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- [00:00]
Dave Smith
Hi, I'm Richard Karn and you may have seen me on TV talking about.
- [00:03]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
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- [00:16]
Dave Smith
What could be better than that? For a limited time you can get a free Pocket Pivot and their 10 pattern sprayer with the purchase of any size Copperhead hose. Just go to getcopperhead.com that's getcopperhead.com for your two free gifts with purchase getcopperhead.com what's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. We both appear to not be at home, but that's not going to stop us from getting together and bringing you guys an episode. I'm on a, a little family vacation here. What are you, what are you up to, Rob? Traveling the country?
- [00:58]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Yeah, I'm hanging out on Myrtle beach between porches with the Yo Cranum boys. We're having a good time. We played the inlet dispensary the other night. It was a wild show out on the porch and front lawn, really blasting my nonsense into the local neighborhood. And this weekend I've got Oklahoma City then celebrating the fourth of July in Granbury, Texas. We got some hot dogs, we got some fireworks.
- [01:20]
Dave Smith
That sounds like a Fun 1. A Fourth of July porch tour in Texas sounds awesome.
- [01:26]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
And then Shreveport, Louisiana. All that's@portstore.com and then the last gig of the weekend is in Houston, Texas, back at the Secret Group. You can find those tickets on their website. And these are all going to be great shows with my friend Andy. So come hang out.
- [01:39]
Dave Smith
Yeah guys, come, come on out. If you're in the area. The Porch tour is legendary at this point. And of course me and you, Rob, got some, some gigs together coming up in, in July. We got Denver Comedy Works selling out.
- [01:53]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Get on it, boys.
- [01:55]
Dave Smith
Yeah, if you want to come see us in Denver, get the tickets now because it is. I just got a ticket update and it's, we're gonna, I think every one of these shows is going to sell out pretty soon. So please come on out. We're happy to see you there. And then we got Cleveland. Hilarity is one of our favorite clubs in the, in the country. And then I'll be back at the Comedy Mothership. Another one. Or if you want to get tickets. Make sure you go get them now because those, those will sell out for sure. Okay, let's. Let's jump into some stuff. I do. I apologize we missed the episode yesterday. I was just doing family vacation stuff, so got to do that sometimes. It's important.
- [02:29]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I like how we're out with the family. You dress like you're chopping wood and working on the truck. And I like the Baby Smith vacation look.
- [02:37]
Dave Smith
Well, I was under the impression that we had rented a house. I found out I have to build house for my fellows, so I thought, you better get started. And so I started cutting down some trees and I built this nice log cabin that I find myself in now. It is, it's been an interesting few days, though. In the news, the big thing that's popping off right now, really yesterday, it really got to like a fever pitch. But the, the Trump versus Thomas Massie feud that had been kind of bubbling up for a while. Enter Elon Musk, hardcore on the side of Thomas Massie. Now, again, this isn't all completely new. We kind of talked about this a few weeks back, if you remember, way back before the 12 Day War, this was the big news that Elon Musk and Donald Trump had had a falling out. And as the war is kind of wrapped up, or at least seemingly so, and now Trump is pivoting back toward his domestic agenda. Of course, the big beautiful bill, as he retardedly calls it, just passed the Senate earlier today. But so anyway, the focus has been back to this, the spending bill. And there's just, I don't know, I find, like, there's a lot that's interesting about this dynamic. There's a lot of different kind of angles on it that I all think are fairly fascinating. But I guess if I zoom out, just looking at it, you're like, all right, so this is the, the Donald Trump presidency, which was I, I guess, supposed to be, I think always in, in the minds of, of voters was a repudiation of the status quo, a big middle finger to the Democrat and Republican establishment and CNN and the New York Times and all of this. And we're, what we're left with is, as you're here, it's just so funny to me is it's like, all right, well, listen, we're bombing Iran and spending ourselves into debt. It's like, this could have been John McCain's presidency. It's just there's something so fascinating in the American political system about how it always comes back to, like, meet the new boss, same as the old boss, it's always kind of like the will of the establishment just gets enforced. And Donald Trump. Look, I'll say this. I, I don't know. There's a lot of people who speculate about like Elon Musk's motivations in all of this. This has been true from the very beginning. Of course, Donald Trump himself is is this entire time even still today. I just saw he posted something on Truth Social that really what Elon Musk cares about is the electric vehicle subsidies or whatever. And there's been a lot of speculation from the beginning of Doge that he was just trying to collect data or any of this. But as I said in the first episode when we talked about their Trump and Elon Musk split. Look, I can't read anybody's mind, but it just really seems like he's motivated by being against this crazy spending bill and really being concerned about government debt destroying the country. That just seems because like he's out. He didn't need to come back in and re pick up this fight. It clearly does him no favors to be in a big public fight with Donald Trump. I'm just saying perhaps I'm wrong and there's some other motivation here, but it sure does seem like the guy just believes in what he's saying and he's undeniably correct about what he's saying about this bill. So I don't know any thoughts you have, Rob, Go for it.
- [06:24]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Well, it's hard to disagree with Elon Musk when he's right. I don't know that his business is more honorable than anyone of any other business that's tied in with the government. He certainly has made money off of favorable government contracts and does seem to be playing that racket. And maybe although Trump, when he was campaigning, part of his campaigning was against continuing with the EV movement. So Elon Musk kind of knew that even when he backed him. And maybe it was a different play for something favorable with Starlink or the other industries, but it didn't look like Elon Musk was backing Donald Trump for the corporate interest specifically of his electric vehicles. And it does feel like that's low hanging fruit for Donald Trump to criticize him back and go, hey, it's because I'm screwing him over. Doge did seem like it was an honest effort, or I don't know about an honest effort because they definitely overstated the savings that they were finding and what they ended up implementing. But buying Twitter to have free speech on the Internet did seem like it does appear to be an honest effort and to have been very helpful for the American people. And Elon Musk is not doing himself any favors with the current regime by criticizing the spending bill. When he did it the first time, you know, Donald Trump went full guns a blazing, hey, I'm going to ruin your business, and this is going to be a problem. It's a little bit interesting to see Elon Musk even wanting to revisit that and have the Donald Trump heat coming at him. But now he's flirting with attempting to primary anybody who voted for this. It might be a good opportunity for the Libertarian Party or to maybe court this individual. But, you know, the last time around, Donald Trump did not do great with his picks when it came to congressional seats or who he backed in the Senate. Obviously, now he's got a lot more power and potential funding from donors, so it might look different. But particularly, I don't know what Donald Trump's trying to do with Thomas Massie other than to spend a lot of money in the district and to try and prop up his candidate. And I'm not familiar enough with Kentucky politics to let you know how that will work. I definitely have a pro Massey bias, and my feedback loop is that he's very popular, but that's because he's my personal favorite. And so most of what I see on Twitter is also people that like him. But it certainly is an interesting storyline of Does Elon Musk really want to hold to his guns of opposing government spending and sharing this story? If that means the left already hates him and the current regime is also going to be going after his business, which really could, you know, when, when the government, when it's you in your business, in your business against the government, it's a very hard fight to win. Now you can pivot and decide to spend the billions of dollars that you have to try and make an impact on our political landscape, I wonder if he really has the stones to destroy his business in that endeavor.
