 and pisses me off so much that it's not that I cannot, I can't just not talk about this, this is crucial. And that is, the hearing was it yesterday or the day before yesterday that Bernie Sanders ran in the Senate, it was one of the Senate committees where they brought in the founder of Starbucks, Howard Schultz and he got lambasted by Bernie Sanders for being a union, for breaking up unions. And I'm gonna give credit to Rand Paul twice in the show today. I have many differences with Rand Paul and I thought that he was pathetic is the right term during Trump's presidency in selling out basically his principles in order to be friendly with Trump and in order to go golfing with Trump and in order to be nice to Trump. I thought he sold out his principles, but as usual Republicans step up and I don't think Rand Paul has any different stepped up as an opposition figure. And I'm gonna compliment him twice today on the show, but anyway yesterday in the proceedings in this Senate hearing, Rand Paul let off his comments with a quote from Iron Rand, a quote from Iron Rand about how unappreciated, how much ingratitude we have towards the entrepreneurs, towards the businessmen, towards the builders and creators and how we're more likely to burn their stake than to just say a simple thank you. And that's exactly what you saw in the Senate hearing. I mean, the disgusting nature of it. Here's a man how it shorts it. I disagree with on many things. He's not politically, you know, anywhere close to where we are. He is a leftist by any measure politically. And yet here's a man who's changed the world. And you might think he's changed the world. Yeah, who cares coffee? It's changed the world. He's made the world a better place for millions and millions and millions of people. He's elevated the drinking of coffee and you might be a coffee snob I think Starbucks coffee is not good enough. It doesn't matter. The fact is that hundreds of millions of people around the world go to Starbucks, enjoy Starbucks. I don't think other than a few Italians, I mean Italians generally and a few people, a few coffee snobs in the United States, who the hell knew what a cappuccino was? A lot of latte was, never mind a macucino with soy milk and all this other stuff. Who knew this stuff before Starbucks? Starbucks has changed the cultures, changed the world. He's made the world a better place for all of us. And one of the beauties is, you know, it's hard to tell when you go different countries around the world, one of the comforting things about the world out there is that you go and, oh, there's a Starbucks, there's civilization here. And yes, even in Bolivia, and I didn't tell you my impressions of Bolivia, but Santa Cruz is, this is a poor place, this is a poor country. This is, you know, even as compared to Columbia, the differences are vast in terms of, and you can see it, you can see it in the cars people drive, you can see it in the homes they live in, you can see it in the business section. This is a poor country, but there's a Starbucks here. And there's a Starbucks is all over Medellin and there's Starbucks is all over Europe, including Eastern Europe. And there's Starbucks all over Asia and countries that never even knew what coffee was, they've got Starbucks now, and people's lives are just at the margin better off, they enjoy a cup of coffee now, and it's a beautiful thing. And this man, Howard Schultz built this. It's his vision, it's his management ability, it's his organizational skill, it's his vision, it's just a magnificent, beautiful thing. And indeed, one of the consequences of Starbucks is a huge boom in coffee shops, in small independent coffee shops. Indeed, what Starbucks has done is created, as great entrepreneurs do, they teach people what they really want, they teach people what they should desire. And the consequence of the explosion of popularity of Starbucks is an explosion of popularity of other coffee shops. In places where there's Starbucks, there are lots of other coffee shops, in places that don't have Starbucks, there are no independent coffee shops. And he was one of the great businessmen of the last 50 years, easily, who changed an industry, changed the world, had profound impact on our habits and how we consume drink at least. And what does he get? He gets a bunch of parasitic, do-nothing, well, not do-nothing, destructive, destructive parasites, senators complaining about it, land-blasting it. So good for Rand Paul for standing up, standing up for that. I mean, the real story is, it's a story I would always come back to. And that is the story of why the hell should businessmen have to testify in front of Congress? Shouldn't Congress testify in front of us? Shouldn't they be on the witness stand? Shilts couldn't defend themselves, but nobody can. None of these businessmen could defend themselves. Did the tech executives defend themselves when they went to Congress? The last person who defended himself well in front of Congress was, oh God, the crazy guy who built the largest airplane in the world, somebody on the chat will remind me his name. How would Hughes, how would Hughes was the last man to testify well in front of Congress? And that was right after World War II. And he lambasted them and ridiculed them and showed them how small they were. Here he was changing the world and how little puny these politicians are. And just the audacity of these people to not recognize, you know, somebody who is better than them. I'm talking about businessmen, right? Yes, Alex Epstein has done a fantastic job in front of Congress testifying, but Alex is not an entrepreneur businessman. I'm saying the last entrepreneur businessman, CEO. I mean, Alex is an entrepreneur in a particular field, but I'm talking about big time CEOs bought in front of Congress to be ridiculed and accused about the business activities. And the last one to actually stand up against them was Howard Hughes. That's how pathetic and bad things are. So, good, good, you know, horrible, I mean, we know how evil and horrible Bernie Sanders is, but good for Rand Paul for standing up for him. Boo to all the other senators who participate in the charade and participate in this immoral evil. And I'm waiting, still waiting for the day when a entrepreneur stands up and says something like, I do not recognize your right to question me. I do not recognize your right to question my business decisions. Who the hell do you think you are? And just walks out of it. Waiting for that day, maybe, maybe once before I die, one of these young people that I have introduced or have been introduced to objectivism over the last 20, 30 years and rise up to a level where they are invited in front of Congress as a business person and they do that. That would be pretty, pretty damn amazing. Thank you for listening or watching the Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbrookshow.com slash support by going to Patreon, subscribe star locals and just making a appropriate contribution on any one of those, any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see the Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.