Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tonight on The Matt Gates Show, we discuss how homeless
veterans are getting so much needed help with Anthony le
Bruno of the American Principles Project, Plus a pastor stops
by to break down what is a heritage American? Also
a wild first hand look at post revolution Seria with
Mike Mercury, and is the Cracker Barrel rebrand campaign a syop?
I'm Vishburah filling in for Matt Gates and it's all
(00:22):
that and more. Next on The Matt Gate Show, Let's.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Roll shaking up Washington, d C.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
We're breaking the fever.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Do you ever watch this guy on television? It's like
a machine. He's great, Matt Gates. We take care of
our vets.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Nobody loves our vets more than me.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
And we take good care of our events, great care
of our vest.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Last year, nearly thirty three thousand veterans experienced homelessness. But
President Trump knows that it is completely unacceptable and is
determined to keep our nation's heroes off the streets. This week,
the VA announced eight hundred and eighteen million dollars in
grants to tackle this epidemic. Two hundred and thirty five
(01:08):
organizations across the country will use these grants to offer
affordable housing, healthcare, and transportation to veterans who are homeless
or on the brink of becoming so. Through the VA's
SSVF program, veterans and their families get the lifeline of
a personal case manager, someone who makes sure no vet
(01:29):
slips through the cracks. But this is just part of
the Trump administration's larger effort to take care of those
who fought for our freedoms. Just weeks ago, President Trump
signed the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act into law
and estimated sixty one thousand vets are in danger of
losing their home. But this legislation gives desperately needed relief
(01:52):
to veterans and their families who have fallen behind on
their mortgages. It's a real chance for the military families
to get back on their feet and keep a roof
over their heads. But the fight doesn't stop with housing either.
The administration is also zering in on something Washington has
ignored for decades, veterans' healthcare. Via Secretary Doug Collins, is
(02:15):
cutting through the red tape that strangled the system for years,
streamlining care, slashing the bureaucracy making sure veterans get treatment
without delay. This was a point that Secretary of Collins
hit upon a Trump's marathon cabinet meeting earlier this week.
Speaker 5 (02:31):
Yeah, I ask you what to do. You say, go
take care of my vetress. Well, that's what we're doing.
Wait times that our hospital are going down because we're
getting me into our hospitals. We're in a community here.
In February, we had over two hundred and sixty thousand backlog.
That means over one hundred and twenty five days of
not getting an answer. In just a little over four
and a half months, we've dropped that over one hundred thousand.
We're under one hundred and fifty and heading down to
(02:52):
historic lows. We've opened new facilities. We put in new
facilities in places where workers can get to We've expanded
out hours over a million extra hour so veterans, younger
veterans in particular, can get off of work and bring
their sales and get their apployments in after hours on Saturdays.
That's what it means to be in the Trump administration.
That's what it means to take care of veterans. That's
what it means for Labor Day.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Joining us now is the executive director of the American
Principles Project, Anthony la Bruna. So, Anthony, what do you
see as the immediate impacts of the VA's announcement of
almost a billion dollars in grants to tackle the homeless
veteran epidemic.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
You know, it's about time that we're investing in the
people who sacrificed the most for this country. You know, honestly,
I would have liked to see more investment, but I
know the work that Secretary Collins and his team are doing.
They're going to continue to prioritize our veterans. But this
is a major investment for our veterans. For thirty two
thousand veterans that are homeless across the country, this is
(03:49):
going to give them access to housing, childcare, being able
to pay their legal fees, healthcare. This is a major
victory for the administration, your victory for Secretary Collins, who
you know, honestly, I don't think gets enough recognition. And
I think this is overall going to be a very
good investment in tandem with the Reform Act that President
(04:12):
Trump signed in late July.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You know, homeless veterans come in all colors and ages.
But I do have a soft spot for young veterans
because they almost get a double whammy of being young
in an unaffordable housing market and then you have to
give your life to defend that situation. Do you think
the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act that President Trump
just signed a few weeks ago will help address this?
Speaker 6 (04:36):
You know, the Reform Act is a significant piece of
legislation in favor of our veterans. Imagine coming home serving
your country to Biden's economy where he's dishing out handouts
to illegal immigrants left and right. How then and not
willing to then support our troops when they come home.
How are we supposed to expect them to succeed? Right?
Speaker 7 (04:59):
You know?
Speaker 6 (05:00):
The Reform Act itself allows Secretary Collins to have immense
power from foreclosures on our veterans while also letting the
VA not allow for veterans to default on their mortgages
or their loans. I think, in tandem with this investment
of eight hundred and eighteen million dollars is going to
(05:22):
be major and it's going to be a major factor
over the next two years, especially the midterms for veterans
in cleaning up this issue and honestly preventing the most
important people who've served our country from being forgotten.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
How do you think Doug Collins is doing so far
as the Secretary of VA By the.
Speaker 6 (05:40):
Way, Oh, he's doing a great job. You know. I
feel for him because sometimes his post doesn't get the
recognition it deserves. But it is so crucial to have
a strong Secretary of the VA to continue this America
First agenda and these policies that the President is looking
to push and continue to prioritize our veterans. He's doing
(06:01):
a phenomenal job. I know his team is doing a
great job, and again they're going to continue to prioritize
our veterans across the country.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Is there anything more that could be done for veterans?
