The David Pakman Show - 12/27/24: Corporate media crashing, Ivanka wants out

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Americans are increasingly bailing out of watching the news, a real problem for corporate media, but possibly a boon for independent media -- Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter was doomed to fail from day one -- We explore the blue state revolution completely missed by MAGA, both economically and from an innovation standpoint -- Republican problems are only just beginning -- Ivanka Trump wants nothing to do with "President Trump" this second time around -- The final Friday Feedback of 2024 -- On the Bonus Show: The Friday Bonus Show with Producer Pat  🛏️ Eight Sleep: Get $350 OFF the Pod 4 Ultra at https://eightsleep.com/pakman 👩‍🎓 The 431 Exchange: Help us reach our goal by donating at https://431exchange.org/pakman 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code DAVIDP for free shave cream at https://hensonshaving.com/davidp 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 50% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.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. Starting today with what is really disastrous news for corporate and legacy media. And the news is quite simple, which is Americans are bailing out of following the news at all. And those that are going to come back are not likely to come back and follow the very same corporate media that they were following before. Now, if you've been watching the show for a while, you've heard me say before that corporate media is sort of losing its grip. And many of the people who are tuning out right now are not coming back at all. The latest data confirms it. There's a new AP NORC poll that Americans on both sides of the aisle are stepping back

from political news. MSNBC and CNN have seen these massive drops in post-election ratings. MSNBC down 54 percent. CNN down 45%. Now, meanwhile, I told you that Fox has gained viewers or at least more or less held steady. So what's going on? Is it partisan or not? I want to break it down and then talk a little bit about it. At a, at a top level, people are burnt out after months of relentless campaign coverage, the punditry, the endless panels talking in circles, having to fill 24 hours a day.

Many Americans are understandably mentally exhausted. That's in general. And some of them are realizing something critical, which is you don't need corporate media anymore. The whole idea of corporate media and 24 hour cable news is it's kind of on all the time. You're not necessarily actively listening the way you might to a 55 minute podcast episode with a discreet beginning, middle and end. And then we'll see you tomorrow. That's the whole concept of the 24 hour news. The polls are showing that two thirds of Americans are actively limiting their intake of political news. Now, this part is partisan for Democrats, especially the fatigue is very much noticeable. 70% of Democrats say they're stepping back,

but 60% of Republicans also say that they are stepping back. But here's the thing. This is not merely a post-election slump. This is part of a bigger trend that's been building for a while. MSNBC, CNN, they hemorrhage viewers. More people tune to alternative platforms for news. This show is one of many examples. During the election, we saw the audience numbers skyrocket. That's expected. Unlike the cable giants, we experienced the post election decline, but we've already gotten it back. And in fact, I was stunned that earlier this week, holiday week, usually one of the slowest weeks for us of the year, this period kind of around the couple days before Christmas Eve through New Year's,

it's usually very slow. And we had some of the largest traffic numbers since the election. In fact, the best day since the election was Monday. And the second best day was Tuesday. That is very different, very different than what corporate media is seeing. And I think that this is exactly what I suggested might happen right around November 15th or 20th, which was that a lot of the tune out that's happening when they come back, they're going to be looking for something a little bit different. This is not only about the fatigue. The fatigue is part of it, but it's also about trust. Americans are tired of shallow, one sided stories that are really about entertainment.

One poll respondent put it really well, which is why would I want to keep watching when the main event is over? Meaning we had the election, our candidate lost. That's it. They're sort of done with a guy or gal in the corner of the screen yelling and talking at them, sometimes with 10 panelists all saying sort of nothing. And I'll be honest, I don't blame them. People are looking for variety, depth, real conversations, I think a genuine connection to some degree. And I believe that that's one factor in why platforms like ours are thriving. We are not dependent on corporate sponsors. There aren't four levels of editors telling me what to say and how to say it and when

to say it. That's it. It's really that simple. Now, I also think it's important to be very real, which is that corporate media to a degree has created this problem for themselves. And some have better anticipated these changes, whereas others have not. And they scrambled, scrambled too late in many cases to try to switch to some of the platforms that we are on. Some of them are

doing well. Some of them are not. Many of the viewers that they have lost are not going to come back. They will either not come back to political news at all, or they will go to an alternative platform. So what does that mean for the future for MSNBC, for CNN, to a degree for Fox News as well, because they won't have their candidate in the White House forever. There is an uphill battle. But at the same time, you know, I can't come to you and honestly say this is the end. What this probably means is that they will funnel their nearly limitless bank accounts into forcing their way into some of the platforms where we do well, YouTube, other platforms. Some of them are already kind of doing

it. Now, I do expect that when Donald Trump is inaugurated, they will all get a boost. When the chaos resumes, when the insanity resumes, that is going to help them. But the longer term trend seems to be clear, which is that to a great degree, audiences are moving on. And for independent media, the message is also clear, which is we need to keep doing what we're doing and keeping the show accessible on all of these platforms. Offer an alternative to here's a 5v5 debate about something that was settled 20 years ago because we think that that'll drive ratings.

