Robbie the Fire Bernstein (5:05)

It's good movie.

Dave Smith (5:06)

30 years.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (5:07)

Those monkeys are scary, though.

Dave Smith (5:08)

It is. It was. It's a great movie. It's a classic. My daughter loved it, but it, it was made in like 1938 or something like that. And I'm just. Someone got their hands on some acid. I know that people might say acid wasn't around yet at that point, but someone got their hands on something in order to make that movie. I don't know what it was. Maybe aliens, something. You turn the heat down a little bit, if you don't mind. Anyway, yeah, good movie. My daughter enjoyed it. Real good. Real good for the. The imagination, if I do say so myself. Okay. Anything, Rob, anything you want to plug before we get into some stuff here? Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (5:46)

This Wednesday, I'm doing a big New Year's episode. So if you're. You got nothing going on, probably going live. I don't know, maybe 8pm I filmed a bunch of sketches for it this past Sunday and got a lot of stuff going on. So if you're home with nothing to do, be on the lookout for a live. Run your mouth.

Dave Smith (6:00)

There you go. And of course, it is almost the new year. We'll do, I guess, our. Our 2024 recap episode this week, which is already. There's so much. It was such a crazy year. But then in 2025, me and Rob will be back on the road. Comicdavesmith.com for all of those dates. I just added the Comedy Mothership this summer. I'll be back out there. I don't believe it's up on the website yet, but we just finalized that deal. So we'll be back at the Comedy Mothership and then just a bunch of our favorite clubs all over the place. And then a bunch we're doing for the first time. I'm very much looking forward to. I have. I'm almost done with the year. I've never been finished this early before. So it's kind of nice to go into the year with your schedule worked out. And then of course, you know, there'll always be more things that get added. All right, so I wanted to start with this, which. So Lena Wen, who, for anybody who does not recall, was. How do I say this diplomatically? One of the worst people in the world. I don't know what. She was one of the experts in the expert class during COVID who was. And I put quotes around expert class, who was just absolutely just a monster. Just literally Horrible. I mean, you cannot overstate it enough. This was somebody who.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (7:35)

We need to take people's freedoms because if we take their freedoms, then they'll have the incentive to actually follow all of our dictations.

Dave Smith (7:43)

Yes, this was, she was the one who was out on the news shows advocating for vaccine mandates and stripping basic constitutional rights away from the unvaccinated. And her, her argument at the time was that if we, she, she said, I mean, I'm not exaggerating. We played the clip on the show, I think twice actually. But she said that if we, if we don't do that, then there's no incentive for people to get vaccinated. And so we have to take away so many things of the basic participation in society from the unvaccinated. Now listen, that is just to be clear, that is evil enough on its own. But man, when your vaccine turns out to not work, it really makes it so much worse and calls into question.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (8:35)

How are you still invited on the news.

Dave Smith (8:37)

It's, it's outrageous that there's, at the very least, look, I mean, exiled. It's, it's very easy for people in a knee jerk way to say that all these people should be in jail. I literally was just having, I just some, one of my friends, who is a very, very famous, influential person was just texting me that earlier this morning saying these people should all be in jail. And, and it's very easy to say that, you know, I don't know that I exactly can get there, you know, but for all of the people who are in the corporate media who. There's an argument a lot of them should be in jail. I mean, they are in the business of selling the warfare state and all this stuff. But the people even who were just like. Which is another topic we'll get into today. The people who are lying through their teeth about Joe Biden's age or his dementia, rather, I should say, and the people who were just lying through the COVID I mean, even if you don't take the position that they should be in jail, which by the way, I think is a fairly moderate position, but even if you don't take that position. Yeah. At the very least, shouldn't you just like live in shame? Shouldn't you not be invited back onto news shows? I mean, it really, it's not that much to ask. And so much of the problem, and I know, Rob you, you talked about this many, many times over the years, but so much of the problem that we have in this country with the just rampant Corruption is the fact, the very simple fact that there are no consequences for the people who just push all the worst lies that lead to the most destructive policies. They just don't have. It's like in the market for as flawed as the market might be, which is as flawed as humans are, there's a cleansing mechanism. You know, there's still, you still see it even. Look, even with, you see it with, with shows where they get everything wrong and then their, their ratings go way down. You see it with businesses where they misallocate resources and so their profits dry up. But in this game of government, it all the people who said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction all still have high paying jobs. There's no repercussions. Well, except, you know, losing the trust of the American people. Anyway, this woman is going back around or she was on. Was it abc? I think I could be wrong about that. Which show was it? They all blend the same. Yes, it was ABC's Face the Nation. I will say before we get into the substance of these clips, I do there is in some way I kind of like when women like this come back around because it at least then is an opportunity for all of us to remind everybody what these monsters did to us over the last four years and just how, you know, how insane it is that they even get a seat at the table anymore.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (11:42)

It's shocking that you can come back out as an expert after having been so wrong and in her case, not just so wrong, but showcasing your hands that you're not. It seems like she's working for the regime or gets a paycheck from someone very specific and is the face of going out there and selling an agenda so well.

Dave Smith (12:01)

