The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Bob Costas Will Get Aggregated

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

We're going to have Bob Woodward and Bob Costas on the show today. Couple of Bobs cuttin' it up. After Amin the fan chats with Dan about comedy, Costas is here and IMMEDIATELY takes out Billy Gil. He then chats with the crew about the New York Yankees epic collapse, how he initially fell in love with baseball, and puts Freddie Freeman's greatness into perspective. Then, he explains why, despite believing Kamala Harris is not the ideal candidate, he believes it's important to confront Trump and the "cult of MAGA" head on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and other important details. Sponsored by Diageo Americas, Inc., New York, New York. This is the Don LeBattor Show with the Stugats Podcast. ["The Stugats Podcast Theme"] Bob Woodward and Bob Costas. Hell of a Halloween you've carved out for the listeners, LeBattor. Jesus Christ, a couple of bobs cutting it up. Yes sir.

I got my Sugats moment where he complains about us not talking about sports or Halloween and going too serious and doing too much politics. Oh man. Yo. Wow. Yep, go ahead. Yes, spin that fan. Sugats is here because he is churning out God Bless Football in a way that I want to

say is nobody's business, but it's everyone's business around here. God Bless Football is exploding. He's going to Arizona with Billy. Again, they're going to sell out some – they're going to make the West Coast bend with all of the people that they bring to this party, all of the weight they bring to this Arizona watch party. When God bless football lands in your town, Amin's not gonna be there, and that's poor planning by Metal Arc, poor planning.

Tony's not gonna be there, poor planning by Metal Arc. But it's because the Chicago thing went so well, that now Smirnoff is saying, we gotta do this all over the country before football season runs out. Not to throw my wife under the bus, but she's the reason I'm not going. Yeah, and my friend Claudia is getting married,

so that's kind of why. I understand. It is the same weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series finale. The championship's gotta be handed out in Phoenix on that weekend, so maybe I can make a quick pit stop. If you're in Arizona though, it's Sunday, November 10th, one to six p.m.

Kickoff is at 225 local It's at the DraftKings Sportsbook in TPC Scottsdale to be honest We do have a lot of fun the last time we did at Joe's on weed me Billy and Sue God's Matt Forte was there with Smirnoff it was an awesome event. The place was packed. We were watching football weird you and doing jazz everybody was really happy I was taking her back. Look, I we don't talk that much about the business of what it is that we've been trying to do here for three years, but one of these things, throwing parties near you in a little place that makes everybody happy, the sponsor, everybody,

because our fans show up wherever it is that we land. Do you have any idea who's gonna be with Billy and Stugats because they're not gonna just land quietly? Mike EA is gonna be there too, so the God Bless Football Trio will be intact. And Greg Biffle. Mike Ryan, you have not been able to find a single supporter anywhere.

Not even Jeremy. Jeremy will talk with anybody about anything. You haven't even been able to lure him into your racing den. We got Martinsville this weekend. There are six guys still alive for the final two playoff spots for the final four the championship race at Phoenix all Racers this is very interesting all the racers that are presently alive for those final two spots all six of them have previously won At Martinsville. I think at the end of the day Kyle Orson will come out with them

Please respect the gearhead The helmet is beautifully made by Mike Fuentes shout out out to Mike Fuentes, since that's what we're doing today for creating the gear head helmet. I mean, before we get to Bob Costas, you are friends with Brad Williams, with Andrew Schultz. You're familiar with what's happening right now throughout comedy and the space that comedians occupy with podcasts

that are like the new radio show, it feels like, Four Year Times. What do you mean I can get Santino and Bobby Lee just their friendship for two hours, listen to comedians riff, because they figured out how to do a radio show? What do you make of what's presently happening right now where Joe Roggan is saying

of uh... kill tony that uh... you can't do that kind of act arose comic can't do an event that doesn't have other comedians it's a losing position he's analyzing the comedy of the john stewart is analyzing comedy of insane it's just jokes can we stop there more serious things going on here but in the middle of this fight to see comedians fighting over what is allowed to be comedy

and trying to die on the hill that being racist to Puerto Ricans is gonna be something that swings this election in the last week. Like I can't, with all the shit we've been talking about for four years, the idea that Bad Bunny is now affected by this and it's gonna actually matter in a way that like abortion and all the other important stuff we're talking about doesn't matter.

