James Smith and Rob Bernstein dissect Texas rivalries and UFO theories as potential government distractions from the Nord Stream explosion, arguing the U.S. fueled WWII via Versailles and the Federal Reserve. They debate "Texit" to escape federal violence, dismiss Jerome Powell's policies, and analyze Bitcoin as a hedge against controlling CBDCs. While discussing the Libertarian Party's internal drama and Pat Buchanan's integrity, they conclude that culture and politics form a feedback loop where American industrial power bears global responsibility for current geopolitical instability. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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China Balloon Conspiracy00:13:28
Fill her up.
You're listening to the Gash Digital Network.
We need to roll back the state.
We spy on all of our own citizens.
Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
You're listening to part of the problem on the Gash Digital Network.
Here's your host, James Smith.
Thank you.
What's up, Dallas, Texas?
How are we?
Oh, thank you guys so much for coming out.
Rob, what a weekend we've had out here in Texas, huh?
Pretty incredible.
Crowds have been great.
Crowds have been phenomenal.
The way they do it here in hyenas is we did a night last night in Fort Worth.
And then tonight.
Oh, you got to tell them what the Fort Worth people said about these people.
They said nothing but good things.
I'll be honest.
Coming in here as a couple of outsiders, and I don't mean to bring too much Northeastern Jewish energy to this, but I was unaware that Fort Worth and Dallas were different places.
I thought you guys were basically all the same thing.
Then we did a podcast last night in Fort Worth after some stand-up shows.
And by the way, we're probably never going to put that podcast out.
We said a lot of horrific things on it.
It'll be behind the paywall in Gas Digital.
But turns out they don't care for you people very much over there in Fort Worth.
There's a real rivalry between Fort Worth and Dallas.
Although at least so far, and I want your guys' opinion on this.
So far, oh, thank you.
From what I've learned, like from hanging out in Fort Worth a little bit and in Dallas a little bit, the people in Fort Worth are like, they're like, fuck those Dallas people.
They think they're better than everybody and we hate them.
And then you come over here and you're like, what do you think about Fort Worth?
And everyone in Dallas is like, we don't really think about them that much.
Is there a thing?
We don't really have a problem with that.
I don't know.
I never really go over there.
I don't know.
So that's what I'm getting, more or less.
But they think you guys are like snobs who think you're better than them.
And then you come over here and you guys are like, we're obviously better than them, but like, I don't know what the issue is.
Do you guys have beef with Fort Worth?
See, no one here.
Rob, last night we were like, do you have beef with Dallas?
And we were like, well, skin them alive.
They all tucked their guns out of their holsters and Looney Tune Style just started.
We're going to fuck up Dallas.
We're like, calm down.
Save that energy for when we go to the Capitol.
You're going to bring that energy to Dallas and you haven't brought it to Beto O'Rourke yet is what you're telling me.
The pride of Texas.
No?
This is more of a, they prefer Wheelie Boy.
They support the governor here.
This isn't a Beto Arour gang.
Not cool, dude.
For the record, I'm going to say not cool.
Trying to put this one on YouTube, Rob.
I just think if we had a guy with legs, we might have a secure border.
That's what I think.
It might be the difference.
Yeah.
Could be the difference.
How's a guy on wheels supposed to police that whole thing?
That's not going to work.
The border's pretty secure now.
You're telling me there's people from Mexico coming up here to Texas.
That's what you're trying to tell me.
I haven't seen any evidence of it.
Yeah, we also didn't leave the hotel.
Yeah, but that's how I, like, as a traveling comedian, I like to judge every city by whatever hotel the comedy club puts me up at.
And I just go, like, what do you think of Texas?
I go, coffee's not that great.
I don't know.
Anyway, it was cool, though.
A lot of people came out.
All our stand-up shows were packed this weekend, so that was fun.
We were competing against Pauly Shore, who was at any time you can beat Pauli Shore, it's a good day.
You know what I mean?
I don't know if we beat him.
He did very good.
We love Pauli.
He came on.
He was at SkangFest this last year, and then he came on Legion of Skangs recently.
Very cool guy.
And we all remember back when he was relevant.
So it's very cool.
I don't even know why I'm taking shots at him.
I don't know.
He was here last night.
I mean, it's one thing to offend the cripple of a governor, but when you start going after Pauli Shore, that is, you're right.
It's too far.
It is too far.
All right.
What's if we're only here in Dallas for a few more hours, but what is the thing?
Forget it for this time.
But next time I come back, what's the thing I got to do next time I'm in Dallas?
Well, I took care of that.
That's crossed off the bucket lists.
The George Bush Library.
What do I, what are books about lying people in a war or some shit like that?
Books about.
Ecstasy.
You can get that pretty much everywhere, sir.
That's not exclusive.
Huh?
Is there the Texas State Fair?
What do you do there?
You eat butter?
All right.
Now, everyone's, people are yelling too many things at me.
You watch people ride goats?
They ride the goats?
That seems mean to the goats.
Oh, all right.
That seems a little bit better.
I was just picturing like a 200-pound dude riding a goat.
And you're like, sir, that animal is not made for that.
All right.
Kids riding a goat, I guess.
I bet a Texas State Fair is a good time.
Yeah, I bet.
Yeah.
That's where you meet your wife.
Texas State Fair.
A farmhand?
A few sick lady.
She was so good with the kids on the goats.
That's always what I've been looking for for my bride.
We're trying to find Rob a wife, everybody.
I don't know.
Any single girls here tonight want to be Rob's wife?
All right.
You got to know how to ride a goat.
It's not, it's not.
The job comes with some requirements.
I'll be honest.
All right.
So, all right, let's get it.
So what we do on these live podcasts, we talk a little bit of bullshit about what's going on in the world, and then we do question and answers.
So anyone wants to ask a question, we'll get to you in a little bit.
And you can ask me or Rob anything you want to.
I don't have that much planned for the show today because we did a whole podcast yesterday, again, that will never air.
It will take down our YouTube channel if it's posted.
Like if YouTube just saw the name of the file, they'd be like, we're going to put you in prison for this.
But if you go subscribe to Gas Digital, you can find it.
But there is, so evidently today, there was another fucking, like, UFO.
I don't know.
And I say UFO in the literal definition of the term, like just an unidentified object in the sky that was shot down over Canada, and then another one over Montana.
Two more today.
That's, I believe, brings it up to four in the last couple weeks.
So this is the new thing now.
We're going down by weather balloon.
I really did not see this one coming.
I thought it was going to be like the pandemic or a nuclear war, but turns out one balloon at a time.
They're going to bring down North America.
Once you break the balloon seal, it's over.
Isn't it wild that there was one story that made it that there was balloons and now there's balloons all the time?
Well, the thing is, according to the Pentagon, there's been balloons coming constantly.
Like they're like, oh, there's always balloons, dude.
Like, it's not even like a big, this isn't even a big story.
Trump had like a balloon every day.
He was president.
But then one guy just saw one.
And he's like, that looks weird.
And then they're like, yeah, it's a thing.
And now I think all Americans are just looking up too much.
We're all just looking for balloons.
We're paying too much attention constantly.
You're like, well, this whole goddamn sky is filled with Chinese balloons.
Does that make you think maybe it is aliens when the government cover-up is going, oh, no, it's just the Chinese fucking with us?
No.
Like when that's the cover story is, oh, yeah, it's just China.
You want me to tell you what I really think?
Oh, that's what I want, David.
All right, I'll prepare you for it.
Give it to me.
And I'm going to go on record with this, but I just want to disclaim it with like, I don't know.
But I think this is the beginning of the fake alien invasion.
Oh.
I think it's all bullshit.
I don't think all this shit that's been, you know, you guys follow when they keep like releasing the shit about how aliens are real over the last few years, but it's always like right in the middle of COVID lockdowns.
And it's always like, by the way, like, we forgot to mention this, but aliens are real.
But don't like focus on it that much.
But it's all, their story is basically that like there's, oh, we figured out that there really are UFOs, but nobody's ever snapped a clear picture of them.
They only come from the Pentagon and they're from a camera from 1973, but don't worry about it.
They're totally real.
I think it's all bullshit.
And I think these are all government.
They're our government.
It's not the Chinese government.
I think it's all ours.
And they're all using this as a big giant distraction so that everybody, it's like right when everything's falling apart, they're like, oh, but look, a strange balloon in the sky.
So you better just give your government a blank check to do whatever they want to because aren't we all terrified of the balloon?
And I think that's what this is all like about.
So the government claim is that there's UFOs and level one UFO is that they just float balloons in.
But as long as we have the United States government to explode those balloons, as long as they're not over Wyoming, then we can survive the alien invasion.
Yeah, they really didn't want to shoot it down over Wyoming.
Or no, what was it?
Montana.
