 Welcome to a discussion of radical fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, laissez-faire capitalism, and individual rights. The Yaron Brooks Show starts now. Hey everybody, I hope you're having a good Sunday. I don't know, anybody out there actually watching football? I don't know, you know, I'm not having a great Sunday. I don't know, it's hard to be positive right now. I mean, I'd love to watch football, but football has become so politicized in the last few weeks. Man, I was traveling all over Europe, some of you probably followed my travels through while this crazy NFL scandal has been going on. But it's everything today. I just open up the news, trying to prep for the show today, and there's just nothing positive. And it's not just that it's all negative news, kind of used to that. It's always negative, that's what sells, right? What sells in the news is negative news. Nobody's interested in hearing anything good that's going on in the world. That's kind of boring, right? And that's our fault. That's us, the consumers of news. We don't want to hear good news, we're interested in negative news. But I don't know, I've tried to be kind of nice to... Well, I haven't tried to be nice, but I've tried to be patient with this president. And I don't know, today it just... I've had it. I've had it. You know, this tweeting, this absurdity, this vulgarity. It's so low, it's so unpresidential. It's so in the gutter. I mean, give me a break. The president of the United States needs to be tweeting about the NFL. The president of the United States needs to be tweeting about his view of the mayor of Puerto Rico, of San Juan in Puerto Rico. And then the president of the United States is undercutting his secretary of state in tweeting about North Korea. I mean, this administration is clueless. Put aside what they're doing, what they're doing is almost irrelevant because what makes the news daily is his tweets. And then you have a media that, again, is completely clueless. It's so anti-Trump that all they obsess about are his tweets. And all they obsess about is proving him wrong and going after him. And, you know, I sympathize with that because he really is awful. But there's stuff happening in the world. Good stuff, bad stuff, interesting stuff, stuff we should care about, stuff we shouldn't care about. There's things happening in the world. And yet, you know, when I look at the media and I try to figure out, okay, what is happening like in Puerto Rico? Is Trump right? Is the mayor right? Is Aide actually getting to? Isn't it getting to today? You know, you can't even tell. You can't even tell them. There's no objective media out there. The media is so biased. It's so political. It's so tribal that you can't even get a sense of what's really happening in the world. So you've got a president who is, you know, tribal to his core, who is non-objective, who is, you're just rambling and angry and can't stand any criticism and is completely obsessed by his own image and defending that image. And you've got a media that completely mirrors that. And it's like, the world is insane. It's just nuts. It's just nuts. And then on top of that, you got this nut, Roy Moore being elected to the Senate from the state of Alabama. We'll talk about that. You've got North Korea, you know, again, Tillerson saying one thing, the president saying another thing, all publicly, all kind of contradicting one another. Nobody seems to care. You've got two terrorist attacks today, one in France and one in Canada. Nobody seems to care. Nobody has any idea what to do about it. And it's like, yeah, okay, more terrorist attacks, more people dying, you know, more, a lock-a-bow and, you know, Islamist attacking, you know, pass-a-bys in France, leading a woman's throat almost, almost decapitating her. And in Canada, somebody driving over some pedestrians, nobody cares. You know, just go on. Next weekend, there'll be another couple of terrorist attacks, just like there were a couple of weekends ago in England and in France again, and nobody cares. Just, they go on. As if this is the new normal. The world just seems like it's going nuts, just going nuts. And then, you know, in the midst of all this, the Republicans fail again, again, to repeal Obamacare or to, repealing Obamacare was not even on the table. But to kind of modify it in a way that would maybe move us in a positive direction, maybe not even clear that would be of being the case, the bill that failed this week didn't even make it to a vote because there was no point. Too many people were going to vote against it. And then, you know, the President of the United States saying, I think this was last week, saying, I'm not, I'm against repealing the Jones Act. I'm against even suspending it for a while because the shipping companies would get mad at me. Oh my God. I mean, it used to be that cronyism was kind of under the table. It was hidden. But now we have a president who's actually proud of his cronyism, who's actually out in public defending his cronyism. Yeah, I'm not going to do something that clearly is good repealing the Jones Act an act, an ancient act that was protectionist that protected the American shipping industry. Anti-competitive, anti-capitalist, anti-individualist, anti-market just doesn't make any sense. And there's an emergency where repealing it would help. But more importantly, it should just be repealed. It's just not an act that is consistent with America and with markets and with what this country stands for. And no, the president doesn't even pretend that there's any good reason to keep the act. He basically says, yeah, the shipping industry would be mad at me. Would be mad at us. They want it. So he's basically admitting that it's all about pressure group politics. It's all about, I mean, stuff we know. So you have to give him credit for at least being above board. This is exactly what's going on. But nobody cares. Again, nobody cares. They're much more, they came much more about his tweets about Puerto Rico and NFL than his nonsense about the Jones Act and, you know, because nobody is for free markets in this country anymore. You didn't see the Republicans going, oh no. You know, we really need to appeal this. There is a bill, by the way, in the Senate or in the House. I think in the Senate. To appeal the Jones Act, we'll see if it actually passes. Let's see if the fact that the Republicans control the Senate in the House means anything good because so far it's made exactly nothing. So what can I say? It's just a depressing time to be an American. That's my view. I'm an immigrant, as many of you know. I came to this country believing I was coming to the freest country in the world, believing I was coming to the place where we had the most opportunities. And I was excited and still, I'm excited to live in the United States of America. But when I look around me, I'm excited and depressed all at the same time. It's just really depressing. All right, so today we're going to take up this whole NFL kneeling, Trump responding. But just the NFL broadly because Trump didn't just talk about the kneeling issue. He also talked about the hitting, right? How the game is played. He had commentary on that as well. We'll talk about that. I want to talk a little bit about Puerto Rico and the response and, again, the tweeting back and forth between the mayor of Puerto Rico and President Trump. And then, you know, North Korea. North Korea is worth talking about a little bit. I talk about taxes. The one thing Republicans have promised that they would get other than Obamacare, which they've broken their promise that they promised about the taxes. We should talk a little bit about the tax plan, the little we know about it, whether this is a good thing or not. And I'm interested in hearing from you. So I'm curious, are you watching football today? 