This Week Unfiltered w Denver Riggleman | 12.18.25

Summary

Truth in the Barrel: "This Week Unfiltered w/ Denver Riggleman" | December 19, 2025

Hosts: Amy McGrath & Denver Riggleman
Episode Theme: Candid, cross-partisan discussion of the week’s biggest political stories, including Trump’s flamboyant holiday speech, congressional gridlock on healthcare, foreign policy saber-rattling in Venezuela, critical infrastructure cyber-attacks, and a blend of bourbon-fueled camaraderie.

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Episode Overview

Amy McGrath and Denver Riggleman—both military veterans from opposite sides of the political aisle—dive into the turbulent political news of December 2025. They unpack former President Trump's “cheerful” holiday speech, critique Congressional handling of health insurance subsidies, share alarm over a rising cyber threat known as Salt Typhoon, and trade barbs and banter over end-of-year holiday and whiskey traditions. Their goal: to “speak the truth,” challenge ongoing chaos in Washington, and find common ground over bourbon.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s "Cheerful" Holiday Speech

• Absurd Claims & Fact-Checks:

  • Trump claims he brought "peace in the Middle East for the first time in 3,000 years" ([02:06]).
    • Amy McGrath: “He brought peace to the Middle East on the same day that we had the dignified transfer of remains of two soldiers who were killed in the Middle East back to the United States.” ([03:09])
  • Trump touts bringing "$18 trillion" in investment—a figure Denver calls “impossible” in the context of the US’s $28-30 trillion GDP ([02:40]).
  • Trump boasts about reducing drug prices by “100%, then 5, 6, 700%”—math Amy immediately points out as nonsensical ([05:12]).

• Critical Responses:

  • Denver: “Are they paying us to take them?” ([05:12])
  • Amy: “Correct me if I’m wrong… prices can only go down 100%, and after that point, it’s zero. Right?” ([05:14])

• Tone and Delivery:

  • Both hosts note the speech’s rushed, negative energy. Amy points out Trump’s conclusion: “He ends it with... ‘Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God bless you,’ and then he frowns.” ([15:12])
  • Denver: “It’s like the frown, like he just all of a sudden filled his pants.” ([15:12])

Memorable Quote:

"I think smart people are critically attracted to stupidity... it's like going to a zoo... you want to see the monkey that flings poo, right? You know you shouldn’t... but you still want to see the monkey that flings poo."
— Denver Riggleman ([03:22])

2. Congressional Gridlock & Health Insurance Spikes

• Blame and Reality:

  • Speaker Mike Johnson blames Democrats for upcoming insurance premium spikes, contradicting legislative history.
  • Amy: “Democrats were the ones that, you know, shut down the government so that people could have, you know, health insurance be affordable.” ([07:04])

• Healthcare and Political Math:

  • Denver predicts a significant Democratic upswing in 2026-2028, arguing MAGA is losing favor among independents—“if independents are plus 20, plus 25 for Dems… that’s a huge number” ([10:06]).
  • Rural red districts, heavily dependent on ACA and pre-existing condition protections, risk losing coverage if Congressional Republicans let subsidies expire ([28:17]).

• Sharp Critique of Republican Strategies:

  • Amy: “Republicans haven’t had a plan to make it better, haven’t done anything other than say, ‘well, Democrats, it sucks, and I want to try to kneecap it and… blame Democrats for it.’” ([25:52])
  • Denver: “You have this bizarre thing happening where stupidity wins—and stupidity is terminal. There’s no way out of it.” ([28:17])

Notable Quote:

"It’s not Democrats anymore. It’s this is MAGA and S for sane."
— Denver Riggleman ([10:06])

3. Military "Warrior Dividend" Gimmicks

• Token Bonuses vs. Real Support:

  • Trump’s $1,776 “warrior dividend” payments to military families, which both hosts see as superficial (“hokey”), motivated more by optics and loyalty than substance ([13:09]).

• Call for VA Investment:

  • Amy: “You want to help veterans? How about fully funding the VA?” ([12:18])

• Military Reactions:

  • Denver (on the $1776 bonus): “It’s also trying to buy off the military… it’s actually sort of a loyalty quotient… there’s dudes and gals around the table at the O Club or the Enlisted club going, WTF?” ([13:13])

4. Escalation with Venezuela & Foreign Policy Chaos

• Contradictory Rationale:

  • US naval activity in the Caribbean and threats to Venezuela yield a cacophony of justifications: oil, drugs, “regime change” ([16:21]–[19:50]).
  • Administration figures contradict each other; Amy calls out Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Defense Secretary statements, and Trump’s own rambles.

• Underlying Motives:

  • Denver: “My guess is if you look at [Trump’s] biggest donors... are all going to be oil companies.” ([16:41])
  • Denver: “MAGAs inherently nationalist… and if you are starting wars when you said you’re the peacekeeper… I don’t think he’s getting a Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon.” ([16:41])

5. The "Salt Typhoon" Cyber Threat

• What Is Salt Typhoon?

  • A massive Chinese cyber campaign targeting US telecommunications, enabling potential disruption or interception of American communications ([33:37]).
  • Denver: “If you can attack critical infrastructure, you can actually just demolish a country and take it to its knees…” He details how even brief communication outages cause societal breakdowns ([33:37]).

• Worries about US Readiness:

  • Funding and staffing cuts at CISA, FBI, and other cybersecurity arms have left the country increasingly vulnerable—something both hosts consider a severe threat ([36:31]–[36:59]).

Memorable Exchange:

"When you fire the experts or you go after them... Who’s going to stand up to this bully and say, ‘you’re an idiot, you gotta step down?’... They’re all freaks."
— Denver Riggleman ([37:44])

6. Policy Whiplash, Petty Distractions & "Insane" News

• Travel & Surveillance Proposals:

  • New Trump administration proposal to require even travelers from allied countries to provide five years of social media history and ten years of email for visa-free entry ([39:52]–[41:31]).
  • Amy: “Now we’re giving border agents total discretion to deny entry based on, you know, political views…” ([42:23])
  • Denver: “They’re dumb as a box of hammers. There’s no way to do it.” ([41:56])

• Supreme Court & Agency Independence:

  • The Supreme Court may allow presidents to fire heads of independent agencies at will, risking the politicization of impartial government functions ([42:47]–[43:26]).