It's the same thing in my head.
Yeah, you're right.
That's just one irrelevant place.
Touche.
Same state.
We could combine those easily.
So, yeah, they only shoot them down.
That's how little they care about Alaska.
When it was over Montana, they were like, we can't shoot it down.
It could hurt some people.
And then when it was over Alaska, they're like, pull the trigger.
We'll be just fine.
Don't worry.
They're like, if they're there, they're disposable.
They'd be like, I don't know.
They're probably a criminal on the run.
Your Honor, can I speak on behalf of the defense?
What were they doing in Alaska?
They were kind of asking for it.
So listen, I don't know.
I don't know what the hell is going on, to be honest, but something is not adding up about all of this.
No, I don't think that China just decided we're going to invade the United States of America with a spy balloon at a time and then see what they do about it.
This just doesn't make any sense at all.
But you think that's what they're doing?
What, that China's sending in balloons just to fuck with us?
One balloon after another, all of the sudden.
I think if they were China balloons, they'd float in those dragons, you know?
They would do it like those New Year's parades.
That would be pretty cool.
They'd blast off some fireworks and then we'd just be like, you know what, China's awesome.
They can just have the country.
That's what we would do.
When you saw our missile shoot it down, it was like a bunch of firecrackers and started going nuts.
It just ended up being an awesome fireworks display.
That would be more fun, for sure.
It's so insane that one person got a picture of one and now they're like, oh, we're so good at capturing balloons.
We're blowing up balloons non-stop.
You don't have to worry about balloon action while Biden's in office.
Yeah, that is their new thing.
They're like, the last guy let balloons go left and right.
But Joe Biden's so on top of his balloon game.
It's amazing how much it like, you know, I spend, I probably make fun of the left more than the right these days just because, you know, they're giving me the most material to work with.
But there is something about how right-wing America, particularly like boomer right-wing America, this balloon triggered the fuck out of them.
Like I've every Fox News watching dad was so goddamn like, you can't let no Chinese balloon.
That's our airspace.
You're like, okay, I mean, maybe, yeah, maybe we should have shot it down.
They're like, maybe.
You say, I saw a goddamn Chinese balloon back in my day and poke his goddamn eyes out.
And you're like, all right, this is like.
I don't exactly see what's such a big threat about this.
And you're like, you know, we're like about to fight a nuclear war with Russia.
And they're like, talk about the balloon.
So anyway, that's kind of interesting to watch.
Even people I really like, but who are like right-wing boomers, they are all furious about this balloon.
Like they would impeach Biden over the balloon.
You know, they would like, there's like seven other things more important than this to impeach him over.
And they're like, no, no, no, get him on that balloon thing.
They should just change the rule to make a cash prize if you shoot it down.
That's what they should do.
By the way, there came out, like damning evidence came out this week that Joe Biden's administration blew up the fucking Nord Stream pipeline.
And those Fox News watching dads are like, whatever, this balloon.
Well, it injured down the balloon.
That's why they can't get the balloons down.
They're focused on these pipelines.
They're paying attention in the wrong spots.
Yeah, they are.
Well, what's the future?
I was saying this last night, but I think the only real solution here is Texit.
Nord Stream Pipeline Blame00:05:57
You guys got to secede from the union.
Well, that seems like a majority of the state right there.
And those crazy Fort Worth people.
That's all we need.
If you guys in Fort Worth can just put your differences aside and come together to secede from the Union.
I swear to God, if Texas secedes from the Union, I'm going to move my family here to Texas.
Yeah.
This right now, as this podcast airs, it's the first my wife's hearing about it.
And I'll tell you, I don't care.
She doesn't have a say.
I'll chloroform her.
She'll wake up here and I will have rebuilt a replica of our house right here.
I'll be like, your family's here, and it looks a lot like your house.
Just don't go upstairs.
I haven't done upstairs yet.
But that's what we need.
We need Texas to secede and then probably build a wall because Mexico will absorb you pretty quickly if you don't.
And then we got, what do you, everything, you got good gun laws here, right?
Do you need a license to open carry?
Ah, that's fucking.
Do you need a license to conceal carry?
Wow.
So you could do whatever you want to.
Yeah, let me tell you something.
Okay.
Oh, fair enough.
All right.
Let's go rob a bank right fucking now, Dave.
I'm feeling the energy of this crowd.
Just a legal question.
Do you need a license to rob a bank or are you just allowed to do that?
That guy sounded like a lawyer.
I will say, I think, I believe no, no.
I'm not robbing a bank.
I'm just carrying a gun wherever I go.
All right, but the way you said it kind of sounds like you're robbing a bank, dude.
I don't know.
Hey, I. Like, most people don't feel like they have to specify that they're not robbing a bank.
And now I think you're going to rob a bank.
I got to be honest.
I think everyone should be allowed to own a gun except that William Defoe looking motherfucker right there.
I've seen a couple people since I've been here in Texas just open carrying, which always, like, to me is a, like, I believe, I don't believe in any gun control laws at all.
I think everyone has a right to open carry, concealed, carry, whatever you want to.
But there is something about when you have the right to conceal carry, just open carrying.
Like, you're like, nah, motherfuckers got to know.
Like, they got to know.
I got to go.
I got a fucking, I got a holster that I just bought, and I'm not going to not use it.
I wonder if you're really letting people know.
You move gun here.
You get gun earrings, you know?
Like the big circle things.
But an actual gun?
Yeah.
Not just like a little, like...
No, I'm talking full-scale gun, dude.
Like, someone comes at you and you're like, freeze, Buster.
Where do you think you're going?
That's a great...
That seems like a real gay dude weapon.
But he has gun earrings.
Nice try, Pung.
Yeah, shit.
I really like that.
All right.
All right.
I don't know, Rob.
We didn't really have anything else.
Is there any other story?
Any other story in the news anybody wants to hear about?
Green lasers in Hawaii?
Oh, shit.
I don't know.
Was that a real?
I just asked one question.
My follow-up question was just repeating back to her question.
And she went, I don't know.
That's even a goes.
She goes, I wasn't, you threw me a curveball there.
All right.
My follow-up question was, can you share your drugs?
That's where someone talks about green lasers over Hawaii.
You got any drugs for Rob?
Nah, I didn't think so.
She took them all herself, clearly.
Where do you guys, are you guys together?
This is your husband.
How long have you guys been married for?
Oh, okay.
They're such a good married couple that she went thir and he went teen.
Did you guys catch that?
And they both said it uncertain.
Like she went thir and he went teen?
I don't know.
She goes, let's just say we're doing this, you know?
And then you two, you're all together.
Oh, they just put you at a table like that.
I was going to say, you just brought these two dudes with you?
You guys seem like you're here for Rob Bernstein.
Like, I just feel like they seem like your types.
I got a long relationship with Father Time.
Oh, he might kill us.
All right.
That's the other feeling I get like in Texas, where I just feel like I'll be like crushing with the crowd.
But if there's one person who doesn't laugh at a joke, I'm like, that guy might shoot me later today.
I kind of feel.
I feel like he might.
I'm not saying he will, but like he might.
You know what, though?
That's why you get good service in this state.
Waiters know, you know?
Like, you go to like pussy ass states like Colorado, they're smoking weed, and they're like, wait, you put in an order with me?
And you come here and you go, where are my mozzarella sticks?
And they're like, sir, I'm so sorry.
Sir, I have a family.
I'll go get them right now.
Please.
Please.
What's the good food here in Dallas?
Obviously, it's barbecue and Mexican.
Huh?
Tech.
Okay.
I said Mexican, and you had to make it all about you.
Like, all right, fine.
Texas Mexicans.
All right.
What is the difference?
You guys, this is going to turn the crowd on me bad.
What is the difference between Mexican food and Tex-Mex?
More cheese?
That's what you got?
Oh, so it's your barbecue sauce with their Mexican.
Oh, your barbecued meat with their what? Taco shells?
I don't know, man.
This seems like some world government commie nonsense mixing Texas and Mexico together.
It's voluntary.
It's voluntary.
Texas Mexican Food Debate00:02:47
That is a good point, sir.
It is voluntary, isn't it?
You know what wasn't so voluntary when we took this fucking state from Mexico.
How dare you?
Am I right?
This used to be Mexico back in the day, right?
Yeah, but Davey Crockett was fucking awesome.
Six flags over Texas.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, shit.
Is that why Six Flags is called Six Flags?
Okay, let me tell you something.
I'm going to tell you how much this is blowing my mind that you just explained this to me, okay?
And man, I've never sounded dumber on this podcast.
So we were driving on the way here.
The host who was hosting today, he drove us to the show and we're driving here and we passed six flags.
And he goes, oh, yeah, there's six flags.
And I swear to God, this is how like, this is where people from like New York, how fucking self-centered we are.
