← Truth in the Barrel
Truth in the Barrel
This Week Unfiltered | 06.12.25
00:50:54
Today we’re taking an UNFILTERED look at the damage President Trump’s tariffs are doing to U.S manufacturers – can the administration spin the loss of8,000 manufacturing jobs in just one month as a victory for the American worker? Then it’s...
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- [00:00]
Richard Karn
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- [00:54]
Amy
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- [00:55]
Denver
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- [00:57]
Amy
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- [00:58]
Denver
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- [00:59]
Amy
Available at pockethost.com terms all right, all right. Welcome to Truth in the Barrel. First and foremost, I want to thank everyone who joined us for the live show earlier this week. We had such a great time, great audience. It was really lively and inspired some pretty amazing discussions right then.
- [01:17]
Denver
And it was longer than we thought because we had such incredible questions from the audience. But it was pretty neat, right, for me and you to be able to go back and forth like that just based on the spontaneous questions from the audience. And I think that's why it went longer. And it just, it felt a lot shorter than an hour to me.
- [01:32]
Amy
Yeah. And we had such a good time that we're going to be doing it again this Tuesday. Yeah, this Tuesday. Coming up June 17th at 7:30-8:30pm so if you weren't able to join the first live show, you need to get on and join the second one. And you can go back and watch the first one, right?
- [01:53]
Denver
I did. Because it's so good. I want to watch me and you over and over again.
- [01:59]
Amy
The first show is on YouTube and it's also the audios in your podcast feed. So if you want to go back, it was a really good show. Okay. Before we dive into today's topics, I just want to acknowledge that there is a lot going on And a lot of the media and focus is rightly on what is happening in Los Angeles, the protests there, the terrible, in my mind, federal Trump response to those protests. But we have already covered a lot of that earlier this week. We talked about it during our live show. We'll touch on it a little bit today. But it's important to make sure that these other topics that we're going to talk about today aren't missed. So with that, our show today is going to be focused on some other things. And the first topic we're going to cover here is Trump's tariffs and the impact on US Manufacturing.
- [03:00]
Denver
You know, it's so funny because what was it, the New York Times or somebody, Amy, they're like, hey, we went back to where we were, but a little bit worse, and there really didn't need to be a negotiation if he didn't already unilaterally impose these tariffs in this trade war that he started. And I think part of this, to me, Amy, when you talk about tariffs and you talk about supply chain and you talk about jobs, manufacturing jobs, and, and you talk about how people are reacting to these tariffs, I find it pretty amazing that it's been pretty much an abject failure so far.
- [03:31]
Amy
Totally.
- [03:33]
Denver
We can't seem to get the media to report, like, yeah, you know, maybe this has all been just bullshit. And I think that's what bothers me.
- [03:42]
Amy
Well, let's, let's bring in some facts for everyone. Okay, so, so why are we talking about this? Trump's signature trade policy, these tariffs, this thing that he's like loves, are actually hurting manufacturing. We have the data right now. It's actually hurting manufacturing. Where is it hurting manufacturing? In the Rust Belt, in the Midwest? A third of manufacturing jobs in America belong in the Midwest. So the very areas that voted for Trump are getting screwed right now. And why is this? Look, Trump's tariffs cause delays in equipment purchases. They cause total uncertainty. And this leads to, you know, no less jobs, right?
- [04:33]
Denver
Less jobs, less demand. And it's so funny what I'm about to say, Amy, in order to have a supply chain for manufacturing, you actually have to have a supply chain. So be like, well, Deborah, what does that mean? So let me tell you this. So I want to build a distillery, right? So say that Americans have stopped making whiskey. Now, that probably won't happen, but I want to build a distillery. But in order to build a distillery, there's one thing you really need. You know, we can talk about stills, we can talk about concrete, we can talk about fda Drains or EPA drains. We can talk about lighting. Right. We can talk about, hell, explosion proof receptacles. But you know what you really need for a distillery? Amy, you ready? Glass. Glass. And so think about this. So you're building a brand new. We're going to start distilling. I got to do all this. But there's no American glass. Right. All glass is now made in Mexico. It's sourced from China, it's sourced from Italy or France. Right. So what do you do? Well, in order to have a supply chain like, well, we want to build in America, well, we have to go outside America because there's no actual infrastructures for supply chain or materials for the specific manufacturing thing you want to build. And I think, I think it's just this fundamental lack of how manufacturing works that is infecting the administration we have right now.
- [05:52]
Amy
Yeah, it's this uncertainty is raising costs. I just had, you know, we're getting our front porch rescreened and we just got another quote for, to fix the door out front. And I saw on the quote there was, you know, if we're, if we're spending $400 to re screen the door in the front, there's like 45 to $50 charge with a big question mark by it. And when I read it, it said, well, this is due to the uncertainty. We don't know how much the parts are going to cost due to the tariffs. I mean, it's right there. All the prices are going up. It's a constant shifting of policy. And here's a fact, the manufacturing payrolls dropped by 8,000 last month. So this is contracting factory activity. These tariffs already, the growth in overall private construction spending on manufacturing has flatlined since the boom. The boom, Denver, that was going on during the Biden administration.