888-900-3393. Are you watching football? If not, why not? Is it because of the kneeling? Is it because disrespect for the anthem? Is it because the game is boring? Is it because of the concussions? What is it that is causing you not to watch? Or are you just, you know, it's fun to watch it to hell with all that and I'm watching anyway. So give us a call. Let us know 888-900-3393. Are you watching football today? All right. I'm listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network and we'll be back after this break. Best selling author. Prolific media contributor. PhD in finance. This is the Iran book show. The blaze radio network. Free markets and individual rights. To learn more about the INRAN Institute and how you can support this heroic mission, visit INRAN.org now. That's A-Y-N-R-A-N-D.org. You're listening to the Iran book show. All right. For those of you who have been tracking my progress around the world, or not around the world, but through the world, I am on country number eight during this trip. Country number eight happens to be the United States of America, but I'm not home. I'm broadcasting today from New York City. And just to be positive for a moment, New York is still a great city. Now, it has a crazy, leftist, nutty, marxist mayor, and I fear that it is going to deteriorate and it's not going to be anywhere in as great of a city as it has been in the past because of that. But, you know, you walk around the streets, you can't really tell yet, at least I can't as a tourist, I guess, that they've got a marxist mayor. Still, the skyline is still amazing. The lights are still amazing. Just a buzz and the energy and the excitement. Yesterday, we went to this Japanese restaurant and you go into the basement of a building and in this basement, they've really created an authentic Japanese restaurant from Japan. You know, you could have been somewhere in Japan. And it's just the creativity, the ingenuity of the people. The food was fantastic. You know, generally, the food here has been fantastic. On Thursday, we had a big fundraising event for the Ironman Institute here in New York and that went beautiful at the Sainte Fille Hotel. And on Wednesday, I actually did a debate at Yale, you know, the Ivy League School Yale University where I debated the issue of inequality. It's a little scary, I have to say, because my opponent, it was very smart and very sharp and very good, but his ideas are just horrible. And his ideas are mainstream. And I'm considered the crazy radical. I'm considered crazy because I defend capitalism. I consider crazy because I defend, you know, your right to keep what you earn. And I defend the idea that people actually earn, that it's not luck, it's not quote privilege. I'll talk about that. I hate that word. I hate that word privilege as if it's a, you know, you've been granted some special rights and special benefits because your parents, I don't know, your parents worked hard and were innovative or productive and made a lot of money. And therefore, you as a kid, you know, somehow carry with you some original sin of being born to loving, caring, successful parents. And therefore, you are privileged and you have to go around campus apologizing to everybody for that. So, you know, I was at Yale debating that. You got a little scared, scary. But overall, I've been in New York for a week and, you know, I love New York. I don't know that I could live here, but it's just a buzz, the energy, the excitement. Yes, I know, I know it's very blue and it's very leftist and so on, but you know what? It's like Silicon Valley a little bit. These are leftists that work hard. These are, you know, leftists that are actually incredibly productive. The innovative, they make a lot of money. These are rich leftists. That's kind of the funny part about it, right? And so it's still a pretty amazing place. It's still a pretty amazing place. Silicon Alley, Wall Street, the museums, the great restaurants, everything else. Just fantastic. So, you know, that's the positive. So while I'm a little depressed by looking at the news today and over the last week, I have to say I enjoy coming to New York and spending time here when I can. And it's amazing to me that over the last few weeks we've done shows for you on the blaze from a Baku Azerbaijan, from Geneva in Switzerland and now from New York. And last week he had a pre-tape show. And by the way, I should mention the fact that my new book is out, Moll Defensive Finance. You can find it on Amazon. And, you know, I encourage everybody to buy the book and everybody to get yourself a copy. I think you'll really enjoy it if you're listening to the show. In Pursuit of Wealth, the Moll Case for Finance with my co-author, Don Watkins. So in Pursuit of Wealth, the Moll Case for Finance, it's right here. And yeah, please go get yourself a copy. And I hope that everybody buys it and that, you know, that'll improve my mood. I'll definitely be in a better mood if you guys all buy the book and drive it's rating up on Amazon. And after you read the book, what would be really good is if you wrote a good review. So New York's been good. And I have to say I came to New York from Kiev and, you know, meeting young people in places that have it even, like a million times harder than we do, as much as I complain. It's still, America is still the greatest place to live. As much as I complain, our political system is still, I hate to say this, oh my God, I hate to say this, but our political system is still relatively sane, relatively uncorrupt. When you're in a place like Ukraine, where, you know, the politicians are literally stealing the money and where everything's corrupt and everything's crony and everything's falling apart. And you meet people, young people who are trying to fight that and trying to make a difference and trying to improve their lives. You kind of get an appreciation for what we have here. So, you know, I'm trying really hard to mitigate my negativity today with some positive aspects. All right, New York is pretty good and we're in better shape than Ukraine. How about that for good news, huh? All right, so talk about football quickly. And I want to talk about two aspects of the issue with football. We'll talk about the taking the knee after the break that we're coming up towards. But I want to talk about another issue that is, you know, pretty upsetting in my view. This is comments that Donald Trump made about football at the rally he had in Alabama about a week ago before the election of Roy Moore. And he says, the NFL ratings are down massively. Now, the number one reason it happens to be they like watching what's happening with yours truly. They like what's... Well, I don't even know what that means. They like what's happening because, you know, today if you hit too hard, 15 yards, throw him out of the game. And they said, they're ruining the game. That's what they want to do. They want to hit. They