Two Weeks 'Til Midterms

What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. I am in my most professorial sweater. And of course I am joined by Robbie DeFire Bernstein. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. Nice to be back in my studio. Yes, yes. A short, a rarely seen spectacle. Yeah, you pay for all this equipment, just to keep broadcasting from hotel rooms. But if you guys are out, I mean you and I are doing a Portland all weekend beforehand, come out to Strathom, New Hampshire. I know a lot of people didn't come to the shell show and running my FBI entrapment scheme. And then next weekend, I need a new Memphis porch. My Memphis porch fell through or we might have to mix the weekend, but at the moment we're scheduled for Birmingham, Memphis and Bon Aqua. It's still by take us to the other. I don't know what to say at this point, but that's a plug. That is one more plug. Well, we, we will be in Portland, Maine this weekend. I'm looking forward to getting up there, man, getting some nice fresh, brisk air, enjoying the beautiful northeast of. I think we'll catch our foliage. It's a first starting turn. The nice colors down here. So we might catch I think either if you find one leaf on the ground, I'm going to be happy. That's all it takes for me. And then what do we got after that? I think the next one right up is a San Diego. That's right. San Diego, the American comedy company, really looking forward to being back out there. Always a good time. And then we're at Skankfest and that's the year. That's right. That's Skankfest and that is 2026 in terms of road dates for us. CommentarySmith.com to grab tickets for all of those mentioned dates and then porch store.com for all Rob's dates. Hey, I wanted to, and this has nothing to do with even what I wanted to talk about for today's show. But I just wanted to start the show by reading this pap you can and quote that Scott Horton posted on Twitter the other day. In fact, I don't even remember. Did I retweet it? That's crazy. If I was about I didn't was about to read it on the show and I didn't even repose it. But anyway, it's this quote from this phenomenal pap you can and book a Republic, not an empire. And this was man, I mean, I'm this was one of the first books I read when I first got like red-pilled and interested in politics. I want to say one of the first like I mean like 15 or 20 like it wasn't like the first but like it was like that year or something like that or maybe the next year I read that book. And it blew my mind. I loved it. You know, I've always been of, I think I've probably brought up pap you can and countless times on the show. If I had like, I don't know how to say this. If I had, if you had to say like who was the most non libertarian like influential person on me, it'd probably be pap you can. Like if I had never, if I had everything else in my brain that I have, but I had just never found like Rothbard and Mises and Ron Paul and them like if none of them ever existed. I probably I would have just been of you can and I like that would have just been where I settled like, OK, I'm just like a pap you can and style right winger. But I got these these damn Jews taught me economics Rob and I can't I'm learning it. It's really it's a dirty game. They play anyway. This is a quote. So this book. So this is a book I read 20 years ago, something like that. And I don't know, dude, this quote just smacks. Hold on one second. Let me pull it up here. And he said this in 1999. Oh, hey, you son of a bitch. It didn't repost it. Sorry, pap you can and in 1999. And he says, quote, by moving NATO onto Russia's front porch. So this is he's talking about the first round of NATO expansion that ever happened. It was in 1999 by moving NATO onto Russia's front porch. We have scheduled a 21st century confrontation America will face a hellish dilemma risk confrontation with a nuclear armed Russian with a nuclear armed Russia determined to recreate its old sphere of influence or reneg on solemn commitments and see NATO collapse. So offering NATO membership to Estonia Latvia Lithuania and some urge Ukraine is rashness bordering on madness. This would put the Russian base at Kallengrad, which is their their port that's like on the other side of Lithuania behind NATO lines and bring into a US led alliance three nations with huge Russian minorities. Latvia is almost half Russian Eastern Ukraine almost entirely Russian American America could neither defend nor liberate these nations without the risk of nuclear war. And that crazy rub just like an unbelievable night. You know, I got to say I read I read this book and this book blew my mind. And I don't even really think any of that stood out to me. Like I remember that is like one of the details one of his little points about how were an empire is that look after the Soviet Union collapsed. We were an empire and kept expanding and we shouldn't have done that because now we could have a confrontation there. But then so much of the book was about becoming an empire in other ways. And I don't know, but yeah, dude perfectly predicted the major so far or the co major confrontation of the 21st century and precisely over what it was over even mentioning it back in 99 even mentioning in there that like you know these these psychopaths even want to bring Ukraine. Like he was even mentioned like that's what they're going to move toward next start with Lithuania see if they stomach that then they move toward Ukraine we're risking nuclear war for nothing. It's amazing how just about every anti empire take well of aged well. And anyone pushing for why we need it is always some shortsighted gain for the military industrial complex or some other private interest or just some mistaken gamble for why we need to project American strength. Which of course actually just showcases that you know we're actually not that strong and it's just the same circle over and over. But I bet you look back far enough anyone said anything against us being an empire that take will almost always age well or find me an example where it didn't age well. Well, yeah, yeah, but I mean look Pat Buchanan is a little bit even more than just that. I mean, he really was always so pressing and in getting completely the cause and the reaction and the specific crisis. Correct anyway so Rob what I did want to talk about for today which you can't avoid is that two weeks were two weeks away today two weeks away from election day. Which is the kind of wild to me. There's really no getting around the fact that this is going to be what we're talking about going forward here this is going to determine so much going in to the final two week stretch Donald Trump let me say this something. But I guess could be construed as a compliment toward Donald Trump. He's going on a spree of the what do you call them rally speeches. And I got to say Rob. This