Robbie the Fire Bernstein (4:06)

So Adam backed out.

Dave Smith (4:07)

I don't know if that's official yet or if they're going to say, look, I've already said I'll do it. If you want me to do it, I'll do it. So I've blocked the timeout. It's supposed to be recorded tomorrow at noon, by the way, the piers morning, they're not live. So when I say. When I say, I said on Tuesday, people, you would probably get it like on Wednesday or something like that. But that's what it said. But the latest, I'm not sure if it's going to happen. I.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (4:29)

Maybe he's body bag shopping.

Dave Smith (4:31)

It's possible. That is also possible. There's a lot of things that are possible here. But anyway, whatever, we'll. We'll see what ends up happening with that. Like I said, I'm. I've accepted, I'm willing To do it. I do not understand why this makes sense for anybody, least of all Adam.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (4:47)

He needs to wait for the song to stop playing in his head so that he can free up the space to read something and prepare.

Dave Smith (4:54)

Can I tell you something, man?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (4:58)

You've been listening to that all weekend.

Dave Smith (5:00)

Listen. I have been listening to it. I'm being completely honest here, because that is my contract with the listeners slash viewers. It's been going through my head quite a bit, like, several times past. The thing just unironically, I just caught myself. Nobody gonna break a mouse stride. Nobody gonna hold me down. Sorry. It's a good. It's a catchy tune, man.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (5:21)

There you go. Adam's winning you over this.

Dave Smith (5:24)

I'll tell you. It wasn't. That was the one part that was the one w. That he took out of this whole thing as he did. Get that song in my head. All right, let's. Let's move on and talk more about the war, because really, it's. They're giving us no choice but to talk about. To. To not keep talking about this. Okay. Things are going great, so I don't know where to start, but I guess we could start because. Because it's just. It. It is unbelievable no matter how many times you live through it. It's unbelievable the way war propaganda works, the way the lies of 5 minutes ago get exposed and everybody just moves on from that, the way the goal posts continue to move. There's a bunch of that that I wanted to talk about today, but it is something that essentially over. Over the weekend. Well, it's not. Not everything is exactly clear because there is conflicting or there's some things that the Iranian government is saying, and then the US Government is denying that, but they're admitting other things. But certainly a few. A few planes and helicopters went down in Iran. Now, from the latest that I've read, the. Our government is not admitting that they shot them down. So that's kind of leaving it open as to what maybe happened. Like, there could have been a failure on the aircraft or something like that or whatever. The Iranian government is claiming that they shot them down. There was a rescue mission that was successful and rescued in America. An American serviceman over there. I guess we're all thankful for that. That's certainly much better than. Than them not getting one of our boys back. But essentially, Rob, I'm sure you've seen some of this, what ends up happening here. And it's unbelievable because, like, the war hawks are always. I mean, when they're in the business of selling a war, they're always desperate for a narrative, and then they present this narrative with certainty. And. And. And so now they're all going, oh, look, we got a thing. Look how awesome America is. We got. Look how awesome it is that we were able to go in there and get this guy back and deliver this rescue mission and look like it's. Obviously, it's a. It's an impressive thing when you send an elite Navy SEAL team in to extra, you know, to get a guy out of. Of the middle of southern Iran, like, that's pretty impressive. But of course, the bigger picture here is just what, Rob, that, like, oh, looks like our planes. Looks like we don't rule the skies quite as much as Pete Hegseth was telling everyone we did. And of course, in. In these weird. Particularly in the Trump wars, where we constantly find ourselves in this situation, Rob, where we are being asked to celebrate something that got us back to where we were already at the beginning. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're supposed to, like, like, if somehow he gets the Strait of Harmous opened, then we're supposed to celebrate when we already had that as the status quo before or the same thing. You. You launch this. This war, one of your planes gets shot down, and you get the guy back, and it's like, look how successful we are. Like, we had that guy. We didn' lose him to begin with, though. So I don't know, it's just. It's kind of amazing how much they'll spin anything. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Cove Pure. You know, a lot of people think about improving their health these days, but often they neglect the most fundamental thing about your health, which is your water. Well, Cove Pure has got you covered. Their Clear Wave technology is certified to remove up to 99.9 of contaminants. Pretty much anything that isn't water. PFAS, microplastics, pharmaceutical residue, fluoride, it all gets removed. It's the purest water you can get. I personally love that they let you choose the temperature of the water as well. So you can get it hot, cold, or warm. And it has size presets, making it easy to remember to drink enough water throughout the day. It makes the water taste good, too. It's the purest, cleanest. There's no aftertaste. It actually makes bottled water start tasting not that good to you because you realize, oh, you're not just tasting water. So change your Life by changing the water you drink. Make it the purest, cleanest water out there with COVID Pure. So right now can get $200 off for a limited time if you use my link covpure.com problem. That's C O V P R E.com problem for $200 off the purest water you'll ever get with COVID Pure. All right, let's get back into the show.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (10:00)

Yeah. I also. They lost $200 million in gear and $2 billion on the rescue mission. Yeah. Which, listen, I think the problem with socialism across the board is that you end up with things like death panels and you have to make these kind of decisions, which is disgusting to have to do. But I don't know how feasible or realistic a ground war is going to be if you're blowing up military gear every time someone gets captured. It just seems to be another contradiction of, hey, listen, ground, we have an army. Brown. This was kind of Ben Shapiro's pitch. We know the people will die. That's why you have a war. I mean, that's why you have a military. And let's be adults. That's what this thing is for. I think if you're not willing to lose a single service member. I don't agree with this war. I'm not wishing death on anyone or death on any military personnel. I'm just saying it seems like an odd move, I guess, a week before possibly doing a ground invasion.

Dave Smith (11:01)

Yes.

