MSG and JRE

Summary

Podcast Summary: Part Of The Problem – "MSG and JRE"

Hosted by Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein
Released on October 29, 2024
GaS Digital Network

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1. Introduction to the Episode

In this episode of Part Of The Problem, hosted by Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein, the hosts delve into the dynamics of the upcoming presidential election, focusing particularly on Donald Trump's recent campaign strategies and the media's reaction to them. Filmed live from their longstanding studio in New York City, Dave and Robbie set the stage for an in-depth discussion on how alternative media platforms are reshaping political discourse.

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2. Trump’s Madison Square Garden Rally and Media Reaction

A significant portion of the episode centers around Donald Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden (MSG), which has stirred intense reactions from the corporate media. Dave Smith highlights the stark contrast between Trump's energetic campaign efforts and the media's portrayal of these events.

Notable Quote:

[05:10] MSNBC Reporter: "More than 20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so-called pro-America rally."

Robbie Bernstein reacts strongly to this comparison, questioning the validity and intentions behind equating Trump's rallies with those of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. The hosts argue that such labeling is a strategic move by the media to discredit Trump without addressing the actual content of his campaign.

Notable Quote:

[05:19] Robbie Bernstein: "It's like they're trying to spin hosting a rally at MSG as a Nazi indication."

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3. Analysis of Media Labeling and Its Impact

Dave and Robbie dissect the media's strategy of labeling Trump's events as extremist, suggesting that this is a desperate attempt to find an "October surprise" to sway public opinion in the final days of the campaign. They argue that such tactics are more about media sensationalism than factual reporting.

Notable Quote:

[06:27] Robbie Bernstein: "Now's the time for the pee tape, Puff Daddy tapes of him banging Putin. You gotta give me something."

Dave counters by emphasizing the lack of substantial evidence behind these claims, pointing out that the media's focus on labeling Trump as a Nazi distracts from more meaningful political discussions.

Notable Quote:

[07:43] Dave Smith: "It seems like they're grasping at straws more than ever before to even justify the claim."

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4. The Role of Alternative Media and Tucker Carlson’s Comments

The conversation shifts to the pivotal role of alternative media, particularly platforms like Joe Rogan's podcast, in shaping public perception. Dave introduces a clip from Tucker Carlson, who offers a nuanced perspective on Trump's influence and the erosion of corporate media’s dominance.

Notable Quote:

[27:28] Tucker Carlson: "Trump has empowered the rest of us through mostly just sticking around in the face of their hate and abuse and persecution."

Carlson's remarks underscore a growing sentiment among Trump's supporters that traditional media outlets are out of touch and biased against their views. Dave and Robbie discuss how these alternative voices are galvanizing a base that feels marginalized by mainstream narratives.

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5. Trump’s Appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience

One of the episode's highlights is the analysis of Donald Trump's three-hour appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience. The hosts consider this a monumental win for Trump, as it bypasses traditional media filters and directly engages with millions of listeners.

Notable Points:

• Duration and Depth: Unlike typical media interviews, Trump's extended conversation with Rogan allowed for a more authentic and unfiltered portrayal.
• Policy Discussions: Topics ranged from Trump's stance on income tax abolition to his perspectives on international relations, albeit sometimes tangentially.
• Impact on Public Perception: Dave argues that this appearance reinforced Trump's appeal among supporters and exposed the limitations of corporate media in controlling the narrative.

Notable Quote:

[43:46] Dave Smith: "If Kamala Harris went and pulled that off on the Joe Rogan Experience, you'd be like, what? She'd win the election."

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6. Broader Implications for Corporate Media and Future Elections

Dave and Robbie explore the broader implications of the shift towards alternative media, suggesting that traditional outlets like CNN and Comedy Central are losing their grip on public discourse. They argue that the success of platforms outside the corporate mainstream is fundamentally altering how information is disseminated and consumed.

Notable Quote:

[58:03] Robbie Bernstein: "I think the major news companies are going to die to close to nothing or they're going to really have to change the way they do business."

The hosts lament the decline of legacy media's influence and commend the rise of independent voices that offer diverse perspectives untainted by corporate interests.

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7. Conclusion

In wrapping up the episode, Dave and Robbie reiterate the significance of the evolving media landscape in the current election cycle. They express optimism that the empowerment of alternative media will continue to challenge the monopolistic tendencies of traditional outlets, fostering a more transparent and diverse political conversation.

Final Notable Quote:

[61:58] Robbie Bernstein: "The major news companies are going to die to close to nothing or they're going to really have to change the way they do business."

Dave concludes by reflecting on the potential long-term benefits of this media shift, emphasizing the importance of building resilient and independent platforms that can sustain informed public discourse beyond the confines of corporate control.

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This episode of Part Of The Problem offers a critical examination of the interplay between political campaigns and media strategies, highlighting the transformative impact of alternative media in shaping modern electoral politics.

Transcript

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[Dave Smith]

Hello, hello. What's up everybody? Wel welcome live from New York City, a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. Me and of course Robbie the Fire Bernstein in our old studio. It's been quite a while since we've done a podcast episode in this room.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I didn't realize we still worked here.

[Dave Smith]

I didn't even realize it was ours to maybe do if we wanted to. We've been in the studio a few times, but I feel like we've been in the other room. This was of course our home for many years. It's kind of a throwback to be here where I recorded Piers Morgan's show today in person. So I appreciate you guys coming in. Oh, I mean it was all. Listen, man, I enjoyed doing that show, I think, but today was just. It was ridiculous. It was a lot of just me laughing at the absurdity of it. But anyway, I mean it was a fun time, I guess. I'm glad I did it. Sarah Palin was on the panel.

[Robbie Bernstein]

What? That's kind of cool.

[Dave Smith]

It was very bizarre. And then the. She ended up. I don't know, it was. It was strange.

[Robbie Bernstein]

She's a rush expert. I don't know why she hasn't been around for the last three years.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, well, she's talk about things she actually got right when we could have used her. You know what I mean? We could have really gotten to the bottom of that whole thing. But Sarah Pel. But she's back now, kind of. At least on Piers Morgan anyway.

[Robbie Bernstein]

How'd she look?

[Dave Smith]

She's older than she was last time I saw her. For sure. But aren't we all? I'm sure I'm older than the last time she saw me, but. Yeah, but I mean, she looked fine. She had like a tattoo on her hand.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I think she's out.

[Dave Smith]

I noticed it one time.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I think she's out. Divorced. Parting it up now. I think she's doing a whole new thing.

[Dave Smith]

Ah, interesting. I was like, are you tatted up? Like, really Sarah Palin? Anyway, this is it. We're a week out from the presidential election.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You know what's more exciting than that?

[Dave Smith]

What's that?

[Robbie Bernstein]

Is that next week, Sunday, 8pm for free on YouTube, you can watch my comedy special.

[Dave Smith]

That's the biggest news of the week.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You don't even have to worry about the election.

[Dave Smith]

That is very exciting news, dude. We're all ready for that. It's going to be great. I'm excited for a lot of people to see that. And a, you'll either be really happy or disappointed next week. And either way, you need comedy in your life.

[Robbie Bernstein]

There you go. 8pm and also at the Shell this weekend up in New Hampshire. You can go to my website for details. Back to you, Dave.

[Dave Smith]

Hell yeah. And of course, come see both of us on the road. Comicdavesmith.com we still got a few more fun gigs.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Poughkeepsie and Philly.

[Dave Smith]

Poughkeepsie and Philadelphia. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a crazy little stretch of time here for the country, obviously. Okay. We still have a week left. But what we could start talking about today, which I think is the topic everyone's kind of talking about, October surprises.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Trump's a Nazi.

[Dave Smith]

That's. Well, that's what it turns out.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I would have thought they'd have a better surprise on that.

