The Bomb Cyclone, More Epstein Files, and The Winter Olympics. BA EP 49

Hey, Bold American listeners, you can find us every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. All right, welcome back to another episode of the Bold American Podcast presented by Bar Speed Sports. We got an all-guys lineup today. Rob is traveling to where? No, he didn't disclose. Who knows where he's up to? So Ryan is traveling out to San Francisco for the Super Bowl to tend to some responsibilities as to Travis Menion Foundation, which will also be parlayed into socializing and finding herself into some parties. If I know Ryan, so good for her. Super Bowl is upon us and it's always a fun time out whatever city is hosting the Super Bowl. So I got producer. Oh, excuse me. I almost just called you producer Brent. Dude, throwback. Producer Brent. Yeah, that's a throwback, right? ZBP, producer. Producer Stance is with us. It's funny how your brain just kind of is wired to go to a certain place. I haven't thought about it. He's doing well. And also we got our news guy, WTC, our social guy, WTC, with us as well. So, lots to talk about today, boys. There is a massive new Epstein document release, and it feels like we've been getting Epstein releases for months now, but there was another big one that mentioned a lot of new names and a lot more detail that we're going to get into. We've been back to the country. A historic winter storm that's been shutting down the country. Nashville right now is crippled. What I'm seeing on social media was really, really difficult. you know, shut down. There's going to be another federal government shutdown, which is we think the government would have their things figured out by now. And they just do not. Uh, there's major U S military buildup happening in the middle East. So boys and girls stay on your toes. Who knows what's going to happen in the next 72 hours coming weeks across our military. Uh, speaking of our military, there's been a billions in new arms sales. So the military industrial complex is alive and well. There was a Melania Trump documentary that allegedly, allegedly is breaking box office records. I'm not sure which record books those are, but it's being reported that there are records being broken. So we'll get to that. And then finally, in addition to the Superbowl coming up this week on Friday, we got the winter Olympics kicking off and I love the Olympics, both summer and winter. Some people just say they really like the summer and they don't really gravitate towards the winter or vice versa i like them all i like the olympics period so uh we'll chat about that uh but before we get to all of that last 72 sans let's start with you man i was writing it down but there's really not much to write home about this weekend it was one of those you know it's cold outside it's uh not a whole lot to do i did on friday night go out to the golf simulator uh with with my cousin we like to try and get around it just to stay loose for the upcoming season. And then I went to dinner on Sunday night. But honestly, my highlight of the weekend was getting a good – I had my – my dogs like to play this game where they run through the living room and then the little one sprints into my bedroom and jumps on the bed. They ripped the sheet wide open. So my highlight of the weekend was going and getting a nice quality pair of bed sheets, like another one for the backups. And I put them on, and that was really a highlight, just going to bed in those last night. And maybe that's part of like being in your thirties now. And it's just like, that's, that's what, you know, my big highlight of the weekend was, it's, you know, there's no football on, there's nothing to, that I was super interested in watching. So just laying in some nice sheets and watching a movie was really the highlight that wrapped up a really chill weekend over here. Yeah. That's pretty brutal, brother. Your highlight was getting a new fitted bed sheet put on your bed. I mean, don't get me wrong. It was awesome. It was awesome. how important bedding is and important it is to have a good mattress. But that is about as low-key as low-key can get in terms of weekends. But hey, listen, sometimes we all need to recharge. WTC, what's been going on with you, buddy? I like the low-key weekend. Mine's been pretty low-key around here as well. I'm kind of still adjusting to the farm life. I'm back on the family farm. and so we got a lot of winter weather over the weekend and it's not you know winter weather that y'all are used to but for a Texan um it definitely was an adjustment so and then we have cattle and stuff like that so it was like feeding them and making sure that they're all taken care of uh we got a couple of baby calves down on the ground so I've been like checking in on them making sure that they're good to go um but it was a good weekend talk about that you're talking about being on a farm that is a very very foreign concept to me i mean yeah you know i watched the movie son-in-law with paulie shore i watched yellowstone you know with ranch life i don't know about farm life though dude like what is what does that entail do you get up and feed the chickens and pick up um we have before we we don't have chickens or anything like that right now it's it's dwindled my uh my dad's taken care of the farm and he's gotten older so it's kind of dwindled down to a small amount, but we have 10 cows and two baby calves and a horse right now. That's what I'm taking care of. And so when it's cold like this and they frost up, they can't really get to the grass and stuff. So we put out hay for them or you put out some feed, like some range cubes and stuff like that. So we get out there, feed them not every day, but periodically to kind of make sure. And it kind of depends on the weather. But when it's cold like this, you got to feed them more often than not. So it's cool. It's fun. It's different. It's definitely an adjustment. Are they all set in the barn? Is the barn warm? No, they live out. We have a little barn, but they don't really get in it. They have brush and stuff. That's usually where they go if the weather's bad. They'll get in the woods. We have 70 acres, so it's not a huge piece of property, but it's not a lot of cattle. So they still got a lot of room to get around. And some of the property is wooded, so they get in there. You say when it's cold like this, what's cold for you guys? What's the winter? You said it's not like we deal with being so far north, but how was the weather down there? It got it down into the 20s. That's about as cold as it got. Okay. I mean, it's still a culture shock, I guess, to that area. Texas, right? Texas yeah Houston area in between Houston and San Antonio well I pray for those those calves they're all good educate me and maybe I'm silly for not knowing this are those animals are they warm-blooded or cold-blooded yeah they're warm-blooded right so if they're warm-blooded wouldn't they get cold yeah they get cold they do they I mean they definitely get cold but so they're sturdy They get in the