Latest / Luke Thomas Gets Political (LTGP) / Luke Thomas Political Live Chat, ep. 6
Transcript
- 0:01All right, we should be live. I'm going
- 0:03to wait for the live chat, well, the
- 0:05chat window to fill up. Hello everyone.
- 0:08Hello. Hello. Hello. On this ninth day
- 0:12of October, a Friday, I don't want to
- 0:15keep doing these on a Friday, but it
- 0:17just kind of works out that way for now.
- 0:19I suspect when we really get this chat
- 0:22going it will not be on Fridays but it
- 0:24is obviously Friday today and at least
- 0:28for a little while it will probably be
- 0:29on Friday but we will move this around.
- 0:31Thank you so much for joining me. I
- 0:33really really appreciate it. Quite a bit
- 0:35going on in the world. I watched last
- 0:37night the Abdul Elsa and Mike Rogers
- 0:41debate out of Michigan. I did take in a
- 0:44little bit of the Osaf Collins debate in
- 0:47Georgia. Jesus.
- 0:49There's a question about which one was
- 0:50more one-sided.
- 0:54I might actually say the Oaf one was
- 0:56more one-sided because Collins is so bad
- 0:59even relative to a very bad Rogers. But
- 1:02both of them were very one-sided in
- 1:05favor of respectively Abdul say and and
- 1:08then John Oaf. So we can talk about
- 1:09that. There of course was another ICE
- 1:12shooting this time in the Bronx. We can
- 1:14talk about that. Um, I have not been
- 1:16able to read up on the US sanctioning
- 1:19the ICC. I don't necessarily have a ton
- 1:21of comment about that or about some of
- 1:23the other things. I'm trying to do a
- 1:24whole lot. I've already hosted my MMA
- 1:26podcast earlier today, so I have to
- 1:28obviously put a lot of prep in for that
- 1:30at least as much as I can. So, we shall
- 1:33see. But, we will talk about these kinds
- 1:35of issues or whatever really is on your
- 1:37mind. Now, uh, the MMA podcast that I
- 1:40do, the live chat on Thursdays, that one
- 1:42is like almost any topic. I will say
- 1:44that this live chat is not like that.
- 1:46This one we got to make I don't want to
- 1:48do MMA topics on this one. I don't even
- 1:50want to talk about MMA at all other than
- 1:51this disclaimer. I just don't this is
- 1:54there's plenty of places for me to do
- 1:55that and I don't need another one here.
- 1:57You know what I mean? So, let's keep
- 1:59this one free of that if at all
- 2:01possible. There could be some kind of
- 2:02political tie-in in which case the
- 2:04question is totally fine. In fact, did
- 2:06you guys see the Washington Sun is
- 2:08reporting that the FBI wants to sign a
- 2:11long-term contract with the UFC to train
- 2:13its um you know, its its agents. And
- 2:17again, some of the field agents could
- 2:19certainly benefit from that. But most of
- 2:21the FBI work has really very little to
- 2:24do with that, even for field agents.
- 2:27And uh again, it's not a bad thing to
- 2:29learn, but it's a question of like how
- 2:30much of a priority should it actually
- 2:32be. To say nothing of the fact that the
- 2:33president owns TKO stock, to say nothing
- 2:36of, you know, I mean, we could go on and
- 2:37on about the level of corruption that
- 2:40entails. There's something to be said
- 2:41for that, but um but otherwise, let's
- 2:44keep it just to the political stuff
- 2:45here. Okay. All right. Very good.
- 2:52best way to contribute.
- 2:54It's a great way to contribute to this
- 2:55channel, which is getting a question or
- 2:57a comment in on the super chat. We'll go
- 3:00for about an hour on some of this stuff
- 3:02and then um and we'll see how it goes.
- 3:05All right, let me get my window to
- 3:07toggle.
- 3:08There we are. Very good. Okay, we'll
- 3:12start here. It's more of a broad-based
- 3:15question, I think. Luke, what evidence
- 3:16supports DSA policies? How do CBO cost
- 3:19concerns, housing supply risks, and
- 3:22unintended economic effects challenge
- 3:24their feasibility? I mean, to be very
- 3:26clear, I'm not a DSA is a membership
- 3:28organization. I am not a member. Um,
- 3:31I've not fully examined really in any
- 3:34kind of way what, and by the way,
- 3:36various DSA chapters disagree with one
- 3:38another. I don't know what the National
- 3:39DSA organization um, affirmatively
- 3:42stands for. To be honest with you, it's
- 3:43not DSA is in many ways I've been aware
- 3:46of who they are, but I I they they're
- 3:48relatively new to my orbit in terms of
- 3:50anything I had a chance to pay attention
- 3:52to. Obviously, as I shift my focus to an
- 3:54extent anyway, away from sports and more
- 3:56into politics, I'm able to do this. But
- 3:58I don't have a strong comment. I mean, I
- 3:59think it's not really a DSA question one
- 4:02way or the other. we are so far from
- 4:04whether or not the you know the various
- 4:07questions of what they're wanting and
- 4:09the qu their policy um priorities are
- 4:13really I mean this is guys like
- 4:15understand what we're talking about here
- 4:16like for example Medicare for all this
- 4:18is not necessarily a DSA or not I mean
- 4:20there's this is a progressive kind of
- 4:22vision right to have universal
- 4:23healthcare there's various different
- 4:24ways to do it Medicare for all is one of
- 4:25the ways you could do it but let's just
- 4:27say it's Medicare for all this is this
- 4:31is to get that passed would be an
- 4:33enormous undertaking. An enormous
- 4:35undertaking. And recall that we not only
- 4:37want to do that, we want to do packing
- 4:39the Supreme Court to make sure that the
- 4:40legislation can get through. There is a
- 4:44question of like what we're going to do
- 4:45about the abuses of ICE, right? So, we
- 4:47have to like I mean another enormous
- 4:48battle that is going to have to be
- 4:50waged. There's like a series of very I
- 4:53wouldn't call it lowhanging fruit, but
- 4:55higher order priority reigning in the
- 4:57reigning in AI companies.
- 5:00um uh you know questions about what to
- 5:02do about housing supply, what to do
- 5:04about our immigration system, what to do
- 5:07about the the war in Iran and and again
- 5:09I mean like there's an enormous amount
- 5:12of work to get done that has a
- 5:14broad-based appeal that those battles
- 5:16themselves are going to be difficult to
- 5:18be won. I think you know worrying about
- 5:21like oh what is your question is not
- 5:22necessarily about the political
- 5:24feasibility and more about I think the
- 5:25economic justification I would have to
- 5:27examine it much more closely and I
- 5:28simply haven't but I think I would say
- 5:30as a real world material concern we are
- 5:33a very long way from having to have a
- 5:35question about whether or not these
- 5:36things have an evidentiary basis because
- 5:38we're not even approximating I think
- 5:40even a fraction of what the national
- 5:42chapter uh might offer as guiding
- 5:45principles LTF surveillance capitalism
- 5:48monetizes is human behavior. Can
- 5:50democracy survive when corporations
- 5:52profit from predicting and shaping our
- 5:53choices? No, it cannot. No, it cannot.
- 5:57Um,
- 6:02you you
- 6:04can have
- 6:08if if there is mass surveillance
- 6:11that is I mean you're talking about
- 6:14having a profit motive, but even that is
- 6:16I mean yes, that's obviously part of it.
- 6:18It's a for-profit company. I mean, this
- 6:19drives a lot of its
- 6:21ideological and then frankly it's
- 6:24uh you know organizational and other
- 6:28forms of direction.
- 6:31But remember like a lot of these places
- 6:33just have unions with the state itself.
- 6:36They're essentially like B2B like almost
- 6:37like government I mean they're
- 6:38government contractors, right? They have
- 6:40deals with sheriff's departments or
- 6:42various municipalities
- 6:45and and you know deals with various
- 6:47police departments. Like this is who
- 6:48their their customers are not us. Their
- 6:50customers are the state. Literally the
- 6:52[ __ ] state. I mean this is the
- 6:54problem, right? You've got this union of
- 6:57high-tech surveillance capitalism with
- 7:00the state carceral machine working with
- 7:04very at least at present very little
- 7:06oversight and a great and on their part
- 7:09a great desire to uh expand. I realize
- 7:12there has been some retrenchment of flot
- 7:15camera battles, but a lot of that is
- 7:16still very uneven and new and early.
- 7:19Like there's a lot of that that has to
- 7:21happen. And there, by the way, like one
- 7:24of the issue that's happening is I
- 7:25forget the name of the company. It
- 7:26starts with a letter A, but like Flock
- 7:28will get taken down in certain places
- 7:30and then replaced with like a slightly
- 7:32different but very similar kind of
- 7:33technology and then the public is none
- 7:35the wiser and it's still basically not
- 7:37maybe if not the exact same kind of
- 7:39problem, still a bad problem. Um, and
- 7:41that's that's still still happening too.
- 7:44But this is the issue. The issue is that
- 7:46and ultimately like how is the state
- 7:47affording it? They're just charging us
- 7:49for it. They're charging us for our own
- 7:52um, you know, over surveillance.
- 7:55I think that's what I'm worried about.
- 7:57Um, now there's other forms of
- 7:59surveillance. You It's surveillance
- 8:01capitalism. This can take other forms
- 8:02than what you would get with flot
- 8:04cameras. I mean, you have to ask
- 8:05yourself, are the creepy metagasses
- 8:08uh, which my wife bought me a pair. She
- 8:10didn't really understand that there was
- 8:12a debate around these kinds of things.
- 8:13She just likes cool tech. And I will
- 8:15say, uh, I've got them here. I don't I
- 8:17don't use them because how could you,
- 8:18but I can't throw away a gift for my
- 8:20wife. Um, it's a cool piece of tech, but
- 8:23the software that you have to use to
- 8:25interface it is all AI training data.