Yeah, that's not really going to work. If there is one thing we know for sure, it's that the era of corporate media dominance is fading. And it's a question of who's going to be there to pick up the slack. I am going to try for it to be platforms like this one. And if there's other alternative media shows that you like better, you might not like me. Remember earlier this week, someone said my eyes are too close together for them to watch this show. I'm so sorry about that.

But there's probably some other platform that will work better. That's clearly the direction people are going. Corporate media is scrambling. If you've been paying attention and I know many of you have, what I'm going to tell you next is not going to come as a surprise. Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter was supposed to be a game changer. He painted this grand vision of a free speech platform that would revolutionize social media and bring everybody together and make the world a better place. It hasn't happened. Twitter now rebranded as X has devolved into a toxic echo chamber of right wing misinformation. And the data that we now have shows that it is driving users away

in droves. I want to walk through how it all happened because it's really a master class in bad decisions. Musk's first big move was to slash the content moderation and to bring back a lot of accounts that were banned for, you guessed it, spreading lies, harassment, hate speech, bullying, et cetera. Elon called it free speech. In reality, it's a breeding ground for chaos. As I've said before, the concept of free speech is an important and a great one. When you exist solely for free speech, it's almost always code for I'm defending really shitty speech that is hurting people

and is deceptive and is inaccurate. That's usually what they mean when they go. Our number one goal is free speech. Like if I tell you what's the number one goal of this program, it's not this vacuum of free speech that means nothing. If you ask me what should be the goal of Twitter, it wouldn't just be the abstract goal of free speech. It would be create a functional and productive conversations about the issues of our time

while also being entertaining. If you said, you know, come up with some kind of mantra for Twitter, that's not what it is. And the result was predictable. Misinformation exploded. The platform became almost unrecognizable to anyone who wanted a normal social media experience. If you were looking for credibility, you were not finding it on X. If you were looking for reliability, you were not finding it on X. If you wanted conspiracy theories, anti-vax rants,

Elon Musk certainly had you covered. This was not just a bad look for users. It was really bad for advertisers. So this is part two slash the moderation. Now what happens to the advertisers? Companies understandably didn't want to spend money to have their ads sandwiched between QAnon propaganda and an anti-trans tirade. We experienced this erroneously during the 2017 adpocalypse where like one ad for Coke showed up on like a white nationalist video. And then YouTube said, we're done with ads on news and politics. Now, of course, that was seven years ago. It's since recovered. So what did advertisers on Twitter do? They left. And that's when the financial problem started. X's valuation plummeting by more than 70 percent since Elon Musk's buyout. So while Elon Musk continues to

tweet like everything's fine, the financials are a disaster. But the most telling sign of how badly this experiment is failing is the users leaving. People are leaving X for platforms like Blue Sky and others. I like Blue Sky. That's why I talk about it. Blue Sky's base has exploded. It's doubled since October, now more than 25 million users. And of course, that's like 10X what it was before. Why is Blue Sky doing so well?

It offers a better, more civil experience. The, uh, there are a wide range of political opinions, but when a real troll comes on to just bully and attack people, they get banned. And I prefer that over the cesspool that X has become other platforms that maybe aren't as good in some ways are still seeing growth. Mastodon is seeing growth. Threads is seeing growth. So it's not a trend, it's a movement. It's away from X and towards just about every other platform on a percentage basis, significantly towards blue sky. The reality is that Elon has turned X into a right wing propaganda machine. And that appeals to some people. But it's a smaller slice of the population that you might think it's alienating people.

