Dave Smith and Robbie Bernstein dissect the dollar's decline as global powers like France seek independence from U.S. hegemony, while critiquing Bernie Sanders' $17 minimum wage proposal for ignoring inflation. They analyze Anheuser-Busch's disastrous Bud Light rebranding featuring Dylan Mulvaney, which erased over $5B in value by alienating conservative consumers through forced DEI mandates. Ultimately, the episode argues that modern corporate politicization destroys brand equity, contrasting this failure with Michael Jordan's successful non-partisan approach to maintaining universal appeal. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Europe vs United States Conflicts00:14:14
Fill her up.
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What's up, everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
I'm, of course, the libertarian Tupac Dave Smith.
And as always, I'm joined by the king of the cocks, Robbie the Fire Bernstein.
How are you, sir?
Oh, I'm doing great.
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Getting busy.
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Okay, so for today's show, there's a few topics that I was really interested to talk to with you, my brother, Robbie Bernstein, and all of you, my brothers and sisters who are listening.
Let's get real.
There's no women in the audience, but for the few of you men listening who identify as women, I wanted to include you in this as well.
All right.
So the first thing I want to talk about, as we've said now for a while, there's what is probably the biggest story in the world right now that is certainly one of the biggest stories in my life and in your lifetime, Rob, has been the war in Ukraine and the subsequent fallout and the repercussions of that war.
And specifically, major powers moving away from the dollar.
This is a very big deal.
No matter where exactly you come down on how important the petro dollar is, the fact is that the U.S. dollar being the world reserve currency has been a staple of global economic affairs for our entire life.
And this is a big, profound change that this is happening.
We talked recently about how President Xi went over to Russia and worked out this economic deal with Vladimir Putin.
At the same time, the Chinese were negotiating a peace of sorts, a normalization of sorts between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
So you start to see this like new world order emerge where you have Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, India, Brazil, you know, like all of these countries kind of forming one group that is outside of the influence of the U.S. dollar, or at least outside of the direct use of the U.S. dollar, I should say.
One of the things that's really interesting that just happened over the last couple of weeks is that it looks like France has floated out the idea of the European Union creating some distance between them and the United States of America, that they kind of don't want to be.
And these things are not unrelated, that they see that all these other nations are moving away from the U.S. and they kind of go like, well, I don't know.
I don't know if we want to be the United States is bitch.
I mean, we're Europe after all.
So anyway, this was an interesting dynamic.
And Senator Marco Rubio, loyal servant of the neocon class, put out a response video to this last week, which I thought was fascinating.
So we're going to play the video in a sec.
Rob, is there anything you wanted to say on this before we listened to what Marco Rubio had to say?
Yeah, I do just think there are some noteworthy items that have taken place just in the last year that have never really happened in a lifetime.
One is I think Saudi Arabia is now actually formally selling oil, not in dollars.
He had both Russia, I mean, aside from what's happened in Russia, yet both India and China basically didn't back us in this war because they continue to buy net gas from China.
I think someone had sent me a storyline over the weekend, which was both sad but hilarious at the same time of I believe China will be buying minerals from the Taliban.
And these are probably minerals that we're going to need for our electric vehicles.
But the point is, a lot of players that used to just get in line and go, ah, the big old bad United States wolf has given us some marching orders.
We're going to go with our marching orders.
That seems to have changed quite a bit.
And I think one of the more symbolic gestures was Macaroon getting up and saying, we will not be standing with the United States.
It sounded like they will not be back in the United States if China decides to take Taiwan.
That was the gist of what I took away from it.
Yes, I think that was essentially what he was saying.
And also saying that he was also, he was saying that we should not, if this war happens, because of course Biden's been on record now saying that we will militarily defend Taiwan.
This is more than even what they're saying for Ukraine, that we'll actually use our military to defend Taiwan.
And Macron was saying, well, don't count us in on that.
And also, why are you saber-rattling this whole conflict?
Like, what are you doing?
Now, there was something that happened months ago.
This might have been, it was actually, this was in 2022.
It was late 2022, where in Japan, they had a big meeting.
It was of not the Council on Foreign Relations, but the other big one.
I'm blanking on what it's called right now.
But where they were meeting with their Asian chapter and the Japanese were like screaming at them, up in arms, about why America is being so provocative toward China, which was very interesting because the Japanese, you know, of course, are our longtime ally ever since we bombed the life out of them in World War II.
And then they started falling in line.
But they were just, I think there was an understanding from their perspective that they're like, look, if this war does happen, this is a lot worse for us than it is for you.
So please stop trying to push us toward this war.
Like we'd like to avoid this from happening.
Anyway, let's go to Senator Mark Rubio.
Little Mark.
Wasn't that his name from Trump?
This was his response, which I found really profound and revealing.
Let's watch it.
The president of France, Macron, goes to China, spends about six hours meeting with Xi Jinping.
And then on the flight back, he talks to a bunch of reporters.
And here's what he told the reporters.
He told the reporters, number one, that it's time for Europe to break away from the United States, not to depend on the dollar, not to depend so much on us, to become their own third superpower.
The second thing he says, which I found really interesting, was that Europe needs to make sure that they don't get involved in conflicts that are not their conflicts.
Specifically, that Europe should not be picking sides on Taiwan between the United States and China.
And so I think this is a good moment for us to ask Europe, does Macron speak for all of Europe?
Is Macron now the head of Europe?
Is he now the most powerful leader in Europe?
Okay, so let's pause it for a second right there.
I will.
Here's what I'll grant Senator Marco Rubio here.
That is the question.
You know, that is really actually, he is asking the correct question, which is, does this reflect, you know, the feelings of Europe more broadly?
I mean, this is not obviously all of Europe speaking.
This is the leader of France.
But for him to say something like, look, he's essentially saying that Europe should not be a satellite of the United States of America.
Europe ought to be Europe and they ought to be independent and that they shouldn't be fighting wars that don't concern them.
And they shouldn't pick sides between the U.S. and China should there be a conflict over Taiwan, which all, you know, sounds pretty goddamn reasonable.
But Senator Rubio does start by, even though there's, you know, he's got his little insults in here.
Well, are you the most powerful person in Europe or whatever?
That is the question.
Where does Europe go in this?
And this is like, that's the billion dollar question right there, which we don't have an answer to yet.
But so I'll give him that.
But that is the important question.
Does Europe agree?
Because if so, that's a really big deal.
