The Michael Knowles Show - Ep. 1308 - This Viral Song Just Changed Everything

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Biden’s attorney general moves to protect him from Hunter fallout; the FBI executes a short, morbidly obese 75-year-old over Facebook posts; and a right-wing populist folk song becomes the biggest song in America.   Ep.1308    - - -     Click here to join the member exclusive portion of my show: https://utm.io/ueSEl   - - -    DailyWire+:   Become a DailyWire+ member to gain access to movies, shows, documentaries, and more: https://bit.ly/3jJQBQ7   Get 20% Off Select Jeremy’s Items: https://bit.ly/3ObQOqg   Get your Yes or No game here: https://bit.ly/3X6tlKY    - - -    Today’s Sponsors:   Birch Gold - Text "KNOWLES" to 989898 for your no-cost, no-obligation, FREE information kit: https://birchgold.com/knowles   Cynch - Download the Cynch app and get your first tank exchange for just $10 with promo code KNOWLES. Visit http://cynch.com/offer for details.   Good Ranchers - Get $30 off with promo code KNOWLES at checkout. https://bit.ly/43G8p0P    - - -   Socials:   Follow on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3RwKpq6   Follow on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3BqZLXA   Follow on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3eEmwyg   Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3L273Ek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you're an American conservative, it has been a huge weekend for music. An unknown southern folk singer became the most popular musician in the country for railing against the liberal establishment. The Vake Ramoswamy wrapped Eminem at the Iowa State Fair and best music of all. Hunter Biden's business partner sang like a canary to the point that now the DOJ has appointed a special counsel, which On the bright side, proves that Republicans were right all along, and on the downside, further protects Joe Biden and the Democrats. I'm Michael Knowles. It's the Michael Knowles show. Welcome back to the show. This episode is brought to you by Good Ranchers, Good Ranchers, which I had for lunch yesterday.

I just grilled myself up a beautiful, delicious New York strip steak that was so freaking good like everything else from Good Ranchers. Get great meat at a secure price. 30 bucks off your order with code Knowles. Good Ranchers.com. Use code Knowles today. You remember that mother effer is not real girl, the one from the airplane. I'm sorry to say, we now know who she is, I think, probably. There's a little wrinkle to that. We'll get into it. And I'm sorry to say she apologized.

Very sad. She had nothing to apologize for. That mother effer, who was not real, had a lot to apologize for. She did not. We'll get to that. First, though, the big political news, which every other news story is distracting from. but the actual political news that affects your political order is that the DOJ under Merrick Garland, Joe Biden's extremely political, wheeling and dealing, attorney general,

has just appointed a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. On Tuesday of this week, Mr. Weiss advised me that in his judgment, his investigation had reached stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel, and he asked to be so appointed. Upon considering his request, as well as the extraordinary circumstances relating to this matter, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint him as special counsel. This appointment confirms my commitment to provide Mr. Weiss all the resources he requests. Now, you heard that. He didn't say we have appointed a new special counsel. to investigate Hunter Biden. He said, Mr. Weiss, David Weiss, who is the U.S. Attorney who had been on the

Hunter Biden case, he has asked that he have his title changed, have his role changed to continue the investigation. Weiss has been investigating Hunter Biden. These investigations have been going on for years. Weiss was involved in all of the seemingly incompetent, plotting, dead-end BS Hunter Biden investigation that culminated in the attempt by prosecutors like David Weiss to get Hunter Biden a plea deal that would have let him off the hook for all of his crimes. Wouldn't have even addressed the most serious crimes, would have given him a slap on the wrist for tax crimes, which were the evidence of the deeper crimes, the political corruption, and would have put him in a diversion program for the gun charge so that the gun crime

would have been expunged from his record. So this is a guy, a prosecutor, who has every step of the way, tried to let the criminal off the hook. And now, now that the evidence is just so clear, not only of Hunter Biden's personal crime, but of the corruption that it means for the Biden family, now all of a sudden, David Weiss has said, well, you know what, I can't continue this investigation at the DOJ. All of my schemes to try to let the Bidens off the hook have been foiled. So now I need to be an independent special counsel so that I can further screw up this investigation. On the one hand, this is nice news in that it shows the public, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Hunter Biden investigation is serious, that Hunter Biden's crimes are serious.