I was like, oh, you guys have a six flags?
And he was like, no, that's the original six flags.
And I was like, I don't think it's the original six flags.
I'm pretty sure the one in New Jersey is the original six flags.
And he's like, no, no, no, no, dude.
This is like the first six flags.
And then now that you say that, I go, that does make more sense than what I thought.
That does make a lot more sense.
Shit.
All right.
I guess I'm a bad person.
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Bambi Small Business Ad00:13:44
Well, I don't know.
I don't really have much more news stuff to talk about.
We can go right to the questions.
All right, let's do it.
Let's do it.
Who wants to ask a question?
Let's have some fun.
And please, nothing about Six Flags.
Hey, love your podcast, guys.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Are you impressed with Jerome Powell at all with the interest rates being a little more aggressive than we thought?
I thought he would have kind of just cucked out at like 3%.
No, I'm not impressed at all.
And I think he's still going to.
I think he's going to he's going to back off eventually and we're going to go back down to like very low interest rates.
But he's, no, he had no choice.
I mean, I don't think it was like anything impressive.
Like what would be impressive?
I mean, for like the whole government running the Federal Reserve is the same thing as like government setting the price of like fucking wheat or microphones or beer or anything else.
It's ridiculous, but it's so much more important because it's the price of money, which is like 50% of every transaction.
But he's the what would be impressive given that situation is if he actually went, we're bringing interest rates up to like 10% or 15%.
We're actually going to like rein in this inflation.
But he doesn't have the only reason he brought it up was because the CPI was getting so out of control that markets would have tanked if he wasn't seen as doing something.
So he brought it up by like, you know, point, you know, like half a basis point a few times to just try to signal to the market, like, oh, it's everything's going to be under control.
But I don't think he's going to keep doing it much longer.
And the truth is with central banks, it's like they, it's the same thing with government price controls of any sense.
They're going to screw you one way or the other.
If they price it too low, they're going to screw you because no one's going to like sell it because there's no profit to be made there.
And if they price it too high, there's going to be shortages.
You know what I mean?
So like it's no matter what, you're screwed.
I think he's terrible.
I think he's just kind of probably like, I think Ben Bernanke or Alan Greenspan or Janet Yellen or any of the Fed chairmen of my lifetime would have done the same in this situation.
And I think he's doing a real crappy job.
So no, not impressed at all.
But yeah, and the Fed.
What's up, guys?
Oh, yeah.
I'm not supposed to hold the microphone.
It's just in case you're very drunk and belligerent.
Right, of course, you know, let's pull it back.
I understand completely.
So first, before I get to the question, I do have a real disagreement with you.
I agree with you and Robbie most of the time on like most things, but it was actually your last live podcast that I just kind of had a real sticking point.
And it was during the question about the fuck Mary kill with AOC, Nancy Pelosi, and Kamala Harris.
Hear him out.
And I just think you guys were really off base.
You fuck Kamala Harris.
She fucked her way to the top.
She knows what she's doing.
You kill AOC because she's kind of annoying.
And you marry Nancy Pelosi because she's got that bag of insider trading waiting for you when she croaks in two years.
All right.
Listen.
I'm not.
Nancy Pelosi will outlive you.
Yeah, let me tell you something.
Like, I get where you're coming from.
What you have to understand is that Nancy Pelosi wakes up every morning and drinks fetus blood.
And she is stronger than you or I could ever ever imagine.
And you are now going to spend 60 years with Nancy Pelosi, okay?
And like, you know, I just can't, like, AOC is annoying, granted, but like, you want to compare annoying with Kamala Harris to AOC?
You're telling me you had Kamala Harris right in your sights.
God damn it.
We're going to get demonetized for this episode also.
This is all hypothetical.
Don't kill anyone, especially not politicians.
But if you're forced to fuck Mary kill one of them, I just can't.
I don't know.
I'm going to respect.
Listen, we're going to have to agree to disagree on this one, sir.
All right.
Kamala Harris is like a Highlander.
If she sucks her dick, she gets your soul.
Robbie the fire burns the bud.
All right.
Who else you got with the question over here?
Working away in the center.
Hey, guys.
This isn't so much of a question, but yesterday on Twitter, I saw, or last night, the night before, I deliver bread for a living.
So real winner here.
That was the weirdest excuse for not knowing what day you saw something on Twitter.
I woke up.
It was either yesterday, it could have been two years ago.
I'm a bread guy.
So, you know, you know how it is in the bread game.
You never know whether it's Wednesday or Friday.
Yeah, so I saw something about a train derailment in Ohio releasing like this giant like Hiroshima cloud of chemicals into the sky.
China balloons.
That's what I'm hearing.
Is that what you're hearing, Dave?
I'm just wondering if that's why we're shooting down more balloons all of a sudden.
Like we're trying to not have anybody talk about that because we asked this guy about it.
Did you know about this, Rob?
No, I want to hear about his bread before we talk about any trailing derailments.
Well, he doesn't make it.
He just delivers it, bro.
Wait, you deliver it or make it?
I moved down here from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where we make Martin's potato rolls.
You guys may have heard of it.
Those are good rolls.
I'll be honest.
Rob, I love a potato roll.
And Martin's, that's the best one.
The sesame's on top, those are a good roll.
I also love how he talks like a Civil War era.
I'll move down south because they needed their bread.
He goes, potato rolls went a little dry.
Had to take it down here to Texas.
I realized it was my duty as an American.
All right, I'm sorry.
Tell us about it.
If you Yankees in the North try to come down here and take my potato rolls, that's going to be war.
I mean, based on what I was seeing online, it was just they were arresting journalists for trying to get answers on what.
Wait, wait, we were talking about the bread.
You got to stay on one topic.
Listen, I'm just going to say, I don't know anything about this.
So if you want to send me a story about that, I'd be very interested to take a look.
But I don't know anything about a mushroom cloud.
What is it?
It was potato.
It looked bad, but potato rolls are really great.
Like, I sell potato rolls every day, and I'd be happy to give everybody something.
I'd say they sell themselves, if we're being honest.
Yeah, yeah.
You don't really got to put too much of a sales pitch on top of it.
You cut him off.
He was going full Oprah and offering us potato rolls.
He's going, look under your seats right now.
All right, so this mushroom cloud, what can you tell us about it?
Well, who knows if it was a fake Twitter post, but I'm just telling you, it looked really bad, and I was really concerned for my family in Pennsylvania because that's the way the Jet Stream goes.
I think he's eating too much bread.
Is there some mold on those potato rolls?
Listen, I don't know.
I just don't know if the story's real or not.
You never know what you see with one Twitter post, man.
You got to check that shit out a little bit more.
Find something.
But maybe, maybe.
I don't know.
Big fan of y'all.
But I got to ask, do you have any hope about the Ukrainian situation since Republicans have taken over Congress?
I don't personally, but I just want to hear y'all's opinion.
I don't have any hope due to Republicans taking over.
I do, I mean, I have hope about the situation because I think that there is basically there's two bets going on.
And the bet of the West is like, we're going to give Ukraine all the backing they could possibly need to try to break Russia.
That's what they're all in on.
And then the bet that Putin has is we're going to draw this out until the West breaks and that their people just are not willing to keep sending, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars into Ukraine.
And I think Putin's bet is more likely to win.
Yeah.
Now, of course, the risk is that that doesn't happen and it ends in nuclear war.
That would be not good.
On a scale of one to another Chinese weather balloon, it's a seven, you know?
But so like the risk of this is such a dangerous game to play that you hope it ends.
But I do think that particularly given you have like different dynamics all around, right?
So you have the dynamics in Western Europe, which is that they're having a real energy crunch and Russia provides them cheap energy.
You have the fact that this like Seymour Hirsch piece that just came out is being more and more exposed that it was almost certainly the U.S. that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.
And you have the fact that I think in America, if you look at the polls, like support for Ukraine is plummeting.
Like people, at first, everyone's like, oh, they got invaded.
We should support them.
But more and more people are kind of like, yeah, this is like ridiculous.
How much are we expected to give them?
So I'm hoping that the Western resolve to support Ukraine weakens and then there's more pressure for them to cut a deal, which is how this whole fucking thing is going to end.
Like you could already see what the end is of this.
It's like, first off, Crimea's not going back to Ukraine.
That's just not happening.
And it's ridiculous to expect it to happen.
Crimea, they had a fucking, back in 2015, I think it was, after the coup in Ukraine and the Yanukovych government was overthrown, they had a vote and they voted overwhelmingly to be part of Russia in Crimea.
And then there was that people say like, oh, that was a bullshit, like plebiscite or whatever.
But there was like opinion polls that followed up that basically got the same results.
The vast majority of the people in Crimea would rather be a part of Russia than be a part of Ukraine anyway.
