Hey, guys, ready or not, twenty twenty four is here, and we here at breaking points, are already thinking of ways we can up our game for this critical election. We rely on our premium subs to expand coverage, upgrade the studio ad staff, give you, guys, the best independent coverage that is possible. If you like what we're all about, it just means the absolute world to have your support. But enough with that, let's get to the show. Good morning, everybody,
Happy Thursday. We have an amazing show for everybody today, extra amazing bro show. People live for the pound there. It's good to see Ryan.
Going to be amazing.
That's right, it's going to be amazing. It's Crystal is off today, but we still have an amazing array of topics. I got to do the tough part. I actually got to set up this damn show. So what are we covering today? TikTok. So the House passed a piece of legislation that we either force a sale or band TikTok if their parent company, Bike Dance does not agree to sell it. We're going to talk about that. What exactly is in the bill? Who is for it, who is
against it? We're going to present all sides. Maybe we'll have a little bit of a debate here. State of Georgia also throwing out some very critical charges on Donald Trump case down there, specifically actually related to that quote. Perfect phone call with Brad Roeckensberger. So excited to break some of that down. RFK Junior making waves, possibly announcing his vice definitely announcing his vice prosesential candidate next week.
Some interesting names there on the list, Aaron Rodgers, Jesse Ventura, all kinds of different folks. Ben Shapiro, by his own admission, lighting the Internet on fire, coming out against social security and the retirement age. Let's just say interesting to say the least Ryan particular is going to break that one down. And then Don Lemon dropping an or doing an interview with Elon Musk and unceremoniously being fired by Elon with his new partnership on Twitter before it even began, so
hilarity ensued for every party involved. And then Ryan, you've got a great guest for us today. His name is Dan Fuk.
Yeah, he was the envoy to Haiti who resigned it. That's protest a couple of years ago. If you read his resignation letter, what he said would happen as a result of Biden's policy towards Haiti.
It's precisely what is unfiled for the last couple of years.
Well, I'm excited to talk so well, you in particularly have been such a fantastic resource on Haiti. So I'm really really glad that we could have you in the chair today. So all right, let's go ahead and start with tick. Oh before I get to that. Of course, if you want to be a premiusbscriber Breakingpoints dot Com, support our work. We've got all that extra special stuff that is coming down the pipeline. Just had a meeting about it yesterday. I can't give away too much, can't get away too unless.
You become a premium subscriber.
It's not going to ask, right, and that's right unless you become a premium describer and you're going to be the first to know about it as always. So let's go ahead and start with TikTok. So there was a major legislation past the House of Representatives yesterday. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. How each House member voted on the bill that could ban TikTok. Overall, it was a pretty overwhelming majority that went ahead and passed.
You had three hundred and fifty two votes that supported, you had sixty five votes that opposed. In terms of the breakdown, one hundred and fifty five Democrats voted yes GOP, one hundred and ninety seven fifty Democrats voted no, fifteen Republicans voted no. There were fourteen overall who did not vote, and only one person who voted at present. That one
person is Yasmina Crockett. I wonder what her objection or not objection to the bill was, but anyway, so that's the overall breakdown in terms of the people who voted no, and who are Republicans, I think this is pretty noteworthy. A lot of them are Freedom Caucus more libertarian types.
We have Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Warren Davidson, Matt Gates, Marjorie Taylor Green, Klay Higgins, and let's see Nancy Mace, Thomas Massey, Tom McClintock, Alex Mooney, Barrymore, Scott Perry, David Schweiker, and Greg Stuby, So disproportionately kind of the dissident right more MAGA libertarian Freedom Caucus exactly a pretty bipartisan I
would say in terms of the support. Now, there's been a lot of discussion on what the hell is in this bill or not We're going to break that down, but I thought it would be useful for everyone to present the cases for and against by kind of the two major legislative champions on either side. First, he's going to be Congressman Mike Gallagher, who co sponsored and authored the legislation. Here's what he had to say in his case for the bill.
TikTok is a threat to our national security because it is owned by byte Dance, which does the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party. We know this because Byteedance leadership says so, and because Chinese law requires it. This bill therefore forces TikTok to break up with the Chinese Communist Party. It does not apply to American companies. It only applies to companies subject to the control of foreign adversaries defined by Congress. It says nothing about election interference and cannot
be turned against any American social media platform. It does not impact websites in general. The only impacted sites are those associated with foreign adversary apps, such as TikTok dot com. It can never be used to penalize individuals. The text explicitly prohibits that, and it cannot cannot be used to censor speech. It takes no position at all on the
content of speech. Only foreign adversary control. Foreign adversary control of what is becoming the dominant news platform for Americans under thirty.
Hang on to that foreign adversary. That's going to be a line of contention. Let's hear from Congressman Thomas Massey, who laid out the case against the bill. Let's take a listen.
They've described the TikTok application as a trojan horse. But there's some of us who feel that, either intentionally or unintentionally, this legislation to ban TikTok is actually a trojan horse. Some of us are concerned that there are First Amendment implications here. Americans have the right to view information. We don't need to be protected by the government from information.
Some of us just don't want the president picking which apps we can put on our phones or which websites that we can visit.
We don't think that's appropriate.
We also think it's dangerous to give the president that kind of power, to give him the power to decide what Americans can see on their phones and their computers. To give him that sort of discretion, we also think is dangerous. Now people say that this TikTok band will only apply to TikTok or maybe another company that pops up just like TikTok. But the bill is written so broadly that the president could abuse that discretion and include other companies that aren't just social media companies.
Okay, so that's where it is, right. I've talked a lot here, So give us your reaction.
What do you think I mean, I've got a couple of different reactions. One I think you can't even respond to, which is that Okay, I can understand why no country would want a different country controlling its news environment, Like, well, you wouldn't want kind of Russia owning NBC.
News or whatever.
Take rush out of it. Let's just say any China, Japan country, fine, even in neutral Brazil love Rezila.
Like.
From the perspective of US national security interests, I can see the argument I don't care, like I'm not a part of US national security interests, and I think most people who use TikTok also don't care. And I think, particularly with what the US has done with its hegemony
around the world since World War Two. It has not earned the kind of moral credit among a lot of Americans to say, you know what, so you say, you need these extraordinary powers to crack down on my social media apps so that you can continue to do what you've been doing for the last fifty to seventy years around the world. Yeah, no, thanks, Lets chairman, she have a shot.
So here's what I would say in response, Ryan, is that take national security out of it. I believe very strongly in US markets and in our principle of sovereignty and reciprocal trade. So, for example, President Biden yesterday came out against the acquisition of US steal by Nippon Steel. Well, Japan is our one of our great allies. I mean, unlike the Europeans, they actually produce things and you know,
are important to the global economy. And they you know, also are willing to defend ourselves if we ever give them the ability. So there's a lot going on for Japan. I love Japan. I don't see any force, any problem in the future from a national security perspective. That said, we can't allow a Japanese company to own US steel. US steel. We recognize one hundred percent as critical infrastructure,
and I wonder where you draw the line. So for example, Huawei, Huawei which was banned by the Trump administration from critical access to telecom. So in that scenario, like I mean, it seems to makes sense to me, we have critical infrastructure the wirings literally of US communications. Well, there doesn't seem to be all that much of a substantive difference between the two. And really, when it comes down to again, even taking national security out of it, baseline fairness level,
American companies can't do business in China. Even if you want to do business in China, you have to have a Chinese subsidiary that owns fifty one percent. Our tech companies are completely banned over there. You may not like the tech companies. I don't, but they're at least under our jurisdiction. They're US citizens, they're subject to US law. TikTok and ByteDance are not subject to any of that. I will give the countercase, and I would like for
you to expound on some of this. Michael Tree, I think has done the best job of overlaying some of the biggest concerns within the bill. Let's go put this up there on the screen. He says, here are some of the extensive points that I have raised about this bill itself. The bill goes well beyond banning TikTok, targeting any quote website, desktop application, mobile application, or augmented or immersive technology application claimed to be a quote foreign adversary
controlled that includes China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. He says, I agree with Congressman Warren Davidson, who pointed out in his floor speech at the wide arranging definition of application could be attempt future attempts to prohibit other widely used apps like telegram. The bill authorizes the future expulsion actions to be taken unilaterally by the President, provided that he determines that an application provided tickets significant threat to national
curity of the US. He says, talk specifically about the president possibly making unilateral determination. I quibble actually with Michael's definition here, and he says, I don't support handing radical new speech of bridging powers to either Biden or to Donald Trump go ahead of Ryan.
