You Don’t Hate Neocons Enough

Speaker 0 : What's up everybody. What's up. Welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem. I'm Dave Smith. He is Robbie the fire Bernstein. How are you feeling, sir? Speaker 3 : I'm doing well. Great weekend of porches. And already this Wednesday I'm back in Chicago. Then you and I are in Appleton, Wisconsin. I'm going to film those shows cause that's an excellent room. And then Sunday I got Madison. I still got a lot of porches, Davey Philly next week, along with Doyle's town, doing a gig in port Chester and max is the original porch and got to put together my September. So if you've got a Kansas city or Reno, hit me up. Speaker 0 : That's this weekend. We're in Appleton, Wisconsin. Few days, few days away, August 13th, 14th and 15th. Looking forward to that. Yeah. That was a great club. We really Speaker 3 : Hate that town. Speaker 0 : Well, like the people who came out to our shows were cool. Just like the town. Speaker 3 : You guys know you live there. I don't even know if there's a town. I was staying by a river that, uh, I went for a run and there were too many bugs and there was nothing edible to eat unless you like fried cheese curds, I guess. Speaker 0 : Well, there, yeah, we did have a tough time finding stuff to eat. You know where there's not a tough time finding stuff to eat is Austin, Texas. Um, which will be the next stop after that for me. I know the early shows on Friday and Saturday are sold out for the mother ship, but late shows and a Sunday, I believe I checked right now. Yes. Late shows. Speaker 3 : And Sunday still have limited seating available. So go grab those comic Dave smith.com porch tour.com for all the Rob's dates. Um, all right, let's get into some stuff. So I, uh, I gotta say this was, so I just recorded, um, an episode of Pierce Morgan, which was, I thought a particularly good one, but one that I was like, oh, I wish there was more time, uh, to get into some stuff. But I did end up, um, well, we ended up talking about like the, the topic was like the democratic, democratic socialists and mom Donnie and all these guys went in their primaries. Um, you know, the, uh, what's the name out in Michigan in them. And, uh, and then Hassan Piker became like a big topic of the thing. And I did end up like arguing with jank a little bit. Cause you know, you go see it for yourself, but like Jen's position was essentially like, Hey, look, this is what the war Hawks do. They try to ruin anybody who has anything controversial that they've said, but the really hate them because they're critics of Israel, the warfare state. Speaker 4 : And I was kind of like, yeah, I know. And that's why it sucks when they do that. But we all know that's not why I'm doing it. Right. So why does he love math so much? You know, like what the hell, like, this is really weird man. And a lot of reasonable people got some reasonable concerns about socialism. Why on earth are you branding yourself after the most failed thing that humans have ever invented, you know? And like, so it ended up getting into kind of like an interesting, uh, conversation I thought. Um, but it was kind of, I guess one of the things that was kind of cool about it too, was that it's almost like the consensus is already. Speaker 3 : That we all disagree with them, but now let's get into the argument about which one of us, you know, critics is not insane. I don't know. I thought it was like a good, important conversation to have. I want to try, I want to try a lobby hard for that Hassan Piker debate. Uh, cause he had already accepted it, man. And we really should make that happen. And I'm friends with his uncle. I should be able to make this, this happen. But anyway, Speaker 4 : I liked the idea of that debate. And I also liked the mom, Donnie sit down. We got, we got to make these happen. This is my thing. Right now. In fact, I'm going to put out a tweet about this later today. Cause I'm going to start this. This is what I want to do. Okay. Cause it's been a little while since I've done, I mean, I do the Pierce Morgan debates regularly. Um, but it's almost been a little while since I've done like a big debate outside of that. And part of it is because it's all over. I've won all the debate. Like, I don't know what to say. I've won all the debates. Like what else is there to debate? And, and it did also kind of hit a level where like, and I knew this, I knew this with Cuomo and I knew it with Douglas Murray, where I was like, I'm not going to be able to get too many more of them. You know what I mean? Like I'll get a couple big names, I'll, I'll humiliate them, but then it's going to be very tough to get, you know, more big names to want to step up and do that. But what I want to do is there's two debates that I want to have, right. And I want to have, I want to do a big, these don't have to be live or whatever, but I would kind of like to do, if we could do a way to do it in person, I would like to do that, but I'm flexible on all of that. Cause it does make it much easier if you don't have to do that, but I want to do a big debate. On Iran, who is the biggest talk? Who is the biggest talk at this point who will still come defend this shit? Like who can we get? You know, that's what I want. I want the biggest person who's willing to man up who defended the 12 day war in this war in Iran. I want someone to actually sit down and argue with me right now, as we'll get into what the latest in the war is there. And then the other one is, is democratic socialists. And Hassan seems like the guy for that, that we should, we should be the guy, but yeah, like if I could get mom, Donnie, that's still, that's still a dream I'll hold on to, which I won't give up on. Come on, mom, Donnie, we're just a couple. A couple of New York city Jews trying to find our way in the world. Let's, let's do it. But that's what I'd like to do. I'd like to do big, the biggest advocate of the war in Iran and the biggest advocate of democratic socialism that I can get. I think that would, I think that would be good and useful. And I don't know what that seems like. That's what fits the moment right now would be, would be those two debates. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is the wellness company and they've just launched their new product. Smile. Say bye-bye to receding gums. Gum recession is not just cosmetic. Millions of people deal with bleeding gums, tooth sensitivity, and even tooth loss. And once gums start pulling back, most toothpastes do absolutely nothing to help, but now meet smile. The wellness company's next generation toothpaste designed to support gum repair, strengthen teeth, reduce sensitivity, and gently whiten your smile. Smile is powered by healing peptides like BPC 150. known for helping reduce inflammation and supporting the repair of gum and bone tissue. The result of using smile is stronger gums, healthier teeth and a brighter smile. So head over to TWC dot health slash problem and use the promo code problem to get 10% off. Once again, TWC dot health slash problem promo code problem for 10% off. All right, let's get back into the show. I love it. New heads for the mantle. Well, I tell you, I, um, I just shared on Twitter. If anyone wants to look, it's amazing how well this, this shit, it ages when you're not saying indefensible, horrible things, but it's like I posted a clip from Pierce Morgan. I was just about a year ago, a little shy of a year ago. It was from, uh, September of last year. So we're, it was, uh, in fact, I think it was posted on September 9th, I want to say. And so that would be what just basically a month short of a, of a year. And let me, let me double check on that. But yeah, but so it's the, and it's at the time when the defenders of the 12 day war are arguing about how, um, you know, it was such an easy thing or whatever. Um, and, and I was saying that we're at halftime as they're bragging about this whole thing, you know, and it's like just a year later, like the argument completely collapses once one is completely vindicated, the other one completely collapses. And then it's tougher to get these people to, uh, to want to show up. defend that they were saying that shit the whole time but it really is it's it's remarkable and i know probably we do it a little bit too much i shouldn't say we i do it a little bit too much but i mentioned how good our track record is but like it's amazing how much the other side just really counts on you forgetting what they said through the whole time and i gotta say as much as jank has been cool to me personally and i like the guy and respect him i did i did get a little bit of a feeling with that too we're like it's like now when wokeism comes up you know it's like aoc and all them did you see the aoc quote where she goes look wokeism 1.0 was crazy i did not but that's remarkable yeah just look wokeism 1.0 was crazy we'll all admit that now while taking no responsibility for it like no one wants to talk about what they were saying in the middle of covid or what they were saying in the middle of the trans insanity or what they were saying at the beginning of ukraine or what they you know it's like they they run away from those positions and it's almost as if we're to pretend that they never had them whereas like i don't think there's a single position that i want to run away i'm not saying i didn't get anything wrong but like i definitely got some things wrong over the years you know i thought masks worked at the beginning of covid like i got some things on covid wrong i i was always against the mandates but i remember just generally my position being like yeah probably helps a little bit to be wearing a mask so i saw all those studies that were like no it didn't the mass compliance didn't have any so okay i adjust but like i don't know i'm pretty i'd be pretty comfortable for you to pull any random pierce morgan appearance i've had over the last three years or whatever and i'd be like yeah i'll defend everything i was saying doesn't seem like that crazy of a standard okay so anyway the latest in the war rob it's not going very good what have you heard oh uh well it seems like uh donald trump is desperate to just leave and the iranians are making it tougher for him to do so he flirted with uh a land blockade that was a dumb idea i guess they asked people for creative ideas no one came forward with anything then he said we're gonna do the biggest strikes we've ever done and obviously just walked completely away from that because uh you know all of our people that we buy oil from the region were like you guys are making too much of a mess please don't uh blow up all the oil we want to sell you so if you could not do that that would be better for us and then donald trump finally accepted i guess that the war's over they finally admitted that our uh supply of critical uh missiles is running low and we're not going to be able to do that so we're going to be able to do that and they're going to be able to do that and we're going to be able to do that and we're going to be able to do that and we're going to be able to do that and we're going to be able to do that and he goes all right let's uh let's cut a deal on the and he goes all right let's uh let's cut a deal on the straits and so the iranians came back with straits and so the iranians came back with an even worse deal than the mou which was the straits open for everyone but America and Israel, and you guys got to pay up. We want the $300 billion upfront in restoration. All those terrorist people that we're supporting in the region, you now have to walk away from those battles as well, and you got to see them as our partners. I mean, they really put some punishing language into their new terms for calling it a war, and so now Donald Trump has basically just returned to, all right, we'll just stick with the blockade because their economy is in a worse position than ours, and so we're not really going to negotiate with them. We're going to walk away eventually. I don't need a nuclear deal because I've already solved that. I'll strike him again if he hasn't even said this, but I'll strike him again if we have to, but essentially, he's just back to we're blockading them, and their economy is a bigger problem than what we're seeing, and so we're going to bleed them dry, which obviously that hasn't worked thus far, and there's no evidence that I've seen that I've seen. Iran is on the verge of an economic collapse. Yeah, and certainly not acting like a country you would expect to act if they were on the verge. It is, you know, it's true. When you read about, like, military history, sometimes you have this, I guess it's kind of like, like, I was never a big chess player, but if you ever played chess, you know, in your life, you know, and like, if you play chess, and then, which I guess is supposed to be a metaphor for war, is kind of the idea of the game, but if you play chess, every now and then when someone has, like, a really big move, there's just kind of like a moment where you're like, you're like going, going, going, and then. It's just like, ooh, ooh, that was a devastating little move right there, you know, like, oh, and like, if you really read about, like, military history, find these, and I got to say, that was a little bit of one by Iran the other day. This was detailed, everything Rob's talking about in a major piece by the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and there's been some more that's come out since then. The latest being that Iran said that they're closing the strait through 2029. It was just reported a couple hours ago. Now, who knows if that's exactly true, but this is, to show you, this is what they're saying. No, I think we'll just do this. Let that whole midterm election thing sort itself out, and then we'll discuss. But so, essentially, what happened is the Wall Street Journal reports Donald Trump is saying to his top generals now, he's ready to walk away, and he's ready. Essentially, what the reporting was, Rob, is that he's ready to acknowledge, forget the nuclear deal, which is what the whole thing was about, right? One sentence of what this war is about. Iran cannot. Have a nuclear weapon. Okay, he's ready to bail on that, but he just needs this strait open. And so, Iran, it's almost like you went, hey, here's, you get your win, and then they turned around and they made their ooh move, which was maximalist demands. I mean, maximalist demands, and you just laid them out right there, right? 