was true in 24 it's even more true in 26 it is God that his stamina is fucking impressive. I will say that about Donald Trump he's going around he's doing these rallies his people love him. However, there is a little bit of a problem with the rest of the country we've been documenting that over the last year so on this show pretty in a pretty detailed fashion. But there's nothing we could say that a flaming homo on CNN can't deliver in a more pleasurable manner so let's check in with CNN. And I mean this is a five alarm Trumpster fire that's what we're talking about it. I mean just look at these ratings. Okay. Trump set up a ring. It's all time low. This is the ridership. Just pause for a second, man, because I just look man. It's CNN. This is one Reuters poll. But Rob, what you're talking about polls of residential approval ratings. And the period of time you're looking at is from this poll is in 2025. Like this is the poll. This organization conducted in 2025. This is the poll they conducted in 2026 already before we've even gotten into some of the details here. That is shocking. That is shocking. That is unlike any. There is no nothing in my lifetime. No event ever. And I you go back my entire lifetime. There was a president who got caught getting a blowjob behind his wife's back in office. There was a president who got caught lying a country into war. There was a president who got caught killing American citizens. There's a president who lit the White House up in the gay pride flag. I've seen some shit. I've never seen a one year to next year. And it's a year and a half if I'm being completely honest or maybe you know, even a little bit more than that. But it's one year to the next year. A flesh presidential poll. That stark of a difference is wild. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Bub's Naturals. Do you feel like your strength or muscle tone is harder to maintain than it used to be? Maybe your recovery from workouts and runs or just take a little bit longer than they used to? Do you feel like you need more support staying focused and energized? Maybe you've noticed that once you hit your 30s or 40s or maybe beyond your body just doesn't bounce back. same way it did in your 20s. Well, let's talk about creatine for a second because it's not just for bodybuilders. Creatine is one of the most research supplements in the world. It helps your body produce quick energy during high intensity effort, which means it can support strength, power, lean muscle growth, and recovery. 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The deep state was unable to lie us into this one and convince us that it was a good idea. And Americans are furious about higher prices against a backdrop of, you know, they're already higher prices. We're already experiencing inflation. And you guys pushed it. That was one of the core pitches of the things that you were going to deal with. And instead, you did the exact thing we didn't want to do. And the ramifications are that we have even more higher pricing. And so it's, I guess it's nice to see that the country so completely saw through this. And is that outraged about this and the polling is in, do not get us into wars? You know, it is, I don't know, rub in a weird way. Mary's a little recency bias on my part. I almost feel like I can't, at this point, I'm like, I can't believe Trump was ever popular in this country. That's right. There was a time that even got me on board, but there was a time when Donald Trump was popular. He was supported mostly in the country. And now he has just hated and, you know, I don't know. I don't know, man, sometimes rap. I almost don't know how to do this job without ever like being like, but isn't this what we were saying? And I know I don't mean to be doing that all the time. But it is crazy that like over the last year, talking about this has been a major theme of this show. And there's been some people who quite publicly essentially just denied it was happening. Denied that we were going from this, that first poll to the second poll denied that there was any trend here. And I swear to God, Rob, like it seems like at least 60 to 70% of being successful at what we do is almost just like, I don't know, it's like there's just like a chair in a room and you're like, that's a chair. And then someone else comes along and they go, what do you crazy do? That's not a chair. What do you some type of racist? You're like an idiot. You're like a dumb racist naughty. If you think that's a chair. And then you go, no, I'm telling you, that's a chair. And then just like that age as well. But for for over a year, all these people have been using all their mega polls to tell you everything's fine. Okay. Here, let's keep playing from CNN because they do have some more polls here. Hey, two thumbs up. We're talking to school in here. Now we're talking negative 35 points. The world has ever been in the Reuters ipso's poll. Among independents, he's 54 points underwater. I mean, this, this is down there with Jacque Cousteau and the little mermaid. This is how low Trump is right now. The worst he's ever been in the Reuters ipso's poll. Where's the ever is this some kind of anomaly? It is not some type of anomaly. This has been happening over and over and. He's supposed for a second. Rob, is there is there any worse way in life to get bad news than having a really excited way to give it to you? Like no matter what it is, you're like stage four cancer. You're like, is it operable? That is the big question. And the big answer is no. Oh, man. Do I need to get a second opinion already got one? He agrees. Oh, Jesus. No. This is terrible. This is devastating way to get it. But I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm not known. I love the little mermaid reference. I'm like, I guess that's bad. Yeah. It takes you a while. Yeah. I don't speak your language, but I'm just going to guess that that was a way of stating that this is bad. That's great. Just referencing things. Yeah. Okay. Seems like that's not the good guy. Let's keep playing. Oops. I did it again if you're present. Trump. And indeed, sometimes you just have to go through the history books. Okay. So I was looking pre midterm, october, the worst ever, net approval ratings ever in any individual poll. And you can see that the top four spots for the worst are all occupied by a very similar looking gentleman. Sometimes the pictures really do tell the story. Trump, Trump, Trump, and then Trump NBC, ABC, Ipsos, rotors, Ipsos, and the Pew Research Center, all at least 31 points underwater. When I was digging through the data sets, the worst ever in October was, in fact, Harry S. Truman, who was 30 points underwater. And these numbers exceed all of them. So worst ever in NBC. Worst, Worst, Worst ever in ABC. I believe so. Worst ever in Ipsos. Worst ever in Worst ever in Pew. If these