00:02:57.000Anyway, we do have a quick shout out for you today, and we have to read it from our sponsors, and that is Enhanced Games.
00:03:07.000There's a new global sports competition happening in Las Vegas on May 24th, which is this Sunday, and it's unlike anything you've seen before.
00:03:33.000Elite weightlifters typically improve strength around 1.5% annually, yet enhanced weightlifting cohorts saw strength increases ranging from 8 to 33% in a single camp cycle, which is a 2 to 7 times multiplier on expected gains.
00:05:17.000Well, that was the weird thing seeing this, like all this blow up on the internet during the COVID time when this was just like my life for a decade plus.
00:05:27.000I had been someone who just started working out when I was young with my dad, and then with sports and training and always got into weird diet stuff.
00:05:34.000And I was drinking raw milk in college.
00:05:38.000I got into the paleo thing and all that.
00:05:40.000And I was, of course, a little hesitant about certain.
00:05:46.000And then all of a sudden, it became one of those things where it's like my lifestyle became a branded thing that all of a sudden everyone was talking about.
00:05:55.000Which is kind of weird because then you kind of get like the hipster, like, hey, man, this is like, this is my thing, but also I'm glad it's spreading.
00:06:01.000You just kind of don't know where it goes once it leaves kind of the people who sort of actually created it or like were kind of born and bred in it.
00:06:09.000Well, it's what they call in the industry upstream.
00:06:11.000You're very upstream from the discourse.
00:06:13.000We got the great Rebecca Zelko joining us today.
00:07:24.000Spencer Pratt, best known for starring as a reality TV villain in MTV's The Hills 20 years ago, is an unlikely but promising candidate in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
00:07:34.000The 42 year old has never held public office and has no political organization, making his long shot candidacy even longer.
00:07:42.000He's a registered Republican in Los Angeles, where no Republican has been elected mayor since Pratt was 10 years old.
00:07:47.000All of that makes it even more remarkable that Pratt is holding his own against the established opponents.
00:07:51.000Polls show him on the heels of incumbent mayor Karen Bass, trailing by just eight percentage points in an Emerson College poll and ahead of the left leaning third candidate, Nithya Rahman.
00:08:01.000Now, of course, Nithya Rahman was leading in the polls for quite a long time.
00:08:04.000People were speculating she might be the West Coast Zoran.
00:08:07.000Well, Spencer Pratt had something to say about that.
00:08:09.000And Spencer Pratt has been stitching together one of the most impressive campaigns I think we've all seen in quite a long time.
00:08:15.000A lot of people say, you know, there's kind of shades of Donald Trump here, not so much on policy, but more so with the fact that he's just kind of relatable in a really strange way.
00:08:43.000Obviously, in the polls, as the article noted, there are many polls coming out over the last few weeks that indicate he's neck to neck with Karen Bass.
00:08:49.000This poll is obviously, you know, factoring in all the candidates because first in Los Angeles, they'll have a jungle primary.
00:08:55.000So everyone runs in the first primary.
00:08:57.000And then the top two candidates advance to a runoff election.
00:09:00.000And right now, it looks like Spencer Pratt's going to head into a runoff election with Karen Bass with quite a lot of undecided voters.
00:09:07.000And those are probably Spencer Pratt's to lose.
00:09:10.000Because again, I think everyone in Los Angeles at this point either loves or hates Karen Bass.
00:09:16.000We had this article coming out, a few different outlets picked up on this.
00:09:20.000Trump is supporting Spencer Pratt in the LA mayor's race, but it may be a poison pill.
00:09:25.000Some have pointed out that part of the reason Spencer Pratt seems to be doing so well in this race is because his entire campaign is actually quite detached from national storylines.
00:09:35.000I mean, this is a guy where every single word that comes out of his mouth is about Los Angeles, and that's why it's such a breath of fresh air.
00:09:41.000Many have Feared that if Trump gets too involved here, it might spook LA voters when it comes time to cast a vote for Spencer Pratt.
00:09:49.000I think we should just get right into the meat and potatoes here.
00:09:51.000I got to ask the two California natives, maybe Josh can really speak to this being a Los Angeles County native.
00:09:57.000Do you think Spencer Pratt has a chance?
00:10:08.000Like, he's clearly going to make it through the primary.
00:10:12.000And he has a very real chance of winning out right now.
00:10:15.000Especially because of all the votes that all the other Democrat or left leaning candidates are pulling from Bass.
00:10:21.000So you're kind of getting everyone who's against what's going on and been going on is going to lean more towards Spencer Pratt, unless they're like hardcore leftists who would be going for like outright communist type thing.
00:10:36.000And that's why, whenever people are blackpilling, especially online, it's like we need to motivate everyone to vote who even has a slight inkling of because every single one of those votes matters.
00:10:59.000And that's the thing about it because everyone assumes California, Los Angeles, it's the most left leaning place basically in the whole country.
00:11:07.000But Los Angeles County has more Republicans than any other county in the entire country.
00:11:41.000Everyone is kind of more towards the center.
00:11:43.000And it's funny, like you wouldn't think this at first, but the kind of vanity, That people have from being in Los Angeles grounds them in reality because the actual, like, it's your appearance is tied to actually like what you do as opposed to a stated belief or principle.
00:11:59.000So, like, you can virtue signal all you want, and of course, they do.
00:12:02.000We've all seen the Oscars where they say this and that, but at the end of the day, like, your meal ticket in Los Angeles is like your looks, and you can only go so far with the insane stuff before you just start to look like a freak, yeah.
00:12:14.000And so, weirdly enough, the people who live in La La Land are grounded.
00:12:21.000I mean, that makes sense because I mean, you know, it's always been my analysis that the Northern California and Southern California liberals are quite different, where it seems like the ones in Northern California are a bit more prone to activism, these sorts of things, where it seems more cultural in Southern California.
00:12:34.000I mean, can you attest to this at all?
00:12:36.000I would also say that, like, the article is, I thought it was really interesting that they had the line saying that his lack of political experience was going to be a disadvantage to him, where, like, we're now at least, that might have been the case traditionally, but, like, we're kind of in the age where, yeah, like, not coming from that traditional, like, you know, Career politician background is actually a positive thing.
00:12:57.000Like, populist politics is super, is definitely on the rise.
00:13:00.000They likened that one candidate to Zorhan Mamdani, but if anything, Pratt has more of that sort of Mamdani strategy because he is only talking about Los Angeles.
00:13:08.000He's, I think, I think he's made a smart decision to not necessarily tether himself to like the national MAGA brand of politics because at the end of the day, he's trying to win in Los Angeles.
00:13:19.000And so I think as long as he kind of keeps that distance, also him being, you know, a reality TV star, that kind of makes him qualified in a unique way to run such a unique city where like that is such a huge part of the industry.
00:13:31.000And I feel like because he's a Republican, but also because he has this background in reality TV, it kind of gives people in the industry.
00:13:40.000Or who pay attention to that industry permission to vote for a Republican because he's like from their world, which I think makes it a really interesting race to follow.
00:13:48.000A lot of celebrities are kind of like breaking from the traditional like lefty slant with this a lot too.
00:13:55.000I saw something where he was like, I guess like Leonardo DiCaprio and like Jamie Foxx were like talking to him about like things that they would want to see done.
00:14:05.000Which means that they either think he can win or secretly voting for him.
00:14:09.000And I think we're also going to see a lot of people who.
00:14:12.000Are hesitant to state their support for him until, like, you kind of get that threshold breaking point where then they feel safe to do that.
00:14:19.000And so he's very, very smart with sort of like, yeah, I'm a registered Republican, but like, I'm not running as a Republican, you know?
00:15:36.000Because, you know, people think of Trump as, you know, they talk about him being a billionaire businessman, but it's like also like, remember, The Apprentice, like his reality show guy.
00:15:45.000And so, you know, Trump, you know, Trump always talks about like central casting, like he understands like perception of things.
00:15:50.000And so he's like, Trump's aware of where the camera is.
00:16:35.000You know, all this stuff you want to argue about politics, it's like we're not even talking about all this like weird and like the weird granular, crazy, like really, really like policy type stuff outside of basic reality crime, homeless, burning down.
00:16:49.000Can we just like address the actual, just tangible, everything to be, Fixed and function to have a normal society before we ever have any of these other conversations.
00:17:12.000It's really interesting to me that you said, was it Leonardo DiCaprio is like asking them questions?
00:17:20.000Like, he's famously not somebody who I would assume would vote for Spencer Craft because he's an LA guy.
00:17:26.000Yeah, and there's two things going on here.
00:17:27.000It's like, one, when you're running in a city, the average population is going to be a lot lower actually than if you're running in a primary in a random district because, again, Usually, those are going to be all elderly voters.
00:17:36.000So, again, coming across as like kind of a safe square, again, that's going to play to an elderly voter base who's going to get you through a primary.
00:17:42.000Where Spencer Pratt's trying to win a general election in a city.
00:17:45.000So, the average voting age in these elections are going to be younger.
00:17:48.000So, he's kind of had to have a little extra edge to him.
00:17:51.000And, yeah, to your point, I mean, it was like you can tell the consultants have not got to him because he was in that debate and the, you know, Zoran clone or whatever her name is was like, oh, you know, him and Karen Bass are teaming up because they want to run against me.
00:18:02.000And he's like, what are you talking about?
00:18:11.000You know, every Republican gets up and be like, I don't care who I run against.
00:18:14.000I'm going to beat him and I'm going to take it.
00:18:15.000And then it's like, he's like, no, I don't want to run against Karen Jackson.
00:18:17.000When he ran for president the first time around and he was talking about special interests on stage.
00:18:22.000And the whole audience was like, thank you for pointing out how obvious.
00:18:25.000Because he's able to actually, like, I don't understand the argument that, like, he is this super, like, he's this billionaire, really successful.
00:18:32.000But, like, he's not pretending to not be that.
