Night One of the DNC
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What's up, guys? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am Dave Smith. He is Robbie the Fire Bernstein. What's up, brother?

I like back-to-back days. We're going to get there. Five days a week, live, all on the platform. Oh, you are making promises I am not prepared to back up. Let's stick with four and get this all down to a well-oiled machine. I'm enjoying the groove. And while it's here at the top of the show, this weekend back at Max's, the O.D.G. Porch. I've got to line up five comics, the Shedcast Boys live concert, and I think I'm going to do a live podcast on an introduction to Talmud, the giant boring book.

Really? I think so. I started like thinking of jokes for it and I was like, you know what? I think I got enough here. Let's just do it. Dude, this is the first I'm hearing of this. I think this is such an excellent idea.

I love it. I just think it's so like, even just when you were talking to me about it yesterday, there's just so much that's hilarious about it. It's just like, I just think like the jokes are all right there for you. It's great. I think I'm going to have some fun with it. I started playing around with it this morning and I was like, oh, there's a lot of meat on this bone. I feel like I get this done by Saturday.

There absolutely is. All right. I'm really interested to watch that. All right. Also, me and Rob will be, what is this, like we're a week and a half, 10 days. In 10 days, we'll be at Hyena's in Fort Worth and then the following day at the Hyena's in Dallas. Then we got Casper, Wyoming, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Detroit, Michigan, Kansas City, Poughkeepsie, New York, Philadelphia, and then Bozeman,

Montana for the first time. First time I've ever, first time I've ever been. I don't think that's proper when you haven't been yet. First time I will ever be in Montana, which I'm really looking forward to. That should be fun. All right. Comic Dave Smith for all the, the ticket links for all of that stuff. So last night was night one of the democratic national convention. It was a very interesting, um,

It's a very interesting first night of a convention to me. And I'm curious to get your thoughts on it as well. But first of all, it's just hard. It's so bizarre that like the whole thing is so strange. It's just I've never seen anything quite like this. But so they got the Biden speech out of the way. It was insane.

First of all, having the sitting president of the United States of America speak on night one is crazy. I've never seen that happen before. It's crazy in hindsight that the Republican convention was an entire convention against a guy who they're not running against anymore.

Which is like a weird thing. I never really thought about that until the DNC started. And it was almost like, oh, that really sucks if you're the Republicans. But just imagine holding that big of an event. How much money, you know, like we do live events. We have a little bit of an understanding of how big an event something like that is. Like holding a massive stadium rally. And then you do the whole thing against a guy and that's not even the guy anymore.

This it's almost like they should get a new one or something. It's almost incredible watching him that they ever were going to do it. I mean, you and I knew that he couldn't possibly work, but now every time that you talk, it's

the fact that it was just a month ago they were pretending that he could still be president and when you see him through that lens now you're like how was that only was it a month ago six weeks ago and you're like how did we even live in the reality where they pretended because now he seems so done and irrelevant you can't it's almost like when a band had a hit single and they were the biggest thing you're the hawk to a girl for a week yeah and then by the next week you're irrelevant and you're like how were you this big

but it's more like the Rolling Stones where you had hit after hit after hit, you know, you're, you're, you're hugely relevant. And then he gets the age where, I don't know, they still sell tickets, but they're not cool, but you get what I'm saying. Oh, no, no question. I mean, it was one of like, it was one of the things that was the,

One of my major takeaways, for sure, of last night was just that, I mean, I watched it this morning. I was out last night. But it was, you sit there and you actually can't believe, it's not even just what you're saying. It's not that you can't believe that they were actually going to run this guy who is, again, this has nothing to do with what your politics are. You could be the furthest left wing or the furthest right wing or anywhere in between, right?

But this guy is clearly not up to the task. I mean, and to watch him and go, not only is it that it was like a little over a month ago that they were going to go with this guy, but that if they hadn't had that debate, right?

which was, by the way, much earlier than presidential debates typically are, that they hadn't have had that debate if they, which seems at least plausibly likely that when they presented those rules, they were trying to get Donald Trump to say no. That was Trump's theory on it. And I think that might be the case. I mean, certainly you could say,

Donald Trump could have said no to that debate. It wasn't pre-agreed to. It wasn't on the schedule. The proposal was, hey, do you want to debate on CNN with muted microphones with no independent media allowed in the room? Donald Trump easily could have said no.

And that's I want to debate on a more neutral, you know, in a more neutral setting. I want media to be allowed in. I don't agree to the muted microphones or something like that. And if he had just said no, then Joe Biden is the nominee. Like right now, they would still be trying to get this guy through and continue.

I mean, look, after the speech last night, it's just it's like one more reminder that it was just if you're a Democrat, you are so lucky that that debate ended up happening. Joe Biden did as poorly as he did. And ultimately, they made the switch because there's just no way this guy could have. There's no way this guy has another three plus months of campaigning in him.

It's pretty insane that he's going to be president that whole time. But the speech, look, I mean, honestly, with where Joe Biden is in his cognitive abilities, he did all right. Like he pulled off a speech. It wasn't good, but he didn't.

completely collapse into himself. So by that standard, he did all right. But I agree with you that just watching him, it's just, it's painful. It's really painful to see. And he does this, we've talked about this a lot, but the constant overcompensating thing where he just kind of yells,

It's like he can't, he, he, at this point also just, he like slurs all of his words. He just slurs through the entire speech. He looks very old and confused, but he knows that. And he senses that that's weak. So to overcompensate for that, he'll just be real angry and loud. You know, and it's like, what are you doing, dude? Now you're just an old man yelling at clouds. This isn't better. Uh,

And so just through the whole speech, it was like, yeah, that was one of my major takeaways too, that you're like, can't believe they were actually going to do this. On specifically the yelling first, it almost seemed to me as if they re-drugged him, but it got to the point in the drugging stage where you're just an angry person. You've all met those angry drunks or the angry cokeheads. Just sometimes the drugs turn and that maybe might've even been why they didn't drug him up for the debate because it's turned to this.

