Rob Bernstein (6:53)

Okay, so, like, what?

Alex (6:55)

Well, we could eliminate all voter registration laws. See, when Democrats get in charge, we try to protect voting rights. We don't make voting easier. Now, I'm all for voter eligibility requirements. I might, we might disagree about what those requirements should be. But you know, I'm going to say that, like, there should be an age limit to vote. I might say 16, you might say 18, but I'm not going to say eight.

Dave Smith (7:17)

Right.

Alex (7:18)

So we're going to agree that there should be voter eligibility requirements. But once you're eligible, why do you have to preregister? Why, why is that even a thing? It wasn't a thing. In this country at the founding, we didn't have voter preregistration in 1787. We didn't have voter pre registration in 1821. We only started having voter registration, generally speaking, after the civil. Why do you think that is? It's because a bunch of freed African slaves were migrating up north. And all of a sudden, New York was like, we need some registration up in here, right? Bunch of immigrants from Europe, mainly Ireland and Italy, were coming to New York. People were like, oh, we need some registration in here. If you're eligible to vote, you should be automatically registered to vote. And that is how they do it everywhere else but us. Everywhere else but us either has automatic registration or some other form of force. Registration for everybody, so that you don' have this disconnect between eligible voters and registered voters. That's the first law in the book that we could change. And it's to see how that's different than just saying we have to protect voting rights. No, no, we don't have to protect voting rights. We have to expand voting rights so that the 90 million people that sat on the couch and sat out this last election between democracy and fascism, so that maybe they have a little bit of an easier time to get up off the couch and come participate in the democracy.

Dave Smith (8:39)

All right, Now, I think it might be fairly obvious why this caught my eye. I just think it's. Look, there's. There's a lot that was just, like, kind of packed in there, and we can get into it. I'd like to kind of parse all this out. Rob, I don't know if you're for voter registration, but if you are, you're racist. That's the takeaway. But is it there. There seems to me to be something of an interesting admission kind of buried within this strategy, which is essentially that we were. We've kind of given up on the electorate. You know, it's like, look, I don't think we can win with this electorate. So what if we get all these other people who aren't voting? You know, it's funny to me, like, what the mentality of this would be, because you're saying 90 million people sat out the last election between democracy and fascism, and yet those are the people you're counting on. The people who saw, you know, democracy versus fascism on the ballot and couldn't even be bothered to. You know, it's a. It's a pretty minimal effort. What it takes to vote. Like, I. I've never. I've never talked to any voter. Maybe I'm just talking to the wrong groups of people, but I've never talked to any voter who is like, it is just insane what they make you go through in order to vote. There's lots of other things where that would be my complaint. Like, it's insane what it Takes for me to build a fence in my backyard. That is genuinely insane. It's insane that I have to go down and wait in a line and pay a fee and then come back months later just to put a goddamn garden in my backyard. But I've never heard anyone say that about voting. But now you have these people who would not step over the tiniest hurdle in the world in order to save democracy, and your plan is to eliminate that hurdle. Just doesn't seem like a. Doesn't seem like the best strategy ever. I don't know any thoughts on any of this, Rob?

Rob Bernstein (10:45)

Well, that certainly stood out to me when he said that there were 90,000. 90 million voters, I guess, who decided not to vote against what he say tyranny. He didn't quite use that word, but that's what he's implying. It was the end of democracy, and 90 million people just didn't show up. I mean, clearly it wasn't the end of democracy, because I'd have to think that 90 million people, if all they needed to do was register to vote and we could keep our democracy, they'd probably do so. So speaking to that, I mean, this guy who looks like he was drawn by Dilbert, like he's just a cartoon character, and this is clearly nonsense that, you know, it was the end of our democracy and just 90 million people weren't engaged, you didn't earn those people's votes.

Dave Smith (11:27)

The point is, we don't believe you. We don't believe that this was the end of our democracy. Yes.

Rob Bernstein (11:31)

Yeah, that was clearly nonsense and he didn't sell those people. And you and I have done hundreds of episodes explaining why the Democrats were not the better option in this past election. So the starting point of your analysis just being 90 million people were uninterested in keeping the democracy. It's because you're lying. With that being said, I think that there absolutely should be a requirement to show your identification in order to vote, and there should be a mechanism that ensures the fact that you're actually a US citizen. My entire. And the fact that apparently acquiring IDs is racist is something that the government should fix because there's so many other activities that you require ID for. So if you would just think about all of the ways that our society seems to be racist because apparently people can't drive cars, they can't purchase alcohol, they can't check into hotels, and the fact that the government doesn't want to fix that process and make it easier for people to just partake in civil Society. I mean, we should be addressing the racism issue of our government, that it makes it hard for minorities to acquire IDs. With that said, removing voter registration, but keeping the fact that you have to have your ID to prove you're a US citizen. I don't care if there's a registration process.