It's also one of the things I think that Covid opened people up to was like, how. Which I guess, you know, if you've, if you're at all familiar with like, say like, I don't know, like Nazi scientists or like commie scientists and some of the like really fucked up shit that they would do. It's. I don't know that there was ever such a, an obvious example in America in modern American history. Obviously there have been other examples, but I'm saying I don't know if there was such an obvious example in such a large scale where you just kind of would see like, oh, how evil science can be and if it's not like rooted in any theory. And this isn't me saying like, everybody has to have the perfect philosophical worldview. That's not how human beings work. But I mean like any, even loosely, like kind of in some vague sense, you have some belief in what the things that are kind of just givens to all of us. I don't mean like strict libertarians like us, but just the idea that like humans have some rights. Humans have the right to a fair trial, they have the right to face their accuser, they have the right of, you know, something. And if you don't have that, it's very easy to just like go in these very dark, authoritarian directions. You know, for the age old example that was always like a critique of utilitarianism was that, okay, so if a doctor, let's just say hypothetically speaking, your doc, you go in for a checkup or you go in because like your wrist hurts or something like that. And your doctor, while you're not looking, he sedates you, puts you unconscious, kills you and takes all of your organs. And I forget the exact number of what you can save with one human being, but like for the sake of argument, he saves seven other people's lives. He takes your heart, gives it to someone who needed a heart transplant, takes your liver, takes your spleen, you know, whatever. Now you could just, from a strictly utilitarian point of view, you could say the doctor did a good thing. You'd be like, you'd be like, hey, he killed one person, but he saved seven other people. And if you're not, if you're just thinking in terms of efficiency or, you know, outcomes, you could get yourself to a place where, like, if you, if you're removed from any theory on human rights, you could get yourself to a place where you're supporting that you're going, hey, saving seven people is more important than losing one person. You know, like you can, and now all of us, on some basic level, I think almost everyone in America at least has some type of knee jerk reaction against that. They go, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no, you just, no, you can't do that. You don't have a right to do that. Your doctor does not have a right to kill you. You didn't consent to this. Like we have some libertarian ish impulse still. But you would see with people like this Wen lady that they just had none of that. And so even by the way, of course, the double whammy at the end of it was they turned out to be wrong or lying about the vaccine anyway, so it didn't work. But you could see where in their mind they were just like, okay, we're taking it as a given that the vaccine works and now we're working back from there. The answer is what gets this in the most people's arms and whatever we have to do to get there is therefore justified. And she would just explicitly say this, that, yep, you should lose your basic rights if you don't get this brand new vaccine, which again, she turned out to be completely wrong about anyway. Here she is back on ABC's Face the Nation. Let's check in with the monster. Lena Wen, There are two main things.

C (15:49)

That they should be doing in the days that they have left. The first is to get testing out there. I feel like we should have learned our lesson from COVID that just because we aren't testing, it doesn't mean that the virus isn't there. It just means that we aren't looking for it. We should be having rapid tests, home tests available to all farmworkers, to their families, for the clinicians taking care of them, so that we aren't waiting for public labs and CDC labs to tell us what's bird flu or not. And the second very important thing is this is not like the beginning of COVID where we were dealing with a new virus. We didn't have a vaccine. There actually is a vaccine developed already against H5N1. The Biden administration has contracted with manufacturers to make almost 5 million doses of the vaccine. However, they have not asked the FDA to authorize the vaccine. There's research done on it. They could get this authorized now and also get the vaccine out and to farm workers and to vulnerable people. I think that's the right approach because we don't know what the Trump administration is going to be doing around bird flu. If they have people coming in with anti vaccine stances, could they hold up vaccine authorization? If they don't want to know how much bird flu is out there, could they withhold testing? I mean, that's a possibility. And I think the Biden administration in the remaining days should get testing and vaccines widely available so that at least it empowers state and local health officials and clinicians to do the right thing for their patients.

Dave Smith (17:12)

Dr. Wen, is Bird flu in humans super dangerous?

C (17:16)

Well, the World Health Organization estimates that in prior outbreaks of the bird flu that the mortality rate is 52%. 52%. However, in this most recent outbreak, it seems that most cases have been mild and maybe some people even have asymptomatic infections. But the question is, we don't know what happens when bird flu affects more vulnerable individuals. People infected so far in the US have been mainly Farm workers who are working presumably generally healthy as opposed to what happens when you get to children, to pregnant women, to older individuals with chronic illnesses. We don't know how deadly, how dangerous bird flu is going to be for those individuals. And again, that's one more reason why we don't want it to spread and acquire more mutations.

Dave Smith (18:00)

All right, all right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Small batch Cigar. If you are a cigar enthusiast or if anyone you know or love is a cigar enthusiast, you gotta go check out Small batch Cigar. It is the place online to order cigars. They have free shipping on every order. Almost every order arrives within two to three days. In the continental United States of America. They have Boveda packs in each purchase and the most thorough packaging in the industry. Essentially, this means that your cigar is going to show up in good shape. A lot of these other companies do not have this. And it doesn't matter how good the cigar you're ordering is. If it shows up and it's all dried out and crummy, you're not going to enjoy it. At Small Batch Cigar, you know it's going to show up in good shape. And they have an amazing selection of rare and limited, hard to find cigars. Plus you earn 5% reward points instantly. Go check them out at smallbatch cigar.com Most people click new when they first go there so they can shop the newest arrivals and make sure to use the promo code problem. That'll get you 10 off plus those 5% reward points I mentioned earlier. Smallbatch cigar.com promo code problem for 10 off. All right, let's get back into the show. I mean, I don't, I can't explain what a throwback this is. It just, it reminds me of, of being in the COVID era when you would constantly have to like read between the lines and you almost. We would do this like regularly. This is what we would always do through the height of COVID was like, play clips like this and then be like, pay attention to what Fauci just really said. Like pay attention to what she just really said because she sandwiches it in between this absolute nonsense fear mongering. So it starts with like, well, the World Health Organization has estimated it could be up of 52%. Do you know how scary 52% is? Oh my God. Imagine 52% just killing everybody. And then like in there, there's a little nugget. All the cases we've seen have been very mild and not a problem at all. But it hasn't hit old people and babies and this. And it's just, like, the way you're like. And then they have the nerve to be like, and this is the science. Like, you're not doing science. Science would be giving a very clear answer right there. Nope. Seems like nothing to worry about. All of the recent outbreaks have been mild. In fact, a lot of people who get it are completely asymptomatic. Where have we heard that before? But the other thing that. It's just such a throwback to me, and I'm curious to get your. Your thoughts on this, Rob, but this is just. I've just seen this movie before. You are. It's a. It's. You're a neocon selling the war in Libya. You're a neocon selling the war in Syria. It's like, I remember these people, like, right after. Right after they went all in on Saddam has weapons of mass destruction, and, oh, my God, democracy will sweep the region and will be greeted as liberators, and the war will be paid for in oil and all. And then they're wrong about every single prediction. And with zero shame, with zero shame, they get right back on the same show and go, now we got to go fight this war. And let me tell you something, we'll be greeted as liberators, and democracy will sweep the region, and it'll be so much better after that, blah, blah, blah. And then they come. Do the same thing with Syria, by the way, there's been a bunch of beheadings in Syria this week, if you haven't checked. Who would have thought al Qaeda taking over a country could have negative consequences, but you just can't imagine, like, having no shame while you're making this. But, like, you just. You're famous for getting the vaccine on Covid all wrong and selling all of the bullshit, and then you're coming right back on. Now to advocate another vaccine for a thing that is not even a problem is just. It's unbelievable. Go ahead, Rob.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (21:42)

All right, well, I don't want to completely overplay my cards here, because Covid happened in real time, and I was fascinated by it, and I did a lot of research and I did my homework. I'm not familiar with the avian flu other than I'm a little checked out on doing my homework, and I'm like, I don't know. It's like flashing lights in the sky. I'm not ready to panic and give power over to government.

