Senator Van Hollen (17:35)

But what they did in Munich with President Zelensky was primarily to bully them, right? The Secretary of Treasury handed him a piece of paper that essentially required Ukraine to hand over about 50% of its mineral reserves to the United States simply in payment of the support that we've already given, which we've given because they were a democratic country attacked by Putin and the Russian forces. I mean, can you imagine FDR, in the middle of World War II, saying to Churchill, you know, we're not going to continue to help you until you turn over half of your coal and mineral reserves. That's not how you behave when you want to support a friend who's under attack by an authoritarian like Putin right now.

Dave Smith (18:25)

All right, so let's. So this was, okay, just a short little clip, but there's so much in there that I find so fascinating and so Almost to begin to break some of this down, because there's a few different layers, right? So he's going, look, Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary, like, basically is. Is trying to shake down the Ukrainians. You know, like, they owe us their, like, resources because of all the money we've given them. And, okay, this isn't how it works. I mean, we, we were supporting them because they're a democracy against this invasion by Russia. That's why we were doing this. You don't go and try to shake down your friends. I mean, just imagine if FDR was trying to shake down the British during World War II. You know, this is. This is essentially the point that he's making. So there's a few things. Number one, it's just like, I swear to God, there's. And I guess this is really kind of the definition of the red pill. But there are some things in life. It's like these lessons about the nature of reality where once you learn them, you just can't unsee them. You know, like, you. You just can't. It's like, that's why the red pill is such a good analogy. It's like that you already made your choice to take that pill. You don't get, you know, it's like when Morpheus offers Neo the choice. Because you could take this red pill or you could take this blue pill. You take the blue pill, you go back to sleep, you'll never remember any of this, and you'll go live your life. You take this red pill, you're going to see how shit really works. It's like, that's your point of choice. After that, you don't have a choice anymore. Like, once you've taken the red pill, you can unsee. You don't get to go back to sleep now. But one of the things is like, oh, my God, it's this fixation on World War II. It's like once you see it, you can't unsee it. This example has to be brought up over and over, and every single war has to be viewed through the lens of World War II. You know, my friend Daryl Cooper, who's been on the show, I'm going to. He's going to come up again in a second. If you guys remember, he stirred up this huge controversy last year and. Oh, my God, I'm just. It's almost like I've never seen anything like it before in a few different ways. But one of the things that was great is, like, the controversy proved his point correct. Like, it's Just as everybody is getting outraged, they're proving him right in, in what his central claim is, which is that this is like World War II has become this, as he called it, this load bearing myth. And he doesn't say that meaning myth, like it didn't happen. Just the fact that like it's taken on that like a life of its own where now it is like it, it's the entire justification for the entire regime. And that's why if you ever go at that, because it's a load bearing myth, if you ever go with that, everyone freaks out because they know you take that one out and everything else crumbles with it. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Lucy. Everybody loves a nice tobacco free nicotine pouch and Lucy is the place to get them. But Lucy isn't like every other nicotine pouch company that's owned by Big Tobacco. They are the mom and pop shop of pouches. Their pouches come in a variety of strength, from 4mg all the way up to 12mg. Lucy offers a unique, unique variety of flavors including apple, ice, wintergreen, mango and espresso. And if you're not a pouch guy or gal, Lucy gum is available in 2 milligram, 4 milligram and 6 milligrams. I love the Lucy's. I love the pouches and the gums. Check them out. Level up your nicotine routine with Lucy. Go to Lucy Co Problem and use the promo code problem to get 20 off your first first order. Lucy offers free shipping and has a 30 day refund policy. If you change your mind, that's L CO promo code problem for 20% off and always free shipping. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age and every order is age verified. This product contains nicotine and nicotine is an addictive chemical. Once again, l, u, c y.co/proble. Promo code problem for 20 off. All right, let's get back into the show. And so no matter what, like, even if, let's just say hypothetically speaking that even if the, let's say that the correct lesson from World War II, like I don't agree with this, but let's just say for that that the standard lesson is the correct lesson to learn that like we, the, the problem was that, you know, we shouldn't have appeased Hitler. And this was, this was the Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler when he gave him Yugoslavia. And that was the problem. The issue wasn't the war guarantee with Poland. The issue was that we should have gone to war with Nazi Germany sooner. Like, appeasement didn't work and only aggression would work. Let's just say, like, hypothetically, that was true. It doesn't follow from that that therefore, aggression is always the answer, therefore appeasement is always wrong. Because, like, you could pick a million different examples from history where aggression ended up being wrong, and perhaps appeasement would have been much better, or at least some type of, like, de escalation. You know, call it whatever you want to. Appeasement's kind of a loaded term. But. But it's constantly like, always. They have to go back to this. So you have. Daryl Cooper goes on Tucker Carlson's podcast, and he says. He goes. He goes, ah, you know, my. My buddy Jocko is like, you know, he's got Anglo Saxon, you know, family members or whatever, so I like to kind of tease him and. And kind of like, provoke him a little bit. And I'm probably being a little hyperbolic when I say this, but I say that, you know, Winston Churchill was the true villain. And it's not that Winston Churchill killed the most people or committed the most atrocities, but I see him as like, the real villain of this war. So he makes that statement, and everybody loses their fucking shit. I mean, every goddamn notable historian and cable news host and every. Everybody's talking about Daryl. They're flipping out on him. They all pretend he didn't say, hey, I'm being hyperbolic here. They all pretend he didn't say, obviously he didn't commit the most atrocities, but the idea that some guy would even say this out loud gets this giant freak out. Like, don't get me wrong. Daryl Cooper is phenomenal. He's an incredible historian. His. His. His series are like, some of the best work out there. I've been recommending him forever, and I love him, and I. I wish he was like, 10 times bigger than he is, you know, and. And hopefully he will be. But the re. The. The actual. For a guy who's got like a. A few hundred thousand, you know, like, like Twitter followers, the. How outsized the response was to that. He could be talking about any other historical event. Like, like, again, I don't think he got it wrong. I think he's right. But let's say he got it wrong. If he had talked about any other historical event and got it slightly wrong, it just never would have generated that type of response. Because this is what World War II is. It's not just the story of, you know, a War that happened in the 1930s and 40s, America's part in the 40s, but it's not just like a war that we fought in the 40s. It is the justification for the continuation and the beginning of every single war since then, every one of them. And. And there's. There is not one war in the world. But believe me, as someone who argues about Israel, Palestine all the time, every single defender of Israel will bring up World War II at some point. Just always has to happen, because that's just got to be thought of as. That was just good. And therefore, why can't we do good again? It's just like. It just. It's. It's this myth that gets people to turn their brains off, and that's why it's so valuable to them. That's why it's been so effective for so long. Anyway, speaking of Daryl Cooper. So Daryl Cooper did respond to this, and I did just, you know, I. I kind of had like a. A somewhat similar thought in my mind. But, you know, so I'll say what my. The thought that I had in my mind was just that, you know, like, yeah, we did kind of shake down the British in World War II. And. And I didn't even, you know, like, Daryl knows more details about this. I mean, he's a real historian. I'm just a comedian who's talking, but it's. But I was kind of like, in my mind, my first thought was, was like, well, you know, we did take over the British Empire. I mean, they were the most powerful empire in the world at the beginning of the war. And at the end of the war, their empire collapsed and America became the most powerful empire in the world. So, yeah, in a sense, we did shake them down. I mean, even if you don't want to say, like, directly or literally, we tip it anyway. So Darrell Cooper responds to this. This clip we just played, and he says FDR took US bases in the west hemisphere in exchange