The War Hawks vs. The Podcasters

Summary

Podcast Summary: Part Of The Problem — "The War Hawks vs. The Podcasters"

Host: Dave Smith (with Rob Bernstein)
Date: March 24, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode dives headfirst into the chaos of current U.S. foreign policy and war in the Middle East, with Dave Smith and Rob Bernstein examining the Trump administration's contradictory and seemingly reactive approach, the existential stakes for Iran and Israel, and the broader consequences for global order and American credibility. The hosts also reflect on the role of independent voices—particularly podcasters—in shaping the political conversation and challenging legacy media and establishment narratives.

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Main Topics & Key Discussion Points

1. Disastrous Progress of the Middle Eastern War

• Dave Smith opens by comparing the rapid collapse of narratives and control in the current war to earlier U.S. entanglements (Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, etc.).
• Even by the three-week mark, this conflict is seen as a disaster, with threats to global energy, water infrastructure, and increasing civilian displacement and casualties.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 06:23):
    "Three plus weeks into a war, this is looking about as disastrous as, as one could imagine."

2. Trump’s Contradictory Leadership and Negotiation Claims

• The hosts critique Donald Trump's incoherent public statements, inability to stick to a narrative, and his "stream of consciousness" leadership style.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 08:20):
    "Donald Trump, when you ask him what the end goal or what the reason or what we're doing, ... machine gun fires like 70 different things, five of which contradict five other things."
• Trump previously threatened Iran’s power plants over the Strait of Hormuz, but then claimed negotiations were underway, only for Iran to deny any talks.
• Widespread skepticism about Trump’s claims of negotiating with actual Iranian leaders; the situation on the ground appears to defy these assertions.

3. Escalation Risks and the Limits of U.S. Power

• Rob Bernstein notes the stupidity of “escalation ladder” threats if the U.S. doesn't have dominance.
  • Iran's counter-threats (like hitting desalination plants) raise the risk of regional disaster.
  • Israel continues hitting Iranian targets regardless of U.S. diplomatic noise, aiming openly for regime change.
• The growing sense that Trump's best case is to declare victory and hope for de-escalation—but even this is complicated by Israeli goals and Iran's existential calculation.

4. U.S., Iran, and Israel: Existential Calculations

• Dave Smith highlights asymmetries: for Iran, this is survival; for Israel and the U.S., it’s policy.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 21:10):
    “For Iran, this is existential … they feel like this psychopath Benjamin Netanyahu is hell bent on toppling their government and that he's got the backing of Uncle Sam.”

5. Regime Change & Fantasies About the Strait of Hormuz

• Trump clips show him ad-libbing about “co-running” the Strait with a future Ayatollah and declaring regime victory.
• Commentary on the utter implausibility of these claims.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 27:00):
    “The idea of co running the Strait of Hormuz with the future Ayatollah, that seems like equally far fetched at least.”

6. The Fallout: Backfiring and Shifting Regional Alliances

• The hosts point out war’s blowback: Europe may turn on Israel, regional U.S. allies may seek their own deals, and Iran could now be a more empowered regional player.

7. Character, War, and the Ugly Side of Politics

• Trump’s personal attacks on Joe Kent, a decorated vet who lost his wife and resigned over the war, prompt a scathing reaction from Dave and Rob, who call out the indecency of personal smears over substantive debate.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 36:20):
    “You really can't overstate how fucking despicable of a human being Donald Trump is ... to even make a comment like he remarried too quickly ... you should burn in hell for saying like that, dude.”

8. The War Hawks of Both Parties: Democratic Recklessness

• Clip of Paul Begala (Democratic commentator) on Bill Maher’s show “seriously” calling for sinking a Russian oil tanker headed to Cuba—seen by Dave as further proof that establishment opposition (Democrats) are as recklessly hawkish as MAGA Republicans.
  • Quote (Paul Begala, 53:01):
    “…he [Trump] needs to confront Putin in the ocean with that tanker and stop it and turn it around or sink it to the bottom of the ocean. Show some guts with Putin for once in your life.”
• Dave: This goes beyond even the extremes of Cold War rhetoric—American political class feels no need to justify military actions via imminent threat or even national interest, just “we said no, so kill people.”

9. The Rise & Role of Podcasters: New Dissent

• Dave reflects on how disillusionment with establishment media enabled the rise of podcasters (Rogan, Tucker, etc.) as the new loci of resistance and truth-telling about war and policy.
  • Corporate media’s maladaptive response is to mimic the podcast aesthetic (e.g., Jake Tapper’s new “podcast-like” set), while missing the real issue: authenticity and credibility.
  • Quote (Dave Smith, 67:01):
    “Their takeaway … is … we’ll record looking like podcasts. But that's just more inauthenticity. That's not really you.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Comparing War Progress:
  Dave Smith (07:43):
  “Three plus weeks into a war, this is looking about as disastrous as, as one could imagine.”

• On Trump’s Contradictory Statements:
  Dave Smith (08:20):
  “Donald Trump, when you ask him what the end goal or what the reason or what we're doing, ... machine gun fires like 70 different things, five of which contradict five other things that he's already said.”

• On Israel & Existential Stakes:
  Dave Smith (21:10):
  “For Iran, this is existential … they feel like this psychopath Benjamin Netanyahu is hell bent on toppling their government and that he's got the backing of Uncle Sam.”

• On Regime Change Fantasies:
  Dave Smith (27:00):
  “The idea of co running the Strait of Hormuz with the future Ayatollah, that seems like equally far fetched at least.”

• Regarding Trump’s Attack on Joe Kent:
  Dave Smith (36:20):
  “You really can't overstate how fucking despicable of a human being Donald Trump is ... you should burn in hell for saying like that, dude.”

• On the Establishment’s War Mentality:
  Dave Smith (58:42):
  “The idea of calling for a war on such like, or an act of war in this case on such little flimsy, like we don't like it … there's like this empire mentality that has crept in...”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:08] — Show opens, Dave recounts Piers Morgan debate and sets up the chaos of the new war.
• [06:23] — Early assessment and comparison to disasters in Ukraine, Iraq, Afghanistan.
• [09:45] — Trump’s stream-of-consciousness war statements lampooned.
• [12:18] — Recap of the US-Iran “negotiation” and shifting threats.
• [18:33] — Breakdown of Trump administration’s rationale and lack of clarity.
• [21:10] — Deep dive: Why this is existential for Iran, and not the US/Israel.
• [24:14] — War blowback and shifting alliances logic.
• [26:25] — Trump’s “joint control” fantasy re: Strait of Hormuz dissected.
• [35:53] — Trump’s personal smear on Joe Kent; moral critique from Dave and Rob.
• [53:01] — Paul Begala calls for direct confrontation with Russia.
• [58:42] — Reflecting on establishment war mentality and lack of moral standing.
• [61:10] — Dave and Rob on the media’s attempt to “be” podcasters (Jake Tapper segment).

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Tone and Style

• The episode is brash, irreverent, and unsparing in its skepticism—aimed at both major political parties and media figures.
• Dave uses gallows humor and cutting language, particularly when calling out the inhumanity or arrogance of political leaders.
• Rob Bernstein adds dry, sometimes dark, counterpoints, maintaining the show's signature blend of satire and serious critique.

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Takeaways

• The episode is a scathing audit of the failures and recklessness of U.S. leadership and the pliant media, illustrating how independent voices are both necessary and increasingly influential.
• It highlights how both major parties’ “war hawks” are deeply out of touch, careless with facts and narratives, and often wielding American power with a shocking disregard for logic or humanity.
• The hosts see hope in the authenticity and questioning nature of independent podcasting, contrasting it sharply with the “zombie” strategies of the corporate press.

