The David Pakman Show - 5/13/24: Biden tariff dumps, rabid crowd cheers Trump and leaves

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

-- On the Show: -- President Joe Biden will announce new tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles -- Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is interviewed by Fox News' Maria Bartiromo and goes co...mpletely off the rails -- Republican Senator JD Vance is challenged by CNN host Dana Bash over his claim that Donald Trump couldn't possibly be antisemitic -- Republican Senator Lindsey Graham sets the stage to deny the results of the 2024 Presidential election -- Failed Arizona Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, now running for US Senate in Arizona, sets the stage to reject the forthcoming election results in November -- Rabid Donald Trump supporters cheer the most delusional statements from Trump at a rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, but the crowd quickly starts leaving while Trump is still speaking -- Donald Trump's speech is slurred and confused during another post-criminal trial rant -- Russell Brand is now promoting Ivermectin, using Chris Cuomo's recent promotion of the same as fodder to support his beliefs -- A viewer furiously writes to David and cancels his account because of David's accurate reporting about RFK Jr. having a brain worm -- On the Bonus Show: Duke University graduates walk out of Jerry Seinfeld's commencement speech, why writing by hand may be better than typing for thinking and learning, mass shootings down 29% from last year, much more... 🖥️ Malwarebytes: Get 50% OFF with code PAKMAN at https://malwarebytes.com/pakman 💻 Get Private Internet Access for 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/David 👖 The Perfect Jean: Use code PAKMAN for 15% OFF & free shipping at https://theperfectjean.nyc 🛌 Helix Sleep: Get up to 30% OFF + 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: https://davidpakman.com/membership/ -- Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Speaker 1 Well, here we are once again. Joe Biden is going to be increasing tariffs on certain Chinese products. As many of you know, I've been critical of Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods. Joe Biden is also putting some tariffs on Chinese goods. Well, not exactly the same, but should I oppose these tariffs if I thought that Donald Trump's were a bad idea? Well, let's talk about what it is that Joe Biden is doing. President Joe Biden is going to be doubling, tripling and quadrupling tariffs on some Chinese goods this week. One major area is that the total tariff on Chinese electric vehicles is going to rise to one hundred and two point five percent from twenty seven point
Starting point is 00:00:55 five percent. That is a nearly quadrupling of the tariff on Chinese electric vehicles. So our first step in analyzing what Joe Biden is doing is to remind ourselves what did Donald Trump do? What Donald Trump did is impose tariffs on Chinese solar panels, washing machines, steel, aluminum, many of these from many countries, except in some cases we were disproportionately getting these things from China, semiconductors, computer components, electronic devices, various types of machinery, including those used by manufacturing companies and agricultural companies, products such as clothing, furniture and toys saw tariffs imposed. So the question is, are tariffs on China just plain bad? Or could there be a reason why Trump's tariffs weren't a good idea and Joe Biden's on Chinese electric vehicles are a good
Starting point is 00:01:55 idea? Well, let's take a couple of perspectives on this. A libertarian would say all of these tariffs are bad. They are distorting markets. A libertarian would say leave the market totally open. It is true when cheaper and seemingly very good electric vehicles. And by the way, some of these new Chinese electric vehicles do seem excellent. Absolutely excellent. There is no doubt the libertarian would say, let them come into the United States with no tariff. People will go to them. It will push competition to drive down the cost of American made electric vehicles, and it will force automakers to improve them in order to compete with the cheaper and excellent Chinese electric vehicles.
Starting point is 00:02:37 That's not a terrible perspective, to be honest, when it comes to electric vehicles. It is likely the perspective that will advance electric vehicle technology and bring prices down as quickly as possible. But it will temporarily hurt the American economy during this period during which Americans say, hey, the Chinese EVs are better and they're cheaper. I'll buy that. This hurts the companies that make the components for the American electric vehicles. This hurts the workers that make the American electric vehicles. OK, here's a reason now. So that's the libertarian perspective. Now, how about a reason that we could argue Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods were bad, but these tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles are good. And the way that would work is something like this. Trump's tariffs,
Starting point is 00:03:26 including steel and aluminum and other components that are used by agricultural companies and manufacturing companies. Those were source materials or intermediate components that companies in the United States needed and used. So when Trump put a tariff on those things, it created higher prices. It disrupted supply chains. It made construction more expensive. It made farming more expensive. It increased the cost of housing. It generated retaliatory measures. And often there was no immediate American alternative to replace them. So what happened was the American companies kept buying the Chinese steel and paying the tariff and it made construction more expensive and it got passed on to the consumer. So you could say that's why the Trump tariffs were bad.
Starting point is 00:04:17 On the other hand, and again, we're exploring perspectives here when it comes to tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. That's a finished product. OK, agricultural companies aren't depending on a finished electric vehicle in the way that they are depending on elements that were tariffed by Trump. Construction companies in the United States aren't depending on a finished electric vehicle in the way that they were depending on steel and aluminum. And so by putting a tariff on completed Chinese electric vehicles, maybe you are supporting the entire manufacturing chain of domestic electric vehicles.
Starting point is 00:04:58 You don't use Chinese electric vehicles as a material to make some other thing so that the downside is limited, so that the downside is limited, so that the downside is significant. You could argue that just tariffing Chinese electric vehicles has a very limited downside and that it actually will be a good thing for American electric vehicle companies. That would be the perspective on. We like this. My instinct. I've given you two different arguments. My instinct on this is that I don't want to use tariffs as a tool unless I have a really extenuating and clear reason with which to apply a tariff. Is there a case to be made that what is actually best long term for the American economy is
Starting point is 00:05:42 to let in the Chinese electric vehicles without putting a tariff on them. Yes, there is such a case to be made. Is there a case to be made that you are actually in the immediate supporting American workers by putting a tariff on Chinese electric vehicles? Yes, there is. And so to answer whether this is a good idea or a bad idea, we need a much more detailed analysis that should be done specifically of the electric vehicle market. Hopefully we will get it certainly can make a very compelling argument that these EV taxes on Chinese EVs from Biden are a good idea. And you can make an equally compelling argument based on the data we have. Right. We need more data. You can make an equally compelling argument that they are a bad idea.
