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A Pretty Pathetic D-Day

71m 51s

A Pretty Pathetic D-Day

In this episode, Dave Smith and Rob "The Fire" Bernstein discuss the ongoing Iran war and the U.S. administration’s latest strategy. Dave reveals his upcoming debate with Alan Dershowitz, rescheduled to next Wednesday on Zero Hedge, focusing on the war’s justification. They analyze Treasury Secretary Bessent’s "economic D-Day" plan, which threatens secondary sanctions and removal from the dollar system for nations trading with Iran. The hosts argue this is a desperate bluff, given that Iran has withstood military strikes and emerged stronger, while the U.S. has failed to achieve any of its seven stated war aims, including regime change and nuclear disarmament. They note that threatening global partners like China could backfire, pushing them away from the dollar and destabilizing the financial system. The conversation shifts to Glenn Beck’s recent commentary, where he claims victory while admitting the war is a disaster, blaming the American public’s lack of support—a contradiction they dismantle. They highlight the administration’s pattern of bold threats followed by retreats, citing tariffs and deportations as examples. Ultimately, they predict the economic sanctions will fail, leaving the U.S. humiliated and the war unresolved, with Iran waiting out American patience and resources.

Transcription

13754 Words, 72074 Characters

English
what's up what's up everybody welcome to a brand new episode a part of the problem i am dave smith he is robbie the fire bernstein what's up brother how you feeling today i'm well how are you my friend good good can't complain i'm uh i'm headed out to austin uh very soon and excited for a fun weekend out there come on out guys it's the best uh weekend of the year every year um i i just love this club so much uh and there are still tickets for sunday available they're gonna sell out uh in the next couple days so make sure you grab those if you do want to come out the sunday night shows they're always a lot of fun too so come on out to those i'm excited uh to go there i got a lot of uh new material that uh i'm excited to bring to the the comedy mothership as you've been you've seen some of rob i got some new stuff that's working real good that i'm happy with so very excited um for this weekend and then of course me and you uh we're traveling all over the country together you're traveling all over the place what else what else we got going on rob well in the meantime check out the run your mouth podcast got a new one coming out tomorrow and uh gotta confirm some more porches just have to actually sit down and do it so be on the lookout for some more tour dates and then i think the uh next one that you and i have is uh dallas um which i do have a porch tour that thursday at a brewery we got i'm sorry i just pulled up the site louisville first louisville louisville then fort worth and dallas yeah and we're going to take a look at that and we're going to take a look at that and then we're going to get into some stuff and then we're going to get into some stuff and then we're going to get into some stuff and then we're going to get into some stuff and then we're going to get into some stuff coming soon coming soon that makes it sound better than i have work to do tbd um all right very good well so let's get into some stuff here i um well i gotta say rob it's oh i should i'm sorry i should let everybody know this because i i did post this yesterday and then it was trending on twitter uh and then of course i don't know you know um you know how they always say rob in the news i don't know how they always say i don't know how they always say i don't know how they always they're like the uh i forget what's the there's like an old saying that it was like the retraction you know the front the story's on the front page but the retraction is on like the the back page or something but at the same time i tweeted out that i'm debating alan uh dershowitz tonight and then that got like 20 000 you know likes and was like and it was trending on twitter and then i tweeted out hey guys sorry they had to uh move it and it just didn't go viral but i'm like hey i don't know i said the same thing on the same medium anyway in case anybody didn't see that uh yeah so this debate came together very very last minute like within just the last few days um but evidently it's i don't know what happened it was not on my end i was ready to go but it was some issue with either the moderator or or alan's side but it's been agreed uh as far as i've been told that next wednesday at 7 p.m on zero hedge uh two hour debate one-on-one me versus alan dershowitz and the topic is the current war in iran so that is going down um and i gotta say i'm you know i'm really looking forward to this one rob as as we mentioned before i guess we didn't really discuss this on the podcast because i i gave it away on the members only and you weren't here and then i didn't want to give it away publicly on the last episode but i've been saying hey i want to debate um you know the biggest most high profile like best debater most relevant guy i can get who was still willing to come up and defend the war in iran and um this one got offered to me and damn i mean that's like i gotta say i think the kind of seems to me like the best i could have been asking for i don't really know i mean this guy like i think you made the point on yesterday's show rob but he should be the most qualified guy to kick my ass on this issue right like this is a a harvard law educated legendary orator you know so like okay dude this is really going to come down clearly you're better than me at the sport of verbal iq legalese or whatever you know so like okay you're better than me at the sport it's only because my argument is 10 000 times better than you that if if for me to be able to like kick your ass in this debate so i don't know i just don't know if i'm gonna be able to kick your ass in this debate so i don't know if i'm gonna be able to kick your ass in this debate so i don't know if i'm gonna be able to kick your ass in this debate but like you said rob right he's got to be the most qualified guy to be arguing this with i mean he he'll get oj off you got get oj off skills i don't think you gotta get oj off skills i don't even think i could keep a straight face trying to get oj off this guy might be showing up with gloves who knows what kind of tricks he's got up his sleeve how'd you do it i'd be doing shit like uh like i'd just uh i'd just be too honest so i would just be up there and i would just be like you're a ladies and gentlemen of the jury you're up then i'd look over and i'd be like you need to put him away he's talking crazy he told me he did it back there i don't this is nuts um that's right though like if you could get oj off you know like and you can't get the justification for this war off then okay yeah i get okay i know the logic isn't airtight on that but you get what i'm going for so anyway you know i gotta say rob one of the things that's kind of interesting about this is um i i guess i of the big debates that i've done this one i am a little bit kind of like huh what's he gonna say and you know as i as i i posted this the other day because i got permission to announce it before the thing got moved um as as i posted it you know when it was going it was going viral on social media the overwhelming response that i kept getting from people was uh them going what is he even gonna say and like i was like it i was kind of like i don't know i don't know i don't know like yeah i know right like that's exactly what i've been thinking and it kind of is i don't know um i'm kind of interested to see i mean i've heard a few of the things that hawks are saying you know to kind of justify the war right now i'm like are you really gonna bring any of that into a debate because it is stuff that is like um you know it's just paper thin arguments that you can push over like that so i again it's it's that i guess to me is kind of interesting it's um we're we're kind of living in a weird moment right now rob for political commentary and all of this stuff but one of the things that's almost kind of taking the air out of the room is that everyone just kind of knows this argument is over at least that's what it feels like to me but i don't know what you think well i'm excited to watch it and see how it plays out hopefully it's a it should be another head for the mantle yeah here it's um i know you were uh you were talking about this yesterday you made some good uh some good points about it i was looking into more of it today and i actually went back and i watched the speech the full speech that that besant gave but isn't it rob just like look i i i don't know i guess to say like what pressure does america have on the rest of the world at this point still that what pressure can we bring to bear on the iranians by really laying down this economic d-day or whatever but jesus rob is this just not the most transparently pathetic like last minute i remember um there's one episode of the office where michael scott is speaking at a shareholders meeting and um it's it's the company is like going bankrupt so all the shareholders are furious because they're all lost their their pensions or whatever and he goes we have a 10 point plan that's gonna turn this company around in 10 days and he's like 10 points 10 days we're back in business and the crowd goes nuts and rose and then it cuts them in the back room and he's like okay let's start with uh it's like i forget how it goes he goes like let's start with point uh 10 and work our way back from there you know like he actually has nothing he has no plan whatsoever and it just it feels like that like we're like rob in in a sense this maybe would have been believable rob if they hadn't rolled