 The radical, fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual rights. This is The Iran Book Show. All right, everybody. Welcome to Iran Book Show on this January 16th, I guess it's night of January the 16th. The title of the famous play by Ein Rand, we should all have read or watched on stage. It's a fantastic drama and a lot of fun to watch on stage. All right, yeah, it looks like Stephen has snowed in in Massachusetts. I'm sure a lot of you either snowed in or just cold in, just frozen in wherever you are. Not here in Puerto Rico, where it's, I don't know, 80 degrees outside right now. 78, 78 degrees outside. All right, I was supposed to do a new show today. I know I was. I unfortunately had to take my wife to do medical procedure. I thought it would take two, three hours. It basically took the whole day. So it not only made it possible to do the news show, but also if man means, man, that today's evening show, which I meant to do an hour earlier, is an hour later, but it is what it is. We keep on rolling, right? All right, so Trump yesterday, no, not yesterday, two days ago. Two days ago, Trump basically won in a landslide in Iowa. I mean, lots of caveats to that. Turnout was very, very low. Weather was very, very bad. And there's a lot you can say about it to make it sound less bad. But the reality is that Trump won over 50% of caucus scores, the largest victory ever in Republican history. And while, you know, Nikki Haley and DeSantis, Nikki Haley and DeSantis were, you know, did mildly better than the polls, you know, they did horribly. I mean, they did horribly, ultimately even combined, if you combine both of them, they, what did they get? Less than, I think 40%, something like that. So, you know, and this is Iowa, this is where DeSantis had a huge ground game, what they call a large organizational setup on the ground. DeSantis had the endorsement of both the governor of Iowa and of the leading evangelical in the state. And yet an overwhelming number of evangelicals voted for Trump. So the endorsement of the evangelical leadership made no difference. This is a state that in 2016 did not vote for Trump in the caucus. The caucus then went for Ted Cruz, who everybody expected would be the evangelical candidate and would basically win throughout the country the evangelical vote that proved not to be the case after losing Iowa. Trump basically won everything else and certainly won by big margins the evangelical vote forcing Cruz ultimately to withdraw from the race. Trump goes into New Hampshire strong, New Hampshire might not vote for Trump. It might go for Haley, although I think it's gonna be close and it's likely that Trump will actually squeeze it out and win even in New Hampshire. He then goes to South Carolina, which is Nikki Haley was governor of South Carolina and I think he wins in South Carolina by big margin. He probably goes to Florida and wins by a big margin. He wins by big margins in Super Tuesday. I just don't see how, where Trump is within the Republican Party, how he can be stopped. I just don't believe he will be. I don't believe he can be. Trump will be, I think there's very little, there's very little chance that this will not happen. I mean, there's always a probability something happens but it really does appear that Trump will be the Republican nominee in 2024 going into the elections in November. And I think sadly it's likely that Biden will be the nominee on the Democratic side and will have a repeat of 2016. And I think to a large extent will have a repeat of 2016. I think I'd be surprised if Biden, in spite of how poorly he does in the polls right now, in spite of the fact that so many people despise him and so many people hate him and so many people dislike him. I think Biden wins it. I think the reality is that people dislike Trump even more. The enthusiasm this time for Trump is far less than it was in 2020 and in 2020 he lost the Biden and I think there's a lot less enthusiasm for Trump today than there was back then. But Trump will be the nominee and with a really good chance, with a really good chance to win the presidency. He could be the president for four more years, for four years post-2024. We can talk and we will talk I'm sure in the months, years to come about what that means to the country and what that could mean to the country. I think it just means the continued decline and deterioration and of the country and pretty much every dimension one can imagine. I think that also happens as Biden wins. So it's not that big of a difference. Although the nature of the decline, I think shifts between whether it is Trump or whether it is Biden. It doesn't matter in a sense because what Trump's candidacy, what's Trump winning in 2016 and his success in 2020 even though he lost the Biden, he got a hell of a lot of votes and his popularity in 2024 all should worry people. Whether Trump wins or doesn't win is not really the question we should be asking ourselves. The real question we should be asking ourselves is how can it be the Trump is on the ballot? How can it be the Trump is the best option that America has? And of course the same is true of Biden but Biden is the incumbent and it's very difficult to get rid of an incumbent if he decides to run. One can understand the Democrats for sticking with an incumbent. But how can it be that the Republican Party as bad as it has always been, awful, horrible, that has always been or at least has been for a long, long, long time? How can it be that this same party, this party that was bad has gone from bad to absolutely despicable? And of course, what does this say about the Republican Party? How does one explain the phenomenon and what does it say more broadly about America? What is it about America that attracts us to Donald Trump? What is it about America, particularly the so-called right on America, the things that Donald Trump is the answer and the things that Donald Trump is the best alternative given a wide array of other choices that exists out there? What is it that has shifted America so dramatically? And whatever you think of Mitt Romney, and I don't particularly like Mitt Romney, but Mitt Romney and Trump are very, very different people. How do we get from Mitt Romney to Donald Trump of that matter? Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, McCain, Bush, all people I don't like, though Reagan I kind of like, but everybody else I don't like, how do we get from any of those people to Donald Trump? And look, y'all know, I think those of you who've been listening to my show for a long time, you know how low, how badly I think of Donald Trump. I think the guy has one of the lowest characters in terms of just the character, just in terms of his attitude, his behavior, his, the way he talks, his values or lack of them. I can't think of a presidential candidate, never mind president, who's had a lower character. In that sense, he's much worse than Bill Clinton. He's got the same disregard for women, but with a personality that is just ugly in every single dimension. A man who stands for really nothing. We'll talk about what he stands for, but he stands for really nothing in terms of positive ideas. He doesn't stand for a particular foreign policy, except not getting involved in disputes that he thinks we should not, and maybe we should, and maybe we should not, maybe sometimes he'll change his mind. He stands for no specific foreign policy. He has no foreign policy views. He'll cut a deal with the brutal dictator of North Korea. He never really did, but he tried and he groveled and he kissed the guy's boots, but he never actually did. He'll cut a deal with Putin. He'll probably cut a deal with Hamas. He's a deal maker. He'll cut a deal. That's his foreign policy. No principle, no ideas, no conception of American interests other than a cut a deal. But I have a strong sense. Trump just doesn't have a sense of America. He knows what Trumps want. He knows what his voters want. He's very good at that. That's his great genius. But he has no conception of America, what it is, what it stands for, what it represents, what it has been, what it could be. What its founding documents say it is. He is the ultimate pragmatist, cut a deal. Whatever the problem is, the solution is cut a deal. He has no principles. If it works, it's okay with him. With Donald Trump, does anybody doubt that Donald Trump would lie, steal, cheat, do whatever to get his way? I don't think so. I don't think many people doubt that fact. And what was his record? It was a mishmash of president. Some good things, some terrible things, some bad things. I know you all remember, because those of you inclined to Trump remember only the good things and you could probably give me a whole list of all the wonderful things that he did. And forget all the long list of the things that he did that were horrible, just the policies that he engaged in that were horrible. Foreign policy was a disaster. Domestic policy was a disaster. And you know the economy. I mean, it's funny to me, the economy. The whole story about the economy is truly funny. I don't have any other response to it because it's so ludicrous, it's funny. There are people who really believe the economy was the greatest economy we've ever had. And by every objective measure, the economy is just as good under Biden. And it's not good under Biden. And it wasn't that good under Trump. It just wasn't. Now, in terms of GDP growth, the only people who really benefited under Trump were, wages went up under Trump, particularly working class wages went up under Trump quite a bit. And that's primarily not because he understood what he did, but primarily because of the corporate tax rate cut. The fact is when he cut corporate taxes, I said this at the time, the beneficiaries are workers and consumers. So some wages went up in real terms. Again, not clear other than the corporate tax cut that it did anything. Unemployment wasn't any better than it is today. Tariffs that clearly unequivocally destroyed jobs, weakened American businesses, were instituted, massive subsidies to farmers were adopted. It's no surprise, it shouldn't be a surprise that Iowa went so strong for Trump. Ultimately, the farmers in Iowa are beneficiaries of massive subsidies that Trump provided them. You know, to a large extent, one could argue that a lot of what was going on under Trump was a consequence of low interest rates, engineered