Well, and especially in the wake of hurricane season and kind of Puerto Rico's still trying to recover from what happened four or five years ago with Hurricane Maria. That was one of the most powerful things I saw was a video from Marc Anthony, basically running back the tape, like look, this of the most powerful things I saw was a video from Marc Anthony basically running back the tape like look this is how he feels about us so you know don't get it twisted or whatever but when it comes to

Tony here's the thing what a lot of comedians have pointed out it's like that's his act like Kill Tony is a roast show it's a panel of comics and then they get new up- coming people come up, and they just let them do their thing, and then they roast them, and they roast back and all that. That's all he does. That kind of comedy is his entire thing. If you've invited him,

that's what you're inviting him to do. It's like Don Rickles, you know, 40, 50 years ago, right? The difference is, and I know Don Rickles has done, like, had done stuff, but like, the difference is, and I know Don Rickles has done, like had done stuff, but like the difference is this was a venue, not physical, but in terms of the event, that is filled with people who aren't in on the joke, right? The whole thing about Kill Tony is that we all get, like look, it's just jokes, like Jon Stewart says,

and when he's doing his show, yes, I believe it's just jokes, like Jon Stewart says. And when he's doing his show, yes, I believe it's just jokes. But you walk in that building, and these are people that don't get, that are jokes. I mean, they're laughing at the wrong parts. They're laughing at the wrong parts, not because that's a funny joke on stereotypes. They're laughing at, yeah, those Puerto Ricans are garbage.

And so for Tony to not understand, A, what he was stepping into, like, you're doing this for an audience that's not in on the joke, that's where it gets lost. And then the other part of it is the, well, we didn't know he was gonna say these things, he wasn't off script, he was reading off a prompter. They knew the jokes, but again, they didn't get it.

They thought, like, oh, these are funny, because, you know, like, all these Latinos were saying no to them. Our first impersonation of the day. It's late in the day. It's not, it's not impersonation. It seemed to prove to be a major miscalculation, not just because of what he was saying, but also it got Bad Bunny and JLo more involved in this process. So you have a joke that you have to apply context and explain to

many people who even that person is to some of the biggest stars to a huge demographic here in this country. It was just a huge misstep. I have found over many many years that Bob Costas has been like a really eloquent orator and has an unusual perspective and is much bigger than sports for 40 years watching him do legitimate journalism better than just about anyone in broadcasting in this space. I don't know you know how many jobs outside of sports he was offered to run giant journalism enterprises but I do want to get his opinions on some of what is happening in America a week before the election.

But before we do that, the World Series did just end, and he's also one of the nation's preeminent baseball historians. And I was, Bob, even as I understand how random baseball can be, I felt for Aaron Judge because those small sample sizes will kill you in the postseason and he's got now, he was three wins away from having a really fun off season and now he collapses under the weight of this which isn't gonna get any better in the next five months. Thank you for joining us by the way.

Yeah, well in fairness to Judge, he did Homer and double last night and he made a great running catch against the wall prior to dropping the fly ball and dropping the fly ball an easy fly ball right at him. Judge is a good center fielder. People like to group everything into a narrative. If you follow the Yankees you know that despite all their talent they've had a number of defensive lapses and base running gaps

uh... throughout the season it's something that those who cover the team on a regular basis have been pointing out and it came back to bite them last night but judge is not part of that judge doesn't make fundamental mistakes judges are good center fielder not a gold glove center fielder because there are others who are better but he is a good center fielder and obviously an historically great hitter during the regular season. And he had a chance if not to completely change the narrative, at least to mitigate it by

what he did last night and if the Yankees brought the series back to LA as it appeared they were about to do, they'd have another crack at it. And in the big picture, although you have to celebrate the Dodgers, there's so many things to like about Dave Roberts and Freddie Freeman and Shohei Otani and Mookie Betts and all the rest. It would have been better for baseball if at least they got a sixth game out of it. The rating would have been higher and then the possibility of a seventh game would have been in the air. You get a seventh game between these two teams, possibly with one team having come back from 3-0 to tie it 3-3. That would have been the highest seventh game rating since the Cubs broke the curse in 2016.