- 8:28And of course, like just walking around
- 8:30filming people is insanely creepy. You
- 8:32cannot do it. I wish so I don't. Um, you
- 8:35know, this is part of surveillance
- 8:37capitalism too to a degree. This is the
- 8:38and that's part that's the part that's
- 8:40not aligned with the state. Um and then
- 8:43you have these large scale tech
- 8:45companies who have various forms of
- 8:47invasion of privacy again using this to
- 8:49train AI.
- 8:51Uh all of it all of it carries
- 8:56um significant implications for
- 8:58democracy significant implications for
- 9:00privacy significant implications for um
- 9:03our connected world. It's a problem.
- 9:06Luke love the channel. Greetings from
- 9:08Miami. What do you think of Mullen
- 9:11saying that Mani's comments about ICE
- 9:13were dangerous and invite hostility? I
- 9:16mean, I suspect on some level that is
- 9:17sort of it's sort of like trivially
- 9:19true. Like
- 9:21um do comments that are forceful from
- 9:24the mayor about a paramilitary force
- 9:27shooting up the residents would would a
- 9:31forceful response from a mayor like that
- 9:33would that yield uh some kind of public
- 9:36agitation? I suspect that that is true,
- 9:39but of course like you leave the mayor
- 9:41no choice. You leave the mayor no
- 9:43choice. Like the the the one of the guys
- 9:46who the one who was responsible holding
- 9:48the long gun with the they look like
- 9:50they looked like they were construction
- 9:51workers and one of them had a long long
- 9:53rifle. This guy has been seen in various
- 9:56different eye surges all over the
- 9:58country. Um he got hit by a judge
- 10:00recently for a having a phony warrant. I
- 10:03mean, we are talking about a guy whose
- 10:05entire, at least from what we can
- 10:07discern, public tenure with this
- 10:09organization in the last few years is
- 10:11the epitome of fraudulence and abuse.
- 10:14And here he is out there. What do you
- 10:16expect the mayor to do?
- 10:19You could even say that the guy that
- 10:20they were trying to get was a guy of
- 10:23great need. Fine. He had his 5-year-old
- 10:25in the car. Why are you shooting it up
- 10:27seven times, I believe? Right. We are
- 10:30just talking about poorly trained,
- 10:31unaccountable federal paramilitary force
- 10:35invading our streets. Yeah, the mayor
- 10:38making a very
- 10:40uh stern comment about that is going to
- 10:43yield an agitated response from the
- 10:45population. Why wouldn't it? But of
- 10:47course, the mayor didn't even have to
- 10:48say that. the protests that were there
- 10:51organically both to the NYPD as well as
- 10:53to ICE to the entire situation that you
- 10:56saw last night. Um, uh, Darlisa
- 10:59Shioalier, she was pushed to the ground.
- 11:01I think you guys might have seen some of
- 11:03this. I think I saw on stat like what
- 11:05was it called? Um, what's the name of
- 11:06that news? I want to give them a shout
- 11:07out, but I can't remember the name of
- 11:08the news. It's like status quo news. I
- 11:11could be getting that wrong. Um, and
- 11:13then if you actually watch the there's a
- 11:15the NYPD uh chess cam footage that came
- 11:18out today. I did I get a chance to see
- 11:19that ahead of this live chat. If you
- 11:21watch that, I mean, there's already an
- 11:23agitated response on the ground
- 11:25immediately following the shooting from
- 11:26the local population. Like, this is
- 11:28obviously [ __ ] nonsense. This is
- 11:30obviously nonsense. This is obviously
- 11:32nonsensical. Who could possibly care
- 11:34what Mark Wayne Mullen had to say about
- 11:36this? I mean, you have to care in the
- 11:37sense that he holds power, but in terms
- 11:39of like, you know, trying to parse the
- 11:41value of it, they the the the the right
- 11:45the right is very good about ascribing
- 11:47blame to things, pointing the fingers
- 11:49and saying, "Isn't this bad?" And aren't
- 11:51the people who are not us trying to do
- 11:53something about it bad? But then when it
- 11:54comes time for them, these people are
- 11:56allergic to taking responsibility.
- 11:58everything gas prices are somehow still
- 12:01Biden's fault and any other kind of
- 12:04regulatory condition that they had a
- 12:06chance to repair or changed and it
- 12:08[ __ ] things up is somebody else's
- 12:10fault. The tariffs are Biden's fault or
- 12:13somebody else's fault. Like they can't
- 12:15they they they look at problems they
- 12:17don't understand them. They diagnose
- 12:19solutions to them that don't make any
- 12:21sense. Sometimes these problems aren't
- 12:23even real. These attempted interventions
- 12:26yield negative externalities because of
- 12:28course they do, right? You're tearing
- 12:30communities apart. You're shooting up
- 12:32people in the street. ICE does that. ICE
- 12:33straight up shoots up people in the
- 12:35street, right? You get this, you get a
- 12:37very agitated response from local
- 12:39leadership, but the local population as
- 12:41well. And what does the Secretary of
- 12:43what is the uh uh uh Department of
- 12:45Homeland Security Secretary say?
- 12:50Somebody else did it. What are you
- 12:53supposed to say to something like that?
- 12:54Like what do you I how what is that? You
- 12:58know, this is this is these are just not
- 13:01people that can be reasoned with. These
- 13:03are not people that they don't have a
- 13:05thoughtful inner life. They don't they
- 13:09don't understand America. They don't
- 13:10understand what makes America good or
- 13:12bad or what works or what doesn't or how
- 13:15to diagnose a problem and then follow
- 13:17through with it. These are just very
- 13:18very very incompetent people. When when
- 13:21you base a government on a spoils or
- 13:24loyalty system, this is the kind of
- 13:26leadership you're going to get. You're
- 13:28going to get a former MMA fighter from
- 13:30Oklahoma.
- 13:35Oh, [ __ ] Hold on.
- 13:39Luke, my many in my Cuban family that
- 13:42voted for Trump now despise him, mostly
- 13:44because of his uh ICE and immigration
- 13:48policies. thoughts on how Latinos voting
- 13:50blue in the coming years may affect
- 13:51things. I don't know if they will vote
- 13:52blue forever. I will tell you, I just
- 13:54saw a data point that I retweeted right
- 13:57before I got on the air. Uh, listen to
- 14:01this.
- 14:04More Latino voters have cast a ballot
- 14:07already than did at the same point in
- 14:11the 2024 presidential election.
- 14:14Right. As of now, Latino early vote is
- 14:17outpacing where it was at the same time
- 14:19in 2024 in raw vote totals. Presidential
- 14:22turnout is usually higher than the
- 14:24midterms. So, at the same point, the
- 14:26midterms are now higher than the
- 14:27presidential election. I think that
- 14:29speaks some pretty important volumes.
- 14:31Yeah, I know a ton of Latinos that have
- 14:34buyer remorse on this. I know a ton. But
- 14:37then you you know you say that and then
- 14:38you ask them how they feel about
- 14:40elections in the country where they come
- 14:42from and they're still supporting the
- 14:43right-wing [ __ ] clown down there. So
- 14:45it's you know how much of that are they
- 14:47really understanding? I you know hard to
- 14:49say. Cubans obviously it's a little bit
- 14:50different but like you know for for for
- 14:54um even for Venezuelans I know they have
- 14:56they have some weird responses. The
- 14:57Colombians I know a bunch who are like
- 14:59yeah okay I don't like Trump but I like
- 15:00Abelardo. I'm like,
- 15:03I don't believe that some part of that
- 15:06story doesn't add up, you know, or Noa
- 15:08or, you know, pick pick whoever. Mle.
- 15:11Um,
- 15:13all right. How do I feel about it? Um,
- 15:17thoughts on how Latinos voting blue in
- 15:19the coming years may affect things. I
- 15:21think it'd be I I really think that um
- 15:27it's extremely important to understand
- 15:29what the reality is here that this
- 15:33election and the turnout is is in part
- 15:36you might see certain races um where
- 15:40Democrats preaching messages of kitchen
- 15:43table issues making things affordable in
- 15:46certain cases speaking out against AI or
- 15:48ICE in particular but you know a lot
- 15:49more the kitchen table issues this
- 15:51obviously has a lot of salience this
- 15:52election. You're obviously seeing some
- 15:54examples of that. Again, some some much
- 15:56more pronounced in certain elections
- 15:58than others, right? We'll see what
- 15:59happens with Angie Nixon, for example,
- 16:00in Florida. Um, but, you know, most of
- 16:04this is repudiation of what Trump has
- 16:06done. To me, I think it is a fundamental
- 16:09misreading to say what's really powering
- 16:12this is the overwhelming nature of what
- 16:15the message is from the Democratic
- 16:17party. Now again, there are some very
- 16:18much some like as long as they're
- 16:19preaching various forms of economic
- 16:21populism, that by itself is broadly
- 16:23going to be available. But like what I'm
- 16:24saying is are people saying, "Man, I
- 16:26really am buying into the Democratic
- 16:28party." I would say that there's
- 16:29progressive messaging and progressive
- 16:32policy proposals that are that are
- 16:34polling quite high and to the extent
- 16:35that you can attach yourself to that,
- 16:37you can do yourself some wonders. But
- 16:39like I don't think that people have all
- 16:40of a sudden turned around and said, you
- 16:42know, you know what, we got to
- 16:43reconsider the Dems. They actually are
- 16:45pretty good. I don't think that's what's
- 16:46happening here. But what I do think is
- 16:48going to happen potentially anyway is if
- 16:50the Dems actually govern in some kind of
- 16:53a way that is bold and leads to
- 16:55substantive change and for our attacked
- 16:58immigrant communities some genuine
- 17:00relief. There is a way I think to buy
- 17:03some alliance and some allegiance for
- 17:05the long term. But if again everyone is
- 17:07making it out to be well how many of the
- 17:09Dems win? And of course this is an
- 17:11important calculation particularly if
- 17:12you win the Senate. Everyone understands
- 17:13the math.
