The David Pakman Show - 12/2/24: Biden pardons Hunter, Trump chooses conspiracy nut for FBI

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Retailers warn of rising prices as a result of the forthcoming Trump tariffs -- As Donald Trump's tariffs get closer to becoming a reality, the vast majority of Americans still do not understand how tariffs work -- President Joe Biden pardons Hunter Biden, despite previously saying he would not pardon him, and this gives Trump carte blanche for any pardons he wants to do -- The authoritarian takeover planned by Trump is taking shape in his cabinet and other nominations -- Examining the myth of the self-made business genius and entrepreneur -- Kash Patel, a dangerous authoritarian conspiracy theorist, has been nominated by Donald Trump to be FBI Director -- Once again, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum humiliates Trump after Trump tries lying about their phone call -- David Weldon is Donald Trump's choice to run the CDC, and this is a bad idea a Weldon is a longtime antivaxxer -- On the Bonus Show: Trump chooses his daughter's father-in-law for key post, countries fail to reach agreement in UN plastic talks, women getting sterilized after Trump's victory, much more... 🌱 Ounce of Hope: Get 20% off with code PAKMAN at https://ounceofhope.com ⚠️ Ground News: Get 50% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $45 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 💻 Get Private Internet Access for 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/David 👂 MDHearing: Use code PAKMAN to get a pair for just $297 at https://shopmdhearing.com/ -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

Welcome, everybody. Hope you had a great holiday weekend. If you had one, we are kicking off December with a very thick and meaty show from the standpoint of policy. We're going to be delving into tariffs and economics and coins and bills and collectible silver and drinkable silver. No, no, no, not, not most of that stuff. Uh, but let's see if we can figure out a little something about tariffs. You know, when, when, uh, some months ago I went on this viral, uh, I had, I had this viral moment on this business show in Vegas about tariffs and the thing got 10 million views. I didn't necessarily know that we would be here today with Donald Trump poised to slap tariffs on China, Mexico, Canada, and that we would now be, I mean, daily corporate media

talking about tariffs and mostly not talking about it particularly accurately. So let's dig right in. Donald Trump's proposed tariffs are already sending shockwaves through retail and consumer markets. It hasn't even been made policy yet. Trump hasn't even been sworn in yet, but we have of course economists, but we have executives and experts sounding the

alarm and saying prices are going to go up. Now, a little bit later in the show, we are going to talk about when and how tariffs can work. That's in another segment because tariffs are a tool. It's sort of like, is a hammer good or bad? Well, it depends on whether you're trying to, you know, uh, uh, put frosting on a cake or hammer in a nail for one of those jobs. The hammer is very good. So we're going to get to that. But what we are now going to talk about is the havoc that Trump's proposed tariffs are wreaking. And the mere anticipation of these tariffs is already having an effect. Best Buy CEO is warning costs will go up significantly for the stuff that Best Buy sells mostly personal

and consumer electronics. If Donald Trump does indeed put these tariffs into place, this is not a hypothetical scenario. The Best Buy CEO is explaining 60% of the products best by cells are imported from China. There is no domestic manufacturing safety net for things like laptops or smartphones and gaming consoles. It's 40 years of establishing these supply chains without building this stuff in the United States. And the lack of a domestic alternative, uh, for these products is a critical part of figuring out when tariffs could work versus when tariffs are simply going to cost the average consumer more money.

Now, Best Buy is calling it a quote fluid situation. Not sure that that's exactly the best term, but they are also trying to figure out what to do. One option is they could start preloading a ton of inventory. Retailers don't usually like to do that. Another is trying to diversify their supply chains, but that doesn't happen quickly. And the impact is immediate. And it would take years to build some of those supply chains. The impact in the short term will be average consumers will have to pay more money for stuff you want to buy. This is not about, Oh, poor best buy poor best by the CEOs bonus. It's not about

that. It's we do buy things from these stores and it's not just Best Buy, it's Amazon, it's, it's your local, uh, Apple store, what, whatever, right? Your independent, uh, computer store. It's all going to be what's the end result, more money coming out of your pocket. Now, other retailers are pushing these pre-tariff sales. Can you imagine the pre-tariff sale is sort of the perfect blend between an economic reality and a marketing grift. What the pre-tariff sale is sort of the perfect blend between an economic reality and a marketing grift. What the pre-tariff sale that we've been seeing during black Friday and Thanksgiving is essentially invoking the fear of future price surges to get people to buy stuff right now.

The message is buy now and avoid the future higher prices. And over the black Friday weekend, there were showerhead companies, furniture companies saying buy before the tariffs. And of course the problem is that this can go too far and just become an excuse to raise prices now. So we have to keep an eye on the sort of marketing aspect of it as well. Now Trump's goal with tariffs is to punish other countries, China, Canada, Mexico, and to encourage domestic production and domestic job creation. But the reality is that it doesn't work that way in many

of these industries. If you look at the electronics industry, they are not going to suddenly sprout a U S factory overnight where they can make smartphones and you know, Sega Genesis or super Nintendo, whatever the latest thing is now. Um, and even if they did, those products would end up costing a lot more after the years it takes to build those factories. Now as I was reading about this over the weekend, I asked myself, where was all of this news before the election? Because retailers and trade groups knew exactly what Trump's proposed tariffs were going to mean for their businesses and their

customers. Yet they mostly stayed quiet when voters could still decide, whereas they could have been saying, Hey, Americans, the real world consequences of these tariff proposals from Trump is that everything is going to be really expensive. Instead, now they're going, yeah, it's going to get expensive, but it's too late. People already voted. The conversation around the entire election might have been different if Best Buy had been saying reelect Trump and your phone and your laptop prices are going up.