Starting point is 00:06:21 I want to hear from you. Info at David Pakman dot com. What do you think? Radical and repugnant Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Trader, I'm sorry, Marjorie Taylor Greene has done an interview with Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo that is once again raising major questions about what the hell is going on behind the scenes in the Republican Party with Maga Mike Johnson, with the failed former president, Donald Trump. Now, one of the very interesting things that Marjorie said to Maria Bartiromo is that privately Trump has said to her, we may need to get rid of MAGA Mike Johnson, a speaker. What is interesting about this is that publicly, when Marjorie's attempt to oust MAGA Mike Johnson failed, Trump said Marjorie's good,
Starting point is 00:07:11 but this is not the time to remove MAGA Mike Johnson. Republicans mostly behind MAGA Mike Johnson. If you believe Marjorie Taylor Greene here, she is pointing to Trump privately saying something different, which wouldn't be a big shock. You know, and I just spoke with President Trump yesterday about this. And while he says now is not the time I'm going to be listening to him, but he also said and he said it in his statement publicly that it may happen, that the time may come. So even though if I wanted to do it again this week, the Democrats have already stepped in and saved Johnson. But again, I'll reiterate this, Maria. And the most important thing everyone needs to know is that people want a Republican party that will fight. So it would, of course, be funny if Trump didn't really say that to her and she's
Starting point is 00:07:55 just making it up. And Trump called her out. It's now been 24 ish hours since she made the statement. So far, Trump has not come out and said Marjorie Taylor Green isn't telling the truth. To be perfectly frank, it is probably true that behind closed doors, Trump is saying we may have to get rid of MAGA Mike Johnson. And it's not out of any inherent loyalty or hostility to MAGA Mike Johnson. It's what is good for Trump. That is the one and only test that is applied by Trump. Do I want MAGA Mike Johnson to be speaker or do I want to remove MAGA Mike Johnson from speaker? The answer is what is good for me? That's the question Trump asks.
Starting point is 00:08:32 And so it's completely plausible that Marjorie Taylor Greene, despite lying all the time, is telling the truth and that Trump is simply waiting for the point at which he decides it would be better for me to remove MAGA Mike Johnson. Marjorie Taylor Greene continuing during this very same interview, saying that it is Democrats that saved Maga Mike Johnson, not Republicans. Republicans want him out. Of course, it's not true that most Republicans want him out. Only a few do. Let's listen to what she said about that. Eliminate the special counsel. Look, people are trying to figure out where is the crime that President Trump committed as he sits in that Manhattan courtroom all day.
Starting point is 00:09:12 Why do you think Mike Johnson won't defund Jack Smith? Well, Mike Johnson's owned by the Democrats, and that proved me to be right again. When I called the motion to vacate, it wasn't Republicans that saved Mike Johnson. It was Democrats that saved Mike Johnson. And when you have Nancy Pelosi, who was Speaker of the House when they impeached President Trump twice, and you have Jerry Nadler, who was chairman of the Judiciary Committee that led the impeachment against President Trump, voting to save Mike Johnson, that tells the American people everything that they need to know. Mike Johnson is owned by the Democrats and refuses to protect President Trump, even though he runs down to Mar-a-Lago every chance he gets and hunts them as tightly as possible. So from our perspective, as people who just want to see the demise of Trump and the demise
Starting point is 00:09:59 of the movement that includes Marjorie Taylor Greene and people like Maga Mike Johnson, I want to see them all go. You say to me, well, are you with the Trump faction or the Marjorie Taylor Greene and people like Maga Mike Johnson. I want to see them all go. You say to me, well, are you with the Trump faction or the Marjorie Taylor Greene faction or the Maga Mike Johnson faction? At this point, they're essentially the same faction. And I want all of them to go. They all have no business in American politics and only degrade the structure and the integrity of American democracy. Is it technically true in some limited sense that Democrats saved Mike Johnson? Well, sure. I mean, Republicans have a majority. They need everybody in order to get rid of Mike Johnson. And some Democrats, Democrats voted not to do it. But many Republicans
Starting point is 00:10:35 voted not to do it as well. Lastly, for Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is now starting to worry for herself. And what might all of this strife mean for her own reelection, saying that there are voters who aren't going to even vote for elected officials down ballot? They're going to go and vote president and they will leave Representative Brank blank. She is scared of that. But if we're going to be a Republican conference that can actually deliver President Trump's agenda, then we need to get in shape and be prepared to do that. And while the election is only six months away, we aren't ready. And our voters know it. Maria, our voters know it. They're saying they're going to get representatives names on the ballot. They're going to vote for President Trump, but they're going to skip our names. And that's the most dangerous position to be.
Starting point is 00:11:17 Speaker 1 OK, so so as now, I have absolutely no idea whether that's true in large numbers. If you are a MAGA Republican, are you really going to go out and check the box for Donald Trump and say, oh, I see another MAGA person on the ballot. I'm going to skip voting for that person altogether. Sort of hard to believe. But the point here is one that Republicans should still be worried about. You look at the number of Republicans who came out in Pennsylvania, for example, and said, even though Nikki Haley's been out of this thing for months, I'm still going to vote for her in the primary just to show how much I'm displeased with what's going on for Donald Trump. It is certainly theoretically possible that there will be people who are happy with Trump, but want to show that same displeasure with people like
Starting point is 00:11:56 Marjorie Taylor Greene. The funniest part of that entire interview is Marjorie Taylor Greene saying, allowing us to enact Donald Trump's agenda, what agenda? And remember that as far as policy goes, Trump vaguely waxes poetic about executing drug dealers, putting them to death and, you know, deporting the I think he calls them mental patients that have emptied out into our it's imaginary stuff. There is no actual agenda. And that's the funniest part. There is no agenda to enact. And she's worried they won't be able to do it. Let's skip all of this and make sure none of these people have access to power. That would be my preference.