Dave Smith (22:02)

Right.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (22:03)

With that said, I can't Stand. The way this lady talks, it's like this panic of my child. They're in the well, but we can get the well. Where's the sheriff? How come they're not out there? So, firstly, she's got this tonality which is trained to institute. How come we're not all panicked? But the one time he's. So he goes, how. And you. You caught it. But goes, how deadly is this? He goes, well, the WHO has said it's upwards of 50%. And instantly before she continues, I go, well, we've had a couple cases in the US or half of them dead. And then goes, well, but if that's not so, in other words, you don't know.

Dave Smith (22:35)

Right.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (22:35)

So you have no information on this. And now this new vaccine that's been around, so why isn't it approved? What? Like this? Seems like we got a little bit of missing information here. Is it a new MRNA vaccine? Is it a dead virus? More traditional vaccine? What's the holdup on it? Would we have to push it and rush it through again? Do you have evidence that kids are going to be more at risk? Because you really sold that the last time on the COVID thing, and it turned out they were not dying because of the. And then. So I don't know, it's just, it, it. It's. It's hard to get too worked up. And I can't believe that the regime doesn't even have the dignity to get new characters out there to lie to us. Yeah, that with the straight face, you can put this lady in front of me and have any reaction other than let's investigate her.

Dave Smith (23:19)

Yeah. I mean, it's, it really is just unbelievable. I mean, I. You try to think of like an analogy, but, like, it'd be like, I don't know, I think if, like, if.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (23:28)

If it's made off, it's like bringing Madoff back out to sell you on investments.

Dave Smith (23:34)

Well, it'd be like imagine, you know, you were like your wife or something like that, like, ate some shellfish and she was like, I really don't feel good. And you're like, ah, don't worry about it, you're fine. Don't do nothing. And then she ends up having like a terrible allergic reaction, has to be rushed to the hospital, nearly dies, you know, and then like the next week she's like, you know, I don't feel so good about this food. And you go, relax. Don't do anything. Like, with zero shame that just last week you said the same thing and were completely Wrong. Wouldn't you immediately just be like, well, I can't say that again because I already, I got that so wrong. And like, and I should be overcorrecting. Like, the first thing I should do is like, well, let's go to the hospital. Let's just err on the side of safety because Jesus, I don't want that to happen again. And you would think there'd be like, it would at least be demonstrated that this last instance had, had some effect on you say something are like, now we don't want to lose our minds the same way we did over this last one. But I am concerned about this for blah. It is nothing like that. And it's, and again, it's just an indictment of Trump of, oh, they may not take this seriously. They may not do the right things. We got to get the tests ready now. Because who knows what this crazy new government's going to be. As if the narrative is still that that's what happened last time. As if anybody there is Listen, Donald Trump and I did end up voting for him this year and I am hopeful that some of his good appointments will get some good things done. We'll see. But I will never forgive Donald Trump for 2020 and he never should be forgiven for that. And when like, Donald Trump will have to meet his maker one day and explain why the hell he kept Foushee on the job for all of 2020 and supported lockdowns and all the awful things that he did during 2020. But the idea that they're still trying to almost like live in the narrative that he just, his failure was that he didn't do anything. Like who, who could argue that now who can actually look at, from, look, Donald Trump was president from March of, I mean, obviously was President 2016. But I'm saying for the COVID stuff, he was president through all of 2020, the entire year of 2020 into January 20th of 2021. Donald Trump was the sitting president. Can anyone argue that we didn't do enough during COVID We did more than has ever been done about anything. We shut down the global economy. But like, somehow we're still supposed to look back and be like, oh, what was the. Like, she doesn't explicitly say it, but it's, it's pretty clearly implied there that the real failure was that what we didn't listen to people. Like, when the real failure was that, like what we didn't, whatever. I don't know. We, we, we didn't do enough. It's absurd. It's Such a bold faced lie. And I just, I don't know. To me, this seems to be one of the things that's interesting about 2024 is that, look, Donald Trump, after being such a disaster on Covid, and I know that, I know I have Trump supporters listening to me or like, why are you blaming Trump or doing all this for him? I'm right. He, you know, you could support the guy and you still don't have to pretend he's a God, which he's not. But it is kind of interesting that we had these crazy years and then in 2024, it wasn't even really like a major campaign issue, like even talking about COVID And yet you have Bobby Kennedy coming in at the Health Department, you have J. Bhattacharya at the nih. You have like some of these, you know, people who were real legit opposition to the COVID insanity. But I will say the one thing the lasting impact of COVID was, I do, I shouldn't say the lasting impact. We need more time before we'll really know what the true lasting impact was. But it does seem, and I remember talking about this when I debated Chris Cuomo or in the aftermath or in the run up to it, that all of the shows online, like all the big shows, that does seem to be the one area that we're all in agreement on. Like they, the COVID shit was so insane that it created the, the, the coalition of people who were against that stuff that ended up, I think, all going to Trump. And that coalition, I do think is like a super majority at this point, that the people who are saying like, yeah, lockdowns and vaccine mandates were great, is a clear minority. I mean, that's just not, it's too obviously wrong. I think for most people, especially when the thing was predicated off lies, all of it obvious lies. Just like the war in Iraq. Just like the same way that people can't defend the war in Iraq today. It's the same goddamn thing. How can you defend something when the whole thing was predicated off? What are now obvious lies that lockdowns were predicated on 15 days to slow the spread. And then they went into months and months and months of lockdowns. That's not 15 days to slow the spread. That's bullshit. And the vaccine was predicated on the ultimate vaccine lie, which was what if you, if you take it, you can't get it, you can't spread it. It's what they all said, including this liar up there. And so like, it's how can you look back at that and still defend it? It just makes no sense. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is my Patriot supply. We're in crunch time right now. A new administration will be sworn in soon, but who knows what could happen in the meantime. If you're anything like me, no matter what's going on in the world, you want to know that you're as prepared as you possibly can be. And that's why I have emergency food supply from my Patriot supply. Right now. They're offering $100 off their three month emergency food kit. It's got 2,000 calories per day for three whole months, plenty to get you through even a prolonged emergency. And all of their food kits last up to 25 years in storage. They come in rugged weatherproof buckets. Go check them out at my site, preparewithsmith.com right now to order your three month emergency food kit. I've got emergency food supplies in my home because the safety of my family and security is the most important priority to me. You should be that way. To go to preparewithsmith.com to order your three month emergency food kit now. All right, let's get back into the show. All right, let's see if you guys, by the way, if you want to ask some questions, I do have the chat open so we can come to that. There was, there was another clip of, of Dr. Wen that was also fairly interesting, specifically talking about Bobby Kennedy. So let's play that one. What level of concern do you have about some of the people appointed by President elect Trump to incoming public health positions regarding issues of vaccine testing, public health efficacy?

