Whiskey & Donuts
Whiskey & Donuts is where sharp analysis - and maybe a shot or two of speculation - meets unfiltered conversation, tackling politics, culture, and the issues that matter with a mix of logic, humor, and straight talk. No echo chambers, no nonsense -just real discussions with a side of wit and a strong pour of common sense.
Whiskey & Donuts
The Little Boy Who Cried Woke
A bad business is blaming "woke culture" for its downfall. We talk about the case of Armed Forces Brewing Company, a Norfolk brewery that is shutting down while pointing fingers at a "local woke mob." But was that really the cause? A deeper look reveals millions in losses, unpaid taxes, and poor business decisions.
We also explore former Navy SEAL Robert O'Neill's role in the controversy, the risks of mixing politics with business, and why neutrality might be the smartest strategy. Plus, an unexpected detour into Osama bin Laden's alleged "burial at sea" - because questioning official narratives is what we do.
A must-listen for entrepreneurs, consumers, and anyone curious about the intersection of business, accountability, and culture wars.
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Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Whiskey and Donuts. I am your host, trey Scott, here with the always informative and entertaining co-host John Mack. What's?
Speaker 2:up guys.
Speaker 1:So today, john man you and your text messages man I got to tell you. Before we get into today's text thread, I want to say that there's been some buzz out there. I'm always following the buzz, trying to see what's going on out there in the sphere, and apparently there is a brewing company in Norfolk, virginia, that has just closed its door, blaming a quote local woke mob as the main reason that it has to shut down and relocate. However, when we started digging a little bit deeper, we found out that the brewery had $2.4 million in losses back in 23,. Another $1.6, $1.7 million in losses in the first half of 2024.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, they also are not paying their local real estate taxes. So I have to wonder you know, armed Forces Brewing sounds like a company that should be able to make a lot of money in a place like Norfolk, which just happens to be the home of the world's largest naval base, yet they somehow found a way to screw it up. So you know, while they market themselves as like patriotic and military supporting and all the things they've been really outspoken against, things like any, all the things they put under that quote unquote woke culture umbrella, which I don't think you really want to do anywhere, cause there's one thing I know the best politics for most businesses is no politics.
Speaker 2:For sure no politics.
Speaker 1:This guy was hoping that if he threw this out there, that conservatives would be like, yeah, that woke mob, they're the ones who did it, when in reality I don't know if you've been to Southeast Virginia recently there are plenty of conservatives in Southeastern Virginia. Southeast Virginia is one of the places I stay out of as best I can, except when I'm flying in and out, of course. But no, it's definitely a place. I mean it's very military friendly.
Speaker 2:You're talking about go ahead. I was wondering. So you noted some of their losses and some of their All of the losses, I guess, is what you noted for their business. And then you said that they're blaming it on the woke mob. When did, when did the woke mob start attacking them, I guess, right, I mean because I don't know too much about any of what you're saying. Um, I haven't looked at any of it, I'm just kind of going off of what you're saying. So did the woke mob legitimately start targeting their business at any point?
Speaker 1:no, there was. The thing is there was never any sort of like protest or boycott or organized effort to shut them down. Yet they claim to be a victim of this thing, this, this you know nebulous thing out there that didn't exist, you know uh, so it's like the jesse, uh, smollier, whatever that kid's name was kind of like that kind of like that beat up by some trumpies and that never really happened.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of the same thing.
Speaker 1:It's definitely something that you know, kind of it came out of nowhere to see the this, this sort of like blame game began flying Like whoa, you can't. This is like a lot of things that come down to accountability. He doesn't want to have any for their failures. You know, as business people, I think one of the things that's going to come out and I just want to say that this is purely speculation, not accusing anyone of anything, but I was reading social media and someone said, in their SEC filings, the company had listed, know, these items and I was like wait, what sec filings like this is just a, it's a small, it's not a small brewery, but it's, it's not a. It's not publicly traded, are they? They had done crowdfunding.
Speaker 1:Now here's what's interesting about this whole crowd they've done what crowdfunding thing. They've done what Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding, yeah, to raise money. Crowdfunding is something that was made possible during the Obama era, and so now all of these loosely regulated businesses like these guys can say use terminology, use phrases like oh yeah, we're SEC approved, we're SEC regulated, we're SEC recognized. Now, when people reference the Securities and Exchange Commission, there's a certain cachet that goes along with that, a certain authority that goes along with that. I'm thinking now that I know these guys are just a bunch of bums who took advantage of a loophole to make people believe they were running a legitimate operation. So when they spent over $500,000 a year on renting a place that was worth about a third of that, it was clear that these people had no idea what they were doing, and that's the reason they're going broke.
Speaker 2:So were they making beer or coffee?
