Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Trump's Impact to Media Bias and Government Accountability with Mandy Connell

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Renowned Denver talk radio host Mandy Connell joins us for a thought-provoking journey through the intricate world of political perceptions and familial stories. With Mandy’s seasoned political insight, we dissect how figures like Donald Trump have molded public opinion and policy over the years. Amidst our serious discourse, we share personal anecdotes that lighten the mood, including the unforgettable saga of our childhood cat's infamous gerbil meal and the timeless wisdom of engaging with aging parents through the art of storytelling.   Our conversation takes a critical look at national security, intelligence reforms, and the essential need for government accountability. We tackle controversial proposals, such as overhauling the FBI's leadership and the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission aimed at addressing deep state misdeeds. By examining the challenges of misinformation during election cycles, we underscore the pressing demand for fiscal reform and transparency in governance, drawing inspiration from modern business icons like Elon Musk and Warren Buffett to visualize a future of transparent and responsible leadership.   Exploring the nuances of media manipulation and political accountability, we question the integrity of campaign advertising and the resilience of American democracy post-January 6th. We discuss shifts within the Democratic Party, the contentious topic of benefits for undocumented immigrants, and the ramifications of government leaks on public perception. Wrapping up with a candid look at media bias, we emphasize the vital need for inclusivity and honesty in journalism to mend the cultural and political divides that challenge our nation. Join us as we navigate these complex issues, with the hope of fostering a more transparent and equitable political landscape.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Trump's Plan to Dismantle Deep State (11:24) - Reforming National Security and Intelligence (18:09) - Media Manipulation and Political Accountability (21:45) - Government Spending and Debt Crisis (26:57) - Government Bureaucracy Reform and Accountability (38:05) - Urgent Need for Congressional Term Limits (47:13) - Media Bias and Hope for America (51:44) - Podcast Promotion and Call to Action   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #mandyconnell #politicalperceptions #publicopinion #donaldtrump #nationalsecurity #intelligencereform #governmentaccountability #mediamanipulation #fiscalreform #transparency #journalism #mediabias #americandemocracy #democraticparty #governmentspending #debtcrisis #governmentbureaucracy #congressionaltermlimits #mediatrust #politicallobbying #culturaldivides #podcastpromotion

We have half the country that did not vote for Donald Trump. Yes. And a good chunk of those people didn't vote for Donald Trump because they've been told for over 10 years now that Donald Trump is a fascist, a dictator. He's literally the second coming of Hitler. Okay. And they've been told this so often and so much that they really, truly believe it.

All you have to do is look at all the people sobbing. And now, escaping the drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you want to pad the greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift and it's time to start right now. Episode of the show that gets you from where you are to where you want to be like it says in the opening and man oh man I think we are going where we want to be now.

Hopefully you feel that way because there was a big election. I got a banger today, a banger banger banger because because my guest today is a phenomenal, right? Like for all you keyboard warriors that are out there and you watch your your clips of your different shows coming down your your your feed and that's where you get your information and you just know that you're right and you're a keyboard warrior. Well, let me tell you this when you see the clips from this show come down, please do not argue with them because I promise you are punching out of your league.

You are you are punching out of your league. You are, you are, it is a fight. You will not win. This person is the host of the number one rated talk radio show in Denver, Colorado. She is the trainer of gerbil eating cats. And she is my sister, the one, the only, the fabulous Mandy Connell, Mandy. Hi.

Good to be here. You're not gonna let the gerbil thing go ever. No, no, no, no. I know you trained that cat to eat my gerbil when I was a kid. I know you did it on purpose and here we are. Yeah, no, you don't get off the hook. Well, I do see that you too are wearing black.

Are you also in mourning for the death of Peanut and Fred the raccoon? Yes. I've been deeply moved by the death of the squirrel right before the election. Wild with the squirrel death. I mean it was insane. Well I'm so glad you're here. You're randomly. I would love to say that she was coming to see me but she's not. She came here to see her mother. Someone has to. Yeah because me terrible son doesn't see her enough so there he goes. We have to import people from out of state to come spend time with her.

But I will say this before we get into it, and if you have an adult parent, I'm gonna give you the best piece of advice from something that nobody gave me, I came up with this all on my own. I should write a book about this. If you have an older parent, and by older I mean, we'll go 75 plus, 70 plus.

I take 77. 77? I feel like 77 is where things fell off a little bit there becomes this moment when you're Older adult parents and I think it's because it's all I talked to with their friends All they want to talk about is their ailments, right? Oh god I mean we're gonna start with my sciatica right hip is just and then I broke my toes and you call the doctor and it's Just this and it just and I would sit there at my mom's House and my eyes would kind of glaze over

It's like I just I can't hear about this anymore And then finally what I said was this I told her I said I said mom I go you're getting older You're not gonna be around forever And I promise you at no point after you pass am I ever gonna be sitting there going? If I only had five more minutes to hear about the hip, I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not going to do it. I said, however, however,

and here's the important part is the framing. It's all about the framing. I said to her, I go, I am desperately interested, desperately interested in cool, fun stories about our family, my childhood, childhood your childhood that I might not know So I said when I come over here, I want to hear three good stories every time I come over and she looks at me Goes well, what if they're long stories and I go then I'll be here for a long time and the very first time But you can vouch for this. I

Go from hearing about broken hips very first time you can vouch for this. I go from hearing about broken hips to my crazy grandmother trying to kidnap a baby owl and getting attacked by mama owl on the banks of the Cuyahoga river. Last night we found photographic evidence of the boat, the cabin, the river. We have all of it now.

I love that. I love that. So anyway, do that with your aging parents. I can't wait to go hang out with my mom not to hear more crazy, amazing stories, which I'm sure there will be, there will be many, but thank you for coming to town and thank you for doing this.

