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Now, of course, inflation was 2.4% when Trump took over. It's now 2.67%. But it's all Biden. That's it. Oh, but wait, what about the recent GDP number? No, that's Trump. What about the stock market being up? No, no, no, that's completely Trump. Anything that appears to be bad that's going on, it's because we're trying to dig out from this endless hole in bottomless hole that Biden put us in. Anything that seems okay is only thanks to Donald Trump. Are voters going to buy this? Are voters buying it right now? If you look at the polling, the answer is kind of no, but not by the degree that we would hope. But by a small margin. Voters are not buying that the state of the economy today is still because of Joe Biden. However, it should be 100% that realize this is Trump's economy. The blanket tariffs were optional. The instability that Trump is generating is optional. Going after the independence of the Fed chair by demanding that Jerome Powell be fired or considering fire him or replacement, and then directing this DOJ probe which Trump says he has nothing to do with. But lo and behold, they seem to continually go after Trump's adversaries. That is all optional. But we are supposed to believe that the real blame here, the real person responsible for anything that's not going well, is Joe Biden. Now, I really do wish at some point someone would ask one of these Republicans about deflation and really get them on record. You have promised, and Trump has promised a decline in prices. You know that if inflation is more than zero, prices continue to go up. Do you really want deflation? And what about the fact that it's generally terrible for an economy? I would like to see one of these people presented that question and actually put in a position to answer it. I haven't seen it even a single time. We have a bunch of new stuff on the David Pakman Show. Merch Store. I invite you to check it out. Store.david pakman.com I've been wearing some of the things. They're going out. They're being sent out everywhere. Check it out. Store.david pakman.com will take a quick break and be right back. All right, so we all know Alexa listens to us, recommends products based on our conversations. Metta retargets us based on our browsing and engagement history. Have you wondered what Chat GPT and Claude are up to with your conversations? We feed so much of our information to these AI chat bots. Thoughts, dreams, sensitive questions, business ideas. They take the information, tie it to your identity and they can sell that to third parties and governments. Chat GPT has the former director of the NSA on their board right now. That doesn't feel awesome. It took us a long time to truly understand what social media companies were doing with our data. We don't have to make the same mistake with AI, and that's why I've started using Venice AI, our sponsor. Venice is a generative AI platform that is completely private and permissionless. They don't spy on you, Venice. I won't censor the AI. They have a safe mode which you can turn off for both text and image generation. Messages are encrypted. Your conversation history is only stored on your browser. I love the Pro Plan because I get upgraded features like uploading files, unlimited text prompts. Check it out if you want to use AI without censorship or fear of handing over your most intimate thoughts to a corporation or the government, go to Venice AI/pacman and use code PACMAN to get 20% off their pro Plan. The link is in the description if you are shopping for a new mattress, I would recommend you start by looking at Helix Sleep, the mattress I've been sleeping on for years. The only one that I recommend because they custom tailor it to your needs. I took their sleep quiz. It took a minute or two. I said oh, you know I like to sleep on my stomach. 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We're talking about the president of Germany here. That means, interestingly enough, that he doesn't have to say this or anything at all, which in a sense means that when he does say it, it carries some weight. Steinmeier is warning that the world is sliding into what he calls a den of robbers and a world where the most powerful countries just take what they want and borders don't matter. Which really describes both the personal kleptocracy of Donald Trump, but also his approach to foreign policy and diplomatic relations. And if democracy doesn't matter, you then have to consider what role is the United States playing in diminishing the importance of democracy. Now, this is not just about, you know, Russia has invaded Ukraine and Donald Trump is pushing for a solution that would involve Russia getting to keep a bunch of the land it took from Ukraine. This is sort of bigger than that. And Steinmeier called American behavior a second historic rupture after Russia, in terms of the collapse of global norms. This is a big deal. Now, I know that a lot of MAGAs will go, we don't care what Europeans think about this, that or the other thing. Now, we know. We know that you don't care. The point is, some of us are actually still thinking about how does the world see what Donald Trump has been up to? And the answer is not particularly. Well, it is extraordinary for the president of Germany to say that the country that helped build the post World War II order, as did the United States, is now participating in tearing it down. And it's not like an abstract idea. Steinmeier's comments really are referencing Trump's actions in Venezuela, including the removal and kidnapping of the president, Nicolas Maduro. And what he's really kind of getting at here is strong countries deciding to get, deciding who gets to run weaker countries, and the concept that there are rules for some and not for others. If, and you have to kind of, kind of consider the power dynamics. But if a smaller country even attempted to do what Donald Trump did in Venezuela, the reaction from someone like Trump would be, of course they're not going to be allowed to do that. There is no way. But when it's Donald Trump doing it, of