00:09:56.120And that's why I laid out before the war started these stages of escalation that we were going to go through.
00:10:02.620Where stage one would be the smart bombs would hit targets, they would kill leaders, but they would not achieve any meaningful strategic outcome.
00:10:13.760You wouldn't get the enriched uranium.
00:10:43.920This is the point where things will start to become truly irreversible.
00:10:48.760As much as we've been in a trap now, sucking us into this quagmire deeper and deeper,
00:10:56.020If we cross into stage three, even with limited operations on one of the islands or at the beaches here, this is going to lead to probably months of attrition war, which I'm glad to explain.
00:11:09.940Now, the rhetoric from President Trump here, he is showing me that we are moving to stage three.
00:13:54.300Pentagon's talking about another 10,000 coming on top of this.
00:13:58.380This is real cost, real people moving forward.
00:14:01.720Now, with Venezuela, for example, this real movement of the Armada near Venezuela started in the fall, not just hitting a few boats, but started to move vast numbers of ships, especially in December and then around Christmas when people weren't paying much attention.
00:14:20.160And notice that led to actual action. In February, you saw a similar movement here with the air armada essentially coming.
00:14:30.140And that then led to the air campaign, not just simply one day of strike.
00:14:35.280So what I believe is follow the deployments. And unless President Trump says, Marines, turn around in the water, take your ships, go back to Japan, go back to Camp Pendleton in California.
00:14:48.560California, we need to understand phase three is coming and nearing day by day by day.
00:14:56.860What do you what is phase three? I mean, is it now because I thought it was going to be we're going to take back the Strait of Hormuz and then maybe it was maybe we'll take Karg Island and use that as a bargaining chip to make them do what we want in the Strait of Hormuz, which is open it.
00:15:11.540And now it's we got to get the uranium that's sitting in scuba like tanks deep in the mountains of Iran, where we have to make this airfield, according to The Wall Street Journal, and send in engineers as well as all these other troops who you just mentioned to protect them in a highly risky mission.
00:15:30.260So do you know what the next phase looks like based on what you've heard?
00:15:34.120I have a pretty good understanding of where we're heading.
00:15:35.680Again, modeled this for 20 years, taught for the Air Force as we're going through all this and so forth.
00:15:59.680So this is probably, Megan, what's underneath a lot of this, and they're being confusing about.
00:16:04.760But something happened in the last month, which is Iran went from controlling 4% of the world's oil to 20% of the world's oil.
00:16:11.380That means over the course of a year, they will make somewhere around $50 to $75 billion money going in Chinese banks, unless we're going to bomb China, not getting that money out.
00:16:23.640They are becoming the dreaded oil hegemon in the Middle East.
00:16:29.220they control more oil than America, where it's 16 percent global production. They're controlling 20
00:16:36.840percent. And this means geopolitical power over time. So you let this ride.
00:16:44.980Just to be clear, because they control the Strait of Hormuznets.
00:16:47.560Yes. It's all about that little artery here. It's like the artery in our throat that controls
00:16:54.960so much of our lives. That small artery controls 20% of the world's oil, and this is going to
00:17:04.080change the balance of power in the Middle East over a period of several years. Iran will become
00:17:10.600more powerful than Israel. Doesn't seem that way now, but just play this out here. And Iran will
00:17:16.820start to then ally with Russia even more. Russia has 11% of the world's oil. So imagine if Russia
00:17:23.440and Iran together decide they're taking 33% of the world's oil off the market, and they're going
00:17:32.160to give it to one country, China, and nobody else gets it, think about the power they will wield.
00:17:39.200This is what's really, again, this was a trap, as I'm saying. We like to believe we have all this
00:17:45.560choice as America. We can pull ourselves back at any time. What I have been warning, it's really
00:17:51.920the bombing of Fordow back in June. This was my foreign affairs hour. I was warning, this would
00:17:56.300suck us down this road. This is the beginning of a trap. And at each stage, it gets harder to get
00:18:04.160out of. And once we cross into the next phase of ground operations, oh my goodness gracious,
00:18:10.260Megan. And you've seen already how we reacted when we lost 13 dead in the extraction from
00:18:17.480Afghanistan and all that motion that was brought out, imagine you have 100 dead paratroopers
00:18:25.160coming into Khar, or 100 dead Marines going on the beach. That 36% is going to be extremely
00:18:33.180committed more than ever, because that 36% that supports the war, they're going to think in their
00:18:39.700minds, they're dying for me. I wanted this, and they don't want to abandon them. This is my lane,
00:18:46.760i don't just study how to put bomb on target when i am talking advising every west wing of
00:18:52.560the white house from 2001 to 24 it's about the mix of how military action affects politics in
00:19:00.260the target and affects politics at home and and when we cross if we cross that red line
00:19:06.240even though it'll seem very very relatively small numbers will die oh no no no this will create an
00:19:14.180enormous stickiness. And I don't think we will be able to extract ourselves for many weeks,
00:19:21.040probably months. Once those ground operations start, they will almost surely expand.
00:19:27.960So you don't believe it would stay limited to the 2,500 to 5,000 troops we've sent over in the
00:19:32.660past? Let me just give you an amount. So let's talk, let's take the 82nd Airborne and let's say
00:19:37.280you're going to take the 1,000 troops and they're going to take an airport. That's what they can
00:19:41.560take an airport. And when they land, they're going to run out of water, food and ammo in less than a
00:19:48.840week. So they've lost 100 to take the airport. Are we just going to walk and say, well, good luck
00:19:55.560with this. See what you can do with those 20,000 Iranians on Karag Island. See, the Iranians,
00:20:01.140they may even decide to wait and let them just land at the airport, surround them, and then
00:20:07.440they're stuck what are they are what is going to happen they will i'm sorry to put so bluntly
00:20:13.340megan in a week or two those troops either going to surrender or die and the problem is we can't
00:20:20.400just we're probably already planning they're the beachhead they're the entry point you're unlikely
00:20:27.800going to take a beat the marines are set up those muse that are moving the 5 000 to take a beach
00:20:33.920about a mile and a half wide, but not to stay there for weeks and months, unless we're just
00:20:44.960going to leave them and abandon them to their fate, we will be forced to do what's called
00:20:50.220mission creep. And this is exactly what happened in Vietnam, Megan. This is how the incremental
00:20:56.320escalation happened in Vietnam. At every stage, President Johnson, through his folks, was telling
00:21:04.220the public, the American public, that this would just be one more step here. We're going to do an
00:21:11.140air campaign starting in March 65. Then the Marines go in starting a little bit later.
