The Sizzle: What the News Won't Tell You (Feb. 26, 2025)

Your guide to separating fact from fiction, featuring takes on the true public success that is DOGE, Dan Crenshaw's phony bravado, and the encroachment of a nanny state in Arizona thanks to a GOP Rep.

Welcome to the latest installment of The Sizzle, which provides a deeper assessment of what the news won’t tell you when rattling off typically deranged headlines and untruthful narratives. These musings cover items and stories making the rounds in the news as we approach the end of February:

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I. DOGE Success Gives More Reason to Ignore Media Efforts to Demoralize

Commanders of every army in history have taken note of troop morale, and most of the time, it isn’t because they were particularly fond of their troops’ various vices, habits, or perceived need for something fun to do. Sailors have been let loose in port for millennia and even George Washington distributed shots of rum because every military boss in history knows what happens when men in uniform on extended duty get bored.

It is also critical to put on your OPFOR (opposing forces) cap and think about what you would do if you were your opponent. Right now, there are so many wins and agenda items being checked off, a day without a major achievement being announced feels like a major letdown by comparison. We’ve gone from watching Joe Biden pardon his entire crime family to Trump visualizing a signed peace agreement in Ukraine and announcing border crossings are down 91%, all in under 6 weeks.

If I were involved in legacy media, which is being nudged out the door even with the 24/7 Trump coverage boon underway, I would be busy telling sob stories about what the DOGE audits and cuts are doing to families that voted for Trump, and how just a month in, they regret their vote for him and wish they could go back to the good old days of surrendering billions in weaponry and equipment to primitive cavemen and blaming white people for every failure in the Western world.

A Harvard Harris poll found that 72% of Americans support the Department of Government Efficiency, including 58% of Democrats who understand the government abuses the citizenry in the way it taxes and spends our money. What a surprise – with so many positive things, the recent demoralization you may have felt is nothing more than a reprisal of the 2017 chaos narrative meant to make people believe the Trump administration is anything less than a well-oiled machine that knows it has four years to make maximum change. And yes, I will concede to you that there will be collateral damage, and good people and fellow Trump supporters have and will lose jobs over these cuts. There is simply no other way to trim back the out-of-control government than to dig with a wide shovel; the good news is, if this applies to you, there is life after unemployment.

Ignore the media, just like you did if you were reading this journal during the 2024 Election campaign, and suddenly you’ll be happy again.

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II. Crenshaw Goes 1800s Style Against Carlson