JWSP

Alex Midway and Eric Halsey
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Politics
  • Weekly

John Wayne's Surge Protector podcast is two guys discussing the world around us on a twice weekly basis. We try to look at things that we think are huge deals and sometimes those items are also flying under the radar for a lot of other media channels. Having known each other for many years some of the jokes you hear may not come off as jokes. Keep listening and you will get in the loop soon enough as well. We have a link to leave any feedback in most of the episodes so don't hesitate to reach out. 

  1. 4d ago

    Alaska Is for Sale

    This week’s “Who Said It” is a stock prediction with a lot of zeros in it, and the confidence level is something to behold. By the end of the intro you’ll know who said it and why they’re so sure they’ll be laughing last. Tesla and SpaceX both slipped for reasons nobody can name, and we circle back to last week’s participation trophy now that Google’s numbers are in. Russia hit a busy train platform in Dnipro this week, and we say plainly what that is. Then we head to Alaska, where there’s an election, an incumbent, and somehow two men named Dan Sullivan. The President has strong feelings about the ballot, the DOJ got a call, and the state’s own Republicans have a response you’ll want to hear. We also follow the money on an Alaskan gas project and find a very familiar duo pitching it to a very familiar Russian. Brazil’s election loser landed in Miami with the whole family, and the story has a few echoes you’ll recognize. Netanyahu is pointing fingers at Qatar, which puts Trump in an awkward spot with two very different reasons to pick a side. Microsoft is offering buyouts to 60,000 employees after a record year, and we compare the language to another recent bit of creative phrasing from Washington. With Election Day around the corner, we look at the final-stretch political ads, including a nonprofit’s attempt at a dramatic reveal that you have to hear to believe. We close with the feel-good story of the week. A hacking group says it has something of DHS’s that DHS has been very interested in having of other people’s, and their explanation is five words long. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    Alaska Is for Sale

  2. 6d ago

    Fortress America (The Acronym)

    This week’s “Who Said It” is a pretty good description of what a hawkish Senate should sound like. Once you hear who said it, you’ll see why it works so well as a setup for everything else. Tesla jumped on an analyst upgrade, and Eric has some strong feelings about how that’s legal. SpaceX ticked up on a tale of two headlines about the same $40 billion, and the contrast says a lot about who’s writing them. Elon also has some timely advice for companies that depend on one kind of revenue, which is a funny thing to hear from the guy who makes a popcorn robot. Starlink is back in Ukraine, and suddenly nobody in Washington remembers being involved. Elon has also found some sympathy for a very specific group of people on the battlefield, and we fact-check it. Then comes our deep dive into a satellite story from October 15th that involves a Finnish company, a Russian spacecraft, and a collision warning that went out to exactly one side. We connect it to a new military project and a very interesting job title, and you can decide how comfortable you are with the whole picture. Zelensky is offering compromises, Russia keeps adding to its demands, and we get into the neighbor and the trash can analogy that has been waiting a long time for a reply. Back home, the cost of the Iran war is out and it gets some uncomfortable comparisons. Texas households are getting some very strange mail from a company that turns out to be less than it seems. The military is fast-tracking a new painkiller from Singapore, and we ask what happened to all the “we don’t know what’s in it” energy. Dan Bongino wants you to stock up on water and batteries, and Hegseth has a new acronym that makes the case for it better than he does. We close with the feel-good story of the week out of Germany, which involves a famous mountain retreat and a fire. We also have an alibi for the suspect. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    Fortress America (The Acronym)

