D (3:05)

Well, Trump likes breaking his own records even go bigger and better this thing. I mean I, you never know when Trump does a U turn. But it looks like he both didn't take his off ramp and can't take the off ramp because the Iranians are not going to negotiate with him twice after striking him, striking them in the middle of negotiations. And the way I see it at the moment is it's a, it's a game now of if I guess we can take out their stockpiles before they run as dry because we conduct significantly more expensive warfare. And this thing is looking like a disaster to me. But you know, I guess it's only week one. So as the longer it goes, the more money we spend and the bigger of a disaster it can become.

C (3:48)

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's the thing that's really tough right now is that, you know, as we've kind of been saying, right. As you just pointed out there, Trump seems like he didn't take the off ramp that maybe he could have after that initial strike. Although it seems like it was an Israeli strike that killed the ayatollah and his whole family.

D (4:11)

Well, not one son.

C (4:13)

Well, yes, that's right. Except minus the one, minus the ayatollah who we have right now. And so much like, well, look, I mean, isn't this Donald Trump. Look, it took George W. Bush and Barack Obama and Trump won and Joe Biden, it took them 20 years to end the war in Afghanistan, which, you know, the regime change effort against the Taliban left us with a better armed Taliban that Donald Trump in just eight days took us from an ayatollah who had sworn that he was never going to get nuclear weapons and that it was against their religion and largely had even when attacked by other countries that had a pretty, you know, reserved response to them. And it gave us what is by all reports a younger, meaner, more aggressive ayatollah who by the way, just had his entire family murdered by the regimes that he's at war with. So that part doesn't seem great. But I mean record setting in terms of how quickly we got here, the. I guess the issue That I see is that when you look for these kind of like off ramps, especially when you're dealing with a guy like Donald Trump. Because like, you say we make this point all the time, right? Like, Donald Trump really is Donald Trump. It seems like at this point it he's. I don't know how to say this exactly. Donald Trump is very capable of tomorrow announcing that boots on the ground are going in and that we're invading this country with 500,000 troops. And he seems equally capable at tomorrow being like, it's over, we won, that's it. And totally independent from what the facts on the ground are. And like, Venezuela is a great example, but there's just a lot of other ones too. But, like, it doesn't matter if we actually run the place or we actually get the oil or we actually run the regime, because he'll just say we do. So who cares what the. You know, he'll just say it. And so you almost go like, oh, okay. So right after that first day, there did seem to be a window where you could go, yeah, we can say we did it, we killed the ayatollah. And we can say they're going to be giving us the oil now and they're going to play nice now and whatever. If they do or they don't, that's down the roads, problems, who cares? Trump has never let silly little things like reality get in his way before. But I guess, man, the issue now, I mean, obviously, as you said, Rob, the Iranians are not going to negotiate at this point. And, you know, how can you expect them to or blame them for not doing it? But at this point, I guess the thing that's makes me feel pretty dark about this is first of all, there are no signs indicating that Donald Trump wants to do that now. Who knows? But, and he's Trump, he could change his mind or he could do it anyway, but it doesn't seem like that's what he wants to do. But I gotta say now with this war, in a much different way than with the 12 day war last summer, like I said, Donald Trump has put his full nutsack out on the table over this. And if he were to end it now, I don't. Tell me what you think about this, Rob, because I don't know, I don't think even for Trump there's a reasonable option of just pretending this thing was a big success. Like, if Donald Trump were to end it now, if he were to go, all right, we decimated them like nobody's ever seen. We dropped so many bombs. We killed the Ayatollah and these gu. We've destroyed their missile, you know, capacity. And they, they don't have the, the threats off the table, like, whatever. He could say, how is. First of all, everyone's going to look at this and go, wait a minute, dude, you just got like a bunch of people killed. Our boys are dead. I think it's up to seven Americans are dead now after this war, not counting the blowback, terrorist attacks and stuff like that. There's like, you, you spent, I don't know, billions of dollars at least at this point. I think five, six billion dollars confirmed, already spent. Our bases, from what I've been reading, our bases in Bahrain and Kuwait are like completely destroyed. I don't know exactly the extent to the damages of the bases in Saudi and the UAE and stuff like that. I think the Qatar one is not as heavily damaged, but whatever. I mean, it's just like a bunch of people killed, a bunch of money wasted for. I just. And then also the other thing Donald Trump has to worry about now is like, if you go this far, but don't overthrow the regime, oh, man, the whole lobby is going to be furious at you. So it just. Sorry, go ahead. But it just seems like not very good options.

D (9:11)

I say this with humility because I read a lot over the weekend, but it's not like I'm a foreign affairs expert or expert on Iran and the Middle East. But I think, I think this is all or nothing at this point, and it's for a different variable. I think the Iranians need to make this as costly as possible and just survive. And that basically, you know, gets everyone to back off and not want to do this in the future. And so they just need to, they need to make this costly. They need to draw it out, and they just need the regime to survive. The problem for Trump in leaving now is that I think all of our Arab partners are going to be upset with the United States of America for basically not offering them real security and for creating havoc for their oil business. And so now if Donald Trump doesn't get rid of Iran, I think everyone else is kind of looking for new partnerships and is not seeing the United States in the same light. So Donald Trump is kind of forced at this point to take out Iran so that he can turn back to Saudi Arabia and everyone else and go, look, we're still good partners. You guys are safe in your region. But if he just allows more chaos in the region, data centers to get blown up and oil drilling to get blown up and people are still stuck relying on Iran for the Strait of Hormuz. I just think we're looking at a very weakened American empire. And so he's put us into a situation now where I think it's, it's all or nothing on both sides.

