Dave Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein dissect Western policy risks, noting how UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly's comments on Ukraine projecting force beyond borders could legitimize Russian retaliation against civilians. They critique the US debt ceiling suspension, warning that fixed military spending alongside protected entitlements predicts inevitable hyperinflation or benefit cuts. The hosts also analyze Ron DeSantis's New Hampshire campaign, contrasting his "truth" rhetoric with Trump's polling lead, while condemning "woke" corporations like Bud Light and Target for pushing LGBTQ+ content to children. Ultimately, they argue that consumer boycotts are a necessary weapon against corporate mandates that prioritize ideology over profit, suggesting such forced alignment degrades market competition and entertainment value. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
|
Time
Text
Welcome to Part of the Problem00:01:43
Fill her up.
You are 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 Gas Digital Network.
Steer your host.
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
I'm Dave Smith.
He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein, the king of the caulks.
What's up, brother?
How you feeling today?
Nice to be home for all 30 seconds and then rehitting the road with you in Syracuse, my friend.
That's right.
We'll be up in Syracuse at the funnybone up there this weekend.
Looking forward to seeing some of you fine people out there.
And then the following weekend, Mothership all sold out.
Hell yeah.
Five shows.
Five shows all sold out.
Yeah, looking forward to seeing a whole bunch of, hopefully our people went and got some tickets too.
But really looking forward to that weekend.
Bunch more stuff coming up.
ComicdaveSmith.com for all of me and Robbie's tour dates and then RobbieTheFireBernstein.com for all of his stuff.
Some reporch tour coming up soon.
All right.
Let's get into the show today.
I want to pull up this article and have it here so I can read some of the quotes.
This I just wanted to have Dave DeCamp, who's phenomenal, by the way.
I haven't had him on the podcast yet.
I got to get him on the podcast sometime soon.
Phenomenal.
All the guys in antiwar.com are just great.
So big story.
We are recording right now.
Escalating War with Russia00:09:27
It's Thursday, two days ago, Tuesday, several drone attacks were thwarted in Moscow coming from Ukrainian forces.
It appears that the intended targets were civilian.
This is, look, I just want to get into a little bit of this here, but it's just like the stuff we've been talking about now for well over a year is just it is impossible to overstate how psychotic the policy on this war in Ukraine is and how incredibly dangerous it is.
And it is something where people have this attitude that like, oh, you're just being an alarmist if you think like things can get to this catastrophic level over there.
Although it's already at a pretty catastrophic level.
But you're like, stories like this just let you know how close, like how close we're already coming to something like this spiraling out of control.
And once it spirals out of control, we are just hoping that the people who have pushed this reckless policy will at that point not escalate things further, hoping that the other one backs down.
Anyway, the whole thing is pretty insane.
So let me the title of this article, we'll put it in the link here.
Russia says the UK encouraging Ukrainian attacks on Russia's on Russian civilians.
So the Russian embassy in the UK on Wednesday slammed London over comments by the British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly.
So he cleverly said that Kiev has the right to, quote, project force beyond its borders to undermine Russia's ability to project force into Ukraine itself.
Legitimate military targets beyond its own borders are internationally recognized as being part of a nation's self-defense.
So in other words, if you are, and this is true according to international law, if you are invaded by a country, you have the right to defend yourself.
And that right to defense includes offensively targeting military targets of the invading country, which is, you know, reasonable enough.
The issue here is that these were civilian targets.
At least that's what it appears to be.
Also, rules of war are a little bit stupid because once you're at war, what are you going to do?
Go to war with the country for violating the rules of war?
They're at war.
Yeah, it's like, it's very bizarre.
It's like if you're like, we're going to fight to the death, but no hitting in the face.
You know what I mean?
Like, you're like, I don't know.
I mean, if the loser dies, I'm probably going to do anything I can do here to fight.
Yes.
It's, you know, and also just the truth is that rules of war are almost never followed in wars.
And of course, obviously, like, this is the thing that Julian Assange exposed with his first major famous dump that Bradley Manning passed off to him was like the war crimes that we were committing in our wars in the Middle East.
Like there might be these rules on paper, but also, as you could imagine, even when there's not like orders given to commit war crimes, you can imagine, you know, you send the, you're sending, imagine sending 18, 19 year old boys to go on murder sprees and then expecting that, you know what I mean?
This isn't going to turn into some crazy, you know, shit.
Like a post-fight press conference, but for war and the losing side's like, well, you know, we were trying to fight a fair fight.
They bombed our hospitals.
They took out civilian targets.
They dropped a nuke on one of our major cities.
So yeah, I guess we lost the fight.
Yeah, right.
Okay.
So anyway, in response to Cleverly, the Russian embassy put out a statement.
They said the hostile statements by Britain's top, quote, diplomat cannot be viewed as anything but an attempt to encourage the Kiev regime to carry out more attacks on the civilian facilities and our civilians.
Apparently, from their windows, the foreign office or Estonia sees residential blocks in Moscow as quote legitimate military targets.
Now, Dmitry Medvedev, who is the former president of Russia and is currently, what's his role here?
He's the chair of Russia's Security Council.
He tweeted in English and he said, the goofy officials of the UK, our eternal enemy, should remember that within the framework of the universally accepted international law, which regulates modern warfare, including the Hague and Geneva Conventions with their additional protocols, their state can also be qualified as being at war.
Today, the UK acts as Ukraine's ally, providing it with military aid in the form of equipment and specialists, i.e., de facto is leading an undeclared war against Russia.
That being the case, any of its public officials, either military or civil, who facilitate the war can be considered as legitimate military targets.
These are like strong words.