So in the big picture, nothing against the Dodgers, doesn't matter who ultimately wins, but it would have been better if it had played out at Dodger Stadium. Now, Costas may have worked at the top of sports show business, but he's never had my father serenade him. I want to read a stat to him. Start of the day, start of the day, in this year's start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, in this year's start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day,

in this year's start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, in this year's start of the day, it is the start of the day. This is from Optistats, the Yankees are the only major league team to blow a five-plus run lead, allow five-plus unearned runs, commit three plus errors, commit catcher's interference, commit a balk, all in the same game, regular season or postseason since earned runs became an official stat in both leagues in 1913. That's the most apocalyptic game ever played in more than a hundred years, Bob.

The Yankees punctuate this season by playing more poorly than a baseball team has in a hundred years. And you can imagine that if this game five had just taken place one day later, if it had happened on Halloween, every headline writer would have a field day about the house of horrors that unfolded in the Bronx. A historically bad game, correct? Like, historically bad punctuation for a series that everyone had great expectations for.

Yeah, it was really bad, and the Yankees squandered two excellent outings from Garrett Cole. He took the ball in game one and again in game five and pitched like an ace. Now, he was guilty of perhaps a mental lapse the way that play played out a little ground ball by Mookie Betts. Cole came off the mound thinking that it would be his play to scoop it up along the first baseline and then shovel it to Rizzo. He took a bad angle and then he realized that he couldn't catch up with the ball. Here we go. All right so at this at this point you can see if he thought that this was Rizzo's play

that he would have come in a different angle toward the base. Now he's caught in no man's land and Rizzo, who is a very good defensive first baseman, but isn't all that fast, he must have thought Cole would be covering and by the time he looked up and as fast as Betts is, the play had been blown. I've got a very unprofessional circumstance here, Bob. I've got to apologize to you as somebody who's very high up on doing things professionally and well. Chris Cody, Austin Powers, seems to be distracted and him and Mike seem to be giggling

and not being as respectful as they need to be to one of the preeminent journalists of our time. So what are you guys talking about back there? This entire room has just been in a heated debate the entire interview of whether that's a den or a study that you're in right now. It's gotta be a study. Yeah, it's gotta be a study.

I think it's a den. It gives off downstairs. It's whatever he calls it. It's whatever Bob Costes calls it. Okay, does he get to decide or do you? The vote is there for a study. You guys are, you guys. I think Bob would call that a study.

Same. I don't think so. I think you guys have him being more pompous than he is. I think a study gives off pomposity. Yes. Well, I think, I think. Look at all the books. Okay, well, all right.

Look at the woods. Well, then you, hey, then you could call it a library, couldn't you? Oh, boy. Yeah. That'd be so pompous. I would. I mean, come on.

You know, by the way, by the way, I don't know who to pin this on, but one of your limited frame of reference peanut gallery guys, and the only reason I know this is because sometimes I follow you, Dan, said at one point, you know, I don't even know why he's called Bob.

He's the kind of guy that really should have been, even in grade school, would have demanded that he be called Bob. He's the kind of guy that really should have been, even in grade school, would have demanded that he be called Robert. This is what happens when you don't know jack shit, okay? Saturday Night Live, Letterman, Leno, Carson, Ponan, baseball, Pudi Tang, the paper, you know? If somebody knew as little, even if they were 20 years old, knew as little about baseball history

