Part Of The Problem - Dave Smith - Donald Trump Returns
Aired: 2022-11-18
Duration: 52:44


=== Intentional Strike on Poland (10:17) ===

[00:00:01]  Fill her up.
[00:00:02]  You are listening to the Gash Digital Network.
[00:00:08]  We need to roll back the state.
[00:00:10]  We spy on all of our own citizens.
[00:00:12]  Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
[00:00:16]  If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
[00:00:22]  Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
[00:00:26]  You're listening to part of the problem on the Gash Digital Network.
[00:00:30]  Here's your host, Dave Smith.
[00:00:33]  What's up, everybody?
[00:00:34]  Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
[00:00:37]  I am Dave Smith, and I'm joined, as usual, by Robbie the Fire Bernstein, the king of the caulks, COVID Jesus.
[00:00:45]  How are you, my brother?
[00:00:46]  Getting a lot of titles.
[00:00:49]  Need to get some belts up on this wall.
[00:00:51]  Let's correspond.
[00:00:52]  If you can just get a couple titles every year, before you know, they really start to add up.
[00:00:57]  And you've earned all of those titles.
[00:00:58]  I feel like I did.
[00:01:00]  Hey, reminder, everyone listening, New Orleans, this Friday night.
[00:01:02]  Come party.
[00:01:03]  This Friday, go party with Robbie the Fire in New Orleans.
[00:01:07]  Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be a lot of fun for those of you who come out.
[00:01:11]  And for those of you who don't, we'll spend the rest of your lives miserably wishing you did.
[00:01:16]  And then, of course, come see me and Robbie the Fire up in Poughkeepsie on November 25th.
[00:01:21]  I am not sure.
[00:01:22]  I got to check in with them on how if there are any tickets left, but go give it a shot.
[00:01:25]  Try to get some if you still can.
[00:01:28]  It might be sold out.
[00:01:29]  Apologies if it is.
[00:01:31]  Okay, so let's get into some stuff.
[00:01:34]  A couple big things that I want to talk about today.
[00:01:38]  Very big, both of them.
[00:01:41]  Of course, Donald Trump made a big announcement, but that's actually, we'll get to that in a minute.
[00:01:45]  I want to start off with.
[00:01:46]  I think it was the biggest announcement.
[00:01:48]  A tremendous, tremendous announcement.
[00:01:52]  All right, we can talk about all of that in a second.
[00:01:54]  But first, I actually think is a bigger story, although it has seemed to have somewhat resolved itself.
[00:02:02]  So we recorded an episode yesterday.
[00:02:05]  Right when we got finished recording it, our producer Brian literally said to us as soon as we stopped recording, goes, looks like there was just a missile attack in Poland there.
[00:02:16]  It was right after it was being reported.
[00:02:19]  And so I got off the podcast.
[00:02:22]  Let's go up and hang with the family for a little bit.
[00:02:25]  And I started digging into this.
[00:02:27]  And so as of then, what was being reported was, yeah, that a missile, which is still the facts, it seems, a missile hit Poland, killed two people on a farm in Poland, close to the border on Ukraine.
[00:02:42]  So this was also happening during or very close to the time in which Russia launched one of its biggest, if not its biggest assault of the war in Ukraine since this war has been going on.
[00:02:58]  So it certainly right away seemed to be very possible that this was a Russian missile.
[00:03:05]  Now, I will tell you that within about an hour of digging into this, it seemed right away to be overwhelmingly unlikely that this was an intentional Russian strike on Poland for a number of reasons.
[00:03:27]  They just really didn't like that farmer.
[00:03:29]  Yeah.
[00:03:29]  I mean, like, if Russia was going to make the decision that, like, hey, we're attacking NATO.
[00:03:36]  This is not just a war in Ukraine anymore, but we're number one, it would seem, you know, profoundly unwise, like not a good military strategic decision.
[00:03:48]  It would seem, frankly, suicidal when you're in the middle of a war in Ukraine and now you've got, now you're like, you know what?
[00:03:56]  I want to fight all of NATO out openly too.
[00:03:58]  It would be a huge bold move.
[00:04:00]  But if they were going to do that, it does not seem like they would probably send in a missile to a farm that kills two people and not take credit for it.
[00:04:12]  If it was an intentional strike, like we're bombing Poland, the point would probably be to let people know that they were.
[00:04:18]  In other words, there was no like military strategic advantage to this farm that it hit in Poland.
[00:04:24]  And like, so why would they?
[00:04:26]  But it did seem very plausible to me that it could have been an accidental Russian missile that hit Poland.
[00:04:32]  Sorry, you were going to say.
[00:04:33]  No, I was going to say, or you would do a Nord Stream move where you would hit some critical infrastructure and go, nope, wasn't me.
[00:04:40]  That would at least make sense.
[00:04:42]  But to just kill two random farmers and a cow out in Poland, I don't really see the point.
[00:04:47]  Right.
[00:04:47]  Exactly.
[00:04:48]  So it seemed like this doesn't make any sense.
[00:04:50]  Now, of course, immediately, Zelensky jumps in and says that this was Russia, that it was intentional, that it was an attack on security alliances in general, and that all of NATO must be prepared now to join in the war with them against Russia.
[00:05:13]  Other leaders jumped on in a similar fashion.
[00:05:17]  Was it the president or prime minister in Estonia said that, which really, I mean, it's just equal parts hilarious and infuriating, said that they are ready to defend Poland along with all the other NATO countries against this attack on NATO, which is just like, it just shows you already like how infuriating and ridiculous NATO is and all of these entangling alliances and war guarantees that it's like, oh,
[00:05:46]  it's just like Estonia is almost like Estonia is like the midget in the front with like some gigantic like heavyweight UFC fighters in the back.
[00:05:56]  And they're like, hey, I'm ready to fuck some people up.
[00:05:59]  You guys with me?
[00:06:00]  And you're like, dude, you're not fucking anybody up.
[00:06:03]  Let's get real.
[00:06:04]  So what are you?
[00:06:05]  Oh, you're saying you're cool with America coming in and fucking everyone up for you.
[00:06:09]  Right.
[00:06:10]  Anyway, a bunch of other, the neocon establishment hawks, you know, there were a few ridiculous things about them all saying it's time to invoke Article 5 of NATO.