Your tablet will cost more money. This also opens up the door for political and consumer backlash because there are shoppers getting turned off by these overtly politicized sales tactics, while others are kind of waking up to the fact that they are merely pawns in a trade policy game. They are the least important actors when Trump says a and best buy says B. Now one caveat here, Trump's tariffs aren't guaranteed. We have to remember Trump does promise lots of things he doesn't ultimately do. And there are some economists who are suggesting maybe Trump is only talking about tariffs to get a better negotiating position for trade deals.

Maybe. But for now, we have to assume that Trump will do what he says that he will do. And tragically, the problem, again, for the average consumer, that's who I care about. Even if the tariffs don't materialize after all of this, the narrative that they've created will allow companies to quietly keep raising prices under the guise of market conditions and forthcoming tariffs. The corporations win either way. The consumers lose either way.

So now with that kind of landscape explored a little bit, I want to dig into tariffs in some real detail. Okay. In this video, I want to explain in the clearest terms I'm able to muster why Trump's blanket country tariffs, China, Mexico, Canada. I want to explain why these blanket tariffs will not work the way that Trump and Maga think they will. And I will tell you when and how tariffs can work. Now, as a reminder of how clueless people are on this issue, I want to play for you this, uh, appearance I had when I was in Vegas a few months ago, I went on the Sean Mike Kelly podcast.

It's supposedly one of the top business podcasts in the country. I don't know whether that's true or not. That's what the podcast claims. And the host of one of these supposedly top business podcasts in the country had no idea how tariffs work. This clip went giga viral. It was seen something like 50 million times. Take a look at this. So when it comes to Trump, do you dislike his policies or him as a person or both?

I don't I don't dislike Trump as a person in the sense that I've never met the guy. So I think he has a lot of personality traits that make him completely unsuited to being president. And also, I think his policy prescriptions, to the extent that they exist and he understands them, which is a different part of it. A lot of the stuff Trump talks about, he still doesn't know how tariffs work. We're eight years into this thing, nine years in. He still thinks China pays the tariffs when they're paid by. Yeah, I'm going to talk about tariffs. Very confused, very confused guy. Wait, so China's not paying tariffs right now? The tariffs are paid by the American companies that import the Chinese goods.

That's the way it's such a fundamental. And I see you looking a little confused. Yeah, I'm confused. This is the way tariffs work. What Trump did is place tariffs on Chinese imports. By the time the imports get here, China has been paid for this stuff. Maybe they get net 120 terms, right? But in a sense, China has already transacted the American company who brings the goods in, pays the tariffs. Really? This is

you're kidding right now. I thought he said he was raising the tariffs by 50 to 100 percent for Chinese imports for it. You got to clip this. I'm begging you. You got to clip this. OK, so as you can see, even the host of one of the top business podcasts in the country doesn't know how this works. Blanket tariffs on an entire country sound really tough, but they almost never work as intended because they don't address the realities of global trade and supply chains. The idea behind tariffs is you make the imported goods more expensive for the company doing the importing. And then if you're an American company and you say, Oh, all of a sudden this stuff from

China is more money. I'll make it myself. That's the dream, right? I'll hire people here and I'll make it myself. The catch is that number one, industries don't magically spring up overnight. So in order to say, well, we'll just do domestic steel and domestic smartphones and domestic laptops. This stuff takes years or sometimes decades to build. In the meantime, you also won't just go from China to the U S you'll say, well, where else can I get this thing? Maybe at a little more money, it'll still increase the cost domestically. It won't bring the manufacturing back home. Now I'll give you an example of failed thinking on this. I saw this video on Tik TOK. This is a guy who goes by the name effing history,

and he seems to be explaining to us the very big boy truth about how Trump's tariffs are going to be great. Take a listen. Tariffs are going to make things more expensive. Let me learn you something real quick. When they put tariffs on imported goods, that gives an incentive to domestic companies to produce those goods increasing wrong. It gives an incentive to domestic companies to figure out how to get them at the cheapest available price. And with a lot of things, you'll get it at a cheaper price. Maybe not from China, but what about Malaysia or what about you? Right. So, so he's wrong about this. Domestic production would bring down prices. Also increasing domestic production will not bring down prices if it's more expensive to produce domestically. This is why a lot of this stuff was outsourced in the first place. This isn't me defending it. It's just saying we've chosen through policy.

We want cheaper stuff, but we want to make it in China. If we wanted a $2,000 iPhone, you could do it domestically, but it won't bring down the price. Oh, when domestic producers are competing for customers that could also drive them to lower the prices even more. I'll give you an example. Of course, that's not what would happen. That's not what would happen. And it's not happening.

