12/11/25: Trump Seizes Venezuela Tanker, Trump Voter Rebellion Over Failures

Krystal and Saagar discuss Trump seizes Venezuela oil tanker, Trump voter says he failed her.

Juan David Rojas: https://www.compactmag.com/article/how-the-gop-lost-miami/

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, Saga and Crystal here.

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We need your help to build the future of independent
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we have an amazing shore everybody today.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
What do we have, Crystal?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Indeed we do, that's how that goes. We see Sevenswillen
oil tanker and Trump is promising more to come, so
a lot to dig into there. Also, we got the
announcement from the Fed they are cutting rates a quarter
of a point amidst other economic fallout. We also have
Republicans in complete disarray on health care, very messy situation,
and some interesting bullet points that they released about some

(01:04):
of the various ideas that they are considering amidst a
bit of a like I guess, moderate or centrist Republican
revolt over a desire to extend those ACA subsidies. Sam
Altman is apparently using chat GPT to raise his baby.
That doesn't seem like a great idea to me. I
got some other AI news as well. The Washington Post
is launching a new AI podcast feature, So future is here, guys,

(01:27):
whether we like it or not. New details have emerged
about Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with Les Wexner and with Israel
as well. This is more great reporting from Dropsite from
Ryan and Moz over there. And we've got a political
seed change in Miami. Jan David Rojas is going to
join us to talk about that. That one was really
interesting to me. I'm talking about the Miami mayor's race
because Miami has become such a sort of like epicenter

(01:50):
of right wing tech and even the podcast world. It
was really emblematic of this right wing shift, especially among Latinos,
and so you now have a democratic flip quite a
considerable margin. So I'm really interested to hear from one
about what this all means.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, especially in the context of Venezuela and everything else.

Speaker 4 (02:08):
That's going on.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, we had a thirty very insightful.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
First Miami, a democratic governor or governor mayor of Miami
in thirty years. It's pretty astounding, really, and he lives there,
so he'll break all of that down for us. Thank
you to everybody who has been subscribing Breakingpoints dot com.
For our premium members, we have some exciting holiday content
that all of us are filming right now. I believe
I have previewed this, but this week officially we'll be

(02:32):
filming and it will be released over the holidays. First,
for our premium subscribers, I will be doing with Griffin
a review, a full review, professional review of Reefer Madness
how it holds up nearly one hundred years later, perhaps
one of the most influential films of the twentieth century.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So excited to do that. Christal, You've got an interview one.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, we also have some non wead content.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yeah, it's not just we've got that.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
That'll be I'm looking forward to that. I actually recorded
an interview yesterday with the author of a book called
Gilded Age, elon Musk and the radicalization of Silicon Valley.
I think that's the full title, and obviously what could
be more pertinent to the moment that we're living through
right now, both in terms of how we got here
and where we may be going. So that was really good.
Emily and Ryan interviewed to each other. Yeah, so, which

(03:16):
I'm definitely excited, like digging into their backgrounds and I
don't know, I haven't watched them yet, but I think
pushing them on different issues and really trying to get
to the core of their political idea.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
They should be really fun confrontational interviews.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Of each other.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, turns separately.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's exciting. It's exciting, definitely.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
They also will update dominated the debate. Yes, the reason
big Tech debate overwhelming victory even on the libertarian's home
turf for the side that big tech is in fact
that bad. I don't know. I have the vote on
the other side at.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
This point, but the vote margin was fifty one point
three percent does more harm, thirty eight percent does more good,
and undecided undecided tench come months.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
So weird. Sorry for anybody Toby like that and not
pick a side.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Loser, all right, I'll say it, anybody.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, I'm exactly that's in our so that means we
dominated by two thirds.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
That's what we do over here.

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So thank you all very much Breakingpoints dot com. If
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Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
I'm like, wow, you know you have people in Finland
or whatever listening to the show.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
So cool. We're happy to have you. All.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Right, let's go ahead and start with Venezuela. As Crystal said, huge,
huge ramping up of action from the Trump administration. I'm
going to put all of this in context, because when
I lay it out in context, you're going to see
this not as a single one off, but, as Trump said,
one of many things in a regime change operation that
could potentially be very very soon to come.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
So first, let's go ahead and start with this.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
This is video released by the United States Attorney General
Pam What you guys are all seeing in front of
you is a sanctioned is a sanctioned oil tanker which
was bound for Cuba from Venezuela.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
This is an unflagged, uninsured tanker.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
It has kind of operated in the midst of Russian
oil sanctions and others been previously sanctioned by the United
States of America regarding the IRGC and Hezbola. But to
be very very clear, this has no connection whatsoever to
those regimes. This is an oil tanker bound from Venezuela
to Cuba, operating under the so called US sanctions regime.
You're all watching their armed United States Marines and US

(05:34):
Coast Guard board this oil tanker and seize it. It
remains unclear actually today what will happen to set oil tanker.
President Trump saying that we will potentially actually keep the oil.
All of this is part of a concerted effort to
cut the Maduro regime off from any of its oil
revenues and to continue the sanctions pressure. It is the

(05:56):
first oil tanker seized by the United States in eleven years,
since twenty and fourteen. Just to show you how extraordinary
that is, and that was in the Middle East. I
had no connection whatsoever to Venezuela. Just to contextualize again
how crazy it is to actually do something like this.
And this was supported these operations by United States aircraft carrier.

(06:16):
So even though they're framing this as a coast guard mission,
this is United States military. United States Marines were on
board and were part of the boarding party, and all
of this is being supported supplanted there as part of
regime change. Here was President Trump's immediate comments about the news.
Let's take a listen.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
Well, thank you very much.

Speaker 6 (06:35):
It's been an interesting day from the standpoint of news.
As you probably know, we've just seized a tanker on
the coast of venezuela large tanker, very large, largest whatever
seized action and other things are happening.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
So how do people see yourself into the first look
after you. No, I haven't really thought too much about him.

Speaker 7 (07:04):
He's been fairly hostile to the United States, and I
haven't give him a lot of thought. He's he's going
to have himself some big problems if he doesn't wise up.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
Columbia is producing a lot of drugs.

Speaker 7 (07:18):
They have cocaine factories that they make cocaine, as you know,
and they sell it right into the United Stay.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
So he better wise up or He'll be next. He'll
be next.

Speaker 7 (07:27):
So I hope he's listening.

Speaker 5 (07:30):
He's going to be next.

