September 15, 2023 • 39 mins
The best way to describe this episode would simply to be a preview of the political year to come. The discussion covers many of the leading candidates as well as the political parties.
Is there a clear path or shape that the campaigns will have? At this time, probably not.
That alone is a concern.
Billy Dees and guest cohost Shaman Isis - September 13, 2023
Is there a clear path or shape that the campaigns will have? At this time, probably not.
That alone is a concern.
Billy Dees and guest cohost Shaman Isis - September 13, 2023
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
You may have a gay plan.He just hasn't shared it with me.
But I tell you what, Idon't know about you, but I'm going
to go to bed, all right. Well, hello everyone, and welcome
to the program. I am absolutelythrilled that you are here. Like I
always am, I have a cohost today. My co host is Shaman.
(00:23):
Isis and she's all smiles. Shaman, what's up? Thank you so
much for being the co host today. Absolutely what we're gonna talk about.
If you've never checked out the programbefore, we are primarily commentary and we
do interviews here today this is goingto be kind of a commentary podcast,
and we're gonna talk about politics,and that's one that can scare a lot
(00:47):
of people. But you know,you've got to be able to talk about
things. And Shaman, I don'tknow how you would classify yourself. I'm
certainly an independent conservative liberal by today'sstandards, I can't really identify with either
one. My personal opinion is isthat the meter on crazy went into the
(01:12):
red more often with conservatives back intwo thousand and eight. Now it seems
like the crazy meter has a tendencyto go into the red a little bit
more on the left, But nonethelessI don't identify with either one. Do
you want to preface your view,I'm middle of the road. I don't
(01:34):
identify with either one of them.They became so disconnected to me from the
average person and from the real issuesgoing on in the world and in the
country that I just got frustrated andsaid, you know what, I'm just
going to be an independent. Yeah, I'm totally with you there. This
is one of the I'll also prefaceour conversation today with this. There have
(01:59):
been different times times in history,i'll say modern history. During my lifetime,
let's say Ronald Reagan and forward.Even in the seventies, there were
people that disagreed a lot, andDemocrats and Republicans always were at each other's
throats, so to speak. Theyou know, Ronald Reagan and the Tip
(02:24):
O'Neill had some pretty famous disagreements.But somehow or other, they both lived
in the same reality. You knowthat they that they realized that they both
were aware that the sky is above, it's blue. And but now we're
entering a and this is relatively new. I don't remember this happening before the
(02:47):
last five years. In particular,we are entering a time when people not
only have their own opinions, butthey have their own facts, they have
their own reality. Would you agreewith that? Oh? Absolutely, I
think it's it's one of the giftsof having everyone be at their own media
(03:07):
is that they that they can gobased on algorithms, they can get delivered
to the opinion that they have begunto show interest in, and then they
get solidified and the next thing,you know, their livings on a planet
that's not Earth. Yes. Absolutely. And it's gotten to the point now
where you know, the phrase thatI never liked when I heard it,
(03:30):
and it started with cable news wasnews you can use, which which translated
into news you agree with and newsthat keeps you happy and watching serial commercials.
And with the advent of social media, this has been exacerbated now by
you know, following people that youlike. It's getting to the point where
(03:53):
you don't necessarily follow or tolerate anyonein your timeline that you disagree with,
you them straight up block them.You don't want to even hear an opposing
opinion. So to be honest,as we talk about politics today, we're
going to talk about some of thecandidates and just in general, we're going
(04:14):
to get Shaman's reaction, and I'llthrow in my two sets when possible.
But we're in the time where it'squite frankly, if I was a politician,
I would be kind of perplexed asto how to appeal to an audience
that really is accustomed to hearing whatthey want to hear. They don't necessarily
(04:38):
want to hear the solutions any morethan the politicians want to give them.
Yeah, so that's kind of whereI'm at, can go right ahead.
Yesterday I posted the Seaman Isis Showpodcast and I did an opening talking about
the fact that Nancy Pelosi had saidthat she was going to be running again,
and I was, you know,we talked about this. I was
(05:00):
sort of slaying the whole, youknow, aged politician situation that we've gotten
ourselves into. And somebody re sharedmy podcast and just went off on how
how horrible it was that I chosea particular person, and I mean,
they really did. They did itthree different places, and I was like,
you need to ask yourself why you'recoming after someone for expressing a personal
(05:23):
opinion in a show that's their ownname. Yes, I mean in what
it was interesting to me was thatthey what they did was they took what
they listened to and they assigned aparty to me, they assigned a political
position to me, and and impliedseveral things about my politics that I'm not
(05:44):
even that open about. So Iwas like, oh, well, I'm
glad, you know exactly. Andthat's that's kind of where we're at.
You know, we're in a wehave a moral compass too, like me.
For example, to me, agiven action is either right or it's
wrong in simple terms. With aleft in particular, it depends on who's
(06:08):
involved, who's doing it to him. Some people are are justified in doing
bad things, and both sides willexcuse their quote unquote candidate or politician for
doing certain things and in the samesituation condemn another for doing the same thing.
And very narcissistic. Yeah, andit's we have a more moral compass
(06:32):
now that doesn't point in the directionof right or wrong. It points in
well, it depends on who itis and what their reason is. Uh.
And that's that's a scary scary thingto to those kind of time.
Scary, is what I'm trying tosay. All right, let's start with
the guy that's there now, JoeBiden, I want to be very clear
(06:56):
here, I'm not necessary early sayinganything directly related to age, because we
have to bring that up. Well, we get into this thing about ages
and so on and so forth.Bernie Sanders, for whatever reason, whether
you agree with them or not,sharp as a pin, Absolutely sharp as
a pin. Joe Biden, notso much. I presume a lot of
(07:21):
people have heard the sound bite theother day where he was in a press
conference and he said, listen,I don't know about you, but I'm
going to bed. Yeah, I'msorry. It's gotten to the point now
where you can't tell his quotes fromthe onion. No, you can't,
(07:46):
you can't. And and in whatI've seen with Joe, I'm sorry I
finished what you were saying. Ohno, no, Well that's kind of
where where I was at. II can remember when Ronald Reagan, when
when when Democrats tried to make hisage an issue, And in all fairness,
I think his first term very sharp, very sharp, He always always
(08:07):
funny. He was called the greatcommunicator. Second term for the most part,
knowing what we know now about whatwas going on with him that last
year. If you go back andlook at some news clips from nineteen eighty
seven when he was in his lastyear, you could tell, hey,
we're starting to slip just a littlebit. And that's not being mean,
but that's that's that's the unestcot truth. Yeah, and Ronald Reagan left office
(08:31):
younger then Joe Biden went in.Yeah, And if he wins in twenty
twenty four, that means he willbe in an office in essence another five
years on top of where we're atnow. So this is kind of where
we're at. I don't know thatthis is a good thing for the country.
(08:56):
I listen in to some of theforeign media talking about the United States
and it's it's not good. It'snot good. No, it's the first
time in my life and I havemad respect for the office of the president.
I have respect for anybody who doessuch a challenging job. And having
said that, it is an incrediblyhigh stressed, challenging job that requires someone
(09:18):
who has a sufficient amount of energyand intellect and interest to be able to
do the job as well as possible. And we're already seeing in this term
him struggle. And in addition tothat, we're losing the respect of the
international audience and politicians and other countries, because they see it for what it
(09:41):
is and they're talking about it andvery openly that you know, ages real
really is a number. But weage differently, all of us as we
get older, and some of usage super well and stay sharp, and
some of us don't. And someof his gaffs have embarrassed the country.