And the main reason I wanted to have you on the show was my, my, my sister, it is her job to understand this stuff. She has been a political pundit and a political researcher for the better part now of what, 25 years? I have had my own radio show since 2005. By the way, can I give a little humble brag? I just found out today,

I'm approaching 5 million downloads on my podcast. Five million. 5 million. I started doing a show before there were podcasts. So just imagine if I had all those shows to go back to, yeah. Back in like, Ought Three, Ought Two. I could own it days, but we had a gentleman

with a large horn that just broadcast the show out of the castle. We started out at that point, but that was it. But here's the deal. So now with the election coming through, we got our first big bombshell kind of a deal yesterday, which is this thing came flying down. Everybody's post yesterday.

And if you're hearing this, this is on Friday. So this has happened on Thursday. So you're gonna get this on Tuesday. There you go. But this came flying out of things which is Trump's plan to dismantle the deep state. Now, as soon as I heard this, I knew I had to drag my sister on to talk about this

because A, there's stuff he said, I don't know what he's talking about. And here's the thing. See, listen, I am a Republican, right? I am willing to say there is shit he just said I don't understand. I'm not going to immediately assume that all of this is good or bad. I'm not going to assume he is a dictator because of some of the things he said, but I wanted to get some clarification from somebody whose job it is to understand what the fuck he's talking about before I

make a decision. Well, I will say this. The thing that I'm concerned about about this list that we're about to go through in detail, and I just said this to you. Yes, we have half the country that did not vote for Donald Trump. And a good chunk of those people didn't vote for Donald Trump because they've been told for over 10 years now that Donald Trump is a fascist, a dictator, he's literally the second coming of Hitler. Okay? And they've been told this so often and so much that they really truly believe it. All you have to do is look at all the people sobbing

over an election, a presidential election. They're coming unglued, they don't know how to function, they don't know how to go on with their lives. And the list that we're about to go through, if they have been operating in that information silo that we all have, like people on the hard left have one silo, people on the hard right have the other silo, they have never heard of any of the things that we're about to talk about. Now, and that's what what is a little concerning to me, because they are going to think, well, obviously, this is why this proves he's a dictator

without the framework necessary to understand where all this is coming from. So hopefully we can give some framework today. Well, let's jump in. Let's jump in. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to, I'm going to play portions of what the president of president elect, uh, said he's going to do. And then we're going to talk about, okay, right? This is like three minutes total. I think there's 12 points total. Some of them, I obviously know what they are and I think they're awesome. Some of them I'm like, hmm, Pfizer court. All right, so here we go. And to dismantle the deep state and reclaim our democracy

from Washington corruption, once and for all, and corruption it is. First, I will immediately reissue my 2020 executive order restoring the president's authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will wield that power very aggressively. Second, Oh, hang on. So first, power to remove rogue bureaucrats. What is he talking about?

Okay, so let's go back to, I don't know what year it was, but Lois Lerner overseeing the IRS and the IRS began targeting right-leaning organizations. They were going after the Tea Party specifically, and they were either not providing the proper tax status or they were threatening to rescind tax status, but only of organizations on the right. And for those of you who are on the left, you may say, oh no, no, no,

they did it to left-wing organizations as well. Find me one, okay? Because I have looked, I have used the Google, I have gone in the way back machine, I have looked and specifically the targeting that happened to organizations on the left were organizations on the left that were engaging in malfeasance, right?

They weren't doing it legally, so they had to sort of treat them the same. So you've got Lois Lerner making decisions about who's getting tax-exempt status for people on the right. So whatever happened to Lois Lerner, she took another job and still is, she might have retired by now, but she suffered absolutely no punishment for that once whatsoever. And there was no clear explanation of why if she did it by herself, or if there was a group of people that decided they were going to go after right wing organizations. It's stuff like that.

That's the primary example. But that stuff happens all the time. It happened throughout the Trump administration when you've got an entire sort of infrastructure. And I hate the term the deep state because it's so- It's movieish. It is movieish. It's like a little soap opera.

It's Tom Cruise movieish. Yeah, it is. And so what it is is the bureaucracy of Washington DC is the deep state. Yeah. Okay, let me just point this out. I don't know if you've noticed this, but we're still functioning as a country and our president doesn't know where he is after 4pm. Yeah. So who's running the country? The deep state, the bureaucracy. That's what it is. And when you have people that are fully invested in one party when, when so much of the bureaucracy has been captured by the left of the,

of the democratic party, it stands to reason that they are not going to be helpful when you are trying to enact an agenda that flies in the face of their, their policies. So by removing, so are we talking about get making these elected officials that are running these things? I mean, what are we talking about doing? Or cabinet positions that whatever party is elected? Let me just say this about all of the things that Trump is suggesting or, um, you know, talking about, we're going to get into the rest of them over the long

term, you're going to end up with the same kind of ideological capture because when you were in DC, when you work in DC, the thing you want is to protect the bureaucracy that pays your pension, that gives you raises, that does all of those things. That is naturally antithetical to the Republican Party. So eventually, no matter who you put in, the longer they're in there, you're going to get that ideological capture. So it would be a system that I would prefer where you didn't automatically just kind of roll into a new job if you were found to do something wrong. And I like the fact it's impossible to fire a bureaucrat. Well, I think I like the idea.

If you don't, nobody's talking about, I mean, let's face it, government employee is like a moniker for like, as soon as somebody says, ah, you know, government employee, you immediately think inefficient doesn't give a shit, can't be fired fired and you know, That's not always true and it's a sad way to to look at it But there are great government employees doing really good work every single day because they love their job But we didn't get that reputation for no reason there's gonna be 10 to 15 20 percent Yeah, that is there because they know they're not gonna ever gonna be fired and they're never gonna do their best work Okay, cool moving on point two they know they're not ever going to be fired and they're never going to do their best work. Okay, cool. Moving on. Point two.

