Uncovering the Realities Behind Political Storytelling and Media Objectivity

Ever catch yourself wondering just how far off-course a politician's tale can veer from reality? We kick things off with President Biden's latest narrative misadventure about his Uncle Bosey—a yarn spun with more twists than a pretzel. It’s these very moments that set the stage for a hearty discussion on the critical need for truth in leadership, and we don't hold back. Clay and I dissect the wider implications of political narratives, casting a light on the intriguing and often murky waters of authenticity in public discourse.

Navigating the complexities of voter behavior and party loyalty, we tackle the tough questions: How do voters decide in a landscape where party platforms often overshadow the individual candidates? And what ripples do political missteps send across the aisle? The conversation takes a turn through the corridors of power, examining the tumultuous events within the GOP, from the ousting of Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the inner workings of party divisions. Listen in as we parse the significance of foreign flags in Congress and question the symbolism behind these acts, pondering the potential repercussions for domestic and international policies.

Lastly, we step onto the battleground of free speech and bias in the media. As we dissect the explosive dynamics of campus protests and the ongoing debate over hate speech, you'll find no stone left unturned. The episode rounds out with a piercing look into the heart of public funding for media, scrutinizing the debate over networks like NPR amidst accusations of bias and calls for defunding. With a mix of balanced perspective and unflinching critique, Clay and I aim to shed light on these pressing issues, challenging you to think deeper and stay informed. Join us on this episode for insightful dialogue that's sure to provoke thought, stir debate, and keep you engaged from start to finish.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:17

Well, hello there guys. How are you? I am doing great, hopefully Clay's doing great. Usually I check in with him before we get started and I was rude and didn't even ask. So how are you doing, clay?

Speaker 2: 0:27

Good, as always. You know it's a Tuesday night, as we always do. We record and then drop on Thursdays. But yeah, I'm doing well, it's a. It's a beautiful, beautiful week here in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Speaker 1: 0:38

Yay, I love it. All right, as usual. We have got a ton of topics for you that we are going to as usual, we have got a ton of topics for you that we're going to get through them all because we can do it. We can do it. But first this, and here we are ready to get the show rolling. You know, we talked about this last week. Never a slow news week. There is always something to make us laugh, make us so angry, make us disgusted. I mean, it runs the whole gamut and we're always disappointed. To not be disappointed. Now, that sounded like a Kamala-ism right there.

Speaker 2: 1:30

That was about as close to legitimate word salad as you have ever become.

Speaker 1: 1:34

Yes, it's happening. It's happening, guys. Everybody has warned me that this might happen, that I might morph into her by accident, and I think you just, I think you all just witnessed that moment. Be scared, be scared.

Speaker 2: 1:50

Yeah, when you immerse yourself into a role you know, yeah, yes, that's what happens. That's what happens man, that's what it is method acting.

Speaker 1: 2:01

Yes, yes, that's that. I like that. That is the case, you know, and as you well know, my other favorite acting my performance, skit performance all on his own. I mean you would think you would think his, his behavior is a is a skit all of its own. But yeah, I mean, the title says it all. Who doesn't know, who doesn't know at this point, that Joe said his Uncle Bozy, uncle Bozy was probably eaten by cannibals for real, as as joe would say, or joe did say, yeah he, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:51

So the story is his uncle was a pilot. That's the way he told. This is the way he told it. His uncle was a pilot and there was a, a mission that nobody else could fly, and his uncle volunteered for it, and then he got shot, shot down near New Guinea and there's cannibals there and, and you know, he I don't. Did he say it directly or did he just kind of like imply that that's what happened?

Speaker 1: 3:17

I have his direct quote. He said do you want me to mumble it like him? Right, it'll take too long. You'll be here for an hour just trying to get the sentence out. So he said, quote unquote he got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals at the time. They never recovered his body. But oh no, no, that's after. Oh no, did he add it? Yeah, no, he says they never recovered his body. But the government went back when I went down there and they checked and found some parts of the plane. So he is. So he's implying. He's implying he didn't directly say cannibals ate Uncle Bozy. Ok, so I know I shouldn't laugh.

Speaker 2: 4:00

Yeah, so there's. For a lot of people that don't know, it's one of the most admirable things that our military continues to do. There is a, an organization based out of hawaii that used to be called uh jtf, full accounting. It's now the joint pow mia command. There's a, there's a new name for it, but that's what they do, is they literally? And focus mostly in the vietnam, laos, cambodia, uh region for recovery of remains of missing americans. Right now they do do things. They've recovered aircraft buried in the mountains that were part of the flying tigers. You know they. They Philippines and they have done Korea and some other things here and there, but mostly in the Vietnam era. You know geographically, that's where they're, they've spent most of their time. They have extensive capabilities DNA, they recover remains, they test them. Um, I have a friend. I have a friend who worked there for three or four years and so I'm kind of familiar with how they do business.

Speaker 2: 4:59

What they do have, and the military has come out and said this is records of uncle bozzi and his flight. Okay, he was a passenger on a plane that, for unknown reasons, okay, went down in the water, not on land, crashed into the ocean, and I think there was maybe one. I think there was maybe one survivor, right, that's it. They know he crashed, they know he died, they know he's at the bottom of the ocean and I think there was maybe one survivor, right, that's it. They know he crashed, they know he died, they know he's at the bottom of the ocean, they know exactly what happened.

Speaker 2: 5:31

And listen. Families sensationalize things for a lot of reasons I understand. Sure, it makes it more interesting if Uncle Bozy was a fighter pilot and got shot down, and I get it. However, he was a congressman, he was the vice president. He has had access to all of this, said it himself. They found part of the wreckage when I was down there, whatever that means. So he's made a claim that he knows. You know there's evidence of this and this is a true story, which clearly it's not. So he's either lying about about you know Uncle Bozy flatly or he's lying about what the military told him. But either way, it continues along the same path of him just lying. He's just lying. He lies all the time.