by the Federal Reserve, that Trump supported, not just supported, kind of beat the fed down a little bit in 2018 when they threatened to raise interest rates. Arguably, those low interest rates caused the kind of distortions that we saw later on that ultimately resulted in inflation. Nippon Steel, buying U.S. Steel is big reason for that is tariffs, Trump's tariffs, Steel tariffs. So it wasn't a superstar economy. Bill Clinton had a superstar economy. Ronald Reagan had a superstar economy. Trump, eh, 2% growth. And of course, a president who from beginning to end, from beginning to end, completely and utterly mismanaged COVID. I mean, in ways that if Ein Rand had written it into a character and atlas shrugged, you would have said nobody could be that evasive, stupid, ridiculous, nobody. From sticking his head in the sand and pretending it wasn't happening to promising us it would go away by itself to then panically on March 13th, Friday, March 13th, declaring in a sense a state of emergency encouraging states to lock down, encouraging schools to close, then pushing, you know, bizarre medicines, attacking Georgia for opening up too soon. Trump wasn't listening to Fauci. Fauci didn't tell him to support hydrochlorine. Fauci didn't tell him to pour, what was it called, a disinfectant down your throat. Fauci, one of the bureaucrats that he listened to. But this is Donald Trump, president. His watch, his call. Why was Fauci even there? Because the CDC screwed up. CDC screwed up on whose watch? Trump's watch. When a screw up this lodge happens in a business, the CO is gone. Ancient, he resigns. He doesn't even wait to be fired. I've been calling for Netanyahu's resignation post October 7th. Suddenly Trump should never be president again. After not just one bit a long series of complete and utter screw ups during COVID. But you guys, in spite of the fact that there were alternatives, you guys want to give him a second chance. Want to give it at him again. Cummins spending went through the roof, did nothing to slow it down. Obamacare was never repealed. No option was ever proposed. Not a single derogatory bill went to Congress. The budgets Trump sent to Congress were always expansionary and growing. Entitled reform was completely shelved. And now the United States budget is even more in the hall. Now the economy is even more problematic. And you want to give this guy another chance. You want to give this idiot another chance. This incompetent idiot, another chance. You know, the probably the best performing country during COVID was Taiwan. And a big part of that was the result of the fact that the vice president of Taiwan took it upon himself. He was both an epidemiologist, but took him upon himself to organize the response of the Taiwanese. They responded months before Trump. They responded aggressively, quickly and didn't shut down their economy even once. So it was possible. But no, and this is the phenomena that we're gonna talk about. The facts don't matter. You know, we could have been in a depression. We could have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people did die unnecessarily because of Trump, because of COVID. Our liberties were violated because of Trump and COVID. Economy is in worse shape because of Trump. His record is at best mediocre and objectively terrible. And of course that doesn't even take into account his authoritarian tendencies, his vulgar speech, his vulgarity, his ugliness in terms of the way he expresses himself, his flirtation with and a winking relationship with white nationalists and racists. This is the guy you want. This is the guy you want to be president, your president, president of the United States. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters. This is the thing. It doesn't matter. He could kill somebody, murder somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and wouldn't matter. He's going to be, I think, convicted of crimes. It doesn't matter. He has been civilly convicted of, you know, basically sexual assault. It doesn't matter. Nobody cares. He can talk about groping women. He can talk about mass murder. He can talk about whatever he wants to talk about. It doesn't matter. He will get many of your votes and you will make excuses. Oh, we didn't know how COVID was. Oh, we didn't know this. Oh, we didn't do that. Oh, but he'd be regulated. Oh, but he was good on energy. Oh, what about Tel Aviv? What about this? What about that? Excuses, excuses, excuses. There's simply no justifying Trump other than Biden. Biden is an excuse to vote for Trump, okay? Biden is on the ballot right now. Haley and DeSantis, and well, there's only ones left on the ballot right now. They're the ones who could be a replacement for Trump, but it doesn't matter. It's not about any of that. It's about what Trump essentially is and what Trump essentially is, is what people are looking for and they want and they're voting for Trump. They're not voting against Biden. They're voting for Trump. And those on the chat here, apologizing for Trump and saying, oh, but I support somebody else. They love Trump. They want Trump. They adore Trump. Trump fills a need that they have. Be right back. What Trump does is project back to people their anger. What Trump does is project back to people their fear. What Trump does is project back to people their hatred and he knows it and he plays on it. And he does it amazingly well. Amazingly well. People are afraid. Now, partially they're afraid because they've been told they should be afraid, but partially they're afraid because they're entering a world that they do not recognize, that they do not know, that they're afraid of how to deal with. Yeah, there it is, guys. When you don't have an argument, call somebody TDS. There you go. It's the Trump brain dead syndrome which so many people out there have, but that's exactly what I'm describing. These are people afraid of the modern world. They're afraid of competition. They're afraid of globalization. They're afraid of global trade. They're afraid of people who look differently than them, who have different cultures than them, who might be at competing them in some way. These are people who might be losing their jobs or afraid to be losing their jobs. It's mostly people who are old. You know what Trump's demographic is? What is Trump's demographic? Who votes for Trump overwhelmingly? He wins, hand down. By overwhelming majorities, he wins the 65 and older votes. What's the other demographic that he wins overwhelmingly? You know who won the youth vote? Young people vote in Iowa? DeSantis. DeSantis. You might have thought Vivek or something, but DeSantis won it. Old people vote for Trump. Old people vote for Trump because they're afraid. They're afraid of a changing world. They cannot change, they're too old to change. They're nostalgic for another America, good or bad. It's just nostalgia. The 50s were not that great, not for everybody. They're also afraid because the reality is that many 65-year-olds live off of self-security and Medicaid, and they're afraid that those will be touched, reformed, changed. They're afraid because they've lived their lives pretty much the same way for most of their lives, and they know that future generations are gonna have to change, that the world is changing around them. They're afraid of those immigrants coming across the border. So it's old people. What's the other demographic that Trump dominates? Dominates. It's non-college-educated adults. And Republicans, college-educated adults in Iowa, at least, voted, a majority of them voted for Nikki Haley. And if you add Nikki Haley and DeSantis's vote together, there were a majority of college-educated, overwhelming majority of college-educated Republicans voted against Trump. So, not college-educated, working-class, and old. Like the way things have always been. Don't want change. Scared. I mean, robots are gonna replace workers. Some Republican free marketers want to, I don't know, privatize social security. I remember when I used to speak at the Tea Party, which was also overwhelmingly old. I used to tell them how evil it was that they were taking the whole Medicare system was basically making them parasitic on their grandchildren. That for every dollar they put into the system, they would take out four. And who would have to make up those four dollars? Their grandkids, higher taxes, few opportunities. Worst economy. That completely created cognitive distance in their lives. Completely created cognitive distance in their minds. They couldn't hold that. That scared them, because they don't want me taking away their Medicare. The world is changing, but the change that they object to is not bad change. Globalization, not bad. Robots, not bad. Technology, not bad. Immigration, not bad. But if you, you know, I ran, wrote this essay about the divine right of stagnation. If you believe that stagnation is ideal, if you want things to be the way that they used to be, if you object, if you object to progress, to change the growth, to prosperity, really, then Trump comes around and tells you, you're right. Change is bad. Let's go backwards. Let's stop this globalization, which has improved American life dramatically. Let's stop immigration, which has improved American life dramatically. Let's stop technology. Let's stop AI. I wouldn't be surprised if a Trump presidency, an next Trump presidency, will see a dramatic increase in regulation of technology, particularly artificial intelligence. Trump told them, I won't, I won't let anybody touch your security. I won't let anybody touch your Medicare. And I will build a wall so not a single one of those horrible people who don't look like you crosses the border. I will stop it. And Americans, and, you know, he did this great. You know, in 2016, he said there was carnage in the streets of America. It was one of the least violent years in all of American history, literally. In terms of violent crime, 2015, the year he was talking about, well, no, it would be 2016. He was talking about this in 2017, January 2017, was one of the most peaceful, least violent years in all of American history. Carnage in the streets of America. American industry is rotting. American economy is tanking. Our way of life is threatened. It's destroyed. And the enemy is the enemy you guys all know. It's those Chinese. It's those Mexicans. It's the other. It's the elites. It's the left. And