Why the Left is Collapsing

Summary

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Ruthless Podcast: "Why the Left is Collapsing"

Date: September 26, 2025
Hosts: Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook (Comfortably Smug out on assignment)

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Episode Overview

In this "Fun Time Friday" episode, the Ruthless crew explores what they describe as the cultural, political, and organizational unraveling of the American Left. Holmes, Duncan, and Ashbrook provide their signature humorous and irreverent take on liberal coalitions, failings in left-wing activism (from Gaza flotillas to campus protests), the role of media bias in political power, and the rise and fall of deep state influence. The show includes playful games, listener questions, and the infamous "Jackassery" improv segment.

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Main Discussion Themes & Key Points

1. The Collapse of the Left-Wing Coalition

[01:26-08:36]

• Lack of Leadership and Vision
  • Josh Holmes: "There's no new ideas, there's no fresh face, there's no message. There's no actual assertion one way or another about how they can improve the lives of the American people. It's like they forgot what government was all about." [00:00]
• Internal Contradictions
  • Michael Duncan: "All of this is held together with rubber bands and band aids... cognitive dissonance between these varying coalitions." [02:37]
  • Unions vs. environmentalists, e.g. on pipelines—“their existence is in direct contradiction.” [04:37]

Memorable Moment:

• Josh Holmes on Greta Thunberg’s activism shift: "She's very concerned about Gaza because you can understand the energy tie there, right? And they don't even have working lights." [06:14]

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2. "Gays for Gaza": The Gaza Flotilla Farce

[08:36-15:34]

• Greta Thunberg's involvement in an aid flotilla to Gaza is mocked for its political confusion.
• Flotilla leader resigns over inclusion of LGBTQ activists, resulting in chaos and infighting among activists.
• Technical hilarity as flotilla boats’ radios are jammed—by someone playing ABBA music—making communication impossible. [09:31-11:11]

Quote:

• Josh Holmes: "First of all, the captain of this ship is Greta Thunberg." [09:31]

Bombing Claims Debunked:

• Activist claims their boat was bombed by Israel [12:03-13:20], only for video evidence to show it was actually set on fire by one of their own shooting a flare into the boat.
• Michael Duncan: "The intellectual honesty of the left doesn't know domestic bounds. Like, this is an international thing." [15:35]

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3. Media Bias & The Erosion of Institutional Trust

[13:45-25:17]

• Media highlighted as complicit in uncritically repeating sensationalist activist claims.
• Josh Holmes: "They have baked into the cake up until 2025 this presumption of a gullible media." [18:31]
• Discussion turns to how the rise of alternative media and social platforms is exposing media narratives to broader public scrutiny.

Quote:

• Michael Duncan: "It's the hiding of the ball." [22:07]

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4. Pop Culture and Narrative Control

[26:41-36:15]

• Hollywood’s persistent left-leaning themes in Oscar-bait films and TV shows, described as “sermonizing” and promoting social justice narratives instead of entertainment.
• John Ashbrook on Apple postponing the release of “The Savant”: “A blockbuster... forwarding the narrative that right wing extremism is the cause of violence in America. Something to fear.” [32:20–32:38]
• Debate over whether streaming hits (e.g., AppleTV’s “For All Mankind”) are exceptions; but larger point is about ideological filtering at the major studio level.

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5. Censorship, Free Speech & Hypocrisy

[38:41-50:20]

• Revelations that the Biden administration pressured social media companies to suspend or restrict accounts sharing views on vaccines or other topics, under threat of regulatory action.
• Michael Duncan: “It was a mafia racket... these people hate the First Amendment.” [40:10-44:11]
• Irony seen in liberal outrage over broadcast decisions for figures like Jimmy Kimmel, juxtaposed against their silence or complicity in government-driven censorship.

Quote:

• Josh Holmes: “If you have shed even a single tear... that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel was an abridgment of First Amendment rights in this country, I have some facts for you...” [40:52]

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6. Deep State Accountability: The James Comey Indictment

[50:37-57:24]

• DOJ reportedly seeking indictment of ex-FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress.
• Michael Duncan delivers a passionate monologue on Comey as "one of the most villainous people in modern history in our democracy." [51:50–54:29]
• Discusses perceived asymmetric accountability for bureaucrats vs. enemies of the bureaucracy.

Quote:

• Michael Duncan: "We are finally rebalancing the scales away from unelected bureaucrats in a deep state who pretend to run our country..." [51:03 and repeated from intro at 00:15]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Segments

• Josh Holmes: “Can you imagine? First of all, the captain of this ship is Greta Thunberg.” [09:31]
• John Ashbrook: “Who needs Jimmy Kimmel when real life libs provide you every punchline you could ever want in real life?” [11:11]
• Michael Duncan on media coverage: “It's the hiding of the ball.” [22:07]
• Michael Duncan: "We are finally rebalancing the scales away from unelected bureaucrats..." [00:15; 51:50]

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Featured Segments with Timestamps

• Opening Salvo: The Failed Leadership of the Left [00:00–02:37]
• Flotilla Fiasco [03:53–14:52]
• Media Complicity and Gullibility [13:20–25:33]
• Pop Culture as Political Sermonizing [26:41–36:15]
• Censorship & First Amendment Ironies [38:41–50:20]
• Deep State Reckoning: Comey Indictment Discussion [50:37–57:24]
• Listener Comments & UN Deportation [61:57–63:28]
• Audience Participation Game: "Jackassery" [63:33–71:20]
• Fat Bear Week & the Case for Taxidermied Orcas [71:34–76:00]
• NFL Sports Talk & Weekend Preview [77:40–79:47]

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Ruthless Signature Bits

"Jackassery" Game [63:33–71:20]

• Hosts are forced to argue ridiculous, indefensible positions straight-faced for one minute each, as assigned by one another.
  • John Ashbrook defends Brian Stelter as "a valuable asset to CNN."
  • Michael Duncan argues America would be better run as a matriarchy.
  • Josh Holmes forcibly champions soccer over American football.

Listener Engagement

• Over-the-top ideas for deporting the UN, with snappy audience commentaries and quick-witted replies. [61:57–63:28]

Fat Bear Week Segment

• Humorous analysis of "fat" bears in Alaska and lighthearted rivalry over who gets a taxidermy bear rug, leading to a wild aside about mounting orcas. [71:34–76:00]

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Episode Tone

• Fast-paced, irreverent, and comedic; heavy use of sarcasm, parody, and mockery.
• In-group banter and running gags make for a lively, tongue-in-cheek atmosphere.
• News analysis is highly opinionated from a next-generation conservative viewpoint, focused especially on lampooning left-wing politics and their impact on American culture and institutions.

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Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Holmes, Duncan, and Ashbrook contend that the American Left is beset by infighting, hypocrisy, and a loss of institutional and cultural dominance, propped up only by a willing media landscape—one that is finally being punctured by new media and public scrutiny. They skewer left-wing activism, activist-media symbiosis, and the deep state, all while keeping things brisk, comedic, and interactive.

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Final Call to Action (79:31):
Listeners are invited to describe what they imagine the "next left-wing leader" will look or sound like— “get creative, throw your back into it”—as the hosts close out with their regular rallying cry:

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

Transcript

[Josh Holmes]

But it's a lack of leadership. One way or another. There's no new ideas, there's no fresh face, there's no message. There's no actual assertion one way or another about how they can improve the lives of the American people. It's like they forgot what government was all about.

[Michael Duncan]

We are finally rebalancing the scales away from unelected bureaucrats in a deep state who pretend to run our country and the American people who elect a president of the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

I still have no idea what it is that they're trying to do with this flotilla in Gaza. What I do know is, is that they have baked into the cake up until 2025 this presumption of a gullible media. He's Donald Trump's number one enemy in Congress. Chicago Senator Dick Durbin. And now Dick Durbin has a new scheme, a government takeover of your credit card. Today, consumers have thousands of choices in credit cards, all with equal strong security. But Durbin's plan is less competition and less security. And, and that means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republicans in Congress, stop Dick Durbin's takeover of your credit card before it's too late.

[John Ashbrook]

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please.

[Josh Holmes]

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

[John Ashbrook]

It's time for our main event.

[Josh Holmes]

Fun Time Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety program. I am Josh Holmes along with Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Comfortably smug out on assignment. I'm sure he's enjoying himself, but a lot of work to do. For all of us, individually and collectively, we thank you for joining us. We're going to have a very good time on this episode. And one of the things that we're going to examine right off the top is this demise of a left wing coalition could be indicative of where they're at in terms of just an entirely messed up lack of leadership that's led to all kinds of chaos in here over the last couple weeks. But it's worth noting because I don't think there's an awful lot of the mainstream media that has taken note of the fact that from a cultural perspective, from a legal perspective, from a media perspective, they've lost a grip that they've held for generations on many components institutions within the United States of America. And they don't know what to do without it. They've never had to actually have talent, make an argument because everybody else is making it for them.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I think it's interesting because we've talked about on this show for years this problem that the Left has, right, is that all of this is held together with rubber bands and band aids. Right?