Speaker 1: 6:26

So what you're saying to me is that Joe Biden told a story that's not true. This is shocking to me. Y'all know how sarcastic I am. That was obvious sarcasm.

Speaker 2: 6:40

And what did you know? What did I always murder? Her name? Jean-claude Van Damme. You know she covered it up. You know, right, he was having an emotional moment. Yes, that's what she said he was having. You know, he was trying to relate as only the president can and he was having an emotion Shut up.

Speaker 2: 7:01

I am sick of her garbage. Shut up. I am sick of her garbage. She is the. That is, and this is saying a lot. She is the most condescending White House press person in ever that I can ever remember, and there's been a lot I mean some of Trump's folks true to as well Like there's been some really condescending SOB standing at that podium. She is by far the worst. She thinks we're all idiots and that we're going to fall for and believe whatever comes out of her mouth. It just continues to be the same crap and they're just covering up his complete inadequacy. He's talking about cannibals, for crying out loud, this isn't corn pop. This isn't a kid at the pool that he got in a fight with, or him driving a bus or a semi or, you know, riding a train and talking to a conductor. The guy's talking about an uncle being eaten by cannibals and they're going. You know, he's just he's. It's an emotional emotion.

Speaker 1: 8:02

It's just very emotional for him. It just makes your head explode a little bit, doesn't it like? Does who's buying this, who's buying this? And we know, we know there's people buying it. How do we know? I posted a video. Oh, I can show you that video. We talked about that. The handler video did I. Did I queue it up here? I did so. Here is, course, me as the handler handling this situation. Okay, joe, sir, I need you to not say anything crazy today. Okay, you're not helping us. We're doing the best we can here and you're not helping. So just read what it says on the teleprompter. Okay, can you do that for me? Okay, awesome, you go get them, sir, what is he going to say today? I mean?

Speaker 3: 9:00

Montalbosi is a hell of an athlete, they told me when he was a kid, and he became an Army Air Corps before the Air Force came along. He flew those single engine planes as reconnaissance over war zones. He got shot down in New Guinea and they never found the body, because there used to be a lot of cannibals for real.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Did he just say? Did he just say cannibals? Did he just say? Did he just say cannibals? I mean, so you know darn well that that's how his, his people, his handlers are reacting to everything that he says. They have to be just like ripping their hair out. And, of course, by the way, what prompted me to even share that is we were talking about people believing this and not, and of course you know, like 20 people I think I'm exaggerating jumped into the commas. There were cannibals. Then there were cannibals. Okay, do you think Uncle Bozy got eaten by the cannibals? Okay, fine, We'll go with that. Sure, why not? Why not? I mean, of all of the craziness that goes on with this administration and the things that they say and do, let's just go with the cannibals. Let's just go with it do let's just go with the cannibals.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Let's just go with it. It's fine, cannibals are fine. It's all good. It's as plausible as any of the other shit that comes out of that place.

Speaker 1: 10:12

You might as well, I might as well. Yeah, I'm feeling good about it, oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:20

It's just glossed over, right Right. You know I I get it. You know the conservative media and you know it's been all. It's been all over the socials. You know memes everywhere I've seen. You know Uncle Bozy's cannibal barbecue sauce ads and all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1: 10:37

So many ways that you can run with that, and I love that people do. You know it's, it's a there's got to be. I haven't even seen them yet, but I'm sure there's gotta be, like memes and gifts and all of the things Everybody just continues to nod along.

Speaker 2: 10:50

You know they're cringing in private, just like you said, just like you're, you know your handler. They're cringing in private, but on the outside, you know nobody. Nobody is coming out and saying this a bad thing, except for bill maher, which is crazy. Um, yes, you know, along with a few others, but you know, for the most part, everybody's just nodding along. Yeah, cannabis, you heard it. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's reprehensible, it just. I know we keep, we keep harping on this, but he keeps giving us material like Like this is a never ending story.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Yeah, this is. This is just yet another like. This is yet another example of what is at the helm of this ship and it is so bad. You know, and, and people and I'm telling you I can't even take it how many times these you know never Trumpers who don't care. You know never Trumpers um, we don't care about anything other than never Trump are are just hanging on like rabid dogs to.

Speaker 1: 11:53

You know what little bit of falsehoods that they have been fed and they just keep regurgitating it. You know, best economy we've ever had. It's. You know where it's the. Oh, really, this is. I mean, I kid you not. They literally say this in the comments and and I don't even respond anymore. I haven't responded to those types of comments in ages because my, it's like, you know, if you put like a I don't know a, a bloodied hand in the water and a piranhas and and they just go on the attack and they just shred them to pieces, they're like, really, explain that, tell us how. And they list everything and I'm like, yeah, I can just sit back and relax and not even have to respond.

Speaker 2: 12:32

But yeah, it's, it is, it's just more of the same. You know, we can't, we, responsibly I think, can't ignore it as much as it's become the norm and repetitive, right, but you can't just say, oh, because that's the trap that they're asking you to fall into. The trap they want you to fall into is just be like, oh well, he just that's him, he just did it again.

Speaker 1: 12:54

Yeah yeah, they want you to just go. Silly Joe, never mind that, don't worry, he's just an old man.

Speaker 2: 13:01

Yeah, and then brush it off and then not worry about it. That's what they're really wanting everybody to do.

Speaker 1: 13:08

Can't do it and their tactic is somewhat brilliant and somewhat effective, or I guess maybe quite a bit effective, because at least they just keep moving along. They just keep chug, chug, chugging along and you know, just right past it, steamroll, right past it. Same with Kamala. You know she says something absolutely absurd and nonsensical and you know, really condescending to people speaking of condescending, you know she is either speaking to everyone as if they are dumb children or she is the dumb child that cannot speak above that level. You know, and it's maybe a combination of both, I don't, I don't really know to be honest with you, but no matter what it is, it is daily slaps in the faces to the intelligence of the American people. And you know, and I think the general population is sitting here going are you kidding me? Who sees this?