And news is no longer breaking on Twitter anymore. I think it's important to recognize in this situation that to us who spend more time on these platforms, we sometimes get sort of like an inflated sense of how important Twitter is. But it is true that there was a point where Twitter was regularly breaking major news. The platform once hosted vibrant global conversations and generated as the first place for news regularly stories of global importance. That's not happening anymore. And the irony, excuse me, is that Elon Musk promised to make Twitter bigger and better. It's smaller and it's notably worse. This is what happens when you take a successful platform and decide, I want to disrupt rather

than to have stability. Instead of focusing on making Twitter work for its users, Elon Musk has made it about himself and his ideology, artificially promoting his tweets and people are leaving and advertisers are leaving. The money is drying up and this so-called everything app is really circling the drain. The bigger question is where does it go next? Can Elon Musk reverse course? It doesn't seem like he wants to. He seems happy with what's going on. He seems content to double down. And the evidence is mounting that it's not working. If you're still on X, the message is you're not going to get the old Twitter back. You're going to get Elon Musk's version of a free speech dystopia. So was Elon Musk's Twitter takeover doomed from

the start? In a sense, it's not just a story of failure. It's a warning. I do think it's important in general to have a healthier social media diet, spend less time in general on these platforms, try a curated list of people that you're following. And I say this at my peril. I will remind you, January 1, we will have a one-day membership special. If you're thinking of becoming a member, you can do it on January 1 at a sizable discount. Just get on my newsletter at davidpakman.com. You'll get an email on the 1st telling you how to take advantage of the special. break right back after this. Let's talk about a game changer in sleep technology. Our sponsor eight sleep and their revolutionary pod for ultra. The pod is a high tech mattress cover and you can easily add it to your existing mattress.

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with the email subject, open position. Other email subjects will be ignored. The email subject is open position. Attach your resume as an attached file. Do not paste it into the body. Don't hit the body with the resume. Please attach it as an attached file and include some kind of note that explains why you're interested in applying, why you think you would be a good fit, how your experience and understanding of the show relate to your interest. And then we'll follow up with a formal job description to everybody that correctly follows those few steps. All right. So info at David Pakman dot com. All right. I want to delve more deeply into what is clearly a topic that is triggering a number of the people in our audience. It has

to do with red states and blue states. We talked earlier in the week about what is it structurally that's happening in the red states that is making so many of them so poor, both economically, but with regard to infrastructure, with regard to health outcomes and more. You've heard it a million times from the right wing. Red states are thriving. Blue states are failing. Everybody's leaving failing New York and California, and everybody is going to thriving Texas and Florida. For example, it's, you know, more or less been the conservative mantra. We've talked about why when you look at skilled workers of different kinds, skilled workers are, excuse me, leaving red states and going to blue states. And this is part of the brain drain that we have seen.

We've also seen it with regard to certain medical professions because of the absolutely disgusting anti-abortion laws that we're seeing in many red states. You also are seeing OBGYNs, for example, leaving red states and going to blue states. And what ultimately is happening, because the blue states are more economically productive and the red states are less so, is that the blue states end up subsidizing the red states. Great. We've talked about all of that so far. Here's another important part of this. Blue states are also leading a quiet revolution, racking up policy wins that are putting red states to shame when it comes to law and policy. So let's break it down because the facts are really, facts are really all that matters

here on economic growth and innovation. The economy conservatives love to hype up Texas and Florida, but California is the real standout singular powerhouse in the United States, home to the largest clean energy economy in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of jobs in solar, wind, electric vehicles, Massachusetts, global leader, forget about national, global leader in biotech, thanks to decades of investment in education and in research. Now compare that to red states slashing school budgets while bragging about cheap labor. Innovation isn't cheap. Innovation takes investment. Innovation takes money. And it's happening in the blue states. Health care

wins. Blue states are increasingly saving lives while red states play politics. States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. We now have the benefit of 14 years of data. The blue states that did the Medicaid expansion have better health outcomes. End of story. The red states that did it also have better health outcomes than their non-Medicaid expanding red state counterparts. Colorado slashed health insurance premiums by 20% with a reinsurance program. That's a really big deal. And meanwhile, California has also been capping medication prices so that people are less likely to have to ration medication that their lives depend on. What's the red state solution? It's let people fend for themselves freedom as they describe it

and hype it up. We then go on to education and the workforce. Red states have spent a lot of time, energy, resources, uh, school board meeting hours on banning books. Whereas blue states have been working in a different way to improve education in a way that actually helps the economy. This is the critical thing. You look at Oregon and Rhode Island, free community college, New York and Illinois leading on universal pre-K. These, you know, they talk about trickle down, give tax cuts to the rich and it trickles

down. It never happens. These education programs really do lift up entire communities. And in red states, they're fighting over, do we fund schools at all? How do we get kids out of public school and put them in some kind of religious indoctrination program? One guess is all it takes to figure out which one really works. On social progress, red states have been targeting trans kids.