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And you've got a lot of cognitive dissonance on the left between, between these varying coalitions that somehow make up the American left. It makes no sense.

[Josh Holmes]

Makes no sense.

[Michael Duncan]

We've had a lot of fun here talking about it on the program Gays.

[Josh Holmes]

For Gaza, for example.

[Michael Duncan]

And now finally the chickens are coming home to roost for them.

[John Ashbrook]

And it's about time. Because while we're having fun and joking about it and laughing about how stupid they are, what they do actually creates damage all across our country. And it has for years and years and years. And I think it's about time those chickens come home to rain.

[Josh Holmes]

But mockery and fun making is what we do here in the Ruthless Variety Program. So let that commence. If you haven't seen this one this week, you ought to. The Ruthless Variety Program. Very happy to welcome Greta Thunberg back to the national discussion. If you haven't noticed. And this was an X piece that people are talking about. She's got some kind of a flotilla.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. Outside of Gaza, she's doing humanitarian aid.

[Josh Holmes]

Remember, this is the young woman who is an impossible to resonate with human being. But she made the case long and hard for her early years as a, I guess like a preteen and a teenager that everybody ought to be off fossil fuels.

[John Ashbrook]

And that's what gets me is like I thought she was a big climate person and now she's doing a flotilla, whatever that is at Gaza. What I don't even understand.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, it illustrates our point, in the words of Greta Thunberg, how dare you. How dare you, how dare you, how dare you.

[Josh Holmes]

But it's a look, we lead with this because it's a perfect encapsulation of the threads that are coming apart on the left hand side. Nobody has ever had a real conversation about the fact that your environmental left is entirely separated from your union support, the primary funder of democratic politics over the last 45 years in unions. Their existence is in direct contradiction with your environmental left. I mean, just ask the people, the union workers who are working on the XL pipeline when they shut that sucker down.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, not to mention an open border policy of George Soros and all these left wing lunatics coming in contrast to a union worker, worker in Michigan. Right. Like, like it never ends. The contradictions never end.

[Josh Holmes]

So enter Greta Thunberg who, you know, I think early on sort of an interesting new face to the world in talking about this progressive like Psychopathic left wing energy vision for the world. And they had places like Germany follow along with her and try to pretend as though they can satisfy her needs and what she's talking about by, like, completely eliminating all production of energy and any sort of, like, meaningful clean energy import into their country. And then they decided, like, well, we can't actually do anything in our country.

[Michael Duncan]

So then we're import natural gas from Russia who invaded Ukraine. Super smart.

[John Ashbrook]

Great job, Greta.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah. And we covered the backdrop of all that on Thursday's episode. But now she's shown back up. And it's not environment that she's concerned with, fellas. She's very concerned about Gaza because you can understand the energy tie there. Right. And they don't even have working lights. But why don't we start with one of the things that they've done is put together this flotilla.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah. What is.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't understand.

[John Ashbrook]

I was going to ask what is a flotilla?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, according to this name, unpronounceable in French. Hmm. Publication, maybe, you know, can you read that, old man?

[Michael Duncan]

Le Courriere d'. Atlas.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a French language magazine, but there's a lot there that. I don't know. Lee puts this in as though I'm just gonna navigate.

[John Ashbrook]

And here's the thing, here's the thing. The left looks down on us all the time. When I hear flotilla, I think bass trackers, bayliners, and a party barge. And they think that the people who do that are bad, and yet this is what they're to make a difference.

[Josh Holmes]

It's a flotilla. And again, we're very, very unclear as to what it is that they see as their purpose in a flotilla outside of Gaza. Presumably it's to help the Palestinians.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think the whole thing in this was they were going to provide the aid. They were going to do that. They were going to bring the aid in. No, Gaza has not had enough aid. You know, like the entire world hasn't poured enough money into a place that's run by terrorists. That these people, you know what, they're just starving.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they didn't understand the motives of Greta.

[Michael Duncan]

It's just unbelievable.

[Josh Holmes]

Now that Greta's involved, they're going to have a different point of view. Well, it turns out this French unpronounceable magazine reports that this guy, Khalid Boujema Boojima, announced that he's resigning from this flotilla. He stepped down in protest over the inclusion of LGBTQ activists in the flotilla. Among of them Saif Ayadi, who Identifies as a queer activist. So again, you've heard us laugh a lot on the program about the whole Gays for Gaza concept.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And that you've got these militant Islamic radicals who would like sooner behead the first gay person than take aid from them. But then you have people like Greta Thunberg and their whole concept is like anybody with power without a power. We're just for all of this. And so we're gonna get all the gays to sort of support Gaza. Well then he runs into a person like this who cares about Gaza. Not so much the case. And they have a problem on the flotilla.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

It's created a big issue and they, they've discussed this at great length and there's, they've come to an impasse at some level and they have a problem occupying the flotilla in and of itself in that basic communications have become problematic. I mean, can you imagine? First of all, the captain of this ship is Greta Thunberg.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And presumably what they're trying to do is communicate with people one way or another about getting aid in and out. They've done none of that. And one of the ways to do that is by radio and radio frequency will they have had some trouble. Let's play clip one. And right now they're jamming our vhf. As you can hear. We do not know where this is coming from, the sound, but other vessels are experimenting, experiencing the same thing. They're jamming our radio.

[John Ashbrook]

Is that abba?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, they're playing.

[Josh Holmes]

So, so what's happening is this woman is attempting to talk to another boat on the flotilla.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Very formidable force here.

[John Ashbrook]

Right?

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly.

[John Ashbrook]

They have to speak to one another.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're talking on basically what looks like a walkie talkie with the frequency. And somebody's found out what frequency that is. So they're just playing abba, but it's in a walkie talkie. When you talk into it and there's something already playing on it. It's not a. You can't talk over it. It's a one way thing. And so they. But none of these people, not surprisingly, they can't figure out how to change frequency. So they just sit there in epic frustration over the fact that somebody's playing ABBA on the frequency that they're on and they can't speak to one another. That's how this thing starts. It gives you a good indication of the sophistication of this Greta Thunberg led effort in Gays for Gaza that they're working on here.

[John Ashbrook]

Dude, it just Goes back to something we were talking about maybe a week ago. Who needs Jimmy Kimmel when real life libs provide you every punchline you could ever want in real life?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. I think it speaks to how their entire liberation movement, and that's what. What leftist in America would call this is, is basically just cosplaying.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, it's like I'm a captain of this ship. I'm going to lead like it's D Day.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like I'm, I'm going to come into Gaza to save people's lives. Of course. Which is a lie.

[Josh Holmes]

And history started yesterday.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. But.

[John Ashbrook]

But always did.

[Michael Duncan]

But what they want to say is like, you know, the liberation of the Palestinians is the same as gay liberation in the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly the same. So we should all be allies.

[Michael Duncan]

And that theater runs against some hard truths very quickly as they're finding out.

[Josh Holmes]

So you'll recall from a couple of weeks ago, there was a big story, and I think there was multiple national publications that printed it, that this flotilla had come under bombing attack. Bombing, presumably from Israel.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

Because Israel had. The best thing they can do is bomb. Greta Thunberg.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Right. Well, we have some clip about what's actually happened on that. You won't. This is unbelievable. This is so clip two is the first. This is set up. The family boat has been officially attacked. A drone came right above it, released a bomb.

[Michael Duncan]

Released a bomb.

[Josh Holmes]

And the boat was on fire. Everyone on that boat is okay, the fire is out. But I want to tell you that this boat was the boat that every person from the Madeline, the old Medline crew was on. They have bombed a boat once again with civilians on it in Tunisian territory. This is an attack against Gaza because they don't want us there. So we need you to mobilize. Stay quiet. All right, so remember that lady, she's saying that Israel bombed their boat.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they don't. Because they don't want them there.

[John Ashbrook]

They don't want them there.

[Josh Holmes]

And this is, by the way, when you read a bunch of things that are coming out of like Al Jazeera and all of the Palestinian Authority and all of this. This is the level of sophistication that the spokespeople use to get those on the front page headlines of the New York Times and the Washington Post. It's simply like this happen. So that's. You print that.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the surest proof of a left wing bias in the media that idiots like that control the leads and the headlines of these major mainstream Outlets.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes. So she said all this, which would, you know, lead a honest American. If this is the only piece of information that you have, say, oh, my gosh, people are bombing innocent people just trying to help others.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm concerned. Well, let's find out what happened. Clip 3. Shoot.

[John Ashbrook]

He shot a. He shot a flare.

[Josh Holmes]

I'll give you the full rundown in.

[Michael Duncan]

A second for the audio, at least.

[Josh Holmes]

This idiot on this boat, this dude, what a Beta, he's on this flotilla, and he decides, for whatever reason, to shoot a flare. Yeah, he shoots said flare that goes up and comes right back down onto his boat and starts the thing ablaze.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

But he sounded surprised when he pulled the trigger and shot it. Like something came out of the end of the flare gun.