it out the week after they asked rank and file soldiers for ideas you know what i mean like if it had if they had maybe tried to convince you that like this was always the plan they had all along or something like hey look we thought we were going to be able to get regime change in the first 48 hours but then when that didn't work we brought the world to bear down on around but instead it's just so obvious like oh you tried 15 different things all of which failed and now in a last-ditch desperate effort you're going to try to bully the rest of the world into going along with you and paying a price for something that none of them wanted to begin with this just seems like desperation and destined for failure but what do you think uh well it seems like a last-ditch effort and that if they thought that this was a winning strategy why didn't they go with it from the outset but uh i don't want to give too much away before we play the clip so i'll reserve my comments for afterwards all right you want to go to uh here is besant um let's go to uh let's let's start from the beginning of this here he is announcing um economic d-day um as some people have pointed out by the way astute historians pointed out that d-day was a little bit different than this in in the sense that it wasn't just like a vague threat and that you know um we knew the countries that we were talking about that was another interesting part of this rob no countries are named okay anyway let's play We are already at the end of the show. facing results. Over the weekend, comments from Iranian leadership clearly acknowledged the effect of this campaign, and nations that facilitate any interactions with the regime should quickly heed our message. Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime. Teams from Treasury, State, and the U.S. military are now meeting with their global counterparts to tell them that the United States expects action. Every country has a defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified. If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities. For example, every branch of Bank of America, the Bank of America, the Bank of America, must be dark. And let me be clear, any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the US dollar system. The clock just started ticking. All right, let's pause it right here. It is, look, obviously, I want to build up to this point here about Rob, about him saying that this is the threat that you'll be removed from the dollar system. It's quite an interesting threat, in a way. But look, there's obviously there's a couple points before that, that maybe it's just worth stating that look, clearly, this, it's delusional to tell the world that Iran is a withering state, when actually what the world has witnessed is the transformation of the power of the Iranian state over the last six months, and seen it transformed into a global power. Yeah. That's the reality of the situation. Also, when he talks about like, who gets the benefits of the American relationship? Look, there's something more to get into about kicking someone off the dollar standard. We could talk about this for a little bit and then saying you don't get the benefits of that standard. It's interesting. But if you, Rob, to say, look, pretty objectively here, right? Europe did not want this war. Donald Trump throughout the whole war has been furious at the Europeans, because they just didn't want to do this. And they don't want to help out with it. And they didn't want any part of that. Asia hates this war. They're one of the they're suffering, maybe the most or second most, due to the issues in the Strait of Hormuz. The Gulf countries are over it. They don't want to be Iraq isn't going for it. Kuwait isn't going for it. The Omanians are ready to make a deal. The Saudis are getting wet, like no one wants this anymore. Because it's costing so much. And now the move is as the US is losing this big war to turn around and bully everybody else that actually we're threatening all of you to if you don't pony up more for this disaster that none of you wanted that we wanted. That really is a wild thing to start with. But any thoughts you have on this, Rob? Go ahead. Yeah, so we might get a short term win here. My guess is China's just absolutely not going along with this. The countries that we have more leverage on are countries like Turkey and Iraq. And I guess theoretically, we could we could further squeeze Iran and maybe Iran comes back to the table and we end up with a better deal than what we had in the memorandum of understanding or maybe Iran wants what wants worse for us than what the memory memorandum of understanding was, and actually turns us back into a hot war because they feel like they can go up the escalation ladder and get you know, more leverage in that regard. But long term, what you're doing is you're taking these countries, this was very similar what happened at the start of the Ukraine Russia war. But you're taking countries that were within our financial system. And you're letting them know, hey, you don't want to hang out here, because then we have leverage over you. And you're kind of stuck in this system. And we'll make it that your funds aren't available, or that you're stuck without your it's like kind of like for a country, it's like being debunked, where all of a sudden you turn around and you got all your business processes. And you're like, shit, I got to find a new way to process all this money. And do you really want to be stuck supporting whatever the US agenda is at any given day that you know that you might be kicked out with, you know, of your bank? And the answer is no. So in the short term, theoretically, you know, maybe this does put more pressure on Iran, long term, this seems very dicey of us that we're constantly threatening people that they will be removed from the US dollar system, or that, you know, they might even have money stuck in US banks, because it just gives people a real financial incentive to kind of, you know, D partner from us and figure out other ways to be moving this money around and not stuck in our system. 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Enter the challenge at prepare like dave.com. One family receives the prize, but every participant strengthens the mission. This is your chance to be independent, be prepared and be ready. Join the road to preparedness challenge now at prepare like dave.com. All right, let's get back into the show. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Well, like, uh, it's all this stuff is very interesting. But if you think if do you remember Putin made a big thing out of saying this, where he was talking about it was at the beginning of the Ukraine war, when Biden first started ramping up like the sanctions regime, and he was like, or maybe it was like even like a year into it or something like that. But where he was like, you know, guys, you actually had a pretty sweet deal going here that you just kind of cut yourselves out of and you think you're just punishing us. But there is kind of a it almost it reminds me of like, like Twitter and Facebook when they were like kicking people off the site to censor them. You're like, yes, you are hurting that person. But also like your business is in having people on your site. So you're cutting off your nose despite your face kind of deal here. But essentially, and it's more, it's more complicated than this. There's a lot that we could get into. But essentially, right, this is how the great Thomas Massey kind of would break it down, is you go, at least part of the deal, there's more to it than this, right, Rob, but at least part of the the exchange of the dollar standard, right, the dollar world reserve standard is essentially that like, one of the reasons why other countries want to hold dollars is because they know that so many people accept dollars, like they want to hold them so that they can buy things they want to buy. And they know if they're holding dollars, it's going to be accepted in a way you could compare it had this had Thomas Massey said, compared to like American Express or something like that, you know, you use it because you know, it's acceptable. And you know, it's accepted everywhere. And you can use it as money, but they're taking 3% off the top. Essentially, when we monetize our debt, but the world is on a dollar reserve currency, we're essentially not paying the price in the direct, like price inflation in the way we would, because we outsource some of that. So you could kind of look at it like they hold the dollars, but we take 3% off the top or whatever. Now, what Vladimir Putin was saying is he goes, dude, we used to trade like 75% in dollars. You guys were taking 3% off the top of all of our transactions. And now I think they're down to like 10% or something like that. So it's like, okay, there's a clear cost. And then of course, the bricks thing like blew up in those years. And so while you might be saying you're punishing people for kicking them off of the dollar reserve standard, and that there might actually be some cost to them in that, right? Like if you're not holding dollars, and they have to hold something else. Well, the reason so many people are bullied into this other than direct military threats is because like, it's difficult to get those other currencies going. And in the same way that you see gold back and Bitcoin, one of their big struggles is like getting places to accept that, you know? So they lose that. But we also, what essentially what we're risking here, Rob, is what is our currency collapsing? Like this is a big deal to risk threatening people at the point that you made is a very, very good one. Number one, there's an incentive that like, oh, as soon as you start, putting political pressure using the dollar system, you go, oh, so you've exposed that there's all this control that comes