It Could Happen Here - Trump's Cabinet of Curiosities

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Garrison, Sophie, and James discuss Trump’s new cabinet appointees and potential members of the White House administration. Sources: https://meidasnews.com/news/trump-secretary-of-defense-nominee-pete-hegseth-called-for-a-righteous-holy-war  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/us/politics/trump-defense-pete-hegseth.html https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/13/kristi-noem-dhs-trump-policy-00189513 https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/read-the-leaked-rubio-dossier?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=7677&post_id=151561577&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1aiy5i&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email https://bylinetimes.com/2019/10/03/islamophobic-world-view-of-tulsi-gabbards-guru-revealed-in-unearthed-recordings-can-she-still-run-for-president/  https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/tulsi-gabbard-dni-intelligence-trump-appointment/  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trumps-pick-top-intel-job-accused-traitorous-parroting-russian-propaga-rcna180073      https://decider.com/2020/08/04/the-swamp-matt-gaetz-truman-show-house/   https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-testified-house-ethics-committee-gaetz-sex-17/story?id=115867555      https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2024/11/13/trumps-cabinet-picks-could-diminish-gops-already-thin-edge-in-congress-heres-what-to-know/   https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-picks-john-ratcliffe-for-cia-director-heres-what-to-know https://newrepublic.com/post/188369/lee-zeldin-epa-trump https://newrepublic.com/post/188246/trump-border-czar-tom-homan?utm_campaign=SF_TNR&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter  https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/11/west-bank-annexation-evangelical/680658/  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/12/trump-picks-pro-settlement-mike-huckabee-as-us-ambassador-to-israel  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna179826 https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/11/07/congress/donald-trump-transition-team-00186912  https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4951768-linda-mcmahon-sued-wwe/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline Podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tech's elite and how they've turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami.

Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jack Peace Thomas, the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Hey, I'm Gianna Pertenti.

And I'm Jamee Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. If you're early in your career, you probably have a lot of money questions. So we're talking to finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it down. Looking at the numbers is one of the most honest reflections

of what your financial picture actually is. The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to It Could Happen Here. Oh, God. We have survived another week. And I'm joined today by Sophie and James to discuss Trump's cabinet picks and the upcoming potential members of the Trump administration 2.0.

I'm sure some of you have been following the news and there is some wacky picks in there. There keeps being even more wacky ones like RFK, which I didn't even have time to include because by the time he was announced i basically already wrote too much rfk will get his own future episode but it's pretty it's pretty safe to assume that rfk in control of uh health and human services is pretty bad you don't say you don't say yeah people are saying it not not great to have the world's weirdest conspiracy theorist of the kennedy family in charge of you know like vaccines and health mandates. And it's going to be bad, bad enough that it's that it's its own episode for the rest of the nominations, mostly like last week. Right. This is going to be covering all the nominations in the week of the 11th to the 15th of November. of November. We're going to kind of go through nomination by nomination and do a brief overview of each of these guys and why each one could be bad. And some of them just kind of point to like more general like neocon picks as well. Trump kind of started off with some more ordinary picks, honestly, like, you know, like Mark Rubio, Secretary of State. This is this is kind of

a restrained pick for him. Now, Rubio is still kind of converted into being a Trump loyalist, like every single other person we're going to be talking about. And it is interesting that kind of among all of the Trump appointees, he has been the most open about his criticisms of Trump, especially during Trump's first term. The leaked 551-page VP vetting document produced by the Trump campaign outlines Rubio's anti-putin comments support for the miller investigation his acceptance of the 2020 election results past comments that trump is too dangerous to be trusted with nuclear codes and his history of

supporting nato support of the iraq war and pro-military intervention in iran and syria so some of these positions now kind of bump up against what Trump's next term is going to be kind of defined by. And like more recently, Rubio has moved on from his Tea Party, free trade kind of roots and now advocates for more tariffs on China and calling the country, quote, the most advanced adversary America has ever faced, unquote. unquote basically all of the kind of foreign policy guys are really big on china they they are all china hawks that is kind of one continuous through line through all these nominations uh i guess james do you have any thoughts on on mark rubio for secretary of state yeah uh mark rubio i have a lot of thoughts on mark rubio i was expecting it all to be more

along the lines of heck fest like more to be like culture war commentators. Yeah. At least Rubio, I will say, I probably disagree with him on almost everything, but he's not going to probably abandon the YPG and the YPJ and the SDF in Syria, which is a good thing. He's pretty hawkish on that. He's not a big Erdogan fan.

So that's a good thing i guess like i think as secretary of state's under trump go like it could have been fucking tucker carlson like that that's not out of the realm of possibility at this rate yeah yeah and uh it's well he spends all his time watching fox news right like that's all we've heard that he does and it's not inconceivable that he thinks these people are experts because they're presented that way, and that is how he encounters and thus perceives the world. So I guess Rubio, and even amongst these picks, he's probably not the worst, which is wild to be saying.