Yeah, so if you're a Democratright now, you got to know when
(10:03):
you're in the background here. Again, I want to stress this. As
a human being, I kind ofkind of feel that, for lack of
a better term, he was kindof a goof his whole career. But
that aside, the aging situation hascome into I do have empathy for him
as a human being. I don'twant to see anybody in an uncomfortable situation.
(10:24):
I don't want to see anybody ina vulnerable situation. But this is
somebody that potentially could be managing awar. Yeah, okay, So you
want your best and your brightest inthere, and sometimes it's it's just time
to step down. This goes backto the power dynamics because I personally,
my intuition feels that he never reallywanted to be president that he did it
(10:48):
because that was the position he foundhimself in at a time when it just
worked out, and to maintain thepower dynamic going on in DC, the
pressure on. I don't think heeven feels like he has a choice.
I mean, that's just my personalopinion. Yeah, I think it's valid.
The one thing that I would sayis here again, somewhat of a
(11:11):
recent phenomenon now politicians, especially inregard to the top of the ticket,
the president, the presidency. Politiciansright now we are winning on what's called
the anti vote, and quite franklyBiden won on the anti Trump vote,
and quite frankly Trump very much benefitedfrom the anti Hillary vote. And I
(11:33):
could go on with this. There'stwo elections that stand out. Since Ronald
Reagan won very decisively in nineteen eightyfour, I believe the whole the whole
map was read except from one state. Certainly. Bill Clinton came in in
nineteen ninety two, people voted forhim, and I would say Obama in
(11:54):
two thousand and eight people voted forhim. But for the rest of them
that most of these elections have beenin. Our guy isn't as bad as
yours. And that's where we've gottenwhere it's picked the worst possible, you
know, the least worst version ofwho's going to be in office. Yes,
so in the back rooms, what'shappening with the Democratic conversations? They
(12:16):
got to know he's not going tostand up too well in a debate.
I don't think they I don't thinkthey're gonna honestly think they're going to do
everything they can to keep him outof debates, to keep him out of
complex situations to I mean, they'retrying to bypass other candidates, uh,
and not even debate within the DemocraticParty, just to slide him right in
and try to squeeze past the wholething. Well, they figure he's got
(12:37):
he's got to stand up on duringthe general election and say something good.
I mean, there's going to comea point when he's going to have to
face a candidate. Oh yeah.But I think it's a it's a matter
of rolling the dice. It's likeplaying blackjack. You know, they're they're
trying to time it as well aspossible. What if they really know that
(12:58):
he's dang riskly impaired. I honestlythink that they've already talked about that.
I mean, I can't even Iwouldn't have a lot of respect for them
if they didn't actually have that conversation. They already have plans lined up,
which I think is interesting because Idon't think that that they necessarily are looking
at Kamala Harris. Yeah, butyou know that that's a mystery to me.
(13:26):
Yeah. I know that they're notparticularly thrilled about Kamala being the choice
either because her points way down.If anything, they're lower than Bidens.
And I don't even know how that'spossible. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me
at all. Okay, so allright, that's where they're at. Now
there's other things and the we'll staywith the Democrats and let's stay in contrast
(13:48):
to Biden rfk Jr. Interesting person, Uh. Interesting. He doesn't fit
the mold of the Kennedys by anystretch of the imagination. Yeah, he's
his own man. And there's thingsthat he says that conservatives absolutely love.
(14:11):
There's things that he says that liberalsabsolutely love, and by a contrast,
he says things that they both hate. Oh yeah, and that puts him
in an interesting position because most politicians, they figure out which boat they're going
to be able to sail in,and he has an asset in that name
that allows him some latitude that othersdon't have. And I think from just
(14:33):
from having observed him, he seemsto actually really decide things based on what
he feels and believes, which isis a privilege within the way our political
system is arranged, because it's almostimpossible to get into office without getting the
funding. You can't get the fundingif you don't pick sides, and so
he's in a unique position. It'sinteresting. Yeah, I agree with a
(14:54):
lot of what he says. I'ma little scared of him because, like
I said, I remember him yearspast and he would come up with some
off the wall things. Now heseems to be more mainstream now. He
wrote the book about Fauci, andI know a lot of liberals don't like
him because of that. But he'san interesting, interesting choice. Now,
(15:15):
this is just a rumor, onlya rumor. I want to stress.
It's been going around online that they'vesent out floaters, they send out feelers
for Michelle Obama possibly stepping up.I believe that she could be a viable
candidate. My only thing with goingthat direction would be this, I don't
(15:39):
believe that in the United States,that dynasties are a good thing. We
had a Bush dynasty. We hada Bush dynasty. We had a Clinton
dynasty, Okay, and by default, I think Biden, like you mentioned,
he was ushered in by his associationwith a very popular president. And
(16:00):
if a Michelle would happen to getin there, we would buy I'm going
to say, let's say call ita twelve year dynasty that we would have.
And my thing is, I believethat both sides, but in particular
the Democrats, they need another Obama, they need another Bill Clinton, they
(16:21):
need a fresh face. I thinkthe country needs a fresh face on both
side. I agree with that.That's the problem. The main problem that
we have right now with politics iswe've got so many people who been around
for a long time are stuck intheir ways and oh everybody that has given
the money favors, and then we'vegot some political dynasties, which is what
(16:41):
you're referring to. And as muchas I like Michelle Obama, the Clinton
of the Obama's are deeply ingrained inthe political system. A lot of people
don't realize that Obama grew up knowingthe Bushes. So you know, we
need fresh faces, and we needpeople who are willing to speak sincerely and
honestly about the severe are in seriousissues that we have in this country that
(17:02):
our younger generations are facing and arevery aware of that are not being addressed
by the political parties. They're scaredof those topics. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Another name that gets floated around bythe Democrats is Gavin Newsom. And you
know what he reminds me of.Gavin Newson reminds me if you were to
(17:23):
call on Central Central cast this istrue. We need a used car salesman,
you know, with the hair slickedback and the toothpick. Hey,
I gotta deal for you. That'sthat's Gavin Newsome to me. Okay,
And boy privilege walks ahead of him. And he's really good at i'll call
(17:52):
it bullshitting. He's really good attaking a statistics and he's great for these
per capita things. Per capita capita. You know, you you can point
out that uh, California is fallinginto the sea, and he will come
up with some per capita thing aboutwhy it's better than New York. And
by the way, that's that's oneof the oldest tricks in the books per
(18:15):
capita. There's only a numbers comparison. It does not it doesn't take in
any other factors. So what's yourwhat's your tick on him? Well,
you know, I think that he'sa very good example of privilege sliding into
office because he's related to Nancy Pelosi, and I don't think he paid his
(18:37):
dues in the proper way that wouldhave developed his skill set to have been
an effective politician. And that's whathappens when we get uh, what's the
term they always use for kids oflike famous people, not narcissism, Oh,
you knowpotism. Nepotism, Thank you. He's a great example of what
happens when nepotism gets somebody into officefaster than they deserved to be. So's
(19:02):
he's good at flim flam, likea car salesman, But when it comes
to the depth and being sincere andhonest and really caring about the serious issues,
he's too caught up in the systemsthat are in place that get politicians
in and staying in power. Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine Gavin Knewsom
being a choice. He's so farand here again, a lot can happen
(19:26):
in a year you know, we'rea year away from the election year and
a lot can happen. That's aneternity in politics. But I gotta tell
you, I can't imagine getting theDemocratic Party in the general population getting behind
that guy. I just can't can'tdo it. Michelle Obama, I can
see maybe, No I can't.I can't, And I think she would