C (30:32)

I think that there are some people coming into this administration who are very competent. For example, Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon, we have worked together for the last 10 plus years on issues like hospital medical error. He's an independent thinker who really listens to science and is willing to change his mind when there is new evidence that emerges. But I have a lot of concern and I've spoken to my colleagues in medicine and public health and I think all of us share this concern, in particular about Robert F. Kennedy, the nominee to be the head of Health and Human Services. Kennedy has espoused many views in the past that are anti vaccine. In fact, he's been one of the leading anti vaccine advocates in the country, if not in the world, over the last couple of decades. He's also someone who has made its career from being an activist and Not a scientist. And what I mean is that if you're a scientist, even if you have deeply held convictions, you should be willing to change your mind if there are new facts that are presented. It's a fact that childhood vaccines are safe and they are life saving. A CDC analysis just now found that the childhood vaccinations have saved over 1.1 million children's lives over the last 20 years. According to Lancet's study, childhood vaccine saved 154 million lives globally over the last 50 years. I mean, these are facts. And it's very concerning to have someone who doesn't believe in the, in how science works in basic scientific principles, to be in charge of our nation's preeminent scientific and medical agencies.

Dave Smith (32:03)

All right, what can you say, Rob, other than what a great endorsement for Bobby Kennedy?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (32:08)

Well, you and what credibility. Now, I'm not. I don't know that I agree with Bobby Kennedy on all the vaccine stuff. It's not my topic of expertise. And, and there's things that I've read from him where I'm like, I don't know about that. I. But he did get Covid right and you guys got all it wrong. So when you go, hey, all the people that got this whole thing wrong don't think that that's a good idea. You and what credibility? Cause the scoreboard says one nothing right now.

Dave Smith (32:36)

Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (32:37)

So who are you, who are you to criticize?

Dave Smith (32:40)

Did the nerve to say, oh, you don't learn when new evidence is presented to you. I mean, dude, go. People out there, if you haven't already, go read Tom Wood's book, Diary of a Psychosis. And the thing that's so infuriating about it, which again, it, it was like a religious experience reading this book. It's so good. I highly recommend it. But especially for somebody who, like me and you, who did a show through the thing, like, what starts bringing you back? Because Tom, it's in chronological order. So he goes starting in March of 2020, and then goes through the whole thing. And as you're, you're reading it, you're like, oh, yeah, that's right. We knew that by June. And yet here we are. And the more you read the book, the more infuriated you get because you get to a point like, once you get to like July of 2020, you're like, it's gotta be over now, right? And you're like, oh my God, I'm not even a third of the way through the book yet. You know, and you're like, and then they just keep going on. And that would be the thing that was so infuriating is like, some new information would come out. It would change the way you should look at this completely. And then the corporate media for two more years just pretended like none of it came out. So the nerve of her to sit here and say, like, that's science. This is a real look. I think, as a lot of people kind of have noticed during COVID but I, you know, I think this is a much broader theme of our show in general, but it's certainly true when it comes to science is that, you know, okay, there's science and then there's what people call science, which an awful lot of the time looks a lot like religion, you know, And. And when you're. When you're seeing. What's it called, what were the things, the way people would, like, deify Fauci and like, they. There were the people who were, like, building the shrines to him. If you remember, early during COVID or the. They were Cuomo sexuals, they would call them because Andrew Cuomo was so hot or something like that. That's. This doesn't feel too sciency to me. This feels a lot more like a religion. And that's, you know, when she talks about, like, the way she's saying, first of all, that Bobby Kennedy rejects science. Well, look, whether or not Bobby Kennedy is right about all of his views, which I'm kind of like you, I'm not convinced. And I've heard him say some stuff before. I was like, that doesn't sound right to me. And I don't really know enough about the wider vaccine conversation to have a strong opinion on it. But it's just not true that Bobby Kennedy is coming out and saying, I am against the scientific method or I am against research or I am. You know what I mean? Like, he's not questioning the foundational views of science. He's saying, I have a different interpretation of the science than you have. And I believe that this is actually the correct.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (35:32)

You guys suppressed all information and debate during COVID so how dare you step forward and go, well, we have the scientific process. No, you didn't. You had. I am the Lord of science. And that's why you're not allowed to even question this. And if you do, we will remove your information from the Internet.

Dave Smith (35:47)

Well, also looks. And I will say, and this is part of the reason why I'm really thrilled that J. Bhattacharya, who was heroic through Covid, is going to be at the nih, assuming everybody gets confirmed. This is one of the things that I kind of learned, or I don't know if I say learned, but he really helped me with during, during the COVID years was that he was the one who would. And by the way, J. Bhattacharya, I think was. I'd have to go back and read some of his stuff, but I don't think he was ever as radical as me or you were like. And he wasn't even like saying like, oh my God, this, you know, the, you know, I think he, he was kind of making the argument that like the vaccine was good, but it was totally oversold and it probably should have just been to these like targeted groups or something like that. But he would point out often when like these studies would come out and he would go, listen, Foushee and these guys, they're totally overplaying their hand here. Like, if you're really being like a scientist about that, you would talk about this study in this way and not talk about it as if it was like a concrete, perfect thing. And look, she does it right there. She cites a study that says that, that whatever the number of kids was.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:04)

Saying, the numbers aren't even impressive. I take that back. 150 million people worldwide is impressive. However, I'm sure that's against models for absolute worst case scenarios. And then doesn't. It doesn't account for the fact that from what I've seen, viruses do have a fall off because they kill off enough people.