We will clean out all of the corrupt actors in our national security and intelligence apparatus, and there are plenty of them. The departments and agencies that have been weaponized will be completely overhauled so that faceless bureaucrats will never again be able to target and persecute conservatives, Christians, or the left's political enemies, which they're doing now at a level that nobody can believe even possible. Okay, same thing. This one's even bigger. For me, this is I happen to believe that the entire top two layers of the FBI should be fired. Yeah, every, every single person, I don't care if you had nothing to do with it. Every single person scrape it off and hire completely new people

to come in and take over the leadership of the FBI. The intelligence organizations, I don't know if you remember this, but 51 esteemed members past intelligence organizations signed a letter saying that the Hunter Biden laptop was fake. And then they, I mean, it was such a concerted effort by the sort of upper echelon of the intelligence agencies, but it was so just horribly wrong. It was very Soviet Union when you get right down to it. It was very much like a KGB operation. And these are the people that hold all the

power. These are the people that hold the power to spy on you or me or anybody else. We think you're great here escaping the drift, by the way. I think you're doing a great job. People always say my thoughts and feelings of Mandy Cuddles are not reflect those of the host of the escaping the drift. People always say my life is boring. I'm not doing what do I care? Well, what if they decide for some reason you get to be the patsy on something that you had nothing to do with and there's an apparatus that exists

that can dig into every single thing you've ever looked at on the internet, every phone call you've ever had, every text message you've ever taken. Unfortunately, that's the surveillance state that we live in and maybe they're not looking at you right now because they don't need to. But maybe you run up against the wrong person

at some point and end up in some kind of movie where Will Smith has taken out satellites to keep people from you know finding him it's crazy i think that's so funny because i think right now people on the left will hear that like he wants to dismantle the FBI it's like correct but he wants to do it to protect you too he's trying to protect you yeah all. Moving on. Third, we will totally reform Pfizer courts, which are so corrupt that the judges seemingly do not care when they are lied to in warrant applications. So many judges have seen so many applications that they know we're wrong, or at least they must have known they do nothing

about it. They're lied to. Fourth to a- And so third, Pfizer courts. Pfizer, Pfizer, Pfizer, Pfizer. Pfizer courts are the courts that decide whether or not a warrant to spy on an American citizen will be signed. And during the Trump collusion, Russia collusion investigation, there were Pfizer requests, Pfizer warrants that were falsified by the FBI. This is not speculation. We know this to be warrants that were falsified by the FBI, this is not speculation, we know this to be true,

they were falsified by the FBI and allowed the FBI to continue spying on people within the Trump campaign after they knew the premise was false. And so the fact that that happened and the underlying data and evidence was so weak and the judges signed them anyway. And when you look at how many FISA warrants the judges turned down,

well, you can't, I mean, you can count them on one hand. Right? They're just basically a rubber stamp. So the court is not functioning the way it should. And that, that protection against being spied on as a United States citizen is one that everybody should say, yeah, we should probably tighten that up. We should probably make sure that that can't be weaponized. Bernie Sanders ain't gonna argue with that. I don't know. I don't know, John. He's not gonna. Yeah. All right, moving on.

Expose the hoaxes and abuses of power that have been tearing our country apart. We will establish a truth and reconciliation commission to declassify and publish all documents on deep state spying Censorship and corruption and there are plenty of them fifth. We will launch a man So this is the one I think is gonna send people really. Oh, yeah This is the one because because honestly the first time I heard it kind of went Hmm. What is your take on what he just said hate the name of the commission? Hate it with every fiber of my being, right? It's like, okay, we're gonna have the truth ministry now.

No, we're not doing that. So I hate the name that you could have got it a million different ways. But I would love to see some stuff come out that demonstrates how coordinated some of the efforts I believe have been. I don't think that these are random, sort of completely coincidental instances of reporters finding a scoop somewhere. What's happening is these administrations are leaking, but only negative information and even lying. During the Russian collusion investigation,

there were so many times when we were told by Representative Adam Schiff, a member of Congress, we have the goods, we have the evidence. Oh, we've got it all. We've got everything and literally nothing. So one of my big frustrations, can I have an aside for a moment? Just one of my biggest frustrations about this last election cycle, which in I've now gone through eight, 12, 16 and 20 and 24 as a talk show host. Right? 12, 16, and 20, and 24 as a talk show host, right? So this election cycle, I saw more absolute, blatant, made up shit that was not even remotely true. And if I got on the radio as a radio host

and said the things they said, I would be fined by the FCC, I would lose my job, I would be fined by the FTC for these violations that were so egregious. I am going to find a politician to run a bill that makes a law that says if you lie about your opponent in an ad, you have to make a donation equal to that ad by to your opponent's campaign and you have to run the exact same ad by telling people that you lied. So here's the question, because this brings up such an interesting thing and this is where

I kind of got the on that one. And everybody's going to jump on it, which is like one of the guys in the office, one of the younger guys goes, you know, I hope they come up with a way to, to, to like find the news for telling that, you know, fake stuff and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, well, you can't do that. Right. He said, why? And I said, because who becomes the decider, who's the decider of what's true and what's not. I said, you know, they there's countries that do that.

Like China, like China has that. Well, that is not true, what you just saw with your own eyes. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, yeah. The North Korea has that. Like, you can never do that. You can never have that separator. Now, I think that I do, I like that idea.

And hopefully, I think, hopefully we get away from that. Well, because I think it blew up. I think it exploded in the left's face this time. They're going that way. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, here's a perfect example though. It's all about parsing the details. We had a very, it's still going on actually.

