Part Of The Problem - Dave Smith - Feelings Don't Care About Your Facts Aired: 2025-11-11 Duration: 01:00:52 === Delayed Flights and Government Anger (03:33) === [00:00:06] What's up, what's up, everybody? [00:00:08] Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. [00:00:11] I am Dave Smith. [00:00:12] He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. [00:00:14] I hope everybody's doing good out there. [00:00:16] How you doing, Rob? [00:00:17] Coming to me from a hotel somewhere? [00:00:19] Yeah, I'm currently out in Charleston at the Fine Holiday and Express. [00:00:23] Let me say, thus far, this town is overrated. [00:00:28] Everyone hypes Charleston. [00:00:30] You do feel like a creep walking around here. [00:00:31] They got like a college for models or something. [00:00:34] And you're just like, I think I got to stay in my hotel. [00:00:39] No, that's a good, like getting, no, just getting older and being a dude. [00:00:42] It is a moment where like there's a point in your life where like it's like young hot girls are around. [00:00:47] That's like every boy's dream. [00:00:49] And then like you just hit an age where you just like, like if there's young, hot girls, you're like, I think I'm just going to stay inside. [00:00:54] I want to remove myself from this situation. [00:00:57] But coming to the end of porches here, everybody, this was a fine run despite all the travel hassles, which I warn everyone, and I will let you know how bad it is. [00:01:06] But this Wednesday, I'm outside of New Orleans. [00:01:08] Then I got two last gigs out in Denver, Colorado, and that's it for the year. [00:01:12] So if you're out in the New Orleans area, I got this cool bar outside of town music venue. [00:01:16] Go to porchstore.com, come hang out. [00:01:19] Hell yeah. [00:01:19] And then, of course, me and Rob, I know the first show is sold out. [00:01:22] Last I had heard, there were some tickets for the second show. [00:01:24] One night only, November 22nd, Poughkeepsie, New York, comicdave Smith.com for those links. [00:01:29] Now tell me, so as people who listen and follow our schedule may know, I've pretty much been after torrent the whole year. [00:01:36] I've been off for these last few weeks. [00:01:39] And that happens to be while there's the government shutdown. [00:01:42] I've been here and a lot of stuff. [00:01:43] I'm supposed to get on the plane this Thursday to go to New Orleans. [00:01:45] I mean, I'm assuming I'm going to find a way to get down there somehow. [00:01:48] How bad was the airport situation for you? [00:01:51] Well, I'm here to let you know that we are just hostages in the government's game of trying to make the other team look worse. [00:01:57] And, you know, it's one thing when you want to take away people's health care or food stamps, but when you start delaying my flights, then I really take issue with it and say to government, figure it out. [00:02:08] But Friday, just every single time I walked up to the gate, I got the text from them that they were delaying my flight another two hours and they just kept doing that. [00:02:18] And then yesterday, the flights that we had got canceled. [00:02:22] I booked a new flight for Menuen who's opening up for me. [00:02:26] And they kept delaying his flight, finally canceled it. [00:02:29] And he went on the line and he said he'd never seen so many angry white people since January 6th. [00:02:38] Well, we had a lot to be angry about that day. [00:02:40] And a lot to be angry about today as well. [00:02:42] He said he just retreated and let everyone else get angry. [00:02:46] He said people were slamming on the desk. [00:02:47] It was getting out of hand. [00:02:49] Yeah. [00:02:49] Well, all right. [00:02:50] Well, I guess I'll be one of these guys. [00:02:52] I'm going to end up being on a viral video somewhere on Thursday. [00:02:56] Here's the problem. [00:02:56] The airlines will take any excuse to not do their jobs. [00:03:00] And they kind of, they're not gracious about it. [00:03:03] I paid a premium on a ticket that day on a flight that wasn't going to fly. [00:03:06] But what they do is they just sell every single possible ticket that they can. [00:03:10] And then at the last minute, they just decide what flights weren't going to make them money. [00:03:13] And they go, oh, it's because we don't have enough air traffic controllers. [00:03:16] I'm sure 90% of the cancellations don't even have anything to do with that. [00:03:20] Not to mention, I don't understand why air traffic control is a government job. [00:03:24] Just let the airlines do that and we won't have all this chaos. [00:03:27] But the airlines are not gracious. [00:03:29] They won't let you know when they're canceling your flights. [00:03:31] They'll book you on the flight. [00:03:32] They'll have you show up to the airport. [00:03:34] And then they'll tell you at the last minute that it's the government's fault and you can't fly. [00:03:38] Yeah, no, it's pretty infuriating. === The National Review's 2016 Shift (04:08) === [00:03:40] Yeah, it's good. [00:03:42] You got to just hate everybody involved in that situation. [00:03:45] Hitch back to SkankFest. [00:03:47] That's my recommendation. [00:03:48] There you do. [00:03:48] Come hell or high water. [00:03:50] We'll make sure we get there. [00:03:52] Okay, so I want to talk about a few things on today's show. [00:03:57] I got to start just with their, you know, there's this, the same kind of theme of what we've been talking about for a bit on the show now, which is this really, I don't know, it's being dubbed the civil war on the right. [00:04:10] I don't exactly think that's right. [00:04:13] I think it's much more, it's much closer to like the Donald Trump phenomenon in 2016, where Donald Trump, if you turned on the news, you would think everybody just hates Donald Trump. [00:04:29] And I'm talking about the Republican primary here. [00:04:31] I'm not, people kind of forget about this stuff because Donald Trump conquered the Republican Party and then he took over. [00:04:36] But if you actually remember the primary process in 2016, there was National Review, which was the most prestigious publication in conservatism Inc. in the second half of the 20th century in America. [00:04:52] It was like the, you know, the home of William F. Buckley and all these people, right? [00:04:57] National Review came out with a front page cover that said never Trump that had like all the staff members of National Review going, we will support any other nominee except him. [00:05:08] Mark Levin said, I will never support Donald Trump. [00:05:11] I'll support anybody else but him. [00:05:12] Ben Shapiro, never support Donald Trump. [00:05:15] All these guys who now are the biggest Trump dick writers, you know, who will now turn around and criticize like me for being like, oh, you're critical of Donald Trump. [00:05:23] They were all never Trumpers. [00:05:25] In fact, Reince Priebus, who was the chair of the RNC at the time, floated out the idea of changing the rules at the convention, essentially requiring that you get a crazy higher number of delegates that no one could possibly get, and then just saying the convention can pick who the nominee is. [00:05:44] He openly floated out just stealing the thing from Donald Trump, even though he won it. [00:05:48] And if you remember famously, the next day, Donald Trump said, try it and there'll be riots in the streets, riots in the streets. [00:05:55] And anyway, I bring up this dynamic because when you, if you were, and even though 2016 isn't that long ago, it is a lot has changed since then. [00:06:04] But if you were reading National Review or you were watching CNN, now, believe it or not, I know you're listening in 2025. [00:06:10] People used to do those two things. [00:06:13] I know it's like you say that in 2025, you go, imagine you're reading National Review or watching CNN and people go, who's this Joker talking about? [00:06:20] No, that doesn't describe anybody. [00:06:21] It did used to describe people. [00:06:23] And if you were reading those or watching those things, it would be easy to go, oh, wait, Mitt Romney, the previous nominee, just gave a speech saying anyone but Donald Trump can be the nominee. [00:06:35] Like this whole thing. [00:06:36] Now, it might appear, oh, there's a civil war. [00:06:40] There's a civil war amongst the Republicans, but that's not exactly right. [00:06:45] And even as you would watch all of these guys tell you this one, Donald Trump is the most radioactive candidate. [00:06:51] He's the one you can't possibly have. [00:06:54] You know, it would dawn on people that he's number one in the polls. [00:06:59] You know, like, and not by a little bit, you know, by a lot. [00:07:03] Like Jeb Bush, the favorite, is now at 2% and Donald Trump's at 60%. [00:07:09] You know what I mean? [00:07:10] Like he's dominating the polls. [00:07:12] What actually ended up happening was that it was, it