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- [00:01]
Dave Smith
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- [00:59]
Robbie Bernstein
Hey guys. Today's show is brought to you by Yokratom.com long time sponsors of the Part of the Problem podcast. If you are over the age of 21 and you enjoy Kratom, make sure to get it from yocratum.com they have quality stuff, it's shipped right to your door and it's the best price you're gonna find anywhere. $60 for a kilo. Plus they've been longtime supporters of our show, so make sure you support them for that. Yocratum.com Home of the $60 kilo all right, let's start the show. What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Hope everybody had a nice a nice day yesterday. It's not too often I think that Christmas and Hanukkah fall on the same same day. So there the everybody unity. A spirit of holiday celebration. Hope everybody had a good time. I am back with my brother, Robbie the Fire Bernstein. How are you? How are you sir? You look like you're right at the North Pole helping the elves make gifts. How was that?
- [02:09]
Michael Malice
Well, you know I blew my entire paycheck on this spot for a couple days, but you know, to absorb some holiday cheer and bring it with you for the rest of the year. What could be, what could be more priceless than that?
- [02:20]
Robbie Bernstein
That's true. And now nobody will suspect you of being a dirty Jew. You're right. How could they? How could anybody look at you behind that background? You' look at me. Look what I Got all around here. That's very nice. How are you? What you. Were you doing shows? Are you doing shows this weekend? You did shows in Texas last weekend. What do you get? What's coming up for you?
- [02:39]
Michael Malice
I don't know. I think you and I out in Boozman, Montana, is the next thing, and I have to figure out some new material and some places to work on it. But this past weekend in Texas was great.
- [02:50]
Robbie Bernstein
Well, there you go. Me. Me and Rob have a busy 2025. That's right. Bozeman, Montana, coming up on January 18th. And then Louisville, Kentucky, Fort Wayne, Indiana. These are all. These shows are the first time I've ever gone there for. For standup. So I'm. I'm very excited to do all those.
- [03:09]
Michael Malice
Louisville should have the good bourbon, my friend. The Angels Envy Distillery is there. And the time we've played the. The other clubs that are part of this chain, they. They had some fine whiskeys for us. So this should. This should be. This should. Should be our mecca.
- [03:23]
Robbie Bernstein
This. There's. There's a lot to look forward to, going down to Kentucky to enjoy some of the whiskey that we always drink at home in Kentucky. All right. I guess when you say it like that, it sounds like it's really not that exciting. And we're just old men who may or may not have drinking problems. But the point is we're going to Kentucky. And then we got for. For the rest of the year in 2025, a bunch of, like, our favorite spots that we'll be going back to and including some new ones back in Rosemont, Chicago, Zany's, Nashville, Cleveland, Hilarities, and then a few things we're doing for the first time, the buffalo helium. I'm looking forward to going up there. Very excited to go do comedy. Works out in Denver, and we got a whole bunch of dates. So. Comicdavesmith.com to come see me and Rob in a city near you. All right, so I did. I wanted to say something about this, although I don't exactly. I don't know if you've had this feeling, Rob, but I have. So this year, I think Perhaps last year, 2023 was the first holiday season since COVID where Foushee was not recommending you don't have a holiday. But 2020, 2021 and 2022, for sure, they were all recommending you don't do your normal holiday thing. Very. It's. As much as we were covering the whole thing as it happened, it's still so bizarre when I just say that out loud. It just feels so weird to me. Something out of like a. Like an episode of the Twilight Zone or something like that. It just seems so bizarre that that would actually, like, really. Government officials are telling you not to celebrate the holidays with your family. But. But I remember I've kind of thought about this every. Every holiday season since COVID that it is just, like, how important that is for people to have that time. You know, it kind of seems silly when you're a kid. I think a lot of times it just is like, oh, it's the time of year when you get presents or whatever. But, like, as. As an adult, particularly one with little kids, it's just the most important thing. It's like everything else you do for the year is so you can have these moments with people you love and these celebrations. And I just couldn' help but thinking about that. I remember feeling the same way last year, but sitting here and going, like, man, how many Americans actually listened to those people and did not, you know, like, do this thing that human beings need to do, which is like, celebrate and have rituals and have community and family and friends and all of these things. And, like, what a crime it is to rob people of that. Of years of their lives. Like, it's just. I don't know. I'm still as angry as ever about everybody who participated in the COVID insanity. Anyway, just wanted to open up by saying that people need to celebrate, people need holidays. It's. Every civilization that's ever existed has had them. Even really, really poor civilizations from thousands of years ago would have, like, feasts where they would do, like, these crazy things, because you just need that. You need something to look forward to. You need to be around your community and your friends and family. And it's still so goddamn crazy to me that they actually convince people not to do that for years.
- [06:53]
Michael Malice
And that's why we need to prosecute Fauci. Because the masses need to learn that there are no points in heaven for fake government compliance. By fake government compliance, I mean complying with government, feeling like you're doing something for the greater good, only to find out that you were rotting in your apartment for absolutely no reason whatsoever. And that listening to government does not give you points in heaven.
- [07:15]
Robbie Bernstein
Oh, man, that's gonna be so hard for some people when they get up there and find that out. Like, wait, what fouch. Where's Fauci? And God's gotta be like, fauci's not here. He's somewhere else.
- [07:28]
Michael Malice
You mean supporting the local abortion clinic? And forced wealth redistribution that left us all more poor in support of foreign wars. Wasn't what I was supposed to be doing with my life.