want to hit. It's hurting the game. So what's he complaining about? Donald Trump, the president of the United States, is complaining that football is not violent enough. That football is trying to protect its players. How dare they try to protect their players, right? And, you know, we have discovered over the last few years that football is incredibly damaging to the health of these players, that they are getting brain damage. And one of the reasons I don't enjoy watching football anymore is that every time one of those hits happen, I think this person's brain is being damaged. I don't want to watch a sport in which people are actually destroying themselves. And yet, the president of the United States is celebrating. They hit them hard. You know, maybe we shouldn't be wearing helmets at all. Maybe we should just, you know, go back to gladiators and slaughter each other in the stadiums. I find that so offensive. I find that so upsetting. All right, you're listening to your own book show. We're coming up to a break here. And when we come back, we'll be talking about taking a knee and football and the rest of the bad news in the paper today. We'll be right back. All right, we're back. And before the break, I talked about the fact that Trump is complaining that he's nostalgic for the old days where in a football field, there were no limitations on how hard you could hit and sending players back after concussions when men were real men and they actually brutally assaulted one another. And that would be fine, if not for the massive amount of evidence that has accumulated over the last few years about the brain damage and about the physical damage that has been caused to these players and how, you know, and the damage that happens to them very quickly afterwards. And it's just horrific to me that the president of the United States would be celebrating, you know, that aspect of the game, the aspect of the game that is so destructive to human life, that aspect of the game that is so, that is so horrible. I mean, it makes it hard for me to watch football. I enjoy the game. I like the game. But one of the things that really makes it hard for me to watch the game is the idea that every time one of these guys gets hit like that, you know, they're really doing damage themselves. They're really doing damage themselves. This isn't fun anymore when it becomes like that. At last I add, you know, somebody mentioned on one of the chats here that the fact that all these stadiums, you know, there are two teams now in Los Angeles and all these stadiums, they're getting hundreds of millions of dollars from local government, from state government to finance these stadiums. They're just, you know, but that's true of all these sports, baseball and basketball. The amount of taxpayer money going to facilitate entertainment, to facilitate sport, to, you know, when these should be, and they are incredibly profitable businesses, why are they taking out tax money? You know, you want to build a stadium, build a stadium, don't ask for my money to do it. So just like I hate it when, I hate Tesla because Tesla's a car that is built on tax subsidies. I find all these sports stadiums and all these sports teams that are built in tax subsidies just as offensive and just upsetting. All right, let's get to this kneeling issue and the whole, everything that's happened around this and, you know, it's such a mess, in my view, it's such a disaster the way this is played out. So, Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers last year, you know, longer plays football for any team. In the pre-season last year, he did not stand up for the National Anthem. He sat on the bench and then nobody noticed for a while and then when somebody noticed and put it up online, people started debating this. He actually got out there and actually took a knee and when asked why he was doing this, took a knee during the National Anthem and when people asked him why he was doing this, he said it was in protest for police brutality and what he viewed as systemic racism that was reflected in the police shootings that happened last year and in kind of the response to those police shootings and the fact that the police, even in some cases where it looked pretty nasty, seemed to always get off scot-free and he viewed this as problematic in the country, a real problem and he wanted to express his dissatisfaction with this by taking a knee. Now, it happens that Colin Kaepernick is more political than that, that it's not just an issue of police brutality. I mean, he's been seen with Che Guevara's shirt. Che Guevara was an awful commie and responsible for the deaths of, I don't know how many people and a real nasty, nasty, horrible human being and Kaepernick is quite radical left. It would appear from everything else. But, you know, on the issue of police brutality, I don't think it was completely wacky. I don't think it's completely nuts to protest that, to bring attention to it, to say, look, there's something going on here and we should get some data and we should actually find out, is there something systemic or not? The whole show, you can find it on one of my podcasts in the past on the shootings last year. And one way to get attention is to kneel at it, I guess, when the National Anthem. Now, the response to this was pretty, you know, was pretty obviously harsh and I sympathize with the response as well because, look, the National Anthem represents this country. It represents America. It represents America at its best. It represents what America stands for. It represents the spirit, the idea of liberty, the idea of individualism and individual freedom. And to disrespect the National Anthem is to disrespect the ideal of America, not just America today, the ideal of America. So I sympathize with Kaepernick wanting to get attention and he has every right, he has every right to do so. I sympathize with the fact that the ownership of the San Francisco 49ers let him do it. I mean, he's a contract player. They could have fired him. They could have, I don't know what his contract says. I don't know if they could have fired him, but they could have come out against him, but they didn't partially because you have to remember San Francisco is a pretty left-leaning city and it's unclear that the fans, who they would have supported if the management had come down and called Kaepernick. But, you know, Kaepernick clearly said that he believes this is a country that oppresses black people and that's the essential, the essence of the country and I disagree with that. I think he's wrong. Although I think there's a real problem in this country. I do think there's way too much racism in this country and I think there are problems certainly in its history but even in its presence with regard to racism. But I think, you know, I think that I think we can disagree about that, right? Kaepernick wanted to do it, fine, right? You can say, I disagree with calling Kaepernick. And it's up to the 49ers management to decide whether to fire him or not. It's a private business. It's not a public institution. It's nothing to do with politics. It's all about, it's all about, it's all about, you know, the fans and the private business and what they do with this. Now, you know, this was going on all last August and into September and at the time, Trump, which was a candidate for president, tweeted that