What happens when you put tariffs on Chinese steel is that they will start looking for where can I get this? The cheapest is the cheapest option to ramp up production in the U.S. or is the cheapest option just to get it from Vietnam, India, Vietnam, India or Malaysia? Well, that's what they're going to do because it'll be more expensive than from China, but still cheaper than making it domestically. Steel. We already get some from Brazil, Japan. We could try to get more if their supply chains can handle it. So a lot of these tariffs just shuffle the global supply chain around, but no matter what, it means higher costs for consumers. Smartphones is a good example. Smartphones are overwhelmingly manufactured in China. If the U S imposes a blanket tariff on Chinese electronics, Apple isn't suddenly going

to start building iPhones in Kansas, nevermind how long it would take them to do that. They'll move production to India. They'll move production to Vietnam where labor and supply chains are already being developed for cost efficiency. Instead of buying a thousand dollar iPhone made in China, you'll pay 1200 for the same phone made in Vietnam. No new jobs in the U S no new factories in the U S if the U S companies do get set up to build here six, seven years from now, you'll be able to get your iPhone for $2,000 in today's dollars.

Now let's contrast the blanket tariffs with targeted tariffs. Now you'll be able to get your iPhone for $2,000 in today's dollars. Now let's contrast the blanket tariffs with targeted tariffs. Targeted tariffs can work depending on what you're trying to do. You know, it's like if we say our tax is good or bad, well, a hundred percent tax would probably not, not work very well, but what do you mean? Are they good or bad? It's a question of what taxes at what level on who tariffs aren't good or bad. It's what do you want to achieve and how do you want to do it? Think about the semiconductor

manufacturing industry. The U S relies heavily on Taiwan for advanced semiconductors. These are critical for everything from smartphones to military equipment. These semiconductors are in everything that reliance you can argue makes the U S vulnerable. It's a vulnerable like economically, uh, geopolitically imagine China invades Taiwan. Semiconductor production is disrupted. Now what happens? So you could say, well, let's put in place a package to truly encourage domestic production of semiconductors in a targeted and and sort of scaled way that grows over time. So what you would do is say we are going to put a tariff on certain semiconductors, the ones above a certain technological threshold when they are coming from Taiwan.

We will have an on ramp for the tariffs. They won't start right away. We're telling you now we're going to ramp them up over this period of time. And we're going to create some incentives to do semiconductor manufacturing domestically. Okay. And then you get a company like Intel that has been interested in expanding chip manufacturing in the U S incentivized to do it with a clear on-ramp and a clear target sort of at the end of the rainbow. That makes sense. Building operating semiconductor plants does create high skilled, high paying jobs in all

sorts of different areas, engineering, manufacturing logistics. So there's this ecosystem that comes with doing this and you can do it in an adult mature way rather than tariff on everything from Taiwan. A blanket tariff on all Taiwanese goods would just be hugely disruptive to industries. It would disrupt electronics. It would disrupt machinery, so many different things. And if you do it that way, companies would just shift to shift, shift to sourcing semiconductors from South Korea, Japan, maybe even China. So targeted tariffs in particular ways can be a great economic tool. What Trump is doing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Is this clear? I hope it is. This holiday, there is one gift that is guaranteed to put a smile on their

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You'll get 50 percent off their top tier vantage plan. That's ground dot news slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. The holiday season is here and it's time to start baking delicious homemade favorites with family and friends. And our sponsor, Wild Grain, makes you look like a baking expert without the stress. This holiday, treat yourself and your loved ones to fresh baked goods. Wild Grain has incredible new fall and winter pastries. But don't wait, because once they sell out, they

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No mess, no cleanup. I my favorites are the croissants. OK, there's nothing wrong with any of the products, but the croissants, they come in frozen. You bake them. The quality and the freshness. It's just fantastic. Impress your guests with minimal effort this holiday season. Thank you, David. The David Pakman Show depends primarily on the support of our viewers and listeners.

That means folks like you. You might imagine that there is some mythical viewer or listener that's very different from you out there in the ether somewhere that supports the show. They're really folks just like you. And I invite you to sign up at join Pacman dot com. We do an entire extra show every day called the bonus show, which you get along with many other great membership perks when you sign up at join pacman.com. Well, he did it. Joe Biden has announced that he is pardoning his son, Hunter Biden.

Maga is losing it. Joe Biden did previously say he would not pardon Hunter Biden making this even bigger news. NBC News, I believe, was the first to report President Biden pardons his son, Hunter Biden. We have a statement from the White House, which is where is the statement from the White House? It's somewhere here. I know that we have it somewhere. Here it is. Today, I signed a pardon for my son, Hunter. from the day I took office. I said I would not interfere with the justice department's decision-making and I kept my word. Even as I

have watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form. Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest in penalties are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. And Biden goes on to explain, and you can read the entire statement that this is just not fair, that this was a political targeting, not in line with the severity of Hunter Biden's

actions, whether that is or isn't true. Here is Joe Biden just some months ago saying he will not pardon Hunter Biden. Your son, Hunter, is on trial. And I know that you cannot speak about an ongoing federal prosecution. But let me ask you, will you accept the jury's outcome, their verdict, no matter what it is? Yes. And have you ruled out a pardon for your son?