  3. Oct 22

    Humanitarian of the Year

    This week’s “Who Said It” comes from the Ohio governor’s race, where one TV ad has the media and the Democrats very worked up. Once you hear who’s defending it, you’ll see why we opened with it. Tesla’s earnings were a near-miss that the market treated like a win, and the Roadster’s “flying” demo didn’t land the way Elon hoped outside his own bubble. The preorder page has three trim levels, and we read you the specs, including one that’s invite only and one that comes with a very interesting description of its features. SpaceX posted a quarterly number that sounds amazing until we do some math on how long it would take to earn back its valuation. The Starshield story also keeps getting bigger, and we have thoughts on what happens when so much of the military depends on one very moody billionaire. In Russia news, the administration is thanking Putin for a prisoner release, and we go through the details of the man who was freed and the condition another American was in when he came home. The word “humanitarian” gets a real workout. Senator Tillis is asking questions about Starshield and the missing Patriots, and the Energy Secretary has found a new way to clean up a sanctioned tanker fleet that sounds a lot like a video game cheat code. Back home, 33 Americans were detained during an olive harvest in the West Bank, and the Senate vote on getting answers about it broke down in a way you can probably predict, with a couple of exceptions. A campaign ad in Ohio features a family member and leaves out a very important piece of backstory. A viral voting story out of Tennessee has some people asking questions, and we give you the one piece of advice that matters either way. We close with the feel-good story of the week, in which the BBC is not folding like a cheap umbrella and Trump has until December 11th to explain himself under oath. The discovery requests are something to behold. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    Humanitarian of the Year

  4. Oct 16

    To Russia, With Hate

    Episode Summary: This week’s “Who Said It” is a message to Ukraine that is equal parts hype speech and battle cry — and once you hear who said it, you’re going to want to put it on a motivational poster immediately. Tesla drops heading into the Roadster reveal tonight — a car that requires a $50,000 commitment before they’ll even tell you the price. Elon promised excitement but not success, which is either deeply honest or deeply concerning depending on how much you just wired. SpaceX keeps sliding and a French competitor just got a very interesting bump that we think tells you something about where Ukraine’s loyalties may be headed. The energy ceasefire lasted exactly as long as it took Russia to hit another power plant — and the retaliation that followed involved some very satisfying footage out of Rostov and Ryazan. But the week took a darker turn when Starshield got throttled in a way that grounded Ukraine’s fastest drones right in the middle of active operations. We walk through exactly what that means on the battlefield, how Musk clarified his own role in it, and what it says that the order came from the top. Kash Patel showed up in Moscow this week and tweeted something that we are going to read out loud very slowly. Kushkof met with European delegates in Miami and floated a proposal involving frozen Russian assets that is so brazen we had to read it twice to make sure we understood it correctly. Peskov gave Zelensky a compliment. We explain why that is the Diddy cameo of diplomatic signals. The White House press secretary may or may not have passed the bar exam — she was asked which state, said China, and the rest is a very weird Google rabbit hole that we went down so you don’t have to. Jerry Seinfeld had a rough night in Chicago and handled a protester in a way that his own show’s character would have done better. Shane Gillis may have been doing guerilla marketing on SNL and we’ll let you decide how you feel about that. And we close with Taco Bell ascending to its rightful place — because KFC just switched from Pepsi to Coke, the last logical argument against Taco Bell’s supremacy has crumbled, and we are living in historic times. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    To Russia, With Hate

  5. Oct 14

    The Bots Went Quiet

    This week’s “Who Said It” is about the Houthis, Iran, oil prices, and the words “NOT NICE” — and once you find out when it was written and who wrote it, the Russian diesel deal that dominates this episode is going to feel like a very specific kind of déjà vu. Tesla is flat and Elon is very concerned about Waymo hitting pets — we note what he chose not to mention about Tesla’s own track record with strollers at intersections. SpaceX dropped after a Chinese memory chip breakthrough threatened the AI data center trade, and we walk through what that actually means for a company whose valuation lives or dies on that ecosystem. Ukraine hit Yandex — Russia’s Google — four times across four different regions, and something very interesting happened to the bot accounts, the AfD support numbers, and Elon Musk’s engagement metrics immediately afterward. We are not drawing conclusions. We are simply presenting the timeline. Trump announced a Russian diesel deal that will supply America for approximately 2.32 days — we did the math so you don’t have to. A tanker called the Minerva Zen left St. Petersburg on September 22nd and is currently sitting off the US coast. Six senators are objecting. Congress is home until November 9th. Trump also declared an “Energy Ceasefire” on Truth Social — and within two hours Russia had hit a power plant in Kharkiv. Ukraine has held up their end. Russia has not. We note who got blamed anyway. James Talarico had the flu, which became a 47-second AI-generated phone call, a White House deputy chief of staff posting conspiracy theories, and a suspension on X for the person who debunked it. Kassy Musgraves got involved and said something about a dog that we need you to hear. Iran’s foreign minister responded to Netanyahu with a list that starts with Hamas and ends somewhere that made the entire internet stop scrolling. Susan Collins accidentally ran her Maine attack ads in Oregon for four days. A man on bail for child rape is running unopposed for police chief in a state that should surprise nobody. And the Pentagon just announced they’re broadcasting an execution — we let Markwayne Mullin explain why that’s an American value and we let that sit right there. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    The Bots Went Quiet