- 17:15But I'm trying to explain to everyone
- 17:17that is merely the beginning of the
- 17:19challenge. Like the Dems have an
- 17:20enormous amount of challenges. They have
- 17:22to defeat I think within the party the
- 17:24corporatist forces. I think that's a
- 17:26part that has to happen. They have to
- 17:27defeat MAGA. They have to get bold
- 17:29legislation. Like it's like the task
- 17:31that they're up against here, I think,
- 17:33is is is so insane. It boggles the mind.
- 17:36But there really is no other path to
- 17:37pursue at the present moment. Like it
- 17:38just simply it has to get done. But
- 17:41unless I I I say this on every live
- 17:42chat, but I'm sorry to sound like a
- 17:43broken record, but I I see so much focus
- 17:46on the election and I don't really I'm
- 17:49just very concerned about like I'm happy
- 17:52to spend Senate time trying to impeach
- 17:55these guys and be maximally difficult
- 17:57with them. But I also think that like
- 18:00the Latino vote for this time around,
- 18:04yes, they're voting for the Democrats,
- 18:05but unless the Democrats truly deliver
- 18:08on relief for them, this won't stick.
- 18:11This is not some generational shift.
- 18:14This is uh a recognition that the
- 18:17architects of the present moment are out
- 18:18of their [ __ ] mind. That's what that
- 18:20is. That's very different than, you
- 18:23know, we really believe in this
- 18:24organization. that's
- 18:27you got to govern to get that
- 18:30and I don't know how they're going to
- 18:31govern. So I don't know what to say
- 18:34about that. Um, but I would say that
- 18:36like, you know, I think that people need
- 18:40to understand like, you know,
- 18:44obviously the Hispanic speaking world is
- 18:47an extremely varied, extremely different
- 18:50place, extremely
- 18:52diverse. And yeah, they can be united by
- 18:54language to a degree and united by
- 18:56religion to a degree, but they are
- 18:58wildly different people with wildly
- 19:00different realities. And uh you know I
- 19:03think a lot of Americans tend to not
- 19:05understand that. Um but like a lot of
- 19:09the world a part of the Spanish speaking
- 19:11world has turned very conservative. Um
- 19:13and part of that is evangelicalism. Part
- 19:16of that is a failure of the left to
- 19:18deliver in certain cases. Part of that
- 19:20is political corruption, right? Part of
- 19:22that is you know a lot of different
- 19:24things. But
- 19:26I, you know, and I know that's different
- 19:28from what like domestically what you
- 19:30know, Latinos may or may not vote, but
- 19:31I'm just I I think there's just a lot of
- 19:33this expectation of like, oh, the
- 19:35Republicans were really mean about ICE.
- 19:38I think that if they stopped doing some
- 19:40of the more harmful [ __ ] Um, and you
- 19:44know, I I think that there I'll put it
- 19:46this way. I think that there are ways
- 19:47that the right even still could
- 19:49recapture them if the left doesn't
- 19:51understand the task of governing in
- 19:53front of them. I just don't see it as a
- 19:55robust connection at all.
- 20:00Abdul uh this person writes, "Abdul
- 20:03schooled Mike Rogers and his post-debate
- 20:05press conference was a masterclass. [ __ ]
- 20:07the centers. Luke, I'm driving to visit
- 20:08my parents in gorgeous Santa Rosa
- 20:11Mendosino. Much love, my brother." Um
- 20:14yeah, if you guys didn't see the debate
- 20:16last night between Mike Rogers and Abdul
- 20:17Elsa, it was, you know what was really
- 20:20interesting about it? First of all, I
- 20:22don't recall hearing about Hassan [ __ ]
- 20:24hardly at all in that. I mean, I mean,
- 20:26maybe there was one or two references,
- 20:28but like you would have thought Hassan
- 20:29would have been maybe a little bit more
- 20:31mentioned. Not really. Let me tell you
- 20:34what Mike Rogers did, and I actually
- 20:35think it's very, very instructive,
- 20:38right? Very instructive. You can we
- 20:40there's been reporting to this effect
- 20:42and one could simply deduce this anyway.
- 20:46But one of the really interesting things
- 20:47that Mike Rogers did last night was he
- 20:51mentioned Islamic
- 20:54stuff all the time like associations,
- 20:56names, right? just really trying to
- 20:58Islamify
- 21:00so to speak Abdul say which who
- 21:02obviously he's a Muslim but I mean like
- 21:04every part of his life he was just
- 21:06trying to put Muslim Muslim Muslim
- 21:07Muslim in there you know you can imagine
- 21:10why someone would want to do that
- 21:11particularly given the voters that he's
- 21:12courting but an interesting thing
- 21:14happened along the way
- 21:16one thing he did what he'd be asked
- 21:18about like tariffs or you know some kind
- 21:21of issue where the where the GOP was on
- 21:23the back foot and what you kept hearing
- 21:26was him trying to thread this needle of,
- 21:29you know, I'm a I'm a rock ribb
- 21:31Republican. I'm uh, you know, I support
- 21:34the president, but taking a much more
- 21:37moderate tone on a variety of different
- 21:39issues, right? or at a bare again and
- 21:42listen to the words I'm saying not
- 21:43saying that he was substantively
- 21:45changing policy exactly but trying to
- 21:48sound softened trying to sound neutral
- 21:52trying to sound um you know oh whatever
- 21:55you think the the the thing that we
- 21:57support is we support a more humane
- 22:00version clearly what is happening within
- 22:03the national leadership that's trying to
- 22:05you know either run for the
- 22:06congressional races let's say these
- 22:08republic and then the governorships too
- 22:10but these republic Republicans re many
- 22:12of them anyway realize that MAGA has
- 22:15gone way too [ __ ] far and they're
- 22:17about to pay for it and what they're
- 22:19trying to do is trying to be like hey
- 22:21remember us you know the Republican
- 22:23party before MAGA got here and sure we
- 22:26had some crazies but we were a little
- 22:27bit more reigned in we also liked going
- 22:30to Harvard we valued it you know we were
- 22:32in the same country clubs right you know
- 22:35that that that you know the more the
- 22:36Mitt Romney kind of thing which is not
- 22:38to say a great thing but you relative to
- 22:41I don't know the kind of Republican that
- 22:44Pete Hexath is. Mitt Romney is a
- 22:46substantive improvement.
- 22:49You you know what I mean? He was trying
- 22:50to take a moderate to like they weren't
- 22:52doubling down on what they were doing.
- 22:55They were trying to say, "Well, the
- 22:56tariffs, you know, they might be bad in
- 22:58this way, but I'm going to make it work
- 22:59in this way." Right? They didn't come
- 23:01down and say, "You know what? The
- 23:02tariffs are [ __ ] awesome." You know,
- 23:04they didn't do that. Uh they did kind of
- 23:06go I mean he went to them he went to the
- 23:07one thing that was interesting was
- 23:10dude if you're literate about the Israel
- 23:12Palestine issue or he's even semi
- 23:15literate because I don't think that I'm
- 23:16literate but I'm semi literate about it
- 23:18right if you're even semi literate about
- 23:21it and then you watch how it gets gets
- 23:23discussed in our in our in our politics
- 23:25it's an insane conversation for example
- 23:27like Mike Rogers last night was saying
- 23:29things like and this guy supports this
- 23:31person and he supports Hamas who put
- 23:33babies in ovens who cut off women's
- 23:35breasts and all that stuff. And I'm
- 23:36like, he's repeating stuff from a famous
- 23:39New York Times article called Screams
- 23:41Without Words who had which has so many
- 23:44problems including but not limited to
- 23:45who wrote it. But even putting aside the
- 23:47author, their motivations, and their
- 23:49particular background, the none of the
- 23:51claims were ever corroborated. In fact,
- 23:53many of them had to get walked back.
- 23:54It's an utterly discredited article.
- 23:56There's just really no proof that what
- 23:59is asserted in that article. There's
- 24:00nothing to to to certainly the more
- 24:02heinous things like there was mass rapes
- 24:04and stuff like that on October 7th. It's
- 24:06not to say that October 7th didn't
- 24:08contain real horrors that one should
- 24:10contend with. In fact, there was. But we
- 24:13have to be very clear about what
- 24:14actually happened and what didn't. And
- 24:16maybe some of those things happened, but
- 24:18the evidence that the was put together
- 24:20in that article utterly fell apart. It's
- 24:22one of the New York Times's gravest
- 24:24errors, I think, during the entire Gaza
- 24:27um you know, genocide manufactured
- 24:29consent campaign. Anyway, he just
- 24:31reasserts everything that happens in the
- 24:33article. And if you're Abdul say, how do
- 24:34you respond to that? Because if you're
- 24:36like, "No, it sounds if you fight back
- 24:38on it, it sounds like you're being
- 24:39like," and I think all everything Hamas
- 24:41did was virtue. Like it makes you sound,
- 24:44you know, you know what I mean? Like
- 24:46especially if you're your [ __ ] name
- 24:47is Abdul and you're like, "No, but Hamas
- 24:49did it. Hamas restrained themselves."
- 24:51And even if that's true, how does that
- 24:53sound just given the nature of how we
- 24:55discuss these issues? It's a it puts him
- 24:58in an impossible position. So he has to
- 24:59kind of, you know, kind of, you know,
- 25:02slip and parry there a little bit. Um
- 25:04because there's really no way to fight
- 25:05back on it despite the fact that the
- 25:06guy's just saying demonstrabably untrue
- 25:08[ __ ] or at the bare minimum
- 25:09demonstrabably uh things that have no
- 25:12evidence for them, evidence-free claims.
- 25:14It's it's it's insane. But dude, Abdul
- 25:17say was calm. Abdul sayed was
- 25:21I don't mind this kind of a thing. So
- 25:23I'm not speaking for me in this regard.
- 25:26I thought when it was over Mike Rogers
- 25:28got his ass whooped. You can tell
- 25:31because he was stammering a lot. As I
- 25:33mentioned, he was just going Muslim,
- 25:34Muslim, Muslim, Muslim the whole time.
