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
Leon Saves The Day - So Why Are Liberals Protesting THEIR (EV) Guy??
Two NASA astronauts were stuck in space for over eight months—on what was supposed to be an eight-day trip. Now, thanks to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, they’re finally coming home. But why did it take so long? And why are extremist protesters showing up at Tesla factories?
This episode of Whiskey & Donuts dives into the strange new world where political tribalism trumps common sense. The man who made electric vehicles cool is being boycotted by the very people who champion green tech—because he’s not in the “right” political tribe.
We break down:
🔹 The White House EV Summit that snubbed Tesla
🔹 California’s war on businesses that dare to leave
🔹 Why SpaceX’s earlier rescue offers may have been ignored
🔹 How politics now outweighs public good—even in space
If you’re ready for raw, unfiltered conversation that cuts through the noise, hit play. Whether you agree or not, we speak the truth—even when it offends.
Subscribe, follow, and pour yourself another round of straight talk.
so, john, happy saint patrick's day, my friend, how are you and your kinfolk doing? We're good and to work, oh, going to work, so no, uh, you't found the. You haven't hit the pub yet. No, although it is still early, your time. What time is it where you are today, john?
Speaker 2:It is 10 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1:Oh, early morning On a Sunday going to work, Working man. You know we love that. On this podcast we talk about work, but days off, what's that? We're small business owners.
Speaker 2:Right, we don't get days off. I think as business owners, you get a lot of days, you don't get paid, but you don't really get any days off.
Speaker 1:Man, let me tell you. So a lot's been going on. A lot's been going on. Let's jump right into it. Leon. Leon has got a plan to save the astronauts. What's going on with that? I saw that floating on my social media this morning. What do you know about that?
Speaker 2:Say it. Well, I know that he missed the first launch date and then I woke up this morning and I guess he didn't miss the second one. And I guess he didn't miss the second one. So yeah, they were boarding the space station this morning to save the people that your boy left up there in space for a year.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine that?
Speaker 2:No, that's pretty crazy. I mean they've been there a long time. I heard they were only supposed to be there for like eight days. That was like almost a year ago. So I want to know how those people survived up there for as long as they survived up there, when they only took enough stuff to be there for eight days.
Speaker 1:So I have to imagine that there are provisions to be there for an extended period. That has to exist right.
Speaker 2:I would imagine.
Speaker 1:Good thing. So what I'm understanding is that they successfully docked at the International Space Station today, like you said, to get NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back. They've been there since June of 2024 due to delays with Boeing's Starliner capsule, so Boeing is screwing us again. Is that what I'm understanding here?
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I'm not sure the whole reason why they ended up stuck there. I just know that they ended up stuck there.
Speaker 1:Can you imagine what that's like? I mean, that's just.
Speaker 2:Well, and I do know that the previous administration shut Elon Musk down when he said that he would go get him and the Biden administration said no. So you know. Now here we are, almost a year later, and Elon Musk is still the guy going to go get him. So, it's your belief Go ahead.
Speaker 1:So you believe that the previous administration left two American astronauts in space because they didn't want Leon to get the credit for it? Is that what you?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know why Biden did it. I just know that Elon had offered the Biden administration the same thing he offered Trump. He said that he'll go get him and the Biden administration shut him down for whatever reason I don't. There may have been a good reason why. I don't know. You know, I don't even know if Elon had sided with Trump at the moment that the Biden administration shut Elon down on that. So I don't know. I don't know what the whole story is on that. I just know that the Biden administration left him up there.
Speaker 1:That's the reality the Biden administration left them up there. That's the reality. That's interesting because Musk Leon is saying that he made that offer that you're describing, but that the Biden administration wouldn't allow it. But then NASA is not, you know, confirming or denying, or they're not publicly commenting at all regarding political interference. But here's my question it's space, it's outer space. To my knowledge, nobody really has land rights or anything in outer space, do they?
Speaker 2:I don't know and I don't know. I mean, it's the International Space Station, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, maybe another country stepped in and said, hey, no, I don't know what the deal was with that, I just know that that's what he said. And now he's there getting them. So but that kind of goes to what we were saying, like if Donald Trump cured cancer, the left would find a reason to not accept that. And so now they've kind of done the same thing to Elon right. So you know, he goes and he saves these astronauts and these people are going to what? Crucify him for it? Because he went and saved two astronauts stuck in outer space for eight to ten months. Kind of crazy.
Speaker 1:That is crazy when you think about. So they've been there what? Over eight months at this point. So June yeah, june to now would be over eight months. And, like you said, it was initially planned for eight days. I can't, I don't want to be anywhere longer than I have to be. I definitely don't want to be anywhere where I can't get back to my couch Right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's not like being stuck in the next town.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, that's not like being stuck in the next town. You know what I mean. Right, there is no way home for you where you're at.