along with it. Although that might have already been exposed to some degree. But also, if enough people aren't taking our whole system, Rob only works, if the whole world is taking our dollars. Otherwise, all of the quantitative easing COVID money printing burr insanity simply doesn't work. I think even they even their modern monetary economists, I think would acknowledge this. But anyway, so essentially, Rob, I say all that to get to the point that we're rolling pulling the dice on our own currency here by making these threats for the benefit of what maybe hurting the Iranian economy more maybe getting Israel's war that they want it's just this is an insane irresponsibility and uh force of action yeah and it seems like a pretty dangerous timing when uh their manipulations to try and bring the interest rate down on our long-term debt isn't working it rebounded right away so there seems to be less demand for our debt and uh forcing people to move away from dollars can't possibly help that yeah that's a really good point a very good point no I mean it's not just that it's like and there's a few that you know and also as you know it's coming out more and more that we simply can't keep up this this campaign um so yeah it's a lot of factors but again to like there there is something about the um you know the posture of all of this to look I I don't know my guess essentially is that nothing is going to come of this I think this is just like another bluff that's not going to work I don't think people are going to be particularly bullied I don't think we're really in a position to bully you know I think it's a little bit um delusional at this point you know to think that um to think after losing a war like this in really humiliating fashion to not like I don't know what could you can you actually call Iran a near peer competitor because I really don't think you can I mean it's not just that like they're a country and 90 million people and we're a country of like 350 million people that were three times or four times bigger than them that we have an economy that dwarfs the size of theirs a military budget that dwarfs their entire GDP many times over like the idea that this is not even a near peer this is a distant far off not even close to a peer country they just totally ate our lunch and now we're going to turn around and say hey everybody else who just saw that you know it's like the bully after he gets beat up turning around and threatening everybody else I just don't see that working but it's quite a risk it's quite a risk to the stability of the monetary global order and why on earth would we take this when again it does seem to me Rob that one of the things that's really been revealed about this war um and and I I think I mean I I definitely got this right but maybe not for the right reasons like I think I would have said this for like humanitarian reasons at the beginning I probably would have said hey quite possibly the worst thing that could happen here is the regime collapses and then you end up in a civil war and then you know this because this is how it's happened in Iraq and um Libya and Syria and Afghanistan and all the rest um but at this point you kind of realize that like oh you guys can basically hold down the straight with like cheap twenty thousand dollar drones well if that's the case then an insurgency could hold down the straight and if that's the case then you essentially need a centralized government in order to have the straight open and so now it just seems like for this new problem created by the war I actually don't know Rob how can you like aren't you concerned about the risk of because my position here is not that the Iranian regime can never fall under any circumstance I see no indication that they're gonna fall over this war but like doesn't it seem Rob like that would be the worst case scenario right now just for the immediate issue that everyone cares about which is the straight being open yeah I I agree with you that I think that this is mostly a bluff I'll give him a reason after the second half of the clip because I don't want to get ahead of it but um my get listen China's just not playing ball and I think if everyone else plays ball that in a way almost gives them uh China more leverage or a tighter relationship with Iran because that leaves them as like they're the only person buying oil I guess uh but the UAE did stop processing payments uh to Iran during this war and my guess is some of the other partners might just be tied in enough that they don't want the heat like I think Iraq has a lot of money in our banks um and uh Turkey's still in NATO but um I mean I'll get to why I think it's a bluff but my guess is some of the smaller countries will play ball on this I think Turkey's going to be tougher to pressure into this especially knowing that they're next in the Israelis sites yeah um you know I don't know how much turkey's going to want to help but I again I don't know about that and then again with Iraq I I don't know Rob you know because you you are correct in saying that the Iraqis are somewhat dependent not somewhat very dependent um on America but also man he did ham that country over to some Shiite rulers who are very closely uh very closely allied with the Iranians and it's always been a bit of a uh a bit of a wild card of where they will go when push really comes to shove or something like that you know um and I mean look we know that the even the Kurdish factions there weren't weren't really willing to catch our backs when we wanted them to and stole some weapons or whatever from us according to Trump but anyway look you might be right they might be able to pressure some some countries into um into some action on this but I just don't think it's anything that's really going to move the needle that much it's going to be that devastating that the the overwhelming crippling sanctions and blockades haven't done so far I I tend to doubt that well this also comes I think three weeks ago they were talking about starting to do a full land blockade land blockade and they walked away with that from that within two days because they realized it wasn't actually feasible so you know it's hard to know with what they announce if they're even going to keep to it for 48 hours oh project freedom and you know all these things that they've they've announced and then just kind of walked away from and at every turn every time they announce it starting with the original blockade of the blockade every time they announce it all of the Trump sycophants are down set all of the Trump sycophants scream about how genius this is and how it's a one but it just never really seems to materialize all right here let's go back to the uh the best and clip Nations issue today target five of Iran's most vital lifelines that it exploits in other countries digital assets technology gold Aviation and shipping these measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough to continue conducting business with this regime and we'll just pause it for one quick second Natalie with this was it Rob can I just say just for a quick second we'll get right back to playing this doesn't it say everything that you need to know about the state of the United States of America that our treasury secretary focuses on the science of how to destroy other countries economies it's like can we can we get a treasury secretary who knows something about building an economy hours I'm sorry I apologize the libertarians out there I don't want to anyone from the government building anything but you know what I mean getting out of the way so we can build but this is just the focus destroying others that's the person in charge of our economy okay anyway let's keep playing we pursue them as I speak Treasury's office of foreign asset control is also sanctioning over 60 entities individuals and vessels around the world that enable the Iranian regime to procure illicit nuclear and Missile Technology conduct cyber operations and generate oil revenue this is a sustained campaign you just gotta pause for a sec every last option for and generate oil revenue is a really big kicker on the back side of that it starts off with you think that these are uh full-on enemy combatants but you know sneaking in uh nuclear weapons and that sort of works but you know sneaking in uh nuclear materials within into Iran and then it ends with people that are just trying to trade and make money yep yep sure does that sure is a different one there isn't it yeah Iran let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States an economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power well there you have it go ahead Rob I had the clips mixed up I thought there was one where uh someone asked him a question about yeah I announced D-Day and I think he gives away a lot more of the story on that one yeah here we can we can go to that that's the the latest one that I that I sent you uh Natalie here let's see uh you you in the front you described this as an economic attack D-Day but D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion and the U.S didn't give a timeline to Germany so why not impose the sanctions today well we are giving everyone the opportunity the to remedy bad behavior why would I want to blow up the global financial system we believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious we believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool secondary sanctions are a very powerful tool and we here at Treasury uh this is Gene and we here at Treasury uh this is Gene and we here at Treasury uh this is Gene Wang the acting undersecretary for Wang the acting undersecretary for Wang the acting undersecretary for terrorism finance and in the terrorism terrorism finance and in the terrorism terrorism finance and in the terrorism finance department and at OFAC the reason finance department and at OFAC the