00:18:36.000But, like, I'm still going to do X, Y, and Z.
00:18:38.000I kind of get the same vibe from Spencer.
00:18:40.000Pratt, like he's not pretending to be like a traditional politician or, you know, he's not selling you something that he's not, you know, actually.
00:18:48.000It's more authentic than any of the politicians.
00:18:50.000He's just leaning into his own persona.
00:18:53.000He's actually doing such a great job of going, I was the villain, right?
00:18:57.000And, you know, part of the villain was like, I was called.
00:19:12.000Because I'm brave enough to fight through these people who present themselves as the good people, but they're the villains.
00:19:19.000They're the one causing all this terrible destruction.
00:19:22.000And that's like, just like Trump, he's owning who he is.
00:19:25.000You know, it's the last thing when someone accuses you of something, the last thing you can do, worst thing is get like super, super defensive.
00:19:31.000So you have to find out how to either like, what do they say, like agree and amplify.
00:19:55.000But something was interesting, you pointed it out, Carter pointed it out, with a lot of these celebrities that are probably eager to get behind him and they're going to secretly support him, but they're not quite ready to go vocal.
00:20:03.000I think part of it is because of the way the press has been handling his campaign.
00:20:07.000They say Spencer Pratt's campaign spent more than $15,000 at Pricey Hotel Bel Air.
00:20:13.000So, what's happening here is a lot of these guys are waiting for that permission piece to come out from the mainstream media, the California outlets.
00:20:19.000They're waiting for a major outlet to come out and say, actually, it's okay to vote for Spencer Pratt.
00:20:23.000Because I think they still are very conscious.
00:20:25.000You know, everyone says, oh, the mainstream media is irrelevant.
00:20:27.000For a lot of these people, they actually kind of wait for marching orders from institutions like the LA Times.
00:20:32.000And the fact that the LA Times is the knives out for Spencer Pratt really says a lot about, well, A, Karen Bass's influence in the state.
00:20:38.000But the fact that just because he has an R next to his name, he's completely unpalatable to like, you know, the mainstream media institutions.
00:20:44.000So it's going to be kind of interesting to see what comes first.
00:20:46.000Will the permission piece from the LA Times come first, or will it be a few celebrities just get up and say, you know what, screw it.
00:21:19.000Because it's like, he never would have, if everything had been normal, like the fire didn't happen, but everything else in California was like shit, who would we have?
00:21:28.000You know, because we had Rick Caruso four years ago who ran like a, I mean, did anyone know about his campaign?
00:21:38.000Like one of the top two most important cities in the whole country.
00:21:42.000Did anyone anywhere nationwide know anything about this campaign?
00:21:46.000No, he was just like, again, kind of a stuffy old rich business guy, real estate developer, and lifelong Republican, switched to Democrat so people would feel comfortable voting him.
00:21:56.000Like some of my super liberal family members were like, well, he sounds reasonable and this and that.
00:22:01.000And so they vote for him only because he has a D next to his name, though.
00:22:17.000If you're constantly having to justify your vote, then you're going to struggle.
00:22:19.000Well, so this is like the perfect thing about Pratt, though, is like Caruso does like the cuck thing where it's like, I put a D next to my name.
00:22:59.000That being said, I do think that there are a lot of voters who are looking at the R next to Spencer Pratt's name, and, you know, but then they listen to everything else that he says, and they're like, this guy makes a lot of sense, but he's also, like, representing.
00:23:10.000You know, what I think a lot of people in Los Angeles are feeling.
00:23:14.000And it almost is kind of disqualifying at this point because of all of the dysfunction that has happened, not just in LA, but as I'm sure you know, like throughout all of California, to have already been in office and like to already have political experience.
00:23:26.000It's kind of disqualifying because it's like you've already overseen the disaster for so long.
00:23:55.000And to your point, I mean, and kind of one last point here is I mean, that's Karen Bass's weakness actually is the fact that all those undecided voters, they all know who she is.
00:24:03.000That means that they're not willing to support her.
00:24:05.000I mean, you know, she could maybe pick off 10% of them, but everyone in Los Angeles has an opinion on Karen Bass.
00:24:09.000There's no one sitting around like, I don't know, I'm on the fence about her.
00:24:11.000It's like everyone either loves her because they're retarded or they hate her because they have eyeballs.
00:24:16.000So, With that, I'm going to get to this next story.
00:24:18.000We're going to stay on the California topic here.
00:24:20.000This is from KQED, like local paper, obviously, out of California.
00:24:24.000Hilton and Becerra lead Democrats for final poll for California governor.
00:24:30.000And California, the same way, LA, they have a jungle primary.
00:24:33.000And what's funny is because initially these jungle primaries were set up in these deep blue states to keep Republicans out of the races.
00:24:38.000They wanted it to be runoffs between two Democrats.
00:24:41.000What they didn't factor in was that everyone would eventually start to hate them.
00:24:45.000And what they additionally didn't factor in is if a bunch of Democrats ran, And then the Republican vote consolidated around one candidate, you would end up with a Republican on the ticket.
00:24:53.000Now, as it stands right now, Xavier Becerra has taken the lead in polling.
00:25:00.000Most of it's because Swahwell dropped out and he absorbed a lot of those potential voters.
00:25:04.000So, for a while, you know, what was happening was Steve Hilton, a Republican, and then Chad Bianco, another Republican, were leading the polls.
00:25:10.000And so people were like, could the runoff end up being two Californians?
00:25:13.000Now, that's probably not going to happen.
00:25:15.000But look, a lot of the vote is consolidating around Steve Hilton, where we could end up going to a runoff between Becerra and Steve Hilton.
00:25:21.000Steve Hilton, a lot of people probably remember him.
00:25:25.000He actually was in David Cameron's government over in the UK about 15 years ago.
00:25:30.000But he's another one of these guys where he's media trained.
00:25:32.000He's not nearly as kind of oracle, so to speak, as Spencer Pratt, but he's still kind of got a little bit of that it factor, just a little bit.
00:25:40.000And he's obviously having to position himself in regards to national issues a bit more because he's running for governor of California.
00:25:47.000But the fact that he's holding his own in these polls, I mean, it kind of goes back to the point.
00:25:50.000I mean, California's still got some fight left in that.
00:25:53.000I mean, that's like, That's what we're seeing is that people have had enough at some point.
00:25:58.000So the Republicans are a little more invigorated themselves, but a lot of Democrats are kind of defecting in some way.
00:26:05.000And so what's kind of crazy, though, is Newsom was coming out and saying that, you know, if it came down to two Republicans, it would be a sign of something, you know, illegitimate that he would have to intervene or something, which is, of course, you know, hilarious because we all know where the illegitimacy comes from.
00:26:21.000But he's just admitting kind of like how.
00:26:25.000Fraudulent and sneaky, the Democrats are.
00:26:28.000But no, this is actually a very exciting time to be a Californian, being from Los Angeles.
00:26:31.000Like, we actually have real possibility for anything.
00:26:36.000And that should be more exciting than for us as Californians more than anything else that, like, there's a future here.
00:26:44.000There's a lot of doom and gloom right now in the GOP, I feel like, especially when it comes to national politics.
00:26:49.000And so it's a weird time to look at California and to, like, feel reinvigorated about the state and the trajectory of the Republican Party.
00:26:57.000No, I mean, Steve Hilton, he definitely, his experience in TV, like, definitely helps, especially when you're up against, like, literally a bunch of nerds.
00:27:07.000I was kind of confused by a guy with a British accent who's, like, running for office in California.
00:27:12.000California has a precedent of Republican governors with weird accents being, yeah, and I'm like, it's kind of, I mean, it's definitely not the worst thing about California, but it is, it kind of stops me in my tracks every time.
00:27:22.000But, like, when we're talking about the aura deficit in the GOP, why are we all, like, going for Steve Hilton when you have literally Chad Bianco?
00:28:03.000I'm because Hilton's in the, I'm voting for Hilton in the, Primary because just because he's winning, right?
00:28:08.000Like, it really makes no difference to me.
00:28:11.000I just like we need something back, but you're right.
00:28:13.000Like, Chad Bianco, it's better you gotta let him do something.
00:28:17.000Yeah, he's like, reminds me of like Curtis Sleewom, like, give him like a cool job, just something like morale boost.
00:28:23.000But you know what's funny is when people were like early on, when people were like Steve Hilton, Steve Hilton, um, I was like, he's uh, he's like too bald and too British, yeah, right?
00:28:32.000And uh, but so he grew a beard, he didn't used to have a beard, he was that like that was an incredible aesthetic choice to give himself a little bit more.
00:28:59.000And so, you know, I would love if it's the two of them, I wouldn't even care.
00:29:04.000You know, at that point, we could get into the conversation.
00:29:06.000But this goes to what you're talking to about the rest of the GOP is just like falling apart because we're actually in power in some regard now.
00:29:14.000And when that happens, everyone starts attacking each other.
00:29:16.000And, you know, when we're losing, it's when we're great because everyone's like, well, just.
00:29:21.000Support whoever's on our side versus the other side.
00:29:24.000And that's a problem that, like, you know, I think too many people on the right, they're just dedicated to being losers.
00:29:32.000They want to just like attack our own side and fight over like who actually gets to be in control of the thing when it's like, oh, great.
00:29:39.000Now the Democrats are just being left like uncriticized all this time.
00:29:44.000And they basically just have to do nothing but wait.
00:29:46.000Well, because it's existential for California Republicans or California conservatives.
00:29:50.000Because, like, you know, this is the, I made this point the other day about how Roe v. Wade getting overturned was the worst thing that ever happened to the.
00:29:56.000Pro life lobby because now they lost their one carrot on a stick that they could use for fundraising, and now they're all pissed off at Trump.
00:30:02.000And abortions are up, yeah, and abortions are up, but it's like, you know, that was their one thing, and now it's gone.