what are we gonna do about it? I don't need to give you a plan because all you have to do is trust me. America is a place, shockingly, of people who are afraid, people who are scared, people who have no confidence, people who don't want to think for themselves, who don't want to consider solutions, who don't want to conceive of something new. This is not an America of a revolution. This is not an America of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. This is not an America of reform, of change, of shrinking government, of cutting the bureaucracy, not just the bureaucracy, cutting government spending dramatically. This is an America of stagnation. This is an America of fear. And this is an America of, we don't want to think about it, just tell us what to do. We don't want to think about it, just do what's necessary. We don't want to think about it, just defeat our enemies, just shut them down, just close them off. That's what drives a majority of Trump voters. Not every one of them, sure, all kinds of motivations to vote for Trump. Particularly in the general election, but in the primaries, there is no excuse. No excuse. Any one of the other candidates could beat the Democrats better, more thoroughly than Trump can. Trump might be the only Republican who could lose to Biden. Biden is so weak, Nikki Haley would run away with it. I even think DeSantis would run away with it, as unlikable as DeSantis is. I think he'd still beat, I mean, he'd thrash Biden. Literally, the only Republican in the field who could lose to Biden, and all the polls are showing this, is Trump. So it's not about, it's not about beating Biden. Has nothing to do with beating Biden. That's just an excuse Trump has made. It is about, as I said, it's about fear. And when fear dominates, people latch on, latch on to a candidate who might be vulgar, might not have any ideas, might just yell and scream, but that's exactly what they want. They want somebody who can tell them they're right. They want somebody who can tell them the other is bad. They want somebody who can yell and scream and be as nasty as the opposition is. But it's fear and anger. Fear and anger is what drives Trump voters. Fear and anger is what Trump projects, just follow his tweets. Fear and anger, what they like about Trump is he expresses what they are feeling. He expresses what they think. Think is too strong of a world, what they feel. He expresses what they feel. And that's the attraction, and it's a magical attraction, because it is a cult-like attraction. I mean, literally, he is like a cult leader. The people surrounding Trump, the people who adore Trump, the people who go to Trump rallies are not Americans in the independent thinker, frontiersman, pioneer sense. The people who go to Trump rallies are unthinking, fearful, angry, and ready to be led. Ready to be led. Donald Trump doesn't propose any ideas. He doesn't propose any strategy. He doesn't propose any programs. Nothing, really. What's the program? He's just gathering sheep. He's just gathering sheep. So, yeah, I mean, Trump is that bad and much worse. And at the end of the day, I mean, literally, at the end of the day, if you vote for Trump, and a primary, again, I'm not comparing it to Biden, if you vote for Trump in a primary, you are voting for the end of America as we know it. You are voting for fear and anger. And as a consequence, you're voting for authoritarianism, you're voting for stagnation, you're voting for going backwards. Going backwards. And I think that's what a vote in Iowa for Trump was, that's what a vote in New Hampshire is going to be for Trump will be. It's not a forward-looking. It's not a... I mean, what are we about? Step aside a second and say, what are we about? What would be our ideal candidate? Who would we want to vote for? What do we believe in? Oh, I can tell you what I believe in. I don't know what you guys believe in. I mean, I believe in freedom and liberty. I believe people should be free. Free to say what they want, free to act the way they want. Free, left alone. I don't believe the government should intervene in what people think, in what people say, in how people act. I believe in a total respect, total separation from state and ideas from state and journalism. Trump, Trump constantly threatened social media and mainstream media constantly throughout his presidency. That if they didn't fall in line, he would find ways to shut them down, or if the Washington Post didn't fall in line, he'd go after Amazon for antitrust, which, of course, the government has since then. So, not an advocate of free speech, not an advocate of liberty, not really an advocate of freedom. I mean, if I were looking for a candidate, I would look for a candidate who was adamant about our economic liberties. This should be easy. Who was promoting the reform of Social Security in America and promoting cutting government spending, being the first president since, God, Bill Clinton, maybe to run a budget surplus instead of a deficit. Can you imagine that? The president actually advocated for cutting spending, getting us the surplus, and starting to pay off our debt. The president wanted to get out of the way of Americans doing business with whoever they wanted. So, the president actually lowered tariffs, reduced them, eliminated them in many cases. The president who wanted to embrace the idea of trade as win-win, not lose-lose, as Donald Trump constantly told us, and taught us, and preached to us, and explained to us, and acted on, but win-win. And therefore, embrace trade across the world with anybody except our enemies. Imagine a president, imagine a president who thought businesses should make decisions based on their own standards, should be subsidized, as Trump did, subsidized, and Biden, of course, did. Shouldn't be told what to do, shouldn't be coerced, but should be left alone to do business. Imagine a president who is not just going to reduce regulations a little bit, but actually eliminate regulatory agencies. Past bills that just eliminated them, or at least, at the very least, significantly reduced their mandates. Not just relying on bureaucrats to do a little bit less off, and when the bureaucrats are placed, they do more again. But actually bills, actually legislation that actually rips apart these federal regulatory agencies, and Donald's ways, does away with it. Now it could be that the Supreme Court is going to help us here if they do away with Chevron in the next few months. We'll talk about that in another show. Imagine a president who has actual agenda, program of liberty, of freedom, of market reforms. And let me ask you, would Trump voters vote for that person? No. They wouldn't. Trump voters would not vote for them. See, a person like that, a person who has to commit it themselves to cutting government spending, to reducing government regulation in significant ways, to increasing trade, to increasing housing so that you could get lower cost of living. A person like that could not win. Somebody who had a strategy around foreign policy, a strategy about making America first, could not win. Certainly would not get the Trump voters. The Trump voters are anti-freedom. They're anti-liberty. Again, a majority. They're not voting because they want less government. They're voting because they want more government, just their kind of government, not the other kinds of government. And they don't even know much about government. They're voting because Trump promised them that he would alleviate their fear and anger. Trump promised them that somehow things would get better. That's what they're voting for. They're voting for what Trump promised. Not for any particular program. Not for any particular set of beliefs. Not for liberty, freedom. Not for any principles because nobody's articulating principles. Certainly not Trump. Trump's articulating anti-principles. Trump is the ultimate pragmatist who believes in nothing. And the people who vote for him believe in nothing. They're driven by fear and anger and desire. A desire to stagnate. It's not quite nihilism, but it's close. And of course, I think Trump is nihilistic, and I think many of his more rabid supporters, particularly the younger rabid supporters are nihilists. They're the ones who want Trump, not because they think he's any good, but because they love the fact that Trump smashes things. Trump breaks things. Trump destroys things. And there's a real nihilistic streak on the rate that supports Trump for all those reasons. People ask me, who would I vote for in the primaries? Anybody but Trump. I thought that it doesn't really matter. But at this point, I think the only person who has a legitimate chance to defeat Trump is Hailey. In spite of many misgivings that I have about her, I would vote for her. Certainly, Afon Palski, I think is the best of all these candidates. But she's the only one talking about capitalism. She's the only one talking about cutting up and spending. So, yeah, I mean, I would vote for Hailey. I don't love Hailey, and she said some really stupid things about Trump, but I'll take her over Trump in a heartbeat. But for that matter, I take the stand this over Trump. It's amazing to me how the people in the chat are reflections of our culture so beautifully, right? They have their talking points, right? They've got it from right-wing media. There's almost like a tweet and they have the talking points and they just repeat them. Like, you can't criticize Trump as significantly as I have for the last nine years without having TDS, right? Nikki Hailey is Clinton of the right or Hillary of the right. There were others. A bunch of things that they say, everything they say basically, everything they say basically is just a talking point they got from a Trump you know, a tweet, a Trump troll, a Trump whatever, a Trump fax. It used to be faxes. You know, Rush Limbaugh used to get the fax from the Republican National Committee and structures showers around that and they get that. Tell what they were claimed maybe sometimes, belief in capitalism. It doesn't matter. You know, capitalism. Capitalism can't win. So we can't go with capitalism, capitalism. You have to abandon capitalism in order to win and when you win, we still won't get capitalism at least we'll win. Who is we? I don't know. Tell what they believe in freedom or liberty. It doesn't matter. We have to win. That's all that matters. We have to win. So