reason finance department and at OFAC the reason we are able to use secondary sanctions is we are able to use secondary sanctions is we are able to use secondary sanctions is because we do not take their use lightly because we do not take their use lightly So we believe that a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate and if people do not want to meet our expectations then we expect and they should expect that they should will leave the dollar system okay thank you all all right here rob go ahead all right well first and foremost when he says why would i want to blow up the entire dollar system. He's kind of showcasing. I don't think he meant to say that. I think that was a slip and he's letting you know, this is incredibly risky. And when he's also telling you, Hey, we want to give people an opportunity to remedy this. What it also sounds like is, Hey, we're bluffing. And I think the proof of the fact that they're kind of bluffing here is unlike every time Donald Trump announced, Hey, it's going to be bridge and power plant day. And he gave a specific deadline for it. I think Bassett is smart enough here to go, well, this is happening behind the scenes and we've given people timetables. So that way there's no ever public statement of the policy failing. So my guess is they understand that this is not a winning strategy and they do not want to actually have to pull the plug on telling all of these, you know, China, are you really throwing China out of the dollar system? I don't think you're going to be pulling the plug on all of China and their access to dollars over this current war. And he's letting you know that that could be catastrophic and they don't want to do this. And so they're letting, you know, it's a little bit of a bluff and a threat and we'll see who complies with us and we'll go from there. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is van man. Do you think Dr. Squatch is some small, wholesome company, Burt's bees native think again, they've all been bought out by mega corporations and private equity firms who hijack these beloved brands and fill them with the same corporate slop as everyone else. One company is doing things differently. The van man company, they started the tallow trend a few years back with their grass fed tallow moisturizers and they've been crushing it ever since with hit after hit of clean, nearly edible solutions to everyday products. And here's the thing about tallow. 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So I, yeah, I mean, I, I think I agree with all of that and I think you're right that the, you know, it's, that was an unbelievable like Freudian slip to say, oh, why didn't you do it? Why didn't you do it right away? He goes, well, I didn't want to blow up the entire global financial system. Like, wait, so you're saying what you're threatening to do if enacted today would destroy the global financial system. Wow. I mean, that's quite an admission, man. And, and, and look, dude, the reporter's right to ask because it's like, dude, you want to call it the, you know, which it always does feel like, um, Donald Trump just sends nerds out with names he made up and makes them say them. Like, it does seem like Donald Trump is like, say whatever you got to say, but call it D-Day. He's got to go with like this bad-ass title, but for such a bad-ass title, like as, as the reporter said, um, D-Day wasn't a threat. D-Day wasn't like a vague threat of maybe we're going to do something right. And, um, they don't even, you're calling this D-Day. You don't even have the courage to say a name. They didn't mention one country. Like, who are you saying is who's in violation? Who's in violation of this, who you're about to punish for this. And, you know, Rob, as, as you point out, man, there's a lot of cope amongst the people desperately trying to find some justification for this war and desperately trying to find some narrative other than the obvious narrative that this is a war created by the Israel lobby on behalf of, of the Israeli government. Um, so that it's, it becomes, oh, this is all about boxing in China or reigning in China. First of all, Donald Trump just went, uh, what was it? Last month, uh, to go, uh, visit G in China. And he wasn't going there to, to box him in. He was going there to ask for help. And you could listen to the way he was even talking about him the whole time. Rob, he's sitting there just kissing his ass. This is just total nonsense. Total, like, uh, um, just, just like a historical desperately grasping at some type of narrative where this is still America first or something that makes sense. But, you know, they, yeah, dude, the, the idea that we're in any type of position, we're in any type of position, Rob, to say that, um, that we're, we're not going to do business with China anymore. If China does any business with Iran. I mean, it's, it's a, it's a much emptier bluff than this entire war to begin with was, which was all an empty bluff. And there's been nothing but empty bluffs along the way, but this isn't like, I don't know, like, let's just say, let's just say like, uh, like Natalie, our producer here came to us and said, I'm furious at a Starbucks for a second. And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't something like I had a terrible experience at Starbucks. So I'm never going to get Starbucks coffee again. Like, okay, that's a threat that you have the power to kind of maybe enact. Okay, you can get your coffee somewhere else, not Starbucks. If Natalie came in, and she goes, I'm furious at big oil. So I'm never using fossil fuels again. You'd go, I'm not sure you can get through life without them. I don't know that that is a real threat that you can actually use. Like the idea that you want to talk about destroying the economy overnight. Okay, China will no longer buy your stuff. Real quickly, everyone at home, I want you to go look at all your stuff and see how much of it says made in China on it. This is a totally empty threat. So we're going to kick China off the dollar system, Rob. Okay. That's like, what, what are we going to do to them? Yeah, well, yeah. My only thing is like, you know, Syria kind of fell out of nowhere and I'm not in Iran. So I just don't know at what point there's a breaking point for the regime. And it could be, you know, maybe this is a pathway for ramping up the economic pressure in a way that does become unsustainable with all the inflation that they have. But just from everything I'm seeing, you know, if you're a regime and you just got to remain in power, you don't really care about the quality of life of your citizens. And, uh, you know, that Trump even just called out that apparently they're killing off more of their citizens, but, you know, he's made a lot of claims along those lines. So that would remain unclear. Um, but it seems like Iran is content to sit in this mess and punish Donald Trump. And, uh, they don't seem to be wanting to come back to the table to, uh, negotiate. And, uh, I, it just seems, it seems like none of this is going to work and that this is a bluff, but, you know, like I said, I'm not actually in Iran. I don't have, perfect dad on at what point their regime fails. No, look, I mean, that's a, that's a very fair point to make. I mean, look, it is certainly my understanding. And I think this is pretty undeniably true that the Syrian regime was always much, much weaker, um, than the Iranian regime was. And that there was there, there had always been a real risk of that regime being toppled basically throughout the civil war. Um, and that they were pretty close. ISIS was pretty close at one point to taking Damascus. Um, now, you're right. It's a fair point to say, Hey, it looked like he had weathered the storm and stay, you know, clung onto power and was going to remain. And then until very quickly, he wasn't. And, and it certainly should be said that it is not impossible that the Iranian regime falls. I mean, look, a lot of devastation is being brought to that country and regimes fall. It's happened many times in history. Uh, almost all of them do eventually, but I also would say, I just see no reason to, to expect any of this, to produce that, that out. And you don't have a worst outcome, you know? Yeah. And you don't have a civil war in Iran, like you do in Syria. So it's not even like people have taken up arms against the regime. Well, that's right. Yeah. I mean, Syria, that's right. At the point that we're talking about at the point I'm talking about where ISIS almost took Damascus, or at least was close was within, you know, within neighboring cities that they, that they had control of. And yeah, this is a period where civil war has been going on for years. And at least a couple hundred thousand people have already died. And yeah, it's right. A lot more instability where, or I'm sorry, I guess, you know, I don't know what is the number up to here, Natalie, can we just pull up the Trump truth social from this morning that Rob was referring to? Cause yeah, I think this was one of the ones where, or if not the one that you're referring to, it was one of the times that he said it, right. Oh, can we make that a little bigger? What do we got here? The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military while it's trying to kill protesters, even when they are not protesting. I'm not sure that should be the Rob. This might be a category error here. I'm not sure that counts as killing protesters. Well, I think it's tricky when you're making sure you, it does, it does get tricky when you're just things but like rob is a protester like a pirate is that something that you just are for life now wherever you go i thought you're only a protester while you're still at the protests you see like if i went to a protest like if i went to an iraq war protest in 2003 and then someone just came and murdered me in my house