course he should be allowed to do it. And it is a hypocrisy that we've pointed out before that MAGA doesn't care about, but is still relevant to talk about. Now, there's some interesting polling to go along with this as well. There's a new German poll which finds that 76% of Germans now say the United States is no longer a reliable partner, and only 15% say that the US can be trusted. This is the lowest number ever recorded. Now, by contrast, three quarters of Germans say, oh, we can rely on France. Three quarters of Germans say we can rely on the United Kingdom. So, so think about that. Germany trusts France. Germany trusts the UK Germany does not trust the United States. Again, I know the magazines don't give a damn about that, but when they say, now that Trump is here, we are finally respected abroad. No, we're not. And if Trump's behavior is so erratic that it scares some people, that's not respect, that's fear. Fear and respect are two different things. Also notable, nearly 70% of Germans say that they're worried about European security. And a similar number think Naito cannot rely on the United States making good on its shared defense responsibilities. And why would they? I mean, Donald Trump has sort of suggested, yeah, we might, we might not defend NATO allies if they are attacked. So for those who say Trump has really shaken things up here, he's really making people think and whatever. No, it's the United States is becoming a problem and is damaging our alliances and relations. For years, Trump said, I have been and will again make the United States strong. And what he's actually done is isolated. The United States, torched trust and really turned the country into the kind of power that we used to oppose. And when the German president is openly warning the world, do not let the United States turn the planet into a free for all run by bullies, you know, something has really reversed from the post World War II order that the US played a significant role in boosting. The world sees it. Even if the Magaz refuse to acknowledge it, even if Trump's ego would never let him acknowledge it, the world sees that this is going on. And by the way, the fascism experts also see what's going on, and some of them are leaving and have left the country. Let's talk about that. Jason Stanley is not a random activist. He is not a tic tac commentator. He is not being dramatic. Jason Stanley is one of the world's leading experts on fascism. He wrote the book How Fascism Works. And he has left the United States because of Donald Trump. Stanley was a professor at Yale University, tenured, prestigious, kind of as protected as it gets in American academia. And even he decided it wasn't safe or honest to stay. And so he has moved his family to Canada and is now teaching at the University of Toronto. Why? Because, in his words, the Trump administration has carried out a coup. Not a metaphor, not hyperbole, a coup. Stanley says the Trump regime believes it has enough control over the levers of power that it doesn't need public support anymore. That is a chilling sentence. And according to Stanley, universities are being targeted first. Funding threats and political pressure, demands for compliance. And he believed that if he stayed at Yale, the institution would feel pressure to tone him down. Not because Yale necessarily agrees with Trump, they probably don't. But because Yale wants to survive. And Stanley said that the message would have been very clear. Do not do anything to provoke retaliation from Donald Trump. Don't bring heat. Normalize what is happening. And he refused. And so he left. And from outside the country, he is now saying what many institutions in the United States are too afraid to say, which is that Trump is using classic fascist tactics. A cult of the leader, scapegoating immigrants, LGBTQ people, political opponents, they all get scapegoated. Delegitimizing your opposition, criminalizing protests, turning law enforcement and the military into inward. Stanley says that when people frame this as, oh, the country is simply polarized, that they're getting it completely wrong. He says this is not about two sides that disagree. There is the embrace of authoritarianism on one side and others being told, you got to calm down. He makes the point very bluntly. History will not remember this as polarization. History, if you look at other examples, remembers who normalized fascism while it was happening. And the part that really should land is that he doesn't believe the fight is over. He thinks Trump may have moved too fast, that the cruelty and the corruption and the illegality are becoming obvious to too many Americans because he moved too quickly. And he is really making me think, you know, when a global scholar of fascism looks at the US Under Trump and says, I must leave the country and doesn't just say, oh, I might move to Canada. He did it. He moved to Canada. That is not something that Americans should be shrugging off. As I've said before, we have this false notion that fascism sometimes appears with tanks rolling in the streets. But one of the unfortunate realities is that fascism always often appears in ways where you don't need the tanks to roll down the streets. Fascism appears by silencing dissent, generating self censorship, and through other mechanisms that in some cases prevent you even needing the tanks in the streets to begin with. There are people who understand this. Jason Stanley is one of them. He determined that it is indeed time to go. And this is of course, terrifying. Now, I've also heard from a bunch of you, some of whom are considering leaving. And I've heard from some of you who already have. As I think I've mentioned before, I have heard from people in the audience who have left the US and have gone to Spain, the uk, South America, some to Asia. Portugal is a popular destination. Most people can't do this, either for financial reasons or from the standpoint of immigration requirements and restrictions. But I don't ever remember a time hosting this show when I was hearing from so many people who are saying, I'm going to get