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Patrick Bet-David Podcast Episode 96. Download the podcasts on all your favorite platforms https://bit.ly/3sFAW4N
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The Bet-David Podcast discusses current events, trending topics, and politics as they relate to life and business. Stay tuned for new episodes and guest appearances.
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Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of a financial services firm and the creator of Valuetainment, the #1 YouTube channel for entrepreneurship with more than 3 million subscribers. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Your Next Five Moves (Simon & Schuster) and a keynote speaker.
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Adam Sosnick: https://bit.ly/2PqllTj
Gerard Michaels: https://bit.ly/3fMja9z
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#PBDPodcast
00:00 - Start
10:13 - Rogan/Gupta
29:40 - Dwayne Johnson Rap
37:40 - Dwayne Johnson Politics
55:42 - What is a true statesman
1:08:15 - Frank Luntz Story
1:14:33 - Goldman Sachs gets gloomy on economy forecast
1:20:08 - Shipping controversy
1:31:31 - Tesla moving to Austin/California Decay
1:44:20 - Old Mafia Guys think texting ruined mob
1:49:25 - Americans trust in media dips to 2nd lowest on record
Again, with Phil Heath, with Adam Sauce and Gerard.
Lots of new topics to cover.
Adam, right off the bat, as I'm going through the topics, says, Adam, tell me what's your number one topic.
Adam says, I demand we start with Kyrie Irving.
So we're going to start off with Kyrie Irving.
Now, tell me why Kyrie was your top story.
I just think he's very topical right now.
You brought up something last episode where you showed up your last tweet.
I don't know if it was your last tweet.
You said the guy said, Pat, I don't know what to make of you at this point.
Yeah.
I don't get you.
You know, I agree with you, and then I don't agree with you.
It's a good point.
It's a very good point.
And it's just like, what am I supposed to do with you?
Yep.
And I feel like that's what people are dealing with Kyrie right now.
I remember when we first started doing the podcast, I can't believe we're almost on episode 100.
It's four away.
Yeah, four away.
My math was almost off, but it's four away.
It's so funny.
But I remember people, especially on the right, were very angry with Kyrie during the social justice situation.
He was very vocal about BLM.
He was very vocal about voicing his opinions.
And a lot of people, not to get very political here, but a lot of people that obviously tend to be on the right side of the equation.
Fucking Kyrie, this and that.
And now that he's sort of anti-vaxx, they're like, well, I kind of hated Kyrie, but now I kind of agree with him.
Who, though?
I think obviously the anti-vax community or the people that, you know.
You mean the pro-choice community?
Is that what they're calling it these days?
That's great verbiage.
That's a great verb.
Wait a minute.
That's pro-choice, right?
I mean, they're pro-choice.
Sure.
Pro-choice community.
So now, you see how weird politics is.
Exactly.
You see how weird it is.
See how it backfires on you too, though?
I'm bringing up a point that you brought up.
I know.
I agree with you.
And by the way, here's the thing.
Do you think I'm a Kyrie fan?
I do not think you're a Kyrie fan.
Have I ever been a Kyrie fan?
Not his game.
His game?
Entertaining.
Like, I will watch that Uncle Drew stuff over and over again.
I think the guy is sick, right?
But am I a fan of his style of fancy?
It's very look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me.
But here's the problem.
Matter of fact, let me just read the story and then we'll go into it.
So here's a story about Kyrie.
He will not practice or play with the Brooklyn Nets due to a vaccination status.
This is a CNN story.
Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks has confirmed Kyrie Irving will not play or practice with the team until he is eligible to be a full participant as issues relating to the Star Guards vaccination status continues.
Head coach Steve Nash has admitted that his team will be without Kyrie for foreseeable home games.
But Mark said that the Nets would not allow a member of the team to be part-time.
The Nets warned the NBA warned the Nets as well as the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors in September that the new COVID-19 policy set by the local governments will prohibit any unvaccinated player from playing in the home games in New York City and San Francisco.
Okay, fantastic.
So here's where I go with this.
To me, Kyrie Irving is Colin Kaepernick.
Kyrie Irving to me is Colin Kaepernick.
He is taking a needle.
He's saying, I don't stand with what you stand for.
You're forcing me to stand up and I don't want to do it.
And Colin Kaepernick was what?
A hero because he didn't want to do what the government was telling him to do.
But because the government's telling Kyrie what to do in a vaccine and the NBA agrees with it, he's now a villain.
So let's now ruin his reputation and he's going to have to come play and get vaccinated.
There is no difference between him and Colin Kaepernick.
So the part that is annoying in this part, where I understand why people are getting annoyed, is I watched Stephen A. yesterday.
You know, we've had Stephen A on and I've interviewed Stephen A.
And I'm a big fan of Stephen A. I'm not, it's not, this is not like I don't, so I watch, if I have, if I want to get someone's take on any topic, I go Stephen A.
Yeah.
You're a big fan of him.
I like Stephen A's.
And I go to him, I'm looking at him, I'm like, Stephen A. What are you saying?
What are you talking about?
Like, what do you mean?
This is championship.
This is championship.
Really?
So go back to five years ago when everybody was talking about Colin Kaepernick kneeling.
This is bad for the team.
They can't win a championship.
They had a championship squad.
It's not about championships.
It's about what you stand for.
It's about what's right for you.
It's about this.
Wait a minute.
You can't take it one place or the other.
By the way, you're right that the left and the right do this all the time.
But in this situation here, to me, Kyrie Irving is the new Colin Kaepernick.
Except the new Colin Kaepernick Kyrie is being treated differently than Colin Kaepernick.
Colin was a hero.
Kyrie's a villain.
Well, I think in many cases, Kaepernick was also a villain.
No, no, to the game of sports, to the game of sports.
In the sports world, Colin was a hero.
Let's not get it twisted.
In the world of sports, Colin is a hero.
Nike did a massive contract, $40 million, all that stuff.
But Kyrie, completely different.
You know something that you brought up when we were talking about the Kaepernick stuff earlier.
This is before you guys really graced us being on the podcast.
You said that it was on Roger Goodell that he messed up.
1 million percent.
That he messed up.
He should have intervened real quick, like, said, this is my league.
Let me embrace this guy.
Let me talk to this guy rather than like sweeping it under the rug.
Yes.
So the question is, what should Adam Silver do at this point?
It's not on Adam, though.
But it kind of is.
But he's the commissioner.
But it's not on Adam.
You want to tell you what's the difference?
Because this is a law being passed down by Biden.
This is not a law.
No, no, this is local, state government.
These are local governments.
Fine.
This is Golden State.
This is Brooklyn.
That even validates my point.
That validates my point even more.
What I'm trying to say is then that's the government.
It's not in Adam's control.
Adam can't do anything about it.
Adam has to say, you got to follow the law of the land.
And the law of the land where you're living is the government.
I don't have any control over it.
Just like Southwest Airlines yesterday, when the story came out, you know how everybody's like, well, Southwest Airlines.
Well, they cancel because of the rain.
They cancel because of whatever they were claiming they cancel for, right?
And then the story comes out where the CEO flat out comes out and tells the story.
Now, I know these two stories maybe don't have anything to do with it.
Are we moving on from Kyrie?
I'm not.
I'm staying on it.
We're going to come back because I want to hear everybody's.
But I want to read to you what he said.
So Southwest CEO denies thousands of flight cancellations were over vaccine mandates, blames absentism, okay?
The post-millennial story.
And then he goes and says, the CEO Gary Kelly said he is personally opposed to corporate vaccine mandates, but that the company had complied with President Biden's order that all companies with over 100 workers require those workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
What he's trying to say is, I don't support it, but what do you want me to do?
It's the law coming down.
So Adam Silver cannot do nothing about it because the local government is saying you better get a vaccinated.
What are your thoughts about this, Phil?
Oh, my gosh.
We talk about force and choice.
Non-freaking stop.
I have a question, and anyone can chime in.
What did we do with Magic Johnson with the whole HIV AIDS thing when he came back?
He was able to play.
Yeah, but a lot of the players did not want to play with him.
Didn't matter.
Car Malone, he voices opinions, but he still played.
Still played.
Sick all-star game that faded away through.
And look at that moment.
We celebrated this man.
We continue to do that through this day.
And that's a little more serious.
I see where you're going with this.
Right.
So think about how serious that was and what we're talking about with this.
I don't know, guys.
I mean, I think it's, you know, it's a.
By the way, you make it because Clay Travis said that yesterday.
And I was looking at Klay Travis when he said about Magic having AIDS and his Twitter tweet went viral.
And then I went at the bottom to see the, what do you call it, the rebuttal to it, right?
Because I want to know the rebuttal.
So the rebuttal was there's a difference between AIDS and COVID because AIDS is not trans what do you call it?
Like you can't just get it by playing battle.
But wait a minute.
I disagree because to me, what are you talking about?
You're going like this.
You're doing this.
I'm all of a sudden you cut and you cut him.
We got to cut.
We got blood.
So it can still happen.
They changed the game with regards to any time there's a player that has blood on their uniform or shorts or whatever.
They change the game with that still to this day.
I mean, side note, by the way, isn't it crazy?
Like, do you know anybody with AIDS at this point other than Matt?
Like, does any, like, I feel like AIDS in the 90s.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But in the 90s, I was like, the biggest thing in the world.
Now, I don't even know anybody who's.
The difference is people with AIDS are living.
That's true.
That's the difference.
So they're in the community.
They got the cocktail.
Well, just like how they have it now, right?
But they're not forcing certain people.
My question also: I have another question: are we within those certain states, are there mandates for attendees to go watch their performance?
There are.
So everybody has to show a card.
You cannot go in New York specifically.
You cannot go into a gym, gymnasium, gym, without showing a vaccination.
What happened with your comedy show, remember?
No, but I'm talking about like, okay, Golden State Warriors.
Like, if I go to a game, if we went to a game, we'd have to show a card and they'd have to scan it or whatever.
Yes.
Wow.
Yes.
This is very interesting.
I mean, you know, I'm in an independent film that's coming out on Friday.
And, you know, they wanted me to come up, do the, do like the whole premiere and stuff like that.
Good dude, Eric Grooms, great, great dude.
Movie called Midlife.
And I'm not going, you know.
Well, I got things to do here, obviously, but also I'm not going because I couldn't.
I'm not fucking going.
I couldn't go to the premiere of the movie that I'm in.
So it is what it is, man.
Look, at this point.
Is there anything, anything that would make you get the vaccine at this point?
At this point, no.
I'll just be real.
At this point, because of everything they've done, I wouldn't get it out of the vaccine.
But is it a health?
Is it a spike?
Is it a political thing?
It's pure spite and also.
It's a pure health thing.
No, but here's the deal.
We have allowed the goalposts to move so far past what is beyond acceptable as far as what government can and can't say about our lives that, dude, this is a hill I am actually literally willing to die on.
Well, let's not die on.
No, I'm just saying, I am literally, but I also don't really feel that at risk.
I feel like I have it.
Even since you've lost 50 pounds, I feel like I have it.
Thanks, bro.
But also, I had it when I was morbidly obese, and I still had a 99.7% chance of surviving.
So I'm not going to give up 100% of my civil rights for something that I have a 99.8% chance of surviving.
Did you guys see Joe Rogan with Sanjay Gupta yesterday?
Yes.
Did you see that clip?
That was a good idea.
Which he never does.
He went on the offensive for maybe, I've been listening to Rogan for five years.
I've never seen him go on the offensive like that.
But it was impressive the way he asked the question.
It says, so do you feel at risk when you go out and do your thing and live your life?
He says, no, because I'm vaccinated.
It says, great.
He says, you being vaccinated have the same amount of risk as a kid that's not vaccinated.
But why are we forcing kids to be vaccinated?
Because out of millions of kids, only 500 kids have died.
And so you have the same ratio of risk.
Why would we force the kids to get vaccinated?
And he didn't have an answer.
He was stuck because, you know, in California, they're mandating 18.
He kept trying to pivot also.
But Joe wouldn't let him.
He wouldn't let him.
Bulldog.
Joe crushed it yesterday.
It was great.
But I got to give Gupta credit for getting out there, taking the tough questions.
He felt like Joe, this is the beginning of the interview, is like, how do you feel working for a network that lies?
He's like, look, yeah.
And to Gupta's credit, he's like, yeah, they shouldn't have said that.
And then Joe pressed them and pressed them and pressed him.
He wouldn't admit that they lie though.
Something that you say all the time is a lie of omission.
Something that Trump does is he'll get on opposite polarizing views and still state his case.
So yes.
If you go on, okay, I get that, but if you go on opposing platforms and still lie on those platforms, you don't get credit for it.
That's a lie.
It's a lie of omission.
It's very simple.
Did they lie about Invermecton?
Well, no, no, no.
Well, no, that's not true.
He says.
Oh, he owned up to it.
They said they shouldn't have said that.
But then he refused to talk about what's it feel like about the network.
He refused to talk about the network consistently lying.
He refused.
That's a tough situation to be in.
He's not that vaccinated.
But I will tell you what's going on.
But watch this.
The whole thing with Lynn, the whole thing with Lynn, CNN line, yesterday, Van Jones, flat out.
I don't know if you guys saw Van Jones yesterday or not.
I'm a fan of Van Jones as well, although Van Jones was a card-carrying communist years ago and all this stuff.
When he was first linked to Obama, they had to pull him out and say, hey, we can't affiliate with you.
Van Jones yesterday said, listen, the honeymoon is over.
Biden's getting crushed.
And if they continue this way, it's not going to happen.
He says the Republican is united.
The Republican Party is united right now with Congress.
Every one of them voted the same way.
They just said not a single Republican voted against the, what do you call it?
What is for?
Dead ceiling.
Dead ceiling.
He says, but the Democrats are in shambles right now.
And if they go the way they're going right now, it's not going to be a good midterms.
It's not going to be this.
He says they have 12 months to fix it.
But then Chris Cuomo said the following.
Chris Como said, he said, Van, it doesn't matter anyways, because even if you guys go there, the opposing party is willing to lie to your face just to get re-elected.
They're willing to compromise the democracy of America.
And Van Jones.
That's Chris Cuomo saying that.
So the point is, on the same exact day when Rogan comes out with Gupta saying, yeah, you know, they shouldn't have said that, the network lied, same day Cuomo was saying everybody on the other side lies.