wasn't exactly a civil war. [00:07:16] It was the elite party establishment and their mouthpieces versus Donald Trump and 80% of the base. [00:07:24] That's really what the dynamic was. [00:07:26] And you might notice this again, just during this whole last week, Tucker Carlson being made out to be the Candace Owens being made out to be, oh, these are the people who need to be canceled. [00:07:35] But then you might also notice that they're number one, number one and number two, however exactly you want to measure it. [00:07:43] And so it's like, no, this isn't exactly a civil war. [00:07:46] This is very similar to 2016. === Ivermectin Supply Chain Wars (02:32) === [00:07:49] And again, for the same reasons. [00:07:51] It's the war party versus the people. [00:07:53] It's a much more accurate way to characterize it than a civil war. [00:07:57] This isn't like divided. [00:07:58] It's not like if you just talk to random Republicans and go, hey, should we be sending a bunch of money overseas right now? [00:08:06] No, no, we shouldn't. [00:08:07] Like any more than the Republicans were divided on immigration. [00:08:11] They're not divided on Tucker Carlson or Donald Trump for that matter. [00:08:16] So anyway, that's one thing. [00:08:17] And I would just say that I guess it's obviously this is very, it's very in our wheelhouse. [00:08:22] Like this is the world that we exist in. [00:08:24] And also on this show, I've kind of had like all of the people involved in this, you know, well, at least all of the ones on a certain side of it. [00:08:33] Happy to have the other ones on. [00:08:34] Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, open invite. [00:08:36] Come on up. [00:08:37] Let's talk about it. [00:08:39] But anyway, it's just, so there's been more going on with that. [00:08:41] And it's hard not to talk about because it does seem to be so relevant. [00:08:45] Like much like with Donald Trump, while it's not a civil war, there is kind of like, you know, to use the phrase that me and you maybe don't love the most, but like a battle for the soul of the right wing in America. [00:08:56] It does seem like something like that is going on. [00:08:59] All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is the Wellness Company. [00:09:04] Now, some of you may know about this pill called ivermectin. [00:09:10] It became very popular during the pandemic. [00:09:14] And about 58% of the world's ivermectin supply comes from China and 75% from Asia overall, but not the wellness companies. 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[00:10:15] That's TWC.health slash problem, promo code problem for $30 off and free shipping. === Anti-Semitic Accusations Explained (14:44) === [00:10:21] All right, let's get back into the show. [00:10:23] It certainly just feels like censorship in the name of special interest. [00:10:27] And I hadn't thought about it, but you're so right that it's early Donald Trump. [00:10:31] It's the same thing as COVID. [00:10:32] You're crazy for not getting the vaccine. [00:10:34] They're trying to shame Republicans to go, all these people that you prefer listening to are not actually conservative and they're dangerous to the party. [00:10:41] It's the, it's the same, it's just the new form of censorship. [00:10:45] That's all it is. [00:10:46] Well, and you see that, right, Rob? [00:10:48] Yeah, exactly. [00:10:48] But you also see that when like, well, look, it's like, even if they'll say like, okay, here's our beef with Nick Fuentes is that he said thing, you know, anti-Semitic things. [00:11:00] And then you go like, okay, but Tucker Carlson doesn't have any of that baggage, right? [00:11:04] And you're just as mad as him. [00:11:05] So like, it seems like that's really not what it's about. [00:11:08] They'll be like, Candace, you know, digs into too many conspiracies that are unfounded. [00:11:13] And you'll go like, okay, but then like, me and you don't really do that now, do we? [00:11:18] Does anyone want to argue with us about any of our conspiracy? [00:11:21] Like, what are our conspiracies, Rob, over the last 10 years together? [00:11:24] Or that Trump wasn't a Russian spy? [00:11:27] Like, what, what conspiracy is it that we buy into? [00:11:29] That the vaccine would like that the vaccine wouldn't stop you from getting COVID and might actually like injure you. [00:11:37] Is that a conspiracy? [00:11:38] Like, like literally go. [00:11:39] And so even the people, and oh, but they hate us just as much as they hate them too. [00:11:43] So after a while, it is kind of hard to not go, it really seems to be that the issue here is like, these are the people against the war party. [00:11:51] Seems to be the only thing that really explains all of it. [00:11:54] And okay, so the latest chapter in this was that Megan Kelly, who I got to say, I really do like Megan Kelly. [00:12:02] And I thought she was very reasonable in this, but so she had, she was doing some event. [00:12:08] I forget exactly who was it connected to Turning Point or something, or maybe it was just her own event. [00:12:13] But she was doing an event. [00:12:14] So she interviewed Tucker Carlson. [00:12:16] And then the next day she, or later in that day, she interviewed Ben Shapiro. [00:12:20] And, you know, the Tucker Carlson, we obviously already had him on the show and he said some of the same things, but it was, you know, just obviously being correct. [00:12:29] It's just not even, I don't know, just undeniably right about all this stuff. [00:12:34] But there was this part with Ben Shapiro. [00:12:37] So then Ben Shapiro comes on to essentially like struggle session Megan Kelly for why she should be calling out the bigotry of all these other people. [00:12:50] And there was this moment that happened here. [00:12:51] Now, full disclosure, I did Liam McCollum's show the other day. [00:12:56] I love Liam. [00:12:56] I think he's great. [00:12:58] Me and you, we hung out with him last time we were out in Montana. [00:13:01] And he's great. [00:13:03] You guys should follow Liam McCullough. [00:13:05] Really, really sharp young guy. [00:13:06] One of the best young guys in our space. [00:13:09] And so we did, we talked about this clip on there. [00:13:12] I just, I had to do this with you, Rob, and I had to do this on our show. [00:13:15] So apologies to all you guys who saw that show, but we're going to go over the same one again because it's just too wild. [00:13:19] So let's play that and then me and Rob will respond. [00:13:22] But here is Ben Shapiro. [00:13:24] Try to keep up with this here. [00:13:25] Here's Ben Shapiro trying to get Megan Kelly to condemn Tucker Carlson and wait for it, Rob. [00:13:33] Here's why. [00:13:34] My point is that that's not his point. [00:13:36] And again, none of this. [00:13:37] So we disagree. [00:13:38] Well, no, none of we disagree on the interpretation of what Tucker has been doing for the past two years. [00:13:43] And it's very difficult for me to believe that Tucker is merely anti-Israel when, for example, today in his newsletter, I mean, I can directly quote it if you'd like. [00:13:53] In his newsletter today, he claimed that Zorhan Mamdani is not anti-Semitic. [00:13:58] This was his newsletter today, this morning. [00:14:02] I mean, I'm happy to read the text. [00:14:04] It's pretty, it's a little extraordinary because, again, it is kind of shocking. [00:14:09] I'll let you go first if you want to comment on this, but it's already just such a flaw in logic. [00:14:15] Dude, it's, I just, the reason why I just love this is this is Ben Shapiro. [00:14:22] Ben Shapiro. [00:14:23] Facts don't care about your feelings. [00:14:25] Accusations of bigotry can't shut down debates. [00:14:28] I remember this one time. [00:14:30] He was, he was arguing with some crazy leftist college chick, and she was talking about implicit bias and this idea of like, you have some implicit bias or implicit racism or something like that. [00:14:44] And he was like, yeah, but like, I don't know, like, you don't even know what your motivations are yourself. [00:14:49] Sometimes you don't even know those. [00:14:51] And now you're saying what the motivations that you don't even know are your motivations are your motivations. [00:14:55] He goes, this is just ghost hunting, man. [00:14:57] Like, and it was like, it was such a good point just to tear apart their argument. [00:15:01] This same guy is now. [00:15:02] Yes, if you have, if you didn't quite catch this, okay, keep this. [00:15:07] This is literally what Ben Shapiro is doing. [00:15:08] Ben Shapiro is saying, Megan Kelly, you ought to be condemning Tucker Carlson for being an anti-Semite. [00:15:16] He's not just anti-Israel. [00:15:18] He's anti-Semitic. [00:15:19] How is he anti-Semitic? [00:15:21] Well, he's anti-Semitic because he said another guy wasn't anti-Semitic. [00:15:26] Just think about the leap of that already. [00:15:30] Okay. [00:15:30] But like, obviously, you