Solo Special 16: Who is worse? Donald Trump or Joe Biden?

[00:00:15] Podcast, Did You Miss Us? I know you did. But unfortunately, my cohort Eric will be out of the mission for the foreseeable future. I don't know how long he's got major, major back issues, and he's got to go through them. But worry not.

[00:00:37] This week, we have another solo special. I know you're very excited. But this time, he's got research. So, and you're probably here because of the prom door. If you're a subscriber, you're here to watch the show. So thank you very much.

[00:00:53] But worry not. We will have a temporary co-host. You know this person very well, especially if you watch other podcasts on the RTA podcast pantheon. Yes, we are rebranding more to come later.

[00:01:07] But like I said, if you're a fan of this podcast or others on the pantheon, you are well aware of this person. You know and love this person just like we do. And he will make, well, I just gave it away. Shit. He will make his debut as a co-host next week.

[00:01:27] But this week, you're stuck with me. So without further ado, we will get into the topic. So for a guy who's not gifted at math to put it lightly and kindly.

[00:01:45] I'm big on numbers. Numbers are huge doubt, but even those can be skewed and I'm going to show you why. So a couple of things. What this podcast is not, this is not, this is actually not me trying to skew the facts my way.

[00:02:03] I simply have the facts. Some are good, some are bad for each of those people, Trump and Biden. What this also was though is not me. It's not going to be me pretending that I don't have biases because I'm going to lay them out.

[00:02:23] Later in this podcast, you're going to see why potentially having biases can be a good thing because it causes you to dig a little deeper to try to find if you're interested in truth.

[00:02:44] Yeah, we are. You'll know Justin, you'll know, you'll know. But lost my train of thought there. What this podcast is not, I'm not going to try to flip you one way or another.

[00:02:54] I'm just going to give you some facts, some perspective. Now the perspective is my perspective. I am completely opening to my bias here. I don't love Biden or Trump, but I prefer Trump over Biden simply because selfishly I did much better economically during the Trump years.

[00:03:11] But we're going to see later how that's not quite as clear of a picture as Trump would like you to believe. But it's also not quite as good as Biden would like you to believe.

[00:03:20] But without further ado, we'll get into it. So Trump versus Biden, the numbers, all right, we're going to start off with the economy, good place to start.

[00:03:29] So the obvious one that jumped out at me and a lot of other Americans is inflation. So let's just look at some numbers.

[00:03:36] So just blanket statement, the Federal Reserve's goal for inflation is to be around 2%, a little bit less or a little bit more isn't really that big of a deal.

[00:03:45] So but 2% is the goal. Now, an important number to take note of is the inflation rate under Obama's last term year as president in 2016 was inflation was at 1.26%.

[00:03:59] So actually pretty good. And actually, if you look back and you can find all this information that Google's free, like I always like to say, inflation under Obama, especially his second term was actually pretty darn good.

[00:04:13] But you'll see why that may not necessarily be good news for everyone a little bit later. Remember that whole bias thing I was talking about? Yeah.

[00:04:22] So let's just go through real quick the inflation numbers under Trump and these are average obviously they vary a bit depending on the time of year but on average,

[00:04:35] Trump's inflation numbers for 2017 2.1%, 2018 2.4%, 2019 1.8% and 2020 1.2%.

[00:04:47] And then for Biden's numbers 2021 4.7%. And remember this is post COVID admittedly this is after Trump had spent a lot of money, but Biden would go on to spend a lot of money as would be evidenced in 2022.

[00:05:05] When inflation his average inflation rate in 2022 was 8%. Just that's Wow, that's four times the Fed's goal 2023 inflation went down back down to 4.1%. And as of now, so I was collecting these numbers on Friday.

[00:05:26] So as of Friday, the current inflation rate for 2024 is 3.48%. So not terrible. And it's definitely gone way down from 8%, less than half. It's gone down more than half, you know what I mean?

[00:05:39] It's less than half of what it was. That's always a confusing expression less than half. But it's still high of the Fed's goal.

[00:05:48] So that brush paints a pretty clear picture. And again, you can blame some of the inflation. I don't even know if you can though this is where like I always say economists are not experts because every economist has their own economic theory and nobody actually knows what's going to happen because

[00:06:08] and unfortunately in a free market system, there are way too many variables. But high inflation is always a bad thing. So you know, Biden was never under 3%. And Trump never broke two and a half percent ever.

[00:06:26] Now what's interesting though, is that Obama, generally speaking had better inflation rates than Trump. So that's a very interesting thing to look at.

[00:06:36] Now, this can be explained by the next topic though or partially explained because none of this is like A, B and C. It's more like, well, this stream could be because of this but it joins from there's multiple facets of all these.

[00:06:50] But Obama's inflation rates could be partially explained at least by the next topic, which is GDP. Now this was fascinating to research because the way the news talks about GDP right and inflation is basically that GDP growth is good inflation bad.

[00:07:10] But they never really go into how they're related to each other and how they impact each other directly. So first of all, we'll just go through the numbers and because percentages sound scary in this realm. I also have the actual dollar amounts.

[00:07:24] So Obama's GDP numbers for his second term 2013 GDP was up 1.84%. So roughly 16,800. I'm rounding obviously, but roughly 16 billion $800 million gross domestic product, which for those of you who don't know gross

[00:07:46] the gross domestic product is just the sort of economic catch all for the economic output of a country. And 2014 gross domestic product was up 2.29% at roughly

[00:08:07] 17 5 so 17 billion 500 million 2015 that went up 2.71%. So it was sitting at roughly 18 billion 200 million

[00:08:19] 2016 was up 1.67%. So it was sitting at 18 billion six almost so 18 billion 695 million dollars. So decent bumps pretty good bumps again the goal for GDP is to increase by 2 to 3%.

[00:08:39] So Obama slightly low couple years but they're close enough to two that I would you'd consider them success, you know, what's odd though is usually the generally speaking economies tend to do well at least in the United States economies tend to do well during election years and that was actually

[00:08:56] Obama's lowest year for increased gross domestic product without looking it up I would imagine that's probably due to economic policy that Obama or Congress at the time had put through whether it be through executive order or legislation so you could blame it on

[00:09:16] Congress to because Congress usually doesn't get the blame they deserve. So again this whole this whole thing that I'm doing right now is kind of unfair, right because there's very little that I'm touching on,

[00:09:27] I'm touching on some rationally but that's because unfortunately, Americans tend to not really care as much during an election it's usually all about the president. And I laugh because, particularly with jobs, the president doesn't actually have that much control.

[00:09:45] There are things they can do that would definitely hurt the job market which we'll get into with Biden in particular later. But yeah, they usually get more credit and blame than they deserve.

[00:09:56] But now we'll move on to Trump's GDP numbers. Oh, by the way, Obama's number, Obama's average GDP growth over four years was about 2.13%.

[00:10:06] Now Trump's average was 1.57%. And this is where I'm going to get into the nuance of things because as everyone's aware, so it happened in 2020 and that tanked Trump's average. So I'll get into a hypothetical scenario in a bid to kind of show how this is huge but let's just go over the raw numbers now.

[00:10:28] 2017 GDP increased 2.24%. So we're sitting at 19,400,000,000,018 plus 2.95%. So 20,500,000,019 up 2.29%. So 21,380,000,000 and then in 2020 GDP dropped by 2.77%. So minus 2.77. So we were sitting at 21,060,000,000.

[00:10:58] So again, dropping almost 3% sounds like really, really bad. But it was honestly only a difference of about 200, 220 million dollars, which in the scheme of the entire country is really not.

[00:11:15] It's really not that it's like it's bad but it's not it's not world ending so they definitely.

[00:11:23] Yeah, they over sensationalize and honestly these numbers.

[00:11:30] These numbers are not Trump's fault because COVID happened and a lot of cities are cities a lot of states completely shut down every state had some level of shutdown and some states were just completely shut down.

[00:11:43] Others obviously bounce back we actually take that back I think South Dakota never shut down.

[00:11:48] So credit where credits do if I'm thinking right I don't believe South Dakota ever shut down in Florida was shut down for barely any time at all.

[00:11:57] But now Biden numbers 2021 GDP increased by 5.95%. So bumping us all the way up to 23,315,000,000,000 2022 increased by 1.94%, putting us at 25,439,000,000 and 2023 GDP increased by 1.9%

[00:12:17] GDP increased 2.5%. So putting us at 31,799 million dollars in output roughly speaking.

[00:12:25] So Biden's average and obviously we don't have 2024 yet because it's not done but Biden's average was 3.46%. So this is why credit where credits do this is why when they report on the economy.

[00:12:40] You know they say Biden's economy is better than Trump so if you're looking at just raw GDP numbers yes that's not the whole picture because the economy encompasses much more things in GDP now here is where I'm talking about remember how I said at the beginning bias can be a good thing.

[00:12:59] Now this bias is less political and more just actually observing the world at large right so I look at these numbers and I say well on paper yeah Biden's economies way better so why am I and so many other Americans why are we feeling the financial pinch.

[00:13:16] Why is everything so expensive why is everything so everything's up everything the economy is not.

[00:13:24] I mean, the economy is not horrible. It's the United States after all, but I mean generally speaking the economy is not as good now for most people as it was during the Trump years.

[00:13:34] So why is that so I started digging the first thought I had was well let's assume.

[00:13:40] Let's assume for a moment that coven never happened and we can never know fully what was going to happen to the economy under Trump.

[00:13:49] If coven had never happened so in the absence of raw data, I thought I'll take an average.

[00:13:58] So getting rid of getting rid of 2020 prompts GDP increase average was 2.5%.

[00:14:07] So I did some hypothetical numbers.

[00:14:10] So let's go back to 2019 the economy, the GDP sorry had increased 2.29%. So Trump was sitting at 21 billion 380 million.

[00:14:19] So in the hypothetical 2020 with no coven. Let's say that Trump increase Trump's GDP, the GDP under Trump increased 2.5%.

[00:14:30] That would have put us at 21 billion 915 million 2021 same thing 2.5%.

[00:14:37] Oh, I'm also assuming that Trump had won the election.

