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Aug. 15, 2024 - Dinesh D'Souza

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WALK AWAY Dinesh D’Souza Podcast Ep897

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	Coming up, Trump's sentencing is September 28th.
	Is he really going to go to jail?
	I'll talk about that.
	I'll also discuss a new article in Politico about the vulnerability of voting machines.
	And Brandon Strzok, founder of the walkaway movement, joins me.
	He's releasing a big new video tonight, and he'll talk about that.
	Hey, if you're watching on Rumble, listening on Apple, Google, or Spotify, please subscribe to my channel.
	This is the Dinesh D'Souza podcast.
	The times are crazy.
	In a time of confusion, division, and lies, we need a brave voice of reason, understanding, and truth.
	This is the Dinesh D'Souza Podcast.
	There are two important topics I want to talk about in our first segment today.
	The sentencing of Donald Trump in the New York case and the issue of election fraud involving the machines.
	So let me start with the Trump case.
	It might seem that Donald Trump has effectively pulled off what Megyn Kelly called the inside straight, which is torpedoing all the cases, or at the very least, punting them beyond the election.
	But there is one notable exception to this, and that is the conviction in New York on 35 felony counts, and the sentencing is scheduled for September 18th.
	The judge has, this is one merchant, has refused to punt the date beyond the election, and Trump's lawyers have officially asked him to vacate this September 18th sentencing date, actually to perhaps not do it at all, but if you do it, move it to after the election.
	Now, why would the judge do that?
	Or what is the case for asking the judge to do that?
	And the answer is really simple.
	It's the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision.
	The Supreme Court has ruled that Trump has immunity for all acts that were undertaken in his official capacity.
	The immunity has two levels.
	There's sort of absolute immunity and presumptive immunity.
	But the court defined presumptive immunity so broadly that it's essentially absolute immunity.
	And so anything that Trump does as president, now, A number of things that Trump did as president came up in the trial.
	Trump appointees who were serving when he was president were brought in to say things that he said to them during his presidency.
	And so it seems quite clear that this case has been at least partly reliant.
	I mean, some of it is kind of old hat.
	It goes back to the NDA with Stormy Daniels and And nevertheless, the very fact that Trump's presidency was involved, it was actions taken by Trump in the duration of his presidency were fully incorporated into the trial.
	And in all the other cases, notably in the January 6th case, the special counsel realizes that you have to now reassess the whole case.
	It's not enough just to push forward and go, oh, there's an immunity decision, but no problem, we're still gonna charge Trump.
	Jack Smith has asked Tanya Chutkin in D.C., we need more time to really figure all this out because the Supreme Court has made this pretty far-reaching decision, and we need to carefully look at what is the impact on our case.
	Now, interestingly, in New York, they've taken the opposite approach, and that is the New York prosecutors have basically said, oh no, well, our case is largely unaffected, and let's just go ahead with the sentencing.
	And the judge so far has agreed.
	Now, Trump's letter raises a number of issues.
	The fact that the judge's daughter is making money hand and fist over all this.
	So in other words, there's a conflict of interest.
	There's actually judicial corruption.
	The fact that this case needs to be reassessed.
	And no real reassessment has taken place.
	Nothing more than a kind of casual reassurance to the judge.
	Oh, there really aren't any issues here.
	We can go all the way ahead.
	And so the court has made it really clear that you've got to go back with your cases against Trump and do the kind of vetting that carefully looks at what actions of Trump are prosecutable in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision. That hasn't been done. Now, what is one merchant going to do? If you ask me, this guy is so deranged that I think he will
	actually most likely lock Trump up and lock Trump up.
	If this happens on September 18th, it will be in the period leading right up to the election.
	It will be a ghastly abuse of power.
	It will be the case of a local judge in New York.
	Being able to take the leading candidate, the nominee of a major party, and incarcerate him prior to his election.
	So think of the outrage, the multiple levels of abuse that this would involve, and I think it will send shockwaves through the country, and who knows what the consequences of that will be.
	But that drama is going to play out next month and I wanted to alert you to it.
	And clearly Trump's lawyers are making a kind of a last-ditch effort to avoid all that, to give the judge a chance to say, which I think appellate courts and the Supreme Court will eventually say.
	But this guy, it's almost like he has an opportunity to strike a blow at Trump Right before the election and he's intoxicated with his own judicial power.
	He's like, I can do it.
	So I'm going to go ahead and do it.
	It's going to make me a hero on the left.
	And the Trump lawyers are just issuing a kind of warning saying, don't go there.