could, like, if there is someone who really hates Jews, me saying he doesn't hate Jews doesn't make me hate Jews. [00:15:39] It might make me incorrect about this guy, but that does not like, it doesn't even follow from that. [00:15:44] But here's his, look, let's just finish the rest of the clip, Rob, because it's just more fun to trash when you actually hear. [00:15:48] Here's the evidence of why Tucker Carlson's anti-Semitic. [00:15:52] Here's what Tucker Carlson wrote in his newsletter today, or what his newsletter says under his name. [00:15:56] He said, is the incoming mayor a fan of Israel? [00:15:59] Does he want America to fight its wars? [00:16:01] Not particularly. [00:16:02] But a Jew hater? [00:16:03] That's a different conversation. [00:16:04] We've never seen anything to suggest he falls into that ugly camp. [00:16:08] If we're talking about fighting the left, defending Zorhan Mamdani, who literally said that Hamas, he has no opinion on whether Hamas should disarm, who posed alongside the 1993 World Trade Center unindicted co-conspirator who would not disarm globalized the antifada, who suggested that whenever there is a New York Police Department boot on somebody's neck, it's an IDF lacing the strings, to suggest that that's not anti-Semitic in any way. [00:16:29] No way. [00:16:29] Okay, but when he defend Tucker because I'm not Tucker Tucker, but I'll just say, I think in general, because I know him and I listen to him and I understand generally where he's coming from, he would say his problems are with Israel. [00:16:44] And he would say that that shot that Momdani laid against the IDF is a shot against the IDF and Israel and how he thinks they can pro-war, not against Jews. [00:16:55] And I think he finds himself in complete alignment with Zorhan Mamdani. [00:16:59] It is very difficult for me to believe that he does not agree with Zorin Mandani. [00:17:03] It is in a place right now of the same place that Charlie was getting to toward the end of his life, the same place that some people had tried to drive me, which is you're under withering nonstop accusations of being something you know you're not. [00:17:18] But from some who you like to do. [00:17:21] I just love Megan Kelly going, and we could end the clip there, but it's like Megan Kelly is basically going, yeah, I think Tucker's in the same place Charlie found himself in that I find myself in, where it's like, you guys are just such. [00:17:32] Like, I don't know what to, it's like, dude, honestly, how, I'm sorry, I'm not putting words in Megan Kelly's mouth that she handled this better than I would have probably. [00:17:40] But like the idea that you go, Tucker is, think about this, Rob. [00:17:44] Tucker's an anti-Semite because he says this guy is not an anti-Semite. [00:17:48] And the proof that this guy's an anti-Semite is that he refuses to condemn the phrase globalize the intifada. [00:17:56] Like, by the way, you know, the IDF has been involved in training American police. [00:18:01] It's not that crazy to make a point. [00:18:03] There's nothing anti-Jewish about talking about a foreign military that has a relationship with American domestic police. [00:18:08] And there's nothing, his opinion about whether Hamas should disarm or should not disarm. [00:18:12] I mean, that's a pretty controversial. [00:18:13] I don't know. [00:18:14] There's lots of opinions on that that don't mean you hate Jews. [00:18:18] And then again, him say, like, anyway, this is just so pathetic, Rob. [00:18:22] What can you say about this? [00:18:24] You're, he's a big, well, then honestly, if just by extending this logic, then Megan Kelly's an anti-Semite too, right? [00:18:33] Because Megan Kelly is sitting here saying Tucker's not an anti-Semite. [00:18:36] And Tucker's an anti-Semite for saying someone else isn't an anti-Semite. [00:18:39] So she's guilty of the same thing by transfer, you know, like she's guilty of the exact same thing. [00:18:44] So why don't you call her out to her face? [00:18:46] Would it just start to sound too retarded at that point? [00:18:49] Like how many level, how many guilt by association levels can we get to here? [00:18:53] All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is the Tuttle Twins. [00:18:59] You know, we've had some great sponsors over the years, but this one is really near and dear to my heart. [00:19:04] You know, you've heard me talk about Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard and F.A. Hayek. [00:19:09] Well, all of their greatest works are in children's book form, thanks to the Tuttle Twins. [00:19:14] These books are made for kids, but honestly, an adult could spend a couple hours reading through them and walk away with a solid foundation on the core concepts. [00:19:21] They are incredible books. [00:19:23] And get this, they've sold over 6 million copies. [00:19:27] Think about how amazing that is. [00:19:28] Imagine the impact that's going to have on the future. [00:19:31] And here's something else. [00:19:32] They also have a magazine. [00:19:33] The Smith Family Household gets one in the mail every month, and each issue explains a current hot topic with a Tuttle Twin Adventure article and activity. [00:19:42] But the most powerful thing about these magazines is that they spark important teaching moments and conversations with my kids that I just normally wouldn't have. [00:19:50] So please go to tuttletwins.com/slash problem and get a deal on the magazine subscription. [00:19:55] It's like 50 bucks. [00:19:56] It's the price of a couple pizzas for a full year of mind-molding learning for a little one in your life. [00:20:02] And they've got all types of stuff. [00:20:03] I had my kids on their, like, they have the hardcover books that are great for like toddlers and even pre-toddlers. [00:20:09] Like they've got a great range of everything all the way up to like older kids and stuff. [00:20:14] So go check them out. [00:20:15] Tuttletwins.com/slash problem. [00:20:18] That's tuttle, T-U-T-T-L-E-twins.com slash problem. [00:20:23] All right, let's get back into the show. [00:20:25] It's such a wild claim because firstly, he goes, My evidence that Tucker Carlson is an anti-Israel, but is actually an anti-Semite is that he defended that Momdami is not an anti-Semite. [00:20:38] And then his proof that Momdami is an anti-Semite is all rhetoric that is criticizing Israel and is not criticizing the Jewish people. [00:20:47] And so you got double-folded. [00:20:49] You haven't proved that Mumdami is actually an anti-Semite. [00:20:53] And now you're labeling that Tucker is definitely an anti-Semite just because he's saying that Momdami is not. [00:21:00] That is not proof of anti-Semitism in any capacity. [00:21:03] And Ben Shapiro knows it, which is why he doesn't even want to have this conversation or get the pushback from Megan and just go, well, he can defend himself because he knows the game of I just going to give a reason and then let's just move on from this. [00:21:15] And I've stated a reason. [00:21:17] Yeah, no, that's right. [00:21:18] And then just everything is all so pathetic too. [00:21:21] Like the look, even the thing, and I look, I'm speaking about this not knowing too much about it because who the hell cares? [00:21:27] But the thing is that Mom Doni took a picture. [00:21:31] First of all, taking a picture, when you're running for mayor, taking a picture means nothing, dude. [00:21:37] It means absolutely nothing. [00:21:38] It's listen, I'm not running for mayor. [00:21:41] I've taken pictures with all types of people, dude. [00:21:43] People ask for a picture. [00:21:44] It's part of the thing. [00:21:45] It's just part of being a public person, dude. [00:21:47] Sometimes people see you and they go, mind if I get a quick picture? [00:21:50] And you go, sure, because what the hell? [00:21:52] Why not? [00:21:52] You know, and like, so you take them just means nothing. [00:21:54] He's a mayor. [00:21:55] He's going around the city. [00:21:56] He's running for office. [00:21:57] He can, literally, you cannot say no if anyone ever asks you for a picture when you're running for mayor. [00:22:03] So literally that means nothing. [00:22:04] But then they also go, so he took a picture with the unindicted conspirator of the 93, which I know is a legal term, and I know they really love it. [00:22:14] They've said that term every single day, all day long since this picture came out because obviously it didn't really move the needle too much with voters now, did it? [00:22:22] Because like, even when you're trying to make that sound bad, you know, there is something about that first word there, Rob, you know, that just really undercuts it. [00:22:31] Like, oh, unindicted. [00:22:33] Oh, okay, right. [00:22:35] Meaning, there were never charges brought against him, let alone a conviction of anything, meaning he's innocent or presumed innocent, right? [00:22:44] Like, that isn't that the whole. [00:22:45] So again, there's