- 25:37But the other thing you could say was he
- 25:38would have these awkward pauses in the
- 25:40middle of a sentence. like not where you
- 25:42would normally have a pause in your
- 25:44thought cuz you could tell he was trying
- 25:46to collect himself to say something
- 25:48because he was overwhelmed by what Elsa
- 25:51was doing to him and then he kept
- 25:53calling him like an AI chatbot that you
- 25:55know is able to just spit out stuff spit
- 25:56out spit out spit out. One of the things
- 25:58I I learned, I didn't do much debating
- 26:01uh in my life. I did a little bit, but
- 26:02one thing I learned is that when people
- 26:04accuse other people of like, oh, look at
- 26:06him spitting out all these facts. 99
- 26:08times out of a hundred, that is a person
- 26:10that knows they're losing. And what they
- 26:12do is they try to say, oh, yes, they're
- 26:14saying a lot. Sure, they're saying a
- 26:16lot. But it's really just, you know,
- 26:18it's just that it's just a high volume
- 26:20of not that much because they know that
- 26:22they're overwhelmed. It's it's a
- 26:24surrender without surrendering. And he
- 26:26did this multiple times during the
- 26:27course of this debate. He got whooped.
- 26:29He got whooped. And then afterwards
- 26:31there is a you know they each go to
- 26:33various spin rooms and Elsad is asked
- 26:36you know how come Rogers has to answer
- 26:38for Donald Trump and you don't have to
- 26:40answer for Hassan [ __ ]
- 26:44And Elsad Elsed is like one of those
- 26:47guys who I don't think he's I mean maybe
- 26:50he's a bad guy. I you know I mean I
- 26:51interviewed him. He seemed very friendly
- 26:52to me like you know what I mean but like
- 26:54he's a politician. Who knows, right?
- 26:57But he's not like I don't I don't take
- 27:00him for a jerk in that way, but he
- 27:03definitely doesn't suffer fools gladly.
- 27:05That's my kind of guy just, you know, he
- 27:07actually tells the reporter he's like,
- 27:08"Is that a serious question?" Because
- 27:10and then he of course the answer is
- 27:12because one of them is the president of
- 27:14the United States and the other one is
- 27:17on Twitch. Like I do think there's a bit
- 27:20of a dodge on per where people will say
- 27:22things like, "Hey, just a Twitch
- 27:23streamer in California." No, he's
- 27:24influential in the party and like you
- 27:26should be able to talk about that. But
- 27:27even if that is true, that versus
- 27:32that versus Donald Trump is so [ __ ]
- 27:34ludicrous,
- 27:35you know, as to be just mind-blowing. So
- 27:38yeah, it was a fun it was a fun debate.
- 27:40I enjoyed it. God, these I mean, but how
- 27:42do how do you defend how do you defend
- 27:45being MAGA right now? It's like it's
- 27:48just very very difficult with JD having
- 27:51charisma saying socialism is men and
- 27:54with women's sports and yeah it was all
- 27:55trans stuff and deflecting from
- 27:57ambassador Abbas Kim who do the R
- 28:01actually run in wait what similar with
- 28:04the D poor choices are pushing leftist
- 28:06the I'm sorry what the [ __ ] is this with
- 28:08JD having charisma saying socialism is
- 28:11men with women's sports and deflecting
- 28:13from Ambas Kim who oh who do Republicans
- 28:17actually run in 2028. Similar with the
- 28:19D. Poor choices are pushing the leftists
- 28:21away. Who do the who who should who
- 28:24should they run in 2028 or who are they
- 28:27going to run? Yeah, it's going to be
- 28:28Vance and Rubio.
- 28:31You might see one tech oligarch in
- 28:32there. Um
- 28:36Hagath might might run.
- 28:39Um,
- 28:41you know, I mean, but like the
- 28:42Republican party is so hollowed out from
- 28:45every part from,
- 28:48you know, again, like I I'm not here to
- 28:50like exalt the Gordon Gecko wing of the
- 28:52party, but the Gordon Gecko wing of the
- 28:55party, you know, they thought it was
- 28:58good that people went to MIT,
- 29:02you know what I mean? like uh you know
- 29:05they probably wouldn't have executions
- 29:07shown on live television or streamed
- 29:10live in some capacity, right? You know
- 29:13what I mean? This is kind of the thing
- 29:14that I'm talking about. Uh you're not
- 29:16you're left with a confederacy of dunes.
- 29:19That's sort of what you what you're left
- 29:21with here. It is a you know this is a
- 29:23sort of like a loosely released insane
- 29:26asylum. Um there isn't a good choice
- 29:29there. There is no one of that way that
- 29:31you could even look. I mean JD Vance can
- 29:33be a lot of things. Maybe you might
- 29:35think that a more moderated JD Vance is
- 29:37something tolerable. But of course he is
- 29:39prone to do anything for power. I don't
- 29:41know how you could possibly trust that.
- 29:43Marco Rubio has turned out to be one of
- 29:45the more authoritarian figures frankly
- 29:47within the Trump administration.
- 29:49Obviously it's a non-starter with him in
- 29:51every possible way. Just just what
- 29:52they're doing in Colombia alone for me
- 29:54would be a deal breakaker. To say
- 29:55nothing of the broader Latin American
- 29:58and South American push that they're
- 30:00making.
- 30:02Um, I don't know. I don't know. I don't
- 30:04think that there is one. I don't think
- 30:05there's I don't think there's a very
- 30:06dynamic candidate. I mean, dude, the
- 30:08Republican party is the is Trump and
- 30:10when he leaves, uh, which, you know,
- 30:13won't be far too long from now just by
- 30:15virtue of old age or anything else. Um,
- 30:20their their party is not set up
- 30:23dynamically
- 30:24in any kind of it's it's a it's a
- 30:26loyalty system. How could it have
- 30:29richness within its ranks? It's designed
- 30:32to not do that. Do you know how many
- 30:35centerright folks I know that I grew up
- 30:37with that are like not they're not
- 30:41Democrats exactly, but they're going to
- 30:42vote Democrats because they it's not
- 30:45like the biggest group. I I don't mean
- 30:46to say that the Wall Street Republicans
- 30:48who left are some gigantic group. I I
- 30:51guess that's wrong. I guess the way I
- 30:52would say that is though like that wing
- 30:54of the movement which had something of
- 30:56an outsized role and perhaps its role
- 30:58declining in some ways is also has some
- 31:00benefits. I mean MAGA substituting it is
- 31:04not in all ways better but there might
- 31:05be something to be said for its decline
- 31:07in in other respects. But what I will
- 31:09say is like that part of the wing which
- 31:11would give the right some credibility in
- 31:14some kind of ways you know for trying to
- 31:17like achieve through our legal training
- 31:20system achieve through our you know our
- 31:23science and technology to become you
- 31:25know someone who could be the the
- 31:27secretary of energy who really
- 31:28understood you know uh nuclear physics
- 31:31or something you know what I mean like
- 31:32somebody who had
- 31:35people who were had distinguished
- 31:36records of achievement in the military
- 31:38ultimately becoming, you know, Secretary
- 31:40of Defense, not Pete Hexath, who was a
- 31:42like a company or low field grade
- 31:43officer as a reserve. Like he's nothing.
- 31:45He's a nothing. He's a total nothing. Um
- 31:49they don't they've they've created a
- 31:50party system that sues this.
- 31:56It's going to take a while for them to
- 31:57unfuck themselves once Trump croakkes.
- 32:01Thank you. Thank you. We need fighters
- 32:03in these times. I don't know how much of
- 32:04a fighter I am, but I did see on the
- 32:06news today that there were National
- 32:08Guardsmen
- 32:10uh
- 32:11guarding ballot boxes here in DC. Boy,
- 32:15that's super [ __ ] illegal. As soon as
- 32:17this live chat is over, I'm going to go
- 32:18get on my bike. I know exactly which one
- 32:20I saw in the news. I know exactly where
- 32:21it is. There's one not too far from my
- 32:23neighborhood. I'm going to go check that
- 32:24one out. I want to see how many National
- 32:26Guardsmen are guarding ba uh uh election
- 32:29boxes. I see so many of these dumb
- 32:31[ __ ] Dude, I've been living in
- 32:33this [ __ ] city since Marian
- 32:36Barry was the [ __ ] mayor. People are
- 32:39going to talk to me like they know
- 32:41anything about DC. I know more about DC
- 32:44than just about anybody you [ __ ]
- 32:45know. I've been here longer than almost
- 32:48anyone any of you know. Now, not for
- 32:50some locals. If you know other locals,
- 32:52maybe a little bit different, but for
- 32:53people who are not from this area, I'm
- 32:54telling you, these people know nothing
- 32:59about this city. uh and may not realize
- 33:02the impact the National Guard is having.
- 33:04You'll hear things be like, "Yeah, man.
- 33:05Who cares if they're around?" I [ __ ]
- 33:07care. It's a military walking your
- 33:10streets. Yeah. Right now, are they
- 33:13hardcore going doortodoor like it's
- 33:15Fallujah trying to round up all military
- 33:17age males? No. But what if they get
- 33:20ordered to? There's not enough of them,
- 33:22of course, to do it now, but like what
- 33:24if that kind of orientation begins to
- 33:27happen under order and then they just
- 33:29add more to them that are already here.
- 33:31What are you talking about? What are you
- 33:34talking about? They were out front of
- 33:36[ __ ] ballot boxes today in the city.
- 33:40Scary. Scary.
- 33:43I hear so many people say they'd vote
- 33:45Dem if they weren't so beholden to
- 33:46progressive and leftists. Well, those
- 33:49are dumb asses. Meanwhile, progressives
- 33:50say Dems lose because they are too
- 33:53centrist. How do you square this
- 33:54difference? Um, most people have a very
- 33:58propagandized understanding of what it
- 34:00means to be progressive. To the extent
- 34:02that I've heard complaints about the
- 34:05left from people who could potentially
- 34:07conceivably be interested in voting, it
- 34:10would be along two different lines. One
- 34:12would be that they have some version of
- 34:13wokeness that's too far. And that can
- 34:15vary person to person. That's not all
- 34:17one thing. But, you know, someone who's
- 34:20like, um, you know, actually, and they
- 34:22look like a librarian or maybe they've
- 34:24got colored hair and they've got some
- 34:26ambiguous [ __ ] outward gender like
- 34:28that's, you know, some kind of this is
- 34:30almost a a caricature in certain ways.
