¶ Up or Down
You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a left or right . Well , I'd like to suggest there is no such thing as a left or right . There's only an up or down . This is the no Doubt About it . Podcast .
No doubt about it .
Now your hosts Christy and Mark Runcady hey .
John Deere what's ?
that hey , John Deere .
What's that ?
Hey , John Deere .
Yeah , that's been tough . I've been out doing the on the back 40 . Have you . Yeah , I've been out there working .
Is that what ? This is what you got a little bit of a five o'clock shadow as well .
I got to be honest with you Haven't showered in days . Haven't shaved in two days .
I didn .
Days haven't shaved in two days I didn't have time to change before this , so I've been very busy . It's been a very busy day , I know . I mean things are rolling all over the place so , but we do have a .
We do have a an interesting show , no doubt yeah , and we and ava is producing today and she's like you guys better be on time . She's got her call back for the audition in the irish again ava .
So how did it go first of all now in the theater world when youva ? So how did it go First of all in the theater world when you end up getting a callback , is that a good or a bad thing ? And then where's your head right ?
now . A callback can mean one of two things . It can either mean you've done a really good job , or then it Well , you sound a little like Conor McGregor right now . Isn't he Irish ? He is , but he's a little more intense .
You got a little something going .
I don't know what it is .
Okay , there we go . That's better . There it is , I found it . There we go .
It can either mean that you've done a really good job but they've got to rule you out as an absolute no , okay , got it or if you're raiding for one role .
Whoa , get it out of the way now .
Get it out of the way now , If you're waiting for just one role and you like somebody else , you won't get cast . Oh okay . So if I'm only up for one role and she doesn't like me , I will not get put in the show .
Gotcha Is what the callback has determined . It's a little choppy right now . I'm concerned .
How about you leave me alone ? I'm stressed out there . The best I can , based on the situation I have to be somewhere in an hour .
Alright , alright , we'll get this going then , yeah , she was like , ladies and gentlemen , you two better not mess up today , because I gotta go yeah , we're not cutting anything from this show , so if we say it , you're gonna see it when you're terrible .
It's not getting edited out . Guy I know Alright .
Everyone know what I'm talking about .
We don't do people realize that .
Yeah .
Okay , so a couple . Let's just start with a couple of quick mentions that we got online . Patrick Potter said another great pod run Katie family . I'm just patiently waiting for the debates with open or muted mics . That should be interesting . See y'all in a couple of days . Ava Love the accent . Thank you All . Right , patrick .
Thank you , patrick , I can see you're also a man of Irish descent . Yes , he could be Okay . Craig says there is what feels like two to three miles stretched down , central of homelessness and poverty . Is truly sad and disheartening . It feels like Albuquerque is becoming a third world country where the is a Grisham on this problem .
And the mayor .
And the mayor .
You know , I hope one thing that can be helpful is the Supreme Court decision that allows municipalities to find a place for the people that are on the streets saying , look , you just can't live on the street , right , and there is some legal pathway now to be able to say that . And then we have to follow that up by providing services .
But I think that can be done if you have leadership that has the will to clean up your city . We haven't seen that yet , but I think we all hope it's there .
And we'll definitely have more on the homelessness situation as we in future episodes , because it's continuing to plague our area .
We are swallowed up by politics , probably until the election .
And then , and then we're going to . We do have other topics to actually talk about .
Yes , and actually read that third one . Yeah Cause I want to talk a little bit about this .
Okay . So Robert Robert says consider doing a segment on the state of New Mexico a sanctuary status , a big reason for crime , not to mention the pressures it puts on our schools and hospitals . I responded back really quickly .
I'll let you respond , but I just put a real quick comment , just a reminder that we did have Dan Lewis on I think it was episode 98 , I think something like that where he did start to talk about the city council when they were going to try to vote on whether or not we keep this as a sanctuary city . So what were you going to say ?
Sorry , Well , we are . We are actually in the middle of doing those stories . We haven't had them out yet . It'll be about three weeks from now . I think we're going to have it .
But there is stuff going on underneath the surface here that none of you are being told that it's a major issue here as far as the type of crime that's being done , and then who's doing it , and no one's talking about it . So we will absolutely have something in that , I promise you . Jay's been working on it with us and we're going to have it .
Yep , it'll be coming up in a few weeks . Okay , so kind of a . This story really I thought was interesting and terrifying all in the same moment . There was a woman from Rio Rancho . She was . Her name was Katrina Mitchell , k-o-b . Did this story .
Yeah , k-o-b did a nice story on this .
They did a really good job on this and it caught my attention yesterday and her name was Katrina Mitchell . She was beat up by three people in a road rage incident by three people in a road rage incident .
And here's the video of it . You could see these people were in a Mustang . She was in her car with her daughter and mother .