  6. Oct 9

    October 8th and Every Day After

    This week’s “Who Said It” comes from a Trump donor — and once you hear exactly what they said and why they’re saying it now, it’s going to reframe every story in this episode about who this administration actually works for. Tesla slipped slightly on a comparison article that manages to gush over the more expensive option anyway, and SpaceX dropped for reasons nobody could identify — which at this point is just Tuesday. We have a grocery store math problem that ties it all together. Ukraine just redirected two hypersonic missiles into the Dnipro River using an electronic warfare system from a startup that didn’t exist before the war — and we explain exactly how you hack a missile traveling a mile per second. Residents in Kyiv got their GPS rerouted to Peru in the process. The Bars drone has a new job, production is at 2,000 units a month, and the Germans helped build it — which is a sentence that would have sounded insane in 2021. The reason the peace deal hasn’t happened has been identified: Ukraine won’t agree to give Russia everything Russia wants. Jared is reportedly frustrated. We have the full breakdown of his investment portfolio, his Gaza rebuilding plan, and the Qatar brothers — and we’ll let the audience decide whether “peacemaker” is the right word. Mamdani marked October 7th in a way that made Republicans furious and made us think about what actually happened on October 8th and every day after. Pete Hegseth showed up to a press conference with a new logo, a very specific suit cut, and a speech style that we are going to describe very carefully. He also ran with some Marines in San Diego and we have thoughts about where he was in the formation. A British banker who connected the Commerce Secretary to the Epstein files using Ctrl+F was found dead outside Bangkok, ruled a suicide. The commerce department found no wrongdoing. We’re not saying anything. We’re just noting the timeline. A former cop in Texas stalked his ex-girlfriend 25,000 times using department equipment and got five years — the feel good story of the week, relatively speaking. The US has lost 81 aircraft worth up to $3.3 billion in the Iran war. Fuel economy standards just got quietly slashed. And Brian Mast tried to slip a passport revocation bill through Congress that would have made your political opinions a travel document issue — we explain who Brian Mast is, what he was wearing on Capitol Hill after October 7th, and why those two things belong in the same sentence. Mattis Quote:  "I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f'k with me, I'll kill you all."  Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    October 8th and Every Day After