And then was talking about last night's game with no frame of reference. They'd be laughed out of the room You know laughter that kind of thing that humorless people supposedly have no grasp of You know what I'm talking about God about booty time forgot about we'll never forget about baseball That is Billy Gill. I forgot about Pouty Tan. We'll never forget about baseball. That is Billy Gill. I'm disappointed that Billy's not here. I was not expecting that word to get back to Bob Costas

and Bob Costas to slap him across the face with a fish. I wish he were here, because yes, he spoke ill of Bob Costas in his career, and I thought it was disrespectful. But not just disrespectful, the disrespectful is less damning than ignorant. I got to witness a suey for best dismissal. Yes, it's an excellent dismissal and eloquent. He does these poems, these tapestries. He's been doing it for a long time. I wanted to talk some more baseball. Okay, sure. Just to punctuate like so the season from a historical reference

point and having watched the last i don't know quarter century of how much baseball's change baseball's change more in the last five years and had no hundred five before it uh... as someone who was against the wild card initially and may have come around but the state of baseball right now is the dodgers win a title and might be in on sodo as well and all of the advantages the teams used to have that that made baseball even puts us in a World Series where it's Yankees and Dodgers at the

end which is good for the sport your take on where baseball is headed into 2025 well just talking about this Yankees Dodgers thing people might sort of knee-jerk say well of course of course, they're the franchises in the biggest markets and they have the largest payrolls, but it actually is rather rare for the two best teams over the course of the regular season, or if you're talking about the Yankees and Dodgers, almost always competitive and always among the top handful of payrolls, that this is the natural course of things. But in fact, it doesn't happen all that often. And under the new format with three wild cards in each league, the first two years prior

to this one, under this format, three of the four World Series participants were wild card teams. And one of the things that mitigates, it doesn't eliminate, but it mitigates the disadvantages of smaller markets is having three divisions, and generally speaking, teams of modest payrolls find themselves in the central divisions of both leagues. The Cubs are kind of an anomaly. They have the money, but since they broke the curse, they apparently haven't spent as wisely as they should have.

But when you look at those central divisions, Cleveland can compete and do well in the central division. And the Pirates are not hopelessly lost. when you look at those central divisions cleveland can compete and do well in the central division the pirates are not hopelessly lost they just got to come around figure out how to do it the pirates in the reds are not hopelessly lost in the central division and now when you have a third wild card which is really changed it it's a it's a fact that if you win eighty five eighty six eighty seven games

you've got a very good crack at getting into the tournament. And as the Diamondbacks proved a year ago, that's all you need to do if you can get hot in October. So are the medium to small market teams at a disadvantage? Yes. But it's not as big a disadvantage. If you're just talking about a one-off run to the World Series, it's not as big a disadvantage

as it might appear. If you're talking about being a contender perpetually almost every year, then yeah, you've got to put your money, no pun intended, on the Dodgers, the Yankees, and a handful of other clubs, including now the Mets. You like baseball more than all the others by how much and why? Well, when I was a kid and first learning about sports, baseball was the unquestioned national pastime. The World Series was played entirely in the day, much of it weekday afternoon games, but the media landscape was different, so was the sports landscape, and there was never

any question about whether a World Series game would get a higher rating than a regular season NFL game. So at that time, you know, it was not unusual that a kid's favorite sport would be baseball. And growing up in New York, I was alive and vaguely, faintly familiar with the Dodgers and the Giants in New York, but I was only five years old when I left for the West Coast.

And I'm 10 years old when the Mets come into existence. So in the meantime, in between, the Yankees are the only team. They win the pennant every year. Mickey Mantle's the greatest star. That's why I wound up kind of attached to Mantle and the Yankees as a kid. And I've always felt, you know, there can be a literary touch. You know, this is a writer.

Some of the greatest sports writing has been around boxing, sometimes golf, back in the day, horse racing, but always on that shortlist, baseball. Not that there hasn't been great writing about other sports, but disproportionately, some of the best sports writing, some of the most literate sports writing has been connected to baseball. And I always liked people who could express themselves well, not just play-by-play guys, but the essay a s on television the jack winters the jim mccase and people like that so i think i just had a natural affinity for the romance of baseball the history of baseball is the richest

history of any american team sport and it's the sport in which history matters the most all those things kind of aligned i guess what what my own sensibility is and now get off your lawn. Bob is a baseball. On my lawn. Get off my lawn. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.

Hi, I'm Ben Stiller from the Academy Awards snub movie, Dodgeball. You know, this election is a lot like dodgeball. Kamala Harris is the average Joe underdog. And, no, this isn't a time for jokes. You know what? It's way too important.