00:30:06.000It's like, well, what do we send in our newsletter now?
00:30:08.000Like, hey, we need to ban abortion in Wisconsin, like, no one cares around, yeah.
00:30:12.000And it's kind of the same thing with Republicans, where it's like, once we've won, that's the worst thing that happened to the podcasters, the conservative commentaries.
00:30:19.000Like, conservative commentaries turn into sports radio where you have people calling in, they're like, the coach needs to be fired, or like, you know, he should have been benched.
00:30:26.000Why is why is Vance going to Pakistan?
00:30:28.000Like, you know, people get started to get really and they're There's a lot to criticize about the Trump administration.
00:30:32.000Like, I'm not saying, you know, perfection, we shouldn't aspire for perfection.
00:30:35.000I'm just saying, to your point, when we're backed into a corner, that's when you almost see excellence.
00:30:39.000Like, Trump, when he was running, part of the magic was because everyone thought it was over.
00:30:43.000Like, if you asked a Republican in 2014, if you ask anyone right of senator, they're like, yeah, it's going to be President Hillary, and then we're all going to go into gulags in 10 years.
00:30:50.000And then two years later, Trump comes along, and everyone's like, all right, yeah, let's do it.
00:30:53.000Like, if we're going to go out, let's go out and let's go hard.
00:30:56.000And that's kind of the same thing we're seeing with California, where it's like, once again, Republicans feel like they're backed into a corner somewhat, they're demoralized in large part.
00:31:07.000And so, like, that's also why I want to get to the point because a lot of people in the audience are watching are very California critical and they have a lot of ammo.
00:31:15.000Why should Republicans even aspire to take back California if it's worth it?
00:31:43.000We also partially forfeited that industry totally once we decided that it wasn't worth saving.
00:31:48.000This is the point I want to get to is like, this has kind of been the problem this temperament and conservatism is to not retake institutions, is build parallel institutions.
00:31:55.000So they're like, well, we lost California.
00:31:57.000So let's build Texas to be the next California.
00:32:50.000Because you have to actually want to win and then you have to try to win to ever win.
00:32:55.000And that's so, like, whatever the Republican Party was for a long time, like, Trump has especially shown over this current cycle that, like, everyone that he endorses wins.
00:33:15.000And this is, whatever you think of him, this is the, but Curtis Yarvin's, like, best.
00:33:20.000Thought ever, which is that Republicans like alcohol the way a wine snob likes alcohol, and Democrats like alcohol the way an alcoholic likes alcohol.
00:33:30.000Yeah, we're Trump's going to get drunker.
00:33:32.000Yeah, and Trump's like, and Trump, and I think this is like what California Republicans also kind of the same feeling is like, okay, a big tent that's full of just different types of people that just lose everything is just going to create a big tent of losers where Trump's like, I'm just going to eviscerate it all and I'm going to create one path forward where we actually win.
00:33:48.000And you can either join or you don't, but we're not going to leave any room on the margins necessarily.
00:33:52.000And it's like, You kind of have to admire that because, again, the big tent, Republicans did win elections.
00:33:56.000The Republicans won the majority of elections over the last 60 years, but everything got worse because, again, you just formed a big tent full of coalitions, full of ideologies that consistently lose everything.
00:34:06.000And then when you put them all in the same room, there's like, how do we lose, but like in a really beautiful way?
00:34:33.000And, you know, I mean, I think that, at least from the perspective of liberal voters in L.A., I think they find him generally, you know, kind of piggish and off putting.
00:34:41.000And I don't understand this authenticity you guys are sensing.
00:34:44.000I mean, his whole campaign seems pretty manicured.
00:34:47.000And his leaning into the AI videos, don't forget, L.A. in the entertainment industry was like 12, 12.5% of L.A.
00:35:17.000The Bel Air one, the Bel Air one, that one's super viral.
00:35:19.000You know which one was, I thought, his single best one was Black Hole Sun.
00:35:25.000I think it was like the Nora Jones version or something, going down this quiet little, nice little street with one homeless tent at the end, and how that thing makes every single mother in the whole neighborhood feel unsafe.
00:35:38.000They are doing actual, traditional filmmaking ads better than anything that we've ever seen.
00:35:45.000Those are like the one with him, the reason why all that drama with him in the trailer, but you don't really live there, because that was the one that blew up.
00:35:53.000That was the one that went the most viral.
00:35:55.000These other ones are also, yes, they're going viral, but those are all.
00:36:18.000And look, like, I get what you're saying.
00:36:20.000I totally understand what you're saying.
00:36:21.000But the thing is, is that all these people, you know, like, I had a tweet that I gave like a dozen stories of like terrible, Situations I had with homeless people.
00:36:32.000You know, I had something where like a girl OD'd and I had to call the police and all this kind of stuff.
00:36:35.000Like I got pushed into oncoming traffic by a homeless person, fires, you know, needles, human shit, all this just insane stuff, murders, everything.
00:36:45.000And it's like a very, very small amount of my stories that I put in that tweet.
00:36:50.000And I got quote tweeted with people putting their own series of stories.
00:36:54.000And it doesn't mean that everyone is going to jump on board.
00:36:57.000But all this stuff online, which is like really, really great, at some point, people realize that I don't feel safe in my neighborhood anymore.
00:37:06.000And they either have that survival instinct or they don't.
00:37:08.000But all this other stuff, and this is why he's so good about just getting to the actual reality of it all, that when you kind of get away from the playing the politics game and you just see what's right in front of you, That is how you convince people.
00:37:20.000He was talking about, I'm sorry to interrupt you.
00:37:39.000But they're both talking about like which committees they've been on or like what, you know, what task forces that they've introduced.
00:37:47.000And Spencer Pratt correctly said, like, well, what task force or what, you know, how much money can you dump on this issue?
00:37:54.000Let's just go into an underpass, talk to a homeless person, try to give them money, and you'll get stabbed in the neck.
00:37:59.000It's like that actually is the message that sticks to voters far more effective than anything the other candidates.
00:38:05.000No amount of information is going to help low information people vote for their own interests.
00:38:11.000I mean, you're talking about the aesthetics of his ad, and at some level, there's an aesthetic sensibility in LA, especially people in the entertainment industry, but that's not going to outweigh the propaganda.
00:38:19.000And these people have been heavily propagandized for a very long time.
00:38:22.000So I just don't have this Pollyanna vision.
00:38:26.000Before you step outside your house and like a homeless man screams at you and like threatens you with a mask.
00:38:33.000The minute you go in the voting booth, these people, those experiences are gonna get relegated to the back burner and they're gonna pull the lever for the Democrat.
00:38:42.000Like, look, the people do get mugged by reality.
00:38:45.000Like, people do have the Drew Pavlo arc where you're super, super liberal and then you get mugged and then you're like, ah, fuck, no, these people should be in jail actually.
00:39:12.000I would argue that literally having the Palisades burned to the ground is a pretty, you know, that's a reality check for a lot of those voters.
00:39:29.000And they cannot let that industry be decimated.
00:39:34.000Like, that is going to, they're going to hang on to that no matter what.
00:39:36.000Yes, there's going to be a lot, there's a lot of money being put in to make sure he doesn't win because these people, you know, a homelessness industrial complex.
00:39:43.000The real estate developers, all of the people running these like nonprofits, and they pat, like, someone who works for Karen Bass just got arrested for giving drugs or like selling drugs to like homeless people and something like that, right?
00:39:56.000So they have all these things in place.
00:40:10.000So it's just going to be a game of who can convince who.
00:40:14.000And, you know, and again, but like all that aside, the reality has to come into play because so much of politics is kind of like sort of intangible, you know, like all these kind of things.
00:40:25.000It's like, oh, yeah, this policy, that policy, you know, and it's kind of, it's over there.
00:40:29.000It's a little, whatever, a little abstract, right in your face.
00:40:32.000Like, I came home one time when I lived in Venice, and I have a parking spot right in front of my garage door.
00:40:40.000A homeless person had dragged a mattress and was sleeping in my parking spot, right?
00:40:45.000So, like, if I was a mom or like a woman or something, I would, I don't know what I would do because how to, the front door, the door to my house was also right next to the driveway.
00:40:55.000Would I have felt safe parking my car on the street and walking in?
00:40:58.000No, what I did was I poked the guy with my foot and I was like, hey, man, you got to get out of here.
00:41:03.000And he's like, oh, dude, I just, I dragged the mattress.
00:41:07.000Like, I don't care, man, you got to get out of here.
00:41:08.000And I like, I even like, kind of like pulled it and, Got it out of the way and it was disgusting, but it's like, I would not have done that if I was a woman, I'm sure.
00:41:16.000But, and I shouldn't have to deal with that.
00:41:18.000And it's like, if someone has that slapped them in the face at some point, they'd be like, I can't even go to my own house.
00:41:25.000You know, and there are people, there would not be liberals if there weren't people who'd be like, that's okay.
00:41:52.000Violent crime fell across the United States in 2025 at rates not seen in close to a century, findings from the FBI showed.
00:41:59.000Murder and non negligent manslaughter plummeted by more than 18% nationwide last year, while aggravated assaults dropped by more than 7%.
00:42:08.000According to a preliminary report on national 2025 crime rates, violent crime rates on the whole.
00:42:14.000Dipped by about 9.3 last year, the data shows.
00:42:18.000And they put some graphics up here just kind of showing, again, this drop nationwide in violent crime.
00:42:24.000Now, I think there's two things going on here.
00:42:26.000One, to steel man and sort of support the Trump administration here, is they have created an atmosphere nationwide of accountability.
00:42:33.000I think it'll be fair to say, I think even maybe even Trump critics would maybe concede that, yes, it does feel like there's a new sheriff in town.
00:42:39.000We have seen that they're willing to pull the rug out with federal funding whenever they feel like you're not.
00:42:44.000Working in conjunction with the Trump administration's agenda.