And to be fair, we could go on to Fox News and find all the lies that this Canadian is doing on a daily basis.
This has got nothing to do with the left or the right.
This has got to do with the fact that one says the other doesn't and the other does and we don't.
That's the problem.
It's like, no, no, no, we don't do it.
We're holy.
But they do it.
No, both of you have done it and both of you have a hard time coming out and saying, I'm sorry we screwed up.
So this is why they won't admit it.
This is why when somebody comes out and says, listen, we messed up, you respect it.
In the past, that is an argument that is 100% true over the course of history.
In this moment, in this moment we are living in very, very specifically, the Democratic Party is in complete and total control.
The progressive agenda is everywhere.
It's not some right-wing nut job that's forcing Kyrie Irving to sit.
It's not the pressure from the right wing that has all of his teammates willing to hang him out to dry.
Not a single teammate saying, unless my boy Kyrie is out here, I'm not going out there.
Not a single one.
But I don't, but Gerard, I think it's bigger than that.
And it's in, I don't think a teammate is not with them.
I don't think a teammate's not with them.
But I also don't think there's only two teammates that have his kind of money.
Okay.
There's a big difference between having that kind of money.
Look, you're making $2 million in the NBA per year.
Taxes half goes, they're in New York.
So you got $1 million left after agent, $300,000.
I'm taking a jack.
By the way, $2 million a year player in NBA is netting $600,000 a year.
Think about that.
It's not a lot of money.
And that's before they got to pay out to the agent.
All of this stuff.
So you just know they're not as rich as people think they are.
It's a lot of shit.
They're on the veterans minimum.
Yeah, the guys that are making money are Hardens.
Durant, these guys are making superstars.
So I think there's a part of it where these guys are so much about walking on ex-shows today.
Just the fact that LeBron, kudos to LeBron in this situation.
LeBron came out and said, we made a decision as a family and we chose to go with it.
Guess what?
Salute.
Good for you.
It is you and your family's decision.
And then he said, I believe this is a decision that should be left to who?
To the individual to decide.
So here's a question before we try to solve every one of the world's problems today.
What do you think is going to end up happening to Kyrie?
What's going to happen to Kyrie?
Is he going to die on the sword and said, I'm retiring?
Because this is a debate.
Or he retired.
He's retired.
Or do you think he's going to take the vaccine?
Or do you think he's going to get traded to like a red state?
A couple different things.
Let me just say this very clearly.
It's his choice, personal choice, no mandates.
Cool.
We're good with that.
If he actually wants to use his voice, because that's what his whole thing is.
I have a voice.
I want to use it.
This platform, look how quickly he's going to lose his voice if he doesn't actually end up playing basketball.
Shut up and dribble.
I'm not saying to shut up and dribble, talk all you want and dribble.
But if you're not going to play basketball, people don't care about you, bro.
You're going to get more eyeballs and more people listening to you when you're balling out and you're scoring 28 a night and you're and people, oh, Kyrie did this.
Think about what you should do.
Check out this film.
But think about it.
But if he, here, let me finish my point.
If he's not going to play ball and he doesn't play ball for two years, I don't see him even being in headlines.
You think that he should do something that he finds morally repugnant in order to play a game and make money from the game that he's clearly?
How do you think he gets paid?
By doing things that are morally repugnant?
How do you think he gets paid?
He's paying me.
If someone gave you $200 million, Gerard Michaels, if someone gave you $200 million, you wouldn't get the vaccine if you say no, you're an idiot.
Dude, at some point, there's something more than money.
At some point, there's something on the line more than money.
$200 million to get a proven vaccine?
Come on, Joe.
This is big.
First of all, it's not proven.
Stop that bullshit.
The last booster is not even five months old.
I worked in pharma sales.
We're not going to know anything for five years.
This might be a miracle.
Because you worked in pharma sales.
Now you're an expert?
Have you ever watched anything late at night?
Have you took Enver Mecton in 1922?
You're inviting.
So for 200 million.
So how much legitimate question?
Basically, we are asking you to do that.
How much would it cost for you to take the vaccine?
You're asking, what are your morals worth?
That's how morally bankrupt is it?
Absolutely.
That's what you're saying.
Everybody has a problem.
Wait, I let you talk.
The nurses aren't making $200 million.
They're going to lose a job.
The doctors are not making $200 million.
They're going to lose their job.
The pilots.
Stop.
The pilots are not making $200 million.
They're going to lose their job.
This is bigger than Kyrie Irving.
Kyrie Irving is not standing up for Kyrie Irving.
He's standing up for every single one of the people in this entire world that are being forced to do something that they don't want to do by a government that has lost its way.
This is bigger than Kyrie Irving.
And he's got money.
Let's be real.
You're on the side of forced influence.
So there's no price you like.
Let's stop treating this vaccine like it's a bad thing.
Let's stop treating this.
Let's stop treating COVID like it's exactly what the damn survival is.
What are we doing here?
I think, by the way, this exact, how emotional this gets is exactly how a lot of people are feeling right now.
Why is this even this heated of a debate?
It's a choice.
Do you take it, take it?
You don't take it, don't take it.
It's not a risk.
If you're going to make millions and millions of dollars, we got to take it.
He's already worth millions and millions of dollars.
But guess what?
That's still the guy's choice if he doesn't want to do it.
I said at the top of the segment, it's his choice.
It's still his choice.
It's also his choice to not play basketball, to not be able to win.
You make a very valid point because I'll give you the flip side of it.
You know how people say stuff like, if I was Tiger, I would have never done that with 16 different women and all this stuff.
You know what I say to them?
You know what I say to them?
Why don't you go back to being two years old, play golf for 20 years, become the greatest in the world, have every person in the world pay attention to you, try to go to Walmart.
Go ahead.
Go ahead and do it.
Because right now, when you go to Walmart, the cashier doesn't even look at you.
It's a big difference.
So you don't know what it is to be.
So we don't know what it is to be Tiger, just like Gerard doesn't know what it is for the Nets to say, here's 200 million, take the vaccine.
He doesn't know that.
You don't know that.
None of us know that until you're put in a situation like that.
It's a very weird situation to be in.
I had a board call recently.
It was not a comfortable board call on this thing coming up.
I can't openly talk about what the conversation was about, but it wasn't comfortable.
It's a very difficult conversation.
And I said, look, I'm a guy that left Iran, man.
I'm about choices.
I'm here because I like choices.
I don't like forces.
I like choices.
And I fully support our guys that are getting it, and I fully support the guys who are not getting it.
What I don't support is you not wanting to go educate yourself.
Whether you're the person that's not and whether you're the person that is.
I have guys that don't want to get their seven-year-old parents the shot.
And I said, I just want you to know, go do a little research on who this thing helps based on where they're at.
I support my dad got it, my nanny got it, and not a single time have that gone judged about it.
But I want to go back to my question.
I didn't ask what he should do, I didn't ask what he should do because it's a different conversation.
I'm asking, what do you think he'll end up doing?
What do you think will end up happening to Kyrie?
Do you think this is going to be a guy that's going to go till the very end?
Or do you think this is going to be a guy that's going to get traded?
Do you think he's going to be retiring?
Or do you think he's just going to take a year off?
I think he might just take a year off.
Okay.
I think he's going to take a year off.
What do you think he's going to do?
Look, I'll say it again.
If you want to not do this, that's your choice.
But we've all played team sports.
You guys have.
Okay.
Well, I know you were the Iranian Dennis Rodman in high school.
You had sharp elbows.
I played team business.
But look, selfishly, as a Miami Heat fan, I love Kyrie not playing because the Brooklyn Nets are the favorite.
So if we're going to talk sports, all right, my heater looking pretty damn good right now.
What do you think he's going to do?
Not what do you think he should do?
I think he's.
Look, I've actually hung out with Kyrie before.
One of my best friends is very close.
He works with the Celtics.
He represents Marcus Smart.
And I've been out to dinner with them.
I've gone to the club with them.
We've had a private boss take us around.
I've hung out with Kyrie.
Legit, cool guy.
He does have a big ego.
Sat at the head of the table during dinner, paid for the whole check, paid for everything.
I guess if you're going to pay for everything, you're going to have that.
First of all, look, dude, there's not a lot of guys.
If this guy plays 82 games versus any other point guard playing 82 games, he's a top three.
This guy's not a so the ego comes with the amount of accuracy practice with his dad and the ego comes with the territory.
What do you think he's going to do?
I think he, if I the point that I was going to make is, if I'm his teammate, I'm thinking, look, bro, like, we can't win this without you.
We're going to need you to step up this conversation.
What is he going to do?
I don't think he's going to do it.
Okay.
So you think he's going to take a year off?
I think he's that far into the situation right now.
What do you think he's going to do?
That he's not going to do it.
Kai, let me ask you a question.
Kai from Norway?
Who won the NBA championship two years ago?
Two years ago?
Sure.
The Lakers.
Okay.
He didn't ask Kai.
Thanks.
David, who was the NBA MVP three years ago?
Jack Hayes.
LeBron.
Who knows?
Okay.
Who's Colin Kaepernick?
QB.
Okay.
Hey, who, Kai, you're from Norway, right?
Who's Martin Luther King Jr.?
He's the guy who stood up against racism.
Okay.
Who's Rosa Parks?
She didn't sit.
She didn't sit in the back of the bus.
Okay, who won the NBA MVP in 1969?
Gosh, who knows?
But you know what the other two are.
Exactly.
Some things are bigger than basketball.
Stop.
Some things are bigger than basketball.
Now, okay, so Kyrie is fucking Martin Luther King now.
Do you know Rosa Parks?
Wait, dude, stop it.
Wait, you're talking about somebody.
Because he won't take a vaccine.
Because somebody won't sit in the back of the bus.
Stop it, bro.
It's a scene on the same bus.
So there's making bullshit out of there.
You're out of your fucking basketball.
You're fucking out of your mind.
Out of your mind.
If he didn't play basketball, shut up and do what he's told.
That's what's being taught.
He could do whatever he wanted.
Rosa Parks wasn't getting $200 million either.
Shut up and do what you're told.
Go to the back of the bus.
Shut up and do what we tell you.
The fact that you're trying to throw Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks next to Kyrie.
You can do what you're told.
No, that's not what I'm saying.
I said from the get-go, you can do whatever you want.
It's coverment control that he's talking about.
Stop talking about Martin Luther King.
Let me give you my side.
Let me give you my side.
Here's what's going to happen.
Okay.
My thing's going to happen: the following.
If Kyrie goes and gets vaccinated, he's all about getting attention.
I don't know if this made sense.
No, he broke under the pressure.
No, but no, Kyrie's historically been about getting the attention.
Such as, oh, I'm really going through a challenging time emotionally because of what's going on with the riots and protesting.
Okay.
And then you come and play in the playoffs, or you don't play in the playoffs.
Okay, fine.
If Kyrie truly stays to his core and doesn't do anything about it, he's a true believer.
It's that simple, okay?
So he's either going to be like, Yeah, okay, fine, I'll do it, money, whatever.
I'll go after a lot of thought with my family, we've decided I'm going to get the vaccine.
Here's what I'm going to do.
Great.
There's a big difference between a true believer and somebody that needs attention.
And we know attention is attention.
I mean, Roger Stone says there's no bad publicity, right?
You always want to get it.
So we're going to find that out.
Yes, once and for all.
Yeah, we're going to find that out.
This is probably the biggest.
I think if I'm Kyrie's advisor, if I'm Kyrie's advisor, I sit down and I say, listen, let's turn off the cameras.
It's you and I, bro.
I'm not on the camera.
Nobody knows who I am.
I don't need the attention.
I'm your guy.
We're talking.
He says, yeah.
I said, what do you want to do?
Sabat, I really talked to my mom.
I totally get it, man.
And you truly believe this?
Fully believe this, yes.
Why don't you take a year off?
Take a year off.
You know what a year off is going to do to him?
Nothing.
He has money.
He can handle a year off.
You don't think a year from now people are not going to want to sign to Kyrie Irving when he's a free agent?
I think they are.
I think a year from now, he's still going to have a job.
If, and in the next 12 months, what could happen in the next 12 months?
Here's what could happen the next 12 months.
In the next 12 months, a lot can change.
I mean, a lot of stuff can change.
Market can change.
Politics can change.
We have new problems, new crisis.
How quickly do we go from talking about Russia?
How quickly did Russia get turned off?
Overnight, right?
How quickly does an event that take place that we thought it was the end of the world get turned off overnight?
And we go to the next news story, right?
News cycle.
Yeah.
Okay, whatever.
So I think if he really wants, he can afford to take a year off.
Take the season off.
You're totally fine, bro.
Hey, for personal family reasons, I've decided to take the season off.
Here, Nets, you keep the money, whatever it is, and let me see what I'm going to do next year.
Totally fine.
I think if he did that and it's coming from a real reasonable place, I agree with you.
I think the one year would be the right position to take.
And in regards to what you're saying with his teammates having a conversation, I can guarantee you Durant had the conversation with him.
I can guarantee you Hardin's had the conversation with him.
I can guarantee you Hardin had the conversation with him.
Like, for a fact, I don't think Nash had the conversation with him.
I don't think Nash is a pusher.
I don't think Nash is like a meant like Nash is a pop.
I don't think Nash is a meaning.
He just wanted to understand.
He's probably going to come more from that standpoint.
Sean Marks, the GM.
I think he had the conversation.
No, for a fact, he had a conversation with him.
So we're going to see what's going to happen.
By the way, hey, it's a story.
We'll see what will take place.
But, you know, again, I think it's the new Colin Kaepernick.
They're just treating him slightly different than Colin was treated.
Colin was a hero.
Kyrie's a villain too.
For the record, I would take the vaccine for $200 million.
Of course you would.
And you wouldn't?
And FYI.
For $200 million, you wouldn't take the vaccine?
I can't.
Phil Heath.
I can't.
We hold these self-evident.
The women are created anyway.
They're doubtless by their creator.
Let me say this real quick.
Oh my God.
Labor about this story.
Wait a minute.
Let me say this real quick.
You're saying, stop.
If you know your own blood work and gene variants and all these other things, and if you fall into the category of like, hey, if you take this, these are the side effects that actually could be exacerbated by your pre-existing conditions and may put you in a bad situation.
That's where I'm at.
You have health concerns with it.
I have health proof.
Okay.
Because I've done the research.
I've done the work.
I mean, hell, I'm 75%.