[Dave Smith]

Well, I will say so far, viewing kind of if you look at say the last two weeks of a presidential election and we just got Trump's second to last week. And I mean this however you feel about Donald Trump politically, his in terms of like his close of the campaign, it's been incredible. Now he's politically speaking, done an excellent job. He tends to do this, he, Donald Trump, look, his real expertise is in putting on a show. He knows how to put on a show better than anybody else. And he typically closes very strong. You know, he'll do a ton of rallies. He'll have big spectacles. And I think that's part of the reason why he. He always does better than he's polling. Like he did better than he was polling in 2016 on election night, same thing in 2020. And because the polls are closer this year than they were either of those years, that is a very good sign for. For Donald Trump's chances of getting reelected. The pollution. Two big things were obviously, he did the Joe Rogan experience and then he had a big old Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And so while legendary venue known for that. Well, and nothing else.

[Dave Smith]

Yes. Well, while Donald Trump. Right. Literally, it's a While Donald Trump is putting on what looks like substantially better than 2016 or 2020 in terms of like, just the way he's closing out the campaign, where you look at it and you go like, whoa, this is a. This is a huge victory for Donald Trump. On the other side, it does seem like. I don't even know how to put it. Seems like there was a meeting, like if there was a meeting with all the most powerful Democratic donors and the people in the corporate media, and they were like, all right, guys, it's crunch time. Here's our ace in the hole. We're going to call him a Nazi. Has anybody tried this yet? Has this made its rounds? People are going to be so shocked by the accusation that they're going to be like. And it's. It's wild to watch. We were like, that's really it. This is it. This is what you guys are going to do right now is you're going to. Your final pitch is just going to be like, that he's a. Not the same thing. You've been hysterically shrieking for eight years. And in terms of like, they seem to be grasping at straws more than ever before to even justify the claim.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Now's the time for the pee tape Puff Daddy tapes of him banging Putin. You gotta give me something.

[Dave Smith]

Well, you think you'd have something, but it. This. I don't know. I mean, we got a few days to go here. I think even at this point, by the way, if there were to be, you know, they call it an October surprise and not a November surprise for a reason. Because if you were to November nuke.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Maybe it'll be a new thing.

[Dave Smith]

Well, look, if you were to have some devastating thing that you were going to release on a candidate, the timing would be around last week or the week before. That's when you want to get it out. You would not want to put it out on November 2nd, if the election is on November 5th, because you want to make sure that everyone's heard this and not just heard it, but, like, it's been repeated over and over. Now, you could argue that we have a shorter attention span than ever. Maybe you slow that down. But if you had something, my thought is you would have released it by now. I could be wrong about maybe, maybe something big will get released. But it seems less and less likely as time goes on. And it seems more like, oh, no, this really is what they've got, is he's doing a rally in Madison Square Garden, and so are they in the 30s. Nazi.

[Robbie Bernstein]

It seemed like he put on a hell of a show. It felt like I was watching Victory. That's what it felt like.

[Dave Smith]

It. Look, it's a weird thing, right, if you go by. If you go by the polls, which are not always exactly right, but again, there's. There's a pretty strong case that it's very close, that either side could win. If you extrapolate a little bit out of the polls, like the fact of, like, where Trump was in 2016, where he was in 2020, where he is now, it looks more likely than not that Donald Trump will win, but that could not be the case. It's close enough that it's like, yeah, maybe 6 out of 10 times Donald Trump wins or something like that, maybe even a little less. I will say, and this is not scientific at all. I'm just saying, and I think almost everybody knows this, if you just go by kind of the intangibles, you're like, what am I seeing if I didn't have access to polls, if I didn't have that? And I just was going by, like, what am I seeing on social media? What am I seeing at events? What am I seeing in the corporate media? What am I seeing at, you know, like, all the signs on the ground, all the people you talk to? It feels like Donald Trump is about to have a landslide victory. The amount of energy that is in Trump supporters right now and the amount of energy that's been drained out of Democrats, like, it's, It's. I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in a presidential election. No, I shouldn't say that. Obama in 2008 certainly had that. Obama in 2008 had. There was just this feeling like there is no enthusiasm on your side and we have all the enthusiasm in the world on, on our side. That's how it feels right now. I'm not saying that's like a compelling scientific argument, but it is weird to feel that way and still see everything on paper saying, no, this is very close. We'll see. So Trump puts on, by the way, you know what, let's just play. Before we even get into it, let's play. The. One of the clips I sent you was the. I can't remember which one. It was the media freaking out about. About the Trump rally. Yeah. Here, just to get a little sense of like. So we're not overplaying their reaction here, this msnbc, but that jamboree happening right.

[MSNBC Reporter]

Now, you see it there on your screen in that place is particularly chilling.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Just as a heads up, more than.

[MSNBC Reporter]

20,000 supporters of a different fascist leader, Adolf Hitler, packed the Garden for a so called pro America rally. A rally where speakers voiced antisemitic rhetoric from a stage draped.

[Dave Smith]

If you could pause it right there. I mean, the argument so far is that the Nazis also had a rally at Madison Square Garden. By the way, by the way, Donald Trump has been known to pay for things in cash. Do you else, do you know who else used cash? The American Nazi Party. All of their members used cash. This seems to be the first thing. Oh, it's an event. They had an event at Madison Square Garden. So did Donald Trump. You want to learn about some other Nazis? Patrick Ewing, you ever heard about that guy? Constant events at Madison Square Garden, Disney on Ice, Disney on Ice, bunch of Nazis. I mean, it's just like they don't even like attempt to make an argument. It's just like, yeah, you know, they're having a rally, a big rally in Madison Square, like they do. Politicians do rallies at arenas all the time. Like the idea of trying to spin selling out the Garden as some type of Nazi indication. And here, let's keep playing. The press reported this is real.

[MSNBC Reporter]

Instantly, a dozen or more stormtroopers set upon him, knocking him down and beating him. As he held his head in his arms. Most of his clothing was torn from his body. Later he was booked for disorderly conduct. Now, against that backdrop of history, Donald Trump, the man who has threatened to use the military against opponents he calls enemies from within, who has threatened to use the troops to quell what he says are lawless cities and to use those troops to carry out mass deportations of immigrants, is once again turning all Right.

[Dave Smith]

So let's pause it here. So that's the connection. So a Jewish guy rushed the stage and got beat up and was later charged with rushing the stage. Which, by the way, I mean, I understand it's a. It's a Nazi rally. And, like, there's high emotions. You know, we're talking about the American Nazi Party rally in the 30s. Like, I get that. And I get. If you even go, like, if that's over your line of, like, once you openly say you're a Nazi, I think you deserve to be, like, physically assaulted or something like that, which I think is a dangerous game to start playing. But, like, first of all, just on the actual Nazi rally in the 30s, you either have an event or you don't. Like, like, you either get a permit or rent out a venue and are able to have that event or you don't, or you're not allowed to have it. But if we're going to say, hey, well, there's a free society, and so even though we disagree with your views, you're allowed to rent this out and have it or whatever, fine. You're not allowed to rush the stage. Like, once an event is a sanctioned, legal event, somebody's not allowed to just rush in the middle. So even when they go like. And you know who ended up getting booked? The Jewish guy. He ended up getting. It's like, well, listen, dude, all I'm saying is at any concert, at any sporting event, at any anything, if you rush the stage, you're probably going to get assaulted and you're going to be the one who gets charged after it. Like, that's. It doesn't matter. I can't. Like, if I rush the stadium at. I rush a football field, then I get beat up a bunch. And then I'm like. They're like, when the cops come, I go, no, I'd like to press charges against all of the people who are manhandling me down there. The cops are going to laugh in my face, take me to jail. So I'm just saying, as fucked up as that does sound, by the way, that's the story they're telling. And the connection here is, Rob, you see, well, a mob pe people beat up this Jewish guy who rushed the stage in the 30s. And Donald Trump has said he's going to use the military to crack down on riots and to do mass deportations. By the way, Rob, as you can tell, the outrage from MSNBC is that the only proper role of the military is slaughtering brown babies in Third World countries for Bullshit reasons which they're supposed to be doing their job and killing Muslims based off lies, but instead Donald Trump wants to have them do something here or what? Like that's the connection that. So really it's just like the Nazis. You get it?