brush. I don't know. Don't let me tell you. I'm not the farmer here. But it sounds to me like you need to be taking these guys inside the barn. I don't know. No, if it got maybe like bitter, bitter cold, like, you know, in the below zeros and stuff like that or something crazy, then you might have to like really take some action. But they're sturdy, man. They get in the brush and like they have baby calves in some of the bad weather. It happens a lot where they'll have calves in the winter. And if that happens, you have to like bring the baby calves in sometimes and keep them warm or put like that cow and that calf in the barn or something like that. Okay. But for the most part, they're sturdy. All right. Well, that's good to hear. All right. So, you know, farm life also low key. But listen, I'm talking, giving you guys a hard time. I didn't really do anything this weekend either. And that is due in large part to having small children and there being a limited number of activities that you can do with small children. I mean, there's only so many times you can go to places that charge you for a ticket and keep these kids entertained. Although yesterday on Sunday, we did go to one of those indoor parks with a couple other families, and they ran around for, I don't know, two hours, and that's great. Friday, or excuse me, Saturday, I took my son just by myself just to the mall and just walked around just to get some steps in and get out of the house because I go stir-crazy if I have to sit in the house. for too many hours with the kids. And that's something that I think is very different for me having children now. If it was me at 26, 27, and I don't have anybody else, I could lay on the couch, watch movies. I could go a little crazy, but I could deal. When you have a toddler that has a ton of energy and needs to run around, and you can only come up with so many activities. That's why I always say, like, God bless these teachers who are at daycares and schools, who are doing all sorts of activities with these kids all throughout the day. And I am wildly impressed by that. Is that harder in the winter when it seems like y'all would be, like, locked inside, right? Yes, yes. But, no, they have endless, endless activities. I get a freaking – so my daughter's two and a half. So that's not even pre-K yet. I don't even know how you classify that. but we get a syllabus every week says hey here's what we're teaching the kids here's what we're going to go through this week and it's cool because you get to you know follow along and then you can at home talk through hey would you learn at school today yeah she'll give me answers but then you can kind of talk through things and prompt her for for questions and we see all the pictures and the videos that they send so they're incredibly creative with what they're doing with these kids. Keeping them busy. Yes, they are going to go outside this week because it's going to warm up a little bit. Maybe we just go right into just how this weather has been crippling the country before we get to the Epstein files. We got a bomb cyclone. It's just a rapidly intensifying winter storm and it has hit the U.S. over the course of 1,300 miles that has gone from Arkansas up to New England and we saw anywhere from six inches to three and four foot snow drifts in different parts Pittsburgh got 20 inches with wind chills at negative 25 shot to Pittsburgh sands 30 deaths unfortunately have been a tribute to the storm eight people were found dead outdoors overnight in New York City which is incredibly sad that they just don't have a way to escape it there's over half a million people that have lost power I've been following some people down there in Nashville, the ice that was unrelenting. And the problem when you get these states and cities that are more or less warm weather for the majority of the year, never really get below freezing, they just don't have the experience, the infrastructure, the tools to deal with this. So you're seeing a city like Nashville, I saw some things tweeted out, you have zip codes that are not slated to get their power back until two, three weeks from now. And listen, at the end of the day, I don't want to, you know, pretend like that's, that's no big deal. Like obviously, you know, we, people can make do and with generators and figuring out, but you really get inconvenienced and you don't realize how much you're reliant on, on power every day until you're without it for an extended period of time like two three weeks so it's uh it's crazy and i i feel bad for people like that because you can complain all you want and say to the power companies hey what are you doing you're failing us they know that right they're not trying hard to to suck but they just are and listen they don't have the manpower they don't have the experience and it goes beyond just hey the snow comes we shovel it there's a lot of I mean at the most basic simple level yes snowfalls plow the streets and what have you but even in New York City a city that is known to have gotten tons of snowstorms over the last 200 years even they're dealing with issues right now with traffic and with snow removal so even a city like New York that has experience and infrastructure in place to take care of big storms are struggling a little bit. We've seen 3,500 flights canceled all this past weekend. So it's just really, really difficult to be dealing with this weather. And in the month of February, when we don't have a lot going on, sans, you mentioned there was no football this past weekend. And you really have to dig deep inside and my heart really just goes out to all those families right now that are experiencing hardships and hopefully they're they're doing the best they can to stay warm and and stay safe because that's another thing when you lose power so many of these people are without heat so you get to a situation where you don't have heat and if you have little children you know if if my power goes out and I don't have heat by myself it's like okay I can mentally overcome that I can layer up with three hoodies and jackets and gloves and hats. I can rationalize that in my head. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter. If she comes to me and says, Daddy, Daddy, I'm so cold, there's only so many ways you can say it, and they don't get it. So for that, I really do feel bad. I feel like both of you have been experiencing, obviously, WTC talking about not knowing what to do with these animals in this cold. unfortunately um you know sands is out changing tires in the middle of snowstorms you know seemingly we all have our own crosses to bear and it just really stinks and unfortunately as much as i want to be optimistic about all this it seems like there's no end in sight i'm looking at the forecast and it's not really getting to a place where this snow is going to melt at all so i don't know we just have to kind of like hunker down and maybe you know the winter olympics and the super bowl are coming at a perfect time where we can all kind of band together as a country and say all right it sucks it's cold but at least we have the olympics at least we have the super bowl so do you guys have any remedies that you're using to pass time just prepare yeah yeah you just gotta you gotta prepare for it you know like i i the simple shit put your wipers up like stuff like that you know that's as simple as it gets but yeah prepare for it we've got a plow in the garage that I use for my driveway. So it's a side-by-side with a plow on it. But having that type of stuff, you know, that's like – like you were saying, like the Carolinas are getting 11 inches of snow. You're not going to see, like, a bunch of people with plows out over there. So it's just – it's tough to prepare in certain places. Yeah. So just being a nuance in certain locations is tough. Yeah, well, that's a great – But, no, remedies-wise, I play Yahtzee. I watch movies. That's my remedies, you know. Dude, sans, I have my own personal Yahtzee cup. It's a leather cup and it's monogrammed. I love playing Yahtzee, dude. Oh, really? Yahtzee a great kid Yeah that always like Thanksgiving snow days It was always Yahtzee first You know grandma put me on that young My parents would play all the time and I never played it but I'm thinking about picking it up because my wife and I enjoy board games. You guys play backgammon at all? Never played. Is that the one that kind of looks like checkers for some reason? Yes, it does. You got to like move the checkers. It's got like diamonds on the board? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Crisscrossing, yeah. And, like, I don't even really know the point of the game. I think it's ultimately, like, you got to move all your pieces to the other board before the other person does, essentially. I could be getting that completely wrong. But my mom said it's a good game to play with one other person. So I think we might check out back in and see how that goes. And if we like it, you know, maybe get a nice board. But, yeah, no. What is it? Does your family have a top three when it comes to games like that? Say that again, Sands? What? I said, does your family have a top three board games or card games that you guys play? Like, you know you're busting out at the holidays or family get-togethers. No, not at that level, the whole family. But my wife and I love Yahtzee. We love Sequence. And we love the one where you roll the dice that has the 26 letters of the alphabet. And I'm blanking on the name right now. and you get a category and you've got to list things for the category that start with that letter. Oh, oh, oh. Sans is Googling. I see him Googling. Wait, what is that? Wait, what is that game? Oh, my God. This is going to kill me. I've never heard of this. No. What is this? Hold on. Bear with me. It's a game. Campbell's Alphabet dice? No, no. Let's see. Board game with alphabet. oh alphabet dice and oh there's an hourglass timer come on ai should be all over this come on chat gbt dude what is this game oh my god categories categories dude it's categories okay and you can play i have heard of categories let me play categories is fun me neither definitely get in on categories it's a good one and it's so funny because i think like growing up you think like board games are lame and then you get older and you realize like oh wait a second if we just you know they're fun but then also to open a bottle of wine and you start games and it gets that much more fun so we love we love playing board games in this house yeah you big around not a cribbage no it's criss dude I have no idea what cribages but you know it's been blown up in the streets. I'm seeing it all over social media. I know people that have started playing it. Mahjong. Mahjong is hot in the streets right now. And that's another one. I have no idea the purpose or how to play that game. I just know the tiles that look kind of like dominoes and they have different designs on them and numbers. And I don't know anything about that. But that's the game where seemingly a lot of women are playing that right now. Mahjong. Yeah, that's new spades. People are meeting up to play. Oh, wow. Really? Did you guys play spades when you were playing? Spades is a great one. Spades. I've got a military – yeah, my military story of learning how to play spades was when I got captain's masted and was on restriction for 45 days. So you're in your own little section, your own little section, and you just got to go with the restriction officer everywhere. But you had, like, free time for two hours. So every night we would play spades, and that's how I learned. And I love spades now, yeah. I haven't played in so long and I definitely miss it. It's a really fun game and it's interesting how That's one of those games that kind of was pervasive across the military didn't matter what branches. Yeah Everyone kind of played spades at one point or another I didn't know how to play so I got to cut I never played till I got to college and then guys taught me and I Kind of fell in love with it So that's another great game So maybe we'll just yeah, there's nothing like having a bad spades partner Oh, dude, that's the thing. It's all about, you know. Can't count your books. Sure, but you need a good partner too. Yeah. It's all about partner. Trump by your own partner because he's holding on to it. Yeah. There's a lot of ways to get pissed off at Spade. That's what you used to have to. In restriction, we had to stop. The restriction officer would come out like, you guys are getting too rowdy. Go back. It's a hot fan. But, yeah, fun stuff. Yeah, this could be a board game pod. The board American pod. There you go. Yeah, I want to hear what other board games people are playing. lay them on me um so we'll listen for that but you know who else is getting rowdy everybody on epstein island and not in a good way folks all right so we saw there was another epstein files released it seems like these files have been coming out i don't know or maybe they've been saying they were coming out but there was a you know a new uh crop of files that were released the Department of Justice released over 3 million pages, 2,000 videos, 180,000 images related to Epstein. So before we go any further, like, you know, being named in these files does not equal criminal wrongdoing. So like Russell Wilson was named in the Epstein file, but it was because of something to do with a house he was buying, I think. He had never met Epstein. but here's the thing this is even Russell Wilson who has nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein this is not something that you want to be anywhere near in any way shape or form you do not want to be someone who has to explain to people why you found yourself in the Epstein Files and listen it's hard because seemingly that dude's tentacles were all over the place and he touched politicians on both sides of the aisle, people in finance, people in sports. It doesn't seem like there was any aspect of society that was free from the reaches of Jeffrey Epstein. And it's just crazy to me that one person was able to have that level of influence and