And mother right , and she was trying to go around them because they kept swerving in front of her and so she tried to go around them . They punched her car is what she says Right there . She gets out of the car , she stops the car because she was furious . One was a juvenile , juvenile , and then I think it was two adults , two other women .
They beat her up . Okay , so she gets beat to a pulp , calls the cops . Uh , they do end up arresting them , I believe . Or they detain them or whatever , because it ends up going um in front of some sort of judge or arbitrator of some sort . Because , basically , what's frightening about this is her attacker .
Yeah , Sorry , the reason this stopped for a second hold on one sec . Gabe , just freeze that video . The reason the attack stopped is because a guy with a concealed carry permit pulled out his gun and said stop this . Otherwise who knows how long it would have continued .
Right , it was just an act of absolute brutality on the streets of Rio Rancho and it would just should never have happened . And then , when she's pressing charges , the scary thing about this was that her three attackers got pled down from felonies to misdemeanors , and then , the craziest thing , that even happened after that .
Her husband explains a little bit , and I would love for him to tell this part of it .
Downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors , nothing more than really probation . They also wanted us to have a reconciliation where we sit at a table and talk about our differences and , hey , apologize to each other , and hey , you know , sorry about that neighbor , Sorry about that neighbor , and no , that wasn't an option . That wasn't in my eyes .
What was done was unforgivable . That's where the US Air Force stepped in the level at which the justice system here has spectacularly failed is the reasons why , you know , the Air Force decided it was in their best interest to move us .
Mitchell says the Air Force is relocating his family .
Yeah , they're going to be relocated . Frightening when you have somebody beat up your wife . Three people beat up your wife and then you're asked to sit at a roundtable discussion and have a hey , I'm sorry , my bad kind of meeting . I mean , you've missed the whole point . It was a felony offense .
They beat her to a pulp and then they're asked like hey , be a good neighbor and sit down with these people , and basically no real punishment was served . And so the Air Force has to step in and say we're going to move you . You're obviously not in a real safe environment . We're going to take this into our hands and we're going to transfer you .
I just thought how unbelievable that story was from start to finish .
It's embarrassing . It's embarrassing that we have such a great community and yet you have people and they said this in the story that KOB did . They said this is a great place , but it's not safe .
And until we get a feel for what people like that go through and tell our leaders understand that they have to step up and help , for too long we have legislators who say , nah , not a big deal . Not a big deal . And what's up with this neighborly thing ? How is it neighborly to sit down with somebody who's done this ?
The fact of the matter is that in this state right now , we face a choice that puts us right to be done because the people that make the decisions don't understand what people like the Mitchells go through . Right .
And it's just the lack of accountability . I mean , I'm sorry , but even you know , even as a parent , you have more accountability over your children when they misbehave and they need a level of discipline .
This just feels like , oh , let's just slap on the wrist for these guys and could you sit down and tell each other that you forgive each other and as a Christian I believe in forgiveness and I'm sure these people do too . Ridiculous overreach of asking this couple . She says she has PTSD from military experiences and this freaked her out .
This also happened in front of her kid and her mother . I mean , I'm sorry , but like , have we lost our mind ? Like not everything can just be , you know , brushed aside and a few words makes it all better . And that's just what they're asking this woman to do . I support her .
I would feel very unsafe if I was her , and unprotected , I mean I would unsupported but everybody now , especially those who would do these sorts of things , who would engage in crime .
They now know they won't pay the price , and so stories like this are a great example of people feeling untethered by the rule of law , because we've had years of this now , and so the criminals know it , the citizens know it , the citizens are scared and the criminals are emboldened . It's as simple as that .
Yeah , it's just that we're on a really bad pattern and it continues and continues and nothing's going to stop it until we get real serious from leadership about taking care of crime . And you know , we've said this since day one New Mexico is a great place to live .
It's beautiful , it's got some of the best things of this whole country it's got the best weather , by the way , anywhere in the country , no question . And so many great things about this state and the leadership that doesn't hold our criminals accountable .
It's wrecking it , yeah , and again wrecking our state , and it's just too bad so no , no doubt , no question . And great kudos to channel four for telling the story .
Right .
And , and you know , and they showed the bloody pictures because that's part of the story , right , and they deserve credit for what they've done
¶ Interview Preparation and Expectations
. Okay , let's talk a little bit about some of the things going on . We finally have an interview . I thought about pushing today's show back until late tomorrow night because I wanted to watch late Thursday night , because I wanted to watch Kamala Harris's interview with CNN . Do you Well , I do want to watch .
I'm very interested , of course you do . Is it going to say anything ?
well , I don't . That's a good question now . Here's the one thing , though , that that what we know now is she's going to have coach walls there . Coach , coach will be there with her so he does the interview .
So he'll be the cheerleader , yeah , and she'll be the what we can do , what we can be , what we we will be and what was .