You have a challenge.
Of course, that happens.
So it's a personal story.
So I have to understand.
Because I, along with everybody else, should be more informed of their own body and their own blood work and meet with certain doctors so then they can make an informed choice.
For me, I did that.
I took it upon myself to go do that.
My parents, they got the vax.
Smart.
My mom is, she'll be 71 this year.
My stepfather, my father had passed seven years ago, but my stepfather is 88 and he's had two lung surgeries.
So of course he's going to take this.
And I'm not like, oh man, you guys are stupid.
No, this is your choice.
There's people that have taken a vaccine right now that are willing to go say, I never took the vaccine.
To take the vaccine again to get that $200 million.
I just want to let you know.
I didn't take it out.
I wish we were doing this podcast in 1775 so I could hear you defend the British Empire, man.
I wish.
There's nothing.
There's nothing wrong with what the British are doing.
So what?
You've got to put a soldier in your house.
What's the big deal?
Look at what the British did.
We wouldn't even bring you a lot of people.
You're going to take out 30 bucks, bro.
For $200 million, you're going to get on your high horse and be like, I would never.
I would never.
I'd rather die on my sword on the hill than $200.
I love you like a brother.
Shut the fuck up.
You're all you're fucking.
Are you kidding me?
You're literally.
$200 million.
Okay, forget the $200 million, right?
No, no, I'm not going to forget that.
You think the nurses should get it and keep their job?
I'm not talking about the nurses.
I'm talking about Kyrie Irving.
What the fuck is different?
It's not a matter of scamming that you wouldn't get this out of it.
Don't you realize that that plays into maybe an agenda that we don't know about?
What you're saying, Army, what you're saying is that your morality is for sale.
It's not going to help you in big bold letters.
For $200 million, yes, I'm for sale.
All right.
We're going to play that game later after this is over.
What else should you do for $200 million?
I mean, I would definitely get the vaccine.
He'd get double penetrated, right?
Because you need two of them to get vaccinated.
Giard said he was.
This is the shortcut.
David, Adam gets double penetrated for $200 million.
Giard, you said you would get on.
You would get on a table and do naughty things around men naked for $10,000.
I'd do that for free.
Boom.
There it is.
Put that on the shortcut.
Let's continue, guys.
Let's continue.
You're going to strip for free around a bunch of men.
Okay.
All right.
Let's continue to the next story.
So I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I'm going to go two stories back to back with you.
You were bragging about how you've been listening to Dwayne Johnson's new song on repeat for 24 hours.
So DJ is now apparently a rapper, and he said some stuff about politics.
I want to read both of the stories, and both of them have to do with Dwayne Johnson.
Kai, you do what you need to do with it.
So let's go through it.
So page three.
And by the way, we all watched the video.
You've seen the song, right?
I'm assuming you've listened to the song, Phil.
Did we watch it together?
Yeah, we watch it together.
We watch it together.
So the truth about Dwayne Johnson's rap debut, Nikki Swift's story, on October 8th, Tech 9 released its new single, Face Off, featuring Joey Cool, King Iso, and Dwayne Johnson.
For the latter in particular, this was an exciting experience.
Made my historic rap debut.
Thankfully, I didn't suck.
Johnson tweeted one day of the song's release.
I never had the ambition to be a hip-hop artist or rapper, but I did see an opportunity here to create a song that really inspired and motivated me to push for more and fight for more.
I've always loved music.
I love hip-hop and blues and outlaws, outlaw country music.
And Johnson's newly launched rap career isn't motivated by money or fame, though.
That's not the important thing.
The thing that gets my attention these days and gets me out of bed have to do, have to be the things that I absolutely love and I'm absolutely passionate about.
And by the way, I believe in this guy's worth, what, nearly half a billion dollars?
You think he's trying to become famous?
He's the most famous guy in the world.
The guy's saying if he needs a little bit more fame.
And then I'll pause there before I go to the next story with him.
And Adam, I'm going to come to you since you really had some thoughts on this.
What do you think about his new song?
Were you impressed?
I think we all have thoughts on it.
Real quick, I'll go around roundtable, then I'll give my point.
Do you think his song was good?
I think it was good.
The fact that he was able to team up with someone who he's been a fan of for a long time with Tech 9 because I remember chatting with him and he always mentioned him.
So I think what's cool about Dwayne is that he's always able to collaborate.
And he has that juice.
The collaboration you like.
You like the song, bro.
I mean, it's definitely.
You like the song?
It's definitely something where I'm like, well, I'm not like, I'll give it like a 7-5-8.
Really?
No, because I mean, there's still a collaboration with it.
I'm not going to say it totally sucked.
I'm going to say that is he Shaquille.
No, just say you like the song.
Is he Shaquille?
You know what I'm saying?
Is he Dame Dala?
Is he Jack?
Is he Dame Dolly Shaq?
Is he Dame Dahla?
No.
No one's Dame Dalton.
7.5 as long as DJ produces his documentary.
It's 5.5.
He does it for two.
That's cool, Gerard.
We can give it.
What do you give it?
What do you give?
I loved it.
I loved it.
I did.
I loved it.
But I love wrestling, though.
I'm a wrestling mark, bro.
This brought me back in the day, man.
I used to listen to the macho man back in the day.
Oh, yeah, Gerard.
B and you naked wrestling like a monkey.
Ooh, yeah.
Like, I love that stuff.
Did you?
What?
Did you like it?
All right.
Well, I'll make two different points here.
Well, maybe three.
I thought the song was fucking horrible.
It was.
I'll come out and say, I thought it was bad.
I think Tech 9 is non-existent.
If you named the top 100 rappers, Tech 9 would not be in the equation.
Stop.
Red Nation.
Red Nation.
Stop it.
I don't like if you said any of us serious.
If you said the top 100 rappers in the world, Tech 9 wouldn't even be on the list.
All right.
Maybe people in the comments need to correct your ass.
Because I'm telling you right now, Tech 9 is.
What?
Tech 9 is 50-something years old.
And how old is Snoop?
How old is Ice Q?
Phil Heath.
You're comparing the top 10 rapper of all time.
You're putting words in my mouth.
What I'm saying is that this is a guy who has been an infantry.
I don't want to get into a fight today.
I think he's a child.
He's a little bit or something.
No doubt.
That did have three cups of coffee.
Well, maybe that's why.
But I mean, anyone out there, if you see these guys in person, you want to mess up Gerard.
What's your second point?
What's your second point?
Okay, so I'll give him his credit.
I'll give him credit.
And this maybe will help the audience a little bit.
His last point.
I love hip-hop and blues and outlaw country music.
This is not motivated by money or fame.
That's not the important thing.
The things that get my attention these days get me out of bed have to be the things I absolutely love and are passionate about.
I love that part because I thought the song was not good at all.
Not even, I wouldn't listen to it if it wasn't.
I don't care if it's Tech 9, Rock, Dwayne, whatever.
It's not that good of a song.
However, what I do appreciate, and this is what other people can get out of this, is your comfort zone will kill you.
Get out of your comfort zone.
He said he's not a rapper, but he wanted to do this.
Cool.
Powerful.
We all do things that you second guess.
I don't know.
It's not really for me.
I don't know if whether it's rap, whether it's bodybuild, whether it's start a business, whatever it is, at some point you're going to doubt yourself.
At some point, you're going to say, I don't know, I'm not a rapper.
I give him props because the fact that he went out there and did that, I respect that.
You have to get out of your comfort zone.
This is going to kill you.
I'm happy that a celebrity isn't out there bitching, moaning, or lecturing me.
This is what rich people should do.
Like, you want to go out there and sing?
Sing.
You want to get in a music video?
Get in the music video.
Why not?
Dude, live your dreams, man.
Like, go for it.
I don't think it was nearly as bad.
And also, I am unashamedly a rock fan.
And I used to love watching Monday Night Raw when he would come out with his guitar and he would sing about, you know, he would sing about the, what was it?
The Jabroni Drive.
I'm just down at the end of Jabroni Drive.
It's the SmackDown Hotel.
Like, I love the rock, bro.
And look, my only thing, if I could have given them any, not that I'm anybody to give them any advice, I think they took it a little too seriously.
It could have been a little more fun.
It could have been like a little more on brand.
But look, I only ever criticize art when I feel like I could have done better.
I don't think I could have done better.
I think The Rock, he did what he could do.
I ain't got bars.
Adam, you got bars?
I got bars.
Bullshit.
I freestyled for you yesterday.
I loved it.
That shit was terrible.
And you're saying that he and he sucked?
I'm not a rapper, but I got out of my comfort zone.
I got out of my comfort zone and freestyle.
You didn't do it with 300 million people watching.
Other than it being a tequila commercial, because we did have his.
Did you like his song?
I'm probably not going to listen to it ever again.
I will tell you that.
I'm probably not going to listen to it again.
But I probably listened.
Maybe it's because I've listened to Moana, You're Welcome, one too many times.
And I'm so addicted to that one because that song, when he sang that one, that was actually sick.
I think that's his genre.
I don't know if I felt a hip-hop thing with him, but I think he's got a voice.
I think if he wants to do something, he can do something with it.
And why would he see PBD drop a rap video?
The day that happens, it's just real talk.
Tell me.
Him rapping, getting out there, putting himself out there is PBD, getting out there, and doing some stand-up comedy.
Yeah, that's it.
I feel like that could happen.
Yeah, I think that's eventually going to happen.
But, you know, yesterday there was an interview I watched with him that he put on his Instagram account.
And he says, can I curse on this?
Can I curse on this?
He says, yeah, you can.
So he started talking.
He says, so tell me, you know, what is the thing about being a celebrity?
And he explains what it is to be a celebrity.
He says, what's the toughest thing about being a celebrity?
He said, I will never complain about being a celebrity.
This thing's changed my life.
I have no right to complain.
I love the attitude, man.
I love that attitude.
I love a guy that goes to his agent when he's just a wrestler and he says, I want to be Will Smith, but better.
I love a guy that's got a vision for himself and he's so obsessed and determined to go out there and win.
I love that part of rock.
I fully love that part of rock.
And I think he's at a point right now that anything he touches.
Who won here, Tech 9 or Rock?
Tech 9.
No, Tech Nine won here because.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tech 9 got more.
He got more visitors.
We're talking about Tech Nine.
There's a debate about Tech Nine that you have you even heard of Tech Nine?
I have heard of Tech Nine, but I'm not going to.
I'm a good kid.
I know.
Anyway, so now let me go to the other story.
Let me go to the other story, which is page six, if you want to go to where he was being interviewed and talked about politics.
I got him in my phone.
Here's what was brought up.
So Dwayne Johnson admits.
I'm glad to hear that.
Dwayne Johnson admits he doesn't know the first thing about politics while teasing a possible 2024 White House run.
While Dwayne Johnson is not ruling out a presidential run of the future, he also admitted his own shortcomings, stating that he doesn't know the first thing about politics.
You know, at the end of the day, I don't know the first thing about politics.
I don't know the first thing about policy.
I care deeply about our country.
I care about every F an American who bleeds red, and that's all of them.
And there is no delusion here.
I may have some decent leadership qualities, but that doesn't necessarily make me a great presidential candidate.
That's where I am today.
Fantastic comment to make about it, and to be honest about it.
However, I will say, there is no way in the world Rock doesn't know anything about politics.
He is in two, he made it to the top of two of the most political industries in the world.
Wrestling, hardcore is political.
When he first came out, he says, I'm not, well, he said, he says, I'm not going to be the bad guy.
I'm not going to be the bad.
I'm the wrestler that's the enemy.
I'm not going to be that guy.
I'm going to be the good guy, the hero, the loved one.
He made that decision.
That's the role I want to play, right?
In Hollywood.
How political is it?
And he comes in, a guy that's as big as he is.
And the last guy that made it in Hollywood was who at that size is Arnold.
Arnold went and made it happen.
And this guy goes and makes it happen.
So, yes, he's been in politics for the last 25 years.
He has more experience in politics than 99% of political candidates.
To undermine that part of it, the guy knows how to play the game, sitting there with big agents and billionaires, negotiating contracts and deals, and ZOA and XFL and all this other stuff.
He's fully qualified to want to do it.
Now, the area that I do agree with him is he probably needs a year of sitting there with people, asking him questions to see what his real answer is going to be and doing a ton of research.
Read this book, read this article, watch this documentary, go through this, watch this debate, look how this guy handled it, look how Reagan handled it, look how Obama handled it.
Look at the mistake here was made by Rick Perry.
Look at the mistake here was made by this person.
And that part, he needs help in that because it is another game.
He needs to go hire the Aaron Spicer of And then you kid him, and I think that's that goes to show that it is about running mates as you talk about.
Absolutely.
He's always had a great team.
You know, his team with Danny Garcia and TGC and all that stuff.
Shout out to them.
But overall, I mean, he's always been able to really win.
You look at some of the films, like he'll make fun of some of his own films that didn't gross better than some of the other ones he's done.
Is there anybody more likable?
Natural Carrillo.
Is there any star more like any superstar more likable than him?
I don't think so.
The only guy I think there's only really two that are even close.
Heart, and I would say, I'd say Chris Pratt and Kevin and Downey Jim, not Kevin.
McConaughey?
No.
No?
McConaughey, maybe.
I think he's close.
Robert Downey Jr., very, very likable.
Josh Brown, but they're not the same size of the star that he is.
No, none of those guys are anywhere in the world.
When it comes down to him, other than that team, Brian Reynolds is incredibly likable.
Well, at least there's their personalities.
I don't know them.
I'm talking about, I'm talking Tom Cruise level, Rock level, Brad Pitt level, Leonardo DiCaprio level.
I'm talking that level.
I'm talking Kim Kardashian level.
I'm talking anybody liked more than this guy.
I would say maybe Chris Pratt.
Chris Pratt.
Anywhere in his specialty.
But what I will say is, I mean, we all know that this is a man of great discipline and hard work.
He talks about it all the time, but he actually does it.
And he's not afraid of a challenge.
So I think, to your point, he's going to do the work.
He's probably already been doing it.
He's always the hardest worker in the room, as he says.
But also, like, you got to think, when he's been doing prior to COVID, movie after movie after movie after movie, business after business, his capacity is what I look at most when you're talking about being in politics.
Because if he is starting out at, you know, let's say the seasoned veterans, the career politicians are up here and he's like right down here, he's going to make sure that he's up here very, very quick to be competitive.