Kaepernick should find a country that works better for him. You know, I don't think a presidential candidate should have gotten in the middle of this. I don't think it's that important. I don't think anybody should have paid too much attention to it. I think if we hadn't paid a lot of attention to it, it would have just gone away. And it would have, it would have disappeared, right? And the fans, some fans were sort of objected and maybe fans of the 49ers, I'm a fan of 49ers. I've never liked Kaepernick. I've never liked his attitude. I never liked the way he played quarterback. I never liked, I just don't like the guy. But they would have just walked away from it. Right? So, but instead, this became a national issue. It became a national issue partially because Donald Trump chose to make it a national issue. It became a national issue because the media chose to focus on it and make a big deal out of it. And it became a national issue. And slowly, it wasn't just Kaepernick, right? Slowly, other people started doing it. In Seattle, they started taking a knee as some of the players and became a bigger and bigger issue. And, you know, it's not an issue of constitutional right because it's a private venue. It's a private sport. It's a private facility. You know, again, if the owners of the 49ers said, we don't want you to do this, if they had a contractual right to say that, given the contract there with Kaepernick, that's their issue. This is not about the Constitution. As long as Donald Trump doesn't make it about the Constitution. As long as Donald Trump doesn't say you're banned and you cannot do this. And of course, this is the danger of a president commenting on this, that it could be interpreted as the government is citing against taking a knee and the government is going to enforce that. Now, it hasn't gotten to that yet. But it could. And that's the real danger. All right. A lot more to say about this. And we will be back to say it. And also to take a call. We've got a call, at least one call. We've got a call from Hong Kong. Now, you know, Jun from Hong Kong. Stay on the line. You know, you want to talk about something a little different. So I'm going to play out the football thing. And then we're going to come back to you and take your call. All right. You're listening to your own book show on the Blaze Radio Network. And we'll be back after this break. All right. So here's my point. I dislike Kaepernick immensely. And I find his kneeling during the anthem, you know, not a good thing. You know, he's not a good spokesman for whatever cause there is. But I think the issue he brings up is a valid issue. I think the whole issue of policing and the whole issue of shootings, some of the shootings were just absurd and ridiculous. And, you know, I'd love to bring the light of objectivity on the whole question of policing and the whole question of police shootings. Kaepernick was not doing that. And I have an immense respect for the country. So I think that, you know, if you feel like the country is betraying you and I think Kaepernick feels that, then sure, Neil bit suffered the consequences. And the consequence in this case, he has already suffered. That is the consequence of his kneeling was the fact that once he lost his job with the 49ers or wasn't renewed. And I think that was going to happen anyway. He just wasn't that good of a quarterback and he didn't fit into the new scheme of the new coach with the 49ers. But nobody else would hire him. And there's no question in my mind that nobody else hired him because he was just too controversial. He was focusing attention on the wrong things. And this is an entertainment. This is a sport. This is not about politics. And he was causing people to focus on the wrong things and therefore he wasn't hired. So he paid the price. Now again, whether they were right to not hire him or not, that's a business decision. And the fact is that a lot of people who watch football don't want this distraction. And don't want to have to think about politics when they're engaged in sports. Now part of this again is the media because the fact is that football games usually, the broadcasting of football starts after the national anthem is played. So mostly on television we don't even see the national anthem. But of course because of the controversy, suddenly all the networks are showing the national anthem and focusing in on this issue, which has made it a bigger and bigger and bigger issue. And at the end of the day, I don't really care what athletes or what celebrities think about the political situation about things that are going on in politics. I don't believe it's that important. But what is important, what I think is important is what the president says. And when the president goes on tirades against the players and against the owners in almost borderline threatening language, that I think is scary. I mean, you could say that they're wrong as a president. You could say that they're wrong. You could say that this country is not racist. You could say that no, if you look at the evidence, the police do this and this and this and factually these people are wrong. But what the president has been doing is an implied implicit underlying threat plus just the language he uses and the way he does it. I find just so offensive and so ridiculous and so unrestrained and so undignified that it just belittles the presidency and belittles the country. I mean, you want to stand up for what America represents? Great. Say it's unfortunate that people are taking a knee to the national anthem because this is what the national anthem represents. National anthem is about what America should be and can be, what we strive to make it. And we should all be united and striving to make this country a country with no racism, a country that is completely free and to the extent that there's racism out there that's a bad, evil thing. And it's unfortunate that some people, some people, these athletes or whatever still think that and make it turn into a positive. A positive in terms of what this country really represents and what the country's for. Instead, it comes out as this tirade against the owners, against the teams, against the players and again, kind of a false sense of patriotism, no matter what. You should never kneel in front. What if there's really something wrong in the country? And not just by the government. What if there's really something wrong in the country? What if you really believe that racism is prevalent in the country? Wouldn't you then be legitimate to take a kneel, a knee? Wouldn't it then be legitimate to protest against the flag and the anthem? So it's just the way this is all handled. You know, the president's wrong. I don't like the people taking the knee. I think they're all wrong. And of course, the people taking the knee, it's not just about racism. If it was just about racism, we could at least have a discussion about racism, but it's our whole leftist agenda. It has to do with what they, you know, they talk about the privilege. They talk about inequality. They talk about our whole leftist agenda that is motivating them, you know, so this is a knee against the essential liberty and essential freedom and essential capitalism that this country represents. And that's just sad. That's sad. That we do not have a president who could still, and Obama was the same, because Obama kind of didn't have a position. But nobody can actually defend what America is about, so nobody can actually make a commentary about this issue as president, as the leader. That makes any sense. All right, we're about to, we're coming up here against a heartbreak. So you're listening to your own book show on the Blaze Radio Network. We're going to take this call from Hong Kong when we come back in the future. Welcome to a discussion of radical fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, laissez-faire capitalism, and individual rights. The Yaron Brooks Show starts now. All right, so we're talking about this whole football thing and the feeling and everything to do with that. And, but more broadly, I want to talk not just about that, but about Donald Trump's whole approach to governing and how this relates to that. But if you're interested in, I'm curious, are you watching football today? Are you boycotting football? 