Hey , we'll see how she handles it , or ?
they could talk about what spices they use in cooking , like they did in the last interview . I think you're doubting . Here's the one thing . Oh , you think I'm doubting ? No , no , no , no . You think I don't have the faith in this interview .
No , no , no . Here's the one thing I think you , which is Dana Bash , who's doing the interview she could stand up and decide . You know what I'm going to do a real tough interview here . I'm going to ask her please tell me why you appear to be against fracking and now you're for fracking .
Please tell me why you appear to be against the border wall and now you're for the border wall . We've learned from history ? Okay , so you're saying she's going to do a complete reversal ? I'm saying she's going to just that's very hard to do , by the way I think she's going to just talk in word salads .
I think it's going to be Okay . Well , okay .
We all get that , but tell me what she's going to say to that . If you're her , if you're her , okay , I'll be Danivash , okay . Madam vice president , you said for years that you supported an end to fracking .
If we end fracking in the United States of America and in New Mexico , we will literally crash the economy , not only of the United States , but likely the world economy , with a a dearth of energy . That will be something we'll be paying for for decades . So which is it now ?
Do you support an end to fracking , which you've said multiple times , which would be devastating , or do you now support full fracking and allowing us to take advantage of all of our energy in the United States ?
Well , first of all , I didn't say that I ever was going to support fracking or be against fracking . I'm not sure . No , you actually did say you were going to end fracking .
I'm not going to say that .
You know what . Madam Vice President , I think that's a fair thing .
Let me just go to the video where you say Okay , you're giving this reporter way too much credit . If she says let me show you the video of you saying this , I will applaud her .
No , I think she absolutely could say before this first question , let me show you this . And she says I'm going to ban fracking .
Well , we've learned a lot since those days and we've learned from history and we want to take our best things from history and we want to put it forward , because this is about moving forward .
So you do support , are you okay then ?
with fracking . I know she's not going to say anything . Are you kidding me ? Do you really think she's going to go on record saying she's in favor of fracking ?
Well , I do think she's going to have to . At least , at some point , someone's got to push her to answer the question .
And you think it's going to be Dana .
I think she might . Okay , she might , she might . I'll go ahead .
We'll take a little private bet off camera , and we be more pomp and circumstance , more laughing , more joy , more not answering the questions . They can't ask him about her policies because the guy has no idea where she stands on .
It's coach walls to you , by the way .
My , my bad .
My bad , he'll just be like hey , do the jazz hands that he always does , okay , well , so all right , so don't don't kill the joy , mark , don't kill the vibe by asking the hard questions .
Okay , okay , well , I mean honestly , we don't have time for that . So we're all feeling good . Let's just say feeling good .
But you admit that she will at least ask a question . Like you , have had a significant role in this administration . Whether you call her , the borders are or not , you've had a significant role in this administration hold on .
I've been to the border . No , you haven't . I've been to the border , mark Hold on .
I've been to the border . No , you haven't .
I've been to the border .
No , you haven't .
Well , I haven't been to Europe either .
Okay , that's right . My point is on this , though Hold on . My point is on this You've had a significant role on the border , whether it be called the borders are or not , and border crossings have skyrocketed , and this is out of control . It's an issue that even you have admitted .
So why now are you switching positions to now , it appears , support a border wall , when you literally spent your whole political career ripping Donald Trump for a border wall ?
She is going . You know what she's going to do with that she's going to . My guess is she's going to spin that back around and say , hey , we had legislation in front of Congress this year and Trump said to not sign it and we really have been trying to shut that down .
There you go , see , that's a good answer .
That's what she's going to say .
Right .
And now you can't Trump's fault . She's going to somehow position this back to it being Trump's fault . Republicans' fault for shutting down this pork-filled bill thing that they tried to put up in the last hour .
Okay , all right , all right , but of course we'll be watching it . Yeah , no , we'll check it out . We'll have more .
Yeah , We'll have more . It'll be riveting everybody .
We're got to have Tim training wheels with her . You know , sitting there with her , oh , timmy training wheels will get her out of trouble , whatever happens . Right , that is crazy Cause we're going to end up at , you know , 38 days or whatever it is . She hasn't spoken a word .
And then she brings out Timmy training wheels and he stands there next to her and tries to bail her out , like she can't handle it herself . I don't think it's a good look , I really don't .
I and you're saying you finally got to speak to people and she says , ok , I'll go out there and I'll give an interview , but somebody call up training wheels and get them in here , because , because there's no way I'm doing this alone , can she not handle it alone ?
I find that to be something that doesn't help the image of her trying to at least present herself off a teleprompter as up for the job . Now , we all know anyone can stand up and read a teleprompter at the Democratic National Convention . I'm sorry , that's not hard to do .
But I will say this about her that when she sits down for an interview , I think what happens to her is she gets some performance anxiety and I think the total number of words she can draw from comes down . It happens all the time to people .