probably be good. But we weneed fresh and not patched, not deeply
(19:52):
entrenched. I'm a much in Hillaryin the same regard. Uh. You
know a lot of people have said, maybe this is her time to get
you know, her last ditch effort. But I think it's time to be
If I was if I was advisingthe Democratic Party, I'd say, you
need a fresh face. It's timeto get away from Clinton, Obama all
that stuff. It's time to youknow, come up with something new and
(20:15):
more stimulating, you know, gettingback to age, because I'm going to
shift down to the Republican Party.Trump for the most part, seems cognitively,
very well together. Some people mightsay he's crazy, but that's whole
another thing. That's a whole othertopic. He seems like cognitively, he's
uh, he seems on board.Mitch McConnell. You know, he is
(20:38):
having some mishoes in here. Again, it's very sad. Uh and I
here again, I just say thatwe're saying that it's very sad because we've
been taught to look at aging assomething to be sad about. Where I
think it's it's sad for the Americanpeople that the political system is in that
situation. Absolutely, and old isstill an office. I think it's very
(21:00):
sad when quite literally being propped upat a podium, I think that's inhumane
to the person that's being propped up, and it's certainly not good for the
public. And it is nothing againstaging. You know what. Life runs
its course and there comes a timewhen you should just be sitting on the
back porch drinking some sweet tea andenjoying joy in life and not be making
(21:26):
decisions that are affecting millions of people. Well, you're cognitive function. When
you're cognitive at your physical your mentalhealth is it becomes fragile. You shouldn't
be in a decision making position.Yeah. Yeah, and uh, like
I said, it's hard to tellthe headlines from There's a like the Onion,
(21:47):
there's one called the Babylon be andOkay, I don't know the exact
words I'm paraphrasing here, but theyhad they had this image of this old
man laying in bed and the familiesgather, the gather around him, and
the caption says, family is tornbetween sending Grandpa to hospice or having him
run for senate. That's what Ilove about that. I mean, I'm
(22:11):
not into I'm not into put specificparties or or you know, people's personal
beliefs, but they're funny. Yes, And uh, it's it's where a
country three hundred and thirty some oddmillion people, I don't know what the
exact number is, but why wherearen't our best and brightest up there?
Why are we regurgitating the same people? I don't understand that. It was
(22:34):
never My understanding of the way thegovernment was set up was it was never
meant to be a career. It'scertainly not a career to the point where
you served until you dropped like thePope. Yeah, okay, Uh.
Congress in terms of the House,that was always supposed to be a very
(22:55):
limited, almost volunteer type thing.Senate was a little bit more maybe skilled
Paul Petitians, but none of thesethings we're supposed to be like, you
get elected when you're forty to fiftyand then you serve until you die.
It was not supposed to be that. But in a lot of respects that
that we can get into the conversationabout turn limitations, that anything. We'll
(23:15):
get to that at another time.But right now, the front runner with
the Republican Party is, of courseTrump. And if you would have asked
me three months ago, I wouldhave said, yes, I know he
can get the nomination, but Idon't think he can win the general election.
And now I'm not so sure.And I'll tell you why I'm not
so sure is because the left isgetting crazier and crazier. They're changing the
(23:41):
meaning of words and championing causes thatare just insane. These movements out in
California where they're they're they're talking aboutbills that make it illegal for business owners
to stop shoplifters. This is thetype of thing, this is the type
of bs that got him elected tobegin with. Yeah, and it's the
(24:02):
kind of thing that, well,they're not Tory, they're becoming notorious for
these kinds of crazy. It's almostlike crazy schemes that have to involve special
interest groups have to because they don'tmake it doesn't make sense for throughout without
something like that. Yeah, soif you would ask me now, I
would still say it's unlikely. Butthree months ago I said it's impossible.
But now I'm gonna say. Youknow what, that that that light one
(24:30):
of the guys on CNN made thething about he was a joke in twenty
sixteen, But that steam engine keptgetting closer and closer and getting bigger and
bigger. And here again three monthsago, and I said there's no way
Trump, But I'll sell you nowthat steam engine is is getting louder,
and the ground is starting to rumblea little bit. I do believe I
can't rule out another Trump presidency.I can't. Yeah, well, I
(24:53):
will say I don't. I don'tforesee that that necessarily happening. But I
think what has happened in that threemonths is that the attacks and the organized
effort to go after him for thingsthat other people have been guilty of and
didn't get any kind of this kindof level of scrutiny, and you know,
(25:15):
all that, all the stuff it'sbeen going on, that level it
tipped over into people being like,you know, why haven't we arrested other
previous presidents for some of the thingsthat they've done, And that's what's caused
people to shift back into his favor. Oh well, a lot of presidents
have done far worse. I mean, the manipulated tax fair funds. They've
(25:40):
sent our brave men and women intosituations where they were a certain amount of
them are surely going to die interms of our armed forces to advance the
interests of the United States, andsometimes you know, the idea the last
moral war, if there's such athing, I guess you could say Hitler
had to be stopped. But someof the other things that have gone on
(26:02):
in the last twenty years, Ireally question the motives of yea, of
all of the The expenditure of bothlife and capital has been enormous. It
has just been enormous, and whathave we gotten for it. Yeah,
war makes people a lot of money, and that's why don't understand. They
(26:22):
don't understand how powerful the companies arethat make a fortune when war happens.
Yeah, interestingly, you said aboutyou know, the I'll say persecution of
Trump, And here again I'm notsaying he's innocent. That's not what I'm
saying. That's not either one ofus are saying. No, it's over
the top, Yes, it's it'she's basically basically guilty of political shenanigans.
(26:48):
Some of them illegal, but theyare political shenanigans. And Vladimir Putin,
I don't know if he was onTV the other day at a major thing,
and he said the United States haslost its right to lecture anybody about
the morality of their government or democracybecause of what's happening with Trump. And
(27:14):
he claims he's indifferent. He saidit's probably benefiting him for Trump to be
you know, where he's at.But in all honesty, the room that
he was in I heard laughter inthe background. So he's not wrong.
He's not wrong, and I'm notI'm not saying that Vladimir Putin is somebody
(27:37):
that we should aspire to. Butjust because he is we is, doesn't
mean he's wrong. You know,if he likes pizza, that doesn't mean
you're bad if you like pizza too. The truth is the truth. And
I don't know, and this issomething that I'm hearing. I follow creators
from all over the world, Europein particular, is very frustrated with the
United States right now. Well,how is the prized by that we're barely
(28:00):
functioning over here? You know,it's there. We've got serious problems.
I did an episode on it recently, and it was some of the statistics
I was looking at were my mindblowing. Yeah. But yeah, when
we start to be questioned like thatby foreign powers, we're in a serious
(28:21):
situation. And I think the onlyway to really shake that up is to
bring fresh faces into politics. Absolutelyanother person that's kind of on the Republican
side, but I'm not necessarily opposedto yet. Uh. You know,
these it takes a while for theirfor these candidates to evolve from or to
come out about them and hear themtalk over a period of time and so
(28:42):
forth. Of the vek rama swammy. I kind of like him, you're
chuckling. Is there an impression thatyou have of him that you would like
to share? Uh? You know, I I kind of liked him for
entertainment purposes, because when we neededsomeone colorful and funny. But there's something,
(29:03):
you know, just intuitively, there'ssomething there that I think, you
know, it's about fame and moneyand power. That's just what my intuition
tells me is that that might beat the root of of the reasons for
choosing to run. But you know, I didn't make a study of him,
so I don't want to make thatas a blanket statement. Yeah,
(29:25):
if you're going to research him,you'd want you'd want to hear you'd want
to check out where his grant foreducation came from. You want to check
out that story. And you'd alsowant to check how he made his money.
