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Dave Smith
What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. How are you? Good, sir.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Good. But do we look like or we double downing here? I didn't get the, I didn't get the notes before the show. What direction are we going in?
Dave Smith
Well, let's, let's, let's get into it before. Sorry, go ahead.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Oh, can I plug gigs real quick?
Dave Smith
Oh yeah, yeah, plug your gigs.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I got a busy weekend. I got Raleigh, North Carolina, Hamstead, North Carolina, Myrtle beach. And then I'm off to Oklahoma City, Granbury, Texas, Shreveport, Louisiana. And the Secret Group. All the links are on port store.com except for the secret group which you can find on their website. And then of course you and I, we got big gigs coming up.
Dave Smith
Oh yeah, we got Denver Comedy Works, Cleveland Hilarities. Denver and Cleveland coming up real soon. Those are the next two and they are gonna, I, I, this is my doing Denver Comedy Works. But like all of my, all of my bros are like, it's their favorite club like Ari and Jay and all those guys always say they love Denver Comedy Work. So. And I know for years we, we have a big fan base out in Denver and we've never done show there together, me and you. So I'm very excited to do a full weekend at Denver Comedy Works. And then Cleveland Hilarities is just, that's up there in a very short list of like my absolute favorite comedy clubs in the country. So I'm very excited to be back at both those places. And then I got the comedy mothership. The best, the biggest one. So I got a lot of fun stuff coming up. Comicdavesmith.com for all of those ticket links. Okay, so what a 24 hours. What I mean, look, I gotta say, man, and I've been, you know, I've been, I've been obsessed with politics for just under 20 years. It was in 2007, Ron Paul's presidential campaign that I, I really got interested in this stuff. So it's, whatever that is. Go 18 years I've just been obsessed with this stuff. I've been podcasting about it for probably, you know, I think I've been doing part of the problem in one capacity or another for about 13 years. And then we've done it for, for me and you have done it together now for. When was it, 2016, me and you started. I think you came on the podcast.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Like eight or nine years or something, something like that.
Dave Smith
We're, we're, we're closing in on a decade of me and you doing this together. And the, I will say the last week has, it has been up there with the craziest weeks of us covering stuff. I mean, you know, there's, We've, we've. In this decade, we've seen some things. We saw lockdowns and riots and wars and types of different crazy. But this is just, this has been wild and just the last 24 hours, I mean, we were, we were recording yesterday at this time. So 24 hours ago today, the word was Iran just launched a bunch of missiles toward U.S. bases. And it seemed like this could be the, the start of a major escalation in this war. What happened in the 24 hours since is quite a lot, so we'll try to get through all of it. But of course, as you guys probably know by now, it came out there were there maybe even, I think there were. I said, I believe on the show, I read one report that Iran had given advanced warning that that was confirmed by all sides very shortly after we got off the podcast. So the Qataris, the Iranians and the Americans, Donald Trump himself all confirmed that, yes, Iran gave advanced warning so that as to minimize casualties, which ended up being zero. So they didn't kill anybody because they let everybody know exactly where they were targeting. And Donald Trump seemed to signal that he was going to take that off ramp and that that would be, you know, this would be the end of it. Okay. They, you know, they responded, but the response didn't do anything. So now we're going to move toward peace. Donald Trump then announced that a ceasefire agreement had been reached between Israel, Iran and the United States of America. The Iranians then said, we've never even been showed a ceasefire agreement, let alone come to an agreement on one. Then they were saying, yes, we will agree to a ceasefire. Then the Israelis bombed Iran again. And then Trump got very upset about that. So. Well, I guess let's just go right into. Because there's so many different angles here to cover. Sorry, go ahead.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I would only add one detail to that. Which is the cease fire, at least the way it was tweeted. In classic Trump fashion, we haven't actually seen what the arrangement was or proof that everyone agreed to it or what exactly was worked out. But in classic Trump fashion, he claimed, hey, deal's already been done. And the deal included, off the top of my head, it was 12 more hours of strikes that the Iranians were allowed to engage in and 24 more hours of strike that the Israelis were allowed to engage in. It's a little bit odd to have a cease fire but allow people to get in their last licks. That does seem like there's still room for escalations. It's odd for one party to get 12 hours and the other party to get 24 hours. And then the issue of discontent, or at least from Trump's press conference, was that the first round of bombing from Israel, I think, was the biggest one yet within the 24 hour period. And then apparently Israel claims that Iran struck him back just after the time period and so that they were then firing back on Iran. Trump claiming that that was a very small attack and that perhaps was fired before the deadline kind of speaks to the stupidity of the 12 and 24 hour periods of continuous strikes. But Trump does seem to be pretty adamant of, hey, you told me that there was one objective here which was taking out their nuclear program. That's done. I mean, he's not going to give us any proof of the fact that that's been completely neutralized. But as far as Trump's concerned, that is completely neutralized. And so there's no reason for any future escalations. And Israel needs to stop now trying to provoke a bigger fight because it's over. That seems to be where we're at. But Donald Trump's like flipping a coin where the news might change in 10 minutes and I look like an asshole again.
Dave Smith
Yeah, well, that's, that's exactly right. I mean, we, look, we have no idea right now. And Donald Trump was calling for Tehran to be evacuated and regime change a couple days ago and now he's calling for this. But he also was saying that they were negotiating a week ago or two weeks ago and then turned around and said, ah, the negotiations were just a ruse in order to trick the Iranians. So maybe this is another ruse to trick the Iranian, like, we don't know for sure. I will say that things look much more promising today than they did yesterday at this time. And, you know, I'm certain.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Sorry, to clarify one more thing. Peace in the world is More important than whether or not I look like an asshole. And the tea leaves that I was going off of was really the J.D. vance and Marco Ruby interviews where they just seem to be so flagrantly lying about not looking for escalations while taking very provoking actions such as striking the country and without giving evidence of more of a plan or the end of the nuclear program. So that's kind of what seemed to me like they were looking for escalations. But the latest indicator from Donald Trump is that he would like to be out and done with this, which is more important than whether or not yesterday I thought it looked like they were actually trying to escalate it.
