← Truth in the Barrel
Truth in the Barrel
This Week Unfiltered | 07.24.25
00:51:12
This week Amy is joined by Valor Media’s Ken Harbaugh as they take an UNFILTERED look at who’s not talking about Jeffery Epstein – how bad must it be for Donald Trump that the House Republicans would rather flee Washington D.C. than take another...
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- [00:00]
Amy
Everyone's loving family Freedom from T Mobile. We'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128GB8999 Eligible trade in iPhone11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel contact T.
- [00:28]
Ken Harbaugh
Mobile phone Today we're taking an unfiltered look at who's not talking about Jeffrey Epstein. How bad must it be for Donald Trump that the House Republicans would rather flee Washington D.C. than take another vote on releasing the Epstein files? Then it's a golden age of losing. Unfortunately right now GM is reporting $1.1 billion in losses thanks to Trump and the Republicans tariffs, while Trump himself loses support from his most stalwart supporters. We'll talk about that. Those of course are men. Also, the big beautiful bill reveals itself to be a big bold betrayal as energy costs are poised to spike in many red states. Plus Pete Hegseth removes another high ranking woman. Republicans are suddenly institutionalists now and more Trouble with fema. This is truth in the Barrel, but a different kind of whiskey rebellion. Welcome to Truth and Barrel. I've got today an amazing co host with me, Ken Harbaugh. It's awesome to have you on the show, Ken.
- [01:48]
Denver
Good to be here. Thanks for the invite and sorry for the digs. I am on the road. You have a much cooler setup than I do.
- [01:56]
Amy
Yeah.
- [01:56]
Ken Harbaugh
And for those people that don't know Ken, Ken is an amazing American. He's a patriot. He was a Navy pilot and then went on like me to run for political office, to be the leaders that we needed in our country in 2018. And Ken's from Ohio, ran for office for Congress there and has done just tremendous work since then. And Ken, can you tell everybody kind of what you're up to?
- [02:23]
Denver
Yeah, in a nutshell. I never imagined myself getting into this media space. But like a lot of us, after January 6th I took a step back and I asked myself why were so many of my buddies, why were so many vets involved in that day? And it really forced a reckoning of how our media landscape manipulates and misguides in many cases, well intentioned people. I mean the real tragedy for me about January 6th and I know we'll move on to other things. But it's that so many people on that day and so many people to this day thought they were doing the right things. Right people who swore the same oath that we did to support and defend the Constitution. I think many of them to this day believe in, and I know we're gonna talk about this in massive pedophile conspiracies and things like that. They're well intentioned, but they have been sucked into a media ecosystem that is just so good at lying. And when the people that you should be trusting, like the President of the United States, like your representatives, if they're the ones manufacturing and amplifying the lies, it makes it really, really hard to counter. And that's why I made the film Against All Enemies hit number one on Apple tv. That's why I do the Daily show with Midas touch. And it's what we're trying to do with Valor Media as well, to break into this manosphere, this ecosystem of disinformation that really doesn't have trusted messengers inside it.
- [03:57]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah. And people need to know Ken's done just tremendous work in this media world, in the decentralized media world. And you have so much more experience in this than I do. I'm just really happy that you could come on as co host today. Denver's out of the country, of course. He travels a ton. You are, I think, in Los Angeles right now, but you're originally live and work in Ohio.
- [04:20]
Denver
So. Yeah, I'm from Ohio. This is a short jaunt. We're actually working on some of the ICE stuff out here. I won't say much more than that, but some of Trump's greatest strengths, it turns out, can be turned into his greatest weaknesses because of just how bad of a person he is, but also how non strategic he is politically. I mean, he overplays his hand every time. And I hate to reduce the outrage around immigration to politics, but we need to play politics as well, Right? And we need to start winning. And if we can shift the optics on immigration and just tell people what is happening to gardeners, to farm workers, to regular folks, it's not the criminals that Trump said he was gonna round up. It's a father of three U.S. marines tackled in front of an IHOP. I heard about that. We need to start telling that story.