888-900-3393. 888-900-3393 if you have an opinion about this. I mean, my view is, to some extent, I don't really care that much, right? If my team starts taking a knee and I think that's disrespectful and I think that's wrong, then I'll stop watching them, right? If your team does it, then write a letter to their owner and complain and tell them you're not going to support the team anymore. Stop going to the game. But this is not a political issue. This is an issue that needs to be solved among us. And when the President of the United States gets involved, in the way he gets involved, by almost threatening owners. And we're talking about even, you know, the people who were supporters of Donald Trump. I mean, certainly the owner, craft of the New England Patriots is a big supporter and a friend, a close friend of Donald Trump, disagrees with Donald Trump. And we could have a discussion about whether the owners are tolerating this because they don't have a backbone or because they are too politically correct or all of this stuff. That's all interesting, but will all be happening outside of kind of the President of the United States going on a tantrum about this? So, I don't know. I mean, I'm not watching football primarily because, you know, this whole concussion thing and the hitting and so on and I'm fighting the game, you know, more and more offensive because of that. But I'm curious, are you watching is the kneeling thing preventing you from watching? Is this a major... Does this have a major impact on your life? I'm curious about that. You know, if you want to talk about it, 888-900-3393. And let me say that this pattern about Donald Trump getting involved and the way he behaves and his tweets and just the language and, you know, that manifests itself in this Puerto Rico thing. Right? Now, I think, again, I think the mayor of San Juan in Puerto Rico is whining. I mean, oh, you got to help us with that. I mean, get a spine. Nobody owes you anything and go deal with the problems. And, yeah, it's very difficult to get supplies to Puerto Rico and you guys have... you guys on this island have destroyed it and the infrastructure doesn't exist and that's nobody else's fault primarily. But you know, you can blame the US government for certain things. Why isn't Puerto Rico a state, for example, 3.5 million people and it's not a state? Why do we have the Jones Act which has crippled the Puerto Rican economy for decades, decades? And there are lots of other things the US federal government has done bad vis-a-vis Puerto Rico. But... but... you know, we don't know. You know, it's not... you know, it's a problem because once you have FEMA and FEMA goes out and helps everybody, then... why not help the Puerto Ricans? If it's going to help anybody, you know, what about the people in Puerto Rico? Are they... why are they different? Why shouldn't they get as much support as everybody else? So there is that. But I'm... you know, I don't buy this whole FEMA thing about this idea that the federal government needs to step in and help everybody. I think that's a violation of the wall of government. And that these communities needs to be as efficient as they can be. And this idea of sitting back and moaning and complaining is just wrong. And I don't know what's actually going on in the ground in terms of how FEMA is helping and how it compares to Houston. There's certainly no reason the federal government should discriminate from one state to another. But of course Puerto Rico is not exactly a state, not exactly there. And that's all problematic. But why Donald Trump has to take this on and get into an argument over Twitter with the mayor of Puerto Rico? You know, why this all has to happen over Twitter? Why it has to be so disrespectful? Why it has to happen in this kind of language and this kind of disrespect? It just belittles the presidency. Belittles the office. It belittles America. Belittles what we stand for. And this is what I think Trump does. It's like you can't say anything against him. Because if you do, you trigger him and he just goes ballistic. And it's so depressing to have a president who has no self-esteem who can't take any criticism and he becomes personal immediately. He has to attack the mayor personally. Say she's wrong. Provide some kind of principal defense. Send your people out like they did today on the news shows describing what is actually being done for Puerto Rico. But to personalize it and to tackle the way he did it's just I don't know. I find it just upsetting and offensive and bizarre. All right, I'm going to take this caller because we've been having underline for quite a while now. Ajun from Hong Kong Hey Ajun, what's up? Oh, hello. Hi. Before I get to the topic I called in for, you mentioned that you don't watch the NFL as much as before because of the injuries or the dangerous nature but I was wondering what do you think about the fact that maybe that's the only way they can get to do such an extreme spectacular sport with such high performance and achievements like As soon as asking what if the only way to do such a sport and it was such achievements or such spectacle is where people really get injured and I'd say you have a right to do it but I'm not going to watch it because I'm not interested in watching achievements that involve destroying the rest of your life I think that's wrong. I mean to ask in terms of your hierarchy of values I mean I don't see how you can have a hierarchy of values if you take your life seriously I don't see how you can have a hierarchy of values that says I am going to have passionately that they they don't mind then I say that's an anti-life hierarchy of values you have to take the perspective a hierarchy of values has to take in a perspective the fact that you're going to live to be 80 or 90 the fact that you want a high quality of life the fact that your brain, your mind is the most important thing that you have and that you can't get so much thrill it's the same as taking drugs I get such a high from paying football I don't care about the fact that my rational capacity is being destroyed that is not a legitimate rational hierarchy of values not every hierarchy of values is legitimate that's what Einran teaches us is that you have to take your life seriously which means you have to take your mind seriously and you have to take your mind and your life seriously over a lifetime and you have to project it over a lifetime and you have to think about what's going