Anyway, let's keep playing.
You know, Europe, including France specifically, has depended heavily on the United States for 70 years for their own defense.
In fact, when Macron tried to play global superpower and send troops to North Africa to fight terrorists, he couldn't even get his own troops there.
We had to fly them there and we had to fly them back.
He couldn't even get his own troops there.
So if they're going to break off on their own and follow Macron's lead, that's going to save us a lot of money.
As far as not getting involved in other conflicts that are not ours, we need to ask Europe, does he speak for them?
Because we're pretty heavily involved in Ukraine a lot of our taxpayer money on a European war.
And I've supported that because I think it's in the national interest of the United States to be allies to our allies.
But if our allies' position, if in fact Macron speaks for all of Europe and their position now is they're not going to pick sides between the U.S. and China over Taiwan, maybe we shouldn't be picking sides either.
Maybe we should basically say we're going to focus on Taiwan and the threats that China poses and you guys handle Ukraine and Europe.
So we need to find out, does Macron speak for Macron or does Macron speak for Europe?
And we need to get the answer to that pretty quickly because China is very excited about what he said.
They enthusiastically support everything he said.
And apparently he said even worse, but the French presidency insisted that all the reporters that got that interview, that they had to review, they had to, they wanted to review the transcript and they apparently took out stuff that was even more aggressive that he said.
So we need to find out where Europe stands.
Okay.
Well, I do agree with that concluding message that we do need to find out where Europe stands.
But isn't this just amazing, Rob?
And I know you were the one who found this video and sent it to me.
And I think for obvious reasons, that Marco Rubio, if you listen to what he's saying, and I'm not really adding much to it, you just heard it here.
He's going, well, if you won't help us fight this war with China, well, maybe we don't help you guys fight a war with Russia.
How about that?
And, you know, by the way, if we didn't subsidize your defense, we'd save a lot of money over here.
And remember when you wanted to fight wars in Africa, you couldn't do that without our help.
So how about this?
This is what you're trying to say?
No wars for anyone and we save money?
Like you're really threatening me with a good time here, Marco Rubio.
Like, what the hell would be so bad about that?
Like, this seems like perfect.
He really just unintentionally made the strongest argument for Europe to follow in Macron's steps here and to say, yes, stop being America's bitch.
Be your own power and stop looking for wars that we don't need to fight.
Oh, and then what's the downside of that?
We American taxpayers get to save money on not subsidizing rich countries' defense.
And what?
We don't get a war with Russia or China.
Hmm.
Okay.
Interesting.
I'm okay with it.
He's forgetting the part where you got to pretend like we need this for world security.
He's not even hitting the world.
He never gave us the...
And then this disaster will happen if we don't do this.
Right.
If you go with our worldview, you're like, wow, you're just completely admitting to the fact that you guys just all need to work together and keeping this racket going.
But it also, even his tone and the way he talks is kind of fun because it really just does sound like a mouthpiece for the mob.
It really just the way, hey, you know, we're going to have a problem over here.
My boss isn't going to like that too much if you decide to make that decision.
You make that decision.
I might have to go make this decision.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, it's just so blatant.
And it was, it did strike me too, the point you make, Rob, that you almost felt like you were waiting for him to get to the part where he goes, oh, and this would be a real disaster if we don't work together to fight these wars because X, Y, and Z.
But he didn't.
He was just like, well, then maybe we stop helping you with your war.
Like almost as if it seemed almost like there was an admission there, like, oh, that's an option.
We could just say, oh, this is Europe's problem.
It's not our problem.
Like, because even from Rubio's position, you would think like he's trying to threaten them, but you would think he would go, well, look, even if you don't help us out with China, we still have to help you with this war because it's so important and necessary, blah, blah, blah, for everyone and all that's good for us to support Ukraine against Russia.
But he was just using it as a bargaining chip.
Well, maybe we stop doing that then and we save some money.
Like it was almost like the admission was he was going, hey, look, that would actually work out better for the American people.
So like, that's better for our country if we just save money and don't help you with your war.
Almost like we're just doing this out of generosity to you.
So you should be grateful and then kind of owe us one and help with China.
But if it's the case that we're just doing this, you know, like it's optional, well, then let's exercise the option where we don't provoke a war with Russia.
That seems obvious to me.
I also thought he he makes, like you said, he kind of speaks in this mob-like tone of like, is everybody in line with this guy?
Because you better tell me pretty quickly because otherwise you won't get all the stuff we're giving you unless you do me a little favor here.
Weakening Ourselves to Check China00:05:47
There's this weird thing.
There's no argument at all for why it's better for us to all, you know, for them to just fall in line with America.
And then at the end, he hits them with what is an argument, I was going to say, but that's not the right term, a tactic that I've come to be very familiar with since I've, you know, been kind of known as one of the opponents of the war in Ukraine and war generally, is that he goes, he doesn't actually make an argument, but he does say, because China's very happy about what you said.
See, this makes China very happy, which is really just like, it's just so dumb that anyone, that that has any effect on anyone when you make this, this point.
Oh, yeah, well, you know, who really likes what you're saying is China.
It's kind of like, oh, so you're kind of like a traitor.
Yeah, you know who really loves you?
The Chinese Communist Party.
It's like, yeah, I mean, okay, so what?
Who cares?
Like, I bet, you know, if you were arguing against fighting the war in Iraq, I bet Saddam would have liked to hear that.
But so what?
That's not a point.
It's like, hey, we're going broke and spending too much money.
That's a Republican talking point.
Right.
It still is an issue.
I get that the Republicans might be talking about it more than you, but maybe they're getting this one right.
Yeah.
Is it true or not?
How about that?
I know because I've heard this, believe me, I've gotten this a ton is there's, you know, you're, these are Putin talking points when I'll talk about the, you know, the West's role in everything the West has done wrong in the lead up to the war and in the war in Ukraine.
And it's like, what?
Okay.
I don't care.
I don't care if Putin agrees with this talking point or not.
Is it true?
And the answer is yes.
So that's all that matters.
Who cares?
Oh, China likes this.
All right.
Well, whatever.
That's, yeah, of course.
It's in their interest that they not fight a war with America.
So yeah, they probably like that.
Yes.
Like it, sorry, go ahead.
It's amazing how some of these decisions don't even make sense from the Warhawk perspective.
Like unless they're totally just in it for profit.
