Ash Brooks shit for his somehow orchestrating him in a hockey jersey. Why I look like an asshole.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Cutlerleaf]

And he made it into a USA chant.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's incredible.

[John Ashbrook]

That was impressive.

[Michael Duck]

Our audience loves their country.

[John Ashbrook]

That was impressive.

[Josh Holmes]

We had. We had an impromptu game of hard pivot is what I think that was. Yeah, he automatically.

[Cutlerleaf]

It was really good. The crowd on the side like totally ignored the question and went right to a USA champ.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, thanks to Wolf and Spaghetti and then whole crew, Hollywood hen and everybody who was involved in that. It was very, very fun the first time we played that venue in three years.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So it'd been a little while.

[John Ashbrook]

Great venue too.

[Josh Holmes]

And it really is.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah, it's like our red rocks, you know? It is. Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, it's our red rocks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, it was really great. So, I mean, look, everybody tunes in here expecting us to talk about politics. And so here we are, plenty going on. We've kind of like worked through the low hanging fruit section of the program where you're talking about confirming nominees, you're talking about initial agenda, executive orders and things like that. Stuff that everybody's worked through and done a great job with. But now you get to like the second section, which is a legislative agenda. You saw the Senate passed a budget last week after a big voterama. That's a huge component. But it's kind of their backup plan plan. They're waiting for the House to perhaps this week pass a budget of their own. Although there's some holdouts there. And we can tell you what we think about all of that. We might do that maybe Thursday, because I think they've got, you know, Monday, Tuesday we may have some guests that can provide some amplification for what it is that we're talking about. But we're not there. It's not ripe yet. And then you've got all of the various cabinets, agency heads getting in and doing what they're doing. And then you got Elon and we got just like it. Just a bunch of different stuff that you've probably read a little bit about if you've heard anything about Elon through the mainstream media. Chances are you've heard, like, what it is, that unprecedented unconstitutional thing.

[John Ashbrook]

So. So I was out of town for the past weekend. Like, we did our show, I left the venue and I caught a plane like, hours later. Chad town and yeah, Chicago, surprisingly great city.

[Josh Holmes]

Why? Because it's in the Midwest.

[Michael Duck]

I mean, come on.

[John Ashbrook]

I think a lot of it is because it's in the Midwest. It's great.

[Josh Holmes]

There you go.

[John Ashbrook]

When I was like, I'm gonna check out. I'm gonna check out. So I didn't get exposed to any takes of like, as the media has become, basically everything is a constitutional crisis and we're all gonna die. It's like President Trump walked across the lawn. What does this mean for, you know, at risk youth? Like, I got to avoid the freakout. And I think this is what life is like for the majority of Americans who've completely given up on. Because we have to follow the mainstream media for what we do here.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

If you don't, we read it so.

[Josh Holmes]

You don't have to.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like life is so much better without all their insanity.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. I wish I had, like, us translating that to us where we didn't have to get like, the freebase version of what it is that the media is coming up with because it's some crazy shit. But. So over the weekend, there were two things that completely unraveled the mainstream media. The deep state and all of the things. And like, the deep state is coming full on at the Trump administration at this point. They're using the media as their microphone to try to do it. And the first thing that I thought was kind of funny, there's one that, like, we'll get into substantively, but the first thing was. Can we play clip one Please forgets.

[News Anchor]

That ultimatum from Elon Musk. It is making federal workers even more anxious and confused. Musk is taking his effort to slash the size of the federal government to a whole new level by posting that federal workers need to explain what they've accomplished in the last week or get fired. This morning, chaos and confusion across the federal government. Elon Musk now downhill to issue to federal workers. Explain what you've done or resign. Musk initially posting on X. All federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation. Those emails already going out. Sources tell ABC they ask employees to list five bullet points of what they've accomplished in the last week. The deadline to respond is tomorrow night.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, all right. So there's so much here. First of all, you gotta love the ABC vignette on this where they show him at CPAC with the chainsaw.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like he's just a maniac.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah, right.

[Josh Holmes]

They're like, look at this.

[John Ashbrook]

Things keep sounding better. Let's keep this going. Where are we going with this?

[Josh Holmes]

But what he did, I mean, look, there was a lot of controversy last week of all the various agencies that they've dropped into. And they were talking about Social Security. They were doing all this kind of stuff that like everybody was shooting at everything on the left was basically. And that was. They survived the week on that and I thought on better footing than they started it and that he was making forward progress on valid arguments on why the American people should be very interested in what they're doing. And then Saturday comes and he's like, hey, why don't you send me a five bullet plan on what it is that you did over the last week? Which, you know, I mean, for those of us who've worked in a job like that's not uncommon for a manager to ask, like, what is it that you've done this week?

[Cutlerleaf]

The indignity.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. And like, it would behoove many agencies within the United States federal government to have such a.

[Michael Duck]

No, it's exactly right. Anybody out here, out there who's working in sales does that to their boss every week as a matter of course. And. And you know, the Ivy League types who went into a government job who are looking down on the guy who went into sales are like, no, I went to the Ivy League, I worked for the government.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing is we don't have to respond when ABC News was like, federal workers are anxious having to explain what they do around here. It's like, really? Because every other American has to do that at their job.

[Josh Holmes]

And so here's the email graphic one, if you wouldn't mind spaghetti for our audio only listeners. This is just an email that was sent out government wide. And it's. Please reply to this email with approximately five bullets what you've accomplished last week to you and your manager. So it's pretty remedial stuff, but can.

[John Ashbrook]

I say one thing real quick?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

The second line of that I love in that graphic says, please do not send any classified information. You'd have like a CIA guy be like, here's the terrorist I shot in the head.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, this is the best part. Like, Elon does what he does with, you know, he's got like the Spreadsheets going, and he's running way out ahead of everything. And then at some point he's like, oh, I'm going to send this. And the lawyer's like, just make sure you say no classified information 100% because they sent it to everyone. Which is quickly what became the problem in that you had like, Tulsi Gabbard who was just confirmed at dni, Marco at State, Cash Patel at FBI, who are like, you don't want email from everybody on this stuff. Chevron's latest deep water development, Anchor, is powered by innovation. This breakthrough technology helps enable us to safely produce oil and natural gas at greater pressures, setting a new industry benchmark. Anchor is pivotal in our goal to produce 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026 in the Gulf of America, home to some of our lowest carbon intensity producing assets. That's energy in progress. Visit chevron.com anchor to learn more.

[Michael Duck]

I ran into a buddy of mine on Saturday night when this email went out and I won't say the name or the agency or anything about him, but he was like, yeah, I just got this. And he's like, actually, I already wrote up my five bullets and I was ready to send them. And then my boss was like, no, no, no, don't, don't send that yet. Don't send it. We're working through the system.

