Part Of The Problem - It Was Always About Regime Change

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

Dave Smith brings you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave and Robbie "The Fire" Bernstein talk about the protests in Iran, the recent ICE shooting, and more.Support Our Sponsors:BodyBrain - Go to BodyBrainCoffee.com, use code DAVE20 for 20% off your first orderLovebird - https://lovebirdfoods.com/dave Use code "DAVE" for 25% off your first order!Rugiet - Get 15% off your first order by going to http://rugiet.com/DAVE and using code 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#libertarianSee 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 of Part of the Problem. We are back from Philadelphia. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. How you doing today, Rob? I am well. Fun runner shows out in Philadelphia.

A lot of fun. The crowds were incredible. Yeah, there was staff was incredible. I'll talk about management another day. But it was a real fun weekend in Philadelphia. Of course, the last episode that we did out there at the hotel was a lot of fun. the response to it has been great. I've been really particularly enjoying that.

And I don't, I don't plan on letting up on Dan Bungino anytime soon. I think this is a fight that we will be pursuing. I know you saw today, we were both, you know, just mocking him ruthlessly on Twitter. And they announced the Dan Bongino show is starting up next month. So like, oh, great, let's just keep the pressure on this guy. And it's not just, it is fun. And believe me, there's a petty aspect to this for me. I go, yeah, he invoked my family.

so now I have permission to be as vicious as possible. But it's also actually, I think, kind of important. I think very important that Dan Boggino is not allowed, not allowed to return without answering one goddamn obvious question about Epstein and zero deep state arrests and all this stuff. Anyway, we should get into some of the stuff that's going on right now because there's a lot that we haven't covered. This is one of those episodes.

You know, like sometimes there's days where, where you're like, oh, we need one more story. And then sometimes there's episodes where it's like, all right, we're not possibly going to get to everything we want to talk about. So there'll be stuff left over for tomorrow too. But I guess, well, I would start it by saying this. Excuse me. So, you know, on our year in review show that we did,

what was it, you know, 12 or 14 days ago, one of the things I think it was that what I said was my biggest, you know, kind of theme of 2025 was like, how Donald Trump started the year versus how Donald Trump ended the year. And we've talked a lot about this, you know, through the whole year. Going into 2006, it seems right now to me that this is the most unhinged, incoherent, and fundamentally juvenile and reckless that Donald Trump has ever been, ever. in his first term, in his time out of office, in his time since getting in on, you know, there were so many

times over the last decade where there was this hysteria about what Donald Trump was doing. And much of it came from progressives who had lost touch with reality. You know, it was immediately, you know, immigration enforcement is hilarious, they would say. Or, you know, like saying that you believe Vladimir Putin didn't. interfere in the 2016 elections and that you're not sure the intelligence agencies are right is treason. It's it's treason for the president to question his own intelligence agents. You know hysteria after hysteria, obviously all the stuff about January 6th, the impeachments, all this kind of like ridiculous opposition to Donald Trump.

But entering 2026, it almost seems like Donald Trump is working as hard as he can to convince everyone that he actually is an insane dictator, like that he actually has completely, like, that he's had a break from reality and that like the 25th Amendment ought to be invoked or something like that. Donald Trump, listen, we're at a, are we, I can't even keep track anymore, Rob, are we at $39 trillion in debt or are we just at $38.5 trillion in debt? And if it's not 39, it'll be $39 in a month. And then I think we'll hit 40, like a couple months after that because that's how quickly we go through money now. Now Donald Trump, in this situation, Donald Trump now, when you really think about it, everybody, this is one of the things that was

interesting about beefing with Dan Bungino is even though I was getting by far the best of those exchanges, there's a percentage of people who like still want to find a way to support Dan Bungino. And like I said to one of them the other day, and I go, dude, if I one year ago, you all would have been pretending to agree with me about Jeffrey Epstein and the deep state. And now you're all going to, like one year ago, they would have been bragging, no new wars. Donald Trump's the only one who's against the neocons. He's the only one who's going to keep us out of wars. And we're going to do America first things.

And in the last week, Donald Trump has threatened the shit out of Iran, Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Greenland. Am I missing one? There might have been one more in there. Now, by the way, Donald Trump, as always becomes his eternal defense, you can always say, that Donald Trump says lots of retarded shit

and doesn't do any of it. But as I mentioned to you, Rob, and I'm not saying this is the only possible reason why. But then he officially requested a $1.5 trillion war budget for next year. dwarfing the budget that he asked for for this year, which was the highest military budget in human history.

And so you actually at a certain point start to look at this and go like, are, is he serious? Does he actually think we can do like all of these things at once? But it's like you want to have the most reckless policy ever, and let's parlay that with three other reckless policies. And it's just, just to make the odds of success that much slimmer. But of course, the big one right now, well, Venezuela is a big one too, but at least the latest

incoherent threats have been directed at around where there are mass protests going on. And I just find I want to focus a bit on that because I just think like there's a lot that's very interesting that we can already kind of learn from what's just developed over the last few days. But I want to get your thoughts on any of this stuff before we do that, Rob. So what do you think? Well, first and foremost, I agree with you that, you know, for all the time that we spent defending Trump and telling everyone, you guys are a bunch of lunatics and he's not a dictator, the environment I know we're going to get to Powell later in the show. It does feel like it's getting a little bit dicey and that he's really trying to become more of the authoritarian that we defended that he was not.

And it does seem like a dangerous environment. per the recklessness of the Iran threats. I was just picking up on, I think we're going to play this clip, the Donald Trump saying that they called to negotiate. And I'm like, are they negotiating stepping down? Or are we now going to be backing the Iranian regime against their own people? I guess if they're willing to meet certain U.S. demands. I found that to be quite interesting.