Dave Smith (12:43)

Yeah, listen, I'll be honest. I don't particularly care either. I just find this line of argument to be so flawed and just inaccurate. I mean, look, when he says at the beginning, he goes, look at the founding of the country. You didn't have to register to vote. It's like, okay, that is true. But you're also invoking a time when only white male landowners could vote. And so if you're framing voter registration as some type of restriction on voting rights. Right. I mean, that's how he framed it. We're expanding voter rights, like, well, then I don't really think that this would be the, the example to look to. And I do think that there's something, you know, because there is something about the, the modern woke historian that will essentially insist that the entire, you know, all of history can be understood as it used to be racist. That's, you know, it used to be racist or maybe it used to be sexist and if we want to go really far, it used to be homophobic or something like that. But that's basically all of history. But it's just. What, I don't know. It's, it's an interesting, you know, additional piece of information that it was also restricted to landowners and that white, free white men still could not vote if they didn't own land. And there, there was a concept behind that, and you can agree or disagree with it, but the idea was that if we're voting over how to spend the, the treasury, you know, which of course was a much smaller pot at the time. But if we were voting over like how to spend public money, you couldn't allow people with nothing to have a say in that too, because there's no incentive there for them to not vote all the stuff for themselves. And then we're all poor together. And that you actually had to be somewhat, you had to be in the owner class in society in order to make decisions. Now again, you can disagree with that. I, I'm, there's flaws in that way of looking at things, but it, you know, there also is an argument to the fact that like, yeah, owners get to make decisions about what's done with things that people who don't own it don't get to make, and that is to some degree important. Now, his, his point about how these voter registration laws were put into effect after the Civil War or during periods of, of mass immigration, you know, I certainly would not argue, in fact, I don't think anyone could really argue that there haven't been voter restrictions in the past that were intentionally designed to keep some people out or that were just abused in practice, thinking literacy tests or things like that. Now, that being said, it does not necessarily follow from that that you ought to have the view that there should be absolutely no standard or absolutely no minimal, you know, like, test before you get to vote. Like, for example, let's just say that it wasn't abused, right? Like, let's just say it's just, just a hypothetical. And if your answer to this would be like, well, I don't support it because it can be abused in practice, that's a totally reasonable answer. I'm just saying, in theory, hypothetical, would a literacy test necessarily be wrong? Like, should, you know, we're voting over who gets to rule the most powerful government in the history of the world here? Would it be if, let's just say, hypothetically, there were a way to enforce it that wasn't discriminatory and wasn't unfair, but it was just like, hey, like, if you can't read a chapter, like, if you can't read at third grade level, then you don't get to vote. Is that in itself, in principle draconian or awful or, or something like that? Because I gotta say, I don't think it is. I actually think it's kind of crazy the idea that illiterate people get to vote. Now again, I'm not saying I would necessarily support that restrict because it can be abused, but I do think that, like, it's, it's interesting when you have a situation where there is nobody today. I mean, this guy, I guess, would make that argument. But I don't think any serious person can really say that voter registration is done to target black people or to target a certain group of people or keep them out. And I do just find something interesting about the question of, like, is the minimum requirement, like, let's just say I said you have to put pants on and go outside. You know what I mean? And you were like, we got to get rid of this requirement. You're kind of like, wait, wait, who is it you're trying to get to vote? Why is it you're trying to. You're telling me that the person who can't figure out registering to vote or doesn't care enough to figure it out and go do it. That it's that important to make sure that guy's voice counts too. I just find this to be a very strange. Like again, I'm with you, Rob. I'm not saying like I'm, I'm not married to the idea of voter registration. Should you automatically be registered, perhaps? I guess maybe my issue in it is like in the same sense of like, you know how like you might have a job interview like at, at 8 in the morning and like half the test of that interview is just like, hey, can you show up on time at 8 in the morning looking presentable, like just the, the lowest form of like, prove to me that you're participating in society here. And just for that reason alone, I tend to go like, I'm not sure I want to make it easier to vote. I think before you vote in the popularity contest of who rules over me, maybe there should be some minimum requirement that you meet. Is that, does that make sense?

Rob Bernstein (18:59)

I don't know that I agree with it, but I, it certainly makes sense. I get where you're coming from.

Dave Smith (19:04)

Well, it just seems like they are trying to stick up for the person who can't do any of that. They're like, man, if we could get those people, maybe we could. You know what I mean? It's the same reason, like who the hell wants 16 year olds voting? Like, I don't know, this just already shows something about you. 16 years old, he's like, oh look, we got to set the age somewhere. It's like, okay, granted. And we all agree it's not 8 because I might say 16, you say 18. I mean think about the fact that like you'd. Listen, dude, if somebody, if an adult had consensual sex with a 16 year old, we all think they should go to jail for a long, long time. And why is that? Because like a 16 year old can't really consent to an adult. It doesn't matter if they said it or you, you're, you're just so psychologically and mentally more powerful than them that you are just totally like, it's, it's, it's just taking advantage of like prey in order for you to like extract some form of consent out of them. So who the hell are these people who. It's like that's where you want to go for your voting base. Like you got to look at the people who are 16 and then the people who couldn't figure out how to register for a vote and that's who you want to be. You know what I mean? To be your reinforcements. Like, I just. I find it disturbing. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is hexclad. Guys, if you're trying to cook healthier or save money or just stop eating microwavable burritos, hexclad has got you covered. It's time to leave behind the delivery fees and that scratched up pan you've been dealing with since college. You've probably already heard how hexclad 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. The sleek pepper mill lets you season like a pro with precision and style. Hexclad's Japanese Damascus steel knives are not just tools, they're works of art. Designed to make your time in the kitchen effortless. These knives are forged from 67 layers of premium Japanese Damascus steel, giving you incredible durability and edge retention. And just like all hexclad products, they have a lifetime warranty. They've also got the pans that truly check every single box when it comes to picking your cookware. Plus, their patented laser etched hexagon steel ridges boost your searing power. These are the best pans you'll ever own. And for a limited time, our listeners can get 10% off your order with this exclusive link. Just head to hexclad.com problem support our show and get yourself some incredible cookware@hexclad.com problem make sure to let them know that you heard about them on the part of the Problem podcast and enjoy the revolution. Revolutionary cookware. All right, let's get back into the show.