- [09:16]
Dave Smith
Yeah, he's just, just to be clear, because this really is, you know, there's something about, like, first, when, when, when Elon Musk was first opposing the big beautiful bill, it was like, okay, you've stepped into an area now where you are, you know, you are working against the president's legislative agenda. So this makes you political rivals in a sense, you know, and then that, that's, to some degree, I think that's legitimate. You know, like, I don't agree with the spending bill, but this is politics, after all. And if the President is, is endorsing a bill and he wants to get that bill on his desk so he can s, you know, sign it into law and you're opposing the bill, you've now put yourself as a political rival. When he started, you know, when it got to the level and I did, just to be clear, I thought, as I said in the last episode, I think the last episode about this topic, I said it was Donald Trump who really took it to like the level of launching personal attacks. But then Elon Musk fired back with the Epstein stuff and all this. It's like, okay, now you're, you're not just a political rival. You've made yourself an enemy of the President of the United States. But what Elon Musk is saying right now is like, this is in the realm of politics, a declaration of war. And so I think almost what you're getting at is like, whoa, do you, is he really prepared to go to war like this? Because what Elon Musk is now saying, so Donald Trump made a whole thing about how he's going to primary Thomas Massie, which we could get a little bit more into that. Elon Musk came out and said he will back Thomas Massie. Now this isn't just anybody saying he's going to back Thomas. This is the richest guy in the world, or I don't know where he might be the second richest guy in the world. Now, I don't know where his stock valuations are, but this is a guy with a whole lot of money and a guy who owns Twitter. I mean, this is. And then he posted that. He, he, he said something like, I will see that every Republican who votes for this bill will be primaried. And now I don't know how serious he is about all this, but this is really a political declaration of war. This is not just him saying, I oppose your legislative agenda. He's now saying he's talking about forming another political party. I think you wanted to call it the America Party, where it's all about, you know what I mean, fiscal sanity or something and primaring all of the Republicans out. This is, look, if he's, if he is serious about that, this might be the best shot at actually making meaningful progress in this, you know, in terms of these out of control government budgets that I've ever seen propose thinking about the richest and one of the most famous human beings in the world, one of, if not the most influential human being in the world, throwing all their weight behind this. I mean, that's a big Deal. I will say one of the reasons why I'm really glad that Elon's at least talking this way is because I do. I just, I've been appalled at Donald Trump's treatment of Thomas Massie where it's. And I really think it's been just, it's shown just the worst in Donald Trump. It's kind of his, his, his nature as a bully, his, his kind of fragile ego. Thomas Massie, look, the thing with him and Elon Musk, okay, it, it escalated quickly. And yes, I think Donald Trump crossed that line first, but Elon Musk fired right back and did not try to de. Escalate, you know, the situation, at least at first, than he kind of did. Thomas Massie never made it personal. Thomas Massie is clearly, whether you agree with him or disagree with him, and obviously we agree with him, but he's clearly standing on principle. Everybody knows that Thomas Massie would have been a no vote for this bill if Joe Biden had proposed it. He'd have been a no vote for this bill if a different Republican had gotten in. This is what he believes. He's against this stuff, that he's voted against countless spending bills since he's been in Washington, D.C. and for Donald Trump to like the venom with which he's gone after Thomas Massie is just, it makes no sense at all given what the dispute is over. Like, there's people have been so much shittier to him in D.C. and he's buried the hatch with them. He's got, he's got Never Trumpers all over the place. I mean, his, his Secretary of state was a Never Trumper. His vice president compared him to Hitler. Like, he's got all these people around him who have done committed far more egregious kind of like, I don't know, acts of disloyalty toward him than Thomas Massie, who's just voting his conscience as a, as a member of the House of Representatives. Like, I, it's just, it makes no sense. And I guess, look, obviously, personally, because I just really love Thomas Massie. And I said, this is somebody who's met the guy several times and just thinks he's a really great guy. He also just lost his wife last year. And it's like there is something, and I find this to be a very interesting dynamic, but there, there is something where for Donald Trump, like the most famous human being in the world, the President of the United States of America, like, is Donald Trump, for him to zero in on Thomas Massie, who, who is like, relatively speaking, still, he's not like a household name the way Donald Trump is. He doesn't have an army of support the way Donald Trump does. Thomas Massie is not. Like, if you stop someone on the street who's not really following politics and you ask them who Thomas Massie is, there's a good chance they don't know who you're talking about. Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. There's tribal warlords in Afghanistan who know who Donald Trump is. You know what I mean? And. And yet what's kind of interesting to me, at least I see, is that you've got Donald Trump as we just saw, even over the last few weeks. I mean, the amount of support that Donald Trump has that just simply will. Will support him no matter what. It doesn't matter what he does. Like, the cult following that Donald Trump has is enormous. There's tens of millions of people in that. And yet, as he attacks Thomas Massie, Massey almost seems like this immovable object. Like, even though Thomas Massie isn't the household name that Donald Trump is, the people around him are just, like, not moving. Like, there. There's enough of us, and I clearly, this is me and you. But, like, there is this thing where it's like, Trump, you really want to go to war with Thomas Massie? Okay, Team Massey all day. Like, none of us are like, you know what I mean? Like, because the thing is that the people who like Thomas Massie, they like him because he's standing on principle. The people who like Thomas Massie. And this is a radical thought to some of the Trump cultists. We actually have principles. We believe in something. And so that's what we like about that guy. So if you think you're just going to come in here and bully him and be like, oh, well, this is. It's more popular to be against him than forms. Like, yeah, none of us care about that. None of us care. He's saying what's right. He's telling the truth. So we're on his side. And I do think. And again, I'll. I'll offer kind of like the same disclaimer, I guess, that you did, which is that it is true that we're all kind of influenced at this point by our algorithms on. On social media and stuff. And certainly, I'm sure I see a lot of the. The Pro Massey stuff. But I have been. I mean, I've been watching this for. For a while now, and it does seem like there just is a solid foundational support for Thomas Massie. That is like just unmoved by Donald Trump's attacks and that it's just not going to like, sorry dude, you're not going to like convince me that big government and unsustainable debt is actually okay now just because clearly you're just. Clearly Thomas Massie in this case is motivated by what he thinks is right for the country and Donald Trump is motivated by what he thinks is right for Donald Trump, which is kind of always what the story is. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolon. Forget everything you think you know about fasting. Prolon by El Nutra is the only patented fasting mimicking diet that combines the benefits of prolonged fasting with a science backed nutrition plan so you can hit your health and weight loss goals without actually having to give up food. I don't know about you guys, I've heard a ton about these fasting diets. 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All right, let's get back into the show.
