The White House Is Shitposting

David (00:00) If last week felt like the country got handed the Wi-Fi password and immediately started acting like a bored teenager with Photoshop. Yeah, that was the vibe. Because apparently we're doing official government shitposting now. AI penguins marching around Greenland and then a digitally tweaked arrest photo like the White House is running a low rent troll account. Once the most powerful office in the world starts playing internet games, it's not just cringe. It trains people. It rewards distortion. It makes the judges biased feel like a normal sentence. So today Robin Air poor and bourbon. trying to laugh on to reality testing when institutions join the chat. Welcome to Strengthen the Nation. Let's go. David (01:18) Hey, I'm David. I've got my 20 plus here in the military. I'm a board certified psychiatrist twice over I'm drinking, larceny small batch. I've got not a whole lot left because I started before you, Rob. when that runs out, I think I got a couple of beers. ⁓ Stout's Porters that I'm going to dig into because today Rob (01:36) Yeah. David (01:40) I'm hell bent on having some fun here doing this. Rob (01:42) All right. Yeah. it's Rob. I've got 30 in the military board certified in psychiatry, 26 years there. Speaking of beers, my favorite porter of all time was a very local brew from Montana called Pig's Ass Porter. You couldn't get it in cans. You had to go get like takeout containers from this little hole in the wall. microbrewery in the middle of Montana. Delicious. It was like dessert. Pig's ass porter. was like dessert in a, it was almost like a Chinese takeout container. It was a wax coated thing that they'd fill up for you. David (02:12) pig's ass order. When you know you have a real problem, you're buying beer in Chinese takeout containers. Rob (02:28) Yeah, yeah, no doubt. when the trash can was full of them, I realized that I probably should back off. I also realized that I was probably, in a sitting consuming somewhere around 8,000 calories in Porter. So I had to back off that. David (02:43) a lot of exercise. Rob (02:44) So today I thought I would try one of my go-to bourbons of all time was always Jim Beam Black Label. Jim Beam itself doesn't have enough character for me. It's a little on the sweet side. So I don't really like straight Jim Beam. I did like Black Label because it's aged a little longer and then it disappeared. And in its stead, they rebranded it as Jim Beam Black. I guess maybe is a little more modern. year aged version of Jim Beam, has a little more depth It's more of a sipping bourbon. And it's a rye like Jim Beam is. Lovely bourbon and also a very comfortable price point. David (03:23) Very nice. you know, the last several weeks have been dark. we just haven't had opportunity to laugh a whole bunch on this show, which is really why we're doing what drew us into thinking about even doing this was that we would look at these political things. and then have a spin on it, we could always laugh. but in the last couple of months, it's lot darker it hasn't been as much fun to do this. interesting, stimulating conversation, but not as much fun. So today I wanted to... lighten the mood, if you will. Maybe drink a little bit more bourbon than we typically And maybe just pick a couple of articles that are just kind of odd or weird or whatever. See if we can't find a psychological spin on them as we're looking at them and make something fun for people to listen to. What do think? Rob (04:10) In in other words, folks, it was an excuse to day drink after a couple of episodes where alcohol was lacking for various reasons. So yeah, in advance of the snow apocalypse that is bearing down upon me, I thought, you know, what better way to face my fate than with a belly full of Jim Beam Black. David (04:29) let you. Rob (04:29) and hopefully a couple of laughs on the way. David (04:31) came across two things that I think following the same kind of theme but the White House recently posted different memes were both obviously created with AI there was one with the commander in chief walking hand in hand with a penguin the penguin is holding an American flag and off in the distance is the flag of Greenland, which I'm now learning what it looks like. I've never known. I've never really cared, but over the last couple of weeks, it's become relevant. So now I know. other image was as ha-ha funny, but more kind of grimly weird. posted picture of a woman who was arrested in Minnesota ICE protests, but they digitally altered her to look significantly worse, like she was crying and really upset. And I'm gonna share it with you so that you can see it, Robbie, but. This one is, it's almost upsetting. the length to which made these edits. And so We've got arguably the most on the planet and the administration is now digitally altering photos. Yeah, shitposting. Rob (05:20) Please do. Trolling? David (05:37) I believe is the Why? Why are they doing this? What the fuck? Check out this article. Look at the difference in these pictures. This is actually somewhat attractive DHS had the image from DHS and then the White House They actually added neck rolls. Rob (05:37) shitposting. David (05:53) They darkened her skin, they Rob (05:54) what was she arrested for? the demonstration that disrupted those church services. Yeah. it's the worst of internet trolling is what it is. noticed this in, I guess in the world in general I absolutely blame the internet. I absolutely blame online culture. but we have sort of drifted into this, in which we no longer debate. go in for the kill. that as soon as someone disagrees with you, you're immediately wishing death and dismemberment on their mother. is ridiculous. what's even more stunning, I'm gonna laugh and then actually I have a follow on point, this is the official website of the White House. David (06:35) maybe this is the issue somebody digitally altering a photo and posting it it's pretty below the