- [07:40]
Robbie Bernstein
Man. It is, it is something to, to look back on. And there is, there's. I think one of the things that was exposed over the last few years is that, you know, it's not just that obviously, like the levels of government corruption or like the levels that government corruption had infiltrated the medical establishment was, I think, one of the big lessons for a lot of people. And this is something that red pilled a lot of people. Like a lot of people really woke up to this. And in some ways, I think me and you were several steps ahead of people in the. In some ways I'm saying that, like, you know, you kind of. We were already operating under the belief structure that, okay, the corporate media are a bunch of liars and the government's a bunch of criminals, and that these people are like the destroyers of civilization rather than the, the helpers of civilization. But it is something that will, you know, as I've said many times, we'll spend the next two decades at least figuring out what the impact of all of that really is. But one of the things that was also exposed was just kind of how sick dominant liberal progressive culture is in this country. And there's a couple of clips that we have for today's show. And I did think that they were kind of getting at that in some way like that. It's like, oh, there's this whole, you know, because the, whatever you might call, like liberal progressive establishment types have been so dominant for so long. They have been the force in American culture. And lots of this was because for. Throughout our entire childhood, Rob, they ran the tv and the TV dictated so much about culture. I mean, television was all done in LA and New York. And so why is it that every single show you ever grew up watching, like if you're around our age, the shows were like Seinfeld and Friends and shows like this. They were all about people who lived in big cities, lived in very liberal environments. That's just always the dominant. You know, Fox News stood out because Fox News was like the one cable news channel that wasn't involved in that. It was, you know, the, the exception. They were the Black History Month of television, you know, but everything else was liberal, the liberal world. And that was true for a very long time. For a very long time. It was like there was right wing talk radio and there was Fox News, and they were all very controlled. Conservatism, Inc. Outlets who also themselves accepted much of the progressive worldview. But because of that, it's very easy for people to notice when there's a sick culture on the right. The dominant kind of liberal culture is something that I think people always just took for granted as like, oh, that's just the normal way to be. I think a lot of that's been exposed over the last few years as well.
- [11:02]
Michael Malice
There's some. I don't even know if I can quite quantify it. But there is some sort of a feel good feeling when you're on board with the liberals that you just feel like you've earned. Maybe it's just some sort of level of acceptance or status. And the one time I had an experience with this, you go down the archives. I used to do a show called Rob's Newsroom. We did a bunch of really funny sketches on it. And one of the ones that we did was, I think it was when the tree. There was some incident where a black guy got killed. And I built the don't shoot suit, which was a suit with black hands that always had the hands in the air so that cops couldn't shoot you. That was the joke of it. And the arts and crafts in me. I built the thing, it looked great, my friend Menuing did it. But I had this moment where I was going to Michael's and I was trying to get black paint for the hands and I'm talking to the black lady and I'm all excited cuz I'm doing this thing that's like very liberal of, you know, don't shoot black people. It shouldn't be very liberal. But at the time it was.
- [11:55]
Robbie Bernstein
It's a far left position. Yeah.
- [11:58]
Michael Malice
And so, you know, I have this feel good feeling of oh, wow, everyone's gonna like me on this one. I'm not telling that we shouldn't have government, socialized healthcare and all the things that you almost curl up because people think, oh, if you talk about the government shouldn't get involved and not steal our wealth pretending like there's global warming, you know what I mean? Like there's something that you gotta fight up against people. Whereas if you just said, hey, we should all care about global warming, then everyone accepts, he gives you a nice big hug and you get to feel good. So I remember for one day I had that feeling until I'm having this moment with this lady and she's picking out the pain and she hands me some black paint and I go, no, I need more of like a human black. She just Looked at me like, excuse me. And I was like, no, that's, like, for the sketch. It's, like, good for your kind of people. I was like, you know what? I'll just find it. Thank you for your time.
- [12:46]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah, no, it's not what you think we're making. It's so cops don't shoot black people. And so they don't. But. Yeah, well, look, man, it is. There's a real human desire to be, like, accepted. And, you know, I mean, this is, like, there's something to it. And that's, I think, why so many people fall in line.
- [13:08]
Michael Malice
And I think that's kind of what the elites tap into.
- [13:12]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah.
- [13:13]
Michael Malice
Is that it's so. It's so much easier to just go, oh, as long as I pay my taxes and I advance the ideas of forced wealth redistribution, I'm being a kind person. I don't need religion in my life. I don't need family. But that's me caring for the poor. I don't have to think about any of these issues. Like, that's kind of the sale of government is, hey, we're gonna come in as the nice people, and we're gonna make sure that the poor are taken care of. And so as long as you support us in doing so, then you're a nice person as well. And that's a very easy worldview for a lot of people to accept.
- [13:43]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah, no, that's right. And to kind of remove themselves from the ugliness of what you're actually advocating when you advocate for that stuff, that it's like, you know, there's. You know, there are all these videos online, you know, that go super viral in, like, you know, there's like, kind of the. I forget what they call it. I think they call it the red pill community sometimes, which I don't like because we were using that term first. But, like, the manosphere guys who are.
- [14:15]
Michael Malice
Before the gay Mexicans took it over.
- [14:17]
Robbie Bernstein
Yes. Bastards. But, like, there's, you know, like, I've. I've. I had Andrew Wilson on the show before. It was a very good episode, I thought. But he's like one of the guys who does those podcasts. There's. And I've. I did the Fresh and Fit podcast with Myron. I enjoyed doing the show very much, but I did it, like, just me and him talking. It wasn't like, you know, arguing with club chicks, which is what they're. You know, I've gotten kind of famous for. But one of the things that was interesting that I have seen that are like viral clips that come out of those shows is that they'll be, you know, whatever, like some, some 20 year old chick today. And they'll, they'll have this attitude where they're like, oh, I don't, we don't need men. Like, men are obsolete. And then it's interesting where they get confronted by these guys and they're like, oh, so like, but what do you do if like someone breaks into your house and they're like, well, I call the cops. And you know, you're like. And you figure out that you're like, you know, you could say you don't need men, but like, you're only one degree separated is really all that's happening is that instead of like a man directly in your life, you call a group of men to come do it. But the road you drive on was paved by men and the building you live in was built by men. And the, it's just, but there's just something that's interesting about the mindset where that 20 year old chick could say, I don't need a man. And kind of on some superficial level that could sound plausibly true to her. Like what? You know what I mean? Like, no, I don't need a man. Now if you really think about it, you're like, well, no, but you do. You do every bit as much as anyone, every, any woman ever has, maybe even more, but you're just a little bit removed from it. And there's something kind of similar to that with people who just advocate for government all the time, where it's like, you may not feel like you're being violent and in some sense you're not, but you certainly are advocating for it and you certainly do need it in order to sustain this worldview that you have. And so I think, of course that leads toward kind of a sick culture because all of that stuff, when you're saying you're advocating for more government intervention or any of that stuff, what you're advocating for is more violence. By definition, that's what government is. And increasing it is just increasing the amount of violence in people's lives. Everything about government is violence. You know, every single rule is underwritten by the threat of force. That's how the whole thing works. It's not anything that the government does. There's never, like, it's never a conversation. It's, there's a, there's a gun pointed at you. You know, whether it's, whether it's just paying the fucking, paying property taxes or something. Like that if I don't pay my property taxes, men with guns will come and take my house away from me. And if I try to resist them, they will shoot me. That's kind of the basic foundational truth about what the government is. And anyway, it's just interesting to me to see a lot of this now, but. So there's a couple of clips here. This. This first one I want to play has. This is an older clip, and it's about a show that. That I used to watch and really love, which is Homeland. And I just saw that Chief Nerd had posted the video yesterday, and it's been blowing up and going super viral. I mean, he's got like 10 million views on his post from it. It's from 2018, but it's a clip of Claire Danes and she's talking about the show Homeland on. On the Colbert Report and. Or I'm sorry, not on the Colbert Report. On the. On the Late Show. And anyway, I don't know. Did you watch Homeland, by the way? Rob?
