"This Was A Bad Idea" – Andrew Callaghan’s WILD Coverage Of BLM Riots, COVID Protests & Border Chaos | PBD Podcast | Ep. 580

Summary

PBD Podcast Episode 580 Summary: "This Was A Bad Idea" – Andrew Callaghan’s WILD Coverage Of BLM Riots, COVID Protests & Border Chaos

In Episode 580 of the PBD Podcast, host B engages in an extensive and illuminating conversation with Andrew Callaghan, the visionary behind Channel 5. Titled "This Was A Bad Idea," the episode delves deep into Callaghan’s adventurous journalistic endeavors, covering volatile events such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots, COVID-19 protests, and chaotic border crossings. This detailed summary captures the essence of their discussion, highlighting key points, insights, and notable quotes.

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1. Personal Experiences and Fears

Andrew Callaghan opens up about the inherent dangers of his fieldwork. He candidly shares his apprehensions about interactions with law enforcement during his reporting trips.

• Fear of Arrest:
  “[01:08] Personally, probably getting arrested by border patrol.”
  Callaghan recounts a harrowing experience where he inadvertently found himself in a high-speed chase with juveniles attempting to cross the border illegally. This incident underscored the real risks journalists face when covering sensitive and dangerous situations.

2. Perspectives on Scientology

A significant portion of the conversation centers around Scientology, with Callaghan expressing a profound fear and skepticism towards the organization.

• Fear of Scientology:
  “[01:38] I'm more scared of Scientology than any other subgroup in the world.”
  Callaghan discusses the alleged harassment tactics and the secretive nature of Scientology, highlighting its impact on individuals and communities.

3. Living Arrangements: California vs. Florida

The dialogue shifts to Callaghan’s contemplation of relocating from Los Angeles to Florida, reflecting broader migration trends influenced by cultural and economic factors.

• Preference for Florida:
  “[02:33] Florida's a little bit overwhelming...I think I might have a Floridian future.”
  Callaghan shares his appreciation for various Floridian locales, such as Key Biscayne and Orlando, while expressing discomfort with the bustling atmosphere of Miami.

4. Influence and Impact on Younger Audiences

Host B emphasizes Callaghan’s role as a pivotal voice for the younger generation, praising his immersive journalism style that resonates with Gen Z listeners.

• Influence on Youth:
  “[04:07] Ever have a moment where you were actually scared?”
  B highlights Callaghan’s extensive coverage of pivotal events, including the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and protests across multiple cities, positioning him as a relatable and authentic figure for younger audiences.

5. Journalistic Journey and Inspirations

Callaghan attributes his passion for journalism to early influences and experiences, including a transformative high school teacher and exposure to comedic journalism.

• Inspiration from Kal Shaw:
  “[05:07] I had a really great teacher back in the day... he just inspired me to pursue journalism as a career path.”
  He also references comedic influences like Sacha Baron Cohen, underscoring the blend of humor and investigative rigor in his work.

6. Political Landscape and Party Dynamics

The conversation delves into the current state of American politics, examining declining approval ratings for the Democratic Party and the evolving nature of political establishments.

• Declining Democratic Approval:
  “[45:06] They’re at record lows...the lowest to 1992.”
  Callaghan and B discuss the factors contributing to the Democratic Party’s waning popularity, including perceived inefficacy in addressing income inequality and progressive policies that alienate certain demographics.

7. The Luigi Mangione Case and Direct Action Movements

A focal point is the Luigi Mangione incident, which epitomizes the extreme reactions to systemic grievances against health insurance practices.

• Luigi Mangione’s Protest:
  “[11:26] Luigi Magione had a lot of grievances against the health insurance claim denial system...”
  Callaghan analyzes how Mangione became a symbol of collective public frustration, illustrating the potential for direct action to stem from systemic failures.

8. Free Speech, Media Censorship, and Social Media’s Role

The discussion explores the impact of social media censorship on public discourse, arguing that it has driven fringe groups into echo chambers and exacerbated political polarization.

• Impact of Censorship:
  “[74:52] No, no, but watch what happens here...”
  They debate the consequences of platforms like Facebook and Twitter restricting content, citing the rise of alternative platforms that foster more extreme ideologies.

9. Documenting Extreme Situations: 'Dear Kelly'

Callaghan introduces his documentary, "Dear Kelly," which chronicles the journey of a radical right-wing protagonist navigating personal vendettas and national conflicts.

• About 'Dear Kelly':
  “[147:21] Dear Kelly was my first independently released film...’
  The documentary captures Kelly Johnson’s descent into radicalism, juxtaposing personal turmoil with broader political unrest.

10. Border Crossing Experience

Callaghan narrates a tense encounter while documenting illegal border crossings, highlighting the precarious balance between journalism and personal safety.

• Dangerous Border Crossing:
  “[135:16]... attempting to apprehend by border patrol and subsequent solitary confinement experience.”
  This segment underscores the real-life dangers faced by journalists in conflict zones, emphasizing the fine line between reporting and becoming entangled in the very issues they cover.

11. Reflections on Taxation and Income Inequality

A heartfelt dialogue on economic policies reveals Callaghan’s stance on taxation and the societal impacts of wealth inequality.

• Taxation Perspective:
  “[50:15]... a lot of people are just hoarding it and not pumping it back into the economy.”
  Callaghan advocates for moderate tax increases on the ultra-wealthy to bridge income gaps, while emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurial spirit and economic reinvestment.

12. Media Accountability and Political Funding

The conversation critiques the influence of large corporations and wealthy individuals in political funding, highlighting the need for greater transparency and accountability.

• Critique of Citizens United:
  “[98:48] No, no, but watch what happens here.”
  Callaghan and B discuss the ramifications of the Citizens United decision, illustrating how corporate donations skew political landscapes and hinder genuine democratic processes.

13. Celebrating Achievements and Future Projects

Callaghan celebrates milestones, including reaching 3 million subscribers on Channel 5, and teases future projects aimed at continuing his immersive journalism.

• Subscriber Milestone:
  “[149:07] We just hit 3 million subscribers.”
  This achievement underscores Callaghan’s growing influence and the expanding reach of his independent journalism.

Notable Quotes

• “[01:08] Personally, probably getting arrested by border patrol.” – A
• “[01:38] I'm more scared of Scientology than any other subgroup in the world.” – A
• “[05:07] I had a really great teacher back in the day... he just inspired me to pursue journalism as a career path.” – A
• “[45:06] They’re at record lows...the lowest to 1992.” – B
• “[74:52] No, no, but watch what happens here...” – B
• “[147:21] Dear Kelly was my first independently released film...” – A
• “[135:16]...attempting to apprehend by border patrol and subsequent solitary confinement experience.” – A

Conclusion

Episode 580 of the PBD Podcast offers a comprehensive exploration of Andrew Callaghan’s fearless journalism and his incisive perspectives on contemporary political and social issues. From confronting dangerous situations on the ground to dissecting the intricate dynamics of political establishments, Callaghan provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the challenges facing modern America. His commitment to authentic, immersive reporting shines through, positioning him as a crucial voice in citizen journalism.

For those interested in raw, unfiltered reporting that transcends traditional media boundaries, this episode is a must-listen, encapsulating the essence of what makes Andrew Callaghan’s work both compelling and impactful.

Transcript

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[A]

It's funny. In the moment, I wasn't nervous, but watching this. Now I'm nervous because I realized this is like a bad idea. Find live worldwide Hollywood.

[B]

Ever have a moment where you were actually scared?

[A]

Oh, all the time.

[B]

Well, what's the scariest one?

[A]

I mean, personally? Probably getting arrested by border patrol.

[B]

So you didn't pay the 5,000 to the coyote, but you paid the 10,000 to the guy?

[A]

I probably should pay the coyote. I'm thinking, holy, they stole this car. And then I look around, I look in the rear view mirror and there's a cops trailing us. That was a classic example of just me taking it too far in the field with the documentaries.

[B]

Even when you put this up, cops never got a hold of you.

[A]

No. They might after this podcast, though. I'm more scared of Scientology than any other subgroup in the world.

[B]

Really? Do you have any interest? I have some friends. I can introduce you.

[A]

I have an extreme interest in Scientology, but I also have an interest in being alive.

[B]

You ever seen this?

[A]

Is it a breakdown of it?

[B]

Oh, dude, I love the fact that you're seeing this for the first time.

[A]

Let's make a Channel 5 video. I would do it.

[B]

Oh, I would love to see it.

[A]

A lot of people would be upset with that.

[B]

Channel55.5 is the best number. Did you ever think you were made again? Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright. My handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here.

[A]

My son's right about. I don't think I've ever said this before.

[B]

How you doing?

[A]

I'm good. Thanks for having me. It's great to be back in the country's greatest state.

[B]

Greatest state?

[A]

I think so.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Florida.

[B]

And you're saying it's living in la.

[A]

Yeah. I won't live in LA for a year and a half, but I think I might have a Floridian future.

[B]

You do you. You may have it.

[A]

I like it. I like Key Biscayne, I like Orlando, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, but not South. It's okay. I like Fort Lauderdale. Miami's a little bit overwhelming.

[B]

Yeah, for me too. I don't know if I could do. I could do Miami, but the right place is for Lauderdale, in my opinion. Because if you want to go to Miami to do something, you're 45 minutes away. You want to go to Palm Beach, 45 minutes away, Orlando, three. You can have lifestyle here, water, all the good stuff that comes with it. But that's interesting. We'll talk about the LA stuff, but let me tell you how I feel about you, okay. And it's very important because I have a 13 year old son. Okay. Patrick, who has your personality. Okay. And he is extremely curious. He, he loves politics for whatever reason. He's a jujitsu guy. And I think you're one of the most important voices for the younger audience. And here's why. Because I think you're going through a journey which you kind of, you know, you have your own opinions and they're strong, but also you're developing it as you're going through the process by actually going to the place instead of seeing what the news is telling us, you're like, nah, I want to go see what you guys are doing. And you've been to, what? You've been to Miami beach during COVID definitely O block, Chicago, Philly street, the Kensington, the whole Fentanyl place that you went to San Francisco, George Floyd, protestment, Minneapolis, Chaz, which became this special thing during COVID And you know, in Seattle, you swam across the Rio Grande.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Phenomenal. Very impressive. Yeah.

[A]

Bad choice.

[B]

Anti vaccine protest. You went to Israel and Tel Aviv for the protest, fighting in Mexico, Connecticut. Kia. You, you were in the car with the Kia boys.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

While they're stealing, you have a mask on. You're going with them. Yeah, I've had some crazy stuff you've done and it's, it's one of those shows that if you watch one episode, guys, you could get stuck watching two hours worth of content. You do such a good job and you don't put your opinion in it. You just ask, what do you think? What do you think? How do you feel about this? I just want to say great job on what you've done with Channel 5. I think prior to that it was what? All Gas, no brakes. Right.

[A]

And I have some good news. I'm actually reacquiring All Gas, no breaks.

[B]

Oh, no shit.

[A]

Yeah. We use a quarter of the proceed from our new film, Dear Kelly, to make the acquisition of our first child, All Gas. So I'm going to make that announcement probably in the coming days, but I'm going to be in control of both Channel 5 and all gas in the entire catalog.

[B]

I love that. So, you know, for the audience that maybe doesn't know backstory, how did you say, I'm going to go out there and do this? How did this happen?

[A]

Well, I had a really great teacher back in the day. I had a journalism course in high school. I had a teacher named Kal Shaw, Calvin Shaw. And he just inspired me to pursue journalism as a career path. For me, the coolest thing about being a journalist is you get to be in the front row seats for all the things that you want to witness in the world, whether it be a political event. You get to dive into a subculture because everybody wants coverage, everybody wants to be heard. And if you can be a medium for them to get their message out there, you can go wherever you'd like.

[B]

Yeah. In today's marketplace as a citizen journalist, it's almost. You have more credibility than the actual journalist that's sitting in front of the camera speaking. You're like, no, I'm going to the street. I'm gonna go see what's exactly going on versus what's your. What you're seeing it out there. And I think that's. That's been a game changer. Right. A lot of people that have been doing this. Yeah. Was there anybody else that was an inspiration for you? Because are you a 97 baby?

[A]

Yeah, I was born in 1997. Four years before 9 11. Right. When the Internet first came around, the first ipod.

[B]

So who, who Was that person? Like 97. YouTube starts in 03.04. So when did you start consuming YouTube content?

[A]

Oh man, YouTube content. Well, probably as soon as I got on the Internet. But I came online during like the Chocolate Rain Charlie bit my finger 4chan era. So the online subcultures are still being formed. But as far as like the first citizen journalist that I was into, I was mostly into comedians at first, like Sacha Baron Cohen. Even early stuff like Kassemg was really good. There was a really fringe show called Shams de Baron or Brushstrokes with Norman Vanami that was like a graffiti adjacent interview show where this Guy would go to art shows dressed as like a breakdancer and kind of like a pretend to be a high art customer. Yeah, you know, high end art customer. And some of that stuff was just hilarious to me. I didn't put the journalism pieces together until I went to college for it. And I had that professor.

[B]

Interesting. Well, I mean, Sasha Baron Cohen to me is. Is dude, what he did with. What was that? Hbo? Was it HBO or Max where he goes to couple rallies. He has this guy teaching him. He's an Israeli. He's going to train him how to fight off gay men. You know which one I'm talking about?

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

Some of the stuff the guy did that he was able to con, he sits there, he says, so, you know, you know, the. What was it? The Ali G one, you know, that's my favorite one. When he says, so I want to talk to you about, you know, euthanasia. He says, yes, have you seen this one where he says, yeah, what about it? Says, why is it always the youth in Asia? He says, no, it's about euthanasia. Says, but what. I know, but why is it not other people? Why is the target only youth in Asia? This guy is freaking hilarious. What he does.

[A]

My favorite part of that show is when he goes to a city council meeting meeting in Kingman, Arizona, which is a very hardcore, like biker town, and he proposes the construction of the largest mosque in North America. And they're like screaming. They're like, we don't want any terrorists here. That to me was like the fact that he was able to keep a straight face during that character performance.

[B]

Got to love it. Okay, so you know, for you, with the places that you visit, we got a lot of stuff that's going on right now that, you know, it's kind of timely with Luigi Mangione, you know, the protest for that and you know, Tesla Elon and you know, United. There's a bunch of stuff that's going on. But let's start off with something very important that you and I were talking about. I think it's probably the most important issue that most people are not aware of. And that is your favorite movie. Your favorite movie of all time is.

[A]

The Dark Knight, the second film in the Christopher Nolan Batman series.

[B]

And why is it the second one?

[A]

Well, everyone expects me to say that I'm in like really cutting edge documentaries like by Adam Curtis, Errol Morris and stuff like that, but I actually just love Batman and I loved it so much when it first came out in 2012. I saw it five times in a row in Ocean City, New Jersey, every matinee for a week straight. Just trying to really digest all of the different subplots and narratives.

[B]

Which character, though?

[A]

Like, I mean, there's the Joker, there's Commissioner Gordon, there's Christian Bale's Batman character was amazing. There's just so much. Batman Begins was a great, you know, segue to the Dark Knight. Dark Knight Rises didn't really do it for me. A little bit too political.

[B]

Too political for you?

[A]

Well, you know, Dark Knight Rises was like a metaphor for the Occupy Wall street movement going too far when they start, you know, when Bane supposed to be like, the commander of antifa, and they roll up in this New York stock exchange and start shooting people and stuff.

[B]

Too divisive.

[A]

Well, it was literally like. I feel like it was subsidized in some way by Wall Street.

[B]

Yeah. So. So. But character wise, like, who do you relate? Because for me, for a longest time, my podcast said had three characters behind me. Batman, Joker, and the Incredible Hulk. And it's like the three personalities I relate to. Right, but which one was it where he said, I kind of feel like I'm. I'm this guy in this movie?

[A]

It's a hard one to answer because if I say I'm like the Joker, that makes me feel like I'm a dark sort of sinister.

[B]

But I have a joke to me as well.

[A]

Vengeance in you, where you get Joker brain.

[B]

It's. It's not, though. It's. It's when you see somebody that you know when you're. You're. You're sick and tired of being taken advantage of and you can't let go of the. You choose a wrong enemy can really destroy your life. And I think that's what happened to him. He couldn't let it go. Yeah, but he's a hero to a lot of people as well. A lot of people followed his fire and the pain that he had.

[A]

Yeah. I would say that I'm somewhere in between Batman and the Joker.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

But I think that the Joker is definitely a relatable character, more so in the Dark Knight than he was in the Joaquin Phoenix movie a couple years ago, which I know you said you were not a fan of.

[B]

Dude, I walked out 43 minutes into the movie. I go and I look at my wife. We had 20 people at the movies. Rob, were you with us or. No. When we watch a joke.

[A]

No.

[B]

So we're in a movie theater. I'm like, yeah, I'm out. Why? So this is. This Is divisive, man. You're pinning America against America. We don't need more of this. And it's interesting because that movie, what ends up happening at the end of that movie? He kills. He ends up killing. Is it Robert De Niro? Who is that like the Johnny Carson character of the movie?

[A]

Yeah, he kills. He says, how about another joke, Murray? And he kills him. And that was after he killed a couple bankers on the subway.

[B]

After he kills a couple bankers on the subway. And then that leads to one of the stories, the Luigi Mangioni story.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Wow. Here's a guy, you got Luigi Mangione. You look at his background, stud of a guy, student, good grades, everything's looking good, minus the last 90 minutes, he disappears. 90 days he disappears. But you can't really see what, what's happening then. The people he followed on X, I was one of them. He followed some 74 people who were libertarian type of guys that he followed. So it's not like he followed only right or only left or only middle. He was open minded is what he seemed like. And then all of a sudden, the rage gets there to want to take out the United Healthcare CEO. How much when you hear that story, you went to the rally, by the way, right? What did you hear people saying? Like, what were you noticing that caused people to go rally for this guy?

[A]

Well, I mean, if the manifesto was legitimate, the one that was leaked, that was published by an independent reporter named Ken Klippenstein, if that's real, it seemed like Luigi Magione had a lot of grievances against the health insurance claim denial system, particularly how United Healthcare had implemented AI to automatically deny people's healthcare claims. So people needed treatment, they were paying customers. And there was a machine that had one of the highest insurance claim denial rates of any other major health insurance.

[B]

30 to 33%.

[A]

Something that was high, Ridiculously high.

[B]

Can you pull up that number, Rob?

[A]

People were trying to appeal the robot's decision, and it was almost impossible. You were stuck with someone on the phone for days. And a lot of times during that window where people were waiting to get care, they would pass away. So I'm not sure if he had someone in his family who was affected by the health care policies. But I felt like a lot of people in my generation are kind of fed up with things not changing. You know, the cost of living being ridiculously high, the wages being really low. And they felt like Luigi Mangioni was something like a martyr who spoke for the rage of the collective public, who feels like, nothing is changing.