are the worst at least in terms of compared to other presidents before a midterm election in the October, these are the four worst ever regardless of any pollster compared to other presidents. That doesn't seem like a great situation. It seems, as I said, like a five alarm, Trump's defiant. You brought up Harry S. Truman. Yes. And his low approval for the victims. What has happened to presidents with this type of approval? Yeah, okay. So what are the closest historical comparisons that I could find? Well, it's these two guys. I mean, minus 15 points or worse than that approval. Adam and Trump, like Trump currently has lost the house and lost the Senate. Yes, for this gentleman, well, we've got a colored photo of Harry S. Truman. And yes, for George W. Bush back in 2006. So the two historical comparisons that I think are closest to this one, the Republican Party is not going to like because Trump's historically low, appropriating this point below a midterm, at least historically has brought not just the president down, but the House and Senate control with it. Harry and Harry J. S. Anton and full technical. That's right. I feel like it's brought to you by Sunday. Thank you very much. Okay. All right, Rob. Now let the record state, Magger Republicans still support Trump 100%. But this is, look, Rob, again, I've never, and I've never known you to be a trust the polls type of guy. Okay. So I'm not saying like any of these polls in numbers are exactly correct. But if you're looking at a poll that says, hey, are you telling me that the president's approval rating is like it negative 35% that the only comparisons you can find are George W. Bush after disastrous wars and Katrina. And then you have to go back to Harry Truman the year after he dropped the nukes. Like those are the, he's that unpopular. And you have a poll that says that. And then you go, wait a minute, you have one poll that says that? No, all the polls say that. Now again, I'm sure there's been ops against Donald Trump before. If you want to try to explain this away, go ahead. But there's also, Rob, it's like this is also backed up by the fact that look, even Trump's top, like biggest, most popular public supporters, half of them hate his guts at this point. But I mean, it just, it seems like if, if polling has ever indicated anything ever, then it at least proves that Donald Trump is just kind of hated in the country right now. And it doesn't as much as, you know, the MAGA Republicans may still love him. It's hard, Rob, to imagine how a president this unpopular, having this blitz campaign over these next two weeks, is actually helpful at all to these candidates. I mean, no, you know, it is a unique thing about Donald Trump. And I don't think anyone, like who's going to, with Susie Wiles going to tell him he's not doing this? You know what I'm saying? Like no one's going to tell Donald Trump he's not, is any candidate going to go Mr. President would actually really help if you would back off? I don't think anyone's telling him that. But Rob, how can it be helpful to have a guy this unpopular going around and campaigning for you? You know, I, well, I agree with you. Clearly he did this polling is terrible and he's unlikeed. But when it comes to campaigning, he has graded it. And the loyalists still seem locked in. And so I guess the logic is maybe I can turn this back and get the energy going and people just haven't heard directly for me. Now as to whether or not that's working, I'm going to guess not. And I think the polling would suggest and I bet if you actually sat down with your average, even Trump loyalist, do you want them? Maybe they do want them out campaigning because they don't want the Democrats back in. But you know, theoretically, would you rather this guy be in the Oval Office actually working on the pricing or out relying to you guys? You know, so yeah, but I agree with you, I don't think I don't follow all the individual races. So I just, I don't have a clean read. I was just watching that video that Democrat who got drunk and then she was on Pears Morgan, even worse. So it's hard to know. I'm starting to like that woman. So back off with whatever you're going to say, I swear to God, I am stuck. She's slowly winning me over like she is the type of broad that could almost get me to go give her a shot. I mean, we've had everyone else in there. Give her a challenge. Where's could she be? Where's you going to be? Federman. So I mean, every poll that I've seen has the Democrats winning both. I would think that the anti-Republican sediment right now will have them win both. I don't know who the individuals aren't every individual race and how unelectable those Democrats are. But yes, I would assume that more Trump at the moment is not helping the cause. Yep. Got to agree. Got to agree with that. Well, here, look, I mean, look, I'm not not trying to poison the well here. You guys can hear this and you tell me whether I'm, you know, whether I'm right, like we've kind of been right about this whole year that Trump's fallen part. I, what I'm seeing here is the like the weakest midterm pitch I've ever seen. I like, I don't know. I, I'm trying to like remember the other years where like, you know, people got blown out in the midterms or whatever. So like Obama lost both chambers in 2010. Yeah, he had a much better midterm pitch than, than, you know, Trump did. He had a pitch like that was like, yo, we're going to give you, or I don't remember if they had passed Obamacare yet. Maybe I guess they had, maybe they're just like, hey, we just delivered this whole thing. It's going to work out really great. I mean, that's bullshit, but like, it's a better pitch. We're, you know, they, they were still in an environment where George W Bush had crashed the economy two years earlier. It's a little bit, you get a little bit more off of that, Bill Clinton lost Congress. But yeah, I think he had it. And look, here's Donald Trump. Let's, let's cut to him. You just saw that the entire country hates his guts. Well, here's what he's got to say at Israelis. Here's his pitch. Sorry, my apologies, not in Israeli. Here's Donald Trump in a cable news interview. Very soon, oil is going to drop way down. Diesel's going to come way down. Everything is already our prices are much lower. And by the way, our oil is much lower or let's say if you go to gasoline or oil, anything you want to call it much lower than Biden and much lower than Obama. And we're also doing something that they should have done. Stop the Iran situation because you just can't have that. We wouldn't have even a world. I mean, the world is very thankful for what we're doing. So that'll be over fast. The oil will be coming down, but food prices have come way down. The grocery store to speak have come way down way to the other. It's going to be finished very literally. The oil is going to do