a circle that was so intertwined and in a lot of instances in a really dark, creepy, sinister, disgusting way. So the names are crazy, and that's really what's kind of getting some attention this week with the new release. Elon Musk is in there, so it shows that Epstein reached out to him. There was discussions about getting lunch at SpaceX, an invitation to Epstein's Island. However, it appears the invitation was declined. But again, this is not something that you want to be invited to, especially everything that we know now about the goings-on at that island and all of the disgusting, horrible, depraved, illegal, illicit activities with Epstein Island. big one that now is going to reverberate for weeks to come especially this week super bowl week steve tish 40 co-owner of the new york giants so there were emails that epstein offered to connect him with women tish acknowledged a friendship but he said he never visited the island but if you look at the emails they were questionable things said by tish excuse me tish and now Roger Goodell has to answer questions about this. And if we remember, there was another owner, Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots, as everybody knows. He got in trouble for engaging in some adult activities that were not legal. And the NFL is incredibly careful about their image, or at least tries to be. So I think now you are going to see, and it's already been said by Goodell, that, hey, we need to look into this further. That's like the go-to, it's like a covert way of saying, well, this is really bad, and I don't really have an answer for you right now, so we need to look into this further and investigate. So I would not be surprised if Tish is, you know, I don't know. It's hard to dissolve 40% ownership, but he has siblings that are also involved, and maybe his ownership stake would be passed off to them. I don't know. But again, the emails with Tish, not good. Casey Wasserman, who is the head of the LA 2028 Olympic Committee, had some flirtatious emails with Jelaine Maxwell from 2003, which is while he was married. He's not married now, so there's no criminal allegations against Casey Wasserman, but another public figure. You don't want emails out there that show you were being unfaithful to your wife, albeit it doesn't matter now because he's, well, it does matter, but he's not married now. But still, nevertheless, that's not optics that you want to have. Howard Lutnick, the current U.S. Commerce Secretary, this is the one that's probably raising the most eyebrows. In 2012, Lutnik arranged a visit to Epstein's Island. He was already in the Caribbean with his family. Records suggest his wife may have planned to go with him. He previously said he cut ties in 2005, but new documents are showing contact as late as 2017, including meeting for drinks. And that's the other crazy thing. There are so many emails and correspondence after it came out that, you know, essentially, Epstein was a pedophile. So people who seemingly are smart and in very influential positions across all these different sectors are knowingly engaging with a pedophile. That's just stupid. If I knew somebody was accused, they wouldn't even need to be, hey, they were convicted. If somebody was accused of pedophilia, that's all I need to know to block that person's email block that person's phone number and never correspond with that person in black and white ever again and speaking of black and white Jesus what is up with the boomers they can't they speak in this shorthand and either they're just really stupid or they don't get keyboards and it's just easier to skip words and all sorts of crazy spaces so I don't know it's just it's been a lot so So right now it's just a lot of the emails, the pictures, the videos. There's videos of Epstein chasing women inside his kitchen, which is not a crime, but it's creepy. There's footage of the prison where he died. There's photos of Prince Andrew crouched over a woman. These are images that CNN said are newly released. So this is a story that isn't going to die anytime soon. But, and I'm not usually a cynic. but what I think is going to happen is mostly nothing ultimately because people are going to find a way to deny deny deny now even you know the Clintons are going before to testify before Congress because they were probably gonna get indicted excuse me not um indicted excuse me subpoenaed to go speak in front of Congress. So now they're going to go and answer to all of these questions. And you talk about somebody that's been connected to Epstein. It seems like Bill Clinton was hand in hand running buddies with Epstein. And it's no secret. It's unbelievable. People have seemingly some fond memories of Bill Clinton as he was president. The guy was a creep. I mean, it's been known. He was a known philanderer. obviously the whole episode with Monica Lewinsky and how he used his power to coerce her into actions that she may or may not have wanted to engage in. Nevertheless, he set her life on fire with everything that went down. Bill Clinton, not a good guy. And then obviously, Trump is all over the Epstein files as well. Trump vehemently denies that he was ever friends with this guy and listen none of these are guilty verdicts what's going on in these files but again if it quacks like a duck it walks like a duck looks like a duck it's probably a duck I mean these are allegations and email trails that connect these people to again an individual who is known for being just a depraved human being I don't care there's no way to explain or justify pedophilia and I obviously I think that goes without saying that's disgusting and And especially I think about it now having a daughter and it makes my stomach turn to know what these men were doing on those islands. And it's just horrible. I think the biggest takeaway though, like I said, I think a lot of nothing is going to happen because of these files. It is just a confirmation of what we already knew that all these people at these upper rungs of society in different sectors, they're all connected. They're all dirty together. They're all in bed together. They're all friends. They all talk. And it's just a big theater production, what we see on the news or through social media. behind the scenes all these people were talking to one another all these people not all these people but a lot of these people mentioned in these files we're doing varying levels of horrible things and obviously some of these people need to be held accountable and they should be presented with and convicted of very serious crimes. I just don't have the confidence that we have the, you know, we meet the burden of proof to convict these people of some of the things they're being accused of in these emails. So we'll keep monitoring these Epstein files, but I'm curious what you guys think. I really resigned to the fact that it's just not surprising and that's horrible, but I'm not overly surprised when you see the names mentioned. I guess the biggest surprise is that again, Epstein had his tentacles and his ties to so many