This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind, and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every single day on your favorite podcast platform.
Anytime you can.
Start the show with Andy McCarthy, the nation's best legal analyst, you know it's going to be a very good day. Andy, Welcome back to the Dan Caplis Show.
Dan, great to be with you as always well.
So grateful for your time and I know there are a lot of demands on you always, but in particular today, so I will get right to it.
And for those new to the planet.
Andy of course is the preeminent analyst, National Review scholar as well as Fox News analyst, author of Ball of Collusion and so much more. But above all, you got to listen to his podcast, The McCarthy Report. I catch it every time it drops. So Andy, I've been dying to get your in person react to the part.
Well, you know it's it's I said about a million times that there would be impardon and you know when Biden started in the late spring to say he wouldn't pardon his son. My reaction was that he'll keep that promise right up until the minute after the elections over, So it wasn't just a hunt. Though, if you if you closely watched Hunters prosecutions and in particular the tax case, his litigation strategy didn't make any sense unless he knew
he was getting a pardon, right though. That kind of confirmed me in the in the you know, in my sense, which by the way, I didn't blame Biden terribly for I blamed him for lying. I think that was terrible, but you know, I understood the fatherly impulse involved that. The look in the country in the eye and saying something he had to know wasn't true is the despicable part.
But I think the importance going forward, Dan is the pardon doesn't make any sense to me, the structure of it and the fact of it, unless there are going to be many more pardons, or at least a few more pardens, Because it looks to me that you know, he's gotten about eleven years of complete community. This is not the kind of a part you would expect someone to get who is, like you know, has lived an otherwise noble life, but has a misstepper too. Along the way.
This is a complete immunity bath for everything that could conceivably be prosecuted under federal law for about an eleven year period. In fact, it's the thing. It's the immunity that in the Sweetheart Plea deal that blew up. What Hunter's lawyers wanted Wife the Special Counsel to say in court was that this was the scope of the immunity
that they were talking about. And it's so absurd that Weiss politically couldn't get up and say it, even though I'm quite sure that the Hunter's lawyers were accurate in thinking that was the scope of the immunity they were getting.
But it just seems to me that because he now has immunity from prosecution, he has no more Fifth Amendment privilege, so he can be put in the grand jury if the next Justice Department wanted to look at the aspects of the Biden influence peddling scheme that the Weis's Special Counsel and the Biden Justice Department averted their eyes from.
So instead of like discouraging that kind of an investigation, it kind of entices it by saying, all, right, now you have a witness who is at the center of it all, who has to testify in the grand jury nless you're going to immunize everybody else who was in the scheme. Doesn't make sense.
To me, which brings us back to Anny McCarthy. Obviously, our guest, your point about more pardons to come, where do you see that going?
Well, I don't expect that Biden will pardon himself because I think that Trump has said enough times that no president or former president should ever have to go through what he went through. That I don't think the Trump Justice Department would pursue Biden. And I don't think Biden could bring himself to pardon himself because that would be like an admission of guilt when he's an adamant that
he's not guilty. But I think other people who were involved in the scheme, I mean, you know, look, I don't know what's going to happen, but it wouldn't shock me. You know, all these names that we saw come up in the House investigation, including Jim Biden, the President's brother, and the uncle and confidant of Hunter, and a number of these other guys who helped them ructure of these payments that were coming from foreign sources. And then we're
being whacked up and put in various Biden accounts. What it was like eleven or twelve different Biden accounts and some of these payments, and we're talking about twenty seven million dollars in payments of it just I think it was just a five or six year period. So I just it doesn't I mean, maybe this is a one off, but it doesn't make sense to me as a one off if you assume, as I do, that what they're worried about is a law fair type investigation by the Trump Justice Department.
It doesn't Biden then have to pardon every family member who received funds, including wasn't it a granddaughter?
Well, you know, I guess the question you would have to ask. And I don't mind playing this out with you, because you know, you may come up with insight that I don't. But I think what you would have to weigh as the prosecutor is which targets would be worth investigating. So, for example, there was a granddaughter in the array of payments, and that was really just used as a vehicle so that they could pass through money to somebody else in the Biden family. I'm not going to do an investigation.