[00:06:22]  Luckily, even within the Warhawks in America, this did seem to be, it almost like pushed them to their limit of even where they will be somewhat sane and not reckless.
[00:06:36]  Like, I guess there are some people I saw, like, well, Richard Haas and a few other people who were like, well, you know what?
[00:06:45]  I don't know about that.
[00:06:46]  In fact, I'm going to try to find this video if I can right here because this was kind of like an interesting moment to see like even the foreign Council on Foreign Relations people being like, well, all right, let's slow down.
[00:06:59]  Because I think, first of all, they realized that this would be quite a line to cross.
[00:07:08]  Like, you know, even if this had been like in theory, which obviously it wasn't, but even if this had been an intentional strike from Russia, it's like, okay, so this, it just shows you here, Brian, I got it.
[00:07:22]  I'll send it to you right now.
[00:07:23]  Well, it shows you kind of like what, again, just how ridiculous so much.
[00:07:30]  Yes, that's it, Brian.
[00:07:31]  But just one second, we'll pull it up.
[00:07:32]  But it shows you how much, how ridiculous this whole thing is.
[00:07:37]  Where it's like, do you really think that if two people and a cow were killed in Poland, we should go to nuclear war with Russia over that?
[00:07:47]  Like, do you actually believe?
[00:07:49]  Even if it was Russia and even if they intentionally did this, would you be like okay, let's start dropping nukes on New York City and Moscow and La, and let's just let's do it.
[00:07:59]  Let's see hundreds of millions of people die, if not the entire species, probably not even those guys, probably don't they're.
[00:08:07]  Look, their plan here is to bleed Russia dry.
[00:08:11]  You know a la, what the?
[00:08:14]  You know what was done to us in Afghanistan, what we did to them in Afghanistan, what was done to us in Vietnam?
[00:08:19]  That's kind of the plan here and they are.
[00:08:22]  They do have enough hubris and recklessness to think, you know, we can mitigate the risks, Vladimir Putin will lose a war on his own border, but he won't actually nuke anyone or something like that.
[00:08:34]  You know he won't take it to that level.
[00:08:36]  Now, obviously that is insanely reckless, but they understand that it'd be a different game for, like America, to declare war on Russia.
[00:08:47]  Then even they know all bets are off, and so that there was even this hesitation on their part.
[00:08:53]  Now, luckily for all of us, of course, as you see a lot of times with these stories when, when it just when, it so clearly doesn't add up just on first glance like, just like like what we were just talking about.
[00:09:08]  Just on the smell test you go.
[00:09:11]  Russia intentionally struck Poland and this was their move.
[00:09:15]  Like that, you know, just doesn't seem right.
[00:09:18]  About 99 of the time, when something sounds that absurd, it ends up not being the case.
[00:09:24]  It seems like um.
[00:09:26]  A substantial amount of evidence has come out since then that in fact this was a Ukrainian missile that hit Poland.
[00:09:34]  It was not from Russia and so of course, even though technically speaking, Ukraine is also outside of uh, NATO and you know, there could be talk of invoking article 5 against Ukraine now, but of course there won't be um, they'll still.
[00:09:47]  Now the new spin is they're blaming Russia for Ukraine's mistake.
[00:09:51]  If Russia hadn't invaded Ukraine, then Ukraine wouldn't have accidentally sent this missile uh off, but the anyway.
[00:09:57]  There's a lot like.
[00:09:59]  First of all, thank god it seems to have been accepted that this was Ukraine and there aren't like some stubborn, you know, like there isn't some stubborn push to like uh oh, we'll figure it out later.
[00:10:11]  But let's operate under the assumption that Russia just attacked a NATO country, because this really would be a very dangerous situation.

=== Nuclear Conflict and False Flags (12:48) ===

[00:10:18]  It's already dangerous, it would.
[00:10:19]  It would be substantially more dangerous if that was the case, it looks like um, that we've bought ourselves at least a little more time till World War III.
[00:10:29]  Uh, now that it's widely accepted that this was a Ukrainian missile, all right guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Crowd Health.
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[00:12:35]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:12:37]  Okay, let's play the Richard Haas clip from MSNBC.
[00:12:43]  I found this to be pretty interesting.
[00:12:45]  We're near the Polish border going after infrastructure and civilian targets.
[00:12:49]  Just a couple of minutes ago, Richard, the Polish president, President Duda, called this an unfortunate accident and not an intentional attack.
[00:12:57]  This never made sense to you even yesterday that it was a Russian attack.
[00:13:01]  No, as Admiral Stavridi said, if you're going to do an intentional attack, if you're Russia and you're going to risk taking on NATO, and by the way, Russia can't defeat Ukraine.
[00:13:10]  Why in the world would they take on NATO?
[00:13:12]  It just makes zero, zero sense.
[00:13:15]  So, yeah, it's just, there's no way this I thought could have been an intentional Russian attack.
[00:13:22]  I think the polls look studied, measured, which is what you want to look here.
[00:13:27]  NATO looks good.
[00:13:28]  Ukraine looks a little bit too hot.
[00:13:30]  The idea that the Ukraine is saying this has to be a Russian, it almost looks as if they wanted this to be something more.
[00:13:36]  So I think that's unfortunate and that won't help their credibility.
[00:13:41]  So look, I think this, the only other lesson I take from this is anytime you've got a hot war, stuff happens, to use Mr. Rumsfeld's comment.
[00:13:50]  The danger of escalation is somehow implicit, the danger of accidents.
[00:13:54]  And again, it's the reason you don't want to fly off the handle.
[00:13:58]  When stuff happens, just get the facts and make sure you're responding to something that was actual and if possible, intentional.
[00:14:06]  You don't want to have inadvertent escalation here.
[00:14:09]  So there's a little bit of a lesson when something hot is going on.
[00:14:12]  But if it was so obvious to you and okay.
[00:14:16]  Well, I'm not sure exactly what Mickey asked, but if it was so obvious to you, how come everyone else was saying it was Ukraine or it was Russia?
[00:14:22]  So Richard Haas, this guy is a very high up person in the national security, you know, national defense apparatus.
[00:14:32]  He's the president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
[00:14:36]  He was an advisor, I believe, to George W. Bush.