[Robbie Bernstein]

Yeah. And I mean also, if you're one lone Jew, what are you doing rushing a stage? Yeah, you need multiple people to at least have an impact.

[Dave Smith]

Probably not the best, best idea. And these are Nazis. They don't care for you.

[Robbie Bernstein]

This is total add. But the greatest clothesline I ever saw in my life was I was once at a Yankee rain delay game and every once in a while people get bored and they would slip and slide on the thing and security would go get them. And there's one guy and it'd be fun. Like you would just be sitting there rooting for the one guy. It was like a great cat and mouse game and one guy took and he started running and he dodged like three security guards and the guy just clotheslined him. Like WWF just knocked the guy clean out.

[Dave Smith]

It's rare to pull off a real close.

[Robbie Bernstein]

It was full scale. The guy was turned around and a security guard turned around.

[Dave Smith]

He didn't see it. It's a boom. They say it's always the clothesline you don't see coming is the one that really gets you.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Well, point just being if you rush a stage, you might. You're going to get manhandled.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, those weren't even Nazis and that guy got manhandled. Or maybe they were not. We don't know for sure. Anyway, regardless of however, look, let's finish this, this thing and then I'll make my point. I think we pretty much got the gist of it. That was the end of it. Oh, that was. Okay. So no matter however you feel, even if you agree with the message and you think this was a Nazi style rally, which look, I think is pretty goddamn ridiculous. But how does anyone. Like how do you look at this? I almost see this as them conceding the election. Like, you know, you know that. No, nobody who, nobody who is going to be moved by the type of rhetoric of just like screaming Nazi incoherently with no argument attached to it. Those people are already in your camp. Nobody on the Trump side or that's up for grabs at this point is going to be moved by you hysterically shouting Nazi. And I'm sorry, but just objectively speaking, because it's so, it's so weird how much everything in the corporate media, everything they rely on is fake. The Whole thing is fake. Like, it's like it's just this even just watching this clip, like you are existing in a world that has nothing to do with reality, where there's anything. Even if there are a million things you could say about Trump's 2024 campaign or say about his four year track record or say about the. What you think the next four years are going to be like, the idea that this is the American Nazi party taking over is just not in the realm of reality. It's all fake. In the same way that the fucking Tony Hinchcliffe, the outrage about his this is all fake. No vote has been flipped over Tony's jokes. This is. There is not one Puerto Rican in the United States of America who was about to vote for Donald Trump, heard Tony Hinchcliffe his Puerto Rico joke and went, that's it. I, you know, took off his MAGA shirt and there was like a Kamala Harris shirt underneath it. That has not happened.

[Robbie Bernstein]

The whole thing is people in the ocean make their decisions.

[Dave Smith]

No, they got things to worry about, like what garbage floats and what doesn't. Okay. And they've figured it out. Pretty Tupperware, you turn it upside down. Anyway, it's just not. None of this is real. They're reporting on it all day long. Like, this is all fake. This is not a real story. And the bottom line is, is that in this thing called reality that the corporate media seems to have no interest in engaging with, but in reality, the singular reality, Donald Trump went into the bluest of blue cities, sold out Madison Square Garden had like a star studded, like amazing event with a great crowd that was like super thrilled to be there, drew minimal protests. I heard Pierce Morgan told me today that the secret that he was talking to the Secret Service guys, he was at the event and they said there were about a hundred, about, I think he said 100, maybe 150 people protesting. The idea that Donald Trump could come in and do a big event like that in 2016 and not draw a big protest would have been, you know what I mean? Like, there's like everything about this optically was just excellent for him. There's no debate about it. Right. How can you even look at it a different way? This is a win politically for Trump and, and it's amazing how much it also helps him. It makes it almost double the win for him that his political enemies in the corporate media are just losing their fucking minds over it.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Yeah. They can't cover it. They can't tell you what was said. They can't they can't give you the coverage of what was at the event. They can't say, oh, wow, look, there actually is a lot of enthusiasm. I think Kamala Harris really might have to come out and contend with some of these issues. They can't do anything in the reality of real journalism, because if they did, then you might go, oh, I guess it's not just Nazis and racists that like this guy.

[Dave Smith]

Well, exactly, dude. And to think that, okay, in the. In the moment, right after Biden, the few weeks after Joe Biden dropped out and Kamala Harris first got in the race, and I think there was a very real, like, exhale from Democratic voters, you know, who were just like, oh, my. You know, like, it's a. Especially when you've demonized Donald Trump so much, and then this is your guy, and you see your guy have a horrible debate performance and look like a dementia patient, and, you know, there's something very anxiety provoking about that. And then when he's out of the way and it's someone who doesn't have those issues, it's like, sigh of relief. And it. But in this moment, the corporate media nonstop told you she is. She is the embodiment of joy and hope. People love her. They're so excited. Like, they just reported on this. This illusion, which we all called out at the time because their whole world is fake. Of like. Like an illusion of a phenomenon where she was this candidate. Yet you're watching however you feel about the candidates. You're right in front of you. The proof that Trump really is creating some type of moment like that. Whether it's enough to win or not, we will find out. Or maybe not. Um, but like. And right. And as they cover it, all they can say is, like, the Nazis had a rally in the 30s. Like, I don't know, man. Donald Trump seems like a party to me. That seems like what he's having there is, like, a big goddamn party. And it doesn't seem like the problem is that he's a Nazi. Seems like the problem is that he's too cartoonishly pro Israel. I don't know, but it's wild to see. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Proton De. Google your life and put your privacy first with Proton so you can feel safe when you write emails, stream content, save passwords, and upload photos. Because what you do online is designed for your eyes only. Google's entire business model is based on. On scraping your personal data from its many apps and services to be able to serve you targeted ads. Now, that includes what you search on Google, where you're going on Google Maps, and the most recent emails you sent on Gmail. What you do online should be for your eyes only. And now you can feel safer online when you know that you're with Proton. Unlike Google, who claims to be for privacy, Proton's products are built with the highest privacy standards and do not collect any of your personal data. To keep you safe from data breaches, ad targeting and. And government surveillance. And you can switch in just one click. Proton allows you to easily import your emails, contacts, and calendars from your Google account to Proton's suite of privacy first products, including email, calendar and drive. De Google your Life for just $1 for the first month. Only $1 for the first month to de Google your life. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I mean, it's incredible for them with a straight face to try and sell, hey, 86 years ago, this is the exact venue that the Nazis played at and then wipe out, what, the entire history of the Garden. Like, there's some sort of a real affiliation.