Dave Smith
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The only formula approved and used by Dr. McCullough, a top freedom fighting doctor who. Who risked it all to tell the truth during COVID Head on over to TWC Health problem and use the promo code problem to get 10% off plus free shipping. Again, that's TWC health slash problem. Promo code problem for 10% off and free shipping. All right, let's get back into the show. Oh, I will, I will gladly take avoiding a catastrophe here and dealing with people saying, oh, you were an alarmist or you, you know, you dropped Donald Trump too quickly or something like that. But, you know, I gotta say, I. Again, I. Look, I don't really think we were wrong yesterday. The fact that a catastrophe may be averted doesn't mean we weren't flirting with a catastrophe. And the. The fact is that the President of the United States was screaming about regime change like, which is. Would have led to an absolute disaster. So I don't think we were wrong to be speaking up against that. You know, I've heard from people on Twitter who are like, oh, Dave, this, I thought this supposed to turn into World War Three. Where's your World War iii? And I'm like, first of all, I never predicted that this was going to turn into World War iii. I, I said that. Look, here's the thing that I think is like, it, there's a lot of stuff, I think that happened here and this is maybe one of the positives of it, but I think there's a lot of kind of eye openening things that have happened even just in the last 24 hours, like just the last day. And I'm hoping that some people see this. Number one. And I think maybe I made this point yesterday on, on the show, but now that it's happened, I think it's really important to hit this home again. Number one, there is something very revealing. Like there's a lot of information that you get from the fact that once again, just like after Soleimani was killed, except this time it's a much bigger deal. They didn't just take off, you know, kill an Iranian general in Iraq, they bombed the heck out of the country and bombed their, their like legal nuclear program. And still Iran gives advanced notice so that Americans aren't killed. Now, I'm sorry, but that tells you something about that regime. And it really, really undercuts the entire neocon premise for why we have to be in a conflict with Iran to begin with. Their whole argument is that Iran gets nukes. Iran is so evil and crazy that they will just use them because they're religious fanatics who don't care about their own survival. They're essentially a regime of suicide bombers. So if they get a nuke, they're going to nuke Israel. And then they don't even care that they know nukes are going to be flying back in their directions. That foundational claim to this entire conflict is just been so tremendously weakened at this point because you're telling me that these are suicidal maniacs. But even when their country has been attacked, you know, in a war of aggression, even when they've been attacked, they're still, they still don't want it. Which is what this is consistent with everything Iran has done for the last 25 years. They do not want it. They don't. And for very obvious reasons, of course, they don't want to actually end up killing Americans. Because if they did kill a bunch of Americans, what do you think Donald Trump's response to that would have been? It would have been total destruction of the country and that catastrophe that we were talking about. But it's a catastrophe first and foremost for the mullahs. You know, the ayatollah is not coming out of that thing alive. If we went that direction. And so actually, it seems that like most human beings, they are motivated by self preservation and that they would much rather continue to rule their country than be killed. That's how, you know, human beings tend to be. And even really, really bad people. You know, Joseph Stalin had nuclear weapons and Mao Zedong had nuclear weapons. These are amongst the most evil human beings who have ever lived. But they didn't just go and nuke another country for no reason, because even they knew that if they did that nukes would be flying back at them and then they would die. And they did not wish to die. They wished to rule. And so I. I think that is one of the first, like and most important takeaways of the last 24 hours. But if you think about it, you know, because I've had quite a few people telling me that, you know, I was wrong to denounce Donald Trump and to rescind my support for him and all of that, but I don't think I was. And I wouldn't do it any different if I could go back. You know, like, this is. Look, think about the position that Donald Trump put this country in for absolutely no reason, for absolutely no reason. He put us in the position that we were relying on Iranian restraint. You know, this country that everyone tells you is the big bad wolf is such a thing that must be confronted. And all of this. He put us in a position where it was only their restraint that allowed us to not get pulled into this war. Because, look, we all know. We all know that if Iran had killed a bunch of Americans yesterday, which they could have done, and they chose not to do that, we would have just been lighting up Tehran right now today. We would be. We would be doing a much different podcast today. If Iran hadn't given advanced warning to ensure that there were no casualties, we would be doing a much different podcast. We'd be lighting up Tehran right now and probably thinking about invading the country. And so thank God it didn't come to that. What a risky game to play. You know, I. As I always have with Donald Trump. As you always have with Donald Trump, Rob, we'll call balls and strikes here. I will hammer him when he does bad things and praise him when he does good things. So very stupid to get us involved in this war. Incredibly reckless and risky, but good for Donald Trump. It's absolutely all of that being done. It's amazing if he can try to push a ceasefire deal now and pull us out of this. But I don't really think, I don't know, I'm not seeing how we were wrong. I didn't say ever that this will with certainty be another Iraq style war. I always said the danger is in the escalation and it was the Iranians who gave us an off ramp in this case. That's just the facts, however people feel about that. And then the other thing that I hope is, is revealed to some people is, is how much the Israelis just like, it doesn't matter. It is such an outrage that they would do this after Donald Trump decided he didn't want to. Like imagine that our fat welfare mom of a country who can't, who can't do anything without us, who just gets, has gotten tens of billions of dollars of support from America and we prop them up and we protect them and we fight wars on their behal, fought a 12 day war on their behalf and then they'll turn around and not only not, not try to convince Donald Trump, but go ahead and try to get him, go ahead and do it and then try to get him dragged back into the war. I just don't like. How do you not treat a country like that as an enemy of your country? It is just beyond wild to me. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Massa Chips. Did you know all chips and fries used to be cooked in tallow? Up until the 1990s when big corporations switched to cheap process seed oils. Today, seed oils make up to 20% of the average American's daily calories. And recent studies have linked seed oils to metabolic health issues and inflammation in the body. 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All right, let's get back into the show.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Well, I think that really speaks to my personal confusion about where we, where we're at at the moment because it seems like the Israelis still want regime change and I guess they're without their lie at the moment of that Iran is looking to go nuclear. On the same note, if Iran was always looking to go nuclear, I don't exactly understand why after what just happened, they wouldn't continue to pursue those efforts or they would just be done with those efforts. It could be, I guess, that they've got some sort of a security guarantee almost in Donald Trump's ego that if Donald Trump can claim that he took away their entire nuclear program, he's not gonna turn his back on them and they can now actually sell oil in a more legitimate fashion to China and not have to hear that they're the enemy of the entire world. So maybe, at least for the next couple years, that's the best option that they've ever had and they're actually willing to trust Donald Trump, even though there were definitely some dekes in the current process so far by him. It just seems like, I don't know, it seemed like a remarkable claim when he just said, hey, there's a ceasefire. And then there was reporting the Iranians didn't know it, that there's a 12 and 24 hour period that the Iranians are, we're not looking to respond more aggressively and ramp up the cost for kind of bullying them in this fashion. And it's like, I don't know, on both sides. I could see the Iranians now being more aggressive and that wouldn't validate that the previous theory had been true. But at the moment, they seem to be just not looking for the action, not looking to the, for the fight. So I don't know, to me, it's just, I'm a little bit confused as to what happened here. And the most striking lie to me at the moment is just the idea that they were both 14 days away and that this single strike, which has yet to be confirmed by anyone other than Donald Trump going, no, believe me, I'm telling you, that's what happened? And then, you know, it's the classic bluster. Well, I don't know. Has the intelligence community validated the fact that these assets have been completely taken out? Do you know where the centrifuges are? Do you know that you took out all the centrifuges? Do you know what happened to all of the enriched uranium? No, just trust me. I'm telling you, it's completely done and it's finished. So I find myself more lost in this storyline than the typical storylines that we cover.