It's not an unusual thing , and I think she has that issue and I think they bring training wheels in there and they hope , hey , if TW is there , she's got a chance to get through this thing , cause when she starts to have some issues , t-dub comes in and tries to bail her out .
That's what I was going to wonder is how much he interrupts her Like how , or how much does he kind of jump in on answering the question ?
which , by the way , would make her . That does not help her either , oh .
I know It'll you know , so I don't .
This is interesting .
I try to answer all your questions for you and you don't like it very much .
No , no , I don't , no , I'm just arrogant enough to think I can answer them and then I go butcher them and then you're like you shouldn't have done that , you shouldn't trust your money's still going to happen , absolutely Simply because of this .
No candidate has enough of a lead right now to be able to say I'm not debating you , right , her lead at best is probably two points , maybe three nationally , and if she wins by two or three points nationally , we still don't know who wins the electoral college . Okay , I'm just so .
She's got to win by two or three points to even have a chance to win the electoral college . Nobody talks about that , but it's true . So nobody has enough of a lead to be able to say I'm not debating you , it's not happening . The debate's absolutely going to happen . You're going to see two of them and I think they'll likely have an interesting impact .
I don't know that they're going to be dispositive in changing the race , but I but I do think it's going to be an interesting impact and I will say I'll tell you if you're expecting her to just blow it in the debate , she's not going to . She's going to have talking points and she's not going to blow it .
Well , she wants to have her notes and she wants to sit down .
Well , I'll tell you she's not going to get notes . I don't know anybody on the history of the planet who's been able to go into a major office debate and have notes . It's ludicrous . I mean , if you can't handle a debate one-on-one against your opponent , that's embarrassing . And to sit there and be like let me sit down , let me have some notes .
You know , let me give me a quick back rub . You know what is this ? I mean seriously , I love that . I want to sit down . I was like , oh , that sounds vaguely familiar .
Yes , we did have that issue with Michelle . She wanted to say but her hers was actually legitimate , she had a bad knee Was it though . Oh absolutely she did have a bad knee I'll give her that and I had a bad back , so I had to stand .
So , whatever you have to do , what you got to do , but the point is , you negotiated out , I stood , michelle sat , whatever , that's no big deal , but Michelle wasn't like hey , give me some notes .
Yeah , I mean , give me a break .
That I think is interesting , especially for everybody out there during the 2020 election especially , was thinking you know all of these stories are coming out or getting pushed down by , you know the throttled out by social media , including the Hunter Biden , you know laptop all those stories were getting pushed down , getting throttled .
There's all these theories that basically is Facebook or any of those companies . Are they throttling information ? When it comes to COVID , right , are they saying you have to say a certain thing to be allowed to stay on Facebook ? Right , and no , no , no , we never did that . We never did that . We never did that .
Well , mark Zuckerberg basically just blew the whistle on Biden's contempt for free speech .
Is what this headline says out of Newsweek it basically he wrote a letter and said yeah to Congress and basically admitted that they throttled them , they felt the pressure from the Biden-Harris administration and they caved and , according to Zuckerberg , he regrets it now and says that they shouldn't have done that .
It's interesting . It's interesting that he's come forward and said I screwed up . I screwed up right now . Who knows the reasoning for all of this ? I'm not going to get into Zuckerberg's head or anything like that . I can't possibly do that .
But I will say this that Alejandro Mayorkas went in front of Congress in 2022 , and he was asked by the best questioner in the United States Senate , josh Hawley did you do this ? Did you throttle down certain opinions about COVID and did you put pressure on social media companies to do it ?
He laid it out very clearly , and if only there was video of this exchange of those two of them and if there was , it'd be interesting to contrast this to what's happened over the past couple of days . Oh wait , there is , let's take a look . Oh wait , there is .
Let's take a look , Example after example of this administration , coordinated apparently , according to a federal court , by your agency pressuring , coercing social media companies to engage in censorship . Is that constitutional ? That is unequivocally false . It's what the emails show .
It is unequivocally false , Senator .
You are not pressuring the big tech companies to take down accounts . You are not meeting with them to ask them to censor on your behalf . That is correct . We are not . Here's my point , mr Secretary .
It has been established for years in this country as you very well know because you're a lawyer that the federal government may not use private third parties to engage in activities that are unconstitutional . That's exactly what you and this administration are doing . You are leveraging private companies to carry out censorship on your behalf .
It's dystopian , but worse than that , it's unconstitutional . It's also false . Turn now to a story breaking overnight . Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg claims he was pressured by the White House to censor content related to COVID-19 during the pandemic . Aaron Katursky joins us now with details .
