Who’s REALLY Behind The “No Kings” Protest?
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We've got who's really behind the No Kings protest. I guess that these octogen- who knows how old these middle-aged people are in cat costumes, that they're going to eat ice? I don't know. They still think they're fighting Vietnam. These are theater kids. Theater kids. And it's bad theater. It is. It's terrible theater.

They should be mocked. I also saw people on Twitter talking about all of the unsolicited text messages they were getting from organizers of these protests. Right. Who were, you know, texting out these videos of being like, why you have to come to this No Kings protest? Right. You know? I mean, this is a well-funded, well-orchestrated operation. It's anything but grassroots.

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and the people who make it great. Learn more at wedeliverforamerica.org. Paid for by the American Beverage Association. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Keep the faith, hold the line, and own the lips. It's time for our main... Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I am Michael Duncan, along with me comfortably smug, and John Ashbrook. No Josh Holmes here today, unfortunately, but we soldier on nonetheless.

Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be good. Very excited about today's show. We have a lot of good stuff in this episode. We have a great show for you. We had the No Kings protest over the weekend, and you're going to find out who is really behind that movement, which I think is very interesting. Very, very interesting. We have an update on the Israel-Iran conflict as it's going on. Maybe there's a little bit of...

you know, fight in fighting here in the, in the conservative movement over that whole thing. But we're going to suss it all out for you, listener and viewer. We also have some fantastic variety. We have an Italian crypto scam. I'm not going to want to miss this. I've been wanting to get you this story for a while. We haven't found a good spot for it, but now we're,

We have one, and it's great. I hope you're ready for an active board. We're going to need the board during that segment. You're going to have the board. I don't know the details of this story, but I cannot wait to find out in real time with everybody else who's listening. Yeah. And then we have Ray Starling from the North Carolina Chamber who's coming in to talk about an important tax issue that we may see here.

from this reconciliation bill as it's reported out from the Senate. So interesting stuff. Before we get to all of that, I want to say a belated Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. Oh, yeah. All the kings. All the kings. Yeah, it was the weekend of no kings, but there were kings everywhere on Sunday. Kings everywhere, especially listening to this show. It's only kings listening to this show. Did you get anything good for Father's Day? You know, I got a couple of shirts.

And I got a just I was treated to a wonderful day thanks to my girls who look out for their old man. That's so nice. Yeah. I got some good stuff, especially from our five-year-old, Joey. He got me a box of Pro V1s. He colored all of them, you know, which was a little tough where it's like,

Do I want to play on a par three a ball that says, we love you, dad, on it and risk throwing that right in the water? What are you supposed to do with that? Yeah, it's so good, man. It is so good. I got a Cincinnati Reds golf shirt. Nice. And a t-shirt that says dad tax on it. It's one of those joke shirts that you give your dads. And I always take the dad tax on anything that looks good that my kids order at dinner.

And so great inside joke for our family, but just a terrific present. Wonderful Father's Day. My kids are the best. That's awesome. That's awesome, dude. All right. Well, so let's get right into it here. We've got who's really behind the No Kings protest for those of you somehow missed the news here over the weekend. And

And we've mentioned it numerous times here on the Ruthless Variety program. Randy Weingarten and a lot of these left-wing groups have been organizing these protests to coincide with the, you know, the birthday, the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army, Donald Trump's birthday, this parade that was happening in Washington, D.C. They were going to organize all of these protests across the country. It didn't go so well.

It didn't go so well. Turns out these people are kind of lunatics. And when they get together in spaces together, they lose their minds. I think we can only do this justice by putting clip one as a table setter here. Spaghetts, can we get that? You are the community to this president's chaos. And together we build a future, opportunity, and justice for all. The promise of...

American, that is what we are fighting for today. Okay, so there is Randy. She's, again, the head of the teachers' union who is for some reason at a no-kings protest and, you know,

So theoretically, her job is supposed to be to improve children's education somehow. Theoretically. And she's absolutely not done that. But like, what is she doing here? Like this, this, this tells you so much. Yeah. And you know what she's doing there. If you look at the contribution breakdown from the teachers union to political parties, it is overwhelming.

always 99% to Democrats. And some, several people who follow the show were tweeting this out over the weekend. If you look back through history every single year, they're giving only to Democrats as a partisan organization. Ashbrook, I'm really glad you mentioned that because that's a great segue. I mean, you got Randy Weingarten out there bouncing around like she's, you know,

On Adderall or something. Can I make an observation about the bouncing, by the way? She's doing that presumably to convey emphasis. How upset she is. How upset. She's so upset that she has to continue reading her script. Yeah.

She can't do that extemporaneously. Right. Like, you would think that if someone is so upset, they would be able to say things like hope over fear off the top of their head as they're bouncing. And yet she continued to refer back to her notes and

Which to me says that she is conflicted between a script that she wants to read and the pretend emphatic theater. Yeah, this weekend was Theater Kids Gone Wild. I guess would be a good summation of the entire thing. But to put a finer point on all of this, which I think is super important...

Got this story here from Fox News. The writer here, Azra Nomani, the title is The 2.1 Billion Machine Behind Spontaneous Anti-Trump Protests. Yeah. We know there was nothing spontaneous about it. We reported first here on the Variety program about what you should expect that weekend during the protests.

And everybody saw. You had days earlier. Ashbrook was like days and days and days before we saw this. He was like, listen, I've already heard from sources that money is being put into organizing these things. And every this is back when during the L.A. riots, when they first started. Ashbrook was like, listen, I'm being told by sources they're going to try to push and fund this to happen in every major U.S. city. Well, and it's the most revealing thing, I think, in the wake of George Floyd and everything that we saw five years ago is conservatives saying,

got a better sense of how centrally planned and organized all these protests on the left are. And so you can't really put one past the goalie on any of this stuff anymore. There is no spontaneous uprising on the left. All of their politics is command and control from the top. Here from that article, here is the breakdown of 198, quote, partners, right?

Listed in the official publicity material for the financial and political machine behind No Kings. Three official entities of the Democratic National Committee. Wow. 16 Democratic political action committees, including the Friends of Bernie Sanders, Progressive Democrats of America, and Vote Blue.