	But that doesn't mean he won't.
	All right.
	Here's an article in Politico.
	The nation's best hackers found vulnerabilities in voting machines, but no time to fix them.
	So Politico was on the scene at an annual conference that they have in Las Vegas.
	And this is a conference of, well, electronic hackers.
	The hackers come to the conference and they sort of show their stuff.
	And what they've shown this year is that there are vulnerabilities in these voting machines.
	It's possible to sort of break into the voting machines.
	It's possible to alter things in the voting machines.
	We have problems with our electronic system.
	Now, by the way, this was not a topic I covered in 2000 Mules.
	In fact, You know, my reasoning was that there are so many widespread allegations here and there and in many cases it's difficult to go beyond allegations unless you can sort of open up a voting machine and sort of show me how this can be altered and show me that it was in fact done in 2020.
	I'm going to stay away from that topic and so I did.
	I focused on the fraud that could be Tracked.
	Geo-tracked.
	I focused on the fraud that could be exposed through surveillance video.
	And those were the two types of evidence presented in 2000 meals.
	But it remains an open question.
	Are these electronic machines vulnerable?
	And Politico now is telling us, yeah, they actually are.
	And it's not just Politico's view.
	This is the conclusion of the people at the hackers conference.
	In fact, they say that this is a real threat.
	And not only is there a threat, but it's a threat that can't be fixed before November.
	So that's a problem.
	And now the political article is very cagey because they know that when they say this, they're kind of giving fodder to Trump.
	And they're giving fodder to all the people who said, well, isn't that what you did in 2020?
	And so they quickly move on to say, Well, we're not trying to reinforce the Trump narrative, and they say the emphasis is on, quote, foreign and criminal targeting of U.S.
	elections.
	Well, okay.
	I suppose it's true that if a bunch of hackers in Vegas can do it, China can do it, Iran can do it.
	And in fact, this is what one of the organizers of the conference says.
	If you don't think this kind of thing is running 24-7 in China or Russia, you're kidding yourself.
	We're here for two and a half days and we find stuff.
	It would be stupid to assume the adversaries don't have absolute access to everything.
	So, yes, there is clearly a vulnerability for foreign actors, but Here's the question.
	If foreign actors can do it, why can't Democrats do it?
	Why can't left-wing organizations do it?
	Why can't non-profits do it?
	Don't they have hackers?
	Aren't they able to use the same techniques that are being displayed in Vegas?
	Now, the Politico article doesn't Specify how the machines are vulnerable.
	I guess they don't want to reveal that.
	It's kind of like the cops who go, we're not going to reveal any information about what the murder weapon was or what was done.
	So they talk about vulnerabilities and they have a number of people saying That the machines are vulnerable.
	And moreover, that it's a complex process to fix them.
	Why?
	Because according to one of the organizers of the conference, they say, first we have to get sign-off from the machine manufacturers.
	Then we've got to get the system recertified by the relevant authorities.
	Then you've got to go in and update each device.
	And guess what?
	The bureaucratic forces are not in place to do that before November.
	Now what makes this especially exasperating is that this hacker conference is an annual event.
	And a number of the hackers over there make the point that we're showing you these vulnerabilities Year after year.
	This is not the first time, not the only time.
	We've shown you before, and you've done nothing about it.
	So in other words, it almost appears that there is a kind of a system in place to slow walk these reforms, to slow walk these fixes.
	And it's, to me, not exactly a shocker, because we're in a situation where we know that one of the two major parties is heavily invested in election fraud.
	One of the two major parties looks at election fraud as a way to get ahead, as a way to make it across the finish line, as a way to win close races in battleground states.
	And so, the Politico article is interesting confirmation of what some people have been saying about the machines, the vulnerability about the machines.
	By the way, when conservatives said these things, it was dismissed.
	Oh no, the machines are absolutely fine.
	Most secure election dinesh in U.S.
	history.
	And now we're hearing not only about, hey, there's fraud involving the mail-in drop boxes, there's fraud involving the mules, but also there is a possibility, a very real possibility, of fraud involving the machines.
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	Guys, I'm delighted to welcome to the podcast our friend Brandon Strock.
	He's the founder of WalkAway, the WalkAway movement.
	And by the way, the website walkawaycampaign.com.
	You can follow Brandon on X, at Brandon Strock, S-T-R-A-K-A.
	And Brandon is releasing a huge video tonight.
	It is the new incarnation of WalkAway for 2024.
	It releases at 8 p.m.
	Eastern.
	I'll be sharing it on my social media.