somebody to have done it would expect this Yes, yes, yes some some 4chan shit poster who's sitting in his Rob (06:46) Some dark side of Reddit, some deep, dark Reddit sub. You David (06:55) mom's basement hating the world because he can't get his dick sucked. But from the official White House, are you kidding me? But so yeah, obviously it's ridiculous. Rob (07:05) and it reminds me... David (07:05) Psychologically though, what is this doing Rob (07:07) is it doing? Why? Why are they wanting to make this woman look like she's in so much distress and much less attractive than she is? I don't know. So what it immediately reminded me of is a conversation I had with my youngest son this week. So getting ready for school, I'm doing my things. He's he's eating and usually, you know, flips through Tick Tock while he eats because apparently in today's world, can't do one thing. You have to also watch TikTok constantly while you do it. But so he comes to me and he's like, this is hilarious. And he shows me this video and it's a video of a police officer who's arresting a woman and this woman's handcuffed and apparently her child was with her when he handcuffed her. And he is psychologically torturing this woman. is basically threatening to take her child to CPS. I have no idea what this woman was arrested for, but He's threatening to basically take the child away. He's shaming her for being a terrible parent and et cetera, et cetera. And my son is laughing about this. And I paused and I said, what's funny here? And he's like, you know what he's saying to her. And I'm like, is it, is that funny? And he's like, no, it's actually pretty horrible. Isn't it? said, yeah, it's, it's freaking horrible. This is horrible. This man who is supposed to be a professional law enforcement officer is psychologically torturing someone for their own purposes. I mean, he, was he was enjoying himself. Why is that funny to you? And he's like, it's not really, but what else am I supposed to do but laugh? And we've desensitized a whole generation to what is appropriate use of power. What is actually funny versus not funny? You know, which our tens of listeners are probably thinking that about us is like, well, you guys think you're funny, as it turns out. David (09:00) Or not. Rob (09:03) But this reminds me of that. mean, this is part of that internet culture in which they are flaming this woman I don't know. Why is the most powerful office in the is something they should do? And I don't have an explanation for you, David. I'm so much so that I'm taking another drink. David (09:13) Yeah. Well, do you see this? Excellent. All right. Well, maybe it'll become funny the gaboreceptors and the prefrontal cortex out of this conversation. We'll really start to enjoy looking at it, it wasn't a ha-ha funny. This was just weird. It's an odd thing to do. Rob (09:31) start to really. Absolutely. David (09:44) But it goes along with not just a generation being changed in how they view these things, but I think goes along with ability to sort of into other people's realities to where they start to believe it. And I'll give you an example. One of the things that I'm noticing and I'm seeing a lot more of lately, is this inherent distrust of the judiciary. And I don't just mean the Supreme Court, I top bottom, all the way through, the the legal presumption is that judiciary is competent. That is the legal presumption. Somebody being appointed or being elected to a judge position is competent. And with this administration, especially over this last year, the theme has been, they don't agree with me, must be biased against me. And that started off with just Rob (10:29) if they don't agree they must be biased And that started off David (10:35) as the judiciary has ruled against this administration, the administration has come out immediate response is they're biased, they're this, they're that. while that doesn't have maybe an immediate effect, what ends up happening over time is that those words start to infiltrate the psyche of a lot of people to the point where now I'm starting to see And here, even in conferences, all these negative things levels of judges that have nothing to do with a political bias, but, the judge is always against this, the judge is always against that. Well, no, I mean, in reality, the laws are the judge is there to follow the laws. The judges don't write the laws. And yet they're being called out as if they're somehow biased against you in this case. And the truth is that's our legal system. It's adversarial. There's a winner and there's a loser. And sometimes not always cut and dry, but it should go with the law and realize the judge has to make the ruling based off of the cases presented and how those align with the law. And there's going to be a loser and there's going to be a winner. this administration has made it so easy to say, well, if I lose, it's because there's bias against me. When the reality is, no, you presented a shit case and the law didn't go along with it. When you're trying to say that it's legal to do something that's clearly a violation of the Constitution, because it's literally written in the fucking Constitution, when you say, well, I don't agree with it, and then you bring up argument in, that says, I don't agree with the Constitution. And the judge says, yeah, but that's the Constitution. That's not a bias against you, dude. That's just the law. Rob (12:14) So When you're a dirtbag, do you see dirtbaggery all around you? David (12:21) Yes. think when you're, you know, I think when you're, yeah. Rob (12:21) I what's called a rhetorical question, folks. David (12:26) when you're trying to manipulate a system in your favor and you can't, then the obvious projection that you're going to have is that the system is obviously being manipulated against you. we're seeing that over and over and over again, there's finding a way to weaponize this on this granular level. And the internet provides this