- [05:18]
Ken Harbaugh
This is going to be an incredible show. Let's get started with Unfiltered this week. But before we do, the next live show is going to be Tuesday, July 29, 7:30 to 8:30pm Eastern time. And we'd love for you all to join us. Don't forget that you can ask us questions during the live stream. We'll answer them. Also, if you can't make it to the live show but still want to ask us question, you know, please send us an email truthiinthebarrelmail.com we'll try to answer your email questions. We try to answer them during the live show, but you can check out a video and an audio replay to hear the answers. So everyone go check out the live show. Subscribe, do all the things that you need to do on all your podcast platforms to follow us. Okay? All right, here we go. Unfiltered as a teacher, so I teach, I taught at the Naval Academy. I taught at the University of Kentucky. I was a candidate for office. I'm now the co host of this show. I do a lot of talking in my professional life. In fact, when I was a fighter pilot and I was in the military, I remember my kid asking me one time, my oldest, who was old enough to remember me being in the military, he said, mom, you, you were once really cool and your, your job was really cool. And now all you do is talk. And I'm like, yeah, I don't have a comeback to that. But, but in that, in that talking, in that professional life, I've tried to be honest and I think it's a responsibility that I take seriously. Right. And to no one's surprised though, House Republicans and Donald Trump do not share this sense of responsibility. Right. And the, the lengths Trump will go right now to not talk about the Epstein files and the Epstein case is just extraordinary. The Wall Street Journal came out last week with a letter that said that Trump gave Epstein a birthday card. He don't want to talk about that. Now. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, that Trump is indeed in the ep and in order to not just make it go away, the House of Representatives, they just went on vacation.
- [07:46]
Denver
What do you make of that? Look, I think this is going to be the real test, the real test of whether MAGA and Trumpism is indeed a cult or if there is any shred of independent thought left. I thought it would be January 6th. I thought that is what would break the fever. The problem is that the defenders of MAGA and Trump and of January 6th had a foil. They had the ability to point to the other side and say it was either agitators or, I mean, their explanations were all over the map. Right. But when it comes to Epstein, the call is Coming from inside the house. This is a conspiracy and a scandal that the right has been amplifying for a very long time, even before Epstein's death. This is something that they have manufactured that their most ardent influencers and supporters created and continue to amplify. It is very different than any of the other vulnerabilities that Trump has had to deal with in that he has to attack his own people to get out of this. And I guess it's a test of how deeply they believe in this stuff. In my mind, there's almost nothing you could believe in more fervently and deeply than protecting kids. Right? So I want to believe that even as conspiracy oriented as the other side is that there is a good faith attempt by some people to live up to the values of defending kids. If they actually believe what they were selling when they were amplifying this whole Epstein thing, then they gotta see it through. They have to stay the course. So I don't think this will be the test.
- [09:33]
Ken Harbaugh
I don't think that they don't care about kids. I, that's just my, my personal belief. Here's the thing. I always thought the Epstein stuff was a big fat nothing burger. Okay. I was, I, I kind of thought that like two or three weeks ago, if you had asked me, what's this all about, this is a big deal, I would have said, eh, whatever, you know what Donald Trump is like, changing my mind. I actually think it's a big deal now. Why? Because he's running away with it and paranoid in such a way that it makes me think, well, is there something big here? Because I feel like you got to release the files now because there's either something big or it's a nothing burger. So which one is it? It appears to be there's something big if you're not releasing the files. Right.
- [10:20]
Denver
Well, and the other big deal is the fact that they have been demanding this for 10 years and suddenly they pivot on a dime. Suddenly they're sending their fixer to Ghislaine Maxwell's prison cell to talk her into something. Who knows what that to me is? That's the smoke, right? I don't know that there. I suspect there probably isn't some deep state massive pedophile conspiracy with tunnels under Washington D.C. and basement at Comet Pizza that doesn't actually exist. That's all the crazy conspiracy stuff, right? But the fact that they have been talking about this for a decade and turn on a dime, that to me demands an explanation and you know, release the files what are you afraid?
- [11:12]
Ken Harbaugh
The other, the other piece of this, which is more recent, is Donald Trump and Tulsi Gabbard, the Director of National Intelligence, accusing former President Obama of treason. Treason, Okay, I don't, I don't throw around that word lightly, but apparently they do for this intelligence report that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. And you know, Russia did meddle in the 2016 election. And Marco Rubio's.
- [11:47]
Denver
I was just about to pull up the quote.
- [11:49]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, said so and so to come out now as Tulsi Gabbard, who was really hired to basically lie for Donald Trump as Director of National Intelligence and say that I just think is crazy. I mean, what are your thoughts on this?
