Robbie the Fire Bernstein (3:02)

Don't care.

Dave Smith (3:03)

Yeah, obviously there will be things sometimes that kind of break through. Obviously the. The most notable stuff would be like the trucker protests were going on during COVID We did a lot talking about that. I mean, obviously it's a. This is our neighbor to the north. And it was a very interesting dynamic. I mean, really, you know, debatably, like the largest freedom protests in. In modern America. Sorry, there I go again. Making it American. But in. In recent history, and of course, the government crackdown of that, like, there have been things that are kind of interesting, and I do want to just preface by saying that, you know, I don't know that much about, like, Canadian internal politics. And it is difficult. Even though Canada is our. Is our neighbor. There is a distinct culture. There is a different politics up there than there is down here.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (4:01)

Nicer people, dumber politics. That's how I would sum it up.

Dave Smith (4:04)

Yeah. And there's some connection between those two, by the way. Right. Like, there's almost like, you know, a weakness that comes along with the. The kindness there. But anyway, what's. So if you guys aren't paying attention, evidently or not evidently, the. The liberals had a big victory yesterday, and this is. There. There's several things that are kind of interesting about this. I, again, obviously, neither one of us are nearly as fluent in Canadian politics as American politics. And I know I have been accused before, and it's probably true to some degree that I'm somewhat guilty of making everything about America. You know, there's a reason for that, though. I mean, largely, I think it makes sense. You know, I. I focus on the country that I live in. And honestly, even when I'm focusing on, like, Israel, Palestine, it's because the country that I live in is so implicated in this. In this conflict and it had, you know, like, it's, you know, it's. Number one, that just makes sense to me. America is what I really care about. I have two little children, and I do not plan on leaving this country. So, like, my children are going to grow up in this country. And what I care about much more than anything else is what kind of country they're growing up in. It's. I remember Noam Chomsky had this old line. It was something like. Which I always thought was. He was talking about how there. And this is all true, by the way, but that there was like a. You know, there was. During the Cold War, there was a ton of, like, Soviet propaganda about how racist America was. And we're talking, like, right in the aftermath of World War II. So, like, late 40s, early 50s, after, they would talk about, you know, segregation and how horrible Americans treat black people in the Deep south and things like this. Now, okay, all of that was true. You know what I mean? Like, they weren't making it up. It was a real thing. But you could also, like, look at that and be like, really? Joseph Stalin, like, that's your deal, is that you're focusing on how, as you're, you know, like, throwing people in gulags, you're talking about how awful it is. It's like there. There's an interesting game that people can play where they always want to focus on the crimes of others rather than the crimes of their own society and therefore somehow kind of like, you know, skirt their own responsibility. It's. You see this all the time. Almost everybody I've ever debated on foreign policy is guilty of this. It's all day they want to talk about Hamas or Hezbollah or Vladimir Putin or, you know, these horrible crimes that other governments commit. And then you got to sit there and be like, yeah, but, like, okay, but what is our government done? So I do think, as a, as a general starting point, it's good to focus most on your own society. But then on top of that, you know, we just happen to live under the world empire. Like, our government happens to be the most powerful government that's ever existed. So it just makes sense. In this case, with these Canadian elections, I really don't think I'm being American centric or I'm overplaying how much of an impact American politics had on this result. And I do think it's something that is important enough to, to think about. And, and, and when I say this, like, literally all of, including the. The biggest campaign ads and the victory speech were all about Donald Trump. And so essentially, from my understanding is basically this. The Liberals have dominated Canada, Canadian politics for quite a while now. And of course, Justin Trudeau was like the. The poster child of this. He was There they're Obama down to the black face. They were basically the same. And this was essentially everything, everything that you could think of during the rise of what is now known as Wokeism in America. That social justice warrior kind of democrat type. Canada was always a. A couple clicks to the left of us on that. You know, like, if we were the, you know, the transgender kind of stuff that, you know, really rose up over the last, you know, 13 years or so, 15 years, Canada was like, straight up. You know, they were having, you know, the Bill C16 that Jordan Peterson rose to fame opposing was like, mandating speech, like mandating that you have to call trans people by one of their 72 different, you know, genders or whatever they had. There were incidents that I'm sure you remember one comedian who got fined, like, $300,000 for making an offensive joke. They were always like, they were, you know, several clicks woker than America ever got. And this just kind of persisted. And it was really, it seems like Covid kind of broke this. And that Covid really gave the conservatives in Canada, like, a lifeline because, you know, the Liberals were in charge and they mismanaged everything. And this old. And it really looked to a lot of people, and I've heard from a lot of Canadians that, like, they really thought the Liberals were done and that they were going to come back. And the polling seemed to back that up. And then, of course, Trudeau resigned in disgrace. And it seemed almost like in a very similar parallel to America, in the same way that Obama kind of seemed like almost, you know, this rock star political force that was, like, so popular. And now you see Obama today and everyone just kind of looks at him as like, a scammer. Like, it's, he doesn't have that same, like, aura anymore. And it does seem, at least according to certainly the campaign ads and the victory speech last night, that what really happened here was that there was a reaction to the stuff Donald Trump's doing. And this is something that I've, I, you know, I've been reading a bit about this this morning, and again, I'm really approaching, compared to other issues that I talk about. I'm just much more of a novice on, on Canadian domestic politics. You know, not that I'm an expert on other things, but I'm. I have a much deeper, you know, understanding of some of these other topics. But basically, all these Canadian journalists that I'm reading today, they're all saying it's not even the tariffs, it was the 51st state thing. And that really Struck a nerve with a lot of Canadians. And you know how these elections work. You know, it's like if you move the middle a few clicks, that's the difference. And people in the middle seem to really respond poorly to the idea that even though he's kind of hiding behind the joke, but then keeps saying it and then says he's not joking, they really did not like this idea that they were getting bullied by this, this new American president and being talked down to in this way. And look, feel however you feel. I'm not necessarily saying that therefore Donald Trump shouldn't do something he's doing. I mean, it's, you know, I kind of am saying that, but it's quite possible that this behavior from Donald Trump just took our neighbor to the north from actually moving in a much more positive direction and sent them back into the opposite direction that even Donald Trump would want to say. So I do just think, just to start off, I think there's something, and I'll let you jump in here, Rob, and give your thoughts, but there is something in politics, this is something I've noticed a lot over the years, where almost everybody, almost everybody has a, has, has a real issue. They have trouble taking into account in their worldview that no matter what political goal you have, there will almost certainly be a counter reaction to that. And you know, there's, it's some political equivalent of like Isaac Newton's laws of physics. Like every reaction has an equal and opposite react. Like, there is just like, you know, it's like it never seemed to me that in the years of like, like woken sanity that any of these like, young social justice warriors ever thought to themselves, like, there's going to be a snapback to this. Like, if we push this much radical change this quickly, there will be a counter movement, there will be a resistance to this. And I, I think that's, that's true for liberals and conservatives, left wingers and right wingers, but I just think it's a very, because it's like, it's a higher order of thinking. It's much easier to just think about the policy you're trying to get into play right now. This is also something I've been thinking about because I'm getting ready to do an immigration debate at the soho Forum coming up in a couple of weeks. And it's one of my, you know, one of the things I think about a lot with immigration for people who advocate for like, open borders. You're like, well, what do you think the reaction to that would actually be like, you know, like, have you thought that through? Have you considered that? But it does seem to me, and at least again, this is what I'm reading from Canadian journalists and pollsters and stuff, that it does seem that, like, that's what we just saw in Canada was that there was a counter reaction to Donald Trump's tariff policy and 51st state rhetoric. Any thoughts on this, Rob? Feel free to.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (14:03)