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Starting point is 00:14:09 The link is in the podcast notes. As many of you no doubt know, I'm originally from Argentina, and one of the things I really miss about being there is the soccer and how easy it is to find it on TV. And now that I live in the US for soccer, I turn to private Internet access. Our sponsor, Private Internet Access, is a VPN that lets you change your IP address and make it look like your computer is anywhere in the world. So I can set it to Argentina to access the soccer matches. I can set it to the UK to access British Netflix content, much of which is really good. A VPN is useful for many things like preventing your browsing history from being leaked online.
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Starting point is 00:15:42 we do. There's no larger media conglomerate of which we're a part. There's no funder, wealthy guy or gal or organization that sends us money. We built this thing from the ground up brick by brick. You know, I did a presentation the other day about the business of independent media and can can a show like this be sustainable? And we talked about revenue track. We had years during which our revenue was zero. And I'm not saying it was low. I'm saying it was zero. This was an all volunteer thing that almost ended at the point at which it was time for me to find some real job that earned money. And thanks to the membership program, slowly but surely going from zero to zero point one to zero
Starting point is 00:16:27 point two percent of our audience supporting us directly. We built this thing, which has now outlasted who knows how many other attempts at building similar things. And it's thanks to you. So I would love it if you got yourself a membership at join Pacman dot com, we just invested a bunch of money in a totally new Web site and a whole new member experience for the member version of the site, the member portal of the site. It's working really well. We have a soundboard that you have access to. That is a frickin predator right there. You get access to the Alex Jones audio drops and everything else. But most importantly, we do an extra show every single day for our members. And we also provide the main show what you're listening to right now with no commercials
Starting point is 00:17:11 in audio or video format much earlier in the day than it is otherwise made available. So I encourage you go ahead and grab a subscription at join Pacman dot com. We do have a coupon code. That code is Save Democracy 24. You can use it if you want. The normal membership rates are quite reasonable. If they strike you as unreasonable, take the discount using the coupon code Save Democracy 24. The topic of whether Donald Trump is personally anti-Semitic continues to come up and often cited as defenses of Trump are that Trump's grandkids are Jewish.
Starting point is 00:17:48 Trump's daughter, Ivanka, converted to Judaism. Trump does business with Jewish folks and seems to have no problem. And he moved the embassy to Jerusalem or whatever. And we're going to look at a clip here of J.D. Vance saying Trump is obviously not anti-Semitic, to which CNN host Dana Bash says, well, he did have dinner with that Nick Fuentes guy who is an avowed anti-Semite. And then let's see what J.D. Vance had to say. And then we're going to talk about it in more details. Yeah, because he did say that any Jewish person who voted for Joe Biden should be ashamed of themselves. I want to move on. He's made similar comments about a lot of different groups of people, Dana. I don't think anybody could look at the presidency
Starting point is 00:18:28 and the conduct of Donald Trump and say, this is a person who's somehow anti-Semitic. And I think whether you're Jewish or not, you should be looking at the record of Joe Biden. He had dinner with Nick Fuentes, who is an avowed anti-Semite. Dana, you should look at the record of Joe Biden. Yeah, I don't know what Joe Biden's record has to do with Trump dining with with white supremacists, but there is a little bit of a deeper conversation to be had here. And I do think we on the left need to be more nuanced because when we just put out there, Trump's an anti-Semite, I actually think we're not being really precise enough. And we open ourselves up to criticism.
Starting point is 00:19:03 Trump may not be personally anti-Semitic. He may be. I don't know. But he actually might not be. But he can still be governing in a way that coalesces and invigorates anti-Semites and legitimizes anti-Semites as part of a political coalition when they should actually be completely ostracized and limited from participation. And in fact, you know, we've talked before. I don't think Trump
Starting point is 00:19:26 is homophobic in the super tangible and specific way that many people are homophobic. Trump probably harbors some sort of stereotypical beliefs about the LGBT community. But I actually doubt Trump is what we would describe as overtly homophobic. I doubt that Trump is what we would describe as overtly anti-Semitic. He probably harbors some general anti-Semitic tropes as beliefs. Jews is clever business people to work with, you know, kind of like we've talked about Saudis from the Saudi royal family that are increasingly increasingly working with Jewish folks. And they say we're not anti-Semitic.
