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Geopolitics, Political Fallout, the Pope, and Psychedelics · Bourbon & Rum

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You can be in Congress for 30 years and be a complete scumbag
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and nobody's ever going to know. It Jim and I flat out refused to
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transpose my face onto a Christ like image of healing people
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surrounded by F fifteens these. Psychedelics have the capability
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to like, reframe your mind. Welcome to Bourbon and Rum, the
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podcast dedicated to civil conversation.
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I'm Kent, I like rum and I'm from the left side of the aisle.
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And I'm Kyle. I like bourbon.
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I tend to be a little more conservative.
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We're brothers talking politics for bourbon and rum.
0:48
What are you drinking? Well, I am drinking.
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I was on a, a road trip this week in Nashville and I picked
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up this bottle of this stuff. It's called Old Kirk Single
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Barrel. I went into this liquor store
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and they had they're like, man, you just missed it by a day.
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We had this huge drop and they still had a lot of good stuff.
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And the way they do it is they, we just put it out and people
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get as much as they want. It's all prices.
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Like they show me the prices and I wish I'd have been there.
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There was some goodies, but there was some stuff leftover.
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And this old Kirk was one of them and it was 99 bucks and I'd
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never heard of it. And I did the research on it.
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Well, it sells a secondary for like 400 bucks a bottle because
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the report is supposedly that it's there's a a premium whiskey
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called will it? And they call it the purple top
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because it's got a purple label and those bottles sell for four
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or $500. Well, they say that this stuff
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is that juice, that it gets rejected and they bottle it and
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sell it under a different name. But it's funny.
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I asked ChatGPT about it. Well, ChatGPT, it claims it's
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coming from Barton 1792 distillery and goes through all
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this reason why? Well, then I went to Grok.
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Grok says, no, it's definitely will it.
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ChatGPT doesn't know what it's talking about.
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I asked Claude. Claude's like, yeah, ChatGPT is
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wrong. Gemini says it's wrong.
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Well then I go back to ChatGPT and I was, you know, I was
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trying the bourbon last night and I'm talking to GPT and I'm
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like, hey, you know, I don't want like a sycophantic
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relationship here. I want you to tell me I'm full
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of crap. In fact, I want you to call me a
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Jackass. And it's like, well, I'm not
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going to call you a Jackass. Well, then I, I come back to it
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and it says, well, Gemini, Grok and Claude all say you're full
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of crap. It's from will it will, it comes
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back with this. Well, I'm going to have to push
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back on this. And then it gets all the way to
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the bottom. And it's like, you know, if you
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keep pushing this, I'm going to call you a Jackass.
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And I'm like, wow, that's. It.
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So I pissed it off. I mean that's possible I guess.
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That is, that is the brass ring I I like to.
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I have a somewhat adversarial relationship with my AI tools as
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well. What are you drinking on?
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Well, I'm drinking Trader Joe's Limeade just got done at the gym
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and I'm actually needing to hydrate a little bit, so we're
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going to call that good today. Sounds good.
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Well, what's it? We've actually been, we had a
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little cyclical problem. We've kind of we're kind of off
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by one week and it was good to catch up with you.
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Been a lot going on. We discussed a couple of topics
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via text. We're still in a war.
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So maybe kind of take a temperature of where what you're
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seeing there and how you're feeling about that and
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interested to hear your thoughts.
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I was thinking about it today or this weekend.
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You know, there's inconsistency. Like, you know, Trump's like
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we're having good conversations. The Strait of Hormuz is open.
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And then some spokesman's like, no, it's not, it's closed.
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You know, and we're pissed at you and I, I do wonder, you
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know, decapitating the regime and you got people down in the
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second and third string and as much infrastructure has been
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impacted by the war, I tend to wonder how unified the
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government is really acting. And so my guess is you probably
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got different factions within and there could be people that
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are that are interested in negotiating and then you got
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other people that are not. And then you've got probably
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posturing that goes on. I think there's posturing.
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I'm, I know Trump postures, I think a lot of what he does is
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also trying to play their hand a little bit and push them in
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different directions. So he may say things that are,
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he may be, you know, exaggerating the claims on
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purpose. So, you know, there is a bit of
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misinformation on both sides there, some of it intentional.
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I do think the, I think what is interesting and some of the
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nonpartisan reviews I've seen of it, the honestly, the blockade
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may be more impactful than the bombing is.
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I saw a nonpartisan think tank outfit that you probably saw it,
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it was in the Journal. But it I mean, they cited like
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this entity, like there wasn't their numbers that the blockades
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costing in the neighborhood of half a billion a day cost to the
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regime of not exporting oil. So, you know, we talked last
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week about and I thought she had good points about like, you
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know, a lot of these authoritarian regimes, this old
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Kirk is really effective. You know, they don't really care
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about the pain inflicted on their people.
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And so they may hold out longer, but interesting to see does
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economic pain is that the one that gets them, you know,
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remains to be seen. What are your thoughts?
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Yeah, I mean, I was obviously happy to see a ceasefire.
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You know, I I'm conflicted on this.
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Lot of liberal media remains up in arms.
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Look, I, I laid out pretty solidly my critique of Trump on
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this in terms of lack of clarity of war aims and whatever.
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But I've said from the get go, I'm not going to shed a tear for
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the for the Ayatollah, you know what I mean?
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And so, yeah, I hope, I hope we can we that, that we can move
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something here. I, I, I do wonder it, it, it
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goes back to that essential question, what is winning look
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like here and what is winning in a world when a $20,000 drone can
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sink an oil tanker and it's got to that oil tanker's got to go
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through something, you know, that's couple 100 yards wide.
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You know that threat. Apparently we haven't taken that
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threat away from Iran and I don't think you're going to be
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able to bomb them in to be an unable to pull something like
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that off. So you do have this that there,
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there's something that we've got to, to your point, we've got to
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have something that is persuasive to them.
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So, well, I hope it is. I don't know.
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One of the other journal articles was talking about, it
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was I think it was an opinion article, but it was talking
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about, you know, they they thought they had this leverage
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point that, hey, we're going to create an economic consequence
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by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
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And now it's kind of like that table's been flipped on them.
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OK, yeah, we can, we can play the game in the high seas and
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you know, yeah, you can, you can stop an oil tanker with the
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drone, with a $20,000 drone. We're not, we're not enforcing A
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blockade with $20,000 drones. We're enforcing A blockade with
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state-of-the-art destroyers and cruisers.
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And right. And maybe that's a, you know,
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again, hard to say what's going to what's going to cause the
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regime to buckle, but I think there's some positive news for
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sure. Positive news in the Israeli
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Lebanon. Yeah, definitely.