[Michael Duncan]

They're, like, sending my best.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh.

[John Ashbrook]

Like that was like an unexpected result of shooting a flare gun.

[Josh Holmes]

He thought it was gonna be confetti and pink dust, but it wasn't. It was a flare and it set a ship of fire. And then there was a whole bunch of things that we don't have the clips for, but there was a whole bunch of things of the woman involved who was actually there and saw this, but she still recorded that video. And then the guy who actually shot the flare, testifying to its authenticity.

[Michael Duncan]

We've been bombed.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the guy that set his own chip on fire. And he's like, no, yeah, we've been bombed. The intellectual honesty of the left doesn't know domestic bounds. Like, this is an international thing. And by the way, there's a huge connection to domestic US Progressive left, to these people. That's what the same thing is. Antifa. The same thing as what you're seeing in these campus protests and all these other things. Like, they just try to create a problem simply by being there, apparently had nothing else to do, and then they sabotage, self sabotage themselves and blame somebody else for their misfortune.

[Michael Duncan]

What does it tell you about what they think of the American left and their intelligence? That they could somehow think they could convince people that Israel, who, after October 7 invaded Gaza and targeted all these Hamas terrorists in Rafah and everywhere else, and then did, like, a coordinated bombing in Lebanon to Hezbollah and took out the Houthis and all these sort of very sophisticated targeted attacks.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[Michael Duncan]

That you would execute a plan over the last two years to, like, take out terrorist leaders across the Middle east, and then you would somehow, with a drone in a flare, take out a flotilla of a bunch of artists in the Mediterranean and not be successful.

[Josh Holmes]

They took out the leadership of Hamas with a fucking pager scheme that was four years in the making. And they managed on this one, the flare gun that they shot and started to fire the Arolo.

[Michael Duncan]

We have been targeted by Israel. Israel did this, dude.

[Josh Holmes]

But this is what we're dealing with.

[John Ashbrook]

But the fact that these are the same people that for the last 15 years previously were telling us that the sea level is rising and you are ruining the climate simply by exhaling and living your daily life. They don't actually believe what they're saying.

[Josh Holmes]

No, they don't.

[John Ashbrook]

If they believed what they're saying, people like Barack Obama, who wouldn't have purchased a mansion on the coast and Martha's Vineyard.

[Michael Duncan]

That's right.

[John Ashbrook]

If they believed the sea levels were rising, they wouldn't do things.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they don't care. I mean, people like Barack Obama, it's just intellectual dishonesty. They don't care. It gets them a little further down the road. For people like this, it's a real mental illness. The difference is 100%. Like, if you are actually having some kind of an internationally recognized political movement, you need to be pretty damn charismatic. You gotta be pretty good at communicating what it is that the mission of your organization is attempting to do. I still have no idea what it is that they're trying to do with this flotilla in Gaza. What I do know is that they have baked into the cake up until 2025, this presumption of a gullible media.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

That will suck all this up like a. Well, I'm not gonna go there, but you know what I'm saying.

[John Ashbrook]

But I think. But I think you. I think you made the point. You would think that charisma is what drives this. But it's a gullible media. It's media that says, I know exactly what you're saying. And I agree with it. That's why I'm putting it at the top of my story. Charisma doesn't matter. They make up the charisma. This is Greta Thunberg standing, like, you know, for the last 10 years, she was standing outside of buildings protesting energy, acting like she was doing some huge movement, you know, across the planet. And the Reuters ap. Everybody is like, oh, Greta is leading the world toward a cleaner future. Ashbrook, dude, that's what they wanted to write. It doesn't matter if Greta is capable. She can't give a speech.

[Michael Duncan]

I think. I think you're bringing up a really good point. And that is. It really is an indictment on the media that they thought this would pass.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, they thought, you know what I.

[John Ashbrook]

Mean, that's what they wanted.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, right. I mean like think about the way the media has covered this whole war in Gaza for the last couple of years where they're, they are taking with all honesty the statements from the Gaza health ministry, right. You know, which is authority run by Hamas, run by a literal terrorist organization. They're like, well, you know, the health ministry says this money, this, this many, like innocent women and children were, were killed. And it's like, well these people are terrorists and they're liars. Like how is this the lead in.

[Josh Holmes]

The New York Times for millennia? Like it's never been. They brag about their information warfare.

[Michael Duncan]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

You know, and like. But the thing is, I keep tracing this back to domestically, why it is that we've seen the fall of the left here in that for generations in this country with the same thing that Greta Thunberg and all those people are banking on with a ham handed attempt to try to get notoriety for themselves as they're doing the right thing and brave and whatever without any sort of execution or wherewithal whatsoever is the same thing the Democratic Party has done throughout with both their policy and their politics. And they just bank on a compliant media. And they still have a compliant media, no question about it. The difference is that like their social media now there are other outlets. There's ruthless variety program. We actually can see with our own eyes and there's more information flow to the American people that you can actually see what it is that they're attempting to try to obfuscate from you. Yeah, you know, like a perfect example of this. Before we go to break, I saw this AP headline just yesterday, broke late in the day that says Dallas Ice shoes apart. Dallas Ice shooter hated the US Government and wanted to incite terror by killing federal agents. Officials say, well that's interesting. I don't doubt that to be true. But what's more specific about it, that's more pertinent to the issue that we find ourselves in is that they hated this US government. Didn't see him shooting federal law enforcement four years ago. Didn't see him shooting up anything over the Biden administration. To the extent that you could find federal law enforcement, best I could tell, they didn't enforce laws whatsoever. But that is the critical difference in the one piece that probably needs to be communicated. Omit it.

[Michael Duncan]

It's the hiding of the ball.

[Josh Holmes]

It's the hiding of the ball.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, like it could be a headline written about the Oklahoma City bombing, right like, that's what they're trying to make it seem is like this was an anti government dissident. Dissident. You know, maybe he was in a right wing militia who know.

[Josh Holmes]

And just so happened to target the one, the one federal entity that was the target of a progressive left and progressive left politicians for the last six months. Comparing them to Nazis, comparing them to. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's so obvious. Why in the world would they think they could get away with it except for the fact that there's a historical record that they have and that's associated with this.

[John Ashbrook]

They think they can get away with it because they always have for generations in our country. And I mean across the entire planet, major powerful media companies started with a lead. They started with a headline. They started with the assumption of whatever it is they wanted to push on everybody else. And then anything that supported that lead. That's what goes in the story.

[Michael Duncan]

But isn't it different, Ashbrooke like to see something like that in the Associated Press?

[Josh Holmes]

Well, it's.

[John Ashbrook]

Something has changed that is fundamentally different in the last 10 years. Something fundamentally has changed.

[Josh Holmes]

I wonder, though, because I've grappled with this a lot. We used to work with media all the time. A lot of good people at the association, Associated Press, from years ago when we.

[Michael Duncan]

This is the wire. This is the wire.

[Josh Holmes]

We're the best reporters that we dealt with. You. You had to be on your A game to talk through all these things. And what I wonder, what I'm beginning to wonder is whether or not the wool was pulled so far over all of our eyes for so long that you didn't have access to the truth in the same way that we do now. And their shaping of the truth was just the jumping off point that you had to discuss everything like that they conceived of and communicated a truth that you were then working backwards from that didn't exist in the first place. I don't know the answer to that, but that's the thing that I'm grappling with now that like 20, for 20 years of my career, like did. They can just.

[Michael Duncan]

They gaslit you into a reality.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah, yeah. It's absolutely true. They attacked Reagan, they attacked Bush, they praised Clinton, they praised Obama. Like, we've always known this. Everybody in our audience has always known that the media was against us. But somehow in the early to mid 2000 teens, the left went on like autopilot. It was just like there was an absolute gas lean on their fire.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

And they went so far left. It was unbelievable. And we can get into this. I think that the retirement of some of the old people that occurred in the early 20 odds contributed to this. The hiring of left wing, low salary people who were, like, ideologically driven contributed to this. There's so many factors.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

The collegiate system that produced the new crop of journalists. I mean, there's a whole bunch of different things, but I do wonder whether or not it's always been this way.

[John Ashbrook]

They've never been.

[Josh Holmes]

We just know the difference now. Yeah, I do wonder.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, I think there's. There's some validity to that.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, listen, but that's just one thing. Information flow is one piece. And our premise of this show at the beginning, we're going to have a lot more yucks coming. Wait till you hear about all of this. That's information flow. There's also pop culture. And there's also, like a deep state element.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

All of which are now kind of coming fruition. Things the left has counted on forever. They can't bank on anymore. Right after this, Big labor backed Kamala Harris, and now it's positioning itself against President Trump's innovation agenda. Railroads are using technology to boost safety, reduce inflation, and improve jobs for hardworking Americans. But powerful union bosses want to stop the Trump administration from making progress for American consumers. It's time for the Department of Transportation to stand up to big labor and move America forward. Unleash innovation, lower inflation, empower rail. Visit caseforconsumers.org and be part of the movement driving America forward. Okay, so we talked about how the information, basic information flow now has the uncomfortable reality of truth that you can juxtapose.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

The way it's framed for you based upon what you're seeing with your own lying eyes. Well, then you get into pop culture and we've all known, I mean, ever since, like, the days of, you know, Forrest Gump, anything. After that, we've started to gotten into a weird Hollywood conceptualization of, like, what constitutes art. Everything is. Every film that wins an award is something you would never see unwatchable, basically, you know, and everything has to have some trans element and some, like, sexual identity issue or some, like, racially divisive undertone that, like, is about somebody oppressing somebody else. Like, that's just like the MO that they've gone with. But they also do these larger pieces that are, like, action thriller components that used to be about the United States beating the Russians or United States beating the communists or whatever. And you saw Top Gun. Bring that back.