- [12:06]
Denver
Well, my fear is that it might work. He has gotten away with this every time. The whataboutism and the changing of the subject. Look, we have to talk about it, but the fact that we're talking about it, we literally moved on from Epstein to talk about Obama's fake treason charge. I mean, that's my fear. Right. He is so good at finding the one thing or the handful of issues that can distract us from the thing he's most afraid of. Now, I think this is a miscalculation as well. I really do. One, because I do believe that there are members of the Trump base who are not going to let the Epstein thing go because they believe it in their heart. I'm not talking about the Steve Bannon's and the Charlie Kirks. Right. I'm talking about the people who live and breathe conspiracy theories and have made this a part of their identity for the last decade. How do they just let this go when they've been telling themselves and their friends and their neighbors and their families that kids are being. That kids are being hurt. But second, using this charge of treason against Obama that is going to fall apart or that doesn't exist in the first place. Now, you've created another expectation that Obama is gonna be led away in handcuffs. Right, If I'm not mistaken. Yeah, I'll look this up just to be sure, but I think Trump actually shared an AI image of Obama being handcuffed and dragged away. He has created this expectation that once again will disappoint his followers. So I think he's losing a step. Most people don't disagree with that just watching him talk and the size of his ankles. Right. But I think his strategic moves are not quite as deft as they were just a few years ago.
- [13:58]
Ken Harbaugh
And you try to sit there and connect the dots with these folks and you're like, okay, so you're trying to say that Obama made up a false allegation that the Russians interfere with the election in order to try to get Hillary Clinton elected, but she wasn't elected. I mean, it just doesn't, it doesn't jive. And oh, by the way, if you go back to those years, what we know about it, which wasn't reported enough, was that the intelligence community knew that Russia was meddling in our election and it was classified at the time. And Obama had had in his team were thinking about releasing that information during the election, like telling the American public, hey, Russia's, Russia's doing these types of things. But guess what happened? He tried, he went to the Senate leader, the Republican leader at the time. Who was that? Mitch McConnell.
- [15:03]
Denver
Yeah.
- [15:04]
Ken Harbaugh
And he wanted to get a bipartisan, hey, let's release this information to the American public. Let the American public know what's going on. Okay. And do it in a bipartisan way, tell the truth in a bipartisan way so that it doesn't look like it's a partisan thing. And what did Mitch McConnell do? He said, no, I'm not going to back that statement, I'm not going to have a joint statement and release this information. And therefore Obama was like, hey, well if I release it, it's going to look like I'm trying to tip the scales here. And so, you know, I mean, it's just, it's, it's almost, if you really pull the string on it, it was almost the opposite of what Tulsi Gabbard is, is alleging here. But I know that's in the weeds.
- [15:51]
Denver
Yeah. I hope you couldn't hear the keyboard clacking too loudly, but I found the Rubio quote. Right. We found irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling. They can't have it both ways. They can't accuse Obama of treason while one of the heir apparents for the presidency is saying exactly the same thing. Well, is just stating the evidence. And it's one thing to see an American president leverage his media contacts or use powerful friends in the private sector to spread lies, but to use the ic, the intelligence community from the top down from the Director of National Intelligence, that, that should really scare us because it, to me, it sets off a couple of flares. First of all, what are they not focusing on if they're focusing on, on this? Second of all, what are the long term implications of undermining the, the ethics and the truth telling ability of a community and institution that is supposed to keep US Safe, the executive branch, the best information. Well, all branches, but give the President the best information possible to make decisions to protect Americans. That mission is. That mission is now subservient to protecting the President, not protecting America.
- [17:16]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, it's real. Well, look, I know a lot of people are focused on the conspiracy theories and Epstein right now, but I want to pull us toward a little bit more kitchen table issues. And there's, there's actually a lot of, unfortunately a lot of losing going on right now. GM, General Motors just released their second quarter earnings and they took a $1.1 billion hit. And it was directly because of the Trump Republican tariffs. And the GM expects the, their, their earnings to actually worsen in the third quarter. And so, you know, just to put everything in context for, for everyone, these tariffs, I, I've. Tariff hater, shall we say, okay, on this show, because I think they're dumb. I don't think they have the purpose of these tariffs. Donald Trump has said multiple different things, none of which has actually happened before Donald Trump's tariffs, the US had an average of like 2% tariff on all imports. Under Trump, though, as you know, it's sort of widely gone up and down, and the average right now is at least 15%. The Trump administration just announced this big deal with Japan that they, they said, well, we're going to impose tariffs of 25% on Japan, but now that Japan has come and dealt with us, it's now down to 15%. And it's, you know, they're saying that Japan is now going to invest, you know, $500 billion in investments in the United States. Yeah, okay, maybe, you know, and all of these trade deals, in my mind, Ken, are like getting us back to square one.