So is the review on Marco Rubio? Could be worse. I mean, I guess so. I mean, that's the review on Marco Rubio's life, isn't it? That's pretty much how he's gone through the world. Yeah. I think his parents would agree with us. Ouch. Rubio is no Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense.

Yeah. Which was one of the first pics that really started raising some eyebrows. Wild pic! Wild pic! Yeah, yeah. What? Dude has an ACOG tattooed on his bicep. Stop sending us that photo of him without a shirt on.

Have seen it. Yeah. Never send us any cabinet member shirtless. I don't care if it's RFK. I don't care if it's Hegseth. Yes. Don't want to see a nipple. I saw it.

I didn't like it. I don't need to see it again. Yes. Thank you so much. I feel like everyone's pretty well aware now that he has some very questionable Christian nationalist tattoos. Honey. well aware now that he has some very questionable christian nationalist tattoos honey um not not super uncommon and you know in this for like this type of like military guy he got them all after

he got them in his late 30s that also makes sense that feels like a very midlife crisis oh no i'm a fox and friends weekend host now kind of move yeah yeah better better up my moulin l'arbe game now there's a lot to be said about pete hegseth he's a princeton and harvard graduate who has also claimed that germs are not real and he's never washed his hands in the last 10 years disgusting saying quote germs are not real i can't see them therefore they're not real um so that's that's lovely so gross you can't what what a fucking idiot what an absolute moron god he's advocated against divorce for families with kids until he was caught cheating on his second wife with his producer fathered a child and then

divorced his wife to marry his co-worker many Many such cases. In general, he's just very chud-coded, right? He has like grunt-style fashion, Christian nationalist tattoos. Yeah. He looks like the type of guy that I would have doxxed for fun as a teenager, except he just serves on Fox & Friends weekend hosting team. He served in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan

in the Army National Guard, and has recently advocated that women should not serve in combat roles in the U.S. military. I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated. We've all served with women and they're great. It's just our institutions don't have to incentivize that in places where traditionally, not traditionally, over human history, men in those positions are more capable. He has some wild takes on what should be happening in the military. He sure does.

I'm going to read a quote from his book, The War on Warriors. Big sigh. Fuck's sake. The Republican Party, by default, has become the only party of America. And if we don't crusade a holy war, a righteous holy war for freedom, we're not going to save America. Unquote. In general, a lot of his rhetoric kind of is this similar Christian nationalist crusade holy war type stuff. This is like a lot of what he talks about on podcasts and TV appearances where he is not throwing a double-sided axe

at the penis of a West Point drummer on live TV. It was incredible. It was indirect fire. He arced it over the target straight to the dick and balls of the West Point drummer. I just feel like if he's going to, it's like somebody tell him what a microscope is. Somebody just tell him what a microscope is.

He must have used binoculars at some point in his service or some kind of magnified optic, right, to learn to see things. I mean. He has a magnified optic tattooed on his bicep, actually. He sure does. Good Lord. I mean, like, if you're going to be Secretary of Defense, at least, like, oh, sir sir wash your hands arguably the most worrying part about pete as secretary of defense is not the anti-hand washing beliefs or the poor aim for axe throwing it's that he's basically a lobbyist for war criminals yes and was a big part of the campaign to push trump

to pardon several convicted war criminals, people who like tortured and murdered prisoners and ordered soldiers to shoot and kill random unarmed civilians. Yeah. So especially with this secretary of defense role, that's not great that he's essentially pro-war criminal and justifies it by saying like people don't really understand what it's like to serve in combat. Sometimes you have to make decisions and blah blah blah blah all this random stuff not good sources within the government have called him the most unqualified person ever

appointed to this position which i do i do believe because this is just a guy that trump sees on tv this is just a tv host yeah this is one of the more shocking nominations yeah let's move on to secretary of homeland security this is another odd pick christy gnome the non-border state governor of south dakota who has no experience in the dhs has never worked in law enforcement though she does possess one trademark cop trait oh yes oh yes she does and what would that be which is shooting and killing dogs yep awful person so that is one thing she might bond with our law enforcement community over which we all know about because she wrote about it in her own fucking book girl yeah incriminating herself another cop trait so true so true she did deploy uh the south dakota national guard to the border and i think they used they received

private financing for it if i remember correctly yeah like that's her engagement that one again is is troubling so much power the dhs it's such an odd pick all of these picks we're talking about some of them do seem odd but not from the point of view that trump is basically picking people that one are like in his constant orbit like a guy on tv but also people that are not like institutionalists right these aren't like people who like work their way up through these government departments to prove their like effectiveness to prove their legitimacy they're people that have proven their personal loyalty to

Trump, right? Trump's first campaign was kind of defined by a whole bunch of people defecting from him, right? Everyone he's appointed eventually got into beefs with him. People, you know, left, wrote books about how bad Trump is. Eventually Trump faced all these prosecutions. Trump's main concern is like loyalty right now. So he's picking people that just have proven their own loyalty. And from that point of view, all of his picks make sense. Almost everyone picked here, at least at some point, appeared on screen with Trump in his 2024 campaign six-part documentary. Like all of these guys.