• Font Wars:

  • The State Department switches back to Times New Roman due to claims that Calibri was “too woke.”
  • Denver (deadpan): “This administration should be using Comic Sans as their very good actual font... I’m really worried about Arial.” ([44:48])

7. Heartwarming & Lighthearted Segments

• Fishmas:
  Kentucky’s “Christmas for the Fishes” program uses recycled Christmas trees to create reservoir habitats for fish ([46:41]). Inspired pun from Denver: “It’s Fishmas.” ([46:41])

• Holiday Traditions and Spirits:

  • Bourbon and Irish creams discussed, with Amy sharing her McGrath’s liqueur gift ([39:09]).
  • Denver fantasizes about using drones to catch Santa as a new “Christmas tradition” ([47:00]).

• Holiday Movie Preferences:

  • Denver loves "Die Hard" ("Damn it, yeah, it is Die Hard.") ([48:27])
  • Amy prefers "A Christmas Story." ([48:43])

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Smart people are critically attracted to stupidity… it’s like going to a zoo… you want to see the monkey that flings poo...” — Denver Riggleman ([03:22])
• “Correct me if I’m wrong… prices can only go down 100%, and after that point, it’s zero. Right?” — Amy McGrath ([05:14])
• “If you have an IQ above moron, you have a tough time grasping this policy issue…” — Denver Riggleman ([31:33])
• “It’s not Democrats anymore. It’s… MAGA and S for sane.” — Denver Riggleman ([10:06])
• “We’re now giving border agents total discretion to deny entry based on, you know, political views. This is freedom Soviet style in America today.” — Amy McGrath ([42:23])
• “This administration should be using Comic Sans… I’m really worried about Arial.” — Denver Riggleman ([44:48])
• “It’s Fishmas.” — Denver Riggleman ([46:41])
• Amy’s summary of the podcast’s purpose: “Let’s just tell the truth, folks. Tell the truth.” ([11:50])

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Trump’s Holiday Speech: 01:35–15:29
• Venezuela Crisis & Foreign Policy: 15:48–23:54
• Healthcare Debacle & ACA Subsidies: 23:54–32:20
• Salt Typhoon Cyber Threat Discussion: 32:20–37:44
• Rapid-Fire “Insane” Headlines: 39:52–45:24
• Christmas Traditions & Final Banter: 46:41–51:22

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Episode Tone & Takeaway

True to the show’s name, this episode is unfiltered, irreverent, and alternatingly grave and lighthearted. The hosts leverage their military expertise, deep policy knowledge, and whiskey-fueled frankness to cut through political spin and highlight the absurdities and dangers of the current political moment. Both lament the prevalence of “stupidity as policy,” agree chaos-as-governance is untenable, and share a common hope for honesty, competence, and a return to decency—even if it “takes bourbon and a miracle.”

Final words from Amy: “Let’s just speak the truth. That’s what this is all about.” ([50:56])

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For more: TruthInTheBarrel.com

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Welcome back, everyone, to another brand new episode of Truth in the Barrel, Unfiltered. This week, Denver and I are discussing Trump's very cheerful holiday speech. We'll figure out why speaker of the House Mike Johnson is lying again and placing blame on Democrats for January's looming health insurance premium spikes. We'll also talk about the economy at the end of the year and discuss the salt typhoon, which I had never heard of before, but that's very important and all of that. And we're going to try to find a little bit of holiday spirit with Denver Riggleman. Welcome back, Denver.

[C]

Oh my God, it's good to be here. I've missed you so much, Amy.

[B]

Well, you've been busy and I've been busy, too.

[C]

Yeah, I know you're busy. I know you're busy. Yeah, it's been sort of nuts. You know, my AI company sort of went nuts. And I was in Houston last week and talking about looking at AI surveillance systems. So assault typhoon will be a lot of fun to talk about. And so it's been pretty nutty. Pretty nutty. Couple months for me, I'll tell you that.

[B]

Well, we're into the holiday spirit here, but we have to start out with the Trump's very cheerful holiday speech. Did you watch this? Did you listen to this?

[C]

You know, I was not going to watch it and everybody kept sending me clips. I'm like, God dang it. So I went and I went on and started watching portions of it on X and Blue sky. And then obviously it was on the news this morning and I'm like, what is happening to our country right now? You know, it was just insane. It was insane, Amy.

[B]

You know, I wasn't going to watch it. I was actually reading last night with my daughter, 9 year old. We try to read. It's like my favorite part of the day is reading with her at night. So it's around her bedtime and I'm putting her to bed and my husband comes in and says, hey, the President just said that he brought peace in the Middle east for the first time in 3,000 years. And I was like, oh, Great, let's go in and watch the rest of this thing.

[C]

It's so crazy because when he said he brought $18 trillion into the United States in investment, when you're looking at a national GDP of between 28 and 30 trillion, and you're looking at what's happening with our unemployment rate and as you manufacturing jobs collapsing, 18 trillion is actually an impossible number. So not only has he stopped eight wars now, or is it nine wars? I keep getting confused. I guess he's brought peace to the Middle East. You know, he's like, well, apparently he.

[B]

Brought peace to the Middle east on the same day that we had the dignified transfer of remains of two soldiers who were killed in the Middle east back to the United States.

[C]

I mean, it's just, it's, it's insane. And that's where I was going is that it's, you know, did we just not have the killings in Syria? I'm just, I, and I, you know, and I, and I look at this and I'm wondering, Amy, we shouldn't have watched it, right? But I think smart people are critically attracted to stupidity. I think we can't believe it. It's like going to a zoo. You know, you want to see, you want to see the monkey that flings poo, right? You know, you shouldn't, right? It's way beneath you, but you still want to see the monkey that flings poo. And I think that's really what's going on here, is where he's the president. He is the president doing this. It's just incredible.

