Part Of The Problem - A Pretty Pathetic D-Day

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Dave Smith brings you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave and Robbie "the Fire" Bernstein discuss the press conference by Scott Bessent in which he gave an ultimatum to other countries working with Iran, Trump's Truth Social post in which he pivots the Iran war back to a "humanitarian effort, Glen Beck's take on the war, and more.Support Our Sponsors:My Patriot Supply - http://preparelikedave.comHexclad - Find your forever cookware @hexclad and get10% off at https://hexclad.com/PROBLEM! #hexcladpartnerProlon - https://prolonlife.com/potpVanMan - https://vanman.shop/DAVEPart Of The Problem is available for early pre-release at https://partoftheproblem.com as well as an exclusive episode on Thursday!PORCH TOUR DATES HERE:https://robbernsteincomedy.com/eventsFind Run Your Mouth here:YouTube - http://youtube.com/@RunYourMouthiTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-your-mouth-podcast/id1211469807Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4ka50RAKTxFTxbtyPP8AHmFollow the show on social media:X:http://x.com/ComicDaveSmithhttp://x.com/RobbieTheFireInstagram:http://instagram.com/theproblemdavesmithhttp://instagram.com/robbiethefire#libertarian See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What's up? What's up, everybody. Welcome to a brand new episode, a part of the problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire. Bernstein. What's up, brother? How are you feeling today? I'm well. How are you, my friend? Good, good. Can't complain. I'm headed out to Austin very soon and excited for a fun weekend out there. Come on out, guys. It's the best weekend of the year, every year. I just love this club so much. And there are still tickets for Sunday available. They're going to sell out in the next couple days. So make sure you grab those if you do want to come out. The Sunday night shows, they're always a lot of fun too. So come on out to those. I'm excited to go there. I got a lot of new material that I'm excited to bring to the comedy mothership as you've been, you've seen some of

Rob. I got some new stuff that's working real good that I'm happy with. So very excited for this weekend. And then, of course, me and you, we're traveling all over the country together. You're traveling all over the place. What else? What else we got going on, Rob? Well, in the meantime, check out the Run Your mouth podcast, got a new one coming out tomorrow and got to confirm some more porches. Just have to actually sit down and do it. So be on the lookout for some more tour dates. And then I think the next one that you and I have is Dallas, which I do have a porch store that Thursday at a brewery. I'm sorry, I just pulled up the site, Louville first. Louville, then Fort Worth and Dallas. Yeah. And I'm going to be doing outside of Cincinnati on that Sunday, but also

haven't put the date out yet. So I have work to do. Coming soon. Coming soon. That makes it sound better than I have worked to do. TBD. All right, very good. Well, so let's get into some stuff here. Well, I got to say, Rob, it's, oh, I should, I'm sorry, I should let everybody know this because I did post this yesterday. And then it was trending on Twitter.

And then, of course, I don't know, you know, you know how they always say, Rob, in the news. They're like the, I forget, what's the, there's like an old saying that it was like the retraction, you know, the story. on the front page, but the retraction is on like the back page or something. But at the same time, I tweeted out that I'm debating Alan Dershowitz tonight. And then that got like 20,000, you know, likes and was like, and it was trending on Twitter. And then I tweeted out, hey, guys, sorry. They had to move it. And it just didn't go viral. But I'm like, hey, I don't know. I said the same thing on the same medium. Anyway, in case anybody didn't see that. Yeah. So this debate came together

very, very last minute, like within just the last few days. But evidently, it's, I don't know what happened. It was not on my end. I was ready to go, but it was some issue with either the moderator or Allen's side. But it's been agreed, as far as I've been told, that next Wednesday at 7 p.m. On Zero Hedge, two-hour debate, one-on-one, me versus Alan Dershowitz. And the topic is the current war in Iran. So that is going down.

And I got to say I'm, you know, I'm really looking forward to this one, Rob. As we mentioned before, I guess we didn't really discuss this on the podcast because I gave it away on the members only and you weren't here. And then I didn't want to give it away publicly on the last episode. But I've been saying, hey, I want to debate, you know, who's the biggest, most high profile, like best debater, most relevant guy I can get. who was still willing to come up and defend the war and around. And this one got offered to me. And damn, I mean, that's like, I got to say, I think the kind of seems to me like the best I could have been asking for.

I don't really know. I mean, this guy, like, I think you made the point on yesterday's show, Rob, but he should be the most qualified guy to kick my ass on this issue, right? It, like, this is a Harvard law educated, legendary orator, you know? So, like, okay, dude, this is really going to come down. Clearly, you're better than me at the sport of verbal IQ legalese or whatever. You know, so like, okay, you're better than me at the sport. It's only because my argument is 10,000 times better than you that if for me to be able to, like, kick your ass in this debate.

So I don't know. I just really enjoyed that dynamic of it. So yeah, looking forward to it. But like you said, Rob, right? He's got to be the most qualified guy to be arguing this with. I mean, he'll get OJ off. You got to get OJ off skills. I don't think you got to get OJ off skills.

I don't even think I could keep a straight face trying to get OJ off. This guy might be showing up with gloves. Who knows what kind of tricks he's got up his sleeve. I'd be doing shit like, like I'd just, I'd just be too honest. So I would just be up there. And I would just be like, kind of like, you're ladies and gentlemen of the jury. You'd look over it.

I'd be like, you need to put him away. He's talking crazy. He told me he did it back there. I don't. This is nuts. That's right, though. Like, if you could get OJ off, you know, like, and you can't get the justification for this war off.

Then, okay, yeah, I get, okay, I know the logic isn't airtight on that, but you get what I'm going for. So anyway, you know, I got to say, Rob, one of the things that's kind of interesting about this is, And I guess of the big debates that I've done, this one I am a little bit kind of like, huh, what's he going to say? And you know, as I as I posted this the other day because I got permission to announce it before the thing got moved. As I posted it, you know, and it was going, it was going viral on social media.