Dave Smith
Well, yeah, I mean, I think it's because it's just very unclear what is actually happening. And the, the, and the point that you made there is absolutely correct. That should be which is one of the most important ones. That it's just, it is completely ridiculous to sit here and claim that, like, we've completely obliterated their nuclear capabilities. We have nothing to back that up. We really don't even know what exactly we' done and what we haven't done. And, you know, the regime is still in power. It, it looks like that's not going anywhere now because really, you need America to overthrow that regime. If Iran, if, if Israel could do it on their own, they would have done it a long time ago. They, they can't. And that's why they are constantly trying to pressure America into doing it. But they already have the knowledge. I mean, they mastered the fuel cycle, they had, they have sciences, they have, they can get materials, they can rebuild what they have. And of course, we have now incentivized them more than ever to pursue nuclear weapons. So the whole thing just seems ridiculous and unnecessary. Let's, let's play the clip that was, you know, making all the waves this morning. This is quite a turnaround for Donald Trump in the last few days. But here is what Donald Trump had to say earlier today. Do you believe that Iran still committed to the peace?
Donald Trump
Yeah, I do. They violated it, but Israel violated it, too. Israel. As soon as we made the deal, they came out and they dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I've never seen before, the biggest load that we've seen. I'm not happy with Israel. You know, when I say, okay, now you have 12 hours, you don't go out in the first hour, just drop everything you have on them. So I'm not happy with them. I'm not happy with Iran either. But I'm really unhappy if Israel's going out this morning because the one rocket that didn't land, that was shot, perhaps by mistake, that didn't land, I'm not happy about that. You know what we have, we basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. Understand that.
Dave Smith
All right, so that was President Trump giving his thoughts on the violations of the cease fire by both Israel and Iran. And I will, you know, I will say I like, I like when presidents curse. I do enjoy that. I think it's something that men should do. You know, let me say this, and then we can kind of give you, you can give your thoughts on it, Rob, but let me just say this. You know, a lot of people, as I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people were, were like, a lot of, A lot of Trump supporters were, like, thrilled with me. You know, I've had this relationship with, with Trump supporters for many years. At this point. My, my profile is higher than ever, so I get more of it now. But for many years, Rob, as you know, you know, Trump supporters would love me because, you know, I was, you know, me and you were like, amongst the best at smacking down the Russiagate. That was like a big focus on this show for many years. May was probably our number one issue for a while, and we were great at defending how he had obviously been framed by his intelligence agencies and, you know, framing the President of the United States of America for treason's pretty big deal. And so we were very good on that. So the Trump supporters love that. But then I'd come out and criticize his foreign policy or whatever and that, you know, the Trump supporters would be mad at me. They'd be like, now when I came out and, and supported him and said I was going to vote for him, a lot of the Trump supporters were thrilled about that. When I came out and said, I, I regret my vote and I take it back, a lot of them were furious at me about that. Look, when it comes down to it, my, my role in all of this, as I've always said, is like, I have to tell the truth. That's what, that's my, like, that's my promise to the audience. Like, that's, that that's my job. My job is to make people laugh in comedy clubs and tell the truth on podcasts. That's what I'm supposed to do. And that's. In these times, there's like, I am not, I'm not capable. I'm not smart enough or, or dishonest enough to, like, take into account all of the different calculations and all of this. Like, just tell the truth. When there's a storm going on, you tell the truth. You just truth your way out of it. That's how I've always operated. That's what's gotten me here, and that's what I'm going to keep doing. There are a lot of Trump supporters, a lot, and some of them might be right to make this decision. There's a lot of very influential kind of right wingers in this country who simply will not criticize Donald Trump himself. They'll criticize everyone else around him. They'll be against the policy that he's pursuing, but they will find a way not to criticize Donald Trump because that turns off a big part of their audience. You know, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to be the guy who plays that game. And I'm also not going to just let him off the hook. And like, this is, you know, okay, he said here, oh, I'm mad at Israel. No, Israel shouldn't have done that. And now everybody's making a big deal about it. Oh, he said, you know, he cursed and he brought up Israel. He was actually kind of harsh about them. This is the harshest we've ever seen him about Israel. It's like, okay, you just launched a war on their behalf, dude, you just, you just took our country to the brink of catastrophe for this country that is now spitting in your face. It was Iranian restraint that kept us from being in a goddamn catastrophe right now, all on behalf of the Israelis. So is this all you got? Is this it? And what do we do after that, after this? Go back to unconditionally supporting them? You know, Donald Trump, at this point, he's been in for a while. Israel has, has kept up the destruction of Gaza this entire time, and Donald Trump's been financing it and arming the whole thing. So, like, I'll, I'll believe this or I'll be impressed by this. When it comes with anything of substance, anything, you know, is it. So, like, what do you. You're telling me that you want peace and Israel is undermining that, but they still get more foreign aid than any other country from you. They still get all of this support. Why. Why should that be the case? So I'm, I'm sorry. Like, this is, this isn't like, winning me back over or convincing me I was wrong to be so harsh on Donald Trump for this. Donald Trump, you know, he, he calls it the 12 day war. That's what he dubbed it. It's not clear that that's over at all. Usually you wait to be sure the conclusion, like, I don't know, Rob. Like, I don't know. By the way, this is a question for a historian that I do not know the answer to, but I don't know when the 1967 war between Egypt, Jordan and Israel got dubbed the Six Day War, but my guess is it wasn't on the sixth day, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't, I don't think they decided on the sixth day. We will now call this the Six Day War. I think probably they waited a couple days to, like, know that it was over, but maybe I'm wrong. I honestly don't know the answer to that question. When was, was the war dubbed the Six Day War? But like, okay, you want to call this a 12 day war, okay, fine. But it was a war. You know, you led us to war on behalf of a foreign nature and risked a catastrophe that was only averted by Iranian restraint. On behalf of Israel, I am sorry. That is not something that, like, I don't regret calling him out for that. And the other thing I'll say, I'm sorry, I will throw this over to you, Rob, is that it was, Look, I don't know what role, if any, the, you know, people with, with these, these shows played, but I will say that all of the people there were so many hardcore Trump supporters who came out against this thing that it's not, it's possible that that played some degree of a role, that he knew he was really going to permanently fracture his coalition if he did any more than this. And so at the time, I'm not even saying that made the difference. I'm totally speculating, I have no idea if that made the difference or not, but we didn't really have any other power than that. So, like, I don't regret going as hard as we went. I think it's the, it was the right thing to anyway. Your thoughts, Rob, on Donald Trump saying Iran and Israel do not know what the fuck is going on or what the fuck they're doing?
