Today’s guest was influenced in large part by his Mamaw, a devoted Christian woman with an unrepentant potty-mouth, and the bestselling memoir that made her, and him, famous. I'm reminded of the first saw him interviewed, shortly after the presidential election in 2016, by a panel of flabbergasted talking heads on CNN who were trying, desperately it seemed, to make sense of Trump’s unlikely victory.
As you might recall, most of the pollsters got that one wrong, and a lot of deeply confused journalists were wondering why Trump won in Ohio, and in many so other places where Hillary Clinton was expected to easily prevail. The author of Hillbilly Elegy offered a thoughtful explanation, which came down to the simple fact that a lot of Americans in a lot of flyover states felt overlooked and underserved and taken for granted by their elected officials. Coincidentally, around the same time, I was invited on to Meet the Press to answer the same question. Prior to the election, I had predicted that the outcome was going to be a lot closer than people thought, and Chuck Todd wanted to know if the men and women I’d highlighted on Dirty Jobs might have provided me with some unique insight.
After the interview, Kim Strossel – a reporter at the @WSJ who was also on the panel - asked me if I’d read Hillbilly Elegy or met the author.
“Not yet,” I said. “But I just saw him on @CNN and liked what he had to say.”
“There’s an obvious parallel,” she said. “You’ve gotten famous working alongside a lot of forgotten Americans, and he’s gotten famous writing about them. You two would probably have a lot to discuss.”
Ten years later, it seems that Kim was right. I do in fact, have a lot to discuss with the author of Hillbilly Elegy, including his latest bestseller, Communion, which he’s been writing for the last decade. I suspect he’d have published it sooner had he not been distracted with his run for the Ohio Senate and subsequent elevation to Vice President of the United States. But regardless, Communion is finally available, and @JDVance has dropped by to discuss it, along various matters of national importance.
Our whole conversation is here. https://t.co/KDReDQiX3h
Hopefully, Mamaw is watching…
🤣😂🤣😂
WEST MEMPHIS BROTHERS BUSTED AFTER POLICE SHUT DOWN ILLEGAL POSSUM FIGHT CLUB... AND YES, PEOPLE PAID TO WATCH...
WEST MEMPHIS, AR — We've officially found the only thing in Crittenden County capable of making Walmart look classy.
West Memphis Police say they thought they were responding to reports of suspicious screaming coming from an old storage building behind a vacant tire shop. Instead, officers walked into what can only be described as the SEC Championship of Bad Decisions.
According to investigators, brothers Dewayne "Scooter" McClendon and Ricky Dale McClendon were arrested Friday night after allegedly operating an underground possum fighting ring that had somehow become one of the hottest tickets in West Memphis.
Admission was reportedly $5, or FREE if you brought a folding chair and promised not to call Animal Control.
Deputies say the "arena" consisted of a circle made from empty pickle jars and busted beer cans, complete with a hand-painted banner reading:
"POSSUMPALOOZA 2026 - Where Champions Play Dead."
The fight card reportedly featured legendary competitors including:
Sir Hiss-A-Lot
Mississippi Mike
Dumpster Debbie
Whatever Ricky Caught Behind Popeyes 20 Minutes Ago
The investigation began after neighbors complained about "violent screeching, excessive cheering, and someone repeatedly yelling, 'HE'S FAKIN' IT!'"... which, as it turns out, is exactly what possums do.
When officers entered the building, they discovered nearly 30 spectators, four coolers full of cheap beer, a folding table serving as the betting counter, and one possum proudly wearing a championship belt made from duct tape, a dog collar, and what appeared to be an expired Bass Pro Shops gift card.
Police say the biggest problem with the operation wasn't the gambling...
It was that the possums refused to cooperate.
Apparently every match ended about 12 seconds in when both contestants dramatically fell over and played dead.
Several angry bettors reportedly demanded refunds, insisting they'd "seen more action waiting in line at the DMV."
When questioned, Scooter allegedly told officers:
"We ain't breakin' no laws... we're preservin' Southern heritage."
His brother Ricky Dale reportedly added:
"Besides... they was volunteers."
Authorities weren't convinced.
Both brothers now face charges including animal cruelty, illegal gambling, and operating an unlicensed concession stand after officers discovered they had been selling boiled peanuts and nachos out of what investigators described as "a heavily modified leaf blower."
As for the possums...
Wildlife officials safely released them into the woods, where they're expected to make a full recovery just as soon as they finish pretending to be dead for the next six to eight business days.