- [06:56]
Denver
Come on, Amy, why is that? Facts.
- [06:59]
Amy
I'm sorry, but like everybody, everybody wants, you know, manufacturing to come back to the United States. And this is Trump's big thing and he won the Rust Belt. Right, Right. But like boom for manufacturing was actually happening under the Biden administration. Do you know that why that was?
- [07:17]
Denver
I think because there was some, wasn't there some legislation passed?
- [07:22]
Amy
Of course it was the legislation. Right. Biden really focused on this. But also it's the, the Postco, you know, we, we had that supply chain company. All right, so there was this big boom and now Trump is basically just wrecking it all.
- [07:41]
Denver
Well, I mean, I think somebody in Congress asked one, I don't know if it was actually Besenham. And they said, well, how do you account for the 8,000 lost manufacturing jobs? And the answer was it's all going to plan. So I started laughing because if I. Because, you know, Amy, I've had the distinct pleasure of questioning people on the dice. And the first thing I would have asked is like, is the plan to lose more jobs? Why can't a Dem or somebody think of that on the fly? Cuz it's so obvious. Oh, it's all going to plan. So the plan is to lose manufacturing jobs.
- [08:12]
Richard Karn
Got it.
- [08:13]
Denver
That's a great sound bite for every single Democrat right now for the 2026 midterms. And a Republican would have trolled that way. But I think really facts based trolling is probably what needs to happen. But I did laugh that they said it's all going to plan when they asked him about the 8,000 lost manufacturing jobs.
- [08:30]
Amy
It really throws me. A lot of people are like, hey, Trump's really trying here. He's trying to bring these manufacturing jobs back. And here's the thing, like, since 2021, the region, the Midwest region, has added over 100,000 factory jobs. This was like the Biden plan. It was investments in electric vehicles, clean energy. All that stuff helps. And Donald Trump is literally reversing that right now. He's doing the opposite of what these Trumps, these tariffs were supposed to do in terms of bringing back manufacturing jobs. But let me ask you this, because there's a lot happening this week with this, quote, negotiations with China. And here's my take on it. And I know we're going to get into it here, but the amazing thing to me is Donald Trump created chaos with these tariffs, said we are being jerked around by the Chinese and we need to start winning again. And so he creates these chaos with these tariffs. We go now, he has a negotiation with them. Okay. And he's come out with a, quote, deal. And the deal is the same thing.
- [09:53]
Denver
That we had, 55% tariffs.
- [09:55]
Amy
Yeah, three, three months ago or whatever. Ratcheted up with 10% tariffs. But there's no, like, the Chinese didn't do anything different. There's nothing different here. He created chaos to create more chaos. To now say, I fixed the chaos. That's where we're at.
- [10:14]
Denver
You got rare earth metals back. Well, it's because you took them away because you're stupid. You know when you, when Amy, when you said that people are. And they are saying that Trump's really trying here. Well, I could try to dunk a basketball, but I'm a five foot seven, white, chubby guy. That's 55 years old. So I don't have the talent nor the ability to dunk the basketball. Right. And that's, I mean you could try to do anything, but if you don't have the talent or the competence or you've chose people around you that are, you know, literally conspiracy theorists and like policy based and fantasy, it's very difficult. But I do find it funny that they still kept the 301 tariffs from Biden too, by the way, Amy, they, they actually kept sort of the framework of the Biden deal or the Biden tariff structure almost exactly now and again. I know that, I know people hate facts, they really do on the far right sometimes when it comes to Trump. But I think they just need to look it up. I mean, it's not hard, Amy, it's, you can source this, you know, with.
- [11:12]
Amy
With regards to the, the rare earth stuff. Okay? So people need to know that these rare earth metals that are very important magnets, they go into different pieces of technology, everything from fighter jets to certain, your iPhone, you know, certain really important things that we need. And the Chinese were sending that stuff to us, you know, because most of it's made in China. 90% of these rare earth are manufactured. These metals are manufactured in China. And they didn't stop until Donald Trump started this trade war where he cut off Chinese students from coming to the United States and ratcheted up these tariffs to do over 100%. And so the Chinese just stopped and said, we're not going to send you any rare earth metals. And then the car manufacturing and all of these other businesses that require this or like what, wtf? We're not going to be able to manufacture anymore if we don't get these rare earth metals. So now Donald Trump has to go back, he negotiates with the Chinese and says, okay, I'll stop hurting your Chinese students coming to the United States. And in return the Chinese say, okay, we'll start to ship you these rare earth metals again. We're literally back to where we were.