[Josh Holmes]

There's some consternation. Yeah.

[Michael Duck]

So there was some confusion in different departments because people are like, okay, of course, yeah, Trump is in charge. I got to reply to him. They're asking for this.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, and you. But you also have like, Cash, who just got confirmed to the FBI, who was very wide open about his fundamental change of the FBI. They didn't even let him, his staff in the doors last Friday.

[Michael Duck]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That might be news here on the Variety program, by the way.

[John Ashbrook]

Wow.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't know if you all know that.

[John Ashbrook]

I didn't know that.

[Josh Holmes]

No, they did not let. It may be an issue internally with PPO or whatever, but his staff, after he was confirmed on Thursday, was not allowed to go into really, the FBI on Friday. So, like, Monday was the first day of work. And. But like, if you're, if you're like in charge of this. He's in charge. He's just got, you know, confirmed by the United States Senate. The idea that somebody else is like, I'm going to demand something from your employees is like, whoa, yeah, like, slow your role, dude.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like, we wanted to get all of these nominees confirmed because we trust that the personnel we've empowered to run these agencies and departments are going to do it. I mean, like, look at what Lee Zeldin's doing at epa, for example. Right. You know what I mean? It's like part about being the boss is like finding good people, recruiting them, getting them hired, and then delegating authority to them to fulfill what you want. Right. And it's like, I mean, the thing that I don't love about the email is like the federal government is incredibly complicated. We're talking about email that went to like 2 million people.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

And it's like if you're pushing paper.

[Josh Holmes]

Somewhere in the bowels of the Department of Labor, I'd like to see five.

[Cutlerleaf]

Easy, easy, five to five points.

[Josh Holmes]

But if you're like shooting ice darts into the neck of foreign leaders.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't need to see it. Right, right.

[Cutlerleaf]

If like you're establishing a listen station for signal intelligence in the Horn of Africa, I don't want that in a fucking email.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. No, I think that's right. But they're. So anyway, it's been a little bit of a off kilter standpoint, but then like as soon as they got themselves all outraged and done all that, then immediately dropping into that was the DOD firings, where outrage ensued and. Do we have clip two, please? Baguettes. This will set the stage. Breaking news as we come on the.

[News Anchor]

Air this Friday night. A major purge at the Pentagon is underway. President Trump has just fired the highest ranking military officer in the country who still had years left on his term, along with several other top military officials. Air Force General Charles C. Q Brown, who was serving as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was just dismissed publicly at least via a social media post by Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

What an outrage. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, someone who has to accumulate all of the advice from all of the heads of the different factions of the military and provide consensus to the Department of Defense and the President, United States. Lo and behold, it's important to the Trump administration to have somebody that Trump listens to. What an outrage. I can't believe that this is even suggested. First of all, like, this is pretty commonplace. I understand that Joint Chiefs haven't been replaced like on the reg. Many of them. And I remember one back in the Bush administration that had at the end of the Bush administration resigned before the election, which is what one does when someone runs against an Iraq war, for example, as Barack Obama did, and you're going to get into a new administration, obviously you're not going to make him make that Call because they're going to go in a different direction. Well, this guy apparently had, you know, I mean, he ran against everything that the military was doing. He was like, no, I think I might job safe.

[Michael Duck]

Right, right. In the idea that the President of the United States, the Commander in chief of everything, isn't able to just make changes at the top. And then on a Friday night, CNN has the dramatic like timpani and everything. Oh, breaking news. He's changing personnel at the top of the military.

[John Ashbrook]

And they call it a purge.

[Michael Duck]

Right. And they wonder why people don't trust them for what's important.

[John Ashbrook]

And what's interesting is in that reporting, cuz I saw a little bit about this. They don't report that that man was hired in the first place by President Trump.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

In President Trump's first term.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[John Ashbrook]

So this is not some kind of like a purge and only loyalty listener.

[Michael Duck]

But CNN has this problem where they like, they reported breaking news about Scud missiles flying over Tel Aviv 20 years ago, and they're like, oh, everybody watched that. So naturally, every single news event has to be treated with the exact same.

[Josh Holmes]

They've been chasing it since 1990.

[Michael Duck]

They have. The truth is, not everything is Scud missiles over Tel Aviv.

[Josh Holmes]

This is not a big deal.

[Michael Duck]

It's not. It's just a president.

[John Ashbrook]

The folks that President Trump has been picking for over a dod amazing people. I mean, look at the images you've already seen of Pete Hexseth. He's out there training with the troops in the cold. Like, President Trump knows what he's doing. And in those photos, like, especially the like giant dude, y'all remember saw him running with like Pete Hex. That's. Folks in the military seem pretty happy about it.

[Josh Holmes]

But I mean, even. Look, even if you're skeptical about that, which I've got good friends in the conservative side who are skeptical about some of that, but even if you are, it's the President, United States. You know the title of Commander in Chief. That's what that is.

[Michael Duck]

Yep, exactly.

[Josh Holmes]

That's what that is. You know what that means is that the military is responsive to a Commander in Chief.

[Michael Duck]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

That is literally why they call him Commander in Chief.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's not just President.

[Cutlerleaf]

Shouldn't we have some new leadership, like after that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan where nobody was punished for a failure in an intelligence and implementation of like a plan? Like, I mean, who exactly is supposed to be held accountable?

[Josh Holmes]

I think this guy totally, like, you know, I mean, every Biden pardoned Mark Milley.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. And Milley was like seen as the worst of the worst in which there's a lot of evidence to suggest that he was not great, I mean, overtly political to try to blend in with a far leftist administration in terms of administration of defense policy. But like Trump hired that guy too.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, so like the idea that Trump is some existential threat to somebody like Mark Milley, that's how he got the job in the first place. I mean, you know what I mean? They always act like he's just off the wall.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah. Like he hasn't thought it through. It's like he vetted him because he previously hired him.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

But he knows what he needs to know and he knows this isn't the right fit for, for now.

[Josh Holmes]

And he didn't do the job.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

So he wants to get rid of them and he wants to get rid of these people, too. And they're talking about the head of the Navy and the Air Force. And again, when you get that job, it's at the pleasure of the president.

[Michael Duck]

Right. You were saying this earlier, Holmes, like, under what circumstances would you think that Trump is going to keep Biden's people?

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. After what you've seen over the last four years.

[Cutlerleaf]

CNN treats these positions like it's some sort of tenured professor, professor emeritus, which.

[Josh Holmes]

In and of itself is an outlet.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right, right.