Only in West Memphis could somebody lose fifty bucks betting on an animal whose entire fighting strategy is taking a nap.
Cliff Messer
A fundraiser has been started for Jack Peterson, the Tennessee Incline Railway conductor who was fired after telling his passengers that “America is the greatest country on the planet” and that they could “leave if they disagree.”
You know what to do.
The average voter turnout in a presidential election between 2000 to 2016 was around 53% to 54%.
The mainstream media alleged the 2020 voter turnout was about 60%... When in reality, the 2020 voter turnout was actually around 95%, which is a catastrophic indicator of a FRAUDULENT ELECTION.
The reason the mainstream media is wrong is because they took the number of votes divided by the over 18 population, which does NOT equal voter turnout.
Voter turnout is the number of votes divided by the number of registered voters. This is because "population over 18" includes people who are eligible to vote, but are not registered, it includes non-citizens who legally can't vote, it includes felons who can't vote, it includes mentally incapacitated people who can't vote, etc.
So, the over 18 population is greater than the number of registered voters. If you take the number of votes reported in 2020 and divide by the over 18 population, 60% is higher than 53% to 54% average, but plausible.
If you take the reported number of votes divided by the actual number of registered voters, you get around a reported 95%, which clearly shows that 2020 was a fraudulent election.
🚨#BREAKING: A German soccer fan who flew to the USA but was fearful about coming because of news about criminals and people being mean...
...breaks down into TEARS, live on air saying he has FALLEN IN LOVE with America after a random man named "Bob" in Boston gave him a ride home after he was stuck at a game with no way back to his hotel
The German soccer fan's name is Sebastian, he said after meeting Bob, he extended his entire trip.
He said leaving America will hurt worse than watching Germany get knocked out of the World Cup.
"I fall in love with America. I'm sorry, it's just so emotional. Americans are not rude... if we are together, we can achieve great things."
THIS IS THE AMERICA I KNOW!!!!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
And this is,
The Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe:
Barack Hussein Obama said ‘I want this done,’ ” I want to overthrow the United States government.
@CIADirector
“All the world can now see the truth: Brennan, Clapper and Comey manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump.”
@CIADirector “This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump. We’re going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.’ They stamped it as Russian collusion and then classified it so nobody could see it.”
New York post @mirandadevine@CIADirector “The comparison would be the Hunter Biden laptop. It’s the same people. In the Hunter Biden case, it’s ‘We’ve got to lie to win the election.’
“In this case, it is ‘We failed to influence the election and after we failed, we’re going to handicap the president [Trump] so we can win the next election by polluting the well,”
New York Post @mirandadevine@CIADirector “They were trying to ruin the presidency after the fact. The blatant politicization of intelligence is “unprecedented in American history.”
“Obama commissioned this. There was no basis by which it had to be done [before the end of] the Obama administration. [Obama said] ‘I want this done,’ ”
New York Post @mirandadevine
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, JOHN BRENNAN, JAMES CLAPPER, JAMES COMEY,
Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff, Susan Lice,Andrew McCabe, Peter did Lisa, Lisa did Peter, Rod Rosenstein, Sally Yates, Bruce Whore, Nellie Whore, Loretta Lynch, Valerie Jarrett, Ben Rhodes, John Carlin, Mary McCord, James Baker, Jonathan Moffa, Michael Kortan, David Laufman, Nellie Ohr, Samantha Power, John Kerry, Lisa Monaco, Denis McDonough, Jim Rybicki, Bill Priestap, Christopher Steele, Richard Dearlove, Alexander Downer, Stefan Halper, Josef Mifsud, Sergei Millian, Sidney Blumenthal, Cody Shearer, Terry McAuliffe, Jonathan Winer, John Podesta, Huma Abedin, Anthony Weiner, Cheryl Mills, Heather Samuelson, Jake Sullivan, Robbie Mook, Robert Mueller,, Andrew Weissmann, Peter Kadzik, Rachel Brand, Matthew Axelrod, Mary Jacoby, Preet Bharara, Josh Campbell, Jennifer Palmieri, Sir Andrew Wood, Robert Hannigan, Alexandra Chalupa, Michael Sussman, Dimitry Alperovich, Crowdstrike, Fusion-GPS including Glenn Simpson,
And Perkins Coie, including Marc Elias,—falsifying intelligence—the single greatest disinformation campaign in U.S. history—an attempted overthrow of the United States government in 2016, the sitting President in 2017 and the overthrow in 2020. And Christopher Wray.