18 Democratic-aligned 501c5 labor unions, including the AFT and, you know, our friend Randy. 76 Democratic-aligned 501c4s. Of course, these are supposed to be nonpolitical groups, including the ACLU, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, Working Families Organization, Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, Indivisible Project. All of these groups. 47 501c3 groups.

These are 501c3 groups. These are supposed to be educational groups in this country. They have a 501c3 group doesn't pay taxes, right? Correct. This is a nonprofit organization. Right. The Unitarian Universalist Association. What the hell is that? Accountable U.S. American Humanist Association. I mean. It says with $286.7 million to the cost.

They gave a quarter billion dollars. Quarter bill. A quarter bill. That's a lot of money. To this. Right? When we saw, I remember during the LA riots, like the dude drove up with a truck of like riot masks and stuff. People were like, whoa, these are like 500 a pop or something. How do they afford? That's how they afford that kind of nonsense. Right. There's this vast dark money network on the left that funds all of this sort of stuff. There are no coincidences in this. More from the article.

along with the 198 groups behind No Kings with revenues of $2.1 billion. Good God. There are another 267 groups that have been organizing protests against Trump with revenues of $1.3 billion. And you saw over the weekend...

clips of people who were in their cars saying, yeah, I was paid $200 to go to one of these rallies. Another guy, I was paid to go to these rallies. Well, and not just that. I also saw people on Twitter talking about all of the unsolicited text messages they were getting from organizers of these protests who were texting out these videos of being like, why you have to come to this No Kings protest? Right.

I mean, this is a well-funded and well-orchestrated operation. It's anything but grassroots. Exactly. It's anything but spontaneous. Right. And it isn't just no kings.

Right. More here from the article. Remember that the Tesla when they were targeting all the Tesla dealerships? Yeah. The Tesla takedown protests included an estimated 32 local and state affiliates of the Democratic National Committee from Florida to California who put Tesla CEO Elon Musk in their crosshairs.

Maybe there's a connection between all these things. This violence that we're seeing across this country and all of these groups with billions of dollars in their coffers that are organizing it. It's like DNC affiliated groups. This is straight from the DNC. Like this is you're seeing these riots. You're seeing this chaos. You saw all those destruction of people's Teslas. You saw, you know, people's businesses being burned to the ground.

being funded straight up by the DNC. This is insane. And I want to bring up this one point when it comes to Randy Weingarten. I was remiss not bringing this up earlier. I remember this was during COVID when Randy kept demanding schools be kept shut down. And she gives this press conference and she's like, not only do schools need to remain shut down, we need billions of dollars more from the government. They've never been saved. And I replied to her tweet and I was like,

In this video, you are standing in front of a Gulfstream G5. Like, how are you affording a G5 out here talking about, like, teachers are not getting the money they need? That's the day she blocked me. Like, you cannot bring up to them...

They're living in the billionaire's lap of luxury. And they don't care about the cause. They care about the money. That's exactly right. Like, why are teachers not getting what they need? It's because of her. I mean, think about it. From the day that she walked in the door as the head of the teachers union, which is who knows how many years ago, to today, the complaint from teachers is still the same. We're not paid enough.

So if a union is supposed to do anything, it's supposed to help the members get a better shake. And she hasn't done shit. She's incapable of that. She's entirely incapable of that. And I think this means that's why things like this mean even more to a person like her. Right.

Right. It's this intersectionality of the left. It's like if I can't actually deliver for teachers, I'm going to go and I'm going to hop in front of a camera and talk about all these things. And that somehow is going to mean I'm doing my job. I guess the only point I'm making is that that's the reason why she's not delivering for teachers.

She's thinking about intersectionality and jumping in some stupid speech full of bullshit. She's not thinking about how can I make sure that teachers get paid more? How can I make sure that they get the resources they need to walk into a classroom? Isn't it sort of funny, though, that this whole no kings protest over the weekend was done in response to this 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army?

and this parade that Donald Trump is going to have in Washington, D.C., which they would make you believe is like the Reichstag fire of America. Like this is dictatorship coming to America, that there's going to be a parade in Washington, D.C. And if you actually went there and you watched the thing, it was literally just a celebration of the army over its dictatorship.

It's like a history lesson. They have like every era of the army. It was like, and this is the uniform they wore in like the 1800s. This is the uniform they wore in World War I. You couldn't find a less political event in Washington, D.C. It's like you said, Smug. It was what the History Channel used to be. It was like Penn Burns. It was gold. It was like Penn Burns' U.S. Army. It was so good. Yes, right. Exactly. And they're freaking out about it. They got their hair on fire about it. And the reason why is because that's who their base is.

These people are lunatics and they have to motivate them by all this outrage. We got to play this other clip because it gets much funnier, much funnier than Mandy. I can't wait. This is a No Kings protest where they decided all dress up like cats. Let's play clip number two.

Oh, my God. Bro, is this for real? You've got people dressed up as cats walking down a sidewalk. For our audio-only listeners. And there was a sign on a cart that said, Cats Eat Mice, with I-C-E capitalized. So they're trying to say, I guess, that these...

Who knows how old these middle-aged people are in cat costumes, that they're going to eat ice? I don't know. They still think they're fighting Vietnam. These are theater kids. Theater kids. And it's bad theater. It is.

It's terrible theater. They should be mocked. And how in the world do they find the time to make a cat costume to then walk down a sidewalk to then walk after a cart of somebody with a stupid sign to attack these cops who are doing their job trying to get the criminals off the streets?

It's outrageous. It is outrageous. And then at the same time, they're mocking our troops. These guys are never celebrated. Never celebrated. They just get lip service. People are like, oh, yeah, thank the vets. Thank the vets.

The one time in decades that they're allowed to march down with their heads held high and show people the tanks that the only... You know, in the world, the only people who see those tanks never live to talk about it. Yeah. And there's a reason for that. But, like, can't we celebrate what these guys are doing? And there was a parade in 1991 after the Gulf War was won. And there was a parade Lincoln had. And throughout history, like, Jefferson had a parade. Like, all our...