And I think that's what's going to separate him from other people.
And he's going to make people watch because they're going to see.
I trust that he's going to be extremely competitive with whatever he does.
And we don't know.
We just have to wait and see.
But I made a point.
I trust that he's going to be extremely competitive.
He would have to.
I fully agree.
And he would push other people.
I fully agree.
He'd have to stop.
I have one issue with him.
I have one issue.
Everything else he's doing.
That's really exactly what I was going to say.
I have one issue.
You have to give it all up.
Exactly.
He shouldn't do it.
Yeah.
Let me make one quick point.
Three P's that come to mind.
The politics.
You said he's been doing politics for a couple of decades now.
The persona, no doubt whatsoever.
Likable, gregarious, name recognition.
Above all, the thing at question that you're talking about is the policy.
Does he actually know policy?
I think he does.
Does he actually understand ramifications of saying things?
Does he actually understand?
Oh, when he talks about saying things, I mean, we don't talk about many sound bites that he's done wrong or anything because he's been well groomed and he knows who he is.
So I think when you know who you are, you can actually speak from the heart.
And that's what he does pretty well.
I give him mad props for that.
And he's unafraid to say that, hey, I'm some of a layman to this subject, but I know who I am.
And I'm probably going to be able to do what, Pat?
Recruit.
Recruit the best people to ensure that he wins.
I think he's afraid, though.
I do think he is afraid.
And I think that he's afraid of one thing.
Here's what he's afraid of.
He's afraid of, he's so liked that I think a part of him is afraid of not being liked.
Okay.
I think he will be afraid of losing fans.
And it is so important to him to be loved.
You know, the five love languages.
You go through all of it.
I think it matters to him so much to be loved.
That's a great point.
I think he understands how to deal with authority.
I think he knows how to manage authority.
And it's very kudos to him because your entire life, you're going to have to learn how to manage it.
If you don't know how to deal with authority, you're not going to make it to the top.
There isn't, you know, this whole thing about rebel against authority.
I'm sorry.
Good luck to you.
You have to know how to work with them.
You have to know how to work with authority.
This doesn't mean sitting there.
This doesn't mean sitting there and bowing down, but it means you have to understand the power positions.
If you don't understand that concept, good luck to you.
You have a limit to where you're going to hit.
He understands playing the power players, dealing with the bosses, dealing with the money people, dealing with the directors.
Kudos to him.
But I think he's so concerned about being liked that I don't think politically he's going to go on the side that's truly him.
I think politically, let me finish.
I think politically he's going to go to a side that's going to please the last industry he was a part of.
And I think it's going to backfire.
Then he should talk to Andrew Yang and he should talk to Tulsa Gabbard.
If that's the case, then he needs to talk to them.
And because, you know, I just talked to you about Andrew Yang was on Sam Harris.
Very, very, very open and honest about how bad it was being a part of the DNC.
So there was a big difference between running for mayor versus running for office.
It's a very different because he was a lead dog and lost, but he was nobody and he garnered some attention.
I watched the whole thing about that.
Yeah, it was very interesting.
So the now you said there was three P's, right?
There was, what was it?
Politics, persona.
Persona, policy.
I'm sure there's some other P in there.
Add a fourth P, and that's prophecy because the movie Idiocracy has the downfall of the corporate states of America when a wrestler named Dwayne takes over as president.
So we can fulfill the prophecy.
Well, prophets.
Again, for that to happen, somebody has to tell him, you're going to go from the most liked guy to the most hated guy.
And it's going to happen.
How many decisions has he made, though?
FYI.
Here's the other part with him.
Here's the other part with him.
So think about what Andrew's trying to do.
New party, the forward party.
And the whole thing he was talking about was Catherine Gale, which I've interviewed them.
And Catherine Gale launched her book on Valettain with Michael Porter.
Is that right?
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.
Catherine Gale Mario.
Kai, you remember that interview that we did and this whole point system where first place, it doesn't help you to be bashing everybody because you're going to drop that whole point system that we're talking about.
If you get fifth place votes, you know, it works out.
It's a very interesting concept that they're talking about.
Okay.
But can this guy really lead a new party?
No.
Andrew Yang?
No.
He can't carry that.
Can the rock.
He's brilliant, but I think he's charismatic.
I think Yang is a great number three or a number four.
He's not a two or one.
I don't think Yarn.
Can be behind the rock.
I don't think.
That would be very powerful.
I don't think Yang is a number one.
I don't think Yang is a number one.
There's difference to number ones.
I think Rock is a good number one.
But The Rock, if he really wanted to do it the right way and he really wanted to be a synergist and he really wanted to bring both sides closer to each other, here's how you do it.
When my parents got a divorce and they were going through it, both sides wanted to win me over.
It's kind of like, hey, you know, I'm this, I'm this, I'm that.
I said, I said, mom, listen, you're my mom.
I love you, but please don't talk bad about that.
I don't like it.
And I told the family, if you guys talk about my dad, I don't need to see you because I love my dad more than I love you guys.
It's that simple.
Then I went to my dad's side and my dad's side was talking shit about my mom.
I said, he's a Bohossian.
The Armenians would say, he's a Bedavid.
He's an Assyrian.
And my Armenians would say, the other ones would say, he's a Bohosian.
He's Armenian.
They would play that game.
And I told my mom's family, I said, listen, I love my dad.
I love my mom.
Please don't talk trash.
It's just not going to fly.
Anyways, eventually, they realized this guy's not missing Ron.
We're in the U.S.
I haven't seen my dad for two and a half years.
A lady comes to our house.
It's me, my mom, and my sister.
And she says, Gabriel wants to see his kids.
And he wants to know if you guys are going to let him see his kids.
And my mom says, so what do you guys want to do?
I said, I want to see my dad.
Absolutely.
You don't even know how tough of a decision that was because my life sucked for about six months after saying that.
So I said, I want to see my dad.
You want to see your dad?
I want to see my dad.
So my dad comes and picks me up at Virgil's, and we go and spend a Sunday together.
How long has it been since you'd seen him?
Two and a half years.
My dad's my best friend.
You guys know how I feel about my dad.
So I said, I want to see my dad.
So I go and spend a whole day and a half with my dad.
She picks me up, and we have good conversations together.
I told him stuff I didn't like and all this other.
I'm 12 years old, 12 and a half years old.
But both sides got a glimpse of, listen, it's family, it's everybody coming together, that's it, or I'm not compromising.
And that became a backbone to the family to realize this guy's not going to compromise.
My entire life, that's been my MO, okay?
If The Rock wants to be a synergist and wants to bring America together and wants to be a hero where you're remembered a thousand years from now, 500 years from now, where you become the first guy that saves the democracy on average, the democracy doesn't last past 250 years and we're at 246 years right now.
Give her 245 years, whatever the timeline is, 1776.
If he comes and he says, I'm running as an independent, and he says, these are the things I disagree on the right, but these are the things I like on the right.
I'm a pro-military guy because here's what the military has done for me.
I'm a pro-police guy.
Here's what I don't agree with the left, but I tell you one thing.
I work with a lot of people in the LGBTQ community.
These are some of the nicest people I've ever dealt with.
Here's what I disagree with, but I've dealt with it.
He says, I'd like to bring America together, and this is why I'm running as independent.
If he does that, let me tell you, he could win, and he ain't no the guy that got 21%, 19% running against senior, which senior doesn't comment about one guy, and you know what I'm talking about.
Senior, in his documentary at the end, when they did the last thing, there's one person in the interview he wouldn't talk about.
Because it cost him a lot of people.
He said, I don't want to talk about Ross Pro.
I don't want to talk about him.
I don't want to talk about him.
You have to see on his eyes, he gets upset when Ross Pro's conversation comes up.
This ain't Ross Pro, bro.
This is Dwayne Johnson.
Dwayne could win as an independent.
He'll go in the history books as one of the greatest synergists at the greatest time in America.
But here's the thing.
I'll give you a 5% chance he does it because he's too much about being liked.
And a part of being independent, people are not going to like it.
Do you think the quote-unquote deep state would let something like that happen?
You think our military-industrial complex would let something like that happen?
Okay, so this is a part where I'm going to remind you of something that you believe in, and you got to go to your core with that.
I believe the people are more powerful than they know.
And I still believe people are more powerful than they know.
The first thing that goes is faith.
We talked about this on the last podcast.
There are a lot of people of faith that are very necessary.
Whether you believe in God, whether you like Christianity, Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah 7 Day, whether you like or agree with any of that stuff or not, here's what you desperately need.
You desperately need a big percentage of America to have faith.
You desperately need that.
That grandma that has that faith in his grandson, when the mother doesn't believe him and the grandma says, listen, be patient with your son.
I was patient with you.
This kid is a special kid.
He's going places.
I'm telling you, I have faith in him.
Be patient with him.
That grandma with that faith is what makes that mother's relationship and the father's relationship be better with the son.
Thank God for the Christians and the God-fearing, God-loving people in America, whoever, whatever faith you practice, Judaism, I don't care what it is, whatever you practice, the people who have faith in something, they're going to be able to pull something like this off.
So whether the deep state wants to get in the way and they don't want to do anything about it, the deep state couldn't stop Trump.
And Trump is not as big as The Rock.
There's no way Trump and The Rock are in the same league.
Go back to 2014 and look at some of Trump's tweets when he would tweet.
324 likes, 317 likes, 428 likes.
This is a guy that became president.
He was only getting 30, 400 likes seven years ago.
Go look at Trump's, Dwayne Johnson's tweet.
Go look at Dwayne Johnson's instead.
They're saying the same.
You're talking about potentially the biggest personality ever to run.
I just hope he gets the right people on his side that can have this conversation that I just had with him because I'm convinced this guy can go in the history books as the greatest synergist this country's ever had.
I'm fully convinced.
I don't think he'll do it, though.
We've been talking the P's.
TVD.
P.
Yeah.
Prediction time.
P. Do you think he runs?
What party does he run with?
And does he have your vote?
Go ahead, Phil, with a P. Do you think he runs?
I think he runs as an independent.
Okay.
I really want to see a debate because I do believe that if he's doing exactly what Pat's saying and just going all out, first of all, the ratings would go through the roof.
Can you imagine his political commercials?
It would just be fucking amazing.
So he has your vote?
Oh, man.
Depending on the policies?
Absolutely.
Okay.
Absolutely.
Depending on the policy.
I'm a policy guy.
You're a policy guy.
I don't think 2024.
I think if he's talking about it now, I mean, how many years did Trump talk about it before he actually runs?
20 years.
20 years.
Maybe even longer.
Yeah, 85.
You know, I think that the fact that this is a 24, look, this is a 25-hour gig.
He likes to work out three hours a day.
He's not going to be able to do that.
He's not going to be able to turn off from the world and get three hours of a workout.
And there's going to be a crisis every moment, every second.
He's going to have people that are constantly coming after him.
He's, like Pat said, very astutely.
He's used to being liked right now.
And then you think The Rock, how do you think The Rock is going to handle crazed activists running after him in the bathroom with a cell phone camera?
How do you think that?
You don't think he's running?
I think he might run, get a taste of it, and be like, what was I thinking?
I had the greatest life on earth.
Why the hell would I do that?
I think the one person that can give him the best advice, and if I'm part of his strategy team, here's what I would be doing.
I think the best person that can give him the best advice is Donald Trump.
But he can't ask Trump.
He can't have a meeting with Trump.
Remember the video he did about Trump.
Where is he?
Here's what I mean by this.
I think somebody on his camp needs to, who is connected with a Sean Hannity or is connected to a whoever that's going to potentially do an interview with Trump and Trump's going to take the interview, has to ask the questions that Rock really wants to be asked.
And here's the questions.
The questions that Rock really wants to be asked is, hey, going back, let me ask you at a great life.
Was it worth it to get the last checklist done?
Which is what?
You can forever say you were a billionaire, you partied, you did this, you did that, TV show, 15 years, apprentice, and president.
Was it worth getting that last check mark of being a president?
I think someone needs to have that conversation.
And Rock wants that conversation with Trump to see if Trump will say it wasn't worth it or it was worth it.
Because that's the thing he has to ask himself.
I think he's going to run and I think he's going to run on the left.
I don't think he's going to run on the right.
Does he have your vote?
No, he does not.
Really?
No, he runs as an independent.
I would consider his policies.
He runs on the left.
I think he's just been bought.
And, you know, China, the movies he's doing with China and how careful they are with China and all that stuff.
You have to know where I'm at with China.
I mean, I don't need to remind you with how China.
So I think if he takes a stand against China, I think if he takes a stand against both sides, both sides, he says, look, both sides have come up to me and told me that I should run as a Republican and I should run as a Democrat.
And I got to tell you, I just relate to both sides and I disagree with part of both sides.
I think I'm independent.
And if you get behind me, hey, let's make it work.
I think he could win as an independent.
But I'm telling you, 5% chance he does it, 95% chance he won't do it.
He runs as a leftist.
And I know you want to move on, Pat, but what does that say on a deeper level?
What does that say about our political system, the type of government that we have right now, that somebody that we all agree would have a great chance of winning wouldn't want to put himself through what it would take to win?
All it tells you is that.
Does that mean that we're missing out on our great leaders?
Because those people are scared to not run?
Yeah.
But all it tells you is, all it tells you is that he, one, you're scared.
And two, it's not a true statesman.
What's a statesman?
What's the difference between a politician and a statesman?
Go to a statesman.
What's a statesman about?
What's a politician about?
They're wired in a different way.
It's not the same wiring.
You know, Manchin is a statesman.
You know, some of the guys on the right that disagree with Trump, they're statesmen.
You have to like Tucker going up there and disagreeing with what Trump was doing.
How many times have you seen Tucker interview Trump?
Why do you think?
I don't know if people realize this.
Trump is not a big fan of Tucker.
How many times have you seen Trump interview with Hannity?
I never watch it.
You know, and if I watch it, I watch it because we're talking about it on the podcast.
Because to Hannity's eyes, Trump can't do no wrong.
So I think true statesmen today are tough to come by.
But if somebody truly wants to make history instead of getting the check mark, I think you got to study the greatest statesmen in the history of America and see what they went through.
What was their formula?
How did they think?
Why did they do what they did?
It's a little bit more about what you were talking about earlier on dying on the sword and all that stuff.
A true statesman is country over your policies.
It's not policies.
It's country over your politics.
