A (26:16)
Let me add one other thing to this, because Pence is making a lot of sense on this issue. I still find him to be a deplorable and disgusting person. There are some people on the left, they call themselves the. I don't know what they call themselves. I call it the revolutionary left. Sometimes they're pejoratively called tankies. They often love Russia. They love North Korea, they love Venezuela. Anyway, they're saying neocons want more war. Of course, Mike Pence is saying, you got to be tough. You got to do this, you got to do that, because neocons love going to war. I can't speak to what neocons want. Maybe Mike Pence wants a hot war with Russia, maybe he doesn't. But I don't know of anyone, anyone on the left that realizes really simple stuff. Russia's the aggressor. Ukraine is defending itself Trump doesn't seem positioned to really fight Putin diplomatically and economically. We're not talking about boots on the ground. I have not heard from a single person, even the suggestion of a possibility of thinking about considering going to war against Russia. I don't know anyone who wants that. And so I think it's really important, as we think about who is the aggressor. Does Trump have what it takes constitutionally, or is he just so smitten with Putin that it'll. When we're thinking about that, the context is not that we want war with Russia, we're just recognizing that as an arbiter here between Russia and Ukraine, if that's what Trump is going to be and that's what Trump wants to do, and that's the role the US Will have, we don't want a war. But you're going to have to be tougher with Putin than continually, continually delaying sanctions and taking anything Putin tells you and accepting it as if it's unquestionably true. We know that that's not going to work. Donald Trump is not only going after mail in voting, as he announced earlier this week, Donald Trump's going after the entire idea of free and fair elections and going against anyone who attempts to stand in his way. And that includes independent media. And in fact, independent media today is a bigger target for Donald Trump than at any point in his political career of now 10 years. So here's what's happening. Donald Trump announced he's going to lead a movement to get rid of mail in voting and to get rid of voting machines altogether. He announced it on Truth Social. We talked about it earlier in the week. Trump does not have the legal authority to do that. States decide how to run elections, but that doesn't matter. It's just not really the point. The point is that Republican governors and legislatures in red states are probably going to be following Donald Trump's lead. The governors in the red states are not going to file lawsuits. They're not going to argue over the constitutional limits of the office of the president. They're not concerned for the millions of voters that could be disenfranchised by those, by those changes. The impact, by the way, is obvious. Young voters and nonwhite voters, working class voters, people who move frequently, older folks, these are the groups that are going to be impacted by such a ruling, which will be bad for Democrats and good for Republicans. It's clear Trump's not subtle about this. Trump is saying outright states should act as agents of the federal government, meaning what Trump says they should do. Trump wants them to report results however he wants. Like when he told the Georgia Secretary of State, go and find me 11,000 votes. Give me a break. The fact that he is saying in public they should do his bidding and report to him, we've been desensitized. It's been normalized that this is how Trump behaves. This is where independent media comes in. Because if you read the Washington Post's headline about this, it said Trump was previewing an executive order on voting. That's a very banal and inoffensive way of framing. It's like some harmless policy rollout. It's like, hey, it's National Bald Eagle Month. It's Capybara Week at the White House. The corporate press is treating Trump's authoritarian threats as political theater and as business as usual, rather than the declarations of war on democracy. They are now. Independent media doesn't play that game. We don't worry about losing access or upsetting advertisers. We have been on Trump's enemies list since day one. And by we, I don't mean this show. I mean the entire cohort, the entire ecosystem. He's called independent media, fake news. He's attacked reporters by name at rallies. He's encouraged followers to target journalists. And if Trump can get away with dismantling voting rights, the exact same machinery is going to be used to crush dissent. And that includes non corporate media voices. It's abundantly clear. And so corporate media, independent media rather, is in Trump's crosshairs, not because we're weak, but because we're increasingly strong. They didn't care about independent media during Donald Trump's first term, or they barely did. They now recognize the power. They target independent media. They bring right wing independent media into the White House to try to bolster it. And this is very concrete. This is not an abstract hypothetical. We can see exactly how it would play out. Imagine a 2026. Imagine 2026 in a red state that eliminated mail in voting. Polling places are cut. They eliminate. You know, they go from hundreds to dozens or something like that. The ones that remain are hours away from many voters. Lines wrap around the block. It's crazy. The wait is long. Voting machines are gone. There's a chaotic paper system that's also underfunded and prone to mishaps. The results aren't released until after. Until after