There's a huge, rich history of parades for Americans to celebrate our military and the people who serve in it. And this was... All the folks who saw it saw it. It was such a treat. You learned so much. And you saw the smiles on the faces, not just of the Army folks who were serving in the parade, but when I would see the cutaway and they show kids who are having the time of their life...

waving flags, you know? Big smiles on their faces. It's almost like this is great for America. But unfortunately, Smug, it wasn't about that for the left. We have more of the lowlights from the No King protests over the weekend right after this.

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Okay, so we've got more lowlights here from this No Kings protest over the weekend. The shenanigans were out of control. These people have lost their minds. Can we put up this clip number three, please, Spaghetts? We were just talking about this morning. Oh, good.

What is this guy? You have a lunatic in Bermuda shorts and a backpack banging a Donald Trump voodoo doll. He's banging it against a board. It says at this booth, they're a Trumpy, where you pay, what was it, 50 cents to attack a little Barbie doll of Donald Trump. It's like...

We have a mental health crisis in this country. We have a mental health crisis in this country. RFK, please save us. Yeah, reopen the asylum. Dude, you're like 70-something showing up to this protest to beat up on a doll of Donald Trump

And that somehow is making you feel better, like you're the real hero of the day. You got to go home, dude. Go home to your family. You need to get your life together. Again, the contrast between celebrating our troops in a parade and then No Kings, which was a parade of cats, and then some boomer banging a doll that looked like Donald Trump against a board. Right. I mean, those are two different visions for the country. Doesn't the whole thing kind of...

feels like Don Quixote. You like tilting at windmills. Yeah.

Like they have this idea, this nightmare of America they think is real that they're fighting against that makes them feel happy. That isn't real. If you watched that army parade and all the people in the tanks waving at the crowds and the young kids who were happy and Donald Trump and all this sort of and the bands that were playing and everybody there was having a good time. And this is what they think is dictatorship in America.

Yeah. No kings. No kings. Donald Trump is trying to be a king. And they're walking around, like you said, Smug, beating a Barbie doll. It's really sad because I think you're right. There is this horrific problem, this siloing of the left, of where they further radicalize and separate. Because, like, listen, if...

Like, that dude's a grandfather age. Grandpas are at home having fun with their kids or they're at a parade. What are you doing, dude? What are you doing? Like, this is supposed to be the time of your life that you're like, I have grandkids. This is the best time ever. I'm going to hang out with them. I'm going to take them to a parade. And this is what you're doing, dude? Like...

This is not healthy. Well, I'm glad you said that, Smug, because it's easy to laugh at these people and obviously pretty fun to laugh at these people. But it's also really pretty, pretty sad. Yeah, it's sad what the left has done to their own base. It's sad what MSNBC has done to their own base. And I think that is basically epitomized here by clip number four, Spaghetts. Let's play that. Listen to what some of these protesters told us.

I just, I just, I'm just so scared. I'm 74 years old. I just, I just, I just am so scared and upset and I don't, and I don't understand why people did for this person.

Man, oh man. She's 74 and they wound her up to the point that she's just crying and paranoid and just like... Where's her family? That's what I want to know. Where's her family? And that's the other thing is like in this... I've done a lot of research on this whole like radicalization process and that's like the first thing they try to do. Like we talked about how what the left has done is they spent the past 10 years looking for heretics and hunting them down.

And the right has spent the past 10 years looking for converts. And that's the difference. We've grown our party. You saw it was, you know, Tulsi. You saw RFK. You saw the expansion. You saw Maha with MAGA. And we have grown and essentially encompassed the normal people in this country are all now Trump supporters, right? That share has grown. Meanwhile, the left has just made their base more insular and insular and insular and kept them in this silo of information where they're being told that, like,

It's the Holocaust. You're being hunted down. And Trump is a king. And you're all going to die. And you should be scared. And you know what? There's climate change happening outside your door. And you're going to die tomorrow. And you're having any kids. You're just dooming them to die. And it's like, this is a horrible thing. This is a tragic occurrence. Like the left, it truly has become just like,

A group of completely insane people. It is tragic. And if the leaders of the No Kings movement are the Don Quixotes, it's ladies like that who are the Sancho Panzas of the movement. Wow. Good pull. And these are people who are so sadly working alongside Don Quixote, just hoping that

that those windmills are going to be right there. They're going to take out those dragons. And they're very sad when it turns out to just be a windmill. And I feel like there is an entire country full of people like that who have been deluded into following the stupid ideology. At the same time, everybody else is like, well, let's celebrate these troops. You know what I mean? Like I,

You've got to think like a part of them is conflicted because they did grow up in America. They did grow up thinking that like, man, America is the greatest thing. And now all of a sudden they're stuck under this ideology. It is so sad. Yeah, but you know what I worry about, Ashbrook, is that these people, especially that woman, that 74-year-old woman who's like crying on television about how Donald Trump's going to be a dictator or whatever, is that they've had their minds so polluted for so long that

that they get brought along on all this intersectionality bullshit of the left to the point where like it's not about even that donald trump's a dictator which of course he's not it's all this other stuff that's in this constellation of left-wing bullshit that they make a woman like that also believe let's go to clip number five here where we've got a hamas flag at the no kings rally

This is the highest. This guy is standing on top of a pillar, waving a Hamas flag, and everybody's cheering him on. They're cheering it on. They're cheering it on. Think about that. Think about that. It's like no kings in America. Only terror groups. Yeah, we're going to pledge allegiance to a terrorist group that's a proxy of the Ayatollah in Iran. Make that make sense for me. In New York City of all places, man. Like...

That is shameful. That's shameful. Yeah, and I find it ironic that he's standing next to a one-way sign and you know exactly the direction that is pointing. Really paints a picture for you, doesn't it, John? It does. It really does. Okay, so our question of the day for you, and we read all of the comments here on the YouTube page.

And then we, you know, we read them often here on the Ruthless Variety program. But our question today coming out of this segment, the No Kings movement, what it means for the future of the Democratic Party. Does it revitalize the left? Is this a flash in the pan or given their deep pockets? We went through that here on the show. Is this the future for the left? How does that impact the midterms and all of those things? I'm curious what you think as a listener. We want to read all of your comments. We'll report back later.

later in the show on Thursday. When we come back, we're going to read your comments from last episode. We asked you, how long would you last as speaker? I think everybody on this show knows I would last maybe a minute before I had to throw in the towel. But we have some fantastic comments in here. I can't wait to read them right after this.