Aaron , good morning . Good morning to you ,
¶ Media Bias and Political Manipulation
Whit . For years , critics have taken aim at Facebook for silencing views that challenge the general consensus in the medical community , especially about the origin of COVID-19 . Now Facebook's founder surprisingly says they're right . This morning , Medichief Mark Zuckerberg admitting he bowed to pressure from the Biden administration to censor content .
The Facebook founder issuing a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that said senior administration officials pushed the social media platform to censor posts about COVID-19 and expressed a lot of frustration when the company resisted .
Zuckerberg saying I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it , adding okay so , alejandro mallorca , surprise , surprise is a liar now .
Does anything happen to him when you lie like that in front of congress ?
no , they absolutely could investigate him . They could . They could do all sorts of things . I mean , they could press charge , no question they could . Will there be any support for it ? I don't know , but but he sat there again . This guy , every chance he gets he lies in . He's the guy in charge of the border . He sat up there constantly in line .
There is no accountability whatsoever . Every party should be terrified of what they see right here , because if you get a different president who talks to a different company and says you shut the mouths of my opponent , you shut them up . And that's exactly what the Biden-Harris administration did and it should terrify everyone . You do not want this .
And so Zuckerberg coming out . I think it is surprising , but it's also more than surprising . It's scary . And if you don't have people from both sides saying wait a minute , this cannot continue . I worry . This just is another straw in the camel's back that makes this more and more dangerous the further down the road we go .
Oh , of course . I mean I'm curious as to why Zuckerberg has come forward now . It's interesting , but maybe there's fear that I mean I don't know exactly what you said . This has to work on both sides . You should be scared as a consumer . You should have .
No political party should be having this kind of dominant situation , be able to come in and dictate what gets pushed out on social media .
The government has no role in this .
No none .
Are you kidding ? What country do we live in If , literally , you have the Biden administration calling people saying get that off . Social media like that . That is not the country we live in and you don't want that country . Well , you want Trump doing that in two years , if he wins , do you ? Of course you don't .
No , so stand up right now and go after your own side this whole . Oh well , they're wearing a blue jersey , so I'm not going to worry about it . Or Republicans saying , oh , they're wearing a red jersey , I'm not going to worry about it . Bull crap . Yeah , you should worry about it .
Sorry for the sorry for the strong language there , but it's true , hey , john dear calm down . I'm sorry , okay , no , it's crazy it is crazy .
So a great headline here from Politico today .
Oh yeah , really it's riveting .
It says our corrupt leadership . And then it says Vance tries to tether Harris to Biden during Michigan rally . The audacity of trying to tie Harris who's the VP , by the way , just in case anybody's curious about that .
Wait , wait , wait , yeah , really .
The audacity that the overreach made by Vance to you know , tie the two of these people together Still this guy Vance . I mean what is his ?
deal . You know what ? Really , I'm going to need a fact check on this . Let's go to PolitiFact , let's check it . Republicans claim Kamala Harris served as vice president to Joe Biden . Ah , politifact truth . The meter false . Thank you very much , ava . Thank you very much , ava . Absolutely true . Uh , no , that's false . Thank you very much , ava .
Thank you very much , ava . Absolutely true . No , that's it . So this was the meme going around on X over the past couple of days , which is this is literally what we're headed for . Next is the truth-o-meter from PolitiFact , when they literally come out and say no , no , no , turns out she was not his vice president .
Well , you know they want to do everything they can to separate her from Biden . Well , let's not mention at all that you do not see Harris and Biden ever together . I mean , we don't see Biden .
Well , yeah , by the way , that's another thing that the fact that we don't have a president right now is . It should be terrifying to everybody .
But he's sleeping and he's tired .
I really this isn't like a joke . I know this is where . Where is he ? Like ? Literally , we're talking weeks at a time . Did any of us imagine that we would be living in a country where the president of the United States would be literally off the scene for weeks at a time and no one's talking about ?
it . Now , I guess what I'm confused about is why don't they just say he's , he needs to actually step down ? I mean there's six more months of this , so what is I mean ? Yes , there is well , you think , september to January , right ? I mean that's technically six months , just under six months . So what do you do for that ?
Like , can you not call , can you not say , listen , you got to step down . And then what ? She becomes president .
Well , of course she's vice president .
So why is that ?
not happening . You're starting to buy into the other line , which is like is she really vice president ?
Oh no , so she's busy campaigning . She's a brand new candidate .
We've never seen her before , Mark . Well , that's a good point .
I don't know if you know that or not , she's brand new , apparently so .
First in office what she's going to do so far you knew that .
You're like like , why do they not have him step down then and have her go in ? What's the theory there ?
He won't give it up .
He won't , Okay , but like if he's incapacitated and can't handle the job .
Well , I don't know . Can see the issues that he had , you know , prior to this , and now we just don't see him at all . So this is that .
