Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect impress-them-on-the-third-date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives. They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink...
what you'll wear on that third date. Download the Instacart app today to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply.
Did you know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app for families. With Greenlight, you can send instant money transfers, set up chores, automate allowance, and keep an eye on your kids' spending with real-time notifications.
kids learn to earn, save, and spend wisely. And parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place. Get your first month free at greenlight.com slash wondery. That's greenlight.com slash wondery.
What's up, what's up, everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. We are fresh off a VP debate. What's up, brother? How you feeling this morning? Oh, I took an entire day to eat donuts and sleep, and now I'm back.
That is how Rob recharges the old batteries. That's my spa day. You know, everyone's got their thing that they need to do recharge and a dozen donuts and 12 hours of sleep. We'll do it for this guy. A dozen? You didn't put away a dozen, did you? One donut for every hour of sleep. There's some math to it. No, I didn't eat that many donuts, but I did. Because I do...
I did cake fiend after a weekend of drinking and other things. Yeah, I hear you. Rob, by the way, for those who don't know, Rob can put away a dozen donuts. Don't think he can't.
Oh, I am. I will tell you, COVID is kicking my ass this time. I am still quite under the weather. The government made this strand extra strong. I don't know what's going on. Fauci, what did you do here? Your COVID did me a favor because I got out of some family dinner tonight. So thank you. Oh, that's great. You get to use those old 2020 like sayings. I was I was exposed. And the last the last thing I would want to do on Rosh Hashanah.
would be to expose Nana I'm gonna have to wait till Thursday and take a test so I I just feel like it's better I don't come tonight so thank you for uh helping me not have to show up to something but on that note I'll be out this weekend so uh everybody porchstore.com Providence Rhode Island on Thursday Friday night Jacksonville and then really need some people to show up in Miami on Saturday so you know your boat's not that much fun put down your cocaine and come to porch store
You can do cocaine at Porch Store. I don't have a problem with it. Yeah, bring the bitches. Bring them over to Rob's show. Bring the boat. That'll be fun. Bring the boat. Bring the chicks. Yeah, all that. And then I should mention, we've been traveling so much that this is kind of sneaking up on me, but October 10th, 11th, and 12th, we'll be back in Detroit at the Detroit—
House of Comedy, which was one of our most fun weekends last year. I know I say that a lot, but they really were. And actually, we got two of them that were our best, some of our best weekends last year. First, Detroit, and then at the end of the month, October 24th, 25th, and 26th, we'll be back at the Comedy Club, uh,
in Kansas City, which I love that place. Detroit and Kansas City, two great cities for comedy. And so looking forward to that. And then in November, we got Poughkeepsie, Philadelphia. Those are both one night only. And then I take the month of December off from traveling. December is my family month. This is the...
Half Jewish, half Catholic kids. December, busy month. Plus I got birthdays and a whole bunch of other stuff. But anyway, so looking forward to all of that. All right, let's jump into...
uh talking about the the debate from last night um me and you rob have not spoke uh since last night so i'm i'm we're coming in fresh with each other's takes here i guess as we tend to do with these things let's start meta and then work our way down uh to the details a little bit so i will um okay i'll say this number one i don't think it mattered at all
Now, I understand that's not the best way to preface a show you're about to do. But if I'm being honest, I got to say, I just don't think this moved the needle or did anything. I don't think any dynamic has been changed in the presidential election over this VP debate. The truth is, as we said yesterday, people don't really vote for vice president. It's just not really what moves the needle. There is... I really...
I don't think there's one person in America who voted for Joe Biden because he picked Kamala Harris, including Kamala Harris and her family. I don't think there's one person in America who voted for Trump because he picked Pence or was affected because this time he picked J.D. Vance. I just don't really think that's how it works. That being said, there's like 30 days left until the election. And this was the last election.
debate that it looks like there's going to be. And so, you know, it was, it was the, perhaps the biggest moment or the most eyeballs on a thing about the presidential campaign that there's going to be for, for the rest of it. So it's worth discussing. Um, I, from what I judging the debate itself, it was, um,
It was kind of bizarre to me that it was very traditional in the sense of like it was almost like – it's like there's Donald Trump and then when Donald Trump is not there, it's almost like you get teleported back to 2014 or something like this and everybody is kind of playing –
There's this weird thing in politics that I think is often overlooked about Donald Trump, where there's almost this weird gentleman's agreement that
In politics that we're all going to do a certain thing, we're going to speak in a way that nobody else ever speaks. We're going to like like do this a lot and, you know, like whatever the weird. But, you know, in the same way that radio used to there used to just be this thing where if you were hosting a radio show, you had to go. All right. Welcome back to keeping the kid in the morning and you know, and you're like, no, why?
Why are you doing it this way? Then people started doing podcasts and they would just start the podcast like, what's up, guys? All right. So I'm like, you're like, oh, you could just do that. You can also do that. There's no reason why we have to. And Donald Trump, in a weird way, kind of burst into the political scene and was like, I'm just not going to do it that way.
Donald Trump just speaks the same way he speaks at a speech or at an event or whatever. Anyway, both of these guys were doing the traditional political thing. It was bizarrely cordial.
I don't we could get into this a little bit, but it was and that was mostly from Walt's side. He was just incredibly cordial the entire time, which to me seems to kind of undercut the central pillar of their campaign, which is that Donald Trump represents an existential threat to democracy. Just seems hard to be cordial with that. But he was, you know,
Look, a lot of people in the corporate media, the corporate media are essentially saying that Waltz won. Everybody in MAGA world is saying that J.D. Vance destroyed Waltz. I would give the night to J.D. Vance. I think he probably did a better job. I was thoroughly unimpressed with both men. I think J.D. Vance just...