[00:14:40] So that's why these numbers will make sense.

[00:14:43] So let's say that Trump wins in 2020. So then 2021 let's say it increased another 2.5%, which would put us at 20 22 billion 463 million 2022 and other two and a half percent 23 billion 24 million.

[00:14:57] And 2023 and other 2.5 that would have been putting us at 23 billion 600 million.

[00:15:02] Now, here's the kicker.

[00:15:06] Let's compare.

[00:15:08] So Biden's number of gross domestic product was 31 billion 799 million Trump's hypothetical if it increased by the average, which there's a lot of evidence to suggest that those numbers would have been higher.

[00:15:22] But based on my assumption and again my my conservative assumption.

[00:15:29] The GDP under Biden was still better than Trump's would have been if you take his average rate of increase prior to COVID.

[00:15:37] And that was when everyone was talking about all the economy so great the economy so great.

[00:15:41] So that really confused me and I'm not so delusional naive and I am not as big of a Trump supporter to say well that just doesn't matter no those numbers mean something.

[00:15:51] So I'm thinking OK.

[00:15:53] Why is the Biden economy so much?

[00:15:57] Why is the Biden GDP so much higher and yet the economy is so people are feeling the pinch.

[00:16:03] Why is this.

[00:16:05] And I actually wrote in my data sheet here.

[00:16:08] So by his economy numbers are so good.

[00:16:11] Why does it seem like your dollars isn't going as far.

[00:16:14] I was racking my brain and I found an answer thanks to investopedia.

[00:16:21] And I'm just taking a little excerpt from their main article and I'm just going to read it verbatim the relationship between inflation and GDP now again this is not the entire article but this is the section that was particularly intriguing to me.

[00:16:35] So I highly recommend again this is an investopedia you can again Google's free.

[00:16:40] So the relationship between inflation and economic output GDP plays out like a delicate dance for stock market investors annual growth in the GDP is vital.

[00:16:51] If the overall economic output is declining or merely holding steady most companies will not be able to increase their profits which is the primary driver of stock performance.

[00:17:00] However however this is where it gets good.

[00:17:04] However too much GDP growth is also dangerous as it will most likely come with an increase in inflation.

[00:17:14] Which erodes stock market gains by making our money and future corporate profits less valuable.

[00:17:22] This is why again Biden likes to tout the Dow well the Dow steadily increases.

[00:17:27] Every year.

[00:17:30] But I bet you and again I I didn't think to look up these numbers I bet you if you look at the percentage of increase it's lower.

[00:17:37] So I so this goes this is a bit of a tangent but this is you'll see why I'm saying it this way.

[00:17:45] So I've always been really wary of percentages and it really came to fruition for me during COVID because I noticed something.

[00:17:54] I noticed that whenever they were reporting COVID numbers they would always choose so basically when you're reporting numbers you have two options you can you can basically broadcast percentages or you can broadcast raw numbers.

[00:18:07] And what I found is generally speaking anyone and this is anyone but generally speaking people will report numbers that make them appear the most favorable or accomplish their mission more so for example if you want to make everyone scared.

[00:18:21] You're going to report the number that seems the highest.

[00:18:24] But when you actually look at the opposite it's usually doesn't correlate so for example.

[00:18:29] When they were reporting COVID death tolls they were reporting hard numbers and I don't remember offhand but they would say something like depending on what they were talking about they would give the death toll like a million or something.

[00:18:44] But when you actually did the percentage of the people who the mortalities or even you know what I'm even going to use a better example.

[00:18:54] Well no I'm just that's the best example so if you compare the percentage rate to the raw numbers of COVID mortalities and again I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty about the co morbidities and all that that's irrelevant to my point.

[00:19:06] There's a discussion to be had there but it's not important now.

[00:19:13] So the wrong and again the raw numbers were big I'm not disputing that I'm not trying to downplay the mortalities all I'm saying is that they reported the raw numbers but if you looked at the percentages it was less than 2% which basically meant you had a survival rate of approximately 98 and a decimal point versus over roughly 98% chance of full recovery.

[00:19:39] That's a lot less scary.

[00:19:43] But you'll also see if they're trying if they were let's say let's say they were trying to downplay those numbers I guarantee you they would have reported the percentage mortality rate.

[00:19:56] It would have been like oh only 2% guaranteed look out for that next and it can be anything anything even even even if you own if you're a shareholder major shareholder in a company.

[00:20:10] Look at how much how they identify their profits is it a percentage increase because a 50% increase from one is to know I'm sorry that's 100 I'm sorry a 50% increase from one is $1.50 I told you I wasn't great at math.

[00:20:26] So so if you made if you made 50 cents profit that wouldn't even necessarily be profit would it.

[00:20:37] Yeah if you made paid for a dollar sold it for $1.50 I own a store this is bad.

[00:20:43] So if you made 50 cents profit and you wanted to impress a room for share shareholders you would say you had 50% increase you'd add you made a 50% profit.

[00:20:53] Oh 50% that's amazing.

[00:20:54] So what was the cost.

[00:20:56] What was the cost of the good you know that's that's what I'm saying so you will find in almost every every place.

[00:21:04] That if they're telling your percentage they're trying to hide the wrong number and if they tell you a wrong number the percentage is less than impressive generally speaking.

[00:21:13] You know another example it's like oh well you know we make we make we sell each product for $20.

[00:21:21] Well what's your profit percentage well that depends on what the cost of the good is you know but like let's say.

[00:21:27] Let's say the cost of the thing in general is $15 so you're making a $5 profit on an item that costs you $15 now if you're selling millions of them that's not that bad but generally speaking that rate of profit is not ideal for any business because again you have to sell a ton of them to make any money and the cost is higher than your profit so.

[00:21:49] Not good so they're probably going to give you the wrong number in that case just look out for that one but anyway.

[00:22:01] Continuing most economists today agree that 2.5 to 3.5% GDP growth per year is the most that our economy can safely maintain without causing negative side effects and that so I was like what negative side effects.

[00:22:19] I like to remind everyone this is the average intelligence podcast I'm not an economist not even close.

[00:22:25] I'm not the guy you come to for financial advice that's why I'm quoting other people but where do these numbers come from to answer that question we need to bring in a new variable unemployment rate what unemployment rate into play studies have shown that over the past 20 years annual GDP growth over 2.5% has caused a 0.5% drop in the economy.

[00:22:54] In unemployment for every percentage point over 2.5%.

[00:22:58] It sounds like the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone increase overall growth while lowering the unemployment rate right.

[00:23:06] Unfortunately however this positive relationship starts to break down when on when unemployment gets very low or near full employment extremely low unemployment rates have proved to be more costly than valuable because.

[00:23:21] An act because an economy operating at near full unemployment will cause two important things to happen one aggregate demand for goods and services will increase faster than supply causing prices to rise now remember all those jobs that Biden created.

[00:23:40] Remember that.

[00:23:43] And I don't have the hard numbers here but.

[00:23:48] Again like I said I'll give credit repress to the the recovery was pretty good.

[00:23:53] Almost too good in fact because it's well documented that a lot of those jobs.

[00:23:59] Created under Biden actually are literally jobs created by Biden because great many of them were created by and for the federal government.

[00:24:08] The increased number of IRS agents for example that's one of many examples so yes they increase jobs increase GDP and increase inflation.

[00:24:19] So if you've been paying attention you might start to see you might be starting to see why.

[00:24:25] Prices are rising and there's other reasons for other things right so oil prices have been affected by a lot of the conflicts blah blah blah blah like everything food prices and then there are still there were still lingering effects from the supply chain issue so it's it's like a perfect storm you know.

[00:24:41] But we will continue so I'm going to say that again aggregate demand for goods and services will increase faster than supply causing prices rise and two companies will have to raise wages as a result of the tight labor market this increase usually is passed to the consumers in the form of higher prices as the company looks to maximize profits now I know what all the socialists and all the.

[00:25:09] I don't mean Democrats is it but like all the billionaire haters shall we say and again from a moral standpoint I understand it but as a business owner I can say if I'm not maximizing my profits and what the fuck am I doing there.

[00:25:29] You know I don't work 5060 70 hours a week and yes I do sometimes work 50% of the time I'm not maximizing my profits and I'm not maximizing my profits.

[00:25:41] 5060 70 hours per actually 50 is the most common but sometimes it's more.

[00:25:48] Why do I work that much if I'm not making money.

[00:25:53] What the fuck am I doing you know so that's all say to that over time the growth in GDP causes inflation inflation if left unchecked runs the risk of morphing into hyperinflation once this process is in place it can quickly become a self reinforcing feedback loop and on what they mean.

[00:26:12] And that's because in a world where inflation is increasing people will spend more money because they know that it would be less valuable in the future this causes further increases in GDP in the short term bringing about further price increases.

[00:26:26] Plus.

[00:26:28] The effects of inflation are not linear in other words 10% inflation is much more than twice as harmful as 5% inflation.

[00:26:39] These are lessons that most advanced economies have learned throughout through experience in the US you only need to go back a few decades to find a prolonged period of high inflation.

[00:26:49] Which was only remedied by going through a painful period of high unemployment and lost production as potential capacity sat idle.

[00:27:01] And this gives credence to a lot of people Ben Shapiro from someone who say and I am in this camp so I'm going to identify my bias.

[00:27:07] Who say that FDR actually prolonged the Great Depression by pumping money into the economy.

[00:27:14] The way that they did.

[00:27:17] So that gives some credence to it.

[00:27:20] So many people when they're talking about the economy believe their school is the only answer and really in in reality I can say this with certainty.

[00:27:28] It's just like that article said the economy is a very delicate dance and you can't go too far much like politics.

[00:27:35] You can't go too far one direction because it negatively affects other things because everything's connected.

[00:27:40] It's like a circle.

[00:27:45] And then lastly for the economy things to consider.

[00:27:49] We will move on to debt specifically the national debt and unfortunately I accidentally closed the chat.

[00:27:57] There we go got it back.

[00:28:02] By the way feel free to chat if you disagree agree especially if you disagree.