Donald Trump wants to terminate the Constitution. Project 2025 will give him nearly unlimited power. We can't let him get anywhere near the White House. So vote for Kamala Harris. Yeah, see, that was better. The serious version was much better, right? Paid for by Harris for president. Ladies and gentlemen, the NBA is finally back. Thank goodness. And a new season means new ways to get into the action of Draft King Sportsbook in a Harris for president. NBA player problem. New DraftKings customers bet just $5 to get $200 in bonus bets instantly.

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Please be alert, as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Done lebatard. What did Stugatsch just text you, Mike?

While Bob Costas was talking very eloquently about the things that are producing anxiety in America and beyond, what did he text you? During your enlightened conversation, I got a text from Stu Gatz that said, Todd Gurley Ravens. To which we all had to search for what he meant because there's no report saying that Todd Gurley

signed with the Ravens. He was just texting me about a visit Todd Gurley is presently having with the Baltimore Ravens. According to Adam Schefter, I think it's a one-year deal now, Mike, so he gets a chance to prove himself again. Wow. It's a big deal, Mike. Todd Gurley is a one-year proven.

I love a one-year proven. A one-year proven deal. Spookots. So he says, it was Adam Schefter. So I look at Adam Schefter's Twitter account, couldn't find anything. Jess went and tracked down the tweet. Here are the red flags on this account One the handle spots

Sentra, but you realize you can read that very very quickly and think it's you know, it's mistake number one Mistake number two there was no check mark It was that thing that people do to try and fool people of the white circle that kind of looks like the check mark But is not. Sign number three, the Avatar, it's the Sports Center logo but in fairly sizable print above it is the word not. All the red flags and yet Stu Gatz is still going Todd Gurley Ravens buddy. This is the Dan LeVatar Show with Stu Gatz. Bob, as a baseball historian, you know, I know a lot of people, the narrative out there

right now is, hey, Otani didn't really show up. Judge didn't really show up. But I'm looking at Freddie Freeman, who's the World Series MVP. And he's now one of 12 players to win both a regular season MVP and a World Series MVP, and he's now one of 12 players to win both a regular season MVP and a World Series MVP, an eight time All-Star, three time Silver Slugger, a Gold Glover. Can you put into perspective what it is that Freddie Freeman has accomplished in this World Series? Well, Freddie Freeman is, and you hear this a lot around baseball, he's a baseball player,

which goes beyond talent. He has an awareness of the game. In game four, the only one the Dodgers lost, when the game was still close, there were runners at first and third. And Freddie's not the fastest guy. Plus, he has a bad ankle. It's better than it was a couple of weeks ago,

but it's still bothering him to some extent. He hits a double playgrounder, potential double playgrounder, and he busts it out of the box. He beats a double playgrounder, potential double playgrounder, and he busts it out of the box. He beats it by a split second and a run scores. Freddie Freeman does that stuff all the time. When you look at his stolen bases and his percentage of steals, they exceed what you'd expect from someone with that measurable amount of speed or extra bases taken. He hits a ball that doesn't go to the wall, but it's going to

be slightly in the gap and he busts it out of the box and he winds up on second base. He is a terrific baseball player. So too is Mookie Betts, so too is Shohei Otani. So that's a big three, all of them MVPs, all of them Hall of Fame bound. That's a big three that very few teams,

even historically, can match. When Freeman left the Braves to go to the Dodgers, I remember a conversation on the baseball network, is he a Hall of Famer? And at that point, we thought, well, he's building a candidacy, but for now it's not sure. It's certain now.

You know, this postseason that he's had, the big moments that he's had, until last night, what, he'd homered in like six or seven consecutive World Series games? Yeah, four in this one and three, I guess, in 21 or something like that. You know, it counts.

What you do in the postseason is not going to eliminate someone like Aaron Judge with the overwhelming regular season stats, but you can certainly improve your overall resume. It is after all the hall of fame. It matters that kind of impact. Those moments matter. I think Freddie Freeman has sewn that up as respected and admired as he was. And he's a very, very good guy. You can tell, uh, as respected and admired as he was,

I think he's even gone up a notch in the estimation of most people after this. Where did we land on Denner's study? Am I the judge of this? Yes. Yeah, say you leave your phone in that room and you have guests and you're like, oh guys, I have to hop back into the blank to get my phone. Yeah, yeah.