I know you mentioned that earlier. You know, that could
help them buy homes and raise families.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
You know, in light of the tragedy in Minnesota, you know,
I would tell President Trump and his administration to look
into creating new either department or a branch in the
US military that looks to serve to protect our schools.
You know, I think one of the big things for
veterans when they come home, they kind of feel lost.
(06:40):
They need a sense of responsibility and to be invested
in our communities. So I'd like to see something where
it's the school guard or something that is worked in
with the National Guard that allows them to serve their
communities and protect our children from these these trans terrorists
across the country.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, well, here's here's something on a lighter note, maybe
for you. How do we make a new baby boom
happen for our newest veterans? Right, how do we get
those conditions together to make that happen. We need future generate,
future greatest generations, another boom. How do we make it happen?
Speaker 6 (07:16):
Well, you know, it all starts with the birds and
the bees. But you know, most importantly, I think our
troops that are coming home, who are looking to continue
to build their families wherever that is in the US,
if that's in California, Washington, DC, or Florida, they should
know that they have the backing of a grateful nation
(07:36):
where they're going to be financially supported, They're going to
be given opportunities to do so. And I think it's crucial.
You know, one of the things that we see with
all these young men and women that are returning from
serving overseas and serving across the country that they didn't
have that support in the last administration. And that's clearly
different with President Trump and Secretary Collins. They're prioritizing to
(07:59):
take care of these people who have served and given
everything to this nation. So as long as we let
them know we are going to continue to support them,
back them financially, give them the opportunities they truly deserve
because they've done so much for our country. I think
we'll see a baby boom and you know, continue teaching
in schools The Birds and the Bees and you know,
(08:19):
bigger families or better families, and keep going from there.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
The Birds and the Bees with Anthony le Bruno of
the American Principles Project. Thank you so much for joining us,
Thanks for having me, and stay with us. We continue
our coverage of what is an American with a pastor
right after a short.
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Speaker 1 (10:59):
On Yes Show, we asked the question what is an American?
After Joe Biden opened the floodgates allowing a four year
illegal invasion of our country, it's become a critical question
to ask America is indeed a nation of immigrants. From
its infancy through the middle of the twentieth century, our
country was populated by immigrants fleeing persecution or seeking the
(11:22):
opportunity of the American dream. But those immigrants hit the
ground running when they got here. It was sink or
swim time, taking menial jobs, doing what they had to
do to ensure their family's survival in the new world.
But democrats have killed that survival instinct. It is a
demanded of immigrants, and modern America illegals are put up
(11:44):
in luxury hotel rooms and given an iPhone to.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Order room service.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
A sense of urgency and autonomy has given way to
utter entitlement. They have no pride in America. Make no
effort to assimilate to our culture, and in many cases
we see their allegiance still lies in their country of origin.
They are paperwork Americans. On yesterday's show, I asked blai's
(12:09):
columnists Arn McIntyre about heritage Americans, a term usually attributed
to families rooted in the US and the Civil War,
but he expanded the parameters of that definition.
Speaker 8 (12:20):
Focus is about generational loyalty to America. What we want
to shift away from is this idea that someone just
walks onto American soil and then magically becomes an American
because they happen to have raised their hand at some point.
In repeated words, truly being American means investing in this country.
It means intermarrying. It means joining us religiously in learning
(12:41):
the language. It means becoming part of community, not ethnically
ghettoing yourself with a bunch of people who came in
in the same way of immigration, but truly turning yourself
into American by immersing yourself in the culture and in
the people. And this is generally a multi generational process.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
So the first.
Speaker 8 (12:58):
Person to come in and they're an immigrant might not
totally feel like they are part of the American experience.
But if they're doing things right, then over many generations,
their children and their grandchildren will truly graft themselves into
the American tree.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
This is Joel Webbin, pastor of Right Response Ministries, his
cause to stir with a recent post on x proposing
new criteria for voting Number one Christian number two, male adult,
number three, married, number four, third generation American number five
net positive taxpayer land ownership would be preferred, but Boomer
(13:36):
has made it impossible for gen Z to ever own property.
I have been exceedingly clear about this. I have publicly
and frequently said that voting should be based on merit
and birth, not color. This post received a ton of
backlash online, so I invited him on to break down
his argument. Joining me now is the pastor of Right
(13:56):
Response Ministries, Pastor Joel Webbin, First Pastor. I want to
play a SoundBite from California Governor Gavin Newsom and get
your reaction.
Speaker 7 (14:05):
Do you think ice is not going to show up
around voting in polling boosts to chill participation. You know
that the National Guard, you know that everybody knows what's
at stake, So we have to put a steak in
the ground and do things differently.
Speaker 9 (14:19):
Pastor Joeli, your thoughts, Yeah, I should definitely be outside
of voting boosts with wagons ready to lock people up,
put them on a plane and get them out of
our country.
Speaker 10 (14:31):
That's so absurd. He's basically who would be dissuaded from
showing up devices there? People who are not citizens, people
who shouldn't be voting. I mean he might as well.