to hell with freedom, to hell with liberty, to hell with capitalism, to hell with free speech, as long as we win, everything is okay. And if you argue against us in any kind of way, I've got a talking point that I've received from the Republican Trump election pack, whatever. It's stunning because they have all the phrases. It's the same phrases I see over and over again from, you know, from Trumpists everywhere. They all use exactly the same language. Exactly the same language. And yes, you can accuse me of being a mouthpiece for the New York Times. You know how far that'll get you. You can accuse me of just being a leftist in disguise. A leftist who advocates for capitalism. A leftist who advocates for destroying the Iranian regime. A leftist who advocates for complete separation of state from economics, from state and social media, from state and media generally. I'm just a leftist. I just take talking points on the left. That's me. Yep. You'll get a long way with those arguments, guys. But that's okay. Today's show is geared towards losing subscribers because that's what's going to happen from today. All right. Let's see. I will remind you all that this show is supported. We will do more shows than Trump because there's a lot more to go in depth here. And as he says things and as he does things, there'll be more to say about him. Particularly in the days and weeks to come, because once he becomes the nominee, it'll be boring because then it's Trump or Biden, and God help you. I don't care. I'll still be going after Trump. And it'll be even more difficult. All right. This show is supported exists. It thrives even because it's supported by listeners like you. I can only do it because of your contributions without your contributions. The show would shut down. No question about that. Some of you don't contribute. You have an opportunity to if you're listening live through the super chat, but you can contribute on a monthly basis on your on book show dot com slash membership or you can do it through a month. It doesn't have to be at the max level of $500. You can do a whole variety of levels of contribution. Every dollar helps and supports the show. So please consider using the super chat tonight to get us to our goal which we have a goal for every one of these shows which kind of represents the amount of money we need to make in order to keep the show going. All right. I need to do two movie reviews today. I still got a bunch more after this and then I've got a bunch of song reviews as well. But we'll do two movie reviews today and then I'll try to do the rest in the next few shows. Pig. Pig is a movie let me just one second. Pig is a movie with Nicholas Cage. He's a vehicle for Nicholas Cage. He is at the center of a movie. He's in pretty much every shot of the movie I think. It was a movie made in 2021. I think I saw it when it first came out. I saw it again because who asked me to watch Pig? Owen. So I watched Pig again. Adam Campbell doesn't like movie reviews. Sorry, but people pay me a lot of money to do these and it is right now in the title. Pig is a very mixed movie. It's an interesting movie, but it's a very mixed movie. It's got some really positive aspects to it. The positive aspects are primarily intellectual. The positive aspects primarily have to do with the main character in the movie. The character played by Nicholas Cage's attitude or his basic showing up the second handedness of almost everybody else in the movie. It's a very good movie about seeing how much of our culture is about how other people perceive you. What other people expect of you. What other people demand of you. It's very much a movie against this kind of attitude of second handedness and it's for example a restaurant that is showy and sophisticated. The food is bland, it's not really very good. And Nicholas Cage's point is that the chef is not really making the food he wants to make. The chef's real dream is to have a pub a pub food. And he's here making this pseudo pseudo sophisticated stuff. And you can see character after character after character that Nicholas Cage interacts with is filled with the second handed premises that are laid bare by Nicholas Cage. The problem is what's the alternative. Because the alternative as presented in the movie is Nicholas Cage who is in a sense first handed he does what he wants he pursues his passion he pursues his life his way he doesn't give a damn about anybody else and what they think about him but what kind of life is that? It's a life in this case of Cage of isolation of living in poverty with nothing it's showing up and the entire movie basically Nicholas Cage is filthy bloodied he's been in a couple of fights bloodied stinks horrible clothes knees walking around entering people's homes, entering restaurants all in this in the state and at the end of the movie he basically returns to where he started a wooden shack in the middle of the woods outside of Oregon outside of Portland somewhere in Oregon The pig in question is a pig that helps him fight truffles it's really an honing movie because it's really about his love of his pet and his pursuit of his pet in that sense it's the one value that he has that he pursues but he has no friends he has no love except for the pig he has nothing anyway the pig is stolen from him and the movie is him trying to figure out who stole this truffles finding pig and you know, so the movie is it's it's pretty bleak because it offers no alternative to the second-handedness other than living alone living in destitute but on his own terms so very mixed and you can't, it's not enjoyable because because Cage does a good acting job but primarily because the whole movie you're seeing a homeless looking and you can just imagine how badly he smells filthy disheveled guy walking around and he might say some decent things but it's just an unpleasant visual experience it's an unpleasant aesthetic experience so in spite of some good philosophical elements in it because it offers no alternative or the alternative it offers is so oppressive I can't really recommend it okay, very different in every single aspect is a movie called Weathering With You Weathering With You is an anime film anime is growing on me, what can I say it's definitely a style of cinema that is more appropriate for children and more appropriate for young people I think but it has certain elements of children movies it's animated but it's animated even it's animation is geared I think to more children but the story is again it's very inspiring it's beautifully drawn the characters are really good they're strong they know what they want they pursue values and at the end of the day the theme of the movie is anti-sacrifice particularly anti-human sacrifice I mean there's this and it's even willing to say at the end of the day and this is kind of an anti-climate change theme if you will so Tokyo is experiencing this bizarre weather it doesn't stop raining it's just raining all the time it's flooding and this girl has this power to bring out the sun and she can for short periods of time and she sells that skills people pay for her to bring out the sun she makes a little bit of a living doing that but it's the case that to really bring back good weather she would have to die she would have to die she would have to be sacrificed and she does she sacrifices herself and the weather improves dramatically but the boy who loves her and they're going to be spoilers here the boy who loves her won't let that happen and he goes in a sense like a Greek tragedy to the underworld and he brings her back but when she comes back the weather gets bad again and at the end of the movie basically Tokyo is completely flooded and unlivable and it's a happy ending so just for that it gets two thumbs up for saying you know what the weather be what it be we're not giving up our values we're not giving up civilization we're not giving up love we're not giving up love we're going to be selfish we're not going to give up and this movie really ends on this really selfish note we're going to live our lives we're going to pursue our love we're going to pursue our relationship we're going to pursue life we're not going to give in to having to sacrifice all that for good weather and you know like most anime that I've seen so far it's got beautiful music and the animation is pretty and yeah I liked it gets a thumbs up there and I think again philosophically it comes together and it's quite a good theme don't sacrifice your life live it even if a lot of people the outcome for a lot of people is not good maybe this is maybe this is a movie Greta should watch because I think Greta is ready if Greta tomorrow would sacrifice herself and all of us of course she'd sacrifice all of us with her for the so called planet so yes withering weathering with you didn't expect it to like it and kind of slow in the beginning but yeah good characters good characters good story kind of fun fun alright let's see let's go to your questions and a reminder again that I depend on you guys to meet our goals so that we can keep this show going alright who suggested oh Wes suggested weathering so thank you Wes good suggestion Wes is glad you enjoyed weathering with you I thought you would the unbashed selfishness at the end of the movie you were refreshing and surprising absolutely yeah very cool I recommend you guys watch it let me know what you think Liam says I like your show I like that your show is less uptight and academic than ARI it's more lively and relatable to the common man good I think that's right Andrew I know have an edge to their personality but Trump's edge is this ever present hostility towards others in the world how would you differentiate a healthy fighting spirit with that of Trump exhibits I mean Trump is not an egoist and Trump is not a man of self-esteem Trump is a narcissist Trump is completely obsessed with what people think of him what people think about him it's you could even imagine that he believes he didn't lose the election because he can't imagine and it would be too upsetting for him to imagine that a majority of Americans don't like him so he is a complete narcissist not an egoist and he has very thin skin that's how you know somebody who doesn't have self-esteem is when they have very thin skin they immediately go for insults they immediately attack and they can't take any criticism they can't take any kind of