Speaker 8 (07:32):
Yes, President, because we don't like people when they kill
people and they sell drugs, they kill him in the
United States, and Columbia is a major manufacturer of drugs,
meaning cocaine in particular.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
So that was also a threat to President Petro over
at Columbia. Now again, I just want to contextualize much
of this in What's Happening. Let's put a six please
up on the screen of the Wall Street Journal Ruper
Murdock Wall Street Journal with a harrowing account here of
Maria Machado, the Nobel Laureate recipient, opposition leader of Venezuela,

(08:08):
who traveled covertly to Oslo. Now let me tell you
all about her harrowing escape there from Venezuela, where she
wore a wig, went through ten police checkpoints, boarded a boat.
Here's where it gets interesting, called the United States of
America to inform them that she would be on said
little boat headed to Curisou.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Why did she do that?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Number One, she was provided US military escort. Two fighter
jets actually came closer to Venezuelan airspace than ever before
to make sure that the Venezuelans didn't do anything. Two
they wanted to make sure her boat was not blown
out of the water and.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Mistaken for a drug trafficker, just so we're all very clear.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
And Three, I don't think the timing is an accident
of her leaving the country, being escorted out of the country,
and then this incredibly dramatic escalation. And I know we're
all used to the US doing whatever the hell we
want to whoever the hell we want around the world,
but I do want you to imagine that someone did
this to us, seized one of our tankers, one of

(09:09):
our flagships, and you know, in this brazen act, we
would consider that an active war, and certainly the Venezuelans
also will consider this an act of war. In fact,
the President Medora of course came out and called this
bare face robbery and an active international piracy. And of
course we can all recall that we launch an entire
like multi state war against the Houthis because of their

(09:31):
actions in support of Palestinians and trying to you know,
trying to end the genocide in Gaza, where they were
blocking certain ships in waterways. So I think it's incredible.
I think it's important to keep in mind what a
truly extraordinary action this is. And also, as Zager was saying,
this is not a one off. We know there is

(09:53):
a huge push withinside within the Trump regime for this
regime change operation. We I know that plans have been
greenlit for regime change operations, whether it's direct invasion, whether
it's regime destabilization through deep state actors. We know that
is all going on. And so when Trump comes out
and says, hey, this is the first thing that you're

(10:13):
finding out, but there are more things that are happening
that you're going to learn about, we all have to
take that incredibly serious.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
Right. So the Maria Machado thing is important for a
couple of reasons. Number one is that they didn't want
retaliation on Marie Manchado. The opposition leaders truly the anointed
one from the United States. I mean, don't forget Ryan
and I reported I had those my exclusive documents.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
This was what was it a month or so ago.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I'll just read from the report I did for Dropside,
quote mountains of money sent to Venezuela and opposition groups
two hundred and thirteen million in the last five years.
The documents note that the US spent eighteen million alone
in twenty twenty four just on Maria Maschado's recent global travel.
Who of course, this is the thing about Marie Mashado.
And look, I'm not going to just say she's only

(10:57):
a puppet of the United States.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
She is certain one, but that's not her only thing.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Like what the Venezuelans have told me is it would
be ridiculous to deny that she doesn't have some domestic,
you know, actual support in the country. I'm not even
gonna sit here and say Nicholas Maduro is wildly popular
or stolen election or whatever. I'm I'm like, she clearly
has a constituency. But what has happened is that prior
to Donald Trump's election and since, she has worked hand

(11:22):
in glove with Donald Trump and with Marco Rubio to
orchestrate this entire thing. So, for example, what she has
done is she is actually the one who put it
in the heads of the Trump administration Rubio that this
whole drug trafficking thing was real.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
She actually bolstered those claims.

Speaker 3 (11:41):
And has since as is actually facing a lot of
pushback inside of Venezuela because They're like, hey, you are
supporting this Maduro Narco trafficking thing which is leading to
the murder of many of our countrymen. So it's actually
diminished some of her support. The reason she left the
country to curros Ou and is now in Oslo. She
claims she's going to come back. Now here's the thing is,

(12:02):
what does it not seem like the perfect set of
circumstances seizing an oil tanker. We've got these B fifty
two's on the coast, you've got the aircraft carrier, you've
got the whole US military thing, and then you happen
to have the chosen recipient of hundreds of millions of
dollars from the United States over the last five or
so years, who is now finally out of the country.
Can you not think I mean, look, it doesn't take

(12:23):
a genius to put the pieces together here. Part of
this is also we're finally abandoning the pretense of drug trafficking.
Like now at least we don't have to debate a ventanyl,
although I'm sure they'll come up with some you know,
bs justificable like actually there was fentanyl and the fuel
or something like that. This is one hundred percent ideological.

(12:44):
This was a Venezuelan oil tanker bound for Cuba. It's
like a Miami neocon wet dream, depriving the Cubans, depriving
the Venezuelans. Now you could say, well, they're under sanctioned. Yeah,
there's a lot of cun trees under sanctioned. Russia's under sanction.
You see us going around with United States marines boarding

(13:05):
Russian oil tankers, although I'm sure Lindsay Graham wants us to,
which he tweeted this morning he said, I applaud President
Trump's boarding, and now.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
We should do it to Russia.

Speaker 5 (13:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:13):
This is the logical co.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
And that shows you, It shows you like the level
of insanity of what this looks like. And that's what
I want to hammer home for everyone is they're trying
to claim is this is some routine that it is
not routine. Again, the last time the United States boarded
an oil tanker was twenty fourteen. It was about some

(13:35):
Libyan rebels. It was involved United States Navy seals. That's
the last time. I also want to say that when
you know the hoo Thies or others board a other
then they're like, this is a flagrant act of war
that violates international law. The law see by the way
oil futures went up, So if you're a surprise about that,
and I also just want to sit with the sheer

(13:56):
stupidity and ridiculousness of all of this, because at this
very moment, the United States is buying oil from Nicholas
Maduro via Chevron. In fact, oil analysts were like, yeah,
it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to board
a Venezuela and Cuban oil tanker when Chevron has a
special license from the Trump administration to continue.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
To buy oil. And there's all this talk right now
about the Monroe Doctrine.

Speaker 3 (14:21):
Now, again, this is infuriating because I tweeted this morning
the vast majority of these Trump people who are like
the Monroe doctrine you learned about it in APUs history
at age sixteen. You don't know anything about the Monroe doctrine.
What does a Monroe doctrine actually say? It says the
United States should be the sole and or guarante of

(14:41):
the region of the Western Hemisphere. What it was designed
to say is to keep the European great powers out
of the Western Hemisphere. Now, what is consistent actually with
the Monroe doctrine overthrowing a regime purely for ideological reasons
or ensuring the quote security of your region in the
Western hemisphere, so called US neighbors, not just through tranquility,

(15:04):
peace or whatever, but through making sure that things are beneficial.
Let's say to the United States, Nicholas Madua, and let's
say we're talking about oil and gold and minerals. Nicholas
Maduro has offered the United States gold minerals and access
to his country. He is happy to do business as
long as he gets to remain the figurehead.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Why not take him up on it? Yeah, what's such
a big deal about that? Right?

Speaker 3 (15:28):
And you know, I mean same thing here with Cuba.
What I as an American can't sleep until casinos are
back in Cuba. I mean, I'm sorry, I don't care
who rules Cuba. It's been sixty years.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Not my problem.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Maybe it is you know, the grandfathers or whatever down
in Miami day, not mine, and definitely not the rest
other people left in the US. If you look also
at the reasoning, because everything is about resources, he is
offering the resources. Let's like, what are the things through
a Trump America first lens that we would want from

(16:00):
Maduro 're saying, we don't want you to do as
much business with Russia and China. Maduro goes, I don't
care about Russian and China. Man, this is out of convenience.
They're willing to buy my oil. If you buy it,
I'll sell it to you, and no problem, I won't
sell it to them anymore.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
He said that.