[00:14:39]  He's, you know, for him to be saying this is interesting.
[00:14:44]  And he's right, of course, in what he's saying.
[00:14:48]  And he made some pretty, I think, appropriate insights, which are that, like, look, there's just no other way to spin it at this point.
[00:14:59]  And yeah, I mean, look, this is the type of thing that we've been talking about since this war broke out that like the vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people are completely underestimating the risks involved here.
[00:15:14]  And the risks are cannot be overstated.
[00:15:21]  The risks, you know, I've heard people argue for arming Ukraine from the very beginning of this.
[00:15:29]  with almost this just kind of like cavalier, you know, like as if it's just like a, I don't know, yeah, I think we should arm them without the slightest thought about like what that could mean.
[00:15:40]  What could be, you know, like, what could be the externalities associated with that?
[00:15:46]  What could this possibly, you know, be seen as an act of war by Russia?
[00:15:51]  Kind of is.
[00:15:51]  We would certainly see it as an act of war if someone else was pouring weapons into a conflict on our border.
[00:15:57]  Could, you know, could this prolong the war, which certainly seems like it has so far?
[00:16:03]  I mean, if you're sending in more money than Vladimir Putin's entire defense budget to the country he's fighting, they're probably going to last a bit longer.
[00:16:12]  They're going to last a little bit longer than they otherwise would.
[00:16:15]  Okay.
[00:16:15]  Does prolonging the war make Vladimir Putin become more aggressive?
[00:16:19]  Does that make him move more to the east than he otherwise would have?
[00:16:22]  Quite possibly.
[00:16:24]  And then you go, well, what about the risk of an accident?
[00:16:27]  I mean, what if this was determined that it was Russia, but it was an accident?
[00:16:33]  Would they say, oh, no, okay, it's okay because it was an accident?
[00:16:36]  Or would they claim it was intentional?
[00:16:39]  Right.
[00:16:39]  So you could see how easily an accident could be spun as being intentional.
[00:16:46]  And then that could lead to a much more, you know, that that could really dramatically escalate the conflict.
[00:16:52]  Also, what shouldn't be ruled out of this is the potential for false flags, right?
[00:16:59]  Like if Ukraine wants so badly for the, which they clearly do, wants so badly for the rest of the world to get involved and for this thing to be escalated, which is, you know, somewhat understandable that they would want that.
[00:17:11]  It's also, it's just not in anyone else's interest.
[00:17:14]  But, you know, false flags do happen.
[00:17:18]  And this is a situation that's prone to that happening.
[00:17:22]  I do think, however, the silver lining, as Haas pointed out here, is that Ukraine ended up making a major strategic blunder.
[00:17:32]  And I think this is really going to hurt them in terms of how they're viewed by the West, not by our corrupt ruling elite, but just by the populations here that they got out right away.
[00:17:46]  They had no interest in waiting to find out what actually happened.
[00:17:51]  And they had no interest in even considering the ramifications of what they were calling for.
[00:17:58]  In the jewelest, weaselest way where they're like, look, those are your own rules.
[00:18:01]  Your own rules say that you got to go fight the nest.
[00:18:03]  Now you got to go fight the rules.
[00:18:05]  Yeah, it really was just fucking, it is very revealing that Ukraine is willing to lie in order to drag America and the rest of NATO into a potential nuclear conflict, which is obviously not in any of our interests because it's in their interests.
[00:18:27]  Not even in their interests.
[00:18:28]  It's in Zelensky's and some other fucking power players interests.
[00:18:31]  Sure, sure.
[00:18:32]  Well, look, what would be in the people of Ukraine's interest would be to see a ceasefire as soon as possible.
[00:18:41]  You know what I might believe is if instead of a farmer, they actually said that this was like the head Ukrainian Nazi and that it was like a Taliban or Sambin Laden thing when he was in Pakistan the whole time and that this guy was really the chief Nazi.
[00:18:54]  But then are we really going to be upset about the chief Nazi being bombed in Poland?
[00:18:59]  Yes.
[00:18:59]  Well, if you asked Kathy Young, I think she would say he was a reformed Nazi or something like that.
[00:19:04]  So it's totally funny.
[00:19:05]  But it's hard to get rid of those salutes, you know, because that's a fun one.
[00:19:08]  And once it's built in, good moments happen in your life and it's very hard not to end up hailing.
[00:19:13]  Did you see, what was it on CNN the other day where they played a clip and the guy was doing the Nazi salute?
[00:19:17]  Is that what you're referring to?
[00:19:18]  And they're like, whoops, wrong footage.
[00:19:21]  Lots of people give that salute.
[00:19:24]  It's not really a Nazi thing.
[00:19:27]  But yeah, I mean, look, this is just this really should be, and unfortunately, it probably won't, but this really should be like a wake-up call to everybody involved that the, you know, that thinking that this thing can't escalate to a whole nother level is not is not correct.
[00:19:48]  And going, what the fuck is up with this Zelensky guy?
[00:19:50]  You know what it is?
[00:19:51]  He was empowered by being given that Oscar by whatever that douche guy is.
[00:19:56]  And so now he thinks he's an even better actor than he is.
[00:19:59]  And he's trying to escalate things.
[00:20:01]  Well, it is.
[00:20:02]  I mean, it really is.
[00:20:02]  Right.
[00:20:02]  So it's, it's really exposed him for being as corrupt and dishonest as he is.
[00:20:10]  But I'm just hoping that it at least also exposed to some degree, like, you know, the risk that we're all exposed to here.
[00:20:19]  And also maybe even makes people rethink some of these like entangling alliances, some of these war guarantees.
[00:20:26]  And celebrating their long-awaited freedom.
[00:20:29]  Many taking to the streets, waving flags and cheering for the soldiers.
[00:20:34]  It's really unfortunate.
[00:20:34]  They were almost out.
[00:20:36]  Like they almost just had it with the flag.
[00:20:38]  Yay, I'm a patron.
[00:20:39]  What a fine young gentleman we have right there.
[00:20:41]  So I got a highlight highlight.
[00:20:43]  But it really, it really does make you wonder.
[00:20:46]  Now, maybe this was a one-off and just one Nazi enthusiast who happened to have been on top of a vehicle and caught on camera.