for decrepit World War I destroyers, demanded full payment in gold and cash for supplies until the UK was dead broke, then mockingly designated Lend Lease as HR 1776 just to twist the knife. The UK didn't finish paying us back until 2006. So it's funny, when you get a good historian who's not part of the regime, it does help for these things, too. So, like, first of all, the guy's completely wrong, like, by his own logic of this. But that was only kind of one of my major takeaways from this. There's something that's actually much deeper and more fascinating to me and I swear that I, I just, I don't believe a US Senator doesn't get this. So I think this is just like this is the propaganda, this is what they say when they're on a news show about it. But it does certainly, I think this hits, it strikes a chord with the blue pelt. Now, luckily for us, I think there's a lot more red pilled people than there used to be to one degree or another. You know, there's, there's layers of being red pilled. Like you could understand this, but then you kind of understand the next level and the next level. But unlike the movie, right. It's not just one red pill or one blue pill. The analogy is not perfect, but I think between Russiagate and really Covid, Covid probably being the biggest one, I think Biden's them covering up Biden's senility. I think there's just been a mass awakening of people recognizing some basic truths. Like everything in the corporate media is lies like that, that you are, when you turn on cnn, you're watching propaganda. This is state propaganda, period. The fact that the kind of scientific institutions can't be trusted, the foreign policy institutions can't be trusted. I just think there's a lot more people who have woken up to this and, and so we're kind of in a different spot. But generally speaking, I think with blue pilled people, I think when you say things like, you know, you don't go and shake down your allies. We are funding this war because we love democracy, you know, because we love the good guys and we're the good guys and they're the bad guys. And we're like, that's how this really works. I just don't believe that any US Senator really believes that. You know, it's one of the, the greatest movie lines of all time. In fact, I might rank it as my favorite, maybe the best movie line ever and the best, like there's a real libertarian, you know, comment to it. But of course this is, I'm talking about in the Godfather when Michael Corleone, So if you don't, I assume most of you know the Godfather, but the story starts out with Michael Corleone is like the, he's the straight edge son and he goes to the military and his role is he's going to be legit. He's not going to be like in the crime family. And then when he comes back, ultimately his father gets shot and his brother ends up getting killed. I can't remember exactly. But ultimately he decides that he's going to take over the family business and he becomes the heir to the Godfather. So he's talking to his wife at one point when, when he's decided to take over the business and his wife is K. Right. I haven't seen the movie in a few years, but if you guys remember, it's more or less. She goes, she's like, what are you doing? You can't be working for your father. And he goes, listen, my father's a powerful man, like a senator or a president, and this is how powerful men are. And she goes, listen to yourself, Michael. Do you have any idea how naive you sound? Senators and presidents don't have people killed. And his retort is, now who's being naive? K. And it's just like the perfect line. It's the perfect line because it's the perfect, like, red pill, blue pill distinction. Like that is the normie, blue pilled attitude. What do you mean? He's like a politician. He kills people. But of course, the red pilled attitude is like, yeah, that's what makes him like a politician. Duh. And so anyway, there is just this, there's a feeling that you get here where it's like, why, you know, why is our government doing gangster shit? And make no mistake about it, what Trump's doing is gangster shit, you know, and look, I'll tell you, I just to be very clear here, I don't support this. This is not something that I think is a good idea. I mean, I think we should end the war, and the war never should have been started. It should be negotiated away. But I got to be honest, as somebody who has, okay, like there, there are certainly experts who have studied this issue more than me, but compared to, like a regular person, I have studied this issue pretty, you know, pretty deeply. This is. The war in Ukraine has been one of my major focuses for many. Now, the, the new Cold War between the US And Russia was one of my major focuses for many years before this war. So just from all the years of interviewing Scott Horton and reading all his books