- [19:12]
Denver
Well, you know, square one absent American moral authority and leadership. Because the other thing this has led to is a conclusion around the world that America can't be relied upon, that it doesn't know what it's doing. And now you see even our most stalwart allies saying, we need to plan for a future without America, without America economically, without America militarily. You see that across Europe, you see that with our Pacific allies, they're planning for a future without America, which I wish more Americans cared about. But if we can't get them to care about that, let's get them to care about the fact that they are paying the tariffs. The importers aren't paying the tariffs. When a Japanese manufacturer gets slapped with a 15% tariff, much less a 25% tariff, they just add it to the price, which is why GM got hit so bad because steel is much more expensive. So its profits go down and the prices of cars go up. Ask any American if prices are less now. They're not. They are paying the tariffs. And I think that is a message that can hit home.
- [20:28]
Ken Harbaugh
You know who else is not happy with these tariffs is US Car manufacturing. They're not happy because the tariffs, Donald Trump left them on Canada and Mexico at a very high rate. So the Trump Republicans left these tariffs at 25% and actually set to go, I think, Ken, even higher on August 1st to Mexico to 30% and Canada to 35% on August 1st. So these US manufacturers are basically saying, look, you've lowered the tariffs on Japanese imports to 15%. You've kept the tariffs high on, on Mexico and Canada. You know, U.S. car manufacturers, it's all North American. It's North American car manufacturers now. I mean, you know, it's not just in the United States. They get a lot of parts from Canada. A lot of manufacturing comes from, from Mexico. And if the main reason of these tariffs, you know, the Trump administration has said, well, one of the main reasons is we got to rebalance our trade deficit with Japan. Well, how does that do this? I mean, you've lowered the tariffs on the Japanese cars, you keep the tariffs high on US Manufactured cars. It's not going to rebalance like that makes no sense at all. And it hurts American workers, auto workers, suppliers. It's just stupid.
- [21:54]
Denver
And depending on who in the administration you talk to, the rationale for the tariffs changes every day. Is it rebalancing the deficit? Is it a negotiating tactic? Is it to reshore jobs? It's funny how every time they lose an argument, they say they move the goalpost, they change the argument, they say no, it was a negotiating tactic after all. So they don't know what they're doing. And I think the rest of the world knows that and we're being punished for it. It's up to us to communicate to Americans that the Trump administration doesn't know what it's doing.
- [22:27]
Ken Harbaugh
They don't know what they're doing. And here's the thing. You go on Fox News or you go on some of these right wing shows and they're going to start in this week. They're going to tout this. Well, wait, wait, what? Trump got this amazing deal. Japan's going to invest $550 billion into a fund into America. That's, you know what, maybe that'll happen. Probably not. Recall that China, during the first administration. China promised Donald Trump that they would buy $200 billion of US agricultural products. Remember that? Remember that prom. No, they did not. You know, remember how Donald Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall? No, it did not. I mean, it's all bullshit, you know, and meanwhile, it's hurting our economy. We now know that Trump's tariffs are supposed to raise inflation from 2.7 to 4.7 in the first year, and that's going to raise interest rates and that's going to slow our economy. And this is why Trump's approval rating in this area is, you know, getting worse and worse.
- [23:38]
Denver
Yep, as it should. As it should.
- [23:42]
Ken Harbaugh
And Donald Trump's approval rating in almost every area. I don't know if you saw this, Ken. Is underwater. Every area except for border security. He is, he is underwater. I mean, he's, he's not doing a great job.
- [23:58]
Denver
No, he's not doing a great job. And I don't know how we better communicate that. These numbers are actually giving me a little more faith in the ability of Americans to see past the BS and the lies. I feel like we always come to this a little too late. It would have been great if people had the blinders removed before the last election. But, but in some sense, this is an opportunity because the Republicans are literally getting everything they have asked for, and this is what they're doing with it. They are ruining the country. Maybe this is a sign of a sea change in American politics. I sure hope it is. I hate the toll that it is taking to get us there. But maybe this is a wake up call to Americans that Republicans don't actually care about you. They don't care about the country. They care about tax breaks for billionaires.
- [24:56]
Ken Harbaugh
Well, Trump's underwater in all of these areas. Prices and inflation, health care, government funding and social programs, trade with other countries that we just talked about. Education, you know, where he's also. The approval rating has changed. And this is really, I really want to ask you about this, Ken, because you're so involved in the decentralized media and talking to what, you know, what you might call, or some people would call the manosphere, is Trump's approval rating among men has really changed. There was a, there was a Newsweek article that talked about this in the past five months. He used to enjoy, Back in February, Trump used to enjoy a 60% approval rating among men with just 40% saying they disapproved, which was a 20 point net positive. But his, his number started slipping and now they're down. According to this YouGov poll, just 47% of men said they approve the job that President Trump is doing.