Speaker 3 (16:12):
Trump himself said quote, he offered everything and then migrants. Okay,
Maduro today today is still accepting United States migrant deportation flights.
He is open to accepting said deportation flights. People blame
him for the migrant crisis, to be honest, and I
am not one of those people who blames problems on America.

(16:33):
The Biden administration and the Trump administration kept extraordinary sanctions,
and as I reported with Ryan, we spent a hell
of a shitload of money encouraging a lot of these
Venezuelan migrants to come to Columbia and to come here.
We wanted them to leave because we wanted to destroy
the country and point it or paint it as some
destroyed political project. We can't just say in a vacuum. Now, Look,

(16:57):
many of those people did leave because you know they're
fleeing whatever. And I'm not going to say that that
isn't a hunt like all that. Maduro bears no responsibility, right,
But it's complicated. We want to stable Venezuela. Who governs it.
I don't care as long, especially if we get oil,
gold and it'll take his migrants. I mean, come on, right,
what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (17:17):
Well?

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Our actions dramatically undermine regional stability, dramatically undermine regional security.
And if you want to know why Venezuela or any
other nation, would you know, turn and be interested in
relationships with China and Russia. I mean our actions are
aggressively pushing them into the arms, just as people that
you know, people here in DC see as our adversaries.
So it's counterproductive all the way around. I mean the Cuba,

(17:39):
like Cuba is the perfect example of this. How many
years have we had sanctions there? It hasn't worked, It's
miserated the people, It has pushed people out of Cuba
and created refugee crises there. It is that. I mean,
Cuba is in a horrible condition right now, may actually
be on the verge of for real collapse. But that's
what we're talking about here. I mean, they're so delusional.
So we literally never learn. People in DC just never

(18:02):
learn from the mistakes of the past. They still have
in their head like, Oh, we've got a fifty day
plan and what we know what to do, and it's
going to go so easily, and it's going to be
mission accomplished, and then we'll be able to just take
whatever oil and whatever resources we want. Completely egotistical, narcissistic,
and utterly delusional and devoid of learning any of the
lessons of the past. You know, it's funny because you

(18:23):
were saying that all these people want to portray the
seizing of the oil tankers. Oh, this is just like
some normal shit and we deal whatever. The person who
actually didn't frame it that way was Trump. He was like,
this is the biggest we've ever do. If he wanted
to brag about it and be like, this is an
extraordinary action that we're taking, and you know what, he's right,
He's right, and so you've got let's go ahead and
play CNN this is a four talking about how absolutely

(18:46):
normal this action is and nothing to see here, and
this is what is so where we truly have a
democracy problem in this country is when it comes to
foreign policy, because the American people do not want this,
do not see it as normal, do not see it
as a price. Already want this administration another politician to
be focused on, you know, how they can afford healthcare,
how they can afford groceries, how they can afford housing.

(19:07):
And instead, here we are bombing random people in the Caribbean,
seizing a drug boat, and preparing for yet another regime
change war. This is a four less plate.

Speaker 9 (19:16):
I'm seizing a tanker. How could this escalate the conflict
with Venezuela.

Speaker 10 (19:22):
Well, you know, we've had sanctions on Venezuelan oil for
since the first Trump administration and then Biden kept them,
kept them, So to me, this is absolutely normal.

Speaker 9 (19:36):
I mean seizing an oil tanking.

Speaker 10 (19:38):
Yeah, we've been seizing Iranian oil tankers in the past.
We also, according to the law that I've read, we
can that oil is up for forfeiture, so we could
keep that. We've kept Iranian oil in the past. So
I actually think that this is less controversial in terms

(19:59):
of law and sanctions and what has been you know,
disputed or not disputed. Like I think this is actually
a pretty you know check the box case. Now, you know,
what will this mean in terms of escalation? You know,
what is he going to do? What is Maduiro gonna do?
Is he going to step aside because we're sanctioning this oil?

(20:20):
I mean, you know, we pick up this oil tanker,
it's one oil tanker. Probably not.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
And this is the thinking in DC. I mean, in
a way, it's a very useful segment because this is
actually the bipartisan thinking in DC. Don't take it from me.
Take a listen to Chuck Schumer talking about you know,
he's being asked about Venezuela and regime change and he
refuses to object straightforwardly to He's go, oh, Trump doesn't
have a plan and it's going to be incompetent the

(20:45):
regime changed operation. That's his beef with it. Let's take
a listen to a three.

Speaker 9 (20:49):
Do you disagree with President Trump's ultimate goal of regime
change in Venezuela.

Speaker 11 (20:55):
Look, the bottom line is President Trump throws out so
many different things in so many different ways. You don't
even know what the heck he's talking about. You know, obviously,
if Madeiro would just flee on his own, everyone would
like that. But we don't know what the heck he's
up to when he talks about that. So it's very
very You cannot say I endorse this, I endorse that

(21:15):
when Trump is all over the lot, not very specific
and very worrisome at how far he might escalate.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Yes, actually you can say I endorse this or I
endorse that. It is not hard to say I do
not support a regime change war in Venezuela. But the
truth is Schumer and other Democratic leaders as well, they
are on board with this. I mean they were all
behind the whole. Jan Guido attempted coups.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
And this is why I can't, we can't.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
This is a bipartisan story, and any honest telling of
it ignores that. Right, is that Donald Trump, Yes, the
Juan Guido situation supported by Marco Rubio but also by
the Democrats. Don't forget he was at the State of
the Union. They all stood up ra ambation. Nancy Pelosi.
I recovered that with you, and I remember saying, I go, man,
anytime you see two people standing up at the State
of the Union, if it has nothing to do with

(22:00):
like a veteran or a gold star widow, it's like
we're in trouble.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
Like We're in trouble.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Anytime people on both sides of the aisle are all
standing up to cheer something. That's what happened, Chuck Schumer.
All these people, they buy the fundamental premise of a
regime change in Venezuela and just to again sit with this.
This is an action genuinely extraordinary. She talked about Iran,
She's totally wrong. What I have you know, I did
my research in terms of the oil tankers. Here's how

(22:25):
it usually goes. We issue a threat, we say you
need to transfer the cargo. The United States Justice Department
is going to seize this based on XYZ sanctioned endorsed
by the United States Congress. We do not like, as
I said twenty fourteen, last time we've physically boarded a vessel.
She said, we do this to Iranian oil tankers all
the time. Completely false. Now do we run up on

(22:46):
them and say, hey, you need to render and all that, Yes,
but by force like this?

Speaker 4 (22:49):
No?

Speaker 1 (22:49):
No, no, like this is serious?

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Sound right?

Speaker 3 (22:52):
I mean this is serious shit like and beyond that,
the United States Congress has never once declared never once
war on Venezuela, has not endorsed regime change on Venezuela,
and you know, at this point I would say, you know,
I'd be like, okay, right now, I think it's a
horrible idea. But if you're going to do this, you
need to go to Congress, the majority and they all.