300 billion, yes to the proxies, we control the strait, everything. This was, listen, this was a devastating move, and man, just in terms of military power, it was a devastating move. And so, Iran, it's almost like you went, hey, here's, a very smart way for the Iranians to play it. But that's the backdrop of this. I mean, we are at the point where we have kind of like most officially lost this thing. It looks worse than it's been the whole time. And in fact, now, well, I'd say maybe it doesn't look worse in the sense that it may have looked like Donald Trump was going to follow through on some of those terroristic threats for a brief period at the end of the first month of the war. But he's not even really talking like that anymore, Rob. In the latest, like, it's not even like the last three days. Yes, no, no, no, that's true. Fair enough. But it does just seem like in this, this latest round of, oh, we just want to get out now, and they're making maximalist demands. It's just one more. Look, maybe he'll pivot back to threatening terrorism again until they all compete. But as you said, at the end, they're just no reason to suspect that that's going to do anything other than it did the last few times that he did that. So, well, they're not, they're not outselling it anymore. And that's only, you know, it's only been a couple of days of that, but you don't hear, they have no Navy, they have no ships. You seem to be hearing an acknowledgement of the amount of military equipment that we've used. And that seemingly the Pentagon's trying to be like, guys, that we can't do any more of this. It's depleting too much of our stocks and we don't have a pathway to victory. And actually, actually dealing with the escalation dominance that you if we bomb civilian infrastructure in Iran, they are going to retaliate on Saudi Arabia and the other Arab nations. And we don't actually want that fight. Yep. 100%. And on top of all of it, as we've talked about the whole time, the cherry on top is that if this happens, if let's say this goes through, or let's even just say for the sake of some version of this goes through, let's, let's, I don't think, I don't know, Rob, I said this after the MOU was officially signed around, it's never getting that 300 billion, you know, like, I don't actually think our word is good and who knows what will end up coming of this. But if some version of this happens where Donald Trump goes, okay, essentially what is going to probably happen is that we're not getting a nuclear deal, at least certainly not right now. We're going to end this. We're going to come to some type of agreement. Iran's going to maintain control of the strait, but, you know, we'll charge a dollar fee or whatever and not destroy the global economy. When that happens, it seems like we're going to end up in a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, in fact, this is what the hawks rely on, but this is actually true. They have the ability to produce uranium and the knowledge to enrich it. They have mastered the fuel cycle. They have, you know, this was the point of enriching up to 60%, right? Well, essentially, and I've over the last year and a half read enough nuclear experts to kind of get this much into my head. Not that I understand it that well, but the whole point of enriching up to 60% is that you could break out to weapons grade. You're demonstrating that you can. So in other words, although they had never made the decision they were going to make nukes, they had made the decision to demonstrate to the world that they can. And so we know they can. And they don't even have to buy their uranium on the global market. They can make their own. So they have the ability to do this. And now, Rob, I mean, to build a right, like, what are we going to do? You know, we, they've essentially lost the big threat. The reason they wouldn't break out before. Well, you could say they really religiously believed in it. Okay. Well, that Ayatollah is dead. And, and the other thing is that they were worried this would happen, but now this already happened. You don't have this threat to play. And do you think anybody like, honestly, Rob, at this point, after this thing, if we were to end this after this disaster, and then they started building a nuke, is any president really going to say we're launching the whole war again, over one more state having nuclear weapons? I kind of doubt it. I can't, you know, so that is my guess here. I think Iran on top of all the rest of it being a disaster. Also, we probably just pushed around to go nuclear. Great job, neocons. You do not hate neocons enough, dude. If anyone's been wondering why I was like, why is Dave? Why for 20 years? Is Dave just hated? Neocons with the passion of a thousand horses. It's like, cause it's this, by the way, let's get, um, I'm sorry if you want to add something, but let's get into the Mark Levin stuff. Cause this is so perfect here, but go ahead. On the point of them going nuclear. I do think you're right that everything Donald Trump has done has only made it more likely and given them more of a reason to, um, if Donald Trump does walk away here and, uh, the Iranians are now allowed to sell their oil on the open market and they're able to toll for the market. Um, I think they're just set up in such a better place than where they ever were. And they kind of have enough power in the region that perhaps they actually don't want to rock the boat on, uh, ongoing nuclear. I think what it will more come down to is if over the next, uh, 10 years, people basically start figuring out how to engineer, making the straights irrelevant, which, uh, I I'm still surprised is not doable on a quicker timetable. It's 20% of the world's oil supplies. I can't believe that we can't start building pipelines to, to make it irrelevant. In a five-year timetable. Uh, I think if that were to start to happen, then they'd need a, then they would need a nuclear deterrent again. I think at the moment, uh, you know, they've, they, if they start having the money coming in from owning the straights and being able to sell their oil, I get your point for sure. Yeah, no, it's a, it's a good point. You're right. And maybe essentially that the control of the straight would essentially equate to a nuclear umbrella because you still have that nuclear option kind of, of that being said, your global power. Now you control the straight of her most, you have that, you know, what else global powers like to have nuclear weapons. It's just that much more protection. And like you said, they've got to be that what you just said has got to be a major thought thought in the Iranians heads now that like, okay, there's going to be, the world is going to be racing to find alternatives to this for the next time. So very important points. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Ridge. I love this company. I've owned the Ridge wallet for years now. It's waiting for the next time. So thank you so much for watching. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. exactly where it is. There's a reason why they have over 100,000 five-star reviews. So go check out Ridge if you haven't already. For a limited time, our listeners can get 10% off at Ridge by using the promo code POTP10 at checkout. So go to Ridge.com, use that promo code POTP10 to get 10% off your entire order. Okay, let's jump to this. Here is Mark Levin. Listen, guys, I got to say, I know it's a little bit strange because as you know, Rob, and we've discussed this dynamic on the show, you know, years ago on this show, essentially, we used to spend most of the time just eviscerating the corporate media. But then corporate media became very irrelevant. And it was just like, what are we going to do? Play a segment on MS Now and talk about how dumb they are? It's like, yeah, that's right. That's right. And then I got to say, probably at a time around, say, 24, when Trump was, you know, riding on his way back to the greatest political comeback of all time. It seemed like guys like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro probably weren't even worth playing anymore because they had been totally defeated and just totally drum out of the, you know, no, they're laughingstocks at this point. Who cares? But then once the administration went in the Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin direction, it seemed like now these guys are kind of the relevant media to take on because they do represent in a way, the media still defending the actions of this regime. And they're the they are integral parts of pushing this policy on the American people. And like, so once once the sitting president of the United States says, hey, MAGA isn't Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones and Megyn Kelly and Candace Owens. MAGA is Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro. Well, now our job becomes once again to destroy Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro. And so that's why we will continue to do it. But here is just think with that backdrop, as you've imagined, the backdrop is that once again, the neoconservatives have convinced us to enter a yet another Middle East regime change war. And once again, they've been wrong about everything. And it's a disaster. And it goes nothing like the way they would say once again, they've done that. That's the backdrop. And here's what Mark Levin has to say about it. Things have become the greatest generation endured the severe economic scarcity of the Great Depression during their youth, followed by massive global combat and home front mobilization during World War Two, over 16 million Americans served in the military, facing intense physical danger, hundreds of thousands of casualties, strict civilian rationing of food, gas and clothing, all of these things. And we sit here with a war in Iran, against an enemy that has killed thousands of Americans, maimed thousands of Americans. I remember a time when America would say, let's go, let's destroy that country, destroy that government. You don't get to kill thousands of our fellow citizens, military or civilians. You don't get to try to assassinate our president. You don't get to threaten us with potential nuclear weapons either. Now it's a debate. Mark Levin: All right, pause it. Pause it right there. Mark Levin: Are you a neocon? I mean, what can you even say about this? I mean, it's not, this is the pathetic type of propaganda that would work on boomers, I suppose. It's, look, man, think about all the sacrifice during World War Two. We're not making that sacrifice right now. A bunch of nonsense about how Iran had killed thousands of people. It's a bunch of nonsense about how Iran had killed thousands of people. It's a bunch of nonsense about how Iran has killed. By the way, this is, it's also, I know this isn't the first time I've made this point. I mean, I've tweeted this before. I tweeted this at Mark Levin the other day, but like, you know, if you're going to say we've been at war with Iran for 47 years, then Ronald Reagan committed treason. Just so you know, like your favorite president of all time sold weapons to the Iranians. So if you're saying we were at war with them the whole time, then they committed treason. All the nonsense about trying to assassinate the president, all of this. But it's just, it's quite something. You know, Mark Levin is, he's praising the greatest generation for their sacrifices here. We could get into a bit more about that. It does. Mark Levin isn't of the greatest generation. Mark Levin is one of the kids that they made when they came home from that war. That's what's known as the baby boomers, the post-war babies. So he's saying all these other guys made a sacrifice. So you guys should go make a sacrifice. Notice this, this in many ways is the essence of the critique against the boomers. It's like invoke the sacrifice of the last guy to employ the next guy to make a sacrifice. And you may happen to notice there, Rob, what was missing? Who didn't have to storm the beaches in Norman day? I mean, ain't that convenient? You know, it is unbelievable to, you know, say what you will about the Dan Crenshaw's of the world. And they're pretty pathetic. Don't get me wrong, but like, it is amazing. That you get to have Mark Levin's and Douglas Murray's and these guys who just go, I'm going to spend an entire career advocating for war from the time I'm a military aged man and never serve in any of them. But like, you know, I'll lecture other people if they don't want to sacrifice that way. Anyway, there's a lot of angles here. So what are you thinking, Rob? Well, you know, uh, World War II might've been worth the sacrifice and no Americans right now think that this one is worth the sacrifice. And you would have said the exact same thing during Iraq and Afghanistan. If the country was as against those, you would say, Hey, World War II, you know, the country was willing to do these things. And yeah, we've learned since World War II, we don't win these things and they cost us a lot of money and they don't leave our country in a better place. So let's not do them. And, uh, we didn't have the debt that we have now when World War II. And the point is you guys haven't sold us on the country. And when you're telling me that Iran's committed 10,000 deaths, how many deaths have been on American soil because of Iranians? When is the America actually been threatened? Maybe the idea of American empire, which I don't agree with. And I think costs us basically our ability to live good lives within