I don't think any of it should be investigated by the way. I think it's all Congress already investigated it. To me, the statute of limitations is run. I would like to see Trump end loss there rather than have his Justice Department pursue it. But if I were of a mind to do an investigation, I would have to have a worthwhile target. So if I thought, for example, that you know, somebody higher up in the scheme was available as a potential target, I think about it one way.
If I think it's a low level person who may not even have known what was going on and whose account was just used as a pass through, I'm not going to do an investigation over that.
Andy McCarthy from National Review and much more. Now, Andy, going back to your point earlier about Okay, he doesn't have his Fifth Amendment privilege anymore because of this pardon. How much time would he face if he simply refused to testify I refuse to appear before Congress, refused to testify in a grand jury. I know those are different issues, but how much time could he face collectively there?
Well, there's no precise limit to it. I mean, generally speaking, a prosecutor will charge transactionally rather than offense by offense.
And what I mean by that is, if I call you to the grand jury and you take the fifth seventy five times, even though you don't have a fifth amendment, I can get you held in contempt seventy five times, okay, Joy, But I would probably charge you with one count of contempt, and then the jury gets constructed at the end that the government alleges that there was seventy five instances of contempt. If you find any one of them, you can convict the guy. I mean, that's the.
Way it usually works.
But you don't really need Everyone is like a five year account, so you don't need that much time, right.
Yeah, Well, it just tells you how bad the underlying behavior was.
And I know we are already have.
The convictions, but how bad the total behavior must have been to now be willing to expose him to this losing his immunity for the purposes of these other hearings and investigations.
Well, I guess from his perspective, though, the immunity he cares about is from prosecution, right right, He cares about that more than immunity from grand jury. Patinos and let's say that he actually went in and testified to the Congressional committee, right, So he wasn't fearful.
Yeah, I think.
Maybe he should have been, but he wasn't fearful of going in there and testifying. Now, you know, he may decide that he didn't go in and testify the grand jury, if I'm remembering. And then no one of course asked him but from the Biden Justice Department to do that. And he had a Livens Amendment privilege because he was under indictment, so he wouldn't have been asked to go
in the grand jury. But if he's asked to go in the grand jury, now that's not going to be the same thing as being asked to testify before a congressional committee with a lot of Democrats on it. This is going to be a grand jury with a bulldog prosecutor from the Trump Justice Department. And again, yet every time I say this, I have to stress I really hope this doesn't happen.
Yeah, and Andy, in the last minute, we haven't. You've been generous with your time. What do you think this means, if anything, in terms of coming pardons from Trump? It seems to me that it just gives him a big old green light to go pardon whoever he wants to and politically at least not face the price he might have.
Yeah.
Well, you know, I kind of felt like before this even happened, Trump is of a mind like, you know, look, he's going to be a one term president. He's not running for re election, and he kind of got elected because people who support him think of him as this, you know, swashbuckling figure who doesn't give a who you know. So I think he might have done what he was going to do anyway, but Biden, what Biden has done here has certainly given him a lot of a lot of running rooms.
Yeah wow.
Well, Andy, thank you for your time today and all of your great work and above all the McCarthy Report, because I can't wait for each of those podcasts to drop and look forward to the next one.
Thanks so much, Ded. I think we're recording tomorrow, so hopefully it'll be out tomorrow.
I am looking forward to it. Thank you, my friend. Thanks Dan, You take care of that.
Is Andy McCarthy best in the business eight five to five for zero five eight two five.
Five to number.
We have so much to talk about today and a lot of it local as well. The Denver Post editorial board in this kind of really odd and strange effort to defend maryork Johnston while criticizing him. Got to dive into that here on the Dan Caplo Show.
Now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
I don't read you something that the Democratic governor of Colorado, Guard Poulis posted about this. He's not okay with the move. He wrote in part, I'm disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country. This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. Does this pardon does this damage the justice system?
Well, I totally agree with the governor that this pardon will tarnish Joe Biden's legacy.
I mean Joe Biden.
Let's be clear here, he lied to us for a long time. He said categorically, I will not parton my son. He said, I will take it off the table, and he couched it in very high minded terminology.
Yeah, that's the Elie Hoenig from CNN, who do often does a good job. I was more interested in the Polish piece dishonesty, right, the hypocrisy.