So they were around Trump's orbit from pretty early on in his campaign. Now, according to Politico, Christine Noem was recommended by 2016 campaign chief Corey Lewandowski and his incoming border czar Tom Homan. Lewandowski sucks. Yes. Gotta give him a honorary. You suck, Lewandowski. Her appointment is evidence of Trump centralizing power and departmental influence tightly within the White House. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the far-right Center for

Immigration Studies, has postulated that the immigration branches of DHS will largely be puppeteered by Stephen Miller and the new border czar, who has a lot of DHS experience, while Nome could be more focused on overseeing FEMA, TSA, and Secret Service. Another aspect of Trump just appointing these wildly incompetent people is that more of these departments can just be run out of the White House, specifically by his senior advisors and Stephen Miller, right? Like those are the types of people that are going to be largely overseeing the direction of these departments,

while basically these figureheads just to do their bidding. Yeah, I had worried that he would appoint Stephen Miller directly to DHS. of these departments while basically these figureheads just to do their bidding yeah i had worried that he would appoint stephen miller directly to dhs i understand that fear i think part of the fear is that he just doesn't have to yes i yeah no you're right in fact stephen miller can have more power by having his mitts in more departments in his current role which we will get to later uh but first let's talk about tulsi gabbard that's the appointed director of national intelligence which is crazy crazy yeah now like gnome gabbard is shockingly unqualified and she would be overseeing 18 intelligence agencies having never worked in the intelligence field

or served on a congressional intelligence committee her nomination was first announced by roger stone on info wars now owned by the onion r.i.p owned by the onion but but that was like that was how this news broke so that kind of also tells you but like what information channels are getting like funneled down from trump's team if roger stone was the first guy to announce it before Trump even announced it in his truth socialing. She's such a conspiracy theorist that it does kind of make sense. She is an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist with a history of spreading Russian disinformation propaganda during the invasion of Ukraine.

Gabbard was also openly pro-Assad in 2015, secretly met with Assad in 2017, and then a year later, Gabbard peddled Syrian war crime denial, saying that she was quote-unquote skeptical of intelligence findings that Assad carried out chemical weapons attacks while parroting Russian talking points. In February 2022, she blamed Joe Biden for the war in Ukraine for not alleviating Russia's fear of Ukraine possibly joining NATO. I'm going to quote from NBC News, quote, during her 2020 presidential bid, Russian state propaganda often portrayed Gabbard favorably while it denigrated the other Democratic

candidates, including Joe Biden, according to research from the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based think tank. Less than a month into her presidential campaign, there were at least 20 Gabbard stories on three major Moscow-based English language websites affiliated or supportive of the Russian government, all of which celebrated her candidacy, unquote. That's very funny because 20 Gabbard stories is probably the net total that the entire US media wrote throughout her run. It is widely speculated that Gabbard is a de facto Russian agent, or at the very least is very comfortable just spreading Russian propaganda and spreading like pro-Putin and pro-Russian talking points. Yeah, it could be one of those

things where she's not actually, she's like too fucking glowing to be an agent. And she's in fact just doing this shit voluntarily by accident. It's certainly possible. I mean, the Syrian war crime denial and meeting with Assad stuff. Yeah, that stuff is pretty glowing. And Russia certainly has a vested interest in promoting Gabbard, right? So at the very least, even this isn't intentional on her part, Russia is very willing to jump on this. And the fact that she's now going to be the head of all of our spy agency programs, okay, cool. Sounds great. Cool. She also comes from a family of anti-gay activists and is tied to an anti-Muslim and anti-gay cult called the science of identity the leader has called muslims and f slurs quote-unquote demons in 2004 tulsi herself accused the newspaper the honolulu of being the mouthpiece for quote-unquote

homosexual extremists insert joke about mouthpiece homosexual anyway now tulsi's family and campaign staff were all active members of the cult during her 2020 presidential campaign during which she also produced a list of enemies that named prominent journalists who were against tulsi's own history of war crime denial amazing oh boy yeah sorry we got snubbed there hey i mean I mean, it was 2019, right? Yeah, I can dream of making it. We still have a chance of being put on their list of enemies. You know what, Garrison?

If we are accused of crimes, how will we fund our defense? Through these products and services that support this podcast? That's correct. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a

chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire? Join me every week for Post Run High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's lighthearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories.

Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real

people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again. The podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities,

artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. We'll see you next time. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean.

He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. In 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation.

Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. It's time to talk about who might be prosecuting a list of political enemies and that would be the possible new attorney general matt gates oh boy so matt gates is one of these congress people who has built an outsized reputation through television appearances and tv

news to soundbites he's always quick to jump to the defense of Trump and advocate for extreme positions within the party. His behavior displays a desperate need for attention and willingness to sacrifice his own effectiveness as a congressman for simply going viral. This performative nature is made a little bit more uncanny by the bizarre fact that Gates grew up in the house from the truman show which his family still owns that's i did not know that i did not know that but that is what yeah it makes so much sense though look at all of his like gambits and bits in congress and if you frame that within someone who was raised in the truman show house it makes perfect sense. Wow. Yeah. He is not necessarily a popular pick among kind of, again, like institutionalists in the Republican Party.

Sure. The famously liberal Wall Street Journal ran the headline, quote, Matt Gaetz is a bad choice for attorney general. He's a nominee for those who want the law to be used for political revenge, and it won't end well, unquote. Now, hours after this announcement, Gates suddenly resigned from the House and Speaker Johnson said that he hopes to work with Governor DeSantis to fast track a special election to get the seat filled as early as

January. I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, well, you can't have too many absences. So under Florida state law, there's about an eight-week period to select and fill a vacant seat.

People have asked me all day long, President Trump is poaching all of your talent. Yes, but we have an embarrassment of riches here. The Republican conference is full of talented people who are extraordinary leaders and have great expertise. And everyone in this Congress, in this conference, could serve in a leadership position in the administration. It's so bizarre. A little bit, but there's one little curious fact about Gates' quick resignation. Well, yes. one little curious fact uh about about gates a quick resignation oh yes is that this happened

just days before a house ethics investigation was set to vote on the release of a report looking into the sex trafficking allegations against matt gates according to abc news the woman at the center of the doj's probe of representative matt gates testified to the house ethics committee that the now former florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old. To quote ABC, quote, the woman's allegation regarding Gaetz became part of the investigation following claims by former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, a former friend of Gaetz, who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with investigators in May of 2021, in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other

quote-unquote adult men who also had sex with her when she was underage. The committee also obtained a sworn written statement by Gaetz's ex-girlfriend, where she lists the Florida congressman as one of the attendees at a party in July 2017 where drugs were present and which was attended by the woman who Gates allegedly had sex with when she was a minor. Sub-witnesses show Venmo payments that they allegedly received from Gates, unquote. So I guess the end goal of the QAnon movement is just putting a pedophile in charge of the DOJ serving as attorney general over the entire country. Also, Gates made a really bad joke a few years ago, responding to a Twitter post about how people can be like beautiful at any age.

Oh, yeah. And Gates responded by saying, this should be Florida's state motto. And that tweet is still up. Wasn't it sexy at any age? It is sexy. It was sexy. Oh, was oh my god it's worse it's worse oh that's so bad but no gates isn't super popular even within like large parts of of the party it's reported from other congressmen that he would like walk up to them and like show them sex tapes he made with people he's like having sex with he's a fucking creep he's really icky ew bro there's arguments that like maybe he won't get past like confirmation right yeah yeah and

here's here's the thing he might not have to trump is currently working with the speaker of the house as well as the new senate majority leader to possibly just close congress and push all these guys through in recess appointments. So they may not even have to get past the confirmation process. Now, this still remains to be seen. And as Matt Johnson said in the clip before, he's a little worried that Trump just keeps picking congressmen, which is slowly eating away at the House's slim Republican majority. Johnson said that he has, quote unquote, begged and pleaded with Trump to stop coaching House representatives to protect their majority.

At this point, at least five congressmen have been tapped to serve in the Trump administration with more expected. Now, Gates might have someone assisting him as deputy attorney general with a little bit more prosecution experience. That is Todd Blanche, who is Trump's personal defense lawyer, who earlier this year oversaw multiple indictments against Trump. So Trump just picked his own lawyer to be like, yeah, you're like the second guy in charge. Go help out Gates. I know a lawyer.

This will be fine. The White House chief of staff is Susie Wills, who's a very successful Republican campaign operator. She worked on Rick Scott's and Ron De santis's gubernatorial campaigns as well as trump's 2024 presidential campaign she's like she's kind of one of the few like legacy establishment figures that trump has tapped now deputy chief of staff is stephen miller the great replacement white nationalist and anti immigrant extremist will be returning to the white house as assistant to the president and a deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor so he's not just the head of homeland security he has his paws in multiple

little departments and also is like directly next to the president's ear now in trump's first term miller was the architect of the family separation policy the the Muslim ban, and the end of DACA. Miller has advocated for denaturalization of American citizens, and has called for the use of National Guard troops from Republican-governed states to be deployed in blue states to carry out internment of migrants in military camps

and deportations in states that are uncooperative with Trump's mass deportation plans. James, do you have any things to add here on Stephen Miller? This is kind of your department. Miller is scary because he's actually very effective. So often these right-wing kind of plots hinge on these bizarre legal theories, right? Which I would say far from accepted by mainstream kind of jurisprudence. Miller did very well at finding antiquated laws that could stick their landing in the courts to do the evil shit he wanted to do.