really interaction that's negative so and I think the difference is that people with true self-esteem don't view other people as a threat they view other people as a potential benefit they don't think that everything in life is a deal they have to win I mean this is the difference between trade and the kind of deal Trump believes and Trump believes that everything is win-lose everything is win-lose that if the other party wins you must have lost and if you win they must have lost so everything it's all perspective on trade on tariffs his whole perspective on human relationships is I must win and therefore I must dominate you I must dominate you and that's his whole perspective I mean he said this explicitly I mean the problem is that again the mindless Trump supporters will not don't actually listen to what he says and don't actually you know pay attention and think about what he says they in a sense take him literally but they don't think it through but he's often said that he believes trade is win-lose so yeah so Trump has he doesn't have a healthy fighting spirit he has a you know the fighting spirit of a thug of somebody who believes that he must thrash his enemies otherwise you know he's not a man then he must dominate others Trump is is domineering and again somebody who lashes out and views other people as as threats not as allies so very malevolent and I think that's a big difference you know a successful healthy fighting spirit it knows what it's fighting for what is Trump fighting for his self-image that's the best you can get and he does nothing you know he his his counter punches insults but he does nothing to actually fight he just lashes out and again that's not a fighting spirit that's a sign of low self-esteem and of constant desire to appease and to appeal and at the end of the day he's not a fighter he doesn't stand up to anybody he didn't stand up for Putin didn't stand up to the brutal dictator of North Korea he didn't stand up to anybody didn't stand up to Kishi didn't stand up to single-world leader didn't stand up to Democrats I mean in actual real reality he didn't stand up to Democrats gave them pretty much everything they wanted Adam, love the Trump comments I used examples of applying his national programs to a neighborhood to show their absurdity build a wall tariffs made in my neighborhood anti-trade and anti-immigration makes us poor useless unless you are unproductive yeah, that's right the unproductive love it, they're tired indeed love it the people who live off of the state Medicare, Social Security love the anti-immigration anti-trade but if you actually want to be productive if you actually want to live out there in the world and compete and be the best that you can be and you know and you want the challenge alright, Michael says if Trump wins again I can see him turning the GOP against Israel against free markets just a monumental disaster but I think the GOP is already against free markets a significant portion of it you know the G.D. Vance and the G.D. Vance and the Josh Hawley wing of it they're ready you know, ready to be anti-Israel it's just a matter of the right push you know and I think that what's his name his son-in-law won't be around to pulling back towards Israel but yeah there was probably a party I told you seven, eight years ago was lost it was finished because it had chosen Trump it had given up on any respect for free markets it had given up on a serious foreign policy and with Trump winning that would completely demolish whatever was left of the Republican Party and then we'd be stuck with a Democratic Party and that's it a Democratic Party and Nationalist Party and that's all you would have and that is Trump's doing and why I said in 2016 he will destroy the Republican Party and in that sense he's more dangerous than Biden because he would actually destroy the only opposition party that exists so I agree Michael, I think he destroys the Republican Party I think it's a logical thing he already has James says I wouldn't call DeSantis a fascist like I would Trump I think DeSantis knows better he's just being pulled by certain fascist political advisors his economic policies in Florida have not been I think that's right DeSantis has shifted to the fascist side of the Republican Party because he knows that's the only way he can win because that's where Donald Trump has moved to the Republican Party too and DeSantis knows that the only way he can win is to capitalize on that so he wanted to outwoke Trump, he wanted to out you know attack the left of Trump that what people get from Trump is not anti-woke what people get from Trump is not the anti-this or being further to the right where DeSantis is on abortion than anybody else in the race that's not what they get from Trump and that's what DeSantis doesn't understand what they get from Trump is don't be afraid I've got your back and it doesn't matter what you get back on out but that's the sentiment that's the emotion they get from Trump don't be afraid I've got your back and it's okay to be angry I'm angry too and we'll deal with it don't worry what they get from Trump is what you get from an authoritarian it's a certain comfort it's not answers if you ask Trump supporters what do you predict Trump will actually do what are his policies they have no clue and on every policy I think they're more aligned with DeSantis than they are with Trump but that's exactly not what they get from Trump what they get from Trump is the angry you know I am going to fix things for you trust me and he manages to do that he is brilliant pretense of self esteem if you will the pretense of confidence Liam says Vivek is out there campaigning for Trump in New Hampshire just disgusting the guy makes me sick Vivek is smart enough to know better and he had the potential to be better but he chose to be the ultimate second hander I hate to say I told you so but I told you so Vivek struck me from the beginning as just you know just on a power trip not really believing in the things he stood for Vivek who has some really good radical ideas a lot of bad stuff but good radical ideas which would have been really useful within the Republican party if they didn't come in a package that you know embraced Donald Trump bad ideas at the same time but it has surprised me one bit that Vivek is out there with Donald Trump Vivek from the beginning was courted and sucked up to Trump in every single way I told you that from the beginning Trump was going to win unless somebody was willing to stand up to him who was legit Chris Christie never gave the impression he was running for president he was never legit DeSantis had a chance of winning this if DeSantis had taken the decision early on to go after Trump go after Trump as a loser go after Trump as not conservative enough but what the American voters need is constant reminders of what Trump did during COVID constant reminders constant reminders of the fact that Trump lost the House lost the Senate lost the House lost the presidency loser, loser, loser, loser and they never got that they never got that so and as I told you in the past, we will never be Trump's vice president there's no way that happens either so it's going to be you know it'll be somewhat interesting to see who he picks not super interesting but somewhat interesting James what do people get from being trolls trying to flush to someone who actually takes life seriously what do they get from being trolls I don't know I mean you'd have to ask them I think I think they get a certain nihilistic pleasure in disrupting the same pleasure the left gets in the right gets in burning stuff down or just being obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious they get that same thing of just being just being disruptive there are also attention seekers they want attention they want to be noticed they want to have a voice they don't have it and when they troll somebody who has a voice they hope to latch on to the voice that he have so I'd say attention seeking and and a little bit of just the nihilistic joy of disruption of pissing somebody off of just getting under their skin can't think of any other reason for it and think about the effort they go to they listen to a show they watch a show they don't like a guy whose ideas they don't agree with they you know at best they get me to respond and be angry at them but that's they get their attention I'm feeding them when they do that they say feeding the trolls for a reason and they're not interested in ideas they're not interested in philosophy they're not interested in truth they're interested in mouthing off they're interested in attention they've got a certain kind of narcissistic thing going on anyway pathetic I think as Steven Pettit puts it but real you can see it live every show I do how far can racist and anti-Semite really get in the world today other than leaving nasty anonymous comments online you know you can get pretty far in circles of the far left you get pretty far in the far left you can head up institutions you can be a professor you can you can become a member of Congress and you can get I think pretty far on the far right just the far left has more enticing positions for you in a sense that they they dominate the intellectual kind of cultural high ground the far right has nothing for you really but that can all change very quickly very quickly I mean anti-Semite in history have gone from being nothing to being significant movers and shakers and as this country and the western world descends into I don't know what it's descending into but into a kind of an anarchy and into violence you know political violence potentially descends into maybe authoritarianism then I wouldn't be surprised if anti-Semitism gets rewarded by a new regime but we're definitely heading towards more authoritarianism we're definitely heading towards more greater power to our politicians I mean to some extent we really have authoritarianism which is the matter of degree but we're heading towards more and we're heading towards less of even the vestiges of liberty and freedom and yeah that's the I don't see how we get out of it at this point I don't see where it comes from I think it's much worse now than the 70s not in the sense of violence not in a sense of economic economics but I think in a sense of culture I think the culture is more horrible more anti-conceptual than it was in the 70s and I