Dave Smith (37:22)

Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:23)

So like, I'm sure their projections are worst case scenario and ongoing. But the number was a million people, I think I heard in the US which. That's not that impressive of a number. Well, over the course of 50 years, you saved a million people.

Dave Smith (37:37)

Well, even. But look, the thing about it is that, number one, okay, you could look into the study and I'm sure there could be experts who could pick apart the study and say, and that's, this is something that Jay Bhattacharya did on a few different podcasts that I listened to during COVID which was very helpful for me to understanding the stuff because he would, he would take a study and he'd be like, look, here's the claim that Hotez is making. Hotez is making the claim that the vaccine would have saved this many more lives if more people had taken it. But here's the reason why you can actually get that from this study and kind of breaking it down. But just, I'm specifically talking about the difference between science and Religion. And the way she goes, she goes, she mentions a study that goes, this study found that a million children were saved by these vaccines. And then she goes, that's just a fact. That's not how science works, man. And that's not how scientists should ever be talking. When if you have a study, that one study that indicates this many people were saved, you know, all of these models are always very difficult to be completely accurate. The way a scientist would talk about that would be to say, would be to say, okay, this study argues that this many people were saved by it. I think this was a very good study for these reasons. And so that would certainly indicate that there might be some real benefit to these things. Okay, that's how a scientist would talk about. And this is one of the things Jay Bhattacharya made the point. He's like, if you get a study like this, the way a scientist should talk about this would be to say, this was a big study. Here's why I think it was a very good study. Here's why I think they did the right, you know, like their, their methodology was correct. And then this study would indicate that there's probably value here. You don't just go, they said this number. That's a fact. That's the sloppiest shit ever. We never do that. Dude. When there's a study that confirms our bias, you never just go. And therefore that's a fact that this study got it 100% right. And the reason why she's saying that is not for a scientific reason, it's for a political reason. It's so that she, because she wants to say vaccines are great because that's the industry that she's in. But it's like, that's just not a lot of times. And this was something that was really evident during COVID You could pick up on just almost like the language patterns and go like, you're not doing science right now because that's not actually the way a scientist would talk. And there's a lot, there's a lot of like really bullshit pseudoscience that's out there. And it doesn't mean you reject science to recognize that I, you know, the, I always pick on this because kind of low hanging fruit, but it's like the happiness studies. And then they'll pretend that that's science. They'll be like, we found out that the happiest people fit this demographic. And you're like, how did you do that? What's the methodology here? And you're like, we asked them, we said, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5, how happy are you? And you're like, oh, but that's like asking. It's like, if I did a study on honesty. And I was like, these people are the most honest because they say so. It's like, yeah, but that doesn't really control for whether they're being honest or not. There's just a lot of junk science out there. And. And I think this is a good example of it. All right, let's see. All right, let's keep. You know what? Let's. Let's move on. Let's go to that other clip that you had up before, Natalie, because I did find that one to be just glorious. It's kind of on the theme, that's the broader theme of, you know, postmortems out of the corporate media of the last few months and the last few years, I guess. And it has been, you know, it's fascinating to see them trying, trying so hard to deal with the elephant in the room. And, yeah, I did. I found this fascinating. Let's play the clip and then we can, we can discuss.

D (41:33)

It was very disturbing to learn late in the year about just how bad, how poor his health has become. And like many, I did not realize that it had gotten to that point. That being said, I think he's still, look, he showed up for the job. He got the work done. I think some of the accomplishments also in the Middle east and foreign policy. He paused already stand the test.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (41:56)

Just even the contradictions in right now, she doesn't want to say dementia. She wants to say poor health.

Dave Smith (42:01)

Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (42:01)

And then even though, I guess he's mentally incapacitated, he still got the job done. Well, how did he get the job done? And then why were you concerned with his dementia? Because if at the end of the day, he's getting the job done, what are we. What are we concerned with here? And then if you're gonna say, oh, well, we're first finding out about this dimension, it's pro. Troubling to hear that it was as much of a problem as it is, why isn't he being removed from office right now? In other words, there's some mental inconsistency that you have to have in terms of addressing this Joe Biden problem, which is, I, I was talking about this on Run your mouth. They put out the long Wall Street Journal article about, essentially, I, I didn't get into too many new juicy details, but it was just essentially, hey, this, this guy's been Mentally incapacitated. And they've been covering for him. And they keep referring to the White House as almost. The White House is its own entity.

Dave Smith (42:52)

Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (42:53)

And it's like, well, who is the White House? An actual person? Does it talk? Is it making decisions? Who was making the decision?

Dave Smith (43:00)