But it was interesting because you had it's almost like when you watch the entire show is going well with comedy comedians and then one guy tanks. The crowd was into it the whole night. They're applauding at everything. Every stupid break. People are applauding. It feels like they're all doing this more energized, yelly thing that they don't know how to be energetic. So they're yelling. But the crowd's carrying them with claps. And then Joe Biden gets up there. And firstly, he starts with the old horse shit of Charlottesville, which

Which couldn't be more boring, outdated, and irrelevant. And he's doing more of an angry, yelly thing, and even he loses the crowd, which had been into it all night. But his drugged out yelling thing, which is more of a yelling at you and not quite...

on the talking points that you were interested in. And it just, the level of disconnect there of, Hey man, it's time for you not to be showing up to these anymore. Like it is. It is wild too. I mean, I looked at to your point, cause I almost forgot about that, but the, it is so crazy that he starts with Charlottesville. It's like from, it was his first presidential ad. If you remember back in 2019, his first presidential ad was about Charlottesville and,

And at the time, I remember us talking about it, and I think the overwhelming reaction to it was just like, I mean, really? Back then, it was already years ago. And it was, I mean, look, what was Charlottesville? Charlottesville was a couple hundred people. And like, okay, you could be like, there were neo-Nazis there or whatever, but what happened?

I don't know. A group of people who have absolutely no power or influence, it's just so irrelevant. But to be going back to this now, this is – when he ran that first ad, this was in 2019. It was before COVID, OK? But now we've had –

the lockdowns, the, you know, the, the 2020 presidential campaign, four years of Joe Biden after that to be going back to the fact you're, you're going back nearly a decade at this point to go, but here's the thing I want to open my speech with. Some racists had a rally seven years ago, eight years ago, whatever it is now. It's,

It's just unbelievable that they'd even try that. It's also what an incredible moment Charlottesville was for human history because, you know, like rocks, paper, scissors, shoot. You kind of learn the rock beats the city. You know, you just learn the dynamics. We've learned that Nazis can be defeated with urine. That's all it took. We had just known that in World War Two.

nazis nearly overtook our country and they were defeated with a couple pours of stale urine that's all it took i mean it's just it's so ridiculous it is as they didn't even have the event by the way

In Charlottesville, the event got canceled and over, I think, the cups of piss that were thrown. And then they got spooked and went back underground. I think we even heard from the guy that you interviewed on the show later. He was saying, yeah, that didn't work. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We're not going to throw events anymore.

Oh, yeah. I mean, and it's just not it's not as if any of that ever took off or led to a huge movement or like there's just nothing. It's it was just yeah, it was a dumb thing. A bunch of people who had views that are considered to be abhorrent by the overwhelming majority of the country, including 100 percent of people who have any power. There is nobody with any power who's actually like a Charlottesville ethno nationalist who

But anyway, it's just it's almost so ridiculous, especially when there's so many real problems. Like there is a real regional war in the Middle East right now that is spreading. We have a proxy war that is bleeding over into Russia's borders. The worst price inflation of my lifetime, the worst immigration crisis of my lifetime. I mean, just like thirty five trillion dollars in debt. We got a lot of issues to start with, like they're.

What is just obviously a cheap tactic so that you can paint your opposition as this couple hundred people from, you know, 2017 is it's ridiculous. Um, well, anyway, moving on one of the other things that, uh,

I'd say it was one of my biggest takeaways was that it, and I think this really can't be overstated. It was incredibly disrespectful to the sitting president of the United States of America to have him speak on the Monday. Kamala Harris is speaking on Thursday. And typically you have like, typically with these conventions, the last two days are when you put your bigger speakers up, uh,

It was quite a slap in the face to Joe Biden. I also thought it was pretty funny that they had Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton speak on the first night. Like, it's just so obvious that they're like, listen, these are the people who we couldn't not invite, but are clear liabilities for us. And we're hoping that by the end of this convention, you kind of just forget that they were even here because they are like,

You know, one of them is the one who lost to Donald Trump, who's like the most unlikable politician in the country. And the other one is the guy who we'd rather you forget.

because he represents so much of what we just did. Part of the reason, to the point you were making, part of the reason why I think Joe Biden did seem to lose the crowd for a little bit there is that when Joe Biden is up and speaking, it really is a reminder of something that that audience would like to put out of their mind. But you kind of can't put it out of your mind. Like all the things we were just saying,

These pop into anyone's head. If you're in this situation, you can't not think to yourself, oh yeah, like just a few weeks ago, this was the guy that we were all pretending should be the nominee. We were all, and in fact, they were all saying that people like us who were pointing out that obviously the guy is like,

that we were all wrong. Like this was, I mean, again, this can't be overstated. The week that he dropped out, that was the dominant talking point in all of the corporate media, cheap fakes and all this nonsense. And so just to see that it, you know, they, they kind of had no choice, but to like, you can't not have him speak because he's the president.

And he's the last Democrat who got elected. You know, you just can't not have him speak. But you also want to you want to have as many new stories come out. You know what I mean? As possible in between that thought and when the convention wraps up. So but just an incredible slap in the face to him. I've never seen anything like this. Well, in terms of slap in the face, don't worry. He's not going to remember. So.

It does seem like he's at the point where you could just be like, no, you spoke on Thursday. Yeah, yeah. I don't think that's going to be a problem. But you're right, and I hadn't even thought of that, that he's such an incredible liability to the party and that they really have to try and keep him back in the basement because anytime you see him, it's just showcasing to everybody how much the machine lied to you and is capable of lying to you. It really is a chink in the propaganda armor that he became –

so terrible that they couldn't even disguise it yeah well and and there's something and and maybe this is a little bit of a deeper thought so I'm not saying this is like in everybody's minds in the way the obvious is like the obvious is in people's minds you look at him the guy's way too old to be doing this it's it's also just as I've said many times but it bears repeating that

It's such a scandal that everybody has accepted the guy is too old to run for president, yet he's not too old to be president. Like, cause obviously the reason he can't run is because he's suffering severe cognitive decline. And so, but he's, he can still be the commander in chief until January. That is just so it's so illogical that he can't do one, but can do the other. Um,

But but on a kind of more interesting, deeper level, it is it's there's something very revealing about the way the system works, where and not just the way the system works, but the way certain candidates like Joe Biden and like Kamala Harris work there. OK, you know, when we've talked about.