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I was saying, you know, I think this was a month ago. I talked about this on Run your Mouth. The Israelis were claiming that they just needed one targeted strike and they could get rid of the nuclear program. And I said, if that's true, then go ahead and do it. And if it's not true, it's time to break up with this crazy girlfriend who's just trying to get us into a fight. And so it looks like Trump's finally learning that they're the crazy girlfriend. Everyone keeps telling them, hey, that lady's just creating a problem for you. I don't think you want her in your life. And they finally just pushed far enough and that they are not adhering to the ceasefire that even Trump's like, yeah, I think I need out of this relationship now. What's kind of most interesting to me is there's a lot of people that speculate that Netanyahu bitched Trump out with the initial strike. And usually when that kind of thing happens, Trump would turn around, go scorched earth, and go, hey, I was working on a deal. I would have got you guys a deal, and that's it, we're done with you. For some reason, Israel seems to have a special place in Trump's heart and have a special hold over him that he's willing to play ball with them in a way that he won't anywhere else. And so it's interesting that they pushed hard enough on this one that at least there was a moment of the real Trump that you got to see live in camera, saying, these people are fucking idiots, and then walking off in the coolest fashion, almost pulling a bite in where he wasn't sure if he was supposed to get on the helicopter or not, but then committed to the walk off. So you have to continue the walk off.
Dave Smith
You gotta go. You're like, I don't know. You gotta take me somewhere now. Dude, I already walked over here.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Yeah, I can't go back in front of those teeth.
Dave Smith
I don't know, dude. Do a couple laps and then bring me right back down here. But I gotta. I have to finish this walk off.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
But as we've seen, it's hard to tell with Trump, and particularly the Israelis, to what extent things are. Theater was the meeting with Witkoff that was supposed to take place with the Iranians. Theater was when he. When he didn't visit Israel was that theater. So it's just hard to tell. But it does seem like Israel almost bluffed by saying, hey, we just need to take this action and we can get rid of their nukes. And then Netanyahu even went on air and said, we have. We've gotten rid of the nuke thing. And so now Trump is going, all right, then that's what you guys told me we needed to do so we can be done with this regime change, which would be a giant mistake. And I think now the Israelis are trying to restrategize and figure out, well, how do we keep this fight continuing? Because that's really what we were looking for.
Dave Smith
Well, yeah, I mean, I think it's just the idea to me, again, I'm just, look, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna treat Donald Trump like he's a baby. This is the idea that he's just now figuring out that Israel's trying to drag us into wars is just. To me, even if, if that were the case, then it's like, dude, how the did you not figure that out already, by the way? Just to give some more updates to this. So then Donald Trump takes to truth social the this morning. This from six hours ago.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
So Donald Trump, please, Lord Trump, our fure. If you cannot do anything within the next four hours, this episode coming out.
Dave Smith
Yeah, at least try.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
If you break.
Dave Smith
If you could try to keep it till after 1pm Monday through Thursday, we'd really appreciate that. So Donald Trump takes the truth social and says Israel, all capital letters. Not sure why, but this is Donald Trump. He's. He does all caps and air quotes. Sometimes that just don't make sense. But anyway. Or I guess not air quotes. They would be quotes. Just quotes. Anyway, he said, Israel, all capital letters, is not going to attack Iran. All planes will turn around and head home while doing a friendly plane wave to Iran. Nobody will be hurt. The ceasefire is in effect. Thank you for your attention to this matter, which is what he says lately. Then he had a post about how we are finally entering our golden age then, and this is as of about an hour ago, Israel's chief of staff. I don't know what that position means in Israel, but Israel's chief of staff quote, campaign against Iran is not over. So, I mean, look, even just that you're like, dude, what are you. What are you guys doing? Like, it's just such an outrage. It's like, look, man, I. If you want to make some type of like, sovereignty argument to me or something like that, then fine, like, okay, Israel's its own country. They. Donald Trump is not their boss, clearly. And so if they want to go like, no, you told us not to attack, but we're not done. We're going to keep attacking. Fine, but like, do it with your own weapons and your own money. You don't get to do it with ours. If you're doing it with ours, then our president gets to decide what we're doing here. And like, oh, so do it. Do it on your own. Oh, that's right. But you can't do it on your own, can you? You can't do anything on your own. You know, imagine what this would look like without American weapons, without American money, and without America's protection, shooting down the missiles that are headed back toward Israel. You know, they brag so much about their Iron Dome. They've always bragged about this for many, many years. But every time someone launches missiles at them, they pick up the phone and call Uncle Sam and go, you got to help us shoot these things down. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's pretty good at, you know, knocking down the. The homemade. The homemade rockets from Gaza. You know, the rockets that are, like, made out of cleaning supplies. Yeah, they shoot those things down, but it doesn't seem to work too good against Iranian missiles. And so, again, it's just. Just a total outrage that, like, it's just. You see the way Israel is treating Donald Trump, who just launched. Launched a war on their behalf. I just don't understand how any American could not be just, like, appalled by that. That. Just absolutely appalled. All right, so maybe this is a good time to this. Interesting. Another interesting angle here, and this is perhaps the best indicator of a potential positive outcome here, is that the war hawks are now furious with Donald Trump. Have you. Have you seen any of that?
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Robin, who was praising him yesterday, is, I think, now saying, the job's not done.
Dave Smith
Yeah. Isn't it unbelievable? It's like. Well, anyone with any sense about them is concerned with, like, the potential catastrophe in this situation. You actually see who is upset that we avoided it. Like, it's just unbelievable. But Mark Levan and all of these guys, there was one. This, which I actually couldn't believe. She said this. Let me see if I could find it. But there was one. The. The Israeli woman who I was arguing with. Oh, yeah, it's a Emily Schrader. I'm not sure how to pronounce that. But so. So when Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, he said, israel, do not drop those bombs. If you do is a major violation. Bring your pilots home now. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. And she tweeted, someone's in bed with Qatar. Like, she's going to him. The same thing they say about me. And, like, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson or whatever they go. They're all paid by Qatar, by the way. I'm still waiting on this Qatari check that's supposedly coming my way. Yeah. All right, well, there you go. Rob wants jet. Would that be crazy if a jet just showed up outside your house right now? And they were like, it was the first time you asked. You want the jet? You have jet.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
You can't park it here.