Now, of course, the reason they're saying this about the UK is because this guy cleverly from the UK came out and basically was defending Ukraine hitting targets inside of Russia.
But just to be clear, everything they said there also applies to the United States of America.
I'm just making, look, these drones didn't kill civilians.
They were thwarted.
So this one here is not going to be the thing that escalates and leads to a wider war, a world war, even God forbid, a nuclear war.
But it just goes to show you how easily this could happen.
Like it's that easy.
And look, Medvedev here, he's absolutely got a point that he's like, look, you guys are fighting in undeclared war against Russia.
You're involved in the war effort.
And if you are also it like if you're sending in weapons to a war and then encouraging those people who you gave the weapons to to strike civilian targets in Russia, then Russia has a legitimate right to say that you are now, you have essentially gone to war with them.
And what, you know, you have to wonder the thing that's so scary about this war is that, you know, America is treating it as if this is a must-win war.
But we all know it's not.
Like, no one actually thinks that like for the United States of America, this is, we couldn't survive if Russia wins this war and takes a chunk of Ukraine.
That has no effect on our country, really.
But for Putin, this really is a must-win war, you know?
Like he kind of can't be humiliated right on his own border and then see Ukraine completely taken into the West.
Like he, he can't lose that.
There's a much stronger argument for him that this is a must-win.
And then imagine not only losing the war, but then Russian civilians also being killed by Western weapons that were sent to Ukraine.
It's just putting enormous pressure on him that he would have to do something.
And why in the world would we want to do that?
And now this shows you exactly, like it's a perfect demonstration of exactly why the West shouldn't be funding this war.
If Ukrainians want to defend themselves, they have a right to do that.
But as soon as we start sending our weapons into that war, now if those weapons are used in a way that attacks Russia, Russia then has all of the pressure in the world on them to not want to respond to Ukraine, but to want to respond to, say, maybe the UK, maybe the United States of America.
Why on earth would we put ourselves in this position?
For what?
For what?
To keep the war going?
To make sure that we sacrifice Ukrainian lives to potentially hurt Russia?
Because that's what the goal is here.
That's what the goal is.
It ain't about saving Ukrainian lives.
They wouldn't have been discouraging them from negotiating an end to the war last year if that was the case.
Anyway, had to start off with that, just the most insane, the most insane policy imaginable.
Any other thoughts on this one, Rob?
Yeah, we better stop sending these drones over to Ukraine.
Yeah, really.
Military Budget Priorities00:15:02
This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.
Everybody, you know, you've heard me talk about them for a long time.
I think BetterHelp is a great company.
So many people I know, including myself, have benefited from therapy and BetterHelp has made it much easier to do that.
It's so easy to get caught up in what's going on in the world that you never take a moment to think about what you need for yourself.
But if you spend all your time giving, it can lead to feeling stretched and thin and burned out.
Therapy can give you the tools to find more balance in your life so you can keep supporting others without leaving yourself behind.
If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try.
It's entirely online and it's designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule.
Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge.
Find more balance with better help.
Visit betterhelp.com slash problem today to get 10% off your first month.
That's betterhelp.com slash problem.
All right, let's get back into the show.
Okay, let's switch gears.
There's not much more to say about that other than it's pretty crazy.
All right.
So couple things we could talk about here.
You want to get into the debt ceiling, Rob?
Sure, let's do it.
All right.
Well, in a shocking turn of events, the debt ceiling was raised.
Not just raised, but suspended.
Two years.
They don't have to work for two full years.
That's a great maneuver.
Hey, everyone want to not have to do anything for two years other than fight about stupid woke bullshit.
And they all went, sure, let's do that.
It is.
It's really amazing how the issue of the debt ceiling is portrayed by the establishment.
Like how they're somehow able to spin this narrative about how, like, well, this is really about paying your bills.
You know, like that's what it's about.
America doesn't not pay its bills.
So what are you in favor of not paying your bill?
It's almost like they try to create this idea in your head that what we're talking about here is like, hey, you know, we bought something and we agreed to pay for it.
And now you have to pay for it.
Isn't that the responsible thing to do?
But really what we're talking about is like, is it's like if you were like, like they, they put it almost as if the conversation is like, hey, you have a credit card and you charged a bunch of stuff.
And I'm just saying you have to, you have to pay it now.
That's the responsible and morally right thing to do, you know?
But really what it is is like you charged a bunch of stuff to the credit card that you don't have money for.
And now you're saying we have to open another credit card to pay it off.
Like, wait, then how are you going to pay off that credit card?
Like, when we open another credit card, we'll pay that off with the other credit card.
What could be wrong with this plan?
It's just so, the whole thing is so insane.
And yeah, of course, as this always happens, there's, you know, there's always this kind of like posture that we won't raise the debt ceiling.
And then they always raise it.
This is what happens every single time.
This one, what really sucks about it is that not only did they raise it like they always do, but as you mentioned, they suspended it for the rest of Joe Biden's first term, which would seem like, seems to me like politically crazy for the Republicans to do, right?
Because at the very least, if nothing else, the debt ceiling always comes up, allows an opportunity for the country to at least think about this issue a little bit and think about how crazy it is.
Now we don't even have that.
And just in terms of basic projections, so nobody wants to cut the military budget.
So let's just say that that's fixed and ever increasing and both sides want it, which I guess if we raise the debt limit here, it's because even the hardcore conservatives were like, well, we don't want to walk away from this Ukraine war thing.
So I guess unless we're going to have a conversation about fighting wars, I guess we all better raise this debt limit.
So fine.
You leave all the war machine on the table.
Maybe Brian can look up the number.
What is it?
It's 13%.
I don't know what it is.
Brian, if maybe you can look up what the defense spending is, but it's a fixed percentage and that's not going down.