Oh Biden, he put family ahead of country. Polis put flipping Kim Kardashian. I had of victims who were burned to death on I seventy by a homicidal trucker found guilty by a Jefferson County jury, sentenced by a Jefferson County judge. Polis puts sweet nothings from Kim Kardashian ahead of those victims in their families. And by the way, that the safety of all Colorado is because if you haven't noticed, yeah, we got a lot of great truck drivers out there, they're heroes, but you got a big
part of that industry that is absolutely deadly. And Polis just sent this screaming message to the trucking industry across the country that yeah, you can come to Colorado and do that and get out after five years or so.
So no total hypocrite here. Here's what's going on. Polis is going after low hanging fruit. Is virtually zero downside to Polis in taking this shot at Biden. It's not heroic. It's cowardly. And it's cowardly because a Polis wouldn't take a shot at Biden when it would have served the country.
And that is what Jared Polis should have done at the beginning of the primary season, was say a few nice things about Biden and then just say, but I got to get into this race, or somebody does, because Biden's not competent.
But he didn't have the courage to do that.
Instead, he goes after this failing old man now where there's no downside to him. But where is this oh so honorable and noble and courageous Jared Polis when it comes to Jenna Griswold right here in Colorado, And the same thing for Crow and Hick and Looper and Bennett and the rest of them, and wiser to start with, who should be demanding her resignation first of those passwords going online, but then making the decision not to tell
the county clerks, let alone the public. If there was an ounce of true intellect, actual honesty, and courage, Polus and the rest of those top Dems would have called for her resignation, then called for a special prosecutor, called for a full public report. But they didn't do any of that because they're the opposite of courageous. They're political hacks playing a political game. They hold high office. But that doesn't change their hack status. That's what's going on here.
Eight five to five for zero five A two five five the number tekes d an five seven seven three nine. Yeah, which brings us to this Denver Post editorial, which is one of the odd editorials I've seen there. The headline's Okay, Denver's mayor was wrong to threaten armed conflict to protect immigrants. But then when you get into the full body of
the editorial, that's really too long to read. It's really an effort to, in my opinion, try to reshape and kind of misrepresent what Johnston really did, because the editorial makes it out is if it Johnston was understandably upset, but he went too far, understandably upset about the idea of dreamers being you know, rounded up by the Trump administration. Wait a second, Johnston never qualified his comments that way.
Johnston never limited it to quote dreamers. Johnston just said, yeah, I'm going to send the Denver police out to the county line and then you know, hopefully fifty thousand in the streets. So I think the Post is trying to rewrite history a little bit to help Johnston and the Democrats, not a little bit a lot. And then in the piece and they do properly. I commend them for that. You know, they talk about Johnston should have employed this
kind of violent rhetoric. But then the Post goes on to say, and this is really interesting, I think worth your time. And I think what we're seeing as a unified national play by most of the Dems now which already shows the Trump effect, the enormous positive benefit of Trump being elected, you know, long before he's actually inaugurated.
And the Denver Post in this editorial is saying, hey, we have always called for the deportation of violent immigrants, and we're seeing hearing the same thing out of Kathy Hochel in New York and a bunch of other Dems. Wait a second, I'm not doubting the Posts said that somewhere along the way somewhere, but it's not like they've been out there championing that right, and nor any of these other Democrats. But now they're all claiming that they've
always been for this. Well, it's a very good start, right that. Now these Democrats not because they care about you or your family or any of the women who get raped or the children who get raped, or the people who get murdered by criminal illegals, those here illegally then commit other crimes. It's not that they've suddenly started caring about those people. They care about getting re elected
and they see the election results, so they've done the calculation. Now, okay, in order to get elected or re elected, we now have to favor to pour in criminal illegals, because it's absolutely insane not to, even though all these Democrats haven't been for it for a long time. So anyway, you know, positive Trump effect already on that front. But wait for the rub when they start saying, oh no, that doesn't constitute a criminal illegal.
So yeah, yeah, what are.
These Democrats going to say constitutes a quote criminal illegal or the other way that A lot of these these Democrats are trying to frame it a quote violent criminal illegal. Okay, so what are they going to agree constitutes a quote violent criminal illegal? And watch how they try to massage
that definition, which brings us back to the question. You know, we all know, right, the reason the Democrats wanted that open border and just allowing this unadulterated flow, no vetting is is because they want those votes, right, we all know that, But this willingness to fight to the death to defend and protect those here illegally who have committed other serious crimes. Where do you think that comes from. I'd love to know your thoughts on that. We have a lot to talk about when we come back.