just don't see the momentum shifting like it did in the 1980s maybe it will but I don't see I don't see where it comes from I don't see where it comes from I mean it could you could turn this around pretty quickly because the foundation is still there basically pretty good the entrepreneur spirit is still pretty much there but I'll and you know America is still the mightiest country in the world but people want to vote for Trump and people want to support Hamas and people, millions of people watch Tucker Carlson and that suggests to me that something really really dark is going on and I don't see how the more positive forces in the world and there are a lot of them I mean there's more business creation in America right now than ever the more business is being created right now than ever that's great Americans are still entrepreneurial but I don't know how you how you get from there to this country around given the hostility people have towards one another and given their love of people like Trump Trump is a really really really bad cultural indicator really is and you know I'm a huge fan of artificial intelligence and biotech and what that could bring to the world in my view is unbelievable I mean it's the future could be with not that it's the future could be stunning and amazing I mean the remnants of the enlightenment going down kicking and screaming are creating immense beauty immense wealth unbelievable technology and we have no appreciation for it you know how can it be in a year where we'll get GPT-5 we're just going to get stunning technology just stunning technology and where you know we are very close to cures for major diseases and just there's going to be massive innovation this year where we might be extending human life who knows until when in that same country that all of that is happening and in the same year that all of that is happening somebody like Donald Trump could get elected president I mean that dichotomy is just stunning and one of the things that conservatives and right wingers right wingers are going to have to resolve is how come the people actually pushing the envelope how come the people really changing the world how come the people really making the world a better place to live are not on their side why is it the biotech community and the tech community and the AI community are not on the side of Donald Trump and they're not on the side of the Republican party how come because isn't at the end of the day AI more important than who's president isn't AI a different difference maker, bigger difference maker than the difference between Trump and Biden so wouldn't you want to wouldn't you want more of that and if you want more of that don't you want to be able to communicate with the people who do it, create it, make it you would think Michael says thanks for the analysis and I agree Trump's support largely comes from Christians pragmatists and nihilists hence the mindlessness irrationalism and authoritarianism, fear and force yes I mean I think you're absolutely right I didn't even mention Christianity it's a huge force here right it's no accident that the evangelicals love Trump because the evangelicals by their commitment to their religion by their commitment to the religion are committed to an epistemology of authoritarianism they're committed to an epistemology of obedience they're committed to an epistemology of anger and fear and doing what they're told and so so it's not an accident that evangelicals of all the different type of Christians the most emotionalist of the Christians the most emotionalist of the Christians are going to support Trump he plays two emotions fear and anger primarily and he does that well so I'd say old Christians old Christian pragmatists and nihilists, the nihilists are probably younger the Christian pragmatists are probably older but the question is can Trump win a general election on that basis and I still think the answer is no I could be wrong hope I'm not because I hope he loses and actually this time just like last time my hopes did not come true last time I said in 2020 that I really really really really hope that he loses big and he didn't he lost small and he died I don't think he can get away with Elias second time or the who knows but it would be much easier if he just lost big I think it's really really really important that Trump lose big and then I was also hoping last time and I was convinced it would happen that the Republicans would maintain the Senate but of course Trump is such a loser that he lost in the Senate in 2020 as well you forget Georgia and how he lost Georgia for them and they couldn't retake it in 2022 which was the ideal year for them to retake the Senate they still couldn't do it like they were going to capture four or five Senate seats couldn't do it because of Trump and now is even more ideal they really have a chance to retake the Senate this time and who knows because of Trump they might lose it again which will be an unbelievable streak of losses for somebody who claims to be a winner Harper Campbell says I'm starting to think life doesn't begin until 40 until then you're just doing research I mean there's a sense in which that's true in Judaism there's that belief that until 40 you're supposed to study and you only start living at 40 I mean you should live every year with your life every year should be a life well lived but yes a lot of your life you're learning it's not like even at 40 you stop learning Clark says do you think objectives try too hard to find the good on the right when in reality they're logic, theocratic, anti-intellectual, racist, blue-collar thugs yeah I mean absolutely I think objectives try too hard to find good on the right yes because we're all we all reject the left and then we're kind of lonely if we reject the right too so a lot of people who embrace objectives don't want to be lonely they want to have a team they want to have a team they can root for they want to have somebody they can support they want to belong to a group they're a little second-hand and part of that is they want to you know they're willing to forgive the right pretty much anything but yes there's a big segment of the right which is theocratic, anti-intellectual racist, blue-collar thugs there's no question that a significant number of them are and many of them are not thugs they're just mindless or you know emotionalist or lots of other terms other than thugs but yeah I mean you can watch these people I mean I've talked to many of them over the years I mean real Trumpists not kind of the so-called objective of Trumpists and they're truly mindless I mean nothing you can say makes any difference you can't reach them there's no there's a real barrier there it's just it's like the people on their left you can talk to them about the science of climate change you can talk about fossil fuel benefits fossil fuel it doesn't reach them they're not they won't accept any kind of logical factor based argument and the same is on the right exactly the same you get exactly the same response you know in that sense it's not that big of a difference Michael says Trump's ascendance shows we have lost the war to save the mind I think that's right I think we have lost for now everybody why is Iran the only country in the world where selling your own organs is legal and would selling a kidney to put a down payment on a home be moral I don't know why Iran is the only country where it's legal I didn't know it was legal in Iran it should be legal everywhere is it moral to sell a kidney to put a down payment on a house it could be it depends on the circumstances it depends how well you're going to take care of the second kidney it depends on your alternatives it depends on how important it is to buy a home you know I'm not a big believer that everybody should own a home you could you could rent so why you're not renting so you'd have to answer a lot of questions the bottom line is that which is moral is rational you'd have to look at the complete context and all the facts and determine whether it's rational for you to sell a kidney in order to put a down payment and that very much depends on your circumstances and the facts surrounding the case Michael says does free speech apply during war time in Israel many Arab Israelis who are posting pro Hamas messages on their social media are being arrested is that a rights violation it certainly can be that is if it's clear cut and there's a war and you are supporting the enemy then yes that is illegal to support the enemy in a time of war if you were promoting Nazi propaganda during World War II you would be arrested and I believe that if we had properly declared war after 9-11 then war after 9-11 properly declared the enemy properly declared the war through a congress passing a declaration of war on those that promote those that you know act on Islamism and Islamic totalitarianism then those preachers and those advocates Islamic totalitarianism Islamism in the United States could have been arrested and mosques could have been prevented from building and a lot of things could have been done once you identify the enemy declare war and define clearly what is now illegal supporting the enemy is illegal it's completely legitimate by the way the real question in Israel would be a Jews who are posting Pohamas messages also being arrested and I don't know the answer to that but I hope the answer is yes that is I hope they're not discriminating based on the ethnic or religious origins of the person but based on what the enemy Michael says you notice a lot of people think being nasty and inconsiderate assigns a strength and assertiveness does this come from zero some view of human interaction yes and it comes from a malevolence a fundamental malevolence about life you know that you're going to get screwed unless you screw somebody else but yes fundamentally zero some malevolent view of the world and therefore strength reflected in willingness to screw other people but that's you know that's a wrong view of life and a self-destructive view of life and a view of life that's destructive to your own self-esteem alright we've got a lot of super chat questions to make our goal it would be great if the super chat questions from now on were $20 and above so $20 and above super chat questions we just need like six of them and we'll reach our target alright Dudo Bunny says if a man's mind is right his world