So the broader point that Michael is making is one that you need to take into serious consideration, which is, be careful what power you give to the United States government. I agree whenever Congress, uh, you know, says like look, I promise this is this is all we'll care about, just this, just this one little thing, because what you're saying is reasonable. Like every country should you know, be able to have sovereignty over its critical infrastructure.
If if you don't, you don't really.
Have democracy because I'm a country, you know, yeah, you wouldn't have a country because you know, as a democratic public, you elect representatives who then are going to execute the expression of the will of that public. But if they can't actually do that, if they don't have the levers because some other country has the levers, yeah, then you
don't have then you don't have a country anymore. So fine, I get now, setting aside whether I support the US being a country and like, given everything is done around the world, Yeah, okay, fine, that makes sense from a kind of basic level. But as Michael is saying, what else does this allow the government to do? And do we trust the government to stay within the lines? So, for instance, is telegram next telegram founded by a Russian who now has I think he fled Russian twenty fourteen.
I think he now has dual French and Amaraatei citizenship. So Amaradis are currently our friends or the French right.
So neither would qualify under the bill.
But he is Russian, he's got a Russian name.
Well, he is about to ipo his company, and so that means it would be publicly traded, which means it actually wouldn't even be subject to this, And that's kind of what it gets.
So if Tiktoko's public, then then it's.
Well, okay, well, okay, that's up to byte dance. You know by dance. Hey, if you're you are welcome to actually publicly trade here on the New York Stock Exchange and bring your company into full compliance with US law. Guess what they will never do that because they're controlled again and owned by the Chinese. And I don't even care about that. You you run your country the way you want. I'm not saying we should democratize China or whatever. I don't care what the Chinese want to do in
their own country. Point is only that if you look at this from basic level, and even with the bill, I completely understand. Look. I came out for example, Restrict Act. Do you remember that one the restrict actors The previous iteration is the previous iteration of the TikTok ban. It would have given broad authority of the US government to basically designate the president solely to unilaterally declare any application as a threat to US national security. Absolutely, no way. However,
I have read this bill. It's only twelve pages long, and I actually I'm going to ask my team. We're going to put a link to the bill in the description. I want everybody to go and read it for them.
In twelve pages tiny because they only use the page.
It's really not big, like it's not like triple space only you know what, maybe a thousand words. My monologues are longer than the stand bill. It's not hard to understand. Friend of mine, Brendan Carr, he's an FCC commissioner. He put together kind of a rebuttal to some of these arguments. Let's put this up there, and I'm going to read from some of them. He says, quote, if you are
an individual user, this bill confers zero authority. I think that's very important because you're not going after TikTok users specific Second, this bill applies only to applications controlled by one of four foreign adversary governments. Previously codified into law by Congress China, Iran, North Korea, or Russia. The bill is clear that it is not enough to simply waive operations there or to do business there. It must be
controlled by one of those foreign governments. I want to really spend a lot of time on this, because this is where I think Michael gets it completely wrong. One of for foreign adversary governments, as again codified into law by Congress. The bill does not say so. For example, if President Biden wanted to, let's make up a country, Zimbabwe.
If President Biden wanted to just say Zimbabwe is now a threat to national security, it would require Congress to actually codify into law that Zimbabwe is now a foreign as foreign adversary control government. Now do I trust Congress one hundred percent? No, I don't trust Congress. Do I
trust the President Trump Biden? Are them absolutely not? My point though, is that it is not unilateral in the way that the Restrict Act was, and it would require at least theoretically democratic agreement to confer foreign adversary status. This is where I've seen a lot of people who are like, well, Rumble and Twitter are next. It's like, hey, guys, first of all, Rumble is a publicly traded company. You can go and look who owns their shares or not.
I actually looked it up right before we went. Guess what, It's not twenty percent controlled, which is the threshold for foreign ownership. That's number one. Number two. Saudi Arabia, for example, owns I forget some small stake in Elon's Twitter. Well, first, Saudi Arabis on that list. Second, even if they were,
it's not up to twenty percent. And my other take here would be, well, an any company that I think is even remotely important, I don't really think a twenty percent ownership should be had by a foreign government period. I'm kind of a radical on that, but you can argue with me if you would like. I'm just coming back to the fact that, look, I understand the concerns about overreach, and I extend people are like, oh, Patriot Act two point zero. The Patriot Act was what three
hundred hundred and fifty pages. This is not the Patriot Act. It's not even remotely the same. There are a lot of things in here which have a lot more onerous control. He also Brendan points out it is only after a public process and Congress has been reported to and then codify this new thing. Could even this specific national security threat then come in, and then finally, every single one
of these hoops must be cleared and met. More So, what everybody is ignoring and if you will see too, if you were happy to read in the bill, is that any company that is subject to any of this legislation enforcement then has a one hundred and eighty day period to actually challenge this and have their day in court.
Bike Dance, TikTok and others fully would be able to bring a challenge in the US District Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, and then if they want to, they could kick it up to the Supreme Court and they can rule on the constitutionality of this legislation. But having read it and all of that, I don't think if violence the constitution from a basic trade reciprocal perspective, and you know, given the fact that you have access to the US court system, you have a pretty onerous process.
I mean, when's the last time trying to Congress agreed on anything other than Ukraine, on what is a foreign adversary or whatever. There's look, I would just I would just ask you to at least admit this. It's not the Patriot Act two points so it's can you can oppose this and say and at least admit it is not Patriot.
No, it's definitely not the Patriot Act two point zero.
And I think one thing that annoys me about how this is unfolded, and it doesn't really undermine your point, but I think it's an important context is that the US allowed this to happen by empowering our kind of
tech oligarchs. Yes, and then the Obama administration, then Trump allowing all sorts of mergers and then allowing this like catch and kill, where you know, anytime there was a decent app that was about to take off, Facebook or Google or somebody else would like buy it up and then just kill it, so that our crappy little apps and social media companies continued to be the only ones thinking that the world had no alternative, no way to challenge them, because they.
Would just come in and beat them.
But then and then TikTok comes along and does something very well that people like more, and it caught our you know, protected industry, protected by our kind of monopoly anti failure to enforce anti trust policy them caught them sleeping, and at the same time, we were working hand in glove with these tech companies spying on Americans, spying on everybody around the world, and allowing them to just hoover up everybody's.
Data so that we could have a little backdoor to it.
And so it's a failure to take any responsibility for doing your own industrial policy, for guiding your own kind of social media policy, for protecting the civil liberties of your own population. And so when they then come crying about TikTok, it just lands on.
I get that. And you know what my response would be. You know what, Luckily for you and me, we live in a democratic country and we can vote. And Lena Khan is, yeah, exactly we you know our government. We elected Joe Biden, he appointed Lena Khan. She is currently sticking it to big business and to these tech companies. I would also say Joe Biden has actually had a significant number of executive orders that have impact on data transfer to China.
All of that.
So look, I mean at that. For me, a lot of this comes back to it's just like then you don't believe in the government at all, and if you.
Don't believe it.
It's like, but then just be a libertarian, like I don't know what to say, you know, then be Ben Shapiro would come out against an income tax. Like. It's like, I believe in the government. I believe in the American and I believe in the concept of government, not the current government. I believe in the American people. I believe that representative democracy on a long enough timeline eventually does
deliver roughly what some people want. It's not always easy, and it's not nearly as what actionable as it should be. And I would like to return to that. That said, it's not China, And like, when I look at this, it is very obvious that a forced sale again, not a ban. A forced sale is the most elegant option. You force them to sell it. They get to get all these TikTokers and all these content creators. I don't want them to lose it. Listen, I don't like TikTok.
I don't use TikTok, but it's in free country. You can use it. You want to rot your brain seventy five what is it? Seventy five minutes a day on social media? Be it Twitter, TikTok, or everybody else. That's your business. You know, you can do it each other.
They're saying they're not going to sell it. Do you believe them?
I don't believe them. Well, okay, we'll put it.
Two ways to explain to people that the bill forces a sale within one hundred and eighty b dance by byt dance to American or I guess they could go public too, and if they don't do that, then it is.
It is.
And so the head of TikTok is saying we're not going to sell it.
It will be banned.