But like, if you even looked at, I remember writing a paper in high school when we went into Iraq and I was like, yeah, but Iraq and Iran are natural enemies.
How's that going to work out for us if we're actually concerned with Iran?
China situation here at the beginning of this war was similar, where one, we start sanctioning people on oil, but we know that they still need the resources.
They're going to trade with each other, which to me was almost like if it's not a perfect example, but it's like if you threw someone out of a prison and then he got mad at them for being out enjoying themselves.
You know what I mean?
It's like we needed these people to use our currency.
We told them they couldn't use the currency and then we got mad at them that they used other currencies.
Well, what did you think was going to happen?
Or if we were seriously looking at it like we're at war with China or that China's the aggressor and that's who we got to be concerned about, well, then why would we be picking fights with Russia?
We would want to be allied with Russia.
And two things have seemed to have come from the Ukraine war.
One, I'm just going to put it in simple terms, we have some risk on our plate in terms of, you know, the dollar being the reserve currency of the world.
Not saying it's going away tomorrow.
I'm just saying you've definitely increased the risk.
Two is if you were trying to keep China in check, this idea like we were going to weaken Russia, if anything, it seems like we've weakened ourselves a little bit where countries are moving away from us.
And we've definitely emboldened China quite a bit to start going, hey, fuck you to the U.S. and make it more likely for them to go and take Taiwan.
And, you know, the point you made, that was so well put.
And it's interesting.
I don't think you've ever mentioned to me writing that paper when you were in high school about Iran and Iraq.
I don't want to give myself too much credit.
But the point is that it's something that anyone paying attention, even like a high school kid paying attention, could go, wait, but look at this.
This is obviously going to work in this way.
And while it's really remarkable to think that the people who actually sold the war and were actually in positions of power, this is the war in Iraq under George W. Bush.
They said, no, no, no, this is going to check Iran.
If you overthrow their neighbor who is majority Shiite, like Iran is Shiite, and overthrow the Sunni minority who's controlling that power, it'll actually check Iran and democracy will sweep through the region.
And this was insane.
Anyone could have seen obviously what the obvious answer was is like, no, if you overthrow the Sunni minority who's ruling right now and the Shiites take over the country, this is going to give Iran a lot more influence in the region.
It's just obvious.
And same with China falling right into the arms of Russia.
Of course, this was obvious.
I mean, look, from the Chinese perspective, let's say there's a dominant U.S. victory in Ukraine and Ukraine was easily defended and now Russia is torn apart.
They're on the brink of collapse.
Let's say.
Let's say it's just the best case scenario, overwhelming dominant victory.
Well, then obviously the entire US military machine is now solely focused on China.
And now they're more emboldened to go defend Taiwan than ever before.
Look, we just did this successfully over here.
It'd be easy to go replicate that success in Taiwan.
Much easier to work up popular support for a war defending Taiwan.
So like, of course, like, this isn't like genius level shit.
This is like the most basic understanding of geopolitics that you're like, oh, yeah, this is what's going to happen.
This is going to incentivize China to work with Russia.
And so, yes, by any, as you said, even by the Warhawk, the Warhawks' own stated worldview, this is really, really stupid.
Funding Healthcare with Bitcoin00:02:21
And so I'm with you.
I guess that the most logical explanation is just like, yeah, but it's really good for the CIA's budget and for Raytheon profits.
And so that's here's where we are.
Anyway, I just find the insult, the tactic that I see used quite often of, you know, you're a Putin apologist or this makes China really happy or you're spreading Russian propaganda or whatever they say.
I just find it to be so like loathsome and idiotic.
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Minimum Wage Economic Reality00:16:16
All right, let's get back into the show.
I was just recording.
I just recorded State of the Union with Ari Shafier for his podcast the other day.
That should be out in the next couple of weeks, by the way, which everyone always likes that podcast.
We do yearly.
And we were talking about this at one point.
It was just like, it's so goddamn hilarious that like, I'll make this argument about what led to the war in Ukraine and people meet it with, you're spreading Russian propaganda.
Like, like, is your accusation that like my loyalties are to Vladimir Putin?
Like, what type of, what?
What does it even mean?
Like, what?
I'm spreading Russian propaganda.
Like, none of my sources are Russian.
What are you talking about?
None of the people who have influenced me on this topic are Russian.
They're all American.
It's just, it's just, I guess, a few Europeans also.
But like, it's all just insane.
It makes no sense at all.
And then at the end of the day, it's like, it just doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
Like, let's say I did, which I didn't, but let's say I did get this information from Russian propaganda outlets.
Like, is it true or not?
That's all that matters.
Is it correct?
You know, Saddam Hussein not having weapons of mass destruction is something that Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government was saying at the time.
So like, I guess in a technical sense, yes, you're spreading Iraqi propaganda.
If in 2002 you said he doesn't have weapons of mass destruction, he doesn't have a nuclear program.
That's not real.
But it's true.
So who fucking cares who it makes happy?
Just really, really sad.
And the encouraging thing about it is you go like, oh, this is weak propaganda.
That always encourages me where you're like, yeah, I don't think this is good propaganda.
I don't think this is going to sell well.
So good luck, Marco Rubio, recording a video on your fucking iPhone to try to respond to the shifts in global politics.
Anyway, pretty, this development of this story is a really big deal.
And so it's going to be interesting to see how it goes.
All right.
Let's let's let's check in on our old friend Bernie Sanders for a minute here, Rob.
How about it?
We haven't, well, I don't think we've discussed Bernie Sanders on this podcast in quite a while.
He's making millions of dollars on a book tour.
He doesn't have time for politics.
Well, we did.
I think we probably talked about him a little bit when he bitched out on the Yemen War Powers Act.
But aside from that, Bernie Sanders has really not been wholly relevant in the political scene for a while, which itself, well, yeah, he certainly is cash.
He's got two vacation homes to enjoy.
He's got two vacation homes to enjoy.
And he's on a book tour and, you know, the life that he's built for himself.
It is something, though, that the guy who was seen as like building this political revolution in 2016, and then many people had hopes for it continuing in 2020, really like he traded that in just for like, I'll make money off book tours.
There was almost like no real political victory that you could, you know, grant him, or at least for any of the things that he claimed to care about.
But the guy really is just there's some of these guys, like not just Bernie Sanders, but the actual Democratic socialist, because he's kind of just a pretend Democratic socialist, really, when it comes down to it.