There's something kind of unappealing about the guy. I don't know. He's just, he's got like a fat face and a bitchy energy that I just can't get past. Like there's just something about him that just always, I don't know. I don't know how else to describe it. Walsh is a very weird guy. And I never noticed this until last night, but I don't know if you noticed this, but he's got some type of severe learning disability. Yeah.
Yes. His phraseology is all off.
Like he just says things in the wrong way. I think it's a genuine thing. It might be, he might be like severely dyslexic or something like that, but like he just, the way he puts things, you're like, that's not the way you would do that. I bet you while we play some clips, we'll see some examples of this and I could be more specific, but it was constant. That being said, he did. I thought he did pull off a likable thing.
Like, he kind of seems like your wacky uncle at Thanksgiving. He's got like a sitcom dad vibes or something like that. Look, these things are never serious conversations. They never, you know, illuminate important issues and, you know, the contrast between different viewpoints. It's always just stupid. One of the things that I was just kind of...
that I found myself thinking a lot as I was watching this debate was just how insane and stupid this model is. And that it's just so, it's so ridiculous. Like it's as if, you know, you're just, you've lived through a revolution and then the powers that be are like, we're just gonna pretend the revolution never happened.
And we're in this world now where there are all of the constraints that
of media in the past do not exist anymore. You know, it used to be a thing where not that long ago, like when I started doing standup, like I'm not talking about like in my great grandfather's day, where it was like, dude, if you wanted to like produce a show, it was going to cost millions of dollars. You were going to need like elaborate studio equipment, a high rise building. You'd have to be on a television network. There would just be, you know,
It was the only way to do it. And if there was some alternative to that, if there was like pirate radio or something like that, you'd be like, yeah, but no one watches that. No, you can't get any eyeballs on you that way. None of that exists anymore. But Elon Musk can hit record and more people watch that than anything else. And there's no time constraints, no commercial breaks, no, none of this, all of this stuff doesn't exist anymore. And yet we're still supposed to sit here while we're
Each candidate gives like a 30 second stump speech. Like they, they, they regurgitate their memorized talking points. And then like the, these two hack journalists mute one of the microphones while the other one talks, there's just no need for it. You could have like, why are you know, I know I've said this before, but it's like, okay, for me, I,
who I am in my career, which is whatever it is, stand-up comedian who reads books and talks shit, whatever the fuck my job is, I am expected, I think, by my audience to do, what do you say, like, I don't know, in a year, what do I do? Maybe like three Rogans, two Tuckers,
Three Tim Pools, three Candace Owens appearances, a State of the Union with Ari Shafir, which will be out very soon, by the way. So like I'm expected to 10 to 15 times a year go on a platform with millions of people watching that's going to be three hours long and go deep in depth on how I feel about all of these different things. Now, how the hell is that not the expectation of our political leaders as well?
There is simply no reason. There is no reason why it shouldn't be demanded by any serious adult that somebody, these two men are competing. They are interviewing for the job of being a heartbeat away from commander in chief. You know, one illness, one sickness, whatever. Donald Trump, by the way, is also, I believe, older or right around the average male life expectancy, right?
So like it's, you know, you're literally talking about like auditioning to be commander in chief. And we just don't expect that you're going to sit down for, why is this not three hours uninterrupted detailed follow-up questions, you know, and the answer is because it's all theater, of course. But anyway, that was kind of my, my,
the thing I was thinking through most of this. So I don't know. Those are my, my big takeaways. It doesn't really move the needle. I'd give JD Vance the win. It's certainly not a dominant when like a lot of different people are trying to spin it. And the whole thing is really stupid. Your thoughts, Rob. Uh,
I thought J.D. Vance won as well. I think I was a little bit more impressed with him than you were. I understand. It's funny, as you said the bitchy thing, I was like, oh, is that what the energy is? I hadn't quite, I guess, picked up on what his goofballness was, but I think you're right about that, that that's what's off about him. But I think he...
listen, we see a lot of people in this sphere who are absolute dumb asses and you wonder how they can get there. JD Vance actually did seem like a sharp guy. And I thought he, uh, had a lot of good moments. Uh, Tim walls. At first I was impressed by, uh,
He's good in talking points and sound points, and he has Gene Hackman's kind of tonality. And I think he's better on the larger stages. And this setting, as it went on longer, he floundered. And we're going to play the clip soon. And he had that terrible moment on the Tiananmen Square, which I think is career ending, even though they might keep him in it. But I'm just saying that's... It was bad. Yeah, that was a bad moment. That's caught red-handed. And I think the people who look the absolute worst were the corporate press,
Firstly, the way they started the debate with their little tidbit about how both sides agreed to fact checking. I forgot exactly what that line was, but I was like, oh, OK. He kind of just gave away the whole show. And then the way that those women came off and they feel so proud of themselves about the way that they're dominating the debate by interrupting to say, no, we're in control here. But if you're not a fan of the corporate press, you're like, that's the biggest bitch I've ever seen in my life.
And they think that they're winning and that they're putting on the best possible show. But if you're alternative media such as us, you can see right through it and go, you guys are really taking your entire product and just burning it to the ground and showcasing the fact that you're only here to try and support a narrative.