How, okay, so, and again, this is, like a lot of these points, I'm just, this is just analysis. It doesn't matter what your politics are. I think you should be able to understand this. Doesn't matter, left-winger, right-winger, libertarian, whatever.

There are certain people like Tucker Carlson left Fox News, and he is now much bigger than he was on Fox News. By any metric, he just gets a lot more views. There's a lot more eyeballs on him off of Fox News than there were when he was on Fox News. Now,

That is because Tucker Carlson had a certain type of fan base, a genuine fan base that are fans of his. OK, Don Lemon got fired from CNN and is much less relevant now than he was. Chris Cuomo got fired from CNN. He has much many fewer eyeballs on him than he did then because his power just came from the machine. Right. Like people weren't.

It's not that people were hardcore Chris Cuomo fans. It's that they were watching the 8 p.m. hour of CNN. And if Chris Cuomo's on, then that's who they're going to watch. And if you took him out and put Anderson Cooper on, then Anderson Cooper's who they're going to watch. This is true, by the way, for the majority of hosts on cable news shows. Like, if you have, like, a Fox News-watching dad, he's probably just watching Fox News. And if Fox News makes a move where, like,

you know, they switch the host at the 4 p.m. hour, he's probably just going to watch Fox News at 4 p.m. Because like if he's home at that time and he's cracking a beer, Fox News is what he turns on. It's not that the host actually has grassroots support. It's that the network has grassroots support. OK, watching Joe Biden.

and how easily they could just take him out and put Kamala Harris in, and all of the same people who were just cheering for Joe Biden will now be cheering for Kamala Harris. It just demonstrates something. They're that guy. They're more Chris Cuomo than Tucker Carlson. That's not true for lots of other people. That was not true for Barack Obama. Like, Barack Obama, when he was at his height, you know, because they were trying to make a comparison that this is like the 2008 election,

convention. The difference is if they had removed Barack Obama and tried to put someone else in, Barack Obama voters would have followed Barack Obama.

People loved him. Bernie Sanders people in the 2016 convention, they I don't know if you remember this, Rob, but they were is a very interesting moment. But on night one of the convention, they made it like Bernie Sanders night. He spoke and his people were there and a bunch of celebrities who had endorsed him were were there. And they they were screaming. They were chanting Bernie or bust.

There were like all these Bernie or bust signs in the crowd of people who were not going to support Hillary Clinton because they were like, no, we're not. We're not OK with you just pulling this person out and putting this person in. We're here for that person. And we're here for the things he believes in.

That's there's just nothing like that with these guys. Now, again, however you feel about him, that's what Donald Trump is. Donald Trump supporters are just not going with anyone else. And they tried early in this primary to push DeSantis, to push Nikki Haley. A lot of the institutional money went behind those guys. But Donald Trump voters are like, no, Donald Trump could literally drop out of the Republican Party and run third party right now and carry almost all of his voters with him.

Like they would just go vote for that other party. This is not something Kamala Harris could do. Let's just say. And so I don't know, just just watching Joe Biden, it almost like it just kind of struck me of how how fake all of the Joe Biden support has been for all this time. I mean, look like Kamala Harris is doing a little bit better in the polls. If you look at most polls than Joe Biden. But it's like five points.

You know, like it's not like she's not 30 points better than Joe Biden was. I'm saying you had about the same amount of people who were just supporting Joe Biden. They pull him out, put her in, and they're right back to just supporting her. I guess she pulled those five points from like people in the middle or something like that. Maybe maybe people who were just like, I'm not going to vote for a guy this old and senile. But OK, she doesn't have that problem. So now they'll they'll support her. But.

You just realize that Joe Biden, the whole thing that was the Joe Biden, you know, Joe Biden, the politician, as soon as you pulled the support of CNN and The New York Times and the Democratic establishment and all of that, you're like, what are you left with? And the answer is zero.

there's nothing there's nobody there's not i don't think there's one person in america i mean i like i literally mean zero i don't think there's one person in america who's like no i was supporting joe biden i'm not going to support the next person i'm not supporting kamala harris i was a joe biden voter like not one that really says something doesn't it i mean like if you were to do that with obama

a few weeks before convention, you'd have a massive problem on your hands. You're like, dude, there's no way. There's no way you're going to carry half of his voters. There will be tens of millions of people who are like, no, that was my guy. You can't pull him out. Bernie Sanders, same thing. Donald Trump, same thing. Uh,

really says something. There's no one. There's no there's not a correct me if I'm wrong. If there's one person in America, I do not think there's one person in America who's like I was going to go for Biden, but I just can't vote for Kamala Harris.

I don't think there's anyone. And it just shows you how kind of artificial the whole thing is. Now, by the way, you could defend that. You could even maybe make an argument that it's like, yes, well, that's right. We're supporting a system, not just one individual person. But there's still something to me that's interesting about that, that you see that there's just no trust.

True organic grassroots support. And I got to say, as much as people are trying to pretend that that is the case with Kamala Harris, we all kind of know it's the same thing. She's not one of those figures. She could be pulled out and replaced by someone and the people would probably fall in line. And in fact, I think that...

The level of enthusiasm that there actually is, much of it I think is fake, but the level of enthusiasm that there actually is, is this very, it's a very weird dynamic. Unlike anything I've ever seen in politics before, where what it really is, is that that uncomfortable feeling that Democrats had to have last night,

where you're watching Joe Biden and it reminds you of what you guys were just doing, there just is a tremendous sense of relief that they don't have that problem anymore. They don't have the problem of what we just saw last night. I think that's really where most of the excitement is about Kamala Harris.

It sounds like you're basically just describing indoctrination and compliance that their whole team just goes, all right, you told me this, the guy we're all going to be here. Donald Trump bad, our thing good. So we'll do it. We'll do it. We'll do it. And, you know, speaking to your latter point. Yeah. They're like, oh, we might actually be able to win with this other person. Thank God.