people. But I think when you get to a certain level of power, wealth influence all over the world, it's almost like there's a secret, not almost there's a secret society of all these people and how they operate. And it it it crazy but do you guys think anything will happen to any of these people mentioned no i think you right you guys you gotta think back i mean ryan has said this in a million like i seem like every time that it's come up you know ryan rob or you have said it before like everyone's involved everyone's so tied in i feel like there's so much red tape to battle through but now they're just like tripping out these files and stuff i mean you know how hard it is to get permanently banned from xbox live jeffrey epstein was one of those guys that's that's that's that's like the first trigger it's like this guy can't even speak on online gaming let alone but it's this mega network it's fucking insane yeah yeah the most surprising thing about all this coming out is that nobody's like shocked like right like everybody was crying for the epstein files to be released i'm like they just released like three million epstein files and people like i didn't even hear about it does that feel strategic to you because like they didn't want to release it and then they delayed it and now they're just trickling them out and as people are recognizing the names it's like they're doing like taking time to allow these things to dissipate so people aren't thinking about it until the next wave comes maybe i just think what people are realizing because yeah there is that morbid curiosity that everybody wanted to see it and And the fact that they weren't being released, everyone just assumes, well, if they're not releasing them, they're hiding something. And then now we see all these things that are released. I think the biggest surprise are some of the names, like Steve Tishes of the world and the things that he was saying in those emails. That's surprising just because for whatever reason, you wouldn't think he would be involved with Jeffrey Epstein. But then when you understand his business dealings, it makes sense. So I think that's all it comes down to. It's like, oh, it makes sense that all these people know one another and interact with one another. And as I said, I think this society is one of those things where once you're in, then you just kind of get passed around. And everybody kind of works with one another. And everyone knows one another. And you all go to the same parties. And the same names are mentioned. And it's just a different world than the world that the three of us live and operate in every day. So it's just not surprising. And if anything, maybe it could kind of bring us together as a country. Like, you know, people on politically, on the right and on the left, it's like, look, do you see now? Like, it's everybody. It's people on the right. It's people on the left. it's depraved individuals on on all sides so you know what it is cons everybody wants to look at it like we're divided like this right right to left but i think it's really divided this way like top to bottom you know what i'm saying i think it's a lot more divided this direction than it is this direction and i think that people on the right and the left have had access to all the stuff that's in these files. We're just now seeing it, but lawmakers and people have had access to these things before. And if there was anything in there that they thought worthy of using, if it was somebody important enough that they could go after or something bad enough that they could go after, I think a lot of it has already gotten used. They've used a lot of the ammo that was in there and now we're kind of getting what's left over. That's shocking to us and surprising that Steve Tish is in there, but there's nothing criminal. They're not going to prosecute him for cheating on his wife or whatever. Right. Exactly. And the other thing too, the emails to me, that's not the smoking gun. Cause you know, if, if one of you sent me an email, I could then forward your email, but I could in forwarding your email, I could adjust the text that, that you said to me. That's true. Right. And, and then what that all of a sudden makes it gospel. so all these emails i think it's almost like a really bad reality television show so people are glued to it in that sense because they want to read and they're again that morbid curiosity but i don't know how much you can prosecute people over just just emails so i mean we'll see what happens um but you know in order to prosecute you got to be working and right now the government's going to shut down again. So we are in another partial government shutdown and it actually began this past Saturday. The old funding bill that got passed, it expired. Senate passed a new bill funding most departments, but the House went on recess. By the way, what a gig if you can get it, man. elected to the House of Representatives. They work like only like 100 days a year or something like that. They're always taking breaks, going back to their home states. A lot of recess. A lot of recess, cushy salary. Dude, I'm not going to out them, but there was a congressman who told me that there was one day where he just went to this other congressman's office and they were playing video games because they were waiting on votes and stuff and they had nothing else to do. So they were just playing video games. And again, I've said it so many times, you wouldn't think people in Washington are doing that level of activity, but that's really what it is. There's not much for them to do a lot of times. But anyway, they're coming back actually today. So they're expected to pass it immediately. So Department of Homeland Security only gets two weeks of funding until February 14th. That's the big call out with this funding. There's Senate Democrats that they want changes before approving long-term DHS funding to include mandatory ID for ICE agents, limits on ICE tactics, independent oversight, and body cameras on ICE agents, obviously given everything that has happened in the last month with those ICE agents. So it's going to likely end, but we're basically just kind of like putting band-aids on a bullet wound until the next government funding installment plan runs out. So we'll see how that plays out here and how that impacts DHS and specifically ICE and and their operations across the country. Speaking of ICE, we had the Emmys. I think it was the Emmys last night. It's crazy. I remember. Grammys, I think. Oh, see? I didn't even know. Yeah, it was the Grammys. Yeah, you're right. It was the Grammys. Dude, award shows used to be a big deal. Everybody would watch. It was appointment television. Now, I didn't even know they were on until they were midway through. But there was a lot of space. Yeah, there were a lot of statements made about us. Shout out to Sanford Roam's dress. Yeah, that was an interesting wardrobe choice. But what do you guys think about musicians and getting up on accepting their words and using them as a platform to speak politically? I'm