I do though.
As soon as we get back, Ryan will remind me if I forget this pro driving tip that you may have never heard before, could easily save your life or someone in your family.
I want to pass that along. You're on the Dan Kaplis Show.
You're listening to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
We'll see see.
Right, and folks around the country who will not violently resist on me and.
The Denver mayor. We agree on one thing.
He's willing to go to jail. I'm willing to put him in jail.
And the oof was from Cassie Hunt on CNN, and it just makes the point, right, Why would you be surprised by that? Because the Democrats, the Democrats believe they're above the law. Not everyday Democrats, but the people who in power, the people who own and operate the party, the elect officeholders. Most of them, like Mike Johnston, clearly believes he's above the law. Right, that has to be his his dominant mindset, or there's no way in the world he would publicly say that he's.
Going to Mountain insurrection.
Yeah, we're going to take the Denver police, send him out to the county line, and does stop the federal officers from enforcing federal law, and we want fifty thousand in the streets to help. He'd never dream of saying that unless his operating mo was that he's above the law. So why would be she be surprised by the borders are saying, you know, put him in jail if he does that. Because the Democrats are so used to operating outside the law, it's really become at the highest levels
in many ways, a very lawless party. And the latest is obviously what what Joe Biden just pulled? Eight five five for zero five eight two five five the number and the reason the Democrats are so upset about that is is because what it confirms is not just that Biden's a liar. Everybody already knew he was a liar. What it confirms is that he's corrupt. Because any thinking person understands the reason Joe Biden went back on his word to the American people and pardon Hunter Biden. Has
nothing to do with Hunter Biden. It's because Joe Biden is corrupt and Joe Biden needed to protect Joe Biden. So that's that's the far bigger impact of this. And it also exposes these media hacks for just being the Democratic mouthpieces that they are, so many of them, not all, so that that's why you know, it's so devastating to
the Democrats. Hey, before we go to calls and text, I wanted to pass along this pro driving tip and I safety and I want to make this a regular part of the show because my real job for forty years is representing, you know, victims in catastrophic injuries and wrongful death cases. And so I'm working all the time with these accident in reconstruction experts and working all the time,
you know, with safety engineers on vehicles. So in the course of that, I pick up all of these amazing facts and tips about safe driving and safe vehicles, etc. So I want to start packaging them up and getting them on air. And I understand you will have heard some of this stuff before, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded. Some of this stuff you may not have heard like this next one. I'll bet you ninety percent
of the audience has not heard before. But it comes out of a case that we're working on right now. And this really highly respected accident reconstruction expert made the point that, and I'm starting to do this now myself.
I had not thought about it before.
When you're going to make a left turn in an intersection, be sure consider. I mean, you have to decide what's safe for you under the circumstances. This isn't entitled to apply to all situations, but generally speaking, his advice was, when you pull into that intersection tonight to make that
left hand turn, keep your wheels pointed straight. Don't turn the wheel to the left as you prepare to turn left, because if you turn the wheel to the left as you're waiting to turn left, what happens if you get rear ended, You get driven right in front of oncoming traffic. So I just thought that was one of the best pro tips I'd ever heard, And I'm starting to do that now to be sure I keep my wheel straight when I'm ready to make that left hand turn until
I'm actually turning. So he got that going for you, and above all, as we go to the phone lines, and I kind of try to count it each week. This week I'm up to three already. Don't accelerate when the light turns green. When the light turns green, look both ways, because at least three times a week in my life anyway, somebody blows through that red light well
after it's turned red. And if I just accelerated when that light turned green, you know, then Ryan's show is suddenly four hours, which I'm sure.
Many people would like any wy. Wel come on, Eric in Denver. You're on the Dan Kapalis Show.
Tie, Dan, I wanted to answer your question as to why many Democrat politicians will fight to the death to
protect illegal immigrants and illegal immigrant criminals. I guess you're talking about legal immigrant criminals, right, And I think the reason for that is that he believes and must know that his constituency wants him to do that, and that that that's because of you know, it's an overused word, but because of the woke ideology and the kind of like predominance of extreme sort of leftist views among the popular populace of Colorado or Denver at least.