beautiful place for this because all of a sudden we say, look at this lady who was arrested a protest against ICE. look at her picture, nothing about her picture. Do you look and you go, my gosh, there's something terribly wrong, but they manipulate the picture because they want you to feel a certain way. And that is digging at your psyche. Rob (13:01) Did you notice that they also made her skin a little darker? David (13:05) yeah, they made her a little bit darker. They made her skin darker. Rob (13:07) They did. And that's not racist at all, David (13:10) the way, this is not just a, administration does this And this is something the administration has been, has been doing. But when mom, Donnie was running for mayor of New York, his opponents who were mostly Democrats, they were actually sending out pictures of him with darker skin and a longer beard than he actually has. not new it's not only this administration. It's just that I think we expect a bit more from, as you said, the highest office in the land. it's disturbing. think what bothers me as a psychiatrist is that it works. It's that the more that this thing happens, the more that this is done, the more that people are actually impacted by it now everything that doesn't go along with the administration is, it's not fair, it's biased, it's cheating, it's all these things. And I just really wonder, it all projection or is it a plan Rob (14:09) Young would say everything is projection. And I really do not have much faith in this administration, their psychological health. So if anyone's at risk of projecting, I have the sense that they are. And yes, I think they're projecting. I also think they're at their core, they're bullies, and they're doing what bullies do. And they're trolling, they're internet trolling. And what irritates me about internet trolling is that it is usually individuals who have no actual sense of courage in the real world. So no real courage. They're doing it over the internet. They're doing interwebs protect them and they can do any damn thing they want. to include being stupid, like saying there are penguins in Greenland. David (14:57) I'm Leslie had told all and demean you all so when you write negative stories about me, Rob (15:03) been drinking a little bit, folks. David (15:15) no one will believe you. And that was his plan to attack the press. Now, this isn't the first time in history. No, it is a great plan. Actually, it's a great plan that's worked incredibly well for a lot of... Well, it's worked well in other countries. It's worked well for Erdogan. It's worked well for Orban. That's just if you attack the free press and say that they're all against you. Rob (15:19) Good plan. It's a good plan. Remarkable. David (15:36) then people won't believe it. And where else are they gonna get their information from? Yeah. All right. OK, so. Rob (15:42) ⁓ hell, the world's going to hell in a handbasket and we're just along for the ride. David (15:47) But at least we got bourbon. Rob (15:48) Right up until the supplies run out. David (15:50) Well, that's true. And then it won't be worth that support. Yeah, that's the reason why not because you're an alcoholic. All right. Yeah. I'm not going to anyway. You expect me to parent my kids sober the fuck. Rob (15:51) That's why I'm buying in bulk now. I buy in bulk now. Well, that's the secondary reason. Could I tolerate this shit sober? Come on. God damn. David (16:05) So, all right, now. so admittedly article took a dark turn they seem to, Rob. What the fuck is wrong? What's wrong with the world or what's wrong with us? I'm starting to wonder if it's Because it might be. No, I mean you and me. think as we're, we pull these kind of goofy articles and then it just fucking turns Rob (16:18) You and me or us as in people. Oh, oh, David (16:28) so the first article that we mentioned, but we didn't talk about is the Trump holding the hand of a penguin. The penguin is carrying a flag. supposed to be in Greenland because there's a Greenland flag. Does the White House know that there are no penguins naturally in the Northern Hemisphere? Rob (16:36) Penguin. Well, obviously they don't. Obviously somebody has the Santa Claus view of the Arctic. Because usually in, you know, depictions of the North Pole, there are penguins. But they're not. They're southern hemisphere. don't... there's an element. David (17:01) They're cartoon penguins though. Their claymation is the problem. hey buddy. hope you find your dad. Okay, that was the was the narwhal, but. Rob (17:08) Right. I like smiling. Smiling is my Right. But the pink woman standing there Yeah, apparently, apparently, I don't know there. Didn't go to school. mean, ⁓ David (17:16) There is a fucking penguin, yeah. So what's the psychological perspective of moving a penguin, and this meme is now being called the nihilistic penguin meme. the psychological aspect of... Rob (17:30) It should be the non-existent Penguin meme is what it should They don't What's it's trolling. He is trolling. it... I mean, it's just It's just... David (17:35) They don't. They don't. Do think the people of Greenland would want to be taken over if they got penguins? Maybe he'll bring penguins. They seem like they probably smell bad. Have you ever been to the penguin exhibit at SeaWorld? It fucking reeks. Yeah. Rob (17:48) Maybe, maybe, or maybe. it smells terrible. Although, mean, maybe maybe he just brings a bunch of tuxedos and that'll do the job. I don't know. David (18:02) I think he offered everyone there. 