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That's huge. I think you know, the other side
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of the world. I was reading some other things
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about There's a lot of speculation that Cuba is not far
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from buckling themselves because taking out Maduro means they no
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longer have a trading partner. And you talk about economic
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pain. I mean, there is already a lot
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of economic pain, but when you take out they're only means of
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economic trading, there's a lot of speculation that that
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outfit's about to collapse because of that.
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Yeah, for sure. Well, hopeful, hopeful.
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Some domestic issues. I mentioned to you the
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staggering downfall of Eric Swalwell, to which I say don't
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let the door hit you in the ass. I, you know, I, it turns out,
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looks like he was a bit of a dirtbag and so good riddance.
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Yeah, I'm similar to you're not mourning the loss of the
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Ayatollah. I'm not mourning the exit of
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Eric Swalwell. But I do you, you see this kind
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of thing and you wonder, like he's been in Congress for a long
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time, and only when he was leading the leading candidate
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for governor in California, this thing pops.
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Why is that? Well I read I saw a commentator
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on this might have been Scaramucci.
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Who? Said you know the mooch.
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He is I, I, you know, just as an aside, increasingly I feel like,
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you know, I, I'm, I'm feeling a little politically homeless.
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I'm, I remain pretty conservative on economic issues.
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You know, I, I'm for low taxes, low.
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I'm for, let's say I'm for response of fiscal discipline,
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which is not very popular in either party right now.
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But the point was that, you know, you can run for Congress
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and unless you're, you know, there's a lot that just doesn't
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come out. The nature of the digging, the
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nature of the inquiry, the nature of the scrutiny is
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totally different. When you go to the level of a
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governor of a big state or national office, like a, you
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know, the presidency, vice presidency, that there's,
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there's people that have kind of nursed these problems for long
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times in their lives and it just never really got any traction.
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But there's a much bigger audience now.
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I don't know, maybe, maybe there's something more insidious
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than that. But to me, it's just like, yeah,
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I don't know. I mean, what's a little bit
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disconcerting about what you're saying there is that you can be
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in Congress for 30 years and be a complete scumbag and nobody's
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ever going to know it. And, and I'm not saying I, I'm
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just, I'm kind of picking a bullet point and seeing if that
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lands. And I'm not characterizing
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everybody that way, but it's kind of it, it's disturbing
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that, you know, that type of behavior for a congressman isn't
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something that somebody thinks is going to get pressed.
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Well, it's really only going to matter when the guy's running
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for, for governor. I mean, being AUS congressman,
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well, you know, they're all scumbag.
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I I don't know. No, it's a fairpoint, but
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because when? They talked about doing the
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censure or they're talking about giving him the boot from
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Congress and doing some type of act.
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There were like three other yahoos in the wings that they're
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like, well, we're thinking about just doing a ball at this point,
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like. Well, you know, there's always
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you. Know like a handful of scumbags.
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I mean, it's nuts. Well, I think it was the same
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discussion I was watching. You know, there's 535 people in
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435 representatives. Yeah, 435 representatives, you
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know, out of a random sampling of 435 people.
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I guess there's there's more incidents, yeah.
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I mean, you're you're going to have some, you're going to have
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some baggage there. I I do think that that kind of
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tracks with experience, though. There's a lot of people that are
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like low key members of Congress.
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Remember Denny Hastert? Yeah, that whole story like that
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was messed up. That had been just kind of
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simmering through the years. Well, then they elective speaker
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of the House and then it all kind of kind of breaks open.
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That's great. Yeah, I forgot about that.
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That is nuts. There's a lot if you go through,
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you look at your, your buddy Matt, you're not your buddy, but
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Matt Gaetz, you know, like there's a lot of there's a lot
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of seedy crap going on there, right?
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And I don't know if it's worse than 435 randos, but it it's not
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good. It's not good.
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Yeah, and I guess you know you. I mean, if you think about it,
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there's a handful of congressmen I would bet you about we could
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name. I mean I I.
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We're. Pretty politically informed.
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We're reading the news and stuff all the time.
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I don't know that I could just rattle off more than about a
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dozen, Congressman. I was going to say, if we put
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the flash cards on the screen, you might get, you might get 15
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of them, right? Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I
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think, yeah, if I saw flash cards, but like if I had to
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write down a list of names, yeah, 15 maybe so there.
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And if you go to the average American, and I'm not saying
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we're above average, but we are doing a politically focused
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podcast, so we're probably a little more above the mean.
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I think if you went to the average folks, I mean it's a
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couple that they can name or a handful, you know, and so.
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And not necessarily their own, right.
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Yeah. And and I'm not slamming people.
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I don't, I don't blame people. But to your point, like I don't
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give myself much of a chance of more than like you say 15 or 20,
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right? And as you say, we're like we're
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tracking this stuff on a, on a daily basis.
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So no, I don't think people know.
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Well, some of the other drama this week, you know, I know
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there's, there's a lot of folks up in arms because Trump was
16:07
posting and disagreeing and I didn't read all the, and all the
16:13
social media posts. But I'm, I'm not sure that some
16:19
of you know, some of what Leo said made sense, but some of
16:23
what he said, I don't think it's going to age well.
16:27
I, I saw a few things where, and I don't know, can't if you've
16:31
seen it, But for instance, one of them, he quotes Jesus in the
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Beatitudes about blessed is the peacemakers.
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But the way he says it is, as scripture says, blessed are the
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peacemakers. And then he goes on to add,
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like, this paragraph of, you know, plus are the peacemakers
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not those who use political rhetoric for ugly things and
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blah, blah, blah. And it's like.
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Well, that's a little. Bit of a stretch of scripture.
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I don't know. I mean, you know, I mean.
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With all fairness. Think, but I'm like, yeah,
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that's a little bit of a stretch.
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It it all fairness. He is the Pope and in according
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to Catholic tradition, the teachings of the Church rests on
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2 pillars 1 Scripture 1 the papal authority handed down from
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Peter. I'm not signing on to that
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necessarily so, but that's. OK.
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But that's a good question. So what you're saying is it's
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kosher for him to create Bible verses?
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I'd be getting into territory that's outside my expertise.
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I don't know that I I I didn't read the specific quote that
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you're that you're referencing, so I don't want to.
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Put it in the notes, but yeah. Yeah, I don't know, Like, I
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think you've got a real clash here because, like, the job of
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the Pope is to speak for peace. Like that's part of the job
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description. And the Pope speaks for peace.
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And it literally is a political I, I, I don't you, you might
18:22
disagree with me on this, but I think the problem that you got
18:26
is that it's pretty reliable. It's pretty predictable that if
18:29
you ask the Pope about a war, he's going to say, no, We, we
18:33
should, we should seek peace. And yet Trump's ego is so
18:38
fragile that he takes the Pope saying the most Pope thing there
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is. He he takes it as a personal
18:49
insult. I don't know.
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I mean, I think, well, a few things.
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One, I think this Pope in particular has political
19:08
activism aspirations more so than other popes we've seen.