[00:20:52]  Or is there really a storyline that's being buried?
[00:20:55]  And if there is the storyline that's being buried, which we've heard about since the beginning of the war, is this Azov battalion and this Nazi thing?
[00:21:02]  How come there's no coverage of this?
[00:21:05]  Like, even if it's just an interesting storyline, isn't it amazing the way that things are just getting completely buried?
[00:21:11]  Like the most interesting storylines are just getting buried.
[00:21:14]  And I don't even know where to go research them.
[00:21:16]  They're just buried.
[00:21:17]  Well, there's no question that they were particularly instrumental in the coup in 2014 in what's known as the Madan Revolution.
[00:21:29]  But look, this is a faction of Ukraine.
[00:21:32]  Now, what exactly, how much of this faction, like what percentage of the Ukrainian forces are they?
[00:21:38]  I really don't know.
[00:21:40]  But they're there.
[00:21:41]  It's a real thing.
[00:21:42]  Here's a big one that just hasn't been spoken about at all.
[00:21:44]  Is McMasters the good one, the colonel guy that we like?
[00:21:48]  Or who's no, no, no, you're talking about McGregor.
[00:21:50]  McGregor.
[00:21:51]  So I watched McGregor on McMaster's bad.
[00:21:54]  McGregor's good.
[00:21:55]  McGregor's good.
[00:21:56]  He was on Judge Napolitano show, and he was talking about that in a lot of these territories, the Ukrainians actually, like at this point, have sided with the Russians because if they get retaken over by Ukraine, some of them are going to be seen as like having favorite Russia and they're going to be literally killed.
[00:22:12]  And apparently there's instances of that.
[00:22:13]  That's another thing, just zero reporting.
[00:22:15]  I mean, there's talks about that Ukrainians are taking back over these towns and like torturing people, but I've seen zero other than the peripheral tweet or otherwise just referencing that this is going on.
[00:22:26]  Yeah.
[00:22:26]  Well, it is hard to get good information in the fog of war.
[00:22:30]  There are some people who I think are like really good journalists here who disagree with McGregor.
[00:22:37]  McGregor thinks that much of this hype about how Ukraine is doing so well in this war is completely overblown.
[00:22:44]  And that actually it's kind of like that Russia basically came in kind of with like a light footprint at the beginning and they've gone a lot harder now and that it's basically just a matter of time for Ukraine.
[00:22:56]  That they're not, there's really no chance that they can win this conflict.
[00:23:00]  I'm not sure if he's right or wrong about that.
[00:23:02]  He's been right about a whole lot of other stuff, but we'll have to see.

=== War Guarantees and Alliances (03:49) ===

[00:23:06]  But the other thing I was just saying is just it kind of makes you question in general, like this idea of war guarantees and these alliances.
[00:23:21]  And that, you know, it's worth thinking about like even if Russia and Poland went to war.
[00:23:30]  Does that really, you know, is it really so self-evident that the correct answer there is that America must be involved in that war too?
[00:23:41]  Like if there's a war between two countries in Eastern Europe, we must be involved in it.
[00:23:45]  Well, it goes against all of the advice of the founding fathers of the country, if nothing else.
[00:23:51]  If nothing else, you'd think that would make it at least something to consider.
[00:23:55]  How about Estonia?
[00:23:56]  You know, how about like these countries, you're, you're really like, it's funny because like when you really like the more people talk about geopolitical like, you know, ideas, the more they get removed from the fact that it's real human beings involved.
[00:24:12]  It's just like, no, America's got to make sure Russia is not the big bad, you know, wolf or whatever.
[00:24:16]  But you're like, would you, would you risk the lives of one of your kids over keeping Estonia in NATO?
[00:24:24]  So I wouldn't.
[00:24:26]  So like, I just don't, you know what I mean?
[00:24:28]  Like, I, it's like, make it personal for you.
[00:24:30]  Are you really willing?
[00:24:32]  Are you really committed to this?
[00:24:33]  And by the way, if you are, you could get a plane ticket and jump on over there and go fight.
[00:24:38]  But it's the whole thing is just madness.
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[00:25:54]  I know that what I'm going to say is kind of rotten, but like sometimes you got a fancy lawyer, doesn't want to actually take on a case, but he's like, ah, fuck it, I'll send a letter.
[00:26:02]  And then sometimes they see the nasty letter from some prestigious lawyer and they go, oh, shit, I don't want to have to go fight that guy.
[00:26:08]  And then it gets resolved, even though neither side was really, the guy was never going to take it on.
[00:26:14]  I feel like you could almost do something with these defense alliances, which is you tell Estonia, like, listen, you better not pick a fight with Russia because if it happens, you're on your own.
[00:26:21]  Now, you could say that we're going to get your back because maybe that'll scare them off.
[00:26:24]  But push comes to shove.
[00:26:26]  We're not coming over here if you end up with a fight with them.
[00:26:29]  That would make sense to me as kind of the pretending because the whole idea is, hey, if we say that we have your back, that might avoid the war.
[00:26:36]  But if that doesn't work, then what's the point of actually having the war?
[00:26:40]  Well, look, there's, there's an error on both sides that you're trying to avoid for, right?
[00:26:45]  So if there, there is an argument to be said that if you send the message, we do not have your back, that might entice Russia to be more aggressive.
[00:26:54]  There's something to that.

=== Defense Alliances and Taiwan (07:31) ===

[00:26:56]  The problem is that when you say we 100% do have your back, then that entices a lot of these other countries to be more aggressive.
[00:27:03]  That's why NATO, that's why Estonia is out there talking shit.
[00:27:07]  Right.
[00:27:07]  You think they would be talking shit right now?
[00:27:10]  The size of that country, where they're geographically located.
[00:27:13]  You really think they would be talking shit like that if they didn't have it in writing guarantee that all the NATO countries have to come to their aid if they're attacked.
[00:27:22]  So, this is, by the way, essentially what you're talking about is essentially what the one China policy was aimed to do, which so far it has done a pretty good job of doing, which is basically like we are the official policy from America is basically that like we recognize that there's one China, okay, and that China has control over Taiwan.
[00:27:50]  We'd also like to see this peacefully solved, and we'd like China to not crack down on Taiwan.