[B]

So how. How should. What do you think is the level to go to? Because some people. What's the one girl lately that's been talking about Luigi Mangioni in a very complimentary way? Tracy, is it? Lorenzo Taylor? Lorenzo Taylor Lorenz? Have you heard about Taylor Lorenz?

[A]

Yeah, she helped us whenever we lost all gas during a contractual dispute. She leaked all the information, which kind of like segued millions of fans to Channel 5. So shout out to her for that. I'm not sure what she was saying about Luigi, but I think that basically, probably what I'm assuming she was saying is that many people felt like he represented the call for direct action. And there's a generational shift to the idea that awareness culture and raising awareness doesn't actually create change. So there's a lot of people. There's kind of an idea that has persisted over the course of the past couple of years, especially with the progressive left in the us that raising awareness doesn't do much to actually create change. And so for someone to break out of the mold of, like, making people aware and actually take things a step further made people feel some type of revolutionary spirit.

[B]

Wow. So even if it means killing the CEO.

[A]

Well, because their logic is, you know, how many people have died as a result of their health care claims being denied? Yeah, health insurance claims, you know, so.

[B]

To you, to somebody that is going through this and you're touching and you're talking to people and you're hearing the arguments at the protest, walking away. What argument got for you to say it's a little too much. And what. What argument was like, you know what? These guys may have a point in this area. Which one? Which one was it?

[A]

Well, I mean, the reality is that regardless of, like, how I felt about the opinions, killing a bunch of CEOs is not going to change any of that infrastructure in the health insurance industry. You know, I mean, that's not like.

[B]

For sure. I agree. That was my concern with the movie Joker. So here's your chance for me to be a hero.

[A]

But the fact that it spurred conversations I thought was interesting. I mean, just. It was fascinating to see such an, you know, the instant valorization of Luigi that happened overnight. Everyone's like, oh, my God, this guy's so hot. We love him. He's our hero. It was interesting because that was very much poisoned by the social media algorithms of the time, you know, where, like, Luigi Mangione becomes a hero to so many. And in general, I think that it did spark some good conversations. But I think you can acknowledge that while still saying it's not good to shoot people in the back of the head in the street.

[B]

Rob, what's that clip, by the way, you just had? Because I think that's the one where she breaks down her argument. Right? Can you play this clip? I think she does a good job explaining why she's for Luigi Mangion. And I don't think she's alone. I think there's a lot of people that are probably on her side as well. Go ahead, Rob.

[A]

Hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching their pearls about someone stanning a murderer when this is. This is the United States of America. As if we don't lionize criminals, as.

[B]

If we don't have, you know, we.

[A]

Don'T stan murderers of all sorts, and.

[B]

We give them Netflix shows.

[A]

There's a huge disconnect between the narratives and angles, the sort of mainstream media.

[B]

Pushes, and what the American public feels. And you see that in moments like this.

[A]

And I can tell you, I saw the biggest audience growth that I've ever seen because people were like, oh, somebody, some journalist is actually speaking to the anger that we feel. The women who got her outside court in New York. So you're gonna see women, especially, that feel like, oh, my God. Right? Like, here's this man who. Who's revolutionary, who's famous, who's handsome, who's young, who's smart. He's a person that seems this. Like this morally good man, which is hard to find. Yeah. I just realized women will literally date an assassin before they swipe right on me. That's.

[B]

That's where we're at.

[A]

I'm sure you wouldn't like to be completely.

[B]

But he's doing a pretty good job. I've been seeing the stuff last two weeks, and I think she's actually doing it pretty good. I don't know who he is, but.

[A]

Yeah, I think she broke it down quite well in terms of, like, the romantic appeal as well.

[B]

I mean, you hear the stories. Who are some of the people that ladies would be lined up in prison just to kind of see him was Charles Manson. Who else was it, Rob? Like, people would be lined up.

[A]

Bundy, he had the Menendez brothers who killed their parents in California. One of them got married while they were behind bars. Wow. I mean, every serial killer has typically had like, dozens, if not hundreds of women writing them in. In prison.

[B]

Why do you think that is?

[A]

I don't know. I think people are just fascinated by the allure of it when people's name is in the headlines, like just someone's sort of profile being that large, just fame attracts a certain kind of person regardless.

[B]

And you know, she said something here which is very interesting. And I, I was having this conversation with us, Rob, one day, you and I, seven of us were at Casa D'Angelo. And you even said this once when you were been interviewed with Vice, I believe. And I don't know what the guy asked you. He said something about did you ever catch yourself, you know, creating content that the audience was reacting to or something like that? I don't know what the context of it was. But you were kind of explaining that where she says, I've never had this many followers. That's not necessarily a good thing. Yeah, because who is following you? Who is agreeing with you, you know, who is saying, man, I like what you have to say. And all of a sudden you're like, you're in the room with them, you're like, whoa, I don't relate to you guys. Where did you guys show up?

[A]

Yeah, and that's the thing about social media nowadays in particular is like people kind of become. It's a very fine line to walk when you exist online is doing things that you believe in and doing things that, you know, your fans will appreciate and kind of want you to do. Because once you pigeonhole yourself as a certain type of person, you know your audience quite well. You know that if you say a certain thing to the audience you've built up that they disagree with, a lot of them are going to walk away. You know, for example, like, there's a lot of people, both conservative and progressive, who might have opinions about different things like abortion, homelessness, drug, you know, gay marriage, Israel, Palestine, that they know that if they speak their opinion on it, they might lose a significant percentage of their audience. And so I think that keeps a lot of people going in line with what they see as like the majority consensus narrative, as opposed to finding a middle ground and having conversations. Because at the end of the day, everyone's trying to survive too. Like, imagine if someone like Alex Jones went on TV and said, I support a Palestinian two state solution. A lot of people would be upset with that.

[B]

But Alex has also not been the most agreeable guy in the Republican side. That's every president has had a little on the conservative side. Nobody outside of Trump has been very close to him. Most of the Republican presidents can't stand Alex Jones.

[A]

Really?

[B]

You think George Bush likes Alex Jones?

[A]

What is George Bush doing nowadays?

[B]

No, but Seriously, do you think George Bush likes Alex Jones?

[A]

I mean, I don't know if George Bush knows who Alex Jones.

[B]

No, I guarantee you he knows who Alex Jones is. I guarantee he knows who Alex Jones is. Wasn't Alex like the first one that came out saying 911 is going to be happening and they're going to blame this and they're going to blame that. Isn't that. Didn't he do something like that?

[A]

Yeah, he was, he was warning of an impending terrorist attack, I think specifically on the World Trade center, like years and years before it happened.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Bear in mind, that was after there were bombs detonated in the parking garage of the World Trade Center. I think it was in 1997 or 99.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So it makes sense. It wasn't like he was conjuring up that image from scratch, but it makes sense as to why George W. Bush doesn't like Alex Jones.

[B]

So what I guess what I'm trying to say is when you use the example of Alex Jones, I don't know if Republicans side with Alex Jones.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Outside of Trump.

[A]

I guess what I'm kind of trying to say is when you become a social media influencer on different political side, on one political side of the aisle, it can disrupt your business and income if you decide to deviate from the norm of the consensus.

[B]

So for you, when I watch you, you say, you know, I have leftists, but I'm not really. I don't want to be tied to a political side and I don't want to do this. And I, But I'm, you know, I'm kind of this. As you're going through all of these places and, you know, you're living your life and you're, you're developing your own opinion. You're only 28, you're growing 27. 27, 97. I'm doing the math. So you're going to be 28.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When is it? What month are you born?

[A]

I'm actually, I was born on April 23, so it's coming right up.

[B]

Well, that's right. We made a note of that. Your birthday is coming up. That's right. But happy early birthday to you, by the way.

[A]

Thank you, I appreciate it.

[B]

Yeah. As you're going through this, you know, would you consider yourself more of an anti establishment person?

[A]

Anti establishment? Like socially progressive? You know, I think people should be able to do whatever they want to do within reason. But yeah, socially progressive, anti establishment. Definitely don't find any identity in either of the major political parties today.

[B]

Yeah. And to you and Alex Jones would be a guy that is, would you put him as an establishment guy or anti establishment?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I think, I think you and Alex are obviously, he claims, he makes claims, he says things, you don't do that. You just go get the content and say, hey, what do you think, audience? Make up your mind. Yeah, this is up to you, right? You don't get up there and say, let me tell you what I think is going to be going on. That's not your brand. You're more going out there doing the journalism. But to me, he is. It's almost like whenever somebody isn't invited to the White House too often by president, they don't trust the guy fully. The only guy that's given this guy the opportunity to come in is Trump. All the other guys weren't comfortable with him. As a young guy yourself, how do you feel about Trump?

[A]

I mean, in what sense?

[B]

I mean, okay, so you're in the streets, you're talking to everybody. Did you think he was gonna win or did you think, oh, there's no way this guy's gonna win?

[A]

I definitely did not think that he.

[B]

Was gonna win, even till the last minute.

[A]

I mean, I think I'm kind of in a bubble extent. I'm mostly in like progressive major cities. So I didn't even realize that he was going to win. But then after the assassination attempt, I knew he would win. You know, specifically when he pumped his fist and said fight, I was like, it's done. There's nothing the Democrats can possibly do to take the trophy away from this guy. But yeah, I would say in general, like, I'm not really like a Trump guy. Mostly I don't like the way that, that political movement makes people treat each other. You know, just on like a day to day, human, human level, like for interpersonal interactions get really dark between the Trump crowd and their opposition.

[B]

Who do you think created that?

[A]

I just think that the showmanship of politics that's happened in the last, you know, probably six to eight years, it's kind of like two football teams and it gets pretty gnarly out there. I don't think people were fighting in the streets during the Obama and Romney election. You know, I don't think there was like a Romney proud boys, you know.

[B]

You don't think there was Romney proud boys. Okay, so let me ask you this. Do you think for a guy that's anti establishment, do you view Romney as an establishment guy, an anti establishment guy?

[A]

I mean, I know he's part of the Utah Establishment. Because he is a Mormon.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Which. Which is no disrespect to Mormons, actually. Really nice.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

But I think so. Yeah, for sure. He's like an RNC guy.

[B]

Did you do something with Mormons or no?

[A]

No, I want to.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

It's kind of hard because if you portray them negatively, it's kind of like Scientologists. Like the Mormons have a lot of money to sue you.

[B]

Yeah. But Scientology will come after you in different ways.

[A]

I'm more scared of Scientology than any other subgroup in the world.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. You know about Fair Gaming, right? Their policy where they can like stalk you and harass you for years.

[B]

And of course, I'm very familiar with.

[A]

CIA technology to make you think you're having a schizophrenic break.

[B]

For sure. They are incredible at what they do. I mean, the guy's wife's been missing for how long? David Miscavige's wife has been missing for how many years now?

[A]

Shirley.

[B]

Is it Shelly or Shelly?

[A]

Shelley. Shelley, yeah. And it was. There was like an LAPD checkup where they like reported that nothing was wrong. I was like, what do you mean? Did you talk to her? They're like, we're not going to say, but like, everything's fine. There's a guy in Los Angeles right now, he's one of those like second amendment, first amendment, audit, like cop watcher guys. Yeah, his name is. I think it's like Scientology. Stop Scientology la. He stands outside of the Church of Scientology on Hollywood Boulevard every single day. Live streaming for hours, physically, like blocking the entryway, getting people to not go inside and get a free auditing session. So he's single handedly shut down their recruitment operation in Hollywood. One man.

[B]

Yeah, she's. She's apparently been missing since 07. Okay. Since 2007, she's been missing.

[A]

Well, I think we know what happened.

[B]

What's that?

[A]

She's dead.

[B]

You think so? Yeah.

[A]

Dude.

[B]

Did you ever see the Lear. Am I saying her last name correctly?

[A]

Shelly Miscavige?

[B]

No, no. Leah Remini. Remini. Do you know who she is? No. No.

[A]

Oh, she. Oh, she. She made a. She was in Going Clear. Right? That big Netflix documentary about Scientology.

[B]

Yeah. And she went on and she says, well, one time I went and I said, so how's Shelly doing? And everybody looked at me saying, hey, you don't ask a question like that. And I was like, well, I'm just asking a basic question. She's a friend of mine. You don't ask a question like that. And then she's like. That's when I realized something's weird over here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So you think she's been dead in 07? So let me ask you, if that's the case, what is the protocol? What are they supposed to do? Is the government supposed to investigate? Or are we one day going to sit there and say, shelly Miscavige is 173 years old, been missing since 2007? Like, you know what I'm saying?

[A]

Like, is she going to get a funeral?

[B]

When does it get to a point that the government says, I want to investigate what really happened to her? Has there ever been one rap? Has the US Government or the PD ever investigated to find out what happened to her? You just went after Scientology.

[A]

Another crazy fact, too, is that David Miscavige, their leader, has never done an interview. He's only ever been. Doc.

[B]

Wait, with who one interview? He did. You've never seen this? No.

[A]

I gotta find it.

[B]

You have to watch this. Are you. You're saying you. You're in the space?

[A]

So maybe I've only seen him portrayed by Scientology media.

[B]

He's done one interview his entire life. Yeah, I'm right with Ted Kappell, by the way, if you've never seen this.

[A]

Okay, thank you for the fact check on 1990.

[B]

Watch this.

[A]

So it's been over 30 years.

[B]

It has been appearance. And let me tell you, the way he interviews, the way this guy interviews with Ted Kappel is unbelievable. And if you watch him, you know whose mannerisms you'll pick up. Okay, I want you to watch this and tell me what actor's mannerism do you pick up? Go ahead, Rob. Just press play. Watch this. I feel perfectly comfortable with my life. I like my job. I'm happy with my family. I love my wife. I'm healthy. I'm perfectly content. That's why I'm asking you, what is it you can do for me? Well, number one, I would never try to talk you into that.

[A]

Scientology is for you. You see, that's the funny thing about that. This.

[B]

As if I'm now going to give.

[A]

A pitch to you on Scientology. Believe me, Scientology is valuable enough that it doesn't require any sales. But let's look at it this way, then. What Scientology does, if you look out.

[B]

Across the world today, the only interview, if you take a person who's healthy, positive, whatever you do, watch this when you're out of here.

[A]

Yeah, I can't wait.

[B]

We'll be blown away by this guy's interview. We've tried to have him on many, many times. I'd love to talk to the guy.

[A]

Have you gotten to the stage of, like, him considering doing an interview?

[B]

No, but we spoke to his camp because we've had a few people on. One guy who left the organization, and we had a couple other guys. Mike Rinder, who. What is his relation to David Miscavige? He was one of the highest ranking guys there. Right. The senior executive of the Church International. And he ran the Sea Organization, which is like the place to be.

[A]

Yes, that for those unfamiliar, that's the top organization in the hierarchy of Scientology. And if you buy your way into the Sea Org, there's an annual cruise that you get to go on, and that is sort of the top tier, I think. I don't know how much you have to spend to get into Sea Org, but once you're there, you're in whatever. And I don't know what that. What the benefits are of that.

[B]

Do you have any interest? I have some friends. I can introduce you.

[A]

I have an extreme interest in Scientology, but I also have an interest in being alive.

[B]

So you don't want to be a member?

[A]

No. I mean, holy. Can you imagine having those guys against you?

[B]

Yeah, but imagine if you have them with you.

[A]

That's even the way I'm gonna lose all credibility.

[B]

It would be like Andrew Callahan. Imagine if you were part of organization and we had your back. You would never have to worry about anything. Does that sound appealing to you?

[A]

It does, but what sounds more appealing is staying away from them or being a liaison between Scientology and the public. Like David Miscavige is like, you know what? Shelly's actually at my apartment here in Florida.

[B]

Come meet her.

[A]

Come meet her, do an interview. Let's make a Channel 5 video. I would do it.

[B]

Oh, I would love to see it. I'd love to see it. I'd love for you to go and just talk to. You know what else would be interesting for you to do? If. Many, many years ago, when I was an atheist, I would go to churches in LA and I would just go on and talk to everybody about whatever they believed in. I'd go to LDS and I'm so. So tell me about this Gordon B. Hinckley. Tell me about this, you know, Joseph Smith. Tell me what happened with the, you know, Vermont when he found these. These plates and he moved to, you know, these states. And every time you guys moved, he got kicked out until he got to Utah. What happened there? Tell. I would go to Scientology Church and I would say, what do you believe in who's God? Who's this? Whoever you believe in, who do you believe in? And it was always such an incredible method of communicating with you, which is so impressive. If you notice one thing about Scientologists, you know what? They definitely can do better than mostly other religions. They're incredible communicators. John Travolta, Scientology.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Tom Cruise, Scientology. If. Just look at the way David Miscavige speaks. He speaks better than most preachers speak. The way they teach their guys at an office one time where 70 agents in the office were all Scientologists. I loved working with them.

[A]

Yeah, they're kind of like toastmasters.

[B]

Intergalactic on steroids and growth hormone and they hang out with Gary Brecker all the time type of health. Yeah, like they're at that level.

[A]

But one thing I know they do is whenever they do the auditing sessions and they ask you to like, you know, recall a traumatic memory or something that's sitting in your subconscious, I know that they record that session so they can hold whatever you're saying as blackmail to leverage against you in the future. I do believe that Scientology is sort of a massive for profit blackmail operation that has. It's deeply entrenched in Hollywood and the police departments of Southern California. Interesting, because, I mean, what. What is the purpose? Because they're not atheists. They believe in an ascendant spiritual plane where the thetan, Thetan, which is your soul, will live there and occupy its own planet after you pass away for eternity. Which sounds fantastic in theory. So I hope it's true. So if you're a Scientologist watching this, I hope you're right. But imagine you die, you get to heaven and you're a Christian, and God is like Scientology was right.

[B]

So what are you? What do you believe in?

[A]

Me, man? I'm trying. That's the thing, man. Like you said, I'm 27. I'm still trying to figure things out. Like. Like my opinions sort of change as I'm learning more stuff about life. I would like to think that there's an afterlife. When I was a kid, my grandma told me that, you know, there was, and that all my great grandparents were there watching the Phillies games, and the Phillies always win in heaven. That sounded nice. I was like, oh, it sounds great because they're losing right now. But as I'm getting older, man, I don't know, sometimes I watch a bug die or a dog. You know, we just had to put down a puppy. Nevermind. Anyways, I think to Myself, like man. What makes me different from all these animals and wildlife that's passing away? Is there something special about the human spirit that allows us to occupy the kingdom of heaven? Are we more than animal?