They've been rolling back rights. And in blue states, we're actually seeing relevant changes that are helping both young people and the workforce. Washington and California raised the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, boosting incomes without any significant effect on jobs. Now, I will be quick to admit, because the right wingers will point it out, among fast food specifically in parts of the West Coast where minimum wages have been set even higher, there has been a modest downtick in fast food jobs. That's true. The big picture is that it has been good for the economy, not bad for the economy. We've seen anti-discrimination laws in states like Massachusetts, which mean that people can work and live without the fear that many workers have in red states. Equality builds prosperity. It's not some wokester

nonsense meant to be attacked. And I'll be the first to say, sometimes some of these ideas go too far. It's, it's not the biggest problem we have, but there's no problem in pointing that out when it's the case. But the consequences here are that when people are secure in their jobs, when people are secure in their circumstances, they are more economically productive. Climate and infrastructure, blue states prepare for the future. The red states just deny that it exists. New York passed this great climate law looking for carbon neutrality by 2050. They're investing in renewable energy.

They're investing in flood prevention. A Washington state expanding public transit to cut traffic and emissions. And meanwhile, red states are building highways and kind of crossing their fingers and doing nothing about rising sea level or preparing for the transition to electric vehicles. The bottom line is that this is a nonsense approach and it's a nonsense approach, not just ideologically, it's in the data. The blue states are proving that these policies work. They work on health care. The outcomes are better.

They work on education. The outcomes are better. They work on wages. They work on the environment. You name it. They are better off. And in the meantime, not only are red states ideologically opposed to many of these advancements, they're also wrapped up too busy and spending resources with the culture

wars, the culture wars that are a major grift for them. As I outlined earlier in the week, blue States, the irony is the blue States on average are better at what the red States say they are better at, which is fostering an inviting business environment, creating, uh, uh, societies and, and cultural, uh, guideposts that make people feel included and thus are fuller participants in society. So the next time that someone tells you, oh, the red states are just winning everything. Ask them why it is that the blue state policies are actually what's helping people. But most importantly, ask them, why is it that the red states depend on the blue states? It is the functioning of everything I just

told you that works in the blue states to generate higher GDP. And then those blue states end up sending out way more in terms of federal funds, which the red states get back. And I know we talked about this earlier this week, but I'll mention it again. The red states as a standalone country could not survive because they depend on the blue states. Now, remember that the effect is this further makes the blue states, according to HDI, human development index, all of this is like a vicious circle that makes the blue states better places to live than the red states, according to HDI. But it has the downside of making the blue states the caretakers of the red states. In a sense, it's a Pyrrhic victory because by winning, the blue states

get to help the red states to an even greater degree. And that's something that as we look at the Trump policy, I guess the other thing we should talk about is a lot of this relates to Trump's policy packages, because the people that are going to be most hurt, everybody will be hurt to some degree. But the people that will be most hurt by the Trump package of policies are the folks disproportionately in the red states, but also the lower and middle income people in blue states, of course, who are already struggling. When Trump says to be a big boy alpha male, I'm going to start dumping tariffs on China, Canada, Mexico, whoever, and stuff's going to

start costing more in the U.S. The wealthy who disproportionately, of course, incomes on average higher in blue states, the wealthy upper middle class, middle class to a degree, they can weather the price increases that Trump will cause more than the very folks that are already in the red states, the disproportionately poor states, depending on the subsidies from the blue states functioning well. So it's this vicious cycle and As is often the case we spoke yesterday with Henry Giroux about it who gets blamed for it is A reasonable question to ask it's a practical question

But that doesn't get to that the fact that Republicans are equipped quick to blame Democrats even for things They should be blaming Republicans for That's a valid thing to discuss, but it doesn't get to the fundamental cultural question of how did this crap get so bad to begin with? How did we end up with an electorate that is so easy to bamboozle in this way that they end up voting the way they do and still not figuring out what they're doing? And the answers, as Henry Giroux talked about, I talk about it in my forthcoming book as well. It's a long history. It's radicalization. It's attacking education, which includes critical thinking, epistemology, media literacy. It's social media to a degree, which has normalized what used to be just, hey,

we don't have the same opinion about what's the right, you know, what are the best movies? What's the preferred flavor of ice cream? And how should we organize certain aspects of society? The division that has been generated there where we can't even just have disagreements anymore. All of these are parts of how we ended up in this situation. And while in one sense, to kind of wrap it up back to the beginning, while in one sense, it is the red states that suffer because they are the ones less able to weather this stuff. It is also the blue states that suffer because we end up having to bail out the red states constantly in the form of disproportionately paying in more than we get

out. That's where we are. It's not going to change in the next two years. That's for sure. Uh, on January 1st, we will have a spectacular membership special. If you've been thinking, maybe I'll get a membership. Maybe I won't. Uh, January 1st is going to be a great day to do it. We're going to offer 100% of the member benefits at a significant discount. And you can get, uh, be notified of this discount simply by getting on my newsletter, which you can sign up for at davidpacman.com. We'll take a quick break and the Friday show will continue. There are two big problems with the cheap plastic disposable razors. Two thirds of people have skin irritation and then over 2 billion plastic razors enter our landfills in the United States alone. Now,