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And we're back. All right. So we have our comments from last episode. How long would you last as Speaker of the House? A small majority, a lot of infighting, different caucuses, different constituencies to placate, difficult job.

And we got some great comments. We always start with the voice. Okay, first one comes from Clarence O'Bear. And Clarence writes, How long would I last depends on your definition. Will I resign or will I be voted out? If I make it past my acceptance speech, which I doubt, I would have probably pissed off so many people in the caucus and their leaders, they would have to vote to vacate and have me removed within two weeks.

But to be clear, I would not resign. At 65 years old, my give a shit meter has been pegged when I hear I want this or I want that instead of what America wants and needs.

Take care, guys, and always have a banger of a day. Clarence, what a great comment. I love that comment. It also feels like Smug's burner a little bit. I mean, the thing about the give a shit meter, it's like dead on. Like, dead on. That's the thing. It's like, you know, I know the job requires a lot of teamwork, but it's like...

I have a very difficult job. I'm going to be like, this is what I want. This is what the country wants. That's what we got to do. And that's it. No compromises. All right, Smug, what do we have for comment two? Comment two, Homestead Journey writes, question of the day,

If I could hire Smug as my muscle, I could last as Speaker forever. I wouldn't take too many drowned dogs for people to fall right in line. That's right. That's the thing is, you know, my kind of like leadership style is you have to make an example. It's kind of like prison. You walk in the first day. You've got to like kick somebody's ass. Right. Shank or be shanked. That's right. So like, you know, it's the same thing. Like Comstead Journey writes, you can walk in there. There's got to be human sacrifice. Scare everybody straight.

Set the tone for things to come. I think that's a great apply. I love that. That's the way to do it. I love that. Comment number three here is, and there's a lot of asterisks here, but I believe the comment is saying the Washington Post. Yeah, that's it. And they write, I would last a scaramucci of hours as the Speaker of the House. Outstanding. Which I just love. Yeah.

What I love about our audience, everybody's got a complaint about things not being the way exactly that they would do it. But they also have the self-recognition that it's a hard job. Right. And I think Speaker Johnson is doing the best that he can. Yeah. I mean, you look at that interview he did with us last week. Mm-hmm.

It's got a hard job. Very hard job. And the guys are real conservative, like a legit conservative. When you put a conservative in that job or you put anybody in that job, they have to come to terms with the fact that you have members who represent very, very different constituencies. And you heard him say that we don't have a majority without California and without New York.

And he understands that implicitly. And without that understanding, you can't operate a majority year after year after year. And so I think...

That he comes from the right place as a conservative, but he has a very realistic view of what's achievable. And it sounds a lot like he's calling these senators and making sure that they are aware of the difficulties in the House as they consider reconciliation. You know what I would consider it a little bit is like it's a bedside manner. It's like being a good doctor. Mm-hmm.

or a therapist, if you will. It's like people come to you with their problems and everything and you've got to like sort of smooth all that over, which is a hard thing to do because you know like any sort of constituency, whether it's the New York stuff on the SALT stuff, right? Or if it's the House Freedom Caucus, like...

Any of these constituencies could kind of hold the whole process hostage if things go sideways. So you've got to be able to like find a way to meet everybody where they are and deliver something for the entire conference. It's basically...

Right now, the hardest job in Washington. Yeah, it really is. And that's a good imagery, you know, the bedside manner and a good doctor. You know, sometimes a good doctor needs to understand when a patient walks in only wanting to cause problems. Yeah. And that happens day after day in that job as speaker. And you know that he understands that in a way that, you know, few other people who've had the job have understood it. So Smug, I'm curious. Yeah.

All right, wave a magic wand and you're Speaker of the House tomorrow. Who are your deputies? Who's your whip? Like, who are you counting on? Man, so...

I mean, I want to get MTG in the mix. Okay. I really like MTG. The gentleman from North Carolina that we just had on the show, he's 100% on the team. Okay. I mean, that guy was put in a position where him and his team of 24 had to put down a town of 200,000, root out all the terrorists, and he got the job done. I would think, like, you know, that's my whip. That guy can do the job. That's my whip. Okay. Okay, that's a good whip operation. I like that. Okay, so next— I think—listen.

I think I'd take you both of you guys as my whips. Yeah. Like under no circumstances, under no circumstances would I go into battle with anybody else. And you know, you know that in Congress you need your boys around you if you're going to succeed. So I don't think that I would ever, should I be selected speaker of the house? I don't think I would ever say yes to the job if I didn't also get my demand that I have you to, uh,

whipping things up. All right, Ashbrook for speaker. Ashbrook for speaker. I love it. And we're his fixers. I love that. Up next, Israel and Iran are at war. Is there a little bit of divide on the right on this issue? I think it's interesting to discuss and also dispel. I think there's a lot of BS that's out there on all of that. And we're going to discuss all of that right after this.

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Welcome back. Okay, so now we have to talk a little bit here about the Israel-Iran conflict. There's been missiles obviously going across there into Tehran and back into Israel. Horrible thing to see happen in the world. Obviously, Iran, you know, had a lot of this coming to them.

they've been trying to enrich uranium and build out these nuclear sites and Israel basically had enough of it. And I know Donald Trump's been negotiating here behind the scenes to make sure that we figure out a way that Israel is protected, but also Iran doesn't have a pathway to a nuclear weapon. And Donald Trump doesn't want this to be a full scale war. But there's a lot of

There's a lot of people on the right who are a little upset about this entire situation. And here from the New York Post, Trump refutes Tucker Carlson's criticism he abandoned America first by supporting Israel. Quote, I decide. President Trump rejected right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson's criticism that he has abandoned American first principles with his support of Israel amid its campaign against Iran. Okay, here just to level set.

Just a level set. I don't think Tucker Carlson in saying that Donald Trump has abandoned America first is correct. I don't think that. I think there is similar to this no kings thing we were talking about at the front where there's sort of this Don Quixote problem where people are like creating dragons out of windmills. There is an idea on the right that this is the conversation about invading Iraq is

in 2002. I don't think that actually exists in Republican politics right now. Yeah. I've not heard anybody say, send American troops into Iran tomorrow. I haven't heard it. I mean, and you know, you understand why Israel is shooting back at the Iranians because they have funded Hamas. They funded Hezbollah. The Yemeni missiles aren't coming from, from nowhere. The Houthi missiles aren't coming from nowhere. So they're settling that score. Yeah.

