PBD - Patrick Bet-David - Elon & Vivek H1-B Visa Debate, Trudeau's Ministers Meet Trump, Late Night Ratings Drop

Dec. 31, 2024 - PBD - Patrick Bet-David

02:09:18

Elon & Vivek H1-B Visa Debate, Trudeau's Ministers Meet Trump, Late Night Ratings Drop | PBD Podcast

Patrick Bet-David, Tom Ellsworth, Vincent Oshana, and Adam Sosnick discuss the debate over H1-B visas started by Vivek Ramaswamy & Elon Musk, Justin Trudeau's top ministers meeting with Trump over the Canada - U.S. union, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert's ratings plummet because of their Trump bashing, and PBD's New Years message for 2025! 💳 VT NEW YEARS SALE: https://bit.ly/4iVitKH 🧥THE NEW VT SWEATSHIRTS & HOODIES: https://bit.ly/4f5fnAM 🧢 PURCHASE THE NEW VT HATS: https://bit.ly/3ZFAPrH 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": https://bit.ly/41rtEV4 📰 VTNEWS.AI: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3OExClZ 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g57zR2 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh 🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A 📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC 👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7 🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: ⁠⁠https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw 📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: ⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or 💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time! TIME STAMPS: 00:00 - Show intro 00:22 - PBD previews topics coming up on the podcast. 04:32 - H1-B visa debate 45:44 - Trudeau's ministers meet with Trump 55:26 - Homeless skyrockets in the U.S. 1:25:09 - Late Night TV shows tanks 1:39:58 - Jimmy Carter dies at 100. 1:43:30 - U.S. credit card defaults jump. 1:59:40 - LeBron says NBA owns Christmas. SUBSCRIBE TO: @VALUETAINMENT @ValuetainmentComedy @theunusualsuspectspodcast @bizdocpodcast ABOUT US: Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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	Did you ever think you would make it?
	I feel I'm so excited to take sweet victory I know this life meant for me Adam, what's your point?
	The future looks bright That David My handshake is better than anything I ever saw.
	It's right here.
	You are a one-on-one.
	My son, you're a little bit more damn good.
	I don't think I've said this.
	So is that the new intro?
	That's the new intro.
	I love it.
	By the way, okay, so what episode are we on, Rob?
	Let's see here.
	526.
	Gang, it's great to have you here.
	Not a lot has happened last week, just so you know.
	Nothing.
	I mean, it's not like there was a massive H-1B visa debate.
	It's not like there was a, you know, some call it a civil war within the conservative, independent, libertarian community.
	We'll talk about that.
	We'll talk about the passing of one of our presidents, Jimmy Carter, who made it 200.
	I have some thoughts on that, but some things Biden said about him, some things Trump said about him.
	We'll talk about that.
	And then we have more things with Canada.
	It doesn't seem like it's going away.
	Some of Trudeau's top ministers without him showed up to Mar-Lago to have a visit with Trump.
	What are they talking about?
	And then Kevin O'Leary turns around and says half of Canadians favor Trump's proposal for Canada to join the U.S. Very interesting.
	Biden said he is disappointed and regrets ending his election because he thinks the campaign, if he would have stayed in, he thinks he would have beaten Trump.
	I mean, you know, that's got to be a very interesting thing for a guy like him to say.
	And then aside from that, young and the restless, 37% of Gen Z skipping the gym, going straight to Ozembic, studies finds.
	Germany's president dissolves parliament, sets national election for February 23rd.
	Germany opened its door to migrants.
	Now it's struggling to cope.
	Credit cards.
	This is a story we're not hearing about a lot lately, but Tom's got some commentary on this.
	U.S. credit card defaults jumped to highest level since 2010.
	Credit card charge offs and delinquencies hit 13-year high.
	Are they peaking?
	This next data, this is not another data you want to brag about.
	Ended the year in December.
	While the new guy doesn't take over till January 20th, U.S. homelessness is up 18%.
	And officials are blaming the migraine crisis, devastating natural disasters, and a lack of affordable housing for it, the reason behind it.
	Late night comedy spent 2024 bashing Trump as viewership continues to crash.
	I won't give you the data.
	I'll read it to you here in a minute.
	But I want you to guess.
	All the late night folks, when they talked about politics and their opinions on it, what percentage of it you think was Trump bashing?
	I want you to take a wild guess.
	Post your comment below.
	We'll get to it here in a minute.
	LeBron James says they're officially the show in town on Christmas Day, but the numbers doesn't favor his argument.
	And I think he's getting community noted, hence the joke, if you get it.
	All right.
	The human brain processes thoughts 5 million times slower than the internet.
	And the reason video games may not be so bad for you after all, there's apparently a study out here.
	And we got these things with this guy named Fauci that's claiming he's back and he has a warning for you, Americans.
	Folks, watch this.
	He's got a warning for you about the H5N1 bird flu that currently causes eye infections.
	He's really trying to scare the crap out of you.
	And Vinny, I know you're very happy with him.
	And I want to say some things about him.
	Yeah, I love that guy.
	So we'll get into it.
	All right, gang, this is the last chance here for the end of your sale with VTMerch.com.
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	Okay, Rob.
	I say the first thing we talk about is H1B1 visa.
	Okay.
	Let's start off with that.
	What clip do you have, Rob, about the H1B1? visas for us to start off.
	Let me just read one of them here to you.
	What to know about the H-1B1 visa fueling the divide in a MAGA world.
	Let me kind of read this story and then we'll get into a few clips.
	The H-1B visa program, which allows highly skilled workers in specialty occupations to live and work temporarily in the U.S. is at the center of a divide in MAGA world.
	Proponents like Musk, himself a former H-1B holder, argue it helps the U.S. retain a competitive edge in the STEM field, while hardliners, such as activists like Laura Loomer, insist the U.S. should prioritize American workers.
	H-1B visas capped at 85,000 new approvals annually, require employer sponsorship and are granted for up to six years.
	In 22, 2023, 72% of recipients were from India, followed by China, 12%, and the Philippines, 1%.
	The program does not provide a path to permanent residency as it grants only non-immigrant status.
	Tom, your thoughts on what's going on here with the H-1B visa debate.
	So there's a lot of angles here, a lot of angles to go.
	And so the first angle that I'm going to go with is, you know, I like to say if you want to look at a problem, you got to go upstream a little bit, right?
	I talk about the polluted lake.
	Liberals want to build a $1 billion filter.
	Conservatives want to go upstream and say, hey, what are the creeks and rivers putting in the lake?
	And then stop it upstream.
	And it's an easy way of the problem.
	The first thing that I think nobody was talking about over the weekend, and I think we should talk about it for a minute, is you got to go upstream.
	What is happening?
	Why aren't there, now, some people say there's plenty, and I saw that argument.
	Some people say there wasn't enough of American engineering graduates.
	Now, why wouldn't there be enough American engineering graduates?
	Well, why can't they get out and get into top schools?
	Huh, interesting.
	Well, why can't they get into top schools?
	Well, let's look back to the Department of Justice, DOJ.
	That's our government folks that was under Biden folks, went after Yale University after a massive lawsuit was filed by a group of Asian families who said, we've been discriminated against for admissions in favor of other people of many colors.
	And they were upset.
	And the Department of Justice looked at it and said, wait a minute.
	And the Asian suit had tons of facts and figures and some discovery, discovery things that they had found.
	So the U.S. Department of Justice looks into it and goes, huh, and went after Yale.
	So the U.S. Department of Justice filed a suit against Yale admissions.
	And all the discovery showed absolutely not opinion here.
	They were discriminating against whites and Asians that were American citizens in favor of people of many colors, particularly foreigners that maybe didn't have the same scores as some of these whites and Asians did in the United States, because the foreign people most often were paying full boat.
	What's full boat?
	Paying full price.
	What's full price?
	They weren't getting financial aid because they were wealthy people from around the world.
	So guess what?
	If you don't give them financial aid, what gets bigger?
	Your endowment because you don't have to give financial aid or small scholarships based on merit.
	So you see how that ecosystem works?
	So the schools discriminating against.
	So now what does that mean?
	Well, now there's a shortage of U.S. citizen, and not just white, white and Asian engineers, because it wasn't just happening in Yale.
	It's happened at other places.
	So the supply is down because schools have been discriminating against U.S. citizens.
	So now the supply is down.
	That is a fact, absolute fact, including and discovery brought by U.S. Department of Justice.
	Now then, you go into part two.
	Okay, well, that doesn't mean that H-1Bs are innocent.
	They're not.
	I looked at it up and H-1Bs, they do underpay often.
	They do lock up a person with their sponsor.
	So it's very hard to change jobs.
	Let's say you get an H-1B Vinny and you do a really good job for two years and you're having lunch at a place and a recruiter talks to you and says, hey, why don't you come work over here?
	And you say, well, I really can't.
	I got the H-1B.
	And it's really complicated to change jobs with the sponsor.
	I'm kind of locked in.
	It's hard to change jobs.
	And I don't want to make any fuss because I don't want my sponsor to decide maybe they don't need me because if they lay me off, riff, reduction, and fourth, I only have days.
	Otherwise, I have to leave the country because I no longer have a visa.
	So it does get abused.
	And there's this whole lottery with it that some people say wink wink is subject to lobbying.
	And who would be paying big lobbying into the liberal government?
	Big tech.
	So could one of the things they want be, you know, have the lottery point more toward me?
	So the H-1Bs do get used, you know, in a way that's kind of abusive.
	That's my second point.
	And then my third point is, is that it is truly bad if the companies are using them with ill intent and they're not taking available American workers.
	But I think the schools are guilty.
	I think some companies are guilty for abuse of the program.
	I think the schools are guilty for not giving us more Americans with engineering degrees.
	And I think a lot of people are, third point, are missing the point that there has been a tremendous amount of people who are immigrants to this country that have built amazing new businesses.
	And so you can't just say, oh, it's a bunch of cheap labor getting jobs.
	No, that's not true.
	People like Elon Musk have built things.
	So I think there's a lot of reform that's needed.
	But those are my three points.
	We'll be on this topic for a while.
	Rob, can you pull up Vivek's tweet real quick?
	Vivek's tweet that I retweeted and I got community notes.
	I want to show the whole thing for the audience to see what happened the last couple of days.
	But first, go to his tweet.
	So Vivek posts this tweet.
	If you go under my account, you'll see, keep going down, right there.
	Go to his tweet first and then you'll come back to mine.
	Let me read this to you.
	This upset a lot of people, but let's process it.
	The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born and first-generation engineers over Native Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit, a lazy and wrong explanation.
	A key part of it comes down to the C-word culture.
	Tough questions demand tough answers, and we're really serious about fixing a problem.
	We have to confront the truth.
	American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long, at least since the 90s and likely longer.
	That doesn't start in college.
	It starts young.
	A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math Olympia champ or the jack over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers.
	That upset a lot of people, but he's not wrong is the question.
	Is he wrong?
	Would that state not wrong?
	Okay, let's continue.
	Culture that venerates Corey from Boy Meets World or Zach and Slater over Screech and Save by the Bill or Stefan over Steve Urkel and Family Matters will not produce the best engineers.
	Fact, I know multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates.
	More movies like Whiplash.
	He continues to go.
	And then most normal Americans' parents look skeptically at those kinds of parents.
	More normal American kids view such those kinds of kids with scorn.
	If you grew up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy are what you will achieve.
	Now close your eyes and visualize which families you knew in the 90s who raised their kids according to one model versus the other.
	Be brutally honest.
	Normalcy doesn't cut in the hyper-competitive market.
	He continues to go, Rob, if you can go right there.
	A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy, excellence, over mediocrity, nerdiness over conformity, hard work over laziness.
	That's the work culture we have cut out for us rather than wallowing in a victimhood and just wishing or legislating alternative hiring practices into existence.
	Look at the amount of views this tweet gets.
	Wow.
	115 million views a tweet.
	Now go to my response, which upset a lot of people.
	If you can go back.
	So I said the following.
	I said, as an immigrant from Iran, I saw this as an edge.
	I didn't mind working 80 hours a week.
	I didn't mind the competition.
	All I wanted was a shad.
	This used to be the American way.
	Time to return to it.
	Take a minute to read it.
	By the way, when I say working 80 hours a week, you know, I worked 80 hours a week.
	In my 20s and 30s, I worked 80 hours a week and I had no problem doing it.
	I'm on the road six months out of the year.
	When you're on the road six months out of the year building a national insurance agency, it's very tough.
	And by the way, you're building an insurance company regulated in 50 states, high volume recruiting.
	We go from 66 agents to 60,000 insurance agents, dealing with every department of insurance that's led and typically ran by somebody who is a liberal.
	Think about they don't like people like us is what we have to deal with.
	But then this prompted people to get upset and say a bunch of different things.
	If you go back up, Rob, up top, I said something about on another tweet, I said something about, what's your big number?
	Go back above that right there.
	The one right above it.
	Keep going, keep going, keep going.
	Keep going, Rob.
	Keep going a little bit higher.
	I think this is the one.
	This lady says, kindly go a little lower.
	Working 80 hours a week is not a healthy role model.
	No problem.
	Quite frankly, you choose your role models for you and your kids, which is your job as a parent.
	Whoever you edify it is what it is.
	And I said, respectfully, both the app and the four you're using were built by a founder and executive team that worked 80 hours a week for many years.
	Also, our founding fathers work very hard.
	And I put 80 hours a week in a community note says, we don't know if they worked 80 hours a week or not.
	You just have to realize they worked a lot more than 80 hours a week.
	These guys are trying to survive is what they're trying to do.
	By the way, so then while we're doing this, me and the research team go a little bit deeper into this.
	And these are some of the numbers that come up, okay, when you think about what America goes through.
	If I was to ask you, right, and I asked you guys these questions yesterday, so I don't want to ask you guys, but I asked the audience, what percentage of startup billion-dollar company founders do you think were immigrants?
	Let me ask you one more time.
	What percentage of billion-dollar startups do you think the founder was an immigrant?
	Okay, I'll let you think about it for a second.
	5%, 10%.
	So these are guys that start a company and it becomes a billion-dollar company.
	Do you know the number to this?
	Were you in the room when we talked about it?
	I was not.
	Okay.
	The number isn't 10%, not 20%, not 30%.
	Rob, if you want to pull this up, 55% of America's billion-dollar startups have an immigrant founder.
	Why?
	Now, here's what some people will say.
	They'll say the H-1B visa takes job away from Americans, but anybody can start a company.
	Founding a company doesn't have to be an immigrant to do it.
	Somebody that's born in America can do it.