I think Canada can vote in whoever they want because they're going to end up under Donald Trump's role anyway. So, yeah, you know, what does it matter? 51st State, I think, listen, I don't love Donald Trump's tariff policy, but, you know, if Donald Trump's lunacy pushes other countries to elect leaders to try and, you know, be more at odds with Trump, whatever. And Donald Trump does have a way of bullying people. And I'm not, listen, I'm not forecasting this to be a win, particularly in our trade with Canada. I think we get a lot of cheap energy from them, and that's where most of the Canada trade surplus comes from. And so I don't know that pushing for a change in arrangements with Canada is even a win for our country. But the way those idiots up there want to vote and bring back Trudeau or whatnot because they're annoyed with Trump, it's just, it's not on my list of criticisms of Trump.

Dave Smith (15:01)

Well, look, I certainly understand that as, as I prefaced at the beginning, Canada is not that important, but it does, it does suck for the decent people under up there that they're gonna have to live under this government again. Although, you know, that is, that is the way it works. By the way, did you see this is a kind of separate point from Canada?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (15:22)

It's such a, it's like Trump just has a different strategy for playing the game. And to, to say, hey, if Donald Trump had more diplomacy, look at what would be going on in other countries. It's like, you know, so he might, he might have lost to Canada. He might win another one. I don't know. It's.

Dave Smith (15:39)

No, that's, that's a fair, that's a fair point. On the tariff stuff. Have, did you see this, Rob? That. And I didn't even have this on my list of things to talk about today, but it just popped into my mind as we were talking about the tariff stuff. But did you see the, the back and forth between Bezos and the Trump administration on what Amazon's doing here? You know, I got to say this just because, look, when it Comes to like Jeff Bezos versus Donald Trump. My, my dog in the fight is like, I tend to want to side with Donald Trump. Generally speaking. I don't know. You know, I don't like Jeff Bezos and I really don't like him as a political figure. I think the Washington Post was tremendously degraded under his leadership. But like essentially what happened is like Amazon said that they're going to like basically show you in the price what part of it is from the tariffs. And then the White House is flipping out about how this is an attack on the Trump administration and all of this. And I'm just looking at it, I'm like, I just really don't see how the administration has a leg to stand on here. That just seems like a totally reasonable thing for Amazon to do. Like if you're enacting a policy that is forcing their prices to rise, for them to just point out this percentage of it is because of the tariff policy. Like they're putting a tax on the stuff that we're selling to you so we have to raise our prices. I mean, I don't know Rob, what's the counter to this? I'm just like, I, I, that seems totally reasonable. It'd be like objecting to like somebody breaking down the tax on your bill of anything. Would we do that with lots of different bills? And I don't see any like if, if you were furious at a hotel for saying like, oh, the room is 250 bucks plus $30 in tax and you were like just say $280. You're not allowed to say that or whatever. You know what I mean? It's like this just seems silly.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (17:34)

So I actually have a bunch to say on this. I was talking to a buddy of mine this morning and I do think that there's a great opportunity in the market right now for someone to create a Amazon like website that only sells American made products and gives consumers an opportunity to know that things are made in America. Now when it comes to Amazon, letting you know the price increases because of tariffs first is I think the regime did quite well with Amazon and that it disguised a lot of the inflation that would have existed in the market by being able to make use of cheaper foreign labor and importing goods that otherwise would have increased more substantially in price. And they might be cheaper goods, they might be goods that don't last as long and that aren't of the same quality. But I believe that foreign manufacturing has helped the regime disguise what would otherwise be a larger tariff Problem in terms of them turning around to Amazon and saying that this is what like they were. They didn't quite use the word treason, but they were using.