[Josh Holmes]

But you're right. I mean, it's those. No, this is an untouchable class of stuff.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

And the thing I like the most about the, what Elon and Doge are doing and what Trump's doing with these, these head positions is he's, he's just rejecting the premise. Like, no, it's not some like, tenured thing. And it's not that we want to make him partisan or responsive directly, but they're going to have to do something better than what they've done. And if you can't, then we're going to find something, somebody else who can. And that's what's happening here. And the media is acting like this is just insanity, complete insanity. I mean, who knows? The one thing I want to touch on before we go to a break, you mentioned epa, Lee Zelda. There was a story that came out in the Free Beacon last week that was amongst the most wild things I've ever seen in my entire life where the epa, in a rush to try to get money out the door from the Inflation Reduction act, which was a Green New deal light, spent $2 billion on an organization that had been stood up three weeks before they got a grant. It was run by Stacey Abrams. You know, this failed, you know, three time candidate, two time candidate for a governor ran against Brian Kemp to try to administer grants that would go replace gas stoves in low income housing. Not a single one of them ever had any experience in stoves or environment.

[Cutlerleaf]

I mean like think about it with a B.

[John Ashbrook]

That scandal of like this is just straight up. They were, the Biden administration was running the US government using your tax money as just a slush fund to shovel money to friends and these left wing causes of like a group that's created two weeks before they get $2 billion. Yeah, it's Stacey Abrams. This is cash and carry government.

[Cutlerleaf]

I mean what's actually heartening about the whole thing, although it's obviously terrible and horrible, is like it's nice being right. I mean we've been telling, if you listen to this show every week for the last two years, this is what we talked about. Yeah, we talked about this vast left wing dark money ecosystem that basically props up new industries out of nowhere. Gas stoves were here to ban your gas stoves.

[Michael Duck]

Right.

[Cutlerleaf]

And the left wing media rolls their eyes and everyone says no one's coming for your gas stove. And then, oh, lo and behold, $2 billion to a fail daughter of the liberal left who puts $100 in a bank account and then suddenly the EPA puts $2 billion in an account at Citigroup that's going to be funneled to her. I mean that is an insane thing. Like, like in my wildest dreams, when we talked about it years ago, about how they orchestrate this whole system and move money around, I never thought they were that brazen. To the total of $2 billion billion.

[Michael Duck]

Though, in the whole program. It's not like it was like, hey, we're here with a bag of groceries. We know that you're having a hard time and we want to help you. No, it's like I want to get rid of your gas stove and replace it with this induction model that my friend who's building them happens to sell. Yeah, you know what I mean? It doesn't, it doesn't.

[John Ashbrook]

Actually, Jen Granholm, their energy secretary was making money off their buses that didn't work. Like this is their business model.

[Josh Holmes]

This is their business model.

[John Ashbrook]

All this like green BS that they've been trying to force on the American public. And like it's the same thing with they spend billions of dollars to build these like electric car chargers that don't exist.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right, right.

[John Ashbrook]

This is all just Handouts to their friends.

[Cutlerleaf]

The thing is, it's like the next iteration of this cash and carry government smug. And we talked about this Holmes when we were reading the story. But, like, you know, we're old enough to remember Solyndra.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

You know, huge scandal out of the Obama administration. Right. And like, Solyndra, horrible thing. And they ate shit immediately. But like, at least Solyndra was a business.

[John Ashbrook]

Like Solyndra.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like, like, at least they had a deck. Like, they had. They had something where they could be.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, we're selling stuff.

[Cutlerleaf]

We're selling stuff. We are trying to do this. And the government. Yeah. I mean, obviously, stupidly was like, yeah, no, Chinese solar panels. Yeah, we're going to put those all across the country. Whatever. Like, they don't even invent businesses anymore. They're just like, no, we're just going to literally pad the pockets of our friends.

[Josh Holmes]

That's it. Do you know what Solyndra was? A $561 million loan guarantee.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

This is 2 billion just cash in a account in Citibank. It's just sitting there to be wired to Stacey Abrams to be like, well, you can. You, you know, the low income.

[John Ashbrook]

Do you know how many Americans. Do you know how many Americans Tax money that is. That just got wired to Stacey?

[Josh Holmes]

Just a remark. $2 billion. Like, I know money gets lost, but, like, billion. This organization was stood up for three weeks. Three weeks.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's just like, you have to understand because, like, we take the long view of all of this and like, I believe in my heart that the left wants America to be worse because they need it to be worse in order for government to be the solution that can fix it. And Stacey Abrams is like the poster child of making that happen. After Governor Brian Kemp passed that, you know, reform of the election laws in, in Georgia, they moved the all star game out of Atlanta.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Because the shake of the shakedown racket.

[Cutlerleaf]

Because of the shakedown and like, like, literally sucked out millions of dollars of revenue from that city. From people that you're now going to show up at their doorstep and be like, hey, I'm going to give you a free induction stove. Sorry, you don't have a job and your housing sucks. And we took out all this tax revenue from the city because this woman who lost two elections lied to all of us. But here's an induction stove.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like, and that's the insanity, by the way.

[Josh Holmes]

I get the money, so I'm going to pick the contractors. And I can't imagine that ever come.

[Cutlerleaf]

I hope they steal that stove from you, Stacey Abrams. I hope they take it from you and they sell it off the street.

[Josh Holmes]

It is. It's just remarkable. But all of this is creating this unhinged bureaucracy that is fighting back on literally everything at this point. Trump and Doge talk, talk about they want to cut. We're going to show you the most insane reactions to all of it right after this.

[Cutlerleaf]

American investment. More jobs, higher wages. It was President Trump's promise when he championed the Tax Cuts and Jobs act and American businesses delivered investing in US Manufacturing and equipment, increasing wages for American workers and creating over half a million new jobs. That's why he's fighting to do it again for families, workers and businesses. Tell Congress to extend and strengthen President Trump's tax reform. Paid for by the Business Roundtable. Learn [e-mail] all right, so look, there's.

[Josh Holmes]

Reactions across the board, and I saw, like, you know, a New York Times profile. What's a douchebag from Connecticut?

[Michael Duck]

Chris Murphy.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Profile. It's like, oh, like, we're going to profile this very important member of the Democratic Party.

[Michael Duck]

So easy to be a Democrat.

[Josh Holmes]

And it is like, just like a very mediocre white guy. Probably the most wonder of Wonder Bread I've ever seen in my entire life. But, like, occasionally shows up and says something incendiary. So people are like, yes.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, it's like the next Adam Schiff.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Basically, is what he is. So, like, New York Times spread for sure. If you can beat that. Tina Smith, a senator from Minnesota. She just announced she wasn't running for reelection. This is one of. I'm not kidding you. It's impossible to beat Mazie Hirono. She's in a category by herself, but if you take her out of the equation, this might be the second most unimpressive member in the history of the United States Senate. She knows absolutely nothing, and she's, like, as articulate. I don't want to get into it, but she's absolutely horrible. Can't say what she. Thanks. It's like, it's awful. She tweets this. The ultimate dick boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss. He's just a dick. Oh, so this is in response to Elon. Right? And, like, this is a thing that we've seen now show up in three consecutive weeks of Democrats calling him a dick, as if that's, like, new and innovative, edgy and fun. It's like, oh, look at. I'm being cool.