this country as powers bigger than you and I play the American empire game for their particular businesses. And it's not actually in our interest, but I mean, what threat exists from Iran for me living in Stanford, Connecticut and how many deaths have taken place in Connecticut by the hands of the Iranians? Yeah, the answer is zero. And, and it's interesting you say that because, you know, just a little bit of history for people, like if he wants to say, oh, the greatest generation made this sacrifice, they went to World War II, but let's just be honest about what happened here. The American people did not want to get involved in World War II, um, for obvious reasons. And in fact, they elected, um, um, FDR, um, reelected. FDR, who was running on keeping us out of World War II. And the America first committee had like 700,000 members. There was a, there was huge resistance toward the war. And then FDR, you know, and FDR knew this and knew he needed Pearl Harbor, um, to get us into it. And then he, you know, whatever, there's a whole interesting history there, but kind of goaded the Japanese into it. But what happened is Japan attacked America and look, okay, Pearl Harbor is awfully far, Rob, but that was American territory and they came and they attacked us. And then after that, um, immediately Hitler declared war on America and then millions of people signed up and we're ready to go. So like, yeah, you didn't get any of that first part. Sorry. Not like you're like, Hey, put a bunch of pissed off Saudis and a couple of Egyptians attack New York city 25 years ago. How come I can't get my war with Iran that I've been trying for ever since then? Like, cause they didn't attack us and you want to. And you could say that. Yes. When Ronald Reagan sent Marines into Lebanon, that there were militants who were linked with Iran, who got in gunfight with our boys, but come on, Rob, like you said, that is just different, man. That's just different than someone coming over and killing of that. Yes. Reagan literally wrote that. I, I, he's, he turned, he said, I swore I would never tuck tail and run, but I underestimated the irrationality of middle Eastern politics. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to go to the army. I'm going to go to the army. Okay. And then sold weapons to the Iranians a couple of years later. So no, it was not his lesson was not that therefore we're at war with the Iranian people now, because otherwise that would be treason to give aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime. Maybe the lesson here is a quit playing these empire games of overthrowing governments because we won't have enemies like the Iranians 47 years later. Well, look, I mean like in the same, in the same way that anybody would just recognize it, your distinction between killing Americans over here. Look, man, like if I, if I told you that my neighbor shot me and you know, you were under the impression that the story was that my neighbor broke into my house with a gun and shot me. But then you found out that no, the real story was that I broke into my neighbor's house with a gun. And then he shot me that changes the freaking nature of the story quite a lot. And everybody sees that like, I'm sorry, like a soldier dying in a foreign country is not the same thing. Like you grabbed a gun and put on a uniform and invaded a country. You're you're a military target now. This has been understood since the Enlightenment, at least. I think before that there was distinction between civilians and military combatants. But anyway, okay. So then another angle on top of all of this, Rob, is also just like, imagine asking this type of sacrifice of young people. I mean, you wonder why neoconservatism is so unpopular. You wonder why it's a label that no one even uses anymore. As you remember, when I was debating Douglas Murray, I said neoconservatives once, and he goes, oh, the N-word. You're going to bring up the N-word. And I went, hey, what was the name of your book again? Oh, yeah. The Case for Neoconservatism. They run away from that word now, but they liked it at a time. The reason they run away from it is because it's enormously unpopular. And could you imagine anything more unpopular than this? Hey, 20-year-old. By the way, this whole thing started off the $20 burrito debate. That's why he's bringing this up. Hey, 20-year-old, you know how you're complaining that you can't participate in society because the price of everything is completely unaffordable? Oh, yeah? Well, you should be. You should be cannon fodder. This is political malpractice. I mean, this is a Zoran Mamdani supporter. Couldn't come up with anything better. Here, let's keep playing. But let's keep playing from the great one. Or a warmonger? Is this a war of choice? We don't even have a draft. Would a draft even work with young people today? I wonder. We don't even fight World War II today. We're whining about a dollar of gasoline. Here, just pause it. See, I also, I mean, one of the things, Mark Levin is just such a remarkable person in so many ways. Because, Rob, I mean, he is just, there is, could you think of a less appealable human being, a less appealing human being, that just this guy, like a little angry, bald man screaming at you about how you're not cannon fodder? And could we even do a draft anymore in this country? Could we even, Rob? That's the real problem we have in America. You know, you might think that the problem in this country is that, you know, that, I don't know, that we, tens of thousands of OD deaths every year, hundreds of thousands of people who sleep on the streets, or that we're $40 trillion in debt, or that 25-year-olds have no job opportunities, or that there's tens of millions of illegal immigrant, immigrants in the country. Like, whatever problem you may think. But Mark Levin's major problem is that right now, we don't even know where we're going. We don't even know where we're going. We don't know where we're going. I'm not sure we could enslave a whole generation of young people to go be cannon fodder. They might resist. Yeah, everything he's- For another stupid war that won't work out at all the way Mark Levin tells you it well. Everything he's describing sounds like societal improvements, that people are woken up enough to the fact that, you know, this empire building is not working out in our favor, and so let's not do it. But think about the biggest bloodbath in human history, Rob. We may not be able to do that again. Okay. Well, it went up 60 cents. What are we going to do? Mildred, what are we going to do? I don't know, Frank. It went up at the- He's so old. Mildred is his example. I don't know. Affordability. Dude, pause it right there. Over 16 million citizens served- Rob, that's- I did not catch that. I did watch this once before. That might be the most hilarious thing about all that. No, no. Mildred was just the random, like, name that he went through. He goes, "No, you know, you know how it is. You're a young whippersnapper. You say