Like Bernie Sanders isn't really, he's just kind of like grow the size of the welfare state always.
He's, he's not truly like a guy who's talking about abolishing capitalism or, you know, workers owning factories or anything like that.
But there a lot of those guys, it's, it's remarkable to me, like the, the Richard Wolf types, um, who make this their life's work and have seemingly never encountered the most basic of economics.
You know, like have never encountered, like, your life's work revolves around your economic views.
And you like, I don't know, never taken like a 101 tour through the arguments against all this nonsense that you're saying.
Like if you have, you've never like, it's just, it's flabbergasting, to be honest.
But all right, so Bernie Sanders tweeted this.
He tweeted this yesterday.
So he said, the federal minimum wage has lost over 27% of its purchasing power since it was last raised 14 years ago.
Too many Americans are trying to survive and raise family on $9, $10 and $12 an hour.
It cannot be done.
We must raise the minimum wage to $17 an hour.
So Bernie Sanders, the old Bernie Sanders who believed in a $15 per hour minimum wage, get out of here.
It's 17 now.
Of course, there's like a million ways to just tear this apart, as we've always been saying for years.
It's just, there is something so funny about like the lack of science behind any of this, like 17.
Like, okay.
I say 1750.
Am I a better person than you now?
Am I just like, do I, would I blow you away?
Is it just like, ooh, wow, that guy's, that guy's generous now, you know, like, why?
Why 17?
Why not anything else?
But so what's interesting about this is he says the federal minimum wage has lost 20%, 27% of its purchasing power since it was last raised.
So now we got to raise it even more than we were saying before because it's losing its purchasing power.
Now, there seems to be no thought or even like we're not even going to pretend that we have to give, you know, a reason for why this is happening.
What's causing the dollar to lose its purchasing power?
Because almost like, you know, implicit in this is that we wouldn't have to raise the minimum wage if say the dollar's purchasing power was growing rather than shrinking.
Then we wouldn't need to do that at all.
Maybe we could even lower it according to this logic.
So he just seems to have no thought that like, oh yeah, there's actually might even be a connection between the policies you advocate for and the fact that inflation is destroying the purchasing power of the dollar.
But nope, don't worry about that.
We'll just raise up the minimum wage.
And then I guess in a few years, we'll have to raise it a bunch more because that's going to lose purchasing power.
Genius.
I mean, it's incredible to overlook that aspect of it.
The starting point is, hey, we've got a problem.
The dollar's lost 30% of its purchasing power.
And not to address that, well, what happened there?
Why did it lose 30%?
If the issue is that people are losing their purchasing power, shouldn't we address why they're losing their purchasing power?
And then the solution would actually just add to the problem.
So you're going to force, well, firstly, maybe not, because I guess if you're forcing the wages higher, you're going to end up with less people being employed.
So it doesn't, that's not necessarily inflationary.
But by his logic, if he thinks everyone's the case, right?
If everyone's magically going to continue to have their job, but they're going to just make more money to do that exact same job.
Well, doesn't that cause that purchasing power problem you just mentioned?
Yeah, you know, there's the thing with the minimum wage is like there's this thing.
There's some of these like statistics.
And don't get me wrong.
I just want to be clear and says, I understand, because every now and then I'll get this response on this show.
I understand that there are people out there who are playing a different game than we're playing.
I understand that like we're playing the game of trying to like make an argument and know what we're talking about and be correct.
And there are some people who are like not playing that game.
They're being disingenuous.
They're playing on people's emotions.
They're not like interested in a logical argument.
They only pretend to be.
But the point of what we do is for the people who are interested in that, who can be persuaded by that, which the number of those people is not zero, you know?
And so that's what you want.
That's who we're trying to talk to.
But when you see a lot of these things, like the minimum wage, it's like the wage gap.
It was a big topic for a long time.
Women make whatever it is, 77 cents to the dollar to what a man makes.
And this has just been demolished a million times.
So a woman makes 77 cents to the dollar is just like the aggregate, basically.
If you take total salary for full-time male workers and full-time female workers, that's about what it comes out to.
But if you do the most basic controls, even when you just control for the amount of hours they work, the gap shrinks a bunch.
Then when you control for the amount of time that they've been on the job, if you control for if you left, you know, and took off years at a time to like go raise kids, if you control for what they majored in in college, if you control for what fields they go into, if you control for all these things, and once you do all of that, the gap shrinks and shrinks and shrinks until it's almost nothing.
And you've seen just like a million people tear apart this bullshit statistic, but then it just persists.
People just keep, you know, they're just someone, you'll still see someone on television or in a newspaper or something go, and there's this wage gap of 77 cents to a dollar.
And you're like, oh, it just like for some people, it just doesn't matter how many times this argument is torn to shreds.
And the fact is with the minimum wage thing, just whenever it comes up, you kind of have to go through this again in case there's anyone out there who isn't aware of this.
But look, the way that prices work is that they're a reflection of information.
And wages are prices.
They're just the price of labor, the price of what it costs to get you to work, right?
It's a price.
And the reality is that there are some people out there whose whose work justifies a price lower than $17 an hour.
There are some people who bring in, say, like $12 worth of value an hour.
And then if they bring in $12 worth of value, your employer is probably not going to pay you $12 because then, you know, they're not benefiting from it at all.
But if you bring in $12 an hour worth of value, maybe they'll pay you $10 an hour.
And they'll be like, okay, I'll give you $10.
I get two bucks of value, whatever, something along those lines.
And it's not always easy to know exactly how much value a worker brings you, but you try to figure it out as much as possible.
And if you legislate that that employer has to pay that person $17 an hour, then they have to take a loss of $5 an hour to hire that person.
And unless they feel like getting into the business of charity, which most businesses are not in a position to do, and certainly is not why they started a business, then they're better off firing that person.
That's all that raising the minimum wage does, is it puts employers in a situation where they can't afford to offer you one thing into a situation where they are losing money to employ you.
This is the most basic of economic understandings.
In the same sense that if you said, if you were to legislate that you sell big screen TVs for $10, people will stop selling big screen TVs or they will sell big screen TVs on a black market, right?
It's a guarantee that will happen.
Now, this isn't as drastic as that.
They're not legislating that people get paid $1,000 an hour, but we all know why you couldn't do that, right?
We all know why you couldn't have a minimum wage of $1,000 an hour, because of course there'd only be two options, right?
There'd be either mass firings or people working under the table for far less than that.