[B]

Well, listen, I don't know if you ever watched Charlie All Dogs Go to Heaven. You ever saw the movie All Dogs Go to Heaven? I believe all dogs go to heaven.

[A]

So you think, are they.

[B]

I don't know about cats, but I think all dogs Go to heaven.

[A]

But do they get their own specific heaven or are they with us?

[B]

I think they're hanging out with us. I can't imagine going to heaven, not seeing dogs.

[A]

So dogs are the only species in heaven or all other domesticated pet breeds?

[B]

I don't know. I. You know, that's a pay grade that I haven't reached that level, 32 or 33, to know if they're going to be there or not. I'm kind of going based on faith. I'm hoping they're going to be there because we love animals. But if my dad's version of faith to him, he is hoping animals don't go to heaven because my dad can't stand dogs, because they poo everywhere. Because my dad is a clean freak. And God forbid an animal touches him, he loses his mind. Till today. Mother, My grandmother had 12 cats, two dogs, two parrots, 12 birds, two snakes. All her kids love dogs and animals, except for my dad. She had four kids. They all love animals. My dad can't stand them. So my dad's depiction of heaven, it's just human beings. So mine, I'm hoping there's some animals, but we'll see. So you don't have a faith? You don't have something you believe in right now?

[A]

No. I'd like to, though. I'd like to have some sort of ecstatic religious experience.

[B]

Well, you know, you're 27. You're going through it, you know, when it. The way, the journey you're going on is so awesome that I'm really curious to know who you are three years from now, six years from now. Sincerely, I want to know where you're going to be ten years from now. You know, there are certain people you watch who are coming up and you're like, I think this guy's going to change a lot of times. And I can't wait to meet the next guy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know. You know what I'm saying? Like, look at 10 years ago, Rogan was a Sanders guy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And then all of a sudden. Wait, what? He was one of the reasons why Trump got elected. They hug each other at UFC as if they're best friends. What, this. This is not the same guy. When I was on Rogan's podcast, he's like, I'll never have. You know.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, he was thinking about it, but at one point he told Lex, I'll never have him on. He called me. All this other stuff, what happened to him? What evolution did he go through? I think last week, Rogan just said, I'm no longer drinking alcohol.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or two weeks ago.

[A]

I stopped about 39 days ago.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How is it so far for you?

[A]

It's just fantastic, man. Like, you know, I used to spend so much time socializing, it became like a second job. You know what I mean? I'm like, I get off work, I might. It's. It felt like partying was a job. And I just have much more time on my hands, much more emotional regulation. That's why I'm putting out three videos a week now, as opposed to one when I wake up at 5 o'clock in the morning. I've been running. Get to work, edit. Put something out.

[B]

And you edit your own stuff out here?

[A]

Yeah. One thing I wanted to ask you. Wait, what'd you say?

[B]

I hear you edit your own videos.

[A]

I edit my own videos mostly, but I have a new team of editors. Shout out to Charlie, Nate, Gabe and Ethan. Those are my first four editors. My first four Channel 5 employees. Charlie of history.

[B]

Charlie.

[A]

Charlie Brady. He edited the video about West Virginia greyhound racing.

[B]

Oh, very cool.

[A]

I want to ask you, though, what religion was your father?

[B]

Mom and dad, both Christians, and they're from Iran.

[A]

Iran?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is that the dominant religion there?

[B]

No, but remember, my. My dad's a Syrian and my mother's Armenian, so I speak Armenian. I speak Aramaic, but I lived in Iran for almost 11 years, went to Germany, then we came here.

[A]

Were Christians expelled under the Shah?

[B]

Not under the Shah. The Shah was like, open.

[A]

Oh, I mean, sorry.

[B]

Yeah. Under Khomeini, you. You do not want to. You're walking on eggshells under Khomeini. When you were a Christian. At my time, it was. It was uncomfortable. It was. You couldn't go out and be too public about it. See, this. This. A couple things when, you know, you. You talk about Iran and you talk about America. And for me, when you grow up as a kid, you're like, whoa, why can't I be a Christian here? Why can't I be public about it? Why is this so judgmental and unsafe and you got to be careful and all this other stuff. And then you come to America, you're like, yeah, you're a Muslim, great, go to Detroit, take over Detroit. Yeah, take over Dearborn. Do what you want to do. You want to be Scientologist, go to la, build it up, go to Tampa, no problem. You want to be a Mormon, go to Utah, do your thing. You want to be Jehovah, you want to. So it's like, you know, it allows you to do it. This country being a great one, but going back to it. Establishment asked the anti establishment. We're talking about Trump and your industry's talking to you would be a. What are you a Gen Z? What the.

[A]

I think I'm on like the very late Gen Z, right? Yeah, I'm like the last, like, I'm like the oldest Gen Z person.

[B]

Wow, you're old.

[A]

I'm like, right. You know how there's like the Aries Taurus Cusp, which is today? Yeah, I'm like that for Gen Z. I'm not a millennial, but I'm definitely not Gen Alpha. Like, I, I, when I was a kid, I was like playing with sticks and kicking rocks around and stuff. I wasn't.

[B]

So you experienced that?

[A]

Yeah, I was, I had no, the Internet came around when I was like 7 or 8 at least. Home computer. So I was out there, you know what I mean, just doing my thing.

[B]

The good old days.

[A]

The good old days, I wasn't watching people on live stream, typing in like W chat or L chat. Like I was really experiencing.

[B]

How old is Mr. Beast? Is he older than you or you guys?

[A]

Yeah, Mr. Beast is, I would, I would estimate 31.

[B]

How old was Logan? Logan Paul's what, like 28? Oh, shit. Is he really 26? He's not 26.

[A]

Oh, Mr. Beast was born in 1998.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

I gotta get my hustle on.

[B]

Holy shit. He's 26. Dude, I thought he was 30. How old is Logan Paul? Can you pull that up, Rob? How old is. He's got to be like 28ish.

[A]

Oh, I've got Logan Paul. He's been three years. All right, we're good.

[B]

And Jake is what, 29? Jake like a year younger?

[A]

28.

[B]

28. So this is like the 26, 27, 28, 30. I think the way you're going, if you, if you continue the way you're going, you'll be a 20 million plus sub channel.

[A]

I hope so.

[B]

No, I, I think you will be. I think your only reason you won't is because you're going to be your own enemy and get your. In your own way. If you kind of buckle down and stay disciplined, I think you're going to get there. And I think definitely you'll be a very, very influential voice in citizen journalism in America.

[A]

Thanks.

[B]

And help a lot of us that maybe we don't have the time to go there will be like, okay, where's he at now? Oh, I didn't know that. That's what it looks like. But going back to it, you see, you're not. You're not a Trump guy. But you said when I ask you about Romney, somehow we went to Scientology.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[B]

Which was a very weird left turn we took.

[A]

Well, I think it was the Mormon Scientology establishment that happened.

[B]

Yeah, but would you put him more like, do you think Romney is more with President Bush or do you think Romney is more friends with Trump?

[A]

I mean, as far as Trump, he's not part of the RNC establishment, but there's a new establishment forming around Trump. You know what I mean? Like, I think that he ran on the platform of being against the DNC establishment, who obviously are entrenched in, like, the mainstream press, late night television, most cable news networks, except for Fox do, are kind of obedient to the Democratic Party. You saw that when they disenfranchised Bernie Sanders during the primaries. That's right.

[B]

Yeah. For sure.

[A]

So I think that he was for a long time. But I think there's a new establishment forming.

[B]

But hang on. Forming? But prior to being established, they were anti establishment before they got established.

[A]

Well, there's multiple establishments is kind of the thing.

[B]

I totally get it. But establishment is what those who are the majority, they have the control, they're established. And this is our way. You have to come ask our permission to run. Right. Kind of like, hey, I'm Obama, I'm Clinton, I'm this. You couldn't come through us right before you run, Right? Yeah.

[A]

Trump is totally an outsider. Anti establishment. 26.

[B]

So check this out. This is kind of where I'm going with this because I'm trying to see, you know, positioning. So Obama. Would you put Obama as establishment? Anti establishment. For sure. Would you put Bush as establishment? How about Clinton?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How about senior?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How about Reagan?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How about Carter?

[A]

Every president ever before Trump was a part of a major political establishment.

[B]

How about Kennedy?

[A]

Kennedy, I believe, was assassinated by the government because he went against the agenda. What that agenda is, I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to do some research.

[B]

So I would Say the last two anti establishment presidents we've had are Kennedy and Trump.

[A]

I think that the Democratic Party wanted Trump to win in 2016, to run in 2016, because I think they believed that he had no chance. And I think that the Democrats actually propped him up. It's called the Pied Piper strategy. I think they did that in 2016, Hillary in particular in the DNC camp, because they thought this guy's ridiculous. After he went down the elevator, they were like, no way is the birth certificate guy gonna possibly win. So I think that they purposely propped up an anti establishment candidate in 2016. Anti political establishment, not financial, corporate establishment, with the idea that he'd be so easy to beat. But he was so good at speaking and having a genuine connection with the people. And the way that he talked casually off script, pulling no punches, that people resonated with Trump a lot.

[B]

Why do you think, even from the younger males, Gen Zs, why do you think there's such a big growth and attraction to Trump today like never before? Because it's more your generation, your age. Guys 18 to 27ish, 28ish. They're seeing themselves like, man, I kind of want a guy like Trump instead of what's going on. Why do you think that number is increasing the most, that demo?

[A]

I think that has a lot to do with the sort of like, can.

[B]

You pull that up, Rob? Because we've talked about this before.

[A]

A lot of the culture war identity stuff being pushed a lot by the Democratic establishment has, is backfiring in a way that makes a lot of young white dudes feel like, why are people hating on me all the time? Feeling kind of disenfranchised. They're being told their voice isn't important and that it's not about what your ideas are, but it's about what you look like and what your background is. And if you're from a high place of privilege, then you shouldn't be able to have as much of a role in the conversation as someone else who's been given less in life. And so I think that especially in academia, where you're seeing a lot of people kind of feel disillusioned with the discourse there because it's so generally one sided. On college campuses. I think there's a lot of young people who are also seeing Trump go on podcasts, like the Yvonne Nelk Boys, this one. A lot of podcasts where you're talking, you're having a regular conversation that you wouldn't be able to have with most established candidates. And they think, all right, you know what, I might not love everything about this guy, but I'll tell you that he's able to have a conversation here or with someone who's just willing to talk and they feel like, you know, if he can, he could be my friend too. Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card based on the February 2024 Nielsen report at Capella University, you can learn at your own pace with our Flexpath learning format. Take one or two courses at a time and complete as many as you can in a 12 week billing session. With Flexpath, you can even finish the bachelor's degree you started in 22 months for $20,000. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University.

[B]

Learn more at capella.edu. fastest 25% of students cost varies by pace.

[A]

Transfer credits and other factors.

[B]

Fees apply. Yeah, that's, that's, that's interesting. You said I'm kind of in a progressive bubble. That's what you said a few minutes ago, right?

[A]

To a certain extent, yeah.

[B]

Okay, so in the progressive bubble that you're in, what, but what is that progressive bubble belief in?

[A]

Well, in the progressive bubble that I.

[B]

Values and principles, which would be like.

[A]

More leftist oriented late gen Zers, there's not much Kamala Harris or Biden support. I think that's the big thing that conservatives missed is that nobody in my age demographic was excited about the Harris campaign except for a select few. Most people I know didn't even vote for the Democrats who would be considered very anti conservative because they felt like we didn't have a candidate that would speak for the interest of the more progressive youth. And I think that we still don't. You know, that's why I kind of look for 2028 as the great equalizer year. Because after the Harris loss, I think the DNC establishment is going to be in obscurity. And I think that with Trump taking over the conservative side, the traditional Bush RNC is also not as important. So I think we're going to have fresh primaries in four years with, you know, great voices from both sides of the aisle. And I think it's going to be One of the most fair and free elections ever.

[B]

Okay, so what I want to hear is values. Progressive bubble.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What are the values you believe in? Your top three values?

[A]

Socially progressive, probably socially progressive. I believe in like the complete legalization of gay marriage.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Pretty pro choice. I think that the, the richest people in the country should be taxed a little bit more and I think that the working class people should be paid a little bit more as well. I think that there's a wide gap that you're seeing, especially when you have the richest cities in the country have the most inequality. You have a state or a city like Los Angeles which has the highest corporate tax rate and the highest homelessness rate in the country. So the fact that these two things are existing in tandem shows that the money from taxation is not being spent effectively. People are not able to afford to live a normal life. I think that even 30 or 40 years ago it was normal to get a college degree, go straight into the workforce in the white collar sector and be able to buy a home for yourself and start a family at 30. Most people that I know are so overwhelmed by student debt at this point in their life and that they can't even think about anything except for clearing that debt by any means necessary. People are so overworked, they have no time to pursue their creative interests. There's no politician they feel like speaks for the working people of the country. And I think that I'm more in line with that way of thinking. But I'm not like, I don't sit around hating on Trump or getting upset about that. Cuz I think all this stuff is just a symptom of the dysfunction in our country that at some point will work itself out if we can come together.

[B]

Would you say you're a pretty reasonable guy?

[A]

I think so, yeah.

[B]

Okay. I think so as well. You give me the vibes too, the conversation of allowing men to compete in women's sports. How do you as a young Gen Z progressive view that argument?

[A]

I mean, I just wonder how much of like an issue that really is. It seems like the kind of thing that is really like small, that doesn't affect that many people's lives, that's being blown out of proportion by different news organizations to distract people from the real, you know, growing income inequality that's happening. I mean, evidently if there's like a buff person who identifies as non binary who is competing in women's sports, but they're born as biologically male male, obviously that's an unfair situation.

[B]

Okay, so you say that, Yeah.

[A]

I mean, by the way.

[B]

So that's logic to us as well. Right. But when, again, to me, this is. This is. This is where a couple things are happening. That's one thing that I'm curious to know your thoughts. So when I look at the Democratic Party and their approval rating was higher pre. What do you want to call it? Pre. Obama was higher. And even made legislative during. Obama as well was higher to where it's at today. I don't know if you've seen the rating or not where they're at. Have you seen that lately, what they've been reporting.

[A]

I didn't even know they did approval ratings for people who aren't in power.

[B]

Oh, do you know, you got to see this. It's done by cnn, which is the one I trust the most because CNN polls.

[A]

Yeah. They do not. They want that number to be as high as possible.

[B]

That's exactly. So Fox did it. I would be like, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Fox is like, turns out everyone hates him. That's right.

[B]

Rob, do you have the video where the guy, Hinton. What's his name? Hinton.

[A]

Harry.

[B]

Yes, Harry. That does it. He does a very good job. We have that clip. But when you watch this, you know, you ask yourself, okay, why is that not idea. Not as popular as it used to be? What happened all of a sudden? Right. The numbers are staggering on how much it's dropped.

[A]

What's it at now? Like what, 30? You got 35% now? Less than that.

[B]

You got to see this. Rob, did you find it or.

[A]

I'm looking for the video now. I did find the article that, you.

[B]

Know, it's a video. What's the guy's name?

[A]

Harry Enton. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so if you go on X, just type in Anton. Democratic rating. There you go. Is that the most recent one?

[A]

This is from February.

[B]

There is another one that he did that's more recent. November.

[A]

March. Yeah, but March 12th.

[B]

Okay, go with that one. Watch this.

[A]

No, that's old.

[B]

Hold on. Sorry.

[A]

While he finds it, I just want to say I think that the. The trans women in sports thing is like a classic divide and conquer, overblown culture war, distraction divide, the public thing. Because like, realistically, they know that what they're doing now by creating that issue is that it's taking precedence over things that are far more important that affect millions and millions of people. And they know that there's going to be a push on the progressive side to vehemently defend that, you know, because that's what they do. And there's going to be a conservative push to make that the main issue. And so it's creating this like matrix. It's almost like filibustering public conversation.

[B]

But, but also let's say you're right and let's give credence to 20 of the argument of that being a part of it. Let's, let's put that there, that I think there's a part of it that the opposing sides like hey, show this clip. Look at what this happened. So I get that. I get a little bit of that, you know, that's happening where they're shown. Okay. Like, hey, look at what's going on with, you know, the economy. Stock market drop, new job reports came up. It's higher than expected. No, no, don't show this report. CNN show what's going on with the stock market here in tariffs. Right. I get that part. However, maybe some of it is also the bad policies cost a lot of people to leave the Democratic Party.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

More than ever before. Rob, if you want to play this clip, watch this one here. This is how long ago, Rob, this.

[A]

Is March, March 17th. March 17th.

[B]

There's, there's an updated one, but let's just watch it close. Close enough. Yeah. They are all I have to say Democrats call your office. You know, we're March Madness Times. Terrible, terrible, terrible. To quote the great Charles Barkley, view Democratic Party favorably. CNN SRS. Look at this. 29% NBC News. You want to go lower than that? How about 27%? Both are record lows. The lowest to 1992 in CNN polling, the lowest feedback on record to 1990 and NBC News polling the majority of Americans.

[A]

Yeah, probably because he can't match the guy's energy on the right. Democrats going full like sports announcement.

[B]

I can say is I'm a big fan of the oldies so I'm going to call talking like Trump. How low can you go?

[A]

Nice. Well done. What about congressional Democrats? Nice.

[B]

Yeah. What about congressional Democrats? Why does it look so uncomfortable these numbers alone? How about this one? Holy Toledo. Voters views of the Democrats in Congress among all voters disapprove 68%. And look at the approved number. Just 21%.

[A]

Even lower than the I want to hire this guy. Look at Bernie Sanders Trump crossover for.

[B]

Democrats looks like the dad for modern university polling. You think these numbers are very positive. Watch this one. Watch this. Dems on them. Go keep playing. Democratic voters feel. Get this. The plurality of Democratic voters disapprove of Democrats in Congress at 49% and just 40% approved. So data Is data. Right? Data is data. So when you look at that, this is not good. So then the question becomes, how did you guys get here?

[A]

Mm.

[B]

What ideas were bad ideas? You said something very interesting and where you're like, you're for gay marriage, and then you said you're for higher taxes for the guys that are making more money.

[A]

Not. Okay, just to clarify, I'm talking about, like, the genuine, like, billionaires. Like, for example, California. The tax system is ridiculous.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, I got. They took, I think, 45% of my income in total. When you add up state and federal taxes last year. And I would have used that money to hire more people. So the logic is, like, we're going to take this money and distribute it to those who need it. But I actually would have used that money to hire, like, five more of my friends and pumped it back into the economy. I don't believe that entrepreneurs who are entrepreneurs, who are, like, around that, like, million, 2 million to 10 million level should even be taxed. But I'm talking about when people are hoarding such absurd amounts of wealth, multibillion dollars. I just think that it should, to a certain extent, be distributed, not necessarily in the way of, like, the government seizes all of their assets and gives it to the poorest people. But there has to be a way to bridge the extreme divide in income inequality in the country.