- [12:45]
Denver
There's no, you know, and by the way, this morning Trump's already threatening China, take it or leave it. And you know, I just listen, there's a concept of a plan. There's a framework in place with no signatures. The other thing that people should be concerned about, we have a dictator to dictator negotiation going on because where's Congress? Based on their Article 1 authorities and the Constitution, they should be looking at these trade deals and approving them. They're not, they've given up their authority. So I think there's a, there's a multi layered issue here of somebody who creates chaos, takes credit for the very injuries that he created to the United States. Right. Self sustained unilateral injuries that he somehow fixed, which he did. And we have Congress not able. Right. To effectively oversee what these agreements are. I think, you know me and you smile and laugh a lot because what else do you do? Right? It's laughter through tears. Right? It's the, you know what, you're going to laugh and it's part of what we do because some of this is darkly funny. But I think I'm more worried now as we see Trump just being able to do whatever he wants to do without any oversight in the sycophants that are actually in Congress and in his administration. And I think, I know yesterday was a rough news day for me, Amy, and I think this is just part of it, is that we're really in a bad spot here. And listen, if saying we did great things after we destroyed ourselves is part of the news cycle and the media can't report on this honestly, we still go down the disinformation and propaganda rabbit hole every day.
- [14:18]
Amy
All right? As if hurting the livelihoods of many of the factory workers that voted for him wasn't bad enough, Trump is now ramping up his threats to arrest governors, members of Congress, pretty much anyone who doesn't fall in line. And it doesn't just stop at threats. Right. This congresswoman who was indicted this week, she was like, actually indicted.
- [14:44]
Denver
Okay, here's a couple things. Number one, where's the United States Capitol Police investigating any assault against a congressional individual? Why isn't the USCP investigating ice? Also, why isn't the USCP board condemning this? Right. The USCP board, the United States Capitol Peace Board should be condemning this right now. What people don't understand is that we can't get protection as congressional representatives unless you appeal to the USCP board on a one on one basis. Right. There's a lot of issues going on here, but the USCP has jurisdiction and law enforcement authorities as granted by Congress through the board. Right? And you're like, well, Den, who's in the board? And I'm going to shock some people here. Right, right. It's the architect of the Capitol, the aoc. Right? Not aoc, that's actually the architect of the Capitol. Right. It's the Senate Sergeant in arms and the House Sergeant in arms. Those are the three voting members. You're like, well, wait a minute, Den. How about the USCP chief doesn't have a vote. He's an advisory member on the USCP board. So think about that. I just want to put that out there to the American public so they understand how this happens. So here's what I would humbly submit. I would humbly submit that if I'm in Congress right now, and I'm Hakeem Jeffries, that I'm pushing for a bill that all congressional representatives, based on what happened with ice, actually get protection. And it's automatic. Right? Every single member gets at least one person assigned to them. Now you're like, well Dan, that's a lot. That's 435 people. But when you talk about the whole budget and Secret Service and USCP anyway, there's billions of dollars in waste that funnel through uscp. So the solution to this is that every congressional representative has USCP protection, just like the President's Secret Service, that the USCP does not allow any hands on of a congressional representative. And the USCP does have the authority to arrest anybody who comes at a congressional member. Which that means I. Yeah, that is Article one authorities.
- [16:37]
Amy
Well, yeah, I mean, and here's the problem, just to take a step back. So this congresswoman was part of a group of other members of Congress and the mayor of Newark, New Jersey who decided, hey, we're going to do our constitutional duty of oversight. And they went to a Department of Homeland Security detention center to check on the conditions in the center and they tried to get in. They weren't let in. There was a kerfuffle, shall I say, at the gate and a lot of yelling and pushing and that sort of thing. And now this congresswoman is being indicted for impeding ICE from going after the mayor of Newark during this kerfuffle, for lack of a better word. But I mean, to me this whole thing, just as you said, the ICE agents are actually in the wrong too because they are going after a member of Congress who is also doing her constitutional duty here. So they could be arrested. They should be just as easily as, you know, the Congresswoman was. It's just crazy. And it's totally like, we don't need to be doing this at all. There's no reason for this. We have three branches of government and the one branch of government should be able to do oversight.
- [18:14]
Denver
The reason's optics, Propaganda, conspiratorial thinking. Right. Pushing the base of the Republican Party to think that the Democrats are part of the globalist deep state, that this is part of everything. This is the whole baseline that I've been warning about since my God dang first speech in October of 2020 on the floor about QAnon and conspiracy theories, fantasy based policy and the cascading effect of violence that happens because of stupidity and ignorance. And you have agents out there who have no ability to hold themselves back. And I saw the video, Amy. The video is, it's innocuous.
- [18:53]
Amy
Yeah. To me it didn't look like there was much going on.
- [18:56]
Denver
Nothing going on. She isn't throwing haymakers. And by the way, if they had to come at me, there would there have been violence? Because I think there's certain people who are confrontational, who know the law and you have to say, am I going to get shot? Maybe. But you lay your hand on me and there, you know what? There's confess, they're going to fly and I'm going to throw hands.
- [19:14]
Amy
But it's.
- [19:14]
Denver
And that's just the way it is.
- [19:16]
Amy
And it's not just the way it is. Particular incident, right. There's now threats, lots of threats being flying, flown around. The recent one is on the governor of California, the Speaker of the House. Our speaker of the House was asked, should the governor of California be arrested? And he immediately said, well, that's not my lane. I can't go there. But he should, but he should be tarred and feathered, I'll say that. Well, what, Tar and feathered?
- [19:43]
Denver
That's like salt off bastard.
- [19:45]
Amy
That is like torture.
- [19:47]
Denver
It's cowardice.