00:42:46.000So, I think a lot of these states, a lot of these police departments are now playing ball.
00:42:50.000I was talking yesterday on my show with Super Trucker, who has been exposing a lot of the H 1B fraud or just illegal immigrant scamming going on in trucking.
00:43:03.000And he was talking about how California, funny enough, California, at the beginning of the year eventually conceded and they started changing a lot of the ways that they issue CDLs and these sorts of things.
00:43:13.000So, a lot of these blue states are having to play ball with the Trump administration.
00:43:17.000And that is probably having an impact on violent crime.
00:43:19.000I mean, this is certainly what the FBI is touting.
00:43:21.000But one thing I want to say in addition to that is we have seen violent crime going down since COVID.
00:43:26.000We obviously saw a big peak during COVID.
00:43:28.000But nationwide, over the last 30, 40 years, violent crime has been going down.
00:43:33.000Scott Greer has been making this point on Twitter.
00:43:35.000But he's like, look, whether we like it or not, the data doesn't lie.
00:43:38.000The 70s and 80s were an exceptionally violent time in our country's history.
00:43:43.000And so a lot of this is just coming back down from that peak.
00:43:47.000While, yes, we should give the Trump administration credit for sort of creating this environment, this culture, et cetera, et cetera, it must be noted that it seems like Americans are just getting less violent.
00:43:57.000I mean, that would kind of be the takeaway.
00:43:59.000I'm curious why you guys think that that might be.
00:44:02.000What contributing factors do you think it'd be?
00:44:04.000Because I don't sense that this is necessarily blue states and blue cities, police departments firing on all cylinders.
00:44:11.000If anything, that would make it get worse with the DAs.
00:44:14.000I mean, it's like a total Wild West in some of these cities.
00:44:16.000But we are seeing nationwide crime rates still continue to decline.
00:44:20.000Well, I mean, I think obviously there is a very real decline.
00:44:26.000And then there's the question of, especially when Trump wasn't in office, how accurate are these stats?
00:44:32.000We know a lot of local departments don't track things the appropriate way.
00:44:37.000But I think a big aspect of it, and maybe people might not feel that things are as safe as they are, is not the total numbers, but where they are.
00:44:55.000And so it was harder to get people more stayed to their neighborhoods.
00:44:58.000And so maybe it's a thing where if you actually break up the really violent populations from their secluded neighborhoods and kind of spread them out, the normal people actually get faced with it more, but the total numbers.
00:45:10.000I mean, if you talk to New Yorkers, they'll say, like, you know, back in the day, you know, certain neighborhoods would be total war zones.
00:45:16.000And then you would go a few people would always say, oh, New York City, the whole city changes based off what block you're in.
00:45:20.000You know, like you go to one block and you feel like you're in China and then one block, you feel like you're in Italy.
00:45:24.000And the same thing kind of corresponded to crime, where one block would be exceptionally dangerous.
00:45:29.000And then you go a block away and you're like in elite society.
00:45:31.000Where when you visit New York City now, you kind of get a fairly homogenous experience throughout the city.
00:45:37.000I mean, there still are neighborhoods like, you know, Canarsie that are exceptionally violent.
00:45:40.000But generally, like no matter where you are in Manhattan, for example, maybe like barring East Harlem, there is this kind of general level of danger that you feel at all times, whether you're in, you know, Gramercy Park or if you're on the Upper West Side or that sort of thing.
00:45:52.000So I think that's correct is that crime, yes, it used to be higher, but I think it was also more concentrated where now you feel like you could be a victim of violent crime, even if you're in Beverly Hills or even if you're on, you know, the Upper East Side of New York.
00:46:05.000And I mean, just because it's not as high as it used to be doesn't mean that it's still not like alarming or something that people encounter regularly.
00:46:12.000Whether you're in California or in DC.
00:46:14.000I remember when I was in college, this was post COVID.
00:46:17.000Someone broke into my car and stole $20 out of my car.
00:46:31.000And it's like, okay, the crime rate might be lower, I guess, but I'm still getting on the metro and looking around and hoping that someone doesn't steal my Canada Goose Puffer, that one video, or whatever, or stab me in the neck.
00:46:44.000That's still definitely a fear that people encounter regularly.
00:46:47.000Like, can't go to Chipotle without getting hit in the head with the wooden chair, apparently.
00:46:52.000But it's like, oh no, but crime is down.
00:46:53.000It's like, sure, but it's still totally a problem.
00:46:55.000And obviously, it's a positive development.
00:46:58.000If that's the case, there are definitely questions about the accuracy of crime reporting in DC specifically.
00:47:04.000But, you know, it's still a real thing that people deal with constantly.
00:47:08.000I mean, this is WREG, this is the local news in Memphis.
00:47:11.000I'm a Memphis native, so I can speak to this directly.
00:47:14.000You know, the mayor's going around saying, well, You know, overall crimes dropped 41% over the last two years, and it's because I'm such an awesome mayor.
00:47:20.000That's why I go to Memphis all the time.
00:47:24.000It does not feel safer than it did 10 years ago.
00:47:26.000It feels far more dangerous, actually.
00:47:28.000Memphis has always been an exceptionally dangerous city.
00:47:32.000Again, if you can read the Wikipedia demographics section, I think you can infer why that may be the case.
00:47:38.000And just because he's saying crime rates have dropped 41%, I'm still hearing, you know, from my friends that still live in Memphis, obviously, I now live in the DC area, that no, they're still getting their cars broken into all the time.
00:47:49.000My friends that are women are like, no, I'm not jogging.
00:47:52.000We had actually a pretty horrific jogger crime, just indiscriminate, attacked a white lady that was jogging in Memphis.
00:48:00.000Just that one crime was so violent, so shocking that every woman, every white woman in Memphis specifically, just carries themselves a bit differently.
00:48:08.000And so saying, oh, crimes dropped 41%, they need to actually feel like it's safer.
00:48:13.000That's the key difference here is like people don't respond to data, as we know.
00:48:23.000Like, if you go from like a thousand murders one year to 500 murders, it's like, yeah, that's quite the reduction, but like you're still dealing with 500.
00:48:33.000And so, like, kind of going back to the thing where I was saying, like, you know, area stuff, right?
00:48:37.000Like, when I was on with you a few days ago, you know, talking about how, like, Beverly Hills now has, like, drive-by shootings, like, okay, so if all of LA has gotten safer on the whole, but, like, now Beverly Hills deals with, like, violent crime, you know, it's like, so, oh, then the people might go, oh, you know, rich people, it's like, it's about time that you deal with this, you know, it's like, okay, sure.
00:48:58.000But it's like, that means that there's nowhere to get away from anything, right?
00:49:01.000Like, if you don't like the way something is, like, my hometown is definitely worse off than it was when I was little.
00:49:23.000There's nowhere, again, like it's always, and this is why going back to Pratt, like if you're a mother, it's always like the mother's thing with children.
00:49:29.000Like you can't do your normal thing where you would be safe.
00:49:31.000It's like, look, we're not going into the bad.
00:49:32.000Like when I was a kid, you know, there was, of course, like everything, like never go to Compton, right?
00:50:09.000And this actually, like, Again, I mean, I'm not, I know I'm like from California, not everything is about California, but this is the thing too, where it's like you can't live a life, set things up where you can just run away from stuff.
00:50:20.000And when people are talking about why should we're about California, our problems become your problems.
00:50:26.000And then, like, the liberals that you guys hate from California, they're going to move to your town and they're going to do the same thing.
00:50:31.000They're going to vote for the same thing.
00:52:46.000It's not the only measure of deterioration in the city.
00:52:50.000Like in California, if you're walking around and everything is disgusting, all the infrastructure is terrible, it's super outdated.
00:52:57.000It's like there are a bunch of different measures that are still important that aren't just, although crime, I think, is probably number one, that would also point to just things not.
00:53:06.000Well, crime's kind of like the maybe the driver of it.
00:53:10.000And you kind of deal with like a broken window thing.
00:53:12.000And like, even when the crime is gone, whether it be permanently or temporarily, the ramifications are still there.
00:53:19.000So, if anyone is familiar with the Santa Monica Promenade, so it's this big like walk street that goes for blocks and blocks.
00:53:29.000And I have all these memories growing up as a kid with my parents walking down there and like getting like ice cream and like going to the stores and all that kind of stuff.
00:53:36.000And they have these like, you know, dinosaurs made out of ivy and cool shit like that.
00:53:43.000Every, like, there's like four businesses left on the whole thing.
00:53:47.000And it's like, this was like a, like, a central part of like LA, of like, of LA culture and kind of getting to, whether it be tourists or locals, like, it was this really fun, amazing thing.
00:53:59.000And why would it, the rent's too high, the crime's too high, all this stuff just sort of lingers around.
00:54:04.000And though if you walk down there, there's, you're not witnessing crime.
00:54:08.000It's kind of like, well, the potential for it or what used to be there, people get scared off and they just don't want to go back.
00:54:13.000Well, getting back to your question, your original question of why do we think it's going down or the statistics say it's going down, I think people are inside all day on their phones.
00:54:21.000I think there's less people out doing things.
00:54:33.000Well, that's what I wanted to hit on was because President Trump, he was catching some flack the other day because he said, I think it's only 2% of the population that's really roughing everyone up.
00:54:41.000And 98%, he's like, I can deal with 2%.
00:56:14.000So that's like, we want to see, I think, proof that Trump's reforms working is if violent crime shoots through the roof, if teenage pregnancies shoot through the roof, if everyone is like alcoholics, that means America's back.
00:56:42.000Just like Bukele showed us, if you just put the criminals in jail.
00:56:47.000But we, we don't, the thing is, we live in a society where people don't want to fix things.
00:56:51.000Like, and I had some, some tweet about Spencer Pratt, like, kind of go viral, and someone was like, you know, saying he's not going to win or he sucks or he doesn't have an experience or, You know, something like that.