C (10:33)

Well, it's, it's a very interesting dynamic of this war and it's unclear what exactly the result of all of this is going to be. But there's no question, like Donald Trump has really like thrown the, the board over, you know, like he, it's, the pieces are all being rearranged here and we'll see what ends up coming of this. But I think, like, look, there, there is significance that, and I'm not trying to, you know, paint like a naive picture of the world. It's the, the, the Gulf Arab states are, you know, corrupt governments and they know what politics is. But there, there has always, you know, at least to some degree been this idea that like, okay, well, look, you guys, you guys obviously sacrifice a lot of your autonomy or a lot of your sovereignty, but by having US Bases in all of your countries. But there's a level of protection that comes with that. You know, you got the most badass military in the world's got their bases in your region. You know, that's, you're going to be somewhat protected. And one of the things that's happened as a result of this war is that that dynamic has really been flipped on its head. In fact, you're not protected for having U.S. bases there. You're, you're a target for having U.S. bases. And by the way, as this game becomes, as this war becomes a game of attrition, which, you know, is, I, I don't know, it's kind of strange. It's like, I know we're only a week into this war, but this is how all like the military experts are talking about it. It's like, who has more missiles and who has more anti missile missiles and who can take out, you know what I mean, like taking out their ability to launch these. And they've watched us as we are diverting resources away from protecting those bases to make sure we can protect Israel. And it's just like it's becoming very obvious, which I think was always known, at least on some level, but it's becoming very obvious that it's like, oh, no, no, no, these bases are here in your country so that we can bomb Muslim countries and stop their ability from responding to Israel. That's the point of our military presence here that it does seem like that's going to make it tougher to do business with the empire. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Knick Knack. I am a big lover and consumer of nicotine, people. You know, it's been the rage for people to trash it over the last few decades, but nicotine has fueled some of the greatest minds and the boldest leaders and many legendary men. Enjoy it. Well, now nicotine has been perfected by Knick Knack. Knickknack is a fully dissolvable nicotine lozenge. A lip brick, if you will. Made with just six premium ingredients clearly listed on the back so you know exactly what's in it. No smoke, no pouch, nothing hidden. Made with real essential oils for real flavor. Available in both 3 and 6 milligrams. Raise your nicotine standards, reject the slop, and enjoy the purest nicotine out there with knickknack. Now, right now, you can get knickknack@knickknack.com Dave and use the promo code Dave for 20% off. Or you can use the store locator to find knickknacks near you. Once Again, that's knick knack.comdave. n I c n a c dot comdave. Promo code dave for 20% off. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. All right, let's get back into the show.

D (14:11)

And the US Is picking a dirty fight. At the start of the war, they bombed kids. So kind of the chatter of don't target civilians is a little bit off the table. And then just the other day, they set that oil well on fire, and the skies were blackened, and they were saying that there was falling, acidic oil rain. And then they even also took out a desalination plant. And these are all activities that we don't want Iran doing back to Israel or the Arab partners. And seems like another strategic blunder to be engaging in that kind of warfare.

C (14:44)

Yeah. Did you see. Was it. It was either Mark Levin or Lindsey Graham. I mean, they're both the same human being, but they're.

D (14:53)

They share one demonic soul.

C (14:55)

Yeah, something like that. But they. He. It's just so amazing, dude. They. He tweeted out a picture of the Iranian missiles coming into, like, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, and he goes, war crimes. Like, there's. It's just too cartoonish to even comment on it. Like, oh, really? Yes, dude. You're very concerned with war crimes. Retaliatory war crimes. Okay, I mean, yeah, like, maybe they are, but, I mean, come on, dude, you can only support so many war criminals and still be able to shriek war crimes.

D (15:29)

Yeah, Iran shouldn't be doing that, but there's certain players that are not allowed to complain about it, which includes Lindsey Graham, Mark Levin and Israel. Which does not mean that it's okay if Iran does it and I don't support it. And it's tragic and horrible. But if you guys wanna call for, hey, let's not have warfare on civilians, you gotta live by that standard also. And it would be great, I guess, if maybe Netanyahu was held responsible in international courts for that and we actually held by that standard so that more leaders didn't do it.

C (16:00)

Well, look, and again, this is the thing here, right? And this is, look, this is kind of the essence of what. What Ben Shapiro jumped on that I said the other day. And what, you know, a bunch of these guys like to.

D (16:11)

To do.

C (16:11)