[B]

And, you know, I was worried because I thought he was going to start a war in Venezuela last night. And so when all of it was over and there's a lot of craziness, right? I mean, when there's a lot of craziness, which we'll talk about. But I was like, well, hey, there's no war, so that's good. At least right now there's no war. But, you know, he claims success from his tariffs, that he says that this is his favorite word. There was the standard blaming immigrants and Democrats for pretty much everything, every problem in the world. But here's the other thing that I don't know if you caught he was talking about. He apparently is taking on the health insurance companies now and getting drug prices, prices down. Okay. And he said that prices for, for health care and, and drugs were going to go down by 100% and then 5, 6, 700%. Drug prices are going down, Denver, 700%. So my head Exploits.

[C]

Are they paying us to take them?

[B]

Because. Right. I mean, prices. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a long time since I've had elementary school math, but prices can only go down by 100%, and after that point, it's zero. Right?

[C]

Yeah. I mean, I've lost 700% of my body weight. So.

[B]

You'Re in negative land. You're floating. I don't know.

[C]

It's so crazy. And I almost wonder, you know, you talk about when he's bringing down drug prices, you know, they've. The Trump family has really completely mined, you know, the American government system to increase their wealth. But I. I don't know if you've heard of Trump Rx. I mean, they're actually starting their own, you know, drug interaction company. Right. And I say drug interaction company. Drug transact. That was Freudian, so.

[B]

Wow.

[C]

But I, I do, I do think, you know, that, you know, it's just part of the grift. And I think everything that he says, whether it's talking about Venezuela, talking about tariffs talk, anything that he's growing, talking about the nutty things that he's talking about, talking about drug prices, I think all this has to do with how is he increasing the wealth for his family. And I think that's the underlying tone. I am so happy you're happy he didn't start a war. I guess I am, too. That's great. And as you know, Venezuela, I mean, dear Lord, that is not the number one hub for drug trafficking in the world. It's ludicrous to think so. This is about his donors. It's about oil, let's be honest. And I just think we're in a. In a crazy time. I think the next three years as he is, he actually, I think, devolves into sort of this dementia patient that's ranting on television. I think it's going to get worse. I just. I just hope the midterms. I just hope I'm right. I hope it's 35 to 45 seats, Amy. I really do.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I do, too, obviously, but there's so much there in that speech that he was just flat out lying. And I hope that the American people see that. I mean, saying that, that Democrats are demanding steep increases in health insurance. Insurance premium. I mean, that's what he said. Oh, Democrats are demanding this. I mean, what are you talking about? Democrats were the ones that, you know, shut down the government so that people could have, you know, health insurance be affordable.

[C]

All right, I want to ask You a question, Amy. You know, you, as I would say, I think your chances of being elected are getting higher every day. I think sanity, I think morality, I think all the things you represent, I think people maybe are starting. I'm hoping they're attracted to it. But when you're talking about the eight senators that voted, and I know me and you like to do this, but when you talk about the eight senators who voted to reopen the government, and now that you're saying that the GOP has to own this, in hindsight, do you think the vote from the eight senators was a good idea? I'm actually conflicted now because I'm wondering, does this actually help the Democrats long term based on the fact that Republicans feel like they cannot shake this booger off their finger right now?

[B]

I've been conflicted all along about it. I do think that Democrats have to keep talking about the fact that Republicans really do not care about health insurance costs going up. In fact, they're doing things every single day to make that so. And, you know, look, Donald Trump is going to continue to lie. And I feel like we just have to. And I say we Democrats, I guess people who are sane have to continue to tell the truth. And that's kind of what I'm focused on. I mean, here's the thing. The truth is manufacturing is down, not up. Mining jobs are down, not up. Energy prices are up, not down. You know, we're getting into the winter time, and I just read an article this morning about how heating costs in America are up 7% in the middle of a winter where a lot of people have already experienced cold here in December that they've never seen or not supposed to see at this time of year. We've lost jobs in this country. Prices are not down. America is not respected. Again, like the president says, you know, he brought respect back to America. I mean, he thinks Americans are too stupid to know that he is lying to them. He is either just, you know, believes this stuff himself, which is super delusional, or he just thinks, well, Americans will just believe him and not what they actually see and feel.

[C]

I feel like you're in a perfect position, you know, and I'm not trying to blow smoke. I know Kentucky is an R plus 100, 700% Republican, but it's not quite that. I also. Well, I'm kidding. But I think, you know, also Kentucky, the way that they've been hurt by tariffs, I think even in the liquor business, you know, I'm in the liquor business, too, but I feel like independents are rolling so heavy anti Republican right now. I just can't imagine going into 2026 and then maybe into 2028 that there's not going to be advantage for sanity. You said something pretty amazing and, and I think you sort of nailed it. And it's that it's not Democrats anymore. If independents are plus 20, plus 25, right, for Dems, or they're minus 25 or minus 30 on their favorability to Trump. That's a huge number, Amy. It's a huge number. And looking at that speech last night, I feel like with your, you know, you've done this, you've been there, you've run close races, you've had to go, you know, when it seemed like it was impossible to win. And now you made this decision to serve again. And looking at what's happening right now, I think it is the same. I think you are trying to appeal to. Listen, this isn't even just R and D anymore. This is, this is MAGA and S for sane. And at some point, you know, unemployment is at 4.6%. We've had the worst manufacturing, you know, job growth since COVID It's awful. And I think people are seeing it. And I don't know, I just think you're messaging what you just said and I know you weren't meaning to message. I'm not trying to say this is a, you know, here we go.

[B]

I think it's about telling the truth, you know, I mean, I'm sort of less interested in, oh, trying to appeal to this group or that. Let's just tell the truth, folks. Tell the truth.

[C]

Maybe that's what independence want right now. And I think that's what I would say soft Rs want right now when I say I'm sorry. That's a polling thing, isn't it, Amy? I think, you know, center right, you know, Republicans and those that are deemed rhinos by Christian nationalists and, you know, the crazies. I think, I think that's where you're, you're in a great spot. I just think you're in a good spot.