And then the next biggest piece of the pie is social security, Medicaid.
I think that's like the next biggest piece of the pie.
All right.
So if right now we're broke and we don't want to have a conversation about Social Security and Medicaid, which I believe is the largest slice of it and we're saying is fixed.
Well, then what's the projection five years and 10 years and 12 years as the baby boomers and as you expand Medicaid access?
Like what, oh, 12%.
I was pretty, is that what I said?
If not, I was off my percentage.
Yeah.
So military is 12%.
And then the next biggest slice of it is the entitlement programs, which they refuse to have a conversation about.
But if right now we're already above budget and we're not having any conversation about, hey, we have to reverse course, you're also ignoring all the future projections of where this is going, which seems like we're playing a game here where it's like, it needs to break.
Like they refuse to acknowledge the situation until it's fully broken.
And then what?
We go fully socialized and just have hyperinflation or we just slash benefits and we leave people that were relying on something.
Like you're not helping people.
This is not a working system.
If we're currently broke and we're spending a giant, what is it, 70% of GDP or something?
I don't know what the number is.
I should stop quoting numbers.
I don't know.
Maybe I saw it at one time in an article.
No, but it's insane.
And the craziness about it is that you can't, and this is the way government policies always work.
This is why the government always just continues to expand is that you can't even start a conversation on, can we go back to pre-COVID levels of spending?
Right.
That's the, oh, that's the craziest thing.
Which is the craziest thing that you're like, hey, you guys justified this crazy new level of spending because of an emergency.
The emergency, which was never really an emergency, but now that's over.
And we still don't go back to pre-COVID levels of spending.
And even pre-COVID levels of spending were Donald Trump increasing spending from Barack Obama, who all the Republicans said spending was out of control.
And then you couldn't, let alone go back to before Obama, who you all like were railing against his spending and go to George W. Bush levels that he had ramped up spending like an insane amount from the 1990s.
So it's just, you know, look, I will say this.
Okay, Thomas Massey voted for this bill.
And what he was saying, and he's like the most fiscal hawkish, you know, member of the House of Representatives.
And what he was saying was he was like, look, he goes, he was kind of like, it's bad, but at least with this bill, I think there's something like, if they don't pass like these, this next budget thing, then there's an automatic 1% cut.
So a 1% cut from the like $6.3 trillion or something like that would be like $63 billion, if my math is correct on that.
And it's like, he goes, it's the only cut I've ever gotten since I've been here.
And that's what he said.
He goes, it would literally be the first cut we've ever gotten since I've been here.
And it's the first time we ever at least got something for the debt ceiling negotiation.
So he's like, I'm going to vote for it.
But it was like the most unenthusiastic, like, you know, I don't know, dude.
Like, we're, we're in a boat that's sinking and I at least got someone to fill up one bucket and pour it overboard.
So like, I guess maybe that's something.
But, you know, this is, this is the reality of where we are.
It's even that cut doesn't even begin to address the problem.
And the truth is that there's just this thing that is the federal government is going in that direction.
It's kind of like, you know how sometimes when, you know, like people talk about like artificial intelligence and there'll be like some scientists who have like these sci-fi type warnings about it.
Like they're like, this is going to be a really big problem.
You don't want to do this.
And it's kind of like, okay, all right.
You're making some good points.
Anyway, you see the new AI that just came out?
Like, and it's just like, you almost feel like this thing is bigger than within anyone's control.
It's almost like it's just destined to move this way that no matter what anyone says, well, we better just hope that the AI doesn't turn out to be a nightmare scenario because it's clearly coming.
You know, it's like just not going away.
Say whatever you want to about the evils of social media.
It's just not going away.
It's with us now and you got to just figure out how to live in a world with it.
Much like that, there's just everybody who's being honest knows that the fiscal direction of the federal government is driving 100 miles toward a cliff.
Everyone knows that.
We're not slowing down.
We're just going in that direction.
And we're going to have to accept that this thing will crash at some point.
And yes, Rob, as you basically said, the options at that point will be either severe inflation or severe cuts.
There's really no other way around it.
It's going to be one of those two.
Neither are going to be particularly fun.
And so you got to just start focusing on putting yourself in the best situation you can and being prepared for that eventuality.
But there's just no political will to actually attempt to rein in spending.
You really need someone to step into the game and go, they're lying to you because both sides are playing this game where it's essentially they live in this, I don't know, this fantasy world where government has the money.
It's just a question of if they're nice enough to give you the money.
And so when the Republicans step in and they go, yeah, we will, we will not take, have any conversation about the social security that you've been promised or the Medicaid that you've been promised.
What they really need to go is they're lying to you.
They already stole that money and they spent it.
And until we accept the fact that that money will not be there for you or it's not going to be there as of this date, you're going to get to retirement thinking that the government's handing you a check and you're actually going to be left destitute in the street.
So you know what I mean?
Like both sides are playing the same game here where they're going, oh, well, that money's been promised to you.
So there's nothing we can do.
That's government's responsibility.
When what they really need to do is play, someone needs to place blame on the other side and go, they are lying to you.
You're going to be destitute if you're relying on this policy because guess what?
They already stole your money.
Yeah.
Well, that is.
And you can understand where from say like a babe, a baby boomer's point of view, they're like, well, I spent my entire life paying into Social Security.
So like, yeah, it's only right that I get that now.
Like, and I spent my whole life paying into Medicare.
So yeah, it's only right that I get that now.
But the truth is that you got scammed.
And that doesn't give you the right to now extort money from the younger generation.
And in the process of you getting scammed, meaning literally they took the money from you and spent it.
They did not put it away for you.