500 grand apiece for like 57, yes, $500,000 per person to agree to become part of the United States. And I believe, I believe response to that was least from the Denmark government was there's no way those people are going to give up. Rob (18:06) person? Wow. David (18:23) their any amount of money to become part of the United States. Rob (18:29) willing to immigrate to Greenland to get that $500,000. Right now, I'm going out on a limb here. go to Greenland to get that 500 grand. David (18:35) Yeah. You'd go? Well, I just thought about that myself, but then I wondered if they were going well, I figured the problem with it would be that they'd probably implement the same rules that they did with the whole no taxes on tips was that with that rule that was brought up during campaign season, everyone thought, well, then I should just convert. Rob (18:41) take a couple years off. You David (18:59) all of my income to tips and it'll all be tax free. But as it turns out, no, not really because you had to have been working in a job that was tip based and then there was a cap on the amount that was tax free. So it really wasn't all tips are tax free, Rob (19:15) Mm. David (19:17) So I would imagine that maybe they'd probably put the whole loophole on, well, if you haven't been living in Greenland for the last decade or whatever, you're probably not going to get the 500 grand. So you might just be moving there to move there. seems like a stretch. Rob (19:31) Ultimately, that's not a bad tactic though. I mean bribe them. Why not? that's the one piece that has been lost in this is that these are sovereign individuals. They have the right to self-determination. narrowing it down to a discussion, not a discussion, it's not a discussion. There's no discussion. Discussion implies logic, reason. What it is, is our administration yelling at Denmark and Denmark saying no. And really in between that is a group of individuals who live in a nation that they identify with and they have self-determination. It's a democratic nation. No one's asked them, what do you want? It's become what the administration wants and what Denmark says. But these people deserve their own destinies. They exist in their own hands. So, you know, it's a pretty good tactic. Bribe them. Give them half a mil each, which seems pretty expensive to me. I don't know what the population of Greenland is. Do you know that? David (20:26) Yeah. about 57,000, I think. Rob (20:34) Is that all? entire all of Greenland? David (20:37) It's remember Greenland was named Greenland and Iceland was named Iceland in order to confuse people about which one was actually the nicer place to go. So I don't know how much of Greenland is actually habitable. Yeah. Now if I were them if I were those people I might harken back January to June of 1980. Rob (20:39) Hey! Is green? Not much, not much. I know. ⁓ David (21:00) when a certain who shall go a whole bunch of Polish immigrants do some demolition of a building. it promised them money. And then once the work was done had basically threatened to call the INS. Um, I, I might harken back to kind of the flavor that it has. Hey, I'll give you $500,000 to join my then once you've given up all your rights and everything, be like, just nevermind. Just kidding. Rob (21:23) Yeah, know, past behavior does tend to follow one into the future. So as we say in our line of work, past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. when you behave untrustworthy, it is difficult to engender trust in the future. David (21:34) It is. Yes. Agreed. So what we've learned from this is that are no penguins in Greenland or naturally anywhere north of the And. And the ship posting has been. Plentiful. OK. All right. Rob (21:50) and the White House likes to shit talk. Yeah, yeah, that's what we've learned. our tens of listeners? Are you smarter right now? No, you're not. You're not. These are things you knew. But yeah, we're highlighting them, underlining them, probably putting them in bold and italics. There we are. That's where we are right now. David (22:04) a bourbon and enjoy it with us. Just enjoy it. the AP News did report on group of Greenland protesters who decided to the slogan, capes that say, make America go away. Rob (22:28) Ha ha ha ha ha. David (22:29) Which I... Rob (22:30) You know, I'm pulling my son right now. I'm laughing about something that really is not funny. really what I'm laughing about, because I can't do anything about it, is the damage that is being done to our reputation, to our relationships, to our future. And gaining this back, not to turn it dark and... Believe me, at this point, my GABA receptors are nicely saturated. So all I really want to do is laugh, and say really off-color things. what we, my gosh, to the audience, a fully empty bottle of larceny, I mean, fully, we're working for you. We're working for you in the audience here. David (22:54) Speaking of which. fully empty. I do this for the tens of listeners. Rob (23:09) Are tens of listeners? Yeah, exactly. But what really is distressing is that we have 70 years more than that. I mean, back to 1940, I guess, or 41 in which we have been a in the world. have been predictable. shown our values and people came to count on that. Other nations came to count on that and we are now at a point in which we are acting counter to our historic values. We are no longer a stabilizing force. We are the destabilizing force and we're the force that no one can counter. And one of the ways that we always were able to offset the fact that we were so much more powerful than other nations was that we were predictable, that we were typically a force for good. And, you know, we weren't maybe a hundred percent on that, but in general, we could be predicted. knew what we were going When we made changes, we did them in a thoughtful fashion. We didn't say inflammatory things. We didn't make inflammatory threats. And now all of a sudden, we have altered our approach and we are now unpredictable. We are now a potential actually, interestingly, we're more of a threat to our allies than we are to our adversaries at this point. And this is the kind of damage that resonates throughout time and throughout history. It is going to be to regain this because what the world knows, I mean, the next administration will come, hopefully, And our allies will now know that the stability of the United States is contingent upon whoever is