  7. Oct 7

    The Manta Ray Table

    This week's "Who Said It" is about gas prices, refineries, blue states, and Ukraine — and the creative geography involved in that explanation is going to set the tone for everything that follows about how this administration talks about energy. Tesla jumped and the most credible theory involves Elon unfollowing someone on X — we explain the relationship, the timeline, and why four secret children and a perjury allegation make this one of the more complicated breakups in recent memory. SpaceX ticked up too, and we eventually found the actual reason, which involves Taiwan and semiconductors and is considerably less dramatic. Ukraine has now knocked out half of Russia's refining capacity — and while Trump is blaming blue states and Ukraine for fuel prices, the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve just hit its lowest level since 1982. The EU opened their strategic reserves after being threatened into it. We note where that leaves everyone if this conflict escalates. The New York Times dropped a story about Kushner and Witkoff quietly negotiating to acquire Russian oil fields as part of a peace deal — and once you map out the Albania real estate connection, the Qatar brothers at the inauguration, Kushner's defense investment portfolio, and his $2.4 billion Gaza rebuilding plan, the phrase "conflict of interest" starts to feel very inadequate. Russia's sovereign wealth fund chief called Jared a Peacemaker with a capital P and a dove emoji. We have thoughts. Pneumonic plague showed up in Siberia and Trump immediately offered to help Russia — the same administration that spent years telling us to distrust doctors. Ukraine shot down a jet-powered drone using something that has never been used for that purpose before, and we're going to make you guess what it was. Mamdani moved 10,000 families off the childcare waitlist and Fox News is reportedly doing fine. The B-1 Lancers pulled out of the UK base after five terror suspects were released on bail — and what replaced them in the region tells a very different story about what comes next. Kristi Noem spent her last days at DHS buying planes at prices that made aviation experts visibly uncomfortable, from a donor who somehow didn't know her name was on his website. And Dennis Hastert died — and we say exactly what needs to be said about that. If you are wondering about the album art this week that's the inside of Trump's jacket at one of his rallies. Make sure to outsource all your maga rally fits  In case you want to check in on the Strait of Hormuz ship traffic, the link is below Strait of Hormuz Ship Monitor | Live Tracker & Oil Flow Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    The Manta Ray Table

  8. Oct 2

    Furries in the Cockpit

    This week's "Who Said It" is about Islamist tendencies, radicalization, and a pretty good clue — and once you find out who said it and what they were talking about, it tells you everything about how some people weaponize a tragedy before the bodies are even counted. Tesla took out a $30 billion loan the same week European registrations jumped — and the Roadster reveal got delayed again, this time for weather, though the reason they're giving for the delay is actually kind of incredible. Elon skipped the Semi launch entirely because he was having pie at the White House with Trump and Xi, and we have thoughts about that image and what it says about priorities. SpaceX is flat but now launching data centers into orbit, because apparently gravity itself is the last obstacle to computing power. Zelensky pitched Trump a simple deal this week — stop hitting our energy, we'll stop hitting your refineries — and Moscow's counteroffer involved an in-person meeting in Moscow with a personal safety guarantee from the same man who guaranteed Prigozhin's safety. Zelensky's response was one of the great lines of this entire war. Meanwhile Russia's online image rehabilitation campaign is in full swing — we read back some 2014 and 2022 quotes and let you decide how that's going. Operation Vivaldi happened — Ukraine is taking ground back, remotely piloting old armored vehicles loaded with explosives into Russian defensive positions, and the numbers coming out of the Kursk region are significant. Ukraine also hit a McDonald's-linked warehouse in Kyiv, because Russia is running out of things that count as military targets. F-35 canopy components shipped via UPS ended up in Hong Kong. China has them. Lockheed says they're not important. We have a theory about why you don't reroute a military shipment internationally over something unimportant. Meanwhile DHS made a Brian Dawkins hype video about a migrant caravan of 600 people, got told by the NFL to take it down, and responded with a Bugs Bunny meme. Senator Tommy Tuberville took the Senate floor to warn America about furries in aviation. We are not paraphrasing. Kristi Noem filed for divorce. Tennessee needed two attempts. Trump signed a "tremendous" Arctic deal that is functionally identical to the one that already existed. And the new US passport reveal got the full Apple keynote treatment. Got feedback? We want to hear it.

    Furries in the Cockpit
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

John Wayne's Surge Protector podcast is two guys discussing the world around us on a twice weekly basis. We try to look at things that we think are huge deals and sometimes those items are also flying under the radar for a lot of other media channels. Having known each other for many years some of the jokes you hear may not come off as jokes. Keep listening and you will get in the loop soon enough as well. We have a link to leave any feedback in most of the episodes so don't hesitate to reach out. 

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Midway and Eric Halsey
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    148
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 John Wayne's Surge Protector
  • Show Website
    JWSP

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