[Dave Smith]

We're supposed to pretend that there's not. There haven't been any events at the, At Madison Square Garden since then. Like, it's. That's why I made the joke about cash. Like, it is almost like saying, like, what the thing. All of us have the. It's dubbed the world's most famous arena. I mean, it's. The whole thing is nutty. And. Yeah, look, I mean, people are saying. And I, you know, I saw even some people who were like, oh, like it was a bad idea for the campaign to have Tony Hinchcliffe go up and do his thing. And, you know, I understand where people are coming from when they. And look, this is a decision that's. Was it a smart idea of the campaign to have Tony go do that at their thing? I understand where you could argue and people argue. Oh, you're giving them an easy talking point or something like that. But listen, this whole thing is fake. They're calling you Hitler just for having an event in Madison Square Garden. It's like, I actually do kind of think it's. I think it's a smart game that Trump's playing where he's going. Like, how about we at least just. How about we just brush it off? We don't care about these accusations at all, and we'll just be the side that's having fun. I think there's a really wise Strategy in that. In life in general. Like, it's. If you're ever in life, if you're ever, like. And by the way, I say there's something kind of personal in a way to us because we do this show where we're constantly talking about, like, things that are really horrible that are happening. But at the same time, when we go around, when we do our live event, what we're. What we're, like, pitching people on is like, hey, come have a great night. Come have a night of just laughing and enjoying yourself. Because, like, you. You just never. In life in general, if you're ever asking other people to come be angry with you, and that's. Your pitch is like, come over here and be angry with me. Don't be surprised if that doesn't sell very well, because most people do not want to say yes to an invitation to come just be angry. And as much as the corporate media is trying to sp this as a hate rally, like, that's the idea, like, that he's telling you to come here. You guys are the ones engaged in the hate rally. You're the one saying, everybody come over here and be furious about the Nazi takeover of America all day long. Whereas what Trump is doing is saying, hey, you want to come to this awesome party? It's going to be the best. You're going to have the best night. This is going to be so entertaining. And like, there's. It's amazing that they haven't figured this out yet in all these years.

[Robbie Bernstein]

There's something funny about where the party of joy. Now quit having your fun. How dare you have fun.

[Dave Smith]

That's it.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And what do you want? Beyonce coming up and not singing.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah. Don't you.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You bring the best roast guy in the world. He tells some of the best roast jokes.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie Bernstein]

All politically themed, probably just written for that event. And great bangers.

[Dave Smith]

And isn't it funny how they're picking out the Puerto Rican one, too? It's such a big one.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I would think they'd be more upset with some of the sexual content.

[Dave Smith]

Well, it's so funny, dude. But it's like. It's almost like they. They went. It was like they were like, well, there's some Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania and in Wisconsin. And so we got a fucking. Let's go after that. But the shit. He gave it to Muslims and Jews and Puerto Rico. He did what Tony Hinchcliffe does. He gave it to everyone.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And we want to get those Puerto Ricans back to Puerto Rico anyways.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie Bernstein]

So let Them know they're not welcome.

[Dave Smith]

It's not crazy. And also, we got to start moving the Overton window in the direction of you're not really one of us.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I thought when he told that it didn't even get. But right off the fat, when he goes, like, all my Latinos allowed him, can I get a clap? And they all applaud and he goes, you see how many of them suck in or whatever. So great.

[Dave Smith]

Yo. No, I thought he did great. I thought he did what he does, and he was great at it. And I thought it was cool that it's like, from. From the perspective of just Tony. It's like, yeah, like, that's who he is, and that's what you're going to get no matter what environment you put him in. There was a. I was particularly. I thought Tucker Carlson gave a great speech, and there was something. I wanted to play a part of this because it really. This kind of stuck out to me. And I did think that there was something about this, that Tucker was touching on something like a very important dynamic. In many ways, I thought it was part kind of almost like the best argument for Trump. And in a way, you know, I think Tucker is kind of the, like, the. He is the thought leader intellectually of the. The MAGA movement right now. You know, Trump is obviously like the guy. He is the figurehead. Tucker is probably like the second, you know, most popular guy amongst that crowd, but he's the guy who's, you know, read books about stuff and actually knows what he's talking about and can actually speak in depth on, like, multiple different issues. And, you know, and there was something. Anyway, I want to. I want to play this clip, then kind of like, talk about it for a minute. But I thought there was something very interesting in what he said, resonated with me for sure. So here is Tucker Carlson at msg.

[Tucker Carlson]

Trump has empowered the rest of us through mostly just sticking around in the face of their hate and abuse and persecution. He has given the rest of us the right to call BS on the charade. No, you are not better than us. No, you are not smarter than us. No, you do not deserve what you have. You probably stole it. No, you're not going to bully me into silence anymore. And I can promise you, at this point, nine days out, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And Elon Musk and Tulsi Gabbard and pretty much every high school senior and college sorority girl in the country has come out, finally said, yeah, I am for Donald Trump, actually, when the entire country has realized there is nothing embarrassing about this. What's embarrassing is to take a perfectly gray country and destroy it as they have. I'm not ashamed. You should be. At that moment. It's going to be pretty tough for them 10 days from now to look in the eye to America with a straight face. It's going to be pretty hard to look at us and say, you know what, Kamala Harris, she's just, she got 85 million votes because she's just so impressive as the first Samoan, Malaysian, low iq, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president. It was just a groundswell of popular support. And anyone who thinks otherwise is just a freak or a criminal at this stage of the game. After nine years of listening to their lies and finding every single one of them totally false, no, it's not safe and effective. And no, she's not impressive. It's very hard for me to believe the rest of us are going to say, you know what, Joe Scarborough, you're right, you're right, she won fair and square because she's just so impressive. I don't think so. And to me, that is liberation. It's the freedom to say what's obviously true as a free man and not a slave.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, okay. So I love that. And I do think that, first of all, there's a lot to break down there. But I do think there really is something, and I think it's something that, that oftentimes libertarians kind of miss out on. Like, there's, there's, there are policy questions, and then there are things that are more like kind of deep cultural, bordering on spiritual questions. And like, I do think there's something that's happening in the air right now where it is, you do see, like, celebrities lining up behind Trump in a way that you didn't in his previous campaigns. You do see people who are now taking this opinion that the, and listen, I know there's a million libertarians out there. I know there's some libertarians who aren't happy with me over some of the things I've been saying about considering voting for, for Donald Trump. And I get a lot of them will just say things back to me that I've said a million times. Like, Trump was terrible on this. How could you vote for the guy who supported this? And look, I'm not saying there's no point to that. There is a major point. There is, like, he was terrible on all those issues. I do not have high hopes for a Donald Trump second term. I don't think Donald Trump's going to get in there and like hack up the warfare state or cut government spending. And I bet that even after all of this he still appoints terrible people and he still, you know, but there's something, and it's just as important as tax policy or gun policy or the boom bust theory of like economic, you know, cycles where it's like, look, the entire apparatus, the entire power structure, the political class, the corporate media, Hollywood, like the big tech companies that were fucking forced to do it by the government and all of the big finance, all of the big money, they've all gone in behind in saying like supporting this guy is an unacceptable opinion. And for the. And you see a lot of Americans almost shaking it off and as Tucker saying going, well that's what I fucking stand for. And you know what? Fuck you, because you're nobody to tell me what's an allowable opinion and what's not like that is it? I have the freedom to think outside of the fake world that you have constructed for me, which by the way, I know is all bullshit and I know that you constructed it for your own advantage against mine. Like even the line that Tucker said there about like, just like assuming like you didn't earn that, you probably stole it. That, that is true for like everyone in the like. If you're talking about like the suburbs of Washington D.C. or of New York City where all these people were talking about live, all of them just got it from these like crony, the Wall street casino or the government spending parasite class, you know, and like there is something about like, no, we don't look up at you like you know better than us. We, we look at you like you're the enemy of the American people. And you did something that's, as he points out here, something that's actually outrageous and offensive. Forget Tony Hinchcliffe's joke. You fucking ruined the United States of America. You, you inherited. And he's talking to the entire like power structure in D.C. you inherited the United States of America and presided over its bankruptcy. And not just fiscally, like culturally and spiritually and morally, like in every sense. You guys took the greatest goddamn country in the history of the world and made it the most war hungry fucking like evil country in the world. Like, what? That's actually offensive. That's outrageous and like, fuck you. So that's like the first part of what he's saying and there is something there. I'm not saying you have to vote for him and I understand the good reasons not to. All I'm really saying is to like the critics of Donald Trump and libertarians or others who are like, nope, he was too bad on this issue. He was too bad on this issue. Fine. If that's how you feel, fine. But if you miss the point that I'm making, I think you're missing that at your own peril. Like you're missing something big that's going on. I think it is very good for us to have that dynamic that Tucker is talking about. A bunch of people saying that like, no, no, no. Actually CNN and the big banks and the weapons companies are not going to dictate to me what my opinion on the world is. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, longtime sponsor, who we absolutely love, which is Fume. You know, people pick up a lot of habits many times to cope with stress. And if you're not a fan of the habit that you've chosen, make the switch to Fume. This is a habit you can feel good about. It's made to be fidgeted with. It gives you something to reach for when everybody else is stepping outside. There's no nicotine, so you're not going to get addicted to it. There's no batteries, which means you never have to charge it. And it's made with delicious non toxic flavors. It is a totally guilt free alternative. Not only is Fume fun, it is also safe. The company continuously invests in third party studies to ensure safety and it's backed by doctors in the United States of America. And another bonus, it's not a vape so you can use it anywhere you want to. Fume has served over 300,000 customers and you can be their next success story. For a limited time, use my promo code problem to get a free gift with your journey pack. Head to tryfume.com that's t r y f u m dot com and use the promo code problem to get your free gift with your order today. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Love it. I also, I love his line. I mean this isn't the way he put it, but that's Kamala Harris is the safe and effective of political candidates.