It's unbelievable to me. And, you know, I said this during the last debate with with Trump and Harris as well. But it is really wild to watch where you're like, oh, look, it's not that I'm like, look, the corporate media isn't being objective and non-biased like that. Obviously, we all know that's not that's never been the case. But what is wild?
striking to me is that they are just totally dropping the pretense. They're not even attempting to pretend. They're just like, look, we are in this debate too. We're in this debate too. I mean, just these things where the interrupting, the fact checking. I've muted your mic. I've muted it. It's muted. Yeah, the muting, the thing they'll do where they'll just give you their thoughts at the end.
before they move on to another question like what you just inserted your opinion into this it's like on its it's thank you for that analysis jd vance we'd like to remind the viewers that it was completely wrong and now we'll move on to our next question literally they did that like several times right i mean some version of that at times it sounded in my head like the old uh dan ackroyd bit of thank you jane you ignorant slut
They're just working in their little, okay, thank you for what our fact checkers have said is completely wrong. And now on to our next question. Dude, did you, I mean, I know I mentioned this on the last one, but it was the one where Trump said I was being sarcastic and the moderator goes, it didn't sound sarcastic to me. And it was like, yeah, what? You're just giving your thoughts. Like, I,
All right. I think your tie sucks. Like what? You're moderating a debate. Yes. Very, very bizarre. Yeah. I agree with you. I agree with you about the points you mentioned. The when the I mean,
I mean, Waltz really just did very poorly. And responding to that question about him lying about when he was in China, that was really a bad moment. The two cameras did not do him a favor because his face of looking like he just got caught cheating on his wife, like things kept coming up and he just had that...
Like his life was over. Someone just found out he was running a Ponzi scheme. His facial expressions of feeling like he was completely lost and like he was... He just looked totally frightened every time JDFans was talking. And so that was a particularly bad look. Yeah, he did have some bad facial expressions there. He also... There were lots of...
that he made that were just, you know, just really, you know, horrible and flawed and all that. By the way, there were some that J.D. Vance made as well that I thought were pretty weak. But there, yeah, there's no question that some of those, you know, he's a goofy guy and he's way over the top and incredibly, like, overly expressive. And,
And look, I mean, I do agree with your point, too, there that, you know, as you said, there's like there's a lot of dummies out there. And look, J.D. Vance is not stupid. I think that's right. I thought he clearly had several IQ points over Waltz. There's a little bit more of like a mind there. That being said, I don't know how much that actually means when.
when dealing with voters. And I, I do think that like the reason why I ultimately said up top that nothing, that this isn't going to have an impact on the race is that with vice presidential debates, there's, it's almost like there, there's a very low bar that you have to pass where you basically, you didn't blow the whole thing, you know, like, like Sarah Palin, I think didn't pass the bar.
You know, if someone had had a Joe Biden type performance like he did in his debate, OK, that would have changed the race. But no one did that. So I don't think it'll be ultimately too consequential. But, well, we will see. I guess I could be wrong about that.
right guys let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show which is of course sheath underwear the underwear of legends and as one of those legends i've been recommending sheath for years sheath has been a long time sponsor of this podcast they've been with us for many years now i still have the original two pairs of underwear that sheath sent me when they first came on as a sponsor almost
four years ago now, and they still feel as great as they did the first day they sent them to me because they're quality boxer briefs. They last. They were so good that when they sent them to me, I just ordered a bunch more and threw out the rest of my boxer briefs. They're the only underwear I own, the only underwear I wear. Be just like me and be comfortable and go to sheath.com and make sure to use the promo code PROBLEM20 because you'll get 20% off your entire order. Sheath.com.
All right, let's get back into the show. All right, why don't we, let's get into some of the clips, some of the highlights or lowlights from last night's debate and discuss a little bit of this. So let's roll the first clip that we got. You said you were in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen Square protests in the spring of 1989. The Minnesota Public Radio and other media outlets are reporting that you actually didn't travel to Asia until August of that year.
Can you explain that? Yeah, well, and to the folks out there who didn't get at the top of this, look, I grew up in small rural Nebraska, a town of 400, a town that you rode your bike with your buddies until the streetlights come on, and I'm proud of that service. I joined the National Guard at 17, worked on family farms, and then I used the GI Bill to become a teacher, passionate about it, a young teacher. Here, just pause it already for a second. In the summer of 89 to...
Do you get the point that I'm making? Yeah. Like the way he speaks, it's like it's like some type of severe ADD or dyslexia or something like that. But it's like this is not the way these phrases don't flow into each other. Like they just don't. It's just all jumbled and weird. Like, I don't know. By the way, I'm not like trying to knock the guy for that. I have a little bit of that myself. I'm not like, you know, like nothing wrong.
with it but it's just it's very pronounced and obvious with him um it's almost like joke tags but not on a joke where a teacher a young teacher a young teacher and i like teaching
Yeah, like he speaks like a C-spot run book or something like that. Like, it's like, what? What are you doing here, dude? And even the way he opened it, where she goes, so can you explain the discrepancy there? And he goes like, yeah, for people who didn't get it at the top. Small farm, family farm. You're like, whoa, what the fuck are you doing, dude? It's just very bizarre, very strange. Also, by the way, it made no sense where he goes, and we used to ride our bikes until the stop sign or whatever, the street lights turned on.
I still am thankful for that service. Yeah, yeah. It's like, wait, what? And he said something about being in the military like the sentence before, so you kind of get where he's going in his brain, but it comes out all Fetterman-y. I don't know. It's just not the way it's supposed to work. Anyway, by the way, this is one of the things. I've always thought this. I know you are –
You give a lot of unsolicited advice to the Illuminati, Rob. But I've always thought... I've never understood why politicians do this thing when they're caught in an uncomfortable situation. So this one here being a pretty blatant lie. You said you were at a place that you weren't at. And then he goes into this like...
like family farms and the GI bill and the streetlights coming on and all this. And I understand that your instinct is like, look, I'm on a topic I don't want to be on. Let me bring it back to a topic that I do want to be on. Let me give my little spiel that makes Joe Sixpack feel like I'm just like him and he's just like me. But I just always think it's so much more effective to just answer the question.