- 34:32But that that is one complaint. And the
- 34:33other complaint is that, you know, they
- 34:35might have their heart in the right way
- 34:36to say, "Hey, we got to take care of the
- 34:37poor," but that the economic policies
- 34:39that they propose are ludicrous. They
- 34:41wouldn't work. Borderline or outright
- 34:43communist, right? But in both of these
- 34:45cases, this is a very caricatured way of
- 34:46of of understanding the world. Um, I
- 34:50think that um, what was the second
- 34:52question? How do you score this
- 34:53difference?
- 34:56One thing you really have to understand
- 34:58is um, there's a podcast you could
- 35:00listen to called citations needed. In
- 35:01fact, they just put out their third part
- 35:03of a three-part series. And one of the
- 35:05things that they go to is there has been
- 35:07a consistent element in politics, a
- 35:09union between, it's not new, between the
- 35:11right and the center left to defeat the
- 35:13progressive left at all times. And one
- 35:15of the things that they take from this,
- 35:16for example, is the defeat of Nixon, his
- 35:19re-election when he defeated George
- 35:20McGovern. And what they show in this
- 35:23election is, for example, that Nixon
- 35:26wins and he wins handily. McGovern
- 35:28loses. And there was this uh discussion
- 35:31both before the election and certainly
- 35:33after the election where what you ended
- 35:35up seeing was messaging that like aha
- 35:38you know the reason why Nixon won is
- 35:41because McGovern was way too far out
- 35:44there and people were not receptive to
- 35:47this kind of pie in the sky messaging
- 35:50and whatnot. Meanwhile, what election
- 35:52experts have looked back on and said was
- 35:54what really was going on was there was a
- 35:55time of security and a booming economy
- 35:57and Nixon was presiding over it at the
- 36:00time. And in fact, if you look at like
- 36:01the ideas that McGovern was pushing at
- 36:04the time, they have increasingly gained
- 36:06popularity not merely with the the
- 36:09Democrat but with independents and
- 36:11frankly the broader American public. And
- 36:13in fact, if anything, the party estuing
- 36:16the wing of McGovern um has actually set
- 36:19it back and the corporist direction that
- 36:21it went has brought it to its current
- 36:23place. How can anyone possibly argue
- 36:26that a pop that a Democratic party
- 36:28historically unpopular by its own terms,
- 36:31historically unpopular, that is
- 36:33dominated in every possible way by
- 36:36corporate and other special interests?
- 36:38That the problem with that party is that
- 36:41it's too progressive, that the things it
- 36:43does are too, this is a ludicrous
- 36:46comment. It's absolutely ludicrous.
- 36:48Could you find individual instances of
- 36:51pieces of legislation or individual
- 36:54towns or municipalities or states or
- 36:57whatever where some kind of legislation
- 36:59was a little bit too woke and it went a
- 37:01little bit too far? Yes, of course you
- 37:02can find examples of this. Um or even if
- 37:05it wasn't too woke, it was just
- 37:06ineffectual in some kind of a way. Um
- 37:09yes. Yes, this obviously exists here in
- 37:12my own hometown for example, you know.
- 37:15Um they and and I will give the mayor
- 37:17credit. She has there have been I don't
- 37:20know how successful the interventions by
- 37:22the city have been to meaningfully house
- 37:25the homeless population. I think the the
- 37:27success of that in terms of what they're
- 37:29spending and in terms of what they've
- 37:31done in terms of accessing the
- 37:32population and how much of the
- 37:33population they've accessed putting them
- 37:35into housing has been not the number
- 37:37that they expected. I think it's a
- 37:38difficult challenge, but I do think that
- 37:40I I have seen them try and I have seen
- 37:41them made a difference, but there was a
- 37:43moment in time where they were just
- 37:44letting them camp out in front of Union
- 37:46Station, you know. Um I don't want um I
- 37:51don't want the the solution to those
- 37:54people who need homes who are camping
- 37:56out on the front of Union Station was
- 37:58not to just take all their [ __ ] and burn
- 38:00it or just let them be there. It's to
- 38:02put them in housing where they can have
- 38:03safe safety, they can have security,
- 38:06they can have stability, and they can
- 38:08have the resources they need to take
- 38:09care of their lives and hopefully get
- 38:10back on their feet. Again, that has not
- 38:12worked out as well as I think we would
- 38:14all have hoped. There have been programs
- 38:16that they have instituted to get they
- 38:17have made some kind of difference. But
- 38:19you also have to have a degree of
- 38:21municipal order. And when people see
- 38:23these kinds of things, it just leads to
- 38:25a sense of breakdown um with what the
- 38:27government is willing to do and how much
- 38:29you can trust them. And so yes, any kind
- 38:31of policy that they just let them camp
- 38:33out like that, the solution is not to
- 38:35just tear their [ __ ] out like a homeless
- 38:37encampment and throw it all away. The
- 38:38solution is how do we really help these
- 38:40people very even though the answer to
- 38:41that can be quite difficult. So I can
- 38:43understand some of these things. But who
- 38:46has been guiding the Democratic party
- 38:49since the time of McGovern?
- 38:51Has it been the progressive wing? the
- 38:54wing that is constantly pushed down to
- 38:56the side. And in fact, some of the
- 38:58groups, the working groups that got put
- 39:00together were unions of um center left
- 39:04and the right. In fact, before the
- 39:06election of McGovern and Nixon, there
- 39:08was a union of these groups and they
- 39:10were, for example, they would um they
- 39:12would call journalists and they would
- 39:14say, "Hey, we've got some people we want
- 39:15you to talk to that are, you know, we
- 39:17think that are real Democrats." And
- 39:19they'd be like, "You know what? I I
- 39:21definitely want to take care of the
- 39:22working poor, but you know, the the soul
- 39:24of the Democratic party has gone way too
- 39:26far and blah blah blah blah blah. And
- 39:28these were designed by forces within the
- 39:31right and the center left, the corporate
- 39:32center left, the think tank left, as a
- 39:34matter of fact, on purpose to discount
- 39:37what it meant to have a progressive
- 39:38vision. The progressive vision scares
- 39:41the [ __ ] out of the right and the and
- 39:43the center left for many reasons. the
- 39:45more the more, you know, like the
- 39:47Mauists would scare them because no one
- 39:49would want or not many people would want
- 39:51that in the United States, but like the
- 39:53progressive left, it scares them because
- 39:56it centers an entirely different kind of
- 39:58power within the the government.
- 40:01It centers an entirely different kind.
- 40:04This is what they are afraid of. This is
- 40:07what they are afraid of. and look at
- 40:09what their leadership, look at what a
- 40:11muscular,
- 40:13you know, militarized neocon adjacent
- 40:18agenda has done for the for for the
- 40:20Democrats. Look what, you know, the free
- 40:22trade Democrats, look what it's done for
- 40:24the party. How can anyone with a
- 40:25straight face argue
- 40:28like the the state that it's in and the
- 40:32and the the who staffs its leadership?
- 40:34Look at Hakeem Jeff. Look at Chuck
- 40:36Schumer. These are progressives. Bernie
- 40:38Sanders has been popular in spite of all
- 40:41of them. And look at how the party has
- 40:43done its level best to undercut him.
- 40:47This country has not given progressivism
- 40:49a try in a long time. And the times that
- 40:52it did, for example, under FDR,
- 40:57didn't do so bad.
- 41:00With Dems likely to take the majority in
- 41:02Congress, what precautions are in place
- 41:03to prevent another Jan 6esque event
- 41:05happening? Nothing. Nothing as far as
- 41:07I'm aware. Nothing. Nothing at all.
- 41:11Nothing. Zero. I don't I I I Dude,
- 41:15they've got National Guard here in DC
- 41:17standing out front of [ __ ] ballot
- 41:19boxes.
- 41:23We're going to have to just force the
- 41:24issue. You're just going to have to get
- 41:26out there and [ __ ] force it.
- 41:31Look, the economic case for immigration
- 41:32is clear and compelling. yet right-wing
- 41:34movements here and across the globe are
- 41:36being fueled by anxiety about invading
- 41:37migrants. How do you bridge the gap? I
- 41:39mean I don't this is to me a very
- 41:41important thing to understand like we're
- 41:44looking at a time where audience like I
- 41:46this is what bothers me about the
- 41:48immigration debate too where it's like
- 41:50the Dems are like oh we want to reign in
- 41:52the abuses of ICE. No the argument is
- 41:55immigration is very good for this
- 41:56country and is a key ingredient in how
- 41:59we became an economic and world
- 42:01superpower and that's a [ __ ] fact.
- 42:03That's not that's that's not that's not
- 42:04false. That's a fact. That's a fact. One
- 42:07of the things that America has been
- 42:08exceptionally good at is taking people
- 42:10from other parts of the world and making
- 42:12them American. You know who's not as
- 42:14good at America is in terms of taking
- 42:17people from a part of the world and
- 42:18making them American? You know who's
- 42:19like way way worse at it? The French.