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For listeners seeking an unflinching, independent take on the latest American wars—rooted in libertarian skepticism, gallows humor, and harsh reality checks—this episode offers a timely and necessary corrective to mainstream spin.

Transcript

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[Dave Smith]

What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robber the fire. He is Robbie the fire. Bernstein man, I you really think I would get that one right every time? Said that about 10,000 times. I how are you today, sir?

[Rob Bernstein]

It can be a mouthful. I. I understand doing well. Filmed a bunch of stuff for the weekend if you haven't already. Go to Robbie the Fire. I put out a new Epstein sketch. It's right up on the channel so go check that out.

[Dave Smith]

And of course this weekend, big weekend of shows. Boston. We will make it there. Listen to me. In fact, I was going to call Robbie earlier this morning and figure this out but listen, I know there's a lot of airport craziness, but we will drive if we can't fly. So we will be there this weekend in Boston. This is one fun weekends. Last year we sold out all five shows. Help us sell these ones out. The tickets are moving fast so. So go grab them now if you want to come on out this weekend at Laugh Boston. Really looking forward to that. I do have to jump on a quick plane before that, so I'm really hoping nothing goes bad with that one. Have you seen some of these air airport footage, Rob? It's not looking good. Planes are flying into fire trucks and lines are out the door. I don't know, I don't like.

[Rob Bernstein]

I heard that ice was on it. So you can look forward to not just being groin checked but also maced at the airport.

[Dave Smith]

Yes, it turns out there was a miscommunication and instead ISIS has shown up. Oh, there you are. It's a lot easier. No one's getting checked. Going in now. Yeah, I don't know, I've. So I might either be flying or I might be deported. You don't know. In Trump's America, it's a roll of the dice. What's going to happen. You're going get somewhere. You're not going to be at home when the night's over.

[Rob Bernstein]

My guess is Newark on a bad airport day has to be the word. Like I, there's some airports that are just better managed and then there's some that are rough. The Atlanta airports rough and Newark's rough. And I can only imagine if there's a slowdown with TSA that that's going to be a particularly long day. It's going to feel like you're crossing the border.

[Dave Smith]

I've had, I've had some bad days in, in Newark where I debated leaving and trying to cross the border, like just walking from there to whatever border is nearest. I've. It's Newark can be rough, but knock on wood, I don't get caught in it this time and that none of you good people who are listening get caught in it. By the way, we are a little bit late recording today because I just was on Pierce Morgan. It was maybe the biggest shit show I've been a part of on Piers Morgan. But I, I think I got some good points out and it was entertaining but I, I debated if you can call it that, Adam Sosnik from Patrick Bet David's podcast that should be out soon. But if you, I don't know, if you guys like watching me debate people who humiliate themselves, you will enjoy this one. If that's not your type of thing, then don't bother. But if you like that, this one will be real fun for you. Anyway, so this God awful war is still going on and there's a whole bunch of updates on that and a whole bunch of things to talk about. It is I, I gotta say, Rob, man, this, there's, look with all of the, say the global war on terrorism and then if you want to just throw in whatever other military, you know, military actions or wars that America's been involved in funding or arming since then. So you know, if you, if you want to count the global war on terrorism and then also count like Israel's destruction of Gaza or Ukraine, Russia or Venezuela or all of these things now, I'm not saying that this is going to turn into the catastrophe that the worst of those were. You know, obviously Venezuela was pretty much a one and done deal and the regime still stands to this day. Doesn't seem anything was really accomplished. But it wasn't like a catastrophe where huge numbers of people died and it was very, very costly. In Ukraine, I don't know what the latest numbers in Ukraine are, but it's in the, certainly north of a million, might be multiple millions at this point. Iraq was over a million people. Afghanistan was hundreds of thousands, Syria was hundreds of thousands, Somalia was hundreds of thousands, Yemen was hundreds of that. So I'm not saying it's like it's that big of a catastrophe and I'm hoping it doesn't turn into that. Obviously that'll be determined by decisions that are made by the three governments involved in this war. But at this point, looking at it, trying to be objective, it is, Rob, remarkable. What a disaster this is. Only three plus weeks into it, like even when compared to other wars, even when compared to some of those other wars that I just named. Three weeks into the war in Ukraine and I'm Judging this by 22, when Vladimir Putin invaded the country three weeks in, they were still able to say the ruble is being destroyed and Ukraine is going to win and ghost of Kiev and this and that. And you know, three weeks into Iraq was like almost ready for mission accomplished time. And three weeks into Afghanistan they were still bragging about how we're taking all the success three weeks into this thing, Rob. And like it's just as a lot of us were saying for many years, Iran is a different beast than these other ones. And there's this, all the, the threat of missiles to our assets, to our allies who house our, our bases and the stuff with the straight of Horus. And now we've moved into the, the threat against desalination plants and, and the what, what evidently is like 90 plus percent of the drinking water for some of these Middle Eastern countries. All types of threats to, to global energy. This is just, not to mention just the tens of billions that have already been spent on this thing and the millions of people who have been displaced already by this thing, the thousands of people who have died and you know, including at least 13 or something Americans. And you know, we saw a report of 150 plus wounded from and a half ago. Who knows what that number's up to right now. But just saying, three plus weeks into a war, this is looking about as disastrous as, as one could imagine.

[Rob Bernstein]

Well, from what I Understand, people in the Middle east never liked water, and that's why they chose to live in the desert. And so Donald Trump's just trying to help them return to their native habitat. It's incredible where we're at. I know that we got lined up the, the videos of Donald Trump on the tarmac, but really seems like he's winging it. I feel like I'm watching a guy in a room that's on fire telling me that the fire's been put out. And it's like, dude, I can see the fire behind you.

[Donald Trump (clips)]

Fake news.

[Rob Bernstein]

He's like, literally just putting it out on his shoulder and letting you know everything's fine, situation's been taken care of.

[Dave Smith]

There's something about Donald Trump that is very different from just about any other politician I've ever seen. And I think there's something about this probably that was pretty refreshing to a lot of people. And, and I'll be fully on, maybe even to myself at times. I found this kind of refreshing. But politicians in general stick on message. You know, like, they say the same thing over and over again. And Donald Trump has never been like that. Donald Trump is like a stream of conscious type guy. He gets up and he talks, you know, and, you know, at times, maybe there was something about that that was kind of refreshing or charming. The thing that's weird about this war is that it's not even like in previous wars. The politicians would make up their lie and then they would stick to it and maybe at a certain point they'd switch to a different lie, but, like, they'd pretty much stick to. But Donald Trump, when you ask him what the end goal or what the reason or what we're doing, he's, he just like, like machine gun fires like 70 different things, five of which contradict five other things that he's already said. And it's like, it's. So he's not even pretend to have a plan. Like, that's where we're at. He's not even pretending to have a play. He's openly saying, maybe, maybe this will happen, maybe that'll happen. Let's, let's, let's play this, this clip.