and all the years of covering Russiagate and all the, you know, this is just something I've been focusing on for a very long time. And for anybody who has been focusing on it, you know, as I said in the last episode, Ukraine, the Ukrainian people really are, are true victims in all of this. This, this was a war that America led Ukraine into, as John Mearsheimer said, led Ukraine down the primrose path. And he said this back in 2014. And so it is. You know, essentially we convinced the Ukrainians against the will of the Ukrainian people and against the will of the Ukrainian elected officials. We convinced. And when I say convinced, I mean we backed a coup against the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who had decided to make a deal with Vladimir Putin. I mean, he, he ultimately decided that that was in, I mean, say, his people's interest or his interest or whatever, but he ultimately decided to calm things down with Russia and make an economic deal. I mean, think about this. This is what kicked off the Maidan protests was that Yanukovych, the democratically elected. Give me. We're all in the business of democracy promotion. Well, the democratically elected president of Ukraine with elections verified by the eu. So this was as legit as elections get. Even the west claims this was a legit election. So they're democratically elected president. He decided when he was, and I think he was conflicted himself, but when he was deciding between signing this partnership with the European Union or signing an economic deal with Vladimir Putin, he ultimately decided he was going to go with Putin. That was the course that this country was on, was to have decent enough relations with Russia. And then the west comes in and pours tens, Maybe even over $100 million into this protest effort against Yanukovych, which ultimately leads to ousting him and him fleeing for his life. Okay? And then under the new government, they push him into the civil war. I think something like 15,000 people died in the fighting in those years between Maidan and when Vladimir Putin invaded. And so I'm just saying that Ukraine, look, Ukraine is a. Is a pawn on the chessboard. And there is, you know, I, I do think that it's kind of up. Even though we spent all this money, it's kind of fucked up for us to then go extort resources away from Ukraine when really the rightful owners are the Ukrainian people. And by the way, when I say this, I do not. When I say rightful owners, I don't mean in any commie sense of the word. I'm not. That is not my conception of property rights. I'm not saying that like all of the people or the workers own. I'm saying like from a real hardcore Lockean libertarian perspect, like, I don't know, the people who homesteaded it or something like that. Like, they have a better claim on their resources than we do. And so I, you know, look, I am. Because I recognize that governments are gangs and are. Governments are essentially just the most Successful gang, like the. This is basic Rothbard, Anatomy of the State. But a government is basically the most successful gang who took over the entire area and decided that they were just going to set up shop there and they didn't have to leave. We just rule these people. Well, because I recognize that I believe in very limited government. Very limited. Like, picture the most limited government. Much more limited than that. Limit the entire thing. So, okay, I want there to be less gangster. I'm not on board with government doing gangster shit. I also do recognize to the extent that government exists, that's what they do. That's what they're in the business of doing. Every inch of it is gangster. And so when people come out here and they go, oh, my God, Donald Trump's doing gangster, why, we're, that's not why we're supported, that. We're supporting, you know, Ukraine because they're a democracy. Okay, yeah, that's right. We're supporting Ukraine because they're a democrat. The country whose democratic. First of all, they, the US backed a coup in 2004 in Ukraine and then in 2014. So their democracy is less than 10 years old, if you could even call it a democracy, or 11 years old now. But you can't really call it that anymore because they're not holding elections. And Vladimir Putin, excuse me, Zelensky, has a very low approval rating. So, yeah, anyway, it's a pure fantasy to act like we weren't always doing gangster shit. It was always gangster. The difference is that, and I think this is essentially why so many people support Donald Trump. The difference is that he's proposing doing gangster. That's at least conceivably in the nation's interest. Like he's, he's at least going like, hey, we're gangsters here. We do gangster. Why don't we get something for all this money we've put out? Now, again, I don't agree with that, because I think, I'm not