Doesn't tell me that we should have a lot of faith and he's a healthy guy right now and he's doing well , I know , I know , I know . Like , if you're going to try to , you know , end out your you know your legacy by being a strong president , you would have more of a presence , I would think you would this this ties in , though .
When you see headlines like you're talking about , like the audacity of JD Vance to try to hook Kamala Harris to to Joe Biden , it shows you what we have with the media , and the trust in media right now is overwhelming . Through the floor , I mean it really is . Now , it's always been that way . For Republicans it's been low for Republicans .
Republicans were , although in 2015 , 32% of Republicans trusted the media . Now the numbers 11% of Republicans trust the media , and that 11% I don't know who they're dealing with Independents 29% now trust the media . Interesting number on Democrats 73% trusted the media in 2020 . That's now down to 58 .
Some of that , I do believe , even on the Democratic side , has to do with what's happened with COVID and things like that , where you were told a variety of things and then or dictated to in a variety of ways , and then you know , obviously , that changes . But as you go back into the 1970s , you can see that how high those numbers were for all parties .
You know you had trusted media 60% to 70% . That continues to crater , and that whole thought process of I don't know what to believe anymore and where do I go to find truth . And that's where there's an opportunity for networks and CNN could have taken that opportunity over the past 10 years . They haven't chosen to .
They've decided just as a by the way , as a business approach the whole thing of hey , let's fight it out with every other major news outlet and MSNBC to see how far and how left we can go and how biased we can be , so we can all share a tiny sliver of the electorate .
Just cut it up in tiny little pieces of that side of the electorate , versus saying you know what , let's just tell the truth and then you know what ? Sometimes they're going to hate us , sometimes they're going to love us , but we're going to get a bigger audience because of it . But but they're not doing it .
Yeah , terrible business plan . Terrible , just awful . Speaking of bad business plans , we're going to do a deep dive . What ? Yeah , I love the deep dive .
the deep dive I'm going to need here , I think , is the best way to do it . Yeah , thank you . Thank you , thank you very much . I appreciate it . Okay , so we're excited on this . I want to talk to you briefly and I won't take too long on this deep dive .
But you're hearing a lot about what's going to happen with with various economic plans , and you know we heard vice president Harris come out with she wants price controls and would lead to just devastating , devastating issues if we do that . But she's also talked about various tax hikes and things like that for the electorate and for businesses as well .
So I want to talk a little bit about the Trump tax cuts , because I don't think people fully realize what happened with the Trump tax cuts , ok , and how they were very , very beneficial to just about everybody in the country .
What you hear now is a total rewriting of history where it says , oh , these Trump tax cuts were just for the rich , and then they move on . That's not true . It's not true at all . And if you actually look at the numbers and we're going to go through the numbers with you these are critical these Trump tax cuts to keep them in place .
The problem with them is they're not in perpetuity , they sunset , okay . So next year they sunset , they will go away , your taxes will go up . I don't care if you're lower income , middle income , in some cases upper income , but really middle and lower income families benefited in a huge way from these tax cuts . So this comes from IRS data .
Okay , that's where we're getting this from . That's what you're about to see here . Okay , we didn't just pull this out of thin air . We didn't . We didn't go to the you know , the Federalist Society and get this information . Okay , this is from
¶ Tax Cuts and Economic Impact
the IRS . So I want to start with clip number one , Ava . A careful analysis of the IRS tax data one that includes the effects of the tax credits and other reforms to the tax code from that tax policy shows that filers with an adjusted gross income of 15,000 to 50,000 enjoyed an average tax cut of 16 to 26% in 2018 . That is a huge tax cut .
That's the first year of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act when it went into effect . It's not just the very lowest income levels either . Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received a tax break of about 15% to 17% , and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 in a gross adjusted income saw their personal income tax cut by around 11 to 13% .
So notice what's happening here Biggest tax cuts for the lowest income people , and then a little less as you go up the scale . So the biggest benefit was definitely for those lower down on the income scale , but it doesn't end there , so we have more data on this as well .
By comparison , no income group with an adjusted gross income of at least $500,000 received an average tax cut exceeding 9% , meaning if you made more money , your percentage of a cut was much lower . Okay , which you know .
Again , you have more money too , right , but still so , the biggest benefit , the biggest percentages , went to those who needed the money most , and that is important . That means most middle income and working class earners enjoyed a tax cut that was at least double the size of the tax cut received by those earning a million dollars or more .
Right , so it's not this . Hey , only the rich got the tax breaks under trust .
Absolutely , it's just not true . It's a lie . So I just want you to know the truth , because when you hear all of this , these tax cuts are going to matter to working families when this election is over .
So one more thing , and this is an interesting piece of data the last little nugget here , and this is really , really important , so please pay attention to this Every income bracket with a top level lower than $25,000 , okay , so those making under $25,000 experienced a reduction in its number of filers , and every income bracket above $25,000 increased in size , with
the biggest gains occurring in the brackets with a floor of at least $100,000 . So what does this mean ? It means those who earn $25,000 or less . The number of those people decreased . Why ? Because they went up to a new level .