[00:28:08] But then and this is where it gets so a little caveat here.

[00:28:12] So I'm going to say some numbers.

[00:28:15] You will find different numbers from different sources.

[00:28:18] I tried to be as accurate as possible.

[00:28:22] It's impossible.

[00:28:23] It's not possible to nail down every dollar amount spent nor is it possible to nail down every dollar.

[00:28:31] Attributed directly to the president because some of it was part of legislation that the president may or may not have supported parts of so but these are just general statements right.

[00:28:43] And I did the best I can.

[00:28:46] So under Trump Trump added seven point eight trillion dollars in debt to the country including three point six trillion dollars in COVID relief debt which is way too much money.

[00:29:00] Way too much money admittedly like even if you love Trump you have to admit that was way too much spending particularly from a conservative or an alleged conservative because it's debatable as to whether Trump is actually a conservative Republican sure a conservative kind of depends.

[00:29:21] Biden has spent seven point nine trillion dollars so far including two trillion in COVID relief debt.

[00:29:27] Now some of that.

[00:29:30] So Biden gets credit for some things that were actually initiated by the Trump administration the vaccine comes to mind.

[00:29:39] So that's why you might some of you may be wondering why Biden on paper didn't spend more than Trump and that's because well some of the money had already been allocated before he was president and he just rolled it on through so one of many reasons.

[00:29:53] But Biden has spent more than Trump so far and that number is only getting bigger.

[00:29:58] We still got another year at least.

[00:30:00] And so when it comes to debt I mean honestly both economies under each president were pretty good and there's too many variables to place the blame on the downturn that happened in 2020 so between the presidents on anything other than COVID COVID turned the entire world upside down and it's amazing how many people have forgotten that already.

[00:30:25] Now the reason the direct reason as to why the world got turned upside down is up for debate honestly but.

[00:30:34] Co head was it co head cheese COVID was at least the reason given as to why the world was turned upside down.

[00:30:45] Now the problem when it comes to the election though seems to be consumer confidence which Biden does not have compared to Trump.

[00:30:52] Does if you recall even if you don't like the guy when Trump was president everybody was talking about all the money they were making booming economy record unemployment at the time.

[00:31:03] And there was a lot of confidence moving forward.

[00:31:07] The economy was not writing high because oh I'm sorry the economy was writing high because things were looking up under Trump and Trump has a clear advantage over Biden when it comes to the inflation rate.

[00:31:20] And had a clear advantage until COVID happened so for again I'm fairly confident and we'll never know unless somebody invents a way to travel between multiverses but I'm pretty darn confident that if COVID had not happened Trump would have wanted in 2020.

[00:31:35] Pretty confident and not because again he was riding away.

[00:31:39] And just OK let's compare because I know some of you well probably not but some of you may be watching this and thinking but Trump was terrible Trump was this Trump was that and.

[00:31:53] I can understand how some people don't like Trump especially trunk cheese Trump especially for rhetoric which will get into because it is a problem but let's compare.

[00:32:02] Sort of the concerning issues under each president.

[00:32:04] So when Trump was president a lot of people were somehow afraid of his racism which makes absolutely no sense if you actually look at data and actually look at what he says with context but it was that was it and then like LGBT rights which again if you look under if you actually look things were honestly not bad.

[00:32:27] I laugh because it just it just wasn't true.

[00:32:31] It just wasn't true but look at the voter concerns.

[00:32:36] So Trump's biggest problem was rhetoric when it came to voter concern right.

[00:32:41] And abortion abortion was a big one probably the most legitimate issue people had with Trump was abortion.

[00:32:47] So I get it and I even said the Republicans were dumb.

[00:32:52] Well you can't really but it was done.

[00:32:56] It was done.

[00:32:58] Because let's assume for a moment that the Supreme Court the conservative Supreme Court justices wanted which this isn't their job so I'm putting on my tin foil half or second let's assume they were part of wanting Trump to win right.

[00:33:13] Even if you wanted to overturn Roe v Wade that was not the time to do it.

[00:33:18] I still maintain that that was one of the many reasons why Trump's candidates all tanked for the most part outside of like heavily read areas in the twenty twenty two midterm elections that and the just outright the conspiracy theorists right the people that

[00:33:37] I'm not going to fault them for supporting Trump but the people the candidates that supported Trump even in the face of reality saying that the people that were saying that the election was stolen which again I still maintain it was but not in the way that most of those people were saying.

[00:33:58] When you change the rules and a lot of the battleground states that same year that's a little suspect but Joe I've stated for us again Joe Biden did according to the rules because the Constitution allows states to hold elections how they see fit Joe Biden did when the twenty twenty presidential election.

[00:34:17] However the little bit dubious but I digress Trump strategy should not have been to say that the election was stolen Trump strategy should have been.

[00:34:29] Okay everyone we know we know we know they took it we know they stole it.

[00:34:36] We know they changed the rules they cheated it's like going to Vegas and counting cards they cheated.

[00:34:42] So we need a strategy to make sure that doesn't happen again.

[00:34:49] That's what they should have done it's like if they had put.

[00:34:55] And in hindsight there's another reason so if they put effort into the reelection campaign rather than the so on election campaign and let's even assume for the sake of argument let's assume that they did steal the election OK let's assume.

[00:35:09] Let's for this example let's assume that they did actually steal the election are you better off.

[00:35:16] So if the machine if the Democratic Party is the machine the man behind the curtain that controlled everything right is a better strategy to try to openly fight that machine or as a better strategy to try to find a way to subvert that machine.

[00:35:31] The next go around because if the machine actually controls everything you will not win you can't win or at least the chances of you winning are very very low.

[00:35:40] I don't believe that I'm just saying for the sake of example it's another reason why Trump sort of strategy moving forward and even to a point in this election shouldn't have gone that way but that's another another story.

[00:35:55] And now let's move on to everyone's favorite thing.

[00:36:00] Foreign policy.

[00:36:02] So for this I just have some highlights and I remember I remember now I was going to read an excerpt so you might have to bear with me a second because I want to read the excerpt to you I'll just have to find it.

[00:36:16] But some foreign policy highlights from Trump and Biden like I said this is not everything.

[00:36:24] Oh what does Justin say I don't think Trump will win so much as Biden is basically throwing the game.

[00:36:29] Interesting take I actually want to so I'll message you about this offer I want to do something on the RTA podcast because I know you.

[00:36:41] I know where you live.

[00:36:43] I'm not going to say it.

[00:36:45] I don't know if you care.

[00:36:47] Seemingly intentionally.

[00:36:48] OK yeah I want to talk about this so like I know you you live on the western area of Canada and then I've got another buddy in Toronto.

[00:36:57] And I want to have you guys on the RTA podcast and discuss the Canadian perception of American politics.

[00:37:06] And I think it would be handy because we have somebody on more the west coast of Canada and then somebody in the you know Toronto area.

[00:37:13] So I think that would be a very fun discussion.

[00:37:16] But we'll talk.

[00:37:19] We'll talk.

[00:37:21] So some foreign policy highlights from Donald J Trump.

[00:37:30] Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal and reinstated sanctions and with the benefit of hindsight that was fucking great.

[00:37:40] I didn't understand the time nor do I understand now why you would want Iran to have any nuclear capability whatsoever.

[00:37:48] It was stupid.

[00:37:50] Trump was dead on right.

[00:37:52] I will argue with anyone on this Iran has not demonstrated since the Revolution.

[00:37:58] 1979 Iran the nation of Iran or the government of Iran I should say has not demonstrated any goodwill whatsoever when it comes to the west and sometimes openly saying that they want to wipe certain nations off the face of the earth.

[00:38:12] Israel comes to mind.

[00:38:14] And when somebody tells you who they are you should believe them.

[00:38:18] So I digress.

[00:38:21] Trump imposed tariffs and started the quote trade war with China.

[00:38:25] Now here's the thing about the tariffs and I understand much like the economy tariffs are not a they're not a simple thing.

[00:38:35] There are a lot of consequences by putting them personally.

[00:38:40] I thought they were great.

[00:38:42] And here's why.

[00:38:43] So I work in an industry that deals with a lot of imports at the time or prior to the Trump tariffs I should say practically all of it was coming from China.

[00:38:53] Right now.

[00:38:54] Now everyone in my industry was freaking out.

[00:39:03] And I said I've told the story before I said at the time though I said this will suck for six months to a year because what's going to happen is if they can't import them from China without the huge tariffs what they did up front is everybody put a surcharge because it was still coming from China right.

[00:39:23] But what virtually every manufacturer did was they moved their manufacturing from China to various other places in Southeast Asia but I suspected and I was right.

[00:39:33] A lot of them move their manufacturing to Mexico.

[00:39:38] And that was a great thing.

[00:39:40] It's a great thing for Mexico and some of these places are still in the process of being built or have recently finished being built.

[00:39:46] And they're transforming economies in various areas.

[00:39:49] I'd have to look into specifics as to what areas of Mexico for all but a lot of manufacturing moved to Mexico and that's just that's great.

[00:39:57] That's fantastic.

[00:39:59] It cuts down on transportation costs for one thing.

[00:40:03] And a better economy in Mexico means less people trying to enter the United States seeking a better financial situation in life which takes the pressure off the United States immigration system.

[00:40:17] And it just makes makes Mexico a better partner to work with the United States and Canada like the North American trade agreements.

[00:40:23] It's good.

[00:40:24] This is good stuff and taking money out of China is also good stuff.

[00:40:30] So I supported Trump wholeheartedly and sure enough within I'd say six to nine months pretty much everything I predicted was going to happen happened.

[00:40:39] We had about a 5050 split of manufacturers of the various products we carry about half of them went to Mexico and about another half of them went to other areas in Southeast Asia whether it be Thailand Cambodia Malaysia Vietnam a lot of places went to Vietnam even some move their manufacturing to South Korea.

[00:40:58] And some some did get caught not our manufacturer.

[00:41:02] Well actually one of our manufacturers one of our manufacturers did get caught.

[00:41:07] Basically still manufacturing in China but then sending it to I think it was Vietnam to get repackaged and they did get caught.