[00:27:57]  That's what we'd like.
[00:27:58]  And we kind of give like a wink to Taiwan and go like, and we might even help you out if we need to.
[00:28:05]  That's that.
[00:28:05]  And that's why the other day, when uh, or last month, when Joe Biden, the idiot he is, it just gets asked, What if China invaded Taiwan, would we defend them militarily?
[00:28:15]  And he's like, Yes.
[00:28:16]  And then the White House comes out and goes, Nothing has changed in our one China policy.
[00:28:21]  By the way, the official White Houses does not agree with this, which, by the way, does really make you wonder who the fuck is the White House?
[00:28:29]  Like, if the president of the United States just told you that, and you're saying the White House has come out and said this, like it would be interesting just to know, like, who are we talking about here?
[00:28:38]  Well, that wouldn't work in those administrations, but when it comes to this one, even China can be like, Yeah, well, Biden's retarded.
[00:28:44]  We'll give you a pass.
[00:28:45]  Yeah, yes.
[00:28:45]  Well, in a way, that is the saving grace of all of this.
[00:28:48]  As they go, there's no way he means anything he's saying.
[00:28:50]  But it does make you wonder, like, who's the White House?
[00:28:52]  Is it Biden's chief of staff making this decision?
[00:28:54]  Is his wife making this decision?
[00:28:56]  Is Kamala Harris made?
[00:28:57]  Like, who's the one who decided we're going to go correct what the president said?
[00:29:01]  Anyway, the reason why they had to correct that, the reason why this is such a reckless, insane thing for the president to say is that, look, what's the danger here?
[00:29:11]  If you tell Taiwan that if China invades you, we will use our military to defend you.
[00:29:19]  He's saying more than what we're doing for Ukraine.
[00:29:22]  Not just we'll send you money.
[00:29:23]  Like, we're coming in.
[00:29:25]  We, the most powerful, badass military in the history of the world has your back.
[00:29:29]  Well, the problem with that is that that might be enough to encourage Taiwan to declare their independence.
[00:29:36]  And that might be enough to provoke China to invade.
[00:29:42]  So now, look what you've done.
[00:29:43]  You might actually, by making a security guarantee, create a war that never would have happened otherwise.
[00:29:51]  And then, on top of that, you know, our Navy runs all these like war game experiments.
[00:29:56]  And even by all of their drills, we lose that war.
[00:30:00]  We don't win.
[00:30:02]  There's, there's not, I know people really do think that America's military is like, I mean, we do have a very badass military, the strongest to ever, uh, ever exist, but it's not God.
[00:30:13]  I mean, if you look at look at Afghanistan just for evidence of that, but the idea that we could what go fight a conventional war in Taiwan and against China, we would, first off, we'd risk blowing up the world.
[00:30:30]  And on top of that, even after all that, we lose the war.
[00:30:34]  So, the only policy that really does seem to make sense is actually the current policy.
[00:30:39]  You know, I mean, sure, as long as you're going to have policy, but we live in a much better world if there was no such thing as foreign policy.
[00:30:47]  But if you're going to have one, it'd be like, hey, yeah, look, we recognize China.
[00:30:51]  We understand you, you rule this area.
[00:30:54]  We'd also like to see a free Taiwan and we'd like you guys to work it out.
[00:30:58]  And that's that.
[00:30:59]  And we can't win a war with China because they've been locked in their houses for a year.
[00:31:03]  And all that would need to happen is for their government to let them know that Fauci did that to them and designed the lab with the virus.
[00:31:09]  They'd be ready to fight.
[00:31:11]  Oh, yeah, they would absolutely be ready to fight.
[00:31:13]  Yeah, I guess so.
[00:31:15]  Anyway, this is, I hope that.
[00:31:19]  What I like at least out of all of this is that it seems like, all right, this was as of yesterday, man, this was like a really dangerous situation.
[00:31:28]  Not that it's not a dangerous situation still, but it was just really the danger had been greatly elevated as of yesterday.
[00:31:36]  It seems like that got figured out real quick and calmed down.
[00:31:39]  It also seems like it was a little bit relieving.
[00:31:42]  It was a little bit of relief to me to see that even people in the Council on Foreign Relations, even some of like the Warhawks in America were like, yeah, we don't really want to pretend this one's legit.
[00:31:54]  Because you know, when there's a war, when there's, when there's a war they want, they will take anything like this and just pretend it's legit and just run with it.
[00:32:01]  But even they were like, yeah, no, we don't really want to pretend Russia attacked Poland.
[00:32:06]  This Vladimir Putin's in the middle of a fucking fight right now.
[00:32:09]  He's at least already proven to them that like he's not just complete talk.
[00:32:13]  You know what I mean?
[00:32:14]  Like this guy will do something.
[00:32:16]  They don't really want to push that.
[00:32:17]  So that doesn't mean that this still can't escalate to that level.
[00:32:20]  And this doesn't also mean that like, you know, if Putin really did do something crazy, I mean, he's already done some crazy things.
[00:32:28]  And if he did something like a next crazy move, like what if he just fucking bombed Poland?
[00:32:33]  And just like, yeah, that was me.
[00:32:34]  I did that.
[00:32:35]  What are you guys going to do?
[00:32:36]  You guys ready to go to nuclear war over Poland?
[00:32:39]  I don't think America could back down from that.
[00:32:41]  I don't think we'd have the like, I don't think you could get a consensus of people in the DC power elite to be like, no, this is, we have to.
[00:32:50]  This is NATO.
[00:32:51]  We have to do this.
[00:32:52]  So there's still a lot of danger here, but at least this got figured out.
[00:32:58]  And I do like that at least all of the people who are critics of this war now, all of us have another, as if we needed more, but we have another just great point to bash all of the, you know, Ukraine flag people over the head with.
[00:33:15]  And look how dishonest they were about this.
[00:33:17]  Look how dangerous this lie was.
[00:33:19]  They were quite happy to pull us all into what could be World War III over bullshit, knowingly, knowing that this is bullshit.
[00:33:28]  They knew this wasn't a deliberate Russian attack because they probably knew it was their own fault.
[00:33:34]  But anyway, so there you go.
[00:33:37]  At least World War III has been averted for today.