There is no conceivable way that some business that a McDonald's or a diner or a hardware store can pay everybody who works there $1,000 an hour.
It's not conceivable.
They'll be out of business within months, right?
So we all get that.
You get that when you use the extreme.
You go, okay, well, that same principle is true to a lesser degree anytime you legislate over what that person is worth.
This is of all of the ways to increase people, the poor people or working poor peoples to increase their value, there is no dumber way to do it than the minimum wage.
And there's an additional problem with that, which is that for the most part, who is the person who is getting paid 10 bucks an hour?
Who is the person who that's the value that they bring to the table is the 10 bucks an hour, that that's the best offer they can get?
Because it's reasonable to assume that if they were getting better offers all around the place, they probably wouldn't take the job that pays them $10 an hour.
If they take that, it's probably because they're like, well, this is about what I can do is get 10 bucks an hour.
Well, that person, I mean, maybe it's a young person.
Maybe it's a not very bright person.
Maybe it's a not very skilled person for whatever reasons.
Not saying it's any fault of their own for any of these things.
That just might be the reality of the situation.
Well, what can that person actually do to increase their value?
Well, they could do a really good job at that job.
They could get some experience by doing, let's say they do that job for a year.
Well, now they're in a different situation, right?
They're that same person, except they've had a year of experience doing this job, whatever it is that pays them 10 bucks an hour.
They can learn skills.
They're at least more attractive to an employer now as it's like, hey, they showed up and did a really good job for this amount of money.
That increases their value.
They can, you know, like they can improve themselves by having this job.
The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of people, and I don't have the stats on this offhand, but you can go look this up.
It's the overwhelming majority of people who make minimum wage get a raise within a year.
Usually if you work a minimum wage job, no matter where you're starting at, you can get a raise within a year.
The overwhelming majority of them get a raise within a couple of years, like almost all of them, 90 something percent.
And so now by raising the minimum wage, that then you can actually be in a situation where you rob that person of their opportunity, of their opportunity to actually increase their skills and make themselves worth the money rather than just being gifted to them.
I'll say one of the things that I hate so much about people arguing for raising the minimum wage is that, again, all this stuff I'm saying, these are basic economic realities.
And if some progressive or some socialist type wants to argue that say that that person, that they can't afford to live off 10 bucks an hour, then they could still argue that, I don't know, they should get welfare or something like that.
You know, whatever.
We should print money and give them some money.
Now, there's problems with all of that stuff, but the fact that they argue that the boss ought to be like, we ought to legislate that the boss is forced to pay them more if he hires them, yet there's no legislation against him firing them.
Printing Money for Low Wages00:03:30
It just demonstrates that you have no understanding of the most basic aspect of this shit, right?
That like you're just saying, oh, so the boss, it's not his fault that this is what he can afford to pay the worker.
And so now he's required to pay the worker more, but he's also still allowed to just not hire the worker.
How does that make any sense at all?
Even in your dumb statist like worldview, you could come up with a much better system that wouldn't have all of the economic problems of robbing.
Like it's in the worst, most disgusting way.
You're screwing over the low value worker who wants to work, you know, who's trying to work a job.
And again, this is a major problem that like this used before minimum wage laws existed or when they basically essentially didn't exist, this used to be the norm is that teenagers would do so many of these of these jobs and they would start at a buck an hour, two bucks an hour or whatever.
But then by the time they were like old enough to enter the workforce, they kind of had a resume.
Oh, I've worked at this grocery store.
I've worked at this, you know, as a clerk.
I've done whatever it is.
And then they made themselves more valuable in the market later on.
It's horrible.
Just horrible how they rob people like this.
So I don't know.
Any other thoughts, Rob?
Bernie Sanders an idiot?
Well, Bernie Sanders is certainly an idiot, but I guess minimum wage, it just falls into the la-la land picture that they like to present that, hey, we can just make sure that people are making this amazing amount of money.
And it just doesn't, it's either you're going to end up with robots or outsourcing.
It's kind of like environmental laws do the same thing.
Hey, that EV vehicle, you know, I guess it's better for the environment once it gets here after they pulled shit out of the ground that they had slave labor due for it and then, you know, burned a bunch of coal to make it.
But we don't count any of that because that happened over there.
You know, it's just, it's all this just la-la land shit that they project.
And sadly, so many people buy into.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
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Bud Light Transgender Backlash00:09:39
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Okay, let's talk a little bit before we wrap up here.
Let's talk a little bit about what's going on with this whole controversy with Anheuser-Busch over Bud Light.
Of course, I had to get a new beer bottle to shove in my ass.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Can't do that with Bud Light anymore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's really gay.
Yeah.
Like if you're going to shove a beer bottle in your ass, make it the one that doesn't have this Dylan moldy.
Yeah, I just switch over to Yangling.
Yeah, there you go.
Proud, independent.
Yangling.
Shove it right up there.
Like a good America, uh.
So Bud Light uh came out few weeks back.
They had a uh um, uh I don't know what to even say uh um, what's the word i'm looking for here?
They had a, a campaign um, where they put this transgender uh, what's the?
What's the name?
Dylan, is that it?
Oh, my bad uh.
So they put this uh, this thing on Dylan Mulvaney.
Yes um, where they they?
They put this uh man in a dress uh, on the uh cover of their beer and then he made a whole video about it.
He's done campaigns with like several uh, several different big companies.
Just to be clear, this one isn't, it's not even like a typical transgender person.
It seems like he's making fun of them.
It seems like this was almost like a campaign to mock trans people that he made a big thing about how, like i'm doing a year as a woman, i'm going to document my you know uh, my experience in it.
It's all just like so utterly bizarre um.
But so they this got a lot of pushback um, from a lot of you know like right-winger and conservative types were uh furious about this.
It seemed like uh um, BUD light drinkers were not super happy.
And then, of course, there was this uh, this video that emerged of the, like the head of marketing, this woman, who's uh, um I guess this was her turns tale into a lady.
Yeah there, there you go, all right, so let's uh, let's first off um play from uh um, the the clip of this uh, this woman, what's her name?
I'm sorry uh uh um Alyssa uh Alyssa, Something.
Let's play what she had to say, Allison sorry, i'm a businesswoman.
I had a really clear job to do when I took over BUD Light, and it was, this brand is in decline.
It's been in decline for a really long time and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for BUD Light.
So I had this super clear mandate.