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them in the oven 25 minutes. Wow. If you're ready to bring all your favorite breads, pastas and pastries right to your doorstep, check out wild grain. You can build your box of artisanal pastries, breads and everything right now. And for a limited time, wild grain will give my audience $30 off your first box plus free croissants in every box. When you go to wild grain.com slash Pacman to start your subscription, free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box, go to wild grain.com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. As we get ready to close out 2024, 2025 is coming. The Trump inauguration is coming and then four years of what is going to be some wild times. We're quickly realizing that Republican problems are only just beginning. We've started to see over the last couple of weeks, the cracks. We've seen a cult with

two leaders, Trump and Elon Musk, which rarely works well. We saw MAGA versus MAGA violence at turning point USA's Amfest, Laura Loomer and Milo Yiannopoulos pitted against each other. We saw Republicans clearly increasingly willing to defy Donald Trump when it came to the spending limit and Republicans potentially willing to continue doing that during Donald Trump's forthcoming term. What we are seeing right now and what we saw last week with this government shutdown fight is just a preview of the chaos that is certainly going to come under Donald Trump's second term. Now, if you thought Trump's first term was a mess and it was, if you think the six, seven weeks since the November election have been a mess

and they have been, this is really only the beginning. Trump is already making life harder for Republicans. He's openly calling for a shutdown under Biden. Instead of focusing on a smooth transition, he's lobbing grenades into the process with the goal of, as he sees it, helping himself. Republicans chose to negotiate a three month funding bill, which means that they are setting themselves up for this exact same fight all over again, except next time with Trump in office, where presumably the downside of the shutdown would be blamed on Trump, at least to some degree. Not only are these Republicans allergic to long term planning, they believe they can always couch these fights to make the American

people angry with Democrats. And sometimes they can, and sometimes that succeeds, but it doesn't really seem to be working lately. And even avoiding a shutdown in the short term, damage continues to be done. Democrats are going to have leverage when the next funding deadline hits and Republicans are going to be scrambling to juggle spending fights with Trump's agenda. As we've already spoken about, a bunch of the stuff Trump wants to do will be very, very expensive. Trump blew up the deficit his first time around, and we're starting to see at least the suggestion that Republicans are willing to defy Trump when it comes to spending. So the real story here is the growing divide within the Republican Party, MAGA Republicans

and non MAGA Republicans, even Trump himself already clashing within Maga. Various factions of Maga have subdivided and are now clashing. And now on top of it, we have, as we're calling him, president elect Elon Musk in the mix who just helped to tank a bipartisan deal. And this isn't a recipe for complete and utter dysfunction. Now, Musk is an interesting wildcard. We've talked about him so much. I don't want to spend a lot of time in him on him right now. He is cozy with Trump for now. We don't know how long that's going to last.

We talked about that. Trump does not like sharing the spotlight. Musk does not like taking orders. The shutdown fight might be the first of many of these ego based clashes with two very big egos that are unlikely to be able to coexist. Republicans also face an uphill battle with Donald Trump's cabinet nominations. These hearings will drag on for weeks. They will eat up time that Republicans don't really have. And remember that the Senate margin is also relatively thin. So the votes are really going to count.

It's not clear how many of these current nominees can even get confirmed. We don't know. But the shutdown fight is not just about funding. It's really a preview of how chaotic governance is going to be in 2025. It's a disorganized Republican party. It's a divided and subdivided and subdivided Republican party and they are completely unprepared for what's coming. And part of it comes from arrogance.

It's the arrogance of we want everything. We can do whatever we want. There will be no repercussions. There will be no way to hold us accountable. And suddenly you've got these internal fights and suddenly you've got external skepticism about what they're doing. The Doge committee, according to new polling underwater with the public, Elon Musk's presence as the very unelected bureaucrat, he and Vivek said they were going to eliminate not polling particularly well. So if Trump's first term was chaos, this second term is really looking like chaos on steroids or call it what you will, because Republicans are showing

us right now, they can't even agree on the basics. When the big ticket items hit the table, when Trump wants to push his mass deportation with the camps and all of the untold expenses that are going to go with it, are Republicans going to be ready to pay what it's going to cost? This is the dysfunction that Republicans have signed themselves up for and it's not going away anytime soon. I hesitate to even bring this up, but the additional potentially complicating factor of course is Trump's health and potential deterioration. He is not a young guy.