- [19:48]
Amy
And it goes down to like, hey, we're okay with, with saying that. We're okay with saying, hang Mike Pence. We're okay with this now? I don't know.
- [19:57]
Denver
Yeah, I'm sure Mike is like, hey, welcome to the club, Gavin. You know, you know, it's the. And where is anybody talking about the reasonableness of these type of comments? It's so out of bounds now. And maybe that's why my good humor is starting to vaporize pretty quickly. I try to, you know, everybody says demerit, you know, continue to be the happy warrior. I know, Amy, you've heard that too, right? We're supposed to be the happy warriors. You know, you, hey, you know, authoritarianism is bad. Have an ice cream. You know, I don't know. I don't know what else to do now. I'm, I'm sort of out of. The only thing I can think of is, I mean, are we going to get to the point, Amy, where there's going to be physical confrontation between executive authority and there's going to, you Know, and against congressional authority, right? I mean, and if you have the USCP protecting, say they're protecting Hakeem Jeffries, who's the minority leader, and then say somehow the executive branch, through the FBI or through dhs says, we want to arrest Hakeem Jeffries, and he's surrounded by Capitol Police. Capitol Police won't let you touch him. What happens? What happens? What if we have actual force, on force, right, Between DHS and uscp? Because I'm telling you, Capitol Police will be like, you touch. Don't touch him. That's a minority leader of the United States Congress. Well, we're going to arrest him for whatever, right? Well, no, you're not. You can't arrest them. Oh, yes, we can arrest him. And the fact that the USCP isn't putting out a statement today about a sitting congresswoman being indicted is a foul. And I mean, is that the most understatement I could use? Well, it's a fact.
- [21:39]
Amy
And I know we focus on US Congress and we focus on the federal government a lot, but this harassment, these violent threats have been happening among lawmakers and elected officials at all levels. So city, county, state officials, and I looked up the Brennan center of justice has done some good work on this. A lot of the threats that are increasing over the past few years, many of them go to women. I mean, women get threatened more than men. According to the Brennan center, the women office holders were three to four times as likely as men to experience abuse targeting their gender. Officeholders of color were more than three times as likely than white office holders to experience this type of abuse. So, I mean, I know we're focusing on the congressional ones, but it goes all the way down. And this is a terrible, terrible trend for our democracy because it's going to make people not want to be in elected office. It's just a terrible thing, I think, that we're seeing that we're not talking about enough.
- [22:53]
Denver
I feel like the old man that's injured in the woods just dragging an ax, saying all heads off, but mine, like, what's it. What's coming next, right? God, I'm old and I'm tired, but damn, I'm tired of this. You know, I think the reason I'm very sensitive to what happened to the congresswoman, if I may. You know, thousands of death threats to me and my family, right? I kept one email where they said they were going to send people to rape my wife and daughters, right? One attempt on my life. USCP comes out because, you know, a very disrespectful attempt. You know, they took all, they took the lug nuts off my tires and put the caps back on. But my pregnant daughter was driving the truck when that happened to take it to get an oil change, to be honest, because I was in D.C. and I had left my congressional vehicle here at the House because it needed an oil change and it had taken one of my hot rods, right. So it was, it was interesting. You know, when I see this, I know that violence is real and I know it could be, it can come at us. And you know what the USCP told me Amy, after all this? Carry, carry a weapon. Great, so I carry a weapon, right. So now what happens if you get a congressional representative who takes to heart the fact that they have to protect themselves? The USCP board says we're not going to give you protection because we're just not. Because it's a Republican controlled Congress. Mike Johnson makes a call to the House and the Senate sergeant in arms and says we don't want you to vote. Now think about this. This should scare the hell out of what I'm telling people. People I, if they're not afraid of what I'm telling them about authorities in Congress and what the USCP should be doing and the control of the speaker and the majority in the House, they're not paying attention to what the words coming out of my mouth. Because what the USCP tells some of the members is like listen, we don't have the resources to protect you. You need to carry. So now what if you have a Democratic member of Congress carrying and they feel that there's an imminent threat and it's maybe from DHS or FBI or a Cash Patel led crazy wild eyed bullshit thing coming at somebody because I'm telling you there's going to be issues with people like me. You're going to have an issue. And I think that's what, that's what's going to happen. Violence begets violence. Escalation begets escalation. And that's my fear is there's going to be a sitting member of Congress with USCP protection and somebody's going to get froggy and you're going to have law enforcement on law enforcement violence with both thinking they're in the right. That is, that is something that could be absolutely devastating to law and order, but also our institutions.
- [25:29]
Amy
It starts with language. It starts with the leadership of our country and the language that we have allowed these leaders. And it's hard for me to even say that word because I don't even think of them as leaders, but they are the leaders of our country right now. Christy Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, said last week that she called the city, the Los Angeles, a quote, city of criminals. I'm talking, that's the kind of language I'm talking. How do you call everybody in the city of Los angeles a criminal? 3.8 million Americans, you're just going to call them. She is a leader. She is one of our leaders of our country. And it's that kind of just like, oh, I'm just going to throw that out there. I mean, that's the kind of language that just, just this is, this is the reason why this stuff is happening. And I'm so tired of it. I don't know where it ends.