We have a congressional race in Colorado that hasn't been decided yet as of now. But there are ads that said, this candidate believes that gay people shouldn't get married Well when he was 17 years old, he wrote a letter to the editor that said gay people shouldn't get married He's now 38 years old and he's been very clear about his change on that issue Sure, if they had said I was a flip-flopper if they had said believed that gay people shouldn't get married

That's true. If he says believes after he's been out on the campaign trail saying I don't believe that. Yeah. Now that's a demonstrable lie in my view. And this is how the FTC and the FCC work in my industry. Yeah. You know, this is this is how it works. So they're that persnickety and that obnoxious about coming after normal people that are on the radio. Why aren't politicians held to the same standard? Yeah, I just I think that the whole democracy will end The world will fall. I think all of that that rhetoric is This is why people are screaming in courts today as they believe that shit They absolutely do and this is what I say to everybody regardless of what you think about Donald Trump

You have to believe in the system like let's even in January 6, right January 6 happened But we still had the transfer of power. Right? This isn't a banana Republic. We have so many checks and balances. And I don't think the American people are in the mood for a dictator. No, I just don't. I don't think they are. I think this, this last election really sort of exemplified that they are sick of the ruling class. They don't want to be talked down to. They don't want to be dictated to. They somebody who's gonna say you know What I'm gonna make your life easier. I'm gonna make it cost less I care about whether or not your family can eat and I think to your point

Maybe the negative stuff will go out the window, but it works. That's what so sad Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's gonna work anymore. I think I think there's I think there's seismic changes happening in the Democratic party right now. I think there are certain microphones, AOC, I think their microphones are getting turned down. You're gonna be forced to see the centrist of the party rise back up, because they just gotta understand. I mean, look at the subtle things happening around the world,

even one day after you get elected. New York City mayor comes out, kills those debit cards for illegals living in those hotels. The day, like, hey- Trump's election gave him cover. Yeah. But like, maybe this is bat shit crazy that we're doing this. See, here's the thing with that particular issue.

I think that he's known it was bat shit crazy. Yeah. But he was boxed in because the left is so wedded to the concept of showing how gracious they are while not realizing that people who are born and raised here who can't put food on the table are not really loving to Hear that people walked over the southern border getting bank cards. So Trump gave him cover to make that happen Well, that's what Kevin and Larry said He said this is the is a big win for the Democratic Party because now they have the data points to go and say We can't do this shit anymore. Right, right. We all know it's crazy. We can't do this.

We got to push forward. So let's, let's see what's next on the old Trumpsters. Major crackdown on government leakers who collude with the fake news to deliberately weave false narratives and to subvert our government and our democracy. Okay. Who's he? Who's he talking about here? Is he talking about Edward Snowden or is he talking about your?

No, he's talking about the guys and gals who are, cause let me tell you what happened during the Russian collusion investigation with the media. You would have one of the members of the deep state or whatever call the Washington Post and say, hey, we think that this particular thing happened. And then the Washington Post calls and says, we've got a tip that this is happening. And it just became this circle of who was feeding who.

And that kind of stuff, especially when they're leaking false information, is incredibly damaging. I actually think that is gonna be the hardest one to accomplish. Because the news media is never gonna rat out their sources. They have this very comfortable relationship.

And one of the things that I find the most distressing about this election cycle that we just came through was the Realization that there is no one in the national media the mainstream media whatever you want to call it Nobody's telling the truth. Nobody's telling the truth because they all wanted Democrats to win Yeah, and they dropped that they just dropped the, the, the disguise and we're all in. What was it? It was like 95% negative Trump. And Kamala Harris probably got, and I'm not exaggerating,

$2 billion worth of unearned media. Just the bounce from, from, and I went to the DNC and everybody was there covering it. It was like a cocktail party with the media at the DNC. It was like old home week, greeting each other, hugging. I mean, it was very distressing. Nobody was there looking for holes. Correct. And if we don't have the fourth estate, we're screwed. I mean, we're royally screwed, so they gotta get it together.

We're gonna get to some of the stuff that I think he's gonna do that might help reestablish some of that. Possible, we will press criminal charges. Sixth, we will make every inspector general's office independent and physically separated from the departments they oversee so they do not become the protectors of the deep state. Seventh... I don't know why they haven't done that already. Yeah. I mean anybody

who says we're gonna have an inspector general but oh by the way your office is right next door to the guy you might be investigating. That's just dumb. Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I love that idea. I want to make it happen. I just want to know where you get those people because auditing government is is a little bit different than auditing a business in the extent there's no real profit motive.

So you're just basically well, hoovering in money and shoveling money out. Well, this is why, again, I was talking about why I think Elon Musk's involvement in this is so unbelievably important. I'm not saying I want Elon Musk to be my permanent hero, but right now he kind of is my hero. He's 100%. He's Tony Stark. There's just no question. He's an alien. He's clearly not from here. But here's my thing. Like, imagine this, right? It was like, and tell me if I'm wrong, because this is my opinion of how things happen. Let's talk about how the $300 hammer becomes a thing, right? $900, whatever it is.

So you've got you got Bill Smith that owns the hammer factory in Bloomingfield, Illinois, and he employs 400 hard workers that are that are unionized up. And he goes to his senator and says, I need this government contract or my factory is gonna close. And now you're gonna have a problem with the unions and nobody's gonna, they're gonna get somebody else. They're not gonna let you.

So I say, okay, cool. I'm gonna help you get this government contract. So the government contract gets got because everybody's, he needs the votes. He wants to make it happy. Bloomfield's good. They're selling $300 hammers, which is stupid to the government.

Here's what happens now. You put Elon Musk in to start looking at some of these things. Now he's going to say, hey, the representative and the Senator from Bloomville, Illinois want you to spend $300 on a fucking hammer. So now all of a sudden, I mean, this is, there are people quaking in every corner of government right now because now he can just go on Twitter and out you like that. And just like, you're gonna lose either way. So now I think you're gonna have people saying like,

hey man, I feel bad for your factory. I feel bad for the unions. If I do this, he's gonna out me and I'm done anyway. What do you want me to do? Yeah, that's exactly how it works. I mean, that's a hundred percent. That's why defense contracts never get canceled, even though they never produce

what they're supposed to produce. All of these things are connected and a vast majority of them are political. But we are reaching a point and I have always been a deficit hawk. This is, I mean, I've had my own show for almost 20 years. I've been talking about government spending and deficit spending for that entire time. We're rapidly approaching a point where we are going to have a debt crisis and people don't understand here what a debt crisis will do. Because we all assume the United States of America, like we're good for it, right? I mean, but when

we hit that debt crisis point, we don't have money to pay for benefits. We don't have money to pay for $300 hammer. We either face the prospect of the government printing money, which creates hyperinflation. We can't default on debt. We're too big. It would literally destroy the economy of the world if we defaulted on that. So we have to have Elon Musk or someone like him go in and take a machete to government spending because we're well past the point where we can like kind of mess around on the edges. I love that. I love that Warren Buffett quote where he says I could fix the deficit in five minutes. Just tell pass a law that says that if the deficit exceeds 3% of GDP that no sitting member of Congress is Eligible for reelection exactly