[B]

Well, and I wanted to ask you about one more thing in the speech and I don't know if you, you caught on to it, but those of us who were in the military or retired, this definitely caught my attention. The president handing out checks to members of the military. He calls them warrior dividend or something like that. Seventeen hundred dollars, you know. Well, let me just ask you, what are your thoughts on that? I'm obviously not opposed to helping out our military. But I also kind of look at that and say, you know, you want to help our military? You want to help veterans? How about fully funding the va?

[C]

Oh, Amy, how about that? You know, I mean, you got in front of me.

[B]

It's like we're throwing pennies here and, you know, out to.

[C]

I just, you know, if me and you were still in the military, what would be the first thing you thought of? And I'll tell you what I am. It's not a trick question. If I said, oh, you're getting a warrior dividend of $1,776 to commemorate 1776, first of all, I'm like, cool. You know, on the bonus check, you know, 30 to 40% are going to be taken in taxes. That's great. You know, it's interesting that we haven't had the. You already said it, right? We have all the issues with health care in the military. We have all the issues with pay anyway, right? I'm going to say, well, I'm great, but that's hokey. It's also trying to buy off the military based on what's going on right now. And it's actually sort of a loyalty quotient. And I think that's what you're seeing with this 1776 ridiculousness. It's actually sort of a slap in the face to the military that they're going to go, hoorah, right? I got a $1776 dividend to commemorate 1776. I'm telling you right now, there's dudes and gals around the table at the O Club or the Enlisted club going, wtf? Like, what is happening? Right? This guy's a hokey old piece of crap. And I think that's what's going on right now over bourbons and whiskeys. That's what I think.

[B]

Yeah. Well, it'll be interesting to see. And then he ends it, and he ends it with this, because the whole speech was very, very fast. And I read somewhere that the networks would only put them on for 15 or 20 minutes, so we had to, like, rush through all of his talking points and shitting on Democrats and immigrants in a very quick manner. So at the end of this really rushed sort of yelling speech, he says, merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and God bless you. And then he. He frowns. He's like, you know, And I'm like, wow, that's not a really pick me up at the end here.

[C]

No, it's like the frown, like he just all of a sudden filled his pants that, you know, he. He couldn't help the stage to go to the bathroom.

[B]

It looked like the mug shot when he. When he went into, you know, becoming a felon there when he was. I mean, it looked like that shot. And I was like, okay, Christmas year here.

[C]

Did it not remind you of the shamwow commercials? I mean, the whole thing, I just, like, it just reminded me of the way he was talking with ShamWow. And I don't know if I know it is. I just don't. I don't know what to say. I just kept thinking, yeah, Sham. Wow.

[B]

Well, it's sad that we're even having to talk about it, to be honest with you. I don't know what the purpose of the speech was. We're going to get into some more important things going on right now. The United States is pouring more and more firepower into the Caribbean. The president is ramping up his threats against Venezuela. And you and I both know Denver, he has an array of options to strike Venezuela if we really wanted to go to war. Land strikes or electronic warfare. Air.

[C]

Air power.

[B]

They see he. We apparently seized an oil vessel last week. Now we're blockading oil tankers coming to and from Venezuela. Blockades, as you know, are an act of war in some treaties. So I don't know. What's your take on this?

[C]

Oh, my take is this is again, you know, the Epstein files are supposed to release in three days. I know. I keep going back to this, but it's so evident there's no, you know, he had to say something about Colombia the other day. Right. Amy, you remember, he goes, well, Colombia better watch out next. What are you talking about? Our biggest issue with drugs across the Mexican border. Yeah. Now, we could talk about Colombia. You could talk about, you know, we could talk about Brazil. Right. We can talk about Peru. Right. I went to Peru. We can talk about all this. Right. The counterterrorism and counter drug stuff we have. And joint. We have joint agreements with Peru. You know, if we go down to Argentina and things like that. Malay and things like that. The issue that you have with Venezuela is there's a lot of oil there. And I think what we're looking at right now is he's looking for any way not only to deflect from the country just going down the tubes, but also he's looking at Venezuela. Right. As a way to satisfy his donors. My. My guess is if you look at his biggest donors for the inauguration, if you look at his biggest donors, into the packs are all going to be oil companies. That's just the way, that's the way that's rolling right now. And I know back in the day, I mean remember you know me and you knew Iraq pretty well. You know, we were back in the day and you know, and it's amazing, everybody's like, oh, it's about oil. We're like, you know, we still got to do our mission and things like that. This one seems to be obviously about oil based on the ineptitude and incompetence of the administration. Last thing, I think MAGA has sepsis. I think there's a, there's this, there's this boiling pus coming out because I think I never thought I would see where his incompetent, maligned, ignorant staff, right? These, these true believing narcissists would do three things that actually so anti maga and I think the first one is not releasing the Epstein files as you know about QAnon conspiracy theories and you know, the globalist pedophile rings and things like that. That's, that's been hurtful as you're looking at a polling. I think the second thing is affordability and I, and I, I'm telling you Amy, when you're looking at health care being crushed, right when you're looking at prices going up, when you're looking at farmers being hit, I think all that if you wrap it into affordability, that's the second thing where he is slicing his base up in these red districts, especially with medical, as you know in rural red districts of them are relying on the ACA and pre existing conditions. And then the third thing MAG is inherently nationalist. Inherently nationalist. And if you are starting wars when you said you're the peacekeeper, I don't think he's getting a Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon. It almost feels like. And, and I've always said this, it's going to get worse, it's going to get worse, it's going to get worse. But I think they're even at this level of ignorance, I think they're screwing up on such a level by destroying these sort of prepositioned fantasies on what MAGA is. I'm wondering if that is the downfall. It's just the incomplete incompetence and immorality and lack of moral compass of this administration. That's what I feel about is Venezuela and what's happening right now. Sort of the third leg that's being cut off, right? Like all three of those legs are just collapsing MAGA right now that that's how I'M looking at it. I don't know if I'm right, Amy, but, man, I mean, I would be positive about it, but it's just chaos.