Like, in a way, what was interesting about all of that is that I, I said, you know, that the US Government's the biggest terrorist organization in the world. And then they all have to just. They have to flip out and shriek about that because you're not allowed to do that. You know, you're not allowed. As is. Is the case with almost, by the way, this is almost the secret to our fucking analysis of US Foreign policy. Or this is. This is what I bring to every debate that I do is just that I, at least I try my best to just be objective and go, hey, if I'm judging, you know, our worldview, our, like, libertarian worldview makes it fairly easy for me to not feel that I am a part of the US Government because I'm not. And that's stupid. And that's just what they try to convince you, you know, that you're. We are all one. This is a government of the people or something like that. And we just flatly reject that. We, we don't. Like, we. We look at our government as like our looting expropriator. And then we look at the Iranian government as the Iranian people's looting expropriate. You know what I mean? Like, it's just. They're just two criminal organizations. One rules here, one rules there. So because we have that worldview, it's very easy for me to just go, oh, okay. So if the conversation is over who. Whose criminal government is more evil or whose criminal government did what, I just go, okay, we could just judge both of them based on their track record and what they've done. But that is like kryptonite to the war hawks who need you to believe that. Like, you know, that's why like Benjamin will be like, this is so outrageous. I mean, he's equating these benevolent, you know, rulers of the US and Israel with terrorist organizations. Like, sure, we have some collateral damage, but not terror. And like, the thing about it is, is that if you get out of that religious mindset, that kind of cult like mindset that like, this is our government and that's our, you know, this is the USA and that's. Or something like that. I mean, you could just look at this whole situation and go, it's just so obvious who the bad guys are here. Like if you were watching this in a movie, I'm, I'm sorry, It's like, no, our military doesn't represent the good guys in this fight. Daryl Cooper was saying unprovoked the other day, which I thought was a good, a really good way to put it. I mean, he was just talking about, which is always his thing, just how dishonorable this whole thing is. Yo, you're, you're negotiating. You just attack a country that you don't need to when you're, they're in the middle of good faith negotiations for a second time. But he said this, I thought it was a good way to put it. He goes, even if you want to take, take everything that the hawks throw at you, like every talking point of what Iran has done over the years to America, you know, the Marines in, In Lebanon, that's 100% Iran's fault. And even if you want to say, you know, whatever the, all the, all the roadside bombs in, in Iraq are the responsible of the, the Iranians, there were no Iraqi Shiites who built anything. It was all Iran who did all of it. Take all of it. Throw Donald Trump the assassination attempt or something like that, whatever, you know, give them all the, their talking points, even though, you know, many of them are not real, but let's just say they all were. That doesn't even, all of it combined for 47 years doesn't even kind of compare to us giving Saddam chemical weapons to use against them. Like the war had already started. They knew we, our government knew what a madman Saddam Hussein was. They already knew he was targeting civilians in the wars and they gave him chemical weapons. No one, well what he was going to do with them and he did killed like 700,000 iranians or something like that. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, just that one thing, like, oh, my God, we did something so much worse to them than anything they've ever done to us. A lot of people have an allergy to this type of analysis because it's like, well, you know, I mean, I don't know. It's like walking into a cult and being like, what evidence do you really have that this cult leader actually is in touch with God? Because I don't believe he is. And it's like, they don't. It's not about evidence to them. It's about, like, you're not allowed to criticize this thing. But if you want to know the truth, if, if we're in the business of talking about this, then I think, like, we got to talk about what's really going on. And the truth here is that Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump, they did this. They decided to do this whole goddamn thing with what we've already seen, even going into week two of this is like, this is riskier than any of the other terror wars, you know, and perhaps because of that, it, you know, like, maybe that's the thing that keeps it from getting out of hand, is because people understand how bad this could get. But, man, what a risk we've already taken for absolutely no upside. And this is. I just don't. I don't know. I don't see how this isn't. That this isn't. Trump's presidency is destroyed already. At this point. I don't see an alternative to that. This episode is sponsored by Better Help Guys. If you're out there and you're thinking about perhaps starting therapy, and this could be for a range of different issues. Everybody goes through different things in life. And let's get real, there's a lot of pressure and a lot of difficulties that come along with life. 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D (22:54)

I think that's probably why he went for it now, is because he knows the midterms aren't going his way. There was pressure from Netanyahu. They saw this as their last opportunity for this. It's incredible that Donald Trump, I guess, wanted this more than a presidential legacy or actually enacting an America first agenda. But for whatever reason, I guess this was the top thing he wanted to accomplish on his list. So this is the last thing he's

C (23:17)

getting done before the midterms and quite possibly after it. I mean, you know, I mean, he's, don't get me wrong, he can keep a war going with Democrats in Congress. There won't be any more resistance to that. The thing is that he has no chance of doing any important thing that the establishment doesn't want him to do again. And that's all the good stuff. You know what I mean? So, like, there's nothing good is coming out of this administration. It's, it's the way it is. And I, I will say, I think he's also tanked. I think he's tanked the, the careers and the political ambitions and the popular support base for all of the people attached to this regime. I, I just don't see how, what, like, man, what can Tulsi Gabber do after this? What's her next move? It's, you know, what was J.D. vance going to do after this? I mean, again, like we always say before, like, you know, I'm sure they'll get taken care of in some way, but it's not going to be, you know, having the, the reputation that they had before.

D (24:23)

My guess is for all these people, they're going to go be, they're going to go the way of Dick Cheney, which is they are not going to be able to run for office again, and they're going to be looked at like the Bush administration and all the characters of the Bush Administration. None of them have done anything significant in politics since then. Every once in a while you see Condoleezza Rice on the news, but for the most part they're all tucked away in hiding and they know that no one wants to hear from them.

C (24:45)

Yeah, and I'm sure they're all on the board of some fucking company or something like that. But yeah, some finance company, some weapons company or something like that. Funny how that works. Anyway, I guess one of the big, the one of the big things that people are pouncing on over the last few days is that Donald Trump has said, I believe on two occasions that he won't rule out boots on the ground. He did say, I thought this was very funny, but I did because I was, we were in the green room at our Pittsburgh show the other night and I told you that I had just watched the Trump interview and he said that he decided the Kurds are not going to go in, that they were ready to, they wanted to, but he decided we just can't add any more chaos to this. So he decided against the Kurds. And I told Rob that. And Rob just immediately goes, sounds like the Kurds didn't want to go. And there's been, I've read a couple different articles since then that are like, yes, in fact, that is what happened. That the Kurds are like, not, dude, we're not invading Iran for you. That's a totally different proposition than like, you want to give us some guns and we'll fight our enemies in this civil war in our country. Sure, but we're not invading around. And I think for probably for obvious reasons that they were like, look man, like where every goddamn town that we live in is, is targetable by short range missiles or medium range missiles and we're going to invade Iran through the fucking mountains. We're going to go invade Iran. Like we've tried to do that before, man, and it don't work out good. And you know, that is the other thing, by the way, that, that 1980 to, I think it went from 80 to 88, the Iraq Iran war. You know, Saddam attacked him and then he invaded the country and they of the US like they had far superior weapons. I mean, don't get me wrong, we did sell Iran some weapons also in that war. But, but they, a lot of Iraqis died, a lot of them died in it. And so, you know, that didn't matter to Saddam Hussein that much, but it was like a million people died in that war. And so it's, you know, there's memories of like, oh yeah, you know, I mean it's, it's, if you think about the way we think about the 80s in America, you know, we may not like remember some war in the 80s that much, but the war didn't happen in our country. You know, like if our country was invaded and hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the 80s, we'd have a pretty strong attachment to that memory, you know. Anyway, so looks like that's not happening. As far as the boots on the ground comment goes. I mean, look, I certainly, again, it's, it's a weird thing, Rob. It's very difficult to cover Donald Trump because Donald Trump isn't a conventional president. He'll typically, they wouldn't say things like this and he'll say it, it doesn't mean anything. I think there's a very low chance that we're actually going to see like a major ground invasion here. I mean we might, we, we certainly might see some special ops or special Forces, something like that on the ground. That's quite likely. The idea of a real deal military invasion I don't think is going to happen for, for two basic reasons, which is that I think logistically it's next to impossible and there is just not nearly the level of public support for any politician to get away with doing something like this. So I don't think it's going to happen. But you know, who knows?