Dave Smith (18:34)

It was pretty strong language. Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (18:36)

Very aggressive language of them undermining the regime. I was reading this book for a while and it didn't really quite grab my interest, but it's called propaganda and it was from like Freud's, I think son or Grant Bernays.

Dave Smith (18:47)

Edward. Edward Bernays. Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (18:49)

And it's a really good book. So I read it on plane rides over the course of too long for how short of a book it was. But there was one piece in there, this was prior to the Donald Trump tariffs where he was taught where the author was talking about how to sell the American public on the tariffs are bad. And one of it was like a department store that had dual pricing of like the, with tariff pricing. And I was almost surprised that a brand hadn't done that yet and that this is a very good way to educate customers or the voting public for, hey, here's the cost of tariffs and this is what this is now going to cost you. I'm surprised that somebody hasn't done that sooner. I think that Amazon is, you know, people are trying to complain. Oh, well, why didn't, why didn't they do that during Biden's inflation? Well, two, that's not just Biden's inflation. A lot of that came from Donald Trump's policies during COVID of shutting down and sending money to consumers. That wasn't just pure Biden. And this someone has to fact check me on if you're in the business of cheap goods. I don't know that inflation is definitely bad for your business. Like, I don't know that Amazon, Right. Is killed by inflation because they're the provider of the cheaper goods and services. They might actually pick up customers and make better use of the supply lines. That I don't know that. So in other words, yeah, advertising something that actually affects their business model, which is tariffs.

Dave Smith (20:07)

Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (20:08)

It's not the same thing as them advertising price increases because of inflation. I don't, I don't see them being as that. That, that to me is not a consistent criticism. And I think just to put a point on it, the Donald Trump administration criticizing them for pointing out, hey, this new policy from the government is increasing your cost of goods. Seems like fair play to me.

Dave Smith (20:33)