00:57:10.000It's like, no, you realize these other people don't want to fix it because they benefit from it.
00:57:14.000And that's like the kind of weirdest, just like cognitive dissonance.
00:57:19.000If for a large percent of the population, especially liberals, they don't understand that the people that supposedly represent them don't want to solve a problem that they're talking about solving.
00:57:29.000Like, if one of their organizations said, we're going to like cure this thing, what I would assume is they were going to make it 10 times worse.
00:57:36.000Well, that goes to what you were saying with the crumbling infrastructure in California and a lot of the metro cities in the country.
00:57:40.000It's just like it goes down to not just crime, but the misplaced priorities of the ruling class.
00:57:45.000And, I mean, of course, I mean, California spent $14.5 million on reparations, studying reparations, figuring out ways to hand out reparations.
00:58:23.000And people also still have like a really high tolerance for antisocial behavior.
00:58:26.000So, even if we like had this Dubai level infrastructure, it would just get destroyed in like three years because like we tolerate, again, to Trump's point, 2% of the population.
00:58:45.000You gotta do like a Jedi Force Wave to get it to flush.
00:58:48.000And then they have like a leaf blower on the wall because like 2% of the population's going in there and like, you know, taz from Looney Tunes, like destroying and everything.
00:58:56.000So now we have to like kid proof society because these 2%ers.
00:59:00.000And also because we don't wanna actually enforce the crime.
00:59:02.000Like there are no teen takeovers in Dubai because they'll just like cut your hand.
00:59:12.000Do anything to you if you just like mess things up a bit, you know?
00:59:14.000And also, like, law enforcement has to be unapologetic about it.
00:59:17.000I think people still like kind of flinch at the thought of like arresting the guy that commits the crime because it's like there was that obviously with like the George Floyd era of things that totally shifted the narrative and I think kind of like rewired a lot of people's brains when it comes to crime, even though it's like one of those things where it's like, yeah, if like you punch an old lady, you should go to jail.
00:59:36.000But now there's like all these weird nuances people are programmed to have.
00:59:39.000We need to like actually feel okay about enforcing the law.
00:59:43.000And I think we're getting there, but like the cops, even the cops that like, Like, oh, I would just love to throw this fucker in jelly.
00:59:49.000Just know I'm going to pick, if I pick him up, I don't have either the.
00:59:52.000If the wrong Karen is taking a video, no, no, it's just like, I'm going to bring him back.
00:59:57.000Well, actually, it's like, I actually don't have the authority to bring him back.
01:00:00.000I'd literally love to, and then he would be let go anyway.
01:00:02.000And that's the kind of thing that then you demoralize the police officers.
01:00:05.000There was some kind of viral thing I saw on Twitter last few days where some guy was filming something in LA and he got assaulted by some passerby, and the cop was there and he's like, You can come into the courthouse and make some sort of like statement against him, but like, I didn't see it, so I can't do anything.
01:00:27.000And then, you know, this other guy's like basically saying, you're impotent.
01:00:30.000Like, as a police officer, you're impotent.
01:00:32.000The guy's like, I'm just doing my job.
01:00:33.000And it's like, yeah, you're not allowed to do your job.
01:00:35.000And so it doesn't matter at what stage you, like, if a cop were to do something, their life would be ruined.
01:01:43.000Well, now we've all agreed as a society that it's like, wow, it feels a bit wrong to enforce such a minor rule.
01:01:48.000And then these people are able to get away scot free.
01:01:50.000This is why I like, before we get into the next story, this is why I like John Doyle's proposal, which is you get a punch card, and if you commit 10 misdemeanors, like, non traffic related, obviously, you get killed.
01:01:58.000I think it's like, that makes a lot of sense.
01:02:07.000It's like, okay, you graffitied 10 times.
01:02:09.000That's like honestly demonstrating that you're like holding society up just as much as someone else because you are literally promoting ugliness, you know.
01:02:17.000Like, I was in Austin like a month ago and I went like a little canoe ride or something.
01:02:22.000And we're gonna eat the bridge, and I'm like, first off, how do they get under here?
01:02:26.000Yeah, but it's also like, why, why, yeah, why?
01:02:29.000Because you like because they suck and they're it's like, I feel like like something bad, really bad should happen to you, yeah, you're just gonna start.
01:02:35.000Graffiti, like, right, you know, it's like, and it's not even just graffiti.
01:02:38.000Like, oh, no, like, repeated, like, violent crimes, like Irina Zarutska's killer.
01:02:44.000He had however many, like, and like, how many times he had been arrested for like violent crimes, and like, he was still on the bus.
01:02:52.000But everyone has the courage to attack the repeat violent criminal offenders.
01:02:55.000I'm saying, does anyone have the courage to attack the minor crime offenders that commit them regularly?
01:02:59.000Like, a guy that has four littering tickets, you're out, you're done.
01:03:03.000But I want the judges, I want the judges.
01:03:05.000Yeah, well, there's a lot to unravel here.
01:03:07.000I think we should go international here before we pivot to a Probably the most important story of the story of the day, which is Hooters.
01:03:12.000Let's jump into this story from the BBC, and that is the British broadcasting company, everyone.
01:03:17.000Rubio says Cuba is a threat to the United States as Havana accuses him of lies.
01:03:21.000So everyone needs to put on their geopolitics hats for this story.
01:03:24.000Cuba poses a, quote, national security threat to the United States, and the likelihood of a peaceful agreement is, quote, not high, U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio said.
01:03:33.000His comments just come a day after the United States charged Cuba's former president, Raul Castro, with murder over the 1996 drowning.
01:03:41.000Or downing, 1996 downing of two planes, resulting in the killing of U.S. nationals.
01:03:47.000Rubio said Washington's preference was a diplomatic solution, but warned that President Donald Trump had the right and the obligation to protect his country against any threat.
01:03:55.000Obviously, Cuba's pissed off about this.
01:03:57.000Their foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, a really Cuban name, by the way, accused Rubio of lies and said the island never posed a threat to the United States.
01:04:32.000Well, isn't the whole thing that they're not like a direct military threat, but as they've always been, they're like right off of our coast.
01:05:15.000It's like, yeah, but it's, you're pissing me off.
01:05:17.000Also, like, I get that foreign policy is a huge issue and like deeply unpopular for obvious reasons with Iran, but I think it's definitely an easier sell for the American people just by the mere fact that like Cuba is in our hemisphere.
01:05:31.000Like, I actually think like the Venezuela thing was kind of.
01:05:34.000Was not like the quagmire that people were scared it's going to be, not just because it literally was like a 40 minute operation, but also because it's like, oh, Trump was like, well, we just will get their oil and that's good for us.
01:05:45.000And people are like, okay, that kind of makes sense, I guess.
01:05:48.000Yeah, you have all the gaming commissions lining up to open casinos in Havana.
01:05:52.000And I'm like, I don't care if it's, I'm sorry, I don't really care if it's good for Cubans.
01:06:09.000This will fire up not just Cubans, but like from what I understand, because I'm one of these people that just like paints broad brushstrokes across the world.
01:06:15.000As I understand it, there's other Hispanic groups that are also like would like to see Cuba fall.
01:06:20.000Probably not Mexicans, but like Nicaraguans, I think would be quite excited to see Cuba fall because that indicates that things could change in their country.
01:06:26.000So again, like, you know, you make a play on Cuba soon, right before the midterms.
01:06:31.000If it's another success like Venezuela, that's a boost in the polls.
01:06:34.000I think that plays well with the American population.
01:06:36.000Yeah, I mean, the Venezuela thing was just like really fucking cool.
01:06:40.000Honestly, it was and some people had libtards that were like, it's kind of sick.
01:06:45.000Everyone is, everyone's like, when they first came out, all like the, you know, people dubbed the panic and it's like, oh, we're going to get like a massive like refugee crisis or something.
01:06:55.000So, like, if the negative effects of what people always have problems with on a geopolitical scale aren't there, then there's the cons list gets much, much shorter.
01:07:05.000And, you know, got again, got to go back to the Don Roe doctrine thing.
01:07:09.000Like, Because every, you know, if Mexico is such a problem because of, of course, the border and then the drugs, and the thing is, all these nationals from all these other countries who have their own weird terrorist leanings come in through Mexico.
01:07:24.000So fixing the border doesn't just solve Mexico, it solves all the problems that then get brought to Mexico, just like dealing with Cuba deals all the problems that get funneled through Cuba.
01:07:34.000And so these kind of things are actually like much more important, I agree, than like on the other side of the world.
01:07:38.000And there's something to be said about the fact, and people have made this is not my thing, this is me regurgitating what people have speculated, is that, you know, the Trump administration.
01:07:45.000Keeps getting jammed up on domestic policy because of courts, because Congress is like horrible and retarded again.
01:07:50.000So, like, there's a lot of ways that the Trump agenda is getting jammed up domestically.
01:07:54.000Some people have observed that that could be the reason he's making such drastic plays in foreign policy internationally, is because that is one realm what the executive branch has.
01:08:04.000They can basically do whatever they want, they can exert his will unfettered.
01:08:08.000Whenever someone says that he's doing something internationally, why don't you not focus on that and do something domestically?
01:08:15.000It's like, He doesn't just have the, like, oh yeah, I would just, of course, I'm not doing that because I'm doing this.
01:08:19.000It's like, well, I can't do that, but I can do this.
01:08:23.000Yeah, it's like the Trump administration, they declare a war on Iran, and someone's like, why didn't you focus on mass deportations?
01:08:28.000And they're like, oh, yeah, why didn't we do that?
01:08:31.000And it's like, no, I mean, there's a little bit more to it.
01:08:33.000I mean, I agree, like, there's a bit of frustration over how we've allocated political capital.
01:08:37.000I think there's a big conversation to be had there, and I would broadly agree.