It's like we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand and my, what I brought to that was a belief in, okay, what is what?
What does evolve and elevate mean?
It means inclusivity.
It means shifting the tone.
It means having a campaign that's truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men, and representation is at sort of the heart of evolution.
You've got to see people who reflect you in the work, and BUD Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out of touch, all right.
So she said uh um fratty, out of touch.
Uh, I think she said bro culture at one point in the uh, in the longer video.
So just to go over this this, oh my god, what a couple of sentences of commie googlyguck right, I mean just like.
First off she goes, well look, I came over and I had mandate because this brand is in decline and we need to reach out to people and all this.
First off, to be clear, it's the number one beer, the number one, the number one selling beer, BUD Light, and so, of course, getting this job, she had a mandate.
To what?
Insult their customers?
Um, and then it's so funny, just like the way they think, she's like I had a mandate to save this brand.
And what does that mean?
It means evolve, and what does evolve mean?
That means inclusivity.
It's like none of this follows.
None of this at all follows at all is I don't know what you're saying.
So it's like obviously they come into BUD Light.
The only option I had was to put transgender people on it.
It's just so insane.
But there is something really fun.
She, she refers to it as a, as the brand being like kind of associated with this fratty bro culture, which is not at all what I, or I think anyone, associates with BUD light.
I I don't as.
So I I don't know.
Rob, when you think of BUD light that you think of like frat parties, because what I think of is like truckers, I think of like working class Americans.
That's what I think of when I think of BUD light.
I think that that's fine and and it's a fair association to say that.
But light is not a frat beer, though I would.
I would say is not, because i've always drink it at frat parties and stuff.
I'm not saying that i'm a Budweiser guy, but i've definitely been around those uh, salesy frat people that are all about bud light, so i've definitely interacted with those.
Fair enough, fair enough.
Well, the truth is, it's the number one selling beer in the country.
It's a bunch of people like it's not just one demographic who are getting it.
I'm just saying what I think of and certainly if I was like at, you know BUD Light um, but I don't think of it as like oh, it's just the worst people who you know.
To someone like this woman, that's the worst people in the world.
It's like frat bros um, but i'm just saying, I just think of it as like I don't know the roofer after a long day of work, it's like I want to crack open a bud light.
That's kind of what I think of it as um, but i'm sure that's true.
I'm sure there's, it's true, with a lot of fratty guys as well um, but anyway, there there was this uh talk about how um uh, that this was uh, you know it was obviously like kind of spitting in the face of your customer base.
And then there was a lot of talk about um, the how this was really driven by like um uh uh, dei stuff.
You know, like that was really what this was more about was like kind of getting up your corporate, you know, like inclusivity scores and that that's actually more important.
And i'll be honest, like i'm not, I I don't have a full grasp of understanding exactly how this, you know like how much of of the economy is now like just this fake nonsense and like what's actually more important here.
Like you know what I mean.
Like yeah, pissing off a little bit of your customers, but okay, you're in the headlines for a few weeks and now you can get all of this like capital because you have a good like inclusivity score or whatever.
But I understand like the real aspect of of the economy still does exist to some point, like a big part of BUD Light's model is still people purchasing bud light right, like that still is something and has an effect, and evidently it has had quite an effect.
Um uh, evidence sales have really taken a hit.
Uh, like Kid Rock and a bunch of other people were up there like shooting their bud lights and um, at least, let me see here, according to the NEW YORK POST uh they, they uh reported that more uh, more than five billion dollars uh in value was lost in Anheuser-busch since this uh all went down and happened.
So it does show you that there is still, no matter what they say, there is still some real Effect that people can have.
And you don't have to purchase products where they are clearly kind of like spitting in your face.
I think it's a little bit like with Donald Trump.
Every other candidate was going, we hate you.
And he was going, I love you.
So a beer, I hate to, I like Budweiser.
I drink Budweiser.
The difference between a Budweiser and a Miller or a Budweiser, and I'm not talking light.
I'm just talking like I drink Bud Heavy's.
The difference between a Budweiser and a Coors, we're not talking about a radical difference.
We're just talking about the fact that I started with Budweiser as a kid.
And so it's the more familiar taste to me.
Yes, 100%.
And why did I buy a Budweiser as a kid?
Their marketing worked.
The first time I went to go get hammered on a beer, I'd seen a lot of Budweiser ads in my day.
And if I was going to drink an American beer and be an American, I was drinking a Budweiser.
You're going to be like, what's up?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Those frogs.
A lifetime of watching football games and seeing beers.
What can I tell you?
Marketing works.
And I went, I'm fucking American.
I'm getting hammered out of Budweiser.
Listen, I'm with you completely.
I like Budweiser.
If I'm like at a party and there were like typically speaking, if I was at a party and they were like, oh, we have like Budweiser and we have Coors and we have Miller High Life.
I'd be like, oh, I'll take a Bud.
Marketing That Built a Brand00:04:35
That's just kind of, I don't know.
Again, just like you, I don't know.
It was always the big one.
It was the one with the coolest commercials.
That's probably why as a kid, that's what I started drinking more of.
Okay.
So like, fine.
But if me and you are lost on a desert island tomorrow and we're like, okay, we got a lot of beers, but I got to tell you, there's no Budweiser's.
It's only Miller High Life.
You'd be like, okay.
Yeah.
That's absolutely fine too.
Like, that'll just be the beer that we drink.
Okay.
Let's get down to figuring how we get out of this island.
No sweat off my back.
So when one beer specifically then makes a statement of going, hey, we're no longer that culture.
We're no longer that.
And I think people are starting to get wise to the fact that there is a fair amount of socialism in the system now.
So when you kind of signal to them, hey, we're not interested in your business.
In fact, we're actually going to preach to you something that you guys don't want to associate with or don't necessarily agree with.
We're actually going to be like everybody else and we're going to preach it to you.
Well, that's when people go, well, no, fuck like it's not that hard.
I'll drink Miller instead.
Miller's not being a bunch of dicks and throwing it in my face that every single government institution seems to hate me and be forcing this other culture upon me that I don't agree with.
Yes.
And that's, that's really the key to it, just like forcing this other culture upon me.
And, you know, what the what the progressives do is they almost like when attacked, they hide behind this shield of, hey, look, like we're just, oh, you're such a bigot that you can't even like, you know what I mean?
Like, oh, this is really such a problem for you or something like that.
