Trump The Madman

What's up, everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem. I am Dave Smith. He is a slightly annoyed, Robbie the fireburned Stan, not at his best today. Technical issues out of Zens. But he's a fucking, he's a soldier, man. He treats it. He got some, you got some Zens there. There you know, I don't know what you're talking about. That was all before the cameras turned on and on my bright, usual bubbly, professional self. Wasn't I, I swear by these pouches. I really do. I think they're great. They got me off, Alp got me off of vaping, which I'm almost certain is much better for me. And certainly, I mean, I don't love nothing's cool other than smoking cigarettes, but vaping really sucks. But I'm glad to not be doing that anymore. And I'm all for them. The thing is that we are now, and I think nicotine is a good thing, but we are now so juiced up on nicotine. Look, me and Rob are more productive than ever. My new hour is crushing fucking podcast on fire. That being said, if I don't have my pouches with me, we are going to pause the podcast until I go get them. And then we will solve that problem first. And then we will come down to solving the problem of the many global crises that are going on throughout the world. You know, I observed the young Kipper holiday the other day. And I marveled by just how full force my ADD can be without Zens. I was just doing the most spacey things and laughing because I guess I haven't experienced the full wrath of unstimulated ADD in a long time. Yeah. Yeah. No, you need it, dude. That's what gives you the focus. And that's the way your mind will be all over the place. Obviously, nicotine's the answer. You get them on. I got my four year old on this stuff. It's all you can do. It's all you can do in this world. West Coast porches this weekend. I got a San Francisco Friday night, which I've never done Sacramento on Saturday, which I've never done in Reno, which is always a good show on Sunday. And then I'm doing Salt Lake City. Portion my friends paint shop on Thursday, which sounds like a cool drug thing. He literally owns a paint shop. That is pretty cool. Yeah. And then you and I, we're doing the comedy club out there, which has always been a good one Friday and Saturday wise guys. The wise guys out in Salt Lake City. I love it out there, dude. It's so beautiful. Salt Lake City's a great area. Love Salt Lake City. And then we're doing one night in Vegas as well. So Vegas people come on out. Yeah, Salt Lake City people porch tour.com for all the Rob's gigs there. And then comic Dave Smith dot com for all for all our gigs. At I'm sorry. I literally just said the name of it. What's the comedy club at wise guys in Salt Lake City and Vegas in Vegas. Yes, that right. Both are wise guys. Great clubs. All those clubs are great. I was sick last time we were out in in Vegas. And I still remember really loving it. It was a great time. Okay. So let's get into some stuff. So look, man, for here on the next few weeks, I guess the big story is going to be these midterm elections that are coming up. And I don't know. It's a little bit strange. You know, I talked about this quite a bit on yesterday's episode. But I want to be, you know, accurate, but also honest. It's like it's kind of inevitable. We're kind of watching getting up going the last few weeks going into these midterm elections. It is like a slow motion car crash like, okay, let's watch the Democrats come back into power and every leftist in America feel good and them have all the energy and kind of in some ways it's like a ceremony solidifying the collapse of the Trump coalition, which is already very apparent. I saw one poll had 25% approval rating this morning. Just one poll, but still 25 is pretty alarming. Anyway, but as this happens, I must admit, Rob, even though like I'm so against this. And in fact, half the reason that I think guys like me and you are so furious at the Trump administration is because of these Democrats coming back in power. And man, do we spend so many years fighting them? And now you've blown it and given it right back to them. But at the same time, it's kind of satisfying to just watch out pathetic. The messaging is like, as you're, as the Republicans have geared, I mean, look, Rob, we're on break from Congress. We're not even going to try. We have Congress for a few more weeks before the Democrats come back. And they're such a big scary threat that we're not even going to try to do nothing recess. That was the topic of last yesterday show. And now, I guess what we're going to do in these last few weeks is go full blown into our message. Here is our message for why you should reelect us. And Rob, I don't know, judging from the early signs, I don't think any of this is going to work. Yeah. Well, you know, they can't keep Congress open. Last thing you'd want to do is get rid of Pete Hegg set their bust up the Epstein pedophile ring. So that's not Republicans are all about better off to take a break and let people campaign. And yeah, they don't seem to have any cohesive pitch other than the Iran war will magically be over if you keep Republicans in because they were just waiting out the clock, hoping for Democrats. So don't worry about the Iran war thing. That will fade right away. And also I know that we haven't done any of the things that got you excited about as being an office, but just give us a second chance, give us two more years. We need everyone to rally as if this was the early that, you know, the election two years ago. And you didn't just witness the past two years. And good luck with that pitch. Yep. Yep. It's going to be tough. All right, guys, let's take a moment and think our sponsor for today's show brand new sponsor who were thrilled to have on board. And that is underdog. 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We should probably start with with Trump, but also probably what I don't think is helping Republicans any not to say that this probably isn't like the biggest deal with as it relates to the midterms, but I don't know how you, if you saw this rub, but so Donald Trump went and spoke to the UN General Assembly in Manhattan there today. And I don't know. I mean, he was at his most like just unhinged. And I guess it's, it's, it's this Donald Trump game where it's like, Oh, I'm going to, you know, I'll kind of say the craziest thing. And I don't know. There's something about that. You know, he desensitizes you with volume of saying that crazy shit ever, but it does really feel to me. And I know I've been saying this for a year now, although I really do think I was kind of onto something and predicted it early. I think this is born out in the last year, but it just seems like the musical chairs, like the music is running out on this whole Trump thing. It's like this really does symbolize the end of his presidency in a lot of ways. I know everyone calls it a lame duck, which is this is not that's not actually what a lame duck presidency means. Like a lame duck presidency, it used to refer to like after the presidential election when a new president has been elected. You're a lame duck from November to January. So it didn't mean like the last two years of your term, but at the same time, knowing how much the Democrats just like attempted to impeach and prosecute and bug him that you know that's what's coming again. So it does feel like, Oh, in a way, like he'll only have control of foreign policy. And that's where we hate everything that he does. So this is kind of the end in some way. it just seems like I don't know like what really is the game here. Donald Trump. So you're just going and convincing everyone in the world that you're a madman who can't be reasoned with. Not sure how any of this helps. Yeah, he's keeping to the wild card persona. Have a don't mess with me because horrible things might happen despite bad execution. And I actually, yep, I think the reason he came off more unhinged was he finally got his hands on a working microphone. So he had a lot of pent up insanity to say since he've kicked CNN and the others out and he can't actually get his message out, which I think that's the best Trump. I like, I like a no microphone Trump. I think that we should stick with that. I tell you, you got no argument here. Here, let's go to his clip. The one where he says, got a tough decision to make. This was the biggest moment that's being discussed from his speech. Here's President Trump addressing the ongoing war with Iran. But I have a big decision to make. Will it deal be made with Iran? That lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before. Maybe one of the greatest in the Middle East or even the world. Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly, never giving them a chance to kill and destroy people and countries again? Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations? But I believe we'll make a deal right after the election because it doesn't make sense for them not to. They're waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don't realize is that I'm not running. I did that already. And one in a landslide, we wanted a giant landslide. And I'll be here for two and a half years. The Republican Party is running and I'll be helping them. But I am not running. I gave absolutely no credence and will not give credence to the election when it comes to Iran. It doesn't even enter my mind. The only thing that does is that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The cowards and traitors, thank you. You know, it's like, oh man, there's so much here. But it's like it's such an admission. You know, look, look, there's a lot to tear apart here. Let's go through all of it. But it's such an admission to go like, oh, they think they can wait at the election. But jokes on them because I'm not running and I don't care. So in other words, he doesn't care that we're handing power back over the Democrats over, as he said, Iran not having a nuclear weapon. Problems with that aside, that we didn't even need to fight a war over them not having a nuclear weapon. But like, again, just keep this in mind when people are lecturing people like us about how we're on the side of the leftists or something like that. Like, this is the president saying he doesn't care if we give power back over to the radical Democratic establishment. It doesn't matter. As far as this other stuff goes, Rob, and you can jump in with whatever you want here. But it's like, it's embarrassing, dude, that he's still playing this game of going, we already know it's all, it's so weak already, dude, because he's already going. We know he's not saying total surrender, regime change, no more, you know, nuclear dust or anything like that. He's just going, hey, I have a choice to make. Do I give these guys a ton of money and really help them? Or do I completely destroy them? Like, again, just the same old, that's his message to the international community, bribe them or destroy them. The thing about it is is that they've already, dude, they've a step, you have this tough choice. Dude, you've had this tough choice since what? March. Where are you on this choice? Why aren't you choosing either of them? Oh, yeah. Well, you won't give them the money because that's humiliating. And they won't accept anything less. And you won't utterly destroy them because you're afraid of what they might do in retaliation. And also, that would just look really bad. And does nothing to help you. So I don't know, just very impudent, the whole thing. Well, off the bat, I want to say his face looks like it belongs on an Indian totem pole. He's really starting not to age that gracefully. He's not looking great. Still, still does have a youthful spirit. And it sounds to me, when he's threatening them now, this does not sound like he's looking to take out the regime. It sounds to me like he's talking about just mass slaughter of Iran and blowing them all up. Whether it means nuclear conventional weapons, but it sounds like that's the threat he's kind of throwing out there. He's really flirting with nuclear, you know, flirting with it. Yeah. And then I also guess that he does have a three-month period between the elections and when all of the new people come into office that he can still continue to operate. And I guess make that threat, but the idea that, you know, Democrats overtaking the Senate and the House will not change his ability to fight the Iran war is false. I mean, they can, you know, pull back funding, more powers resolution, which is more symbolic than anything else. They'll see it. Well, theoretically, it doesn't be a reticle. You have to be, you know, I mean, but yeah. So it's like a half-truth that, you know, his ability to wage the war is not affected by the midterms. I guess there's a stretch of time that he could go nuke him before people come in. Right. But then it does bring back to your last point, which is this threat's been there the whole time. It's just a threat that he's been making. It's one that the American people certainly don't support. And you still might end up with the same close problem of a close straight of whoever's left in there with RPGs or drones are still just closing the shipping lane. And now that's an indefinite problem because there's no one to negotiate with. Yep. That's right. And look, man, like he may say the Democrats being in the House are no, you know, threat to stop me from waging this war. And I get your point, Rob, but like, maybe if I was playing Deadpool's advocate, I could say, well, the presidency is pretty goddamn imperial. And when is the House really ever rated in the president's war making power? So who really thinks the Democratic establishment, they kind of want this war, even though they wanted minutes, so they'll probably pretend to oppose him, but not really put a stop to it. So like, even if you give Trump that point, you're like, okay, well, it may not threaten your ability to conduct this war, but it does threaten the country that I'm raising my two like beautiful children. And what about that? I know that's not like a thought in your mind. What a wild, you know, demand that we would expect our leaders to give for the country to be anywhere on the list of priorities. Also, I mean, look, dude, this is like, like, I don't think you can overplay it, but this is like madman shit. Like this really is, he's threatening the total destruction of another UN member state while that UN member states representatives are there not saying, not asking for a UN Security Council resolution, but just saying, I have a decision to make. I might do this, you know, like, it's lawless and and horrifically immoral. And yeah, I'd like kind of as you were saying, to sit here even kind of weighing weighing this decision. And again, this is to the UN. It's a global body that, you know, is predisposed to kind of beat this is the US empires outlet here, even though it doesn't really have any teeth to it. It's kind of designed that way to give the impression of global governance while DC runs the show. But even here, I mean that almost everybody else I think recognizes that as much of a problem as Iran is, it's like, dude, they're a reality that we have to deal with. And this guy just sitting here, there's nobody who is concerned about Iran who's like relieved at this point