Rob Bernstein (22:16)

It certainly sounds like the wrong pitch Instead of, hey, 90 million people are unengaged in our political process. And so I think we need to figure out how to speak to these other individuals. What are the rights that will get them to show up and vote for? How do we compel these people to engage? Because. And then make up some bullshit of, I know that these are the people that would be better represented by the Democratic Party. And so we just have to figure out how to reach out to them. But to just say, hey, we have to make it easier for these people who are unengaged to show up. That's not. That's not. Firstly, it doesn't seem like a winning strategy. I don't think the voting registration is what's getting in the way of these people voting. So you're just talking nonsense here, but now you're also just thinking like, how do I just get bodies here? Like, how do we not change any policy? How do we not change what we're doing? How do I just figure out how to win this game and get more bodies showing up? Because we, we can't vote the corpses anymore. We lost that one. We did it once and it worked for us. So what's our new scheme? We can't get immigrants over the border because we're not in control anymore. We were trying that one. So what do we have left? I don't know. We can make it easier for the other 90 million people to show up and offer them some free stuff and maybe.

Dave Smith (23:23)

Yeah, I mean, that's right. That's what it seems like to me. And there's, like I said before, there's such an admission that you feel like you can't win with the electorate as it is and look like, I don't know, I just, the Democrats, you're like, if you look around you'd be like, hey, look, I mean obviously you lost pretty bad in this election but you know, Donald Trump's approval rating I, from what I've seen has been hovering between 47 and 53%. That's not like, oh my God, it's insurmountable. We could, you know what I mean? Like, there's a good chunk of the country who's opposed to Donald Trump. Maybe not a majority, but very close to half of the electorate is opposed to him. And like you ran the most God awful candidate ever. So you would sit there and be like, okay, all we got to do is like, figure out a good candidate, figure out a good message, actually stand for something, actually do something for the American people. Instead this like going to, well, let's see if we can't win over the people who are totally not engaged, just. And then of course the other major flawless in this strategy is that like, look, this is okay. So I don't know if I've ever told you this story before, but I always love this. Now this is something I've never done in my life in stand up comedy. I don't think it's something you've ever done, but it is an old thing that you've probably heard of been done before. But I remember this one time I was watching this comic and he was bombing having a real rough one and it's just the crowd hated him. Nothing's going over. He's now. Now he's getting heckled, and he hasn't gotten any laughs the whole set. And then at one point, he goes, so one of the guys was heckling him, and he goes, oh, yeah, dude, you think this is so easy? You want to try to do my job? And he offers him the microphone to come on stage and. And come do it now. I don't know if you've ever heard of this old. You know what I'm saying? You ever heard that? But I remember thinking to myself, I was a young comic at the time, too, but I was like, oh, man, this guy's instincts are so bad that he doesn't even get what that old game is like, okay, I've never done this, and I would never do. I would never give up the microphone at a standup comedy show. I feel like that's yours. You're the comedian. You get the microphone. You don't give that up. But the way that old dealing with a heckler thing works is that you're killing with the crowd. The crowd loves you. One guy starts heckling, and you go, oh, you think this is so easy? Come up here, do that. This guy's totally unprepared to be a comedian. He gets on stage with a microphone. The whole crowd is rooting for this guy to lose. And so he. The. The cars are totally stacked against him. You're gonna win this thing because you came as a professional comedian with jokes, and he has nothing. You don't do that move when you're dying, when the crowd doesn't, like, because God forbid, this guy grabs the microphone and says one funny thing that, like, gets some laughs. And now, not only did you bob your ass off at this set, but then this guy came and got laughs. And it's the worst moment in the history of the world. So anyway, the comic was given, like, the manager of the club came in and broke it up, said, you can't have the microphone, and brought the next comedian on stage. It was a whole nightmare situation. Anyway, the point I'm making is this move has a prerequisite to it. Okay, well, we're going to abolish voting registration. Well, that would have to be done with federal legislation, which you do not control. You have to get power back first. So this is all like the. The prerequisite to all of this is that you have to win back power first. Meaning you can't telegraph this strategy. You can't sit there and go, hey, listen, voting electorate, I know you've rejected us, but if you elect us again, we are going to dilute down your votes with bodies who we think we can manipulate more easily. This is, this was a good strategy for when Joe Biden was in and the Democrats had Congress be like, do this now, hush, hush, we say quietly at a boardroom meeting somewhere and then we won't have to worry about this next time. It does not work as the underdog strategy to announce this as your plan to regain power, if you get what I'm saying there. So I just find this funny that this is the musing like on msnbc as the ratings are collapsing, they're going, I know what we're going to do, use all this power we have in the federal government to overhaul voting anyway as no matter how much you can try to spin this and try to play this as like, you know, we're, we're, it's all these disenfranchised people or something that we're trying to give a voice. The bottom line is that when you've taken a shellacking and you're on a network whose ratings are collapsing when you come out here and go, we need to be able to get a whole different electorate. I don't see how that doesn't come off as, as weak and desperate. That'd kind of be my final thought. Any, any final thoughts on this one, Rob?

Rob Bernstein (28:49)

I hope he returns to the Dilber cartoon in which he came.

Dave Smith (28:53)

I mean, we can only pray. We can only pray. All right, let's. There was another. I'm actually maybe a little bit embarrassed to admit this, but I wanted to go to this next clip because this was from Bill Mars show kind of more or less on the same theme and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I did not actually know this. So Bill Maher open talking about kind of like the, the, the future of gerrymandering and results of the great migration ships within the United States of America over the last few years. Anyway, let's, let's go to this clip because I did find this really fascinating. Here is Bill Maher from this Friday.