And obviously, I don't really understand what the game plan is going to be for Iran. So I guess maybe they're thinking it's their best moment because the people are actually revolting. we can back the revolt and, you know, I guess install a new dictator there that will be better for them and maybe flip that in 10, 20 years. Yeah, yeah, we'll see. I mean, it seems, like, I don't know. This is, I'm speculating a bit, but it almost seems to me like Donald Trump, and maybe it's a mix of the fact that the, you know, the, the Trump people, well, like me and you, but

anybody else who like voted for him but is really opposed to starting other stupid wars maybe he's already gotten so much heat from them like he's kind of already lost that part of his base and then on the power structure side the warfare state maybe he's just concluded as impossible to roll back and so i guess i'll just be caesar you know like i guess i guess if i can't be america first i'll be america first by just conquering everybody and and i'll rationalize that we're bringing all of their resources back to us or something. And that's how it is still America first, or he's telling himself. They're convincing him that he can just do all of this stuff and that it really won't be,

it's not a risk. It won't be a big deal or something like that. But it just seems like Donald Trump has like officially decided that that's the direction we're going in. We're officially in the easy way or hard way stage of threatening everybody. And then I guess we get to find out you walk back terrorists. He's walked back a lot of stuff. So I guess we'll have to see how committed he is to the hard way. Yeah, no, look, it is always possible that Donald Trump will completely back down from the retarded shit he's saying, do none of it, and then expect credit for backing down.

And then his supporters will go, see, there are still, by the way, people who say they, in the list of accomplishments for Donald Trump, they put ended the 12-day war. They literally want you to give him credit for that, for ending the war. It's just like you can't even like, what can you say to that? You can't make shit like that up. Oh, yeah. I mean, that is true, I guess technically, but it's really all negated and then some by starting the 12-day war. There is one more option on the table, which is just LARP with Donald Trump that he actually

won and that all the things worked. Yeah, yeah. Well, that is, that's true. That's the other way that it could go. Now, to your point, because it is kind of an interesting situation, what's going on in around right now. the truth is that we don't know a lot about it. We certainly do know there were huge protests.

But then today, there were huge pro-regime protests too. So like it's kind of unclear exactly where the people are. We talked about this on one of last week's shows. And of course, it's it's unclear, you know, what type of like clandestine backing these, these groups might have. We don't know that the uprisings have been backed by outside governments, particularly ours and Israel's, but it's very reasonable to suspect that that is likely the case.

And we know that the goalposts have been moved now to, like, shooting the protesters. We also know, I mean, look, there's, I think the best source on this is like a Norwegian NGO that said that 192 people have died in the protesters. protests, but that's also, it's just, first off, it's not clear that that number is accurate. It could be more or less. It's also not clear how those people died, as Donald Trump himself admitted, that it's not, you know, people could have been trampled in some big mob or something like that. Also, we've seen images where like, you know, it's not just protests.

I mean, there's fires and violence. And so we just, you don't know the nature of what exactly happened there. But we do know that the red line has been moved from Iran can't be allowed to develop a nuke to Iran can't be allowed to enrich 60% uranium to Iran can't be allowed to have intercontinental ballistic missiles. And then as soon as all of those fall apart, it's, oh, they're shooting the protesters. Mind you, not even an accusation that they're about to go genocidal or that they're invading a neighboring country or anything like that. just there if if the regime shoots its own people that's now a justification for war and one of the things that's interesting here right is that people so uh people my critics love i mean their favorite thing to bring up i think it's like they they see it as the chink in my armor or something like that is that

well last summer dave was real angry warning that this could become a catastrophe, but it didn't become a catastrophe. Therefore, that's where you're weak because the lowest IQ, you know, like playing to group social psychology is to say that. And so people love to like, just like, obviously, it's a really dumb argument. Warning something could be a catastrophe. Doesn't mean it has to turn into one. It doesn't mean you were wrong.

But people love to say to me, they go, hey, Dave, where's that World War III that you said was going to start? Which is interesting because I never said that. and they can never find a clip of me ever saying this will lead to World War III. I think one time one person produced a clip where I said, in the worst case scenario, you could be looking at a wider war or something like that. But I never predicted it would happen. But let's look at some very real things that a whole lot of prominent war hawks did say.

And I find this interesting because now they're openly saying that this is about regime change. The regime's got to go. I mean, obviously, Lindsay Graham's been saying that the whole time, but all of them, Mark Levant, all of them are saying that like now we have to support the people. And by the way, Rob, me and you, or people like us, they would call us out as being hypocrites because you saw, you know, you said you cared so much about, you know, Palestinian lives, but now why aren't you standing up for women's rights in Iran? Why aren't you standing with the people of Iran and rooting for this regime to fall?

Donald Trump's already, he's posted out that the people have our support. He's deliberating about what exactly that means. He's talking to the military about options for strikes on Iran. But hold on one second now. Let's just look at this. So last summer, I was saying this is all about regime change in Iran, that Israel wants to overthrow the government there, that this was the seventh country on Wesley Clark's list of seven. They didn't get it done in five years, but they're still committed to.

to getting it done, that they've clearly moved in to topple all of the governments, short of Sudan, which fell apart on its own. But six out of the seven that they planned on doing in 2001, I was saying that this is all part of the clean break. This is all part. This is all about regime change. And they all swore up and down that it was about the nuclear threat. And Dave's crazy.