You know, I guess maybe I should do wearing a jacket with elbow patches and kind of drawing on a pipe and stroking my chin while holding baseball reference in one hand and Plato's Republic in the other hand. Well, I was going to ask you to get up and go through some of those books. I think it might just be an office. I don't know.

It could just be an office. It kind of is an office. It's any of those things. It's an office. It's a is an office. It's any of those things. It's an office, it's a library, it's a den, it's a study. He said den before study. What do you call it? My fortress of solitude. Yes.

Hey, there we go. Angel, please get on those t-shirts, get off your lawn. I like that better as an insult. So Bob, I am always, you get aggregated and I've always found you to be a good journalist and if not in the center, aspiring to objectivity, neutrality, fairness, equality. It must be so strange to you to see what is happening a week before this election, the presidential standard disgraced in a way that, you know, offends us every day, every sentence, every syllable.

Yeah, look, you asked, so I'm not gonna dodge it, but Kamala Harris is not an ideal candidate and may have to grow into the job if she wins it in a way that she hasn't shown us yet. But this is not a political question for millions of us. This is a moral question and would be no matter who opposed Donald Trump. There is nothing wrong with being a Republican or a conservative. Nothing wrong with that.

I read George Will on a regular basis and Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal and people who like to have binary descriptions of people and label me left wing or whatever. I'm like Bill Maher. If you watch Bill Maher at all, I'm a center left guy, a classic liberal who is troubled by the distortions of leftism, which is different than liberalism. And some of that is an anchor around Kamala Harris's neck now, because she can't distance herself from some of the worst of it, even if she doesn't fully embrace it. Over the years, excesses on the left hand Fox News their talking points on a silver platter, or in this case, the Trump candidacy points. And I can understand people

having serious misgivings about Biden's record, about the way the Dems kind of gaslit the public about Biden's fitness, both as a candidate and to have a second term as president. There are some policies that can't be defended. You cannot defend what has gone on for a long time at the border. You can certainly defend attempts, not just defend but advocate, attempts at reforming the police and justice. The justice system historically has been tilted against African Americans and other people of color. The justice system and policing can be reformed, but the idea that you'll just throw all that out the window

and have cities beset by crime and social disorder, that's something that helps the Trump candidacy, even though that candidacy is about a man who is a liar, a lunatic, and an ignoramus. All those things. It's a moral question. And you have never seen in my lifetime and maybe ever, a presidential candidate with so many of those who are rock solid Republicansid Republicans and conservatives and who

worked closely with him and whose credibility and credentials cannot be questioned saying the most important word unfit. He is unfit to hold any position of public trust let alone the presidency. So there are millions of people who may have misgivings about aspects of Kamala Harris's candidacy, but who cannot stomach the idea that somebody whose entire being is Antithetical to actual patriotism to American principles to common sense and common decency That's that's the thing that me, is the deciding factor.

The irony of this is that if the GOP wasn't so shameless with not just MAGA people in their red hats, but lifelong Republicans, most of whom lack the spine and devotion to principle to reject Donald Trump. They all come crawling to him and kiss his ring. All the Josh Hawleys and Ted Cruz's and all the rest, and it's a very long list of spineless sycophants.

If they weren't so shameless, and if they had come to their senses, it's pretty clear that a center-right candidate, an honest, decent, sane center-right candidate, Amit Ramney and Adam Kinzinger, easily defeats Kamala Harris. But at the same time, a sensible center-left Democrat

who doesn't have some of the negatives of Biden and some of the wokeness stuff that troubles people, able to distance him or herself from that, that center-left candidate would easily defeat Donald Trump. But these are our choices at this point. And don't waste your vote on Jill Stein. Ben Wattenberg How confusing is it to you as somebody who's watched, you know, 40 years of journalism and broadcasting, seeing the media sort of fall to corrupt and corporate interests and now billionaires, you know, running the Washington Post and LA Times, how alarmed are you by how dumb the conversation has gotten a week before the election, where today's talking point is Biden calls