(23:13):
I want their asses on the line. I want everybody
to vork for MECT. If this should ever backfires, I
want to hold you accountable. But they don't want to
do that. They want to hold you know, behind the
cameras in DC, and Chuck Schumer can sit there and
say Donald Trump doesn't know what he's doing, but you know,
at the end of the day, he's doing it incompetently.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
But I still kind of support it.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Yeah, well, I can't really endorse or under yes, actually no,
you can. You can like, it's not all dependent on
Donald Trump. You could have your own view of things,
but the truth is he does and he, like low
key or high key, supports it. I want to give
a shout out to Rowe gave excellent comments on the
floor yesterday, Chris van Holland gave excellent comments on the
floor yesterday. So there have been some you know, really

(23:52):
powerful but potentially minority voices from the Democrats on this.
But in terms of the leadership, you know, they are
very reluctant, and it's it's I don't even understand it
because it's not like Democrats win in Florida anymore, you
know what I mean. Like Florida's not a swing state anymore.
You don't have to do this shit anymore. Like you
could just oppose this and join with the where the

(24:13):
American people are and say, no, we don't want a
war for oil, we don't want a war for these
South Florida neocons. We are not on board with this whatsoever.
You could just do that, even if you're just reading
the cynical political calculus. But even that is beyond them
because they are so ideologically committed to these global regime
change operations.

Speaker 3 (24:34):
Yeah, and considering you know, what else is going on,
I do at least want to highlight there are rumblings
in Congress. And some of this was sent to me
by Eric Spurling. He's over at just Foreign Policy. This
is pointing out that even a guy like Ryan Zink,
he was a Trump Cabinet official, he's one of the most.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Hawkish members of Congress.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
Even he is going on CNN and he's like, look,
we may need to pump the brakes here. They don't
have unlimited powers to launch war in Venezuela. Aaight, please,
let's put it up on the screen.

Speaker 12 (25:01):
The president have powers, has powers, but he doesn't have
unlimited powers when it comes to using force against in
the country of action. Is that This is why we
have Article one in Argo two, he has to present
a case to the Congress.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Congress is the only body that to declare war.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Should the US go to a land war in Venezuela.

Speaker 4 (25:21):
Over this Venezuela. You know, I am an advocate of
the Monroe doctrine.

Speaker 12 (25:27):
You can't have a drug dealing country like Venezuela in
the soft underbelly of the United States, which is the Caribbean.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
You can't have a country that's running.

Speaker 12 (25:37):
Narco terrorists and drug boats by air, sea and land,
constantly running against US policy and the policy of being
a safe, secure Caribbean.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
Which yes, uh, I would say, I would leave that
up to Congress.

Speaker 3 (25:52):
I would leave it up to Congress. Also, yeah again Monroe, Oh,
no doctrine. It's like Munich. You know, whenever we have
to talk about it, you don't know any about the
Monroe doctrine.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
You literally don't know.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
And it was designed, as I said, in the eighteen hundreds,
to keep the European powers out of Latin America and
the Western hemisphere then and probably don't even fucking know this.
There's something called the Roosevelt cor Larry to the Monroe doctrine,
which says the United States has a right to intervene
in Latin America. Also designed at the time of European
monarchies to say that if Germany, for example, was going

(26:25):
to intervene or invade Brazil, argent I.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Think it was Argentina.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
It was one of those countries at the time that no,
the United States instead has a right to do.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
So.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
None of this has to do with an ideological war
again inspired by Emmy Grays, mostly rich emmigrays. Let's be
honest of the Venezuelan and Cuban Emigray population to Florida
who now literally are occupying our government.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
If we do this, we'll never let the Cold War die.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
Where Cold War it's like there again, like who rules
Venezuela is not our problem period, especially if they're going
to give us oil and they'll accept the mind. I mean,
what else could you want why do I care? Oh,
we stole an election. You know how many people are
still in elections around the world, how many dictateor we

(27:11):
just received the Saudi monarchy, right who literally a literal.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Al Qaeda terrorist to the president's hearing, We sees as.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
He sees his country by military force. Right, Oh, those
spooky and bad right though. I mean, this is what
I'm saying. It's it's preposterous. We deal with bad people
all over the world.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
To mention that our sanctions and our program against Maduro
and also against the Cubans, like, it's part of what
helps prop up these traditions because Maduro can blame all
of the problems of Venezuela on us, even when some
of them are his doing. I mean, I think it
also contributes to the authoritari event. Because you're under so

(27:52):
much pressure and have so much pressure coming externally, it
makes you, you know, terror, It makes you want to
and need to rule with an iron fist. This is
not an excuse or anything like that, but it's just
to explain how incredibly stupid, counterproductive damaging our foreign policy
has been, and our sanctioned policy has been, especially with
regard to these countries. So yeah, so I mean, here

(28:15):
we are, sager, what's your estimation of Like, are we
this is just happening? Is that where we are? This
is the decision has been made because seems like there's
been waffling in the past number of weeks.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
They continue to believe that Maduro will just step down,
Like that's really what this is about, is this is
about a military pressure campaign. There is one saving grace
to this, which is that they are still terrified of
US boots on the round. Now I'm not saying that
can't happen because here's I mean, look if the United
States oil tanker, I mean fricking Captain Phillips, who was

(28:48):
like a merchant marine captain who was seized by Somali pirates.
We sent three US warships, dropped one hundred Navy seals
and sniped three of them in the head in the
middle of moving water. Is just to protect the primacy
of the American flag on the high seas. It's an
act of war, right, I mean, that's why we treat
it the way that it is. This is one of
the I mean literally the point of the United States

(29:10):
Navies to guarantee the seas you know, for commerce. For
the United States, this is something we would never tolerate.
We would absolutely go to war over something like that,
and frankly we should, we should, Okay, And so my
point is, but yeah, but even the Hoothi's never fire
on a US ship.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
That's right, That's right.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
That's what I'm trying to say.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
It's like, if this was actually a United States oil
tanker and another country, oh my good, even I would
tell you, I'd be like, blow.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
Their asses up.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
We said they were terrorists for what they were doing.
It wasn't even to us, it.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Was right, and go to a British ship or you
know whatever, like some other US allyship, which again I
don't know why. That's my problem. The last time I
checked the British navies, their pride and joy. Let them
deal with it. But you know, we could step back.
The point remains solely that they are still afraid of
actually putting troops on the ground. But how quickly could
all this all viral out of control? What if one

(30:02):
of those guys fired at a What if a US marine,
god forbid, was killed in this action?

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Can you imagine that?

