Trump's Address to Congress Pregame & Interview with Author Victoria Coates on the Battle for Israel

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, and we're live.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
People missed us for five minutes. This is what happens
when you live in a digital world.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Eric seven news cycle, you.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Know, twenty four to seven news cycles. So are you excited?
I mean, I'm excited because we're going to see free
entertainment tonight? Hey, I mean, are the Democrats going to
walk out? AOC is not going to be there for
the presidential adjust to Congress? And are they going to
have one? Are those things those party favors and drown

(00:32):
them out or are they just gonna yell at them?
Or maybe they'll have maybe they'll wheel Nancy Pelosi in
a wheelchair and have a rip up another speech. But
any way, you look at this, Yeah, it's going to
be free entertainment. Yeah, you know how much I love
free entertaining.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
It's going to be fun.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah. I love the hat too, by the way, thank.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
You, thank you. It always makes people kind of look
cross eyed at me. They're like reasons to trust the government,
and they look at me like what is the matter
with you?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
And well you should have a big question mark on
your just all right, since we started late, let's roll
them all right, because we got a lot to cover
this show, Ladies and Gentlemen, two hours Special. We have
Victoria Coach who is the former Deputy Director of National
Security Council, Yes and Heritage Vice President Heritage, an absolute

(01:28):
expert in foreign policy and especially in the Middle East.
And then we have our panel, our rogue panel to
talk with the pregame about what's going to go down
in the presidential adjusted Congress which is not so too
or State of the Union.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Let's roll them.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Hello and welcome to of the people. America is fighting back,
and it is everywhere you look all around the country.
Americans are finally stepping up, and they're finally speaking up
and speaking out against the divisiveness and the moral depravity,
frankly of Wokism and dei, which has up until now

(02:26):
infiltrated every facet of American society. But I'm happy to
say no more. Americans are pushing back in real and
meaningful ways through legislation, through consumer action, through corporate resistance,
and finally cultural shifts. And the truth be told, we
have Donald Trump, the fighter to thank for it. For

(02:48):
it was Trump and his pugnacious how shall we call it,
Queen's New York style that gave courage back to the
everyday Americans to stand up and fight back for the
traditional ve I use and really, folks, just for common sense.
But it's at all levels. At the state level, Florida
Governor DeSantis passes assigns laws banning DEI offices in state

(03:11):
universities from hiring practices based and government jobs outlawed critical
race theory in cater twelve education and corporate training. Same
in Texas where the state passed laws shutting down DEI
programs in public colleges and prohibiting race and gender quotas
and hiring and education. And in twenty twenty five, states
like Missouri, North Carolina, and Georgia all have put up

(03:34):
similar legislation and similar measures to eliminate DEI at all
levels federal government, you're seeing the same thing where they're
trying to basically, I guess the word would be exercise
as an exorcist, meaning to get the demons out government agencies,
of the military, and any federally funded institutions. And they're

(03:58):
seeing the same in major corporations which were wants the
vanguard of DEI, and they're now not only facing a
backlash from their consumers, but they're facing a backlash from
their stockholders. Just to name a few, who can forget
the woke failure of bud Light, whose sales have still
not come back in twenty twenty five, notwithstanding the Super

(04:19):
Bowl commercials. Disney, another icon of DEI, after several woke
flops at the box office that were DEI films, have
now backed off their position and are scaling back their initiatives,
so much so to the point where Disney CEO Bob
Eiger has basically said that they're no longer going to
push what do you call it, ideological content. You're seeing

(04:42):
the same now on Wall Street firms like Vanguard State Street.
They're reducing their focus and emphasis on EESG, which is
another sort of business arm of wokism, which is environmental,
social and governance policies right ESG. Well, these acronyms RIGHTESG, DEI,
mcdonald' at and t all rolled back their DEI driven

(05:03):
hiring quotas and training programs because quote unquote they need
to return to merit based policies. That's nice. I wonder
where they heard that from, But really it's an education
and then we'll get the culture in a second where
parents have emerged as an incredibly powerful force against DEI
and wokeism and woken doctrination in the schools. And you're

(05:24):
seeing across the country conservatives have won control of school
boards and states battleground states right Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada. And
you're seeing newly elected governors and legislators, legislatures and states
like Arizona and Kentucky. They've all joined the fight against
gender ideology. And there's a reason the data shows record

(05:46):
high homeschooling rates, because parents want influence and want to
know what's going on and what their children are being taught.
This isn't rocket science, speaking of which America is. Also
Americans are launching or lawsuits against DEI challenging race based discrimination,
some of which will undoubtedly make its way to the
Supreme Court. Stay tuned for future entertainment there. And employees

(06:09):
both public and private sector are challenging initiatives in the
workplace that require them to go through DEI sensitivity training.
But perhaps more important than any of that, beyond the politics,
beyond the law, in all of this, there's a cultural
awakening or a cultural pushback. Rumble Truth, social other free
speech platforms whose growth is certainly outpacing the main street

(06:33):
media that continued to grow their drawing users, and notwithstanding
the woke oscars in Hollywood, Hollywood itself, after many box
office flops, is shifting backstorges let's call it traditional storytelling.
I think they have a long way to go. But
perhaps the surest sign that wokeism is in retreat is

(06:54):
in comedy, where you see more comedians, including mainstream figures
who really once try to avoid any contrary or being canceled.
I'm now openly mocking the culture. That's a sure sign
of retreat. And all of this is because of Donald
Trump and the bullet right that continued to fight after
even being shot at, and the pushback at this point

(07:17):
against DEI and wocism frankly feels like a national movement
where we're demanding a return to merit or meritocracy, free speech,
and individual responsibility. And the fight is far from over,
but the momentum undeniable. America is taking back its institutions,
its workplace, and its schools from the grips of wocism. Finally,

(07:42):
America is fighting back, and that's the monologue Erica. I love.
When America is fighting make how long have you and
I on this show been encouraging, cajoling, pestering, nagging people
to stand up and speak up mm hmm against the

(08:05):
woke mob.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yes, I've been doing that for many, many years now,
many years. It is uh, it is interesting. You know,
you go through school. I remember in elementary school, Uh,
you know, being taught or spoken to about peer pressure, right,
and how you know you shouldn't give into peer pressure

(08:28):
and that you know the mob, you know, and how
how bad that was. Like I remember learning those lessons
in school, and then somehow in adulthood we're supposed to
just forget that and then go along with the crowd
and do what we're told by the government.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
It's very weird.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Reason is to touch the government.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Nice hat you are, that's right, ladies and gentlemen, they
do not care about you.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah. Now, look, we are also very privileged to night.
Not only folks that were doing a two hour show
leading up to the pregame, but earlier today I was
able to sit down with Victoria Coats, who is the
former deputy Director of National Security Council under Trump. One
point zero also worked on you know, was national security
for Senator Cruz has a new book out which talking

(09:15):
about fighting right, Fighting for the Jewish State, How Israel
and America can win. Was a really informative conversation about
because it's really not about as we've talked about Erica, right,
it's not about just Israel. It's about Western values and
it's about Judeo Christian values. So we really were fortunate
because I know she's incredibly busy, especially with everything that's

(09:35):
going on in DC and you know it. So we
got a few minutes to sit down with her. So
I want to introduce, ladies and gentlemen. Here's the segment.
We got to sit down with Victoria coachs from Heritage,
come back to of the people. We aren't thrilled to
have with us former Deputy National Security Advisor, Victoria Coats
and an acknowledged foreign policy expert at the time when

(09:57):
we really need one in the country to explain what's
going on. Victoria, Welcome to the people.

Speaker 5 (10:02):
Thank you, Robert, good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (10:05):
Thanks for coming with us. So the President's going to
address Congress tonight, and I know I want to talk
about your new book, which is obviously you know, the
Battle for the Jewish State, which is so much bigger
than just the Jewish State. But before we get there,
President's going to address both houses of Congress with regards
to Israel. What do you hope you hear from the
President tonight?

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Well, I mean, we've just seen a sea change over
the course of the first month and a half of
the Trump second term of the orientation of the United
States toward Israel. It very much is a reprisal of
what he did in his first term. But things had
gotten so bad during the Biden administration, with the open
hostitility toward Israel, the anti semitism here at home, which

(10:47):
is quite horrifying, that there's been a lot to repair,
and the administration has already started that work. I think
Israel feels materially much more supported. We've had things like
Secretary Rubio announce an additional four billion dollars in arms
sales to Israel that the Biden administration had held during

(11:11):
the war in Gaza because they didn't want the Israelis
to be too aggressive against Hamas. Secretary Rubio just freed
that up this week, and that's the kind of concrete
step that really helps. But then we also have symbolic steps.
We have Chairman masked, the chair of the House Foreign
Relations Committee, announcing that his staff is going to refer

(11:32):
to what is commonly referred to as West Bank by
their he breake names Judea and Samaria, so essentially saying,
you know, yes, that is part of Israel at this point,
and so that is a symbolic step that means a
lot to the people of Israel. And then the other
thing that I think we'll have tonight is the presence

(11:53):
of some of the released hostages. President Trump started talking
about the hostages very aggressively in early December after his reelection.
We hadn't heard any rhetoric like that out of President
Biden or Vice President Harris. He was demanding their release.
We've started to get some people out. Their condition is terrible.
You know, we hosted some at Heritage. The stories are

(12:13):
just heartbreaking, and I think he will acknowledge them, and
that also will mean a great deal to the people
of Israel.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
And will mean a great deal to America as well.
The thing that always really the two things when I
think back to the Biden administration is number one. After
October seventh, the concept of proportionate response and the pressure
that the Biden administration. I'm not really sure I understand
what a proportionate response would have been given the atrocities
and the fact that, and I'm old enough to have

(12:43):
lived through the Around hostage crisis in the late seventies
and early eighties, no one knew the name of the hostages.
This time, they were not. The media failed, the administration
certainly failed. So the fact that this is front and
center with President Trump, I think is a great thing
for or Israel, for the hostages who won't need to
come home in the country. You have a new book

(13:04):
out that I want to talk about, which is the
Battle for the Jewish State, How Israel and America Can Win,
And I want to talk about that a little bit
because one of the things in your book is that
this struggle, and we've talked about it on this program before,
but it's not really about Israel, is it. It's a
much larger battle that's being played out here.

Speaker 5 (13:24):
No, it is This is really, Robert, a battle for
Western civilization. And that's why the subtitle is how Israel
and America can Win, Because the enemies of Western civilization
are coming for both of us. And this was part
of my kind of learning journey and writing the book
is we have this whole with this whole school of
thought here in the United States, and that that's what's

(13:46):
critically important in our academic institutions, particularly our universities and colleges,
who believe that the United States and Israel are inherently imperial, immoral,
and illegal. Those are very three, very important points that
they go through. And they say that both Israel and
the United States stole their land from indigenous people, so

(14:09):
it's not really their land, and that we're imperial, we
impose our will on other people, we've enjoyed disproportionate success,
and that according to international law, our countries are illegal.
So they're coming for Israel first because it's small, but
make no mistake about it, if they succeed in isolating
and diminishing Israel, the United States is next, and the

(14:32):
tools will be very similar. And so, you know, a
lot of what's in the book is actually about the
United States and how this has happened to us, because
that was the question I kept getting last year, is
you know, how are we seeing hamas apologists, hamas supporters
on our campuses. Why is my child and be able
to walk across her campus and not feel and feel unsafe.

(14:54):
You know, why is this happening? And you know it's
been a concerted campaign and with these people were ready.
Right after October seventh, we saw the pro pro Hamas
protests start. They started at Columbia, but they quickly metastasized,
including to my alma mater, Pen And when I went
to speak at Penn last year and needed three layered
layers of armed guards, there were more guns than audience

(15:18):
members in the room, just because I wanted to go
to my own campus and say I thought it was
a bad idea to hate Jews. So that's where we are.
And so the book is about how that happened, about
how October seventh happened, and then very much what we
can do about it. So I think that that's important
that we did sort of chart a path forward.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
So let's go right to the cord. So what can
America do about it? Because it's not only as you say,
Western civilization. At the core of that, it's ueo Christian value.
So at some level, to me, this has always been
a much broader battle. I go back to you know,
the you know, the writings and readings of Ori Antilacci,
and you know earlier on where this is about Islam
versus the West, and we can discussed whether or not

(16:00):
there's something that there is there such a thing as
radical Islam or not, and that's a whole different conversation.
But what can we do about it to win this battle,
because it's very much a battle of civilizations, as you
point out.