Well, I think as a negotiating position because what they want to say this and they want to get all these TikTokers come out and lobby against Congress, which by the way, is actually a massively backfired hilariously enough. But I mean, at the end of the day, it's really up to bike dance. Are you going to say no to? I mean, the sale price of TikTok is probably going to be nearly a trillion bucks, like it's going to
be eight nine hundred billion. There's already multiple US investors that have lined up and let me head that off too. Because Crystal brought this up She's like, well, Sam Oltman an open a Eye have said they're going to buy it. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't agree with that. And Luckily for me, I live in the United States of America, where our court system can block that we want to. Yeah, exactly, regulators have a say over who gets to buy it, buy it or not. Unfortunately, the real thing that could
happen is this could become a geopolitical football. And don't forget because Bike Dance doesn't get to run its own business. The CEO Jiang Jiming, even if he does want to sell it to you know, whoever, somebody here in America, some investor, conglomerate or something like that, he would still have to get sign off from Chinese regulator. So I don't think it's actually a matter of whether Xiang Xiuming
or the by Dance wants to sell it. This is all in the Sheing's court, whether it's really up to him. I mean, just yesterday the Chinese Ministry of Affairs came out and said they came out and said it is unfair and goes against the principles of market fairness. And this is what drives me nuts. I'm like, Okay, name one US tech company that gets to do business in China, one, just one. The only one that comes in even remotely close is Tesla, and there's a lot of problems with
Eylon's relationship right now. With that, so any final thoughts before we move on.
I just also find it wild that the American politicians basically blame TikTok for young people being against genocide and gaza. I think that seems to be the thing that really pushed them over the top.
I think you were right, and that is a fair concern, And if I were you, I would bring up the exact same thing. What is the impetus the action of why? I unfortunately do think that Israel and all that did play a significant thing. And if it was a band, I think I would speak out against it at this point because I don't think that that's right.
But given the fact, what happens if it does get banned, Well, I mean, that's the thing like let's say that we were bluffing in some ways. Yeah, let's say they call our bluff and actually just not like take it down.
I think it would be unfortunate. But I think that the principle of reciprocal trade is too important. And I would also say I blame Trump a huge part of this. He should have finished the job in twenty nineteen. I people can go roll the tape. I've been talking about this guy since two thousand.
I appreciate you believing in the idea of government.
Yeah, I mean this is things.
It's just this.
I do believe that the government can and has worked in the past. If were relatively recently, it's really totally gone off the rails, you know, since what the post nine to eleven security state. But you know, we've been through very dark periods. That doesn't mean that we can't reclaim it. I believe very much in democracy in the American project government. Yeah, I think that's a good thing.
And that's why we are very lucky. I think to be live in a country we actually get to vote, as opposed to a literal dictatorship which is completely controlled by this this company.
And if this brought about genuine self government, yeah, and actually representative.
Hey, let's put about it this way. And I would say this is what I would say to Crystal too. She's like, well, young people will rise up. Good, Okay. If people are pissed off and that's the other thing. Look,
this is my opinion, this is my voice. If enough young people or whomever TikTok users, because not just young people get pissed off about this, you are welcome to have a campaign and to vote and to extract a promise from the from your legislature and from Joe Biden or Donald Trump, whoever would be the next president, and you can use, luckily, you know, again your voice to
overturn this. You be my guest. I would fight against it, but I believe very much in their ability to try and to campaign against it, so that kind of brings it kind of the core principles I think that are in the debate. You know, even though my I think my opinion is strong, like I wanted to make sure you got your voice in and also to voice Thomas Massey's opinion, Michael Tracy, I highly recommend, though you know, I have great respect for those two individuals, so you know,
I'm not going to tarnish them or anything. I think they have a legitimate point of view, and we'll see what happens.
And Ben Franklin say, we have made a sticky algorithmic app.
If you can keep it.
I like it. I like it. I like it a lot. In terms of the future, I don't know where this is going to go from what I have heard. I'm curious what you think it. At the very least, it's gonna take a while in the Senate if it ever does. Yes, I'm dubious that it passes it all personally, just because you got Democrats who control the chamber. Do they really want to be on the you know, let's say the app does get ban, that they really want to get
screwed by something like that. I don't think they're wanting to take that rest.
So there's not enough weed that you could legalize to earn back the numbers that you're going to lose from panning.
TikTok.
Well, we'll see. All right, let's move on to the next part. This is Georgia. Major news out of there.
Ryan.
I'm actually very curious for your take. I'll just set up the details. Let's put this up there please on the screen. The judge who is currently overseeing that twenty twenty election interference case involving Trump has actually thrown out six separate charges, quashing the six counts in the indictment, three actually against Trump. The judge has left in place ten other counts that Trump faces, and the prosecutors are now saying they're going to try and seek a new
indictment to reinstate the ones that he had dismissed. This is the Associated Press. Ruling is a blow for Fulton County DA Fanny Willis, who already is facing an effort to have her removed from the prosecution over her romantic
relationship with the colleague. We will get to that. It is the first time, actually that any charges against Trump in any of his criminal cases have been dismissed, and much of this traces back to the use of a Georgia Rico law, which was associated previously with mobsters, that was then used to go after Trump in this particular case.
The defense attorneys obviously said that this was the correct decision, But the reason why this is especially big is that one of these counts stems from that quote perfect phone call where Trump told Brad Rathensberger to quote find eleven seven hundred and eighty votes. The reason that it was dismissed again has something to do with the complicated like minutia over Rico. But considering how that was such a
flagship public part of the case against Trump. Ryan, I'm curious what you think about this in terms of thees.
Basically, what the judge so to step back, what prosecutors had, What prosecutors had to do in order to make this case was to kind of lay on a set of facts onto a series of laws that were not really
written with this specific thing in mind. Like when Georgia sat down and wrote its election laws, they were not thinking in the back of their mind that the actual president of the United States would be putting pressure on lawmakers, on the governor, on election officials, on regular poll workers to find the.
Votes to flip the vote.
So because they didn't have that in the back of their mind, they didn't, you know, specifically say the President of the United States shall not use his office to pressure poll workers to find eleven thousand votes. And so what they had to do is take other laws that are that that are written around the idea of protecting election infrastructure and protecting protecting the integrity of elections, and they've just basically took every law that they could find
and slapped it into the indictment. And what the judge ruled here is that you didn't you didn't make your case about how these specific actions actually tie specifically to these laws. And so now what the prosecutors are saying are like, okay, well we consider these to be edits
and red lines. We're going to send you a new indictment that actually does spell out with, you know, with more clarity on why we think that these laws actually do apply to the perfect phone call, or to the or to the other, or or to the other elements of what they say as a crime. So I think that's the that's the problem that we're having. It wasn't designed with this in mind, and so they're trying to shoot horn in laws that do exist because they're like, well.
This must be illegal.
Now let's go Now, let's go find the laws that show that it's Illeger excellent point.
The other really noteworthy thing to me about this was that the timeline just got pushed out. So, for example, now the judge has granted actually a six month window to have to resubmit this case to the grand jury. Yeah, what date is it. It's March fourteen, So now you got six months. I mean, who knows. You know, look, especially with all this other nonsense going on in that office, can you imagine how difficult it must be to actually
get some work done. And who's the lawyer who's going to be doing it, because it ain't going to be Nathan Wade. Well, he has or she has to then find a new prosecutor. They have to redo the case. They have to re grand jury the case. Don't forget the last time we did grand jury this case was what over a year ago. Now at this point, this stuff takes a long time. So they've got to drop new charges, then go to the grand jury, then go through legal review. They're running out of time. Thing, out
of time. I mean, how are they going to try and try this case? But November, I just go with the charges you've got. But they can't because they need that phone call charge. They because it's such a critical phone exact, because the phone call charge is such a critical piece of the public case against Trump. It's one of the things that people and everybody's the thing, the thing that publicly and let's be honest, like this isn't just about application of the law, right like a lot
of this is political. Well within that, then they need this particular thing unless they do come to the conclusion that they do want to try and have the trial beforehand and move ahead. But that's not what they've at least said for now. So that brings us to a couple of the other criminal cases right now, the only criminal case going forward against Trump before the election, almost one hundred percent, is that dumbass Stormy Daniels case in New York State, which does nobody cares, which.
He can get convicted of and pay a fine.
Right, Yeah, I think it's like probation or whatever, but it's not.
I want to see him doing community service.
Right And even then, I think rich people can buy their way out of community service. Isn't that true? Like the whole Jeffrey Epstein thing you can use your nonprofit or what. That's actually a crazy loophole in the justice system.
That's a whole other Yes, and judges can try to stop that if they're either being petty or just which whichever way you want to say it. Yeah, yes, okay, like they're going to sign specific stuff. Okay, that's good, but that it gets enough, then it gets then it gets into the hands of the social right the other side, and they can buy their way out of it.