Country over you being liked.
And you don't find a lot of people like that today.
Who would you even put as the top statesman in America today?
Today?
Today.
Who's up there?
You said Joe Manchin.
Okay.
He's on the list.
Is Bill Maher on that list?
Is Joe Rogan on the list?
Does it have to be a politician?
Who in politics is a true statesman?
Who is a synergist?
Who's not a divider?
Who do you actually put on that list today?
I know that you're a big fan of Tulsi Gabbard.
Is she a true stateswoman?
Who actually is on that list today?
Justin Amish, Tom Massey.
I'd give it to Rand Paul.
Manchin, for sure.
Who's the guy from South Dakota?
Those are all people that.
South Dakota?
No.
Wyoming?
You're talking about?
South Carolina.
South Carolina.
Lindsey Graham?
Not Lindsey Graham.
No, no, no, no.
Tim Scott?
Maybe I'm not even saying the state rights.
The guy that we had on, Jose interviewed him.
Oh, you're like Trey Gowdy.
Trey Gowdy.
Yeah, he's a very good person.
Yeah, I think.
Well, who that actually could win?
How about that?
Because none of those names are going to win anything other than maybe Manchin, something.
Which one of somebody that could win?
Could win.
Why could Tulsi Gabbard not win?
Okay, maybe she could win, but she'd again recognition.
Tulsi needs name recognition.
Tulsi needs a little bit.
I feel Tulsi needs to do one more thing to add to her fame.
And, you know, like she needs a show.
She needs something.
I don't know what it is.
Like, she needs something to go.
So, this is the massive, this is the massive problem with our system.
You are convinced AOC is going to be president of the United States one day.
But I'm sitting here.
Well, you can't.
20%.
So 20% chance.
Do you give Tulsi Gabbard a 20% chance of being president of the United States?
I'll tell you right now.
A veteran, a sitting senator, an eloquent speaker.
If it weren't for public persona and popularity contest, yes, she is.
Unfortunately, she's way better than AOC.
She's got 1.1 million followers on Twitter, unfortunately.
And AOC has 13 million followers on Twitter.
So now let me go back to 13X.
13X.
So Roger Stone, number one is what?
Relevance.
Constant relevance.
She's not going to get relevance from mainstream media because they're not even going to give it the spotlight.
They're just not going to give it to us.
So what's going on here?
She needs to go.
Next time she's coming to Florida, she's coming here.
So you got what?
She's going to go on Rogan.
She's going to go on all this stuff.
All these things.
She needs another pop.
I think she needs another pop.
Like, you know, Trump pulled from where?
Trump pulled from billionaire.
Trump pulled from wealthy people.
Trump pulled from Apprentice.
Trump pulled from New York.
Trump pulled from all the after parties he did.
Trump pulled from golf.
Trump pulled from a lot of different places, right?
Rock's going to pull from wrestling.
Rock's going to pull from Hollywood.
Rock's going to pull from bodybuilding.
Like, I think she's not multi-dimensional enough today to pull.
That's the only thing I'm thinking about.
And aside from that, somebody powerful needs to go and back her up.
Somebody needs to back her up.
If that happens, she doesn't need the other part.
But somebody needs to do that.
And I just don't know if that's happening.
That's a very dangerous place to be, man, because basically what you guys are saying then is that the mainstream media, the media apparatuses, are the people who choose who has access and who doesn't, right?
AOC is on TV all the time because they put her on TV all the time.
Tulsi Gabbert speaks just as much, does just as many Instagram lives.
They never make it to later.
What are you saying, though?
What are you saying?
So what I'm saying is that essentially what the people, there's a very small percentage of unelected people that run corporate media that are giving people enough access to have a 20% chance as opposed to— Is that even news?
But what I'm saying, it's not news, but what it is is horrible.
What it is is dangerous.
It is horrible.
It's a popularity contest.
But it is horrible.
It is horrible.
It's not organic.
But I tell you what, my problem with this is.
So I've had the last week, I've had calls.
We've been talking about potentially buying a big paper, okay?
And we've been having calls.
And I've made the effort.
We've called.
We want to make an offer to them.
Anyways, it's somebody, every one of you guys knows who this is.
It's massive.
You know who it is.
And we've been going back and forth.
They're playing the whole thing of, well, we're not really interested right now because we're doing so well on all this other stuff, right?
We're not really interested in doing something like that right now, okay, because of XYZ.
The one newspaper in America actually making money?
No.
So anyways, but the point I'm making to you is I'm doing this because it's a long-term play, okay?
The people who oppose what is happening with all the progressive policies today in America, when is the last time they had an emergency meeting together?
That's a three-day meeting, sitting down saying, what the hell is your strategy?
When's the last time somebody spearheaded that to put a strategy in place?
When?
Because the left does it all the time.
When's the last time the right did it?
When's the last time they got together and they said, let's get the biggest media guy, let's get a Tulsi in here.
Let's get a rand in here.
Let's get Iran in here.
Let's get all these guys in here.
What do we need to do?
Let's talk about a strategy.
And somebody needs to be the strategy.
Somebody needs to be the general manager, the head coach.
How about we did this?
How about we did that?
If that doesn't happen, all this other stuff is just a bunch of lip service.
So you have to fight against mainstream media.
They're not going away.
You got to play your game.
You got a Forbes magazine that sells to China for 95%.
What are you doing?
Like, how do you let a magazine like that go away?
Fortune is now left.
Money is now left.
Inc is now left.
Forbes is now left.
What the hell are you doing?
Capitalism is about to be gone.
So only these small opportunities that keep going away.
Capitalists should buy all these magazines to keep this concept of capitalism going.
Now you're hearing socialism is not a bad approach in Forbes magazine.
You tell me how the hell that makes any sense.
It's like Ayn Rand selling her paper and all of a sudden they're talking about socialism is a good idea.
Doesn't make any sense.
Is that really an article in Forbes?
Yeah, so they're talking about that?
Yeah, so Forbes?
So the point is these things are happening and there's not a strategy to fight against what Gerard is talking about.
If you're not going to have a strategy in place, I'm sorry, you deserve to get your ass hacked out.
I can't tell you, dude, that there's so many people that feel helpless in the moment specifically because of what you just said, that they feel like, what's even the point?
This is an unwinnable battle.
This culture wars.
I agree with you.
I agree with you.
I know what you're saying.
But there's like, you're right.
There's not that guy saying, listen, if you disagree, this is what you got to do.
Do this, this, this, and this.
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, man.
I could not agree with you.
PBD, even if you're saying if the right did have a strategy, and I'm not even being sarcastic, would it even matter?
Because Trump owns that part of the world.
No, of course it would matter.
By the way, that's part of a strategy, though.
You have to know he is in the strategy.
So somebody has to go and have a combo with him to talk to him.
That's part of the strategy.
Who's going to speak to him and will he listen to anybody?
The right person can.
Who?
Who's Trump listening to?
Whatever the right person is can.
And look at the right person.
Let's define the right property.
Say what?
What matters more to you, country or your brand?
Country.
No, no, no, not to you, to Trump.
Somebody needs to have a conversation with him.
That's actually a legitimate question.
What matters more to you, your country or your name?
That's the question for you.
I'm going to hear his answer on that.
I'd love to see here his answer because a follow-up question after that is what?
Here's what's the follow-up question.
So you asked a question, Donald J. Trump, what's more important to you, your last name and your legacy, or your country?
What do you think he's going to answer?
What do you think he's going to answer?
I think he's going to say everything that he's built, his legacy, his brand.
I think he's going to say his country.
I think they're intertwined.
I think he's going to say his country.
Then the follow-up question is what?
Perfect.
So if the people in the party you're representing no longer think you're the person to help save the country, are you okay voting for somebody that can get the job done to save the country you care so much about?
That's a great hypothetical, but he owns that party.
The party wants him.
Have you seen the latest results?
What I'm trying to tell you is, so what's the alternative?
You don't have that meeting?
You don't have that sit-down?
You don't have that conversation.
You don't have that strategy session.
The right's going to constantly sit on the sidelines and say, oh, we can't do nothing about it.
Oh, shucks.
Eight more years.
Oh, it's, you know, if he is the.
So what are you saying?
That if he shouldn't run, that, hey, you're going to, we need you to be a cheerleader for Pence or cheerleader for somebody else or consent.
Somebody who knows how to deal with big egos, who has no aspirations to run, needs to get in the mix and have those conversations behind closed doors, and nobody needs to know about those conversations.
Somebody who is like a qualified guy who can go have those conversations.
You're talking to George Soros.
I hear you.
Yeah.
Loud and clear, I think he's had, quote-unquote, adults in the room, whether that's General Mattis or General Kelly or whether that's...
I don't think Mattis is the guy, though.
Whoever it is.
We know what kind of a personality.
For five years we haven't identified the guy.
For five years, we've been saying, well, somebody needs to talk to Trump and talk a little sense to him.
And the only name that has come up that people are like, okay, maybe he'll listen is Ivanka.
And I'm pretty sure she and Jared Kushner are done with politics.
They're having a nice little life down in South Beach, building a house.
You think Kushner is going back into the White House?
There's no way they're done with politics.
I don't know about that.
There's no way they're done with politics.
Other than her, who else is he actually listening to?
Legitimate question.
So to think a person like that doesn't exist is a form of giving up.
To think a person like that doesn't exist as a form of saying there's nothing I can do, but I feel helpless.
Bullshit.
I don't come from the helpless community.
To think that there's nothing we can do about it.
No, the conversation and the approach matters.
If you don't know how to approach somebody based with their personality the right way, you're not going to get results.
It's all on the approach.
So if you go and say, matter style, dude, who the hell are you talking to me like this?
It's got to be the right person with zero threat, with zero, everything is safe, protected, all of that, just to have that conversation.
With the agenda of America first.
And those are his words, but essentially it comes down to what we were talking about, I believe, a couple months ago with Pat.
Pat saying on Twitter, he's changing his handle to a synergist.
I think that person needs to rise up and actually have that conversation for that to even come into fruition.
And we obviously don't know who that is.
I think it would be a hell of a fight.
And I think what is that conversation is what I'm trying to understand.
I'm not a politician.
I have no freaking clue.
And I haven't met Trump, nor do I understand his persona.
We only know so much, right?
But we do know this.
You didn't win.
At the end of the day, you didn't win.
And you got to be able to figure out a new strategy and recognize.
I mean, look, like, I think we all can agree, like, during those debates, there were certain points in time where it's like, even if I was rooting for you, you're like, man, that wasn't smart.
You have to look at game film at the end of the day, and you have to be honest about it.
You have to raise your hand and say, yeah, that wasn't smart.
And I think if we're talking about vulnerability, I think we live in a world where, you know, people don't want to raise their hand and say, yeah, I fucked up.
And I shouldn't have said that.
But this is what I was really trying to convey.
that maybe other people listen.
And again, it's not about pulling people from the 42% or the 44%.
It's that, you know, 10 to 12%.
Right.
Do you want to talk about that Frank Luntz story or not?
Yeah, I'm going to that right away.
It's funny you just said that.
So Frank Luntz, if you want to go to page six, Donald Trump will never be president again, says renowned pollster Frank Luntz.
This is a Sydney Morning Herald, one of the most, one of the world's top pollsters, Frank Luntz, who has advised multiple Republican presidents, says Donald Trump will never again lead the United States.
He will not win.
If Trump wins again, he will be nominated by the Republicans, but he will never be elected president because there are too many people who hate him, is what he says.
And he continues saying Trump is the most popular Republican by far, but he can't win a general election because in the end, politics is about persona as much as it is about policy.
And his persona is unacceptable to too many people.
Luntz has worked as a strategist and pollster for the Republican Party for almost 30 years and is regarded as one of the world's most incisive commentators.
So you obviously agree with that, right?
You don't think he'll ever win?
I think, number one, this guy, do you know who Frank Luntz is?
You want to pull him up?
You've seen his face before.
This is what he does.
And he works for the Republican Party, I want to say.
He might say he's independent, but this is what he does.
I think it's a case of if it were Trump versus Biden again, and again, I don't even think Biden should run in four years.
It's almost like unacceptable versus unaware.
There's 60% of the country that thinks Trump is unacceptable.
I do not accept him.
There's a large contingency in the country that thinks Biden is just completely helpless and unaware.
So this goes back to my initial point of, are these our two best options?
Is this really where we're at right now?
Can we get a Tulsi Gabbard in there?
Can we get a DeSantis in there?
Can we get a Rock in there?
Is this really where we're at that we're deciding again between Donald Trump unacceptable versus Biden unaware?
So I'm saying Rock as an independent today.
And the climate is perfect for The Rock to win as an independent.
I agree.
If it's Biden, Trump on the left and the right, and then you got Rock coming up the middle, I would vote for Rock in a heartbeat, regardless of policy.
Because what we've established is that a lot of it is just persona anyway.
So therefore, it's policy versus persona in this scenario where you just explained it perfect.
I mean, you know, you may not have the policies initially as far as like The Rock is concerned, but he has the persona that oversees this.
And people did not vote for Trump enough because not because of the policies, it was because of the persona.
Agreed.
So, you know, I got nothing.
You got nothing.
No, I'm just saying him.
This article could have been from 2015.
I heard the same crap leading up that Hillary was going to win in a landslide.
And listen, I didn't vote for Trump in 2016, right?
And, but all I heard everywhere was this guy's got no chance.
The polls are, he's down by 9%.
He's down by 12%.
There's only three months to go.
But there was something in the eye test that everywhere I looked, I didn't see a single Hillary Law instead.
I didn't see a single Hillary banner.
I just saw Trump everywhere.
I was like, this is odd.
Something about what I'm seeing day to day driving around is different than what I'm hearing on the news.
And every pollster in the world came out and said, afterwards, right, 538, we need to readjust our polls.
We didn't take this into account.
We didn't take that into account.
And then people want to act like he got smoked in this last election.
He got more votes.
He's the first president in the history of the United States to get more votes in his reelection campaign and lose.
Do you feel that people now are realizing that policies are important because of what is currently going on in the world?
I think to a certain degree, that's a good point, Phil.
I also think that I don't want him to run because he activates the other side too much.
I think DeSantis or somebody else, they don't have the vitriol that's going to activate that extra 5%, 6%.
I think Trump is going to activate people that right now are completely disenfranchised that are frankly embarrassed that they supported Biden.
