Bridge and Power Plant Day
00:06What's up, everybody.What's up?Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.I am Dave Smith.He is Robbie the Fire.Bernstein.How are you doing today, Rob?I am well.
00:15How are you, Mr. Smith?I'm okay.I must admit I'm kind of blown away by Donald Trump's tweet this morning.And I don't know.It's one of those episodes where, you know, we're recording it today.And then we're going to see what happens overnight.And we're going to see what we wake up to.in the morning. And so anyway, we can get into all of that.
00:41Any points of order of business before we start? We're going to be in,here, Stanford, Connecticut, right, Rob?Hometown show this Saturday night. We got two shows at the New York Comedy Club inStanford, Connecticut. Been a couple years since we've done that. And we don't do a lot ofConnecticut or New York shows. So this is your best opportunity probably to come see us in thearea. It's a great show. The following week, we're going to be out in Chicago at Zanis. We're doingboth the downtown room and the Rosemont room, which is always a great weekend.And then looking forward, I know we got OKC and other stuff.
01:13You go to comicdavsmith.com for all that.And you can come check out the Run Your Mouth podcast.We got a brand new studio and we're cranking out content.Come check it out.Yes, we will be on the road.Also, I wanted to let everyone know because a lot of people were speculating.But it did.Adam did back out of the debate.
01:29I did it against Ben Ferguson on Pierce Morgan earlier.That should be out tomorrow, I believe.So, yeah, that's the latest on that.And we'll move on from this from this saga.But that's fine.I was fine with it ending that way or whatever.So, okay, there's a couple things that just got to talk about here, which is that.So essentially, tonight at 8 p.m. is Donald Trump's deadline.
01:57He kind of, we were talking about this on yesterday's show, right, the question of, like,is he actually going to go through with all of this?will he walk away from this?Last night, Tucker Carlson, I mean, in what I really think was like a heroic moment,I think in a way that only Tucker Carlson could do.Tucker Carlson really criticized Donald Trump in the most, I don't know how to say it,in the most intense fashion.And really, you know, if they're, he, you know, really on the eve of whatever is coming here,
02:33Tucker Carlson made sure to really let you know how he feels about it and how he feels about Donald Trump doing it.Unrelated or maybe related or whatever, but this morning, Donald Trump posted on truth social the following.A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.I don't want that to happen, but it probably will.However, now that we have complete and total regime change where different smarts,and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionary wonderful can happen.Who knows?We will find out tonight one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.
03:1847 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end.God bless the great people of Iran, whose civilization is about to destroy.I don't know, Rob, butlook, I am really hoping, because I'm sure you are and everyone listening is that, you know,by the time you're listening to this or tomorrow when we wake up that he has not followed throughon this destroying civilization threat, but man, he is going so hardcore on like, I am notbluffing. You better not call my bluff on this. And it is pretty clear right now. There is notgoing to be a deal announced between now and 8 p.m. tonight. And who, I don't know. I want to believe
04:04probably Donald Trump doesn't end up doing this and maybe hits a few targets, but nothing likewhat he's talking about. But I don't know, Rob. It's crazy to me that he's doubling down on like,no, no, no, this is going to be total destruction of the civilization.I listen I don't want to predict what Donald Trump's actually going to do because it's nearly impossible and I don't even think Trump fully knows but I mean this would be a pretty epic fold if he was just bluffing yeah which leads me to believe that some course of action is going to be taken maybe it's like you said in the last episode he just blows up some things and go I the big one hasn't come yet but he's certainly saying it's going to be a four hour window where he's taken out everything at once andAnd I see the two big problems is one, it's just the moral issue here of are we really just going after civilian infrastructure and completely destroying their civilian infrastructure?And two is how do we just walk away after that if they still have military capability and then they escalate and as they've threatened to do, start taking out permanently more oil infrastructure in neighboring countries?So it doesn't even sound to me like this is the end of the situation.and in the press conference
05:20Donald Trump gave last nighthe even admitted that this will not necessarily resolvethe Hermuz problembecause you just need a couple terroristswith rocket launchers to keep that thing closed.Yep.So we're doing all of thisor whatever it,
05:35to whatever extent Donald Trump actually meansto follow through on this.We're doing all of thisand then this is foryou know,what benefit exactly?like what would be the benefit of us sending around back to the Stone Age as he claims?And I don't know, just because we'll hit him real hard.
05:59Like I'm just saying like it's not even like the logic of dropping bunker busters on Fordo.Like why would we take out all the bridges and all the electricity?I don't know.Send him back to the Stone Age.Are you telling me, does that open the Strait of Hormuz to send him back to the Stone Age?No.Does that extract the.enriched uranium? No. Does that, like, what is the goal? Like, it's not even like there's a clear,
06:24there's absolutely no type of like strategic benefit even tied into this. It's just like the ravingsof a madman. And I don't know. That seems to be what it is. It was pretty funny. So it almostseems like if you go through with this and they do a military strike back and they retain the enriched uranium,it sounds to me like you're then pot committed to go in and get that enriched uranium so that thisactually now a rational regime just looking for vengeance doesn't make that into a bomb and then useit. And then it just sounds like you're still at the same point of needing a ground invasionand what's going to be a long term war. I can't imagine that if Donald Trump goes throughwith this four hour death and destruction strike window and Iran is still retaliating afterwards
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08:34Dot Health slash Problem, promo code problem for $35 off and free shipping.All right, let's get back on the show.You know, it was, no, listen, I completely agree with that.it seems it seems too crazy that he would be he would do that and then just stop without right having todo something to then justify such a inhumane you know uh gigantic thing so i was uh debating ben fergusonas i mentioned on pierce morgan show today and it was kind of like it is i don't know or it's justlike the political gods or whatever like just give it's always the situation with me like i always say it'sIt's not that I'm that good at this.