[B]

And every time this issue comes up about Venezuela or what's happening in the Caribbean, the administration in my mind is sort of all over the place with what they're talking about and why we're there. Is it drugs, is it oil, is it regime change? You know, the chief of staff of the president, who I actually never even thought of or heard of until the Vanity Fair pictures showed her. Her name is Susie Wiles. I'm sure you probably know. No, maybe you know her, I don't know. But she says that it's regime change. And then Trump keeps talking about stealing Venezuela, stealing oil from us, and then we have the Secretary of Defense who keeps talking about lethal strikes against drug runners. I mean, nobody knows what this buildup is all about or why that you talked about earlier. Drugs aren't coming from Venezuela. We don't know what's going on. And this is just crazy chaos right now.

[C]

It seems to be aura farming. And I think that they want to be out there anywhere. But when you look at Susie Wiles interview you again, you just, you brought up a great point. Susie Wiles wanted so much to get out of this shadow that she decided, I think, to undermine the entire administration with her incredible wisdom. And I think what it comes back to, and I'm saying this sarcastically, is her lack of talent is so specific. It's just hard for me to get my arms around. When you look at the Vanity Fair article, the pictures, what they said, I'm like, are we living in a. Listen, are we taking crazy pills? Amy, you say chaos, it's crazy and chaos. And they want to be famous and they want to get clicks. And it's almost like ignorance has become a superpower for this administration. I just can't get my arms around it.

[B]

But it is right when you say it's distracting from the Epstein files, it's distracting from the rising cost of everything. And, you know, if Trump is really out there and Republicans are out there to just please their base, which it seems like, you know, that's what they care about. Their base voted against these so called forever wars. Their base did not vote for this. Their base did not vote to go to war in Venezuela. I talk to Trump voters all the time. I live in Kentucky, right? And people.

[C]

There's no one in Kentucky, Amy.

[B]

Yeah, no one has told me. Well, I voted for him because I wanted to go to War in Venezuela. Well, people, people say that and you know, polls show that it's something like 60 to 70% of all voters do not want this. And here's the other thing I wanted to ask you because, you know, we talk about gas prices a lot and in the speech last night, he, you know, lied about the price of gas around the the country. Of course, our president. But threatening the global oil supply with a war in Venezuela will only drive up the cost of oil and gas, right?

[C]

Yes, absolutely. I feel like again, every decision he's making is to enrich himself or it's a knee jerk reaction on how to enrich himself. That day we have chaos as policy. And until that goes away, we're gonna have to deal with this in our country. If you look at Amy, look at the plaques he put up in the White House about the other presidents, right? All of this is infantile behavior, but it does suggest dementia. And people who are supporting dementia, people who are supporting immorality, people who are supporting hubris, people who are supporting ignorance, almost arrogance through ignorance seems to be the way that they do things. And I'm, I'm actually, I know, me and you smile and we have a good time and we have a lot of knowledge on these topics. But there is a horror that comes what he's doing to the country we served.

[B]

And people are hurting and they can't afford, you know, basic food, basic heat right now and health care. You know, the Obamacare subsidies are set to expire for millions of people in less than two weeks, right. On December 31st. And that means that insurance costs are projected to double for, you know, 22 million people who get their coverage through the Affordable Care Act. And so what's going to happen here if these subsidies expire? And they look like they're going to, because we're not focused on the right things. We're focused on the hall of fame at the White House and, you know, all of this other, the ballrooms and all this other stuff. But if these subsidies expire, lots and lots of Americans are likely to drop their coverage because they cannot afford it, okay? Rural hospitals are going to take another hit. And all the while, the House, the House of Representatives, speaker of the House Mike Johnson, announced that he will not allow a vote in the House of Representatives to extend these subsidies. And he blamed Democrats, get this, he blamed Democrats for breaking the system 15 years ago. So your costs are going to go up because Democrats blamed broke the system 15 years ago.

[C]

Seriously, you know, they're in a pretty bad position Right. Where they're like, they're blaming the Democrats for something that happened 15 years ago. What would you be your first retort, Amy? It's not fair. Again, here's my first retort. So you guys haven't fixed it in 15 years. It's, I know it's sort of like this common sense sledgehammer, but I don't understand why the press doesn't have the, like they, can they not think on their feet? Are they, are they worried about access? Some of the questions going back are so brutal. And I'm sitting there going, ask it. Just say this, look, this is easy.

[B]

I mean, we absolutely need to fix it. And we've got to have a debate about fixing it, not destroying it. The thing is about, and this is what I want to ask, you know, Republicans at every turn in the last 15 years have done their damnedest to make sure that Obamacare fails or the Affordable Care act fails. Right? And lots of people, myself included, have said, hey, this is not perfect. Let's come together and figure out how to make this better. And you know, in my belief, correct me if I'm wrong here, but Republicans haven't had a plan to make it better, haven't done anything other than say, well, Democrats, it sucks. And I want to try to kneecap it and I want to try to blame Democrats for it. And the last thing, and I'm going to let you talk here, is this is where I see out of Republicans in the last 10 to 15 years. Right now, Republicans want people to drop their coverage. I believe that because I think that they've always, many Republicans, not all, and correct me here, but I think many Republicans always wanted insurance companies to be able to sell shit policies to people, meaning policies that didn't cover anything. So because, you know, that's what they wanted and there's a belief in this country that, that we should as a country not allow insurance companies to sell really, really bad policies to people that don't cover them when they get sick.

[C]

But I want to Hear your take 2019. I was in the Republican Study Committee with Mike Johnson. He was the chair. And they came out with their own health plan. And literally it's just drips and drabs, right? Trying to fix pharmaceutical companies. Right. Making sure there's intermediary for drug prices. Some things that, you know, you're like good ideas on the surface, but they really wanted it to be private all the way down the line. If you read the RSC study. And I, and I do think people should go Read it. Even if they read the plans today, go look up the Republican Study Committee, 116th Congress.

[B]

So there was a plan in 2019.