- [18:11]
Michael Malice
Loved Homeland.
- [18:12]
Robbie Bernstein
Loved Homeland. It was like.
- [18:14]
Michael Malice
It was like 24, you know, even if. Even if you knew all. Everything we knew about the government and CIA, you could love and watch that show.
- [18:22]
Robbie Bernstein
I'll say it was a slightly updated 24, because it wasn't. 24 still came out in the War on Terriers, by the way. I got to Admit, I love 24 too. Loved it. Even though I know it was just 24. The level of propaganda with 24 was nuts. It was always like, no, the government torturers are the good guys, and you just have to torture. And people who don't understand that you have to torture are just wimps, you know, But Jack Bauer is the shit. So I don't care. I can still enjoy a show. But anyway, in Homeland, they did a little bit better of a job of dealing with the fact, particularly in the later seasons, that they were like, you know, there's a whole lot of people completely opposed to what we do. And then her character even was like, yeah, I think we are wrong for doing all this shit. So, like, it was. But it was. It was an Israeli show, by the way, that got remade in America. But I. I loved the show, and I thought the. The opening, like, whatever. I don't know, it was like 10, 15 minutes into the first episode when you kind of figured out what the plot for the show was. And I remember as I watched that, just thinking, that might be the best plot I've ever seen for a show like, laid out, which I don't know. I guess I'm not spoiling anything. I could tell. Say it right. Okay, here. Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen season one, episode one of Homeland, but the way this show starts is that it starts with her in, I can't remember what Middle Eastern country, but she's in the Middle East. She's a CIA operative and she's trying to get into this prison to talk to one of her sources who's about to be executed. And she gets in and he whispers in her ear something. And she got the information she needed to out of him. And then it cuts to like months later and they're back in the CIA and they've rescued an American POW who they believe didn't exist. They thought there were no American POWs, but they found one. And then what you find out is that her source had told her that an American POW had been turned against America and was working for Al Qaeda. And so then the whole show is basically that she didn't believe him because she's like, there is no pow. But then they find out there is and it's him and he's been turned. Anyway, just. I thought the show was great. There's really was no need for me to get into this detail of the plot. But anyway. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is monetary metals. I've been telling you guys about monetary metals for quite a while now. These guys are really revolutionizing the precious metal space for, for the first time now, you can not only own gold or silver, but you can own gold and silver. That works for you, generating more ounces of gold and silver over time. Interest payments in precious metals. This is really a game changer. Now you can opt out of the Federal Reserve fiat currency system altogether with monetary medals. Go check them out at monetary-metals.com to learn more about how you can start growing your wealth in ounces today. Or you can just click the link in the episode description monetary-metals.com. all right, let's get back in the show. So this was. Now, I don't know if I had seen this and forgot about it or if we had just never seen it. I, I did not remember this at all. But this was very interesting. Stephen Colbert, this, in 2018 is asking Claire Danes what she did to prepare for playing this CIA character on the show. Here's the clip. Okay, so now one of the things that you do. Do you do this every season where you go get to spend some time with Some actual spies.
- [22:04]
Dave Smith
We do. It's like the coolest part of my job.
- [22:06]
Michael Malice
Who sets that up?
- [22:07]
Robbie Bernstein
Who calls the CIA and goes, we just like to come in and hang out with you guys?
- [22:10]
Dave Smith
Yeah. So Henry Burmell, who is one of our founding fathers of Homeland, one of our writers, passed away a number of years ago, but his dad was in the CIA and his cousin was a mentee of his father's and was also in the CIA. A very accomplished person there and he recently retired. But in his retirement he curates this week long spy camp for us producers and writers and.
- [22:33]
Robbie Bernstein
Really?
- [22:33]
Dave Smith
Yeah.
- [22:34]
Robbie Bernstein
Is it like.
- [22:35]
Michael Malice
Yeah.
- [22:35]
Dave Smith
So we park ourselves in a club in Georgetown and talk to like real spooks and, you know, people in the intelligence community and the State Department and journalists and people who really, what do.
- [22:48]
Robbie Bernstein
They tell you that, like, what's the most surprising thing that they've told you about their jobs or something you would need to know?
- [22:53]
Dave Smith
Well, every year it's different, right. We've been at it for a while and, and the climate has been, has changed. But this year it was all about, you know, the distrust between the administration and the intelligence world and, and the intelligence community was suddenly kind of allying itself with journalists, which usually they're start.