- [19:17]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I think Donald Trump needs full compliance in on the LARP of that. Everything's the greatest, everything's the best. And so if anyone's pointing out even the slightest sliver of why it's not the greatest thing that's ever happened to everybody, he's got to do everything he can to shut it down and keep everybody in line. And speaking to what you just said in my version of America first, I mean Thomas Massie's the hero. Israel. Hey, we shouldn't be spending our money over there wars. We shouldn't be doing it. And if we are, it needs to come through Congress. Covid, you all have to actually come back here and do your job and vote on this and be on the record for voting for this ev. Hey, I'm the guy who actually understands the science to this and our electricity grid can't handle it. And all the while being. Living a personal lifestyle of being very carbon neutral and green efficient, but also just realize, and then when it comes to even like the more privatized stuff of, hey, you should be allowed to just buy beef directly from a guy who grows beef. You know, it's just every single issue that I see come across, you know, any of these, the hearings or whatnot, he always seems to reflect an opinion closer to mine. And frankly, freedom and American first values. And I think that that's. It's such a bad look for Donald Trump. If anyone wants to just shelve the Donald Trump absolutism and actually think about what you believe in with the agenda of America first and look at Thomas Massie's views over what Donald Trump is doing. And in this case, it's recklessly spending more money to support, you know, basically, not just growing the growing the military industrial complex, growing socialized programs. Just think about what your actual values are as a conservative. And that's a. Why Donald Trump needs to get rid of Thomas Massie is because it gives a voice to the thing that I think if most people gave an honest reflection to what they care about, Thomas Massie is going to be more in line with what Donald than what Donald Trump is actually doing.
- [21:14]
Dave Smith
Yeah, you know, I think that's right. And you know, I know that I got a lot of shit over the last couple weeks for which again, look, like I said before on the show, like, I just, I don't, I don't think I was wrong about what I was saying. And I think actually like the, you know, I think the more things have become clear about it's not over.
- [21:36]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Donald Trump's out there on the news saying that they don't even still have their refined enriched uranium. Like, I mean, he was certainly flirting with the war and we were definitely going, hey, this is a mistake. And now he's out there going, it's totally, indefinitely, completely over because I took care of it. And maybe that's true, but I don't think anybody knows that. And I definitely think Donald Trump's overplaying that they couldn't possibly still break it. Like, in my mind, they're almost more likely now than ever before because seemingly before they could have had it, but weren't really interested. They wanted to have the determination, the deterrent of we could have it. And now you kind of just took that away as being a deterrent and kind of signal to them, hey, half measures aren't going to work.
- [22:21]
Dave Smith
Well, there's, look, there's, there's several, you know, factors to this thing and that, look, Iran has already said that they're kicking the inspectors out. I'm not sure if they're going to follow through with that or not, but they've said that. And so this whole, it's, it's all so ridiculous, this whole justification of 60% enrichment there, like, as. It's just too crazy. It's, it's, you know, I've mentioned this a few times that Scott Horton was making this point, such a good point though. But he's like, you know, we've, we knew that the Soviet Unions were developing nuclear weapons and this was Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, you know, like one of the most evil people who's ever lived, and he's developing nuclear weapons. But, but no serious person ever said, hey, we should launch a war against the Soviet Unions because they're researching nuclear capabilities. No one ever said Ma Dong we knew was developing nuclear weapons. No one. He's the worst human being who's ever lived. Killed more people than anyone who's ever lived. He. The point is just like we lived with it, it's not great when these bad regimes have nuclear weapons, but the world has made their peace with it currently. Today, Kim Jong Un has nuclear weapons. Like, there's the China and Russia, they all have nuclear weapons. Like, okay, we're supposed to believe that this Iranian regime is such a threat, there's so much worse than Mao and Joseph Stalin that the world just cannot bear the threat of them having nuclear weapons. And then it's like, okay, also Gaddafi could totally denuclearize. We'll still go overthrow him. Saddam was never making nuclear weapons. We'll still lie and say he is. And also, 60% enrichment is a reason, like, and no matter what you do, it's a justification for a regime change, war. So like this, it's all, and I think, look, there's just something so incredibly dishonorable about launching a war of aggression and choice while using negotiating negotiations to distract the enemy. Like, it's, it's literally, it's. There is something wrong with Launching a war in this most dishonorable way. Now, look, all the credit in the world to Donald Trump for when the Iranians gave him the off ramp, taking it and trying to posture out of this. The point is that none of this, Iran was already negotiating. They were at the negotiating table. And what they were negotiating, what they were willing to do was bring down the level of which they were enriching uranium. Like, if 60% was your big deal, then you could have brought it. Now they're quite likely going to be kicking inspectors out and we don't know, we won't know where they're at with this stuff. Anyway, all of that, you know, forget all of that. I do just know that over the last, so when, when I came out, you know, strongly against Donald Trump for, for getting us into this war, there what a lot of people. And look, this will be, to some degree, this is just going to be what it is. And it's fine. I can make my peace with this. I don't really care. And my, my, my position is, again, it's, I don't, there's no value in what I do unless I'm willing to do this, unless I'm willing to, like, tell the truth, even when it's going to get people pissed off or whatever. But I certainly will say that, like, there's no question that the, like, low IQ narratives move