out. Now. I've said before, and I talked about this with Heather Cox Richardson, when someone asks me, should I leave? Should I leave my red state because my daughter is trans, for example, or should I leave the country because of what's going on? On the one hand, intellectually I recognize that if everybody with the right ideas leaves, we are ceding control to those with the worst ideas. That's terrible. That doesn't work. But at the same time, who am I to say to any particular person, you must stay no matter what the risks to yourself or your family? So I get it. I get the reasons that people are doing that. The concern, of course, is over the long term, how is that going to affect our ability to fight back against what is going on here in the United States? So if there are others of you that have left or are thinking of leaving, let me know. Leave a comment Send an email to info@david pakman.com and remember that we are going to do everything we can to remain up and running even as the pressure is mounting. As I've said before, if we were to get shut down on any platform, the platform where we own our data is Substack. So we will be able to let you know what we're up to and what's going on if you are on that substack newsletter. If YouTube shuts us down because of pressure from this administration, we have no way to reach our 3 1/2 million YouTube subscribers. Same thing with our 700000 Facebook followers. We own the data on Substack, so make sure you're on my newsletter substack.david pakman.com scary times identity theft and targeted scams often start long before the breach. When bits of your personal life, addresses, emails, relatives, your work history are scattered around the Internet on these data broker sites and that information is sold or reused. Our sponsor Incogni, will get that stuff removed for you. 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Look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or at your nearest grocery store or get $5 off your next order at magicspoon.com pacman the link is in the description let's get into Friday Feedback which includes your emails, your Spotify comments, your TikTok comments, your YouTube comments, your Facebook comments, your Instagram comments, your Snapchat. Anyway, we we start today with a message. Very appropriate and intelligent message from Tennessee Mountain biker who says so you claim no spin and come unbiased. You are as unstable as the people you talk about. Listen, I don't know how many times I have to explain this. This is an opinion program. I have an opinion. I don't pretend not to have one, nor do I attempt to hide my opinion from you. What I always make an effort to do is to tell you what the known facts are and where I am synthesizing my opinion. So I'll give you an example. And this is. This is like, this is nuts and bolts media literacy stuff, and people just don't get it. If I say to you the top tax rate is 37%, that is a statement of fact. If I lied to you about it, then I would be misleading you about a fact. I could then say to you, I believe that there should be a higher top tax rate, and here's why. That is my opinion. I have a personal opinion. And in that sense, you could call it a bias. Everybody has a bias. Any show, you know, whether it's Ben Shapiro or Dan Bongino or Dan Bongino or whoever, everybody brings their views. Now, if you are doing news reporting, the idea is that you hide your opinion, that you present only the facts, and sometimes opinion slips in there. This is an opinion show, and I am transparent about what my opinion is. Now, no spin or me being unstable. I don't even want to get into that crap. All right. DJ Basker wrote on Spotify, come on, mate. I've been listening to your podcasts for the last four days. Worth. The purpose of all this is to take the attention off the Epstein files. They wrote of the Epstein files. I think they meant off. Take the attention off the Epstein files. And for your show. It's worked. I don't think I've heard you mentioned in the last couples of shows. Well, a couple different things here. First of all, Donald Trump is so irrational and erratic and incompetent that any time I hear an allegation, you know, Trump kidnapped Maduro. Exactly. On this day to take attention away from the Epstein files. And then now with this shooting, Trump sent the people to Minneapolis because he knew it would cause chaos and take attention away from the Epstein files. I just don't think Trump's that competent. And also, I believe that it can be hard to predictably distract because you don't know how some of these things are ultimately going. Going to go as far as it's worked. Because I haven't been talking about Epstein. We don't talk about Epstein every day on this show. There are ebbs and flows. When there is new information that comes out, we talk about it when they're, you know, I mean, I don't think the audience's expectation is that this is the Epstein show day in and day out. But I always, I'm always skeptical of attributing too much agency to people who have shown themselves to be incompetent in some general sense. Do I think Trump doesn't want Epstein being the number one discussion point? Yeah, because he's, he's told us that he gets angry and he goes, how are we still talking about this? The timing of the Maduro thing or Minneapolis thing or investigation of Jerome Powell or whatever specifically to distract from that. I don't know that I would give him so quite so much credit. Big racks. Russ wrote on Spotify about my interview with soybean farmer Caleb Ragland. The conversation with the soybean farmer seemed to be going well until he tripled down on his support for Trump. I want to be clear, being a Trump supporter doesn't disqualify from respect, however contingent. To buy into the propaganda and say that he has been objectively the lesser of two evils in every election since 2016 seen is incredibly disingenuous and makes me question your ability to think outside of your party. Still, supporting him after the first trade war as a farmer is beyond me. Yeah, I agree with you. I mean, listen, that, that interview was