You would fix it in five minutes in five minutes But where we are now is we're now spending more on our debt service every year than we're spending on defense Then we're spending on Medicare that we're spending social security, on our just servicing the debt, just paying debt. And that's unsustainable. And people need to realize that forever, whatever's quaking right now, we have to bring the size of government spending way down, or we're gonna bring the whole nation down.

Way down, all right, next one. I will ask Congress to establish an independent auditing system to continually monitor our intelligence agencies to ensure they are not spying on our citizens or running disinformation campaigns against the American people or that they are not spying on someone's campaign like they spied on my campaign. Eighth, we will. And how can you argue with any of that? How is anybody on the left right now? I don't, dude, I don't care if you are a card carrying and Tifa member. If, like, if you are, you're hearing that like, maybe it's maybe it's a good idea.

Maybe I like that idea. Yeah, maybe I'm but no, they always, but here's the fascist, but I like that. They love people being spied on as long as they're on the other side. Yeah. So I'm going to spy on the bad people. Oh, yeah. Just when they come to spy on the other. Because it's the bad people. Oh, by the way, any word on whether or not we're gonna pack the court

or we're gonna do away with the filibuster? I'm just... Yeah, I'm just throwing that out there. Okay. I don't know, let's find out what's next. Let's find out. Continue the effort launched by the Trump administration to move parts of the sprawling federal bureaucracy

to new locations outside the Washington swamp. Just as I moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out. And I mean, immediately of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America and they really do. Alright, so you have experience with this because BLM is now located in Colorado. And that was a huge fight, by the way, because we had a

Republican senator who managed to get it. And here's the facts. Like 78% of all federal land is west of the Mississippi. Yeah, but the Bureau of Land Management who was managing that land was in Washington, DC. No sense. They handled the Indians. No sense. No, that's Bureau in Washington DC. Well, it's no sense. They handled the Indians. No sense. No, that's the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Totally different. The same way.

Anyway, so he got it moved out. Then the bureaucracy fought back and the Democrats said, no, we're going to pull it back to DC. But wrangling back and forth, I believe that the BLM is now in Grand Junction, Colorado. But this is something that I've been advocating for forever. Why is it important? It's important because if you want to dismantle the bureaucracy of DC, because DC is a giant cesspool. First of all, every American should go to Washington, DC and see all of the museums and all of the memorials and all of that stuff. It is, it will make you so proud to be an American. It's not even funny, but the bureaucracy in DC

is gross. And they're only interested in what I said before. They wanna protect their jobs, they wanna protect their status, they wanna protect their pensions. That is their main goal. Now don't get me wrong, they're working for the American people. I'm not saying they're all just bureaucrats sitting there.

I really don't want that impression to be out there. Not all bad. No, not at all. They're doing hard work. But why shouldn't the Department of Agriculture be in Iowa? You know, or Kansas or Nebraska? Why shouldn't the Department of Agriculture be in Iowa? Yeah. You know, or Kansas or Nebraska. Yeah. Why shouldn't that be?

Why can't we move defense to Washington state where Boeing is a massive contractor? I mean- It'll make it harder to lobby. It will make it incredibly hard to lobby and that's why I love it. And that's the point. Because then you've got to work a little harder

to get the right people in front of the right people. But at this stage in the game with our level of communication, there's no reason to have those those bureaucracies in Washington, DC. They need to be closer to the people that they're serving. So real people can walk in and say, I have a problem. But even more, but even more importantly, I think what he's trying to say is maybe, maybe the Department of Agriculture should be should be should employ a lot of people that understand agriculture correct that maybe grew up

on a dairy farm that grew up in a cornfield that went to college and now you know but understand that industry yes maybe maybe that makes more sense and this is something I've been the hard part about this is you think the bureaucracy will fight against anything they will fight against that as hard as anything else because they don't want to move. That was the BLM issue. They're like, well, we don't want to move. They wanted to stay in DC. If you've ever been to Grand Junction, Colorado, it is a stunningly beautiful place to live.

Like I'm sorry, you can't tell me that Grand Junction is worse than DC, but they didn't want to move. They didn't want to uproot their families. Not a lot of Michelin restaurants. No, not a, but, but also, I mean, I understand not wanting to uproot your family, but so they're want to move. They didn't want to uproot their families. Not a lot of Michelin restaurants. No, not a but. But also, I mean, I understand not wanting to uproot your family, but so they're going to fight hard against that. I'll be shocked if he can get that done. Okay, next. Love America. Ninth, I will work to ban federal bureaucrats from taking jobs at the companies

they deal with, that they regulate. So they deal with these companies and they regulate these companies and then they want to take jobs from these companies doesn't work that way such a public display Cannot go on and it's taking place all the time like with big pharma Finally, and that that is that is magic. It's huge So big there's not even room for an h. It's huge How many people do you think that work at big pharma corporations at one point or another

worked at the FDA? What percentage? Oh, they go back and forth. They go back and forth. They flip back and forth. Oh, boy. They'll dip back and forth because they want to make sure they're they got a good federal pension. So they'll go back and work for a pharmaceutical company and then come back in at maybe a higher level within the FDA. It's USDA is the same way. The USDA is exactly the same way. I'm sure that there's many more agencies that have that same situation where the same people that are working for the same companies that they are supposed to regulate just happen

to be getting hired next year before a big drug comes through or this comes through because of their expertise as a former member of the drug company. I mean, it's that kind of stuff. I'm fascinated to see how RFK plays in this administration. Well, let's talk about that because I think that, you know, like this is probably a good time to talk about this. Because, you know, I told somebody yesterday,

a lot of what he talked about doing, he won't have to do because it's essentially like taking howitzer to a knife fight. For example, do you, I believe that the day after the election, there was a meeting with a, on a big mahogany table at general foods where they're all sitting around going, we got to get red dye number three out of Froot Loops today. Cause it is not a good look if the U S government tells you, you got to do that. You have three and a half months to figure out how to still save your public perception before they come digging all your shit. I even poisoning the American public.