Donald Trump's allies have reviewed the results, which is another thing Trump loves the idea of. And any news coverage critical of this process is smeared as Election interference lawsuits are tied up in friendly courts. Independent outlets covering the disaster find that their reporters are banned from press conferences, they're getting harassed. They can't even cover the newsworthy nature of what has been done to the elections. So that's why independent voices, it's not just a nice to have, it's really about survival. So I'm not talking about, oh, subscribe to my YouTube channel. But you should, by the way, of course. What I mean is we need to amplify independent voices more broadly. I'm trying to do my part as well. Share the videos, post the clips, send them to friends and family, because the right already has this massive coordinated propaganda machine. They've got Fox News, Talk Radio, Turning Point, USA Daily Wire, hundreds of digital channels, they're working in sync. They've got Rumble, they've got Troth Central, they've got Twitter now as well. And our counterweight is kind of like an attempt to do grassroots amplification making doing whatever we can to get the truth out to people. So we have a coordinated effort happening right now on the behalf of the Trump administration to dismantle democracy in broad daylight. Part of the plan involves attacking adversarial news sources, get independent media to be less bold, to be afraid, to shut up. And if Trump gets his way, there's not just going to be fewer ways to vote. There will be fewer ways to speak and then the fight will be over before it starts. That's what I'm afraid of. So I always glad to have your support, but support all the shows you think are doing a good job. We've got to build the ecosystem. We're trying to build a movement here and we're trying to build a bulwark against what is clearly coming because they're telling us that it is. Many of us know it can be tough to stay on top of nutrition every single day, especially when things get busy and hectic. That is why I've made AG1 part of my morning routine. AG1 has now launched their Next gen formula. Still just a scoop a day, but it's been upgraded with more vitamins and minerals, a stronger probiotic blend, and this is the biggest thing clinically backed by by four human clinical trials. Most supplements don't go through anything like that. In one clinical trial, AG1 Next Gen increased healthy gut bacteria by 10 times. It's also clinically shown to help fill common nutrient gaps, even if you eat pretty well already. I mix AG1 with water before my world famous cappuccino in the morning. Quick, tastes good, just helps me feel like I'm covering my nutritional bases. And now clinically backed with an advanced formula, it's the perfect time to try AG1. If you haven't head to drink ag1.com/pacman to subscribe, you'll get a free bottle of AG D3K2, a welcome kit and five travel packs with your first order. The link is in the description. Your personal data is everywhere and you might not even know people. Search sites and data brokers are quietly publishing your name, address, phone number, even things like property records, political views. It is not just creepy, it's dangerous because scammers and fraudsters and shady marketers can use this information every day. Our sponsor Incogni solves the problem for you. Incogni contacts the data broker sites on your behalf and forces them to delete your data. The data brokers are legally obligated to comply and Incogni handles the entire process for you. Incogni is now taking this even further with their custom removals feature included in the unlimited plan. They've got their 250 plus sites where removal is automated. But if you find your information anywhere else you can custom submit that and they will have it removed manually. This is serious protection. Using Incogni can cut way down on the spam calls and the messages that you get. Fewer risks, more control over your identity. Try it risk free for 30 days and get 60% off an annual plan when you go to incogni.com/pacman the link is in the description When Donald Trump waddled back into the Oval Office in January of this year, the economy was not in crisis. It's an economy that has problems. We have people who can't afford what it costs to live to rent an apartment. We have wages that over long periods of time haven't kept up with inflation, although for shorter periods recently they have. We have poverty, we have hunger, we have lack of health insurance. There's no question that there are problems to solve, without a doubt, and we have significant inequality. But when Trump reentered the Oval Office, Biden handed him, objectively speaking, low unemployment, steady GDP growth, cool and stable inflation, job creation numbers that were quite good. And so while we still had problems to solve by global standards, the US Economy was the envy of the world. I know that it's sort of cliche to say that, but people in so many different countries would look at the circumstances at the time of the handover from Biden to Trump in January of this year and say that was a pretty Good economy. And Donald Trump's assignment was relatively straightforward. You don't really need a master plan. You don't even really need new ideas. Just don't screw it up. Just sit there, look smug and take credit even though you did nothing. And if you look, historically, presidents have coasted on far, far less. Think back to when Barack Obama won reelection. Had Mitt Romney defeated Obama in 2012, Romney could have come in, done nothing and had a great economy. Because it was clear that the combination of the accelerating