a lot of people. And that's, that's just the truth. It's always the case. It's. I, you know, I like to think that our audience is a little brighter than the average, but that it's always the case that these, so the bottom line is that I was very loudly going, this could be a catastrophe. And it didn't end up being a catastrophe. And therefore people can go, look, you were wrong. And it's a very low IQ narrative, but it's a powerful one. And so, hey, if I got to eat that, fine, I'd rather it not be a catastrophe and have that. But the point is that as this is, is happening, right, you have so, so Donald Trump can, can say, you know, hey, look, it didn't turn into a catastrophe. And I, I brought this back to, to where we were. Now, okay, this, when I say it's a low IQ narrative, I just mean that, like, that doesn't actually indicate anything. Going out drunk, driving and coming home in one piece doesn't prove that it wasn't a risky, terrible decision to go drive drunk. I, I'm not speaking against driving drunk. You, you know what? You can handle better than me. But you get my point. So while, but while this was happening, right, I said, one of the things I said that got people pissed off was I said that Donald Trump betrayed maga. And then this got into the whole thing where like Ben Shapiro was responding to me as he's saying, oh, you get to decide what MAGA is. That's not what MAGA is. MAGA is whatever Donald Trump says MAGA is. And then it just like it spurred this really, really stupid debate about who's really MAGA or who's really betraying what. But I think the point I was getting at was what you were just saying about Thomas Massie, that it's like, look, all I'm saying is that if you, if you really take the base of Donald Trump's voters and where they are on the issues, and we know this because we're in this world and we've been in this world for years, you ask, ask a Trump supporter. Was, was Dr. Fauci an honorable person who did a good job through Covid? Did he tell the truth or was he like a criminal liar who made the entire thing worse than it had to be? What do you think the percentage would be like if I were to poll Donald Trump voters and give him like those two options? The overwhelming majority is going to be opposed to him. And yet Thomas Massie was the guy who was critical of him the whole time. And Donald Trump kept him on as the face of the pandemic response through all of 2020. If you talk about the debt and like, like crazy, the crazy climate agenda, like, you could go down the risk, the list. Thomas Massie is that guy. So yes, it's true that the, the hero worship goes to Donald Trump, that he has the cult of personality around him, but when it comes to substance of where the average Trump, average Trump voter actually is on the issues, Thomas Massie wins that battle every day 100 out of 100 times. And so that's just, that's the point of all of this is just that it's like you're gonna have, when, when you pick on Thomas Massie now when you go out of your way to, you know, which is really crazy because you think about it, Donald Trump, there is something that almost feels just like self destructive about the whole thing where it's like you had this winning coalition and then, I'm sorry, but you're the one who decided to crack the whole thing up. And now you're going at Thomas Massie, who is, he's going to be backed by the smartest, most principled MAGA supporters. Those are the guys who are going to like Thomas Massie. And so that's who you're stripping out of your own political coalition when you go after him in this way. And again, it's not just going after him like saying, like Thomas Massie, this is a bad vote, or even calling him a loser or even calling him some names and saying he's, you know what I mean? He's trying to mess with my agenda. He's wrong about all this stuff. But when you're really talking about primarying him and putting in millions of dollars for his primary opponent, like, you're not primary. Lindsey Graham, you're not trying to primary. Like, you have some of the worst of the worst in D.C. and Thomas Massie is the guy you choose to go after. I just think. I'm not saying he can't hurt Thomas Massie, but there's no way he doesn't hurt himself in this fight, too. So that's, that'd be my take. All right, let's. Let's talk a little bit about. Because it's been kind of interesting, the, the developments since the. Okay, sure.
- [30:24]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Oh, yeah, one more thing on that. It's interesting, the kind of fracturing of the winning coalition. So Tulsi Gabbard decided to get back in line, but if she hadn't, which she did, she got back in line, but let's say she did and she said no, I saw that intelligence. And Iran's not looking for a nuclear bomb. And this is a war for no reason, to help the Israelis or to look for regime change, which is why I came here, was to not have wars like this. Like, you know, Donald Trump promised to kind of be against these regime change wars, and now he conducted this strike in Iran. Who knows, maybe he'll come go down as the greatest hero ever, that he kept them from getting a nuke with targeted strikes. Or maybe we're revisiting this exact same narrative in a year from now, but that narrative nearly fell apart on him and he nearly lost. Tulsi Gabbard, who was a part of the winning coalition and selling him to the American people is going to being anti war. Doge was part of the storylines that helped him win the election of that Elon Musk wanted to back him and we were going to clean up government spending that's already fallen away. It'd be interesting. You know, it seems like some of these other characters, I just keep hearing random stuff from RFK Jr and it seems like he's in his own lane. And Donald Trump and like, doesn't really care about the health care issues, so he's just doing his own thing. But that was another part of the winning coalition. But we're only, what, six months into Donald Trump here. And so you're already kind of seen losing some of the characters that help push him over and win that he was actually going to enact some of these agendas. And one of the agendas that they keep floating, like they're going to look at is going after the deep state, finding out what was going on with Epstein, find out what was going on with January 6th. And Thomas Massie has been one of the best voices on that one also with bringing up the Ray UPS and the pipeline storyline. And these are, that's just another big one that matters to the conservative voters in which the Donald Trump administration, they keep floating the volleyballs in the air of that they're interested and they're looking into these things, but seemingly never are.