And all of a sudden you better start playing nice guy fast. Cause if they come in and turn it on you, your company's going under. I think that, um, and I'm going to use big food because big food is definitely a thing. I think that big food believes that they have enough. They have enough juice in DC to stop any real significant measures. A couple of things have to happen before that's going to take place. You've got to put in place that you can fire bureaucrats. That's got to be the first thing.

Then you have to scrape off like the top two levels of these various agencies. Then you have to bring new people up. Then you have to get everybody on board. So we're talking about, I mean, on the outside, like two years before anything really happens. Right. So on the inside, actually, that would be a fast timeline in Washington, D.C. So two years, you got two years. So I think your point is a great one. I think it's bad business, but I think it's terrible business, but they own everything. So it's kind of like, where are you gonna go? You know, not everybody can buy organic,

not everybody can do this. And Big Food owns every food company. But let's look back though, I mean, the cigarette companies own Big Food. Yeah, oh yeah, 100%. So they've gone through this road now. They know where this lands, they know where it ends. And I think they're like, well, listen, here's the deal.

We couldn't pivot our cigarettes to a healthier cigarette. We tried that with the camel filters back in the 20s. Four or five doctors say, smoke camel. You know, we tried that shit, right? We can't do that again. So now we do have an opportunity to clean up our, we can keep our industry here. We don't have to pivot to another industry.

So I think, I don't think they wait for here. We don't have to pivot to another industry. Right. So I think, I don't think they wait for the government to come jamming up their throats and it's like the tariffs. I think the threat of that. Yeah. I think the threat of like, look at this. There was an article this morning that now the Mexican government is actively intervening with a giant caravan of illegals that are that are migrating through Mexico trying to

get to America saying whoa might want to go back well why hasn't Mexico intervened for the past four years well oh it's because the tariff man's here they can crush your economy with one fail swoop oh i think it's more than that i think i think it is that um that trump one of the things and i'm going to be perfectly honest like I didn't vote for him in the primary, even though he had already pretty much locked it up, I voted for Nikki Haley. I'm not a huge fan, I'm still mad at him for the way he fired you on The Apprentice.

Okay, I'm still angry. As your sister, I am still mad about that. I mean, I've tried to let it go, but I can't. Listen, as somebody still in mourning over their gerbil, I understand, I understand, I understand, I get it. But one of the things I do like about what he brings to the White House is everybody around the world is pretty sure he's crazy. So that uncertainty on their part makes it impossible for them to do anything

aggressive because they think he's crazy. I'm just thinking to myself, like how many people loathe him with a passion? He's actually done something to me as a person. Actually in person, he did something to, I got the Cobra, I got the Cobra in person and I still support the guy. I don't know, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?

Keep going. Well, in any case, that's, I mean, I like that about him. And I do think that to your point about the tariffs, I also think that there's gonna be manufacturers who are like crap. Oh yeah. What are we doing? How do we make this not happen? So the threat of it is, is probably going to be enough to prevent or at least move things enough so

Trump can say, okay, you know what, that moved the needle enough. I'm okay with that. We're not going to move forward. Well, I know you're not an economist. You're a political thing, but what do you, and you may know this, you may not. What is the trade deficit we have with China? Let me just say this, the trade deficit doesn't matter. The trade deficit doesn't matter. Trade from China, like it or not, allows people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum to have things they could otherwise not afford.

So all in all, the trade deficit does two things that are significant. Number one, it puts people out of work in the United States of America, that used to work in a factory, making products that are no longer made in the United States of America. That is the downside. But overall, it raises the buying power of people in this country. Dramatically. Do you really think you'd be able to go to Costco and buy a 40 inch TV for 138 bucks if we were still making it here because we have a higher standard of

living? No, and that's one of the things that I that I grapple with, how are they going to figure this out? Like, how do you bring 40 inch TV for 138 bucks if we were still making it here because we have a higher standard of living. No, and that's one of the things that I grapple with. How are they gonna figure this out? Like, how do you bring manufacturing back to the States when you're grappling with the union, we're grabbing with unionized labor. I think automation is a big part of it. I don't think we're ever gonna have, you know,

Henry Ford style production lines where every single aspect is done by a human being. But if you build a factory, even if it is mostly fully automated with robotics, you've got to hire people to take care of the robotics. I got a dope idea for a movie. I don't have, I don't have, I always come up with these great movies and I always say them on my show. I'm hoping that someone else will make this. Please figure this out. Like here's my movie, right? So in the dystopian future, post-apocalyptic world. No, not post-apocalyptic. Well, basically, but AI is such a thing,

it has pretty much replaced every job. So instead of having, you know, they talked about there's gonna be a need at some point from Yang to have a national income. So to pay for the national income, they make you work in a factory. But here's the thing, you put a thing on your head, like a neurolink, that interacts with your brain that's AI,

that does the work. So you're just kind of standing like a robot, but in your brain, you're like at the beach. Oh, shut the front door. Right? So your body is- Slide me up, dude. Because you're working out?

Yeah, your body's- Because you're at the beach? Yeah, your body's on the plane. But then of course, then one guy wakes up and some horrible shit happened that he was being programmed to do that he didn't know. Got it. And then it's, but I keep, I slide right into minority port right there.