Yes, I have ruled out a pardon. Yes. Have you ruled out a pardon for your son? Yes, I have ruled out a pardon. Yes. Have you ruled out a pardon? Yes, I have. Now, as I've said before, I agreed with not pardoning Hunter Biden. Of course, I agreed with not interfering. There was no evidence that Biden was involved in any way helping his son. That's obviously correct. It's not the way Trump would behave. And I was against a pardon for Hunter Biden. I am still against presidents pardoning their sons. And I also recognize that based on Donald Trump's cabinet choices, I 100 percent understand why Biden did it. I'm against it and I know why Biden did it. We will talk later on in the program.

Trump wants to put cash Patel in charge of the FBI. This is twofold in its motivation. Number one, make sure that all of the data and documents about investigations into Trump never see the light of day and also target the adversaries and political enemies of Trump and go after people go after the people Trump believes went after him. Trump believes that Biden orchestrated and puppet mastered the investigations and cases into Trump. And therefore, Trump has every interest in seeking cash Patel like a dog against Biden and Biden's family.

There is every indication that Trump will try to do the things he said he would do, which includes going after Biden and his family. So I am against this game. A hundred percent presidential pardons for your son. But I get why Biden did it. And here's the real issue with this. Trump has carte blanche now to pardon whoever the hell he wants. In fact, there's more to it. Trump already pardoned whoever the hell he wanted. He pardoned Michael Flynn and he pardoned, uh, did he pardoned Bannon? The list is so big, I don't even remember.

But look at Donald Trump's reaction to this. Who posted to truth central quote, does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J6 hostages who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice. You know, the the problem we now have and it's so clear from what Trump is saying, Trump's going to pardon some of the January 6th rioters. There's no doubt about it.

We are going to see all of that happen. But now when Trump does it and we say, that's crazy, that's nepotism, it's cronyism. They say, David leftists, progressives, Biden pardoned his own son. And the conversation kind of is over. Now I will concede to you. It does appear that the way the Hunter cases were handled was not in line with typical prosecutorial discretion. I agree with Biden on that. But when you can just say, guys, who are you? He pardoned his own son. What do we say?

And listen, I'm still against it, but I get why he did it. But now it really does give Trump carte blanche. And there is every reason, by the way, reporting is that Trump is building a list of potentially thousands of pardons, family members, lawyers, landscapers, the random guy who was on season three of The Apprentice. Trump's building this list and he's going to do it. And now he's able to say, Joe did it. Joe pardoned his own son.

So that's where we land. And that's the you know, the one decision on a single pardon is not the most consequential thing. Even if I think it sends the wrong message, the fact that now Trump can do whatever the hell he wants. That's a real problem. Let's talk about authoritarianism. There is no doubt that Donald Trump is assembling a cabinet meant to push out authoritarianism and control

Trump's cabinet as designed is not for governance. It's for authoritarianism and control. Trump's picks aren't merely unqualified. They are ideologues handpicked for their willingness to dismantle democratic safeguards. And the themes here are all authoritarian, undermining impartial institutions, militarizing civilian spaces, centralizing executive power, dehumanizing the dissenters eroding into nothing. The checks and balances. It is not just a dangerous group of people that Trump is nominating. They're the infrastructure of a Trump led authoritarian takeover.

If you look at their backgrounds and their statements, they aren't of governance. They are of loyalty to Trump's vision of absolute power. Cash Patel for FBI director. We're going to talk more about cash Patel a little bit later on in the show. Patel's career is brown nosing loyalty to Trump. It's not impartiality. It's not what we need in an FBI director. And cash was instrumental in attempts to discredit the Russia investigation. He drafted memos that falsely claimed the FBI had it in for Trump. He's openly called the FBI's leadership corrupt. This aligns with the deep state conspiracies of Trump and the people around him.

And if you make cash Patel the FBI director, you are signaling signaling buh bye to the independence of the FBI. Expect an FBI under Patel to prioritize political loyalty above everything else. Objective law enforcement, not under cash Patel. The investigations are going to shift from looking at actual threats to perceived enemies of Trump's agenda. We know it. They might even go after Biden's family. Disastrous authoritarianism. Pete Hegseth, a secretary of defense. Of course, Hegseth has no experience managing military operations or strategy, but he's made headlines because he just adores authoritarian leaders.

He's praised Victor or bonds Hungary because it has strong borders and rejects liberal democratic values. When he was a Fox host, Hegseth downplayed the importance of civilian control over the military, which for democratic governance, governance in the United States, civilian control over the military is a major check and balance. And if he does become secretary of defense, you could see the Pentagon go from what it is today, which is a certainly flawed, but not overtly partisan institution into a partisan stronghold, which will undermine what we would hope to see from the military, which is neutrality

and professionalism. Not good. Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy policy guy, Stephen Miller's horrifying track record includes being the architect of the family separation policy, pushing that Muslim ban, dismantling refugee programs, and more recently putting together the infrastructure of the forthcoming militarized mass deportation plan. He has all sorts of ideas as to how Trump can do things while bypassing Congress. That is a complete affront to the balance of power. And remember that the infamous emails that were leaked about five years ago revealed that he is obsessed with white nationalist literature and policies.