They made more money .
They made more money , so we saw the lowest levels of the economy lift up . Okay , that's exactly what a tax bill should do . It should really push the biggest benefit to those who need it the most . And this did that . Okay , it absolutely did that .
And it will end , I think , next year right .
Right , it sunsets next year . Now , here was one of the criticisms . One more thing on this . Here was one of the big criticisms on this . At the time when it was put out , democrats said and those who didn't vote for it said it's going to cost too much money , it's going to cost the government , the government's going to lose money .
So look out , everybody Right . Okay , turns out that didn't happen either . So I want you to listen to Andy Puzder and what he said about this .
Look the Trump tax cuts . One thing that everybody seems to ignore is the Trump tax cuts were forecasted by the Congressional Budget Office to reduce tax revenue over a 10 year period by one point one trillion dollars from the higher tax rates that were in place when the bill was passed .
Trillion dollars from the higher tax rates that were in place when the bill was passed . Now that we have six years of information under our belt , cbo is projecting that those tax cuts will actually generate $600 billion more . So that's a $1.7 trillion miss by the CBO on the original Trump tax cuts .
So these tax cuts not only created jobs , they created increased tax revenue , which of course , came in during the Biden-Harris administration .
OK , so just think about that for a second . The CBO says it's going to cost one point one trillion dollars if you do this . They were wrong . It brought in an additional six hundred billion dollars , so off there . This thing actually brought more money in . It boosted the economy and that's why , going into COVID , this country had a very strong economy .
This is good tax policy , but it gets demagogued in an election and I just want you to be able to understand that this stuff matters and policy matters and we have to pay attention to this stuff .
And so when it said that Trump tax cuts were just for the rich , that's a reflexive , lazy , disingenuous argument from those who don't want to admit this thing was very , very helpful to a lot of Americans , and the last number is 82 percent of Americans got a tax cut from that act .
So that really means something , and I just wanted to talk about it because I fear that if we go through this election and then we have someone elected who is going to just let that go away , ok , then every one of you is going to feel it .
Well , every single one of you will owe more money in taxes . It's that simple . One of you is going to feel it Well , every single one of you will owe more money in taxes . It's that simple .
Yeah , like even even on top of even not even taking into account the things that she's going to add to it in her , in her tax plan , which is adding taxes to almost everything out of the sun . But okay
¶ Harris Flip-Flopping and Mammoth Cave
, well , that'll be interesting . Hopefully that gets brought up in the debate , hopefully there's an opportunity for that , that conversation I don't know if there will be .
Well , the problem is you get into a debate and it's like and Trump says , hey , give a text , Good , and you know , and it helped everybody . And Harris says , no , it just helped your rich friends .
And then she just moves on Like right and then there's no , they don't come back . There's no , there's no discussion .
Yeah , that's where a moderator saying well , wait a minute . Yeah , actually , hold on . This helped a moderators . You get a disingenuous media right now who does not actually present the American people with the facts , and that part of it is heartbreaking . All right , I kind of misplaced this story , but I still think it's interesting .
Okay , the Harris flip-flopping on the border wall . Yeah , well , this is . That's basically . That's the headline . Yeah , if you look at this right now , harris flip-flopping on the border wall . Now she's basically saying she's going to keep it .
Yeah , yeah , if she's elected president , she's going to pledge to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the wall along with the southern border , a project that she wants to pose and called un-American during the Trump administration .
Wait , hold on . Did she really ? Did she really say that though ?
Well , she'll tell you probably on in her interview tomorrow . She never really said that , but I bet you we have video what . Never really said that , but I bet you .
We have video , what I bet we do . There's video , I'm sure there is . Let's check it out here . I'm not going to vote for a wall under any circumstances . The president's medieval vanity project is not going to stop them . This issue is about a vanity project for this president .
This is a crisis of his own making for the sake of this president's medieval vanity project . Folks have plenty enough problems that they need their president to focus on instead of a wall . Basic English language definition . It is not an emergency .
Probably ripping off another Trump idea .
The big beautiful border wall .
The wall was something she once called quote un-American when Trump was in office . This wall was something she once called quote un-American when Trump was in office .
Now , of course , she's taking , at least rhetorically , a much tougher line on border security . He talks about this wall . Let me know how high it is . If it's 25 feet , then I'll invest in the 30-foot ladder factor .
The latest example of Harris flip-flopping on her past liberal positions .
What do you make of her transformation on this issue ?
After decades in law enforcement , I know the importance of safety . I refuse to play politics with our security . Here is my pledge to you .
Okay , it's from Wesley Hunt , who's a congressman in Texas .