	Brandon, thanks for joining me.
	I really appreciate it.
	We first met, boy, I guess it was some years ago.
	You were a relative newcomer in having kind of been red-pilled a little bit, seen the light.
	You had started WalkAway.
	And then you got a tremendous amount of attention, but you also got ensnared in the January 6th net.
	You became a victim of political prosecution.
	You saw the abuses of the federal government firsthand, which I think is always very eye-opening for anyone to endure.
	And so here you are, and I feel like you're now almost like a seasoned veteran of these political campaigns.
	I think I want people to hear a little bit of your story, so can you give us a sort of recap of how you got into this, and sort of what's the most important thing you've learned in some of the hellfire you've been through?
	Sure, yeah, I think I've definitely earned my stripes, I'd say, at this point, hopefully.
	In 2018, well, in 2017, I actually, as a person, as an individual, I made a decision to leave the Democratic Party because I just had a series of eye-opening incidents that showed me very clearly that the party that I'd been supporting and the media that I had been supporting and the ideology of liberalism that I had been supporting Was extremely dishonest and manipulative and exploitative and that just about everything that I believed was not really true.
	And then in 2018, I decided to take the next step and kind of do something about it.
	So I created a six minute video where I talked about all the reasons why I was walking away from liberalism and the Democratic Party.
	And I started something called the hashtag walk away campaign, encouraging people who are feeling the same way I was feeling to join our group on Facebook, share their own testimonial videos and share their stories.
	It turns out that my instincts were correct, that this is something that a lot of people were feeling and that a lot of people wanted.
	And over the course of the next two and a half years, we grew to over half a million people just in that Facebook group.
	And we had tens of thousands of people share their videos and share their stories about why they were walking away.
	And so for people who follow politics, a lot of people got to know me and my journey and got to know the walkaway movement, I think, really well.
	And I think it has meant a lot to a lot of people, even people who didn't walk away from the left.
	Because what's really different about WalkAway than, say, any other political organization or movement is that we're encouraging people to think for themselves, do their own homework, do their own research.
	And we don't tell people that you have to become a Republican or that you have to become a Trump supporter.
	Kind of the secret sauce of what we do is we just provide a network of support for people as they start making their own decisions and thinking for themselves, breaking free from the leftist media stranglehold, the brainwashing, and just become a free thinking American.
	That's what it's all about.
	And that the movement became very successful and a lot of people got to know me.
	And then I started doing a lot of public speaking, a lot of events around the country.
	And so by the time we got to January 6 of 2021, I had been asked to be a speaker on that day, like a lot, dozens of other people at a permitted event on Capitol grounds.
	And as I was arriving for my speaking engagement, I started hearing that something was going on, that people were going in the building.
	So I walked up to the building, shot a video, never entered the building, didn't witness any violence or any vandalism, destruction, certainly didn't commit any, but I stood outside the building for eight minutes and I shot a video.
	I uploaded that video to Twitter and two and a half weeks later the FBI raided my home at dawn, got me out of bed, charged me with multiple felony charges.
	Threatened to charge me with the now infamous obstruction of an official proceeding felony, which has now been basically stricken down by the Supreme Court pretty much.
	And given the circumstances that I was in, I made the decision to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge because as I've said many times before, I felt that I was in a position where it wasn't how do I win and how do I lose?
	It was how do I lose the least?
	You're never going to win going up against the government.
	There's no such thing.
	The government will beat you every time because they have all the resources, all the cards, and they control the narrative.
	So, to me, the cleanest, easiest way out was to plead guilty to a misdemeanor.
	I continue to be on probation for another about six months.
	Believe me, I'm going to have a lot more to say about my case when my probation ends.
	But for now, suffice it to say, most people who have looked at my case and studied my case do not believe that I did the things that the government says that I did in my plea deal.
	I mean it's so telling when you said the words control the narrative because is it not a fact that the government in a sense controls the information that is put forward in these trials.
	It's not as if they say alright we'll show you all the video And you can now make up your mind what really happened.
	They're like, no, no, for national security reasons, this video is off limits.
	However, we're allowing the release of certain snippets that we have handpicked that we're going to now put before a jury.
	And then you're going to have a judge give instructions.
	And so I think this is what you're getting at when you say that the process is rigged.
	It's not what we normally understand in terms of a trial with normal cross-examination, access to all the accusations being made against you, a full turning over of the evidence, none of that.
	Brandon, let's fast forward.
	Hopefully this kind of nightmare scenario is going to be in the rear view mirror.
	And I think that this is a case in which the American people's eyes are also being opened.