- 42:24The French are not very I mean they've
- 42:25gotten better in recent years, but
- 42:26historically over the course of the life
- 42:28of the French, they're not that great at
- 42:30taking someone who's not from there and
- 42:31just making them French. They're not
- 42:35that they're not that good at it. We are
- 42:37very good at it. We're extremely good at
- 42:39it. We can take some anybody and make
- 42:41them a [ __ ] cowboy. Anybody from any
- 42:44part of the world and we can get them
- 42:45wearing cowboy hats and tell them saying
- 42:47yeeha and I love the cowboys and blah
- 42:49blah blah. We can do that. Like we have
- 42:51an extraordinary ability to influence
- 42:53culture in that way and I cannot believe
- 42:57that people do not seem to understand
- 42:59that. So like the argument is not well
- 43:01ICE is doing abusive things. I mean yeah
- 43:04that's true. We got to really do a
- 43:05thing. I've said this like like if you
- 43:08just understand these things not like a
- 43:10child and just take a like a deep
- 43:13breath. Let's understand what's
- 43:14happening here. We set up an
- 43:16immigration. We eased restrictions and
- 43:18reformed the system in 65. And then we
- 43:21did it again in 90. And the reason why
- 43:22we did it again in 90 was because the
- 43:24economy from 65 to 90 had grown
- 43:26substantially. We needed to find a new
- 43:29way to make an aotment system to meet
- 43:31our our needs, our farm needs, our
- 43:34high-tech needs, you know, all the ways
- 43:37in which the various immigration
- 43:39instruments exist to uh facilitate
- 43:42economic growth, to facilitate
- 43:45all the different benefits that come
- 43:46from either, you know, temporary or even
- 43:49permanent kinds of immigration, right?
- 43:51And we came up with that system and that
- 43:52a lotment and that was based on the size
- 43:54of the economy in 1990. We have not
- 43:57updated that system since 1990. It is
- 44:00now 2026. So what has happened? Well,
- 44:02the economy in 2026 is significantly
- 44:06larger than the economy in 1990. And
- 44:08that has meant that we have a lot more
- 44:11surplus in terms of labor demand than
- 44:14the existing immigration system can
- 44:17account for. So what happens to fill
- 44:19that demand is you get other forms of
- 44:22immigration. Very there's different
- 44:24kinds of illegal immigration. There's
- 44:25not all one kind, you know, but that
- 44:27that is essentially what happens. They
- 44:29get here to fulfill a labor demand that
- 44:32happens because there isn't an
- 44:34immigration instrument that they can
- 44:35legally use. As Zeke Hernandez has
- 44:37argued multiple times, and there's
- 44:39research to this effect that he has
- 44:40done, we know for a fact that if you
- 44:43give someone some kind of legal pathway,
- 44:45that is a onetoone substitution over an
- 44:47illegal one. They will take it every
- 44:48single time. It's a very, very easy way
- 44:50to cut down on it. They just have to
- 44:52have some kind of legal pathway. And of
- 44:53course, the argument is, well, if
- 44:54there's a surplus labor demand, that
- 44:56should go to the Americans that are
- 44:57here. But this is what immigration
- 44:59experts keep trying to explain to you.
- 45:01There wouldn't be this appetite for
- 45:03these people to come get jobs if the
- 45:05jobs weren't like available. If
- 45:08Americans were fulfilling the surplus
- 45:11demand that exists from the size of the
- 45:12economy now versus 1990, right? That
- 45:14difference. If they were filling it
- 45:16themselves, why would people be coming
- 45:18over here to risk life and limb to come
- 45:20get the work? Oh, it's because of the
- 45:21generous welfare system. That only
- 45:23really goes so far. Most of the people
- 45:24that we're talking about here, look at
- 45:26all the people they're yanking out. Are
- 45:27these freeloaders? Are these people
- 45:29getting yanked off of job sites or
- 45:32people getting yanked out of
- 45:33restaurants? This is where they're
- 45:35getting yanked out of. They're getting
- 45:37yanked out of the [ __ ] job.
- 45:40If these places, if these places that
- 45:44don't fulfill these things, if if the
- 45:45Americans were doing the work, there
- 45:47wouldn't be any ability for the people
- 45:49to come get the jobs, these are in large
- 45:52part jobs that Americans simply don't
- 45:54want to do. And that is where the excess
- 45:56labor demand, this is all an economics
- 45:58question. It's all an economics
- 46:01question. And if we reformed our
- 46:02immigration system to meet modern
- 46:04demands, do you understand how so many
- 46:06of these problems problems that we have
- 46:09would go away, what is happening is a
- 46:12real kind of anxiety. We're talking
- 46:14about the greatest transfer of wealth up
- 46:16to the 1% in human [ __ ] history.
- 46:20That is a thing that is happening. And
- 46:22because there isn't an advocate for
- 46:25people to help to help them understand
- 46:28um that the immigrants are not the
- 46:29problem. They're not the ones that are
- 46:31taking the money. In fact, if anything,
- 46:32they're net contributors to the economy,
- 46:34certainly to the tax base.
- 46:37And again, we know for they've been
- 46:39measuring the incarceration rate since
- 46:411850. Immigrants have never had a higher
- 46:44share of the incarceration rate even per
- 46:45capita relative to natives ever. Not a
- 46:48single year. every single kind of
- 46:51immigrant. When you open your eyes, who
- 46:53are you most likely to suffer being a
- 46:56victim of from crime, you are much more
- 46:59likely then to be suffer a victim of
- 47:01crime versus natives than you are for
- 47:02any kind of immigrant, legal or illegal.
- 47:05And this has been true forever. They've
- 47:08measured it the entire time.
- 47:11Do you understand like how insane what
- 47:13we're doing is? It's insane. It's
- 47:16absolutely insane. And it's all damage.
- 47:19It's all damage to ourselves. All of it.
- 47:21All of it. The history of
- 47:23entrepreneurialism in the United States,
- 47:25particularly after 1965
- 47:28without a story of what immigrants have
- 47:29contributed, is a significantly smaller
- 47:32story. This idea that like all of the
- 47:34best things are already here. All of the
- 47:37many of the best things are here. But
- 47:38the way in which we're able to maintain
- 47:40it is again I I keep making it's a very
- 47:43simple analogy. If you coached at the
- 47:45University of Georgia and you said,
- 47:46"We're only going to take players from
- 47:49Georgia," you will have a very good
- 47:51football team. But if Alabama is saying,
- 47:53"We're gonna take all of the best ones
- 47:55from Alabama. We'll take any of the ones
- 47:58from Georgia that don't want to play for
- 47:59you. We'll take all the best players
- 48:01from California, all the best players
- 48:02from Florida, all the best players from
- 48:04Texas." Who is going to have a better
- 48:07football team?
- 48:10You got to recruit. That's how it goes.
- 48:14especially with declining birth rates.
- 48:16Schools are closing in Northern Virginia
- 48:17because of declining birth rates. There
- 48:19was an article today in the Washington
- 48:20Sun about the DC Council considering
- 48:22what schools might need to be closed in
- 48:24the coming years because of declining
- 48:25birth rates. Who is going to fund these
- 48:27social programs to make them possible in
- 48:29a world where you're not allowing
- 48:30immigration to take place? And by the
- 48:32way, KO did a study. Donald Trump has
- 48:34cut down more on legal immigration than
- 48:38illegal immigration proportionally since
- 48:40he took office again.
- 48:44Guys,
- 48:46this is not what smart people would do,
- 48:51right?
- 48:53People who are putting their thinking
- 48:55caps on would look at this and say, "Oh,
- 48:58well, what about the inherent conflict
- 49:01between groups? What about it?" It's
- 49:04largely elucory. There can be certain
- 49:07situations where there can be um
- 49:10tensions for a time. For example, I do
- 49:13think that the border was poorly managed
- 49:15by Joe Biden and all of those people
- 49:17getting dumped over the border towns and
- 49:19then those border towns being forced to
- 49:21face those significant needs. This is
- 49:24going to cause problems. This is not
- 49:26done in an orderly way. This is not the
- 49:28way that it can go or should go. It's
- 49:29not really fair to frankly anybody. This
- 49:32is a disorderly way in which to do it
- 49:34that puts an a a a disproportionate
- 49:36burden on those border communities. This
- 49:38will lead to hostility. This is bad.
- 49:41That's that's not what I'm talking
- 49:42about. I'm talking about an orderly
- 49:44process where all of it is managed. We
- 49:45know exactly what the economy needs. We
- 49:47know which ones we can approve. We know
- 49:49when we can approve them. And we can
- 49:51help the economy better recruit the
- 49:53talent it needs in an orderly way while
- 49:56having secure borders, of course, in
- 49:58order to make this work.
- 50:01It's like, dude, we're just taking a
- 50:04problem. Like, this is really what has
- 50:06happened. Our government has failed to
- 50:09properly address and maintain like
- 50:11orderliness about the immigration
- 50:13system. They've let it get overrun
- 50:17without order at a time when wealth is
- 50:20being sent to the 1% at a rate never
- 50:22seen in human history. And now the right
- 50:25is demagoguing around it. And the left
- 50:27is unwilling to really challenge it
- 50:29other than the abuse of the mechanisms
- 50:30enforced to make deportations happen
- 50:32when really this is just an issue that
- 50:34we have to understand as an economic one
- 50:37and a model of governance one. It's
- 50:39[ __ ] insane. All right, let me go
- 50:41through some of these.
- 50:43Why do public figures who switch
- 50:44political views seem to go towards
- 50:46conservatism? Dennis Miller, Bill Maher,
- 50:49Joe Rogan, Kristen Cinema, John
- 50:51Federman, but no Republican switcheroos
- 50:53causing them headaches. Guys, what do
- 50:55all of those people have in common? They
- 50:57got older and they got wealthier.
- 51:06John Mirshimer detailed the ways the
- 51:08Ukraine war is clearly already lost. Why
- 51:10do Europe, Pardon me y'all,
- 51:13why do Europe and Canada keep pouring
- 51:15money into this? Um,
- 51:18I need to see what what Mir Shimemer had
- 51:20to say.
- 51:25I need to hear what Mir Shimemer had to
- 51:27say. Um,
- 51:30I don't know. Uh, well, Europe, I mean,
- 51:34it's sort of a sunk cost fallacy at this
- 51:36point, I think, in both those cases. But
- 51:37again, I get asked about Ukraine, and I
- 51:39just haven't had any time to offer any
- 51:43kind of informed commentary about it.
- 51:45And I'm not going to sit here and
- 51:46pretend that I've got omni competence. I
- 51:48do not.