And it's always been Russia's like biggest year-long warm water port naval base.
And so they were never going to give that up and they didn't.
That's all that happened, by the way.
The story of like Russia invading Crimea.
They didn't even invade.
I mean, they sent some backups.
They sent some like reinforcements in.
But basically, they always had permission to lease this naval base from Ukraine.
And then when there was the coup that overthrew the Yanukovych government, they came in.
They were like, well, we're tearing up the lease.
And Vladimir Putin was like, no, you're not.
And he kept it.
So it's not like there was really even a change of power there.
So they're never getting Crimea back.
I don't think they're getting the Donbass region back.
I think that's going to stay either under Russian control or they'll be granted like autonomy and be kind of a buffer zone.
The rest of Ukraine probably should go back to some Ukrainian government.
But like that's the piece that like that's the negotiation to start.
Exactly where that line's drawn, I don't know.
You know, like everyone knows, all these lines on a map are kind of bullshit anyway.
It's like, I don't know, which, where exactly should they be drawn?
I don't know.
But I think I'm hopeful that ultimately that's what happens.
You know, let's just, if you can repeat the question because he's not on mic.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, so he asked, so if, you know, does the situation in Ukraine have any implications on Taiwan or what we might do?
You know, Joe Biden, right, has said that he would militarily defend Taiwan, which is actually more than he ever said about Ukraine.
I don't really think that China's going to invade Taiwan, short of Taiwan trying to declare like true independence from China.
Like if they did that, I think China kind of won't let them go.
But as long as they stay with the deal they have now, I don't think they're going to do that.
So God willing, we could just kind of keep it as it is right now.
I just want to go on record that I look at the map and Taiwan looks to me like it's part of China.
So I feel like you just look at the people.
You know what I mean?
That's true.
You're like, look pretty goddamn Chinese.
I feel like one China is just simpler for me, you know?
Well, there's no, you know, no matter what, the reason why this is all such bluster, particularly with Taiwan, is because it's like, there's just really no, there's nothing we could do.
Like, personally speaking, I don't want to see China invade Taiwan.
Like, I want everyone to be free and prosperous and all that.
And I think, like, I don't like the Chinese Communist Party and I would hate to see him invade.
But I could also like recognize that like, there's nothing we could do.
Like, the idea that we could go, what are we going to do?
Invade Taiwan to defend them from the Chinese and then get into like a nuclear war and then still lose Taiwan?
Like, it's just, it's ridiculous.
It's kind of like, in a sense, if the United States of America wanted to take Mexico City and China was like, we won't let you.
And you'd be like, okay.
Like, good luck.
Like, good luck sailing over here and stopping us from taking it.
Like, that's, it's literally on the same level of that.
Like there's just no way we could, you know, and they run like war games on this and we lose all of them.
So it's just, it's not, that's not going to happen.
But hopefully China doesn't invade Taiwan.
And that is, if your question is, what would the Biden administration do?
That's, I don't know.
I don't know.
Teacher Discipline Lines00:02:27
Yeah.
God help us.
Exactly.
All right.
Who's next?
Hey, before I ask my question, I just want to know how you was doing tonight.
I'm doing quite well, sir.
That's good.
I just wanted to know what was the stand-up joke that you got the most laughs from this weekend?
Well, I'm trying to put out a new comedy special, so I don't want to do the joke for you right now.
But were you here at the shows?
Nah, this is the one I'm at.
But if you don't want to give me nothing from the comedy show, I just take something funny in general.
All right.
Fair enough.
How many black guys does it take to tell the most fucked up street joke I've ever heard of?
All right, I'll tell you my favorite whole show.
Well, I can't tell you the stand-up job.
This is being recorded and put out, so I can't tell you that.
Rob, give him a good, what's a good knock-knock joke?
Well, I just liked, there was phone sales energy on his questions, and I was just waiting.
It did kind of feel like he was selling me.
So he goes, first of all, how are you doing this evening?
And I go, I'm doing good.
Thank you.
Yeah, like you're sure.
Thank you.
Yeah, I bet you don't get the respect you deserve.
I don't.
I don't get the respect you deserve.
Do you work in phone sales?
Unfortunately, I teach kids.
I think he's calling us everybody, Dave.
Everybody knows that's a waste of a job.
You don't teach those kids.
You teach kids?
You're like a school teacher?
Yeah, I teach high school anatomy.
High school anatomy?
You like teach those kids how to fuck?
Is that what that means?
What does high school anatomy even mean?
Look, here's your parts.
Go use them.
Safe.
Are you public school?
Yep.
Okay.
Is it like a good school or like a rough school?
We got our fair share of rough and good.
It's a good mix.
It keeps things on edge.
I keep seeing videos on Twitter of like public high school teachers where like the kids keep talking shit and then finally the teacher snaps and beats the shit out of one of the kids.
And I'll tell you, in a lot of these videos, I'm really rooting for the teacher.
You're like, like, fuck this kid up, man.
You guys know what I'm talking about, right?
You've seen those videos.
All right, sir.
I hope you don't end up in one of those videos.
And if you do, I hope you beat the shit out of that kid.
America Violence Purveyor00:03:08
For the record, I'm against beating up kids, but you ever see like what I'm talking about?
It'll be like one of these 14-year-old kids and he's like, do something, teacher, do something.
And eventually you just see the teacher like, ah, this is not what I got in this job for.
It just wails on him.
All right.
Well, sorry, who's next?
When it comes to a national divorce, obviously we have our own favorites.
We want all of Texas except maybe Fort Worth.
But where would you like the fault lines drawn?
Because I know you're pro it and everyone in Texas obviously is.
I mean, so the question is where I'd want the lines drawn?
Yeah.
You know, I don't have like a big particular like, oh, this is where I think the, you know, like this should be one country and this should be another country.
I think that like we are, you know, one of the weird things about America that makes it kind of difficult is that it's not like really even red states versus blue states.
It's like cities versus suburb and rural areas.
Like that, that's where kind of the big difference is.
Even within like a state like Texas, you have like heavily blue like areas like Austin.
But the point is that I think wherever the lines are drawn, it would probably be better than what we have right now.
So just this country, the idea that Washington, D.C. rules over 330 million people is just so backward, especially today when there's not even like, you have this whole country that's like at each other's throats.
And then what is the point of us all being one country so that we can be the world reserve currency and the military industrial complex that dominates the whole world?
Like it's all just so negative.
So no matter where the lines were drawn, I would support any secession effort.
Like even if it was something I really didn't agree with, like if there was just a group of hardcore communists in California who were like, we want to secede to form a communist country, I would support them seceding from the union.
Like I'd support any group from seceding from the union.
Just like I think, I think like it's it's a fucked up thing to say that I think a lot of people who don't like follow this shit as closely wouldn't, but like in the same way that like like Martin Luther King said when in his, it was in the late 60s, he said that America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.
And he was wrong when he said it because like Mao Cedong was in power and he was actually purveying a lot more violence.
But today, that's undeniably true.
Like there's just no greater purveyor of violence in the world than the United States of America's federal government.
Like just look, look, the whole war in Ukraine is, you know, I mean, okay, Putin's got some responsibility there, but America pushed this for years and years and years.
The wars in the Middle East, like it's just like anything that breaks this up, I think is a positive step in the right direction.
Delta 8 Sponsor Plug00:04:07
So I don't care.
You know, like maybe there's better places to draw the lines than others, but if Texas wanted to secede, that'd be awesome.
So yeah, best of luck with that.
Yeah, first I want to thank both you guys for coming down to Dallas.
You guys both had a great set, so I appreciate it.
Thank you.
And second, I was just kind of curious, as a complete outsider, complete layman, why is the Texas Libertarian Party not more influential, more effective?
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a weird thing where like the Texas Libertarian Party is probably one of the most like progressive chapters or affiliates of the Libertarian Party, which is kind of just strange on its face that you wouldn't think, you know, Texas is a red state, so you wouldn't think they would be.
But, you know, why aren't they more effective or influential?
I don't know.
They do seem to like have the, I don't know, they get some support from a certain strain of libertarians.
It's just not really the camp that resonates with me, if that makes sense.
Yeah.
Huh?
Well, I'm not going to announce tonight in Dallas, if that's what you're right.
Something, I don't know, because fucking as a real, you know, as somebody who really hates the regime, there's something about Dallas that freaks me out, if you know what I mean.
So I don't think I'll be making any big announcements here.
Hi, Dave Smith.
Hello, sir.
Why do you think they are going after James O'Keefe?
Did you see, was that a fake video?
But they put out a video where one of the guys, like, he kept making us dance at these shows.
You know, he makes them all dance.
And they were like, we think that's pretty gay.
And like, I don't, I don't know if that's true.
You know, I really don't know.