Starting point is 00:20:05 They probably harbor a harbor of a variety of beliefs that are that are based in anti-Semitic tropes, but they may not be overtly and personally anti-Semitic. And that very well may be the case with Donald Trump. It's actually deeper and it's more complicated than that. Trump's rhetoric often emphasizes a nationalism and a populism and this sense of grievance against the perceived elites, even though Trump is the elite. Don't get that wrong. He's the elite guy who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth in Queens and Manhattan. But he will use this language. And oftentimes that is filled in by, oh, he's sort of referring to Jews. I at least can fill in the blanks for who he's talking about
Starting point is 00:20:45 with the idea of the conniving conspiratorial Jewish trope. Even if Trump isn't saying that Trump uses dog whistles all the time, the coded language that might not be overtly anything, but it has a very specific meaning to the groups that he's targeting, the subgroups he's targeting. And Trump all the time uses these phrases and tropes that if you don't know what you're listening for, it could be interpreted a number of different ways. But for those who do know what to listen for, who are already inclined to these beliefs, these references to the deep state, the global financial conspiracies to control that all echoes anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jewish conspiracy to control. And it titillates the people that believe that stuff. And they circle the wagons
Starting point is 00:21:32 around Trump. Domestic policies have sometimes empowered groups that are explicitly or implicitly anti-Semitic. When Trump has been hesitant to condemn white supremacist groups until he's asked a hundred times and then finally kind of goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I don't really know anything about it, but I condemn it, I guess. And we saw this with David Duke. We saw this after Charlottesville in 2017. We've seen a bunch of examples of this. So the conversation about this, the is Trump personally anti-Semitic? No, he's not. Look, he did this. Well, yes, he is. He dined with that person. Fine. If that sort of serves as an opening to the conversation we're trying to have, that's fine. The more important question is, who has he activated and welcomed
Starting point is 00:22:19 as legitimate voices within the political discussion? And you need only look at the pool parties at Mar-a-Lago to understand the ways in which Trump's beliefs aside, I'm I'm sure Trump loves his grandkids as much as he loves his kids, which is still an open question how much that is. But you get my point. Despite all of that, the question is, what are the coalitions that are being built? And that's what's missing from a lot of these conversations about is Trump personally homophobic? Is Trump personally anti-Semitic? We have example after example after example of Republicans preparing to reject the results of the November election unless they win and unless Donald Trump wins. Last week, I gave you examples of Laura Trump, Lara, Laura Trump, Tim Scott and others saying, well, if they don't count the ballots by this time of night, that would be fraud. It would
Starting point is 00:23:12 be rigged. It would be evidence that it was stolen. If Trump doesn't win, it would be evidence it was stolen because it's so obvious that Trump could should will be winning. And we have more examples. And this is a particularly pernicious one. You may remember that Lindsey Graham was one of the officials on the phone after the 2020 election trying to pressure Georgia officials to flip the results from Biden to Trump. He was interviewed yesterday by NBC News's Kristen Welker, was asked, will you accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins? And he says, yes, if there is no massive cheating.
Starting point is 00:23:49 And he says, listen, I accepted the 2020 results. That's not the way I remember it. Take a listen to this. Will you accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins? Yeah, I'll accept them. I think, you know, there's no massive cheating. I accepted 2020. Here's what I would say. President Trump is poised to win. He said last night when it comes to Israel, I'll have their back. I'll give them what they need. Bernie Sanders is wrong about the polling
Starting point is 00:24:18 here. Most Americans, 80 percent, side with Israel. The 20 percent, unfortunately, are in Congress and the State Department that side with Hamas. That's the problem with this war. All right. Senator Sanders, we are out of time. All right. So the question was, will you accept the results no matter who wins? And he says, yes, if there's no cheating. And remember, I accepted the 2020 results. Well, two two interesting follow ups. Number one, I guess you've now accepted the 2020 results, but you tried to pressure Georgia election officials in 2020 to flip the results. So you must not have accepted the results at that point. Otherwise, why would you be on the phone?
Starting point is 00:24:55 And the follow up, the second follow up that I think should be just mandated, not literally mandated, but it should it should be an obvious follow up when people say, well, I'll accept it if there's no massive cheating. Is there any presidential election in which so-called massive cheating has affected the results? Is there even that in a single state? Because they love to say, I'm fair. Of course, I will accept the results, assuming there is no massive cheating. And it might sound reasonable. Well, right. Yeah. I mean, why would you accept the results if there were massive cheating? The counterpoint is there is no evidence. That there has ever been. Cheating massive such that it would have made a difference in even a single state and the way they say this alludes
Starting point is 00:25:42 to 2020, where they're kind of trying to allude to in 2020, there was massive cheating that affected the results. So as long as we don't have that again, of course, I will accept the results, except that that's not actually what happened in 2020. So we do need more follow up with these folks during these interviews. And there's no doubt that Lindsey Graham is kind of trying to placate or kowtow to those absolute worst of the worst folks who still believe 2020 was stolen. He is setting up to again question the results. And of course, Carrie Lake is as well.
Starting point is 00:26:14 Let's talk about that next. Also gracing the screens of those watching Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo this week was failed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Carrie Lake, who also is now running for U.S. Senate. So Maria Bartiromo had again, these are these are fair questions to start with. But the follow up is what you really need to be ready for. Maria Bartiromo asks, how confident are you that the election in November will be fair? Now, that could mean with regard to Trump or to her own election, because remember, in Arizona, voters will have the opportunity to vote Biden versus Trump, but they will also have the opportunity to vote Lake versus Gallego in Arizona. And I'll play Carrie Lake's answer. And I don't think it will come as a big surprise to
Starting point is 00:27:01 you. How confident are you then that we will have a fair election in November? If it were today, I wouldn't be all that confident, but I know we have a lot of people, including myself, fighting to improve the laws and make sure they're following the laws. We've got many lawsuits running, one of them in Arizona, fighting to make sure illegals aren't voting. We have the Save Act that I know Mike Johnson. Remember that there's no evidence so-called illegals are voting. They can't even register to vote. And we've talked about how this does not exist. President Trump had been pushing. And as American citizens, we need to contact our members of Congress and politely tell them that they must sign on to that and approve that to save and protect our election. Our vote is sacred. It is the way we decide the