D (28:23)

I just did a run your mouth with Kyle Anzlone which was a deep dive and he's, he's expecting, or I believe he said that he's expecting that there will likely be some special force incursions to try and get the enriched uranium out of the country. But on the second point that you said of that there's no public support for it, I don't think Trump cares anymore. I do not think Trump cares about the base and I do not think he, I think he's just, he's just in Trump world like this is the, I honestly think he doesn't care. He'll just get back. I think they know, they love this.

C (28:58)

I think he's being told that this is wildly popular. I, I, I'm not sure if he's really aware of, of what's going on out here. To your point, I, I get your point. There's, there's still, even if you're going to say I don't care about public opinion, there is a major, major difference between fighting a war like this from the skies and fighting a war like this from the Ground. And, and I'm telling you, something this unpopular, you can't stop, start losing Americans in the numbers that you would with a ground invasion. I think at that point, there'd be like a demand to impeach him. I think, like, it would really, really be a disaster for him. That being said, we'll see. This is, and by the way, this has been one of, this has been a theme of mine for several years on the show. Now, this was true even before Trump won, but it was ultimately really the main reason why I supported Donald Trump and the main thing that was accomplished by him winning in 2024 was that it really destroyed the legacy media, it really destroyed the corporate media. And now we're, we're running a system without a propaganda machine. And this is new. This has really never been the case before. I've never really seen a government operate like this, like launch a war without the propaganda machine to cover for you. I mean, they have the propaganda machine. Well, we'll check in on it in a second. But they're, they're being dwarfed by the other media. I mean, if you just look at, like, even, even, like, I got to give him some credit. I've seen even Matt Walsh over at the Daily Wire has been making a lot of really good points raising a really good questions about this. Now he'll, you know, he'll stop short of going all the way there. Like, there's always like a tweet where you're like, ah. And so the conclusion is obviously that these people are lying us into a war, so we're against it. Right. But regardless, he's asking really good questions even. Because even he, you know, whatever. I'm not like saying his motivation, like, I'm sure he believes the points that he's making, they're very, some of them are very good points, but it's like he also has an audience and they're hearing the other side of this. You have to address these things. It's. You can't. I mean, dude, the numbers that Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens, that these people are doing, like, they're the most dominant figures in political media right now, and they're all kind of exposing this thing for what it is. So anyway, I don't know. I think this is a big, open question. How long can a system like this survive without the mechanism to garner public support for their policies? I don't know. But to see a ground invasion, I guess to me still seems like, nah, man, they would need more support for that. I don't know. Honestly, I'm, I'm in many ways surprised that we're actually here. Even though I've kind of been predicting it, it's still surprising that, like, fuck, they actually went through with that.

D (32:03)

But we'll see on the note of they don't have a good propaganda machine. They don't even have a good cohesive story coming out of the actual government. Are we at war? We're not at war. We are at war. They're trying to get nukes. They're not trying to get nukes. We've seen no intelligence that they are going nuclear. They're about to go nuclear. They don't even have a cohesive story. Which, listen, a point. Point well said on that boots on the ground is a different extreme. And Donald Trump might not want that heat. But their lack of cohesive story and even pitching these things I think shows the disconnect between Trump actually. He's just like either buying so much of his own bullshit that he can say whatever and people accept it and it's true because he said it, or they just don't actually care about the public perception at this point.

C (32:53)

Yeah, well, you know, it's, it's, it's one of those things. Okay, let's hold on one second here. So let's, let's get into a couple of these, these clips.

D (33:04)

You start with that Fox News one of showcase what the propaganda machine is still pushing.

C (33:09)

Yeah, sure. I mean, it really is. You know, I've, I've checked in a little bit on, I don't know on some of these maniacs, but there's Fox News and CNN are, are just like, dude, it's unbelievable. You just couldn't believe that, like there's, it's like, look, anyone supporting this war, you almost go like, oh, so you would support just like any war, like, any war, you would. Because this one doesn't. Like you said, Rob, this doesn't even have a coherent, like, official justification anything like that. It's like so transparently a war of aggression. But yeah, it's just been unbelievable. So here's, here's Brian Kilmeade over on Fox News, which is. This was. So he's giving you quotes from a conversation he just had with Donald Trump here. Let's, let's play this clip.

E (34:08)

I just spoke to the president, United States, 20 minutes ago about the Gulf states and their involvement. And what he told me was this. Iran had thousands of missiles pointed at all these Middle Eastern countries for the last four months. They were Going to take over the Middle east, meaning Iran, they're going to control it all. The UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. They had 1200 missiles pointed at these countries. All these nations were afraid of Iran, and they are not anymore. And they had reason to be afraid. We have knocked the hell out of them like no other nation could. And they still have remnants left. Just wanted you to respond to that.

D (34:41)

Could we just.

C (34:42)

Hold on, let's pause it a second. Yeah, because we almost got to just respond to Donald Trump. I mean, dude, again, all these wars are sold off lies. They always are. This one is it. It's one of the least believable of any of them. Like, wait, what he said, he's telling you that Iran, Iran was about to take over the Middle East. They've had their missiles pointed at all of these countries for months. Like, you mean since the last time you attacked them? They pointed their missiles at the military bases of the country that had attacked it. Like, but the idea that, look, we're, we're already getting a taste of what Iran is capable of doing. It's killing some people, it's destroying some things. But what is, what is the argument here really? That this, this missile capacity, was that going to be enough to what, invade all of the surrounding countries and take over all of them? Rob. And, and they used to be very afraid of Iran. Now they're not yet. No, they used to not be getting attacked by Iran. Now they are. Like, what an inversion of reality is. It's just so pathetic.