	So why are so many startup founders immigrants?
	Then when we went and looked at to see what percentage of Fortune 500 companies are ran by immigrants or their child.
	So meaning you came here in 60s, you started a company in 70s, your son ends up building a company that becomes a Fortune 500 company.
	You know what that percentage was?
	45% of Fortune 500 companies are ran by an immigrant or their children.
	So you look at this data.
	Then we continued going.
	I'm like, listen, there's got to be something's got to be the issue here because the real problem, Tom, is when the employer hires an H-1B person, which by the way, we've hired a handful in the last 25 years and it's legal.
	Nobody's doing anything illegal.
	If you have the ability to hire one, you do.
	But there are people that hire somebody and you pay them $75,000 a year, hypothetically, versus paying $150,000.
	Or you hire them and you pay $120,000 versus paying $180,000.
	And you save that $60,000, which the job is going to what?
	Somebody that's coming in as a H-1B visa.
	That criticism is true.
	And then we went a little bit deeper, Tom, and we saw the lawsuit with Infosys.
	Infosys paid $34 million in H-1B lawsuit.
	I think Apple paid $25 million.
	Facebook is going through it.
	And do you know who sued the Trump administration in 2017 on H-1B visas?
	Amazon.
	Do you know what company hires the most H-1B visas?
	Do you know who's ahead?
	And by a mile, it's Amazon.
	It's not even close.
	Do you know where Tesla was ranked on hiring the most H-1B visa folks?
	Where was it ranked?
	21st or 22nd place.
	Okay.
	So you're not talking about a top 10.
	Brandon Kelly, if you guys can send that ranking to Rob for him to have it, you got to see this because it's interesting as you go deeper and everybody is criticizing everybody and you go through it deeper, you're like, you know, it's not, but Amazon, majority of the people they are hiring of the H-1B visas, which we have around a half a million, give or take, number one was not only Amazon.
	Most of the Amazon had like three or four companies that were in the top 20 companies that hire the most people.
	This isn't the one.
	There's another chart that she has.
	She'll send it to you here in a minute.
	So I understand the arguments going against it.
	I understand the expansion of it.
	I understand the concerns.
	There's these consulting firms that they hire H-1B visas.
	And let's just say they're going to get you a job for making $120,000 a year.
	They keep a quarter of it.
	Do you understand what I'm saying?
	They're like, they play the role of an agent.
	They can't get you.
	That's not the hiring company.
	These are intermediary companies that sit with one foot in Asia or one foot in the U.S.
	And they're helping the H-1Bs of people get along.
	And they're ripping them off for a 25%.
	That's insane, by the way, to do that.
	So they're not ripping away the employer.
	They're getting the employee.
	Correct.
	So it's not the like typically, if I choose to hire your agency, the O'Shana recruiting firm, and you find me a C-suite executive, I would pay 25% on the salary of your one.
	Let's say the person's $300,000.
	You find that person for me.
	I hire them.
	I give you $75,000, but what they're doing is if they find you a job for $200,000, they're keeping the $50,000 every year on the salary.
	Wow.
	Which that kind of right there, by the way, if you look at the H-1B visas, Amazon's first place, then it's Cognizant, then Ernst ⁇ Young, then you see Microsoft fifth, then it's Google, then Meta, then Infosys, HCL, Walmart, Apple, Amazon, again, Intel, IBM, JPMorgan, Accenture.
	You got a few other companies.
	I look at Tesla, 22nd place.
	Then again, Amazon.
	So Amazon's on there multiple times for their companies on the list of most H-1B visas.
	Tom, you were going to say something.
	Yeah, I was just going to say, this doesn't reflect well on me admitting my temper here, but I once had a call from a guy that represented himself to be an IT recruiter.
	And he said he was based in the U.S. and he had a U.S. phone number and IT recruiter.
	He had gotten through to me with some very creative email and stuff.
	This goes back about 10 years.
	And this is in the early time where we were looking for, remember the first product people or the first technologists at PHP?
	We were putting together the original three systems.
	So this is literally 10 years ago, and we were going to build the first app.
	Over the course of two phone calls, I suddenly realized he was an intermediary, and all the people he said he was representing.
	I did an interview with one, and the guy in the interview on the phone call, because this is back in Skype.
	It was like a Skype interview.
	He tells me, well, I can only come through this guy because, you know, this is it.
	And I said, wait a minute.
	I thought he was a U.S. recruiter.
	No, He's representing me.
	He's here in India.
	And so I called the guy back and I said, are you a U.S.-based recruiter or are you based in India and you've got these people under contracts already?
	He said, well, I got them under contracts.
	I lost my temper with him because he had lied to me.
	I called him a pimp.
	I said he was.
	I remember I used that word.
	I said, you are a worthless pimp.
	I remember it.
	I was so upset with him.
	Because I had just interviewed a couple of people that were well-meaning people that just wanted to get a job in IT in the United States on product.
	And I lost it.
	So I'm confessing here I lost it, but it was one of those people.
	This is real and they take advantage of those.
	They do that.
	And the deeper we get in, this is a problem.
	This chart here that Brandon found shows the most popular college majors and they've changed from 2016 to 2023.
	Like kids are going to college.
	Parents are telling their kids, go get this degree.
	Number one is business.
	Two is nursing.
	Three is education.
	Four is biology.
	You know what five is?
	That's climbed up to three?
	Psychology is the number three major now.
	You know, engineering used to be sixth place in 2016.
	You know where it's at now?
	It's at ninth place.
	Why would you tell your kids to not become engineers?
	Right there, look at that.
	The chart, it's dropped.
	Zoom in a little bit, Rob, so we can see the majors on the left.
	You see how psychology, the purple from fifth place, goes to third place?
	Keep going, Laura.
	Engineering drops.
	Close the chart on the left, Rob, if you can, the X.
	Yeah.
	If you go and look at the left, you'll see engineering was sixth.
	See the dark purple?
	Dropped down to ninth place.
	Criminal justice stays around the same place.
	Computer science stays around the same place.
	Accounting, computing stays around the same place.
	Now, if you go and look at STEM, countries against U.S., Rob, if you can pull up this other chart, how we rank against other countries in STEM.
	Keep going up, up, up, the other way.
	The other way, Rob?
	The other way?
	Yeah.
	Keep going, Right there.
	Zoom into the top one, to the top one.
	Look at that.
	Top countries of STEM numbers by graduates.
	China, 3.57 million.
	India, 2.55.
	We're third place, 820.
	Now go to the one above it.
	That shows percentage-wise.
	Above it, Rob.
	Above it.
	Yeah.
	Look at this here.
	Percentage of graduates that are STEM.
	China, 41% of their graduates are in STEM.
	Russia's 37.
	Germany's 36.
	Iran's 33.
	India's 30% because of their IIT.
	France, 26.
	Mexico, 26.
	Look at us.
	And we want to compete.
	I mean, this is, and by the way, a part of this to me is like when you think about when Dallas Mavericks bring Dirk Nowitzki or Luca or Giannis or all these players that are coming from the European system here, and Kobe would always bash the AAU system in the States.
	And he came from the Italian, you know, he played, he learned how to play basketball, the fundamentals in Europe.
	Why do they translate from that leak?
	It's results.
	So my only concern with this argument is, yes, keep the jobs in America.
	Yep.
	Yes, give the jobs to American graduates.
	Yes, make it competitive here.
	And if some of these guys are coming here that are the smartest people, why not keep them?
	Why not recognize them?
	Why not respect the fact that they create jobs?
	One of the tweets I said, our founding fathers, a guy responds back and says, those are not your founding fathers.
	Guy posts a picture of the Shaviran and says, that's your founding father.
	But that tells you what, you know, a part of this, there's a nationalist and there's white nationalists.
	White nationalists, Vinny, don't want people like us.
	They just don't.
	White nationalists are a very different model.
	And they can have that argument, but this got very ugly, very quick.
	Yeah, no, you're spot on with the white nationalist thing.
	So what I'm concerned about is you made an amazing tweet because your prediction has basically come true, what they're doing to basically divide and conquer Trump versus Elon.
	That's what I'm focused on.
	Can you turn me up a little bit, guys?
	But it's sort of what you've seen the comments that are being made by Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller.
	They're sort of it's what do you think about it?
	So here's what I'm thinking.
	Can I read the tweet so the audience comes in and I'll go to you?
	Please do.
	So here's what Steve Bannon said.
	Steve Bannon said, let me be clear on H-1B.
	I want zero.
	The whole thing is about, oh, they're only geniuses, H-1B visas.
	That's not what it's about.
	It's about making American jobs and bringing over essentially what have become indentured servants at lower wages.
	The things a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens, give them to what become indentured servants from foreign countries and pay them less.
	Simple.
	That's what he said.
	And he does have a point right there.
	There is a point to basically what's happening with these guys with these H-1B visas.
	You said, you know, you can pay them less versus an American.
	By the way, you know, people who basically outsource jobs and say, well, I can pay an American worker here 30 bucks an hour.
	I can pay some guy in the Philippines or in India $4 an hour.
	So it works both ways.
	But what's happening with MAGA, MAGA versus Musk, it's sort of like MAGA 1.0 versus MAGA 2.0.
	Who's MAGA 1.0?
	The guys that have been there 10 years, this is the people that have been there basically 10 months.
	So you have the nationalists that you talked about right there.
	So you have the working class people, the America first that want to put America first.
	They're sort of the populists.
	They're the protectionists.
	You might almost say isolationists.
	MAGA 2.0, the people that have basically been there for 10 months versus 10 years.
	These are honestly former liberals, some of them.
	They're tech people.
	A lot of them are billionaires.
	They're the elites.
	They're a different form of MAGA.
	So the interesting thing here is when you do politics, do you want to have a big tent party?
	Hey, we need your votes.
	We need your votes.
	We need your votes.
	Okay, we got your votes.
	And now you're like, yeah, get the hell out of here.
	Hold on.
	I'm sorry.
	You don't want Elon Musk?
	You don't want Vivek?
	Elon Musk gave how much money to Trump?
	$200 billion?
	All of a sudden, he's the bad guy.
	So this conversation that's being had needs to happen, no doubt.
	By the way, Trump hasn't even assumed office yet.
	It's crazy because, you know, they say that the way that you campaign is different than how you govern.
	When you campaign, you made broad, just sort of out there, outlandish commentary.
	But when you govern, you actually have to do some nuanced debates.
	But as we always say, FTM, follow the money.
	Speaking of, you read a stat out there.
	What percentage of the H-1B visas are Indians?
	75%.
	Okay, so it's basically Indians.
	That's what we're talking about.
	So follow the money, GDP per capita.
	What's a GDP per capita?
	In India, in India, they're number 120 in the world.
	The average Indian makes 8,400 bucks a year.
	Okay.
	That's from 2023.
	So my stat says even, that's what it says, 2,400.
	I see 8,400.
	I don't fact check that.
	America, $76,000 a year, GDP per capita.
	Either way, if you're working in America, you're making so much more than you're going to make in India.
	And by the way, what do you think the people do when they make this money?
	What's your point there?
	So even if you're suppressing their wages, which is not fun.
	Okay, there it is right there, $7,000.
	Even if it's suppressing their wages, they're making 10x what they'd be making in India.
	So they have a choices to make.
	They don't have to come here, right?
	But there's also another thing.
	saying that because you're saying you know they're the opportunity to live in India is not as good as here and that's why it's not even close No, no.
	Meaning, so Indians are going to school there, but they're wanting to come to America here.
	The dream for them is to come here.
	Who doesn't want to come to America?
	Yeah.
	Who doesn't want to come to America?
	I love the analogy that you used, the restaurant analogy.
	How do you judge a good restaurant?
	How do you judge?
	How long is the wait?
	The wait to get in America, with the exception of the past couple years of Joe Biden open border Kamala Harazar policies, has been what?
	What did you say?
	It's the we're the number one country for immigration here in and year out.
	It's not even close.
	It's not even close.
	It's not even closed.
	So where the hell else do you want to go?
	You want to move to China?
	I don't see anybody trying to get into China.
	I don't see anybody dying to get into Russia or North Korea or Iran.
	So America is the place, the land of opportunity.
	So this conversation, I think, does need to happen because do we not want immigrants here?
	Do we not want the best and brightest?
	Where do we want them going?
	Want them going to our enemies?
	We want them here.
	But at the same time, I do agree with Vivek.
	Americans got to compete.
	I love the thing that you broke down about a year ago about why Indians are so successful.
	If you look at the most successful minorities, it's number one and number two.
	And it's bing, Indians and Jews, straight up.
	So why is that?
	What's going on in their culture?
	You did a whole breakdown about the family and divorce rates and what Indians do and how they're encouraging.
	Do you know what their divorce rate is?
	It's like 1%.
	Something ridiculous.
	It's low.
	So ridiculous.
	Their divorce rate is, on some data, shows 1%.
	On some data, it shows 6%.
	African Americans were the highest in the U.S. at 31%.
	Mex Hispanics were at 18.5%.
	Whites were at 15.1%.
	But Indians are at 1% to 6% divorce rate is what they have.
	Yeah, it's some ridiculous number that they have.
	You know how they say, don't hate the player, hate the game?
	The Indians are playing the game.
	They're doing it.
	Yeah, but what I'm trying to understand is the following.
	Here's what I'm trying to understand, Tom.
	And I want to bring this to you.
	I want to understand everybody's points.
	Like, for example, I want to understand Elon.
	Well, he said, you know, he came here on an H-1B visit.
	Well, that's what I'm saying.
	Where he says, the reason I'm in America, along with so many other critical people that built SpaceX and Tesla and hundreds of other companies at America Strong because of H-1B, take a big step back and go F yourself.
	That's from what you're talking about.
	Tropical Tropic Talk.
	I will go to war on this issue, the likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend.
	Okay.
	That was a quote from, I think, Les Grossman.
	Yeah.
	Never go for one time.
	But you know why he's saying that?
	I mean, he came here on one.
	So to him, that's personal.
	That's a success story.
	Now, to somebody who was born here and they're white and they were raised in a certain way where they're white nationalist, okay, you view me as go back to Iran, deport Elon back to, what do you call it, South Africa, deport Vivek back to India, right?
	And you make those types of comments.
	All right.
	I don't think that's majority of America.
	I think that's less than 5%.
	That is the far right.
	Yeah, that's the far nationalists.
	That's the far right.
	And the far left wants open borders and let everybody come in here.
	Let's illegalize everyone.
	The far right wants, if you're not a white nationalist, get the hell out of here.
	The problem here is you as a consumer not knowing the position of the individual before they say it.