[00:33:43]  Any other thoughts on this, Rob?
[00:33:46]  No, just the global elites don't really seem to want the full war with Russia.
[00:33:50]  They just want to run a bunch of money that they can get back to themselves through NFTs and get rid of pipelines.
[00:33:55]  Yeah, the thing is like they right.
[00:33:56]  The thing is, they just have tremendous hubris, you know?
[00:34:00]  So yeah, it doesn't seem, no, they don't want World War III or a direct war with Russia.
[00:34:06]  They want this war to bleed Russia dry and to, of course, you know.
[00:34:10]  Which doesn't make sense.
[00:34:11]  It's bleeding us dry.
[00:34:12]  And like, dude, fucking Germany.
[00:34:14]  I mean, they're talking about that those guys might not even have physical cash.
[00:34:17]  There's going to be like run on banks when people can't pay.
[00:34:20]  That was a crazy zero hedge article today, but like the last thing we need is Germany turning around and going, what the fuck did America get us into?
[00:34:27]  Yeah.
[00:34:27]  Yeah.

=== Quit Smoking Naturally with Fume (02:58) ===

[00:34:28]  Imagine.
[00:34:29]  Imagine.
[00:34:30]  You really want to fuck with those people's currency again?
[00:34:33]  Yeah.
[00:34:34]  Doesn't have a great track record.
[00:34:36]  Yeah, this winter is going to be an interesting test for Germany.
[00:34:40]  Let's see.
[00:34:41]  We'll see what happens there.
[00:34:43]  They're saying firewood is going to be the new gold in Germany this winter.
[00:34:47]  So we will see.
[00:34:48]  I mean, you think anti-Semitism is gone until Germans get cold in the winter and it just it just turns on.
[00:34:53]  It's like a switch in their head.
[00:34:55]  Juice.
[00:34:56]  Some type of Manchurian.
[00:35:01]  So, you know, yeah, it's whatever.
[00:35:06]  The point is that they're comfortable with trying to bleed Russia dry in this war.
[00:35:11]  They don't, they seem to be confident that they can do that without there being this greater risk.
[00:35:19]  That I think is crazy to feel so confident about that.
[00:35:24]  But, you know, anyway, this is where we are.
[00:35:27]  It's unfortunate, but this is the situation.
[00:35:30]  So, all right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Fume.
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=== Trump's 2020 Speech Energy (14:48) ===

[00:37:26]  All right, let's get back into the show.
[00:37:28]  All right, let's change gears and cover what obviously is the other very big story.
[00:37:34]  Yesterday, Donald J. Trump, the 45th president of the United States of America, announced he is running in 2024, seeking the Republican nomination for president of the United States of America.
[00:37:51]  Let's here, let's play the clip where Donald Trump announces and then we can discuss.
[00:37:59]  That was not good what he did.
[00:38:01]  There are a lot of bad things like going to Idaho and saying, welcome to the state of Florida.
[00:38:07]  I really love it.
[00:38:09]  In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.
[00:38:19]  All right.
[00:38:19]  Well, there it is.
[00:38:20]  It is official.
[00:38:21]  What everybody kind of assumed for basically since 2020, Donald Trump is running again for president.
[00:38:32]  Let's talk about this speech a little bit and what your thoughts are.
[00:38:37]  I will say, and I tweeted this earlier, but I thought it was kind of a low energy speech for Donald Trump.
[00:38:45]  Some might even dare say sleepy.
[00:38:49]  It did not have the typical energy that Donald Trump speeches usually have.
[00:38:54]  I think that might have been intentional.
[00:38:56]  Like maybe they thought that's that was the better way to do it to have kind of more of a somber vibe to the speech.
[00:39:03]  Just something I noticed, not like really a criticism or a compliment, just kind of something that struck me.
[00:39:11]  What did you think, Rob, overall?
[00:39:12]  We can get into some of the specific moments in the speech, but overall, what was your take on this?
[00:39:19]  Off the bat, I agree with you.
[00:39:20]  Kind of low energy and boring.
[00:39:23]  My biggest takeaway is I don't think he's going to be successful because his big thing was, I'm going to win for you.
[00:39:29]  And we've seen too many losses for him to play the I'm a winner card.
[00:39:33]  He's more of just a crybaby at this point.
[00:39:36]  But specifically, this speech, it starts off where he's going, everything was so good.
[00:39:40]  It was so wonderful.
[00:39:41]  We were doing so good.
[00:39:43]  And then sadly, I wasn't there anymore.
[00:39:46]  So then it wasn't good anymore.
[00:39:47]  No, it wasn't.
[00:39:48]  It was a fucking train wreck, buddy.
[00:39:50]  You blew the whole pandemic response.
[00:39:52]  People are not happy with you because you started the vaccine rollouts and no one like, that's the big thing that's killing Republicans is that they're not pushing back on how poor the response was to COVID.
[00:40:04]  And I think there's, I don't think you and I are the only people that are outraged about it.
[00:40:08]  I feel like that's the untold story here.
[00:40:10]  And Donald Trump cannot run on that.
[00:40:12]  Right.
[00:40:13]  He can't because he was the president during the response and he was bad on it for quite a while before he finally turned around.
[00:40:22]  And yeah, he's going to run on how great these vaccines are.
[00:40:24]  Something that I really don't think his base wants to hear.
[00:40:29]  I agree with basically everything you said there.
[00:40:31]  I think that this was like one of the things that I found it just, you know, it just didn't have the 2016 magic that Donald Trump.
[00:40:44]  And I'm not, right.
[00:40:45]  I'm not even, this isn't even talking about like, I'm just like trying to analyze this.
[00:40:49]  I'm not even saying what I think is right or wrong.
[00:40:51]  I'll get into all that in a second, but just looking at it, like trying to objectively see how this works.
[00:40:56]  I just didn't think it had that magic.
[00:40:59]  He's telling a story.
[00:41:01]  The story is so transparently narcissistic.
[00:41:06]  It's not like 2016 where he was telling, I mean, there was a lot of narcissism in that story too, but that story was like, America was once great.
[00:41:17]  We are no longer great.
[00:41:18]  We are no longer great because Washington, D.C. has sold out the American people.
[00:41:23]  I can bring it back to the greatness that it was.