D (35:59)

I think the biggest proof of this being a lie is that this wasn't said until after you started the war. So now that you need an excuse for the war, you're telling us that actually Iran was going to take over all of its surrounding countries. Is there any intelligence to suggest that? And does 1200 bombs give you the capacity to take out all of those countries? And he didn't say take out those countries. He said take over those countries. Take over those countries. So, Mr. Donald Trump, can you explain to me how you can take over all of those countries with just 1200 missiles? Because you seem to be having a problem with Iran right now. That's just one country. How many missiles are lob back and forth in Ukraine and Russia? Who's taken over a country with 1200 missiles? That all it takes is 1200 missiles. And cheap missiles too. Cheap drones. Someone can just take over another country with 1200 missiles. Please put the intelligence officer on air who sat down with you in the Oval Office and said to you, we have to go now because they're about to take over the entire Middle East. And you know what the good news is? If 1200 missiles can take over the entire Middle east, why are we just having this little skirmish with Iran? Why don't we just take over the entire area and quit dealing with these dictators, liberate everyone and claim the oil for ourselves? We've more than 1200 missiles.

C (37:13)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, maybe it's because this is all a lie. I mean, that might be the reason. Rough. Well, look, I mean, you know, one of the best things Donald Trump ever said when he was running for president, and then again as president, was that the media is the enemy of the American people. You know, back then when Donald Trump used to tell the truth every now and then, that was great. But what can you say about someone like Brian Kilmeade? I mean, I don't know, you know, like. And I don't even say anything like. Like, personal. I don't know. I think I've been on shows with him before. I don't know. But, like, just, like, aren't. You're just the enemy of the people. Look at you. You're like a traitor to your republic. This is so. Wait, the President said this to you and. Okay. Was your response? Sir, I'm not an idiot. You can't just lie to me like this. Like, sir, I'm sorry, I'm going to. This is just absolutely not true. No, just repeats it verbatim on his show as if he's delivering you news. Like, as if he's going, the president said this. Like, okay, what?

D (38:20)

I can't. I find the propaganda setup so interesting that you got guy. It's basically all these people work for the administration. So he goes, hey, here's a talking point that Donald Trump gave me. You, other person who works for Donald Trump, do you agree with him? Why, yes, sir, I do agree with him. It's good that Donald Trump said that and you can put me on your platform so that I can reinforce exactly what he said to your aging boomer cons who will sit there, be paranoid, and still support us. Thank you for having me on to reassert what was just said by him.

C (38:51)

Yeah, the template is like, guys, like, you know, you're not doing news right now. Like, you know, when you do something like that, like, dude, you're doing some type of performance. But, like, this is just. I don't know, like, look, in the same way that I go, like, Ben Shapiro and Barry Weiss and for that matter, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz should be viewed as. As foreign spies because that, in effect, that's what they are. You know, what was there. There was reporting this week about Lindsey Graham going when he was going. Remember he kept making all those trips to Israel, that he was coaching Netanyahu on how to talk to Donald Trump to persuade him. Like, all right, well, you're a foreign spy then, man, what is this? You know? But, okay, but in the same sense, you go, well, what should we think about Fox News? What do you like this, this dynamic that you're just talking about? Well, how do you view that? Okay, that's, in effect, your state media. I should. I should take you about as seriously. Like in. In North Korea somewhere, there's like a news reporter who's reporting how great the chosen one is and how, you know, he's like, reporting how Kim Jong Un has never, you know, missed a shot in whatever sport he plays or something like that. How. Why should I treat you any differently than that? You're, in effect, the same thing. Just state media. You're just in the business of propaganda. Like, you know, anyway, okay, here, let's go back to the clip. There'll be more lies.

F (40:20)

Well, this is why the President, One of the reasons I think he did. Why he did this. Now imagine we're seeing how the Iranian regime is behaving now.

C (40:30)

And pause it already for a second. It's just so funny how bullshit this war is that they had to give you, like, they had to give you 15 different reasons why we did this. But then he just. This is a new one. You know, that Donald Trump just made up on the phone with Kill Mead, and he goes, oh, they were about to take over everyone. And then the guy even has to go, well, this is one of the reasons why we did this right now. One of. But you're telling me they were about to take over seven surrounding countries. No, this seems like that'd be the reason. Like, if you're gonna go. If you're gonna go with this excuse, then you can't go that, you know, oh, we found out imminent. They have nuclear weapons and they were gonna detonate seven of them on US Soil. That's one of the reasons why we went in. Like, no, that'd be the reason. Like, it's even. He doesn't believe it, so he's just kind of like, yeah, throw it on that list. Throw it on the list of all the stuff that we had there. I don't know. At least. At least that'll take Them longer. I swear to God. It feels like. Does this make sense, Rob? I know I'm hit or miss with these metaphors, but, like, it feels like a. You know, like when you're. Like when a school kid would be running from, like a dog and so then you'd empty your lunchbox, you know, and like, just throw the things down so at least he's got to eat. That give you a little bit more time to. To get away. It feels like that is the seven excuses for this war. Like, it's just the. It's like, ugh. Like, now guys like me and you, you're like, I gotta stop and debunk all seven of these before I can just get back to the point that you're a fucking blood soaked monster. But anyway, yeah, just throw it on the list. Yeah. They were also about to take over the world, Rob. We'd all be speaking Persian if it wasn't for Donald Trump launching this war. There was about to be the. Yeah, this is right.

D (42:12)

Wearing burkas and growing out our bushes.

C (42:14)

All of us.

D (42:15)

Is that the world you want to live in, Dave Smith? Are you not a patriot?

C (42:19)

No, I do not want to live in a world of burkas and bushes. All right, Rob. I support this war. All right, let's keep playing.