from this speech. All he's letting everybody know is that he has nothing. He has nothing else. Yeah. And then even on the bribery point of, well, we can make them rich. What he's describing is Iran coming to the table admitting defeat and playing ball with Donald Trump's terms and potentially then being opened up and getting money and return. Iran has made it very clear. Hey, you guys have done as dirty too many times you can't be trusted. You guys are going to have to make a show of faith that you're actually willing to be honest and willing to contend with the fact that we're not going anywhere in that we, I guess, you know, maybe this is in the right terminology, but almost the Israeli, we have a right to exist and that our governance has a right to exist, which basically includes giving them money upfront and admitting that they lost. And that's not what Donald Trump is describing here with the two options. So he's really only putting one option on the table, which is, hey, I can outright destroy them, which I don't think the Americans want to see, particularly if he ends up using nuclear weapons to do so, nor do I think that that's a real threat as how many times is he threatened total destruction and not done it? Right, right. Yeah, I mean, it's just at this point, dude. And also it's like, I don't know. Look, the thing about even talking about total destruction, right? Like, I don't know what to say. It's like the analogy to this rub, but you know, like, like when someone will have in a fighting situation or someone will have like the bravado where they there's a big threat. You know, it'll be, you know, it'll be like, it'll be like, you know, say, say that one more time. I'll break your fucking jaw. Like, no, no, say that one more time. But then like if the guy says that one more time, then you go one more time and I'll break your fucking jaw. And then he says it one more time. And then he said, like, there is a certain point where it's kind of like, hey, dude, if you're going to break his jaw, break his jaw, but there is no use in talking about it anymore. You know, like you have declared a red line and he has stepped over it time and time again, there is no like like the fact that he's barking this at the UN right now. If there was any use in these type of threats, right? Like, Rob, you're either, there's not, there's only so many options here. You're either going to do it. Okay. Or you're going to use the threat of it to try to get them to capitulate. Clearly the latter is not happening. So are you going to do it? Don't get me wrong. I hope the answer to that is no. I've been assuming ever since for you guys who have been listening to the show. If you remember, I was very concerned about it after the first threat. I've just basically assumed he's just bluffing ever since them. Gosh, I still hope that's the case. But at a certain point, it's like, okay, well, what does that do? So then there's some big humanitarian catastrophe in a round. And let's say it collapses the government. So now it's it's like they're in a state of like lawless anarchy or something like that. And there's still drones being shot at cargo ships in the strait. You know, like, it doesn't like. So your threat, the threat itself is empty. And what really is to be gained if we back this up? Who here is for this? Who in America is going like, yeah, just nuke them already. Just destroy the whole civilization already. Why? To what gain for us? Kill a whole lot of innocent people. Wonderful. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is ultra. I'm sure you guys have heard me tell you about ultra before. They are awesome. They are they're the ones who made the guilt free nicotine free caffeine free pouch. So it's the guilt free pouch that's just got good stuff and it's healthy for you. So you don't got to worry about caffeine or nicotine addictions or anything like that. Well, now they've made the ultimate sleep pouch. If anyone out there has trouble sleeping now, there is a pouch for you. It's a genius idea. Everyone uses pouches for increased focus and energy, but ultra took that idea and flipped it. If you wish you could follow sleep faster sleep deeper and wake up without grogging us, well, now there is a perfect solution for you, the ultra sleep pouch. And what's in it is just good stuff that helps you sleep. There's one milligram of melatonin, L-theanine, magnesium, chamomile passion flower, and lemon bomb extracts. All good stuff that'll just help you get a good night's sleep and wake up without feeling groggy. A complete system perfectly designed to help you follow sleep faster sleep better and wake up feeling amazing. Well, that's what you got. And now you can get it in a pouch. The ultra sleep pouches they will change your quality of life. Ultra sleep pouches deliver better, deeper sleep with properly dosed and natural ingredients. New customers can use the promo code problem to get 15% off at take ultra dot com. That's take ultra dot com for 15% off when you use the promo code problem. All right. Let's get back in the show. It's almost amazing to watch him basically go, hey, Iran has become my number one issue. And so I don't care. I only issue things I promised and I don't even care if Democrats end up back in office. This is now number one on my list. And I mean, listen, we've criticized so much of what he walked back from the campaigning and the fact that he got a sense of this war that we didn't want. But this is this is pushing even farther to this is now the number one thing. This is what I'm standing by and nothing else matters. And how far do we push this? Like what if this war is still I mean, look, dude, I at this point, right? I mean, I know this sounds crazy still to say, what if this war is going on through the presidential elections? But every single keep in mind, every single supporter of this war, every single one of them swore up and down that obviously this thing would be weeks, not months. And you were an idiot. If you thought, I mean, to do this was the lecture of people like me got endlessly after the 12 day war. What an idiot you think you are. You know, what an idiot you are to think that Donald Trump would have gotten into a protracted military conflict when everybody knows he's well aware of the downsides of that. He's always just going to hit him and back off. And you're going to freak out every time he just hits him. Okay, well, it's six months later. I remember saying this to people. I remember saying, I said to what's the name to Jack Pacebiak on Pierce Morgan at the very beginning of the war. I said, Jack, but you remember Dick Cheney's quote because he was saying the war will be short. And I go, but you remember Dick Cheney's quote that the Iraq war will be over in weeks, not months. So here you are. You're telling me weeks, not months. And I forget exactly what he said. But it was like, yeah, but this time it's really weeks, not months. Okay, six months later. Don't think it's that crazy that I could go another two years. You know, I'm hoping it won't, but anyway, would you, if it did continue to go longer? Like, let's say these hawks were wrong again as they'd been wrong about everything else. Would, would we say this about the, say, say it was, well, the next president's going to be a Democrat because this war would that apply to now the Democrats have the Congress and the president say, like, I'm just, I'm just wondering is Donald Trump actually looking as supporters in the eyes and just going like, yeah, dude, you're going to have to deal with your kid getting trans because I got this war that I care about. You might have to deal with them open in