- [23:11]
Robbie Bernstein
Shooting this this season to just the way Colbert gets visibly nervous and changes the subject immediately is goddamn hilarious. I mean he actually, he physically moves back from her as she's saying this and it goes. But anyway, hey, so what's the most interesting thing you've learned about the job? Well, it's interesting, you see, they're actually at war with the President and they're completely embedded in the corporate media. Anyway, anyway, let's talk about something else. But isn't that first of all just a little bit of a window into this entire world? And how crazy it is is number one, that they have a long standing relationship with Hollywood and with producers and stuff like this and that they're, the intelligence agencies are, they're not doing this just like out of the kindness of their own heart. They're not just like, oh, this will be kind of like a take your kid to work day type thing where we all show you about what the CIA does. It's like, oh, if there's going to be a movie or a show made about the CIA, we want to make sure that we have some hand in crafting how this is going to be explained. And then she just throws out that, you know, things have really changed now. Which, I mean, okay, she may have said it in slightly nicer Language. But she was basically like, you know, things are different now because the CIA is at war with the President. And so what? And so what are they doing? Oh, they're working with journalists in a very close relationship to help their effort against the President. Isn't it just wild? I'm sorry, no matter who you are, no matter what your politics are, to see that. And then like, again, obviously there's a little bit of confirmation bias here because this is the shit me and you talk about all the time. But when you see that and then go, oh, and the entire corporate media hates Donald Trump's guts in a way that no other president has ever been hated, and then you just get fed the information that the CIA, who allegedly works for the president, mind you, is very involved in that. What a shocker. You know, but the fact that this could come out and that Colbert's reaction wouldn't be to ask like a follow up question on that or want to hear, whoa, that's really interesting, isn't it? Who isn't interested by that? Who doesn't think that's like, whoa, wait, what the fuck are you talking. You're telling me something that's so much cooler than the show that you're talking about is that. Which, by the way, I'm on record, I think was a really cool show anyway. I just thought this moment was so crazy. And it's great that it's going super viral right now.
- [26:02]
Michael Malice
It's also, it's such a fun insight into people, like, because, you know, she's just talking about her actor process of trying to meet the individuals and how she absorbs some of the language and the energy of the spooks so that she can better replicate on camera. I don't think Claire Danes worked at the CIA. I think she's a great actress. And so she's just describing her process of her art. Now for the spooks. It's funny what you might accidentally say just hanging out at a party. It's. You ever see the movie the Big Short? There's that scene where, yes, great movie. Yeah. And there's that scene where they're talking about like the mortgages that they're doing for people that can't afford them. And, and they ask why they're being told that. He goes, oh, I think they're just bragging. So there's something about like sociopaths that, you know why.
- [26:50]
Robbie Bernstein
He goes, it's a great scene. And he goes, why are they confessing? And he goes, they're not confessing. They're bragging, right? Yeah, there is something about that.
- [26:59]
Michael Malice
And so the CIA people hanging out at this party. I don't know why. My camera just went down. I'll fix that in a second. Can you still hear me?
- [27:06]
Robbie Bernstein
I can hear you. Yes. All right.
- [27:07]
Michael Malice
Yeah, I'll fix that in a second. It's essentially, you're hanging out at a party, and your. Your life is power, and in your little social circle, it's about what you can execute on. So the idea of, hey, this administration's not like the Bush administration, and we don't just have a free pass to go do what we want to do, and now we got to fight for our agenda a little bit more of what we think is important for national security. I could see why you would just say that openly, and then people like us would go, hey, you guys oversaw a disaster for the last decade, and no, you shouldn't just be allowed to drone kids.
- [27:40]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah, no. 100%. It reminds me a bit of, like, the. The Project Veritas style reporting, which. I know. What's his name? James O'Keefe. I think he's not with them anymore. I can't remember the name of his. His new company, but he's still doing, like, that type of, you know, guerrilla journalism. For anybody who doesn't know, I'm sure most of the audience have seen their videos, but they'll do things where they get. It's almost always a date. Like, it's. It'll either be a game. I don't even.
- [28:10]
Michael Malice
I think it's worse than that. I think sometimes it's not even a first date. I think it's a after. After they slept, and it was the time of some dude's life, and so he's. He's hoping for a round two, and he'll. He'll squill all the beams, the beans to try and pretend like, wait, you're interested in what I do at work? Now, the problem.
- [28:27]
Robbie Bernstein
The problem with that, obviously, is that. Because there is an issue with that type of journalism, which is that what you get oftentimes are dudes who are trying to kind of brag their way into getting laid. So they're always, like, playing up how important their job is. But there's no question that there is also a dynamic of what you're talking about there where you just get a couple drinks in these guys, and they kind of want to brag about how, you know, like, whatever. They're. If they're just some guy who works on a show, like, works on Don Lemon's show at cnn, but they're real quick to tell you, like, yeah, our goal is to bring Donald Trump down. And that's what we've been trying to do. And we're trying to, we're trying to push the COVID vaccine because we're trying to get that in as many arms as possible. But we're going to pivot to climate change pretty soon and they'll just say it straight up and just let them know. And it's, it is that that scene in the Big Short is a perfect like thing to mention because it isn't. They're not confessing, they're bragging. They're bragging about how it is that they can get away with this stuff. Another example of that that I, I think of is the, the, when Michael Hasting, I'm saying that right, the, he was the journalist who died in that very suspicious car crash. But he was a journalist for Rolling Stone and he published the piece that got General McChrystal fired or forced to resign. However it was that he left. But part of that was that they just started drinking with them at the bar. Pretty soon that General McChrystal just couldn't stop bragging about how much he fucking hated Obama and how much Obama was a rookie and didn't know what he was talking about and he tricked him and blah, blah and all this stuff. And you, that one was really crazy because you would certainly, you would think like a four star general would be really guarded about ever trashing the commander in chief around a journalist. You know what I mean? Like, it's like he's there too now. I think part of the thing is that he reported for Rolling Stone. And so they just didn't, they didn't treat him like he was like a Washington Post, New York Times journalist. They were like, it's the Rolling Stone guy. But the idea that you would ever lower your guard enough as a four star general, trashing the commander in chief to a reporter, you know, but it's also, it's, there's something in there about like human psychology and the fact that when these people get these positions, they are, they're kind of drunk on