Dave Smith (11:01)

And certainly does not bode well for what a ground invasion would actually look like now. You know it. I don't know. I mean, obviously there's been reports of preparations for limited ground, for a limited ground presence. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but. Or I should say, I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not. There certainly have been preparations being made, but there's. It does seem like we're at a very weird kind of precipice moment right now. So the, the latest here is that Donald Trump, obviously we covered his speech, what was it, last Wednesday night.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (11:44)

But he cares about, he cares about the Straits now. He's already changed his opinion on that.

Dave Smith (11:48)

Yes. Where he literally, again, he's already. It's, it's amazing how much the thing just moves and, and of course, obviously this is Donald Trump, which adds a whole different. The guy is. I mean, I don't know. Even for Donald Trump, I've just never quite seen him like this. It's just, he's just a blithering. It seems like every other sentence is self contradictory. He's all over the map. That's right. He gave the big speech where he announces, eh, we don't really care about the straight. It's somebody else's job to go open that thing. We don't even really need it. I would say to the Arabs, to the Europeans, to the Asians, that's your problem. Step up, have some courage. It's easy anyway, the hard part's done, but. So that's you guys. Anyway, we're pretty much on about to win this thing, but we're going to bomb them back to the Stone Age and then make a deal. And if we don't have a deal when we bomb them back to the Stone Age, then we go after that. Okay, so then Donald Trump within a couple days later is flipping out about the Strait of Harmous being opened and now saying that it's, it's Energy and Bridges Day. He gave a timeline which he's already modified a couple of different times. He's now saying that Tomorrow night at 8:00pm is the, the timeline. Let's, let's go to this. Hold on one second. Let's, let's pull up. I think it was one of the first ones that I sent you today. Yeah. Let's go to the, the Jake Tapper covering Donald Trump's Open the Straight post because this is normal. He has just threatened Iran in extraordinary graphic terms, giving the Iranian regime just over a day to either make a deal, reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face hell. If your children are watching, be warned, the President did not use polite language. Quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. We should note that destroying civilian power infrastructure is generally considered to constitute a war crime under international law. Though the President could argue that the infrastructure has dual use and also is utilized by Iran military. Let's get right to longer. Okay, so let's just. I'm sorry, we'll get to Jake Tapper's dual use comment there in the end because that really is something. It's unbelievable, unbelievable that Jake Tapper is just openly saying like, well, we basically turned into the Israelis. That's what we now, whatever. We'll get into that in a second. But dude, Robby, I mean this tweet on Easter Sunday saying praise praise be to Allah and that he's, I mean, and just announcing war crimes, just announcing straight up like, this is what we're going to do. We're gonna, we're, we're declaring war on the civilian population if you guys do not open the straits. I, I don't know. I mean, I'm curious to get your thoughts on this, but I really will say there is something. And I know, like, man, like. And look, part of it is the state of American politics was so corrupt and so profoundly dishonest that people were like, yo, we'll just go with this kind of shit talking wild guy who fucking seems to be a middle finger to all of these, you know, establishment people. But, man, dude, the recklessness of Donald Trump, just, even George W. Bush, what a he is, always went out of his way after 911 to talk about how Islam was a religion of peace and blah, blah, blah. Of course, Obama made a million statements like that too, because on some level they understood, like, dude, we're not trying to start a holy war with one and a half billion people. Like, what do you do? You're like, like mocking their God or something like that. I. I don't know. Just seems like, so incredibly reckless. But anyway, what are your thoughts, Rob?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (15:45)

Well, first and foremost, I'd like to know why Jake Tapper won't praise Allah. I find that offensive. He was more than happy to read everything else on that quote. I also would like to see Donald Trump use more foul language in other contexts just so I can hear news anchors read it on the news. I do find that to be a lot of fun. But speaking to your last point there, I mean, Iran, they're living on a longer timetable than we are. They've been around a really long time. And so if you're gonna commit war crimes, like you said, there's a lot of Muslims on this planet, and maybe in theory it'll make us safer today. I don't know that it makes us a safer country in a thousand years from now. So, firstly, I think American citizens should be morally outraged over the fact that we're now gonna engage in war crimes to even pot, maybe put a close to this war or have Iran then strike all of our regional partners and make less oil available on planet Earth and set us all back with a global recession. So I don't even think that the immediacy is going to be great. But, you know, don't go out making villains and enemies. I don't think this is. It's a lesson from World War I, you know, it's just you're going to end up with a problem down the line.

Dave Smith (16:59)

No, and, and I'm sorry. But, yeah, I completely agree. I mean, it's all, yeah, it's just, it's a horrific thing to do to people. Also. Just like, what, in, in what way does any of that make us better off? Like, why, why would even by any of the, like, official stated, you know, like, reasons for why Iran is a threat. It's like turning them into, you know, destroying their energy and bridges. What does that do? The, the civilians suffer a whole lot. That's about it.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (17:29)

But you mean you get liberated. You're using your language all wrong, Dave.

Dave Smith (17:33)

Yes, yes, yes. Liberated American Empire style. But I will say, I think the fact that Jake Tapper actually said out loud, he's like, now, critics would consider this to be war crimes, but Donald Trump could argue that they're dual use. Now, this is the way, you know, Rob, we've talked about this a bunch over the last few years, but this is the way the Israelis treat the Palestinians. They, they stretch the, the meaning of dual use to the point that it essentially justifies genocide. Everything is dual use, you know, and, and so there's like, kind of the more traditional sense in war where there are things that they, you know, so like, legitimate, like, targets would always be like military installations or like weapon caches or, you know what I mean, like something that was directly involved with the military. But dual use might be something like, I don't know, like chlorine or something like that or where, like, it's got some legitimate uses, but then it also can be used in these weapons. And so we're saying like, yo, we're going to take that out. And people could argue over whether that's a legitimate military target or not. But now they've stretched the term to the point to mean, like, essentially you could justify anything. Like, you could be like, oh, we're bombing the farms. Well, those farms might have fed soldiers. And this is what Israel does right there. We're, we can't let, we have this blockade. So what are you just not letting weapons in like, or flour or sugar or. Because we've decided those are dual use, that it's like, oh, so in other words, you're starving the civilian population. What's the point of Rules of War at all if you can do that? And so the idea that taking out the, like, bridges and the electricity of a country. Well, yes, I mean, I suppose you could make an argument that some soldiers might cross that bridge or some soldiers might turn on a light somewhere. But again, this is just, These would be considered Blatant war crimes. If anyone else ever did them, it is only the US and Israel who get to, like, make this ridiculous argument that we somehow. That isn't attacking the civilian population and collective guilt and all this stuff. So collective punishment. I should say so.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (19:45)

Yeah.