00:21:16.240It's not until July 65 that President Johnson gives the big speech to explain now he's going
00:21:24.820to have to put in tens of thousands of ground troops into Vietnam. So very similar to what's
00:21:31.600happening with President Trump. He hasn't given the big speech yet. Neither did Johnson in Vietnam
00:21:37.120until we were already deep in the quagmire, irreversibly in the quagmire.
00:21:43.920I can't help thinking about Trump's bankruptcies in real estate. You know, for example, his casino
00:21:49.840know, in New Jersey, in Atlantic City, where this is what real estate owners and brokers like big
00:21:57.860dealers like Trump do. They keep throwing good money after bad to try to see if they can get a
00:22:03.260turnaround. And when it doesn't work, they can declare bankruptcy and get out of the jam. I think
00:22:09.120it was like Trump had five bankruptcy or something. When I was a young woman and living in New York
00:22:14.420right after law school, they had the joking like coffee cans out at the coffee kiosks in New York
00:22:22.100asking for donations to help Trump. It was a joke because he was a very rich man, but he had had all
00:22:25.820these bankruptcies. You can't pursue that kind of a strategy when it comes to war games because
00:22:32.920you're talking about American lives and blood and treasure. You can't just keep throwing good
00:22:38.800troops after good troops who have fallen because we can't afford that kind of a bankruptcy.
00:22:45.620There's no question that he's being advised of that, right? There's no question he's being told
00:22:49.860that. But Megan, you have very insightfully, I think more than others, and let me amplify what
00:22:56.120you've said, given the answer to a question everybody keeps asking, which is how could
00:23:01.500President Trump do this? They're all asking that. He promised he wouldn't do X, Y, or Z.
00:23:06.340And you've been focusing on this man for so long.
00:23:10.860I mean, I'm not surprised you would have some insight and go to the issue.
00:24:02.700And I believe this is what I hear from President Trump. I believe when he talks about Soleimani, he talks, I don't agree with him, Maduro's this big success, but nonetheless, he seems to think that he's won all of these hands.
00:24:15.880And I think this is what has led him to the illusion of control, I call it, and the illusion that if he just does one more big bet, he's going to get it all back.
00:24:31.740And I think that for people who are, again, CEOs, I think, can understand this proclivity.
00:24:37.960You've been focusing on President Trump, and I know because I've listened to you for years.
00:24:42.080You study him more than anybody else well.
00:24:44.620I mean, you're giving all sides. And I think this is no surprise. You've come to this as an insight.
00:24:50.760And I think it's not just with respect, by the way, President Trump. It's how Bill Clinton got us into Kosovo.
00:24:56.900There's a whole story there I could lay out. It's how the Germans before World War I, they had all these string of successes.
00:25:03.680Why would the Japanese think they could attack us at Pearl Harbor and push us back?
00:25:08.260All the successes they had in mainland Asia.
00:25:10.600So, again, I bring a lot of history. I bring a lot of knowledge of what is happening before the wars start. And I think that this helps to explain the gambler's curse is really – it's a mindset. And over and above all of the data, all of the information the president is receiving, I believe that he believes just one more risky bet and he's going to pull this off.
00:25:37.500it's it by the way uh just for our listening audience our guest today is professor robert
00:25:42.460pape of the university of chicago political scientist who studies national international
00:25:47.280security affairs warfare and so on um i believe it's almost worse because not only is president
00:25:53.800trump at the gambling table thinking that he can't lose he's next to someone who's even worse
00:26:23.880And Trump was dazzled by that and said, we'll join.
00:26:26.500Yes. OK, Pete, get the get the B-12 bombers ready. And we went in. And so he's got somebody egging him along like this is going to be easy. Netanyahu tells him the Ayatollah is above ground on this day. We'll wipe him out. It's going to be easy to be like Maduro. You're going to be a hero. And now it's just like just one more thing. Just like it's it won't be 200. They literally the president supporters like Mark Levin are now saying things like we're not talking 200,000 troops.
00:26:53.260see how they keep moving the goal goalposts like oh but like a hundred thousand where you're trying
00:26:58.740to get us used to that or 50 000 so that's a win because it's not 200 so let me again i i think
00:27:04.860you're right on on this psychologically here i think you're really capturing capturing this i
00:27:10.000would just let me make two points or a point just jumping off of this number one that echo chamber
00:27:15.140you're describing here of i think this fits this gambler's curse immediately and anybody who's been
00:27:21.960in the casino knows that's one of the what the house does they send people over try to encourage
00:27:27.360those whales to just keep betting it down so this is not this is right out of the you know sort of
00:27:33.920the gamblers cameras but then the other point and you actually made this a little bit earlier and i
00:27:38.600just want to amplify it which is it's it's worse in another way as well because it's other people's
00:27:45.040money, other people's lives. You see, in the case of President Trump, it's not his own financial
00:27:54.000wherewithal that's actually on the table here. It's the country's financial wherewithal,
00:27:59.800the world's financial wherewithal, and most importantly, our troops' lives. So having
00:28:05.620taught for the Air Force for years, I still have great relations here all the time. They
00:28:10.640send me their best and brightest officers to get PhDs. I am really, really, really impressed with
00:28:17.420how professional they are. If they're given the order, Megan, to go do some of these missions,
00:28:22.920including, we haven't talked about, going to get the uranium, the enriched uranium,
00:28:28.640one of the things your audience just may want to know is, remember, we bombed around there.
00:28:34.040Those drums, those drums aren't things you put in your pocket. These are big, heavy things,
00:28:39.880and they could be broken and this was something that we had to face with say sending the 82nd
00:28:45.980airborne into say north korea if we were going to do this there if you go into a situation where
00:28:51.500those drums are broken that radiation is death not death instantly but ultimately so what we're
00:28:58.840talking we don't know i'm not telling you we know for sure what's happening with esophon and so
00:29:04.600forth. But this is not just an excavation mission. You're talking about sending people in and the
00:29:12.160more they dig, they will then unearth whether or not it's radioactive. By then it's too late. And
00:29:18.900you say, well, they'll just have radioactive protective gear. They're being shot at by the
00:29:24.920bad guys here. This is not doing this in downtown Chicago. We're talking about doing this in a war
00:29:31.940zone of the first order with one million Iranians in arms. So so this this we just need to understand
00:29:38.980if we give those orders to those troops, I believe they will obey. They will do what the president
00:29:44.680says. That doesn't mean that this is the wisest move. No. And to me, it's galling because we just
00:29:53.380had signups reach beyond the bare minimum expectations. Thanks to President Trump winning,
00:30:01.380thanks to Pete Hegseth taking over at the Department of War.
00:30:04.360And the message to the troops was, number one, no more woke in the military.