I mean he's sounds sincere and concerned and compactionate, but
he's essentially saying, isn't this terrible? There'll be non citizens
who have no business dictating the future of our country
(14:53):
that might be dissuaded from doing something illegal.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah, I mean this is what Gavin knew, some things
that he can get away with, stuffing the ballots with
people who are illegals. They shouldn't be here, They certainly
shouldn't be voting. But Pastor Joel, let's get into it.
What is a heritage American?
Speaker 7 (15:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 10 (15:13):
So, Heritage American is a praise that people. You know,
it's been around for a while, but it really resurfaced
in the past a few years on the Internet, Twitter
and places like that. It's to combat the idea of
propositional nationhood, which I know we'll get into here in
just a moment, but it's the idea that a nation
is ultimately composed or comprised of people and place. Even JD.
(15:36):
Vance has said things like this. You know, I have
my concerns about Vance for various reasons. Maybe we can
get into that another time, but even JD.
Speaker 7 (15:47):
Vance.
Speaker 10 (15:47):
I used him as an example to say, even he
gets this. And this is a guy who has an
Indian wife, you know, so he's certainly not a racist
or anything like that, but he's saying, yeah, people in place,
people don't die. This was his famous line. People won't
die for an idea, but they'll die for a people
in place. And everybody loses their minds and says, people place, blood, soil.
(16:10):
I've heard this before. You know, the Nazis drink water,
you know, so we got to stop drinking water too.
Now that's just what nations are. And and you know,
winmar Germany wasn't the first people and place to come
up with this concept. If a nation is just a
set of propositions, then really the whole world can be
boiled down to two categories. There are Americans and potential
(16:34):
Americans who lives in India one point three billion potential Americans. Right,
if it's just an idea, anyone can adopt it anyone.
But what you're saying is no, No, A heritage American
is an actual American. And so I would define it.
Some people would say, well, you have to have European descent. Okay,
so there are those guys out there. I'm, you know,
(16:55):
just a friendly centrist moderate. You know, people think I'm
an extreme. I'm really not. I think that a heritage
American should be someone who is able to trace their
lineage on both sides of the family back three generations, right,
that they're able to, you know, to look and say,
my grandfather lived here, right, my grandfather on both sides
(17:16):
lived here, and over time that that is sufficient, over
time for me to look at you know, my great
grandkids to look at their neighbors and say, yeah, we
have the same customs, the same traditions, we have the
same ethos, we speak the same language, our ancestors fought
in the same war on actually on the same side.
Would be nice. That's so. Yeah. For me, a heritage
(17:37):
American is going to be somebody who's been in the
country for three generations.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
So then, in contrast to that, is America a propositional
nation or not?
Speaker 10 (17:48):
It shouldn't be. It wasn't it used to be. We've
always had, you know, rounds of people coming into America.
But there's a dynamic difference between set and immigrants, right.
It's very different to come into a huge land mass
that's very scarcely populated, with severe weather and conditions. There's
(18:13):
nothing previously built. You're not hopping in and jumping on
welfare and getting benefits or anything like that. You're coming
to settle a place at great costs, great sacrifice to yourself,
and many of the people don't make it right. They
starve or freeze and winter, or they die because of
indigenous peoples, you know, and wars that spike up, or
(18:34):
they get malaria or whatever it may be. America used
to I think it used to be a country once
upon a time. I don't think it's really been that
way for quite a while. The Heart Seller Act, the
Civil Rights Act, or at least, I would argue, fifty
sixty years now, we have been an idea. Ronald Reagan
even famously said, I know he did plenty of good
(18:56):
things I'm grateful for him in many ways, but some
of his see laws actually ironically set the political grid
work for California to be as blue of a state
as it is today. Not to mention towards the end
of his tenure, his easy, no fault divorce, which he himself,
(19:16):
towards the end of his life admitted that it was
probably one of his greatest mistakes. And so I appreciate Reagan,
but he is kind of in many ways the classic
neocon right, or the first of the Neocons, you know,
and that's what we have to deal with today, with
the Bushes and Chinese and these kinds of people. But
he had a famous speech where he said, you know,
(19:38):
I can move to Japan, but I'll never be Japanese.
I can move to England, but I'll never be a
brit I can move to Scotland, but I'll never be
a Scotsman. But anyone from anywhere can move to America
and be an American. That's a classic Reagan l that
was not his best. He had some good thing that
(20:00):
was not in what he's saying right there is he's
saying everyone's allowed to have a country except for us.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Well, do you think the introduction of the welfare state
in the sixties kill the incentive to work and assimilate
into America as an immigrant.
Speaker 10 (20:15):
Yes, absolutely, I think when you incentivize people not to work,
that is going to absolutely hinder any incentive, any motivation
for people to assimilate, because to work in a culture
requires assimilating at least to a basic threshold. Right, If
(20:37):
I wanted to move somewhere else and I need to
make money to provide for my family, well, learning the
language is going to become non negotiable. There's going to
be some things that I'm going to have to buckle
down and adopt and assimilate into just to be able
to survive. But when you tell people, you know, anybody
(20:59):
can come here and on the voting booths, we're going
to have like three or four different languages, that's a
pretty good sign of a nation that's been conquered when
you put your invaders language on the voting booths for
dictating the future of your country.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So, then, do you think an immigration moratorium could help
solve some of the tensions between native heritage and Americans
and all the immigrants here already maybe allow a more
organic assimilation and ethnogenesis of these people into heritage Americans
down the road.