- [32:27]
Dave Smith
Yeah, no, that's, that's absolutely right. And it's, it's, it's amazing to watch and very predictable. You know, I mean, there's nothing really surprising about this. But in fact, it was an old, that was an old Scott Horton law of presidents that they always keep their bad promises and break their good promises. They. But all the stuff that we heard coming into this was like, and look, obviously with the baseline kind of Trump agenda. And of course, look, I'm not saying, you know, Donald Trump and there's a way, you know, people. What was that book? I never read it, but there was the famous book that was like lies, Lies and Statistics or something like that. But it's like, you know, you'll see a lot of people in the media will say things like, they'll be like, you know, the Donald Trump has always said Iran can't have a nuclear weapon and 82% of Americans say that they do not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. You're like, yeah, but that doesn't tell you anything. I, I'd be amongst those 82%. I don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Who the hell wants the Mullas to have a nuclear weapon? That's not the question. The question is, do you want to launch a war over it? Not do you like it? You know, like some. I was on with that Lindy we, the Asian lady who was like a big Democrat donor who's now, you know, I don't. I'll tell you, there's a Little thing. I don't really trust that lady, but I don't know enough about her to really say anything. But I was on the. They have Jillian Michaels. Like, her. Her take, I think, is the name of the show. I really love Jillian Michaels and Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics by Michael Wheeler. Yes, thank you, Natalie. I never read it, so I'm talking about a book I didn't read. Just thinking of the title. But. But so I was on her take. I really, really like Jillian Michaels a lot. She's great. And I like Anna Kasparian from the Young Turks was on there, too. But anyways, arguing with this Lindy woman at some point that she was one of these people who was like, she was a big Democratic donor who then walked away from the Democratic Party. But it was like, it was kind of like felt like swimming off a sinking ship or something like that. You know what I mean? Like, you're like, yeah, it's pretty easy to walk away from the Democrats now. Like, now that everyone hates them. I'm not a part of that anymore. Like, all right, but where were you when they were ruining everything? But she said to me at one point that she goes, she said, you know, we were arguing about Iran. And she said, of course, the very predictable. She goes, but they chant death to America. And I was like. I was like, so we're. You're advocating we launch wars over chance now? And she goes, oh, so you're saying it's just fine that they chant death to America? And I was like, I think there's a little bit of room between it's fine and we should launch a war over it. No. Do you see any more gray in life? Is it all that black and white? Either you love something or we should, anyway. But if you really look at, like, where the Trump supporters are at, there are these overwhelmingly popular issues that Donald Trump has. And as many people have pointed out as what's his name on cnn, always loves to say the. I'm blanking on his name. But the conservative guy at CNN who's always owning everyone on the panels. But I think David Sachs has made this point, too, that Trump races to the 80 in a lot of 80, 20 issues. You know, like, it's like, should we unleash American energy? I mean, this is like a very big deal that there's, you know, there's actual policies about restricting how much energy we produce. And Trump's like, we should unleash American energy. Like, 80, 20 issue. Yes, people want to produce more energy and bring down the Cost of gas and live a higher standard of living. Staying at a stupid foreign wars was a huge one. That's overwhelmingly popular. Having, you know, some type of sane immigration controls. Overwhelmingly popular. Probably more than an 8020 issue. Getting rid of like the insane woke stuff, not pushing crazy gender stuff on kids. Overwhelming 8020 issue. I mean like one after the other. It's like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. These are very popular. Exposing the corruption in the deep state, Getting to the bottom of, of, of the Jeffrey Epstein thing, getting to the bottom of the JFK thing. All these are enormously popular. What are we getting? What are we getting though? I mean, I think we already know, like you said, the Doge thing is already out. We're not getting that mass deportations are not happening. We're not getting that staying out of stupid wars. Well, I mean, okay, he has not got us into another catastrophe, but man, did he sure flirt with one. And, and the much safer bet of staying out of them would have been to not get into a 12 day war to begin with. And so like one thing after the other after the other, it's like, oh yeah, all the, all the good promises just aren't coming true. And all the things that are enormously popular, very few of them are, are coming true. So that's kind of where I see it. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Ridge. We love the Ridge wallet here at part of the problem. It is, it is the coolest, sleekest wallet you'll ever get. I have a couple of them. All of their designs are awesome. It's a minimalist wallet. You hold your cash, your cards, everything you need and nothing that you don't. I will say I was an old school wallet guy for many years. Getting the Ridge was a game changer for me. And then at a certain point you're like, I'm not sure why I carried this big leather sack in my back pocket with every business card I've gotten over the last 20 years. That really was not necessary. All you need is some cash and some cards and the Ridge wallet is cool. It's a good conversation starter. It's just, it makes an awesome gift. It's a great, great product. Also, they're built with an airtag attachment, so you'll always know exactly where it is before panic mode kicks in. That's a great thing to have these days. And Ridge also isn't just about wallets. They create premium everyday carry essentials like key cases, suitcases, rings, all built with the same sleek, durable design. No matter what you pick, Ridge has fast shipping, a 99 day risk free trial and a lifetime warranty on all of their products. So right now Ridge is having their once a year anniversary sale. You can get up to 40% off@ridge.compotp10 just head over to ridge. To see their biggest sale of the year. After you purchase they will ask you where you heard about them. Please let them know that you heard about them here on the part of the Problem podcast that'll help out the show. Check them out. Ridge.compotp10 all right, let's get back into the show.
- [39:08]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Anyway, on that topic of mass deportations, you do have to give them credit. Did a great job with the border and apparently I think there's a fair amount of people that are actually self deporting and then I guess it remains to be determined of how many people and at what level he actually deports. But in terms of at least he's making some good fixes there, which includes possibilities.
- [39:33]
Dave Smith
Yeah, no, that's true.
- [39:35]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
One of the big problems with all the people that immigrated was congressional seats for districts that end up with a lot of illegal immigrants. And I think he's trying to change the law on the, the census no longer count them, which is a pretty big fix. And then he's also trying to get rid of birthright citizenship, which so some of like the major demographic changes that might have taken place because of the illegal immigration. He might be solving for that. He certainly has closed the border and I think he's made the environment a little bit more hostile that some people seem to be self deporting. I'd have to look up what the numbers are on that again, but I guess it remains to be seen on how widespread his actual deportation efforts are.