[Rob Bernstein]

He's listening to the feelings in his bones. So he's really, he's just operating in a different dimension that you and I can't comprehend, which is why it makes it so hard to translate it into, you know, our version of reality.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, yeah, I suppose that might be the, the answer here. Let's go to the, it's the, the tweet that I sent breaking reporter who is Steve Witkoff speaking with in Iran. So by the way, if just before we play this, that's the first clip we'll go to here, but for a little bit of background, Donald Trump had put out a truth social post before this and and said like, we're ready to talk with Iran. We're in communication with them. We're actually feeling pret this it, you know, American strikes on certain targets will stop while we're talking about this. The Iranians then got on state TV and said, none of this is true. We're not talking directly or indirectly to the Americans. We have no interest in talking to them. We know we can't trust them because they attacked us the last two times we talked to them and we are not accepting anything less than a total surrender or whatever. Now, the Iranians speak with a lot of bluster and Donald Trump is a compulsive liar. So who the hell knows what's really going on in this situation? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Masa. Massa chips contain just three ingredients. No seed oils, no mystery chemicals, just real food. And they are delicious. These chips don't only avoid all the bad stuff, they taste incredible too. Snacking on massive chips is nothing like eating regular chips. With Masa, you feel satiated, light, energetic. There's no crash, bloat or sluggish feeling afterward. And because these chips are made with real food, they're more, more satiating so you don't find yourself uncontrollably binging and then still feeling hungry afterward. I think we've all been there before. I love masa chips. They come in original white, blue, lime, cobanero and churro. They're just delicious tortilla chips. And also check out Vandy Crisps. That's Massa's sister company. They make the most delicious three ingredient potato chips I've ever tasted. If you're ready to give Massa a try, go to Massachips.com Dave and use the promo code Dave. You'll get 25 off your first order. Or you can click the link in the episode description below. Massachips.com Dave promo code Dave for 25 off. All right, let's get back into the show. But anyway, that's the background here. Sorry, go ahead, bro.

[Rob Bernstein]

I do think there's a little bit more to add to that because I don't think we covered this since the last episode. But Donald Trump threatened to strike their power facilities within 48 hours unless they immediately reopen the Hormuz. And what's funny about that is that he's basically just threatening to go up the escalation ladder, which is stupid, if you don't actually have escalation dominance. And so I ran just, and turned around immediately and said, if you do that, we're taking out the desalination plants and other critical infrastructure in all the neighboring countries. And so everyone was waiting to see if Donald Trump was actually going to go through that with that threat, which was stupid. It's a dumb threat. You don't want to escalate things if you don't have to. And then Donald Trump turned around 48 hours later and goes, we don't have to do this strike because we're actually in negotiations. And so we're walking this back for five days. Of course, as you point, as you pointed out, Iran turned around and said, we're not talking to them. Donald Trump has yet to clarify what leader he's talking to within Iran. And I don't believe, I believe Israel is still striking infrastructure within Iran, which does kind of make the five day pause difficult.

[Dave Smith]

Well, so Israel, immediately after Trump said that, just started lighting targets up left and right. Very similar to what we saw in the 12 Day War when Donald Trump said, I want to take this off ramp. And this is, by the way, this is a point that I made over and over again while all of the people who bragged that, oh, the 12 Day War was so easy is I went, okay. But that whole thing relied on the Iranian response showing restraint. And then it also, again, that card has been played. That's over now. They're not showing the restraint, that much is clear. Now it's a question of how long can they keep this up. And it, I'm hearing a lot of military experts say, actually a pretty long time. You got a couple hundred thousand members of the irgc, how are you going to take all of them out with air campaigns? You got over a million people in the military. How are you going to take all of them out? And they got these relatively cheap drones that are underground and they got a large stockpile of them. So who knows, maybe that's wrong. But the big thing here is that the best case scenario that we're hoping for is that Donald Trump just calls it quits and just goes, I'm declaring victory. We've degraded their whatever. We've done such a great thing. But then there's still two other governments at play here. You got The Iranians, who at this point are kind of demonstrating that they mean business. Now, I'm still a little cautiously optimistic that at that point, if Donald Trump stopped, maybe they would stop because they don't want to get attacked anymore. And they have more than enough there. Like, if Donald Trump thinks he has something he can try to spin as a victory, they have more than enough there to spin as a victory from the point of view of the, the ayatollah. But what about Israel? We all know that they're in this for regime change. Obviously, they've said it out loud. While Donald Trump. While Donald Trump is saying, we're negotiating an end to this, Benjamin Netanyahu is saying, you know, we're going to need a ground component to this to really get the regime change here. Openly, he's openly saying we're going to need a ground component. Now. It's nice of him. He hasn't decided yet whether that means American boys. You know, he's keeping open his possibilities of that. But it, it might mean that. But anyway, those are the different messages in this whole thing. So, anyway, that being said, let's go to this clip of Donald TRUMP Speaking

[Donald Trump (clips)]

with Mr. President, a top. A top person. Don't forget, we've wiped out the leadership. Phase one, phase two, and largely phase three. But we're dealing with the man who I believe is the most respected and the leader. You know, it's a little tough. They've wiped out. We've wiped out everybody. No, not the Supreme Leader. We don't. Well, nobody's ever. Nobody heard of the second Supreme Leader, the Sun. Nobody. We have not heard from the Sun. Every once in a while you see a statement made, but we have not. We don't know if he's living. But the people that seem to be running it, and they seem that based on really fact, because things they've said have taken place.

[Dave Smith]

Mr. President, I know you've deployed.

[Donald Trump (clips)]

I don't want him to be killed, okay? I don't want him to be killed. Nobody wants to be that. Nobody wants that job right now. You know, nobody's exactly looking forward to being the head of that particular country, but perhaps we'll be able to solve that problem.

[Dave Smith]

I mean, holy shit. Holy shit. Is this thing a mess this is. Here you have the President of the United States telling us that he's in negotiations with the Iranians and then telling us he thinks the people he's talking to are in charge. It seems that way. And I can't say who they are because then they'd be killed. I mean, Rob, you go ahead. I really, I have not. And again, I have seen and spent a lot more time focusing on than most normal, sane people, because I'm not normal or sane. But I've seen a lot of presidents sell a lot of wars based off lies I've never seen. And, and I guess it is some, in some sense there's an honesty component to this. Like Donald Trump just blurts out things and he can't really control that. But I've just never seen a president say anything like this, like, well, it looks like it's going good. Oh, the Ayatollah. Well, I mean, I guess he's in charge, but we're not sure if he's alive and we haven't heard from him. But maybe he is. But I'm talking to someone else who it seem like they're in charge because they kind of knew some things that the government was going to do. So that's what he's, he's claiming to have someone who has information about what the government is doing. That wouldn't prove at all that you're in control of the levers of power. Right. If you just knew what was going to happen, it might indicate that you were in the room or knew someone who was in the room. But it's far from proof that you're running the show. What are your thoughts on this, Rob?

[Rob Bernstein]

Well, perhaps they're actually successfully pulling off the regime change and they've got their asset over there ready to run a coup and run the government. But from what I'm hearing here is you got a kid who stole cookies from the cookie jar, parent busts him and he's got chocolate all over his face and now he's trying to walk it back and making zero sense. So the idea is that we've got a five day pause and we've made serious headway with negotiations and we're in agreement. Well, who have you spoken to? I can't tell you. Okay, well, is he actually running the show? Well, we think he might be, but no one wants to be president of Iran right now because. So are you saying that Israel is going to thwart our negotiations with who we're talking with or that this guy's not actually running the country and so people aren't going to respect him as being the leader? It sounds to me like these conversations didn't actually happen. And if they did, who is it with? Yeah, yeah, not anyone credible.