He is not a particularly healthy guy. And in the midst of all of this, the ego and personality battles and the factions, MAGA versus non MAGA, MAGA one versus MAGA two. And who's part of which in the middle of all of this, it all assumes best case scenario for them. Trump is able to continue being president in a serious way by serious, you know, it's obviously all nonsense, but I mean in a credible way that he is the president. If that starts to slip instantly, you are going to see that division explode both within Maga and Maga versus non Maga.

So as we close the year out, get ready for the inauguration, get ready for Trump's first hundred days. There are a lot of ways in which this could go really poorly for Republicans. And remember that if we zoom out at a systemic level, at a structural level, given that Republicans took the White House from Democrats in 2024, we would assume and expect that if historical trends held, 2026 is midterms would be bad for Republicans. That's, that's if things are normal with everything that is potentially teetering on the brink with this Republican party, it could be very, very bad, but it's going to depend on us to make it that reality.

Ivanka Trump wants nothing to do with president Trump. I don't mean she's abandoning her dad, but as far as politics is concerned, Ivanka is sticking with it. She wants nothing to do with it. And she had already made a statement previously to this effect, CNN article, uh, Ivanka Trump is done with politics and says she isn't coming back. This is an article by Betsy Klein. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but it does reinforce some of the things that we suspected. And the article lays out how for the entirety of her adult life, Ivanka Trump has worked for Donald Trump, but that she made this social media post, uh, after Trump was out of office saying she's done. What she said was quote, I love my father very much this time

around. I am choosing to prioritize my young children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics. That was in 2022 that she said that. And it remains true. Everybody who has commented for the story says they're privately living in Miami out of the public spotlight. So there are two stories here and they sort of conflict. One is maybe less pleasant than the other. We already knew that there were these stories circulating of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump returning to private life after Trump left office in January of 2021 and assuming they would be able to rejoin their prior social circles of socialites and dilettantes and whoever else in New York city.

Um, and they were not welcomed back into that. And those stories sort of dovetailed directly into looking for a house in Miami and these statements about I'm out of politics. And so on some level, as we've said, for the Trump family, getting involved in politics to begin with was not a great thing at a, at a personal level. Of course, with the presidency comes great power and without a doubt, there's no, no question, but also for a lot of the individuals, this was not so good, particularly when before they were seen as when they were seen as far less political, they were much more well liked across the political spectrum. So the one story is, of course, Ivanka wants out.

She's basically been ostracized when she tried to go back to her old friends and blah, blah, blah. But there's another story here that is definitely more insidious and kind of pernicious, which is she and Jared got what they really wanted from having been associated with the Trump presidency, which is Jared got the billions from the Saudis from their sovereign wealth fund for investments. They now have essentially won the game. And now it's of course, time to step into the shadows as a strategic decision. It may not even be that it's just for the social and sort of ancillary reasons that she doesn't want to be involved with the Trump presidency, but it also would be real. It would be intelligent in its own way to say that's too much exposure.

Now that Jared got his billions from the Saudis, we want to just live a quiet life where he's ripping hundreds of millions in fees from these funds that he's involved with. And we can just quietly do our thing. I also assume on some level she must suspect that the Trump presidency isn't going to end well. Now that doesn't mean because she objectively thinks her dad's going to be a bad president. She probably thinks he's a good president. Who the hell knows?

But if she can see the writing on the wall that there's a few ways that this ends, right? If he gets his policy ideas, it's going to be a disaster. If he doesn't, it'll be seen as a failed presidency. What happens after that? Trump will be 80 something and what is the process for whatever comes next? None of it's really seeming awesome for what will then be a, I think roughly 50 year old Ivanka Trump, right? What will be a close to 50 year old Ivanka Trump at that point?

None of these really seem like awesome exit strategies. So in particular, having pulled their couple of billion from the Saudis and really being set up permanently at this point, as if she wasn't before, there's a lot of sense to getting out while she still can keep a low profile and don't even start to have an involvement with this second Trump term. What do you think? What do you think explains the quote real reason why Ivanka and Jared are opting out of Trump presidency number two? Let me know what you think. We'll take a very quick break and be right back. the right's attempt to sow election distrust and weaponize the courts. This story is almost exclusively being covered by right leaning news outlets, spinning the narrative to villainize the election workers.