- [26:29]
Denver
It doesn't end with cosplaying kooks who are high on their own supply of conspiracy theories and propaganda. It doesn't end. I've told people crazy has more energy than sanity.
- [26:41]
Amy
Amy yeah.
- [26:43]
Denver
Now, sometimes it eats its own tail. But crazy doesn't run out of energy because it doesn't know. Right. It's terminal. So I, I don't that it's all I got on that because, you know, for me, I will escalate.
- [26:56]
Amy
Let's, let's escalate to the next topic because this is a big one. Okay? Trump has no problem using threats of violence and persecution against public officials to help his political agenda. We know that. It really shouldn't surprise us, though, that he would gleefully go in front of the United States military and the audience of soldiers and use those soldiers as political props. I think he's ratcheted up even more right now and people need to know. Donald Trump went to Fort Bragg. He made a speech in front of a large audience there with soldiers, active duty soldiers in the background. In his speech, he had a slew of really partisan political attacks. He encouraged the soldiers to boo at the press. They had Trump merchandise being sold, reportedly on Fort Bragg, Trump campaign merchandise. During his speech, Trump mocked Joe Biden. He mocked other elected officials, including the Governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, insulting them and all while soldiers are cheering in the background. And it's just like as somebody who spent my entire, almost my entire adult Life in a 24 year career in the military as a professional officer, it makes me so sad and outraged, outraged that Donald Trump has done this, been able to do it. It started a long time ago. It's been ratcheting it up. Look, last month he got away with wearing a make America, great again hat, big red hat at West Point during his speech during a formal graduation ceremony. And there wasn't much pushback to that. And here we are.
- [29:00]
Denver
Hey, you know, we've had a couple intellectual discussions about when it started with dei, and we were worried about commanders who are like, maybe we just allow this to happen so that we can continue to be effective leaders because we don't want to be fired and have somebody worse than us take over. Well, we let that go now. We let this go. We let the MAGA hat go. We let the threats to public leaders go. We then have military people cheering. Right. In a partisan way that's so profoundly out of touch with what we should share as American citizens, those values. And that other military members are like, what is going on? But it's not a surprise. We know that there's been, listen, we know there's been radicalization in the ranks for a long time. We know that Fox News plays on every single channel. A lot of people that are actually attracted to the military, sometimes there's some of them that aren't really good actors, just like the regular population. And if you don't have good leadership and you don't have people willing to speak up, you don't have flag officers, you know, on. In every branch speak up to say this is wrong and they have to risk themselves being fired because they're worried about their retirement check, then we're. And, and I mean, that's, that's just the way it is. I, the only way to turn it is effective leadership and to have people in the ranks look around, say we shouldn't be doing this. But if they're hand selecting partisan soldiers. Right. Which they were.
- [30:24]
Amy
Denver talk about that. So what are the, what are the reports are that the command was hand selecting the soldiers to stand behind Donald Trump? They had to be. They had to look the part. Right. They had to be very well fit. All right. If you look at the images, of course, there's not a whole lot of minorities back there. I just noticed that even though the military is one of the most diverse institutions in America, more importantly, they hand selected soldiers who agreed and, you know, had some allegiance to Donald Trump, you know, because they didn't want anybody in there who didn't. And they said, well, if you, if you don't have an allegiance to, you know, Donald Trump and you don't, you don't like him, then you need to excuse yourself and not be behind because we don't want you behind. I mean, this is, this is Very dangerous people. I mean, look, people need to know that active duty military cannot be in their uniforms in any partisan event. It is a law. You cannot do that.
- [31:34]
Denver
It's ucmj, right?
- [31:35]
Amy
It's a sacred. It's not only a law, but it's a sacred tradition that the military stays out of politics. We don't cheer. Typically, when you watch the State of the Union address, where you've got all the Republicans cheering about this thing and all the Democrats cheering about another, it doesn't matter who's president. Watch the military members in the front row, the chairman and the Chief of Naval operations and all that. Typically they just sit there. They never cheer. They don't do anything. That is because of the tradition of the military staying out of politics. Donald Trump is throwing that tradition completely under the bus, and it is going after the very institution of the military itself. And what you're getting at in which know we're going to talk about is where are the leaders who are supposed to protect that institution? Where are they? Because I know they're supposed to protect the nation. I got that. They're doing that. They trained for that. We're ready for that. That's their primary job. But they're also, they got those stars on their shoulders to protect that institution, the institution of the US Army, Navy, et cetera. And they are not doing that.
- [32:50]
Denver
That either you're a coward or you agree with what happened. That's it. Okay, we got it. You're a coward. Agree with what happened. There's. That's it. You know what scares me? You know, part of our kit, you know, are the brown T shirts, right? Amy, I don't know if people know this or not. Military, right? But, you know, if you're, if you're wearing your military, you know, your BDUs or whatever like that, you have to have your brown t shirt. BDU's, right? You know, you don't have to really crease too much if you're actually out in the field. But you, you know, you try to look really nice in your creased BTUs.
- [33:23]
Amy
Never go out in the field, do you?