[00:41:14] And the situation has since changed but so some companies did do that a lot of them got caught.

[00:41:23] Trump mediated the Abraham Accords.

[00:41:26] Now he didn't get a Nobel Peace Prize for this.

[00:41:28] Well actually I do know is because if it had been anyone else they would have gotten the Nobel Peace Prize for this but since it was Donald Trump they said no drug can't win.

[00:41:36] But Trump mediated the Abraham Accords along with Israel to and got signed agreements with Bahrain United Arab Emirates Morocco and Sudan.

[00:41:47] And with Saudi Arabia's agreement still in the works before Biden's election and the October 7 attack on Hamas.

[00:41:55] Many people.

[00:41:58] And I'm included in the script many people believe that that was one of the many reasons for the October 7 attack was to the hope was to be stabilized and end relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

[00:42:11] And it's pretty clear.

[00:42:17] Well it's it's known it's known that Iran backed Hamas on those attacks right I mean they.

[00:42:24] It's pretty fucking obvious.

[00:42:28] And in fact it's been confirmed by people in Israel and.

[00:42:31] La Di Dha but.

[00:42:34] Iran would not want Israel and you and Saudi Arabia to be on the same page and have peaceful coexistence and recognition of one another because and you got to remember.

[00:42:45] The war going on in Yemen right the Houthis.

[00:42:50] Which that'll come into play later that Saudi Arabia is getting flack so they actually understand each other probably better than they don't understand each other then they being Israel and Saudi Arabian.

[00:43:03] But I do honestly believe I think that they will sign the Abraham Saudi Arabian Israel will sign an accord with one another and that's very bad news for Iran or at least the Iranian government.

[00:43:18] Trump formally formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move to US Embassy there again.

[00:43:25] That was a good thing I think.

[00:43:29] Trump became the first sitting president to visit North Korea.

[00:43:33] I'm on the fence on this one because I under like it's a it's on the surface a good thing for you know sort of de-escalation but again Yonahmi Park made a very good point.

[00:43:44] And she said she was very pro Trump but that didn't sit right with her because and I understand.

[00:43:51] I don't know that she's 100% right but she would know better than me honestly so this kind of doesn't carry a lot of weight but I can see why she would perceive that as giving legitimacy to a dictator and I get it I get it.

[00:44:06] But I guess it depends on what your end goal is.

[00:44:10] Trump signed a peace agreement with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan gradually now.

[00:44:16] So this is very interesting because I've been fighting this criticism of Trump for a long time because I gave Biden righteously.

[00:44:24] I gave Biden a lot of shit for his withdrawal from Afghanistan and it was a Trump Trump made a deal with the Taliban.

[00:44:34] So here's the funny part though Trump actually didn't make an agreement with the Taliban at least not directly he kind of sorted it but for the sake of clarity and nuance I actually have the three page agreement that was made between the Trump administration and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

[00:44:55] in the interest of nuance. I'm going to read the entire thing to you.

[00:44:59] So the point I keep making is that people say Trump yeah Trump negotiated with the Taliban let's just say he did.

[00:45:06] Well I mean he did but let's say he let's say he sat across the table with the Taliban directly which he didn't but let's just say he did.

[00:45:16] That agreement is subject to certain rules and situations that may or may not happen.

[00:45:23] And like I said you know presidents can increase and go back on especially if rule if terms are broken of an agreement right.

[00:45:33] So my defense of Trump negotiating this is essentially on a surface level it's like yeah but if it became pretty clear that the country was going to become destabilized

[00:45:45] especially before all Americans and allies had been withdrawn from the country or if it seemed as though the Taliban was just going to start becoming a terrorist.

[00:45:55] Again Trump absolutely would have been within his right and probably would have done a troop surge and reneged on the deal because the Taliban would have broken the rules first.

[00:46:08] Which Biden did not do but I digress so I'm just going to read this to you sorry for being boring but this is in the interest of nuance so.

[00:46:15] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan a member of the United Nations and recognized by the United States as the international and the international community as a sovereign state under international law.

[00:46:25] And the United States of America are committed to working together to reach a comprehensive and sustainable peace agreement that ends the war in Afghanistan for the benefit of all Afghans and contributes to regional stability and global security.

[00:46:37] A comprehensive and sustainable peace agreement will include four parts one guarantees to prevent the use of Afghan soil by any international terrorist groups or individuals against the security of the United States and its allies.

[00:46:50] Two a timeline for the withdrawal of all US and coalition forces from Afghanistan three a political settlement resulting from intra Afghan dialogue and negotiations between the Taliban and an inclusive negotiating team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

[00:47:06] So part of this agreement is a negotiation between the Taliban and the current and the Afghan government of the time.

[00:47:17] So just to be clear Trump did not negotiate with the Taliban Trump invited them or I shouldn't even say Trump the United States under Trump invited them to the negotiating table in the hopes that there would be a peaceful transition.

[00:47:31] And for a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.

[00:47:35] These four parts are interrelated and interdependent pursuit of peace after long years of fighting reflects the goal of all parties who seek sovereign who seek a sovereign unified Afghanistan at peace with itself and its neighbors.

[00:47:50] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the United States have partnered closely since 2001 to respond to threats to international peace and security and help the Afghan people chart a secure democratic and prosperous future.

[00:48:03] The two countries are committed to their long standing relationship and their investments in building the Afghan institutions necessary to establish democratic norms protect and preserve the unity of the country and promote social and economic advancements and the rights of citizens.

[00:48:20] The commitments set out here are made possible by these shared achievements.

[00:48:25] Afghan and US security forces share a special bond forged during many years of tremendous sacrifice and courage.

[00:48:31] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan reaffirm their support for peace and their willingness to negotiate an end to this war.

[00:48:42] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan welcomes the reduction in violence period and takes note of the US Taliban agreement.

[00:48:50] An important step toward ending the war.

[00:48:52] The US Taliban agreement paves the way for intra-Afghan negotiations on a political settlement and a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire.

[00:49:02] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan reaffirms its readiness to participate in such negotiations and its readiness to conclude a ceasefire with the Taliban.

[00:49:11] Just going to take a sip.

[00:49:25] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan furthermore reaffirms its ongoing commitment to prevent any international terrorist groups or individuals including al-Qaeda and ISIS-K from using Afghan soil to threaten the security of the United States, its allies and other countries.

[00:49:43] To accelerate the pursuit of peace, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan confirms its support for the phased withdrawal of US and coalition forces subject to the Taliban's fulfillments of its commitments under the US Taliban agreement and any agreement resulting from intra-Afghan negotiations.

[00:50:01] The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States therefore have made the following commitments.

[00:50:09] Part 1. The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States recognize that al-Qaeda, ISIS-K and other international terrorist groups or individuals continue to use Afghan soil to recruit members, race funds, train adherents and plan and attempt to conduct attacks that threaten the security of the United States, its allies and Afghanistan.

[00:50:30] To address this continuing terrorist threat, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States will continue to take the following steps to defeat al-Qaeda, its affiliates and other international terrorist groups or individuals.

[00:50:46] The Islamic Republic of Iran of Afghanistan reaffirms its continued commitment not to cooperate with or permit international terrorist groups or individuals to recruit, train, race funds including through the production or distribution of narcotics, transit, Afghanistan or misuse its internationally recognized travel documents or conduct other support activities in Afghanistan and will not host them.

[00:51:11] 2. The United States reaffirms its commitments regarding support for the Afghan security forces and other government institutions.

[00:51:20] So right there, right there, part of the agreement gave Joe Biden the proper excuse to send troops back into Afghanistan when the Taliban started fucking killing people.

[00:51:35] Including through ongoing efforts to enhance the ability of Afghan security forces to deter and respond to internal and external threats consistent with its commitments under existing security agreements between the two governments.

[00:51:54] This commitment includes support to Afghan security forces to prevent al-Qaeda, ISIS-K and other international terrorist groups or individuals from using Afghan soil to threaten the United States and its allies.

[00:52:05] The United States reaffirms its readiness to continue to conduct military operations in Afghanistan with the consent of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in order to disrupt and degrade efforts by al-Qaeda, ISIS-K and other international terrorist organizations or individuals to carry out attacks against the United States or its allies consistent with its commitment under the existing security agreements between the two governments

[00:52:28] and with the existing understanding that U.S. counterterrorism operations are intended to complement and support Afghan security forces, counterterrorism operations with the full respect for Afghan sovereignty and full regard for the safety and security of the Afghan people and the protection of civilians.

[00:52:45] Now I'm going to read an excerpt from a book a little bit later on, or a couple excerpts actually, that from an eyewitness on the ground that talk about members of the Taliban killing Afghan civilians.

[00:53:04] So, I digress.

[00:53:08] The United States commits to facilitate discussions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to work out arrangements to ensure neither country's security is threatened by actions from the territory of the other side.

[00:53:19] Part two, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States have consulted extensively on U.S. and coalition force levels and the military activities required to achieve the foregoing commitments including through the support of Afghan security and defense forces.

[00:53:35] Subject to the Taliban's fulfillment of its commitments under the U.S. Taliban agreement, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the United States and the coalition jointly assess that the current levels of military forces are no longer necessary to achieve security objectives since 2014

[00:53:54] Since 2014 Afghan security forces have been in the lead for providing security and have increased their effectiveness as such, the parties commit to take the following measures.

[00:54:07] That's debatable.

[00:54:08] It's debatable in the sense that yes.

[00:54:16] And again this is not coming from me this coming from people who are actually over there.

[00:54:20] Yes, the Afghan security forces were in the front.

[00:54:24] But that seems to obviously that seems to only be the case because the people who would attack them knew that the United States was there in the back.

[00:54:35] The United States will reduce the number of U.S. military forces in Afghanistan to 8600 and implement other commitments in the U.S. Taliban agreement within 135 days of the announcement of this joint declaration and the U.S.

[00:54:49] Taliban agreement and will work with its allies and the coalition to reduce proportionately the number of coalition forces in Afghanistan over an equivalent period subject to the Taliban's fulfillment of its commitments under the U.S.

[00:55:01] Taliban agreement.