- [25:58]
Denver
So.
- [25:59]
Ken Harbaugh
Wow, that's a change.
- [26:01]
Denver
Yeah, that's a change, A welcome change. My window into that comes from listening to the influencers and what they're saying. And I think one of the things we have to understand about this demo, in particular this demographic, is that they're.
- [26:15]
Ken Harbaugh
Not.
- [26:18]
Denver
They'Re not as obsessive about politics as you and I are. Right. They go as much on vibes and just a feeling of the political currents. And Trump appeals to them in a low density information environment where they're not hearing about the day to day outrages, the scandals, the grift, that that's not the information they swim in like you and I do. But it is really hard to ignore the images of armed thugs, government agents on the streets rounding people up. It's even Joe Rogan and Theo Vaughn can't ignore that. And Joe Rogan is talking about, and I'm no fan of Joe Rogan, but I'll take the ally where I can get him on the issue that we can leverage them on. And when Joe Rogan says, this is crazy, rounding up gardeners, you said you were going to go after the criminals. That is hugely influential. And granted, it has taken much too long for these folks to come around, but I'll take it. And I think that is part of what is happening. Trump has so overplayed his hand. And at our core, I still believe that Americans are good, that we are compassionate. Look, there are some bad apples, right? But I think most Americans, when they see what happens to the father of three Marines who is mowing a lawn outside of an IHOP and four masked armed thugs tackle him to the ground. He's worked here his whole life. He sent his sons in the Marine Corps so that they could defend the country. That gave him a second chance and a new start. Even, even Joe Rogan's audience is like, that's wrong.
- [28:15]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes it has to, it has to hit people personally that the, the leadership of this country is steering the country in the wrong direction and, or emotionally, you know, when the father of three United States Marines get, get tackled to the ground and treated so poorly, that's, that's an emotional thing. Like, oh my gosh. But there's also like the, the kitchen table issues and, and one of the things that is going to be hitting us hard, all of us across the country, is higher energy prices because of, you can call it the big, bold Betrayal. The, you know, whatever. The, this bill that was just passed that Republicans are touting now, the White House will come out, Ken, and you've heard this a lot. You've seen these clips of the White House and Republican spokespeople saying we're unleashing American energy. You know, we're turbocharging oil production and your prices are going to go down. But that's actually not what's going to happen. And it's because of this bill that they just passed. And you would think, well, wait a second, if we're unleashing American energy, shouldn't the prices go down? Like, no. Actually a study that was just put out and Newsweek covered this and asked the question, which states are you going to see higher energy bills because of this Republican bill that just passed? Higher energy, personal. Higher energy bills in your household? Guess which states?
- [29:57]
Denver
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi. I'm looking at the list.
- [30:00]
Ken Harbaugh
All of them. All of them will see higher bills. All of them. So, so you live in Ohio. Okay. Right. So what, what if you click on the, the little chart on this, on this map, you can see that over the next few years, the average household in Ohio will have a $94 raise in their energy bills. Kentucky, we get hit hard, it's $200 over the next couple years. And in Kentucky, by 2035, our energy bills will be up $630. Now you might say, wait a second, how, why is that? It's directly because of the renewable subsidies and the renewable investment that the last administration did that this bill is now repealing renewables, folks. And I know a lot of conservatives don't like to hear this. Renewables are cheap. And so when you expand the energy market in those resources, you actually can lower the costs of energy for households. And so that's what this, this bill, taking that away, you, you're raising the cost. I mean, it's, we're just shooting ourselves in the foot here.
- [31:26]
Denver
How do we communicate this? Because one of our challenges is the fact that so many of these pain points aren't going to set in until after the midterms. Like, you know, Medicaid cuts as well. The big issues, the Republicans are very good at timing the pain so that they don't suffer the electoral consequences that they should. I'm wondering if it's going to be the same with the rise in energy prices because all of these are forecasts and I just, we've got to do everything we can. Go ahead.
- [32:06]
Ken Harbaugh
I think the, well, I mean, I think their message is you just have to keep pounding it. Yeah. I mean, it's not even so much the message, it's just the, the, the, the messengers and the amount of times you say it over and over again. I mean, we, we are speaking the truth. So. So not only you can talk projections, okay, talk projections, you can also talk about what's happening right here and now. Are the egg prices getting lower? No, they are not. Are your prices at Target lower? No, they are not. Donald Trump promised this. None of it's happened. Gas prices, are they lower? I know Donald Trump says, oh, the gas prices are a dollar something. Dude, he's lying. Look around. Look, go take out your app on your phone that has the gas prices, you know, the local gas prices that my husband. Hey, look at this great app. It shows you all the local gas price. Is there any price that Donald Trump says is correct around you? No.