just nothing there saying globalize the intifada. [00:22:50] Look, intifada means rebellion in Arabic, okay? [00:22:57] And like, there, there, there was what's known as the first antifada and the second antifada. [00:23:01] There was violence in both, but the first antifada was largely non-violent. [00:23:05] The second one was very violent. [00:23:06] But so, like, the whole point of anyone going like, well, when they say globalize the intifada, there are now look, there might be people who mean violence by that, but like, there are also people who just mean like, oh no, the whole world should be sticking up for the Palestinians to like not get treated this way. [00:23:24] It's not that crazy that he didn't want to condemn that. [00:23:26] And also, like, why? [00:23:29] I don't know. [00:23:30] It, it, like, why the hell would he want to when that's his base? [00:23:33] He's a leftist. [00:23:34] Why the hell should he condemn what his entire base views? [00:23:38] And, and, you know, again, to Ben Shapiro, all this is just pathetic. [00:23:41] Like, if you're against Israel, therefore you hate the Jews. [00:23:45] You know, what critic of Israel is Ben Shapiro not calling an anti-Semite? [00:23:50] That's just really just so pathetically weak. [00:23:52] You know, this rice-eating socialist might turn out to be anti-Semitic, but there's no reason to say at the moment that he is anti-Semitic. [00:24:00] It's the same game of every time someone makes an anti-Israel comment, you go, Well, he's anti-Semitic, which is this actually the same charge that you just have against Tucker Carlson is, oh, he's not just anti-Israel, he's anti-Semitic. [00:24:12] And my proof is because he defended this other guy who also only made statements that were like if Zoron was up there and saying, We don't have a problem with wealth, we've got a problem with Jewish landlords in this city, and we need to take back wealth from Jewish landlords. [00:24:29] But any other wealthy landlord, that's not a problem. [00:24:31] Sure, sure, that would be an anti-Semite. [00:24:33] Yes, yes. [00:24:34] No, that's right. [00:24:35] But they, the thing is, they can't point to one thing like that. [00:24:38] Like, there's not one thing like that where he's, it's even been. [00:24:41] I mean, look, I'm again, I have no dog in this race. [00:24:44] He's a commie. [00:24:45] I don't care. [00:24:46] Make him a Jew hater too. [00:24:47] He's already a commie. [00:24:48] That's so much worse. [00:24:49] Like, who cares? [00:24:50] But I'm just saying, like, I don't see the Jew hatred. [00:24:52] Maybe it is there. [00:24:53] And we, like you said, maybe he turns out to be one. [00:24:56] But it's with Tucker Carlson's email. [00:24:57] I'm on Tucker Carlson's email. [00:24:59] I read this. [00:24:59] You know, the whole spirit of the thing was like, yeah, he's a commie, but like, I don't know. [00:25:02] They're said he's a Jew hater. [00:25:03] That doesn't seem like that doesn't seem apparent at all. === Tariffs, Checks, and Supreme Court (13:21) === [00:25:06] And then, of course, Ben Shapiro there. [00:25:08] It's like he goes, I think when you're in lockstep with Mamdani, like then you, and you're like, it's just so bad faith. [00:25:16] He's so disingenuous. [00:25:17] Yeah, he just said, I don't see the evidence. [00:25:19] Is Tucker talking about free buses and rents, you know, freezes? [00:25:23] No. [00:25:24] So he's not in lockstep. [00:25:26] And this game is not helping. [00:25:28] I think we all saw it that in, I mean, listen, terrible candidates ran against Mom Dami, but when they tried to turn the New York mayorship into some sort of a conversation about Israel and he just goes, well, I'm not really all that concerned about that as the New York City mayor. [00:25:44] I want to make things more affordable. [00:25:46] That resonates. [00:25:47] And then when you turn around and you go, well, this other thing is more important because at the root of that is actually anti-Semitism. [00:25:56] You're not courting any favor. [00:25:57] That's not, firstly, it's not anti-Semitism. [00:25:59] And even if that was, I'm just saying, is it theoretical if it was a true? [00:26:03] If the guy believes in, you know, if he's not looking to harm anybody, but he's like, I'm just not as focused on racial issues. [00:26:09] When did the left become the people of no economic prosperity needs to be second to us propping up the, you know, the harmed classes, and we need to put racial issues first. [00:26:23] I don't care what your economic policy is. [00:26:25] What I care about is that you say that you're going to stand with the plight of the black man and women in this country. [00:26:31] Yeah, that's well, there's a thing because like Ben Shapiro also, you know, he does this other thing in there where he's kind of like, well, I haven't seen, you know, Tucker's not attacking the left. [00:26:39] He's not attacking Mamdani or something like that. [00:26:42] It's like, there's two things on that. [00:26:43] Number one, well, Ben Shapiro, we're attacking you and you're acting like the left. [00:26:49] So same thing to me, man. [00:26:51] Like, yeah, we're attacking the dude who can't take on anyone's arguments and instead shouts accusations of bigotry. [00:26:57] And then when he asked to back them up, has the most pathetic take ever. [00:27:01] Like, so yeah, we're criticizing you. [00:27:03] And like, number two, what can I say? [00:27:06] You guys made it kind of hard. [00:27:08] I mean, look, obviously, we've talked quite a bit about how we don't like Mom Danny's economic ideas. [00:27:14] But when you run a lockdown governor who's quite literally a murderer, the most disgraced human being in America, you run him, and then the whole attack campaign about Mom Dunny is like, eek, he's a racist because he won't visit a foreign country and kiss their wall. [00:27:33] It's like, yeah, you make it pretty goddamn hard to get on board with that. [00:27:37] Yes. [00:27:37] No, in other words, you guys, people like Ben Shapiro attacked this guy in the dumbest possible way. [00:27:44] You found the one thing that isn't actually something to criticize him about that is a losing issue and you ran on that. [00:27:51] And now you're mad that more of us didn't pile on to your ridiculous losing issue, which is that you, if you have a problem, you know, like, dude, there's been, I mean, multiple reports, multiple reports of. babies being used as target practice by IDF soldiers from doctors in Gaza. [00:28:12] There's been like at least six or seven doctors who have said that they've consistently seen babies shot in little kids. [00:28:19] I'm talking one through five year olds, shot in the groin, shot in the head, shot in the body. [00:28:24] And at first, one of the doctors said, you know, at first, we thought there must be some like sociopath sniper, like some rogue agent here. [00:28:32] And then they started finding it like in all different parts of Gaza, like the similar thing. [00:28:36] Okay. [00:28:36] There's been reports of, and again, this isn't even reports. [00:28:40] The Israeli government said that when Hamas is slow rolling the dead remains, they're going to half the aid that's coming into the civilian population. [00:28:50] Okay. [00:28:50] If you got a problem with any of that, Rob, you hate Jews. [00:28:55] Like, what, I mean, what is this? [00:28:57] This is, it's, it's actually more ridiculous than any accusation of racism I ever saw leveled at Ben Shapiro. [00:29:04] You know, you know, he would say things sometimes like he'd be like, you know, whatever, black, he would say, black kids are like seven or eight times, whatever the numbers are more likely to be raised without a father. [00:29:16] And that's a real problem. [00:29:17] And then people would go, you're a racist. [00:29:19] You hate black people. [00:29:20] And you'd be like, yeah, that's stupid. [00:29:22] What Ben Shapiro is doing here is dumber. [00:29:24] It's a worse version than that. [00:29:26] And that's it. [00:29:27] So like, yeah, dude, I don't know. [00:29:29] Here's a whole woke right battle. [00:29:31] You guys are just the woke left. [00:29:32] You're the same thing as them, just only about Israel and Jews. [00:29:36] Everything else. [00:29:36] That's Ben Shapiro. [00:29:38] The gloves should be off for everyone else except my group. [00:29:42] Facts don't care about your feelings. [00:29:45] All right. [00:29:46] I do want to move on. [00:29:47] Okay. [00:29:47] I want to talk about a couple of things here that were specifically kind of interesting things that have been put out there. [00:29:56] Economic proposals that Donald Trump has made, I guess, since our last show. [00:30:02] And one of them is the $2,000 tariff stimulus checks. [00:30:11] And the other one is the 50-year mortgage thing that he's talking about here. [00:30:18] And I thought they were kind of interesting topics for us to get into. [00:30:24] I