Well, Eric, I really appreciate that.
I think you're really onto something, I would just extend it a step. I think the reason so many of these elected Democrats, including Mike Johnston, have not been out there actively campaigning for and supporting deporting criminal illegals who commit other crimes while here is not because the average
Denver right wants those people to stay here. It's because the people who can help him, so many of the big money people on the left in the Democratic Party, so many of those big king makers are far left secular radicals who do not want criminal illegals deported, that they want to destabilize this nation, that they want to fundamentally transform this nation, and so they do not want
criminal illegal supported. One of the reasons for that is they want to draw an absolute bright line, we're not supporting any deportations, because obviously they view everybody flowing in through the border criminal or not otherwise committing crimes or not to be potential voters. So I think that's who the Mike Johnstons of the world are trying to please, those people in power on the left who have the
chance to help them. And it's very similar in my mind to the profoundly immoral trade off that almost every elected democrat makes because almost every elected Democrat must understand that abortion, as a matter of science, as a matter of fact, is the brutal taking of an innocent human life. Yet they support it. They support it for their own gain.
They support it so they can get elected, so they can hold power, and they're willing to support this violent taking of innocent human life on a mass scal so they can get power. So their decision to oppose deporting illegals who commit crimes falls into the same category.
We are willing to.
Sacrifice a whole lot of innocent lives so they can get and keep power. I think it falls into the same category. Height five five or zero five eight two, five to five the number. Sorry, I didn't start the show with an apology today. I owed you one instead. We had Andy McCarthy and you can pick that off the podcast at four oh six. But the apology is this, once again, I made the mistake of forgetting and of telling you in advance what the outcome of a sporting
event was going to be. And I'm sorry, I know that's frustrating. It takes the suspense out of the event, and I did that last night with the Bronco game, So my apologies. You know, when we made the mistake of mentioning before the game that, yeah, the Broncos are going to win by a touchdown or more so again, I've done that many times. I'll try not to do
it again. I know that a big part of watching the game is not knowing the outcome, so when we tell you the outcome in advance, it's really thoughtless on my part.
So profound apologies for that. Speaking of which I.
Just saw, I just saw one of the greatest headlines I've ever seen on CNN. Let me give that to you right now.
Now.
Most people would tease it into the next segment, but I have too much respect for you for that. I'm just going to give it to you right now. World leaders scramble to flatter Trump. It's a headline I just on CNN. World leaders scramble to flatter Trump. Do you ever see that kind of headline about Biden? World leaders scrambled to flatter Biden?
No, this is now.
There are so many great signs, right, but this is one of the very best signs. Yeah, world leaders are scrambling to flatter Trump. Why Because Trump represents strength. They want to please him. They don't want to be on the wrong side of him. His thread of tariffs right now is already making America safer. And had to like that line right to Trudeau about how maybe we can make Canada the fifty.
First day and he can be the governor.
Hey when we come back.
A lot of great callers and texts, But one thing I want to get into with you is, and you don't have to be a sports fan for this to matter. But over the weekend there was this explosion of violence in college football, these violent fights, and whether you care about sports or not, I think there's a much broader kind of scary lesson to be drawn from that.
Here on the Dan Caplis Show.
And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Another Democrat, hair Acadams ope.
Hearing what their plan is to deport some of these folks, and you think the city in some circumstances should cooperate with life.
Let me you know what's interesting, And I was hoping to the team the other day. I want you to all go back and google Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Google what they said about those who commit crimes in our city and.
What they said in our country. They said those who.
Commit crimes need to get out right away.
They sure did.
Yeah, and so why and how did all of a sudden it become absolute worship on the left that the no criminal illegals had to be protected. You know, we're not going to cooperate with Ice, and we talked about that earlier, my own theory on that. But bottom line is that that's going to be changed in lots of
places right now. Not because these elected Democrats suddenly care about the women who are being raped and the girls being raped and the other peoples brutally killed, etc. No, it's because they care about their own political survival and they can see what happened on election night here.
Why then, Dan, this is what puts the fear of God and me. Eric Adams, who at one time was a Republican, albeit a moderate one, and now he's a Democrat.