Starting point is 00:27:45 trajectory of our country and it must be decided by American citizens. So we're working really hard. A lot of people around the country are working. I have faith that we will break through. One of these cases will break through the dam and we will have one of my many bogus lawsuits might make it past the first pretrial hearing once we've come up with a shred of evidence. So translation, the polls aren't looking great for Carrie Lake. It probably will end up being close. She very well may lose. And she's setting herself up to say, hey, it was stolen again. They've stolen a presidential race from Trump. They stole the gubernatorial race for me. And now they stole the Senate race also
Starting point is 00:28:26 for me. And many Republicans are setting up this very thing now on this entire. This is their new shiny object. MAGA Mike Johnson says we're going to bring forward a bill to ban illegals from voting. Oh, that must be a real problem. Undocumented immigrants are allowed to vote now. No. Oh, is it against the law for an undocumented immigrant to try to vote now? Yes, it is. Oh, and do we have evidence that undocumented immigrants are showing up, giving the name of a citizen who hasn't yet voted and casting a ballot? No, we don't have any of that evidence. But we need a law. We need a law in order to stop this thing that is already against the law and that also isn't happening. And this is later this week. I'm going to do my we've been building up this
Starting point is 00:29:11 segment about every so-called conservative principle that the modern Republican Party has abandoned. One of those principles is you want the smallest government only involved in what's necessary in order for government to do anything like pass a law, create a bill, whatever. You need to have overwhelming evidence that this is what they must do. Listen, there's no other way to have a military that makes sense. We're not going to have private militaries. The federal government must create and run a military. OK, government involvement. Right. We need that. Nobody else can do that. Passing a bill to ban undocumented immigrants from voting, which is already illegal and also isn't happening, doesn't strike me as
Starting point is 00:29:59 this incredibly urgent moral imperative that they use as their standard for when government should get involved. So we'll deal with that later this week in our abandoned principles segment. But needless to say, we know what Carrie Lake is setting herself up to do. We know what Lindsey Graham is setting himself up to do. They're going to do it. They're going to claim fraud if they lose. We just have to be prepared to rebut it if they present no evidence and to prevent them from taking another good shot at stealing an election that they lose. That's what we need to do and to vote. We all know how tough it can be to find a pair of jeans that fits right and looks good. You spend hours at the mall, weeks shipping stuff back and forth online trying to find something. Meet the perfect gene. Our sponsor, the perfect gene makes great
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Starting point is 00:31:46 the perfect gene dot NYC and use code Pacman 15. The info is in the podcast notes. An absolutely rabid crowd of Trump supporters was cheering Trump's brain crumbling statements in Wildwood, New Jersey, over the weekend. But then half the crowd just left while Trump was still speaking, apparently sick of the stuff that was just dribbling out of his mouth. Embarrassingly, we're going to look at a bunch of it and it is getting really, really, really bad. Now, I do want to make some sort of a disclaimer here. When we look at a couple of clips, you really have to hear the full rally speech to understand the scope of what we're dealing with, the danger of it, the
Starting point is 00:32:29 authoritarian terror that this guy wants to inflict upon the country. But who wants to subject themselves to these Castro like endless speeches that Donald Trump does, repeating the same stories over and over again? But let's do our best to give you a sense of the flavor, the glitches, the malfunctions and the dangerous authoritarian ideas. Donald Trump starting with an incredible declaration about vaccine mandates. I will not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate. The rabid anti-vax crowd cheering, bloodthirsty, they're out for blood. We're going to give you measles.
Starting point is 00:33:11 We're going to give you hep. Just about every public school has vaccine mandates in all states in the United States. Children in public schools require a series of vaccinations. If you want to attend public elementary school. This includes in most states, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chicken pox. The specifics do vary by state. And of course, there are different degrees of exemptions.
Starting point is 00:33:41 There are states that allow medical exemptions. If, for example, a child has a condition that makes getting vaccinated unsafe. OK. In addition to the medical exemptions, there are states that will say you can take a religious exemption. You can take a philosophical exemption. Those are being limited because of the overriding importance of public health policies, especially when they lead to measles outbreaks that we have seen. But just about every public school has such mandates. So I guess there goes funding for public schools under Trump, because if there are any vaccine mandates, which every state has, Trump won't give you a penny. Trump, again, with another one of these scary brain glitches where he said, I think what he says is carry date by rate site and
Starting point is 00:34:27 carry date by rate site. But I may be misinterpreted. I may be misinterpreting what he says here. All done by Biden carried out by rate site. All carried out byaiten. I think I actually got it wrong. I thought it was carried by Ray Saiten, but it was carried by say, right. And which is a completely different sort of brain worm concern, I guess we would say Donald Trump then at some points, rather than making up words, kind of creating new grammatical syntax. You know, Chomsky really should get back to the core of his linguistic expertise and write a book about what's going on. Trump really pushing the vanguard of American English grammar and syntax.
Starting point is 00:35:20 See if you can figure out what Trump means here. You can do whatever you can for the Republican Party, because what they do is they raise so much money through different groups that are not groups that are on our side. Right. The money is coming in from groups that are not groups that are on our side or that aren't groups on our side or they're not groups at all. Some commas or dashes maybe would would clarify what Trump meant there at another point during the speech. And at this point, the crowd started to get visibly confused. Trump did a really weird rant about the movie Silence of the Lambs. Of
Starting point is 00:35:55 course, a tremendous film featuring the great Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. Excellent film. Trump refers to it as Silence of the Lamb. And also he's waxing poetic about Hannibal Lecter. I don't even know what this is about. This is I don't think this was on the teleprompter. Let's at least pray it wasn't silence of the lamb. Has anyone ever seen the silence of the. The late great Hannibal Lecter. Yeah, he's a wonderful man. Treated so unfairly, never gets credit because the fake news media wouldn't tell you what had Hannibal Lecter was a great guy. Great guy would have supported me if I ran back then. Oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.
Starting point is 00:36:34 Remember the last scene? Excuse me, I'm about to have a friend for dinner. Is this poor doctor walk by? I'm about to have a friend for dinner. But Hannibal Lecter, congratulations. The late, great Hannibal Lecter. We have people that are being released into our country that we don't want in our country. Yeah. OK, more substantively, in a sense, Trump pushes like at least connected to some real
Starting point is 00:37:00 political issue. Trump pushes again the disgusting lie that mothers in blue states murder their born babies and that Democratic political officials approve of the murder. The radical Democrat extremists get their way. They will have a federal law on abortion in the eighth and ninth month and even executing the baby after birth. It's OK. They want to execute the baby. They have laws. You look at the governor, the former governor of Virginia, execute the baby after birth.