00:37:14.820but I'd like to just, and I'll explain why not possible, but I also want to just build on
00:37:19.340something else. I understand that Mark Levin just is now speaking about this, but a month ago in my
00:37:25.120first live briefing on the Substack, I explained what was the thing sucking us here. It was that
00:37:31.240enriched uranium. Whether President Trump was talking about this publicly or not, that doesn't
00:37:36.600really, that's again, not following the actual signal that's occurring here. When we bombed
00:37:41.720Fordow. We destroyed the industrial part of the enrichment. We did not get the nuclear material,
00:37:48.420the enriched uranium. In my modeling of the bombing of Fordow for 20 years, that would always be stage
00:37:56.080one. And that would lead to a bombing campaign a whole year later, a whole year later for regime
00:38:03.160change. Why would that happen? Because we would panic. What would happen with that enriched
00:38:10.180uranium. You're right. Netanyahu's probably whispering in Trump's ear or louder than that.
00:38:15.300They're doing bad things with that enriched uranium. We have some civilian satellite photography
00:38:22.340of Iranians moving some of what appears to be that enriched uranium in the meantime.
00:38:27.680This is so it's not it's not just Mark Levin. I just want to point out this is what I think
00:38:32.900has really been driving the regime change bombing. And now the regime change bombing hasn't
00:38:39.140produced any real meaningful results. It's made the matter worse. So now is why you're getting
00:38:45.180the ground options. And I believe that this too is going to be, it would be, it's going to be like
00:38:51.300the hunt for WMD in Iraq. It would take years to go through all of Iran, all of the mountains,
00:38:59.340just take out the maps. You will see this. And this is going to be, that's why just going to
00:39:06.660Estefan even for a month and possibly... That's one of the three sites. Yes, one of the three
00:39:12.300sites. Oh my goodness gracious, what you're up against. Because literally, even just 20 pounds
00:39:21.140of that enriched uranium can be put in a radiological bomb, blown up in Tel Aviv,
00:39:26.940and suddenly you have a mass exodus from Tel Aviv. That's how dangerous the situation is.
00:39:33.620So that that leads my next question, because you say we may be worse off with the new leadership.
00:39:38.300And I've heard this. I've read this many places because the Ayatollah, though he was a terrible man, had a fatwa against developing the nuclear weapon because he knew the position that that would place Iran in.
00:39:48.320He knew they'd get bombed, too. And and now they say the fatwa has been lifted.
00:39:52.860It's his son who's allegedly the new Ayatollah, but no one has seen him and he he may be dead or just severely incapacitated.
00:40:00.140And now Trump says we're talking to the third level.
00:40:02.840We don't know whether those people want the nuclear.
00:40:05.740They want to finish it up and they want to drop it on Israel or somebody else.
00:40:09.700But a lot of smart people I've been reading, Professor, have been saying one of the reasons we're in this impossible situation right now is because if we don't get the uranium, let's say Trump just says, you know what, we reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
00:40:22.960We've cut a deal with the third in line and we're out.
00:40:25.500that the fear is Israel's actually in more danger now
00:40:29.720because now the fatwa has been lifted.
00:40:44.000Now Israel's going to perceive itself as in even more danger.
00:40:47.400And Israel may be the first to launch a nuke on Iran.
00:40:51.700Now, more reasonably fearing its own nuclear annihilation so that the fear is that the United States cannot leave because Israel would feel more exposed than ever.
00:41:03.980And there may be a reason now we have to stay to prevent that.
00:44:33.900This would be, and this will be the big problem politically, is he's probably going to have to cut off aid to Israel, military and economic, for, say, a year, the rest of his presidency, if Israel breaks the deal.
00:44:50.260If Israel breaks the deal, President Trump is going to have to enforce that.
00:44:54.620And Iran, if I were Iran and playing their hand, I would demand that go through a vote of Congress.
00:45:00.100I'm not going to just trust anybody here.
00:45:18.200Here, the deal is much harder. And now you can see, Megan, why President Trump is really on the horns of a dilemma. And the political problems here, he is now sitting right at the cusp of where Lyndon Johnson sat exactly at this point, almost April 1st, 1968.
00:45:40.420And his presidency, President Trump's presidency, will be irreversibly impacted by his decisions going forward.
00:45:50.000I would advise still going with the military containment of Israel option.
00:45:54.800That way he would have a chance to recover his presidency.
00:45:58.840If he goes forward with the ground operation, I believe his presidency will be lost in an unrecoverable way.
00:46:05.520oh vietnam war eight years sent 543 000 troops that was the maximum troop level 58 000 u.s
00:46:16.180troops were killed 153 000 were wounded that is not what anybody wants and that's not what we
00:46:23.340wanted in vietnam either we we know but president johnson did not go into that war in 64 did not
00:46:30.140start the bombing campaign saying he's going to kill 58,000 dead Americans. He did not go into
00:46:37.240that war thinking he was sinking his presidency and becoming the worst president, even worse than
00:46:44.160Jimmy Carter, is Lyndon Johnson. And this is the reason. This is what I would say to President
00:46:49.560Trump. And I really believe the best option here is military containment of Israel in an enforceable
00:46:57.400way. Great to speak with you, Professor. Thank you so much for your time and expertise today.
00:47:02.740Thank you. It's really quite an honor to speak with you. And of course, you're an important
00:47:06.260audience. So thank you so much, Megan, for this. And love to your wife, too.
00:47:14.160Wow. That was very sobering, very sobering, guys. It's, you know, it's funny because
00:47:21.880some people online who are very, very pro this war will say, oh, you know, you're no longer a
00:47:26.400Trump supporter because your question, no, it's exactly the opposite. It's because I do support
00:47:31.040President Trump and his actual agenda that I want this to stop. I want him to focus on what he ran
00:47:36.540on. I want him to continue the incredibly important work he's begun, like the deportations.
00:47:43.640Another young girl was just killed by another illegal in Illinois after Sheridan Gorman's
00:47:48.740death last week. I mean, it's like not a day goes by without another American being killed by an
00:47:54.640illegal that was let in under Joe Biden. President Trump has yeoman's work to do in getting them out.
00:48:01.000That that should be number one. Frankly, if we're just talking about helping people and
00:48:05.880electoral prospects, the economy has to be one, two, three, four and five for President Trump
00:48:12.600right now. It has to be all the numbers. That's what the people care about. All of the polls,
00:48:19.000every poll says that they don't care about iran the polls have made that really clear
00:48:26.080you know it's it's interesting like we we we look we can see just in terms of the number
00:48:31.140of downloads on the show and and the our audience that we've heard from you we know you're not
00:48:35.860interested in the iran story no one says our podcast is still at the very very top of the
00:48:39.480charts in fact it's higher than it it often sometimes is um so we're still very at the top
00:48:45.260But no one is getting huge numbers on the Iran story, not Fox, the New York Post, which is, you know, owned by Rupert, who's one of the biggest pushers of this war.