Bill Maher (29:36)

Just to continue on this for a minute because I just saw this really bad news for Democrats 2030 reapportionment. There's a group called the American Redistricting Project and in five years we will be redistricting. California is projected to lose three seats. New York two also going to lose a seat. Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Illinois, all blue states. Who's getting these? Texas, Florida, Idaho, And Utah, I mean, this looks like game over, you know. And the reason why people are voting with their feet is a lot of what your book is about taxes and regulation. I certainly been screaming about it forever. I did three years with a sign here that said, how long is it going to take me to get my Solar hooked up? 3 years talking about it on television in this state, you couldn't do it. This state has almost 400,000 regulations. I just put in a new roof because the fire. I thought, oh, let's get a roof that's not going to burn up. Two inspections. Why are you inspecting my roof? It's my fucking roof. If it falls on me, that's my problem. And we're taxed more than any other state. People are leaving these kind of states for places where they're not. Not let the field a heavy breath.

Dave Smith (30:56)

Of government on them.

Bill Maher (30:57)

It's just, it's not that hard for Democrats to understand this, but they, they seem to be incapable of doing anything about it.

Dave Smith (31:08)

I thought there was a really powerful rant from Bill Maher, and it's very interesting. I did not, I didn't realize how soon it was coming and how many seats were going to be going from blue states to red states. But he's not wrong. I mean, that's a really big deal. I think he rattled off 10 or 11 seats. And in a closely divided Congress, I mean, that's a really big deal to take 10 or 11 seats and give them to the other side, which theoretically is where that's going. And it was interesting to me to, to see kind of like a group of three liberals who are all at that table having to kind of grapple with this, this fact that taxes and regulations, like big government is unpopular. And of course it is. It wouldn't be government if it wasn't. You know what I mean? Like, it would be done voluntarily if it were popular. And the. No, I, I think that probably there's a bit more to it than that. I, I don't think it's as simple as taxes and regulation, but undeniably that is a huge component to this. And it is, you know, when you have. And again, I don't, I don't want to do the thing that a lot of Democrats are doing right now where they're going like they're, they're acting like Donald Trump and Elon Musk were, me and you, like, we took over. You know, Crystal Ball said anarcho capitalism is the driving ideology behind all these guys. And, you know, their, their mission Is to destroy government or something like that. But when you kind of broadly, at least in the American people's minds, have the idea that, okay, the Republican Party is like, if I had a loose sketch of this, they're talking about how there's fraud and abuse in government, how there's a swamp, how there's a deep state, and we have to kind of like, roll that back. And then you have the Democrats over here, who are like the party of government, the party of we need rules and regulations and all of these things. It's very challenging to be the party of government when all of your major cities, where you guys are the government are a disaster, are all like, the poster boy for inept, corrupt government. That is a. That is a tricky position to be in. And that's really, I think, what's going on in a lot of these big cities. What are your thoughts, Rob?

Rob Bernstein (33:35)

I didn't realize Bill Maher was such a libertarian. Hey, this is my roof. Why do I need the government coming in here and tell me how I should operate my own roof? It is. I guess I should dig in a little bit more on just how much migration there's been from these large states. I'm sure that the problem for the Democrats is gonna be amplified if there actually is a mass movement of illegal migrants out of the country. And I'd love to see actual figures on that of exactly how many people came over and what that means for congressional seats, particularly as a lot of them did make their way to New York, because there were good social services for a period of time, including hotel stays. And then even Republican governors were just busting them right up in there, which was actually a good strategy for educating the public at large. But it might have been a bad strategy for congressional seats. But anyways, it is. I think one of the. It happened in New York State. They got a massive federal bailout during COVID And I thought that that was bad because we need to showcase bad liberal policies in order for people to actually realize that they're failed policies and to make the correction of people leaving these areas because it's corrective. And I think, you know, it kind of showcases the bad policy failing when it actually fails. And I guess this is a pretty good storyline that Republicans are gonna pick up this many congressional seats. I didn't realize that it was. That it was that big. Was that it was like, 12 seats. He just mentioned it's pretty big.

Dave Smith (35:08)

Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that the, you know, there's basically been. I think since really, since 2020, late 2020, early 2021. The. The exodus out of California and New York has really just not stopped. I mean, I think it's had higher and lower moments.

Rob Bernstein (35:31)

I think Hollywood's over. Like, I. Listen, I can't prove this to you, but it just seems that there's actually a lot more independent filming going on now. And it seems like more and more Hollywood projects are taking place in other areas. And I wonder how much star power really wants to hang out in that state versus going to new areas and just, you know, with more favorable taxes in the works. Like, why is everyone hanging on to California?

Dave Smith (35:58)

Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know if you seeing. I mean, these are the things that I don't like the stories that don't typically interest me that much, but I don't know if you've seen. Everybody's making a big deal out of this Snow White movie, I guess just totally flopped.

Rob Bernstein (36:13)

And I feel fun beef, though. I. I didn't. I didn't totally follow the story, but there was fun beef between Gal Gadot and the other lady because they were both making, like, opposing political views of her being pro Palestinian and Gal Gadot being the gorgeous Israeli. And so they got some. They got some bad press up front over that. And I just thought that princess drama pouring off screen of dissenting political views in the Disney environment. I dug in zero, other than seeing the headline, but I just thought, no, I was hilarious.