[00:41:26]  I will win for you.
[00:41:28]  Now, there is narcissism in that, but there's still kind of like this compelling story.
[00:41:31]  This story now is, we were great under me, not once upon a time in an abstract world, America, like, right?
[00:41:39]  If you say make America great again, the again indicates that we once were great.
[00:41:44]  But he was never specific about exactly when we were great and when we stopped being great.
[00:41:47]  It was just kind of like nostalgia play.
[00:41:49]  You know, we used to be great.
[00:41:50]  We're not anymore.
[00:41:51]  What does that mean?
[00:41:52]  You figure it out.
[00:41:53]  And it could be a long time ago.
[00:41:54]  You know, it could be, hey, we used to be a family, a family-centered country.
[00:41:59]  We used to be a Christian country.
[00:42:01]  We used to be a country where one person could work and the wife could take care of the kids and blah, blah, blah, you want to make it.
[00:42:07]  And you could go way back and nostalgia works better the further back you can go.
[00:42:11]  He's talking about going two years ago, right?
[00:42:14]  Like everything was great then.
[00:42:16]  Everything was great under me.
[00:42:17]  Then Biden took over.
[00:42:18]  Everything was bad.
[00:42:19]  And he's telling this story.
[00:42:20]  Now, the story that he's telling, he is like blatantly pretending that 2020 didn't happen.
[00:42:29]  Like the story is everything was going good.
[00:42:34]  The economy was white hot.
[00:42:35]  Then Joe Biden got in.
[00:42:37]  He just yada yada over the biggest year in modern American history, as if that didn't happen.
[00:42:43]  He doesn't, it's not that he doesn't have an accurate story of what happened in 2020.
[00:42:47]  There was no story.
[00:42:49]  It's just, he literally just like goes from 2019 to Joe Biden.
[00:42:55]  And that's just kind of the answer.
[00:42:57]  And I got to say, I mean, this is not, you're not like invoking nostalgic feelings for the 50s here.
[00:43:03]  You're talking about less than two years ago when you were president.
[00:43:10]  And I just, I got to say, I, that, that to me just seems like a real tough sell.
[00:43:15]  Like, no, everything was not going great when you were president.
[00:43:19]  It was the worst year in modern American history, your last year.
[00:43:23]  And I think that, man, you're spot on.
[00:43:25]  This is literally what I was going to say.
[00:43:26]  I'm glad you said it first.
[00:43:27]  You get the credit for it.
[00:43:29]  But I think you're absolutely right that so much of Donald Trump's sell in 2016 was like, I can get it done.
[00:43:39]  I know how to win.
[00:43:41]  I'm, I'm so smart.
[00:43:43]  This such a tremendous brain.
[00:43:45]  I'll figure it out and you're going to win.
[00:43:48]  And that's kind of that.
[00:43:48]  And he could just go like, look at me.
[00:43:50]  I'm a winner.
[00:43:52]  And I'm going to be a winner for all of you.
[00:43:53]  I'm going to go win and win for you.
[00:43:56]  What are the specifics on how you're going to win?
[00:43:58]  It's like, don't even, don't even worry your tiny little brain with that.
[00:44:01]  You know what I mean?
[00:44:02]  Better trade deals, smarter, better generals, smarter, better.
[00:44:07]  You know, it just, but now he's not the winner anymore.
[00:44:11]  Now he's got to be, as he always, he's got to be what he's been.
[00:44:14]  He's the guy bitching about how unfair it is that he lost.
[00:44:18]  He's bitching that it's so unfair.
[00:44:20]  They stole the election from me.
[00:44:21]  I wish he didn't specifically say, I don't think in the speech, but he, you know, but that's, he's branded as that now.
[00:44:28]  There's no getting around that.
[00:44:29]  And what he, you know, he just kind of got tricked on all of these things, like whatever.
[00:44:36]  It's, it's like that was done.
[00:44:38]  And I just don't think, like, as you said, the truth is that the COVID response has been such a disaster.
[00:44:48]  And if Republicans can't run on that, they just give up this tremendous opportunity.
[00:44:55]  And Donald Trump just can't run on that.
[00:44:58]  And obviously, the other guy in the race, even though, I mean, he hasn't announced yet, but the other guy who's thought to be the only guy who can challenge him in the Republican Party, even though obviously was not perfect and did fall for some of the COVID shit initially, he at least has a much more compelling narrative to run on with this stuff.
[00:45:19]  So I did, I saw that and I just like, I smelled a big weakness here.
[00:45:24]  I just did not think like, you know, I wouldn't say it's impossible for Donald Trump to win.
[00:45:30]  It is possible.
[00:45:32]  He's put together this coalition.
[00:45:33]  James might run Kamala Harris.
[00:45:35]  So he's losing to Kamala.
[00:45:37]  Well, right.
[00:45:37]  Literally no one.
[00:45:38]  Well, he's either going to be running against a Joe Biden two years older than he is now or a Kamala Harris.
[00:45:45]  But I feel like Trump is most likely one of those two.
[00:45:48]  And I'm not saying is an absolute Trump would lose to Biden, but I feel like he's the only candidate that would lose.
[00:45:54]  I think that there's whereas in 2016, I think Donald Trump was the only Republican who could win.
[00:46:03]  I think it's quite possible that in 2024, he is the only Republican who could lose.
[00:46:09]  You know, I think he could win, but I think that there's, I think Donald Trump really underestimated.
[00:46:20]  And I think a lot of people really underestimated how many, how, how many Americans were over it.
[00:46:28]  They were just over it.
[00:46:29]  And not just him, but the response to him too.
[00:46:32]  Like they're just over it.
[00:46:34]  And there was almost this like unwritten agreement that Joe Biden made with American voters.
[00:46:42]  And feel however you feel about the election.
[00:46:44]  I know there's a lot of people who don't buy things.
[00:46:47]  And I think it's reasonable for people to be very skeptical about the 2020 election, if for no other reason than the fact that we completely overhauled how we did elections that year and that more people voted than ever before.
[00:47:01]  It just, it at least gives the impression of not being trustworthy and the way the results were found out, how much time it took to figure them out.
[00:47:09]  I think it's reasonable for people to be skeptical or even not believe the results.