00:49:14.720What do I want to spend my day talking and thinking about Iran at all?
00:49:18.940I want to spend my day thinking about America and our own problems, not the ones that we're creating.
00:49:25.160Huge ones that we're creating for ourselves by the minute.
00:49:28.860So I beg the president to get out, get out, get out sooner rather than later because it doesn't get easier from here.
00:49:35.100Talk to Professor Pape. Talk to the experts about the easiest, cleanest exit plan and a way of distancing ourselves from Netanyahu, who to me seems like a bloodthirsty warmonger.
00:49:48.080He's a Lindsey Graham twin. We have to worry about our own problems here.
00:49:54.920Number one, the economy, and a close second would be the deportation so that we can live in peace.
00:50:00.200Up next to discuss it all, Stu Bergeer.
00:50:02.840You've been hearing me talk a lot about Pure Talk lately.
00:50:06.260Pure Talk is veteran-led, so helping veterans is their North Star.
00:50:10.360They have donated over half a million bucks to America's Warrior Partnership,
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00:50:23.080Yes, it'd be a lot cheaper to send jobs overseas like other companies do,
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00:50:43.720If you want to give it a shot, dial pound 250 and say Megan Kelly to switch to Pure Talk.
00:50:49.400That's pound 250, 250, and say, Megyn Kelly, to switch to Pure Talk, America's wireless company, Pure Talk.
00:53:49.300You know, I think you would agree with me, Megan, that if I could give President Trump one little tiny piece of advice when it comes to Lindsey Graham is to adopt the stance that I've taken for many, many years, which is ignore everything Lindsey Graham says.
00:54:03.120If he's saying it, don't listen to it, because Lindsey Graham sucks for a million different reasons, and he has been doing this for a really long time.
00:54:13.140I mean, he was essentially a one-issue candidate.
00:54:15.060I would remind President Trump running against him for the president of the United States.
00:54:21.520This is a guy who should not be, should not have a high level of influence over anybody.
00:58:18.940But put that to the side, because you don't need to have any feelings about the Iran war
00:58:23.120to answer whether this is working out politically for President Trump and Republicans to.
00:58:29.760It most certainly is not. And you're 100% right in your analysis on that. It doesn't matter what you think about the war. If you want to take a step back from it, you might think, and by the way, this does happen. Sometimes presidents look at polls and see 25, 20% approval rating, and they feel that the issue is important enough for them to take a stand.
00:58:48.760we at times i think uh look for leaders that do unpopular things at a popular times so he shouldn't
00:58:55.940be making his decisions solely based on polls he should be considering however what the ramifications
00:59:01.240are of what of this of this current path if it continues to go this direction certainly if we go
00:59:06.900into the the area of ground troops the american people don't want it they don't want anything to
00:59:11.100do with it they are already frustrated with the state of affairs right now and history is aligned
00:59:17.500against President Trump having success in this midterm.
00:59:21.120And we've seen this over and over and over again.
00:59:22.820I think it's 9% of the time House seats are won with a president in this midterm.
00:59:28.4809% is what our baseline is making going in.
00:59:31.620We should expect to lose the House almost every single time unless things are going
00:59:38.480And that is not what we're looking at.
00:59:40.340And when you look at those polls, I'm glad you went through that entire kind of breadth
00:59:44.660and brought the whole color because it's not just about Iran.
00:59:47.220I mean, you saw Iran. Iran's in the category of many of the other things that that Americans care about when it comes to approval rating, that sort of high 20s area, which is catastrophic, honestly.
01:00:00.380Now, that's the worst poll you probably will find. A lot of them, though, as you point out, are in the general vicinity of those.
01:00:06.660And the craziest and scariest part of it, Megan, is a lot of the things you highlighted are the the the legs of the stool that got Donald Trump elected.
01:00:15.360right economy jobs uh the border immigration even immigration which is you know i would look at it
01:00:22.820as a person who's an immigration uh hawk when it comes to illegal immigration and say i think a lot
01:00:28.300of the things he's done have been good i think some of the treatment of his policies has been a
01:00:32.880little unfair uh but that doesn't really matter when it comes down to voting time it matters
01:00:37.460who's going to actually see this the way that they do and if we have 28 approval rating of
01:00:41.740immigration and 30 percent jobs and 29 percent iran that is a uh a when you throw that on top
01:00:47.740of the history that we're already looking at and a three-seat majority in the house i was already
01:00:53.080expecting bad things in november and you're starting to look at what is a catastrophic
01:00:58.760possibility becoming you know something that's a little bit more realistic um the the folks behind
01:01:06.260this poll saying exactly what you just said. What's surprising and of likely grave concern
01:01:11.660to the White House are the dips in support from the very groups that helped Trump take back the
01:01:15.600presidency in 2024. Among men, working class Americans and African-Americans, Trump's approval
01:01:21.440ratings have dropped by close to 20 points since April of last year. Similar drops in support are
01:01:26.420also seen among moderates, down 18 points in independents, down 13. Another poll shows it
01:01:32.760far worse with independents, key constituencies in Trump's victory and in the upcoming midterm
01:01:37.620election. Now, I want you to know this. We we are getting more and more talk about Republicans
01:01:44.560losing the Senate in November. That was supposed to be out of the question. And the problem is,
01:01:52.160even if they take a bath on more seats than expected, but don't lose control in the Senate,
01:01:56.960You know, say they lose a couple but maintain a slight majority or at least they keep it tied.
01:04:44.880They might want to continue down these roads.
01:04:47.840But one of the shows I do is about prediction markets, predictable.
01:04:52.320And when we first started putting the project together, one of the things we were looking
01:04:56.760for are values in these markets when it comes to elections.
01:05:00.900It's one of the things I've been doing for years and years.
01:05:03.320and when the election was happening back in november you could get the democrats to win
01:05:09.700the house at about 56 percent chance 56 to 58 percent chance that's now up over 85 percent
01:05:17.080uh the senate which was you know in the 70s for the republicans to hold it is now basically a
01:05:24.26050 50 matter these are people putting their money where their mouth is these aren't polls
01:05:28.520these isn't even polls where people call you up and you might say well i want the republicans to
01:05:32.440win so i'll say that now these are people putting their money where their mouths are people running
01:05:37.000their own polls millions and millions of dollars going back and forth to try to predict what this
01:05:40.980outcome is and now i i don't think i've gone through every seat i don't think it's a 50 50
01:05:46.720perspective i'm a little bit more bullish on republicans on that but if what you're talking
01:05:52.080about comes true and we start adopting policies that have eight percent approval ratings i can
01:05:58.920assure you that's probably not even 50% chance for Republicans to hold the Senate. And as you
01:06:05.040point out, it gets much uglier next time. Republicans had a legitimate chance in 2024
01:06:11.620to have a Republican president, a Republican House, and a 60-seat majority. But because of
01:06:17.660what happened in 2022, and they blew some seats then, they lost that opportunity going into 2024.