And I'm like, it's been done. It's been done in a minority port. So am I something else? All right. So back to this. What's next? We'll push a constitutional amendment to oppose term limits on members of Congress. This is how I will shatter the deep state and restore government that is controlled by the people and for the

people. Thank you very much. All right. That is that pass. That's going to pass. That is going to pass. And here's the thing. The polling on this, like 75 to 80 percent of Americans want to.

This is where Elon Musk comes in. Like you want to vote against this. You want to lobby against this. Mr. Congressman, Mr. Senator, I will demolish you. Well, I don't even think it's I think that the problem in getting the states to put up a constitutional amendment is that it requires too much wrangling in different states about language and all this different stuff. And there are politicians in the legislatures who would not want this to pass because that's all they all envision that as their future, right?

Sure. So it's going to have to come. Trump's going to have to say, we're going to do this. The people have to vote on it. And if you don't like it, then that's a campaign point to be used against you. I think that would be wildly popular. And I am down for it. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think, you know,

two terms in the Senate, four terms in the house, max. Yeah. I'm fine with that. 12 years. It's good. 12 years is the Senate. And then you have eight more years in the house. So you have a total of 20. You could do both. I'm fine with that. Yeah. You show up at 35. You 20, 20. You could do both. I'm fine with that. Yeah. You show up at, you show up at 35.

You're out at 55. Exactly. Okay. I'm fine with that. Um, and not that they're not that I'm an aegis cause again, my mom, owl stories, magical, hilarious, love it. She's 80, not aegis about stern 81. However, I have an issue with people that the only job they've ever had is to be a beer. Correct. Correct. They've never actually created a job. They've never actually paid a payroll. They've never actually made payroll.

No, I am with you. I think we need to make opportunities more available for people with real life experience to get in there for all of those things. So based on everything that you heard, let's start. I mean, this is like we talked about it a little bit before the show started and you said, he's finally learned. What did you mean by saying that? He came in in 2016. And one of the things that I think Donald Trump

really underestimated was exactly how well orchestrated the deep state is. I don't think he was ready to have everybody in every department work against him. And he learned something watching the Democrats. I've always actually admired this about Democrats. What the Democrats do so well is when they get into office, they throw everything against the wall at the same time. It's almost impossible to defend against everything at the same time. So by throwing everything, just throwing it all in the pool at the same time,

you severely limit the ability to message and demagogue against it because there's so many different things happening It's a lot. So I love all of this. I mean some of it I think he's gonna struggle more with what do you okay? So if you got to pick one of all that stuff What do you think's the throwaway? What do you think is the shiny objects? I can get this stuff done I think what is most likely if I was him I would probably cave on moving all of the agencies out of DC to engender a little goodwill with the bureaucracy.

So that would be the one. But then in my, you know, like the next president, I'd be like, yeah, do that, you know, do that. Because that would be incredible. But get everything else done first and then bust up the bureaucracy. Well, let's split just, let's talk just straight at the election. Why do you think the Democrats lost the way they did? I've been doing nothing for the past two days except watching MSNBC and CNN, hardcore

left-wing and MSNBC, specifically to see if they learned anything from this. And it's very apparent to me that they learned nothing. What they did was run a campaign that focused far too much on the attitudes, desires and thoughts of the very liberal, into intelligence elite, the college educated white liberals who live in urban centers. And when anybody dared to disagree with them, instead of trying to create a compelling argument, you had Obama out there scolding black men, you have Oprah out there scolding people. Nobody wants to be scolded. And I don't know if you know this, but Gen X actually was the largest chunk for Donald Trump. And somebody said, Why is that? I go, because we don't like to be told what to

do. Yeah. The other part of it is they ran with so many blatant, easily demonstrable falsehoods. And people have the internet. And a lot of people were like, Wait a minute, I actually looked up what he actually said about Liz Cheney and it was nothing like that. So they, they, they got ahead of their skis. They said a lot of things that weren't true. They, and I got to, can I just say thank you to Joe Biden? Get enough for what you think. Thank you to Joe Biden for when he got absolutely stabbed in the back, like Judas style. They just stabbed it was Julius Caesar on the Senate floor. It was immediately turned around and said, and by the way, I endorsed Kamala Harris for

vice president. Nobody asked him to do that. He knew she was a terrible candidate. He knew she was probably going to lose and that's what he wanted. So thank you, Joe Biden. Well, this is the thing that I, this is the thing that's wild to me was you're going to see, and this is the best part, right? Not the best part.

It's actually kind of sad. You're going to see all of these people that are crying in their cars and saying that the only reason she lost is misogyny on the left. I know from the view today, we're somebody racism as well. You saw that racism, misogyny. It's the only reason that she lost blah, blahny on the left. I know from the view today, where some of you racism as well. You saw that racism, misogyny. It's the only reason that she lost blah, blah, blah, blah. You're going to see as part of the democratic party reset, there's going to be books come out.

There's going to be lots of leaking that comes out very soon that they all knew she was an awful candidate. The only reason they did it was cause so they could tap his war chest. Cause there was no way anybody else could raise enough money to go on time and They his money would be off limits. I don't know that I don't know if that is it was only 51 million dollars

If you really she raised a billion in three months, and that was anti Trump money here. Let's be real I mean it was this I got to go to the RNC and the DNC this year. I covered both of them What a phenomenal experience just so incredibly cool to be able to do that. And everyone at the Democratic, you know, national convention, they just named Kamala Harris. They were so excited because they knew that Joe Biden was going to lose. They knew it. Everybody knew Joe Biden was going to lose. And they were literally like clinging to her like a life vest, you know, you're our last know, and she just turned into such a disappointment as a candidate just across the board.

She did nothing right. And I mean that she had no policy positions to speak of. She was patronizing. She blatantly started stealing Trump's ideas and trying to make them her own. The tip thing worst candidate I can remember is Kamala Harris. And honestly just appeared not to be able to do an interview. No. I just at all.

I mean, they're like, oh, she was too busy to do Rogan. No. 8 million views on YouTube for the president. Whoever floated that into the media, hey, Kamala Harris is thinking about doing Joe Rogan. What are you thinking? No. What are you thinking?