Starting point is 00:37:34 We will decide. You remember. We don't remember because it's not happening. It was a lie from the beginning. And the crowd just shocked into submission. Wow. If that's what they're doing in Virginia, then we definitely need to vote Trump. Trump delusionally claiming that the state of New Jersey is one that he might win. We are going to officially play in the state of
Starting point is 00:37:58 New Jersey. We're going to win the state of New Jersey. Trump is not going to win the state of New Jersey. Trump has said that he's going to win New York. Now he says he's going to win New Jersey. Trump is not going to win the state of New Jersey. Trump has said that he's going to win New York. Now he says he's going to win New Jersey. He will not. And then finally, here is video. Trump is still speaking. And this entire area that was full at the beginning of the speech is empty. I'll play a little bit of the of the audio for you. And this is where generations of New Jersey patriots help build this country. So anyway, it's almost completely cleared out. Trump was still speaking. Reports are it started to get a little bit chilly, but I mean, listen, it was it was a little cool that that night in New Jersey. I agree with that. But the crowd is starting to clear out and really a lot of them heading for the proverbial hills during the speech. So a really, really destructive speech in the in terms of the authoritarian delusions and wet dreams that it contained.
Starting point is 00:38:57 And also a reminder that this guy is not well. If you thought that was bad, I want to show you another video that a number of people in the audience sent me over the weekend. All right. I want you to listen really closely to this video. This is a video of Donald Trump speaking outside the courtroom on Friday on his way out. He comes out as usual, holding stacks of paper. And I don't know what's going on here, but there is a type of slurring where it seems like Trump's lips and tongue get in the way of his lips and tongue and the ability to turn
Starting point is 00:39:34 noises into words and coherent speech. This is very, very weird. So it's it starts about 10 seconds into this clip. I'm going to play 10 seconds just to set it up and then you'll see. And then we actually have it transcribed to see if we can figure out what's going on. If you're concerned about Biden's speech, you have to be very worried about what I'm about to play for you. Take a look. Take a listen. It's a tax on the American people due to gross incompetence. And it was all started because of his energy policies, his stupid Green New Deal energy policies. And you wait and see. If we don't win this nation, this nation is finished. You wait and see what would happen because all of that stuff will be closed up.
Starting point is 00:40:21 He let a lot of my energy policies go through because energy was starting under his what they were doing, starting to go up so high. So he he let a lot of them continue, including the drilling. OK, that that's an insane sentence. Let's put it up on the screen for a moment. This is what Trump said. And you wait till see if we don't win this nation. This nation is finished. You wait till you see what happened, because all of that stuff will be closed up. He let a lot of my energy policies go through because energy was starting under his what they were doing, starting to go up so high. So he a lot. He let a lot of them continue, including the drilling. Wait. So he allowed the drilling to continue. I thought the problem was
Starting point is 00:41:12 that Biden did not allow the drilling to continue. What what what are you talking about? And what do you mean? NRC was starting under his his what? What was the NRC starting under? This is extraordinarily weird. Let's just look at it once more. I don't know what's going on with this guy. The American people do the gross incompetence and it was all started because of his energy policies, his stupid green energy policies. And you wait and see if if we don't win this nation, this nation is finished. You wait and see what would happen because all of that stuff will be closed up. He let a lot of my energy policies go through because energy was starting under his what they were doing, starting to go up so high.
Starting point is 00:42:00 So he let he let a lot of them continue, including the drilling. I don't know what he's talking about. And for everybody who wants to say Biden is slowed down in the last 10, 15 years, I'm with you. I'm with you. But I don't even know what Trump's talking about. And his tongue seems to have become his greatest enemy all of a sudden in trying to figure out what it is that he's talking about. And he has a New York
Starting point is 00:42:25 Post headline here that seems to say Biden claims inflation was nine percent when he came into office, when it was one point, it was actually 14 percent or one point four percent. I don't know what is happening here, but this is very, very concerning. And Dr. Harry Siegel and Dr. John Gartner and Dr. Liz, who we've talked about all predicting it's going to get worse. It very much seems to be getting worse. That's true. Let's take a quick break, see if we can figure out what's going on, and then I'll be back. If you've been thinking about getting a new mattress, Helix sleep is where I would start. I've been sleeping on Helix mattresses for years now. I recommend Helix to everyone, which is why I wanted them as a sponsor. If you don't want to take my word for it, Helix
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Starting point is 00:43:54 sleep. Shipping is always free. You get 100 nights to decide whether you like it right now for a limited time. Helix is offering up to 30 percent off all mattress orders and two free pillows. It's the biggest discount they've ever offered. Go to Helix sleep dot com slash Pacman. That's H.E.L.I.X. Sleep dot com slash Pacman for up to 30 percent off and two free pillows. The link is in the podcast notes. The sad and tragic decline of Russell Brand into conspiracy nonsense is lamentably continuing, and it doesn't make me happy to see this. I always say if there's anyone that can be a voice for
Starting point is 00:44:34 reason and getting more people engaged in the political process in productive and positive ways, we should welcome that. Half the country at least doesn't really pay attention to what's going on. Even many of the people that do vote every four years don't have a damn clue what the hell is going on. So it would be great if Russell Brand could be a voice for empiricism and positivity. He's now promoting ivermectin. That's where we are. You may recall that ivermectin is an anti parasitic drug, much touted by some covid skeptics as the real way to prevent or treat or both covid-19. Russell Brand is now pointing to former CNN host Chris Cuomo, who this is wild. Chris Cuomo now says that he's prophylactically taking ivermectin, we're going to get to the science of it because it's I would actually argue it's even crazier to be talking about ivermectin now because now we
Starting point is 00:45:31 know it doesn't work before. It was just asserted that it worked and we didn't have evidence one way or the other. Now we know it doesn't work for covid. But here is Russell Brand talking how great it is that people are realizing. And he cites Chris Cuomo and plays a clip of Chris Cuomo. Take a listen to this. Well, now we know that Ivermectin isn't bad for you. And CNN anchors like Chris Cuomo, who you've probably heard of, are using Ivermectin themselves. Let's track where Chris Cuomo was and where chris como is and again like to his credit he's publicly admitted this transition ivermectin a dewormer really they are shaming themselves no one has to shame them they're shaming themselves no they need to be
Starting point is 00:46:16 shamed they need to be called out and shamed brother well let's have a look at what chris como's saying in 2024 right i am taking a regular dose of ivermectin ivermectin was a boogeyman early on in covid you couldn't talk about it that was wrong we were given bad information about ivermectin the real question is why everyone's gonna say jo Joe Rogan was right. No, Joe Rogan was saying, yeah, he was right. That's amazing. No, Joe Rogan. No, wait, actually. No, he, you know, that is true. So they were wrong to play scared on that.