01:06:23.520They have a smaller majority than they should have in 2026, where we are today, and they face a potential loss and then maybe a 60 seat majority the other way in 2028.
01:06:34.640So this is vitally important to all of our futures.
01:06:38.360If President Trump can get out of this war, get out of it, I don't care how he has to do it.
01:06:42.320Just get out, get out, save face however we need to get out, come back home and spend the next seven months focused like a laser on making people's pocketbook issues better.
01:06:52.380he actually can turn this around. He's a great messenger. He's charming. When he goes out on
01:06:57.560the road, he's funny. People like him when they get exposed to him. I mean, not the TDS people,
01:07:01.860but like normal people can be charmed by Trump. And if they see him working very, very hard
01:07:06.800to improve their lives, yes, health care too, health care, groceries, gas prices,
01:07:15.000we have a shot at stemming the losses at least. Just today, there was a report,
01:07:19.960South Korea's president said the following. I'm quoting the world is in turmoil over the energy
01:07:25.940crisis. The situation is so serious that it has even kept me up at night. The immediate problem
01:07:32.640is grave enough, but the outlook ahead seems even more unstable. The situation is worse than
01:07:38.660expected. Many predicting that this energy crisis that's already hitting some people who are
01:07:44.440directly dependent on their oil from the Strait of Hormuz and more get their oil from the Middle
01:07:50.440East, you know, than people like us are already feeling the pain, but that it's coming our way
01:07:54.760because the energy market is the energy market. It's all connected. And there's a delay in it
01:08:00.040hitting the United States. There's some prediction that we'll start feeling the pinch come summer
01:08:04.760when we already feel the pinch because Americans are driving cross country and stuff like,
01:08:09.240so, all right, all of this is too depressing to really handle. I can't like, I'm not even going
01:08:13.300to I'm not even going to talk to you about that polymarket prediction that now Gavin Newsom would
01:08:18.000beat J.D. Vance in a head to head because that seems like an op to me. That just doesn't seem
01:08:22.300like even remotely possible. But I could be wrong. It's just like crazy. But we need to
01:08:27.980we need to turn this aircraft carrier around like yesterday, yesterday. And if anybody can do it,
01:08:34.440it's President Trump. Please do, sir. Please do. It may take king like powers, which brings me to
01:08:40.680this weekend's protests. Okay. The no Kings people are back at it. Did you know that? I actually
01:08:46.260didn't even know that until we saw the snippets coming in from their latest no Kings protest,
01:08:52.780which by the way, they also held in London, London, England.
01:09:00.440You see the problem. Okay. But here in America, we genuinely don't like Kings and
01:09:09.040it just brings out the truly crazy people. I'm going to start with there's some wheelchair
01:09:15.360bound woman who has a fake Trump and J.D. Vance dancing near her. Let's watch this lady. Okay.
01:09:23.020So I'm not sure what's going on with this woman in a wheelchair. Is that a shirt? Is that morbid
01:09:28.280obesity or like a prosthetic? I'm not sure, but there's a fake J.D. Vance and a fake Trump on his
01:09:34.400knees that she's dragging on a leash what is she how there's a man with a tuba that i forgot to
01:09:41.040mention um so you tell me stew where this is taking us what their point is i have to give
01:09:52.020credit to wheelie and artist on instagram which is where we got that from so thank you wheelie
01:09:57.900um nothing says vote democrat like the morbidly obese wheelchair-bound person dragging trump by
01:10:05.560a train a chain is that where is that who we just were looking at was that wheelie the artist i'm
01:10:11.220very i hope not i don't no it's not no okay really is not this person good to hear good to hear because
01:10:17.280that would be an interesting nickname for that particular individual i don't know we will see
01:10:20.920um it's an interesting uh thing here megan and and i we should take this a little bit and drag
01:10:26.520this away from the despair we've started with so far because there are a lot of me take me away
01:10:32.260yes let me do it let me give you an opportunity to at least take a nice little journey it's not
01:10:38.220quite disneyland with a bubble wand but it's it's something here which is there's a couple things
01:10:45.540really working in donald trump's uh favor and that you know in republican favors and conservatives
01:10:51.000favor here. Number one, there's still a long time before this election, and we have absolutely no
01:10:57.700attention span whatsoever. So if what Donald Trump talked about coming into this effort was a four
01:11:05.300to six week situation, if he's able to achieve something like that and prices come back down,
01:11:11.400there's still plenty of time for us to be focused on something completely different before these
01:11:15.860elections occur another thing that is a sounds like a negative but is actually a benefit is we
01:11:22.260should be scared it is good for us to be terrified right now as to what we're going to see in
01:11:29.720november because then we can prepare for it it's not a last minute october surprise where we think
01:11:34.860we're going to win and all the stuff we're going to lose we should be every single effort that we
01:11:39.080have every giant billionaire donor on the conservative side should be thinking about
01:11:43.280how to place their money and efforts right now, including our own efforts to get out there and
01:11:48.040change this. Because if we don't, if we take it easy this time, if we all kind of sit around and
01:11:53.680think about, oh, well, everything's going to be fine. Donald Trump pulls these things out in the
01:11:57.560end or whatever. We're in real trouble. So the fact that we're getting an alert this far out
01:12:01.900in advance before we're even picking candidates in some of these races is a really good thing.
01:12:06.940And we can look at that as a positive. And finally, the biggest thing that Donald Trump
01:12:11.840has going for him is he has the most pathetic enemies politically that is possible these people
01:12:19.140the people you just showed is who we're going against and the american people can't stand those
01:12:25.320people every time they're faced with the opportunity between going their way or any other
01:12:30.840way they choose the other direction so if they keep having these no kings we are it is he is
01:12:37.900blessed with the the just the most ridiculous enemies possible and if if we can just see them
01:12:42.900continue to go down this road the more no kings rallies the better because if that is the face
01:12:49.140of what the opposition is we've got a shot here a real possibility of we're still in it
01:12:55.200we're still in this thing i want to say this uh joe kent tweeted this out and i totally agree with
01:13:00.980him saying tell president trump tell your congressional representative and your senators
01:13:05.340that you don't support American boots on the ground in Iran.