09:13It's just that I have such a strong hand to play.But so if you could think, I just thought this was like kind of funny, but, you know,in a really dark, disturbing way.But there's, so if you remember, Rob, right, the, I was on the panel with Ben when I madethe comment about America being the biggest terrorist organization in the world.And this was the thing that really lit the internet on fire.And Ben Shapiro made a response video about it and all of that.And so, like, that was what our original debate.
09:42debate was about, was me making this claim. And then now we go in there to debate it. And thismorning, as we're getting ready to record this, the commander in chief is saying out loud that hewill destroy an entire civilization, never to be, you know, recovered. And you're like, geez,man, talk about just giving me a winning hand for this argument, which is like, I wish they wouldn't.I wish they wouldn't keep proving my point. But yeah, I mean, look, uh, um,there's there's something i don't know it's it's don't trump has gotten has gone so far with thisthat if i you know again like if i had said you know like the way the goalposts have moved rightif at the end of the 12 day war when all of the hawks were bragging about how the program had been
10:35totally obliterated 100% annihilated as donald trump said if i had said to one of those guys um if i hadsaid, hey, well, if we're right back in a war in seven months over the Iranian nuclear threat,then you would have to concede that you were wrong about this war, right?They all would have said, oh, yeah, of course.It's been obliterated.They've been set back decades.Anyway, here we are, right back in another war where they're still invoking that.You go, if anyone, while they were saying, hey, we got to liberate the people of Iran,
11:07if I had said to them like, okay, but let's just say hypothetically that the commander in chiefsays in order to liberate them, we have to destroy their civilization, destroy their electricalgrid, bomb every bridge in the country, and send the civilian population back to the Stone Age.Would you oppose that? They all would have been like, well, yes, of course we oppose that.But then as soon as Donald Trump says it, now they got to pretend to defend it.Now they just got to get on board. And there's this, you know, just this horrible thing.And then I guess maybe getting to Tucker Carlson, because I want to play some of the clipsfrom his like really incredible show last night.
11:43You know, there was this thing, me, so I was just out with Tucker,as I told you guys, me and him really spent like the whole day talking when we were outthere.And obviously we had talked about all of this stuff.And, you know, I was always kind of, you know, I basically said to Tucker at one pointwhile we were at breakfast that I was just like, look, man, like, I don't envy the positionyou're in.I'm in a much easier position where I can just say.
12:08whatever I got it, I want to say.You know, I can just tell the truth and be as pissed off as I want to be.You are now, I think I might have said this on the podcast too.I can't remember what was what.But I was like, you're now in the situation.Like, essentially, during the 12-day war, there were two people who had Donald Trump'sear who were arguing we shouldn't go to war with a rant.Okay, one of them's dead now.
12:30Now Tucker's the only one left.Tucker was the only person in the president's ear this time around telling him not tostart this war.Now, maybe Joe Kent or Tulsi Gabbard were behind the scenes, but certainly either they didn'treally have his ear or they weren't going hard enough at him.And also, it's Donald Trump.So you know, if you insult him, that's it.You're dead to him, you know?
12:53And so I don't know.You know, there were people out there who were like, oh, Tucker's, you know, Tucker's being a cowardbecause he's criticizing the policy, but he's not personally attacking Donald Trump.And I always kind of felt like, hey, guys, he's in a different situation than you're in.and it's quite possible that the best thing Tucker could do right now is maintain Donald Trump's ear a little bit and not burn that bridge.You know, I basically said to Tucker when we were hanging out, I was like, look, man, I don't envy the situation you're in, but I wouldn't even presume to tell you what the best way to play that is. I really don't know.And, you know, he kind of expressed to me that he's also struggled with that and that he doesn't exactly know.And so it was an interesting moment last night watching him, you know, really make the decision that this was just a bridge too far for him.
13:44And he couldn't, he couldn't not make it very clear where he stood.And before we even get into some of these clips, I would just kind of emphasize that this is really something very unique in modern American history.I've never seen anything like this.Again, the equivalent would be like Bill O'Reilly turning on George W. Bush in the middle of his presidential term, you know, Rachel Maddow, turning on Barack Obama.He has never seen a dynamic where the number one right wing show in the country just turned on the Republican president and for very good reason.But just that dynamic alone is very, very unique.Well, I guess typically speaking, the number one person would be on a network.And so they would be kind of obliged to be pitching a certain narrative or not having a job.
14:43So the reason why we actually have an honest person is because this is the first errorthat you could just do your own show and get it to a large audience, which is what's also,you know, luckily ruining the regime's ability to lie to us, but also has created in a newworld where they just don't care about public opinion.well that well look i meani would just listen i i agree with you the only one thing there i would take a little bit of issuewith is that they do care you know like they're upset that they're losing this fight and you doyou do see that they're like like even in sending down bonjino back out or in donald trump
15:20promoting mark levin and promoting douglas murray they're trying they'd rather it not be this wayyou know what i mean or even donald trump which we'll play in a second trying to discredit tuckernow you know it's likeLike, they do care about it.Not enough that they'll stop doing what they're doing.They would prefer that, you know,people like Tucker didn't have the voice that they have.Here, let's go to this clip.