Speaker 2: 14:14

It's, and it's still 40 plus percent, 42 percent. What a 44 percent. Whatever it is, are going to vote for him again, right, right, absolutely baffling. Yeah, absolutely baffling, yeah, absolutely baffling.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Now maybe you've seen the numbers. I see all different numbers floating around. I never really trust the polls and stuff like that. You know all that because it always depends on who you're asking. You know if you go into a liberal area, of course it's going to be skewed. You know that's going to be the majority of the voters. So I don't know. But do you feel that the majority, or at least a large percent of those people that are going to vote for him, are they just never Trumpers? Because I can't fathom people genuinely voting for Biden. You're voting, they're voting. They have to be voting against Trump, right?

Speaker 2: 15:07

And party just you know, you know, because it's the party, not the president in a lot of cases. On the on the hardcore issues, you know that we talk about but we've talked about they're hard dividers, right, and you know the two big ones are abortion and guns. Right, those two things people will will stay, no matter who the candidate is. They will stay with their party because their party is going to stay in the direction that they support. You know there is a correlation in general between the pro-gun, pro-life and choice anti-2A. Those two, you know, kind of run together. So you know one's democrat, one's republican and people will vote party just to vote party.

Speaker 1: 15:49

It's got less to do with trump and biden and more to do with those specifically two issues yeah, that's a, that's a great point and I I think really, really accurate because, uh, you know, and if there, if you need any proof for that, gavin Newsom just put out the most absurd. I'll put it on here. We're going to make it.

Speaker 2: 16:13

Trump Republicans want to criminalize young Alabama women who travel for reproductive care.

Speaker 3: 16:18

Yes, I'm going to need you to step out of the vehicle, take a pregnancy test, stop them by taking action at righttotravelorg.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Campaign for Democracy Group is responsible for the content of this advertising. It's crazier than fiction. Like you can't make that up.

Speaker 2: 16:33

That's some, that's some brave new world 1984, like absolute, you know to the nth degree, craziness and and unfortunately, unfortunately, people will believe it.

Speaker 1: 16:45

Yeah, oh, there's a hundred percent people who have watched that ad and they're going oh, Trump's going to arrest everyone as they cross the borders and make them take pregnancy tests. Oh, lunatics.

Speaker 2: 16:58

But you know, and you know, I guess changing topics, but we we we've talked about in the past how they're you know the squad is what it is. On we we've talked about in the past how they're you know the squad is what it is on the blue side they're all lunatics.

Speaker 2: 17:10

They're all crazy, but they all support each other. Like, no matter how crazy things get, they all support each other. Then, whatever it is eight or nine or 12 of them, they stick together. Right, and? And you know what? What is happening on the and we even talked about this how you don't see that on the GOP side? No, right, you don't have that core group of folks. Well, you do have it now, right, you've got a small group now, and it's led by Matt Gates. Yes, and?

Speaker 2: 17:42

And listen, I'm not and I know you're not advocating that our politicians vote party line, right, right, they should vote the issue based on their constituency, based on what their constituency wants and needs, and that's what they're there for. Right, they're representative of their district or their state or whatever. Right, right, unfortunately, what we've got now is a lot of. We talked about party lines, right, everybody votes on party lines. When you have the majority in Congress, this tends to be how you know progress is made in one direction or the other, whatever party you're on, as long as everybody tends to vote on party lines. Because right now it's very tight, right, the house, the house especially, but it's all very the reason why things aren't getting done. Right now they are. They are really, in a lot of cases, truthfully fighting against the GOP out of spite.

Speaker 1: 18:44

Well, that answers my question, Cause I was actually just going to ask you do you feel that they are right or wrong essentially and that's kind of a broad question, because there's it's a little nuanced right, because there's different topics. We're talking Ukraine, aid, we're talking a lot of different things technically, but in general, I get the idea that you think they're a little over the top maybe.

Speaker 2: 19:10

I think that a lot of it is done for self-promotion, a lot of it is done for attention, and I think Gates is probably the worst of them. I think he's a grandstander, I think that he is there purely for his own forward progress. I think he likes his name to be in the news as much as possible and even if that means he's, you know, kind of not moving the ball forward and I'm not somebody who uses sports metaphors a lot, but that's really what he's doing is he's he's halting progress of any kind, and I think it's solely for his own personal gain. And he's got some folks that are jumping on board with him, either in the short term or the long term. That are, you know, helping to disrupt things.

Speaker 2: 19:58

And again, I'm not advocating to vote party line, but when the House and the Senate are as tight as they are, to do anything you almost have to vote party line, otherwise it just becomes stagnated. And it's, you know, just as bad as when you've got one house and not the other, or you've got both houses but not the presidency, or, you know, I and it's, you know, just as bad as when you've got one house and not the other, or you've got both houses but not the presidency, or you know, I think it's. We're probably going on, you know, 12 years now, where we've legitimately gotten nothing done. Because you know there's there's so much crossover in the parties and everything's so tight that if you don't, you know, stand on the line, then then it's, it all stops, and that's what's happening right now and and it's you know, the party itself is not shy about this. They, they, they haven't been.

Speaker 2: 20:45

You know, dan Crenshaw, some of the other voices, and I and again, I I'm not a huge fan of Crenshaw, I do like him. He uses social media better than anybody else. That I think, um, which is why I see a lot of his opinions, because he does use social media well. He's one of those two that he calls out gates at every opportunity, because he's the guy, he's the bump in the road.

Speaker 1: 21:06

And I think he does it for self-promotion. Yeah, it's you know so well. Okay, so we'll go back a little bit. So this kind of and I'm not saying this is the beginning, but this is maybe for the casual viewer, so to speak, this is kind of a beginning point. So we start with the ousting of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and that, of course, was pushed by Matt Gaetz, his Freedom Caucus. So now we have this division happening over foreign aid and Mike Johnson's speakership. So here we are again with that Notably, of course. Well, no, so I take that back.