[00:55:02] And I apologize.

[00:55:19] I actually don't know this is the document from the State Department.

[00:55:28] This is the U.S. Taliban agreement.

[00:55:34] Okay.

[00:55:56] Okay.

[00:55:57] I have another document here that I might.

[00:56:03] So there's an essence.

[00:56:04] I'm over 12 after the announcement guarantees.

[00:56:06] But we'll apply my comprehensive ceasefire.

[00:56:08] But it was good.

[00:56:10] I was going to see the final measures for some.

[00:56:13] Oh, okay.

[00:56:14] So this is just reiterating.

[00:56:15] Got it.

[00:56:16] Okay.

[00:56:17] So yeah, this is the agreement.

[00:56:22] Okay.

[00:56:23] Consistent with the joint assessment and determination between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the United States, its allies and the coalition will complete the withdrawal of their remaining forces from Afghanistan within 14 months following the announcement of this joint declaration and the U.S.

[00:56:38] Taliban agreement and will withdraw all their forces from remaining basis subject to the Taliban's fulfillment of its commitments under the U.S.

[00:56:46] Taliban agreement.

[00:56:51] The United States reaffirms its commitment to seek funds on a yearly basis that support the training, equipping, advising and sustaining of Afghan security forces so that Afghanistan can independently secure and defend itself in the international against an internal and external

[00:57:06] threats kind of like the Taliban overrunning them.

[00:57:09] Yeah.

[00:57:10] To create the conditions for reaching a political settlement and achieving a permanent sustainable ceasefire, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will participate in a U.S. facilitated discussion with Taliban representatives on confidence building measures to include determining the feasible of releasing

[00:57:27] significant numbers of prisoners on both sides.

[00:57:30] The United States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan will seek the assistance of the ICRC to support this discussion.

[00:57:38] With the start of intra-Afghan negotiations, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan commits to start diplomatic engagement with members of the UN Security Council to remove members of the Taliban from the sanctions list with the aim of achieving the

[00:57:52] U.S.

[00:58:23] So, somehow, I think I confused myself.

[00:58:25] Okay.

[00:58:28] So, I did.

[00:58:30] I printed out the wrong document, but I have the right one.

[00:58:33] So, but they're connected.

[00:58:35] So this is the Doha Accord.

[00:58:37] So, the U.S.

[00:58:38] will continue to work to build regional and international consensus to support the ongoing effort to achieve political settlement to the principal conflict in Afghanistan.

[00:59:04] So, somehow, I think I confused myself.

[00:59:07] Okay.

[00:59:10] So, this is the Doha Accord.

[00:59:12] Well, hang on.

[00:59:15] Maybe I didn't.

[00:59:17] Okay.

[00:59:18] The agreement for bringing peace to Afghanistan.

[00:59:21] Peace agreement signed by the United States and Taliban on February 29, 2020, and Doha Qatar to bring an end to the 2021 war in Afghanistan.

[00:59:29] Blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:59:31] So, the agreement stipulated fighting restrictions for both the U.S. and the Taliban and provided blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:59:40] Okay.

[00:59:41] The agreement.

[00:59:50] Okay.

[00:59:55] The intra-Afghan negotiations were scheduled to begin in March 10, 2020 in Oslo, Norway, the composition of the Afghan government.

[01:00:02] Negotiating team was not determined because the result of the 2019 Afghan presidential elections were disputed.

[01:00:07] The deal required the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners by the start of the talks and a prisoner exchange for 1,000 government soldiers held by the Taliban.

[01:00:17] The negotiations of the deal included withdrawal of all NATO troops in Afghanistan.

[01:00:20] A Taliban pledge to prevent al-Qaeda from operating in areas under Taliban control and talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

[01:00:27] The United States agreed to an initial reduction of its force levels from 13,000 to 8600 by July 2020, followed by a full withdrawal within 14 months of the Taliban if the Taliban kept its commitments.

[01:00:37] NATO Security General Jen Stoltenberg pledged to bring down NATO's numbers from about 12,000 to about 12,000 for roughly 16,000 troops in the United States.

[01:00:48] Also committed to closing 5,000 military bases within 135 days and expressed its intent to end economic sanctions on the Taliban by August 27, 2020.

[01:01:06] The US Taliban deal called for intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations for a quote permanent and comprehensive ceasefire to start March 10.

[01:01:13] The Afghan government was not a party to the US Taliban deal.

[01:01:18] And on March 1st, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, I believe that's how you pronounce it, rejected the prisoner exchange saying, quote,

[01:01:27] The release of prisoners is not the United States authority, but it is the authority of the government of Afghanistan.

[01:01:34] Ghani also stated that the prisoner exchange, quote, cannot be a prerequisite for talks but must be part of the negotiations on March 2.

[01:01:41] A Taliban spokesperson said that they were, quote, fully ready for the intra-Afghan talks.

[01:01:46] Whether there would be no talks if about 5,000 of their prisoners were not released, he said.

[01:01:51] That the agreed upon period of reduction in violence was over and that operations against Afghan government forces could resume.

[01:01:58] Nevertheless, the negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban for release of prisoners began as planned on March 10, 2020.

[01:02:04] However, on the same day Ghani also signed a decree that released 5, that release, decree for the release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners on March 14.

[01:02:13] But only if they agree to sign pledges guaranteeing that they will not return to battle on the same day the United States started withdrawing troops.

[01:02:19] Despite the fact that the terms of the peace agreement also received unanimous backing from the UN Security Council sources close to the Taliban, including Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen.

[01:02:31] After were announced that the group had rejected Ghani's prisoner swap decree and still insist on the recent 5,000 Taliban prisoners on March 14, 2020.

[01:02:40] Javed Faisal, a spokesperson for the National Security Council announced that Ghani had delayed the release of Taliban prisoner setting a need to review the list of prisoners thus endangering the peace agreement between the US government

[01:02:50] and the Taliban.

[01:02:54] Okay, here we go.

[01:02:55] I want to know what the actual terms were.

[01:02:58] Just want to know that so basically the whole thing was fucked from day one.

[01:03:33] See here like on August 14, 2020, one of the 21 members of the Afghan negotiating team, Fawziah Khufi and her sister, Mariam Khufi were attacked by gunmen near Kabul.

[01:03:54] Fawziah Khufi is a prominent human rights activist in Afghanistan who has been vocal and denouncing the Taliban.

[01:04:00] Taliban officials accused the Afghan government of intentionally postponing the release of 100 Taliban detainees in order to hamper negotiations.

[01:04:07] By September 2020, the Afghan government had freed about 5,000 Taliban prisoners after a request from the Trump administration.

[01:04:15] The government mediation team remained on standby to travel to Doha for talks with the Taliban but delays were switched.

[01:04:23] After signing the US Taliban deal on February 29, 2020 and surgeon attacks against Afghan security forces surge the Taliban resume defensive operations against the Afghan army and police on March 3, 2020 conducting attacks in Kunduz and Helmand provinces on March 4, the US conducted airstrikes on

[01:04:40] Taliban fighters in Afghanistan Southern Helmand province.

[01:04:43] See, this is just on July 1, 2020.

[01:05:13] So, okay, I just this is this this just makes this just makes it look even dumber.

[01:05:18] Sorry, I'm going to check the live chat. See, okay, nobody said anything about this.

[01:05:25] Oh, gosh, this is bad.

[01:05:39] On July 1, 2020, the US House Armed Services Committee overwhelmingly voted in favor of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to restrict President Trump's ability to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan below the 8600 that had been acted upon.

[01:05:57] On January 20, 2021 at the inauguration of Joe Biden there were 2500 US soldiers still in Afghanistan by his national security advisor.

[01:06:05] Jake Sullivan said that the administration will review the withdrawal agreement on April 14.

[01:06:10] The Biden administration said the US would not withdraw the remaining soldiers by May 1 but would withdraw by September 11.

[01:06:17] On July 8, Biden specified a US withdrawal date of August 31.

[01:06:21] Throughout August 2021 the Taliban rapidly took control of the country by force.

[01:06:31] The remaining US soldiers were withdrawn on August 30, 2021.

[01:06:57] Uh, I think it was just a flak blame.

[01:07:09] So yeah, and again from the Associated Press literally was Biden handcuffed by Trump's Taliban deal in Doha, which is what he claims.

[01:07:18] I never had an option.

[01:07:22] So the article starts talking about Trump's deal in 2020.

[01:07:28] 18 months later, President Joe Biden is pointing to the agreement signed in Doha, Qatar as he tries to deflect blame for the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan and a blitz.

[01:07:37] He says it bound him to withdraw US troops setting the stage for the chaos involving the country.

[01:07:42] But Biden can only go so far in claiming the agreement boxed him in.

[01:07:46] It had an escape clause.

[01:07:48] The US could have withdrawn from the accord if Afghan peace talks failed.

[01:07:53] They did.

[01:07:55] But Biden chose to stay in it, although he delayed the complete pullout from May to September.

[01:08:07] Quote, if he thought the deal was bad, he could have renegotiated.

[01:08:11] He had plenty of opportunity to do that if he desired Miller, a top Chris Miller, a top Pentagon counterterrorism official at the time the Doha deal was signed said in an interview.

[01:08:27] So basically I was right.

[01:08:29] Quote, the Doha agreement was a very weak agreement and the US should have gained more concessions from the Taliban said Lisa Curtis, an Afghanistan expert who served during the Trump administration as the National Security Council's senior director for South and Central Asia.

[01:08:52] He called it quote wishful thinking to believe that the Taliban might be interested in a lasting peace.

[01:08:58] The resulting agreement she said was heavily weighed toward the Taliban contributed to undermining Afghan presidential president.

[01:09:06] Ashraf Ghani, he fled the country Sunday and is now in the United Arab Emirates and facilitated the race of 5000 Taliban prisoners without a commensurate concession from the Taliban.

[01:09:18] And yeah, Biden in an ABC interview that aired Thursday said he was confronted with the deadline soon after taking office quote do I say we're staying and do you think we would have to put a hell of a lot more troops.