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I mean, this guy came from a bastion of liberal thought in
19:17
Chicago. Interestingly, before some of
19:21
his comments this week, he'd had a private meeting with David
19:23
Axelrod, who is not a Catholic. Little bit odd.
19:30
And so I think, you know, rather than just saying, hey, I'm
19:36
praying for peace in the world, I think he's taking some
19:39
deliberate stabs from a, a left bound political slant against
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Trump. So I don't think it's I don't, I
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don't think it's Nestle Trump just reacting to some random
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Pope comment. I think the Pope is going after
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Trump on a deliberate nature from a a liberal ideology and.
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I mean, some of this stuff the guy is saying is, you know, you
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know, slamming Trump for going after Iran, but he's got zero
20:13
comments about other, you know, confrontational aspects of, you
20:21
know, like, like Iran killing their own people.
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He's silent about that. He's silenced about silent about
20:26
the violence in Africa. He's silent about all these
20:30
other things. But well, Trump's the problem.
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And it's like, well. I, you know, yeah, I don't know.
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What I saw, though, was him answering questions and like,
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did the press put a microphone in his face and say, what do you
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think about the protests in Tehran a year ago?
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Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know that you can
20:52
necessarily draw that conclusion.
20:55
And yeah, I, I mean, I guess if, if I were if I had a different
21:00
view of things, I might feel a little encroached politically.
21:06
But if if you're I, I again, I go to Trump's petulance in thin
21:14
skin. And like, if if you're the
21:15
president of the United States and you think you're doing the
21:18
right thing, like, what do you care?
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What do you what do you? The man is the least religious
21:24
human being that's ever occupied the office.
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Why the hell does he care what the Pope says about him?
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Why does that bother him? Well, I think.
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I think, I mean, I don't know, I just, I think he's, he's
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picking, I think the Pope is picking a fight and he's
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probably picking a fight with the wrong guy because to your
21:45
point, he's going to respond and it's it's it's not going to be
21:50
kind. I think.
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I think some of the stuff he's been saying, though, that the
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post's been saying that isn't going to age well.
21:59
It's this whole thing like, you know, you can't the the prayers
22:05
of somebody at war aren't being heard and you can't, you know,
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there there's no justification for war.
22:12
OK, so we should have, you know, you're going to sit by and let
22:17
Hitler exterminate Jews. You know, where does that fall?
22:22
And I, in an just don't think it's very, I think in his quest
22:28
to ostracize Trump, he's taking some positions that are pretty
22:32
indefensible. Well, maybe.
22:35
I think the it's not the Pope's job to decide who goes to war
22:39
and who doesn't and and the right answer to that.
22:43
I would agree with that 100% and I think that's part of the
22:46
problem. Yeah.
22:49
Well, again, why is it that we got a guy who has no, not enough
22:54
self-confidence that he can't just shrug his shoulders and
22:57
walk past something like that's the part that.
23:01
Well, but it's the same, it's the same thing that the press is
23:04
throwing it up in his face. Well, what do you think about,
23:06
you know, the Pope saying that you shouldn't be at war?
23:10
Well, I think he's wrong and I think it's good that he pointed
23:13
out he's wrong. One of the other things I saw
23:17
the Pope post is a post about, and I mean, this takes take us
23:23
down a rabbit hole, but he talked about having communion
23:26
with Muslims and I'm like, that's interesting.
23:31
What does that mean? And and we're you know, you
23:34
know, I'm not anti Muslim, but communion is not something
23:40
you're it's for people that believe in Christ.
23:44
I don't know. I think that might be a, a term,
23:47
a, a, a semantic difference, honestly, because there's a
23:50
meaning of communion. I mean, you're taking, So if, if
23:54
the Pope meant communion the way you meant communion, he would
23:57
have said Eucharist. It's just a different concept.
24:01
You know, Communion is again, I, I, I didn't read it in context.
24:07
I can't say that for sure, but yeah, I mean, we there's like
24:14
Communion capital C and Communion lowercase C and I'll
24:18
give him the benefit of the doubt that that's what he meant.
24:21
Yeah, your point is well taken. I mean, your view of the guy is
24:26
probably impacted also by your political persuasion.
24:32
Yeah. I tell you, oh, go ahead.
24:35
Well, since we're talking about religion, I had a little
24:44
kerfuffle with AI this week myself because Gemini flat out
24:50
refused to transpose my face onto a Christ like image of
24:55
healing people surrounded by F fifteens.
24:59
So, you know, is this is this Google trying to undercut my own
25:04
personal claims of being A a doctor admitted as a doctor, I
25:09
wasn't portraying myself as Christ.
25:13
Yeah, I thought it was. I thought it was pretty
25:16
interesting the outrage of people to these to to something
25:25
that would be offensive to Christians involving Trump.
25:30
But this is the same crowd that you know can slam anything
25:36
Christian at any time. But you say one thing against
25:41
the Quran or Muslims, you're a horrible person.
25:45
Well, for what it's worth, I think you got the wrong.
25:48
You got the wrong villain here. I, I laughed at it.
25:52
I thought it was funny. I what I thought when I saw the
25:55
image, when I saw the image, I thought it was funny.
25:58
I thought it was funny because most of the outrage was coming
26:00
from the religious right. Tucker Carlson used the word
26:05
Antichrist to describe Trump after seeing that.
26:09
So it it, it's not your liberals that are up in arms.
26:12
It was conservative Christians that that hit the roof on that.
26:17
That's why he hit. Look, Donald Trump didn't delete
26:20
that thing because it offended me.
26:24
No, no peace. But like the media that's going
26:28
nuts over he said something against Christian.
26:32
Really. This is what you're concerned
26:34
about? I mean, have you ever been
26:36
concerned about anybody bagging on Christians before?
26:38
No. Well, fine on the media.
26:42
I'm just saying it's this isn't the media didn't just brew this
26:46
up. This was kind of obnoxious and I
26:49
think a lot of people, I think people rightly probably were a
26:53
little troubled by that. Well, you know what what what is
27:00
he thinking? I and then the.
27:04
Chicken. Shit answer.
27:05
Oh no, I thought I was a me as a doctor.
27:08
Come on. Just like he spits in your face
27:12
and you think it's raining. It's just.
27:15
Is it spitting in somebody's face?
27:17
It's just a meme on A on a on a ex feed.
27:22
I don't know. I, I think people are nuts that
27:25
get that excited about it, but I, I just think it's also.
27:29
I mean, other than in response to something humorous.
27:34
I don't make it a practice of portraying myself as the
27:37
Messiah. It memes, do you?
27:42
Well, I maybe I need to start. Hey, something else that
27:50
happened this week happened today and you know the because
27:58
it's Trump and it happened to the Oval Office or maybe
28:02
political baggage associated with it.
28:05
But I think is super cool and you may not be aware of it.