Speaker 5 (16:14):
Yeah, so that's really the second chapter of the battle
for the Jewish state is what is the history of Israel?
You know, what, why does modern Israel exist? Yes, it's
largely about the Holocaust, but certainly not exclusively. And what
is the connection of the Jews to the Holy Land?
And then what is the United States role in the
creation of modern Israel? What was the relationship of the

(16:36):
founders to the Jewish community in the United States but
also to the Holy Land? And that is all an
interesting foundation to lay about the shared Judeo Christian values
that define both Israel and the United States. But then,
you know, as a Christian, I love the Holy Land.
But that's not my reason as a modern policy maker

(16:57):
for the United States to support the US Israel Alliance.
It's largely practical, it's in the best interests of the
American people. We have reaped huge benefits from this after
President Reagan actually codified our security relationship in nineteen eighty
one with our first Memorandum of Understanding between our two countries.
We're now at the Heritage Foundation, and this is in

(17:19):
chapter four of the book, because I cribbed all the
great work of my wonderful colleagues. We're going to be
unveiling next week at US Israel strategy for the next
twenty years and how we expand both the security but
very importantly the economic cooperation between our two countries for
the benefit of both our peoples.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
That's so, here's my other question. Since you lived in
Saudi Arabia for a few years, I believe when you
were was that during COVID.

Speaker 5 (17:51):
It it's actually a couple of months. I got to
spend twenty twenty running around the Gulf doing residencies in
various countries.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
And OK, so you've been on the ground there. The
Abraham Accords really is a shift in paradigm. Right. Historically,
what I've always tried to understand is how we as
a country have stayed with a failed policy. Does two
state solution, which clearly after Oslo wasn't going to work anyway, right,

(18:21):
and now you have the Abraham Accords, and I guess
the question is is there peace on the horizon in
your opinion with Saudi Arabia, Because to me, that's the
game changer in the Middle East.

Speaker 5 (18:32):
It really is to have a Jewish Prime Minister of
Israel and a king of Saudi Arabia, the keeper of
the two Mosques come to a normalization deal would be
the sort of granddaddy of all of these. And that's
also one of the things we get into in the
book is the history of the Palestinian issue. It is
my view that about fifty years ago, when the Arab

(18:55):
nations stopped attacking Israel because it was expensive and painful
and they lost, they sort of created a fiction that
they what they were going to do was start supporting
the Palestinian cause. And there are all sorts of reasons
that has been unsuccessful, primarily because there's been this insistence
that the Palestinians need a state of their own, but

(19:17):
unfortunately they're not a nation state. They are a cause,
and their cause is the destruction of Israel, and that
has never been enough to get them to form any
sort of mechanisms of civil society. You know, they don't
have a functioning judiciary, they don't have a functioning security
service without the assistance of the United States and Israel.
You know, they don't have a functioning governing government of

(19:40):
any sort. And so you know, this, this kind of
insistence on something that is not so has created a
horrible disconnect. And that's really the point of the book
is Israel needs to win. You know, Israel won in
sixty seven, Israel one in seventy three, and then there
were terms that were presented, and you know, and borders moved.

(20:02):
That's what happens after wars, and the victors get to
declare what happens. I mean, is Israel has won against
Hamas in the post October seventh War by every conceivable metric.
And you have the yeah, the international community insisting that
they be rewarded with a state. It just makes no sense.
And I'm very hopeful that President Trump is going to

(20:22):
cut through that nonsense and you know, say what everybody knows,
Israel has won and here Hamas are the terms.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
And I hope he says it tonight. I want to
talk a little bit about the difference between Hesbel and
Hamas as well, because I don't think most of America
understands that. Right. So Hamas really is Sunni in origin, right,
and Hesbwela really is or in the Iranian orbit. Why

(20:53):
do we not hear about the Muslim Brotherhood anymore?

Speaker 6 (20:56):
Right?

Speaker 2 (20:57):
I mean because go ahead.

Speaker 5 (20:59):
I'm sorry, yeah, no, the Muslim Brotherhood is really the
grandfather of Hamas. It originated in Egypt. And you know
this is a Sunni group. We are frequently told that
Sunni and Chit will never cooperate, that they hate each
other more than they hate us. That's not true. They
hate us a whole lot more than they hate each other.

(21:20):
And so you had a Ran after the revolution in
nineteen seventy nine, start to reach out to both Hamas,
which was sort of constituting itself down in Gaza having
come out of Egypt, but then also as has Belah
started to constitute itself. And think your viewers can think

(21:41):
back to the nineteen eighty three Beirut marine bound bombing
that was sort of the opening gambit or shot if
you will, of Hama of Hasbala in Lebanon, and how
unbelievably destructive that has been for the country of Lebanon.
How many attacks on Israel, how many Israelis and Americans
have died because of Hesblah, which is much larger, better funded,

(22:03):
and better organizer it has been than Hamas. But then
they have also collaborated. You know, we've had Hamas people
taken out in Lebanon over the last couple of weeks.
So you know that continues, and it's why Israel in
really the second half of twenty twenty four, decided that
dismantling the leadership of Hesblah had to be a component

(22:25):
of their war on Hamas, because if they didn't take
out Hesblah in the north as well, they were just
going to sort of reconvene and re arm themselves and
come back. And so that's sort of an unsung also
victory of the last year of war is what has
happened to Hesbla. And I didn't think I'd be saying this,
but we actually have some encouraging developments in Lebanon. Politically,

(22:49):
we have a new president in Joseph Awen. You know,
he has an interesting past, but it seems to be
trying to build a technocratic government. I saw the State
Department released some money for the Lebanese armed forces today.
Not a huge amount. I mean it is a huge amount.
It's ninety five million, but not like the amounts of
money that we've been sending to Ukraine. And hopefully that

(23:11):
can you know, provide some stability and help root out
whatever is left of hasblasts so the Lebanese people can
have their country back again.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Right. And my father used to travel to the Middle East,
used to tell me that Beirut, once upon a time
was the Jewel of the Middle East. Obviously, you know,
before has Blat took over. So is the endgame here
in the battle for the Jewish state and how America
and Israel can win. Is the endgame here in Iran?

Speaker 5 (23:41):
Well, the endgame is the end of the sort of
genocidal regime in Iran. You know, I am not a
fan of violent takeover of foreign countries and attempts to
impose democracy. I think we learned that lesson after nine
to eleven that it doesn't really work. But if the
Iranian people took it into their heads that they wanted

(24:02):
new leadership, leadership that was pro American, even pro Israeli,
you know, and they have a beautiful country, you know,
you're just talking about how beautiful Lebanon used to be.
We've seen President Trump's vision of what Gaza could be.
I mean, think about what Iran could be. One of
the most gorgeous countries on Earth, with incredible natural resources

(24:24):
and a wonderful people. You know, that could be an
extraordinary positive change for the region and for the United States.
And so I think that's really what we want to
get to, and the Israel Saudi deal that you were
talking about would be a key component in that. I
think it remains very much on the table. I think
it's very possible. I think Special Envoy Witcoff and my

(24:46):
friend Morgan Artegas are going to take a good hard
look at that once we get through you know, these
immediate challenges of the first six months of the administration
and see what might be possible. So rather than armed
conflict we could have, we could have and mutual prosperity.
And I think that's very much what President Trump wants
as well.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
And I agree that sort of Arabia is one of,
if not the lynchpin in terms of trying to remake
the Middle East and make it peaceful. Are you at
all concerned about what I would call the Islamification of Europe,
whether it's open borders or high fertility rates or things
like that, because it seems to me that even if
we find peace or a solution for peace in the

(25:27):
Middle East, for Israel and for the region you now have,
it's not your father's Europe. Let's just say no.

Speaker 5 (25:35):
And I am deeply concerned about this. You know, it's
one of the reasons what President Trump has implemented already
and will continue to do in the United States about
securing our borders and making sure we have a handle
on what's coming in here. Europe is the cautionary tale.
What they have done over the last thirty years is

(25:56):
I mean, essentially a cultural suicide.

Speaker 7 (26:00):
You know.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
You can see the scandals that are coming in in
Great Britain, which you know, it's amazing to me that
Prime Minister Starmer is still Prime Minister after what has
been revealed. It's it's it's horrifying. And you know, we
have terrible problems in Italy, terrible problems in Germany that
are being caused by this, and I don't I don't
know what they do about it, you know, and it's.

Speaker 8 (26:21):
It's it's hard, it's hard to see a constructive solution,
especially when some members of the European Union.

Speaker 5 (26:32):
Aren't stopping still aren't stopping this immigration, and they'll demonize
somebody like uh, Georgia Maloney for trying to stop it
in Italy. So so I think I think that is
a huge challenge for Europe and again, as I said,
a massive cautionary tale for the United States.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Agreed, it's I still remember being a student of history.
I believe it was in the sixties prime the Algerian
Prime Minister booth Median when he adjusted the United Nations
and said something to the effect of that Islam will
conquer the world and we will do it without firing
a shot, and we'll do it. And I'm paraphrasing, of course,
through the wombs of our women, right. I think multiculturalism,
along with the two state solution, multiculturalism has clearly showed

(27:14):
to be a failed policy of the West for many,
many years. And it's ironic or hypocritical to me that
they're concerned about borders in Europe but they're not concerned
about borders here. But that's a whole I think different conversation.
I know the tutrae time is short where can they
find the book Battle for the Jewish State?

Speaker 5 (27:35):
Well, thank you. Yeah, the Battle for the Jewish State
is available on Amazon wherever you buy books. I was
very proud that my former boss, Senator Ted Cruz wrote
the introduction. He wrote about also what's happening in academia
the testimony of the three college presidents at the end
of two thousand and three that got two out of
the three fired the rot in our academia. And it

(27:58):
goes to your point. I mean, culturalism is a tool
of what has been done to us, what we have
allowed to happen in our own societies, and that is
what has to be rooted out. So it is available,
you know, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. You can find
me on except Victoria Coats. I tweet a little bit
too much about Philadelphia sports, but I try to stay
on topic and at Heritage dot org.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Very good, ladies and gentlemen. We've been talking with Victoria Coats,
vice president of Heritage but also former deputy National security
advisor in Trump in Trump one point, Oh correct, indeed,
good Victoria, thank you so much for joining us. Please
come again.

Speaker 5 (28:35):
Thank you, Robert dear.

Speaker 1 (28:41):
Ah good good information from miss Victoria. Oh, hang on
with me one second, Robert, let me unmute you. Okay,
now you're not allowed to speak.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Now I can speak, you're allowed. I guess I can speak.
Thank you? I mean, can I use the word brilliant?
What an informative conversation? And it's you know, I always
look to people who are smarter than me number one,
and that doesn't take much. But information you can't really

(29:16):
get on the news at six o'clock, right, and given
her background and given her experience and her expertise, just
a really insightful conversation. I know we covered a lot.
We had to move quickly, but ladies and gentlemen, the
battle for the Jewish state, how Israel and America can
when it's not just about Israel, as we have said,
adnauseim yep. So now let's time to shift. Since we're

(29:39):
four minutes past the bottom of the hour, we are
also thrilled to have with us a celebrity panel. I
don't know who's here yet, but we're going to be
doing the pregame because in ninety minutes from now, the
President is going to address.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Congress. Okay, wait for a second, Ben, why is this
why is this utility coming up? Is the uh doesn't
the is it my utility? I can't remove it from stage? Yeah,
you got it?

Speaker 2 (30:05):
There, there you go, got it.

Speaker 1 (30:06):
Cut the camera. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Live television, y'all,
Live television TV. All right, so I know mister Steve
I believe is ready to go? Is Chris ready to go? Okay?
All right, Well We've got Chris Widner and Steve Rosenberg
with us this fabulous evening. Hello, gentlemen, gentlemen, Well welcome, gentlemen.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
Oh I love the being welcome to the people, but
we need to do we need to do intros so
everybody knows. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Chris Widner, best
selling author, motivational speaker and now and minister Oh yes, yes, well.

Speaker 7 (30:46):
I was a pastor from eighty eight to two thousand
and two, but I just started another five oh one
c three and around my last book that just came out,
and I'm going to be going back doing more.

Speaker 6 (30:54):
Ministry speaking now, so it's an exciting change for me.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Welcome to the people, and we have Steve Rosenberg, speaker, author,
former COO of Jewish Federation and Greater Philadelphia, the Sports
Hall of Fame and just another one. Both these guys
are both smarter than me. So guys, welcome to the people.

Speaker 9 (31:16):
Nobody smarter than you. And how come you didn't you
use the word brilliant for Victoria. But it's not for you.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
I only use the word brilliant after they're gone.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
You're just great, Steve.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
Use the word brilliant after they're gone. I mean, firstly,
it depends on what you say, if you sort of
rise to the level of brilliance we got.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
We got to wait to see how you do first, exactly.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
So, so before we get into sort of the pregame stuff,
I want both your opinions on the whole. I mean,
I have to imagine because your political junkies, like I am.
What did you think of the dust up in the
Oval office between Zelenski and Trump? Steve, you go first.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
I cannot wait. I cannot wait for this.