[John Ashbrook]

Everybody loved it and everybody loved it.

[Josh Holmes]

As a box office smash. So you wonder like, well, how do they conceptualize all this? We got a good view into the changing dynamic of this in Apple. Just this week announced according to deadline.com that they're postponing Jessica Chastain thriller the Savant amid current events. You're like, oh, that's interesting. What current events would postpone an Apple thriller? As they say, a thriller.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm sure it was thrilling. Let's take a look.

[Josh Holmes]

So the release of Apple TVs plus the Savant has been put on hold. The decision comes three days before the thriller starring Jessica Chastain was slated to premiere on the streamer September 26th. No new date has been set. Interesting. Well, that's interesting they not postponed indefinitely. I don't know. We'll see. The streamer would not elaborate on the reasons for the last minute change, but the savant subject matter is believed to be behind it. Oh, but that. Okay, so it's a thriller. What's the subject matter? The storyline was about preventing extremist attacks and some of the imagery considered possibly triggering following the September 10th assassination of right wing political activist Charlie Kirk. Right wing even. I mean even these fucking people. Of course the series included a sniper inaction and the bombing of a government building, among other violent acts. They're like, oh, okay, so. Well, it was a depiction of like violent extremism and like finally a documentary about antifa. Yeah, right. I mean that's when my first. I read the first couple of graphs, I was like, yeah, yeah, okay, this sounds great. So this is like from writer, exclusive producer, showrunner Melissa James Gibson, fifth season in anonymous content. This font follows an undercover investigator known to the savant. That's Chastain. She's the actress. The redhead, you know.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Zero Dark Thirty.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah, She's a great actress. Not sure why she accepted this assignment, but great actress who infiltrates online hate groups.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, here we go.

[Josh Holmes]

To stop domestic extremists before they act. We're on the verge of serious violence, Chastain's character says in the trailer, evoking a potential attack of the scope of 9 11. Now if you talk to people who are involved in this kind of thing, what they will tell you beyond what has been reported here is that the entire premise of this was that the extremists are right wing.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, of course.

[Josh Holmes]

And the violence is right wing driven. And who the. What the hell is. How do they describe her?

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, well, she's investigating it online. Yeah, the savant yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

What the savant is there to do?

[Michael Duncan]

She's gonna break up the networks online.

[Josh Holmes]

She's embedded with these right wing extremists. There has been rumor and innuendo to suggest that there is a Charlie Kirk like figure.

[Michael Duncan]

Come on.

[Josh Holmes]

That she is dealing with. Now, I don't know that I haven't seen in any of the footage, obviously, but there has been enough online for me to consume this. And what is suggested as the storyline and the narrative of this sucker is that all America has to fear is from within and it's coming from the right. Tough time to release something like that after five straight weeks of liberal progressive violence in society. So they decided to put a pause on this thing. Okay, good business decision. You shouldn't roll that thing out. A bigger question is why is it amidst all of the evidence from George Floyd on down of where the violence is coming from on the political side? January 6th. I'll grant you that's the thing. Like, I get it. That in my view is outweighed by the dozens of episodes of left wing extremism that happen every single fucking day in this country. On college campuses, on cities, in looting. I mean, for crying out loud, you can't even have a CVS that doesn't have deodorant locked up anymore.

[Michael Duncan]

They're burning Teslas because Elon Musk wanted to cut usaid.

[Josh Holmes]

So how is it that you come up with a theory of the case and a narrative worth pursuing for a blockbuster hit? I am sure Apple spent $100 million on this thing.

[Michael Duncan]

They don't do anything cheap over there. They do big productions.

[Josh Holmes]

They dedicate that kind of like budget and feature presentation with an actress like Jessica Chastain forwarding the narrative that right wing extremism is the cause of violence in America. Something to fear. Come on.

[John Ashbrook]

Here's the thing, guys. And I mean, I know that they, you know, good on them for recognizing that this is impolitic. Under no circumstances would I have clicked on this anyway. Under no circumstances do I watch most of the things that they put out. Because most of the things that they put out are not entertaining. I don't know when the last time. I'd like to ask you guys this. When was the last time you were tempted to even watch a network drama? You know, like, you see the commercials during the CBS NFL broadcast and it's like Matlock coming up. And it's like, I'm not even close to tempted to watch that.

[Josh Holmes]

It's all like a slight derivation on reality that just implicates a conservative rather than a liberal.

[John Ashbrook]

It's the whole thing, you know, you're gonna be preached at. And the entire point of turning on something to get entertained is that you can just forget about your life for a minute. And no, the left is like, we have infiltrated that. We will give you a sermon. We will tell you what to think. When you were a kid, we made a cartoon about Captain Planet. And now that you're an adult, we're gonna make a real show about someone with Jessica Chastain in it. Like.

[Josh Holmes]

I get it.

[John Ashbrook]

You're trying to give me a sermon. I stopped watching a long time ago.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and disagree.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, okay. Let's throw it out there.

[Michael Duncan]

I think Apple tv, I mean, in this era of streaming slop. And there is slop out there.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, there's a lot of slop.

[Michael Duncan]

Just terrible stuff that should never see the light of the day, that somehow gets green lit because it's a streaming platform.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm gonna give Apple TV one thing, and that is nearly everything that they put on their streaming.

[Josh Holmes]

From a production standpoint, it's a huge production.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a 9 of 10. It's a 10 of 10 for all. Mankind is an awesome show. It's sort of like an alternative history where, like, the Russians won the space.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

They. They actually do incredible stuff.

[Josh Holmes]

Weird. They're pro Russian on that.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they're not pro Russian.

[Josh Holmes]

It's interesting.

[Michael Duncan]

It's. It's like a dystopian thing where America has to then somehow find itself. It's a thought piece. It's really well done. And they've done good stuff on that. Not everything's for everybody. It is what it is. It's streaming platform. It's Hollywood, whatever. But they've done great stuff on that platform. I just want to say. I just want to give them their flowers.

[Josh Holmes]

But I think that's not the point. The point.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course it's not the point.

[John Ashbrook]

Like, they made. They made it, right. They made a show you like. The only reason I would click on a show is because my friend said it's worth watching. It's like the Wire. You got Avon Barksdale, you got Stringer Bell, and you got, like, friends saying.

[Michael Duncan]

Now we're comparing it to the Wire, one of the best shows of all time.

[John Ashbrook]

My point is. My point is streaming content is something I only click on if multiple friends are like, oh, you gotta watch this.

[Michael Duncan]

It's true. It's true.

[John Ashbrook]

No, that's true. Under no Circumstances. Am I gonna see a promo for a show?

[Michael Duncan]

That's point was that Apple TV's hit rate, I would say is much higher than a lot of these other streaming platforms that put up slop every single day.

[Josh Holmes]

No question. Correction noted on that.

[Michael Duncan]

That's all I'm saying. I want to be fair to it.

[Josh Holmes]

I think the. What this underscores in my mind is that we've greenlit a script that a massive company with a massive production budget.

[Michael Duncan]

Correct. That has zero basis in reality.

[Josh Holmes]

Zero basis.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And they think we're living through Timothy McVeigh and Ruby Rich right now. They want to create an alternative reality in which somehow right wing violence is the problem in this country, which is of course not the reality.

[John Ashbrook]

And they've been doing it since we were kids with Captain Planet fighting against the coal companies.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

Get out of here. Do you remember that guy? By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet. I'm fighting against a corporation that's actually keeping the lights on in this country.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, the funniest part of Captain Planet was like, you had wind, water, fire. And then there was one kid whose superpower was heart.

[Josh Holmes]

It's just a joke.

[Michael Duncan]

Which just tells you everything that's wrong with the progressive left.

[Josh Holmes]

Dude. I'm wondering whether or not when you spend $100 million, you got to figure out how to get this thing to the light of the day at some point or another. Right? So there's some re editing.

[Michael Duncan]

Just do zero dark 32.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, right.

[Michael Duncan]

No more terrorists.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm wondering. They're like, Jessica Chastain's walking in and she's like, you know, I'm willing to go into the Valley of the Beast. I'm willing to go into this left wing terrorist group.

[Michael Duncan]

Just dub the whole thing. Let's just dub the whole thing.