28:12
And I've just listened to, I listened to a Rogan podcast with
28:15
these guys and then they did another one a couple of weeks
28:19
ago. There is this thing called the
28:21
Texas Ibogaine Initiative. Rick Perry's actually advocating
28:26
for it. But the, the guy that has put it
28:30
together that that is leading it in Texas is this PhD that has
28:35
done a bunch of research on it. And so it's a psychedelic drug
28:40
that has been found to have incredible positive impacts on
28:48
PTSD and opioid addiction and a whole host of other addictions
28:52
because it's these psychedelics have the capability to like
28:57
reframe your mind, reframe your you know how your mind operates.
29:05
And you know, they, there was actually, there's been studies
29:09
that Stanford did a, a randomized sample on it.
29:12
There's been some studies, but there's this push because, you
29:17
know, a lot of it is a push for the veteran community where
29:22
suicide is a huge impact right now.
29:24
And Harry got involved because I guess when he was governor.
29:30
Marcus Luttrell, I think it's Marcus Luttrell.
29:34
He's got a brother. I forget which one, Marcus or
29:36
the other. Morgan, I forget which one, but
29:39
one of them came back from the war and you know, he'd
29:43
befriended Rick Perry at some point.
29:45
Well, he came back and left the service or whatever.
29:50
He knocked on the Governor mansion and said, hey, you said,
29:53
'cause Rick Perry was like, hey, anytime you're this way, look me
29:56
up. He said, could I see you?
29:59
Well, he wound up, you know, I'd never read this before, but he
30:03
wound up staying in the governor governor's mansion for like 4
30:07
years, living there, and he was. Kato Kaelin.
30:13
Yeah. Exactly.
30:16
Well, and apparently he was really like struggling with PTSD
30:20
and he was drinking, you know, it was like a it was a mess for
30:26
a while. He's got he's like having like
30:29
got this nerd. Well, kid living in the
30:32
governor's mansion with him, but he had him there.
30:35
And then at one point the guy goes and gets this experimental
30:39
ibogaine treatment, Ibogaine, I guess ibogaine and it cured him
30:46
of the PTSD and he got back to like normal and squared away.
30:52
And, and so you know that they've been pushing this.
30:58
Well, Trump did this executive order today to kind of like do
31:01
like, I think it what it does is it takes it makes it no longer
31:06
of the the class of illegal substances and it fast tracks
31:11
kind of the FDA review of it. But it's yeah, just listening to
31:18
the conversation on Rogan is pretty fascinating.
31:21
You know, like Nixon is the one that outlawed all these
31:28
hallucinogens all, like, you know, all these psychedelics.
31:32
And a, a lot of the speculation was that he, he made them
31:37
illegal because it was a push back on the hippies in the the
31:40
60s generation and the minority totally folks that we're taking
31:44
the stuff. And, and so, you know, then the
31:46
thing's been criminalized for 50 years and nobody ever looked at
31:50
it. And it's pretty fascinating.
31:53
The, the, the results are unbelievable.
31:57
They said the success rate with one treatment is like 80% and
32:03
it's 90% at second treatment. You know, obviously they've got
32:07
to do the study. But then I'm thinking, you know,
32:10
what the hell is the harm of it? I mean, if, if it doesn't work
32:14
as advertised, it doesn't kill anybody.
32:16
And now it does sound like it's pretty brutal, the treatment,
32:20
you take the treatment and you're puking your guts out for
32:23
24 hours. I mean, it does sound pretty
32:25
rough, but I don't know. Did you heard of that before?
32:29
I had not, I just looked at it, the executive order and I'm
32:33
going to go ahead and say I'm all in on that.
32:36
I think, I think the history of substance scheduling and drug
32:47
laws is a, it's a bad story on this country in a lot of ways,
32:52
which is not to say that I'm in favor of just like doling out
32:56
heroin to people. But most of our problems, most
33:00
of the worst of our problems with drugs are a function of the
33:06
bad legislation around them rather than the harm that we're
33:10
trying to fix. And it just seems dumb the way
33:15
that we approach it. Again, which is not to say that
33:18
I think it's for everybody. You know, I, I think that
33:24
cannabis use, it is not good for everybody.
33:27
It's not good for young people. Like there's it, it's not like
33:32
it should be open season on stuff.
33:35
But the approaches and the attempts that we've tried to do
33:40
and then the people that we have put in jail, yeah, You know,
33:46
obviously some of the people we put in jail 'cause they shot
33:48
people because there's a lot to be money to be made in the
33:50
thing. Not taking it for those people.
33:54
But the just, it's a ugly, ugly history.
34:00
The there's no other way to describe the prejudicial
34:05
treatment of crack cocaine versus powder cocaine.
34:08
Like if you're a stockbroker snorting coke, you're fine.
34:12
If you're in the inner city and you get caught with a Little
34:14
Rock, you are going up. It's insanity.
34:17
It's really crazy. And and the the psychedelics,
34:23
probably to your point, the most of all, I don't think they ought
34:27
to be handing out LSD tabs on the street to people.
34:31
But of all of the substances that we've ever discovered, if
34:36
you think about it, what is the, what is the, the medical?
34:40
I'm, I'm rambling here, but what is the medical, the category of
34:44
medical illness that is most problematic in our society
34:48
today? We're, we're curing cancer,
34:50
we're curing heart disease, we're fixing all kinds of stuff,
34:55
But the rate of mental illness is through the roof.
34:59
And so we've got an entire class of therapy, potentially
35:03
therapeutic drugs that not only aren't available to people,
35:08
they're not available to laboratory researchers.
35:12
Well, that's. Creating that and that research
35:15
piece of it. When stuff is criminalized, they
35:18
can't really study it. But I mean, this psychedelic
35:22
stuff is amazing what it is. And you know, if, if they can
35:29
free up the ability to, to people to research it, I mean,
35:34
there could be all kinds of things that we're missing
35:38
exactly what some of these drugs bring to the table.
35:40
It and the whole thing going to well, we don't want a bunch of
35:45
wigged out people. Well, but but it's OK if they're
35:49
shit faced and drunk. I mean, that's OK, you know?
35:51
Or suicidal or a hair trigger in to going into a fit of rage that
35:58
we're comfortable with that right it.
36:02
Yeah, I'm really happy to hear this.
36:04
I think it's great news. Now I'll I'll throw you a bone,
36:08
though, So I you know, I don't want you to be so Trump loving
36:13
that that he did that. I mean, you know, I'm glad he
36:15
did this for sure, But I will admit I I really do like a lot
36:24
of what he's doing, but he is hard to listen to.
36:27
I will give you that. I mean, he's doing this press
36:31
conference and, you know, and he's talking about signing this
36:35
thing and you know, he can't help himself.
36:38
He's like, well, you know, Joe Rogan's here because Joe Rogan
36:41
was pitching it because these guys have been on his show.