01:08:40.000But I think that's true is that, look, Trump is obviously this kind of generational, he's a turning point in American history.
01:08:47.000We're going to call this era the Trump era.
01:08:50.000He wants to make his mark on, and he wants to.
01:08:52.000I think he wants to mop up all of these.
01:08:55.000And he's trying to mop up a lot of these international situations that a lot of presidents either didn't want to touch or they didn't have the backing to touch or they didn't know how to fix.
01:09:14.000And if Iran gets mopped up somewhat well, or at least we get out of it in one piece, Then, yeah, I mean, maybe Cuba and Venezuela are the ones that make it to the history books, and Iran's like, wow, you know, it was a bad idea.
01:09:25.000Sorry to pivot, hard pivot, but it just came out that Tulsi Gabbard resigned.
01:11:00.000Regardless, I mean, we were talking geopolitics, and this has a huge implication because a lot of people have, you know, pointed out correctly that Tulsi Gabbard, historically very anti intervention.
01:11:09.000I mean, you would have to think she's been biting her tongue for the last two, three months over Iran.
01:11:13.000I mean, people have said Vance, you know, people, you know, have pointed out Vance has gone a bit quiet since the Iran war started.
01:11:19.000Is that a sign that he is like deeply opposed to the war, or is that maybe him just shifting strategy?
01:11:25.000We're seeing Tulsi Gabbard, obviously Joe Kent.
01:11:28.000You know, there's been a few more quiet dismissals that were appointees that have left the foray.
01:11:34.000And I think this just adds to, again, there's just a shift.
01:11:38.000There's a shift happening in the Trump administration right now.
01:11:41.000Well, I think Tulsi's been looking for a way out for a while.
01:11:44.000And I'm sure that her husband has a bit of, you know, that's part of it, right?
01:11:48.000Her husband being sick, that's probably part of the reason why she decided to resign when she did.
01:11:52.000But I do think there was that timing coincided and she was like, okay, this is a reason that's not going to slam the administration, that's not going to make anybody look bad.
01:12:02.000But it's also an offshoot of what we saw with Massey this week.
01:12:04.000It's either get on Team Trump or get off the boat.
01:12:08.000I think she's been wavering a bit because she's reversed a lot of her positions that she had prior to joining the administration.
01:12:14.000So I think it was kind of something that was inevitable.
01:12:16.000She was one of those people that was not going to get on Team Trump completely.
01:12:26.000It's not that she just happened to be a Democrat, like RFK, where he has the plausible deniability of, oh, I just shifted my views.
01:12:31.000She casted votes that were in lockstep with the Democrat agenda.
01:12:36.000She was, again, ran for president as a Democrat.
01:12:39.000And, okay, yes, she was outflanking pretty much the entire field on the right on a few issues.
01:12:43.000But on the majority of issues, again, no one would have really batted an eye.
01:12:46.000And she did garner support in a Democrat primary.
01:12:50.000But I think that has more to say about, again, what the Trump administration was trying to do going into this term than it does about her, than it does about the Democrat base.
01:12:57.000Because, you know, some people said, well, the Democrats, they're going to moderate.
01:13:00.000And it's like, well, that's not the base.
01:13:02.000I think this indicates to your point, Chris.
01:13:04.000I mean, I think it's true, is I think the Trump administration right now, the atmosphere, the mood is purge people that are disloyal because we're in a time right now, a lot of media pressure, a lot of longtime Trump allies have flipped on them.
01:13:17.000Right now, max loyalty is sort of the culture, the environment.
01:13:21.000And I can't actually really blame the Trump administration.
01:13:23.000I mean, again, when you're bleeding allies, this is the time to close ranks.
01:13:26.000When everyone loves you, it's quite easy to let anyone in.
01:13:28.000It's like, all right, yeah, let's build this big coalition.
01:13:30.000But again, once that coalition breaks down, at least in the media, I mean, I still think the base by and large, obviously, I mean, Trump scalped all of his opponents in the last primary cycle.
01:13:39.000It indicates that the base is probably a bit more on board with the Trump agenda than a lot of people have pointed out.
01:13:44.000But I think it's true, the general atmosphere, the general mood right now is tight in ranks.
01:13:48.000It's kind of what you get when you stitch together such a big coalition.
01:13:52.000She was definitely a big part of the reason why a lot of the independents got on board.
01:13:58.000She was very famously, obviously, anti war.
01:14:01.000And so I can imagine her being in a position where she is having a lot of this happen right in front of her.
01:14:06.000And there are even reports, I have no idea if this is true or not, of her being cut out of certain intelligence meetings because she just did not see eye to eye with the administration on certain things that were very important, not just within the political sense, but to voters.
01:14:20.000These are things that you've seen a lot of discourse online, at least I have.
01:14:24.000Where people feel like she's kind of forced to violate her conscience in this position.
01:14:28.000And so, similar to what Joe Kent said when he resigned.
01:14:30.000And so, I imagine it's probably something similar going on.
01:14:33.000It's interesting because, you know, this kind of, again, we got to start talking about 2028.
01:14:38.000And there's this kind of understanding that if Rubio and Vance run against each other, we could see a situation in which the Vance camp is kind of this ensemble of, you know, Trump aligned people, but they've had massive disagreements with the administration and they got off the train.
01:14:52.000And then the Rubio camp may be more of sort of the more.
01:14:55.000Establishment elements, but also some of the loyalists that say, okay, I'll play ball at the establishment to get the football down the field.
01:15:01.000And that's going to put the base in a bit of a dilemma here because, again, you have really popular.
01:15:04.000I mean, Tulsi is a very popular figure.
01:15:07.000I would say extremely popular within the Trump base, but I think nationally, I think a lot of people still have a soft spot for it.
01:15:12.000I mean, I don't want to put words in Tim's mouth, but as I remember, if I remember correctly, he was already leaning towards Trump.
01:15:17.000But again, Tulsi getting added to the roster is kind of what really made it like a lot of people were in that situation where they were like, Trump's saying the right things, but having a lot of these people added to the coalition.
01:15:28.000Tulsi, RFK, that gave independents and a lot of undecided voters permission to vote for him because they were like, oh, well, if you're willing to bring these people into the fold, you are kind of extending an olive branch to somebody who is not traditionally a Republican, but has concerns that the administration said they cared about.
01:15:45.000And the fracturing, sorry, the fracturing of that coalition has also sort of trickled down to the fracturing of MAGA, I think.
01:15:54.000It's like, you know, and the midterms are going to be a really big sign of, Of where things are going.
01:15:59.000Of course, like you're saying, the primaries have shown that the base is still kind of completely behind Trump, whatever he says.
01:16:08.000But Trump understands that whatever he has to get, whatever he can get done in these four years, and that's almost like half gone at this point.
01:16:15.000And at the end of those four years, if everyone is a much better off, that's going to be reflected in what the legacy is of not just his term, but who carries on the torch for that.
01:16:27.000And so it's like, okay, he did all these things to get elected.
01:16:30.000And it's like, what I would imagine everyone wants is for things to get better.
01:16:34.000And everyone has their kind of maybe like more pet issues or things they care more about.
01:16:38.000But if the general well being of the people, Is better after his four years, then he will have done the correct job.
01:16:44.000And if he finds that these people are in his way, and not just that, he gets all this criticism from people on the right who say, You're not doing enough of this.
01:17:57.000I mean, I think, look, Trump's consolidating right now.
01:17:59.000And again, if this manifests in domestic victories, then yeah, I mean, true.
01:18:03.000But again, if this doesn't manifest in further domestic victories, if Iran continues to be jammed up, you know, a lot of Republican voters are going to have some tough conversations going into the midterms, but certainly going to the primaries.
01:18:14.000I think it just gives your MTG wing more fuel going into the primaries.
01:18:23.000That's the difficult thing about managing such a large coalition that inevitably will fracture in many important places is that now you aren't really left with an obvious heir to the throne.
01:18:35.000Everyone's kind of floating Vance or Rubio, but the reason they're floating those two names is because they kind of represent very broadly, and I'm sure there's a bunch of overlap, but they broadly represent more of the anti foreign wars people going more in the Vance camp than you hear people who are.
01:18:52.000More enthusiastic about interventionism kind of backing Rubio.
01:18:56.000I think this is a fault line that's going to be really important for future election cycles.
01:19:02.000Midterms, I think, will be a good way to see how this kind of plays out because it's like, yeah, there are definitely some speed bumps from trying to implement domestic policy for sure.
01:19:11.000We can't even get the Save America Act passed in the Senate.
01:19:14.000And it's literally just because there's no will to do it.
01:19:18.000There's no procedural issue with trying to get it done.
01:19:21.000If they wanted to, they totally would.
01:19:23.000But Like, honestly, there is kind of a feeling, I think, where, like, yeah, uh, actually, a lot of our priorities at home maybe are not being considered the same way or kind of put on the back burner right now because we're busy doing all this other stuff.
01:19:37.000Yeah, I mean, that certainly seems to be the mood, even among Trump loyalists.
01:19:41.000I would say that is a bit of a concern.
01:19:42.000I mean, this is why you know it's interesting.
01:19:44.000I think I consider myself part of the broader, you know, Trump loyalist, you know, branch of the Republican Party.
01:19:50.000I'm exceptionally loyal to Trump again.
01:19:52.000I believe he's the only show in town, quite frankly.
01:19:54.000That's the main reason for a lot of my support.
01:19:56.000I mean, I've been opposed to the Iran wars at the outset.
01:19:59.000That's usually the first spot where really loyal MAGA supporters have started to kind of turn away or to say, you know, like to voice their disapproval was the war.
01:20:09.000That was like the first breaking point for even some of the most loyal.
01:20:12.000I think the first breaking point was when he said, Are we still talking about Jeffrey Epstein?
01:20:18.000Yeah, I mean, that aside, but like, you know, I think when it comes to like kind of your policy wonks, again, I think for me, I'm still going to be, you know, backing Trump.