Speaker 3 (30:08):
And then the blood lust here in this country and
this is why this is just like Iraq. It was
an ideological project from the beginning. WMD was a pretext.
That's why I've been screaming so much about fentanyl.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
It's bullshit. It's complete bullshit.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
It's literally fake, fake, and faker than WMD, to be honest,
you know, they had much more of a case that
time around. John Stewart did a good job of breaking
all that down. But it's like the fentanyl thing, you know,
created this thing where the narco terrorist is now in
the lexicon, and now that's all over Fox News and
the brain dead MAGA people they believe it. And now

(30:42):
the oil they're like, well, you know, just like overthrowing Saddam.
It's like, well, it was about WMD, but that's why
we need to replace him in d Bathla.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Like it's all part of the next logical conclusion.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
This has all been part of regime change from the
beginning to be now the final thing is we should
be at least assured. They are still afraid of a
Libya style situation. They want Maduro to just hand power over.
But let me just even say that is even you know,
look at Libya, let's say even militarily we don't strike
Venezuela land and Maduro just goes. You think like he's

(31:14):
the Chavez people have been in power now for like
twenty some years. Just because he goes what you think
that the people of a monopoly on the use of
force are just going to be like here Maria Machadoh
here's my rifle.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah right, No, that's not how it works.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
Or that the people in Venezuela are just going to
accept like, oh, yes, thank you for our us puppet regime.
We accept this and are happy about it.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, I mean probably not.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Okay, maybe some but maybe not other Like what is
the history of that?

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Tell what Iraq Saddam was a bad guy.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Okay, he killed hundreds of thousands of his own people,
literally gassed women and children. Well guess what after he left,
it was way worse And you have to just be
honest about that.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, that's maybe what happens in Venezuela.

Speaker 2 (31:56):
And created new terroritory. It created new rated and security threats.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
I look, you got Venezuela, which they claim is a
drug capital, and it's like, oh, let's just plunge the
country into civil war. I'm sure that won't be to
the benefit of the guerrillas. Right, Oh, civil war in
Latin America's never been exploited by drug traffickers Colombia. Oh right,
you know, read a fucking book. I mean this is
where you don't even have to read. You could watch

(32:20):
Clear and Present danger, like you know, some movie from
nineteen ninety. This was long held as some sort of wisdom,
wisdom post nineteen eighties, nineteen sixties to nineteen eighties, like
direct medaling in Latin America, which did not work out
to the benefit of us interest almost everyone in hindsight,
it's like, yeah, man, that was crazy, right, the San Denistas,

(32:43):
and I mean even going back to the whole Banana
Republic stuff, like most people look at that as a
pretty shameful part of US history. Which again, beyond that,
like did it work out to us? Like, no, it
certainly didn't. And that's why putting this all full circle,
the press, I mean, that absolutely normal clip that should
live an infamy for real, it really should. Yeah, you

(33:05):
can't say that, like it's not true. And people just
don't have the requisite knowledge base or they don't either
read or they don't they're not skeptical of the government's claims.
And we have a bipartisan wish for expelling Madua again,
why because he's stolen election?

Speaker 1 (33:23):
Maybe? I mean, can anybody even prove maybe he did? Maybe? Okay?
And by the way, even if he who cares.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
He's very willing to leave too. By the way, he
just was'm supposed to do it on his term, right,
I mean to your point about like you don't even
have to have read a book, you just have to
have like existed in the United States for the past
number of decades. This reminds me of why I am
fundamentally a populist, because look at where the elites are
and the insane shit they talk themselves into and think

(33:51):
there's so much smarter than the population, And then look
at the polls, and in spite of all the like frankly,
half asked propaganda efforts, you have a majority of Americans
who are like, no, not on board with this random
like alleged drug boat murders, not on board with Venezuela
regime change. We don't want any of this. What are
you doing? So it only takes some sort of like

(34:13):
lived experience, frankly and basic common sense to understand what
a terrible direction this is and yet you have so
much bipartisan elite support, including on networks like CNN, including
from Chuck Schumer, and of course from the Trump regime
and the you know, the Miami the Miami occupied government
as you put it, that, you know, we're in spite

(34:34):
of the public being adamantly opposed to this and wanting
their politicians to refocus on domestic issues and actually deliver
and make their lives better. Instead, we're doing this bullshit.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yes, and again, unfortunately it's not receiving nearly the amount
of attention it deserves. They are counting on everyone to
just look the other way. Oh, it's just another Trump thing,
and then it'll explode out on this. I mean, you know,
if we think back to Libya, you were did were
you want to have some time see that? Yet it
like like was it really the headline every day? Because

(35:03):
from what I remember, Gaddafi was gone? And then after that,
when did people start to pay atten Chris Stevens, you know,
after Benghazi. Yeah, but there was a nine month period
where shit was going bad.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
And that was more I mean, certainly MSNBC was covering that,
but that was more a partisan Like on Fox News,
they were on it all you know every day.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
But my point is, just like most we don't remember,
like even in the midst of a lot of even Iraq.
I lived through Iraq. That's when I really became a
cognizant of the news. You know, for a while there
after three you didn't.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
Pay much attention.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
There were things that LI lied like this where there
was very little, there was nothing very I mean, I
remember Isis for example, right the Caesar of Mosul. Nobody
in America had thought about Iraq for three years. We
left in twenty eleven, and then we just woke up
three years later and they took over the city. If
you were paying attention, you know, maybe you would have learned.
But like, that's my biggest fear with Venezuela is we'll

(35:55):
just do something built, declare victory, and then nine to
ten months that's how this stuff. You know, nothing happens
like this right, like it's a slow burn, but the
results are very predictable. So I don't I wish I
could say, call your congressman, but you know, the truth
is they probably support it.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Well, I will say, I will say that remember there
was they were pretty close to some sort of a
resolution and then the White House basically lied to them
and like, oh, we're not going to do anything. This
isn't necessary, you don't have to pass this, and then
they backed away from it. So there is at least
some support for you know, war powers resolution, some sort
of a check on this administration. But you know, I

(36:33):
would bet on the side of cowardice. They don't want
to be on the record. I'm happy to you know,
even the ones even though exactly even the ones who
were leary of the action, they would rather just be
able to like blame Trump if it goes wrong and
not have their name on a yes or a no
vote up or down vote. So you know, I think, look,
I am really really pessimistic because the other piece is

(36:57):
by painting this as like oh Monroe doctrine and Narco
terrorist And as Jesse Waters said, you know, America is
literally in the name of South and Central America.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
Wa, what do you say that?

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yes, so of course it's America first. He literally said that. Yeah.
So you know, I mean, you don't have the same
the same level of dissident voices on the right that
you had in the build up to the Iran strikes,
for example, or people with access and power and influence
in sway who are in the White House trying to
make an opposite case or on the airwaves trying to

(37:28):
make an opposite case. And you know, I mean, the
Trump administration doesn't give a shit of what lefties like
me have to say, or any other Democrat for that matter.
And so the fact that you don't have really any
competing pressure saying no, we shouldn't do this to me
is why we're.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
In Yeah, they don't care about me either.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
The only person who maybe I wouldn't say he could
have stopped it, but he would have been influential on
this is Charlie kirkbod you know.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
But I mean they don't know if he would have
opposed it because so many mag voices are on board
with it. I know, I'm I mean on board with it,
like yes here in Venezuela. Yes wow, Okay, yeah, no
it's bad.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Okay wow, just wow. All right, let's get to econ.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
So, speaking of those things that Americans would actually like
us to be doing rather than new regime change wars,
Trump was gave a big speech this week trying to
tout his economic results and also giving us some advice
about how to navigate the current economic waters. Let's take
a listen.