- [33:00]
Denver
This is one of the things that, that has led me to the conclusion that, that he's not as good at this as he used to be because he's choosing lies now that are disproven by stepping outside your front door. Right. It's, it's not the same as a lie about a stolen election or something like that that you might need to understand a little bit to disprove, but saying that gas prices aren't what they are, everybody can see that he's lying. And sure, there's a segment of his base, probably still millions of Americans who will believe him in spite of their lying eyes. Right? But I think most Americans will trust the price they see at the pump over what Donald Trump is telling them. And I really think it's going to hurt him politically. I think it's going to help us a lot in 2026, because the lies just can't hold up when delivered this way.
- [33:56]
Ken Harbaugh
And it's not just Trump, right? It's all of these Republican enablers, all these members of Congress that voted for this bill. I mean, the bill just from the energy perspective, it will actually cause tons of job losses because people invested in these renewable energy projects across the country that are now being canceled outright or being halted. The diversification of energy around the country, which is a good thing, by the way, because it lowers cost. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket in terms of energy production. You want to diversify it. But, you know, Republicans don't want to do that because they hate green energy because the employment of this new, cheaper energy is bad for them. It's stupid.
- [34:45]
Denver
This may veer into conspiracy theory territory. But the other question I think we need to start asking is who is benefiting if the American people are suffering? If consumers are suffering, who is benefiting? I think a clear example of this is around ICE and the construction of these prisons around the country. Trump allies are making billions of dollars. I am sure that when it comes to energy production and these new bills, that there is corruption woven through these new policies. And that's the other question we have to start asking and digging into, because it's not enough of an explanation to just say they're bad at policy. They don't know what they're doing. I think in some cases, the people writing these bills know exactly what they're doing. And if you follow the money, some of their friends are getting very, very rich.
- [35:43]
Ken Harbaugh
You're absolutely right about that. You got to pull a string on it. But. And I don't want to be wonky on this show. Okay? I really don't. But I like facts. I'm sorry. I do like facts. And the fact of the matter is on this, on this energy piece is that this Republican bill will increase the, what they call the inflation adjusted price of electricity that you and I pay for over a sustained period of several decades. So going forward for the, it will increase prices for the first time, Ken, since the energy crisis of the 1970s. We are, are increasing prices because we are, we are doing these stupid things, all right? And, and also it's going to result in, in $980 billion, a $980 Billion dollar hit to America's GDP, along with 760,000 job losses. This, that's, that's what this bill is doing. I mean, it's, it's so, so bad. And we're not talking about it enough because, you know, we're focused on Epstein. So that's fine. That's fine. Let's, let's talk whiskey, though. Let's talk whiskey because, you know, we don't want to, we don't want to just talk politics the whole time. And this show is, is a little bit about bourbon and whiskey because it's fun. And I'll start out, before I tell everybody what I'm drinking this week or on the show today, I want to ask you, Ken, like, what's your favorite bourbon?
- [37:14]
Denver
Oh, God. Well, I'm drinking my hotel coffee this morning, so I can't join you. Tipping one back. I am not a sophisticated bourbon drinker. In fact, I am so unsophisticated. I was visiting a hedge fund buddy of mine. Been years since we Saw each other. He poured me a glass. I was a little confused that there was like a round, crystal clear ice cube in the middle of it. But I didn't think anything of it. And I threw it back and he just rolled his eyes and said, that was a $10,000 bottle. Oh, my God. You just chugged 150 bucks worth of whatever it was. So I have no idea what I am drinking. So educate me.
- [38:04]
Ken Harbaugh
Well, you know, I'm not an expert. Denver's really the expert as being the distiller himself. But I just drink the stuff. I love it. I'm from Kentucky, so I kind of love bourbon. But this week I'm tasting barrel house select small batch Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. So this is made in Lexington, Kentucky. It was a distillery that was started in 2006, and it's got a really interesting history. One of the owners of this distillery, his great uncle was a U.S. marshal in the late 1800s in Kentucky, in eastern Kentucky. And his job during Prohibition, you know, was to go after moonshiners. Okay. So he did. He went after him. He would confiscate their stuff. And I don't think this is, you know, really ethical, but back then they didn't really care. He took the stuff and then turned it around and sold it on his own under his own label.