president. And historically, there was a stability that existed regardless of who was president. And it's now changed. And they know that they can't count on anything. That in a four year span, everything can change. And that's destabilizing. One of the funny things about stability is stability tends to breed instability. And we're going to reap this as time passes on. It's going to come back to haunt us. And we're going to then remember why stability counted so much, why it was so important. David (25:36) I disagree with you. Rob (25:36) be a really old man. So I'll just sit back and drink. David (25:39) Being a real live man. Okay, so here's the only thing, I guess. I don't see it that way to that hear what you're saying and you could, maybe I am, but psychologically, and hit me with what's wrong with my brain and this because maybe all of our listeners need to hear it, but here's what, hold on, on, no. Rob (25:45) I mean, you're, you're, but I still think you're full of shit. No. Good Lord. Do you want that in bulleted points? David (25:59) Yeah, not yet. yet. Let me, let me say, so Rob (26:00) What's wrong with your brain? I mean, where should I start? David (26:03) hold on. Keep your notes to yourself young. Not yet. No, I guess the thing that I see differently about than what you're saying is I want to say that the, particular administration is such an anomaly to what typical American politics is Rob (26:04) I will. I will. I will. I will. David (26:20) The way that I view this is that this is a large, large system, experiment is democracy and the 250 years of experimentation have not been perfect. mean, but considering the fact that this was established 250 years ago and the assumptions made weren't based off of the ability for the person in charge to green light a shitpost about penguin existing where penguins do not exist. But because the system is so big and the way that I see it, and if anybody is subscribed to our YouTube, please do, We have a video coming out about this, system is large. And so, while we're seeing the conductor of the train trying to derail this whole thing, conductor alone can't do that. getting the movement, we're getting the loud noise, we're getting all of that. But I think by the time we pull into the next station, it will be very obvious what needs to be corrected. All of the changes that we need to make within this system to make sure this doesn't happen again. Because this very, very, very, very different than any other presidency that we've ever had, first presidency until about January 6th. At that point, I think we kind of saw what we were going to see. the mistakes that were made over the last four years between presidencies was the inability or unwillingness to patch up the weak spots. And I think it's going to be very clear that it needs to be patched. But from the perspective of the entire world, I don't know, I still live in this world and maybe I'll feel totally different six months down the line or two years down the line or at the tail end of this, depending on how that election is going. But the way that I see this is the next president's got to come in, it is. I don't care if they're Republican or Democrat or fucking a Smurf. Papa himself could come in and he needs to go in and say to come Rob (28:24) No, no, gonna be a smurfette. David (28:28) needs to come in and to our allies be like, come on, you know that wasn't us. That was a mistake. We were drinking heavily in those days. We just, lost our way. And now it's going to take time to earn it back, right? Like we're going to have to, but we can fix this. This can be fixed. It's just. Rob (28:41) my God. David (28:50) We're not gonna fix it right now, but you and I have looked at this for the last year. We've been talking about it for the last six plus months, and for the last two months, it has been so clear that the fucking wheels are coming off I don't know if any of our tens of listeners have, actually listened to a speech made by this president, No, probably not, but it's incoherent. Rob (29:12) not. It is. Our anxiety can't tolerate sitting through these speeches actually. I can't I can't I try I really try David (29:21) But if you did, it's incoherent. was talking about Iceland Christ's sakes. I mean, the man was talking about how we need Iceland so bad. He is, it's just, what the fuck? Right? And it's, I'm laughing because if you're not laughing, you're crying, I think, is what your son meant. Rob (29:40) We've got Iceland. David (29:42) No, no, shit. mean, we have Greenland. Rob (29:43) Well, that we. David (29:45) We have Greenland. don't need Greenland for defense. We can put whatever the fuck we want there. There's no coherent explanation for why we need Greenland. It has nothing to do with defense. It has everything to do with ego. Rob (29:50) Absolutely. Not now. Not now. They're not going to let us send a bunch of troops in there now. David (30:07) This reminds me I'm sorry if is an obscure reference, but when Steven Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, he's 85 years old. When he was introducing the new head coach of the Miami Dolphins just this week, he fucking forgot his name because he's 85 years old. He just forgot his name. He hired the guy to be his head coach. He couldn't remember his name. But this is what we're seeing. We're seeing an old man. Rob (30:32) What did he reference him as? Todd? I hired a guy named Todd, I think. Todd's the generic name you can... It's just a Todd. David (30:39) I think it's Rob. I think Rob is the most generic. Actually, David is one of those names that everyone fucking has. Rob (30:44) Dave is pretty fucking generic. Dave is pretty fucking generic. No, I hear you. I hear you. But I think you're forgetting that the most effective form of conditioning is the inconsistent conditioning. So, you know, if it's predictable, David (30:59) Yes. you're talking about slot machine Like if you pull the slot machine every once in a