Dave Smith (19:46)

Pretty wild. But again, so from, from everything I've been reading about it, and Jeremy Scahill had a great piece earlier today up at Dropsite News where he's. He spoke with, I believe it was the Iranian foreign minister who reiterated again, Rob. No, they just, once again, they said. I don't. They're. And I mean, at this point, they're basically going. I don't know what language to tell you this in, but they have their demands. And their demands are that the US Leave the entire region. Immediate sanctions relief and reparations for the damage. That's what they said back.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (20:23)

And apparently some sort of a security guarantee as well.

Dave Smith (20:27)

Oh, yeah, I know that permanent ceasefire was a part of it, too. Yeah. Like the war has to be over and a guarantee that you're not starting it back up, which I think. Who could say that's not a reasonable request in as far as nation states go in any of these conflicts?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (20:43)

Yeah. I think the idea of Iran giving up their leverage and agreeing to a ceasefire, particularly with the way that Israel doesn't seem to honor these ceasefires and we've twice struck them while we're negotiating, it's really asking them to. Basically, it's almost like the beginning of the war of give up your ballistic missile programs without winning the war. Donald Trump is basically requiring full surrender, which he's not going to get.

Dave Smith (21:09)

Yes, yes, that's. Yeah, that's exactly right. And so we're in a situation now where, you know, Iran really has called President Trump's bluff. I mean, we, we still got some time here. He said his deadline was tomorrow night, I guess. Right. So we still. But the idea that any of those fundamentals are going to change in the next 36 hours seems very difficult to see. And so it looks like we're going to hit the end of this timeline. Donald Trump has now said it's gas and bridge day. What is he actually about to do? You know, I really don't know. And I'm really hoping, and I think Donald Trump is capable of this, of it just being like he dropped a few bombs, killed some people, and then says he did something spectacular and tremendous and it was devastation like the world's never seen before type deal. But I don't know. I don't know. How confident I am that he isn't actually about to just light the whole country up. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad. Hexclad has changed my household. We've leveled up our kitchen game with this stuff. It's really some of the best cookware that is out there and at a reasonable price. Hexclad is the cookware that's as serious about performance as you were about carving up that Easter ham on last Sunday. Their pans give you the perfect sear, crazy durability and easy cleanup without the babysitting. Stainless steel strength, toxin free non stick convenience. And yeah, they look really cool on the stove top. I can tell you from experience, they have six piece and 12 piece sets that are the ultimate gift for yourself or for the home chef in your life. Plus, every hexclad product comes with a lifetime warranty. So you're not just buying cookware, you're setting someone up for years of meals, memories and celebration. Pans, pots, Damascus steel knives. Everything you need for your kitchen game, you can get from hexcloud and you can take 10% off when you go to hexclad.com problem. Give the gift of cookware to yourself or to someone you love. Once again, that's hexclad.com problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the show.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (23:30)

Once again, flip a coin. Trump is fully capable of going. I decided to spare them. We're making good conversation. He's very capable of like, he doesn't mind bitching out. I, I like for the world's toughest man and other people need a fear. You. He's very comfortable just going.

Dave Smith (23:47)

Moving on. Yeah.

Dave Smith (23:49)

Yeah.

Dave Smith (23:49)

Well, let's. Man, let's hope he does that here. Cause we're coming up on this timeline very soon. And the alternative to that is that he's really got to say like, no, I was not bluffing and I'm going to light this place up. And isn't it something, again, I know I made this point before, but isn't it just something that you all of the people who were talking about liberating the Iranians, not like, I don't know, I haven't seen a single one of them jump off of this train. Now that we've clearly transitioned from, we've transitioned all the way from the. This is a regime change. We're going to overthrow this government. We're going to liberate all the people Donald Trump on day one saying, rise up and take over Europe. Your government, we've gone from there to. We're leaving the regime in place. We're not interested in liberating the people. Oh, and actually we're going to send them back to the Stone Age and just destroy their. Their lives. That seems like a pretty big gap from liberating their people to that. And all the people arguing for liberating the people are not bothered by the fact that we're now at war with the civilian population or at least threatening total war against the civilian population. If. If that wasn't enough to get you off of this train, I'm starting to question whether liberating the Iranian people was ever really your goal.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (25:18)

Maybe that's got to. That it's also got to be a. I'm actually posing this question for you, but it seems like this has to be a new. A new. A new normal for the world if the United States of America is engaging on widespread civilian targeting. I understand that we did it at the end of World War II, but there was a little bit more of an argument there. Not that I'm saying I endorse the strikes, but at least there was more of an argument there of what was going on and that we can't possibly take Japan. But this was a war of choice. I mean, how are we gonna oppose China taking Taiwan or whatever China does in other countries or what Russia does in other countries? Who's gonna. I mean, what claim is there, even against terrorism at that point?

Dave Smith (26:02)

Yeah, it's. Well, no, I mean, you. You completely seed any moral high ground on that argument forever. And as if, you know, as if the global war on terrorism wasn't bad enough. But you. I think you are right, particularly with. With Venezuela and with Iran, it is. It's just much more naked. They're not even pretending that there was some. What traditionally would have been considered a legitimate casus belly. You know what I mean?

Dave Smith (26:31)

To.