- [39:12]
Denver
Doesn't sound ethical, but I love the story.
- [39:15]
Ken Harbaugh
You know, this is Kentucky, but they, they now have this barrel house select. It's. It's really quite good. Very smooth. It's in Lexington, Kentucky. They also have a restaurant associated with it. So that's my whiskey minute for today. So check it out when you come to Kentucky.
- [39:31]
Denver
I check it out when I come to Kentucky.
- [39:34]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah. All right. So after our, our, our whiskey takes, we usually do quick shots here on this show and we have a lot to talk about. We'll try to get through it fairly quickly. This past week, Pete Heth, who is our Secretary of Defense, unfortunately fired. Well, I wouldn't say fired. Removed. Moved the first woman superintendent of the Naval Academy, Admiral Davids, and moved her to another position within the Pentagon and is replacing her with a United States Marine Corps general. Now, I was a Marine. I am thrilled to see a Marine to be superintendent of the Naval Academy. I think that's awesome. I just wish it didn't happen under the circumstances where you removed the first woman superintendent who's been on the job less than two years. I just, I just think it's. I'm just sad about it.
- [40:42]
Denver
Pete Hegseth seems to hate women. I mean, his own mother said this, right? I'm not inventing this. She wrote a letter that leaked. It's absolutely gutting to think that a mom would write her own son this letter about how he treats women. And as Secretary of Defense, one of the most powerful people in the world, he has demonstrated it time and time again. This is a real dilemma for me because there have been examples of people in the military going along with some of the dodges things as a way of staying in the game and keeping their jobs and hopefully preventing even worse excesses. But I'm almost to the point now where I think, you know, you resist even the small things. I'm thinking about the female commander of the base in Greenland. I think.
- [41:40]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, who, Colonel.
- [41:42]
Denver
She. She just. She said no and was immediately fired. But I think if you had that across the DoD and not giving in on the small things, I think it would be the kind of institutional legal revolt, because what they're doing is failing, is refusing to comply with like unethical or unconstitutional or illegal orders. I think maybe we're at the point where we don't let the small things slide. And if, if you end up falling on your sword for it, so be it.
- [42:14]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, well. And speaking of Pete Hegseth, just this week there's more reporting out about Signal Gate. The Pentagon's independent watchdog received evidence that the posts that Pete Hegseth put out that appeared on his signal account, you know, the ones where we bombed the Houthis, and he basically told everybody through on his. On his iPhone when the launch of F18 fighters was happening and when the time on the target was. Anyway, the independent watchdog said, guess what? That information came from a classified email labeled Secret no foreign. Well, for you and I, Ken, that's a no shitter, no brainer. We. We knew that from the very beginning. But tell everybody what, what secret? No foreign is secret.
- [43:07]
Denver
No foreign means even the five eyes are excluded from that. Even our closest allies around the globe aren't privy to that information. That is the tightest, more or less the tightest compartmentalization within secret. There's a level above that which is, you know, top secret tssci. But for secret information, which the leaking of, you can go to jail for, Right? This is important stuff. This is the lives of our service members. If you or I had leaked something like that or even been careless with it, even if I brought my cell phone into a skiff and forgot to take it out of my pocket and check it with the security manager, I could be court martialed for that. I probably would be court martialed for something like that. So to have the Secretary of Defense so casually ignoring the laws, the regulations that everyone else has to abide by, I can't imagine anything more demoralizing. Especially when it's an issue that touches and impacts the lives of those he's charged with leading.
- [44:19]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, I mean, here's the guy in charge of our military who cannot even admit he made a mistake. Well, that's the other kind of scumbag does that like, can't even just say, you know what, I screwed up, I'm sorry.
- [44:35]
Denver
That's a really good point. That's a really good point because we've all had that, that leader who refused to learn from their mistakes. And in the military, that kind of thing can get you killed. And now this is the kind of thinking that's in charge.
- [44:50]
Ken Harbaugh
I mean, you got, you got to think that the folks in there are looking at this guy like, dude, I just, there's zero respect. There's lots of respect for people to make mistakes and admit, admit them because nobody's perfect. But like, zero respect for somebody that can't, you know, fess up and just say, ah, I gotta move, you know, I did it, I'm gonna screw it up. I won't happen again. All right, so next topic. The, the, there is a, A, a recent poll that came out about confidence in US institutions and we know that over the past couple of years confidence in U.S. institution has been like, you know, 30, 50 year low. Well, guess what's happened that in terms of Democrats and Republicans, it's flip flopped. So prior to the election, the confidence in U.S. institutions by Republicans was, was really low. And now, now Republicans think institutions are great and, and Democrats think that have no confidence in our institutions. I mean, this is where we're at in America.