[Dave Smith]

Don't get yourself all concerned with pesky little details like that Rob, like, is this person in control of the government? This is, you know, look, I, I, as I said on, on Piers Morgan show today, man, look, I really hope I'm wrong about this. I really hope this situation resolves quickly. And, and I hope no more innocent people die. I hope, you know, whatever, just for the absolute best. And, and that would probably mean that I will have people who don't like me very much saying, yeah, told you so. You thought this was going to be a disaster and it wasn't. I would gladly take that. But man, this does just seem like everything is pointing in a bad direction here, man. And it seems that all Donald Trump has is the threat of overwhelming force. You know, like, hey, if you do this, then we are gonna just unleash on you guys and you have no idea. But at a certain point, you're left with no other option than to, you know, like, your bluff's been called. So what are you actually going to do here? And the, you know, it seems right now that the Iranians are kind of happy with the fight that they're putting up and that they're going like, no, we're really making a point here. And I think from their perspective, you know, this is, this is, and again, this is just objective analysis. I know people get upset when you say things like this, but this is existential for Iran in a way that it's simply not for Israel and certainly not for the United States of America. You know, Israel can talk all day about how Iran poses an existential threat to them because of their chance, but really, look, Israel is the dominant military force in the region. They, they are the ones who can bomb Lebanon and Gaza and the west bank and Syria and Iran and Yemen with impunity, as they have done for many decades. They are the ones who are backed up by the world's superpower, the United States of America, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the uae, Qatar, Bahrain, all these, these countries are backed up, up by the United States of America. Iran has nothing like that. And, but on the other hand, for Iran, this is existential. Like, they feel like this psychopath Benjamin Netanyahu is hell bent on toppling their government and that he's got the backing of Uncle Sam to do it. And so they, I think it just reasonably, it makes sense that they're calculation here is that we got to make this so goddamn costly that they just will never think about doing this again. You know, and I think, and look, they know Donald Trump has midterm elections coming up. They know, you know what I'M saying, like, they're aware of all of this stuff, and they know that it's like, if we can make this incredibly costly, and now it becomes a thing where it's like, thinking about doing this means crashing the world economy, that that will be enough pressure to protect them. So why wouldn't they do that at this point? And then also you add in the human factor of, like, you know, you just murdered a whole bunch of innocent people there, including the family of the previous ayatollah, including the previous ayatollah, and all of this, and I don't know, that's not good. And then, of course, you know that, look, the Israelis are goddamn psychopaths. And they. And their calculation is pretty clear to, too, which is that, okay, I mean, if you're Israel, you have the most pro Israeli administration in American history in power right now, and you know that the younger generations around the world have turned on Israel in the most dramatic ways. Like, you know, that you cannot count on the next generation to elect politicians who are going to be pro Israel. And. And that there's just. The future has kind of been lost. And so what's the incentive structure for them? This is the regime change they want. This is your chance. And Netanyahu is well aware of that. Man, if you don't get it this time, it's going to be very, very hard to ever get this regime change there. And if you want Greater Israel and you want to deny the Palestinians estate and you want southern Lebanon, well, then you've got to get the. The mullahs off the board here, and this is your chance. So it just seems like even if now Donald Trump decides to do the right thing, he's got a hell of a job in front of him in reining in the Israelis and finding a way to get the Iranians to accept it. I don't know.

[Rob Bernstein]

Listen, I did not support this war, and I still think Donald Trump's best option is basically just to walk away and declare victory. But I think. I think this has somewhat become an existential problem for the US and for Israel. More for Israel. But I think Israel is now going to have to contend with a real Iranian enemy, which they did not have previously. And I think we're going to have a problem of. Well, it's going to be more of a problem for Israel, but I think other nations are going to cut deals directly to basically just be able to use the Hormuz Strait, which is going to significantly weaken our influence. I think you're gonna have a Problem of some of our allies in the region realize that now they're, you know, that bases in the region don't actually make them safe. And I think all of Europe is basically gonna turn on Israel as just everyone is, they're just like, listen, we just want our oil. And it's gotta come through that straight. And if you guys are making a mess out of this, we don't want any part of it. Quit striking, quit striking Gaza. Quit doing all this stuff. We just want this oil business to flow. And I think Trump's got a problem if, if the Hormuzza is being reopened, basically. I mean, Trump's already kind of walked back Iran, Iran being able to sell its oil. So you might see Iran just being more of a player on the world stage of just being in on the oil game in a way that they weren't even, you know, three months ago.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, yeah, no, I, I, we will see where all of this goes. It is really, it is wild how much this has backfired already. Okay, let's, let's go to the, the Strait of Hormuz. Trump on the Strait of her moose. This again, really just, I mean, I don't know what to say. It's even like it, all of these, this, these clips of Donald Trump, it even has the added effect that he's an old man in the wind. You know what I'm saying? Like, it even just adds the optics of like just an old man in the wind going, huh, what now? The Strait of Babus. Here, Here are Donald Trump's thoughts.

[Donald Trump (clips)]

They have. Thank you. That'll be opened very soon if this

[Dave Smith]

works and who's in control of it. Will Iran still be able to control

[Donald Trump (clips)]

the flow of oil, Be jointly controlled by whom? Maybe me. Maybe me. Me and the Ayatollah. Whoever the ayatollah is, whoever the next ayatollah. Look, and there'll also be a form of a, a very serious form of a regime change. Now, in all fairness, everybody's been killed from the regime.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, man. So there will be a form of regime change. Everyone's been killed from the regime. The strait is still not open. And the people list regime are still fire and missiles all over the place. He actually started by saying that the Strait of Hormuz will be open very soon if this works. Then the reporter asks when and he shrugs. So he is. Donald Trump is saying, if my plan works, the Strait of her moose will be open TBD at some point. And then he floats out the idea that we will run it with the Ayatollah that we, we've now co annexed the Strait of Hormuz and we're going to run it with our business partners, the very reasonable future Ayatollah, who that is, he doesn't know. I mean like listen dude, I'll eat crow if a year from now there's a real nice ayatollah who's splitting joint 5050 partnership of the Strait of Hormuz with Donald Trump. But Rob, that seems slightly unlikely. Seems like somewhat wishful thinking. I mean, what this is, this is what we're going with here. And again, I mean, just to be clear, Rob, it's not, you know, even when people say the Strait of Hormuz is not exactly closed, you know what I mean? It's, it's, it's more like the Iranians aren't guaranteeing you can pass through that thing safely unless you meet a few criterion and do it through them, in which case they will that it's a very different thing. It's almost like it's not as if they need, they have like some naval presence there that's keeping it closed and we can just take out their naval presence and then now it's open. You're talking about mines and drones. It's not very clear when they run out of those or how exactly you would go about opening this trait. So this is all just, I mean, you know, if you thought it was wishful thinking to say we'll build up an Afghan army and a government and then they'll embrace feminism or something like that, if you thought that was wishful thinking, the idea of co running the Strait of Hormuz with the future Ayatollah, that seems like equally far fetched at least. Well, what do you think?

[Rob Bernstein]

Just to give the scope of the turnaround in the last 48 hours, you had Iran manage to strike the city that has the Israeli nuclear reactor in it, which seemingly was showcasing that the Israeli air defense was way down. They then nearly hit a base in UK showcasing that they have missiles that could hit anywhere in Europe and that more countries are at risk than were otherwise thought that they were out of the fight. Donald Trump then threatened, if you guys continue to do this, I'm going to take out your nuclear power. It's time to fold. Iran said, we're not folding. If you do that, we're going to come and take out your desalination plants. And now somehow after all of that took place, Witkoff, who's a very trusted negotiating partner of the Iranians, has Never done them dirty. And they're very happy to sit down and discuss these things with him. Not only negotiated what could be the greatest peace deal ever, but it even includes that America is going to co run the Hormuz Strait. I mean, this will be the greatest victory that's ever taken place in the world ever. So I guess that's the 48 hours that we. That we're looking at. Or Donald Trump is lying. You can go with either one of those two things.