[B]

Okay, so check this out. You just answered a very important question that took me a while to figure out when I was making 30, 40, $50,000. Dude, these rich people are greedy. You know, they suck. They should pay more taxes. It's not fair. Then when I started working my ass off and I build a business and the money came in, I'm like, dude, if I had the money, I would hire five more people right now. If I had that money, I would hire 10 more people right now. Right. You're thinking about it from. And you literally would. And if you don't, you go buy a car, you're creating jobs. If you don't, you put in a bank, the bank's going to lend it to somebody. If you don't, you put in a mutual fund, that company is working, someone's getting paid. No matter where the money floats, it's creating jobs. Right. So the question on raising of the taxes, do you think you're more capable of doing good with your money or the government can?

[A]

That's a really, really good question. In terms of, like, personal financial liberty. I mean, as far. I mean, as far as that question goes, obviously you would be Better at spending your own money than the government if you're managing a business. But the fact is that once you get past a certain threshold of wealth, a lot of people are just hoarding it and not pumping it back into the economy. Like back, back in the day with Reagan when he installed supply side economics. The idea was, oh my God, it's going to stimulate the economy so much if we give no taxes to billionaires who run corporations. But what happened is they ended up just kind of hoarding the money, buying more estates, jets, vacations, living a lavish lifestyle. Because there's a human tendency to just want to be as much of a baller as possible when you have a billion dollars. It's just how people are. Everybody wants to flex, get the nicest car, get a helicopter, do things that you can't, do things that you've dreamed of when you're playing like Grand Theft auto as a child.

[B]

So. But go there. Go there with that. Let's say you're the greedy billionaire. Okay, what's a greedy billionaire buy?

[A]

Oh, damn.

[B]

Just.

[A]

You're asking me like you want to.

[B]

Buy what you want to do. You want to do 100 million, when do billion, or you want to stick to billionaires?

[A]

Yeah, let's stick to people who are making, you know, multibillion dollars every. Every year.

[B]

How about let's say billionaires and up? Okay, what is a rich billionaire buy? What things do they buy?

[A]

Well, what. First thing that comes to mind for me is a pool, like an infinity pool that bleeds directly into the Pacific. O, beautiful. A fleet of jet skis for all of my friends.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

So we can kind of travel.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

Corporate real estate on the water. So we can jet ski from the house to work.

[B]

I love it. This is like Larry Ellison. You ever seen Larry Ellison's headquarters?

[A]

No, I haven't.

[B]

So this guy's from Oracle. This is the kind of that you're talking about. Type in Larry Ellison headquarter, Parks his yacht. Parks his yacht, something like that. And then go to Images if you could. So this guy builds his headquarters. Oracle. Put an Oracle. Oracle Ellison headquarters is ship. Maybe type in ship. Type in. If that comes, maybe go to Oracle's headquarters. Okay, just take out. Take out the yacht. This guy built his headquarters. I don't know which one this is. He builds a place to put his yacht. I'll find it. I'll text it to here in a minute. He literally parks his boat in front of property that he has. Whether it's intel or Oracle, it's one of the two, but. Okay, what else? So far we got pool. Infinity pool on the water at the Pacific. You know, ocean. You got jet skis. And then you have a corporate real estate on the water to jet ski. From office to the house.

[A]

Yeah. Personal trainer, private chef.

[B]

Personal trainer, nutritionist, private chef.

[A]

Dermatologist to live on scene to help me with my skin dermatologists.

[B]

Love it. We need these dermatologists. Who else?

[A]

I can't even think about. I just know that once you pass a certain amount of money, it becomes a competition as to who can get the most.

[B]

Give me more, bro. Go greedy. What else is this billionaire going to buy? I want more. Get creative.

[A]

Okay, well, kind of billionaire. Am I a tech billionaire, or am I like a Saudi royal family?

[B]

Give me both of them.

[A]

Okay. I can't even think of anything else.

[B]

Okay, let's just say private jet. Is that fair? Yeah, you for sure have a private jet. Let's just say yacht. Do you have a vacation home?

[A]

Yeah, in Santa Fe.

[B]

In Santa Fe.

[A]

Oh, no. That's what Jeffrey Epstein had. I got to pick somewhere else. I got to scratch that. I scratched that. I have a vacation home. Hackman, like, on the west coast of Jamaica. Westmoreland Parish.

[B]

Holy shit. Good taste.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What else? What else do you do to hoard the money? Where do you hoard your money?

[A]

You could just sit on it.

[B]

Where do you. But what do you sit on? Like what?

[A]

Well, what a lot of billionaires do is they use their money to kind of like, use the legal system, civil court in particular, to bully people who talk badly about them.

[B]

Yeah, but that's like.

[A]

It's happening to me right now.

[B]

Yeah, I get that part. But I'm saying, what do they buy? But let's even say that. So that means they hire a PR firm and lawyers. Right? So they hire PR firms and lawyers. Okay. Do they buy expensive watches?

[A]

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I personally wouldn't buy a.

[B]

Watch, but they probably do it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Crazy. I don't know why they do this kind of stuff. What else? What else are these guys?

[A]

I feel like. I feel like I'm being set up right now. Where does this end?

[B]

This is where I'm going with this.

[A]

If there's something that I don't know about billionaires, I want you to tell me.

[B]

I tell you what it is. Here's how I process it. So if they have an infinity pool, does it have to be maintained?

[A]

Yeah, but. Okay, I see what you're saying. There is pool staff that needs to make sure the water goes is not. There's not too much chlorine going into the ocean.

[B]

It has to be maintained though. Somebody has to take care of it on a weekly basis. To build an infinity pool. Rob, how much put average price of building an infinity pool in Malibu? Okay, let's just. Average price of infinity pool building in Malibu, California. Yeah, California. Let's just say what it says. Price point 250. 500. 200. I don't know what the number is going to be. Give us a price point on infinity pool. Estimated cost 65 to 150.

[A]

That's actually a lot less expensive than I thought it would be.

[B]

And watch what it says. And the luxury infinity pool 150 can exceed to $500,000. That's a lot of jobs that people are going to get paid. Okay, if you buy jet skis, let's say it's $25,000 for a good jet ski.

[A]

That's a lot. Lot.

[B]

That's a lot.

[A]

You're right.

[B]

For a good job creating a job.

[A]

And you need to get six to eight so that you and your core employees can commute to work together like some kind of fleet.

[B]

That's right. We got to do it the right way. You can't screw on with this one here. Headquarters, corporate headquarters on the water. Expensive construction workers, plumbers, electrician. It's a lot of jobs being created. Right. If you have a private personal trainer, that's a job you're creating.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you have a chef, that's a job you're creating.

[A]

Okay, I get, I get the point you're trying to make. People should be able to get nice things for their, themselves if they work super hard. But that's, I'm not the kind of guy who like, if you work hard, you have to, you should give all your money to people who are, you know, are on the lower income. I'm just saying that like the, the specific tax rate should be a little bit higher. Not ridiculously higher, but higher enough to where they can have substantial social welfare program.

[B]

My biggest challenge with that is, is even the greediest of the greediest who goes and is like flaunting a big ass platinum gold chain that they're putting around their neck that, that they bought for whatever that somebody took three months to build. No matter what it is, the money is flowing. Even if they put the money in the bank and they're sitting on it, the bank is lending it back to somebody. So money's always working. Chase is not going to let money stay in the bank?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The moment you put money in Chase, guess what Chase is doing? Chase is lending it to somebody asap. They don't want the money stay in the bank. They're not making money like that. So no matter what you do, the, the basis of this question for me goes, who's going to do better with the money? Money giving it to the government? Because you said what right after, when I said taxes, you, you said in California. What did you say? Let me go back to it. You said, in California, you know, the taxes that you're paying 45%, but then at the same time, taxes are not being used effectively.

[A]

Right.

[B]

How much of that are we going through right now?

[A]

Well, I mean, on the inverse. And what do you think will solve the problem of the extreme poverty and wealth inequality in the country?

[B]

Well, let's see. California has been trying to do it.

[A]

Well, the thing is, they tried. That's the thing is everyone sees Gavin Newsom as like an enabler for all these destructive Democratic policies, but he still makes concessions to conservatives who are like bullying him into not carrying it out. For example, let's take the Tenderloin in San Francisco, which is the biggest, is still the biggest open air drug zone in the city. Been that way for decades. He, you know, obviously during the Biden administration and when Newsom was in control, he still is. It was a crazy scene out there. Those people smoking fentanyl in the streets, people defecating and sleeping in the streets.

[B]

San Francisco?

[A]

Yeah, in this particular area.

[B]

Is there a clip you want him to show?

[A]

No, I think, I think we can just overlay it or something. But I mean, in general, Governor Newsom was being kind of like shit on for letting that happen. But the reality is, and people on the ground know this, there was supposed to be a safe injection site that was two blocks long, two blocks wide, that was supposed to be maintained by the state and the city. So it made it so people wouldn't be able to use heroin, fentanyl and meth on the streets. They would have to go to a controlled environment where the public and children and people who were living in that community wouldn't have to interact with them and they could have the access to the services they need at the last minute. Governor Newsom didn't build it because he was too scared of being, getting another media smear campaign and being made to seem like someone who lets people do drugs in the open. But he still does drugs in the open. So with the Democratic establishment in California, there's a lot of Hypocrisy. And there's a lot of. We don't know where the money's going. There's not much transparency as far as what's happening with all these taxes that are being taken away from people who worked hard to make that money. We do know that a trillion dollars of wealth have left California in the past four years. We do know that cities like San Francisco and LA that are still generating a ton of money, much of that money isn't even being given, pumped back into the city because so many workers have gone remote. There's a lot of people working in California that decide not to live there because they can do their work for tech companies remotely elsewhere in a more affordable state like Montana, you know, so I think that, that when you look at progressive policies and you look at poverty and it's not changing, and then you look at, you know, the tax rate going up and down, it can easy. It can, it can be easy to say, you know what, Nothing's ever going to change. And that's why there's so much like a sense of apathy and nihilism when it comes, when it comes to the billionaire thing. That's why people are saying, oh, you know, billionaires are the worst. Kill them all, like on the Internet. Because they've seen nothing change. And they're seeing, okay, the cost of living is high, there's homeless people everywhere, there's so much poverty, yet there's this class of people who are unaffected by it. So the question is, then, if we don't raise the taxes, what can be done to change that situation on the ground?

[B]

The taxes?

[A]

No, I mean the situation with inequality and poverty.

[B]

Yeah, but that's, that's not how it works though. Because to me, here's how it works, okay? Let's just say you got three sons and they're all 25 years old. Okay. And you're 60 years old at this time. Could you be? Yeah, 60. Yeah, 25. 60. Let's just say you're 65 years old. You got three sons, 25, 26, 27. They're all out of college. You give each of them $100,000. First one, I give a hundred thousand dollars. He goes to Singapore, he parties, he comes back, has a lot of stories, his dad. I tried an opportunity. I met with this businessman in Singapore. Didn't work out. I need another quarter million dollars. I'm up to something big. Second son comes up, you give him a hundred thousand dollars, he takes $100,000, go buys a small condo, gets A nice little job, makes 120 grand a year, doesn't need any money from you anymore. He's doing okay. He's happy. He's got a girlfriend. They're pretty serious. Third one, to give $100,000 takes $100,000, starts a little real estate shop, turns them into $3.2 million. Okay. Two years later, now they're all two years older. The first son you give 100,000, went to Singapore, comes back, says he wants a quarter. The second one's a quarter, the third one wants a quarter. Which of those three are you more comfortable giving more money to, knowing you're going to get a raider to turn on your money? The first, the second, or the third?

[A]

Probably the first, right?

[B]

The first, yeah. The guy that went to Singapore.

[A]

Oh, no, not that guy. My bad. I kind of got lost in the metaphor here, because I was thinking Singapore.

[B]

The second guy is a stable guy, good citizen, gets a job.

[A]

Number two.

[B]

Or the third one, that starts a business and makes the money grow for you.

[A]

I mean, probably the 3. 3, because it would be a bigger investment. But I mean, aside from a business standpoint, like, if we. Obviously, you recognize that there's a big problem with homelessness, poverty, unaffordability.

[B]

Well, why do you think that is, though?

[A]

What do you think?

[B]

I'm asking you? You're in the streets. Why do you think that is?

[A]

I mean, I would just assume that because the social safety net is so small here and there's such a little being provided for people in terms of mental health services, the broken Veterans Administration, so many different things, Unaffordability, like, there's just not enough resources to set up people who are. To help people who are at rock bottom here.

[B]

You think we haven't given enough money? So to me, when you ask the question, if we don't raise the taxes, then how are we going to fix this? To me, the question becomes, the last 30 times we agreed to give you more money, you wasted it. Why should we trust you to give you more money? Because if I give money to Amazon, if I give money in a company like Nvidia, if I give money to Tesla, if I give money to Ford or Disney and I buy the stock, and I'm like a believer, here's what's going to be happening. I kind of can track publicly. There's accountability, there's accounting, there's quarterly earning, there's calls to get on. If I give more money to. To the government, what is the quarterly earnings? Where's the accountability?

[A]

No, I totally Agree. I agree.

[B]

Why am I giving money to that? There's no way, logically, one would give money to a company or a business that I don't get to see what you did with my money. There's no tracking to it.

[A]

I agree. I do think that, like, we can both agree that, like, you know, throwing money at things doesn't always fix the problem. But you've been around for longer than me. Like, if it's not that, if it's not funding programs to provide for people who are down and out, like, what. What do we do? Because the problem is already here. Like, it's not in theory. Like, there's 100,000 people who are homeless in LA alone and San Francisco combined. So it's like, what do we. What do we do? What's the solution? Do you have any, like, wisdom as to what you think would happen?

[B]

Do you think long term you'll live in la? You said earlier you're considering leaving, right?

[A]

Well, that's the thing, as I love the landscape and the people of California so much. Where I live now, I'm an hour and a half from the beach, hour and a half from the Mojave Desert. Can drive to Vegas or Tijuana, can get to the bay in Florida, kind of just in Florida.

[B]

So would you see yourself living there long term? Because. Okay, we're going to document this because we're going to come back when you come to Florida. Okay. How does it feel being a Floridian?

[A]

I like being in Florida because you can feel like it's kind of like Texas right now where things are moving. You can feel people are, like, excited about new projects and it doesn't have this air of like a, you know, bygone greatness LA has. I have an office in Universal City. It's my first ever Channel 5 office that I opened four months ago. And there's a cafe that's abandoned in the lobby. It looks like I moved into, like a Ford Motor Company factory in Detroit. There's only four people working in this giant building. And like, I remember the janitor came by, he was mopping the floor and he, like, pointed at some derelict office and he goes, that's where Michael Jackson recorded Beat It. And I was just like, jesus Christ. You really feel like you're like a post Rust Belt Decline Society address.

[B]

Where are you at?

[A]

I don't want to say it exactly.

[B]

Is it like, what part of Universal?

[A]

Like, close to across from Universal Studios.

[B]

Oh, shit. Okay.

[A]

Yeah. So it's like, literally there's this, like, Bygone. There's in the air. You can feel that the place has seen better days, like by Disney and.

[B]

Where Forest Lawn is, give or take.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I had a makeup artist come by when I was having a lot of breakouts or whatever. And so she came by and she was so happy. And I was like, why are you so happy? She goes, I haven't had work in two months. She said, before COVID Every single day I was on set for a different awesome director getting to do makeup for the stars. And she says, now I have to travel to Poland or Taiwan to find work because that Hollywood is moving their productions to different continents just to save money on staff.

[B]

So why do you think? Why are people leaving?

[A]

Taxes.

[B]

Okay, money. So why else? Why else you think they're leaving? You think, well, taxes.

[A]

There's a couple different. Like, okay, so there's Hollywood leaving. They're leaving to save money. Comedy leaving is because of the culture of the coastal cities. Tech left for a little bit because remote work was more profitable. But tech is returning to Silicon Valley. So I think tech is still. Still going for California. But those three big industries, Hollywood, tech, and then comedy, all left for different reasons. But comedy is for sure because of the culture of California.

[B]

So long term, you kind of open to leaving to Austin or Florida or something?

[A]

Yeah, at some point in my life. But, I mean, I also just love California. I also believe in it. I could see California having a second win. I mean, it's obviously, how do they get it?

[B]

How do they get a second win?

[A]

I mean, new leadership.

[B]

So, like, such as who? Is there anyone that you think that could turn things around?

[A]

No, not right now, but maybe, like, maybe a rising star could emerge from the ashes.

[B]

And that rising star that emerges from the ashes, what would you want that person's policies to be on?

[A]

Like, what would take the money that you're taking and use all of that tax money to provide for people who are sleeping on the streets and dying on the streets, provide robust mental health services, shelter options, opportunities to people who have been basically dejected by society, clean up the street. For the amount that we're being taxed in California, it should be a utopian society. And when you talk about homelessness, another problem is that people say, oh, there's so many homeless people in California because of the progressive policies. But it also has to do with the fact that homelessness has been criminalized so heavily in red state and counties. The people are leaving those counties to California so they don't go to jail. I don't know if you're familiar with the Grants Pass, Oregon ruling. It's a rural county in Oregon which is a blue state, and it ruled that if you're a homeless person because of vagrancy laws, you can be taken to jail and cited even if there's no shelter beds available for sleeping in the street. And if you get your third vagrancy citation, it's a mandatory 90 days in county jail. So a lot of people who are homeless suffering from, you know, different mental disorders and substance abuse issues, they're like, all right, I don't want to go to jail. I'm going to go to la. So then you have all of these mental health and support services being overwhelmed by people who are migrating from red counties and states. So I think that the solution is. I wish this was viewed as an America problem as opposed to a Dems versus Republican problem. Because, you know, when you politicize people who are going through, like, hard, hardcore suffering, it can. It can be easy to overlook their suffering and use them as political cannon fodder if you're Republican or Democratic.