Speaker 1: 21:40

Matt Gaetz isn't quite calling for him to vacate, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is, and she has a couple of times now and she's. I saw that. What is that? A palm, face palm, that's it, face palm, I can come up with it. Yeah, yes, so you know, of course, bad look again for the not being unified a $95 billion package that will provide military aid to Ukraine, israel and Taiwan, and their standpoint is that being Marjorie Taylor Greene and that crew essentially is the question of where's the aid for our border, where's our border safety, where's the money for us for what we need, which I think is a legitimate question.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Has it been answered? I don't actually know. Maybe you know better. I know Mike Johnson has spoken on this recently and I slacked and I don't actually have that in front of me, so slacker, so I actually don't know what his response to that is. But I know that Matt Gaetz threw out the name of Lauren Boebert for a potential although he's not calling to vacate for Mike Johnson to vacate, but he threw out that name, which is interesting in and of itself, you know. Is he putting out feelers? I don't know. But you know, the core of the problem here is we can't be doing this crap like we can't, like can't they take it behind closed doors and hash it out there? And then you know, I guess ultimately the biggest question is can't you just represent the people who who put you in there and do what we want you to do? It goes for all of them, not just.

Speaker 2: 23:30

Yeah, I mean that's really what we want. Yeah, I mean that's really what we want. But but you're right, there is some of this and again they won't. He won't do it behind closed doors because he wants his face on the television and it's interesting that he's floating other selected as speaker Never. So he's not going to embarrass himself, you know, because he knows that he's I wouldn't say he's public enemy number one, but he's pretty high on the list as far as the GOP goes. So he'll never get selected to be the speaker. So he's not going to volunteer for it, you know. So we're talking.

Speaker 1: 24:11

I mean, we're talking about just as far as, like, specifically, the Ukraine bill, Ukraine aid bill, you have a hundred and one Republicans voted in favor and you have one hundred and twelve voted against it. I mean, split almost in half, that's. That's interesting, to say the least. Right?

Speaker 2: 24:31

Yeah, and I know you know this is a. This is a pretty tense subject right now. You know the the Ukraine aid. I know that, you know, attached to that was, you know, some split aid to Israel and Gaza at the same time, which was crazy. And then you know there were some other pieces and parts in there, but you know the bulk of that bill was the Ukraine aid and that is.

Speaker 2: 24:54

You know, the questions being asked are exactly what you were talking about, which is why are we not funding the border? Why are we not, you know, housing homeless veterans? Why are we not like there's a lot of things that we could use that sixty five billion dollars for here in the United States. Why are we not doing that? And why are we sending it overseas? And that's a that's a definitely a deeper, you know, geopolitical, diplomatic question to be asked and answered, and, and I think a lot of that is, you know, dependent upon your perspective on how diplomacy works.

Speaker 2: 25:32

As a politician, as you know, and most of them, let's be honest, um, most of who is in the house of representatives, especially as a as first termers, most of them don't have a great handle on diplomacy. They really don't. There's just it's a lack of experience, um, for the vast majority of them, um, and they don't. They don't understand the ins and the outs of it. They don't understand, you know, and I'm not claiming to be an expert, but but many of them don't know and they have no experience in it. You know, and they and they don't have any education in it. Really, you know, they're some of them, you know, even if they're on a committee, it's got nothing to do with foreign aid or diplomacy or defense or intelligence or any of the rest of that stuff. So they just don't know. So when they look at it on the face and they say, well, you know, this is we should be funding the border and we shouldn't be funding Ukraine, and and you know this is again, we're kind of moving between topics, because I know that we really want to talk about, you know, the Ukraine aid, but at the same time, you know, many of us who've been around this for a long time, I'm tired of and I've been saying this Ukraine should be a NATO problem. I think I'm. You know I speak for a lot of people when I say one hundred and thirty billion dollars and counting is way too much money. Right.

Speaker 2: 26:45

It's clearly not turning any kind of diplomatic profit as it stands right now. It's an investment that's going sideways. It's an investment in war and there's a lot of speculation about what the value of that is at this point. You know there's a lot of war hawks and defense industry folks and you know there's a lot of speculation that politicians, up to and including the president, are, you know, taking, you know taking some, some influence from some of the defense industry to, you know continue to push this war, proxy war, um, you know, to help the defense industry.

Speaker 2: 27:21

And that's why the $65 billion, you know, because where are they going to spend that money? They're going to buy us stuff, right. Or the U? S is going to donate. The U? S is going to donate equipment to Ukraine and we're going to buy to replace Right. So either way, the US defense industry wins. But. But that's all an extension of diplomacy that clearly half of the Republican representatives don't agree with, don't agree with how diplomacy is being executed in this specific case. You know half of them do, but they're not taking into account where the Democrats sit.

Speaker 3: 27:56

Right.

Speaker 2: 27:57

I mean, what's the vote? What would do? You know the numbers on the Democrats, you know what?

Speaker 1: 28:01

I don't think I have it on the Democrat. I would bet they all voted for I would imagine. So I mean, based on, let's see, based on this picture here, which is right, which is just such a tiny percentage of what that picture actually shows. And if you haven't already, guys, go check out that video if you want your blood to boil, and it's things like that.

Speaker 1: 28:26

If you're somebody who's maybe like me, I'll put myself in a position of somebody who treads very carefully in what I say, because this isn't, that's not my lane. I don't know about the intricacies of foreign aid and foreign policy and what benefit truly Ukraine has to us. So I tread a little carefully when I make my judgment calls and I think a lot of people are like that. They're like, well, I don't, I don't know if I fully understand this, like why exactly we're doing this. I get the gist, but there's gotta be so much more that I don't understand.