[John Ashbrook]

It's like, how they tried saying that JD's weird.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what I mean? Like, they try to come up with something like, hey, that's brilliant. That's good messaging. Let's all just do this. And it's for what it does nothing. Like, I saw polling this morning that 78% of Americans support Doge. And then this is what you have to go against.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's really all they have, dude. Because they can't obviously defend all of the programs that DOGE is targeting on merit.

[Josh Holmes]

No.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right. And so he's a dick. Yeah. You just got to talk about the guy trying to do it. You got to sort of disqualify the guy who's the hero of the story and turn him into a villain.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, this is for those of us who spend a little time in government at some high levels. This. If you couldn't ever get the guy, this is what you did. You tried to focus on the guy under the guy to try to cripple and politically make a mess out of the organization and try to halt for progress.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is what they're trying to do with Elon.

[Cutlerleaf]

Well, yeah. And they've also done it trying to pit Trump and Elon against each other.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

And when they did that joint interview with Sean Hannity, it's like, come on.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

And they know the game they're trying to play. Yeah. You know, like the President knows. I mean, he's a master of the media.

[Josh Holmes]

Totally. So it gets worse. Can we put this Glasser, Susan Glasser.

[John Ashbrook]

Tweet up graphics for she's so crazy.

[Josh Holmes]

This one is unbelievable. Response to the firing from a former senior defense official. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs was fired, quote, just because he's black.

[Michael Duck]

It's insane. It's insane. There is no reason to believe what it is these people.

[John Ashbrook]

The best thing is so the community notes for that instantly goes up and says he was actually hired by President Trump.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But the Journal didn't even do 30 second Google on who this general was.

[Cutlerleaf]

Nope.

[John Ashbrook]

Before being like, ooh, let's put this take out there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, No, I know. They'll be like, oh, we're just reporting what the people are saying.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That's news.

[Cutlerleaf]

Well, it's just one of those things that's too, too good to check.

[Josh Holmes]

Just. It just happens that the narrative that I'd like to wedge into the public discourse, which is exactly what that is. Let's put. Remember this guy Vindman?

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So is it this cat or is it his brother that was Responsible for the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump. I forget which vindman it was.

[John Ashbrook]

One just got elected to the House.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And the other one brother's the one that went after President Trump.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. So recall he was the one who was the whistleblower who decided that the perfect phone call was an imperfect phone call.

[Michael Duck]

And that hard scrabble normal person.

[Josh Holmes]

It's unbelievable that we went through impeachment hearings about that whole thing. I mean you had a president United States who was actually trying to extract something for a corruption inquiry and somebody blew the whistle and next thing you know it was like a full impeachment inquiry anyway. Graphic 5 the senior military officer will purges will put our troops in danger. Trump put a part time airman in charge of the military jumping a slew of three and four star with 30 or 40 years of military experience. Our enemy couldn't be happier. Oh my God. Like, dude, let's go back and check the tape on the Joint Chiefs.

[John Ashbrook]

Like what? Like what?

[Cutlerleaf]

Like what is it you think when you type that up? Like, like, like I will defend the honor of the blob. People waited their whole careers to be promoted. They were in line, damn it. You know, it's like how had a.

[John Ashbrook]

Touchy to have to be.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like how to touch. You have to be with the results of the election of last November to like seriously get all huffy and decide you're going to tweet about the honor of the next guy in line and how long he's done the job.

[Josh Holmes]

Why I've gotten four stars on this uniform. My God.

[Michael Duck]

Then he attacks the actual guy that's currently in charge now. Yeah, you know, and he's like, oh well if you attack the previous guy, that puts troops in danger. But I'm going to attack the current guy in charge. And that doesn't do that.

[Josh Holmes]

Doesn't put it in Jane. No, no. I mean it's just so back out ass words. But it's the entire left at this point and they can't take a pitch. They swing at everything. Isn't that the most remarkable part about all of these stories is that there are some things where you're like, look, it's a 70% American issue and people are all on board for it. And then there's some things, you know, like the Elon email or whatever where you're like, like nobody's gonna really follow that. And like you could see where you could create some issues and then. But each and every one of them, they're like trying to barrel Up.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is wild.

[John Ashbrook]

That's the thing, is dams in the media. Their strategy so far has to say is everything's a crisis. They even create this constitutional crisis term. Everything's a crisis. Everything's a. You should panic when you hear this. Freak out. We've got the timpanis going on cnn. And the vast majority of Americans, when you just give them a wall of noise, they just tune out.

[Josh Holmes]

And also, just like by way of history and all of this replacing generals thing. I mean, when Obama got into office, he relieved David McKiernan as commander of the US forces in Afghanistan, the primary global conflict that we were involved in at the moment of his election. The guy you could argue, most important in terms of trying to have some continuity between administrations.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right. An active military theater.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, Gonzo. And then he replaced Stanley McChrystal, who had led special operations in Iraq and was in charge of like the whole ball of wax at that point. And he said he wanted fresh eyes on that.

[Michael Duck]

And the media is just like, oh, yeah, fresh eyes, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Everybody's like, oh, no, whatever you say.

[Michael Duck]

Obama, we'll do what you want.

[Josh Holmes]

He fired James Mattis as head of U.S. central Command.

[Michael Duck]

Another capital idea. James Mattis didn't deserve to be there anyway. Obama, what do you want? Obama, we'll do what you want.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, but like, you didn't hear about any of this stuff.

[Michael Duck]

Never.

[Josh Holmes]

It was by far more consequential of a decision than what the decision making tree would be to fire any of the people that we're talking about under Trump at this point. It's just.

[Cutlerleaf]

They're so dishonest.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just so. It's just so.

[Michael Duck]

And they wonder why nobody watches anymore. Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So anyway, I think the question that we're looking at today in terms of a question of the day on the Doge front in particular, we've seen this thing go 99% in the right direction. And then you, you'll get little, little tidbits, you know, like Elon attacking Todd Young while Donald Trump's trying to court his vote for Tulsi Gabbard. And then like 10 minutes later, he's like, yeah, I talked to him. He's all good. We're good. And then you get, you know, this email over the weekend where it's like, everybody send me your five point plan. And the Cabinet secretaries are like, no, dude, like, you gotta chill on all that stuff. And it strikes me as like it just every once in a while just gets a touch beyond the remit. Just A touch beyond the remit, As I said, 99% of it. Fantastic. Keep doing that shit. Find the Social Security pieces. Like, that's not the problem. Find all of the USIAD was such a great thing to start with.