to be good for you over a lifetime and doing something when you're young that is clearly going to destroy your life later on in life is just irrational and therefore inappropriate and wrong well I would never play or not to say that I can but I wouldn't play for that reason when I agree with you but I wouldn't support other people playing even if they have decided for irrational reasons what they want to do I wouldn't watch it and I'm thinking about not watching it because I don't want to support that kind of behavior that kind of irrationality maybe I don't know the extent of the injuries because your mind sounds very made up on it the evidence today is that the injuries are pretty bad narcotics and stuff why don't we go to your question because we're going to have to take a break here soon yeah so my question is about your comment recently in England about the Japanese internment I'm not sure I understood you correctly but you said it was kind of justified no I actually don't think the Japanese internment during World War II is justified I don't I think there were probably other ways to deal with it I do think that it was justified during World War II not to take immigrants from Japan and not to take immigrants from Nazi Germany I think that was the context in which I said if you declared war on jihadism and you declared war on specific countries that were responsible for the jihadism it would be appropriate then to in a sense ban immigration from particular countries and if you don't declare war it's hard to have such a policy and one small point in Puerto Rico I believe that they don't pay federal personal income tax no that's not true so Puerto Ricans do the decision of the government but I understand that's the case no that's not true Puerto Ricans do pay taxes the Puerto Rico and the US federal government have cut a deal moving to Puerto Rico get assigned a specific status where those Americans moving to Puerto Rico do not pay capital gains taxes and they do not pay other taxes in a sense they don't pay federal taxes so Puerto Rico turns out to be the only tax haven only real tax haven that Americans can take advantage of and that's a deal that the Puerto Rican government has done with the government of the United States so even among the territories it's the best deal among all the territories Puerto Rico is the best tax deal among all the US territories if you're an American citizen there's no place on earth better from the perspective on taxes than to live in Puerto Rico oh yeah because the income taxes follow you around in any country exactly except in Puerto Rico if you're an American from the mainland American move to Puerto Rico the advantage is if you're Puerto Rican you don't get those advantages sorry about that thanks thanks for the call thanks for listening really appreciate it and we're gonna have to take a break now so you're listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network and we'll be right back alright so we're talking today about Donald Trump's tweeting I guess that's what it's boiling down to because you know while I find you know I don't like the idea football players kneeling I like the idea of Donald Trump's tweets even less and while I don't like the idea of of a mayor of Puerto Rico of San Juan, Puerto Rico kind of begging and whining and complaining that generally I'm not a big fan of FEMA and massive federal support for everything although again Puerto Rico is kind of being screwed by the US government for many many decades but I like again the tweets of our president even less the fact that he engages in all this and let me just make a final quick comment on I guess Donald Trump tweeting and that's the tweet today about Tillerson so Tillerson said yesterday that there were direct negotiations between the United States and North Korea that he was directly engaged in negotiations with the Koreans that was direct communication now I think that's a huge mistake I think it's stupid I think it's failed every time it's being attempted in the past I think the United States should not be we should never negotiate with evil regimes I think that's true of North Korea I don't think we should negotiate with Iran I think we should do what's in our self interest and I don't think it's in our self interest to negotiate with evil you can't believe a word they say so what are you negotiating exactly they lie through their teeth that's the only principle by which they can abide by there is nothing else they can do that's what evil does it lies it deceives the United States having direct talks and I was very disappointed in Tillerson that the State Department has direct conversations with I think only bad things are going to come from that but I also think that if you're president of the United States and you're running administration you should have some control over that that is there should be no direct conversation between the State Department and North Korea unless the president has approved it this is a big foreign policy issue and you think the president of the United States would have a handle on this issue and he wouldn't let his State Department go run amok all by itself independent of him but that's what it seems like is going on because the president this morning tweets we shouldn't be talking directly to the North Koreans it's futile it's useless we shouldn't be doing it which I agree with but you know Green Tillerson he offers and yell at him you don't tell him to stop it but you don't air your dirty laundry in public you don't show the world that you have lost control over your own administration but that's what Donald Trump is reflecting that he has no control over his administration that the State Department is doing whatever they want and Donald Trump objects to what they're doing over Twitter not by firing Tillerson not by going over there and yelling at somebody maybe he's doing that as well but on Twitter it just it kind of shows pathetic he is and he doesn't even realize that by tweeting it it shows how pathetic he is it's just unbelievable to me that the president of the United States uses Twitter to communicate with his own staff I mean he did this months ago or weeks ago with Jeff Sessions he doesn't like his Justice Department Secretary of Justice he goes to Twitter to criticize him I mean if you don't like it fire him or try to change his mind but what are you tweeting about it what are you letting the world know about the fact that you a lousy manager who can manage your own administration who has people working for you opposite of what you think should be done it's just I just find the whole thing bizarre I just find the whole thing bizarre so anyway I don't know I got up with all these Trump tweets are just getting me depressed that's all I can say it's just so low I mean I have I love this country and I love what this country represents and I know some people are going to kneel in front of the national anthem and that's bad in 1968 in the Olympics during the national anthem these athletes representing the United States they took off their shoes and were standing on the podium with the national anthem in their socks to protest against poverty and they raised their fist with a black glove on it in a salute of the black panthers a black power to protest racism in the United States and they took a stand okay I think I wouldn't support that I think it's wrong