F (42:26)

If the President had kicked the can like so many of his predecessors had, and at the rate that Iran was producing these drones and ballistic missiles had tens, if not hundreds of thousands years from now, that's the shield that Secretary Rubio has been talking about, behind which they would then develop a full blown nuclear program, which we know they intended to do. They were not negotiating in good faith. The reason President Trump went now is because they're at their weakest point. And he's not the type of president to kick the can and let future generations.

D (43:03)

Okay, now do that for the debt. I'm sorry, you want to talk about not kicking the can down the road, and you're the guy who's willing to face a problem, bring back Doge and fix our debt problem.

C (43:13)

Yeah, no, Rob, you see, that might be unpopular and difficult, so instead we'll go to war with Iran. You know, it's like, look, again, even if Donald Trump was doing like the mass deportation thing, which he backed off of that, he goes like, hey, look, it's going to be very unpopular. There's going to be innocent people who get swept up in it. There's going to be, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's all the same issues as the War in Iran, obviously not as bloody. You're not going to as many people, hopefully, but you know what I'm saying, like, at least that would be something you could say you were doing for our country anyway. But do you notice this just again, this is like the thing. It's just so, it's so insulting, man, like just how stupid they think you are and the fact that, you know, I don't mean to say this in like a up way because I really am not like, I never try to judge like the people. I'm not like judging your Fox News watching uncle or whatever, but it's like how stupid they think those guys are. And it works on them for, to, for at least a lot of them. But just think about like, dude, he says here at the end, like, I know the. So now he's back to, with all of his justifications that they were so weak and that's why we, we took this moment now. So you're saying they were about to take over seven neighboring countries and yet they were so weak that we could do this now? Come on, dude. Just come on. You're not that fucking stupid. Like, no one's that stupid. People who are that stupid don't fucking even listen to shows like, you know what I mean about politics. I, I don't know. This is just not what. They're so weak. And yeah, it's like the same with the fucking goddamn Putin propaganda. He's. They're, they're, you know, a gas station with nukes, but also they're about to take over all of Europe. Like, what? Which one is it? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolon. I've been telling you guys about Prolon for a while. Prolon is a plant based nutrition program featuring soups, snacks and beverages designed to nourish the body while keeping it in a fasting state, triggering cellular rejuvenation and renewal. So you've probably heard a lot of people talking about the benefits of fasting. And the idea of Prolon is that you basically get all of those benef without having to give up food. You trick your body into thinking you're fasting, so it goes into a fasting state. So you get all those benefits without, you know, the cost of actually having to not eat anything. And this is serious. It was developed for decades with USC's Longevity Institute. It's backed by top US medical centers. Prolon has been shown to support biological age reduction, metabolic health, skin appearance, fat loss, with muscle, protection, energy and a healthier relationship with food in general. If you're ready for your own reset for a limited time, Prolong is offering part of The Problem listeners 15% off site wide plus a $40 bonus gift. When you subscribe to their five day program, just visit prolonglife.com PotP that's P R O L O N L I F E.com P O T P prolonglife.com PotP all right, let's get back into the show. Now as far as this other justification, which, as he mentioned, Rubio floated out the other day. So just going with all of them, all these justifications, even when one contradicts the other one, right, like clearly saying they were so weak and that's why we did it now, totally contradicts that they're about to take over a bunch of countries. But whatever, we'll use both of them. But now this is the other thing that they are running with, Rob, is that, well, they were okay, they were building missiles and the reason why we have to go to war with them over the missiles is because the missiles were going to create a shield from behind which they could then start making nuclear weapons. Now, by the way, the translation of this defense is essentially, well, we know we don't actually have an argument that they were making nuclear weapons. We don't actually have that argument. And so we're going to say like essentially, well, I can point to some regular missiles. And so we're just going to say those missiles essentially are nuclear weapons because if you have irregular missiles, well, then that's what you use to deter someone to stop you from making a nuclear weapon. So now essentially you're just expanding the justification for war down to any war at any time against any government is justified because I guess theoretically they could be doing that. Or what's more likely is that Iran has been developing missiles because they were attacked last summer by Israel and the United States of America. Like, what government in the world isn't going to work on weaponry after they've been attacked? So essentially that's all they have that they can point to, is that Iran's got some missiles and that's why we got to go to war. I'm sorry, this is, I've been around for a while and I have paid attention to this stuff for, for at least a couple decades now. I've read a lot about all these words. This is the most pathetic justification for war anyone has ever tried to use, is what this administration is using right now. They had missiles long Range missiles capable of reaching the United States. No, no one's claiming that, but this is the problem. And essentially like, if you read between the lines here, it actually, you know, because he says they weren't negotiating in good faith. But think about like, like there's, there's no such thing as negotiating in good faith when this is your side of it. He, what he's saying is they can't have the ability to defend themselves at all. What he's saying is they have to put themselves in a position where if Israel and the US hits them, they can't answer back. When we've done that twice now, twice in the middle of negotiations, we've started attacking them. Well, who can ask? What, what type of ask is that? You know, it's like, it's like I, I used to say this about the Israel, Palestine debate a lot, but I'd go like, well, hey, look dude, if you, if you don't favor a two state solution or a one state solution in, in Greater Israel, whatever you want to call it in Palestine and Israel, if you don't favor a one state solution or a two state solution and the almost immediate implementation of them, like may, or I'll give you like five years or something like that, if you say, oh, we have a plan where we could get there in a few years, but if you favor anything short of that, you really can't get mad about Palestinian terrorism because what's your ask? Right? Like you're essentially saying to a group of people. Imagine saying this to a group of people compromised not solely but partially of men. Imagine saying to a group of men, I need you to have your wife and children live in subjugation, denied basic human rights and I need you to not be violent about it. Like, that's just an unreasonable thing to ask anyone. Now if you're advocating immediately for a two state solution and you go, and I need you to not be violent about, well, okay then that's a reasonable thing to ask someone. But if you're not giving them that. But so in this type of negotiation to ask a regimental to say, look, I want you to make sure that you don't have the ability to hit back against Israel when they hit you is just, this is an insane thing to ask someone to ask any nation. This would, this would be craziness. This, this would be like on the level of if after October 7, my demand of Israel was that they disarm and open the borders between Gaza and Israel. Like, look dude, if you were in any type of negotiation you just can't start there because that's obviously just, that's, that's non negotiable for the Israelis. They have to at the very least make sure there's not another terrorist attack coming next. Right. It's, this is all just too silly. I don't know. Any other thoughts?