[B]

Yeah. And I think you're coming from a. A very sincere place that you want to improve. This is why I said, I can't wait to watch your journey. It's exciting to watch you go through what you're going through right now. Because in the business world, here's how it works. If you have a billion dollars, your name is Bill Ackman and my name is John Doe. I come to you and I say, hey, bill, I need $20 million from you. Really? Tell me what your background looks like. First deal. I put $20,000 on my own money. My dad gave me 100,000. My uncle and family gave me half a million dollars. I sold the business for $32 million. Second company, I put $2 million of my own money. It failed, moved on, didn't work yet for a year. But I didn't take money from anybody else. Third company, I took $20 million, turned into $180 million, and I sold the business. Fourth one is the one I'm doing right now. And I want $20 million from you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Will you consider giving me money? Yes. Right. Okay. So number one is a guy like Newsom has credibility issue. We want to give you more money. For what? I'm not comfortable with this. So liberal policies have lost credibility to get more money. Number two, reputation. If your policies are so good, why are 27 out of 30 cities in America that are the most unsafe of cities in America ran by Democratic mayors. That's data. 27 out of 30. Right. So you have all these years to fix the issues. How come you haven't? Third one for me is the following. Had a friend of mine who, if you ever went to dinner with them, he wouldn't order dessert once. He would eat more dessert than steak. Like, to him, it's like, let me try this ice cream and bring this one out and bring the carrot cake and bring this, this, and bring the tres leches. And he's just eating it, right. And he says, you know, I'm about to do the stomach stapling here. Coming up. I said, really? Yeah. I said, shit. And he says, really? You go into this? Yeah. He goes and staples his stomach, loses 50 pounds. Literally, he loses 50 pounds. Okay. So now he can't keep anything down. But guess what? He still eats dessert. Same exact thing.

[A]

Key lime pie.

[B]

Key lime pie. The whole night, all of it. Right? There's strawberry sorbet. Give me all of it. Right. So his habits didn't change. So even though we stapled the stomach, he still kept doing the same thing. So when he asked the question, how do we fix this homelessness problem, money to me is band aid. Money to me is staple in the stomach. Money to me is not changing habits. Money to me is not getting rid of the bad behavior that they have. Have. It's not going to do that. It's standard and protocols. So if somebody feels safer, it's like a kid who wants to come and hang out with you and your dad, and your dad smokes weed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But you don't want to be with me because I'm a tougher dad that I don't smoke weed. You're like, man, that dad is cool. You're not cool. California is the cool that smokes weed with you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Texas is like, no. You come to my house of smoking weed, you get your ass kicked out of the house.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So.

[A]

But you can bring your gun to my house.

[B]

But that's okay, because I feel safer. But I will feel safer for some of the people because we're a Second Amendment country. That's. That's the part where's the back and forth for me where if your. If your ideas have credibility that you've done well, let's give you more. Yeah, but they've lost so much credibility where people don't want to raise taxes because you don't have credibility right now to ask for more.

[A]

Yeah. And that's what I was saying about the safe injection site in San Francisco that Would have solved the problem of open air drug use in the area? Oh, definitely.

[B]

Tell me why.

[A]

Because people aren't going to get cited. They're not going to get. I mean, most of the open air drug deal.

[B]

Band Aid or is that permanently fixing something?

[A]

I mean, if the safe injection site was also had, you know, harm reduction services, had mental health treatment options, had people working there day in, day out trying to help people get back on their feet, it would not fix the problem. There's still gonna be drug use and homelessness no matter what. But it would allow for an exit ramp for those who want to make that choice, as opposed to, you know, living literally outside of people's apartments, shooting up and passing out.

[B]

You ever heard of Jared Klikstein?

[A]

No.

[B]

Do you know who he is? So can you pull him up, Rob? Jared Klickstein. I had him on this part on the podcast three months ago. So this guy was in Skid Row for seven years. Okay. He lived there. Homeless guy, heroin addict. His mother, Rob, if I'm not mistaken, died from Heroin. Right. At 14 years old. When he was 14, and then his dad was a heroin addict. He eventually got off of it. This guy becomes an addict. He starts selling. He goes to skid row every day. He's stealing $1,000 on the streets, CVS stores, and he's selling it for 300. That was the rate. And he comes in and he talks about. He wrote a book. I don't know what the. A Crooked Smile. Can you. Can you. Is there a picture of what he did to himself, why he calls it Crooked Smile? So he explains. Ask him. I said, tell me what happened there with la. Okay. What was the problem with you being homeless? And then he breaks down the incentive program of him constantly going through it. Yeah, this guy burned his own lips that he had to do surgery. He was so high on drugs that he burned his own lip. I mean, he's got a mustache now, but he openly talks about it where he titled the video Crooked Smile.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

Yeah, he. I think this guy would be a very interesting guy for you in LA to go to Skid Bro to document stuff with him.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because he can give you a different perspective because he was there for seven years. Yeah, that would be a very interesting thing. But can you go to the 24 billion dollar number, Rob? I don't know if you follow this number or not. California state audit revealed that a substantial amount of money allocated for homelessness program, roughly 24 billion over the past five years, was not consistently tracked or evaluated to Determine if it was effectively addressing a crisis. The lack of tracking and valuation led to a lack of transparency in how the funds were spent.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So they were actually helping or not. And guess what? Homelessness from five years ago was lower then than it is now, but they lost $24 billion. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represent who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future looks bright hat or valuetainment gear, you're telling the world, I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening. But you're a free thinker. You question things, you like, debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of Future Looks Bright gear with valuetainment. We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. New Future looks bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for a hundred of these. If you watch the PBD podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. If you. If you. If you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge, we have this high quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters with the valuetainment logo on it, we got mugs, we got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with valuetainment with PVD podcast, go to vtmerch.com and by the way, if you order right now, there's going to be a special VT gift insight just for you. So again, go to vtmerch.com, place your order, tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.

[A]

So we're talking about throwing money at something. There was money, but it wasn't being funded to the right places. So in theory, there's probably a world in which the money isn't being embezzled or given to the wrong people.

[B]

Why? Well, obviously the embezzled it.

[A]

Newsom's administration.

[B]

Yeah. So then. But what. What side of the political aisle is that?

[A]

I would not describe the Democrats who control California as leftists or progressives.

[B]

What would you call them?

[A]

Liberals. Democrats.

[B]

Liberals and Democrats.

[A]

I think it's different.

[B]

So what's the difference?

[A]

I think liberals are more oriented in maintaining power for themselves, dominating the political landscape of the state.

[B]

You don't think leftists are.

[A]

I don't think leftists have any semblance of political power in the U.S. why do you think? I just think they've been disenfranchised by the liberal establishment, the Democratic establishment. I Think progressive people's movements. Also, if you look at, you know, there's been over half a century plus of infiltration of these organizations by the FBI, breaking them down. And we're not just talking about like, you know, communists and far left stuff here. We're talking about people's organizations. Black Panthers, Brown Berets, American Indian Movement, farm workers, unions, environmental groups. They were all infiltrated. All infiltrated and taken down by the government. And so you have the democratic establishment claiming to be a progressive organization, but I do not think that they are.

[B]

So, you know, it makes me think. Anthony Scaramucci said something very interesting the other day, actually very interesting, where he said a guy. The way the US system is set up is guy said, I'm going to go be Congress because I think I can make some changes. And you realize you can't do. I'm going to go be a senator because that's where the powers. I can make some changes. And you can't do, I'm gonna go be president because you know, you can't do. So the American system is built that somebody can't. So even if the leftist that you think could change something if they get in, they still have to go through the other people that if you give the money to them, it's not like they're gonna personally go count the money and do something good with it. Yeah, the money is still gonna go to these institutions that's ran by people that have been there for decades that you can't do nothing about them.

[A]

Yeah, it's kind of depressing. It kind of goes back to the Luigi Magione thing. When you talk about this deeply entrenched bureaucracy that's halting change, that kind of thing makes sense.

[B]

You know what it makes me think about though? It makes me think about what would you trust more, a bigger government or a smaller government?

[A]

Small. Yeah, small. But effective in actually working for the people.

[B]

So small government means more money stays with you and I leave it in the market. I trust you knowing better what to do with the money with a million dollars than the government. Yeah, I trust you. Instead of paying 45% of. Let's just say you made a million bucks last year. 45% went to taxes. You kept 550. How many more jobs would you have had if that was only 20%, you would have kept that $250,000. Realistically, let's just say at an additional 250 last year of tax saving, what would you have done with the 250 in California?

[A]

Hired more Employees been able to, you know, expand the newsroom at a quicker pace. You know, we expanded to the Middle east and in Mexico and elsewhere as well. The UK and New Zealand would have been able to do that a little bit faster. I was still able to do it, you know, but definitely there's not quite a sting like getting an invoice from the IRS after working your ass off for an entire year. And like I said, that sting wouldn't be as bad if they were using the money. Well, I mean, if I was living in a world where there was no traffic, where there was. Where people were happy, and there wasn't this massive working class despair taking over, you could feel it in the air in California and elsewhere in the entire country. If that didn't exist, I would probably be okay with a higher tax rate, because I would say, okay, well, I don't have to. People at large, the community, this American experiment is progressing in a mutually beneficial way.

[B]

Yeah, but if they were efficient, they wouldn't need to tax us more. You get what I'm saying?

[A]

Because, like, if there wasn't such bureaucracy in the government and the irs.

[B]

Yeah. And so. Bless you. So. But to me, it's also deeper than I think about it. Like, let's just. I got five C suites that are working for me. A cmo, Chief Marketing Officer, cfo, cto, Technology Chief Strategy Officer, and Chief Compliance Officer. And we have a meeting at the end of the year. What's your budget? My budget is 5 million. My budget is 4 million. My budget is 3 million. My budget is 10 million. Great. If a guy at the end of the year had a $5 million budget, but ended up hitting his budget for the year. And the BHAG, but they did it on 80% of the budget. So he didn't spend 5 million, he spent 4 million. You're like, dude, good job. Right. You saved the company 20% of your budget. But if a guy that had a $10 million budget doesn't hit his goal, but asks for 15 million and spends 50 million, you don't have credibility.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So it's that simple. That for me, I would much rather take more power away from them because they don't have a track record of getting good things done.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They keep making it bigger and bigger and bigger. At what expense? So that's the part where I think a part of why Kennedy and Trump's are so hated is because the one thing those two have in common is the establishment couldn't stand these guys because they couldn't control Them. What do they have in common? They both have money and they both had the ears of who?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Some of the most powerful people in Hollywood. And they liked them.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Trump on the right, Kennedy on the left.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. So it's kind of like that, that. That relationship where they were both hated. CIA, FBI, the Fed. Who the hell are these guys? Trump's not getting along with the Fed. Kennedy didn't get along with the Fed. There's some of those commonalities where. Now the flip side of it. Guess what Trump and his camp have to do. If they don't produce results, guess what happens.

[A]

What?

[B]

Oh, the other side's gonna come out and say, you had him. What did they do? Nothing.

[A]

And that's kind of where I'm at as well. Like, I'm obviously not a really a big Trump guy, but if positive things happen for the country during the Trump term in these next four years, I'm gonna report on that. You know, I'm not gonna be. I'm not dedicated to making Trump.

[B]

I know you are. No, I know you are. Yeah.

[A]

If great things start happening, it's not like I'm going to look for an alternate angle that undermines the success. I'm just looking at how average people are living every day. Happiness and, you know, fulfillment.

[B]

Very cool. Chicago. You went to Chicago, right?

[A]

Yeah. Back in the day, I covered a music festival called Lyrical Lemonade or Summer Smash. I went to O Block the next day, and somehow that became my, like, most watched video of all time.

[B]

Million views. Yeah.

[A]

Sick.

[B]

I love it. It's sick.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Why do you think it was so special? Why do you think it did so well?

[A]

Well, O'Block is like the genesis of drill music.

[B]

You mind if we played?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[B]

Rob Gordon played. Go ahead. You're saying O Block is the genesis.

[A]

O Block is the genesis of drill music, which is a sub genre, like of. Of rap, which is hyper violent and focuses on, like, real life violence. It's actually been a pretty destructive cultural force, to be honest with you. But, you know, O'Block is where it started. So it's kind of like, you know, how people would go to Mississippi to document the origin story of blues, or they go to New Orleans for jazz, or they go to Nashville for country. Chicago and South Chicago is like that for drill music. And I think that in a hundred years, there's gonna be like, drill tours in the same way that there's like a Kentucky Bourbon Trail where people will, like, drink the whole way and go say, this is where Pappy Van Winkle put his 15 year barrel up for sale in 1798. They're gonna do this in O Block and be like, this is where Chief Keef was born in the year 1995, and there's gonna be people in 2150. Like, oh my God, that's so crazy.

[B]

What is that peak? Rob, go back on the video. At the beginning, there was a peak all the way to the bot. First, first part, first two minutes.

[A]

Oh, sorry.

[B]

What is that? What is that peak? What happens here? Press play. Come on.

[A]

He invented that. To you, like, what is drill music? We started the word drill with our music.

[B]

Like that's. Let's do a drill. We started that.

[A]

Like, how would you explain drill music to someone who doesn't know.

[B]

Music that.

[A]

Make you want to kind of get outside and go, just be outside, you know, Makes sense.

[B]

So, so means what? Meaning you can go outside and cause mayhem, kill somebody? That's literally what he's saying. Yeah.

[A]

It'S pretty dark, but I mean, drill has now become like the one of rap's mainstream sounds.

[B]

How. How safe did you feel?

[A]

Pretty safe, honestly. Only because, like, you know, people don't understand this now, like all hoods in America, all, like, you know, poor neighborhoods that have music in them and have like micro influencers, they recognize content as a viable avenue for income. You know, back in the day, if this was 2005, pre YouTube, you could never go to somebody's hood just as a, as a voyeur and, and film with them. But now there's kind of an informal agreement that is, that's why there's so many hood vlogs now, is they recognize that being featured on a predominant, like a major YouTube channel could be their Take it out. People are going to see them. It could be their, you know, it could be their moment for more exposure and attention. And especially O Block is probably the most famous housing project in the US and I had a big YouTube channel, so it just happened really fast.

[B]

One of the craziest things you did is when you went to who's the keys? What was it? Kia's.

[A]

I'll break it down. So the Kia boys are a car.

[B]

We talked about on the podcast. Go for It.

[A]

Coastal town of Bridgeport, Connecticut. They're in high school for an update. I heard the Kia boys aren't stealing cars anymore. Part of that has to do with the security update that was installed in the push to start systems.

[B]

They can't do it anymore.

[A]

Yeah, you can't do it anymore. Unless somebody hasn't gotten the software update, but one of them's in jail. One of them just disappeared. And the third guy is working at a factory and he bought his own car and it's not a Kia. He bought an American made car. That's the real message of this documentary.

[B]

Him being in the car ride. When you're in the car, where is it? Where you're in the car.

[A]

Well, I should have put two and two together, but yeah, they picked me up in a car and they're like, yo, let's, let's hang out. And I got in the car and I'm sitting in the back seat and I thought about it and I'm like, wait a second, this is Ikea. Holy. I'm in the back of a stolen car with three juveniles. Window with a special tool and clears the broken glass a little bit before. Back up a little bit. So this is a crazy scene. So back up like maybe.

[B]

Yeah, this shows what they were doing.

[A]

So they picked me up at the McDonald's at the carriage port. I'm riding with them in the back of this car. Sometimes I don't realize what's happening until it's too late, for example. And I don't want to jump ahead too much. But when I hopped the border, I didn't realize that I had to hop it with the coyotes until I was at the Rio Grande. I'm sitting in the back of this stolen. I think it was a Mazda, actually, not a Kia. And I'm thinking, holy shit, they stole this car. And then I look around, I look in the rear view mirror and there's a cop trailing us. And so I say to these Kia boys, I say, hey, guys, pull over. I gotta hop out. Cause I'm thinking like I'm 25, these kids are 16, and I don't know what they're gonna charge me with. And so Planet Rob and the kid sitting in shotgun named Swervo, he looks at me and he goes, homie, you shouldn't have hopped in the car if you weren't ready to do the dash, meaning, you know, go on a high speed chase. And so they turn the lights off and they just go 105 miles an hour. And the cop stops following them.

[B]

Are you play? I want to see this, Rob. I'm gonna go back 30 seconds. Press play. Let me hear the audio.

[A]

For cops. They said they'd had the car for over a week now.

[B]

That's 100 being recorded.

[A]

No, no, no. Yeah. This is before the cops. Getting hotter and hotter to drive by the Day, no less than two minutes into our drive, I began to hear police sirens. Perhaps naively, I assumed the Kia boys would just pull over and try to talk their way out of it. But no. Swervo dipped onto a service road and hit the gas. Approaching a high 110 miles per hour.

[B]

You're sitting outside or you're inside.

[A]

Turned off the laser. By some stroke of luck, the cops stopped pursuing us. I'm not sure why. Oh, now I know why. My adrenaline. The cops don't pursue, seems to move in hyper high speed chases with stolen cars because they figure like it's such a public safety risk, you know what I mean? If it's a residential street, they don't want two cars going 105 miles an hour because that could like kill a pedestrian or something. So the cops, they abandoned us. Not abandoned us, they stopped following us. And then I told them to drop me back off at the McDonald's. And then so my plan was like, I want to document these guys, but I don't want to be in this situation again. So I gave them my camcorder for the night and I said, you guys are, I know you guys are going to go steal cars. I don't want to come with you. I don't condone that. But just do me a favor and take this camcorder from Best Buy and just film yourself.

[B]

What a great concert. Literally. And were they honest enough that they brought it back to you? Yeah.

[A]

You want to watch the footage?

[B]

Footage? Do you have it?

[A]

Yeah, it's on. It's in this video.

[B]

Where's it at? At the end or if you skip.

[A]

Ahead 10, 15 seconds. Right, right there.

[B]

Press play. Let's see what they.

[A]

This is that goes to put a cheap USB cord.

[B]

Let's watch this. I think it's got the update.

[A]

He says the car is a dud. The driver recently installed the anti theft software update, so this is all they had to find something else. Just a few cars down, he locates a 2010 Kia Forte and starts all over.

[B]

Over.

[A]

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[B]

Oh cut himself.

[A]

After successfully activating the engine with a USB cord, Swervo's on the moon and I'm following close behind. Genuinely curious as to what his plan.

[B]

Is.

[A]

Swervo begins driving as fast as he possibly can, then comes to a stop and tells me it's time to turn up.

[B]

All right, let's turn up.

[A]

Yeah, so yeah, that's their plan, is they just start swerving. They're really like 16 years old. Like they swerve for like 20 minutes and then they just abandon the car.

[B]

You're joking. So they don't go sell the car, they just.

[A]

Well, apparently, like, they sell it to their, like, older brothers for I think $250. Then they go to the mall and get shoes and the weed socks.

[B]

And what do the older brothers do?

[A]

Crime. Real crime. Well, not this. Not. I'm not saying this isn't a real crime, but like, you know, robbing people, you know, that's low level stuff. Yeah, they sell drugs and stuff. I don't know.

[B]

What did you. What was your experience when you walk when you're on the flight coming back? What are you saying to yourself?

[A]

Well, I, I didn't even put this in the documentary, but I guess the cops had still been following us. So I go back to the Red Roof Inn in, in Bridgeport and the cops knock on the door and they're like, do you see anybody with a stolen car around here? And I was like, dude, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, I was, wow. I flew home.