[C]

Yeah, but it's shot and even, you know, but if you look at also what happened with our plus eight districts and above, Amy, like I was in a rural district, as you know, Virginia's fifth. When you look at the district, you're like, well, that's interesting. We have seven of the 17 federally funded health centers. Now, the issue that you have, right, if you take away pre existing conditions, as you said, and you allowed shite policies to go out there, the people that suffer the most are literally Republican voters. So now you're in this sort of a fix, right? You have the head of the Republican Party downflowing, right, that just blast subsidies. The issue is that so many people that are under the poverty line or really struggling elderly specifically, have a very tough time if they don't have ACA subsidies, if they don't have pre existing condition coverage, but also if you don't have Medicaid downflows. So if you put those three things together and you don't have them, all of a sudden you're starting to lose voters, right? So that's why you saw the four congressional representatives. You know, Mike Lawler was really out there saying, what the hell are we doing here? We're going to lose even more votes. So here I'm going to make a little prediction. First of all, you're right. You're so right on them wanting private coverages or companies to do that, because it's based on who actually gets the most money. And if you look at the flows of money going back and forth, Trump is out of sync with most of the Republican conference, but they're too afraid to stand up to him because most of the Republican districts are going to be decidedly rural. This is going to hurt MAGA on a level they can't even imagine. Or if they can't imagine it, they're still too afraid to go against Trump because the midterms are coming up and they're worried about their fundraising. So you have this bizarre thing happening, right, where stupidity wins and stupidity is terminal. There's no way out of it if you don't. If you have the moral compass to rise above and say this needs to happen, you could be targeted for extinction by the rnc. And you know this. I'm not telling you anything you don't know about politics. The issue, though, is that if you do go long with the NRCC and the rnc, and president and the whip team and all that kind of stuff, you're now your constituents hurt. Oh, what really happens. Oh, oh, wait a minute. My R&6 district or my R&8 district, if there's a 20,000 vote turnaround, I could lose 5,149. That's what Lawler's worried about. And I think that's the issue that you're going to see going into the midterms is Trump is so out of control right now and he's so power hungry, he doesn't even want to work with Congress on messaging. And if they don't, people are going to suffer on a level I think that they can't even imagine, especially in red district. So that's my, that's my analysis of the situation. Amy.

[B]

We have to remember why we're here, right? I mean, this mess is all because of this bill that was just passed in the summer. Some people call it the big beautiful whatever bill. But Republicans, Congressional Republicans voted yes to extend tax cuts to the wealthy and voted no to extend these health care subsidies that kept insurance affordable. I mean, that's, that's the reason we're here right now even talking about this.

[C]

Well, I mean, listen, if your plane is breaking down mid flight and you've lost an engine, I mean, Amy, because you're so angry, would you cut off the other engine and plummet to the earth because you have a faulty airplane? I just, I, I, it's just incredible that they're destroying a system that's actually helping people without any fix on the flip. You, you don't want to crash your plane because it's broken in midair. I, I don't, I don't get it. Like, it's, it's almost, if you have an IQ above moron, you have a tough time grasping this policy issue, right? Or this, this policy plan by the Republicans to let it die and to make sure Congress is out of session when they're supposed to release the Epstein files to Congress.

[B]

It all comes back to that, doesn't it?

[C]

Sorry, I've been waiting for that. I wanted to bring that full circle right there.

[B]

I'm gonna ask you about something that I don't know a lot about, and I know our listeners probably don't know a lot about, but you might, and it's called the Salt Typhoon. Okay, so Senator Mark Warner, who is the senator from Virginia, he's the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He recently received a briefing on the extensive cyber campaign known as the Salt Typhoon. And it's basically China doing this massive hack of US Telecom networks. It's a campaign that allows China to access our communications and the communications of almost every American. And to me, that seems like that ought to be like front and center for what the administration, what Congress should be focusing on right now. And this is what worries me with all of the chaos of the Trump administration, that we're talking about the White House walk of Fame and we're talking about ballrooms and we're targeting speedboats in the Caribbean and our enemies are eating our lunch on some of the stuff. I mean, do you see it that way? What's going on with this?

[C]

So the issue that we have, and here's what they're doing, so salt typhoon is a cascading effect, cyber attack plan and platform, probably simultaneously. And I'm going to stay, you know, really top level here. What they want to do is they want to probe our telecommunications networks because if they can take down a specific section of telecom, say they want to go to war with us. Our biggest, one of our biggest, I would say, deficiencies in this country is protecting our critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure. If you can attack critical infrastructure, you can actually just, you can demolish a country and take it to its knees, just decimate it. You're like, well, September. Why? Well, do you remember when we had the gas outage and people trying to fill gas and trash bags? I mean, people go nuts after 48 hours of lost services. And there's even a. There's even a. What would you call it sort of this scaling, I would say, research study on how people start to go nuts, really. They start to, like, degenerate quickly based on lack of services, whether it's power, communications, water, you name it. Critical infrastructure. The great thing about attacking critical infrastructure is you can attack one thing and you can herd it. So herding means if I take out Washington, three towers in Washington D.C. and they can only use one tower, it overwhelms the tower. But communications through that are much easier to collect. So that means if you take down certain portions of the infrastructure, you have other assets that can collect a lot easier on something else. So you're like, God, we can't get into that network. We're just going to take it down. Boom, that's gone. But we can hear everything they're saying now on this military channel. That's what this is all about. It's actually really kneecapping us because that does. We can't react. And people will automatically say, we don't want this fight. I Want water back. I want to be able to call my mama. That's what's so dangerous about Salt Typhoon. Now, when you look at what the administration has done, when they've taken away FBI and DHS cybersecurity services like cisa. Right, right. The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency. They've cut funding there. They've cut funding on FBI cyber services, they've cut funding on other intelligence cyber services. Now, what do we say do? So I think you have this thing where we're building a $400 million ballroom and we're screaming about $18 trillion in investments that don't exist, and we're worried about immigrants as our unemployment skyrockets and our manufacturing jobs drop, and people are screaming about health care. Right. And, you know, which is great. But simultaneously, since we're worried about all this stuff and they're not worried about that, there's this whole other thing. And that means we're completely vulnerable to attack back because of the chaos of the administration, the incompetence, and the fact that this other stuff has been defunded. So that's. That's Salt Typhoon in a nutshell.