- [45:55]
Denver
Yeah, well, again, I think it points to the information environment in which Republicans live. And the fact is Dems are right on the weakness of institutions. When you have literally the intelligence agencies lying to us, I think it's a pretty clear indicator that our institutions, at least our government institutions, are failing because their leaders are failing, not because the rank and file aren't doing their damnedest to do their jobs. But when you have, you know, the head of the FBI lying every day, when you have the head of the intelligence establishment lying, of course your faith in institutions is going to lag. But Republicans need these to sustain their, their grip on power and their grift. And so they've communicated to their base that oh, institutions are good now.
- [46:46]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah. You know, it's always interesting to me. And then we'll move on. Is that is the military. So the perception of the military among Republicans, so as soon as there is. Goes from a Democratic president to a Republican president, all of the sudden the confidence in our military among Republicans goes up. It went up like 18 points in this past, you know, turnover. And it's, it's hilarious to me because the military hasn't changed. It's like Republicans think, oh, when, when the Democrats in office, you know, all of our fighter jets are pink and, and, and all of our, our military is weak. And then all of a sudden a Republican gets in office and, and wow, we're strong again. You know, I mean, it's, it's just. It's kind of ridiculous.
- [47:28]
Denver
It's idiotic. I want to call out one other thing before, before we wrap on this, because I want people to start paying attention to the number of times that Pete Hegseth, when talking about our military, wears the bravery of others as his own. And he does it as an attempt to deflect. Even on signal gate, which we just talked about, he will tell reporters, how dare you challenge the bravery of those pilots who flew those missions and risked their lives? That's not the question. And nobody is doubting their bravery. And how dare you wear it as your own. I mean, once you start looking for it, you'll see this in Pete Hegseth every time he stands up at a podium.
- [48:11]
Ken Harbaugh
Yeah, well, and it's awesome to have you on the show today, Ken. And we always finish, try to finish on a positive, lighter note with this segment called Cheers, where we try to look around America and, and look for something positive, look for something good that we can all get behind. So unfortunately, though, this past week, very famous singer, songwriter, Ozzy Osbourne. I don't know if you were a fan. He passed away. Were you a fan?
- [48:47]
Denver
As a matter of fact, I was. But going to high school in Montgomery, Alabama, it was a little tough to get Ozzy on the radio. So we would literally drive to the. The other county, get as close to the Auburn radio station as we could and, and listen to Metal Mondays.
- [49:06]
Ken Harbaugh
Well, I wasn't a huge fan of Ozzy Osbourne, you know, growing up, but our producer Doug is a huge fan and I know lots of people are. My, my husband love listening to him. And if, you know, you gotta commend Ozzy not only for his experience and his life in music, but also his final concert raised, I think, over $200 million for Parkinson's disease. So, like, he was an activist behind the scenes and did a lot of good work. So cheers to Ozzy is our first one. And I also wanted to do a cheers today to leaders in the Catholic Church, bishops around the country who have been standing up for undocumented persons here in this country against Mass Federal agents that are acting like secret police. And lots of these leaders have come out and said that people don't need to go to Mass crazy because they're worried that they will be taken. You know, that there will be a law enforcement raid of some sort, that ICE vehicles will show up outside their church. The Diocese of Nashville came out and said no Catholic is obligated to attend Mass on Sunday if doing so puts their safety at risk. The Diocese of San Bernardino in California, Santa Fe in New Mexico are speaking up. These priests, these bishops, are saying our people are living in fear.
- [50:48]
Denver
Stop this.
- [50:48]
Ken Harbaugh
And I just think, you know, in a world in the United States where some people and businesses and leaders who I wish would stand up haven't. I'm glad that some of these church leaders are so cheers to them.
- [51:07]
Denver
Cheers to them. But again, a reminder that we now live in a country where we are hiding people in our churches, where we may have to hide people in our attics. Think about that. But let's end on the good note. Cheers to those who are, who are standing up to it.
- [51:24]
Ken Harbaugh
Cheers to them. All right, well, thank you so much for joining us, Ken, for another episode of Truth in the Barrel. Unfiltered. You are awesome, co host. We got to have you back.
- [51:33]
Denver
Great. Would love to do it. Thanks, Amy.
- [51:35]
Ken Harbaugh
All right.
- [51:40]
Doug
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