36:45
And then, you know, Trump's like, well, you know, Joe
36:47
Rogan's here. And of course I was on his
36:49
podcast. Kamala Harris wasn't on his
36:51
podcast. I'm like, oh gosh, do we have to
36:53
go down that path? You know, dude, just shut up.
36:56
You know, but that and that's like, you know, what makes you
37:02
really angry and pissed off? Maybe I don't get as mad as you,
37:08
but it it annoys me that some of his mannerisms and stuff.
37:14
So it's it is a being, some of that does appreciate a lot of
37:19
what he does, I think. To be honest, I'm not.
37:26
And and I, you know, again, hope I've expressed this in the
37:28
podcast. I'm not all in on the person.
37:30
I mean, there's a lot there that's good, but there's a lot
37:34
there that's just ridiculous too.
37:37
So, yeah, but I thought of that when I was watching this thing
37:40
because it was a really cool thing that they did.
37:44
But then it's like, yeah, you got to go screw it up by being a
37:48
Jackass. He needs ChatGPT telling him
37:51
he's a Jackass. That would help.
37:53
You know, it's funny you say this because I left our last
37:57
conversation kind of kind of feeling bad about myself a
38:02
little bit. And I, I, I do this, I look, I,
38:07
I'm not even going to try to beat around the Bush the guy
38:12
just I, I just am utterly repulsed by him.
38:18
And it's and it's mostly that stuff honestly, it and and I
38:23
wish it were. I wish I could see past that
38:26
more to the issues. I'll throw you a bone if he if
38:29
he's absolutely moving on psychedelic research, then God
38:34
bless him and good for him. The the problem that I have is
38:38
that narcissistic, thin skin, petulant bit is like it's all
38:46
that's there to me. And and you see something that I
38:50
don't see when I look at that. But because of that, it's like
38:57
there is I've never heard the man say or do anything that
39:02
looked anything other than purely self motivated.
39:07
And so when he starts a war with Iran, look, I could make a list
39:12
of my own things that I'm worried about Iran and that that
39:16
there would be valid reasons to go after.
39:19
But immediately I think, OK, what's in it for him?
39:25
And if it just so happens that our national interests are
39:28
aligned with his personal interests, thing might, things
39:31
might work out for us. But that ABS that component of
39:39
his personality and character is so repugnant to me that it
39:43
colors how I see everything. It really does, and I'm not
39:46
proud of it. Yeah.
39:48
It and it's an interesting aspect because in my opinion,
39:56
every president probably, well every president in the media age
40:01
at least, I mean the amount of ego involved with these people
40:07
and the self aggrandizing behavior.
40:12
I didn't think that's remotely unique to Trump.
40:14
I mean, agreed, you're not going to be running for I mean, you
40:18
know, we've talked about that before.
40:20
You know, the, there's, there's a thing a sign I saw somewhere
40:25
the levels of drunkenness. You know, there's one beer is,
40:30
you know, talking more 5 beers this and then, you know,
40:34
something like 20 beers. I can land the space shuttle.
40:37
Well, when you're, you know, when you're at the level of
40:41
drunkenness that you could say, well, I can run the country.
40:44
The amount of ego involved in that and the amount of self
40:48
promotion is unparalleled. So I guess I'm just saying.
40:55
No, you're. Repulsiveness of him, I mean, I
40:58
could kind of apply to a lot of folks to hit to me it's not so
41:02
much of that is it is his aggressive personality which is
41:10
challenging well. It's interesting your, your,
41:15
your points well taken about the, the, the that's it is not
41:19
got a monopoly on the ego. But I feel like I don't know,
41:27
you know, it's been a long time since we had another Republican
41:29
president. You know, you've got two Trump
41:32
terms. You got to go back to George W
41:34
to get another president. Look, I had my issues with
41:37
George W Bush, but I really believe that.
41:43
Certainly he was egotistical, but he thought, and I think this
41:47
has been consistent with presidents for the most part, he
41:50
thought that the way that he makes himself great is by making
41:54
the country great. And I don't, regardless of the
42:00
rhetoric, I don't think, I don't think Trump thinks that way.
42:05
I think he's, I don't think he thinks about a legacy in the
42:10
same way other people do. And that makes him dangerous to
42:13
me. He he's thinking about what's in
42:15
it for me like this afternoon, not long term, like maybe I'm
42:22
making a distinction without a difference.
42:23
But I think that's, I think there's AI think there's some
42:26
significance there. And yeah, I.
42:34
Well, this will make you throw throw something at your monitor.
42:38
Hopefully it's not you get a breakable monitor.
42:42
No, I was thinking about this this week if the step change of
42:53
you know again, we'll see what happens with Iran.
42:56
But if, if, if you look at the sum total of if, if we can make
43:02
peace in the Middle East, Israel and Lebanon and Iran and the,
43:07
the, the fall of Cuba, the fall of Venezuela, if, if, if some of
43:12
these hotspots can be conquered. It makes me think about Trump
43:24
being a chosen person by God to fix to, to enact his will on the
43:31
earth. And that that's the part that
43:33
he's going to have you throw something at the screen.
43:35
And where I mean by that is he is an extremely imperfect,
43:42
flawed human being. I would admit that
43:45
wholeheartedly. Your level of flaws with that
43:48
individual are, you know, it's a matter of degree, but he's a,
43:53
let's just say you, you could say the man is a shit show of a
43:58
human being, but could God use it?
44:01
Should show of a human being. And, and I would say yes.
44:05
Now, I, I think that's a bold statement.
44:08
I guess I'm just saying that I see, I see a lot of problems
44:14
with the individual, but I also think he's somebody that is
44:19
capable of doing things for exactly the the reasons you
44:22
point out, that he's capable of doing things that may benefit us
44:29
that nobody else could do. And whether that's God ordained
44:31
and pushed, you know, I don't want to go there.
44:34
I want to, you know, but I'm just saying when I think of it,
44:39
there's this possibility if if you could create some incredibly
44:44
good outcomes, the person that could do that might be somebody
44:49
that would have to be way different and it may not be way
44:54
different in a good way, so. Well, OK, I'm not going to throw
44:59
something at the screen, but I'm going to.
45:01
I'm going to hit pretty hard on what I think is a flawed logic
45:05
chain there first of all. You say hey by the way, you
45:09
sound just like Chachi PT does so.
45:12
That's good. I'm going to I'm going to push
45:13
back here a little. No.
45:17
Well, so the basic idea that could God use imperfect people
45:22
to accomplish God's will? Of course, right.
45:25
The Bible is replete with that. But it's the latter part of what
45:30
you said that I think I, I think it really undercuts what you're,
45:35
what you want to think and what you want to say there 'cause
45:38
what you, what I'm hearing you say is that the only way to get
45:44
there is to have someone like this.