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to learn more. All right, let's get back into the show. So anyway, so today, tonight is night two.

um they got they got barack obama speaking tonight um i have to check who the others are obama gets a better speaking slot than biden which again it just kind of tells you something i mean joe biden is the president of the united states of america do you think biden even shows up for these next couple nights do they sit there and try and keep him awake in his seat after hillary clinton just made fun of trump falling asleep in court

It is. Wasn't that something to that? That's the that's the line they went with. But it is. It's amazing. It's just look, it's just how soulless these people are and how much they believe in nothing. I shouldn't even say they believe in nothing. They they believe in none of the things that they claim publicly to believe in. They do believe in some things privately. But.

that they would go up that you can see how they all feel now like oh and look but fair enough i mean like there's some there's something to this i think for almost everybody if you're being honest where as soon as joe biden drops out and someone 50 years younger than him whatever the 40 years younger than him is running you do kind of go oh well now trump's the old guy

in in the race and then there's something to that like you know however you feel about all these guys donald trump is too old to be doing this it's ridiculous there's donald trump what how old will he be if he wins at the end 84 83 something like that i don't know if he's got mayo blood he's good to go yeah well look i mean donald trump is a unique cockroach he's just he just keeps clicking

he is i swear to god donald trump does i know i've told you this before i think off air but donald trump makes me like every time my wife is telling me to do something to be healthy donald trump has become my excuse right she's like oh come on dude let's let's go like uh for a jog or whatever here let's just get salads for lunch and i'm like donald trump has well done steaks with ketchup

and mcdonald's and look at him he's a city cockroach he'll never okay but still he's 79 he'll be 83 83 is way too old to be president this is crazy it's too old to be the ceo of a major company it's too old like this is just nuts no no uh fortune 500 company hires an 83 year old to be their ceo we don't know how people age when they spend 25 of their life in a tanner

That is true. We're fine. Empirically speaking, we're finding out in real time. So your your guess is as good as ours on that one. But anyway, so, you know, he is left as being the old one. But speaking about like Hillary Clinton and how soulless she is, it's like you guys pivot from like this, like, no, that's ageism.

And then as soon as your old man candidate gets out, you're like, look how old this guy is. I mean, that's obviously the subtext of what she's saying there. Look, he fell asleep. Anyway, to your question, I'm

I mean, I don't know, but my guess is no, Joe Biden is not going to be sitting there with them. I think there's a reason why they had him speak on night one. They're trying to put as much distance between that memory and what your last memory of this convention is as possible. So I do not think you'll see him there. Also, that's got to suck. You get cooed and then you got to show up and applaud for five straight nights like nights.

Talk about you thought that you were on top. You're like, holy shit, I had an established career. I got to be president. And then the mob just bitches you out where they take away your job and you got to just show up and pretend like you're happy about it.

It wasn't there was something it was like out of like an episode of House of Cards or something like that. Watching Kamala up in the seat as Joe Biden gives this speech endorsing her. She's in like the presidential box. She's got the sweet. She's got the best seats in the house and she's the man in the house. And totally just like, you know, from every inch, I will say, because it's hard sometimes to get a gauge on some of these people like Kamala.

Harris, who seems to me to just say whatever she thinks is going to be popular or whatever she thinks is going to help her get elected. You know, like when she came out for a ceasefire in Gaza or whatever, it's just like literally protesters. This Kamala Harris. OK, protesters showed up to her rally.

demanding a ceasefire. I don't know if you saw this video and she like in a real like obnoxious way was like, are you done now? Cause it's either me or Donald Trump. So you have nothing to say. But then the next day she announces she's for a ceasefire.

Like, it was just like, like right there, she was like, oh, you awful protest. Then she came out the next day and said, I agree with the protesters. I agree with what they said. After slamming them 24 hours later, her campaign sits down and goes, you know what? We got to just say we're for a ceasefire. Take care of this protest issue so we don't have to deal with this the whole way through because they realize there's going to be massive protests. There still were protests in Chicago last night outside. We'll see in what numbers there are.

they are there for the rest of the week. But, but that's Kamala Harris. But I got to say, not knowing who she is behind closed doors, her and the people around her pulled off a pretty savvy move. They did pull off a pretty savvy move to get themselves into that presidential box there. Cause there was, she, what she did was she, and this did take like real, uh,

political chops and you'd imagine someone like kamala harris i mean you know this this is a woman who is relatively young for the people around her um she's been one of the top prosecutors in california uh got elected to the senate became vice president is now the democratic presidential nominee she probably has a little bit of you know she's probably uh you know a tad bit crafty

And so what she did was, as Joe Biden started falling apart after that debate, she came out and said, Joe Biden is fine. He's great. He's got my undying support till the end. We're going to run and we're going to win this thing. And then what happened was the entire media started speculating over who should be the candidate when Joe Biden inevitably has to drop out. And no one was speculating her.

They were all talking about Gavin Newsom and all these other potential options that they had. And then she came out and said, or it wasn't her, but it was like one of her top advisors came out and said that it was very offensive the way they were skipping over her and thinking about all of these other people who would be there. And so what she was able to do was really quite brilliant.

was first of all, come out and be like, I'm totally for this guy. I am not telling you to drop Joe Biden. I'm not telling him to drop out. So you come off as like a loyal foot soldier. But then she had also signaled that by the way, if you do want to get him out, you're going to have to go through me. You're not going to be able to just get him out and just go to someone else and think, I'm just going to endorse that. I have a card I can play here.

And that card was overwhelmingly powerful. I mean, this is how she got the nominee. And it is the nomination, rather. And it's something, man, the Democrats deserve it so much because they literally put her in this position just so they could add an element of history to Joe Biden's presidential campaign in 2020. So they could say, look, we're going to have the first woman of color as vice president. And then she gets to sit there and say, well, OK, fine.