Starting point is 00:46:57 Didn't know that at the time. Know it now. Admit it now. Reporting on it now. We knew it at the time. We were reporting on it then. We said it then. And we were censored then. Stay free. See if they go. So it's a it's it's a victory tour after losing. They this would
Starting point is 00:47:15 be like if the losers then go around and say, we're going to do a victory parade. Wait, but hold on. You lost. First of all, I guess part of what's going on is Cuomo is taking if I understand correctly, and it's so hard to ever get straight answers out of these folks. I guess Chris Cuomo is taking ivermectin because he's suffering from long covid. There's no evidence ivermectin does anything for long covid. Not getting covid is the best way to prevent long covid. And being vaccinated if you get covid is the next best way to prevent long COVID. It's a little late, though, to be getting on the ivermectin bandwagon right now as far as COVID is concerned. There was a point, you know, when when Russell Brand says we were censored.
Starting point is 00:47:55 Were you or did we just ask for information? There was a point when people like Russell Brand were pushing ivermectin, where we didn't have multiple large trials that showed whether or not ivermectin was affected for covid or long covid. Now we do. We have multiple large trials that show ivermectin is not effective for covid and it's not effective for long covid and it's not effective prophylactically to prevent covid. It is true that ivermectin is not the most dangerous drug in the world, but it can have serious side effects. And I don't know about you. My approach, my approach is to limit what I take unless there is a very clear benefit. And I understand the risk profile
Starting point is 00:48:40 and I've decided it makes sense to do it. I'll give you an example right now. I and many of my friends based on our age, we are in the what's going on with cholesterol. What about a statin? What tests should be done? And by the way, this is a minefield. You jump on social media. There's the anti statin world. There's the carnivore diet people. The saturated fat doesn't matter. People you can find out everything you want. And so I'm being very deliberate and I'm saying, OK, what what have it what do we actually have here in terms of data about what someone with my level of cholesterol should or could do and what are the outcomes and what and what are the side effects? And we look at these things in an empirical and sequential
Starting point is 00:49:25 way. It is true that ivermectin in general is not the most dangerous drug, but there are potentially serious side effects. It can exacerbate the risk of cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial dysfunction, increased cardiac hypertrophy, hypertrophy, I believe it's pronounced, can be detrimental in a number of different ways. And so when you look at the risks, they exist and the rewards nothing. It would be very silly to take ivermectin unless you had an approved reason. If you have roundworm parasites. Oh, all right. Well, that'd be it's that's what it's for. If you have head lice, I saw something. I don't know about this, but rosacea, maybe ivermectin is sometimes used. I'm not totally sure about that.
Starting point is 00:50:11 But look at everything we know now about ivermectin and covid. So the idea that back then we couldn't talk about it, but now we finally can and we're vindicated. And now we know why ivermectin is a great thing for covid. Now we know that it does nothing and it potentially has side effects that I would want to avoid. So there was a point in time at which we could say, well, it's kind of unethical. It's immoral to push ivermectin because we don't really know whether it works. We have no evidence it does. We don't know for sure. It's more than that. Now we now know it doesn't work and we know of alternative treatments for covid that are efficacious.
Starting point is 00:50:48 So I don't know that I'm ready to say it should be illegal to push ivermectin like what? I don't know. It's speech. What does it mean? It should be illegal to push it. I'm not saying that, but it is far worse to be pushing ivermectin now than it was before. And it was pretty bad before. So that's where Russell Brand is. And it's a sad state of affairs. This really bums me out. I wasn't even going to do
Starting point is 00:51:13 this story because it's hard to even explain it. I was telling some friends about it over the weekend. It really bums me out. I've said before, you know, if you don't like my points of view, don't support the show. Don't watch the show. If you don't like my necktie. I don't have a necktie, but that's a line from the classic film Boiler Room. Tell me whatever. Right. You don't like my hair.
Starting point is 00:51:38 You don't like the shirts I wear. You think I'm too conservative. I'm too liberal. I'm not liberal enough. OK, if if it's our politics don't align or you whatever, then don't support the show. Cancel your membership, whatever. But I got an email over the weekend from a guy who canceled his membership because he's assuming that the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brainworm story we covered that I just made it up, that it's obviously not possible that RFK Jr. had a brainworm that ate a piece of his brain
Starting point is 00:52:11 and then died in his brain, which RFK has admitted. It's been widely reported. There's no question as to the truth of the story. This guy is furious and he canceled his membership support. And I'm doing nothing other than covering stories that are real. Robert wrote to me. Here's his email at the end of last week. Good evening, Mr. Packman. It's headlines like a worm. H.R.F.K. Junior's brain that has me unsubscribing and ending my financial support for your show. Apparently, Mr. Packman has been co-opted by the DNC and legacy media into believing all the conspiracy allegations against Mr. Kennedy, someone whom I have been following and supporting since 2000 when he was lead counsel for the NRC.