Speaker 9 (31:58):
It was they, it was theater. It's not the forum
for that sort of thing. And I Robert knows this,
you know well. Putin as bad an actor as Putin is,
I've been no fan of Zelenski throughout any of this.
Nobody acted well in that I know, people are trying
to make JD as the tough guy there and Trump

(32:19):
is the better guy.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
But this is the Oval Office.

Speaker 9 (32:22):
That is not a place for that sort of behavior.
If they didn't know what was going to happen, they
should have turned the cameras off. And we have to
set a better standard for those that are watching. We're
the United States of America. This is a country Ukraine,
by the way, that has a horrific past, and Robert,

(32:43):
you know, I look at everything through the jew lens
and Ukraine has never been a friend to the Jews.
Let's be very clear about that, particularly starting in World
War Two. Okay, but you cannot treat a visiting dignitary
like that. The Democrats treating that and Yahoo like that,
by the way, and nobody say to get upset about that.
Biden treated Zelensky like that on the phone. Nobody got upset.

(33:04):
But you can't do that in the Oval Office when
you have a visitor, a leader from another a sovereign nation,
you can't act like that.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Period.

Speaker 9 (33:11):
So I was disappointed. I understand that that's Trump's theater
and that's what he does, but that was not the
forum to do that.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Well, my understanding is they actually so all these agreements
were worked out ahead of time and then when Zelensky
got here, This is my understanding, okay, is that he
ended up having a meeting with Democrat leaders, so it
was supposed to be fine. Yeah, exactly. So it makes
me wonder if he was kind of put up to

(33:40):
it or if this is some kind of a you know,
if this is some kind of like we got to
do some MACHIESMO stuff to try to save face or something.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
Right, was he put up or was he set up?
It's different questions. So, so, Chris, here's my question to you,
because if you look at the news right now, it
says there's a breaking story that they think that the
mineral deal was just signed and that Trump's going to
announce it at the I was going to call it
State of the Union, but the you know, the addressed
to the Congress. But what's your take on all that?

(34:09):
I mean, you've been in so many sensitive situations like that,
I mean, what's your take on that? Because I just
I think political theory Steve is correct. It's just they
should have turned off the camera.

Speaker 7 (34:18):
Well, first of all, I think what happened was Lindsey
Graham said that he told him walk into the office,
say thanks, and sign the paperwork, and then they went
with the Democrats who said, no, don't do it.

Speaker 6 (34:29):
I think it was a setup.

Speaker 7 (34:30):
I almost wonder if Trump even knew that that was
going to happen, and that's what him got him so
riled up.

Speaker 6 (34:35):
But as far as the signing of it, now.

Speaker 7 (34:39):
It was all. It was all. You know, the picture's
worth a thousand words. It was Remember the ambassador that
was with him, the woman sitting there.

Speaker 6 (34:48):
Like this right, And I think I told my wife
this tonight.

Speaker 7 (34:54):
I think he went back and I think all those
people and once we cut the money off, all those
people said go get the money. All those oligarchs, all
the people, they say, go get that money. I don't
care what how you need to suck up, tell him
he's brilliant, whatever you need to do, because otherwise they'd
get steamrolled. And I think that they realized that the
whole thing was was a terrible situation. But I also

(35:16):
agree that that's the kind of thing you don't ever
want happening in the in the oval office.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Yeah, it was undignified.

Speaker 7 (35:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
I remember when I was running for office and my
husband was like, you know, I know that these people
you're running against and these you know, some of these
leaders are terrible. I don't think that's exactly how he
said it, but in my words, there's garbage and they
suck and they're terrible. But he said, even though you
think that if you run around just talking smack about everybody,

(35:48):
what happens when you get elected and you actually need
people to work with you and cooperate. And I and
at first I was like, you're dumb, and that's a
stupid thing. But he's right. You know, how often do we,
you know, shoot shoot off at the mouth saying a
bunch of stuff and then you know Zelensky, for example,
shooting off at the mouth about Trump and saying whatever

(36:08):
he's going to say, and now he's got to come
suck up like.

Speaker 7 (36:12):
Well, it's human nature too. It's it's human nature to
get offended. And when you get offended, you dig your
heels in, which is why everybody says, well, he's a
Trump's a putin, you know, uh.

Speaker 6 (36:23):
Defender or whatever.

Speaker 7 (36:25):
I imagine that he's a lot tougher behind the scenes, But
you don't walk back out in front of the microphones
and go what a total jerk, because you when you
do that, it's not good diplomacy. It's not a good
way to make a deal. Trump's been making deals all
the time. He's not going to go in to buy
a hotel and say, hey, you need to bring the
price down and then go out to the public and go,
this idiot wants to charge me this much. It's human

(36:47):
nature that when we're when we're embarrassed, we dig our
heels in.

Speaker 9 (36:51):
Yeah, yes, but erica, you just use erica, You just
use the word leaders. And that where we are devoid
right now? You know the tomfoolery that is going on
throughout everywhere and tonight planned theatrics that are going to
happen in the you know from the Democrats with their
noisemakers and they're tearing up of this and they're wearing black.

(37:12):
What kind of nonsense is that? What kind of behavior
is that? That's romper room behavior that the American people
don't deserve. We elect leaders to represent us in our
best interest. I don't want to see the squad or
anybody else making using noisemakers to drown out the president,

(37:32):
whether you voted for him or not, to root against
him to be part of a resistance. We are not
a parliamentary government. This is a democratically elected leader in
the Republic. You must support him. If you don't like it,
here leave but this comfoolery and the lack of leadership.
And look, until we get to term limits in the Congress,

(37:56):
in the Senate and the House, we are going to
be nowhere.

Speaker 6 (38:00):
Yeah. Although you're got to admit it's great to watch
the British Parliament when they do that back and forth.
I would rather watch that than stand any day of
the week.

Speaker 2 (38:10):
That's fun.

Speaker 6 (38:11):
You know, Margaret Thatcherck is not very bright, is he?

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (38:16):
So here's so here's my question for you guys, and
I want Robert, I want you to answer first. Who
do you think right now is the de facto leader
of the Democrat Party.

Speaker 2 (38:27):
The de facto leader, Well, of course it would be
Keem Jeffries, even though I don't really believe what I
just said, because number one, I don't believe that there
is a de facto leader of the Democratic Party. But
it's it's really the progressive wing. It's the squad that
is leading the policy in the party. And I think
that's undeniable, and I think that's part of the problem,

(38:48):
right they are so detached from reality and the the
what I call powersuckers or the power hungry leadership, whether
it's Chuck Schumer or anybody else, is so afraid of
that that they have sort of cow tout to that
and they have lost their rudder. Maybe they never had one.
There's no politician that I have lost more respect for
in the last eight years than Senator Schumer from New

(39:10):
York because to me, I think he sold his soul.
I mean, I disagreed with him on a lot of things,
but I thought he was a man of principle for
a lot of years. And now I don't see that.
I don't think there's a leader. To be curious to
what our other guests have to say, I don't think
there is a leader in the Democratic Party right now,
and I think that they're in disarray. I don't think
they have policy, and I think they are looking for something.

(39:33):
I mean, look at what they're coming after Trump on
right now. Now they're trying to say that Trump is
what that Trump is forget about the whole, the whole
putent thing. Now they're trying to go after him for
and accuse him of being what that he's I mean,
have they started the insanity charge at or that he's
got the bencha? I mean, that's next, right, and they're
looking for anything to sticks. They have no leaders's say?
What's say? Both of you?

Speaker 9 (39:54):
I agree at one point you could have said Obama.
But Obama jumped the shore when he and on TV
and urge young black men to vote for Kamala in
the primaries, and a lot I know a lot of
people from that community that were really offended by that.
So Obama lost his credibility. I don't think he's the

(40:17):
leader anymore. It's certainly not the Clinton's. It can't be
Sumer because that guy's I agree with you, Robert, he
is bineless, jellyfish, the keem. Jeffries I thought actually really
had hope, and I had hope for him, I should say,
but he's been a disappointment. He's urging people to act
out tonight. I think they are still worried about The

(40:40):
entire Democratic Party is still worried about the squad and
the progressive left. Hence the fact that not one Democrat
voted for you know, the men can't play in women's sport.
Yet well eighty percent of the population agrees with that.
They're so far gone. I wish they had a leader.

(41:00):
I don't know who their leader is.

Speaker 6 (41:02):
I'll tell you who the leader is.

Speaker 7 (41:04):
Tells guarantee they give that man a cigar.

Speaker 6 (41:11):
The team Jefferies, hold.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
On, wait, hold on, wait whoever and.

Speaker 6 (41:16):
And says this is what I need you to do.
They're going to do it. He's he speaking of being
run by oligarchs. Uh, you know, I really believe it's him.

Speaker 7 (41:26):
I don't know if you guys ever watched Real Time
with Bill Maher, but last Friday he did this whole
little thing always where he said there's only one person
in the Democrat Party who knows how to speak to
the heartland, Richard.

Speaker 9 (41:44):
I don't know if you guys heard. Fetterman was on
the Call Me Back podcast with Dance or Not to
promote another podcast, but he was brilliant with Dancy Nor
last week and it was you know, look, I Robert,
I've talked to you about this. I've never been so
wrong as I'm sure you also about a politician. I
live in Pennsylvania. I could to support doctor Oz because

(42:06):
I was certain that on the issues that matter to me,
that Oz would be better Fetterman. And I probably don't
agree with him on I don't know fifty percent of
his issues, but he is so with us and he
has such moral clarity, and I would vote for him
for anything. And you're one hundred percent right, Richard Torres.
I've done several fundraisers for him. He is phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
All right.

Speaker 6 (42:29):
I think you're going to see Skapiro take a hard shot. Right.

Speaker 7 (42:32):
He's going to move right, I think, because I think
that he's got the charisma and that stuff.

Speaker 6 (42:37):
He's going to come back a little bit. I think.

Speaker 9 (42:39):
Don't agree. I think so, I don't agree, but I
hope you're right.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
But he can't win. He can win the primary, but
he can't win a general.

Speaker 9 (42:46):
I agree, but I've been waiting for that for a year.
I know, Josh. I have a deep admiration for his
you know what I thought was his conviction, but he
has a lot more to prove for you know what,
we'll see. I hope you're right, Chris.

Speaker 6 (42:58):
Yeah, but see the Democrat they always just go for
the whoever the good looking, articulate person is.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
And excuse me, like Kamala Harris did we missed the
articulate part of this.

Speaker 7 (43:12):
Had then, had they gone to a primary, Davin Newsom
would have been the candidate.

Speaker 9 (43:18):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
Do you know what I think of a Gavin Newsom?
He's Al Gore two point zero. We raised him to
be president, they did. If you know anything about San
Francisco society and how they raised him, and you know,
the presidio and the neighborhoods and and sort of his
his godfathers or mothers along the way. They raised Al
Gore to be president. They raised Gavin Newsom to be president.

(43:42):
Neither man will be president. But yes he is, you know,
a good looking, charismatic guy. But that whole thing about
being able to string two sentences together, how did we
get Kamala Harris?

Speaker 6 (43:54):
Well, that was a coup. That wasn't a primary. Nobody
voted for.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Fair enough, fair enough you? Okay? All right, So Erica,
we are ready to take a quick ad read. So guys,
give us a minute, stay with us. We want to
see your smiling faces. So we're going to do it
live on air. Erica, all yours me.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
You I don't think that was my I don't think
that was on my home, right, you think then we're
going to roll back right in. I guess Okay, no,
we'll we can just we'll play We'll play one of
the Uh, we'll play a message from a sik O responsor.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
There you go. Yeah, don't you love live podcast guys.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
Next, well we'll do U. We'll do his real appreciation
Day later and get you guys. We got tons of
merch now for sale, so we'll show you guys that
a little bit later.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Okay, So Chris, I want to jump to you. Let's
go to the main event. The President's going to address
both chambers. Uh, they may be half full of Democrats
walk out, but it is what it is. What themes
do you think he's going to cover? And what do
you want to hear him say? Can I what do
you want to hear him talk about? Right? If you
were writing the script or the speech.

Speaker 6 (45:04):
Well, what do you want?

Speaker 9 (45:06):
You know?

Speaker 6 (45:06):
Robert, I think I told you I was just named
one of the top twenty sales speakers in the world,
and so I talk a lot about sales and how
to sell to people. And one of the things that I.

Speaker 7 (45:15):
Find interesting is sometimes I'll go out and I'll be,
you know, meeting with somebody or well, I'll come home
and my wife will say, well, did you ask for
you know, whatever I was going for? And I say no,
and she's like why, and I say, because they expected
me to. And I think the same.