don't know. [00:30:25] I guess I'll just start by, I'm real curious to get your thoughts on both of these so we could go through them one at a time. [00:30:29] But I would just, I guess, start by saying like, man, the Trump administration is just getting more and more pathetic by the day. [00:30:37] I just find all of this shit to be just absolutely like desperation hail Marys that you know like like this is something that you do when your coalition has fallen apart which I think is Is kind of the message here, you know? [00:30:51] And I've been one of the people saying, because I've seen Republicans, you know, who have been like, oh, this last week's election didn't really mean that much. [00:30:58] These were just Democratic strongholds or whatever. [00:31:00] And I'm like, no, I don't think that's true at all. [00:31:01] This is a big wake-up call to Republicans. [00:31:04] And it seems almost like maybe Trump feels the same way. [00:31:07] But oh my God, talk about the worst way to handle it to just throw the most pathetic, I'll send you all money. [00:31:13] And this is like on the level of like the kid in school who's like, I'll pay you all to come to my house type shit. [00:31:19] Like, sure. [00:31:20] I mean, that might work. [00:31:21] It might get some more people over to your house, but it is the worst, most long-term, destructive, and just, and just pathetic way to appeal to voters. [00:31:30] And then the 50-year mortgage thing just seems like a crazy scheme to me. [00:31:33] But anyway, we could take these one at a time, whichever one you want to do first. [00:31:39] All right. [00:31:39] So let's start with the tariffs. [00:31:41] And I think what Donald Trump is trying to do here is he's got a Supreme Court case going on at the moment, having to do tariffs. [00:31:48] And it appears as though he will not be allowed to implement his current tariff policy because it should be under the purview of both revenue and taxes, which are under Congress. [00:31:58] Now, there's two elements of gigantic stupidity. [00:32:01] And these are things that I've talked about in the past. [00:32:04] First and foremost, the fact that you're able to enact a policy and then it takes a year before it gets to the Supreme Court to find out you couldn't do it is a dumb system. [00:32:12] There should be a secondary Supreme Court. [00:32:14] You want to do something. [00:32:15] You find out, am I allowed to do it? [00:32:16] And then you go and do it. [00:32:17] Now, here's the dumber part. [00:32:19] Not only is the government not necessarily responsible when they get things wrong, there's already a conversation now about whether or not it's feasible to unwind a policy that shouldn't have been implemented because it might be too sloppy to give refunds back to people that have already business American businesses that have already had to pay tariffs. [00:32:39] Now, just think about how disgusting that is: that there could be government overreach that costs your business money. [00:32:44] And then the Supreme Court goes, yes, that was illegal and they shouldn't have done that, but it's too sloppy for us to return the money that we shouldn't have taken from you. [00:32:53] And so what Donald Trump is trying to do, in my opinion, I don't know that I've seen anyone else say this, is he wants to send direct checks out to make it even sloppier to recoup the money from the government that had been collected by tariffs. [00:33:06] Because if the money was collected by the government and then sent out to taxpayers, it's even sloppier to clean up. [00:33:12] So for one, I think that's part of his Hail Mary play. [00:33:15] And the whole Supreme Court system is stupid in regards to the fact that you can enact a bad policy and then they are hesitant to punish government for the bad policy because it's messy, stupid across the board. [00:33:30] Now, driving up prices because there are tariffs and then handing more money to individuals to go pay on those goods is also not great economic policy if what you're dealing with is people that are upset about prices going up. [00:33:46] And if you want to see how sending direct stimulus checks played out, go look at tarot. [00:33:52] I mean, go look at the inflation that took place after COVID when he sent checks directly to people's homes. [00:33:58] Yeah, the thing is, people are still, there are people who are still stupid enough to go to look back and go like, it was a tough time, but Trump did send me that check. [00:34:06] And he knows that. [00:34:07] And he knows that there are people like that. [00:34:09] And there's a reason why he made sure to put his name on that check in 2020, you know? [00:34:13] And like, that's what they called it Trump Bucks. [00:34:15] And he knows. [00:34:16] And like, you know, I, there's so many things that are crazy about that. [00:34:20] You hit, you hit a lot of the good ones, you know. [00:34:22] But I would just say, too, that the idea, even if you were going to sell the idea that like tariffs raise revenue, okay, right? [00:34:31] Like there is some revenue that's raised from tariffs. [00:34:34] But you're like, dude, we're $38 trillion in debt and going further into debt every minute. [00:34:41] Like, what position are we in to say, oh, we have, we have this surplus. [00:34:46] Now we're going to pretend it's a surplus that's just extra sitting around there. [00:34:49] Might as well send some checks out. [00:34:51] It's just, it's ridiculous. [00:34:53] I did listen to, I saw there was the, I heard the audio of Gorsuch at the Supreme Court, and it did not sound like he was buying it at all. [00:35:03] Just like their ridiculous argument. [00:35:05] This is Trump's stupidity as he keeps talking about how it raises revenue and, you know, or it's, but now they're trying to pretend that it's not revenue or taxes, which they can't explain. [00:35:17] Well, who, who bears the cost of this? [00:35:19] And they go, well, ideally, down the line, we'll create American jobs. [00:35:22] And so prices will explain to me when these factories are coming and when all this stuff is being made in America. [00:35:29] But between now and then, it sounds like the president's talking a lot about raising revenue from it. [00:35:34] So you kind of can't pretend that this is just, you know, a presidential policy for job increasing, which even if it was, I mean, that's central planning. [00:35:44] Yeah, no, that's right. [00:35:46] And well, look, I mean, the idea that the idea that the president of the United States having the unilateral ability to just tax trade is the key to prosperity is just so ridiculous. [00:36:00] And again, like, you know, we've been saying this whole time. [00:36:02] It's all just been, it's been goofy economics this whole time. [00:36:05] And you can never even, it seems like you can't even pin Donald Trump or his supporters down on what they're even saying tariffs do. [00:36:12] You know, like, it's like, what are you saying? [00:36:14] Are you saying tariffs make us rich because they protect industry? [00:36:18] Are you saying tariffs are leveraged to get good deals out of other countries? [00:36:21] Or are you saying they're revenue generating? [00:36:23] You know, like, which like, and it almost seems like, and look, I mean, I guess theoretically, you could argue they're all three, right? [00:36:31] But it's not a very good argument. [00:36:33] There's a lot of flaws in it. [00:36:36] But like, you could make that argument, but it does seem like they justify it with one. [00:36:40] And then when you knock that one down, they move to the other one. [00:36:42] And then you knock that one down, they move to the other one. [00:36:44] Then you knock that one down and they move back to the first one you knock down. [00:36:47] Like it's just, it's all over the place. [00:36:50] And like, even if like, look, for each one of the arguments, like the only argument that actually stands that yes, you could put some pressure on another government to maybe get some concessions out of them. [00:37:02] Okay. [00:37:03] That is reasonable. [00:37:04] But in terms of tariffs generating revenue, well, first of all, the problem isn't that the U.S. federal government doesn't generate enough revenue. [00:37:13] Drain right trillions of dollars every year in revenue. [00:37:16] The problem is that they not only spend that, they spend another couple trillion dollars on top of it. [00:37:22] That's the major problem. [00:37:24] Okay. [00:37:25] So it's obviously a spending issue, not a revenue issue. [00:37:29] And we like, I mean, I don't know, but I would venture to guess that if you just look at the tax revenue, where we got to be over $3 trillion, I'm sure, probably between $3 and $4 trillion that the federal government brings in in tax revenue every year, that is bigger than any government in the history of the world. [00:37:48] You have the biggest, most powerful government in the history of the world just based