- [33:24]
Denver
Well, of course I'm out in the field. No, you just flew a jet. I had to go into tents that had air conditioning way too low. So, you know, and it was very cold and I would shiver and I'm like, you got to turn up the air conditioning in this tent. My God, could I get another blankie? So here's the thing, right? Oh, now I'm completely off because you just Made fun of the Air Force and I had to make make fun of the Marines. And now, you know, I'm completely off kilter here. But the brown T shirts, right, Part of our uniform. My thing is they're going to be selling MAGA T shirts. People will be wearing MAGA brown T shirts because you can't see it underneath. And I think what we're going. What we're seeing right now is we're actually seeing the radicalization of the military on a level that's now out in the open. And again, as a former military member, Amy, like you, it was abhorrent to watch because I would never do that. I'd be looking around like, what are you guys doing? 1. But it doesn't surprise me in any way. You know, me and you know, we know military members who are like this. We know how they're act. We know why they're attracted to this. And they're attracted to strong men like Donald Trump. And you want people trained to fight and trade, to kill and train, to follow orders. Sometimes there's incredible people in the military. We know them professionally. But there is a group. Right. That will do anything they're told to do, especially if they believe in, you know, authoritarian or they're white nationalist or whatever. So, I mean, this isn't that big of a surprised. Now that it's out in the open, we just got to deal with it. So I. And leadership has to deal with it. If they're not going to deal with it, this is where we're at. And I don't have really any better words to say than this is where we're at right now.
- [34:57]
Amy
Part of me is like trying to put myself in their shoes. What do you do? You know that if you say to The President, hey, Mr. President, please take off that hat, you know that you're going to get fired. But there seems to be no pushback. And what concerns me is when you read about, oh, the command is now screening for soldiers that they like that, like Trump to be behind it, it seems like they're not only is there no pushback, they're like actively. They're complicit, trying to. Yeah. To be a part of this. And the other thing that concerns me, and this goes back to the protest in Los Angeles, is I think, you know, Donald Trump really, and his people really want the military to be seen as his army and a military filled with Republicans and people that love him. And when you deploy them on the streets of Los Angeles, you get a lot of people angry. At folks in uniform. Because there is a real problem in this country of ICE agents and other federal government agencies, Denver, wearing camouflage and people not understanding the difference between the military and these Gestapo like ICE agents that are going in and raiding people's homes. And there's a lot of Americans that don't understand that. And what's gonna happen is Americans are gonna lose, lose trust and respect for our military. And it's going to be very divisive. And I'm very worried about that going into the future here.
- [36:48]
Denver
And there's 77 million plus people who think it's great. You talk about divisive and they think it's great. So. And by the way, that sort of moral boundary we think is very difficult to cross. American soldiers shooting at American citizens. It doesn't seem that so out of touch now. Doesn't seem like it's that, that, that far away. And I think that's what really bothered me about the whole thing.
- [37:11]
Amy
Now that we have sufficiently bummed everyone out by talking too much about Donald Trump, it's time to turn things around and talk a little bit about whiskey.
- [37:20]
Denver
Whiskey.
- [37:21]
Amy
All right, so today I am drinking New Riff Kentucky Strait Bourbon whiskey. New Riff. I like it. It's very good. But where it's the distillery is right down where I live. It's in Northern Kentucky in Campbell County. And it's on. They say it's an old tradition that it's bottled without chill filtration. So I wanted to ask you, Denver, what the heck is chilled filtration? And then also New Rift talks about their adherence to being bottled in Bond. So tell us. Like, I've read that and I was like, wow, it just tastes good. I like it. But what is it?
- [38:01]
Denver
Well, I mean, here's a whiskey also without chill filtration. It's my wife's award winning New Orleans best whiskey, which I'm drinking with you today. So chill filtration means that they actually cool the whiskey down to a very cold temperature before filtration because it takes out cloudiness. Right. So it actually gives you a very clear liquor. A lot of people also believe, though, that chill filtration can also take out some of those essential flavors. So, you know, there's nothing against chill filtration if that's what people want to do. Fantastic. But non chill filtration, you know, cheers to that because I think that's a more natural way of doing whiskey. Now, bottled and Bond is interesting. There's a couple things there. Bottled and Bond means it has to be over Four years old. It has to be in a government approved and taxed barrel house, which most are. It has to be barreled at over 100 proof or it has to be barreled at 100 proof. So there's some simple rules here a lot of people like. Well, isn't everything barreled in bond? Well, if it's under 100 proof, no. Right. It already has to be a bonded warehouse. Yes. It has to be over four years old. It's a straight whiskey by definition. You know, and as people know, and I don't know if they know, but four years plus is a straight whiskey based on federal definitions and the type of whiskey that you have, whether it's a bourbon or a straight rye. If it's two years old, it's also a straight whiskey, but you have to have an age statement on there. So if you have a three year straight whiskey, it has to say aged for 36 months. Right. Or aged for three years. So Bowden Bond, over four years old, over 100 proof, has to be in a government approved bonded facility. Those are sort of the basic rules of bottled and bond. It's a tradition. And as far as chill filtration, I love the fact that they don't gel filtrate. Don't get me wrong, there's great stuff that does that, but the fact that they don't makes my heart full. And cheers. Because I'm also a non chill filtrated.