[01:09:36] Even without Trump steel Biden said quote, he quote would have tried to figure out how to withdraw those troops and said that quote there is no good time to leave Afghanistan.

[01:09:47] Well, yeah, but there's there's no good time but there's really fucking bad times and bad measures.

[01:10:01] Oh sorry so so you're not first buddy.

[01:10:04] But I appreciate it.

[01:10:06] So yeah, just for some context I know that was a bit of a bit of a detour but I think context is very important here.

[01:10:17] Trump also cut ties with the World Health Organization after the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic which showing my bias showing my bias real hard.

[01:10:28] I agree.

[01:10:29] So some Biden form policy and international relations highlights with drew us troops from Afghanistan 13 US service members were killed by a suicide bomber during the withdrawal.

[01:10:48] And for a change, I'm sorry I have another.

[01:10:58] So I had another article but I actually don't need to.

[01:11:19] I have another article but I've had an even another article I'm all kinds of discombobulated here.

[01:11:37] And I apologize I was supposed to highlight this I forgot so bear with me one second, I will.

[01:11:50] Okay, so we have an article from ABC news two years on Afghanistan withdrawal continues to cast Paul on Biden administration.

[01:11:59] So I've got to find the.

[01:12:12] So a couple of excerpts from this article again this is ABC news.

[01:12:20] The article is titled two years on and it's published August 31 2023.

[01:12:27] Two years on Afghanistan withdrawal continues to cast Paul on Biden administration analysis.

[01:12:34] Retired rear Admiral Mark Montgomery now senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy Center on cyber and technology innovation says he called Biden's myopic approach, says what he called Biden's myopic approach resulted in the president shutting out critical

[01:12:56] warnings quote.

[01:12:57] In the face of significant pushback from the senior military advisors he overrode all their concerns and recommendations and executed an absolutely catastrophically bad policy.

[01:13:08] He argued in an interview with ABC news now if you recall, Biden said in an interview that it was not going to be another Saigon it was in fact exactly another Saigon complete with people hanging off of aircraft as they were lifting

[01:13:21] off.

[01:13:37] And we have which and then there's the fact that yeah Biden withdrew but there's, there were still Americans left in the country that's how botched this whole operation was quote.

[01:13:52] Oh who is this person.

[01:13:57] Although Biden estimated at the end of August 2021 that 100 to 200 American citizens who wanted to depart Afghanistan remain in the country.

[01:14:06] Secretary of State Anthony Blinken indicated last month that the administration have facilitated the departure of roughly 900 US citizens since the US occupation had ended quote, I believe some 900 or so additional

[01:14:19] Americans have told us at one point or another that they wanted to leave. We've made sure we could get get that we've made sure could get home, he said at a press availability, but an unknown number of Americans are still trapped including some who are being

[01:14:37] detained by the Taliban.

[01:14:41] The Americans of Afghan allies eligible for resettlement in the US are still also awaiting relocation. That sounds like a violation of the agreement to me to detain American citizens.

[01:14:59] On the world stage, Montgomery who we quoted before says the perception of calamity in Afghanistan has amplified the need for the United States to succeed in other theaters quote.

[01:15:09] Montgomery says a very dubious ally he said if you're Taiwan, if you're Japan or Korea, if you're Estonia Latvia Lithuania, you have to be asking yourselves is the United States willing to sacrifice American service members to meet its treaty and stated obligations to us.

[01:15:24] By backing Ukraine Montgomery says the administration has restored some of its standing in the eyes of the world but not all especially when it comes to deterring adversaries from inciting conflict.

[01:15:42] So just to showcase and there are some really gut wrenching photos in this article showing the withdrawal. There's a service member holding a baby that had just been thrown over the fence and there's another man trying to lower his child down to US military forces.

[01:15:59] It's fucking sad, but another excerpt where are we there we are.

[01:16:08] So another excerpt I'm going to try to read from you is from Tim Kennedy's book, Scars and Stripes. I highly recommend you buy this book, not least of which by the fact that the entire last chapter deals with Tim Kennedy being on the ground in Afghanistan.

[01:16:35] So I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find a couple of and I apologize for the silence. I'm just trying to find.

[01:17:36] Okay, so this is one excerpt I wait quietly in the night and send a what's that message to my target quote I'm here send me a signal I command.

[01:17:43] I watched the double checkmarks appear in a moment later some 100 meters away I see a phone screen lit up.

[01:17:49] Stay there I tell her sea spray and I move quietly to her location we wait 50 meters away and observe there's no movement we inch closer.

[01:17:58] Have you seen the new movie about the astronaut I say firmly.

[01:18:02] I have and it was absolutely bananas comes a reply. She passed far and near recognition signals my challenge had to include the word astronaut her response had to include bananas.

[01:18:13] We close the distance when we get there she has her documents ready sea spray and I confirm that the passport she has with her match the ones we receive digitally.

[01:18:22] Okay, this is our lady.

[01:18:24] And these are her five kids let's move sea spray offers up.

[01:18:28] We start to move out of the field we're currently in toward the town proper when we see movement from when we see moving that doesn't belong to us Taliban.

[01:18:37] The news has shown a very clear the news has shown a very calm and nonviolent Taliban, but that isn't the Taliban were seeing out here.

[01:18:46] Another group operating parallel to us had rescued a woman and was about to load her into their vehicle when she got separated from them by a few feet.

[01:18:54] The Taliban merked her right right on the hood of their vehicle rains everywhere it was a dare.

[01:19:02] Now that she was dead the team had no legal cause to fire on the Taliban and were no longer a threat as they were no longer a threat so they left.

[01:19:09] We didn't want that situation, but we also didn't want to against a lot of bad guys gunfight with a woman and five kids in tow in fighter flight.

[01:19:18] Sometimes flight is the right response.

[01:19:20] We grab them and start running.

[01:19:39] And then there's another quote somewhere so the reason Tim Kennedy was in Afghanistan is because one of his friends who also served in the military had an interpreter.

[01:19:47] I don't know if Aziz was his real name but that's the name they use in the book they probably did change it for obvious reasons.

[01:19:53] Wanted it needed to get out is him and his family.

[01:20:00] And so he went and helped with an NGO non government organization that's still operating actually save our allies so you definitely if you can and want to definitely support them because they're doing incredible work.

[01:20:12] So Kim, Tim Kennedy was actually there.

[01:20:37] A suicide bomber got inside the wire and detonated killing 13 US service members all 25 years older younger.

[01:20:46] One of them I would find out later is Sergeant Nicole.

[01:20:50] I don't know if it's pronounced gear G a young leader who grew up a few hours from where I did in Sacramento.

[01:20:57] She helped us earlier that day when we had to search the women we rescued before bringing them on base.

[01:21:03] She was really sweet and high energy.

[01:21:05] She wasn't going through the motions she greeted every Afghan with a smile.

[01:21:09] She loved her job and her service.

[01:21:12] This is absolutely the worst possible situation I joined the military in my early 20s.

[01:21:17] I felt old then I felt knowledgeable.

[01:21:19] I felt like I had experienced life.

[01:21:21] I had no idea these brave troops 11 Marines one corpsman and one soldier gave their lives to help those in need.

[01:21:29] There is nothing more honorable.

[01:21:31] And let's see here.

[01:21:41] There's one in particular I'm trying to find.

[01:21:44] I think it was earlier.

[01:22:05] I apologize.

[01:22:25] I'm trying to find this because it is very helpful contextually.

[01:22:31] Okay, I found it.

[01:22:38] And this is Nick Palmoschenko.

[01:22:47] It's obviously he's quoting but I'm starting at the quote.

[01:22:50] What a fucking shit show man.

[01:22:52] He says he being Nick referring to our own government's performance so far while shaking his head and discussed.

[01:22:58] He still gets genuinely surprised when people fail as badly as we are failing on this mission right now quote.

[01:23:04] How do we pull out all of our forces and then try to evacuate?

[01:23:08] He asked he isn't really talking to me.

[01:23:10] He's just venting.

[01:23:11] He and I have had this conversation about a thousand times in the past 48 hours.

[01:23:16] We sip our coffee and silence for a little while him wrestling with being let down by America and me wrestling with a conversation I had earlier with Chad Robichaw.

[01:23:31] So once again, that's Tim Kennedy's autobiography.

[01:23:35] Scars and Stripes.

[01:23:36] Highly recommend you buy it.

[01:23:37] It's a killer book.

[01:23:39] Just like I was a fan of Tim Kennedy before I read the book and yeah.

[01:23:47] Some more foreign policy highlights from Biden I promise we're almost done but you can pause anytime.

[01:23:53] Biden increased sanctions and signed several Ukrainian aid packages after Russia's invasion.

[01:24:01] Again, we're getting into the realm of we'll never really know I'm in the camp.

[01:24:05] Honestly, that if the botched pullout of Afghanistan had not happened, whether they didn't pull out at all or at least they pulled out with some measure of intelligence that that I don't think you Ukrainian invasion would have happened.

[01:24:24] I don't but again, we'll never know so we can't really hold it against him because we'll never know.

[01:24:30] Part of the course.

[01:24:33] Biden revoked the Houthis as a terrorist group reinstated after attacked shipping in the Red Sea.

[01:24:42] Well, who could have seen that coming?

[01:24:46] Biden also allowed Iran access to $10 million by temporary lifting sanctions.

[01:24:52] Okay, again because I know somebody's going to argue this at some point.

[01:24:56] Yes, I understand that there were strings attached to that money they could only use of a food and medicine.

[01:25:02] Here's the thing though.

[01:25:05] Let's say you have a country and let's say this country is.

[01:25:10] Shamiran and Shamiran is known to have several, several terrorist group proxies that they fund and train.

[01:25:21] And let's say that they have an annual budget of $10 million that they spend on food and medical supplies for their people.

[01:25:33] Allegedly.

[01:25:34] Now let's say that you're they're spending this money anyway on food and medical supplies.

[01:25:38] So let's say that they get $10 million from a third party, but that third party tells them, well, you can only spend this money on food and medical supplies.

[01:25:48] Shamiran is probably going to say cool.