But in the process of you getting scammed, you also got kind of the benefit of a lot of these policies, at least in many cases, like the baby boomer generation were kind of the ones who owned property while the value of that property was artificially sent through the roof.
And now you kind of like have that.
Whereas the young generation who you, your grandchildren who have to now pay for your retirement and health care, they're like looking at this like, I'll never be able to afford a house because all the incentives pushed me into borrowing $150,000 for like a queer dance studies major and I'm working at Starbucks.
And the average price of a house is 700 grand.
Queer dance studies.
Once these childhood drag shows really take off, that's where the money's at.
You got to pick a different major for that joke, Davey Smith.
Yeah, that's a good point.
I got a marketable skill.
I know how to trans kids.
I'm going to be just fine.
But yeah, you're right.
I'll pick something else.
But so it's just, you know, there's something really fascinating about it too, right?
that what you have in effect is young people paying for their grandparents' retirement and their grandparents' health care, which ultimately used to be the system.
You know what I mean?
Like it used to be like, yeah, that's your parents would come to your house and retire there and like live and you'd put them up.
Like they'd take care of you while you were young.
You'd take care of them when they were old.
That there's something kind of, you know, like when that's done voluntarily, it's kind of beautiful.
But now, of course, the government has stepped in and promised that the government's going to do it, wreaked all types of destruction on the family unit.
And then what's actually happening is still the same thing.
They just have to do it through this, you know, enforced Ponzi scheme.
But the truth is just that, yeah, somebody would have to actually explain it to the American people in a persuasive way that like, yeah, no, they're telling you that the military budget and the entitlement budgets are off limits, but actually those are the only ones we should be focused on because those are the ones that actually matter.
And that's basically the entire budget is basically the military, the entitlements and interest on the debt.
Everything after that is just like a tiny sliver of the budget.
Not that there's not room to cut stuff there too, but it's not going to make a difference in getting this like thing turned around.
But those are the things that should be drastically cut because our defense budget isn't actually a defense budget.
It's a militarism budget.
It has very little to do with defending this country.
And the entitlements are really just Ponzi schemes.
All the money has been blown.
And now you're robbing from actually a much poorer group to subsidize a much wealthier group.
You know, young people are far poorer than old retired people.
The whole thing's just a goddamn shit show.
And it's doomed to fail.
So anyway, on that positive note, I don't know.
Any other thoughts on this one, Rob?
I wonder if you pulled people our age.
I mean, you're significantly older than me, but our basic age.
Significant is a, you're using that word kind of loosely.
I wouldn't say significantly older than you.
But yeah, I'm sorry.
Continue.
Do you think you're getting Social Security?
I mean, you pay into it.
Do you think you're getting it?
I mean, again, it's like what you said before.
There's two options.
Either no, I'm not getting it, or what I get will be so insignificant that in real dollars, it will be meaningless that I get Social Security.
That's what I envision is that there's a check that I receive in the mail that's somewhat symbolic and maybe buys me a lottery ticket.
DeSantis Political Risks00:14:57
Right.
Yeah.
Like you're like, okay, great.
I can buy breakfast once this month with my monthly Social Security payment or something like that.
Yeah.
So that's, I mean, I, you know, I don't know.
My, my guess would just be no, that the whole thing will be blown up by then.
But I, it's, it's one of those two options, essentially, is what it's going to be, which to look to, to a large extent is already true.
I mean, it's not as if like most people, if you had no, if you, if you're an old person today and you have no other source of income except for social security, it's not like you're retiring comfortably off that.
You're going to live a very low standard of living on just social security.
I'm not sure what the maximum is right now, but it's not anything great.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Mango.
Think man go.
They help men get hard and go hard.
New innovative compounds that will level up your bedroom game.
They combine three FDA approved ingredients, tadalophil, sildenophil.
Those are the two active ingredients in sialis and Viagra.
And they also have oxytocin, aka the love hormone, and L-argonine to increase blood flow.
This will help you achieve optimum performance.
Rapidly dissolving tablets hits the bloodstream quick for faster results.
It's a mango flavor.
They're individually packaged for on-the-go use, and it's 100% online with free doctor's visits.
No subscription required to try the mangoes.
Right now, go to mango rx.com.
Use the promo code gas15, and you'll get 15% off your first order.
That's mangorx.com.
Promo code gas15 for 15% off your first order.
All right, let's move on.
One of the other things I wanted to talk about today.
So Ron DeSantis, he is running for president.
I believe Mike Pence also announced he's running for president.
We're having a boring contest, actually.
No one cares that Mike Pence is running.
Absolutely no one.
Ron DeSantis is running for president.
Earlier today, he was up in New Hampshire, his first presidential stop in New Hampshire.
Of course, as I'm sure most of you know, New Hampshire is a very important state.
It's the second, the second primary, or maybe technically the first primary, but Iowa is a caucus.
But it's one of the first two states that gets to pick.
This is a big deal because winning there, you know what I mean, sends a big, a big message.
And at the beginning of a primary, it's usually all about momentum.
I believe it goes Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina.
And by South Carolina, usually several candidates have dropped out already because once you can't put, like, if you don't do good in the first couple of showings, it becomes very hard to continue raising money and things can kind of spiral out for your campaign.
So this is a big deal.
Here is Ron DeSantis up in New Hampshire, his first campaign stop in New Hampshire.
When you live in a crazy time, it's important to make sure that we're oriented on a strong foundation.
And that foundation is truth.
Truth must be our foundation.
I don't have a separate truth than you.
There's a truth, and we have to be locked in on reality and on facts and on the enduring principles that make this country great.
Common sense can no longer be an uncommon virtue in this country.
I was appalled what I saw during COVID going on in some of these places around the country.