D (51:56)

Rob, we need a full rollover policy from all other countries. There's no such concept of autonomy. We need you to give up all ability to defend yourselves and be in a vulnerable state because you got to get in line.

C (52:09)

Sign the other. Which was the other big news of the last few days, that Donald Trump demanded total surrender. He tweeted it. That's how he demanded it. And by the way, Rob, keep in mind, not a war, still not a war. I know the thing about your commander in chief demanding surrender. Yeah. Usually that would indicate a war. Typically. But not this time. Not a war. That's literally what these guys on Fox News will defend.

D (52:42)

That's how good Donald Trump is at this. That he doesn't even need to fight a war to get a total surrender from someone.

C (52:47)

Yeah, there you go. Well, look, I mean, there's also something where I start to, I don't know, maybe this is like the age that I am, because I was joking about this on stage a little bit. But like, is it the age you, when you get into your 40s, your parents start getting older, then you kind of become like the, the grown up, like you kind of become the parent in some way. But I swear to God, now I feel like almost like these guys and Fox, it makes me angry because it's like, yo, you're committing elder abuse. Don't you lie to these poor old people. You're lying to these old people. You'll defend this, this bullshit. It's not a war. But we're demanding a total surrender. Okay, yeah, let's keep playing.

F (53:27)

Have to deal with a much stronger nuclear armed Iran to then truly hold not just the region, but the world hostage.

E (53:35)

Ambassador, they think Israel's the problem, but those Gulf states know Iran's the problem. I also asked the President about the rise in oil prices, $100 a barrel. And he said this about the Strait of Hormuz. These ships gotta go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts. There's nothing to be afraid of. They have no navy. We sunk all their ships and all but 20% of their launchers. What is your reaction? And that message to the merchant ships, and that's the Gulf states too, to start getting that oil Going through there.

F (54:07)

Well, to the President's point, we've destroyed their air force, destroyed their air defenses, destroyed 80, 90% of their launchers and missile capability and sank their entire navy. This is about, I think, emotion. It's irrational. We have eliminated the threat for these. Both merchant ships and, and commerce needs to start moving. In addition to that, the Development Finance Corporation led by Ben Black, you know, the president Secretary, and he.

C (54:38)

And I don't know, Rob, you know, it's like sometimes you're in these things. I've, I've had this feeling many times and, and it is something that's almost always. I mean, look, you could just think this through because like, look, I, I don't exactly know like technically what the answer is. I'm not sure any of them know, but like exactly what is the Iranian capacity to hit ships coming by the Strait of Hermus right now? You know, given the damage that's been done to their navy or what? You know, I don't know but when I listen to this guy and Donald Trump saying like, essentially there's like, ah, stop being, just go through or whatever. It's like guys there are like just knowing the way markets work a little bit, there's a heavy, very healthy incentive for them to go, right, Rob? Like there's a lot of money to be made off ships going through that strait, like a huge amount of money, right? I think it's 20% of the world's oil goes through that straight or something like that. You're talking like talking hundreds of billions of dollars, you know, annually if insurance companies are not insuring them. Insurance companies also, by the way, are incentivized to insure something. Especially Rob, if the chance, if the chance of their ships being sunk are low, then insurance companies are looking to insure it because that's how you make money. So if this is the case that this is just emotional, there's not really. Rob, that is not how insurance works, okay? This is, these are calculations that are made. It's a big math equation, okay? It's a measure of risk. That's what they're in the business of doing. And so if you're telling me there's no real threat, but these ships just won't go and these insurance companies just won't insure them, I'm going to go out on a limb and call bullshit. I don't think that's really what's going on. Any thoughts on that?

D (56:34)

Yeah, I was, I was laughing at this one because I also, I don't know I'm not out in Iran, so maybe the Strait of Hormuz is completely safe to travel, but I don't think the only way of disrupting these boats is with the Navy. I don't know what's going outside of Yemen, but I don't remember that it was boat attacks. I thought it was like launchers from the ground. Yeah, but I mean, this is Donald Trump. Just if I say it, it's true. And, you know, maybe someone takes the bait and goes for it. I was thinking it would be real funny, like if the jackass guys literally got a boat shaped like a giant pair of balls to test Donald Trump on this, that it was safe to travel through the Strait of Hormuz. But I guess we'll find out. Someone's probably gonna take the offer from Donald Trump. I think he offered to socialize the cost of insurance for all these vehicles, so, you know, they might be able to not even have to take the financial loss if it gets hit. Courtesy of the United States government, courtesy of us.

C (57:34)

We'll take the hit. Yeah, yeah.

D (57:36)

Which apparently, I guess has endless money to support this war. And. But I mean, listen, if a boat does get struck, Donald Trump will just go, didn't happen. That's. That boat's still there. Oil showing up tomorrow. You know, this seems like one of the boldest face lies I've seen from him yet.

C (57:53)

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F (59:41)

Announced that we'll put insurance in place just as an additional safeguard. So these ships need to start moving. I understand from talking to Secretary Wright, our Energy Secretary, that one, what they call Suez Max, which is a super tanker, has moved and we're asking the rest to follow suit. We'll give them the protection they need. And we are knocking the snot out of Iran's capabilities. But again, one more reason why we had to do it now and not wait until they had even additional capability to not just hold the region hostage, but the world's energy supplies. Enough is enough. They've been doing this for 47 years. They started this war 47 years ago. Thank God President Trump is doing what's necessary to end it and to close this.