Well, if that's something you value, then you can't just skip over a woman of color. I mean, come on. And she could have played that card and made their lives hell. And I don't even know if we'll get another Indian that identifies as black. The odds are stacked against them.

I'll tell you, there's got to be others out there, but it's not going to be easy. This has to be the only opportunity we're ever going to have for a female Indian that identifies as black to become president. You're not going to be able to cross that box again. I don't share your pessimism, Rob. I think this country's diversity is increasing, and I'd like to think we could find another.

But, you know, but that so then while she's doing all that, while she's supporting Joe Biden publicly signaling, if he does leave, I'm not going to get out of the way privately. Then she goes on.

And joins Barack Obama and says she'll support invoking the 25th Amendment if Joe Biden doesn't drop out of the race. So publicly, she's defending him. Privately, she's literally getting ready to have him removed legally from the presidency while also signaling that you won't be able to skip over her.

Just saying politically speaking, it was a kind of brilliant move that she was able to pull off there. That's all I'm saying. I'm not I don't know if it was her doing or the people around her or whatever, but she did pull off something pretty impressive there. Anyway, back to the convention itself. It is it's interesting the way they've laid this out. So they got Joe Biden speaking today. I'm sorry, last night.

Then they have Obama speaking today. They have, uh, then they have Bill Clinton, I believe, and Kamala Harris speaking on, uh,

No, I'm sorry, Bill Clinton. So today, Barack Obama speaking. Tomorrow, Wednesday, Bill Clinton speaking. And then they have Kamala Harris speaking on Thursday. It's very interesting the way they played that out. They clearly want to—look, obviously, if you're a Democrat and you're talking about giving these speeches, it's pretty clear that Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton are liabilities. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are viewed as assets.

So you get your liabilities out of the way night one. Now, Barack Obama's going tonight because Barack Obama's a little too good at this. And then that's the other issue that they have. Oh, they need the separation.

You couldn't have Barack Obama speak like on the same night as Kamala Harris. You just can't do that because it's just like he's look when it comes to public speaking, he's the best at that. That's what he's great at. And so you kind of are in a little bit of a weird position where you're like, OK, we got to do you got it. You want that. You want to have this great speech from Barack Obama. But.

you know, you don't want to overshine your own candidate. So Obama will go today. I'll be interested to see that speech. You know, Bill Clinton, I'm always interested to see all these guys' speeches because I'm a nerd for all this evil theater that is politics. But it's...

Bill Clinton certainly doesn't have what he used to have. He was once a really phenomenal public speaker. He doesn't quite have that magic anymore. Bill Clinton, I think, did too many drugs in his day. That's the thing. And I heard this is not my original thought, but someone else made this point, which I do think really applies, is that one of the things that like Bill Clinton did too many drugs when he was younger and he's a little bit fried.

And he also did this thing where he was, he was chubby when he was young and then got thin when he was old. And you're not supposed to do it that way. I, whatever it is, it's like the, the age is your face.

Yeah, it's just what's supposed to happen, right, is that you're supposed to be like thin when you're young. And then as you get older, you're supposed to let yourself go a little bit. That's the natural. That's the way God wants it. OK. And when you try to fight God, you always lose. So when you when you're like tubby when you're young and then you try to get thin and in shape when you're old. Yet you just like you're just left with like too much skin on a skeletal body type thing. Anyway.

Too much partying and being fat when he was younger. I think there's another element that the fuel for politicians is that people like them.

That's kind of the whole job is that the support of the people. And as a result of that, they've got power. And then, you know, companies and governments and everyone else has to try and pay them for their access of power because they got the illusion that it's not the illusion. They got the support of the general population. I think there's enough information out there about what Bill Clinton did in his career at this point, which includes the Epstein storyline.

i i would almost i don't think will happen because hillary still cheered on and i think as we said they're indoctrinated enough that you put someone up there they're like all right we're on this team we got to applaud for this but i have to guess that even amongst the democratic establishment

They're not they must see Bill Clinton as a liability as well. I can't imagine that they're like, hey, this is our save. I mean, yes, he had a great economy. I think even amongst the uneducated, they must realize that that was somewhat the, you know, led to the collapse later on that he benefited from a boom bust cycle. You've got the Epstein storyline. Yeah. And not even just not even just the Epstein stuff, but just the the multiple women who have accused him of rape.

I mean, it's, you know, it's not good. You got like, I think there's like six different women who have accused him of some type of really vicious sexual assault or rape. And yeah, that's just, that's not a, you know, that's not a good look. I mean, look, the guy was never convicted of it, but yeah.

He also like was pretty involved in like, I mean, he paid some of them off and there's, it's just not, it's not great. That's for sure. It doesn't help. And it's a particularly, I think, um,

you know, for people on the left who like kind of, I mean, obviously I think there's a lot, there's a lot of, uh, almost kind of like recalibrating on, on the left about like where exactly they are with this stuff. It's not like 2017 when it was like the height of the me too movement where it's like, you know, you don't really hear people saying believe all women anymore, but I still imagine that like, if you're talking, if there's multiple allegations against a guy, that's at least gotta be problematic, right?

You know, it certainly would have been enough to like cancel someone's Netflix series. But this guy still comes and speaks at the DNC. It's there's something pretty weird about that. Yeah. So I just I don't think he's got the same pull as he once did.

Yeah, no, you're probably right about that. I mean, I think essentially they're they're left with Obama as being their only real rock star at this point. And can you imagine seeing Bush and Cheney at a Republican thing? They don't they don't bring them out for the RNC, even if it wasn't Trump. If it was someone else, are they bringing out Bush and Cheney? I don't think so. No, no, no. There's nothing popular about those guys.

There really is something that's pretty interesting about that. And it's not just them. And this is this is something that's much different on the Republican side than the Democratic side. But, yeah, Bush, Cheney and even Mitt Romney, who was their nominee in 2012. None of those guys are coming out anymore. And part of it is because none of them are going to support Donald Trump anymore.