[B]

So you didn't get arrest even when you put this up, Cops never got a hold of you?

[A]

No. They might after this podcast though, so.

[B]

But I might after this.

[A]

Thankfully, the Kia boys are no longer stealing Kias. But yeah, after that. That was a classic example of just me taking it too far in the field with the documentaries. Like, if I was to look, look back or looking forward in my own life, I'm not going to get in the back of any stolen car with 16 year olds in Connecticut or any other state for that matter.

[B]

Maybe in Fort Lauderdale, maybe.

[A]

Oh, Broward County's got some pretty good drill music. I don't know if you know about that.

[B]

Does it really?

[A]

Yeah, it's called 954 fast pitch. It's like Broward's kind of version of drill. They take rap songs and they speed them up 1.25 times. So it kind of sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks, but that's like the Pompano beach, like, Lauder Hill sound. Oh, you got to get one of those guys on the podcast.

[B]

You ever listen to Ben Shapiro?

[A]

I used to. Yeah, for sure.

[B]

When I listen to him, he sounds like he talks in 1.5.

[A]

Ben Shapiro talks fast.

[B]

His speed is so fast. Like, you know when you watch a podcast on Spotify, you can listen on 3.5 and I can handle it. The only person I can't listen to 3.5 is him. Yeah, he put a 1.5 because he's like, dude, I can't slow it down. You got to go to 0.75 with him because he's so fast.

[A]

In a different world, he could be a rapper.

[B]

He tried to be a rapper. Did you hear his rap song?

[A]

I heard it.

[B]

The guy he did it with is actually good.

[A]

What's the name of the guy?

[B]

What's the guy he actually did it with? His good. He's actually got good stuff. But what is the guy's name? He is. He is really good. The guy right there. Bottom second line.

[A]

Oh, Tom McDonald.

[B]

Tom McDonald. He's actually good.

[A]

Yeah. Tom McDonald's are my favorite Trump rappers are Forgiato, Blow, Bez, Believe, and Bryson Gray. Those are the top three.

[B]

Best Believe.

[A]

Yeah. Best believe. I met him at Hemp Fest. He used to sell those weed lollipops that are, like, medicated with cbd. He became a hardcore Trump rapper, but he's still, like, thugged out Florida style. Best believe. B, E, Z. Believe. He's a cool dude. And yeah, he's my favorite right wing MC right now.

[B]

Right wing mc? You like Little Pump?

[A]

Yeah, but I wouldn't call Lil Pump a conservative mc. Lil Pump is just kind of a product of the bygone SoundCloud rap era. If that scene was still continuing, I don't think he would have done the Trump appearance.

[B]

Got it. Okay, let's go to the next one, Rob. Next one I want to go is the. The Tesla rally.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What was that like? Going to the Tesla, protesting the rally? What was that like?

[A]

I actually sent correspondence there. I sent my friend Alby here to the boycott in Palo Alto. I was in Jamaica for like an anniversary trip at the time when this was going down. Then I sent another friend of mine to the one in, in Burbank. But yeah, it was kind of interesting, like with the Tesla boycott movement. It was, I see it as a broader offshoot of the anti Elon stop the coup movement. But then at some point after that began, they started targeting Tesla factories directly. And their idea was that if they lower, you know, Tesla's stock price, that will in turn take away from Elon's economic power, which would disempower Trump in some capacity.

[B]

Right. And again, this goes back to the Joker to me, because in the movie Joker, Elon would be Batman and Joker would be the guys that are going after him. Right. It's funny, we're. We're in DC. Is it January 20th? Is it inauguration, Rob?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So we go to this party.

[A]

Oh, cpac. It was actually cpac.

[B]

Was it CPAC or inauguration?

[A]

No, cuz. Cpac. Cuz we went after cpac.

[B]

We had the invite. Okay, so we're in dc, we're in DC and there's this Doge party and a guy invites us to go to this Doge party and apparently Elon's gonna be showing up. So we go to this party. I take my 13 year old son, they're upstairs watching. If you pull up one of the clips, Rob, of someone else who reported it was reported all over the place. There's a couple of them. So we're there, we're walking. Pause it, pause it, Rob, so we can hear it it. So we're walking, we get outside, there's the protesting across the street. I decide to walk up to these guys to just talk to them with my 13 year old son.

[A]

Pretty bad call, I think.

[B]

Pretty bad call. I don't think you're wrong. Yeah, well, watch this. This is my curiosity here. Go ahead and play the clip. Go is out of D.C. practice. Out of D.C. practice, out of. This is the wrong clip. Because the one is. You got to show the clip.

[A]

So that one I can show you guys but we can't show cuz it's copyrighted content.

[B]

Just so you know. Didn't we record it or.

[A]

No, I can look for the best version is this one right here. But these are the.

[B]

Can't show this. That's copy. Well, why don't you show it so he can see it and the audience, you know, you guys can tweet this and see this is me talking to the guy just to kind of see where it's at. The guy in the ball to the right is a federal agent. Look what he does to him. Look at the spit coming up. Look at this boom.

[A]

That was a real loogie.

[B]

Damn.

[A]

Yeah, it gives me real nostalgic flashback seeing somebody with a MAGA hat next to somebody with an N95 mask on. Those are the two. Those are the two real genders.

[B]

Here's a question for you. Do. Do you, when you're out there, wow, you've not been out there. Maybe your guys that came back, there's always, you know, numbers that show up that some of these guys are paid agitators and paid protesters. When you've been out there, whether it's the Luigi Mangione or any of the other stuff, do you ever ask them the question, or did you guys get paid to do this?

[A]

Yeah, it's typically not true.

[B]

Typically not true.

[A]

Yeah. I don't think I've ever seen a paid protester. I mean, it's a narrative that gets pushed a lot, which makes sense because there is NGOs that organize protests, but they're making that decision to do the pro. Like, okay, there are groups that receive funding who decide themselves to protest and they use some of that funding to do stuff like, you know, make signs, but they're still making the decision most of the time. It's not like someone like George Soros is like, hey, go over there and have a sign that says Elon sucks. It's them being genuinely upset and thinking, okay, cool, let's use some of this funding to have to do something. On the other hand, I have actually seen, though, paid protest groups go into places that are more radical, like Portland and Seattle, and disrupt more direct action movements. Like, for example, I remember in Portland, Oregon, during the crazy summer of 2020, there were organizations, I'm not going to say the name, that were basically paid by the city of Portland and the state itself to go into the protest groups and encourage nonviolence. So all the protest groups that I've seen that are paid are mostly like peacemakers that are represent by the state. I wouldn't say that. I think the paid protester thing is like super overblown.

[B]

Have you asked them?

[A]

Yeah, for sure. I just know a lot of them. You know what I mean?

[B]

So let me tell you what came up. This came out with the AOC rally. During the AOC rally, they were like, hey, we had 34,000 people there. But GPS data analysis revealed that the number was closer to 20,000. Still big, but not record breaking. And it continues saying a whopping 84% of the devices had shown up at at least nine other protests, including antifa. Oh, that makes perfect sense. Pro Palestinian demonstrations, the Kamal Harris campaign. So 84% of them and over 30% of them had attended 20 or more.

[A]

That makes sense to me. I feel like people who protest for, you know, for a living and go.

[B]

To watch the rest of it. Watch the rest of it. Data analysts say the crowd was anything but organic. The majority were tired. To activist networks like Disruption, Project, Indivisible, Democratic Socialists of America, Rise and Resist, and Troublemakers, all reportedly funded by ActBlue and some receiving backing by via USA, USAID. Optics over authenticity. The playbook hasn't changed, just the targets. This is from Zero Hedge.

[A]

Yeah, I was at the Bernie Sanders AOC rally doing some interviews three days ago in Bakersfield, California. And I just think there's a big difference between NGOs and political groups and parties that receive some level of funding and then decide to go to the events as opposed to, like, direct orders. The people who are showing up, they may have been receiving some level of funding, you know, in a nebulous way, but they believe what they're doing. It's not as if when you say paid protester, it kind of suggests that they don't actually feel that way, that they're just showing up simply because they received orders from the person that's cutting them a check. I think there's a mix, and it's easy to cast them. It's easy, especially when you disagree with someone, to think they can't actually think that they must be paid to show up. But the Democratic Socialists of America, they are there with their clipboards asking people to donate and volunteer and sign up. But I think there's some element to organization. But a lot of people just the protest crowd is relatively small, and they show up to everything.

[B]

You think it's small?

[A]

Well, the same people that went to 2020 protests for George Floyd are the same people that were protesting Israel on college campuses, are the same people who vote for AOC and Bernie. It's kind of like it's a demographic, you know, it's kind of like I'm willing to bet that a solid percentage of the people that showed up to a Trump rally here in Florida, probably.

[B]

Also, I don't know about that, have.

[A]

Been to five or more Trump events in the past five years.

[B]

Yeah, but that's different because what it says is if somebody's been to 20 or more, you don't have a life to go to 20 or more. It's impossible to go to 20 or more unless if you don't have a job. And if 34% have been to 20 or more. So maybe not majority be. Let's say 50% is real. Let's say 60% is real. Let's say 70% is real. But the 33, 33% that's showing up, who has been to 20 or more, you have to kind of speculate and say, who's paying these guys to be over here?

[A]

Well, I think when you say real, 100% of them believe what they're saying. The question is, I don't know if we know them. I mean, I've been to a bunch of rallies. I don't. I can't think of a single rally where I've interviewed a protester where they're just straight up lying.

[B]

You think those guys that stepped up to us and they spat on us, do you think they fully believe in what they're talking about?

[A]

Yeah, dude, for sure. I think you don't spend enough time around, like, Internet leftists, man. They really think that, like, those people are really.

[B]

I don't disagree with you. But also at the same time, when you see the funding of the paper trail of Soros and what he's done with his money, there's plenty of track into what he's doing as well.

[A]

I mean, what about people, on the other hand, who are, like, funding the Trump campaign? What about his top donors?

[B]

But to me, the way I would look at that, your. Your counter argument to that would be, what about the fact that elon Musk spent $250 million to win Pennsylvania? Right. Guess what the answer to that is. What? It's open, but the money is, what if you do this? Here's what it is.

[A]

I just think Citizens United should be repealed. It's crazy that corporations can be so powerful that they can speak more than a human being possibly could. Even though, I mean, how much. What's the. How many. Before Citizens United, what was the maximum amount of money that a person could donate to a political campaign?

[B]

Oh, by the way, I would love that. It would never happen.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I would also love to get the lobbyist out, but it will never happen. It would never happen. One of the first steps to it is if they're able to get Big Pharma from that advertising, that's a first step. Because out of all the countries, only two countries are allowed to advertise Big Pharmas. US And New Zealand.

[A]

Oh, really? In Europe, they don't have commercials for oxycodone.

[B]

You cannot. You cannot.

[A]

Yeah. So it says that individual contributions to candidates could only be as much as $2,400 per election to a federal candidate. So 44,800 total per cycle. And then after the Citizens United is passed, you have corporations who are donating millions and millions, if not hundreds of millions to political campaigns. They use that money to then subsidize large, large scale advertising campaigns and different.

[B]

PR optics to put themselves go this. Who do you think gives more money money? You think the bigger companies give more to the left or the right?

[A]

It depends what you're talking. Because back then, of course, it would have been the left or not the left, the liberals, the progressives, the Democrats.

[B]

What do you think it is today?

[A]

I would, I would assume. Well, there's so much. That's the thing is there's a second sort of, sort of deep state, I believe, formula.

[B]

This may not help you, by the way, because a lot of. Okay, so do you know by company, how much leftist companies, big Fortune 500 companies give to the Democratic Party versus the Republican? Do you know the dollars? Yeah.

[A]

How much?

[B]

You ever seen this?

[A]

Is it a breakdown of it?

[B]

Oh, dude, I love the fact that you're seeing this for the first time.

[A]

But I mean, Elon, Zuckerberg, Bezos, they all score Trump, right?

[B]

No, no, but watch, watch what happens here. You're gonna see where this goes. This isn't it, Rob. Nope. There's one that says Brandon Humberto, if you guys can send this to Rob. There's one that shows it's not this one. There's another one that shows 98, 97, 96. You have it. We've shown that once before, maybe eight months ago, and we have that chart. But the, the, the, it breaks down by company on what they gave. 20, 24, 2020, 2016. You will be blown away by this number. So even if we get rid of.

[A]

That, I'm curious to see it just because that's just all wasted money.

[B]

Well, but watch it. I mean, watch it here. Watch to see what happens. It's that one right there, Rob. The second lane, third one. Yeah, zoom in. Okay, watch this. This is blue left, red Republican.

[A]

But I mean, even though even those top companies, like the top blue donor is Facebook, we know that Mark Zuckerberg is now partial to Trump. He's not running against.

[B]

He's not though. That's not, that's not about being partial to Trump. That's where the money is going.

[A]

So you think that as political, but just watch.

[B]

No, no. Your argument was the fact that citizens, if they get rid of companies being able to give to big super PACs and this number is even further opposite side today. That's 2017. It's worse today for 2024. Rob, if you do have it, just stay on that one right now to just kind of show that until we go to the next one. And these guys will send it. You will see the numbers. Look at that. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle, BlackRock, Charles Schwab, IBM, Cisco.

[A]

There's trouble if you go down. There's also a significant amount of money being given to political campaigns. Exxon, Las Vegas Sands, Morgan Stanley, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, Delta, Johnson and Johnson. Those are all giving equal amounts, if not more.

[B]

It's more to go. Okay, just look at the chart here. You have to be able to see it. Can you tell me where 50% is?

[A]

I see what you're saying.

[B]

Go to where 50% is right there. So go up. You're right. The bottom. What? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Give more to the right than the left. But now let's count. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 21 is left. Only 9 is right. So the control. If they stop doing that. Liberals get their money from the wealthy. Billionaires support more liberals than they do conservatives, as weird as it is.

[A]

No, I actually agree with that. 100. And just to clarify, I mostly agree with you. Like, I'm not a supporter of the Democratic Party either. So, I mean, I just, I get that.

[B]

But I also see that as you're going through this process, when you're going to it, the one thing that is phenomenal to see is the data to show what's going on with it. Eventually, Zuck realized he effed up because I think Zuck's play. Rob, when did Zuck come out and talk about the fact when he put that tweet out about Joe Biden and his camp, forced them to take down some content and the $400 million, I regretted. When was that tweet? Do you remember when that tweet was?

[A]

August 27, 2024.

[B]

Can you. Can you put that tweet and pull it up?

[A]

Do you remember this, I'm assuming goes back to his Joe Rogan podcast where he wore the gray T shirt and he was like, kind of admitting that the Biden administration was pressuring him to take down posts on Facebook related to what he saw as COVID 19 misinformation.

[B]

So you see the timing of it, though. You know when the timing of that tweet was, the timing of that Tweet. If you can find a tweet, just go to the tweet if you can. The timing of it was. It's important to see the dates. So I think this is the part where.

[A]

So he wrote a letter.

[B]

I have the letter.

[A]

August 26, 2024, to Jim Jordan.

[B]

That's right. And he says what? I appreciate the comments. There's a lot of talk right now in US and irrational medal. I want to be clear about our position. Our platform is for everyone. We're about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way. As part of this, we regularly hear the governments around the world. In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months to censor certain COVID 19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take the content down, and we own our decision, including COVID 19 related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn't have made today. Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration, either direction. And we're ready to push back if something like this happens again in a separate situation. The FBI warned us about a potential Russia disinformation operation from about the Biden family and Burisma in letter of 2020 election that fall when we got on a New York post. So he's explaining that they effed up. Right.

[A]

You know what?

[B]

But what's the date? Go for it.

[A]

I don't think that Zuckerberg would have done that if he thought Trump was gonna lose.

[B]

I agree.

[A]

Yeah. Because realistically, he's doing that as a concession because he's worried about retribution with the new Trump presidency and he's seeing power shift. Right. And he wants to be on the right side of history because he knows that he's gonna lose his financial backing to go against.

[B]

Or could it be that he realized he was wrong?

[A]

Well, I think that if you people always ask me, why do you think Trump won? And I think that Facebook censorship in 2020 played a huge role in that. I've said it before. It was like a collective Tiananmen Square moment for so many people who are critical of the vaccine and lockdown. Mandates because whenever you're banned from a social media platform, your first logical next step is I'm banned because I'm speaking the truth. Not I'm banned because I'm propagating misinformation that's going to be harmful to people. You think if the establishment, if a large social media company takes little old me's page down for expressing my first amendment right and saying my opinion about the Moderna vaccine or something like that, whether it's right or wrong, you feel that you're on, that you are an anti establishment person who is inherently telling the truth that's being censored by the greater machine. And so someone like Trump comes along and he's seen by them as being like the arbiter of truth and justice. And so Mark Zuckerberg and all Those people during 2020 who colluded to de platform people are paying for their mistakes big time.

[B]

So they were wrong.

[A]

De platforming people is wrong?

[B]

No, but they were wrong about the position they took that they didn't allow any argument about vaccine or that the lab leak came from China, that, you know, forcing military personnel to take the vaccine or else you got to get out. Or other doctors who are licensed from major institutions who practice medicine, who had an opposing position towards the vaccine. Those videos were taken down by Channel 5, like literally KKLA or KTLA. No, not you. Channel 5 in California. Yeah, they were taken on because of this. And then today White House comes out with this, the lab leak origin. Rob, if you can go a little bit lower, I think this is today or yesterday.

[A]

Today.

[B]

The Proximal Origin of COVID 19 SARS COV2 COVID2 publication, which was used repeatedly by public health officials and the media to distract the lab leaks, was prompted by Dr. Anthony Fauci to push the preferred narrative that COVID 19 was originated naturally. The virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature.2 Data shows that all COVID19 cases stem from a single introduction to humans. This runs contrary to previous pandemics where there were multiple spillover agents. 3. Wuhan is the home of China's foremost SARS research lab, which has a history of conducting gain of function research, gene altering and organism supercharging and inadequate biosafety levels. Four Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers were sick with COVID like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID 19 was discovered at the wet market. Number five. By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin, it would have already surfaced but it hasn't. Rob, is there something to go lower to it? This is it. That's the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That's to Huanan Seafood Market.

[A]

That's where the pangolin bat sandwich.

[B]

Exactly what the story was. Yes. Go a little bit lower. And then what does it say here? The gain of function. They broke all of it down. A Korean government comes over zone dinghy function. Go a little bit lower, Rob, to see what that one is saying. Is there anything with data? So this is now coming out today. So think about it while we're sitting here and you think about Anthony Fauci, who was. We were supposed to be told he was the sexiest man on earth.

[A]

Who said that?

