Dave Smith (22:54)
They're alluding to Trump seems to be the loosest of directives. Like, they're like, at Donald Trump, he kind of. He gave the green light. You go, he said, open back up the shipping lanes. And then it's kind of left up to us to figure out how. So, like, in your example, you're almost like where you're like, oh, you know, I saw this monitor that looks cool and this one's on sale. And then you'd be like, well, the owner of the studio said make it look cool. You know, like, there's not even like a specific thing. Like, you were tasked with getting this monitor, and I found it at a good price, and therefore it was just a general like, yeah, whatever you think looks good kind of thing. And so, anyway, so this is the, the only real. Aside from, from this, it all seems to just be them agreeing. By the way, you know, again, there might be something in here that wasn't reported. No principled objection from Tulsi Gabbard whatsoever. Look, I'm just saying, I think I, I think we were saying this the whole time, right? Like, the whole time throughout Trump, before the election, after the election, during his selecting his cabinet, that you were just like, look, he put a lot of bad people in there and the foreign policy team isn't good. And even Tulsi Gabb Gabbard is not good when it comes to this type of, like, target targeted strikes. Anyway, okay, so I'm going to read from the article at this point. A fascinating policy discussion commenced. The account labeled JD Vance responded at 8:16 team. I am out for the day doing an economic event in Michigan, but I think we are making a mistake. He also was in Michigan. So this is part of the reason, the part of what was confirming that he writes, 3% of US trade runs through the Suez. 40% of European trade does. There is a real risk that the public doesn't understand this or why it's necessary. The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message. Now, look, I give Vance some credit for at least being against this thing, kind of. I mean, he does say, I think we're making a mistake. But this idea that, like, well, it's a. It's a bigger percentage of Europe's trade, therefore, it's kind of like we're bailing out their trade. I mean, this is the. Like, if there were a list of 15 reasons why you shouldn't do this, this is 15th. This is the last reason. You know, like, I'm not even saying it's not a reason at all, but it's not one of the major ones. It's not as if he's sitting there and saying something like. Which I can. You could call me like a hippie or something like that all you want to, but, like, is it really that unreasonable that when my political leaders are murdering people, they might consider whether the murder is absolutely necessary or not? Like, you know, we're dropping huge bombs on people here. There's going to be civilians who get killed. Do we really need to do this? I just don't think it's that crazy that that could maybe even enter the conversation. Of course it is that crazy, and it doesn't enter the conversation at all. Then you would think after that, the concern would be that, like, we could be getting dragged into a wider war. You know, if the whole argument is that Iran is arming them, well, okay, do we really want to move closer toward a conflict with Iran? Do we want to move closer toward a conflict in Yemen? Do we. Like, why are we doing this? It's not in our national security interest. We're doing this on behalf of a foreign country. None of that comes up at all. It's just this, you know, vague. I think it's a mistake. Vance goes on to say, I am not sure the President is aware how consistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There's a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices. I'm willing to support the consensus of the team and keep these concerns to myself, but there is a strong argument for delaying this a month. Doing the messaging work on why this matters, seeing where the economy is, etc. Then Joe Kent. I forgot Joe Kent was on this. Joe Kent then comes in and says, there is nothing time sensitive during the timeline. Will have the exact same options in a month. Okay. Pete Hegseth comes in and says, vp, I understand your concerns and fully support you raising with Pres. With potus. Important considerations Most of which are tough to know how they play out. Economy, Ukraine, peace, Gaza, et cetera. I think messaging is gonna be A, to is gonna be tough no matter what. Nobody knows who the Houthis are, which is why we would need to stay focused on, one, Biden failed and two, Iran funded. Isn't that just disgusting? Like, you know, you're sitting here, it's only. And by the way, I, I just cannot stress for, like, I think for people, Americans like us, how, how unique this is about our country. And I know that there's sometimes, like when things happen in your country, you just kind of think of them as normal. I'm saying, like throughout the world and throughout human history, how abnormal it is to be bombing a group of people who you have no idea who they are. Like, for most of human history, if there was a war on, the people of that nation would know who they were fighting a war against and understand why they were fighting a war against them. We're such a rich country and such a powerful empire that we're just bombing little third world shitholes. And you're like, yeah, the problem here is the American people don't even know. And you know what? They're absolutely right. I mean, how many Americans, what percentage of Americans do you think could find Yemen on a map, let alone know the name of the group of people who are in charge? You know, like, I don't know, like, I'll even give him a hint. I'll be like, here's a map. Find Yemen. Oh, it's, it's right at the bottom of the Arabian, the Arabian Peninsula. Go. How many Americans you think could turn and find that on a map? And so it's like, look, for him to be saying this, it's like, yeah, in other words, stated differently, there is absolutely zero political desire from your base for you to go bomb Yemen. There's no, it's not even kind. Like, it's almost. It's said in plain English right there. Because I mean, he's not saying it, but it's all. It's in the information he's giving out, right, Is that there is, this is a totally top down move, not bottom up. There is nobody. This isn't mass deportations or, you know, eliminating waste in government or turning around the economy or bringing prices down. This isn't like, oh, there's this desire from the people and they elected you to do this. You're saying, how do we trick them into thinking this? And here's the answer, 1 and 2. By the way, this is something that should be a useful tool for people. This is one of the