but the world did not end as a consequence of that people express their views we're not always going to disagree the left in this country is dominant particularly among blacks which I think is sad because I think the left has stabbed black Americans in the back that the left has destroyed the black family the left in its policies have destroyed the capacity of blacks to advance economically they institutionalized them into poverty the war on poverty has made has reduced the rate at which blacks move into the middle class so it's sad that so many of them have left this but they are and they take a knee okay get over it move on it's sad but then once the president gets involved it makes it a big issue it turns it into a big deal and now you've got whole teams protesting not protesting on the issue protesting the involvement of the president and now everybody's out there talking about Puerto Rico because the president has raised this issue and of course he is demonstrating through Twitter his competing lack of ability to manage his own people his own administration so just incompetence and and it's sad because I have a huge amount of respect for this country and for the presidency as representative of this country when we come back I want to talk about something other negative you know the election of Roy Moore which I think is horrific and then we'll talk we've got a few other issues and of course you can call in and disagree with me you're listening to your book show on the blaze Radio Network will be right back on the blaze radio network alright well we're back and we are talking about well we're talking about all the pressing news of the day I'm sorry you know I still believe in this country I still believe in the fundamental values of this country which are the values of individualism and the values of liberty and freedom and individual liberty and individual freedom and yet the last couple of presidents or the last three presidents have just slowly eroded everything about you know what's good about this country and it really is getting worse and worse and worse and worse and I think Trump is taking us to a new place in that respect a new low and really one of the new lows was I thought the election of Roy Moore was this last week he won the primary in Alabama will become probably most likely the senator from Alabama to replace Jeff Sessions now Jeff Sessions is not my favorite guy because and many of you know I think blaze listeners that I am an atheist and I do not believe that religion has any role in government that religion should be a factor in decision making and I believe that this country was basically set up as a secular government as a government that is there to protect the individual rights that's it, to protect the individual the government is supposed to protect us from cooks and criminals not from natural disasters even from cooks and criminals and fraudsters and terrorists that would be good if our government did something to protect us from terrorists and from fraud invaders and other than that you know arbitrate disputes we need a legal system I think for example disaster relief should be privatized I think for example most of what the government does today probably 80% of what the government does today maybe if you take into account state and local I take 90% of what the government does today the government shouldn't be doing and it should certainly have a separation from church from religious issues it's not the government's job you want to be religious that's fine it's not the government's place to dictate what our religion should be it's not the government's place to claim that it's founded on religious principles because it's not there is no such thing as individual rights in the Old Testament or the New Testament that's a philosophical concept that's a secular concept that's the concept in which this country was founded and here you have a guy Roy Moore who does not believe the separation of church and state at all who insists that the laws of the United States of America should be based on religious principles who has certain religious beliefs that's fine he can have them that's his right I think but he doesn't get to impose those religious beliefs and yet has a history of imposing them whether it's the Ten Commandments and insisting on having the Ten Commandments in a court room even when the courts have ruled against it and said he has to take it out he had to be literally kicked out of the court by a judicial ethics panel because he violated he refused to abide by court decisions how can you have a judge who refuses to abide by court decisions refuses to accept the rule of law there's nothing more fundamental in a free society than the rule of law and yet here's a judge and now a senator who does not believe in the rule of law that's just terrific just terrific then that was the Ten Commandments thing and then he defied federal law regarding same-sex marriage you can disagree with the ruling about same-sex marriage but it is the law of the land and as a judge you have to abide by it as a public official you have to abide by the rulings agree or disagree imagine if every public official in the United States said I agree with those decisions of the Supreme Court but I don't agree with other ones and I'm gonna therefore only follow the ones that I agree with imagine if every public official not just judges but police officers you know police officers yeah I don't agree with you know with with half of the laws on the books I'm only gonna follow the ones that I I like right so it's truly is it truly is insanity insanity so you can't have that that would be complete chaos complete anarchy complete violence complete breakdown of any civilization and here is a judge who did that so not only did he say he disagreed with the same-sex marriage laws but then he told he told the county clerks not to abide by them he directed Alabama probate judges to ignore the Supreme Court and now he's a U.S. Senator he got rewarded for that the voters the Republican voters of Alabama rewarded this not this person who does not believe in the rule of law, who does not believe that you follow the rulings of the court of the Supreme Court and they were awarded by electing him to the Senate I mean to me it's just unthinkable and it's again depressing depressing that this is where the country is this is the kind of people the country elects and who supported Ray Moore who pushed him in this case it wasn't Trump the voters actually went against Trump and his candidate this was Bannon remember Bannon who used to be Trump's chief strategist and the chairman of Breitbart I was going to say entertainment it is entertainment because it's certainly not news and Bannon was pushing this guy and Bannon is going to get involved in many of the primaries he's going to have his own list of candidates and these are the kind of candidates Bannon wants who don't believe in the separation of church and state who don't believe in abiding by supreme court I mean imagine if liberal judges decided the supreme court was irrelevant and then conservative judges decided the supreme court was irrelevant the country would fall apart but that's what Bannon wants Bannon would love to see that because at the end of the day what he wants is a strong man at the top of the federal government ignoring the supreme court and dictating what should happen