A lot of that money is throughfinancial investments in biotech, and from
what I understand, a lot ofthose things have been invested by some really
big powerhouses in terms of like Vanguardand some of those others Blackwater. I'm
(29:48):
not sure which one of them isa black Rock. I'm sorry, Blackwater
is the security firm? Oh yeah, yeah, I know exactly who they
are. I was like, wellclose, all right, we need to
do what we need to do anepisode talking about Van Garden black Rock.
Yeah, yes, absolutely, becausetypically when people talk about corporate interests,
(30:12):
they pick on Ford and Google andall that, and they all got their
problems. But I'm telling you,it's kind of like the game of thrown
the white Walkers, I've been guardYeah, I mean when you see and
I've showed this to my students atschool, at the school I teach at,
I teach adults at college, andI show them how much the invested
(30:34):
interests they have across almost every corporationon the S and P. Five hundred,
and they're like, and I'm likeit basically everything anyway. Yeah,
so anyway, I would consider him. I absolutely would consider him, and
I guess probably the other player thatkind of has a chance. And you
(30:55):
know what's interesting about him when hewasn't big in Florida, he was kind
of crowned the new leader of theRepublican Party. But that kind of uh
feels out and Rondy Santas is kindof just kind of hanging there. Yeah,
it's not very He's still alive,but he's not catching fire. Yeah,
(31:15):
is that kind of your assessment.He's just not very likable. He
comes across as disingenuous and not verylikable. It's as if he's always alone
in a crowd. And I'm notsaying that he's not. I don't know
him personally, just as as acommunications pioneer, my observations of people are
pretty accurate, and I think hisissue is that he just doesn't come across
(31:38):
as that likable and that trustworthy.And that's that's not to say that that
I'm saying for a fact he's not. It's about it's about the energy that
somebody gives off and the impression thatpeople take from it. And sometimes you
can do that can happen with peoplesimply because they're an introvert or they're not
comfortable talking about certain aspects of theirlife. But there's reasons sometimes. But
(32:00):
in politics, coming across is nottotally transparent and disingenuous is a huge problem.
Absolutely, So that's where we're at. I don't know that any of
the people that we talked about,Republican or Democrat at this time stand out
(32:22):
as somebody this is going to bethe person I am, Buddy, I'm
just not getting it. I havea feeling this is one of the few
elections, and I'm not twenty oneyears old anymore, this is one of
the few elections. As much aspeople talked about Reagan starting a war with
(32:43):
then USSR and all these other things, I was really never really that concerned.
Even in even in post nine eleven, I was never really that concerned
about the future of the United States, but with the way things are being
up in the world right now youhave in here again, this is another
(33:05):
subject that's very big. But theway that monet monetization and different currencies are
valued is radically starting to change.Oh yeah, and we're not in front
of the eight ball. Yes,And that could be big for the United
States because the one thing that UnitedStates has always done, and if anything,
(33:25):
it's been to our detriment, yeah, is we've shown the dollar and
said you do what we say areWe're taking our dollar and we're going home,
just like a kid that owns theball. And all the other countries
would quake in their shoes. Ohno, because no matter what it was,
Payo's euros, whatever, everything was, well, how many dollars is
(33:45):
it worth? That was the standard, okay, And that's starting to change.
And that is one of the oneof my biggest concerns about where we've
been headed the last few years isthe fact that we've become so caught up
in the drama of whatever issues beingthrown out to keep us like rabbit dogs
(34:06):
running after Oh oh, here's thatissue that they loved us throw out of
every you know, a few monthswhen they need us distracted. Is that
all that distraction while the political youknow, candidates have not evolved and have
not become very they're not in touchwith the problems that we really have and
or nor how to fix them.Is that while we were lost in the
(34:30):
woods, other countries have leapt forwardand seize what they see as an opportunity
to take some of the power outof us. And that is that is
the concern, is that we're losingour place within the and that goes back
to our president and to the hotmess that we've been for a few years.
And I think we have it inus to come back and to rally
(34:51):
because we're so good at that,America is so good at that. But
we need need to wake the fup. Yeah, absolutely, I totally
agree. So that's where we're at. We're going to have to do this
again. We're gonna have to keepchecking in with each other and following the
progress of this. I have afeeling, like I said, this next
year it could be very interesting.I actually have some fears, I guess,
or concerns, very serious concerns,maybe not fears yet that I've never
(35:15):
had before going into this new electioncycle. So some crazy politics are at
work, some crazy things happening inour society, and crazy things happening around
the world, crazy things happening withthe world banking system. And these are
challenges since World War Two that theUnited States has really never had to deal
with before. So it's going tobe interesting. Before we leave, you
(35:40):
and I have always have a goodamount of cross talk with our audiences.
Why don't you tell folks about wherethey can find you online and about your
podcast. Absolutely, you guys canfind links to all of the books and
content that I do, including mypodcast to Shamani to show on my website
(36:00):
Semanasis dot com. And while you'rethere, check up money book. Awesomeay.
And what's the name of the book. It's called Memory Mansion. Okay,
Well, we're gonna have to doan episode about that because I've been
checking that out the bits and piecesonline and you're build up to the release
of that and it looks very fascinating. I gotta say thanks. You can
(36:21):
find the Billy DS podcast pretty muchanywhere. Podcasts are founder on all the
major carriers, and I've never reallysought video views necessarily. I mean,
I do the YouTube thing because alot of times guests want to be scenes,
so they grab a link off thereand they share it, and there's
social media and so forth. Butanother place you can find some of our
video content. Not every episode isin video form, but another place you
(36:45):
can find it is the old Twitter, which is now X. We are
now doing long form content, muchlike Tucker Carlson. I believe Roseanne.
There's a number of different people doinglong form content on Twitter X right now.
And if you've been following that,I don't always agree with Tucker everything
(37:06):
Tucker says. That's not where I'mgoing with this, but his numbers are
incredible. Love that. I mean, he's absolutely bearing all three major cable
news networks with his h X account. I love that. I just love
the I'm smiling because I love Ilove I like Tucker Carlson. I just
like him as an individual. Hisenergy is great, and I've watched him
(37:29):
really really pivot with with his evolutionand understanding what's really going on. Yeah,
I have mad respect for it.So good for him, absolutely,
and this could be a new age. I don't know that it's going to
happen necessarily with Twitter X, ButI think the way we take in news
is if I was a cable newsnetwork right now, I'd be nervous because
(37:50):
I think the day of major mediamaking its move to social media is It's
a wonder it took as long asit did, quite frankly so, but
it's starting to happen now. Sowe here at the podcast, we're definitely
part of that trend. And longform content is now available at Billy D's
on X, which is the oldTwitter Shaman. Always a pleasure to have
(38:15):
you on the program. Thank youso much for bepo hosting today. Absolutely,
I always have a wonderful time withyou, Billy. Thanks for having
me absolutely, and we are goingto do this again. Thank you very
much for listening to our podcast,and we will be talking to you again
next week. I'm Billy D's andhost of the self titled podcast, The
(38:38):
Billy D's Podcast. We are primarilyan interview and a commentary based podcast featuring
authors and creators talking about their craft, adjecates for community issues, and myself
in an array of co host discussingcurrent events. There's no partisan renting and
raving going on here, just greatcontent. You can find the Billy D's
(38:59):
podcast on your favorite platform and onTwitter at billy Dee's thank you and I
hope you listen in
You may have a gay plan.He just hasn't shared it with me.