Dave Smith
He goes, oh, you did, you didn't ask for a parking spot, you just asked for jets. We deliver jet. No, so, but like, this is, Mark Levin's been freaking out at him. All of these hawks now are turning on Donald Trump, which is just like another, I don't know, it's another wrinkle of just kind of hilarity in all of this is that of course, as these things are swinging, so like first he pisses off the non interventionist side, now he's pissing off the Hawks. But you know, look, there's a few things here. Number one, it, you know, it's like, look, make no mistake about it, like the Hawks goal, as it always has been, is a regime change here. And they are looking at this and seeing this as probably their best opportunity to get a regime change. Like they, they actually got America to launch a war against Iran. And so once you've gotten that, I mean, that's a huge part of the, the, you know, that that's a big first step. And so they are going to be very upset if it actually is the case that this is ending here and there's going to be a ceasefire and the mullahs are going to remain in power. They're not going to be happy about that. So they're furious about Donald Trump now. And, and it's. So now this is, you know, there's the interesting split between MAGA is kind of fascinating here. But I, you know, I will say because there's kind of, you know, this dynamic where like, you know, I made some waves by denouncing Donald Trump a few days ago and now you got these guys denouncing Donald Trump, you know, over this. But there really, there is an obvious asymmetry between the two. You know, it's like I myself and then other people who were obviously were not as personally harsh on Donald Trump and some of them for good reason, but you know, people far more influential than me, you know, people like Tucker Carlson and, and Steve Bannon were, were really, you know, they were excellent on this. And this was a moment too, that was one of the things that really came out of this is you kind of like there's a real moment to see who's who and see who's really, you know, gonna be strong even when Donald Trump's leading in a terrible direction. But there were a lot of people who really passed that test with flying colors. And, but like the difference between them is that like, so like I was denouncing Donald Trump because I was. I was concerned that he was leading us into a catastrophe for the United States of America. These people are now furious with Donald Trump because he didn't get the regime change that Israel wants. A catastrophe for America. Come if it may. Like, there is a real difference between the two there. And the fact that people like Mark Levin and this crazy Israeli lady and John Bolton and Lindsey Graham and Bill Kristol and all of these guys who are out there, you know, pushing for a regime change, and now many of them are out there trashing Donald Trump for talking about a ceasefire. These people are the. The people who cheerlead the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan and the war in Libya and the war in Sybia in Syria and the war in. In Somalia and the war in Yemen and the drone bomb campaign in. In Pakistan and the special ops campaigns in Niger and all this stuff. Stuff. All of them. And they're just cheerleading, and none of them show the slightest concern that what they're cheerleading now could be as catastrophic as those or maybe even worse. Like, there's just no concern about it. It's just totally like, no, do it. Go for the regime change. Because the truth is, and I hope this is laid bare, it's a case I've been making for years, but it's so obvious now is that they want this regime change for Israel, and that's that if a catastrophe comes with it, you know, then that's that. It's like they. They look back at Iraq and go, well, we did get Saddam out of there. You know, they achieved their goal. And sure, you know, a million people died and including, you know, thousands of American soldiers, and sure, it cost trillions of dollars and destabilize the region, but, yeah, you know, mission accomplished for them. That banner is real. The mission was accomplished. And so they. They're happy with it. And they would have been happy to see that again here. And that is just like. I. I don't know. I. I just think that is. That is. It's like such a profound crime as people should never listen to these guys again. It's just totally outrageous. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Monetary Metals, an amazing company run by great guys that I've been promoting for a long time. They have really revolutionized the gold and silver space. For many years, many of us have owned gold and silver as a hedge against inflation. But typically, we either have physical bars that are just collecting dust in our homes, or you're having them professionally stored and then you're paying fees for having it stored. But now there's a new alternative option and a much better one, which is monetary metals. With monetary metals, not only do you own physical gold and silver, but you own physical gold and silver that works for you, accruing interest, which is paid in additional ounces. So you're growing your total amount of gold or your total amount of silver and it's being stored for you for free. This is a no brainer. If you own gold and silver, this is the best way to do it. Go check them out@monical-metals.com that's monetary-metals.com all right, let's get back into the show. Let's, let's go to the Steve Bannon clip because here was Steve Bannon talking about this, this very dynamic.
Steve Bannon
You have the gall, particularly of what this guy did for you and the grief he's taken over here. You had the gall when he said, this is what I've done and I need you to be a partner. I need you to stand down. First is why I can't stop at all. Which is another lie of the many lies we've gotten from the Netanyahu government, a bald faced lie. But then he says, okay, I needed, I need you to stand. I can't have any scale. If you can't get some guys back, it's fine. Goes to bed, gets a couple hours. So he wakes up and you lied to him. That's why he's furious. That's as mad as I've ever seen the president states. And think about it, how did you get his anger like that given everything he's done for you and the pressure he's under? In a couple hours sleep now, he's got in a fricking plane and fly for what, six, eight hours to sit down with this crowd at NATO, which, you know, he's just wildly enthusiastic about doing that. And plus putting himself going in the air at a time when you're in a shooting conflict in the world, putting his life at risk to do that. And this is the what he gets. This is the thanks he gets. Don't. So don't sit there and don't glaze him. Netanyahu goes on Israel TV and glazes him. Don't glaze him. Don't slobber all over him. It doesn't mean anything. You showed what you really thought of him last night. Oh, President Trump's the greatest. You showed exactly your appreciation last night. You showed exactly. And do I see any of the Baghdad Bob equivalents, the Tel Aviv Levins or any of this crowd today calling him out. They never call out Netanyahu, who got Israel into this. And for supporters of Israel, which is kind of on the ropes about this, makes it very hard when someone, when your top guy's dealing from the bottom of the deck and is not straight. And in fact not only not straight, he's a bald faced liar. If you support Israel and you love Israel and you want to see Israel not just survive but thrive, you better be asking hard questions. You better be asking hard questions. You better be asking hard questions and demanding straight answers.