The whole time, Democrats have said, no, he didn't do anything wrong. Republicans are just distracting. This is BS, BS, BS. CNN ran endless segments about how there was no evidence against Hunter Biden, much less against Joe. The allegations without evidence, mostly, that Republicans have out there, There has been no corroboration. There's no evidence there. I mean, you would agree we don't have, there's no evidence of that at all. Republicans get riled up and keep making allegations that at this point have not been substantiated with evidence. So far, there is no evidence that the evidence has come out.

They don't have evidence to show that Joe Biden did anything wrong. Combers said that repeatedly. He's like, well, I hope we find evidence. And of course, they present that without clear evidence. So if there was evidence, that they had accumulated in their four to five year investigation, this request to be a special counsel would have come already. It seems unlikely that they have that kind of evidence. So before we move on to why this is actually bad for Republicans and a pretty crafty move by Biden

and the Democrats, just I don't want to gloss over the fact that all of those people were completely dead wrong. Every single person you just heard, the CNN anchors, the CNN guests, the former prosecutors, the special legal analysts, all just completely wrong. The Republicans write the whole time, your dumb hillbilly hick Uncle Jimbo in the middle of the mountains somewhere. You know, these bans are corrupt. That guy totally right, completely vindicated, has much better legal insight than all of the geniuses in the neckties on CNN.

Now, probably what they were doing was not just being ignorant and naive. They probably were doing what the corporate media always do, which is cover up. for the liberal establishment. Truth be damned. But they were wrong. By their own standards, the appointment of the special counsel proves that there is a lot of evidence. There is a there there and they're going to investigate it. The reason this is bad, though, for the conservatives is, one, look who the special counsel is. The guy who has bungled this investigation and actively intentionally tried to undermine the case against Hunter Biden is now the guy in charge. as special counsel, not just as U.S. attorney. He's the last person in America who should be in charge of it if you actually wanted to get to the bottom of something, if you actually wanted to punish Hunter Biden. But of course they don't. One of the reasons that they've appointed the special counsel is to give themselves a little bit of distance. So they can pretend, it's not true, but they can pretend that actually Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, they really don't have anything to do with this now. We want to make sure there's no semblance of impropriety. The other reason they're doing this is because it's going to make it a lot easier.

for Weiss and his office and the DOJ to resist congressional subpoenas. Now that the Republicans in Congress are finally digging into this stuff, now that Jim Jordan and the Judiciary Committee and all of these Republican investigators are interviewing Devin Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, are hearing stories of Joe Biden's significant involvement in all of these crooked business deals. Now that that evidence is coming out, the DOJ comes in. And whether this will be successful or not, is at least trying to throw a roadblock up there to stop the Republicans from being able to talk to the people who intentionally screwed up that investigation. They're just going to Stonewall and Stonewall and Stonewall. The election is only less than a year and a half away now, the 2024 election.

So they're just going to try to drag this thing out until nobody cares anymore, of course. At least though we can take the tiny victory. We were right. We were right the whole time. And being right, proving that there's a double standard is not going to do any. That in a buck 50 will get Republicans a cup of coffee. But it is a reminder, I think, the next time that the Democrats try to throw some BS legal argument at us, that some Midwestern granny is a terrorist and needs to be thrown in solitary confinement, that Donald Trump, because he gave a speech as an insurrectionist and a threat to democracy and can't be on the ballot, whatever BS they throw at us that sometimes convinces the libs and the squishes and the center-right people who want to get along.

This should be a reminder. The whole thing is completely fixed. the whole thing is completely rigged. We are not playing by the same set of rules here. And if we lie down in the name of principles or something, we are conceding the country unjustly to people who have absolutely no respect for the rule of law whatsoever. And that's not very good. And that's going to screw up all sorts of things. Our system of justice, our economy. And when both of those things are wonky, you're going to want to check out Birch Gold. Right now, text Knowles to 98, 98, 98, as central banks in countries like China, India,