You give Miller control and shaping policy. It is going to be dark, dark, dark. We've already talked about Tom Homan as Trump's deportations are. He has said sanctuary cities are un-American. He has said they will force their way in with red state armies to blue cities and blue states that want nothing to do with militarized mass deportation. His appointment means the era of militarized immigration policy will begin.

Humanitarian concerns, human rights will rank very, very low. You've also got Elon Musk who's going to run Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency or grifty edgelords or gag worthy. Anyway, Elon's track record in business is gutting internal oversight teams. We've seen with X how he just says, oh, reinstate the band accounts. No process. He doesn't like guardrails. He doesn't like, uh, uh, regulation and accountability. It's a major red flag. He's attacked the sec.

He's attacked OSHA. So we could see a dramatic authoritarian undoing of regular regulatory infrastructure in the United States. And I could go on and on, but I won't. If you zoom out, the cabinet and other selections of Trump are about a couple of things, centralized power, erode democratic norms and give the middle finger to the way that things have been done historically with regard to following the law, due process, et cetera. These are not the people you hire if you want governance. These are the people you hire if you want to reshape government into a tool to be Trump's

own personal agenda. And if these people take the reins, it's more than just democracy at risk. It is accountability and it is fairness and it is the government as we know it. Sometimes the people we are closest to are the toughest to shop for. Luckily, there's a gift everyone on your list will love. It is the aura digital picture frame. I gave one to my mom, preloaded it with pictures of the baby and some of me, right? I mean, please, you hook it up and it's already got pictures on it. You can select pictures from your phone and upload them remotely to any picture frame

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and nakedly bogus tropes of the American right wing. They love applying it to Trump. They love applying it to Elon Musk. So I want to break it down and have a conversation about it. Now you hear it about the big time entrepreneurs when it comes to the businesses that they created, but it often goes even further than that. Uh, and sort of overlaps into stories of alpha men and self-sufficiency and personal responsibility. And the reason that we care about this is that the trope is often used to justify no taxes, other wacky policies as well. When it comes to cutting social safety nets. It's just like if you want to just do it yourself, you're going to do it and you're going to be successful. But

the reality that a lot of these MAGA people need to be confronted with is that no one is really self-made. And I don't just mean that someone, two people had to come together. So when an agonist sperm made you like, I'm not talking about that. You weren't really self-made. And I thought about this because over the holiday, I ran into someone from my hometown who said, wow, David, you know, your podcast, the show, you, you really did it yourself. You just, you just built it. Now, to be clear, I think it's important that we don't diminish ingenuity, creativity, hard work over sustained periods of time to build things. But as I think about myself, right, I didn't invent podcasting and online video.

I didn't create the platforms that I use to broadcast YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, Tic Tac, all of these things. These exist because of the tech ecosystem that's been shaped by public research, government investment, global infrastructure, mostly people who went to public school paid for by tax dollars making all of this stuff. Even the equipment I use, the microphone, the camera, the computers, it's affordable thanks to trade agreements and globalization and subsidized research. Decades of policy decisions made it possible for me to buy this

equipment without breaking the bank. I had nothing to do with that. I just benefited from it. Uh, let's not forget the public research institutions that laid the groundwork for the connectivity technology that we rely on. The internet born out of DARPA, a us government agency, taxpayer funded GPS. I use to get to, you know, my book events developed with taxpayer money, the chips in the computer benefited from government funded research into semiconductors. And the other thing that I think is interesting to consider is that the show didn't start with a million dollar marketing budget.

It grew on social media platforms subsidized by public infrastructure like broadband internet, satellites, fiber optic networks, which exists thanks to public investment. The fact that I do this show in English is a huge part of its success. If I had stayed in Argentina where I was born speaking Spanish, I wouldn't have a show like this. I might have a show, but it wouldn't be a show like this. And I'm here thanks to the green card lottery that my family got in 1989, a program funded through American tax dollars. And there's even more. I work in a

country with stable economic and legal systems. I don't have to worry about currency collapse or civil war. Usually anyway, that's, these are not David Pakman achievements. These are the products of living in a society where institutions, even though they are flawed, still function. My audience finds me because they have leisure time or enough leisure time to watch videos and listen to podcasts that exists because of labor laws, weekends, societal advancements. And without those, I have no show because no one has energy or time to consume content. Electricity. We take it completely for granted. The studio doesn't run on magic. It doesn't run on ivermectin, right?