Speaker 1: 29:03

So I'm going to be maybe a little bit cautious in what I say. But then you see something like that, that picture, where are the American flags? I haven't seen any of those people and I'll go back and I will look through pictures over the past, you know handful of years, to see if there's at any point in time, when they're all standing like that waving a merit, little American flags, you know. So I have a problem with that and I think a lot of people have a problem with that. Do you have a problem with that clay?

Speaker 2: 29:31

Yeah, I mean, I was, was livid to to do that as congress people, men and women in in the halls of congress us, right, yeah. And and waving a foreign flag as if to ally, not even ally it. It almost looks like a loyalty push. You know what I mean? I just it is very it's a it's it's offensive to me to do it in the halls of Congress. Listen, diplomacy is what it is right and diplomacy is business, not in the sense of buying and selling and defense and like all the accusations that are being made.

Speaker 2: 30:11

But these are calculated decisions, just like you would make in any business. It's a decision to be made on, you know, strategically. What does Ukraine mean to us? What does it mean if it falls to Russia? All the things that you're talking about that you don't know the intricacies of they're supposed to. These are business decisions. Right, they're calculated, strategic, business-like decisions. They are not flag waving. That's not what this is. That's not what it's for right, that is about, you know, roaring up the crowd, bringing up support that may or may not be there. But the fact that they're waving Ukrainian flags inside the halls of Congress is extremely offensive to me. When we can't get Americans to wave American flags in the halls of Congress, right? I mean, it's baffling to me that that, because it's clearly organized, that's not an accident.

Speaker 1: 31:11

Those are handed out? Yeah, don't you always carry a tiny little Ukrainian flag around with you everywhere you go.

Speaker 2: 31:19

It seems very normal, I carry a bouquet of them, depending on you know what country I feel like supporting that day.

Speaker 1: 31:24

Yes, one of every.

Speaker 3: 31:25

And whatever's going on you can just pass them all out.

Speaker 1: 31:29

Yeah, yeah, very orchestrated, and that's actually a great point. That you know, pay attention, that you know your optics. You know what I mean. This is a message. This is a message. If you want a message, this is a message, and the message is is that you know, half of our government isn't for us. They're not about us. They're about Ukraine in this moment, until their next poster child, you know, comes up, right.

Speaker 2: 31:58

Yeah, that wasn't, that was not a um. Wave the flags of Ukraine in the streets as a message to Putin.

Speaker 1: 32:05

Right, that was that was a message to us.

Speaker 2: 32:09

That was a message to the American public. You are exactly right. You are a hundred percent right. That's brainwashing, it's propaganda, that's whatever you want to call it, but that is. We need to support this. Look, all these smart congresspeople that you put in office. They're all supporting this. They're waving the flag. You should have a flag in your front yard. In fact, you should have one tattooed on your body. Everybody should support Ukraine. Bah, and it's all garbage, it's all crap, because it's all orchestrated and that's what they want. And to me, to do that? You want to stand outside on the front steps, fine. Actually, that's a little offensive too, but so be it right. Not in chambers, not in the halls itself. No frigging way, there's no way that's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 32:47

Yeah, there's part of me that feels like that is going to be one of those moments that we look back on years from now and say that was a moment right there that things turned more than we may be realized, and I believe that. I believe that that was a moment, that was a sign right there of you know, it's that foreboding of something bad to come and you know, sorry to be the doomsday uh caller here, but uh, but yeah, I feel like that was a bad thing on a lot of levels and uh, it's, it's all going to play out. It's all going to play out.

Speaker 2: 33:28

And listen, I I had, you know, change, change in topics again, but I I had the same. I had the same doomsday thing a few years ago. Um, when it came when the the um Boston marathon bombing happened, right and and I I knew when that happened, as they were chasing those two young men around I was like this is this is domestic terrorism, that's what this is. Obviously, one of them ended up in prison, one of them ended up dead. Then it was like, oh well, poor pity on him. He was younger, he got brainwashed by his brother. Blah, blah, blah. What's happening? He's sitting in jail, he's collecting. That kid is living large in prison because he's got a bank roll of about $4,000 sitting in his account right when he can buy his cigarettes and whatever else he needs. He's got more money than probably anybody else in there.

Speaker 2: 34:24

But we went easy on that kid because we thought, nah, you know, this isn't normal. That was the doomsday, that was he's patient. Zero, whatever you want to call it. But that right there. That was when we went soft. And this is what you have now. You have nyu, you have columbia, you have phil and harvard.

Speaker 1: 34:47

That's what you get yes, yeah, yep, that's where we're at and that you know again if you've had talking, know again if you've had talking to the audience here, if you've had an opportunity to watch some of these images. It is, it's shocking to me. Images, it is, it's shocking to me and I know at this point I should not be shocked by anything anymore but to to see these college campuses overrun with the, you know, protesters in these tents. They're camping out and violence and fighting and tearing down American flags. I talk about blood boiling and and really nothing much happened. You know happening. Uh, in response to that now, now there's, I mean they, finally, I think they did crack down, crack down on them. Bad go, who was it? Uh, which uh congresswoman there? What's her name?

Speaker 2: 36:12

was it ellian omar?

Speaker 1: 36:13

yes, thank you, yes, her Her daughter yeah. Yeah, daughter got booted. And then of course, there's, like you know, all these sympathy articles. Oh, she's homeless now. You know she's been kicked out and so sad. No, no, bye.

Speaker 2: 36:28

Bye. You know peaceful protest is is part of the process in America and I have no problem with that. You know when NYU is. You know one of the more recent examples? Right, it's been going on in Columbia for a couple of days now NYU in the last two days and NYU said, hey, NYPD, you just keep off campus, We'll handle this. Twelve hours later, they're screaming for NYPD to come in and help. 12 hours later, they're screaming for NYPD to come in and help, Because not only did they have student protesters who began to get violent right, that they knew were but then people who weren't students came in and got on campus, because it's an urban campus, and got on campus and got into the protests and then things got really violent. And then they realized, wow, this isn't just reserved to our brilliant young minds that attend NYU. Yeah, no, kidding, Right, this is. Yeah, it's getting amped up. And then it gets violent and then it gets out of control. And then they say, well, maybe we, maybe we do need the police in here.