while it hits, which it is actually, if you're using a slot machine in most legal places, government says you have to pay out like 80 cents per dollar, but every once in a while it has to hit. But Rob (31:16) We're just losing by the way, Right. You're losing 20 cents per dollar. David (31:19) but it has to but it has to hit every once in a random act of you back. Because if you knew when it was gonna hit, you would just play till it hits. But the fact that you don't know when, that's what you're describing. So Ross, when he was Rob (31:34) Sorry, just sucked down a good portion of bourbon down my lungs. pardon me. Wait, wait, wait. David (31:38) So Stephen Ross, when he was introducing Jeff started praising his hire, he paused for several seconds, then he had to look down at his notes and then was like, Jeff, I forgot his name. But this is why we don't year old men run organizations. and if we were modeling the United States after the success of the Miami Dolphins, Rob (31:51) Not Todd, it's Jeff. David (31:59) Fucking fantastic, we are gonna suck. Because they suck, I'm sorry. I'm sorry everybody who's a Miami Dolphins fan, all four of you, of our tens of listeners, but they suck. They suck and you know they suck. Rob (32:03) well Jeff was my second guess. However, here's my counter argument. yeah, and that was my second because that's, you know, it's either Todd or Jeff. David (32:14) That's his fucking name! His name is Jeff! Hey, they'd be lucky to get Todd Haley. He's an amazing coach. They should have fucking hired Todd Haley. Rob (32:25) Just any random Todd, any random Jeff. And the worst, and Family Guy taught us this, the worst name in the English language is Keith. Family Guy taught us this. a whole episode dedicated to it. At any rate, is the problem. The problem is that the Western world has banked their future, their stability on our consistency. And what we have taught them is that they can't do that. David (32:40) Mm-hmm. It's because I doesn't come before he. Rob (32:57) you're right, the next administration is going to come in and hopefully they're going attempt to repair these connections. a child, and I don't want to infantilize the nations of the world, but when you're in a position in which your stability is tied to a more powerful individual. you really do learn very quickly that no matter how much consistency, an episode of inconsistency is going to alter you permanently. And I do believe our relationships with these nations have been altered permanently. They realize they can't entirely count on us any longer because each and every You all right, buddy? David (33:44) No, I'm pissed at you. You fucker. No, you're right. And I agree with you. ⁓ No, you piece of shit. No, you're right. And no, it's upsetting. What's upsetting to me is that you're no, you're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. No, that's the bourbon. Not you. Fuck it. No, ⁓ no, you're right. And it's it. No, it's upsetting. It's upsetting because Rob (33:49) well hell, well hell. Hey everybody, I'm right. He almost fell out of his chair, folks. David (34:11) I don't know the next- Rob (34:12) 70 years of normal order has been completely and utterly destabilized and irrevoke. Yeah. You said it. I was... David (34:19) turned on its head, yeah. Yeah, that's their bourbon and it's Appalachian bourbon. Irrevocably changed. No, you're right. And it's upsetting. It pisses me off. No, because as much as I was trying to live in that world of, and that's why I was asking, what's wrong with me? No, I was living in a world of, yeah, the next person you'd come in and fix this. I don't know that they can, but in all fairness, mean, this those. Rob (34:25) Yeah, yeah, yeah. pisses me off. David (34:43) those other countries, not to infantilize them, but the other countries absolutely were living in the shadow of the United States because the United States was incredibly successful. And we gained a lot of benefit from that. Economically, we were doing amazing. In spite of the fact that we weren't producing a lot of physical things, we produced a lot of tech. but we were winning economically because we were in control. But when you have and administration that comes in, Rob (34:56) Absolutely. David (35:09) and has this quote unquote America first agenda that actually destabilizes the entire system. What you do is you empower all of our allies and everybody else in the system to realize that they can't rely upon us to be the ones in charge. And so what they're doing right now and what they promise to do is to beef up their defense and to change who they're going to be economically dependent upon, which is going to be themselves. Our America First agenda has out embolden the because they're going to try to be less dependent upon us. And as it turns out, we don't produce as much as they would like us to produce. I see is that, yes, we are going to be position. Rob (35:48) No. David (35:53) I've grown up in a system and so have you, where English and the US dollar were the two most powerful things. And we're gonna probably see is that that will change over time. And it is absolutely because complete mismanagement of the system. were looking at this like Star imperialists, right? Like we were not the rebels. We ran everything and everyone ran through us and it was good because we were benevolent leaders. were good to everyone else. We took care of things. We quietly took out dissent. and we had our few, but we've come in and we become shitty parents Rob (36:23) were good parents. David (36:28) are deciding that, maybe they need to be more responsible for themselves. So what have we done by going, by making America great again? What we've actually done is we've empowered rest of the world to realize that we aren't reliable. Rob (36:34) Fuck those guys. what we have relearned. David (36:45) And that you Robbie. Fuck you. Rob (36:48) We have relearned a lesson of history and well, history has taught us