It's powered by a publicly regulated grid, lights, cameras, computers without that, without those public utilities. I have nothing. When I was a kid, I didn't have to walk 10 miles to school or work in a factory to survive. I was able to focus on learning English when I moved to the U S being creative, et cetera. That's the result of living in a country with child labor laws and access to education. And the fact that I was born into a family where I didn't have to quit school and get a job at age 10. Even my ability to just into this microphone, say whatever I want without fear of censorship or imprisonment is because of

constitutional protections and decades of legal battles that were fought by others. My employees are able to work because they have access to public transportation, health care, education, not my doing all the result of effort by other people. Now, I do want to talk about taxes a little bit. The infrastructure that I use roads on which equipment I order is brought to me, airways for shipping, the postal system. It all exists because of taxpayer money, not anything I did. My audience isn't watching from the middle of the jungle. They're in homes with roofs running on water and Internet, all which depend on public systems,

zoning regulations, social safety nets. And at the end of the day, the very concept of intellectual property, which allows me to monetize my work is a legal framework created by governments and enforced by governments. And without that, anybody could just instantly rip off my content. Every time I make a video, copy paste on 10 different channels. Well,, guess I can't do much about it. The dollar I'm paid in is a stable and internationally recognized currency because of monetary policy and central banking. No self made person ever was able to do it without those things. My ability to sell memberships depends on payment processors and banking

systems and platforms like PayPal and Stripe and Patrion. These are built on layers of public and private collaboration, none of which I invented. So I could go on and on. I won't cause I think you get the point. The very idea of even being an entrepreneur is very culturally specific. It's a value system in a sense. Certain societies promote and certain societies don't. I didn't create that, but I certainly benefited from it. So I don't want to ignore that there is this interconnected nature to all of this. And when people do the, I'm just self-made trope, a lot of what they mean is I don't owe anyone anything. There doesn't need to be taxation.

There doesn't need to be regulation. There doesn't need to be a social safety net because anybody who's poor is poor because they're choosing to be, or they've just decided I'm not going to work hard enough not to be poor. That's the real problem. And if we want to do away with that ideology, we first have to back up and say self-made, what does that even really mean? Obviously Trump wasn't self-made it endless, endless money from his family inherited his dad's business.

Obviously Elon Musk wasn't self-made family from, I believe it's Emerald mines benefited from immigration to the United States, built businesses on top of research that was taxpayer funded by public and done by public institutions. Of course they're not self-made, but even the entire concept is a problem. Let's talk about cash Patel, uh, fulfilling one of the worst fears and nightmares. Donald Trump has nominated cash Patel, 44 years old to be director of the FBI. This is not who you select. If you want an impartial, uh, uh, institution. This is who you select if revenge and retribution are your goal. This guy's a dangerous conspiracy theorist. Let's start with Donald Trump's announcement. He said on truth central quote, I am proud to announce that cash app cash Patel will serve as

the next director of the federal Bureau of Investigation. Cash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator and America first fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending justice and protecting the American people. He has done none of that. He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax standing as an advocate for truth, accountability and the constitution cash did an incredible job during my first term where he served as chief of staff at the department of defense, deputy director of national intelligence and senior director for counterterrorism at the national security council. Cash has also tried 60 jury trials. The FBI will end the growing, this FBI

will lend the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the border, blah, blah, blah. Um, this guy is a very, very bad idea. There are already doubts as to whether he can even get confirmed. We'll get to that in a moment. But just to give you an idea of sort of what this guy's up to and how he thinks here is Kash Patel back in December of last year telling Steve Bannon how Trump's next CIA director will lead an all out effort to prosecute and jail people in government and media authoritarian nightmare coming to the head of the FBI very soon. If he can get confirmed one moment before we talk about

highly confident that when you go back in and is a senior member of this, uh, uh, administration, president Trump's administration, starting in the afternoon of the 20th of January of 2025. Do you feel confident that you will be able to deliver the goods, that we can have serious prosecutions and accountability? And I want the Morning Show producers to watch us and all the producers to watch us. This is just not rhetoric. We're absolutely dead serious. You cannot have a constitutional republic and allow what these deep staters have done to the country. The deep state, the administrative state, the fourth branch of

government never mentioned in the Constitution is going to be taken apart brick by brick. This is Bannon, remember, and we're about to hear from Kash Patel in a moment. And the people that did these evil deeds will be held accountable and prosecuted, criminal prosecutions. Cash, I know you're probably going to be head of the CIA, but do you believe that you can deliver the goods on this in a pretty short order in the first couple of months so we can get rolling on prosecutions? Yes, we got the bench for it, Bannon, and you know those guys. I'm not going to go out there and say their names right now so the radical left-wing media can terrorize them. But, excuse me, the one thing we learned in the Trump administration the first go-round is we got to put in all-America patriots top to bottom. And we got them for law enforcement. We got them for intel collection. We got them for offensive operations.

We got them for DOD, CIA. This reminding anybody of Project 2025? Everywhere. And the one thing we will do that they never will do is we will follow the facts and the law and go to courts of law and correct these justices and lawyers who have been prosecuting these cases based on politics and actually issuing them as lawfare. We will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media.