The overwhelming response that I kept getting from people was them going, what is he even going to say. And like, I was like, I was kind of like, yeah, I know, right? Like, that's exactly what I've been thinking. And it kind of is, I don't know, I'm kind of interested to see. I mean, I've heard a few of the things that Hawks are saying, you know, to kind of justify the war right now. I'm like, are you really going to bring any of that into a debate? Because it is stuff that is like, you know, it's just paper thin arguments that you can push over like that. So again, it's that I guess to me is kind of interesting. It's, we're we're kind of living in a weird moment right now, Rob, for political commentary and all of this stuff. But one of the things that's almost kind of taking the air out of the room

is that everyone just kind of knows this argument is over. At least that's what it feels like to me. But I don't know what you think. Well, I'm excited to watch it and see how it plays out. hopefully it should be another head for the mantle yeah here it's um i know you were uh you were talking about this yesterday you made some good some good points about it i was looking into more of it today and i actually went back and i watched the speech the full speech that that besant gave but isn't it rob just like look i i don't know i guess to say like what pressure does america have on the rest of the world at this point still that what pressure can we bring to bear on the Iranians by really laying down this economic D-Day thing or whatever. But Jesus, Rob, is this just not

the most transparently pathetic, like last minute? I remember there's one episode of the office where Michael Scott is speaking at a shareholders meeting. And it's the company is like going bankrupt so all the shareholders are furious because they're all lost their their pensions or whatever. And he goes, we have a 10 point plan that's going to turn this company around in 10 days. And he's like 10 points, 10 days, we're back in business. And the crowd goes nuts and rest. And then it cuts them in the back room. And he's like, okay, let's start with the it's like, I forget how it goes. He goes like, let's start with point 10 and work our way back from there. He actually has nothing. He has no plan whatsoever. And it just, it feels like that.

Like, we're, like, Rob, in a sense, this maybe would have been believable, Rob, if they hadn't rolled it out the week after they asked rank and file soldiers for ideas. You know what I mean? Like, if it had, if they had maybe tried to convince you that, like, this was always the plan they had all along or something. Like, hey, look, we thought we were going to be able to get regime change in the first 48 hours. But then when that didn't work, we brought the world to bear down on a,

Iran. But instead, it's just so obvious like, oh, you tried 15 different things, all of which failed. And now in a last ditch desperate effort, you're going to try to bully the rest of the world into going along with you and paying a price for something that none of them wanted to begin with. This just seems like desperation and destined for failure. But what do you think? Well, it seems like a last-ditch effort and that if they thought that this was a winning strategy, why didn't they go with it from the outset? But I don't want to give too much away before we play the clip. So I'll reserve my comments for afterwards.

All right. You want to go to here is Besson. Let's start from the beginning of this. Here he is announcing economic D-Day. As some people have pointed out, by the way, astute historians pointed out that D-Day would was a little bit different than this in the sense that it wasn't just like a vague threat and that, you know, we knew the countries that we were talking about. That was another interesting part of this, Rob.

No countries are named. Okay, anyway, let's play. We're already seeing results. Over the weekend, comments from Iranian leadership clearly acknowledged the effect of this campaign and nations that facilitate any international. interactions with the regime should quickly heed our message. Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership. Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation of a withering regime. Teams from Treasury, State, and the U.S. military are now meeting with their global counterparts to tell them that the United States expects action. Every country has a defined timeline to shut down activities we have identified. If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities.

For example, every branch of Bank Malay must be shuttered and dark. And let me be clear, any entity that facilitates money laundering on behalf of Iran will be removed from the U.S. dollar system. the clock just started ticking. Let's pause it right here. It is, look, obviously I want to build up to this point here about Rob, about him saying that this is the threat that you'll be removed from the dollar system. It's quite an interesting threat in a way. But look, obviously there's a couple points before that that maybe it's just worth stating that.

Look, clearly, it's delusional to tell the world that Iran is a withering state when, actually what the world has witnessed is the transformation of the power of the Iranian state over the last six months and seen it transformed into a global power. That's the reality of the situation. Also, when he talks about, like, who gets the benefits of the American relationship? Look, there's something more to get into about kicking someone off the dollar standard. We could talk about this for a little bit and then saying you don't get the benefits of that standard. It's interesting.

But if you, Rob, to say, look, pretty objectively here, right, Europe did not want this war. Donald Trump throughout the whole war has been furious at the Europeans because they just didn't want to do this and they don't want to help out with it and they didn't want any part of that. Asia hates this war. They're one of the, they're suffering maybe the most or second most due to the issues in the, the Strait of Hermos. The Gulf countries are over it. They don't want to be. Iraq isn't going for it.

Kuwait isn't going for it. The Omanians are ready to make a deal. The Saudis are getting wet. Like, no one wants this anymore because it's costing so much. And now the move is as the U.S. is losing this big war to turn around and bully everybody else that actually we're threatening all of you, too, if you don't pony up more for this disaster that none of you wanted, that we want. that we wanted. That really is a wild thing to start with. But any thoughts you have on this,

Rob, go ahead. Yeah, so we might get a short-term win here. My guess is China's just absolutely not going along with this. The countries that we probably have more leverage on are countries like Turkey and Iraq. And I guess theoretically, we could we could further squeeze Iran and maybe Iran comes back to the table and we end up with a better deal than what we had in the memorandum of understanding or maybe Iran wants what wants worse for us than what the memorandum of understanding was and actually turns this back into a hot war because they feel like they can go up the escalation ladder and get, you know, more leverage in that regard. But long term, what you're doing is you're taking these countries. This was very similar what happened at this start of the

Ukraine-Russia war. But you're taking countries that were within our financial system and you're letting them know hey you don't want to hang out here because then we have leverage over you and you're kind of stuck in this system and we'll make it that your funds aren't available or that you're stuck without your uh it's like kind of like for a country it's like being debanked where all of a sudden you turn around and you got all your business processes and you're like shit i got to find a new way to process all this money and do you really want to be stuck supporting whatever the u.s agenda is at any given day that you know that you might be kicked with you know of your bank and the answer is no so in the short term theoretically you know

maybe this uh does uh put more pressure on iran uh long term this seems very dicey of us that we're constantly threatening people uh that they will be removed from the u s dollar system or that you know they might even have money stuck in u s banks because it just gives people a real financial incentive to uh kind of you know uh deep partner from us and figure out other ways to be moved moving this money around and not stock in our system. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is my Patriot Supply, an amazing company that I personally turn to for my own family's preparedness. And here's something you don't see every day, a chance to win an almost $600 bundle

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enter the challenge at prepare like Dave.com. One family receives the prize, but every participant strengthens the mission. This is your chance to be independent, be prepared, and be ready. Join the road to preparedness challenge now at prepare like Dave.com. All right. Let's get back into the show. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Well, like, all this stuff is very interesting.

But do you remember Putin made a big thing out of saying this, where he was talking about it was at the beginning of the Ukraine war, when Biden first started ramping up like the sanctions regime. And he was like, or maybe it was like even like a year into it or something like that, but where he was like, you know, guys, you actually had a pretty sweet deal going here that you just kind of cut yourselves out of and you think you're just punishing us. But there is kind of a, it almost, it reminds me of like Twitter and Facebook when they were like kicking people off the site to censor them.