Like the Alien Enemies Act of 1790-something. Yeah, I mean, he did that with Title 42, which is a law that's designed to stop people with tuberculosis just walking across the border, right? And he successfully, and he planned this before the pandemic, he successfully used that to effectively allow Border Patrol to immediately deport people without giving them their right to claim asylum and that was a policy that trump did and that biden continued till 2023 right like miller is good if we look at the last term at finding ways to he's effective yeah he's effective he's scarily effective to me he's always been the scariest guy in trump's orbit

yes but yeah because he's competent and and like by far and he stays out of the limelight for the large part and that allows him to not have to defend his evil shit and just get on with doing it when i watched that six-part documentary on the behind the scenes of trump's campaign steven miller was in almost every scene yes he was always like in the background always in the background just just saying things to trump like he is he is a constant presence there. Yeah. It's quite frightening. Now, moving on, the guy nominated for National Security Advisor is named Mike Walls.

He's a neocon. He's an anti-Assadist, pro-Ukraine. He's advocated to take the cuffs off Ukraine to allow them to make strikes further into Russia. He was also the former counterterrorism advisor to dick cheney when when he was vp yay super pro israel too all everyone i list here is pro israel yeah i think that's pretty much this is one of the most like openly pro war guys right right you you've you've someone like this guy who's historically kind of like the anti tulsi gabbard yeah yeah takes the opposite stance on almost every single issue he's he he's a neocon he's anti-assad like the anti-Tolsi Gabbard. Yeah. Takes the opposite stance on almost every single issue.

He's a neocon, he's anti-Assad, he's anti-Putin. He's a member of the Kurdish caucus in Congress, actually. Interesting. I hope he balances out some of those crazy more Assadist, or just Trump's natural tendency to see a strong man in erdogan and be like yeah you go for it buddy yeah he was the first green beret to serve in congress and has advocated the use of military intel to combat drug cartels and co-sponsor legislation to authorize the use of military force against cartels in mexico great guy Another kind of more standard establishment pick, still not good,

but a little bit more standard, is CIA Director John Ratcliffe. Briefly served as Director of National Intelligence near the end of Trump's first term and helped to defend Trump during impeachment hearings. He is more of like a standard pick, but like everyone else on this list, he has demonstrated fierce loyalty to Trump. EPA advisor Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman, no environmental or conservation experience, just an ordinary anti-regulation conservative. After his announcement, Zellman wrote, quote, we will restore U.S. energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs and make the U.S. the global leader of AI, unquote. Which does not point to much environmental protection. I'm going to quote from the New Republic.

Zeldin voted to cut EPA funding, scrap its chemical risk assessment program, and block the agency from taking action to restrict carbon pollution. He missed the 2017 vote on whether to defund the EPA's criminal law enforcement program, but voted to prohibit funds from being used for this purpose the prior year.

Unquote. After going to the RNC, his emails were the worst email thread that I got added to. His emails are so unhinged. Truly the worst thing he's ever done. Yeah, Zeldin, worst emails. Which actually makes sense that he wants

to be a global leader of AI. Yes. That's probably what all his emails were. I mean, it's pretty safe to assume that basically any progress that we have made on climate, very minuscule, will be immediately undone. Yeah. And we will just make negative progress in the next four years with someone like Lee Zeldin in charge of the EPA, which already has very little regulatory power, but it's about to have a lot less.

Let's discuss border czar Tom Homan, former ICE director. the EPA, which already has very little regulatory power, but it's about to have a lot less. Let's discuss border czar Tom Homan, former ICE director. He oversaw the family separation policy in 2017 and has since said that American-born citizens should be deported with their family to avoid separating families. He's advocated treating cartels like foreign terrorist organizations that Trump will use the full might of the US special operations to take out. He also wrote the border section of Project 2025. James, do you have anything to say on our new borders are? It's kind of troubling because again, you've got someone here who is competent, right? Who has worked at high levels in government. He was an Obama appointee, right?

He's worked at ICE like forever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No no like when obama was setting records for deportations homan was doing it which i think tells you everything about you know the shit that we forget about obama but yeah like again troubling because homan is a real hawk on this stuff and has previously been like he was effective at doing family separation right and it wasn't particularly organized, as we've seen. It's difficult for people to find and reunite the families. They've been doing it ever since Trump left office.

But he was effective at getting that shit done. And that worries me in terms of deportations. Because ICE will need to scale up massively, as we spoke about. That will require someone with leadership experience. And he has that like that is concerning let's talk about some more diplomatic roles for ambassador to the un trump has named elise stefanik who has no diplomatic experience but has been extremely vocally pro israel she harshly interrogated university presidents amid campus protests against the genocide in Gaza and has consistently advocated against U.S. participation in the U.N.

and now is going to be the U.N. ambassador. Quote from the New Republic, quote, In a statement last week, Stefanik heralded Israel's decision to ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA, from operating in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza, claiming that the 74-year-old aid program, quote, instills anti-Semitic hate in Palestinians and houses weapons for terrorists, unquote. She's also called on the United States to defund the refugee program, criticizing the Biden administration for issuing $1 billion to UNRWA since 2021, unquote. Yeah, this is like a typical talking point of like right Zionists, right?