01:13:08.860Stop him from making that catastrophic mistake.
01:13:11.880He tweeted out the White House comment line,
01:18:48.120Okay, that's not how New Jerseyans sound or talk.
01:18:52.180Kamala Harris, why do all these Dems use their fake fucking accents
01:18:56.340when they go out to various neighborhoods to try to sound like they're from the hood?
01:19:00.180You're not. You're not from Minnesota, so stop with the long O's
01:19:04.600because you're from new jersey uh okay it's very annoying and why is bruce springsteen
01:19:10.180the same person as megan rapinoe and tilda swanson explain that to me how did that happen
01:19:15.500i don't know that's a great point i have no idea how that occurred some scientist needs to look
01:19:20.640into that i need a full study um i think uh i don't i'm not a bruce springsteen fan i will say
01:19:27.360i didn't i never got into him never liked his music all i hear when he's speaking right there
01:19:31.460Is that just abortion of a version of Santa Claus is coming to town that I have to come into town that I have to hear 500 times every Christmas?
01:19:38.520So, you know, he is he's just awful in every way.
01:19:43.320And he does this every single time an issue comes out, like as if he would have cared for a second about Minnesota.
01:33:15.740and you're right in that driving your kids that way
01:33:20.680to try to be he's sort of you know you sort of put all their life's value into a sport and like
01:33:27.880it's easy to see with with Tiger Woods how that's gone wrong because you layered on a bunch of
01:33:33.400mistakes he made on his own obviously substances and injuries and and all of those things but
01:33:38.940for every Tiger Woods I mean Tiger Woods at least had immeasurable success right when it comes to
01:33:45.280this goal you know i live in texas megan and my my both of my kids are active in in sports they're
01:33:51.960both very talented um you know i see a lot of the parents though that are constantly focused
01:33:58.560basically on sports only as as their future um and are making all sorts of decisions you know
01:34:05.160on their education and we know where they live and and we know how they're spending all their
01:34:09.120time based on this idea that maybe they're they've got the next tiger woods on their hands and look
01:34:13.060Maybe they do. It's possible, you know, really successful athletes, you know, can can can be created at some level.
01:34:21.020I mean, obviously, natural talent has to be part of it. But working hard is a great thing.
01:34:24.800And I think there's a ton of great lessons that come out of sports, right?
01:34:27.880Working hard, understanding your your role in a in a in a team framework is really, really important.
01:34:35.820Understanding failure is a massive part of that and being able to deal with it.
01:34:39.680I think sports teaches that to a kid maybe better than anything else can, but you can go overboard.
01:34:46.080And you have to realize that not only, especially now, there are tons and tons and tons of people trying to do the same thing you're doing.
01:34:57.680You know, I remember when I grew up with a friend of mine in high school who wound up playing in the major leagues, my friend Jason, great dude.
01:35:05.880And he wound up getting into the majors and he played for, you know, five or six years in the majors.
01:35:11.900He, though, was also over my house playing wiffle ball a lot.
01:35:16.840And we were hanging out and playing basketball at the local gym and pickup games.
01:35:20.940He wasn't even he wasn't even specialized really in one sport.
01:35:24.800He was playing all sorts of sports and he had a good normal life with great parents and a great family around him.
01:35:30.260And, you know, you know, I'm sure he was doing, you know, some private lessons and stuff.
01:35:33.920he was a great athlete but like it wasn't his all of his worth right like he was he he that's not
01:35:40.620how it was now i you know i'm in this world at some level like my kids are you know very good
01:35:44.600baseball player i have a daughter who's very good gymnast like but they you know they're they do
01:35:48.900private lessons but i don't push them like that i do see tons of other parents though that are
01:35:54.180much more intense than i am sometimes with kids that are far behind where my kids are when it
01:36:00.400comes to ability some are even ahead but it's like if you have that really young ones yeah really
01:36:05.780young i mean the private lessons start super duper young now uh where i don't remember that at all
01:36:11.200when i was a kid so i mean look there's a lot of good things that can come out of sports frankly
01:36:15.680with a lot of the other things that kids could be doing as far as being in front of screens i don't
01:36:19.780think it's the biggest worry in our world uh but it is a concern and you can put yourself in that
01:37:07.520You know, I love sports, but wow, you can go the wrong direction and you hate to see it with Tiger Woods.
01:37:12.340I mean, he seemed to be a guy who really had it going the right way, who was handling it really well early on, was able to kind of keep a normal head on his shoulders.
01:38:01.840You know, you don't have the id that's been developed for you, apart from this sport or this thing, this one thing you do, to be able to handle a massive setback either in that lane or in a related lane.
01:38:14.920You just don't, you didn't build up the resilience and the muscles over the years, and you didn't have a family that insisted on throwing you in the deep end so that you would learn how to handle this stuff.
01:38:25.520And I, so to me, it's no surprise at all that Tiger, as he got, all right, so we have a minute left on Siri.
01:38:31.920Can you hold over for just a little, Stu, because I do want to continue this discussion.
01:38:36.460Well, we'll keep it going on just for a little bit on the back end, because I think what's happening with Tiger is happening like more and more.
01:38:43.280We just covered Britney Spears' DUI the other day, right?
01:38:49.620When Justin Timberlake, we just saw the video of him completely fall down drunk doing his sobriety test from the Hamptons two summers ago.
01:38:58.520I think it was two summers ago or last summer.
01:39:02.120What they didn't have was a stable childhood where they were allowed to be kids and not focus on their singing, their dancing, or their swinging of the golf club.
01:39:13.280And now it's coming back to haunt them all. And this piece of the story is too rarely
01:39:17.720examined for its links to the first piece. I'm going to play you a Tiger Woods soundbite
01:39:24.980from when he was younger when we come back. Quick break, and then we're back with Stu
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01:42:54.180He had several open fractures to his lower leg.
01:42:57.300He was driving between 84 and 87 miles per hour.
01:43:01.340There was a real question about whether he was going to survive.
01:43:04.540His injuries were so bad and the car crash was so catastrophic.
01:43:08.340And that was the reason, reportedly, they said no blood alcohol content test was administered
01:43:17.260to him at that time, Stu, that it felt indecent to push.
01:43:22.820in the very good article that's on Yahoo News right now about Tiger Woods called Tiger Woods
01:43:28.500is Not Okay by Joel Beal. And he said, Woods had nearly died and it felt indecent to push,
01:43:35.240but the absence of a test is not the same as a clean result. It is the absence of a test.
01:43:40.520What we were left with in place of information was a story about survival and the road back.