01:22:02.000But yeah, this is, I think, concerning.
01:22:06.000I think this isn't just a, oh, ha ha, like Hooters is making a business decision.
01:22:09.000There's some jokes to be made here, but I do think this indicates that.
01:22:12.000Like, American society is, you know, I'm going to make a broad philosophical point here over sexualized in the wrong ways and under sexualized in the right ways.
01:22:21.000And you're seeing like really weird like results of this.
01:22:25.000And the Hooters thing is just like fairly on the nose, kitschy, masculine sexuality manifested in a restaurant.
01:24:11.000I don't know what their numbers are, but there was so much backlash that I almost thought that this was.
01:24:15.000Well, I hope it was like, we're I hope now and we're doing burgers.
01:24:19.000I think they should try to call that seasonal.
01:24:21.000But, you know, something that's interesting here, and I want to make this point, and this is a very real point.
01:24:25.000I know Josh will back me up, so I'm glad he's here Hooters really.
01:24:29.000It really epitomized the demographic overhaul of the United States because of the wardrobe change.
01:24:33.000So, historically, the Hooters uniform emphasized, and I'm just going to use anatomical terms here emphasized the breasts, and the gluteus was kind of the junior partner.
01:24:44.000And then they actually radically changed the uniform, where now, again, the caboose was now emphasized, and then the breasts were downgraded back to junior partner.
01:24:54.000And what was interesting there is I think that actually indicated a lot of the demographic change in the United States because historically, white men.
01:24:59.000We're interested in the breasts and then that Hooters has been undergoing third worldism.
01:25:04.000It's been, it's becoming very brown coated.
01:25:06.000I'm sorry, but it's just let's cut the brass tax here.
01:25:18.000So I used to like my friends and I would go to Hooters in high school and college because, like, as soon as you have a car, we would drive 50 miles to get there.
01:25:26.000Not 50, but we would drive all the way to Long Beach.
01:28:30.000Like, there's, I know this is a low level, like a low resolution take on this, but I think it's positive.
01:28:35.000At least in the gender goblin world that we live in, some level of femininity is being appreciated.
01:28:41.000I'm here for it, even if they're kids.
01:28:43.000I, you know, I just think that, yeah, but the conversation of not wanting kids to learn sexual things at a young age can't make it inherently sexual about them.
01:28:51.000They're already learning it, you know.
01:28:53.000I know, well, they do it, they're using it.
01:28:56.000Yeah, these lip tarts do a bait and switch where they're like, oh, yeah, I'm going to take my kids to the gay, like the molestation party or whatever.
01:29:42.000But how much divorce rates are going up anyway?
01:29:44.000Like, where are all the divorced dads going to congregate?
01:29:46.000What's interesting is, and this is part of the problem, is divorce rates have never been lower because the only people getting married are like dialed in.
01:30:38.000Yeah, but you know, this is a big problem.
01:30:40.000This is a big problem is that, again, like everyone emphasizes like the most gruesome, horrific parts of like sexuality, which is like the women are reading like smut, like the most disturbing books you've ever seen in your entire life.
01:30:53.000Yeah, and then the men are like watching like the most disturbing pornography you've ever seen in your entire life.
01:30:57.000But like normal, ordinary, boilerplate sexuality is like frowned upon.
01:31:01.000So, uh, uh, I swear, I don't know from personal experience.
01:31:05.000I just think I'm using what the culture is telling me as some information here.
01:31:12.000The rise of OnlyFans, I think, actually shows that men are getting less fucked up into weird shit sexually and they want some sort of semblance of an emotional connection with the person that they're observing.
01:31:25.000They can like pay to talk to talk because they want like they actually feel like, yeah, because you know, some girls will like post their earnings online and they show how much of it comes from like.
01:31:42.000So actually, you have a bunch of lonely guys that they're not looking for like a bunch of like depraved, weird, fucked up sex stuff.
01:31:49.000They actually just like want someone to connect with.
01:31:53.000And so, getting someone that you might have some kind of attraction to in, like, even a deeper sense, then you kind of get to see them in a sexual sense.
01:32:02.000So, then you get a completely neutered and asexual, full romantic and sexual experience.
01:32:10.000Because I think the guys that have filtered into consuming OnlyFans content are the guys that would ordinarily just get girlfriends and wives.
01:32:16.000I still think, like, the depraved guys who are into all the weird stuff are still engaging with that.
01:32:22.000But now you've picked off a group of guys who would ordinarily be well adjusted, and now they're getting siloed into OnlyFans because the dating market's a train wreck.
01:32:29.000Like, you know, they don't know how to put together a good hinge profile, which, you know, ChatGPT can do, by the way.
01:32:36.000Okay, so like you were saying about the downfall of Hooters, though, you can't discount how many of just like the third world, a bunch of guys who would never ever get to meet these girls.
01:33:08.000But also, like the chat thing, I imagine that, like, I think, yeah, probably there are some people who are just looking for like a personal connection.
01:33:15.000And it's definitely easier to kind of like fake that or to have a similar experience just like online.
01:33:21.000It's like definitely less intimidating than going up to a woman.
01:33:24.000You can like just instead pay her $5 and like she'll say that like you're handsome or whatever.
01:33:29.000But, like, I do think that it's still pretty much.
01:33:34.000And, like, it's still, it still is a trend that, like, from what I understand, that, like, women who get involved in OnlyFans or kind of like soft launch a career in this, you know, industry, if you want to call it, they eventually kind of up the ante because that does make them more money.
01:33:49.000The crazier things that they do, at the end of the day, like, the more degenerate it becomes, the market is bigger and it's, they're willing to pay more for that sort of thing.
01:33:58.000Like, that's very much still a reality.
01:34:00.000No, I mean, look, again, it's like, I think what, What the guys are wanting is a sexual something, even if it's just visual, with someone who they feel like a degree of exclusivity.
01:35:08.000Oh, well, is this gonna give me a pole vault into Hollywood?
01:35:10.000And it really, I think it's a very insightful, brilliant show.
01:35:13.000I would even say that, like, the Sydney Sweeney, and I haven't seen, I've only seen like a couple scenes from the new season.
01:35:19.000I haven't seen the whole show in its entirety.
01:35:21.000So maybe I'm not the most qualified to say, but like, I wouldn't even say that her storyline, the OnlyFans storyline, is overly dramatized.
01:35:28.000I'd say that's like very realistic, actually.
01:35:30.000And I thought it was refreshing to see, you know, such a huge show that's so huge in pop culture.
01:35:37.000Accurately represent something that so many women have been convinced is like totally chill and super empowering and just like a great way to make a quick buck.
01:35:45.000Because there are definitely girls that I went to like high school with or that I've worked with who, you know, were like, oh, shoot, I, and I like need money really quick or like, or they think that it's that they have all of the power in that scenario.
01:35:58.000And they, you know, start in OnlyFans and they're able to make thousands and thousands of dollars by exploiting themselves.
01:36:04.000It's, it's like, it's a really, I don't think it can be overstated how kind of depressing it is to see people that you went to school with, you know, do things like that.
01:36:14.000You know, so when we were, Talking before about how, like, uh, talking about crime and how things were like segregated, yeah.
01:36:20.000So, it used to be like if you were like a porn star or something, you're like in that kind of like part of society and you're like removed from all of us, like normal people.
01:36:28.000And so, it's like it's okay when it's that, like, you had to go to the store and buy like a magazine and be embarrassed if you wanted to do it.
01:36:34.000And if you wanted to be a porn star, you had to put yourself in a really weird situation.
01:36:38.000They used to want it, they had to fight for it.
01:36:41.000How many casting couches have you been on?
01:36:42.000Damn it, no, but like, really, like, you know, you had these people who, like.
01:37:13.000And then this is just happening in schools.
01:37:16.000That's when it becomes way more destructive when the people who are.
01:37:21.000Part of normal society, or at least trying to be normal, it gets into there, and that's like where things get really.
01:37:25.000I've also seen videos where, like, the siblings of some of these OnlyFans girls who have like younger brothers, oh my gosh, and they're like, it's so bad.
01:37:33.000I don't know, they're pleading with their sister who thinks that like what she's doing is totally insulated and harmless.
01:37:38.000Like, guys getting destroyed, and he's like, I'm getting bullied relentlessly at school.
01:38:00.000And it's not just you, the person that's doing OnlyFans that's suffering from it.
01:38:04.000It's the people around them, it's their family members, it's their future children who are going to have to grow up seeing that their mom's digital footprint is not just like cringe selfies from middle school.
01:38:58.000OnlyFans girls who have social media profiles that are not pornographic, like that's just like a day in my life, they're exorbitantly rich.
01:39:04.000They're flying all their friends out to Coachella.
01:39:07.000They have all of like the expensive bags and everything like that.
01:39:10.000And most girls, I think, to an extent, look at that and they're like, wow, that's desirable, you know, and they feel they're convinced that it's within reach.
01:39:19.000So I think, like, yeah, I do think that you could just do your nine to five and answer emails all day.
01:39:24.000But I think girls, some girls, see what could be and are motivated by that.
01:39:40.000I mean, there's still like many points that can be made on that.
01:39:43.000I mean, one thing is Hooters probably siphoned off a lot of these women that would ordinarily go into, again, into OnlyFans and these sorts of things.
01:39:50.000Because I think partially, like, it's this, again, it's this weird sense.
01:39:54.000I'm trying to drill down on it, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
01:39:56.000But it's like, it's almost like people are repressed because they don't have access to sex because, like, marriages and relationships have completely broken down.
01:40:05.000But at the same time, they're over sexualized in a way where there's no exclusivity to it anymore.
01:40:10.000And this goes far beyond what we're talking about, like, obviously, over pornography and stuff, is like people.
01:40:15.000Even like in the evangelical world, they will just like spill their guts about their like sex life and this sort of thing.