Speaker 6 (45:29):
Thing is true if I was giving him advice, and
of course I don't think Donald Trump takes much advice
from other people. He just is who he is and
it's always worked for him. I would tell him to
walk in there. I would.

Speaker 7 (45:39):
I wouldn't pick on anybody, I wouldn't be offensive. I
would just walk in there and do a Ronald Reagan
esque Mourning in America speech.

Speaker 6 (45:49):
And what would MSNBC panels do afterwards?

Speaker 7 (45:52):
There'd be nothing to talk about because he can talk
about how great everything is, but he says one thing
wrong and they'll spend four hours talking on So I would.
I would tell him go in there and just make
it the most regal, extraordinary, inspirational speech and keep the
insults and keep that stuff to just a little bit

(46:13):
if we're nothing.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
If possible, Yeah, I don't know if that's possible given what.

Speaker 6 (46:22):
I know.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
What was it the when he was inaugurated or when
he was sworn in and he was doing the speech,
and he was like, you guys are a bunch of buttholes,
and like basically right to their faces. I was like, wow, wow, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 9 (46:37):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
But here's the other thing, Chris, I agree with you,
you know, taking the high road is what you're talking about.
The one thing I disagree with you on is MSNBC
and CNN would still find something to poke holes in.
They would call it disingenuous. They would say that he
was lying. He doesn't mean what he says. I mean,
they're so far in the tank in all of this.

Speaker 6 (46:57):
But well, you asked for a specific thing, right. It's
a difference, you know. I come from the preacher world, right,
there's a difference between preaching and teaching, and this kind
of speech is a preaching you're preaching big, big grand
visions and all those kinds of things. But then there's teaching.

Speaker 7 (47:14):
And I think that there's some things that he could
really teach the people about. Number One, tariffs, how tariffs work,
what why it's a good thing for us to produce
tariffs or have tariffs, even if it bumps up a
little bit, And because.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
The average person has no clue.

Speaker 7 (47:28):
And then they're just told by MSNBC, Well, if you
tack twenty five percent onto the car, then the car
is going to.

Speaker 6 (47:32):
Go up, you know.

Speaker 7 (47:34):
But talk about how just yesterday Honda Civic they decided
to move to Indiana and that's a good thing for us.
And they decided to move to Indiana so that they
don't have to compete with the American made car that's
going to stay at thirty thousand and now they got
to go to thirty.

Speaker 6 (47:50):
Seven to five or something like that. And so you explain.

Speaker 7 (47:53):
I think there could be some teachable moments where he
could explain the.

Speaker 6 (47:57):
Process of some of these things.

Speaker 7 (47:58):
But again this is more of a preaching thing rather
than a teaching thing. But somebody needs to help the
average American understand how some of these things are working
and will be.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
Good for us.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 (48:09):
And Steve Doze Ukraine, you know the American do you
know the American dream? You know, where's he going with
this tonight? And what do you want to hear him? Say?

Speaker 6 (48:20):
Russell?

Speaker 9 (48:20):
I agree, if if Donald Trump came out tonight and
said that he cured cancer, MSNBC would complain that the
doctors have no jobs anymore.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
I heard CNN. It's not going to cover it anyway.

Speaker 9 (48:31):
So I look those she's going to explain about doze.
And by the way, as a Philly guy, I every
time I hear the word doze, I cracked up because
in Delco they would pronounce it doge like hey.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
Right, So he's going.

Speaker 9 (48:45):
To have to talk about immigration and his philosophy on
immigration and what's happening. But I think he has to
address the terrificsue and domestic the economy domestically because prices
are still high. Obviously, it's only been a month and
a half and nobody Superman could not impact prices the

(49:07):
way that the Democrats are saying that Trump hasn't done so.
But the American people want to know when are the prices?
Is the price of milk going to come down? Tariffs
are not the right strategy right now. He continues to
quote President McKinley, who was the president one hundred and
fifty years ago. We were not the manufacturing, technologically advanced

(49:27):
nation that we are today. We were basically a farming
nation where it mattered. And then, by the way, McKinley
pulled back on the teriffs because he realized that they didn't.
They weren't working, So we have to address He's got
to address the deficit. He has to be drilled down
and focused. Like Chris said, he can't be petty. He's

(49:47):
got to talk about the economy. He has to talk
about all things related to the economy. But he also
has to address from a foreign policy perspective, he has
to address Russia, Ukraine, and I think he still has
to address Israel and the Middle East and what's happening there.
You know, Egypt came out and the and the other
nations came out with a fifty three billion dollar plan

(50:08):
tonight to counter Trump's Guza riviera, you know, on the
red on the Mediterranean Deal, and that's going to come
out in the next few days. And there's still hostages
in Gaza right now. So he's got a couple of
foreign policy things that he has to talk about. But
Doge and the spending and domestic policy to me, has

(50:32):
to be the.

Speaker 7 (50:34):
Yeah, you know, Steve talking about the doctors reminds me
of my friend Kevin Sorbo. He said, if if the
press was covering Jesus walking on the water, the title
would be the headline would be Jesus can't swim. It's like,
no matter no matter what you do.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
In New Jersey, ease, we call that you can't win
for losing, right, I mean, I mean they just won't.
And that's North Jersey, Steve. It's not the Philly suburbs.
It's you know, it's the A one two tree not
for nothing part of New Jersey.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Hey, but we said that in Vermont too, So that
must be a Yankee Northeast thing.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Let's be a North Northeast thing. So let's talk a
little bit though about the whole American dream, because I
think one of the things that and I think what
Trump really brings to the table is a vision, right,
It's this vision things. It's what I said in the monologue.
He's also teaching America how to fight back because for
eight years, better part of twelve years, maybe you can

(51:35):
argue even sixteen years, most of America was cowed into
silence through safe spaces and whether it was being canceled
or those kinds of things. So to me, one of
the things I'm going to look for tonight is his
ability to reach over the politicians, to reach around the media, right,

(51:55):
depending on his coming to continue to cultivate that spirit
that America is back and America can fight. And really,
what we're talking about, right, is American exceptional? Is them? No,
he's going to put it in terms of the American dream.
But isn't that really the forcement's driving all of this?

Speaker 9 (52:16):
I think so for sure. But there's a lot of
people that don't want to hear that. You know. They
still want to have multiple bathrooms, they want men playing
women's sports. They want and by the way, I don't
believe that to be the majority. I would think Chris
would agree with me on that. But it's that loud
group on the left that we still worry about that
we're still focused on. And you know, Chris mentioned Governor Shapiro,

(52:38):
he's still focused on them. Ignore them, you can win.
Trump proved that you don't need We can ignore that
part of the electorate, just that we can ignore the very,
very far right. You have to focus on those eighty
percent in the middle forget to ten and the ten.
That eighty percent is what we need to focus on.
And politicians only worry about the squeaky spoke so American exception,

(53:00):
how was that a bad thing? If you, like I
said earlier, if you don't like it here, there's a
lot of opportunities. Yet ironically they were lined up on
the southern border. This is such a bad place. They're
killing each other to get in here. So I can't
figure out do they want to get in? Do they
want to get out? If they want to get in,
why would they want to change it back to the
country that they just left. Where's the logic to any

(53:24):
of it?

Speaker 6 (53:25):
Yeah, you know, in my speeches, I do this thing
where I say everybody wants essentially the same thing, and
I prove it to him. I said, I'm going to
do a show of hands.

Speaker 7 (53:33):
Raise your hand if this is you, how many of
you would like to have a million dollars in your
bank account?

Speaker 6 (53:37):
Every hand goes up. How many of you would.

Speaker 7 (53:39):
Like to have a loving spouse person to share the
rest of your life with in a peaceful everybody? How
many of you would like your children to grow up
and have a better life than you?

Speaker 6 (53:49):
Everybody?

Speaker 7 (53:50):
How many of you would like to live a long,
healthy life? And you know, not gets everybody. And so
what I do to the crowds is I say everybody
wants the same thing. Financial security, which I think you
could say to military security and those kinds of things.
They want to be able to have love with their
with their their people, they want to have friendships, they
want their children to have a better America.

Speaker 6 (54:11):
And these are the kinds of heartland.

Speaker 7 (54:14):
Kinds of issues that it crosses over everybody, because I
would say the same thing about the most ultraliberal person.
How many would you like to have a million dollars bankcount,
how many'd like to have a person to love the
rest of your life, how many.

Speaker 6 (54:25):
Want your children? Everybody wants those things.

Speaker 7 (54:28):
And I think if we if we can continue to
talk about that rather than trans bathrooms and all the
other things, that's what reaches that that the most people,
which is why that's what Bettererman's doing on the Democrat side,
And he's probably about the only one of any substance
or or you know, fame that is talking that way.

Speaker 9 (54:48):
Yeah, those are the issues that matter. I mean, if
we don't talk about education, transportation, infrastructure, defense, how are
we going to advance ourselves on a country? Where do
trans bathrooms and all those issues. But they may be
important to some people. I'm not saying they're not important
issues to some people. That's fine. Those do not advance

(55:10):
our country. Right go to other countries, they don't talk
about those issues. They function through all the things that
matter in the country. You know, you all know that
the war on public education right now in the K
through twelve space is is derelict that any agents had
their release, their their findings. Kids are graduating high school
as literal dummies. They can't read, they can't write, they're

(55:35):
getting into college, and they we have this no child
left behind. You know, when I grew up, we left
kids behind. You know why we left them behind because
they couldn't read and they were morons and they deserve
to be left behind. We got to start leaving kids
behind again. Enough with the child left behind again, leave
those behind that deserve to be left behind.

Speaker 6 (55:53):
Put them into a trade school or something like that.

Speaker 9 (55:55):
You know, trade schools, colleges, and for everybody they have
trade schools, they have two year associate degrees. There's an
opportunity for everybody in this country, depending on what that
opportunity is. Everybody's not going to be the president, everybody's
not going to be a senator, everybody's not going to
be the CEO right there, But there's opportunity to make
a real living here.

Speaker 7 (56:15):
Yeah, man, some of those trades are starting to pay
pretty well because it's it's supplied to me.

Speaker 9 (56:21):
If you will be speaking of now you have a
job for life.

Speaker 1 (56:25):
Ye speaking of paying well, y'all, go to Israel Appreciation
Day and check out the merch. Okay, if you have
not yet gotten merch from Israel Appreciation Day, where did
it go? Let's add this to the stage. Okay, guys,
look at this. We not only have the logo stuff,

(56:45):
but now the beautiful artwork that was a part of
the event. You can now have a piece of it yourself.
You can have a print.

Speaker 9 (56:53):
Look at that.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Look at how beautiful that is. You guys, go buy
some merch. Support the channel.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Out to us by the artist Albert Levy. Who's who's
the artist for that?

Speaker 1 (57:05):
Yes, Albert Levy? Right, yes, so look at look at that.
We've not cute stuff for women, little crop tops. It's
not just boring T shirts and stuff like that. Go
get your merch, y'all, Go on and get your merch.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Chris, I think you should buy it ancent one.

Speaker 6 (57:21):
She likes those beanies. I just looked at the beanie online.
The beanie. The girls are all wearing beanies.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
Now, yes, well, speaking of beanies. Okay, that was also
a terrible transition. You guys, I gotta I gotta work
on my transition.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
You're working on your life transition. That's okay.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
So we've got a couple more guests joining us for
this part of the hour. We've got Olga Maria, the
Latina Libertarian who was my who was the Libertarian party
chair when I was running for Congress. She was my
she was my chair. And then we've got Ben Weir
and don't don't I hopefully I didn't screw it up.

(57:57):
And it's weird, right.

Speaker 10 (57:59):
Yes, that's correct, okay, and not related to the guy
from the Grateful Dead or the Golfer.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I was hoping the Grateful Dead. I mean, you know
that's from my that's from my past.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
Yeah, I wish but oh wait, we can't hear you, Chris,
are you wait? Hold on?

Speaker 6 (58:16):
Let me Yeah, sorry, I was gonna say. Steve will
know this one. I am not the founder, nor was
one of my lineage of Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.
But I was in the wrong branch of the family.
I ended up in the broke branch of the family.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
Well, if if you're lucky like me. You get a
last name like Bundy, and it doesn't matter if you
were related or not. The best day of my life
was getting married when I got to get rid of
my last name. Love you, Mom and Dad, I love
you guys.

Speaker 6 (58:46):
It could be Al Bundy.

Speaker 3 (58:47):
Any Bundy.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
Well, no Bundy, no famous Bundy, good y'all, none of them.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
No, no, Al Bundy is acceptable. Let's be honest here,
Al Bundy is acceptable. So okay, lady gentlemen, well, welcome
to have the people.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Yes, thank you, nice to be all right.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
So from a libertarian perspective, all the ladies go first,
you know, we are chivalrous, and then you're going to
get to go second. Which first question is always the same,
which is Donald Trump? President Trump's addressing a joint session
of Congress. What do you want to hear him say?
What do you want to hear him talk about? Or
better yet, what don't you want to hear him say?