[Josh Holmes]

They have like these, like the, like these massive dramatic moments where she's like, I can't tell you how dark it is in there. It's unbelievable. The progressive left, terrible.

[Michael Duncan]

They just photoshopped like purple hair on all of these militia people they're trying to say are right wing.

[Josh Holmes]

And they're like, just pretend like they're all gay or something. You know what I mean?

[Michael Duncan]

Like, I don't.

[Josh Holmes]

Because they got to get it to light. You can't spend that much money. They got a list actor that's dead.

[Michael Duncan]

That's dead money.

[Josh Holmes]

It's dead money. They got to figure it out.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, I can help.

[Josh Holmes]

Do a voiceover.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, I'll help.

[Josh Holmes]

Apple give us a call. Ruthless variety program we can. We'll do it. We'll make it funny.

[Michael Duncan]

Very funny.

[Josh Holmes]

We'll make it funny. We can help with all that. All right. Another thing that came out this week, that courtesy of Jim Jordan, good friend of the program, but something that Eric Schmidt, another great friend of the program, senator from the great state of Missouri, who started when he was attorney General back in Missouri, investigating, was the scope of which the Biden led government intimidated social media companies, anybody in the tech world, into censoring, taking down in otherwise suspending accounts of information that was provided by those accounts that the government disagreed with.

[John Ashbrook]

Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait a minute. You're telling me the left did that? Because everything I heard from Libs on the Jimmy Kimmel thing was that they've never done anything remotely close to that.

[Josh Holmes]

They love free speech.

[John Ashbrook]

They said they like free speech.

[Josh Holmes]

This is the greatest irony of all time that this comes out this week. We just had a hair on fire moment at the end of last week and early this week about how and Jake Tapper was on Fallon's show talking about, this is the greatest affront to the First Amendment that I have lived through in my entire career. He's talking about the Kimmel thing. Meanwhile, it is literally uncovered that day that the federal government was suspending ordinary Americans, not people who have broadcast licenses, who are making $16 million a year, and their shows making tens of millions of dollars more than that. Those people, ordinary Americans, if they expressed so much as an opinion about the efficacy of a vaccine, their accounts were taken down. Now, this is what Google testified to and discussed with Jim Jordan. Now, we'd already seen what Eric Schmidt had been talking with folks at Facebook and other TikTok and other places about the efforts that the Biden administration had taken upon them to basically say, nice house. It's a shame if something happened to it.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it was a mafia racket that.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, hey, we have this antitrust thing against you. Yeah, we could pursue that pretty vigorously. Unless, of course, you can figure out a way to suspend all of these accounts, at which point they basically had no choice and did what they did. And I assume that's a part of the story of what Google is talking about. YouTube in particular, was suspending accounts that were talking about COVID information that the government deemed unworthy to air.

[John Ashbrook]

I'm sorry, I come back to this, but I refuse to believe the Democrats, after the week that we have just had, did something similar. I refuse to believe it. They never would do anything like that.

[Josh Holmes]

If you have shed even a single Tear. If you have thought even for a single moment that what happened with Jimmy Kimmel was an abridgment of First Amendment rights in this country, I have some facts for you. For one, it is the job of an FCC commissioner to provide recommendations and advice for broadcasting licensed broadcasts about what is or is not a political content, what is or is not of public benefit use. It doesn't apply to cable companies, doesn't apply to podcasts, it doesn't apply to whole bunch of medium where people, majority of people get their information. But it does apply to abc, and that's what Brendan Carr did. And in response to that, well, it wasn't in response to that, but in the same time period of that, the good people at abc, Sinclair and all the networks that broadcast Jimmy Kimmel decided, like, this guy's too much of a liability. He's not making any money for us anyways. Ratings are fucking terrible. We're gonna take him off air. First Amendment rights were decried by the left. They thought this was like the most significant. They're still talking about it. Kamala Harris on MSNBC yesterday, talking about it, about how this was like such a horrible thing because their propagandist, who's a late night comedian, who talks about like assassinations on his show. Great comedy, very funny, very funny, Jimmy. But that guy, his suspension was a real problem. At the same time, they all presided over a government of the United States that went into you individually as a voter and a citizen of this country, to suggest that if you said something on a YouTube channel or a Facebook page or anything like that, that somehow undercut their version of events, of COVID masking vaccines, anything like that, they were not only going to give you a warning, which is bad enough from a First Amendment standpoint, they were going to suspend indefinitely your account altogether. And they just took them down.

[Michael Duncan]

So just to broaden it out a little bit, and I just want everyone who's listening and viewing this to know that we're speaking from like a little bit of experience in this area, that in 2020, it was even beyond the COVID stuff and all of that, where the government was trying to pressure Hunter Biden's laptop, Hunter Biden's laptop and everything else. But, like, even beyond that stuff, and I wish Smug was here because he could talk to this as well. But like, if you had a banger Tweet, like in 2020, yeah, 2021, that whole time frame, that the liberals objected to what they would do. And, and you know, I believe that the DNC had an organized part.

[Josh Holmes]

Well, they did smug talks about this.

[Michael Duncan]

About how they would DMCA his account. DMCA is like basically like what they would do is they go back through all of your tweets and they'd find, you know, some tweet in which you shared media that somehow copy written.

[Josh Holmes]

Yep.

[Michael Duncan]

And then they would mass report your account for a DMCA violation, which would suspend it, which would suspend your account.

[Josh Holmes]

Therefore you couldn't see the tweet.

[Michael Duncan]

Couldn't see the tweet, couldn't do any of those sorts of things. These people hate the First Amendment.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean they're just attacks like they have absolutely no commitment to the First Amendment whatsoever. Freedom of speech is a thing threat, not an asset of today's progressive left.

[John Ashbrook]

Well, to your, to your point, fellas, Jimmy Kimmel is back on air.

[Josh Holmes]

But oh, I was told that there was a huge government intrusion.

[John Ashbrook]

That's what we were told. But he's back on air. ABC put him back on in late night. But some of the networks that carry ABC programming were like not too interested in that show for our audience. And wouldn't you know it, that Elizabeth Warren herself, the woman who actually ran the Biden Open Borders administration, and Ron Wyden and Chris Van Hollen.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, it's a couple.

[John Ashbrook]

Chris Van Hollen who had scholars margaritas with the terrorists from South America. They are investigating those networks who will not broadcast the Kimmel programming because they're like, ah, maybe our audiences aren't interested in it. They're like, no, you have to.

[Josh Holmes]

So wait, hold on. I just want to make sure that I have the fact pattern right on that. So a private company, I think it's like Sinclair, nexstar that have broadcast rights to these. They decided they're no longer interested in providing the Kimmel show.

[John Ashbrook]

Give us something else, they say.

[Josh Holmes]

And so give us something else. And so the response of the Democrats that we're talking about here, Elizabeth Warren, Van Hollen, what a fucking group this is. They say if you don't broadcast our favorite comedic propagandists, we're gonna investigate you. We'll investigate you. So pony up, either play it or get amassed in legal bills. And they're in government, right?

[Michael Duncan]

I think so.

[Josh Holmes]

Right, Senators, that you just discuss. Yeah. So what was the whole purpose of the First Amendment? Was it about private companies deciding who could use their airwaves? I don't think so. Oh, I know. It was the government. It was about the government deciding that they could put undue pressure on people to conduct Speech the way that they preferred Josh.

[Michael Duncan]

It's almost like these people don't have a leg to stand on. Oh, my crazy gosh.

[Josh Holmes]

And like, here's the thing.

[John Ashbrook]

I never would have expected it.

[Josh Holmes]

I understand and appreciate like Ted Cruz and others that came out and they were like, well, we're nervous about this with Brendan Carr. I get where they're coming from. Because like, if you were against the Biden administration, stuff like the free speech, if you knew the fact pattern here, I think you'd come to a different conclusion.

[Michael Duncan]

But if you're on principle, I understand it.

[Josh Holmes]

But on principle, I do understand why you would be concerned because you just know that that's like a slippery slope. Yeah, yeah. But the fact pattern and then your opposition pretty much fills in the whole coloring book on this one. The fact pattern is ABC and Disney put this guy back on the air within five days, he's back on it. Was the government saying that they couldn't put him back on? Obviously not. He's back on. Was Sinclair and nexstar who broadcast, who have stations throughout this country sufficiently concerned about this guy representing a point of view that is not audience friendly? Of course, it's a business decision. Like those guys get to decide what they air and what they don't air. And that's ultimately what they did. And by the way, like, his ratings fucking blow. They're terrible.

[Michael Duncan]

You know what I mean? Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Like, if your goal is to have a successful television station, you would not put Jimmy Kimmel on your air.

[Michael Duncan]

It's never their goal, though. We've talked about this previously on the show. This is an in kind contribution. This is a Democratic super pac. This thing loses money for these huge multinational corporations and they just accept that.