45:47
And I think that, I think that I think that undersells God's
45:52
ability. I, I think that if God wants to,
45:58
if God has an opinion on some of these political things, which I
46:03
don't know that God, that's all that's a whole nother not, not
46:10
not another podcast episode. That's a whole nother podcast
46:14
topic. I mean, an entire podcast about
46:17
theology. But I think that if God really
46:24
wants something to happen, he doesn't necessarily need to go
46:28
get a Donald Trump to do it, that God could accomplish that
46:32
with anybody that he chose to use.
46:36
Yeah, I would absolutely agree with that because I, I believe
46:41
that God is all powerful and can do anything the same time,
46:47
political aspirations aside, I would imagine the cries of the
46:52
people in places like Venezuela and Cuba and Iran are heard by
46:59
God. And I don't think, you know, I'm
47:04
not saying America is perfect or Israel is perfect by any means,
47:10
but I can I, I would think that the cries of many of the people
47:14
in these repressed countries long for a place where they
47:18
could raise their families in a safe, peaceful environment.
47:21
And so I do think God cares about those people and I do
47:26
think he wants better for them. And I guess I'm just throwing it
47:33
up as a possibility in the realm of the possibility, because if
47:40
you looked at the way, you know, I'm a Christian, I believe that
47:47
Jesus died for our sins. And if you if you saw the way
47:52
the Bible flows and you know, the Savior for our sins, that
48:01
the level of humility that he exhibited and the painful death
48:04
he had, a lot of people could say that doesn't make any sense.
48:09
Like, why would you do that? You know, So I guess all I'm
48:11
saying is there is the possibility that his master plan
48:19
includes a somebody with absurd levels of flaws.
48:26
So I guess that's all I'm saying.
48:27
And you know. Look, I'm not going to disagree
48:30
with that, but I'll tell you what I think is outrageous is
48:36
these people standing around him, laying hands on him and
48:41
holding him up like he's God's anointed.
48:44
Because what you're talking about is something very
48:46
different. In my opinion, Nebuchadnezzar
48:50
was used by God for God's purposes, but that it it, but
48:55
it's not a good look for Nebuchadnezzar.
48:58
Herod was used for God's purposes.
49:01
It wasn't a good look for Herod, and I think confusing people
49:07
being used to accomplish God's purpose is a very different
49:13
thing than considering them worthy there.
49:20
There are a lot of people in history that were used by God,
49:24
but not with an endorsement that went along with it.
49:29
And I think it's terrifying that there is a segment of American
49:33
Christianity that sees like, like, I can accept your premise
49:37
that God could be using Trump, but that's a very different
49:43
thing than saying we're all together in this and you're our
49:46
guy and you're God's guy. And here we go.
49:49
There's a there's a naivete and a blindness to the way that
49:53
people that some people have talked about him that I find
49:58
just absolutely outrageous. And I will say that's why I, I
50:03
rolled my eyes at that meme thing, 'cause there were people
50:06
that really were like, that really was a thing that really
50:10
sent them. And I'm like, oh, you can, you
50:13
can send ice into a city and shoot your own citizens and
50:16
we're OK with that. But man, you send a blasphemous
50:19
cartoon up and I'm out like that horrified me a little.
50:28
Well. I mean, I guess a lot to unpack
50:33
there. I mean, I think some of the
50:40
heroes of the Bible weren't great people, right?
50:45
Right, I'm I'm assuming you're going to go to David with this,
50:50
for example. Let's make a useful comparison.
50:55
Do you see any difference between David and Trump?
50:59
They're both sinful. I see a big difference.
51:04
I do, I'm just. Saying, yeah, I don't know, I,
51:09
I'm not like lifting the guy up like he's our savior.
51:13
I'm not, that's not what I'm trying to do here.
51:15
I'm just trying to introduce the question of could could God use
51:25
somebody like this, number one? And #2 and we, we kind of
51:31
covered over it because it, and it was the earlier dialogue,
51:34
'cause you said, well, he could do things with a lot of
51:37
different people. I don't know that.
51:43
I don't know that we've had a president like Trump.
51:46
I, I don't think you can say there's been a precedence that
51:50
is the same. You've said that multiple times.
51:53
And so don't know that some of the things that are getting done
51:57
would ever happen with somebody else.
51:59
Now, could God do it a different way?
52:01
Well, sure, he could. I mean, he could, he could just
52:06
crumble all these entities himself.
52:09
But God doesn't do things that way.
52:12
He typically does things in a more indirect way.
52:16
And it's a, you know what I mean.
52:19
So I don't know. It's a it's.
52:20
It's fair. I'm just saying I think I, I
52:24
hear you and I, I don't think it's logically inconsistent, but
52:30
I would raise caution not to confuse the way that a sinful
52:37
David was used by God to accomplish God's purpose and the
52:42
way Herod the Great was used by God to accomplish God's purpose.
52:46
And those are very different experiences and OK, but you're,
52:51
you're, you better know the difference between those two I
52:53
guess is my. But your comparison Herod.
52:56
Herod achieved God's purpose by being the one that killed Jesus.
53:04
I I I guess. No, Herod was dead by the time
53:10
what what I mean by Herod with. That I mean Herod the the.
53:13
You think a pilot? Pilot.
53:15
Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
53:17
Sorry. No, no, that's a good one of us
53:22
went to seminary and one of us did not.
53:28
But I guess I'm just thinking that comparison is that he did
53:33
something negative. I guess I'm just thinking, could
53:37
God use somebody who is not appealing to do something
53:45
appealing? And, you know, this all
53:50
presupposes that everything's going to work out.
53:51
Maybe it's all going to go to crap and then, you know, you're,
53:53
you're going to get your wish. No, I'm kidding.
53:56
You're not. Well, and and what does work out
53:59
mean? Again, this is probably beyond
54:04
the scope of what we want to tackle today, but there are
54:10
prices that I would not be willing to pay for winning.
54:15
There are there are victories that you could win that wouldn't
54:19
be worth it you that I don't have something particular in
54:23
mind here, but I wouldn't want to win at all costs.
54:30
I wouldn't. Well, no, but I wouldn't want
54:32
our country to to cease to become what it is in order to
54:35
beat somebody that we didn't really need to pick a fight
54:37
with, you know? Well, I mean, I, I just think
54:41
about, I mean, you know, like the Maduro example.
54:44
I mean, you got a, a night and day situation in Venezuela.
54:49
You got AI don't know. I'm not saying all this stuff's
54:52
going to turn out hunky Dory, but I do think the approach is
54:58
different and I think the results are different.
55:01
I had another. Thought I I guess I'm puzzled
55:06
again. This goes beyond this, but
55:09
something that Barack Obama says routinely these days is, and I
55:17
don't know if I heard him say something about this, like this
55:19
meme, but there've been other things that Trump has done.