[Dave Smith]

Yes, yes. What? What seems more likely it does it remember. Remember when it reminds me of. I think it was Jordan Peterson talking about he's only met some Hollywood actress who's like, super, super lefty woke, you know, and she had, like, she had three kids, and she said all of them were transgender. And he was like, okay, what are the odds? Yeah, maybe that's it. But he goes, okay, what are the odds of that? Like, the odds of having three transgender kids. And when you start, you know, Rob, if you remember back from school, when you start multiplying fractions, they get really, really small, really, really quick. You know what I mean? Like, if it's only like a 0.3% chance you have a transgender, well, then having two is 0.3 times 0.3, and then having another one is times 0.3 again. And so he goes, it's like a 1 in 10 billion shot that that's true. And he goes, now, what are the odds that you are a mother who's pushing these ideas into their head? Right? So in the same sense, you're like, what are the odds that it's. That versus Donald Trump lying, which he's known for doing, which he just blatantly does all the time. Look, this is. I mean, it's just crazy talk. It's just absolute crazy talk. And there's no other way to. To call it other than that. And there's. It is. Even as you start going through, like, the timeline, even though I'm spending all day reading about all of the ship, but then you'll mention one thing, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. And that happened in there, too. And then another thing that's just was goddamn hilarious. And I don't want to spend the time even to go through the clip, but. But you see Benjamin Netanyahu standing in front of the ruins. I'm sorry, Internet, he's not dead. He's alive, but he's standing in front of, like, ruins of where they're. And he starts talking about targeting civilians and how this shows that they're wrong because they're targeting civilians. Where weird. And, and you sit there just like after Gaza. To even hear this man talk this way is just too insane. But then he tries to go, see, this is what we were warning you about. For anyone who said they didn't think this was a crazy regime, look, this is what they do. And you're like, wait a minute, you're trying to take this as a point for your side, like, because, no, that was our point. This was our point the whole time. Don't launch this war. This can go very, very badly. And then you launch the war, it's going very badly. You go, look, isn't this, you see what we were talking about, all of us who wanted to launch this war, like, you just, you can't even imagine that a human being would have the, the chutzpah. Rob, to make a comment like this. Oh, everything you've done has backfired. And that's proof that you needed to do it all along. Here, let's, let's play this clip here because this was, I thought, particularly disgusting, maybe the most disgusting part of Donald Trump's comments there, although all of it's pretty bad. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolon by El Nutra. Forget everything you think you know about fasting and fasting diets. Prolon by El Nutra is the only patented fasting mimicking diet that combines the benefits of prolonged fasting with a science backed nutrition plan so you can hit your health and weight loss goals without actually having to give up food. So a lot of you have probably heard about fasting diets. They're very good for you and they're very popular for that reason. But the problem is that fasting is really hard and people like me don't want to do that. But Prolon is a revolutionary plant based nutrition program that nourishes the body while making cells believe they're fasting. So essentially, you get all the benefits of a fasting diet, but you get to have food while you're doing it. And this is researched and developed for decades at the University of Southern California's Longevity Institute and backed by leading US Medical centers. Prolon helps promote healthy blood sugar, it supports cardiovascular health, and it reduces abdominal fat. And this all starts with Prolon's five day program. Snacks, soups and beverages, all designed to help keep your body in a fasting state. It's unlike anything you've ever experienced. And right now For a limited time, Prolon is offering part of The Problem listeners 15% off their five day nutrition program. Just go to prolong life.compotpour that's P R O L O N l I f e.com PotP for this special offer. Prolonglife.com PotP for 15 off all right, let's get back into the show. And you're lying through your teeth about a war you just launched like this. It's pretty bad. As a commander in chief, you really betrayed your people. But on the topic of Joe Kent, this I thought was just way beyond the pale. And, and just appalling. Here was Donald Trump giving his thoughts on Joe Kent.

[Paul Begala]

Was leaking.

[Donald Trump (clips)]

Look, I'm not a fan of the guy. If you look at, and you never cover this, if you look at his truths or whatever he went on, if it's extra truth, if you look at his truths or his statements, he was all for everything all of a sudden he wasn't, he was a man that I met at Dover. He came in, his wife was killed. He remarried fairly quickly. His wife was killed.

[Dave Smith]

Let's, let's pause there. Let's pause there. I mean, look man, you really can't overstate how fucking despicable of a human being Donald Trump is and how much there is just no low that is too low for him. And you know, if you don't know the story, Rob Joken's wife got killed in Syria. Like she was killed in action. Joe Kent is a decorated combat veteran, you know, in wars that the U.S. government sent them into. And for Donald Trump to even make a comment like he remarried too quickly, you know, like I, I, I genuinely cannot imagine what it's like to go through that to lose your wife. You know, you like fall in love with someone and you build a life with someone and, and you know, you, in life you expect like, okay, when you're a kid you might lose your grandparents and as you get older, at some point you know you're going to lose your parents. But like to in the middle while you're a young person to lose your wife like that. Not, you know, know, I personally like when I, if I try to think about it, go, I don't think I would ever remarry or whatever. But like, I don't know, I've never been in that situation. Very hard thing to judge other people for that situation. Donald Trump is on what, how many wives has he had? Donald Trump is like porn stars while his wife is pregnant. The nerve, the nerve of this to like Say something about this war hero who lost his wife, who gave her life in one of these stupid wars. The idea that you. I don't know. I don't know, Rob, maybe you think I'm making too much of this. I think that's despicable. Just like, yo, you should burn in hell for talking about someone like that, dude. Make a comment on their family. Like Donald Trump. You, you never lost a wife in Syria. You were never in war. You don't know what that does to people. You don't know who the other woman he met and married is. Like, who are any of us to judge that? Judge the fact that he found someone else to be with after that. Who knows what conversations him and his first wife had about what they would want for. These are the type of conversations that husbands and wife have, like, what they would want for you if they weren't around anymore. And, you know, I don't know, I just find this to be like, literally like, you should burn in hell for saying like that, dude.

[Rob Bernstein]

I don't think it's, I mean, not that I'm married or even have a girlfriend, but I don't think it's a slight on somebody's character to get remarried after losing a significant other. And if you're as handsome as Joe Kent, I'm sure good options.

[Dave Smith]

He's a good looking guy. Yeah, he's a good looking guy.

[Rob Bernstein]

Present themselves and I think it's better in life to move on. Why do you got to sit in misery forever? I don't think it's a knock on your previous relationship or your previous spouse if they pass away, to move on. If anything, I think it shows good sign of character that you're continuing to live.

[Dave Smith]

I would want, I would. All I would want for my wife and kids was for them to be as happy and fulfilled and, and you know, have as good lives as they could have, you know, And I, I, that's all I would want. But I would, like, once you get to heaven, you got to ditch that guy. He can't come up like, it's me and you for the rest of this. I'm not waiting all these years and then I gotta like, be like, okay, this is awkward anyway, by the way, also, if I do die, none of you move in on my wife. I take that back. Okay. Anyway, but you know what I'm saying, it's just like such a low blow for someone who, who resigned, you know, in protest over this stupid war that you're lying.

[Rob Bernstein]

The American people hired the guy. It's so. It's, it's particularly disgraceful afterwards to go, I don't even think that's a good guy. He got remarried pretty quick. Well, then you shouldn't have. If you actually feel that way, you shouldn't have hired him. And you clearly don't feel that way. So it's just kind of a disgusting way to try and degrade somebody.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, that's right. And that's all it is, is it's just third grade vicious. Donald Trump, you said, you know, you made me look bad, therefore I'm going to attack you in the most vicious way possible. That's all it is. The man has absolutely no principles whatsoever. Do you think Donald Trump's ever been faithful to one of his fucking wives? Ever? Come on. And the idea that this guy is going to talk some sanctity of marriage while he's on his third wife, all his kids, they got a whole bunch of different moms between all of his kids and like, whatever, I don't know. I'm not even really judging Donald Trump for that. Like, yeah, I don't know, everybody's. I don't know his marriage or his life or what the situation is. But for him, of all people, to start passing judgment on something like that is just, it's just indefensible. Now, let's keep playing.