off the revenue that the federal government collects. [00:37:54] The fact that they want to be that much bigger, so they borrow and then print the money doesn't really suggest that it's a revenue problem. [00:38:01] And then, um, in terms of the stuff as we've talked about before, in terms of like protecting business, if that were really the case, if that really made us, well, then again, just reduct to absurdum this shit. [00:38:12] Then why not higher tariffs? [00:38:14] Why not 5,000% tariffs on everyone? [00:38:18] Or how about this? [00:38:18] Just write a law that says it's illegal to trade with the rest of the world. [00:38:22] Why not get the most protection if you believe in protectionism? === Expensive Mortgages and Debt Traps (14:56) === [00:38:27] And then right away, you'll start figuring out, oh, yeah, that would make us rastically poorer. [00:38:32] So anyway, it's all just been goofy economic policy. [00:38:35] And after a while, as Donald Trump is Failing across the board at so many of the other things. [00:38:43] It's just like, I don't know. [00:38:45] There's, it's harder and harder to let any of this stuff go. [00:38:48] People, people just have to learn free money is a devil's deal. [00:38:51] And the last time they sent you a check, it was because they could keep you in your homes and you wouldn't criticize them doing another financial bailout for the big banks. [00:39:01] And every single time they offer you free money, it just means you're going to be more in debt. [00:39:06] And whatever thing you were going to use that free money on is going to be more expensive, which turns us to the 50-year mortgage plan, which, by the way, I'm a big fan of freedom. [00:39:15] If you want to walk into a bank tomorrow and the bank wants to give you a 50-year mortgage and you think that suits your needs, go for it. [00:39:22] People love homeownership. [00:39:24] And the idea, what's nice about homeownership is that you think, okay, I'll never be homeless because I'm going to own this thing. [00:39:29] The problem is you also still have property taxes. [00:39:32] You're never not paying rent. [00:39:34] You're renting what you own from the government once you paid for it. [00:39:37] And you've got the problem that people can move to your area and all of a sudden your area can get more expensive and that tax can go up on you or your insurance rates can claim. [00:39:47] And all of a sudden, you can find that the thing that you've been paying into your entire life is actually not that affordable or that you can't even continue to live there. [00:39:54] And the problem with a 50-year mortgage is firstly, it's going to put more people into the housing market, which means prices are going to go up. [00:40:01] But not only that, if you're paying off your home for a full 50 years, I mean, the amount of interest you're paying on your home, the idea that you're going to make money on the thing, I mean, even if you're at like a 7% interest rate, I mean, you're really, let's say you buy a home. [00:40:16] I guess you're putting down $50,000 to maybe buy like a $400,000 home or something. [00:40:20] Maybe that's the best case scenario, and you're going to be paying that off over 50 years. [00:40:25] I mean, just the idea that you wouldn't have made more money in the stock market or that $50,000 that you put down that's going to end up being homes at a more, at a higher valuation. [00:40:35] I don't know. [00:40:36] It seems like a real sucker's game. [00:40:37] It just feels like a lot of people are going to be sitting in more debt for longer and stuck in homes that they didn't actually want. [00:40:43] All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Hexclad. [00:40:49] Hexclad has some of the best cookware out there. [00:40:52] They sent us a couple of pots and pans. [00:40:55] My wife loves them. [00:40:56] We use them all the time. [00:40:57] Hexclad has completely revolutionized pots and pans by combining the performance of stainless steel with the convenience and easy cleanup of nonstick. [00:41:05] But Hexclad's innovation doesn't stop there. [00:41:08] Their Japanese Damascus steel knives are as sharp as they are tough. [00:41:12] Their sleek peppermill lets you season like a pro with precision and style. [00:41:16] Gordon Ramsey might be one of the toughest critics in the entire world, and he uses Hexclad both at home and in his Michelin star restaurants. [00:41:23] Hexclad products also come with a lifetime warranty. [00:41:26] These are going to be the last kitchen essentials you ever have to buy. [00:41:29] And for a limited time, our listeners can get 10% off your order with our exclusive link. [00:41:34] Just head over to hexclad.com/slash problem. [00:41:38] That's hexclad.com/slash problem for 10% off. [00:41:42] All right, let's get back into the show. [00:41:44] I think, so I think one of the things that is in common with both of these policies, with the tariff dividend and the 50-year mortgage, is that both of them are acts of desperation. [00:42:00] Trying to give people a $2,000 check is going, shit, I know I'm tanking in the polls and I know I'm losing popularity, but at least I could come, I could get some more people to vote for the Republicans in the midterm if we just send him a check. [00:42:15] Now, obviously, this will lead to disaster. [00:42:17] It will make the country worse off. [00:42:18] Right, right. [00:42:19] It will make the country worse off as it always does. [00:42:22] But in the short term, I might be able to get through the midterms. [00:42:25] And then this scheme with the 50-year mortgage is essentially going, well, look, we've got a real problem here. [00:42:30] It's like the game of musical chairs is running out. [00:42:32] There's less and less chairs. [00:42:33] When the music stops, we might be, you know, the prices are going up and up, and the interest rates have been going up, and monthly payments are getting more and more unaffordable. [00:42:41] And so, what happens is that if you spread the money you're borrowing over 50 years rather than 30 years, you save a couple hundred bucks a month on, you know, your mortgage payments. [00:42:53] And so, in the shortest of short runs, that is better for somebody, right? [00:42:58] Now, in the long run, you're paying like almost twice as much interest to the bank. [00:43:03] So, like, if you run the numbers, like if you take out like a $500,000 loan and you could look at like what you end up paying the 30-year life of a mortgage, you look at what you'd end up paying on the 50-year life, it's like hundreds of thousands of dollars extra that are going to the bank. [00:43:17] So, obviously, pretty good deal for the big banks, which is so weird because that always seems to be the case. [00:43:22] Every government policy always seems to be really good for the big banks, which is always a real puzzle to put together. [00:43:29] But so now, look, it is true that like you can make creative arguments with all this stuff. [00:43:35] So, you could say that even though somebody is going to, let's say somebody is going to pay more money in interest to the big banks over this thing, okay, they're saving money every month. [00:43:47] And so, you could argue like if they took that money, they were saving every month and they invested that money, then maybe they could make up the difference or something like that. [00:43:56] By the way, still a pretty good deal for the banks. [00:43:59] You got to go gamble your money to see if you can make back. [00:44:01] They're guaranteed that they get way more money or they can come foreclose on your house. [00:44:05] Still seems like a pretty good deal for them. [00:44:07] Not such a great deal for you. [00:44:09] But then, I guess the bigger point of all of this, Rob, is that it's just got a feel of like student loan forgiveness type thing. [00:44:20] I mean, what you're not even kind of addressing the core of the problem here. [00:44:25] And, you know, the core of the problem here is that it's everything's getting too expensive. [00:44:29] The currency debasement is catching up. [00:44:31] You know, the essence of the problem here really is, Rob, that we simple as it is, right? [00:44:39] We have a government that is so big, we can't afford it. [00:44:44] We can't afford the size of government that we have. [00:44:46] This is not overly complicated. [00:44:49] It's for pretty obvious reasons. [00:44:51] You know, you can only tax so much. [00:44:55] There's, there's, you know, even if you raise tax rates to 90%, you know, you're not going to get that much different revenue. [00:45:03] It just, it affects behavior. [00:45:04] People don't produce that much more when they're getting taxed at 90%. [00:45:08] So you can only tax so much. [00:45:11] And then you can actually only borrow so much. [00:45:13] And then you start printing the money. [00:45:15] And that's the only way to have a government this big is to have a constant currency