And I want to give a little credit to this last six weeks of the election cycle. There are gonna be classes taught for a century on the last six weeks of the Trump campaign and how he handled it when his supporters were called garbage and dude rolls up the next day in Green Bay in a garbage truck. I was like, stop right now.

The McDonald's thing. I mean that those two things, I think more than anything else are what made working class people go. That's the guy for me. I think, and I think when you look at it, how quick the news cycle is just for, for nothing else. The speed of the news cycle was on full display through this. The dude got, there was an attempted assassination of a former US president and it was yesterday's news like a bad piece of fish sitting on the garbage in two days. Okay, so not this past week, but the week before the

election. Saturday night, you know, a trash comedian gets on stage, makes a comment about Puerto Rico being a floating garbage of island, which by the way, they do have a tremendous garbage problem, but whatever, it's fine. That was the news cycle on Sunday. That was a cycle on Monday. Joe Biden calls Trump supporters trash on Tuesday and by Wednesday, well, there was an apostrophe there that you just didn't hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, this, this, this speed with which the media congealed around whatever talking points they needed to congeal around in order to help the Biden Harris campaign was really upsetting to me. I'm telling you, that's my takeaway is that's the worst thing that happened in this campaign. Okay. Do you think that the legacy media sits up and looks and says, maybe America is done with this and starts trying to, trying to be better? John, they don't think they're biased. I talk to people on ABC news, CBS News. I have these conversations with them on the radio

and they will push back when I say, look, what do you think about the fact that you are now the least popular institution in the United States of America, that Congress has a higher approval rating than you? And they will say, well, it's because the right demonizes, Trump demonizes us. I'm like, no, you need to do a little introspection. But the problem is, is that most newsrooms

are full of people who think the exact same way. There's no ideological diversity in the newsrooms. They've done great getting black people in newsrooms, Hispanic people in newsrooms. I mean, if you want to be in the newsroom and you're anything but white, you are welcome unless you're conservative. And so everybody looks around and goes,

are we biased? And they go, of course not. Do you think we're biased? No, of course not. There's no, they're in an echo chamber. So what I think is gonna happen is that they are hemorrhaging money, they are hemorrhaging ratings,

they're hemorrhaging a lot of stuff. Newspapers are down to nothing. Newspapers have nothing left, but they've done it to themselves. Yeah. So it's like cry me a river when you refuse to listen to us saying, you know, treat the other half of the country fairly. That's all I don't need to be. I don't need to have smoke blowing up my skirt because my thing is, treat me fairly. And we start to look at, you know, one of our, of case goals is to get,

you know, pharmaceutical advertising off of television. Yeah. That, I mean, what's left after that, how much, I mean, what's left after that? How much I mean, that's got to be such a massive portion of their budgets. Well, as I watch a lot of NCIS repeats, along with apparently other 70 year old people, that's all there is on that. Was Matlock not on? Hey, there's a new Matlock with Kathy Bates. It's very entertaining.

Oh my God. I'm just saying. Of course you watch Matlock. Of course I like Kathy Bates. I's very entertaining. Oh my God. Of course you watch Matlock. I'm just saying. Of course you watch Matlock. I like Kathy Bates. I can't help it. She's very good in it too. It's kind of a little, it's edgier than the original. Andy Griffith reruns.

Is this where you're spinning your? There's a new Matlock. Are you crocheting yet? Are you knitting? What do you like? I'm acrame, thank you. That's fine. Jesus.

Anyway, no, I, you know, this election cycle was horrible. What I hope, what I hope is that as Trump does the things that he's trying to do, that the people who are so freaked out on the left, by the way, I am not dunking on any of those people because they have been living in a world where they have been sold a bill of goods that is inaccurate and terrifying. But what I hope that they can do is see as things start to progress that their fears are unfounded. And I'm just going to say this, if Trump decides to try and overturn the Constitution and become a dictator,

I will pick up my pitchfork and my torch and I'll meet you in DC. I'm right there with you. I'm right there with you. Yeah, I think, you know, if you're somebody that voted for him and support these things, you can't look to dunk, like you said,

you can't look to dunk on the thing. It's counterproductive. Like, you know, you see all the nonsense and the stuff now and I'm moving to, you know, I can't look don't go. It's counterproductive. Like, you know, you see all the nonsense in the stuff now and I'm moving to, you know, I'm moving to Spain. Okay, great. Whatever. You know, he's going to be this. There's no reason to save their tweets.

I actually did start a drop ship company for handmade sales outfits, just in case. So I figured there's an economic opportunity there. Yes. Just, you know, easy peasy. They're probably, they're probably. Handmade sales costumes.com. Just kidding. Stop. Well, speaking of that, if they want to hear more of your genius when it comes to stuff,

how do they find you? You can find me, the Mandy Connell show on the iHeart media platform or live on 850 KOA 94 1 FM in Denver, Colorado. But I also have an amazing blog. If I could pick my blog, my blog is amazing. I do it five days a week at mandysblog.com. Look for the latest post section and look for the blogs. Cause they're, I'm just going to say

they're really freaking good. Yeah. And as always, you can find me on track seven of an eight track in a 1967 El Camino in the back of a barking lot of a bowling alley. I just said today, I was talking about our, our starch, a Star Wars, the original Star Wars soundtrack. That was an eight track day. It was an eight track, of course it was.

Which was kind of crappy cause you had to like wait. Listen to everything to get to the Cantina song. To get to the Cantina song. That's what you did. Anyway. Well, thanks for being here and clearing this up. Hopefully, man, hopefully if you listen to this, you're not enraged by an opinion, like a very educated opinion on what this stuff means and like everything else, man, you can dislike Donald Trump all you want, but root for him because if he wins, we all win at this point.

If he fails, we all fail. So root for the guy. Root for America. Root for America. We'll see you next time. What's up everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of escaping the drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five-star

review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.