I know a lot of people that are embarrassed that they were like, you know what, man, Orange Man bad, but maybe it wasn't this bad.
My God, right?
So many people like that.
But I believe you, though.
I will say that you do bring up a couple of valid points.
And you even addressed this on Rogan.
I don't think that many people were voting because they loved Biden.
It's because Trump was that unacceptable and you said the activated the other side and that voted.
Well, people voted against Trump, not for Biden.
But you said in 2016, the difference between 2016 and 2020 is that he was an unproven commodity at that point.
I don't know.
This guy, Donald Trump, he's kind of in there.
I don't know.
Yeah, he's crazy.
He's doing some things.
I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
You know, he'll shake up Washington.
By 2020, people knew exactly what they were getting.
And they're like, I've seen this movie before.
I know how this ends.
I do not want to see the same movie for the fifth freaking time.
I'm good.
Let's see a new movie.
Even if the new movie sucks, I've seen that movie too many times.
I know how it ends.
So the pendulum now is on policy, probably no matter what.
I mean, I've chatted with a lot of different people, black, white, everything.
And they've all said that policy is more important because of the current economic climate.
And I think you take the name plates off of candidates.
I think we're going to realize that we live in a world where, man, this person has a great persona, but these policies are great.
However, with social media and all that stuff, you've got to have both.
Brother, you got to do it.
Let me tell you something.
What percentage of Americans actually vote based on policy and policy alone?
But when you're looking at 20%, so what are the points right now?
When you say policy, let's just define most voters vote on one issue.
Single issue voters make up over 70% of votes.
So there's no answer.
And it's not even necessarily possible.
Whatever benefits them.
That single issue is what benefits them.
Yeah, no, it is.
But Kai, go ahead.
You were trying to say something.
Kai, we can't hear you.
Okay, now for me, a big thing as well is we talked about with Trump.
If the market wouldn't have crashed, what are the odds that he would have been re-elected?
Now, can they sustain that and push that out for another two years?
If the market crashes, what are the odds Biden can get elected?
You're talking about COVID, not a market crash.
No, a market crash.
No, the market crash was due to COVID, is what you're saying.
Yeah, exactly.
What I'm saying is also that the fact that that's now bounced back in 13 months seems to be a little bit propagated and not fully full marketplace.
Let me go into the Goldman Sachs story and what's going on at the Port of LA story.
I think that kind of has to do with what you're talking about.
So Goldman Sachs gets even gloomier on the U.S. economy, CNN.
Goldman Sachs is becoming increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. economy as coronavirus support from the government phases out and consumer spending remains on an uncertain path.
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Bank downgraded its forecast for America's economic growth, which is closely monitored by the investment community.
Goldman Sachs now expects the economy to expand 5.6% this year compared to a previous 5.7% estimate in 2022, 5.7%.
In 2022, growth is projected to expand 4%, down from 4.4.
It is the second time Goldman Sachs has revised its 2021 forecast lower in two months.
Goldman Sachs also thinks spending could decline as people could continue to work from home, encouraging them to prepare their own lunches instead of popping into a local restaurant.
So that's Goldman, okay?
That's what Goldman.
You're laughing.
You have a comment?
You have thoughts?
Yeah, I just, it's so obvious this.
And even it's coming from CNN, but this is how media works, the headline.
Like, if you actually look at the numbers, you want to talk persona versus policy?
Goldman Sachs predicts an even gloomier look on the outcome.
Goldman Sachs has predicted 5.6 down from 5.7.
Oh, my God, 0.1.
I agree.
It's not a big number.
What are we talking about?
Here's a question, though.
Your point would make sense if it said Fox News instead of CNN.
Why CNN telling this story?
Headlines.
Again, I'm not even worried about CNN.
I don't agree.
5.7 was gloomy down from the 6.2.
So now it's 5.6 from 6.2.
Yeah.
Well, this is the number of people.
4.4% to 4%.
That's 10%.
That's a real number.
So that part's a real number.
It's like 11% you're talking about with a number like that.
So look, they're not optimistic about the economy.
So what happens if the economy takes a hit the next 12, 18, 24 months?
Does mid-years take a massive hit for the left?
Midterms.
Midterms.
Oh, I don't think I give the probably 80% chance Republicans take control of the House or win the midterms for sure.
I mean, that's not even the current climate.
That's just politics in general.
The party that's not in power takes over in the midterms.
I mean, you probably have a very clear example of this, but I think Republicans will take over in the midterms.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, look, man, who knows?
There's so much redlining.
There's so much gerrymandering.
There's so much happening behind the scenes that I don't want to get too in-depth on people, but I mean, look, we talk about the recall election in California.
We talked about that a lot, right?
Something that we didn't really discuss in depth was the demographics of the voters in that, right?
25%, 25%, a full quarter of the voters were from citizens, naturalized citizens born outside the country.
So, you know, what's happening at the southern border?
What's happening across red states?
What's happening in these environments that people are leaving, right?
So, like, where are your swing states?
Where are your swing states?
Where are your swing demographics?
There's nobody, regardless of anything or any policies, anything that the Biden administration can do, there's no Republican or Libertarian or Independent that's ever going to win, really ever again, probably in my lifetime, in New Jersey, in New York, in Michigan.
And, I mean, they've gotten.
Maybe Michigan.
It's going to be very, very difficult.
But why is that?
What's the cause of that?
Because at the end of the day, everyone gets one vote.
Political strategy.
So one of the reasons, again, these people are not stupid, right?
The people running these places are not stupid.
Phil Murphy, let's just use Jersey for an example.
Don't say that name.
This guy.
Yeah, I know.
Don't say that name, Gerard.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
He knows that people are leaving his state.
All right.
He knows five years in a row, New Jersey has left, has led the nation and people leaving his state.
This literally, his population is telling him, I would rather live anywhere else but with you.
That should be, in a normal governing environment, that should be a massive red flag that our policies aren't working.
Instead, the policies are working to their end, where they have nothing but their voters left.
So in these places, a lot of precedent that we had before, people couldn't pick up and leave or in the Oregon Trail Times.
You know, just because they didn't like Herbert Humphrey, they weren't hopping on a horse and buggy and hightailing it 3,000 miles south.
Now you can.
So a lot of what's happening now in politics, a lot of what's happening behind the scenes, you can't look at past analytics.
They're not predictive at this point, right?
The Democratic Party specifically has done two things.
They are a big tent party.
They are the party of yes and juxtaposed themselves against Republicans, which are the party of no.
Okay?
Anything you want.
Yes, absolutely.
75 genders?
Of course there are.
They got us on the brakes.
Yeah.
They're the party of yes.
Okay.
And what they do is once they have control, they squeeze out all opposition.
Small business, get the F out.
Don't want you.
Small business owners, you guys are gone.
You guys are our opposition.
Independent voters, gone.
Get out of here.
I want a constituency of nothing but union members, teachers, cops.
That's it.
All right.
I want there to be three shops.
I want Amazon in every freaking corner.
That's their strategy.
I think small business owners got to stop bitching is what they got to do.
They got to figure it out.
I think small business owners, if they can't pay the minimum wage, you know, to people, they got to pay them higher.
Hey, man.
You got to compete.
You got to compete.
I have a clear sarcasm and then my bells are going to go.
Let me go to the bottom.
Sorry for your taco shop, bro.
Let me.
Let me go to this.
Let me go to this part where we're talking about Biden.
And I know you're big on approval ratings because you used to always bring it up.
So, how Biden's slumping approval rating stacks up against past presidents.
This is a fortune story.
Joe Biden entered the White House riding a wave of popularity.
His day one approval rating was 53%, was well above outgoing President Donald Trump's 38.7% approval rating.
But the honeymoon phase is over.
As of Thursday, Biden's approval rating stands at 44.2%.
At the same point, in the first term, President Ronald Reagan was at 55.6%.
Bush was at 67.6.
Clinton was at 50.2.
George W. Bush was at 82.9.
Barack Obama was at 52.3%.
All much higher approval ratings meanwhile, Biden's current rating is a bit higher than Trump's 38.1 rating was on day 261 in office.
So far, Biden's slipping approval rating has yet to give Republicans a big 2022 midterm edge.
In the past, four midterms elections.
The president's political party lost congressional seats.
So, I mean, this is kind of telling you what's going to happen, what's not going to happen if it continues going this way.
I think a big part of this has to do with the economy and these ships.
These ships are bigger than people think it is.
These ships is not like, yeah, this is not like a small thing we're talking about here with these ships.
If you go to page three on what's going on at LA, the port of Los Angeles will launch 24-7 operations to tackle the huge line of ship ships waiting to dock.
The White House says, insider story.
The Port of LA is starting to process ships 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to help ease a massive backlog.
The White House said Wednesday, the new hours would almost double the number of hours during which cargo can be moved.
It said the shipping industry is currently in chaos, which ports in Southern California hit especially hard.
At the Port of LA alone, ships currently carrying nearly 500,000 shipping containers, containers.
By the way, each one of them are right now.
What's the number?
She said 40 grand a pop.
500,000 containers at 40K a pop, or about 12 million metric tons of goods were waiting in drift areas at an anchor on October 5th for spots to open up so that they could dock and unload.
On Tuesday, there were 80 ships at anchor or drift area and 64 at birth across both the ports of LA and Long Beach.
The normal number of container ships at anchor is between zero and one.
Yesterday, Saki was being asked if things are not going to be delivered by Christmas.
And they promised this will never happen.
This will never happen.
And then she changed her position.
So there's nothing we can do about that.
People are just going to have to accept that.
You're not going to have to Christmas.
So can you imagine like, hey, you order if you want to get gifts for your kids, you got to get them now.
Because if you wait till December, you are not, it's going to be January 17th.
You're going to get the gifts to give to your kids.
So this is a big deal.
This is a big deal.
My mom actually worked in cargo services for a company called Sealand, CSX Lines, Horizon Lines, that now has been acquired by Mattson.
And she worked with the Longshoreman Wednesday nights, Friday nights, just to make sure that she would watch, physically see with the longshoreman, the last container to be on that ship.
And I've been to Panama, got to see the canal, understand that.
The money that is probably being the people who own the ports have to charge these people for the ships not leaving.
So there's a cost in that as well that is going to be driven to the consumer eventually.
And it's not going to look good for people at all.
At all.
Those shipyards and whatnot, they're making the money right now.
But I don't know how that's being dispersed.
But typically when someone charges one individual, it always gets hit with us.
And then you got people in government that says, oh, yeah, you know, you're not going to be able to get stuff.
It's like, man, it's beyond that.
You're talking about medical supplies.
You're talking about a lot of different things.
And the future does not look bright until they get a handle on this thing.
Pat said something earlier, man.
I love this line you said.
I don't come from the helpless community.
I don't come from the helpless community.
It's a great line.
And you got Jensaki up there who has all the access, the power of the United States government, could declare a state of emergency.
They're going to fire all the nurses and the doctors, and they're not worried about that because we're going to replace them with the National Guard.
Well, the National Guard could unload trucks.
Yeah, the National Guard could unload ships.
Don't give me this.
People are just going to have to accept Christmas is canceled this year.
No, unload the ships.
Who said Christmas is canceled?
Gensaki, I'm being hyperbolic.
But that was the conversation because a lot of these bigger corporations are saying, listen, some of the stuff may not make it to the stores.
Like, you have to be prepared for it.
Some of the stuff is going to be a big delay on that.
This is not like a hypothetical.
This affects everybody.
This is business.
Yeah, this is affecting everybody.
So this is the part where, dude, did you hear the weight?
500,000 containers, which is how many tons did it say?
What was the tons?
It was 1.
What?
1.12?
12,000?
1 million metric tons of goods.
12 million metric tons of goods.
So businesses want to sell.
I had a guy that I was, the Kai, the guy that we had on Elite Mastermind.
He says, I sell cigarette lighters, but he buys quarter million of them.
And these cigarette lighters have team logos on there, Lakers, Bulls, whatever, right?
And what he does.
He says, my 250,000 lighters have already been sold, but my customers are asking for the money back because it's been 90 days because it's sitting on a ship and I can't take it off.
This is not a millionaire.
He does $400,000 a year and he nets like $120,000.
So it's not like he's a guy making a lot of money.
He has no control over that.
What does he do?
This is affecting a lot of small business owners.
Normally, you would have to, like in the supplement business, it's kind of the same thing.
You know, you have distributors, whatnot.
And a lot of the time, if you're good, those same distributors sell to those stores.
So therefore, by the time the ship actually hits the port of that destination, everything is already sold.
You know, like everybody makes their money.
But in this case, like you just said, I mean, this guy now has to have to pay back if he even does.
And this is going to cripple his business.
I literally just did this.
I got the custom chucks, man.
And I ordered two more of them.
And it's been six weeks.
I just put in like last two, and they're not answering my emails.
They're not putting in the refund requests.
My chucks are probably sitting on a ship in the port of LA.
That is crazy.
And you can't even pay someone else.
That's one ship.
Okay, one ship can put 1,100 Boeing 747 planes on there.
What?
Essentially, what this means is that the capacity.
The goods on that ship would take 1,100 planes to get it back to the train.
Oh, I got you.
It would take 35,000, 8,000-foot-long trains.
It would take 11,400 heavy trucks.
These ships are big deals.
I think I remember, Kai, look this up because I don't want to get this wrong.
Wow.
But each transcontinental trip that they take from China, let's say, to the West Coast, I think it's the equivalent in carbon emissions of like a million cars, each of these boats.
I could be wrong because I know that sounds crazy.
No, they burn worse fuel.
They burn diesel.
They burn like the crappiest fuel because they can do the international.
And they're sitting out there just burning this stuff up.
It's still the most efficient way to move it.
There's no way to do it.
What are you going to do about it?
We haven't figured out a better way.
Well, there's nothing we can do.
Look, not a shipping expert over here, but what's the root cause of this?
What's the supply chain issue?
Are these trade policies?
Are these COVID that's getting in the middle?
Why is this all happening?
One of the things that they're saying is people are not showing up.
Employees.
COVID is dead.
It comes down to the lack of getting.
It's what we're talking on the last.
People are not showing up to come and do the work.
But it's a backlog.
Even though people are showing up now.
Yeah.
It's a backlog of six months of people not showing up.
So this is systematic of what happened during COVID.
Unemployment, people sitting at home, people not showing up to work, people not moving things.
Okay.
This is building.