You're like, yes, you are hurting that person. but also like your business is in having people on your site. So you're cutting off your nose despite your face kind of deal here. But essentially, and it's more, it's more complicated than this. There's a lot that we could get into. But essentially, right, this is how the great Thomas Massey kind of would break it down, is you go at least part of the deal. There's more to it than this, right, Rob.

But at least part of the exchange of the dollar standard, right? The dollar world reserve standard is essentially that like, one of the reasons why other countries want to hold dollars is because they know that so many people accept dollars. Like, they want to hold them so that they can buy things they want to buy and they know if they're holding dollars, it's going to be accepted. In a way you could compare it, had this had Thomas Mason said, compare it to like American Express or something like that.

You know, you use it because you know it's accepted everywhere and you can use it as money, but they're taking 3% off the top. Essentially, when we monetize our. our debt, but the world is on a dollar reserve currency, we're essentially not paying the price in the direct like price inflation in the way we would because we outsource some of that. So you could kind of look at it like they hold the dollars, but we take three percent off the top or whatever. Now, what Vladimir Putin was saying is he goes, dude, we used to trade like 75% in dollars. You guys were taken 3% off the top of all of our transactions. And now I think they're

down to like 10% or something like that. So it's like, okay, there's a clear cost. And then, of course, the bricks thing like blew up in those years. And so while you might be saying you are punishing people for kicking them off of the dollar reserve standard, and that there might actually be some cost to them in that, right? Like if you're not holding dollars and they have to hold something else, well, the reason so many people are bullied into this other than direct military threats is because, like, it's difficult to get those other currencies going.

And in the same way that you see gold back and Bitcoin, one of their big, struggles is like getting places to accept that, you know? So they lose that. But we also, what essentially what we're risking here, Rob, is what? Is our currency collapsing? Like, this is a big deal. It's a risk threatening people. The point that you made is a very, very good one.

Number one, there's an incentive that like, oh, as soon as you start putting political pressure using the dollar system, you go, oh, so you've exposed that there's all this control that comes along with it, although that might have already been exposed to something. degree, but also, if enough people aren't taking, our whole system, Rob, only works if the whole world is taking our dollars. Otherwise, all of the quantitative easing COVID money printing burr insanity simply doesn't work. I think even they, even their modern monetary economists, I think would acknowledge this. But anyway, so essentially, Rob, I say all that to get to the point that we're rolling the dice on our own currency here by making these threats for the benefit of what

maybe hurting the Iranian economy more maybe getting Israel's war that they want it's just this is an insane irresponsibility um and uh this force of action yeah and it seems like a pretty dangerous timing when uh their manipulations to try and bring the interest rate down on our long-term debt isn't working. It rebounded right away. So there seems to be less demand for our debt. And forcing people to move away from dollars can't possibly help that. Yeah, that's a really good point. A very good point. No, I mean, it's not just that. It's like, and there's a few things, you know, and also as, you know, it's coming out more and more that we simply can't keep up this, this campaign. So, yeah, it's a lot of factors. But again, to like, there is something about

the, you know, the posture of all of this. Look, I don't know. My guess essentially is that nothing is going to come of this. I think this is just like another bluff that's not going to work. I don't think people are going to be particularly bullied. I don't think we're really in a position to bully. You know, I think it's a little bit delusional at this point, you know, to think that after losing a war like this in really humiliating fashion to not even, like, like,

I don't know what could you, can you actually call Iran a near peer competitor? Because I really don't think you can. I mean, it's not just that like they're a country and 90 million people and we're a country like 350 million people that were three times or four times bigger than them that we have an economy that dwarfs the size of theirs, a military budget that dwarfs their entire GDP many times over. Like the idea that this is not even a near peer. This is a distant, far off, not even close to a peer country.

They just totally ate our lunch. And now we're going to turn around and say, hey, everybody else who just saw that. You know, it's like the bully after he gets beat up, turning around and threatening everybody else. I just don't see that working. But it's quite a risk. It's quite a risk to the stability of the monetary global order. And why on earth would we take this? when again, it does seem to me, Rob, that one of the things that's really been revealed about this war,

and I think, I mean, I definitely got this right, but maybe not for the right reasons. Like, I think I would have said this for like humanitarian reasons at the beginning. I probably would have said, hey, quite possibly the worst thing that could happen here is the regime collapses. And then you end up in a civil war. and then, you know, because this is how it's happened in Iraq and Libya and Syria and Afghanistan and all the rest. But at this point, you kind of realize that like, oh, you guys can basically hold down the straight with like cheap $20,000 drones.

Well, if that's the case, then an insurgency could hold down the straight. And if that's the case, then you essentially need a centralized government in order to have the straight open. And so now it just seems like for this new. problem created by the war. I actually don't know, Rob, how can, like, aren't you concerned about the risk? Because my position here is not that the Iranian regime can never fall under any circumstance. I see no indication that they're going to fall over this war. But, like, doesn't it seem, Rob, like, that would be the worst case scenario right now just for the immediate issue that

everyone cares about, which is the straight being open. Yeah, I agree with you that I think that this is mostly a bluff. I'll give my reason after the second half of the clip because I don't want to get ahead of it. But my get, listen, China's just not playing ball. And I think if everyone else plays ball, that in a way almost gives them, uh, China more leverage or a tighter relationship with Iran because that leaves them as like they're the only person buying oil, I guess. Uh, but the UAE did stop processing payments, uh, to Iran during this war. And my guess is some of the other partners might just be tied in enough that they don't want the heat. Like I think Iraq has a lot of money in our banks and Turkey's still in NATO. But I mean, I'll get to why I think it's a bluff,

but my guess is some of the smaller countries will play ball on this. I think Turkey's going to be tougher to pressure into this, especially knowing that they're next in the Israelis sites. You know, I don't know how much Turkey's going to want to help. But again, I don't know about that. And then again, with Iraq, I don't know, Rob, you know, because you are correct in saying that the Iraqis are somewhat dependent, not somewhat, very dependent on America. But also, man, he did ham that country over to some Shiite fucking rulers who are very closely, very closely allied with the Iranians. And it's always been a bit of a bit of a wild card of where they will go when push really comes to shove or something

like that, you know? And I mean, look, we know that the, even the Curtis factions there weren't, weren't really willing to catch our backs when we wanted them to and stole some weapons or whatever from us according to Trump. But anyway, look, you might be right. They might be able to pressure some countries into some action on this. But I just don't think anything that's really going to move the needle that much. It's going to be that devastating that the overwhelming crippling sanctions and blockades haven't done so far.