But I tell you what, Idon't know about you, but I'm going
to go to bed, all right. Well, hello everyone, and welcome
to the program. I am absolutelythrilled that you are here. Like I
always am, I have a cohost today. My co host is Shaman.
(00:23):
Isis and she's all smiles. Shaman, what's up? Thank you so
much for being the co host today. Absolutely what we're gonna talk about.
If you've never checked out the programbefore, we are primarily commentary and we
do interviews here today this is goingto be kind of a commentary podcast,
and we're gonna talk about politics,and that's one that can scare a lot
(00:47):
of people. But you know,you've got to be able to talk about
things. And Shaman, I don'tknow how you would classify yourself. I'm
certainly an independent conservative liberal by today'sstandards, I can't really identify with either
one. My personal opinion is isthat the meter on crazy went into the
(01:12):
red more often with conservatives back intwo thousand and eight. Now it seems
like the crazy meter has a tendencyto go into the red a little bit
more on the left, But nonethelessI don't identify with either one. Do
you want to preface your view,I'm middle of the road. I don't
(01:34):
identify with either one of them.They became so disconnected to me from the
average person and from the real issuesgoing on in the world and in the
country that I just got frustrated andsaid, you know what, I'm just
going to be an independent. Yeah, I'm totally with you there. This
is one of the I'll also prefaceour conversation today with this. There have
(01:59):
been different times times in history,i'll say modern history. During my lifetime,
let's say Ronald Reagan and forward.Even in the seventies, there were
people that disagreed a lot, andDemocrats and Republicans always were at each other's
throats, so to speak. Theyou know, Ronald Reagan and the Tip
(02:24):
O'Neill had some pretty famous disagreements.But somehow or other, they both lived
in the same reality. You knowthat they that they realized that they both
were aware that the sky is above, it's blue. And but now we're
entering a and this is relatively new. I don't remember this happening before the
(02:47):
last five years. In particular,we are entering a time when people not
only have their own opinions, butthey have their own facts, they have
their own reality. Would you agreewith that? Oh? Absolutely, I
think it's it's one of the giftsof having everyone be at their own media
(03:07):
is that they that they can gobased on algorithms, they can get delivered
to the opinion that they have begunto show interest in, and then they
get solidified and the next thing,you know, their livings on a planet
that's not Earth. Yes. Absolutely. And it's gotten to the point now
where you know, the phrase thatI never liked when I heard it,
(03:30):
and it started with cable news wasnews you can use, which which translated
into news you agree with and newsthat keeps you happy and watching serial commercials.
And with the advent of social media, this has been exacerbated now by
you know, following people that youlike. It's getting to the point where
(03:53):
you don't necessarily follow or tolerate anyonein your timeline that you disagree with,
you them straight up block them.You don't want to even hear an opposing
opinion. So to be honest,as we talk about politics today, we're
going to talk about some of thecandidates and just in general, we're going
(04:14):
to get Shaman's reaction, and I'llthrow in my two sets when possible.
But we're in the time where it'squite frankly, if I was a politician,
I would be kind of perplexed asto how to appeal to an audience
that really is accustomed to hearing whatthey want to hear. They don't necessarily
(04:38):
want to hear the solutions any morethan the politicians want to give them.
Yeah, so that's kind of whereI'm at, can go right ahead.
Yesterday I posted the Seaman Isis Showpodcast and I did an opening talking about
the fact that Nancy Pelosi had saidthat she was going to be running again,
and I was, you know,we talked about this. I was
(05:00):
sort of slaying the whole, youknow, aged politician situation that we've gotten
ourselves into. And somebody re sharedmy podcast and just went off on how
how horrible it was that I chosea particular person, and I mean,
they really did. They did itthree different places, and I was like,
you need to ask yourself why you'recoming after someone for expressing a personal
(05:23):
opinion in a show that's their ownname. Yes, I mean in what
it was interesting to me was thatthey what they did was they took what
they listened to and they assigned aparty to me, they assigned a political
position to me, and and impliedseveral things about my politics that I'm not
(05:44):
even that open about. So Iwas like, oh, well, I'm
glad, you know exactly. Andthat's that's kind of where we're at.
You know, we're in a wehave a moral compass too, like me.
For example, to me, agiven action is either right or it's
wrong in simple terms. With aleft in particular, it depends on who's
(06:08):
involved, who's doing it to him. Some people are are justified in doing
bad things, and both sides willexcuse their quote unquote candidate or politician for
doing certain things and in the samesituation condemn another for doing the same thing.
And very narcissistic. Yeah, andit's we have a more moral compass
(06:32):
now that doesn't point in the directionof right or wrong. It points in
well, it depends on who itis and what their reason is. Uh.
And that's that's a scary scary thingto to those kind of time.
Scary, is what I'm trying tosay. All right, let's start with
the guy that's there now, JoeBiden, I want to be very clear
(06:56):
here, I'm not necessary early sayinganything directly related to age, because we
have to bring that up. Well, we get into this thing about ages
and so on and so forth.Bernie Sanders, for whatever reason, whether
you agree with them or not,sharp as a pin, Absolutely sharp as
a pin. Joe Biden, notso much. I presume a lot of
(07:21):
people have heard the sound bite theother day where he was in a press
conference and he said, listen,I don't know about you, but I'm
going to bed. Yeah, I'msorry. It's gotten to the point now
where you can't tell his quotes fromthe onion. No, you can't,
(07:46):
you can't. And and in whatI've seen with Joe, I'm sorry I
finished what you were saying. Ohno, no, Well that's kind of
where where I was at. II can remember when Ronald Reagan, when
when when Democrats tried to make hisage an issue, And in all fairness,
I think his first term very sharp, very sharp, He always always
(08:07):
funny. He was called the greatcommunicator. Second term for the most part,
knowing what we know now about whatwas going on with him that last
year. If you go back andlook at some news clips from nineteen eighty
seven when he was in his lastyear, you could tell, hey,
we're starting to slip just a littlebit. And that's not being mean,
but that's that's that's the unestcot truth. Yeah, and Ronald Reagan left office
(08:31):
younger then Joe Biden went in.Yeah, And if he wins in twenty
twenty four, that means he willbe in an office in essence another five
years on top of where we're atnow. So this is kind of where
we're at. I don't know thatthis is a good thing for the country.
(08:56):
I listen in to some of theforeign media talking about the United States
and it's it's not good. It'snot good. No, it's the first
time in my life and I havemad respect for the office of the president.
I have respect for anybody who doessuch a challenging job. And having
said that, it is an incrediblyhigh stressed, challenging job that requires someone
(09:18):
who has a sufficient amount of energyand intellect and interest to be able to
do the job as well as possible. And we're already seeing in this term
him struggle. And in addition tothat, we're losing the respect of the
international audience and politicians and other countries, because they see it for what it
(09:41):
is and they're talking about it andvery openly that you know, ages real
really is a number. But weage differently, all of us as we
get older, and some of usage super well and stay sharp, and
some of us don't. And someof his gaffs have embarrassed the country.
Yeah, so if you're a Democratright now, you got to know when
(10:03):
you're in the background here. Again, I want to stress this. As
a human being, I kind ofkind of feel that, for lack of
a better term, he was kindof a goof his whole career. But
that aside, the aging situation hascome into I do have empathy for him
as a human being. I don'twant to see anybody in an uncomfortable situation.