and Australia begin transitioning to a digital currency, the Federal Reserve has been contemplating the same for the U.S. With a digital currency, the government could track every single purchase you make. Officials could even prohibit you from purchasing certain products or easily freeze or seize part or all of your money. These are some of the reasons that concerned Americans have reached out to Birch Gold. They want to have a physical asset like gold that is independent of the U.S. dollar. You can protect your IRA or 401k by diversifying with gold from Birch Gold. Historically, gold has been a safe haven in times of high uncertainty, which is right now. Learn if gold is right for you, too. Text Knowles, KNAWLSS to 98, 98, 98, 98. That will send you a free

info kit on gold. With an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, thousands of happy customers, and countless five-star reviews, I trust Birch Gold to help you diversify into gold. If a central bank's digital currency becomes a reality, it'll be nice to have some gold to depend upon. Right now, text Knowles, KNAWLAS, to 98-98-98. Speaking of incompetence at the FBI, the FBI executed a 5'5-6, 300-pound 75-year-old practical invalid over the weekend. This is a really, really sad story. This is a guy in Utah. I guess the news broke sometime on Friday. 75-year-old man who had posted some threats against Joe Biden on his personal Facebook page that had very few connections, was ex-year-old. by the FBI. How did it happen? Well, there was a SWAT team that showed up. There were agents who

showed up. There were gunshots. The video that, the only video that we really have of it shows a massive show of force very, very early in the morning against this guy. And what the FBI is saying is that, well, he was resisting. And so they had to take him out. They left his body out, just bloodied, covered with just a bloody sheet for a long time. Why did they do it? Because he did post threats. He said, I'm going to go out here when Joe Biden comes to town. I'm going to bring my gun out. I'm going to show up there. I'm going to put a bullet in his head. He was saying all sorts of terrible things. Did the FBI really believe this guy was a threat? Well, maybe they didn't know that he was so overweight. Maybe they didn't know that he was so elderly. Maybe they didn't know that he had

trouble walking. If you talk to his neighbors, his neighbors say the guy could barely walk around. He barely went anywhere. He was involved. He was involved. He was involved. He was in his church, but that was pretty much it. He'd go from his house to his church, and he could barely walk the distance from his car into the church. So did the FBI just not know that? No, the FBI did know that because the FBI had actually had two encounters with this guy. So they knew exactly what he was like. Why didn't the FBI just pick him up when he was getting out of his car walking maybe to the grocery store or walking maybe to church? The FBI had been surveilling this guy for months. If they thought that he was really a threat to Joe Biden, why didn't they arrest him?

him when there would have been less of a chance for a violent confrontation. The only conclusion that I can draw is either the FBI is just absolutely completely incompetent to a degree, not just what we joke about government incompetence, all of those government bureaucrats and know what they're doing. I mean like doesn't know the first thing about law enforcement. Or this was a political decision to go in there and show those damn right wingers what for. make an example out of this 300-pound short guy who is 75 years old who could barely move. I take threats very seriously. I'm not dismissing the fact that this guy posted on his Facebook page threats against the president. As somebody who has received a threat or two before,

I'm always very happy when law enforcement takes those threats seriously. The problem is law enforcement very rarely takes those threats seriously when they're against conservatives. When prominent conservatives get death threats, I won't even name names, I won't even name examples, because frankly, when you get too specific

on some of these examples, they can put people at even greater risk. But I've been around it enough to know very often law enforcement won't do a damn thing. And everybody knows at the public level, law enforcement will get the most prominent criminals off the hook.

BLM burns country down for eight months, they get off with a little slap on the wrist. The Midwestern Granny shows up to the Capitol Rotunda. They throw her in solitary and they don't let her out. And that's exactly what's going on here, as far as I'm concerned. Unless some shocking new evidence comes out, I just don't see how anybody could conclude that this would be the best way to pick this guy up. The guy was so immobile that even if he had actually been planning to go on the day that Joe Biden showed up to Utah, drive the 40 minutes to go to where Joe Biden was, get out and try to shoot him or something. The FBI could have probably walked alongside him and

picked him up. There was so much time. They were obviously watching him the whole time. Did they really have to go in and kill him? No. That's not even the safest way to pick him up. Because if they're saying that this actually was a violent, dangerous standoff, then the agents were in far greater trouble trying to arrest him at his house. They could have just picked him up walking from his car. They didn't do it, though. I don't want a Monday morning quarterback this thing, but when the FBI gets caught spying on Catholic churches because they think that Catholics are a grave terror threat to America, lying about spying