I tend to doubt that. This also comes, I think, three weeks ago. were talking about starting to do a full land blockade and they walked away with that from that within two days because they realized it wasn't actually feasible. So, you know, it's hard to know with what they announced if they're even going to keep to it for 48 hours. Oh, Project Freedom and, you know, all these things that they've announced and then just kind of walked away from and at every turn, every time they announce it, starting with the original blockade of the blockade, every time they announce it, all of the Trump, sycophones scream about how genius,

Yes, this is and now it's a one, but it just never really seems to materialize. All right, here, let's go back to the Besson clip. Nations issued today target five of Iran's most vital lifelines that it exploits in other countries, digital assets, technology, gold, aviation, and shipping. These measures broaden secondary sanctions risk for anyone foolish enough to continue conducting business with this regime. and we'll just pause it for one quick second Natalie with this was it Rob can just say just for a quick second we'll get right back to playing this doesn't it say everything that you need to know about the state of the United

States of America that our Treasury Secretary focuses on the science of how to destroy other countries economies it's like we get a Treasury Secretary who knows something about building an economy hours you know I mean it's Don't give you wrong. I'm sorry. I apologize to the libertarians out there. I don't want to anyone from the government building anything. But you know what I mean, getting out of the way so we can build. But this is just the focus. destroying others. That's the person in charge of our economy. Okay, anyway, let's keep playing. We pursue them. As I speak, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is also sanctioning over 60 entities, individuals, and vessels around the world that enable the Iranian regime to procure illicit Nuclear and missile technology conduct cyber operations and generate oil revenue. This is a sustained campaign. You just got to pause for a second.

Every last option for- And generate oil revenue is a really big kicker on the backside of that. It starts off with you think that these are full-on enemy combatants, but, you know, sneaking in nuclear materials into Iran, and then it ends with people that are just trying to trade and make money. Yep. Yep, sure does. That sure is a different one there, isn't it? Yeah. Iran, let there be no ambiguity as to the position of the United States.

An economic engagement of any kind with this murderous regime will expose those responsible to the full reach of American power. Well, there you have it. Go ahead, Rob. I had the clips mixed up. I thought there was one where someone asked him a question about why announced D-Day. And I think he gives away a lot more of the story on that one. Yeah, here, we can go to that. That's the latest one that I sent you, Natalie. Here. Let's see.

You in the front. You described this as an economic D-Day, but D-Day wasn't a threat of an invasion, and the U.S. didn't give a timeline to Germany. So why not impose the sanctions today? Well, we are giving everyone the opportunity. to remedy bad behavior. Why would I want to blow up the global financial system? We believe that it is important to level set and give people a cure period, but they should know that that will move very quickly and that we are serious. Secondary sanctions are a very powerful

tool, and we hear at Treasury, this is Jean Lang, the acting undersecretary for terrorism finance. And in the terrorism finance department and in OFAC, the reason we are able to use secondary sanctions is because we do not take their use lightly. So we believe that a warning shot and a level set of expectations is appropriate. And if people do not want to meet our expectations, then we expect, and they should expect, that they should will leave the dollar system. Okay. all right here rob go ahead all right well first and foremost when he says why would i want to blow up the entire dollar system he's kind of showcasing i don't think he meant to say that i think that was a slip and he's letting you know this is incredibly risky and he's also telling you hey we want to give people

an opportunity to remedy this what it also sounds like is hey we're bluffing and i think the proof of the fact that they're kind of bluffing here is unlike every time donald trump and announced, hey, it's going to be bridge and power plant day, and he gave a specific deadline for it. I think Bessett is smart enough here to go, well, this is happening behind the scenes and we've given people timetables. So that way, there's no ever public statement of the policy failing. So my guess is they understand that this is not a winning strategy. And they do not want to actually have to pull the plug on telling all of these, you know, China. Are you really throwing China out of the dollar system? I don't.

think you're going to be pulling the plug on all of China and they're access to dollars over this current war and he's letting you know that that could be catastrophic and they don't want to do this. And so they're letting you know it's a little bit of a bluff and a threat and we'll see who complies with us and we'll go from there. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Van Man. Do you think Dr. Squatch is some small, wholesome company, Bert Bees, native. Think again, they've all been bought out by mega corporations and private equity firms. who hijacked these beloved brands and fill them with the same corporate slop as everyone else.

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moisturizer though it can replace your lotion night cream wrinkle cream even neosporin and diaper bomb it's powerful enough to heal the skin yet safe enough to spread on your toast that's real ingredients. So if you're ready to ditch the corporate chemicals, go to van man. dot shop slash Dave and use the promo code Dave for 15% off your first order. That's van man. dot shop slash Dave and use the promo code Dave for 15% off your first order. Van Man, real ingredients, no exceptions. All right, let's get back into the show. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I mean, I think I agree with all of that. And I think you're right that the, you know, it's, that was an unbelievable. like Freudian slip to say, oh, why didn't you do it? Why didn't you do it right away? He goes,

well, I didn't want to blow up the entire global financial system. Like, wait, so you're saying what you're threatening to do if enacted today would destroy the global financial system. Wow. I mean, that's quite an admission, man. And look, dude, the reporter's right to ask because it's like, dude you want to call it you know which it always does feel like um Donald Trump just sends nerds out with names he made up and makes them say them like it does seem like Donald Trump's like say whatever you got to say but call it D-Day you know he's got to go with like this badass title but for such a badass title like as as the reporter said um D-Day wasn't a threat D-day didn't like a vague threat of maybe we're going to do something right and

Um, they don't even, you're calling this D-Day, you don't even have the courage to say a name. They didn't mention one country. Like, who are you saying is who's in violation of this, who you're about to punish for this? And, you know, Rob, as you point out, man, there's a lot of cope amongst the people desperately trying to find some justification for this war and desperately trying to find some narrative other than the obvious narrative that this is a war created by the Israel lobby on behalf. of the Israeli government. So it becomes, oh, this is all about boxing in China or reigning in China.

First of all, Donald Trump just went, what was it last month, to go visit G in China. And he wasn't going there to box him in. He was going there to ask for help. You could listen to the way he was even talking about him the whole time. Rob, he's sitting there just kissing his ass. This is just total nonsense, total, like, just like a historical. desperately grasping at some type of narrative where this is still America first or something that makes sense.