[Dave Smith]

Great.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Yeah.

[Dave Smith]

So great.

[Robbie Bernstein]

It's such a great way of put it of just that we are rejecting that you guys get to create the status norms. Same as you told us. We were all crazy if we didn't want to get the vaccine. And then it turned out the compliance rates weren't that high and he kept selling it. The only people that aren't getting these, are these conspiracy, anti vaccine nuts.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And he's, he's 100% right that if they manage to get all the corpses to come out and show up for Kamala Harris and we have the even larger election numbers in the last one, I think everyone's gonna be going, hey, who really even showed up for this lady?

[Dave Smith]

Well, there's. Okay, so now getting to that point, part of what Tucker's saying here, because this is like, this is, it's a message that he's sending. And also, by the way, I mean, it's, I also just, it's such a boss move that like just Tucker is the one who gets. I mean, this was aired on Fox News. Like this was aired on the network that fired him. You know what I mean? And he gets to send this. But look, here's. There will be. There are people, many, many of them, right? The respectable people, the people in the corporate media who will say that, okay, here's what Tucker Carlson is doing right here. Okay? You see, this is. They're setting up the next January 6th. They're setting up the next election denial. See, he's saying if, if Kamala Harris does end up with this huge vote total, we won't believe you or whatever. What's actually happening in reality is that it's, it's almost the inverse of that. What, what Tucker is saying here is that if you motherfuckers try to steal this, we're all going to know that you stole it. And that's what he's, he's getting ahead of. He's, he's going, look, we can all look around and feel this. And if you're going to sit here and say that Kamala Harris broke the record of more votes than anyone else got, which is what you're going to need to say in order to steal this thing on her behalf. None of us are going to believe you. And it's, it's a very interesting game to be playing. And I would just say that, you know, Tucker is a guy who had deep, deep connections in to the swamp. I mean, this was a guy who lived in Washington D.C. and was at the top of the corporate media game for decades. And I'm just saying he knows a lot of people and he knows a lot about how the fucking thing actually works in a way that none of us do. You know what I mean? Like, none of us. You know, I could, I could sit here and tell you, you know, what Victoria Nuland was doing in 2014 and the move she was making. But like, I haven't had dinner with her. You know, when you talk to Tucker, Tucker will tell you a story about how their breath stinks or something. You know, like he like, knows them and, and this is his take is that like it needs, they need to know right now that they're not going to get away with stealing this, which is kind of interesting on its own.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You know, that's a, that's a great moment. And overall, the spectacle of that rally and the roster of people that he brought out to support him, the fact that he's got Kennedy on the team now and what's her name from Hawaii. So bad with names.

[Dave Smith]

Tulsi Gabbard.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Tulsi Gabbard. It's, it was a very impressive affair.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, I mean, I think there's, it, I think it's really hard to look at it in any other way if you're, if you're being objective at all. And it does just seem that the, the hysteria and I mean, there were, by the way, the clip we showed you, there were lots of clips. It's just, it's been days at this point and stuff gets out of like the, you know, the cycle. But the people in the corporate media, Mika Brzezinski said that he's killing us. Just all of these meltdowns and it's like, I don't know how just to, it's almost like if you were, if, you know, they're in a 12 round fight, you know, and you're going into the last round or something like that, and one boxer is, you know, like cheering with his hands up and the other guy has his hands on his knees and is just breathing heavy and you're just like, okay, this looks like, like obviously everything is in this guy's favor. To see Trump's opponents freaking out and quite literally melting down. Like, I don't know how else to say it. And then to watch Trump doing what he's doing, it's hard to not look at that and go, wow. I mean, you couldn't, if you're a Trump guy, you couldn't hope for a better close.

[Robbie Bernstein]

The other thing that I was taken away as being somewhat promising. And after I was traveling all day yesterday and I watched all of Donald Trump on Rogan, well, that's what we're.

[Dave Smith]

Going to talk about next.

[Robbie Bernstein]

At some point, Donald Trump's creating so much television that you're like, I can't, I can't watch all of this. But the fact that he's prominently displaying both Vivek and an RFK junior suggests to me that they will actually have cabinet positions. And also, I mean, this will be Donald Trump's last run, you know, if he's there these four years. So I think on some of the things that we need to solve as a country, I don't know that he's going to have a strong incentive to not actually do that. Like, I think Vivek wants to stick around. I think him and JD Vance are probably front runners for running the next time. I think whatever cabinet position he's. I think these guys are going to actually try and solve some stuff, which is, I mean, of, of the presidential runs that I've seen it, you know, people's core things are usually more, hey, I'm going to get you free health care, I'm going to get your college paid for, or I'm going to build the wall. And they don't get that done. But it's very rarely, hey, we're actually going to try and roll back some government here. Hey, we're going to try and look into this health problem and roll back the relationship FDA has with these drug companies. Very rarely do you see that. And I think all those people want to stick around. And I don't think there's any reason for, I don't think Donald Trump has a financial incentive in those industries that he's going to look to not allow them to crusade on that. So, yeah, it might be interesting.

[Dave Smith]

No, I agree. I mean, look, there's. They're still up against it because it's not just the fact that it's, it's. You're. They're going to have to deal with, like, let's say you appoint Bobby Kennedy to some important position and like, overseeing, you know, some oversight position of, like overseeing pharmaceutical companies or something like that. Okay. He's still going to have to deal with all of the fucking, all the other people in the Cabinet who may, you know, be deeply in bed with some of these entrenched interests. He's going to have to deal with the Congress. He's going to have to deal with just the, the amount of power that there is there. Right. So it's still like a long shot, but with Donald Trump, for all the bad things you could say about him, and there are plenty to have guys like Bobby Kennedy, like, in his very close circle, to have Bobby Kennedy and Vivek Ramaswamy and Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard and these people, it does at least feel like there's a chance there at least someone might be attempting to do the right thing, whereas there's just never. There's just nothing like that on. On the other side. And there hasn't really been. Now, again, that's still. I still am sure, like, Donald Trump might have a few more good appointments. I do agree with what you're saying. The fact that Vivek and Tulsi and RFK are so involved with him and are in so many events with them does seem to indicate that maybe he would actually keep them around. There's also been. He's also floated at some pretty bad people for like, defense secretary. And so I'm not, you know, we'll see what happens.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And I guess it is politics. And we've seen Donald Trump just dumb people such as Steve Bannon or when he played Romney real good and he offered them the cabinet.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, yeah, no, he might. Yeah, he might. You know, that's also possible. But regardless, there's something there. At least there's something. Unfortunately, that's what we've got to work with. Look, let's talk a bit about the Rogan podcast. I guess I just start. Just start just politically speaking. I thought it was a, like a huge win for Trump. I mean, just enormous. It. He. He got, he got done everything he was supposed to get done. He was, himself, he was, he wasn't being phony and he didn't get busted or exposed in any moments like that. He seemed, he, he was charming and he seemed to win. Joe Rogan over on the podcast, and they got into some interesting topics that, like, aren't typically covered. It was, I thought he, he was a bit evasive at times, if you want to say that, but, you know, in a very Trumpian way where it's almost seems very real and very stream of conscious. He just gets distracted by. And did I mention it was the biggest building and. Oh, big buildings.