That the United Nations is somehow an arm of Hamas and UNRWA, the United Nations Refugee Welfare Agency, is actively funneling weapons to Hamas. And like, it's just not true. It's an excuse for targeting aid workers in Gaza. The UN already has such little control over any degree of like enforcement for like humanitarian aid. And having this person be the US ambassador to UN will make what little power they have even like diminished. Yes. october she called for a quote a complete reassessment of u.s funding of the united nations unquote um after calls from the palestinian authority to expel israel from the un for war crimes and human rights abuses now the ambassador to israel is set to be mike huckabee the former governor of arkansas and evangelical christian

zionist similarly he has no diplomatic experience. I'm going to quote from the Atlantic, quote, he has led religious pilgrimages to Israel and visited the country dozens of times over the course of several decades. He also opposes a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict and says that, quote, there's really no such thing as a Palestinian, unquote. He is really bad. Mike Huckabee is really bad. Yeah, that's pretty bad. He has also advocated for Israel to permanently annex and take control of the West Bank.

And he legitimately believes in a religious political ideology to return all Jewish people to the Holy Land of Israel to trigger the biblical apocalypse resulting in the death of all Jews. My feeling personally, and I'm speaking only as a person, I think Israel would only be acting on the property it already owns. I think Israel has title deed to Judea and Samaria. There are certain words I refuse to use. There is no such thing as a West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria. There's no such thing as a settlement. They're communities, they're neighborhoods, they're cities. There's no such thing as an occupation. This is why he believes this. This isn't like out of care in his heart for Jewish people. It's that he wants to trigger the apocalypse. And to do this, he needs to both like eliminate all Palestinians, give total control of the land to Israel,

make all Jewish people live there so that Jesus can come again and do the wars and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All that kind of stuff. It's nasty. The last diplomatic pick here is Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who's a Trump campaign fundraiser and a real estate developer.

He has no diplomatic or foreign policy experience, pro-Israel. He'll basically just be assisting in all of the bad things that everyone else I've already named is going to be doing wait sorry my brain just broke so so the the middle east envoy is just like a real estate investor guy yep yep that seems i mean you know yeah is it is it much better than jared is going to do peace in the Middle East like last time. Yes, you can look at this similarly to like Jared Kushner's proposals

to like develop what once was Gaza and just like viewing wars in the Middle East as a real estate development opportunity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can see a guy like this kind of in line with that side of like the Trump campaign. Jared's got to handle it and we're going to handle these ad breaks. Hey, guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more after those runs the conversations keep going that's what my podcast

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the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners,

for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Together, we'll dissect classics and contemporary works while uncovering the stories of the brilliant writers behind them. Blacklit is here to amplify the voices of Black writers and to bring their words to life. Listen to Blacklit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hola mi gente, it's Honey German and I'm bringing you Gracias, Come Again, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of Latin culture, musica, peliculas, and entertainment with some of the biggest names in the game. If you love hearing real conversations with your favorite Latin celebrities, artists, and culture shifters, this is the podcast for you. We're talking real conversations with our Latin stars, from actors and artists to musicians and creators, sharing their stories, struggles, and successes. You know it's going to be filled with chisme laughs and all the vibes that you love. Each week, we'll explore everything from music and pop culture to deeper

topics like identity, community, and breaking down barriers in all sorts of industries. Don't miss out on the fun, el té caliente, and life stories. Join me for Gracias Come Again, a podcast by Honey German, where we get into todo lo actual y viral. Listen to Gracias Come Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search,

Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel winning economists to leading journalists in the field. And I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand

what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba.

He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian.

Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back. It's time to discuss the elephant in the room. Doge! Oh God, I've forgotten about this. I genuinely blocked that out of my mind. Are we doging?

We are going full doge. So I'm just going to read part of the statement from Donald Trump announcing this new government agency, DOGE. More on that later. Quote, I am pleased to announce that the great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of government efficiency doge together these two wonderful americans will pave the way for my administration to dismantle

government bureaucracy slash excess regulation cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies it will become potentially the manhattan project of our time republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of doge for a long time to drive this kind of drastic change the department of government efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of government and will partner with the white house and office of management and budget to drive large-scale structural reform and create an entrepreneurial approach to government never seen before. Their work will conclude no later than July 4th, 2026. A smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy will be the perfect gift to America on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Unquote. Jesus Christ, man.