I mean, you'd literally have somebody running on a beach in California all by themselves, like nobody around, and you have police chasing them.
And I'm just thinking to myself, what is going on with this country?
So we need a dose of common sense.
And I think the good news is, is if you look at some of the obstacles, there's a lot of problems.
There's a lot of pessimism.
But a place like Florida, we've shown that it can be done.
We chose facts over fear.
We chose education over indoctrination.
We chose law and order over rioting and disorder.
Florida held the line when freedom itself hung in the balance.
We were not going to let our state descend into some type of Faucian dystopia where people's livelihoods were destroyed and their freedoms were curtailed.
No, we stood up to protect people's rights, to protect people's jobs, to protect their businesses, and to protect our kids' right to get an in-person education.
And you know what?
We were better off as a result of that.
We chose freedom over Fauciism, and that was the right thing to do.
All right.
So let me say this.
I don't particularly disagree with anything he said there.
But my overall takeaway from it is just that there's no way this guy can beat Donald Trump.
It's, it's an energy thing.
I just, I don't think he's got the energy that like it's, it's, you, you, you need to like, you got to like tug at people, get them like going.
And this is just not, it's too much like canned lines.
It's too, we can't have your truth or our truth.
It's just one truth.
Common sense has to be common.
Like, this just isn't going to do it.
I'm going to take the other side on this.
All right.
Go ahead.
I don't, I'm not saying DeSantis is going to win.
I haven't looked at the most recent polling, but I do think that there's a element in the current landscape that boredom can also equate to competency.
And this is probably more true in a general election and the swing voters than it might be for the hardcore Republican primary.
But I don't know that everyone loves the freak show entertainment of politics aspect right now.
And what I'm hearing there, I mean, it's a pretty compelling case of, hey, I did a good job governing and defending freedom.
Now, I don't know what it's going to look like when you, because you even saw the debate when Trump was up against Biden and he took it too far.
He just went like a little bit too far on the trying to be like intimidating thing.
And it had worked earlier with Hillary, but he just took whatever that thing was a little bit too far and it didn't come off well.
There's a possibility that if we get these two guys squaring off as boring as DeSantis is, that might actually be marketable.
Well, the thing, so the reason I disagree is this.
First of all, it's not that he took it too far with Biden.
It's that he had the absolute wrong strategy.
Oh, because he should just let Biden go and be retarded.
Yes, you don't talk over Joe Biden.
You let Joe Biden talk.
You insist that Joe Biden talk.
You ask Joe Biden questions.
You want, if you're debating Joe Biden, your goal is for him to eat up as much of the clock as possible.
Because this just raises the odds that he has a catastrophic moment.
You know?
And so he, in a sense, Donald Trump carried Joe Biden by constantly talking over him.
And the whole thing was just Donald Trump talking.
And then it seemed like Biden was there and couldn't get a word in.
Maybe he had something really good to say.
I don't know.
He couldn't speak.
It's like the worst way.
With DeSantis, it's a little bit different.
And I do think that DeSantis is going to have to find some type of energetic way to like combat what Donald Trump is saying.
The problem also that I see with this is that, look, obviously, it's, he's got to talk about the freedom over Fauciism thing.
That's got to be a central part of his campaign.
Like it has to be that he was great on COVID has to be his narrative.
But Fauci is gone.
You know, like the COVID emergency is over.
And so he's going to have to find more of like a pitch about what's actually going on right now and what he's going to do.
And the, you know, it's going to have to be in a way where I think he is going to have to embrace.
And Though Bishop, when he was on, I thought, made some really good points about this, that he's going to have to tap into, because like you said, Rob, this isn't a general election.
We're talking about a Republican primary.
And he's going to have to tap into what the Republican voters are furious about and somehow make the case that he can deliver wins for them in a way that Donald Trump can't.
I'll tell you, I mean, first, Trump rolled out the vaccines.
He stood by Fauci on all those policies that ripped away your business.
I did not.
If I had been there, I would have thrown him out.
I had enough common sense to have better policy in this arena.
Donald Trump has not built the wall.
He did not deal with immigration.
Here's what I've been doing in my state.
Trump, look at the way he spent money.
I'm actually fiscally conservative.
Look at what happened on January 6th.
He made a mess and a mockery of our democracy.
Like all those things that you're looking to get done, I can actually get it done.
We have to quit entrusting this person who's an idiot.
Yeah, I think that more or less is going to have to be it.
Something like that.
But the thing is, when you do that, then you're going to get haymaker counter punches from Donald Trump.
And then the question is like, how do you deal with that?
And so far, no one's been very good at dealing with it.
Like no one's, you know what I mean?
Like no one's really found a way.
So it'll be interesting to see if he can.
Again, I didn't, it's not even anything I thought was necessarily wrong in what he said.
There was just a, there was just almost like this, I just feel like the energy is all wrong.
Like I feel like even when he, he's like, he goes, you know, I saw a guy running on the beach alone and then the cops go up and tackle him and arrest him.
And you're like, this is just ridiculous.
You're kind of like, no, the line should be that this is appalling that this is happening in America.
You know what I mean?
Like there's got to be something that's like a little bit more like, no, you got to grab people and be like, we allowed this to happen in the United States of America.
What a disgrace to our founding fathers.
Never again.
That's my promise to you.
You know what I mean?
Like, there's just, it's just not quite like, you got to, look, one of the things that if you look at, say, like Donald Trump, or if you look at Barack Obama, if you look at what they were able to do is you got to be able to talk to a group of people and really like grab them.
And I don't see that out of DeSantis.
You know, it's only, he's got like disappointed dad energy, but he's got to get back to the factory.