saying, like, the American people are responsible for everything their government does, but, you know, I, I don't know, we have to some degree allowed our government to do this. And I don't think that the Ukrainian people, who have had their country destroyed and are going to lose part of it, they should have to pay us back. I'm a little uneasy with that. I don't agree with that. But to hear a senator sit there and try to, like, have this, like, oh, my God, he's going over and shaking them down like he's a gangster. But that's such bullshit. Because that's not what America is all about. America's just about supporting democracy. I mean, it's just, it's, it's all so laughable. There's no way a sitting senator actually sees things this way. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is My Patriot Supply. How well do you sleep at night? Real peace of mind comes from knowing your family is prepared for anything. My Patriot Supply, America's most trusted name in emergency preparedness, is offering a limited time discount on their best selling three month emergency food kit. This isn't your typical survival food. Each kit provides over 2, 000 calories and 100% of the recommended value of 12 essential vitamins and min daily for 90 days with delicious meals and extras including chicken, beef, fruits, vegetables. We're talking quality meals that last up to 25 years in storage and still taste like home cooked. The pandemic taught us how quickly store shelves can empty. Don't wait for the next crisis. Your three month emergency food kit includes free shipping, a disaster replacement warranty and 24. 7 US based support. This special discount is available for a limited time only. Visit preparewithsmith.com now to secure your family's future with a hundred dollar discount. If you order by 3pm, they'll ship your order within the same day. So you have peace of mind right away. Go check them out at my website, preparewithsmith.com all right, let's get back into the show we just had. We had to fight a war against Russia because of the threat to democracy. I mean, like if we, if we have to fight a war, if a democracy is threatened, yet we can prop up the government of Saudi Arabia, we could prop up the government of Israel. Israel has had control of 5 million people since 1967 who have no rights whatsoever. That includes voting rights. But, but we can prop them up. And yet we have to, we have to go to war to defend democracy here. But it's also okay to prop up all of these countries that are antithetical to democracy. It's like it doesn't even make any sense. It doesn't pass the basic smell test. Like there, that's just not what's going on here. What's going on is that the government's always doing gangster shit. Finally Donald Trump comes out and it is just like, I'm going to do gangster on behalf of the country. And then all these people are outraged and they pretend that this is the first time gangster has ever happened. Go, go. Listen if you want to see on the topic of Ukraine, go listen to the tape of Joe Biden. In fact, Natalie, why don't you pull that up? Joe Biden, Ukrainian prosecutor, just put that into. Into YouTube and it should spit out the video pretty quickly here. But it's like. It's just so funny to me to be like, oh, all we were ever doing over there was protecting democracy. And then Donald Trump wants to do all this gangster shit with the government. Yeah. Okay. Did you find it? Because this is where you could see how, like, what I'm talking about when I say gangster shit is all that they do. All that they do. We'll have that up in a second, and then I will. I will go through. Natalie's got some questions pulled up here, and then I will go through the chat and. And maybe we'll answer a few more questions in the second half of the show. All right. You can pull that video up whenever we have it, Natalie. All right, here we go. Yeah, here we go. This is 2006. Oh, sorry. This is Biden's comments later. But you could just skip right to the comments.

Joe Biden (42:32)

I remember going over convincing our team or others to convincing us that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess, the 12:13 time to Kiev, and. And I was going. Supposed to announce that there was another billion dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't. So they said they had. They were walking out to press conference. And I said, I'm not gonna. We're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not. The president. The president said. I said, call him. I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars. I said, you're not getting a billion. I'm gonna be leaving here. I think it was, what, six hours? I looked. I said, we're in six hours. If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money. Oh, son of a. Got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid.