Speaker 10 (21:33):
Yes, there has to be net zero immigration, absolutely, and
Trump has done a pretty good job of that. I
you know, one of my constant prayers as a pastor is,
Dear God, please make Trump half the man that my
enemies think he is. I personally preferred Trump twenty sixteen
to Trump twenty twenty four. There's still time in this
(21:54):
administration for him to ramp things up, so we'll see.
I want to give him a little bit of trust,
but I'm not I'm not an inherent plan truster. I
appreciate Trump. I voted for Trump, but I also will
call things out publicly when I think he needs to
get his act together. And we have found time and
time again that when people, you know, raise their voices
(22:17):
and yell at Trump, he actually tends to listen, right,
like the six hundred thousand Chinese students, you know, and
he's like, our colleges are nothing without China. China is
so much better than America. And people are like, are
you kidding me? You're Donald Trump? We elected you for
the opposite of this. And a couple of days go
by and he comes out and He's like, yeah, never mind,
my bad, you know, and so so I'm hopeful in
(22:39):
that regard, but unfortunately, I think the problems a little deeper.
So yes, stop immigration and you know, build a wall,
finish the wall, all that kind of stuff. But I
think there's too many people here already we have. I
think that they just posted data recently was fifty five
million visa on visa workpieces, and then another close to
(23:03):
fifty million immigrants illegal immigrants. So you're looking at like
about one hundred million. You're looking at a third of
a nation, and I just think that's too much. I
was adopted as a baby. My adopted parents incredible generous
kind towards me. I have three biological siblings biological to
my adopted parents, and that kind of ratio, you know,
(23:23):
where it's like we're going to take in one and
we have three that are biological and there's four kids total. Well,
those parents can provide for those four children, and I
assimilated in a very natural way into that family. But
if you have a family has three biological children the parents,
and then they adopt sixty kids, that like that family
is going to have some real problem that's going.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
To be a big, big problem for that instead.
Speaker 10 (23:47):
Are starving, you know, and you know you can't take
care of them all, and so I feel like, yes,
net zero immigration immigration moratorium, absolutely, but also like fifty
to one hundred million people got to go back.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Well, we hope somebody in the administration here as you,
Pastor Joel, thank you so much for joining the program.
Thank you, and you won't want to miss what's next.
An interview with an author who got a really raw, gritty,
first hand look at post revolution Syria. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
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launched a twenty four to seven Twitter like social media replacement.
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(24:46):
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Speaker 1 (26:37):
What is life like in Syria following the fall of
Bashar al Assad after thirteen years of civil war? A
new piece and the Blaze is quarterly magazine Frontier brings
readers into a raw, on the ground look at the
war torn nation in the Middle East. Titled Serious Bloody Crescent,
the author Mike Mercury, describes an Indiana Jones like experience,
(27:00):
starting with his crossing into Damascus from Lebanon amid celebrations
in chaos, while personally encountering armed teen revolutionaries enforcing a
fragile new order under leader Al Shara formerly known as Jolani.
A wild adventure mixed with critiques of Western journalists for
superficial reporting and ethical lapses. He weaves in historical contexts
(27:24):
from the failure of Panamabism and then also questioning if
the new regime can escape cycles of decline. The piece
explores themes of cultural decay and human flourishing in a
post revolutionary landscape marked by instability and mercy amid conflict,
as well as administrative wonders. And joining us now to
(27:45):
dive deeper into these insights and is on the ground
experiences is the author himself, Mike Mercury. Mike, Welcome to
the show. Hi, Hey, thanks for joining. So, Mike, describe
your Indiana Jones style eventure in Syria to my audience.
What did you see and what did you experience?
Speaker 11 (28:06):
It's a hard experience to summarize. I was there for
about three weeks in early January, so this was right
at the fall of the sod regime and the revolution
had taken place. People were celebrating in the streets. The
Giadis had won the Syrian state, and so I spent
(28:29):
about three weeks hanging out in various places in Syria
getting to know different jihattists from former fighters of al
Qaeda al Nusra HTS, which is the new leader's private military,
as well as some former ISIS fighters, and so it
(28:55):
was an interesting experience I spent maybe the only parallel
to hanging out an Indiana Jones style, was being at
an archaeological site called Apamea near Homes. So that was
where it used to be a Hellenistic site, and then
a Roman site, and finally a Byzantine site. And there
(29:20):
was lots of Jihadis who had come there to illegally
dig up ancient coins that they would resell on the market.
Although I guess I was kind of in the archaeological
cuckold chair because I wasn't doing it myself.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
What would you describe the feelings of the civilians in
Syria right now post revolution.
Speaker 11 (29:45):
Well, that very much depends on which civilians.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
For the Sunni.