Speaker 1:This is crazy. So, as of today, the latest report that we have from NASA is that they are alive and well, so the SpaceX crew did arrive, and so they're going to relieve Wilmore and Williams and get them back to earth. They're scheduled to return on the 19th, so that will be something that we'll be watching here over the next several days. I'm sure they'll have some great stories to tell.
Speaker 2:Or they were really bored up there.
Speaker 1:What's interesting. So I didn't you know. I'm not sure how far away. I've never known a lot about the ISS, but it said it takes only they can get back in as fast or in as little as 12 hours. Did you know that?
Speaker 2:I did not know that.
Speaker 1:I thought it would be a little bit longer, like at least a day, but they said between 12 and 24 hours. They should be back on Earth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is kind of cool. It's like a drive to disneyland right on.
Speaker 1:So you know all this on the on the musk thing, as we love talking leon has been like one of our favorite topics on our show. Um, what is going on? People are are boycotting tes people who you know a lot of people aren't even going to buy Teslas anyway, but that's beside the point. They're boycotting Tesla, they're vandalizing Teslas. That's happening as like a show of anger or outrage against Leon Musk specifically, but they're going even further than that. I understand you mentioned something earlier when we were chatting about displaying flags.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, these crazy sons of bitches. They got swastika flags out in front of the Tesla, the Tesla plants, like, and that's you know. They've come full circle. Crazy. Now Can you imagine if, like, one of the proud boys stepped out in front of, like, the prius plant and was like, oh, I'm gonna put a swastika on my flag and stand in front of that protest. The racist shit that would be going on. And now all the people that are screaming racist are the ones out there with the damn swastika flags calling Elon, whatever. It's crazy. You guys have gone completely, batshit crazy.
Speaker 1:Here on Whiskey and Donuts, we get right into it, we sip straight. Truth man, we just we call it like it is and you know, my issue with some of the some of the protest is that, as you've mentioned, you know, several times, as you astutely noted, he was a poster child almost for one of the left's greatest initiatives, which was what they want electric cars and, as a matter of factia went so far as to come up with the electric car man. They said something I forget exactly. I want to say that all new, or some like really high percentage of new cars had to be evs by the year. Was it 2035?
Speaker 2:Is that what they had said no 2025. There will be no, well, and I think they changed that, but it was 2025. They changed it 2035.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was 2025.
Speaker 2:There was going to be no new gas cars sold in California.
Speaker 1:Which is crazy. 100%, not a quarter, not half, not even 80%. 100% of new passenger cars, trucks, suvs, must be zero emission electric. What are we even thinking?
Speaker 2:Well, we don't have the infrastructure for that. First of all, like you can't do it, not even close, not even close, not even. I mean, hey, I like the people that like electric cars, but you know, I like my truck.
Speaker 1:And for you know for the last, when did? When was the first? When did we see the first Tesla roll off the assembly line? Do you remember?
Speaker 2:that it's probably been 20 years now, hasn't it?
Speaker 1:Was it in early 2000s? I'm going to say mid-2000s, so like maybe 2005, 2006. So the first one came out, and so in the late 2000s, the late aughties, people were starting to grab these Teslas. There weren't a lot on the road, but they were really cool and they were really quiet, and I said immediately I want a Tesla, I'm going to get. One Problem was I didn't have a lot of driveway space, no garage space, of course, so you would have had to replace one of the main vehicles, course, so it would have had to replace one of the main vehicles, but you know they. They came out then with the uh. The model s came out a few years later, like 2012, and that's when we started seeing a lot of teslas on the road.
Speaker 1:So over the past decade plus, the tesla market has really grown, and so what happened as a result? Other automakers were like we need to get into the EV market. Right, there was. I mean, john, you've been around as long as I have. You've been in California longer than I have. Was there another automaker producing EVs prior to Tesla on a mass scale?
Speaker 2:No, nothing. There was no full-blown electric cars before tesla. You had the hybrids, you had like the prius, you know that crap. But no, no, full-blown electric cars like he kind of. Really he nailed that market and they weren't bad. They're not a bad looking car I mean, I wouldn't own one, but they're not bad looking. They're faster than shit.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that that that man, that takeoff speed is something right. So, uh, so we talk about, you know, mass production in the ev space and tesla really created that market. But it it isn't so much that not it is, it is so much that Tesla created it. But what happened? As a result of Tesla creating that market, the left goes all in on its endorsement of Tesla and what they've created. For sure they go. So all in that they're telling you, the individual consumer, that if you want to buy a new car after 20 I think you said initially 2025, 26, but but now 20 to 2036 for sure that it has to be an ev. It must be an ev, a market that in the uS didn't exist before Tesla.
Speaker 2:I think there. Also, when Biden became president, he did some EV summit at the White House. This might go to why he said no to him going to the space station, but he didn't invite Elon Musk to that whole thing. So it was like Ford, chevy, Dodge and whoever else had just jumped in the EV market in 2020. And he invited all of the big three but then didn't invite Tesla to that. So you know what the Democratic administration that was just in office had against Elon before he went to Trump's side. But there was definitely something.