And, you know, there's a difference between supporting an ally, a great ally of ours, and sending boots on the ground. And some people are sort of acting like the troops are gearing up to be sent over there. And that's not the case. Yeah, I mean, I would say to me this situation is the like –

perfect embodiment and example and what I would love to see from kind of an America first type of foreign policy where, okay, Iran is enriching uranium, which is a threat to the world. And Israel's like, we're not going to have that. And they launched this attack. There's these like precision strikes to the point where like they can take out a single room in an apartment building because that's where the general lives. So like, cool. And Iran,

There's zero American troops involved in this. There's zero American boots on the ground involved in all this. To me, currently, it seems like America is, in my view, the ideal foreign policy state. I want America to be like the arms dealer for all our allies.

We got a lot of missiles that can intercept shit. We got a lot of Patriot missile batteries. We've got...

all this gear that is ready to sell to allies who need it. And when our allies have purchased that from us, it's American jobs. It's America who gets money from that. And then our allies become like porcupines where it's like, okay, well, everyone in the world knows if you're an ally of America, you've bought weapons from America and none of the stuff that we fire at you is going to work. So there's no point in attacking an ally of America. That seems like a great strategy.

approach to foreign policy. When you do it like this, zero American troops, zero boots on the ground,

and America benefits economically. Our allies benefit from being part of a partnership with America because they are able to put up a great defense and it becomes futile to attack America or our allies. I want to keep it like that. It seems like a great situation that we've got going and it seems like Trump deserves a lot of credit for getting us in a place like this. You saw Secretary Rubio put out the statement where he was like, the US is not involved in these attacks.

But, you know, we will happily provide munitions. We'll sell them to Israel to be able to keep up their defense. Wonderful. Right. I love it. Good point. And I don't think anybody thinks that this neocon fantasy of putting boots on the ground and doing regime change is how we win a war in the Middle East. We have 20 years that prove that to be a false thing. That doesn't work. And Donald Trump here in this article in the New York Post says that

Sort of responding to this idea that he's abandoned America first, which I think is ludicrous. Well, considering that I'm the one that developed America first and considering that the term wasn't used until I came along, I think I'm the one that decides that.

For those people who say they want peace, you can't have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon. So for all of those wonderful people who don't want to do anything about Iran having a nuclear weapon, that's not peace. It's as simple as that. Yeah. I'll tell you, I know what you guys are talking about is very serious. One of my favorite tweets that came through over the weekend was from a good friend of the program, Stephen Miller, writes under Red Steeze.

The other Stephen Miller. The other Stephen Miller. He's very funny. Both of them, but he is very funny. And he was quote tweeting a guy who said, at this point, any Iranian official still alive must be feeling a little hurt that Israel didn't think they were important enough. Very funny tweet. Yes. And Red Steez quote tweets it and says, James, Ben Rhodes is an American citizen. Which is very funny. You know, Ben Rhodes at the top.

The Democrat consultant, uh, uh, styles himself as a national security expert. Yeah. Ben Rhodes was a national security advisor to Barack Obama during the period in which he was signing this nuclear deal with Iran and shipping pallets of cash to Iran, shipping pallets of cash over to those people. Right. While also undermining Israel, our strongest ally in the middle East by propping up through state department funds, uh,

super PAC operation to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015, as I've talked about on the show. I worked on that campaign. And I sat there in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, and across the way would be people like Jeremy Byrd, who worked for Barack Obama, who are sitting in a room with me and undermining our greatest ally in the Middle East by trying to force him out of office. Mm-hmm.

Using your taxpayer money. Crazy. So wild. Using your taxpayer money through the State Department. Absolutely crazy. Like, if you want to know why what Elon Musk and Doge was doing through USAID and all of these things is so important, it's stuff like that. Yep. It's stuff like that where the deep state, and the deep state is real. The deep state is real. The deep state would use your taxpayer money to do things around the world that you didn't vote for. Never had a voice in it.

They would do a voter registration program in Israel that then would get laundered to a super PAC run by Barack Obama's allies to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu. Think about that. It's crazy.

That is in the United States of America. That isn't Russia interfering in America's election. That's Barack Obama, Ben Rhodes, Tommy Vitor, and all these fuckheads fucking up our democracy. And you work so hard for what you earn, and every April 15th, you send your money off to the government, and then they take it and they do something like that. It's unbelievable stuff. It's unbelievable stuff. You have to actually know, as a conservative, what the stakes are here. Right? Yeah.

Don't get sidetracked with all this bullshit. We're not going to put boots on the ground in Iran. We're just not going to do that. We're going to let Israel finish the job. They're our ally. We're going to supply them weapons. That's the end of it. It's as simple as that. No, that's a good point, man. Okay. You ready for some variety? Always. Yeah. We have great variety here on the show. We need variety. We had a lot of tough shit to go through. We got to watch Randy Weingarten do...

bounce around and pretend to be important. I think this is going to be near and dear to your heart, Smug. Yes. Important for you. Somebody who cares about your health and fitness. Always. Okay, this is from the Daily Mail. Celsius. This is the energy drink. Celsius breaks silence over a link between its drinks and cocaine. Cocaine. Performance-enhancing drug. So there's cocaine in Celsius? Is that what you're saying? Well, let me tell you a little bit more here.

Celsius has finally addressed claims that its popular energy drinks can cause false positives for cocaine in drug tests. Ah, okay. This is a fallout of a tweet from a sports reporter from the Detroit Tigers beat who had tweeted that MLB teams were advising players to avoid the drink. You might get a false positive on a drug test if you drink a Celsius. Apparently... Okay.

Celsius beverages contain about 1,810 milligrams of taurine, far exceeding the typical daily intake of 40 to 400 milligrams. Okay. And that's something that's in – I've seen that on the back of your Red Bull. It's like in Red Bull and other things, right? Other labels, right? Yeah. Yeah.