So you're right, You're definitely right.
Being rich in this country is always a favor. Let's go to the next part in terms of the Hill, please put that up there on the screen where they talk about the disqualification trial that's actually coming up. It's a hearing, so a Georgia judge, the same judge is expected now to actually hear this week argument as to whether Fanny Willis herself should be booted from this entire case the office that being brought then by the Trump team. So obviously this goes back to the torrid affair between
her and mister Nathan Wade. And then there's psychotic and insane divorce case proceedings which are broadcast live for everyone to see. She claims that she reimbursed him hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, with no records, no withdrawal receipts or others. Maybe you see if you can believe her, there's no way to prove what she's saying. And Ryan, as you've laid out previously, we don't care about the affair.
We care about the in kind gifts because mister Wade was paid upwards of what seven hundred thousand dollars by the state of Georgia. And obviously if he's both profiting from the state and then giving possibly in kind gifts to his lover and girlfriend with state money. That is a blatant violation of Georgia.
That's the reason not to hire your girlfriend or your boyfriend with public money, because then you need to have an accounting of every time you go on a date or a vacation.
Otherwise you're in violation of these kickback laws.
But obviously you can't have a paper trail or a public accounting if it's an affair.
So those those two things are in direct conflict.
Keeping your romantic relationship the secret and documenting it is going to undermine the whole point of having an affair.
So therefore you probably shouldn't hire.
Your Yeah, that's that's the pro tips out right. Not really sure why even needs to be said, but the ladies on the view will defend her. But as I pointed out in terms of how this would come, this week we'll find out whether she gets to stay on the case or not. Then if she doesn't get to stay on the case, then there actually could be a new prosecuting office which would delay the case even further.
And it says that currently any delay would be then exacerbated by the appeal of that decision by the current attorney's office. So if there is a ruling in this, it is going to drag this thing out, even the four months he's.
Got the bozo down in Florida that he appointed that it is delaying that trial. Right, you got the Alvin Bragg thing, which nobody cares about it. You've got this punted past the election.
Bingo.
What about the one to be Elliot and Nesk guy, how's that one going?
I'm actually not one hundred percent sure. So okay, the Document's case, that was another one. I think that's been pushed January twenty January sixth, So yeah, this is a real issue. My other favorite part of this is that even if she is upheld by the judge, then Trump gets to appeal this decision about Fanny Willis could then could immediately take it either post trial or pre trial, depending on how.
They post presidency.
Yeah, the defense would then have to request discretionary review by the appellate court according to the according to the Georgia judicial system, and if they do, then that would take another ten business days.
The dangerous thing that this sets up is a situation where Trump is president and then has all of these criminal cases, is that's the most likely not hanging over him, which we've seen how that works with net and Yaho, so net Yah, who has these criminal cases waiting for him once he's finally out of power, and so he just does everything he like, there's already a will to
cling to power. And all of these politicians you add, oh and by the way, you're going to jail if you leave office, then they are willing to just do anything to stay in power.
That's not that's not what you want with Trump.
Now, I don't think he can stay in power because he doesn't have I don't think the Supreme Court would side with him trying to get another term, and I don't think the military would do it. So I don't think he has There's no path like for him doing more than four years, Like the system is ready to spit him out, but he will be he will have an intense incentive to stay if he's got those cases hanging over him.
Obviously, very very astute and correct, and it just sets.
Just pardon him to mar A Lago.
Well, what if he tries to pardon himself?
Okay, good, actually, but it's a state case.
Though, that's true, that's right.
Yeah, so that he can he can pardon the federal case.
That would apply for both the federal cases, but it would not apply. It would also be a huge stress test to the Supreme Court. And I think of, what is it. There's some nineteen seventy three memo in the Department of Justice. The president can't pardon himself.
It goes back to what you don't even do with a memo. This would be fun.
Honestly, I feel like law school clerks or law school teachers are having the time of their lives right now in terms of Supreme Court, constitutional law and all this. So I almost wish that I was in law school just so that I could study some stuff like this, because when I was in school, it was boring as hell. Some major shakeups by the RFK Junior campaign. Let's go and put this up there on the screen. A new list has come out of potential vice presidential picks from
RFK Junior. So I'm going to go ahead and read some of these for you first, and what the biggest headline grabbing one is Aaron Rodgers, the current NFL quarterback. What is it for the new York Jets. Right for the Jets.
Four downs for the Jets, four downs.
For the Jets, I believe. Is he injured? Is he still on the roster?
Yeah, he says he's coming back.
Okay, he said he's coming back. Aaron Rodgers as big there on the list, obviously. Aaron Rodgers has spoken extensively about RFK Junior on the Joe Rogan experience and elsewhere, aligning with him, particularly on his views on vaccines, but in general kind of being a relative I guess what skeptic, I guess you could say of elites. The other person that really shot out to me was Jesse Ventura, which
I actually think Ryan would be a smarter move. And I'm curious what you think given his past political experience. I mean, he was literally the governor of the state of Minnesota. And look, you know, you can love, you
can hate Jesse. I've kind of find him a frankly like inspirational figure, like this is a guy who used and had his He used and had his personal like popularity with his very anti establishment politics, gets himself elected governor and then becomes like a real voice and force against a lot of people the establishment kind of in the interim twenty years, it was strong on the Iraq War and all that, for example, So that would be an interesting case, and I think it would align more with rfk JR.
He's very He's very rfk JR.
I'd love to hear I'd love to hear their unvarnished conversations like we're we're only getting the stuff that that that they're willing to put out there. Venture is fascinating. He like went to move to Mexico basically and became a hermit down on the beach, like the kind of the kind of lifestyle that everybody.
Dreams of, Like, I'm out of here.
Man done the other ones they list ran Paul Hard to imagine him actually accepting that he's a Republican Tulca Gabbard that I could see.
Andrew Yang was thrown out there, Mike rowe.
Micro see micro Actually that'd be kind of smart.
I think your guy Tony Robbins, so he is.
Not my guy. Let's be made that said Tony Robbins. I think would be smart just because Tony Robbins is incredibly popular and famous and everybody knows who he is, so there is like a name id element to this. I don't know much about Tony Robbins, at least in the I feel like he was a big thing when I was a kid, like maybe twenty years ago. That's when his tapes and the CDs and all that were really taken over. I don't know how well his business is doing all this. I still pretty well.
I still wonder what would have happened in the world where RFK Junior had Instead he just has this like reflexive, ultra hawkish approach to Israel that came out since October seventh, and that's and he's dug in on it like that.
That's who That's who he is, That's who he is, that's what he believes.
But you know, he flows out of you know, RFK Senior he ran as an anti war candidate in nineteen sixty eight. What if instead of that position he had a different position where he was against the war and you combined his ability to pick up the Joe Rogan podcast world, which is tens of millions of people with the disaffected under thirty people, and he started having Bernie
size rallies. That political coalition is a force that can get you to a third of the vote in states like, which makes you then a major party contender.
I think the only explanation is he believes it right, He's not a stupid man.
But let's say he did. Could you am I crazy?
Is there a pal I think it right where he could get to thirty thirty five.
What I think he would need to do is he doesn't even need to be like a full blown like left poster. He just needs to be like I would run the war differently, and I feel like that would be enough for a lot of these people. So if you were to co op, yeah, I mean think about Obama. I mean, let's be honest, like he was anti war, but in the midst of those War eight campaign he wasn't really anti right, he had the whole good war
rhetoric and then we all know how he ran. But enough people, even idiots like me, were like, yeah, I hate the Iraq War, Like let's go. You know, I was like a teenager. Well, I think a lot of people would be feeling exactly the same way the thing. So I want to just like spend time on Aaron Rodgers specifically, let's put this up there. Adam what is this man's name, Adam Schefter. I know Okay, NFL people,
please don't judge me. I don't watch the NFL. I know this man is like a famous person in that world, he says. Aaron Rodgers is officially on the RFK junior short list to be his running mate on the Independent, Independent, Financial or presidential ticket, as he confirms in ESPN and first reported there by The New York Times, Aaron okay. From a pure political popularity perspective, I don't think it would be bad because NFL is the only thing that
actually unites this country in terms of viewership. It's literally the only.
Figure is though the NFL.
Okay, So that's my question is how many people are even familiar with his like Vaccine Epstein views on Pat McAfee as opposed to I mean, how old he's like forty years old, he's been a look, I don't watch the NFL, and I know who freaking Aaron Rodgers is, right like he is the level of pop culture name I d which is very very difficult to beat as opposed to all these other people on here. I'm not
saying you be a good vice president. I don't honestly know anything about him other than listening to him on the Joe Rogan experience. But if your goal is to just I mean get the bros out there, get an am id, you know, go viral and all of that, and just get awareness, I don't think it would be a bad move, honestly.