This has nothing to do with regime change. As Ben Shapiro said, we were crazy to think Donald Trump would ever be getting us in a regime change war. That's not what he does. We were just a bunch of hysterics. And yet then, Rob, they turned around and bragged that the operation was a success. This was the whole thing they were throwing back in our face. Look, we destroyed their nuclear program. Okay, great. So if it wasn't about regime change, and it was just about nuclear weapons, and we destroyed their nuclear program, sounds to me, Rob, like the job's finished. And yet now, just six months, months later, here we are talking about toppling the regime. So like, could these people just

be honest and admit that actually, just like everything else, Rob, just like COVID and Russia Gate and Ukraine and Gaza and wokeism and every damn other thing, yeah, we were right about that one too. This was all about regime change. And this seems to be the second iteration of it. Now, that doesn't mean I think the regime's going to fall. I'm not sure about that at all. But that certainly is the Israeli and the U.S., but I repeat myself's interest here, is to topple this government. And I'll just say this on the other part of it, they go, it is, dude, it is unbelievable. Like I had a post on Twitter about this, but it is unbelievable how the warhawks, right? The same warhawks who, you know, Ben Shapiro says, we cured Iraq War Syndrome.

because he doesn't view the war in Iraq as a disease. He views people not wanting to fight more wars in Iraq as a disease. Now, all these hawks who celebrated the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, you never see a single one of them, at least the one, well, they stop becoming hawks. But you never see any of the hawks go like, man, I really do feel awful about the million people that got killed there. I really do feel awful about the hundreds of thousands of people that got killed in Afghanistan and the hundreds of thousands of people that got killed in Libya and Syria and yes.

and Somalia and in Pakistan and all these places. They're never, you know, through the whole last two years, we've watched these guys justify a fucking genocide and just not have any feeling about it at all. But all the sudden, Rob, they're humanitarians. All of a sudden, what we're really worried about is the people in the Middle East and the amount of liberty they have and women's rights.

I'm supposed to believe all of a sudden that's what you're motivated by, but only when it's in service of a justification for a pretext for another regime change war. Just think about this. How goddamn crazy it is, that they want to sit there and try to convince you that no, no, no, now it's because we really care about the people. We're just really concerned. We have to overthrow the regime if they shoot their own protesters. After we're sending tens of billions of dollars to Netanyahu's regime.

Because what? We care so much about Persian blood, just not Arab blood? Like, does anybody believe this? Like, how fucking stupid or brainwashed? Do you have to believe that John McCain becomes a humanitarian? I understand he's dead, but they're all John McCain. So, like, John McCain becomes a bleeding heart hippie, but only when... But let's think about this, Rob.

we can prop up Israel as they slaughter like 100,000 innocent people. But we become humanitarian. But coincidentally, we become humanitarian when it's, you know, Israel's biggest regional rival. That's when we start to really care about the people and the rights. And hey, are the women allowed to wear mini skirts? That's what really motivates my U.S. foreign policy, spreading liberalism around the world. It's just, I don't know, dude, it's too fucking crazy. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Rouget.

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your door in discrete packaging within a week. No insurance companies, no awkward pharmacy encounters, no run around. So if you're ready to give Rugee a try, get 15% off your first order by going to rouge.com slash Dave and using the promo code Dave. That's R-U-G-I-E-T dot com slash Dave, promo code Dave for 15% off. You can also click the link in the video description to claim this offer. All right, let's get back on the show. I guess, well, in my eye, the Donald Trump regime needs a better propaganda writer because this is as bad as we're going to war with Venezuela over the fentanyl.

coming into the country. But I guess it's just in line with the way that Donald Trump does things where he's like, don't worry, a month from now. We don't have any accountability for what we said a month ago. So a month ago, six months ago, it was over nuclear warheads. Now it's over, well, they're killing their civilians. Venezuela. It just shifted to now it's about the royal.

And so I guess it's just kind of in lockstep with Donald Trump where you can say something now. And no one cares if in three months from now you just say something else. dude did you see i can't remember whether it was uh whether it was um just on your point uh whether it was either to the new york times or it was one of his uh press conference uh interviews um but where donald trump got asked about how it's really are oil and he just abandoned it too he went he went well i mean like the oil companies did have legal claims and some of them were settled in court and it's all a tax right off anyway if you lose money investing foreign so like like he just he just took his own

pretense away right there. Like she didn't even care. It's like the gang that they that didn't exist that they just decided to abandon. Like yeah, they have no, no sense of even being, of even thinking that maybe they would be held accountable for what they were saying last week next week. Like that's just not even a thought that that could maybe happen. It really is unbelievable to watch. But of course, with all of these guys, you know, it's like when, when, you know, when Donald

Trump first captured Madero and you heard a bunch of people saying, you know, well, a regime change in South America is totally different than regime change in the Middle East. You know, it's different religion, different culture, different all this. So like you can't let and then it's like, oh, you guys want to do regime change in Iran? Now can I look at the region? And you're like, no, no, no. I mean, that's still totally different. It doesn't matter.

Like, we did this in their two neighboring country, like the two countries that touch around, we invaded and overthrew the government. They were both catastrophes. We overthrew the government in Syria. That seems to be a pretty big catastrophe right now, not quite what the others turned into. Libya, goddamn catastrophe. So like what we're supposed to believe that,

I don't know, this time it's just going to work out really well. It's really, it's amazing to watch. And again, you know, I'm just saying for, for, through the whole summer, last summer, I was sitting there saying this is all about regime change. That's what this is, is getting into another regime change operation in the Middle East. They were all saying, no, no, no, it's just about the 60% uranium. We're pretty much proven right on that. And then also,

for six straight months, while all the Hawks have tried to use this as an own, like, aha, you were worried about something and it didn't go bad. We kept saying, but this isn't over. We're at halftime of this. Like, clearly, all the, all the, the, principles involved are telling you that this isn't over. You don't have to look much further than that, but like the thing is that Donald Trump and Netanyahu and the Ayatollah himself are all saying the same thing. They're saying they're going to rebuild their nukes. They're saying about all this stuff.