Yes, we're gonna come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. You get the point. This guy has no business running anything. You know, sometimes I would say this guy has no business running an ice cream truck. I don't want to insult people who run ice cream trucks, right? This guy has no business running anything of consequence. And Trump wants him to be the director of the FBI. Now, here is cash on Twitter promoting a pill to detox yourself from the covid vaccine and reverse the effects of the covid vaccine. Yikes. Yikes. Now, a reasonable question to ask, a fair question to ask. Can Kash Patel get confirmed? We don't know the answer to that. It could end up going the way of Matt Gaetz. The Washington Post reports from was this yesterday

or today from yesterday, lawmakers expressed doubt over Trump plan to replace FBI's Christopher Ray on Sunday. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle said the FBI director whom Trump appointed in 2017 should be allowed to serve out his 10 year term. Now they are not saying we wouldn't be okay with cash. Maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn't. What they're saying is Christopher Ray should be there until 2027 and we don't be okay with cash. Maybe they would. Maybe they wouldn't. What they're saying is Christopher Ray should be there until 2027 and we don't really see

any reason, especially since it was Trump's election to begin with to a 10 year term. We don't see any reason to kick out Christopher Ray. So can he get confirmed? Maybe not, but if he does, no exaggeration, hard to think of a worse choice for anywhere in the world. So this lets you stream content on Netflix and Hulu and HBO Max not normally available in your home country. For instance, the show Friends is not available on Netflix in the US. But when I change my IP address to the UK, I can watch Friends on Netflix and a ton of other awesome content I would otherwise miss out on without lag and without buffering. Private

Internet access is also faster than other VPNs for file sharing, so you can download anonymously. But without the long wait times, anyone can use private Internet access. Just turn it on once and forget about it. No special knowledge required. And you can use it on all of your devices, TV, phone, tablet, computer. Private Internet access is giving my audience 83 percent off, I have a close family friend who uses hearing aids, and once I told her about hearing aids from our sponsor, MD Hearing, she gave them a try and she's been with them ever since. She told me she loves the affordability, the quality, the expert staff available to help her calibrate the device any time she needs. If you're still paying thousands for hearing aids, check out MD hearing. MD hearing is an FDA registered rechargeable hearing aid costs a fraction of what typical

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ninety seven. Plus you'll get a charging case for free. An additional hundred dollar value. That's shop MD hearing dot com. Then use code Pacman to pay just two ninety seven when you buy a pair. Plus you'll get a free charging case. The link is in the podcast notes. Once again, Donald Trump has been publicly humiliated by Mexican president Claudia Scheinbaum.

This is the second time in two weeks that she's publicly humiliated him. As you may know, shine bomb is Mexico's first female president, Mexico's first Jewish president. And last week she really let the wind out of Trump's tariff threats by saying any tariff Trump puts on Mexico, we will counter tariff on the United States. It'll just be a trade war. Nobody wins trade wars. It'll be bad for everybody. She has now stepped in to deliver another reality check for Donald Trump, another ego

bruising fiasco for the orange madman. Now, here's what happened after last week's I'm going to tear of Mexico. Well, then we'll just tear a few after all of that on truth social. Donald Trump claimed he had a wonderful conversation with Scheinbaum during which supposedly she agreed to stop migration through Mexico and close the border. A very bold claim for Trump to make and completely fabricated out of thin air. So let's start with what Trump said on truth. Donald Trump posted, quote, just had a wonderful conversation with the new president of Mexico,

Claudia Schein bomb Pardo. She has agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern border. Imagine coming away from a phone call with her thinking, this is what she said. Trump continuing. We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States and also us consumption of these drugs. It was a very productive conversation. Now, this was not the recollection of the Mexican president as to this phone call. So she immediately shut him down publishing to Twitter. This is in Spanish, but I'll kind of translate as we go here. She said in our conversation with President Trump, I told him about our strategy that Mexico has

followed to deal with the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights. Thanks to that. Uh, we take care of migrants and caravans before they get to the board border. And I reiterate that the position of Mexico is not to close borders, but rather to build bridges between governments and peoples, uh, people's communities. This uses the term Pueblos, which literally means villages, but could be understood a few different ways. So she's saying, yeah, I didn't say any of that stuff. We're not closing anything. And it's just that like, that's not what's going on.

Now, the irony here is very rich. Trump loves to project strength, especially when dealing with women and a lot of Trump's behavior, his body language, his behavior, um, during not so much the Kamala debate because it was a different sort of format, but with some of the Hillary debates when they would be walking around, that was his priority. I need to project strength. I'm physically bigger and I'm going to impose and Trump loves that. And time and again he gets called out by women who simply don't play along with

his delusions and Trump being widely mocked on social media after the Mexican president said, yeah, that's not what it is. And what's really happening here is that Trump is running the same scam he always runs, which is fabricate a win, announce it, hope that his base eats it up and then move on before anybody notices that the entire thing's been fabricated and every other party says that's not at all what took place there. Shine bombs rebuttal really blew up in his face before it could even take hold. I mean, it happened so quickly that she came back and said that, no, we're not closing

any border. That's not what we talked about. I don't even think that this one worked for Trump. I do think it's also important. You know, this is a show where we don't, um, we, we focus on identity when I have a reason to believe it's relevant, but we're not like, like a big identity politics show. Let's not ignore the misogyny here. Trump can't stand being contradicted, especially when it's a woman doing the contradicting. And so last week when Trump said, I will tariff Mexico and shine bomb says, oh, then we'll

tariff you. Trump didn't like it. He came back. He got ahead of his skis and made claims about their phone call that didn't actually take place. So she comes right back because Trump goes into this overdrive to assert dominance and he ends up actually looking weaker. Now in the end, it doesn't sound like it was a wonderful conversation.