[Michael Duck]

Totally.

[Josh Holmes]

All of those things, like, just keep on going. We gotta get into the Pentagon, by the way. I want to know, like the 17 different accounting outfits that have not figured out paying a trillion dollars for a toilet seat. Doesn't make sense. Like, I want all of that, like keep going on all that, but stay focused on that. Not so much on like the, here's a new policy that, you know, I'm going to do with a five point plan to all federal employees. So our question for you, what would you do? What would you focus on if you, if you were giving Elon, if you were his chief of staff and you were saying, what should Doge do do next? You know, what they've done up to this point and you know, all the low hanging fruit that we've talked about for a long time within inefficiencies in the federal government, what would you be your advice, where should you go?

[John Ashbrook]

Good question.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, and like, look, I think there's a lot.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And most, I would say all of these agencies, we mentioned the pushback on the employee note or whatever, but in terms of entrance into the cabinet agencies, every one of these cabinet heads are like, yeah, come on in, come on in and do your work.

[Cutlerleaf]

No, I love that like, and I love the way you sort of described it, homes, like 99% of it is pitch perfect and you should keep doing it. I would consider it like if this was a ball club. It's like be the general manager. Like look at the balance sheet.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

And figure out like how you're going to, you know, pay for the roster.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Don't tell me who's going to play first base on Monday.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right, Right. You're not going to be the manager. You're not setting the starting lineup.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Cutlerleaf]

You know.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, no, it's smart, it's smart. Anyways, that's our question. What should Doge focus on next? And when we come back, your comments. Fantastic comments. 500th episode. You guys had a lot to say. We had a lot to say. We're going to 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 this at API. Okay, once again, we had 500 on Thursday, a great party, which we all had a lot of fun with. I'm sorry to those of you who couldn't get in. We had a limited number of people who could because as we said, it was like playing our Red rocks. This is the place that we first started doing live events. And so it didn't, you know, we would love to have had 10,000 people there. And now my understanding is that the wait list was quite substantial. But for those of you who made it, thank you. And for those of you who wanted to promise we're going to get to something soon where everybody can get in, we can have a huge party, but you had some things to say. And as our question of the day, we always start with a voice.

[Michael Duck]

And as always, we like to say like and subscribe. Like and subscribe if you wish to opine. And we always read these comments before we get to the back of the book segment here at the ruthless variety program. Just added, that first one comes from Lisa Jaeger. Lisa writes, congratulations on your YouTube award and the 500 episodes. I'm a huge fan and look forward to tuning in every single week. Always great reporting and thanks for making me literally laugh out loud every single episode. You all gave me hope this past year when I thought we were doomed for another four years with the dumb Dems. Keep holding the line and calling out those crazy ass journos with a heart at the end.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it.

[Michael Duck]

Lisa Yeager, I. I mean, just incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a 1010 comment there. What do we got, Duncan?

[Cutlerleaf]

This one's from Tamara Webb. Tamara writes, your shows and your fellow podcasters are the real news now.

[John Ashbrook]

Hell yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

Without you, who knows what would have happened during the last election. You brought light and humor into the landscape.

[John Ashbrook]

So kind.

[Cutlerleaf]

That's a good summation of what we're doing here. I have one more thing real quick, Josh. We got a nice gift. I have one of these for all of you.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah, we have a dedicated listener who actually attended our live show.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Cutlerleaf]

Firefighter here in dc. No kidding.

[Josh Holmes]

Can you give Wolf a little look at that hat. That is a first class.

[John Ashbrook]

That is so cool.

[Josh Holmes]

It sounds eft.

[Cutlerleaf]

And yeah, I'm not going to out him here. But he also provided us a very nice bottle of Whistle Pig, which we are enjoying currently.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my gosh. That's fantastic.

[Michael Duck]

Just legend.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Gotta love these people.

[Cutlerleaf]

Well, I mean, that's the great thing about the show, right? You got, you know, some of the most powerful people in the world who listen to this thing. People all across the country. Firefighters, people work in the oil fields. You know, you got. We have. We are just across the entire country in so many different facets.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. It just turns out most people like to be normal.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Like to have a normal take.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like to read the news and be like, hey, this seems fucked up.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Or, hey, this is funny. And then laugh about it rather than getting it through an MSNBC lens. What do we got? Smug.

[John Ashbrook]

This comment 3 comes from Linda Franco. Linda writes, congratulations. Been watching this show since almost the beginning. Don't even know how I found it, how I found it, but found MK through you. Oh, that's awesome. Love to start my Tuesdays and Thursdays laughing at the Dems. Love the animal stories, love the games, love the camaraderie and feeling like part of the sane segment of society. Thanks for all you do. Maybe take it a little easier on us Italians.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Franco Franco's got something to say about that.

[Cutlerleaf]

We had a lot of Italian. I'm actually surprised that you got in and out of Chicago without taking a beating.

[John Ashbrook]

I'll give them credit, man. The food is incredible. Italians can cook, you know, can't say anything against that.

[Cutlerleaf]

What do you think of the pizza? Deep Chicago style.

[John Ashbrook]

So that's the thing is, like, I wasn't offended by it. Like, I love New York style pizza. Sure. I just busted out fork and knife and went to town.

[Cutlerleaf]

Here's what I love about Chicago style pizza. America's pushing the envelope. We're trying different things. We got Chicago style, we got, you know, New Haven is a great place for pizza.

[Josh Holmes]

New Haven's not tomato pie Detroit.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like, when did Italy, you know, start innovating? I feel like they do one thing. They do one thing with some globs of mozzarella and some, like, leaves of basil on it. America is constantly innovating.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

You know, that's why we have the best pizza in the world.

[Michael Duck]

Right. They build one Sistine Chapel and they're like, okay, we're done.

[Cutlerleaf]

Oh, we're done forever.

[Michael Duck]

Here we have them on every street corner in this country.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's exactly right.

[Josh Holmes]

I love it. And the Greeks probably provide a little insulation for you on that.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. I just Got to say, like, great town. The food is amazing. Amazing food. I was eating like a pig.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's been a long time coming, fellas, but one of the worst liberals on all of television has been fired.

[Cutlerleaf]

Ooh, yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Love to hear it.

[Josh Holmes]

We're going to get to all of that right after this.

[Michael Duck]

As President Trump begins his new administration, one of the top Democrats in Congress aiming to undermine the Trump agenda is Chicago's Senator Dick Durbin. And now Senator Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, Americans have thousands of choices in credit cards, all with equal strong security. But Senator Durbin's plan will result in less competition and less security. And that means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republican senators, stop Dick Durbin's government takeover of your credit card because before it's too late. Learn more at www.guardyourcard.com oh, you know.