[B]

I think the defunding of the agencies and the firing of the experts that know what they're doing here to protect America is putting us at risk, along with the fact that we have different intelligence agencies in conflict with each other. Apparently, FBI is saying nothing to see here. And then there are other parts of our intelligence agencies that are saying, hey, this is still going on. This is still a big threat to America. I mean, I just. This is really bad.

[C]

It's awful. And the thing is, we've. We've lost other things, too. That disinformation in cyber, which was the gec, Right. The Global Engagement center, there's so many things that have been gone. If people look up, if you Google what we've lost in cyber security, a normal human will be like, we have to get another president and another administration because they're not protecting us. And Right. When you fire the experts or you go after them, you say you're going to put them in jail because, you know Krebs. Right, Chris.

[B]

Right, Right.

[C]

From the former CISA director that they want to investigate because he said the election wasn't stolen in 2020. I know. What I just said is insane.

[B]

He told the truth. So let's fire him.

[C]

Fire him. But he's also an expert now being.

[B]

And now prosecute him. I mean, come on.

[C]

That's the issue. Right. Who's going to stand up to this bully and say, you're an idiot, you gotta step down. Who's gonna 25th amendment? Him? Nobody. They're all freaks. It's. It's an. I don't. I'm sorry. I'm not gonna get angry, but it's. Well, we gotta keep doing this for a living.

[B]

We gotta keep speaking out. We gotta keep speaking out. I mean, we're gonna get into quick takes, but I wanna, I wanna ask you about some holiday spirits here. I have.

[C]

Am I supposed to have a whiskey? God dang it.

[B]

Well, you don't have to. I. I don't know if this count ounce because I have coffee here, but tomorrow is my anniversary. Oh my gosh, yes. Our anniversary. I can't even remember how many years.

[C]

How many years?

[B]

This is 13, so probably 15. Oh my gosh. 15 years.

[C]

So. Are you sure it's 15? Doug, don't cut this. Because we want her husband to see that she didn't know it right off the bat.

[B]

I'm pretty sure it's 15. I have to do the math. Yeah, but this. He bought me this really cool thing. It's called, it's from Ireland and it's called McGrath's White Chocolate Country Cream. And it is crafted on the Emerald Isle of Ireland with a rich creamy taste of luscious white chocolate. And it's McGrath. So apparently there's a distillery called McGrath in Ireland. I have already, already tried it.

[C]

Is it good?

[B]

It's really good. It's very good. It's very sweet.

[C]

Did he have it labeled for your family, for McGrath or is it actually McGrath? It says actual.

[B]

It says a product of Ireland and it's enjoy McGraths responsibly. I don't know. There's a. He's got, He. He bought me a bunch of different ones. So there's different, different stuff. But this is the one I. I have today. So anyway, sounds.

[C]

It sounds great. I want. You know, I'd like to try.

[B]

You know that I know you try everything.

[C]

I do, I do.

[B]

There's a. I want to get your take on a few things here that I think are insane. Like, insane. When I read them, that was the word that.

[C]

It's hard to shock me, Amy.

[B]

Insane. The Trump administration is proposing that people from the United States, from allied countries to the United States, these are people that come from countries where they, they don't even need a visa to get here. Now if they want to travel to the United States under this proposal from the Trump administration, they would have to hand over five years of their Social media history just to enter the United States, not because they committed a crime, not because there's evidence that they're a threat, but because, you know, they might not like what, you know, they posted. I mean, this is crazy.

[C]

Well, I'm going to help everybody here. So first of all, set your cloud settings to 30 day dumps. Okay? And if we ever. So you want to, you want to dump your cloud every 30 days. If you are coming to the US and if you don't want to worry about dumping your cloud or doing it, there's actually delete services that you can go out and delete your, you know, social media X or Blue sky up to last three days and you say, hey day, just have generic posts on there and you can go do that. It's fairly easy. The other thing too, they might be looking at, you know, other social media stuff, but the really, the thing that you need to do is you just get a burner or just get a second cheapy flip phone when you come over. Don't worry about it. Or you get a phone when you get here just by a, a normal phone. Just don't come up with any phone. That's going to be tough, right? And it's going to be tough for them to check your phone if you don't have a phone now you're like, God damn it, that's so inconvenient. The other thing that you can do is just don't come over here.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, that'll be great, great for our travel industry. I mean, under this proposal, travelers would, would also have to submit 10 years of email addresses, phone numbers, family contact information for our government to comb through these IP addresses. I mean, first of all, my question is, who's going to do all this work? Is it ice? Well, all these new guys were recruiting for ice. They're gonna, they're gonna do this?

[C]

No, they're dumb as a box of hammers. There's no way to do it. And number one, just don't do it. Just say, I don't have it. There's no way to prove it. Like if they don't. God, I shouldn't say all this, but there's. You gotta have specific type of databases even to cross check it. You can't, like you, you just can't. It's, it's stupid, right? 10 years, you just say, I haven't been on social media. I just started social media three weeks ago. Here's my phone right there's.

[B]

I know. I'm just saying that not everyone's gonna hear you and do that. And we've. We're now giving border agents total discretion to deny entry based on, you know, political views. Whatever. I mean, this. This is freedom Soviet style in America today. Right? I mean, this is what we're doing. We're. We're.

[C]

I can't wait till we're done with this guy. I. I just can't wait. All right, it is.

[B]

Here's. Here's another thing that happened that kind of flew under the radar, and it hasn't really totally happened yet. Supreme Court is signaling that it may strike down a rule that limits when a president can fire ftc. That's the Federal Trade Commission FTC member. So what does that mean? It means that if the Supreme Court strikes down this rule that limits the president from firing the heads of these independent agencies, then the president can just do that at any time, and the independent agencies are no longer independent. I think that's a huge problem.

[C]

Well, we go back to the patronage system, the 1880s, right, Amy? I mean, talk about a huge problem. Now you're talking about. It's all about loyalty and graft and corruption at every head of every agency. I mean, I don't even know what else to say. That's.