Speaker 11 (29:51):
Majority, a lot were elated to have, you know, finally
taken over the levers of power for the Christian minorities,
for the Alla white minorities, they were now afraid that
they would be the anvil rather than the hammer, and
so they were fearful of repercussions, reprisals. Also, you know,
(30:14):
this fundamentally was a populist revolution, so a lot of
the people who were celebrating were in the rural communities.
It was the educated elite in Damascus who were more
fearful of what might come next.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
So what was it like to be up close and
personal with these Isis and al Qaeda Jihadis in their
natural habitat.
Speaker 11 (30:42):
So counter to many people's intuition, I had a very
pleasant experience with the Jihattist and I think, of course,
that was because I arrived while they were celebrating victory.
Had they been fighting, had they've been getting hammered, I
probably would have been the likely target for a hostage.
(31:06):
But since they were all in good spirits, they treated
me rather well. You know, these aren't the architects of jihadism.
These aren't the machiavellian types. These are the kind of
like lowly peasants, illiterate, just not even real ideologues in
the sense that they have no concept of the West.
They've never left their towns, so they were very curious
(31:28):
about me. They wanted to show me around. You know,
this is the first time they're the hosts of their country.
So you know, I'm rather lucky that they let me
go and I'm here now.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Huh. Well, when you left Syria, what happened when you
try to go home?
Speaker 11 (31:48):
Well, I'm gonna leave you a little bit on a
cliffhanger on that, because I'm currently writing a piece about it,
and I don't like to discuss it before I publish
the article. But I'll give your viewers a little bit
of a sneak peek. On my way home from Syria,
(32:11):
I had to go through Lebanon. All the airports were
closed in Syria, so I flew into by route and
then drove into Syria. On the way back, I stopped
in uh Dahe, which is Hesibal a stronghold, and there
I was kidnapped, detained and thrown in jail.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Kid you were kidnapped by HESBLA. Is that is that real?
You got kidnapped by HESBLA.
Speaker 11 (32:44):
Well, you know, kidnapping maybe is not the technical term,
but I was, I was, I was detained, interrogated, and
thrown in jail.
Speaker 1 (32:54):
Well, that is quite the cliffhanger. Oh, Mike, we can't
wait to see it, to read that new piece you've
got when you come out, when it comes out, and
that's quite an incredible story. Thank you so much, Mike
Mercury for joining the program.
Speaker 11 (33:08):
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
You know what's rare these days a pharmacy that's actually
on your side. Matt's been telling you to check out
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keep prices low. Go to Allfamilypharmacy dot com slash Matt
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ten percent. That's All Family Pharmacy dot Com slash Matt
with promo code Matt ten. And coming up is the
Cracker Barrel game being watched. The game that's actually being played.
We have a brand marketing expert on to discuss after
(34:14):
the break.
Speaker 3 (34:22):
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Speaker 2 (34:24):
What does Roku TV, Apple TV, and Amazon fireTV all
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Network from your Roku TV, Apple.
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TV or Amazon Fire device.
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Simply go to the app store, search out for a
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(35:04):
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(35:27):
asking me how can they.
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Watch OAN live? The solution is simple.
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It's a streaming platform called cloud tv now it's spelled
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The live package is only two dollars and fifty cents
per month for all you can watch. Again, simply go
(35:53):
to cloudtv dot com and do it today. Hey, did
you know that One America News Network has launched a
twenty four to seven Twitter like social media replacement. We're
calling it free Talk forty five. So why is it
branded free Talk forty five? Well, free talk because you
will not be censored for expressing your opinion there, and
(36:16):
forty five because forty five is a really lucky number.
So join us at free Talk forty five and express
yourself with no fear of cancelation.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Ever, Cracker Barrel saw the writing on the wall and
scrapped its new bolk logo this week. The about face
came after much backlash and a phone call with the
White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Taylor Budowitch posted a
(36:47):
quote I appreciated the call earlier this evening with Cracker Barrel.
They thanked President Trump for weighing in on the issue
of their iconic original logo. They wanted the President to
know that they heard him, along with customer response the
Ultimate Poll, and would be restoring the old timer. This
is just the latest case of sane Americans rejecting a
(37:10):
culture of vault virtue signal signaling with the power of
their pocketbooks. Or is it after years of insanely insincere grandstanding,
can we finally say the age of woke is a
thing of the past. Or did this branding effort work
out exactly the way Cracker Barrel planned? Joining me now
(37:30):
is the marketing mastermind and chief at will the agency,
Isaac Simpson. Isaac, you're the right wing Donnie Deutsch as
far as I'm concerned, give me the marketing expert breakdown
of this whole branding fiasco with Cracker Barrel.
Speaker 4 (37:45):
Well, let's hope the right wing Donnie Deutsch gets as
rich as the left wing Donny Deutsch. That's that's all
I'll say. But yeah, so, I mean everybody is probably
familiar with this already, but Cracker Barrel rebranded and it
was not just a logo rebrand, and this was a
massive overhaul where they were going to redesign the insides
of restaurants. They announced it with a singer called Jordan Davis,
(38:08):
a country singer. It was a massive rebrand campaign called
All the More, rumored to cost seven hundred million dollars.