Dave Smith (43:32)

There. There you go. By the way, he's talking about, Matt Taibbi's done great reporting on this. The prosecutor he's talking about was investigating Barisma, the company that his son was making a hundred grand a month on the board of. So that's it. You take out, you fire a prosecutor and put in a guy who we say he says is solid. In other words, our guy or you won't get this money. Now tell me that's not gangster. This is what governments do. Okay? This is the nature of governments. They do gangster. What do you think, you know, like, for all these people who love to bring up World War II, what do you think World War II was? You think that was a love fest? It was all about democracy promotion. Yeah. That's why we partnered with Joseph Stalin for his love of democracy. You know, the whole thing is just so fun, but it's just so, it's, it's interesting to see people try to kind of spin this. When I think so many people are waking up to what is, I think, like, in many ways, the most important red pill. It's just that governments are gangs. That's what they are. Gangs with a monopoly on aggressive violence. Anyway, just thought that was, was too great. All right, let me, let's dive into some questions here, and I'll. We'll go through a few of these, and then I gotta pack and get on a plane tomorrow morning. All right, Dave, the State Department just declared eight drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. These cartels are not only smuggling drugs, but people as well. What are your thoughts? Not good. Not good. And really, so much of that is just because of all of the, in the post 911 world, like all of the legal, you know, factors that come in with declaring a group terrorists. And, you know, it's unclear exactly what the Trump administration is going to do now that they've branded these cartels as terrorists, but certainly the possibilities are very close to some type of war. And I mean, that's, that's the last thing we want to do. Look, it's already, if you, the bottom line, right, with immigration, if you're kind of zooming out from the truth, is that the immigration crisis, there's a few different things that are going on. Right. So number one, you had like the insane flow of, of, of migrants coming in, asylum seekers, some of them will claim to be. But you have a huge flow of migrants coming in during Joe Biden. This has already been drastically cracked down. What's his name, the border czar guy was just posting about these numbers the other day, but already this. Look, when Joe Biden came in, the signal was sent that it's wide open. So they came in record high numbers. Donald Trump's in. The signal has been sent. It's not wide open. The numbers have greatly been reduced. So that's number one. Okay, you don't. In terms of that problem, what we had was the worst of Both worlds under Joe Biden, which is that you have de facto open borders and the war on drugs going on. Okay, so you have. Drugs are heavily criminalized in America, and yet there's a market for them, there's demand, there's a lot of people who want drugs. And so then you have these cartels that will bring the drugs over the market, and they make a ton of money off doing this. The. To me, legalizing drugs is the best solution to all of this. I know there's some right wingers who don't like that, but the truth is that you. It's the exact same logic as prohibition of alcohol. When you had prohibition of alcohol, you had a huge rise in the homicide rate because the. It was a black market now. And the only people in the black market are by definition criminals, right? And so criminals end up thriving in these black markets. And also, you have a big. For anybody who's just like, if you've ever, like, known anyone who sold drugs, like, on any level, maybe I'm more of a. Maybe I was more of a fucked up kid than some of you guys are, but I knew a lot of people who sold drugs. And one of the things that happens when you're in an illegal market is that you have no security. You know, when you're, when you're in a legal market, if someone steals from you, you can call the cops or you can hire your own security or whatever. You have options. Like, you have legal recourse. And so if someone like what I'm doing right now, being a podcaster, this is a legal market, at least for now. Maybe not in Germany, according to our. Our most recent episode, but at least in the United States of America for right now, this is legal. Now if someone were to break into my house and steal a bunch of equipment, I can have, I can have it insured, I can call the cops. I there, I have other, you know, I have other paths. But like, if you know anyone who ever sold drugs, you know, if you have, if you have a bunch of drugs, you can't get insurance on it and you can't call the cops. If someone steals it from you, you got to be prepared to defend it yourself. And this is where the guns come in and this is where the gang culture, right? So there's like, when, when you have a black market, you create all of these problems. And if you were to legalize drugs just in the same way, when prohibition ended, the homicide rate drastically fell. And same thing would happen in the same, the same way that Al Capone took over the cities during prohibition. Well, now you got these Mexican gangs and then some other South American gangs who are, who are dominating in, in the prohibition of drugs. And so that would be the best, you know, this would be the best solution that would lead to less bloodshed, not more. And I just, I, I see nothing but very dangerous red flags. By designating the cartels as terrorists, I do not think that is a, a good