And like, it's even if it's not that, you know, like, even if you just go like, oh, yeah, I apologize for that. I got that wrong. When you're when you're as old as me, you forget stuff sometimes. But yeah, I was actually there a few months later. Like, I just think that's so much better than this very obvious avoidance. Just just my thought on it. But anyway, let's let's let's continue with the clip.
to travel to China. 35 years ago, be able to do that. I came back home and then started a program to take young people there. We would take basketball teams, we would take baseball teams, we would take dancers, and we would go back and forth to China. The issue for that was, was to try and learn. Now look, my community knows who I am.
Okay, again, I'm pausing. I'm sorry. Listen, I don't mean to pick on the guy. But again, the issue for that was to try to learn. You just understand what I'm saying? Like, it's almost like every sentence. He's just very clunky and does not organize the words in a complete sentence. It's like dumbass Yoda. Yeah, it is. Let's keep playing.
Look, I will be the first to tell you, I have poured my heart into my community. I've tried to do the best I can, but I've not been perfect. And I'm a knucklehead at times, but it's always been about that. Those same people elected me to Congress.
for 12 years. And in Congress, I was one of the most bipartisan people working on things like farm bills that we got done, working on veterans benefits. And then the people of Minnesota were able to elect me to governor twice. So look, my commitment has been from the beginning to make sure that I'm there for the people, to make sure that I get this right. I will say more than anything. Many times I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric. But
being there, the impact it made, the difference it made in my life, I learned a lot about China. I hear the critiques of this. I would make the case that Donald Trump should have come on one of those trips with us. I guarantee you he wouldn't be praising Xi Jinping about COVID. And I guarantee you he wouldn't start a trade war that he ends up losing. So this is about trying to understand the world. It's about trying to
Do the best you can for your community. And then it's putting yourself out there and letting your folks understand what it is. My commitment, whether it be through teaching, which I was good at, or whether it was being a good soldier or was being a good member of Congress, those are the things that I think are the values that people care about. Governor, just to follow up on that, the question was, can you explain the discrepancy? All I said on this was, is I got there that summer and misspoke on this. So I will just, that's what I've said. So I was in...
Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests went in. And from that, I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance. Yeah. I mean, I think it's pretty safe to say that didn't go great. It's a knucklehead. You know, he came clean. I'm a big old knucklehead.
Yeah, such a bizarre, like, and you know, it killed the moderator to have to do that. She had to go, sir. She just had to Billy Madison. Sir, at no point in there was that was there a coherent thought? Like what?
What was that? Look, that's just he really should have had something better prepared for that than I'm a knucklehead. And that I mean, I thought I thought J.D. Vance could have needled him a little bit more on that, but didn't. Maybe that's just not his style or whatever. But it is pretty funny at the end to go, you know, Donald Trump should have come on that trip with me. Maybe like which one? The one you actually went on or the one that you made up? Should he have come on that one? You should have gone on that one.
Anyway, look, the guy has clearly been fairly dishonest about his past and he got caught in it. You know, politicians do get used to this, particularly, you know, the older generation of politicians where they're just used to living in a world where you could just get away with lying a lot more. Like lying, lying has evolved, right?
Quite a bit since the Internet has come out, you know, like it's not like you could when I was a kid, you could just lie like about verifiable things and you could just say things and people would lie. People used to like think about I mean, I don't know. I was a kid at the time, but I'm just saying to think about the amount of lying on resumes.
that you just can't do anymore. You know what I mean? Like, especially like you could, you could probably just say I worked for some company and like made up a company, right?
I mean, I'm guessing you could have done that in the 80s. Who is going to stop you? Or are they going to be like, oh, I don't find you. I don't find any records of this company. What were they going down to the library to, like, search all the incorporated businesses or something? But now you literally just like while they're in front of you, you can type it into your phone and be like, that company doesn't exist. I don't you know. So anyway, politicians were used to being able to do this for many, many years. It's much harder now. And yeah, he does not have a great a
a great cover for that. I don't know. Any other thoughts on that moment, Rob? Sure wasn't good. Sure wasn't smooth. And by the way, this is an actual...
Military service lies a harder lie to get out of. This one is an easy lie to get out of, which is, hey, I saw the importance of freedom and what happens when people don't have a democracy. And I was speaking to that experience and the importance of freedom. And I was there shortly thereafter. And I certainly was able to sense what had taken place. But I misspoke and I was being a little bit too dramatic when I said I was actually there during that time.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that that in itself would have been such a better answer, like just so much better. All right. Let's move on to the the next clip. This is where the moderators really expose themselves.
Thank you, Governor. And just to clarify for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status. Senator, we have so much to get to. Margaret, I think it's important because the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact check. And since you're fact checking me, I think it's important to say what's actually going on.
So there's an application called the CBP One app where you can go on as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted legal status at the wave of a Kamala Harris open border wand. That is not a person coming in, applying for a green card and waiting for 10 years. That is the facilitation of illegal immigration, Margaret, by our-
Thank you, Senator, for describing the legal process. We have so much to get to, Senator. Those laws have been on the books since 1990. Thank you, gentlemen. The CBP1 app has not been on the books since 1990. It's something that Kamala Harris created for her. Gentlemen, the audience can't hear you because your mics are cut. We have so much we want to get to. Thank you for explaining the legal process. Wow.