55:23
And he said, imagine what the reaction would have been if I,
55:30
as Barack Obama had posted a meme with myself arraigned in
55:37
light garments and imparting like to somebody, you know, just
55:43
just walking around. He got called the the devil and
55:47
the, you know, and I just think it's interesting, like what?
55:54
I'm not outright condemning what you're saying.
55:56
You know, I don't agree with you.
55:58
But like, what would you think about the other aspects of that?
56:05
Do you think it's impossible that Obama or Biden or Clinton
56:09
could have done anything that was good?
56:12
Are you, you know? No, they could, but they didn't.
56:15
I mean, these problems that we had, they didn't solve and and
56:21
partly. Are these the biggest problems
56:22
to solve? Is one of the questions.
56:24
What's that? I mean, that also assumes that
56:27
this is that big a problem to solve.
56:30
No tears for Maduro, but like the day before that happened,
56:35
you know, when I got up and I was brushing my teeth, I was
56:37
like, Oh my gosh, I hope Maduro gets out of there.
56:40
I mean, you know, like are, are these as big a problems as
56:45
you're making them out to be or are they engineered?
56:48
Yeah, not for somebody in Iowa, but globally there are huge
56:51
issues and there are people that have been waging war through, I
56:58
don't know, these people are threats.
57:00
I mean, you know, again, all depends on your perspective.
57:04
I mean, if your perspective is that, you know, all that's
57:10
really important is the borders around us and or you know, or
57:14
not, you know, it's like, I mean, it's like the the southern
57:17
border, you know, like, you know, the fact that he that we
57:23
have the lowest illegal immigration crossings in 50
57:26
years doesn't really matter to somebody that didn't really care
57:29
about the problem. But if if it was a problem that
57:32
you cared about and it's fixed, well, that's that's impressive.
57:36
But you know, if it's not something you care about, then
57:39
it doesn't really matter. Right.
57:41
But don't act like you've got the global view and I'm just the
57:44
Hick in Iowa. I mean, there's stuff that you
57:48
don't think is. Important.
57:48
You said you're in Iowa. I'm just saying.
57:51
No, I'm, I'm yeah. I'm just saying though, I mean,
57:55
that is exactly good for the goose, good for the gander.
57:58
You, you, you don't think that there's stuff that I think is of
58:02
global importance that you just like whistle by like they don't
58:06
think it matters. I don't think that Maduro was a
58:10
big threat to me and I don't think he was a big threat to the
58:12
country. I'm sorry for the people that
58:14
lived under his oppression. I'm still sorry for the people
58:16
that live under the oppression of his number two that we let
58:20
run the country. But no, I didn't get up in the
58:24
morning and worry about Maduro. I don't think it was the biggest
58:27
issue in the world. I don't think that the border
58:29
was as big an issue as you do, and that's my point.
58:34
I guess that's what I'm saying. Things that I see that are big
58:38
accomplishments you don't see as accomplishments because you
58:41
didn't care about them. And that's.
58:42
True. Yeah, it's true.
58:45
And there's stuff that is going that is passing by in this
58:50
administration or caused by this administration that really do
58:54
keep me up in the night, that terrify me.
58:57
And I, I don't think I, I don't think that registers with you.
59:01
I mean, I'm just saying acknowledge that that there's
59:03
stuff that I think is gravely broken with this country that
59:09
that I've raised with you, that you like.
59:11
It just does not bother you. It mystifies me.
59:16
Yeah. Well, and that's partly having
59:20
two different viewpoints. You're seeing the world.
59:22
Differently makes sense. Well, and that's part of how
59:26
politics works. Like I, I don't know, I was
59:34
going to say something, but I'm going to retract it so I'm not.
59:36
No, I don't. Care.
59:37
Say it well. Feelings.
59:40
I, I wonder, you know, we've got a little bit of a back catalog.
59:46
I feel like the things that really trouble me are relatively
59:51
consistent. The border is absolutely
59:53
consistent for you, you, you, you've been that way the whole
59:57
time. On that day that I was brushing
1:00:01
my teeth and didn't didn't give a damn about Maduro.
1:00:04
I don't recall you at the point at that time saying, Oh my gosh,
1:00:08
if only we could handle this Maduro thing, my life would be
1:00:12
better. And I guess that's what I would.
1:00:14
What what worries me is. I, I'm, I'm not on a limb here,
1:00:19
but humor me. What scares me is I feel like
1:00:26
Trump makes things an issue that weren't an issue before, wasn't
1:00:32
something he ran on. It becomes something that he
1:00:35
chooses. I, of course, am suspicious of
1:00:39
why he chose it, but then I see you adopting it as something
1:00:45
that's important. And again, that's my perspective
1:00:50
and it's probably warped, but I don't remember your worry about
1:00:53
Venezuela before. And now that it's an
1:00:55
accomplishment, I'm just like, well, well, I OK.
1:01:00
I probably didn't say anything about Venezuela, but I know I
1:01:03
talked about peace and threats to the world and fair, you know,
1:01:12
I guess I'm looking at a world where like, I mean, Venezuela
1:01:19
was a a problem. Now, you know, whether or not
1:01:22
it's the biggest problem to the guy brushing his teeth in Iowa,
1:01:25
I don't know. It may not be, but it was
1:01:28
certainly a problem that that each each administration
1:01:33
grappled with. Cuba's been a problem.
1:01:35
Iran's been a problem. I mean, all North Korea, all
1:01:38
these folks. I'm just saying, I mean, I feel
1:01:40
like Trump is going and tackling problem after problem.
1:01:46
Now, are they the right problems to tackle?
1:01:48
I don't know. But I feel like he's getting
1:01:51
he's tackling them differently and he's getting different
1:01:54
results than the status quo for 50 years.
1:01:59
And part of that is because he is different and somehow he's
1:02:03
different. We don't like but it's some of
1:02:06
that why it works. Yeah, I, I, I understand your
1:02:12
point. And I take it I just and maybe
1:02:14
I'm not so much irritated with you over this the I could.
1:02:19
I could get you to. Be irritated.
1:02:20
I'll call you a Jackass. The no, it's like, I don't know,
1:02:32
you know, stuff that wasn't a problem before is now is now a
1:02:37
problem. And he's a savior.
1:02:38
Not to say I'm not, I'm not putting words in your mouth, but
1:02:41
it's like Hallelujah, Trump, Trump, fix the Maduro thing that
1:02:45
was on the top of everybody's no, and he didn't say anything
1:02:50
about it before. I, I, I, I just like the
1:02:54
productivity. I mean, he's tackling stuff and
1:02:56
you, you know, it's funny, you said he's driven by personal
1:03:02
ambition and I agree. But like, hey, if there was a a
1:03:09
Trump Tower and Tehran and people could travel there, OK,
1:03:15
you know, maybe the personal ambition is a good motivator to
1:03:19
figure crap out. The thing that I worry about
1:03:23
that I don't think you're worried about is, is the
1:03:28
repudiation of our moral authority, our our, our, our
1:03:31
moral leadership in the world. And so you might get peace you
1:03:36
you might get, you might get 10 or 20 years of peace.