recovery from the Great Recession combined with a global business cycle that was at a, at a favorable point in time. Obama's second term had a great economy. But if Mitt Romney had won and done nothing, he also would have had a great economy. But that's not what Donald Trump did when he came back in, in January. And so the point of this story is that the cracks we are now seeing in the economy are self inflicted. These are unforced errors that Donald Trump has created himself. He, he almost couldn't help himself. He within months started slamming tariffs on imports. They're on, they're off, they're lower, they're higher. We're threatening, we're doing this, we're doing that. But the effect of it has been extraordinarily problematic. He picked these trade fights and he bragged that he's bringing in cash from foreign countries, even though of course you know by now that it's American companies that paid the tariffs. And the fallout is now starting to become a real problem for Donald Trump. Wholesale prices are going up. Wholesale vegetable prices are up 38%. Supply chains are jittery. Farmers, grocers and restaurants are feeling the squeeze thanks to Trump's D.C. fiasco. Restaurant reservations in D.C. are down 30%. Job creation is hitting new low after new low. Manufacturing index indices are as low as they've been in years. And so Trump promised we're going to have more growth than ever. He ended up getting negative GDP growth for a quarter. Trump promised we're going to get grocery prices down. They're actually up. Trump promised we would see a decline in prices, meaning an inflation rate that is lower than zero, a negative inflation rate that hasn't happened. It's probably a good thing it hasn't happened. Negative inflation rates often lead to deflationary spirals. It's not a good thing. But these are all self inflicted wounds and they were completely foreseeable in their impacts when economists looked at these proposals, and I'm using the term proposal sort of charitably, when Donald Trump Goes tariff, everyone. It's not exactly a proposal in the technical sense of the word, but when economists analyzed the tax bill and Trump's tariff rates that he floated and all of this stuff, economists said this will create a problem. This is going to lead to higher prices, this is going to lead to lower jobs numbers. It's what's going to happen. And so when you have a global pandemic, it's unforeseeable. It might be broadly foreseeable at some point. We. Okay, but the point is the specific timing of the COVID pandemic that was not forecast foreseeable in the way that slamming tariffs on everyone would have a foreseeable impact. The 2008 financial crisis, yes, in a general sense, there were people sounding the alarm, this mortgage stuff is going to be a problem. But the specific timing, it came down and people had to deal with it. This is stuff that Trump has created on his own. He inherited a fine economy in pretty good shape and in record time, he managed to light it on fire. Now, there's a little bit of an irony to this. Trump spent 2024 fear mongering that if Joe Biden gets reelected, his disaster economy will get even worse. Or when it became Kamala Harris as the nominee Trump switched to, we will have a 1929 style depression if she wins. And communism, Marxism, socialism, all this stuff. But by every single measure, jobs, inflation, gdp, Biden had pulled the US Economy out of Covid's tailspin and into a recovery. And now Donald Trump is in with policies that are making the recovery unravel. And as it almost always is the case in countries with the sort of inequality and wealth and income distribution that we have, Trump's not paying the price. His billionaire cabinet picks and friends, they might not like some of these policies, but it doesn't affect their financial viability and that of their household. It's the middle class folks, it's the working poor that end up getting screwed with the higher prices and weaker job security. And all of this is a result of Trump's instability caused by the ego driven trade war and all of the other economic fiascos so far. So the bottom line here is that Trump really could have coasted. You all know that. I just look at the data and for several months before any of the things Donald Trump did, the data were fine, the economic indicators were like, everything is basically fine. But now we're seeing the cracks and now we're seeing the degradation. So Trump should have done. It takes, you know, you've got to suppress your ego to do it. Trump could have said, I'm not going to blow everything up. I'm just going to coast and then I'll say it's my great economy. He could have gone golfing without being criticized as much as he is, but instead he manufactured an economic crisis that did not need to exist. It is a 100% self inflicted crisis and what I'm curious to see is whether voters hold him accountable for it in November of next year. The midterms now just 14 and a half months away. What do you think? Do you believe MAGA voters are going to hold Trump and Republicans accountable if the economy continues to crack? Or are they going to blame Democrats or just ignore it and keep checking the box for people with Rs next to their names? Let me know what you think. Want to see what it looks like when a right wing extremist almost gets it? Almost. This is video of Fox Business correspondent Lydia Hunter. She almost stumbles into the truth about gerrymandering. Now she's talking here about Gavin Newsom's gerrymandering plan in California. She thinks she's got him in a hypocritical double standard and she almost gets it. But she doesn't. But she doesn't take a listen.