So he just like walks in on something terrible going on and he just looks at you like, hey, you guys got to get it together, but I got to go to work.
As opposed to being like, I'm fixing this right now type thing.
Yes, it really was.
And I saw this cop tackle this guy and they took away all your businesses.
And I got that.
And this is just ridiculous.
Cut it off you.
Cut it out.
Cut it out, Fauci.
Okay, let me see, by the way, because you had asked about the, what the latest polls are.
I think it's getting, I mean, crushed.
Just getting absolutely crushed.
Let me see what.
Hold on.
I'm trying to pull this up, but it's not loading on my phone.
All right.
The latest they're saying here, Trump doubles lead.
Donald Trump has a 25 point advantage over Ron DeSantis in this one poll here.
It's yeah, Trump is up huge right now.
And that, I think, kind of even makes my point stronger that, you know, when you're down by 25 points to someone, I mean, he's getting blown out.
And that makes it much harder to kind of reasonable guy your way to the top.
When you're way down, you kind of got to take some shots at this thing.
And so that's going to be, you know, that's going to be a very interesting dynamic to see like, okay, well, like you got to go for it.
And if you remember, like when Jeb Bush was way down on Donald Trump, then he'd have to start going for it against Trump.
And then that would just like humiliate him even worse.
This is how he like crumbled.
Like he was at like 10% and then like went all the way down to like 1% because every time he'd be like, all right, I got to really take Donald Trump out here.
And he just wasn't built like that.
So he'd try to take him out and then like is just, oh, just backfire.
And Trump would counter punch him and just like, you know, just humiliate him.
And I just don't, I don't know.
I'm not seeing it.
I'm not seeing it out of DeSantis.
I just don't see him being able to do it.
So it is what it is.
He's got to start telling the story.
Donald Trump couldn't do it.
The issues he was facing at the time were a wall, a deep state that wasn't supporting him and a COVID regime that wanted people locked in their homes to sell viruses.
And he messed up on all of this.
And now we're up against central back digital currencies.
I mean, I guess he's pro-Ukraine war, so he's not going to talk well on that.
But, you know, he's got to talk about, hey, Donald Trump failed you guys.
And here's how he failed you royally, all the money that he spent.
I can actually get it done.
Yeah.
Well, it's got to be, you know, the thing is that it, I'll never forgive Donald Trump for many things, but particularly, I'll never forgive Donald Trump for giving us Fauci through all of 2020.
It's just totally unforgivable.
And for championing lockdowns and ridiculing places who weren't locking down all the way through, at least until the summer of 2020.
It was just horrible.
And Ron DeSantis was much better on COVID.
However, what Donald Trump is saying about the war in Ukraine is fucking perfect.
And what Ron DeSantis is saying about it is hard to even discern what his position is.
You know what he needs?
And like, I'm just saying that actually matters a lot more.
Look, I'm not supporting either of them, but I figured around this time two years ago, I would have assumed I would prefer DeSantis to Trump.
Whereas right now, I find myself preferring Trump to DeSantis because the war in Ukraine just matters so much more right now than where you were on COVID as a governor.
So, you know, now, again, I don't trust Donald Trump to actually do the right thing.
He said he was going to do a lot of right things in 2016 and didn't.
But if I'm picking between the two of them, which my pick would probably be neither, but I'm at least saying like, fucking, this, this puts Trump ahead of DeSantis in my book.
But DeSantis won't even take that strong of a position on Ukraine.
Here's what he's got to do.
He's got to find some captivating sales guy and make him the minister of walls.
Not even the vice president, the minister of walls because that guy can go out and campaign and say, I know what it like, make him my pillow guy.
You know, just get him out there selling.
I'll get you that wall.
I'll do it.
I know how to build.
Trump vs DeSantis Comparison00:03:04
That's not what he sounds like.
But you get the point.
He needs a, or like the rent is too damn high guy.
You get that guy.
You make him the minister of the wall.
I'll get you a damn wall.
Maybe.
Well, you know, the other thing that I think DeSantis would be wise to really try to tap into is that there is in this moment right now, there is a real revolt against woke corporations happening.
And DeSantis has kind of positioned himself as the anti-woke corporation guy.
And I think that would be very interesting if he can find a way to try to channel that energy.
Vote for Donald Trump, your kids will still be gay.
I'll put an end to the gayness inside your homes.
Well, you got to, almost with Donald Trump, the angle you have to go on with Donald Trump is fairly simple because his pitch was so simple that you kind of have to take it away with something simple.
And the answer really is, like, look, Donald Trump, he promised us winning.
And yet his last year in office was 2020.
It was the biggest loss in modern American history.
So it didn't work.
We need to have a smarter, you know what I mean?
And then it's just, that's it.
You promised us winning.
You didn't deliver us winning.
2020 was nothing but losses and then you lost to Joe Biden.
That's that.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Paint Your Life.
Paint Your Life transforms your photos into a one-of-a-kind, beautiful hand-painted portrait by professional artists.
Get a professional hand-painted portrait created from any photo at a truly affordable price.
You upload the photos and you can create anything you can imagine.
Put yourself in a location you've always wanted to go.
Add a lost loved one to a special occasion to create the portrait of your dreams.
Lots of options.
You choose the artist and the art medium.
You can choose from oil, acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, and more, and a great selection of quality frames.
Their user-friendly platform lets you order a custom-made hand-painted portrait in less than five minutes.
You can communicate directly with your artist to ensure the portrait is painted just like you dreamed.
Get a hand-painted portrait in as little as two weeks.
It's the perfect anniversary gift or Mother's Day gift, Father's Day gift, meaningful, personal, and always heartwarming.