E (60:29)

Russia is helping Iran with targets against us. Our facilities in Bahrain, office buildings in Saudi Arabia, where the CIA is located. At the same time, Ukraine is helping us with drone technology. What does that tell you about that conflict and whose side who's on?

F (60:49)

Well, you know, Russia has now lost its largest manufacturing supplier of drones, the Shahid drones.

D (60:55)

Pause it. Breaking news. Russia's not on our side. If you needed more information on the Russia Ukraine war and whether or not Russia was taking our side as we war, as we armed Ukraine through the whole thing, what can we learn from this? Also an incredible admission of the fact that Iran was actually targeting military targets within those countries and not just civilian infrastructure, that they weren't just striking at a hotel, but I guess that it was actually a CIA location, a hotel

C (61:25)

that's been embedded in, you know, or a CIA location that's been embedded in a civilian area, which I've just listened for two and a half years to. All of these people tell me that makes it justified to kill as many of Those civilians, as you want to. So by their own logic, you know, they're. They're in a lot of trouble here. But, dude, I'm sorry, dad. Hold on one second. Dude, kill me. Oh, my God. Dude, I literally think. I think I had a brain aneurysm listening to that. That is the most painful line of logic I've ever said. I mean, that is literally. He's going, so what does that tell you about the conflict? Like, he's actually being that circular that he's going, so doesn't that prove that we were always right to be for Ukraine and against Russia? Because, look, this is literally on the level of you, like, being like, hey, I grabbed a woman and, and drug her into a. A dark alley and threw her up against the wall, but as soon as I took my hands off of her, she kicked me in the balls and ran away. So doesn't that tell you I should have drug her into the alley all along? Like. No, it's probably because you did that first thing that she reacted that way. What do you mean? Oh, my God. Is Russia helping you? Is helping Iran? Well, I don't know. Yeah, we've spent. Since it. We've spent. What is it? How many years has this conflict been going on now? Since 22. You spent four years arming the Ukrainians to the teeth, encouraging them to strike deep into Russia. And why. But so, like, what does it prove that Ukraine would do what they could to help the country that they're completely dependent on, and that Russia would do what they could to hurt the country who's backing the proxy war on their border? That's kill Mead's argument. God damn, man. I mean, I just. I really don't watch cable news the way I used to, you know, because it's irrelevant now. It was always dumb, but it wasn't this dumb. Like, I've never heard anything like that. That really. That proves it. Well, right there. There you go. That proves that, you know, I, I beat the shit out of this guy and then he shot me. And that proves I should have attacked him because, look, he's the type of person who shoots me. Okay, yeah, maybe none of this would be happening if we hadn't gotten in that stupid war too.

D (63:47)

I'm also hearing. So you're telling me that there's another risk of this war, which is we're essentially already in World War 3 because we normalized arming, not fighting a war with Russia, but arming the people that were having a fight with Russia so that we could pretend like we're not actually having a fight. And now they're doing the exact thing back to us where both Russia and China are sharing military intelligence with Iran and when does it become, oh, and look, both Russia and China are working against us as we're trying to defeat this enemy that was going to take over the Middle East. You guys are flirting with disaster here. And the biggest disaster is basically having a full war with Russia and China.

C (64:30)

Yep. I mean, there's also. Look, just to get back to the point that I made earlier, because it really is the thing that kind of, I don't know, it seems like it just relies. The whole thing revolves around this, is that you just. Look, I said this through the entire Israel Palestine debate and it's so true during this one too, because I guess in a way this is just an extension of that, right? But like the whole thing just revol. The whole case relies on this crazy double standard. Like I'd always say, like, the only way you can really come out of this thing supporting Israel is if you just don't value Palestinian life. I mean, just not as much as Israeli life at least. Otherwise if, if you start with like the concession that, hey, like we're all humans here, we all, we all have an, like, I'm not an egalitarian at all, but I'm saying like, we all have like an equal right to life on, on some moral level, we all have equal value. Like, you can't. That we. That is the, that is the essence of civilization, you know, or modern civilization is that belief that, hey, look, like there, there might be like a, a mentally ill, you know, like a, there might like an 8 year old who's like got, you know, some, some horrible genetic condition or something like that, like a retarded, you know, kid. I don't say that in, you know, I don't mean that to be offensive. I mean like a kid with mental illness. Not, not mental illness. I'm saying like genetic defect. Like a kid with down syndrome or something like that. There you go. Crippled can't, you know, will never have the mind of an adult. Will have a 60 IQ for the rest of his life. Will never, you know, okay, and then you could have like a scientist who's like a genius who might cure cancer tomorrow. But like if you just take a gun and go murder either one of them, it's the same crime. It's murder. Because we, we all recognize that. Look, even though this guy might be a genius and he might have huge contributions to society, and even though this kid is, is gotten, you know, a horrible condition and is. He's still a person on some level. We, you know, like there's. That to me is kind of the essence of civilization is like some, some level of respect for that. And, you know, this whole case, like I was saying, with the Ben Shapiro thing, it just revolves around this double standard. You can't have one standard and then hold every party accountable to it. Because that's why when I say, you know, the US Government's the biggest terrorist organization in the world, the response from the other side is, you hate America. No, no one wants to get out a pen and a piece of paper and explain why I'm wrong. You know what I'm saying? Like, no one actually wants to do that because I'm attacking the double standard. But in the same thing, Rob, as you can see right here with this guy, he's got to go, well, yeah, dude, you're not allowed to do that when it's us. You can't, you can't back a country who we're at war with because that's like you're trying to attack us all of a sudden. That applies when it's America, but if you. We're not applying it when it comes to Russia, why the hell should they apply it when it comes to us? Now that's a question none of them have an answer for. All right, we gotta wrap up there. We'll be back tomorrow with a brand new episode. Yeah, come see me and Rob Boston, Chicago, Stanford, Connecticut. Comicdavesmith.com for all those ticket links. All right, catch you guys tomorrow. Peace.

A (68:09)

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