	And you think everyone is in that position.
	They're not.
	Not everyone's in that position.
	So this is why it's caused a little bit of confusion.
	I'm reading a book right now by Robert Half about how recruiting firms were grown in the 80s.
	And one of the things he said, he said, he's the founder of Robert Half.
	His name is Robert Half.
	He wrote this book on HR.
	I don't know what the book's name.
	It's actually really good.
	He explains how in the 70s, one of the things that happened in the 70s and 80s is the media, every time you would see somebody become a billionaire, everybody would say he made his billions by hurting someone.
	So the image was the only way you can get rich is by what?
	Hurting someone.
	By hurting somebody.
	By telling you, scam artists, con artists, all this other stuff.
	Some of the words, I mean, a community notes section came up, Rob.
	If you can pull this up, I saw one on, they called Vivek, scammer, con artist.
	They called, there's a bunch, but here's one of the things.
	Such a lazy, weaker.
	But put this one up there right there on the tweet that I put up.
	Look at the bottom there.
	Patrick Bedavid made his money by founding a predatory multi-level marketing pyramid scheme, which he then used to market himself as a business crew on YouTube.
	He is essentially a scam artist.
	By the way, the community notes allowed that for a couple hours, then it was taken down.
	Okay, that's the whole community notes concept.
	Wikipedia and community notes are somewhat similar.
	I know Elon, I actually like community notes, to be honest with you.
	The only thing you have to be careful with community notes is that now went everywhere.
	Hey, this is what it is.
	At the end of the day, you know how hard it is to build a national insurance agency dealing with regulators in every state.
	Tom was the president of the insurance company.
	He's the CSO of it till today.
	You're dealing with every single agency.
	We pay taxes in God knows how many states.
	To grow a company like that and then for somebody to cut a check for a quarter of a billion dollars after they do quality of earnings, which Tom, can you tell everybody what a quality of earning is?
	What a quality of earnings report.
	So everyone knows how to sell a house.
	In the middle of selling a house, you need an inspection.
	If you're buying a house, your bank requires the inspection to assure that the house is in good shape and they're going to give you a mortgage for it, right?
	Very simple.
	An inspection times 1,000 is a quality of earnings report that gets known on your business.
	So they say, hey, we like to do an inspection.
	And part of that expectation is going to be quality of earnings.
	What do they do?
	They're looking for fraud.
	They're looking for offshore bank accounts.
	They're looking for transactions.
	They literally go through your bank account and watch every single expense, anything you ever bought, purchase, personal, everything.
	Everything.
	Wire transfer.
	Forensics.
	Wire transfer.
	You have to do it.
	You're about to cut a quarter billion dollars out.
	So think of it as you're selling a company and the inspection, the house inspection to sell that company is called a quality of earnings report.
	And it only gets done by people like PWC and Accenture, big companies.
	You sell a company for more than $50 million.
	It is a big inspector.
	It takes months to do.
	It costs at least a quarter of a million dollars.
	In my experience, that's what it costs.
	And guess who pays that?
	You.
	If you're selling your company, you have to pay that before it closes.
	So guess what?
	If the deal falls through, the economy crashes, they can't get their own.
	It's an audit.
	Guess what?
	You have to pay it anyway.
	But here's the point.
	So if a person's never gone through building a business or selling it, I don't blame you for not knowing.
	How could you not know what it is?
	Quality of earnings.
	How can you not know?
	Like, for example, I don't know what it was to, you know, mothers, labor, all this stuff.
	Then I saw my wife have four kids back to back to back to back, all without, what do you call it, Pitosin, without it, but they're all like, oh my God, the level of respect for your wife goes up when you watch them give birth.
	You're like, damn, I don't know the pain, but oh my God, salute for what you do.
	Then you see them nursing while you're sleeping trying to run a company.
	They're waking up throughout the night three, four, five times a night.
	You're like, wow, I thought I worked hard.
	I don't, you know, the amount of hours a mother puts in when they're working and raising a child.
	Hey, true role models, mothers don't work 80 hours a week when they have a newborn.
	They're working 168 hours a week, literally, because you're not sleeping half the time.
	So, you know, we have to, we have to keep in mind that this concept that I explained two months ago, that I said, you're going to see them pinning Trump against Musk, and there's possibility of there being a civil war.
	FYI, think about what Democrats and the establishment wanted for Christmas.
	Imagine what you wrote.
	My kids all wrote a card on what they want for their Christmas, except for my oldest son.
	He says, I want shares in Manect.
	That guy is wired in a very different way.
	Okay.
	And, you know, he goes, Vinny asks him, he says, hey, what do you want for Christmas?
	What do you tell me?
	I bought all the kids something.
	And at the end, like for the third time, I'm like, I'm like, Tico, just tell me because I'm going to go get it right now.
	He goes, just the time with you is a gift.
	And I was like, this freaking crazy thing.
	He just wants to hang out.
	And I was like, what a freaking kid.
	But think about, think about what you're saying.
	Think about 20 bucks.
	Think about what you asked for Christmas.
	Okay.
	What did you want for Christmas?
	Think about what your kids asked for Christmas.
	Then think about what the establishment and the left and Democrats, after losing to Trump, wanted for Christmas.
	You know what they wanted?
	This is exactly what they wanted.
	Not that they lost to Trump, they wanted to see the doggy dog community come out.
	And it's happening.
	And it's nasty.
	And it's ugly.
	I've been in business for a long time.
	When you run a business, you go through a lot of stuff.
	You have thick skin.
	You're not worried about it.
	It's going to happen.
	We're in this community.
	We're going to talk.
	I can't expect people to not say anything while we're talking ourselves and we're giving our opinions.
	I have no problem with that.
	But the part I will tell you is that we have to be very, very careful with is watch everyone's motives and stay skeptical with everybody.
	But at the same time, you know, even with people giving their own messages, you have to know nobody celebrates more than when there's a divorce and an infighting in the enemy's house.
	You are the enemy to the other side.
	The other side is not happy that America's making progress.
	The other side is not happy that everybody's flying into Mar-Lago to have a meeting with Trump.
	The other side is not happy.
	They're not happy about it.
	By the way, this is just the beginning.
	You think this is anything?
	This is going to be elementary to what they're going to be doing in 2025 and 2026.
	And can I say one thing, Pat, just for people out there?
	And I know, and I could guarantee the haters scam.
	You just repeat what the hell you hear because you have nothing better to do with your life.
	Community notes, it's technically supposed to fact check.
	Okay, for instance, remember the one time I posted, I was in here, we're on a podcast, and I thought Jimmy Carter died.
	I mean, God rest his soul, he actually did die.
	But I posted it.
	I posted the photo and we all were like, wait a minute.
	No, he didn't.
	Somebody went in there and community notes says he is still alive.
	They were fact checking my false information.
	Okay.
	If that's like somebody saying, hey, this player is six foot two, they'll community know, which is a group of people together.
	God knows what their biases are.
	And they fact check you.
	This, what this person did right there isn't a fact check.
	This is someone's opinion on you.
	This should be something that's put in the comment section.
	So I have to question community notes because who's fact checking?
	And Rob said this yesterday, who's fact checking these so-called fact checkers?
	That's not a fact.
	That's somebody's biased opinion that they're getting from Wikipedia.
	So how is that?
	You know what I mean?
	So a guy sends me a message and says, let me tell you, you're on different Telegram groups saying put helpful.
	Put helpful.
	See what I'm saying?
	Put helpful.
	Did you get it?
	Yeah.
	So there are these communities that say put helpful.
	Of course, they're haters.
	The same way there is the Wikipedia artist.
	There is the community notes on.
	And by the way, they're not going away.
	You just have to know.
	They're not going away.
	They have a lot more time on their hands to sit there and do what they're doing.
	And I'll tell you something about Wikipedia.
	It's not an offshoot pad here.
	This is a, I did a case study.
	We got to get to the next story after this.
	I did a case study some years ago, but it talked about that there is in pharmaceuticals, they have paid lobbying organizations, PR firms, that do nothing but put stuff onto Wikipedia and they have sensor alarms.
	And the sensor alarm is what it was described to me as.
	As soon as something is posted on a Wikipedia page, maybe for a drug, they see it and look at it and they go in it and they attack it.
	And they have multiple PR firms that attack it and change it to what they want.
	This is the whole astroturf side of gaslighting.
	And so Wikipedia is not a good thing, in my opinion.
	It's not particularly credible because of what has happened and the fact that these things are really going down.
	And so when you reference that, that's not there.
	But the other side of it is, to your point, who's fact-checking the fact checkers?
	Or does it become like Wikipedia for cabals of people can basically, you know, say, hey, get on Telegram, get on the Discord group.
	Hey, something just got said about the Lakers.
	Go after the Lakers.
	There's mechanisms in the modern internet that can be used by groups to go after people they want to go after.
	I have two quick points.
	This thing really bothers me, this community note.
	Why does it bother me?
	I didn't work for PHP.
	I worked in the insurance industry.
	And if there's anybody that would know about being the black sheep of the life insurance industry, it's this guy that worked in the life settlement world.
	How many life settlement companies went out of business?
	You said you went down to Waco, Texas one time, life partners out of the, I would call people.
	People don't know what I do, it's basically the exact opposite of life insurance.
	I buy existing life insurance policies for people and I give them cash.
	Very interesting business model, very lucrative.
	If you can make your way in this world, but when I met PBD in the gym at a NALBA conference, massive, massive insurance conference, he told me his business strategy, Blue Ocean Strategy.
	I said, wow, good luck with that, man.
	I don't know anybody who's doing that.
	So what I do know about the life insurance business is that every two years you have to do continuing education to go out there and recruit and start a business and start with a blue ocean strategy recruiting Latina females in a business that is predominantly older.
	NBS, what I call male, pale, and stale, old guys, no offense, Tom.
	I love you too.
	And then recruit and build a business.
	How many licensed agents say you build?
	40,000 agents you've recruited?
	60,000.
	60,000?
	Who's counting though?
	And then to go out, and I know a lot of these agents have become good friends with them.
	And you go to these insurance conferences, you think you're having fun?
	You think you're partying?
	You think that's what you're doing at insurance conferences?
	No, I go to PHP's big event.
	Are you freaking kidding me?
	Ludacris is there.
	Nelly.
	Shaq was there.
	Dilly Boy's sitting on his lap there, BFF.
	Nikki Jam is doing his thing.
	Nelly, it's getting hot up in here at 9 a.m.
	What the hell is going on with that?
	I appreciate that, but let's go.
	No, but the point is this: it's so easy for someone like he is a scam artist.
	They have no idea the kind of effort that you put into this.
	But let me tell you, though, but all I'm saying to you is, I don't have a problem with anything anybody is saying.
	They have to write to say anything they want to say.
	I think one of the best things a young man can do is get into sales and work your ass off and be in an opportunity where you can train, speak on stage, be a sales leader, whether it's, you know, there's a lot of companies that are recruiting model companies, New York Life, Keller Williams.
	You got a lot of these companies that they Primerica, they can do very good things for you for you to go out there and learn, do it.
	But it's not for everyone.
	The only thing for me with this was the model of community notes.
	All the other stuff, nothing off my water off my back.
	Totally understand.
	And you don't mean I stand up for you.
	You can stand up for yourself.
	You're a big boy.
	It bothers me because you're saying, hey, I don't have a problem with this.
	I do have a problem with this because it's lazy, it's weak, and you're just talking shit online to it.
	It's not going away.
	Just know that.
	This will not be the first or the last time.
	This is going to happen for many, many years.
	But it's weak and it's okay.
	The last thing with Trump, by the way, you know who we say?
	Basically, this is going to come down to Trump.
	You know what he said about H-1B visas?
	You heard his quote?
	Because we didn't address Trump, but I'll do this real quick.
	Trump said, I've always liked the visas.
	I've always been in favor of the visas.
	That's why we have them.
	I've had many H-1B visas on my properties.
	I've been a great believer in H-1B.
	It's a great program.
	By the way, we always talk about who's the last person in Trump's ear.
	Who's the last person in Trump's ear?
	Likely, it's Melania.
	Fun fact, you know, two out of three Trump's wives, foreigners, immigrants, legally, Melania and his first wife, Ivanka.
	So he respects legal immigration.
	We're going to build a wall.
	You have to do it.
	The part with Trump is when Trump said to Hillary in the debate, when they said, you know, he uses all the tax cuts and all this stuff and he barely pays any taxes.
	He says, yeah, absolutely.
	So do all your donors.
	If you don't like it, do something about it.
	How come you haven't all these years?
	So yeah, there's not the only thing is the argument about H-1B that you have to hear, it is broken.
	The current system is broken.
	The lottery system doesn't make sense.
	We're not getting the best.
	We're paying them less than somebody that can do the job here.
	The offer has to match the same.
	You have to identify the people that are abusing the middlemen that are taking the money out.
	That model has to change.
	And in my opinion, there's nothing wrong with the good talent coming here.
	Don't bash those people that are coming here.
	They love America.
	Yes.
	Some of the guys that are coming here from some of these countries and they're bashing America and you owe me this and F you and the illegal immigrants totally get it 100%.
	But a lot of these guys come here.
	They love your country and they want to make it their own.
	They want to be able to say they're American.
	And my suggestion is to be open to that idea.
	That's what made this place the melting pot.
	FYI.
	You know who came out with the H-1B visa program?
	I think George Bush.
	The first Bush in 1925.
	Yeah, the first time.
	Okay, all right.
	Let's go to the next question.
	It is broken.
	It does need to be.
	Trudeau's top minister at Mar-Lago to discuss border security.
	Okay.
	Trudeau's top minister at Mar-Lago to discuss border security.
	So Dominic LeBlanc and former foreign minister Melanie Jolly met the U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick and Interior Department nominee Doug Bergam at Mar-Lago to discuss Canada's border plan.
	The plan includes installing surveillance towers along the border and amid the Canada's border, what is it?
	Amid the what?
	Amid along with aiming, arming the Canada Border Services Agency with more helicopters, drones, and workers while also addressing the harm caused by fentanyl and the potential negative impact of a proposed 25% tariff on Canadian goods.
	Lutnick and Bergham agree to relay these updates to President Trump.
	So they did not meet with Trump.
	They met with Trump's leaders.
	And then Kevin O'Leary comes out and says the following.
	And then, Tom, I'm going to come to you right after this.
	Rob, if you got the Kevin O'Leary clip.
	I'm ready.
	He makes a comment about how half of Canadians feel about Canada being the 51st states.
	Go ahead, Rob.
	There's 41 million Canadians, basically the population of California, sitting on the world's largest amounts of all resources, including the most important, energy and water.