This has been true for the entire Biden administration where they would, Biden would say something and then they would say the White House clarified that actually his statement is not true at all. I mean, really important things. Yeah, like really like things like. The example that's coming to my mind is that he was in one interview, this was a couple of years ago, where he, they, he was asked if China moved on Taiwan, would the US Military intervene? And he goes, yes, yes, we would. Because Joe Biden's just ad libbing and he don't know nothing. And he doesn't know that he's completely contradicting the one China policy, which has been the policy of the United States of America since the 1970s. We are on record saying Taiwan is part of China. China is allowed to do what they want to do to Taiwan. However, and actually this is one of the few areas of American foreign policy where it's actually a wise decision because the thinking was from much smarter people than anyone in office today. Not that they were good people, but they were much smarter. The thinking was just like, look, we can't really do anything about it anyway. So we're just going to say we recognize China's right to rule over Taiwan, but we sure would like it if you didn't mess with them. Okay. And then the understanding has been that if America was to ever say, well, no, Taiwan isn't yours and you're not allowed to invade, that might be the type of thing that might make China invade just to prove that they can. So we're, we're in other words, doing what we should have done with Ukraine, which is that you recognize there's a special relationship in this country to, with China. You know, even back in the day, by the way, I said the wiser people who were in government. But what's his name? Henry Kissinger. Sorry, blanking there for a second. Henry Kissinger. Who? I am no Henry Kissinger. Let's be clear. Sam Harris was right. I am not him. But he was a big advocate for NATO expansion in the 90s. You know, when there was the first round of NATO expansion, there was a big debate within the national security apparatus over whether we should expand or not. He was one of the guys who was like, yes, we should expand. But even he said obviously Ukraine is a special example, is like a special case. So like we, we can expand NATO, we can do that and get away with it, but obviously not to Ukraine. So like Ukraine, we have to work out our own. Anyway. It's not really neither here nor there. But the point is that. So Joe Biden in this interview just says. And then later that day the White House puts out a statement and goes, Joe Biden was incorrect. Our position is still the one China policy. And it does leave you asking your question. Who, who at the White House can outrank the President of the United States of America? Like, I'm just kind of curious who wrote this because as you said, Rob, it's not the house itself. Right. So is it Jake Sullivan? Is it Jill Biden? We all know it's not Kamala Harris. So like who the fuck is actually put anyway we to this woman's point here, first of all, it is just. I understand the situation you're in is like you're a five year old kid and the dad comes downstairs and turns the lights on and there's just a mess of cookie crumbs everywhere and your hand is in the cookie jar and there's chocolate all over your face. And now you're sitting there and you're going, did you eat all these cookies? And you're going, okay, hear me out. What had happened was. And now you're just, you're desperate in a situation where you admit the truth and you're, and you're toast, but there's no lie that you could come up with but to sit here and I must admit I take, what's the German word I take some pleasure in and shop and Freuder. Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (46:41)

Word was that.

Dave Smith (46:42)

It's, it's. You've never heard that Shre Schadenfreuder. I'm sorry, you've never. As a Jew, you've never heard that term before. It means like taking delight in the suffering of others.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (46:52)

Sounds German.

Dave Smith (46:53)

It's. It sure is. They perfected it. So I am, I am taking some delight in her suffering. But she can't, she can't admit this, but so now she's just left in this situation where she's actually has to say, when I discovered, at the end of the year, this year, at the end of the year when we discovered how bad Joe Biden's health issues are. And like, I mean I just don't. What can you even say of this? Imagine that, because they're just constantly in the business of trying to like Construct a narrative that has nothing to do with the truth. But imagine, like, trying to tell anyone, any thinking person who's got a. A functioning brain. And I don't mean like a high IQ person, I just mean somebody whose brain works. How can you convince anyone that you just found out that we're supposed to believe, essentially, Rob, that the sharp as attack thing was true and that the debate with Trump was the moment when Joe Biden started to cognitively suffer, but everything before that was fine. We're actually supposed to believe that anybody paying attention to this just found out late this year that Joe Biden is senile and hasn't known that for at least four years.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (48:21)

Prior to that, we were distracted by cheap fakes. And so how can we possibly get this story right?

Dave Smith (48:27)

I mean, it really is. It's just unbelievable. And it's like, no, we all knew this for a very long time, including you. You lied through your teeth about it. And the only thing you're disturbed about is that everyone figured that out. And then ultimately you lost very badly here. Let's keep playing the clip.

D (48:49)

Time.

E (48:50)

You think the Middle east is in better shape today than when he took office?

D (48:53)

Well, I think he got.

Dave Smith (48:54)

Sorry, pause it, pause it there.

D (48:56)

I think it's important.

Dave Smith (48:57)

Sorry. Because I completely forgot that she also bragged about the Middle East. She goes, he kept showing up to the job and he got the work done. So even though, like, as you kind of pointed out, Rob. Right, Even though there's this clear contradiction, it's like you were really disturbed to find this out late last year, but, hey, he still showed up and got the job done. So why are you disturbed then? Yeah, why are you.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (49:18)

Ankle injury. If you still win and you show up and you get the job done, I don't care.

Dave Smith (49:22)

Yeah. So, like, what's the issue then? Why were you disturbed to find out late in the year that Joe Biden is a vegetable. So you found that late. And then you're going to go, but he still got the job done. And this is what's remarkable to me is that they can, they can actually say. I mean, I guess if you could say that first part, you could say the second part, but you could say with a straight face that Joe Biden's record of achievement at. And point to the Middle East. The Middle East. You guys familiar with that region in the world and what's going on there? Like, broadly, if you're just like, loosely familiar with what's going on there, you would be like, oh, yeah, things are great. Things are Great cannibals are cutting people's heads off in Syria. Is it fucking, you know, the. Was it. Israel's been bombing the shit out of Gaza for well over a year now. You've got the Houthis getting involved in the war. You've got Hezbollah in Lebanon involved in the war. Now, where, where is this success in the Middle East? What is, what is one success story in the Middle East? They don't have one. Anyway, let's keep going. I'm sorry.

E (50:30)

Which hostages he got.

D (50:32)

He's gotten a number of people home. He was.

E (50:34)

There's still 100 people over there.

D (50:35)

Well, there were more than.

E (50:36)

Including some Americans. Look, I think he's gonna, I think he's gonna leave office. The Hunter Biden pardon was disgraceful. He's going to be remembered largely for inflation and for the disastrous Afghanistan pullout. And I think as we continue to. We're just getting the first draft of this now, but as we continue to learn about the massive cover up that went on, not about his health, but about his mental acuity to cover that up, the efforts that were undertaken by the White House staff, by his family, not in the last couple of months, but for all four years, I think it's going to be a really ugly chapter. It's a diminished presidency because of it. And I think we still don't know the full extent of what they did to try to hide what they've been doing over in the West Wing.