01:43:46.660That was covered extensively and which made it functionally impossible to also say,
01:43:50.960we don't know what was in his system that morning. That matters. It still matters.
01:43:57.260The Golf World, this publication included, he writes, has organized its Tiger coverage around
01:44:01.060one persistent question for years. Can he play? It's a reasonable question if you're covering
01:44:06.780sports. It becomes an incomplete one when the honest answer to a prior question,
01:44:12.100is this man okay, is visibly and has for some time been no. And he goes on to say this,
01:44:20.260we hope we're wrong. Maybe there's an explanation for the refused urine test because he refused in
01:44:25.200this latest incident to have the urine tested. So he's been cited for failure to submit to a
01:44:30.060urine test, but we all know why he refused to give the urine test. When he came out of that
01:44:34.460car after the rollover, the police said he seemed dazed and impaired. He had no alcohol in his
01:44:39.540system. They did a blood alcohol, like a breathalyzer on him at the station, but he refused
01:44:44.260the urine test, and it's very clear why. But they write, maybe there's an explanation for the
01:44:50.800refused urine test that has nothing to do with what it appears to suggest. Everyone's entitled
01:44:55.700to their privacy, and no one should be mocked for their trials. But privacy is a harder argument to
01:45:01.520make when the struggle keeps arriving in public, on roadsides, in mugshots, in sheriff's press
01:45:08.080conferences, at some point, looking away is not discretion. It's something closer to abandonment.
01:45:16.240Stu Tiger Woods is reportedly worth over a billion dollars. His homes are absolutely
01:45:23.040magnificent. He has a huge mega yacht. And do you know what he named it? Privacy.
01:45:33.280He named his yacht Privacy. He's desperate for it. And because he's so beloved as a public figure
01:45:42.620and a sports hero, the media tries to cooperate in the way this Joel Beal of Yahoo accurately
01:45:52.440writes about. But he's right. Protecting Tiger Woods by not giving him that blood alcohol test
01:46:01.980and urine tests in the 2021 crash that almost killed him. And anybody who's running cover for
01:46:08.440him on what's obvious in this crash that could have killed him and others is not doing Tiger
01:46:14.180Woods any favors. This guy needs help. He's obviously not well. He's not well mentally.
01:46:23.480He's not holding it together. And let me give you one more. Here's how the article continues.
01:46:28.960There is a 50-year-old man who has been in some form of pain, physical or otherwise, for longer than most of his fans have been watching him, who has been trying by every public account to hold together a competitive life and an institutional role and a comeback narrative and a body that has been asked to do more than bodies are meant to do.
01:47:02.380And so we are hashtag part of the problem, Stu.
01:47:04.720Everyone who makes the focus on what's the next tournament he'll be back at, can he win the Masters again or the U.S. Open, we are hashtag part of the problem.
01:47:17.360the focus now really must be on Tiger Woods the man yeah I think part of it is somewhat natural
01:47:26.600right like we just he's really beloved like we really want the best I think for Tiger Woods
01:47:31.620you know some some public figures go down roads like this and we are you know Alec Baldwin really
01:47:38.920you know he's had his problems and we're just all like you know no one you know wants to embrace
01:47:44.380alec baldwin there's a bunch of people who go down these roads roads and we're like oh gosh
01:47:48.260what a pathetic waste you know you know the society sort of decides at some point how they
01:47:54.000want to treat these people on sort of we don't know exactly why these decisions get made but i
01:47:58.080do feel like with tiger as a society we're really rooting for the guy like we really want him to
01:48:02.880succeed you know we love him um he's not a villain in our society he's not one of these people where
01:48:09.040We're like, oh, gosh, you know, he, you know, he is a bad guy and we're sort of kind of
01:48:14.460rooting on his failure, which is a dark part of especially celebrity culture.
01:48:18.700That's not really what happens with Tiger.
01:48:20.180We want him to succeed and he just keeps falling down over and over and over again.
01:48:24.500And these are just completely nonsensical types of things, right?
01:48:28.880Like, as you mentioned, he's got a billion dollars here.
01:48:31.160There's no reason for him to ever be driving a car.
01:48:33.960The capitalist in me did think immediately Elon needs to get him on the phone for a commercial
01:51:50.740multiple surgeries, three weeks in the hospital.
01:51:53.500And as I said, he nearly lost his right leg.
01:51:55.800and now here we are in 2026 with yet another accident caused by Tiger and more obvious
01:52:03.080impairment, according to the police. But look at this. Okay, look at this clip. Tiger here. I don't
01:52:08.720know. He looks like maybe he's, I'm bad at estimating, but maybe 20. I don't know. He looks
01:52:12.920young, but he's not like the little kid. We've got video of that too. But here he is with his dad.
01:52:17.080His dad is mostly the star in this clip, talking about how the dad trained him.
01:52:20.760just as he's beginning to swing i dropped my whole bag of club and he would stop and look at
01:52:27.700me those teeth gritting and start again i throw a dozen golf balls in front of his ball
01:52:33.860but he'd never push me over the edge he would take me right up to the breaking point and he'd back
01:52:40.900off he'd stop again and i'd say hey look are you through showboating the the marshal says we have
01:52:49.620complete this round in four hours and you're taking up more than your share of the time
01:52:55.620so either hit or go get off the course and then he would stripe it
01:53:05.220just hit it perfect and turn around and look at me and never say a word but that look said
01:53:10.820now take that and go walking down the fairway eventually we take more and then more and then
01:53:19.460more and then more finally to the point where it didn't didn't bother me anymore it's a tiger
01:53:26.680the training is over listen you've got it and i promise you that you'll never meet another person
01:53:33.760as mentally tough as you in your entire life i mean that's like to me that's sad yeah because
01:53:42.440you can hear him saying like he pushed him pushed him pushed him tiger says never over the edge
01:53:48.320close, but then he'd back off. And then the stamp of approval at the end, you'll never meet anybody
01:53:54.540mentally tougher than you. Well, it turns out Tiger Woods is not, he's not all superhero.
01:53:59.820He's part man to human who isn't mentally impermeable, who actually does have weaknesses
01:54:10.400and doubts and insecurities and is subjected to physical pain, just the same as any mere mortal.
01:54:17.380But unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have the skills to deal with that.
01:54:22.120He knows how to be resilient on the golf course.
01:54:24.820But in life, as you age, as your body starts to fail you, as it does most professional athletes,
01:54:31.640just given the number of hours of abuse they've put it through, he is dating now.
01:54:37.300We understand him to be in a relatively happy relationship with Vanessa Trump, but that can't solve everything.
01:54:44.840And by the way, the Post also reported that the Secret Service knew not to let Vanessa and Don Jr.'s children ride in any car being driven by Tiger.