But part of it is also what you're saying that it's like, it's just a reminder. Nobody, you know, Bill Clinton is still largely at least could be viewed, you know, like I get your point taken about the boom bust cycles and all that stuff.

most people still look back somewhat favorably on the Clinton years. And a lot of that is just because it's in comparison to everything that followed. And there's a lot of nostalgia about the 90s. I would argue for good reason. It really was a different country pre-9-11. And, you know, okay, was it just peace and prosperity under Bill Clinton? No, not exactly. But

Certainly it was peace compared to everything that followed. And it was a time at least that people, you know, right. They were in the boom side of a boom bust. So at least people were feeling good about that. You can kind of look back at the Clinton years with rose colored glasses. The Obama years are still interesting.

to the DNC base, it's still, it was the first black president. He was incredibly charismatic and excellent public speaker. They're still going to look back with fondness on the Obama years, George W. Bush. You just can't, there's just no defending it. Like there's no way to look back on George W. Bush. And you're just kind of like, okay, um,

We got hit on 9-11. He didn't defend the country. Then he, as response to it, launched two catastrophic, disastrous wars that went on for decades. And then he ended with the worst financial crisis in 100 years.

There's just no spinning it. There's no reason why you would look back on it favorably. There's no there's just there's there's no nostalgia. There's nothing. It's just like what a disaster. So I don't think even if Trump wasn't the nominee, even if it was like someone who really loved George W. Bush, I just don't think you'd see him.

at those conventions. If you had someone with that worldview, I don't think they could possibly make a substantial run like Lindsey Graham. Yes, I guess if Lindsey Graham was the if we lived in a world where Lindsey Graham was the Republican nominee for president, then yes, he could roll out Trump and Cheney and say, we're going to be the strongest America you've ever seen. But you'll never get there because it's so unpopular.

Well, I mean, Lindsey Graham ran for president in 2016 and yeah, he's got nothing. Now all those guys, the Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham and all the people who ran as neocon Hawks, Chris Christie, you know, both this time and in 2016 and Nikki Haley who this year who got,

unbelievable amounts of institutional money and support just completely collapsed no one no one on the republican the republican voting base has just completely rejected all of that stuff so you know still got lots of problems but you know thank god for small miracles at least uh

At least there's that. All right, guys, let's take a moment and thank our sponsor for today's show, which is My Patriot Supply. I love this sponsor because I, like many of you, have been concerned with how unstable things have been for years. And I value nothing more than protecting my family in these unstable times. And the best way to do that is to go check out My Patriot Supply.

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fast and free but this is for a limited time only so take advantage right now at preparewithsmith.com to save three hundred dollars on your kit preparewithsmith.com all right let's get back into the show um okay so um let's see what do we got yes so it's obama tonight um tim wall's

And Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi, as well as Pete Buttigieg tomorrow. And then Thursday is the Kamala Harris night. Let's see if there was any more...

that i want oh they had steve kerr also spoke yesterday did you catch that no i skipped that just because who i who cares so you got some basketball coach up there who wants to talk about i don't care i could care less about he does not affect our political process in any meaningful way so as to what he said one way or the other i could care less i did not watch one minute of his speech i just find it uh i find it funny

Well, you know, it was in Chicago at the United Center. And he also played for the Bulls like he was on Jordan's last three championship teams there. And then he went on to be a great coach. He was a great shooter. And then he coached great shooters. And he's won a lot. And he just won at the Olympics. Great. I could care less about what you have to say.

At a political thing. No, of course. Yeah. No, it's just kind of I don't know. There's just something kind of funny about like the type of celebrities Democrats versus Republicans get. Right. Like it's just like Steve Kerr is such a like Democrat. Oh, look, we got this celebrity who's a former professional athlete. And then the Republicans are like, we got motherfucking Kid Rock, dude. That's what we're bringing out here. Hulk Hogan's coming up next. If you're talking at the DNC, you're coming out of the closet as lame.

So you basically just let me know you're a celebrity that's uninteresting and doesn't have an actual political opinion and for some reason is going, yeah, I'm part of the establishment too. I'll pledge allegiance, same as everyone else. Cool. I guess that's the information I needed to know. So my, like, and I'm not saying like I exactly believe this. I'm just saying it's like my first thought on it is always like,

If you're like Kid Rock or Hulk Hogan or like one of the people speaking at the RNC, I always assume right away I'm like, all right, this guy's like doesn't read a lot, doesn't know a lot of stuff. But he loves, you know what I mean? Like he loves his beer and he loves his hunting and he loves his country. And so he's just like, I'm a Republican. That's where I am. And if you speak at the DNC, my first thought is like,

You did something bad and they know about it. They got some dirt on you, Steve Kerr. What were you doing, bro? What were you doing back in the hotel after those Bulls games? Like, I had a big shot. I could go hang out with these chicks. My buddy Jeffrey Epstein set me up with them. Does this go a whole week? It's Thursday is the last night. So it's tonight, Wednesday and Thursday night. What's that? A TV week, Monday to Thursday.

A part of the problem week, if you will. Yes, it goes a full part of the problem cycle. Anyway, hold on. I thought I had one more thought that somehow is just... I'm kind of forgetting now. Anyway, okay. So, yeah. I guess...

You know, I think Obama will give a probably very well delivered highfalutin speech about, you know, America's future and how we're at a crossroads and democracy is on the line and all of that stuff. I'm not super interested in anything really other than Kamala Harris's speech, just because that.

can have an impact i don't think much is going to come out of this convention to be honest i think kamala harris um will give a speech uh she will pull it off she's she's not bad at reading a teleprompter she'll be fine she's gonna say all the things that you know that she's gonna say already she's a prosecutor donald trump's a felon threats to democracy we're not going back

Not going back. When we fight, we win. Yeah, stuff like that. And we should embrace communism. She'll probably throw that out there, too. Just kidding. Don't expect her to say that. By the way, it was pretty funny. So I saw you were on...