Yeah, there's a lot of interesting points there, you know, and on that point about whether price inflation actually helps Amazon, I mean, I guess we'd need Gene Epstein or Bob Murphy maybe to like school on one of these. But I will say, I know this is somewhat anecdotal, but I think it gets to the point. But like, I know in, in my town where I live, I know there are three, you know, what you would call mom and pop stores that have been here for, I believe all of them were around at least 30 years that have closed in the last two years. Like, I knew there was like a shoe cobbler and there was a toy store and a bookstore. All of them closed in the last few years. And so I do think it's like, yeah, I think that's who really gets screwed by the price inflation is like, we all kind of know, like, you know, there are these kind of like nice little neighborhood stores that just don't have the economies of scale of these giant, you know, companies and they got to charge a few bucks more for every product. And typically people kind of know that, but they like supporting their local store and they think it adds to the charm of the town or whatever. But, but when you have areas of high price inflation, like when people's like, you know, if your mortgage is going up and your energy costs are going up and your car payments are going up and your, you know, groceries are going up, it just puts a lot more. People are like, yeah, if we got to get toys for the kids, I'm going to order them on Amazon because they're just going to be cheaper. You know, it's like you got to find ways to cut where you can. And you could directly see these, these small businesses just like could not, you know, figure out a way to make that work. And so at least in that example, it does seem to kind of back up what you're saying, that like, oh, no, it's good for Amazon because they're the cheap alternative. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Monetary Metals, a phenomenal company I've been telling you guys about for a while. If you own gold, you've probably been happy to see prices hitting new all time highs over this last year. But your gold can do more than just sit there waiting for the price to go up. It can also generate passive income for you. Now, because of monetary metals, you can earn up to 5% interest on your gold and silver paid in more ounces of metal. And accredited investors can even achieve double digit returns in their bond offerings. All interest payments are made in ounces of gold and silver stored in your account free of charge. Whether your metal is gathering dust at home or costing you annual storage fees, it's time to stop paying to own gold and start getting paid to own it and put it to work with monetary medals. Go check them out at monetary-metals.com to learn more about how you can start growing your wealth in ounces today. Once more, that's monetary-metals.com. all right, let's get back into the show. You know, your example or, or your point about, like, a department store doing it or something like that is. You're right. I completely agree. It's almost surprising. More haven't done it, but Amazon doing it is just so devastating because it is like the biggest goddamn virtual store that almost everybody uses now. And look again, it's like, I don't know. I think the administration is in a weird spot where they're just basically going, like, don't let people know about this bad economic policy. Don't let them know that this is the reason prices are going up. But I don't know, that to me, seems pretty, pretty weak. It's just a really weak argument. I don't understand what, like, I'm just saying, like, if you were going to make this argument, wouldn't you also have to say that it's. Again, they didn't use the word treason, but I wrote, you know, they did use very strong language. And it was like, would you say the same thing about a hotel? Every hotel room I ever got, or I think just about all of them. They always show you what the tax costs. You know, are they also, you know, like, in defiance of the state government or something like that? Because they're letting you know that this part of the price is artificially imposed by the government. Are they not allowed to let you know that? Like, even if you defend the taxes on hotel rooms, that is still what's accounting for this raise in pricing. And so why should we not know this? Like, is your argument somehow that, like, this is a good policy? You know, you're. He's. He's bragging on one hand about the revenue that it's going to generate, but then, like, you're not allowed to point out where that generated revenue is coming from? Like, this is just too nutty to me. I don't know. So I just really, it's just one of those things where it's like, it just seems like a really bad fight for the administration to pick, especially when over the years, when Donald Trump was trashing Bezos, he was doing it from the position of having the, you know, the, the moral high ground, you know, trashing the Washington Post for running all these articles about the Russiagate nonsense. There's totally just humiliating. I mean, all of them, the Washington Post and the New York Times, you know, we probably give. We probably give. Over the years, we've given, like, CNN and NBC more because they're, they're so much more egregious in the way that they would cover it. But the Washington Post and the New York Times just totally. I mean, like, severely degraded their own reputation on, on the Russia Gate stuff. Just totally. You know, like they ran with the story, too, and never. Then it was such an opportunity for either of those papers to blow the lid open on the whole thing, you know, and just be like, yo, this is all. This is all complete horseshit. It was all right there in front of us. There's no reason why me and you could do it. And nobody at the Washington Post or the New York Times could, other than they didn't want to. But. So when Donald Trump was trashing Jeff Bezos for running a fucking propaganda rag, he was doing it with the moral high ground, but now he's trashing him for letting the consumers know where the increase in prices come from. I don't know. I. I can't really get behind that. Just seems too, too ridiculous. I don't know. Okay, all right, moving on to the. Let's get into this because this is a. An interesting topic. There were articles of impeachment were introduced against Donald Trump. Shocker. This is, It's. It really is. I don't know, Rob. It's. It's. I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, but I find this kind of. Well, there's a lot of things that are hilarious about this. And before we play this video, I just wanted to be clear. I'm not going for the cheapest joke here alone. We will probably cover that, too. But there is a broader point to this. But I guess I would just preface, even before we get into this, this video, there is an unbelievable dynamic that's been at work between, like, you know, you have the, the corporate media and the Democrat Democratic Party, basically one, you know, apparatus and versus Donald Trump has basically been going on since 2016. It is amazing, amazing the ability that the, that the Democrats and the corporate media have to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's like as soon as Donald Trump does something where you're like, oh, he played it dad there, this is a weak move for him, they go, hold my beer. We will over dramatize this and make complete fools out of ourselves while doing it to the point that he'll start looking better. Like, it's just always the dynamic constantly. And so, you know, we were saying, like, yeah, you know, the way Donald Trump is going about these deportations sure does seem to be, like, the dumbest way to do it. It sure does seem to be the way that's going to get the most pushback and the least amount of illegals actually deported. Like, what the is strategy here? But then there's this. It's like to introduce articles of impeachment over the case of a guy. It just seems to me to be like, look, dude, I don't know how to say this. If tone deaf was a clip, the clip we're about to play is the personification of tone deafness. Just nothing. It's unbelievable. Like, literally, the. What is it? I sent the in a video. It was from Chief Nerd. Great Twitter account to go follow. But he. He posted this and just said, this is not a Saturday Night Live sketch. It is. Here's the video of Democratic Rep. Shiri Tanedar. Tanadar on why he's introduced articles of impeachment.

Shri Thanidar (29:47)

This is Congressman Shri Thanidar. Donald Trump has already done real damage to our democracy. But defying a unanimous 90 Supreme Court ruling, that has to be the final straw. It's time we impeach Donald J. Trump. The court said the wrongfully deported Kilmer Garcia must be allowed to return and receive due process. Trump ignored it. He ignored the Constitution. He ignored the very checks and balances that keep our democracy intact. This isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a dangerous, deliberate pattern. That's why today I introduced a resolution to impeach Donald J. Trump, outlining seven articles of impeachment. Article one, obstruction of justice and abuse of executive power.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (30:48)

I'm sorry, we have to pause.

Dave Smith (30:50)

Go ahead.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (30:50)

Who is this burn victim Spock who talks like he's an Indian muppet? And don't you need to speak English well to serve in our government? What county does this guy represent? How is this possible, Rob?

Dave Smith (31:04)

How insane is it that, like, you just can't make this up? Look, I'm sorry, again, I'm not. Like I said, I don't even know what he's saying.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (31:12)

All I'm hearing is only cash.

Dave Smith (31:16)

You buy two Slurpee, you get three Slurpee free. But, like, genuinely, like, there. Is there no Democratic strategist who went, hey, if we're going to impeach Donald Trump over The issue of immigration, where he is objectively popular, like, he's got the support of the people over. And, and, and this is the big immigration fight, and we're going to impeach him over the issue of immigration. I don't think this guy should be the front man. Like, come on, dude. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be insensitive and I'm not trying to be like a dick. And I don't like, you know, I do not look, I do not like the. Some of the kind of like, excesses of bigotry in the right wing reaction to some of this stuff. But at the same time, it's like, dude, come on. Like, it's not just first of all, and, and this is just whatever. We're comedians. We're allowed to make jokes about this. It's our only area of expertise. This is where we've been. We can make jokes about this. But it is an objectively just hilarious accent. Okay, but all right, whatever we're being told.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (32:30)

Translator for the speaker.