	Canadians over the holidays, the last two days, have been talking about this.
	They want to hear more.
	And so, you know, there's obviously a lot of issues, more details, but what this could be is the beginning of an economic union.
	Think about the power of combining the two economies, erasing the border between Canada and the United States, and putting all that resource up to the northern borders where China and Russia are knocking on the door.
	So secure that, give a common currency, figure out taxes across the board, get everything trading both ways, create a new, almost EU-like passport.
	I like this idea, and at least half of Canadians are interested.
	The problem is the government's collapsing in Canada right now.
	Nobody wants Trudeau to negotiate this deal.
	I don't want him doing it for me.
	So I'm going to go to Mar-a-Lago.
	I'll start the narrative.
	The 41 million Canadians, I think most of them would trust me on this deal.
	So here's what's going on.
	He brings up some very interesting point.
	I take you back to November 1st, 1993, with Helmut Kohl, who was Chancellor of Germany at the time, and Francois Mitterrand, one of the famous leaders of France, got together and put together the Maastricht Treaty, M-A-A-S-T-R-I-C-H-T, Maastricht Treaty, which established the EU to do exactly what he talked about.
	Because in the EU, they had the rich countries and they had the poor countries.
	And you had Portugal and you had Italy and you had countries that had some struggling economies.
	And they came together and that's what created the EU.
	And there it is, the Maastricht Treaty.
	You know, it was November 1st, 1993 is when it was ratified, and it brought them all together.
	And they had one currency except the UK who said, you know what?
	We have the strongest currency out here.
	We're going to keep the UK pound because you knuckleheads are probably going to screw this up and you're going to expect the UK pound to carry the currency of Europe.
	So that's what happened.
	And guess what?
	This is what Kevin O'Leary is saying.
	The U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar used to be kind of close together.
	You know what it is right now?
	A Canadian dollar, if you handed it to me in Buffalo, New York, because you came across to see Niagara Falls, you know how much I would give you?
	70 cents U.S.
	Oh, damn.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	So, and by the way, do you know when finance minister Dominic LeBlanc and foreign minister Melanie Joy, wait a minute, your finance minister and your foreign minister come to Mar-a-Lago to talk to Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick.
	Finance, foreign, wait a minute, maybe they're talking about an EU.
	And by the way, you know, an EU would make sense because the U.S. is an energy exporter right now, and it would actually strengthen Canada.
	And what the U.S. doesn't need is a failed Canada, but the U.S. doesn't want to be the one that rescues Canada.
	And so what's going on right now is Canadians don't like their taxes.
	They don't like what's going on, immigration.
	And by the way.
	And they hate their leader.
	And by the way, guess what?
	Guess what the two number one and number two issues for Canada is as they push against Trudeau.
	The economy's number one.
	Guess what number two is?
	What?
	Immigration.
	Hey, that's funny.
	We had a similar election and we elected a leader to lead.
	Canada's people and Kevin O'Leary are reacting to the leadership of Donald Trump, even as he carries the title of president-elect.
	And he's talking exactly about what happened in Europe when they harmonized things to stabilize those economies.
	Tom, what's the likelihood of this happening?
	I think it's probably 20% and rising, especially on the energy side.
	By the way, that guy that we – But the question I'm asking you is not – Of an EU-type treaty.
	Yeah, no, between what?
	U.S. and Canada?
	Yeah, not a state, just an EU-type treaty.
	So the 51 state, that's not going to happen.
	No, that'll happen to Puerto Rico sooner than that would ever happen in Canada.
	Okay, so 50.
	So an EU-like treaty, that would benefit U.S. in what way?
	I know it would benefit Canada where U.S. wouldn't put a tariff on them.
	But how does that benefit us?
	Well, two things, right?
	A somewhat stronger Canadian currency helps Canada.
	Actually, it helps us right now with the Canadian currency week when we do energy trades, right?
	Because they have to pay us a whole lot more Canadian dollars, you know, for the energy.
	So that helps us.
	But if we move it together on the northern edge, remember, I believe the number is 81% of Canada lives within 200 miles of the U.S. border because you have Montreal, you have Vancouver, you have Toronto, and I think that's it.
	I think it's the 80,200.
	80% of Canada lives within 200 miles of the U.S. border.
	And so you already have all of this.
	Yep.
	There it is.
	93 miles.
	80% of the population lives within 150 kilometers, only 90 miles.
	So you're basically talking suburbs of Buffalo, Detroit, and Seattle.
	That's what you're talking about.
	Toronto is right there.
	Winsorlock at Detroit.
	Buffalo and Montreal, right down the street.
	So the winner here is Canada more than it is U.S.
	The winner here is a stabilized Canada.
	And to the U.S., you know, a stabilized neighbor, I think is very positive.
	And you already have a lot of labor that goes back and forth.
	For a lot of years, Ford has built tons of trucks right over the border in Canada, in Detroit.
	It looks like Detroit because you say, well, where does Detroit stop in Toronto begin?
	I can't really tell you.
	The factories are right there.
	It's similar to Mikhaila Dora's.
	Mikila Dora meant little sister, I believe.
	Tom, I know you're Canadian, so you have a vested interest in this, by the way.
	Canadian, anyone we hear that reaches out on Manect, by the way, reached out on Manek to us.
	Every single Canadian is like, dude, how the hell do I get out of Canada?
	What's going on in Florida?
	Can you get me to America?
	I'm like, what do I look like?
	ICE?
	How many messages do you get from people in Canada being like, get me out of this?
	For me, the number two country by a mile is Australia on Manect.
	Really?
	It's not even close.
	Mindless.
	I was at Trader Joe's, and a girl from Canada literally stops me.
	She goes, oh my God, I can't believe you're here.
	I'm like, so where are you from?
	She goes, Canada.
	And I can hate it.
	And she's like, everybody's trying to come here.
	The president, what Trudeau is horrible.
	The taxes suck.
	The borders, I'm like, geez.
	I have not heard one person go, man, Canada, zero.
	Yeah, zero.
	Did you hear what Ben Shapiro said about Trump and Trudeau?
	I think it was actually at Turning Point at Amphest.
	Did he hear what he said?
	No.
	The story?
	He goes, and Ben Shapiro actually did a decent Trump accent.
	He goes, Trudeau's meeting with Trump.
	And he goes, Hey, Justin, if there were one thing that I could do to wreck the Canadian economy, what would it be?
	And Trudeau goes, Well, you know, you're a really powerful country, but President Trump, if you tariffed and taxed our vehicles, that would probably be the worst thing that would probably wreck our economy.
	And Trump goes, Justin, let me teach you the first world negotiations.
	When someone asks you, what would wreck your economy?
	Don't answer it, guy.
	The crowd goes up in uproar.
	And basically, it just shows that Justin Trudeau is the dumbest negotiator ever.
	Just reeling his hand.
	I called him a fag last week.
	You don't have to be gay to be a fact.
	He's not gay.
	He's a fact.
	Do we have the clip from Ben Shapiro?
	Do we have that clip?
	I mean, we don't need to play.
	You did it.
	You said it was a good thing.
	Anyway, but Justin Trudeau, like I said last week, is a dead man walking this guy.
	This guy, Pierre Polyev, is a stud.
	He's eating his lunch every single week.
	And he's going to the guy that's going to be negotiating with Trump.
	We're going to see how it goes.
	By the way, if they stabilize their economy and they lower their tax rate, those consumers are buying more stuff.
	And we're like their largest trading partner.
	So they're buying stuff like MP.
	Just trying to see how it benefits, how it benefits us when we look at this.
	Let me go to the next thing here.
	U.S. homelessness is up 18%.
	And officials are blaming the migrant crisis, devastating natural disasters, and a lack of affordable housing.
	Rob, I think you got a video on this one here.
	If you do, if you want to prep it.
	Is this it?
	It is.
	It's a Fox News report.
	Okay, go for it.
	Go forward.
	Welcome back.
	The Department of Housing and Urban Development recording a massive 18% increase in homelessness this past year.
	Shocking numbers.
	Its latest report says, which came out today, by the way, at least 770,000 people experienced homelessness.
	That includes 150,000 children.
	California, number one in the country with over 187,000 homeless.
	HUD says the lack of affordable housing, worsening natural disasters, and the migrant crisis are all making it harder for people to find places to live in.
	By the way, the number is 18, U.S. experienced 18.1% increase in homelessness in 2024.
	Brings the total up over 770,000.
	Rob, can you pull up the homelessness population the last 10 years?
	According to Department of Housing, the rise was driven by sky-high housing costs, natural disasters like the Maui wildfire, and a surge of migrants with HUD reporting family homelessness more than doubled in 13 communities impacted by migration, including Denver, Chicago, New York City.
	Renee Wills of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition called the increase the tragic yet predictable consequences of underinvesting in the resources and protections that help people find and maintain safe, affordable housing.
	Nearly 150,000 children were homeless on a single night in 2024, reflecting a 33% jump from 2023.
	Oh my God.
	Did you hear that?
	Let me say that one more time, folks.
	150,000 children were homeless on a single night in 2024.
	That's a 33% increase from last year.
	This is just children, okay?
	And it's not going away.
	Tom, how do you foresee a Trump administration coming in, right?
	They're solution-oriented.
	How do you address this issue, especially when you think about the 773?
	Rob, can you pull up out of the 770 homeless population, what percentage of that is just the state of California?
	Okay, if you type in highest homelessness population by state, highest homelessness population by state, let's see what it is and if it gives us an update.
	That's as of 2023.
	So we don't have the 24 numbers yet, but it's okay.
	Let me just read that.
	California would still be number one.
	181, okay, California.
	And then 103, New York, 31, Florida, Washington, 28.
	Can you pull one more down?
	Let's see who 50 is.
	Well, let me just see this here.
	Go a little bit lower.
	Rob, I'm going to send you some stats real quick.
	Go a little.
	I don't think that's the one, Rob.
	Go a little lower, the one that, oh, right there, right there.
	So Washington, Dennis, Texas.
	And then per 100,000, New York is 527.
	Vermont is 509.
	Oregon, 476.
	California, 466.
	Hawaii, 434.
	Adam.
	Did you see the Wall Street Journal breakdown of this?
	Ooh, wee, wow, wow, wee, wow, wow.
	Wall Street Journal just came out with an article.
	I was reading it last night, and it's called the Blue State Homeless Boom.
	Boom, boom.
	There goes the room.
	You know, the number one state in terms of increase percentage-wise?
	Because obviously, California has the most people.
	Nope, not New York.
	You want to guess again?
	Hawaii?
	Nope.
	And it's not even close.
	I mean, it's not California.
	Okay.
	Illinois.
	Here's the breakdown.
	Increase in homeless population from 2019 to 2024.
	There you go.
	Texas, only 8%.
	Florida, 10%.
	150%.
	Illinois, 153%.
	California, 23%, not good.
	New York, 71%.
	And the U.S. average is 35%.
	As much as I get the 153, look at New York by number.
	New York was number one by increase of actual homeless people.
	Okay.
	Illinois, two and a half X what they had in population, but New York went up 66,000.
	You were just in New York.
	I just came back.
	How was it when you were in New York?
	Specific to homelessness.
	I mean, look, the areas I was hanging out with with the homeless people.
	But yeah, look, we all know what's happening with Eric Adams.
	We all see what's going on with the subway.
	I actually filmed a video when I was in New York.
	And basically, I love New York.
	I used to go every single summer.
	It's an amazing city.
	Obviously, you have your relationship with the Yankees.
	And while I was there, I filmed a video.
	I was like, look, I'm here in New York.
	I'm getting out of a subway.
	I love New York.
	It's the best city in the world.
	Other than the fact that it's the most expensive city to live in the United States, the cost of living, the homelessness, the crime, the freezing cold rain, the Mets, the jets, the homelessness that I mentioned, the cost of living, the fact that I'm paying $5,000 for a shoebox apartment, the fact that homeless rats, garbage.
	But other than that, I love New York.
	So New York has some massive issues.
	How much tax revenue left New York during COVID?
	$30 billion, something like that.
	New York has some major issues.
	This homelessness situation that was going on, the guys that were beating up cops in New York, Vinnie, you covered this, flipping the bird.
	New York has some major situations.
	In my opinion, New York was the best city in America.
	But now the wokeness, the Columbia University, everything that's going on there.
	How does the Trump administration fix this homelessness problem?
	Yeah, coming back to your question.
	What does Trump do?
	Well, first of all, you're hired.
	They hire you.
	They give you the job.
	What do you do?
	First of all, you look at what's happening and how do you make it stop and how do you fix it?
	First of all, immigrants are coming here with no place to live, with no job to get, so that they can't even, in a short order, make a little bit of money to pay for a small place and there's not the affordable place.
	So how do you drive the price down in any market, supply, increase the supply that's out there or reduce the demand for it?
	So first of all, and people are going to go all over the comments on this.
	He's talking about deporting a lot of people.
	And once you deport people that aren't supposed to be here because they're criminals and they're floating around, you know, you're reducing demand, but you also got to increase the supply.
	And for the past three years, builders have been building, but it's where they're building, what they're building.
	And you got to put, I believe you need two things.
	It's not enough just to say, we need affordable housing in the city of Miami.
	I agree we do.
	We need it.
	It's going to be more West.
	Okay.
	But what are those people going to do?
	Where are the jobs going to be?
	So you need a partnership with the big cities to attract business to put jobs in the big cities, Pat, that are working class jobs.
	Then you need places for those people to live.
	So you have to do, Trump's going to have to get HUD and commerce together.
	And what I do is I get HUD and commerce together and say, look, the homelessness is tougher in these areas.
	I need supply of affordable housing.
	I need to reduce the artificial and bad demand.
	Take the people that are demanding it and get them out of here.
	And then we got to work with industry to bring back American jobs and opportunities so those people have something to do.
	So it's not a light switch.
	Now, the Democrats will think, well, just give them money.
	Give them money to go where and pay rent to who if there's not a supply of housing, right?
	You know, all you're going to have is a shortage of, a shortage of, you know, you're not going to have shortages.
	It's going to be spent on vices.
	And it's a fact.
	They've got lottery tickets, alcohol, things like this.
	If you just hand out money, you can't do that.
	He's got to do two things: the supply of housing, work with that, and then work with the big cities to attract jobs here.
	Here's what I want to do.
	So, some people have something to do and get paid.
	I got it, Tom.
	So, what I want to look at, you know, how sometimes, Tom, we would look at a thousand insurance policies coming in, and you would see some chargebacks, some stay on the books, some get canceled, some they keep.