Speaker 1: 37:27

Right, yeah, and this is and you know you're not just talking about random violence and chaos. This is orchestrated. Orchestrated, planned, deliberate, intentional. All of the words, all of the words that basically mean the same thing. You know, this is not a peaceful, peaceful protest that turned. You know, this is something that was really technically violent, close to the get-go, because they're barring Jewish students from coming into the area.

Speaker 1: 38:00

So you're already saying that the campus that you, your parents, pay for you to be on, and it goes for all of them, except for the ones that have scholarships and whatever, but that you are here to attend, you cannot go in this area that you're entitled to be a part of, and you can't go there because, one, you fear for your life and two, well, that is one, and two, you're in fear of your life. This should not be a thing on any American campus, ever, ever. And that it was even allowed to get to this point. Shame on all of them. Every family who has a student in these schools should get them the hell out of there. It's not going to happen, I know, but you should yank them out. That's not what you paid for. That's not where your money's going for, you know.

Speaker 2: 38:52

No, the philosophical discussion is, you know, we talk about hate speech of all right Racist, bigot, bigotry, all of those things, anti, you know, lgbtq, all that stuff. I don't understand why death to America or death to Israel, right, which are the two biggest things being chanted? There was an in Chicago that was teaching people to say death to America in Arabic, right In Farsi, so they could chant it right, and death to Israel, so they could chant it right. Why is that not hate speech? I don't understand this right. Is that not hate speech? I don't understand this right. If I drop as a, you know, white, american male, if I drop an n-bomb in in any manner, not even in a threatening manner, but in any, if I drop an n-bomb, you're done.

Speaker 1: 39:48

Right, go ask martin what's his name, morgan wallen, you know. I mean he got uncanceled eventually but defending that right.

Speaker 2: 39:57

I right, I'm not saying it's okay. What I'm saying is that's the standard. Why is it that we are allowing this death to? I'm an American. That is offensive to me.

Speaker 3: 40:08

Why is?

Speaker 2: 40:09

that speech Right? I don't get it. You know, every veteran at a minimum, right At a minimum should be losing their ever loving mind over this stuff. And I get it. I am all for freedom of speech until it turns into this right, that is over.

Speaker 1: 40:28

I mean, you know you isolate yeah, you isolate that one word death. You're not saying I hate America, I don't want to hear you say it, but freedom of speech. Right there, now you're calling death. You're not saying I hate America, I don't want to hear you say it, but freedom of speech. Right there, now you're calling for death, the killing of Americans, of America as a whole, like it's not even just. You know you could take that both ways and be correct. Death to America? Yes, they want America as a country, as a nation, to fall. Yes, they want America as a country, as a nation, to fall. And they also want dead Americans. They want both.

Speaker 2: 41:01

Well, that's how that has to happen. Yeah, that's the only way it can happen.

Speaker 1: 41:06

Exactly yes.

Speaker 2: 41:09

And if you want to go straight, legal terms, right, you're a cop's wife, right? There's a difference between assault and battery, right, there's a difference between assault and battery, right. If I see you on the street, elsa Kurt and I say Elsa Kurt, and I say it in a very threatening manner I'm going to effing kill you and your entire family and I all kinds of that. That is assault. If you feel threatened for your life and for your safety, I have just assaulted you. Now, as soon as I lay hands on you, then it becomes battery, right, but this, it's the same thing. That is, in a threatening manner. Assault on America? Right, now, they haven't attacked anything theoretically, right, right, well, you know, I mean feasibly.

Speaker 1: 41:54

Why can't we and I hate to refer to it as playing a game, but just for lack of a better term, why can't we play their game? I feel assaulted, I feel threatened. I'm suing everyone, I'm suing good, and you know, maybe there needs to be more of that and I'm not a big fan of you know, I'm going to sue you, I'm getting my lawyer, but you know, obviously we wouldn't recommend, you know, going out on the street and reciprocating that same energy in that same way. But they do have to be shut down. So, you know, maybe legalistically you can cut them off at the knees. Essentially, I don't know.

Speaker 2: 42:36

I mean, more people would obviously have to, you know, to do that Well. Well, at a minimum, it gives the police a standing to up their game, right when, when it becomes a death to america rally, right when it becomes that, that, it, that and that turns into hate speech. Because, listen, if the klu klux klan is walking down main street, right, and they're chanting all kinds of horrific stuff, and they've got, you know, in a threatening manner, they've got, you know, nooses in their hands and they've got pitchforks and they've got torches and they've got all this other symbolic stuff, you know, and I know, they're getting arrested, that's getting broken up. The police are not going to allow that.

Speaker 2: 43:14

Now again, peaceful protest is one thing. They up their game to more than that and it becomes an issue, this you start running around chanting, waving Iranian flags or Palestinian flags or whatever. You want death to America, right, and it starts to ramp up a little bit. It gives the police somewhere to stand, where they can have a legal recourse to say, okay, well, we went to riot gear and then we used, you know, non non-lethal means to disperse the crowd. We, you know, we did whatever. But just in principle, philosophically, the fact that death to America is not hate speech is absolutely baffling to me the fact that death to America is not.

Speaker 1: 43:56

Hate speech is absolutely baffling to me. Agreed, agreed. It's horrific and it is, you know, maybe one of the best, worst examples of how far we've fallen. I'm all for having pride in your origin country, your nationality. You know that's wonderful Wave.