Speaker 1:Oh, it's coffee, I'm sorry, no, no, no, I said that wrong. It's beer and they were brewing there in-house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Right, well, there's the Black Rifle Brewing Company and that's coffee. Yeah, so I didn't. I didn't know if it was like a coffee or a beer, so maybe their beer just sucked, it could be that it's got to be right.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't know, that's what they're saying locally that the product just wasn't that good. And you know the product wasn't good and you want to just like attack. You want to be on attack mode because what? What was the reason for doing that? There's no reason to. A business doesn't have to shit on anyone to be successful right or or because you failed right.
Speaker 2:I mean there's, you know, sometimes businesses just fail because the economy or you know your product sucks, or you know whatever. You don't have to start blaming people. I mean it's hard enough to do business, as I own businesses and I would hate for a woke mob to show up at any one of my businesses and try shutting me down because of my political points of view. You know what I mean. But I also, if I fail in business, I'm not going to just start pointing my finger and blaming the woke mob for doing something they didn't do.
Speaker 1:Now what's interesting is that there is a note here and apparently they took a stance that was openly anti-B-T-Q plus. Robert O'Neill is a former Navy SEAL and is one of the minority owners of the brewery, and he publicly criticized the US Navy for using a drag queen as a recruiter, saying that as well as you should the US Navy is now using an enlisted sailor drag queen as a recruiter.
Speaker 1:I can't believe. I fought for this. The problem is that he didn't stop there. He's someone who also said using social media that members of that community are pedophiles. So because he's, you know, on the board, he's a minority owner of that company. There were people who said, oh well, that is the company. He's speaking for the company when he says that, I don't know. I mean, is he?
Speaker 2:wrong, I guess right, like, if he's not wrong, then he has every right to say it. I think it goes back to what you were saying in the beginning, though, as a business owner, you need to be careful with what politics you drag into your business, because you know, if you start attacking people, then those people could very well come and attack your business. You know, teresa and I talked about it with us getting started doing this right I have, we have businesses, and I don't need to have those businesses shut down because I say something politically that the woke mob's not going to agree with.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean, indeed, we're not taking food off anyone's table. We're not doing that Right, especially not our own.
Speaker 2:And my businesses. You know what I mean. My businesses are my businesses and I don't play politics in my business, I don't businesses. You know what I mean. My businesses are my businesses and and I don't play politics in my business, I don't. You know, my daughter wanted to do some things one time with one of our, with some promoting, and I said, hey, let's scale that back a little bit. And so she did. We still supported, uh, the movement that she wanted to support, um, but we did it in our own way and we made it kind of an all-inclusive thing and that's the way that it should be.
Speaker 2:I don't have to alienate one side to support the other side. Good point, john, you know what I mean. Good point and if you make a stand on those things in business, then those things may come back to bite you in business. And if that's what you chose, then that's what you chose. You know, I choose to have everybody's money in business. I don't care, I don't care who you sleep with and I don't care who you vote for. It makes no difference to me. You know, and I've said this to my kids and I've said this to my wife and I've said this to my employees Listen. If you want to know my political point of view, come, spend all of your money in my business. Once you've done all of the things that you can do in my business, I'll take you out, I'll buy you a beer and then you can learn about my political points of view. But not until then, because my political point of view has nothing to do with you coming to my business and having a good time.
Speaker 1:There we go. I love that. It's a brilliant perspective and I have to agree with you 100%, which we should not be doing, but we are Because it's a smart viewpoint.
Speaker 2:Maybe this company deserved to be shut down for the things that he said. Taking a political stand, he had a right to say it. Those people have a right to protest it and they have a right to ban or boycott, rather a business if that that's what they see fit to do, no different than the target thing that's going on right. Those people have a right to not shop there. Yeah, you know. Those people have a right to not go buy his beer, and if that shut his business down because of his political stance, then I guess he learned a valuable lesson absolutely.
Speaker 1:I had to look up one thing, uh, just quickly there to see whether that even a true statement regarding the drag queen, because I know drag queens sort of inspire they're weird for me, but they seem to inspire animus on both sides of the political spectrum if I had to guess, I would.
Speaker 2:I would have to say and this is just a guess without doing any research I think he was probably talking about the last health secretary no, it turns out.
Speaker 1:It turns out he's talking about?
Speaker 2:was he talking about a drag queen? For sure?
Speaker 1:someone younger. Yeah, the navy appointed yeoman second class, joshua kelly, who performs as the drag queen, Harpy Daniels as a quote digital ambassador in a pilot recruitment effort program from October 22nd I'm sorry, October of 22 to March of 23. This initiative aimed to explore digital platforms to reach a broader range of potential recruits.
Speaker 1:Kelly, who identifies as non-binary, used their platform to share positive experiences in the Navy as an LGBTQ plus service member. Btq plus service member. The program, which ended in March of 2023, was part of the Navy's efforts to address recruitment challenges by appealing to diverse populations. Okay, well, so I don't really. I don't get the drag queen thing, but I don't get it. But I also don't get. I especially don't get why it would have been used for recruitment for the military why are we using drag queens to recruit people into the navy seal?
Speaker 2:I'll never understand that that's. You know he's thrown. I guess it's a different administration. You know what I mean? That this last administration did different things and, uh, and I think that's why. I think that's why, politically, we are where we are. I I think, I think there's a great divide right now.