Dave Smith
It is a, it just cannot be overstated. How remarkable it is the transformation in the way very, very influential people in the Republican Party are talking about Israel these days. First years ago, it's just unbelievable. And now you've seen, now Steve Bannon, of course, for saying this is being really attacked by the, the Mark Levin crowd. But ultimately I think they kind of seem, in a way they seem to be out of bullets in terms of like moving the needle with people. You know, they're not out of bullets in terms of moving the needle with the Trump administration, but they really do seem to be like out of. It's like who. I don't know, Rob. I mean, what do you. Who can even argue with what Steve Bannon's saying right now? And of course I saw the thing, Mark Levin was just smearing him. You know, you're an anti Semite or something because that's like the only thing they can say. It's like what other argument do you actually have? It's as clear as day that, like that, that, that Israel is trying to drag America into another war on their behalf. And who, I just don't understand who can support that? I don't know. Any thoughts, Rob?
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
They're gonna have to start making claims of that the nuclear program wasn't actually destroyed and Donald Trump didn't complete his mission. And my guess is that they don't want to criticize Trump in that fashion, at least not yet. Which doesn't leave them with too many cards for as to why we need to be continuing this operation.
Dave Smith
Yeah, no, that's right. By the way, it should be mentioned that there's. I think it was actually. Let me check the number on this. It was. According to the Associated Press, this is what happened today because it's another day Death toll of aid seekers near Gaza near Gaza hubs rises to 44 witnesses and hospitals say Israeli forces and drones opened fire toward hundreds of Palestinians waiting for aid in separate incidents in southern and central Gaza, killing at least 44. Witnesses and hospitals said as health authorities announced the number of Palestinian killed in the war has risen above 56,000. So literally, this is yet another incident of Gazans being killed as they're trying to get aid in, in Gaza. This is, you know, it's funny because I've done, oh my God, so many of these debates at this point. And the way every Israel supporter always says, like, we're targeting Hamas and we're unintentionally killing some innocent people, and yet you just see video after video report after report of people trying to get food. Have you seen any of the videos, Rob, of where they're like running up to the food aid? It is the most, it is the darkest thing you'll ever see in your life. It's like, because the people are so desperate for food and then the food comes in and then they're like, they gotta fight for it. You know, they're like all in there, like wrestling try, you know, like the way you see videos of, you know, like on. I don't think, I think the Cyber Monday kind of killed it. But if you remember years ago, you see those Black Friday videos where people are like trampling at a Walmart for a big screen tv, but you look at that and you just kind have contempt for the people because you're like, jesus, dude, you need a big screen TV this much. But this is food. These are hungry people looking for food. And then they just open fire on them. Just open fire on them. Kill a whole bunch of starving innocent people. And so anyway, I, I bring that up just to, to mention that. How, look, how do these guys like, even like to what Steve Bannon's just saying right there, it's like, like connect the two pieces here, man. It's like, so this is this regime that's being this like treacherous to the, to the country that supports them. They're also sitting here just massacring these people. Still. Still, dude, it is like, it is not October of 2023. We're in the summer of 2025. And they're still massacring these people. And we are, we're funding it.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
It.
Dave Smith
We're funding and arming the thing. Like, I don't know, call me crazy, but I think if a country that is dependent on you is like totally undermining your, your goals of peace and trying to pull you into a catastrophic war, I think while they're doing that, we should not fund their genocide how come I take a bold radical stance? It was funny is that I've always gotten this, for many, many years now, I've always gotten this thing which I always find kind of interesting is a lot of people, like when I, when I would do, like when I do Rogan, like when I do big podcasts. So people who are, are hearing me for the first time, or maybe they've heard me a couple times, but they don't like, know me that well. But they would say that. And I got this comment a lot. They would say that. What they like about me is that I'm a centrist. A lot of people would go, like, I like that Dave comes on. It just like, it's just common sense, centrist stuff. And it's funny because I am not at all a centrist. Like, that is not at all what I am. I am far more radical than just. I don't, I don't think there's anyone with the exception of Michael Malice, you know, Tom woods and guys like that. But at this point, like, I do the, the rounds of like the big shows probably even more than, than those guys do. But like, I don't, I don't know that there's anyone maybe, you know, like, depending on how you. You look at, at some like, like Nick Fuentes maybe. But I'm trying to think like, who is actually more radical than me in their political views. I mean, I am, I'm an ancap. I'm an anarchist. I don't. You know what I mean? Now I'm also like a pragmatic anarchist. So, like, I don't think that, like, the governments are going to be abolished anytime soon and we'll, we'll just have a market economy for government. I'm not saying that's going to happen anytime soon, but like, I do think that is the correct position. And I'm, but I would certainly, you know, like, I don't know, eliminate 90% of the federal government if I had, you know, my way right now, today. It's not a, that's not a centrist position or a moderate position. And yet I get called both those things a lot. When I'll, I'll go on Rogan or like a big show, I get called moderate and centrist. And I think what it is is that people go like, they go, they, they kind of use that as a placeholder for common sense. They just mean like, oh, he's not like a Democrat or a Republican. He's not like a liberal or a conservative. He's just Talking common sense. And so that's kind of like the. But the funny thing is that it's like in, you know, like where they say in the, in the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king or something like that. It's like, well, in the land of an insane establishment, the radical is the only one talking common sense. And so, like, what I'm saying here is actually, I guess, a radical proposal by today's standards. But, hey, I think if a country is working to undermine you at every single turn, you shouldn't finance their genocide while they're doing that. Now, that is actually a radical position to take in American politics today. But it is the most common sense position. There is nothing that makes more sense than that. This is like the most obvious thing in the freaking world. This show is sponsored by Better Help. If you are considering starting therapy, I would just tell you that I personally have benefited from it in the past, and I know lots of other people who have as well. And if you're thinking about starting, give Better Help a try, because there's no easier way to do it. It is convenient. It's online. It's suited to your schedule. It's the way to do therapy in the 21st century. All you do is you fill out a brief questionnaire and they match you with a licensed therapist. And you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. So rediscover your curiosity today with better help. Visit betterhelp.com problem and you'll get 10% off your your first month. That's B E T T E R h e l p.com problem for 10% off your first month. All right, let's get back into the show. Any other. Any other thoughts on any of this stuff? Rob?
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
No, other than it's incredible how much of a whirlwind it is and the extent by which Donald Trump is more than happy to contradict himself within 24 hours. And the current situation makes little sense to me. And I am fascinated to see how it plays out, particularly because Israel doesn't seem to want to be done with this. And it seems like it seems like Trump at the moment's taking a real line of like, no, that's it. But I don't know how Trump's going to treat the news if it comes out in the next couple of weeks that we didn't actually completely get rid of the Iranian nuclear program. I don't know exactly how he's going to play that other than to say, no, I worked it out with them, they saw our might and so they wouldn't dare do anything that they would have done a month ago.