debasement. [00:45:21] They can call these fancy words like monetary policy or quantitative easing, but it is no different. [00:45:28] It is really no different than like ancient Rome diluting their gold coins, just making your money worth less. [00:45:36] And as that happens, the money doesn't go as far. [00:45:39] So things become more and more expensive. [00:45:41] And that's what's destroying the middle class. [00:45:44] It's what's destroying the young. [00:45:45] What is it that's so big about this government? [00:45:48] Well, it's basically two categories. [00:45:50] Well, I mean, interest on the debt now is becoming a really big category itself, but it is the military and the entitlements. [00:45:57] We've, we're dead set on being a world empire, which is illegal. [00:46:01] It is not what we're supposed to be. [00:46:02] And it's not what the American people have ever decided to be. [00:46:05] And then we have these giant entitlement programs that are huge transfers of wealth from the young to the old, from a poorer group to a wealthier group. [00:46:16] And both of them are indefensible and inexcusable. [00:46:21] But the problem is no one, including President Trump, has the fucking balls to even mention that that's the problem. [00:46:30] None of them have the fucking balls to say it because you know what? [00:46:33] If you say, hey, we might have to look at some social security cuts, old people don't like that. [00:46:38] And you know, old people, Rob, they tend to vote Republican and they tend to vote in real high numbers. [00:46:43] You say you're going to get rid of their Medicare, old people don't really like that. [00:46:46] And they vote in high numbers and they vote for Republicans. [00:46:49] So it's not politically expedient for Donald Trump to ever mention anything about entitlements. [00:46:54] And also, he, you know, there's a whole bunch of weapons contractors and the whole establishment is the war party. [00:47:00] So he goes, no, we'll have a trillion-dollar budget. [00:47:03] That's what I call for a trillion-dollar Pentagon budget and we'll never touch the entitlements. [00:47:08] And then you're left in a position where all you have are these hairbrain schemes like this because you can't get to the fundamental problem, which is that the prices are getting crazy expensive. [00:47:18] It's just like college. [00:47:19] You know, I talked to my father-in-law about this. [00:47:24] He bought his first house in the 70s and it was like, I think it was like around two years' income. [00:47:31] You know, like he was, he was, he started having kids young. [00:47:34] So I think he bought his first house around 22, 23 years old. [00:47:38] This is in the 1970s. [00:47:39] It's not, you know, ancient history, although it feels like it. [00:47:43] I think he was making like 16 grand a year and he bought a house for like 30 grand. [00:47:50] Now, he did take out a mortgage. [00:47:52] He didn't buy it in cash, but you know, when you're talking, you're talking about a mortgage that's a few thousand dollars. [00:47:58] You know what I mean? [00:47:59] Like, it's not like that much, that big of a thing. [00:48:01] And it's just like, but he could buy a house young in his life. [00:48:05] You know, I heard it was interesting today. [00:48:07] I saw on the Ron Paul Liberty report, shout out to the GOAT Ron Paul and Dan McAdams. [00:48:12] Ron Paul was talking about how his father bought a house for cash in the middle of the Great Depression. [00:48:20] And he goes, you know, not like it was, he goes, it wasn't like a mansion, but he goes, it's a nice house, a nice lawn, nice little property. [00:48:25] He bought it in the middle of the Great Depression for cash. [00:48:28] You know, it's like we, we take it, much like with college, you just take it as a given that this thing costs $200,000 a year. [00:48:36] But like, why the hell does it? [00:48:37] Why should it? [00:48:38] Why do we have to go into a 30, let alone a 50-year mortgage to purchase a house? [00:48:43] Like, it wasn't written in the stars that that's the way this has to be. [00:48:47] It's, it's all over this monetary policy and other government interventions. [00:48:51] And so, like, the thing is that there's no reason right now, Rob, the average age of a first-time homebuyer is 40, 40 years old. [00:49:01] Now, there's no reason why it has to be like that, especially when you think about how much richer we are right now than in the Great Depression. [00:49:10] Like on every level, how much easier we can build homes, how much better we can build homes, how much, like, how much better we do everything now compared to the Great Depression. [00:49:19] But you could buy it for cash then, and now you got to be a debt slave to the bank for life. [00:49:24] That is crazy. [00:49:26] Okay. [00:49:26] And there's no reason why it has to be like that. [00:49:29] It simply doesn't. [00:49:30] This is all just a government policy, but they're unwilling to address the root cause here. [00:49:35] And so instead, all they can do is try to come up with these schemes that will obviously make the problem worse long term, but might get you through a midterm election. [00:49:44] It's really, it's really pathetic. [00:49:46] You're 100% right that it's all a product of government spending and inflation that got us into this mess. [00:49:52] So making more funds and capital available to people doesn't sound like a win. [00:49:56] But in terms of, and I might have to give this more thought, but in terms of, like you as an individual considering taking on a 50-year mortgage, it's such like it's just an inflation bet where I guess, if you can have the capital and inflation goes to the wazoo, or maybe, like it just kind of puts more people into the game of owning assets versus having holding on to cash and being in the game of rooting for inflation, [00:50:24] because then you know what you owe on your house is actually going down Relative to what, the what you took on, but if over the course of this 50 years, you actually see some sort of a credit crunch, or you actually see, I mean, do you really want to take a bet that in the next 50 years the check is not going to come due for the United States of America and that the Fed has endless ability to keep flooding the market every time asset prices are coming down? [00:50:50] Because otherwise, what's going to end up happening is the capital that you put into the house, which is probably 20%. [00:50:55] And then every year that you're paying off your mortgage, which is essentially rent, you're just going to get wiped out on the little bit of capital that you have. [00:51:03] Yeah. [00:51:04] Yeah. [00:51:04] No, that's that's a concern for sure. [00:51:07] And it's, um, you know, it's just look, like, like I was saying before, like, we've, because of the monetary policy and because of the price of everything going up, you've created a situation now where, like I said, first-time homebuyers are 40. [00:51:22] And, and that, I just think like it's there, it's very hard to measure exactly how destructive that is for a society, you know, like it's really destructive for a society to say that, like, you know, in my grandfather's day, in my father-in-law's day, like a 23-year-old could get a house. [00:51:44] And oh, by the way, to just be clear here about my father-in-law's situation, he had, I think he had two kids at the time. [00:51:52] He's 23 years old. [00:51:54] He was a truck driver, and his wife didn't work. [00:51:58] He just bought a house. [00:51:59] He was 23. [00:52:00] Now, I just say this because it is that is like inconceivable in today's America. [00:52:07] The idea of like a 23-year-old guy who has a you know a job, like just a blue-collar working-class job, and his chick doesn't have to work, and he can just buy a home and take care of his family. [00:52:20] She can raise his kids and he can do the working. [00:52:22] I mean, that is just not that does not exist. [00:52:24] Nobody listening to this knows anyone like that, or very few people do, maybe it's certain parts of the country, but it's really rare these days. [00:52:32] And so, the but what happens is, and look, even if you're not gonna, well, look, if you're gonna have kids, which is, you know, just saying objectively pretty important for the next generation, but some of us have children. [00:52:45] So, if you want to have children, you know, because of course, it's not just a matter of owning or renting. [00:52:51] It's like the reason why people don't own until they're 40 is because the prices are so high, it's so unachievable. [00:52:56] And it's like that means that stability is very unachievable, you know? [00:53:00] And obviously, that makes it much more difficult to start a family. [00:53:04] It's a difficult thing to start a family when you don't have any stability in your life. [00:53:08] And waiting till 40 is a real problem because, you know, that's that's pretty late in the