It's also just the sarcastic, thank you for explaining the legal process, where you're like, yeah, that seems like a reasonable thing to do. But geez.
Your thoughts, Rob. Okay, this is a new trick of theirs to go. Yeah, but that was legal. Yeah, but the conversation here is whether or not it was good policy. So if you found something on the books to get as many people over the border as possible, and the American people don't want people just pouring over the border, we're having a conversation about whether that was good policy. And if we should look into legality of a president should basically be allowed to just parole people into the country.
From what I understand, essentially, the kids in cages things was really bad. And so they didn't want detention centers overrun. So what they did was to kind of mask how bad the border problem was, was they just paroled people into the country. And that's not really the way the parole system is supposed to work. So, yes, maybe they had the illegal authority to just.
parole everybody in, but is that what the American people want? Was that good policy? If you didn't screen people properly and you ended up with criminals inside the country because you just paroled them, was that a good idea? And I've seen them pull this trick a couple times now to go, well, they're there legally. Okay.
Well, was that good policy? Because that's what you're running on is that you're going to be a politician and you're going to implement good policy. It might be legal to walk into the streets and hand criminals $1,000 a piece. And then I might go, hey, you know, those criminals took that $1,000 and they bought guns with it. And then they went and they robbed and shot up schools.
Maybe like, well, it was legal when we handed it to them. All right. That's not the conversation that we're having. That's a really stupid thing to point at. Well, legally, the president had the authority to hand a thousand dollars to every criminal and the criminals chose to go buy guns with them. But at the time that they did, it was legal. That's that's the dumbest thing to point out of. Hey, it's legal. It's like this dirty little trick to almost circumvent the conversation about whether or not it was good policy.
Yes, 100%. Now, it is from, and also Waltz's response that this law has been on the book since 1990. It's like, just to build on your point, it's almost being like, oh, the law's been on the book for 30 years that you're allowed to give $1,000 to criminals. It's like, yeah, but when did we start doing it? That's like the more relevant question. Now, I do believe, double check me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that this app was launched in 2020 under Donald Trump.
So there is a fair counter there. But, you know, that's kind of look, if you want to get into some of the more like of the substance of it, they do that to each other constantly. And this was another thing. I probably should have mentioned this up front. This was another thing that was just on my mind during the debate. I know I said this on yesterday's episode, but it is.
Of course, I was right when I said there was absolutely no referendum on COVID policy. You know what I mean? Like, that just doesn't exist, which is really just so...
i can't even overstate how much of a travesty that is that we're not getting any of that but so one of the things that i've noticed and this was true in the debate and also just in in this campaign is that so you have and it's just so it's pretty slimy on both sides right and this is one of the things you get where there's no real referendum on covet um so donald trump and jd vance are gonna blame
Biden and Harris for inflation, and they're going to blame them for the price inflation, even though anyone who knows anything knows that Donald Trump is at least 50 percent responsible for the price inflation in the first few years of Joe Biden's administration.
Like, under Donald Trump's watch, on Donald Trump's watch in 2020, we shut down the entire economy and printed up trillions and trillions of dollars. And wouldn't you know it, the next year there was a whole bunch of price inflation. Like, what a shocker that is. Like, I think those two things might be related. I think when you stop producing things and just print a bunch of money...
The prices of things might go up. Okay. Now, obviously, Joe Biden continued that, but certainly, at least in large part, Trump's responsible for that. And then the other thing that the Democrats do is that they sit here and they argue that Donald Trump—here, hold on one quick second. I apologize, guys.
Sorry, I'm back. Live show. Now, one of the things that they do on the Democratic side is that they blame Donald Trump for the unemployment rate going up. They talk about all the jobs that he lost in 2020, which obviously...
were a result of the lockdowns, which the Democrats championed. And their only criticism of Trump at the time was that he didn't lock down more and for longer. And so anyway, there's anyway, there's just a lot of that stuff, which is just all bullshit. And once again, if we had something where you had a three or a four hour long in-depth debate where there was really like
actually impressive moderators who knew a thing about what they're talking about, we would maybe get to the bottom of some of that stuff. That's not the world we live in. And so we don't have that.
it's another by the way sorry go ahead yeah i was just going to say my favorite part of that moment though firstly i think as much as possible we should dig into what this administration did with the parole system how many people they brought in and why they did it and yes it might be legal to use the parole system in that way but maybe that's something that even needs to go to the supreme court about how the parole system is being used or maybe congress needs to write a new law about it
But that's something that there hasn't been a ton of reporting on and I think is probably one of the biggest blunders or the most purposeful tactic used by this administration to bring people illegally over the border.
Really, what I was trying to get at, though, is this one showcases to me what I was talking about with the corporate press, because this lady thinks she's winning this moment. She's loving the power that she has and her ability to stand up there and go, I muted you. I mean, talk to the hand. You talk to the hand. But if you're like me and you're sitting at home watching this and you're like you are ruining the little slice of power that you have because everybody can see through this.
Well, it's just – and the thing that's so infuriating about these fucking unimpressive hacks, like it's just – they're – you know, Nora O'Donnell and the other – I can't remember the other one's name. But, you know, like I know these ladies. I've watched them for years. It's just like they've never once –
broken a huge story, made an interesting observation. They don't know anything. Like, listen, I just can't tell you. I mean, for years, I did lots of shows in cable news. I've done a lot of different shows. I've done, I don't know, hundreds of them. And
I know a lot of the people, I mean, particularly Fox News and CNN, those were, you know, I actually worked for CNN for for a bit. But they I mean, you just can't explain how unimpressive these people are. Like, there's a reason why I'd always just go like dominate on these panels because no one knows anything. I like they just don't they don't read books. They don't know stuff like they're just not impressive.