Dave Smith (32:32)

I'm just saying what he said in any. Like, it's just so crazy to me to have a thick accent and then be leading the charge about immigration and impeaching the president who was elected with a popular mandate to crack down on immigration. It's like, dude, do you not see the optics here? Like, it's like, how do you. I'm sorry, but like, I don't know. This is how I've always felt, but like, if I wanted to, like, say, go move to Japan and I. Let's just say the Japanese government or the Japanese culture allowed me to move there. Like, there was a legal pathway where I could go live there now. And I wanted to live there because I thought it was a better place to have a life for my family and my kids. I'm going in there and I barely speak the language. I've learned it a little bit, but I still have a thick, thick American accent. And then the Japanese people overwhelmingly were like, hey, look, you came here legally and that's fine. There's a whole lot of people who came here illegally, and we do not allow that. Like, we get to choose who comes and doesn't come, and we want the people who came here illegally to get out. And someone was like, I think it's really wrong the way they're going about doing this. You should lead the charge against this. I'd be like, no, dude, I can't lead the charge against this. Like, maybe I'll support you and your effort if I don't agree with the policy. But like, obviously I can't be the one to do that because you guys just let me in here. Like, what. This is crazy. It's absolute madness. And it really does. It kind of. It just gets to like the fact that there's a much bigger picture here, especially when it comes to immigration more broadly. And the reason why, like, immigration is, has become one of, if not the biggest issue across the west, not just in the United States of America. This is all throughout the West. Immigration is one of, if not the biggest issue. And there's a reason for that. And like, when you kind of zoom out and, and you look at it, there's look for, for many years in America, obviously, like, as people kind of know, like the caricatured version of American history is this kind of like, we're a nation of immigrants, we're all descendants of immigrants. And there is some truth to that. Like there, there were huge waves of immigration into America. But you know, like, the truth is that if you actually look at American history, it's much more like, it's much more like a chart that ebbs and flows. Like there were big waves of immigration and then there were, there were periods of time with very low numbers of immigration and essentially pre. Before 1965, I believe it's 65. Double check me on this. But I believe in the Immigration act in 1965 is what really altered like the, the way immigration is done there. It used to be before that period that the government explicitly gave favor to European and Christian countries that were immigrating here. And this is part of the reason why we had giant waves of immigration from Ireland and Italy and, you know, places in Europe and not from South America. That changed in the mid-60s. And now I, again, you'd have to go check the numbers. But for, for a long time now. I mean, immigration is overwhelmingly, I mean, I think it's 80 plus percent is like, you know, from third world countries and it's, you know, brown people of different types. Now. I'm not. Nothing against brown people, nothing against third world countries. I'm just saying, like, this is how the immigration policy changed. And the thing about it is, right, is that the American people never supported it ever, you know, in 1965, I know that Ted Kennedy, I believe, was one of the people leading the charge for the 65 Immigration Act. And the way he sold it was by explicitly saying that this will not change the racial composition of America. That was how he sold it in the mid-60s. Now he was lying through his teeth. That's not actually what ended up happening. But I'm just making the point that there's never been a time where there was a vote on this or where the American people were asked and said, like, hey, do you wish to radically and drastically change the racial and cultural composition of the United States of America? And if they ever had been, it would have been a very resounding no. And that's why Ted Kennedy had to sell this as. It's not gonna be that. Because look, think about it like this, right? So in the year we're talking about the 60s here, okay, so in 1960, the country, the, the racial dynamics of the country, where the country was 90% white, 9% black, 1% other, something right around those numbers. I mean, I have that exactly right, but it's very, very close to that. And okay, you, you essentially had a biracial country, not a multiracial country, a biracial country. And what is, what do we all know? Like, what is the biggest story of the 1960s? It's the Civil rights movement, right? I mean, like, it was already in that environment. There were major conflicts and problems that were a result of having a biracial country. Now that's not to blame anybody. That's not to say, like, and, and by the way, the black people were the victims in this scenario. I'm not blaming them for the racial. I'm just saying it is something that comes along with having more than one, but with having a non homogeneous. What am I saying? You know, with. Yes, there you go, you know what I'm saying? Like there are, there are issues that come along with that. And then if you're talking about like drastically changing the. There's issues that come along with that. And the people never supported this. No one ever said they wanted it. And in fact, we've seen just over the last four years how unpopular huge amounts of unfettered immigration is. And you know, just in terms of the optics, I'm not even talking about the case. I mean, we could get into that. You could give your thoughts on that. But just in terms of the optics of like having somebody who speaks like a foreigner lecture you about how the president who just won every swing state and the popular vote can't go through on his immigration policy. It's just like, dude, look, there is, there's a lot of dynamics going on here. There's a lot happening. But on top of all of that, right, like you could look up the, the, like census projections and stuff. Like that and like America, I think think is supposed to be a majority minority country in the next, like, couple decades. And I think ultimately we're, we're going to be a majority Hispanic country. No, that's a big change. You might be all for it. You know, you might think that's great and maybe there's an argument for why that's a good change. I don't know, to be honest, what that argument is. But, like, maybe you think that's, that's a good thing. But it is a drastic change. And for all the people who scream so much about democracy.

Shri Thanidar (40:06)

Yeah.