this is how you get authoritarianism this is how you head towards authoritarian government is when you start ignoring the courts when the rule of law completely and utterly starts breaking down and Roy Moore is one step, one more step towards exactly that towards the end of American government now I don't want to sound hysterical but this guy is really bad really bad now we still have a robust system of government that will probably protect us from his shenanigans you know more like Trump was a shameless peddler of the birth of thing Obama is a birther that conspiracy theory he just comes up with stuff he makes stuff up he is a post truth candidate post facts candidate so in that sense he's very much like Trump and it scares me that we're getting more candidates like Trump it scares me that that's the direction the country is heading in alright we are going to take a quick break here you're listening to your own book show on the blaze radio network we'll be right back for the final segment of the book show on the blaze radio network you're on brook hey so we're talking about a bunch of different stuff I guess I'm depressed today so it's not being the most positive and exciting show but maybe Dave Dave and Argen can get me on a better track hey Dave how's it going hi good you're on thank you and yourself well you told me not so good go ahead my question is it might be kind of subtle but just a moment ago and I've heard other people say this you were saying that you support both liberty and freedom and is there a difference or what if you could talk about that ok so Dave's asking is the difference between freedom and liberty why do we use two different terms and you know there is I think it's a subtle difference I think the first thing to ask is freedom what does freedom mean freedom from what and what I mean when I talk about freedom is freedom from coercion freedom from force freedom from authority freedom from other people telling me what I can and cannot do what I can and cannot think freedom is I think the broader concept it's about the absence of coercion freedom is living a life where you're free of coercion and we're not very free in America today because of the way we're taxed because of the way we're regulated because of the degree to which government controls us and government is coercion government is force government is authority I think liberty means it relates more to the mind it relates more to thinking and speaking and writing it relates more to issues surrounding the first amendment I think so liberty is more you know be freed from authority you know so that's my understanding I'm not saying this is not my definitive statement of the topic so you can have to forgive me for not having for not having it completely down does that make sense yes it's great food for thought so when the founding fathers say we have a right to life liberty in the pursuit of happiness the right to life includes all other rights in a sense the right to life is basically the right to pursue the actions necessary to live your own life to be the right to life is the freedom from coercion in every aspect of your life and then they articulate and in the original draft I think they mention liberty property and the pursuit of happiness and liberty relates to thought and to the product of thinking property relates to economic activity obviously and material activity so liberty relates to kind of the product of the mind property more relates to kind of the material world and the pursuit of happiness is more like the ultimate goal for all this acting in a way that ultimately leads to happiness so that's how I think about it but I'll give it some more thought and see if I have a better more definitive answer sometime in the future thanks Dave thanks for calling, thanks for listening I really appreciate it so I wanted to just say something about why I think things there are a lot of reasons why I think things are bad and why I think things are getting worse but I want to focus on one issue which I'm going to spend a whole show one of these weeks on which is I think with deteriorating into a form of tribalism in this country and you know there's my tribe and there's their tribe and everything is based on emotion it's not based on fact which is what tribalism exactly is it's an expression of emotion we're gravitating towards the tribe that looks the most like us and that's kind of the racial animosity that is developing in this country and is being exacerbated I think right now from both sides and again I'm not saying it's from any one side it's on all sides I think when we stop when we stop being convinced of the efficacy of reason when we stop being thinking beings when we don't teach our kids how to think but how to emote when our students are trained in post modernism then all we're left with is emotion and when we just have emotion you know we're looking for group to support us because knowledge is impossible emotions cannot lead us to knowledge so we're looking for a group and there's one group that that is taking a knee and there's another group that opposes them and we latch on to one of those groups and we can't think in terms of in terms of any kind of subtleties you know the good guys and the bad guys there's my group and there's their group and that's it that's it and I'm not saying there's no right or wrong there clearly is right or wrong true and false but that isn't the standard anymore there's them versus us you know some survey found that something like 60% of all the people who voted Trump would basically support him no matter what he did and no matter what he said there's no a tribe there's Trump's tribe and they will follow him no matter what he does and then there's the leftist tribe and there's the media that no matter what Trump does and no matter what Republicans do if you will they're wrong they're evil they're bad no matter what capitalism results in it's wrong it's evil they're bad it's not based on facts it's not based on evidence it's based on emotion it's a 100% emotion it's my tribe versus your tribe my group versus your group and unfortunately that's where we are today we have lost what really makes America America what makes America America is individualism that we treat the individual as an individual and we respect an individual as an individual not as a member of any tribe and we treat arguments as arguments true or false we evaluate them right or wrong not based on the color of the skin of the person advocating for their ideas not based on his party affiliation not based on where he lives or what he looks like but based on the truth of all sort of his ideas it's about facts it's about evidence it's about truth it's about reality and that I am afraid is slipping away from us and America in that sense is slipping away from us this is the land of reason this is the land of truth and facts based argument this is the land of individualism and when we lose that we lose what is America we lose what America stands for and unfortunately we've got a president who is playing to the tribal instinct to the right tribal aspect and uh you know it's horrific it's sad and it's and we gotta overcome it alright you're listening to your on book show where we stand for reason and individualism go read Ayn Rand go buy my new book uh talk to you next week bye you're listening to the your on brook show on the blaze radio network