Dave Smith (36:43)

All. All I saw was. And I kind of feel bad because the girl seems so young. I mean, I don't know how old she is. She's at her oldest in her early 20s. But the girl who's like the star of it was, you know, she. She had several interviews where she was like, you know, just kind on the old version and being like, you know, the original was made in 1937 and like, you can totally tell. And we're not going to be doing that whole thing where we're waiting for a prince and we're doing that, you know, she's 23. Okay. So I. Thank you. But. So I, you know, I. I'm really hesitant to ever, like, try to trash anyone that age because, like, I don't know what, what she's doing is just the typical thing that we all did as adolescents. It's one of the unfortunate qualities, but it's also probably like a necessary quality. Like when you're young, you have this 10. See, to be like, I've sized up the whole world. And you know what? It's all the grown ups are all wrong. And that's, you know, there's, there's some positive in that as well as some negative. As you get older you're supposed to kind of gain a little bit more respect for your elders and be like, ah, actually maybe they did have a point. Maybe they learned a few lessons that I had to learn myself. But there is something about it that's very unappealing. You know, if it's very unappealing to listen to a teenager talk about how their parents are and you're kind of like, all right, yeah. But you know, they're both, they're working their ass off to give you everything you have. So you know, but, so I'm not like. But there is something about watching. It's not her like, whatever. She's a, she's a young girl and she's probably very talented and is part, probably part of the reason why she's here. What's crazy is that all the adults around her, you know, meaning Hollywood put this front and center and then expected this to like sell well. And evidently there took a huge flop on like the money they put in versus how many people want to see this thing. I just think there's something about this where the point that we've gotten to where they almost seem incapable of readjusting and going like, okay, we gotta, like, we gotta drastically cut overhead and really put out a product that our consumer base wants to see. And they're just incapable of doing it. And so I agree with you. I mean like, I really, I don't know what the future of Hollywood is, but there seems no reason to me why there should be any future. Why the hell do you need these big studios anymore? The people you got little. I mean I know this from, from you know, my work. I'm sure you do too, Rob. But there are these little, you know, there are little production companies that you could pay like 20, 30 grand that can make like magic happen. And some of these, I mean if you had like a few hundred grand to pay them, they could make a badass, cool looking movie for you. You know, it's like why is it exactly that you need these big studios at that point anyway to Bill Maher's thing, you know, if you really want to look at. And I think there's probably someone could dig into the data and really find numbers to support this. But the fact is that where, when people really started fleeing out of the big cities in this country and like me and you are kind of two examples of this, Rob. But it was during COVID and it was the fact that the blue cities. Look, everybody locked down. All due respect to Kristi Noem, who was the governor of South Dakota, she did not. But, you know, it's still South Dakota, but. But for the rest of the country, everybody did the lockdowns. But, like, the blue states just hung on so much longer and were so much stricter, and it was way past the point. Way, way, way past the point where everyone had already come to terms with what level of risk they were comfortable with, with the. The virus. And so they just kept these cities shut down, kept. This is a big part of the reason why Austin had such a huge, you know, surge, because, you know, people wanted to find a city where you could still go to a restaurant, where you could still be normal, where you didn't have to wear a mask everywhere, all this stuff. And then also as a result of those prolonged lockdowns, the homelessness, the drugs, the crime, I mean, all of these things just got materially worse in all of the blue cities. And it is one of those things where it's. It's pretty easy for somebody who is, let's just say, even slightly leans, conspiratorial for them to just go, oh, George Soros is intentionally trying to destroy the United States of America. Like, why else would you do this? What? You know, I mean, like, if your plan was to have prolonged lockdowns and at the same time, period, say, we're going to stop prosecuting property crime, we're also, at the same time going to say homeless people are allowed to build encampments on public sidewalks wherever they want to. I mean, like, what. Who could be shocked that people were like, oh, I think I might move then? Like, what did you think the result of all of this was going to be? That people would just, you know what I mean, accept it. There's no. People are moving. And then the. The really sick thing, right? This was so bizarre and I guess, seemingly ironic on first glance, but I think not actually ironic once you dive into it. But like, you know, when you see. Let's say, when you see people leaving, let's say Los Angeles and New York City by the hundreds of thousands every year, hundreds of thousands pouring out of the cities. And by the way, I should be clear, this was happening before COVID It just.

Tom Homan (42:36)

It.

Dave Smith (42:36)

It picked up after the lockdowns. But when you see that, well, if you dig a little bit deeper and look into who's moving, it's almost all middle class, upper middle class, Upper class people, that's who's leaving. Now you could sit there and say, oh, that's because of the taxes. Part of that's true, but the other major part of that is that, you know, working class and poor people just can't afford to move. They just don't have that luxury. I mean, if you're, if you're a working class guy and you've got a job, you can't really just pick up and move. Also, there's, there's big expenses to interstate moving. You may not have that option. And so the whole bottom 50% of all of these major cities are essentially just stuck. Many of them would move if they could. They just don't have that option. And it's a pretty terrible thing to do to, to people is to kind of make them, you know, like, I don't know exactly what the number is, how many people would leave these cities if they had the opportunity to, but don't. But there's a lot. There's a lot of people who are essentially just trapped in these cities as they become objectively much worse places to live. And that is, you know, that is a real albatross around the Democrats neck that I don't know exactly how they're gonna get rid of. Like, how are they gonna deal with the fact that it's like, yeah, you literally had full control of these areas and made them such nightmares that even the people there wanted to leave. Because all things being equal, people tend to want to stay where they are. All things being equal, you're like, I live here. I don't know. It's a pain in the ass to leave that things got to be pretty bad before they make people leave en masse like that. So rough, rough time for the Dems. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Sheath Underwear. I've been telling you about them for years and years now. The best pair of boxer briefs you will ever own. The most comfortable underwear I have ever put on my body and the only underwear that I ever wear at this point. Also long time sponsors of this show, so make sure you go support Sheath. Sheath creates amazing underwear and if you don't love them, they have a 100 money back guarantee off your first pair. Plus they have an amazing line of underwear for women as well. So it's not just for us fellas. Go check them out@sheathunderwear.com and use the promo code problem for 20 off they ship anywhere in the world. One more time sheathunderwear.com promo code problem for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show. I don't know. Any other thoughts on this one, Rob?