So apparently it can get you a false positive on a drug test for the MLB. But he also deleted the tweet. So it's a little unclear whether that's actually the case. But smug. So that's the thing. Do you really care? So here's the thing is it said in the article that it's been determined that that's actually false, that this idiot journo just made up a lie. Who'd have guessed?

Who would have guessed? So dishonest. Wait, what's false? The claim that it can show up as a false positive for cocaine, that's actually not true. Oh, okay. Wow. And so that's why the journo deleted their tweet. And it's a typical journo. So they already got their attention that they wanted. They got their retweets and everything. They got the story out there, putting their name out there. And so all they have to do is hit delete. It's not like they have to issue a correction or get fired or be held accountable. That's the journo way.

But I love Celsius. I mean, the thing is... Do you feel like you're on cocaine when you have one? So I wouldn't know the comparison. I feel great.

If that's what cocaine feels like, well, you know what? Maybe it's not such a bad thing. I'm a fan of Celsius. It's all natural. All the ingredients they put in there are all natural. That's the thing is why it got so popular as opposed to Red Bull and the other monster energy and stuff out there. It's because Celsius is only all natural ingredients. Well, do you know what it does for me? All the flavors. I like that. You like flavors. Well, I like Red Bull. You like some flavors. Wait, you like Red Bull? I like Red Bull. It's fine. It's okay. It's okay.

It tastes like battery acid. You know what I mean? What? No one's like, I love the taste of this Red Bull. I like the sugar-free Red Bull. Same. I drink the sugar-free if that's the only choice, but it's like...

I mean, I'd rather have the vodka straight if it got me up like a Red Bull and vodka. You know what I mean? But like, no one's like, yo, I love that Red Bull sugar-free taste. As opposed to Celsius, which has like, you know, because they add fruit juice or whatever to it. Yeah, they got a lot of good stuff. Yeah. I love it. Full variety. The full variety, which we appreciate here on the Ruthless Variety Program. Exactly right. We get one more story. This is so wild. For variety. This has been cooking for weeks. So it's been cooking.

I wanted to cover it, but we didn't find the right time. A lot of news going on, a lot of stuff going on. We didn't find the room for it. I think this story was created in a lab for the Ruthless Variety program. It's like somebody SEO keyword stuffed a story to get our attention. This story has crypto. It has kidnapping. It has Italians.

And it's got a little bit of sexiness to it. Okay. You have my attention. You have my attention. Okay. So basically what had happened is this gentleman, I want to make sure I get this name right, and I expect an active board here. Okay. We'll see. We'll see if you earn it. There's a victim here.

Michael Valentino Tiofrasto Carturin. Okay. There it is. We know what this is about. Italian national anthem right there. Wait, what was that name again? His name was Michael Valentino Tiofrasto Carturano. He's got four names. This guy's got four names. Vito Carbone. Unbelievable.

This is from the New York Post. I'm just going to read the headline real quick, but I wanted to name check the victim real quick so we get a little active board use. Crypto bros and twisted NYC kidnap torture case hosted wild sex parties with help of alleged madam and alleged victim. I mean.

Where to start here? The Crypto Bros at the center of the twisted kidnapping case allegedly hosted wild sex parties with the help of a parent madam at a posh New York City townhouse. Mamma mia. There we go. Where they are accused of torturing an Italian Bitcoin millionaire. Italian Bitcoin millionaire. Italian Bitcoin millionaire. That is Michael Valentino Tiofrosto Carteran.

Apparently, the two gentlemen who took this guy hostage kidnapped him. William Du Plessis and John Waltz, they were at this ritzy Prince Street pad where they held him hostage, right? Apparently, this guy, Carturin, was worth $30 million, a wealthy trader of Bitcoin. They had, I guess...

taken his bitcoin at some point there was this elaborate scheme with his family and that they they convinced him to come to new york to recover this stolen bitcoin and then are you held him hostage yeah so like when i heard this story first like three weeks ago none of these details were there it was basically like a guy who had a lot of bitcoin was held hostage and like

Two people were, like, beating him up, being like, give us the details to the crypto. Yes. That was the subsequent kidnapping. Apparently, they'd already stolen some Bitcoin from him, and they used that to entice him to come to New York for them then to kidnap him. This is, like, Italian brain right there. Oh, no.

I mean, they think every criminal is a businessman they can work with, right? Because that's how they do it. They're like, oh, you know, well, these guys already robbed me. Maybe I should go meet them. It's Italian brain in action. From the New York Post, Carturin, 28, was allegedly lured to the Big Apple with the promise he'd be able to recoup Bitcoin. The sick pair, these are these two gentlemen who kidnapped him, had allegedly coerced from him by threatening to kill his family. Oh, can you believe that? Unbelievable. It's...

So they kidnap him and they put him in this ritzy pad there on Prince Street. That's where the shenanigans begin. They don't end with the trying and stealing of the Bitcoin and the threatening of the family. They were going to some posh club in New York. I believe it's called the Box Smug. And they were –

procuring some women who are of the night, if you will. Well, that's a sketchy place to go. I'm going to be real. Give us the inside details. You know New York. Yeah, so like, I mean, it's not like a place that you go to procure women. It's just essentially the reputation of the box is you show up after you've already been out at the bars, after you've already been out. This is like, it's not like you show up at the box to meet some friends at 10 p.m. It's like,

You're there at 4 a.m. because you're not done partying, right? Oh, wow. So that's like the clientele. You're there to get into more trouble. And so now you've got this Italian and these dudes there. And what happens now? Well, so what happens is they bring back some women from the box to this place where they've kidnapped this gentleman. And there are shenanigans involved.

This Italian is lying about all this shit. There are sexual relations involved. Yep, he's lying. Even with the kidnappy himself. Can we put up graphic number? Was that one there? Spaghetts? Yeah, so what we see here is the guy who's apparently the victim. That's the Italian on the leash? Yes, of this crypto scam who's on a leash surrounded by a bunch of women scantily clad. Hmm.

I just got to say, if I'm ever kidnapped, I'd love to be kidnapped that way. So this Italian guy is lying about all this shit. His family was never threatened. Like, this is all made up by the Italian. So he's like, his story ostensibly is like, they took some of my crypto and they forced me to meet him in New York. And then they took me to this club and they forced me to like party with these girls. They showed me a great time.