So the public probably has a skewed perspective on what's really happening. That is, unless you use ground news, which lets you see every side to every story like this one. Ground News is an independent platform that exposes the biases of media outlets by showing you who owns them, what angle they're taking on each story and what hidden agendas might be lurking in the background. Ground News is daily briefings are a great way to stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. It gives a quick breakdown of the day's most critical stories from every angle. Thank you, David. You can't vapor smoke inside. You're tired of people seeing you put those little pouches in your lip. There is a nicotine alternative that people won't notice. Zippix nicotine toothpicks.

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Cut the vape juice. Go to ZipX toothpicks dot com today. Save 10 percent with the code Pacman 10 at checkout. Just remember, you must be 21 or older to order. That's Z I P P I X toothpicks.com use promo code Pacman 10 at checkout for 10% off. That's Pacman one zero. The info is in the podcast notes. Well, it's time for the final Friday feedback of the year. Next week, it will be Friday feedback 2025. So let's make it a good one and address things that I know are on the minds of the viewers. Renegades on the subreddit posted, why does every YouTube thumbnail have a yellow arrow pointing at someone, even if only one person is depicted? You know, there's a reality in the YouTube space, which is sometimes things just are

and you don't really know why. And one of the things that's been sort of in lately with thumbnails is the yellow arrows or orange arrows pointing to people. I don't really know the oranges of this. What I can tell you is if you don't like it, it'll probably go away soon. None of these trends last forever. And we've already had internal discussions about the next iteration of our thumbnails. You know that, listen, I don't think there's anything to hide with regard to the point of a thumbnail is to get someone to watch the video. And my rule has always been, let's not do dishonest stuff. Same thing with titles. When people come to me and they say,

sir, you know, you're using click bait and they often spell bait wrong, which is really funny. Um, I say, okay, is what the title depicts in the video. If the answer is yes, it's just marketing. It's what is an accurate title that will get people to watch the video. And it's the same thing with the thumbnails. You know, if I were to make a YouTube title, like Trump carried out on a stretcher and then that's not what happens in the video. That's going to be a major problem. So we, these things evolve. Uh, the whole YouTube title thing is a, you know, we could do an entire week of shows

just on, on YouTube titles and thumbnails. But if you don't like the arrows, they will be gone soon. The podcast audience is like arrows. What are you talking about? I just listened to this crap. Um, yeah, don't, if you're just listening, you don't even have to worry about it. Okay. Jack gray says Bernie Sanders is a wealthy millionaire who has never held a real job. He is the oligarchy.

You know, this is always sort of funny to me and it can kind of come off as a little condescending when I explain this, but I do need to kind of tell you a reality. If you've been earning six figures for 30 years and you're not a millionaire, you're terrible with money. Okay. Bernie's 83 and he has been earning six figures as a Senator previously as a member of the house before that he had some other political job that I don't remember if I don't remember the exact, he was mayor of Burlington. Anyway, I don't know for how long he's been earning six figures, but he's been earning six figures long enough that if you're just a modestly good saver and you own a property, which will appreciate just kind of average appreciation enough that if you're just a modestly good saver and you own a property

which will appreciate just kind of average appreciation, by the time you're 83, you're going to be a millionaire. And one of the things that I find to be a significant distraction is that, yes, Bernie is a millionaire and he advocates for policies that would help people who earn $32,000 a year. On the other hand, Trump is a billionaire. Musk is a turbo billionaire and they're sort of thinking to themselves, could we fund tax cuts for the rich and corporations by slashing social security benefits a little bit? It's like, give me a break guys. Give me a break.

If the best you've got is Bernie's a millionaire, uh, then you've really got nothing. Ping Vinny on subreddit said, we're pre Trump Republicans considered moderate. I'm fairly young. 2016 election was the first I followed, but I knew the results of 2012. I'm not an American, so my knowledge of us politics prior to 16 is vague. We're Republicans like George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and Dick slash Liz Cheney considered moderates or are they just moderates compared to Trump is here's the problem with the framing of the question. It's a good question and I like that you're saying, how did things used to be? It'll help me understand how they are now.

That's why I have two full chapters in my forthcoming book explaining exactly how this stuff came to be. Right now, MAGA is not equivalent to prior Republicans in terms of are they more conservative or moderate? The modern MAGA wing of the Republican Party has become a neo reactionary party conservatism in the sense of small government and low taxes. That entire ideology is not even valid for evaluating these people because it's sort of like, sure, they'll kind of talk about small government, but they love blowing up government way bigger when it serves

their kleptocratic and oligarchical interests. Uh, sure. They are for, uh, you know, lower taxes in the abstract, but it's like for who and executed how and at what cost they're, uh, outrageous nationalist and ethno nationalist views and all this stuff. Yes. To answer the question as asked, it is clear to me that MAGA Trumpism is far more radical than George W. Bush was. But George W. Bush fit on the traditional kind of scale of conservatism, whereas what