And there, look, the truth is that if there was a movement out there that was really earnestly just saying, hey, look, there are people who live alternative lifestyles.
There are people who are like, you know, don't fall into the norm.
There are people who are like, they're, they're gay.
There are people who are, I have, you know, whatever it may be.
There's people who are autistic.
Many of them listen to this podcast.
There's people who are whatever, you know, like there's that are in a minority group here and they want to live their life in a different way.
And you shouldn't be a dick to them.
You know, they should be treated with dignity just like all other people should be treated with dignity.
Like if there was a genuine movement that that's what they were about, I know I, for one, and I know I speak for you too, I'd be on board with it.
I'd be like, yeah, absolutely.
Don't be cruel to people.
Don't be shitty to people.
Like treat people with respect and dignity.
I think that's like a great message.
That is what people will pretend is actually happening when you push back on it.
And they'll be kind of like, oh, so you have a problem with that?
You have a problem with a movement that's just saying treat people with dignity and like, don't be horrible to people because they don't fall into the norm.
But that's not at all what's happening.
What's happening is that there is like a systemic, concerted attack on normalcy at every single level.
Everyone who just wants to live like a normal life is now demonized and forced to like constantly affirm these other lifestyles that they don't agree with.
And it's insane.
And, you know, one of the things that is something I've been thinking about throughout all of this stuff with Bud Light, and it's something I've been thinking about for years, is like, there's, there's this kind of at least seeming contradiction for people who are libertarians where, you know, it's not actually a contradiction, but it's like, it's kind of, I don't know exactly how to put it.
It's a weird, it's a, it's a somewhat counterintuitive spot where we're in because for the most part, everything we talk about when it comes to this show, when it comes to politics, right?
Everything me and you talk about, Rob, is pretty much all something that we think shouldn't be happening.
You know, like the wars we think shouldn't be happening.
The debt shouldn't exist.
The inflation shouldn't exist.
So we're talking about a whole bunch of things that we'd like to just go away.
So in a weird sense, you're like, the things that you love to talk about ideally wouldn't exist.
And then you'd have nothing to talk about on this subject.
You know, like you'd have nothing to say here.
Like the libertarian party, in a sense, is this political party that really wishes you didn't need political parties.
Things We Wish Didn't Exist00:03:10
Now, that's not actually a contradiction.
It's just saying, look, we recognize the situation we're in.
And right now, a political party could be a useful vehicle toward a future where we don't need political parties anymore.
But nonetheless, you are in this state of where you essentially think none of this should exist.
We're arguing to put ourselves out of business.
That's what we're trying to accomplish.
Like ideally, we don't do part of the problem anymore because all of these problems are gone and then there's nothing for us to talk about.
It's a weird situation to be in.
But the point is that if we, you know, libertarianism, whether you're wherever you are on like, say the minarchist to anarchist, you know, spectrum, you either think that the government should be so completely reduced that it does almost nothing, or you think it should be nothing altogether.
I favor the nothing altogether.
In which case, politics just wouldn't be something that we'd talk about.
People wouldn't have to focus on their politics.
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All right, let's get back into the show.
There is currently this incredible push, particularly through the latest progressive iteration of wokeism, where like everything has to be politicized.
And the reason why I'm like very sympathetic to the people, the Bud Light drinkers who are like boycotting or whatever, is that it's not even like they're going, I want a picture of Ronald Reagan on my Bud Light.
You know, there's like there's an asymmetry here.
They're going like, can I just drink my Bud Light in peace?
Like, can you just not be pushing a political message on me while I try to like crack open a beer after a hard day of work?
Asymmetry in the Boycott00:11:29
And like, that's something I really sympathize with because I think ideally, like, I just think politics are so poisonous.
And I would just love to live in a world where like they would be separated from some of these things.
I feel that.
And I know you feel it too as like a, as a comedian.
Like, I know we make fun of politics and shit in our stand-up, both me and you, but we're also kind of like, it's weirdly a completely apolitical environment, even when it's me and you performing stand-up.
Even if there's jokes about Joe Biden or Trump or something like that, it's like, it has nothing to do with like what your politics are.
It just has to do with what we think is funny.
And so it's just like, there's like all these things, whether it's comedy or sports or entertainment or even beer, where it's like there is this, this concerted effort to push a political agenda into these spaces.
And it's not, there's at least a lot of people in this country who just are not looking for that.
I'm obsessed with politics and I'm not looking for that.
Like I wouldn't want to like, I don't know, I wouldn't want to like turn on a UFC fight and see like, you know, like, it's like, oh, here's a message from Ron Paul and guys, protect your wealth with gold.
And like all of this.
You'd be like, God, it's just, this is, this is like an outlet to get away from this.
This is just like, okay, let me enjoy two men fist fighting in a cage.
Maybe a person.
I think they're also people are showcasing that the signal is becoming a little bit too strong.
And to explain that, it's like, if I'm drinking a beer and I'm your customer, I would think that you would want me as a customer and you would treat me with respect.
Like the same way, like if you went to an all, like if you made Al's tranny juice that catered only to trans people, that was your product.
And then you had the bar where you served Al's tranny juice and every weekend you had trans people that came there.
I mean, I don't know who's offensive to tranny people.
I don't know who's the most vocal critic, but I guess if Kid Rock was brought in now, let's go.
They brought in Kid Rock for a concert.
The people going there would be, do you not care about my business?
I'm your customer.
It's just intuitive.
Like I'm your customer.
So why is this other thing that I'm not or if I, you know what I mean?
It's just kind of like basic courtesy of even if like at home you like Kid Rock or you know what I mean?
It's just I'm your customer.
If you had like some craft IPA beer that fucking, you know, kids in Brooklyn are drinking.
You know, this is like really big on like the Brooklyn, like, you know, it's a Williamsburg is where you're selling all your beer at some like craft beer or something like that.
And then you're like, I'm just going to put Jerry Falwell on the on the can.
We're kind of like, what?
What are you doing?
This is like not what they want.
Like, yeah, it's so, it's such a slap in the face.
Anyway, Anheuser-Busch did, this was pretty funny, I thought.
Now, they're getting shit now from all sides.
I thought this was like one of the worst corporate responses to this.
So they said, it was signed by the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, and it was titled Our Responsibility to America.
He writes, as the CEO of a company founded in America's heartland more than 165 years ago, I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew.
We're honored to be a part of the fabric of this country.