And he's like, I had to do it because my family was in danger. This is such an Italian thing, dude. Okay, well, you say that. But let me quote more here from the New York Post article. He was severely beaten, shocked with electrical wires, forced to smoke from a crack pipe, and at one point dangled him from a staircase five stories high, authorities said. This is literally the average Italian day. This is like what they go through on a daily basis. This is like Joey Spaghetti's Thursday.

Joey Carbone over here getting hung from a fucking balcony. This is just another date. Yeah, I guess kind of. But what he did was he eventually convinced his kidnappers that he would reveal the password to his Bitcoin. They went upstairs and then he ran out of the townhouse and flagged down some police officers. And I'm glad he did.

Because we wouldn't know this whole story if he hadn't. Imagine the cop to see this guy. So he kept his Bitcoin? They didn't even get it? They didn't even get it. Wow. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I might be with smug. So I did not read this before hearing it now for the first time. And so the money is still in his account. It was never stolen. Yeah. And the intervening time, it was...

strippers and hookers and threats of violence and he was partying at this place and i don't know can i tell you the truth of what happened again we don't know the actual truth i just want to say parody this is a parody and i don't know what i'm talking about but here's what happened in my a theory that i'm putting forward is the bill came due and the italian went full italian

They're like, okay, so, you know, who's going to pay for, like, all these girls and this weekend of partying? And he was like, okay, guys, I'm going to go grab my wallet. Everyone go upstairs for a second. Wait, you think this was an elaborate scheme? And then he just ran outside and was like, oh, I've been robbed, officer.

This guy did not want to pick up the tab. He was probably mouthing off, like, you know, you get an Italian 10 bucks, they're going to tell 100 people they got 10 bucks. I can't imagine what it's like for this guy, you know? Like, in Goodfellas, how it was impossible for them not to get... They'll buy a pink Cadillac. You know, you'll tell an Italian not to spend money and keep quiet, and they'll buy a fur coat and...

They're going to think they're Don Corleone. That's what happened here is this guy made a little bit of money in Bitcoin. And he thought he was like, you know, John Gotti. He shows up to New York. He wants to party. He has these guys that he knows take him out to a club. They get girls. They get booze. They rage out. And then the bill comes due. And he's like, yeah, I'll be right back, guys. He's got a leash around his neck. He's going to run out the door and tell the cops, oh, wow, I've been kidnapped.

I like the theory, Spug. I really do. Italian bounces on a check. That's it. Not the first time. Or do we believe this is an elaborate multi-state scheme to trick and attack? What a wonderful story. What a story. Custom made for the ruthless variety. All right. Well, we got to get to this interview. Ray Starling from the North Carolina Chamber talking about an important issue that's coming up here in this whole reconciliation debate. Let's get right to it.

Very happy today to have a guy all the way from North Carolina, from the Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina, Ray Starling. Thanks for joining the program. Hey, John. Thanks for having me on. You guys do a great job, and it's fun to be sitting here and chatting with you. Yeah, well, very, very happy to have you. And you're in Washington, D.C., all the way from North Carolina for a very good reason, which we'll get to in a minute. But you aren't straight.

strictly a chamber guy. You grew up on a farm, and farms in North Carolina are a huge deal. Yeah, I know it's our state's number one industry. It employs more people than any other industry in the state. I feel very passionate about it because I grew up around it. I went to NC State and studied agriculture as an undergrad. I actually went to law school at UNC Chapel Hill, but that was...

because I wanted to be an advocate in the agriculture industry. And fortunately, that's what I've ended up being able to do. Well, you're here in Washington talking about the big, beautiful bill, and there's an awful lot to like about the big, beautiful bill. But there's one provision that could really hurt farmers in North Carolina and some other tobacco growing states. I wonder if you could talk a little bit. Yeah, happy to. And I think you make a good point, John, that the

the big beautiful bill, certainly the tax provisions in particular, we are grateful for, and we recognize these things are a big compromise and a big way to try to keep everybody at the table. But there was a provision in the house version of the bill that would without question, uh, hurt tobacco farmers, which are still a significant constituency in North Carolina. We raise about $500 million worth of tobacco in our state. That's half of what the entire country raises about a billion.

Of course, those dollars are then turned over in the economy. So it's a multibillion dollar industry still. But most of that tobacco now is headed somewhere outside the United States. And so there was a provision that's long been in the law. In fact, I like to point out this particular provision is a little younger than this. But the idea of something called the duty drawback provision.

actually started in 1789. George Washington signed the bill that made the way for this on July 4th in 1789. And the general premise is that if you import a product that is very similar or is now, they call it in the same classification or substantially similar to a product that you export,

When you export that product back out of the country, you get a tax credit or a tax rebate, if you will, for the duty that you paid on the product coming into the country. That helps us be more competitive in tobacco around the world. The United States is significant in that area, but we're not a world leader. China definitely grows more tobacco than us. India grows more tobacco than us. I think we're like number four around the world, but we have a great product. In fact, when I was growing up,

Everybody talked about, you know, East Coast tobacco just has a special taste, a special blend. That's why it became a part of our heritage here in the United States. We were better at it than the British, you know, add it to the list. And long story short, this provision that allows us to or this law that allows us to get that rebate is.

makes us more competitive when we're pushing that product into foreign markets. Yeah, and of course you're also talking about incentivizing domestic manufacturing, domestic growing. President Trump has made great efforts to reinvigorate American manufacturing and American farms. That's right. And what you're talking about is helping that goal. That's exactly right. And he's so good at talking about things that there really is, you know, a lot of times in politics there's a yin and a yang, but who's against good jobs in the United States? He's kind of hard to push back against.

In fact, is it not just the farming jobs? It is the manufacturing jobs that are supported. And the NAM tells us in the surveys that they do that manufacturing jobs in the U.S. are generally worth about $84,000 a year all in for the people that have them. So that's important. So add that to the list. And then I would just add, and these are sort of soft things, I think...

that the tobacco world is still very culturally significant where I'm from. And I'm really happy that Senator Tillis and Senator Budd get that. I mean, A, they recognize the economic contribution. B, they recognize that this is singling out only one industry that uses the duty drawback as opposed to all of them. So it's not like this is some agreed upon policy that the House came to a commitment to and we're pushing back on.