You did our buddy Clint Russell's show a little bit, and you guys were talking about the whole – the little Twitter feud that I got in with James Lindsay there a couple days ago over whether or not this is good to call Kamala Harris a communist or Marxist or whatever. And it was – listen –

she did come out for price controls like the next day. So that didn't help my cause very much, but I still, uh, I still stand by what I was saying there. And I think you, I think you kind of like summarized it fairly reasonably, but you know, I, I gotta say, I see, um, I don't know. Did you see Donald Trump like posted that image of Kamala Harris with, uh, like a hammer and sickle flag or whatever? I just watched that. And I'm just like, I, first off, I just think this is, uh,

I think it's bad politics. I don't think it's a good strategy for Donald Trump. I think it comes off as very removed from reality. It's it's whatever theories some people might have out there about how they're all secret Marxists or something like that. I just don't I don't think that reads well.

to the room. Well, like people looking at it are like, kind of like, I don't know, that just seems conspiratorial and crazy. It, you sound like a grandpa. It's the, you literally sound like it's, it's, you sound like it's a conversation my grandfather is having with his friends about who's a Marxist or something like that. And I also just think it's, uh, it's just not true. That's not really what they are. There's not, I, you listen,

Kamala Harris is not going to do anything that's bad for big business, just like Joe Biden didn't do anything that's bad for big business. They're not about to, you know, have some, you know, traditional Marxist revolution. And then and then people will say, well, no, not traditional Marxism, but like this neo Marxism, which essentially whenever you look at it is just fascism. It's just corporatism. And it's not, you know, you know, like I watch some of these people like who are all trying to make it

one conspiracy or the other. It's like, no, what happened was that the Maoists figured out a new communist model where they would have some business, but the corporations would be controlled by the state and all of this. And it's like, what do you mean? You mean the American model that's been happening since the progressive era that predates the Maoist model by like 50 years?

Like what what do you say? They figured that out. The truth is that what's what really happened is that pretty much all of the communist countries, with few exceptions, but pretty much all of the communist countries figured out at a certain point that their model didn't work.

and that you needed to have some prices and some business. So you need to have some markets, essentially. But they wanted to maintain state power and state control. And that's kind of essentially what happened in China, right? Is that they were like, okay, this isn't working. It's leading to grinding poverty. Let's allow some business, but we'll still have a very authoritarian government that can kind of regulate all of it. And then the more free market countries just became more and more interventionist.

And so we all kind of met in the middle and in this awful middle where we have very interventionist, large, powerful governments with a market that is allowed to operate with heavy regulation under that like authoritarian government. If you want to describe that as Marxist.

OK, fine. The problem then is that like if you want to actually get into the technical argument of why Kamala Harris is a Marxist, as I saw some people on on Twitter wanted to argue with me about, it's like, OK, but then so is Donald Trump. So that's kind of the problem you have there. Then the thing is that, yeah, our whole model is then if you consider this Marxist and of course, in order to call it Marxist, you have to say it's Marxist.

but not what karl marx wrote exactly you know what i mean like it's a different version of that if you want to call that neo-marxism fine but just to be clear then kamala harris and donald trump and george bush and barack obama and bill clinton and ronald reagan and richard nixon who did actually have price controls uh they're all marxists okay so now the term has kind of lost its punch

and donald trump can't really use it against kamala harris and then to the point that you were making on clint's show go tell co tell uh people on the left that kamala harris is a socialist it's probably going to make them like her more and that's a problem in my opinion but that's the truth whereas if you tell people what she's actually doing which donald trump it's so obvious should be saying is that she's a tool of the establishment and of big business

People on the left are not going to like that. People on the right will hate that every bit as much. And now you don't sound like a grandpa. You sound like somebody who's actually talking about what's going on today. And by the way, you can back it up with example after example after example. So why were they so all in on vaccine mandates? Well, it wasn't to usher in a Marxist utopia, right? What was it? It was to ensure giant profits for giant pharmaceutical companies.

so isn't that more damning than just like some label of you're a communist in some way that you can't really prove uh i i don't know i just think it's bad it's it's not right and it's a bad angle for them to go down and like i don't know they're every bit as evil as communists but there's something different i don't know any other thoughts on that rob

I don't think so. Well, I'll just add, even on the food thing with the price controls, which I guess is clearly a socialist policy, and we know one that will fail. I mean, we know that that's either going to lead to rationing or a worsening of the...

of the quality of the food that you're able to consume. There's really no other avenue for, for the way that a price control will pay out, play out in reality. She's not talking about taking over all the farms. She's not talking about government owning, you know, all of the production of the food industry. So it's still, I correct me if I'm wrong, but I guess that's, it's technically inaccurate to say that that's communism. Again, it's,

We might be getting into semantics here, but like, yeah, what they would argue is that a lot of communist country did that and then ultimately nationalized all the stuff. I don't see anything like that happening here. I don't even think that this price control thing, I think it's just a...

campaign slogan, to be honest. It's just a thing to say all lower prices. There's been no move to do that under the Biden administration. I doubt there would be under Kamala Harris. I meant to conduct my own poll. We had a little family thing on Sunday, and I like just asking my smart, educated white relatives questions like, so, hey,

if you have friends that are concerned about prices, do you think Kamala Harris saying that grocery stores can't rise prices will help them? And I'm just, that's a pretty open-ended question. What's your opinion on this? Do you think that this is helpful policy or not to get a little bit of a feel for

what voters think about these things that sound good. Oh, government's going to step in and say, you can't charge them anymore. That sounds great. That sounds like that would really help me. So sometimes I'm just curious where people are at and I forgot to ask them, but I'm still, I'm still curious to pose that question to some common mom and folks voters to, because I would venture to guess that there is a level of education here that I don't think price controls are attractive to most people. Um,

Unless they honestly believe that there's rigging of the prices, which is usually because of some sort of a government policy that's limited competition. It's really interesting to me because, of course, this is one of the things that...

It happens a lot, particularly on the left, not exclusively, but it happens particularly on the left where people, when they're talking about economics, they get into kind of this like mysticism almost. It's like as if you're talking about how you would like things to be, you know, like and you're like.

I would like prices to be cheaper. So like, yeah, why not have a law that says prices need to be cheap? And there's a lot of mistakes that people make around economics in general. And usually it is because they're fundamentally thinking about it in the wrong way. So in the same sense that like if you were describing the laws of nature, right?