Dave Smith (51:22)

All right. It is worth pointing out that of course, even on cnn, when they have, like a Republican voice who sounds somewhat reasonable, it's a George W. Bush Republican voice there. And so, first of all, I do just have to say Joe Biden's to go inflation, number one, and then number two, his Afghanistan pullout, I just don't think is right at all. There's no question that it is pretty widely agreed that Joe Biden bungled the withdrawal from Afghanistan and it was kind of a disaster. It wasn't nearly as much of a disaster as the corporate media kind of likes to make it out to be. But okay, he, he messed up the, the withdrawal from Afghanistan. But I'm sorry, like to even put that as a. No, no, no, no, no, no, my friend. Say it with me now. Inflation is number one, and number two is immigration. That's the other thing that Joe Biden is going to be remembered for. The fact that for. Even by their own ridiculous defense where they say, hey, three and a half years later we offered this bill and Donald Trump tried to kill it. And the bill was so great, they could lie and pretend the bill was so great and that would have solved the problem. It doesn't matter. Even by their own own argument, for three and a half years you sat there while record breaking border crossings were occurring and did nothing about it and then just tried to tell the American people it wasn't really a problem. You tried to tell them that inflation was transitory and that the economy was great and all of this stuff. You lied through your teeth. But he is, look, he is absolutely right. That and it's not so much about the Biden administration. It is the, the media's emperor's new clothes game that they tried to play with Joe Biden. And convincing as she's still participating in, trying to convince everybody that it was just late this year is, you see, it was just when we could no longer deny that he was so obviously senile. That's when it started. It's like that is going to look as I, as I've been saying for quite a while, that is just an enormous death blow to the corporate media. And that's what these guys are going to really struggle to ever recover from. All right guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is Crowd Health. Does anyone love their health insurance carrier? I don't hear any yeses. I assume that much like me, none of you do. That's because politicians and big hospitals, big pharma, big health insurance companies make a huge profit off keeping the system bro broken. But now there is an alternative and that is Crowd Health, a decentralized health care payment system that frees you from the tyranny of health insurance. You can go to whatever doctor you'd like to. There are no networks. It's significantly less expensive than health insurance. First, it rips out the bureaucracy of the middlemen. Some say it's upwards of 40% of the costs. Second, the people who have gathered at Join Health take personal responsibility over their health care and that means they take better care of themselves. Singles are just $185. A family of four is $605 a month. And now you can use the promo code POTP to get just $99 a month per person for the next three months. Crowd health is not health insurance. It's a totally different way of paying for health care. Terms and conditions may apply. Go check them out@joincrowdhealth.com and use the promo code POTP for that deal I mentioned. Just 99 per month per person for the next three months. Join CrowdHealth.com promo code POTP all right, let's get back into the show.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (55:04)

I hope we get more stories about what was actually going on behind the scenes and how bad his dementia was, where his balls were out, him trying to eat his shoes. Just like I want, I want the real dirt of just how bad the dementia was. And my guess is we'll get some coverage of that at some point because you always find out the stuff after the fact. Like suddenly the pictures emerge of Biden taking pictures with the exact Chinese business partners of, of hunters that he never, he never met and never had a conversation with, which conveniently he'll be pledging the dementia defense all day. I don't remember that. And we'll actually believe him.

Dave Smith (55:40)

I listen, Joe Biden could say I don't remember that to any question. And I will probably believe him. I will probably believe him. I said I was joking around about this in my act for a little bit. But it's one of the frustrating things with Joe Biden is it doesn't matter how, how evil someone was. Once you have dementia, there's no satisfying revenge. You know, if you, if you like found some old, you know, I mean, I guess it's, we're too old and we're living in the future now, so probably there, there's no more of them. But like if you found some like, like Nazi who committed horrific, you know, atrocities during that, but they were like 95 and senile, there'd be no, it wouldn't be satisfying to like see justice get served.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (56:26)

The, these stories are not that far off. There was maybe a year or two ago they were prosecuting some guy who was working at Auschwitz and you see some old guy in court, you're like, just, what's the point of that?

Dave Smith (56:36)

Whatever. You got away with it, buddy.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (56:37)

In 94, you know, I need the 94 year old to go to jail.

Dave Smith (56:42)

Yeah, it's just, it's just, there's nothing satisfying about it. And look, I mean, it's, it's been.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (56:48)

Well, what's satisfying is if they actually break the story, even if it's a no fault prosecution and not one of these investigation things that are actually cover ups. But if we could actually name the names of who was covering up for him, who. You know what I mean? That, that's where you have to actually cleanse the machine a little bit of its ability to lie to us.

Dave Smith (57:09)

Yes.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (57:09)

And that's actually holding the people who facilitated it accountable and you know, bitching out the media when you get actual reporting about what was going on behind the scenes and you go, my God, how did the media not report on this?

Dave Smith (57:24)

Yeah, no, that's. That's exactly right. And. And it's. That is the big, you know. Because, look, I mean, whatever. Someone in the chat said it would be a little satisfying. Okay, I get your point. But that is the, the bigger, you know, picture here is the comment on the media and all of those guys who are still there, like, they're. You're still there. You're supposed. You're supposed to be covering the news and getting the truth out to people, and you couldn't even trust you to point out that the sitting President of the United States of America has, like, his pants on his head. You can't even, like, you can't let the American people know that. And more than that, that we see it too. Like, you know, look, there are things like, you know, famously. And I don't actually know that much about this, but I do know that. What's it called. So the. What, FDR hid his polio from the country, Right. Like, they didn't know he couldn't walk. And he would. You would see this where he would come around, like, in a car, and they had, like, a rigged car for him that he could drive, like, with his canes or whatever, but he'd come around in a car and take the picture from his car.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (58:32)

We were an honest country that wouldn't trust a cripple. I. I wanted a real man who could walk, and I didn't care how smart he was and how into wealth redistribution was. If that guy's stuck in a wheelchair, he can't be my leader. Oh, yeah, that was a better country.

Dave Smith (58:45)

Oh, dude. And.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (58:46)

And God bless his manliness that he lied. Did you imagine I got perfectly good legs?