15:44The first one, Tucker Carlson condemns Trump's vile Easter morning threat.Let's play this clip.And so the morning of Easter is a uniquely joyful and peaceful moment.And yet that piece yesterday was shattered.That's not an overstatement.It was shattered for many observant Christians by a statement that the President of the United States put out at 8.3 a.m. Eastern time on Easter morning that said this.And we're going to read it in its entirety, not in outrage or self-righteousness, but honestly in horror.Quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day all wrapped up in one in Iran.
16:24There will be nothing like it, three exclamation points.open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell.Just watch all caps.Praise be to Allah, President Donald J. Trump.Now, a lot of people reading that imagined, of course, this can't be real.Did the President of the United States really just write that?And it is real.It is maybe the most real thing this president has ever done, and also the most revealing.
16:57on every level.It is vile on every level.It begins with a promise to use the U.S. military, our military,to destroy civilian infrastructure in another country,which is to say to commit a war crime,a moral crime against the people of the country,whose welfare, by the way,was one of the reasons we supposedly went into this war in the first place.
17:26They're being killed by their government.We have to rescue them.And now here's our president,not even a month and a half into the conflict,which we are not winning, by the way,because the straits and four moves are not open.There's one way to keep track.That's the measurement.
17:42Saying that we're going to use our militaryto kill the civilians of this countrywho didn't choose.They got nothing to do with it.They're like civilians everywhere.Blow up their bridges?Bridges on military bases?No, no, no, no, just bridges.
17:56Bridges that people cross every dayto go to school and work and to worship and yes, church,because there are over a million Christians in Iran.This is their Easter, too.And power plants.Not the power plants attached to missile factories, okay,but civilian power plants in a country of almost 100 million people.What happens when a modern country,
18:20and a country that has a nuclear program as a modern country,sorry, Iran is a modern country.What happens when it loses power?Well, people die.babies connected to incubators die.People in hospitals die.And those are the first level effects.And then people begin to starve.
18:38And then you have refugee crises.People leave the cities looking for food.And yes, they move into other countries.In the region, in Europe, in the United States, you cause chaos and death, mass sufferingand death when you do that.And we have done that.We have intentionally bombed civilian infrastructure in Iran.it's totally unacceptable.
19:01None of the phony laws of some international body,but under moral law, God's law.Yeah, I mean, listen, man, I sent Tucker a long text last nightafter I watched the show.And, you know, I thanked him for thisand told him how much I admired him for doing it.And I also told him that I was like,dude, there was no one else in the country,
19:26I think, who could have done that as effectivelyas you just did.Like it just meant more from you.And, you know, Rob, we're just too Jewy at the end of the day to really have like the correct, you know, like Christian kind of message and to really be able to speak to it with some authority.But look, man, there's just no question here.Right.Like it was such a slap in the face to Christianity itself to like on Easter morning promise to bring hell to another nation and then mockingly talking about, you know, Allah Akbar or praise.Paula, you know, same thing.
20:02Anyway, I mean, there you go, Tucker Carlson, just eviscerating the president who he campaigned for,who he gave the keynote speech at the Republican National Convention for.I mean, man, it's one thing to destroy your coalition.But when you got the guy, the biggest right-wing, you know, newsman in the country,eviscerating you like this, what can I say?you've already destroyed your presidency.And, you know, Donald Trump really has nothing to say backbecause everyone knows Tucker's right.
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21:58Offer is valid for a limited time only.Terms and conditions may apply.All right.Let's get back into the show.Yeah, I think Tucker might have even played this during the opening monologue.But Natalie, if you want to pull it up, there was a deleted video from the White House of,I guess, an event that took place with his pastor, his private pastor, before, and I guess theWhite House put it up and took it down. But one of the moments that's really striking to me is just how
22:28good Donald Trump is at finding the right people to kiss his ass. And while I'm not a Christian,I can't speak for Christianity, but I do like when the religious messages for nonviolence,and I thought particularly the end of Tucker Carlson's pitch about how the message of Christianitywas basically sending out the gospels to go spread the message, even if that meant death, which iswhat it meant. But that's how you kind of keep on. It's not about going out. It wasn't aabout going out and conquering.And so that what Donald Trump is doing right now,and they're pretending it's some sort of a religious message,
22:59but it's going out and purveying violence on people,that's certainly not the message of Christianity.I haven't studied Christianity,but as a sideline observer,I think that message relates a lot more with me.And I think it was a pretty damning,you know, damning statements against Donald Trump,but when you parallel that against the group of Christians
23:19he's hanging out with that are putting hands on himand saying that he's a messengerlike Jesus, it's quite differentto the message that Donald Trump is actuallyreceiving. And I do think the clip'sworth playing if you got it, Natalie. Here, I thinkwe have, here, let's go to the, I believeit might be in this next
23:35clip that we have here, but this is,let's play this one and then you can lookfor that clip as well, Natalie.But yeah, the clip was, it's like DonaldTrump's religious, spiritualadvisor or whatever, basically sayingthat he's Jesus. Very,very creepy stuff. And you could see how that
23:51would really appeal to someone like DonaldTrump. But let's go to this clip. Tucker Carlson says Donald Trump betrayed Christians and rejects theBible. Because this is really, I mean, this is 10 out of 10 the most powerful criticism you can givesomeone. Maybe some did, but certainly the leaders of the American Christian churches, by and large,said absolutely nothing. And maybe because they said nothing, this accelerated. These are the same peoplesort of didn't notice somehow that on inauguration day, the president did not take his oath ofoffice with his hand on the Bible. His wife stood next to him holding it. I was about 15 feet away andsaw it, but he did not put his hand on the Bible. And that should have been maybe a clue
24:42that we need to pause and think about what is this. Why wouldn't you put your hand on the Bible?If you don't believe in the Bible, you think it's just a book,There's no cost to you to putting your hand on it,just kind of following the protocol,going along with the tradition,all presidents do it.Why aren't you doing it?And you're not doing it intentionally.