[01:25:51] We'll just take the 10 million we were going to spend out of our own pocket and send that to other areas.

[01:25:57] Going on to campaign promises.

[01:26:04] So some again, not all because everybody makes a lot of campaign promises but these I feel and I believe are the heavy hitters.

[01:26:23] Trump promised a US Mexico border wall.

[01:26:27] This promise was somewhat kept built wall but nowhere near the promiscope in Mexico did not pay for it.

[01:26:34] He also vowed to repeal and replace Obamacare.

[01:26:38] Nothing.

[01:26:40] He promised tax cuts kept this for the vast majority of Americans.

[01:26:46] They saw lower taxes.

[01:26:49] He also promised to pull the USA out of the Paris climate Accords he did.

[01:26:54] He promised to appoint conservative judges.

[01:26:57] He delivered in spades placing three conservative justices on the Supreme Court and several throughout various lower courts.

[01:27:04] He promised to obliterate ISIS and he delivered which he was able to deliver.

[01:27:10] Thanks in large part on the progress that was made during the Obama administration but he delivered.

[01:27:15] He promised to move the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which he did.

[01:27:23] He promised to increase military spending.

[01:27:25] He kept this promise.

[01:27:27] He increased spending on military in relation to the Obama era cuts.

[01:27:30] However, he did not exceed spending in the Obama administration in total because there was just not enough need but he did increase military spending in relation to the cuts in the later years of the Obama administration.

[01:27:43] He vowed to prosecute Hillary Clinton.

[01:27:46] He did not keep this promise and he also vowed to rebuilding infrastructure not kept.

[01:27:51] But to be fair, he did try the various deals kept falling apart in Congress.

[01:27:57] Biden, on the other hand, promised to combat COVID-19.

[01:28:01] He kept this promise sort of.

[01:28:03] He rolled out a lot of aid and policies that likely had little to no impact on the virus itself but all this is up to interpretation.

[01:28:12] He promised to rebuild the economy again he kept it but sort of job growth is up arguably somewhat artificially because I mentioned before how a lot of not the majority but a lot of those jobs were actually not in the private sector and GDP is up.

[01:28:27] But remember what we talked about before.

[01:28:31] Inflation is down but still higher than under Trump and many Americans are feeling the pinch at the grocery store gas tank and virtually everywhere else including their utility bills.

[01:28:46] He promised to end gun violence.

[01:28:48] Not up.

[01:28:50] He promised to protect access to abortion not kept as of now I and I'm pretty sure this is what's going to happen.

[01:28:58] They're definitely going to use it to run on in 2024.

[01:29:01] They probably easily could federally get something done in abortion.

[01:29:06] A lot of Republicans would agree to like a 15 week and I'm sure they'd be able to negotiate to get it out of the house the Senate would pass it but like I said if they do something now he can't run on it later this year.

[01:29:18] He promised to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline and rejoin the Paris climate accords.

[01:29:23] He kept those promises.

[01:29:25] He promised it in the war in Afghanistan.

[01:29:28] He kept that promise.

[01:29:29] He promised also to appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court.

[01:29:33] He kept that promise whether or not you agree with them he kept them.

[01:29:38] Legal issues.

[01:29:40] So Trump has a lot of court cases going on including but not limited to there is the Trump University civil suit.

[01:29:47] There's the defamation and sexual assault cases with E. Jean Carroll two separate cases dealing with the same person although the defamation suit stemmed from conduct during the sexual assault suit which is a very important issue.

[01:29:58] Which again I remind everyone who was not a criminal suit it was a civil suit.

[01:30:02] He also had the civil.

[01:30:05] What would you call that the civil real estate suit where he was accused of inflating his property values.

[01:30:15] Wow this this been going on a lot longer than I intended it to sorry.

[01:30:21] And then he's got the criminal cases of course the election interference federal case the election interference in racketeer Rico case in Georgia which are still ongoing.

[01:30:31] I'm missing all the classified documents case in Florida which that's going to lead us to Joe Biden who also has a classified document case although his is pretty much resolved.

[01:30:45] And because he's an old man with bad memory the Justice Department elected not to press charges further.

[01:30:53] Biden's biggest legal woes although they haven't really come home to groups yet are his alleged involvement in businesses with his son Hunter Biden including may not limited to negotiating with foreign nationals and using his influence to further his son's

[01:31:09] career and taking money because of it.

[01:31:12] So that remains to be seen.

[01:31:16] And then of course just Hunter Biden in general makes Joe Biden look bad.

[01:31:21] What's interesting about Biden's classified documents case is there were documents found in more places.

[01:31:26] But other than that the case between him and drunk and trunk trunk the case between him and Trump are actually eerily similar both of which saying that they didn't and then when they got caught.

[01:31:36] It came out later on tape for both of them waving around classified documents knowing full well that they're classified documents and sharing them with ghost writers so that I found particularly amusing.

[01:31:48] And then the final section.

[01:31:51] Oh no not the final section I'm sorry.

[01:31:53] The next section we're almost done though I promise is immigration.

[01:31:57] So Trump is immigration record.

[01:32:02] 472 executive actions on immigration.

[01:32:05] He added to the border wall but was largely stopped in his efforts.

[01:32:10] He brought out the remain in Mexico policy which a lot of people were fans of I personally am not not so much the sentiment but what could possibly happen as a result of it again immigration is a really really complex and complicated issue.

[01:32:26] But fans liked it.

[01:32:30] Trump instig Trump initiated instigated.

[01:32:37] Trump had title 42 which basically I personally I believe it was just using COVID as an excuse to be able to expel people from the United States.

[01:32:48] He had a temporary travel ban from people from Yemen serious Sudan Somalia Libya Iraq and Iran which many people dubbed the Muslim ban.

[01:32:57] But all these countries were on a watch list from the previous Obama administration he just restricted travel and to be fair he would have extended that further but he was stopped basically.

[01:33:08] And he set a record low limit for US refugees for refugees allowed into the US.

[01:33:15] The Biden's immigration record record high monthly migrant encounters at the southern border hit an all time high under Biden in December 2023 at 302,000.

[01:33:25] He reversed all Trump era policies in regard to immigration.

[01:33:29] He added he did add to the border wall construction citing quote imminent need.

[01:33:35] But again he tried to pass that off as saying he had to spend the money.

[01:33:38] He could have actually spent that money or at least if I'm not mistaken he could have spent that money on upkeep of the current wall but he used it to build new wall.

[01:33:45] He launched an app to help migrants streamline processing before arriving at the US border, which I think is great, but apparently migrants have reported issues with the app which that's because the government made it so.

[01:33:57] And then just a note here when we're talking about numbers.

[01:34:06] So starting in March 2020 monthly totals began including apprehensions and expulsions not just in count and not just apprehensions at the border.

[01:34:16] So from March 2020 to now Trump's highest number of apprehensions and or expulsions was 132,000 in a month was 132,856 his lowest was 16,182 again his numbers are lower if you look them up but prior to that.

[01:34:35] But prior to March 2020 they did not include apprehensions and expulsion so that was his lowest after the new numbers were tally.

[01:34:43] Biden's highest was 302,034 which we mentioned in December of 2023.

[01:34:50] Biden's lowest number of encounters and or expulsions was 101,099.

[01:34:57] Somehow Biden is blaming the immigration policies on Trump.

[01:35:03] And we got a comment from Justin whether or not you agree with the charges what do you think will become of America's reputation and soft power internationally if he loses his cases and wins the election.

[01:35:14] So my theory Justin is that so here this is kind of a complicated complicated answer.

[01:35:21] So I'm not one of those people that think this is only a witchhup like with the notion of having a criminal president.

[01:35:30] It depends honestly for me. It depends on what case he's found guilty but here's what I think is going to happen.

[01:35:36] I think for the most part, the civil suits are kind of irrelevant because a civil suit doesn't necessarily mean someone's guilty.

[01:35:43] There are different standards of burdens of proof not standards.

[01:35:48] There are different standards of evidence and burdens of proof.

[01:35:50] A lot of civil cases there they're complicated and he's appealing all of them by the way.

[01:35:57] And those aren't going to resolve before those are not going to be resolved before the election.

[01:36:02] Even if he's found guilty in Georgia, he can always point to the fact that his prosecutor had a conflict of interest which I don't carry a slice it.

[01:36:12] She did she does well our district attorney not prosecutor but she did.

[01:36:18] She got found out having an affair with she had an affair with somebody then hired them to work the case and then paid them exorbitant amounts of money.

[01:36:28] So that even on the level looks bad.

[01:36:31] Now that's not to say Trump didn't do anything wrong he certainly did but they have to prove that he did those things because I read the whole affidavit.

[01:36:39] They have to prove that he did these things if he did do these things these are very bad things.

[01:36:43] But I can also say this and I think this is what Trump would do in this case.

[01:36:47] Let's assuming that Trump loses he can always come out and say well you know the whole system it's corrupt the whole things corrupt.

[01:36:56] So I did the only thing I could do because when the law is corrupt you have no choice but to break the law even though he denied breaking the law but that's that's what Trump does.

[01:37:07] But again that case isn't going to be resolved prior to the election and what I think is going to happen is I think if Trump wins the vast majority of these cases are going to be done away with because if they can't prevent him from being president.

[01:37:19] They have no reason to keep pursuing them.

[01:37:22] If Trump loses I think the vast majority of these cases are going to go away because if Trump is not president they have no reason to keep pursuing them.

[01:37:33] That's what I think is going to happen.

[01:37:40] Kai says America is already a big joke. It doesn't matter who we have a reputation will always be a stupid and rich.

[01:37:45] You know it's funny you say that because that I don't think that's actually true.

[01:37:51] And the reason I say that is because a lot of times you cannot judge people based on what they're saying you judge them based on what they're doing.

[01:38:01] A lot of times people it's kind of cliche internationally to put to make fun of the United States but the vast majority of those countries militaries are paid for or directly supported by the United States.

[01:38:13] So if it gets really bad we can just say fuck y'all and then we'll see how quickly that that tune turns.