game to do that. [00:53:13] But then, even if you're not, even if people who don't have kids, just there's something for the tranquility, for the stability of being able to own property. === Young Men and Financial Instability (07:11) === [00:53:23] Like, there's, there's, there's something really important about that being achievable for like the average person in society. [00:53:32] Because when you own property, and this isn't only, this isn't only the case if you own property. [00:53:38] I mean, this is also the case if you just like, you know, if you own stuff or if you are, you know, have meaningful relationships in your life or meaningful work in your life. [00:53:48] But the more that you have all of those things, the more invested in your society you are, the more you care about it. [00:53:54] You know, like it's just, I, you, you just, when, when you, the more you own, the more skin in the game you have, the more of a stake you have, the more stability you have. [00:54:02] All of those things are enormously positive forces for the cohesion of a society. [00:54:08] And it really tears, I mean, we see this right now. [00:54:11] It really tears things apart. [00:54:13] And particularly, particularly when young men, okay. [00:54:18] And I mean, like, it's got to be the average man because today we kind of live in a situation where, like, if you're, I think Whatever, like if you're like elite level, like if you're like the best looking, like most athletic, like coolest guy, there's, there's wide open paths for you, I guess, as there always are. [00:54:39] And then that's true for women too. [00:54:40] If you're like the hottest girl, you know, you could, but for average people, just like the regular person, and particularly for young men, if the average 22-year-old young man sees no reasonable path to where he could ever theoretically like be able to provide that type of stability for a woman, be able to provide that type of life for himself, and they don't have a good, a good job and they don't have status and they don't have anything like meaningful in their life. [00:55:08] That is dangerous. [00:55:09] That's when young men become radical and become violent and become destructive. [00:55:14] And so it's like, you know, it's like these, these government policies, even something like that just seems removed from all of this. [00:55:20] Like, oh, we're just talking about monetary policy here. [00:55:23] But like, you know, you're talking about a lot more than that. [00:55:25] You're talking about the health of your civilization. [00:55:28] All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Calci. [00:55:31] I've been telling you about them for quite a while now. [00:55:34] Calci is a prediction market where you can bet on just about anything that has a clear outcome and you can see where the markets are trending on any of these things. [00:55:44] So you can see what people are betting on where inflation is going to be or who's going to be the next mayor or governor or president. [00:55:51] And it's very interesting because you get information when people are putting their money up that you can't otherwise get. [00:55:56] And you can also bet and win and have some fun. [00:55:58] So go check them out. [00:55:59] Calci.com. [00:56:01] Join the over 5 million users who trade on politics, culture, even the weather. [00:56:06] Kalshi.com. [00:56:08] Go have some fun. [00:56:09] All right, let's get back into the show. [00:56:10] So anyway, Donald Trump's just terrible. [00:56:14] It's just such a backwards approach to figuring out financial products that are going to indebt people for longer to make more cash available for them to purchase something that they can't currently afford. [00:56:27] That just doesn't sound like a win to me. [00:56:30] Yeah, especially when like so many of the answers are just so obvious. [00:56:34] Like you're like, oh, like if we give you some of the capital for free up front and we give you a lower interest rate for the first couple years and then it goes up later and maybe you make more money later. [00:56:46] But you know, if interest rates really skyrocket, oh, great. [00:56:49] You got the 2008 financial mortgage crisis again. [00:56:52] Yeah, right, right. [00:56:53] Again, why not go with Kamala Harris's plan? [00:56:55] Just give people $30,000 up front so that they have most of what they need for the initial down payment and pretend like that's not just going to increase all the costs of owning a home and indebting people for longer. [00:57:08] The college is the perfect example. [00:57:09] They made loans available if you wanted to go to school and colleges went, great, we can charge these people more money. [00:57:16] And then you had more people leaving colleges, more in debt, and you want to know why people don't own homes. [00:57:21] Yep. [00:57:21] That's pretty much it. [00:57:22] Right. [00:57:23] And like, it's unbelievable. [00:57:26] And there's, you know, no matter how much you see it, like, it's, it's weird because once you see it, I guess like if you're just not thinking about it, you, maybe you don't, but like with college, with healthcare, with childcare, with, and with housing, isn't the fundamental question is like, why are these prices so high? [00:57:48] It's just crazy that it seems like we, people could have a whole conversation about the topic and that never comes up that it's like, wait, but why did these prices get so out of reach? [00:57:58] And, you know, it just seems obvious that like you should ask that question because that's the problem you want to solve. [00:58:04] So you might want to know what caused it. [00:58:06] And like in the case, you know, in the case of college, it's obviously the loans. [00:58:11] And then in the case of housing, it's not much different. [00:58:14] And, you know, there is something also like, you know, as you said, Robin, I totally agree with you, right? [00:58:19] As long as you have property taxes, and in some ways, you could argue that property taxes are like the most evil tax. [00:58:27] I'm not saying I agree. [00:58:28] There's arguments, but like there is something about it where it really does, it essentially means communism, right? [00:58:36] Because like, is if you have property taxes, well, what you're really saying is that the government owns all of the land. [00:58:43] I mean, essentially, even if you pay off your mortgage, you're renting. [00:58:50] You're renting from the government. [00:58:51] If you don't make your payment, they come and take it from you. [00:58:53] That's what a landlord does, right? [00:58:55] That means it's theirs. [00:58:57] Like, what, what, what, you know, if I own a house and I don't live in it, what meaningfully makes it mine? [00:59:06] Well, it's mine because I get to set what the price is. [00:59:08] And if you don't pay it, I'll take it back from you. [00:59:12] The same thing with the government. [00:59:13] And so once you have this, you have a situation essentially where the government owns all of your homes. [00:59:20] But then you look at like the big banks that give you, well, like, what loans are they giving you, Rob? [00:59:26] None of these banks have any money. [00:59:28] They don't have anything. [00:59:30] They have, they have a fraction of what people have put into the banks, right? [00:59:37] Like, in other words, they don't even have the deposits that all of us see on our statements. [00:59:42] You know how you like to think that, like, if you see in your checking account that there's $5,000, you're like, they have five. [00:59:48] No, they don't. [00:59:49] They don't have it. [00:59:50] You know, now you could take the whole $5,000 out and they'll give it to you. [00:59:53] But if everybody tried to take their balance out, they don't have nearly enough. [00:59:57] So they don't have this money. [00:59:58] The Fed prints the money and loans it to them at basically 0% interest or very, very low interest. [01:00:04] And then they loan it out. [01:00:05] It's essentially like, you know, it's just, it's a double whammy of, in essence, the government or the banking apparatus, which is a, you know, a subset of the government, always just owns the home. [01:00:18] And like, there's, I don't know, it screws over regular Americans. [01:00:22] And also, it's just bad. [01:00:23] It's bad for the soul of the nation. [01:00:25] It's bad for the spirit of supposedly free people that you, everybody's got to sit here and rent from the government is essentially what it comes down to. === The Fed Printing Money Again (00:17) === [01:00:34] Screw that. [01:00:37] Final word to you, Rob. [01:00:38] What do you got? [01:00:39] Hail Mary's from Trump. [01:00:40] He's losing his shit. [01:00:41] So I'll send you a check and I'll figure out how to get you a home. [01:00:46] It's not good. [01:00:48] All right. [01:00:48] We'll catch you guys tomorrow with a brand new episode. [01:00:51] See you then. [01:00:51] Peace.