i don't think you'd say like oh you killed a protester right so there's clearly got to be a statute of limitations on this anyway whatever i just think that's a category error but i guess he's saying the people who were out protesting were then killed in their homes i'd love i'd love to see the evidence on that i'm sure the president wouldn't make a claim like this without evidence so we are we're telling that we have evidence that people who are out protesting were followed back to their homes and killed in their homes by the iranians got an article you want to share sorry i had a thought on that but then i realized it was really stupid all right here i'm sorry let me just read the article read the rest of this so they're killing protesters um yes they're uh um uh they're not playing large segments of their military while at the same time killing protesters even when they are not protesting at levels not seen before so that he had claimed 50 000 so is this more than 50 000 uh it is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportion and must must be stopped now president donald j trump is that not just something rob is that not just something we've just no no no no no no you see this is and always has been a liberal humanitarian intervention rob oh what did you get caught on all that total surrender and ala akbar i'm gonna wipe out your entire civilization and slaughter all your women and children oh no this was this was humanitarian it was a humanitarian mission always that's what it's been about on just unbelievable i've just never look man i mean only trump right i guess trump just wins bigger than everybody else and loses bigger than everybody else but has anyone ever lost a war this big rob just every turn of it when when this thing finally ends dude and the carousel stops and everyone's just puking from the dizziness and starts catching up we're gonna look back at this and be like dude he got he just lost this war 700 000 times this humanitarian crisis has gotten so out of hand and i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna lie to you i'm not gonna and i'm gonna punish you by killing more of your civilians i have no choice but to re-engage and blow up your power plants and remove your electricity because too many of you guys are dying me meanwhile like the guy he's according to them right he started by saying day one of the war or i should say the opening act of the war he tells the people like stay at home tonight while we hit him real hard and then the government and the government and the government and the government is yours and we have your back don't you worry we have your back according to him now now it's created this huge humanitarian crisis and he doesn't have their back and they're being slaughtered at records never seen before and according to them their plan now um is to through secondary sanctions cripple the entire economy to the point that the regime collapses that's your humanitarian intervention just truly truly unbelievable stuff all right guys let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is prolon by el nutra i've been telling you about them for a while guys this is what you got to check out if you're looking to level up your health game prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet it works at the cellular level to reset and rejuvenate you from the inside out supporting sustained fat loss lean muscle metabolism slower aging and even glowing skin and don't get intimidated when you hear the word fasting you don't actually have to fast you just get all the benefits of it you do get to eat though prolon is a plant-based nutrition program featuring soups snacks and beverages that are specifically designed to nourish the body while keeping it in a fasting state triggering cellular rejuvenation and renewal it was developed over decades with usc's longevity institute and backed by top u.s medical centers prolon has been shown to support biological age reduction metabolic health improvements skin appearance fat loss with muscle protection energy and a healthier relationship with food so if you're ready for your own reset for a limited time prolon is offering our listeners 15 off site wide plus a 40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five-day program just visit prolonlife.com slash potp that's p-r-o-l-o-n-l-i-f-e.com slash claim your 15 discount and your bonus gift prolonlife.com slash p-o-t-p um yeah i don't know i i gotta say rob i do think um i still think if i have to make a prediction about this and maybe you know i don't know maybe i'll i'll live to regret saying this but i still do kind of think ultimately like it's um ultimately he's gonna walk away that basically this is gonna be another empty threat not much is gonna come of it it won't change the dynamics um and ultimately he's gonna walk away i i just hope i'm right about this it just seems to me like that widow but if that if that is the case man it's gonna be really obvious by the time it's over that fuck this whole thing man he just lied so much and got it so wrong and that's the best case scenario yeah i mean my read on this as well i listen you just don't know with trump he's such a watchdog he's such a watchdog he's such a watchdog he's such a wild card uh but my read on this is even with the terrorists they went with crazy terrorists and they walked them back down we've mostly seen them put up a crazy threat and walk it back down so i put it this way this would be defying uh the behavior patterns of trump in this administration if uh they're sticking to this in a week or in a month's time two months time i i it's so it's just you know it's unlikely that they're sticking to this but who knows doesn't it doesn't it feel just even as you just said that it's just like it's like doesn't that just define the trump it defines the trump second term at least to me just that it's just just like saying some wild over the top thing then it being totally not thought through and no plan it's just a disaster then you back down and then you're totally humiliated then it's like so much worse than even doing the thing or not i mean literally whether it's like the war or um deportations huh the pool he drove on the pool and he destroyed the lining and then he accused some uh some olympic guy of having sliced it and then his own department had to drop the case because they're like we can't possibly win this and then donald trump said well i don't know why she folded this is ridiculous we're going to figure out a new way to bring everything it was dude it was arresting james comey and then they just didn't like cross their t's and dot their eyes and got it was all off bullshit then it just all fell apart do you remember the tariffs they rolled it out and then the bond markets went crazy and then they immediately walked it back and then the supreme court struck it down and so you're just like like oh my god you were even if you believe in tariffs which is are stupid but even if you do it's like this was just the worst way to go about it the deportations where it's like hey we're gonna do this then it's unpopular then he backs down then you're firing people and moving them around just everything it's this big bravado tough talk and then at the end of it you're like man dude just like you had nothing you hadn't even thought this through a little bit it's just has characterized the entire administration there's a terrorist walking around with hand tattoos right now in maryland yeah right i mean dude it's uh what a fucking what a shit show all right here let's do the uh let's let's play a little bit of this this glenn beck clip i did want to play this because i just for number one i guess i mentioned earlier this is just what's been on my mind with with the dershowitz thing coming up is um like what are these guys even saying right now like what are people who are even trying to defend the war even saying and then um you know i particularly like giving the business to glenn beck a little bit which i don't think i've done i don't think we've uh trashed him uh since the 12 day war um but you know i have a bit of a beef with glenn beck i just really don't like that guy um and for a couple weeks i've been like oh my god i don't like glenn beck i don't like glenn beck reasons i mean i guess it's a little bit personal for me but well there's two things number one he's one of the guys one of the few well you know how there were a bunch of like conservative types who like idiotically supported george w bush's war in iraq and the war in afghanistan and the patriot act and the global war on terror more broadly and just all these awful policies that turned out to be complete disasters and then after that um you know they you know turned out to be completely insane um and so i think it's a it's a really important thing to talk about but i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to talk about and i think it's a really important thing to over and they went, Hey man, we were crazy back there. We were wrong. And we admit Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan and all those guys were right. And actually George Bush and Dick Cheney and all those guys were wrong. We totally regret that. Glenn Beck is one of the ones in shame on me for this, that I believe Tulsi Gabbard and Glenn Beck, they actually got me. And that, that kind of pisses me off um that whatever shame on me but you know when tulsi gabbard used to talk about how she was in a medical unit in iraq and she saw her brothers and sisters bleeding out and dying over a bullshit war and that's why she would stand up against any more bullshit wars like call me crazy but she had me going with that bullshit for a little bit um and i'll never forgive her for that and i'll never forgive glenn beck for having me going with it too and then the other thing rob as i've told you and this one's getting