(10:24):
I don't want to see anybody ina vulnerable situation. But this is
somebody that potentially could be managing awar. Yeah, okay, So you
want your best and your brightest inthere, and sometimes it's it's just time
to step down. This goes backto the power dynamics because I personally,
my intuition feels that he never reallywanted to be president that he did it
(10:48):
because that was the position he foundhimself in at a time when it just
worked out, and to maintain thepower dynamic going on in DC, the
pressure on. I don't think heeven feels like he has a choice.
I mean, that's just my personalopinion. Yeah, I think it's valid.
The one thing that I would sayis here again, somewhat of a
(11:11):
recent phenomenon now politicians, especially inregard to the top of the ticket,
the president, the presidency. Politiciansright now we are winning on what's called
the anti vote, and quite franklyBiden won on the anti Trump vote,
and quite frankly Trump very much benefitedfrom the anti Hillary vote. And I
(11:33):
could go on with this. There'stwo elections that stand out. Since Ronald
Reagan won very decisively in nineteen eightyfour, I believe the whole the whole
map was read except from one state. Certainly. Bill Clinton came in in
nineteen ninety two, people voted forhim, and I would say Obama in
(11:54):
two thousand and eight people voted forhim. But for the rest of them
that most of these elections have beenin. Our guy isn't as bad as
yours. And that's where we've gottenwhere it's picked the worst possible, you
know, the least worst version ofwho's going to be in office. Yes,
so in the back rooms, what'shappening with the Democratic conversations? They
(12:16):
got to know he's not going tostand up too well in a debate.
I don't think they I don't thinkthey're gonna honestly think they're going to do
everything they can to keep him outof debates, to keep him out of
complex situations to I mean, they'retrying to bypass other candidates, uh,
and not even debate within the DemocraticParty, just to slide him right in
and try to squeeze past the wholething. Well, they figure he's got
(12:37):
he's got to stand up on duringthe general election and say something good.
I mean, there's going to comea point when he's going to have to
face a candidate. Oh yeah.But I think it's a it's a matter
of rolling the dice. It's likeplaying blackjack. You know, they're they're
trying to time it as well aspossible. What if they really know that
(12:58):
he's dang riskly impaired. I honestlythink that they've already talked about that.
I mean, I can't even Iwouldn't have a lot of respect for them
if they didn't actually have that conversation. They already have plans lined up,
which I think is interesting because Idon't think that that they necessarily are looking
at Kamala Harris. Yeah, butyou know that that's a mystery to me.
(13:26):
Yeah. I know that they're notparticularly thrilled about Kamala being the choice
either because her points way down.If anything, they're lower than Bidens.
And I don't even know how that'spossible. Yeah, it doesn't surprise me
at all. Okay, so allright, that's where they're at. Now
there's other things and the we'll staywith the Democrats and let's stay in contrast
(13:48):
to Biden rfk Jr. Interesting person, Uh. Interesting. He doesn't fit
the mold of the Kennedys by anystretch of the imagination. Yeah, he's
his own man. And there's thingsthat he says that conservatives absolutely love.
(14:11):
There's things that he says that liberalsabsolutely love, and by a contrast,
he says things that they both hate. Oh yeah, and that puts him
in an interesting position because most politicians, they figure out which boat they're going
to be able to sail in,and he has an asset in that name
that allows him some latitude that othersdon't have. And I think from just
(14:33):
from having observed him, he seemsto actually really decide things based on what
he feels and believes, which isis a privilege within the way our political
system is arranged, because it's almostimpossible to get into office without getting the
funding. You can't get the fundingif you don't pick sides, and so
he's in a unique position. It'sinteresting. Yeah, I agree with a
(14:54):
lot of what he says. I'ma little scared of him because, like
I said, I remember him yearspast and he would come up with some
off the wall things. Now heseems to be more mainstream now. He
wrote the book about Fauci, andI know a lot of liberals don't like
him because of that. But he'san interesting, interesting choice. Now,
(15:15):
this is just a rumor, onlya rumor. I want to stress.
It's been going around online that they'vesent out floaters, they send out feelers
for Michelle Obama possibly stepping up.I believe that she could be a viable
candidate. My only thing with goingthat direction would be this, I don't
(15:39):
believe that in the United States,that dynasties are a good thing. We
had a Bush dynasty. We hada Bush dynasty. We had a Clinton
dynasty, Okay, and by default, I think Biden, like you mentioned,
he was ushered in by his associationwith a very popular president. And
(16:00):
if a Michelle would happen to getin there, we would buy I'm going
to say, let's say call ita twelve year dynasty that we would have.
And my thing is, I believethat both sides, but in particular
the Democrats, they need another Obama, they need another Bill Clinton, they
(16:21):
need a fresh face. I thinkthe country needs a fresh face on both
side. I agree with that.That's the problem. The main problem that
we have right now with politics iswe've got so many people who been around
for a long time are stuck intheir ways and oh everybody that has given
the money favors, and then we'vegot some political dynasties, which is what
(16:41):
you're referring to. And as muchas I like Michelle Obama, the Clinton
of the Obama's are deeply ingrained inthe political system. A lot of people
don't realize that Obama grew up knowingthe Bushes. So you know, we
need fresh faces, and we needpeople who are willing to speak sincerely and
honestly about the severe are in seriousissues that we have in this country that
(17:02):
our younger generations are facing and arevery aware of that are not being addressed
by the political parties. They're scaredof those topics. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Another name that gets floated around bythe Democrats is Gavin Newsom. And you
know what he reminds me of.Gavin Newson reminds me if you were to
(17:23):
call on Central Central cast this istrue. We need a used car salesman,
you know, with the hair slickedback and the toothpick. Hey,
I gotta deal for you. That'sthat's Gavin Newsome to me. Okay,
And boy privilege walks ahead of him. And he's really good at i'll call
(17:52):
it bullshitting. He's really good attaking a statistics and he's great for these
per capita things. Per capita capita. You know, you you can point
out that uh, California is fallinginto the sea, and he will come
up with some per capita thing aboutwhy it's better than New York. And
by the way, that's that's oneof the oldest tricks in the books per
(18:15):
capita. There's only a numbers comparison. It does not it doesn't take in
any other factors. So what's yourwhat's your tick on him? Well,
you know, I think that he'sa very good example of privilege sliding into
office because he's related to Nancy Pelosi, and I don't think he paid his
(18:37):
dues in the proper way that wouldhave developed his skill set to have been
an effective politician. And that's whathappens when we get uh, what's the
term they always use for kids oflike famous people, not narcissism, Oh,
you knowpotism. Nepotism, Thank you. He's a great example of what
happens when nepotism gets somebody into officefaster than they deserved to be. So's
(19:02):
he's good at flim flam, likea car salesman, But when it comes
to the depth and being sincere andhonest and really caring about the serious issues,
he's too caught up in the systemsthat are in place that get politicians
in and staying in power. Yeah. Yeah, I can't imagine Gavin Knewsom
being a choice. He's so farand here again, a lot can happen
(19:26):
in a year you know, we'rea year away from the election year and
a lot can happen. That's aneternity in politics. But I gotta tell
you, I can't imagine getting theDemocratic Party in the general population getting behind
that guy. I just can't can'tdo it. Michelle Obama, I can
see maybe, No I can't.I can't, And I think she would
probably be good. But we weneed fresh and not patched, not deeply
(19:52):
entrenched. I'm a much in Hillaryin the same regard. Uh. You
know a lot of people have said, maybe this is her time to get
you know, her last ditch effort. But I think it's time to be
If I was if I was advisingthe Democratic Party, I'd say, you
need a fresh face. It's timeto get away from Clinton, Obama all
that stuff. It's time to youknow, come up with something new and
(20:15):
more stimulating, you know, gettingback to age, because I'm going to
shift down to the Republican Party.Trump for the most part, seems cognitively,
very well together. Some people mightsay he's crazy, but that's whole
another thing. That's a whole othertopic. He seems like cognitively, he's
uh, he seems on board.Mitch McConnell. You know, he is
(20:38):
having some mishoes in here. Again, it's very sad. Uh and I
here again, I just say thatwe're saying that it's very sad because we've
been taught to look at aging assomething to be sad about. Where I
think it's it's sad for the Americanpeople that the political system is in that
situation. Absolutely, and old isstill an office. I think it's very
(21:00):
sad when quite literally being propped upat a podium, I think that's inhumane
to the person that's being propped up, and it's certainly not good for the
public. And it is nothing againstaging. You know what. Life runs
its course and there comes a timewhen you should just be sitting on the
back porch drinking some sweet tea andenjoying joy in life and not be making
(21:26):
decisions that are affecting millions of people. Well, you're cognitive function. When
you're cognitive at your physical your mentalhealth is it becomes fragile. You shouldn't
be in a decision making position.Yeah. Yeah, and uh, like
I said, it's hard to tellthe headlines from There's a like the Onion,
(21:47):
there's one called the Babylon be andOkay, I don't know the exact
words I'm paraphrasing here, but theyhad they had this image of this old
man laying in bed and the familiesgather, the gather around him, and
the caption says, family is tornbetween sending Grandpa to hospice or having him
run for senate. That's what Ilove about that. I mean, I'm
(22:11):
not into I'm not into put specificparties or or you know, people's personal
beliefs, but they're funny. Yes, And uh, it's it's where a
country three hundred and thirty some oddmillion people, I don't know what the
exact number is, but why wherearen't our best and brightest up there?