[Josh Holmes]

So I have again, every time one of these things happen, I just, I have mixed emotions about it, fellas, because I look at. We're now in the window of Hack Madness, which is the tournament for those of you who are new to this game. We picked 64 of the worst journalists in all of America and we set up a March Madness bracket style competition, which you, the listener, vote on and advance them through their brackets. We've done this, what, five years?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And it has been just an extraordinary success, something I think we all take great pride in.

[John Ashbrook]

It's incredible.

[Josh Holmes]

But there's always these strong contenders in time after time. They just don't have what it takes to laugh. It shows how difficult it is to stay on top.

[Michael Duck]

Yeah. And I'm going to make an argument here that just like a player who starts the season with their team and gets injured is still a part of that team during March Madness and basketball.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, interesting.

[Michael Duck]

I think, because Joy Reid started this season. So there it is on tv, she is still a part of.

[Josh Holmes]

So that's the news. That's the news that has broken. Joy Reid of MSNBC's show is canceled in a major shakeup of MSNBC. I dare to say it's probably going to take more than the firing of Joy Reid, but what an interesting situation. I mean, this is a lady who, remember she had that blog, Smug. You followed this?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. So this is great. So in 2018, Joy Reid's blog was found and it discussed how she was like, trans people are terrible. She doesn't care for the gay people either. And you can't, if you have a show on msnbc, that's stuff that you can't say. So she tried to explain it as a time traveler hacked her. Right? She tried that and then for over a month she stuck to the story. She was like a time traveler hacked it. And then she changed her story to a. Well, I don't remember writing any of this. And then for another month she tries pushing that. And finally she had to issue an apology of being like, I don't recall who that person.

[Josh Holmes]

But MSNBC at this time was like, okay, cool. Like, she kept the same time.

[John Ashbrook]

Sometimes you have a time traveler hack you.

[Josh Holmes]

She was like, they have their own rules.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's just proof that they have their own rules.

[Josh Holmes]

They have their own rules. And it's also the rule of liberal media, which is you can be as offensive and incorrect on a daily basis as you can possibly be, but when nobody's watching, well, there is the crime.

[John Ashbrook]

Also, I saw she was getting paid 3 mil a year.

[Michael Duck]

Oh, wow. Really?

[John Ashbrook]

My 3 mil a year to lose half her audience after election day.

[Cutlerleaf]

So I have a couple of thoughts on this. Are you ready for this?

[Josh Holmes]

Do you want to do that before or after she gives her benediction?

[Cutlerleaf]

It's going to be so much better after.

[John Ashbrook]

Let's go to it.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's go to it. Clip 3 We do have a fascist groundswell in parts of this country, mainly among white men. Let's be clear. He calls himself Big B A L L S the racist Tomahawk chop. The gesture and chant promoting stereotypes, caricatures, and frankly hatred of Native American people. Similarities to what happened in Germany and what's happening now in America are just undeniable.

[John Ashbrook]

Oh my God.

[Josh Holmes]

History may not repeat verbatim, but it sure does rhyme. Twitter now is useless to me. Trump has two daddies, Putin and Elon Musk. A far right dictatorial regime like Hitler's Germany or Spain or New Salem's Italy. Vice President Kamala Debbie Harris, she's about to make history. Oh my God.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What a. Well, so that's a greatest hits album.

[Cutlerleaf]

So at the end of the clip, and we didn't get to it though, is, I think, her finest work. And that is on election night as Kamala Harris eats shit and like is not doing better than Biden did in 2020 in any county. Everything. And like everyone there is just like long faced and she's like, Kamala Harris ran the perfect campaign and then proceeds to provide all of these proof points that back that up. She had all the swifties, she had all the support in such a short time. She Ran the perfect campaign. And it's like, dude, she's got, like, she's better than Baghdad Bob. It's absolutely incredible. And, you know, so there's that also. And at the top, Holmes, you mentioned, like, it's. You feel conflicted in this because, like, we're going to miss out on so much great content if she's not there. I don't think she qualifies for Hack Madness.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's interesting.

[Cutlerleaf]

I know you're saying she qualifies. I kind of more consider it. Like, Kajana Carter going down in preseason.

[Michael Duck]

Oh, my God.

[Cutlerleaf]

With an acl, an ACL tear. Like, he didn't play the rest of the games. He doesn't qualify.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, you can't be Rookie of the year if you didn't get. If you didn't start a record number.

[Cutlerleaf]

Right. Look, he was drafted correctly. He's a great college player.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a Penn State.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

But for those of us, you know, what he's done here is denigrate our friend Cincinnati Heritage, at the same time buffering his Penn State allegiance.

[Cutlerleaf]

Well, I'm just telling you that that, that team that won that Rose bowl when undefeated should have been national champions, and it's offensive that they weren't. But Kajana Carter didn't play the rest of the season, and Joy Reid's not gonna play the rest of the season. But her and Hack Madness.

[Michael Duck]

What do you think? Smug. You think she should be be in Hack Madness?

[John Ashbrook]

I think it comes down to the tweets, because here's the thing is they can. They can take the show. But she's also been dropping these takes on Twitter. It's. I mean, but she's not employed.

[Cutlerleaf]

She's not currently going to be employed.

[John Ashbrook]

That becomes a wrinkle in it.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah. Because, I mean, like, Keith Olbermann could have been a number one seed every single year based on the tweets when he was unemployed.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

You know, but he did make it.

[Josh Holmes]

Into the tournament, which, you know, look, ultimately, this is about you, the listener.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

Because you. You end up telling us this is a good time. We're now two weeks out from having to field what is the greatest hack.

[Cutlerleaf]

And for all our new listeners, of which there are many, I would say, to borrow a phrase from Donald Trump, it is a seated bracket, just like March Madness, and it's all those. Those liberal hacks. So, like, if you're watching this, you're like, what the fuck are these guys talking about? I don't blame you. I'm sorry, but like, in these coming weeks, you're going to learn so much more about it. Stay tuned on all that.

[Josh Holmes]

But, but if you, I mean, if you look at the past champions, you're talking about Jennifer R. You're talking about the potato.

[Cutlerleaf]

First ballot, hall of famers, shelter of liberal hacks.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Taylor Lorenz is involved. Like all. None of these people have a job. Yeah, they all just invented new. I guess does the potatoes. Is he still working?

[John Ashbrook]

They brought him back to cnn.

[Josh Holmes]

He's still there.

[John Ashbrook]

They brought him right back.

[Josh Holmes]

He didn't get the second X. Yeah, he's like Lazarus.

[Michael Duck]

But if you're, if you're picking 64 libs plus some play in libs, I just think that someone who's been on MSNBC spouting bullshit for years, she's gonna.

[Josh Holmes]

Have to stay active, John. She's gonna have to stay qualified. She's gonna have to stay active.