Dave Smith (40:06)

It says sometime between 2041 and 2046 is what Natalie just put in the chat. And that's. By the way, this is not that far off in the future. You know, as you get older, you realize, like, that time creeps up pretty quickly. But, like, even if you think this is an overwhelmingly good thing, if you believe in democracy or whatever as many people claim to, I'm just saying the people don't want it. If there was a referendum on this tomorrow, it would be an 8020 issue easily. You know, like, it is not. There has been no point where the American people have said, this is what we want. And so while you're, you're doing this, ok, and this is true, like, all across the West. I don't think there's any population in the west, any white population that's like, has a sustainable reproduction rate. Like, it's all f. You know what I mean? And like, okay, feel however you feel about that. Again, as the example that I used to use all the time was like, if you went, if you go to Italy and you were to say, hey guys, I've got some fantastic projections. Okay, Italians, listen up. Look, in the next 30 years, this isn't going to be an Italian nation anymore. Italians will be the minority here. It's going to be a mostly French nation. Isn't that awesome? I think most Italians would go, no, we don't find that awesome. We don't wish to be France. We wish to be Italy. And that doesn't mean they're racists. That doesn't mean, like, they hate French people or anything like that. It just means that, like, it's a very normal human reaction to be against that. And what you're seeing here right now, and this is a huge factor in American politics, is that, like, there, okay, at the same time as we're looking down and getting closer and closer to the projections of this drastic change, there was like, from the entire establishment There was this rise in like, anti white racialism where, like, it. In all of, like Hollywood, in corporate America, in academia, everything was about demonizing straight white men. We had these kind of like hyper affirmative action DEI policies that are just openly saying, hey, we are. We are going to. Through the force of law. We want to see more women of color in positions of power. We want to see more black people in positions of power, more Latinos in positions of power, more gay people, more trans people, like, with the force of law behind it translated, you know, in plain English, everyone except straight white men, we want to give favor to. While your demographic, which is used to being the majority, is getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Now, again, to the point that I made earlier, could you have predicted that there might be a counter reaction to that, that a movement that opposes that might rise up? And, you know, I, I guess essentially what I would say is that all of this, all of this stuff, whether it's like the declining birth rate or unfettered immigration, these are all policies like this. This didn't just happen. These are because of specific policies that were enacted intentionally by politicians. That all of this is happening and there was never a vote on it. Never a vote. In fact, every time there's a referendum at all, it goes completely in the other way. It's a Donald Trump, Donald Trump winning. You know, like, demonstrates this. Even people who didn't like Donald Trump very much just like, I'm gonna vote for this guy because fuck, you know, I don't like. And so, like, I just, I'm almost like, I'm. I'm like floored by the optics of this video about introducing articles of impeachment to Donald Trump is just like, bananas to me. The, like, this is why I said, it's like, if tone deafness was a video clip, it would be this. It's just like, read the room, man. Like, have, have some understanding of the optics of all of this. Even if you're for the policy. I don't know, Rob, anything, you want to jump in there.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (44:26)

It's the same shenanigans where, you know, you can make the argument, for example, when Donald Trump starts telling Amazon that they're not allowed to give consumers information, that that's somewhat authoritarian. But then when the Democrats come around and they go, listen, voting public, you can't have the person that you voted in.

Dave Smith (44:44)

Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (44:45)

And after all these trials and a month after the election, we're going to try and impeach them. That's also cartoonish. And the reaction you're going to get to the Democrats once again, trying to not allow him to actually orchestrate his presidency and start bogging him down with this nonsense. It's worse. It's what I was talking about the other day. The Donald Trump administration throws bullshit at you, and then all of a sudden, the Democrats and the. And the leftist media throws even bigger bullshit at you, and you're not even sure who to be more annoyed with. Stepping in now with what Donald Trump's done. There's nothing that should be impeachable. There should be no conversation about impeachment. Uh, you know, it's funny. I was going to send this to you as a topic yesterday, cuz came up with Chuck Schumer that he wasn't going to rule it out, but I was like, all right, they're not really talking about it. It's not even worth discussing. This is the first I'm seeing of someone actually putting it forward. So I think conversation from the Democrats about impeachment and impeachment right now is lunacy. And then the fact that this guy's a congressman who barely speaks English or doesn't articulate it well for me to be able to follow him, the optics of that seem, unless, I don't know, is this guy, did he cure cancer in his region? And so he's the immigration story of why we need more immigrants. Is there some storyline, I don't know about how this guy is the savior of Illinois, some area where he cured the poor, and that this is. This is why he's the person to lead the charge? Or does this guy somehow have a job in our government and doesn't speak English?

Dave Smith (46:14)