- [40:15]
Dave Smith
Yeah, no, that's a fair point. And it is, it is important to point out that particularly in terms of the flow of migrants, he's, he's really gotten like an A plus on that. He's done a remarkable job. And I think so much of that seems to just be who the president is. It really does send a signal. But so yeah, that is, that is a fair point. And one of the things that's been interesting over the last few days is that so Benjamin Netanyahu, I guess is coming to the US in the next few days. I think Trump said something like there'll be some brief celebration over how successful the mission was. Oh, by the way, before even getting to the Netanyahu thing, I should say this is because it's just kind of funny to me. But so you've got. In terms of the damage that was done to the Iranian nuclear capabilities. Now again, as I've been clear on this the whole time and again, this is what all the intelligence backs up. In fact, I'm going off of the intelligence assessment here. I'm going off of the IAEA and the Director of National Intelligence and the CIA and, and European intelligence and Israeli intelligence, which all were saying that Iran has not yet made the political decision. This is before the 12 Day War. Iran had not made the political decision to attempt to acquire a nuclear weapon, let alone were acquiring it. They hadn't even decided to start going for it and they were in negotiations to bring it. So there was, it was a non existent nuclear threat. So. But now there were, as I'm sure you saw, Rob, and I'm sure people listening saw there were, there were kind of like conflicting reports about how much damage has actually been done to the Iranian nuclear facilities. Now I know I had a couple, a couple military buddies of mine who I've talked to and one, Daryl Cooper has talked about this publicly and he worked for the Department of Defense for a while and he was a part of the several damage assessments and what he said. And I've heard this from a few other people who I know who have military experience. They're basically saying anytime you're doing a damage assessment, if you can't get verification on the ground, there's very little confidence in whatever you're assessing. You know, you go off satellite images and stuff like that, but it's very hard to know exactly how much damage you did. But so the New York Times and cnn, they basically got leaked a report that said that it hadn't been that damaged and that they'd maybe only been set back by a few months or maybe a year, but that really hadn't done major damage. Now then the White House, they attacked CNN and the New York Times, but they also did acknowledge that the report was real, but that there was other information they didn't have. Then Tulsi Gabbard comes out like, no, no, we have intelligence that it actually was very effective. And it's that Trump's like totally obliterated. The Iranians are kind of playing coy in the middle, like, not exact. They're the ones who would know. They're not exactly saying what happened. And they've given a couple statements indicating in different directions. But you have this situation now where just to be completely clear here, I have no idea. I don't think a lot of them know for sure. I think the Iranians know, and I think that's about it as of right now. But I don't know. I think it certainly is possible that you drop a whole bunch of these bunker busters, it's going to do a ton of damage. So I'm not, I'm open to the idea that they were obliterated, as Donald Trump said. But what's interesting about it is you have all of these different groups with their clear incentives to take the narrative they want to take, right, like the, the New York Times and CNN wants to damage Donald Trump. As we've seen in the past. They're quite happy to use, utilize lies in order to do that. They'll utilize the truth, too, if that'll damage Donald Trump, but they're quite happy to make shit up, too. So you can't really trust them. You know, they're trying to damage Donald Trump. You know, they're also beholden to the war party. And so, of course, the war party would like the pretext for war to, to remain, you know, and be like, oh, there's still a nuclear threat we got to take care of. Maybe we got to bomb them more. Donald Trump obviously is incentivized to say what an overwhelming success this mission was because I'm such a great president, you know, and then the Iranians have their own interesting set of incentives where, you know, they don't want to admit that we got hit really good. They also don't want to broadcast to the world that, like, the strikes didn't work. So the same issue is still here for you to come back and attack us on anyway. You know, I can't lie. So I have to just say, I, I don't know. But for my own propagandistic reasons, I do like the Trump line the best. Like, I do. I, I do like the, oh, yeah, there you go. No more reason, right? This, this nuclear threat that never existed to begin with, but yes, it's been totally neutralized. So I guess we don' to worry about this problem anymore going forward anyway. So now Donald Trump has, has been pivoting toward talking about trying to end the war in Gaza. And Donald Trump's got a problem on his hands here, which is that he, he's damaged his political coalition. There is no now, it's, believe me, I'm not downplaying this. It is, it was very much in peril. It was rescued by the fact that Donald Trump, after the Iranians had their little, you know, restrained response and gave us advanced notice after that. Donald Trump pivoting to a ceasefire immediately and wrapping the thing up that, you know, rescued his very, you know, damaged coalition. But you still can't undo the fact that, that you, you had just so many people and, and people with big audiences who were, like, so opposed to the policy in Iran. When you got Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon and Jack Posaybiak and Charlie Kirk and all of these guys talking about how you're going to destroy your own political coalition, that doesn't just go away in weeks, that does damage to your, the cohesion of your base. And now Donald Trump's looking at this reality where there's still, look, he's been unable to end the war in Ukraine despite his efforts, and he's been unable to end this war. And they're both very unpopular and they're both kind of destabilizing. They both bring a lot of volatility over here and like, political volatility. I mean, and so now he's talking about wanting to, to end this war. So then he comes out with this, this, this post a few days ago about how Netanyahu's trial should be called off. Did you see this, Rob? And this is, I will say there is something about all of this. This is just kind of, my, my read of the situation is that I, I think that Donald Trump's thinking on this is that Netanyahu doesn't want to end this war because he knows he's going on trial for corruption charges when he ends it, and that if he can get rid of that trial, then maybe he can persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war. That seems to be what he's thinking here because he's also signaling that he wants to wrap up the, the, you know, Israel's campaign in Gaza. And there is just something, I feel like this is so, it's so ripe for conspiracy theories because it's almost impossible not to speculate about the level of control that Israel has over our politics. But it's really amazing, Rob, to witness that just days after Netanyahu, Donald Trump pushes for a ceasefire, and then Netanyahu just unloads, attacking Iran after that. And Trump is so frustrated because he's like, my God, you know what I mean? Like, he's working actively against your interests and, and then you're like, he's trying to lure you into a war that you're trying to get out of, and you're, you're frustrated. And then the next Day you're out advocating that his charges are dropped. Because this is how you see, you could maybe influence him, him into ending this war that we're funding. Like, you want to end the war that you're funding? Stop funding the thing. Like, it's just so bizarre. And with Donald Trump particularly, you just know him, like, we just know from his personality type that like, if anyone else disrespected and humiliated him this way, he would just be eviscerating them. Like, just, you know, the best you got is in what. When he's at his angriest on one clip, he like very, he goes. And he lumped Iran into, he goes around and Israel don't know what the fuck they're doing. That's the most he could muster up. That was even like kind of critical of Israel was. He was being critical of both Israel and Iran. And yet Elon Musk, you know, because people will say, well, it's as simple as the, you know, the Adelson's gave him hundreds of millions of dollars. It's like, how about Elon Musk? Elon Musk gave him hundreds of millions of dollars. He turned his back on him. In a second. Tucker Carlson gave the, the keynote address at the Republican National Convention. He threw him under the bus in a second. Anybody else he'll throw under the bus. And his former vice president, it doesn't matter who. Like, he'll throw his wife under the bus if she crosses him the wrong way. But Benjamin Netanyahu, the way he's got to massage this guy is be like, well, maybe if we could get his trial canceled, then maybe he. Like, it's as if we're Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu is the President of the United States of America. Like, it's as if, as if he's the guy who runs the country with the most badass military that's funding us. And then we got to go, man, we got to ask him real nicely if he would maybe do this thing. But this is the way Trump treats Benjamin Netanyahu. It's just, it's, it's too much for regular people to not look at that and go, like, what's going on here? Like, what type of control do they have? And even for, for me, I got to be honest, like, it just, it makes me speculate in my mind, like, what do they have on you, dude? Because no one else could get this type of treatment for, for Donald Trump. I mean, like, you think about what he's uncorking on Thomas Massie for opposing A bloated spending bill, and yet Benjamin Netanyahu can just spit in his mouth on the international stage and Trump just takes it. It's wild. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Crowd Health. I've been telling you about this company for years now because I just love what they're doing. I think it's such a great idea and such a. 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- [52:30]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
And just to add to that a little bit, I've been watching quite a bit of Judge Knapp show because he has a Mearsheimer.