Speaker 13 (38:32):
Our economy is unbelievable. There's never been anything, but the
Democrats go out.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Prices are too high.

Speaker 13 (38:39):
Yeah, they're too high because they caused them to be
too high.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
But now they're coming down.

Speaker 13 (38:44):
One of the most important ways we're defeating inflation is
by unleashing American energy, including oil, gas and clean.

Speaker 14 (38:53):
Beautiful call right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. They
gave you the highest inflat in history, and we're giving
you We're bringing those prices down rapidly, lower prices, bigger paychecks.
You're getting lower prices, bigger paychecks. We're getting inflation, we're
crushing it, and you're getting much higher wages. I mean,

(39:15):
the only thing that used it's really going up big.
It's called the stock market and your four oh one case.
You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils.
Nice under the China policy. You know, every child can
get thirty seven pencils.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
They only need one or two.

Speaker 13 (39:33):
You know, they don't need that many, but you always need,
You always need steal. You don't need thirty seven dollars
for your daughter two or three is nice, but you
don't need thirty seven dollars.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Throw back to some of the Liberation Day rhetoric about
like your kids don't need that many dolls, you don't
need that many pencils. I think he's used both of
those examples before. I also love that, of course the
prices are high, he says, But then in that previous
interview with tot Burnssey was saying, oh, the economy's a
plus plus plus plus.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
Also, as a father of a just not even one
year old girl, they do need a lot of dolls.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
There's like each doll is a very specific purpose, okay, in.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
Terms of in terms oft when specifically and what mouthfeel
the infant is looking for.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
So sorry, President Trump, we do in fact need lots
and lives.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
He's the expert on parenting. I'm tru a lot, very
involved in raising all of those children. Other big economic
news yesterday, everybody was watching this closely. The Fed announcing
that they are moving forward with a quarter point rate cut.
Let's take a listen to a little of that.

Speaker 15 (40:35):
Total PCE prices rose two point eight percent over the
twelve months ending in September and excluding the volatile food
and energy categories Core PCE prices also arose two point
eight percent. These readings are higher than earlier in the year,
as inflation for goods has picked up, reflecting the effects
of tariffs. In the near term, risks to inflation are

(41:00):
tilted to the upside, and risks risks to employment to
the downside. A challenging situation. There is no risk free
path for policy as we navigate this tension between our
employment and inflation goals. A reasonable base case is that
the effects of tariffs on inflation will be relatively short lived,

(41:20):
effectively a one time shift in the price level. Our
obligation is to make sure that a one time increase
in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem. Accordingly,
we judged it appropriate at this meeting to lower our
policy rate by a quarter percentage point.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
So quarter rate point cut as a very modest, modest cut,
less than what certainly President Trump is looking for. All
expectations are ja Palace term expires, and may either then
or even before then, Trump will be putting in his
own person. He has said explicitly that what he wants
from that person is for them to cut rates aggressively.

(41:56):
Pal seemed to be indicating hesitation and nervousness. And I
think the FED was to in terms of even this
quarter rate cut, because you've got those competing pressures he's
talking about. On the one hand, you have inflation concerns
continuing that would argue against a rate cut. On the
other hands, you have unemployment concerns increasing, so that would
argue for a rate cut. So that's why they took

(42:16):
this sort of middle ground, but signaling that future rate
cuts are not a guarantee whatsoever. So you know, what
do you make of this move and how Trump will
feel about it, what we'll do with the economy.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Well, he's already gone after the FED chairman, But I mean,
I think what it showed, what it definitely shows you.
First of all, for the FED, this is part of
the dangers because they have more unreliable data that they
have because of the Bureau Labor Statistics. Yeah, and because
of the government shutdown that previously happened. But beyond that,
what Trump and them are doing right now is just
so biden Esque to me, because very recently on their

(42:49):
affordability tour, so he went to Pennsylvania. I believe the
Vice president will go to Allentown, Pennsylvania very soon.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Is all built on.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
From what I remember the first Trump administration doing on
the Task Cuts and Jobs Act is they would be like, well,
remember I told you that story about Paul Ryan, was like, well,
over a year, it should save you enough to buy
a new sink for my Kia or so like that's
basically what they're doing. They're like, yeah, Costco membership, that
was really right, Yeah, Costco membership.

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Love Costo. I don't want to shoot on the Costco.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
But the point is just that they're trying to find
these like little things and statistics which, even if they
may be true, don't really fit with inflation and are
very much Biden Esque in terms of well we saved
this amount of jobs. People do not need to hear
about whether they're doing well or not.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
They just don't.

Speaker 3 (43:38):
You can never convince somebody who is financially struggling that
they're actually doing better than they are. They have to
feel it, and that comes from a vibe. It also
just comes from basic like facts, and if you look
at the balance sheet of the everyday American, it does
not comport with what Trump is saying. That's why I
think it's such a failed strategy. I mean, beyond the

(43:59):
look maybe the MAGA folks will buy it. You know,
there's a lot of evidence around economic sentiment that people
feel better who are Republican voters about the economy when
a Republican is president, and vice versa with Democrats.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
But I still think that much of that.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
Is beginning to erode because the economic picture of fundamentals
is getting so bad.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
And we're about to talk about healthcare.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I mean, it's look ACA premiums and all of that aside,
even employer sponsored healthcare, which with the vast majority of
Americans have, is way too expensive and it's bad and
most people know that, and it goes way up healthcare.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Education.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
You know, I was, I was doing the five twenty
nine math recently for my daughter, and I was looking
and using chat TPT to track education inflation, and it's like,
you know, I mean, I'm pretty wedded to in state
tuition because I just don't think there's that much of
a difference. But even that, when you look at it,
you're like, uh, Like, when you're looking at seventeen twenty percent,

(44:53):
you're like, so I'm gonna need two hundred grand.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
This is going to outpace the s and P.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Five hundred just to send your child to a state school,
like and just track if things don't change. And I mean,
would anybody take the bet that things are going to
change in higher education?