Dave Smith
Yeah, that's. No, that will be the interesting dynamic moving forward. Assuming that this is even real and that we're not just tomorrow saying, oh, look, we just bombed him again, or something like that. It's really hard to say at this point, but I guess I would say kind of like in closing, I'd maybe just reaffirm that, you know, there's Donald Trump. If this holds and this is kind of the end of this, let's say this does go down in the history books as the 12 Day War. Maybe we have to name it the 13 Day War now or whatever, but let's just say that was it and it's done now. Then I will say, like, thank God. Thank God that the Iranians allowed this off ramp. And thank God that Donald Trump took is. Despite how. How just unbelievably stupid pursuing this whole policy was. You know, it might be up there with the. It might be the greatest thing Donald Trump's ever done in his life is to push for a ceasefire now and to take that and not continue this war. But again, look, I'm thrilled. It's so great that he did that. You know, the other possibilities were really, really dark, and so it's really so great that he did that. In him doing that, he allows a lot of the Trump supporters who were not war hawks but were essentially going to go along with Donald Trump no matter what. You know, like, you know the people I'm talking about who, like, would have. If Donald Trump from the very beginning had said, no, we're not getting involved. This is Israel's fight, not our fault. They would have been, yeah, Donald Trump. And if Donald Trump had said, we're invading the country and overthrowing the government, they'd have been like, yeah, Donald Trump. Like, there are those, the people who are just gonna follow him no matter what. For those people, this gives them a neat little narrative. You know, it's like a nice, A nice little thing of a. Like where they can split the difference and say. Which, you know, there's this thing with splitting the difference. Like, this is again, why I'm not a centrist, because it's, it's empty to be a centrist. But, you know, this, this happens all the time where, you know, two people will be arguing and then a third person can come over and say, oh, the truth is somewhere in the middle. And then they get to seem like they're the, you know, I'm see, I'm above it all. I'm not one of these partisans. I recognize that there's truth in both, but that's not always the case. You know, like, if there's somebody who's like, arguing for the abolition of slavery and then somebody else was arguing to continue slavery and then you went, you know what? I see both of your points. Let's reduce slavery by 50%. Like, you're not actually correct or above anything. It's. Sometimes there is a correct and incorrect choice here, but the narrative is there for them. They can sit here and say, they could say, well, look, you know, there were the hawks who wanted regime change. There were the isolationists, as they call us, who wanted to not get involved at all. But Donald Trump threaded the needle. He walked the middle ground. He took out the Iranian nuclear sites and didn't get us in a stupid war. And so, you know, Donald Trump comes out winning the day. Look, if you want to take that narrative because you want to support Donald Trump, that's fine. It's fairly easy for you. It's low hanging fruit at this point to take that and run with it. But just, again, my job on the show is to tell the truth. And the truth is that that's just not right. That's just not right. What Donald Trump did here was reckless and erratic and incoherent. It was a horrible decision for us to ever have even been in this to begin with. And the stuff that he's doing there, it's like, I'm sorry, but it is, it's fun when Donald Trump is kind of goading the media and driving everybody crazy. It's fun when he's talking shit and when he's making people laugh. But when you just start, dude, he called for the evacuation of Tehran. Like, this city with 9 million people in it. Those are real people, like real human beings. Just like you're a human being, you know, like, how many, how many women and children did he terrorize that day? How many people were, like, trying to flee? How many? You know what I'm saying? Like, this is not a game. This isn't just like making Jim Acosta mad or something like that because you talk shit. This is like, you know, I don't know, like, my, my wife was, was getting nervous about like, like, you know, the, the stuff where they're like, what if they do have sleeper cells or something? You're going into New York City today, like, what's it gonna be? You know, it's like, I hate that. And I try to just calm her down like that. It's fine. Don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen here because I don't like my wife worrying. I don't want there to be worries in her head like, how many women and children did you just terrify over this thing? His tweet is his incoherent tweets about regime change. And the truth is that the bottom line here has not changed that you would. He attacked a country. He launched a war against a country on a completely false pretense. A country that doesn't have nuclear weapons and wasn't pursuing nuclear weapons on behalf of another country who secretly does have nuclear weapons and also is. Is committing. You know, this is a country in Israel who has, in the last. In the last year and a half, Israel has, Has attacked Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Yemen. Am I missing any in there? They've attacked six neighbors in the last year and a half. They are currently just slaughtering, genociding the Gazans. I know I didn't use that word for a long time, but we're way past that point now. Dud. They're just absolutely, like. It's like there's a genocidal regime that has attacked six of its neighbors in the last year and a half, and he launched a war on behalf of them against. On totally false pretense, just totally made up. So, you know, if you, if you want to spin, this is like, Donald Trump did the right thing. You know what? In the end, he kind of did. So I'll grant you that. I'm just not spinning it that way. I'm just going to tell the truth. And so, as we've always done, I'll hit Donald Trump when I think he's wrong on something. I'll praise him when I think he's right on something. But that's, that's how I'm seeing this. Right, right now. And so hope, look, hopefully this sticks and this is the end of it, at least for now, and we move on to whatever the next controversy of tomorrow is. But at this point in time, I guess it's just a. We will say. I don't know what else we can say about that.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
The scheduled chaos of terror. Yes. Invading Canada, reopening Alabama, Alcatraz.
Dave Smith
Yeah, that's right. He can pivot back to. Yes, he can pivot back to his awful spending bell now.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Ukraine, war, spending more money. We got a lot going on.
Dave Smith
Yeah. Demonizing the best congressman in the country. You got. Let's get back to your other agenda here, Donald Trump. Okay, let's. Let's wrap up on that. Of course, guys, as Rob mentioned, he's all over the road. Go see him. The porch tour dot com. That's right.
Donald Trump
Right.
Dave Smith
That's the right website.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Port store dot com and then one show at the Secret group, which you can find on their website. But other than that, I still have another 30 dates going strong all summer. I listed off the most recent dates at the beginning of the show, but hidden, hitting a lot more territory. So if you didn't hear an area, go to portstore.com I'll probably. Probably be there at some point.
Dave Smith
Hell, yeah. And of course, Rob also has a. A new podcast over with Zero Hedge. You can get that at the Zero Hedge YouTube channel. I. I just did a debate for Zero Hedge a couple days ago, and I will be debating Dinesh d' Souza on Thursday night, I believe. I'm not sure if it's. I'm debating him on Thursday night. I'm not sure if they're airing it live.
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
What's the debate prompt?