I mean he did cause a lot of drama within the NFL and on his team with his refusal to take the vaccine and sort of like lying about it, and like, well.
I don't okay, So this is the other thing. What did he say again? He said he was immunized, right, I don't want to. I don't want to. I mean, he says he has an allergy. I mean I believe him.
So I would like at the time, even at the time, I was like, look, if the guy says he had COVID, Like what do you do?
What do you care?
That's right, you do actually have just as much immunity from getting COVID. Then then take the vaccine. But yeah, it was a controversial procession. So that's that's all I'm saying. Even though the NFL is the one thing that our monoculture is still like agreed upon. But the other the other fun part is I like this abut him. Apparently he's at an ayahuasca retreat.
Yeah, let's put that up there on the screen. It broke. The news broke of him being on the list while he was on an ayahuascar retreat Costa Rica. I believe this is his second, or at least not his first visit down to Costa Rica for his ayahuasca retreat, which he has spoken about publicly.
He credits ayahuasca with kind of opening his opening his mind and changing the way that he sees the world, which I hope that doesn't discredit it to everybody else who's like he sees what sees where he's gone with it.
I mean I do. I do love that he's, you know, as you called it, skeptical.
The problem, the problem from from my perspective with people like Aaron Rodgers is that they're not actually skeptical. They just say, Okay, anything that this side says, I immediately believe the other side. And if and if you have a conspiracy theory for him, he's like, I'm in that's not skepticism, that's gullibility. I think you got to be skeptical across the board. However, I do love that he's, you know, searching for a soul down there, He's costa Rica and opening everybody should do iowas.
So imagine this. If he did win, he'd be the only politician ever to pass the Graham Hancock test. So Graham Hancock, the famous what is ancient civilizations guy? I've heard him say this multiple times. He was like, I believe that every politician should have like ten nyahuasca journeys or experiences. So, I mean, I don't know what number Aaron is at, but he would be the only person actually to pass the Graham Hancock test. So maybe that's
a reason to vote for him. Nonetheless, I mean, look, the problem that rf K Junior has is he could very quickly fall into the it's a joke category where people who would seriously consider voting for him would see the Aaron Rodgers pick and would be like, Okay, come on,
this is ridiculous. I would much more think that somebody like Jesse vent Tura, Tulsea Gabbert, Andrew Yang, any of the folks we listen with genuine political experience, would be a lot better because they've got a relatively little you know, they got some more name I d they are, They've
got name ID in terms of the political system. But these are like lawmakers or former presidential canons of actual experience, kind of within the system, and it would make him, i think, appear more legitimate if he were to pick those steps.
It is telling about the way that our culture and our politics have shifted that he felt like this could be his list. In the past, when you've got a third party candidate who's trying to project legitimacy, they go and get some retired general who did ross pro get admiral. This was Admiral Stockdale, who had this funny line that went viral before there was social media in a vice presidential debate where he's like, who am I?
Why am I here? And it really sounded like he was genuinely curious.
Okay, but James Stockdale is also a hero. I mean, for exactly this is he's a metal lawner winner.
This rock guy felt like he needed somebody to assure the American people that he would be a good shepherd of the National Security State and as Commander in chief. RFK Junior is like nah Me and Ann Rodgers got this and that it is I think indicative of the distrust that now exists between the America.
You just gave me an idea he's too old because I just looked it up. Wesley Clark, I feel like it would have been a great pick.
Now.
He's super skeptical of the US intelligence agencies of the security. He has that famous clip about the post Iraq discussions about invading Libya and all that. He really was a peacenick actually, but former four star general, a guy who really, you know, he's proven his anti war bona fides and he's somebody who legitimately has that type of experience. But he's seventy nine, so I think he's way too old. But that said, you wouldn't be a bad pick.
He's like right in the middle of our I mean he is in.
Terms of assuring people, you have a seventy two year old, and I think RFK seventy two and a seventy nine year old up against an eighty one year old, and what is a seventy eight years or eight year old not necessarily all that inspiring. But yeah, if Wesley Clark was younger, I feel like he would actually be a
great pick. He could be Stockdale esque. So anyway, my advice to the campaign, not that they care or what I say or listen, would be to pick somebody with some political experiences to make yourself feel more legitimate instead of just a castaway protest about you don't want to fall into the joke category. You want to fall into the serious category. The media is already been trying to paint you as a joke as it is. So I
wouldn't pick a micro or an Aaron Rodgers. But well, Connie ro also wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for an AMID. So we'll see, and we'll see what happens.
Yeah, I just don't see. Yeah, and what is Aaron Rodgers?
Add everybody who likes Aaron Rodgers already likes RFKJU and your.
Good point, great point. Actually that's right. It's not necessarily additive.
Our man, Ben Shapiro, as he says in this clip we're about to play, he grew up the Internet by being a little towarp suggesting that old people need to work longer, and also coming after solid security, which comes after Donald Trump, you know, very stupidly, in my opinion, just pragmatically from a political perspective, suggested that actually, yes, he told cnbe yes, there are ways that we can cut social security and Medicare, which is CNBC has been
slobbering for those cuts. And the thing that people liked about Trump was that he was willing to tell CNBC, no, you're actually you owe that to people, you're not taking away from them. So Ben Shapiro jumps in and sees an opportunity to go back to this old conservative canhard of.
We're going to do this.
Actually, we're finally going.
To come for these entitlements. Let's play a little bit of our man, Ben Shapiro.
So yesterday I apparently blew up the internet. I blew up the Internet because of something that I said on this show. What exactly did I say that blew up the internet? While I touched the political third rail, I talked about social security. Now, I know what you're thinking, what's so spicy about social security? And I will admit I was thinking the same thing because there are a few simple facts in the matter with regard to social security. One, we don't have the money for it, and it's a
Ponzi scheme. And two, with regard to sort of the personal decision to retire, very often when people retire, they're making a bad decision. And let's be real, about this. It's insane that we haven't raised the retirement age in the United States. It's totally crazy Joe Biden. If that were the case, Joe Biden should not be running for president. Hey,
Joe Biden is eighty one years old. The retirement age in the United States at which you start to receive Social Security and you are eligible for Medicare is sixty five. Joe Biden has technically been eligible for Social Security and Medicare for sixteen years, and he wants to continue in office until he is eighty six, which is nineteen years passed when he would be eligible for retirement. No one in the United States should be retiring at sixty five
years old. Frankly, I think retirement itself is a stupid idea unless you have some sort of health problem. Everybody that I know who is who is elderly, who has retired is dead within five years. And if you talk to people who are elderly and they lose their purpose in life by losing their job and they stop working, things go to hell in a handbasket real quick. It was an attempt to get older workers off the payrolls
to make womb for younger workers. The first full social security scheme was put in place by Otto von Bismarck in Germany and was a way of clearing the older payrolls of older workers because they weren't as effective, and in fact, older workers fought it all.
Right, there's a lot going on there, Ryan, Yeah.
And first of all, he could just have googled social security retirement age. It's sixty seven. They bumped it up. It's not sixty five. That's just a weird mistaken there. Secondly, and I think we can put you have the next community note element up here. Good good community note. One of the reasons that you have such low life expectancy from back in the day is infant mortality. You go back and look at like during the time of the founding of the country, life expects is like forty or something.
Inside what how's that possible?
So forty And then you're like, wait a minute, but Ben Franklin was like, oh, eighty years old, were you signing?
How is this possible?
And it turns out that when you read further, like they had ten children, only five lived past the age of three or four, And you're like, oh, I see, so the average is now if you make it into adulthood. Then your life expects the at the time was you know, close to six. Basically it hasn't risen much and actually life expectancy over the last couple of years is dipping back downwards. So you know he should actually adjust his talking clients.
If let me add on this mction that often people will say that's because of COVID. That is absolutely not true. We've done multiple monologues here on the subject. It has been ticking down since twenty seventeen, and unfortunately it's actually fentanyl.
Overdoses reasons because you're losing one hundred thousand people plus a year if you have the age of twenty year.
Exactly, So you have fensanyl being the number one cause of or overdose being the number one cause of death for people who are what is like twenty to fifty five prime aged working years. On top of you have horrible chronic health conditions and obesity. So you put that all together, our society is on like a Soviet esque decline.