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Oh?

Speaker 11 (59:26):
I definitely don't want to hear him say that we're
going to be, you know, funding any more wars, that
we're going to be sending money.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Honestly, as a as.

Speaker 11 (59:38):
One of the many libertarians who did vote for Trump,
who joined you know, the Maga Maha Libertarian Coalition. I
voted primarily to you know, see that if he was
going to keep the promise of freeing russ Albright, which
he did with you know, like twenty you know, thirty
hours of being inaugurate, which was pretty incredible, and then

(01:00:02):
we have Doge, and then we have so many other things.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Like it's been a whirlwind.

Speaker 11 (01:00:09):
So in that sense, I'm I'm excited and I feel
really hopeful when it comes to a lot of things
because it seems like he has a really solid team,
and I think that Libertarianism and the people that he's
brought around him, I think our message has really you know,
gotten into a lot of the people that are in
his circle clearly, because I just think he is on

(01:00:33):
fire and the people around him are on fire when
it comes to decreasing the scope of government.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
So of course, you.

Speaker 11 (01:00:40):
Know, libertarians were just screaming more. But you know, you know,
hopefully there's there's gonna be you know, I think the
strong stance that he took with Zelenski, you know, last Friday,
is a signal hoping to other countries that the majority

(01:01:03):
of the American people truly back the idea that we
are no longer the world's police, that we are focusing
on the United States, that we really have to get
our house in order.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
So that's what I would hope to hear.

Speaker 11 (01:01:20):
I'm really curious, you know, I'd love to hear that,
you know, the Department.

Speaker 3 (01:01:24):
Of Education is being abolished, that the ATF is being abolished.
You know, That's what I'm hoping for. But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Well, and the Supreme Court has done a good job
with the ATF this year. But you know, the more
we can do.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Look, as long as we get universal Carrie, you can
have you can keep the ATF.

Speaker 8 (01:01:44):
Well, no, we.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
All government agencies get rid of them. I always say that.
I always say that most Americans are default libertarians. They
just don't know it. You know, you got Chris, you
were talking about how everybody just wants to be safe
and be able to take care of themselves and whatever,
and that's really the basis of the libertarian you know

(01:02:08):
philosophy is just government should be small, leave me alone,
let me take care of myself. Okay, So how about you, Ben,
what are you what are you either hoping to hear
or not or hoping to not.

Speaker 10 (01:02:20):
Hear, Okay, Well, I think that, you know, when it
comes to like deregulation and stuff like that, I think
that's probably the top priority for me. This is why
I've kind of like thrown some support, like just I
have no sway in it. But you know, for like
Vivek who's running for governor, wants to continue to deregulate,

(01:02:41):
you know, you know, based off of you know, what
his findings were with Doge and everything like that. But
I would love I would love to see more deregulation.
I would love to see echo what Oga said, you know,
with ending the Forever Wars, bringing our troops home and
keeping us safe by and not creating more veterans, you

(01:03:04):
know what I mean. So I'm a veteran myself. I
was in the army. I was an infantryman, and I
lost a lot of good friends. But there's some good
bills right now that will help help bring some of
those home, like to Defend the Guard bill. And you know,
the only other thing maybe he could touch on is
Linda McMahon was confirmed, and her first thing that she

(01:03:29):
mentioned was that she's at her first hour. She said,
we are in the final chapter of the Department of education,
which was awesome to hear closing things up, bringing it
back to the states, which I think is very important.
What I don't want to see is basically them taking
that power and just putting it in another system of

(01:03:52):
federal government.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
I'd like to see that's what they do.

Speaker 6 (01:03:55):
It's down to the communities, the local communities. I had
to make their own curriculum choices.

Speaker 3 (01:04:00):
Take it down to the counties.

Speaker 6 (01:04:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:04:03):
And I can tell you having lived in Vermont when
No Child Left Behind was implemented, and even before that,
Howard Dean was governor and each town dealt with their
own educational costs. But then what did they call that, Erka,
It wasn't it was the it was it Act two fifty,
which was the redistribution where they created the gold towns,

(01:04:24):
the giving towns, and the receiving towns.

Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
We actually went to the to the governor's office and said, Okay,
we understand that we're a gold town. We're going to
be giving to the state, and you're going to give
us back all the same amount of money. You know,
sort of everyone's in a brown burlap bag in terms
of education. Here's all you're going to get. But then
we said, we want to put together a foundation and
raise our own money in addition to what the state
gives us to be able to fund education in our

(01:04:48):
community to the point that we think we could and
we needed, and we were told no, that's where I
draw the line. We were told that you can only
spend the amount of money we give you locally.

Speaker 7 (01:05:01):
But you have to be because parents are thinking about
their children, how do I get the best curriculum of
my children.

Speaker 6 (01:05:06):
The Democrats are thinking how do we get the most
money to our teachers, so they need to create the
children correct.

Speaker 9 (01:05:13):
It doesn't mention a good point. It's fine to get
rid of the Department of Education, but if you give
the power back to the local municipalities, you're going to
have school districts in the big blue states that are
teaching around CRT and critical social justice. You're going to
have the red states where they're not, and you're going
to have a disparate educational system. There has to be

(01:05:34):
some oversight that also doesn't allow federal funding if teachers
go rogue. The teachers' unions are polluted with horrible, horrible
training around a lot of different ideologies and pedagogies that
are being replaced pretending to be curriculum. So if they
go to the local municipalities, who's going to oversee that.

Speaker 10 (01:05:56):
I got to say that, actually, I think decentralizing is
definitely better. I don't think more oversight or even any
oversight like that really matters that much. You know, I'm
speaking from in terms. I'm in New Hampshire. So they
have educational freedom accounts which basically allows parents, if they

(01:06:16):
are within it for certain tax bracket, to take the
tax dollars that go to their child for education and
choose what school their kid goes to, even if it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
It's a direct choice. It's basically school choice.

Speaker 10 (01:06:29):
Well, today they voted to expand that to a much
wider tax bracket, and that still has to pass the
Senate and go through governor, but it's OTP. It's ought
to pass. So it's it's we got a lot of
momentum at least in New Hampshire to at least, you know,
free up that education system, uh and kind of like

(01:06:50):
push more deregulation on schools and just let kids and
let parents choose what education's best for their kids.

Speaker 6 (01:06:56):
You know, here I have a question for I have
a question for Steve because it's kind of a follow
up question. You know, we talk about states rights, right
and well when the abortion things and some of them
were no abortion, and people said, we'll move to a
state where you can do abortion or anything, whatever the
issue is.

Speaker 7 (01:07:13):
If there's guns aren't legal in California, moved to Texas,
could that not also solve the issue of education? I
think I think what we're also talking about, school choice
could solve the issue, especially if they had that money
that was given to them by the state to go
to a school. You'd see schools spring up all over
the place to counter the CRT. But couldn't you also

(01:07:35):
just say move to another state.

Speaker 9 (01:07:37):
I don't think so, because certain states can only handle
certain schools can only handle so many young people in classrooms,
and we're seeing with the illegal immigration that some of
these classrooms are being overrun. There's not enough teachers. The
teachers' unions are very they're not helpful, let's just put
it that way. They're very corrupt, they're very politicized. And understand,

(01:08:00):
I'm all about the regulation, okay, but the school's been infiltrated.
You know, we talk about we all all know about
the tunnels that Hamas built into Israel. They also built
tunnels in the US. They're called schools and the heedigoy,
and that is going on in these schools. You cannot
allow local municipalities to do their own curriculum. It doesn't work.

(01:08:23):
I'm working in certain districts right now in this country
to try to flip school boards because you have local
school board members who are corrupt and who are anti American,
pushing anti Judeo Christian values on kids. We've already lost
one generation and I'm not going to sit back and
watch us lose another generation. So we could debate this
for another two hours. But Chris, long answer, short answer

(01:08:46):
is I don't believe that would work.

Speaker 1 (01:08:48):
Here's what I want to know is, Robert, what are
you going to do when your girlfriend, Randy Weiningarden, president
of the American Federation of Teachers. What are you going
to do when she doesn't have a job anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Howitt, I'm gonna throw a party. I'm gonna I'm gonna
throw I'm gonna throw apart. Look, we all know that
that the unions are there not about They're not even
about the teachers. They're about the unions and the Democrats,
democratic politicians that fund them. It's sort of a it's
sort of a revolving slush fund. Yeah, the children and

(01:09:20):
the education as we saw in COVID when they, you know,
they advocated for shutting down classrooms, are sort of an
incidental exposure here, and they certainly don't represent most of
you know, most of the teachers who whom I believe
really care about the children. Yeah, so if and when
she retires, Look, I hope one of the things I
would love to hear, speaking of which I would love

(01:09:41):
to hear President Trump tonight talk about right to work,
right right. I don't think he's going to because I
don't think it's quite And look, let's be honest. I mean,
what is it eighty two executive order so far flooding
the zone in six weeks in office. And again, my
only concern with something that is what you can do

(01:10:02):
by executive order can be taken back by executive order
with the next with the next president. That's why legislating
is is so hard. But I would love to see
him talk about right to work. That's my own personal thing.
I just I just think that that's that's sort of
one of the ground zero points in all of this
in terms of unions and stopping the cycle of money.

(01:10:24):
But Steve, you're one hundred percent correct. It took us
a generation or two or three to get into this problem.
Unto it's no different than you know Hamas and you
know Juday and Samario. Right. Until you stop that cycle
of hatred being caught to the children, until you stop
that cycle of dumbing down education to the children here
and it and they generationally grow up, you're never going

(01:10:47):
to break the cycle. You can win the battle, but
the war is generational on both.

Speaker 7 (01:10:52):
If you if you never read the book Slouching Towards
the Mora by Robert Bork. He wrote it in nineteen
ninety nine. It's one of the best political books I've
ever read. And he wrote in ninety nine, and he
basically said that this has all been the plan since
the sixties.

Speaker 6 (01:11:05):
They said we have to take over the institutions.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:11:08):
What's really fascinating then is to read it in twenty
twenty five and go, he wrote this thing twenty six
years ago, and he would be rolling over.

Speaker 6 (01:11:14):
In his grave, how far beyond what he said it
was going to happen. But this has always been in
the works by the left.

Speaker 11 (01:11:21):
And I just want to add real quick though, really
kind of what we're looking at in the bigger picture is,
you know, the culture and the culture has shifted, and
so I actually have a lot of hope. I mean,
I look at what's happening right now in Maine. I
think I hear what you're saying to the gentleman up there.
I don't see everyone's names, but I understand what you're saying.

Speaker 2 (01:11:43):
Steve's the handsome Steve's the handsome bald guy in Green.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
I a little bit more hopeful.

Speaker 11 (01:11:49):
I'm a little bit more white pilled when it comes
to localities, just because I see what's happening in places
like Maine, where I think fam you know, parents and
kids have been pushed so far far to such an extreme,
and I think obviously the election was a response to that,
and I think now a lot of people feel free
and that they have the ability now to push back.

(01:12:13):
So you know, we're I mean, what's happening in Maine
with the parents that are getting together, they're pushing back.
I mean the exchange that Trump had with Governor Mills
there and that just opened the floodgates. But the floodgates
were already opening there because parents started pushing back on
the massive migration that was happening and the clash that's
been happening against you know, the local students with migrants,

(01:12:35):
the violence, the the housing crisis that's happening, where migrants
were giving preference to homeless veterans that have been on
waiting less for this housing. So I just think there's
there's something happening in the culture where I truly believe
the shift is going to happen a lot more. I
think the fact that we hear conversations and talking points

(01:12:55):
about you know, normal wars, about you know, deregulation about
you know, just look at what happened with all the
exposure with the USAID. I think the American people are
just like we are so ready right now to really
start pushing back. And a lot more people who would
never talk about how influenced communism and socialism is. I mean,

(01:13:18):
I hear people like nineteen twenty years old, like my
son talking. I mean, they are just way more aware
in a sense and really pushing back on the extreme
radical leftism. I mean they're kind of like going to
where you know, they're they're looking more conservative and libertarian
and wanting to understand economics, and so I think there's

(01:13:38):
a big pushback culturally that's happening. I do agree with
you that it will take kind of time, but I
don't think it's gonna take as long because I just
think it's already the zeitgeist has shifted.