Why are we regurgitating the same people? I don't understand that. It was
(22:34):
never My understanding of the way thegovernment was set up was it was never
meant to be a career. It'scertainly not a career to the point where
you served until you dropped like thePope. Yeah, okay, Uh.
Congress in terms of the House,that was always supposed to be a very
(22:55):
limited, almost volunteer type thing.Senate was a little bit more maybe skilled
Paul Petitians, but none of thesethings we're supposed to be like, you
get elected when you're forty to fiftyand then you serve until you die.
It was not supposed to be that. But in a lot of respects that
that we can get into the conversationabout turn limitations, that anything. We'll
(23:15):
get to that at another time.But right now, the front runner with
the Republican Party is, of courseTrump. And if you would have asked
me three months ago, I wouldhave said, yes, I know he
can get the nomination, but Idon't think he can win the general election.
And now I'm not so sure.And I'll tell you why I'm not
so sure is because the left isgetting crazier and crazier. They're changing the
(23:41):
meaning of words and championing causes thatare just insane. These movements out in
California where they're they're they're talking aboutbills that make it illegal for business owners
to stop shoplifters. This is thetype of thing, this is the type
of bs that got him elected tobegin with. Yeah, and it's the
(24:02):
kind of thing that, well,they're not Tory, they're becoming notorious for
these kinds of crazy. It's almostlike crazy schemes that have to involve special
interest groups have to because they don'tmake it doesn't make sense for throughout without
something like that. Yeah, soif you would ask me now, I
would still say it's unlikely. Butthree months ago I said it's impossible.
But now I'm gonna say. Youknow what, that that that light one
(24:30):
of the guys on CNN made thething about he was a joke in twenty
sixteen, But that steam engine keptgetting closer and closer and getting bigger and
bigger. And here again three monthsago, and I said there's no way
Trump, But I'll sell you nowthat steam engine is is getting louder,
and the ground is starting to rumblea little bit. I do believe I
can't rule out another Trump presidency.I can't. Yeah, well, I
(24:53):
will say I don't. I don'tforesee that that necessarily happening. But I
think what has happened in that threemonths is that the attacks and the organized
effort to go after him for thingsthat other people have been guilty of and
didn't get any kind of this kindof level of scrutiny, and you know,
(25:15):
all that, all the stuff it'sbeen going on, that level it
tipped over into people being like,you know, why haven't we arrested other
previous presidents for some of the thingsthat they've done, And that's what's caused
people to shift back into his favor. Oh well, a lot of presidents
have done far worse. I mean, the manipulated tax fair funds. They've
(25:40):
sent our brave men and women intosituations where they were a certain amount of
them are surely going to die interms of our armed forces to advance the
interests of the United States, andsometimes you know, the idea the last
moral war, if there's such athing, I guess you could say Hitler
had to be stopped. But someof the other things that have gone on
(26:02):
in the last twenty years, Ireally question the motives of yea, of
all of the The expenditure of bothlife and capital has been enormous. It
has just been enormous, and whathave we gotten for it. Yeah,
war makes people a lot of money, and that's why don't understand. They
(26:22):
don't understand how powerful the companies arethat make a fortune when war happens.
Yeah, interestingly, you said aboutyou know, the I'll say persecution of
Trump, And here again I'm notsaying he's innocent. That's not what I'm
saying. That's not either one ofus are saying. No, it's over
the top, Yes, it's it'she's basically basically guilty of political shenanigans.
(26:48):
Some of them illegal, but theyare political shenanigans. And Vladimir Putin,
I don't know if he was onTV the other day at a major thing,
and he said the United States haslost its right to lecture anybody about
the morality of their government or democracybecause of what's happening with Trump. And
(27:14):
he claims he's indifferent. He saidit's probably benefiting him for Trump to be
you know, where he's at.But in all honesty, the room that
he was in I heard laughter inthe background. So he's not wrong.
He's not wrong, and I'm notI'm not saying that Vladimir Putin is somebody
(27:37):
that we should aspire to. Butjust because he is we is, doesn't
mean he's wrong. You know,if he likes pizza, that doesn't mean
you're bad if you like pizza too. The truth is the truth. And
I don't know, and this issomething that I'm hearing. I follow creators
from all over the world, Europein particular, is very frustrated with the
United States right now. Well,how is the prized by that we're barely
(28:00):
functioning over here? You know,it's there. We've got serious problems.
I did an episode on it recently, and it was some of the statistics
I was looking at were my mindblowing. Yeah. But yeah, when
we start to be questioned like thatby foreign powers, we're in a serious
(28:21):
situation. And I think the onlyway to really shake that up is to
bring fresh faces into politics. Absolutelyanother person that's kind of on the Republican
side, but I'm not necessarily opposedto yet. Uh. You know,
these it takes a while for theirfor these candidates to evolve from or to
come out about them and hear themtalk over a period of time and so
(28:42):
forth. Of the vek rama swammy. I kind of like him, you're
chuckling. Is there an impression thatyou have of him that you would like
to share? Uh? You know, I I kind of liked him for
entertainment purposes, because when we neededsomeone colorful and funny. But there's something,
(29:03):
you know, just intuitively, there'ssomething there that I think, you
know, it's about fame and moneyand power. That's just what my intuition
tells me is that that might beat the root of of the reasons for
choosing to run. But you know, I didn't make a study of him,
so I don't want to make thatas a blanket statement. Yeah,
(29:25):
if you're going to research him,you'd want you'd want to hear you'd want
to check out where his grant foreducation came from. You want to check
out that story. And you'd alsowant to check how he made his money.