	It's taken a long time and a great deal of January 6th injustice.
	I mean, we know there are people who have taken their lives.
	There are people who have had long periods of incarceration.
	You've actually been very generous in In emphasizing not just your own case, but highlighting other people's cases.
	The praying grandma over here.
	Look at what happened to this guy over there.
	You've been a good friend to Jerry Perna.
	Her nephew Matt Perna took his life.
	So you've been really an advocate for other January 6th defendants who don't have as big a platform as you do.
	So I commend you for that.
	Talk about this new video that you're releasing tonight, 8 p.m.
	Eastern.
	Sort of, what are people looking forward to?
	Is this sort of, you could say, walkaway 2.0?
	How do you see it playing out from here on out?
	That's basically exactly how I would describe it.
	And I'm extremely excited and I'm actually pretty nervous.
	So that video that I put out six years ago talked about all the reasons why I was walking away from the left.
	Now here we are six years later and what I've done with this video that I'm putting out tonight, and this is the first time in six years that I've done this, I mean I'm calling it a true sequel to my original video.
	We have a little more of a budget this time, so it's going to look a little bit cleaner and a little bit nicer and have better sound, but it's essentially the same style.
	People might remember that video of me in a black shirt with a black background just speaking directly to my audience, saying all of those reasons while cutting to some headlines and clips and things to kind of substantiate what I'm saying.
	This is very much the same.
	So in this video, I'm talking about all the things that have gotten worse in the last six years since I made the first video.
	And I really encourage people to take a deep breath and be ready for it.
	Because I've showed it so far to less than 10 people.
	I think I've showed it to six, seven people.
	Of those people, the majority of them cried.
	And I mean to the point where a couple of people were like weeping.
	When I said, why are you crying?
	Tell me what you're feeling.
	What I kept hearing from people is, well, first of all, it's sad.
	And the state of our country is sad.
	And what the Democrats are doing to our country is sad.
	But what they're telling me is, this is overwhelming.
	And so and what I think I've come to realize is we have been in an abusive relationship with the left for so long that we've come to just sort of deal with it and cope.
	It's like they do something and we move on and they do something and we move on.
	And it's my God, they shot Donald Trump in the head.
	And it's kind of like we've moved on from that.
	And that was just a few weeks ago.
	And so what I do in this video, and I know this sounds crazy and I don't want to turn like it's nine and a half minutes long, which I know in 2024, that's like gone with the wind.
	It might as well be seven days.
	But I'm telling you, it's nine and a half minutes that goes very quickly.
	And the cadence is very, very fast.
	And I mean, people are going to have to watch it more than once to take it all in.
	But in this nine and a half minutes, I run through just about everything I can think of in the last six years that they have done to destroy our country.
	And by the time you get done watching it, you're going to go, first of all, I had forgotten an enormous amount of that.
	But second of all, I think last night I had a talk with a friend who watched it, and she just said, She was like, this is going to get so many people fired up to realize what's at stake and to remember, my God, we have to get back in the fight.
	We have to get back in the fight because what these people have done to us and what they've done to our country for six years, this is not OK.
	And at the end of the video, I say this is our last chance to save America.
	And I mean it.
	So it's it's a run through with all of the receipts.
	Of everything the left has put us through.
	But it ends with a heartfelt call to action.
	We need to stand up now.
	Stand up.
	Speak up.
	Get people to walk away.
	Join our movement.
	Let's go.
	Because the time is now.
	We have one chance left to save this country.
	I mean, I'll tell you, Brandon, that I'm going to watch the video when it releases tonight.
	I just wanted to kind of preview it on the show.
	Debbie has watched it, and as you know, she texted you, and she texted me.
	She just goes, Brandon's video is, in all caps, AMAZING.
	All caps.
	And Debbie's not so easy to please in this kind of stuff.
	I mean, she's got a film eye, so I think she thought that the visual and the emotional and the intellectual power, it's always powerful when you can put those together.
	We try to do that in our movies.
	So we're excited, Brandon.
	Guys, you're going to want to see this.
	I'm going to look forward to watching it.
	I'm probably going to text it to Trump.
	Thank you so much, Dinesh.
	Dinesh, do we have time for me to say one quick thing?
	You can follow Brandon on x at BrandonStrock, S-T-R-A-K-A.
	You'll also be able to find the video on my feed.
	Brandon, thank you very much for joining me.
	Thank you so much, Dinesh.
	Dinesh, do we have time for me to say one quick thing?
	For sure.
	Okay.