their own sense of importance. You know, that's just kind of the way it works. And this was something that I really saw firsthand during my time at cable news, was that it is like, like the currency there is your own self importance. And I'm sure that's true to some degree in every field, but particularly in the cable news, corporate media. World, you would just see a lot of this where, like, people are bragging about who they had lunch with or who they hung out with at a cocktail party. And it's always like, you know, something like, I remember I, Dick Cheney's chief of staff was always the one that I used, because that was specifically what someone there bragged to me about that they had just gotten off the phone with Dick Cheney's chief of staff. And I remember, and this is like, this was. Donald Trump was president already. So this was after eight years of Obama and into. I don't remember exactly what year it was, but it was like 2017 maybe, something like that. So it was already like, bragging about Dick Cheney's guy. Like, what, that old guy who was wrong about everything. But it's like, to them, it was still like, dude, that was the vice president's chief of staff. And I just got off the phone with him. And so now there's this weird incentives where then you're kind of like, well, I'm going to go say exactly what he told me to the camera because I have some feeling like I got an inside scoop that I can share with everybody. And then that also makes Dick Cheney's chief of staff want to get back on the phone with you, because what's actually happened here while you're distracted with the bells and whistles of, like, aren't I an important person? I know important people, and they take time out to give me a phone call. But what that guy just figured out is he has a puppet in the media now who he can totally, like, use your mouth to say whatever he wants to say to the American people. Which, of course, in this case was, we sure do gotta go throw Bashar overthrow Bashar al Assad in Syria. That's. That's what the conversation was about at the time. And by the way, it's. They ultimately ended up getting that done, but not, not at the time and not for a while. But anyway, so it's just what a. Like, it's. Again, you have these, like, you've got this. The world view that has been dominant in the corporate, you know, TV world has been for a while that if you were like, if I were to just come and here's what's really wild about it. Okay? Let's just say I was on the Late show with Stephen Colbert. I don't. I'm not holding my breath, but let's just say hypothetically, right? And he was interviewing me. Let's say me and you go on Rob. And he was interviewing us about, like, what our worldview is and what part of the problem is about and what we believe. And we were to say, well, like, we essentially believe that the CIA has for many, many decades been embedded in the. In major newspapers and in television news and all of this stuff. And that they, for their own reasons, but for their own agenda, have been attempting to propagandize the American people to believe in certain things that are in their interest, but not necessarily in the interest of the American people, and many times quite clearly against the interests of the American people. I mean, you could already see that this would. We would be laughed out of the room, he would mock us, he'd make some joke about it. The audience would clap like seals for him. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's very easy for them to go like, oh, these conspiracy theorists. Oh, this is so. This is. These are a bunch of kooks. And yet here you have somebody who was on the biggest CIA show. You ask her what field research she did to prepare for that role, and she is just telling you that this is what they're openly telling us, that they're at war with the President and they're using the corporate media in order to hurt him. And not only do you not ever address like, wow, that's, that's. By the definition of the word, that's quite a conspiracy that you are exposing here on this show. But it just, it's like it goes in one ear, out the other ear. And that will never even have the tiniest effect on how Colbert talks about Trump going forward. Like, this is why also, it's very hard for people to believe that, like, he's not in on a conspiracy or something like that. Now, I don't necessarily think that's the case. I think it is. It's incredible what incentives can do to people and how much, how, how, how easily people can rationalize away the way they're being manipulated by their incentives. It's something we all got to guard against, if I'm being completely honest. But the wild thing is that this could just be acknowledged on Stephen Colbert's show. And then it's like, oh, that doesn't have an impact on anything ever. You know, like, it'd be like, I'm trying to think of the example, but, like, if I, if I did find out that I, I don't even know. Like, if you, if you found out that, like, you know, your favorite, you know, free market economist was in fact hired by the CIA and was part of an operation to get people to believe in this stuff. And you just found that out, you'd think that would at least have an impact. Like, you'd have to like, oh, I'm going to have to go grapple with that for a while. Like, what does that mean Exactly. Whereas, like you, Stephen Colbert here is this. It's tearing apart his entire existence. Like, when you really think about what she's saying there, she's going, hey, the CIA is okay, I'm using the term at war. She didn't say at war, but she basically did say that there's this new dynamic now where the CIA is working against the President, who, by the way, they work for. They, they are part of the executive branch. They are, they are to report to the President who is their commander in chief. And you're saying, oh, no, they're working against him and they're using the media to do that. And who is Stephen Colbert exactly? What role is he playing in this game? Well, you're like right at the center of that. You are one of the late night hosts who are trashing Donald Trump every single chance you get. And for to hear this and have it have no impact on you is pretty wild. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is sheath underwear. I've been telling you about sheath underwear for years now because they are the best. They're the best boxer briefs I've ever worn. The only underwear I ever wear these days is sheath underwear. That's been true for several years now. And they're a great sponsor of this show. The company is run by great guys. Get a pair of them. Get one pair and you're gonna know what I'm talking about. You can feel them. They're quality, they're durable. I still have the same pairs that they sent me when they first came on as a sponsor, which was over three years ago, and they still feel like brand new. Support the sponsors who support our show. And while you're at it, get the best pair of boxer briefs you will ever put on your body@sheath underwear.com make sure to use the promo code PROBLEM20 for 20% off your entire order. Sheath underwear.com promo code PROBLEM 20 for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show.
- [38:54]
Michael Malice
Yeah, well, I think that's having a network TV job and knowing what they probably don't want to have on the airwave. So quick panic and pivot.
- [39:04]
Robbie Bernstein
Sure. That sure was. It was goddamn hilarious. You know, by the way, I'm gonna play this clip, which I. I was thinking of playing a few days ago, but we ran out of time. But I did find this to be interesting, too. Again, this is just kind of more on the theme of the bizarre kind of sickness of this dominant liberal culture. And this was a clip from Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update from. From last week's show. Let's. Let's play this clip because there's something here that I just is very interesting and very disturbing that I think is worth talking about. Let's. Let's go to that clip.
- [39:46]
Michael Malice
Luigi Mangioni dropped.