[B]

You see this? Type in Guardian typing. Guardian, Guardian, Guardian. Sexiest man on earth. Maybe he is. Maybe our taste is bad. Maybe we got to get our act together.

[A]

I mean, you got to look him up when he's younger to see if he's got some more. I mean, he's got handsome, he's got symmetric.

[B]

Don't question it. Listen, I understand you were like this. Don't question the integrity of mainstream media that says sexy. If they say he's the sexiest man alive. Just receive it, bro. I don't understand this. With Gen Z's, man, you guys challenge this a little bit too much. So anyways, but the part is this is where America. Because you.

[A]

Sorry, I don't know. Can the audience see this headshot of Fauci right here? That's. That's his. This is a Zoolander blue steel face right here.

[B]

Look though, bro. That's like, listen, Brad Pitt's got nothing on Anthony Fauci. Look at that. Ryan Gosling. Forget about it. Right? Robert Redford Young. Hell no. Right, McQueen, you got James Dean, Anthony Fauci. Damn, dog. Look at that.

[A]

Sexy. I wanted to back up just a little bit to a miscalculation that Zuckerberg, Susan Wojcicki and others made during that time is they forgot that the Internet itself is actually free. A lot of people, when they talk about censorship, they're talking. They're existing within the big four. You know, back then was Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and I GUESS it was TikTok. But the reality is you can still make a website and say pretty much whatever you want within the confines of free speech protections. I can start andrewsopinions.com and I can say anything. It's just a matter of getting traffic to the website. And what happened after they removed people from Facebook is in shutting down that discourse people created alternative platforms that had a huge resurgence and actually emergence during that time as well. Gab, parler, rumble, bitchute. And so what you did is you took them away from the public discourse and the marketplace of ideas, and you put them into a tighter echo chamber amongst each other to where more fringe beliefs like the QAnon stuff were able to incubate in a smaller focus group, and they just kind of exploded. And that wouldn't have happened if the surface net was existent as it is now. You might say that, okay, this may have stopped some of the Q stuff from spreading and infecting the brains of, you know, hundreds of millions of people and was maybe focused on 7 or 8. But those 7 or 8 million of people who are under absolute political hypnosis during the 2020 election, you know, are still suffering from that to this day.

[B]

Listen, so funny when you say that. We Forget up until 2024, when did. When was. When did. No, up until October of 2022. It's not a long time ago. Ago. Two and a half years ago, mainstream media had a chokehold, uninfluence, period. Yeah, period. There was a guy named Dr. Mike who was like the YouTuber, and he would always have Anthony Fauci on. He agreed to come to our podcast three times, and he was going to talk to this lady who used to work with Anthony Fauci. Last minute, he bailed. I would never do this, and I never agreed. You agreed to it. We have the text documentation of immigrants who come to it. I would never come to all this other stuff.

[A]

Stuff.

[B]

Okay. We were supposed to think he knew where. He knew it all, and I was the way to go. We can't question anything with the vaccine stuff. No, no, no. Fauci's God. And we got to go with the lead. And then. And then Musk buys Twitter in October 27, 2022. Then what happens? Trump is back on X, which he rarely uses. Trump comes back on YouTube. Trump's come. Comes back on Facebook and Instagram. Then everybody follows Lee. Then content creators can go back to sharing their opinions. Then content creators, a lot of them were kind of like, hey, here's what I believe. For us, we got a lot of strikes. I don't know how many strikes you've gotten, but we got a lot of strikes. You got one in the era of 2019 to 2022, we got many strikes. Our channel would be like, hey, you're one away, you're two away. You're one away. You're two away. And Once you get three, they can do a lot of things to you if they choose to. Yeah, so. So what happened in October of 2022 when you're saying. When you're saying, hey, you know, they kind of got it wrong and they kind of did this. We didn't have a. The market didn't have a choice. You couldn't speak about the opinions that you had. Then when they could, when they realized they effed up, then the populace realized, ah, we were right, we were right about this stuff. Trump wasn't going to start World War iii. Never did in the first term. The economy was doing good it. Until Covid happened. Ah, Russia and Ukraine happened under. I thought, you know, Biden was peace. Multiple major wars on a guy that's supposed to be peace. So that's when the market's finally like, look, dude, I've had it. You win seven battleground states and every state becomes more Republican than they were before. And the two states that became more Republican are the two states that lost a trillion dollars of what that left. So even after they left, they became even more Republican. That's like a landslide type of a victory that Reagan had back when he won against Mondel or whoever it was. Yeah, it's a very interesting time. What happened to. So to me, I think a part of it is also, you know, it's a different social media now the last two and a half years than what it was 2019 to 2022. Those were dark times for a lot of people.

[A]

Yeah, definitely.

[B]

I'm saying.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that right now is a pretty good time for social media comparatively to then.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, it is. What was the anti vax when you went to. What was that like?

[A]

Oh man. So I mean, the anti vax rally, the one that I went to was in obviously was taken down by YouTube, but that was the first major anti lockdown rally.

[B]

Why was it taken now? You know, same thing. Just like, what was the craziest thing that somebody said?

[A]

I mean it was. This is a pre vaccine era. This is before the vaccine rollout.

[B]

What year was that?

[A]

This is in April 2020.

[B]

Oh my God. So peak.

[A]

Oh no. That Hollywood anti vaccine is like a year later. If you look up coronavirus lockdown, protest, all gas, no breaks. You will find the video that was removed by YouTube. Yeah, but that was like at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. Is that the one right after it popped off?

[B]

Is this it?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is this the one they took down?

[A]

This is the one that was taken down.

[B]

So it Starts with this clip.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I want to hear what the first thing is to see what what upset YouTube. Go ahead. I got every problem when the government said we can't go out. That's a prohibition. It's illegal. It's against the constitution. I am immune compromised until at risk today. I'll put that at risk today. Cuz I got to be here.

[A]

Yeah. Are you scared to die?

[B]

No more scared than I am for anything else. Freedom. Free. Free. Free. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have.

[A]

One of your assistant's assistants switch you.

[B]

To Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail].

[A]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Full [e-mail] Race the Rudders.

[B]

Raise the sails. Raise the sales.

[A]

Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.

[B]

Over.

[A]

Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?

[B]

Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results, terms and conditions apply.

[A]

Agreement. Yeah. So that was like. That was when it first popped off.

[B]

You don't have them, right?

[A]

You cannot, you cannot do this to me.

[B]

How many people own the news companies?

[A]

How many?

[B]

Well, you tell me. Three or three or four. How many does Disney own?

[A]

How many?

[B]

How many?

[A]

I don't know.

[B]

Well, maybe you ought to find out. You're in the media, aren't you?

[A]

Yeah, but I'm independent.

[B]

You're independent? What?

[A]

Independent media. Me and this guy's got all gas, no brakes.

[B]

I don't steer. You're bad.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Exactly. That's the idea. I don't have a badge.

[A]

She was crazy, man. I'm giving some flashbacks.

[B]

This is April of 2020, the peak. And this is in LA, or this is.

[A]

This is Sacramento at the California State Capitol. And as you can see, we were. I was like. I don't know if you were right, how you felt when the, when the thing first happened, but I was definitely nervous. You know, pre vaccine, you know, all that. It was a pretty unsure time for people. And I think that that caused many to gravitate toward extreme Directions. You had people who were like, I'm never gonna wear a mask. One guy here had a shirt that said, cough in my face. And he was saying, everybody, cough in my face. I don't care who you are. Young, sick, old, cough in my face. I will show you. And then you had people who were literally, like, refusing to go outside of their house. I remember in Seattle with the community that I grew up with, right? Like, if you had a picnic at a public park and you hadn't. You didn't have a mask on, and there was five or more people, somebody would walk by you with their phone, take a picture of you, and it would circulate on social media, and it would say, this is a super spreader. And you could lose your job because of that. So there was, like, a mutual polarization. And I would argue that we're still living in 2020. You think people's brains have never recovered, man?

[B]

I think the 5%. You're probably right.

[A]

I know. I do think about it, man. Like, okay, so I would actually argue we're still living in the 1960s, but if you think 60s, you know, the divisions that were planted there, you know what I mean, as far as, like, red scare and then people's movements being anti. It's kind of. We're still living.

[B]

If you're breaking it down like that. Yeah, yeah. But I think. I think the level of fear that you had in 2020, in April, you probably don't have today with COVID Oh.

[A]

Not the level of fear, but, I mean, the way people perceive politicians in reality is very 2020 coded still to this day, even if people don't.

[B]

But they divided America. Oh, yeah, the meat. The mainstream media divided America in a major way. They. They scared. They convinced Americans that Trump was with Russia until they realized Hillary Clinton funded that whole thing.

[A]

And I think Trump convinced Americans to look at people with masks as, like, these moronic sheep that are worthy of, you know, harassment.

[B]

Well, some of them are.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, I just, you know, like, for example, when I remember one time. Rob, can you put up the picture I posted of the lady that was in the car driving? I don't know if you have this or not. So during COVID I. I used to love watching people, oh, let me see if I can find this. Wearing a. Let me see if I can find this. This is so funny if I can find it. But, yeah, when I would see guys wearing a freaking mask while they're driving in the car by themselves. Is this me, Rob?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Do it again. Go back to it. Yeah, this is it. That's it.

[A]

I can tell it's going to be a good one.

[B]

What are you doing? So this person's not a. You weren't a mask in a car by yourself. You think that's normal? The level of responsibility is at the highest level. They don't even want to get themselves sick. But, you know, probably went to Harvard.

[A]

Quite frankly, part of you doesn't. Part of you kind of feel bad for this people?

[B]

No, I don't. You know why? Let me explain to you why I don't feel bad. Because if. Yeah, that's the second picture. Rob, if you can put the second picture. I think it's the second one to the left. Top left. That's the one. I think. Click on it. Driving alone. Yeah, this is it. Driving alone with a mask on is like going to bed alone with a condom on. Like, what are you afraid of? You're not going to get an std.

[A]

But you got to think like they're under algorithmic hypnosis like the other half of the country and they're being told every single day that there's a new variant. They're glued to their phone. 6 hours of screen time is like the national average in 2020. So they're constantly being fed this fear stuff. Much like people on the far right were also being fed a similar type of fear content outrage machine.

[B]

Like what? Like what? Give me the fear on the right.

[A]

Probably. Oh my gosh. The QAnon stuff.

[B]

No, no, I QAnon. Give it to me from like, from conservative media. Like mainstream versus liberal media. Mainstream, not QAnon people.

[A]

Oh, I mean, that was the dominant.

[B]

No, no, I'm just going to stick to mainstream media. What the conservative right was saying that was selling fear porn versus what the liberal left was saying, selling fear porn. They both sold fear porn. But what was it?

[A]

I think that the Democratic censorship on major social media platforms pushed people in the conservative activist movement into small fringe platforms where they were being fed QAnon stuff more so than they were mainstream press. And that was a direct blowback. I mean, obviously mainstream liberal media at the time was telling people not to go outside to social distance and to be wary of anybody without a mask on. And also there was a. The right wing machine was telling people that we're gonna turn into a communist country and all your freedoms are gonna be taken away. There's a cabal of baby eating pedophiles that are connected to Epstein island who are controlling the entire world. So there was Just mass exaggerations of those things.

[B]

But on the podcast. Yes. On the Path podcast world, when it's coming to. What are you saying? The baby eating. What was that? What is the thing called that you drink it, you age backwards.

[A]

Adrenochrome.

[B]

Adrenochrome, right. And so for me, yeah, for sure, some people saying that that's kind of weird when they say that. I get it, but I'm saying mainstream, mainstream on mainstream. If they said if you give up too much control, this could be a step away from communism. It's partly not wrong if you give up too much control. We were told that our kids can't go to school. And you're telling us to stay home for a year and a half. And people left. California, New York. Yeah. That's crazy shit. You and I don't know what that is. When you went to school, you didn't have to stay home for a year and a half. Imagine how hard it is on the wife and a mother and a mom and a father trying to make the marriage work and pay bills and get the job, and you lose the job and you lose the restaurant, you lose the business. That's policies from the left that destroyed all these things. So they destroyed America for a year and a half. But what did the right to the right was telling you? Don't believe it. Question it. Even libertarians said don't believe it. Even libertarians became incited with Trump.

[A]

Some of them did die, though, like Herman Cain.

[B]

Well, some of them did die. Herman Cain, Yeah. There's. There are some that died. There's more than just Herman Cain that died. There was a lot more than that. That. But that's not the point. The point is you have a choice. If you drive a car on the freeway, somebody hits you, and you're going 100 miles an hour, it's your choice. You kill yourself, you're dead. You're going to. You're dead. There's choices that you got to make. But if it's all control.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You want me to sit you and give you that? By the way, right now, like, one of the conversations that's coming up here in the office was about, what do you call it, the personal id. Are you find this the real id?

[A]

Oh, yeah. That's like when you go to the airport now, you can't just give them your driver's license or what's going on.

[B]

You gotta have this real ID with like, the star.

[A]

Is that what has to do with like the face scanner thing?

[B]

Right, right. Like we're going in that direction. Some people are not comfortable with that. And these are people that are conservative that are not comfortable with that, with Trump, that voted for Trump. So this isn't like just a community that's all in. Like, even if I voted for Trump, I'm 100% in now.

[A]

Yeah. I think that one of the like ways that my logic is thinking some is kind of flawed sometimes is that I always have the impression that the conservative side is really united and that everyone's kind of rallying together with their support of Trump and Elon. Like, what are the major points of division right now within the conservative movement?

[B]

Oh, dude, are you kidding me? Like, holy shit. Do you know who Steve Bannon is?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So do you know who Howard Lutnick is?

[A]

He connected to Steve?

[B]

No, Howard Lutnick is. What's. What's Howard Lutnick's job, Rob? What's.

[A]

Howard Luton, United States Secretary of Commerce.

[B]

So he's a Secretary of Commerce. That's a heavy job. Okay. Steve Bannon, who was a guy that helped Trump at the beginning when he's.

[A]

Coming up old school.

[B]

Old school. Like he's a strategy guy. Right. Have you seen what Steve Bannon has said about Howard Lutnick?

[A]

I've only seen what Steve said about Elon, which is like a foreigner or something.

[B]

Yes. So the point is there is something going on on the conservative side. What's this about, Rob?

[A]

This is Steve Bannon. He calls in this clip, he calls Howard Lutnick an unmitigated disaster. The Secretary of Commerce.

[B]

Go for it. Play the clip.

[A]

To have a trading order that puts America first and puts American assistance first and most importantly starts to bring back high value added manufacturing to the United States.

[B]

And no, Howard Lutnick is not going.

[A]

To all be done by robots.

[B]

We're not doing this so we can set up so robots have a better life. In fact, I don't know why Lutnick still doing media. Let me be blunt.

[A]

Lutnick, who is Elon's pick for Secretary Treasury. I think he's close to being an unmitigated disaster. We should see a lot less of Lutnick on tv.

[B]

Hassett Navarro, Jameson Greer, the trade rep.

[A]

And particularly Scott Besant. And I think Bessant's being very smart.

[B]

In choosing and being very selective on the media.

[A]

We have to have a clear message and people understand what the process is. And we have a process. It's a very well thought through.

[B]

And this. Oh, by the way, Miller should be.

[A]

Stephen Miller should be Doing more about trade and about this new economic order.

[B]

That we're trying to hammer through. This guy's got a big following, by the way.

[A]

Steve Bannon. Yeah.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Do you know that CPAC after CPAC, who. Who was number one for presidency for 2028 was who? Rob Trump or. No, J.D. vance. I'm sorry, J.D.

[A]

Vance was one. Yeah.

[B]

You know, who was 231% him. Really?

[A]

Damn. So there's kind of like different factional leaders within the conservative thought.

[B]

For sure. There is not 100% unity. No, no, there's not. Which, by the way, that's good.

[A]

But which issue is most divisive? Not just in terms of people they look up to.

[B]

Well, I mean, the issue that's divisive, there's the America first. Right. Which is like the people that, hey, the policies that makes us first America First. Globalist. Right. Nationalist. We're about America versus globalist. There's that part. There's a debate on some of these guys that are more. They're kind of like part of the establishment side versus the anti establishment. Like, hey, we voted you in to do these things. How come you're not doing. Doing that? How come you're not going after these three or four or five issues that we voted for you for? So. And then the tariffs. There is a camp and Republican Party that's not for the way tariffs are going.

[A]

Yeah. I was at the Bernie Sanders rally. I told you in Bakersfield. There was a guy there in a MAGA hat, and he was like, I just want to hear what Bernie has to say because these tariffs are destroying my business.

[B]

He said that?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, that would qualify for a paid agitator to kind of. To kind of throw it off. So that.

[A]

That's because, you know, just because you disagree with him, man.

[B]

No, but that is the perfect way to confuse the hell out of somebody to come in. You. You know how much it costs to do something like that? Hey, I'll give you $200 worth of MAGA hat and just go say, say this to that guy on the camera. He'll use it.

[A]

To be fair. I was confused. So mission success.

[B]

Yeah. So what I'm saying to you is that's that effective that a guy that gets billions of views. I don't know how many total views you got. I'm assuming you got hundreds of social media views, if not over a billion. Total social media views.

[A]

600 million on YouTube. Yeah, actually not in total. I probably have around a billion.

[B]

No, you got over a billion, bro. You don't count YouTube, your TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, TW everywhere. So. So you got over a billion views that work with a guy like you. So these are the things that we got to be thinking about on the Republican side. No, no, it's not. It's not what you think it is. So. But all I'm saying is, during that time with COVID dude, they. They gaslit the. They gaslit the hell out of a lot of us Mainstream media who. Did you ever do anything where you actually. Ever have a moment where you were actually scared? Like, holy. We got to be careful with this. Where your camera guys were a little bit worried.

[A]

Oh, all.

[B]

Yeah. Well, what's the scariest one?

[A]

I mean, personally, probably getting arrested by border patrol.

[B]

Rob, we have to do this. This. Can you. Can you break down what you did here? Because this is absolutely edgy.

[A]

Okay, so the video called Border Patrol Arrest. So let me first. Before you watch this, let me tell you the purpose. This is when the border was wide open, and it was a big, you know, migrant crisis happening. So I wanted to see what it was like on the Mexican side as far as the final step of actually meeting up with a coyote who was connected to the cartel and crossing the border specifically over the river, because I wanted to get in the water as opposed to being in the hot desert. And so, yeah, we did that. I didn't actually. I didn't realize that we were going to cross the river until we got there, but then I kind of put two and two together, and there was a guy that was collecting tax with a machete that he was, like, hitting against this tree in the distance. And I was like, all right. Fuck. Why I got to get out of Mexico? I'm looking at America, like, oh, home free. Finally. So, you know, I link arms with the coyote, we cross the river. I get to the American side, and I think that I'm good to go. The coyote's like, man, stay down. Like, you know, you can still get arrested. Like, even if you're an American citizen, you can't just hop your own border. And I was like, dude, I can hop my own border. I've been here my whole life. It's fine. So I walk up, and then I get up, and then the border patrol agent is like, you know, stand up. I stand up like, I've done nothing wrong. And he's like. Like, you know, you just. That's a felony, right? And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you have to go through a port of Entry. And I was like, oh, my bad. Can I get a ticket or something? And he was like, no, bro. So he took me to a processing center for migrants. And yeah, it was like hundreds of them wearing a space blanket in this freezing room. They make it really cool.