[John Ashbrook]

To me, the most interesting part of this story is the thesis of, we've been saying for a while now, of how Americans will get their information from reliable sources wherever they are. They're not going to just tune into a cable news place like msnbc. Like the fact that Joy Reid lost half her audience after Election Day. That was half her audience being like, everything this lady said to me, it's wrong. Is a lie. Yeah, why am I watching this?

[Josh Holmes]

And that's what, that's what these people don't understand. It's not. So if you talk to an awful lot of executives off the left, what they'll tell you is, look, there's a depression that happens with core audiences after a painful defeat and it's gonna take us a while to recover those people. That's not true. That's like half of the story. The other half is what you just said. And like, we've experienced it on the conservative side. Like, I remember Fox dealing with this after 2012, if the information you're getting. Remember, there was Dick Morris. Dick Morris would be on Fox every night saying his polls show he's a former Clinton pollster, but he became like a conservative. But his polls show that Mitt Romney's winning this election by like 6 to 8 points. And he would go on, you know what seemed every night and talk about how the real polls show that Mitt Romney's gonna win this race. So there was a false sense of security amongst conservatives and they were shocked to find out Barack Obama won. So Dick Morris got fired. Like, liberals don't do that. I mean, this is actually the most interesting component to what we're seeing in the realignment of leftist media. It's not going to get better. They're going to find another Joey Reid, but they're going to find a different person to lie to you.

[John Ashbrook]

And also.

[Cutlerleaf]

So this dude, that is such a good point. Like, like that is pitch perfect. Because you're right. Like their business model is different. Conservative media is like, you got to be accurate. And when you get it wrong, you've lost that trust with the audience because the audience matters. They don't give a about. It's just like when the person's found out they're like the Monorail man from Simpsons. Like they got to leave town with the briefcase full of money. And it's like they got to find. They got to find someone new that the people don't know is a liar yet.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right. We have to figure that out in due time.

[John Ashbrook]

And the thing is, so MSNBC brought in this new executive, Rebecca Cutler, who's cutting jobs. Good for them. And what's his. Jonathan Capehart. I think that's your name.

[Michael Duck]

He's going to msnbc.

[John Ashbrook]

No, I guess he had something there. And they're getting rid of that.

[Cutlerleaf]

Hell yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And he's the guy who folks might remember when Hewitt was on the show calling out who's wrong. They go back to K Bar and KPART is like, how dare you correct me, dude.

[Cutlerleaf]

Huge W for Hugh Hewitt. That guy is a legend.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. And right before we got on news broke that Lester Holt.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Is getting act like from NBC. There's a lot of this has been a long time coming. I'm confused.

[Cutlerleaf]

I'm conflicted on Lester Holt.

[Josh Holmes]

Let's hear your confliction. Let's hear it.

[Cutlerleaf]

My wife and I love Dateline.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, he has a good Dateline.

[Cutlerleaf]

And the Voice is just fantastic.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. No, but here's the thing that I get. I get to with all of this. It goes back to our previous conversation, which is like, okay, Lester Hole. It's a little of the anchorman philosophy. You've got a guy there, he's probably only going to be as good as what you stick in that teleprompter. And if your stories night after night take just a complete leftist imbalance of the world as it is and you only cover what's going on in fever swamps off the left. I don't care if you read the teleprompter one way or you read it a different way. Like the anchor is gonna be affected by that. And that's how I see Lester Holt, I don't see him as like a particularly biased individual. Remember, he was the guy that gave the interview to Kamala Harris.

[Michael Duck]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

Where she, we asked her about the border and she was like, yeah, I've never been to the border, but I've never been to Russia either.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And it's like, well, I mean, it's a fair question. And it was attacked completely by the left, so I like, I don't blame less. But on the other hand, it's a conflicting feeling. Right. Because you can only put out so many leftist broadcast day after day, night after night before you want to see some head.

[John Ashbrook]

So this is an interesting little wrinkle here too. It says in this article. This is. Is from Variety discussing the whole firing. Which way Read. MSNBC is also looking beyond the network's existing roster of anchors to fill its programming lineup. MSNBC is considering honor host positions for Eugene Daniels.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh my God.

[John Ashbrook]

A co author of Politico's play. That guy's absolutely nuts. Great friend of Ash Brooks, Eugene Daniels, who's just nutty. So they haven't learned. They're not like we're gonna try to find reasonable people. They're like, not crazy enough.

[Josh Holmes]

No. But that goes again back to our point. Just like you guys don't need somebody to do anything different, they need a different liar.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep, that's it.

[Josh Holmes]

That's. That's right.

[Michael Duck]

I think that what you just said, Holmes, is exactly. That's the nail on the head. And what we know about the media is they only attack a Democrat and in this case it's staff of their own companies. They only attack a Democrat when it's in service of. Of another Democrat.

[Josh Holmes]

You've been like a.

[Michael Duck]

Their mind. And in their mind, they spent a year and a half trying to help Democrats win an election over Donald Trump and it didn't work. And so somebody has to lose their job because of it and have to hire new people to try to beat the Republicans the next time. That, that, that is. That is their only. Their.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they're not doing anything different. There's nothing different about this. I mean, Eugene Daniels is a hysterical choice. I mean, that's one of the top five funniest things I've ever heard. Yeah, no, this guy's definitely got he plugged in.

[Cutlerleaf]

I'm rooting for it.

[Josh Holmes]

I am too. No, he could be maybe content. He could be a TV show. He could be. I don't think he's been a competitor in Madden.

[John Ashbrook]

He should be. He should make sure Eugene Daniels is.

[Josh Holmes]

In the bracket he should be in.

[Cutlerleaf]

But to your point, like Jim Acosta, Jennifer Rubin, all these people who rise to the top of hack madness, it's like Icarus.

[Josh Holmes]

They're gone.

[Cutlerleaf]

They, like, rise so high and so quick, and then their wax wings melt in the sun.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. And down they go. Because. Because eventually, eventually they're like, well, they're liars.

[John Ashbrook]

Yep.

[Josh Holmes]

And you know, they're like. Well, it turns out the rest of the country feels the opposite of what they've been representing over these years.

[Michael Duck]

Because Americans don't want to be communists, and that's what these corporate media companies want our country to become.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't. I'm just. I'm begging you people, because you don't know what you have. You've got. You have a channel which millions of people subscribe to because they have to out of these cable bundles. Who knows how long that lasts? But, like, just rethink that whole thing. Like, do not get the idea that you're putting Eugene Daniels in to replace Joy Reid and you think you're gonna need a different product. Like, come on, dude. Maybe just do the news.

[Michael Duck]

Yeah, that's the one thing, though.

[John Ashbrook]

Just read the news.

[Josh Holmes]

No, they're not doing that. Won't do it. Maybe that's why they're selling the thing for parts. Anyway, you guys want to talk airlines?