Dave Smith
Well, you know, I'm not exact. They said to me, because, you know, like, we had. Me and Dinesh d' Souza had gone back a little bit, and I was pretty. I forget exactly. You know, I tend to not be too, you know, aggressive on Twitter unless someone's kind of shitty with me, and then I try to be more vicious than they are. But I was pretty vicious with him. And I don't remember exactly. I think he started it, but I'd have to go back and look. Well, we were arguing over the war in Iran. We were arguing over the war in Iran. And then, you know, he. Then he did kind of end it. We was like, why don't we, like, have a conversation or debate in a cordial and productive manner? And I was like, okay, fine, I'll do that. But then they said to me, they were like, you want to debate Dinesh d' Souza on Thursday? I was like, sure, I'll do that. And then they were like, okay, the debate is about supporting Donald Trump. And I was like, well, I was like, don't make that the center of the debate. Like, I'll. I'll argue why I'm not supporting him or whatever, but, like, I'm not. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not really trying to convince people not to support Donald Trump or to support Donald Trump. There's no election right now. Like, it doesn't matter, you know? So, like, let's. Let's debate over a policy over an issue. And I have. I'm not sure what they said, but it'll be about the war in Iran and foreign policy in general and stuff like that. So I'm not sure exactly if they're going to have, like, a resolution solution or something. But anyway, I'll be debating there, and Rob's new podcast is. Is out there regularly, so go check that out. All right, thank you guys for listening. Catch you next time. Peace.
Podcast Summary: "Ceasefire?"
Podcast Information:
In the episode titled "Ceasefire?", Dave Smith and his co-host, Robbie the Fire Bernstein, navigate the tumultuous developments surrounding recent geopolitical tensions involving Iran, the United States, and Israel. The discussion centers on a series of missile launches, a purported ceasefire agreement brokered by former President Donald Trump, and the ensuing reactions from various political factions.
Dave Smith initiates the conversation by outlining the rapid developments over the past day. Initially, Iran launched missiles toward U.S. bases, raising fears of a significant escalation in the ongoing conflict. However, within 24 hours, significant shifts occurred:
Advanced Warning from Iran: According to reports cited by Smith, Iran provided advanced notice of the missile launches to minimize casualties. Various sources, including Qatari officials and Donald Trump, confirmed this gesture, resulting in zero fatalities.
"Iran gave advanced warning so that as to minimize casualties, which ended up being zero." [02:00]
Ceasefire Announcement: Trump announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel, Iran, and the United States. However, skepticism arose as Iran later claimed they were never presented with such an agreement.
"Donald Trump announced a ceasefire, but Iran denied ever being shown an agreement." [05:27]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein adds complexity to the ceasefire narrative, highlighting inconsistencies in Trump's declarations and the execution of the deal.
"In classic Trump fashion, we haven't actually seen what the arrangement was or proof that everyone agreed to it." [05:27]
Both hosts express doubts about the authenticity and effectiveness of the ceasefire:
Discrepancies in Terms: The ceasefire reportedly allowed Iran 12 more hours of strikes and Israel 24 hours, raising questions about the fairness and potential for further escalation.
"It's odd to have a ceasefire but allow people to get in their last licks." [05:27]
Trump's Position: While Trump signals an intention to end hostilities, his statements are seen as inconsistent and potentially misleading.
"Trump does seem to be pretty adamant of, hey, you told me that there was one objective here which was taking out their nuclear program. That's done." [06:00]
The episode delves into the varied responses from political commentators and analysts:
Steve Bannon's Critique: Bannon criticizes Trump's handling of the ceasefire, emphasizing the dishonesty and betrayal felt by those advocating for regime change.
"Don't glaze him. Don't slobber all over him. It doesn't mean anything. You showed what you really thought of him last night." [43:21]
Mark Levin's Response: A prominent hawk in the Republican Party, Levin expresses frustration with Trump for not achieving the desired regime change, indicating a rift within pro-war factions.
"These people are gonna have to start making claims that the nuclear program wasn't actually destroyed." [47:23]
Dave and Robbie discuss the broader implications of the ceasefire on U.S. foreign policy:
Israel's Role: The hosts critique Israel's persistent aggression and reliance on U.S. support, questioning the wisdom of continued foreign aid amidst ongoing hostilities.
"How do you not treat a country like that as an enemy of your country?" [08:19]
Iran's Restraint: Iran's decision to minimize casualties is portrayed as a strategic move that challenges neoconservative narratives about the necessity of confronting Iran.
"It really, really undercuts the entire neocon premise for why we have to be in a conflict with Iran to begin with." [08:19]
The discussion also touches on how different segments of the American public and political allies respond to these events:
Trump Supporters' Reaction: While some Trump supporters initially praised the hosts for defending the former president, his inconsistent foreign policy stance has led to mixed reactions.
"I was praised by Trump supporters for defending him, but criticized when I expressed concerns about his foreign policy." [07:40]
Media and Public Opinion: The hosts emphasize the importance of transparency and truth in navigating these international crises, criticizing media portrayals that may obscure the complexities of the situation.
"There is something very revealing... they are motivated by self-preservation and that they would much rather continue to rule their country than be killed." [07:03]
In wrapping up the episode, Dave Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein reflect on the potential outcomes of the ceasefire and the future of U.S. foreign policy:
Hope for Peace: Despite the chaos, there is a cautious optimism that the ceasefire may hold, preventing further escalation into a catastrophic war.
"Thank God it didn't come to that. What a risky game to play." [07:40]
Critique of War Hawks: The hosts condemn the relentless push for regime change, highlighting the human cost and questioning the ethical implications of such foreign interventions.
"It's just totally outrageous. They look back at Iraq and say mission accomplished, despite the immense loss of life and destabilization." [36:01]
Future Implications: The episode concludes with a call for accountability and a reassessment of alliances, urging listeners to remain vigilant against policies that may lead the nation into unwarranted conflicts.
"If you support Israel and you love Israel and you want to see Israel not just survive but thrive, you better be asking hard questions." [45:47]
Dave Smith at [07:03]:
"That foundational claim to this entire conflict is just been so tremendously weakened at this point because you're telling me that these are suicidal maniacs."
Robbie the Fire Bernstein at [05:27]:
"It's odd to have a cease fire but allow people to get in their last licks."
Donald Trump Clip at [22:10]:
"Yeah, I do. They violated it, but Israel violated it, too."
Steve Bannon at [43:21]:
"Don't glaze him. Don't slobber all over him. It doesn't mean anything. You showed what you really thought of him last night."
"Ceasefire?" provides a critical examination of recent geopolitical events, questioning the narratives presented by political leaders and media alike. Dave Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein offer a perspective that challenges mainstream viewpoints, advocating for a more nuanced understanding of international conflicts and the motivations behind them. The episode underscores the importance of informed discourse and the need to prioritize human lives over political agendas.
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