As people get back to work, this can get rectified soon.
Is there an end in sight here?
What's the give me a silver lining here?
Since we're not helpless or hopeless.
Go ahead, Kai.
Yes and no.
Obviously, if you're trying – Not in the short term is what I'm – Yeah.
Yeah, if you're putting in the same amount of 40 hours a week, but you're trying to catch up on six months of backlog, then obviously it's going to take a long time to speed that up.
So unless you're filling up to try to catch up, it's going to be a long time.
And at that point, you might as almost try to trash it because who knows what the goods of how long their shelf life is.
There's perishable goods.
So you're taking it.
Hillary said there's additional shipping costs.
Now you're going to pay overtime to the long strong and almost all are you.
Think about the perishable goods.
So if you have a product like I'm always going to go back to sports nutrition from manufacturing date, it's two years.
So you got six months or whatever.
I mean, it's going to take maybe a couple months just to have it arrive.
So you lost two months there.
Do the math.
These guys, the minute the protein gets there or whatever, how does that person sell it?
Because the person that's buying is going to be like, oh, this expires in like six months.
What a time to be in logistics, too.
My buddy's in logistics, an ex-pro ball player.
And like, name's James.
He's a great dude.
So he does trucking logistics.
He somehow, I don't know it exactly, but he matches up trains to trucks.
And it's a bidding war right now.
There's so few truckers, and everybody is trying to force their products out on overnight delivery because they're running up against their delivery dates.
There's a certain amount of shelf life that they have to be on.
So they're charging like $10,000, $20,000 for a single ride up from like Jacksonville to like Charlotte, man.
Like it's insane.
You know how inflation sometimes is so complicated?
This is very simple inflation because the cost is getting passed down to who?
To the business owner.
And the business owner is like, I can't sell this thing for seven bucks.
I got to make it $8.99.
I got to make it $9.99.
I can't do nothing about that.
So these are the things that it's not even linked to printing money.
These are the things that sometimes you just don't have a choice.
The small business world is right now in shambles.
Dry your fruit, man.
Get a whole bunch of fruit and drugs.
I imagine like there are certain companies that work in sports nutrition that actually will say, I have the money to ship it by air because it needs to be climate controlled.
But damn, everybody can't do that.
Yeah.
So, I mean, it's really interesting, man.
It's an interesting thing because going back to our administration, whenever it comes down to restricting the rights of individuals, they can't wait to jump.
They cannot wait to jump.
But anytime you need to do the other side of the pendulum and help people and like, hey, let's have a solution that doesn't increase my power.
They have absolutely no ideas on how to do it.
Hey, how do we shut down a city?
I got 15 ideas on how we're going to do it.
Everybody's going to wear a mask.
Now, all these businesses that haven't been open for six months, they got to go outside.
Build a tent outside because as long as you're inside, outside, it's okay.
They've got all these ideas.
But when it comes to actually being progressive and pragmatic, they got nothing.
Bupkiss.
What it is is sorry, Christmas is canceled.
What do you mean?
Unload the ships.
Unload the ships.
Very innovative when it favors you and no innovation when it doesn't favor you.
That's a great point.
But by the way, when you do things like this, long-term states are going to take a hit.
Tesla will move its headquarters to Texas.
Elon Musk says this is a CNN story.
I'm excited to announce that we're moving our headquarters to Austin, Texas, says Elon Musk, at a shareholder meeting.
The electric car company is currently based in Palo Alto, California.
He cited housing affordability and the long commutes it can create as hurdles for its current location and said the Austin factory is five minutes away from the airport and 15 minutes from downtown.
The median home prices in Palo Alto is $3.3 million, whereas the median home prices in Austin is $588.
Let me say that one more time.
The median home prices is $3.3 million to $588, despite the move.
Musk said Tesla plans to continue to significantly expand in California.
I think the last comment was made to say, don't hurt me yet till I fully leave your state.
This is an insurance policy of a comet.
So how many more stories like this is going to happen?
Because California, you guys heard what California is doing.
Some very weird stories.
It's almost unbelievable.
Like when I read it, I thought Tom Ellsworth was sending me another one of his way.
When was the last time you were in Austin?
Two weeks ago.
You were there.
Yeah, I was there two weeks ago as well.
I have a point.
I have a point.
Obviously, it was very awkward the way he did it.
Well, I have something to say.
Grab the box of cookies.
Where we at?
Where we at?
Grab the box of cookies.
Obviously, San Francisco, San Jose, Silicon Valley, Palo Alto.
Silicone.
Silicon.
I don't like that.
Silicone Valley.
Silicone.
Silicon, I know.
Silicon.
It's crazy, crazy, expensive.
I get it.
I get it.
Austin, you can quote me on this.
They're going to be dealing with the same issues they're dealing with in California pretty soon.
Affordability, homelessness, and traffic.
That's all I experience in Austin.
I'm like, I'm ready to have a good time in Austin.
Yeah, yeah.
Traffic galore.
Things are expensive.
Homeless galore.
Yeah.
Okay.
So just be careful what you wish for, Elon Musk and people in Texas, because California is coming for you.
My old college teammate, Sean Finnegan, left Jersey for Austin, Texas about 10 years ago, and he was a real estate agent.
He's made money like through the roof, man, doing mortgages and real estate.
And he said, now it's like, it's nuts.
It's insane.
They never thought to build another road.
The infrastructure is still like 20 years old, but now they're just building on top of each other.
Keep Austin weird is it's now it's like, please move out of Austin.
The people there, Nancy, our graphic designer, said, I want you to play a game while you're in Austin.
Homeless or hipster.
Homeless or hipster.
And I couldn't tell the difference half the time.
I'm like, that guy's clearly a hip now.
He's homeless.
I got to tell you, probably doesn't say I'm a millionaire.
What?
Florida.
Same thing.
It's homeless or hipster.
The lady I got my condo from thought she got one over on me, man.
She was like, You're going to pay this for that.
And I'm paying, I pay $100 more, $100 more a month.
I had a 700-square-foot loft on the Hudson River in Jersey City.
I pay $100 more for a two-bedroom, $2,500 square foot, two-bedroom, two-bath condo here in Pompano.
You're on the beach.
I'm on the beach.
And I haven't stepped over one homeless guy.
I haven't smelled since I've been born.
All your friends in New Jersey, Florida's not good.
They don't need to come here.
Don't investigate for yourself.
There's nothing good going on.
Everybody's like, the market's in New Jersey.
$100 more for a two-bedroom as opposed to a long time.
You know, Denver is the same way.
Like, to be honest, I used to live downtown.
And at one point, I was like, man, there's a lot of homelessness.
And then Shereen, I go down there.
We're like, no, these are hipsters.
So you almost don't, like you said, you definitely don't know the difference.
Guys, are you okay if we give a shout out to Governor Newsom?
Can we give him a shout out to him?
Let me read a story.
It's a very important story because Governor Newsome is so concerned about what's going on in the state.
This is a Reuters story.
This is not an onion.
This is a Reuters story.
California law prohibits secretly removing condoms during sex.
Adam.
Okay, this is Newsome.
Okay.
This is a true story.
Reuters.
We're really talking about it.
Newsom signed a law.
Look how hard he's working.
You got to respect this guy.
Hardcore, he signed into law a bill on Thursday that prohibits stealthing or removing condom during sex without consent, making it a civil sexual battery offense.
It is the first anti-stealthing law in the country.
I have been working on the issue for stealthing since 2017, and I'm elated that, guys, let me wrap this up.
I am elated that there is now some accountability for those who perpetrate the act sexual assaults, especially those on women of color, are perpetually swept under the rug.
Assemblywoman Christina Garcia, the bill sponsor, said in a statement, people found guilty of removing condom without consent could be liable for general, special, and punitive damages.
The law states.
So, by the way, this is great that they're doing this to protect the woman because we've all heard these stories.
And I was in the military, so you get stories like this.
But all the fire that's taking place in California, is anybody concerned about that?
All the homelessness that's taken.
So, this is what he's concerned about.
Talk about sequencing and having priorities in place.
I demand he does something about the lack of gender-neutral toys.
I mean, that's just well, listen, let's not stop there because this man is on a roll.
So, if you want to go there, California demands gender-neutral toys displaced at big stores.
And by the way, this is a CBS news story.
Pull up the story because people probably don't believe these stories.
We've done it.
He's taking over.
He's your governor.
We've created California.
It's over, guys.
California became the first state to say large department stores must display products like toys and toothbrushes in gender-neutral ways, a way for LGBT advocates who say the pink and blue hues of traditional marketing methods pressure children to conform to gender stereotypes.
The new law signed by Democratic Governor Newsom on Saturday does not outlaw traditional boys and girls' sections at department stores.
Instead, it says large stores must also have a gender-neutral section and display a reasonable selection of items, regardless of whether they have been traditional marketed for girls or boys.
The law only applies to toys and children's child care items.
So, there you have it.
I mean, this is just fascinating.
Go up again to make sure we know this story.
This is a, yeah, this NBC also covers it.
California law requires gender-neutral areas and same stores.
Some stores.
That felon doesn't have her mask covering her nose.
Will the toys even arrive on time?
What are we tripping about?
Are they going to even arrive?
I don't think we should even arrive.
Well played.
You don't get a gender coming out of the city.
Good job.
I'm comedian.
That's right.
Will they even arrive on this?
This podcast live would be a hit.
I'm just saying it.
I'm just saying it.
So, California.
What's going on there?
I don't know.
Your people.
It's my people.
You were raised there.
You spend a lot of time there.
Would you be open to the idea of moving to California?
I'm good in this horrible state called Florida.
Don't move here.
Rents are way more comfortable.
Tell people five reasons why they shouldn't move to Florida.
Give them five reasons why they shouldn't move to Florida.
It's so hot all year round.
It's crazy.
There's tons of assholes that come here from New Jersey, wink, wink, alligators.
And alligators everywhere.
Half the people in the office quit because they got hit by an alligator.
It's insane.
It's insane.
The flooding, talk about flooding.
Yeah, you don't want to be in Florida right now.
This is true.
On a serious note, though, I've driven all across the country.
I got a ticket this morning.
I got a ticket this morning.
Cap was coming.
Shocker.
Shocker.
I know.
It's a public announcement.
Exactly.
I got like my 200 ticket on my guys.
Not breaking news.
Packing on a traffic ticket.
Where were you going?
170 in a thousand.
Anyways, it's a terrible ticket, but I got a ticket this morning.
And we have to now work on this with my ticket.
But anyways, so one thing about Florida I got to give credit to.
The worst drivers I ever experienced.
I've been cut off so like a guy.
A girl cut me off yesterday.
I'm not even kidding with you.
I'm just, she's like this.
I've never seen this in my life.
I'm just looking at her and she's like, apology.
I'm like, I accept the apology, but this is seriously weird.
I've never seen, then today, this morning, a guy cuts up.
It's five-lane federal.
I'm coming up.
From the furthest lane to the right, to the left turn.
He just straight up goes like this in front of me.
I mean, so the credit goes to, they're either NASCAR drivers get trained here, Formula One drivers, or they just suck when it gets to the bottom.
Do you know the reasons why?
Tell us.
Think about it.
We've got retirees, Galore.
There's 80-year-olds in the world.
All these three were under four years old.
No, I don't accept that.
You have a lot of tourists that are just kind of like going, you have a lot of immigrants, a lot of Latinos, especially coming from Colombia.
FYA, Latinos are some of the best drivers because you have to learn how to drive without laws and lights and all that stuff.
They're the best.
I don't know why more Latino drivers win the NASCAR.
I don't understand why they don't.
Like, there's got to be a recruitment.
You got to go to like a, you got to go.
Somebody's got to go to TJ.
Because they don't let lowriders in NASCAR pad.
Joe Rogers, hats off.
Sorry, sorry, bro.
My second car I ever bought was a lowrider Chevy S10 long bed, gold, low-profile wheels, 140-something spokes, system.
Yeah, I bought it.
I bought it from a Mara Savatrucha member, and my dad says, this guy here, he's an artist.
You'd love this truck.
You should come see this artist.
I go meet the artist.
I said, why is he an artist?
He had tattoos everywhere.
And it says MS-13.
I said, dad, this guy's with Mara Savatrucha.
I said, well, I love the truck.
We did a deal.
I bought the truck.
A week later in Hollywood, I got arrested.
Helicopters follow me because they thought I was him.
I'm like, I'm not part of MS-13.
I'm Patrick Medavie.
He says, no, you're with MS-13.
I said, find proof I'm with MS-13.
It took us like three o'clock in the morning to let us go.
They really thought we were MS-13.
Yeah.
No tats.
No tats.
Would you ever get a tat?
Gabriel looked gangster as hell, though.
Does look gangster.
Would I get a tat?
Yeah, maybe one day.
And if I do, if I do, it would have to have a meaning.
Let's just say Dylan wants to get one and he wants to do it with the daddy.
I would entertain it.
But it's not, listen, so many times I try to get a tattoo.
I can tell the story of you shouldn't get tattoos.
It's not acceptable.
I probably tried to get a tattoo in the army 50 times, but I just spend way too much money on alcohol and partying.
I was always broke to get a tattoo.
If I probably had $200 to my name, I probably would have had six tattoos right now.
So the only reason that you don't have tattoos is because you were broke in the army?
By the time I was 21 years old, I have tattoos.
By the time that guy died, it's hard.
I have tattoos because I drew it.
By the time I hit 21 years old.
Did you ever get a tattoo on your gifted body?
Oh, man.
I've thought about it many times.
Yeah, I think.
Like, I played college basketball and everybody had tattoos.
Yeah.
Oh, basketball players have tattoos?
Yeah.
That's crazy.
I know, right?
But then after a while, you know, obviously being a bodybuilder, I'm like, I'm not doing that.
I'm at a point in time in my life where I feel like there's meaning to it a lot more.
Just haven't found the right, you know, phrase or right image.
But I'm not opposed to doing it at some point in time.
I'm just contemplating it.
I think you ought to get a tattoo on your forearm that says, what's your point?
Just remind you.
What's my point?
Why am I in the middle of the moment?
What's my point?
Every day I look in the mirror, I go, what the hell you do?
You know what it is, though?
If you haven't at this point, I think, you know, if you don't want to get it, you can.
Would you get a tattoo?
Just one teardrop right here.
Or because of what happened two weeks ago.