[John Ashbrook]

Always. Always do. Always do.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, this is always one of our favorite things. The discount airlines have been having a time. It's been having it time. There's a graphic six that I wouldn't mind putting up just to preview all the. So Southwest Airlines is now telling people not to play music and videos on speakerphone as a part of their pre flight instructions. So they're like, hey, you know the exit row, you got to be whatever. You got to open the door, your seatbelt, in case you're a fucking. Like somebody with an IQ under 20 plugs into this thing and we feel the need to say that out loud in front of everybody, which drives me insane that they spend time, like, speaking about that. Like, here, this part goes into that part. It's like, great. Well, if you don't know that, get the fuck off the plane. Anyway, they've now added, please don't listen to a movie or a video or any kind of audio on your speakerphone on the plane. That had to be said.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

We are at a distressing point in American aviation.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah, I think we're still dealing with, like, the long tail of COVID And I think people have forgot how to act in public.

[Josh Holmes]

You think that's it?

[Cutlerleaf]

No, sincerely, I really. Smog, I want to get your thoughts. I think people just.

[Josh Holmes]

Is that true?

[John Ashbrook]

Yes. I think the problem here is too many people are allowed to fly. Right. I've said this before. What used to happen is, okay, we're taking the family on a road trip, load up the station wagon. Now what they want is load up the family on a Southwest flight. It's a zoo in there, right? You're gonna have people being animals when you're in the zoo. And this is it. If you have to tell people, please don't play your music on a loud speaker while we're trying to fly a plane with other people in here. Like, why are they in a plane in the first place? You know?

[Josh Holmes]

What are they doing?

[John Ashbrook]

There's a place in America for, if you want to travel with no rules. It's called a Greyhound. Get on the Greyhound and go crazy on that thing. Everyone expects that you know what you're signing up for.

[Josh Holmes]

What do they do with that?

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, when do they load up on. On the Southwest, they don't even assign seats. I didn't know this until, like, a year ago. They didn't even assign seats. This basic. Like, the stewardess throws the hay in the back, all right, Let the animals in, cattle call time, and they all just come stomping in and fighting each other. They got their 40 bags to throw up in the overhead compartments. 40 bags. There's no laws on these things, right? Yeah. Like, what are you. Are you moving? Like, why do you need 40 carry ons?

[Cutlerleaf]

I gotta say, Smug, I owe you an apology because when. When we travel to go do a show with Smug, I always made fun of him because he, like, we're just, like, hanging out. We're like, we're trying to have a conversation. Smug has over the ear, headphones he travels with.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Cutlerleaf]

A situation like this, entirely appropriate. Like. Like if you don't have those, like, you can put the noise cancellation on. On like an AirPod. It's not the same.

[Josh Holmes]

It's not the same.

[Cutlerleaf]

It's not the same.

[Josh Holmes]

No. You need the full blown over the ear situation. And then. But then he's also got this just dramatically improved, impressive feature where he sits down in his seat, settles his things, and then.

[Cutlerleaf]

No, yeah, yeah, yeah. He can just shut it down. He can just put it on sleep mode. Like, you haven't even taxied away from the jet bridge. He's off and he's offline, and his hands just sit there like this. Folks, he's like a sphinx.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[John Ashbrook]

And I'm telling you, all credit to my parents. They're like, if you're traveling, if you're a child traveling, I don't want to hear a single. You don't make a sound. You can either have a book or you can go to sleep. And I chose the latter.

[Josh Holmes]

So, like, you know, you got enough problems on the planes and whatnot, but it's not confined to the planes. And I think to your point, you're walking through an airport, you can get a disturbance in there too. Can we play clip four? Okay. What you're watching is a massive fight breaking out at a Spirit Airlines counter in the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport. There are people on come on. Chairs throwing punches.

[John Ashbrook]

This is like Royal Rumble over here.

[Michael Duck]

Why are they fighting?

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, because low cost airlines are a PVP zone. That's what it is. Anything goes.

[Michael Duck]

What's.

[John Ashbrook]

No holds. Player versus player. It's like, you know, you're in Call of Duty. You can just hunt each other well.

[Cutlerleaf]

Smug. Smug. I understand. I understand how a fight can happen between. Between two people. It's stressful sometimes to travel, especially when there's delays. But what struck me about that video. How are there that many people that have a vested interest in the outcome of this fight?

[Josh Holmes]

I'm getting involved.

[Cutlerleaf]

I mean, there's like 50 people there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they're all throwing too. Every one of them is like, I could go to jail for this. And it's worth it.

[John Ashbrook]

Could I get graphic seven from that video? An even better journey begins here.

[Josh Holmes]

Cinnamon.

[John Ashbrook]

All they needed was a steel chair and it was legit. Royal Rumble.

[Josh Holmes]

The graphic really makes it. It's so. Is it too much? We've posited this question before, but, like, there's gotta be somewhere in the middle between like, taking a $50,000 private flight of which no one can afford, and the 350 to, like, $800 ticket where you gotta go through the airport with, like, brawls and speakerphones.

[Cutlerleaf]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, is there no one in this country that can create an airline where we just have a lounge seating and you could have a cigarette like a gentleman?

[John Ashbrook]

Too many people are allowed to fly. That's it. It's the bottom line. Like, now the product on airlines, even first class, is so deplorable. It's horrible. Which you get for first class. But what you're actually paying for is so you're not in the back with the Royal Rumble. You know, you're just trying to fall asleep on your plane, not catch a steel Chair to the head. Like, that's what you pay for. So you're not in the back with the fight. They put the curtains out and then the animals go at it. That's it.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, what. How do they do. How do they do the hay again?

[John Ashbrook]

They just throw the hay out there and then the animals go in like.

[Cutlerleaf]

Like you're feeding the ducks at the pond.

[Josh Holmes]

It's so good. Anyway, that's our airline segment. Remember our question of the day? What should Doge do? If you're the chief of staff over there, what would you instruct Elon to focus upon? Because I feel like your answers. We got a lot of listeners over at Doge. We have listeners in the White House. Perhaps you make a real difference or perhaps you're just very funny. And either way, you're probably gonna make the program as long as you like and subscribe.

[Michael Duck]

That's right.

[Josh Holmes]

To the YouTube channel, of which thank you for the many, many people over the last few weeks who have liked and subscribed. We're having a blast here, if you can't tell, and we're gonna keep it going. We've got a very big week this week. We got some big guests you're not gonna wanna miss with that. Fellas, I think you. We've done it.

[John Ashbrook]

I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, again, thank you so much to our listeners and YouTube viewers. Thank you so much. Like and subscribe if you wish to opine. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lives. We'll see you on Thursday. Stay ruthless.

[Unknown]

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