will be right well not necessarily I mean we're not primacy of consciousness we don't believe that the world is shaped by your mind your mind is a tool to comprehend the world the world is shaped by the world by what happens out there in reality but you can have a good mind and a hurricane can blow you away so it can blow you up so the world is not right if just your mind is right you don't shape the world you observe and understand the world and can change it within the scope of what you can change Ian says if Trump wins in 2024 could the new congress impeach him for January 6th, 2021 back then Republicans said they wouldn't impeach him because he wasn't president anymore I don't know if they could but they won't I mean let's be frank I mean Republicans had this golden opportunity in January 2021 to make sure that Trump would never run again and I think some of them made a strategic mistake I think some of them who didn't want him to run again thought well after January 6th there's no way he would ever do this Republicans would never accept him and that was of course a mistake I mean think about this, I did a whole thing about Trump and never even mentioned January 6th the lie of the stolen election and the you know the conspiring to basically overturn a vote which is clearly what he did it's what he told Pence to do and he clearly was responsible for and in the in spirit if not in practicality in because they were not very competent but he clearly inspired and just what he told Pence to do and argued for Pence to do it should be impeachable and he should never be president again I mean that just that everything that happened post 2020 election never mind COVID never mind everything else should be enough to ban him from running never mind you know to vote for him how can anybody vote for this guy it's mind boggling to me this is guy who lost an election and then did everything in his power to keep control over the government he should not be anywhere near the White House he should not be even running in the primary it should be the idea of Donald Trump running should be so ludicrous he would never even consider it that's how awful a state our culture is in that we even allow him to run all right Michael says January 6th was the combination of all the irrational forces at play Trump's arbitrary claims rejection of the rule of law use of force absolutely if Americans still vote for him after that it is suicide and it requires because it requires so much evasion yes and I really do think I'll state it now and I think I'll hold this till the election day you cannot vote for Trump even if the alternative is Biden you cannot vote for Trump there's no way there's none of money there are no circumstances under which I would vote for Trump it's just unthinkable after everything he did while presidents join COVID and then leaving and then at post-election of 2020 the sheer irrationality the sheer rejection of the rule of law the sheer rejection of the American system of government and the evasion and the demand that everybody around him evades one of the striking things about Trump one of the striking things about his administration is the number of good people he appointed to different roles who then left just completely disillusioned I've never seen anything like it I mean a lot of administrations have turnover but never have I seen turnover with such disillusionment I mean and good people General Mathis Bolton on foreign policy but even to the end think about Barr Trump hailed as the ultimate just in the Justice Department think about Cohen who is economic advisor time and time again really good people who spend a year or two there and had a run run and I'm not a big fan of Barr but I mean he had the guts to stand up to Trump at the end and which nobody today has they're all voting for it Kudlow stuck with Trump to the end Kudlow deserves contempt for that sorry but there were a bunch of them there was the other general who was his national security advisor or his chief of staff Kelly and there were a bunch of them there were a bunch of really good people particularly the military they're not ideal from my perspective but they're good people and they all ran from Trump ran from Trump and of course as soon as they ran from Trump they were condemned by Maga by the Republican party and by the whatever they were written off they were horrible people they were the worst people like Bolton who were admired and respected within any cause among everybody as soon as he rejected Trump was trashed just trashed it was absolutely disgusting so yeah I it's just impossible to vote for him given what these relatively good people thought of him from an intimate you know engagement with him all right we've still got a bunch of questions and still need about $60 to make our numbers for the day can you see a scenario where Donald Trump wins the White House and Democrats take both the House and the Senate yeah I think there's a good likelihood Democrats recapture the House the Senate is going to be hard for them but not impossible and again Trump on the ticket I think makes it harder for Republicans to win harder for Republicans to win remember they lost the House twice and under his watch and they lost the Senate twice with his candidates so I definitely think it's possible Stephen do you think Trump has read any iron rand if not if he did would any of it get through the philosophy of any kind just not get through his brain yeah he claims to have read the fountain head I doubt it but he claims to have read the fountain head I don't think he reads anything but it wouldn't matter it wouldn't matter a book like that would be completely misinterpreted by him to the extent that he comprehended any part of it it would go in one ear get out the other and he would misinterpret it he would think that he was like a Howard Walk type when he's the exact opposite of Howard Walk I think he would fool himself into that Hopper Campbell would you proudly vote for Biden if Trump is the nominee or will you sit the election out I mean I'm going to sit it out because I'm in Puerto Rico so I can't vote for president if I was in the United States it would be tough whether to vote for Biden or to sit it out but one thing is for sure I would not vote for Trump Hopper Campbell why hasn't the system been able to put Trump in prison yet are they afraid what happens if Trump wins the nomination and then has to serve six months in jail I don't know what happens if he wins the nomination and sets us in jail I don't know how that works I guess he could pardon himself but I'm not sure if that works it's complicated and it would be a disaster the system hasn't been able to put him in jail because these things take time and because at least among Republicans there's a real political price to pay I mean he should have been impeached the second time he should have been impeached there's no question about that January 6th was an impeachable offense and the Republicans are unbelievable cowards and it's too bad we don't have a even a slightly better Democratic party that could embrace just to punish them as thoroughly as they deserve to be punished ooh Steven says no question I did send you an email on X for you to review thanks as always thank you Steven appreciated Steven got us over our target really appreciate the support right James says is there any scenario where DeSantis becomes a nominee I guess it could be I mean Trump could drop dad and it would be DeSantis Haley I think in a direct matchup between DeSantis and Haley I think DeSantis wins the Republican nomination because DeSantis gets more of Trump's votes than Haley does DeSantis will appeal to many of the Trump voters where she does not so I think if Trump somehow drops out drops dad has a stroke put in jail and there's still votes to be had then I think DeSantis beats Nikki Haley and becomes a nominee Daniel you think Biden will drop out the thought of a Trump second term gives me a hippie gibbies no I just don't see it there are voices within Democratic party urging him to do so I think yesterday Bill Ackman you know the guy who we've talked about quite a bit on the news round up shows Bill Ackman has come out for Biden to step aside and is actually supporting the one Democratic congressman running against Biden a dean something and I guess he did this Democrat did a a show on X with Elon Musk and Bill Ackman and Bill is supporting this guy so there's some money and there's some voices calling on Biden to withdraw I just don't see it happening I don't think he does it Spiderman says the only Republican worth voting for is Haley DeSantis is an open fascist the proper role of government is protecting children sickening I agree although I don't mean protecting children for certain things but not the things that DeSantis wants to protect them from I I'm much more supportive of Haley than I am with DeSantis but I'm mainly anti Will Dr. Peefauf be endorsing Trump again this time around I can't believe it I don't know and look I don't know that Leonard said he was voting for Trump you know is that an endorsement I don't know what kind of an endorsement it is it's hard to tell what Leonard Peefauf will do but it wouldn't shock me Michael says DeSantis has been fantastic on Israel good I thought Haley was much better than him on Israel but maybe DeSantis has been good too Jonathan Carter deregulated much more than Trump and didn't start a riot on the capital either absolutely I mean Jimmy Carter of all people was one of the main deregulators of the late 20th century I mean really major pieces of legislation it really started under the Ford with the deregulation of brokerage fees but Jimmy Carter did trucking and airlines and I think railroads and a bunch of other stuff it was quite dramatic I wish we had anybody who thought that way today Steven Pettit says keep it going thank you Steven Alec keep up these reviews of movies and books I cannot choose books and movies blindly anymore and depend on this kind of review thank you Alec will do as long as you guys pay me I'll keep doing them and once in a while I'll recommend some stuff even when you don't pay me some stuff that's good Eric English or Japanese English the Japanese was weird there were multiple versions on I think it was Max and the only version that worked decently was the English version and English was fine English was really fine I didn't