[Instacart Advertiser]

So long.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You seen a bed, this tall guy.

[Dave Smith]

He's a tall guy. Looking at it. Yeah. It's like, weird, right? Things like that where he got off on, like, tangents and Joe was trying to bring him back. But just politically speaking, you don't go, yeah, dude. I mean, listen, if Kamala Harris went and pulled that off on the Joe Rogan experience, you'd be like, what? She'd win the election. I mean, you know, so it's like, politically speaking, it was a win for Trump. I don't really see any other way to look at it.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I thought, I thought it was risky for Donald Trump to go there, particularly because he appears to me to be winning. And I thought, I thought he did a great job. Firstly, he had some great lines. He just had some really funny moments where he said they would never try and kill Joe Biden because he's too inconsequential. Yeah, that was great. He had, he had some bangers. I thought his best kind of theme throughout the episode was his general pitch of, hey, I come into these situations with common sense. I thought his ISIS story was great, where he's like, you know, I'm getting bad information from these generals. I flew over there, I met with the better people, and we got it done in three weeks. I don't know if that's true. Yeah, but it's a great story. Or the California water story. I have no idea if it's true also. But it's a. It's a good example of, hey, there's some common sense solutions here. You guys could have plenty of water in California and you guys are dumping it in the ocean. And then to speak to his credit, even on, you know, the whole thing that was going on with the election claims, where he was claiming he won the election, he weaseled his way right out of that conversation and he stuck to his story. And I felt like he did a very good job of moving things along and getting out of any tough spots. So I thought, sat there for three hours and he gave a good pitch.

[Dave Smith]

The fact that he did the full three hours was huge, too. It wouldn't have been the same if he didn't, like, it would have been like, oh, you didn't really do the Joe Rogan experience. You could. You just went and talked to Joe Rogan for 45 minutes. It doesn't really count. But he did the full three hours. I do agree with you. I thought that was. That was probably one of his. His worst moments. Just because. Because it's always a little bit different when he battles someone in the corporate media because they're so adversarial to him that when he sticks his ground in battles, it's kind of like, well, whatever, they were just trying to get him. But when Rogan's just asking in good faith and just being like, hey, so what? Like, why do you believe that? And he's got nothing. I think it doesn't look good. There were a few moments that bug. There were things, you know, okay, so the two things, I think I mentioned these both to you, but they still were just the two moments to me that was, like, had me, like, you know, frustrated. But number one, Donald Trump, he gets on there and he's giving. So he had mentioned this at a speech and there were a couple articles written about it. But this pitch, which is like the greatest goddamn pitch that a president could ever have, that we're going to get rid of income taxes, and like, this is amazing. You're like, holy shit. Like, even if this never happens, and obviously this is very far fetched for, you know, being implemented anytime soon. But the fact that like a presidential candidate, the most popular, you know, guy in right wing America, and you know, this guy who's very likely gonna be the next president and has tens of millions of people who support him, is out there saying, like, hey, think about it like this. You'd just be better off if we didn't have the income tax at all. That's like, I am not downplaying how powerful that is. And so he's got this moment now where Rogan's like, okay, so tell me about that. He just throws it to him, like, tell me about. And immediately instead. So he's basically like, we could just have tariffs and raise the money. That way we don't need to have an income tax. And when he's asked to, like, explain that, instead of going to the obvious, like, we just go like, hey, like every person who has a job who's listening to this right now, can you just think about how awesome it would be if you didn't have to pay income tax anymore? Like, you would be richer. I am going to give you a huge raise. A bigger raise than you've ever gotten at your job is just abolishing taxes. You don't have to pay taxes anymore. Think about just unleashing the ingenuity of America, like, finally, like, unshackling this, like, you know, powerful machine that will be allowed to, like, thrive. We're going to be the biggest economy in the history of the world. You know, you could, you could attack it from like being like, listen, are we, are we slaves or are we free men here? You don't owe. You don't have to incriminate yourself to the government every goddamn year because you've committed the crime of being a productive member of society. Who the hell are you? Have you read the Bill of Rights? You have a right to privacy. You have a right to not incriminate yourself. And you own your body, you own your work. You know, you know, like, there's so much. But instead he just pivots right into how great tariffs are. How great tariffs. Tariffs are just so wonderful. Let me tell you about all the Great presidents who had tariffs and Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. And it was almost like repealing the income tax became like a footnote in his plan to repeal the income tax. So I thought that was, like, awful and a huge missed opportunity for him. And the other one was, like, when he was about to have what I thought was going to be the best moment of the whole podcast was when he started talking about his terrible appointments and how he didn't really know anyone in D.C. but then he can't even. He can't do that, so he has to immediately pivot to how it was actually really great to have John Bolton working for him. Oh, yeah, you got this crazy, you know, war loving guy right next to you, and then people want to deal with you. Except that's not how it happened. John Bolton blew the North Korea deal. He was on the verge of getting this, like, historic, amazing deal where we maybe could have moved toward taking one of the nuclear threats off the table and maybe even freeing the 60 plus million prisoners that the guy's got in his country or moving toward that. But no, your dumb war hawk national Security Advisor ruined those negotiations. So, like, what the fuck, dude? No, don't sit here and defend. To me, it was a brilliant policy to have John Bolton in the room. No, it fucking wasn't. Like, what do you mean? And by the way, Donald Trump, you're erratic enough that everyone's scared. Nobody's like, Nobody's like, Trump would never have the balls to drop a bomb on me. Like, you got that covered, dude. You know, so anyway, I hated that. That was like, my, you know, personal gripe with it. I just didn't. I was very unsatisfied with his answers on those topics. But there's a lot more to it than that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Kelshy. Do you think you know who's going to win the presidential election or how many seats the Democrats or Republicans will win in the House or the Senate? Well, there's finally a legal way to bet on the outcome of these elections, and that is the platform known as Kalshee. Kalshee is the first legal exchange where you can trade or bet on any event, including, but not limited to elections. 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[Robbie Bernstein]

I overall, I thought it was a good appearance on those two particular topics and. All right, let's start with the tariffs. If you're economically illiterate, it's as sexy of a story as the modern monetary theory of, hey, we can take on as much debt as we need and everything could be free. If you don't know, if you don't understand tariffs, the idea of, hey, you don't have to pay taxes because we're going to tax China with a tariff and they're going to cover.

[Dave Smith]

They're going to pay your taxes for.

[Robbie Bernstein]

You, it sounds sexy. You just got to dig in a little bit and go, well, doesn't that become a consumer tax when everything I need to go purchase is more expensive because there's a tariff on it? And now maybe you prefer a taxation system where there's a heavy consumer tax instead of an income tax. There's an argument for sure. But the idea that, the idea that your life is just made much better by a tariff, it just takes, well, what's the next step in the process? Yeah. On the appointment issue, because I think that's probably, you know, his biggest blunder. We're almost. He needs to own it a little bit more. And I think you had said this to me when we were talking about it of the last time I was the outsider and I didn't have the best, the best staffing positions. They really undermined what I was looking to do. But luckily now I have the experience of having done it for four years. And all things said, I still did the best job anyone's ever did. You could still throw your bravado in there.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And go, I know. I know how to staff. At this time. We're ready to go. I'm going to have my people in there and maybe you could even just start like, I'm Putting RFK in on the health thing. You could start teasing your appointments. All things considered, for how many deep state people he ended up in there that were under, that were undermining him. For the 20 minutes that conversation, he took it great. It was graceful enough that I didn't watch it the way I watch Kamala Harris or other people and go, wow, you're ruining this.