Rob Bernstein (45:21)

I bet remote work also is a variable that you're no longer necessarily restricted to having to live in major cities in order to work your careers, which is also a result of a Democratic or nationwide policy that was a little bit more sold by the Democrats through the COVID regime.

Dave Smith (45:41)

Yes, that is a, that's a good point, A very good point. That, that probably did have a huge impact on it, too. Once you're not, once you're working from home, you have a lot more options of what you can do. And a lot of people who have jobs, you know, jobs are a big thing that draws people into cities. And once you could have that job from somewhere else, it's, you could probably have a lot more, you know, a much bigger home for the same price or whatever. And a lot of people probably chose that. All right, fair, fair point there, Rob. All right, let's, let's move over to this appearance by Tom Hammond. Am I saying his name right? Is it Haman? I think so.

Rob Bernstein (46:18)

I think Homan.

Dave Smith (46:19)

But Homan, Homan, the borders are. He really does. His personality really is much more of the border czar than any name that you could come up with. That seems like that should have been what his parents named him anyway.

Rob Bernstein (46:34)

He was Officer Hard Ass. Yeah, that should literally be his name from birth. First name, officer, last name Hard Ass.

Dave Smith (46:40)

Well, look, he's a, he's a character for sure. And in some ways, you can understand why he's an appealing character to be the border czar. I've always been a little bit of two minds about the guy. You know, like, I do, I do think that it's like the immigration policy under Joe Biden was beyond nuts. I think it was suicidal and horrible. And I think you need kind of someone like this maybe almost to clean up that mess. It also does, like, my libertarian Spidey senses go off where I go. This is everything about the beginning of a dystopian movie where this guy's in charge and is like, we're just going to clean up the problem. Okay, so there's, there's been a lot being made about the way that the Trump administration is going about some of these deportations. And Haman was on this Week on ABC to discuss. Go ahead.

Rob Bernstein (47:36)

If I can give a very short synopsis. So essentially, a number of supposed Venezuelan gang members were flown to a jail in El Salvador, which is seemingly probably one of the worst jails on the planet. Now, both sides of the story stink in that I don't think district judges should. Should be able to basically overrule the president. And that becomes an issue because, for example, when Joe Biden was saying, you're not allowed to evict tenants and then a court overruled him, I thought that that was illegal of Joe Biden. And so there needs to be some sort of a mechanism to check the president. I think you almost need a secondary federal Supreme Court that has multiple judges on it versus single courts and a single Democratic judge. I believe this might have been a different case, but I think this guy was the guy who gave a soft sentencing to Ray Epps. So that's a little bit shady. And so I think single judges from Democratic districts that were appointed by Democratic presidents, checking the current. The current president, that doesn't make a lot of sense. And now there needs to be a mechanism for policing the president if he is engaging in illegal behavior. I think we need a different system than district judges. So I think it's a problem that a district judge is giving him a hard time about it. But what they did here of just random taking people that they're saying are Venezuelan criminals or gang members, not even necessarily if they committed a crime other than being in a gang and then just depositing them in a jail seemingly for life, that doesn't seem like if you want to just ship them back to Venezuela and then Venezuela process them directly into jail, that's on Venezuela. That's not on us. But for us to just take people and never perform a court case and just putting them directly into a jail, that's not even their country of origin. And I made a joke on Run your mouth that if you're in a gang, you should get a tattoo that just says not a gang member. Because I was, I was just saying these are for sure. I'm sure that there are some people that ended up in there just because of their tattoos. And there's one lawyer claiming that a guy was a fan of soccer and just got the wrong tattoo. We'll find out whether or not that is a true story or not a true story. If as a betting man, just with the way the government operates, if you take 300 people without a court case and you just throw them into a jail, how many people you think are going to be innocent? I mean, if you had to throw a number on, it's going to be more than two. Do you want to take the over under on 25. I might even take the over under on that. I'll probably take the under on 50. But I'm just saying that there's some people that just got sent to a jail in a country that they're not from for life directly from the United States government. And now this is the video of him defending his reason for doing this. And I don't think it's much of a defense.

Dave Smith (50:26)

All right. Yeah, let's, let's play the video. That was a good setup.

Interviewer (50:29)

I'm joined now by the Trump administration's border czar, Tom Homan. Mr. Homan, thank you very much for joining us. I want to start with something you said last week that caused a big stir. You said, I quote, I don't care what judges think. Now, I know you have since said that the administration will abide by court orders. We heard Donald Trump say the same thing. So what do you mean when you say, I don't care what judges think.

Tom Homan (50:54)

Think I don't care what that judges think. As far as this case, we're going to continue to arrest public safety threats and national security threats. We can continue to deport them to the United States. I understand this case is in litigation through the Alien Enemies act and will abide by the court order as litigated. But my quote was, despite what he thinks, we're going to keep targeting the worst of the worst of the worst, which we've been doing since day one and deporting from.

Rob Bernstein (51:22)

Here's another just interesting thing to note I've seen in the past where they'll use a law that hasn't been enforced for a long time. And then you go, hey, that's kind of corrupt. We don't usually use this law. The last time the Alien Enemies Law was used was when we interned the Japanese during World War II. And I don't think there's a lot of people that are pointing to that and going, that was a good American policy. This is a good rule on the books. So when he, when he, when he goes, hey, there is a law in the books that gives us the authority to do so. From what I understand, and I think I read that in the New York Times, the last time that law was used was interning the Japanese. And I don't think people look at that now and go, hey, that was, that was very moral and just what we did during that time.