- 51:50after his recent LA and San Diego
- 51:52comments, which he just made another one
- 51:53by the way, has the conservative
- 51:55Christian loyalty to Trump reached the
- 51:56point where they judge Christianity by
- 51:58what he does rather than judging by what
- 51:59the Bible says? That's been the case the
- 52:01entire time. Dude, it's the same thing
- 52:03you see everywhere. Why do um So,
- 52:06there's an interesting documentary I'll
- 52:08let me recommend to you guys. I It's got
- 52:10a Portuguese name, but the English one
- 52:11would be Apocalypse in the Tropics, and
- 52:14it's basically the story of
- 52:15evangelicalism in Brazil. Now, as I
- 52:18understand it, they get the story a
- 52:20little bit wrong. I mean, who am I to
- 52:21say because the person who makes it is
- 52:23Brazilian, but as I I saw some Brazilian
- 52:25scholars say that, well, evangelicalism
- 52:28actually goes back to the late part of
- 52:29the 19th century and the early parts of
- 52:30the 20th. It did get kicked into high
- 52:32gear later on, but it didn't necessarily
- 52:36like there is a history of it that
- 52:37doesn't start in the 70s, but certainly
- 52:39in the 70s, it begins to get kicked into
- 52:41high gear. It was like 3% of the
- 52:43population then. Now, it's 30.
- 52:4630. Now, the rate of growth has also
- 52:48slowed dramatically. Like maybe 30 or
- 52:5030-ish is where it tops out. It's hard
- 52:53to say if it goes any bigger than that,
- 52:55but it's a huge change. The Roman
- 52:56Catholic Church, the Catholic Church has
- 52:59declined. Its profile has declined
- 53:00worldwide, but it's being acutely felt
- 53:03in in Brazil. And what's what do they do
- 53:06there? They've got the Bolsinaro family
- 53:08who are just corrupt to the bone in
- 53:09every possible way. And you know, Lulu's
- 53:12had some issues, I suppose, along the
- 53:13way, too. I suppose every South American
- 53:15politician does. What I'm trying to make
- 53:17is it's not really a strong argument
- 53:18that Jaier Bolsinaro was like some kind
- 53:21of savior, but they didn't care. What
- 53:23they wanted was someone who, you know,
- 53:25pantoimed towards them and their
- 53:27interest, pretended to kind of be like
- 53:28them. But what they really cared about
- 53:30was a what their pastor was telling them
- 53:32was important. And the pastor wanted
- 53:34someone who would take government policy
- 53:37and enforce evangelical priorities onto
- 53:40others. And in fact, what you see the
- 53:41evangelicals in Brazil say is that, you
- 53:45know, one of the one of the
- 53:46documentarian asks him like, you know,
- 53:48isn't democracy also about like minority
- 53:50rights? Like, yes, it's the will of the
- 53:51people. That's true. But with
- 53:53protections for vulnerable populations
- 53:55and he's like, no, absolute majority
- 53:57rule, period. That is what they want.
- 53:59They want dominion. They want dominion.
- 54:01So, they want a politician who will give
- 54:02them evangelical dominion. And honestly,
- 54:06uh, de lasa in Colombia, I know you guys
- 54:08don't pay attention to Colombia news. I
- 54:09pay I read it every single day. I'm
- 54:10fascinated by it. He uh there's been a
- 54:13decline in in the Catholic church there.
- 54:15Now, what's interesting about Colombia
- 54:16is it's Catholics is the first
- 54:19identification in Brazil and then the
- 54:21second one would be uh evangelicalism.
- 54:23Catholicism still is the biggest. In in
- 54:25Colombia, it's different. In Colombia,
- 54:27it's Catholicism first, second is no
- 54:29identification, third would be
- 54:31evangelical. It's about 15% of the
- 54:33population there. And also, it's much
- 54:35more fractured there relative to Brazil.
- 54:37and it raises less money there relative
- 54:39to Brazil and no one really measured how
- 54:41much they went for deeda as well as that
- 54:44election was kind of also a referendum
- 54:45on pro but either way you can begin to
- 54:49see it and you might ask well okay so
- 54:51how is the left doing well in Mexico you
- 54:54know what the portion of evangelical
- 54:56population is in Mexico three 3% now of
- 55:00course putting this all on evangelicals
- 55:02would be overstating it a big part of
- 55:04Mexico success is how they've basically
- 55:06tied their econ economy to the US and
- 55:07that that has really helped them in many
- 55:09ways to, you know, raise their level of
- 55:11the standard of living. But but it's
- 55:13something to pay attention to for sure.
- 55:16Apparently, our government wants to live
- 55:18stream a firing squad. Do you view this
- 55:19as cruel and unusual punishment? This is
- 55:21so insanely [ __ ] up. First of all, I
- 55:23was reading about this last night. There
- 55:24is evidence to suggest, it's not super
- 55:27strong. It's, you know, it's not it's
- 55:29not overwhelming, but there's at least
- 55:30some evidence to suggest that um in
- 55:32places that do this, you could
- 55:34absolutely increase the murder rate or
- 55:37increase violent agitation. Um, but that
- 55:40wouldn't be the reason that it would
- 55:41matter. I mean, guys, I keep saying this
- 55:43MAGA, like for example, I saw this week
- 55:45where Matt Matt Walsh was like, you
- 55:46know, obviously there should be co-ed
- 55:48colleges. I'm like, dude, do these guys
- 55:50propose ideas that survived scrutiny in
- 55:54the 20th century? Because they don't
- 55:56seem to be doing that. the only places
- 55:58that do these kinds of public executions
- 56:00which stopped in the United States in
- 56:01the 1930s when it became like 20,000
- 56:03people showed up and it was such a
- 56:05public embarrassment that they ended up
- 56:06banning laws. I think France was roughly
- 56:08the same time. I mean even the people
- 56:09that we killed in Nuremberg for being
- 56:11Nazis. They we didn't do it as like a
- 56:13public form of entertainment. There is a
- 56:15debasement that comes to oneself and a
- 56:17cosening of the culture that can have
- 56:19long-term implications when you indulge
- 56:20in this kind of a thing. You know,
- 56:22understand who does this. ISIS does
- 56:25this. Um, the Taliban has done this,
- 56:28North Korea does stuff like this. Um,
- 56:31you know, al-Shabaab has done stuff like
- 56:33this. Like, it's so funny to me that the
- 56:36right moans about third worldism,
- 56:40whatever the [ __ ] that's supposed to
- 56:41mean, infiltrating our politics,
- 56:43infiltrating the country, infiltrating
- 56:45our way of life. And yet, the only
- 56:48countries or places or groups that do
- 56:50this are essentially third world.
- 56:54You know what I mean? the the the like
- 56:56these people the right is basically
- 56:59upset in large part not totally but in
- 57:02the right is basically upset at the 20th
- 57:05century the 20th century was not good
- 57:08for them they don't the current version
- 57:09of the party doesn't like it they don't
- 57:12like the civil rights movement they
- 57:13don't like certainly what came after it
- 57:15they don't like co-ed education they
- 57:17don't like you know uh I mean the whole
- 57:20point about being a social democracy and
- 57:23the attendant values that are supposed
- 57:25to power the government, our decision-m
- 57:28and the principles of how we live is
- 57:30that we have a better system of dealing
- 57:34with punishment and state enforcement
- 57:37for, you know, various kinds of crimes
- 57:40that don't devolve into the coarsest
- 57:42version of itself. We actually have a
- 57:44civilized, at least a semi-vilized
- 57:47process. And the best part is like
- 57:48there's an argument to be said that
- 57:49that's not even real in a world where
- 57:51Tennessee tries to execute a woman twice
- 57:53and can't successfully do it. Like even
- 57:55a even a system that is supposed to be
- 57:57lifting us out of pure barbarism
- 58:00somewhat ends up descending into it. But
- 58:01I would rather have that than the
- 58:03alternative.
- 58:05We are in deep trouble.
- 58:11Katie Hobbs in Arizona is refusing to
- 58:13debate Andy Biggs even if she believes
- 58:14it helps her campaign. explain why
- 58:17skipping a debate can be good or bad. It
- 58:19would depend on how the I mean the thing
- 58:22is about skipping a debate is you can
- 58:23skip a debate or two. You eventually
- 58:25have to do one of them. Um so you don't
- 58:28have to do all of them. That that can be
- 58:30a mistake but you should definitely do
- 58:31one of them. But the other one could be
- 58:33like if you really feel like okay what
- 58:36kind of it's just a basic calculation.
- 58:37What kind of a hit am I going to take
- 58:39for not doing it versus what kind of hit
- 58:41could I take if I do it and get
- 58:42humiliated
- 58:44and which one is worse? And that that
- 58:46calculation will end up mattering.
- 58:50Oops. Hang on.
- 58:57Now that we're less than a month away
- 58:59from the midterms, how far will the
- 59:00regime go to undermine, intimidate, and
- 59:02steal the election? Honestly, boys and
- 59:04girls, we haven't even run into the
- 59:06October surprise, of which there is
- 59:07definitely going to be one. Hold on to
- 59:09your ass. What I would recommend is if
- 59:11you're going to vote, make all the time
- 59:13in the world to do it. Go do it in
- 59:15person. Don't even mail it in. I'm not
- 59:17saying don't do mail-in balloting if
- 59:18that's the best idea that or the best
- 59:20option that you have, but I'm saying if
- 59:22you're able to go to the ballot box,
- 59:24please do and stand in line and just
- 59:26force your way in the door. We are we
- 59:29are up against it. We are up against it.
- 59:34How trusting of polls are you? I'm in
- 59:35Iowa and everyone here is tired of polls
- 59:37and responses are mostly coming from the
- 59:39most politically engaged. Government
- 59:41here will go blue, but Senate is a true
- 59:43tossup. I mean, it really depends on the
- 59:44quality of the poll. It depends on how
- 59:47much they're getting to landlines. I
- 59:49think that's really a big one.