to turn it off. It's it's Biden. Rob, it's Biden pick and which prices have come down. This is literally what they did. What are you talking about? Fourth of July is more expensive than ever. Have you seen the price of relish? Relish is down. So if you only have relish, you get a pretty cheap fourth of July this year. Rob, I love, I'm sorry. I love that the only tool in his tool kit at this point is to go from like, they were going to have a nuke and blow up Israel. Okay. They were going to that doesn't really resonate with anyone. They were going to have a nuke and blow up LA. All right. No one's really buying that one either. The whole world. We wouldn't have a world if we hadn't launched the war in Iran. Isn't it something to have to have to lie about a war of choice so blatantly that not only was this not a war of choice, this was the most necessary war of necessity of all necessities. The world would be blown up right now. Also, your prices are great. That's the midterm pitch, Rob. He's going around to local news stations to give this pitch. I don't know. I'm just like, maybe I'm missing some nuanced strategy here. I see the most unpopular president in U.S. history giving the worst pitch I've ever seen. What do you see? Well, it's incredible that he's jumping the lie to he saved the entire world. I started cracking up where I heard that where I was like, oh, he's going even bigger. And then also telling everyone, hey, prices are great while your life experience will tell you otherwise. I know that will absolutely infuriate people. And it's amazing the extent by which don't even think Donald Trump lost his touch. I just think when you're not in office, it's very easy to lie to people because it's all the theoretical of what you're going to do. And once you're in office and you broke all of your campaign promises and people can see, oh, this is not reality. It's tougher to lie once you're there and claim how great things are going to be once you're there because you're currently there. You've been there for two years. I haven't done this stuff. And so the trick just doesn't work. I completely agree. I don't see that look, let me say this. Yes, Donald Trump is two years older than he was in 2024. He's two years older. It's not quite like you can see him get older as he's getting older. It's remarkable how much energy he still has, how much stamina he still has. And no, there's nothing like Biden or something like that where like he's losing it. It look all these guys, JD Vance, all of them. They're no less impressive people or they're no dumber than they were two years ago. It's just they're in an indefensible position and they're like it's Rob, like if you're like you said on the campaign trail or even if you're in the White House, but you're on the right side of some issue, you know, if Donald Trump is sitting there in the Oval Office and he's like, listen, we're going to end the war in Ukraine. We're going to get a ceasefire in Gaza. We're not fighting these stupid wars. We're going to get to the bottom of the EBSD and thing. And then the media is like arguing with him about that and he's slapping him down. That's a whole different thing. But there is, you know, again, like think about take for example, Rob, the renaming of rivers or golfs or whatever, you know, the stuff he's into. It's the Gulf of America now, rather than the Gulf of Mexico. If you delivered like five tangible wins and then named the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, that's the type of thing where then you get people be like, oh, yeah, dude, he wins Annie's hilarious on top of it or like, yeah, it's like a pro America fit. But you can't just like deliver on nothing and then be bragging about how you renamed it because then it's like, and in a similar sense, it's like, I don't know, dude, you know me, Rob. If back, we were doing the show together back in 2018. If some reporter had asked some question about him being a Russian spy and then he called her a fat pig, we'd probably been laughing with him. The winner reporter asked about the EBSD in files and he calls her, you promised you'd release him and you're illegally holding three million of the files back. He's like, you're a fat pig. It's like, oh, man, you're desperate, huh, dude? Like it just doesn't, it just doesn't hit the same. I think that's the whole dynamic with Donald Trump. It just doesn't hit the same. Like the real problem that the Trump administration has had, it's well, look, on top of all the problems that we mention all the time. I guess the one that's kind of shocking, Rob, is it really felt like when Bush wanted to do dumb things, they had a propaganda campaign for it. They had a rationale. It was lies often and it was dumb and it was all, but they gave you something. They gave you something to work with at least that like Saddam has weapons of mass destruction or whatever the story is. Donald Trump with the EBSD and thing and with Iran, Rob, it really, it almost seems like they just couldn't even come up with one. They just couldn't come up with a reason and they were like, well, we're going to do it anyway and just not give them one. And then maybe we'll just lash out if anyone points that out. If anybody loved us when we were promising, we were going to do the opposite of what we're doing now that we're flipping on without giving a reason, we'll just lash out at them. Maybe I'm exaggerating slightly, Rob, but it almost felt like with the EBSD and files and with the Warren ran, they couldn't even come up with a story to tell themselves, let alone us. Yeah. Well, I think it's as simple as once you get the Trumpic, you're just dumb with the guy. And so once he, once the joke is on you, it's not, hey, this is the fake media or he's taking down woke or liberals or the Republican establishment that at the time was pitching the wars. And then he turns it on. just lying to you, you just go, this is gross and you're done with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it does seem like that is the path we all have found ourselves going down. Okay, so look, maybe you're here. Let's go over to here. If you want Rob, when you're really concerned about the prospects going into these midterms, which obviously they have to be, they pretend they don't, they don't listen, but they all listen to the show, you want to send out your most charismatic guy. You want to send out the guy in front of the camera, who even if he's wrong, everybody's still going to just want to agree with this guy. So they sent out Scott Bassett. This is the administration's ace in the hole. Here is on Meet the Press defending the administration and the economy. Here's the, it's the last one I sent you. Yeah, there you go. Natalie, let's, let's play this. Placian doesn't take energy, for example, into account or food into account. And in fact, the price of gas is up 