So now you can give the most meaningful gift you've ever given at paintyourlife.com.
And there's no risk.
If you don't love the final painting, your money is refunded guaranteed.
And right now, for a limited time offer, get 20% off your painting.
That's right.
20% off and free shipping to get this special offer.
Text the word problem to 87204.
That's problem to 87204.
Simply text the word problem to 87204.
Paint your life.
Celebrate the moments that matter most.
Message and data rates may apply.
See terms for details.
Once again, text problem to 87204 for 20% off of paint your life.
All right, let's get back into the show.
There really is something.
Bud Light Backlash Explained00:13:42
And I don't know how big a deal it is.
I think it's kind of hard right now to actually know like how meaningful is this?
How long is this going to last?
Is this just a little moment of like the last gasps of right-wingers trying to fight back against this culture being pushed on them?
Or is this the beginning of like an avalanche?
But the stuff that happened with Bud Light, the stuff that's happening with Target, the stuff now, I guess even where's my kid going to tuck their penis?
What's the chicken joint?
Whatever that is.
Chick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-A, right?
Right.
Which is good, by the way.
But there does seem to be this thing where like a line has been crossed where people who are not on board with this progressive woke shit are actually like starting to be like, I'm never shopping at this place again if they get on board with it.
And I understand it.
I understand why.
Chick-fil-A should just go, we're already making fried chicken.
What more do you need from us?
Who's done more for that community than us?
We need watermelon.
What do you need?
Well, they, wasn't it years ago?
Didn't they like come out against gay marriage or something like that?
And then there were like left-wingers, I think, were boycotting them.
I believe there was a thing like that.
I don't know.
What did they do?
They hired some diversity czar or something like that at their company and now they're getting it too.
What's interesting about it is that, I mean, okay, there's several things like that go into it.
Like, did you see, so Bud Light is no longer the number one beer in America?
It's been the number one beer in America for a long time, but now Modelo is like taking them over.
I think it's also Anheuser-Busch.
Yeah, it's also Anheuser-Busch.
So in some sense, you're like, oh, my God, this just doesn't work at all because these corporations are so giant.
You don't even know what's under the same parent.
But in another sense, you do go, that still is something.
There's still something there that this was associated with the brand Bud Light and it tanked that brand.
That's not nothing.
And I will say that me personally, I, as somebody who you, as everyone listening knows, over the years, I'm much more animated by wars and central banks and corporate bailouts and all types of like, you know, I don't know, police state issues and stuff like that than I am by culture war issues.
But I'll never shop at Target again.
And we would go there occasionally.
Me and my wife are both like, yeah, yeah, no, we're never going to Target again.
Cause I just, I can't, it's just too far over the line for me.
It's like, it is like, yo, you're pushing shit on my kids.
I'm not doing that.
And even if you're pushing shit on other kids, I don't want to support your business.
I don't know.
Okay, they can defend whatever.
Cause I know I got into this before on Twitter and I know people point out the Snopes article.
I guess the talk friendly shit wasn't really for kids.
It was just like next to the kids sections.
That's actually, that's actually not accurate because I responded on Twitter when you put that out.
It was reported by the New York Post that it was in the kids section.
It was documented by other people with the video.
The Snopes article referenced a store employee or target representative saying that this wasn't for kids.
That's not investigative journalism.
So I'm not, I'm actually, I'm not standing here telling you that I saw in a target that this was in a friendly, but from the way I've seen Snopes, PolitiFact, and other people handle things throughout the COVID regime, it's not fair.
Yeah, but that's, that's not journalism.
The fact that a representative from the store said, oh, everyone's upset at us, but that's not what happened.
That's not journalism.
No, 100%.
And even the defense is still pretty bad.
Like the defense is that it was in, it was right next to the kids section and it was still in a size that's like, you know, like teenagers would wear.
You know what I mean?
It's like small adults.
Like it's just either way, I just feel like if I am seeing all types of like LGBTQI plus whatever stuff in the kids section, which there is undeniably, I just don't need to go there anymore.
I don't like this whole push.
I don't like all this stuff being pushed on kids, any of it.
I just don't like it.
And I don't want to be a part of it.
And it does seem like, look, I've always hated the idea of these type of boycotts for anything that's not like a very serious issue.
The truth is that I hate politics, even though I'm obsessed with it.
I hate politics.
I hate that everything is so politicized.
It's one of the reasons why I hate the government being so big is it makes more and more of life about politics.
But I particularly hate the woke thing where like you can't get away from it.
Like every sporting event, every commercial, everything has to be politicized.
That's like the whole thing of like where, you know, that's one of the things we love about stand-up comedy is that it's like, even, even if you're joking about politics, it's not like a political act.
It's a comedic act.
You're doing something to get people to laugh.
I hate politics being infused in everything.
And I hate the idea that like, well, look, what am I going to do?
Like if I go to a deli to get a sandwich, what am I going to like ask the guy there?
He's like, all right.
So like, I'd like to get a sandwich, but first, like, where are you on the war in Iraq?
Where are you on the debt ceiling?
You know what I mean?
Like, where, like, what do I got to make sure he agrees with my politics before I can just like do business with him, you know?
But there, there comes a point where you're like, look, man, there is this concerted effort from a tiny minority of people who wish to like push this insane sexualized propaganda on children.
And the only weapon to fight back against it seems to be this.
Seems to be to like speak out against it and not give them your business.
And so at this point, what else do we have?
And at the very least, it does seem like this is at least giving a black eye to wokeism in a way that nothing else really has.
You're at least letting these big businesses know that like there is a consequence to pay.
You can't just go as woke as you want to with no consequence.
And that's been one of the major reasons why wokeism has been winning for the last decade.