positive things to come out of this signal chat, and it's one of the things that I kind of challenge people like. I'm talking to you listeners of our show right now. When you see the MAGA influencers out there, right when you're thinking about who to listen to, oh, this guy makes a good point. But then I also think this guy makes a good point. But I like this lady's point. There is a. All right, I acted like. Women make points. Fine. I'm just saying, for the sake of argument, think about how many of them were just saying, number one and number two, right after this strike in Yemen. And I'm not like alleging that they're colluding with Pete Hegseth. I'm just saying they're repeating the same dumb fucking mindless propaganda. Keep in mind here, Pete Hegseth is not saying. This is a very clear sentence. Pete Hegseth is not saying the reason we need to do this is because, number one, Biden failed, and number two, they're backed by Iran. He's saying that's what you tell the fucking people. It's the only thing I could think of to tell people that they'll maybe resonate with them. Is there. Is there a real desire amongst the MAGA base for us to start bombing the shit out of the poorest country in the Middle East? No, but they do think Joe Biden's awfully weak and they're pretty suspicious of Iran because we've been propagandizing them with a bunch of bullshit about them for. For years. So that's how he's saying you could sell this to people. It's a very revealing comment. And anyway, so that's. That's what you were getting from Pete Hegseth. Okay. All right, Hagseth. Message went on to state, waiting a few weeks or a month does not fundamentally change the calculus. Two, immediate risks on waiting. Number one. Two immediate risks on. On waiting. One, this leaks and we look indecisive to Israel takes a shit. Oh, man, did I not. I may not have screen grabbed the right part there. Okay. To Israel. Sorry. You can accuse me of covering up for the Israelis now. I'm not sure what that was. I lost it. It's the Atlantic piece. I'm. I'm not sure what the title is. I just. Screen grabbed this part. Hold on one second to. Okay, there's. I'll. I'll go on. But if you find it, that's. That's fine. Oh wait, hold on. Sorry. Israel takes an associated and levy them on the Europeans. No, I don't think that's the right part. JD Vance goes on to say to Pete Hagseth, if you agree, we should do it, let's go. I just hate bailing Europe out again. So again, J.D. vance, who is I suppose the hero in the room here, judging on a curve, you turn that heat down a little bit. Rubbish. He literally goes, hey, you guys want to do it? Fine, let's do it. I just hate bailing out Europe. So there is simply in JD Vance no concern about killing innocent people, no concern about us getting drawn into a wider war, no concern about dropping bombs on people on behalf of other countries. This is clearly a result of Israel's beef, not ours. But he sure doesn't like those. Those Europeans being welfare moms, doesn't seem to have any issue with Israel being a fat welfare mom, but he really doesn't like the Europeans being on the doll. So that's what you. That's what we got here so far. Hagseth responded to that said vp, I fully share your loathing of Europeans freeloading. It's pathetic. Capital letters. But Mike is correct. We are the only ones on the planet on our side of the ledger who can do this. Nobody else. Even close question is timing. I feel like now is as good a time as any given POTUS directive to reopen shipping lanes. That's what I was referring to before. I think we should go. But potus still retains 24 hours of decision space. 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Today that's monetary-metals.com. all right, let's get back into the show. All right, so what can you say about this, Rob? I mean, it's just. It's really just, you know, it's not to be unexpected, but, man, it is disappointing. And it's just. I. I will say it's. There's already just signs of, you know, look, like you kind of said before, this is what you get with Donald Trump. It's a. It's a mixed bag. I suppose a mixed bag is preferable to a bag of nothing but shit. But there's. There is just this level of, like, incompetence that. Not just to be doing this whole signal chat and to, you know, forget it. I'm. I'm totally open to the possibility that the National Security advisor, like, was setting them up, but no one else to notice. And that is a pretty high level of incompetence. Nobody else goes, like, you know, from what I've understood. Cause some people have been talking about this. It's like they say, you know, signal might be used between these types of people to, like, coordinate a meeting or something like that. Ah, we're all meeting here at this place or whatever, but there's seems to be no feeling from any of them that, like, hey, we're. We're talking about, like, a planned targeted strike, and we're doing this over signal. That seems pretty weird. Um, There is no. One of the things I found particularly disgusting. Again, people can call me a hippie for this shit if you want to, but after the bombing's done, everybody's just sharing emojis, which is like, first on. On one level, you're like, what is fucking. Am I the only one? Am I the only grown man who doesn't text emojis? But when did everyone become a teenage chick? Including the. The Secretary of Defense, evidently. But there, it's all just like. I mean, again, call me crazy. I think when you drop bombs on human beings, even if there were, like, even. Let's just say in a scenario where you had to take out some bad guys and it came with killing some innocent people, but it had to be done. Let's just. I'll. That's the starting point that I'm wrong and that it has to be done and these innocent people have to be killed, you still think there would be a little bit of a somber tone. You know, it's like, I don't know. You know, it's so funny because, like, I'm not, you know, like, I believe in God, But I'm not like, a particularly religious person, but all of these people, Tulsi's got her own thing going on, but, like, Pete Hegseth and all these guys, they lead with how Christian they are. That's like a big part of what they present themselves as and run on and it's like, but, yeah, but don't. Do any of you really believe in God? Because, like, wouldn't you. Wouldn't you think, like, if you just killed some people, there'd at least be a part of you that was like, man, I sure do hope that God understands why I had to do it. You know, you'd think you would have to at least show a little bit of, like. That part sure does suck. That's a tragedy. Sorry about that. No, it's. It's muscle emojis and American flag emojis. Going to ask what? Emo.