And as soon as the esthetic parts of it started
coming out, so we started seeing the insides of restaurants,
we started seeing the new menus, and of course we
saw the new logo. People absolutely hated it. And yeah,
(38:29):
that brings us to now, do you think this whole
action reaction to the rebrand and d brand was the
rebrand effort at like as the rebrand effort was like
this pre planned? I let me just say absolutely not.
There is zero percent chance that this was some three
D chess. First of all, this has been being planned
(38:50):
for a year. Second of all, it involves again people
like Jordan Davis, a very famous country singer. He would
have had to sign a contract that said he was
going to knowingly swindle his audience or knowingly mislead his
audience to believe that he was part of a terrible
unpopular rebrand among country singer fans, and then it was
(39:13):
gonna he was gonna reveal it later, which he didn't do. Like,
there's zero percent chance the lawyers at UMG would ever
allow that to happen, So there's no chance.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
But I think that you had a take where you
believe that now customers of Cracker Barrel are more invested
in the brand because they managed to claim back the
old logo. Is that is that your take?
Speaker 4 (39:37):
Most definitely? I mean I think undeniably Cracker Barrel is
gonna see a huge spike in revenue, absolutely because people
are gonna feel like they had a little bit of
control over what was going on. So if it was
a stunt, it would have been a pretty good one.
But it was not a stunt. I promise it was not.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Well, what other companies do you think have actually been
successful with their brand campaigns and the very new digital
and social media driven world.
Speaker 4 (40:06):
Well, of course we have to talk about American Eagle Gens,
which did the Sydney Sweeney campaign massively successful. Sidney Sweeney
has Good Gens made the year for that Gens brand,
and that was actually a one to two punch from
a prior Sydney Sweeney campaign, which is this is a
little bit gross, but it was a public thing where
(40:28):
a brand called Doctor Squatch did a line of soap
that had Sidney Sweeney bathwater in it. Disgusting but very
successful and went extremely viral and it made the quarter
for that brand as well. So you can see some
brands are leaning the correct way in our current scroll
(40:48):
fixated world and others are being left behind, which is
what happened to Crocker Bill. You know, my personal favorite
is a steak and shake. What do you think about
the steak and shake engagement on social media these days
with its brand? So what did they do? Remind me
what they did?
Speaker 5 (41:04):
So?
Speaker 1 (41:04):
They introduced beef tallow fries. Oh yeah, right, and you know,
getting on with the RFK Junior plan to bring back
beef tallow. And they've also kind of been posting on
Twitter the way you and me would post on Twitter. Yes,
so I kind of see that as a successful example
(41:25):
in a certain way. I see the sentiment rising positively
for them. Do you agree?
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Absolutely. I think it's the brands that understand the scroll
that will succeed and winning big on the scroll. We
have this concept in advertising called the big idea. So
when I went to portfolio school, everybody talks about the
big idea. What's the big concept? The thing about the
(41:52):
world of the scroll is that it's all about the
small idea. It's all about the details. Everything in the
scrolling world is detail oriented. So if you look at
the Lea booboo sensation, if you look at the Stanley
Giant Stanley cup thing stands sensation, those are all about
brands that took the details very seriously. And I think
(42:15):
that beef tallow fries are the perfect example of a
small detail that somebody internally is smart enough to understand
this is going to resonate in the scroll and it's
going to resonate positively for us. So I think that
that's what the good new brands are doing, like Steak
and Shake, great example, But the old ones are using
this kind of old method, which is what happened to
Cracker Barrel, which is we're going to do this refinement
(42:37):
culture brand where we're going to take everything, all the
details away, right. I mean that was an example of
taking all the details out and just leaving this sleek,
modern it might as well be a tech brand and
then announcing it with a country singer on Good Morning America.
It's like, that just doesn't work anymore. Nobody cares. Whereas
all you got to do is like do a new
fry cooking thing with your fries and boom you're like viral.
(43:01):
So yeah, interesting.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
So what does marketing in the future actually look like?
What does the cutting edge of brand marketing look like?
Right now?
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Well, as I just said, it's details. It's the people
who get how to enter the world of the scroll.
I think we all remember the amazing moment in brand
twitter history where Popeye's Chicken released a sandwich and it
replied to a tweet from Chick fil A that just
(43:31):
said you okay, bro basically, and that single tweet sold
fourteen million dollars in sandwiches. So it's it's the people
who get these subtle Again. To me, it's a shift
from the world of the big idea to the world
of the little idea. It's understanding that it's the details
that matter. It's like the weird little thing you put
(43:54):
on your little boo boo that like is different than
the other one. People go nuts for that stuff, and
I think that that is a response to refinement culture.
It's a response to everything starting to look the same.
So what people are craving is things that look a
little bit different, and I think that brands that understand
that are gonna win well.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
Chief of Will the Agency my favorite version of Donnie Deutsch,
Isaac Simpson, Thank you so much for.
Speaker 4 (44:22):
Joining, Thank you so much for the It's always good
to see you.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Up next are young Americans finding God and converting to Catholicism.
That and more with a domestic extremist in just a
few moments.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Viewers are always asking me how can they watch away
in live?