the border again. You might have to deal with the DEI sweeping the land. You might have to deal whatever it is. Central bank digital currency because you know, I got this war. I got to make sure Iran isn't enriching at 60%. That's too high. And I'm going to guess that if this war is still going on, come the next presidential cycle, if JD Vance, Marco Rubio or anyone else attached to this administration actually wins the Republican primary and is the one representing the Republicans and running for president. My guess is they lose to anybody because then they leave the pitch on the table for the anybody else to go. Donald Trump in this administration should have never been in office. We can end the war because the Iranians will trust us that we're actually looking for a peace agreement and they do not trust the Trump administration. So you're going to have more years of war with any of these guys. You'll be, I mean, that's the Republican party. Unless it's someone, you know, completely outside of the administration will be completely ruined over over this thing if it goes that long. And then you look, I mean, I don't know at this point, but like dude, I mean, you can't believe that they did this. You can't believe they launched this thing. You can't believe they kept it going for six months. And man, it's like I've seen it in DC. They can keep these destructive things going a long time. It is hard to stress how removed they are from the real incentives of the whole thing. It's not their kids dying, you know, they're going out to cocktail parties, probably just nicer ones since the war has been going on, you know. Hey, let's go to the, let's, let's play the clip that Donald Trump had about Venezuela. Because this comment was another one that's getting a lot of heads turning. Really something he said here. Let's, let's play it. There's our absolutely incredible. When you add the United States and Venezuela together, we have more than 60% of the oil in the world. So it's perhaps the biggest deal. It was a war, but it's perhaps the biggest deal ever made to the victor along the spoils. You've all heard that our actions and the numbers are, I mean, dude, look, we can get into how full of shit this claim is in just a second. But Rob, to sit at the UN General Assembly and to have the president of the United States of America, just say to the victor go the spoils and that's it. Count Venezuela's oil in with ours because we launched a war of aggression against them. And like, dude, I mean, I know they could try to like come up with some argument in hindsight where they're like, well, we had oil contracts before the socialist government came in. We're honoring the original contracts or something. Like, as frankly, you know, it's like, yeah, contracts between what like a government and a company. Anyway, but that's not why he claimed he launched the war. He claimed it was over drug boats or immigration or something like that. Rob, right? And then we just launched a war of aggression. And then we're just allowed to take all your oil. You know, like, just dude, the fact that he's saying this at the United Nations, it just proves what a sham the entire global governance thing is. What a sham the UN is too. It's like, oh, that's your thing here, dude. No, no pretense anymore. That's what we stand for. The whole world governance structure erected after World War II. So that Adolf Hitler could never do Nazi stuff again. No, we got the Americans, the most powerful ones who everyone knows run the show have a veto proof, you know, majority or what would not be what every they call it. Vito, you know, on the UN Security Council. Yeah, we take that shit to the victor goes the spoils quite a claim, man. I've spoken about this quite a bit on running mouth over the last year that one of my biggest complaints with Donald Trump is that he's proving the Democrats right. And some of the biggest complaints about Donald Trump are slowly actually becoming true. Yeah. And one of my criticisms in the first term of Donald Trump was that the complaints of a lot of people were that they were looking for what I called a more dignified rapist where everyone was as evil and horrible as Donald Trump, but Donald Trump wasn't as dignified about it and that was their core complaint. When I watch this, I go, oh, I think I'm wrong because typically America does aggression across the globe, but diplomatically, when you're up at the UN, you pretend that that's not what you're doing, put some spin on it, why it's for defense, and I guess that's actually better than us breaking down the entire role to order to might makes right. And at the moment, we're the mightiest, and so to the victor goes the spoil, the spoils. Sure, we went in there, we overthrew their government, and now we're stealing all the oil, but that's the way the world is supposed to work. And let me tell you, it's horrifying that we're sending that precedent, and at some point, we're not going to be the mightiest and being the ones that are just pushing this world view of go take remember how much we heard about Putin and the sanctimonious nature of borders and the fact that he defiled them in Ukraine. And now you got Trump just in front of the UN. Hey, might makes right a victor goes the spoils. We're taking their shit. I just don't like I and I've said this before, man, because I've heard, you know, the pro-Israelis, I've been in enough debates with them that this comes out eventually. You know, like if you kind of like it's a weird thing when you poke around when people are full of shit and they're supporting like really horrible things that they can't justify and just different justifications pop out of them because they're trying to rationalize away, you know, the thing. But this comes out they go, you know, because it's the same thing as they go, we won the land in a war. We want it, dude. We won the war. So we get it, you know, and I try to explain this and maybe I've never like articulated it exactly the right way. But it's like, look, man, I always just do feel if you're going to say that. And I think to some degree, there's there's a similar thing to the point you're making. It's a little bit different. But when you said, hey, we may not be on top forever. So Jesus, you want to have that attitude when you're on top, be careful when you're on the bottom. But there's something about that, like even if it's not when you're on the bottom, like the moral high ground that you give away in that, like when you just say that, oh, whatever, to the Victor, go to the spoil, we what we conquered it, the law of conquest, we want therefore we take your shit. It's like, okay, if you're going to say that, then like, and I've said this to Zionist before I go, then don't you give me one tear about October 7th, like you shut up about that. Because hey, that like, and I don't know of that, like clicks exactly with people, but it's like, no, no, dude, you've justified that guy responding that way. Because if your answer to them is like, yeah, fuck you, where are the winners? You're the losers. It's like, okay, well, I got a gun and I can make you the loser right now. You've already endorsed this like force is what's justified thing. Like I don't know. You have like no moral leg to stand on against any horrific attack against you. If you're going to go down that path. So I don't know. It's just like, it's an ugly direction to go down. I guess he's also arguing trying to should go take Taiwan. Hey, they're mightier. It's right there. If you can take it, the Victor goes to the spoils. Yeah. No, that's right. Now, I guess it should, we also should spend a moment here. Because