25:03You're choosing not to put your hand on the Biblewhen you take that oath.That suggests not that you don't believe it's real,because if you didn't believe it was real,why would you care?You'd put on the costume and take it off.It doesn't matter.That suggests you know it is real
25:18and you're rejecting it intentionally.You know what you're doing, and you're doing it anyway.But nobody asked questions about that either.It seemed kind of inappropriate, given the celebration that in progress,to ask, why wouldn't you put your hand on the Bible when you take the oath of office to lead our nation?But pretty much nobody did.I didn't.I'll admit that.
25:42I saw it and didn't say one word.Bothered me ever since.But right around January 4th, it became clear that maybe,Maybe he didn't put his hand on the Bible because he affirmatively rejects what's inside that book.And what's inside that book are limits on human behavior.Because if there's one theme that spans all 66 books in the Christian Bible, it's that you are not God.And you cannot assume his powers.Because you don't have them.
26:14You may convince yourself if you have them.You may want them.You may have been promised them.But in the end, they're not yours.And you'll never have them.and you can only destroy yourself and the people around you by pretending that you do.That is the consistent message that spans from Genesis to Revelation.And people who ignore that law are punished, just like people who ignore gravity or freezing temperatures are punished.
26:37Because these are laws that are not created by people.They supersede people.But on January 4th, when the President of the United States told us he was stealing that our country was stealing something that didn't belong to us,people should have piped up and said something, but they didn't.And that got us all the way to yesterday, which was Easter Sunday.So, of course, we played these in, you know, opposite order.Then he goes into the Easter Sunday tweet.But to just give you, you know, a taste there of how severe, I mean, this is the strongest
27:12possible language.Like, he is, I mean, Rob, he didn't call Donald Trump the Antichrist, but it certainly calledthem like not even a non-believer. He's calling him a believer who rejects Christianity.This is, I mean, again, this is like, this is the number one right wing show in Americatelling their audience who are, who followed Tucker Carlson from Fox News over to the internetbecause they love him and respect him so much. And he's telling his listeners that like youessentially have a religious obligation to oppose this man. It's the strongest possible language,and it is the most compelling possible point for Tucker to like to hit his audience with.
28:09That like, you as a Christian cannot support this. I got to say, full of vision, I never heardof that that he didn't swear in on the Bible. And I think guys like me and you are just,I don't know, like we're not Christians. And so it's just kind of, that's just not even theof thing that would even register you know what i mean with us i didn't i didn't know that um butit's pretty interesting that tucker brought that up and i i do love that he pointed to venezuelaas being like hey that's kind of where it starts like once you could accept that then you're just likeyou're in an evil territory now where of course it's going to lead to more evil shit i think he'sspot on about that any thoughts yeah i think when you're in the uh top spot you can kind of dictate the
28:52or what the morality for the world should look like.And if we're taking that opportunity to go, might is right.We're actively making the worst a,the world is a worst place and a less safer place for everybody.So all the people that cheered on, hey, they got oil and we're taking their oil.I don't think that's the imperial country we want to live in.And I don't think that's going to make us safe for a thousand years in the future.Yeah, it's, yeah, that's right.
29:20That's exactly right.Here, Natalie, you said you found that Trump's spiritual advisor.Yeah, there's two.There's one where she's referring to him as Jesus,and then there's another one where they all place hands on him in prayer.I'm not sure which clip this is.This is the Jesus one.Here, let's play this.
29:37This was the crazier one to me,and Tucker did play this clip on a show.Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price.It almost cost you your life.You were betrayed.and arrested and falsely accused. It's a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us,but it didn't end there for him and it didn't end there for you. God always had a plan.On the third day, he rose, he defeated evil, he conquered death hell in the grave. And because he
30:17rose, we all know that we can rise. And sir, because of his resurrection,you rose up because he was victorious you were victorious and I believe that the Lord said to tellyou this because of his victory you will be victorious and all you put your hand to I mean this isyou know as as Tucker pointed out this is so freaking creepy that you you can't believe that likeall types of Christians across this country wouldn't have been like appalled at seeing thislook, I'll be the first to admit, like, maybe it is that, like, maybe me and you have a little bit of a blind spot to some of this stuff because that's not our world or whatever.But you would think that, like, you know, that would be profoundly offensive.But then, you know, just leaving that aside, it's also an interesting, you know, it's, again, we're always kind of speculating when we talk about Donald Trump's state of mind.