Speaker 1: 44:19

Your flags, you know I love. You know I'll throw up a German flag or a Cuban flag, you know, in proper context, but never, ever, at the expense or disrespect to this country. And that's the line. You know, as far as I'm concerned, and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say, I speak for a lot of Americans when I say, well, and that's the line as far as I'm concerned, and I'm pretty sure it's safe to say I speak for a lot of Americans when I say, well, that's the line. Have pride in your heritage, your home country. If you came from there, wonderful, lovely, not at the disrespect of this country, you show allegiance and loyalty and love to this country. And if you can't, loyalty and love to this country, and if you can't, you got to go, just you're gone. I'm a huge fan of that. I it's, you know, obviously not nearly as easy as any of us would like for it for to be.

Speaker 2: 45:06

But, um, if you hate this country, get out go you're gone, shut up and pay your taxes, at the very least, if you hate it and you can't leave, or you don't really want to leave.

Speaker 2: 45:17

Just shut up and pay your taxes, right, that's it. You know I'm with you. I don't understand it. You know we get it all the time that. You know America's terrible, you know, and then, or I'm leaving, you know, if someone gets elected, I'm leaving, nobody leaves, right, nobody leaves right, nobody leaves. All of them that said it are still here and I hear it all the time. America is this oppressive place and it's always fun to hear it from white suburban kids hilarious, and some of them really believe it because they've been brainwashed that way. But, adam, you should show some loyalty, love. There should be some, you know.

Speaker 1: 45:54

Be proud to be an american and if you're not, then again, just shut up and pay your taxes, right, you don't have to like and you don't have to leave, but you do have to keep your mouth shut and pay your taxes I feel like I could be very reasonable when it comes to, you know, natural born citizens, people, these young kids, all of them, these college students who have known nothing but living here, and if they're chanting these types of things, or even that they just hate it, here and other countries are better, I feel like there should be a fund for them to go spend one year in the third world country of their choice or the socialist country of their you know which. Whichever one, we're going to give you lots of choices there's. There's quite a few to choose from. We'll see you in a year and come to, and then then we can have this conversation again. We can revisit it in a year after you've lived there. I think that's fair.

Speaker 2: 46:53

They have that program. It's called the United States military.

Speaker 1: 46:56

Oh, I like it.

Speaker 2: 46:57

Yes, yes, you want to go see how horrible the rest of the world is. Put a uniform on for a while. You stay around long enough. You're going to go to someplace that's not so nice and you're going to see what really, really hard life looks like, because it's not here.

Speaker 1: 47:18

You know, the people that have come here honorably, legally, properly, from these countries and who are here for the right reasons not these jackasses that we've been talking about, but the ones that come for the right reasons and get the value out of everything that is America they are appalled. They're more appalled, I think, than even we are. And looking at these snot-nosed brats and literally telling them I just interviewed somebody who's a history teacher and he had a student from I don't remember what country, but from another country very oppressive, and she actually, I think it was a young woman, a young girl, and she shut down these punk ass kids and set them straight and said you have no idea, let me tell you what my life is like. And you know, and, man, if that girl could go on a tour to all of these schools, maybe some eyes would be opened a little early, some mouths would get shut for a minute. I just want to smack them all play.

Speaker 2: 48:10

Yeah, there is a young woman out there I'd have to look up her name, but she is a North Korean defector and she's been on tons of shows, tons of shows, and she talks about how horrific and how horrible life is, you know, in North Korea, underneath the current and former dictator, father and son and what you know, escaping and all of those things. She's a great one, but then people go, they don't want to listen to her, you know, because they don't? They try to, because it doesn't.

Speaker 1: 48:40

Yeah, it doesn't doesn't fit their narrative. You know, and, and when it's in this type of context. You know a video, or you know you're on your phone or anything like that. You know it's so easy to be like. Next, you know it's. It needs to be that in-person thing where you're essentially a captive audience where, like you're, you're compelled to listen.

Speaker 1: 49:01

You know if, if there were to be things that I would say should be taught in school, things like that, you know for these firsthand. You know, of course we're talking about. You know land of in the public school system especially, it's the land of the woke. You know what they're teaching in there and not everywhere, not everywhere, not all the time. I don't want to give you know teachers a bum rap. You know there there's a large faction of of this happening and everybody knows it and a lot of them are proud of it. And that kind of sorta gets us into our last topic. I'm going to use it as a segue because we need to talk about this.

Speaker 1: 49:39

This is pretty interesting, not funny. I don't know why I'm laughing. I'm kind of laughing. It's that horrified laugh. I can't believe this is real life. So what happened was I'll give you the specifics exact so NPR senior business editor, yuri Berliner, penned a scathing piece for Barry Weiss's Free Press, pointedly critiquing the publicly funded let me repeat, that publicly funded outlet and portraying it as an institution that has descended into the depths of wokeism. And then, of course, no surprise, huge fallout from NPR for him and Catherine Mayer. Mayer, is that how you say it? I think that's how you say it. She is the president and CEO and she's quite a character. I've got a video for you, but first let me just add that Trump and several others are calling for defunding essentially government removal of government funding for NPR. If their agenda is a woke agenda, if it's a biased agenda and just an idea of this woman, she gives Kamala Harris a run for her money.

Speaker 3: 51:02

We acknowledge there are many different truths and so, in the spirit of that, I'm certain that the truth exists for you and probably for the person sitting next to you, but this may not be the same truth so we all have.

Speaker 1: 51:16

OK, there's more. I can't. I just can't even. It's just this long thing about. You know, truth is truth to some people, but your truth is different from somebody else's truth. You know that's like one of their favorite ones, right? Like you know your truth, speak your truth, shut up. There's truth and there's not truth. So this is with a Biden for president hat on. So I don't think there's any conflict of interest there, right? I mean, I don't think there's any kind of nothing, right? Nothing to see here.

Speaker 2: 51:46

Listen, I've been referring to NPR as national proletariat radio for decades. There should be no. You know if you're going to have state funded media, you know if you're going to have state funded media. There's no editorializing, none, zero, right. It is facts, facts only. Or it is for basic education purposes, right? You know? Pbs? Same same concept that's, and they've and you know they've.