	And then we would run a report to see where these chargebacks are coming from.
	What state, what office, what vice president, and then you would see okay.
	So, what I want to know is this homelessness increase of 18%.
	Who are they?
	Are they illegal immigrants?
	Are they veterans?
	What's the background?
	If you go a little lower, Rob, this article I just sent you, it shows you all the way at the bottom.
	So, let's kind of read this together.
	At the top, we saw the number 770.
	Great.
	Keep going lower, keep going lower.
	You'll see when the numbers actually come up.
	I'll go up a little bit when you see numbers to see what it says right there.
	Since then, all of the crossings at the border have dropped by more than 60%.
	HUD is in person.
	Encounters are at the lowest since July 2020.
	As a result, my half years, you know, the condo is light open.
	So, in Chicago, for example, the migrant shelter census is down more than 60%.
	And in Denver, it's down 100%.
	But wait till you see what is up.
	But according to HUD, I found that nearly one-third of the 18,800 homeless people in Chicago were children.
	Chicago saw a 200% increase in homeless population this year.
	Asylum-seeking families in Chicago.
	So, that is what?
	Illegal immigrants.
	Yep.
	If you use a different word, asylum seeker, seeking, not asylum families.
	Asylum-seeking families could be another word as illegal immigrants, including those bused or flown in Chicago from other states like Texas or Florida, whatever it may be, accounted for most of Chicago's increase in estimated homelessness.
	A record number of 371,000 illegal aliens were encountered, authority border.
	December 20, record breaking.
	May of 2022 was the previous record.
	Keep going lower.
	1.7 million gotaways.
	Okay.
	HUD reported 8% decrease in homelessness amongst veterans, record low, has helped connect 90,000 veteran households to stable rental homes.
	HUD, got it.
	The Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it has permanently housed 47,925 veterans experiencing homelessness in 2024, which is good.
	Go a little lower to see if there's anything else, or that's it.
	Yeah.
	So to me, what I want to know is what's causing it?
	And then what can we do to help some of them?
	Like every year for about eight years, seven years, we used to go to Skid Row in downtown LA.
	Okay.
	We'd get up at 4:30 in the morning, Christmas morning, December 25th, and about 50 of us, eventually, I think it was about 100 of us.
	We'd go to downtown LA and we would go give the homeless Bibles, pillows, blankets, toothpaste, whatever you want to call it.
	And I would talk to these guys.
	And what was weird about some of them that were there, I said, so what did you do for work before?
	I was an accountant.
	No, you weren't.
	Yeah, I was.
	How did you end up here?
	And one story was, man, I just, I couldn't stop drinking.
	Okay.
	How about yourself?
	I got a DUI.
	How about yourself?
	I got into a lot of debt and I couldn't find a way.
	So what are you doing now?
	We're living over here.
	But some of them were people that, if you clean them up, they looked proper.
	They looked good.
	Some of them were drugs.
	Some of them were felonies and people that maybe they're not going to get a job.
	But you have to almost find a way to see which one of them we can get back into the system.
	Tom said a word the other day, which what was it when you went to jails?
	Prisons used to be called what?
	Correctional facilities.
	Correctional facilities to correct the habits so we can get you to go back into society and become a citizen again, a contributing citizen again.
	We have to look at which one of them we can help out to get them back to getting a job.
	There are a lot of companies that hire people that are former felons, former people with the criminal background.
	I remember one guy at the Church in Shepherd of the Hills.
	He had a junkyard.
	I don't know if you remember this guy or not.
	He used to always go to the men's retreat and he had 120 employees.
	Out of the 120 employees, 75% of them had done time before, and they all worked for him.
	Former gangsters, they were tatted up.
	You would see them.
	They're gay.
	MS-13, 13th Street, 18th Street, TVR, all these guys.
	But they got jobs.
	So it was church and they worked over there.
	You got to find a way to make them self-sufficient.
	What percentage of them, Tom, do you think are not, you can rehabilitate them, like correct them?
	Which percentage of them do you think are like, there's so much into it that good luck doing anything with them?
	I haven't seen the stats on that.
	And words talk, number, scream.
	And I don't want to put a number out there that, but my own estimate based on reading a lot of articles like this and finding that.
	Did you say it's a big number or a small number?
	No, I would say it's probably about, my guess would be it's probably around 25% based on reading things about the number of kids, the number of people that had an addiction like alcohol, or they had a, you know, things like a DUI, lost the car, couldn't drive anymore, and things like this.
	I would say you probably have, there's probably 20 to 25% of them, just my gut guess, my observation, that are probably going to be really hard pressed to find a job.
	Today, on the way to work today in Fort Lauderdale at a commercial and federal highway, there was a guy that was laying in the street.
	His legs were in the crosswalk and his stomach was right there on the sidewalk.
	And me and a truck coming up, we both stopped at the same time.
	We're both saying the same thing.
	We both turned on our blinkers, got out, went to talk to the guy, wondering, was he hit?
	What's going on?
	He rolls over and starts just yelling incomprehensible stuff, didn't have any weapons, said anything.
	And I'm just like, this is just a troubled person.
	So the truck guy called 911 and said, look, there's a guy here.
	We want to get him out of the street.
	I don't see that as the norm.
	And I would say this person on drugs is probably way out there.
	Yeah, the other day.
	Can they really get back to it?
	I agree with you.
	The other day, me, Dylan, and Tico were right down the street from the office, and Jens with us kids are with us.
	A homeless guy is there.
	He says, hey, you got some money?
	I said, what are you going to do with it?
	He said, I'm going to go buy food.
	I said, then I'm not going to give you money.
	Meet me at Five Guys.
	So we go to Five Guys and I get him whatever he wants.
	We sit down and I have lunch with him.
	I'm talking, how'd you end up here?
	Good looking guy.
	I said, look at your eyes.
	You got Bradley Cooper eyes.
	He starts laughing.
	He says, well, I messed up.
	My family will never forgive me.
	This is the third time they've given a shot.
	They'll never forgive me again.
	I said, do you have any kids?
	No.
	I said, how do you think your dad, your mom, your mom and dad around?
	Yeah, he was in his mid-40s.
	So how do you think they feel about you being in here right now?
	How much pain do you think they're at?
	When they go to sleep every night, how much pain do you think they got?
	A lot.
	How much do you think they would like to see you go back to being?
	Yes.
	How long have you gone without drinking?
	And he tells me, I've gone seven days without drinking.
	I said, great.
	And here's 20 bucks.
	And I follow him just to see what he does.
	You know where he goes?
	Straight to the bar.
	Yep.
	He went straight to the bar.
	And to those guys, you know, churches do things.
	Charities do things.
	A lot of people are doing things to help them out.
	But the ones that can be helped, the investment must be made in people who want to help themselves to try to help 100%.
	Veterans they served for you and I.
	They gave us protection.
	We went to sleep feeling safe.
	We have to take care of our veterans.
	There's no question of it.
	Psychological PTSD, it's challenging for a lot.
	And we got to find a way to make that work for some of them.
	But I think the investment's got to be made in people that are willing to help them.
	We got a drug problem in this country.
	We've got a fentanyl problem in this country.
	We've got an alcohol problem in this country.
	We have a mental health problem in this country.
	You asked them some stats about New York City, right?
	The article from the Wall Street Journal, which basically what's wrong with Blue Cities, the Blue State Homeless Boom.
	Here's some numbers for you, by the way.
	New York City's right to shelter policy also encourages migrants to take advantage of government-supported housing, including hotels in Manhattan.
	Most migrants who can't find work and housing eventually move on.
	But most of the increase in what HUD calls quote-unquote chronic homelessness is owed to mental health and drug abuse, which this report failed to mention, if you can believe it.
	It's obvious to anyone who walks past any urban homeless encampment, or for what that matter is, any street in certain neighborhoods in Los Angeles or New York City.
	Progressives ignore such clear social ills and instead call for more spending on low-income housing, but such housing-first policies have failed and demonstrated by the rising number of homelessness in progressive states.
	Throwing money at it is just not something.
	How much money did Gavin Newsom accidentally misplaced 26 billion?
	24 billion, right?
	The Rob's got it.
	There it is.
	Oh my God.
	Yeah.
	Well, 24 gone.
	So clearly, in Oregon, I think they legalized or decriminalized all drugs during COVID.
	And then this past year, they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're good.
	Unlimited unlimited needles and bleach kits.
	We just can't have people just getting drunk, alcoholics, drug dealers, people on heroin just walking around in the streets and it being legal.
	By the way, you know that $24 billion they gave to California and California's got 180,000 homeless people.
	Do you know if they took that $24 billion and they gave it to each homeless person, they just gave it to them?
	Yeah.
	You know how much money it would be?
	$133,000 a piece.
	What do you think that money went to?
	You think it ended up going there?
	People's pockets.
	And all that's right.
	You're never going to be missing not $240,000.
	No, not $2.4 million, not $24 million.
	$24 billion.
	And by the way, Gavin Newsome, you know, words talk, number, scream, and I'll take a sip of coffee and I'll give you one parting shot.
	Go ahead because I want to say something.
	Tom, what's in here?
	So, I'm supposed to be Tito's and Cranberry, but I guess we're Cranberry.
	That's my guy.
	So what you see right now is I call it the fake statistics of winter.
	So Chicago, homelessness is dropping in Chicago.
	Yeah, you want to know why?
	Has anyone been to Chicago during the winter?
	It's freezing.
	Do you know where they're going?
	They are moving out.
	They are looking for refuge in other smaller cities and coming south.
	That is a fact.
	What's going on?
	But we need to move on.
	But right now, the stats lie a lot about it.
	But I'd love to see HUD's stats on chronic homelessness to find out if my guess is.
	I just want more data on this.
	Yes, exactly.
	So why is this?
	So is my guess about 2020?
	If we've not done a clip, I think we've done one on homelessness.
	Maybe put a list that we may do something on this year soon.
	Well, let's put the blame of why.
	Why, why this jump of 18%, which is absolutely insane?
	It comes down to the Biden administration.
	Nobody, none of us said it.
	It's them.
	It's Alejandro Mayorkes.
	They're talking about what is the border, drugs, inflation, how much, dude, gangs taking over apartment complexes and kicking those people on the street, which adds to it.
	Which wasn't fake news.
	Well, no, it wasn't fake news, but they tried to.
	But guys, why is it that America has this much of a problem?
	These are American citizens.
	We care about everybody else in the world.
	You know why?
	There's no money in helping the homeless.
	There's no profit to be made.
	We have wars on drugs.
	We have war on terror.
	We have war on everything.
	You never know.
	There's no war on homelessness.
	It's these people that are here.
	Okay.
	And it drives me insane that there are citizens, like you said, the guys in the street, Tom.
	I see that shit all the time.
	They're all struggling.
	They all need the help.
	And then you know what people say?
	We're going to build houses.
	Okay, we want to help the homeless.
	We're going to build them.
	George Collin had that great bit where he goes, you know what?
	Golf courses.
	We have 2 million, approximately 2 million acres across the United States, 16,000 golf courses.
	They're like, we don't have anywhere to build them to help take half of those freaking pointless ass walk around with your funny ass pants and build low-freaking housing and put Donald Trump is going to be very upset with you for you.
	We have to help.
	There's no, Pat, if you could figure out, they'll never do it.
	A business.
	Can I ask you guys a question?
	Yeah.
	I got a question for you.
	So here's a question for you, Vinny.
	So let me ask you: what's the most you ever drank?
	Me.
	No, no, this is.
	When did you get to a point where you felt like, man, I'm in too deep.
	I don't know how the hell I'm going to get out of that hole.
	The way I drank.
	Los Angeles, COVID.
	No comedy clubs open.
	Everything was the most depressing.
	Okay, so watch this.
	That is, is that the most you ever drank?
	Yes.
	Okay.
	So, for example, like if I go to, I used to go to clubs six days a week in LA.
	Damn, baby.
	Yeah, the only day I took off was Monday.
	Every day I was committed.
	So Tuesdays is the only day I took off.
	So I used to go to the club six days a week.
	I used to go to Vegas every other week.
	I was in Vegas.
	Very loyal, very committed.
	You helped build the business.
	If you look at this, this is my interest.
	The final product is being homeless.
	What are the previous seven steps before you got here?
	And the reason why this is important is because so many times we try to fix this.
	And what you don't pay attention to is, why don't we minimize and eliminate more people falling into this?
	We have to be just as proactive of preventing people to become homeless as we are of addressing the existing homeless people.
	Do you know what I'm saying?
	Because sometimes you're like a sales leader talks to a sales team and you got five disgruntled sales guys.
	And in your mind, all you're thinking about is what?
	Those five disgruntled sales guys.
	And your brain, your mind is consumed with those five disgruntled sales guys.
	You don't think about the other 30 that you have here that are fully committed, that want to improve.
	You want to make sure they stay ethical before they do something dumb.
	How do we prevent these guys from joining this camp?
	The more we can go through this process, then you have to find a way to prevent, prevent, prevent.
	And then you come for solutions at every category.
	Okay.
	Whether it is, you know, we don't do enough of selling the nightmare.
	I think we don't even do enough of a job selling the dream right now.
	We don't do enough of a job selling the nightmare.
	What's the nightmare?
	We don't do enough of a job where I remember how many times if guys were to come out and say, How many people I went and picked up from DUI in the middle of the night, I don't know what that number is.
	It's a massive number.
	And I did it so many times that I would sit in the car and we're driving, we're talking.
	It's three o'clock in the morning, four o'clock in the morning, two o'clock in the morning.
	And I'm like, hey, man, can I talk to you?
	Yes.
	When's the last time you had a drink?
	Well, I've been in jail for 12 hours.
	I haven't had one for 12 hours.
	So you're sober, yeah.
	Do you realize what you're about to do to your life?
	And for 30 minutes, I'm selling the nightmare.
	Your wife, your kids, your parents' heartbreak, the disappointment when your dad hears about this, the pain in your mom's eyes, nine months your mother carried you, the challenges they went through, the sacrifices they made, the number of soccer practices they drove you when you're going on these travel teams, the amount of baseball things they did for you, the amount of things they bought for you.
	When they couldn't afford to buy you a video game on Christmas, they bought it on debt, and he was working two different jobs.
	You realize how much pain you're bringing to these guys.
	You realize that.
	You realize, you think God put you here to do this right now?
	And I would go into selling the nightmare of you're about to lose it all if you do this.
	And when you're in it, sometimes you're so around other people that are also doing this, and then it's done.
	And I'm like, look, if you go the way you're going right now, your wife's probably going to leave you.
	You're probably not going to see your kids a lot.