Right, right. Yeah. And I'm leaning toward the latter, although, please prove me wrong if there is some story like that. But, yeah, you know, and of course, like, this isn't in a vacuum. I mean, Donald Trump got impeached twice in his first. In his first term over just, like, pure bullshit. Like, pure. And there's things that Donald Trump did in his first term that you could argue were impeachable offenses, but the two things he got impeached for were not them. I mean, it's. It is insane. Like, he got impeached for what they called a quid pro quo with Zelensky. And the only problem with calling it a quid, a quid pro quo was that he didn't get anything. He didn't get anything. You know, a quid pro quo means I give you something if you give me something. He never got anything. He. He basically called Zelensky and kind of like, you know, it was a little like mob type shit. Like, he was like, oh, you know, I want you to look into the Bidens, and maybe you don't get these. This weapons package that I was going to send to you. And then Zelensky never looked into the Bidens and Donald Trump gave him the weapons. So, like, there was just absolutely nothing there. By the. By the way, isn't it fucking crazy that that story gets buried when it's like, oh, the story is that there was a civil war on the country on Russia's border, and Donald Trump poured weapons into it. Hey, how'd that end up working out? Oh, yeah, Russia invaded. Not so good. But that's the story there. Not that he for a second asked for the very real fucking corruption to be investigated. Like, it's just whatever, it's nuts. And then the January 6 thing was just ridiculous. Just totally ridiculous. And so now you're gonna, you're gonna impeach the guy or you're gonna, you know, I don't think this is actually gonna, you know, get. Take off, but you're introducing articles of impeachment over this. You know, the guy just got back in. He was enjoying record high approval ratings. His. His numbers are coming down now. And you think rather than let him continue to hurt himself, this is your play. It's just. It's fucking nutty, dude. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad. If you guys are interested in cooking healthier or saving money or you just want to stop eating microwavable burritos, check out Hexclad. They've got you covered. It's time to leave behind the delivery fees and that scratched up pan you've been clinging on to since college. You've probably already heard of how Hexclads has completely revolutionized pots and pans by combining the performance of stainless steel with the convenience and easy cleanup of non stick. But Hexclad's innovation doesn't stop there. Their Japanese Damascus steel knives are as sharp as they are tough. Perfect for leveling up your meal prep. Their sleek pepper mill lets you season like a pro with precision and style. Gordon Ramsay might be the toughest critic in entire world, and he used Hexclad both at home and in his Michelin star restaurants. I will tell you guys, my wife loves this stuff. They sent us a few of their pots and pans. She uses them all the time and says they're really great. So definitely check them out. And for a limited time only, our listeners can get 10 off your order with our exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com problem once again, that's hexclad.com problem. Support our show and check them out at hexclad.com problem make sure to let them know that we sent you. Bon appetit. Enjoy hexclad's revolutionary cookware. All right, let's get back into the show.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (50:04)

I was just going to say in those calls, he was slick enough to say, can you investigate crimes? You can say, can you create a crime? Can you fabricate evidence? Yeah, that's right, evidence. And then if you flash forward to the fact that the Biden administration actually ran five court cases against Donald Trump, which goes beyond just trying to investigate crimes, I mean, what they did to Donald Trump was a lot dirtier and it was with our own, you know, court system. So I lunacy of that particular claim against Donald Trump. And he did the same thing also in Atlanta where he was like, can you look in and find me the votes?

Dave Smith (50:38)

He wasn't saying, yeah, the Georgia's Right. Right.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (50:41)

Votes. He was saying, can you go look this over? I think that there was voting fraud here.

Dave Smith (50:45)

Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (50:45)

And I just need you to find this.

Dave Smith (50:47)

You could argue certainly that both of the phone calls were inappropriate, but there's nothing criminal in either of them, you know. And yeah, like, you could argue like, hey, you're getting into a gray area. When, you know, it was like a, it reminds me of the, do you remember the scene in Wolf of Wall street where the FBI guys come on his boat and he's talking to the, the FBI guy and he's like, he's like, ah, you know, it's crazy. Is like my, my brokers start at $200,000 a year. And you know, if you ever want, like, I can, I can give that job to anybody I want to. Like, if you wanted to get out of being in law enforcement and get into that, you could, you could start making money right away. And he was like, did you just attempt to bribe a federal officer? And he's like, no, no, no. If you read the law that actually is not, then he's right. That's not actually bribing an office. You know, like, now you could argue like you're kind of brushing up against it a little bit, but it's very clearly not a crime. Like, they don't get him for that in the movie because that's not a crime. You could say to somebody like, hey, Pete, this is what you make working for me, and that's what you make working for the government. What do you think? But Donald Trump didn't even come that close, if we're being honest. And yeah, just in, you know, again, with all the other stuff taken into account. By the way, the other thing which I thought was fascinating about that little detail we've talked about over the years, that it didn't come out till years later, but when Donald Trump made that phone call to Zelensky, the FBI was investigating Hunter Biden and partially dealing with his, his business in Ukraine. So it's not like the, to say that it was like, on its face, corrupt to ask for an investigation into the. Our government was investigating, too. So it's clearly they thought it warranted an investigation. And how amazing is it that there was not one leak by the FBI? You know, all these leaks, all these, you just can't help that everything gets leaked. But not that one. That one, they, they kept quiet the entire time.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (52:43)

I also don't think Donald Trump has done anything blatantly criminal in terms of not acting quick enough to bring people back that the Supreme Court asked him to try and bring back. I don't think there's any.

Dave Smith (52:57)

The Supreme Court, yes. It's not like the Supreme Court said, you're in violation of the law. He needs to be brought back right now. And it has to happen. It was much vaguer than that. Right. Like I remember you, we're kind of.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (53:10)

A step away from this conversation in that, you know, I don't know that I'm going to speak with the most clarity on this, but Donald Trump seems to be escalating these court cases in a way that you might have courts mandating something from him, and then he defies courts. And then we have a new conversation about what happens if the president is openly defying courts. And we might get there and that, that might become a conversation which is almost along the lines of what was taking place the last time, of what happens if the president does break the law. And, you know, if, if there's presidential immunity, what happens? Not that Donald Trump's doing this, what happens if he decides to predator drone a political opponent? And then the conversation was, well, there is a mechanism for that, which is impeachment. So all of this seems very preliminary because Donald Trump, I don't think, has actually defied a court order yet to have to start having the conversation about the criminality of, of the, of, of the president and whether or not, I guess, There should be an impeachment charge. This is just.