Netanyahu is saying they're still working on all this other technology. We're going to have to go bomb them again. And Donald Trump's saying we're going to have to go bomb them again. So like, how would you ever conclude that the thing is over when all the parties involved are saying explicitly, this ain't over? Seems reasonable to me. Not everyone larks with Donald Trump when he goes, hey, problem solved. And in the case of the nuclear warheads, I don't know.

Tell me how they were within breakout period from a bomb, moved all their enriched uranium, were struck, and then that's no longer a problem. Yeah. Yeah. How does that story make sense? Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's as simple as Donald Trump will not allow them. to go with the pretext for war here is the nuclear threat because he's already bragged so much

about how he destroyed their nuclear program. It's almost like they just took the, while celebrating they took their own excuse away from them. I mean, maybe like you said, they don't care about what they say next week from last week. Maybe they'll go back to that. But it seems like they just had to like go to something else because they just spent so much time bragging

about how they decimated the Iranian nuclear program. You know, I also, I got to say, I find this kind of interesting. Because, you know, people say, and to me, it's just like the dumbest argument ever. So I can't believe people even say it, but they still do. They go, they'll say like, well, if you say Israel is committing a genocide, then that means you're pro Hamas. Because logic or something, you know, like, as if you couldn't, like, oppose one and still not before the other. But they'll say the same where they'll be like, you know,

advocating against U.S. intervention here means you support the regime in Iran against the people of Iran, which is, you know, obviously a very stupid argument. But while they'll say like, look, obviously, I root for the people everywhere and against governments everywhere, you know, I like liberty, if you hadn't figured it out yet. But I don't want my government enforcing any of it. I don't think, not only do we not have a track record that in any way indicates that we're capable of providing more liberty. But even if we did, we don't have the right to. And so I'll never be for that.

But also, I mean, just like when you're asking our government to go provide liberty to other people, you're asking the biggest infringer of, our liberty to go help liberate other people. Like, liberate us first. I don't know. Like, this government just stole over half of my money that I made last year and they're spending it on shit that I hate. I don't want them to go liberate other people, but think about us. I also got to say, and I've been thinking about this a bit lately, because even like on that track, right, Rob, I don't believe that nation, I don't believe that states ought to exist the way they are, at least. But also they do. And so anyway, I'm thinking about how, you know, there was this big ice shooting the other day in Minnesota.

We haven't really talked about that much. We can't. We could talk about that a bit if we want to. But I just find it kind of interesting how like reflexively so many right wingers just buy into the, like, Like the cop feared for his life. If the cop fears for his life, he's allowed to kill. That's just, you know, like not even a standard of like, yeah, but was he actually about to die? You know, like, or anything like that, it's just like, we're on the side of the cop.

You listen or you don't. You know, we're a national laws and you don't follow the law. That's it. And look, I will preface by saying, I do not think that cop's going to go to jail for this. I think it's at least questionable enough whether he feared for his life. It is a really bad idea to peel out when law enforcement have their weapons drawn on you and they're telling you to stop your car. I highly recommend none of you ever do that.

Okay. I highly recommend the U.S. system is far from perfect. But if you get pulled over by the cops or by ICE or whoever, you can fight that battle in our very flawed courts. But that's where you have a fighting shot is talking to a judge and you get a, a lawyer represent you and that's you know you don't peel out like that at the same time you know it's like oh Jesus Christ it's just so sad and did the officer really need a shoot and also just like the kind of goolish like brutalism that's just being like supported by right wingers but anyway so i just

find this to be an interesting thing here rob and i'm sure my fucking haters will try to pick this apart but i don't give a shit i tell the truth even if they're too dumb to understand it isn't it interesting Rub, that simultaneously people are arguing that this, this protest movement is about to overthrow the regime. Like, they're arguing that the Iranian regime is collapsing. But then they're also, like, arguing that it's so appalling that the Iranian police would shoot at them. And, like, I do just, I'm saying, look, we live in a society where if a cop tells you not to go

anywhere and you go somewhere, you're going to support them killing that person. Like, he feared for his life or whatever. Now, I'm sorry, if you, our government, right, after January 6th, used every tool in their book, facial recognition technology and a domestic war on terrorism, all the rest of that, to bring all of those January 6thers to, quote, justice and threw them into solitary confinement, went out of their way to make an example of them by torturing those people. Now, we were against that, and most of the Trump supporters were against that. Also, a big part of that is because January 6th wasn't what they claimed it was.

It wasn't an armed insurrection held then on overthrowing the government. But, Rob, if it was, think about that for a second. If it was, if anyone in the United States of America, any protest movement or anything like that was actually trying to overthrow the government. And like you're arguing, they're actually on the verge of being successful. then they're going to get shot at. And I'm not saying that makes it right, but I'm saying that is what a state is. I mean, literally this is if it happened under Bill Clinton

or George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush or Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Harry Truman or Woodrow Wilson or anyone. If you were trying to violently overthrow your government, they will kill you because that's how governments work. And so the idea, and I'm not certainly not defending the Iranian government here, and quite possibly, I mean, we don't know, but quite likely, I would say, many of those kills were not innocent or not justified killings. But at the same time, it is just something like to make that the standard of when we're going to go in and overthrow a regime or when we're going to go in and attack a country is like granting, if you take as a given the reality that nation states, exist that is in an unworkable standard of when you ought to fight a war. And that's why it's never been used before. They always say he's about to go genocidal. He's invading his neighbor. He's violating

international law. Something like that. They never just said you put down a riot. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, a brand new sponsor who were really thrilled to have on board. And that is Lovebird. Do me a favor. Right now, go grab a box of cereal and read the ingredients on the side of it. For a lot of you guys, you might see things like refined sugars, red 40, synthetic pesticides, seed oils, a bunch of words you can't pronounce at all. It's not real food. It's junk and it's making this country sick.