Dave Smith (52:06)

Yeah. And I must say that I really just cannot, cannot stand the kind of ridiculous, like, kind of circular argument that it'll just Be like, well, look, we're concerned that you're not getting the worst of the worst here. And it's like, well, we're going to keep getting the worst of the worst. That's why we're targeting them, because they're the worst of the worst.

Rob Bernstein (52:26)

Straight. Just deporting someone. Go ahead. If someone stuck into the country illegally and you want to deport them, I think we should go after the criminals first. But I, and I, I've also said just make them second class citizens where they don't get benefits, they can't vote, I think everyone wins. But fine, you want to deport people back to their country of origin, go ahead and do so. You want to go after the criminals first, great. But you can't just take people and deposit them into a jail without any sort of a court process whatsoever. That's just not what we're talking about here. And that's not even what you're saying when you go, well, we're going to continue to go after criminals and deport criminals. Great, deport criminals, but don't deposit them into a jail without a court case for life.

Dave Smith (53:03)

Yeah, no, look, if somebody's here illegally, then I think you have a right to force them to leave. But yeah, when you're talking about sending them to a, a brutal prison in El Salvador, you're gonna have to give me at least a little something like, we know this is a bad person because of X. All right guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is paint your life. I love this company. Let me tell you about them. If you haven't heard of them already. Maybe you're looking for a great mother's or Father's day gift idea. Maybe you're thinking about someone to, to something to get your grandmother or something like that. Look no further than paint your life. Now you can get a professional hand painted portrait created from any photo at a truly affordable price. An unforgettable mother's or Father's Day gift. You just upload photos to create anything you imagine. Put yourself in a location you've always wanted to visit. Or you could add a lost loved one to a special occasion. To create the portrait of your dreams. There's lots of options. You choose the artist, the art medium. So you can choose oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal and more. And you select from a variety of quality frames. So what you're talking about here is we all struggle sometimes with like, what's a, what's a gift idea? That will really mean something that'll really bring a tear to somebody's eye. And this is the perfect one. Now you can give the most meaningful gift you've ever given at paint your life. And there's no risk. If you don't love the final painting, your money is refunded, guaranteed. Right now, as a limited time offer, you can get 20 off your painting. That's right. 20% off off and free shipping. To get this special offer, text the word problem to 87204. Just the word problem and you text that to 87204. Once again, text problem to 87204. Paint your life. Celebrate the moments that matter most. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Just text the word problem to 87204 to get 20% off at paint your life. All right, let's get back into the show anyway. Let's, let's keep lying United States to.

Tom Homan (55:16)

The various laws on the books. We're not making this up. The Alien Enemies act was actually a federal law. It's the statutes enacted by Congress and signed by a president. Now that's under litigation. But put that aside. We still have Title 8 authority to remove illegal ambulance from the United States. And we're going to continue to concentrate on those who are the biggest threat to our communities, the public safety threats.

Interviewer (55:36)

But you're gonna abide by court orders as long as you know and go through your appeals process. But you are not gonna defy those orders.

Tom Homan (55:46)

No.

Interviewer (55:47)

Okay, Let me ask you about the flights at issue here. The flights to El Salvador. You have said that everybody on those flights had ties to the Venezuelan gang trend aragua or to Ms. 13. Can you give me some background, help me understand how these people ended up there are these people that were recently arrested.

Tom Homan (56:13)

Some were, some weren't. Some have been in custody for a little bit. And some on that plane were Title 8 removals which means they were ordered removed by the immigration judge. And some other orders were removed to the Alien Enemies act. And I think about 240 on that flight were Venz and women gang members, TDA and I think we had 21 Ms. 13 members and a couple, you know, specific Ms. 13 cases. But as far as the Van Zwellings on flight, every single one according to the information given to me from the field are members of the tda. And TDA has been determined to be terrorist organizations. They're now classified as terrorists. So that plane removed 240 terrorists from the United States.

Interviewer (57:01)

So how do you determine or how do Your people in the field determine that somebody is a gang member?

Tom Homan (57:09)

Doug, there's various methods I've noticed in the media. A lot of them don't have criminal histories. Well, a lot of gang members don't have criminal histories. Just like a lot of terrorists in this world. They're not in any terrorist database. Right. We only know information within databases based on, for instance, most terrorists we arrest that are identified by US government are later identified through a Title 3 investigation or through an undercover operation. They're not in any terror screening basket screening database. We know that a lot of gang members, I started as a cop in 1984. Many gang members don't have a criminal history issue. We have a count on social media. We have count on surveillance techniques. We had to count on sworn statements from other gang members. We had to count on wiretaps and title threes. Everything involved with criminal investigations come into play. So just because someone doesn't, hasn't been arrested and charged with a crime yet doesn't mean they're a member of a gang.

Interviewer (58:00)

But, but how do you. I mean, what we've heard representing some.

Dave Smith (58:04)

Of them, I mean, the obvious problem here is that it also doesn't mean they are a member of a gang. And there is a presumption of innocence even for people who are here illegally in the country. Maybe not a presumption that they ought to be allowed to stay in the country, but in the same sense that we couldn't just throw them in an American prison. The idea that we could just throw them in a foreign prison does, you know, it seems, and let me just say, well, this guy is good at being kind of like, like you said, officer hard ass. And if he's going to be like on a debate against somebody who's arguing for Joe Biden's loose immigration policy, he's probably going to say all the hardcore right things that people want to hear. There's, there's major problems with this. And it's not just, look, there's the first and foremost, it's like, yeah, but like, what if you get the wrong person here? Like you said, Rob, earlier, it's almost a guarantee that at some point you will. And that is the idea of like throwing somebody who doesn't deserve it into one of these prisons on its own is really horrible. And then I would just say sorry, and then you can go ahead. But then just number two, why, I think even like hardcore border restrictionists who support Donald Trump, you should be a little bit concerned about this because you gotta think here man, like, as much as everybody always tells me, Donald Trump is playing 4D chess, this is an area where you actually have to play 4D chess to some degree. And look, look, God forbid there is one or maybe a few of these cases becomes a high profile example of where you really fucked up. Like, let's say you actually got an American citizen here, you know what I mean? And like, they, whatever, didn't have their papers or fucking, they're all tatted up or whatever. Oh my God, the nightmare that that's going to be toward the whole project of like deporting illegals and getting border security and all the things that we kind of all want to see. You got to be really careful with this one here, man, because if you got like, I mean, the nightmare of the pr, if you, like got an American citizen and had them tortured in one of these jails somewhere, that is really not going to be good. So, yeah, this is, this makes me a bit uncomfortable. I think it's something that Trump supporters would be wise to consider the risks associated with a policy like this and.