on Catholic churches, getting caught lying about spying on Catholic churches, they once said it was a single field office, turns out it was a nationwide program involving multiple field offices. When the FBI shows up to fathers of seven pro-life advocates and arrests them in front of their kids and traumatizes them for opposing abortion, meanwhile, they celebrate the infanticidal maniacs. Give them prizes, give them special days and parades and celebrations. You know something's very, very corrupt. When the FBI spies on the Donald Trump campaign because the Donald Trump campaign is advocating for popular conservative messages, meanwhile, the FBI is coordinating with the Clinton, campaign and the Democrats, that's evidence of real corruption. When the FBI, not just the FBI in this case,

when the DOJ at the higher level goes in and systematically, consistently tries to let Hunter Biden and Joe Biden, that's what they're really protecting here, when they let the Biden's off the hook for flagrant crimes that we've seen with our own eyes, the messages, the pictures, the videos, all of it. And then doubles down when they get caught and they say, okay, we're going to put it in the special counsel investigation over here and don't worry nothing to see move along move along nothing to see here then when the FBI goes in and executes some elderly obese man in Utah who according to all of his neighbors and according to common sense didn't pose an actual threat to anyone he was mouthing off on Facebook I'm not excusing threats but if you're using prudence which is the which is

the highest political virtue you recognize this guy didn't pose a threat to anybody I don't know what conclusion I can draw other than yet again, the FBI and the Biden administration and the liberal establishment wanted to make an example and let every conservative know in this country, you better keep your mouth shut. You better forget about the Democrats who get to go out and maraud and rape and kill and murder. They get to do whatever they want. If you so much as mouth off on Facebook, we're going to come to your home. You could be elderly. You could be out of shape. You could be in terrible health. We will execute you. We will leave you out for people to see that to learn from that example. Really, really sad and unnecessary stuff. This is happening all around

the world, though. I've mentioned that the phenomenon of conservative populism, which we'll get to in a second, the biggest trending news story of the whole weekend was this folk singer who came out of nowhere with this creed to cur about how corrupt our political order is. This is happening all over the world. The anti-Trump people in America, on the right and the left, they think that Trump is just a weirdo and he's kind of funny and he's a carnival barker and he's tricked people into supporting him. They don't recognize that the reason that he got so much support is not just because he has a funny personality, but because he was advocating a different political vision than the Republicans had been advocating for the entirety of my lifetime. He came out and he questioned,

question GOP orthodoxy on trade, not just the squishes on trade, but even the so-called movement conservatives. He questioned GOP policies on immigration, not just the squishes, but the movement conservatives. On and on and on. He was on Cuth, and so they supported him in the same way that the Brits supported Brexit, in the same way that the Italians supported Maloney, in the same way that the Hungarians support Viktor Orban, in the same way that the Spaniards support the Vox Party. And in Germany right now, there's a far-right political party called Alternative for Deutschland, the AFD, which is gaining support. According to latest polls, the alternative for Germany, alternative for Deutschland, has 21% in the polls. And don't forget, this is a system where there

are lots of different parties, so that's a pretty significant number. And now the German president, Franz Franz Volta Steinmeier, warned in a speech that they might just ban the party to save democracy. To save democracy in Germany, the president of Germany is considering banning, outlawing, one of the most popular parties, and the party that in terms of political momentum probably is the single most popular. If you look at the direction of support. Democracy. To save democracy, the liberals in America want to do the same thing. They want to throw the leader of the opposition into prison. The president of the United States is trying to imprison the leader of the opposition. to do the American version of the exact same thing they're trying to do in Germany.

And Germany has a history of banning political parties. America doesn't really have that history so much, but they're going to do that. Because, why? Because the people, the democracy, is rejecting liberalism. The alternative for Deutsche Land, you know they're real crime. It's not that they, they're racist, they're sexist, they're thisist, they're thatist, whatever the liberals say. The AFD came out and said the European Union's a failed project. They're arguing for a federation of European nations and new economic and interest community for Europe that preserves the sovereignty of member states.