Speaker 1: 52:15

there's been some eyebrow raising for sure things there, Absolutely, and it's. And if you're not disturbed by it, you really should be, because this is who and what controls the narrative for the masses.

Speaker 2: 52:40

Yeah Listen, I'm not a I'm not a safe space guy. I mean, that's not kind of how I operate. But NPR should be the media safe space. If you're tired of Fox, if you're tired of MSN, if you're tired of CNN, whatever it is, if you're tired of the biased crap in our media, npr should be, theoretically, because it's publicly funded, it's non-biased, it's non-political that should be the place that you can go as a safe space and get clean, unbiased media. That's what it should be.

Speaker 3: 53:06

And it shouldn't matter the administration.

Speaker 2: 53:08

It shouldn't matter who runs Congress or who's in office, any of that stuff. They should have a locked-in budget that can't be touched, no matter what the party says. Blah, blah, it should be all those things. That's what NPR should be Obviously not happening. It's all of the left leaning media. It's all the things that we've heard are going on at NPR, that are going on at the Wall Street Journal and all of these other places where it's like well, if you're a conservative, you know one, your career path's not lasting long at that location and two, you're going to get harassed the entire time that you're there. You know it's going to be a very uncomfortable work environment and most of the time you're not going to get the time of day from anybody who matters. Right, they're going to work that you do. They're going to shove it off to the side. It's never going to see the light of day. Same things happen at NPR. It is literally an entire culture and an entire workforce of liberal media and they're pushing a very specific message.

Speaker 1: 54:07

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, frighteningly, there's a lot of people who have just believed that they are impartial, that they are neutral. I can tell you I have never heard a liberal say I can't talk about my politics at work, I can't say who I support. I've never heard them say that. I can tell you the countless number of private messages I have gotten from friends, family, strangers over the past few years of people saying thank you so much for saying what you're saying and doing what you're doing. I can't comment on your post publicly because my job or my family or this. I've never heard a liberal or, if you want, to just be called a Democrat, whatever. I've never heard them say those words, but I've heard it a hell of a lot from the right.

Speaker 2: 55:04

Yeah, it's definitely the. You know you've got one side that you know. I mean, let's be frank and we're going to use generalities because you know there's exceptions to every rule. But in general, the conservative side of the coin will look at somebody with a liberal point of view and go boy, they're an idiot, or I don't agree with them, or I wish they would just shut up. There's very, very rare do you get the outrage, the backlash, the violent and viral, you know kind of resistance to anything that a liberal is saying coming from a conservative Right Right, and certainly not now it may come in response.

Speaker 1: 55:46

I was just going to say, yeah, it comes in response and reaction, but it's rarely, if ever, prompted like and I'll tell you again from my own personal experience, I have never, ever once, sought out um a liberal person's page or posts or or whatever so that I could go on there and argue with them and like I have never, ever done that, I have so many more better things to do with my time than to go and troll people that I disagree with. I just I would rather watch paint dry than to do something so absurd and, and you know, hamster wheel mentality. So, yeah, very, very different, yes, very different, very different mentality for sure.

Speaker 2: 56:34

Yeah, yeah, but this is, you know, the. The key to this, to just to roll back around to the topic is publicly funded taxpayer dollars. This should not be biased. I don't care who's in office, None of us, I and I. I don't care who. Your party is Right, Because, again, when the party switches in the white house or the party you know what I mean Like this can easily flip over the other direction and that's not right either. Right, NPR, PBS. Publicly funded taxpayer dollars, non-political right. It shouldn't be party messaging period, that's it.

Speaker 1: 57:08

Because it's so insane that it's even right that it's even necessary to say is beyond absurd. But obviously this is where we're at, and I love that you made that point, Clay, that it doesn't matter which side we're talking about. It's a simple flat out. No, no, you know, government funding should not be. It just shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen, period, you know, not even. Nope, oh boy, oh boy. So yeah, I mean I'm kind of excited that we were able to get all of those topics in and we, we wove them, you know, as interesting as we were going along, I was actually amazed at how well they actually all wove together. It was kind of wild right.

Speaker 2: 57:49

Yeah, Cause when we went over topics they all seemed very kind of disconnected and we were going to be on the map and they all just kind of blurred into each other. It worked out pretty well. Yeah, I was having those moments.

Speaker 1: 57:58

I was like oh, completely by accident. Yes, yes, there was no moment of how are we going to. I think I I had one moment where I'm like I don't know how I'm going to segue this, but I just want to talk about it. But generally everything fit together nicely. You're welcome, guys.

Speaker 2: 58:13

Oh, just like we planned it.

Speaker 1: 58:14

Yes, just like we totally plan, totally plan, disregard everything I just said before that. Oh my goodness guys. Yeah, you know, as always, we, we love discussing the topics. I personally love getting your perspective, clay, because I think I've said it in different ways before I think you have a much more balanced perspective than I do. I want to go fight everybody and tell them how dumb they are. And you're like, well, hang on there a second there slugger. And also, if you don't know, I'm going to say this real quick we also break up the show into small segments for you, guys, because we know, you know it's a lot of times you know who has an hour in their day to just sit and listen or watch.

Speaker 1: 59:01

You know, some people maybe do maybe, you know hit the pause button, catch it later. But we wanted to make it easy for you too. So we have the full episode that goes out, and then after that, over the next day or two, we put out the segments for you. So you get, like we call it, the 10 minute topics. Sometimes they're more than 10 minutes, but close enough, you get the idea. So you have options, guys, lots of options. You can watch, you can listen, get small segments. We try and cover it all right, clay.

Speaker 2: 59:27

Yeah, and we can't. It's impossible, and we appreciate you standing by and listening to us for an hour or in 10 minute segments, whichever you prefer.

Speaker 1: 59:34

Close them out, clay. Hey, as always for me, keep moving, keep shooting, take care guys.