petty but fuck him is that when i went on his show so when he when he told me that and i totally believed him to his face uh because he does it like glenn beck's a good actor like his tear his eyes well up and stuff when he says it you feel like he actually really thinks about how he helped get all those innocent people killed but that's not true turns out um but so then when i went on a show during that period where he had me convinced on that i went to show a couple times and dude this is when there were rumors that i was going to run for president on the libertarian party and dude he loved me i went off on my whole goddamn thing about how the whole program should be repealing the entire progressive revolution of the the early 20th century and how every inch of the new deal and the post-war consensus is wrong and this whole thing and he goes he literally ended the interview by going i love you this is literally his words he goes i love you he goes and i really hope you do run for president it's the last thing the last thing this guy says to me then of course october 7th happens and he's crying on the wall or just totally humiliating himself about how he considers himself to be an israeli and then after the douglas murray debate he had one of the first interviews with douglas murray and he goes what what is this comedian guy even doing there when he's not an expert he shouldn't be debating about these things i go oh i thought i'm i thought you wanted me to run for president motherfucker i didn't realize i wasn't i didn't have the credentials to go on the joe rogan podcast the the guy who said he loved me and i should run for president oh until you fucking criticize israel once and then so i'm going to run for president so anyway anyway i got a beef with this guy but that's just petty and personal but more broadly rob fuck you dude you fucking supported all these disastrous wars then pretended like you had totally converted and really realized the error of your ways and as soon as a republican president launched another war you went right back to it and supported it again and look at you now defending this fucking disaster so anyway that's my rant against glenn beck now let's uh yeah let's get to the point okay let's get to the point here we won the war okay by every standard air defenses are completely shredded the supreme leader was killed in the opening hours um and hezbollah is a shadow of what it was two years ago the proxy network has been thinned by every single measure a general would put on a chart operation epic fury did what it was sent to do the economic damage is beyond understanding and this is around economic d-day the supposed to so that idiot he says listen he just posted this today the deity says epic fury was a success but i well look okay so he's i'm sorry i'm sorry no no i'm sorry that's my mysteries i'm sorry midnight hammer was the other one he's talking about this one my mistake um sorry that one's on me one point for glenn i'm starting in a deficit but i mean i don't know rob i'll get i'll clean up that deficit real quick look dude you can i mean this is a term that was i don't like using terms that i i didn't hear when i was a kid but this is literally gaslighting is a great term for this this this is you know you're full of shit you know that you're lying but you're like i'm just gonna pretend and i'm gonna say it with a lot of certainty that any no glenn i'm sorry you can't get away from the fact that the war aims were specifically laid out not by a general but by this other figure called the commander-in-chief he laid out what the war aims were he laid it out on day one opening act of the war this is a regime change war the iranian people will now be in control of the government he demanded total surrender from the iranian people he demanded that we recover that they hand over to us the nuclear dust and that they stop enriching uranium we're up to four right now he also demanded that they stop uh arming hezbollah now we're up to five number six what came in later was the demand that they opened the strait of her moose which they had always had opened the entire time did i miss any big ones there rob oh intercontinental or uh maybe not intercontinental but the ballistic missile uh program there seven seven major war aims that were laid out you've achieved zero zero of those zero now you can add other things in now that you're gonna say their air defense has been hurt and their navy's at the bottom of the sea and there but there were seven clearly articulated goals and you're oh for seven come out here and say we won because the ayatollah is dead and their military has been weakened this is um i don't know dave i've been following this story for a long time and we always wanted full control over a closed straits that's what i was hearing about for years we wanted to make sure that nothing got through that straight and we'd have full control over to make sure that nothing got through yes yes that's right and and right and also that all that mattered was that the most moderate ayatollah ever get taken out but we were always told that as long the irgc can run the country with the moas it just can't be this one ayatollah or something right that constitutes regime change that's just pathetic anyway let's back to back to glenn the president is doing the right thing however for all of the things that are true there is one thing that may or may not be true that is putting us in a position where we may lose everything the win has just purchased and it's not on a battlefield it's on an inventory sheet i want you to listen to this before february we had 2330 patriot interceptors the best public estimate now puts us somewhere between 759 and 827 missile interceptors okay that's a drop of at least 65 percent fad that long-range missile went from 452 to fewer than 278 reuters is reporting now the long-range range missiles are nearly spent and about half of our tomahawks are gone last week the street the strategic petroleum reserve fell below 300 million barrels for the first time since june of 1983 the president's answer on these things has been that we have massive amounts of munitions and the leakers are going to go to prison for a very very long time okay that's an it's an that's a flawed answer okay um because if it's a leak then is it true you're going to put somebody in prison um if it's if it's propaganda that's a different story and i don't know what is true okay um but tran didn't i'm sorry you have to understand why i found this so entertaining this uh glenn beck starts off by telling himself a story about how they've won the war then starts grappling with the facts on the ground and now you see him going even finding himself in positions because that's a flawed answer it's a flawed answer yes another word that you might be looking for here glenn beck is it's a lie it is a lie a leaker by definition can't be lying like a leak if you're accusing again let me try to just clean that up a little bit in case anyone wants to jump on this and pick this apart yes a leaker could theoretically lie about something but it's not as if this was a leak of 5 000 pages of classified material and then you went oh and the leaker's lying about something and then you went oh and the leaker's lying about something about this one specific claim this is the claim this is the whole claim if they're lying then they didn't leak it if they leaked it then the claim must be true so donald trump is lying when he says this what the fuck does glenn beck i mean like what do you even uh and then you might wonder well was uh is trump lying about the other stuff that perhaps when i first just said we actually won the war maybe we didn't and that may be variables such as they have no navy are not actually a win yeah you there wouldn't be that much of a leap in your logic to go hey this other thing he said was a lie were those other thing lies right and then it's like it goes like well look we've destroyed like none of the war aims have been achieved but we've destroyed their navy or their missiles now let me read off some stats we've destroyed all of our thad interceptor missiles it's actually okay like i don't know like what do you mean like dude it's been widely reported this but our bases have been decimated dude like i don't know like what do you mean like dude it's been widely reported this like we we've we've also had a lot destroyed so you want to sit there and even if you go okay we destroyed more of their stuff than they destroyed of us of ours something that hasn't exactly been clearly demonstrated but i do tend to think that's got to be true but okay that means we're worse off and they're a little bit more worse off where's the win in that all right guys let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is hexclad if you're anything like me you love grilling in the summer but the second you move beyond burgers things can get frustrating. 