But let's talk.
About the lack of any imagination in the mind of Ben Shapiro. I think it's it is true that there are people who get their meaning through their routine of going to work and coming home in the weekends, and then they retire and they're and they're lost.
Like I think it's probably more true for people like us, right, it's.
Even even people who uh work manual jobs.
I'm saying, though, that's kind of an important distinction, and I guess me to the hero element.
But the answer to that is not to say, well, don't ever stop that routine and drive your drive yourself until you are.
In the grave. It is, well, what's wrong with all of this?
Like, let's let's let's find more spiritual value, and spiritual doesn't have to be religious at all. Let's just find more meaning in our daily lives and our social relations in the way that we not just work but also play, and the way that we kind of love each other as a community, as a family, etcetera.
Like, let's let's have better lives our entire lives.
One of the reasons why I think retirement age is so or sorry, retirement, social security and all that is so imperative is that we have a huge manual labor underclass in this country of which their body literally gets broken down. And if you look at some of the
poverty statistics, from the nineteen thirties. It is horrifying. I know that in AMMI and all of those, it's like it's it kind of popularizes this image that it was working age people who were in Hooverville's and that is certainly true to some extent, but a lot of the people who were starving to death and dying, they weren't just old. Yes, they're pensioners, I mean, but I mean that they got they went broke, They're bank were gone.
And these people guys, they died of literal starvation because they were so poor and they could not go or even qualify under this. And then finally, there's a basic aspect of fairness. I've been paying in this damn program my entire life. Every time I look at my paycheck, I said, I remember the very first time I get I got rid of I said, what the is this fight as shit? You know? And then I was like, oh,
it's Social Security. I'm like, okay, but that's part of the thing is that every American who works in this country, we have paid into this system, fairly or not. You know, you can say reform, etc. I'm like, no, no, no, no, you took my you took a hell of a lot of my money over the year, not even close to what I'm going to get back out of it. At the very least, I'm going to get something. So the idea that it's going to get abolished is completely outrageous.
And the idea that it's a Ponzi scheme is also just factually incorrect. Like ask Ben Shapiro, name another Ponzi scheme that hasn't missed a payment in eighty one years.
Like, it's a sustainable program.
Right because and you know how I can say that we have sustained it for eighty one years. We can we can continue to sustain it if you need to make some tweaks. And Ben Shapiro has to pay a little bit more into it to help some other people find that's different. But to your point, there is still a word kind of in our vernacular that that comes from the period before Social Security, and the word is the poorhouse.
Yes, you would hear it from your parents and your grandparents. You're going to put me in the poorhouse.
The poorhouse was an actual thing, and it was basically a charitable run organization. Sometimes it would get a little bit of money from the town or from the city of the state where when elderly people could no longer longer make income, they would just get put in the poorhouse. These were the most decrepit, disgusting, degrading, undignified places that you could put elderly people and the other place. And I interviewed Dingle about this, whose father was the author
of the Social Security Act. He said, when he was a kid, his house was filled with Dingles and other Polish relatives. What would happen is everybody would just move into a house that had a little bit of room.
That was it. You had the poor house, and you had.
Elderly people moving in with whatever cousins, nephews, nieces or grandchildren or anybody else that could take them in. If that's how you want to do it, Like if you want to have.
A multi generational home.
Where you know the people the like the mom and the dad are supporting the children and the grandparents, go ahead, you should do that.
If you want to do it. They were. Everybody was forced to do it.
Social Security is around the world the greatest poverty reduction program that has ever existed in human history.
Let me get on Spatok specifically to that forty point two percent of people who are older and eligible for Social Security their only income is social Security.
Those people are a retire warehouse.
It'd be I mean there do they're going to die? Like they literally going to die without Social Security and medicare. Now, I want to be clear, that's not a good situation. And if you are my age or you know your age, Ryan, please stay for retirement.
Please.
I'm begging you because you don't want to be in this position. That said forty percent of the country is so clearly we're screwing up, and we've done a hell of a lot wrong in terms of setting and financially educating people. But it is what it is when you need to let these people just die, you know, in a complete in obscurity poverty.
You cut a couple hundred dollars from them just to save Ben Shapiro money on his taxes. The choices that they then have to make are just brutals, devastating, and Ben Ben would never have any idea about that type of a choice.
The other thing that they point out is that so forty percent, but truly more than fifty percent of people sixty five or older received at least fifty percent. Then of their income after age sixty seven from social Security. So then now imagine that as you just said, you know, a couple cut one hundred bucks five percent doesn't sound like a lot to you or I. When the price of vegas goes up by twenty Yeah, it actually does
make a huge difference. A lot of these people also live by themselves or you know, in a sole household. You couple that with a lot of these nursing homes and you know the medicare fraud and all that stuff that goes on. You know, it's not an easy life to just be living purely on the government. Again, why I'm begging you please take some responsibility and try and say for retirement. But if you do find yourself in.
This after you've paid for your breaking points stuff though, yeah, right.
Of course I would never advise that, But say, first, you don't want to be in this position, and I really hope that nobody is. I wouldn't wish it on anybody, But we have to deal with reality. Forty fifty percent of the country is living in this position. Well, now what I think we haven't Look, we have a well defined program here and again all those people, at least you know the way the programs is done. They paid into it, We're all paying into it. It would be
outrageous to rob us of the similar thing. It also comes to a matter of emphasis, which is what Mike Cernovitch kind of put and I really love this framing. Let's put this up there on the screen. He says. Reminder, Ben Shapiro advocated for every war in the Middle East. When the rich kids of DC America can't afford FOURGN eight and foreign wars, then we can maybe talk about making Grandma Star. Until then, no thanks, I totally agree.
You want to save money. The Biden administration just put out a defense budget of eight hundred and forty two billion dollars eight hundred and forty two billion. That would be almost nearly one hundred billion dollar increase in what just five years. That's a lot of money, a lot of money. It seems easy to cut, there, isn't it. And if Biden were smart and he would lean into this.
And you are seeing the Biden campaign hitting Trump on this, and you've actually seen the Trump campaign. One of their responses was they tweeted out an article of mind that I wrote in twenty twenty that said that said that Joe Biden has been trying to cut Social Security for forty years, and it's true he was, but he is a politician. He saw which way the wind is blowing. There are now about two hundred and ten Democrats who have signed on to a Social Security expansion bill in
the House of Representatives. Nancy Pelosi kept it off the floor because she is at heart and Austerian and wouldn't it Probably would have passed if she would just put it on the floor. John Larson's bill, that's political gold for Democrats.
No, not only we kind of expansion. What does it do?
It means like on the lower end fifty percent and below would get actually more Social Security in their checks. And then it closes some of the tax loopholes in order to make and it makes it sustainable for like another fifty seventy five years. But people like Ben Shapiro would have to pay more in and so people like Ben Shapiro would rather be cut and you just keep working.
But he trying to pretend he's actually doing it for your own good because spiritually and psychically he's just nervous about your soul.
Well, this is crazy. So I didn't even realize this. The average solid security benefit in twenty twenty three is seventeen hundred dollars a month.
Right, I don't even know he's to riv we're even going to get yeah, right, where can you.
Even pay rent on seventeen nards? I mean I get in a medium to high cost of living area. That's going to be stretching it. That's really tough. You better live in a rural place if you want to make it.
Which then it's hard to get around. Yeah. The whole thing is people are screwed.
You can't. There's no way you're making a car payment on seventeen hundred dollars with all those other things too. That's another thing. Let me just advocate or buy your house, make sure you pay off your mortgage, just make sure you have retirement.
It's another.
And this is something that doesn't get talked about enough in the squeeze on the economy. So many people our age are helping their parents out.
That's true, that's really unfortunate. Well, look as you can see you do it because you know we're not talking about the right thing to do. But it hurts these people are I'm not living a large what is it high on the hog is that they're not living high on the hog. Here we're talking about seventeen eighteen hundred bucks for an average check. Let's say a married household, that's still only thirty six hundred. I mean, that's thirty What is that thirty six hundred, it's like forty grand
or something like that after tax. That's below the average income actually for a household in the United States. So just reminder, you know, and remember what realist program is, what the implications of all of that would look like. I understand, you know, you know, people don't want to pay or think it's unfair and all that, And I think there's still a lot we could do in terms of making the Social Security benefits actually go a lot
farther and gives people some optionality. But the program itself is one hundred percent gold and it should stay where it is. This has got to be the funniest story of all time because everyone involved looks terrible, which is why basic So we'd previously brought everybody the news. Don Lemon fired by CNN for what did he say? That women? Women aren't in their prime like in terms of their worthy He said women are only in prime during their
birthing name. Oh yeah, something only a gay man could ever think to.