Trump supporters garbage. And yesterday's talking point is the comedian speaking at the Nazi rallies at Madison Square Garden. Well, you know, I heard one of your guys there say that it was a misstep or something of that sort. What happened to that rally? None of that's a misstep. The people cheered that, maybe not all of them,

but they didn't leave in revulsion. And the general tone of it, that guy, whoever the heck he is, got most of the attention. But you've got someone up there saying, all of them, they're all degenerates. All the Democrats are degenerates. And this is something where if you live in a bubble Anything that aligns with what you want to believe about your guy or in a negative way about the other person is

automatically embraced and a mountain of evidence and a choir of angels on the other side of the argument isn't going to convince you at this point especially because if you're in that bubble of talk radio or Fox News in this case or the internet, you're either not going to hear about it, or you're going to hear defenses of it, deflections, rationalizations. So we know in this case, Biden said what he said, I'm trying to be as kind as possible. Everyone knows what that is. Biden's only 50-50 to make his way through a paragraph of two or three sentences without a gap. He truly misspoke. It's typical of him and it's the reason why he's no longer the candidate. But this is fodder now for people who don't bat an eye when from the beginning Trump has always

said, if you don't vote for me, you're not going to have a country anymore. He simultaneously brands Democrats as communists, Marxists, socialists, leftists, and fascists. I don't think he could define any of those terms. I don't think he could pass a 10th grade civics or history test. But that doesn't matter. When he says that we will rid the country of the vermin within, we will cast them out.

I am your retribution. Kamala Harris is a low IQ individual. All these disparaging things that are actually beneath the level of wit and intelligence that you'd expect from the dopiest kid in the back of the room in the sixth grade. Apparently those aren't incitements, but the dear little snowflakes on the right,

all of whom are always making fun of political correctness and all the rest, they are triggered by the least little thing. So their thing is, hey, if you quote Mark Milley or John Kelly, people of impeccable integrity and honesty and credibility, if you quote them as saying that Donald Trump is unfit, if you quote them as saying that he has fascistic tendencies and that not he is Hitler,

that's no one said that, they said that he said something has fascistic tendencies and that not he is Hitler, that's no one said that. They said that he said something which indicated that he thought at least some aspect of what Hitler was was something that he found appealing. If you quote that, obviously Kelly, who's the word you're gonna take? Kelly or Trump?

Obviously that happened. If you quote that, the way they frame it is you are putting Trump's life in peril. There have been two assassination attempts. It's because of left-wing democratic rhetoric. There has never been rhetoric like what Donald Trump has spewed ever since he descended that escalator. There are people, I'm not gonna mention names, there are people within politics and within journalism who actually are afraid for their family's safety if they were to speak as bluntly

as perhaps I am speaking now, all right? This isn't like, hey, pot and kettle. The overwhelming amount of what's objectionable and incendiary and what has poisoned our national dialogue comes from the right, not because it's bad to be a conservative or a Republican, but because of what Trump is and because of what MAGA is. And by the way, the facts matter at all. The kid who shot Trump and tried to kill him and did kill the firemen in Butler, Pennsylvania, he fits the profile of a John Hinckley who tried to shoot or did shoot tried to kill Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. He's unhinged. He also Googled Biden's

itinerary. So if Biden had been there, this messed up kid probably would have taken a crack at Joe Biden. You know what that assassination attempt and the one of the golf course have in common? Easy access to weapons that no citizen needs to have. And parents too irresponsible to check a kid who's deeply troubled and has 14 guns, in the case of the Butler kid, 14 guns just lying around the house. And the same thing that happened during that time,

that timeframe is the school shooting in Georgia with enough red flags to have stopped everything in its tracks. That's the real talking point, but it doesn't serve the purpose of the Trump candidacy, so let's forget about that. I appreciate all of your time as always. Where do you think we're gonna be in 10 days and what are your greatest fears

when you think about real infringements on freedom being possible in your lifetime? Well, it's too big a question to get into and maybe Others of greater scholarship than myself should should address that but it's pretty clear That from the start if you go back to 2016 people forget about this. Donald Trump was asked Will you accept the results of the election? He said yes if I win All right. He's already priming his supporters. He's already in the mode. Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

There is a very good chance of violence if he does not win. There is every chance that he will contest the election, no matter what safeguards of a fair and credible election there may be. This is who he is. He is not constrained by evidence. He's not constrained by fact. He's not constrained by common sense, common decency, or allegiance to what once were common principles held by everybody across the political spectrum.