	Uh, in addition to this video launching tonight at eight o'clock, we're also launching today, a really exciting contest for anybody who's had a walkaway experience.
	We are giving away $10,000 to the person with the best walkaway video.
	So all they have to do is go to walkawaychallenge.com to learn more about this contest.
	And it, even if you've submitted your video in the past, you still, everyone has a chance to win.
	So just go to walkawaychallenge.com.
	Excellent stuff.
	Brandon, once again, thank you.
	you have a chance at winning $10,000 for your walkaway story.
	Excellent stuff.
	Brandon, once again, thank you.
	Thanks Dinesh.
	Guys, if you would like to support my work, here's the best way.
	Subscribe to my local channel.
	I post a lot of exclusive content there, including content that's censored on other social media platforms.
	On locals, you get Dinesh Unchained, Dinesh Uncensored.
	You can also interact with me directly.
	I do a live weekly Q&A every Tuesday.
	No topic is off-limits.
	So this is a good way to communicate directly.
	Me to respond to your ideas.
	I've also uploaded some cool films to Locals, documentaries and feature films.
	2000 Mules is up there, as well as the film that came out last fall, Police State.
	New big film coming out this fall.
	Hey, if you're an annual subscriber, you can stream and watch this movie content for free.
	It's included with your subscription.
	So check out the channel.
	It's dinesh.locals.com.
	I'd love to have you along for this great ride.
	Again, it's dinesh.locals.com.
	In these crazy times, there's peace of mind and security.
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	Guys, I'm delighted to welcome back to the podcast Philip Patrick.
	He is a precious metals specialist with Birch Gold Group.
	He was born in London, earned a degree in politics and international relations at the University of Reading, spent a bunch of years as a wealth manager for Citigroup in London's Wall Street before taking his current position with Birch Gold in 2012.
	By the way, the website, birchgold.com.
	Philip, welcome.
	Thanks for joining me.
	I really appreciate it.
	Let me ask you about what's really going on with the economy right now.
	We're in a political season, so we're getting kind of rival narratives.
	The Republicans, not surprisingly, things are terrible.
	Inflation continues to charge ahead.
	The Democrats are like, oh no, things have gotten a lot better.
	We've licked inflation.
	So how do we How do we adjudicate between these rival camps and say, this is what's really happening?
	Look, I think, you know, both sides are a little bit self-serving.
	And I think the reality is somewhere in the middle, but I'd say closer to the Republican narrative.
	I mean, what we're seeing from the Democrats at the moment is a lot of numbers being pushed forward to suggest that the economy is doing well.
	And then what we've been seeing is those numbers being revised down months later.
	So I think there's a lot of sort of political posturing if you will. Look at the employment numbers for example, they overstated jobs by 730,000 in the last three quarters alone. That's 81,000 fake jobs a month.
	Now we've made some progress with inflation, right?
	Headline inflation has been coming down.
	But it's proving very, very sticky for the Fed.
	And in the process of bringing inflation down, we're now seeing recession alarm bells ringing.
	So, you know, that's why I say I think the Republican narrative is probably more accurate.
	We haven't managed to iron out the inflation.
	We have recession on the horizon.
	And On the back of all of this, and I think we've discussed this before, we're now seeing globally a shift away from the US dollar, which I think will be a big problem domestically in years to come.
	Let's look at those two things separately.
	I want to start with the sort of inflation slash recession.
	Now obviously inflation and recession are opposites.
	We know where inflation comes from, right?
	It comes from radical overspending, pumping in all this money into the economy, more and more money chasing the same number of goods, and so prices go up.
	What I want to ask is how do we get recession?
	Is it because the Federal Reserve alarmed at inflation sort of like hits the brakes with kind of like slamming on the brakes with the car and then you go in the opposite direction and so you go from one curse really to the opposite curse?
	Is that what's happening?
	It's essentially correct.
	It's a case of pick your poison.
	You know, I speak to a lot of people and they're hopeful that, you know, somehow we'll tame inflation and the economy will continue to boom.
	But these are sort of opposite sides of the spectrum.
	Look at house prices, for example.
	Housing accounts for about 30% of the inflation metric, right?
	So, if the government want to get inflation under control, what do they do?
	They raise interest rates, right?
	By doing so, they make Purchasing homes more expensive, it kills demand and it drives value down.
	So that's a similar premise for the economy.
	The Fed have been focusing on inflation, making interest rates higher, making the cost of credit more expensive and that has effect on the investment markets and cools the economy down.
	I mean, it seems the housing thing is really serious because, you know, by and large people are taking out long-term loans.