1:03:40
And if you if the price of that is the what I call American,
1:03:47
American exceptionalism is not because God threw a dart at the
1:03:50
map and picked us, I hate to tell you.
1:03:52
American exceptionalism is because our nation was founded
1:03:56
on principles of individual liberty and.
1:04:01
And that's what makes us good. I'm babbling here, but I Yeah.
1:04:09
Well, that it does then venture into another topic of NATO,
1:04:13
which has been under discussion. And I mean, that's another area
1:04:19
I got to side with Trump. Like what's the point of NATO?
1:04:23
Well, I don't know you. You.
1:04:26
You're the one who likes peace. And we haven't had a World War
1:04:29
in 80 years. Is that because?
1:04:31
Is that because of countries that whose destroyers can't
1:04:36
function enough to leave port maybe?
1:04:40
Or is it because the United States has been killing it from
1:04:45
a a defense and a technology standpoint?
1:04:50
Either way, you think we can do it alone?
1:04:54
I yeah, we. Don't need we need these other
1:04:58
countries that have broken down militaries and can't function
1:05:02
and and won't when we need them. I don't, I don't see the point
1:05:06
at this day and age because honestly, like I said, if
1:05:09
somebody attacked Great Britain, we're going to go to war with
1:05:12
them anyways. Like we're going to defend
1:05:15
Western nations anyways, so. We didn't.
1:05:18
We haven't defended Ukraine very well.
1:05:22
How many billions of dollars? We spent a hell of a lot more
1:05:25
than any other country in the world.
1:05:28
Yeah, but I mean, I think that proves out that money alone
1:05:32
doesn't fix it. We're we're straying from the
1:05:35
path. I'm just, I don't know.
1:05:37
Ukraine's not part of NATO. I mean, if it's a NATO
1:05:40
conversation, Ukraine's not a NATO, so.
1:05:44
Yeah, but it right. But maybe it should be OK.
1:05:53
Now we're now can't you need to start drinking because now we're
1:05:57
going down a whole other path because you have said before you
1:06:00
do not believe Ukraine should be part of NATO.
1:06:02
So if I want to start talking inconsistency here, Mr. Yeah,
1:06:05
no, you're right. I, I don't know, you know, I
1:06:08
roll the whole clock back. I roll back to 2016 and I hear
1:06:13
this loud ass mouthy guy make America great again.
1:06:20
I'm like, what the what the hell?
1:06:23
America is great. What are you, What are you
1:06:25
talking about? America's not great like I it,
1:06:28
it's inconceivable to me, which is not to say that I'm blind to
1:06:32
the problems in this country. But then this asshole starts
1:06:35
talking about making America great again.
1:06:37
And what he's talking about is not the problems that I think
1:06:40
that I see in America. And, and we go through this and
1:06:44
now he's, he's back in 2024 because we got all these
1:06:49
problems and America sucks. I'm just like, what's the matter
1:06:53
with you people? This country is the greatest
1:06:55
country in the world. And does any president run on?
1:07:01
Everything's great. You don't need me.
1:07:04
The last guy was terrific. No, of course not.
1:07:07
But I just like why are you So I he he's going to do what he's
1:07:11
going to do. Why?
1:07:13
Why did you feel we needed what I I'm going to throw this at
1:07:20
you. I think you were all part of
1:07:21
that drain, the swamp thing. That was what I, I believe that
1:07:25
was what I heard in 2020 was the biggest problem that we had.
1:07:29
Did we, did he dream the swamp? Did he fix that 'cause I don't
1:07:32
think he fixed that. I think that's worse than it's
1:07:34
ever been. And so, you know, that's what
1:07:37
I'm talking about. Like the drift of problems part
1:07:41
of. Why he's been as successful as
1:07:42
he has is he didn't pick his cabinet from the swamp.
1:07:46
The last go round he picked his cabinet from the swamp and he
1:07:50
didn't get get very far this time.
1:07:52
He picked people. He self picked people that were
1:07:56
change agents in many cases. Not all of them were great
1:07:58
picks. Some of them do you.
1:08:01
Do should have make a list for you of of some of the the
1:08:04
highlight reel of that Attorney General Bondi, Secretary Gnome?
1:08:13
Yeah, not fans of those. I love Bobby Kennedy.
1:08:17
I think that guy's awesome. I think he's doing great work.
1:08:20
I like the work that Marco Rubio's doing.
1:08:23
I think he's our next president. My bet on my bet on Kaushi is
1:08:33
that that Rubio's the nominee, Not the president, but the
1:08:37
nominee. I'm going to go all in against
1:08:42
JD Vance. Yeah, again, like I think
1:08:48
getting picked as the vice president, you ought to say, OK,
1:08:52
I'm going to golf the rest of my life because I have no future
1:08:55
after being a vice president. It's not a good place to be I.
1:08:59
Don't know if you've listened to anything from Scaramucci, but
1:09:02
his hypothesis is this. He says Trump doesn't want the
1:09:10
Republicans to win in 2028. That Trump's mindset needs to
1:09:17
be, you were shit before I came along, I won 3 elections for you
1:09:24
and after I'm gone, you can't do anything.
1:09:26
And so the Mooch is always like, yeah, anybody that that starts
1:09:31
looking good gets thrown in the wood chipper.
1:09:35
And JD fans, that's good for the wood chipper.
1:09:39
It's a good point. It'd be interesting where Marco
1:09:41
goes because he certainly does appear to appreciate Marco, and
1:09:46
I think Marco's done terrific, So that would be a good test.
1:09:50
Rubio has, you know, again, wouldn't be my pick, but
1:09:57
certainly acts like a grown up in the room in in a room that's
1:10:00
not distinguished always by grown-ups.
1:10:04
Hey, on Mooch. I know we're cutting it short
1:10:07
here, but we're not cutting it short.
1:10:08
We're cutting it long because we've been talking a long time.
1:10:10
Apparently you not having alcohol makes us talk longer.
1:10:15
So I don't know, maybe that's interesting.
1:10:17
But but in all this Full disclosure about the Mooch, I
1:10:22
owe a debt of gratitude to my brother Kent.
1:10:24
Five years ago when I took the job that I'm at, he paid for a
1:10:28
cameo by the Mooch to me to give me a well wishing good luck on
1:10:34
my new job. And his advice was show up
1:10:37
early. So that was a very good advice
1:10:40
from the moon. Words to live by.
1:10:46
Hey, thanks for joining us on this episode of Bourbon and Rum
1:10:48
Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it.
1:10:50
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