Starting point is 00:52:54 I have lost all respect for you, sir. You're nothing but a shill for the Democratic Party. Robert. Now, of course, the story is true. It's been confirmed by RFK. He tweeted about it. He jokingly said, I'll eat more brain worms if it'll get Trump and Biden to debate me. Everyone has admitted it. RFK has admitted it. It's not a conspiracy. And I wrote back
Starting point is 00:53:13 desperation at 10 p.m. Right. I mean, this this this so triggered me. I wrote back at 10 p.m. RFK admitted it. It's a literally true headline. And Robert wrote back, give me an effing break. And I double checked. And indeed, Robert did cancel his paid membership to the show because he believes that a real story that I reported is a fake story. Listen, I mean, what what can I say? You know, I've said before, there are so many valid reasons not to support the show or to cancel your membership or whatever. But this one is, you know, we're we're doing the best we can to report real stories.
Starting point is 00:54:01 That was a perfectly sourced story confirmed by the person it's about. And Robert just doesn't believe it. And by the way, it also is a reminder, even when you present people with evidence. I mean, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast. Everybody reported the story. Everybody reported the story. It is a real story. And this individual says, I don't like it, so it's not real. And I'm pulling my financial support. Let's hope these folks are few and far between, although I know from doing this for a while that they are not. If you'd like to replace Robert's membership, OK, consider signing up at join Pacman dot com.
Starting point is 00:54:45 I would love to have you. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two. David P. You know, every once in a while we get a clever voicemail from someone who thinks they've really got me. They've really got me. Here is one such voicemail. Let's take a listen and then I'm going to address the substance.
Starting point is 00:55:03 Here we go. Hey, David, I'm guessing you won't air this question because you're afraid to answer it. I am not afraid to answer it. I am airing it right now. Please proceed. But my question is, should we allow gay conversion therapy if we allow trans affirming care? Oh, after all, gay conversion therapy doesn't require anybody to remove any body parts and there's no chemical injection of hormones. And from what I understand,
Starting point is 00:55:36 it's voluntary. So I think it's hypocritical for liberals to say that they want trans affirming care, but not gay conversion therapy. They say gay conversion therapy is dangerous. So I'm curious what your thoughts would be on that. Or if you're actually my guess is you're you probably won't answer the question. All right. This guy thinks he's got me so dead to rights that I just am not going to tackle this question because obviously there's no
Starting point is 00:56:05 sensible way to answer it. So here's a super simple answer. Question is, how can someone before gender affirming care and against gay conversion therapy, the gender affirming care sometimes involves medication. It sometimes involves surgery, whereas the gay conversion therapy or reparative therapy, as they sometimes call it, insane name doesn't involve any of that. So what's the difference? Well, let's start with the obvious difference. Gender and sexual orientation are two different things.
Starting point is 00:56:35 So at the top, we're talking about two totally different things and we have to treat them individually. Gender affirming care is supported by major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization. Gender affirming care is recognized as effective and necessary medical response to gender dysphoria. Gay conversion therapy, also known as conversion therapy or reparative therapy, lacks any scientific validation, is broadly condemned by the very same medical and psychological institutions that say gender affirming care seems evidence based.
Starting point is 00:57:16 And studies regularly show attempting to change someone's sexual orientation is not only ineffective, but it can be extremely harmful. Gender affirming care is provided with the consent of the patient, guardians or parents in the case of a minor. The idea is let's reduce psychological distress. Let's improve quality of life. Conversion therapy often is targeting vulnerable LGBTQ youth. It sometimes is pressured or forced by guardians or cultural expectations or religious bodies. It inflicts harm. It doesn't alleviate harm.
Starting point is 00:57:54 The goal of gender affirming care is let's support and affirm an individual self-identified gender identity. Let's be positive. Let's let it's a self affirming action. The conversion therapy seeks to deny, suppress and and quite frankly, denounce in a way an individual sexual orientation or gender identity. It's sometimes used to try to talk people out of that as well. Now, could it be that someone is confused about being trans? Sure. Is it rare? It seems to be pretty rare, but it does happen. Sure. That doesn't really prove anything. And it doesn't really bridge the laughable gap
Starting point is 00:58:33 between the validity of gender affirming care and the absurdity of gay conversion therapy. So there's no gotcha here. There's no reason I'd be scared to talk about this on the show. Now, I am very open to the idea that there is an element here of individuals who are struggling with something in their lives and their belief about what the solution is gets drawn to something that is in the media. I don't want to make any offensive comparisons, but what I will tell you is I've known people who in times of difficulty started to believe that their diet was the problem and they started fixating on extreme diets. They went full carnivore. Then they went fruits and nuts only. Then they went raw only.
Starting point is 00:59:28 The diet was never the problem. These were unresolved issues that they had that were more suitable for therapy than for anything else. Is it possible that some folks who come to believe that the issue is that they are trans is the solution and it really is not? It does sometimes happen. And this is part of why the standard of care when it comes to gender affirming care goes through psychotherapy. And that's one of the great things about it. So the comparisons, the analogies, they don't make any sense. It's not a gotcha. It's quite frankly, a question that's been answered many times before. All right. We've got a great bonus show for you today. Duke University graduates, some of them walked out ahead of Jerry Seinfeld's
Starting point is 01:00:10 commencement address. Why? You can probably guess. You can probably guess there is a new study about the benefits of writing by hand as better for thinking and learning than typing. Why? What is the deal with it? We will discuss on the bonus show. And mass shootings are also down 29 percent from last year, year over year. What's the cause? What's going on with that? We will discuss all of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Yeah. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Sure. All of those stories and more on the bonus show. Get instant access by signing up at join Pacman dot com. I'll see you then. We'll be back tomorrow as well.

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