	10 years, 15 years, 30 years.
	So let's just say you're making $75,000 a year, which is not an indecent amount of money.
	When the interest rates are 1% or 2% or 3%, you can afford to buy a $300,000 house, but On the other hand, if interest rates go up to 5, 6, 7, 9 percent, then suddenly you're looking at paying a great deal more money, and so we're talking about the aspirations of an entire younger generation that's trying to buy a first house.
	Yeah, it's becoming increasingly more and more difficult for these generations just to get their foot in the door.
	And it's largely for the reason you mentioned.
	The cost of mortgage debt has essentially doubled over the last few years.
	So your monthly payment is significantly higher.
	We could have afforded a home at X value three or four years ago.
	We're nowhere near that today.
	And the biggest issue of all is through raising interest rates, broadly speaking, They haven't really brought prices down either.
	There's such a lack of inventory across the United States.
	So buyers are now getting hit on both fronts.
	House prices not coming down enough.
	And of course, the cost of credit, mortgage costs much, much higher.
	And that double whammy is causing a big problem for people looking at starter homes and just people in general.
	Philip, turning to the second issue that you mentioned, namely the move away from the U.S.
	dollar, I'm trying to put my finger exactly on what the motivation for that is.
	Now, one motivation that seems kind of obvious is that, you know, if you're the head of another country, you're like, why do I want to be dependent on the U.S.
	dollar?
	If I can find a way not to do that, then for just reasons of national pride and national interest, I would like to do that.
	So I understand that sort of geopolitical argument.
	But there appears to be also kind of an economic argument and I want you to clarify what that is.
	Is the economic argument something like this?
	The U.S.
	currency once had a certain kind of trustworthy, rock-bottom value.
	But the U.S.
	government has shown that it doesn't value its own currency.
	It is debasing its own currency.
	It's kind of like saying, you know, I'd like to own an American car, but the Americans are trashing their own car.
	So suddenly, wow, that car doesn't look so attractive to me.
	And if somebody else can build a decent car, I'd rather go that way.
	Am I on the right track in describing the psychology of these other countries?
	You're absolutely on the right track.
	It's two things, right?
	So, one is the one that you mentioned.
	It's the geopolitical.
	Through sanctions and through weaponization, we've told nations around the world that if you make a decision that we don't like, your assets can become liabilities overnight.
	So, that's one part of it.
	However, The key for the US dollar is it's always had strength and stability.
	So, it's forced these nations regardless to hold dollars because they needed them.
	And that's the economic side.
	Look at what we've done to our currency.
	We've been printing money at an unprecedented level here in the United States.
	Since the pandemic, we've increased the money supply by 40%.
	Now, for us domestically, we feel that as inflation, right?
	But nations around the world holding it Holding dollars feel it as a loss of purchasing power.
	Well, since the pandemic alone, the dollar has lost 17% of its buying power.
	If I'm a central banker, even for an allied nation, and I have significant dollar reserves, and they've lost 17% purchasing power in the space of four years, it becomes a problem for our nation's reserves.
	So, what they've been doing is dumping dollars
	and buying gold so 22 23 now the first two quarters of 24 have set records for gold buying by central bank and it ties into this right they're dumping their us dollars which are falling in value and buying gold and by the way this should highlight the absurdity of deficit spending right if i'm a foreign government and i'm watching these debates in congress about running two trillion dollar deficits while i'm holding the u.s dollars
	It's going to be a problem and it's starting to manifest.
	Let's close out, Philip, by me asking you kind of a practical question for, you know, for people in my audience.
	You got somebody who has, not counting your house, let's say, investable assets of a million dollars, or three million dollars, or five million dollars, and that guy goes, well, look, I understand I should diversify my assets.
	It makes no sense to put all my eggs in one basket.
	If the market takes a 50% hit, whoa, I'm, you know, I'm going to lose my retirement savings.
	So, I realize that I should do some precious metals, I should do some gold, but the obvious question becomes, well, how much?
	Does it make sense?
	I mean, I suppose we all make our own decision, but would you recommend a 15% or a 20%?
	What is a good way to think about how to diversify into gold as a proportion of one's investable assets?
	You know, it's a very, very tough question to answer because everybody's comfort level drives the allocation, right?
	We have a broad suite of customers that are looking to achieve different things, right?
	We've got some people that are looking at gold, and this isn't necessarily my mindset, by the way, as a worst-case scenario, right?
	And they want to have some physical gold on hand in case of disaster.