If you were just describing like the way the universe works or something like that, you couldn't, you can't start with like how you'd like it to be.

Right. It's just that's totally irrelevant, like how you'd like it to be. It's like, well, I'd you know, if we were like, OK, so gravity is this force that holds people, you know, like pulls people toward a large, massive object or whatever. And you were like, well, I'd like to be able to just float around. It's like you're just you're having a different conversation than I'm having right now, man. Like we're not in the realm of like how we'd like it to be. We're in the realm of, you know, like it.

And also, I think when people talk about economics, they often think of it like if you're on the other side, they think of it like a science, like chemistry or something like that. We're really I think it's much closer to logic. It's just like logically think about this for a second. And it is unbelievable how how economically illiterate you have to be.

to not reject price controls. Like I'm not saying any of this is going to happen. I highly doubt it will. It's campaign rhetoric. You can usually take that with a grain of salt. But there is something about like,

If you just attack it logically for a second, you know, like just like start reducto absurdum this stuff. Like, okay, so you think we should have price controls so that, say, grocery stores can't charge too much. Okay, well, if that's a good solution, why don't we just legislate that it's all free? That's even better than your price controls, right? Instead of legislating that it has to be sold at a low price, why not legislate that you have to give it out for free? How do you think that would work?

Take me through that. Do you see any problems in that? What would actually happen if you legislated that a company had to give away a product? I think they'd probably stop carrying that product because there's no reason for them to sell it anymore. Right. And so, OK, so that same problem applies, maybe not as drastically, but the same problem applies to the logic of having price controls at all.

If you're going to make people sell something for less than they want to sell it for, they'll simply stop selling that thing. That's the solution to get around it. And

There are even in our crony system, if you want to argue that like, well, no, they're just selling this at such a high price, but they still could be making a profit under, you know, at a lower price or something like that. The problem with that is just that there's if that's the case, then there's such a giant opening in the market for someone to come in and steal all of that business. And this has been demonstrated just like it's not only that it makes sense logically, but it's been demonstrated empirically.

time and time again. And in fact, it's demonstrated all over the place. Like every single time, if you just go into a corner store today and you go to get some milk, I don't know what milk costs these days, but you pay a few bucks for some milk. And believe me, that guy at the corner store would rather charge you $1,000 for that milk. He would rather you give him $1,000 than you give him $5 for the milk. So if he's greedy, why doesn't he just charge $1,000? Right?

Well, because he can't because he'd go out of business because there's a lot of other places that are charging less. And if somebody was charging $1,000 for milk, very quickly, somebody else would come along and go, well, I'll give it to you for $900. And someone would go, I'll give it to you for $800 because there's so much profit to be made there that you can just steal their business away. So if you can count on one thing in this world, it's that companies are –

you know, driven by wanting to make money, this problem solves itself. And there's and price controls are only going to make it worse. Of course, the reason why we have such high prices is because the government has printed trillions and trillions of dollars over the last few years and started giving them giving it out to try initially to mask the pain of lockdowns and then to

to try to give the impression that the economy was roaring back after. That's the issue. And to bail out the banks without people complaining. Yep, pretty much. On the topic of price controls, I don't even think she was getting good press from the left media. No, she didn't. She wasn't. I don't think she'll get away with that because even the left is on board with, hey, this is a really dumb policy to the point that I think she'll likely just walk it back.

because particularly in a bait if she tries to the left loves this magical line of yeah too much regulation's bad but not enough regulation is but we can find the secret little magical so no we've never done in the past but there's the ability to find the magical middle ground that we never seem to find and so she's going to try the same pitch with no it's not that we need price controls it's that we got to get in the way of what should be a legal price gouging all right

Well, what particular item do you think is overpriced because of illegal price gouging? And why do you think that competitors haven't been able to step into the market and then steal the profits from the people who are overly, I mean, I guess overpricing their items?

What specific items are you talking about? And how do you think your policy actually prevents that and doesn't lead to rationing? It's so incoherent, too. Like, how do you even objectively define what is price gouging? What is, you know what I mean? Like, what is too high? What is not high enough? Like, how do you even determine this? It's all just, it's a complete, and this is why I said it's like the way people look about these things. It's a completely like emotional feelings-based argument. Yeah.

Like everyone, everyone that holds a tech stock that won't sell it to me for less money is price gouging me for the way that their their tech stock has gone up or their homes. I'd love to own a home, but all these people trying to sell me their price gouging me. Can you believe 300% higher than just before the pandemic and when you printed me money? And because you bought it then and not now you get to charge me this much profit.

it's all it's the same and it's the same in reverse it's the same as when like unions complain about scabs or something like that like they're he's undercutting the workers you know it's oh you're charging too little so you'll get in trouble for charging too little you'll get in charge for charging too much it's all but it's all just emotional nonsense it's like there is no correct price for anything the price is what people are willing to pay for the thing and then you come to a voluntary agreement

It's like, you know what I'm saying? Like if they'll just be like, I always found that so ridiculous when like union workers will be like, oh, the scabs come and they undercut the union workers. And I'm always like, like just logically, it's like the way my mind works. I'm always like, well, you're all undercutting me, you know? Cause like, honestly, like I'd go do, if somebody offered me $50 million to go do a union job for a year, I would take that.

i'd go i'd i'd go do that for a year it would be 50 million dollars man i got to do that for my family dig a hole on the side of the road just be the guy who stands there and holds it well but i'm just saying so like if you're gonna say this guy's undercutting you it's like well you're undercutting me i was gonna do it for 50 million dollars and you came and accepted 70 grand

But now you're turning around to the guy who accepts 50 grand and going, how dare you undercut me? It's all just ridiculous. It's all like this is all completely pulled out of your ass. It's just what you want the outcome to be. Anyway, the answer is stop debasing our currency and then prices won't go so crazy. All right. Let's wrap up there. Obviously, we'll cover the rest of the DNC. If anything important happens, we'll be the first to let you know. Thanks for listening. Catch you next time. Peace.