[Donald Trump (clips)]

He ran for Congress. He lost. He ran for Congress again, and he lost. I said, you know, he's a guy, nice guy. Seemed like a very nice guy. I met him. He was pretty heartbroken, pretty. But I said, you know, it's a shame. He ran for Congress twice. Call him up, give him a job in the White House. Smart. They gave him a job in the White House. And this is what he does to me. You know, being a nice guy doesn't pay off too much.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, my God. You just pause it right there. I mean, just. I don't know, man. It's just this stuff really just is so old at this point. I don't know, maybe I'm out of step with how some other people feel, but I'm just tired of the Trump idiocy. Like, it's all just, what are you, the guy? Your director of counterterrorism resigns in disgust over a war of choice that you lied us into. And he's like, Mr. President, like, this is not a war that's in America's interest. There was clearly no imminent threat. The director of, of counterterrorism might know a thing or two about imminent threats. He said there was no imminent threat. And Israel totally manipulated and pushed you into this, which, by the way, it isn't that just clear as day already. Benjamin Netanyahu, as soon as this war is launched, is saying this is the culmination of his entire life's work. 40 years in the making, and we've finally achieved this. He's openly saying that it's about regime change. And clearly, Donald Trump was under the impression that he was going to be able to decapitate the regime and that the people would rise up and take the government. Instead, the people rose up in support of the regime and vowed death to America and death to Israel. That's what happened. Clearly, he got bad intelligence, almost certainly from the Israelis. So this is what Joe Kent resigns. Is Donald Trump making a single point? He's not even addressing it. It. He's not saying, no, no, no, he's wrong. He's misrepresenting what the intelligence was. There was US Intelligence that there was an imminent threat from Iran. And no, no, no, Israel didn't get me. Like, he's not even addressing that. He's going, you lost. He ran for Congress twice and he lost. And then I gave him a job anyway, and this is how he repays me, because it's all just about him. It's just about his dumb ego. This guy who's just, for all of us paying attention. I don't know. My kids are 4 and 7. He's gonna be dead in a few years. And we're actually making decisions like this just based off this old man's ego and what he gives. Who cares if Joe Kent lost his congressional races? Like, whatever. All right, so what? He, like, he did this to me? To you personally? No. You drug the country into a stupid war of choice, then he was not going to be a part of it. It's not about doing anything to you, man. It's not about doing anything to me. It's like, what about our kids? What about the future of this country? Donald Trump's, like, incapable of seeing things through that prism at all, because it's just about who was good to me and who was bad to me. It's a horrible, like, to have a leader like this. It's so degrading to the national soul. He doesn't care at all, man. Doesn't care about anything other. Anything beyond himself. That's all it is. He is his own God, and that's that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Crowd Health. Crowd Health. Is a company I've been telling you guys about for years. I love the company. I really believe in what they're doing. They have created an alternative to the broken health insurance model. So instead of getting health insurance, consider crowd health as an alternative to take care of your health care needs. For example, they just a few months ago introduced the Black Swan membership. This is kind of like the health care options we used to have before Obamacare came in and made it a bureaucratic nightmare and ruined all of it. So for just $95 a month, you get a team of expert bill negotiators, access to low cost prescriptions, lab testing, and a curated database of high quality, low cost doctors vetted by crowd health. There's no insurance middleman and there's no networks that dictate which doctor you can and can't see. You're in the Dr. Driver's seat. And then the big thing that people wonder about is what if a major black swan event happens? Well, you cover the first $15,000 in expenses and the crowd steps up to help with the rest. So if you're ready to take control of your own health care Fate, go to JoinCrowdHealth.com and use the promo code POTP and you'll get your first three months of the Black Swan membership for just $80 a month. Remember, crowd health is not insurance. Opt out, out. Take your power back. This is how we win. Visit joincrowdhealth.com and use the promo code POTP today. All right, let's get back into the show.

[Rob Bernstein]

Yep. Well, Trump doesn't keep it classy.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah.

[Rob Bernstein]

And he's got to do what he. I mean, it's politics. He's got to try and spin it as that guy was a loser. I don't know why I had him here anyways, even though I'm the most brilliant when I hire people. So it's, it's not surprising that he's trying to knock the guy. But, you know, same as he's lying at the war about the war, it's not like he has any really cohesive criticisms to make. The cohesive criticism would be Joe Kent got bad intelligence. And that's why we're lucky that he left the administration because now we have more of the winning team here. But, you know, these personal attacks are

[Dave Smith]

not a good look, by the way, I want to, this is a little bit off subject, which we can get off for a little bit because, you know, look, there's, we've been talking about nothing but this war and there's going to be a lot more to talk about about it going forward. But I did just want to play this clip. I thought this. This actually was very shocking to me, so. And. And I guess it. Where it does kind of relate to all of this stuff is, my God, like, how bad a position we're in as a country here.

[Paul Begala]

Even.

[Dave Smith]

Even though seeing, like, there did seem to be some glimmers of hope in 2004, 24 and early 2025, and not because of anything, particularly with Trump. I mean, I will say, you know, obviously I was pretty sure that Trump was going to disappoint and that he would have his problems. I did not think it would be quite as bad as it's been. I. I guess I did not count on every last member of his cabinet and administration humiliating themselves and selling out. Maybe I thought, you know, Tulsi actually did care a little bit about her brothers and sisters, or maybe putting Bobby Kelly at health secretary would do something. You know, and maybe that was foolish and naive of me, but as I've mentioned before, you know, there was this huge effort that I think, you know, I think me and you were a not so insignificant part of. There were people who were more significant parts of it, but there was kind of like this effort to overthrow the political and cultural hegemony of the Democratic establishment and just how crazy they had gotten.

[Rob Bernstein]

I mean, these.

[Dave Smith]

These people had given us, like, this insane Covid tyranny and insane Wokeism and the. And open borders and the war in Ukraine and mass public censorship, and they had actively covered up a senile president and then run a cackling retard. They're like, they're. They just deserved to be taken down. And I think that the podcast movement had a big effect on culturally kind of all those things. You know, if you, if you looked at all the things I was listing, whether it was like Covid or Wokeism or the war in Ukraine or the open border, like, where did you get the real principled, you know, resistance to all of that? You were getting it from the Joe Rogan experience, and you were getting it from Tucker Carlson, and you were getting it from guys like this. And, and, and this was a big part of what threw all of that energy behind Donald Trump, because he was the only other option. And the way our system works, it was either going to be Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, and so he got a lot of that. But now we're in this situation where Donald Trump is doing crazy. That's just as bad as what The Democrats did. And who's the opposition to that? The Democrats. Like that's what we've got here as the people who are on the other side in this one party pretending to be two party system that we have here. And it is hard to overstate how crazy they are. So I, I saw this. Now I, I have not seen Paul Begala in quite a long time. I kind of forgot he existed. But this was a guy, he used to be, he was a Clinton guy. He worked for the, the Clinton White House and then he was a host of Crossfire back in the day at CNN's big show back when people watched CNN. And this is not a, a leftist by any stripe and he's not a neocon. He's a Clinton guy. And you, you know, so anyway, so I saw, I just saw this clip on the Internet that he was on Bill Maher's show recently and he's talking about the situation in Cuba. So that's the video. Get that ready. We'll play that in one second. It's Paula Begalia. I always forget how to pronounce his name. Exactly. But he was talking about Russia and, and Donald Trump. Now this situation, if people aren't keeping up with that, since we overthrew Maduro in, in Venezuela, we have blockaded oil coming into Cuba. This is Marco Rubio's kind of pet project there. He really wants to overthrow that regime in Cuba. And so this has led to a catastrophe for the Cuban people. An absolute attack on the civilian population. They've had no power for days at a time. If you can imagine what that means when you just enforce these energy blockades and force blackouts. You're talking about hospitals losing power, you're talking about all types of humanitarian catastrophes. And there's, you know, and, and as you know, Rob, if you think about like who ends up dying in situations like that, it's like old people and babies, that's who you end up killing. You know, the most vulnerable people are who die first when you do things like this. And Vladimir Putin has said that he's going to send a big tanker with, with I think thousands of barrels of oil to Cuba. So this was Paul Begalia on Bill Maher's show. These are supposed to be the adults in the room here, Rob, the voice of reason, like not a far lefty, not a Maga Trump guy, just a moderate Democrat talking to you here. And this will give you a little bit of a clue as to why retards like me and you have risen to prominence While these guys have fallen to pieces. Let's play that clip. What do you make of this split in the MAGA movement? Do you think there is one?