of course, by the way, of course, these things always go together. You know, it's like someone's saying me, I can't remember. This was off podcast, but someone was arguing with me the other day. Like, at a show, I met someone or they were saying, they weren't even arguing. They were making the point where they were going like, look, man, you know, the real depressing thing about America is that let's say the war resulted in oil going up. Or I mean, oil being cheaper. Or let's say the war had worked out really well. People would probably just support it, you know, and people don't really stand on principle. They would just support it if it was working. It's like, they're only against it because it's not working. And anyway, I don't know. Just we got into this conversation about it. But I was just like, I was like, well, you know, luckily for me, I've never had to run that experiment because it's always sold off lies and it doesn't work. So, you know, it just makes my job that much simpler. And like, I don't know what to say. It's like, yeah, I guess with some of these things, like, like, in other words, like, I would still have a problem with it, even if Trump was saying, yeah, but we got the biggest deal ever. And now we have the biggest oil reserves of all time. It is worth pointing out that that's also complete bullshit. And it's just not true at all. And I'm not, honestly, Rob, you might be better equipped to do this than me. I'm definitely not the most equipped guy to like debunk this. There's like fucking people who are more red on the topic or work in the industry and actually have some expertise. But like, essentially, and you can go look this up. I'm right about what I'm saying here. Venezuela has always put out these wild numbers about what they're like oil reserves are. And they claim to have like the biggest oil reserves in the fucking history of the world. And like, I don't know, like, maybe that's true, or maybe it's not true. I don't really know. But then there's that. And then there's the amount of oil they're actually able to produce. And the amount of oil they're able to actually produce is a tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of this huge number that they claim. Now, just taking over the amount of oil that they actually produce doesn't isn't really a game changer at all. And in fact, in order for us to like really ramp up that production, it's going to take hundreds of millions of dollars of investment. But just like theoretically possible, this is the really thick, crude oil that has to be refined in a specific way. And like they essentially, I've read that with hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, it is possible that in the next seven to 10 to 15 years, there could be an increase in production and American oil companies could be in on that deal. However, there's a lot of ifs there. You know, there's like, okay, you have to get all of this investment. Venezuela is not exactly the safest place who's going to guarantee this investment to get it there. Like, there's a reason why investment wasn't flowing in before. There's a reason why these companies weren't like very excited about the Warren Venezuela. There, you know, would you want to put hundreds of millions of your dollars in Venezuela right now? You might want to guarantee on that now. Who's going to end up guaranteeing that? Is that the taxpayers? Will this actually work out? There's a lot of questions there. But for Donald Trump to just spin this as, let's take that big gigantic number in reserve that Venezuela talked about. And let's say that's America's now is just none of this is true. It's just not real. And so it's the jury is totally out on whether there's really any benefit that's been seen from this. And it's quite possible that what's going to end up happening is that there'll be a big investment that gets lost. And this doesn't produce anything at all. Not clear. Anyway, anything any thoughts on that? Go ahead, Rob. Yeah. I mean, I dove into this when I guess when the deal was first announced, I think you're looking at five years to loyal arrives. And the biggest problem is that oil has to be off the top of head. It's like over $90 a barrel or maybe a 70. There's a higher price point that this investment is even break even. And so you're assuming an elevated oil cost before it's even break even. And then you got the moral problem, which is essentially just some random billionaire down there has been given the contract with essentially us and the Venezuelan government's backing. So it appears to be, you know, a total just blatant robbery. Yep. There you go. That issue too. But anyway, yes. So just and there is something, you know, there's something really deep to the point you were making before. And I got to play around with it more in my head. But yeah, like in some way, I always objected to the euphemisms of the state. I kind of like calling it the Department of War rather than the Department of Defense because it's not defense. It's always aggression. So, you know, but then you really do see something of like really like, oh, I don't know, dude, it does feel maybe long term. This will be good. But number one, there's something that just feels like evil and soulless about the president just being like, yeah, we jack people and take their shit. That's it. I'm debating whether I should kill millions of children right now. You know, like there's something really disturbing about that. And then also, you know, don't forget in this bigger picture here, Rob, which I got to say, if I'm putting my conspiracy spidey hat on this does set off like the hairs on my neck do stand up. But it's like, Rob, you can't get away from the fact that like broadly positioned here, Trump is still in some ways symbolically representative of like the anti establishment guy, right? Like it's the Clintons and the bushes and CNN and the Obama's and the political establishment. And then it's this Trump guy who came in and said they all sucked. And it's like it's not as if the, you know, champion of the establishment then exposed to the nature of it this way. It's like this guy and you know, I don't know there was just so much energy that Trump had behind him on people who were furious and how corrupt this establishment has been that for him to just be an accelerated naked cartoon character of the whole thing is, I don't know, I don't know that that's good. All right, guys, let's take a moment and think our sponsor for our show today, which is my patriot supply. I love this company. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're serious about preparedness, like I am, you're going to want to head over to prepare like Dave.com right now. And let me tell you why our partners over at my patriot supply, they are the experts when it comes to emergency food and they're serious about making sure you have what you need. And in honor of national preparedness month, they're giving every customer who gets their best selling three month emergency food kit, a 72 serving mega protein kit for free that's 90 days of real food security with more than 2000 calories per day and 100% of 12 essential vitamins and minerals plus the free protein kit gives you the real beef and chicken, real beans. Black beans and Pinto beans to ensure you've got what you need on hand for any emergency. It's more protein, more variety, more substantial meals when you need it. 