But third, they get that even those of us that don't work in tobacco anymore, my family does not farm tobacco anymore, but it put us through school. I mean, it built a lot of schools in the state. In fact, when you look around at the universities, a lot of them came from schools

big tobacco money, if you will. And so there's a heritage there, there's a culture there, and I'd like to try to protect that in addition. And I think that's why people get exercised about this. I think that's so important to point out because tobacco in North Carolina is a lot like coal in West Virginia and Kentucky. There's a cultural significance to that product. That's right. And people are very proud of it. That's right. And it's a part of, if you're a tobacco farmer, you're not just a tobacco farmer. Um, uh,

Just like you guys here, you spread your cost over several different things, right? I mean, I'm thrilled that you gave me a hat, some merchandise. I know I can buy that online, but getting it free was much better. I'll make sure I give my friend Joe, whose birthday is today, he's going to get the second hat. So happy birthday, Joe. But you spread your cost over multiple crops if you're a tobacco farmer. You farm tobacco, you farm sweet potatoes, you know, you've got laborers there, you've got workers there, you've got equipment.

You've got, of course, the land. And so there is no such thing as only a tobacco farmer. And so I just point that out, that if tobacco goes away...

farming today is a little bit like a Jenga puzzle, particularly in a state that has a diversified ag history like North Carolina. You know, we are not a corn and bean state. We do a lot of corn and a lot of soybeans, but we have a very diversified ag economy. And so when you pull that piece out, that could really be a problem economically for the farmers that are growing. Yes. So it's your opinion that if this provision continues to, if it

somehow becomes part of the law that is really going to hurt tobacco farmers. Oh, there's no question. We would see the Tobacco Growers Association have estimated this number working with an economist that's known around the world, frankly, for his expertise.

We think we would lose about a fifth of the crop, 20 percent of the crop. And there again, you know, that does that. That sounds overcomable that you could lose 20 percent and still be OK. I don't think that's the case, because, again, in farming economics, it's that last 20 percent, that last 10 percent. That's where you make your money. So there's an economy of scale there that we've got at the moment. And frankly, feel like we're starting to grow a little bit in terms of exports.

And again, that's the only opportunity for growth. There's not much growth in the domestic market. And so we like to say we've got friends on all sides of this issue, but we think it's important and it'll hurt farmers if it doesn't come out of the bill. So do you think that's possible as the Senate considers this? Certainly hope so. Again, great conversations with Senator Tillis and Senator Budd. Our North Carolina senators, very grateful that they've leaned into this. Both of them have made public statements that they're working to get the language out of the bill.

I think you never know it's over. And do you know this better than I do, in fact, from the seats that you formerly sat in? But I think the message has gotten through. Right. And you guys are helping us with that as well. And and at the end of the day, it can it can sound very complicated. Right. Duty drawback and tariffs and, you know, substitute merchandise and all this kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, all people have to remember is if the House version of the bill fails,

If the provision that was in the House version of the bill stays in the Senate piece of legislation, we will grow less tobacco in North Carolina and those other states, and we will have fewer tobacco farmers.

Ray, if people listening to this want to learn a little bit more about it, I know you've got a website. That's right. That's exactly right. We've set up an organization through the chamber called Our Ag Future, O-U-R Ag Future. And the idea there was to put together some of the tobacco alumni from around the state. I'd put myself in that category. Mm-hmm.

We all grew up working in the fields. In fact, I work at the chamber with a colleague that literally worked in tobacco on my family's farm growing up. She was kind enough to hire me back at the chamber, even though she had had to work in the tobacco fields as a young person. And we all talk about how much fun we had.

I think that's BS. I didn't have a lot of fun working in the field. I was always happy when the day was over. But there are a lot of people that are connected to this industry in North Carolina. So trying to get the word out to them is exactly what our ag future is all about. And we've gotten great support out in the community, people putting up, you know, election signs, which we know make a lot of difference, right? Like scientifically, we know that election signs are where it's at.

And they've got this little bumper sticker. One of the major tobacco companies in the state used to have a phrase, North Carolina has pride in tobacco. That phrase is probably 30 years old. So we went back and remade those bumper stickers and those signs. And we added in the word still. North Carolina still has pride in tobacco. We cannot keep them in stock. People love them and people love putting them out and about.

So that goes back to that cultural heritage, right? People want to see this industry continue to stick around. Well, that's outstanding. Ray Starling, thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for having me. And good luck with everything. You bet. We'll buy you some barbecue next time you're down in the state. Can't wait.

You know, he is so smart and it's a very timely interview because as we know, the Senate is moving forward on their version of this reconciliation bill. Obviously first came over from the House. Senate has to process it and then be approved by the House before it goes to President Trump. We're talking about the one big, beautiful bill. And there's so many different components of that bill from tax cuts to building the border wall and everything else.

And what Ray was talking about seems like a very, very big deal to farmers in North Carolina. And so I think it just goes to show you that there are so many different provisions in this that affect so many different people, different types of people from different parts of the country. Very important bill to watch closely as it works its way through Congress. Yeah, everybody knows all the big components of this bill, but tax policy is extremely complicated.

Right. And like the issue like duty drawback that he was talking about is one that's been around since the founding of this country. The whole reason why you have it is to encourage exports out of America to the rest of the world to get people to invest in the United States of America. It's an issue that's bigger than one specific thing. It impacts a ton of issues. So,

I'm glad we had him on. It's important to sometimes have a little bit of that where it's like not the big ticket. Yeah, it's a vegetables thing where it's not the big ticket item everyone's talking about. It's not salt. It's not this, not the other thing. But it's important nevertheless. All right. So, again, our question of the day. No kings. No kings. Is this going to be a sustainable movement for the left? Is this a thing that they're going to build on? Is this going to be a thing that gives them momentum into the midterms?

They got deep pockets, but do they actually have the legs to make it happen? I want to know what you think. Very important. Like, subscribe. It's important that you like and subscribe. We read all your comments. We see all your comments. We pick the best. We're going to read them on Thursday.

And with that, Smog, I think we did it. I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Ray Starling. And thank you so much, dear listener. Just like Duncan said, like and subscribe to the YouTube. If you have not yet, it's more fun in video. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the webs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.