	You're going to go through challenging times.
	And the hardest years of your life are ahead of you.
	Or you can stop the decision now.
	Let's go to AA meeting together tomorrow.
	Let's go see some of these guys here.
	Let's find a partner or buddy for you that you can go to.
	And then six months from now, three months from now, this could be the beginning of the greatest years of your life.
	The best memories, walking your daughter down the aisle, spending time with your mom and dad, reminiscing, laughing, telling jokes about the good times, all this other stuff.
	This could be a very special second half or two-thirds of your life that's coming up.
	But you have to sell the nightmare.
	I think on this cycle, you know, like one time I was with Antoine Walker.
	I don't know if you remember Antoine Walker.
	Of course, the Boston.
	Boston Celtics, right?
	$100 million.
	Yeah, he lost $120 million.
	That's how much he got paid.
	Can you put Antoine Walker total contract?
	I remember him.
	Total paying, like, politics, and then he won with the heat.
	Career earnings right there.
	Yeah.
	$108 million.
	By the way, it's all gone.
	It is all gone.
	Where is he at?
	How this NBA all-star made and lost $100 million of fortune.
	So we're sitting at a cigar lounge in Chicago and we're sitting there talking.
	Morgan Stanley, can you type in Antoine Walker Morgan Stanley?
	I just type in Antoine Walker, Morgan Stanley.
	I believe it's Morgan Stanley.
	This was seven years ago.
	I may be wrong.
	No, you're right.
	Okay, Antoine Walker, former NBA All-Star, decides, okay, this was nine years ago.
	Has worked with Morgan Stanley, Global Sports and Entertainment Division since 2015 to educate young athletes about financial resources.
	He's telling me how he sits with professional players to tell them how they lost all the money.
	Remember Mark Rippin for Washington Redskins, the Super Bowl champion that beat the Bills?
	Yeah, yeah, he went to Washington State University, came out.
	Yes, the career earnings of him, I think, was $41 million.
	If you can type in, he was us career earnings, $37 or $41 million, some number like that, I remember.
	What was it?
	Anyways, he also made a lot of money.
	And he ended up selling a Super Bowl right now.
	He won a Super Bowl.
	But the point is, man, like Antoine Walker went and sat down with kids that are about to go into NBA, NFL, and say, don't waste your money.
	He sold the nightmare that everybody's going to come knocking and wanting to do stuff.
	It breaks my heart when I see people going through.
	It's very painful when you see them going through telling the story, but we got to prevent the next 10 million of getting into the system.
	That picture that you wrote with the homeless float.
	Where's that thing, by the way?
	I don't know where it is.
	I wrote it.
	But by the way, I actually, I say this all the time.
	I say, for the average person, you have parents, you have friends, you have classmates, you have family.
	How do you get to being homeless?
	Imagine the bad decisions that you make.
	Like most people, hey, man, I'm really struggling right now.
	Hey, bro, you can crash with me.
	Hey, hey, mom, dad.
	Imagine how many bridges you Have to burn, and how many poor decisions you have to make for someone to be like, dude, I can't help you anymore.
	Good luck out there.
	You know, everyone wants to say, well, how are we going to help the homelessness?
	How are we going to help these people?
	Look at Anton Market.
	You kind of got to help yourself.
	This is why they call it personal responsibility and self-development and personal finance and personal agency and self-reliance and self-esteem because it's on you.
	At the end of the day, if you're the one drinking and getting effed up and doing the DUIs and not listening, it is.
	You're going to be the, but at the same time, at the same time, you know, in life, you know, when you read the Kennedy and the Bush's family structure, what they had, they both said, first go make your money, protect your family, then find a way to go into public service, whether it's church, politics, or charity.
	We can help a lot of these guys not get there.
	Some of us have to play the example of playing the role before you see somebody before they're about to screw up.
	We need to have that conversation with them.
	Listen, it's so funny.
	Today is what?
	December 31st.
	Guess what's going to happen tonight?
	Rob, can you pull up the number one, number one day in America for DUIs?
	Look at this.
	The number one day in American DUIs.
	Number one day in America for DUIs.
	Okay.
	What is it?
	New Year's Day.
	You know why it's New Year's Day?
	It's really New Year's Eve.
	Exactly.
	So you know what I, by the way, you know what I used to do with the sales organization?
	For 15 years, you know what I did?
	People could think this is crazy.
	I had a young sales team.
	So every January 1st, I had a sales meeting at 8 a.m.
	You know what would happen?
	You know how many DUIs we would prevent?
	They would show up drunk.
	They would show up so pissed off because who the hell puts it like, look, not mandatory, but I'm doing it.
	I'm going to be there.
	Come there if you're committed for New Year 2025.
	So if some of you guys are watching it tonight, you're planning on going, doing something, and you're like, well, I'm going to go out, Pat.
	What am I going to do?
	Don't take your car.
	Don't take to go Uber.
	And if you can, limit your amount of drinks.
	And if you can't even go without drinking tonight, to even for you to make a decision for yourself in 2025.
	Vinny, you've gone how long almost at this point?
	19 months?
	As of right now, I think you're at 100%.
	19 and a half months.
	I am at one year, six months, and 30 days.
	Amazing.
	I'm never going to go back.
	It's 19 months.
	But if you can go tonight without it, test yourself and do it.
	I mean, kudos to Vinny because he just said four years ago he was drinking more than any time in his life.
	Yeah.
	And now he's not.
	But at the end of the day, it comes down to the choices you make.
	We all are the product of the decisions that we make.
	So if you're going to make poor decisions and do DUIs, I'm sorry, brother.
	That's on you.
	Let's go to the next one.
	So this is a community that maybe has been having one too many drinks.
	The late night comedy spent shows 2024 bashing Trump as viewership continues to crash.
	Vinny, I'm coming to you on this one here.
	So get your data ready.
	Rob, I think you got a video on this.
	Late night comedy hosts like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kemmel focused heavily on Trump in 2024 with ready 98% of the 1,463 election-related jokes targeting who?
	Donald Trump.
	According to Media Research Center, MRC, Colbert CBS show averages 2.6 million views in 2023, 2024 season.
	A drop, you're ready from what?
	3.8 million.
	Colbert went from 2.6 million to three point from 3.8 million to 2.6.
	That's 1.2 million viewers he lost from five years ago.
	And Kemmel, ABC, is at 1.3 million viewers in the third quarter.
	Unbelievable.
	1.3 million.
	That's the Leno versus Letterman.
	And that's at 1.3 million.
	I can think of 40 podcasts that do better numbers than that, 1.37 million.
	Both Colbert and Kemmel had emotional reactions to Trump's decisive victory with Kemmel reportedly holding back tears on his first broadcast after the election.
	Meanwhile, polls indicate dwindling public interest and celebrity political opinions with 75% of voters saying endorsements made no difference or not much of a difference on their votes.
	According to Rasmussen, only 12% of independent supporting celebrities sharing political views per an AP Nork poll.
	Rob, is this a clip?
	I just have a clip of Jimmy Kimmel as well as a clip of Stephen Colbert, just a good example of their jokes about Trump.
	Go for it.
	Let's be honest.
	It was a terrible night last night.
	It was a terrible night for women, for children, for the hundreds of thousands of hardworking immigrants who make this country go for healthcare, for our climate.
	He's doing a crime.
	He's a horrible advertiser.
	Go to Colbert.
	Go to Colbert.
	Trump is apparently a true fear of Stan.
	Kelly had previously spoken to The Atlantic, and they confirmed that multiple witnesses heard Trump complain that I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.
	That is so disturbing that he doesn't know why.
	It reminds me of that famous saying, those who do not learn from history are doomed to say, I need the kind of generals Hitler had, and still somehow be statistically tied in all the battleground states.
	And it wasn't just, it wasn't just his.
	Like, when's the last time any of you watched late night?
	Be honest.
	Have you sat there and watched what?
	I will tell you.
	I will tell you.
	I watched, I used to like when Fallon used to do stuff with Justin Timberlake, but that was like 10 years ago, whatever it was.
	I actually like what Fallon would do.
	And earlier, Kimmel, I watched a couple of his stuff.
	Well, man, there was a time I never missed Leno.
	When I tell you I never miss Leno, because it's Letterman versus Leno, I was all Leno.
	I love Leno so much that I actually went to his show.
	And that's when late night was what it was supposed to be.
	We come home, you want to unwind, you want to laugh.
	These two, those two specifically are a disgrace to what late night is.
	That is insane.
	Look at that poll, Vinny.
	I don't mean to interrupt.
	Do your thing.
	What late night show do you watch?
	1,800 voters.
	Good for you guys.
	96% said none.
	2% Fallon.
	1% Kimmel.
	1% Colbert.
	Oh my God.
	I'm so proud of every single one of you.
	Good for you.
	Don't give them any energy because it's not comedy.
	It's propaganda.
	They're all getting paid to do what they're doing.
	They're not about making people laugh anymore.
	It's just an agenda.
	I'm sick and tired of it.
	Let's just talk about these people.
	Jimmy Kimmel, who is one of the most unfunniest people on the planet.
	He's labeled as a stand-up comedian.
	Who has ever watched Jimmy Kimmel?
	Have any of you guys seen his special?
	Anybody?
	He's not.
	And he wants to cry about Trump and women.
	He was on the man show.
	And Rob, I've posted clips of him being disgusting and perverted with women.
	And he wants to sit here and judge.
	He did Blackface Carmelo.
	He did Blackface. Carmelo.
	Look at this.
	That race.
	Look at that.
	Look at that.
	Who does that?
	They did videos basically like harassing women.
	Yeah.
	And like pretending to lick them and pumping them from behind.
	You know why the numbers are down?
	Because Americans are sick and tired of being lectured by out-of-touch elites.
	Okay.
	And they push the narrative.
	Like late night used to mean something.
	Okay.
	It was about entertaining everybody, no matter their political, their politics or what they stood.
	Johnny Carson, God rest his soul.
	I still watch clips of him with who's Don Rickles all the time.
	They never divided the country, guys.
	They brought people together.
	But these guys, they just have a soapbox.
	They talk about what about Stephen Colbert?
	Colbert, remember that, I hate using this word, cringe?
	He was doing a dance, the vaccine jab, go jab yourself.
	With the dancing syringe.
	Unbelievable.
	I got a question for you.
	Yeah.
	It's all failed.
	It's failed.
	I'm happy.
	I got a question for you, Tom.
	And to me, here's how this goes.
	Okay.
	For example, we fund a business and we sit there and we look at the different business units and we'll say, okay, Tom, we put $5 million into this business last year.
	What's the return on it?
	This.
	We put $10 million into this business last year.
	The return is $40 million.
	Okay.
	This other one, we put $3 million into this.
	We did this.
	How long can you go entertaining something that's not getting money back or return back or any of that back?
	Tom, how long is ABC going to go with this before they fire and replace a Kimmel?
	Let me give you guys an idea on what I think with this.
	And I'll just go to you first and I'll give you my thoughts here.
	How long do you think it'll last for Kimmel to go the way he's going before a Bob Iger, because ABC, this is Disney, before Bob Iger says, hey, we got to figure something out here, or a Fallon continue the way he's going before they replace.
	Rob, how long have either one of them been going?
	How long has Kimmel been going?
	What is his tenure?
	How long has Kimmel been going and how long has late night?
	Is it, oh, oh my God, Kimmel's been going for 21 years.
	Oh my God.
	By the way, so here's what I want to know.
	How long has Fallon been going?
	If you can just ask the same question and just say Fallon is saying Kimmel is 15, maybe 10, 15?
	My guess.
	So Kimmel is 21.
	Yeah.
	10 years, Fallon.
	Is 10 years.
	Okay.
	Can you do me a favor and go look at how long Letterman went and how long Leno went?
	How long did Leno go?
	30 years?
	No, not that.
	I don't think so.
	I guess that's 20.
	So 22 years ago.
	So Letterman went 22 years.
	And how long did Leno go?
	I think just as long, if not longer.
	Leno and Letterman, what's the number?
	Leno went how long?
	I'm taking the over on Leno.
	You're going to say he did longer?
	Rob, do you see?
	92 to 2009?
	79 years.
	And then he came back and rehosted again from 2007.
	Okay, so let's say 21 years.
	So guess what?
	It's time.
	Yeah.
	It's time for Kimmel to move on.
	If Letterman did 22 years, if Leno did 21 years, I actually like Conan O'Brien to be a lot of people.
	I love Kimmel.
	That's awesome, right?
	Yeah.
	He was awesome.
	He was great.
	I think there seems to be a pattern.
	The pattern becomes you start thinking you're a bigger deal than you really are, and you get a sense of bitterness.
	Kimmel sounds bitter, and you can't have that on late night.
	The entertainment I want late night is, I don't even want to think about politics.
	I just want to, when I used to watch it, I just want to relax.
	Maybe it's time for them to say, Kimmel, great job giving 21 years.
	You got the same amount of years as Leno.
	You got one year less than Letterman.
	It's time to move on and get somebody else.
	Tom, your thoughts?
	Well, words talk, number, scream.
	Let's talk about the demo.
	What is the demo that they want for late night?
	Buying products.
	Late night, I want to say 35 to 55.
	18 to 30 is the critical demo.
	That young group is watching late night.
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, I thought older people watched.
	I'm trying to watch it on streaming the next morning and stuff.
	But I'm going to take you to something.
	Letterman was 66 when he was forced to retire, and the last seven years were not good ratings.
	So from 60 to 66, his ratings weren't good.
	How old is Stephen Colbert?
	50 something?
	60.
	How old is Conan?
	He's good for 60, to be honest with you.
	Yes.
	Conan is 61.
	How old is Kimmel?
	He's about to turn 58.
	How old is Fallon?
	Fallon's younger.
	He's about to turn 51.
	These guys, not only, to Pat's point, he's exactly correct.
	Not only have they had their 20-year rung like a TV show tends to have and a host tends to have, they are aging out of the age that in 18, hell, let's skip forward and do 24 to 40.
	They're aging out of an 18 to 30 demo or a 24 to 40 demo.
	Those, right?
	18 to 30, that's 12 years.
	24 to 40, that's 16 years.
	They're aging out.
	They're not identifying with those groups.
	And guess what happens?
	What word was associated with Letterman during his last four years?
	I saw it over and over and over.
	He had become a bitter, angry guy.
	Grumpy.
	And he used to talk.
	He did an interview with Obama that was okay.
	Then he was very critical and very cynical.
	And he got really bitter and angry.
	Yeah, that's what Kimmel feels.
	And so guess what?
	Guess what?
	It's normal.