Speaker 3 (44:44):
The solution is simple.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It's a streaming platform called cloud tv now it's spelled
klowd TV. Simply go to cloudtv dot com and subscribe
to watch twenty four to seven live feeds of Oayn.
The live package is only two dollars and fifty cents
per month for all you can watch again, simply go
(45:06):
to cloudtv dot com and do it today.
Speaker 3 (45:12):
Hey everyone, here's a question for you.
Speaker 2 (45:15):
What does Roku TV, Apple TV, and Amazon fireTV all
have in common. The answer is that all three platforms
offer you the ability to live stream One America News
Network from your Roku TV, Apple TV.
Speaker 3 (45:29):
Or Amazon Fire device.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Simply go to the app store, search out for AN,
then enjoy all the great programming offered by IN, including
my show Real America. Hey, if your cable provider doesn't
offer One America News Network, you should get them a
call and kindly demand that they carry OAN. Now you're
(45:55):
the customer, and without your feedback, your cable provider will
not know that there is a strong demand across this
country for One America News Network. So please call your
cable company today and kindly ask or demand that they
add OANN to their channel lineup, Hey, did you know
(46:17):
that One America News Network has launched a twenty four
to seven Twitter like social media replacement. We're calling it
free Talk forty five. So why is it branded free
Talk forty five? Well, free talk because you will not
be censored for expressing your opinion there, and forty five
because forty five is a really lucky number. So join
(46:40):
us at free Talk forty five and express yourself with
no fear of cancelation.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Ever, this week's senseless massacre of little kids in the
Annunciation Catholic school shooting has rocked our nation. Fear and
despair have gripped many parents of school aged children, and
yet we've seen another cover up play out in real time.
(47:10):
Even his parents are mourning. Minnesota authorities and the media
turned a blind eye to the fact that the deranged
shooter was another mentally ill transsexual who targeted young Christian kids.
But the narrative that quickly emerged from the left is
more bizarre than I could have ever imagined. It's borderline demonic.
(47:31):
Here's Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry just hours after the massacre.
Speaker 8 (47:36):
Don't just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now.
These kids were literally praying.
Speaker 11 (47:41):
It was the first week of school, they.
Speaker 3 (47:43):
Were in a church.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Jensaki had an equally callous response the morning of the tragedy, saying, quote,
prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings.
Prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids
to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back enough
with the thoughts and prayers. Vice president jad Vance criticized
(48:11):
Saki's cold heartedness saying, we pray because our hearts are broken.
We pray because we know God listens. We pray because
we know that God works in mysterious ways and can
inspire us to further action. Why do you feel the
need to attack other people for praying when kids were
(48:32):
just killed praying? White House Press Secretary of Caroline love
It had a similar response.
Speaker 12 (48:38):
Frankly, I think they're incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the
tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country
who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that
prayer works, and who believe that in a time of
morning like this, when beautiful young children were killed while
praying in a church, it's utterly disrespectful.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
Governor Gavin Newsom derided Levitt's comments, saying, quote, these children
were literally praying as they got shot. God is not listening.
Prayer is bs that's the message from the left. But
many of us are seeing a shift away from this
godless thinking, especially among young people. We may be on
(49:23):
the precipice of another great awakening in America. Maybe it's
the realization that there's no explanation for the evil that
we're seeing all around us other than that demons are
running amok and our creator is our only hope for deliverance.
Joining us now is the author of Domestic Extremist, A
Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War. Peacha Keenan so peachey,
(49:48):
let's start here with your tweet. You seem like you're
taking it back in a good way, listening to young
people's stories about converting to Catholicism and calling it a
vibe shift. Tell us about that.
Speaker 13 (50:01):
Yeah, I mean, I've been hearing sort of like anecdotally
these stories on the news of like Catholicism becoming kind
of like hip and cool with like younger people, people
under thirty.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
But I was at a.
Speaker 13 (50:11):
Party a couple of weeks ago here in Los Angeles,
and there was a young couple who shared with us
that they had just come into the church on at
the Easter vigil.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
And this is like a very cool.
Speaker 13 (50:22):
Like kind of like a slows feels like hipster couple
that you would not expect that you would see at
Sunday Mass. And yet you know, here they were, and
they it turned out they actually go to our parish
and they go to our same mass. And when then
I confirmed it, we saw them at mass a few
days later, and it was just kind of amazing, and
they just, you know, I asked them why, and it
was sort of like they thought about it for a
(50:43):
while and then there's like a series of events in
their life happened in a certain way that just drew
them kind of naturally organically. It was not because of Twitter,
it was not because of some online influencer. It was
really coming from their hearts, and it was just I
just thought, you know, there's so many, so many of
these stories I've heard that it does feel like a
little bit of a trend.
Speaker 1 (51:01):
So do you think any of these kids or young
people are converting based on some cynical political calculation, like
trying to make some cryptic case like how in the
future you can't be a real conservative if you're not
a trad Catholic. Do you think that's going on in
their minds when this is happening.
Speaker 13 (51:17):
Yeah, yeah, they want to convert just to own the Libs.
Speaker 6 (51:20):
Right.