Dave Smith (54:11)

Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (54:12)

Nonsense. That's coming, like, far too early.

Dave Smith (54:15)

Yeah, no, 100%. But I just. I guess I just can't get over the, like, the optics of having this guy lead the charge. And, you know, just to be, you know, as we talked about a few.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (54:29)

Months back, character on an Indian version of Sesame Street, I can't believe that this literally real guy got a job in government.

Dave Smith (54:36)

It's unbelievable. And. Right. That's unbelievable enough, but that he's doing this on the topic of immigration, like, I just don't listen. To be clear, we talked a few months back when Vivek Ramaswamy had that viral tweet that really seemed to lose him a lot of favor amongst, like, his base. And. And he was out of Doge shortly after. We don't know for sure if those two things were related, but this certainly seems like they might have been. And I did think. While I thought that Vivek missed the mark a little bit on that tweet, I did think the backlash he received was unfair. And some of it was just, like, straight out, like, bigoted. And I don't. Like, is the background question. Oh, yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (55:24)

I just wanted to make sure it wasn't coming through the mic.

Dave Smith (55:26)

I'm not. I'm not hearing it at all. But. So, like, I did think it was unfair, the backlash he got. And, like, personally, like, as I've always said, I'm not a racialist. I don't really like racialism. I also, I'm just not pretending it's not a fact or doesn't exist, I think is stupid. But, look, I don't want. If there's any movement that doesn't have room for Vivek Ramaswamy or Sagar and Jetty or someone like that, then that I don't want to be a part of that. And I think those guys are, like, those guys have been goddamn heroic on so many issues. And so, like, I. I think it'd be stupid to, like, you know, base things off of, like, race or, you know, not even nationality, because they're both American, but you know what I mean, like, ancestry or whatever. But there's just something about having this thick of an accent and leading the charge against immigration restrictions. And I understand you could say, technically, no, he's talking about violating the court, but, like. Yeah, but what's the whole policy actually over? It just seems to me like even, you know, like, you know, like, when you were. When you're younger, sometimes people live with Like a bunch of roommates or something like that, right? Like, you'd have a place that has like six people living together, like a big apartment with a bunch of people living in it. And it's almost like, like, if one of the rooms opened up and then you asked, you were like, you know, the rest of these guys have been living here for three years. And then you were like, hey, can I rent the room? And they go, okay, sure, we're gonna need a security deposit or whatever. Come rent the room. And then you got in there and you moved your stuff in. And like, the first day you were like, guys, we got to do something about these pictures on the wall. And I don't like the TV over there. I want it to be over here. When you just immediately kind of being like, be like, hey, dude, you know, like, you just got here. We've all been here for a while, actually. How about you adjust to the way we do things and not start, like, lecturing everybody else about adjusting to the way you do things? To me, that is like basic decency and courtesy. Like, I would just think it's crazy. It's the example of me, me, you know, going to Japan and then lecturing everybody about how they have to be more inclusive for white English people or something. Like, what the. This is crazy.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (57:37)

And see if he makes more sense.

Dave Smith (57:39)

Yeah, yeah. Here, let's go back to the clip.

Shri Thanidar (57:43)

Passes to unlawful deportations. Trump defied court orders. Article two, taking away Congress's power of the purse. Trump dismantled agencies and froze funds without permission from Congress. Article three, abuse of trade powers and international aggression. He imposed damaging tariffs and threatened military invasions of our allies. Article 4, violation of First Amendment rights. He has retaliated against journalists, attorneys, and critics for exercising their right to. To free speech. Article 5, creation of an unlawful office, establishing the so called Department of Government Efficiency Doge and giving Elon Musk unconstitutional power over our government.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (58:50)

We just pause again.

Shri Thanidar (58:51)

Personal data.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (58:53)

All right, he's making a little bit more sense than I was giving him credit for, but to me, all these things are political. And I don't think Donald Trump has exerted more executive authority than previous presidents, particularly in the fact that other presidents have actually engaged in war without.

Dave Smith (59:11)

He's bombing the Houthis right now without congressional approval. But they'll never go after that because every president does it. It's so much more of a serious crime and a serious violation of the Constitution. And especially if you really wanted to play that card, dude. They acknowledge on the signal chat that this, this operation is not time sensitive, that we don't have to do this right now from the Defense Secretary's mouth, AKA translation. We could go get congressional approval for this, but we don't want to. Like there's, I mean, this is crazy, dude. So he's sharing data with Elon Musk. This is an impeachable offense. This is just nutty, absolutely nutty. And it's the, just politically speaking, it's the dumbest thing, the dumbest thing that, that the Democrats could do.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (60:08)

You know, Rob, that is on the case.

Dave Smith (60:11)

Yeah, there you go. All right, listen, guys, we're going to, we're going to have to wrap up there. We will be back with a brand new episode tomorrow. I got Dave decamp returning to the show tomorrow. Very excited for that. We'll get into it. Obviously, it'll be a lot of foreign policy conversation and I'm sure we'll bring up the. As I just suggested, what Donald Trump maybe should be impeached for sure as hell ain't this stuff. All right, thank you guys for watching. Hope to see some of you guys out in San Diego this weekend. Have a good one. Peace.