31:19A very hard thing to really get into.But you do wonder, like, you know, how much of this actually rubbed off on him.Because knowing Donald Trump, it's not that I think Donald Trump was ever a very religious person,but I do feel like Donald Trump is the type of person who could really be wooed by that type of talk.You know what I mean?Like, you start telling him that like, oh, no, this is actually, this is all part of God's plan,is that you rule everything you touch is great.And that, like, I feel like that almost could convince Donald Trump, like,
31:52I got to look back into this religion thing.You know what I mean?And so you wonder, like, anyway, I guess it's just like, what a, what a dangerous anddestructive thing to tell somebody, you know, that you've been chosen by God and everythingyou touch will turn to gold.Especially some with the sensibilities and demeter of a large seven-year-old child.But, you know, for all of us wondering where Donald Trump gets his absolute confidencefrom, you know, they do like these internet videos of my morning routine, it's like this guy
32:21gets on a call with his pastor, this lady, you know, and goes, you know, you're really Jesus.Then he goes into the press, the Pentagon briefing. And apparently they show him two minutes ofclips of what's going well. And then he gets on another call with someone who tells him you're doinggreat. And then he just shares his worldview, which he's a little bit like I love the movieMemento. Have you ever seen the movie Memento? Yes. Yes. I love the movie Memento. And mytakeaway from that movie was that sometimes your higher consciousness kind of setsup games or kind of the life that you actually really want to live.And so this guy wants to always be solving a murder mystery.
32:58So he kind of sets it up for himself in the moments that he's conscious so that five minuteslater he forgets.And now he's got a game to basically go play.And, you know, Donald Trump's higher consciousness or whatever, like his ultimate desireis to be, you know, highly praised and think that he's the greatest thing that ever happenedon God's planet.And so he sets himself up with these characters around him that just serve him nothingbut constant praise so he can live in this reality that he's actually the greatest thing that ever
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35:47oh what is this yeahIsraeli TV has acountdownon their newsroom right nowfor Donald Trump's red line tonightlike they are justegging on this yes we're going to destroythe entire
36:02cheese manthis is really crazy anywayyou know I think I sent the wrong video thereI sent the video ofTrumpdenouncing Tucker Carlsonbut I think that was actually fromthe 12-day war, but Donald Trump did say something about Tucker Carlson today and how he's a loser and
36:25whatever, something he was always very low IQ and I want smart people around me or something likethat. So it is my expectation here would be that Tucker has burnt that bridge and that we won't getany more meetings with Tucker in the White House, given Donald Trump some decent advice.But then again, I think this was the time to burn the bridge.You know, it's kind of like the way Tulsi should have resigned already.Tulsi should have resigned last summer, honestly.What's the point in sticking around?You know, it's like even Joe Kent probably should have gone earlier than he did.
37:02But it's better to have leave and left in protest than to stick around to try to what,convince yourself that you be in there is better than the next person be in.there, but you being there hasn't stopped us from getting here. And that's kind of the worst thingthe next person could do anyway. Might as well just tell the truth. So I see it. And no argumentsfor me on that one. Yeah. Well, it's this, you know, there was a Jim Carrey, who's a little bitgoofy at times, but he had this one speech. He was like giving like a, what do they call it,the graduation speeches. And he was a, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he wassaying his advice he tells the story like his dad who he said was like a really talented like
37:49artistic guy but he just went and got a job you know because whatever he had kids and a wife andstuff and then like he got downsized from the company and ended up losing his job anyway and thenhe was like the moral of the story was like uh you you can fail at your backup plan tooso you might as well fail at like what you really want you know there's like kind of this you knowAnd I don't know.There's something beautiful about that.Not saying it's always the correct answer in every situation,but there's something about someone like, you know,
38:19like Tulsi Gabbard, who you'll like,you'll be like, well, hey, I have this position of power.I don't want to give up this position of power.So I'll compromise in order to keep this position of power.And then I don't know if you read the reports this week,but Trump's considering firing her now.So it's like you could still lose that.You know what I'm saying?
38:37Like you might as well,at least if you do the honorable,you know, righteous thing, then at least they can't take that away from you.You know, at least you're like, hey, I told the truth.But as soon as you start lying in order to protect your own position, you can still loseyour own position.And now you're just a liar who lost their position, you know?Now you've just burned down all your credibility.
38:59And also, like, you know, I mean, I don't know.But like the director of national intelligence resigning in disgust and then telling theAmerican people that there was absolutely no imminent threat here.I mean, that might move the needle enough to stop this thing from being worse than it already is.Like, that might be the difference.That'd be a pretty big deal.Joe Kent's a big deal, but there's a big difference between the director of counterterrorismand the director of national intelligence, you know, the person at the absolute top of the
39:27intelligence ladder or supposedly.I guess really it's Israeli intelligence is one step above that.But anyway, yeah, it's a she really should have resigned a long.time ago and I think I think Tucker did the right thing last night and did it in a way thatkind of like only he could and you know look man I really do not I try my best and in fact you know Idon't mean you have pointed out before Rob but even when when people were um you know likeif you think back to like the 12 day war and when people would be trying to dunk on us and theywould use the montage of all the people but whenever it was me in there I would always be
40:10hedging my bets. Like I wouldn't be saying like this is going to be a disaster. I'd be going likethis this carries the risk of catastrophe. You know like I try not to get too because you know I don'twant I don't like I don't like making wild predictions that you know end up that you end up beingwrong too much when you do that. And so like I'm not saying I think that Donald Trump is going touse nuclear weapons. I don't think that. But Tucker did get into a bunch of of that stuff and like he's likehey, he said he promoted Mark Levin's show.And if you read between the lines, not too carefully,Mark Levins kind of hinting at using nuclear weapons.