	Again, not necessarily my mindset, but some people have it.
	have a certain percentage allocated. Other people are looking at a hedge, right? They want to take a portion of their wealth, they want to put it into precious metals. And the idea is, if one side of their portfolio goes down during times of market correction, the precious metals would increase in that climate and mitigate. Well, those people are thinking about some measure of proportionality. Do I have enough in precious metals to meaningfully mitigate losses elsewhere?
	And we have some customers that are saying, look, I've lost faith in the markets.
	I want to protect larger chunks of my retirement.
	So everyone's different.
	And I always put it back on the customer, your comfort level and your strategy is going to sort of dictate the allocation.
	But what I will say broadly about this climate, There aren't too many options out there, certainly less than they have been historically.
	You know, for example, sitting in cash and riding it out, that has been a viable option for many recessions we've had, even in the 70s when we were dealing with inflation.
	Today it isn't, simply because bank rates are nowhere near where they should be to combat rates of inflation.
	So it's a very different climate and I think things should sort of reflect that.
	Guys, you hear me do ads for Birch Gold, and I say at the end of the ad that if you text Dinesh to 989898, it'll connect you to the smart guys like Philip Patrick at Birch Gold.
	They will help you think through all this and make your own decision.
	Guys, I've been talking to Philip Patrick.
	He's a precious metals specialist with Birch Gold Group.
	Philip, thank you very much for joining me.
	Thank you, Dinesh.
	I'm picking up with Booker T. Washington, Chapter 6, Up from Slavery.
	And Booker T. Washington says he found himself in a town where he heard there was going to be a lynching.
	Now, think of this.
	It's a kind of a grim subject.
	And you might expect Booker T. Washington's tone to be very ominous.
	As it turns out, you'll see the anecdote is Almost lighthearted and almost whimsical.
	And it turns out to be sort of, not quite a case of mistaken identity, but something like that.
	Here we go.
	The occasion of the trouble was a dark-skinned man had stopped at the local hotel.
	So think about this.
	Think of how outrageous this is.
	They want to lynch a guy for no reason other than he's a dark-skinned guy and he's trying to check into a hotel and it's like, you don't have a right to do that.
	We're under segregation.
	Let's go lynch the guy.
	Investigation, however, Booker T writes, developed the fact that this individual was a citizen of Morocco, and that while traveling in the country, he spoke the English language, but he was not an American Negro.
	And Booker T says, as soon as this was learned, all signs of indignation disappeared.
	And the whole matter was dropped.
	So here you have, as I say, kind of a dark topic, but with a... I won't call it a happy ending.
	It's not really a happy ending.
	The whole thing is really perverted.
	But...
	At least nobody gets lynched.
	And Booker T. Washington is telling you this, and I think it's double-edged.
	He's being a little bit soft about it, and I think I know why.
	He is addressing not only blacks, but white segregationists themselves.
	And so, he can't make them out to be the out-and-out villains.
	He wants them to realize that this is a very bad enterprise that they are on.
	He's speaking, in a sense, to white Democrats here.
	And he's saying, look, this is almost the equivalent of, you got the wrong guy.
	It's like saying, you don't like the death penalty because guess what?
	This guy in Texas that got executed, it was about to be executed, turns out not to be the guy who did it.
	And similarly here, the guy is Moroccan.
	He's not part of America.
	And so they're like, oh, well, we're not trying to lynch an African guy just traveling through the South.
	And so the matter gets dropped.
	Now.
	Booker T. Washington now comes back to where we left him and that is he's taking charge of this night school and he's very depressed because the facilities are so terrible.
	But he says the good thing is the students want to learn.
	He says they want to learn so much that many of them Even though they have to work for part of the day and then they do school at night, they don't want the night school to be over.
	They're like, no, keep going.
	And so imagine the gratification of a teacher.
	I mean, I'm sure Booker T gets tired by the end of the evening, but it's like the students are begging you not to stop.
	They're begging you not to send them home to sleep.
	They want to keep going.
	And so...
	So Booker T. points out that he kept going.
	And as a result, the school, the Knight School, which began with 12 students now, now means that the writing of the book, 1901, has several hundred students.
	So Hampton is a real success story.
	And now we go to Chapter 7, which is the way that Booker T. Washington became the head and really built out a new institution that becomes really his own, and this is the famous institution called Tuskegee, the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
	Now, how does this happen?
	Did Booker T. Washington start it?
	Not really.
	There was a school, but really not much of anything, and they were looking for somebody to take it over.
	So, here's what happens.