[Paul Begala]

It's not my movement.

[Dave Smith]

Well, I would say, as an American, this is your country, so you should engage in that.

[Paul Begala]

I care desperately about my country, Congresswoman. I don't give up a rat's patootie about the MAGA movement, the elites. One podcaster is arguing with another podcaster.

[Dave Smith]

I don't care.

[Paul Begala]

This is what I care about. You mentioned Russia. Russia really is our enemy. And President Trump lifted sanctions on Putin and his oil industry when oil is sky high.

[Dave Smith]

So he lifted sanctions on Iran today.

[Paul Begala]

Putin is the big winner here.

[Dave Smith]

I'll get into the back of the.

[Paul Begala]

Putin is the big winner. He's going to make a pile of money off this. All the other allies, the G7 countries, all said, oh, God, don't lift those sanctions on Putin. He'll make a fortune. Now Putin is sending a huge oil tanker with 970,000 barrels of oil to supply the Cubans. It's going to arrive at Havana harbor, and we're going to have a showdown. And this president has blown up a lot of speedboats full of cocaine. Okay? He needs to confront Putin in the ocean with that tanker and stop it and turn it around or sink it to the bottom of the ocean. Show some guts with Putin for once in your life. He attacked everybody. He attacked his own Vice president, Mike Pence. He attacks the Pope, he attacked Oprah, but he never attacks Putin. And this is something I really do want. I'm sorry to be so hawkish, but he needs to for once show some spine with our greatest enemy, which is Vladimir Putin.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, dude, these guys were so broken by the rise of Donald Trump and, like, Russiagate insanity. It's almost like they were left. It's like the people who were still left feeling like, well, it was a good thing we wore those masks so long. Even though, like, all the evidence clearly suggests it did nothing. It did absolutely nothing. Like, you cannot even find an area. There's not even a correlation of with mass compliance and a slow of the spread or anything like that. But I guess they're still left with, like, there was something there that we never got to the bottom of. Even though the whole Russiagate thing was all just bullshit, just totally made up. But this guy is at. Just to be clear about this, through the entire history of the Cold War, the entire history of the Cold War, which really shaped, you know, the second half of the 21st of the 20th century and really shaped who the country that like it. It was a big determining factor for what the country that we all grew up in was the country that we live in. What it is like, Cold War was a huge, huge chunk of what really was the sun that US Policy revolved around. And at the height of the Cold War, there were never voices this reckless and idiotic arguing about, wait, what? Dude, Rob, he is arguing that we should sink a Russian ship in international waters, that we should have a direct military confrontation between the two countries that possess 90% of the world's nuclear arsenal. Over. And what is it? Russia? Oh, like if you said that you'd go, oh, well, I guess that ship must have been bringing, like if it was the Cold War and someone told you that you'd go, well, that ship must have been bringing nuclear warheads to Cuba, right? That's what you'd sink a ship over. Say, no, they're bringing them some oil to give some relief to the civilian population of Cuba. For that, to prevent that, the Democrat opposition here is demanding that Donald Trump, this madman, this fucking raving madman who has just decided that he's Caesar and he's going to enforce regime change in Venezuela, in Cuba, in Iran, who knows where else. This guy, when he's at his most bloodthirsty war hawk mood, Bill Clinton's guy, is telling him, throw in sink in a Russian ship, that's no threat. He's not even pretending it's a threat to the United States of America. I am sorry, dude, listen, even the people like the Henry Kissingers of the world, the, the me, the, the big new Brzezinskis of the world, even, even the Irving Crystals and the Dick Cheney didn't say shit like this. This is madness beyond the realm of madness. That that would be prudent in this situation. Sure, why not risk a nuclear confrontation. Why don't we do that over stopping some energy from getting to Cuba over something we don't even pretend, dude, the NATO expansionists, like the ones who were arguing for NATO expansion in the 90s, didn't even argue this. They, none of them ever said, well, they go, well, obviously we'd never do anything like that. We're just talking about putting Estonia Poland Poland in NATO. We're not talking about. About a direct military confrontation with Vladimir Putin. This is, I mean, this was like. And, and by the way, the reaction to this comment, this was so crazy. The reaction to this comment is like a round of applause from the crowd and Bill Maher going, okay, serious Policy person. That was a serious policy idea. Moving. Glad we got your thoughts. Moving on. Like, no one stops that and goes, oh, we just, we just heard the craziest thing that we'll hear this year. Hair there. No pushback, nothing. 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 these guys for years. They have been loyal sponsors of this podcast and honestly, they just make a great product. They are the best pair of boxer briefs I've ever put on my body. I'm wearing a pair right now. I'm wearing a pair every time I record because it's the only underwear I own. It's just get yourself one pair of them and you're going to know what's up. They're absolutely great and they're a great sponsor of this show. They also have other things. They got like T shirts, shirts and hoodies and stuff like that. And everything is like really high quality. So go check them [e-mail] and use the promo code problem for 20% off your order. Sheath.com promo code problem for 20% off. All right, let's get back into it.

[Rob Bernstein]

Calls for deaths on both sides. Democrats like that just as much as the Republicans.

[Dave Smith]

The idea of calling for a war on such like, or an act of war in this case on such little flimsy, like we don't like it. It. There really is a thing. There's like this empire mentality that has crept in to the, you know, the American people, but really more directly like the American political class where they don't. And this truly is like, if you, if you took an overview of Western civilization and like the greatest minds on war and peace or something, if you were talking about like Thomas Aquinas's just war theory of Christianity or the way the framers thought of, of, you know, how war should work. You know, like what branch of government ought to be in charge and how should it be executed? And all of this stuff, like it would just, this would stand out as being so inconsistent with what any of the consensus was that political leaders and then political like operatives, I guess you would put Paul Begalia and that category. They don't even feel like they need to make a case that some. Another country attacked us and that's why we have to go to war or they, there was an imminent threat, they were getting ready to attack us and that's why we have to go to war. Or that there is some, you know, there is some catastrophe that that's about to unfold, that absolutely must be prevented because it is so horrible. And the only way we get. They just don't even feel like they have to make a point like that he's not, it doesn't even occur to him them to say that like, and, and this, this oil getting to Cuba would be so unacceptable because this would be the react. Like he's not even making a case like that. He's going, hey, we told them no and they did it anyway. Like that's actually the expectation. Like, hey, we're the dictator of the world. And we said no. Like it's, it's like mob boss. It's not even pretending. It's not even mob boss dressed up as legitimate governance of any sort. It's just like we said no and he's doing it anyway. So start killing people, dude. That's what you do. What is that? Other than just pure gangster?

[Rob Bernstein]

Yeah, it's also, it's a tough claim. Hey, we're trying to starve the civilian population over here and we're hoping that they're going to die off because they don't have energy needs. How dare you. How dare you make us look bad by showing how easy it is to bring crucial supplies to this area. You're not allowed to do this.