[Dave Smith]

No, no, I agree with you. Look, I will say, and I can't not, not bring this up, which is one of the major things that I was thinking about the whole time. And I will fully admit that there is, there's something self serving about the way I'm looking at, or there's a conflict of interest, I guess, for me to be completely neutral here, but there is. Look, first of all, the podcast is doing phenomenally well. I don't know how many, you know, there's. So when Kamala Harris went on that Call Her Daddy podcast, now, I did not know what that podcast was, but, but both of you two, when you were telling me what it was, and then everybody who I talked to that week, what they all told me the same was like, no, this is the Joe Rogan for women. And that she rivals Rogan for being as big as him and that they were like, she was number one at one point on Spotify and then he was and that they were like competing. The Kamala Harris episode of Call Her Daddy, I think last I checked, was sitting at like 700,000 views. Donald Trump and Rogan are, I believe around 30 something million right now. A couple days after it's been up just on YouTube. And Rogan's Spotify is like where his audience is. I mean, I don't know, you know, I, I don't know exactly right now, now that he went back to being on both, you know what I mean? But there's millions listening on Spotify. Like, whatever the number is, is substantial. And so you see, you see this kind of happen, right? Like this huge moment. And if Donald Trump wins here, as much as it seems like the value of Joe Rogan's show couldn't go any higher, it really just took a whole nother leap. Like this was the thing. Both candidates in the last, in the fourth quarter were like, I think we got to do, we got to pull out the big gun. And the big gun is sitting down with Joe Rogan. And by the way, one of her people confirmed recently that they had agreed to do it and then pulled out and he said it was like for scheduling conflicts or something like that. But the thing about it is, is you look at the numbers Donald Trump's doing and like, I'm sorry, man, when you're talking about doing a show that is when it's all done, I mean, this thing is going to crack. 100 million people listen to three hours of your thing. That is when you're running for president, if there's something with 100 million people listening to you for three hours, there is no scheduling conflict there. There is no such thing because you would move anything around to make that happen. So anyway, just my point is that this does like, again, this is on kind of on the same theme where they're like, look, there are the tangible things like policies and appointments, and those really matter, but there's also kind of like these intangible things that matter a lot, too. And this is like the corporate media has been just getting death blow after death blow after death blow over the last few years. But this is like wall, they're down a huge blow to them, a huge blow. That Rogan is the guy. This is the show. This is the big guy. No one was thinking like, hey man, this is the last week we got to do a CNN town hall. That is that that was not going to move the needle. And it's laughable to even suggest that it would. But doing Rogan might just is like a huge fucking thing. And listen, I will say, as I prefaced by, like, obviously I'm, you know, I have a little bit of a self interest in this too. So I'm trying my best to, you know, admit that and take that into account. But it's like, obviously to make Rogan's show that much more valuable. And also just because, you know, look, this whole world of like, alternative whatever the hell we're in, you know, guys who are talking about politics who aren't a part of the corporate machine, to like, embolden them and even further diminish the corporate media, I think is like an enormous victory. Like an enormous victory. It's like if you could just do one thing, you know, if, like, the one thing you could do was to, like, get Ron Paul to be the Fed chairman or something like that, or the one thing you could do is like, discredit the entire corporate media. It's not so obvious which one is the right thing to do. That's my. If the corporate media had the monopoly on the control of information that they had in 1992, and you put Ron Paul as the head of the Fed chair, as the Fed chair, corporate media is probably Just going to ruin Ron Paul, you know what I mean? They will convince all of your parents and grandparents that he is some horrible, awful guy and he's going to have to step down over some scandal and a few. You know what I mean? Like, it, like, I'm not sick. Don't get me wrong. It'd be really amazing to get Ron Paul as the Fed chairman. I'm not saying that wouldn't be important. In fact, probably that's the one to pick out of the two, I don't know. But I'm just saying, like, discrediting the corporate media is right up there. It's huge. This is their mechanism of controlling the conversation. And like, what a blow, What a blow to them that this is done completely outside of their control. The guy who they said ought to be canceled and the guy who they said ought to be locked up, impeached, never run again, all of this. They sit down without any of you and control the conversation. It's amazing.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I think it's a game changer in that it feels like the wheel has just turned for alternative media. And where I think that this is the death blow is that their entire world revolves around access and kind of the credibility of, oh, we're the people with the access and we're doing the real work. It's so interesting to me as a person who was not a good student, could have never landed a job at any network ever, could have never had. And it's not an intelligence thing. I'm just telling you, based off of applications, whatever. I never got a production job. I probably never could have gotten a staff writing like, there's nothing and that whole universe is just gone.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And how much worse is it going to be for that entire universe? Is there's not just more viewers being pulled into the alternative media, but that's actually where the news is, because that's where the President is and that's where he's making his biggest pitch. And in the next election cycle, I can tell you, every single person running is going to be trying to get on Rogan. And if they can't get on Rogan, they're going to be trying to get on every one of the other programs. So I think it. Which just then that also changes it, because then the actual news is being made on the alternative media programs. It's not even like, I got to tune into Fox News because it's like, oh, all of these people are here, so I have to hear what they said.

[Dave Smith]

Yes.

[Robbie Bernstein]

Then I can talk about it over here. They might actually be here. Yeah, that changes the game.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, yeah. And look, you got to. You're 100% right. And you got to kind of zoom out to appreciate it, but to just zoom out and go, look, it has been such a short period of time that we've had this at all. Like, social media is not very old. Podcasts are not very old. These are all things that I've been do. I've been doing standup comedy since before they were things. I mean, they existed, but, like, they were so fringe. And, you know, like, most comedians didn't have social media. When I first started stand up comedy, it was kind of viewed as like a thing. Like, I don't know, that's something college kids do. It's not like we're professional comedians. We don't do that. And then there were a few people who were like, big on MySpace. And then like, the younger guys would be like, you should get on MySpace, because, like, that's how you connect with fans and stuff. But the idea that there were shows like this that were so much bigger than the corporate media, it existed to some degree in the 2020 election, to a much smaller degree in the 2016 election. Barely existed in the 2012 election. Like, these are all pretty new. And what Trump has done, like, obviously Bobby Kennedy did a lot of it and Fake Ramaswamy did a lot of it when he was running for president. But it's a little bit different coming from Donald Trump, the guy who looks like he's about to be president again, but he basically leveraged a podcast tour as his campaign. I mean, it's not like he did some of the traditional media too, but everyone kind of already knows what it looks like when he does CNN or does one of these debates. And this was how he showcased a completely different side of himself. He went into these long form conversations at this point, many podcasts. I mean, it's not just that he did Rogan. This was clearly, you know, Rogan is the biggest one and obviously this made the biggest splash. But he did Andrew Schultz and Patrick Bet, David and Theo Vaughan, and a few of the ones that aren't in the world that I like, like, know about as much, but a bunch of, like, bigger podcasts. And there is something about that that you're like, if that not only is that being done regularly by a presidential candidate, but if he then wins, and it's like, that's how you got elected now. And people have to come through, they have to march through that scene going forward, that's going to be a huge dynamic shift in all of this and one that I think offers many more possibilities for potential good things to happen than if it just continued to be like, oh, the, the four corporate outlets that the war party owns there. That's where you have to go through. I would much rather have them have to go to Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, you know, as a much better situation for the country.