	Booker T. says in May of 1881, In a way that I dared not expect, the opportunity opened for me to begin my life work.
	His life work being, of course, Tuskegee.
	One night in the chapel, General Armstrong referred to the fact that he had received a letter from some gentleman in Alabama asking him to recommend someone to take charge of what was to be a school for the colored people in a little town of Tuskegee in that state.
	These gentlemen seemed to take it for granted that no colored man suitable for the position could be secured, and they were expecting the general to recommend a white man for the place.
	Now...
	You know, a leftist listening to this will be like, there you go, white privilege, Dinesh.
	No.
	What Booker T is getting at is that in the immediate aftermath of slavery, remember we're talking about three decades after slavery, by and large there were a lot of white teachers and heads of school that went from the North to the South.
	Let's remember, General Armstrong is one of those.
	He's a military man, but he's also an educator.
	He's the guy who comes over and takes over Hampton and does a great job.
	These are people committed to the elevation of blacks out of slavery and to citizenship.
	And so these guys in Alabama think, well, we probably are going to need to have a white guy to take this on.
	But Booker T. writes, the next day General Armstrong sent for me to come to his office and much to my surprise asked if I thought I could fill the position in Alabama.
	I told him I would be willing to try.
	And so, General Armstrong writes these guys in Alabama, and he goes, how about Booker T. Washington?
	And he gives information about him.
	Several days passed before anything more was heard.
	And then, says Booker T. Washington, a messenger came and handed the general a telegram.
	And at the end of the exercises, this is the daily exercises at the school, General Armstrong reads the telegram to the school.
	In substance, these were the words.
	Booker T. Washington will suit us.
	Send him at once.
	Wow.
	So...
	Booker T. then describes that the whole school at Hampton broke into cheers.
	They began to give him hearty congratulations and right away Booker T. is out the door and ready to start packing.
	He does go by way of his old home in West Virginia.
	He stays there for a few days and then he goes on to Tuskegee.
	And he describes Tuskegee, he says, it's part of the Black Belt of the South.
	And the Black Belt, this kind of weird term, actually has two separate meanings.
	One meaning is it refers to the fact that this is a part of the South where there are more blacks than whites.
	So, it's not that the blacks are 90% or 95%, but they're more like 60%.
	They dominate the town.
	Why?
	Because, says Booker T. Washington, this was really cotton country.
	And so, naturally, there were a lot of slaves.
	And now these slaves are free, but they're still there, and so they outnumber the whites by a pretty significant margin.
	But there's a second reason that they use the term Black Belt, and that is that it refers to the color of the soil.
	This part of the country, the soil is black.
	And it's this... Booker T. describes it as thick, dark, and naturally rich soil.
	And it was soil where actually cotton grows very well, slavery was very profitable, and...
	And so, this is where Booker T. Washington now finds himself.
	Tuskegee, Alabama.
	And he says, I expected to find there a building and all the necessary apparatus to begin teaching.
	He says, I found nothing of the kind.
	And he says, and this is a very typical Booker T. Washington observation, I did find, though, that which no costly building and apparatus can supply, hundreds of hungry, earnest souls who wanted to secure Knowledge.
	Again, just as he had mentioned about Hampton, he finds people who want to learn.
	And again, think of how gratifying this is to him as a teacher.
	He has students that are in it for the right reasons.
	These are not like a lot of our public school students today, where you're forced to go to school.
	And so you go to school, and you talk, and you wait for the bell, and you wait for recess, and you wonder what's for lunch, and you couldn't be less interested in what is going on and what is being taught.
	Your goal is to get by, to get past this, to get out of there.
	Why?
	Because you're being forced.
	But here, it's not that.
	Here, education is a treasured commodity.
	It's valued because it's not easy to come by.
	And so Booker T is like, let's get started.
	Whatever we have, we're gonna get started over here.
	And he says, you know, the citizens of the town, the black citizens and the white citizens, had asked the legislature to make a small appropriation.
	And as it turns out, very small.
	$2,000 annually.
	small $2,000 annually $2,000 annually for the whole school so and the idea here is the legislature is actually quite specific You can't spend this money on infrastructure or even on buildings or even books.
	The money is only for the payment of the salaries of instructors.
	That's it.
	Everything else you have to fend for yourself.
	But with Booker T. Washington, that's about enough and all he needs to get going, this tiny bit of help, and he is off and running.
	And so when we pick it up tomorrow, we'll find out how Booker T. Washington takes a small appropriation and creates of it a really powerful and important institution that was almost an exhibit for black education in the first half of the 20th century.

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