- [39:51]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah.
- [39:53]
Dave Smith
Yeah, definitely.
- [39:54]
Robbie Bernstein
Woo. You're wooing for justice, right? Luigi Mangione dropped his extradition fight and was flown from Penn. All right, That's. That's it. Essentially, that's all we wanted to play. So he. Again, look, I'm not trying to, like, make more of this than is justified. It's just that you have, like, I guess what's running together. To me, I understand these are just, like, random clips. One of them's from 2018, one of them's from recently. I'm not trying to overplay my. My hand here, but there is something interesting to me that within, kind of like what we're looking at here in both cases are the. The comedy shows of the liberal establishment, the progressive establishment in America. And they are the shows that have been. Look, they've spent, particularly the last eight years, very transparently, morally, judging the right half of America. You know, judging Trump supporters, judging conservatives, judging people who are kind of judging people who were skeptics of the COVID regime, you know, all of this stuff. And yet is there ever a point where we start talking about this culture and how truly sick it is? I mean, isn't this bizarre dude that this guy is just. His name is brought up. And it gets from the liberal women in the crowd, like, they're not even embarrassed to just loudly be cheering for him because, like, he's a hot murderer or something like that. I. I don't know, Rob, how much you've been following this. I really have. Not myself that much at all, because it really. Sometimes there are topics that just make me genuinely uncomfortable and I just can't. What? You know, it's like, people get into those, like, pedophile hunting shows. Like, I just can't watch them because it's too creepy. And, like, I feel the same way about people who actually, like, are writing this guy love letters and trying to date him from prison or whatever. But the dude straight up murdered somebody in Cold blood. That's all we know about him. Evidently, from the other information that I've seen out there, he was not a policyholder of United. So it's not even like what the story seemed like it was at first. Like, you remember when it first happened and they tried to make it out, like, oh, maybe they denied his claim so much that he went and killed the CEO of the company. No, that's not the story at all. And yet still, like, how sick is this that you're making this guy into, like, a sex object or something like that? I, I, I just find this so bizarre.
- [42:45]
Michael Malice
Well, as a person who's attracted to men, I fully understand why these women are so excited by the guy being taken away in a jumpsuit. Yeah. I mean, firstly, there's, it just, it's it. I did the joke on Run your mouth that for some reason they got this guy in designer streetwear, and then there was that ugly Guatemalan, and they put him in a trash bag. So I don't understand, I don't understand why government's making him look cool and they're doing a parade for him. It's almost like that Con Air scene with Steve Buscemi and, like, almost doing it up. Like, how much of a badass this guy is there is. All right, I want to make it clear I'm not endorsing violence. Nobody should go out and kill anybody. And we're here and we're kind of idealistic, and that's what we do. And so we talk to what should be the better avenues to clean these things up. And obviously the problem in our health care is the government's involvement. It's the very existence of insurance, it's licensing laws, and it's the conglomeration of these companies, and that you can't just have open markets to go purchase insurance, blah, blah, blah. We can go on and on about the problem with insurance and government's involvement in it. I do think that, you know, violence works very well, and for the most part, government has monopolized violence. And we're not really able to just pursue means for justice or for violence. The fact that a CEO was murdered and that there's so much discontent with healthcare that people are even excited and think that it was justifiable that a CEO of a corporation that they see as being evil was murdered. I mean, you want to talk about what might enact better change is, you know, people being on notice of, hey, if our corporations are actually really fleecing people, and maybe it's just because of the backings of the guy. I mean, just saying, if you want to game theory, things that might create. So all I'm trying to say is the fact that people are excited about this, I think it's because there is discontent and they'd like to see a change initiated, and they're not really here. Is that better than if government were to step in? And, you know, like, I'm not. I'm not advocating for the violence. I'm more justifying why I think people are not completely condemning this. Like, I just understand where people are coming from, where they're like. And that's tragic that people feel so imprisoned by bad systems and by the way government's operating that they're now going to be excited for hits against CEOs. But, I mean, that's kind of where we're at.
- [45:18]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah. When I was on Piers Morgan's show a few days before Christmas, and he brought up, like, a poll of young people, I think it was 25 and under, in which, like, 40% of them had said that they had a favorable view of this Luigi, whatever his name is, guy. And, you know, I. I basically said on the show that, you know, like, same with you. Like, I condemned the violence of it. And I was like, yeah, this is, like, sick and disgusting, and this is not a good solution to any of these problems. And, you know, first off, it's horrible. The guy's got a family. And, like, that's terrible. And then also it's just like, well, what are we gonna do? You gonna go murder everybody you have an issue with? That's not a way to run a good society. But I did say that, like, look, I mean, for all of us who feel that way, you got to look at a poll like this and be like, whoa, what's going on here? And particularly with young people. And I was like, well, look, I mean, I do think we have to be kind of honest. And this is something, you know, I've talked about a lot on the show. But it's like one of these themes that you can never talk about enough. But it is. What's being done to young people in our society is so profoundly wrong and so many, I think, of these young kids are just in this situation that, you know, it is the fact that, like, my grandfather could have, in a much more primitive economy, in a much less advanced economy, in a much poorer society, that my grandfather could, when he graduated high school, could, and this is true for everyone in his generation, could go wait on a line to get a job at a factory and get a job that day and have a job that they could support a family off of where the woman didn't have to work. And you could own a house and have two cars and send your kids to decent schools and play poker with your buddies on the weekend and whatever, you know, like, just live a normal American life. And the fact that now today, with. So with where we're such a richer country, technological advancements over the time. My grandfather graduated from high school that are essentially indistinguishable from magic compared to what they had back then. And that now you've got an entire generation of young people who are six figures in debt from a bullshit liberal college with a bullshit liberal arts degree. They are working at a Starbucks or a coffee house or whatever for, you know, maybe 20 bucks an hour if they're lucky. Maybe they get to split up a tip jar at the end of their shift. And the average price of a house is like 600 grand. And there is no even conceivable path for particularly, I'll just say, in this