That's the threat. They're threatening the liberal hegemony there. And even if all the people want to do that, even if the full democracy is saying we reject liberalism, the liberals are going to come in and in the name of democracy say we've got to stop the people from getting what they want. You know what I want sometimes when I'm having a barbecue? I want a nice tank of propane and I don't want to be caught without one, which is why you've got to check out Sinch. Right now, go to Sinch.com, use promo code Noles. Picture the perfect summer night. The warm breeze lapping your face as you lounge in your favorite chair outside. The grill is sizzling with juicy, hot burgers. The aroma of the food is irresistible. And now, imagine what that perfect summer night would look. look like if you went to turn on the grill and your propane tank were empty. Ah, that's where our friends at Sinch come in. Cinch is a propane grill tank home delivery service. They deliver propane grill tanks right to your door. Sinch delivers on your schedule requires no long-term commitment or subscription.

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Use promo code Noles for your first tank exchange for just $10. Limited time offer, you must live within a Cinch service area to redeem it. Cynch.com slash offer for details. All around the West, the people are recognizing that the problem is not just the Democrats. The liberals, though everywhere, in other than one country, other than in Hungary, which is a little advanced in terms of the conservative populist uprising, in every other country in the West, people are realizing that the problem is not just the liberal party, which is the dominant political party throughout the whole civilization, and the problem is not just the conservative political

party, which is the junior partner in the liberal project, but that maybe the problem is the whole system. Maybe this whole system that we call the Uniparty here in America, or the liberal establishment, or whatever, the semblance of political opposition, the semblance of the representation of diverse voices, that in fact castigates a large part, if not the majority of the people, as deplorable, irredeemable, not worth hearing. They should just go off and die somewhere. Let small town America die. Let these, tell these people to learn to code, tell them to shut up. They're insurrectionists. They need to be put in prison. They need to be banned on social media. The people are recognizing that system might be the problem, which is why a man that nobody had heard of until three days ago, Oliver Anthony, just went viral and now has the number one song in America, top of the charts in the country. The song is called the Rich Men, North of Richmond. This song is so, a phenomenon, we have to play at least a good chunk of it on the show, because what's most interesting about this phenomenon is not the song. Everybody's saying, oh, this is the

greatest song in recent memory, and this guy's a musical genius. And the story is, is more politically interesting than just that. Take it away. I've been selling my soul, working all day. overtime hours For bull Pay so I can sit out here And waste my life away Drag back home And drown my troubles away

It's a damn shame What the world's gotten to For people like me People like you Wish I could just wake up And it not be true But it is All it is

Living in the new With and home So, rich man north of Richmond, Lord knows it all just want to have. So the first thing that strikes me, this guy is a genuine musical talent. His voice is captivating. He reminds me of Levan Helm. Levin Helm, who is the drummer in the bands, you know, Bold into Nazareth was feeling about it.

He's got this way of wailing while he sings that is, sounds raw. It sounds authentic. It's a little dangerous. This is not a classically trained singer, obviously. He's really good, and his pitch is good, and he's playing a dobro guitar. And the whole thing just, he even looks a little bit like Levin Helm. He's got that red beard. And he's, he's singing a song about how he's selling his soul. He feels like he's losing his soul, and he's working for basically no pay, and he's drinking his troubles away. And

And the other thing that's raw about this song is that don't, I'm not knocking the guy at all. This is a wonderful story and it's a good song. But the lyrics could be tuned up. You know, he's rhyming away with a way. He's rhyming rich men and richmond, which is not, those don't actually rhyme. The lyrics are a little bit confused here because is this a, is this a neo-Confederate anthem? as the liberals are calling it. Richmond is the capital of the Confederacy. So is that what he's talking about? Those damn northerners coming in here and bringing their reconstruction or something, he's whaling about this

200 years later, 150 years later? No, I don't think so. I think he's probably referring to Washington, D.C. as the rich men north of Richmond. And they want to have total control. So they want to have total control. But is the problem that he's not making his money? Is the problem that he's being forced to sell his soul or being encouraged to sell his soul. Is it a substance question, the substantive nature of the political order? Or is it a procedural aspect, just that these men want total control, but we don't want them to have control? We're not saying how people should live, but we are saying that those guys north of Richmond shouldn't do it. It's a little bit confused. So I don't think that what is making the song go viral is necessarily the lyrical content of it. You'll see

why in just a second. Keep going. See, put a pause there. Let me know what you think. Want to know what you do. And they don't think you know, but I know that you do. And it's taxed to no end. Calls the Reds. See, put a pause. This is, literally what's interesting to me, too, is you hear some real populist complaints. I'm selling, I'm selling my soul. I'm not, this is, this is not the sort of thing that Mitt Romney would complain about. This is not the sort of thing John McCain would complain about. Ah, yeah, this new liberal economy is making us sell our souls. No. And we're not making enough money.