Speaker 6 (01:13:50):
Well, look at the shift it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:51):
Took place in the African American community over immigration. You know,
I'll never forget. I don't remember what show it was on,
but here's this, you know, young black she shows up
at the rec center with her kid who's like twelve,
and sorry it shut down, we have immigrants living there.
And she was actually cussing on the show, the news show,

(01:14:11):
but she's like, where's my kid gonna go? I gotta
go to work. This is where he goes. Now he's
going to be out on the streets. And you saw
which is probably the most dependent Democrat vote shift significantly,
because I think exactly what you were saying is there's
a cultural shift and they're just looking at this stuff
saying this doesn't work for us.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
Well, and even people who would never have spoken out before. Actually,
I'm kind of curious been what you've been, We're what
you think about this? Have you guys been keeping up
at all with the union, the New York Correctional Union,
So have you guys heard about this? So basically, the

(01:14:52):
conditions in the prisons have gotten so bad in New
York because they can't put violent offenders in swlitary confinement.
They can't, you know, they can't punish people anymore. And
so it's gotten so violent that the union has gone
is on an illegal strike for they're having to work
twenty four hour shifts. I mean, it is insane. And

(01:15:14):
they've got the guard to speaking about defending the guard.
You know, if we didn't, if New York State didn't
have a National Guard, that's who's running their prisons right now. Wow,
So I know it's crazy. So, like, can you imagine
that as a person having been in the military band
having to go be a prison guard.

Speaker 10 (01:15:36):
I can, because that was almost the job that they
put me in once they got out. I would never
want to do.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
That though, But.

Speaker 10 (01:15:46):
I mean, that is pretty wild. But if you think
about it, you know, what is the purpose of the
National Guard. It's usually presumably to help for disasters here
at home, right well, a vast majority of our guardsmen
are being sent overseas instead of being used to help

(01:16:07):
us get through disasters here at home quickly. Yeah, it's
not you know, they're not able to help keep our
our borders here safe. You know what I mean if
they're over there defending the interests of whatever entities out there,
you know what I mean, like fighting all of Israel
foreign government.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 10 (01:16:29):
But you know that is that is pretty insane. And
I got to say that, like the prison system in
general is just absolutely corrupt. I ran for county sheriff
as as a constitutional sheriff here in New Hampshire back
in twenty two and that was an experience. But you
know what I learned about the prison system, even here

(01:16:51):
in New Hampshire is that you know, the vast majority
of the time they are certainly you know under there.
They struggle to get people in there to take those jobs.
It's not a fun job. But you know it just
the prisonsm in general, what they're doing, and some of
these people that are going to jail, there's there's an

(01:17:15):
issue here because there's a lot of people going there
for mental problems, not necessarily crimes, and they're basically being
treated as mental institutions these days, and it's not the
job of prison guards. Do you think like a prison
guard is going to be a good psychiatrist to help
people figure out what they're dealing with mentally, Like Ronald
Reagan's largely responsible back in the day for shutting down

(01:17:37):
a lot of mental institutions.

Speaker 1 (01:17:39):
But Roaldo Rivera, if you guys remember that.

Speaker 10 (01:17:44):
Yeah, sure, But you know, ultimately, I think that there's
a lot of people in jail or prison for you know,
mental problems that we need to fix that problem too,
you know, maybe separated out. And I'm not advocating for
more federal bureaucracy here. A lot of prisons are privately

(01:18:07):
owned and funded anyways. You can actually get stocks in prisons.
That's pretty Uh yeah, you didn't know that, Like the
prison systems mostly privately owned and you can get stocks
in it, and it's at.

Speaker 7 (01:18:21):
And this is this is the problem, right, because when
you privatize something like that, the lobbyists go to the
politicians and they say, we need to make this a
ten year mandatory deal, right, And so then yeah, you're right,
ten year mandatory or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:18:35):
We need to change the laws.

Speaker 7 (01:18:37):
And all they're doing is filling the coppers of the
guys who stroked them the check at the last fundraiser.

Speaker 6 (01:18:43):
And that's a problem. Yeah, that's what we find ourselves.

Speaker 1 (01:18:45):
Who was the guy hold on, who is the guy
Biden pardon?

Speaker 9 (01:18:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:18:49):
The judge of Pennsylvania.

Speaker 11 (01:18:51):
Yeah, you had a deal where they were jailing minors
and the judge was getting a kickback, and that judge
was one of the ones that was pardoned. I mean
the other the other side of this issue is that
there are many laws that exist that prosecute people for
victimless crimes. So as a libertarian, like if we could
get rid of laws that are victimless crimes and then
we can focus on, you know, having people, you know,

(01:19:14):
dealing with people.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Who are like hardcore criminals.

Speaker 11 (01:19:17):
But there are just a lot of things that are criminalized,
and this clogs up the system.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
It clogs up the jails.

Speaker 11 (01:19:23):
Again, part of what Ben was saying is like part
of this lobbying is to have like bs things that
are criminalized that shouldn't be criminalized. And then we and
then we then we have this just this monstrosity happening
hopefully on the federal level. Like maybe one of the
things Trump can do could be like, for example, which
I might call it, uh, this de schedule marijuana as

(01:19:48):
like a Class one narcotic. Like I think that would help,
just things like that that are not necessarily bring it
down to the states, or just you know, when it
comes to certain things that that create interactions with police
that are unnecessary and clog up the criminal justice system.

Speaker 3 (01:20:06):
And then you know.

Speaker 11 (01:20:07):
The heart you know, hard crimes like where they're against
life and property, they just can't be dealt with. And
I think that also, like in the bigger picture, will
kind of help, would I would hope, like just limit
like the ability of lobbyists to be like, hey, let's
make this, you know, like a minimum, you know, three
strikes when you're out.

Speaker 9 (01:20:24):
The problem with that is, you know they did do that,
and some of these woke progressive DA's allowed and verbalized
that you could go into stool, we wouldn't prosecute up
to five hundred dollars worth of a thousand. Everybody went
into all the stores in the big blue cities and
stole five hundred dollars, Well.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
That's not a victimless crime, Like, that's a crime against property.

Speaker 9 (01:20:45):
And also the police has something called the broken glass theory.
And that's if you start to ignore neighborhoods where they
just break the glass. It's a test, and they do more,
and they do more and they do more. If you
have crime, you should be properly convicted for whatever that
clime is. Do just mean, everybody's got to go to jail.

(01:21:06):
But there needs to be a deterrence. There is no
deterrence in this country anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
Speaking of deterrence, Okay, about consequence, Yeah, okay, hold on,
I've been trying to bring Bruce Abramson into this call
for ten minutes and y'all will not stop talking. You
got bright, Okay, we have another guest, you guys, we
got Bruce Abramson here, doctor Bruce Abramson. Doctor Bruce Abramson

(01:21:31):
added to the stage. My man, the man, the legend.

Speaker 12 (01:21:36):
I don't understand Erica, that kept giving you all these
INDs talking about mental illness.

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
And speaking of speaking of mental illness exactly. Let me
bring doctor Bruce in exactly. Yeah. So, ladies and gentlemen
joining us is Bruce Abronson, doctor Bruce Abramson. Yea, I
don't even want to start with all how long his
resume is. But I'm glad you joined us because I

(01:22:01):
want to get back to Trump issues. Look, the first
thing that Trump did when he got elected was was
start doze right and explain to me and explain to
everybody else and our listeners what zero basing is. I
mean from an economic standpoint, and you have all these
degrees that means you're one of the smart guys. Explain this.

(01:22:22):
Can you just put it on an eighth grade level
for guys like me though?

Speaker 12 (01:22:25):
Sharp, here's the beauty what those just doing? And I
really it would be great if Trump actually explained this
in the speech tonight, because people don't understand. Yeah, under
normal circumstances, when you come into a new job, you're
writing a budget for your organization for next year. You
take overs management of a new company, you inherit whatever

(01:22:45):
is there, and that becomes your baseline. And then you
come in and you say, let me look at what's there,
and yeah, you know, I got to bump this up
a bit. I can bump this down a bit. This
division doesn't seem to be doing anything. You know, I
have a feeling that the payrolls are padded. Let me
look into it, and I'll look over who's there and
see who I can cut. And it's normally the way

(01:23:07):
that things go. Your baseline is whatever you inherit, whatever
you start with, whatever you did last year, and then
as you look ahead you try to make minor adjustments.
And that's actually not a bad way to go if
your idea is, you know, last year went pretty well
and we kind of like about the same performance this year,
maybe a little bit better, and so we'll take what

(01:23:29):
we've gotten, we've tweaked. There's another approach to management, to budgeting,
and it really comes to budgeting literature. It's called zero base,
and that says, no, no, no, the baseline is zero. We're
going to go back to zero. We're going to take
a completely blank sheet of paper and now we're going
to look at what's on the table one at a
time and say, if I can justify it based on

(01:23:50):
what's here today, great, If not, it's gone. If it
has to be a completely different number than it was
last year, that's what we're going to do. So here's
an easy example of where Musk did this. A doge.
There was a story about a week and a half
ago where he sent a memo to everybody, you know,
if you're on the federal payroll. You got this memo

(01:24:10):
that said send me five bullet points of what you
did during the week.

Speaker 9 (01:24:15):
I love that.

Speaker 12 (01:24:16):
Okay, this is beautiful because this puts the incentives in
the right place. So now, all of a sudden, instead
of saying, look, if you're on the federal payroll, we're
going to keep paying you, are going to assume you
have your job, and then we'll go and a look
at one department at a time, and if we find
a couple of people here I don't belong and a
couple of people there haven't been showing up, and someone
who died five years ago, then we'll clear them up. Instead,

(01:24:40):
what he did was he said, Okay, if you're getting
this message, assume you're fired. Okay, assume you don't have
a job unless unless you meet this minimum requirement. I
want you to write back with something that basically says, hi,
I read them, I exist, I read employer email, and

(01:25:02):
in my personal opinion, I am conferring value on the organization.
That's it. You don't have to make a compelling case,
you don't have to actually be conferring value. Just tell
me that you think you're earning your keep and you
got your job, and if you can't meet that, then
you're gone. Now, all of a sudden, we've taken it

(01:25:22):
back to zero. Okay, momentarily, not even for a full payperiod. Momentarily,
the federal workforce is zero, and now we're letting everybody
who claims to have been on the federal workforce an
easy way to get back on.

Speaker 6 (01:25:38):
All right, So that's issue.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
I think we got to mute something. Thank you. So
let me ask you, Steve, is it legal? I'm not
a lawyer, but you play one on TV? But you
play one on TV. No.

Speaker 9 (01:25:53):
I think we're going to find out in the coming months.
I mean, I don't know why it wouldn't be, but
we're going to find out. I actually don't know the
answer to that.

Speaker 7 (01:26:02):
Well, one of the Turley just wrote a really excellent
article about I think it was the inspector general that
got fired, and then the judge stepped in, and Turley
wrote an article about three days ago saying, this is
actually really great for both sides because both sides have
been trying to figure out if if they work at
the discretion of the executive and so he actually said
this is going to be.

Speaker 6 (01:26:22):
Good because it's going to go to the Supreme Court
and it's finally going to be decided.

Speaker 2 (01:26:26):
And that's really where I was going with this, because
because I think we have since Nixon, we have moved
away from a strong executive, right, little by little, Congress
has sort of usurped that authority, even though Congress doesn't
pass laws anymore, because then it goes back to the
executive to pass executive orders. So I do think it
ends up in the Supreme Court to try to better

(01:26:46):
define the relation between the three supposedly coequal branches of government.
But Ben, Ben, let me ask you from a libertarian perspective,
does a libertarian party want a strong executive or a
weak executive?

Speaker 8 (01:27:01):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:27:01):
This is Donald Trump's a strong one.

Speaker 10 (01:27:03):
Okay, this is a this is a loaded question.

Speaker 1 (01:27:06):
Let me tell you because of question, I cannot.

Speaker 10 (01:27:12):
So I Okay, So I tell this to people. I
tell people that I'm Machavelian. And it's not because Macavelli was.
I guess people consider him like a violent person whatever.
But what he understood is power dynamics and how to
navigate uh in the political world of his time. And

(01:27:33):
he didn't use perfect means to achieve his ends, that's
for sure. As a libertarian, I believe at absolute decentralization,
at like the most extreme level, all right, it goes
down to the individual for everything. However, I will say
that if you had to have one person that had

(01:27:56):
to centralize everything, to decentralize everything, I don't think it's
Donald Trump. But that wouldn't make me mad.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
If we're giving me a non answer, Now you sound
like a politician. Trump.

Speaker 10 (01:28:12):
Trump is pushing the needle in the right direction in
certain areas, so where he's coming up with these executive
orders with Doge, Doge is a fantastic idea. This is
why I said I was giving props to b Avec earlier.
But do I think the executive authority is the best

(01:28:33):
way to do this. It's probably the only way to
do it, because at a decentralized level, you know, with
all these different moving parts involved, it's not going to
get done. However, you do run the risk of the
next guy getting in and completely erasing everything that you've done.
And this is the problem with centralizing it with one person.