Say, get the final straw for him.
After years of just psychotic behavior there over at CNN, well, he decided to sign a program, sign a deal with X with Elon Musk side where well, get to that say, agreed to a program where he would broadcast in partnership on X formerly known as Twitter the way that Tucker Carlson does right now, while also simultaneously posting elsewhere. He was going to get paid tens of millions of dollars. As the broadcast actually was set to debut on March eighteenth,
he decided his first interview would be with Elon Musk. Now, we don't know exactly what happened in the interview, but we do know that immediately after the interview, Elon canceled his entire contract. Here's what Don had to say immediately afterwards.
Hi, everyone, Elon Musk is mad at me, and I just put out a statement about what happened between him, me and the interview that he is apparently so upset about. So speaking of free speech, right, I thought the first person interview no brainer. Elon Musk, the man who calls himself a free speech absolutist.
I asked him to do it. He willingly agreed to the interview.
Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange and that they would learn from our conversation, learn more about him, learn more about me. But apparently Freespeech's absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me, What did we talk about?
Why is he so upset?
Oh? Interesting? So what did they talk about? It turns out Ryan some of this stems back to questions that Don asked Elon about ketamine drug use. He played some of these clips last night on CNN, ironically running to his former employer the moment that he needs a little bit of airtime. Let's take a listen. You talk about your kettemine use and depression hip.
You also have said and.
The reason I should say like like.
The reason I mentioned the academic prescription on the X platform was because I thought maybe this is something that can help other people.
That's why I mentioned it.
I'm not a doctor, but I would say if someone has depression issues, they should consider talking to the doctor about academy instead of SSRIs.
Do you believe that X and you have some responsibility to moderate hate speech on the platform, that you wouldn't have to answer these questions from reporters about the Great Replacement.
Theory as a release.
I don't have to answer this great Replacement theory as it relates to Jewish people.
Do you think that I don't have to answer questions from requorters? The only reason I'm doing this interview is because you're on the X platform and you ask for it. Otherwise I would not.
Do interview with this interview, So you don't think do you think that you wouldn't get in trouble or you wouldn't be.
Criticized for these things criticized? Possibly I could care less.
So that's it. That apparently that's what did it. Immediately after let's put this up there on the screen, immediately after Ryan of the conclusion of this interview, Elon texted Don Lemon's representatives and just simply said contract canceled. Don's lawyers have since responded saying that they will be suing X for the payments that he is due. They put out a statement, let's put that up there please, says
they cancel the partnership, etc. Etc. The interview will still air, it'll be on YouTube, podcast, it'll still broadcast on X. But it turns out Ryan that there actually was no signed contract between Don Lemon and between Elon and any of this went up, and that it will be I mean again, if you only verbally agreed to something, you didn't sign anything. Elon does appear to be within his rights to cancel your ass. So what have we learned
about this? Elon incredibly thin skinned, literally canceled somebody for a single interview, which is like, I mean, let's look, I hate down Lemon. That was not adversarial at all. I watch a full interview. We'll see. But if you really can't take that, come on dude, And then on Don, how did you ever expect this to play out? Bro? Yeah? Like what did you think?
Tara Swisher, who broke the news, said she told him we had old Don Lemon.
Pick Kara Swishers sweet up her.
She's like, look, I told Don Lemon this is exactly how this would end. He is the I mean, billionaires are all thin skinned, and something about being in a billionaire I think makes you more thin skin because you're just around people who are kissing up to you constantly because they want your access to your wealth. And so then when you get even this slightest whiff of somebody not kissing your butt, it you.
Can't handle it anymore.
And so I would assume I don't know if Elon's always been this thin skinned, but living the life he's lived for the last ten twenty years I think helps to produce that in people. But yeah, I mean, the whole the whole thing is is utterly hilarious. Although on both of those questions, I was kind of on Elon's side. It's like, Okay, I think his I think his drug use beyond ketamine is an interesting thing to explore for his investors and for other people.
On the question of ketamine.
If he's got a prescription for ketamine and he is telling people that if you're suffering from depression, anxiety, something else, ask your doctor about ketamine as an alternative SSR.
Good for him, I think that is.
And as he said, he's not a doctor, He's not prescribing anything.
For you, but you should.
You should be aware of this possibility that that SSRIs you know, might not be the path out of the whatever whatever problems you have at the moment, and that ketamine.
Might be a better alternative. Talk to your doctor about it.
Good for him that, Like, we'll see what the rest of the interview comes up with.
But it wasn't that adversarial.
But also from Elon's perspective, that's like, come on, this you can't you can't handle a tiny bit of that. We can let like I said, we let the contract one oh one people in the comment sections sort out whether that whether this is is binding, where it's binding, and like it seems like they're just hoping that the musk, that the musk will say, all right, here's here's a time, here's a percentage, like to end this in this court battle.
May be right, I don't know. That said, he's a very rich man and he's also very petty. Right, I will earn the whole cost of earned, which, look, I will be honest. That would be the most hilarious outcome of all this is Lemon being broke and also Elon being revealed for who he is.
But what was Elon thinking that?
So we have Elon's response. Let's put Elon's response. He says his approach was basically just CNN but on social media, which doesn't work, as evidenced by the fact that CNN is dying, and instead of it being the real Don Lemon, it was really just Jeff Zucker talking through Don, so it lacked authenticity. All this said, Lemon and Zucker are of course welcome to build their viewership on this platform
along with everyone else. I do see a little bit of a problem with this is if you thought Don Lemon was just Jeff Zucker thrucking drew down, then why did you hire him? He says, instead of being the real there's no real Don Lemon. He's a sociopath. He doesn't believe anything, as Crystal. Crystal was so so on point whenever she was like, he's gonna pivot back to being a right winger as he was. Remember he had that home monolog where he's like, what did he says
like black men, pull up your pants? He's like active decorum or something like That's he doesn't believe anything. He was that guy. Then he was a resistant star, and then he was the morning show misogynist, and now he's a free speech Absolutely. Don doesn't believe in free speech. He advocated for trumping band off of Twitter in the first place. He's a chameleon like Chris Cuomo. All these guys want to be as relevant and rich and so
obviously Elon should have seen him through that. But he's the one who wanted to pay him in the first place. And then apparently Ryan, they were touting the crap out of this deal to all of their advertisers, being like, see, we're gonna have Don Lemon here on the platform. It's not just yeah, not just bad people, not just Tucker Carlson, it's also Don and then boom, it's like, come on.
What do we Yeah, there's two ways of putting it.
Either there is no real Don Lemon or this is the real Don Lemon. And in either case, yeah, why would you come on? Elon Musk, Right, who did you think you were getting?
This? Is you hired?
You hired Don Lemon and you got Don Lemon? Right?
Yeah, well is that who did you think his audience was?
Anyway, the deal never made sense from the beginning, like who are the Don Lemon stands?
Like Don Lemon's ratings at near the end of his tenure, we're like four hundred thousand people in total.
Maybe like they're all watching CNN and then watching Boom.
Yeah, exactly, there's like maybe sixty k in the key demographic. It was just insanity that this was like a play in the first place. So look, yeah, it's hilarious. There's not much else to say, I think about it. Everybody involved just comes out looking bad, and uh it's We will continue to keep everybody updated on the contract machinations. We have a great guest standing by though, Ryan dan Foote. Tell us a little bit about him and then we'll get to him.
Dan foot was the Biden's envoy to Haiti and he resigned in protest a couple of years ago, and in his protest letter he forecast what would happen if Biden did not change course in Haiti, and basically he's predicted everything from that day till this day.
Got it all right, Well, let's get to it. Let's hear from a man.
The United States government is forming another government for Haiti in a hotel in Jamaica.
We'll see how that works out.
To talk about this, we're going to be joined by the Biden administration's former envoy to Haiti, Ambassador Daniel foot Ambassadorfoot, thank you so much for joining us here.
Good Cazir, good morning, thanks for having from me.
So we wanted to start by getting your reaction to Secretary of State Anthony B. Lincoln's comments yesterday, which come after his effort to kind of put together this transitional government on behalf of the Haitian people, but for the Haitian people. Let's roll a little bit of the Secretary of State here.