this, but, know, as is often said, if you fail to learn history, you're doomed to repeat it. But history has taught us this, that when we have become overly sensitive, overly focused on ourselves, it actually is contra. David (36:50) God damn it, glad I'm learning French. Rob (37:10) ourselves that expanding ourselves, being engaged in the world, being that benevolent parent is actually what is best for us. And if we try to come internally, if we focus internally, it doesn't work well for us. And we're going to reap those things for years to come, years. And the only way we can reverse course is if we can establish this next administration. And David actually said four reallys a few minutes ago. Really, really, really, really. So if, which I mean, I think, I think it's logarithmic that when you each really was a power of 10, but we are going to have to do this for Decades, I mean decades will be required to forget this little blip in history. And we're also tied. And you know, it's fascinating to me, all we started with, all we started with was a fucking penguin. That's what we started with. A fucking penguin. We started with a penguin and now we're, you know, we're 60 minutes into this or whatever. David (38:14) We did. No, I agree. We've well, I think what we're doing is what we've we've we're empowering Europe to realize that they need to do this without us. And and, know, any good parent will help their children to surpass them and do a bit better, which is what we're doing. So good for us. We're, you know, pat on the back. We had a pretty sweet thing going Rob (38:36) Well. David (38:40) world's economy is based off of money, you get special treatment and we've really liked it. Rob (38:46) Fuck, you made me lose my goddamn thought. David (38:48) Yeah, well, you're old too. you and Trump are old. Rob (38:50) We are, we are, we're not quite, we're not quite in the same age group, but we're close. Well, no, we're not, we're not, we're not, no, no, no, we're not. David (38:57) No, you're not close at all. You're not close at all. He had 25 years between you. Rob (39:04) Yeah, maybe a little more. However... David (39:06) Oh, you're right. No, you're right. You're right. No, you didn't the math better than you're like 30 years 30 years apart. Rob (39:11) I had actually... David (39:11) Well, I've got a Rob (39:12) had a cogent thought that... Might or might not come back to me, but keep talking. David (39:17) history. But anyway, well. Rob (39:17) My David (39:21) of bourbon I'm hell bent to finish it before we finish. Rob (39:24) All make a shift. I'd like to touch on fact that I'm seeing a ton of media pointed to this Melania Trump. I'm going to call it a biopic. I don't think it really is, but it is some sort of movie. And it is a movie. It's going to be released that is dedicated to Melania Trump. I believe her history up to the present. David (39:39) It's not, no, it's not really a biopic. It's not, okay, so just okay, so what I know about Rob (39:50) What's your thoughts about it? David (39:54) It's being actively pushed for promotion by administration and it was licensed by MGM studios. And the opener is going to be at new name is something like the Donald Trump Kennedy Center for the Arts or some something. So my guess is that it's not. going to be, biopic. That would be my guess. it's a little bit more flattering of a, of a picture than what one might expect. because it, again, it's being, it's being pushed as a good thing by the administration. I honestly, first heard about was like, oh, the administration's going to be pissed. They're going to be so mad to hear about this movie. No, turns out it's actually quite flattering for Melania. yeah, this is going to I don't know. sounds, if I had to use a word, Robbie, I would Rob (40:43) It's so. Yes. think you're absolutely right. So it is self-driven. This is not an external thing. Clearly, she was involved in this. Why now? What's the purpose at this point? And I know I'm dropping a bomb in your lap, but just tell me what your thoughts are. David (41:03) the timing of it probably has more to do with just the fact that this is the amount of time it takes to edit and get everything ready and all that. Why now? Well, the administration's taking licks, man. been noting it for the last several months. Honestly, would be so happy at this point if a Democrat would go out there and do something so ridiculously stupid that we could talk about it. It's just not happening. Which is not happening. We're actual news that's coming out about the other side. What we're getting is this administration desperately trying to other people to agree that these moves that have been incredibly unpopular with time. Rob (41:29) Ha! David (41:47) are good things. so, no, it's propaganda. I don't know. mean, am I going to see it? Probably So I can't really comment. Rob (41:53) Well, it. Well, and and to our tens of listeners, believe me, what David just said is absolutely correct. I mean, each week we really are striving to to achieve some kind of balance. It's just that the nature of current activities is that we can't. David (42:12) Democrats are laying low, man. I mean, they're playing a game of let's just quiet. Now they don't have a lot of power, but there are a lot of democratic they're out there, but they're, they're just feeding off of this administration's shortcomings and misgivings. their missteps are feeding into power. Rob (42:14) Well... Well, and I said this last episode, James Carville says when the other sides messing up, don't get in their way. And that's exactly what we're seeing right now, which is exactly why we are so focused on one side versus the other. It never was our intent, never was the design. of the show. with this biopic, you know, it does it does feel like an exercise in narcissism. I don't think there's going to be just based on the fact that it's being advertised the way it's being advertised. Based on the fact that it's an approved