44% Mr. Secretary since the start of the war with Iran. What do you say to voters right now who say they are struggling and they want change? Well, why don't we revisit the Biden era policies where the American people got smoked 21.5% inflation and only about 17% wage increases since President Trump has started. The American people have gotten real wage increases 1.5% were not satisfied with that. But as I said, they, you know, we're getting these wage increases through our economic policies and the wage increases are going to be persistent. We will get to the other side of the world. Listen, Rob, whatever your, whatever your, your economic take, economics take is leaving that aside. And there's plenty of problems with the economics. But again, just if you were judging politics, like, like Rob, we always make this joke that you would be such a good advisor to the bad guys. But like, imagine you were just sitting in a room and they were like, all right, so what are we going to say? Let's, let's drill for a question, Rob, who could see this question coming? Gas prices are high. They're hot. They're way up since the start of the war. Okay. And you're going to go, oh, yeah, well, they were once higher under Biden before they came back down and were then lower and then went back up with this war. But what you don't realize is that there was a whole lot of inflation under Biden and no wage growth. And there's been a very little bit of wage growth under us and less inflation. And so we want to do better than that. But like, even though there's been more inflation than wage growth under us, at least there's been some wage growth. And it's been less inflation than the worst inflation of the Biden years. Well, if someone just delivered that and you were just sitting in the back of the room as the advisor in the room, you'd immediately go, okay, scrap that. Now let's think about something else, right? Like just immediately, you'd be like, dude, that can't be the pitch. You got to be kidding me. By the way, Rob, it's not entirely untrue by the numbers. What he's saying? Yes, the worst, as measured by the CPI, as flawed as that is, the worst price inflation of the Biden years was worse. And the wage growth is better at 1.5% than at zero percent. But jeez, man, jeez is that tough. So look at them. Hey, Americans, nah, dude, your wages went up by 1.5%. Now I know that was totally consumed. That was that then more was all consumed by the inflation. But still appreciate that you had a little before you lost it all. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Body Brain Coffee. Fellas, if you want to be the best version of yourself, whether you're at work in the gym or at home with your family, you got to start your day right. That's why I drink a cup of Body Brain Coffee every day. 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So I started drinking Body Brain and I feel better than I ever have. I highly recommend it. Go get your own at BodyBrainCoffee.com. And right now if you go to BodyBrainCoffee.com and use the promo code Dave gift, you'll get 10% off, plus a free BodyBrain milk frother and a BodyBrain mug. That's 10% off, plus a free BodyBrain milk frother and BodyBrain mug. And you're going to want that frother makes a big difference. BodyBrainCoffee.com is the website Dave gift is the code to use at checkout for 10% off, plus that free milk frother and the BodyBrain mug. My starting point here is just your two years into this administration. Nobody cares about Biden anymore. No one wants to hear about Biden. Nobody, our choice right now is not between you and Biden. Your pitch was you're going to come in and you're going to make it better. You've been your two years. You haven't made it better. That's the complaint. So mentioning Biden, I don't think helps your cause in any way other than channels to people. Oh, you don't have a solution. You haven't dealt with the problem. You're playing politics. You want to blame the other guy and guess what? Nobody cares about the other guy. With all that said, and this I'd have to fact check myself, but yeah, the COVID policy was insane. And Biden's responsible for a lot of the COVID policy and that led to a lot of the problems. But I think to the general public, they can excuse some of what happened under Biden to the COVID policy and that he was dealing with a freak occurrence and not just that, but the initial checks that went out, which were very inflationary, were under Donald Trump. And the and the origin of the COVID response is also Donald Trump. So while I'm not endorsing Biden anyway, and Biden did not have good economic policy. And we had to go through that ESG nonsense and all the investment and green energy, which was just a scam to big companies. And we all said to go through all the immigration. I'm not throwing any favor towards Biden or any endorsement towards Biden. But to look at the inflationary Biden years in a bubble and pretend that that's not partly Trump's policy. I don't think that's fully accurate either. No, 100%. Yeah. And not just the Trump checks, Rob, but of course, remember, shutting down president. Yeah, but, but, but I mean, not just in terms of the spending, all the bills, he bragged that they were the biggest spending bills in human history. It was something like three trillion and extra spending that they, they signed that year. And of course, the Federal Reserve printed like five or six trillion and injected it into the economy. The Donald Trump was president until January of 2021. You know, and so there is something too, or even if they're going to say that, well, okay, this was Joe Biden's fault. I'm sorry. You guys gave us Joe Biden. That's not an overstatement to say. Donald Trump gave us Joe Biden by his failures in the first time. And even if they want to say, Oh, it was stolen or the media or the deep state cheated, which the latter is certainly true. Okay. But you should have won by a landslide, dude. And if you hadn't been on, look, if Donald Trump had opposed lockdowns and opposed the COVID insanity by November of that year, he would have won a landslide election. By November of that year, he would have been proven correct. He would have been on the side of the economy. He, he almost still wanted just off of the riots being so unpopular. But of course, nothing else could have gotten Joe Biden elected. But no, Rob, you're right. A huge portion of the price inflation was created in 2020 and kind of fell on Joe Biden's watch. Of course, he continued the worst, you know, policies. But yeah, it's just none of this is good enough, man. None of this is nearly good enough to just tell people that like, well, you know, essentially, Rob, what, and this is really, I guess maybe, maybe it's like people don't see it exactly the way me and you do, but I guess on some level, I think there is like an understanding that