not the biggest fan of it. Hugest doesn't work, but I'm not the biggest fan of it. But I also don't know when else they get a good opportunity to do it like that. I think that a lot of them try to have their own opinions and stuff like that. But today, I think a lot of times only your audience is looking at you and paying attention to you. And then all of a sudden you get on a stage like that and you're going to have left, right, and center looking at you. You've got everyone's attention right there. so I think it is a time to like drop something if you're going to drop it to me I think that's just I don't know that that's not the thing I would be like dropping whenever I got the opportunity I don't know you know it was Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes I don't remember what year but years ago and he said as it pertained to political statements made by musicians entertainers what have you he said if you do win an award tonight don't use it as a platform to make a political speech. You're in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world. Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. I agree with that to an extent. They do operate in a world that is not normal. On the other hand, you could make the argument they do have a platform and if they're using it to affect positive change, then that's a good thing. But I do think largely these people are just out of touch and they're getting the bullet points and they're seeing stuff especially now just on social media and they're not necessarily read in on these topics they just know the high level talking points and i feel like you're getting the pressure of the platform right right right that's like they already have this platform or social media thing that they've built their own and now you have pressure coming from your own platform to pick a side make a stand do something pick one or the other point they'll make this big statement and then they go and do it and then now you've got all these people upset and you know you're dividing the platform further than you know what it originally was it just uh yeah it feels like there's probably a better time and place and if you do want to voice like you know your biggest thoughts or concerns on all these matters just do it on your own platform don't like use the grammys like a big sponsored event and uh make it there but i don't know that's uh i feel it's kind of always been a thing but i also to your point it's not as popular as it used to be and maybe like that that's an effect of that like of them using this as a platform to do all these political stances maybe that's what's caused to lose a little bit of his popularity that's a fair point that's a fair point you know it's it's like make it about the music there's so much music out there like you know i saw a uh performance by a handful of artists uh the tribute to Ozzy Osbourne that was like Post Malone, Duff McKagan and it was Slash and it was amazing. Those are the sorts of things I want to see from musicians. I want to see your talent. I don't really care what your political beliefs are. One of the most outspoken musicians is Bruce Springsteen and so many people wrestle with his beliefs that they love his music but they stop listening to it because they don't agree with him politically and I've always said just just separate the two you know you you can you can relate and listen to his music and and also disagree with him politically and I think that's completely fine it's what we talk about all the time that it's okay to have differing opinions but I just think these people they make it such that it widens the gap it they're I don't want to say like I'm certainly not perfect and I don't know how to do it but it almost feels condescending the way that they're trying to get their message across that yeah I believe and if you don't agree with me then you're wrong and you're an idiot. And that's, that's, that's where I, I, I don't enjoy, um, listening to them. When I think about like politics or like, you know, political things like this and then celebrities, there's a major dichotomy there and I don't think there's, it's necessary to merge those two on a stage like that. I don't know. That's, that's the way I see it. It's like, I'm just, you know, like you said, let one thing be one thing and the other be the other. Yeah. Take to your personal, uh, You're there to celebrate the music. So leave politics and your personal beliefs at home. Don't use that as a way to conflate the two. Because, again, they're Americans. At the end of the day, they're allowed to have these opinions. They're allowed to voice their concerns for the country. But I don't know. I just don't want to see it at an award show that's not about that. I just think it cheapens the award show a little bit. Yeah, I agree. Moving on. To more serious topics, the U.S. expands our presence in the Middle East. We have increased our military assets near Iran. That's the other thing, man. All this shit is going on, and real stuff, real actions are happening where we're mobilizing a whole bunch of assets right near Iran. We got the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group over there, multiple guided missile destroyers, fighter jets, tankers, transports, All repositions to Al-Yadid Air Base, Patriot Air Defense System installed at Al-Yadid, and Ali Al-Salam in Kuwait. So the official reasoning, regional stability, response to Iran's violent crackdowns, leverage in nuclear negotiations. So deterrence, visibility, leverage. And that is just getting no press at all. We have all this firepower. We are moving to one part of the world and concentrating it, and nobody's seemingly talking about it. And another thing that people are not talking about, and this is nothing new. We've been doing this for decades. We approved $15 billion in arms deals. With a B. $6.6 billion worth of stuff to Israel to include 30 Apache helicopters, 3,250 tactical vehicles Armored power units Utility helicopters We sold 9 billion to Saudi Arabia 730 Patriot missiles Launcher upgrades Logistics systems Training and technical support So we're doing all sorts of things That are just flying under the radar No pun intended And it's business as usual Across our military And we're really doubling down on those regional alliances. You know, as we were in Saudi Arabia, giving them quality stuff. So it's something that's certainly keeping an eye on with all of those billions of dollars of equipment going to those countries. Moving on, going back to the entertainment world. This got a little bit of pub and not as much as some other things, but the Melania documentary came out. Did either of you guys watch the Melania documentary? I have not seen it. Okay. Allegedly, it had the biggest documentary opening weekend in a decade. It did $78 million at the box office, depending on who you ask. Amazon spent $75 million to make this documentary. It was directed by Brett Ratner. For a while, Brett Ratner was the up-and-coming next dude. And then he got Me Too'd into oblivion years