But, you know, they, yeah, dude, the idea that we're in any type of position, Rob, to say that we're not going to do business with China anymore, if China does any business with Iran. I mean, it's a much emptier bluff than this entire war to begin with was, which was all an empty bluff. And there's been nothing but empty bluffs along the way. But this isn't like, I don't know, like, let's just say, let's just say like Natalie, our producer here came to us and said, I'm furious at a Starbucks for something. Like I had a terrible experience at Starbucks. So I'm never going to get Starbucks coffee again.

Like, okay, that's a threat that you have the power to kind of maybe enact. Okay, you could get your coffee somewhere else, not Starbucks. If Natalie came in and she goes, I'm furious at big oil. so I'm never using fossil fuels again, you'd go, I'm not sure you can get through life without them. I don't know that that is a real threat that you can actually use. Like the idea that you want to talk about destroying the economy overnight? Okay, China, we'll no longer buy your stuff. Real quickly, everyone at home, I want you to go look at all your stuff and see how much of it says made in China on it.

This is a totally empty threat. So, oh, we're going to kick China off the dollar system, Rob? Okay. That's like, what are we going to do to them? Yeah. Well, my only thing is like, you know, Syria kind of fell out of nowhere, and I'm not in Iran. So I just don't know at what point there's a breaking point for the regime. And it could be, you know, maybe this is a pathway for ramping up the economic pressure in a way that does become unsustainable with all the inflation that they have.

but just from everything I'm seeing, you know, if you're a regime and you just got to remain in power, you don't really care about the quality of life of your citizens. And, you know, Trump even just called out that apparently they're killing off more of their citizens. But, you know, he's made a lot of claims along those lines. So that would remain unclear. But it seems like Iran is content to sit in this mess and punish Donald Trump. And they don't seem to be wanting to come back to the table to negotiate. and it just seems

it seems like none of this is going to work and that this is a bluff. But like I said, I'm not actually in Iran. I don't have perfect data on at what point their regime fails. No, look, I mean, that's a very fair point to make. I mean, look, it is certainly my understanding and I think this is pretty undeniably true

that the Syrian regime was always much, much weaker than the Iranian regime was. And that there was, there had always been a real risk of that regime being toppled basically throughout the Civil War, and that they were pretty close. ISIS was pretty close at one point to taking Damascus. Now, you're right, it's a fair point to say, hey, it looked like he had weathered the storm and, you know, clung onto power and was going to remain, and then until very quickly he wasn't. And it certainly should be said that it is not impossible that the Iranian regime falls.

I mean, look, a lot of devastation is being brought to that country. And regimes fall. It's happened many times in history. Almost all of them do eventually. But I also would say I just see no reason to expect any of this to produce that outcome. And you don't have a civil war. And also, that might be the worst outcome, you know? Yeah, and you don't have a civil war in Iran like you do in Syria.

So it's not even like people have taken up arms against the regime. Well, that's right. Yeah, I mean, Syria, that's right. At the point that we're talking about, at the point, talking about where ISIS almost took Damascus, or at least was close, was within, you know, within neighboring cities that they, that they had control of. And yeah, this is a period where civil war has been going on for years and at least a couple hundred thousand people have already died. And yeah, it's right, a lot more instability where, or I'm sorry, I guess, you know, I don't know,

what is the number up to? Here, Natalie, can we just pull up the Trump truth social from this morning that Rob was referring to? Because yeah, I think this was one of the ones where, or if not the one that you're referring to. It was one of the times that he said it, right? Oh, can we make that a little bigger? What do we got here? The failing Islamic Republic of Iran is not paying large segments of their military while at the same time killing protesters, even when they are not protesting. I'm not sure that should be, Rob, this might be a category error here. I'm not sure that counts as killing protesters. Well, it gets tricky when you're making shit. Are you? It does get tricky when you're just entirely inventing things.

But like, Rob, is a protester like a pirate? Is that something that you just are for life now, wherever you go? I thought you're only a protester while you're still at the protests. You see? Like, if I went to a protest, like, if I went to an Iraq war protest in 2003, and then someone just came and murdered me in my house, I don't think you'd say, like, oh, you killed a protester. Right?

So there's clearly got to be a statute of limitations on this. Anyway, whatever. I just think that's a category error. but I guess he's saying the people who were out protesting were then killed in their homes. I'd love to see the evidence on that. I'm sure the president wouldn't make a claim like this without evidence. So we're telling that we have evidence that people who are out protesting were followed back to their homes and killed in their homes by the Iranians. Got an article you want to share?

Sorry, I had a thought on that, but then I realized it was really stupid. All right. I'm sorry, let me just read the rest of this. So they're killing protesters. Yes, they're not playing large segments of their military. Well, at the same time, killing protesters, even when they are not protesting, at levels not seen before. So he had claimed 50,000. So is this more than 50,000?

It is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportion and must be stopped now, President Donald J. Trump. Is that not just something, Rob? is that not just something we've just no no no no no no you see this is and always has been a liberal humanitarian intervention rob oh what did you get caught on all that total surrender and a la akbar i'm going to wipe out your entire civilization and slaughter all your women and children oh no this was this was humanitarian it was a humanitarian mission always that's what it's been about I've just never, look, man, I mean, only Trump, right, I guess Trump just wins bigger than everybody else and loses bigger than everybody else. But has anyone ever lost a war this big, Rob? Just every

turn of it. When this thing finally ends, dude, and the carousel stops and everyone's just puking from the dizziness and starts catching up, we're going to look back at this and be like, dude, he got, he just lost this war 700,000 times. This humanitarian crisis has gotten so out of hand. I'm going to punish you by killing more of your civilians. I have no choice but to re-engage and blow up your power plants and remove your electricity because too many of you guys are dying. Meanwhile, like the guy, he's according to them, right? He started by saying day one of the war, or I should say the opening act of the war, he tells the people like, stay at home tonight, well, we hit him real hard. And then

the government is yours and we have your back. Don't you worry, we have your back. According to him now, now it's created this huge humanitarian crisis and he doesn't have their back and they're being slaughtered at records never seen before. And according to them, their plan now is to through secondary sanctions

cripple the entire economy to the point that the regime collapses. That's your humanitarian, intervention. Just truly, truly unbelievable stuff. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Prolon by El Neutra. I've been telling you about them for a while, guys. This is what you've got to check out if you're looking to level up your health game. Prolon's five-day fasting, mimicking diet. It works at the cellular level to reset and

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I got to say, Rob, I do think, I still think if I had to make a prediction about this and maybe, you know, I don't know, maybe I'll live to regret saying, this but I still do kind of think ultimately like it's um ultimately he's going to walk away that basically this is going to be another empty threat not much is going to come of it it won't change the dynamics and ultimately he's going to walk away I I just hope I'm right about this it just seems to me like that would know but if that if that is the case man it's going to be really obvious by the time it's over that fuck this whole thing man he just lied so much and got it so wrong.