	We're seeing history repeat itself in the natural life cycle of these celebrities who are all aging out of the demo.
	It's time to go.
	Well, look, we've talked about this before as far as what the number one late night TV show is, late night comedy.
	And it's Greg Gutfeld.
	And no disrespect, not a comedian, not funny.
	No jokes.
	Uses a clipboard.
	No celebrities.
	No car karaoke.
	Can I tell you something about that?
	No band.
	No nothing.
	Super likable.
	Super trusting.
	Super likable.
	Super trusting.
	Sure.
	You can say what you want with him.
	What the market is telling you is they'll take likable and trusting over arrogant, pompous, entitle, arrogant pricks.
	That's what I'm saying.
	I agree with you.
	I just see it a different way.
	Even if that person's more talented.
	No, I just see it as a blue ocean strategy.
	You have three guys on ABC, NBC, CBS that are just cannibalizing 50% of America.
	When Greg Gutfeld says, okay, I'll take the other 50%.
	So they're all just diving up 1.2 million, 1.4 million, 2.
	This guy's good, 5 million.
	Great.
	Boom.
	He just says Cyrus to Tyrus.
	He's got Kat Temp.
	These aren't.
	He doesn't have Justin Bieber.
	He doesn't have Kim Kardashian.
	He's just the one guy on the right, or you have three guys that are doing on the left.
	But there's more to it because we're talking about late night.
	What's the third word?
	Comedy.
	Yeah.
	Late night comedy.
	I was just in New York and I went to the stand, right?
	That's where our friend Marcelo used to perform.
	Out of nowhere.
	Hey, please welcome to the stage, Louis C.K.
	The audience is like, what?
	Louis C.K.'s here?
	Amazing.
	The headliner was a guy called Aaron Berg.
	Incredible.
	What's the key to comedy, though, Vinny?
	You know, not being obvious.
	Didn't see it coming.
	Why is Andrew Schultz so good?
	He does that whole joke about, you know, ladies, free of the nipple.
	I want to work too.
	He's like, are you guys feminists or F-boys, right?
	It's just an amazing joke.
	But when you have misdirection and you take risks and people don't see it coming and you just do callbacks, that's where growth comes.
	Oh my God, I didn't see it coming.
	These guys, everything is obvious.
	Everything is canned.
	PBD, what was the number you said that they said about Trump?
	98%.
	98.
	You see it coming.
	It's a one-sided, obvious agenda.
	So nobody's going to find it funny.
	So they're just cannibalizing each other's audience.
	By the way, don't look now.
	I'd like to see what the numbers look like for the Daily Show now that Jon Stewart is back.
	Chris Trevor Noah, who hosted for basically, what, eight years, was atrocious.
	Oh, he's very unfunny.
	It was the epitome of a comedy DEI hire.
	Straight up.
	A guy from South Africa that's never lived in America before, comment anything on American politics, just reading scripts.
	Sorry, bro.
	Didn't learn.
	Not funny.
	Jon Stewart, at least funny.
	I also don't think Jon Stewart's the guy.
	If I'm running ABC, if I'm running NBC, and I have the kind of money that they have, I'm going a very different direction.
	I just am.
	I'm going a different direction.
	I'm not going to any of these guys right now.
	Okay.
	I'm going to a very different place, strategy.
	I got to take a bit of a risk, but you have to also realize that, you know, to have something like this go on the way it is, you have to catch yourself because what you don't realize happens to everybody when you're creating content or when you have success or fame or money or flattery.
	You know what ends up happening?
	The most dangerous thing that happens, and by the way, nobody is free from this.
	The most noble man on earth isn't free from this.
	The more people tell you how amazing you are, the longer it goes, the more you start believing, you know, your shit don't stink.
	And then you talk to the audience where you're talking at them.
	Instead, you were speaking with them.
	You were having a cup of coffee with them.
	Now you're preaching.
	Now you're annoying.
	Now you're bitter.
	Everybody is tempted to fall for this.
	Everybody.
	No Obama lecture on the black people.
	Nobody is free from this.
	There's not a single person that's free of this.
	Look at Trump 2016.
	Look at Trump 2020.
	And then look at Trump 2024.
	Credit to Trump goes to what?
	Individually, him by himself.
	Hey, 2024, I sounded bitter and angry.
	Yes, they did.
	2020.
	Watch why he's like, are you kidding me?
	Jimmy Carter passes away, right?
	May he rest in peace.
	Nice guy, terrible president.
	And Vinny, this one is actually true, right?
	This is not like he's going to get community.
	I'm not going to get community going on.
	He's actually no longer a great child.
	He made it to 100 years old, right?
	Jimmy Carter.
	And for me, I'm here because of him.
	This is a post by Eli David.
	Rob, if you can click on that and post it, it's got zoom in.
	That's Iran before Carter.
	That's Iran after Carter.
	He comes in December 31st, 1977, has a toast with the Shah saying Iran is a legacy, an island of stability.
	The word he uses.
	Leaves, literally, when he leaves, the revolution starts.
	And what has happened to Iran since 79?
	You tell me.
	Howardy chaos.
	What's the quote that the Shah said?
	Here's Shah's quote during that time on what he said is going to happen to Iran.
	Rob, I don't know if you have it or not.
	There's a quote by the Shah.
	He said, if I leave, Iran will go down.
	If Iran goes down, Middle East will go down.
	If Middle East goes down, the world will suffer.
	Well, guess what?
	He said this in 78.
	Okay.
	He was right.
	He said this in 78.
	That magazine I have, by the way, can you zoom in a little bit on the dates of that magazine, Rob?
	Is that 78 or 76?
	September 19th, 1978.
	That's exactly four weeks before I was born.
	Wow.
	Okay.
	Four weeks before I was born and a boom.
	He leaves January of 20, I'm sorry, 1979.
	And what's happened to Iran since then?
	Shambles.
	So part of this policies of what he did wrecked a lot of what's going on in Middle East.
	People can take it back to him and Kissinger.
	They can go back to that and put some of the blame, maybe a lot of the blame on him.
	Okay.
	Having said that, if there was anybody that could say what he wanted to say about Carter, what does Trump say?
	Can you pull up Trump's tweet about Carter?
	And this is what you got to see on you.
	Tell me if you sense any bitterness from this tweet.
	I just heard of the news about the passing of Jimmy Carter, president of Jimmy Carter.
	Those of us who have been fortunate to have served as presidents understand this is a very exclusive club, and only we can relate to the enormous responsibility of leading the greatest nation in history.
	Beautiful.
	The challenges Jimmy faced as president came at a pivotal time for our country, and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans.
	For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.
	Melani and I are thinking warmly of the Carter family and their loved ones during this difficult time.
	We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers.
	Are you kidding me?
	Phenomenal.
	Oh, sweet.
	You know, phenomenal.
	What is the likelihood that the mainstream media was actually going to post that time?
	But the point I'm trying to make to you is: this is the part that if Trump can adjust at 78 years old, and these other young guys compared to Trump, they're in their 50s and 60, 61 years old.
	They're bitter every night.
	You're not attractive.
	The market is not interested.
	You won't get the votes.
	People will leave you.
	And I think it's time for Kimmel to step aside and give that show to somebody else that can come and go on their own 10, 15, 20-year run.
	Because that time is here.
	Anyways, let's go to the next story here.
	Tom, I'm going to the stories about U.S. credit card defaults, jumped to the highest level since 2010.
	That's 14 years ago, folks.
	Credit cards.
	A lot of people are dealing with this right now, and it's a very challenging place to be.
	I remember when I was $49,000 in credit card debt, it feels like you're suffocating when you're in it.
	Credit card defaults in the U.S., highest level since 2010, with $46 billion in seriously delinquent loan balance written off in the first nine months of 2024, a 50% increase from the previous year, according to bank reg data.
	Mark Zandi of Moody's Analytics highlighted the financial strain on lower-income consumers, stating high-income households are fine, but the bottom third of U.S. consumers are tapped out.
	Their savings rate right now is zero.
	Rising credit card balances and interest costs have worsened financial stress, with Americans paying $170 billion in interest over the last 12 months, $170 billion just in interest last 12 months.
	Credit card balances exceeding $1 trillion for the first time in mid-2023, fueled by post-pandemic spending and inflationary pressures.
	Consumer spending, power has been diminished, says Odessa Pompeo of Wallet Hop as delinquency rates remain nearly a percentage point higher than the pre-pandemic levels, pointing to more pain ahead.
	Credit card charge offs and delinquencies at a 13-year high.
	Now, the story right behind it.
	Tom, your thoughts on this year.
	Well, we've been talking about this.
	Remember, a year ago, we said that the one that the credit cards had gone way down with stimulus checks and a lack of spending because you couldn't go out outside.
	You weren't going outside.
	You weren't traveling.
	You weren't going to restaurants.
	So discretionary spending on those sorts of things, travel, amusement parks, movies, outdoor leisure, and going out to eat were off.
	So people weren't spending on that.
	And they got stimulus checks.
	Remember, the credit card balance went down to like $500 billion, I think it was.
	But then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, it was time to go back out and play.
	And what did we do?
	We ran those credit cards up.
	And it was earlier this year that we covered on this podcast when the mainstream media wouldn't talk about it because they didn't want to say anything embarrassing to the Biden administration, where credit cards went to a trillion dollars.
	And we called it.
	And we said, you know, in election year, if this inflation doesn't get under control, if it doesn't get down to 2%, like Jerome Powell was, by the way, 2% inflation is still inflation.
	It's not zero.
	It just means it gets back down to a more, you know, a much lower rate per year.
	So what's been happening?
	People have been feeling kind of good.
	They've been going out.
	They've been doing things, but the cost of stuff is still up.
	And we're still seeing about restaurants closing.
	Why?
	And we're seeing about McDonald's struggling and did the dollar.
	TGI Fridays.
	Yeah, yeah.
	TGI Fridays is closed.
	So guess what?
	TGI Fridays lives in the middle.
	Fast casual, they call it, like Applebee's, TGI Fridays, Chili's, things like that.
	You go in and you sit down and bankrupt.
	So what we've got right now, however, the bank stocks seem to be okay.
	Really?
	Why would the bank stocks be okay?
	Do you know how much interest Americans paid over the last 12 months?
	How much?
	On credit cards.
	$170 billion in interest at an excess of 25%.
	That's the interest rate on credit cards they pay in the last 12 months, and it's going down, which means this is the opportunity for Trump.
	And one of the big areas you got to get the cost down for people is on energy.
	You bring cost of gas down.
	You can actually anti-inflate gasoline and energy and heating oil.
	And also, those costs come out of getting all those goods shipped to your grocery store.
	Maybe we'll see a little bit of ebbing in price at the grocery store.
	But right now, the U.S. consumer, the bottom third of the U.S. consumers are in a tougher place than they were at the beginning of COVID.
	They actually got savings relief during the year.
	So let me ask you this question, Tom.
	If you look at this chart, Rob, you had the other one as well, but let's stay on this one real quick.
	U.S. credit card write-offs jump 2010.
	Yep.
	That's after 08.
	Market crash.
	Obama, 2010.
	Yep.
	Spikes.
	2024.
	Crash of spikes.
	People spent then they defaulted.
	So what I'm trying to ask you is: if I look at this chart, is 2024 2010 or is 2025 going to be 2010?
	I think 2024 is 2008, 9, and 2025 is going to be 2010.
	So let me get this straight.
	What you said right there, Rob, go to the other one.
	It's very important.
	I think we're what you just said.
	So if you go here, I'm asking you if 2024 is 2010, meaning are we at the peak or is next year numbers on loan write-offs going to go skyrocketing even higher than 2024?
	No, we're the year before 2010.
	Okay, I got you.
	I'm calling peak next year because remember, Trump is.
	I'm kind of with you because if you think about the timeline of COVID and what happened with Biden and the economy last 48 months.
	Yep.
	So, and by the way, let's look at the impact.
	The world is starving.
	I got to grow corn.
	How long does it take to grow corn?
	That's what you would look into, right?
	How long did it take to grow wheat so you can ship bulk?
	Well, guess what?
	Trump's not, Trump will be inaugurated on January 20th.
	Then they won't clear all those cabinet picks for another four or five weeks.
	Now the cabinet picks, especially Treasury and Commerce, are in place.
	Then they put their programs out.
	Congress has got to debate it.
	You're probably talking the middle of Q2, getting into May, June, before, you know what I mean, Pat?
	Before the corn grows, meaning all of the programs from the new cabinet can start having a dramatic impact on the U.S. worker.
	So what we're seeing here, this is a leading indicator of more pain to come on credit card delinquencies.
	And we are about to find out how much did they spend.
	If you hear that there's a lot of spending in Q4, then it's there.
	And by the way, guess what we've left out here?
	We were screaming about it and talking about it because it gets left out of the stats.
	What is it?
	Four letters.
	Begins with a B. Remember?
	If you're bingo.
	BNPL is hitting, sitting below the water like a bigger iceberg with consumers having a lot of BNPL on top of the credit card stuff.
	I think 25 is going to be our spike, but I think Trump's going to put a lot of things in place with his cabinet to get after it.
	Do you ever read the book, Tale of Two Cities?
	It was the best of times.
	It was the worst of times.
	It was the worst of times.
	It's a season of discontent.
	That's what's going on in America today.
	So what's happening is just as people are struggling, inflation, interest rates, we see what's going on in the economy.
	It's the economy stupid.
	Credit card debt, delinquencies hit 13-year high.
	Juxtapose that with Rob, what I sent you.
	If you're an investor, if you're playing the Wall Street game versus the Main Street game, the stock market is on pace to have the best two-year run in the last 25 years.
	Rob, if you want to use the title of that article, stocks on pace for the best two years.
	So if you're holding assets, if you own real estate, if you own stocks, your 401k, your index fund, your crypto account, your Bitcoin, you just hit $100,000.
	We know what's going on with that.
	So people are getting richer and the poor are getting poor.
	Pat, we learned a term during COVID called the K-shaped economy.
	You did a whole thing about money flows to where?
	The top.
	So people get richer during COVID because people got stimulus checks.
	What did they all do with their stimulus checks?
	Who quickly became the richest man in the world during COVID?
	Do you remember his name?
	It wasn't Elon Musk.
	Renault.
	It wasn't Jeff Bezos.
	Exactly.
	It was Bernard Hernault.
	Who's Bernard Herneau?
	He owns a company called LVMH, Louis, Vuitton, Mohen, Hennessy.
	Everyone got them STEMI checks and ball till they fall at the mall.
	And now, two years later, they're drowning in credit card debt.