[Josh Holmes]

So where's the letter on that is my point. Yeah, like, why are we focusing on something that didn't happen with Brendan Carr on the conservative side? And notice that any Republican who says anything about this administration in particular all of a sudden becomes this cause celeb. You get the Wall Street Journal editorial board talking about it. You've got every nightly news talking about it like, well, Ted Cruz speaks up. Truth to power and unprecedented rebuke of the Trump administration. And yet what you're dealing with on the other side is now uncovered by Jim Jordan and started by Eric Schmidt. A strategic and rigorous prosecution of private companies to say and allow only said what it is that the government wanted them to say. If you're concerned for a moment about the First Amendment, just focus on that.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Make sure that that's never gonna happen again. If you have to have legislation. If you don't feel like the First Amendment covers what it is that you're talking about here, make it more specific. Dive into that. Don't worry for a second about Brendan Carr. He's not your problem, I can promise you that. He's a free speech guy. Like this is. This is a thing that people need to focus on. And the fact that we can have this conversation in the same 48 hours is absolutely mind blowing to me. And where is this? Did you even know that before you heard this on the Ruthless Variety program? Did you know that? Did you know that? Elizabeth Warren and fucking White House and the douchebag Margaritas Wieden who's by the way his kids. That story, my God. You know, like, it's just a bunch like these are the worst people on the planet. They are investigating private companies for the failure not to put up their own propaganda. Did you know that? No, of course you didn't, because not Brian. I didn't see Nippy Peace story on that. I didn't see a. That's funny, I didn't see a nightly news segment on that. Oh gee, I didn't see an editorial on that.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what, you're right. I don't. I don't think I saw one either.

[Josh Holmes]

Amazing, right? So keep your eye on the ball, folks. This is like some people are not your enemies on this stuff. And finally a third piece. This is your bread and butter, old man.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, what is it?

[Josh Holmes]

I just want to wind your back, stick a quarter in you and let you go. The deep state.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

They've loved it forever. They've loved it because they can control administrations, both Republican and Democrat with unelected bureaucrats as far as the eye can see. You're gonna have somebody like Steve Bannon decide that he is going to refuse a congressional subpoena and he can be sentenced to prison and go spend hard time. You're gonna have people like James Comey, people like Brennan, Brennan Clapper.

[Michael Duncan]

People like Clapper, Eric Holder.

[Josh Holmes]

Eric Holder. All these people come in before Congress and lie. You take an oath and the oath is penalized by a felony perjury if you lie. And they bald face lied.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Time and time again. Nothing ever happened to them. Always something happened to the other side because the deep state, because that's just the way things work. Well, it appears the times might be a changing, as Bob Dylan used to say. According to Fox News, Justice Department seeks to indict former FBI director James Comey. For allegedly lying to Congress. Michael, you have the floor.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. So this is remarkable and very important for our democracy. I think more important for democracy than a lot of other things we've discussed on the ruthless variety program. And that is we are finally rebalancing the scales away from unelected bureaucrats in a deep state who pretend to run our country and the American people who elect a president of the United States. I think that Jim Comey is one of the most villainous people in modern history in our democracy, and I don't say that lightly. I think this guy is a malignant narcissist who wanted all of the attention in the world. We saw that in the run up to the 2016 election with the Hillary Clinton investigation. And we saw that when he went into Trump Tower, when Donald Trump won that election and said, Congratulations, Mr. President. Hey, did you piss on a bunch of Russian prostitutes? I've got this dossier. I'm not gonna tell you the provenance of this thing. Of course. It's Hillary Clinton's opposition research. But I just want you to know this might get out there. It might end up in the media. Who knows? I don't know.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm just.

[Michael Duncan]

I'm just your good friend.

[Josh Holmes]

Just a good friend letting you know.

[Michael Duncan]

Just give me a heads up.

[Josh Holmes]

One thing I'm not gonna let you know of is that I got four teams working on the investigation as we speak.

[Michael Duncan]

As we speak. And this guy, Jim Comey, made his entire career on the entrapment of people, and that's what he tried to do to the President Elect of the United States. It was treason at that moment. It was treason when he wrote all of those notes and went back to his fucking car like the little boy scout that he pretends to be, and then leaked that shit to the fucking media. He deserves to be in prison. I think Jim Kony is a malignant force in our democracy, unelected. These people have gone on cable news for years with a wink and a nod, and you don't know what I know. But I'm gonna tell you something. I can't give you all the details. I'm gonna tell you how things are really working. And that is such a malignant force to be able to say, I can't tell you, but I've seen stuff you haven't seen. And Donald Trump is actually working with Vladimir Putin, which was a lie.

[Josh Holmes]

Which is what they did.

[Michael Duncan]

An abject lie.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And they did it. And I think they stole his whole first administration through all of that, through the deep state. Again, I don't say any of that lightly. I've just with the advantage of seeing now everything in time. I think it was one of the darkest periods of American democracy. I totally agree that we let these people who are not elected, who worked in intelligence agencies run roughshod over the elected people of our democracy. And then they were given a megaphone on cable news every night to undermine the elected President of the United States. It's wild that it happened. I'm just so glad that we finally turned the corner on this, that people are going to be held accountable for what they did.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, there's a grand jury that is underway in Virginia right now. We'll see if they return an indictment or not. The one thing I can absolutely guarantee is if an indictment is handed down, there will be the media's coverage of this, which will suggest that a truth social post that Donald Trump put out five days ago or so, asking Bondi Ag Bondi, like, where are these things? And basically suggesting there's a whole bunch of political enemies that he's got that have cases and none of them has come to fruition. And, like, I wouldn't do that. Tweet. Right. Like, I wouldn't suggest that the president do that. What he did. It's a reasonable question.

[Michael Duncan]

Sure.

[Josh Holmes]

All of these things have basis in law. This is a man who had 46 indictments in the, like, basic premise that he was running for president.

[John Ashbrook]

Right.

[Josh Holmes]

They were willing to leave him alone until he decided he was gonna be a political threat. And all of a sudden he has 46 indictments in three different states and all kinds of different stuff going on. He's like, all right, so, like, are we doing our job? Are we doing the basics of our job? And that will be the way the media covers this. Upon directive from the President, United States, as evidenced by this truth social post, Jim Comey is now indicted, which will.

[John Ashbrook]

Negate the grand jury.

[Josh Holmes]

It will negate the story about what the grand jury has heard. It'll be a controversy about how politics has re entered the legal realm, as if somehow Republicans are the ones that are behind lawfare and that's. They'll muddy the water. They will never talk about the fact that he lied.

[Michael Duncan]

Well. And so here would be my counterpoint to everyone, the media and the Democrats who try to make that argument, truth is a defense. You know, I would point out that in Donald Trump's first term, he got impeached for a phone call about investigating Hunter Biden's Dealings in Ukraine. Yeah. Which we found out when, When Donald Trump made that phone call, all of the stuff that he was. He was alleging was true.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

We found that all out in Joe Biden's administration that all of that dealing in Ukraine happened to be true. Right. And that was treated as a offense that Donald Trump would want to investigate.

[Josh Holmes]

That enough to impeach him.

[Michael Duncan]

Impeached him for it.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

And so the idea that maybe Donald Trump would like to see Jim Comey face a little bit of justice for.

[John Ashbrook]

No, I'm with.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm with you, dude.

[Michael Duncan]

The art not wrong.

[Josh Holmes]

The art. He's not wrong. I'm just telling you the way that.

[Michael Duncan]

Of course they will.

[Josh Holmes]

The first piece that we covered in the information flow is still alive and well to an awful lot of people. The difference is there's an awful lot of you, millions that are choosing things like the ruthless variety program to get an actual account of what's happening.

[Michael Duncan]

I will defend the investigation of Jim Comey to the hill because it's 100% necessary.

[Josh Holmes]

I'm all for the Brennan one next, by the way.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, so you've heard how they're losing all of this. I think a good encapsulation of how you're losing the information flow, the pop culture and the deep state all at the same time. Includes universities, by the way, and a whole bunch of people who are trying to play ball. Corporate America getting rid of dei, like all of these things are just sliding, sliding sideways and they don't know what to do. You can make an argument that this is one of a principal reasons why violence has now entered the fray from the left. But it's a lack of leadership one way or another. There's no new ideas, there's no fresh face, there's no mess. There's no actual assertion one way or another about how they can improve the lives of the American people. It's like they forgot what government was all about.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

So none of these people exist on the scene at all. You could argue like maybe Zoran Mandani or aoc. I mean, they certainly have some ideas like those people are maybe the idea people, and we know they probably are. But if you were to just take it, it leads to our question of the day. If it doesn't exist, the next leader doesn't exist. Currently in public about the next Democratic leader, what do you think the next left wing leader in this country looks and sounds like? Yes, I want your description creative, as creative as possible about who you think is going to lead the left movement going forward. We had Obama for a while. He had Clintons. He'd go back away as he had like the McGoverns and whatever. What's the next? Interested to hear what you guys think.

[John Ashbrook]

I think there's a chance that we see Greta Thunberg's long form birth certificate.