Dave Smith (26:31)

To go into this war, like, it's just like. Yeah, like you said, like, we can just do it because we feel like it and we think it'll be better for us if we do this. So we're doing it. Yeah. Very dangerous precedent to set. No question about that. And of course, there was already a lot of truth to that. Right. Like this. It's. It's really very hard to overstate how much of a strategic blunder it was to take out Muammar Gaddafi after he had denuclearized and de. Weaponized. You know, that's in a clear signal to the whole rest of the world that it's like, yo, you cannot look, if you, if you want to sit here and say why is it, and I'm not saying there's not a few different answers to this question, but there's a pretty obvious central one. But why is it that Iran didn't just get rid of this nuclear program? What? You know, like, you look at it from the Iranian perspective, they're an oil rich country. Yes, it can bring them more wealth to have a civilian nuclear energy program. But like, man, if it's all this trouble and it's going to cause wars and all this devastation and it's going to make you a global pariah, why not just get rid of that nuclear program which is almost the way they present it in, unlike FOX News now, you know, like, why wouldn't you just do that? Obviously there's got to be something, you know, nefarious going on here. But the answer is because they're like, you know, like the answer for why Iran couldn't just go, yeah, sure, we'll get rid of our nuclear program and we'll get rid of our intercontinental ballistic missiles. Sure, if that, because they know for a fact if they do that, they'll, they'll come decapitate them. They know and we've proved that we will do that. Does anybody for a second, does anybody for a second honestly believe, honestly believe that if the Iranians were to give up their nuclear energy program and their intercontinental ballistic missiles that Benjamin Netanyahu would go, all right, we're cool now? Does anyone think that or would he go, oh, perfect, now we can take him out. Okay, let's, you know, there's here, there was another real interesting kind of angle on this whole thing. In fact, wait, there were a couple clips I think that I wanted to play. Yeah. Here, let's actually just more on this topic. Let's go to the I sent you to Fox and Friends videos. Let's go to the one that was the chief nerd account. Says breaking President Trump tells Fox News if Iran doesn't make a deal, because this is more to the point of what we are talking about, like the moment we're in right now, what we're on the precipice of and what might happen. So let's go to that clip.

Fox News Reporter (29:02)

Spoke with President Trump for 15 minutes. He gave me some new details on the negotiations behind the scenes with the Iranians and what's going to happen if Iran does not make a good faith deal. The president tells me if they don't make a deal and fast, I'm considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil. The president went on to say, you're going to see bridges and power plants dropping all over their country. Now, I asked him about the possibility of an agreement with the Iranians. He says, those who are negotiating on behalf of Iran have been granted amnesty at this time so they can continue the talks. And the president tells me he thinks he'll be able to get a deal by tomorrow. He says, I think there's a good chance tomorrow they're negotiating now. All of this following the president's post on True Social where he talked about these negotiations with the Iranians. We'll pull this up. He says, quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the effing straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah. The president posting there on Truth Social about this ongoing operation and his new red line for the Iranian regime. Now, the president also provided new details on what happened earlier this year as the Iranian regime took to the streets and slaughtered what the president tells me is 45,000 civilians in their own country. After that took place, President Trump told me the United States sent guns to the Iranian protesters. He tells me, we sent them a lot of guns. We sent them through the Kurds. And the president says he thinks the Kurds kept them. He went on to say, we sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them. And so a number of headlines here from my conversation with President Trump. All of this taking place more than a month into Operation Epic Fury and in the aftermath of that successful US Operation overnight to rescue that stranded US Service member inside Iranian territory. The president himself ordering that operation after the CIA came on Saturday morning and confirmed that they located where this crew member of an F15 that was shot down on Friday was located. Again, the president making that decision to send in hundreds of U.S. special forces deep into Iranian territory and successfully retrieving that U.S. service member.

Dave Smith (31:20)

All right, so I think there's a lot there, right? So first of all, the. Let's do the first part. And then when you get to the second part about the weapons being sent in. So first of all, we got a Fox News reporter who's appropriately in Tel Aviv and he's has just gotten off the phone with Donald Trump. And he does look, I mean, this is to your point, Rob, that you were making a second ago about how Donald Trump can walk away. You Know, with Donald Trump can totally out and claim that he didn't, you know, in, in a unique way that other people can't. But it really is not a good sign to hear him saying, like, we gotta either make a deal, either I get a deal by tomorrow, or you're gonna see bridges and power plants all over the country being destroyed. And he's being very specific about that. And I don't know, you know, hopefully he doesn't really mean that. The second part, Rob, is really fascinating that there's very quietly now, this admission that totally destroys the narrative that the hawks were going with, with these protests in Iran before this, this war, where there were protests, I think from around, I believe it was last year, in December into the early part of this year, where there are these big protest movements. We now have. It's been admitted. We're going to go to a clip of Donald Trump in a moment when he talks about this. But now it's. They are, they are admitting that they were pouring weapons into these protesters that also evidently didn't make their way to the right people. What a shock that is, Rob, because that couldn't possibly have been foreseen. But it does. I mean, I'm sorry, there's just no way that it does not, in a very fundamental sense change the calculation. When you're saying, as it had been, if you, if you listen to any of the Iranian expats or any of the war hawks who are pushing for this thing, or they basically say, you know, hey, look, there are some people peacefully protesting in the streets. And then the, you know, they, they just want their freedom or whatever. And then these crazy, you know, mullahs, these religious theocrats just started killing people just for the crime of protesting in the street. And now you're saying, oh, no, this was a CIA operation to violently overthrow the government. I'm sorry, like, once you're trying to ship weapons into a street putsch, now it's a different thing. I just fundamentally, again, however you feel about any of it, those are just two very different things. And it's a little bit of a clearer picture is starting to emerge now. Of course, Donald Trump now says 45,000. Again, Rob, I don't. What is the claim here? Is the claim that an extra 15,000 people were killed, like, since this war has started, or is the claim that he got the number wrong at the beginning of the war and it was actually higher than that? No matter what the claim is, once again, the only official number that we have on this is what the Iranian government has said, which was something over 3,000 people died, but they didn't distinguish between which ones were like police or military or what or how anyone died. There have been NGOs that put the figure closer to 6,000 or a little north of 6,000. We've seen not a shred of evidence that 45,000 people were, were killed. Either way, it really does change the dynamic when you're going, oh yeah, we were also trying to arm these, these protesters. That's not exactly protesting anymore. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is a new sponsor who we're thrilled to have on board, and that is Ship Station. 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Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:14)

I'd like to know where these guns went. Did Israel steal them or did we accidentally arm Iran before we went to war with them?