maybe the thing that's the most painful about the Trump inflation compared to the Biden inflation. Now, I don't know if everyone will connect this probably not to the fact that we just have, we can't afford the size of government we have. And so we have to print the money and continually debase our currency. But everyone just kind of knows like, oh, this is just permanent. Because that's the nature of how our economy is set up. And it's like, oh, so like prices are just going to keep getting more and more expensive. Like there is no, there is no program to like go back to like when groceries felt like they were affordable and it felt like it was affordable to live and stuff like that. It's just got no plan for that. And yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, clearly this is, this is no pitch here. and to speak to how little the pitch it is, I don't even really follow him. I firstly, he's the only one who's worse than Pete Hegseth. And the fact that you want to try and send this guy out with his, I mean, it's really just like a smug elitist attitude of, no, it's all, it's like a different version of Trump telling you everything's wonderful, even though you're not seeing it. But with a little bit more of a pompous, elitist New York City flavor, at least Trump, even though he is a billionaire kind of comes off like a construction worker. He sounds, he sounds like a regular guy, whereas this guy sounds just sounds like a guy who couldn't even understand the economic concerns of a regular person, you know what I mean? Like, like, that doesn't just sounds like a guy who's just like, and so you give them your card, and then they just give you the coffee, you know, like he's just, I don't know, here let's play. Is there a little bit more of him? Let's play the rest. He said the energy markets are going to be better supplied than they were. I hear you blaming President Biden, but President Trump has been in office now for 636 days. That's about a year and a half, and inflation was at 3% when he took off its 3.7% now. At what point does the administration take responsibility for the economy and say, this is the Trump economy? Well, we will, we will own the economy. We had so far this year, we've had a million private sector jobs. We've never had this many people working in the US, the net worth of American households, or the highest that it's ever been. So, Kristen, let's be clear here, this is an energy supply side shock. We will get to the other side of this. This is one factor. Even President Trump has said this is his economy. Let me ask you though, you are Treasury Secretary. Do you anticipate gas prices will come down by the new year? Well, again, it will depend on what happens with the Iran conflict. And there you go, Rob. His final thing there is just the, that really is like the nail in the coffin, that even the admission, that it'll come down to what happens with the Iran conflict. It's not even, oh, again, so it's not even in our control. What will happen after this? I got to say also, Rob, I don't know, I'm sure you caught this, but it is something to brag about how median net worth is higher than it's ever been. When everyone knows that the problem is price inflation and just go, yeah, but you're all worth more money than you've ever been worth, nominally. Doesn't that make you feel better? I guess. Now let's compare it to what everything costs. Maybe this is also my lack of economic education, but nominal net worth, but that can include your stock portfolio and your home value. Yes. So what you're describing is that the people with assets are currently riding high because we're still in a bubble and whatever the hell is going on with the tech sector hasn't eroded and either has the housing sector. And your average American worker, I think 50% of our economy is not in stocks or your young kids who do not own homes are getting squeezed by higher prices. So yeah, I guess the people in this country that are 40 years or 30 years older than me and there's 60s and 70s that have managed to get stock portfolios and are sitting on a home that's going up in prices. This economy is still okay for them when they got to go out and purchase things. It's more expensive, but they're sitting on some stuff that they probably can't even really sell, but for everyone else, if you think, hey, how's this thing looking for me? How are my wages doing against the way everything costs? It's really not much of a pitch. Yeah, no, that's right. And so the issue is that things are so expensive. I saw someone today, some idiot on Twitter is trying to make the argument that the Gen Z Gen Z is the richest generation ever. And here's his argument. Look, and at least the numbers he was presenting, they were federal reserve numbers. So, you know, which the Fed does do some good data. It's just that like measuring inflation by the CPI and stuff is very flawed. But they're basically arguing that adjusted for inflation, this point in their life, that Gen Z is making more money than previous generations. And it's like yeah, dude, but what can they get? Like, like, just take me through like the average, you can't deny this real thing, dude, you're not even comparing it to what they can get with that, what they might like, dude, you could get the norm in the 60s and 70s was a year annual income to buy a house. That was the norm. If you had a job, you could get a house for a year annual income. There's a million other things. There's a million things that Gen Z has, but they don't have that. And you can't pretend that doesn't exist. And that's a really big one. Gen Z won two cows. Easy. Three cows. She was hot. And you'd be bragging about that three cow wife for a long time. It was a simpler time. It was all we're trying to say. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad. You got to check out this company. If you want to level up your kitchen game, Hexclad has got you covered. The holiday season will be here before you know it. 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Hexclad.com/problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the show here. What did we want to move to? I wanted to get there was another topic that I wanted to hit Rob and what was it? Did you? I did want to play this too. This is kind of on the same thing, but let's go to the JD Vance moment, which maybe you could just chalk this up to being a dumb heckler or whatever, but I did think this was this was a moment where you did look at this and go kind of says something here. JD Vance speaking, trying to convince people that they should vote for Republicans. Rucks, far left cartel, the subjected this country to woke insanity for years. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to have to amend something I said earlier. I said that we have had zero illegal border crossings in the United States. Rucks, far left cartel. Jesus fucking Christ, Mr. Vice President. Dude, your wife and kids are brown. It's just crazy. It's kind of a crazy reaction to go just because the dude was dark skinned to go fucking illegal and you're like, dude, how many illegals care about the Epstein issue? This is a pretty homegrown problem we got here Rob. I just say maybe that guy was illegal. I don't know, but it's just a, I don't know. I thought it was kind of a strange response. It is, dude. I don't know. I try to make too much out of a random heckle and a guy getting kicked out, but there is something man where it's just like, dude, especially when you see young people in the cultural zeitgeist now, man, that's one of the things that's most incredible. That's been changed since those two polls that we looked at. That CNN earlier, 25, when Donald Trump first comes back in, he had all the energy of like, oh, these are the guys who are going to go tell you about the deep state and all this shit. And now the whole cultural zeitgeist is like, you're the ones who cover up for the pedophiles. That's like just, and I do think this is going to follow this administration and everyone in it forever. Like, I think JD Van should quit politics, dude. I really do think it's that bad. Go, just go have a nice life. This is going to follow you forever, dude, that you were in this administration and that you just sat there and took the whole thing. Yeah, I think JD Van says the problem of he's just, I guess kind of like the least cool in the bunch. And so he's just going to seem to take the most shit from people. Not that I prefer Marco Rubio, but there's just something about JD Van's demeanor that he seems to invite a little bit more criticism and it gets thrown his way. So I, yeah, I don't think he's getting out of this. Yeah, it's an interesting, you know, what it reminds me of. Do you remember how Trump supporters hated CNN more than they hated MSNBC, even though MSN NBC was probably further to the left than CNN, but it was something about how CNN purported to be in the middle that made them more hate it. Like MSNBC at least it felt like kind of admitted like, yeah, we're the left-wing Fox News. But there's something where JD Vance gets it even worse because maybe it's because we know he knows better. Maybe that's the way to say it. You know, like, I know Marco Rubio is one of the bad guys, but JD Vance kind of wants to be on the good side. And like that makes that tragically just makes him even more hate it. It's a, it really is. It's too bad for him. Let's play Natalie. Excuse me. I got to get Mark Leven and his visit to Israel in here. Mark Leven, this is, look, this also can't be completely removed from the mid-term pitch. I mean, this is Fox News is host. One of the ones they got left. And he's, you know, I don't know, this is, they are a political get out the vote organization. So this is his pitch. He's gone, he's gone to Israel, Rob, to deliver this message. Of course, there was the big, what's the organization there? Natcon event over there in Israel. Yeah. Kind of interesting times. Anyway, here's here's Mark Leven giving a message to all of his viewers straight from Israel. It's the Christians, the Christian majority that was at the second continental congress that wrote the declaration and declared it. Christians who made up all the delegates, all of them at the constitutional convention and wrote that magnificent document. The Christians carried this forward in the United States of America or we wouldn't have a United States of America. This is what we mean when we talk about the Judeo Christian values and belief systems. This, this, that is what underlays Americanism. This is why you need to vote. Again, whether you're Jewish or Christian, this is why you need to vote. That, the down the rock, those are the shoulders we stand on. That is the wall we stand on. That's the ancient history we stand on. Rob, how can they ever claim that I'm making too big a deal out of this or that I'm pointing at something that is written? This is Mark Leven's midterm pitch. He's pointing to Israel behind them. I don't know. Rob specifically is it the whaling wall that he's pointing to or is it the dome? I don't know what he means. But this is why you have to vote. Dude, how is it, Rob? That any sober mind can't just look at this and go, this isn't on, this is an unhealthy relationship for one country's politics to have with another nation. Like, you would just never see this on any side of the political aisle on any issue about any other country. Am I wrong? Would you ever just see like a liberal just like pointing at like Sweden and being like this. This is why we love America. This is America. This other country here. This is really America. What? Well, I was just kidding. He's clearly trying to point out the whaling wall, but actually his thumb points at the dome of the rock, which is the Muslim place of worship where the temple once stood. But yes, I mean, it's completely absurd to say, hey, we've got to protect all of this on account of, I mean, the declaration of independence did not come out of the old temple site. Nor do I think that the biblical, you know, the rabbinical Judaism of the time that included slaughtering animals is a very reflective in the declaration of independence or our constitution. It's just, I don't know, man, one of the things that's just so goofy about it is just how, how kind of openly religious it is. And I don't mean that again, it's like a knock on religion. There's something wrong with being religious. The Markovans are not religious. So it's just, it's just a bullshit like fabricated loose affiliation. Right. No, but it's no, that's right. It's a religious pitch. It's a religious claim. And it's, look, it's just very strange. Look, the way we all work in politics, you know, this is for better or for worse, right? And I think this is something that people in modern day are very removed from that. So essentially, Rob right in kind of popular American culture, people can claim to be religious. And that doesn't really mean much. You know, famously, there's been like, I don't know, like I'm the whatever podcast or whatever. I've seen clips where there's like, like only fans, whores, like with a cross on being like, I am a Christian. I'm a devout Christian. You know, it's like, okay, well, at this point, then what does any of this mean? You know, but I, but I think it's something that people don't understand is that for much of human history, the way people lived was religious. And what I mean by that is I mean that like they believed that not only was there a God, but that like he was interacting with there every day. Like if it didn't rain, that was because you did something that angered the gods. If there was a horrible crop season, you believed the gods had done something to you. If someone fell ill of a cold, you