ago. Not to mention, he's also got photos with him and Epstein. So you know he made some really good movies but you can excuse that behavior So he probably just taking any job he can get these days But critics hated the film Audiences I guess in theory showed up The other thing that I saw by people who don't like Trump, people were posting screen grabs of empty theaters to show that people actually were not going to see this documentary. So listen, people who hate Trump, they were going to say this is trash. people who like Trump. Oh my god, this is the greatest documentary that I've ever seen. I gotta be honest, I'll probably never watch it. I really don't know. I don't know if this makes me a bad person. I don't really know much about Melania other than she was a model and she's from another country. She's not American by birth. She's from another country. She was a model and she married Trump like 20 plus years ago. and I I don't know I can't I can't reconcile in my brain how that comes about like when you just look at those two and you think what is she seeing him or how are they attracted to one another it doesn't compute at all so who knows but there's also now a three episode docuseries that is being planned around Melania perfect more we get more to our first lady yeah um all right then um final topic winter olympics obviously we got the super bowl on sunday february 8th but the winter olympics begin this week u.s is sending 230 excuse me 232 athletes which is actually one of our largest teams ever um lindsey vaughn um she still expected to compete despite an injury like three or four days ago and her last Yes. So we'll see what she does after, you know, she had a knee replacement. She's, I hope I'm not misspeaking. I'm pretty sure she's 41, same age as me, which. Correct. I actually don't know if that's, that seems old for a skier. I mean, obviously I've seen people on the mountains skiing, but not competitively, you know, well into their older years. But we'll see how she does. We're rooting for her. The crazy part with her, she retired in 2019. Like she was done. quite a few years ago and then came back. So it's a big deal. She had the itch. So we'll see how she does. Chloe Kim's going for her third Olympic half-pipe gold, which is awesome. Mystique Rowe, awesome elite name. She's a first-time Olympian in the Skelton, which is a ridiculous event to be going headfirst. Right? Crazy event. Headfirst? Or which ones? Yeah, that's the luge. I'm pretty sure Skeleton's headfirst, yeah. Yeah. She's a track transfer. She used to be a track athlete. That makes sense. That makes sense. Dude, shout out to Cool Runnings. Great movie. Track athletes make great bobsledders and general Olympians. Abby Winterberger, awesome winter name. She's 15. She's the youngest on Team USA. And then we got a dude who's a curler, Rich Rehoen. He's 54. He could become the oldest Olympic athlete to win a medal. So we'll see. We got a big age gap there, but I'm excited for the Winter Olympics. Speaking of, did you guys watch the Miracle, 1980 Miracle on Ice documentary yet on Netflix? I have. Dude, what did you think? Great. I mean, they nailed it. I feel like they nailed it. One of the better just storytelling chronological, like just going from one thing to the next as far as the documentary goes, sometimes I get a little frustrated with documentaries that try to jump around a little too much. I'm like, just tell the story like it happened. They told it very succinctly. Right. And they included a lot of the guys, which I think is a very difficult thing to do in a documentary when you're introducing a lot of different people. But they had a lot of people, but it was not overwhelming. It was a good amount of guys. Hearing from them firsthand, like Miracle the movie from 04 is one of my favorite movies of all time. I get choked up every time I watch it. And then what this documentary really gave me even more appreciation for was just how important this game and this team was for the country at the time. And just how big of an underdog. I knew they were an underdog, but just like not only did nobody expect us to play well against the Soviets, we were picked to finish like seventh or eighth in the Olympics that year. So it was awesome just hearing these guys watch back the old clips of themselves. That was cool. Some of them talking about their upbringing and their family members that really helped them get into hockey and allowed them to play hockey and supported them through that journey. And obviously now these guys, this is 40 plus years later, so all these people they're talking about are no longer with us. So it was really emotional as well, but it was just an excellent documentary that I would absolutely recommend to anybody. And just hearing again, first, firsthand from these guys is was really, really cool. Cause that movie did a great job, but then these guys went two, three layers deeper on what the game meant, what it meant to them, how they looked at their, you know, their coach, her Brooks. and it was it was tough the movie i think does a great job of telling the story and like really letting you know what happened and then the documentary kind of shows you like what it meant you know like what it meant to the guys and what it meant for the country to win to win and all that kind of stuff and just fills in the gaps that you know that aren't in the movie and everything it's yeah it's good yeah um a couple quick i'm stoked for the winter olympics yeah no it'll be really good couple couple quick things any any caveats by you guys though any anything we missed or anything you know Super Bowl Sunday coming up birthday week next week Super Bowl yeah yes so Super Bowl two things on the Super Bowl but first I just want to talk about you guys are tracking on the Savannah Guthrie story Savannah Guthrie one of the hosts from the Today Show her mom was abducted her mother's missing so you know our prayers go out to Savannah Guthrie who has done lot for the veteran community i actually met her at the elizabeth dole foundation gala a handful of years ago she's incredibly cordial and and nice so just a horrible horrible story i have no idea at this point why her mother might have been abducted but i cannot imagine what she's going through right now so just want to be mindful of that but yeah can i ask a question on that yeah Yeah. You said abducted. Is that like, that's a very specific word, right? Yeah. What does that mean exactly? She got kidnapped or someone took her? No, yes. She's missing. Like a ransom situation of some kind or something? I believe she was abducted. Yes. Is it Pima? Pima County? sheriff chris nanos told cbs oh she didn't walk away from there she didn't go willingly yeah that's crazy it shows a picture of you obviously i'm not familiar but like yeah because my first thought was like how old is she is like isn't one of those like you know deals where uh isn't there like you know where they just wander off forget where they live that that's where my head was abducted and i was like well that those