[Josh Holmes]

Long form.

[John Ashbrook]

And then somehow she is the candidate for president for Democrats in the United States.

[Josh Holmes]

She's from Bristol, Connecticut, bro.

[Michael Duncan]

He dropped long form birth certificate.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, I love that. So good. Before we go, we're going to talk to you a little bit about one of our favorite sponsors. It's Zbiotics. It's a pre alcohol probiotic.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

And I'll be honest, we're huge fans here at the Ruthless Variety Program. It's absolutely fantastic. You can see it right here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes. We finally have some product here. Ashbrook drank all of them.

[Josh Holmes]

Drain all three of them before we take our eyes off.

[Michael Duncan]

You know, I'm going to take one I'm going to put in my pocket right now so that Ashbrook can't take it. The reason why Zbiotics is so important.

[John Ashbrook]

Outrageous.

[Michael Duncan]

What? The reason why it's so important is if you have a big night, you know, you think like you're dehydrated. That's why you feel bad the next day. But the reality is that alcohol produces a toxic byproduct in your gut neutralized by Zbiotics. And we say that as people who are not just fans of this ad read, but as users of the product.

[Josh Holmes]

We've done it and we've done it successfully. I don't think we would have made it through multiple events without this product. It is absolutely terrific. You take it before your first drink of the night. You drink responsibly. Of course, we always urge that here at the Ruthless Variety Program. But when you do, everything kind of seems to work out one way or another. And it's backed by science.

[John Ashbrook]

That's right. And that's why you always need to remember there is no tomorrow without Zbiotics today.

[Josh Holmes]

So you go ahead and you go to zbiotics.com ruthless and use the code Ruthless at checkout. You're going to get 15% off. And just remember, if you're unsatisfied for this thing, like you let us know because I have not met anybody who is not satisfied by ZBiotics. Go to ZBiotics.com ruthless use ruthless at the checkout for 15% off. Okay, we got to get your comments from Thursday's episode. Remember, we covered the un The United nations, formidable international body that should be kicked to the curb. But we asked you, should Trump deport the UN when we ask this, we ask that you like and subscribe to the ruthless variety program and give you your thoughts. And when you do, we cultivate them, we read them and we provide what we think is a nice sampling of some of the comments that you've provided us. And to do that, we always start with a voice.

[John Ashbrook]

Okay, here. The first comment comes from Susanna Lewis. And Susanna has her own ideas on what should be done with the trillion dollar debate society known as the United Nations. Susanna writes, Deporting the U.N. is the first step. Then we leave the U.N. they're worthless. Why should we keep funding them? Susanna is exactly right. She's asking the question we're all asking.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, Susanna, don't you grab on me.

[John Ashbrook]

She knows.

[Josh Holmes]

Well done. Okay, comment too.

[Michael Duncan]

This from Pat Turnbow. Pat writes, should TRUMP Deport the U.N. no, but he should make every member that hasn't contributed the same percentage as the U. S Unable to vote close their embassy until they're able to pay their correct percentage and remove their tax exemption.

[Josh Holmes]

I like that pattern. It's a real choice for a lot of the international community there. Yeah, they'd have to. Yeah, that would, that would. They would not do that.

[Michael Duncan]

They would self deport. They would self deport.

[Josh Holmes]

They would self deport. Comment 3 is from Joel Radke who says yes, deport all of the UN1 problem though. What if their home countries won't take them back? Easy solution for that, Joel. We send them to El Salvador.

[John Ashbrook]

Or maybe a flotilla in the Mediterranean.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay, you guys ready for first? We've got a new game.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

So we think about this stuff all the time. And you're familiar with the game, the games that we've played up to this point. This is an adaptation of hard pivot in some ways, but it's much more personal. We call it jackassery.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

In jackassery is a game where all of us present an argument that we would like the other one to make straight faced for one minute. And we will allow the viewing public to be the judge.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Of who it is that wins this thing. There's a viewer vote on your YouTube channel right now.

[Michael Duncan]

Yes.

[Josh Holmes]

And you get to vote based upon.

[Michael Duncan]

Who did the best job.

[Josh Holmes]

Who did the best job. It's subjective. You can, I mean you can vote however you want.

[John Ashbrook]

And let me just emphasize for people, we have no idea what these prompts are. We will hear them with you for the first Time?

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

No idea. We all making this up.

[Michael Duncan]

We all wrote them for each other and they're indefensible.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, here's the problem. When you do a show like this and you work together all day the time. We probably spend more time together than we do with our own families. You get to know somebody inside and out to a point where you can provide something like this that you know is going to be real problematic.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so I think that's what we've endeavored to do here.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And. And the first one is my prompt for John Ashbrook.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't wait to. Can't wait.

[Michael Duncan]

You ready, John?

[John Ashbrook]

Shoot.

[Michael Duncan]

Ashbrook, please explain why Brian Stelter is a talented media reporter and a valuable asset to cnn.

[John Ashbrook]

Presenting the news these days is a quite difficult thing. You have a number of conservative outlets rising up and spreading disinformation across our political ecosystem. Okay. And you need somebody who has been around for a very long time to set everyone else straight, to call them out. And if it's a guy who is bald who looks like a typical person you might see at a local bar, all the better. And that's why Brian Stelter is the guy to set the world straight and to call people to the carpet when they are presenting a conservative point of view. Because as we know, the conservative point of view is always wrong.

[Michael Duncan]

You have 10 more seconds.

[Josh Holmes]

10 seconds. You want to take away?

[John Ashbrook]

I don't have anything else to say.

[Josh Holmes]

Okay.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay.

[Josh Holmes]

All right. Well, I have 50 seconds. You've summated.

[Michael Duncan]

He lasted.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't. You did it remarkably straight faced. It's better than I thought.

[John Ashbrook]

That's all I could come up with.

[Josh Holmes]

I mean, it's remarkable. As you know, as a longtime listener in the variety program, that question for this man in particular, Very difficult.

[Michael Duncan]

Difficult.

[Josh Holmes]

Defend the potato to the hilt. Go in. Tough deal. All right, dunks, I got yours. Get one minute back on the clock. Duncan, long held position of yours. I'd like you to tell us why a healthy society functions best when women are the primary breadwinners and decision makers. Because it removes toxic masculinity that prioritizes competition over the community. Good.

[Michael Duncan]

It's a very important question.

[Josh Holmes]

Josh.

[Michael Duncan]

The reality is every society in the world would be better run as a matriarchy than a patriarchy. Toxic masculinity is a problem in America today. The reality is when men are left without the influence of women, they're prone to radicalism. Look at Al Qaeda, for example. Women are more in tune with their emotional iq. And I believe the United States could benefit from a society and a public policy perspective that is more emphasized about the emotional rather than the masculine.

[Josh Holmes]

Seven seconds.

[Michael Duncan]

That's pretty good.

[Josh Holmes]

You got further down the rabbit hole, Nashbrook, with the 50 seconds. Listening to that come out of your.

[Michael Duncan]

Mouth is one of the best things.

[John Ashbrook]

We'Ve done in this program.

[Michael Duncan]

This might be the only segment my wife listens to.

[Josh Holmes]

What a hilarious bit. Oh, my God. Okay. Okay, fellas, I don't know if I'm fully prepared for this, but I guess. Ash Brook, you've got me.

[John Ashbrook]

I do have you. Okay, so for the third and final prompt. Josh, we ready? Lee? We're ready, Josh. Some people are saying that sports like football, baseball, and basketball are used by elites to distract our society, like bread and circuses in Rome. Others contend soccer is the only sport offering pure competition. Tell us why football, baseball, and basketball are bad and soccer is good?

[Michael Duncan]

Yes, you son of a bitch.

[John Ashbrook]

It's an honest question, Josh.

[Josh Holmes]

I. First of all, how dare you denigrate the world's most popular sport and lump them in with relatively niche constituencies? Here in the domestic United States of football, they don't play football in Europe, they call it soccer. They don't play football in South America. They call that football, which is soccer. And everybody knows the true foot ball is soccer. You don't even play football with your feet. You play with your arms, your shoulders, your leg. But it's niche. This is a small constituency in the grand scheme of things. There are billions of people that watch soccer, the things that bring the world community together. No one is saying that about basketball, football, Americano, or for that matter, basketball or hockey or any other sport that you can have that kind of toxic masculinity associated with in one form or fashion. The true beautiful sport of our time, as was envisioned by the people who founded soccer, was soccer.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't care who.

[John Ashbrook]

Very good.

[Michael Duncan]

I don't care who wins this game. Vote in our poll. Please, please, on YouTube, vote in the poll. I think the great service of this is having that recorded on tape.

[Josh Holmes]

That's the best part. I've thought about that a lot of time with the Ruth sobriety program. You know, there's a lot of in our line of work that don't want to put themselves on tape saying something completely ridiculous.

[Michael Duncan]

No, we. We make each other do compromise.