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Any, I'm sorry, go ahead. My takeaway of this situation in Minnesota is basically identical to here is that the state is violence and they have a policy right now that they're going to be rounding up illegal aliens within the country. And so if you're getting in the way of that work, you might come into the line of government violence enacting the policy. So like, for example, during, in COVID times if me and some people decided that we were protesting the government taping off the pull-up bars in the park. That was the one place I could go and still do pull-ups until they put the warning tape on it because they felt that you couldn't even congregate outdoors in the name

of science. Oh, it kept you safe. It kept you safe, Rob. And so if I took my vehicle and I kept the cops from going into the park to mark off the area that they have decided was no longer a place that I could be, I would understand that I'm either being arrested and I will probably be pulled out of a car violently in order for that to happen. In order for that to happen, I understand I will be confronting the state and its violence and that it has an agenda and I'm trying to get in the way of the state's agenda. So in my head, kind of the game theory of the way that this plays out is essentially the state let people know, we have violence on our side and this is the policy that we are enacting. And so if you guys are stopping your cars and, you guys are stopping your cars and

you're getting in the way of what we're doing, we will use violence against you. And now it's up to people to go, well, we will die for this cause, which then makes it, which then kind of changes the math of, is this something that the state really wants to kill people over? One person killed is kind of a threat of don't, don't get in the way of what we're looking to enact. Multiple people dying by law enforcement then becomes more of the entire country upset over a policy and the way it's being enacted. And so that's that's kind of where it plays out from here. Just one last thought on this also is that for the people of Minnesota,

I'm a big fan of states rights. And if you were kind of your own country, your own state, and you want to go, we really like having these illegal immigrants here. And we don't like having a national government that's coming in here and telling you that we can't live with these people as our neighbors. That's fine unless you're taking federal funding, which they have been. Yeah. Yeah. No, look, that's a good, that's all.

all fair points. You know, I think, you know, I've been rethinking things a bit, particularly, you know, one of the things, it's not even just like the shooting in Minnesota. It was more like the reaction that I just found very disturbing. And it's one of those things like, you can't sell it. It's gross to celebrate it. And I don't think that the cop was right in doing that. But if I'm just saying if I had to predict on how the court case goes.

Oh, yeah, yeah. If you're, you've turned your vehicle into a weapon once you're like leaving that scene. And even if you didn't hit the guy, how does he know that you're not turning around to come at him? Well, look. Now, clearly he should wait until that's going to transpire before he should take you out. But there's just enough going on there that I don't think you can actually hold the cop. That doesn't make it okay. Doesn't mean he shouldn't done it.

And we certainly shouldn't celebrate it. I just don't see it. Paul, I don't see this playing out with that guy going to jail. Oh, okay, so I completely agree with that. And then also you got to keep in mind, and this is not something we support, but this is the reality, is that the standard, the legal standards is just totally different for a cop to kill somebody than for you or I or anybody else. And that at least in effect, essentially in effect, the law is, was the cop afraid.

Like, if the cop was afraid, then they can kill you. And that's essentially how it works. If they can say they feared for their life and you go, eh, it's kind of reasonable that maybe he was afraid for his life, then it's self-defense. But that doesn't apply to anybody else. I mean, there's a crazy asymmetry of like what cops in general, in this case it's ICE, but I mean, just in general, law enforcement in the whole country, there's a crazy asymmetry of what they're allowed to do to you first what you're allowed to do to them.

And I've seen dozens of times personally and countless thousands of times on 10,000, cops put their hands all over all types of innocent people and when i say innocent meaning you have not been even arrested yet let alone convicted of a crime but they'll put their hands all over you i've had it happen to me before i've watched it happens at friends in front of me there you do whatever they want to you but if they grab you and you do that you're that's another charge you just got sir you know that might not be assaulting an officer but it's certainly resisting arrest and if you were to like push them like right after they pushed you well that's a resisting arrest and assaulting an officer and whatever, you know, other charge they might want to throw at you.

And so in the video, clearly, right, it seems to me, I shouldn't say clearly, it seems to me in the video, it does not seem like she's trying to run over the cop. I think she's trying to peel out. But in that time where she's go accelerating toward the cop, that is more than enough for any court, if it even ever gets there to go, no, justified. So I completely agree with you on that. Now, that being said, the cop clearly did survive the thing. It wasn't that he shot her.

The car was already passed. So, like, no, it was completely unnecessary. But I almost want to, like, you know, look, there's, our guys, Scott Horton and Daryl Cooper just talked about this a bit on their last episode. I'm provoked. And I thought it was, they had really, really great conversation about it. They both made, like, excellent points. I highly recommend people go check that out.

And that show in general. Provoked is really great. And but I'll say this. And I think this is something that I'd hope like right winger support. Well, one thing Scott pointed out, which I thought was a very good insight, is that he goes, dude, so what happens is, right, you just watch the social psychology of this like play out on social media. So first, a video comes out.

And it's very unclear the first video. But everyone digs their heels into a position. and then clearer and clearer and clearer videos come out. And almost no one changes their position from what it initially was. You know what I mean? Like almost every because everybody has already decided. And I'm being hyperbolic when I say everybody, there are exceptions. But everybody has decided what side of this they already want to be on.

What feels good to them, you know? And like in the same way that like if it's if it's the Bundy ranchers having a standoff with the cops, you could expect one whole group to support the Bundy ranchers. And if it's Black Lives Matter, then you could expect a whole different group and they will flip, you know, and all of that is just, it's never good. Like, don't just be a tribal team player. You know what I mean? You lose your soul when you do that. Like, look at an issue and see how you really feel about it.