- [39:48]
Amy
Cheers. Yeah, this is new Riff. Awesome.
- [39:50]
Denver
Yeah, Good for them.
- [39:51]
Amy
Okay. Northern Kentucky.
- [39:53]
Denver
Yes. Yes.
- [39:55]
Amy
While we love to to savor whiskey here at Truth in the Barrel, sometimes nothing can beat a few quick shots. So we've of them today. So let's start.
- [40:05]
Denver
All right, first quick shot, Amy. Right. Chinese military doing exercises near Iwa Jiwa now. Right.
- [40:12]
Amy
Why do we care about that?
- [40:14]
Denver
Well, you know, I mean the Chinese navy is sending ships. I got it right here on the copy. It just came off the ticker. Is that the right word? Is it the ticker? Just what is it? It's the, the teletype, the teletext. Whatever the effort is. So Chinese navy is sending ships east of Japanese island for the first time. Carrier other ships. Right. And G, our good friend G, or Trump's good friend, has set military modernization goals, including fielding a force that could seize Taiwan by 2027. So right now what are these extra. Why is this important? Amy? You know, because you're, you're Marine Corps Air Force blockading Taiwan and it looks like they're feeling pretty froggy.
- [40:56]
Amy
Yeah, it's important because it's never been done before. They have not ever gone out this far in the Pacific and done exercises. It's all about the blockade of Taiwan. That's what they want to do. They have now three aircraft carriers. They have never operated those aircraft carriers together. They finally operated these two aircraft carriers together so close to Iwo Jima on the eastern side of Iwo Jima. So that's kind of a big deal. Japan's taking notice of that. But the Chinese have another aircraft carrier in production. And what's interesting to me is this all is happening in the meantime. The US Navy, the executive branch, came out this week with their budget. And interestingly enough, their shipbuilding budget is actually less than what we all thought it would be. To me, that's interesting because the Trump administration came into office saying, shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding. And I was like, hey, maybe they'll do something right? And it doesn't appear that they are actually putting in any real resources into fixing that problem.
- [42:08]
Denver
So it looks like China's going blue water from brown water pretty quickly, doesn't it? Yeah, really quick.
- [42:14]
Amy
All right, number two, RFK Jr. Fires the vaccine board and replacing them all with anti vaxxers.
- [42:23]
Denver
Yeah.
- [42:24]
Amy
What the hell?
- [42:25]
Denver
Conspiracy theorists and fantasy leading the way for the United States of America. How exciting. You know, and if you see measles before you know it, I mean, we're losing so much in the way of science and the ability to be vaccinated and immunized against all these diseases. It's almost like RFK Jr wants to have airborne STDs. Like, that's where he wants to go next. I mean, it's. It's incredible what's happening out there. This bizarre, right. Anti vax push.
- [42:56]
Amy
I just think, you know, our hospitals and our doctors, like our pediatrician, I hope they just say, look, for the next three, four years, I'm not going to look at what the federal government says anymore, or the CDC says. I'm going to go to, like, whatever the British or some other country that actually understands vaccines. I'm going to listen to what they're doing instead. Because our government just cannot be trusted under rfk. This is just, just insane. And here's the third. Here's the third quick shot. This is sort of an add on. Tulsi Gabbard sent out this video. It was like three minutes long. I watched the whole thing. And it talks about nuclear weapons. She was at Japan. And at the very end, it got super, super weird at the very end. Because then after talking about nuclear weapons, and how bad they were. And yes, that certainly nuclear weapons were very bad in World War II, but at the end of this she says, well, there's too many people ratcheting up tensions in the world and wanting to start World War Three. And there's all these people in who have access to nuclear shelters. And so if there's World War iii, they're going to be safe and you're not. I mean, it was like some really weird shit.
- [44:25]
Denver
Well, as you know, I'm the nutter whisperer. And so here's what this video was about. This was about the globalist conspiracy theories, right? That there's a deep state or a globalist cabal that's trying to create a nuclear war between Russia and the United States so the rich can live in their bunkers and emerge after it's all over and take over from the rats and rodents of humanity that were killed. And that in Ukraine and Russia we have people like me who are pro Ukraine and people like you that want a nuclear war because we're part of that globalist cabal, right, of neos that are out there trying to make this happen. Also, she used Hiroshima, Nagasaki to start her video. So my question to you is this, Amy, because I'm the nutter whisperer or my comment is this, is she saying that the United States should not have bombed the hell out of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II? What is she actually trying to to say? The video was not about US Policy, it was about what I call technically nutterism. She is a conspiracy theorist and this was globalist cult type behavior and language that she was using to convince people that people like us are warmongers that support the globalists and the deep state overthrow of the world global order to take over because they have deep, deep bunkers that they can live in while all of us suck in radiation. She's crazy. She's insane. She should be fired. Every Democrat and Republican should be saying she's a nutter and she should go. And that is why again, yesterday bothered me. Everything we talked about, Amy, the Tulsi Gabbard nut Show and then Rubio's missive to Russia in Peace and Love, right, congratulating them and Pete Hegseth saying they were going to withdraw or lessen aid to Ukraine on the same 48 hours and everything you're seeing in LA and five more cities that are going to be infected with the National Guard. All of this stuff is happening in the last 48 hours, all the news we covered. It is a bloom of chaos based on fantasy and conspiracy theories. And the sane and the rational better step up now. There is no tomorrow. We need to step up today.