Speaker 1 (45:09):
No, It's the most corrupt industry in the world. So
everybody can feel that. Everyone.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
And groceries, I mean, don't we have some of the
polling about how people are feeling.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
I mean, white vacation one really stuck out here.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, let's put we can go through that. Let's put
B seven up on the screen. And by the way,
I don't think we pulled this, but in this affordability
polling that Politico did, they found that a majority of
the Americans say the cost of college is not worth it. Now,
if you still look at the wage premium that you
achieve with a college degree, it is quite significant. It's
actually growing. But that is the sentiment among the American

(45:43):
people increasingly, is like, this level of debt that I
have to take on, it's not worth it for college anymore.
And listen, I have a daughter who's going to college
next year, so I'm looking very closely at all of
these things. I said the same thing to her. I'm like,
we have good in state colleges here in Virginia. Why
why would we even look anywhere else when the tuition
is so incredibly This is insane for an in state school,

(46:05):
but it's utterly insane to go out of state in
any case. Okay, here are some of the findings here.
They say that nearly half of Americans said they find groceries,
utility bills, healthcare, housing, and transportation difficult to afford. The
number one issue that people had affordability wise was actually groceries.
And I think that's because you know that pain point

(46:26):
is there every single week when you're going to the
grocery store and trying to figure out how you're going
to feed your family. That is with you every single week,
and it is so in your face, and you know
it's so in recent memory. You can you are connected
to how much cheaper groceries used to be. Let's put
b eight up on the screen as well. Twenty seven

(46:47):
percent say that they have skipped the medical checkup because
of costs within the last two years. So a quarter
of Americans saying, you know what, I just can't can't
go in and get a check up. We all know
what that leads to. When you delay care. Then you
end up in the Murger agency room getting the most
expensive care, and it's obviously much worse for your health.
So this is a little window into why we have

(47:07):
we spend the most on healthcare and get the worst results.
Let's put the next piece up on the screen. This
is the one you were referring to, sober forty six percent.
So almost half of Americans, in what is supposed to be,
you know, this wealthy and glorious country, say they can't
pay for a vacation that involves air travel. And I
couldn't help but think about Sean Duffy telling us all

(47:28):
we got to dress up and the improving the flight
experience starts with you, Like, just imagine how galling that
is for fifty percent of Americans who were like, fuck you,
I can't even afford, Like I can't even conceive of
going on a vacation that involves air travel, and you
want me to like show up at the airport, you know,
and you're lecturing me about how I should be dressed

(47:48):
in this theoretical air travel that I can't even afford
to partake in. And then the last one we have
here is food. Half of those surveys that they find
it difficult to pay for food. Majority fifty blame the
Trump administration for the high price, so half of Americans
saying they find it difficult just to pay for food

(48:10):
and people, of course they're not buying anymore. That it's
you know, it's all Biden's fault, which is, you know,
the two lines that Trump has are basically like, the
economy is amazing, a plus plus plus plus. I think
he actually believes that he does. I think he believes
that because all he really looks at is a stock market,
and he's like, what the stock market is up? And
you know, I'm doing all these deals and all these
CEOs are coming to kissing my ass and telling me

(48:32):
how great everything is. I don't know what's wrong with
you people. I think that's what he actually believes. And
then when he's sort of cajoled by his aids into
talking about affordability, he calls it a con job. Or
if he's going to acknowledge anything like he did in
that Clipwood showed, he'll say, oh, well, any problems are
Biden's fault, right, People just aren't buying that anymore. And
it's two things. Number one, look you're the president, even

(48:52):
the president for a year now, we're on your watch
now at this point. But number two, he has been
so extraordinarily active himself directly over and beyond, you know,
going over the heads of Congress with his tariff policy.
He has been so inactively messing with the economy that
of course that's going to land in your bucket, not

(49:14):
to mention all of the you know, destruction of the
federal government, all of those layoffs which do have a
significant impact on the economy as well.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I think you know the air travel.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Yeah, first of all, as I said, I do agree
with the secretary, but have you seen his most recent
gambit where he wants to put pull up bars?

Speaker 2 (49:29):
Are in your suit? Doing pull ups?

Speaker 3 (49:31):
The last thing on Earth you want when you're at
an airport is more performative anti social behavior. Anybody who
wants to do air pull up in an airport, you
are a fucking loser. Okay, Now, can I be honest
with you?

Speaker 1 (49:45):
Oh go ahead.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
I actually wished at times when I have like a
lot of layer there is a gym at over.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah. No, that's that's not the same thing.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Okay, So ran the pull up bar that you Yeah,
but like to have a gym at the airport where
you can actually work out and take a shower, Like, yes,
I actually how many.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
People have that? More along a layover? I mean, who's
staying over from? Unless you're flying internationally, you have never
more than.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
A two or threeality. I mean sometimes you fly internationally.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
Right, but then you're going to be international. You're not
going to be in America, so it doesn't even apply
to us. You're probably gonna be in Europe on your
weight somewhere else. Okay, what happened right?

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Saying there have been times where I've like I have thought,
like I wish there was a gym here, because then
I could you just feel better after you work out
and get.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
A shower, as long as the shower.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Is trying to like dress up and do some pull
up else that's what.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
But I'm saying, who's going to do that? I mean,
who's actually going to shower? Have you been on airplane?
You ever been on a flight to Florida? People don't
even wear the odorant.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
Okay, they wear those cut shirts down here with fucking
flip flops, and you're disgusting smelly toes, all.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Right, So yes, he's correct about uh about.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Did you did you watch the Tim Dillon bit about Oh,
it was a good Yeah, I will definitely check it out.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Yeah, let's bring it back. I have very strong feelings
on air travel.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
All of that said that you are correct in that
when you can't look vacation and air travel, air travel
actually is a current proxy for or the current US economy.
Because if you saw this, you would think that air
travel is very cheap right now.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
It's actually not. It's very expensive.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Part of the reason it's very expensive is because the
top ten percent of Americans are actually flying and vacationing
more than ever.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
The luxury resorts and all that are.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Booming internationally off of the backs of rich Americans, but
the poorer America. And this is the thing about democratized
air travel itself, it's supposed to exist for everyone. That's
actually one of the coolest parts of the United States
is almost a third of people go on an airplane
every year, and it's because of vacation to visit family.
I mean, that's the purest form of like democratized travel.

(51:39):
And to the extent that we defend budget travel, that's
why people are always like, oh, spirit airlines and listen.
I mean, I wouldn't. I don't want to fly it
or any of that. I hate Southwest, you know, if
I'm ever forced to fly it. But it's good that
it exists because it exists so that someone can go
visit their sister on the other side of the country, right,
And if you can't do that, you're really robbing people
of a lot of ex So two thousandsgiving Thanksgiving was

(52:02):
the most amount of people this year on the road
since like the year two thousand, right, yeah, and twenty
years or something like that, And mostly people can't afford
to fly, and people were afford afraid also of the
whole government shutdown tsa situation. I just think when you
put that all together, when you have to make trade
off choices about things that you which look, you know,

(52:23):
nobody deserves to be able to go on a European vacation,
for example, but somebody deserves to be able to fly
to the funeral of a family relative or to visit
there's at least in my opinion. In my opinion, I
think that's that's part of the foundation of being able
to live in this great, big country.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
So just like I mean, I feel like there used
to be a real sort of aspirational celebration of like,
you know, the ability for families to take the vacation,
and that was understood as part of just like living.
You know that you're not just surviving, you're able to
live this like fulfilling life and complete life. And so yeah,
now people are just recently priced out of the possibility

(53:02):
of that. Not to mention, if you're actually, i mean,
god forbid, you want to go to Disney World, forget
about it. You better be like have.