And they sit here with this air, this totally artificial air of like, it's like something out of a movie. It's like out of trading places or something like that, where like the, you know, you start feeling like you're really a millionaire, even though you're like, dude, you were just homeless on the street. This is all artificial. We just put you here, but you just start. It's like, well, I don't know. I got a corner office in a big high rise building and I'm in a pantsuit. So I feel pretty important about myself. But, you know,
If you could imagine just the people that there are out there just on the internet who are huge, whether it's like Tucker Carlson or like David Sachs or someone like that or like some of these guys who like they do these long in-depth shows where they get way – they drill way down into like issues that are real, that matter, way beyond the surface level. And they never have to mute their guests. Yes.
They never have to like exercise this authority over them. And yet they're able to like really dive deep into issues of substance. And these ladies, it's like there's just nothing, nothing. They ask the most surface shallow questions and then get like bitchy about like how the response was done. It's just all it's such an archaic, outdated, awful model. The whole thing.
All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is Small Batch Cigar. Small Batch Cigar, this is the spot for cigar enthusiasts. You got to check them out if you are a cigar lover. They have free shipping on every order. Almost every order arrives in two to three days in the continental United States of America. They have Boveda patches in all
all of their purchases that make sure that ensures that the cigar shows up fresh and delicious. They have an amazing selection of rare, limited, and hard to find cigars. Plus you earn 5% reward points instantly. I know I am not the, um, the biggest cigar guy, but I, I know Bobby Kelly and a bunch of people who are real big cigar enthusiasts. They all swear by small batch cigars. So if you're a cigar person, you got to go check them out. Small batch cigar.com.com.
Plus, if you use the promo code problem, you are going to get 10% off your order plus 5% reward points. Once again, smallbatchcigar.com promo code problem for 10% off plus 5% rewards points. All right, let's get back into the show. Sir, I'm pretty and they put me in charge here. So you're not going to talk right now?
Yeah, it's... Oh, my God. Okay, so anyway, we should go... This next clip here is... This is the one I was kind of most interested to get into with you, Rob. There is a...
This is the moment, by the way, that if I briefly tuned into some of the coverage on MSNBC and CNN, like the post-debate coverage, because I am always kind of interested in how the propagandists want to spin what we just saw. But this is the moment that they're saying was the moment that lost the debate for J.D. Vance. And so I thought that would be interesting to kind of go over. So here's the final clip we're going to play from the debate.
I believe that we actually do have a threat to democracy in this country, but unfortunately, it's not the threat to democracy that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz want to talk about. It is the threat of censorship. It's Americans casting aside lifelong friendships because of disagreements over politics.
It's big technology companies silencing their fellow citizens. And it's Kamala Harris saying that rather than debate and persuade her fellow Americans, she'd like to censor people who engage in misinformation. I think that is a much bigger threat to democracy than anything that we've seen in this country in the last four years, in the last 40 years. Now, I'm really proud.
especially given that I was raised by two lifelong blue-collar Democrats, to have the endorsement of Bobby Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, lifelong leaders in the Democratic coalition. And of course, they don't agree with me and Donald Trump on every issue. We don't have to agree on every issue. But we're united behind a basic American First Amendment principle that we ought to debate our differences.
We ought to argue about them. We ought to try to persuade our fellow Americans. Kamala Harris is engaged in censorship at an industrial scale. She did it during COVID. She's done it over a number of other issues. And that, to me, is a much bigger threat to democracy than what Donald Trump said when he said that protesters should peacefully protest on January the 6th. So...
That was J.D. Vance's response to the January 6th question. The moment that the media was referring to was a few seconds after that where he was asked whether Trump won the election. He basically didn't answer the question. What do you think about this answer, Rob? I thought that it was great that he's highlighting free speech and that there's one party that wants to limit it because I agree with him that that's the...
up there as one of the most important issues. And it certainly affects my ability to do my job as I've been censored by the online platforms numerous times. And I think COVID would have looked a lot different if I could have done even more to educate more people to the fact that the government was lying to them.
And we could have avoided some wars if more voices could be championed and get the word out there that they're lying to you about how everyone's trying to kill us, invade the country, and that we need to go around the world and bitch slap everybody all the time. But I think it's very important that if we're having a conversation about what the risk to our democracy is, free speech is probably the most important issue. And as at least I've seen over the last couple of years, the Democrats are doing a lot more to work with the tech companies to censor it.
Yeah, for sure. Okay, so one of the things that I have found very fascinating about the last few years of American discourse, political discourse that is, is there is this tremendous disconnect between kind of the establishment, broadly speaking, and the American people.
And particularly, this is really true with the corporate media. And part of this, I really do think, you know, there's been a lot of people like really good journalists, like actual journalists.
You know, there's still a few like old school journalists around. Like I'm thinking of like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi and people like this who like, you know, Aaron Matei, people like this who like really like break important news stories and really kind of still believe in this, like the old journalistic integrity model where you're supposed to report the facts to people and that's kind of your job. They point this out a lot.