- 59:50Obviously, we have seen some polls for
- 59:52the left overstated, particularly in the
- 59:54Midwest, Iowa. The Anseltzer poll is
- 59:56kind of the famous one from the 2024
- 59:57election. She got sued for that.
- 59:59Obviously, the suit was ludicrous and
- 1:00:01ultimately got settled or dropped
- 1:00:02anyway. But um but I mean one of my
- 1:00:06neighbors is from Michigan and she put
- 1:00:08up an Abdul El Say uh thing and I was
- 1:00:10talking to her about the election and I
- 1:00:11was like how are you feeling about the
- 1:00:13polls and she was like I mean they all
- 1:00:14kind of show Abdul with like a five some
- 1:00:17places a sevenpoint lead no less than a
- 1:00:19four in a lot of places like outside of
- 1:00:21the margin of error you know but she's
- 1:00:23like you just never know how many people
- 1:00:25are being like oh yeah I don't want to
- 1:00:27sound racist so I'll sound like this or
- 1:00:30you know I'm going to tell this I'm
- 1:00:32going to give that poster I'm going to
- 1:00:33tell them that I feel this way and then
- 1:00:34when it actually comes time to vote
- 1:00:35they're like you know what I can't do
- 1:00:37that you know how many people are just
- 1:00:39you how many how many how much what
- 1:00:40portion of the electorate are you
- 1:00:41getting by virtue of what sample means
- 1:00:44that you're using but I I I'm going to
- 1:00:48say this I'm cautiously optimistic that
- 1:00:51Abdul Elsed can win I think Angie Nixon
- 1:00:53has a fighting chance
- 1:00:56um I think Terico has a decent chance
- 1:01:00although obviously he's been sick
- 1:01:01recently which has not been right? Um,
- 1:01:05you know, in the mid in the Midwest or I
- 1:01:08don't know. I don't know.
- 1:01:12While I got love for my Irish being on
- 1:01:15right side of Gaza, Connor, I just can't
- 1:01:17understand where the anti-immigrant
- 1:01:18sentiment is coming from. I do not know
- 1:01:21the Irish complaints or
- 1:01:24um
- 1:01:27I don't I don't know enough about the
- 1:01:29the dynamics of Irish migration or I
- 1:01:31should say immigration to Ireland rather
- 1:01:33because Irish migration would be what
- 1:01:35they did here. Um I don't know enough
- 1:01:37about it to comment intelligently.
- 1:01:43My hunch has always been that the US's
- 1:01:45first female president, if ever, will
- 1:01:47actually come from the right. Do you
- 1:01:49think that's a reasonable bet?
- 1:01:52Um,
- 1:01:56I wouldn't rule it out. I think that
- 1:01:58that would be
- 1:02:01um obviously u Montdale tried on the
- 1:02:04Democratic side. That didn't work. And
- 1:02:07we've seen, you know, governors,
- 1:02:09senators, ambassadors,
- 1:02:11cabinet secretaries as women, as vice
- 1:02:14presidents.
- 1:02:15Um although that was a Democrat too.
- 1:02:20I I just the thing is this. I don't
- 1:02:22know. I mean if the right descends into
- 1:02:25groperism then that's an impossibility.
- 1:02:28Like if the future of the party is James
- 1:02:30Fishbach, then no. You know, and I think
- 1:02:33one thing you really need to understand
- 1:02:34is like like how much of the rights
- 1:02:36descent into white male grievance will
- 1:02:39produce a a a broad democratic coalition
- 1:02:42of even like, you know, right-leaning
- 1:02:44women, but like right-leaning women who
- 1:02:46just want to have their existence
- 1:02:48respected and their rights protected.
- 1:02:50How many of them will vote left if if
- 1:02:52that's what ends up happening with that
- 1:02:53party? So, I I don't rule out the
- 1:02:56possibility that you could find an
- 1:02:58operator in that world who could defy
- 1:03:00expectation, but mathematically it seems
- 1:03:02like that wouldn't be the likeliest
- 1:03:03outcome.
- 1:03:05All right, LT, how are DC public
- 1:03:07schools? Much better than when I was in
- 1:03:09them. Okay, with the education Tuki has
- 1:03:11been getting very the system is broken.
- 1:03:13A lot of my colleagues are leaving the
- 1:03:15profession. 50% of my students can
- 1:03:16barely read and write. Now, there are
- 1:03:18bigger issues with education broadly in
- 1:03:20the country and certainly even within
- 1:03:22DC. Although um DC has been I mean dude
- 1:03:25relative to how it was when I was a kid
- 1:03:27it's unrecognizably better.
- 1:03:29Unrecognizably better. You can see how
- 1:03:32different schools rate. You can go on
- 1:03:33niche.com and you can go on um great
- 1:03:38schools. These are services that
- 1:03:40nationwide they rank all and rate all
- 1:03:42schools and they have different rating
- 1:03:44systems, but you can check how your
- 1:03:46school rates on there. And the school
- 1:03:49that we send my daughter to rates very
- 1:03:51highly on everything. It's a public
- 1:03:53school, so you know, um we're just very
- 1:03:56very lucky in that regard. Very very
- 1:03:58lucky in that regard. Um and it meets a
- 1:04:02lot of the needs that we have. Uh and
- 1:04:04it's close by to where we live. like we
- 1:04:06just got we got there's a lottery system
- 1:04:08and we got into the lottery and you know
- 1:04:12it we just got lucky. So um I don't know
- 1:04:16how else to say it other than that. So
- 1:04:18we feel pretty good about that which
- 1:04:19isn't to say that there aren't lagging
- 1:04:20DC public education schools but the the
- 1:04:23system underwent a big overhaul in the
- 1:04:25late 90s and early 2000s and it's been
- 1:04:27there's been some ups and downs but it's
- 1:04:28steadily improved since then. There was
- 1:04:30a truency issue following the pandemic.
- 1:04:32They've made a huge uh improvement in
- 1:04:34that and they made a lot of improvements
- 1:04:36on standardized testing and math. Um the
- 1:04:39the the public school system has
- 1:04:40undergone I I think a revolution
- 1:04:42relative to the time when I was in it
- 1:04:44would be a strong way to put it. But it
- 1:04:46but I'm telling you it's unrecognizable.
- 1:04:48It's very it's way way way better. Um,
- 1:04:53you know, depending on where you go,
- 1:04:55it's not universally true, like you do
- 1:04:56have to do your due diligence as a
- 1:04:58parent, but depending on where you go in
- 1:05:00any of the four quadrants, um, well, I
- 1:05:03mean, I don't know about Southwest, I
- 1:05:05don't know how many schools are down
- 1:05:05there at this point, but certainly in
- 1:05:07the, you know, the places that people
- 1:05:08live, Southeast, Northeast, and South
- 1:05:10and and Northwest, I mean, Northwest has
- 1:05:12like all the best schools, right? Like
- 1:05:14every one of them out there is a [ __ ]
- 1:05:16is a A on niche and an eight or higher
- 1:05:19on great schools. Like all of them out
- 1:05:20there. Um I'm in Northeast which is it's
- 1:05:23much more hit or miss. But um but the
- 1:05:26point being is even those kinds of
- 1:05:28things were not necessarily the norm in
- 1:05:31any stretch. And you know obviously the
- 1:05:33very rich of DC they send their kids to
- 1:05:35Georgetown Prep or you know there's
- 1:05:38Madiraa or there's a million private
- 1:05:41schools for the [ __ ] ultra elite.
- 1:05:44Georgetown day you know there's a
- 1:05:45million of them.
- 1:05:47For 12 years, MBS has been leading Yemen
- 1:05:50and KSA toward destruction and ruin.
- 1:05:53Just 12 years of destruction, death,
- 1:05:55casualties while his opponents are
- 1:05:56getting stronger and bolder. Yeah, he
- 1:05:59has made a series of bets that have
- 1:06:00blown up in his face. This last one,
- 1:06:02Saudis willingness to have confrontation
- 1:06:04with the Houthis rather than some kind
- 1:06:06of negotiated resolution is very
- 1:06:09surprising to me given how badly it's
- 1:06:10going for the Saudis. They very much
- 1:06:12overestimated their hand. Um,
- 1:06:16I find that surprising. I find that very
- 1:06:18surprising.
- 1:06:21Um, well, remember he was not
- 1:06:22necessarily the guy that was supposed to
- 1:06:24take leadership. He was the one that
- 1:06:25just sort of took force by power or but
- 1:06:28to took power by force I should say.
- 1:06:30And,
- 1:06:32you know, he's tried to do he's tried to
- 1:06:34lead with a bold vision, the 2030
- 1:06:36vision. Um,
- 1:06:40you know, he tried to make this
- 1:06:42futuristic city. He's tried to do the
- 1:06:43sports washing thing. Some of that has
- 1:06:45worked actually. But in terms of
- 1:06:50you I mean this is not he didn't start
- 1:06:52this but in terms of like reliance on
- 1:06:53American security that has blown up in
- 1:06:55his face. I think some of his the Saudi
- 1:06:57alliances with Israel have blown up in
- 1:06:59his face. Um and then certainly the way
- 1:07:01that they have prosecuted the blockade
- 1:07:03and then the assault on Yemen has
- 1:07:04absolutely blown up in his face. Um and
- 1:07:06of course the Jamal Kosogi murder blew
- 1:07:09up in his face. I mean, there's been
- 1:07:10quite a bit that he has he has made bad
- 1:07:14decisions through. All right, I got to
- 1:07:16get out of here. Thank you guys so much
- 1:07:17for watching. I really appreciate it.
- 1:07:20Um,
- 1:07:22I love you guys. Thank you so much.
- 1:07:24Thank you. Have a wonderful weekend.
- 1:07:26Plenty of content coming your way.
- 1:07:28You're the best. And I'll see you guys
- 1:07:30next week. I mean, I'll, you know, I'm
- 1:07:32not going anywhere, but for this live
- 1:07:33chat, I'll see you next week. Have a
- 1:07:35great one. Have a great weekend. Take
- 1:07:37care, boys and girls. Bye.