Speaker 1 (53:07):
Saved for years, you know, I've done the match the show.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
It is cheaper to go to Japan and to go
to Tokyo Disney than it is to.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Disney World, well to the high price.

Speaker 3 (53:18):
Like if you want the full fledged experience, you are,
it is orders of magnitude cheaper to go to Tokyo Disney,
to fly to Tokyo and to go to Tokyo Disney,
then it is to go to Florida and to some grand.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Florida and there's no little undiscovered cheap beach town. Yeah,
and everything is multimillion. Anyway, we're getting getting a sidetracked here,
But in any case, let's go ahead and take a
listen to Kevin Hassett, who was asked by actually, interestingly
a number of hosts, but Laura Ingram was kind of
pushing him in particular. And remember she did that interview
with Trump that was kind of tough as well, where

(53:50):
she was like not really impressed with what he was
selling her and he says, well, you know these bad
numbers that are coming out, maybe the reports are wrong,
Maybe the reports are off. Maybe that's the real problem here.
This is B three take a listen.

Speaker 16 (54:02):
Layoffs reached one point nine million. That's the highest since
twenty twenty three. So what is that is that AI
is that migrants leaving the country, Is that, you know, automation.

Speaker 17 (54:14):
We still have to get like the government data that
we lost because of the shutdown. And one of the
things we're seeing is that payroll surveys where they call
up firms and say hey, do you have how many
people to have working with you, that they're showing much
lower growth than household surveys where we ask.

Speaker 4 (54:33):
People do you have a job.

Speaker 17 (54:34):
And so it could be that what's going on right
now is that there's a problem with the way the
surveys work. And I'll be able to talk to you
in a week or so, would we finally get the
data we need to assess that incredible?

Speaker 2 (54:45):
So blameing, Oh, maybe the surveys are wrong. Maybe that's
the real problem here. She also asked him about the
president's comments that the economy is a plus plus plus plus,
which I really think that comment, Soger is going to
live in infamy because talk about being out of touch.
I mean, as much as the Biden administration tried to
sell the economy as being better than ordinary people are feeling,

(55:06):
no one there ever said, oh, we give ourselves a
beyond perfect score. It's amazing, it's spectacular. And yet that's
exactly what Trump is trying to sell the American people
when their experience of it is wildly dramatically divergent from
that sentiment. So let's take a listen to how Hassett
handles that question.

Speaker 16 (55:23):
President gave the economy an a plus plus plus plus
plus plus. But you know this, I know this. The
November Fox News National survey found that seventy six percent
of voters still view the eco economy negatively, and that's
up from sixty seven percent who said the same thing
in July. So you've watched these trends over the years,

(55:44):
You've seen the ups and downs.

Speaker 2 (55:46):
What explains that in particular.

Speaker 17 (55:49):
Well, first of all, don't forget that because of Joe Biden,
then a typical family buying a typical home would have
to spend twelve hundred dollars a month more on their
mortgage because of Joe Biden. And you know, groceries went
from four hundred dollars for the typical family for a
month to five hundred and twenty five dollars. And we're
making an enormous amount of progress. People's purchasing power has
got up by twelve hundred dollars already this year, but

(56:12):
they're still room to go. And the fact is that
Joe Biden dug a big hole and we're filling the
hole really fast.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
Biden, Biden and Biden, I mean, good luck with that.
That might fall on Fox News, but not many other places.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
And Biden tried it too. Biden tried it a year
in We covered it.

Speaker 3 (56:28):
Yeah right here, he was like, oh, Donald Trump, Donald
Trump's economy, we inherited a mess. It's December eleventh, bro,
People don't want to hear it. This is exactly when
it is amazing how quickly stuff. Everything just repeats like
that Mark Twain quote about history rhyming, like almost exactly
four years to the day, the Biden administration was doing
the exact same thing.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
This is when Bidenomics and all of that was born.

Speaker 3 (56:50):
Right now, when their approval was in the shitter after
Afghanistan post October, that's when things slipped.

Speaker 1 (56:56):
The vibe was totally nuked. Okay, it's like all the ingreden.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
Yeah. Well, and let's think too about like what was
the mental promise of the tariff policy, right, I mean
a big part of that was rich. Yeah, it was
manufacturing jobs. There's going to be you know, companies are
going to be bringing back jobs, there's going to be
this incredible manufacturing surge. Instead, we are seeing a dramatic
we've now had nine straight months of manufacturing decline. It's

(57:22):
been you know, a complete reversal of any of the
games that were made during the Biden administration in terms
of manufacturing. It's just been completely destructive in that regard.
So whatever the promise was of the tariffs, you know,
you could say, okay, well, we didn't completely nuke the
entire economy, but it certainly hasn't delivered on any of
the promises that were made as part of that policy,

(57:43):
and to the point about you know, whether this is
even selling on Fox News at this point, it has
seem polling that, you know, of course, the majority of
Republicans still support the president, still support his economic approach
as well, but there is starting to be some significant
slippage on some of these issues, on healthcare in particular,
on in on just the sort of focus where he's
placed his time and his attention. Let me play for

(58:05):
you an interview with actually a Trump voter talking about
the struggles that she is having in this economy.

Speaker 18 (58:11):
This is B five, My kids take care went up,
can't afford the cost of food, using credit cards for
everyday expenses, no money left after their bills are paid.
Pretty much just a whole bunch of financial mess.

Speaker 19 (58:26):
We changed presidents at the beginning of the year. He did,
and the guy who moved into the White House said
that he was going to fix it. Several times he
said it would be easy. Absolutely Has he fixed it.
Absolutely not. I'm definitely waiting for him to fix it.
Jones is a three time Trump voter, but she says
he has simply failed to keep his promise to lower
the cost of living.

Speaker 18 (58:47):
I'm very let down by that, very very letdown, because
I feel like it's only gotten worse.

Speaker 2 (58:51):
And like this lady, I don't know, you know, if
she's going to vote for a Democrat, but is she
going to like enthusiastically show up to vote for a
Republican again in the midterm And maybe she is good
of a I don't know, but you know, it doesn't
take a lot of slippage with your own base to
have a real political problem, and also to have a
real problem with apathy, where people are like, yeah, you're
telling me to go vote for these people, Like, my

(59:12):
life hasn't gotten better. I'm busy that day. Sorry, I'm
not going to be bothered with it. And that's a
lot of what they're facing politically, is there is increasingly
a reckoning that is happening, certainly among independence and among Democrats.
In fact, the people whose sentiment has shifted the hardest
against Trump are Latinos, who we have found, you know,
our key swing block and are very economy sensitive, tend

(59:36):
to be you know, strong economy voters, and also young
people who are you know, trying to trying to get
their foothold in the world, trying to establish themselves, trying
to imagine a future for themselves potentially, you know, get married,
have kids, like, imagine that life of themselves. And they're
just getting hammered and hammered and hammered, and their whole
future is being sold out to these tech holigarchs too, by.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
The way, Yeah, it's not good. It is certainly not.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
And look, voters, they're paying attention, convincing them otherwise.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
It never ever works.