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So, if you're planning on spending time behind the grill this summer, don't make it harder than it needs to be. Stop losing food through the grates, stop fighting cleanup, and upgrade your backyard cooking setup with Hexclad's barbecue collection. And for a limited time only, our listeners will get 10% off your order with our exclusive link, hexclad.com slash problem. That's H-E-X-C-L-A-D.com slash problem. Hexclad.com slash problem for 10% off. All right. Let's get back into the show. Here, let's go back to Glenn. Toran has counted every interceptor we fire, they watch go up, and they have a better estimate of our magazine than most members of Congress do at this point. So, the denial doesn't fool the man across the table. It only fools the people who write the checks. And that is if it is true. We don't know if it's true, but our enemies think it is. Which brings us to a scenario. And I think it's likely, it's not a dramatic one. But how this could end. Iran, if the economic sanctions don't work. Iran doesn't counterattack. Iran doesn't surrender. Iran just waits. It slow walks the talks. It keeps the straight half strangled, lets our gas prices do the work, watches the American public, where the support for this war sits at 33%. And it's not just the United States. It's the United States. And it's falling among the president's own supporters. Okay. I talked to some, some political officials over the last couple of weeks. And I don't know, maybe it's just me. I just find this so funny. It's okay. Rob, listen, let me just break this down. I'm sorry. I don't know. It's just like, this is kind of what we do to like, this is what we do. We analyze these things. All right, here we go. Here's my analysis. First of all, we won. So let's just table, table that. Get that out of the way. We won. Trump did the right thing. Everyone who supported this was right. Won, over, right, smashed, total victory. Okay. Now here's where things stand. We're in a disaster. We're in a goddamn disaster. Oh my God. It's the most unpopular war in American history. And it's in free fall. He's the least popular he's ever been. And he's in free fall. We are running low on all these missiles. They believe that we're running low on these missiles. They have resolved. All they have to do is wait. And we inevitably like lose this. Like, I mean, how do people, the level of like, um, confirmation bias, cognitive dissidence going on in this clip is, is like, I don't know. It's legendary. This is a, I I've never seen anything quite this beautiful. Um, I don't know any thoughts Rob. Yeah. He hasn't quite said it yet. And I, I didn't watch this clip, uh, prior to the show, but, uh, the couple clips I've seen from, I haven't seen anything from him in four or five months, but this strikes me like what I've heard. from the past, which is basically it's our, it's our fault. And it's the American people's fault for not supporting this war because it would be winnable, but we keep channeling to the enemy that the American public doesn't actually support this, which is what's encouraging them to stay in it. Um, and there's, uh, I it's just, it's like a devious cope because then how do we ever not have a war that we don't want. And also you guys are winning about how winnable that this thing is. Yeah. And if we, it like, it almost requires us to just put faith in that, you know, government a is doing the right thing and they're going to be reasonable in the way that they approach it. And so everyone just needs to get in line and support it. Um, because that's the only way that you'll have the good results. And it completely, it like just completely kind of leans on censorship and removing your own thought. It's very like a cultish behavior. Um, but then also what is the, what, like how much harder would have Trump gone in this war? If there was more support for it and would we be in a better situation? And I'm going to go with no. And so what it will also, sure. No, I'm sorry. No, I, I totally agree with that. Um, I just, right. It's also, isn't there something almost circular about the logic? Like it, it almost, because look, I mean, excluding like some big, excluding like China and Russia or something like that, but just being the United States of America, having the most powerful military ever. And, and we blow up the world so many times over, like we, we could almost go to war and win a war against just about anyone. I suppose, if the political will was truly there to risk losing millions of lives, if we need to or whatever, but like we could go in, we could take Brazil or Morocco or, you know, whatever, like, and, and so if no one wanted to fight that war and then you launched that war, and then you're like, oh man, no, everybody's against the war and everyone hates it. You go, well, the only reason we're losing it is because all these people are against the war and hate it. It's like, well, okay, I guess. But that's, that's like me saying, if I just force my whole family to pick up their stuff and move right now and move to, like, I just go, that's it. I've made the executive decision. You were all immediately moving with no notice. You're in a new school, you're in a new town, you have new friends, you have all this and everyone's miserable. My wife and my kids just hate it the whole time. And then I go, well, like this would have totally worked if you guys just loved it. Like what type of response is that? Like, I, I don't, I don't know. It's like, yeah, but obviously they don't. And for a reason. And it was on you to make this work. You're the one who made the decision. You're the one who it's the onus is on you. Nobody want the last thing this country wanted was another war. There's goddamn consensus. If there's ever been consensus, there was more consensus on that than, than had been worked up over whether eight year old boys with dicks can be called girls. You know, there's more consensus on this. We don't want the last thing we want is another stupid war. And then he went ahead and launched it. And now is time to admit, at least in the second half of this thing, it's a disaster. Just like all the other ones you supported. And I'm sorry, man, for people like Glenn Beck, like this does just cancel out anything else you ever did, man. So your entire legacy will just be supporting wars that were disasters and not learning your lesson and then pretending to learn your lesson and still not learning your lesson. Um, yeah, let's, let's play the rest of this. Um, no matter where they were in the world, they all said the same thing. You're sending exactly the wrong message as people. Cause I, I would ask people what do the American people need to hear? Okay. If you had access to American people, what would you think they need to hear? And the answer was universal in all cases, you're sending the wrong message. You're sending the message to the world that you just aren't gonna fight. You're just not gonna fight. You won't do it. And while that's true and understand the reasons for it, et cetera, et cetera, that can't be the message you send. Iran doesn't have to win. It only has to be still, um, and be standing when either our magazines or our patients or our pump prices run out. Okay. That's all we have to do. That's all they have to do. That's their strategy pause. And so far, it is working. So, so it sounds like, uh, the war is being lost and it was a mistake. It sounds like that's what you're describing. And also if the rest of the world doesn't think that we're gonna fight them all the time, might that be a better world? What's your evidence that we need everyone afraid of us all the time? What do you actually think other countries are coming and invading the United States of America? And you think if that happened, the will to fight them wouldn't change. I mean, this is all just such stupidity. It's also such an inversion of reality. Like what my God, this is so us launching the U S since. Um, not forget since world war II, since nine 11, right. We invaded Afghanistan, invaded Iraq. We started a civil war in Syria. We, uh, had a, uh, NATO led no fly zone war in that toppled Gaddafi in Libya first, actually then started a civil war in Syria. Before that we had the massive drone bombing campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen. Um, then we turned around and backed the Saudi invasion of, of Yemen last from about 2015 to 2022. Uh, of course, obviously as everyone knows, we backed Israel's destruction of Gaza. Uh, we've now launched two more wars in Iran. This is literally, I didn't even add Ukraine. I'm just doing like middle East, North Africa right now, but like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia, I miss Somalia in there. That one was there too. 20 year bombing campaign, uh, uh, Yemen, uh, Gaza, all these things. And then they go, oh, the message here is that we just don't wanna fight. I don't know. It seems to me, the message is that we wanna fight wars constantly. We want permanent militarism and permanent forever wars. And then when you permanent militarism and permanent forever wars and then you get the reaction to that your takeaway is this is what happens when we send the message that we don't want to fight why because the americans are just totally fucking over this by the seventh disaster that you idiots push us into again yes rob it's dumb and it's an inversion of reality um but anyway i guess look whatever we got to wrap up there but i guess like kind of one of the reasons why i thought this was so glenn beck this is what they're at first of all we've won now table that no further questions on that topic okay here's what a disaster it is and clearly setting his audience up for look like here like he essentially if you notice the sly trick of hand there rob he did was he went we've won put a pin in that table that now but there is one thing that could threaten all the spoils of that victory that we got over there so we're gonna frame it as we won trump was right i was right please don't come for me with pitchforks in the street for lying you into yet another war now that we've gotten that all over there there is this unfortunate reality that threatens to rob us of all of those war victory spoils and i guess it's me and you and it's the fault of the people that didn't support this yep yeah fucking pathetic but you know it's not pathetic all you good people who listen to our show and you know it's even cooler than that the ones who come out and see us live so make sure to subscribe to our channel and hit the bell so you don't miss any of our new episodes and we'll see you in the next one bye make sure you do that comicdavesmith.com porch tour.com and make sure to go watch uh uh rob's other uh great podcast run your mouth all right catch you guys next time peace