[01:38:20] And when it comes to international perception personally I think as much as Trump was kind of lampooned and joked at he did a lot of really good things and actually one thing I forgot to mention.

[01:38:30] Which he gets made fun of a lot for this was he made the Space Force its own branch in the military.

[01:38:36] I don't know why people are making fun of him for that because that's fucking genius because think about this from a military perspective if you control Earth orbit you control Earth.

[01:38:48] It's as simple as that and it makes sense for space to be separate because originally the Space Force existed but it was part of the Air Force.

[01:38:56] And I just love the fact that it's very reminiscent to the Star Trek logo.

[01:38:59] I love that the symbol for the United States Space Force.

[01:39:03] So I don't know why people again Trump should have gotten a Nobel Peace Prize for the Abraham Accords.

[01:39:08] So I think it's kind of hard to make fun of somebody internationally when they brokered the largest peace deal arguably ever in relation to Israel.

[01:39:18] And the fact that even after the October 7th attack those deals are still in place and it looks as though Saudi Arabia and Israel are actually going to sign a deal eventually Saudi Arabia is probably waiting to see what happens.

[01:39:31] But from what I understand it seems like both sides really want to make that make that deal.

[01:39:38] And there's another country and I cannot remember for the life of me who's at the negotiating table now Jordan I think maybe and let's not forget Jordan and Saudi Arabia were both.

[01:39:48] Part of operations to shoot down those drones and missiles that were shot from around Jordan and Saudi Arabia both participated in that shooting down the Iranian armaments so that's.

[01:39:59] That's something Jordan and Iran and Saudi Arabia participated in defending Israel just saying.

[01:40:07] And it sure it may be an enemy an enemy of my enemy is my friend sort of thing.

[01:40:11] Okay but why should we be controlling Earth in the first place for I'm okay so I should have said that differently.

[01:40:19] What I mean is security so like let's say let's say the United States has control over Earth's orbit.

[01:40:26] Militarily speaking so that means that if somebody fires missiles intercontinental ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons let's say.

[01:40:34] And we have the ability to neutralize those things above the atmosphere you cannot attack the United States or allies you just you can't you cannot do it is not possible.

[01:40:45] And before you say well the United States shouldn't have that power keep in mind the United States had atomic weapons first and yes we use them first but after that.

[01:40:54] And for a while we had the capability and we didn't use them.

[01:40:59] So that's that's worth pointing out.

[01:41:02] And again I've traveled to different countries a lot of countries the citizenry the citizens at least actually really like the United States there's a reason we're still the largest cultural exporter meaning of like entertainment.

[01:41:14] Pop culture that kind of stuff.

[01:41:17] And the fact that.

[01:41:20] Oh God I completely lost what I was going to say you know we still are I believe we're number one in immigration from all across the world still so there's a reason for that.

[01:41:28] So as much as people like to poke fun at the United States it's when you actually look at the facts it's it's actually not.

[01:41:37] There's a lot of things that people take for granted and they may not even know the United States does for them.

[01:41:42] And I think that if the United States stopped doing those things foreign aid again is another one.

[01:41:48] And that's not even just the government the United States citizens are some of the most generous people in the world in terms of giving aid to other international causes you know.

[01:42:00] To this day several American missionaries still travel to Africa and provide medical care build houses Africa Central South America all across the world they do this.

[01:42:12] It just feels like we're over preparing for hypotheticals instead of working on our own current issues Space Force is also stupid space I agree I think space short Space Force should be changed to starfleet but that's just because I'm a Star Trek nerd.

[01:42:24] But again that perspective that you have OK so I'm not trying to sound hawkish on foreign policy thank you for the conversation by the way I like it when people engage and we're almost done with the list.

[01:42:34] So that sort of mentality is always has been in place before a large conflict sort of erupts.

[01:42:43] So for example before before the Second World War started there were a ton of people saying the United States shouldn't be involved the United States shouldn't be involved.

[01:42:52] And there were also people on the other side saying we need to be prepared for an imminent attack and they tried to warn the government.

[01:42:59] And that's how Pearl Harbor happened now there's other variables there's always other variables and unfortunately it's kind of like the argument against increasing budget for anti terrorism because if you stop the terrorism attacks they don't happen and then you don't have justification for keeping your programs and needing funding.

[01:43:16] So I guess in a way in a way you're right but in a way it's like well yeah but that kind of shows that it's working.

[01:43:22] Yeah and Justin says I find you can find something in common with anybody like I previously mentioned I can't stand Matt Walsh but we have had similar opinions on airplane etiquette for example.

[01:43:38] Yeah and that I think that's the secret that's that I believe is the true secret to international relations is finding that common ground and usually that common ground is trade everybody likes money even communists like money they just don't like to fess up to it.

[01:43:52] But you know Venezuela is not communist but Venezuela exports oil state run oil but they export it so they like money and trade is usually the best foreign policy.

[01:44:06] And then the final category where you would think Biden has the clear advantage but honestly not if you listen to him is rhetoric now I actually have here to wing it.

[01:44:20] So Trump definitely has a rhetoric problem and I think it's Trump is his own worst enemy when he talks he's hilarious. Yes but it does not help him from a presidential perspective.

[01:44:33] I agree that Trump's biggest problem throughout his entire candidacy presidency all of it is his rhetoric because he just can't stop tweeting.

[01:44:42] Now personally I find most of them funny but it's not very presidential but Biden Biden on the other hand.

[01:44:52] Brian Biden says he's going to be the president of unity and then I think it wasn't this year's it was last year's state of the Union gives a

[01:45:02] And I'll be honest and I'll explain why I say this in a second because I don't like banding about the word hit Larry and all that much but if you look at the stage for his

[01:45:12] For his state of the Union in 2023 I'm pretty sure it was when he had like the red lights looking like the Empire from Star Wars like very hit Larry and because if you look at Hitler's famous speech they had the pillars of light.

[01:45:25] Right. It looked very similar and says he's going to be the president of unity.

[01:45:30] Many years in a row and then gets up there and literally picks a fight with the other side. I mean I don't know if you watched his 2024 state of the Union but literally after saying

[01:45:40] President for red states blue states just the United States.

[01:45:47] Then he says then he gets up there picks a fight with Republicans in the audience like immediately after

[01:45:56] Immediately after he's like oh at some point I think he made a joke about being surprised that they were able to read.

[01:46:02] And I'm just like that doesn't really sound like the president of unity if you ask me Obama played that off way better.

[01:46:10] Like Obama was way more Obama is probably the most presidential guy that's been in office in my lifetime.

[01:46:18] Not going to say he's the most but the guy could talk give credit for credits to the guy could talk want to know about peace prize for dropping more bombs than any other president in US history.

[01:46:27] But you know he could talk and you pull off a tan suit.

[01:46:30] But yeah so both of these guys suck at rhetoric and I think it's Shane Gillis who pointed out that Biden is like Trump's kryptonite because Trump just gets out is like Biden is an empty head.

[01:46:45] There's nothing going on. Nothing on in there and Joe Biden says.

[01:46:50] I don't know where I am.

[01:46:54] She didn't have any pressure.

[01:46:56] And like Trump does that to get her eyes out of people.

[01:47:00] This is Shane Gillis not me but then Biden doesn't know what the fuck's going on so it's great.

[01:47:04] But yeah so I don't think either one gets a clear win.

[01:47:09] Biden will probably get Biden probably has a slight edge on rhetoric generally speaking because he's not las polarizing but he's actually about just as bad but in a very different way.

[01:47:21] It's like you kind of expect it from Trump but when Biden pulls something like that you don't expect it so it tends to stick a little bit more because I remember when Trump was president be like you literally wake up and be like oh what did Trump say today you know it was kind of like part it was part of the news cycle right.

[01:47:38] And it's also worth noting like again I'm not a huge conspiracy theorist but I think it's undeniable the media covers Biden as much as they possibly can.

[01:47:46] Whereas they were gunning for anything Trump said or did that could be taken even slightly in a bad way they reported it all over so well that is that I went for way longer than I intended which tends to happen on these solo specials but I hope you enjoyed it please check out the average intelligence podcast.

[01:48:08] We need help getting our watch time up so watch those long form videos like share and subscribe please and check out the video clips shorts to but the video clips contribute to watch time we've exceeded our subscriber count we're always happy to have more of you join us but we need to get that watch time up so please help us out with that and we got a lot of content so pick what you like

[01:48:27] you don't feel like you have to go through and watch everything although we would really appreciate it.

[01:48:33] And then support our sponsors that help us make this podcast great we hope to get more and make leave in the comments below which one do you think is worse Trump or Biden.

[01:48:43] Don't even have to be an American Justin who do you think is worse Trump or Biden.

[01:48:48] I think we've actually had this conversation.

[01:48:50] Like I said I want to make that happen on the RTA podcast you and my other friend in Toronto I want to have both of you guys on and just get that perspective because I think it would be great.

[01:48:59] And next week we will be unveiling the new guest host for the average intelligence podcast going forward until my cohort Eric is fully recovered but until then thanks for watching and have a pleasant evening.

[01:49:15] And a happy 2024.

[01:49:18] Bye.

[01:49:21] Oh Justin says God I just like them both but for very different reasons yeah I agree and that's the funny thing.

[01:49:31] So before I say goodbye it's funny that you say that because if you watch like the news media in the United States like Biden clearly has an advantage but most and granted I live in a very red state.

[01:49:42] Most people that I talked to are just unhappy generally speaking.

[01:49:46] Yeah most people are unhappy with both and I'm one of those people.

[01:49:52] I'm one of them.

[01:49:54] Probably like either Trump has funny hair look kind of orange and Biden just stairs off into space and doesn't know what he's doing yells for no reason.

[01:50:06] Something.

[01:50:08] Anyway thanks for watching guys have a good one.

[01:50:12] Oh geez people keep commenting.

[01:50:15] It's the rematch no one wanted I know right that's very true.

[01:50:17] It's very very true.

[01:50:19] Nobody wanted this rematch at all.

[01:50:23] Like I said I'm going to say goodbye now before we get to two hours on this thing this is supposed to be less than an hour by the way.