Okay, that's a populist complaint. And inflation is really bad. The dollar ain't worth S-H-I-T. That's a populist complaint. And it's taxed to no end. High taxes is not exactly a populist complaint. That's more of an establishment, Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney, John McCain kind of complaint.

And the fact is, virtually all the taxes in America are paid by the rich anyway. So it is the rich men in Richmond. Well, maybe not them because they're corrupt government apparatchiks in Washington, D.C. But it is the wealthy generally who are paying virtually all of the taxes in America. So that's a little bit of a just standard GOP complaint. But the rest is populist. And the whole vibe of the song is this calling out, literally calling out, literally calling. out from the woods in the middle of nowhere. Keep going.

Wish politicians look out for miners and not just miners on an island somewhere. Lord, we got folks in the street ain't got nothing to heat and the whole beast milk and welfare. Put a pause there. So this is probably intentional to be a contradiction or to maybe to seem like a paradox. But I don't think it is a paradox. I think it's just a contradiction. He's saying, people in the street don't have any food, but the obese are milking welfare. People don't really go hungry in America. The knock on the American political order is that the poor are obese. And they're not just obese because they're milking welfare. You could complain about welfare. Again, that's not totally a populist complaint. That's a little bit more of the Mitt Romney,

Paul Ryan kind of stuff. And people don't really starve. The problem is that the poor in America are obese because because of the culture problems, because we've sold our political soul, because we don't have really community or political love anymore, because marriages have fallen apart, because we've got rampant drug abuse and addiction,

because we've got people who are despondent, don't think they have a future, because their money's not worth anything and they can't get any good jobs. So it's all kind of jumbled up. It's a stew of lamenting about the political order. Keep going. We'll get a little bit more of the song. Well, God, if you're five foot three and your 300 pounds of fudge rounds, young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground.

Because all this damn country does is keep on kicking them down. Lord, it's a damn shame. What the world's gotten to. People like me, people like you wish I could just wake up and it not be true. but it is all it is put a pause this is

this is where the song really sings this is where the song really takes off when you're 5 foot 2 and you're 300 pounds then welfare

shouldn't be paying for your box of fudge rounds and it's so unfair because you got ordinary men who are being responsible who are trying

to take care of themselves and they're putting themselves six feet in the ground because they're dying deaths of despair and it's a damn

shame because no one's looking out for people like me and people like you backbone of America. No one's looking out for us, and it's a damn shame, and I wish it weren't this way, but it is. And that's where it really sings, because it's not this happy go lucky BS, beltway establishment,

astro-turf conservative movement, which says, everything's really great. We've got iPhones and cheap Chinese products. We need to stop complaining and recognize what a special, wonderful political order this is. He's saying, no, there are really structural problems. And maybe we do have cheap crap from China. And maybe GDP has been ticking up. but life expectancy is going down. So clearly something's rotten here. That's a beautiful complaint. And he's saying, and it's a damn shame,

and it shouldn't be this way, but it is. But it is. Very different from the bubblegum appeal to the Southern man movement conservative kind of music. This is not your average country song. Okay? Very different. The political analogy,

would be in 2016, you've got a bunch of GOP candidates, and they all have the same, roughly the same kinds of complaints. This immigration, illegal immigration is out of control. They never complained about legal immigration, which is the lion's share of immigration. They say, this illegal immigration is out of control, and there are some economic problems, but look, we're still the greatest, most prosperous, most wonderful country on earth, and it's always, we don't have any real problems and everything here is great. But we just got to work around the edge just a little bit. We've got some problems to fix. Trump comes in, he goes, no, man, this is all going to hell in a handbasket. This is completely