Dave Smith (37:22)

Like, well, it's not.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:23)

I mean, how many guns are we talking about and where do they go? I want to hear that part of the story.

Dave Smith (37:27)

Well, there's a, you know, there is a Kurdish, a Kurdish population in Iran, but there's also a Kurdish population in Iraq. And it's not clear to me. I don't know if it's been made clear at all.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:39)

ISIS has it.

Dave Smith (37:41)

Well, I mean, ISIS is going to

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (37:43)

come back into Iraq.

Dave Smith (37:44)

Well, this is what happened when we started flooding weapons into Syria is that ISIS got a bunch of them and you know, and went the wrong way. Well, I, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't even be surprised if they had even considered using some of those guys because these were guys fighting a proxy war essentially against Iran in Syria. But look, it's, it's not exactly clear where the weapons ended up going. But yes, Rob, it is something like. It's, it's like, oh, so on top of that we've just sent a bunch of weapons into this region and they're not going to the people we thought they were going. Well, let's hope they don't end up being shot at our boys, because that has happened many times before in, in several different conflicts. Here, I wanted to. Here, let's see the one. Yes, here, let's, let's listen to Donald Trump himself speaking about this. President Trump says the United States government was scammed. It's a shadow of Ezra Tweet. Let's pull that one up. Natalie.

Dave Smith (38:45)

They don't have guns. You know, we sent some guns, but the group that was supposed to give, which I said would happen to my people, I said it, I called it. Exactly. We sent guns, a lot of guns. They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs. You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them because they said, what a beautiful gun. I think I'll keep it. So I'm very upset with a certain group of people and they're going to pay a big price for that. But the Iranian people will fight back as soon as they know they're not going to be shot and as soon as they can get weapons. If they had weapons. They don't have guns.

Dave Smith (39:23)

Okay. I mean, dude, it's, it's actually perfect. Just the way the Wild Wild west is playing behind it. Like it just, it, it really does suit this just unhinged 90 year old madman up there as he's saying, Rob, I mean only Donald Trump right there is something. There still is some entertainment value to the guy, I can't deny it. But only Donald Trump can like he can so cover his ass in his own Braggadocious bullshit that he could sit here and go, look, the obvious story is he's telling you I sent a ton of weapons and we got scammed. That's what he's telling you. We got scammed. And I don't even know who's got those weapons, but whoever got them, they liked them and they just kept them. And we just basically sent a whole bunch of free stuff to some group who's scamming us. But then he can also go, and I predicted it. I predicted it would happen just that way. Wait a minute. So you predicted it and still did it? Well, that's worse. That's worse than if you didn't predict it. It's substantially worse to go, I know this is going to happen and still send the weapons in there. What. I mean, Rob, what can you even say to this?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (40:34)

I think that's called being a bad leader where the choice is for you to make and you make the wrong choice because you're. I mean, the job is people come to you with recommendations and then you make the final call based off of the recommendation. So if you made the bad call, you made the wrong choice. That's on you. Did you fire that guy? Are you gonna expose what unit in the CIA sold you on on this plan and what went wrong? Is this gonna be the biggest investigation as to who advised you that strikes would lead to rebellion and that there was a civilian group that had been armed with munitions for all that not to be true, that we then ended up in this quagmire of a war, you would think that that would be breaking news tonight is, guys, our CIA and Mossad or whoever did it got us into this mess and we're done with this war and I will be going after the people who tried to get this country into a quagmire.

Dave Smith (41:32)

Well, it's just, I mean, look, dude, it's the whole. Right is. It's just like a perfect little microcosm of this whole thing goes, hey, we got scammed, blah, blah, blah, you know, but it's like, yeah, we got scammed into this whole thing. Like, that's it, right? You. I mean, clearly Donald Trump got convinced that the. This regime was going to fall through their initial airstrikes. And, you know, it. It seems, it's like hard to believe that. That you could fool Donald Trump into thinking that that was the case, especially when he must have at least had some people in our. I mean, there's just, there's no way that in. Within our entire intelligence regime, nobody got to the President and said, like, sir, there's a good chance that that will not work. You know, seems hard to believe, but it also does seem very clear that he thought this was going to be another Venezuela. And now he's just kind of seems desperate to get out of it. But the only. But again, it's. He only has one speed, which is to threaten total destruction and act like he's doing really great and that. And that everything is winning. It's the only answer he has, no matter how clearly bad this whole thing goes. You know, I don't know. Did you see, Rob, there was a. I don't know. I think I. I meant to send this to you, but I think I forgot to. But there was a piece in the Intercept the other day that was. They were saying they had sources for. In the Pentagon talking about how the, like, Central Command has really downplayed how many people have died and been injured in this thing. And, you know, who knows exactly what it is? But these. Now they came out and said the number they had was over 750Americans had been wounded or died or wounded in the thing. And it is interesting, I don't know if you noticed, but, like, they were. CENTCOM was reporting the numbers of dead and injured very regularly for the first week of the war and kind of stopped doing it since then.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (43:49)

I could be very wrong on this. I think the dead number is 15 and not 7 as reported by the Intercept. But that. I'm pulling that top of mind. So I could be wrong.

Dave Smith (43:57)

Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (43:58)

But I believe both numbers they were claiming was underreported. But I believe the Death count was 15, not seven.