It's a real interesting, a real interesting development for people who don't know.
Project Veritas, James O'Keefe, was like put on like paid leave.
And he is like the face of that company.
I'm wondering.
I don't know if there's going to be like some huge scandal that comes out or something.
Like he did some really fucked up shit.
So I just don't know.
It's like too soon to say.
But it does like we were saying the other night, the timing of the Pfizer thing.
And this seems a little bit suspicious.
So, you know, your guess is as good as mine.
I don't really have like a good answer for it.
But a lot of times I will say this, that a lot of times when these things happen, it's, you know, like if you, if you had someone at work who got fired over some bullshit or something like that, and they're just like, oh, they just use this excuse to take them out.
A lot of times what was really going on there is just everybody hated that guy.
And so when the excuse came up, they were like, we're getting rid of him because fucking no one likes this guy.
And if everyone there likes you, then when the excuse comes up, there's just too many people there fighting for you, you know?
So now I'm not saying, I'm not trying to blame him.
It's like, I don't know, but there is something about when someone who's the head of a company like that is like forced to step down that you're like, I guess there weren't that many people who were like going to bat for him over this thing.
That's kind of like where my mind goes.
But I don't know.
You know, I don't know the details of the situation, but I'll be interested to see what happens with that.
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Libertarian World War View00:14:15
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Going back to a minute ago when you were talking about the relative violence created by the U.S. now for, you know, it's saying undeniably the U.S. creates a lot of the violence that we see.
I wonder if you would say the same thing in 1938, you know, 1919.
So we do live in a relative world.
So the, you know, so if we are the ones that are creating the violence now, which is kind of hard to counter.
But like, is it still just a fraction of what it could be if the U.S. wasn't the one creating it?
Okay.
So to go back to the first world war that you're talking about, right?
There was a world war.
And that was not America's fault that, you know, there's like there you have the Industrial Revolution and human beings like have all of a sudden, if you look at a chart throughout human history of the amount of wealth, like compared to today, up until about the 1870s, it's like there's nothing.
It doesn't even register on a scale to today.
And then in the Industrial Revolution, it like jumps up.
Like this, like we were just basically pre-industrial revolution, we had by today's standards, essentially zero wealth.
And then we have the Industrial Revolution.
So basically you have the 19th century, the two greatest things in the history of the world happen.
You have the Industrial Revolution and the abolition of slavery, at least across the Western world.
There's like the greatest things ever.
Like it's like magic.
You couldn't even have fathomed it in the 17th century that that would have happened by the 19th century.
And so what happens is you have basically this drastic increase in freedom and production.
And then what comes along with that is now you have these factories and you have the ability, you know, because man has fallen and human beings are imperfect.
You have this ability to like kill people on a much higher level.
And so the First World War breaks out and they were basically like, and I think this is pretty like mainstream like history.
They were basically fighting to a standstill.
And then America jumped in the war late and tipped the balance on one side and forced the end to the war that never would have come.
I mean, Germany was winning the war because they had like superior submarines to anyone else until America got into the war.
America was this like industrialized power that hadn't been attacked on their homeland.
They jumped in the war late in the game and they led to an overwhelming like victory for the, you know, for the Western side or Western, you know, for the Allied forces, whatever they called them in World War I.
And they got a complete total surrender out of Germany, which they never would have gotten if it wasn't for America's entry into the war.
And so they got a complete total surrender from Germany.
They imposed the Treaty of Versailles on them.
And then the Federal Reserve, which had just been created, you know, brought on the Great Depression.
And this is like, this is what led to the rise of the Nazis.
So everything that happened in the Second World War was all America's fault for fucking up the First World War.
So like, I don't know, before that, I'm not saying you can blame America for everything.
After that, yeah, it's mostly like there's all guilty parties all around, but the federal government of the United States of America has like a ton of blood on their hands.
Just like a goddamn ton of blood on their hands.
And so again, I'm not, no, I'm not saying we would live in a peaceful world if it wasn't for America, but that's almost like saying like, you know, you're like, if fucking Jeffrey Dahmer didn't kill a whole bunch of people, are you saying no one would be killed?
It's like, no, I'm just saying less people would be killed.
And like, so stop killing people, you know?
So I don't know, you know, what the essentially the argument is that what America should try to do is what the founders always said, as imperfect as they were, is try to perfect your own society in the same way that like you should like try to like perfect your own marriage and not go with a gun to make sure everyone else's marriage is healthy.
You know what I mean?
I'm not saying there wouldn't be violence in the world.
There is violence in the world.
Most of the world is a goddamn nightmare right now, you know?
Like most of it is just fucking awful.
Most of it we don't even think about.
We think about Ukraine because that's what our politicians want us to think about.
There's fucking all types of civil wars and brutal dictators and just horrible shit happening throughout the world.
We're not going to be able to solve all of that.
But like I said, I like to say a lot, you know, it's like in like Washington, D.C., they can't even solve the violence problem in Washington, D.C. You know what I mean?
So like figure that out.
Fucking, there's, you got fucking like little kids in Washington, D.C. right now who can't fucking read or write, who have like, you know what I mean, who are growing up around like gangbangers and shit like that.
Figure that out.
Get Washington, D.C. settled, and then we'll talk about how you can move out from there and solve the rest of the world's problems.
Like, let's do that first.
Like, it's like with the war on drugs, where they can't, they go, we're going to fight a war on drugs across, you know, the United States of America and all of Latin America, and they can't even keep drugs out of federal prisons.
Like, the federal government can't keep drugs out of federal prisons, and they want to try to fight a war on drugs.
Do that.
Control one square block.
You know what I mean?
Before you think you're going to solve the world's problems.
That's my thing.
But I don't mean to be like, I know there's some lefties out there who will say like everything in the world is America's fault.
And no matter what's going on, you know, like if there's like, fucking, if there's a problem in like sub-Saharan Africa, that's because of America.
I'm not saying that.
I'm saying there's problems all throughout the world.
But the track record of the U.S. government is just making things way worse than better.
So anyway, who's next, Rob?
Hey, Dave.
Great show tonight.
Thank you, my brother.
Absolutely.
Have you given any thought, if you run for president, as to what nickname Donald Trump will give you?
What is it?
I think I said in Maryland, I said skinny Dave was going to be my nickname.
I don't know.
But I better get a good one.
I don't know.
I got to think about what nickname I'm going to give that motherfucker.
But I don't know.
I really haven't thought about it.
Rob, what's a good Trump nickname for you?
I think the move with Trump is you just talk to him as Trump.
I would debate you, but your dick is too small.
You couldn't even build a wall, okay?
You build a wall, then we'll have a conversation.
I feel like that would be how you'd have to deal with Trump.
I feel like you'd have to compliment the shit out of him and then give him slight back.
What you say bounces off me and sticks to you, okay?
But I do feel like if I, like, you'd almost have to talk to Donald Trump, like you'd have to really inflate his ego and then just hit him with something that you know would sting.
You know, like you'd be like, Mr. Trump, you were obviously the most terrific, incredible president ever, and you've got the best brain and you had the best economy.
And it's not your fault you got tiny hands, but the thing is, like, you really, like, something like that, where you just know it'll fuck with him the whole time.
Before we talk about North Korea, I was talking to Melania.
She's sleeping with other men, okay?
All right, who's next?
Hey, Dave.
I guess it's a two-part question.
We did hear your take on the whole Steven Crowder DDR situation a few weeks ago.
So in relation to that whole situation, part one, do you think there is a thing as a movement in the alternate media space that you guys are a part of that Carlo was alluding to?
Right.
And if so, is that movement a thing?
And is it worth, you know, I guess fighting for?
And part two, what's your beef with Ben Shapiro?
And do you have a beef with Ben Shapiro?
Because I think you guys don't really, I don't know if you guys are friends, but would you have him on your podcast?
He assumes that we're Jews.
We just know each other.
You guys are a racist Indian, Dave.
She goes, I mean, I'm sure you guys see each other at the meetings.
So.
Hey, so when you guys get together and you work on that weather machine, well, okay, so to the first part of your question, I think, like, is there a movement of like alternative kind of like media stuff?
Like, yes, there is, but it's in the most beautiful sense, a completely decentralized movement.
It's really the most beautiful and libertarian thing in a way, where it's completely decentralized and a bunch of us kind of like work together voluntarily, you know, and like have relationships with each other, but there's no like, it's really like what's driving it is like, so for like, I don't know Crowder or Ben Shapiro.
We go to different meetings.
And so I don't know either of them.
But like, obviously I know a lot of other guys.
I know Tim Poole and I know Joe Rogan and I know like guys like that.
And like we've like done shit together and shows together.
But it's, you know, like the thing that drives the whole force is that everybody recognizes how much they distrust the establishment and how full of shit all those guys are.