screwed up. We are going to become one of those S-H-I-T whole countries pretty soon if we keep it up. And we're, we've got chaos and destruction in our streets. And I'm going to turn it around and make America great again. And what all the chattering consultant geniuses at the time said was, this is too dark. Oh, this is too dark. And divisive. What was the title of Trump's campaign book? Every other campaign book is, standing up for standing. The courage to stand in freedom and liberty and happiness and freedom and courage and the future and the sunshine by Senator So-and-So running for some office or whatever. And then Trump's book was Crippled America. And this song is, this is the anthem of Crippled America.

This is not your usual. We're going to put a boot up your derrier because this is America and we bleed red, white, and blue all day. I mean, there's a place for those songs. This isn't those songs. isn't even a country song. This is a folk song. And for the people who are criticizing this guy and say, well, he just shouldn't be political. He is coming out of a very long line of American folk music. He shouldn't be political. We should just get back to the old days of folk music, like Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, for that matter,

and Joni Mitchell and all these people, Joan Baez. They're always political songs. They're always political And they're always fairly urgent contemporary political songs. The reason that this is so fascinating that he took off is he's the first one of them to be conservative. Woody Guthrie, communist, Pete Seeger, communist, Bob Dylan was a big lib. He's oddly kind of conservative, and more so over the years, but he's considered a big lib. The people who really love Bob Dylan tend to be hippies. Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, all that.

all the popular folk singers in America. Actually, Arlo Guthrie got a little bit conservative too, though he kind of, he kind of went back to being a liberal. They're all big libs. And the fact that you've now got a guy playing, this could be a Woody Guthrie song, but he's a conservative. What that tells you is, truly, for the first time in my life, conservatism is the popular counterculture. Liberalism is not only the political establishment, as it has been for a long time. But now everybody knows it. This is, the Woody Guthries of today are that guy. And that means that the political playbook for conservatives has got to change. And finally, we can start, we can stop telling ourselves these fairy tales that we

have for 50 years. Oh, we're the real cool kids. We finally are the real cool kids. The evidence is this kind of a song, the fact that when conservative movies do squeak through, they do extremely well, the fact that when conservative politicians do squeak through, they tend to do extremely well, and they pose such a threat to the liberal political order that the liberal political order starts changing all of the election rules right before the elections, starts rigging the elections, and starts trying to throw the candidates into prison. Not just here in America, though they're obviously doing that, but around the entire West. That is an insurgent culture that shows that the people after a long enough time have finally woken up. Are you planning to send your kid off to college this year?

Condolences. Now, I've been on a lot of college campuses. Go to at least, I don't know, a dozen, sometimes maybe upwards of 20 per year. I've seen firsthand how liberal ideology has infiltrated and polluted these universities. Give your kids a fighting chance by sending them off with Jeremy's razors. Right now, get up to 20 to 0% off, select razor and men's care bundles. Like the shampoo, body wash, and conditioner, all paraben-free, self-aid-free, woke-free made here in the USA. Get your son a precision-five razor with welded steel blades and flip-back trimmer that will groom his face, not his worldview. Help your son escape academia's leftist indoctrination by more than just a close shave.

Go to jeremy'sraisers.com for major deals. Give Jeremy's back-to-college bundles a full ride today. My favorite comment yesterday is from, or on Friday rather, is from Carsonian the Great 4-6-7-2, who says, Michael, if there was a movement to reinstitute the kingdom of the two

Sicilies today, would you support it? I certainly would if I was given at least one of the Sicily's. If I could be the Archduke Grand Viscount of,

and I don't even care which Sicily, then it has my full support. Speaking of conservatives making music, you know, I really like Vivek Ramaswamy. he's a pal of mine. We go back to college together. I think he's one of the most exciting candidates in the GOP race. I like a lot of what he's saying and calling for in the way he's shaking it up. I have to formally disavow my friend Vivek. I have to because I have a line. Okay, my line, it's not how you feel about immigration. My line is not how you feel about tariffs or something. My line is.