Dave Smith (44:05)

Yeah, well, it's very. It is unclear. As is always the case in. In wars, it's always a bit difficult to get, like, death tolls early in them and to kind of figure out what's going on. But of course, like, we really just don't have a great idea of how many Israelis and how many Iranians are dying as well. It's certainly fairly substantial. And I mean, I don't know. You know, the Israelis are always very secretive about this stuff, but some of the images that they've even allowed to get out of Tel Aviv have been like, Tel Aviv's been pricked, hit pretty hard. And of course, in Iran, it's been like utter destruction.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (44:48)

And on that. On that note, they just shut down the public satellite imagery over Iran. I guess the claim was that Iran was able to use it. And. But the inverse of that is that the fact checking of what's going on based off a satellite imagery will no longer exist.

Dave Smith (45:05)

Yep. Which is awfully convenient. You know, of course, they're always. The Israelis always have a reason why they have. You know, we can't let reporters into Gaza because they could be Hamas sympathizers who are going to report this. Well, that's very convenient because it also could be that you don't want the world to see what war crimes you've committed, even though they can already see quite a bit of them. Yeah, it's. And then, I don't know. Did we talk about this at all on the show, Rob? I don't know if we have, but, like, it's almost like kind of quietly, while all of this is going on, Israel just, like, announced that they're doing a nakba in Lebanon as well. And they had cats. Their. Their defense minister there just said that basically they were just bombing the hell out of southern Lebanon. And there's something like. I had seen 600,000 people reported, and then someone else said they had seen a million reported. That was like. But Something north of 500,000 people just fled. And then they just announced none of them can return. None of them can return back. Just created a huge refugee crisis in Lebanon while they're just taking more Lebanons round. And that's just that. It's like. It is unbelievable how much they do not. It's like they lean into, like, the Nazi image. Like, they're just like, yeah, we're doing that. We're doing more of it. You know, I remember.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (46:32)

I think you're referring to a new strategic demilitarized zone.

Dave Smith (46:35)

Yes, that's right. That's. Yes, yes, that's right. If only Adolf Hitler had called it that, it would have been okay. But, you know, I remember, like, even. Yeah. Talking to Jewish people, you know, friends and family members of mine who were, like, not very happy with, you know, my. My politics on Israel and getting into some arguments with some of them and stuff. But I remember even, like, the people who were, like, very worried about, you know, anti Semitism increasing and all of this stuff. And, you know, I would always point out to them that, like, well, isn't it kind of. I mean, you got to admit it's a little bit of a coincidence that anti Semitism spiked right as Israel was destroying Gaza. Right. So maybe a crazy, like, stop, then maybe see if that problem gets a little bit better, you know, or whatever. And it's just like, even. Even when they finally stop, and they haven't even completely stopped with Gaza, they just Start doing it to Lebanon, start doing it to Iran. Start do. It's like, yo, what are you doing, man? It's just absolutely, you know, like there, there's that thing where, what is it like when shrinks will get you committed? And the standard is like, if you're a threat to yourself or to others, like, I don't know how to. It's just, it's like that on a national level. Like you're just like, yo, you are actually like a real threat to yourself right now. You, you've decided that we've made the entire world hate us and we don't care. They're essentially the atom of geopolitics, okay? They're like, we don't care about the market, we don't listen to the feedback. Israel doesn't read any of the comments evidently. And they're just like, we're just going to keep doing that. We're just going to keep committing war crimes, keep getting innocent people killed. Fuck it, we don't care. Just seems like such a ballsy, such a ballsy position for a welfare state to have, you know what I mean? Like, such a ballsy position for a state who's not even self sufficient to so not care about the opinions of the world. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Body Brain. You guys know and love Body Brain already. Body Brain is built for men to naturally boost your testosterone, strength, drive, energy and motivation. And here's the key. You don't need three cups, you don't need a bunch of different pills. You just need one cup of coffee a day. One cup of Body Brain is enough and it's a delicious cup of coffee. So you're just having a delicious cup of coffee. And if you're anything like me, you'll just notice you're feeling a lot better, you got more energy, feeling like a little bit younger. It's really, really great. Highly recommend it. Of course. This company is the brainchild of my dear friend Louis J. Gomez and he is a big supporter. He's my partner in partoftheproblem.com and really has done everything he can to make this show possible. So if you value this show and you want to get some good coffee that's going to make you feel better and naturally boost your testosterone. No needles, no pills. Go to bodybraincoffee.com and use the promo code DAVE20 to get 20% off your order. Seriously guys, I love this stuff and it makes me feel Great. Check it out. Bodybraincoffee.com promo code Dave20 for 20% off your order. Drink your coffee, Boost your body, wake your brain up. Bodybraincoffee.com promo code Dave20 for 20% off. All right, let's get back into the show.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (50:06)

If you report on my theft, people will have less faith than my fund. Or it's no different than if you report on the fact that we got everything in Covid wrong. People are going to lose faith in our health institutions. Well, they should. Or in this case, you know, we're trying, you and I are trying to prevent anti Semitism, and these actions aren't helping. And so we'd like to see you guys stop doing them. And for those of you that care about Israel, I think you're right that I don't know how much public support they're gonna have going forward. So I don't know that any of these things were actually even in Israel's interest. And the idea that they were in the Jewish people's interest is just preposterous. And those people who wanna pretend that it's anti Semitism, that people are criticizing what goes on in Israel just fosters more actual antisemitism. You know?

Dave Smith (50:50)

Why?

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (50:51)

Cause it's the Jewiest thing in the world to do.

Dave Smith (50:55)

Well, listen, man, it doesn't help that. Look, man, I mean, I've, as is always the case, and I'm consistent about this, whether it's my group or a different group or whatever. Like, I don't, you know, I believe in like, holding the people who are accountable, accountable and not blaming civilian populations of any civilian population, you know, and

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (51:16)

you're against truth, you're probably morally not right.