So this is the new, quote unquote, government agency, which is not real, right? This is not a real government agency. Trump just can't create one out of thin air. And in this statement, it does clarify that they will be providing advice and guidance from outside of government. That is pretty funny. This is a children's table. They have the plastic cutlery. It's the children's table. Yes, he's sending Musk and Vivek off to the side to have their little fun. They'll make a blog post that talks about who to cut,

what programs to cut. Vivek specifically talked about ending healthcare for veterans, which I'm sure will go over very well. And they'll submit that to Trump. And then the people in charge of the Office of Management and Budget will probably just throw it in the trash. But we will see. I mean, I don't want to understate Musk's general influence in Trump's operations, because Musk right now does have a great deal of influence. I think this Doge thing isn't something to be too worried about, though. Now, as a fun side note, to kind of demonstrate the nonsensical nature of this, I'm going to talk about something that Vivek has proposed.

He has said that a way to cut down on government bureaucracy would be to make a list of all of the non-elected government employees and fire the ones that have a social security number that starts or ends with an odd number. security number that starts or ends with an odd number this way you can automatically cut 75 of the workforce without having to worry about racial gender or political discrimination the vex says quote not a thing will have changed for the ordinary american unquote i don't think that's going to work that way this is this is proposing cutting like two million people talking to a friend of the pod lex friedman he framed this as a thought experiment not necessarily a policy proposal and said that a more complicated form of this idea could select to save people with quote the greatest commitment and knowledge of the constitution unquote this is goofy like this

is fake like this isn, this isn't real. He's not going to cut 75% of the workforce. You should be more concerned about Schedule F, a policy that Trump will reinstate that gives him power to remove government employees at will to select for people that align with him more ideologically. Like, that's the real thing to be concerned about in terms of, like, government staffing.

I'm not much concerned about Vivek here. Though the Washington Post did report that some Trump advisors have asked Congress for $35-50 million to fund the Doge Commission. The alternative is to raise money from the private sector, which seems more likely.

It's also just very funny to have an efficiency department ran by two people, especially if you're going to ask to spend 50 million dollars. Because yeah, I'm sure the best way to improve government efficiency is to give two billionaires 50 million dollars. It's to have two people running a department.

That's great. That's what we need. Yeah, it's also like a fake department that'll just produce a write-up that talks about cutting social security. And then everyone will throw it in the bin. That's all it's going to be. Musk has also gone to Twitter to try to get people to send in job applications to work for free.

To sort through these people that should be cut from federal government. He just wants people to do work for free. So now you have people sending in job applications to Twitter. I'm sure that'll end great for those people. Part of this just feels kind of like a scheme to like coerce trump into allowing the formation of a fake government agency to pump the value of dogecoin like yes dogecoin did like boost in value after this announcement and like this is very suspicious and like should be maybe illegal because this could just be like

a cryptocurrency scheme which is very very likely now despite the kind of goofy nature of Doge and like the idea that this is basically just Musk and Vivek sitting at the kids table to keep them happy while the adults take care of real business, I don't want to brush over the influence that Musk currently has on the Trump admin. Basically, since election night, Musk has essentially been living with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Just like the first buddy. Yes, he started to call himself first buddy, which makes me deeply uncomfortable.

The richest man on earth. Yeah. First friend with benefits. Absolutely pathetic. Musk is reported to be giving input on staffing decisions and joining phone calls with foreign leaders. I'm going to play a clip from CNN here. Multiple sources tell me tonight that Musk has been seen at Mar-a-Lago nearly every single day

since Donald Trump won, dining with him on the patio at times. Today, they were seen on the golf course together. Musk has been in the room when world leaders have called Trump. And tonight, we've learned he's also weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles even. Publicly tonight, Elon Musk is backing Florida Senator Rick Scott as the next leader of the Republican conference to replace Mitch McConnell. While Musk himself is still not expected to take any kind of formal position inside Trump's administration, given how complicated it would be with his companies, what's becoming clearer tonight is that he doesn't really need to, with one source telling me Elon Musk is having just as much influence from the outside.

NBC has reported that a source close to the transition team has told them that Musk is, quote, behaving as if he is co-president and making sure that everyone knows it. And he's sure taking lots of credit for the president's victory bragging about america pack and x to anyone who will listen he's trying to make president trump feel indebted to him and the president is indebted to no one unquote which is a very very fun statement from a from a trump guy it's also not true doesn't trump owe loads of people money like empirically we know this yes and currently uh through lawsuits trump does owe people a lot of money but yeah not that that will matter at all

anymore in a meeting with house republicans last wednesday trump reportedly joked quote elon won't go home i can't get rid of him at least until i don't like him unquote which kind of underscores the running uh bet pool that we have here at cool zone media on when the trump musk falling out will happen and we will we will keep up on this story very closely because i i really can't imagine that that musk will stay here for too long i'm sure he'll stay in some proximity especially with all like the government contracts that spacex has but trump being like this close to musk surely will result in some kind of fallout. And maybe that's Hopium.