Maybe he's coming back.
I don't know.
I like what I'm hearing.
Fronts to be pardoned.
Maybe, But the mayor of New York City, a Democrat.
Yeah, it's practically putting on a maga hat and said I'm going to work with Tom Holman and our commedy guy here, Mayor Johnston and Denver is saying no, it's Tieneman Square, Denver PD's going to line up at the county border and keep Ice out.
Well, the difference is, and I'm not calling Mike Johnston a commie, I mean, but the difference is Mike Johnston. Once again, in my opinion, all he cares about is Mike Johnston's political advancement and he's after the big money on the left so he can be elected governor.
Right.
And so I think that that Mike Johnston, all that crazy talk about an insurrection, et cetera that wasn't geared to help the people at Denver. How does it help the people at Denver, right, Ryan, How does it help the people of Denver to poke Donald Trump in the eye right now? How does it help the people of Denver to go out and promise this insurrection? You know, you jeopardize Denver federal funds. Nothing good can come of it for the people of Denver. But Mike Johnston doesn't
care about that, myke. And what he cares about is attracting attention from the billionaire donors on the far left and getting their support in the governor's race. I think that's why he's doing that craziness. But it just comes back to these Democrats have shown time and again the elected ones they're willing to They are willing to sacrifice large numbers of innocent lives to a violent death in order to get and keep power in the Democratic Party.
They've shown that through their support for abortion up to the moment of delivery. They've shown that in their support for protecting criminal illegals. That's who I believe we're dealing with here, and I think the public's eyes are starting to open to that.
Mike and Arvada, you're on the Dan Kaplis Show.
Welcome, all right, I appreciate your show. I listen to you every day.
Oh man, thank you on.
Your traffic tip. I've always done that with my front wheels at left hand turns and driving around, I see more people running red lighte so I allow it both ways. Always at my traffic tip. A policeman told me in Illinois a long time ago that pull up behind someone.
Pull up.
Behind them when you can see their rear tires. That's a good way to stop in case somebody rare indured. Yeah, though is going to get You're not going to get pushed in the car in front of you.
Good advice there.
Thank you, Mike, and thank you for the very kind words. I had mentioned earlier that this tip I picked up from one of the experts in one of our cases, which is, if you're waiting to make that left hand turn at an intersection, make sure you keep your wheels straight, is what he advised, because then if you're rear ended, you go straight forward in the lane you're in. If your wheels have already turned left, then you get pushed in front of oncoming traffic. I just thought that was
a brilliant suggestion. Hey wanted to squeeze this in all of these brawls we saw over rivalry weekend in college football this weekend, at the broader point, and I understand you may not care about sports. The broader point is this thin veneer of civilization, This concept we've talked about before on the show where things can break down so quickly, Right, things that appear so stable and appear so certain can
just all disappear very quickly if there's enough hardship. I'm talking about this in terms of broader society, and I think that's what we saw over the weekend, where in college football you normally don't see these big, truly violent brawls, But then one happened in the Michigan Ohio State game. It got a lot of attention because it was the
Michigan Ohio State game. Some idiot from Michigan tried to plant the Michigan flag at the Ohio State fifty after they beat Ohio State, and a violent brawl broke out, I mean a real fight and police had to use pepper spray, etc. Then all of a sudden, what happened over the rest of the weekend, We see a whole bunch of other violent brawls breakout. It says if people watching it happen at Michigan Ohio State then green lighted that.
Somehow the stigma was off, and all of a sudden we see this copycat behavior all over the place and deeply disturbing. I hope there's lots of very serious punishment for that. But my broader point is, yeah, this thin veneer of civilization because we we just think we're so advanced, right, we think we're so superior, We think we know everything, we're in control of everything, you know, and we are so blessed, right, we're lottery winners to live in the
greatest nation in the history of the world. But all I'm saying in the end is so much of that is so less stable than it appears. And I'm not trying to be a donor. My broader point, if you'll allow me this, is that, hey, the only thing certain is God, that the only true stability is we've gotten the rest of this stuff. As hard as we work in society, works and everything else, there's just this thin
veneer of civilization doesn't move. We should get depressed, just just be realistic about what's long term and what is it