(01:28:53):
Even if it's like the most perfect libertarian, like if
we had Ron Paul as the President of the United States,
are you saying the next guy is just going to
add it right back in, you know what I mean?

Speaker 11 (01:29:08):
And hopefully what can happen I mean right now, you know, Republicans.

Speaker 3 (01:29:13):
Have the Senate and the House.

Speaker 11 (01:29:17):
Hopefully what they can do is follow up with legislation
to solidify a lot of these things that are that
are good.

Speaker 3 (01:29:24):
So if they don't know if that's the plan.

Speaker 11 (01:29:26):
Because the danger is then you know, the react of
we've already seen the crazy reaction from the left.

Speaker 3 (01:29:33):
I mean, for goodness sake, poor jd Vance came.

Speaker 11 (01:29:35):
To Vermont to ski and he was met with a
couple of hundred insane people who were basically like screaming
at him and his kids while they were just trying
to enjoy like.

Speaker 1 (01:29:46):
A oh wow.

Speaker 9 (01:29:48):
I mean.

Speaker 11 (01:29:49):
But but my point is, and you know, with the the.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
The complete demolition of U. S.

Speaker 9 (01:29:56):
A I. D.

Speaker 3 (01:29:56):
Which I will say in my.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
State in many blues, sorry sorry I had to have
you know.

Speaker 11 (01:30:05):
There's a lot of non for profits and there's a
lot of people who are really pissed off that there
you know that their jobs or like where they go
to volunteer because they don't work and they receive income
from you know from taxpayers basically, and where they hang
out and do their activism is you know, in a
crisis mode. So there's a lot of pissed off people
and there's a lot of this kind of coordination and
I just, you know, my concern is, you know, what

(01:30:27):
happens in you know, in a few years. I would
love to see that there is this you know, quick
action to consolidate these things that are about shrinking government
and to I think our baseline is just getting to
as close as the Constitution as possible.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
I mean, that sounds crazy, but this is what we
need to happen. So I don't know it and you
know so.

Speaker 11 (01:30:50):
So yeah on the one and it's like we can,
we can strip a lot of things away from from
the executive centralizing it, but we have to get to
a point that then powers them return to people.

Speaker 9 (01:31:00):
At the end of the day, we are a republic
and that's we are exactly what I think what Ben
wants right exactly, the public, the citizens have the power.
We're not a monarchy, right.

Speaker 2 (01:31:11):
Tru were and we're not a democracy.

Speaker 6 (01:31:14):
We are a republic.

Speaker 9 (01:31:15):
In a republic, the power lies with the citizens. There
is an elected person that is supposed to and people,
we have three branches of government that are supposed to enact, enforce,
and uphold laws. We have lost that in this country.
These politicians and the hijinks, and as I said mentioned earlier,
the tom foolery with which they govern is not representative

(01:31:35):
of whether it's me or Ben or anybody else on
this screen. Because we all and by the way, we
all seem to want some different things, but at the
end of the day, we all want a strong United
States that represents each of our interests, our kids interest,
our friends interest, our neighbor's interests. But we want a
strong country. That might mean something a little bit different
for each of us. But we live in a republic,

(01:31:57):
so we should be able to have that, which is
why I said early the number one constitutional a mement,
the twenty eighth Amendment, should be term limits. Okay, if
we have it for the top office, we should have
it for the Senate and the House. But when you
talk to members of the House in Congress, they say,
oh no, no, it takes us too long to learn
the system. Guess what, you don't need to learn the system.

(01:32:20):
There shouldn't a problem.

Speaker 6 (01:32:22):
And okay, let me, let me say my anti my anti.

Speaker 1 (01:32:25):
Okay, wait, okay, you can say wait, hold on, you
can say your anti term limit. First question, by a
show of hands, who is in support of the Convention
of States? Do you know what I'm talking about? Who
doesn't know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 2 (01:32:41):
I do. I know. I'm not in favor of it
so much.

Speaker 11 (01:32:44):
I gotta shove so much stuff in my brain with
all this stuff happening.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
Okay, so at least half of us are for the
Convention of States.

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
Okay, so go ahead, you have the floor.

Speaker 6 (01:32:55):
I'll tie the doge. And I was as Steve was.

Speaker 7 (01:32:58):
Prior to Steve talking, I was thinking, this comes down
term limits, and I'm anti term limits. And one of
the things I love about what does and President Trump
are doing is is the problem with term limits is
it doesn't allow the people to elect their representatives. And
the real problem is is that a lot of well
it doesn't. Okay, I love this guy, He's amazing, He's

(01:33:20):
the best guy ever.

Speaker 6 (01:33:21):
Sorry, twelve years you're out. I can't vote for him anymore.

Speaker 7 (01:33:24):
My right to be represented by the person that I
want to be represented by is no longer there. However,
the real problem is not the politicians, they do a
lot of bad things. Most of the bad things are
done by unelected bureaucrats, and they just they if we
had term limits, they would just sit there and go,
all right, he's going to be gone in four years.

(01:33:45):
And they pass these regulations that are essentially de facto
laws because you have to live by them, whether it's
OSHA or you know, any of the other groups.

Speaker 2 (01:33:53):
Right, the administrator.

Speaker 1 (01:33:55):
I mean, I could consider agreeing with you if I
hadn't run for ungerous and had all of the bribes
sent to me. Right, So you can say that it's
that a lot of the stuff is done by unelected bureaucrats,
but it's not. It's lawmakers putting laws into place because
they got bought off by special interest groups who then

(01:34:17):
take the money out of your pocket and mine to
repay their donors.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
You see, You know, it's not that simple.

Speaker 7 (01:34:25):
How many laws there are versus how many regulations there
are far more regulations done by unelected bureaucratics.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
I hear you.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
But our elected officials are all bribed. Let's let's just
be real. Every single one of them is bribed, has
been bribed in order to get that position.

Speaker 2 (01:34:42):
Awful broad statement, Bruce.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
I will defend that till the day I die.

Speaker 12 (01:34:47):
There's there's a huge problem with any of these procedural arguments,
and that you know, it all depends, right, I mean, basically,
picture to scenarios. You've got a student who says something
in Claire us and a teacher says, you can't say that,
and the principle says you can't restrain that student, and
the school board says, to the principle, you can't control
the teacher, and the governor says to the school board,

(01:35:09):
you can't interfere with the principle. Now, which side stands
for free speech? Well, the answer is whichever side agrees
with me.

Speaker 6 (01:35:15):
Of course.

Speaker 12 (01:35:20):
At the end of the day.

Speaker 6 (01:35:21):
I mean, procedure may be.

Speaker 12 (01:35:22):
All that we have. But I tend to believe and
this is sort of my problem with ideologies, right. Why
I'm always push the pendulum back to whichever direction it
has an overswung is that I believe fundamentally that all
ideologies and all procedures have a degenerate state, and given
long enough, they will all degenerate. And I think that
a lot of what we're looking at in this country

(01:35:45):
is is ideas and ideologies and systems that actually sound
very attractive when you describe them, but they've been around
unchecked for long enough to degenerate.

Speaker 7 (01:35:58):
And we're looking at the political of the second law
of thermal dynamics.

Speaker 6 (01:36:02):
Right, everything, everything degenerates.

Speaker 12 (01:36:04):
That's everything degenerates. That's that's it, you know, right, Well,
you know, you go back to a point in history
and say we have to extole individual rights because people
aren't free to do their own thing. And you say, great,
we'll do that, and eventually, you know, you get to
John Stewart Mill saying, oh, your right to swing your

(01:36:26):
your unfettered right to swing your fists stops the tip
of my nose. But then we go beyond that, and
you effectively get to and animize the n arcic society
because any suggestion that I can't do what I want
right now is in a position of my individual liberty. Right,
So you say, well, okay, maybe we should start doing
things to build the community, and all of a sudden

(01:36:47):
you're back to North Korea.

Speaker 1 (01:36:49):
Yeah, right, and so, and this is the thing is everything.

Speaker 12 (01:36:52):
Do you want to live in North Korea or Somalia?
And the answer is neither.

Speaker 6 (01:36:57):
Do either.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
No, I want to live in a place where the
government does not have the ability to control me. See,
this is what this is what I think often gets
not but Eric in the United States of America, Erica.

Speaker 2 (01:37:12):
The minute you live in a society or civilization, you
have compromised you. Right, you know he's talking about John
Sturt Mills. You're now going back to the social contract, right,
You're going back to Jean Jacques Rousseau, which is you
were already you don't call me a russo Ian, please,
I wasn't calling you. I was just bringing them up.
But I want to go back to this term limits
thing because you know, it's interesting because there is some
conversation that Donald Trump is going to be a dictator

(01:37:34):
and he's not going to leave, you know, the same
prep they're thrown around. But it was you know, during
the FDR years, right, Franklin down and Roosevelt ran for
four terms and he won. Right, George Washington sets the
precedent no president runs more than two terms. Based on precedent,
FDR dies in his fourth term in Congress and their

(01:37:57):
infinite wisdom. And here I don't support Convention of States
because I don't want to open the teapot but in
a what happens is Congress says, oh, we can't let
the executive have that much power, so we're going to
term limit him to two years two terms, right. But
at the same time they don't term limit themselves. That's
where I have the issue with it. Whether or not

(01:38:17):
term limits, you know, Chris, as you brought up, tend
to erode your your right to have your elected representative
that you want. I think it's a point. While taking
I don't think I want to open up the constitutional box.
But if Congress saw fit to limit the term of
the executive, then why is the term of the legislature,

(01:38:40):
which is a coequal branch of government, also not limited.
Somebody answer that question for me, Steve, I'm always picking
on you. It's the bald guys. We have to stick together.

Speaker 9 (01:38:50):
I understand Chris's point, but I would say, you know,
there has to be term limits for the legislative aids
as well. I want everybody, and I don't agree that
you can't vote for your candidate because new candidates to
choose from. That's what the Framers. Framers did not have
strom Thurman and Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy in mind
when they draft the spirit of rotation at.

Speaker 6 (01:39:10):
All, and they really didn't have Maxine Waters in mind.

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
Definitely had no they definitely had those fools in mind
when they wrote that crap. They were like, these freaking fools,
what do you think about?

Speaker 6 (01:39:25):
You know, because that the whole idea of Okay, we're
going to have term limits. What about taking all these
federal employees and rotating them to Okay, you can work
ten years at this agency, that ten years you go
to another.

Speaker 7 (01:39:37):
Will we'll give you preferential treatment on hiring. But you
get them out of that niche that they've been writing
regulations that are basically just laws and usurping Congress's power
by writing regulations. Well, now they're not in that they're
not in that building anymore. Now they're over here and
they might do the same thing there, but they still
have they're rotating those employees out, but.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
They still have power, they still have influence. They still again,
all these elected officials, I'll say it again, they've all been.

Speaker 6 (01:40:03):
Bribed to the office bureaucrats. Do you say you can only.

Speaker 1 (01:40:06):
Work absolutely, we shouldn't have a bureaucracy to begin We
have so many Well, you.

Speaker 6 (01:40:11):
Have to have somebody that runs the agencies. If you
have an agency, you have to have some employees who
push the page.

Speaker 12 (01:40:16):
Yeah, but you've missed, you've missed the argument that they're
putting forward of it, which is that we need dispassionate experts. Right,
and so fine, I've spent ten years writing environmental regulations
and all of a sudden you're telling me I'm in
charge of transportation. I mean, there goes your expertise argument. Right, Yeah,
you know, yeah, I don't like the argument. I don't

(01:40:36):
agree with it. But but but uh, you know, you
have to understand that that is the point.

Speaker 6 (01:40:42):
Well, then we need to turn them back. You need
our bureaucrats then, because they're the ones who do the
most damage.

Speaker 3 (01:40:47):
Well, we need to agree the bureaucracy.

Speaker 11 (01:40:48):
I mean, if anything that usaid and dude is starting
to show us is how I mean the administrative state is,
you know, like if you're dividing this up into like
pieces of pie, Like our elected officials are like one
piece of the pie and the administrative state is like
nine tenths of it. This is exactly like we have

(01:41:09):
to like you know, and and we've only just seen
the tip of the iceberg. At this point, and it's
been such a revelation and one that I mean, for me,
it's like to to my corn. I think a lot
of people feel this. I mean, so many people are
extremely upset. I mean, I've never seen abolish the IRS trend.

Speaker 2 (01:41:31):
Well wait a minute, Alga, That's one thing I think
everyone on the show could agree on, is abolishing the IRS.

Speaker 3 (01:41:37):
See you see.

Speaker 11 (01:41:38):
People who like they're not political, like the thought never
occur to them, and they are just jumping on and sharing,
like they they don't even want to file their taxes
this year because they are livid at what's happening.