Yeah, it's tough, Alice.
Spend a little too much time with Sammy.
Yeah.
Sorry about that, Sammy.
No tattoo.
I remember being 16, South Beach.
My boy's like, I'm going to get either an eyebrow piercing or a tattoo.
You're coming with me?
I'm like, okay.
He's like, all right, I'm going to.
We went to a place called Tattoos by Lou, famous place here in Miami.
Again, 16, South Beach.
He went, he got the eyebrow piercing.
Your boy saw has fainted right now?
Just, I'm like, I believe that.
I'm like, I'm just.
Oh, so you wouldn't get it because of pain.
I can't see why you wouldn't.
You know, the pain bothers you a little bit.
It was just the tattoo shop.
It just wasn't, it wasn't for you.
You were traumatized.
It was traumatized.
Traumatized.
And also being Jewish, that's frowned upon in the Jewish community.
Yeah.
You know, Trump said three things to his kids.
Don't drink, don't do drugs, and don't get tattoos, and I'll take care of you.
Okay, that was his.
Well, I agree with one of those.
Which one is that?
Drugs?
The tattoo thing.
LeVar Ball actually gave me a lot of time.
I'm guilty of the other half.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure if I can do it.
Jell-O.
I think there is some to say because everybody has them.
If you don't have them, the pressure is more for those that don't have them than those that do have them.
Let's just kind of put it there.
Okay, so another very important story that just, I mean, very, very important story that I think we need to cover here is old mafia guys think texting has ruined the mob.
Okay, this is a true story.
Old mafia guys think texting has ruined the mob.
It's common knowledge that the New York's infamous five families aren't quite what they used to be, worn down by the feds, upstart competitors, and a changing world in general.
According to the Wall Street Journal, though, they have another problem.
The goddamn youngs and their cell phones.
This is truly the article.
I just read the article.
The paper wrote that today's new roster of gangsters isn't exactly impressing the old guard, especially because some lack the sense to not leave incriminating text messages or logs behind.
A new generation of wise guys didn't properly learn the business.
Older members complained that the millennials who grew up in the suburbs instead of the city streets are softer, dumber, and not as loyal as mobsters of the past.
Plus, they're always texting.
Everything is on the phone with them, said a former maid member of the Colombo family.
So do you agree with these guys?
Well, I mean, Gerard's half mafia.
I tell you, man.
Go ahead.
I do, but I think it's the camera phones more than anything else.
And it's like, there's kids I used to coach, and I would tell them, like, listen, you want to go to college?
College coaches are going to scrub your social media.
And like, it's like I couldn't even get the sentence out before we'd see them on Instagram or Snapchat like, yo, at this party, vibing, bro.
It's a vibe.
And I'm like, dude, like, there's booze everywhere.
You're 16.
What are you doing?
I just couldn't understand it.
I couldn't wrap my brain around the things I used to do to try to sneak into the house, right?
And not be detected when I was out with my friends or we had like a couple drinks or something like that.
It's a real skill, though.
Yeah.
And then you're coming in and like you're doing the mouthwash like your parents don't know.
Oh, yeah, yeah, you're doing mouthwash and a lot of people.
Or water anyway.
Exactly.
So now they can get up to the lines.
The things that we did to try to keep our dirt secret, and these guys lived their whole life on Front Street.
You know, good for them, I guess, man.
But I could just see it.
I could see the millennial mobster being like, hey, man, about to go axe this dude shouldn't have done what he's doing.
I got my gun right here.
This is the gun I'm using right now.
No, you know what it reminds me of.
That's Ted Coza Nostra, bro.
Remember the scene in Goodfellas when they do like the big thing.
They go, dude, lay low for a little while.
We don't need you getting eyeballs on us.
And the guy shows up in the big fur coat.
It's like, I fucking told you to lay low.
What are you doing here?
At this point, because it's a sign of the time.
Social media, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok.
If you did something and you don't put it on social media, did it even really happen?
So validation, it's putting out there.
Like, the cell phone has killed the mob.
Yeah, straight up.
It's killed marriages.
It's killed the institution of marriage.
It's killed.
I mean, the cell phone is like, we are living in the panopticon.
And also, it goes the other way too, dude.
Gerard, just don't say that word and pretend that anyone understands that.
You used diatribe the other day.
Yeah, but the problem is, Gerard, you use these words and you know nobody knows what panopticon.
What is this?
It's a transformer.
What is that?
Private school.
Private school.
I will challenge anybody else.
Private social media school got a lot of people.
Gerard dad expected you to learn a word a day.
That's more than that.
No, this is the truth.
He was supposed to read the dictionary every day.
I want us all to define Panopticon.
Gerard got upset because I said Plata del Carmen.
And then he said Panopticon.
The guys are clear, clearly.
And the Osparov, they're fighting a Canopticon and these guys of all times.
Yeah, the Panopticon.
What is it, Gerard?
It's a transformer.
It's a Transformer.
Thank you.
All right.
So anyway, you know what that is, Kai?
I can't spell it.
I can't spell it.
That's Kai type in.
David, Phanopticon.
Panopticon.
Jorge?
Google it.
I think I made comments.
If PBD doesn't know it, then you're trying to make that big word.
Don't use PBD standards.
I have a friend of mine who had her, her daughter had a sleepover, and they had cameras installed in the basement to make sure nobody snuck out.
And I'm like, I'm trying to explain her.
I'm like, Sarah, the whole point of having a sleepover is to sneak out.
You got to let kids be kids.
You're putting these people under sleep.
Panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed with a circle of prison cells.
Such a word.
That doesn't even make sense when we were talking.
The Panopticon.
You're constantly under surveillance.
My God.
Oh, my God.
Great shortcut.
Are you serious right now?
Are you guys serious?
You don't know Miami Country Day.
I didn't know he was going to drink before.
Yeah, exactly.
Am I getting mad?
I got to get out of here.
I got to go take a panopticon.
All right.
By the way, yesterday I was being interviewed on a podcast.
The guy's interviewing me.
He says, look, I'm so sorry.
I've never done this before.
I got to go pee so bad.
I'm like, what?
I want you to know.
You just made history today.
I've been interviewed hundreds of times.
No one's had to pause to get up and go pee.
So you made history.
Good for you.
Shit.
I feel bad.
You got to talk about it.
I said, I'm definitely going to talk.
He also made you do like 15 upfronts at the end, the promo.
Oh, my God.
I'm like, good, I'm done.
Oh, that guy.
Nice guy.
Yeah, nice guy.
Okay, let's do this last one here and wrap up.
America's trust in media dips to second lowest on record.
This is a Gallup.
America's trust in media to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly has etched down 4% points to last year's 36%, making this year's reading the second lowest in Gallup's trend in all.
7% of all U.S. adults say they have a great deal and a 29%, a fair amount of trust and confidence in newspapers, television, and radio news reporting, which combines four points above 32%, which a record low in 2016.
Amit, the divisive presidential campaign between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
In addition, 29% public currently registers not very much trust, and 34% have not at all.
So, meaning, to simplify this math, they confuse the shit out of everybody.
36% trusts.
The rest do not trust.
1972 and 1976, 68 to 72% of Americans expressed trust in the mass media.
That's a pretty crazy number.
72 and 76, nearly 70% of Americans trusted the media.
Yet by 1997, when the question was next asked, the trust had dropped to 53%.
In 20 years, it dropped 20%.
Trust in media, which has averaged 45% since 1997, has not reached a majority level since 2003.
Guys, 36%.
That's a scary thought to think the number right now.
I mean, do you trust the media?
Do you trust the media?
If yes, who do you trust in the media?
Who is today's cronkai that you follow in the media?
This is not good.
This is 1972.
Yeah, I'll just kick this off.
This is good and bad.
I'll give you the good, the good, the bad, the other.
The good or the bad is that in 1972, you had three major outlets, right?
You had the big three: CBS, NBC, ABC.
Okay, we're all about choice here.
All right, so then Fox showed up.
Not all of us.
Some people showed up.
Then CNN showed up.
Ted Turner, a fan of the show.
And then obviously, boom, the cat was out the bag.
Back in the day when we were growing up, how many channels were on TV?
10, 20, 30 at the most.
Now there's literally 1,000.
So options go lower.
So the point is this, is now you can go live in your own echo chamber.
You can go to your Bright Bart and that's where you get your news.
Or you can go to your MSNBC and that's where you get your news.
Or you can go to whatever you are getting your confirmation bias and you can just get your news there.
The options are good.
The different media outlets are good.
But the fact, like this is, we say this all the time.
I'll watch Fox.
I don't like Tucker, but I'll watch Tucker.
I don't love everything that's on Fox News.
I'll watch it, though.
I watch CNN.
I watch MBC.
I get my information from multiple sources, like you always say, is find something you agree with.
Now go find the exact opposite thing, and that'll enhance your argument.
But I wish, my final point is here, I wish we get to a point where at least there's some agreement on facts.
Right now, it's just, I think there should be disclaimers.
This is an opinion show.
Hannity should be an opinion show.
Don Lamont should be a opinion show.
That's not news.
Five o'clock news or even the five, that's all opinions.
So that's, there's the good, the bad, and the ugly of this.
I think there should be a disclaimer if it's opinion versus actual news.
I don't even know what is actual news.
The problem is that the fact checkers, do we even trust them?
There's that part.
We thought by fact checking, like we could trust what the media or whoever is saying.
Who do you trust?
Myself.
I trust myself.
That's true.
No, seriously, I trust myself to be able to do the research and actually be a free thinker on a lot of these topics and actually raise my freaking hand to say, you know what, I wasn't right.
And I think what's happening right now is that some people are realizing, man, I used to watch this show and then I realized they're full of shit.
And then I watched this show and I realized the same thing.
So it's better that I do both and I, you know, decipher and use discernment and figure this out.
But until we get to the point where people can be called out on both sides and actually come, like when you said and actually say a spade is a spade.
And then people, Gerard, you really had a good point the other day.
You and I were just talking about this briefly and, you know, people will see a spade and then they'll be like, nah, I still ain't going to accept this.
And I think that's the problem.
You know, like even with the world the way it is, I mean, we have a, you know, talking about COVID and stuff.
It's like the survival rate is so good right now.
We should be celebrating, not acting like we're in doom and gloom.
You know, and it's just the way that the echo chambers are, you know, and they just want to say what they want to say.
Well, I mean, there's two things, two stories that we didn't get to cover today, but that'll that'll explain kind of why that is that way, right?
There's China Appears set to ban reporting by news outlets, not directly funded by the Communist Party.
And there's also Katie Kuric coming out and admitting that she buried a Ruth Bader Ginsburg story on, you know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was very, very adamant that the players shouldn't kneel.
She was very boisterous in her disappointment in Colin Kaepernick.
And Katie Corey admitted, Katie Couric admitted to burying that story because she thought it would be a bad look for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
So she, again, that's not reporting the news.
That's manipulation.
That's social engineering.
The 35 people who trust the news right now, you guys are wrong.
The trust in our news should be zero.
It doesn't mean you shouldn't listen.
It means you shouldn't trust.
Okay?
You hear Tucker Cross and you say, all right, that makes sense.
This doesn't make sense.
And then like you guys said, you go find a second and third.
Now, Pat, I have one request from you.
If you do buy that media company, if you do buy that print, overt bias.
Whoever they are, they don't get to hide behind this guise of journalism.
They don't get to hide behind this guise of objectivity.
It's gone.
It's over.
Overt bias.
All right.
Two things.
Whatever they're registered or whoever, whatever politicians they've donated to has to be in their byline.
Anderson Cooper, registered Democrat, donated XYZ.
Then whatever they say has, we can understand that it's coming from that perspective.
The other thing is user interaction.
If you get a story, the user should be able to go to point, to click right or left.
78% of readers said that this is a right-leaning article.
72% of readers said this is a leftist.
That's the plan.
That's the plan, actually, what we want to do.
But I think the current state of things in the media panepticon, it's a little bit of a, you know, it's a little challenge.
Do anything more than that?
Damn, Panepticon.
That's the word of the day.
Try to use it 10 times.
Go call your mom just to say, mom, what do you have?
You left me a message about Pinocchio.
Speaking of, I got a text message from my mom this morning.
It goes, why'd you lose my number?
I guess I'll give you a moment.
Just give me that Jewish.
I got to call you.
I got to call you, mom.
My bad.
We probably got to wrap up.
I'm going to say one thing about the China and everything with that.
When I was at that Freedom Forum the other day, there's something called the Firewall Project where they'll, side by side, they will put up Google and then what Google is in China.
And they'll let you look at an image of something in America and then show you what they show in China.
And it's completely different.
You talk about propaganda or brainwashing.
So for instance, you've seen the, you'll probably appreciate this.
You've seen the image of Shi next to Winnie the Pooh.
You've seen that he kind of looks like him a little bit.
So if you do that in the American Google, it pops right up.
You put that in in China, 0% will that pop up.
0%.
I mean, you can try it right now.
She, Winnie the Pooh.
I'm sure you'll get this thing right.
Boom.
Zero images of that in China.
And then we went on and on and on and on of different, like even with Trump, with Trump in America, there'll be the good, the bad, the ugly of Trump images.
Like all the images in China were comb over, flying over, evil, you know, fire and fury.
It's just China.
Google something in America and then duck, duck, go it, and see how different the results you get are.
10 seconds, guys.
So I'm glad you brought that point up.
Fantastic.
Now I've got to get that image out of my head with Xi and Winnie the Pooh all day today.
But anyways, I don't think...
Can't hear you, buddy.
David's censoring you.
David is censoring you.
Go ahead.
Just envision the Panapticon and then keep using our word.
Okay.
So we don't have podcasts next Tuesday.
We may next Thursday.
Stay tuned.
For the 100th episode, we're going to do a special episode.
So Hank Tight.
We'll announce what the special episode is going to be for the 100 episodes.
Probably a couple weeks from now.
But we will not be together next Tuesday.
So enjoy your weekend.
We're at a time.
90,000.
We're at 90,000 away.
10,000 away.
Tell your friends, tell your kids.
It'd be great for the 100 episode to celebrate 100,000.
That'd be great.
It'd be great.
If you get a couple of weeks to start this, guys, share it with one friend.
We want to get to 100 grand.
If it gets to 100, we'll do multiple more than just two a week.
We'll try to figure out something out with the schedule.
But we will talk to you guys in a week from today.