40:48And when Donald Trump starts talking like a,you know, we are going to destroy a civilization never to be recovered again,it does kind of start hinting at something like, whoa,we could be going like non-conventional here.Or if not nuclear weapons, you know, just like a,a level of death and destruction like we haven't seen in the global war on terrorism that we haven'tseen since maybe World War II or whatever. And there was a point in the show where Tucker actuallyurged people not to follow orders if that is really the path we're going down. And I also thought
41:25that was pretty powerful. It's like there's a lot of hardcore people in the military who reallylove Tucker Carlson. And that's kind of important that they heard that. And I would just say to that,you know, to a lot of peoplebecause I, and don't get me wrong, like, it's just people,there's different games that all of us are playing.And like, Tucker Carlson's in a very different situation than even someone like me and you, Rob.Maybe to the outsider it might look like, well, you know, you guys have a big show.He's got a kind of bigger show, but like he's in a different league and playing a different game.
41:59And it does for sure take real courage to do what Tucker just did last.night. Like, he's opening himself up for legit retribution from this administration, who is very pettyand very authoritarian in nature. And, you know, there's already been all types of evidence of theNSA spying on, on Tucker Carlson. He claimed that he had found that the CIA was spying on him andtrying to build a case, referring it to the Justice Department about who he was contacting in Iran or what,trying to do journalism before the war broke out.And I mean, look, I'm not saying they will, but it's not beyond the realm of possibilitythat they could be looking at coming after Donald Trump in a, excuse me, coming after Tucker
42:51Carlson in a real way.I don't know.I admire the courage of him to take on the administration like that.Because when you get to that high of a level, people do want to make an example out of youif you do some shit like this.And I don't know, I don't know the extent of what they do,but I don't really think anything is off limits with this regime.So just two very, very separate points.
43:14One is I think it's insane that Donald Trump seems to be getting advice from not just MarkLevin, but the Mark Levin that appears on his show.So it's one thing if you're sitting in a room with Mark Levin and you're like,hey, what do you think I should do in this situation?And you get real Mark Levin who might have a calmer take than what he's saying.on the show. But Donald Trump recently put out that the Supreme Court should be listening to MarkLevin's show basically on the issue of birthright citizenship. Now, just quick shot, they got the lawright, and we should probably change the law on birthright citizenship, but the Supreme Court is
43:48what the law is, and that's actually their job. But really just the takeaway is the fact thatDonald Trump is listening to the Mark Levins show and going off of what he's hearing on the show isabsolutely insane. On the topic of us nuking Iran, from whatI understand we can issue enough death and destruction on Iran with conventional weaponsthat we wouldn't want to actually breach that threshold of being the first people since Japanto be using nukes.On top of the fact, we're already now okay with just engaging with blowing up their civilianinfrastructure.
44:22So I don't think nukes are on the table for the U.S.I think the only risk of nukes is if Iran strikes Israel back in a horrendous enough waythat they go with the Sampson option.But I guess Donald Trump is getting their backand willing to blow up enough civilian infrastructuredoesn't look like we're going to have to get there.Yeah, well, let's hope so.Let's hope so.
44:45I don't know.Again, I don't know.And I really, really want to err on the side of even what we were saying yesterday.It's like, eh, I could totally see Donald Trump walking away from this,just kind of bitching out and then pretending like he won.It's the fact that he restates.it again this morning and now we're literally as we speak here rob we're about six hours awayfrom the timeline running out um in fact when this show premieres on youtube it'll be starting at the
45:13timeline um poof i don't know dude it's getting harder and harder to not at least be like yowe've it's just hard to overstate that we've never seen a president talking like this ever i don'tthink presidents during World War II ever talked like this. Well, I mean, they did things like this,but it's at least enough to be like, I'm kind of concerned by this. Well, this is, uh, sadly it hasreal repercussions in reality, but this is the first time ever in a war. You got two countries thatare just tweeting shit talk at each other. Yeah. Can you imagine if Hitler was shit talking the US duringWorld War II and just were sending tweets back and forth at each other and what that would have looked like?Oh man, it would have been pretty goddamn hilarious.
46:02Now that you mention it, that would have been Hitler tweets would have really thought.Hitler, Stalin, the United States of America and Japan, just with online Twitter trolls, Twittering at each other.Yeah.Yeah, no, it's an interesting thought experiment.Yeah.Someone go film that sketch of Hitler getting on Twitter from his bunker to shit talk, the United States of America.Dude, can you, by the way, I wanted to play this clip.I thought this was interesting, a little bit of a changing gears.
46:34I mean, it's on the same topic.But one of the things, reason why I thought this was interesting is because I've been saying now, well, I guess since Easter, at least, saying that being like, hey, look, Brand, what about all of these people who said the whole thing was about liberating the Iranians?How are none of them jumping off board of this now?Like, how is this not, you know what I'm saying?Like, what are they even saying at this point?When you're, now we're talking about sending them back to the Stone Age.I mean, come on.These two things cannot both be true.
47:08And anyway, so I saw that triggerometry with Constantine and Francis.They show that I really got to say I like both of those guys a lot, despite our disagreements.But so it's a show that I've been on.And, and me and Constantine, have had a couple of other debates outside of that show.And so they had that chick, Alicia.I apologize if I'm not saying that, right?But she's one of these Iranian expats.I debated her on Pierce Morgan last year.