And that's the best case scenario. Yeah, I mean, my read on this as well, listen, you just don't know with Trump. He's such a wild card. But my read on this is even with the terrorists, they went with crazy terrorists and they walked them back down. We've mostly seen them put up a crazy threat and walk it back down. So I put it this way, this would be defying the behavior patterns of Trump in this administration if they're sticking to this in a week or in a month's time, two months

time. So it's just, you know, it's unlikely that they're sticking to this, but who knows? Doesn't it? Doesn't it feel just even as you just said that, it's just like, it's like, doesn't that just define the Trump? It defines the Trump's second term, at least to me. Just that. It's just just like saying some wild over the top thing. Then it being totally not thought through and no plan. It's just a disaster. Then you back down at it. Then you're totally humiliated. Then it's like so much worse than even doing the thing or not. I mean, literally, whether it's like the war or deportations, huh? The pool. He drove on the pool and he destroyed the lining. And then he accused some, some Olympic guy of having sliced it. And then his own

department had to drop the case because they're like, we can't possibly win this. And then Donald Trump said, well, I don't know why she folded. This is ridiculous. We're going to figure out a new way to bring the seat. It was, dude, it was arresting James Comey, and then they just didn't, like, cross their T's and dot their eyes and it was all off bullshit. Then it just all fell apart. Do you remember the tariffs? They rolled it out, and then the bond markets went crazy, and then they immediately walked it back, and then the Supreme Court struck it down. And so you just like, like, oh, my God, you were, even if you believe in tariffs, which is, stupid, but even if you do, it's like, this was just the worst way to go about it. The deportations

where it's like, hey, we're going to do this. Then it's unpopular. Then he backs down. Then you're firing people and moving them around. Just everything. It's this big bravado, tough talk. And then at the end of it, you're like, man, dude, just like you had nothing. You hadn't even thought this through a little bit.

It's just as characterized the entire administration. There's a terrorist walking around with hand tattoos right now in Maryland. Yeah, right. I mean, dude, it's. What a fucking, what a shit show. All right, yeah, let's do the, let's play a little bit of this, this Glenn Beck clip. I did want to play this because I just,

number one, I guess, as I mentioned earlier, this is just what's been on my mind with, with the Dershowitz thing coming up, is, like, what are these guys even saying right now? Like, what are people who are even trying to defend the war even saying? And then, you know, I particularly like giving the business to Glenn Beck a little bit, which I don't think I've done. I don't think we've, uh,

trashed him since the 12-day war. But, you know, I have a bit of a beef with Glenn Beck. I just really don't like that guy. And for a couple reasons, I mean, I guess it's a little bit personal for me. But, well, there's two things. Number one, he's one of the guys, one of the few. Well, you know how there were a bunch of, like, conservative types who, like, idiotically supported George W. Bush's war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan and the Patriots.

and the Patriot Act and the Global War on Terror more broadly and just all these awful policies that turned out to be complete disasters. And then after that, you know, they, you know, during the Obama years and then particularly, not really in the Obama years as much, but once Trump ran against all that stuff in 2016 and then they kind of had permission, it was like that was kind of popular and cool now amongst right wingers to like be like all that stuff sucked. Then they all came over and they went, hey, man, we were crazy back there. We were wrong. And we admit, Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan, all those guys were right. And actually George Bush and Dick Cheney and all those guys were wrong. We totally regret that. Glenn Beck is one of the ones,

and shame on me for this that I believed. You know, Tulsi Gabbard and Glenn Beck, they actually got me. And that kind of pisses me off. That whatever, shame on me. But, you know, when Tulsi Gabbert used to talk about, she was in a medical unit in Iraq and she saw her brothers and sisters bleeding out and dying over a bullshit war. And that's why she would stand up against any more bullshit wars like, call me crazy, but she had me going with that bullshit for a little bit. And I'll never forgive her for that.

And I'll never forgive Glenn Beck for having me going with it too. And then the other thing, Rob, as I've told you, and this one's getting petty. But fuck him is that when I went on his show. So when he told me that and I totally believed him to his face, because he does it like Glenn Beck's a good actor, like his eyes well up and stuff when he says it. you feel like he actually really thinks about how he helped get all those innocent people killed. But that's not true, turns out.

But so then when I went on a show during that period where he had me convinced on that, I want to show a couple times. And dude, this is when there were rumors that I was going to run for president on the Libertarian Party. And dude, he loved me. I went off on my whole goddamn thing about how the whole program should be repealing the entire progressive revolution of the early 20th century and how every inch of the new deal and the post-war consensus is wrong. and this whole thing. And he goes, he literally ended the interview by going, I love you. This is literally his words. He goes, I love you. He goes, and I really hope you do run for president.

So the last thing, the last thing this guy says to me. Then, of course, October 7th happens and he's crying on the wall or just totally humiliating himself about how he considers himself to be an Israeli. And then after the Douglas Murray debate, he had one of the first interviews with Douglas Murray, and he goes, what is this comedian guy even doing there when he's not an expert? He shouldn't be debating about these things. I go, oh, I thought I thought you wanted me to run for president, motherfucker. I didn't realize I wasn't, I didn't have the credentials to go on the Joe Rogan podcast. The guy who said he loved me and I should run for president.

Oh, until you fucking criticize Israel once. And then, so anyway, anyway, I got a beef with this guy. But that's just petty and personal. But more broadly, Rob, fuck you, dude. You fucking supported all these disastrous wars, then pretended like you had totally converted and really realized the error of your ways. And as soon as a Republican president launched another war, you went right back to it and supported it again. And look at you now, defending this fucking disaster.

So anyway, that's my rant against Glenn Beck. Now let's, yeah, let's play the club. First thing has to be said, we won the war. Okay? By every standard, air defenses are completely shredded. The Supreme Leader was killed in the opening hours. And Hezbollah is a shadow of what it was two years ago. The proxy network has been thinned.

By every single measure, a general would put on a chart, Operation Epic Fury did what it was sent to do. The economic damage is beyond understanding. And this is around economic D-Day. Suppose it for a second. So he says, listen, he just posted this today. The idea he says Epic Fury was a success. But I, well, look, okay, so he's, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. No, no, I'm sorry. That's my mysteries. I'm sorry. Midnight Hammer was the other one. He's talking about this one. My mistake. Sorry, that one's on me.