for young men. I mean, it's true for young women, too, but there's a particular dynamic with young men when you have no conceivable path to go from that toward owning a home, starting a family, being able to provide a decent, a reasonable life for a family, in that situation, you're going to have problems. And I think one of the problems is that, yeah, they start looking at a guy like this as someone who, I don't know, took things into his own hands and did something about it. And there is something, man, where it's like, you. You want to be able to understand that mentality as best you can. That doesn't mean you want to justify it or agree with it, but you do want to understand that mentality. Because something like when you're getting cheers like this, when you bring up that guy's name, something sick is going on, like. And you kind of want to be like, what exactly is the diagnosis here? Because there's something really disturbing happening. And I, you know, I do think that's. That's at least part of the reason why young people are looking at this, like, good, you know, someone went and did something. You know, if you can't, if you can't get yourself on that path, well, you, you know, it's kind of similar to the way, like, kids become school shooters when they're all messed up. It's like, as much as that is just pure destruction and evil, and it's not making your life any better. A lot of times people prefer that identity to being the kid who's just picked on all the time. I'd rather be the one who fucking instilled fear in everybody else and, you know, and will and horrified people or whatever. But, yeah, I mean, but there is something really sick there. And it is, by the way, I don't, I don't know Colin at all. But I love Michael Che, who I've known from, you know, back in the day at the nightclubs in New York City. But I did think it was kind of interesting how uncomfortable it seemed to make him that he got that reaction from his own audience. And then he has to go like, yeah, I don't, I don't know if we should be wooing this guy, but there really is, there's something, something pretty sick going on there. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Entera Skin Care in the quest for youthful radiant skin. And Terra skin care unveils the secret ingredient, peptides. Their scientifically formulated products are infused with powerful peptides, the building blocks of skin's natural resilience. Peptides dive deep into your skin, stimulating collagen production, reducing wrinkles and restoring firmness. Whether you're combating the early signs of aging or nurturing mature skin, Entera's peptide rich formula caters to all skin types. Discover more@enterra skincare.com problem and use the promo code problem for 10% off your order. And Tara Skin Care where science meets beauty and terraskincare.com/proble promo code problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the show.
- [51:34]
Michael Malice
There's also, you know, I don't know. I know when it came to the creation of Obamacare, one of the big talking points was, hey, we need, we need, we need coverage for preexisting condition which isn't insurance. And so you essentially, you sit down with the. It's the mob bosses sit down. You got Obama sits down with the insurance companies, goes, I need you guys to cover for preexisting conditions. And they go, fine, here's how we do it. You gotta get rid of our competition and so you can't have catastrophic care plans. I'm sure that they eliminated other forms of competition, but that's one of the things that they did, is we need more young, healthy individuals to be paying insurance premiums. And you're not going to be able to purchase insurance year round because we can't screen for preexisting conditions. So now there's going to be a limited window of which you can acquire insurance. And so Obama gets to get on TV and say, hey, I look good, I got you coverage for your preexisting conditions. And then the insurance companies, they got what they needed to make sure that they're still profitable and I think by most metrics more profitable as you increase the demand for their product and got rid of some of the competition. Okay, now there's mechanisms by which insurance companies can boost their profits. And one of them is handling claims, which is essentially when people are making their claims, you try and do everything you can not to pay them out. I'm sure to some extent there were similar meetings between the insurance companies and government in terms of what they can get away with. But like for example, if you have a healthcare problem and your insurance company is supposed to cover it, and for some period of time they delay it or they deny it and then you're able to get your care later on. And I'm not familiar with this, I don't know if there's any mechanism to sue them for the amount of time you were in pain or the hardship you had to go through in order to get coverage. So I know an exam, I know with a family member that they had like an older family member that they had a hip replacement that was ultimately covered by insurance. But my uncle said it took him 15 phone calls and a month for them to finally process it. Is there a way to sue the insurance company that you're then able to, you know, basically get paid for your full time job of having to get them to just pay for what you've been paying into the system for. So I do think a lot of it comes down to the government protections of these companies and that they're able to use these tools without, you know, the same as vaccine manufacturers don't have to pay for liability and injuries. And I don't know the specifics of what exists in insurance. The point I'm getting at is that you understand how corrupt the system has to be. That for most individuals or 40% of college kids, if you ask them, hey, if you go murder the head of this company, do you think that should be a crime or consider vigilante justice? And if you then went down the corporations of America, I Bet you said CEO of Starbucks, 41% of them aren't going to say, oh, you can kill the CEO of Starbucks. But now if you start asking them about weapons manufacturers or maybe in a couple of years from now, if There was more bad data about vaccines and you started telling them about the CEO, you know, the guy in charge of Pfizer. It just kind of showcases the fact that government's not doing its job and is offering too much protections to these companies, that the general public is actually okay with vigilante justice in order to, even if they might say, hey, this is wrong and it's terrible that this guy lost his kids, but this system is so corrupt we actually need violence on our side to try and force the hand. I mean, it's not that different than terrorism at that point, but it's just kind of showcasing where people are at, that they see this as being the only way towards change.
- [55:22]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah, no, I mean, I think it is terrorism. If the goal was some type of political change, which I'm not sure about, but if that is the goal, then I think it meets the definition of terrorism.
- [55:31]
Michael Malice
I don't even know if that's the kid's goal as much as that's. I think people, I think people are excited about it for two reasons. One, the kid's attractive. And that's just a horrible flaw in human logic that we like people that are more attractive. And you can look at crime statistics, they end up with, with lesser sentences, blah blah blah. Because we all just, just grant goodness to people who look attractive and just assume that they're better people. It's dumb. It's a, it's a human stupid fallacy. And then there's just maybe we're right.
- [56:00]
Robbie Bernstein
So maybe we're right to do it. Maybe they are just better than us. Rob.
- [56:04]
Michael Malice
Yeah, Brad Pitt for president.