plan. Okay, next question. Dave, if Trump ends up cutting a ton of spending and cuts taxes, how would we be able to combat the inflation to follow with more Americans having disposable income? I know it will balance out in the future because the cost of production would go down as well, but I'm worried about the short term effects. Well, you're gonna, you're gonna be looking at deflation if you have big cuts in government spending, if there's less money printing and. Yeah, I think you kind of answered your own question there. There's that this is going to make the cost of things go down. So this is ultimately, I mean, this is what has to be done. And so I get your point. If you're saying, like, in the tax cuts are like, stimulative, if you're like, directly giving Americans tax cuts, but you got to keep in mind, too, that it's not the government spending all that money too. It's not as if the government is taxing people and just holding that money. So I, I don't think that you're going to see any increase in inflation from the tax cuts, and the spending cuts are going to be deflationary in nature. So this is, it's, it's going to be. Cutting the size of government is going to be an overwhelming positive. Believe me. We're, we're still a long way away from seeing a ton of spending cuts and tax cuts, but hopefully you're right. Okay. Dave, are you nervous about Doge auditing our gold reserves at Fort Knox? What should we expect when it comes out that the gold reserve is significantly less than reported or completely depleted? It's a really good question. I, My guess is yes. I mean, like, I, I'd say, like, closer to completely depleted if I had to guess, but, I mean, I don't know. I don't know any better than you do, you know, but it's like, why the hell have, why have they been so secretive about what's at Fort Knox? Why have we never had an audit on this? My guess is, yeah, that it's been completely depleted. Now, what would, what should we expect. I mean, look, it's. It's like one of these things. It's. It's. You know, the short term might be a little bit ugly, but I think that's necessary for a positive result in the long term. And it's kind of like, you know, if you're. If you're married to someone who's treating you really badly and is lying to you and cheating on you, looking through their phone, you know, this might be upsetting, and it might not be good for the marriage in the short term, but if you want to know what's really going on, I. I just. I always err on the side that we're better to know than to all be being fooled. So I would. I would still air. Yeah, they'll be. People would be upset. It would probably have a negative effect on markets. But at the same time, it's like this whole thing is built on a house of cards. And so it's. It's kind of the only way to ever move to a better, more sane place. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Sheath Underwear. As you guys know by now, I've been telling you about this company for a long time, Sheath uses moisture wicking technology to create underwear that keeps everything breathable and incredibly comfortable for you downstairs. Sheath's underwear comes in a number of different styles, including a brief with a dual pouch that just kind of keeps everything separated. I'll tell you, I was a little skeptical about the dual pouch, but it's a game changer. I absolutely love it. Sheath Underwear is an amazing company, and they've been a longtime sponsor of this podcast. So make sure you go check them out@sheathunderwear.com and use the promo code PROBLEM for 20% off your order. That's sheath underwear.com promo code PROBLEM for twenty percent off your order. They ship anywhere in the world. Sheath underwear.com. all right, let's get back into the show. Okay. Okay, Dave, what would your response to someone who holds the opinion. Excuse me. To someone who holds the opinion that the, quote, gangster shit is a good thing when somebody like Trump is doing it. That it's only a problem when it's not the. When it's not in the interest of the people of the country. Okay. Well, I mean, I guess there's. There's a couple responses that I would have to that. So, number one, it's wrong, you know, And. And maybe that won't move you at all. But I still. I'LL lead with what I, you know, think. I mean, like the gangster essentially means stealing from people, killing people, injuring people, or threatening to do all of that. And I do just reject that as morally wrong in the same way we would think it was morally wrong if individuals were doing that. But even if you forget about that, to just totally table the, the morality discussion, because I understand that that doesn't always move people. And it's, it's easy. Even though I don't think it's fair, it's easy for people to dismiss that and be like, oh, you know, and anytime you're, especially right wingers, like anytime you're talking about morality, it's kind of just like dismissed as naive. That's not really the way the world works or something. I don't agree with any of that. It's like, yeah, actually, I think, you know, when I was debating Josh Hammer, he asked me at one point during the debate if morality is a consideration for me when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. And I was like, yeah, it is. And I, and you know, and, and I would also just say that, you know, two kind of more right winger types that I think. I, I don't know, I'm not claiming, I hate when people who are like, like make appeals to Christianity or religion when they're not religious. And so I'm not trying to be that guy. I'm not exactly religious. I, I'm have a personal relationship with God, but I don't