Maybe that's me just fully hopped up on Hopium. But I really see ableism working to our advantage here, with Trump eventually just getting sick of this guy. And I think part of what Elon's doing here as well, and other people have postulated this, including Robert, is Elon can't run for president legally, right? And now, again, laws might just completely go out the window here, but because Elon's not a

natural-born citizen, like, Elon can't run for president and Elon does want power. So, basically, Elon's trying to become as close as he can to President Trump to be, like this source said, co-president, right? That's kind of his end goal here. He wants to be the president

and he can't. So this is as close as he can get. That is most of the main picks so far. Lastly, I'll mention like three people who worked on the Trump campaign who will now be serving as advisors, including Dan Scavino, James Blair, and Taylor Butowich. All these guys appeared pretty frequently in the behind the scenes documentary about Trump's 2024 campaign. And all three of these guys primarily focused on like weaponizing anti-immigrant claims to get Trump elected. That was kind of their main focus, especially James Blair. But lastly, lastly, I do have one more person to mention. The co-chair of Trump's transition team, the former CEO of WWE, Linda McMahon. She is working as the co-chair for the transition team.

She is the wife of Vince McMahon. Now, she also served in Trump's first term as head of the Small Business Administration from 2017 to 2019, after two failed Senate runs in Connecticut. Now, besides co-leading the president's transition team mcmahon's also the front runner to lead the department of commerce now to kind of tie this back to matt gates she along with her husband are also currently being sued for sex trafficking underage boys in the wwe the suit alleges that wwe leadership knowingly allowed an announcer

named mel phillips to groom and molest the five plaintiffs who were hired as ring boys from the ages of 12 to 13 ring boys basically like people who like help out on the side for you know i see they're kind of like performative roles yeah so that's pretty fucked up and the fact that this whole qanon movement has now resulted in two people being charged for sex trafficking, or at least investigated for sex trafficking, being this close to the Trump orbit, I'm sure we can just trust the plan and things will all turn out fine. Linda McMahon, a fun fact there. So that is all I have to say at this point about the Trump cabinet picks. There's going to be more. I know RFK is going to be its own nightmare

that we will get to. Yeah, I guess any closing thoughts, Sophie or James, on this who's who of the worst people in the country? Who's going to come next? And that's basically it. And not even that, after this first round and then like obviously he's gonna fucking fire some people who's he gonna who's he gonna replace them with it will be it

like instagrammers by the end of four years i'm sure he's really just going through all the people who have like pledged complete loyalty to him including people who've like previously been critical uh but have like turned around and gotten fully on the Trump train. And the thing that links up all of these names is that Trump believes that they're not going to turn on him, because that was the thing that really threw a wrench in his first administration. And the reason why he's appointing all these people

who are just chronically unqualified, it's because they need Trump, right? If Matt Gaetz doesn't become AG, then he's also out of a job now, because he resigned from Congress, and he'll also probably face more punishment for his alleged sex trafficking yeah but if he's in charge of the entire justice department he's not going to get anything right like a huge part of trump like trying to become president again is to get out of all of the criminal complaints and indictments that he's been facing the past year and now none

of those matter i'll point you to a legal past year. And now none of those matter. I'll point you to a Legal Eagle video for like why none of the convictions will matter. None of the ongoing cases will matter. All of those trials are now completely meaningless. He has gotten away with everything. Looking over this whole list, you see a lot of neocons in foreign policy positions and like mega celebrity loyalists in domestic positions, which makes a lot of sense for Trump trying to both maintain his own power as well as showing off his kind of hidden neocon tendencies. And this entire cabinet points towards centralizing power with just him and the White House, right? These people are not qualified. So now Trump basically will puppeteer every department

and Trump's advisors, including like Stephen Miller. So this Trump basically will puppeteer every department and Trump's advisors, including like Stephen Miller. So this is all about centralizing power and demanding fierce loyalty. That's what all of these appointments point towards. That's a good ending. What a happy show. Yeah, that is a great ending. You know, not all of these will have happy endings because we're currently facing a pretty rough situation. But we will have some episodes later on in this week that do point more towards what you can do to protect yourself in the coming days, facing a pretty rough situation. But we will have some episodes later on in this week that do point more towards what you can do to protect yourself in the coming days, including Molly's episode tomorrow.

So stay tuned for that. But this is just a quick rundown on why I don't like every single person appointed to these positions. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen Here listed

directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into Tex Elite and how they've turned

Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech brought to you by an industry veteran with nothing to lose. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts from. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him.

Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the i original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. AT&T. Connecting changes everything. Hey, I'm Gianna Pertenti. And I'm Jamee Jackson-Gadsden.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. If you're early in your career, you probably have a lot of money questions. So we're talking to finance expert Vivian Tu, aka Your Rich BFF, to break it down. Looking at the numbers is one of the most honest reflections of what your financial picture actually is. The numbers won't lie to you. Listen to this week's episode of Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.