[Josh Holmes]

That's our thing. Our thing. And the one thing you can trust is that we put each other in the position where we're never gonna get out. The door is locked. Oh, my God. I can't believe you made me say nice things about soccer. Unbelievable.

[John Ashbrook]

The point of the game. And I think we should play this over and over and over again. I can't wait until comfortably Smug gets his turn in the barrel.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't either. I wish he was here for it. I have some ideas.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, me too.

[John Ashbrook]

Me too.

[Josh Holmes]

None of which was the matriarchy, though. That was fantastic. I can't believe you had to go in on that.

[John Ashbrook]

In the potato stelter right out of the gate.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible. What a game. That's the brainchild of Wolf over there. He's an absolutely devious Marine. Just like, figures that stuff out and puts us. You're doing this. I think he's the one that's putting the compromise. He knows we'll do it.

[Michael Duncan]

He knows.

[Josh Holmes]

Incredible. You guys, the fat bear is back. You recall from years past, we've talked a lot on the Ruthless variety program about Hank.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

Hank was up there in the upper Northwest terrorizing the shit out of people, stealing things from their homes, attacking people. And then he sort of coalesced what I think was basically like a mock Cosa Nostra of big fat bears that went around and terrorized a whole bunch of things. Some of them got caught, some they never made it to Hank.

[Michael Duncan]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

Right.

[Michael Duncan]

You never get to the boss. You get to the capos.

[Josh Holmes]

Exactly. Well, they have tried to placate these people with something called a Fat Bear Week. I think we talked about this last year.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah, it's important.

[Josh Holmes]

I remember Fat Bear Week. They're drawing in all of the cap up from Hank's army that will allow the public to vote for a bear that they think is the fattest bear in Katmai National Park, Alaska. So you can vote on this thing. And honestly, the size of these bears are incredible. Like, smug. Really needs to be in on this because if he had one of these rugs, boy, oh, boy, I think it would cover his entire place. If you look at the graphic, put this thing up. This is a contestant named 32 Chunk.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah. And Chunk. And Chunk has gotten pretty Chunk. I think it's important to note the timing of this is smart that they have Fat Bear Week here in the fall.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Right.

[Michael Duncan]

And so you have these bears, you know, gearing up for the winter. Yeah. They wake up from hibernation in the spring, and they're lean.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

You see here on the YouTube the lean photo of 32 Chunk, who's very svelte. He's ready to catch some rainbow trout in that river. And then you look at the new, improved 32 chunk, who's extremely chunk and he's ready for winter.

[John Ashbrook]

And might I just observe about the new 32 chunk? Can we put that picture back up just one more time for people watching on YouTube? You can't even see his eyes, he's so fat. Okay, the left would have you to believe our ecosystems have, have broken down. But if you're standing here and telling me that the salmon aren't running, you're lying. That thing has eaten more salmon this year than any bear in the history of mankind. And you can't even see his eyes because of it. And I think, fellas, you know, I would like a bear rug myself and smug and I have gone back and forth about who gets the first bear rug. I think, I think I would like to give Smug the first bear rug.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, that's very generous.

[John Ashbrook]

If anybody sends one in, I would like to give him the first bear rug because I have my eyes on something else.

[Josh Holmes]

32 chunk.

[John Ashbrook]

No.

[Josh Holmes]

What do you have?

[John Ashbrook]

For a long time on this show we have talked about a demon fish.

[Michael Duncan]

Where is this going?

[John Ashbrook]

Swims in the sea. The blackfish, the orca. And so if you are going to send in a bear rug, send it to Smug. But if you catch and mount an orca, send it to me because I will put it on my wall. And everybody who comes to my house, I will point to that orca and I will say, this is a triumph. Some people put a largemouth bass on an oak plaque on their wall. I want an orca on my wall with its teeth shining, just menacing.

[Josh Holmes]

I was like £2,000.

[John Ashbrook]

I will build a room for it just to display the orca. Because if you think about that trophy, nobody, you know, has ever had a trophy like that on their wall. And it's a conversation piece.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, how do you mount an orca?

[Josh Holmes]

It's a conversation piece. It certainly is that.

[Michael Duncan]

I hope you find some load bearing beams in your house.

[John Ashbrook]

Steel, steel beams. Because you need to protect that kind of a trophy.

[Josh Holmes]

Do you think, just out of curiosity, if you give any thought to, if you have an accessible blowhole just for the kids to.

[John Ashbrook]

You know what? I think the blowhole should, you know, like, you gotta find the right taxidermist. Okay. You cannot.

[Josh Holmes]

You gotta be a knock down, slap dash job.

[John Ashbrook]

It needs to be an order artist.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes.

[John Ashbrook]

Everything needs to be true to the beauty of that animal and all of its majesty, all of its power, all of its anger. Okay? This is a demon fish and it has to look like that on the wall. And if it doesn't, it's. It. It's not doing the animal justice.

[Michael Duncan]

Okay. I'm really glad we went into that.

[Josh Holmes]

I can't believe. There is a many ways, many directions I thought this show would go. That's not one of them. That is a brand new thing. I'm glad that you have such an emotional investment in the orca that you need that a whole.

[John Ashbrook]

You've never seen it. When's the last time you were in somebody? You might. You may have seen, like, a walleye on somebody's, you know, wall. You may have seen a. A large mouth. You may have seen a sailfish.

[Josh Holmes]

All right, all right. But like, mounting shamu is a little extreme centric.

[John Ashbrook]

Shimu is a dangerous, dangerous animal. Everybody thinks it's so friendly because it swims with the trainers. Okay. Those fish will eat you.

[Michael Duncan]

He's not wrong. I know about Tilikum. Tilikum was a killer.

[Josh Holmes]

Yes. Ate several trainers, I think, before they put pork tilum out of his misery.

[John Ashbrook]

You're not going to catch it on a nightcrawler either, by the way. You're going to have to cut a seal in half and hook into the tail of the seal if you want to actually catch one of these. Demon orca.

[Josh Holmes]

He's just so naked. Generations of Americans went to see them at SeaWorld. He's acting like it's Jaws.

[Michael Duncan]

He's got hate in his heart.

[Josh Holmes]

He hates animals so much. He hates them so much. Okay. All right. So, fellas, I know we got a big weekend watching football. We're gonna report back next week about that because I think we got some fun outings that we're gonna take a part of and try to get in and get real. We're football fans through and through.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And so we're gonna be doing that throughout the weekend. Got some kids activities in there, too. But we're gonna report back on the football stuff.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, we have to. It's an incredible slate.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah.

[Michael Duncan]

I mean, anybody who is out there on a Saturday wedding this weekend, I feel for you.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, totally.

[Michael Duncan]

Because we got a lot of great games.

[Josh Holmes]

No, I mean, if you. If somebody planned, I mean, you know, that marriage isn't gonna last.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a tough weekend for something like that.

[Josh Holmes]

You just know it's not. There's too much. It's over index one side or the other, and, like, it's just gonna break down.

[John Ashbrook]

You got the Vikings in Ireland.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, yeah, right.

[John Ashbrook]

I mean, 9:30 game on Sunday morning. You got the Colts where's What are the Colts doing this weekend?

[Michael Duncan]

Playing the Rams.

[John Ashbrook]

Playing the tough game.

[Michael Duncan]

Yeah.

[John Ashbrook]

First, first true test for that team.

[Michael Duncan]

Well, they beat the Broncos.

[John Ashbrook]

I think they could be four and.

[Michael Duncan]

Oh, they could be.

[Josh Holmes]

And how about the fighting Bengies?

[John Ashbrook]

Cincinnati Bengals are playing the Denver Broncos on Monday night.

[Josh Holmes]

Oh, my gosh. You and smug head to head. You had to go. You had to go from my team to his team.

[John Ashbrook]

Yeah.

[Josh Holmes]

And not in the most comfortable roster position that you've ever been in.

[John Ashbrook]

It's a very difficult but not unfamiliar season for the Cincinnati Bengals and we're gonna do our best to muscle through it. I talked to my dad on the phone this week and he said, Johnny, buddy, I had to turn it off at half.

[Josh Holmes]

I don't blame him. It was a tough thing to watch, even for a winning side. It got ugly with that. A hell of a week here on the ruthless variety program. Thank you guys so much for joining us. Remember, like and subscribe. And our question of the day is describe the next left wing leader who's going to lead the left. We know it's not somebody who's out in the open right now, so give us your best description. Use a little creativity. Throw your back into it. Yeah. Tell us, like what that person looks like, who they are.

[Michael Duncan]

We want to read some funny things.

[Josh Holmes]

Yeah. Yeah. Give us some comedy. Give us your best. When you like and subscribe, we watch every single thing that you have to say with that. Fellas, I think we did it.

[Michael Duncan]

I think we did it. And with no smug here, I think it's only appropriate we go to Hollywood.

[Josh Holmes]

Hen another banger of an episode, folks. So until next time, minions, keep the.

[John Ashbrook]

Faith, hold the line and own the libs.

[Josh Holmes]

We'll see you on Tuesday. Stay ruthless.