- [56:05]
Robbie Bernstein
Your point? But I get your point. I mean, look, there's no question it's, it's interestingly one of the privileged groups that never comes up. I always thought through the years of like kind of the rise of really insane social justice warrior stuff. I always thought it was so funny every time you'd have like an attractive girl talking about like male privilege or white privilege or whatever it is, and you're like, are you, you're really going to ignore the elephant in the room here, which is that you have the number one privilege of all of these things, which by the way, to your point, is borne out in study after study after study. There is just no question about it that human beings give preferential treatment to good looking people. It's particularly true for good looking women. Again, I'm not knocking you for that. Hey, you were born with it and enjoy it. It's something that we all participate in. I Guess in some way. But like, if you're having a conversation about privilege, you might want to think about that as being one of the major ones. Like, the level of privilege between like a gorgeous chick and an a really ugly dude is just like they're living in two different universes when it comes to like, participating in society. But yeah, I mean, I think, look, I mean, one of the things, I guess that disturbs me to no end about this is that because of the biases in left wing thought, there's like, there is almost like because you're the CEO of a company that's like in this fucked up field, they'll always be kind of like less sympathy for you. You get totally like dehumanized. Yet the government, the political class escapes without any of the blame. And like, personally, to me, I just have so much more contempt for the government's role in this than I do for some guy who's just kind of like, well, these are the rules of this fucked up game and I'm going to play within them to make as much money as I can. That, that to me does not seem as fucked up as like, people who pose as our elected representatives who sell us out in order to, to create this fucked up system. So there's always, there's, there's a, that's a huge, you know, factor for me that I just think is very disturbing about this. I also think, you know, to your point, oh, here we could play this clip. Because I never played this. This was like from a couple of weeks ago, but I did just think this was so funny. But let's do the Whoopi Goldberg on the View. Because when you thought, when you were talking about like, you know, pre existing conditions and how you're no longer dealing with insurance, I mean, you cannot begin to even have this conversation when the, like, the literacy level of the people who are having the conversation is so, I mean, you want to talk about not getting what insurance is. Here is Whoopi Goldberg on the View. And yes, she actually said these words. They actually left her face and came out of her mouth on national television. Here's Whoopi on insurance.
- [59:19]
Dave Smith
There are things we can fool with and things we can't. Healthcare is one of those things that you shouldn't be able to fool with. And insurance companies who. You pay. I pay into my insurance. You pay into your insurance. I don't understand. If I don't go to the hospital for a whole year, where's my money? Why don't you give me the money? Back then, you don't have to worry about it. Because I feel like, you know, I said this. Okay, okay, we got Bill coming out. I know we got Bill coming.
- [59:54]
Robbie Bernstein
Oh, right there is Whoopi. I think the only correct thing that she said in there was, I do not understand. And she nailed that. She nailed that part. I think I told you this, Rob, when we first. When I first saw this video. But Chris Rock, I remember Chris Rock had a bit about this. It was either in Bring the Pain or Bigger and Blacker. It was in one of his great comedy specials. And back in the day, I mean, Chris, those two specials were so good. Has been a long time since I've seen them, but I. I thought they. At the time, these were like, two of the best comedy specials that had ever been made. But he had one joke that was like that where it was like, they shouldn't call it insurance. They should call it in case you pay, in case happens. Now tell me this. If don't happen, should not get my money back. And I remember at the time, and I adored. I just loved him as a comedian, and. And I wasn't a libertarian or anything like that, yet. I wasn't interested in politics. But I remember just hearing that joke and going, and that doesn't really work, because that's stupid. Because that's the whole point. The whole point is that you're mitigating risk and you're paying a smaller amount then the catastrophe would be to insure yourself against a catastrophe happening. And then if the catastrophe. If the catastrophe happens, the idea is you won't be on the hook for all of it because you paid this small amount in. But for Whoopi Goldberg, like a grown adult who's on a talk show where they talk about these issues, to say that is. You're like, oh, so we can't even begin to have a conversation about this because in your warped liberal worldview, they're already robbing from you by not giving you your money back at the end of a year, if you didn't go to the hospital. Like, it's almost. But by the way, I mean, this reminds me of when left wingers will talk about profit sharing for all the workers, you know, Rob. When they'll say, why shouldn't the workers all share in the profits? And you'll be like, okay, should they share in the losses? Oh, no, you don't want him to share. Okay, well, it's only. It's. It's either both, both or neither. You can't just share in the good stuff, but not share in any of the bad stuff. That's not how life works. And so, like, if you're going, like, if you're saying, like, well, hey, if I pay these insurance premiums and I don't use health care for the whole year, shouldn't I get all the money back? It's like, sure. If when you do need to use it, the insurance company can also say, oh, we're not paying for any of it, then that's an even trade. I don't know what, what the point is here. No, like, are you this brain dead? No, that's not the way it works. The whole point is you got a lot of people pulling in a little bit of money. And if one person has a gigantic expense, the little people, the little pools, cover that gigantic expense. If you have to give back all the money that everyone's pulling in, what's going to cover that gigantic expense? Like, it's. This makes absolutely no sense at all. But this is actually the mentality. And I'm not claiming me and you are two genius experts or anything like that, but what do you even say when the people discussing this have zero understanding of what the topic they're even discussing is? So this is what, this is Whoopi Goldberg's idea of how health insurance should work? That multimillionaires should get their money back for their premiums if they didn't go to the doctor that year? I mean, I, I don't know what to say about that, Rob. You can, you can take a stab at it.
- [63:24]
Michael Malice
Yeah, Whoopi Goldberg's an idiot.
- [63:27]
Robbie Bernstein
Yeah, I guess. There you go. I guess that pretty much sums it up. All right, guys, that's. That's our show for today. Thank you guys so much. Just a couple quick things before we wrap up. We will. Our schedule got a little thrown by Christmas. We'll. We'll get a members only episode out to you guys at some point in the next couple days. Also, this Saturday, the last Saturday of the month, I will be doing the Zoom meeting for our subscribers at the top two tiers. We've been doing those and they've been great. I've been really enjoying them. So if you are in one of those two tiers, make sure you check your email and, and come join us on that Zoom meeting this Saturday at 2pm Aside from that, if you haven't already, please go sign up and subscribe@partoftheproblem.com and we'll be back with a brand new episode very soon. Peace.