Dave Smith (58:50)

Can you imagine in 1932, though, just, like, how they would have dealt with a guy? You go, he's got the legs. You telling me I'm supposed to vote for this guy? What type of are you? But, you know, but anyway, so he hid that. Now, I'd imagine there must have been people in the press corps who knew about that, but they didn't tell anyone. Okay, look, at least. Fine. You could find a way with 1932 technology to not tell anyone that we're 1932. I think that's when FDR came in in 1932. Right? Yeah. Okay. So, okay, with the technology of the early 30s, you could not tell anyone. And if they didn't have a picture of it, Fine. But that's a different thing than like if you were to show a picture of it and then tell them that he can walk just fine. Like if you were just watching him walk on crutches and then get into a wheelchair and you'd be like, oh, I don't think he can walk. And they'd be like, he walks just fine. What are you, some type of right winger? He walks just fine. Like that's what they were doing with Joe Biden, trying to tell us that he walks fine. And part of it is because of who these people are who are in the corporate media. Let's. Before we wrap up today, let's play the. The Don Lemon video. Because on the topic of who these people are, that really. And I do not know. Robbie, you sent this to me. I do not know the context of this. You told me you don't know the context of it either. We thought it was AI at first. Evidently it is not. But here is old Don Lemon of former CNN fame making videos on the Internet being Don Lemon, finding out.

F (60:24)

You dumb fucking idiots. Now you're just figuring this shit out. You're so fucking stupid. And you deserve it. You fucking deserve it because you're so dumb. Jim, it's hypocrisy. So go with me here. Yes, I am gloating over your stupidity and how you were taken con.

Dave Smith (60:43)

I'm cracking.

F (60:44)

I'm cackling in. Kamala, enchanta. I am.

Dave Smith (60:49)

You're.

F (60:50)

You have been co opted because you're in a cult and you don't even realize it because you have stupid mega brain and you don't get it. How stupid and dumb are you? And I'm just gonna look, I can't wait to go through this. Okay, so I'm gonna read this again. So Krishnan's appointment triggered an anti Indian backlash on social media, particularly given his past advocacy for increasing green cards and immigration.

Dave Smith (61:14)

Broadway. Oh, no.

F (61:15)

Immigration. We can't do the immigration.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (61:18)

That's my favorite part. He has to adjust his turtleneck.

Dave Smith (61:22)

Thank you.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (61:22)

We can't do the immigration until like a scuba.

F (61:25)

Because, you know, the immigration, it triggers some people. You know what they're saying about the anti immigrant stuff, right?

Dave Smith (61:34)

Who's in to say that one of.

F (61:36)

The jobs you might be seeking won't be one of those white jobs? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (61:46)

You know, I mean, can we get a gay translator? You're a lesbian. Do you know what he was talking about?

Dave Smith (61:52)

Gay to lesbian translation? Is very rough, Rob. It's not an easy. You need, like, a middleman in there. Gays and lesbians are not natural allies. They're the furthest on the spectrum, apart from each other. They're not. It's a whole different world. But I don't know. I mean, what Don Lemon, he's just a fucking unhinged moron. What else can you say about it? But there is something. You know, I mentioned this to you before we started recording today, but there is one of the things that's very interesting about the divide between the old media and the new media is that the new media works in this very informal way. There's just. It's much more conversational and it's much more long form. Uh, now that's not the case with everything. I mean, there's also, like, TikTok videos and stuff like that. But generally speaking, this new center of, like, podcasts, Internet shows, the alternative media, it's. You do kind of. You get to know the person. You know, people always. I get. I get all the time people ask me about, like, oh, what's. What's Joe Rogan really like? What's Tucker Carlson really like? When you, like, hang out with these guys? And I really always say to them, it goes like, you know as much as me. Like, I mean, I've hung out with these guys a lot more, but they're the same person that you see. Like, that's who they are. And you do. I do think. I think if you listen to this show, you get a sense of who we are. Me and you having a conversation off air is not much different than me and you having a conversation on air. There might be a couple things that we'll say off air that we'd be like, I'm not going to say this on air, but blah, blah, blah. But there's nothing that we wouldn't say privately that we say on air. And there's it. Whereas the old media system, the CNN system, it's all phony, it's all designed so you never get a sense of who that person is. It's all, good evening and welcome to the 8:00 news. And, you know, it's this. It's this performance, and it's interesting to see when Don Lemon goes to the Internet, oh, you actually get a little bit of a sense of who that guy is. Oh, yeah, that's the guy. Just borderline retarded, brain dead. Cannot is insulting people in. The only word he can come up with is stupid. So he repeats stupid. 17 times because he's got nothing else. Absolute contempt for the. The American people. At least the American people who supported the candidate he doesn't like. And in on an unimaginable sense of superiority. I mean, like, that's just, like, what you see, right? From this guy telling you how stupid you are. And what's his actual argument for why you're stupid? The fact that MAGA voters feel betrayed by people in the MAGA orbit who are promoting immigration policies. It's like, well, look, yeah, they voted against that. They voted against prioritizing foreigners over. Americans. Now feel however you feel about that. There's arguments on all sides of the immigration debate, but make the argument and just tell people they're stupid for feeling betrayed on one of their core issues. It's just. It's appalling. And what's. What I love about the video is it does just show you. And I think this is. I think this is something that is right at the heart of why people love Donald Trump so much, is that they. People are not nearly as stupid as Don Lemon thinks they are. And Don Lemon's a lot dumber than Don Lemon thinks he is. And the truth is that this little moment right here, like, that sense of superiority that Don Lemon had, the contempt he has for what was the majority of the voting population of America, they picked up on that. They realized that you hate their guts, and you think you're better than them because you wear, like, fancy turtlenecks and are, like, out, you know, living wherever the hell or summering, and wherever the hell Don Lemon summers with his white boyfriend. You know what I mean? Like, there, you're just like. You think you're better than all these people, and you're not. That's why they hate your guts. And they're right to. I don't know. Final word. I'll give it to you, Rob. And then we gotta wrap up.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (66:09)

You know, you gotta be careful when you buy overpriced turtlenecks. You start getting haughty.

Dave Smith (66:14)

That's really. I really got to watch out for that. That'll be my downfall one day. Rob, this show has been going pretty good. I think I'm gonna get myself a fancy turtleneck. The next thing you know, I'm an idiot, and I think I'm better than everyone. All right, that's it for our show today. Oh, I should mention before we leave, I did have to reschedule our monthly Zoom meeting from last Saturday. This Saturday at 2pm I will be doing that for the people in the top two tiers. Do your thing, Rob. Top two tiers. This Saturday, 2:00pm we'll be doing our monthly Zoom meetings. Thanks for watching, guys. Catch you next time. Peace.