- [52:37]
Dave Smith
So great.
- [52:37]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
And.
- [52:38]
Dave Smith
Yeah.
- [52:38]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
And what's his name on a lot. The guy from mit? Sachs. Jeffrey Sachs.
- [52:44]
Dave Smith
Jeffrey Sachs. Harvard. From Harvard. Yeah.
- [52:46]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Yeah.
- [52:46]
Dave Smith
Jeffrey Sachs.
- [52:47]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
I just lumped the smart people to Boston.
- [52:49]
Dave Smith
Yeah. Close up.
- [52:50]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Same concept.
- [52:52]
Dave Smith
Yeah.
- [52:53]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
And there seems to be a bit of chatter that Radcliffe has a heavy Mossad tie in that as the head of the CIA is kind of either taking direct orders or regularly meeting with them beyond what sounds like the typical just intelligence sharing.
- [53:12]
Dave Smith
Yep, yep. No, look, that's. I've, I've heard those Guys talk about that too. And it's, it certainly seems like that's quite possible, but there, you know, there is something about this dynamic that's almost like just too, it's too obvious and too absurd for people to not pick up on it. And, you know, I, I think there's something really, I think there's something really interesting about the Mandani guy winning the primary in New York. Again, not. It's funny because as I, I was, when I was arguing with this Lindy chick too, we got into this topic and at one point, you know, she was like going to me about, you know, she's like, well, you don't understand how bad his socialist policies are or something. I was like, listen, you guys are all a bunch of communists to me, okay? Like, I'm so much more of a capitalist than anyone on this panel. Like, so, yeah, you don't have to convince me. And I, I can make the argument quite better than you can about why, you know, city owned grocery stores or freezing rent stabilized apartments is a terrible idea. But that being said, there is, look, there's just no question with the Mamdani guy that like, there is a, a burning hatred for him that you don't have for a lot of these other democratic socialists. You know, there's a lot of people who are, are these goofy progressives. I mean, they call themselves Democratic socialists. None of them even seem to know what the term means. I think Mamdani actually is one, unlike Bernie Sanders and people like that who use the term AOC or whatever. But it's just very obvious that it's like, no, his issue, his position on Israel is what you guys are so upset about that now I'm happy to discuss how terrible the economic stuff is, but there's an interesting dynamic here where they're trying to get him for that. They won't admit it, so they have to pretend it's this other stuff. Then they have to jump on the like, like he said, globalize the Intifada or something like that, even though nobody's really producing him saying that what they're producing is an interview where someone asks him to condemn the term globalize the Intifada. And he's like, well, that means different things to different people. And so I don't want to condemn everybody, but violence isn't acceptable. You know, it's like, not. But the truth is that the reality is that as they're trying to get him on this issue, they're just helping him because the war is unpopular and it's particularly unpopular amongst his base. So it's like, oh, you're forcing everyone else to carry this baggage for you. You know what I mean? And it's just like, it's too obvious. You have a New York City mayoral debate, and you're asking about who's going to visit Israel, who supports their right to exist as a Jewish state. What the hell does this have to do with. With being the mayor of New York City? It's ridiculous. They don't even understand. They're handing them this winning card. I mean, it is so, like, you go through that. We played it on the show, but you go through that clip where all the other candidates are pledging that they'll go visit Israel. And then his answer is, I'll stay in New York City. I'll talk to my Jewish constituents right here in New York City. Because my concern are the problems that face New York. And you're just like, wherever you fall in the political spectrum, objectively, that's the correct answer. That's the winning answer. When you're running to be mayor of New York City, the winning answer is, I care about New York. I don't care about. Is like, I care about what's happening here. And then the other thing, I guess, is this. The Bob villain guy we've seen, they're making this huge. Who. I've never heard of. I never heard of that festival. I never heard of this guy. The music is, let's just say, not for me, but it's like, this is. It's just too wild that everybody's supposed. We're supposed to act like saying death to the IDF is like, this is the catastrophe of the last two years. Really? You know, everything. Like the thing that's happening to the children in Gaza. Yeah, sure, that's unpleasant. But this. These chants at this concert here are really. And then everybody's flipping out about it. Look, even. It's so funny because it's like the. I want to say cognitive dissonance, but I guess that's not exactly the right term. It's like it's the priors that people have that they are so dug into. And even when they open up a little bit of their mind, they're still kind of revert back to these. These faulty priors. But it's like, look, I'll just say this, okay? And I think this is something people are waking up to. So there was just. There was just a pretty bombshell report in Haaretz. I don't know if you read this article, Rob, but this was about three days ago, they came out with this piece where they had, you know, there's been. It's like, as I'm sure most people have heard, there's been several incidents now in Gaza where, like, some humanitarian aid has gotten in. And then the people, like, basically, you know, like we've talked about, it's like old Black Friday at Walmart. They're. They're just trampling over each other for food. And there's something so dark about seeing that. Like, it's, it really will, like, it's horror movie to watch. Like, human beings are so desperate for food that they're fighting over, like, crumbs. And then people have just started shooting into the crowds. This has happened several different times in Gaza over the last several months. And the IDF for a while was denying it and saying, oh, this was Hamas. Then there were reports on the ground. They're like, there were no Hamas militants there. This doesn't make any sense. So Haaretz runs this major piece where they've got IDF soldiers admitting that they were given orders to shoot at the.
- [58:53]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Crowds and using language like it's a killing field. Which Netanyahu got very upset about.