It sounds like it was a PR stunt meant to project strength and control and Claudia Scheinbaum correctly took it away from Trump and the way Trump does diplomacy to the extent that he cares about diplomacy at all is lies and bluster. And Trump doesn't seem to grasp at a core level that not only does this backfire, but the tariffs will also backfire not only because they will raise the cost of consumer goods in the United States, but because a country like Mexico can just counter tariff. And the next thing you know, you're in a very damaging trade war. We'll see what ultimately happens.

Donald Trump has selected as his CDC director and anti-vaxxer. Yeah, this is very much not good. He is one of us, reports The Guardian. U.S. anti-vaxxers rejoice at nomination of David Weldon for CDC. The move comes as the U.S. faces increased threats from bird flu, monkeypox, measles and other vaccine preventable diseases. Last week, I came to you not with tears in my eyes, you know, but I did come to you and I said Trump could have three pandemics to deal with

over the next four years that he's going to potentially serve as president of the United States. And he seems to be hiring all the worst people for dealing with pandemics. And now we are starting to see the texture and the color of the medical elements of Trump's cabinet take shape. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for secretary of health and human services, and now David Weldon as director of the CDC. When David Weldon was in Congress, he used to be a Republican congressman. Obviously, you knew Republican. He raised concerns about the MMR vaccine. Oh my goodness. We're doing it again.

Yes. The measles mumps and rubella vaccine as well as the safety of Gardasil. Gardasil is the vaccine that protects against, uh, HPV. And what is important to know is that this is the same sort of stuff RFK does. Well, we need to know the safety profile and we need to know the efficacy profile. We have that information and they just love talking about MMR. So here's the deal. MMR has three components, measles, mumps, rubella, measles. Two doses are 97 percent effective at preventing measles. Mumps, two doses are 88 percent effective at preventing mumps. Rubella, 97 percent effective at preventing rubella.

Common side effects, mild fever, mild rash. Joints can hurt for a couple of days. Severe allergic reactions to that vaccine below one per million doses, multiple large scale studies, 650,000 children in one case, no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The entire MMR causes autism thing came from one doctor who lost his medical license because of what he did named Andrew Wakefield. Andrew Wakefield, who we later found out had a financial interest in, I believe it was a measles only alternative to the MMR vaccine.

Andrew Wakefield falsified data and made claims based on, um, a, uh, improperly controlled group of 11 or 12 kids and argued that the MMR vaccine can cause autism. It led to decades of chaos. We still have not gotten out of, but the actual safety data on MMR just reinforces its safety and efficacy profile. Then Trump's new CDC director, if he gets confirmed, is questioning Gardasil. Gardasil targets HPV. It targets a couple specific types of HPV, 16 and 18. Those cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. Gardasil is nearly 100% effective in preventing those precancerous lesions that people who have not been vaccinated can get. Gardasil 9 is the current vaccine. That one

prevents against nine HPV types, covers 90% of HPV related cancers at a more than 90 percent efficacy. Mild pain, swelling, a little bit of redness at the injection site, low grade fever. Occasionally people will faint. That's why they watch you 15 minutes after you get the vaccine. Very rare, long lasting immunity that lasts 10 to 15 years, dramatic reduction in cancer risk. David Weldon isn't so sure about that one. Sowing doubt about it when he was a member of the House of Representatives. These are dangerous people. And so state medical agencies in blue states, right, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, the usual suspects, they are starting to put out guidance about vaccination. Um, what would happen if all of

a sudden you don't need some of these vaccines to go to public school. And the next thing, you know, you've got measles outbreaks and mumps outbreaks, which by the way, we've, it's not, Oh, will that really happen? We've seen in communities that stop doing a measles outbreaks and mumps outbreaks, which, by the way, we've it's not. Oh, will that really happen? We've seen in communities that stop doing measles vaccination. They get measles outbreaks and that can be extraordinarily serious for little kids. So that's the direction that this is all going. We we have to wait and see whether this guy even gets confirmed. But the combination of David Weldon and RFK Jr involved in health is not good.

It's not good on the bonus show today. Extraordinary nepotism. Trump's daughter's father-in-law has been given a very cushy post. Jared Kushner's dad has been given a very cushy post. We will talk about it. We will also talk about countries failing to reach, um, uh, an agreement on plastic and what is going on with plastic and women are getting themselves sterilized after Donald Trump's victory. Logical reaction too much. We will discuss all of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. And remember that you can still preorder my

forthcoming book, The Echo Machine on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, Kindle. It's everywhere. David Pacman dot com slash echo. Free stuff is available for everybody who preorders the book. OK, I need to get an update on preorders, so I'll give you an updated number. Everybody who preorders gets free stuff after you order. After you order, don't email me the receipt. Go to David Pakman dot com slash free book stuff. I got emails over the weekend. David slash the free book stuff isn't working.

That's the wrong URL. I'm going to say it once more, davidpacman.com slash free book stuff. You'll get all the free stuff. I'll see you on the bonus show and we'll be back here tomorrow.