Speaker 1:I didn't know this had happened, and so now, as a business owner myself, but also a private citizen, I wouldn't necessarily want my position on what the Navy did to.
Speaker 1:Oh boy, this is how we trap ourselves in these hard conversations Because I disagree with what the Navy did, but I don't disagree with the market saying, the market being just the regular public saying to this business owner hey, we don't like you for saying saying that therefore, we're not going to patronize your business because I want you always to always have a choice in where you shop.
Speaker 2:yeah, well, doesn't it just show you what you know? And I just said the administration like look at what, where the navy went, or where the navy was able to go over the last four years, where they've never gone. And then an old navy guy was like I don't like that, you know what I mean and it and it just goes to show you that. I mean you can have an opinion about things, but sometimes people will come back and get you and again you said that there's no evidence of the woke mob coming after him.
Speaker 1:No, I just couldn't Well. Yeah, not being reported by my sources here.
Speaker 2:So I mean, you know, maybe it was a little bit of both, maybe his business just sucked and maybe they did a little bit of stuff and got the community behind them. I have it. I find it hard to believe that the woke mob, if, if it was a popular Navy bar or military bar in a popular Navy town, I find it hard to believe, if the product was good, that a small woke mob would shut a business like that. Now we did. We shut down Anheuser-Busch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know what I mean. Exactly exactly, we're doing the same shit.
Speaker 2:They're still selling bud light. You know the people that like bud light, like bud light. So for me it was easy to not drink bud light, because budweiser is just a shit beer. I wouldn't drink it. I wouldn't drink it anyway.
Speaker 1:So you know what I?
Speaker 2:mean like those things, but if your product is bad and you're doing this thing, you know, I don't know, maybe you should have kept your mouth shut, dude or made a better beer.
Speaker 1:Or made a better beer. Apparently this. This robert j o'neill uh was one. He was on seal team six. Once they killed uh bin laden allegedly killed bin laden because I never saw a body right, I never saw a body did you allegedly I know I've never seen him.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, but I've never seen jeffrey epstein's body either. So that's hard. That's also very, very true um you know the thing, man.
Speaker 1:They said that they, what did the? What did president say back then?
Speaker 2:they buried him at sea, or something like that they dropped him in the ocean before they even like they had his body on a carrier or something. They dropped him in the ocean before they even got back to any place. Yeah, you know, you know, maybe 20 years, 30 years down the road after all these people have died that were in on it we'll find out whether or not it was true, kind of like the moon landing, kind of like the JFK thing. You know, who knows?
Speaker 1:You know we're actually coming up on. So May 2nd was when he's alleged to have been killed, and so a lot of Americans back then were like, okay, why was he buried at sea? Apparently, you know, we didn't want there to be a burial site which would allow some shrine to become a pilgrimage for him, but I'm like they could just create a shrine for him, with or without an actual body, they could do that anyway. And then the Pentagon apparently said that well, we handled his body in accordance with Islamic custom.
Speaker 1:Wait you mean putting a bullet in his head, was in accordance with custom.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:My gosh. Oh, we made sure to wash him and wrap him in a white shroud, man Right. And because tradition requires burial within 24 hours and no country was willing to take his body, we had to bury him at sea. What? This is the official story you guys came up with I really don't even know that he's not still alive.
Speaker 2:Go ahead here's what I would have done. I would I would have put so many freaking bullets in that dude's skull that it would have been unrecognizable, and then I would have just walked out of the house and left it there yeah that's just me I, I, john, I at least gotta see some body cam footage yeah, I would have.
Speaker 1:Just I mean everybody would have found his body.
Speaker 2:It would have been unrecognizable. It would have just been a big old pile of mush.
Speaker 1:I mean, there are people out there that are saying that he was captured, there are saying that and there's also people saying that he was already dead before they even got there. But a lot of people and I'm not saying I'm one of them a whole lot of people do not believe the whole burial at sea story. Yeah, it's a little too convenient, burial at sea story, it's a little too convenient.
Speaker 2:Well, we can get on to the whole 9-11 Osama bin Laden thing at some other podcast. There's a lot of shit, that a lot of fishy shit that went on with that whole thing, if you ask me.
Speaker 1:Man, this guy, I mean. So now that he's involved in a conspiracy, I have even more questions. What if it's the government that's trying to shut down his, his brewery? Yeah, well, maybe usa maybe usa we need a rimshot um sound on here. That was terrific, that was pretty good.
Speaker 2:You know, the funny thing is it's funny to listen to the right. Sometimes. You know, because they're like USA, they funded all these things. And then you know, wait till they start finding out all the fucking Republicans that were funded through USA also. You know, I call foul on all of that. I think there's just as many lefts as there are rights in the crooked politic world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there are.
Speaker 2:You ain't lying about that, we have that bet going on, that one of us is going to be right and one of us is going to owe the other one some whiskey Bye.