47:43And, you know, I mean, it was pretty easy work.It was just whatever.Anyway.But so she was just on the Trigonometry podcast.It's a very interesting dynamic here because both, look, Constantine, I don't know about France as much,but certainly I know Constantine was like a supporter of the 12-day war, certainly does not have, you know,our foreign policy, is a supporter of Israel, supported Israel's destruction of Gaza,supported the 12-day war.
48:12He is like still at this point, I think the only guy I've seen who was way on board with the program,but then this round went, eh, wait a minute.I don't know about this.So they're like kind of skeptical now.I think part of it is just that like, I mean, look, I don't know exactly, you know,I'm not trying to psychoanalyze Constantine or Francis, but I think part of it is also just thatlike he sees this is like, this is not going to work out well.And, you know, he's a young guy or, you know, he's my age or whatever.
48:45He's got a long career ahead of him.They got a huge show.It's like, yeah, you kind of want to be on record being against this if you think it's reallygoing to go bad. That's kind of my read. Anyway, here, Natalie, I just sent the one of the clips over.Let's play that clip because I did, I don't know, I found this really interesting, very revealing.Oh, this is the lady called you the most demoralized brain-rodded idiot alive.Yep, that was her. Okay, just for reference.Also, I think there's, I can't, I can't say the numbers for sure, but I think there's like
49:14150,000 people within the ranks that are looking to defect to him. And, you know, and,And so what are you basing that on?How do we know that?His team says that.How do we know?I mean, I can only tell you what his team says.Also, Reza Pahlavi, I think there's, I can't say the numbers.So she's making the argument that the Shaw's kid has 150,000 IRGC members ready to defect to him on a moment's notice.
49:49How does she know that?Because he says so?like this is this is where what they're up to now still that uh that we could put him in thereand we could we could what force a western monarchy on the iranian peoplewith no reason at all to suspect that that would work absolutely no reason to think thatwould actually do anything exactly like go ahead drop them in the country right now how comethey're not why are they not doing it davyBecause he gets killed.
50:23I can see the strategy now.If you put them back in the Stone Age, Stone Age people like kings.So if you bring them their king and they live in a Stone Age environment, they might embrace them.You know, it all makes sense.No, listen, that is nearly airtight logic.Rob, the one flaw is that the Stone Age people, they also like theocracies.Oh.You know, there is that one little issue.
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51:20This is the most comfortable pair of workboots you will ever own, and they will hold up on the toughest job sites.Plus, right now, our listeners can get $10 off their entire order if they use the promo code problem when they check out at bruntworkware.com.Just go over to bruntworkware.com and use that promo code problem for $10 off.Order today and let them know that you heard about them right here on part of the problem.All right, let's get back into the show.Here there's a here.I sent another clip there, which I all.also thought was very interesting on the show.
51:53So here, let's play the one I just sent over, Natalie.What we're doing and what we're talking about is simply not going to enact regime change.And it just isn't.And that is the unfortunate situation.A regime change can happen now if the circumstances are right.And so the question is, why aren't we aligning the circumstances to make it right?We have this window in time.We have this window in time where we can get the Iranian people out into the streets,
52:18possibly on them, possibly.possibly go for, you know, their precision strikes are so incredible.Why can't they go for the weaponry that they're using on the protesters?This is just assault rifles.Well, can't they target that?No.They're targeting the booths.They're literally, they're targeting the booth where they're doing the checks.
52:36I know, but you're not going to take out every single AK-47 in Iran.It's not going to happen.And this is the thing.It's like the IRGC are still going to have guns at the end of the day.Yeah.I mean, this is like what they've got here.Why can't we send weapons in?Why can't we?
52:56Again, I mean, this is literally the question she's asking.Like, did you ever think any of this through as you've spent the last decade advocating for this war?This is your literally like, think about how crazy this is like it is, look, I mean, I think this is a reasonable standard to, to have, right?that there's, okay, I have been opposing all of these wars for the last 20 years or so,and then I started podcasting 15 years ago, and then it's taken off over the last 10 years, right?So I've been for a while, like in the game of opposing these wars.And I feel like, you know, I have an obligation to know my stuff.If I'm going to get out and make these arguments, then I've got to really make sure I'm well read on them,
53:39and I have sound arguments, and I've heard the counter arguments, and I've read opposing,views and I know what I'm talking about.And I just think if you're advocating, that's from someone advocating we don't fight stupidwars of aggression.But if you're advocating, we launch wars of aggression, there is such a higher onus on you tolike really make sure you have it right and you know what you're talking about.And you're telling me, we've gotten to this point where we've launched the war that you'vebeen publicly lobbying for, cheerleading for, for years and years and years.
54:11and you haven't even thought through whether it's possible or not to look, first of up,whether you can enact a regime change from the air only.I've heard several military experts argue that that's never really been accomplished.Now, we have achieved regime change with air campaigns and a mix of like a light footprinton the ground, but we've always had that ground component as well.and she's literally sitting here.Not only has she not thought through whether or not you can enact a regime change throughthe air, like how likely that is, but she's not even thought of whether you can target
54:48all of the guns rid around of every automatic rifle that they have in the country,a semi-automatic rifle that they have in the country.What?Like, no, that is not.And then even like when she says like, oh, why don't they arm the protest?is like, evidently they tried.And those weapons didn't get in, right?This is what we just learned the other day.