to your friend, 'Hey, Gertrude, grab Edith. Meet me over for a malt- a malted.'" That's hilarious, dude. Dude, how many times do I have to say that? How many times do I have to say that? too long you know the price of gasoline and the price of a taco now it's just it's just crazy you know this has gone on long enough are we going to the movies tonight i don't know should we see a play i i don't know is football on tv yet i don't know that's just gone on way too long you understand the government limited access to everyday goods like meat sugar coffee mark it's unbelievable dude he hates you he's he hates the idea of you living in comfort or you living a normal life and he thinks that that's something that you're supposed to sacrifice so i guess israel can be safe and that he can have a bigger paycheck but he's literally listen to this disdain he has and by the way there's plenty of other activities that people engage in he could have uh he could have said in the same condescending voice oh so you want to go to church oh so you want to volunteer here he's picking mundane activities but at the end of the day who's he to judge how you want to go to church he's picking mundane activities but at the end of the day who's he to spend your time if you're being peaceful and he literally has you wanted to spend some time with your family oh you wanted to maybe get a week off with your kid who you never see because they're at school all the time and you're at work all the time because you've been picking up extra shifts because the price of everything has skyrocketed by 35 over the last five years so you're picking up extra shifts and you say oh you needed a little vacation you wanted to be able to take him to the lake for the weekend might as well be saying that yeah do you have a disdain for the concept of comfort and the idea that nobody's sacrificing i mean well where's our country going to be if we keep fighting wars like this in the next 10 years can we afford this forever i mean if donald trump keeps this going and you actually have a significant stock market problem like at that point was that a sacrifice that was just oh easy peasy oh so your stock portfolio crashed oh so you got fired from your job because the economy is in a recession because government overspent and then decided to do a stupid war for no reason i mean how many things you're just going to downplay is hey you're supposed to live a miserable existence and it's for you to sacrifice yourself and you're supposed to live a miserable existence and it's for you to sacrifice yourself so we can make sure that israel stays safe yeah yeah and i gotta tell you man even as mark levin says it and goes um um like oh what do you have to say it's it's also like well yeah you don't have to sacrifice you're in the class of people who really doesn't have to sacrifice uh that much um financially speaking i am too i'm not trying to like you know like there's you get over a certain hurdle when even when you get killed by the inflation okay but if you own a house and you have a little bit of money and you know the inflation so you have a mortgage and your mortgage debt actually goes down a little bit now in real dollars right because you're holding debt and then the value of your house goes up so you almost get compensated a little bit but if you're just a renter out there you just get destroyed for it mark levin is literally sitting here and he's mocking um the fact that people are resentful over the sacrifice they have to make because it's not as much as the sacrifice that they had to make in uh in world war ii and he's sitting here mocking the sacrifice and as you said rob and again if they would just be honest about it it is what it's for israel i mean that's like you you said it he hates you because you have the nerve to think you shouldn't like young people today think they shouldn't have to sacrifice higher prices for israel it's that blatant i mean what listen dude there's there's quotes of the the neocon architect uh irving crystal he just says it straight up he goes listen we can't have uh a non-interventionist foreign policy because that we all know this it's just too ridiculous to not be again i i this is kind of the same thing i said to jank on on pierce morgan's show today because he said at one point you know when i started like trash and hassan he goes oh so you're going into like trying to cancel him now and i go no i'm not trying to cancel anybody i'd like him to to be honest about what his position is like if you're a communist just say you're a communist and that that's what you're fighting for but don't give me that you know what i mean and same thing with mark i'd respect it a lot more this is what he said you sacrifice for israel toughen up these guys did it all right let's keep playing a little bit more coffee shoes gasoline and tires using ration books and point systems citizens routinely collected scrap metal rubber aluminum paper to redirect raw materials into the military manufacturing supply chain i can't even imagine our young people doing this today i can't imagine most people doing this today can you that's why it's the greatest generation what is our generation millions of civilians including women entering the workforce heavy manufacturing and defense plants our generation like dude you're 80 what generation do you think you're a part of and and just by the way i mean i'm sorry rob but i just as a man how can you have this conversation without offering up what are you sacrificing you're talking about what they sacrificed compared to what these kids should sacrifice you're talking about what they sacrificed compared to what these kids should sacrifice you're talking about what they sacrificed compared to what these kids should sacrifice what skin in the game have you put in but as you said rob i think he just gets a cushier contract but he doesn't i don't know is he sacrificing everything i have there's there's at least confirmed like 16 or 17 americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice in this there's all their families have made a sacrifice in this the taxpayer is on the hook for at least a couple hundred billion dollars the global economy has lost several hundred more there's sacrifice going all around and mark levin's the global economy has lost several hundred more there's sacrifice going around and mark levin's And you know that I have a long history with Stuart. And we've always been respectful. It's always worked out well. But Stuart's a good example, and you bring it up. There are many famous, influential Jewish Americans. I'm not going to say they justify the anti-Semitism. I think that's fine. Oh, no, they do. I'll say it. I'll say it. They do. I mean, they do. Well, you and I would probably differ then. They enable it, okay? So I don't see Stuart going back to his nice place on the Jersey Shore, jumping up and down, that anti-Semitism is on the rise. I don't see that. Can we pause here? Can we pause for a second? Yeah, pause it for a