Speaker 3 (01:41:51):
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Speaker 11 (01:41:53):
And so I mean, I hope it would be great
if we could scale back the bureaucracy because in reality,
that is really what needs to happen. It's a scary
idea because we just are so used to having so
much of it. But I think we're in a revolutionary
moment right now. And I think if if DOGE continues

(01:42:13):
to do what it's doing, and we have I mean
the incredible efforts of you know, not only like you know,
Elon Musk and that team, but people like Data Republican
and what she's revealing and what she's starting to focus
on the inter relationship, inter relationships between the bureaucracy and
these non for profits and politicians and sitting judges and
their families. I mean, so much is coming out. My

(01:42:37):
my white pill would be, you know, my hope would
be that so many people are becoming radicalized in all
this and really want.

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
To see a complete.

Speaker 11 (01:42:49):
Return to to a lot more constitutional constraints on the
federal government, and that means that the bureaucracy is going
to have to shrink.

Speaker 2 (01:42:59):
All right, well we have left. Let's do it around Robin.

Speaker 12 (01:43:05):
So I just wanted to say that that's I agree
with all of that, but I also think that what
you're looking at is exactly the degeneration of a good.

Speaker 6 (01:43:13):
Idea, right.

Speaker 12 (01:43:14):
The original idea behind the bureaucracy is, Hey, what if
instead of the governor's drinking buddies and cousins writing land
use regulations, we hired somebody who had actually studied land use. Okay,
that's where a bureaucracy comes from. And it's just been
on autopilot for so long that now we're sitting around thinking,
you know, I'm not really sure I wouldn't be better

(01:43:35):
off with the governor's drinking buddies.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
Correct, yes, all right, and the time we have last
last comments, mister widener, sir, what you want to see tonight,
what you don't want to see doze the border. We
didn't get the anti semitism, we didn't get the government
shut down, which I wanted to talk about the Americans.

Speaker 6 (01:43:55):
I just think, like I said at the beginning, he
should come out as a statesman, you know. And I
got to tell you, I'm really impressed with Trump in
his second term. He seems a lot more mature. He
seems a lot more statesmanlike.

Speaker 7 (01:44:07):
I think, you know, getting shot at and ending up
in a bloody mess on a stage will do that
to you. I think he's not going to be taken
for a fool by guys like Mike Pence and the
folks who said, oh, we'll surround you with people.

Speaker 6 (01:44:19):
Who know what we're doing in Washington, d C.

Speaker 7 (01:44:21):
He's putting in the people who he knows are going
to push his agenda, who he's known for the last
four years or more. And so I'd like to see
him come out and be statesmanlike and be a great
leader and use that kind of language. I mean, as
a professional speaker and author, words matter. You know the
old proverb from the book Proverbs, the tongue is the
power of life and death, and those who love it

(01:44:43):
will eat its fruit. And it's one of my favorite proverbs.
And the reality is what you say creates a reality.
If he comes out and he's statesmanlike, yess, MSNBC and
Cian and are gonna still say bad things about him,
But the average American watching is going to go, Wow,
that's not the Trump.

Speaker 6 (01:45:02):
He's not that you know, crazy guy.

Speaker 7 (01:45:05):
Or the you know, the buffoon or the Bohart or
you know whatever. He's really sort of reagan esque.

Speaker 1 (01:45:12):
Yeah, and just so just so you guys know, anybody
who wants to hang around, we are doing live commentary
on the presidential Congressional address. So you guys, so we
we're sort of having like a little intermission. We're going
to end this segment, but anybody who wants to stay
and talk about this, you did so we had apparently

(01:45:35):
we had a very apparently we had a very different
planning meeting yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
Failure to communicate ben her final comments.

Speaker 10 (01:45:43):
All right, what I would like to see Trump talk
about is obviously, you know, giving more now. I want
to see more decentralization obviously, but I want to really
see him talk about, you know, the the ending foreign
of of foreign aid. Uh like obviously with Ukraine and

(01:46:06):
stuff like that, but especially with Israel. We need to
be ending the foreign wars and ending all foreign influence
over United States politics. And I think that a lot
of that starts with ending foreign aid and cutting every
single dollar that's going off overseas to every country period.
We need to start taking care of ourselves. It doesn't
mean be isolationists, but you know, as Trump has been

(01:46:30):
doing with other countries like Argentina opening up a free
trade agreement today, you know, I think that there's other
opportunities for diplomacy, and you know, I'd love to see
more diplomacy, uh less less bureaucracy, and maybe an audit

(01:46:51):
of the Federal Reserve that would be really great.

Speaker 1 (01:46:54):
Hashtag and the Fed.

Speaker 2 (01:46:58):
Steve, Yeah, I e're up next. Because of the whole
aid comment.

Speaker 9 (01:47:05):
Yeah, so we need more aid, not less aid. To
pull back all the aid is a silly comment. Israel
needs as much aid as possible. It's our only ally,
it's our most trusted ally in the world. With no Israel,
there would be complete instability in the Middle East. There
would be chaos like you've never seen before. It's the
only you know, normal country in that in that in

(01:47:28):
that in the Middle East. We need Israel, they need
our aid. I do agree that at some point Israel
should and we'll be able to stand on their own
two feet, but that's a long time away. There are
places where we should give money, there are places that
we shouldn't give money. We should continue to give money
to Egypt. And I hope that Trump comes out tonight
and Hammer's home, the Palestinian protester, the Palestinian supporters, the

(01:47:52):
Hamas supporters, that has Bollel supporters. I hope he and
Leo Terrell and Linda McMahon continue to threaten to pull
funding from public institutions, educational institutions. We have to deradicalize
these places. They are ruining young people. And like I said,
we lost one generation. I'm not going to sit back
and watch another generation get lost. But to suggest that

(01:48:13):
we should pull back on AID is a non stort
and by the way, it ain't gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:48:19):
Okay Olga. Last thoughts, what I would like to see is.

Speaker 3 (01:48:29):
I'm curious where Doge is going. I think there's been
a really good momentum with it.

Speaker 11 (01:48:37):
I think it's stirred and it's opened a lot of
eyes for just like I said, everyday people who are
not necessarily you know, they may have voted for him,
but they're not hotcore. I think this is something that's
radicalizing people. I would like to see more on that
in terms of going into like how many more agencies
and deregulating and decentralizing, you know, kind of getting rid

(01:49:01):
of a good amount of the federal bureaucy. Like I'm
really hoping like that exposure continues to happen. So I'm
hoping to hear more about that tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
Doctor Abramson, Sir.

Speaker 12 (01:49:11):
So you know, I already said what I hope to hear.
On domestic policy, I think it's important that the Trump
put forward a view of the world. And I think,
you know, we can talk about cutting eight or not
cutting EID, but the problem is that not every dollar
that we send.

Speaker 6 (01:49:26):
Abroad is aid, right.

Speaker 12 (01:49:28):
It's sort of you know, investment and consumption are two
ways that I take a dollar out of my pocket.
The different things I think the way that you have
in America first foreign policy is you have America backing
and supporting allies who are willing to invest heavily in
their own defense, and we help them do that. And
we've actually got these stark contrasts between Israel on the

(01:49:50):
one hand and Europe on the other, between the gods
of war on the one hand, and the Ukraine Russian
War on the other. The Biden administration kept both wars
going lessly. They gave Ukraine just enough to keep fighting,
and they restrained Israel from winning when it was clear
that their enemies were not going to relent. Trump needs
to go in the other direction. It needs to make

(01:50:11):
it clear that what he is doing is working towards
ending these wars and motivating our allies to strengthen and
support themselves, get to remain our allies. And that means
convincing Ukraine and it's time to stand down because they
can't displace Russia from territory.

Speaker 6 (01:50:29):
It's already seized.

Speaker 12 (01:50:31):
And it means dropping the restraints on Israel and saying
to them, go do what you need to do to
win and stabilize the region. And that is the pattern
that we need to set around the world and to
say to all of our allies, we want you to
be able to defend yourselves as the Israelis do. And
when we see that that's the investment you're making in yourself,

(01:50:51):
we will invest in you. And until you're willing to
do that, then it's just a gift that we're not
subsidizing you.

Speaker 1 (01:50:58):
Okay, you guys, flash round, take us, take it, take it,
take us home. Eric, you ready, we've got a flash round.
We just got a great question comment. I'm not exactly
sure who it was directed at, but so so thirty
seconds or less, I know a bunch of you or verboth,
so you know who I'm talking to. Thirty seconds or less.
What do you guys think about the tariffs?

Speaker 2 (01:51:20):
Love the tariffs.

Speaker 7 (01:51:23):
I think we should get rid of the income tax
and go back to what we did before we had
an income tax and fund everything through tariffs.

Speaker 10 (01:51:29):
Taxation is theft. Tariffs are tax, and therefore tariffs are
theft and they should not be implemented whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
Yeah, howay, if you're on after we're totally talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:51:44):
This occasion, though, how is it theft? Nobody's required to
pay for the hold on?

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
It's thirty seconds. This isn't talk bad time because.

Speaker 9 (01:51:51):
It's reflected on the consumer.

Speaker 10 (01:51:52):
It's just a tax that's passed off to the consumer.

Speaker 9 (01:51:54):
That's all voluntary.

Speaker 6 (01:51:56):
It's all voluntary.

Speaker 1 (01:51:56):
I don't have to Okay, but no, this isn't debate time.
If you want to stay for debate time, you can
stay for the commentary later.

Speaker 9 (01:52:03):
I don't have an issue with tariffs when needed. I
think now is the wrong time. So thumbs down, Bruce, Okay,
Christmas before them.

Speaker 12 (01:52:13):
We need to have a better definition of strategic strategic
industries and apply tariffs to protect the industries that are
really strategic and drop the millswhere, how.

Speaker 1 (01:52:21):
About we got some strategic industry.

Speaker 11 (01:52:23):
I'm curious and I'm interested in how Trump is going
to use tariffs. I think he's using them strategically. I
think he is playing like forty chess. I think it's
a negotiating tool. If the stepping stone is, you know,
we abolish income tax and then tariffs is a thing,

(01:52:45):
and then we can choose not to buy. I'm open
to that stepping stone because I'd love to abolish income tax.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
I'd love to abolish property tax.

Speaker 11 (01:52:53):
I'm more curious about it because I see some of
the concessions that are happening as a result of him
using tariffs.

Speaker 3 (01:53:00):
As a negotiation. So I don't I'm I'm really curious.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
Okay, it was thirty seconds, Olga. I didn't think you
were going to be the one that went over nodeconds. No,
I love it, you guys, I love it. So uh,
we just want to thank everybody that's been here today.
Now remember yes, so now remember we're going to have

(01:53:25):
a live commentary on the congressional address. So if you
want to stay, uh, any of the guests, you guys
want to stay on, hang out and talk smack, we
can do that and then uh and you guys watching
stay and hang out. So so around around the uh,
around the screen, the horn. We've got Chris Widner, Olga, Maria,

(01:53:45):
ben Weir, Bruce Doctor, Bruce Abramson, and Steve Rosenberg. Thank
you guys all for being here tonight, sharing your opinions,
sharing your thoughts. So, so who's going to stay and
hang out with us?

Speaker 10 (01:53:58):
I'll show Yeah, I got a new one that's fussy
out there.

Speaker 1 (01:54:02):
So what Okay, Ben, let's say you have your priorities, right, Ben,
If you want to come back though, bro, you are
welcome because I we're this is fun. I like, I
like getting to to argue a little bit in a
good natured argument is good for everybody, y'all.

Speaker 10 (01:54:17):
So sure, we just want to need neighborhood anarchists.

Speaker 6 (01:54:19):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:54:22):
A men, I can come back.

Speaker 6 (01:54:24):
I can come back in a bit, but I screen.

Speaker 2 (01:54:28):
Yeah, you got it.

Speaker 9 (01:54:28):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:54:29):
So you guys, if you have been watching for this
long and you hated it, go ahead and like it anyway,
leave a hate comment, because all engagement is good engagement.
But if you did get something out of it, go
ahead and share with your friends and family, subscribe to
the channel that you're watching on, and leave us the
thumbs up. All right, you guys. And uh, and make

(01:54:50):
sure to go check out our sponsors, Israel Appreciation Day
and the American Center for Education and Knowledge, and uh,
you know, like donate and buy.

Speaker 2 (01:55:00):
Merch.

Speaker 1 (01:55:01):
Okay, you guys, So how okay? So here's what we're
gonna do. Here's what we're gonna do. Uh, we are
going to play a five minute countdown. We're gonna play
the Israel Appreciation Day highlight reel and then a uh
and then a countdown. And so we'll be back in about,
you know, five seven minutes. All right, y'all, all.

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
Right, bye, thanks everybody, Bye bye.

Speaker 9 (01:55:28):
Do Do Do Do Do Do

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