One point for Glenn. I'm starting in a deficit. But, I mean, I don't know, Rob. I'll clean up that deficit real quick. Look, dude. You can, I mean, this is a term that was, I don't like using terms that I didn't hear when I was a kid. But this is literally gaslighting is a great term for this.

This is, you know you're full of shit. You know that you're lying. But you're like, I'm just going to pretend. and I'm going to say it with a lot of certainty that any, no, Glenn, I'm sorry, you can't get away from the fact that the war aims were specifically laid out not by a general, but by this other figure called the commander in chief. He laid out what the war aims were. He laid it out on day one opening act of the war. This is a regime change war. The Iranian people will now be in control of the government. He demanded total surrender from the Iranian people. He demanded that we recover,

that they hand over to us the nuclear dust and that they stop enriching uranium. We're up to four right now. He also demanded that they stop arming Hezbollah. Now we're up to five. Number six, what came in later was the demand that they opened the Strait of Hermus, which they had always had opened the entire time. Did I miss any big ones there, Rob? Oh, Intercontinental or maybe not intercontinental, but the ballistic missile program there. Seven, seven major war aims that were laid out.

You've achieved zero. Zero of those. Zero. Now, you can add other things in now that you're going to say, their air defense has been hurt and their navies at the bottom of the sea and there, but there were seven clearly articulated goals and your O for seven.

Come out here and say we won because the Ayatoll is dead and their military has been weakened. This is, I don't know, Dave. I've been following this story for a long time and we always wanted full control over a closed straits. That's what I was hearing about for years. We wanted to make sure that nothing got through that straight and we'd have full control over it and make sure that nothing got through.

Yes, yes, that's right. And right. And also that all that mattered was that the most moderate Ayatollah ever get taken out. out. But we were always told that as long, the IRGC can run the country with the moas. It just can't be this one Ayatollah or something, right? That constitutes regime change. It's just pathetic. Anyway, let's back to, back to Glenn. The president is doing the right thing. However, for all of the things that are true, there is one thing that may or may not be true that is putting us in a position where we may lose everything the win has just purchased.

And it's not on a battlefield, it's on an inventory sheet. I want you to listen to this. Before February, we had 2,330 Patriot Interceptors. The best public estimate now puts us somewhere between 759 and 827 missile interceptors. Okay? That's a drop of at least 65%. FAD, that long-range missile, went from 452 to fewer than 278. Reuters is reporting now the long-range missiles are nearly spent, and about half of our tomahawks are gone.

Last week, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell below 300 million barrels for the first time since January of 1983. three. The president's answer on these things has been that we have massive amounts of munitions and the leakers are going to go to prison for a very, very long time. Okay, that's a flawed answer, okay? Because if it's a leak, then is it true? You're going to put somebody in prison. If it's, if it's propaganda, that's a different story. And I don't know what is true, okay? But Tran didn't need to lose. The leak. I'm sorry,

you have to understand why I found this so entertaining. Glenn Beck starts off by telling himself a story about how they've won the war, then starts grappling with the facts on the ground. And now you see him going, even finding himself in positions because that's a flawed answer. It's a flawed answer. Yes. Another word that you might be looking for here, Glenn Beck, is it's a lie. It is a lie.

A leaker, by definition, can't be lying. Like a leak, if you're accusing, again, let me try to just clean that up a little bit in case anyone wants to jump on this and pick this apart. Yes, a leaker could theoretically lie about something. But it's not as if this was a leak of 5,000 pages of classified material. And then you went, oh, and the leakers lying about this one specific claim. This is the claim. this is the whole claim.

If they're lying, then they didn't leak it. If they leaked it, then the claim must be true. So Donald Trump is lying when he says this. What the fuck does Glenn bet? I mean, like, what do you even say? And then you might wonder, well, was, is Trump lying about the other stuff that perhaps when I first just said we actually won the war, maybe we didn't. And that may be variables such as they have no Navy are not actually a win.

You would think it would say there wouldn't be that much of a leap in your logic. to go, hey, this other thing he said was a lie, where those other thing lies? Right. And then it's like, it goes like, well, look, we've destroyed, like none of the war aims have been achieved, but we've destroyed their Navy or their missiles. Now, let me read off some stats.

We've destroyed all of our THAAD interceptor missiles. It's actually, okay, like, I don't know. Like, what do you mean? Like, dude, it's been widely reported at this. But our bases have been decimated, dude. Like, we've, we've also had a lot destroy. it. So you want to sit there and even if you go, okay, we destroyed more of their stuff than they destroyed of us, of ours, something that hasn't exactly been clearly demonstrated, but I do tend

to think that's got to be true. But okay, that means we're worse off and they're a little bit more worse off. Where's the win in that? All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is hexclad. If you're anything like me, you love grilling in the sun. summer, but the second you move beyond burgers and steaks, things can get frustrating. Food sticks, vegetables disappear through the grates, and that fish falls apart when you try to flip it. And somehow cleanup takes longer than the actual meal. Well, that's why I've been using Hexclad's barbecue collection. Hexclad is bringing its hybrid technology outdoors with products specifically designed to make grilling easier, especially when you're cooking foods that normally don't cooperate on a traditional

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will get 10% off your order with our exclusive link, hexclad.com slash problem. That's H-E-X-C-L-A-D.com slash problem. Hexclad.com slash problem for 10. off. All right, let's get back into the show. Here, let's go back to Glenn. Toran has counted every interceptor we fire. They watch go up and they have a better estimate of our magazine than most members of Congress do at this point. So the denial doesn't fool the man across the table. It only fools the people who write the checks. And that is if it is true. We don't know if it's true. But our enemies think it is. Which brings us to a scenario. And I think it's likely. It's not a dramatic one, but how this could end. Iran, if the

economic sanctions don't work. Iran doesn't counterattack. Iran doesn't surrender. Iran just waits. It slow walks the talks. It keeps the straight half strangled. Let's our gas prices do the work. Watches the American public where the support for this war sits at 33 percent and is falling among the president's own supporters, okay? I talked to some, um, some, uh, political officials over the last couple of weeks and I don't know, Rob, maybe it's just me. I just find this so funny. It's okay. Rob, listen, let me just break this down. I'm sorry, I don't know. It's just like this is kind of what we do too. Like this is what we do. We analyze these things. All right, here we're going. Here's my analysis. First of all, we won. So let's just table that. Get that out of the way. We won.