- [58:59]
Dave Smith
Yes. Now, what I talked to the other day to Hertz Journal, is not the one who wrote that piece. He wrote a different piece. But I talked to him about it, and he corrected me that I, I said something like shooting at the crowds. And he said, well, what the article said was shooting in the direction of the crowd. So. But, you know, anyway, so now this just out today, the. The Israeli government has acknowledged that they've admitted that there were IDF soldiers who shot in the direction of the crowd, and they admitted that people were killed. They denied that they were given orders to do so. And they said that, that the Gaza Health Ministry exaggerated the numbers that were dead. They put it like, between 60 to 70 people. And the Gaza Health Ministry, I think, was claiming it was a couple hundred. But holy moly, once you're into this territory already, it's like, Jesus. I mean, first you denied the whole thing, now you're admitting you did. Your soldiers did murder some people. Now you're denying that they were given orders, even though they're on record saying, or maybe not on record, but they're saying to Haaretz that they were given orders anyway. You just, when you get to a certain point, it's just kind of undeniable that the IDF commits acts of terrorism. It's not only Hamas. Like, that is terrorism. You know, call it whatever you want to. You can call the bigger thing a genocide or not, whatever. But these are acts of terrorism. You're going to, you're at war with the civilian population. You're shooting at people who are desperate for food. So once you accept that, and then there'll be someone like say, Piers Morgan, who I love doing this show. Nothing, not saying anything bad about Piers Morgan, but he's been coming around to this over the last few months. Like, yeah, look, he won't even argue with me if I said that on a show. I go, look, is that not terrorism? He'll go, it's absolutely terrorism. Right? But then when someone at a concert shout out the chance death to the idf, you go, oh, you're saying death to the Jews. You're saying death to the Israelis. And it's like, well, wait a minute, we're not allowed to chant death to a terrorist organization now. Like, just apply that same logic to Hamas. The, the whole argument has been that you can say, no, we want to kill Hamas, we don't want to go to war with the civilians, but we want to go to war with Hamas. Well, how is that any different than somebody over some Bob villain guy saying death to the idf, whatever. I'm not chanting death to anybody. But it's just almost any honest observer of that would go, well, no, you can't. You kind of can't have this ridiculous double standard. If there's a group of people who are doing this to innocent people, then I'm sorry, the outrage isn't. Somebody chanted mean things about the group of people who are committing terrorism. That's just not going to work. So anyway, final thought to you and then we'll wrap up.
- [61:49]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
Well, first is, you know, I haven't heard this talking point in a while, but you know, in that shooting incident, I at least saw a video online of people scattering and trying to duck for their lives. So it certainly doesn't look like the civilian base of Gaza is trying to martyr themselves to appear as numbers to make Israel look worse. That just doesn't appear to be the situation in the videos. And then just very add. But on the mamdame. Is that the guy's name Mandani? I'm very anti socialism. You guys can go watch the episode that we did behind the paywall where I said perhaps people that are not originally from this country with these point of view should not be allowed to run for public office. With all that said, and maybe I just don't have this right, but it was just a thought in my head. Was there's something funny about talking about seizing the means of production if you're in New York City, because what does New York City produce? Like, there's no factories there. There's no farmland there. It's like, what are you going to try and seize Wall Street? You're literally just going to be the end of the city when they go, all right, I guess he can have our office space. We'll go trade somewhere else. So there's just something very funny about a heavy socialist talking about seizing the means of production while running for mayor of New York City, which, I don't know, what are you going to take over offices and call centers? Like, what, what production? I mean, I guess the grocery stores, but that's not really production.
- [63:07]
Dave Smith
Did you see the thing? Dude, he made this video. I got to send it to you. But he made this video about how, like, street food, like chicken over rice on the street from one of those halal stands is up, like, you know, from $8 to $12.
- [63:22]
Robbie the Fire Bernstein
The middleman on permits. Which is funny because that's actually kind of the. Yeah, I, I mean, firstly, I, I just have a bunch of thoughts on it, but like, yeah, I guess if someone else owns the permit, yeah, it's stupid that you now have to lease it for from him. But I guess that is what the market price is because government's limited street corner food. And does it actually benefit the economy to have more street corner food? I mean, listen, I'm not for government permits, but they do compete with the restaurants who have to pay higher rent. They take up parking spots from everyone else.
- [63:52]
Dave Smith
Well, that's why it's funny. But it's funny that in his own video, it's like the conclusion is like, oh, yes, this is the government imposing this on these people. And then he tries to focus on the fact that it's like, yeah, but they're not paying the government. They're paying some crony who just owns this license. And it's like, yeah, but no matter how you get around that, that's still because they were given this license by fiat from the government. And so. No, your point is a fair one. It's like, now we're into the managing public property area, where it's like, well, I don't know, are you, are you advocating that it should be permitless and anyone can set up a truck stop anywhere they want to? And then what are, you know, like, what are the ramifications of that? It's like, but regardless of any of that, this isn't a limit imposed by the market, it's a limit imposed by the government. It's just such a. Your enemy here isn't even capitalism. Your enemy here is how the government is managing public property. And so if you want to make an argument to say we should drastically increase the number of permits or maybe even say there should be a rule that you're not allowed to middleman permits, you're only eligible for this permit if you're going to be selling the food there, you know, and running it. Fine. But none of it's a critique on capitalism. Like, it's just so. It's like he doesn't even realize it in the video. He never even like puts the dots together. By the way, it reminded me I got a wrap here because I got to run. But it was just so funny when Joe Rogan asked Bernie Sanders, you know, Bernie Sanders brought up BlackRock at one point and, and Joe goes to him, he goes, so how did these guys get so rich? And Bernie Sanders goes, well, they're very smart, they're very hard working. Like he was, he was trying to make it because in his mind it's like that's as far as you ever got to take it. You never got to figure out, wait, what was going on with this system that they were, oh, well, you know, they just work very hard and they're very smart. And that's what, that's the problem. It's capitalism, right? You can't just allow people to be free to work hard and be smart. They'll collect all of the wealth. And you're like, oh, really? That's the extent to which you've thought about this. That's literally, it's the most, it's amazing. All of them, they have the most surface level understanding of the very problem that they are critiquing. They'll put a video out about the problem that they're critiquing and still don't even seem to realize what the problem is here. It's just wild. Anyway, thank you guys very much for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with a brand new episode. Catch you then. Peace Sa.