02:02:01.160I think, you know, you guys watching this program, we all, we both know that because
02:02:05.880we talk about it a lot. You can achieve all those mansions and a billion dollar net worth
02:02:11.460and all the fancy cars and a yacht and all of it. And it doesn't make you happy.
02:02:16.780That has to come from you. And by the way, and by the way, it takes parents who aren't just
02:02:24.220focused on making you into a golf star. It takes parents who are building up that sense of
02:02:29.280resilience inside of you, no matter what disappointment comes your way and no matter
02:02:33.440in what form. And the ability to understand right from wrong, like not serial cheating on your spouse
02:02:39.140and not getting behind the wheel of a car impaired over and over and over again, because now you're
02:02:46.980endangering not just yourself, but other people's children. That's a moral sin. And he's not able
02:02:54.660to control it. That's very clear. And now they say that the penalty for that not submitting to
02:02:59.120a test could be a suspension of your license for a year. It better be longer than that.
02:03:04.340I mean, please, this guy, Tiger should not have a license. He doesn't need one. He can hire a
02:03:10.080chauffeur. It's a, won't even notice the deductions in his checking account, not to mention Uber or
02:03:16.080the self-driving car, but it doesn't make you happy. And here's one other thing I wanted to say.
02:03:20.760I went through high school and I was not a serious student. I was never a serious student. I was smart enough that grades came relatively easily to me. I didn't have to work that hard. They weren't great. They were fine. I got A's and B's for the most part. There were a couple of C's. But I did fine. And I just didn't care. I was much more focused on my friends. My dad died at the beginning of my sophomore year of high school. So that definitely had its effects on me. And I was focused more on just like being with friends and feeling
02:03:50.760supported and loved. And the feeling you have as a teenager with your pals, that's what I was after.
02:03:58.080Well, I got into Syracuse University and I did pretty well there. And I started to care more
02:04:02.040about grades. My mom told me I had to get a 3.0 or she wasn't going to pay. She was using my dad's
02:04:05.820insurance money to get me through. So I knew I better honor that. And I did fine. Then I decided
02:04:11.500I wanted to go to law school. I didn't get into any fancy law schools. I did get into Albany,
02:04:16.440which is where I'm from, first 10 years in Syracuse, rest in Albany. So they're both kind
02:04:20.400in my hometown. And, um, I went, went to Albany law school. When I was at Albany, I started to
02:04:28.500take, to take myself seriously. I finally started to take my academics like truly seriously and
02:04:33.180really to study and to now I'm paying for it myself. Right. And I did well at Albany and I,
02:04:39.960I graduated toward the top of my class and I made the law review that was important in law school,
02:04:46.520but none of that was getting me like the job offers from the top, top tier law firms that
02:04:54.440you get. You know, if you're, if you're in the top, I was, I think I was top 12% when I graduated
02:04:58.880or no, I was top 10% when I graduated, but top 12% at the end of the first year. But in any event,
02:05:03.520my, the point is simply I was at the top, but you have to be like top 3% if you're in Albany to get
02:05:07.580the best offers. And I wasn't, but I managed to like work it and get one anyway. Long story short,
02:05:15.560what I'm trying to say is, got a great job with Bicklin Brewer. And then two years into that,
02:05:20.420I managed to upgrade to this firm, no offense to Bicklin Brewer, but this very large white
02:05:25.280shoe law firm called Jones Day. Now, how did I get that? Well, yes, by this point,
02:05:29.660I had experience at a great firm. But I knew a professor from Albany Law School who had a
02:05:36.740connection at Jones Day. And that professor just picked up the phone and said to this partner,
02:05:41.080you should meet her. Like it didn't, no one looked at a resume. No one looked at what I'd
02:05:46.520done in moot court. You know, what I'd done during my first two years when I was at that
02:05:50.440other smaller firm, it was somebody at my small pedestrian, you know, third tier law school who
02:05:58.160knew a guy who said, this is a great gal. She's really smart and you're going to like her. He was
02:06:03.980being kind. And I went in an interview with that guy and we hit it off. And next thing I know,
02:06:10.060he brought me back for the full range of interviews that you have to go through.
02:06:12.820And I got the job and my life changed. This small town girl from Albany and Syracuse who
02:06:17.340totally saw herself growing up, getting married, probably in living my life in Syracuse, which I
02:06:22.000really loved. You know, it's like, I didn't know what I would do. I really, I don't know,
02:06:27.820maybe practice law, maybe hang out my own shingle, maybe be a criminal prosecutor.
02:06:32.300But I thought I would have a suburban life in Syracuse, New York doing that. But think my
02:06:39.120life changed. It changed dramatically because of that one phone call that led to one thing and then
02:06:43.100another. And this is a long way of telling you, you don't have to ruin your child's life in hopes
02:06:50.700of him or her achieving something great when they're in adulthood, having money, having
02:06:59.260accomplishments, having love. I could have easily been very happy in Syracuse, New York, doing
02:07:05.880exactly the plan I originally thought of. My life got much bigger for the reasons, you know,
02:07:10.640I mean, you sort of, those of you who watch the show know it took a different direction and that's
02:07:14.600fine too. I will confess that comes with a different set of headaches, definitely comes
02:07:19.320with a different set of headaches, but also blessings. And I didn't, I didn't lose my
02:07:26.700childhood. I had great times with friends and boyfriends and the prom and frivolity
02:07:35.760and going to concerts, going to parties, I loved it. And part of all of it did go into making me
02:07:46.780who I am today. I do think joy is important. Schedule the joy. Like I'm going over my kids'
02:07:55.480schedules with them for next year. They have to make some course selections in high school. And
02:07:58.800it's like, of course they're in a competitive school and there's pressure to like take all
02:08:04.400the hardest classes and get the toughest resume with the best grades. And I keep saying like,
02:08:09.520don't do that. Like challenge yourself, keep yourself busy for sure. And challenge your
02:08:13.640beautiful minds, but do some frivolous things. Like choose some of the fun electives that no
02:08:19.400one is going to be impressed by. Like make some deposits into the U fund or everything else gets
02:08:25.480depleted really fast. You know, it's like you, and all those apps on your phone, when they're open,
02:08:32.600there should be some that are like books and Sirius XM and the crossword or whatever,
02:08:41.780something or, and games. Those are fine. Like it can't all be about the sports, the golf,
02:08:49.560the academics, the discipline, the ballet, the what, you know, like you're building a person.
02:08:57.760You're not building a tee time, you know, or a golf handicap.
02:09:05.000And I just think too often we forget that.
02:09:06.980We think we're doing it for their own good.