don't marry yeah no the story that's crazy crazy so Hopefully it ends well. Very, very scary. Two thoughts on the Super Bowl. Okay. They showed the jerseys. They got, in my opinion, there's too many patches. I saw you talking about that. There's too many patches, man. I agree. And the big one that doesn't make sense to me, and listen, I heard all of the replies and why they're doing it, but the USA 250, You know, obviously I'm aware that we are celebrating our 250th birthday this year. That's not until July. Those are massive. But here's my big thing. Aesthetically, they're going over lines and it's not even symmetrical. Over the uniform. Over the uniform. And it just seems out of place. But also, the game of football did not exist in 1776. Good point. Listen, at this point, you have to mention football when you tell the story of America. Or what did I say? Hold on. I think I said like, oh, this is what I said. Football is America. Football is the United States. But the United States is not football. And what I mean by that is there's so much more that goes into this country. you shouldn't just boil it down to just like, oh, we're the football country. It's obviously a very big part of the fabric of our country, especially now. But people were telling me they did this at the 200th birthday, the bicentennial, and they had matches that whole season. I don't know. It just seems, and I'm probably just being a hater, I guess. I don't know. Let's just celebrate and be America and be happy. But I guess ultimately what it comes down to is i don't think the patches look good on the jerseys and i think they're taking up too much real estate and it just looks weird to me you're the perfect two patches and you have the trophy yeah it's a lot and then plus if you're a captain you get this you gotta fit the sea in there somewhere yeah so now you have your post on this uh triggered a question you're the perfect person to ask so like army navy they go a specific uniform a special uniform are you pro maybe be like a special Super Bowl uniform is that too crazy have an idea oh doing like an alternate for the Super Bowl yeah makes a Super Bowl I hate that yeah no because the history of the program and the tradition behind the jersey that you're representing you want to win it in those colors like where is that everybody go again and it's black and yeah uniforms every year for Army Navy that's different because i'm with you but i don't know i never thought about this i think it's one of those things where he could be cool maybe once or twice but then i think yeah i would get fatigued by it very quickly and because also too i think it would take one ugly one and then everybody would get mad right and and and obviously like the patriots are not a good example because they've been in the super bowl seemingly 400 times and the seahawks have been in it recently as well but if you're a team that like for instance you know well actually no they've been in it a bunch just not recently but if you're a team that has not been to the super bowl or has only been to the super bowl like one time and then you finally get there and then you see your team in some wacky uniform and god that's true don't like it you're gonna be so perturbed so i got a case yeah if buffalo ever gets back they should be allowed an alternate because they're only for a lifetime in super bowl so what they've done isn't working for them that's fair um but then the last thing i got the halftime show obviously is is very divisive you got bad bunny performing and a lot of people are don't agree with that they don't like his music they don't like his politics whatever so there's also now an alternate halftime show with lee bryce kid rock and two other people who i sorry i don't really know that well what do you guys think about because i don't know it feels like the halftime show has been irking people in the last couple years yeah i think we should put the halftime show up to a vote and america gets the vote like we have the ability to do this you You could do it online very easily where you. America votes for American Idol winners still. So, yeah, we can vote for the halftime. That's what I'm saying. We should vote. Let that guy do it. That's what we should do for the Super Bowl moving forward collectively as a country. But we're not going to, you know, make everybody happy. But if we could land on the majority, we should vote for who performs at the halftime show. and i think that's the best most fair way the most american the most american 250 way of making it fair and making everybody happy because i don't like is it is it like you give us a couple of options though or is it like you can vote for anybody what how does that's what i'm saying i think i think that they reach out and they nominate yeah there's i think there's got to be some nominations to where it gets a little down to like two or three like four and then or for whatever and then you vote on who those acts are and then whoever gets the most votes popular vote wins yeah i think that would work um instead of just picking yeah with bad money it's weird but because also too these it's not like these acts are getting paid anything the soup bowl is always an unpaid gig so right they get like a deal like they have a deal with their label right or something yeah yeah so i will say i've met bad bunny oh randomly enough yeah i worked with him uh before he popped pretty big but he's he did a show and i was working on the episode he was on or whatever and uh super nice guy um he's one of the better one of the better characters in happy gilmore 2 for sure i agree i agree nailed it good yeah he was good but i just um i don't know i i just it's just one more thing for everyone to fight about and i just need to fight right honestly it goes back to a little bit to what you were saying about the thing about getting up there and putting on your platform at the grammys or whatever like he just said a couple of the wrong things at the wrong time or whatever and now everybody's like super upset i mean it literally was like a couple of sound bites like if he had never said a couple of those things, like literally no one would even know about it or have a problem. Probably it would be, there would be no story here, but he said a couple of things. I think he, the big thing was he said he, he was trying to protect his audience from ice and he didn't want to do shows in certain places, I think. And so that was like kind of the, but it's like that, that one statement is, is caused this whole like division. I think that's strange. Right. so maybe we can go next year I think that people complain about it aren't there to watch the right thing I'm there to watch the ball game let's go Seahawks that's a real good point it's about football we got a lot to root for as a country the Super Bowl the Olympics so maybe that will bring us together for a little bit and also everybody go watch the Miracle on Ice documentary and you'll feel a little bit more patriotic I guarantee it So big week ahead. Take care. Make it a great week.