[Bleacher Report Announcer]

It.

[Rob Bernstein]

It. How do you thwart a humanitarian effort?

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, it's. I really. And try to keep any moral standing amongst anyone. By the way, I did want to get this here. Let's just do one more like, kind of light hearted thing before we wrap up, Rob, because I did just think this was funny and it is something that is almost impossible for me to not, you know, at least in, in this sea of darkness. At least, least one thing that I think is, is great and makes, makes, I don't know, just makes me feel like, yeah, there really is something amazing that the podcast world has done, by the way. It's so interesting. You know, of course Pierce brought this up today and he actually, he had a great take on all of this. But it's so the dynamic where now everyone's pretending that like the podcasters don't matter at all. Like it doesn't matter that, you know, if you look at the top five podcasts, it's like Rogan Tucker and Candace, Megan Kelly and Theo Vaughn, I think were either the top five or they were like five of the top six or something like that. And you're like, yo. And they're all like adamantly against this war and. But they'll go, oh, that doesn't matter. Look at this poll. 100 of MAGA voter or whatever. And you're like, so simultaneously like these podcasts don't matter at all. All. I guess Donald Trump was really, really stupid to waste all of his time going on so many of them, even though they don't matter at all. And then, but then at the same time also they don't matter. And yet now there's this new thing where the corporate media is just trying to make their shows look like podcasts. And so there's this Jake Tapper video here and I want to play this one next and then we'll wrap up. But so this is the hilarious thing here is that the average age of, of Jake Tapper's audience is like 67. And, and so, you know, he's got like a huge portion of his audience is 80 year olds and, and so he wants to make it look like a podcast because the whole game now is like he's just trying to say something viral that goes viral on the Internet. And well, if you do that, you want it to look like all the other clips that go viral on the Internet. Which is, by the way, such a miscalculation. Can I just say, first of all, it's such a miscalculation, Rob. Obviously the whole thing, right? And this is what it's like. It's so funn. Like these, like sociopathic propagandists just are incapable of learning this lesson. But it's like, hey, why did everybody flock to Joe Rogan and Theo Vaugh and Tim Dillon and Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson and Candace? Like, why did everyone flock to these people? And it's like, well, the obvious reason is because however you feel about Joe Rogan, he's a guy and he is Joe Rogan. I can promise you. I was a huge fan of him for years and I've become good friends with him. That's who he is. He's Joe Rogan. He is an authentic person. Whether you agree with him or don't agree with him. You know what I mean? Like, it's just that, that, that is who he is. And so is Theo Vaughn and so is Tucker Carlson and so is Candace Owens. Like, agree or disagree, they are, they are who they are.

[Paul Begala]

Are.

[Dave Smith]

Like when I see, when I see Canada Zoans privately, she's not going, we're not sitting there and talking about like, I don't know, she's just like, yeah, you know, I said this, but I don't really know if this is true. She's like, yo, Dave, you need to read this because I'm right about this. And I'm like, all right, I already got a lot of stuff to read, but okay, let me see. You know, and so these guys are authentic and everybody knows that CNN and Fox News and MSNBC are just lying through their teeth to you because that's what they do. They're all liars. None of them even really believe this way, like Kamala Harris. It's not even a question of whether you agree or disagree with the thing that came out of her mouth. You're like, she doesn't mean it. She's just saying whatever she thinks will help her in the moment. And so their takeaway from that is, I know what we'll do. We'll record looking like podcasts. Like, but that's just more inauthenticity. That's not really you. So anyway, the clip is here is Jake Tapper making his set look like a podcast. But then he also has to explain to his 80 year old audience what he's doing so that they understand why the hell their news anchor is like, from their perspective, in his pajamas. So here's Jake Tapper.

[Jake Tapper]

So you're probably wondering what's going on, why we're in my office for the first hour of the lead today. So it's an experiment. This is my actual desk where I do my actual, actual work. And we thought we would bring you into the space where me and my team do our actual journalism and plan the show every day. So here we are, giving it a shot. You might also be wondering about the decor, the poster. It's got a poster of you and such on my wall. Well, the theme is these are all losing presidential campaigns. And this hobby started 26 years ago after I covered my very first presidential campaign in the year 2000. Campaigning and hopping from bus to plane to bus to plane. I collected the lawn signs and posters of all the candidates I covered. And by the end of, I had a really great collection of, well, losers. And there's an autographed Gore Lieberman one from 2000. So anyway, this all became a hobby here. Come back to me here. You'll see. This is one of the grand achievements in my collection. It's an Al Smith poster. He lost in 1928, Democrat to Herbert Hoover, Republicans too, on the wall here. And from the modern era, the there's autographed Romney and Ryan from 2012, autographed McCain Palin from 2008, the oldest one in the corner there, 1844, that's Henry Clay of the Whigs. And beneath that, you have the 2000 butterfly ballot voting booth and a Jake Tapper muppet. From a viewer,

[Dave Smith]

Rob. I mean, this seems like low hanging fruit here, but what a hilarious design centered around losing campaigns for Jake Tapper to announce that we're now going to start running out. We're not going to start recording just in my office, you know, where I, where I read and put together stories for the day, which is clearly a podcast set, clearly been designed as a set. And this is somehow, this is an experiment. It's so funny, Rob, because it's just like, you know how you do this thing? You have a knack for doing this thing where you're like, you could coach the bad guys better than the bad guys coach, you know, and like. But I can't believe they haven't stolen you away from me at this point. But if I could try to put on the Rob Bernstein shoes for a second here because obviously they can't do this. But like, guys, the answer isn't for you to try to look like the podcaster. That's almost the worst thing you could do. The answer is what you should do is tell the news, but like, just do a good job of it. This is. Any of these guys have a little bit of time preference, a little bit of not just what'll be good for this month, but like maybe this year, maybe next year, maybe the next few years. If you guys just sat there and consistently got stories right and didn't get out over your skis and didn't just try to sell wars for the military industrial complex or just make profits for Big Pharma, or just lie the American people into whatever the the next disaster is because there were some powerful interest of people who wanted you to do it. If you just stopped being vaccine slash weapons salesman and told the news, you could build a track record of getting stories correct. And then you could say, look, people like this podcaster and this podcaster got way out over their skis here, but we gave you the objective news and then you could get people to go, you know, we really do need objective news news now. Podcasts are entertaining, but look at the objective news, guys. They got a good track record. That's your exit strategy here. That's how you win back, is do your job, not try to convince people that you're Andrew Schultz, because you're not. And Andrew Schultz is going to be a hell of a lot better at being Andrew Schultz than Jake Tapper is going to be. Right? There's My advice, Jake, I suggest you follow it. Any thoughts, Rob?

[Rob Bernstein]

Yeah. Their only advantage is the fact that they have bigger production budgets and that they have research teams and that they can do things that we can't. So if they want to go to their offices and be surrounded by a bunch of losers, of course, Jake Tapper has a shrine of losers he feels comfortable in.

[Dave Smith]

Oh, my God.

[Rob Bernstein]

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's pretty funny that that's what he chooses for his decor, but. Yeah, I mean, their advantage is not that they're cool people that you could just throw a microphone in front of of. And they could be like, oh, look, I'm punk rock. I didn't need a whole news network. I'm giving you actual information that's not. This does not play to their advantage.

[Dave Smith]

Yeah, it's like, it just screams like your. Your mom trying to be cool. You know what I mean? It's like that, but that's not what you're for anyway. All right, guys, we're gonna have to call it a show on that one. Thank you guys so much for. For listening. Come check us out in Boston this weekend at Laugh Boston. Bunch of fun stuff coming up. Comic Dave Smith.com for all those ticket links. Catch you guys next week. Time Peace.

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