Trump did the right thing. Everyone who supported this was right. One over, right, smashed, total victory. Okay. Now, here's where things stand. We're in a disaster. We're a goddamn disaster. Oh, my God, it's the most unpopular war in American history, and it's in free fall. He's the least popular he's ever been, and he's in free fall. We are running low on all these missiles. They believe that we're running low on these missiles. They have resolved. All they have to do is wait, and we inevitably, like, lose this. Like, I mean, how do people, the level of like, confirmation bias, cognitive dissidents going on in this clip is like, I don't know, it's legendary. I've never seen anything quite this beautiful. Any thoughts, Rob? Yeah, he hasn't quite said it yet. And I didn't watch this clip prior to the show. But the couple clips I've seen from it.

I haven't seen anything from them in four or five months. But this strikes me like what I've heard from the past, which is basically it's our, it's our fault and it's the American people's fault for not supporting this war because it would be winnable but we keep channeling to the enemy that the American public doesn't actually support this which is what's encouraging them to stay in it. And there's a it's just it's like a devious cope because then how do we ever not have a war that we don't want? And also you guys are winning about how winnable that this thing is. And if we suppose it like it almost requires us to just put faith in that, you know, government A is doing the right thing and they're going to be reasonable

in the way that they approach it. And so everyone just needs to get in line and support it, because that's the only way that you'll have the good results. And it completely, it like just completely kind of leans on censorship and removing your own thought. It's very like a cultish behavior. But then also what is the, like how much harder would have Trump gone in this war if there was more support for it? And would we be in a better? situation and I'm going to go with no and so what it will also sure no I'm sorry no I totally agree with that I just right it also isn't there something almost circular about the logic like it it almost because look I mean excluding like some big excluding like China and Russia or something like that

but just being the United States of America having the most powerful military ever and we blow up the world so many times over like we we could almost go to war and win a war again against just about anyone, I suppose, if the political will was truly there to risk losing millions of lives if we need to or whatever. But like, we could go in, we could take Brazil or Morocco or, you know, whatever. Like, and so if no one wanted to fight that war and then you launch that war, and then you're like, oh, man, no, everybody's against the war and everyone hates it. You go, well, the only reason we're losing it is because all these people are against the war and hate it. It's like, well, okay, I guess.

But that's like me saying, if I just force my whole family to pick up their stuff and move right now and move to, like I just go, that's it. I've made the executive decision. You were all immediately moving with no notice. You're in a new school. You're in a new town. You have new friends. You have all this. And everyone's miserable.

My wife and my kids just hate it the whole time. And then I go, well, like, this would have totally worked if you guys just loved it. Like, what type of response is that? Like, I don't know. It's like, yeah, but obviously they don't and for a reason. And it was on you to make this work. You're the one who made the decision. You're the one who the onus is on you.

Nobody wants the last thing this country wanted was another war. There's goddamn consensus. If there's ever been consensus, there was more consensus on that than had been worked up over whether eight-year-old boys with dicks can be called girls. You know, there's more consensus on this. We don't want, the last thing we want is another stupid war. Then he went ahead and launched it. And now is you have to admit,

at least in the second half of this thing, it's a disaster. Just like all the other ones you support it. I'm sorry, man, for people like Glenn Beck, like this does just cancel out anything else you ever did, man. So your entire legacy will just be support in wars that were disasters and not learning your lesson and then pretending to learn your lesson and still not learning your lesson. Here, let's play the rest of this.

No matter where they were in the world, they all said the same thing. You're sending exactly the wrong message as people. I would ask people, what do the American people need to hear? If you had access to the American people, what would you think they need to hear? And the answer was universal. In all cases, you're sending the wrong message. You're sending the message to the world that you just aren't going to fight.

You're just not going to fight. You won't do it. And while that's true and understand the reasons for it, et cetera, et cetera, that can't be the message you send. Iran doesn't have to win. It only has to be still and be standing when either our magazines or our patients or our pump prices run out. Okay? That's all we have to do. That's all they have to do.

That's their strategy. Pause. And so far it is working. So it sounds like the war is being lost and it was a mistake. It sounds like that's what you're describing. and also if the rest of the world doesn't think that we're going to fight them all the time, might that be a better world? What's your evidence that we need everyone afraid of us all the time?

What do you actually think other countries are coming and invading the United States of America? And you think if that happened, the will to fight them wouldn't change. And this is all just such stupidity. It's also such an inversion of reality. Like what? My God, this is so us launching the U.S. since, forget since World War II since 9-11, right? We invaded Afghanistan, invaded Iraq.

We started a civil war in Syria. We had a NATO-led no-fly zone war that toppled Gaddafi in Libya first, actually. Then started a civil war in Syria. Before that, we had the massive drone bombing campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen. Then we turned around and backed the Saudi in. invasion of Yemen, last from about 2015 to 2022. Of course, obviously, as everyone knows, we backed Israel's destruction of Gaza. We've now launched two more wars in Iran.

This is literally, I didn't even add Ukraine. I'm just doing like Middle East, North Africa right now. But like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Somalia. I missed Somalia in there. That one was there to 20-year bombing campaign. Yemen, Gaza, all these things. And then they go, the message here is that we just, don't want to fight. I don't know. It seems to me the message is that we want to fight wars

constantly. We want permanent militarism and permanent forever wars. And then when you get permanent militarism and permanent forever wars and then you get the reaction to that, your takeaway is, who's what happens when we send the message that we don't want to fight? Why? Because the Americans are just totally fucking over this by the seventh disaster that you idiots push us into. Again, yes, Rob, it's dumb and it's an inversion. of reality. But anyway, I guess, look, whatever, we got to wrap up there. But I guess, like, kind of one of the reasons why I thought this way, so Glenn Beck,

this is what they're at. First of all, we've won. Now table that, no further questions on that topic. Okay, here's what a disaster it is. And clearly setting his audience up for, look, like here, like he, essentially, if you notice the sly trick of hand there, Rob, he did was he went, we've won, put a pin in that, table that now, but there is one thing that could threaten all the spoils of that victory that we got over there.

So we're going to frame it as we won. Trump was right. I was right. Please don't come for me with pitchforks in the street for lying you into yet another war. Now that we've gotten that all over there, there is this unfortunate reality that threatens to rob us of all of those war. Victory spoils. And that I guess is me and you.

And it's the fault of the people that didn't support this. Yep. Yeah. Fucking pathetic. But you know, it's not. all of you good people who listen to our show and you know it's even cooler than that the ones who come out and see us live so make sure you do that comic davesmith.com porch tour dot com and make sure to go watch uh rob's other great podcast run your mouth all right catch you guys

next time peace