We have to brace ourselves for that. Now, if he wins, if you've even perused Project 2025, which he lies about and says he knows nothing about, et cetera, et cetera, because he lies about everything, it's frightening. And again, it doesn't have anything to do with rock-solid conservative or Republican principles. Those things should be argued out rationally and civilly in the court of public opinion. This is all about MAGA, the cult of MAGA, the deranged personality of Donald Trump, and his handmaidens in the media and within the Republican Party who don't challenge him.

The greatest thing that could have ever happened would be if the Wall Street Journal more forcefully, they're not among the top culprits, but more forcefully, and if right-wing talk radio more forcefully and if Fox News at all would have said, look, these are the principles and the policies that we believe in. Let us get a sane, decent, honest person to put forth those policies and let's talk it out with the American public. Instead, they went this way.

And eight years ago, this would be almost impossible to imagine, except for some of us. When he descended that escalator, I said to myself, this has to be a joke, it's just a branding exercise. And I'll leave you with this. You know, there's this label, TBS, Trump Derangement Syndrome.

That's the way all of his supporters try to brush aside all of the reasonable objections to Donald Trump. I'm not gonna answer that. I love that it's a landline. It's a good time. It's a landline and it's entirely possible that some of Trump's minions are already trying to tap it. You were rolling though.

We'll forgive the intrusion. This is what I'm concluding with. So Trump derangement Syndrome, orange man bad. So like, oh, everyone's just overreacting to this person. It's just, he has a brusque personality. He's a bull in a china shop. Yes, he does have an obnoxious and graceless personality. He doesn't, he lacks the dignity that used to be required

to be a contestant or a peer on the Jerry Springer show. Yes, that's true. But there's a difference between personality and character. And the depths of the deprivation of his character has been shown 1,000 times over, but all you need is January 6th. Everything led up to it, and all the lies, and the lies he continues to toss out there,

connected to it. This is an unhinged person who no sensitive person January 6th, everything led up to it and all the lies and the lies he continues to toss out there connected to it. This is an unhinged person who no sensible person would be comfortable with if they found out he was the principal of the junior high school their son or daughter attended. The real Trump derangement syndrome is by this time, maybe not 2016 when people rolled the dice, but by this time, anybody who truly believes that Trump has in any sense, intellectually, emotionally, psychologically, morally, that he has ever been fit to hold any position of public trust, let alone the presidency, that is the true Trump derangement syndrome There is nothing deranged about being appalled by what Donald Trump represents

In fact, it is an expression of common sense awareness and decency to feel that way The derangement is to defend him not to reject him. You nailed the dismount sir. Always a pleasure Listening to you always a pleasure watching you work. Thank you for making time for us. And now let us await the fallout. You will go about your business. Yeah, it's kind of the way. And I will brace myself for the cascade of clickbait and out-of-context idiocy. Bob, if I may. Is that a panic room?

If I may. That's a panic room now If I may Bob, I will say that I appreciate that You know that a week before the election, of course, you're gonna get aggregated But in my lifetime, you're one of the best to ever do it in this forum and your ability to condense all of that That's complicated weird times wherein in 12 minutes is a tribute to a talent you've perfected over 50 years in this business so thank you sir I always appreciate you. Thank you very much Dan and company and in just a few seconds here let me just tie it up to try and help those who have to write their clickbait headline.

Sane center-right Adam Kinzinger, Mitt Romney, probably wins, probably wins easily. Center left candidate, not connected to some of what reasonable, lifelong Democrats and liberals even find a bit troubling. That person wins easily instead for differing reasons on either side. We got a coin flip and we're holding our breath on Tuesday. Thank you, sir. Yep. Later. Howdy loyal audience, it's Mike Ryan and we're getting down to the nitty gritty of football season. Which means you've probably enjoyed more than a few tailgates and right by your side at that tailgate is that beautiful white can of Miller Lite.

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