Because like, look, say on social media in general, right?
You could go as woke as you want to and you're not going to face any repercussions.
But if you're going anti-woke, you always got to be aware that you could get kicked off the platform for this.
Like you got, you better really pick your next words.
You better code it the right way.
You know what I'm saying?
Like there's all like, so it's this unfair battle.
And in general, with corporations, it's been that way for a while.
They could just go as woke as they want to with no consequences.
But if they don't go woke enough, these left-wingers are going to make their lives hell.
So now there's finally a consequence to like, oh, maybe, maybe this is the line.
Maybe I can't, I actually can't go over this or my, my, you know, stock might plummet by billions of dollars.
At least that's something, you know, like I, we'll, we'll see what can happen.
Um, I will tell you for by, uh, as someone who has two little kids, it is It is incredible how much stuff like that is getting pushed.
Like whether you go to like Barnes and Noble or Target or something like that.
And in the kids section, it's like dominated by like this kind of like woke push.
And I just like, you know, I'm not even trying to indoctrinate my kids into my political views, but I'm definitely not trying to indoctrinate my kids into political views that I despise.
So I'm, that's just me.
They've pushed me to the limit of being like, yeah, okay, I'm not going to those stores anymore.
And this little piggy went for a sex change.
Wait, I don't remember that.
Are you sure it wasn't roast beef?
I'm pretty certain it was roast beef.
Yeah, it's um, it's, it's a, it's a very strange thing.
Um, and it's a very strange thing to witness.
And you're kind of like, even, you know, as we've, you know, we've talked about this before, but even when it'll be like, they're just like, no, we're just doing like a drag queen reading a story to kids, but it's not like sexualized or anything like that.
And you're like, yeah, but why?
Like, why?
Why is this a thing?
Whoever, like, whoever made the decision that they were like, you know, story time for kids would just be better if it was a drag queen up there.
Like drag queens are like something that is supposed to happen like at a nightclub somewhere for grownups.
It's not a thing that's supposed to happen for little kids.
This is very bizarre.
And what's weird is that particularly for me is like, look, I dabble, let's say, in things that aren't for kids.
Like I am on one of like the fucking raunchiest podcasts in the world and Legion of Skanks.
And me and you, buddy.
And I do, I'm a stand-up comedian who does an act that is not appropriate for children.
Like I curse a lot.
I say a lot of things that you shouldn't have around kids.
You also do a stand-up comedy act that is not for kids.
You know what I mean?
Like it would be inappropriate for it to be around children.
That doesn't mean we don't love that.
This is what we love to do.
But we can also recognize that it's like, yeah, it's appropriate in this setting and not appropriate in this setting.
Why the hell?
All of this stuff is like just wildly inappropriate for kids.
And so, yeah, I'm not, you're not getting my business if you do that as a as a business.
And I'll encourage other people not to, not to shop there either.
And I think, so anyway, I don't know.
I'm not sure exactly what your thought on this is, but I don't know, you know, is this just the beginning of something that's going to be big?
Is this just kind of like a little flare that's really ultimately going to be nothing?
I don't know.
I know it has these companies have taken black eyes over it.
And that seems like something.
I don't know.
What are your thoughts?
Loaded question.
I think it might get tougher if every brand has to pledge its allegiance to the woke thing, keeping track of how many different brands you can't shop at.
You know what I mean?
So it's like Bud Light, that was easy.
Fine.
Bud Light stepped over the, I'm done with Bud Light.
But all of a sudden you're in a bar and you're like, well, Bud Light's woke.
Miller Light's broke.
Koh's Light is Miller Light.
Oh, shit, Medel is really Budweiser.
You guys have any ingling?
So the answer is, I mean, this all just falls into the ESG score nonsense where the powers at B make it more profitable to align with the Fed and socialism versus actual profits in the marketplace.
However, centralized planning doesn't work for a reason because it doesn't work.
They make blunders.
And so at some point, are these companies going to actually be beholden to the market and their customers and to profits because there isn't endless money at the Federal Reserve to just give to brands to try and push woke stuff?
Well, the same as and yeah, go ahead.
Sorry, go ahead.
Go ahead.
No, I was just going to say we're seeing a similar thing even with green energy stuff.
Like France is talking about walking that stuff back.
Like company, like even as we haven't seen the repercussions of policies that infrastructure that we need to be invested now for us to have abundant energy five, six years from now, even with the little bit of investment that they've made in these green energy agendas, you already see them walking it back a little bit because they're like, oh, I don't think this is really working.
Yeah, no, that's, that's right.
And look, like, and we got to wrap in a second here because I got another show to get to.
But there's, look, it's all the Federal Reserve's fault, all of it.
And these huge companies like Blackwater and some of the others, yes, they are imposing these like DIE and, you know, like standards on these big companies.
But I do think that you're right.
And I think you make a really good point.
Like central planning does tend to fail.
And this is just another version of it.
And at some point, even having access to credit is not going to be enough if you don't have customers.
You know what I mean?
Like the business still relies.
Target's business still relies on people going into their store and giving them money for products.
And so you have to hope that at least that would be enough of a hit that then the carrot isn't worth it.
That's kind of what we're going to find out.
This is a pretty good example of, hey, if we let the best people compete, look at how profitable and entertaining this is.
If we're going to do the DIA thing, let's showcase how that works and force it on sports teams as well, where I can watch one cripple on the field, one lady, one guy with no arms playing baseball.
And then see what that does to a sport in an entire industry when all of a sudden it's not exciting to watch because you're not watching the best in the world.
And then let's understand that you're imposing that onto every single office in the world.
You're not letting them hire just the best people.
And yet, that's why the entire industry is not going to be exciting.