55:14So it is unbelievable how much these people just, it's like over and over again.They advocate for wars.And then you just have to ask them like one or two questions.Just scratch the surface a little bit to find out that they haven't thought through any ofthis.They have absolutely no plan.Well, how are we going to do this?How are you going to reinstall the Shah in Iran?
55:39Well, his people say, okay, you know, how are you going to enact regime change here?I don't know, maybe a lot of different things at once.We have targeted airstrikes.Why can't we target the weapons?Like, I don't know.I mean, this is like profoundly unsurious for somebody who's like been advocate, publicly advocating for a war.I just think like, I don't know, man.Maybe I just take this shit more seriously than some.
56:09Like, I just feel like that's a really, you really have an obligation to do better than this.If you're out there with a big platform advocating for death and destruction, you better be damn sure that you have a plan and you know how that's going to work out well.And what does this chick have?I don't know.But I want to try because I don't like that regime.if if we all like pick up foward platters and we blow them into the wind maybe they'll all drift into iran and people will feel peaceness in their heart and the whole thing for this isn't even what our government's saying our government's not saying we're installing the shaw or that we're sending in so why would you advocate for the current strikes on iran it's not even what you envision as being a better plan uh and as you said your plan is contingent on uh or her plan is contingent on being able toget all the guns out of the hands of the IRGC.She doesn't know how that can be performed
57:06and getting guns into the hands of the protesters,which has already failed.So sounds like there's no reason to even say this sentence.I mean, think about, listen, man, this is the United States of America.The United States of America's federal governmentcouldn't disarm America if they wanted to.You know, this is eventually why all these.these gun control debates were always so stupid, you know, because you just, after a while, I remember back in the day having a lot of gun control debates with liberals and stuff.
57:39You know, they kind of gave up on that issue a little bit. It used to be a really big thing that they were trying to push.Like after every mass shooting, they'd have some hysteria about how we got to round up the guns.And I always just be like, hey, look, man, just look at the logistics of this. Okay. So you want to round up the guns.Well, guess what? Texas is not agreeing. They're not giving them.them to you. So now what? What's your next move? No, I know, you just wrote a law that said,you know, semi-automatic rifles are illegal. Semoautomatic weapons are illegal. Include thehandguns in it, okay? Okay, no one turned to men. Now what? Now what do you do? You just,all you've done so far, so far is you transformed tens of millions, if you're talking to
58:25whole country hundreds, probably a hundred million, you know, you've transformed tens of millionsof law abiding citizens into felons. That's all you've done so far. And by the way, they're well-armedfelons now. And so we can't even disarm our own people. We're supposed to disarm the IRGCfrom the skies. And, you know, the reason why I'm picking on Alicia a little bit here, well, she did call meall those nasty names and she's made a few videos about me being fairly disrespectful.So anyway, you know, there's that.But I will say, as I've kind of, I think I've made this point a little bit, but maybe tolike kind of put a button on it.
59:08There's something about like the Iranian expatriates have always been the group that I'm,I guess I'm the softest on in terms of the people advocating regime change and around.in the same way that like, you know, if there's a Cuban in exile living in the United States of America who wants regime change in Cuba, I have a little bit more of a soft spot for them than I do, you know, just some war hawk.So like if you're, if you're like, you know, I don't know, like Ted Cruz or David Worms or something like that and like you want regime change in Iran because you think it'll help Israel, I'm more disgusted by that than like a woman who's of Iranian.descent who's like, hey, I just think it's so messed up that like my people are repressed and,you know what I mean? Like women are forced to wear burkas in Iran or something. So like,even though I disagree with them, I always had a little bit of a softer spot for them becauseI go, okay, there is some desire for your own people to be liberated. There's no question that
01:00:10the Iranian regime is a pretty brutally repressive regime. And so I can kind of understand that.But man, I will tell you, that entire calculation has just flipped when you watch.those same people not jump off board of this as Donald Trump has announced total war againstthe civilian population.Because now you just go like, oh, wait, what?You were pretending to actually care about your own people when really all you want is this war.Like, what's going on here?You clearly have no plan for how this will work out.
01:00:44Two of the pro-war guys, you know, on one of the biggest podcasts that's people who aresupport Israel, support of the 12-day war, all this stuff.They're sitting there telling you, hey, we're not going to get regime change.Donald Trump has already acknowledged.It's not happening, you know, in his Trumpian way.We don't care about regime change because we've already gotten regime change.In other words, this regime is still going to be standing when this is over.That's what the president is acknowledging.
01:01:12And you're still on board with death and destruction in your country,even though you know it's not going to lead to any of the stuff you're talking about.I mean, maybe it's just a little.but it really does, at least from my perspective, it calls into question what your real motivations ever were in this thing.So they've somehow gone from being like the ones I had the softest spot to to being the ones I'm like the most disgusted by.Like how can you sit, how can you sit by and support this happening to your own people?My God.Anyway, all right, we could wrap up on that.
01:01:45Look, today's going to be an interesting night.We might be on the precipice of something very major.I am really hoping that tomorrow, the story is how Donald Trump just extended the timeline or walked away or pretended anything else but didn't actually do bridge and tunnel day.But we will see and we'll be here to talk about it tomorrow. God willing.All right. Thank you guys for listening. Catch you next time. Peace.
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