[00:47:15]  But regardless of that, you should recognize that Biden essentially had an unspoken, kind of spoken agreement with voters that went, hey, vote for me and we stop this insanity.
[00:47:30]  You know, let's go back to like regular life.
[00:47:33]  That's not, oh my God, what the fuck did Trump just say?
[00:47:36]  And everyone's flipping out about what Trump just said and everyone's got to fight and everyone's family is being torn apart and all this shit.
[00:47:43]  He goes, let's just stop that.
[00:47:44]  Let's unify.
[00:47:45]  Now, they did not deliver on that.
[00:47:47]  They immediately moved into like just being even more hysterical.
[00:47:50]  But I do think there's still, there's just a lot of Trump fatigue in the country.
[00:47:55]  That's, that's my assessment of this.
[00:47:58]  I think there's a problem with Trump and it's very similar to COVID and that with COVID, COVID was not as bad as the response.
[00:48:05]  And so people so were over the response to COVID, which was them having to stay in their homes that they were willing to go get a shot.
[00:48:12]  They didn't care.
[00:48:13]  The problem was the response.
[00:48:15]  And I feel with Trump, you got a similar thing.
[00:48:17]  Trump was not as bad as the temper tantrum that everyone had over Trump.
[00:48:21]  And people were almost just over the temper tantrum of everyone being upset about it.
[00:48:26]  And that's not Trump's fault.
[00:48:28]  But what Trump is at fault for is that part of what part of how he could have won for people is like, even take censorship.
[00:48:34]  That's part of what I liked him is I got to confront left stuporal liberal bullshit.
[00:48:38]  And Trump's like, I'm going to stand up against this.
[00:48:40]  Trump ended up getting kicked off Twitter.
[00:48:43]  Trump then made his own social media platform that's gone nowhere and does nothing.
[00:48:47]  So that's what I mean by like him just kind of being a loser is that even on these issues that like, yes, the system is not being fair to him, but there was an opportunity to beat the system.
[00:48:57]  I mean, watch like any detective movie when someone's trying to like solve a case.
[00:49:00]  It's like, if you thought the election was going to be stolen from you, you've got all the resources in the world to go prove it.
[00:49:06]  And if you were to have gone and proved it, that would have been the most incredible victory anyone's ever seen that you just proved that the deep state or that the Democrats stole an election from you.
[00:49:14]  He had all the resources in the world.
[00:49:16]  He didn't prove it.
[00:49:17]  He didn't beat the social media companies to let you back on.
[00:49:19]  He then didn't create a new company that actually challenged theirs.
[00:49:23]  So my point being, it's like, yeah, the temper tantrum is not fair to Trump.
[00:49:27]  But like, if he was a winner, he would have figured out how to overcome those obstacles.
[00:49:31]  At this point, he's just a whiny old man.
[00:49:33]  Yeah, I think, I think there's a lot of truth to that, man.
[00:49:36]  And I think that it's, it's a, it's a, it's a much tougher position, especially when your sell is I'm the winner.
[00:49:44]  You know, um, I, I tweeted this earlier today, but just to like fucking remind people, but I said this and I'm really, you know, as people know, I've been a pretty huge critic of Donald Trump for a long time now.
[00:49:56]  Um, and I just, uh, I don't, I hate the excuse making uh for him that I constantly hear.
[00:50:02]  I know, believe me, I know a lot of people have a real emotional, uh, a real emotional attachment to uh to Donald Trump.
[00:50:10]  But I tweeted out this, uh, which I saw a bunch of other people have been sharing this too.
[00:50:14]  It wasn't just me, um, but this is an old tweet from Donald Trump, April 30th, 2020.
[00:50:21]  So this is a month and a half or so into COVID.
[00:50:25]  And this is what Donald Trump was saying at the time, just to refresh people's memory.
[00:50:31]  Here's the tweet.
[00:50:32]  Despite reports to the contrary, Sweden is paying heavily for the decision not to lock down.
[00:50:40]  As of today, 2,462 people have died there, a much higher number than the neighboring countries of Norway, Finland, and Denmark.
[00:50:50]  The United States made the correct decision.
[00:50:53]  Exclamation point.
[00:50:54]  This is, of course, when the experts were predicting that by summer, Sweden would have 95,000 COVID deaths.
[00:51:04]  And by that summer, they had, I believe, 6,000.
[00:51:09]  So off by just a little bit.
[00:51:11]  This is when they were predicting the difference of what the lockdowns versus non-lockdowns would do.
[00:51:16]  Recent studies have come out and indicated that when it comes to excess mortality, Sweden has done better than all of these neighboring countries.
[00:51:24]  So when you take into, which is a much better gauge, really, because that lets you know, like, not just COVID deaths, but also all of the other deaths that come as a result of these lockdowns.
[00:51:34]  So Sweden made the absolute right decision, or certainly a much better one.
[00:51:37]  Donald Trump was shaming them and talking about how America made the right decision.
[00:51:42]  He was firmly behind the lockdown regime.
[00:51:46]  And, you know, he was clearly, he was the one signing the big spending bills into law.
[00:51:53]  None of those could have existed without the Federal Reserve's printing of money.
[00:51:56]  So he was clearly behind that as well.
[00:51:59]  Obviously, he brags openly about the Operation Warp Speed and creating the vaccine.
[00:52:05]  Okay, you can say he never supported the vaccine mandates that didn't come till later.
[00:52:10]  I'm not that convinced he wouldn't have had he been in there in 2021 still.

=== Sweden Lockdown Decision (00:28) ===

[00:52:15]  But just to be clear, the guy's track record is really, really bad on this stuff.
[00:52:20]  And this is going to hurt him, I think, a lot.
[00:52:23]  I think it's really just not where his base is.
[00:52:26]  Look, I got to wrap up the show here.
[00:52:28]  And we got to run.
[00:52:29]  I got recording Legion of Skanks in a second.
[00:52:32]  But thank you guys for listening.
[00:52:34]  We'll catch you next time.
[00:52:35]  And we can add some more thoughts on this Trump speech because there's a little bit more to talk about when we record tomorrow.
[00:52:41]  All right.
[00:52:42]  That's it for us.
[00:52:43]  Thanks for listening.
[00:52:44]  Peace.