second. I've got to say, there is something so remarkable about just how dumb Bill O'Reilly's whole framing always is. I remember Bill O'Reilly actually used to, his show, was entertaining to watch. It was so stupid, but it was like dumb at fun, kind of dumb. But isn't it just already the framing of just being like, okay, well, you say Jon Stewart does hate Jews. I say he just enables all these people who hate Jews. And then Bill O'Reilly actually says, imagine just hearing this like out loud. I don't see Jon Stewart going back to his home and jumping up and down about anti-Semitism. I don't see that. Like, what did you just say? What just came out of your face? Was that supposed to be a thought? It's true. You don't see that. You don't see what he does at home at all. That you're starting with something that you don't see, and then concluding that you don't see it. Then repeating in an astonished tone that you don't see it, to give the illusion of a point being made. Anyway, but why on earth should Jon Stewart, why on earth should Jon Stewart, why on earth should Jon Stewart, here's the position you have, right? That Bill O'Reilly, just think about how weird this is, Rob. Bill O'Reilly is talking to Ben Shapiro, and he's going, why isn't this other Jew jumping up and down about way-cism on his way back to his mansion? That's the question. Take this in for a second. The conservative Bill O'Reilly, and the conservative Ben Shapiro, think about what they've made their careers off of. They are going, why isn't the outrageously successful Jewish person a part of an outrageously successful Jewish people in the United States of America? Why is he not jumping up and down crying about way-cism and how it's wrong? And obviously the fact that he's not. Indicates something, right? We can debate whether the correct thing to extrapolate from that is that he is himself a vicious Jew hater, or he just enables vicious Jew hatred. But you understand we're saying the fact that a very outrageously successful person from a very outrageously successful minority group is not screaming about way-cism. That is indicative of something. It's almost like, let me try to see if I could put this in more simple terms, Rob. Maybe it's not enough to be passively not racist. One must be actively anti-racist, I guess would be another way to put that. Jumping up and down. And if I don't see you jumping up and down anti-racist, then you are a racist. - All fair points. I was more picking up on the false framing that criticizing the state of Israel and not supporting, the Iran war makes you an antisemite. And I'm of the belief that the people who try and pretend that if you criticize the actions, what Israel did in Gaza, or you try and criticize how much lobbying power Israel has that were involved in this, and you try and pretend that that's antisemitism, you actually do create antisemitism because you're pulling a little Weasley Jew trick and everyone sees it and that creates real antisemitism. And this is just playing with the false framing that someone like, I actually think if someone like Jon Stewart is criticizing the actions of Israel, it keeps people from actually being antisemites. The only thing that makes that antisemitism is if you are of the false belief that criticizing the actions of Israel makes you an antisemite, which it does not. And so this entire conversation exists within that false framing. - Yes, absolutely, absolutely true. All right, let's keep playing. I see Jon Stewart defending the radical elements as you just pointed out. Not gonna turn on them, mainly because of his audience, but the larger question is, Ben Domi got the majority of Jewish voters in New York City. That's stunning, is it not? - So I can explain this pretty easily. So this is a category error. So Jews, right? They kind of cross a variety of categories, right? The big question about Jews, are Jews a religion? Are Jews an ethnicity? Are Jews a tribe? Like what exactly are Jews? So when we talk about Jews and how Jews vote, typically we are talking about people who self-identify as Jews, meaning they were born into a Jewish family and maybe they had an occasional bagel. If you're looking at people who actually care about Jewish practice, who care about Jewish philosophy, who care about Israel, which is a part of Jewish practice, right? I mean, as an Orthodox Jew, we pray, for example, for the restoration of Jerusalem three times a day. And this has been a regular thing in Judaism for several thousand years at this point. - All right, so let's pause it right there. - And so if you're talking- - Let's pause it right here, because it is truly just despicable what Ben Shapiro is doing here. And this is a trick. It's a conscious trick. He knows exactly what he's doing. But so here, what he's gonna say, right? Essentially is that you don't count as a Jew. And when we're talking about Jews, we're only talking about the real Jews like me, people who really believe the religion, people who actually know what they're talking about, we're not just talking about the people or something like that, right? And now he's going to say that, "Oh, for the rest of Jews, I don't know, "it's like eating bagels or something like that." But you're even completely, but if you're a real Jew, then your religion supporting Israel is part of that religion. Then that is what real Judaism means. Now, first of all, let's just be clear here. It's like, okay, okay. If you wanna draw this distinction, between like, say like, so I'm not a Jew is what Ben Shapiro was saying, right? If I'm not, I don't go to temple regularly. I'm not a religious observing Jew. Therefore I'm not a Jew or whatever, something like that. Okay, fine. But then let's be consistent. So then there's two things here. Number one, you just admitted that support for a foreign country is a religious obligation for you. Sorry, you can't get offended when people point that out and criticize it. Then now, then it's not. Then if that's part of Judaism, then you can't say it's anti-Semitic for me to point that out. 'Cause now you've made that part, right? So dual loyalty is no longer an anti-Semitic trope Ben Shapiro, 'cause you just said it's part of our religious duty to do that. But then also if you wanna delineate these things this way, fine, but then keep that consistency. Then Hamas didn't kill a bunch of Jews on October 7th, right? I mean, they killed some. Maybe, Rob, right? At the music festival, how many of those were Jews? Israel isn't a Jewish state, really, Rob. The majority of Israel isn't Jewish, right? I mean, this changes everything if you're gonna throw it around this way. But no, you wanna claim the entire group when convenient and then switch and act like we're talking about a whole different thing. It's not a category error. It's a deception technique. Yes, there's a difference between religious Jews and Jews the people, but we all already knew that, right? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolon by El Nutra. 