Anheuser-Busch employs more than 18,000 people and our independent distributors employ an additional 47,000 valued colleagues.
We have thousands of partners, millions of fans, and a proud history of supporting our communities, military, first responders, sports fans, and hardworking Americans everywhere.
I just love how it's like, let me just say a lot of conservative sounding stuff.
Military and Broncos and Ford trucks and football shooting guns, Budweiser.
Are we good?
Okay.
He says, we never intended to be a part of a discussion that divides people.
We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.
We were never trying to divide people when we inserted the most divisive issue in America onto the can of beer that you're drinking.
That wasn't our intention.
How could we have possibly seen that coming?
My time serving this country taught me the importance of accountability and the values upon which America was founded.
Freedom, hard work, and respect for one another.
As CEO of Anheuser-Busch, I am focused on building and protecting our remarkable history and heritage.
It's just, I was in the military.
Did I mention that?
Anyone have done it?
Does that get me out of this jam?
Are we good now or are we still doing a thing?
All just, you know, freedom, America, words that conservatives like.
Okay.
And then he says, moving forward, I will continue to work tirelessly to bring great beers to consumers across our nation.
So what's pretty funny about this is like, it's really just another slap in the face.
You know what I mean?
Like it really is treating your own drinkers like they're dumb.
And where you and now also hilariously, they're getting a ton of shit from the woke crowd too.
So they just lost all their woke points.
Because to the woke side, they're like, why are you even writing a thing about this?
You should be standing by putting trans people on your beer.
And then to the conservative crowd, they're like, that wasn't an apology.
Like it's, it would be so much, it would be, it's so like corporate and phony and obviously market tested where they tried to find this middle ground.
And you're like, oh, God, it just still sucks so much.
And you're like, it's not just like, hey, guys, we're sorry.
I know we pissed a lot of you off.
We really probably shouldn't have put that on the can.
I understand like Bud Light doesn't have to be the place where we have this trans debate.
How about that?
Sorry.
So just enjoy your Bud Light or something like that.
It's just got to be this like weird, like trying to just get out of this somehow.
I just found it very insulting.
And all I've seen so far online is people from all sides trashing it.
So that's kind of wonderful.
That being said, they got themselves a lot of free publicity.
Have you ever seen a brand endorse a candidate?
Like you might have seen the CEO of a company or behind the company.
No, I don't think so.
You might have seen a company like pour money into someone, but you've never seen, hey, Budweiser supports like the bushes.
I don't think so.
Because it was always kind of, why would a brand get involved in politics?
You're supposed to be making money.
It was like a couple of years ago where we saw Coca-Cola or whatever, where they're like, we got to get out of the state because of abortion or whatever that is.
Right.
But that's the same thing where it's like, why would you get involved in this?
Just go make money.
That's your thing.
You're creating value in the market.
Go sell your product.
Politics is for somebody else.
It's a signal that the system has kind of changed here, that these companies have to be in line with certain forces in order to make money.
And I think that the Budweiser pushed the card a little bit too far, that there's people that were somewhat aware of like, why are these companies getting more involved in my life?
Like people don't like socialism.
They don't like it.
So I think that this was just a little bit too much of a signal to the masses of we don't really care about your business.
There's something we care about more.
And that's being aligned with the people who are looking to control you.
And this is the narrative that they want.
So we're going to go with them instead of you.
And I think they pushed a little bit too far where customers were like, wait, fuck that.
What are you talking about?
You don't care about my business?
I want to go drink this beer.
Yeah.
There was, I don't know.
Do you, you know the story?
So, and I forget the name of the politician, but there was Michael Jordan.
Like it was early in his career, but he was already Air Jordan.
He was like huge.
And they were trying to get him to endorse this Democrat.
And I think he was like the first black, or he's like a civil rights figure or something like that.
I don't exactly remember the story, but they were trying to get him to endorse a Democrat and he refused.
And his line, which I always loved, and people really went at him for this.
He got a lot of heat for this.
But his line, which I thought was like, I thought it was heroic, but people take it in a very different way, but I'm an unapologetic capitalist.
But he goes, he goes, Republicans buy sneakers too.
Smart.
And that was what he said.
And Harvey Grant.
Okay, that's the politician.
So, but I loved that line.
Republicans buy sneakers too.
Why would I alienate them?
Yes.
And this was taken at the time by liberals of the day as like a, wow.
So you'd sell out civil rights for profit.
You know, and like I get on the surface where they'd feel that way, but it's like, well, no, no, no.
Hold on.
I don't look at it like that at all.
Step back and understand that, yes, from your perspective, supporting this guy is the right thing to do.
And so you're like, oh, he didn't do the right thing.
He did the thing for money.
But if you accept, just take the possibility that maybe you're not right about that.
Maybe it's not the right thing to do.
And just zoom out and you go, Michael Jordan's role was really, he was an entertainer after all.
He was there.
I mean, he's an athlete, but he's, it's, people enjoy basketball because it's entertaining.
And it's like, no, Michael Jordan's role was for all of us to be like, oh my God, did you see that 360 dunk he pulled off in the game yesterday?
I want to wear his cool sneakers because that makes me feel good when I play basketball or for some people, just collect them or just wear them out or whatever.
It's like, yeah, why can't there be things that are like just like, I'm not trying to get into the game of something that 50% of people love and 50% of people hate.
I'm trying to be the thing that's all.
And I'll tell you, there's something there that's a bigger story about when people talk about like how divided our country is and we need to be more unified and things like that.
You go, well, then have some areas of some things that don't need to be political.
Have some things that can just be like, oh, no, this is something that like, no matter what your politics are, you can enjoy.
And if you think about that, right?
Like if you think about an example like a basketball game or something like that, there's people in the stands who have like wildly different views on everything from religion to culture to politics to all of this, but they're all cheering together when their team hits a shot.
Because like it's just not about that.
It's about something else.
I think we need a lot more of that, a lot more of that in this country.
All right.
Let's wrap up the show there.
Thank you, everybody, for listening.
Come check us out in Chicago.
We will be getting dragged through the streets by an angry mob.
Zaney's, comicdave Smith.com.
That's where you can go to get ticket links.
RobbieTheFire.com.
And of course, make sure to go check out Run Your Mouth, Rob's other podcast.
And yeah.
And one other thing, Florida, I'm in Orlando this Saturday doing an event for the Meet Cox ELP, something like that.