[Robbie Bernstein]

I think the major news companies are going to die to close to nothing or they're going to really have to change the way they do business.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, well, you know, in a weird way, I was talking to Pierce Morgan about this earlier today because I was just like, in a weird way, he is the only one who seems to be attempting to adapt, right? Like, he's the only one who's from the legacy corporate media who's like, okay, well what if I bring on podcasters and people from that media and these people, then we have host these fiery debates and all that. And he's at least trying, you know, and it's getting huge ratings. However you feel about, you know, the show devolves into a shit show at times. But I do like Pearson. I like doing the show. But. But it is kind of to your point that like, yeah, you guys are either going to have to change your business model or do this. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is ZBiotics. ZBiotics Pre alcohol probiotic drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. It was invented by PhD scientists to tackle rough mornings after drinking. OK, so here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut. It's this byproduct, not dehydration, that's to blame for your rough next day. ZBiotics produces an enzyme to break this byproduct down. Just remember to take Zbiotics before your first drink of the night. Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best in the morning. For those of you drinkers out there who are having some Roughnecks days, go check this out right now. Go to ZBiotics.com to learn more and get 15% off your first order when you use the promo code POTP at checkout. So that's ZBiotics.com PotP promo code PotP for 15% off your order. ZBiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee. So if you're unsatisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Zbiotics.com POTP promo code POTP at checkout for 15% off. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Robbie Bernstein]

And what makes me think that they can't change their business model is I don't even know if Comedy Central exists as a network anymore. I don't know what happens over there. I guess they do. The Daily Show. South park decided to take off the presidential season. I don't know how much new programming exists at Comedy Central, but amidst this changing climate, you know, and maybe it's just because Netflix has more of the money now. It's not like they try to go out and buy Tony or go out and buy. You know what I mean? They didn't like, readapt and go, oh, well, we got the money here, so let's bring this all back under our roof and try and, you know, produce sketch shows with all these top comics. Let's figure out how we can revamp and actually bring in all this talent that we. Which then costs money. When you don't develop the talent and you got to go out and buy it. Once it's developed, it's more expensive. But I haven't seen them make any effort, nor do I see them producing new things. I just see Comedy Central as something that's probably not going to exist in 10 years, or if it does, it's just going to be the old archive for whatever the just TV generic commercial spots are, which have to play increasingly less and less as you have less and less people watching or paying attention to it.

[Dave Smith]

Well, you know, one of the things that, you know, we've talked about over the last few weeks, too, has been kind of the, you know, as we talked about today, like, the response of the corporate media to all of this and even the stuff like when Obama was coming out and lecturing black men about how they're sexist. And we've seen a lot. Michelle Obama continued that trend in her speech the other day. And I think that there is one of the things that holds them back, whether it's Comedy Central or the corporate media or something like that, is that they still have the, like, the hubris and the set, like, like, they still have this mentality, this very pompous, like, holier than thou mentality that was developed over the years of having this monopoly control. And as the control has gone, they have been unable to adjust to that. So, like, the people at CNN still look down their nose in disgust with anybody who doesn't. You know what I mean? Like, do it the way they do it, even though they're failing. It's almost like, you know, if you could imagine, like, if someone was a bodybuilder and they cheated. They cheated to get where they were. They took a bunch of steroids. They had the whole system rigged for them. The judges were all in their pockets and were saying, but they were like a buy. And then, like, over time, because they had bought off the judges and whatever, the whole thing, they just. They started to have a lot of atrophy. They got smaller and smaller and smaller. They weren't that big. They weren't even in the gym anymore. Now it was just like a fat guy. And everybody started leaving. Nobody started coming to their bodybuilding competitions anymore. You know, they're all gone and they're over at a different one, but they still had the same attitude. Like when they were the successful bodybuilder and everyone was coming to their show and they're still sitting there like, like, you know, like, flexing and posing, but you're like, you're just like a fat guy now with no one in the audience. But it's almost that mentality where they can't escape it to even adapt to the new market and figure out what we have to do. It's like, it's all across. It's like the legacy media people have this enormous sense of superiority. I was. I was briefly talking about it backstage with Metty Hasan earlier today, where he, you know, we were kind of talking about. And he's from, like, the corporate media world, and he was still going like, he was like, yeah, well, the whole podcast scene has totally killed the media. Like, And I was saying that. And he was like, oh, yeah, it's totally true. It's a shame because we need real journalism, you know? And like, he's like, what Theo Vaughn and Joe Rogan did with Trump was not real journalism and blah, blah. And like, I kind of get what he's saying. I get that. Like, they weren't just grilling him about, like, his. Fuck it, you know, like, well, your battle plans in Syria were this and not that, you know, but, but. But it's not like you get anything like that out of the corporate media anyway. All they would do is ask him Gotcha questions about January 6th for. For 20 minutes and ju. And then just spin everything and lie and, you know, it's like that we weren't getting it from them anyway. So fuck that. Burn that system down and let's try to build up something, Something better at least that's how I feel about it. And it's hard to not say, like, I, you know, I also do think that, again, libertarians can, can take this or leave this. And I know that, you know, look, I know whenever it comes to, like, voting for someone or even talking about thinking about voting for them, there's always going to be people who get annoyed by whatever decision you make. I understand that. But it is hard to not like, kind of like as you, you look at it and go, look, this isn't the fantasy. You know, whatever the fantasy is about, like, the people wake up, the message is delivered to them the right way, and they understand free markets and central banking and government intervention and all this shit, and they're good on all of it now, and a young Ron Paul is going into the White House to clean up this whole mess or something, or. It's not that I'm not saying that's what's happening at all. However, I will say that within that world, world, this new world of influence that's being built up, you're talking about people like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson and Vivek Ramaswamy and Bobby Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard. And, you know, like, in that world, there is a real libertarian influence on all of those people. Now, none of them I would describe as, like, strict, pure libertarians. You know, Vivek is probably the closest, but, like, I'm not, you know what I mean? None of them are exactly good on everything. But there is no question. I mean, Elon Musk will, if you follow his Twitter, like, he'll often tweet out a Milton Friedman video or, you know, okay, again, I'm not saying anything's perfect, but is at least something about, like, government being too big and out of control? There is. None of them are good on Israel, but other than that, there is a tendency to be more suspicious of wars than for them, a tendency to be more suspicious of regulation, a tendency to be more suspicious of kind of like government collusion of power. You know, they may dismiss them as conspiracy theorists or something like that, but it's like, I'd much rather have the people who are very concerned about government colluding with private interests to rig the system against regular people. Like, there's just, we, we at least have some influence with them. There's some type of libertarian spirit that animates a little bit of that conversation. On top of that, you have Donald Trump, who came to the Libertarian Party convention, has promised to free Ross and to put a libertarian in his Cabinet, God willing, he keeps those promises. Who knows? But there's at least like there's something there. And at the same time as you have that you have Kamala Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney and the entire corporate media meltdown machine desperately trying to prop her up so that they can retain their importance in dominating American thought. And it is, I will just say, and I feel this way, including 2016 and 2020, there's never been an election that I've seen before where there wasn't like of the major two party candidates, there wasn't like there was such a major difference between them and one that was doing something so clearly preferable to what the other one is doing that at least like, like even you said, like, I don't know, there seems to be a chance that he's at least going to unleash Bobby Kennedy and Vivek Ramaswamy on some little portions of the government and let them go attack the, you know what I mean? The corruption there. It's something. It's something. And the goddamn close to this campaign has really been something. Um, I don't know. Final thoughts of the show, Rob. I'll, I'll give it to you as.

[Robbie Bernstein]

We'Re down to the wire this week, Sunday tune in 8pm you will have my debut comedy special up on my channel, Robbie the Fire. And this weekend I'm in New Hampshire at the Shell. And then we'll also put the first 10 minutes up on, on Dave's channel probably a little bit before mine goes live.

[Dave Smith]

All right, sounds good. Thanks for watching, everybody. Part of the problem.com to support the show. If you want to watch the ad, the show's live unfree ad censored. Go over there and support the show. Comic Dave Smith.com and that's all. Peace.