really like subscribe to a religion or a, a particular holy book or something like that. But I, I would just say, I say this is somebody who's not an expert on theology, but I do think it's just, it seems to me it's completely incompatible with Christianity to separate morality from government policy. Like, I don't know, I must have missed that lesson from Jesus. Like at some point there's like these, these rules of morality don't apply if they're good for your country or something like that. But look, more importantly than any of that, the, the flaw in this is like, look, gangster shit is good for the gangs, but it's never going to be, you know, like, I'm not saying like in any isolated incident it couldn't be good for the country, but the idea that you're going to have like an empowered gangster class that rules you and that's going to end up being good for you is just I, again, it's like it was the wisdom of all of the founders that that's exactly what you don't want to do. And they were right. And this is part of the reason why America has been such a successful country because it was at least started on this premise. But the, the idea that like you're going to have this gangster class and you're going to continue to empower them and that's going to be good for you. Like, I don't, I'm not saying like in, in an isolated incident or in crazy extenuating circumstances, perhaps there, there could be for, for a short time frame a benefit to that. But the idea of like do you think any neighborhood is going to be better because they're ruled by gangs? Is any, is that, is that good for you in your household and your personal life and your, like. I don't really think so. And even in the business world, I don't think it's like the gangster that I'm talking about and we're not talking about like threats of violence. That's not really how most businessmen succeed in, in free market or civilized Western societies. It's actually from providing value. And so, you know, I just, I, I think it's very, it's, it's a, a very dangerous and short sighted game to get to play. Okay, hold on one second. All right, here's last one I have up here and then we'll wrap on this. Do you see Trump throwing any Republicans under the bus in 2026 running for reelection? It's an interesting question, you know, because I'm thinking about it now, right. Is McConnell, I think is the only one who really didn't vote for his appointees. Ed McConnell, I don't think is, is running again. So there's no opportunity there. A lot of this I think probably depends on what happens between now and 2026. I sure hope so, you know, I sure hope he does it to some of the ones who deserve it. But again, this is the problem with Donald Trump is it's just, you know, again I'm, I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. I mean this is a different Trump than we saw in his first term. But the problem with Trump in his first term is that what some, he, he ended up throwing the best congressman in the country under the bus, Thomas Massey, because Thomas Massie objected to the giant spending bills in 2020. Donald Trump didn't want to hear that in 2020 because he was trying to get reelected and that, you know, so he was trying to brag about the spending bills and I understand, you know, it was Covid, it was a crazy year. He was trying to get reelected. But at the same time, Thomas Massie was 100% right about that. Thomas Massie accurately predicted that this would result in terrible price inflation for the American people. And so, you know, Donald Trump is the type of guy who is petty enough that if you cross him in some way, he might really try to get back at you, even if it doesn't matter to him, because he's only got two more years in there, and it doesn't even matter whether you get reelected or not. So that's an interesting question. I really don't know. As of right now, I don't know. Is there any Republican in Congress who's actually. It's not as if we have what Mitt Romney was doing in the first term or Liz Cheney or there's not like, a Republican who's out there, like, being the opposition right now. If there was, I think probably he would do that in 2026. But at the same time, I look at it like, if I had to guess, yeah, there'll be some Republicans who stab him in the back between now and 2026, and I would not be surprised at all if that results in Donald Trump trying to throw them under the bus and. And get them primaried or something like that. And, you know, Donald Trump doesn't have, you know, none of these endorsements and all of this stuff. It's never. It's never like you have. You can just give 100% of your energy to someone else. But in the world of Republicanism right now, Donald Trump's the last guy you want to have as an enemy. And so I do think he should be using that. You know, I do think he should be. He, you know, my advice to Donald Trump during the campaign, which he ended up somewhat following. I not saying he followed it from me, but he ended up ultimately kind of following. My. My advice to him was like, you should be threatening the. Out of these social media companies, you know, and that. And ultimately, look what he did with Zuckerberg. Now, if you want to call me out, I guess that is some gangster shit I support. So there you go. There are some. There are some limited examples where I will. I will support some gangster shit being done, but only in the goal of rolling back gangster. So there you go. All right, listen, we're gonna wrap up on that one. I will catch you guys out in Houston, Texas, tomorrow night, Friday night, Saturday night. See you there. Thank you guys for listening. Catch you next time. Peace.