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Prolon is the first and only patented nutrition program to support longevity through cellular rejuvenation. It's a science-backed nutrition that has been shown to support healthy cardio metabolic markers. Prolon can help change your relationship with food in just five days. So definitely check it out by going to ProlonLife.com. That's P-R-O-L-O-N-L-I-F-E.com. ProlonLife.com slash POTP. to get 15% off site-wide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to their five-day program. That's ProLonLife.com slash POTP for 15% off site-wide plus a $40 bonus gift when you subscribe to the five-day program. I don't know. Any thoughts on this, Rob? I don't know which part of the people Jews you are or if you are one anymore. It's infuriating for all the reasons that you described. And you have religious Jews who are against the state of Israel. And Tariq Harta would be the best example. Those are the guys who get out there and protest the Israeli Day Parade. And then you also get secular Jews. So are you condemning that Jerry Seinfeld doesn't get an opinion on Israel? He's pro-Israel, but he's not a practicing Jew. And then also, when you're praying, Ben Shapiro, when you're praying in the morning, and by the way, there's a lot of prayers. He asks for health. There's a lot of stuff in there. But I don't even know which line of the 18 blessings, which is like kind of. The biggest part of the prayer ceremony is particular for Israel. I just don't remember. But are you praying for the current nation state of Israel? Is that what the prayer is about? Isn't it about like a Messiah and a restoration of the temple and like a religious government? I mean, is there anything about that text that applies to the current secular government of Israel? That's what you think you're praying for? When you're standing in synagogue and you're praying to God, you're praying that God supports the current state of Israel. The current Netanyahu is supposed to go out there and build the temple? That's what you think is the religion and what's in there? Or is the state of Israel truly a religious state? Are they operating on Old Testament law? You know what I'm saying? Like gay marriage is legal in Israel. They have like a huge LGBTQ population. They brag about this when convenient. By the way, if Ben Shapiro was ever bragging about the contributions that Jews have made to Israel, he would be like, "I bet you there's a video of Ben Shapiro bragging about." Do you think he didn't count the secular Jews? Did he only count the religious Jews? Or is this a "when convenient, we retreat to this position"? I'll let you guys figure that out. And this all just fits into the false framing that, you know, people can point out it's not anti-Semitic to be Jewish and criticize Israel because look how many Jews who live in America don't actually endorse the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza. And they're not anti-Semitic. And so then this goes, I mean, and also, how much worse does that make religious Jews look? Well, if you are actually practicing the real religion, then obviously you're in favor of the killing of innocent civilians. Yes. And also, I guess I should say, because there's another point that I guess could be made here where, you know, you know, they start with the conversation being like, hey, why, you know, Jon Stewart won't condemn the radicals. And so that's how we know he really kind of agrees with them. Meanwhile, the radicals that you speak of are the only ones in Jon Stewart's political world who are standing up and saying, we think what Israel did to Gaza is wrong and we shouldn't be fighting this war in Iran. And so maybe that's why he doesn't want to condemn the radicals, because he agrees with them on that. But then the point is that they also, Rob, are so reliant on pretending that something different is happening. Look how many of them have said that Mamdani is a jihadist or that he loves Hamas or that. But the thing is, I can't find any evidence of that anywhere. And I say this is someone who doesn't like Mamdani, who hates socialism, who doesn't like it. You know, I was talking to a couple of friends of mine, like people I grew up with, Jews from New York City. They're telling me over this week, I haven't talked to these guys in a little bit. They're telling me about how what's his name? The guy just won in Michigan and just won his Democratic primary there. They're telling me about how he said that we deserved 9/11. And I'm like, no, he didn't. That's Hassan Piker's quote that you're quoting. But Hassan Piker said that and then he apologized for that. And then he said he didn't really mean that. And then they asked this guy about the quote. And he goes, no, absolutely. That's ridiculous. I don't agree with that at all. Of course, that's not true. But they're to them. They're just like, no, he said that. So then they feel like you're not condemning the thing that he didn't say that. It's not even a thing. And honestly, Rob, do you not if listen, I'm not even going to argue with someone who wants to tell me that Mamdani secretly is a jihadist or that some of these guys secretly have these awful views or whatever, but like if Mamdani ever came out and actually said something against Jews, actually said something anti-Semitic, like what would me and you consider to actually be an anti-Semitic statement? Well, we would consider anything that's not just like blasting. If you're not blasting a person for what they did and you were just like lumping in a random Jewish person to we should keep our eyes on. These Jews, we really got to because you can see what they do in Israel. So we got to keep our eye on these shifty Jews here at home. That would be something I think that me and you would go, oh, that is legitimately anti-Semitic, that's actually, you know, like, you know, whatever. Jon Stewart would stand up and criticize that. We all know that if he came out and said something like that, we all know for a fact, Jon Stewart, the next day, Jon Stewart would be like, what the fuck? No, we don't agree with that at all. So it's just like it's also this they're working off of this foundational claim. That just isn't true. It's just not true that these guys are saying all types of shit about how awful Jews are and nobody's standing up against it. It's not the case. So the whole thing is just it's all just imaginary. It's two men in suits and ties sitting here pretending they're analyzing a thing. The thing isn't even real. There is no thing there. It's really quite hilarious. All right, we're going to wrap up there. Catch you guys tomorrow with a brand new episode. Peace. Oh, come out. And so, yes, this weekend, comic Dave Smith dot com. What's the town again this weekend, Rob? Porch store dot com, Chicago. And then you and I are doing Appleton, Wisconsin. And then which is that a comic Dave Smith dot com. And then I'm doing Madison on Sunday. Hell yeah. All right. Catch you guys tomorrow. Peace. you