Speaker 1:It's interesting that that was August of 2021. I just had to look it up here really quickly. The president at that time hosted an EV summit At the White House to promote the adoption of EVs and set ambitious targets for their integration into the US market. However, tesla was not invited. Now, what was given as the reason for Tesla not being invited was that they have a non-union workforce. Does it matter, john?
Speaker 1:I had not read this until today and I have to say that I am absolutely perplexed by the decision, because it goes to what you and I talked about a short time ago, which is that I don't care what you feel about Leon's politics, which is that I don't care what you feel about Leon's politics. He and his company were responsible for transforming the landscape in a way. That number one made EVs cool and available and really made them a thing, and this on the left, is perfectly aligned with what you say you want with regard to green energy and green living, and we're going to say that, okay, because of the workforce being non-union, you don't get to go to the summit when your company is the one who created the whole freaking market to begin with.
Speaker 2:It's insanity and I mean that goes to what we were saying, like I just said at the beginning of this segment, was like, legitimately, donald Trump could cure cancer and the left would find something to bitch about and say, no, you know what I mean. So you could give the left exactly what they want, legitimately, every single, to the letter, what they're asking for, and uh, they, they would find a way to uh shit on that, you know what I mean and make it to where they don't want it all of a sudden, or whatever they wanted is now it's bad because the right did it for you and we talked about it the other day with the female presidents right, if the first female president is Republican, what are these people going to bitch about? What if it's a black female Republican woman that is the first woman president? They won't like it and they'll find some way to shoot it down and make it where it's bad Because you can't give them what they want, because when you do, they shit on it.
Speaker 1:I have to say, man, I wish I'd been aware of this sooner, but what a bad look. I mean, we talk about you. Hear me say all the time that the left and democrats absolutely suck at messaging, and we kind of agree on that. Which makes you happy that they suck at messaging, because that means that they're not going to be elected.
Speaker 2:I don't have a problem with it. I think they should just keep doing what they're doing.
Speaker 1:But the messaging is bad so often and this is the example of bad optics Like again, like we don't care what you feel about someone's politics or the fact that their workforce is non-union, they're working. Hello, those are actual jobs. Those Tesla factories were where In the US, but this guy's a pioneer. You put I don't give a shit, john, what your personal politics are. If you're the smartest person in that field, I want you in the room. And I'm not yelling at you personally. You understand that. That field I want you in the room.
Speaker 2:And I'm not yelling at you, I get it, you understand, I get it, yeah.
Speaker 1:You get that person in the room, okay. And the fact that you want to keep someone out, even though they've got the brilliant ideas which have created, you know, all the room, the space for these ridiculous mandates that you want, golly, I'm just, I'm embarrassed for them. Well, they did it to him in.
Speaker 2:California too. That's why he moved to Texas.
Speaker 1:And that whole thing, john, you nailed one there, and that's one of our points that we talked about on the last cast, which is that people and businesses are leaving Right Are leaving, you know, business hostile states and going to business friendly states.
Speaker 2:So get this. He leaves and the Democrats. Gavin Newsom writes a new bill to to tax corporate companies like Elon who leave California for like a year or two after they leave they still have to pay. It's almost like a capital gains tax when you leave California because you took your company out of California.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's not stopping there. They want to tax people. They want to tax retirees who leave California. No, that's what I'm saying you could be living in wherever.
Speaker 2:But that's what started it Companies leaving California and that revenue was leaving California and Gavin Newsom was like I'm going to tax you if you leave California. Now you're right, it's trickling down to everybody who's leaving California. It's the Democratic way. The Democrats are pushing their own people away and then, once the people way, the Democrats are pushing their own people away, and then, once the people that have been Democrats their entire lives leave, they find out that the Democratic Party never really gave a shit about them anyway, because they're trying to screw them on the way out. It makes no sense.
Speaker 1:Heard that you know I have to say I can't. You know I couldn't fault him for making that movie. I thought it was. You know it's. It's just such a it's. It's almost impossible, especially for I mean it's impossible for any business. Really, Impossible is not the right word, but it's a struggle for any business to make it in California.
Speaker 2:Right, it's hard.
Speaker 1:And you know, by making it by oh gosh boy, I'm going too deep here. So you know, the fact that they're protesting with these Nazi symbols is kind of weird, Right as a liberal, I could very not ever see myself doing that.
Speaker 2:Right, would you like? I don't have the same issues or myself doing that Right, would you like I don't? I don't have the same issues or hangups that you have. I wouldn't stand. I wouldn't stand out in front of anybody's business dress the way those people are dressing, carrying a swastika flag Like I don't. It does. It's mind boggling to me that they're trying to make it out. What they're doing is sane and what he's doing is insanity. Thank you.