MAGA is offering is something completely different altogether. And that's what can make it sort of hard, conservatism. Whereas what MAGA is offering is something completely different altogether. And that's what can make it sort of hard, uh, hard to answer. Someone, um, made an image from my visit with president Biden last week and said, I picture this one on their mantles. And it's a side-by-side of Biden and, and me. me. I actually did get a real picture with Joe Biden, but a little peek behind the curtain in certain parts of the White House, at least for the plebs like me, they sequester your phone. You're not allowed to have your phone with you. I don't know if we saw we saw, for example, Anthony Blinken when we were leaving. I don't know if they take his phone.

They took all of our phones. So they said, our White House photographer will take the picture of you and the president, and then we will get it to you. We will get it to you. Our scary words when it is the White House that is leaving in a month. So I am praying, Baruch Hashem. I get that damn picture. But this picture that someone put together was not the picture of Biden and I at the White House. Findest asked on the subreddit, I've been, is MAGA the largest cult in human history? I've been thinking about this the last couple of days.

Every time I think of a cult, I think of 50, 150, maybe 500 people. Sometimes cults are big enough to have cells in different regions if cells is even the right term. But this MAGA cult is pushing what, 35 to 40 million. I would love to hear the opinion of anybody who has some knowledge on this or can point me in the direction of where I can look short of Googling largest cults in history, because I actually want to have a conversation about this. Yeah, I think it's clear that as as loosely defined in this way, as we've been talking about the Trump cult, I think it is the biggest cult. You know, if you think about even like a popular band, the vast majority of their followers really aren't cultists in the way that MAGA people

are cultists. So unless someone can tell me otherwise, I kind of do think that this is the biggest cult in history. You know, if I Google, what is the largest cult in history? I found a thing about the four people's, yeah, people's temple had 900 people. Manson, now these are tiny. Heaven's Gate, no, man. Now these are tiny heaven's gate. No, no. I think that by almost any definition, the Trump cult is the biggest cult, not just now, but I think ever Steve McMahon writes about the election. People did not want a black female president.

So you chose dictatorship. Now you have 36 days of freedom left. Don't come crying when you get screwed. Well, I've done extensive copious videos about how many of the people that voted for Trump are about to get screwed. They are about to fund tax cuts for Elon Musk. They are going to pay higher prices on products. They are going to pay higher prices on groceries. This is of course, if Trump does the stuff he promised, there's a chance Trump doesn't do any of it, right? That we'll, we'll

deal with that. Um, a lot of the people are about to get screwed, but what's sad is that the people who didn't vote for Trump are also going to get screwed. And I don't I take no pleasure in that whatsoever. But yeah, we're about to see some brutal stuff happen. Cynthia says about the stuff in the sky that we've been seeing lately. I saw two whatever they are in the sky a week ago. They were red and green. There were red and green lights flashing, hovering in the sky could have been over Miller airport, which is a

small plane airport or over the high power lines. I know what I saw David, and you can not convince me otherwise. Of course, I assume that this is satire. Airplanes have a red light on one wing and a green light on the other so that you can tell whether they are coming towards you or moving away from you. And I think that Cynthia is simply pointing out that indeed there was an airplane over an airport, not exactly a smoking gun. And then very different message about the stuff in the sky. Rita said, it's not Venus. It's an orb. Do a little more research, David. Lots of phenomena. What I love about this is like it. What does it even mean that it's an orb? Like I understand the term orb suggests an alien, but what, what is it? What is an orb? Let's look that up. It's a sphere or a globe. Okay. That doesn't really tell us very much, but, uh, I will know quite literally dozens of people, maybe close to a hundred wrote in. They believe that what we are seeing are drones

and or evidence of alien contact, how it could be both, I don't know. Is it alien drones? I'm not sure. But if I'm honest, I remain unconvinced by everything people have sent me. We talked last week. Some of these sightings were stars. Some of these sightings were planets. Some of these sightings were airplanes landing at Reagan in DC. Um, I said, if you have something different that we can't explain, please email it to me. Like six people did. And it was all not of the six things, five, it wasn't even clear that it was anything. And, uh, one of them was just debunked as planes. So I don't know. Keep sending them in. Info at davidpakman.com

if you have something you want me to look at. But so far, I am not finding it all particularly convincing. All right. We will see you on the bonus show. I will be back here next week. Remember, we'll be off Wednesday for the New Year's Day holiday,

but otherwise we will have new shows. See you then. Have a good weekend.