I was in Jamaica just a couple of days ago with all of the countries from the Caribbean, Cara COM with other partners, including Canada, including France, including Mexico, all of this in support of Haitian led efforts to find a political path forward, to get to a political transition. And that's exactly what was agreed the other day the Prime minister. Prime Minister already stepped down along with his government. A transitional Presidential Council or college as they call it.
It's being stood up. It's inclusive. It brings together most of the major parties in Haiti, as well as other stakeholders like the private sector, like the interfaith community, to choose a new Prime minister and interim prime Minister, to establish a nas Security Council and to put in place an electoral commission that creates the pathway the transition to elections and to a constitutionally mandated government.
Now, what struck me about the creation of this quote unquote transitional government that the US is creating in Jamaica for Haiti is that one of the requirements to be part of this transitional government is that they must agree to allow in a un quote unquote kind of peacekeeping force which would be made up of Kenyan mercenaries funded by the United States, which the United States then says, means that the troops are there at the invitation of
the Haitian government, if you can follow that kind of NASCAR circular logic there for a moment. So what was your reaction to the Secretary of States remarks yesterday.
I'm flabbergasted, Ryan, that the hypocrisy in the naive de tay continues, and it's startling.
You just heard.
Tony say that he mentioned what ten different countries there that were there figuring out the way forward. One country that was absent in that list is Haiti. And what they're doing is trying to pull a solution out of thing, but make it look like the Haitian led solution. The international community chose seven people representing seven sectors, including the failed government of the past fourteen years, which the Haitians won't accept, and then they want these seven people to name a government.
They gave them twenty four hours.
But it appears to be fungible because that's gone on about seventy two hours now. I quit thirty months ago to try and get the right solution for Haiti, to continue to work with the Haitians. I've been channeling the Haitians boys for a long time.
And if the.
US insists on pulling a solution out of thin air, saying it's a Haitian led solution and making the Haitians follow that, we haven't seen anything yet in Haiti. The people are not going to put up with this. And the violence or less ten days is just a little bit of a tease for what I have to see.
Wow, for people who haven't been following this for that long, can you talk a little bit about you know why you resigned and under what conditions?
Sure so, as most people know.
In July twenty one, President Joel No Moys of Haiti was assassinated in his bedroom by foreigners, which kind of hurt the Haitians feelings. They're upset, they're embarrassed. Their sovereignty has been overcome many times throughout history. And ten days after that, so the guy who was the acting Prime minister at the time stepped forward said, okay, I'm in charge,
despite the fact it was not constitutional. There was nothing constitutional or constitution bro the US and the international community. Ten days after the assassination named Ariel Enria the acting Prime minister via press conference. Despite my im the Haitians loud protestations and at the time said this will not work even if the guy manages to hold elections, that people won't accept them. Now we're at the same point.
He aligned with the gangs, did nothing for two and a half years, hat he's gotten much worse, much worse the Americans and support them the whole time. Finally, the Haitians stood up when he went out of the country and the gangs were part of it, but the entire country is united and said no more of this guy.
Wouldn't let him come back. At that point, the internationals panicked.
Haiti's been a failed state and it hasn't been in the control of anybody for the last thirty two months. This guy can't get back in the country, and the US all of a sudden needs to jam a solution in the Haitian people's ear that includes a military intervention that they need. But it won't work unless it's in support of the Haitians way forward, not Tony Blincoln's and the Mexicans and the EU and Canada and blah blah blah.
The Haitians.
And this is just another example of the them meddling and installing white anointed government, a white conceived government, and it's going to fail.
And I'm telling you that.
Haitians have dealt with at least five US political interventions in the last one hundred and nine years.
They're not going to put up with a six.
And I'm telling you the violence you've seen is nothing compared to what you will see if they've tried to ram another prime minister that's illegitimate up the shorts of the Haitian peak.
Yeah, mister Inmvesador, maybe you could lay that out for us, sir, about some of the consequences we've already seen, like widespread gang violence. We previously had a guest on our show who said that some of that could be coming down as they anticipate maybe their potential roles in a future government. You seem to be predicting that this is not going to call that violence at all. Maybe lay some of that out for us.
Everyone has sort of been united for the past thirty months that Henri can't do it. He needs to go. Hey, he needs somebody else. The gangs were kind of cool, you know. The gangs just went about their business for quite a period.
Ariel was paying them, they were not doing stuff.
He stopped paying them, He removed some feudal subsidies, which hurt their revenues. He left the country. The gangs turned
against him. Now, I believe if the US just doesn't do anything stupid and gives Haitian society a little space, that they're going to come together and reach a similar political consensus as they had two years ago, which the US and international community ignored, upon which they can build a solid political foundation, and the Haitian people who will be represented in this may be able to trust eventual elections.
That's the goal here, that.
The Haitian people can trust eventual elections, not that we can hold elections.
That's easy.
They held them in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen and neither one work.
So they need to.
Trust the elections or we're rushing to failure. And that's exactly what we're doing. You see, Secretary blink And thinks elections is the magic pill, and it's not. If the Haesian people don't feel they're part of it and they don't accept the results of the election, we're going to be right where we are now and worse.
The wild card here seems to be the figure of gif Philip, this extraordinarily controversial figure who was played a leading role in the ouster of Aristide in two thousand and four, later elected to the Senate. Before he could take off in the Senate, the US kind of renditioned him over here and locked him up for money laundering
charges related to drug trafficking for about six years. Now he's back, and he seems to be on the ground in Haiti speaking this kind of revolutionary language, this language of kind of Haitian sovereignty and dignity that is resonating with people. I think a lot of people probably don't believe that he's necessarily earnest about the rhetoric that he's using, but at least he's saying it, and at least he's
in Haiti. But I'm curious from your perspective, how popular is is g Philippe and is there a world that he actually ends up taking power as a result of the ability of the gangs and others to just keep out anybody who is installed kind of from Jamaica, because like getting from Jamaica to Haiti, you know, is still something that they have to pull off if they're going to install a government.
Oh, don't worry about the Haitians. Weren't invited to Jamaica. They're still in Haiti. So if they set up the government are there. They weren't even invited to set.
Up the.
Right true, So what about the Philippe.
Gee has always been able to mobilize a lot of people and hands pretty broad constituency in Haiti because people think he kind of tells the truth. He's been involved in heavy trafficking. He just completed a seven year sentence in the States for money laundering because they weren't unable to come up with the evidence to get them on what they really thought they had for and they sent him back. Part of me scratches my head and said is there a scheme going on? Why would they send
him back at this point in time. But we'll just ignore that.
And Ghee was.
A member of the former Haitian army, which we forced to President Risty to dissolve in nineteen ninety four. There's still about four thousand of these old buggers running around the hill. Say hey, they have weapons, they can mobilize.
They're old.
The weapons are old. But if they align with the gangs, and Gi philipp and Moijean Charles, who is a communist politician from up north, is part of Gi Pheleiep's thing. If we're because of the anarchy that's going on now, if we inject another bonehead move puppet into the Haitian ronment right right now, it's very possible at Keith, Felipe, Moyjeon, Charles or Barbecue might wind up taking power. However, if we give them time and space, the gangs have already
quieted down. You notice that haven't shaped Riel step down. They quiet down. They stopped breaking stuff because they were breaking stuff to tell Ril don't come back and tell the international community, don't put another puppet in. Well, Ril listens. So far, the internationals haven't so who knows what's going to come out of this. The key is it's Haitian led, and it's gonna be Haitian led one way or the other.
If the US injects somebody in through this seven headed Hydra Presidential Council, the people will rise up and it'll be a Haitian led solution, or if we give them space, it'll be a Haitian led solution. And the revolutionary rhetoric is real. Gee is not coming up with that as the intellectual author. That's the feeling on the states, the fielder'
on the streets, only on the street. Since we didn't finish the job in eighteen oh four, we've let the white people push us around the last two hundred and nine years, and at this point we're gonna finish the Haitian Revolution and be independent one way.
It'll be interesting, sir. We really appreciate your analysis and your expertise, so thank you so much for.
Joining us anytime.
Thanks guys, absolutely, thank you guys so much for watching Ryan. Appreciate you man. Another revolution love, yeah, exactly, we need another revolution here, the last one. What are the best books you've ever read on Haitian Revolution?
Black Spartacus was the most recent Dussan Lebatore biography. It's so much better than the previous ones, which painted him as like a megalomaniac, and like, you know, something did change in the in the historiography, in this or in the like the way the historians understood Tucsant that finally gives him some serious respect and dignity.
So check out Black Spartacle.
Here you go, all right, I'm gonna pick it up actually on your recommendation, So there you go, all right, We'll see you guys later.
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