And I do think this is one of the elements of what's so why there's such a huge disconnect is that, you know, all of these these guys like these two women right there.
probably if I had to guess, make between half a million to a million dollars a year. Um, and they're not like the superstars. They're not like Rachel Maddow, who's probably making like $15 million a year or something like that. But when you turn on cable news, that's who you're seeing. These are people making very good money. And, uh, you know, look, I have nothing against people making money. Um,
I mean, I have something against these people making money, but I have nothing against people in general making money. But there is a bit of a disconnect that can grow in that situation. And this is something that I think comedians are very aware of. You know, there's this interesting dynamic. And Rob, you're you're a pretty raw stand up comedian. I, you know, I'm.
a part of the Legion of skanks and I've, I've dipped my toe into edgy comedy. There is this undeniable dynamic that every single comedian knows about, particularly like dirty comedians where there are like,
the most privileged people in society. And I know privilege is something that the most privileged people in society really like to talk about. That's why you find a lot of conversations about privilege at college campuses, let's say. You know, like it's, you know, the people who are really, like the most privileged, the most privileged people in the history of the world, debatably, like in a first world country in 2024 at an institution of higher learning,
All they want to talk about is privilege all day, you know, and, you know, male privilege, white male privilege, cis privilege, whatever. But you notice this dynamic where like, well, let's just say, for example, let's say you take like a real edgy joke and you go go tell it at Columbia University.
And then you're going to walk next door from Columbia University onto a job site and go tell that same edgy joke. Where do you think more people will be offended? Right? Nobody even hesitates for a second. We all know. We all know with one...
thousand million percent certainty that the kids on this call like you're gonna walk into this like you know this beautiful uh um campus worth tens of millions of dollars where people are plunking down 80 grand this semester or whatever it costs to go to columbia um their their their parents are paying for it they're you know what i mean like just the most privileged pampered
you know, people. And by the way, I don't say that as an insult at all. Like there's nothing wrong with being privileged or like, that's what I intend to make my kids. Like that's, that's great. But I'm just saying objectively when it comes to this, like being offended stuff, it's like there's, you guys are so goddamn privileged that,
And then I could go over here to this job site where it's just like blue collar guys making 40 grand a year. And they they are cracking up laughing at this joke, whereas you guys are like offended on behalf of the less privileged. Meanwhile, the less privileged are right here loving it. Like people who have been through fucked up shit tend to laugh at fucked up jokes.
It's just kind of a universal truth or a universal tendency. Okay, so likewise – anyway, this is where I'm getting with all of this. There is just – there's a different set of priorities for people who are really going through stuff than there are for people who aren't.
And typically speaking, the people who are more privileged end up being much more bothered by kind of cosmetic things, things that don't really matter, but might –
ruffle your sensibilities you know so like there's just nobody there there is no part of the world like if you were to go into like the hood in camden new jersey or in in patterson or newark or something like that or or um you know in in detroit or in the south side of chicago or whatever you know what i'd go to baltimore like if you go to like one of the like
the high crime, like real hardcore hood areas of America. If you were to go to like a trailer park, if you were to go to Appalachia or something like that, you're not going to find anyone upset about microaggressions. You will not find anyone who even knows what the term microaggressions means. What the hell are you talking about? Where do you find people offended about microaggressions? Oh, yeah, right back at Columbia University.
That's where you find it. Because those people in the areas I mentioned before, they have real shit to deal with.
They don't have time to be offended over, you know, an off-color joke or someone being a little bit shitty or something like that. They just don't have time for that. They have real shit that they have to worry about. Like, they're like, I don't know how I'm going to put groceries in my refrigerator this week. When that's your concern, you have no room to also be concerned about offensive jokes, right? Yeah.
So likewise, there's just been this major dynamic over the last few years in America where if you turn on the cable news, the big outrage is January 6th. The big outrage is that Donald Trump did not accept the results of the election. However, poll after poll after poll just demonstrates that.
That while Rachel Maddow really, really cares about that, the American people simply don't.
They just don't. This just is not one of the top issues. And they just don't care. And so to watch the corporate media talking about how J.D. Vance is done because he wouldn't definitively say that, yes, Donald Trump lost the election. And in fact, what he actually said, which really got them upset, was he was like, Donald Trump did allow a peaceful transfer of power. He did. On January 20th, he got on a plane and left.
That's what a peaceful transfer of power is. And this is making all of them furious in the same way that if you go to Columbia University and you gather up some gender studies majors and you go, hey, guys, you know, all of the issues that you're focused on don't really matter. Their response is going to be fury because that's.
You know, when you rob people of their religion, they don't thank you for it. That's just, that's not how it works. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show. This is for responsible adults over the age of 21 living in states where Delta 8 is legal. If you want to get really high, you got to go to YoDelta.com where you can stock up on high quality lab tested Delta 8 gummies and vapes. YoDelta.com.
That is the official Delta 8 sponsor of the Gas Digital Network. And if you use the promo code GAS, you're going to get 25% off your entire order. So if you want to get stoned on some gummies and vapes and get 25% off your order, go to YoDelta.com and use the promo code GAS. All right, let's get back into the show. So there's this weird, just like obvious disconnect between
between the kind of these people in the corporate media who range from being people who make like half a million dollars a year to people who are multimillionaires. And they are all furious about Donald Trump not accepting the results of the election. It is absolutely an outrage that Donald Trump says he won.
That's what they care about because they're offended by that. But Americans, by and large, you know, I mean, I got to like double check these numbers or whatever. But I think the median household income, I think, is just over 70K a year. All right.
So when you talk about one person who's making seven, eight hundred grand a year, you just you can't overstate that. It's like you you just on your one income are 10 times wealthier than the median American household average.
Like, it's just there's a huge, huge disconnect there. Then again, I'm not knocking people who make money. Listen, I'm somewhat disconnected from the average American in that sense, too. I think I'm just a little bit better at like putting myself in that position. And also, I wasn't that long ago I was in that position. But there is something where like, yeah, when you're making 700 grand a year, it's real easy to just be offended about January 6th.