This is one of the most egregious flip-flops , disingenuous ridiculousness that I've seen , but it's not a surprise , yeah , calling it a vanity project and that it was like a made up problem by Trump . If people don't wake up to that nonsense , I mean he should just , you know , he , he should just be making all of his ads Talk about that .
I mean honestly that she didn't believe there's a crisis when she knew there was a crisis , right , and then you know it's like now it's even gotten worse under them well , did she know there was crisis , though , really ?
or did they just not not care ?
I mean , I , I don't know who knows she not know she's , the borders are I know she's there she went to the border mark yes , border , yes , no , I'm gonna hear I got it okay . Anyway , I found this story to be funny just because .
Yeah , we got a couple of light ones to end with here .
Yeah , this is a lighter story Because I worked in PR . I've worked in PR for a really long time , right , so I loved this when I read this headline . Basically it's supposed to be . It's a tourism site in Kentucky , right ?
And apparently they got a lot of negative reviews and so they spun that around to make it a positive that they've gotten some of the worst reviews to visit this , like this cave . Basically it's a national park down in Kentucky , so they say world of regret awaits at this letdown of a national park .
And it said here that , on the heels of a ranking that included Mammoth Cave National Park among the quote , most disappointing attractions in the United States , the Kentucky park is doubling down on those negative reviews . It says here they put on their website come experience what has disappointed millions of people for over 225 years .
And they said that they were ranked third most disappointing , behind Kennedy Space Center and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame . And so then this quote while we think the world's longest cave system in over 4,000 years of human history is amazing , others find that the cave is quote very dark and there is nothing cool to see . Here . The National Park said .
And then it said if you would like to experience the disappointment of Mammoth Cave . Visit our website and choose from one of our many activities that will leave you quote unfulfilled . The park said you can be disappointed by a dry hole with very few staglamites and staglitites , or discover nothing other than trees on an 80 plus mile of biking hiking .
Stalagmites and stalactites Okay , whatever .
Basically , they just added a world of regret awaits you at Mammoth Cave . I'm like this is awesome .
It is awesome .
That they could have the common sense enough to take those bad reviews , twist them around . It's like mean tweets , basically .
They basically took mean tweets and they flipped it on its head and I loved it . Good for them , it's so true . So they've got to go to Mammoth Cave , and I will tell you if we were close to Mammoth Cave now , and we were driving . There's no way I'm going if I don't see this .
Yeah , now I have to see it .
Now I'm like , yeah , I can't wait to get there and have the gross .
How is the biggest ball of yarn Not one of the biggest , you know ?
It's not a national park oh , okay . That's what they're comparing . I think that's . I think that's my guess .
The Rock and Roll History Museum Hall of Fame is a national park .
No , no , no , it's not though .
Okay , yeah , I don't think the space .
Okay , but those are is sort of this seventies feel rock where it's like in , in on a .
We need like a tune .
Yeah , like Sirius XM , I'm trying to think of a good yacht rock . Um , pina Colada is a good yacht rock . Uh , you know , we probably can't play it because of copyright . No , no , no , we can't . We can't play it because of that . But it is that kind of yacht rock sort of song , 70s stuff like that . Well , there's a guy who took Metallica's Enter Sandman .
Okay , and I don't know how many of you know Enter Sandman , but it is a Enter Sandman .
Yeah , yeah .
That's all I know .
The words are wrong . But yeah , nice job . But you're right . Does anybody know the words ? James hetfield , nobody knows . Uh , enter sandman , you know , it is like has a heavy beat , so it's a great song , okay , and like when we're in high school it was like the greatest song ever , so I love it .
And so this guy on on instagram puts it through ai as if it were a yacht rock song . Okay , so no , so that's what it . It sounds like . So it's going to have this kind of seventies groove to to the lyrics from enter Sandman and it is hilarious . So it sounds like Michael McDonald . He's jamming .
He loves it too . Say your prayers little one .
Don't forget my son to include .
Say your prayers , little one , don't forget my son to include everyone .
That's Well , at least I can understand the words in this version yeah , sure , yeah .
He comes Sleep with one eye open .
He's dying laughing . He can't even keep his straight face . Oh my gosh , exit light . We have there .
I had the words right it's so good we're off to Never Never Land . Here we go .
Yeah , it's so hilarious guys like they just wrecked this song .
So good , so good , okay , all right . Well , on that note , yes , we're out , we are out , yeah , so it's hilarious Guys like they just wrecked this song . So good , but the AIs whatever . So good , okay , all right .
Well , on that note .
Yes , we're out .
We are out . We are not going to have a show on Labor Day . I know that's going to be big tears for everybody out there . Yes , hopefully they're out camping or just more than one interview . I mean , I'm not holding my breath .
Yeah , I wouldn't , I wouldn't , but we'll see what happens . You deserve the answers and we'll keep asking the questions . See you next week .
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