[B]

I think we should go in the other direction. I've actually composed an op ed on this. I think we should make more agencies independent, like fema, like HHS and cdc. I mean. But we're going in the wrong direction. All right, here's the last insanely stupid thing right before the holidays here. The State Department has officially changed their font because Marco Rubio, right, He's our. He's our secretary. I know he had said that. That certain fonts. Fonts. F. That's like, you know, fonts like Times New Roman, whatever. Certain fonts are too woke. So they're demanding that the official font of the State Department goes back to Times New Roman. This is what the State Department is working on. The diplomats need to revert back to using Times New Roman as opposed to Calabria.

[C]

Calibri.

[B]

Calibri.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I didn't know Calibri was woke.

[C]

Well, I think this administration be used. Should be using Comic Sans, as they're very good. Actual font. Absolutely. But no, I think. I didn't know Calibri was woke. I'm really worried about Ariel.

[B]

Apparently, Calibri is all about diversity, and so therefore we can't use it.

[C]

I would think this administration will be using Wing Dings.

[B]

I hear you.

[C]

Because that's about how much sense they Make.

[B]

I mean, you can't make this stuff up. You really can't. All right, here's some good news. We're going to end up some good news because I want to talk to you about your Christmas traditions here. But this was something that came up that I read about that I thought was really cool. Okay. And it's happening here in Kentucky. Kentucky before you, a lot of people have live Christmas trees, and they have them throughout the Christmas season, and then we sort of just get rid of them. Right. But in Kentucky, you can. At the end of the Christmas season, your old tree can become a new home for fish. So the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife collects old Christmas trees undecorated. And they have this program called Christmas for the Fishes. And they take these trees and they sink them into lakes and reservoirs in Kentucky, and they create underwater habitats for fish to hide and feed. You know, and I had no idea. So if you're in Kentucky and you want to get rid of your tree, you can look it up and bring it to the nearest fish and wildlife. Isn't that cool?

[C]

It's Fishmas.

[B]

Christmas for the fishes. I keep thinking about the Godfather when I say that. You know, like, too.

[C]

It's like they sleep with the fishes.

[B]

Christmas with the fishes. I don't know.

[C]

It's the fish miracle.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. I. I have a new. You know what? So there's this company called Thor that puts lasers on drones. And I had this idea, what if, okay, if Santa's coming, you can get drones for home protection. Now. That's what's coming next. I don't know if you know this or not, Amy. What if I use drones to track, like, lasers and actually try to prove that Santa's real and shoot them down? Ooh, I was thinking about that. Wouldn't that be. But if we could prove he's real, like Bigfoot like, things like that, this would. I think I would make so much money if I did this. So I think my new Christmas tradition is to put. I think I'm going to put drones on each corner of my house and track to see if anybody actually comes by on Christmas Eve. And if it's a normal person, God help them.

[B]

That's a little extreme. We. Our Christmas tradition is really to stay at home. We don't. We don't. We don't do anything crazy. I'm sure maybe you're traveling to, like, Abu Dhabi or something like that. You're a world class traveler. But we just stay at home.

[C]

Well, we are staying at home. I You know, we don't even get real trees anymore. I don't know if you still get a real. Real tree. We do, but, you know, it's tough, you know, going to the neighbor's yard, you're trying to cut it down before they see you, you know, all that kind of stuff's really rough, you know?

[B]

What's your favorite Christmas movie?

[C]

My favorite Christmas movie?

[B]

Oh, let me guess. Die Hard.

[C]

Damn it. Yeah. But, yeah, it is Die Hard. And I. And I'm. And I'm a little bit angry that you guessed it so easy, which it means I'm just. I'm awful. Right? I'm just easy to.

[B]

Actually, I figured you were a Bruce Willis fan. You know what mine is?

[C]

What is it?

[B]

The. The same one that plays over and over and over again every two hours.

[C]

A Christmas Story.

[B]

Christmas Story. Story.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I love it. I've watched it 700 times. I know. I think people expect me to say Christmas Story. Yeah, but isn't there a. I mean, there's a lot of. I mean, there's some other Christmas movies, but. Yeah. Die Hard. I think Die Hard 2 was a Christmas movie, too. I think you. I think that's also true.

[B]

I think they both are. But I love A Christmas Story because. And now I'm watching it with the kids. I know, like, every scene, and, you know, I sit there with the kids, and I'm like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait for the next scene. That's really funny. You know, and they're like, mom, shut up.

[C]

Wait till he changes the tire with his dad. Yeah, it's. It's a great movie. I mean, over. Did you see the actual Christmas Story two or whatever?

[B]

No.

[C]

So, you know, there's a Christmas Story, too, with him in it.

[B]

I did not know that. Really?

[C]

You should watch it. Yeah.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

It's. It's not good. Like, it's like. It's actually sort of sad. I think they're having some marriage issues. And you're like, this is not the. Really the spirit of.

[B]

I think they were having some issues when he bought the leg light.

[C]

You think they. Yeah, well, my daughter got me one of those. I have one. Yeah, I have it. Right. Fragile.

[B]

Back in my squadron days, the guys would. Would get things like that and, you know, give them as gifts. I didn't really see it, but now. Now I kind of see the.

[C]

Kind of. See, the wife always thought her husband was lovingly stupid. You know that, right? I mean, which is.

[B]

I think he was.

[C]

I mean, my God, just fix the damn fuses. Don't put one in new all the time. Jesus. You know, that's what she was thinking.

[B]

Well, I hope you have a wonderful holiday. We have had a great year and truth in the barrel, it's been a lot of fun. Fun even despite the chaos and craziness.

[C]

It is chaos and crazy and I can't wait. You got a hell of a year coming up, and I'm going to be part of it. I hope. I really want you to crush some people with your goodness.

[B]

Well, I'm just going to speak the truth. That's what this is all about.

[C]

You're good at it. You're very good at it. But Amy was so good to see you, and Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all the things people like to celebrate.

[B]

All right. Merry Christmas to you, Denver. Happy New Year, and same to everyone listening.

[C]

It's awesome. Hey, can you hear my funny goat scream for stress relief?

[B]

Very nice.