	The average American, two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
	The average credit card debt is $7,000 per consumer.
	The average interest rate is 24%.
	People are struggling, but only half of the people are struggling.
	It's the haves versus the have-nots.
	Half the people are getting richer and half the people are getting poor.
	And it's flip a coin depending on where you're at.
	So it's not easy out there.
	Well, listen, it's the last day of the year.
	Next podcast, I'm going to give you what I'm calling 2025, the year of.
	I'm going to give you that on Thursday's PPD podcast that we'll have here.
	But it's the last year, day of the year.
	This is my business plan.
	Okay.
	I just want to show you.
	This is mine.
	Okay.
	It always starts with a statement.
	Then after the statement, it goes to what predictions was made for 2024, what became a reality, biggest decisions made, biggest victories, setbacks, affirmations, areas of improvement.
	Then it goes to big projects working on in 2025.
	Then it's trust God who created you into who you are.
	It's the affirmations on, then it goes family.
	Big part of it is my wife and I.
	Then it's my oldest son.
	I plans on how I want to work with him this year, areas I want to help him out.
	Then my second son, the other day, he posted a video.
	Finally, he performed.
	Such a proud moment as a father watching this guy because my dad and Vinny know this guy can sing and they're trying to encourage him.
	He finally got comfortable.
	Rob, I don't know if you can't go on Instagram.
	Yeah, Dylan's like the voice of an angel.
	It was so cool.
	What was he dressed up?
	It's a Christmas.
	One of the Christmas thing that he was doing, Rob, I don't know if that's the one or not.
	You got it.
	It was on your story.
	It's David Dylan.
	But I wrote it down for Dylan.
	Then my daughter, Brooklyn, my family, dad, mom, then high-identity relationships that I wanted to grow in 2024.
	It's amazing how many names became a reality, what I want to do into 2025.
	Friends, relationship mentors, vision, everything.
	Business, dreams, you know, grand slams, enemies, code, all of this stuff that's here, right?
	For some of you, is this it?
	Robbie, can you play this?
	Go ahead, Rob.
	First time live in front of everybody.
	That's our Billy Boy.
	Oh, my God.
	So this weekend, he dominated his soccer tournament.
	He went to practice.
	It was a practice, but he said, and then he did the single thing.
	So the kids are trifecting.
	Well, listen, let me just say this part.
	Let me just ask you.
	The only point I'm trying to make to you, folks.
	2002, December 31st.
	I'm in Universal Studios, City Walk.
	My friend and I go get an In-N-Out burger.
	And we got water with lemon and sweet and low.
	That's how you make cheap lemonade.
	We're in the car.
	We're both 200 pounds, so we can both eat.
	We're both 220 plus.
	Cut it in half.
	I take a bite.
	He takes a bite.
	Ryan Secrets is doing the countdown.
	While he's doing the countdown, 1098-7654-321, there is no excitement at all.
	It's 1201.
	Cars parked like this.
	Do we go to Saddle Ranch or do we not go to Saddle Ranch?
	That's what we're debating.
	Which is the bar in LA?
	It's a bar for people who do all that stuff.
	So we're there.
	And I'm thinking to myself, there is nothing to look forward to about 2003.
	Nothing.
	I have nothing to look forward to.
	We go walk around, get back in the car.
	I said, I'm going home.
	Go back home, go to the office first thing in the morning.
	Dropped so many habits.
	Told my friends, I'm not going to the clubs anymore.
	I'm not going to party anymore.
	I was done.
	And the obsession became about creating new habits.
	I was in so much debt.
	I was in a relationship.
	I couldn't afford to take the girl out to freaking McDonald's.
	That's how broke I was.
	I had no money.
	So we'd go to Blockbuster to come and home watch movies because I don't have money to go to the movies.
	Costs 40 bucks every time we go out.
	This is your moment for you.
	Tonight, yesterday I went late at night to Barnes ⁇ Noble.
	We're the last guys at Barnes ⁇ Noble.
	We bought 50 magazines.
	I bought the Michael stuff and all the UHU, what do you call it?
	The sticker and all the stuff.
	I'm invited to a nice party tonight, New Year's Eve.
	It's a party that's a $100,000 ticket party by a guy that you guys know that I'm invited to the party.
	Tom knows what party it is.
	We talked about it.
	I'm not going to the party.
	I told the guy, I said, listen, thank you for the Invitation.
	I appreciate you.
	We do our annual vision board with the kids.
	Trust me, I'd like to go there because I want to be around some of those guys.
	But there's nobody.
	I want to be more around than my four little ones and my family tonight to write out the vision board for 2025.
	There's something very exciting when you sit there and change habits and you work on yourself and the people around you, You improve.
	Everybody is the beneficiary of you making better choices for yourself.
	And all these conversations we're having, homelessness, debt, politics, division, divisiveness, who we see as villains, who we demonize, spirit of envy can destroy you because if you can't celebrate other people's successes, deep down inside, you're envious of it. It can't happen for you. Envy just shuts down the dream machine for you. If you're upset about somebody else winning,
	Like when any of the guys we compete with, they get a big contract.
	I'm so happy for them.
	I'm like, freaking awesome.
	It's exciting.
	You got to celebrate it.
	But these are things that we got to change the way we're wired if we want life to change.
	And I hope you make that decision tonight.
	And I hope you make that decision with what you do tonight.
	Maybe instead of going out there acting a fool tonight like many of us used to 20-some years ago.
	Maybe tonight some of you guys are going to have your Universal City Walk moment.
	And for some of you, money is not the issue. You just got to work on being a better father, better husband, better man. Maybe for you, it's just about you don't have a wife. You don't have a husband. You want to build a family. Where are you looking for them? Where are you at? Who are you talking to? What things are you doing? The best service we used to go to every year was Christmas Eve. No service like it. So maybe some of these stories we're discussing could be your form of inspiration to say,
	man, I'm so sick and tired of being in credit card debt. Why are you? Let's go through it. How can I improve myself? Make that decision. Because one thing's for sure with my life, you're one decision away from changing. Literally, you are one decision away from changing. It's a decision away. You're one decision away from changing your life. And for those of you that are crazy enough to watch us on New Year's Day, like not New Year's Day, what is this? New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve. It's not Eve,
	but December 31st. You have some issues, but you have good issues. The good issues. You have the good types of issues. But anyways, that would be my feedback to you. What story have we not covered before we wrap up? Give me one last story to do before we wrap up. Do we want to go to LeBron James? Do we want to go to Human Brain? Do we want to go to video games? The reason for video games,
	you know, the games? Do we want to go to that? Let's start with LeBron. Let's go to LeBron. LeBron's 40th birthday. Well, LeBron, happy birthday to you. Man, you're 40 today. LeBron James trolled for saying Christmas belongs to the NBA and NFL viewership is revealed. Rob, is this him saying that? Go ahead and play the clip, Rob. I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day. Really? Yeah, by the way,
	he really does love the NFL. This guy was a great wide receiver in high school. You look at his highlight reel. The guy was freaking insane. He could have probably played. I think at one point, Jerry Jones was joking with him about coming and playing for the Cowboys, and there's a bunch of images of him wearing a Cowboys jersey. However,
	you can say Christmas is your day, but let's see what data says, LeBron. He declared the Laker Warrior game on Christmas night between Curry and him drew 7.7 million viewers and peaked at 8.3 million. The NBA had its best holiday ratings in five years,
	averaging 5.2 million viewers with the other games going on as well. Despite LeBron's claim, do you want to know how many people watch the NFL? Let me give you the number here. The average NFL NBA game got 5.2 million views. The average NFL game got 24.2 million views on Netflix. Even as both were blowouts,
	not good games, they were terrible games. The NFL's aggressive holiday scheduling includes game on five separate days during week 17, a stark contrast to Leak's previous avoidance on Christmas. And that's the NFL product for you. Okay. Tom,
	when you see numbers like this, you see the direction Netflix is going. You see the direction Amazon is going. You see the direction NBA is going. MLB is going. What do you see happening right now with the product of NBA, NFL, and MLB? Well, first thing I'd like to speak to LeBron James. LeBron James,
	you said there's a lot of trays being shot, right? There's a lot of threes being shot. Well, you had 7.7 million views on Christmas. The NFL averaged 24.2 million. That's 3.1. The NFL shot a three on you, dude, on Christmas Day. Open the package and weep. But I'll tell you what's going on. The NFL is a better product. And if you put a better product on and there's more demand for the product,
	who's demanding it? Netflix. They bid for a couple games on Christmas. Amazon bid for games. You know, YouTube TV, which is not doing particularly well, but they paid for the NFL Sunday ticket. So the NFL is doing a very good job of putting their product. It's on Monday. Remember,
	it was just Monday night football. Then it became Sunday night football. Then it became Thursday night football. Now we even have some games dropping in on Saturdays as college football has kind of gone into its bowl season and they're not all day, every moment, college football games. The NFL is a better product. The networks are bidding for it. And thanks to a lot of issues that I won't get into because we've covered it on this podcast. The NBA just had a very good Christmas compared to past Christmases,
	but they are a triple behind the NFL. Adam, yeah. I don't know what you're going to say after Tom's rant did. I'm going to shot a step back three in LeBron's face. I mean, he went there. Look, we've had our issues with LeBron, especially politically on this podcast. We know where he stands, but I'm not going to use this to pile on LeBron. When all is said and done, when he retires in however many years,
	he's going to go down as the second greatest basketball player of all time. He's 40 years old and he's still playing strong. He won a championship, what, a couple years ago against my Miami Heat. He won the in-season championship last year. He's going to be the all-time leading scorer in NBA history. He is. Thanks to Ron DeSantis,
	by the way. That's true. At the bottom of the day, they did play in the great state of Florida. That's true. They couldn't play in California. Correct. They couldn't play in New York. They couldn't play in Illinois. But the great governor Ron DeSantis created a community and a platform where the NBA,
	who was super left BLM everywhere, said you can come and host your playoffs in Florida. Got to love that. Isn't that great? What a great governor. Isn't that great? Good for you. You had 50 choices for states, and you chose the state that got the most criticism during COVID because that was the only state you could have your NBA playoffs. I don't know if that's a full-on championship. I think that has an asterisk. One sentence after that, one sentence after that. And because you did, the NFL, the NBA Players Association,
	agreed with the league that you would get contracts paid during COVID. So Ron DeSantis got you paid during COVID. That's right. Respectfully, I don't care about that. I do understand that was one season. I get it. But the guy's been playing for 20-plus seasons. He came in when he was 18 years old. I get it. Again,
	I'm going to use this opportunity to congratulate him. No, there's a new party in New York. It's okay. We'll support you. You guys, you guys, as parents, family men,
	I'm sure at least you respect the fact that he's a married man, kids, first player in NBA history where his son is on the team with him. You got to give him a little props for that, bro. For his 40th birthday, they had players all around the league wish him happy 40th. I mean, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Imagine you and Dylan on the soccer field together, or you and Dylan singing a duet. No,
	or even you and Dylan doing a bunch of people. But he's singing. I'm just, I'm just saying, there's something special about that. You saw when Tiger Woods sung. We get it. We get what you're doing here and telling us the resume, bro. I got his resume. You know what, LeBron? You're a piece of shit. No, no. You're not that good. And you ain't nothing. Not at all. That's not what I'm saying. What are you going to say here? I'm giving the dude. That's not what I'm saying either. I just said that. I'm giving the dude his props. By the way, he deserves it. I agree with you. On my list,
	he's also second. Now, you know what a lot of people debate and they get upset when we say that? They said you put him ahead of Kobe. Kobe's got five. I do put him ahead of Kobe. Respectfully. The biggest dispute there is the field goal percentage because LeBron's field goal percentage and three point. He improved this game and evolved multiple times. But,
	you know, the amount of eyeballs the NBA lost the last 12 years, 48%, goes to the face of the league. And the face of the league is LeBron Jackson. And thank you. Great analogy, Tom. Just like how Kimmel and Colbert are spewing that BS and their numbers don't freaking lie. The same with LeBron. The same during Trump and BLM and all the rights. His divisive,
	shitty attitude, I have to say it, was hurting freaking America. Talking about, you know, people should posting pictures of the cop that killed that killed, what's her name, during the house raid, whatever the hell it was called. That attitude, and you nailed it to the face of the NBA, is one of the main factors that the numbers are down because people don't want to tune in to watch somebody that's separating the country, period. That's it. I stopped. I stopped. And it was right before. I used to watch basketball. Zero. I haven't watched one second of one game,
	period. And he's a big part of it. Perfect. We're watching a game tonight, me and you. Oh, I really want to. Not at all. I have no interest. I have no interest. Anyways, gang, Adam, incredible breakdown of LeBron. Oh, I'm sorry that I tried to give you a break. He's going to go on his front. He's going to DM you tonight. I should have told that he's an absolute horrible person. No, no. Your position is your position. But you know what Stephen A said a year and a half ago, two years ago? He believes firmly that MJ is the greatest person. No,
	but you know what he said? And I believe that. He says, I am so sick and tired of every time I want to give a little bit of feedback about LeBron that I have to start by giving two minutes of his resume. Yes, he's a great father. Yes, he's a great man. Yes, he's a great this. Yes, but, and then he goes into his point,
	right? And I feel like that's a continuous thing. But anyways, hey, gang, 2024 was our best year ever by a mile in every possible way. And a big part of that was because of you. And this is the last chance from all of us to tell you,
	thank you, all of us here. Wherever we go, we were in Orlando and we went to Disney. So many people stopping by, talking, taking pictures, conversations, giving us advice like, hey, why don't you be a little bit nicer to this? Hey, you know, do this. And then sometimes, listen,
	I'm all about, Tom, I'm all about Vinny. To me, I'm listening, Adam. I think Adam is great. Adam's this. And we get all this feedback and conversations that we have to the crew back there that does a great job cutting clips. To Rob that does a phenomenal job here with us. Rob,
	you've done a great job in 2024. I'm proud of you, buddy. You're great. You're a big part of it. We appreciate you, the hard work you put into this. Guys in the back, you know who you are. Can you guys make some noise so they can hear you at least? Make some noise back there. They just woke up. Just woke up. I think they're watching the Lakers here. Rob. To everybody,
	to everybody that makes this happen for us. This was a very, very special year for us. We're very grateful for you. We're thankful for you. We cannot wait for 2025. We got some big plans coming up for 2025. Have fun tonight. Make a couple decisions tonight. Maybe a couple big decisions tonight. That's going to be tough for you to make. So 2025 becomes the beginning of the greatest years of your life. Since we're not going to be with you tonight,

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