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It's about rooting out fraud. It's about making it easier for hardworking American families to buy a home, to buy the medications they need to pose it right there. It's about, dude, Rob, that sure sounds good. God damn, that sounds good. Rob, it's about keeping the crazies out. It's about, it's about keeping the crazies out and supporting common sense. Rob, it's supporting lower taxes, making it easier to buy a house. Now there, now listen, Rob, there's a message that could work, right? There's a message that could resonate. I like that. It's not, listen, you keep these crazy at first off. Have you seen these Democrats that fucking insane? So keep the crazy out. Keep the common sense people here. Let's keep taxes lower. Let's make it easier to buy a house. All right. There's a few problems that you have with selling this message already. Number one, like there's just, I don't know if you've noticed, Rob, but taxes ain't that low and it's not that easy to buy a house. I don't know if you've noticed this. God damn fucking, I don't know. I look around at what houses cost. I look around at how much taxes I pay. I sure do not feel like it's super easy to buy a house and there are not much taxes. Like that is, that is not my lived experience, Rob. And then of course on top of that, it's like there's nothing common sense about launching this war. There's nothing common sense about so much of what he's done. Did he say something about holding fraud accountable? I know I didn't hear that, Rob. I must have imagined that part. Dude, everything has gotten more and more unaffordable and your boss has been bragging about the ballroom he's building. That's why you don't anymore. That's why the message of look at these crazy devs vote for us, common sense people ain't thumping the way it used to. What do you think, Rob? Well, that's why it's always easier to lie when you're on the outside and sell people a dream of what you're going to do. It's a little bit harder when you're two years in and you haven't done it. So I don't know about you, but when you're on the outside, you can go or when they were on the outside, you go, oh, look, they're actually talking about what I care about. The other side isn't even talking about what I care about. Maybe these guys are going to do something for me. But when you've been in for two years and this has not been your focus. I just watched the president say it is currently not his focus. I have a hard time believing it. Yeah. And it's not even because it looked like, you know, you're 100% right. You hit the nail on the head. It's a matter of the incumbency versus the insurgent candidate. And look, when you're the incumbent, you can't even mention house and afford house and price in the same sentence. In less Rob, maybe you were in a situation where you go, dude, we have a bill on the table right now that will drastically lower the cost of housing. And we just need three more Republican seats in order to get it passed something like that. Then maybe you could bring it up, but he's not saying that he's that we got the majority right now. He's not even saying we did anything for you or we will do anything. He's just going like vaguely, don't you like the idea of like a country where you could afford housing? And what does that make anybody think in today's data? It's like, yeah, yeah, no, I would like that. It sure does suck that we have nothing like that. And you're not even pretending to have a plan for why we would. Now, let's keep playing. Keeping the southern border closed. It's about putting criminals in jail and it's about sending dangerous illegal aliens out of this country, which is where they belong. My friends, there is more work to do, of course. You know, I will say here, let's close it here. And the support, of course, I gotta say, Rob, right? The immigration stuff is gotta be like the strongest thing that they have. I mean, it's got to be the strongest thing that Donald Trump can point to that like, Hey, there was this wide open border under Joe Biden. And we've secured the border. That's good and all. And I give the administration their credit for that. That's a major issue. And they did plug up that hole. And so that's a part of deportations have been a mess. But that's kind of a separate subject. But you know, I gotta say, Rob, and I don't know. I know I think I've kind of expressed this before. And this might be a little bit unfair. I know that the Republican partisans really hate this point. But when you're not working in kind of like the left right paradigm exclusively or a partisan framework, it frees you up to think like this. But it's like, I think also, look, dude, you're saying we're going into the midterms where Trump's about to lose. This is, we've had six years of Trump presidency. We're going into the last two and it's gonna be divided government. We're not really expecting like some crazy new thing. If we were gonna get something, we would have gotten it by now. We kind of know what we're gonna get. In this moment, you look back at it, we're 10 years from 2016 when Donald Trump first ran for president 11 years, I guess from 2015 when he first started campaigning. And immigration was his number one issue. And like, what did the American people gotten since then, Rob? Is the biggest influx of immigrants in our nation's history? Are they being deported? No, no, they're not. Like one of the things that we kind of understand that we're gonna settle with here is like, all those people who came in under Joe Biden, they're staying in the country. The Trump administration is already abandoned and the idea that we're not removing them. We're not even gonna come close to even trying. And so it's like, I don't know, it just like, look, if you want to say in some sense, that's not Trump's fault. It happened under Biden and a little bit in Trump's first term, but the worst of it happened under Biden. He got it under control in a second term. And there was just no public support for how inhumane the deportations would have been like, fine, you can say that, okay, Rob, fine. But as you're bragging about your track record on it to me, the American, I'm supposed to sit here and be like, yeah, woohoo, like you know what I mean? Like we elected you 10 years ago to stop the bleeding. And then you fucked everything up so bad that you let someone else in there who slid us wide open and we bled out more than we've ever bled before. And now you're bragging about how you got back in and stitched it up again. It's like, all right. It's just hard to get that except when you're the patient in that scenario, it's hard to get that excited about the prospects, I guess. Does that make sense? Yeah, that checks out. Yeah, there you go. All right, here. Let's keep playing. Finished the job, but we can't get it done. We can't keep growing our economy. We can't secure the border. We can't support American workers or families unless we've got allies in Congress. People like Michael Wattley and the great congressional candidates we have gathered here today. And I know the people of North Carolina, we're ready for this fight. You've made your voices heard before. And I know you're going to make them heard again in just a couple of months. So my question to everybody here is this, on November the 3rd, are you going to turn the page on Roy Cooper and the Democrats? Are we going to stand up to the insanity on the left? Are we going to keep fighting for a common sense America first agenda? Are you going to stand with Michael Wattley? Are you going to stand with Jennifer Bulkham? Are we going to stand with Lori Buckow? And are we going to stand with all of our great North Carolina warriors to keep North Carolina fighting for great American Patriots? I don't know about you guys, but I could feel myself sitting more as you said that. Yeah, dude, I mean, it's like