So yes, I think there is a movement.
It is worth fighting for.
But what fighting for it looks like is kind of, you know, is a little bit trickier to figure out because it's a completely decentralized thing.
In terms of like Ben Shapiro and them, look, I was just telling everybody what I thought about that specific like instance.
I didn't think Steven Crowder, to me, presented like a legitimate, strong argument about why he had something to be really outraged about with the deal that they offered him.
I think it's like people offer you deals.
If you don't like that deal, don't take it.
He didn't like it.
He didn't take it.
I don't see like what they did that was so fucked up in that situation.
In terms of Ben Shapiro, I don't have a beef with Ben Shapiro.
I disagree with him on like a whole like slew of political issues.
Yeah, I mean, Israel is a big one.
I disagree with him about the nature of like government, about the nature of our the military-industrial complex.
I also think that there's a reason why, you know, even when there will be people who like he might even describe himself, I think Ben Shapiro would probably say, I'm very libertarian on a lot of issues, you know, or something like that.
I just think we should give money to Israel and that everyone should take a vaccine and that you should listen to your government and spend more money on the military.
Even right.
There's like even there's there's kind of these people, even people who might describe themselves as very libertarian, it's a little bit of a different thing than like what I am.
Like I'm like, I'm like saying my thing is like the whole nature of this government is pure evil and I'm against it with every fiber of my being.
Like this is why when in the moment of crisis, Ben Shapiro will be telling everyone to be get vaccinated.
Don't be a dope.
Get vaccinated.
And like we'll be kind of like, nope, this is all bullshit.
These are evil people trying to trick you to do something.
Like this is why in the moment when Russia invades Ukraine, Ben Shapiro will be saying, well, we have to support Ukraine.
And I'll be like, nope, this is all bullshit.
And like, here's what's really going on.
And so like, there's my beef with him is like, I have no personal beef with him.
I think he's wrong about these things.
And I want to like, I want to get my thoughts on these issues out there.
But in terms of like, would I have him on the fucking podcast?
I'd have him on the podcast tomorrow.
Like, yeah, absolutely.
I would be psyched to have Ben Shapiro on.
Like, anyone, I don't know.
Anyone who's like got a huge, you know, like following who wants to come on and like, like, I think I'm right about everything.
And I understand that realistically, I'm probably only right about 99% of things.
But I would be happy to like argue with anyone about this stuff.
And I'd love to, like, I want to get as many people to watch it as possible because that's kind of the whole mission here.
So yeah, I'd be happy to have him on.
But I'd have anyone on.
Like, literally anyone.
I remember one time I was debating this guy, this really awful, like one of the worst of the, what we used to call the loser brigade libertarians ever.
And he was talking about how fucked up it was that I had like alt-right guys on my podcast.
And he said at one point, he's like, well, would you have a member of Al-Qaeda on your podcast?
And I was like, yeah, absolutely.
Like, that sounds like a great podcast.
Like, are you telling me if, like, tomorrow I was like, guys, my guest is Osama bin Laden on my podcast, that you wouldn't be like, well, I mean, I got to check out this episode.
Like, that's going to, but I mean, I really would.
I mean, like, I just think that would be like so interesting.
Like, to like be like, oh, yeah, let's fucking, I'd have, like, anyone you could think of, like, no matter how much I disagreed with them.
And I don't even disagree with Ben Shapiro as much as I disagree with Osama bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden.
I don't know.
That would be dangerous because he's persuasive and I feel like I'd be driving my car into a building.
You'd be like, okay, first of all, Osama, thank you for joining me.
I knew you weren't dead.
Bitcoin vs Central Bank00:04:21
So let's.
All right, who's next?
With the CBDC on the horizon, do you think Bitcoin or some other blockchain technology is an outlet for financial or political freedom?
The central bank digital currency?
You know, I don't know.
There's, you know, me and Rob, we've talked about this a bit.
Like, so first off, will Bitcoin save us all?
I think that I really like Bitcoin.
I really like what it represents.
There have been certain instances where I really thought, like, okay, I've seen kind of like so the trucker protests in Canada were a big moment for me where it really sold me on Bitcoin.
You know, I've been listening to guys.
I love Guy Swan.
I got to get him back on the show again sometime soon.
He really kind of like orange-pilled me and helped like explain a lot of this stuff to me.
I was never like a huge, you know, Bitcoin guy before that.
When the trucker protests were going on and people were getting locked up for donating to the truckers in Canada, who were just a pure freedom movement, like all they were asking for was like to end the COVID restrictions.
The people who were donating in money were getting in trouble for it.
And the people who were donating in Bitcoin were completely anonymous.
And I really liked that.
And there was like, and then the truckers were getting their bank accounts seized, but they're not seizing your Bitcoin.
So I thought that, like, I was like, okay, that's a really interesting little, like, when the shit really hits the fan, there's a real advantage to that.
The other thing, though, is that just watching Bitcoin, you know, having like in terms of being like a hedge against inflation or just a hedge against the world going crazy, that doesn't seem to have borne itself out so much over the last couple of years.
Like people have taken a beating in Bitcoin while inflation went crazy and while like the world's gone nuts.
So, you know, I still, I like Bitcoin.
I own a little bit of it.
I think like, I just don't know that like that's going to be the answer.
If like, oh, if a central bank digital currency comes up, don't worry.
We got Bitcoin.
I think like, man, and Rob, I'll be curious to get like your take on this, but I think if a central bank digital currency comes up, we're in real trouble.
Like, we're in real, real trouble.
We better really fight against that ever happening because I don't know how that's just not a good, it's not a good scenario.
I don't know.
Rob, you got any thoughts on that?
Yeah.
So I think Bitcoin versus central bank digital currencies is one of the purest stories of just good versus evil.
And yeah.
So I mean, I put a percentage, a small percentage, but I put a percentage of my every single paycheck into Bitcoin.
I love Bitcoin.
Like I stand behind it.
And I think we are coming to like a divergence here where we might end up with central bank digital currencies.
If you just look at the flow of technology, we are going to have digital currencies.
So do the central banks win the next round of this where they are the digital currency and we're all in a system.
And the problem with digital currencies, which you and I were talking about this today, is that they can make a determination.
Hey, you ate too much meat this week.
Or hey, you've consumed a little bit too much carbon.
Or hey, you can only use your money here.
That's really like the next generation of them having full control of where you spend your money, what you can consume, and just all of us being slaves to the state.
But what's great about Bitcoin is that a bunch of people might just be like, hey, fuck that.
Right?
There might just be enough people out there that look at the inflation and everything that happened on the last go-around of every single central bank and when they've had control over the money supply.
And so enough people might go over to Bitcoin that the central banks can't do it.
And it's really an interesting story of good versus evil here where Bitcoin, you know, decentralized, we might win, but the evil powers might have made it and we might all be fucked.
That's the problem with Bitcoin.
Yeah.
All right.
That's a good way to put it, Rob.
All right.
What do we got next?
Hey, Skinny Dave.
How'd that feel?
Pat Buchanan Culture Wars00:12:02
Is that all right?
First of all, great set to you and Robbie.
Awesome set tonight.
Yeah, thanks a lot.
Everyone's questions have been super serious and amazing.
Mine's not.
Your All's Live from Maryland show was fucking hilarious for the first 30 minutes talking about Paul Pelosi.
So I was hoping that you all had maybe a little bit more material on that, maybe something from your tool belts, perhaps a hammer to share with the audience here tonight.
I think we got all our Paul Pelosi jokes out of the way there, Rob.
But how's he doing?
Is he okay?
Dude, well, he's showing up.
He's hanging out with Bono and dressed like a detective.
Yeah, dude.
You said we should marry Nancy Pelosi.
That's what happens when you marry Nancy Pelosi, all right?
Great life advice, bro.
Now I took a hammer to the head.
He's showing up everywhere like, do you know how I get out of this relationship?
They go, dude, I'm so sorry you took a hammer to the head.
He goes, best moment I've had in 35 years.
He goes, for a sweet second there, I was in peace.
Hey, Dave, Father of Three, I really appreciate all the stuff you talk about, trying to be a great father.
Really appreciate all.
This guy cheats on his wife.
I just want to, I can literally hear it in his voice.
I'm sorry.
I appreciate all the stuff you talk about trying to be great.
We can't all get there.
We do what we can.
If you're listening, yeah, great job, honey.
Don't worry.
None of the cameras are facing you.
No, but I do have a question about the whole drama that's going on with the LP with the rage against the war machine stuff.
I mean, anytime there's drama going on in a political party, my first instinct is to just be like, well, obviously.
And then, but because there's so many people who are like, I finally joined the LP because the Mises caucus took over and now there's this going on.
What would you say to allay the fears of the people who are like, well, what did I just get into?