- [46:35]
Amy
Well, I can't follow that because it is overwhelming. It is absolutely overwhelming. But we need to stay engaged, and we need everybody to continue to not throw up their hands. Okay. And just stay engaged. So. So. And now, though, and it's hard. It's going to be a hard transition. I admit our producers probably got like, hey, how's she going to do this? But you know what? We are going to transition to something positive at the moment. Okay. It's time to celebrate some of the things that did happen in the past week that we want to do a cheers to. Okay. Okay. Because we're not all. We're not all Debbie Downer here. All right, so the first one, of.
- [47:14]
Denver
Course, not a ray of effing sunshine today.
- [47:18]
Amy
Effing sunshine. Right. All right. First one that I would like to do a cheers to is Mikey Sherrill. Mikey Sherrell is running for governor of New Jersey. She's a Naval Academy graduate. She's a friend of mine, and she won the New Jersey Democratic primary. Cheers to you.
- [47:34]
Denver
Cheers to m. Yeah. Know her well.
- [47:37]
Amy
You want to talk about serious leader, fantastic person, good person. That's. That's who we need. I'm super happy she won that. All right, I wanna do number two, cheers to the United States Army. Okay. And I know that, Yeah, I know that Trump's parade is gonna take a lot of the attention away from the fact that the United States army is turning 250 years old. And that is really too bad because we should be celebrating the U.S. army. I always say, you know, go Navy, beat Army all the time. And. But the truth of the matter is, in terms of West Point, I actually want West Point Point in Army football to win 364 days of the year. I want them to win 364 days of the year. There's only one day I want them to not win. But happy birthday to the US Army. And in. Because we're going to do that, I want to go down just five things, Denver, that you may not know that the United States army gave to us, to Americans. All right, so here we go. All right, Number one, today's SUVs and jeeps came from the U.S. army in the 1940s. Cheers. Did you know that? Yeah, yeah.
- [48:53]
Denver
Of course not. You know, a little.
- [48:55]
Amy
How about this? How about this then? Ray Ban sunglasses. Ray Ban sunglasses came from the Army Air Corps during World War II, where the Army Air Corps had to develop sunglasses to protect the eyes of its pilots. How about that? So thank you for first sunglasses. How about. You would appreciate this one. The U.S. army was the one that gave us bug spray because they developed. Yes, because they developed DEET to keep, you know, bugs and mosquitoes away from soldiers in jungle areas.
- [49:29]
Denver
So you know how much DEET I've snorted through my nostrils in my life? Yeah.
- [49:34]
Amy
Okay, here's another one. You may not know this either, and this was news to me, but it made sense because of our training. The EpiPen. The EpiPen was developed by the US army because it was. Remember when we did our chem training for chemical warfare? Remember the EpiPen that if they trained us, if we were exposed to this particular chemical, you would shoot yourself with this pen and it would go through and you would somehow live. The us army developed the epipen 1928. Colonel schick invented the first electric razor. U. S. Army colonel. How about that colonel shtick?
- [50:16]
Denver
You know, like S C H I.
- [50:17]
Amy
T T S C H I C.
- [50:20]
Denver
K. Oh, I thought you said colonel. Colonel like the razor.
- [50:26]
Amy
Yes, that's what I mean. The razor he was in.
- [50:29]
Denver
Oh, I'm so confused. I thought you said the.
- [50:31]
Amy
Come on, man. All right, the Last 1. The U.S. army and the Department of Agriculture developed dehydrated potato chips, which we now call Pringles. So if you love Pringles, say thank you and happy birthday to the U.S. army.
- [50:47]
Denver
Oh, my God. They invented Pringles.
- [50:50]
Amy
Yeah. All right, Final cheers. No Kings rally this weekend. Very important for anyone that's going out and protesting and standing up for our country. Country standing up for our country this weekend. Thank you and cheers to you.
- [51:07]
Denver
Cheers to you. And I have one more cheers. Amy, if I may. Cheers to our first live episode. Thank you so much. That was wonderful. And here we go. Cheers. Cheers. So, all right, with this sunny, optimistic, and loving episode of Truth in the Barrel, you all better subscribe to every single podcast we're on, because we want you to listen to us on Sunday, Spotify, then Apple. Just listen to us over and over again. Also, subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on all the socials or even on true social if you're brave enough to go there. Thank you for joining us on the Truth in the Barrel. Amy and I send our love, and everybody have a fantastic week.
- [51:45]
Amy
Thank you for joining us. See you next time.
- [51:53]
D
Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret.
- [51:57]
Amy
Secret.
- [51:57]
D
It doesn't have to be Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements, or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ads, go to Libsyn ads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.