But I will say this. This is how I'm feeling about it, is that as you guys know for many years now, like I'm an immigration restrictionist. I am also a libertarian, which means that I've had huge battles with my own base about this, including I did a big debate at the Soho Forum about this last year. I've done several other debates with other libertarians. I've argued for a while that, like, no, like the correct libertarian position is not open borders or even easy immigration. You know, fundamentally, I just don't think that I don't believe that everyone in the world, world has the right to come to the United States of America. I don't think in the same way,

I don't think I have the right to go to Japan. I think it's up to Japan whether they decide to let me in or not. And I might hope they do, but it's not a right. And in other words, the American people, ideally, each property owner individually, but that ain't the world we live in right now. It's like the United people and the people of the United States of America have the right to decide. and they could do it for any reason they want to. I think in the same way that I could, for any reason, I want to invite anyone over to my house or not, you know? And so, you know, I've seen estimates from the Trump administration

that like 10 million illegals came into the country under Joe Biden. I don't know if that's exactly right. I don't think they know if that's exactly right. Or the Biden administration knows, to be honest. I've seen estimates way north of 30 million total illegal immigrants in the country. And then you're watching this approach by the, Trump administration, which seems to be the most provocative and, like, intentionally designed to make a big show.

You know, you've got these, like, masked thug cops that seem to not even have a fraction of the training that cops have, pour into, like, residential suburban neighborhoods, looking for a fight, guns drawn, being super aggressive. Here you have a thing that, that, you know, a mother gets killed. I mean, there's, the cop has his guns out already. Like, there's children around, man. Like, this is just, I don't know. And so you're sitting here watching this. And then you sit back and you go, okay, the leftists are now out in the street. They've been totally energized over this issue. And you got to, you know, if you're, if you're calling balls and strikes here and being fair, you got to go, they got something. Like, there's, you know, you know, you know,

It's like there's masked agents of the state coming down, knocking on doors, raiding businesses, pulling people over, being very aggressive. And then even from the position of like an immigration restrictionist, where you go like, okay, those 10 million people or whoever it was, whatever it is who came under Biden, the 30 to 50 million who are here. They don't have a right to be here and we have a right to remove them. It's like, okay, so are we doing that? Are we getting all of them out?

Well, no, by the administration's own projections, You're going to maybe get a couple hundred thousand. We'll see if that even ends up being the case. And so you're doing all this. And then after breaking the eggs, the omelet, like the omelet that you're promising doesn't even statistically, like it doesn't return America from 2006 to 1985 or something like that. It's like it doesn't even have the hope of maybe returning America. to before Biden was in.

Like it doesn't even have the possibility of that. And so at a certain point, you're like, where's the juice for all this squeeze? It's like, so we're terrorizing our own communities. We're radicalizing the leftist activist base and turning off a whole bunch of normal people and bringing all this brutality down for nothing, essentially. I just think that even like right-winger's and immigration,

restrictionists. It really got to rethink this whole thing, man. Because it just seems to me that like there's there's almost no argument here that the price is in any way worth it. So I don't know. It's something I'm kind of thinking about myself. And maybe I'll formulate a stronger opinion on that as we go. Yeah. I mean, it's shocking that I guess masked agents in residential neighborhoods on the weekend is the most efficient way of deporting people. who entered the country illegally. And would seem to speak to the Donald Trump a slightly authoritarian flavor at the moment

of wanting to have a show of force and hey, I'm lording above you. Yeah. Yeah, it's just to me, it seems, I don't know, seems like a mess and like just like, it's not wise. You know, it's like I said with the foreign policy stuff and I was thinking about, because I'm debating Dinesh D'Souza on Thursday. Maybe I'll mention this. Here, I'll give Dinesh.

I'll show my cards. I don't really care. You know, I'm that type of debate or Rob. I don't care if you hear my argument before I go in. It's kind of like, I'm like a fastball pitcher, you know,

like I'll tell you what I'm going to throw. We throw in a lot of fastballs. Yeah, like the whole thing is can you hit it or not? You're an offensive boxer with quick hands and you're like, I'm going to go in there and throw my quick hands. Yeah, like these are my combos.

I don't care if you know them. You know what I mean? But I was going to say because I said it was a, it was that guy, Wilt Chamberlidd he called me a leftist because I didn't want to overthrow, the Venezuelan regime or something like that. And I was like,

what do you guys even think left and right mean? Do you, is it your impression that being right wing means fight a whole lot of wars all at once? That's conservative or right wing or something like that to go, wars, multiple unnecessary wars on multiple fronts. That's always what it's meant to be a traditionalist,

you see? But I just think there's something funny that it's like, you know, it's like the neocons who convinced right wingers that that's what it was to be a conservative. and you're like, you realize they were a bunch of atheist, former communists, right? But you could say Jews, that's a little more provocative. But they weren't even religious Jews.

They were all a bunch of atheists. Former Trotskyite communists. I guess the best of them were just Cold War Democrats. And somehow they convinced you that that's what it is. Like, they convinced you that Pat Buchanan's not conservative. What's really conservative is that Mark Levin or something like that. Okay. But again, back to the stuff with the wars.

Because even my critique here is I'm coming from the position that like I'm an immigration restrictionist and like a pretty severe one. Like I think all the people here illegally can be removed. I think that is the correct answer. And maybe like, I think we have a right to remove all of them. Maybe not removing every last one of them is the right answer. But for, you know, if you could have some justified reason or something like that. But like that's the position I'm coming to this from.

But you're thinking about what is wise here? Like, to me, the essence of both right wingism and conservatism is wisdom at its best. You know, it's a respect for tradition and a respect for hierarchy and respect to the idea that like, you don't, what's the old, do you know what's it called? I can't remember it. It's something's fence. What's the rule? But have you ever heard this wrong? But the rule is that if you find a fence, you never tear it down until you figure out,

what it was built for. It's like, you know what I mean? Like if you're, if you're just like, if you buy some big like 25 acre property or something like that, and you find a fence on it somewhere, you don't tear that down until you figure out why it was put up, because there might be a reason for it. To me, that's the essence of right wing at its best.