if you embrace hip-hop, if you embrace, I can't, I just can't, I can't bring myself to accept that. And Vivek did embrace hip-hop. He wasn't, he could have gotten on the stage of the Iowa State Fair and started humming along to the Brandenburg concertos. He could have gotten there and pulled out a kazoo and started humming furorice, but he didn't. He wrapped Eminem. It's joking half. Everybody's joking now. The clock's run out. It was a pretty convincing rendition. I'm not the, I'm not the biggest Eminem fan of the world, so I don't know how it's supposed to sound. But I am impressed and horrified that Vivek knows all of the words. And I am dismayed that the audience appeared to like it. So I just formally, for once and for all, disavow my friend. It's very charming. It is very, if I can take my own prejudice as,

out of it, it is very charming to see a candidate get up there and do that. And even if you don't like Eminem and even if you think that it's a little too performative or something like that, this is why this guy is rising in the polls is because he is taking risks all the time, all sorts of risks. He's risking his money on the campaign. I think he made like an eight-figure donation to his own political campaign. He is going out there taking unpopular stances sometimes, so then they become popular stances. He's debating abortion advocates on the campaign trail. He's getting in the scrum everywhere. He's going, giving speeches in support of Trump, even though he's sometimes going after Trump and

distinguishing himself from Trump. He's supporting Trump on the indictment stuff, but then he'll go after him and he'll go after other candidates, and he's just mixing it up, man. and the only way that you even have a chance of becoming the GOP nominee in 2024 is if you take risks. And the other candidates are not doing that. The also Rams, who are at single digits right now, they're obviously not taking risks. And even Governor DeSantis, who is in the best position to take Trump out, I don't blame him as the candidate so much as I blame the campaign. They're not taking the risks that they need to. And maybe that's on the candidate too.

And sure, the buck stops with the candidate. They've got to start taking. I'm not saying Ronda Sandis needs to get up and wrap M&M. Please don't wrap M&M. Nobody in America should wrap M&M. But the other GOP candidates could learn from Vivek right now. It is not possible to win this race in a safe way. You're either going to take a big risk and it's either going to pay off and you're

going to jump from number seventh in the race to number three or maybe even number two. Or you're going to flame out. That's a big risk. Had that gone a different way? Had he messed up the words a little bit or had someone heckled him? He would have looked completely humiliated. It actually would have hurt, but he took the risk. And more importantly, they're taking risks on policy. And they're taking risks on places they're going to visit. Meanwhile, Trump shows up to the Iowa Fair and is warmly welcomed by the crowd. There was a clip that was going viral there. People seem to love them. Four more years. Four more years. You see it. Now, the anti-Trump people will say, Well, they weren't all there for Trump and some people were there for other candidates, but

it doesn't really matter, guys, because every single poll, with the exception of Reuters, every single presidential poll right now shows the majority of Republicans supporting Trump, greater than 50%. And Reuters is a thing at 47%. And so people sometimes accuse me of flacking for Trump. I'm really not. I'm really not, guys. I'm describing the state of the race right now. And objectively describing the state of the race might sound like flacking for Trump because he is completely dominating the race and the momentum is with him. So I don't, I don't think that if you

want to, if you support another candidate and you want to win this race, don't shoot the messenger man. You've got to ask yourself, why is Trump dominating? This, I feel that most of my take on the 2024 has been, hey, Donald Trump is absolutely crushing right now. Here's why I think he's doing that. And then the supporters, mostly of DeSantis, but of other candidates too, will say, well, he shouldn't be dominating. I'll say, yeah, maybe, maybe, I don't know, whatever, but he is. So here's why I think it. Stop saying that he's dominating. He, guys, he just is. That is just a fact. And if you want to have even a snowball's chance in hell at taking Trump out, then you need to at least begin to understand why it is that he still has support,

instead of just sneering at that support and sneering at his supporters. That's what the GOP candidates, all the other candidates did in 2016. That's what Hillary Clinton did in 2016. People still don't quite get it. Now, I've got a little tease for you, okay? And the tease is that that mother-effer isn't real girl has just come out. She's said who she is. She's issued an apology.

I know, look, I teased it at the top of the show today. This is going to be an extended tease because we're going to have to get to this tomorrow. I'm sorry. We have to. There's no more time. We've got to get to the member block right now. The rest of the show continues. Now you don't want to miss it.

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