📝 In other words: all three are fully applicable here.
Treason: The crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to overthrow the government or wage war against it.
Sedition: Language or conduct intended to incite rebellion, insurrection, or resistance against a lawful government. It involves stirring up opposition or hostility toward the government with the aim of disrupting or overthrowing it.
Conspiracy: A secret agreement between two or more people to commit an illegal act or to achieve a lawful objective through unlawful means. In law, the agreement itself can be a crime, even if the intended act is never carried out. https://t.co/15yyGCCVGj…
Joe Rogan dies of laughter when openly gay comedian Tim Dillon goes off on the insanity of Pride Month:
DILLON: “Why do the Padres have to wear gay uniforms for Pride Month? That doesn’t make any sense.”
ROGAN: “😂😂😂 What are they wearing? What happens when they play in Dearborn?”
DILLON: “It’s not going to go well. As a gay person, I’ve never said that I need the Padres to be gay too.”
ROGAN: “People have been taught that thinking for themselves might make them racist, sexist, or homophobic, so they’re afraid to question anything.”
DILLON: “Why is Chase Bank gay? Why’s Chobani Yogurt trans? Does this give people healthcare? Does this make you happy? What’s the point of all this?”
ROGAN: “It makes some people happy.”
DILLON: “It actually makes more people angry. That’s why gay marriage has lost 11 points in support. It’s annoying. Why is my bank gay?”
ROGAN: “😂😂😂”
DILLON: “I just want to know when my bank came out as gay. I’m fine with it, but I just wish someone would’ve told me. This doesn’t make anyone’s life better.”
ROGAN: “It’s a very confusing time for children today.”
DILLON: “It’s just virtue signaling garbage that ends up making people hate that community. They’re not going to gain support by shoving a worldview down everyone’s throat.”
🚨 BREAKING: TRUMP UNLEASHES TOTAL WAR ON THE GOP TRAITORS! 🔥
Senator Tommy Tuberville just dropped the bombshell: President Trump stormed into the Senate GOP meeting and delivered a FIERY halftime speech straight from the locker room of champions!
Trump looked his RINO enemies dead in the eye and ROARED: “You stabbed America in the back with that War Powers Resolution while we were negotiating with Iran!”
The room was shook.
Now Trump is DEMANDING the SAVE AMERICA ACT — Voter ID, Proof of Citizenship, END election theft FOREVER, and NUKE the filibuster so we can finally secure our Republic!
These spineless RINOs and closet socialists aren’t fighting policy… they’re fighting TRUMP because they HATE him more than they love America.
This is the moment.
No more games. No more betrayal.
Are you with President Trump in this fight, or are you standing with the cowards?
The midterms are coming. The Republic is on the line.
RT if you’re ready for TOTAL VICTORY! 🇺🇸💪
#Trump2028 #SaveAmerica #DrainTheSwamp #MAGA
Absolutely LOVE this. REP. Harriet Hageman is spitting fire and dropping facts:
“Cisgender is a MADE-UP word. It means NOTHING. Do NOT call me cisgender. I am a woman.”
“All you need to determine s*x is a cheek swab. XX or XY. Boy or girl. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.”
This woman's message needs to go EVERYWHERE!
#lawenforcement
🚨 Gavin Newsom’s wife was laundering herself so much money from her NGO she was actually in the top 5% for pay from all charities in the entire nation
But that’s not all, Gavin Newsom “bought his $3.7 million Sacramento estate, it was done through an LLC, but that LLC doesn't seem to have appeared on his tax returns — There’s a lot of questions”
“He’s released at least partly to journalists in closed-door viewing sessions, his tax returns. And if you look at that, his income, it's about $1.2 to $1.4 million a year. And it just doesn't add up for all of his expenses. He's got massive mortgages, $625,000 in mortgage payments and he's got at least $1 million in living expenses, and the two just don't add up”
“When I had a look at Jennifer Newsom's charity, I found that she was paying herself since 2012, $3.7 million. And this is a lot of money when you look at the amount that the charity brings in. It's sort of $1-$1.7 million a year. And she's paying up to a third of that to herself and her own company—$300,000 a year.
Now, I did a bit of data analysis looking at what charities that size usually pay their executives, and she was in the top 5% of all charities in the nation for pay”
In the video I included more instances where Gavin Newsom laundered money to his wife
- $1 million to block a casino project
- $5 million to an office for his wife that he created
- He sent $300,000 from his donor PG&E to his wife’s NGO
And more, it never ends. They need to go to jail