When you're making 50 grand a year, you're really concerned about inflation. I'm sorry. Natalie corrected me. It's about 80 grand a year. So I was a little bit off. Not 70, about 80. But the broader point still stands. Yeah. Yeah. Not bad. Not bad for a guess. But so but I'm just saying, like, if you were if you were making so 80 grand a year, let's say that.
You know, whatever it is, the husband's making 50 grand a year and the wife's making 30 grand a year. No, I didn't mean to be a sexist about it. You know what? The wife's making 50 grand a year. Husband's pulling in 30. Pick it up. Pick it up, dude. That lady married a real loser. Yeah. Oh, no. She blew it. And she's cheating. But so that's – okay, if you're making 50 and your spouse is making 30 –
Dude, grocery prices go up by 30%. This is devastating. Devastating. Your kids are not in the position in life anymore that they used to be in. You just don't have time. It's like going into East Detroit and trying to convince that guy that he should be worried about microaggressions. It's like, dude, I got no time for this. This isn't an option for me. I do not have any space in my business.
being to give to this non-issue. That's how most people feel about this bullshit. Because it is just that. It's bullshit. It's not a real issue. The borders are wide open. The dollar is being destroyed. We're involved in multiple wars that we don't need to be involved in. And look, J.D. Vance pivoting to the issue of free speech. Yes, this is much more of an actual threat to the well-being of our society than whether Donald Trump
Trump acknowledges that he lost. And, you know, I can say all that. And still, as I've always maintained for years, I don't I think the way Donald Trump handled the 2020 election was awful. I thought it was like it was loser energy. It was all like just bitch shit. I didn't like any of it. I think I think if you're going to come out and say, hey, they stole this election from me, then like.
You better have proof of that or at least damn near overwhelming evidence. And he didn't. And he didn't have a plan. And look, he didn't incite violence on January 6th. He didn't. Inciting violence is a very – there's a very clear –
definition of that. And you can't just play around with that because then you lose freedom of speech. Like if I say, man, I would love to see somebody punch Rob in the face right now. That's not inciting violence. That's not, I can't go to jail for that. If someone comes and punches you in the face, because I didn't know if I tell someone, I'll give you 50 bucks if you punch Rob in the face, which I will.
Then that's inciting violence. Now I could be in trouble. Now, Donald Trump didn't say that. Donald Trump did not say go to the Capitol, storm the building, stop the certification, the certifying of the ballots. If he had said that, that he'd be guilty of incitement to violence. He didn't do that. So all this stuff about he incited an insurrection is all bullshit.
However, it was still pretty goddamn irresponsible. And when you're a fucking leader, it's your job to be a leader of men. You're you're you sent your people over to go peacefully protest and told them that their country was being robbed from them. They then took it on themselves, some of them to like storm the building.
Now, then, by the way, Donald Trump came back. And if you remember, threw him under the bus and turned on him and went, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the laws. Fucking disgusting. It's like to me, like the worst leadership imaginable. It's like it's like as a leader, you're responsible. It's your job to not to not send your people into harm's way. As a leader, he should have known that the FBI door opening unit was going to be there.
Yeah, well, I mean, look, dude. Look, I'll say the fact that Alex Jones was there with him the whole time. Alex Jones has been going on for how many decades about false flags? And you're like, but you didn't see that you were walking right into one. You know, now, look, I don't know. Alex Jones wasn't leading the whole thing, so I'm not putting out on him. But yes, you could have been smart enough to see this coming for sure. We did a stream that night, and I'm pretty sure we were both like, this is not going to go good for these guys. But anyway, yeah.
But even all of that being true, it just doesn't matter that much. There was never any shred of a possible chance that Donald Trump was going to be able to what? Overthrow democracy and install himself as king? Like in what world? By what mechanism would he have done that?
Like, but by the way, even if they had been able to stop the ballots from being certified, they would have been kicked back down to the states and then sent right back up to the Congress.
Like it wasn't going to change anything. The whole issue just doesn't matter. It simply doesn't matter that much. And there's an amazing disconnect for people in the corporate media who really think that like somehow Americans are going to place this like floating abstraction, this democracy as more important than like,
The bottom line, like their meat and potatoes, kitchen table issues are going to take a back burner to this idea that like, yes, but if the if Donald Trump doesn't acknowledge that he lost, then he's not. And also, you really know, at the end of the day, it has nothing to do with any of that. They just want to make him look like a loser.
They just want to make him look like a bitch. They were openly talking about when these charges were being brought against Donald Trump, how they just wanted a mugshot.
Remember? Well, they were just saying they wanted a mugshot because they want him to look like a bitch. That's essentially what it all comes down to. They want him to have to go. Yeah, I admit it. I lost. And he's not going to do that because if there's one thing Donald Trump knows, and unfortunately, he doesn't know much more than that. But the one thing Donald Trump does know is you can't look like a bitch.
So one thing Donald Trump knows that a lot of these other guys up there just don't understand. Donald Trump understands alpha winning energy. Now, I know I just said he was a bitch about 2020, but part of that is because he goes, I can't ever look like I'm not the winner.
That's why Donald Trump throws his fist up and yells fight right after he got shot. Because he knows that there's one thing he knows is like in order to win, you have to sell this image that you're the biggest dick motherfucker around. And he's not going to back off of that.
All right. I think we'll wrap it up there. VP debate in the books. Looks like that's the last debate we're going to get. We are getting real close to this election. It's our time of year, Rob. There's going to be a lot to talk about going forward. We'll be back tomorrow with a brand new episode. Catch you guys then. Peace.