What are you, I guess what's your take on it?
Yeah.
So, okay.
So I got asked about this last night a little bit because I haven't said anything about any of this stuff.
I try my best to stay out of this.
So from what I understand, and I haven't like really had involvement in this, like in organizing this, this or anything.
Like I haven't been involved, but I think it's really great that they're doing this anti-war.
Basically, the Libertarian Party is working with the, what was it called, the People's Party on putting together this big anti-war rally.
And like, I think that's a great thing to do.
We really haven't seen a big anti-war rally in this country since like 2005, 2006.
And God damn, we are overdue for one.
So what a great project to be a part of.
Now, from what I understand, the People's Party invited this guy there.
He wasn't invited by the Libertarian Party, but he was invited by the party they were partnering up with.
And I guess the guy has like some type of sex crime conviction.
I don't know exactly what the details of it are.
So now I don't know.
So I just want to be very clear about that.
I don't know what the details of this are or what they aren't.
I know there was a big backlash about that.
And then there was like kind of like pressure from the Libertarian Party to be like, hey, if this guy could just step out, it would, you know, it's kind of bringing down the whole event.
Then there was a big backlash against them for asking him to step out because other people are like, oh, you're caving.
And blah, I just like, look, I think like my perspective on this whole thing is like, yo, you're putting together a big anti-war protest.
You got Scott Horton and Ron Paul and Jimmy Dore and Daniel McAdams and like all these like incredible people speaking at this event.
Like, what are we talking about here?
I just, and I see, like, I just go, I, I love everybody in the Mises caucus.
I love Angela McArdle.
I love Michael Heiss.
I love all those guys.
I love Daniel McAdams.
I love Ron Paul.
I love all Scott Horton.
I love all the people involved in this.
And like, I just think people making this a thing where it's like, well, this is why everything's terrible and I shouldn't have joined.
Like, calm down.
There's always going to be like hiccups along the road or things that are wrong.
I'm sure the situation could have been handled better.
You know, I'm sure there were like mistakes along the lines made that I'm not really super aware of.
But to me, just looking at it, I go, I think this is a real, I think it's pretty clear that everyone involved here was trying to do like a really awesome thing to do with their heart in the right place.
I don't find this to be a particularly big deal.
And I'm trying to not, you know, there's like, there was this battle to like take over the Libertarian Party and put it back in the hands of like its rightful owners as far as I'm concerned.
And then I think to some degree, it was like I got involved in fighting a lot of these internal battles because I wanted to win this, that kind of, that war or whatever.
I'm not, I just can't be every single day fighting internal libertarian beefs.
Like it's just not like that's not what I'm here to do.
So I saw Daniel McAdams like set a thing where he was real pissed off, but then the next day he was kind of, he kind of apologized for it and was like, I got a little emotional about that.
To me, I'm kind of like, okay, that's great.
This is, we're better and that's fine.
But like, I love Daniel McAdams.
I love Michael Heiss and they love each other.
I insist.
So that's that.
That's just as much as I could say about it.
Hi, Dave.
So you guys did so much about like culture and politics.
And my question is, do you feel like culture dictates politics or politics dictates culture more?
Yeah.
Well, it's both, right?
I just heard the word dick a bunch.
That's it.
I just heard.
The first chick that asks the question, it's all about dick.
But I mean, but the answer is that it's both, right?
Like, and I think, I think like that, that's always been my beef with that Andrew Breitbart quote where he's like, you know, politics is downstream from culture.
It's like, yes, and also no, you know, like it's not really, neither one's really downstream.
It's like a feedback loop.
Like they're both, they're both informing each other.
And yeah, like you could see that all the time.
Like you could say, obviously there's some truth to the fact that your culture is going to have an influence over like what politicians are going to run on and what they can get away with and what they can, you know, like if you, if a politician, think about it like this, right?
A politician, if they wanted to enact slavery again today, like let's say a politician wanted to enact the policy that was the policy in 1864, where they go, all black Americans, all black, but slavery is legal and you can enslave black Americans.
There is no conceivable way they could enact that policy because the culture is just like, dude, no, like we're not doing that anymore.
Like there's, there's just no way.
Even if Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and fucking, you know, Mitch McConnell were all, you know, we all agree we're going to do this.
There's just no way because that's not where our culture's at.
Whereas back then, they could get away with that policy because that's where the culture was at then.
So you can see like culture has a real impact on politics.
But at the same time, you can also see how much politics has an impact on culture.
I mean, think about like just the lockdowns of 2020, how much that impacted our culture.
The mask mandates and shit like that, how much that changed our fucking culture.
All of a sudden, fucking little kids are wearing masks in school all day long.
And that's just because politicians stood up and said, this is the policy.
And then that affects culture.
So both of the things are true, right?
But the reality is that we can't really affect politics nearly as much as we can affect culture.
So that is what I like choose to kind of focus on more because that's what I can make a bigger difference in like impacting.
But don't get it twisted.
They both impact each other.
Just look at like North Korea versus South Korea.
Like politics has a big impact on culture.
It's not as simple as Andrew Breitbart tried to make it sound.
Like it's just like, oh, it all comes from the culture.
Like, no, they had one culture and then they went in two different political directions.
And now one of them, you ever see like on the satellite maps, one of them's in the dark and the other one is skyscrapers.
Like politics has a huge, huge impact on culture.
The other example me and Rob like to use about that is like, you think about just like Federal Reserve policy.
They could really just change some numbers on a fucking screen and all of a sudden they'll determine whether we're going to be consuming or saving, you know?
Like there's a huge impact from the government onto the rest of our society.
But don't forget, there's also the other things.
There's a reason why, like to the slavery example, how you could never institute that again today, or at least right away.
There's a reason why they launched these major propaganda campaigns because even they realize they got to fucking brainwash the public before they could get away with a lot of the shit they want to do.
So that's that's the battle Amen is trying to counter their brainwashing and brainwash you to my liberty side.
On your right side.
So Pat Buchanan recently retired.
What are your favorite biggest takeaways from him over the years?
Oh man.
I mean, I just love, dude, I love reading Pat Buchanan's books.
I just, there's like, I don't even know if I could pick like my favorite, but like I really recommend, dude, if anyone, like, Suicide of a Superpower was just incredible.
His book on, oh, God, where the right went wrong was incredible.
He's the Richard Nixon book.
I can't remember what it's called, but that one was so great too.
I love everything I've ever read from Pat Buchanan.
It was amazing.
And all of his columns were all just so great, particularly during the whole rise of Donald Trump.
I always thought he had the best kind of take on what, you know what I mean?
like what exactly was going on, whereas like the corporate press got it all completely wrong.
His presidential campaigns in 1992 and 96, and I think again in 2000 when he ran third party were like heroic.
I mean, just completely, you know, for him to buck the Republican Party establishment and oppose the war.
Huh?
What's that?
No, I'm just saying.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, the culture war speech.
Yeah, that was a great speech.
He was an incredible speaker.
And in many ways, you know, he really was like ahead of his time in terms of that stuff.
Like he gave, you know, a speech about the culture wars in 1992.
Now, I wouldn't agree with everything that Pat Buchanan says.
Certainly, like, we have different, you know, different opinions on like what he calls economic nationalism, protectionism, stuff like that.
But man, the guy was really, he was a really, I think, genuine person, a really brilliant guy.
And he really believed in the stuff he was saying.
And you could see that where he was like, he was so in in the Republican Party and was fine to be like to ruin his career to just say what he thought was right.
So I'll always like, I think he was like a true American original and a person of like real integrity is what I'd say.
Free Country Tax Question00:14:08
Yeah.
Maybe a racist, but what are you going to do?
I think much of that was blown out of proportion.
I think there was something, his big thing was they said he hated Jews because at one point he like in the 90s, he goes, I think he was talking about the first war in Iraq.
And he goes, who the hell wants this war besides Israel?
And they were like, you're an anti-Semite or something.
And he was like, no.
I mean, you know.
So I've heard you call that Russia is just a dying petrostate.
Do you think that this war in Ukraine and NATO and U.S. involvement has accelerated Russia dying or slowed Russia dying down and kind of reinvigorated the country?
I don't think Russia's dying.
I think that Russia's not particularly strong.
But, you know, it's a really good question.
I don't exactly know.
I think it seems as of right now, in many ways, they've strengthened Russia's hand.
And I think what they've done is they've really, look, Russia was begging for years and years, like begging to make a deal with the West.
They were trying to be a part of the European coalition.
They asked to be a NATO.
They were talking about treat, even right before the war in Ukraine, they were proposing like a bunch of treaties with the West, asking for very reasonable minimal like security guarantees.
Like stop putting your NATO weapons right on our doorstep.
No Ukraine joining NATO, things like that.