Dave Smith (51:19)

Yeah, well, that's right. But then also, like, it is something where, like, if you're sitting there and going like, well, now, dude, look, we got this real problem with like, the Israel group and organized Jewish institutions and organizations and organized Christian institutions and organizations and the government of Israel and the government in, in Washington, D.C. you know, and you're like, don't just blame regular Jewish people for this. But then, like, you know, you'll see somebody just doing like the worst impression of the most hateable Jewish thing imaginable. You know, you see someone like Rabbi Schmuley or whatever, and you're like, well, God damn. I mean, if you aren't working for the opposite of that, I don't know what you are working for. Here's a. Here, let's. I'm going to send you one More clip here, Natalie, that I think I forgot to send before, but I wanted to send over because this was the other one that Donald Trump where the truly. There's a couple other clips of Donald Trump here that are worth playing because they just like, do capture the truly delusional nature of where this man is. And I think this was always kind of like an issue with Donald Trump that you were like, he's, you know, he is a low information narcissist. And so, like, if people are around him and they're just sucking his dick, he is very likely to believe those people. He's. Anyway, here, let's, let's play this clip that I just sent over to you. This is Trump talking about the Iranian people and how they feel about this war.

Dave Smith (52:51)

Yeah. Who you with? Who you with? Well, that's a radical left group of lunatics in your whip. Let me just tell you, Let me just tell you. Very fair question.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (53:02)

The Iranian people, when they don't hear

Dave Smith (53:05)

bombs go off, they're upset. They want to hear bombs because they want to be free. And the only reason they're not out protesting, you know, that is because they were informed that if they protest, like the wrestler and his friends, if they protest, they will be shot immediately.

Dave Smith (53:23)

All right, so there is Donald Trump who objects to the question of like, hey, you said this was all about liberating the Iranian people, but now you're talking about bridges and, and power plant day and sending them back to the stone Age. How's that taking care of the Iranian people? And he says that, that they want to hear.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (53:46)

Well, first he says that's a terrible left organization, but that's a fair question. That was the first just fun Trump moment of both. How dare you ask me that question? Actually, I have an answer to this. I thought of a better lie. So you know what, great question. The Iranian people are praying that I destroy their country. This actually helps them. They love the sound of the destruction of their country.

Dave Smith (54:12)

And I mean, the idea that there's that, that they would what, they want you to take out the energy infrastructure and the bridges. Like, you know that that means people die. That means people are like, you know, like, are ruined. Their lives are absolutely destroyed. Like, yeah, I don't think they're rooting for that. I mean, you know what I'm going to say? Logic tells me that that's probably not true. Like, what evidence do you have to show that regular people in Iran want to hear bombs dropping on their nation from a form from a foreign country? Yeah, that One seems a little bit tough, tough to believe, but it's. Look, man, this is, look, this is why we're in a really dangerous situation right here, you know, is that. And as you said, Rob, Trump might walk away from these threats. He might do that. You know, he's capable. That being said, I don't know, Rob, you know, it's hard with these situations. You know, one of the things that's, that's very ironic then. I've been talking about this. I know me and you have talked several times about this since the 12 Day War. But one of the things that I found so, like, strange about the 12 Day War, where, you know, you got this war in Iran that really, you know, I've, I've spent, I've spent 20 years opposing this war. You know, like, I've been in this game for 20 years. And this was the talk in 2006, like when I, or I guess it was in 2007 when I first became a libertarian or first got introduced to it. But at least since then, this was the conversation. We were talking about war in Iran and talking about it since 9, 11, at least. And so then last summer, you finally got these people who are arguing for this thing I've been arguing against the whole time. And one of the things that I thought was kind of ironic about it is that the people had been war hawks who are arguing for why we have to overthrow the Ayatollah and this regime of mullahs in Iran were talking about how crazy they are, how dangerous they are, how if they had a nuclear weapon, they would just wipe Israel off the map. Look, they say it in their own words. They're the biggest thunder of terrorism in the world. Like, these people are crazy. And, and the argument that they used to explicitly make was that even the Nazis or the Soviets or whoever, at least they were somewhat rational human beings. But this is essentially a nation state of jihadist suicide bombers. They don't care about taking themselves out. They'll take everybody else out with them. And so we have to like, Right, So they're making that argument, but then at the same time, their strategy relies on the Iranian response. You know what I mean? Like, you, you throw, like, you kind of put a lot of the, the cards in their hands and then hope they do the right thing. I mean, look, Rob, they've demonstrated their capacity. I do not think there is anybody. I don't think there's any military expert out there. And look, even if you say, if you believe when Donald Trump was saying, oh, we took out 80% of their missile capacity. But then the military reports, the New York Times, that actually it's like 30%. Okay, that's a big fucking difference, by the way. But even just with their drones and their, you know, the, they've demonstrated an ability to touch the region. Nobody's arguing that. I don't think anybody is arguing that they can't take out desalination plants. Is anyone saying they can't do that? So now we just sit here and, well, like, if Donald Trump does start taking some bridges and some, some power plants out, what do you think the Iranian response going to be to that, Rob? My guess is, is that it's not nothing now. I don't know for sure. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, like, how is it that I'm so uncomfortable playing that game, but all the people who have spent 20 years talking about how irrational this regime is don't seem to. Don't seem to mind taking that risk because, of course, that's. Again, Rob, this is the whole escalation trap here, right? Donald Trump says obviously, what he's essentially setting up, what he wants is to go, I did a big, huge thing and took out all your, your bridges and your power plants and all this, and now we leave and I declare victory, and it's up to the rest of you to open the Strait of Hormuz and blah, blah, blah. Right? But what about the Iranian response to that? What if he does all of that? What if they do take out a couple of these desalination plants? You know, I don't know. You've been reading up on this, Rob, but I turns out desalination in the desert is really important. That's how people get drinking water, you know what I'm saying? Like, and so if, if then they turn around and do that, then Donald Trump can't get out on that. You know, he's got to have the last word. So, I mean, we will see what ends up happening with that. But I don't know your thoughts, Rob. Doesn't look good.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (59:14)

Well, Donald Trump is definitely playing it as a big finishing strike, and then we're done. But if their Hormuz remains closed and Iran does a giant retaliatory strike, my guess is he's got to be back on the news a week later going, they didn't learn their lesson. We're going to strike him even harder. You want another set of bums? And then people will be pointing out, well, they're already in the stone ages. What, are you going to blow up their stones? And then, you know, everyone will go, well, yeah, I was just hyperbolic. He didn't actually mean the Stone Ages. And we'll just continue.