that's kind of the pitch they've got. The left are crazy. We need it. We need Congress to keep going to keep this unbelievable momentum going. Man, I don't know. It's just like he's really, it's, he's just got nothing to work with. the thing. You know, like JD Vance has no, he has no actual red meat. You know, they're, they're two years into this thing. And this should be the point where they've got like real wins that they could show. If I, do you remember, Rob, if you recall about, let's say, so Donald Trump became president in January of 25 for the second time. And then I, you know, I turned real hard on them in June over the, the 12-day war. But like, if you remember, like a few months in, you remember like three months in, four months into the Trump administration. You remember, we'd start going, dude, it sure looks like they're just going to walk away on doing any of these deep state arrests or any of this. And if you remember the counter at the time was you were like, dude, they were like, dude, give them time. Give them time, man, it's only been three months. You know, dude, you're, dude, cash battalion Dan Bungean or working on a big investigation that's going to bring down the entire FBI apparatus. You think that's going to happen within three months, going to take a year, dude, good to, you know, no one's even pretending anymore. I was even pretending that there's still something in the work in the works. Yeah, you're two years in. You should have some wins to speak of. And all he can really say, Rob, is like, hey, but you remember those Democrats, like they're fucking crazy. Yeah, well, it's a little, when you say, hey, the other side's crazy. Well, the other guy's threatening, uh, obliterating Iran and not walking away from the war. It's really just not that much of a pitch. Cause the other side's crazy. And here's your side. He goes, I don't really care about prices. Have you seen my new ballroom? We're going to totally annihilate a civilization today. You're like, yeah, yeah. Like trans and kids is crazy. But that's pretty crazy too. It's almost, I mean, this isn't that far off from the south park. What was it? Doosh versus uh, the spoiled sandwich or whatever. I don't remember what it was. But it almost feels like a giant douche versus a turd sandwich. Yeah. So I, it almost like the choice. And by the way, I will not be voting. And I'm not rooting for the Democrats, but me too. I'm certainly not shown up for the Republicans. But what it almost feels like is we've got a gambling addict in right now who's down $500,000. And the other option is a drug addict. And you could look at it and go, all right, well, the drug addict's going to waste money. But I don't think he's going to lose me $500,000. So yeah, the Democrats are crazy. And we don't like any of their policies. And if anything, they actually affect more of my day to day life, uh, particularly with culture and censorship and pretending like everything I do and say is mean and that we got to prop up other, you know, the, the, the minorities in this culture and all that shenanigans. But then you look at the other side, you're like, I don't know. You got a war going on that I absolutely hate that seems a lot riskier. And I'd really like to be out of that. So it just, yeah. And you really seem your leader really seems to be flirting with nuclear weapons. Like, I don't know. He just keeps talking about weapons that have never been seen before in death and destruction. All this is I really like that analogy. The gambling addict first, the drug addict is there. I gotta like think about that more. But that's really good because also it's part of like it's like, yeah, dude, like I'd rather live next store to you gambling addict. Obviously, you're not all gross like that heroin addict. But like, you could take me down 500 grand in one swipe. Like I, it's, yeah, it's, it's a real concern. All right, guys, let's take a moment and think our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad an amazing company. You've got to check them out. If you're looking to level up your kitchen game, you've got to go to Hexclad. They've also got great stuff for the barbecue outdoors. And there's still a few months of barbecue season left. But I know I got the Hexclad six piece set, which is the perfect starter bundle for any kitchen. It includes three of their most popular pans with matching lids, giving you everything you need to handle daily cooking with ease from breakfast to dinner. These pans deliver pro level performance effortless cleanup and durability that lasts a lifetime. 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Rob, you said as of right now, you're you're just staying home. You're not voting for anyone. But we'll see if that's still true at the end of the podcast. Enter Ted Cruz. Ooh, this guy always wins me over. We are facing a challenging environment. These midterms, I think are the most consequential midterms of our lifetime. The last two weeks I think the momentum has been positive. The convention in Texas was a really strong convention. You and I were there together for it. I think the president did a very good job. Look, for this midterm, it's entirely a question of turnout. The left is going to turn out. They're angry. They're radical. They're extreme. And they're unified by hatred for Donald Trump. The challenge for us is that we need to get conservatives. We need to get libertarians. We need to get moderates. We need to get just ordinary common sense thinking people to show up. If we actually show up and unified, we did a great election. We could we could. So saying ordinary common sense people are reluctant to support Trump. That's quite the inference there. And then also, yeah, great job getting all the people you alienated out of the party while going, Hey, screw everything we told you. We're going all war. We don't care. We don't need a big 10. Get the hell out of here. You aren't real conservatives. If you don't support this and then turning around two years later and going, Hey, we need all of you guys back here. Well, you didn't do enough to earn our vote. You didn't actually represent us. Dude, I mean, it is I when I saw this clip at first where he just goes, is he sitting there breaking down goes, well, here's the thing, man, like these Democrats are a real threat. And they're amped up and they're going to get turned out in our turn offs down. And that's the real problem. And man, what we really need are like the independence and the libertarians and all these guys to show up and vote. It's like, oh, really Rob? Oh, really? Is that what you need? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you needed something from us again. Now do you? That's crazy because we needed something from you. Look, dude, what can you say about that? Yeah, like I mean, look, you already hit the nail on the head, but you're going to turn around after all of this and then say, oh, and we need you to come support us. Like, dude, we were explicitly told to see ourselves out. And guess what? I mean, some of us left before you told us to see ourselves out. But the rest of us who were still there took you up on that. Yeah, man. I mean, it's like, dude, there's people got to like, understand that there's you again, I mean, I think in fact, I was it was I wasn't sure when I was on Pierce Morgan with Andrew Wilson. I thought this might be a debate, but he just completely agreed with me on it. But it's like even for people like say that, like say, Andrew, who's he's going to argue that we still should be supporting this Republican party even though this war was a nightmare or whatever shouldn't have been launched. The thing is like, I don't know, it's just one of those things. You you launch a war of choice, you tie your political legacy to that war and how it goes now. That's just one of those things. And when you launch a war of choice, you really better not go and lose it in humiliating fashion. That's all. I mean, people can spin this in any other way they want to. And I'm sorry, but I also do, you know, there's something. It's so fundamentally dishonest, the way Ted Cruz even frames it is like, look, we got the wind against us on this one. Obviously, it's a midterm year. And obviously, there's this and then people are excited because the media and the left hate Donald Trump so much. And it's like, dude, like there's really there's really no reason why the Democrats should have come back and won the midterms this year. It didn't have to be like a normal political year. Was 2024 like a normal presidential election? No, the president was weakened at Bernie's and then they put a cackling retard to replace him. The Democrats got stomped the fuck out. If he had just delivered some winds and just not blown it, this is the thing, Rob, right? If he had just delivered some winds, if there had been some doge cuts, Rob, it wasn't anything that me or you were hoping for, but they cut a hundred billion dollars out of the budget, you know, and there actually were some deep state arrests. They held some people accountable for this and we didn't get all the files, but we got a lot more of the things and he just didn't get us in any more stupid wars. And they just had it like, you know, had secured the border and had a reasonable deportation policy. And they just, if he had just done that, there would still be some cash A in going, you want to support those crazy Democrats? threats. Like that would look. Dude, you can, you can feel it, Rob. You, you still feel it. It's not like that was so long ago. You still be like, they remember what they did when they were in charge. They wanted to trans the kids and open the border. Yeah, I don't think we're ever putting them in charge again. That would still have merit to it. But what's the thing that Ted Cruz leaves out of there? Why is it that all the wind is at their back and against ours? Yeah, because you launched a stupid war that nobody wanted. And then you fucking lost it. It's a real double whammy. Like I, I really do think, especially after the last 25 years, I think even if they had kind of won the war, it might have really hurt because people would have recognized the risk that you took and the people that you got killed and why we just should be out of this business. But man, to go lose the thing, that's really hard to recover from Rob. Yeah, well, it sounds like they're starting to get a little desperate as you hear right there at acknowledgement that unless people start getting real motivated and the core base widens and is amplified and energized to actually show up for Trump. They are not winning, which sounds, I mean, there's just too funny admissions there. One, they need common sense people to get on board, meaning the common sense people are currently not on board. That's kind of just a funny thing to admit. Yeah. Secondly, the base is not energized right now. We're going to lose a consequential election. And isn't there something about like this where, so the call is to me that despite everything, like, I don't know, it would make it personally for me, despite everything that I'm against that he promised he wouldn't do him just doing it and spitting in our face and insulting personally my friends for the crime of just standing up for the right thing. And then, you know, just behaving in the most like vicious wicked manner, like people like Joe Kent, well, I don't know Joe Kent, but like towards someone like Joe Kent, like it's something like him and his new wife when his, his, his wife died in a war that Trump kept her in that he served in, like, just things. I'm supposed to ignore all that. I'm supposed to hold my nose and come out now and support this thing still because man, the Democrats are just so mean and they're so scary, right? Just got to do this to keep the Democrats out of power. Meanwhile, Donald Trump himself says he doesn't even think about it and he doesn't even care about it. Isn't there some weird kind of contradiction between those two positions there, Rob? That like Trump himself is going, oh, I don't even care, dude, I don't give a shit. I'm not going to do something so that the Republicans win the Democrats don't, whatever. It's like, I don't know, dude, those of us who I don't know. I'm not claiming that this, you know, like Michael Noll said to me once when we were on Pierce, Ben Shapiro's guy, he said to me once on Pierce Morgan show in his snarky little way. This is the type of thing he does. He says snarky things that aren't real points, but they sound good. But he goes, he goes, you know, Dave, your libertarian positions have created a very popular podcast for yourself, but they did not get you elected president, you know. Like in other words, like, you know, libertarians are, you guys are just a little part of the coalition. You're not the whole thing. And it's like, that's true. But man, the people who were against this type of shit, I think made up enough of the coalition that it is going to wreck you guys. And so anyway, yeah, I guess Rob, what is the answer here? The answer to Ted Cruz is that like, no, none of us are coming out. None of us are coming out. You don't have it. Like see how that works. When you're running on no new wars, you can get a coalition with all of that. But when you're running on, hey, just get over the fact that we ran on no new wars and then launched a real dumb one, you can't get us to coalition with you. There's got to be, there's got to be, this is the way it is. And this is why, you know, weirdly, like people think in some sense, and I never really like voted for president like that before. But um, people think in some weird sense, like, oh, you voted for Trump. But now you're criticizing Trump. And that's some type of contradiction. But to me, it's like, if you're ever going to vote for a political party, especially if you're someone kind of outside of the two party, like, if you're not just a partisan, if you're ever going to vote for one party, well, then you got to also withhold your vote or vote against them when they fuck up. Otherwise, it doesn't mean anything. Otherwise, you might as well just give them a blank check to do whatever they want. And if you do that, they will fight a war for Israel for some reason, every fucking time. Not exactly sure why that's always the thing they do. But anyway, yeah, so sorry Ted, we will not be coming out for you. You cannot count on libertarians and droves to save the Republicans in the midterms. I have a feeling you guys are going down. I will, I guess I should add the caveat that like, you never know, the Democrats can fucking they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like man, they are crazy and unlikable. Maybe they'll find a way, but I don't know Rob. I think the Republicans are in big trouble in the next few weeks. If you ask me, yeah, I'm not following any of the individual elections and off to know who's running against who and how much of a mess the Democrat is. But just my overall flavor of where the country is, is that it would be mighty surprising if Republicans held the House and send it, but I'm not in the loop on local. I think they're losing the House for sure and likely to send it as well. But we will say. All right, that's our episode for today. Catch you guys tomorrow with a brand new one. Peace.