Podcast Summary

Key Points:

  1. Dave Smith announces a rescheduled one-on-one debate with Alan Dershowitz on Zero Hedge about the Iran war, set for next Wednesday at 7 PM.
  2. The hosts critique Treasury Secretary Bessent’s "economic D-Day" announcement, calling it a bluff that threatens the global dollar system without naming specific countries.
  3. They argue the war has failed its seven stated aims, including regime change and nuclear disarmament, with Iran emerging stronger despite U.S. military losses.
  4. The discussion highlights Glenn Beck’s contradictory defense of the war, admitting it’s a disaster while claiming victory, and blaming lack of public support for potential failure.
  5. Rob and Dave emphasize that threatening to remove countries from the dollar system could push allies like China and Turkey away, destabilizing U.S. economic leverage.
  6. They mock the administration’s pattern of bold threats followed by retreats, citing tariffs, deportations, and the war itself as examples of failed bravado.

Summary:

S. administration’s latest strategy. Dave reveals his upcoming debate with Alan Dershowitz, rescheduled to next Wednesday on Zero Hedge, focusing on the war’s justification.

They analyze Treasury Secretary Bessent’s "economic D-Day" plan, which threatens secondary sanctions and removal from the dollar system for nations trading with Iran. S. has failed to achieve any of its seven stated war aims, including regime change and nuclear disarmament.

They note that threatening global partners like China could backfire, pushing them away from the dollar and destabilizing the financial system. The conversation shifts to Glenn Beck’s recent commentary, where he claims victory while admitting the war is a disaster, blaming the American public’s lack of support—a contradiction they dismantle. They highlight the administration’s pattern of bold threats followed by retreats, citing tariffs and deportations as examples.

S. humiliated and the war unresolved, with Iran waiting out American patience and resources.

FAQs

Dave Smith is debating Alan Dershowitz on the topic of the current war in Iran. The debate is scheduled for next Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Zero Hedge.

The debate was moved due to an issue with either the moderator or Alan Dershowitz's side, not from Dave Smith's end.

Critics argue that the sanctions are a bluff, risk destabilizing the global financial system, and could push countries away from the US dollar, harming America's own economy.

He believes the US lost the war in a humiliating fashion and that the economic sanctions are a desperate, last-ditch effort that is unlikely to succeed.

The comments reveal a potential slip, admitting that enacting the sanctions could blow up the entire global financial system, highlighting the risk of threatening to remove countries from the dollar system.

The seven aims included regime change, total surrender, handing over nuclear materials, stopping uranium enrichment, ending support for Hezbollah, opening the Strait of Hormuz, and halting ballistic missile programs. None were achieved.

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