Dave Smith (59:46)

Yep. And look like we're all, a lot of people have pointed this out. Right. But we're all, we're all hoping this doesn't turn into a forever war or some really long, you know, horrible thing. But, you know, people, you know, the bench peers of the world are out there saying, like, oh, my God, this war is only eight weeks old and blah, blah, blah. You guys are actually. And like, as some people have pointed out, you know, every single war ever was only eight weeks old, eight weeks into it. And I, I question eight weeks old.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (60:17)

I even question the strategy of turning a place into the Stone Ages when it's a group of people really good at throwing stones.

Dave Smith (60:23)

Yeah, this could just be even more of a problem. This. All right here. Let's. I did want to say this. Play this other clip because it's the other one from Donald Trump. Natalie, it's the Aaron Rupar tweet. How do you know the people don't know that? Which is really interesting. Donald Trump talking about where the American people are at. Mr. President, when you say the American people don't want that, how do you know that? Are you listening to.

Dave Smith (60:55)

Well, I tell you what, I'm pretty good at this stuff. And I go around and I check, they'd like to see us win and come home. And I appreciate CNN for the first time maybe in my life. They did a poll and everyone said, oh, is Trump losing maga? No, I'm not losing maga. MAGA loves what I'm doing. And CNN did a poll of MAGA voters, a big poll, very important poll, Harry. And he went on, he said, this is amazing, 100% support. He said, I've never had a 100% poll at anything before. And is, do you support Trump MAGA people, which is, by the way, mostly Republican. And if you, you look, I would say MAGA makes up a majority, like about 95% of the Republican Party. All right, so they went out, they did a poll and see it in Quebec. 100% support. So they support what we're doing, but they would like to see it end and come back. But remember wars last years, we're in there for 34 days and we've obliterated a very powerful country. Country in 34 days.

Dave Smith (61:58)

Yeah. But again, just to be clear here, just on the logic of it, wars last years, we've only been there 34 days ago, but every single one of those wars that lasted years was only 34 days old. 34 days into those wars. Just saying. But again, Rob, it's something he can't. He's still bringing up that CNN poll that said 100%, by the way, if you one of their.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (62:24)

Just to clarify. So if he ends it tomorrow, people don't take you out of text. You're saying there's a risk that it could last longer. That's all you're saying?

Dave Smith (62:32)

Oh, of course, yeah. No, I'm just saying bragging about the list like as I prefaced it by saying we're all hoping this doesn't turn into a forever war and this doesn't turn into a long thing. I'm just making the point that you can say, oh, this war is so short. But like all of the wars start this way and quite often in many of them with the light. Like Dick Cheney on Meet the Press said it'll be weeks, not months, months referring to Iraq. Like that was how they were talking about it at the very beginning. But you can, you can. The risk is always there that you get pulled into it for, into a longer conflict. So now look, man, I saw there was one poll the other day also a cnn Paul, this one, Donald Trump isn't. Or at least they covered it on cnn. I should see who the, the poll was. But it was they, they've amongst independents, Donald Trump is Now at negative 45. Is 45 points underwater with independents who by the way, are like the biggest voting bloc now or close to it, I think. You know, I don't remember. I remember reading a lot about this during 24 that it was like for the first time, like there were more independent voters than there were Democrat or Republican. But like the independents just keep growing as everyone's getting disgusted with both major political parties. And he's, he's underwater like 45. He has a worse approval rating with independents than George W. Bush did after two disastrous wars and the economy crashing. He's got a worse approval rating amongst independents than Richard Nixon had before he resigned. So like anyway and his overall approval rating is like around where George W. Bush's was after two disastrous wars and the economy crashed. And, and, and this guy has in his mind that his people totally support him. I think he believes that now. You never know with Donald Trump because he'll just say these things. I got 100. But it's always like, do they not even hear it? You know, it's like it's like when, when the, the Warhawks were arguing about the 45, 000 protesters and they would say things like, do you, can you believe that Iran killed as as many people in two days as you know, Iran killed half as many people as Israel killed in Gaza in just two days. Can you believe that? And you'd be like, right, right. Yes. Your claim sounds totally incredible. Right. Ok, well, like, like incredible. Another way to say that is not credible. Right. So it's like, yes, I get that because there's 100%. He said I'd never see 100% in a poll. You never see that. Right, right. You never see that for a reason. Somehow this president is, look, I don't know. There is a chance that it's one of two things, but there's a substantial chance that he's been convinced that the least popular war in American history has 100% approval behind it. Like, that does seem to be what is in his head.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (65:44)

The, the maga line is essentially 100% of the people that agree with me still agree with me.

Dave Smith (65:49)

Yeah. Yeah.

Robbie the Fire Bernstein (65:50)

That's the way percentages work. 100 of the category that identifies as maga still agrees with you.

Dave Smith (65:57)

Yes, 100. 100 of pro life people are pro life. 100 of pro choice people are pro choice. It's weird. It's amazing what you can do with polls when you change the, the, the, the, the pool. All right, we're gonna wrap up there. Comic tapesmith.com Come see us in Stamford, Connecticut, in Rosemont, in Chicago. And then we're, we're going to be on the road for the rest of the year. So come on out. Comicdabesmith.com Run your mouth. Rob's other fantastic podcast. That's all. See you guys tomorrow. Peace.