[B]

Did you record it or they didn't let you record it?

[A]

I couldn't record this. So we had a designer do like a 3D animation rendering of it. So I go into the room after being processed, exist. And like, all the migrants, like, it was the worst day of their life, obviously, because they've just gotten caught Trying to come into the office.

[B]

Can hear the audio if you want to mute it.

[A]

But as we hear it, it made their life. Seeing a white guy walk into the holding tank. All these guys were having the worst day. And they just stand up. They're just laughing like, what the hell did you do? What are you doing? And I speak Spanish.

[B]

You have a clip of speaking to the coyotes?

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Go to the front ramp, I think speaking to the cows.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Where? Earlier?

[A]

Yeah. Okay, Well, I would say around the seven minute mark.

[B]

Yeah, right there.

[A]

So that's the coyote who I blurred out. And he was.

[B]

Go back a little bit. Go back a little bit. Little. Because he starts talking. Okay. Right there, right there, right there.

[A]

Right after wire at all. It's a non issue and a distraction designed to create controversy. Basically. Far. Yeah. He says this is the perfect place to cross. You're in Mexico deep. You can see my face. I'm like. But I didn't realize up until this point that we were actually going to cross the river ourselves. I was expecting just like a tour of their route, but obviously they had other plans. God damn it. It was also going to cost us $5,000.

[B]

Did you have it?

[A]

This was not discussed, but I wasn't sure what to do. At this point, it became quite obvious that I was in far too deep. The coyote told me that after crossing the river, we had to walk from Eagle Pass to Uvalde, Texas, which is over 67 miles on foot. How would this be possible? According to Apple maps, it said it would take over 24 hours. We had no water. Plus, we apparently owed these guys $5,000. Looking back, I would have asked to turn around, but we were in far too deep. And while they're being pretty cool, you never know when a switch could flip or something. Abruptly, the younger coyote asked me to duck down because a border patrol boat was speeding by.

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[B]

How are you getting this footage?

[A]

We got that from just YouTube. They publish. They do this sweeps. Everything okay?

[B]

Anxiety or no? You look pretty calm.

[A]

Yeah, the thing is, I don't really feel anxiety until, like, I'm looking at the footage like it's funny. In the moment, I wasn't nervous, but watching this now, I'm nervous because I realized this is, like, a bad idea.

[B]

So what's about to happen next?

[A]

I'm about to cross the border and get arrested by Border Patrol.

[B]

Go. Go to the Border Patrol part. When he's talking. Do you record when you're talking to Border patrol? Go up.

[A]

Go. Yeah, right there.

[B]

Go back a little bit. Like. Is this it? Okay, press play.

[A]

Yeah, this is now in the U.S. coyotes tell me to be quote.

[B]

See.

[A]

That'S me right there. Roly. Poly form. Hands up.

[B]

Speak English.

[A]

Get up.

[B]

Let me see your hands. Got any guns on you?

[A]

No, sir.

[B]

Face away from me.

[A]

We're journalists.

[B]

You haven't paid five grand yet.

[A]

You too, Too. You speak English? Yeah.

[B]

Stand up.

[A]

I couldn't believe it. Border Patrol had been watching us the entire time since we entered the forest. Yeah, I could clearly hear him swimming and set up an English on the American side to apprehend us. You two, face away from me.

[B]

Walk backwards over here.

[A]

Hey. Immediately, my coyotes jumped back into the water, swimming back to Mexico. Come back. Come back over here.

[B]

Get over here.

[A]

This left us alone in border patrol custody. There was one guy here. He obviously ran back, and then the two USC's right there. Then watch. He grabs the camera, and it's still rolling. He doesn't even realize it's rolling. That's a border patrol agent.

[B]

No, that's perfect footage. That's golden, dude.

[A]

Right?

[B]

Wow, look at this. He's doing a great job.

[A]

Honestly, this is pretty much a. This is a commercial for the U.S. this is, like.

[B]

These guys are great shooters. Literally.

[A]

Yeah. Look at this photography. He's holding it, like, at a perfect eye level here or hip level. And we're sitting in the back of the car there. You can't see us, but. Come on, bro.

[B]

Good for you. $5,000.

[A]

It doesn't get better than that.

[B]

No. Wow. So now what happens? You go to jail?

[A]

Yeah, well, I went to a processing center center, and they just helped.

[B]

This is the one you're with a couple hundred other guys that got caught?

[A]

Yeah. And they put me in a solitary confinement cell for, like, three days.

[B]

No. Did somebody say, like, what the. What were you thinking?

[A]

Yeah, they understood, but, like, the. The immigration court system was so bloated because of the crisis that I couldn't get heard by a judge for, like, three days. As soon as she heard that I was an American citizen, they just gave me a $10,000 fine and dropped me off at a gas station.

[B]

You pay the fine?

[A]

Yeah, I paid it.

[B]

So you didn't pay the 5,000 to the coyote, but you paid the 10,000 to the government?

[A]

I probably should pay the coyotes back. I never thought somebody.

[B]

Well, listen, man, that guy's probably upset. He's like, look, dude, I did my job.

[A]

Yeah, well, to be fair, I mean, I got arrested. They were supposed to help me get into the u. S. You're not arrested.

[B]

So he didn't fulfill his commitment?

[A]

No, not at all.

[B]

That's disappointing. That's a good point. Now, you're a businessman. You want things to get done, and then I'll pay you.

[A]

Definitely.

[B]

I'll think about paying you.

[A]

But, dude, it was horrible in there. It was the most depressing place I've ever seen. What's the worst part about just seeing, like, little kids covered in water from the rio grande with sticks in their hair, crying hysterically with their moms as they're being, you know, detained by border patrol and put into freezing rooms where they're just screaming all night. And in my cell, they had a tv and the movie the Matrix was playing. And it was. But it was just the loading screen. I couldn't adjust it. So it was like, play special features. And it was the same song over and over again. And I finally got the jailer to change it to a different movie, and they played the movie Marley and Me, the Owen Wilson film about the dog who passes away. Spoiler alert. Over and over again. So I had to watch Marley and Me for three days.

[B]

At least it's a decent movie. But I don't know, for three days.

[A]

I know every scene by heart. And so I get out and my mom calls me, and she was like, you're taking years off my life. You can never do that again.

[B]

So when are you going to Iran?

[A]

Should I go?

[B]

Well, I mean, listen, if you really want to give your mom three years back. Years back to her, you know, go back to Iran, one of the safest places.

[A]

Are you a fan of Iran?

[B]

I would love to go back, but if we go to Iran, you would be arrested by guilty of association with me.

[A]

Oh, they don't like you.

[B]

No, they don't like me, but they would. They would. They would entertain you.

[A]

Your family grew up there, like, I grew up there.

[B]

I lived there 11 years. Yeah, after 79. 78 through 89.

[A]

So do you have a memory of that transition?

[B]

Vivid.

[A]

Jeez. Yeah.

[B]

I mean, I. I remember the war. Maybe not the transition, but I remember the war. I remember what it was like.

[A]

You think that condition you're thinking is an adult lot? Do you think that condition, like, your way of thinking a lot? Just experiencing such a drastic.

[B]

I value freedom, and I'm extremely paranoid with the government having too much power. And you know who I had here on the podcast three months ago? I had the Islamic Revolutionary Guard founder.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I had him here. This is a guy whose direct report, while they're in a building together, he's on the fourth floor. His direct reports on the first floor of the building in Iran. The direct report goes and puts a bomb kills the president of Iran and the prime minister, and it claims he's dead. This guy claims that his ashes are everywhere. The entire country mourns for the president and the prime minister. You know, the. The who's. The people that they killed Rap. It was the president. And anyways, they killed the two leaders that they have. Two weeks later, they find that the killer's not dead. So the ceremony. Anyways, this guy, when I have it on in our podcast, we're having a conversation together with him, I said, what's the first thing you guys did when Khomeini took over Iran? He said, we have to confiscate everyone's weapons. I said, why is that? He said, well, it's the natural thing. We had to make Iran safer. I said, so you take the guns away from citizens, scare the crap out of them. Now you have the guns. Yeah. That's the part where, for a person like me that lived there, where I saw what happened with a beautiful country that fell all of a sudden like this, because Iranians never thought this was going to happen, ever thought this was going to happen. And what's happened to the Middle east since then? It's been a show.

[A]

What were the main promises that Khomeini promised to. To keep as far as, like, transforming Iran into a different society?

[B]

You ready? Free food, free rice.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Free phones, free gas, free housing. Sounded like Bernie Sanders.

[A]

So is the promise of free services without having to work for them.

[B]

Everything was given. Take the money from the rich and give it to the poor. And I've had heard that message here many, many times. You know how many times that's been tried? Many times. It always fails. Why? Because a person eventually gets so much power. Power. That power, they start abusing. And when they start abusing, it's not like, yeah, I can do whatever I want to do. The rest is history. So, you know, for me, I come from a different life that I witness what happened. And they got rid of this guy Shah, who made Iran an incredible place to be at where Frank Sinatra performed a concert in Iran in 1975. You probably don't even believe that.

[A]

No, I do. I mean, the same thing in Havana was Vegas 2.0.

[B]

It's right. So similar stories. Iran and Havana is actually a good combination. Good comparison, Cuba and Iran.

[A]

So do you think there's something about human nature that just, you know, once people hoard a tremendous amount of power, they just naturally gravitate toward corruption and human rights abuses.

[B]

You planning on having kids one day?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. It's one of the greatest gifts in life. There's no love like how a kid loves you. Nothing? Not mom, dad, brother, sister, cousin, girlfriend, husband? Not nothing. Nothing like a kid like liking you and you like girls or you like guys? What?

[A]

Oh, girl.

[B]

Are you gay or straight?

[A]

I think girls.

[B]

I mean, you're pro gay. I thought maybe.

[A]

No, no, no, no, no.

[B]

Are you fully Your girl?

[A]

I've got a girlfriend. She's a girl, Real human woman.

[B]

But is she like a girl that a guy that identifies as a girl?

[A]

No, no, she's a straight up lady. Hair and everything.

[B]

Fantastic. Yeah, congrats, bro. I'm proud of you.

[A]

I appreciate the respect with which you asked that question. You're like, wait, you support gay marriage?

[B]

Are you gay? Listen, you can't assume nowadays, man. That was your number two point.

[A]

Imagine if you were like, what's her name? And I got really offended. Larry, are you serious?

[B]

Why would you say she's a girl?

[A]

And she's probably watching.

[B]

Yeah, but when you have a kid, let me tell you what happened. The way you're going, you're going to make a lot of money. Yeah, you're going to make a lot of money again if you don't screw it up. But the way you're going, you're going to have a lot of great opportunities for you because you're likable. You, you have that it factor. You got the charm, charisma, you just. You're very interesting as well. So when money comes, probably by the time you're 45, you're going to be worth anywhere between 20 to 200 million dollars. Okay? That's going to be your network. Whether you like it or not. That's going to be your network. Could be higher, but that's a number that you're going to have, right? You're not going to just say, hey, kids, when you turn 18 years old, Mommy and daddy is going to give you all the money. You're going to put some controls in place. Right.

[A]

I want to make them work a regular job.

[B]

Thank you. Yeah, so that's the part they're going to have to earn. A wish to go while daddy worked, Daddy put his life on the line, went to Mexico and freaking tried to swim over and almost got killed. That's work that's not easy. You risk a lot of things, right? To me, a part of that with here where we are, I think we got to be, you know, the system of socialism and some of the ideas that they had. It's tough if we don't expect people to have to earn it themselves and kind of give things out away to them without having to earn it.

[A]

It.

[B]

It's a, it's a troubling place to be. It's a challenging place to be and I'm overly paranoid. If we do end up getting there.

[A]

One day, very reasonable, given your life experience.

[B]

Yeah. And that's the. And that's the part, you know, and I kind of wanted to know what your, what your family life was. When you said your parents used to be conservatives, your father was conservative.

[A]

Oh, no, no, my parents were never, I mean, so I grew up in Philadelphia.

[B]

Right.

[A]

I moved to Seattle when I was 12. But my grandparents were, you know, fiscally conservative grandparents. Reagan era, like. But you got to think too. Their parents were, were World War II veterans who after the GI Bill were able to build homes in suburbia. And so the baby boomers were the first suburban generation who got to experience that life with no wars until Vietnam. But it was a solid 15, 20 years of real American prosperity for them where everybody with a good job was able to afford a house and live a fulfilling life. My parents were probably a little bit more conservative oriented when I was really young. But I think that the war in Iraq really transformed that perception. The war on terror, post 9, 11. I think the early war on drugs and you know, US intervention in Latin America as well really changed their perspective on things. So they were big time Al Gore vegetarians. Even today they're not very political. But my early political thinking was definitely more progressive. When I moved to Seattle, I started hanging out with a bunch of like anarchists in more left wing circles in high school. I went to school in the South, I went to New Orleans for college and I got to know a lot more conservative leaning people, learned about the second Amendment and stuff like that and got more exposure. And now I've lived on the road and you know, between different cities for a long time. So I'm definitely, like I said, more left leaning. But I'm very open to all perspectives. And also I think that most people are generally well intentioned. And I think that also as a country, what we need to be able to do is let some of the stubbornness go a little bit. You know, when you've committed to a certain way of thinking for a long time, it's very, it's kind of an ego blow to change your mind. And I think that's kind of where we're at. Where a lot of people don't want to accept new information or different ideas is because they've committed and they have so much emotion and passion behind this way of thinking that they've kind of nursed for a long time. And so like I said, if something positive happens in the next four years, I'll report on it. I just know that maybe communism, socialism isn't the way to go. Probably not. I don't know. I just know that what's happening right now isn't really functioning that well. And so I think that's why there's so many different political ideas happening right now. In my opinion, there's more diversity of political thought now than there's been ever.

[B]

And guess what? I love that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's why I say I'm excited about what you're going to be doing. I think you're very important and I think you're going to inspire a lot of younger guys that are going to want to do what you're doing as well that are interested. My 13 year old son would be fascinated by you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Literally. My 13 year old son would have a 30 minute conversation with you and enjoy it because of where you're at. There's a lot of guys nowadays that are going to look up to you, 12 year old kids that are looking up to what you're doing because it's entertaining, it sounds fun, it's a little edgy, but also you're in pursuit of something. Let me see what they're going through. Anyways, do you want to tell us about the documentary before we Kelly so.

[A]

Dear Kelly was my first independently released film. I did it direct to streamer, dropped on January 15th of this year. And so the whole thing was I didn't want to go through a studio. I wanted to just drop it. So you can rent it for $5 and 55 cents or buy it for 15 and 55 cents at www.DearKellyFilm.com. it was a project that I've been working on for a really long time. It's kind of a project about radical right wing stuff during the Biden years, not so much now, you know.

[B]

And it's, it's an interesting angle though. Yeah, yeah. That the, the, if you want to tell the audience who, the individual that influenced you at a time that you needed.

[A]

Yeah. So Kelly J. Patriot Kelly Johnson is the protagonist of the film and he's someone that I documented over the course of three and a half or four years. I first met him at a White Lives matter rally in 2021 and I just his instantly his story resonated with me because he was kind of spouting off the typical talking points of that time, you know, like Fauci's evil, Jeffrey Epstein, Suez Canal's block, child trafficking, all the 2021 flashpoint stuff. And then the second part of our conversation was all about a personal vendetta that he had against a guy who gave him a loan named Bill Joyner, who was like this guy who he took a loan from. And Kelly felt like he got his home stolen because of the situation. And I felt it was so interesting seeing how his personal vendetta and the collapse of his core needs split into a greater spiritual political battle in the country. And so the documentary itself is documenting his journey throughout the course of these four years, as well as his family's intervention, attempts to get him to turn the page.

[B]

What a timing to follow him for three and a half years.

[A]

Yeah. The best documentaries, in my opinion, are the ones that are shot over a long period of time. It's very hard to create an amazing, compelling piece of documentary work when you only have three and a half months with a subject. I mean, you can make it entertaining, you can add music and supplemental media to make it pop, but time is the true essence of a great film.

[B]

I agree, and that's why I'm excited to follow your journey. Yeah. And I, I look forward to having you on next time to see what you're going through. And, and by the way, for those of you that are not watching, you're listening. We're going to put the link below in the description, but those listing, it's dear Kelly film.com Again, dear like D E A R Kelly as in K A K E l l y film.com Dear Kelly film.com Rob, put the link below as well for them to go watch if you love.

[A]

We just hit 3 million subscribers.

[B]

Congratulations, buddy.

[A]

That's sick.

[B]

He just said it right before the podcast. We're 50 away. Boom.

[A]

3 million subscribers.

[B]

3 million subscribers on 149 videos.

[A]

That's a good feeling.

[B]

Sick. Congratulations to you and happy early birthday. So again, go to the site, support him. Andrew, it's been a pleasure having you on. This was amazing.

[A]

Thanks for having me, man.

[B]

I appreciate you for coming on and I look forward to doing this again in the future.

[A]

Yeah, see you when I'm 35.

[B]

I look forward to it. Take care, buddy.

[A]

Thanks, man.

[B]

Take care. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represent who you are. So for us, if you wear a Future Looks Bright hat or a valuetainment gear, you're telling the world. I'm optimistic. I'm excited about what's going to be happening. But you're a free thinker. You question things, you like, debate. And by the way, last year, 120,000 people got a piece of of Future Looks Bright gear with valuetainment. We have so many new things. The cufflinks are here. New Future Looks Bright. This is my favorite, the green one. Just yesterday, somebody placed an order for a hundred of these. If you watch the PBD podcast, you got a bunch to choose from. White ones, black ones. If you, if you, if you smoke cigars and you come to our cigar lounge, we have this high quality lighter cutter and a holder for the cigars. We got sweaters with the valuetainment logo on it. We got mugs. We got a bunch of different things. But if you believe the future looks bright, if you follow our content and what we represent with valuetainment with PVD podcast, go to vtmerch.com and by the way, if you order right now, there's going to be a special VT gift insight just for you. So again, go to vtmerch.com, place your order, tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.