illuminating because Caleb, he's a nice guy, he's well spoken, he knows a lot about how tariffs affect soybean farming and farming in general. But it was sort of jarring where he said, yeah, I mean, Trump's tariff policy is terrible, but I voted for him three times and I think that he's got it right on security and the border and all this different stuff. I mean, listen, it's all about how you prioritize things. Clearly, for Caleb, the fact that Trump has single handedly crushed his business is weighed against the fact that he likes Trump's other policies, I guess. Even though he was a little coy about exactly which ones he likes. Yeah, I mean, like that's probably not someone that you're going to convince. That is an example of Trump could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and support couldn't change. Trump can destroy your business and you would still support Trump. And you have to remember, if that's the case, why would Trump do anything for you? He's got your support either way. So that is. It was jarring. And I got a. By the way, I got a bunch of messages about this. Lucas J11 wrote in and said this soybean farmer is exactly the type of person the rest of us cannot believe exists. No matter how destructive the orange is to his own soybean community, not to mention the rest of us, he still voted for him three times in a row and would do it again, my goodness. Yeah. Nothing to add there. I mean, mirrors the point that I made. We talked to one of them, right? I mean, it's, it's, it's illuminating to figure out how deep the commitment to Trump, even as Trump has no commitment to soybean farmers or to people in the south of the country, the Midwest, wherever. Miguel says, david, you need a haircut, brother. You know, I just, I just don't have time. Between all of the, the flu that entered my house and then the pneumonia and then going to the ER with my daughter and a lot of different commitments and working on my second book, I'm on deadline. It's just hard to find the time. I know that the, I know the sideburns are looking scraggly, but I'm going to make an effort to get a haircut soon. Believe me, I know. I just don't have time. Okay. Oh, someone likes the Obama shirt. Obama. I have the shirt in black. Appreciate you and the team, David. Yeah, the Obama shirts that are available in our store are just selling like crazy. And we also have the hats, one of which is behind me. And then we have a new shirt design that just says 1 2029, which is the day that Donald Trump leaves office forever. He came down the golden escalator in 2015, and we are going to send him up a golden escalator that will go so fast that it'll catapult him to, to wherever. That shirt, also very popular, the One 2029 shirt. It's all at store. Dot. David Pakman, dotcom All right, a ton of reaction, a ton of reaction to my segment last week saying I don't talk about my gun ownership or lack thereof personally. It's just a decision I've made for my own security. I wouldn't necessarily want to say I do or don't have guns or say anything about them, but I did indicate only the right wing nuts. Having guns is scary. It's sort of like an arms race to the bottom or something. A lot of feedback about that. And on YouTube, Jason Hatfield said the gun ownership demographic in this country being highly correlated with a virulent political extremist movement inevitably leads to the interpersonal arms race that David is discussing. But it is far too late for the normies to catch up. This is one of the main reasons to consider divesting in this society altogether, if it is even feasible for a given person or family. Yeah, listen, I mean, I, if I think about guns as a way to protect oneself in the United States, just going to Belgium is a much better way to protect yourself. And of course, as Jason is pointing out, that is not practical, reasonable nor affordable for probably the vast majority of the population. That's, that's a reality. And so we have to keep working to make the country safer because not everybody can just go to Australia, you know, or wherever Sweden. And what resonated with a lot of I was surprised and I was surprised, but not surprised. So many of my liberal friends in blue states own guns and their explanation is I don't want the magazines and the Maga Potamians and the Magadonians being the only ones with the guns. And so many of you wrote in and said, David, I'm like you. I think we need fewer guns in this country. And also I don't want to be in a situation where it's only the right wing nuts with the guns. It's, it's a regrettable status quo. Can't put it any other way. Christina wrote. Glad you're here David. Thanks for your tireless presence in my social media. Appreciate it very much. Well, I appreciate that Christina and I appreciate you and the incredible. I don't know how many of you are aware of this, but our following, you know, We've been on YouTube for a really long time, so it's harder to have growth that's out as fast on platforms you've been on a long time. Our Snapchat has been blowing up, our Instagram has been blowing up, our Facebook has been blowing up. Tik Tac and Tik Tok. We are seeing growth on some of these platforms like we have never seen before. And I believe that what it, what it has to do with is a deep desire to, among millions of Americans to find community that is sane and like minded at such politically perilous times. I think the more that, you know, ICE terrorizes neighborhoods, the more people who see it as wrong say we need community, we need to be with like minded people. And I appreciate everybody who has kind of entered our social media ecosystem which is approaching 8 million followers. Incredible. 8 million. If you could imagine, it took us a year to get a thousand YouTube followers a year and we are now growing by close to 200000 followers a month and rapidly approaching 8 million. It's insane. It's completely insane. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. We will be back Monday with a new show. Sign up@joinpakman.com get on my newsletter for free at substack.davidpakman.com have a good weekend.