Rob Bernstein (60:43)

What he's really explaining here are suspected gang members. Yes, that would be until you go in front of a judge and you go, here's all the reasons we think this person is in this gang. And it's, well, we actually busted him at the headquarters. The other people testified then, fine, now you've got evidence that the guy's in a gang. And then the next layer to that is that's the problem with these terror designations is that once you label a group as being terrorists, and in this case, you know, I still think of terrorists as being, they belong to Al Qaeda. They came into this country and they're trying to blow up our buildings. I'd like to hear a little bit more clarification on why Venezuelan gang members are considered terrorists. Now. Now, you might say that they're undermining our society through drug trade or that the Venezuelan government specifically wanted to deposit violent criminals here. But just the fact that you can throw in the terror designation and then go, well, you just belong to this group. Are you the DJ there? Do you deliver the. What is that? At the beginning of this? He said affiliated with the group or ties to the group. So what does that mean? You were the accountant for them?

Dave Smith (61:49)

Like, were your brothers in the gang or something like that? I mean, like what? Yeah, it's just very, look, it's very vague. I do we, we gotta wrap up here in a second. But I do think like, like this type of like, look, we We've been saying this from before the election results came in. It's like, this is where things are going to get dicey, and this is going to be a real test for Donald Trump. And in the same way that. Look, again, I'll end on this, but I know I've made this point before, but, you know, Martin Luther King, okay, in the Civil Rights act, the entire thing was performative. And I don't mean this as a knock necessarily. It's just a fact of history. But, like, they chose Birmingham, Alabama. They decided to go there because they knew what the reaction was going to be, and they knew they were going to get it on television. And there were millions of white Americans, including many who harbored prejudice of their own. Like, many people who still believed in segregation, many people who did not believe in the goals of the civil rights activists. But when they looked on TV and saw, you know, black men in suits and ties getting chased down by, like, police dogs and fire hoses turned on them, they were just like, no, we can't support that. Like, we. We just can't support this level of violence against people. Now, it's much easier when you see people tatted up, you know, from head to toe. You don't even want to know, like, in the same way that Martin Luther King would have his guys wear suits and ties. There's a reason for that, and there's a reason why when you see a guy with face tattoos, you go, I don't know, he's a criminal of some sort. Fucking throw him in jail, whatever, you know? But look, in 2017, the. Even though it was all bullshit and the facilities were built by Obama and half of the pictures were taken under Obama, the kids in cages thing really did radicalize and mobilize a lot of Trump's detractors. And it's just something that, number one, whenever you're using violence, and even when it's state violence, you always want to be careful about it because you don't want to, you know, use it on people who don't deserve it, because that's a bad in and of itself. But it would also, you know, it's like, you got to really pay attention to, like, how this is going to be perceived and how this could end up backfiring. And the truth is that as. As furious as Americans were under about Joe Biden's immigration policies, there is. There is a level of violence that the American people will not tolerate. And you want to be really careful about flirting with that. All right, I do have to Wrap up there.

Rob Bernstein (64:39)

It is worth playing without commentary. But the next part is he does get questioned directly on what was the due process and essentially says there was no due process. But the Americans that have been victims of gang members, what due process did they have? Which.

Dave Smith (64:53)

Oh, and he says, he says, what did Larkin Rose. What due process did she have? And you're like, wait, what? That's not what due processes. Like, that's not. And by the way, I believe her killers were convicted of murder. They did have due process. And they did. It's like, yes, no, murder victims don't get due process. It's the reason why we oppose murder. Just so we're all on the same page, right?

Rob Bernstein (65:14)

You can't just throw Muslims in jail after 911 and go, well, what the victims of 9 11, what due process do they have? Well, the answer is we got to make sure that these are the people that actually perpetrated the crime. Otherwise. Yeah, look, I mean, whether for free people being in jail or innocent people being.

Dave Smith (65:30)

Whether you're for the death penalty or not, right? There's. There's good reasons on, on both sides of that issue. Forget where you stand on that. We all recognize there's a difference between that and the state just killing somebody. Right? Like there's a difference between those two things. And we insist that there is due process, that you get a conviction of this person before you do that. That's why it's a crime if you don't do that. You know what I'm saying? Like if. Again, so like if Larkin Rose. Am I saying that name? Right? That's her name, Right? Right. Lake in whatever. So I don't mean to be disrespectful. I'm just bad with names. But like, had that person, had she been convicted of murder in the first degree and then killed, it would be a different story than when she's just some innocent girl and gets killed. That's the whole point. So anyway, like, yes to your point. It's just a non answer. He essentially just had no answer for that. And essentially the answer is that they don't get it. Due process, that is an issue. All right, gotta wrap up there. Catch you guys next time. See you in Ballston this weekend. Comic Dave Smith.com for those tickets. Catch that Peace.