It's going like, hey, I understand. Left wingers will be, try to say, what, there's an obstruction, there's a structure. We should tear that down. That's not equal. That's not fair. Like, hey, was there a reason? Was there a reason?

You better damn well know that reason before you. start tearing this down. In a sense, you're going like, what's a wise policy here? What's actually going to get you there? And I'm sorry, but the idea that you're $39 trillion in debt, you have to steadily debase your currency in order to maintain the level of government that you have, which will keep racking you up all of this debt, there is a white-hot war in Europe right now, which is a proxy war between the entire West and the biggest nuclear armed country in the history of the world. Millions of people, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people have died in this thing.

And there's no resolution in sight. So at that point, you're going to flirt with like four different wars of choice. That's conservative. Think about the word conservative. You think that's a conservative way to play things? Is that wisdom? Is that right wing? It's reckless and infantile.

That's what it is. And that's not right or left. It's just dumb. And so it's just like it's wild to see these people try to position themselves as the serious ones in the room. Well, you remember the old clip where John Stewart caught Ron Paul's back and it was the greatest thing ever?

And he marks the Brett Beyer roll in his eyes and he goes, there goes crazy Uncle Ron, babbling on about the unsustainability of multiple wars. Like what? Like, that's what a conservative does. A conservative comes in here and goes, whoa, we might be risking a lot. And what exactly is the idea that we can remake the entire world that's conservative? It's all just like too, you know, it's just too ridiculous. Like you wonder, like, I go, like, even when you guys use these terms,

terms. Do any of you know what they mean? Do you even have an idea what either of those terms means? Anyway, any thoughts, Rob? Well, if you wanted to win over public support, the low-hanging fruit would have been go with the lead list of those daycare centers and everyone that's got in public funding over the last three years and go knock on those businesses and see who's not in the country legally. I mean, even if local residents were unhappy about that and protesting that. you'd have the support of the American public of we're getting we're getting grifters out of our country that are stealing from a public purse. At least you got to pitch there. No, that's right.

You know, it's got to figure out. We got to figure out a practical way to like, can we do this? And also, we can't be allergic to maybe figuring out that we're not going to be able to do all of it. You know, we can do as much as we can. But they're simply just the logistics of the ground on the ground are this. I mean, look, I'll give, I give Trump credit. At least they stop the bleeding. At least they got the border sealed reasonably.

There's still 10 getting in, though, Rob. I'm upset about that. Okay, let's go to some of these clips that we had here. Before, if we don't have time to get to the Federal Reserve one, we'll do that on tomorrow's show. But let's do Donald Trump on Air Force One talking about a round. We have two different clips here that were both very, very interesting. So either order, Natalie, but let's go to,

let's go to one of those. ...that aren't supposed to be killed. These are violent. If you call them leaders, I don't know if their leaders are just a, they rule through violence. But we're looking at it very seriously. The military is looking at it. And we're looking at some very strong options. We'll make a determination.

Some of the protesters were killed through the stampeding. I mean, you know, there's so many of them. And some were shot. We get a full report. I'm getting an hourly report, and we're going to make a determination. So there, I always find this to be interesting. I mean, look, we talked about it before, right? That just how far the goalposts have moved over to like,

now we're getting hourly reports on how they crack down on their protests. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is the same guy who was saying he's going to send in the National Guard over protests. This is like and so it is just there's a he goes I don't even know if we can call them leaders because they they rule through violence which is why we might bomb them. Yeah. Oh, oh. Interesting. Do they rule through violence?

Well, let me ask you, um, Donald Trump. What happens in Donald Trump's America if like, I don't know, an ice agent tells me to stop my car and I decide to peel out right? Do you negotiate? Do you sit down and have a big conversation? No, you shoot that woman in her head and leave a bunch of kids motherless. And then your administration goes out and immediately defends it. But they rule through violence.

Again, they do rule through violence. That is true. That's also not good. But we do too. You know, I just, I guess part of it is like there's this, I used to. use this example, Rob, and I kind of like this, right? But there's, there's a weird thing where people try to, like, kind of like, hijack your voice or try to guilt you into taking a position that is in service of a policy that you disagree with, that they want. You know, so it's like they go, well,

don't you want to stand up for the people of Iran? Don't you want to say that? Oh, you're saying, oh, you're saying, we do the same thing. So what are you kind of like defending the mullahs here? It's okay that they shoot protesters. And it's like, no, it's not. And I also think women should be allowed to wear mini skirts in Tehran if they want to. And I also think that they should have a strict enforcement of freedom of speech and property rights and all of that. I think Iran should have sound money. You know, I'm like, I don't know. I believe in the same idea of a free society there that I do here.

But you don't get to decide that that's what I talk about right now. And also, fuck you. Because I know what you're really trying to do. And I'm against it. So I'm not, you know, it's like, the example I used to use was like imagine like if in 2002, so like, you know, 9-11 happens late 2001. In 2003, we invade Iraq. All of 2002 is like the drumbeat where they're building the propaganda campaign to convince everyone, Saddam's got nukes and all this stuff. And you know, imagine like that I was just podcasting or writing articles

or something in 2002. And all I talked about was how Saddam Hussein, as an authoritarian leader. And he doesn't give his people liberty and he did this wrong and he killed this person and he did that. Like, that's true. He was all of those things. I could write those articles or record those podcasts and not have lied once. But you still might be sitting there and going, yeah, but what are you doing right now?

What are you doing? Because this is clearly in service of the regime. You know what I mean? And like their goal. And so I do just find a lot of this pressure where it's like, oh, you got to talk about how you're with the people of Iran. It's like, no, I see you guys. I see what you're doing.