thought like there was a religious, like all of where as today for the most part, almost everyone you meet, like we don't really work that way. We operate in a secular, even somebody who like, I don't know, Rob, like I believe in God, I really do. I mean, I talk to God every day. But like if me and you get a flat tire on the road, I'm not going like, oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Rob, this one's on me. I told God I would do something last week. And I didn't, you know what I mean, we live in such a secular kind of world that it even say that the example I like to use is like even like a pro life advocate would never come with an argument and go and you were like, well, it says so in the Bible. It's the word of God. Like it'd be very strange if you heard a pro life like person just making that argument because you'd be like, hey, no, man, you got to like, you got to come with a real argument here. You can't just say this is my religion because if it's not someone's religion, then they're like, it's not my religion. So the pro life person would say, well, do you know, we have the, you know, they'd bring them. In fact, I learned this from pro life advocates before my wife had a baby, but they'd be like, hey, do you know actually how we've learned scientifically now that there are brain waves at five weeks and a heartbeat at six weeks and that, you know, they're using a scientific secular argument even though it's largely driven by a religious kind of conviction. Anyway, I say all that, Rob, to say, just imagine, imagine you heard someone talk this way about any other country. You would hear it for what it is. Like imagine Greece was at a war and I was just to go there and go to like some whole some old site and be like, dude, you know, ancient Greece is where all of the Greco-Roman tradition of America came from. And America wouldn't be America without ancient Greece. And by the way, if you pick Greece or Rome or something like that, like if you pick Italy or Greece, the countries they are today, there's a really strong argument there, right? The, yeah, the Greco-Roman tradition is what led to the enlightenment and the declaration of independence. But immediately you would go, wait a minute, dude, there's a war going on. You have to argue over whether, like, it couldn't just be this emotional religious and there at the Colosseum where they held events. Why do you think we have, you know, stadiums in every single city in America? This stadium represented this. And therefore, you'd be like, dude, dude, I'm not voting off of this. No one talks like this. No one even presents an argument like this in this religiosity way. So like, it's only with Israel. It's only with Israel, they're going to do it. And if you point it out, if you just emperor's new closet and go, hey, this is really weird. You seem to have a loyalty to a foreign government. They, they react like you stabbed a baby. It's like, it's this truth that is stranger than any fiction. You couldn't make this up in a movie. All right, guys, let's take a moment and think our sponsor for today's show, which is Ridge. I love the company Ridge. They've been a long time sponsor. I have a Ridge wallet. I use it all the time. Holidays are not that far off. This is the perfect company. If you're looking for a gift for someone who's difficult to shop for, get them a Ridge wallet. It's the coolest wallet. Get rid of that giant crusty leather brick that's falling apart anyway and get the unique slim modern design that holds up to 12 cards plus cash. 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I don't think the term goes back very far before the 20th century or I think it's a term that like really came into prominence like post World War II. Someone can fact check me on that. I don't actually know the linguistic origin of that term, but I guarantee it was not a popular term pre-World War II. Well, it feels like someone managed to Jew that word in there. Honestly, I just say it's I'm not sure. It's just such an absurd pitch of point to a monument in another country and go, this is what we're looking to protect. Like just, I want to protect the monuments. I'm all for it. You know, I'm sure there were some monuments in Gaza that would have been better off protecting. And like I'm not even against, I guess in a, in a broad kind of theoretical sense, I'm not against pointing out, let's say Rob, if you wanted to say like the Greco-Roman, you know, tradition, say of, you know, the European society or human society. And if you want to like add in like Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt or like all this and say like, hey, this is, it's, it's not completely untrue, Rob, right? That like, look, the Old Testament is what Jews believed in and the New Testament is what Christians believe in with the Old Testament. Judeo-Christian, like there's something to be said for all of that. But, okay, so it's first appeared in print in the 1800s, but I guarantee you it wasn't popular when it first appeared. Didn't pick up until the 1930s. Okay, that's what it's called. And cool. Yeah, there you go. Judeo-Christian. But anyway, but like, I'm not against saying that like, look, there's something about modern civilization that gets its roots and kind of like the biblical tradition that, then these, these great ancient societies, these kind of norms around republicanism and democracy or whatever. But again, to just be, be approaching it in this kind of like, if anybody just like, I don't know, dude, when the Muslim Brotherhood won the election in Egypt in, what was it, 2009 or 2010 or whatever. And anyone was covering it and they started talking about like the Sphinx and the Pharaoh and what the Egyptians figured out about astrology or something like that. You'd be like, this is crazy. What do you do it? This is not, this is no way to think about these things and to like engage politically. So yes, it is very strange. And it also, Rob, like you said, it's just, it kind of becomes a little bit of a thing, especially like, when you're talking about a modern nation state, that's a little tiny state that very small, that completely depends on us. It's a little weird to be sitting here that we're supposed to just be groveling about how great they are and they're responsible for everything that we have. Really not a good message to be sending. And I don't think it's going to really do so great in the midterms. You can't believe this stuff even works with boomers, but it's not going to be enough for Trump. Final word to you, Rob. And then let's wrap up. Well, let's call it there. Good episode, porchdoor.com and run your mouth podcast and you've got a Memphis porch. I'm now holding the run hostage for someone coming up with a Memphis porch. There you go. Memphis, someone coming to the door. All right. Catch you guys next time. Peace. [BLANK_AUDIO]