I think that this war has pushed them more into the alliance with China.
And I don't know if that's good or bad for like Russia long term, but I know it's definitely bad for our interests.
Like there's nothing for us to be, you know, gained from that.
So I don't think Russia's dying, although it is, it's a pretty like, you know, it's a pretty crazy place right now that they're in.
Hey, Dave, how's it going?
Hello, sir.
Yeah, you guys killed it tonight.
So I'll stop.
Thank you very much.
That seems to be the common belief.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it was fantastic.
So my question is somewhat two-part.
First off, the LP New Hampshire, as far as having, ironically, like a centralized, like libertarian community out there, I think is fantastic.
It's a great idea.
Do you think that is something that's possible somewhere like maybe Dallas?
And do you think it would be more impactful having a large city like a Dallas as opposed to no offense, but New Hampshire, I don't know where it's at on a map, you know?
So, and then kind of the second part is what's next for the Mises caucus.
Okay, so, well, the thing in New Hampshire, like the centralization of it, which I don't know exactly if it's centralized, but that's not really the libertarian party of New Hampshire.
I mean, those guys are all a part of that, but that's really the free state project, which is kind of bigger than even like the New Hampshire Libertarian Party.
That's like been a thing that's been going on for years now, like a concentration of liberty-loving people in this one state.
And I think it's they particularly pick this state because there's like a small population, and therefore the more you kind of like, you know, you bring people in there, the more influence you have over the state.
And they've done a lot of really great things.
I mean, I think at least according to many metrics, it's the freest state in the country.
And so I like totally support the free state project.
And I love a lot of those guys, a lot of great people up in New Hampshire.
I'd support anyone doing that anywhere.
You know, I think like that's, I think that's a real potential winning strategy, like geographic concentration.
I don't, you know, you'd have to really get your numbers up to do that like in a city because there's just there's a lot of people in Dallas.
But that's what I'm in the business of is kind of like trying to introduce these ideas to more and more people.
So like, yeah, I'd love to see that.
I'd love to see more and more people really get on board with our ideas.
And then I think that might be like one of, I think there's several, but I think that's one of the real practical like solutions is like, yeah, you might have to like geographically concentrate with a lot of like-minded people.
That's a good way to like kind of at least ensure that your local government is going to be more or less, you know, on the same page as you.
So I like the idea.
Let's fucking do it.
Libertarian Dallas.
Let's take this whole bitch over.
I think let's do two more.
Okay, two more and then we're going to wrap up.
All right.
Well, my name is Andrew.
I am a libertarian that's been a little bit disheartened by the last two campaigns in 2016, 2020.
If you or somebody else runs for the presidency, what would you do to attack the tax code?
And no, I'm not done yet.
No, no, no.
What would you do to attack the tax code?
And essentially the fact that you have to destroy it and the state to take it all down and everything like that.
By the way, before you answer that, if I could get a wig of anyone's hair, it would be this dude.
Do you see that?
That's like a perfect fucking blonde comb over.
This is...
Dude's got great hair.
Yeah.
My hair will not go away.
His question makes no sense, but this is what Hitler was after.
I just want to let you know.
And he put a lot of work into trying getting people with hair like this.
I'm sorry.
No, my question is, as a libertarian nominee, how would you attack the tax code information?
Like the income tax is unconstitutional.
Can we just simplify it to how can you fix taxes?
Well, no, but I think the question more is more like about how should the libertarian nominee like go at that issue.
And like, so the first thing, right?
And this is like what I think what's so frustrating about the last few people who have run for president as on the Libertarian Party is that you have to understand right away.
Like there's this game in politics, which I can kind of understand to some degree, right?
Where like if you're trying to win, let's say hypothetically, like you're polling at 49% and you need 51% to win.
And you go, look, here's what I really want to do.
But if I say it like this, this is going to turn a lot of people off.
So if I just say it like this, it'll be more popular and I can get the 51% and then I could do what I want to do like when I get in there.
Like, okay, maybe that's plausible.
But when you're running as a Libertarian Party nominee, you already know you're not going to win.
Like you're not trying to win.
You're not coming in at 49%.
You're coming in at 1%.
So like the point there is to try to like, like you want to shake people out of their stupor and get them to like understand things from a totally different perspective.
That's like what we want to come at this from.
So the role, once you understand that, you're like the role of the LP presidential candidate is to like present this alternative to your whole way of thinking.
That there's this whole other way to look at things.
I love Scott Horton always puts it this way.
And I think this is the way you attack like not the tax code, but the idea of taxation in general.
So like this is how he would say it.
Well, my version of how he would say it, right?
But like imagine, this is how you think of income taxes, right?
Like imagine we were a free country.
Just for the sake of argument.
We were a free country and we and the Soviet Union still existed and the Soviet Union invaded and conquered our country.
So we were now conquered by the USSR.
And they came in and they instituted the USSR IRS.
This is like, this is, we've conquered you.
You are now the slaves of the USSR and you have the USSR IRS, which is now this new communist, you know, like organization that rules over you.
And they have decided that it is, they've repealed the Fifth Amendment.
You no longer have a right to not incriminate yourself.
In fact, you're mandated to incriminate yourself every year to the USSR IRS.
And you no longer have a Fourth Amendment.
You don't have a right to privacy because you have to reveal all of your documents to the USSR IRS.
And we've made it a fee.
It's now a crime to be productive.
If you are productive, that is a crime.
And the punishment is a fine.
And the more productive you are, the higher your fine is.
And every single year, you must incriminate yourself and turn over all of your records and pay your fine for the crime of being a productive member of society.
Like if you just saw that, would any of us have any questions about what that is?
We'd go, oh, we're all slaves.
Right?
Like, we're all slaves to this totalitarian organization.
But just because it's not called the USSR-IRS, it's called the IRS.
What?
That's cool?
It's like, this is the most insane thing ever in a supposed capitalist society that we allow this.
It's so goddamn insane that the IRS knows what you owe them, but won't tell you what you owe them.
They go, you tell us.
And if you get it wrong, you are fucked.
Like, that's actually the way the system works.
And so it's like, Goal always is to get people to think of it in a whole different way.
That this is actually, this is nothing other than the government just robbing from you.
It's just an extortion racket and nothing else.
So, once you get people to look at it like that, then you're not really debating over like whether the rate should be 10% or 12% or whether it should be a flat tax or a progressive tax or any of this.
You're just getting people to realize that you're like, oh, I see.
It's like, okay, taxation is theft.
And so as much as we can reduce that, that's better.
And it should all just be abolished.
Like, that's like the whole game is getting people to realize a whole different way of looking at it.
So that's how I think it should be attacked.
What do we got, Rob?
All right, on the opposite side, one last question.
One last question.
And by the way, before the last question, thanks all of you guys so much for coming out tonight.
Really been a great time here at Hyenas.
Yeah, my question was just about 2024 as we look forward to the next presidential election.
What do you think is like the topic that is like the shifting point on what everybody thinks is going to be most important for the election?
You know, is this Russia-Ukraine?
Is it taxes?
Is it, you know, I don't think it's taxes, but to me, it's taxes, but you know, me too.
What do you think is like the point that shifts the election in 2024?
You know, it's just so hard to say.
There's just so much time left still, you know?
And like we just started 2023.
It's like, imagine if in, you know, the very, like if in February of 2019, you were like, what's the election issue going to be in 2020?
You'd have been like, dude, you have no fucking idea what that election issue is going to be because there's a whole lot of shit that's coming down the pike.
So it feels to me like we're in that kind of time where I have a feeling that whatever issue we're dealing with in late 2024, we could not even predict right now because it's going to be something like that.
So I'm really hoping it's not the Russia-Ukraine thing because man, if that it's balloons everywhere.
Chinese spy balloons.
They're coming in by the hundreds every day.
What if that was it?
They're just not doing anything, but they're just everywhere.
They're just out there with a rifle, like pew, pew, pew, taking them down.
So I don't know.
You know, it's like there's several possible things.
And I think one of them could be like a true crash of our currency.
I think it could be a real debt crisis.
I also think it could just be like, it depends, again, like to the question we were talking about before, like the way they're bringing interest rates up.
It could just be that they really pop this bubble and the economy crashes hard.
That could be it.
Could be a conflict with China.
Could be the conflict with Russia.
It's just really hard to say.
It also could be some crazy climate change totalitarian shit where they're trying to do climate lockdowns or something.
I don't know.
You know, the lesson that I took away from 2020 was like, wow, never put anything past these motherfuckers.
So I don't know what they got planned over the next year and a half for us.
But whatever it is, me and Rob will be right there being right about it.
So that's what we can promise.
All right, we're going to wrap up there.
Thank you guys so much, everybody, for coming out.
I'll be back out in a minute and take pictures and everything like that.