And again, you guys don't care about the people of Iran either. Don't get me wrong. There's always a few like Iranians in exile or something like that who actually do care about the country and care about the people. But the overwhelming majority of those warhawks, if it was in Israel's best interest for the people of Iran to suffer what the people of Gaza have just suffered, they'd be making excuses for it in supporting that policy right now. So don't tell me they give a shit about them for a second.

Yeah, let's roll the next one. Yeah, let's go to the next one. This one was interesting. They do. They called yesterday. Iran called to negotiate. Yesterday. The leaders of Iran called, they want to negotiate one.

I think they're tired of being beat up by the United States. Iran wants to negotiate against. We may meet. with them. I mean, a meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what's happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran call they want to negotiate. Thank you very much, everybody. So is it, I mean, much like with the Venezuela thing, there was a comment that Trump had made. We played it on the show at the time a couple months ago where he said that Maduro offered him everything, was totally willing to negotiate. So he'd give him more. So he'd give him

whatever he wanted. And they said, no, because that's not what they want as the same situation in Iran. I mean, just think about how crazy it is that this whole time Iran's been willing to negotiate. They were negotiating when Donald Trump gave Israel the blessing to bomb him and then came back and bombed him himself. They were in the middle of negotiations. And they're still, even after all of this, saying they'll negotiate. Sorry, go ahead. And I guess at the moment, they're looking to negotiate their right to kill their own citizens with Donald Trump. That Donald Trump's opposed to them killing their own citizens. So they got on a call and said, hey, listen, Trump, can we work out a deal so we can kill more of our own people?

Because the lady there asked Donald Trump, what are they looking to negotiate? And he doesn't answer. No, and Donald Trump will, and certainly almost all of his surrogates, will at times say something. about liberating the people, just like they did in Venezuela. But then when it comes down to it, Donald Trump's saying the same thing right now. Donald Trump saying that this, this chick who's in charge of Venezuela right now, she better cut a deal. But if she does, then she can stay in power.

So in other words, the whole communist state can stay in power. You go, you just got to do crony capitalism with our oil companies. And you could do communism to your own people. You know, like that doesn't, that's not actually what we care about. we don't mind it. Yeah, that's right, right, right. It's like it doesn't, the fentanyl that doesn't exist that they don't even make. Keep it coming.

Keep the imaginary fentanyl coming over our borders. But yeah, so like, but regardless of any of that, just the idea that you're in a situation where you're telling me this regime is desperate to negotiate with you and your position is, no, I won't, I refuse to. It's just like, you know, it does feel like that moment where you go, we the baddies, but we're supposed to be the good guys, but they're willing to negotiate and we won't because we may have to bomb them first and then talk to them later. Hoof, it really is something.

By the way, one other thing, you know, that was very interesting, Rob, is that Donald Trump, while he had that big meeting with all the oil execs, and none of them even seemed to be blessing his plans in Venezuela. one of them referred to it as uninvestable. And so I, from what I, I didn't, I got to catch up. I didn't watch that meeting and I haven't seen all the responses. That was from ExxonMobil and I read the release and they said it was uninvestable. I think some of the other ones are playing ball.

But it is interesting because if you're running the country and let's say I went into Mexico 400 years ago and I was running Mexico and I said, hey, I capture this country. There's a pile of gold here. who wants to go pick up this pile of gold and bring it back, you would think everyone would go, yes, can I please be the one to do that? And this does not seem to be that situation. From what I understand, the oil there, you got two problems. One is at current oil prices,

I don't think it's immensely profitable because it's like the thick crude stuff. And then you got the same problem of, do you want to invest in going down there, refining it and bringing it back in a chaotic region in which you've made that investment in the past and it didn't play out for you. Also, if you're increasing the availability of it,

I guess you're also going to be driving down your own prices of what you're selling, which is a factor. And then also, if you just wanted a cheaper oil, you could just make it that they are allowed to sell it. And even if they're not selling it to us, you got more supply in the world. And that should bring down the cost. And you don't have to fight a war with them.

You don't have to have socialism of that we're going to, I guess, reimburse these companies going in there or putting our military down there to protect them. you could just not have the restrictions, let Venezuela in, you know, sell its oil and have more oil in the world. But, yeah, at least ExxonMobil is apparently not interested. And then, of course, Donald Trump,

two-year-old Donald Trump turnaround, I was even going to let you in anyways. Yeah. Now, look, man, it's like I told Theo Vaughn the other day, like if you go back a year ago, or even better yet, go back a year and a half ago, and when there was all the excitement about Donald Trump coming back and winning

and that amazing political comeback where he retook the culture and the youth and the popular vote and all of that there was with the exception of Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro and like 75 other neocons there was you never met a Trump voter in your life you never if you went to

you know you picture like all those Trump rallies and the big crowds if you went through and you interviewed, if you had all the time in the world and all the access and could interview every single person ever who went to one of those things. Not one of them ever went, well, we got to get Donald Trump back in there because then we'll get the Venezuelan oil. Then we'll have regime change in Iran because then we'll own Greenland or something like that. You know, people, they bragged about no new wars. Donald Trump himself bragged about how he had no new wars in his first administration and that he was against the neocons and against

military adventurism and nation building and now he's just basically going all right i know none of my voters wanted this i know only mark levin and linds graham wants this and i know everyone hates mark levin and lindsie graham but we're going to just try to convince you that this is actually what you should be really excited about and yeah there's a percentage of donald trump's base who's dumb and in a cult. And they'll just follow him to wherever he goes. But I got to say I'm at least encouraged by the fact that you could say there's a whole other big chunk of his base who is not like that. Who's just not playing that shit.

So that does encourage me. Anyway, we had a lot more to talk about on tomorrow's show. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll catch you then. Peace.