really usually dubbing bugs me but this didn't bug me at all Michael says can you comment on Trump arising from discontent of elites on disastrous Bush and Obama policy which in turn has roots in Reagan embracing Christian conservatives today's event playing out from era of the 1980s Michael I think that's absolutely right I think Trump is only possible because of the political power what was the moral majority has today in America Trump is the candidate of the evangelicals are Republicans they weren't always Republicans they were Democrats and they've mostly been non-voters they just sat out most elections in American history evangelicals sat out but they've never really been Republicans until Ronald Reagan until 1980 in 1976 they overwhelmingly voted for Jimmy Carter that is the the main I'd say all the evangelicals all the conservatives Christians are the ones who vote for Trump particularly in the primaries and they turned against elites and this is for a much longer show in a sense a history from the 80s till today of American politics but they turned against elites during the Tea Party and that was a good turn it was a right turn it was a turn towards the Constitution and the founders and they elected Tea Party candidates you know who one of those Tea Party candidates was Nikki Haley she was considered a Tea Party candidate in South Carolina and was considered one of the young up and coming Tea Party candidates who promised Constitution, capitalism, freedom limited government decreasing government spending and all the good stuff and then what happened is that they lost in spite of voting for Tea Party candidates in 2010 in the congressional elections and in 2012 congressional elections both won by Republicans they lost a presidency to Obama and these Tea Party candidates couldn't stop Obama from doing Obamacare and couldn't basically stop the leftward lurch of American culture and of economics and they hated Obama I mean they despised Obama and when Romney who was not a Tea Party candidate you know they were very disappointed that Romney was the candidate as were many of us but when Romney lost Obama he was crushed the Tea Party was basically crushed and it became depressed and they were looking for a savior and in a sense they gave up on the Tea Party principles they gave up on the ideas of limited government they just wanted somebody to address their frustration to address their anger and their fear and they were looking for Messiah and some of Trump's strongest supporters are convinced God has chosen him for this task the religious fanatics and they take it all the way remember all the conspiracy theorists they haven't gone away the QAnon and all of that it's still around and they're all growing and powerful and the religious fanaticism of Michael Flynn who was the first guy Trump appointed as National Security Advisor is a religious fanatic traveling around the churches and engaging in bizarre mystical behaviors and this is all connected to the embrace of the moral majority in the 1980s and really all connected to a general intellectual decline in America the elites right and left have given up on reason given up on individualism and what's left when you give up on reason and individualism collectivism and emotionalism and that's the world in which we live we live in a world right now where the dominant political ideologies are on all sides all sides left and right a collectivist anti-intellectual nationalist and that's what unifies them left and right they're all the same in that sense they're all about emotions and they're all about the group the tribe and they're all about mindlessness which is giving up on reason that's what it means so yeah we're paying the price for Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980 bringing in the moral majority into the republican party and this is what he meant for Saul Frank in fiction class I never heard a teacher mention first-hand and second-handed ideas with characters should writers improve their work by learning this? yeah I mean but you're not going to learn it in fiction class because the whole idea of first-handed second-handed is an iron-rand idea the whole idea of social metaphysics of orientation towards the other and using that in writing or thinking about it in the context of writing that is iron-rand so unless iron-rand has much bigger influence on the culture that idea is just not going to be there Michael Fusco rather than reject bad ideas and offer bad ideas the Trump movement rejects ideas as such mindlessness good way of putting it the Trump movement is a rejection of ideas as such yes Apollo Zeus are there any I mean I have to say I'm pretty encouraged by you guys now we'll see what the people not listening live think and how many subscribers I lose but the reality is that if I'd done and I did when I did shows like this in 2016 running up to that election the chat was a lot more pro-Trump than it is right now it is really hard thing to see how many of you are anti-Trump and you run show fans how many of you participate in the chat anti-Trump how many of you committed to capitalism and anti-Trump that wasn't the case in the first round wasn't a case in 2020 so my audience has gotten better you guys have gotten better and that's good that's a good thing Apollo Zeus are there any libertarian politicians of hope for the future in lieu of an objectivist nobody I can see nobody I know haven't seen anybody stand out Dean thank you for all your great content you're the best thank you Dean really appreciate it I mean it is possible that that all my opposition just left nobody was convinced and that's fine that's fine they left but the fact is we're bigger today and more anti-Trump today so both things happen at the same time Apollo Zeus I just looked up why the Celtics court is less modern than the other teams I asked this question before Cypher caused a fence before I'm curious now you looked it up and you're not telling me why have you thought about selling merchandise from your youtube show another source of income I keep thinking about it I just haven't got organized around doing it you know action to action was supposed to set up a store for me on youtube and sell t-shirts and stuff and mugs and things like that and it's never really happened so I just don't have the time to do all that so somebody has to take it apart himself to do it and get it done you know we'll see hopefully one day I'm looking for more sources of revenue Steven says what are the essential differences between Donald Trump and Ruan and Reagan my father believed one is polished the other is not and that's all no no no no Reagan had this amazing positive sense of life Reagan was a benevolent person who believed strongly in the benefits of trade he believed strongly in the strength of America he was he really understood I think pretty deep if you follow Reagan's career you can see this he really understood the value of freedom and the value of strength and the evil of authoritarianism and the evil of of the communists in this case I think Donald Trump doesn't understand any of that it's relevant today it doesn't care one way or the other Reagan was an intellectual giant and compared to Donald Trump so it's not an issue of one can speak and one cannot I mean go and watch Reagan's 1964 speech at the Republican National Convention or his 1964 speeches in defense of Goldwater where Ronald Reagan talks about a big part of the speeches is attack on Medicare and his rejection of Medicare and it's just not only is the rhetoric really good but there are actual ideas there he's actually advocating for a positive position for something good he actually argues for it Trump has none of those qualities none I mean the big thing about Reagan because there's a lot of good stuff for him in 64 when he was governor of California he was pretty good he in 1976 and then certainly in 1980 sold his soul to the religious right but other than that I mean that's a big deal but other than that he was a giant as compared to anybody running today and you know the comparison with Trump is just ludicrous Trump is a babbling idiot Reagan was a genius in comparison Reagan had principles had ideas believed in something when he said America he had a certain sense of what that means Trump had none of that Trump had none of that has none of that alright guys two hours on the minute thank you to all the superchatters you guys were great thanks for all the questions it's great to have a group of subscribers and followers like you both in terms of support in terms of just who you guys are the kind of questions you ask and the support you show so thank you and I will be in Michigan how did I forget this next week I'll be in Michigan University of Michigan on Tuesday night Northwood University on Wednesday night information on both those events is up on my website you are on bookshow.com also on Friday I will be in Texas for Austin University of Texas in Austin for a major speech on Israel we will see who shows up it'll be really interesting anyway I'm hoping for a big turnout really really really really I'm not begging but I'm asking really really for you guys to come I want I need it it would be great to have a lot of support it would be good to show moral support it would be good if the left if some of the demonstrators show up it would be good that we have a mass against them it is Austin Texas it is the University of Texas so it's a university in America today so please come to the talk if you're in Austin or if you're in Texas somewhere and show that support I'd love to meet you and hang out with you and everything and I promise to give a good talk it'll be inspiring it'll be emotional it'll be ruthless I will not hold back people in the audience will be shocked people who have never heard me before in Israel will be shocked by what I say even the Israelis in the audience will be all good so yeah come Gail yeah so please come and that information of that wasn't on the website earlier today will be by tomorrow might already be up there but should be by tomorrow Gail says I think she's absolutely right and this is a good way to end Ronald Reagan with all his flaws and all his problems Ronald Reagan loved America and had some understanding what it is Trump does not thanks everybody thank you Gail I will see you all tomorrow for news roundup hopefully I'll see you in Michigan and Texas next week bye