thing. This this is not like You know, we did this undercover. We did this without knowledge. We're putting this out. she participated in this in ostensibly agreed each element. But, you know, she's an interesting first lady. David (43:20) Yeah. No, this this is we are Charlie Kirk all over again, just with a lot more money and a lot more hoopla. Rob (43:29) Yeah. she's an interesting first lady that, know, historically, his first ladies have been very involved in lots of things. She has not. She has not really been involved. She she doesn't have, you know, like Michelle Obama. We'll use her. So Michelle Obama was and it's tough to be a first lady. I mean, it's it's a hard thing. David (43:50) Rob would know, Rob would know. He's spent a lot of time as the First Lady and a lady in general. Rob (43:52) Yeah, I have. Yes. David (43:57) Your penis is talking really loud right now. Rob (43:59) ⁓ David (44:00) May explain being a first lady for the the art tens of listeners? Hopefully Allison is listening and she is just a fucking livid. Rob (44:09) She I'm sure she is but yeah being a first lady is tough because you're putting a weird position You've got to do something. It can't be Contra to the administration But Melania David (44:20) Which is really hard your administration is very anti-immigration and your first lady is very much an immigrant. Rob (44:28) Yeah, yeah, you can't hide her accent, can you? David (44:30) I imagine she spends most of her day trying to avoid Stephen Miller. Like she's probably just running around the office as he's looking for her. Rob (44:39) Dude, can you come up with a single person in that administration that doesn't spend their day trying to avoid Stephen Miller? I mean, honestly, the David (44:47) Fucking Touche, Touche Rob (44:49) at any rate This does seem to be a weird And I'm gonna use the word weird because this at this moment in time To release this it does feel weird to me that she's trying to garner some kind of I mean, I have to assume because she has been involved and she's approved every step of this, that it's goal of achieving an increase in her public acceptance, which in general could be achieved by doing stuff, being involved, being engaged. But she's been held out because the traditional things that first ladies do would run counter to what the president has done. And, you know, I'm curious, you know, if anyone pays to go see this movie, I'm going to be surprised, you think? David (45:38) lot of people will pay to go see this movie. No, people will pay to see this fuck yeah. yeah. Yeah. Do I do will I pay to see the movie? Will a lot of people MAGA MAGA NEOCON MAGA will go and watch this movie. And I mean, remember, I OK, so what? No, they fucking do. They'll watch the shit out of this. They will lap this up. No, they will. Rob (45:46) Who's gonna pay? Who's a lot? I don't think they even will. I don't think they give a shit. David (46:02) confession to this day. I've never seen the movie Titanic and partly was because I was in seventh grade when Titanic came There were in my class Who had about seeing it like eight eight nine ten times and I swore I would never see it. I have a feeling Rob (46:07) What the hell? out of mode. Yeah. David (46:22) that the MAGA Neocon crowd will absolutely see this movie and they will see it more than once. They will buy it on Amazon Prime. it costs 40 million to make. They'll make that back. They'll make it back. Rob (46:36) I don't think they will. David (46:37) No, I think they will. We have tens of listeners because we talk about a very niche topic, but there were 70 million people who voted for this to happen. And I'm willing to bet even half of them, half of that crowd will willingly watch this movie. yeah. We should have a bet. Open bet right here, right now. Rob (46:44) No shit. It's not gonna be half. No. Open bet, open bet tens of listeners. David and I are betting. I think that, the idea we'll say 35 million people, have any interest in Melania Trump, false. David on the other hand, who's, you know, I'm going to go out in the limb here and is, is an admitted jackass and a moron. Thanks that more more than 35 million. So really what i'm i'm What i'm asking of ⁓ David (47:25) At least, at least 35 million people will, well, no, I will say, I believe that they will earn their money back and then some. Rob (47:35) Well, what I'm asking of our tens of listeners is don't don't watch this because you don't want David to win. No one likes David. I mean, let's let's face it. No one likes David. David (47:38) $40 million. Right. They don't make $200 from our tens of listeners, but I am willing to bet, I'm willing to bet at this point, Robbie, that our tens of listeners are not MAGA because we've not been supportive of MAGA. the truth is, it's not about MAGA. mean, Democrat, Republican, MAGA is not the same. It's just not, it's not in the same category. It's not the same thing. Rob (47:52) Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha Probably not. No, we've. What? It's really not, you know, it's a call to personality. Call to personality. And we can't buy into it. David (48:12) It's a weird hybrid of, of bowing down to Donald Trump. Yeah, but it's So the last thing I want to talk Rob (48:19) And we'll leave it at that. David (48:20) Yeah. All right. Well, I think we have not accomplished whatever we were trying to with this episode, which was to inject some humor. Rob (48:28) I laughed. I laughed. David (48:31) I mean, I laughed a little bit. It was fun. I did have more fun. I think everyone decided to stick around, thank you so much. You know, hit up our YouTube. trying to be a little bit more active there. See if we can get some content that's useful or interesting And think that's it. Donce Robbie. Rob (48:47) I concur with you. Check out the YouTube. We are putting some effort in that zone. Do it, like it, share it. Drink bourbon. David (48:54) All right, next time. cue up that music. We're out.