01:40:19.000Like, you'll see these weird TikToks where it's like, yeah, where it's like, here's how we like brought like Spice back into the bedroom.
01:40:26.000And I'm like, you're two fairly normal people, and I'm like learning about your sex.
01:41:25.000He's the wise older man that, like, cares about you because he's, like, literally your next door neighbor, literal next door neighbor, and he's, like, your teacher your whole life.
01:41:32.000So, for, like, for, I feel like my generation, we kind of grew up, like, he was sort of this, like, weird paternalistic guy.
01:41:50.000And we can sort of, again, like there's the thing over there that lets you get into the weird stuff and also just like do whatever you do in the privacy of your own home.
01:41:59.000And you know, you can like allude, but then it's like you're just like talking openly to promote to the whole world all these weird details.
01:42:05.000And it's like, no one needs to know that.
01:42:08.000Like, I, yeah, it's so awesome that him and his wife are having sex in their 90s.
01:42:32.000We just don't have clear lines anymore because we all have our phones and we're on social media.
01:42:38.000And so what it means is to say your things like that, a random thought that you have, you put out on a tweet and it could get millions of views and you can lose your job.
01:42:51.000And it's going to be really weird to see the.
01:42:54.000The kind of like snapback rubber band effect from that.
01:42:56.000Because, okay, my first thought, like in the last few days, I was just like, I mean, this is, I'm not the first person to say this, but like, we're going to get to the point where every single person running for political office has had social media since they were a kid.
01:44:41.000And like, my parents aren't from America, so like, we wouldn't eat.
01:44:44.000I didn't have like a lot of important American experiences.
01:44:48.000Growing up, but like from what I understand, people would like go, like their families would go together and sit down in this restaurant and eat together.
01:44:59.000So, so like people don't even, people just door dash everything.
01:45:02.000So, going out, like we didn't really go out to Pizza Hut, but like going out for pizza was a thing, like pizza night, you know.
01:45:11.000And so, like going out to it, like I mean, I got pizza last night, um, and I was like the only person in the whole place, but um.
01:45:18.000You know, people, people, I mean, going out to dinner is, of course, not a novel concept and people still do it.
01:45:24.000But there was kind of this more like, we're going to go out and have an experience that's not just like.
01:45:29.000I think that's what they're trying to bring back.
01:45:30.000Because, you know, what the millennials, like the hipster millennials did, this is like the 2010s were, we're bringing all this like higher quality food to places and kind of like industrial setting and like artisanal stuff and the micro breweries and all that kind of stuff.
01:47:34.000It's not a Smithsonian museum, but if even if you're not a Christian, the museum of the Bible is pretty fascinating, mainly because I think it's the third floor.
01:47:42.000They have all of these old, they have a massive collection, just all these different transcripts, and they have different Bible prints, which is pretty cool.
01:47:51.000They have like a few original Gutenberg press books.
01:47:54.000The Library of Congress has a Gutenberg as well.
01:47:56.000Yeah, they have a Gutenberg Library of Congress.
01:47:58.000So, um, beyond that, uh, if you like food, you should go to my personal plug is Soul Spice, it's like a Korean Chipotle.
01:48:11.000So, yeah, Floyd is pretty, she's junky.
01:48:13.000Yeah, I would say it's kind of obvious, but go to Arlington during changing of the guard, even if it's raining, because it's just incredible to watch that dedication with all weather.
01:49:36.000Does the panel think we have or are entering a period where attending gentlemen's clubs are now a lower tier of degeneracy due to it requiring face to face interactions?
01:50:03.000You know, because like the act itself though is probably at least it's like you show up, you like get dressed and go somewhere.
01:50:10.000I guess if you go unironically, then yeah.
01:50:12.000No, see, the thing is because like now people just like see escorts, like because escorts are so much more common now because.
01:50:19.000You have social media, which finds like their OnlyFans page, and then all these girls do escorts now.
01:50:23.000So, like, I don't even think strip clubs are like they're door dashing their women.
01:50:27.000Yeah, no, literally everything is just made to order.
01:50:32.000Yeah, um, no one wants to leave the house, no one wants to go out and do things, which of course, then that so, like, I mean, it's totally pivoting from that question, but I now feel like the people out in the world are the people who truly want to be there.
01:50:44.000Yeah, so whenever I go do something, I feel like now we're actually selecting for people who like really want to.
01:50:49.000Especially because it costs like $40 to go outside anymore.
01:51:17.000My name is Jed asks with the 90 day mark of the Iran operation coming after Memorial Day weekend.
01:51:24.000Do you see an end coming soon, or do you think this runs through the summer and into the midterms?
01:51:29.000My personal take is it'll probably end around August or September.
01:51:33.000But look, Iran formalized their toll system.
01:51:36.000They want to put a toll on the Strait of Hormuz and they formalized it, which indicates that, look, they're trying to accumulate as much leverage as possible going into the current negotiations taking place.
01:51:46.000And on top of that, I think the miscalculation from the Trump administration was that Iran is not like any other country necessarily.
01:51:54.000Actually, the most ardent Zionists were correct.
01:52:27.000Yeah, I mean, I think that it would be smart to get something, you know, resolve it in some capacity before the midterms.
01:52:36.000I also think it would have been smart to wait after the midterms.
01:52:38.000If they were going to do anything at all, I think it probably would have been better to wait to make gas prices like $6 a gallon until after the round of elections in November.
01:52:49.000From what I understand, the argument behind the scenes was that, well, the time is now.
01:52:55.000By the time the midterms pass, they're going to have too many defensive capabilities and we won't be as effective.
01:53:02.000I'm obviously not super pervious to whether or not that's accurate, but I think that they will.
01:53:07.000Wrap it up in some way, you know, kind of mop it up as best as they can.
01:53:12.000The question, I guess, is whether or not Americans will still be feeling the pain afterwards.
01:54:00.000That's why I said, I mean, it's like, look, the victory condition for Iran is just survival.
01:54:04.000So to your point, I mean, look, there's two ways this goes either Trump strikes a deal that he can take home and say, well, we, you know, finished off their nuclear capabilities this time.
01:54:15.000Or to your point, you're the finish of off.
01:54:17.000Well, in a country as large as Iran, as complex as Iran, that's a three, four, potentially decade long process, depending on how entrenched they are.
01:54:26.000I'm sorry, this isn't going to get solved at the negotiating table.
01:54:28.000The Trump administration is going to just have to take their wounds here and survive.
01:54:33.000The thing, though, is that the Americans have a lot of capacity for this kind of stuff.
01:54:37.000That if the Trump administration does, again, just kind of accept that it's a stalemate, we might be worse off.
01:54:42.000I think we would be worse off leaving this war at the moment.
01:54:46.000The American people have very short memories.
01:54:48.000If you rack up a few domestic wins, you go and set the tone in Cuba, people, this will still be a blot on his record.
01:54:55.000You know, in conversations in 10, 20 years, people will probably bring up, well, the Iran thing is like, yeah, I know.
01:55:00.000But I think that, again, if you just say, look, it is what it is, let's take the L here, it's fine versus, to your point, that's the only way I see this playing out.
01:55:09.000Again, if we stay in and we try to finish them off, that's going to take a lot longer than you think.
01:55:12.000We already killed all their leadership.
01:55:23.000But also, like Iran, I mean, they killed, like, what, however many thousands, tens of thousands of their civilians leading up.
01:55:30.00040,000 is what I've heard a lot, like leading before the conflict.
01:55:35.000And so, like, the president threatening to take out their civilian infrastructure and kill more of their civilians, I'm not totally convinced that that is like something that they're super worried about.
01:55:44.000I'm like, they actually would like totally do it themselves.
01:55:47.000Like, they weren't happy to kill one of people themselves.
01:55:50.000Like, I don't think that's going to actually like damage or set Iran back in the way that like Americans think because, you know, we look at the 13 servicemen that died so far.
01:56:04.000Well, I mean, to your point, you know, not to like, I know everyone's like, oh, everything gets tied back to World War II, but this is appropriate in this situation.
01:56:10.000Is that what we did in Germany, in Dresden, is we bombed the German people because we were under the impression that they would blame this on their government and say, just get us out of this, like sign whatever deals necessary.
01:56:23.000Is they rallied, even though the German government was quite unpopular, specifically in Dresden, once we bombed them, they rallied around.
01:56:30.000Flag, and I think the exact same thing would happen in Iran again if we ratchet up the pressure and sort of targeting civilian infrastructure.
01:56:35.000I don't think the civilians say this is the Ayatollah's fault, yeah.
01:56:38.000They would say, Wow, we need to rally around the flag here.
01:56:40.000We may not like the Ayatollah, but these guys are coming in and bombing us, especially since we hit them first.
01:56:44.000Isn't that kind of like what Trump was saying, was like, Hey, the people of Iran, like now's your chance.
01:56:49.000Like, we kind of set the stage for you, and like, if they didn't take it, then you know, like the only way you get regime change is if you fully change everything, and like you're saying, that's going to take forever.
01:57:02.000So, you either need the people to revolt, you need some, you know, I've always said that, you know, regardless of our involvement, the only way that happens is if the people of Iran who could pose some sort of like counter something work directly with Israel and get like a bunch, because, you know, Mossad already has tons of people in Iran's thing, right?
01:57:23.000Like, there was one whole department of Iran, like the IRGC, that was like trying to snuff out who was Mossad, and everyone in there was actually Mossad.
01:57:33.000So it's like, unless you find some way to get the people in with, you know, with working in tandem with Israel locally, it's just nothing's going to happen.
01:57:56.000But even if that was the case, I mean, this was the problem to your point.
01:57:58.000I mean, there was a reporting, I think it was in the Washington Post earlier this week, that was the plan when we went in, we thought, if we can create a power vacuum, we're watching on TV all of these protests.
01:58:07.000They'll just step up and change the regime and we won't have to be too involved.