Speaker 13 (51:22):
No, Actually, I think it's the opposite of that. I
think it's something that's done literally in a political vacuum.
And these are people who are probably on the right.
They may be you know, on non's on Twitter. They
may be super maga whatever, but this is coming from
a completely different place I think in their lives. This
is so personal and it has nothing to do with politics.
This is not about like an election in two years
or what's going on on you know what are the
(51:43):
crazy like liberal people doing. This is about eternity and
this is about your soul. And these are things that
are just like so so real to people, so so
much bigger than like the petty you know every day
give and take that we engage in on X all
the time, and you know, it's it just really just
speaks to like there is this like longing in people's
hearts and there's a vacuum. It's not being filled. But
(52:07):
you can't fill it with politics. You can't fill it
with you know, you name your poison. It really can
only be filled one way.
Speaker 10 (52:14):
You know.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
I want to switch gears a little bit here to
another one of your tweets. I love your Twitter feed,
by the way, it's talking about old fleets of airplanes.
I complain about the airlines and big airline industries and
the way they do business all the time. Like I
think now they're going from like you know how comfortable.
Can can you make the experience of a flyer or
(52:37):
how can you make more flyers experience first class? Instead
of doing that, they're now moving to a model of
you know, how do we get standing rooms only on airplanes?
Speaker 3 (52:48):
Right?
Speaker 2 (52:48):
Like?
Speaker 1 (52:48):
How would you describe that you're able to feel that
these planes lifespans are coming to an end, that they're
that old?
Speaker 13 (52:56):
Yeah, and they really are. I did a lot of
flying this summer. I flew flu to Europe, flew around
different cities. And I'm not a good flyer. Let me
preface this. I am not like I'm a nervous flyer.
I was even before like recent events, I just don't
really like it, okay. And so lately, in the last
few years, I discovered on the internet you can actually
see what how old your plane is, because you know,
(53:17):
pieces are coming off of planes. I was just curious,
and I found out that a lot of the planes
that we all fly are twenty twenty five years old,
some of them are approaching thirty, and there are no
plans by the big US. This is US Airlines, Delta,
American United, and they plan to fly these planes up
until age thirty in some cases. So you know, I
mean they say they're safe. It's all about the cycles
(53:38):
they get, you know, they get refreshed.
Speaker 6 (53:40):
All the time.
Speaker 13 (53:41):
But I personally think you're probably safer in a newer
plane that has everything is working, you know, nothing is rusty.
I was just on a flight back from DC actually,
and we got on a plane and it was a
seven fifty seven and if you know, that is a
very old fleet, they are twenty five plus years old.
But I thought, well'll be a okay and actually walk
onto the plane and we sit down and my son
(54:03):
says to me, literally like I wanted to kill him.
He said, Mom, this plane's going to crash. And I
was like, shut up, do not talk like that right now.
I can barely do with this anyway. Then the pilot
came on and they discovered that the reverse busters weren't
working and they were going to go back to the
gate and we all had to get off the plane.
And then he came out and said, actually, this plane
is being canceled. We just found a major hydraulic league
(54:26):
in that inn An engine. And so that was like
very freaky to me. These old planes just need more help,
they need more maintenance, and you don't want to be
the guy who's on the plane right before it needs
to go to the shop.
Speaker 1 (54:37):
That story sounds very final destination, right, you know what.
I'm glad that you guys got ahead of there safely.
And another post on Twitter. You mentioned on Twitter today
actually that you'll be writing a substack piece called Hillbilly
Elgy Disney Edition and that it's about this New York
Times piece providing a sympathetic look at the white working
(54:59):
clas in America. Can you give us a sneak preview
into what you'll be putting out on your sub stack
about this New York Times piece.
Speaker 13 (55:07):
Yeah, an amazing story. One of the very few times
maybe ever, that I can remember the New York Times
writing something sympathetic about a family that's sort of like
a typical white working class you.
Speaker 4 (55:17):
Know, really reminds me of like JD.
Speaker 13 (55:18):
Vance's type of family where he grew up poor, very
working class white family, you know, single mothers and disabilities,
and you know, maybe they're even Trump voters. And I've
never read an article that was so sympathetic to their plate.
They're just trying to enjoy, you know, the sort of
classic American you know, dream vacation, your dream trip to
(55:40):
Walt Disney World would just let me tell you, these
days is really a nightmare unless you are extremely wealthy
and you can pay thousands of extra dollars to avoid
having a hellish experience, which is basically what this family
had because they had saved for years just to get
just to go. But you can't pay for the upgrades
and so you end up really paying the price.
Speaker 4 (55:59):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Well, you know, I remember going to Disneyland and disney
World and it was a great time. I never thought
about when I was too young to think about how
much it costs for my parents, But I mean, I
came up in the nineties. I'm glad it was the
time that they can all afford it well. Peach A.
Keenan author of Domestic Extremist Practical Guide on how to
Win the Culture War, thank you so much for joining
(56:21):
the program tonight, and that's all the time we have.
Matt will be back on Tuesday, following Labor Day. Follow
me on X at vish Burah stay right here. The
Fine Point with Chanel Rhon is up next. I'm vish
Burah over and out.