A lot of that money is throughfinancial investments in biotech, and from
what I understand, a lot ofthose things have been invested by some really
big powerhouses in terms of like Vanguardand some of those others Blackwater. I'm
(29:48):
not sure which one of them isa black Rock. I'm sorry, Blackwater
is the security firm? Oh yeah, yeah, I know exactly who they
are. I was like, wellclose, all right, we need to
do what we need to do anepisode talking about Van Garden black Rock.
Yeah, yes, absolutely, becausetypically when people talk about corporate interests,
(30:12):
they pick on Ford and Google andall that, and they all got their
problems. But I'm telling you,it's kind of like the game of thrown
the white Walkers, I've been guardYeah, I mean when you see and
I've showed this to my students atschool, at the school I teach at,
I teach adults at college, andI show them how much the invested
(30:34):
interests they have across almost every corporationon the S and P. Five hundred,
and they're like, and I'm likeit basically everything anyway. Yeah,
so anyway, I would consider him. I absolutely would consider him, and
I guess probably the other player thatkind of has a chance. And you
(30:55):
know what's interesting about him when hewasn't big in Florida, he was kind
of crowned the new leader of theRepublican Party. But that kind of uh
feels out and Rondy Santas is kindof just kind of hanging there. Yeah,
it's not very He's still alive,but he's not catching fire. Yeah,
(31:15):
is that kind of your assessment.He's just not very likable. He
comes across as disingenuous and not verylikable. It's as if he's always alone
in a crowd. And I'm notsaying that he's not. I don't know
him personally, just as as acommunications pioneer, my observations of people are
pretty accurate, and I think hisissue is that he just doesn't come across
(31:38):
as that likable and that trustworthy.And that's that's not to say that that
I'm saying for a fact he's not. It's about it's about the energy that
somebody gives off and the impression thatpeople take from it. And sometimes you
can do that can happen with peoplesimply because they're an introvert or they're not
comfortable talking about certain aspects of theirlife. But there's reasons sometimes. But
(32:00):
in politics, coming across is nottotally transparent and disingenuous is a huge problem.
Absolutely, So that's where we're at. I don't know that any of
the people that we talked about,Republican or Democrat at this time stand out
(32:22):
as somebody this is going to bethe person I am, Buddy, I'm
just not getting it. I havea feeling this is one of the few
elections, and I'm not twenty oneyears old anymore, this is one of
the few elections. As much aspeople talked about Reagan starting a war with
(32:43):
then USSR and all these other things, I was really never really that concerned.
Even in even in post nine eleven, I was never really that concerned
about the future of the United States, but with the way things are being
up in the world right now youhave in here again, this is another
(33:05):
subject that's very big. But theway that monet monetization and different currencies are
valued is radically starting to change.Oh yeah, and we're not in front
of the eight ball. Yes,And that could be big for the United
States because the one thing that UnitedStates has always done, and if anything,
(33:25):
it's been to our detriment, yeah, is we've shown the dollar and
said you do what we say areWe're taking our dollar and we're going home,
just like a kid that owns theball. And all the other countries
would quake in their shoes. Ohno, because no matter what it was,
Payo's euros, whatever, everything was, well, how many dollars is
(33:45):
it worth? That was the standard, okay, And that's starting to change.
And that is one of the oneof my biggest concerns about where we've
been headed the last few years isthe fact that we've become so caught up
in the drama of whatever issues beingthrown out to keep us like rabbit dogs
(34:06):
running after Oh oh, here's thatissue that they loved us throw out of
every you know, a few monthswhen they need us distracted. Is that
all that distraction while the political youknow, candidates have not evolved and have
not become very they're not in touchwith the problems that we really have and
or nor how to fix them.Is that while we were lost in the
(34:30):
woods, other countries have leapt forwardand seize what they see as an opportunity
to take some of the power outof us. And that is that is
the concern, is that we're losingour place within the and that goes back
to our president and to the hotmess that we've been for a few years.
And I think we have it inus to come back and to rally
(34:51):
because we're so good at that,America is so good at that. But
we need need to wake the fup. Yeah, absolutely, I totally
agree. So that's where we're at. We're going to have to do this
again. We're gonna have to keepchecking in with each other and following the
progress of this. I have afeeling, like I said, this next
year it could be very interesting.I actually have some fears, I guess,
or concerns, very serious concerns,maybe not fears yet that I've never
(35:15):
had before going into this new electioncycle. So some crazy politics are at
work, some crazy things happening inour society, and crazy things happening around
the world, crazy things happening withthe world banking system. And these are
challenges since World War Two that theUnited States has really never had to deal
with before. So it's going tobe interesting. Before we leave, you
(35:40):
and I have always have a goodamount of cross talk with our audiences.
Why don't you tell folks about wherethey can find you online and about your
podcast. Absolutely, you guys canfind links to all of the books and
content that I do, including mypodcast to Shamani to show on my website
(36:00):
Semanasis dot com. And while you'rethere, check up money book. Awesomeay.
And what's the name of the book. It's called Memory Mansion. Okay,
Well, we're gonna have to doan episode about that because I've been
checking that out the bits and piecesonline and you're build up to the release
of that and it looks very fascinating. I gotta say thanks. You can
(36:21):
find the Billy DS podcast pretty muchanywhere. Podcasts are founder on all the
major carriers, and I've never reallysought video views necessarily. I mean,
I do the YouTube thing because alot of times guests want to be scenes,
so they grab a link off thereand they share it, and there's
social media and so forth. Butanother place you can find some of our
video content. Not every episode isin video form, but another place you
(36:45):
can find it is the old Twitter, which is now X. We are
now doing long form content, muchlike Tucker Carlson. I believe Roseanne.
There's a number of different people doinglong form content on Twitter X right now.
And if you've been following that,I don't always agree with Tucker everything
(37:06):
Tucker says. That's not where I'mgoing with this, but his numbers are
incredible. Love that. I mean, he's absolutely bearing all three major cable
news networks with his h X account. I love that. I just love
the I'm smiling because I love Ilove I like Tucker Carlson. I just
like him as an individual. Hisenergy is great, and I've watched him
(37:29):
really really pivot with with his evolutionand understanding what's really going on. Yeah,
I have mad respect for it.So good for him, absolutely,
and this could be a new age. I don't know that it's going to
happen necessarily with Twitter X, ButI think the way we take in news
is if I was a cable newsnetwork right now, I'd be nervous because
(37:50):
I think the day of major mediamaking its move to social media is It's
a wonder it took as long asit did, quite frankly so, but
it's starting to happen now. Sowe here at the podcast, we're definitely
part of that trend. And longform content is now available at Billy D's
on X, which is the oldTwitter Shaman. Always a pleasure to have
(38:15):
you on the program. Thank youso much for bepo hosting today. Absolutely,
I always have a wonderful time withyou, Billy. Thanks for having
me absolutely, and we are goingto do this again. Thank you very
much for listening to our podcast,and we will be talking to you again
next week. I'm Billy D's andhost of the self titled podcast, The
(38:38):
Billy D's Podcast. We are primarilyan interview and a commentary based podcast featuring
authors and creators talking about their craft, adjecates for community issues, and myself
in an array of co host discussingcurrent events. There's no partisan renting and
raving going on here, just greatcontent. You can find the Billy D's
(38:59):
podcast on your favorite platform and onTwitter at billy Dee's thank you and I
hope you listen in
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